The first thing those seeking unchecked power call “red tape” is usually the safeguards standing in their way. Historic preservation laws exist because our shared heritage belongs to the public—not to whichever president happens to occupy the White House.
The moment one person can decide which laws apply to them, the issue is no longer preservation. It’s power.
It's like the party-goers clapping each other on the back after a good time, and leaving the house littered with cups, spilled wine, and bags of garbage. A swath of destruction and abuse is not a legacy one would normally want to have, but here we have a gang that languishes in it.
A reminder that it was at Trump’s orders, or with his full, violent blessing, that a mob of lowlife goons and thugs broke into the Capitol to wave confederate battle flags, sport “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirts, smear their own feces on the walls of Congress and try to destroy 435 ballots in the Electoral College, or at least those with Joe Biden’s name on them.
This is what gets me. It’s not like the whole country wasn’t warned — literally, visibly, gutturally, ahead of time, well ahead of time. Yet tens of millions voted a second time for a swaggering phony preening in front of the cameras, shrieking that Haitians were eating Springfield’s cats and dogs.
People make a thousand excuses — about Biden, about Kamala Harris, about this, about that. It’s all bullshit. Millions chose insanity and cruelty on purpose in 2024. And now all of us are being forced to reap the terrible, logical results.
Hello ICTT... HCR today on MS-Now's Nicole Wallace's, 'The Best People' show stated, that DJT landed on the 'The Apprentice' Show, because DJT was available... At that point, DJT's Business Empire was collapsing... HCR stated that at DJT's Core, DJT is a Salesman that appeals to the Bottom 30% of the Electorate that still believes that Slavery is 'Job Training'...
A great point. Serves me right since I never watched that stupid program even once. Why people choose “entertainment” starring a rotten, phony conman I’ll never figure out.
Apache — I’ve long believed that our current POTUS appeals to people who feel like learning to be mature humans is just too difficult. He and his gang let them off the hook by telling them, “whatever you wanna do is fine! Don’t mind your mama trying to train you up right. Don’t bother trying to parse your relationships with women — just grab ‘em by the [kitty].” <off soapbox>
hate's the monster machine that needs venting, since energy is neither created nor destroyed...but it's gotta go SOMEwhere...which is why scapegoats have had a place throughout history...
soon enough, aGAIN, it will be the 'american commies' if the Trump ilk has its way...it's alREAdy begun...
They grew up with entertainment like fake wrestling, but they didn’t have the ability to understand that two things can be true at the same time., that they can enjoy something that’s fake, but emotionally they can’t handle the truth.
You should look up the late Wayne Barrett’s work on the current president as well as Spy magazine and Kurt Anderson who was involved with another man. Kurt wrote Empire of Evil and another tome
Kurt Andersen also wrote "Fantasyland: How American went Haywire: A 500 Year History" that was on The New York Times Bestseller list for weeks.
In it he says, "I have never hated a President before Trump", implying that he hates Trump.
He is friends with HCR and fun fact, he grew up in Omaha, and grew up across the street from Virginia Thomas, Clarence Thomas's wife. I'm guessing they weren't friends.
ICTT, I have written a number of times about my sister's attraction to that show (as liberal as they come and horribly embarrassed at her 30+ year old self for choosing to go and watch an episode of "The Apprentice" as our mother was in her last hour). I think that I was once exposed to about 10 minutes of it, and when I asked "why", no one watching could explain it in any manner that made sense even then.
On a broader level, I do not understand those contrived "reality" shows and why they are so attractive to people. I confess that I do like "The Great British Baking Show", mostly because the bakers are all so nice to each other (as well as learning a few things.)
There is a very distinctive difference between "The Great British Baking Show" and the reality competitions created by Mark Burnett: betrayal.
The Burnett shows all include some form of betrayal, usually formation of alliances to subvert the efforts of other competitors. Even "The Voice" enables the music-celebrity judges to "block" other judges and "steal" competitors.
