Every dollar spent on war is a dollar that can’t be spent building something else. Every constitutional shortcut carries a cost that eventually reaches every citizen.
The true cost of war isn’t measured only in lives lost. It’s measured in the futures we choose not to build.
This fascist regime is going to add traitorous to communists as the label for those opposing the Iran war any minute now.
The escalation is an excuse to take away more funding for the social safety net from the people and transfer it to the oligarchs in what used to be called the military-industrial complex, but now is the far larger military-industrial-artificial intelligence complex.
China and Russia are providing their proxy Iran with intelligence and weapons to continue the war, leveraging Trump's ego against America, weakening us economically at the same time it is giving Putin an economic lifeline. The action by the Houthis in Bab al Mandeb makes it likely that Trump will give Russia sanctions relief yet again, which Putin needs because of the long-range attacks on Russian oil infrastructure and shipping by Ukraine. Meanwhile, it also gives Trump a reason to withdraw more forces from NATO, weakening it as Russia is ramping up a campaign to test Poland and the Baltic and Nordic states.
The Iran War under Trump is a gift to Russia and China, to maximally weaken the United States as a world power over the next two years. The Republicans in Congress are allowing it to happen. Trump is the traitor-in-chief.
Why do countries have to compete with each other? It's not the countries but greedy corporate owners who compete and use war to gain an advantage. The armed forces are the labor they use to gain a competitive advantage.
Iran is, IMO, Trump's Epstein files diversion, his way of taking attention away from the Epstein files. The nuclear bomb threat is bogus. Why aren't our European allies concerned about it? They're not joining in. Trump knows that if and when the contents of the Epstein files are released, he's done. Trillions of dollars can be wasted and thousands of innocent lives lost as the price to protect him from paying for his past deeds, and Trump couldn't care less.
Trump is a master of distraction, and the Iran war does that, but it isn’t only distracting from the Epstein files. The “patriotic” war is distracting us from the continuing cruelty of ICE and the immigrant detentions and killings. Case in point, the most recent two killings have raised barely a ripple in the flood-the-zone strategy, although that could be because they were innocent immigrants and not US citizens. And the extrajudicial killings of those on the “drug boats.” And the disappearance of the $13 billion in Venezuelan oil money in the fund that Trump controls. And the failure to live up to our commitments to deliver weapons to Ukraine and the NATO allies. And the changes in election laws in red states that have been enacted in the last year. And the incipient theft of public lands that got about 1 day’s worth of media attention. And…
I’ve often pictured the regime’s flood-the-zone strategy as a cesspool with turds of corruption and lawlessness floating to the surface at random times. The Iran War is a mountain of shit that has been dumped in the pool, submerging much of the rest.
Georgia, I suppose I'm not adding anything new to your comment. Yesterday, I posted the following to Dan Rather's post on his "Steady" substack:
"To summarize everything I've read about Donald, from NYC-based periodicals to Mary L. Trump's writings, he is learning-disabled. Rather than address this disability when he was young, his family papered it over with hundred dollar bills.
A person with a learning disability can learn, but with difficulty. Donald learned from his mentors, first his father, later from crooked lawyer Roy Cohn.
Donald learned that when one is engaged in unethical or illegal activities, the way to avoid detection and therefore, continue criming, is to create distractions that draw the attention of law enforcement, the public and the judicial system away from what you really want to do.
Donald started the war with Iran as an enormous distraction ... from any number of illegal activities he has and continues to engage in. It wasn't just the Epstein files, or just his corruption, or just his fraud, or just his sex crimes. It was all of that depravity and more.
Another Trump hallmark is his standard practice of building his empire with other people's money. He became a household brand by running for president in 2015-16 using donors' money. He enriched himself during his first term using taxpayer dollars. He ran again using donors' money. He has further enriched himself this term using corporate donors', other nations' and taxpayers' money. There can be no end to the Iran war because he needs the distraction from all his other misdeeds, and it will continue to be paid for by taxpayers, not him."
I wrote this in another thread earlier and I'll write it again; someone is making a LOT of money on this war. It's oil people and, while I don't know how, tRump is cashing in, big time
Dale, this is the sort of thing that makes me not want to pay federal taxes. He, his family, and his cabal are at the public trough with giant hoses sucking it dry. Locally, we have the Moda Center battle for renovations that will cost millions while local entities have to cut budgets. The billionaire owner refuses to put in anything. This is the new owner of the Trail Blazers. The local pols are rightfully concerned on what they will get back for the tax dollars. Just a small example of the attitude of the ultra wealthy and how they operate which this time is not deadly like an unpopular war.
A learning disability has little to do with hi criminal behavior, unless those that count, namely, his family make him feel less than adequate.From the time he was a child, he has been trying to prove that he is actually superior in anything he endeavors to attempt. He will stop at nothing in this pursuit. There are many people that have a learning problem, namely, Charles Schwab and Gavin Newsom, but they don't suffer from an inferiority complex and narcicisstic criminal behavior. Anyone that has NOT BEEN living due a rock knows he will self destruct.
And here we sit with the most detestable politician in history-yes even more than trump because he let tRump get where he's at_McConnell supposedly recuperating in the hospital and the two most cowardly traitors in history, john thune and mike johnson leading the Senate and House. WTF
McConnell is not serving his constituents, yet still receiving his salary. An announcement on August 4th that he passed away will be made, thereby blocking an appointment by the governor to appoint a temporary replacement in the Senate before August 3rd. His last gasp to control his political agenda. Truth has not been served.
Georgia, you have described this well....floating turds and a mountain of shit. I often use the shit emoji when I am commenting on this regime led by the monstrous death star.
Georgia, I have said this before but few agree. TrumpEpstein is one issue. It's a distraction from what is going on in the present. Trump will be happy for this to surface again amongst all else he would like to distract from but, if sensational, it would take over. I doubt it. Everything re Trump is working towards the breaking point and it's good to keep all balls in the air. A select number of people, I believe, are keeping up. But fatigue is also an issue.. People feeling the pain hitting harder, I have more confidence in. Time will fix this scourge. I think it is self limiting. This has got to end. Try as we might to make it end sooner, and we have to try, this scourge is its own enemy. I am thinking of Albert Camus "The Plague".
The Epstein files are also a diversion. The public is past being outraged at the rape and likely murder of children. They certainly don't really care about the dead girls at the Iranian school. There was apparently a report I heard about on NPR, in passing almost, about how readily available the info was that it wasn't a military building but a school. A simple google search would have told those who ordered it bombed that information. And nothing will be done.
"The public is past being outraged at the rape and likely murder of children."
I invite you to pause and reread and think about what you wrote. There is no expiration date on the r**e, torture and murder of humans. There is no hierarchy of importance. This is not a popularity contest of horrors.
You appear to have fallen under the spell of the propaganda spell of the corporate media. Check out who owns the media. The oligarchs who own our corporate media system stand the most to lose from exposure of the Epstein Files.
Tragically, Jen makes a valid point! 10 Americans killed by ICE this year to date. Over 30 died after being released from ICE run concentration camps! No outrage from magats in Congress! Those deaths seem to be brushed off as collateral damage a fatal version of the NIMBY mentality applied to human life!
People hope Rtump gets held responsible for his crimes as well as his ilk. Won’t happen. He’s 80, what can be done to him? He’ll die with all the money hidden in his family and friends in other countries. Along with many of the secrets and blackmail info that’s still out there. Vance was ‘just following orders. ‘ Along with many others.
Will we focus on revenge or rebuilding a country - can we do both? Because without cleaning house we have no chance of having a better outcome. The rot will still be there.
Barbara I wrote something similar above this about Epstein being another diversion even a distraction. That does not mean that rape torture and murder of women and children are not horrific. That does not mean that if Trump is involved he should go unpunished. But that would be one just one of his many crimes across the board…causing a lot of pain suffering and damage. Criminally liable. Epstein and Trump’s complicity will not be forgotten or erased but the MAIN goal has to be stopping Trump now from doing further damage. Every day he does more damage to our country. Look at the larger picture. There is an hierarchy of importance: saving us from this scourge that has so many people working under its power.
Shoved to the bottom of the files: all those people living in 25% of the open air concentration camp: Gaza, with no household items like they had before.
Imagine losing everything you need to care for your family: destroyed. Constant bombing for 3 years.
This is why Iran had to be attacked: it was, along with Hamas, Hezbolah and the Yemenis, trying to save those people from Israel. And from our military industrial complex.
exactly. all these wars and greenland etc are just flooding the zones with excrement to avoid Epstein. That ship will eventually come to port, and when it does, there will be a lot of retribution to the abusers who think they can hide.
This isn't true. The media likes to pretend it's all a game and doesn't really matter. It all matters. Aggressing on Greenland is an act of potential war. We have squandered a treasured allegiance. We should be outraged.
Walking around planning retribution greatly diminishes what this Fascist America Government is doing on every front-war, supporting a terrorist state with our tax dollars- refusing aid to American children, American concentration camps, ICE rounding up 2,000 of us daily, diseased food, diminishing oil reserves, catastrophic loss of healthcare for millions of us, threats to elections, corporate media propaganda machine.
So it has come down to this: Eighteen US service personnel and countless innocent Iranian citizens must die AND the world’s trade and international norms must be pushed to the edge of unsustainability in order to serve as a distraction from the ever present Epstein Files that indicate, unequivocally, that you had a ‘hard time’ keeping your ‘member’ in your pants around underage women.
You need to man up and come clean about your ‘manning up.’ Consequences need to rest on you, sir, not everybody else on the planet.
True, but the war is also enriching the oligarchs who support and manipulate him while advancing the Project 2025 Christofascist agenda. Win-win for the oligarchs, lose-lose for us and the world.
Trump is not the only one who wants the Epstein info. buried. I'm guessing a huge % of the deciders. Epstein knew exactly what he was doing to give Israel impunity over the Middle East and America. He and his fellow traveler Roy Cohn knew how to corrupt and win.
Generally, I would agree but not in this case. For me at least it's hard to see beyond Trump himself in the prosecution of this war - his impulsive actions, vacillations, prevarications, ominous threats and bombastic claims of victory are not the machinations of a shadowy corporate elite but rather the product of a single disordered mind.
It's true that some large corporations are making hay while the war continues, not least in the fossil fuel and arms industries, but it's really difficult to see how a lengthy war can be seen as good for the US economy with its mounting debt burden and cost-of-living crisis. When will the GOP finally realise this?
The point of the whole decades-long Republican enterprise has been and still is the transfer of wealth from the working class to the oligarchs. At this moment, with Trump as the devolving frontman, the task is to steal as much as possible before the economy collapses.
The oligarchs don’t fear a collapse. They have sufficient assets to cushion themselves from any meaningful impact. It isn’t necessarily an organized conspiracy; it is an alignment of a commonality of goals within a system that was morphed over time by the introduction of big money into politics. The mechanism was built, the oligarchs chose to use it for their own purposes.
I like your point that there is not necessarily an organized conspiracy among the oligarchs, but a convergence of interests. In any case, it is the rest of us who suffer the consequences, until Citizens United is reversed.
As usual Georgia, you are spot on. That has been the project for over 50 years. And yes the oligarchs will ride out the inevitable collapse while ordinary Americans suffer. And any of us that speak up about it or try to fight back will be punished. That is where we are headed.
Midterms this November is the last chance saloon for democracy. We better get it right.
We help ourselves every time we don't buy anything from oligarchs and work to create and use small businesses in our home towns and cities. This will take time, but it has to be done. Many are working to do that right now.
Hi- the answer is when there is moral collapse. To guard against that the law and the prosecution of it has not kept up. When the moral collapse is infecting our government we got problems. Like now, we are testing what institutions are still working for we the people, and trying to hold onto them. But it is down to the people.
Russell, I have recently commented elsewhere that we are living in a perfect storm of multiple motivations driving multiple entities. Their priorities describe a Venn diagram of differing but overlapping circles of interests.
My favorite group to hate, evangelicals, have been plotting for approximately 100 years to remake this democratic republic into a theocracy, as a platform for Jesus' return to Earth where he will begin his "thousand years' reign of peace," known as The Millennium. Evangelicals believe the U.S. will be the seat of this divine government. Russell Vought is orchestrating this transformation. According to evangelical lore, The Millennium can't begin until after the Battle of Armageddon, expected to be fought in the Middle East. They quietly celebrate the Iran war as a fulfillment of prophecy.
Opus Dei Catholics, including the Roberts Six on SCOTUS share a similar world-view.
Meanwhile, oligarchs like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk et al, are devising numerous, complex ways of transferring wealth from the masses to themselves. Owning companies with lucrative government contracts is just one way of achieving that goal. The Iran war nicely serves that purpose. When the U.S. has been bled dry, these mega-parasites will move on to the next host.
Still another group, neo-nazis, are hoping to rid the world of peoples with elevated melanin. This mission is being pursued around the world. Stephen Miller is leading the effort in the U.S.
Vassaliations? As with Saudi Arabia do we have a vassal state or will we vacillate on providing a gateway to the bomb? How can anything be built on the shifting sands of Trump's expediency?
Oh, they know. The problem is that they don't care. They're largely getting power and money; all the rest is just nuisance stuff ....... like "principles" and "social responsibility" and "upholding the Constitution".
This president and his prime enablers don't care about the good of the US economy except insofar as a good economy is needed for re-election. He cares only for his own economy.
The current GOP, Russell, will never realize this. The ethics in asking for the supplemental budget is absent due to the corrosive corruption by this administration and particularly for Hegseth representing the "Dept. of War." With very few exceptions from the "republican" side, the CMA (cover my ass) mentality has essentially taken over the "republican" Senate. They may as well have essentially purchased that bridge located in the Sahara Desert when they all bowed to their orange lordship. It is well too late for too many of them as they don't even recall the seriousness of Dwight Eisenhower's warnings. We may as well stop calling them "republicans;" they've long forgotten their history as the loyal (to the Constitution, that is) opposition to democrats who clearly have proven their consistent loyalty to the founding document. We are dealing now with fascist MAGA. **That** is now our opposition. The republican party is dead.
Yes, absolutely the corporations have no love or desire for "peace in our time". I'd like add a few more entities that prefer war to peace. How about we consider radical, religious zealots & insanely hate-filled bigots to the list. I think perhaps the corporations see that weakness in the human "soul" & use it to their money making advantage. You can't sell a product if you don't have a customer & it seems countries around the world somehow manage to have powerful people take over & buy the products of war & that provides the customer & then you just need to be sure you use up all those "products" so that more must be manufactured & purchased completing the "circle of death"!
I wish we could be like Star Trek, working together, United Federation of Planets working for the benefit of everyone. We can't even do that on a country basis, much less a planet or federation of planet basis. I think it's humanity's flaw. We are always measuring ourselves in what we have vs others. we'll never feel satisfied. there's always someone with more.
Excellent remarks by Pres Eisenhower are so pertinent today.
With zero accountability from Hegseth, Rubio, and Trump about how our billions have been and will be spent, Congress is a collection of fools to give another nickel to fund Trump’s War.
How are they keeping us safe? How has this gang improved our lives? How have they made the world a better place?
This administration’s “monsters, rapists and violent criminals” must be arrested and jailed.
Hello Georgia... Keep an 'Eye' on Chinese A.I. ... According to Robert Reich, their Models are among the Best, and in some cases free to use... Seems that the Current USA Market Growth is due to 'A.I. Madness'... The Chinese want to grab Market-Share, and Dominate A.I. like they have other Economic Sectors... The Chinese have stated that they want to Dominate the 21st Century, and DJT and his Crime Syndicate are helping them...
American hubris is at work again, to our potential detriment when it comes to AI.
China and the U.S. are both trying to gain strategic advantage through AI, but they emphasize different objectives. The U.S. is primarily pursuing frontier capability and artificial general intelligence-style breakthroughs, while China is more focused on rapid deployment of AI across industry, infrastructure, and the physical economy.
China is optimizing AI to develop low-hanging-fruit applications using massive databases, leading to improvements in economic efficiency while minimizing resource costs (water, electricity, and next-gen chips).
Artificial general intelligence seeks to match or exceed human capabilities across all tasks. Our genius AI oligarchs are trying to create human-like autonomous intelligence, focusing on communication and engagement with the machine through massive language models, with all the issues of hallucination and sycophancy inherent in that quest. This is the modern rendition of Pygmalion. Think of all the stories of people falling in love with their ChatGPT bots. The economic model is pay-for-play data processing.
Undoubtedly, both see the possibilities for surveillance of their populations, as is the wont of authoritarian regimes, as 1984 warned us.
It's also about corporate greed in a mad race to get their first, Devil take the hindmost. Nothing illustrated this more than the lamentable court case involving Musk and OpenAI which left both parties with egg on their respective faces; and also Musk's subsequent stupendous SpaceX IPO. Or as Sydney Perelman once chose to put it " it's not the heat, it's the cupidity".