The GBBS is not encumbered with that intrigue. If there are pre-ordained outcomes, I can't see them. When competitors struggle to meet the requirements, their failures are pretty obvious. As you note, genuine camaraderie and good sportsmanship prevail on that show.
I'm a big fan of that show. I don't see anything contrived about it.
The personalities of the hosts are a good mix - and Paul Hollywood seems to have turned down the heat on his grumpy ogre act recently. Prue Leith is a treasure.
And I've seen nothing but cordiality among the contestants, who are all treated well on and off camera. It looks like great fun!
Ally, it comes down to the message of the book, Merchants of Doubt and marketing and protecting of smoking…its marketing not hyper linked to so-called AI data we give when we click on the click-bait…yes Google is evil!😈
Never watched reality shows Real Housewives or the Duggars 19 children and counting with an alleged pedophile in the midst. Did you know there was one called Wife Swap? There was another show with this family whose main characters were arrested for something like fraud.
These shows all pander to the lowest intellectual denominator of the public. I suspect it all started with the "$64,000" question show that was proven to be a major fake. It's been all downhill since then. The dumbing of America happened at about that time when television was a nascent disrupter to the "normal" American household. We've since become lazier in intellect, lazier in our political discourse, lazier in the evaluation in who we send to congress, and now, the WH. Newton Minow, back in 1961, had the clearest vision of what this technology would fester. The pixels per inch that evaluates the clarity of any camera image or screen image cannot even compete with what Minow saw in 1961.
The one and only show like that I ever followed was the one on PBS back in the olden days, about the Loud family.
I looked upon it as more of sociological study than anything exploitative, though I understand there were some issues surrounding the making of it. For all of that, it was ground breaking TV for its time.
Right there with you. It totally defies all logic. And I am reeeeeeeeally really sick of all this. Bonnie M. gave a great analogy, even without mentioning all the puking.
reminds me of my father, whom i didn't really get along with...we would be driving back from Jersey some Sunday afternoon...bumper to bumper traffic...and he'd be saying for miles...'some accident up ahead...and people just HAVE to stop/slow down to have a look!' something he didn't do and i respected him for...
ICTT, I honestly don't get the entire "reality" show concept. I absolutely cannot stand the entire Kardashian crew. All of them. Their ascendancy into what appears to be billionaire status and prestige, imho, all started from the infamous sex tape launching the oldest one's "career".
I know they have their fans, whatever. I still recall my coworkers all laughing (behind her back) at another coworker who was relaying the story of "meeting" two or three of them. She lamented that she was in an airport in Cali and saw them waiting for luggage. (They were pretty famous then, but the two youngest were pre puberty then.) She approached and said "I LOVE your show!" and she said "they didn't even TALK to me! They IGNORED me!"
I recall someone saying, well, you know, they probably were busy, and so many people probably stop them, etc. etc. etc. My coworker (who wasn't a stupid woman!) actually seemed to think she had some sort of relationship with them! I think this is the cult behind Trump as well; his fans don't realize they are just a commodity to him.
Trump didn't build this, precisely for the reasons you're giving here.
He's merely the clown in chief of a neofascist GOP, led by neofascist billionaires and neofascist "Christian" nationalist ideologues.
The GOP base has been thoroughly brainwashed by its media, in coordination with the GOP, for more than two decades now. What appeals to them is whatever these media tell them to like. Without Fox Entertainment and the help of so many independent and ignorant "influencers", the US would never have been turned into a neofascist state right now.
Trump is there to distract us from that fact 24/7.
It’s ‘kayfabe’ all the way. trumpty-dumpty is still playing out his reality tv show in which he is the successful businessman who is “always winning”, but this time, the tech bro billionaires AND millions of American voters decided to hand him real power.
yeah, sure mike...keep believing that he, with the help of others, didn't cheat in that election to come out victorious...just the Musk bribes aLONE, much less some control of the voting machines...maar je bent niet in America opgegroeid...and i'm thinking there's a number of commenters who didn't hear about Trump's antics since the early 70s on the East coast...mostly New York and New Jersey...new yorkers, more or less, threw him out, more recently. the man will do whatever it takes to come out on top. so to speak.
wrong. do YOU have 30+ million followers for spewing bullshit? from some perspective, acting is lying. something Trump does non- stop. so tell me. where's the difference? and this, imo, goes for a LOT of other politicians, as well...BOTH sides of the line.