Hello Georgia... Keep-up with the Anomalies being found in the most advanced A.I. Models... The 'Matrix', 'Terminator', Scenarios are coming to Light...
AI is not a consumer. It cannot support the oligarchs; yet, they promote their AI software for its ability to off human workers and enable AI workers.
Again, AI is not a consumer. It is a user of our resources: land, power, water, sound. It takes. It does not give except over the very short term. Once human consumers no longer have the means to consume, what next? Our oligarchs prefer this to people who create everything AI has stolen and presents as its own, which is an oligarchic enterprise.
Where do you suppost that will lead the men who need money for their life enterprises to be functional?
…And Georgia, now we have one company’s AI trying, on it's own initiative to invade and take over another company”s AI ! Just what we need, artificial warfare by AIs we don’t (can’t?) control!
Also, Georgia, China has the EV equivalent of the Deux Chevaux (and now also excellent electrical public transportation)and the Volkswagen while we stick to gasoline-powered SUV’s. My 8th grade teacher of world history (1948) taught us that the ancient civilization of the Chinese was to be respected. I think of it as the Iranians wait out the bad teenagers on the block.
As Georgia says, hubris is at work again. And it is stupid. The Chinese are doing what they typically do with new tech. They apply it in a practical and a massive manner. They are now making the very best, cheapest and most advanced EVs. They will dominate that industry. While we discourage EV adaptation. It is stupid beyond words.
And so, it is logical that they aren't focused on developing the most sophisticated AI - just the systems that can be affordably employed for the most immediate practical applications. They are smart. We are stupid (our current leaders).
Reich's articles are a must read. His warnings about the AI Bubble are clearly stated and chilling. Of course, he's not the only one explaining how unrealistic the massive amount of debt being thrown at a technology is - debt and investment that has a slim possibility of delivering the promised ROI.
IMO, I could be wrong, but quite soon, the markets will ask: "When will these for profit companies begin to make a profit? When will the promises be fulfilled?"
All it takes to tip the scales into a market free fall is one or two "analysts" at Chase, Morgan or Goldman to challenge the current frenzy that feels like "tulips". Terms like "underweight" and "neutral rating" can start a fire that is impossible to extinguish.
Because this massive debt fueled investment is way, way larger than anything in history, it can collapse in a way that is historic as well. The current market prices for equities are unsustainable. AI dominates more than 50% of the S&P Index (that so-called safe conservative place index funds employ).
The future of our economy is all in one giant basket. What could go wrong?
If I were a betting man (I am not), I would lay odds that the "Trump Crash" of 2027 or 2028 will be remembered as much greater than 2000 or 2008.
Best be prepared.
The silver lining? Everything that happens is ALWAYS the president's fault. Just ask Obama and Biden.
I think the bubble is starting to deflate on US style AI.
In my own experience working on some simple coding projects using AI with a variety of models including Claude (but admittedly not the latest iterations) to build some new indicators for trading stocks, I am not tremendously impressed. i have had to deal with a lot of frustration especially when confronted with hallucinations, sycophancy and the dreaded “engineering hesitancy” and the inability of the bots to remember “standing instructions” as simple “Never provide patches. Always provide a complete script for revisions.” When faced with a small challenge like coding an indicator for Schwab’s ThinkorSwim trading platform it kept bumping into a standing issue about limitations on how TOS deals with recursion, unable to to remember the workaround that was used the day before.
What it is good at is search and on restating what you tell it in ways that force you to refine your thinking for clarity. It is not as good at scraping data from a variety of sources as I expected, say looking at ETF fund flows for a watchlist, at least for a non-professional without a pro subscription to the underlying database.
If you want to set up tasks that run daily that use “compute” you have to buy tokens in addition to your monthly subscription fees. It is a pay for play business model.
I did this primarily to learn about what AI can do. My first generative AI venture into was creating an image of a taco with a crown for a No Kings poster.
I watched a video not long ago that showed one of the Chinese EVs in action. Very impressive - and far more affordable than the EVs being built by U.S. companies. We are no longer the world's leader in innovation.
Hello Ellen... Tesla is starting to take a "Dive'... Elon's Empire is starting to Crumble... OBW: Elon still refuses to admit that He is a 'Nazi A*H*"...
I don’t know Ellen, I don’t think the Chinese EV’s can do such cool stuff as change their screen color backdrops, provide 35-choice menus on screens or play such cool sound effects! …or provide 600, 900 or over 1000 hp motors to accelerate to 60 mph in less than 2 seconds!
But Chinese EVs cost a lot less, have much better range and go to a full charge while you woof a burger. I think they focus on the practical while we cater to the
rich.
The most affordable and best designed American EV is the Chevy Bolt. Selling like hot cakes. A terrific vehicle. We love ours.
It will be discontinued (again) because GM makes more money on gas guzzelers.
Right on target Bill! Reich’s warnings about the unlikely possibility AI will ever return sufficient profit to cover the massive investments in it are multiplied by the growing movement against data centers and states like NY’s Kathy Hochul declaring a moratorium on building new data centers.
Scott Galloway on the Pivot podcast (with Kara Swisher) has had some smart things to say lately on the Chinese AI strategy, consistent with this - they have a cheaper model but they are using it to develop market share, not maximize profits. He points out the equivalent in E-vehicles and renewable energy techology, where China pretty well monopolizes the world market (except for EVs in the US, so far.)
Hello Christine... That is what Robert Reich is predicting... An 'A.I.' Bubble-Bursting, Sky-Rocketing Iran War Consequences, it is a Very Grim Scenario...
Hegseth was recently embarrassed by Senator Jon Ossoff on his claim, two weeks into the war, that Iran's military capabilities had been totally destroyed - a claim that Trump, others in his administration (including Hegseth) and supportive media have repeated endlessly as this war drags on. Yet Reuters reports that Iran has covertly sent IRGC commanders and missiles to the Houthi to help enforce their blockade of the Bab al-Mandeb strait. The administration continues to underestimate this implacable and ruthless enemy whom they have unwisely confronted with an existential threat.
Just yesterday, Trump snapped at a journalist: "Do you know something I don't know?", in response to her challenging his claim that Iran was begging for a deal. Out of an undue deference to this most ignorant of US presidents, she declined to answer but really it's a question that lawmakers should really be asking. The Iranians have mocked Trump as delusional and it's presently very hard to rebut that assertion.
Problem is the very narrow language of the legal definition of treason:
Section 18 of the US Code:
§2381. Treason: Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
I firmly agree that the conduct of this president is reprehensible, criminal, illegal, immoral, and completely unjustifiable; the problem is the specific definition of an enemy. I believe that is why he has pardoned the J6 insurrectionists and has labeled "antifa" as a terrorist organization.
HoR, I frequently return to this article because many people mention treason in reference to Donald and his goons. What they're doing doesn't meet the technical definition of treason as described in the U.S.C.
Sedition comes closest, but I believe it falls short of properly defining the length, breadth and depth of Donald's corrupt self-dealing.
As usual, Donald has dragged us to a place where we've never been. We need a new word.
EXACTLY. And no one is following up on where the money is surely going. Just as discovering the money from Venezuelan oil has disappeared and will never be found. He literally TOLD everyone he was controlling that money.
Iran is not a proxy to Russia or China. It is fighting to maintain its sovereignty, as are Russia and China and poor Cuba. And, yes, this illegal war is making China stronger. I don't know about Russia; it has its hands full with our proxy Ukraine and NATO barking at its door.
Russia and China have benefitted from our wars since Viet Nam! They sat back and added kindling to the flames occasionally to keep us occupied and expend our treasure. Add Ronald Reagan and those who rode in with him and we’ve been slowly turning on a spit above the fire until tRump came in with 2025 and painted by the numbers to line his pockets and make us a fascist country. Mixing my images a bit, but logic isn’t the plan, chaos is their plan.
War after war, with great cost to us and no benefit to the world. Pease in our time.
Insanity doing the same thing over and over and expect different results. Not with a bang but a whimper.
Apparently there’s no money for healthcare, housing, struggling farmers or families trying to put food on the table - but reach down the back of the national sofa and wow, miraculously, there’s always another few billion for bombs. Eisenhower understood that a country can’t keep feeding the war machine without eventually feeding its own citizens into it.
The historic final stage of empire: the roads crumble, the cupboards empty and the citizens go broke, while the fat cats in charge stand on the balcony demanding a larger cannon. A nation that can afford endless war but can't afford to care for its people is not strong. It's simply heavily armed while falling apart. Eventually there'll be nothing left worth defending.
It also probably goes without saying, but Eisenhauer was a General during WWll, who saw & understood the true costs of war, in every sense of the word. Trump is draft dodger, and a narcissicist. War and its human costs & costs to this country mean nothing to him.
It's hard to imagine him feeling any empathetic emotion (with him it's mostly schadenfreude), grief or anguish. He coasts through life without the slightest awareness of the harm he causes to others.
Heather, thank you for your daily "Fireside Chats" that bring your readers a true level of comfort thru your understanding of history to Trump's daily petulant chaos.
I saw a quote " Your friends are your future" to which I would add "Trump has no friends"
Per the AP, "Canada Cancels Joint Bridge Celebration With U.S. [this weekend] After Trump's Trade Threat".
**************************************
Update:
Not a threat. As Canada hit with more Tariffs by the "right wing lunatic" including Canadian Hockey 🏒 sticks. FYI, the new Bridge was named after a famous Canadian Hockey player, GORDIE HOWE hence the "Gordie Howe International Bridge."
It's also how they spend (or waste) the money. Ukraine has almost exclusively been using $5000 - $10000 drones to wipe out Russia's energy infrastructure. And barely a peep from the lame-stream-media about it. Meanwhile, most of Crimea is without electricity and fuel. Food and water are scarce. In Russia, it is wheat harvesting season and farmers are resorting to using sickles to harvest the wheat. Food is rotting in the fields. The bond interest rate is over 17% and rising. And we have morons in charge, trying to bomb Iran into submission with bombs instead of drones costing us billions instead of millions.
If Trump and Kegsbreath wanted to win the war, the would need to put boots on the ground. And that will cost many more American lives and Republicans their jobs.
Hello GJ... From HCR Today: "Yesterday Shelby Holliday, Lara Seligman, and Stephen Kalin of the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. has been surging troops, weaponry, and medics to the Middle East. These new forces add to the tens of thousands of troops already there. The U.S. Navy also has 17 ships in the region, including two aircraft-carrier strike groups, with eleven destroyers and a Marine Corps expeditionary unit. " || Surging Medics is very concerning... The WSJ in the past that Kharg Island could be a target... A forcible seizure of the Hormuz has also been contemplated... 'Pick-Ax' Mtn?... Any Operation involving Ground Troops could have a Catastrophic Cost in Lives, and Treasure... Somehow, I don't see Barron Trump, or Yair Netanyahu being in the First-Wave... I do think that the Trump Crime Syndicate will try to make a 'Buck' from it...
Apache - I agree the TCS will try to make a buck from it.
Eric already borrowed money to buy into a company that makes drones and nobody knows where the money Trump has impounded from the Venezuelan oil theft is being kept.
Meanwhile, everyone around the planet is paying more for gas, diesel, jet fuel and every other oil distillate.
Like every other king, President, Prime Minister, etc. that has started a war in recent times, their own military are pawns or even cannon fodder if you will.
Russia has sent over 240,000, "sorry for your loss" letters since the Ukraine War began and there's likely hundreds of thousands of other Russians that have died because of Putin's bloodlust.
All well said. And what the voters wanted. Let’s hope we are enjoying the fruits of the votes cast for an ill informed egomaniac. It’s one thing when others do it to you. It’s quite abysmal when you do it to yourself.
As a man of war, Eisenhower was acutely aware of just how much war -- and the preparation for it -- costs. Even so, he presided over the construction of the federal interstate highway system, paid for by taxes that at times approached 90% of capital gains. It took place when government wasn't thought of as simply a backchannel device for the enrichment of the top 2-3% at everyone else's expense. And Congress respected both the normal appropriations process and calendars, where budgets had to be defended, on time, with justification, and with bipartisan support.
Trump's Republican Party today would call Eisenhower a radical "Dumocat" for daring to suggest that the trade-off between guns and butter is both real and painful. Today's Republicans have insulated themselves and their top donors not just from accountability, but from even the slightest tinge of compassion for others, much less remorse for their behavior.
Everyone should watch Eisenthower's Farewell Address (which Heather neglected to mention). He EXPLICITLY warned about the growing influence of the military industrial complex...
In terms of Eisenhower citations, I think the professor made the right choice, while the thrust of the Farewell Address was - as you note - on the rise of the Military Industrial Complex, there's nothing in the current spending reverie that suggests the money's even going to the usual suspects. And if one things been established with this crowd, it's that they're not entitled to any "presumptions of regularity." God knows where the money's going.
But what we do know is the opportunity cost, going back to the theme of Eisenhower's 1953 address, what we could have done with the money. And at this rate, may never get around to doing.
The national debt is increasing by over $1 trillion every 5 months and NOBODY in the MSM is talking about it. When the Fed next meets it's likely they will be forced to raise interest rates to control inflation when Trump is begging for them to lower rates.
Almost every economic indicator is pointing to a recession.
"Make Love Not War" and quit wasting our fucking money Republicans.
Question: Will it be called the "Great Recession" or the "Great Depression"? The damage being done is epic. And I can't get over the feeling that it is deliberate. That this administration is doing everything it can to make us weaker inside and out.
Who is happy about our "war of choice"?
Russia. Higher oil prices mean that Putin's only meaningful source of revenue is boosted! Putin raises glass of vodka; "Thanks Donnie, good boy."
And of course, Putin is also thrilled that the billions and billions that are being squandered on losing to Iran are NOT being expended on helping the Ukrainians.
Why aren't Americans screaming: "Why are you helping the wrong side?"
How did the GOP shift from being Russia Hawks to being lovely dovey with a KGB trained Dictator who threatens an entire continent?
I'm not an economist either. But I am old and retain the memories of 2008, 2000, the Savings and Loan Crash and….I was in business during Staglation. It was awful. Sales were way down. The cost of borrowing way up - which meant lower inventories - which meant lower sales! We thought it would never end….
Bill, Most Americans are not screaming bc they have no idea what is going. They are too busy focusing on the important things like Taylor swift's wedding and other important Instagram posts.
Thanks for all you do to educate us, Heather. I read your posts every day and am much better informed because of it. We are so fortunate to have someone as generous as you share your knowledge and explain in it simple terms. I am very grateful!
So, you're defending Heather's decision to only mention one of his speeches? She could have mentioned both. It's not like she's limited to how many words she can write.
In my humble opinion, both speeches matter. But that's just me. I guess we will have to "agree to disagree".
The farewell speech on the rise of the military complex is much better known than the other speech. Her mention of the other speech made me immediately think of it.
My understanding, Steve, was that his original thought was to point to the dangers of the Military-Industrial-CONGRESSIONAL Complex but he was advised to omit ‘Congressional’ 😢
Per Roll Call, "the four(4) Republican senators who did not record a vote for the binding joint resolution to curb President Donald Trump's war powers in Iran are Katie BRITT of Alabama, Mitch McCONNELL of Kentucky, Lisa MURKOWSKI of Alaska, and Rand PAUL of Kentucky."
"During the procedural vote on July 23, 2026, the Senate rejected the binding joint resolution in a 47–49 vote. While Republican Senator Susan COLLINS voted in favor of the measure alongside almost all Democrats, these four (4) specific GOP senators were absent or did not vote, [ perhaps 1 Senator, McConell, is not alive ] stalling the Senate's effort to legally mandate a withdrawal of U.S. troops from the conflict without explicit congressional approval."
Washington has discovered a brilliant new way to manage public money: stop explaining where it goes.
The Trump administration is cutting Medicaid, food assistance, medical research, and public health while demanding another $67 billion for a war Congress never properly authorized. This is called fiscal responsibility, provided you define “fiscal” as missiles and “responsibility” as refusing to answer questions.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explained the war budget with the confidence of a man who had lost the receipts, emptied the account, and blamed the banking app. How much has the war cost? Officially, $37.5 billion. Internally, perhaps $100 billion. Where did it go? Apparently into three exciting buckets: regular appropriations, reconciliation money, and emergency supplements.
Nothing says democratic accountability like a Pentagon shell game run by people who misplaced the receipt.
Dwight Eisenhower once warned that every gun and bomber represented food, schools, hospitals, and homes taken from ordinary people. Today’s Republicans have modernized that principle. Every rocket fired represents a Medicaid appointment canceled, a grocery cart abandoned, and a taxpayer being told the budget is simply too tight for luxuries like insulin.
Marco Rubio then introduced America’s new foreign policy doctrine, apparently drafted by a concussed barroom bouncer: “a head for an eye.”
Meanwhile, Congress passed a resolution expressing deep concern. Unfortunately, it was a concurrent resolution, meaning it has roughly the legal force of a strongly worded refrigerator magnet.
America has more troops, more ships, higher debt, higher gas prices, and no identifiable victory. But Washington still has options, three buckets, and absolutely no calculator.
The hungry can wait. The Pentagon has gone shopping.
HCR's quote from former President Eisenhower said it so well -- it's so abundantly clear that the priority of this administration is not the people of this country.
Your country is flanked by two great oceans while the European continent has been mired in war for centuries. Your vast military spending has not saved your country from several overseas humiliations, this one in the Gulf just being the latest. It's one worthwhile contribution, after the Second World War, has been towards NATO, the greatest defensive alliance in history and yet your president wants out because he sees America's greatest military achievement as some kind of european rip-off.
It's understandable that Americans from time to time wonder whether they should be the world's policeman, yet it is a designation that you have given yourselves, as is the wont of superpowers. If Trump really believes in American isolationism why does the US still have 750 overseas military bases, why has bombed eight countries and what the fuck is he doing in the Gulf?
"I have been thinking lately about taxes and war and citizens and what the government should do for its people."
We are electing some awful people. Eisenhower warned in his last days of his Presidency of the military industrial complex. Now here we are with the government of grifters creating conflicts for themselves and friends to profit from.
The main theme of most of my comments will be the absolute urgency of ousting PAC- soaked politicians, refusing to accept the DNC "chosen ones" for candidates, and taking full responsibility for what we get in Washington DC.
Have you ever bought furniture or an appliance from one of those friendly ‘discount’ stores? How about a used car from a TV advertised “I can finance anybody” local car lot? Did your purchase give you years of trouble-free service? Or did it break down after a few months (or weeks or days)? Did you try to return it for a refund? How did that work out?
Did the salesman give you the same kind of runaround the Trump administration has been giving Congress? No money cheerfully refunded? Has it not yet dawned on you those people never had any intention of ‘behaving honorably’; they got their hands on the checkbook and the credit cards and the car keys and have no qualms about leaving you alone on a back road somewhere. At night. In a rainstorm.
Seriously, grow up and realize you have been conned by a professional. And now he is working on becoming a supreme dictator backed by the law enforcement and military power of the government you paid taxes to create.
The Con-man-der-in-chief knows it’s over for him if he leaves the protection of his office. He still has to serve a sentence for 34 felonies and who knows how many other cases will pop up. In a situation of “it’s them or me” he picks ‘me’, and he’s telling you he’s ruthless every time he opens his mouth.
JFC! So the Senate didn’t pass the resolution that would’ve put an end to stopping the Iran war. You know, the war that’s not a war. I really miss the brilliance of someone like Eisenhower. He wasn’t perfect, but he certainly was aware of what common folk were going through. He was president when I was born, 1 million years ago, but I do remember that my parents liked him even though they were Democrats.
Also, in the news today, not covered by Heather, was the fact that Don Jr is raking in millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. It’s so infuriating and embarrassing that 77 million people got taken in by the promises, Trump never intended to keep. How is it that we knew that and they didn’t? Well, now they do because their lives are being completely affected by what he and his merry men of thieves are doing to them.
My parents were Eisenhower Republicans. My dad served in the Army with Eisenhower’s son John. My six year old brother thought it would be funny if he jumped on eight year old grandson David in the swimming pool causing some soaking wet Secret Service agents and a scared six year old!
Eisenhower was the last president from the Party of Lincoln. He knew about the devastation of war and the importance of recovery. And he worked tirelessly with the other side of the aisle to provide things like an Interstate Highway system, and desegregated schools.
I’m glad neither Eisenhower nor my parents are alive to see what a travesty Trump has turned the Party of Lincoln, and our country, into.
IKE also Warned us ALL about the dire threat of the Military Industrial Complex and permanent war in his farewell speech of 1961.
After a life of heading Procurement in the Army, and the 5 Star General in charge of D Day, he certainly knew better than Anyone about the war profiteers still full of blood lust from WWI, who tried to Coup FDR, then supplied the Axis, while watching FDR try to stay OUT of the war, then struggle to win over Americans to go in and save Europe from Fascism.
He also championed more rights and laws extending GI benefits for Black veterans, but failed.
He also truly believed in the Red Scare, and so added "Under God" to the pledge of allegiance, and "In God We Trust" to paper currency to be sure we wouldn't go Atheist like the Commies.
He supported the Korean War. And later, Vietnam. Cognitive Dissonance seems to be feature of the Presidency.
I agree. I told my boys not to say it, and that they didn't have to pledge allegiance to the flag at all if they didn't want to. So they skipped the God part, and but still stood with hand over heart and said the pledge. Peer pressure I think.
I recall a song about "I like Ike, and Ike is easy to like". My parents supported Stevenson, but were OK enough with Ike. The did NOT like Nixon, nor Joe McCarthy. I do wonder how much of the mess in the Middle East got rolling with the CIA assisted installment of the Shah of Iran.
Which Hand Rises to Salute the American Fascist Republican Party
I thought to one day attend a MAGA rally just to experience how much a dumb poorly-informed bunch of stupid fucken Americans behave in person. I wanted to raise the correct hand 🖐️ when appropriate to salute speakers. If I were to rise the wrong arm, I might be singled out and I don’t want that to happen.
Now it’s time for my prediction for difficult times ahead. We are long overdue for a recession. I think one arrives every 10 plus years. The last one (credit default banking) was in 2008. One before that was the dotcom bust around 2000. I’m not an economist. I never took a course in economics. But I can smell it. It’s AI and my gut tells me it will hit big time. Can you say 1929? Same set-up with deregulation allowing big business to do whatever they wanted. Calvin Coolidge followed by Herbert Hoover. Guess what party they were in. I would like to think the billionaire class would jump from windows having loss all. Except they have likely diversified into everything and built bunkers deep into the earth to stay safe from the unwashed herds of impoverished humans pounding on their iron doors.
This may be a cleansing moment. We as a nation have gone terribly wrong. Never in my existence could I have predicted a true blue fascist United States. Here is a short piece from my book, “Donald’s Vanity Tantrums” titled,
Welcome to The New Snazzy Nazi States of America
(Introducing The Goose-Step, Two-Step March)
A new dance craze is sweeping the nation called, The Goose-Step, Two-step March. This invigorating new exercise is easy to learn! First, link arms on the dance floor. As you move backward in line, turn your head to the right and lift your left leg straight up as high as it will go. Then step forward as you turn your head to the left and lift your right leg straight up in the air.
It’s very similar to square dancing or line dancing. Soon the dance floor will be filled with goose-steppers. Forward, backward, round and round. If you step out of line, you are tagged, the caller detains you, interrogates you, strip searches you, and sends you off to detainment camps for disloyalty.
This new dance craze is not to be confused with serious charges of criminal activity. By the time the youngins reach the age of reason, they will be quick to form into lines upon request for impromptu Goose-Step, Two-Step Marches and other forms of family entertainment.
I forgot to mention the recession of 1990 and I think another around 1980. We are overdue and this time it will be almost insurmountable. It will be global as well. One side of me hopes I’m wrong and the other side hopes I’m correct and it happens on Trump’s watch because if it rolls into the next administration, people are stupid enough to believe it wasn’t his fault. Hitler rose to power blaming others.
I vaguely recall my conservative father liking Ike. Then in 1960, my Italian American Catholic mother falling for JFK. He could do no wrong. I wonder if he would have kept us out of the quagmire of Vietnam or was he pulled by that same anti communist rhetoric paranoia of the times. The quarantine of Cuba was in response to Soviet missiles being sent to the island. Would he have followed the futility of the French in Indochina? We will never know for sure. I think he would have done the same as LBJ - who became one of the great progressive leaders x Vietnam. Then Nixon arrived. And Nixon was the great mistake yet now in retrospect, not so bad? EPA was his creation. Now the darkness has descended on the land of milk and honey. I’m afraid to say but the Great Crash is approaching sooner than you think. Perhaps this is needed to purge the evil that has taken us to the dark side.
Dr. Iris St. John, I did not know that; would have thought 80%.
Too many people I speak to casually tell me: “Oh I don’t watch the news!”which reminds me of too many Germans after the surrender
proclaiming, “I didn’t know” about the concentration camps although they certainly at least watched as their Jewish neighbors were rounded up. Huge denial here already about the graft, lies,
and you know all the rest.
Even among those here who are aware, highly educated and horrified at/with the murder gang centered in DC, many …too many… seem unable to take actions. I’m feeling like a nag! ‘Please call so & so, please in any way notify our Reps & Senators about, call the governor, the AG of our state.’ If I hear one more person tell me I’m too busy……#^*~£¥#! I have lost at least one casual friend who said that to me.
I say, So What! although it stings, just slighty though.
In order to be a religious believer, one must hold beliefs for which there is no evidence. That statement is not a judgment for or against religion. It is just a fact.
True and that is crazy, isn’t it! We saw a truck with South Carolina plates yesterday with Marine, Don’t tread on me, automatic rifle and Trump stickers on it. I was happy when we got around them! Scary white man driving!
Marlene, I believe that the war is designed to consume all the headlines, all the oxygen, all the hours of the day - to conceal the thievery you refer to.
And to take the focus off the Epstein Files. The fact that an entire political party supports hiding (not investigating and prosecuting!) people who participated in sex trafficking and sexual abuse - is the stuff of bad fantasy movies. How can it be real?
Ike wasn't perfect. Nobody is. No person. But he was perfect for the time. He literally saved the world with his leadership.
My parents served under him. They were solid Republicans. They would not be Republicans today. And Ike would not be a MAGA maniac.
Ike was courted by the Democrats to run for president. He declined and Harry got the job.
The first decent Republican president was Abe. The last was Ike. What followed was a party purchased by blood sucking, Treasury raiding, the people be damned Oligarchs.
Eisenhower was president when I was 3 and my parents, who were Republicans also spoke highly of him as president. My father was a veteran of WWII, a para trooper in the 82nd Airborne and had the highest respect for Eisenhower. My husband and I often speak about are parents “rolling over in their graves” about the maga regime today!
And yet, there is a consistent 34-39% that continue to support Trump no matter what he does. They turn a blind eye to the corruption, the incompetence, and the lawlessness. I will never understand their reasoning, and I am long past trying to figure it out. What I know is that Trump is a terrible human being. He has serious sociopathic issues that are now mingled with dementia. It is an alarming situation; and one which I am sure President Eisenhower could not have envisioned in his wildest nightmares. A sociopathic President with a loosening grasp on reality trying to navigate a complicated international war. Time to ring all the alarms.
I think many of the 30% support "him" because he has achieved God like status. But a big chunk of MAGA is really upset with wasting money on an unjustified war while food and everything else is expensive and local hospitals and medical centers are closing. While NOTHING is getting better at home.
I think many of MAGA are absolutely lost and can't be retrieved. A few will vote for a good local Democrat. But my sense is a big portion of them will just stay home - not vote when their hero isn't on the ballot.
Unfortunately you are right Bill; no matter how disappointed they might be in him, they will not have the courage to even voice their disappointment, not to mention voting Democrat. But if they were going to vote for him again, it is better if they don't vote at all then...
It’s like the old days of the KKK in the south. Either you were with them, or agin’ them, and if you were agin’ them, you’d be the next house with a flaming cross in your yard. MAGA violence is very like that.
People like you and me who THINK, understand that the population is being manipulated to believe the “other” is the enemy, just as Hitler did. Not everyone can see past the manipulation, sadly.
I think you are right and that the next election is going to have a lot of that going on. But at the same time.. I'm not sure it will make a difference in the second district. If I was a religious person I'd be praying for Dunlop. But I'm already girding up for the horror show that will be Paulie on the national stage.
The Economist polls are as accurate as a poll can be and they keep a running weekly graph of Trump's support. Yes, about 30% of Americans still do support him and his lackeys.
Let me guess-Trump family has just made BIG INVESTMENTS in AI!
Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities
Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.
Marlene, I thought when I saw the piece about Donny Jr on MSNow of how JVL in the Bulwark thinks repubs will run Donny Jr in '28! I envisioned the magas reasoning that " he's a financial genius" "We want our country run by a financial genius".😵💫🥺😤
Eisenhower was the last real Republican president and decent one at that.
Regarding crypto currency? I am no genius but from the get go it seems like a way to do away with our hard earned dollars as legitimate currency and replace it with play dollars that work only if you are willing to play the game and abide by these new” rules “.
It really woukdnt have ended the war. That joint resolution, had it passed the Senate, Woukd have to have passed the House. Let’s assume it Woukd have passed. Then it Woukd go to the president for his signature which is required to become law. And guess what: he’d just veto it. So, unfortunately, the only thing I can think of that Congress could do to end the war Woukd be to cut off the money. (It could also pass those resolutions by veto proof majorities, but that’s not happening.).
Every dollar spent on war is spending for the present. Every dollar spent on providing food and education for children is spending for the future. So, spending on the Iran war instead of feeding and educating our children starves the future to give millions to defense contractors.
The Iranian people “haven’t received enough pain yet.” That's the talk of a narcissistic bully, not a president of the United States!
It is horrifying to me that only four republican representatives and 1 senator (Susan Collins!) had the guts to vote to stop this death and destruction.
So here's my question now about any decision Trump makes about anything, WHO'S MAKING MONEY OFF OF THIS?
The WaPo reports that Don Jr and Eric are invested in a dozen defense tech companies. I wonder if others in the family, the regime, and Congress are as well.
I always feel weird clicking "like" on a statement like this!! I DON"T like it, not one bit!! I bet there are others, not to mention all the companies that make the stuff we use to blow people up. That's one reason I'm supporting as many young Democrats as I can. I think they get it about what government is really supposed to do!
Think of all the money being made, it is not on just the obvious stuff like weaponry - packaging companies, companies that supply food rations and uniforms to troops. Think of all the peripheral stuff. Fuel etc to supply getting these troops from here to there. My imagination isn't awake enough this morning to give very good examples, but you get my point.
Think of all the negatives we don't usually think of. I have a friend trying to stay out of foreclosure and needs the sale of her home to go through. The buyer, a reservist, was called to action and had to move closing day up for the third time.
You're right...and provided enough good examples to get the picture! Democrats have to get so much better at telling stories people will listen to and get!!!
Journalists have been following this. There have been books out for years. Jane Mayer’s Dark Money and the Koch Brothers influence. Chris Hedges has been sounding a drumbeat along with Thom Hartman as well. Bill Moyers and Grace Lee Boggs and her husband to name a few others. We are on a rim or a cusp of something .
Heather said last night we are in a better place today than we were a year ago. She said she imagined we would be in a darker place than we are today. She based this on the fact more people are thinking about a future when this nightmare ends.
This narcissistic bully openly urges America to commit war crimes as a sign of cruelty and desperation both, since his private I-hate-the-black-guy war is turning to shit with each passing day. By acquiescence, Republicans have turned themselves into the party of war criminals, the party of pointless tariffs (reversed the next day), the party of attacking public healthcare, the party of private enrichment at public expense, the party of killing people to get their way, whether here or overseas.
Their entire motto should be: a day late, $100 billion short, but we demand you give us more, because those concentration camps aren't going to build themselves...
I would like to wear a badge that reads: "I am a proud American, but do not support this administration"!
Every part of me instinctively rebels against the idea of deliberately causing human suffering. The way this administration talks about inflicting pain on civilians disgusts me.
Read Judd Legum’s substack, “Oligarch Watch.” He recently chronicled the billions Jared Kushner is making in the Middle East with his dual role of son-in-law (proximity) and unofficial negotiator (and a terrible one at that).
Yes it's one of the answers! Then, we can add all the companies that make all the equipment and bombs that we've already used.And that we need to reorder. I am a lifelong democrat. But one of my heroes is President Eisenhower, who warned us to beware the military industrial complex! I wonder if any of the big execs at those companies have kids in the service.......
My day is not generally done until I’ve taken in the HCR piece. They always slow me down before sleep by soothing the worry that I am losing my mind, that my thoughts about the day are off the deep end where nobody else goes. And then, by some sort of magic, there is confirmation that I am not nuts, that my thoughts have a logical basis. Tonight’s piece, for me, was among the best ever. As a youngster, before I’d given up on politics as something of interest, I had the remarkably good fortune to spend a little time with President Eisenhower and FEEL the power of good and honour. This speech about the horror of war was a theme he returned to repeatedly. He understood it like only can be understood by a man who has been in the thick of war and charged with making momentous decisions (cf the present potus). War, although it often seems inevitable,is failure on so many accounts. It is so very sad to see a powerful nation led by a man and a bully with no understanding of the wider implications of war. The deaths (on both sides, combatants and not)? The destruction? The horror experienced by so many, especially the children? The treasure wasted that could have been used for so many other things with lasting benefit? The trust destroyed? Has any of it been justified? Has this been a good or effective use of the $Bs that have been thrown at the Iran issue. The world had an effective solution in the JCPOA, destroyed years ago by the madman in the WH. Now he insists that the beatings will continue until the attitude improves. It never works. The resolution never holds. There will be retribution and pay-back. Pray for our children if it brings you hope.