Apache, to amplify your reference to HCR's account, Mary L. Trump and others have described the circumstances surrounding Donald's appearance on "The Apprentice."
Evangelical British immigrant Mark Burnett is the father of the reality competition genre of television shows, which is only one reason to despise him. His first success was "Survivor." He created the vocal reality competition "The Voice," the elevator-pitch-based "Shark Tank," and numerous other so-called "reality" shows. In the early 2000s, he sought to create a job-applicant-based competition with only one "judge," a high-powered business tycoon. Burnett approached several corporate executives, all of whom declined because they were too busy actually managing their businesses.
Having failed to recruit the executives he wanted, Burnett approached Donald, offering him a multi-million dollar advance if he would join the production. Donald, on the verge of bankruptcy, jumped at the deal, figuring the advance would bail him out of bankruptcy, and publicize the Trump brand without having to spend his own money to do it. Unfortunately, he was right.
The Trump offices were so dumpy and run down, Burnett never shot a single frame of the show on location. He had to construct an "executive suite" set on a soundstage.
Here, it's important to note that reality shows are not reality at all. Every outcome is carefully planned by the producers, not the judge(s). Although participants are not given lines to speak, they are carefully coached on what they should say. Donald was so stupid, he couldn't remember even the simplest guidance on what he was to say in each scene where he appeared. In post-production, Donald's appearances had to be heavily cut and spliced together just to make his speeches make sense.
ICTT, I agree with your comment, but what I want to know is how did "we" become this way? Or have we always been this way, or at least a critical mass of us? Or has a putrid, slimy undercurrent risen to the surface, one that was always present from the days of conquest and extermination of the natives, the days of slavery and Jim Crow but has now become mainstream as the various Trumps and Musks and Millers and Hegseths bob by blowing putrid bubbles of ignorance and hatred, fouling everything they touch?
I will fly to the USA from my relatively safe home in Italy to lie down in front of the bulldozers if they actually manage to begin the defacement of beautiful Washington DC, my hometown. I hope a few million US citizens will join me.
The Bob Marshall Wilderness in western Montana was saved from bulldozers by the vision and courage of Cecil Garland, Lincoln, Montana, who owned and ran the general store. He put his body on the line for the wilderness where he used to track mountain lions and kill them until he realized it would better to take on the challenge of treeing them and then leave them alone.
People thought he would be so maligned for taking away potential mining and timber jobs that he would lose his store. Instead, people came from all over the state to shop at Garland's Town & Country. Congress created the Bob Marshall in 1964.
REVISION OF MY COMMENT HERE:
My husband let me know I should have been referring to the Scapegoat Wilderness which Congress created in 1972. The adjoining Bob Marshall was already in existence. Cecil Garland was responsible for Scapegoat not the "Bob." Point still taken, I hope you all agree.
There was a great PBS show about this probably back in the 70's or 80's. I could never remember the details. Thanks for reminding me that it was about the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Basically the story was people were angry that the land was being protected, ten years later they were saying it was the best thing that ever happened to the area.
Dave, I've already made this exact statement that I am about to copy and paste as a possible answer to your question. "These shows all pander to the lowest intellectual denominator of the public. I suspect it all started with the "$64,000" question show that was proven to be a major fake. It's been all downhill since then. The dumbing of America happened at about that time when television was a nascent disrupter to the "normal" American household. We've since become lazier in intellect, lazier in our political discourse, lazier in the evaluation in who we send to congress, and now, the WH. Newton Minow, back in 1961, had the clearest vision of what this technology would fester. The pixels per inch that evaluates the clarity of any camera image or screen image cannot even compete with what Minow saw in 1961." Please forgive the double entry.