FDR appointed Dwight D. Eisenhower to serve as the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II. After the final defeat of the Third Reich in 1945, the allied armies liberated numerous Nazi concentration camps throughout Europe. As the allies learned the full extent of the Holocaust, Eisenhower thought some people would not believe the atrocities or others could infer these Nazi crimes as propaganda (Holocaust denial) would be made, and took steps against it by demanding extensive photo and film documentation of the Nazi concentration/death camps.
Eisenhower had seen the death camps and the horrors of war, the devastation and complete destruction of some of the most ancient cities in Europe, the mutilated, maimed and innumerable dead soldiers and especially civilians caught in the crossfire and carpet bombings.
Trump and Hegseth have no clue or care about this, they are as incurious as they are sadistic and hubristic. The Trumpian regime must be stopped and brought to justice for their fascist criminality and disastrous agenda as the Nazis were finally defeated.
Any leader who declares war must lead the troops together with his children if they are old enough! I don't care if they have to do it from a bunker or a battleship, but they need to be with the troops they send to die!
Eisenhower also, bordering on demanding, requested and got a Congressional delegation to visit Ordruf, a labor( starvation) camp and a satellite camp of Buchenwald.
My father was involved in liberating one of those camps. It affected him profoundly. The only time I can recall having seen him cry was when I heard him (only once) recall that experience.
Thing is, normal people are reluctant to go to war. trumpty-dumpty, however, is so deranged and such a malignant sociopathic narcissist than he doesn’t care one shit about other living beings. He even relishes in having others killed (worded like that very carefully, because he is too much of a coward to do the killing himself).
As long as Eric and Don Jr are invested in a dozen defense tech companies, per the Washington Post, the war will continue to be another profitable source for the Trump crime family. War policy has nothing to do with international relations, nuclear weapons, or Hegseth's testosterone level.
This regime is about corruption - and it uses cruelty, bigotry, retribution, intimidation, secrecy, lawlessness, and anything else it can to accumulate wealth and power.
That 40 percent has quite literally been brainwashed. Read Al Gore's 2007 book "The Assault on Reason" (which he revised in 2017) to learn how long this assault on the minds of the American people has been going on. It's about 100 years!!!
Thanks for the reference, Steve. I have it tracked to an Americanized version of the formula Eric Hoffer laid out in 1951 in "The True Believer". Our current mess is down to Rush Limbaugh, Rupert Murdoch, and Elon Musk. My bucket list includes pissing on Limbaugh's grave.
That's a really good question - if answered honestly and fully. For example, since Reagan and Gingrich, the GOP has been filling local government seats in rural and working class areas of the country, areas that Dems have ignored until very recently because consultants told them they couldn't win. So those folks only heard GOP messages, Fox News, AM radio, right wing podcasters. GOP also got in bed with evangelicals and Christian Nationalists, corrupt leaders brainwashing their followers into believing, for example, that Trump was chosen by God to save America. Meanwhile, they slip in Project 2025 which according to AI "Roughly 53 percent of Project 2025’s domestic administrative policy agenda has been initiated or completed, including over 280 recommended executive actions, sweeping changes to federal workforce rules, and the dismantling of diversity programs."
That's why we have to do more than talk. We have to take action. Call Senators and Reps. Show up at protests. Write post cards. Help with voting. "Freedom isn't free!"
Indeed! That's why i'm working on the documentary about women leaving MAGA. And urging people to call their senators and representatives every day. It's easy if you go to 5calls.org. put in your zip code, select an issue, and you'll get names, phone numbers and is suggested.Script. we need to make noise!!!
Oh but they do. Enough to get him elected. Although the latest push of the christian nationalists is for family voting, which means the mail head of household votes for the whole family. Christian nationalism is something we need to know about.And resist.
"...I was told by very senior people that the president is now fully aware that the only way to the victory that he wants is completely politically impossible."
I doubt the President is fully aware of anything other than how much lucre, crypto, gold and graft he can stuff into his own pockets. He is certainly not aware that his own unchecked, murderous, 2-year-old hissy fits cost anybody anything, since he's incapable of feeling other people's pain or accepting responsibility for his own behavior. The only reason he was at Joint Base Andrews to oversee a "dignified transfer" of American soldiers the other day was because his people had ordered him to. Cadet Bonespurs couldn't give two shits about anybody other than himself.
My wife and I have been traveling in Japan for almost 2 weeks. We have met several people from other countries (Japan, Australia, Canada, etc.) who cannot understand how the American people can tolerate a leader like Trump. I have no answer for them. We are told that the citizens of these other countries laugh out loud at him, and say things like "he does nothing but lie."
Hard to believe that our federal government has descended to such depravity.
Make no apology for a tsunami building up over the last almost 6 years
(Since the Jan 6/21 ‘dress rehearsal’ for this November) because the 4 years following the attempted ‘coup’ were spent in Trump-worshipping rallies promoting HIM; AMERIKKKA; SENDING WOMEN MAPS TO THE KITCHEN/NURSERY; and MAKING LYING THE ‘SMART’ MOVE.
You got what you paid for, so, please don’t profess such SURPRISE!
However, you have support from all the countries that recognized the big orange CLOWN long before he slithered back into your Parliament and set up his CIRCUS…to avoid Congress! 🤬
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
Take a lesson from some other thriving Democracies and IMPEACH THE HELL OUT OF TRUMP…MAKING IT SUCCEED THIS TIME!! 🥾
If one “IN GOD WE TRUST” from you went towards the ILLEGAL war against Iran, YOU have grounds to sue that litigious piece of crap grabbing Treasury money in between 😾😾😾.
From Day 1 in his first term he LIED and misled the public, but, as a Canadian I have noticed that you make quite the ‘hero’ of any POTUS, and the misogynists of America were JUST SO RELIEVED THAT HE WOULD NEVER BECOME ‘HYSTERICAL’ ONCE A MONTH….🤬
I wanted him GONE the FIRST WEEK when those two children died in ‘prison’ crying for their parents whom he had separated them from…so, the 6 years are from when he ‘dropped the act’ > that he was a human (Jan6/21) and gathered his ilk around him for 4 years of RALLIES to vilify the scapegoats they chose…oh big surprise: the POOR, POC, IMMIGRANTS, AND THOSE HE REFERS TO AS ‘DUMOCRATS’ THOUGH HIS IQ IS ON THE ‘Moron’ LINE. 🤥
MY perspective is one that allows me to see Mr. Trump not as a ‘President’ - the title he has besmerched - but as the GANGSTER apx half of the USA preferred to a woman…for the first time!
Check out “ANA Lovelace”(b.1815), and know that keeping women down is a HUGE mistake, but, one I see all over Trump’s regime. As a member of ‘Me Too’, it is my fondest wish that the Epstein evidence will finally expose (NPI) what a monster POTUS #47 WAS…IS…WILL ALWAYS BE.
I have never made a hero out of ANY president. Not even the ones I supported. And certainly not this one.
You said that the problem started "6 years ago"
Maybe that's just because you are Canadian (or possibly a bot) Because everyone in the United States, living through this nightmare, knows that this problem started at least 10 years ago not 6.
But we can solve this little problem with a block.
War money is a waste of resources and war is a waste of life and infrastructure. We are blowing up the arsenal of freedom on a recalcitrant enemy who has nothing to lose and can humiliate us with handheld drones. The President is a senile narcissistic idiot and the administration is out of control. Hegseth is a misogynistic racist who treats war as a video game and the military as a macho display item. Nuclear proliferation is out of containment and violating the most sensitive and volatile area of earth. Nuclear Saudi Arabia is a time bomb of itself. The war and nuclear proliferation need to be stopped. Contact your representatives and vote Blue.
Again, I say: There is no Republican party; there is only MAGA. Profiles in courage, none of them. Soon also, there will be no Democratic party. In its place, we will have assertive progressives that re-build this country based on compassion and caring for others; on a love of country, understanding of our history, and a clear-eyed vision for our shared future. The Supreme Court will be reformed, and corporations and their billionaires will cede their power to influence politics and the law as they have these past 50 years. May it be so.
What has happened to the America I prayed for, these past 80 years of war after war, squandering morality for profiteering off the dead our bombs have killed? Listen to the prophet Langston Hughes:
Perspective while our nation is at war with Iran. This is our legislative body schedule…
The U.S. House of Representatives begins its annual “Month-long August Recess" on July 24, 2026. Lawmakers break for district work periods starting in August.
US House August Recess Period — July 23, 2026 – August 30, 2026.
Official Reconvening Date — Monday, August 31, 2026.
That’s a vacation of 38 full calendar days that The U.S. House of Representatives will be out on vacation.
Brief Late-Summer Session: House members will meet for a single week from August 31 through September 3, 2026.
For Labor Day & Rosh Hashanah Break: The House will be on vacation again for 5 additional days from September 7 through September 11, 2026.
The Senate goes on its upcoming August recess starting August 7, 2026, staying in session for about two weeks longer than the House.
Senate Recess — Departs August 7, 2026, and returns September 14, 2026.
Again, that’s a vacation of 38 full calendar days that The Senate will be out on vacation.
September Resumption — Congress returns to full legislative sessions in mid-September to rush a budget through before the September 30 government funding deadline. House returns September 11th and Senate September 14th.
In those 38 days — People losing homes, losing their farms, losing their health care, paying close to approximately $4.50 a gallon for regular gas. Diesel at minimum $5.50 or even higher. Groceries will increase, due to diesel fuel increase and lack of products being available due to transportation costs. Utilities will increase. School supplies will need to be purchased and will cost more. School clothes, shoes and all apparel to buy will be higher in cost.
Set aside that there are now two foodborne illnesses to contend with Cyclospora - no real clue what the source is and apparently Salmonella that has a recall of over 1.5 million dozen white and brown cage-free shell eggs produced in Texas.
How are any of these just few issues that the legislative body while out on vacation for 38 days making your life better? How are they assisting any of us in feeling safer? What about improving any of our lives? How many of us have a 38 day vacation?
BTW - The Pentagon’s official casualty tracking website suddenly lowered the reported U.S. troop death toll for the ongoing Iran war from 18 to 14. Removed are the “four service members” who died over the recent weekend (three in Jordan and one in northern Iraq). The regime is arguing these deaths should be categorized separately because they occurred after the Felon declared an initial ceasefire in April..
Thanks, TJ for highlighting the upcoming 38 day “legislative vacation” that ignores the crisis caused by our representatives who choose to abstain in the face of critical calls for honoring their oath to The United States Constitution. Elected officials were elected to make informed, often difficult, decisions for their constituents. Cowards abstain.
Interesting newsletter. The thought of a troop build-up to invade Iran is horrifying. Has Hegseth not learned anything from the war in Ukraine? The instant troops land on Iranian soil, they'll be attacked by Iranian drones with results similar to what the Russian troops experienced under Ukrainian drone attacks. There could be a dreadful slaughter of American troops. The costs of this war in blood and treasure are beginning to mount to an unacceptable level. It is perhaps time to forward President Eisenhower's speech to all Congressmen and Congresswomen as a reminder of how our tax dollars must be spent.
War is never paid for only on the battlefield.
Every dollar spent on war is a dollar that can’t be spent building something else. Every constitutional shortcut carries a cost that eventually reaches every citizen.
The true cost of war isn’t measured only in lives lost. It’s measured in the futures we choose not to build.
This fascist regime is going to add traitorous to communists as the label for those opposing the Iran war any minute now.
The escalation is an excuse to take away more funding for the social safety net from the people and transfer it to the oligarchs in what used to be called the military-industrial complex, but now is the far larger military-industrial-artificial intelligence complex.
China and Russia are providing their proxy Iran with intelligence and weapons to continue the war, leveraging Trump's ego against America, weakening us economically at the same time it is giving Putin an economic lifeline. The action by the Houthis in Bab al Mandeb makes it likely that Trump will give Russia sanctions relief yet again, which Putin needs because of the long-range attacks on Russian oil infrastructure and shipping by Ukraine. Meanwhile, it also gives Trump a reason to withdraw more forces from NATO, weakening it as Russia is ramping up a campaign to test Poland and the Baltic and Nordic states.
The Iran War under Trump is a gift to Russia and China, to maximally weaken the United States as a world power over the next two years. The Republicans in Congress are allowing it to happen. Trump is the traitor-in-chief.
Why do countries have to compete with each other? It's not the countries but greedy corporate owners who compete and use war to gain an advantage. The armed forces are the labor they use to gain a competitive advantage.
Iran is, IMO, Trump's Epstein files diversion, his way of taking attention away from the Epstein files. The nuclear bomb threat is bogus. Why aren't our European allies concerned about it? They're not joining in. Trump knows that if and when the contents of the Epstein files are released, he's done. Trillions of dollars can be wasted and thousands of innocent lives lost as the price to protect him from paying for his past deeds, and Trump couldn't care less.
Trump is a master of distraction, and the Iran war does that, but it isn’t only distracting from the Epstein files. The “patriotic” war is distracting us from the continuing cruelty of ICE and the immigrant detentions and killings. Case in point, the most recent two killings have raised barely a ripple in the flood-the-zone strategy, although that could be because they were innocent immigrants and not US citizens. And the extrajudicial killings of those on the “drug boats.” And the disappearance of the $13 billion in Venezuelan oil money in the fund that Trump controls. And the failure to live up to our commitments to deliver weapons to Ukraine and the NATO allies. And the changes in election laws in red states that have been enacted in the last year. And the incipient theft of public lands that got about 1 day’s worth of media attention. And…
I’ve often pictured the regime’s flood-the-zone strategy as a cesspool with turds of corruption and lawlessness floating to the surface at random times. The Iran War is a mountain of shit that has been dumped in the pool, submerging much of the rest.
Georgia, I suppose I'm not adding anything new to your comment. Yesterday, I posted the following to Dan Rather's post on his "Steady" substack:
"To summarize everything I've read about Donald, from NYC-based periodicals to Mary L. Trump's writings, he is learning-disabled. Rather than address this disability when he was young, his family papered it over with hundred dollar bills.
A person with a learning disability can learn, but with difficulty. Donald learned from his mentors, first his father, later from crooked lawyer Roy Cohn.
Donald learned that when one is engaged in unethical or illegal activities, the way to avoid detection and therefore, continue criming, is to create distractions that draw the attention of law enforcement, the public and the judicial system away from what you really want to do.
Donald started the war with Iran as an enormous distraction ... from any number of illegal activities he has and continues to engage in. It wasn't just the Epstein files, or just his corruption, or just his fraud, or just his sex crimes. It was all of that depravity and more.
Another Trump hallmark is his standard practice of building his empire with other people's money. He became a household brand by running for president in 2015-16 using donors' money. He enriched himself during his first term using taxpayer dollars. He ran again using donors' money. He has further enriched himself this term using corporate donors', other nations' and taxpayers' money. There can be no end to the Iran war because he needs the distraction from all his other misdeeds, and it will continue to be paid for by taxpayers, not him."
I wrote this in another thread earlier and I'll write it again; someone is making a LOT of money on this war. It's oil people and, while I don't know how, tRump is cashing in, big time
Dale, this is the sort of thing that makes me not want to pay federal taxes. He, his family, and his cabal are at the public trough with giant hoses sucking it dry. Locally, we have the Moda Center battle for renovations that will cost millions while local entities have to cut budgets. The billionaire owner refuses to put in anything. This is the new owner of the Trail Blazers. The local pols are rightfully concerned on what they will get back for the tax dollars. Just a small example of the attitude of the ultra wealthy and how they operate which this time is not deadly like an unpopular war.
A learning disability has little to do with hi criminal behavior, unless those that count, namely, his family make him feel less than adequate.From the time he was a child, he has been trying to prove that he is actually superior in anything he endeavors to attempt. He will stop at nothing in this pursuit. There are many people that have a learning problem, namely, Charles Schwab and Gavin Newsom, but they don't suffer from an inferiority complex and narcicisstic criminal behavior. Anyone that has NOT BEEN living due a rock knows he will self destruct.
Points well made, Georgia. I copied and posted to my Facebook page.
And here we sit with the most detestable politician in history-yes even more than trump because he let tRump get where he's at_McConnell supposedly recuperating in the hospital and the two most cowardly traitors in history, john thune and mike johnson leading the Senate and House. WTF
McConnell is not serving his constituents, yet still receiving his salary. An announcement on August 4th that he passed away will be made, thereby blocking an appointment by the governor to appoint a temporary replacement in the Senate before August 3rd. His last gasp to control his political agenda. Truth has not been served.
Agreed.
Georgia, you have described this well....floating turds and a mountain of shit. I often use the shit emoji when I am commenting on this regime led by the monstrous death star.
Watch for a major news story on Epstein as we get close to November. Trump can distract all he wants but Epstein isn't going away.
I sincerely hope you are right. Likely brought to the public by a hacker—I doubt that Blanche would allow anything to be released.
Where are the ethical hackers in all of this? These heroes need to rise up!
Georgia, I have said this before but few agree. TrumpEpstein is one issue. It's a distraction from what is going on in the present. Trump will be happy for this to surface again amongst all else he would like to distract from but, if sensational, it would take over. I doubt it. Everything re Trump is working towards the breaking point and it's good to keep all balls in the air. A select number of people, I believe, are keeping up. But fatigue is also an issue.. People feeling the pain hitting harder, I have more confidence in. Time will fix this scourge. I think it is self limiting. This has got to end. Try as we might to make it end sooner, and we have to try, this scourge is its own enemy. I am thinking of Albert Camus "The Plague".
The Epstein files are also a diversion. The public is past being outraged at the rape and likely murder of children. They certainly don't really care about the dead girls at the Iranian school. There was apparently a report I heard about on NPR, in passing almost, about how readily available the info was that it wasn't a military building but a school. A simple google search would have told those who ordered it bombed that information. And nothing will be done.
"The public is past being outraged at the rape and likely murder of children."
I invite you to pause and reread and think about what you wrote. There is no expiration date on the r**e, torture and murder of humans. There is no hierarchy of importance. This is not a popularity contest of horrors.
You appear to have fallen under the spell of the propaganda spell of the corporate media. Check out who owns the media. The oligarchs who own our corporate media system stand the most to lose from exposure of the Epstein Files.
Tragically, Jen makes a valid point! 10 Americans killed by ICE this year to date. Over 30 died after being released from ICE run concentration camps! No outrage from magats in Congress! Those deaths seem to be brushed off as collateral damage a fatal version of the NIMBY mentality applied to human life!
People hope Rtump gets held responsible for his crimes as well as his ilk. Won’t happen. He’s 80, what can be done to him? He’ll die with all the money hidden in his family and friends in other countries. Along with many of the secrets and blackmail info that’s still out there. Vance was ‘just following orders. ‘ Along with many others.
Will we focus on revenge or rebuilding a country - can we do both? Because without cleaning house we have no chance of having a better outcome. The rot will still be there.
The MAGA base no longer cares about them. They believe Trump’s lies.
Barbara I wrote something similar above this about Epstein being another diversion even a distraction. That does not mean that rape torture and murder of women and children are not horrific. That does not mean that if Trump is involved he should go unpunished. But that would be one just one of his many crimes across the board…causing a lot of pain suffering and damage. Criminally liable. Epstein and Trump’s complicity will not be forgotten or erased but the MAIN goal has to be stopping Trump now from doing further damage. Every day he does more damage to our country. Look at the larger picture. There is an hierarchy of importance: saving us from this scourge that has so many people working under its power.
Shoved to the bottom of the files: all those people living in 25% of the open air concentration camp: Gaza, with no household items like they had before.
Imagine losing everything you need to care for your family: destroyed. Constant bombing for 3 years.
This is why Iran had to be attacked: it was, along with Hamas, Hezbolah and the Yemenis, trying to save those people from Israel. And from our military industrial complex.
exactly. all these wars and greenland etc are just flooding the zones with excrement to avoid Epstein. That ship will eventually come to port, and when it does, there will be a lot of retribution to the abusers who think they can hide.
This isn't true. The media likes to pretend it's all a game and doesn't really matter. It all matters. Aggressing on Greenland is an act of potential war. We have squandered a treasured allegiance. We should be outraged.
Walking around planning retribution greatly diminishes what this Fascist America Government is doing on every front-war, supporting a terrorist state with our tax dollars- refusing aid to American children, American concentration camps, ICE rounding up 2,000 of us daily, diseased food, diminishing oil reserves, catastrophic loss of healthcare for millions of us, threats to elections, corporate media propaganda machine.
We should be in the streets by the millions.
My Dear Mr. President:
So it has come down to this: Eighteen US service personnel and countless innocent Iranian citizens must die AND the world’s trade and international norms must be pushed to the edge of unsustainability in order to serve as a distraction from the ever present Epstein Files that indicate, unequivocally, that you had a ‘hard time’ keeping your ‘member’ in your pants around underage women.
You need to man up and come clean about your ‘manning up.’ Consequences need to rest on you, sir, not everybody else on the planet.
Regards,
You realize you are speaking to a demented fascist.
Yes indeed!
True, but the war is also enriching the oligarchs who support and manipulate him while advancing the Project 2025 Christofascist agenda. Win-win for the oligarchs, lose-lose for us and the world.
Trump is not the only one who wants the Epstein info. buried. I'm guessing a huge % of the deciders. Epstein knew exactly what he was doing to give Israel impunity over the Middle East and America. He and his fellow traveler Roy Cohn knew how to corrupt and win.
Generally, I would agree but not in this case. For me at least it's hard to see beyond Trump himself in the prosecution of this war - his impulsive actions, vacillations, prevarications, ominous threats and bombastic claims of victory are not the machinations of a shadowy corporate elite but rather the product of a single disordered mind.
It's true that some large corporations are making hay while the war continues, not least in the fossil fuel and arms industries, but it's really difficult to see how a lengthy war can be seen as good for the US economy with its mounting debt burden and cost-of-living crisis. When will the GOP finally realise this?
The point of the whole decades-long Republican enterprise has been and still is the transfer of wealth from the working class to the oligarchs. At this moment, with Trump as the devolving frontman, the task is to steal as much as possible before the economy collapses.
The oligarchs don’t fear a collapse. They have sufficient assets to cushion themselves from any meaningful impact. It isn’t necessarily an organized conspiracy; it is an alignment of a commonality of goals within a system that was morphed over time by the introduction of big money into politics. The mechanism was built, the oligarchs chose to use it for their own purposes.
I like your point that there is not necessarily an organized conspiracy among the oligarchs, but a convergence of interests. In any case, it is the rest of us who suffer the consequences, until Citizens United is reversed.
It may not be a conspiracy now. But if their positions and their security are actually threatened, they will circle the wagons in full battle mode.
There is the Heritage Foundation and Projecf 2025. Not a conspiracy but a well funded effort nonetheless.
It seems that GREED is the true evil here.
As usual Georgia, you are spot on. That has been the project for over 50 years. And yes the oligarchs will ride out the inevitable collapse while ordinary Americans suffer. And any of us that speak up about it or try to fight back will be punished. That is where we are headed.
Midterms this November is the last chance saloon for democracy. We better get it right.
We help ourselves every time we don't buy anything from oligarchs and work to create and use small businesses in our home towns and cities. This will take time, but it has to be done. Many are working to do that right now.
When does an "alignment of commonality of goals" become a "conspiracy of interests?"
Project 2025.
Hi- the answer is when there is moral collapse. To guard against that the law and the prosecution of it has not kept up. When the moral collapse is infecting our government we got problems. Like now, we are testing what institutions are still working for we the people, and trying to hold onto them. But it is down to the people.
Good question.
Absolutely.
Russell, I have recently commented elsewhere that we are living in a perfect storm of multiple motivations driving multiple entities. Their priorities describe a Venn diagram of differing but overlapping circles of interests.
My favorite group to hate, evangelicals, have been plotting for approximately 100 years to remake this democratic republic into a theocracy, as a platform for Jesus' return to Earth where he will begin his "thousand years' reign of peace," known as The Millennium. Evangelicals believe the U.S. will be the seat of this divine government. Russell Vought is orchestrating this transformation. According to evangelical lore, The Millennium can't begin until after the Battle of Armageddon, expected to be fought in the Middle East. They quietly celebrate the Iran war as a fulfillment of prophecy.
Opus Dei Catholics, including the Roberts Six on SCOTUS share a similar world-view.
Meanwhile, oligarchs like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk et al, are devising numerous, complex ways of transferring wealth from the masses to themselves. Owning companies with lucrative government contracts is just one way of achieving that goal. The Iran war nicely serves that purpose. When the U.S. has been bled dry, these mega-parasites will move on to the next host.
Still another group, neo-nazis, are hoping to rid the world of peoples with elevated melanin. This mission is being pursued around the world. Stephen Miller is leading the effort in the U.S.
Vassaliations? As with Saudi Arabia do we have a vassal state or will we vacillate on providing a gateway to the bomb? How can anything be built on the shifting sands of Trump's expediency?
Oh, they know. The problem is that they don't care. They're largely getting power and money; all the rest is just nuisance stuff ....... like "principles" and "social responsibility" and "upholding the Constitution".
This president and his prime enablers don't care about the good of the US economy except insofar as a good economy is needed for re-election. He cares only for his own economy.
The current GOP, Russell, will never realize this. The ethics in asking for the supplemental budget is absent due to the corrosive corruption by this administration and particularly for Hegseth representing the "Dept. of War." With very few exceptions from the "republican" side, the CMA (cover my ass) mentality has essentially taken over the "republican" Senate. They may as well have essentially purchased that bridge located in the Sahara Desert when they all bowed to their orange lordship. It is well too late for too many of them as they don't even recall the seriousness of Dwight Eisenhower's warnings. We may as well stop calling them "republicans;" they've long forgotten their history as the loyal (to the Constitution, that is) opposition to democrats who clearly have proven their consistent loyalty to the founding document. We are dealing now with fascist MAGA. **That** is now our opposition. The republican party is dead.
And speak up? They are all just silent.
Yes, absolutely the corporations have no love or desire for "peace in our time". I'd like add a few more entities that prefer war to peace. How about we consider radical, religious zealots & insanely hate-filled bigots to the list. I think perhaps the corporations see that weakness in the human "soul" & use it to their money making advantage. You can't sell a product if you don't have a customer & it seems countries around the world somehow manage to have powerful people take over & buy the products of war & that provides the customer & then you just need to be sure you use up all those "products" so that more must be manufactured & purchased completing the "circle of death"!
I wish we could be like Star Trek, working together, United Federation of Planets working for the benefit of everyone. We can't even do that on a country basis, much less a planet or federation of planet basis. I think it's humanity's flaw. We are always measuring ourselves in what we have vs others. we'll never feel satisfied. there's always someone with more.
If you spend as much money on your military as we do, you gotta use ‘em.
Excellent remarks by Pres Eisenhower are so pertinent today.
With zero accountability from Hegseth, Rubio, and Trump about how our billions have been and will be spent, Congress is a collection of fools to give another nickel to fund Trump’s War.
How are they keeping us safe? How has this gang improved our lives? How have they made the world a better place?
This administration’s “monsters, rapists and violent criminals” must be arrested and jailed.
Well said, Donna!
Hello Georgia... Keep an 'Eye' on Chinese A.I. ... According to Robert Reich, their Models are among the Best, and in some cases free to use... Seems that the Current USA Market Growth is due to 'A.I. Madness'... The Chinese want to grab Market-Share, and Dominate A.I. like they have other Economic Sectors... The Chinese have stated that they want to Dominate the 21st Century, and DJT and his Crime Syndicate are helping them...
American hubris is at work again, to our potential detriment when it comes to AI.
China and the U.S. are both trying to gain strategic advantage through AI, but they emphasize different objectives. The U.S. is primarily pursuing frontier capability and artificial general intelligence-style breakthroughs, while China is more focused on rapid deployment of AI across industry, infrastructure, and the physical economy.
China is optimizing AI to develop low-hanging-fruit applications using massive databases, leading to improvements in economic efficiency while minimizing resource costs (water, electricity, and next-gen chips).
Artificial general intelligence seeks to match or exceed human capabilities across all tasks. Our genius AI oligarchs are trying to create human-like autonomous intelligence, focusing on communication and engagement with the machine through massive language models, with all the issues of hallucination and sycophancy inherent in that quest. This is the modern rendition of Pygmalion. Think of all the stories of people falling in love with their ChatGPT bots. The economic model is pay-for-play data processing.
Undoubtedly, both see the possibilities for surveillance of their populations, as is the wont of authoritarian regimes, as 1984 warned us.
It's also about corporate greed in a mad race to get their first, Devil take the hindmost. Nothing illustrated this more than the lamentable court case involving Musk and OpenAI which left both parties with egg on their respective faces; and also Musk's subsequent stupendous SpaceX IPO. Or as Sydney Perelman once chose to put it " it's not the heat, it's the cupidity".
Hello Georgia... Keep-up with the Anomalies being found in the most advanced A.I. Models... The 'Matrix', 'Terminator', Scenarios are coming to Light...
AI is not a consumer. It cannot support the oligarchs; yet, they promote their AI software for its ability to off human workers and enable AI workers.
Again, AI is not a consumer. It is a user of our resources: land, power, water, sound. It takes. It does not give except over the very short term. Once human consumers no longer have the means to consume, what next? Our oligarchs prefer this to people who create everything AI has stolen and presents as its own, which is an oligarchic enterprise.
Where do you suppost that will lead the men who need money for their life enterprises to be functional?
Nowhere good, Doc.
This is a sure sign of who we can afford to follow, and who we cannot afford to follow!
…And Georgia, now we have one company’s AI trying, on it's own initiative to invade and take over another company”s AI ! Just what we need, artificial warfare by AIs we don’t (can’t?) control!
Also, Georgia, China has the EV equivalent of the Deux Chevaux (and now also excellent electrical public transportation)and the Volkswagen while we stick to gasoline-powered SUV’s. My 8th grade teacher of world history (1948) taught us that the ancient civilization of the Chinese was to be respected. I think of it as the Iranians wait out the bad teenagers on the block.
Apache, well said.
As Georgia says, hubris is at work again. And it is stupid. The Chinese are doing what they typically do with new tech. They apply it in a practical and a massive manner. They are now making the very best, cheapest and most advanced EVs. They will dominate that industry. While we discourage EV adaptation. It is stupid beyond words.
And so, it is logical that they aren't focused on developing the most sophisticated AI - just the systems that can be affordably employed for the most immediate practical applications. They are smart. We are stupid (our current leaders).
Reich's articles are a must read. His warnings about the AI Bubble are clearly stated and chilling. Of course, he's not the only one explaining how unrealistic the massive amount of debt being thrown at a technology is - debt and investment that has a slim possibility of delivering the promised ROI.
IMO, I could be wrong, but quite soon, the markets will ask: "When will these for profit companies begin to make a profit? When will the promises be fulfilled?"
All it takes to tip the scales into a market free fall is one or two "analysts" at Chase, Morgan or Goldman to challenge the current frenzy that feels like "tulips". Terms like "underweight" and "neutral rating" can start a fire that is impossible to extinguish.
Because this massive debt fueled investment is way, way larger than anything in history, it can collapse in a way that is historic as well. The current market prices for equities are unsustainable. AI dominates more than 50% of the S&P Index (that so-called safe conservative place index funds employ).
The future of our economy is all in one giant basket. What could go wrong?
If I were a betting man (I am not), I would lay odds that the "Trump Crash" of 2027 or 2028 will be remembered as much greater than 2000 or 2008.
Best be prepared.
The silver lining? Everything that happens is ALWAYS the president's fault. Just ask Obama and Biden.
I think the bubble is starting to deflate on US style AI.
In my own experience working on some simple coding projects using AI with a variety of models including Claude (but admittedly not the latest iterations) to build some new indicators for trading stocks, I am not tremendously impressed. i have had to deal with a lot of frustration especially when confronted with hallucinations, sycophancy and the dreaded “engineering hesitancy” and the inability of the bots to remember “standing instructions” as simple “Never provide patches. Always provide a complete script for revisions.” When faced with a small challenge like coding an indicator for Schwab’s ThinkorSwim trading platform it kept bumping into a standing issue about limitations on how TOS deals with recursion, unable to to remember the workaround that was used the day before.
What it is good at is search and on restating what you tell it in ways that force you to refine your thinking for clarity. It is not as good at scraping data from a variety of sources as I expected, say looking at ETF fund flows for a watchlist, at least for a non-professional without a pro subscription to the underlying database.
If you want to set up tasks that run daily that use “compute” you have to buy tokens in addition to your monthly subscription fees. It is a pay for play business model.
I did this primarily to learn about what AI can do. My first generative AI venture into was creating an image of a taco with a crown for a No Kings poster.
Try Manus Georgia.
I watched a video not long ago that showed one of the Chinese EVs in action. Very impressive - and far more affordable than the EVs being built by U.S. companies. We are no longer the world's leader in innovation.
Hello Ellen... Tesla is starting to take a "Dive'... Elon's Empire is starting to Crumble... OBW: Elon still refuses to admit that He is a 'Nazi A*H*"...
Burn baby burn. I can’t stand that racist a******.