There is one thing and one thing only that matters to Trump and Crew: his and his family's enrichment. Further, United States history is fully rewritable to present white men as the only good reason this country exists, with Trump at the top as dictator. Did I mention he is also God on Earth. If something gets in the way of that presentation and the FACT of Trump's rulership, it will be gotten rid of. If anything gets in the way of resource extraction that benefits Trump and crew, it will be gotten rid of. If you like living in a country that Trump and crew have redesigned to enrich themselves and their friends, you are in luck. If you don't, Trump and crew consider that our problem. Here are the groups working with Trump and crew: all Republicans in this Congress and the State houses, the six so called justices of the US Supreme Court, most of the media, most industrialists, all MAGA. We have two countries. This business with Trump simply proves it. Sure, this is all in Trump and crew's minds. Sure, they intend to make that real and are making that real. Who will get in their way?
When you mention about how trump and his kids are making billions, what of Hunter Biden and Joe Biden. Did they make billions while in office? It's interesting how the trump brothers are all stocked up in companies which our military uses. The longer the war-and it is a war not just semantics-the more money they make.
Go ahead and ask google AI this query: did biden and his son hunter make billions while in office. This is its response: No, Joe Biden and his son Hunter did not make billions of dollars while in office. Congressional investigations and financial analyses found that the broader Biden family and their business associates brought in roughly $20 million to $24 million total from foreign sources over several years, with Joe Biden himself receiving no direct payments or bribes from these foreign business activities.Foreign Business IncomesTotal Amounts: Investigations by the House Oversight Committee identified about $24 million in total payments from foreign entities (including from countries like China, Ukraine, and Romania) between 2014 and 2019.Family vs. Partners: Out of that total, approximately $15 million went to members of the extended Biden family—the vast majority going directly to Hunter Biden for consulting and board work—while the rest went to business partners.Post-Office EarningsBook and Speaking Deals: Joe Biden significantly increased his personal wealth only after leaving the vice presidency in 2017.Millions Earned: Between 2017 and 2019, Joe and Jill Biden earned over $15 million through book contracts and paid speaking engagements, but this occurred entirely while he was a private citizen, not while he was in public office.
As another commenter notes, war is very lucrative to those who so desire it. Go ahead and query google AI: How lucrative is war to the Trumps?
This is its response: War has become deeply lucrative for the broader Trump circle, driven by family business expansions into defense technology, lucrative Middle Eastern private equity investments tied to administration diplomacy, and an unprecedented overall surge in presidential wealth and real estate revenues.Family Business and Defense TiesDrone and Weapons Ventures: Trump’s older sons expanded business interests into drone and defense technology companies that secured military and Air Force contracts as regional conflicts escalated.Private Equity and Foreign Deals: In-law Jared Kushner’s private equity firm raised billions from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds—including Saudi Arabia—while acting as a regional envoy, merging diplomatic engagement with private financial gain.Institutional and Presidential WindfallsDirect Official Profiting: Ethics experts note that the current administration has broken traditional financial boundaries, generating billions through a mix of crypto ventures, foreign licensing, and heightened patronage at properties like Mar-a-Lago.State and Defense Connections: Appointed defense and policy officials with historical ties to major private equity or contracting firms (such as Cerberus and Lockheed-linked circles) have overseen massive military supplemental budgets, intertwining public wartime expenditures with private sector beneficiaries.
Certainly the evidence supplied by Dr. Cox Richardson and others in the time since Trump re-entered the White House supports what google AI information also supplies in terms of how much money Trump and crew have made in not even two years. This is certainly through war, but also bribes of all kinds and crypto.
When the right-wingers in power refuse to recognize the outcome of the upcoming elections, we will see how far they are willing to go to force the country to submit to their fascist rule.