I don’t know Ellen, I don’t think the Chinese EV’s can do such cool stuff as change their screen color backdrops, provide 35-choice menus on screens or play such cool sound effects! …or provide 600, 900 or over 1000 hp motors to accelerate to 60 mph in less than 2 seconds!
But Chinese EVs cost a lot less, have much better range and go to a full charge while you woof a burger. I think they focus on the practical while we cater to the
rich.
The most affordable and best designed American EV is the Chevy Bolt. Selling like hot cakes. A terrific vehicle. We love ours.
It will be discontinued (again) because GM makes more money on gas guzzelers.
So goes America...
JohnM, I think this video might convince you differently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr-8fdJl3Tw
Hello JohnM... For the Average Driver, is that really important?... For Speed Thrills, I have Hyper-Bikes....
Crash of 2026 - R Reich
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-crash-of-2026?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=365422&post_id=208145553&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=g2ipj&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Right on target Bill! Reich’s warnings about the unlikely possibility AI will ever return sufficient profit to cover the massive investments in it are multiplied by the growing movement against data centers and states like NY’s Kathy Hochul declaring a moratorium on building new data centers.
Scott Galloway on the Pivot podcast (with Kara Swisher) has had some smart things to say lately on the Chinese AI strategy, consistent with this - they have a cheaper model but they are using it to develop market share, not maximize profits. He points out the equivalent in E-vehicles and renewable energy techology, where China pretty well monopolizes the world market (except for EVs in the US, so far.)
Thanks for the heads up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm7rTPnZfK8
But American companies may prefer the cheap Chinese version than the expensive American version and the AI bubble in this country will burst!
Hello Christine... That is what Robert Reich is predicting... An 'A.I.' Bubble-Bursting, Sky-Rocketing Iran War Consequences, it is a Very Grim Scenario...
Apache, could you get into Kimi 3? I tried to open a free account and couldn't see the option.
Hegseth was recently embarrassed by Senator Jon Ossoff on his claim, two weeks into the war, that Iran's military capabilities had been totally destroyed - a claim that Trump, others in his administration (including Hegseth) and supportive media have repeated endlessly as this war drags on. Yet Reuters reports that Iran has covertly sent IRGC commanders and missiles to the Houthi to help enforce their blockade of the Bab al-Mandeb strait. The administration continues to underestimate this implacable and ruthless enemy whom they have unwisely confronted with an existential threat.
Just yesterday, Trump snapped at a journalist: "Do you know something I don't know?", in response to her challenging his claim that Iran was begging for a deal. Out of an undue deference to this most ignorant of US presidents, she declined to answer but really it's a question that lawmakers should really be asking. The Iranians have mocked Trump as delusional and it's presently very hard to rebut that assertion.
Well said, Georgia.
Yes and every Congressional Republican in Congress is complicit in this president’s traitorous crimes.Every.Single.One.
Husband of Ruth writing:
In many countries people are shot or imprisoned for treason. In the USA they are elected president.
Problem is the very narrow language of the legal definition of treason:
Section 18 of the US Code:
§2381. Treason: Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
I firmly agree that the conduct of this president is reprehensible, criminal, illegal, immoral, and completely unjustifiable; the problem is the specific definition of an enemy. I believe that is why he has pardoned the J6 insurrectionists and has labeled "antifa" as a terrorist organization.
President Loser identifies any disloyalty to HIM as treasonous. A version of "le etat c'est moi."
He doesn't give damn about the US Code or the Constitution or any of that.
We are dealing with a different species of "treason" here.
I mean he gave aid and comfort (and probably employment) to the January 6 bunch.
The financial penalty would have no effect on him.
I'd opt for the other.
HoR, I frequently return to this article because many people mention treason in reference to Donald and his goons. What they're doing doesn't meet the technical definition of treason as described in the U.S.C.
Sedition comes closest, but I believe it falls short of properly defining the length, breadth and depth of Donald's corrupt self-dealing.
As usual, Donald has dragged us to a place where we've never been. We need a new word.
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2021/01/treason-sedition-and-insurrection-whats-the-difference/
Well said… The Republicans in Congress will be on vacation until mid September. House now out of town, Senate in about 2 weeks..
WTF
Hello JaKsaa... They are Corrupt, and like their Prerogatives, & Privileges
And their self administered Poison.
EXACTLY. And no one is following up on where the money is surely going. Just as discovering the money from Venezuelan oil has disappeared and will never be found. He literally TOLD everyone he was controlling that money.
Iran is not a proxy to Russia or China. It is fighting to maintain its sovereignty, as are Russia and China and poor Cuba. And, yes, this illegal war is making China stronger. I don't know about Russia; it has its hands full with our proxy Ukraine and NATO barking at its door.
Russia and China have benefitted from our wars since Viet Nam! They sat back and added kindling to the flames occasionally to keep us occupied and expend our treasure. Add Ronald Reagan and those who rode in with him and we’ve been slowly turning on a spit above the fire until tRump came in with 2025 and painted by the numbers to line his pockets and make us a fascist country. Mixing my images a bit, but logic isn’t the plan, chaos is their plan.
War after war, with great cost to us and no benefit to the world. Pease in our time.
Insanity doing the same thing over and over and expect different results. Not with a bang but a whimper.
Thank you
Apparently there’s no money for healthcare, housing, struggling farmers or families trying to put food on the table - but reach down the back of the national sofa and wow, miraculously, there’s always another few billion for bombs. Eisenhower understood that a country can’t keep feeding the war machine without eventually feeding its own citizens into it.
The historic final stage of empire: the roads crumble, the cupboards empty and the citizens go broke, while the fat cats in charge stand on the balcony demanding a larger cannon. A nation that can afford endless war but can't afford to care for its people is not strong. It's simply heavily armed while falling apart. Eventually there'll be nothing left worth defending.
It also probably goes without saying, but Eisenhauer was a General during WWll, who saw & understood the true costs of war, in every sense of the word. Trump is draft dodger, and a narcissicist. War and its human costs & costs to this country mean nothing to him.
I put it in more simple terms. Eisenhower had a brain and Trump doesn't.
Sigh...
I’d say Eisenhower also had a heart and a conscience…
It's hard to imagine him feeling any empathetic emotion (with him it's mostly schadenfreude), grief or anguish. He coasts through life without the slightest awareness of the harm he causes to others.
Except for the harm that he causes INTENTIONALLY! And that is happening more often.
Heather, thank you for your daily "Fireside Chats" that bring your readers a true level of comfort thru your understanding of history to Trump's daily petulant chaos.
I saw a quote " Your friends are your future" to which I would add "Trump has no friends"
Dirigo
The "fight & flight" function seems to be on meth
*************************************************.
Heads Up:
Per the AP, "Canada Cancels Joint Bridge Celebration With U.S. [this weekend] After Trump's Trade Threat".
**************************************
Update:
Not a threat. As Canada hit with more Tariffs by the "right wing lunatic" including Canadian Hockey 🏒 sticks. FYI, the new Bridge was named after a famous Canadian Hockey player, GORDIE HOWE hence the "Gordie Howe International Bridge."
Yes, we’re back to tariffs again! 🙄
Trump does have a brain but it's in largely pristine condition having so rarely been used.
It's also how they spend (or waste) the money. Ukraine has almost exclusively been using $5000 - $10000 drones to wipe out Russia's energy infrastructure. And barely a peep from the lame-stream-media about it. Meanwhile, most of Crimea is without electricity and fuel. Food and water are scarce. In Russia, it is wheat harvesting season and farmers are resorting to using sickles to harvest the wheat. Food is rotting in the fields. The bond interest rate is over 17% and rising. And we have morons in charge, trying to bomb Iran into submission with bombs instead of drones costing us billions instead of millions.
If Trump and Kegsbreath wanted to win the war, the would need to put boots on the ground. And that will cost many more American lives and Republicans their jobs.
Hello GJ... From HCR Today: "Yesterday Shelby Holliday, Lara Seligman, and Stephen Kalin of the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. has been surging troops, weaponry, and medics to the Middle East. These new forces add to the tens of thousands of troops already there. The U.S. Navy also has 17 ships in the region, including two aircraft-carrier strike groups, with eleven destroyers and a Marine Corps expeditionary unit. " || Surging Medics is very concerning... The WSJ in the past that Kharg Island could be a target... A forcible seizure of the Hormuz has also been contemplated... 'Pick-Ax' Mtn?... Any Operation involving Ground Troops could have a Catastrophic Cost in Lives, and Treasure... Somehow, I don't see Barron Trump, or Yair Netanyahu being in the First-Wave... I do think that the Trump Crime Syndicate will try to make a 'Buck' from it...
Apache - I agree the TCS will try to make a buck from it.
Eric already borrowed money to buy into a company that makes drones and nobody knows where the money Trump has impounded from the Venezuelan oil theft is being kept.
Meanwhile, everyone around the planet is paying more for gas, diesel, jet fuel and every other oil distillate.
Like every other king, President, Prime Minister, etc. that has started a war in recent times, their own military are pawns or even cannon fodder if you will.
Russia has sent over 240,000, "sorry for your loss" letters since the Ukraine War began and there's likely hundreds of thousands of other Russians that have died because of Putin's bloodlust.
Our military members are sacrificial lambs. It's shameful.
Is there no one left in the military to question, to refuse to carry out this illegal war, to resign a command ?
And the saying, "This ain't what I signed up for" is truer now than it has been for decades.
:) Kegsbreat! Once a pickle always a pickle.
See my comment. Most likely in the next 48 hours or so.
America as a functional rational govt devoid of kickbacks and graft is over. Its not a country with a future. Its a mafia run city.
And when you can't beat a demonised foreign enemy into submission then there's always the enemy within.
All well said. And what the voters wanted. Let’s hope we are enjoying the fruits of the votes cast for an ill informed egomaniac. It’s one thing when others do it to you. It’s quite abysmal when you do it to yourself.
Sounds a lot like the pre- and post-collapse Soviet Union and a few of us have seen how well that continues
YES. Another good point to take note of .
As a man of war, Eisenhower was acutely aware of just how much war -- and the preparation for it -- costs. Even so, he presided over the construction of the federal interstate highway system, paid for by taxes that at times approached 90% of capital gains. It took place when government wasn't thought of as simply a backchannel device for the enrichment of the top 2-3% at everyone else's expense. And Congress respected both the normal appropriations process and calendars, where budgets had to be defended, on time, with justification, and with bipartisan support.
Trump's Republican Party today would call Eisenhower a radical "Dumocat" for daring to suggest that the trade-off between guns and butter is both real and painful. Today's Republicans have insulated themselves and their top donors not just from accountability, but from even the slightest tinge of compassion for others, much less remorse for their behavior.
May I offer one edit to your 2nd paragraph please… “trump’s RFP (Republican Fascist Party) today would call….”
Everyone should watch Eisenthower's Farewell Address (which Heather neglected to mention). He EXPLICITLY warned about the growing influence of the military industrial complex...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyBNmecVtdU
In terms of Eisenhower citations, I think the professor made the right choice, while the thrust of the Farewell Address was - as you note - on the rise of the Military Industrial Complex, there's nothing in the current spending reverie that suggests the money's even going to the usual suspects. And if one things been established with this crowd, it's that they're not entitled to any "presumptions of regularity." God knows where the money's going.
But what we do know is the opportunity cost, going back to the theme of Eisenhower's 1953 address, what we could have done with the money. And at this rate, may never get around to doing.
The national debt is increasing by over $1 trillion every 5 months and NOBODY in the MSM is talking about it. When the Fed next meets it's likely they will be forced to raise interest rates to control inflation when Trump is begging for them to lower rates.
Almost every economic indicator is pointing to a recession.
"Make Love Not War" and quit wasting our fucking money Republicans.
Question: Will it be called the "Great Recession" or the "Great Depression"? The damage being done is epic. And I can't get over the feeling that it is deliberate. That this administration is doing everything it can to make us weaker inside and out.
Who is happy about our "war of choice"?
Russia. Higher oil prices mean that Putin's only meaningful source of revenue is boosted! Putin raises glass of vodka; "Thanks Donnie, good boy."
And of course, Putin is also thrilled that the billions and billions that are being squandered on losing to Iran are NOT being expended on helping the Ukrainians.
Why aren't Americans screaming: "Why are you helping the wrong side?"
How did the GOP shift from being Russia Hawks to being lovely dovey with a KGB trained Dictator who threatens an entire continent?
This is a really bad movie.
I believe it will be "Stagflation" rather than a recession or depression.
And while I'm not an economist.. I'm pretty sure that's usually worse on the individual household.
But hey.. I never discount that the stock market could implode with all the AI based spending bubble and put us into the another 'Great Depression'.
I'm not an economist either. But I am old and retain the memories of 2008, 2000, the Savings and Loan Crash and….I was in business during Staglation. It was awful. Sales were way down. The cost of borrowing way up - which meant lower inventories - which meant lower sales! We thought it would never end….
Bill, Most Americans are not screaming bc they have no idea what is going. They are too busy focusing on the important things like Taylor swift's wedding and other important Instagram posts.
Or they like what is happening. There are an awful lot of those folks out there.
This is a cool website that shows the increasing national debt and its costs to citizens in real time: https://www.usdebtclock.org/
It is very depressing. *sigh*
Future generations will be paying for this nonsense (which includes the $ siphoned out of the federal treasury by the Trump family crime syndicate).
Sharing!
I appreciated hearing/reading that particular speech of President Eisenhower’s.
My grocery bill has almost tripled.
Mine too...
Ours too. And no one in the MSM is even mentioning grocery prices going up that I am aware of.
Thanks for all you do to educate us, Heather. I read your posts every day and am much better informed because of it. We are so fortunate to have someone as generous as you share your knowledge and explain in it simple terms. I am very grateful!
So, you're defending Heather's decision to only mention one of his speeches? She could have mentioned both. It's not like she's limited to how many words she can write.
In my humble opinion, both speeches matter. But that's just me. I guess we will have to "agree to disagree".
Have a nice night.
The farewell speech on the rise of the military complex is much better known than the other speech. Her mention of the other speech made me immediately think of it.
Which is why she mentioned it.
HCR has said in the past that she has a limit on how many words she publishes in her letters.
Thanks, MaryPat.
Professor Richardson writes her own substacks and we are priviledged to read them. I am grateful for her succinct historical references.
You dont have to read them. Backseat driving is rarely, if ever, helpful.
Write your own substacks. Add as many speeches as you want.
My god dude... she writes one of these every single day. She might not have a word count but she is allowed to have a life.
Getting snippy over her choice of which 'great white man' speech seems a bit much.
My understanding, Steve, was that his original thought was to point to the dangers of the Military-Industrial-CONGRESSIONAL Complex but he was advised to omit ‘Congressional’ 😢
Per Roll Call, "the four(4) Republican senators who did not record a vote for the binding joint resolution to curb President Donald Trump's war powers in Iran are Katie BRITT of Alabama, Mitch McCONNELL of Kentucky, Lisa MURKOWSKI of Alaska, and Rand PAUL of Kentucky."
"During the procedural vote on July 23, 2026, the Senate rejected the binding joint resolution in a 47–49 vote. While Republican Senator Susan COLLINS voted in favor of the measure alongside almost all Democrats, these four (4) specific GOP senators were absent or did not vote, [ perhaps 1 Senator, McConell, is not alive ] stalling the Senate's effort to legally mandate a withdrawal of U.S. troops from the conflict without explicit congressional approval."
''The Pentagon’s Three-Bucket War Sale''
Washington has discovered a brilliant new way to manage public money: stop explaining where it goes.
The Trump administration is cutting Medicaid, food assistance, medical research, and public health while demanding another $67 billion for a war Congress never properly authorized. This is called fiscal responsibility, provided you define “fiscal” as missiles and “responsibility” as refusing to answer questions.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explained the war budget with the confidence of a man who had lost the receipts, emptied the account, and blamed the banking app. How much has the war cost? Officially, $37.5 billion. Internally, perhaps $100 billion. Where did it go? Apparently into three exciting buckets: regular appropriations, reconciliation money, and emergency supplements.
Nothing says democratic accountability like a Pentagon shell game run by people who misplaced the receipt.
Dwight Eisenhower once warned that every gun and bomber represented food, schools, hospitals, and homes taken from ordinary people. Today’s Republicans have modernized that principle. Every rocket fired represents a Medicaid appointment canceled, a grocery cart abandoned, and a taxpayer being told the budget is simply too tight for luxuries like insulin.
Marco Rubio then introduced America’s new foreign policy doctrine, apparently drafted by a concussed barroom bouncer: “a head for an eye.”
Meanwhile, Congress passed a resolution expressing deep concern. Unfortunately, it was a concurrent resolution, meaning it has roughly the legal force of a strongly worded refrigerator magnet.
America has more troops, more ships, higher debt, higher gas prices, and no identifiable victory. But Washington still has options, three buckets, and absolutely no calculator.