Trump destroys or kills everything he touches! He has already destroyed the Rose garden, the south lawn, and the Reflecting pool. He demolished the East wing of OUR White House and couldn’t stop showing renderings of what the “new” east wing would look like. He is like a 4 year old ( no offense to 4 year olds) that has to show everyone his new pretty picture. Isn’t there anyone who can get him to look at those ballroom drawings again? JFC, even that project is still in shambles!
as someone else already pointed out above...all distractions while the country is being gutted for profits by companies. AND, of course, from the Epstein files. hardly mentioned any more.
you're right. millions did vote for him. the mentality of those millions has ALways been part of humanity as a whole. so the only thing that REALly put Trump over the top in the second(and prob first, as well) election is cheating. isn't that what he's been doing lately with his 'end arounds', re: laws? isn't it what he's done for over a half a century in his business dealings?
What really troubles me is really nice people I know, and now hate to spend time with, are still all in with this snake oil salesman. This one man in particular, a hard working, generous vet is still all in.
About the Iran war all he can say is 'well we don't want them to have nukes.' He is still getting great VA benefits and services. He fills his diesel truck up with fuel at his job for free. He doesn't mind paying more for groceries and utilities. Makes me feel sunk.
A message to the 80+ million voters that stayed home on Election Day 2024 & all the 3x trump voters… FAFO. Your legacy of indifference &/or ignorance will be passed onto future generations.
History tells us not to vote for these asses, history tells us to hold people to account. Do we teach enuf history about authoritarianism, despots. Do we hold people to account. No. IMO it started with Ford pardoning Nixon. The GOP learned then that they can get away with crimes.
I'm glad I did all my exploring of Utah, Arizona canyons, indigenous lands and their culture before trump takes a wrecking ball to these sacred places.
Well, not all of us have, and the public should be able to explore these places in decades (if not centuries) to come. These lands belong to all of us... they are protected by law, even if that *#% doesn't follow the law.
A "swath of destruction & abuse is not a legacy .... No it is not. But, that destruction can be enjoined in court to stop "irreparable harm" especially the legal actions coordinated with state Attorney Generals across this nation highlighted by the AG's of AZ, CA, Colorado, Oregon & the state of Washington.
Example: Per Courthouse News & other Rule-of-Law Platforms, "the appellate case handling the defense and maintenance of the multi-state injunction involving U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani's rulings against the Trump administration's actions is New York v. Trump, Docket No. 25-1236 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit."
"Case Name: New York v. Trump aka or State of New York, et al. v. Donald Trump, et al. Appellate Docket Number: No. 25-1236, First Circuit."
Note, the Lower Court Case Reference:
"District of Massachusetts & District of Rhode Island, associated with multi-state challenges against executive actions, executive policy breaches & federal funding freezes."
Professor Richardson identified the experts who can detail the wrongful conduct.
Thanks, Counsellor! I'd say "Soak, Wash, Rinse & repeat" here, like I am doing with the terrycloth towels I wrapped my brisket in yesterday. While I love brisket, I do not like how the towels or cooler smell after I've rested the brisket. I think I'm gonna go for lemon-scented bleach next.
Heads Up Ally. we have a new front "Fusion Centers". My book by Brendan McQuade. 'Pacifying The Homeland' arrives today 7/26/26'
Brendan Blurb:
"The United States has poured over a billion dollars into a network of interagency intelligence centers called “fusion centers.” These centers were ostensibly set up to prevent terrorism, but politicians, the press, and policy advocates have criticized them for failing on this account."
"So why do these security systems persist? Brendan McQuades "Pacifying the Homeland" Brendan McQuade travels inside the secret world of intelligence fusion, looks beyond the [original Mission] the failure of fusion centers, and reveals a broader shift away from mass incarceration and toward a more surveillance- and police-intensive system of social regulation."
Fortunately this update has a former target target who is now a braver heroine APRIL WALKER who has laid it all out in pleadings in Southern California District Court filed on Friday, 7/24/26.
See, BRITTNY MEIJIA's article in L.A Times reprinted the San Diego Union on the front page right column for context & news.
"Nature of the Suit: A 55-page civil rights and privacy complaint alleging that federal agents used facial recognition and license plate readers to unlawfully surveil peaceful protesters and retaliated by revoking their Global Entry privileges."
APRIL knows how to fight back; her 'Global Entry' privileges have already been restored.
Good point, Bryan, and if they can drag out these cases for as long as possible, as trump did with his criminal trials, it may out last trumps presidency.
But if they get fast tracted to the Supreme Court, odds are this Court will give trump everything he wants.
If there ever was a time to say: "there goes the neighborhood", this is it. However, we can't afford to say it, much less watch it. To start, we need to flood the congress with letters and see it through. This moron has to go!
These are people drunk on power, and whose esthetic and moral senses are dulled or absent entirely. Their taste is so appallingly bad that they do not have the ability to recognize how bad it is.
At this point their rampage is simply to destroy any place, plan or institution that they think the “libs” treasure.
Our national parks and historic public structures are valued by the majority of the American public, not only "the libs." And contrary to what T has said in the past, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is hardly a "radical" organization.
The "point" of all that tRump does is to weaken and make a mockery of America. Too many citizens gave t and partygoers a permission slip and blank check. We are living in tragic times.
Trump made his intentions to sell off public lands and grazing, mineral and oil rights crystal clear one month into 2.0 with an executive order.
Below is a link to a post I wrote back then. The ramp up in the news with reducing the size of Bears Ears National Monument recently is part of the same stampede as the Chaco Canyon initiative. It is a mad rush to sell off the rights and properties to his cronies before a new Congress is seated. I am sure there are gifts to his library and sweet deals for Don Jr., Eric and Barron to be grifted by that deadline as the payoff.
Hello Georgia... It seems that DJT considers the Public's Property, DJT's Property.... Have you seen Pictures of the Oval Office lately?... Draping the RFK Justice Dept Building with Hangings of DJT Image cost ~$1,000,000... Mary Trump speculates that the bottom of the Reflecting was ruined when DJT had his Motorcade drive across it while the Liner was still curing... DJT is a Vandal, and a Thief... Chaco Canyon was here long before any Trump, and will Outlast any Trump...
I saw video footage of the Oval Office on MSNOW last night. It is beyond garish. Lots of that fake gold stuff (the plastic decorations from Home Depot sprayed with fake gold paint), plastic airplane models (next to busts of who knows who), big garish mirrors (word is he likes to see his own image and preens a lot), every open wall space covered.
In the same way he thinks he's so clever when he gives someone an insulting nickname, he's convinced he's the arbiter of good taste - when in fact everything he touches or creates is tacky and gaudy and looks cheap and nasty. Master of self-delusion.
I wonder if his FIFA Peace prize is sitting there next to the real one which was graciously given to trump? How about the gold scissors from the last ribbon cutting ceremony?
Wasn't that the style in the Louis XIV era? With the alleged words of Marie Antoinette: "Let them eat cake" in my thoughts, doesn't that reflect the trump attitude?
The incompetent contractor that applied the blue material in the reflecting pool ignored several of the directions for application. This article from the Scientific American was published before a better analysis was done, but the bottom line is the contractor didn't read the instructions on the can. For instance, you should never overlap the dry material with wet material. So the entire application should have been done all at once, instead of over several days, plus the entire pool should have been scrubbed and dry before application. But what should we expect for only $14 million? /s
And then have the same guy fix it. Makes me wonder if it is going to be any better. I realize that algae have been a problem on occasion, but has there ever been dead ducklings before?
GJ, I visited Versailles earlier this month and was awed by its Grand Canal built in the 1600s, over a period of 11 years, and the structure is more than 1600 meters long.
It is spectacular!
The end basin, Le Char d’Apollon, has no fountain within it. The water is still, clear, blue, beautiful!!!
We were told by the guide that the reason there is NO algae is that they use a certain family of trout!
I just read your link. OMG! DOGE was worse than I thought. I do understand that oil people are not flocking droves to buy drilling lands in Alaska. The trouble is that it only takes one or two to create the damage.
he started it in trump 1.0! This Canadian was fighting the reduction in size of Bears Ears then, writing,donating to SUWA.