The hungry can wait. The Pentagon has gone shopping.
HCR's quote from former President Eisenhower said it so well -- it's so abundantly clear that the priority of this administration is not the people of this country.
Your country is flanked by two great oceans while the European continent has been mired in war for centuries. Your vast military spending has not saved your country from several overseas humiliations, this one in the Gulf just being the latest. It's one worthwhile contribution, after the Second World War, has been towards NATO, the greatest defensive alliance in history and yet your president wants out because he sees America's greatest military achievement as some kind of european rip-off.
It's understandable that Americans from time to time wonder whether they should be the world's policeman, yet it is a designation that you have given yourselves, as is the wont of superpowers. If Trump really believes in American isolationism why does the US still have 750 overseas military bases, why has bombed eight countries and what the fuck is he doing in the Gulf?
Yes, Kelly, that’s exactly what Pres. Eisenhower so eloquently said in the speech HCR quoted at the start of this post!
"I have been thinking lately about taxes and war and citizens and what the government should do for its people."
We are electing some awful people. Eisenhower warned in his last days of his Presidency of the military industrial complex. Now here we are with the government of grifters creating conflicts for themselves and friends to profit from.
The main theme of most of my comments will be the absolute urgency of ousting PAC- soaked politicians, refusing to accept the DNC "chosen ones" for candidates, and taking full responsibility for what we get in Washington DC.
Thank you. So well put
Great point.
Well said.
Have you ever bought furniture or an appliance from one of those friendly ‘discount’ stores? How about a used car from a TV advertised “I can finance anybody” local car lot? Did your purchase give you years of trouble-free service? Or did it break down after a few months (or weeks or days)? Did you try to return it for a refund? How did that work out?
Did the salesman give you the same kind of runaround the Trump administration has been giving Congress? No money cheerfully refunded? Has it not yet dawned on you those people never had any intention of ‘behaving honorably’; they got their hands on the checkbook and the credit cards and the car keys and have no qualms about leaving you alone on a back road somewhere. At night. In a rainstorm.
Seriously, grow up and realize you have been conned by a professional. And now he is working on becoming a supreme dictator backed by the law enforcement and military power of the government you paid taxes to create.
The Con-man-der-in-chief knows it’s over for him if he leaves the protection of his office. He still has to serve a sentence for 34 felonies and who knows how many other cases will pop up. In a situation of “it’s them or me” he picks ‘me’, and he’s telling you he’s ruthless every time he opens his mouth.
JFC! So the Senate didn’t pass the resolution that would’ve put an end to stopping the Iran war. You know, the war that’s not a war. I really miss the brilliance of someone like Eisenhower. He wasn’t perfect, but he certainly was aware of what common folk were going through. He was president when I was born, 1 million years ago, but I do remember that my parents liked him even though they were Democrats.
Also, in the news today, not covered by Heather, was the fact that Don Jr is raking in millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. It’s so infuriating and embarrassing that 77 million people got taken in by the promises, Trump never intended to keep. How is it that we knew that and they didn’t? Well, now they do because their lives are being completely affected by what he and his merry men of thieves are doing to them.
My parents were Eisenhower Republicans. My dad served in the Army with Eisenhower’s son John. My six year old brother thought it would be funny if he jumped on eight year old grandson David in the swimming pool causing some soaking wet Secret Service agents and a scared six year old!
Eisenhower was the last president from the Party of Lincoln. He knew about the devastation of war and the importance of recovery. And he worked tirelessly with the other side of the aisle to provide things like an Interstate Highway system, and desegregated schools.
I’m glad neither Eisenhower nor my parents are alive to see what a travesty Trump has turned the Party of Lincoln, and our country, into.
I’m a Democrat!
IKE also Warned us ALL about the dire threat of the Military Industrial Complex and permanent war in his farewell speech of 1961.
After a life of heading Procurement in the Army, and the 5 Star General in charge of D Day, he certainly knew better than Anyone about the war profiteers still full of blood lust from WWI, who tried to Coup FDR, then supplied the Axis, while watching FDR try to stay OUT of the war, then struggle to win over Americans to go in and save Europe from Fascism.
He also championed more rights and laws extending GI benefits for Black veterans, but failed.
He also truly believed in the Red Scare, and so added "Under God" to the pledge of allegiance, and "In God We Trust" to paper currency to be sure we wouldn't go Atheist like the Commies.
He supported the Korean War. And later, Vietnam. Cognitive Dissonance seems to be feature of the Presidency.
“ under God” and “in God we trust “ well intended but a mistake.
I agree. I told my boys not to say it, and that they didn't have to pledge allegiance to the flag at all if they didn't want to. So they skipped the God part, and but still stood with hand over heart and said the pledge. Peer pressure I think.
My mother thought adding those statements in were horrid.
I grew up saying it. I am a well adjusted Democrat.
Eisenhower is the first President I remember -- my parents had "I LIKE IKE" buttons.
I stilll have my parents 'I like Ike button'!
I recall a song about "I like Ike, and Ike is easy to like". My parents supported Stevenson, but were OK enough with Ike. The did NOT like Nixon, nor Joe McCarthy. I do wonder how much of the mess in the Middle East got rolling with the CIA assisted installment of the Shah of Iran.
Thank you
True and yet The Economist polls show about 30% of Americans still support him and his fellow criminals.
I just read that measles cases just hit a 35 year high. And here comes the latest heat dome, but Trump's going to vandal-proof his hobby pond.
you mean the reflecting swamp? (had to say that. I read it somewhere in the comments and it's just so perfect...)
Which Hand Rises to Salute the American Fascist Republican Party
I thought to one day attend a MAGA rally just to experience how much a dumb poorly-informed bunch of stupid fucken Americans behave in person. I wanted to raise the correct hand 🖐️ when appropriate to salute speakers. If I were to rise the wrong arm, I might be singled out and I don’t want that to happen.
Now it’s time for my prediction for difficult times ahead. We are long overdue for a recession. I think one arrives every 10 plus years. The last one (credit default banking) was in 2008. One before that was the dotcom bust around 2000. I’m not an economist. I never took a course in economics. But I can smell it. It’s AI and my gut tells me it will hit big time. Can you say 1929? Same set-up with deregulation allowing big business to do whatever they wanted. Calvin Coolidge followed by Herbert Hoover. Guess what party they were in. I would like to think the billionaire class would jump from windows having loss all. Except they have likely diversified into everything and built bunkers deep into the earth to stay safe from the unwashed herds of impoverished humans pounding on their iron doors.
This may be a cleansing moment. We as a nation have gone terribly wrong. Never in my existence could I have predicted a true blue fascist United States. Here is a short piece from my book, “Donald’s Vanity Tantrums” titled,
Welcome to The New Snazzy Nazi States of America
(Introducing The Goose-Step, Two-Step March)
A new dance craze is sweeping the nation called, The Goose-Step, Two-step March. This invigorating new exercise is easy to learn! First, link arms on the dance floor. As you move backward in line, turn your head to the right and lift your left leg straight up as high as it will go. Then step forward as you turn your head to the left and lift your right leg straight up in the air.
It’s very similar to square dancing or line dancing. Soon the dance floor will be filled with goose-steppers. Forward, backward, round and round. If you step out of line, you are tagged, the caller detains you, interrogates you, strip searches you, and sends you off to detainment camps for disloyalty.
This new dance craze is not to be confused with serious charges of criminal activity. By the time the youngins reach the age of reason, they will be quick to form into lines upon request for impromptu Goose-Step, Two-Step Marches and other forms of family entertainment.
R Reich agrees with you Bill.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-crash-of-2026?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=365422&post_id=208145553&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=g2ipj&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
I forgot to mention the recession of 1990 and I think another around 1980. We are overdue and this time it will be almost insurmountable. It will be global as well. One side of me hopes I’m wrong and the other side hopes I’m correct and it happens on Trump’s watch because if it rolls into the next administration, people are stupid enough to believe it wasn’t his fault. Hitler rose to power blaming others.
He turned it into one. All it needed was an oil slick and a few old tires.
ok.. so this has nothing to do with nothing... but I was thinking about your choice of words.
"vandal-proof his hobby pond"
Which it absolutely is.... a POND.
But he always refers to it as a POOL and direct hired pool technicians to fix it.
Is it possible that this whole reflecting swamp fiasco is because the man is too stupid to know the difference between a pool and a pond?
I think it's more a matter that for Trump it's a "water feature", like a motel with "free pool and WiFi", rather than part of a shrine.
I vaguely recall my conservative father liking Ike. Then in 1960, my Italian American Catholic mother falling for JFK. He could do no wrong. I wonder if he would have kept us out of the quagmire of Vietnam or was he pulled by that same anti communist rhetoric paranoia of the times. The quarantine of Cuba was in response to Soviet missiles being sent to the island. Would he have followed the futility of the French in Indochina? We will never know for sure. I think he would have done the same as LBJ - who became one of the great progressive leaders x Vietnam. Then Nixon arrived. And Nixon was the great mistake yet now in retrospect, not so bad? EPA was his creation. Now the darkness has descended on the land of milk and honey. I’m afraid to say but the Great Crash is approaching sooner than you think. Perhaps this is needed to purge the evil that has taken us to the dark side.
Yes, Julius, and even 30% (which is lower than most recent polls) is horrifying
Just as 30% of Germans backed Hitler.
Really? He who wields the sword holds the field.
Dr. Iris St. John, I did not know that; would have thought 80%.
Too many people I speak to casually tell me: “Oh I don’t watch the news!”which reminds me of too many Germans after the surrender
proclaiming, “I didn’t know” about the concentration camps although they certainly at least watched as their Jewish neighbors were rounded up. Huge denial here already about the graft, lies,
and you know all the rest.
Even among those here who are aware, highly educated and horrified at/with the murder gang centered in DC, many …too many… seem unable to take actions. I’m feeling like a nag! ‘Please call so & so, please in any way notify our Reps & Senators about, call the governor, the AG of our state.’ If I hear one more person tell me I’m too busy……#^*~£¥#! I have lost at least one casual friend who said that to me.
I say, So What! although it stings, just slighty though.
I will never understand that continuing support. A cult? Or just plain stupid thinking?
Is there a difference?
HVNM, the answer to your question is "Yes."
In order to be a religious believer, one must hold beliefs for which there is no evidence. That statement is not a judgment for or against religion. It is just a fact.
Pew Research extensively studies religion in the U.S. If you have the time, it's an interesting read. https://www.pewresearch.org/collections/religious-landscape-study/
At the top of the following linked page, notice how increased religiosity parallels Republican affiliation. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/religion-partisanship-and-ideology/
On this page is a breakdown of religious affiliation. https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/
23% of Americans identify as evangelical. They are 85% of the MAGA base. Add 18%
11% identify as Mainline Protestant, but about a fourth of them are conservative. Add 3%.
19% are Roman Catholic, but a fifth of them are "Opus Dei" conservative. Add 2%.
Mormons and other sects represent 5%.
29% of Americans identify as non-religious. Split them evenly as right and left-leaning. Add 14%.
Estimated percentage of Americans who likely favor Donald based on religious affiliation. 42%
True and that is crazy, isn’t it! We saw a truck with South Carolina plates yesterday with Marine, Don’t tread on me, automatic rifle and Trump stickers on it. I was happy when we got around them! Scary white man driving!
No accounting for good taste Julius.
Marlene, I believe that the war is designed to consume all the headlines, all the oxygen, all the hours of the day - to conceal the thievery you refer to.
And to take the focus off the Epstein Files. The fact that an entire political party supports hiding (not investigating and prosecuting!) people who participated in sex trafficking and sexual abuse - is the stuff of bad fantasy movies. How can it be real?
Ike wasn't perfect. Nobody is. No person. But he was perfect for the time. He literally saved the world with his leadership.
My parents served under him. They were solid Republicans. They would not be Republicans today. And Ike would not be a MAGA maniac.
Ike was courted by the Democrats to run for president. He declined and Harry got the job.
The first decent Republican president was Abe. The last was Ike. What followed was a party purchased by blood sucking, Treasury raiding, the people be damned Oligarchs.
Eisenhower was president when I was 3 and my parents, who were Republicans also spoke highly of him as president. My father was a veteran of WWII, a para trooper in the 82nd Airborne and had the highest respect for Eisenhower. My husband and I often speak about are parents “rolling over in their graves” about the maga regime today!
Marlene Lerner-Bigley (CA),
Eisenhower lived a life of sacrifice and duty.
Such a life is a different world from Trump's life. His sons are enjoying full advantage of the opportunities their corrupt father provides.
So many Americans were distracted/blinded by "bright, shiny" images of a "wealthy" family.
It makes my soul ache.
And yet, there is a consistent 34-39% that continue to support Trump no matter what he does. They turn a blind eye to the corruption, the incompetence, and the lawlessness. I will never understand their reasoning, and I am long past trying to figure it out. What I know is that Trump is a terrible human being. He has serious sociopathic issues that are now mingled with dementia. It is an alarming situation; and one which I am sure President Eisenhower could not have envisioned in his wildest nightmares. A sociopathic President with a loosening grasp on reality trying to navigate a complicated international war. Time to ring all the alarms.
And yet, I would like to know if they continue supporting him?!
I think many of the 30% support "him" because he has achieved God like status. But a big chunk of MAGA is really upset with wasting money on an unjustified war while food and everything else is expensive and local hospitals and medical centers are closing. While NOTHING is getting better at home.
I think many of MAGA are absolutely lost and can't be retrieved. A few will vote for a good local Democrat. But my sense is a big portion of them will just stay home - not vote when their hero isn't on the ballot.
Unfortunately you are right Bill; no matter how disappointed they might be in him, they will not have the courage to even voice their disappointment, not to mention voting Democrat. But if they were going to vote for him again, it is better if they don't vote at all then...
It’s like the old days of the KKK in the south. Either you were with them, or agin’ them, and if you were agin’ them, you’d be the next house with a flaming cross in your yard. MAGA violence is very like that.
Don't people learn? How can any human being be OK with what the KKK stood for? It just doesn't make any sense to me. I cannot fathom any of it!
People like you and me who THINK, understand that the population is being manipulated to believe the “other” is the enemy, just as Hitler did. Not everyone can see past the manipulation, sadly.
Hubby and I were talking about that last night.
I think you are right and that the next election is going to have a lot of that going on. But at the same time.. I'm not sure it will make a difference in the second district. If I was a religious person I'd be praying for Dunlop. But I'm already girding up for the horror show that will be Paulie on the national stage.
The Economist polls are as accurate as a poll can be and they keep a running weekly graph of Trump's support. Yes, about 30% of Americans still do support him and his lackeys.
Do they support him even to their own detriment, or can they just not admit they were wrong Julius?
Admit they were wrong? No, never. Maybe they might think they could have been mistaken. Notice the "maybe" and "might" and "could" in that sentence.
Oh drat! I just realized I spoke in Texas drawl - maybe might could be fixin' to.
Bad habit for this transplanted New Englander!
Heh. Heh. Give yourself a break. These things happen.
In the process of not admitting they were wrong, they have to find something to justify supporting Trump.
Cult tribalism.
Baffles my mind!
Let me guess-Trump family has just made BIG INVESTMENTS in AI!
Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities
Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/us/politics/trump-research-funding-artificial-intelligence.html
Marlene, I thought when I saw the piece about Donny Jr on MSNow of how JVL in the Bulwark thinks repubs will run Donny Jr in '28! I envisioned the magas reasoning that " he's a financial genius" "We want our country run by a financial genius".😵💫🥺😤
Eisenhower was the last real Republican president and decent one at that.
Regarding crypto currency? I am no genius but from the get go it seems like a way to do away with our hard earned dollars as legitimate currency and replace it with play dollars that work only if you are willing to play the game and abide by these new” rules “.
It really woukdnt have ended the war. That joint resolution, had it passed the Senate, Woukd have to have passed the House. Let’s assume it Woukd have passed. Then it Woukd go to the president for his signature which is required to become law. And guess what: he’d just veto it. So, unfortunately, the only thing I can think of that Congress could do to end the war Woukd be to cut off the money. (It could also pass those resolutions by veto proof majorities, but that’s not happening.).
Every dollar spent on war is spending for the present. Every dollar spent on providing food and education for children is spending for the future. So, spending on the Iran war instead of feeding and educating our children starves the future to give millions to defense contractors.
Well said 😞
The Iranian people “haven’t received enough pain yet.” That's the talk of a narcissistic bully, not a president of the United States!
It is horrifying to me that only four republican representatives and 1 senator (Susan Collins!) had the guts to vote to stop this death and destruction.
So here's my question now about any decision Trump makes about anything, WHO'S MAKING MONEY OFF OF THIS?
The WaPo reports that Don Jr and Eric are invested in a dozen defense tech companies. I wonder if others in the family, the regime, and Congress are as well.