This has to fought in court til that fker and the GOP are gone. Glad I had the chance to do all my exploring, education if canyons, Indigenous cultural heritage when I had the chance. Still will help fight from Canada.
Georgia, to quote Steve Bannon, the Trump regime is "flooding the zone with shit." HCR has described their end run around protections of public lands and historic landmarks, but that is just one of many attacks going unnoticed.
Catherine Rampell of The Bulwark just reported on an ominous rule change regarding the census proposed by Donald's henchmen. Her original is largely behind a paywall, but she guest-posted it on Brian Tyler Cohen's Substack.
Thanks for the link. There is a huge amount of damage that gets hidden in changes to administrative rules. Rampell is right: if Trump is planning to not count “persons” who are undocumented immigrants or immigrants on temporary visas in the 2030 census, then that will reduce the number of seats in the House and the Electoral College for states with a large number of immigrants, and cut federal funds for government services. Blue states will be the losers.
This is a little time bomb the regime is trying to plant to ensure that if a member of the regime wins the presidency in 2028, they will tilt the playing field in their favor for another 4-year term starting in 2032.
After the public comment period closes, the agency reviews and analyzes the comments, then decides whether to adopt the rule as proposed, revise it, reopen or extend comment, or abandon it. If the agency moves forward, it publishes a final rule that explains the decision and responds to significant comments, and the rule later takes effect on the date stated in that final rule. Note that there is no oversight over how the agency responds to the public comments other than to have to give an explanation of why they are responding the way they are.
The problem or benefit is that administrative rules can be changed when the administration changes. Biden undid Trump’s first rule change on civil service terminations on his first day in office. Now Trump has put it back.
"Trump's Life Matters" and that is all that matters to Trump.
"MATTER" in Trump's case is "Minimise Attention To Trump Epstein Relationship."
Trump wants the kind of immortality reserved for Einstein, Edison or JFK ....that of a lifetime of achievement, not the life of debauchery of Epstein, Leo, or Musk, or the instantaneous immortality of an Oswald or Booth.
He does not care about anyone but himself. never has.
As his own mortality fritters away, he is grasping at loopholes, loyalty, and lawlessness to imprint his despicable will on each of us thru soiling the sheets of common decency.
He should clad his own DC Hotel made of natural granite, bordello gold if he wants an monument dedicated to himself...except that would cost HIM money.
Everything he does is his personal monument to failure..his lifetime of failures, a life time of lies. Anti achievement.
DC hotel is mostly furnished with imported things right down to the body butter (???) and soaps from Canada. bathroom faucets, chandeliers, etc. A reporter booked a room for one night. Found a trash can and a clock made in America. The gift stores are overpriced things with his brand on it which are mostly imported-some of which is from China. I thought we weren't supposed to be dealing with them.
"The moment one person can decide which laws apply to them, the issue is no longer preservation. It’s power."
It is always about power. It is not one person but the entire right wing apparatus and Republican electorate. And it took more than a moment since the Powell Memorandum and the Republican Southern Strategy.
It is The Federalist Society notion of investing the tripartite power of government in a unitary executive. And The Heritage Foundation privileging one segment of the population through their white supremacist Christian extremist Project 2025.
One people, one nation, one leader.
We've heard that before. And from the Allied Forces defeating Hitler and Nazism to a coalition of Hungarian voters defeating Orban and Orbanism - it takes building alliances for strategic joint exercises in taking power and restoring democratic government.
Donald Trump still wants to paint the massive gray Eisenhower Executive Office Building white. That is not redecorating. That is what a man does when he has no plans to move out.
Most presidents understand that the White House is temporary housing. You serve your term, leave a few scratches on the furniture, pardon some friends, write a memoir nobody finishes, and hand over the keys. Trump appears to be treating Washington like a family property he plans to leave to the children.
Painting historic granite white is not just bad taste. It is territorial marking. Cats spray the sofa. Dictators build arches. Trump calls a contractor and asks whether democracy comes in eggshell or high-gloss.