I always feel weird clicking "like" on a statement like this!! I DON"T like it, not one bit!! I bet there are others, not to mention all the companies that make the stuff we use to blow people up. That's one reason I'm supporting as many young Democrats as I can. I think they get it about what government is really supposed to do!
Think of all the money being made, it is not on just the obvious stuff like weaponry - packaging companies, companies that supply food rations and uniforms to troops. Think of all the peripheral stuff. Fuel etc to supply getting these troops from here to there. My imagination isn't awake enough this morning to give very good examples, but you get my point.
Think of all the negatives we don't usually think of. I have a friend trying to stay out of foreclosure and needs the sale of her home to go through. The buyer, a reservist, was called to action and had to move closing day up for the third time.
And the rich get richer!
You're right...and provided enough good examples to get the picture! Democrats have to get so much better at telling stories people will listen to and get!!!
We need to follow the money, identify contracts and all the parties involved, Musk! oligarchs, etc.
Journalists have been following this. There have been books out for years. Jane Mayer’s Dark Money and the Koch Brothers influence. Chris Hedges has been sounding a drumbeat along with Thom Hartman as well. Bill Moyers and Grace Lee Boggs and her husband to name a few others. We are on a rim or a cusp of something .
Heather said last night we are in a better place today than we were a year ago. She said she imagined we would be in a darker place than we are today. She based this on the fact more people are thinking about a future when this nightmare ends.
Yes I heard that. Thanks for bringing it up!
I agree!!
John Roberts? Others on the Supreme Court?
This narcissistic bully openly urges America to commit war crimes as a sign of cruelty and desperation both, since his private I-hate-the-black-guy war is turning to shit with each passing day. By acquiescence, Republicans have turned themselves into the party of war criminals, the party of pointless tariffs (reversed the next day), the party of attacking public healthcare, the party of private enrichment at public expense, the party of killing people to get their way, whether here or overseas.
Their entire motto should be: a day late, $100 billion short, but we demand you give us more, because those concentration camps aren't going to build themselves...
You reminded me,
"GERMAN CITIZENS IGNORED THE CAMPS. Will we ignore ICE abducting and imprisoning fellow humans WITHOUT due process?
We can stop these tragedies!! Make noise every day!!
Go to 5calls.org
Enter zip code.
Click on "Abolish ICE" from the list of issues.
You'll see a page with phone numbers for your senators/reps & a suggested script, or use your own words. Call every day! Thank you!
"Our American heritage is threatened as much by our own indifference as it is by the most unscrupulous office seeker." President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Please share if this calls to you!
I would like to wear a badge that reads: "I am a proud American, but do not support this administration"!
Every part of me instinctively rebels against the idea of deliberately causing human suffering. The way this administration talks about inflicting pain on civilians disgusts me.
That's why we have to make noise where it counts. Every day.
5Calls is great — also get the ResistBot app. They make it easy to send letters/emails to you electeds.
And don't forget our own Megan's spreadsheet. I wish I had the link handy. Someone must.
Read Judd Legum’s substack, “Oligarch Watch.” He recently chronicled the billions Jared Kushner is making in the Middle East with his dual role of son-in-law (proximity) and unofficial negotiator (and a terrible one at that).
The trumps is the answer Terry.
Yes it's one of the answers! Then, we can add all the companies that make all the equipment and bombs that we've already used.And that we need to reorder. I am a lifelong democrat. But one of my heroes is President Eisenhower, who warned us to beware the military industrial complex! I wonder if any of the big execs at those companies have kids in the service.......
My day is not generally done until I’ve taken in the HCR piece. They always slow me down before sleep by soothing the worry that I am losing my mind, that my thoughts about the day are off the deep end where nobody else goes. And then, by some sort of magic, there is confirmation that I am not nuts, that my thoughts have a logical basis. Tonight’s piece, for me, was among the best ever. As a youngster, before I’d given up on politics as something of interest, I had the remarkably good fortune to spend a little time with President Eisenhower and FEEL the power of good and honour. This speech about the horror of war was a theme he returned to repeatedly. He understood it like only can be understood by a man who has been in the thick of war and charged with making momentous decisions (cf the present potus). War, although it often seems inevitable,is failure on so many accounts. It is so very sad to see a powerful nation led by a man and a bully with no understanding of the wider implications of war. The deaths (on both sides, combatants and not)? The destruction? The horror experienced by so many, especially the children? The treasure wasted that could have been used for so many other things with lasting benefit? The trust destroyed? Has any of it been justified? Has this been a good or effective use of the $Bs that have been thrown at the Iran issue. The world had an effective solution in the JCPOA, destroyed years ago by the madman in the WH. Now he insists that the beatings will continue until the attitude improves. It never works. The resolution never holds. There will be retribution and pay-back. Pray for our children if it brings you hope.
FDR appointed Dwight D. Eisenhower to serve as the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II. After the final defeat of the Third Reich in 1945, the allied armies liberated numerous Nazi concentration camps throughout Europe. As the allies learned the full extent of the Holocaust, Eisenhower thought some people would not believe the atrocities or others could infer these Nazi crimes as propaganda (Holocaust denial) would be made, and took steps against it by demanding extensive photo and film documentation of the Nazi concentration/death camps.
Eisenhower had seen the death camps and the horrors of war, the devastation and complete destruction of some of the most ancient cities in Europe, the mutilated, maimed and innumerable dead soldiers and especially civilians caught in the crossfire and carpet bombings.
Trump and Hegseth have no clue or care about this, they are as incurious as they are sadistic and hubristic. The Trumpian regime must be stopped and brought to justice for their fascist criminality and disastrous agenda as the Nazis were finally defeated.
Any leader who declares war must lead the troops together with his children if they are old enough! I don't care if they have to do it from a bunker or a battleship, but they need to be with the troops they send to die!
Ike knew of what he spoke
Eisenhower also, bordering on demanding, requested and got a Congressional delegation to visit Ordruf, a labor( starvation) camp and a satellite camp of Buchenwald.
My father was involved in liberating one of those camps. It affected him profoundly. The only time I can recall having seen him cry was when I heard him (only once) recall that experience.
Thank you, John.
Truth beautifully stated.
Thing is, normal people are reluctant to go to war. trumpty-dumpty, however, is so deranged and such a malignant sociopathic narcissist than he doesn’t care one shit about other living beings. He even relishes in having others killed (worded like that very carefully, because he is too much of a coward to do the killing himself).
Well said John Spence. "There will be retribution and pay-back." I hope, pray, wish...
I have to wait til morning to read this bc it revs me up!
End ICE and Trump Miller concentration camps immediately to end another budgetary crisis that is also totally illegal!
As long as Eric and Don Jr are invested in a dozen defense tech companies, per the Washington Post, the war will continue to be another profitable source for the Trump crime family. War policy has nothing to do with international relations, nuclear weapons, or Hegseth's testosterone level.
This regime is about corruption - and it uses cruelty, bigotry, retribution, intimidation, secrecy, lawlessness, and anything else it can to accumulate wealth and power.
That and Trump and his toadies playing "tough guy".
Gee, who ever could have seen something like this coming?
Anyone who bothers to take the time to actually think.
How in the name of God can anyone want this man to continue to be president?
How can anyone in their right mind plan on voting Republican in the midterms?
WtF is wrong with 40% of American voters?
That 40 percent has quite literally been brainwashed. Read Al Gore's 2007 book "The Assault on Reason" (which he revised in 2017) to learn how long this assault on the minds of the American people has been going on. It's about 100 years!!!
Thanks for the reference, Steve. I have it tracked to an Americanized version of the formula Eric Hoffer laid out in 1951 in "The True Believer". Our current mess is down to Rush Limbaugh, Rupert Murdoch, and Elon Musk. My bucket list includes pissing on Limbaugh's grave.
That's a really good question - if answered honestly and fully. For example, since Reagan and Gingrich, the GOP has been filling local government seats in rural and working class areas of the country, areas that Dems have ignored until very recently because consultants told them they couldn't win. So those folks only heard GOP messages, Fox News, AM radio, right wing podcasters. GOP also got in bed with evangelicals and Christian Nationalists, corrupt leaders brainwashing their followers into believing, for example, that Trump was chosen by God to save America. Meanwhile, they slip in Project 2025 which according to AI "Roughly 53 percent of Project 2025’s domestic administrative policy agenda has been initiated or completed, including over 280 recommended executive actions, sweeping changes to federal workforce rules, and the dismantling of diversity programs."
That's why we have to do more than talk. We have to take action. Call Senators and Reps. Show up at protests. Write post cards. Help with voting. "Freedom isn't free!"
Interesting take indeed Terry! And frightening!
Indeed! That's why i'm working on the documentary about women leaving MAGA. And urging people to call their senators and representatives every day. It's easy if you go to 5calls.org. put in your zip code, select an issue, and you'll get names, phone numbers and is suggested.Script. we need to make noise!!!
Thank you Terry. Will do!
I am so happy to hear this! Please share if you feel so inclined!
Cult fever
Good question!
They don’t vote!
Oh but they do. Enough to get him elected. Although the latest push of the christian nationalists is for family voting, which means the mail head of household votes for the whole family. Christian nationalism is something we need to know about.And resist.
Presumably if Eisenhower was alive today he would be branded a "communist" by the nominal "Republican" party.
"...I was told by very senior people that the president is now fully aware that the only way to the victory that he wants is completely politically impossible."
I doubt the President is fully aware of anything other than how much lucre, crypto, gold and graft he can stuff into his own pockets. He is certainly not aware that his own unchecked, murderous, 2-year-old hissy fits cost anybody anything, since he's incapable of feeling other people's pain or accepting responsibility for his own behavior. The only reason he was at Joint Base Andrews to oversee a "dignified transfer" of American soldiers the other day was because his people had ordered him to. Cadet Bonespurs couldn't give two shits about anybody other than himself.
My wife and I have been traveling in Japan for almost 2 weeks. We have met several people from other countries (Japan, Australia, Canada, etc.) who cannot understand how the American people can tolerate a leader like Trump. I have no answer for them. We are told that the citizens of these other countries laugh out loud at him, and say things like "he does nothing but lie."
Hard to believe that our federal government has descended to such depravity.
Make no apology for a tsunami building up over the last almost 6 years
(Since the Jan 6/21 ‘dress rehearsal’ for this November) because the 4 years following the attempted ‘coup’ were spent in Trump-worshipping rallies promoting HIM; AMERIKKKA; SENDING WOMEN MAPS TO THE KITCHEN/NURSERY; and MAKING LYING THE ‘SMART’ MOVE.
You got what you paid for, so, please don’t profess such SURPRISE!
However, you have support from all the countries that recognized the big orange CLOWN long before he slithered back into your Parliament and set up his CIRCUS…to avoid Congress! 🤬
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
Take a lesson from some other thriving Democracies and IMPEACH THE HELL OUT OF TRUMP…MAKING IT SUCCEED THIS TIME!! 🥾
If one “IN GOD WE TRUST” from you went towards the ILLEGAL war against Iran, YOU have grounds to sue that litigious piece of crap grabbing Treasury money in between 😾😾😾.
6 years?
So the 4 years before that, when he was lying everyday in the White House, were fine?
Um…hope you are not a troll. 😬
From Day 1 in his first term he LIED and misled the public, but, as a Canadian I have noticed that you make quite the ‘hero’ of any POTUS, and the misogynists of America were JUST SO RELIEVED THAT HE WOULD NEVER BECOME ‘HYSTERICAL’ ONCE A MONTH….🤬
I wanted him GONE the FIRST WEEK when those two children died in ‘prison’ crying for their parents whom he had separated them from…so, the 6 years are from when he ‘dropped the act’ > that he was a human (Jan6/21) and gathered his ilk around him for 4 years of RALLIES to vilify the scapegoats they chose…oh big surprise: the POOR, POC, IMMIGRANTS, AND THOSE HE REFERS TO AS ‘DUMOCRATS’ THOUGH HIS IQ IS ON THE ‘Moron’ LINE. 🤥
MY perspective is one that allows me to see Mr. Trump not as a ‘President’ - the title he has besmerched - but as the GANGSTER apx half of the USA preferred to a woman…for the first time!
Check out “ANA Lovelace”(b.1815), and know that keeping women down is a HUGE mistake, but, one I see all over Trump’s regime. As a member of ‘Me Too’, it is my fondest wish that the Epstein evidence will finally expose (NPI) what a monster POTUS #47 WAS…IS…WILL ALWAYS BE.
Hope we understand each other now. 😔
🇨🇦🤝🇺🇸
I have never made a hero out of ANY president. Not even the ones I supported. And certainly not this one.
You said that the problem started "6 years ago"
Maybe that's just because you are Canadian (or possibly a bot) Because everyone in the United States, living through this nightmare, knows that this problem started at least 10 years ago not 6.
But we can solve this little problem with a block.
Have a nice day.
War money is a waste of resources and war is a waste of life and infrastructure. We are blowing up the arsenal of freedom on a recalcitrant enemy who has nothing to lose and can humiliate us with handheld drones. The President is a senile narcissistic idiot and the administration is out of control. Hegseth is a misogynistic racist who treats war as a video game and the military as a macho display item. Nuclear proliferation is out of containment and violating the most sensitive and volatile area of earth. Nuclear Saudi Arabia is a time bomb of itself. The war and nuclear proliferation need to be stopped. Contact your representatives and vote Blue.
Again, I say: There is no Republican party; there is only MAGA. Profiles in courage, none of them. Soon also, there will be no Democratic party. In its place, we will have assertive progressives that re-build this country based on compassion and caring for others; on a love of country, understanding of our history, and a clear-eyed vision for our shared future. The Supreme Court will be reformed, and corporations and their billionaires will cede their power to influence politics and the law as they have these past 50 years. May it be so.
What has happened to the America I prayed for, these past 80 years of war after war, squandering morality for profiteering off the dead our bombs have killed? Listen to the prophet Langston Hughes:
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Thanks for this. Many poets such as Mr Hughes have powerful words for our times.
Perspective while our nation is at war with Iran. This is our legislative body schedule…
The U.S. House of Representatives begins its annual “Month-long August Recess" on July 24, 2026. Lawmakers break for district work periods starting in August.
US House August Recess Period — July 23, 2026 – August 30, 2026.
Official Reconvening Date — Monday, August 31, 2026.
That’s a vacation of 38 full calendar days that The U.S. House of Representatives will be out on vacation.
Brief Late-Summer Session: House members will meet for a single week from August 31 through September 3, 2026.
For Labor Day & Rosh Hashanah Break: The House will be on vacation again for 5 additional days from September 7 through September 11, 2026.
The Senate goes on its upcoming August recess starting August 7, 2026, staying in session for about two weeks longer than the House.
Senate Recess — Departs August 7, 2026, and returns September 14, 2026.
Again, that’s a vacation of 38 full calendar days that The Senate will be out on vacation.
September Resumption — Congress returns to full legislative sessions in mid-September to rush a budget through before the September 30 government funding deadline. House returns September 11th and Senate September 14th.
In those 38 days — People losing homes, losing their farms, losing their health care, paying close to approximately $4.50 a gallon for regular gas. Diesel at minimum $5.50 or even higher. Groceries will increase, due to diesel fuel increase and lack of products being available due to transportation costs. Utilities will increase. School supplies will need to be purchased and will cost more. School clothes, shoes and all apparel to buy will be higher in cost.
Set aside that there are now two foodborne illnesses to contend with Cyclospora - no real clue what the source is and apparently Salmonella that has a recall of over 1.5 million dozen white and brown cage-free shell eggs produced in Texas.
How are any of these just few issues that the legislative body while out on vacation for 38 days making your life better? How are they assisting any of us in feeling safer? What about improving any of our lives? How many of us have a 38 day vacation?
BTW - The Pentagon’s official casualty tracking website suddenly lowered the reported U.S. troop death toll for the ongoing Iran war from 18 to 14. Removed are the “four service members” who died over the recent weekend (three in Jordan and one in northern Iraq). The regime is arguing these deaths should be categorized separately because they occurred after the Felon declared an initial ceasefire in April..
Thanks, TJ for highlighting the upcoming 38 day “legislative vacation” that ignores the crisis caused by our representatives who choose to abstain in the face of critical calls for honoring their oath to The United States Constitution. Elected officials were elected to make informed, often difficult, decisions for their constituents. Cowards abstain.
Interesting newsletter. The thought of a troop build-up to invade Iran is horrifying. Has Hegseth not learned anything from the war in Ukraine? The instant troops land on Iranian soil, they'll be attacked by Iranian drones with results similar to what the Russian troops experienced under Ukrainian drone attacks. There could be a dreadful slaughter of American troops. The costs of this war in blood and treasure are beginning to mount to an unacceptable level. It is perhaps time to forward President Eisenhower's speech to all Congressmen and Congresswomen as a reminder of how our tax dollars must be spent.
Hegseth learn–oxymoron.