Experts say the paint could permanently damage the stone and create a maintenance nightmare for taxpayers. Apparently, that is not a problem. Experts are people who know things, and knowing things has become dangerously close to disloyalty in the Trump regime.
The more serious part is the effort to weaken historic-preservation rules and shut the public out of decisions about national landmarks. Let us be honest. That is not efficiency. That is changing the locks while the country is at work.
Then there is Trump’s proposed triumphal arch. Normal presidents build libraries after leaving office. Trump wants his imperial gateway installed while he is still measuring the curtains. Nothing says peaceful transfer of power like a giant monument to yourself planted between Lincoln and Arlington Cemetery.
We should stop treating this as harmless vanity. The regime is repainting buildings, bulldozing safeguards, packing boards, silencing public review, and reshaping the capital in its own image.
This is not home improvement.
It is a landlord announcing that the lease has been canceled, the security deposit is gone, and the tenants may now address him as Your Excellency.
Obviously, a neofascist GOP disagrees with that. This is not about ONE PERSON. It's about the EXECUTIVE BRANCH of government deciding everything.
And Trump didn't invent this. Changing the NHPA is part of Project 2025, the detailed roadmap to install neofascism in the US.
Trump didn't write Project 2025. It's the Project 2025 architects who, after having written it together with Hungarian neofascist Orban's Danube Institute, are now ordering their lawyers to come up with one modification of the law after the other in the direction of an all-powerful executive branch.
As Kamala Harris showed so masterfully during the one and only "presidential" debate, Trump is highly manipulable.
To understand what is going on right now, we need to focus on Project 2025 and the people behind the scenes, inside the executive branch, who ARE in command and order Trump what to do next - just like The Apprentice's producers told him whom to fire when.
"Then there is Trump’s proposed triumphal arch. Normal presidents build libraries after leaving office. Trump wants his imperial gateway installed while he is still measuring the curtains. Nothing says peaceful transfer of power like a giant monument to yourself planted between Lincoln and Arlington Cemetery."
And of course today's Republicans are against all Lincoln stood for. And no Trump can be buried at Arlington. Refusing military service is a family tradition: grandfather Trump came to the US as a draft dodger and was barred from returning to German. Fred Trump was a WW2 war profiteer on government contracts. Despite playing dress up soldier at boarding school, Don dodged the draft with bone spurs. Now his gun toting progeny go on safari - and are war profiteering on contracts with Hegseth's DOD.
Kelli, Trump said it directly: "I am president of the United States and I can do whatever I want." Laws? Trump doesn't care about laws. As president, Trump wants to remake America in his image. And yes, he has exquisite taste. Gold leaf. Arches. Reflecting pools. A ballroom. All reimagined by the man with the best taste in America—a man who thinks gold-plated everything screams elegance. He's defacing the White House with his personal aesthetic because the White House wasn't tacky enough. He's minting coins with his face on them because humility is for other presidents. He's renaming buildings after himself because democracy is just a backdrop for his brand. This is what happens when a narcissist gains absolute power: America becomes a Trump property. And Trump properties all look the same—gaudy, gold-leafed, and utterly devoid of restraint. He's not governing a country. He's redecorating it. That's not leadership. That's pathology.
Harvey, I think that’s exactly what makes this moment different. It isn’t just about one building or one project—it’s the repeated blurring of the line between what belongs to the public and what one person treats as personal property. I wrote about that pattern a few months ago if you’re interested: https://wehavefriendseverywhere.substack.com/p/the-peoples-house-is-not-his-house
The president fancies himself as a great builder and developer with impeccable taste. Now the entire US is a giant victim for his notion of (self-reflecting) grandiosity.
He wasn’t elected to redesign building. He was elected to govern. He’s not doing that either.
All while a war he began trudged on, with no imminent end.
What we have in Trump is "a bull in a China shop." The wreckage from this regime will take decades to repair, if ever. I receive emails, texts and correspondence from candidates who criticize Trump. That is happening here in Florida, which is a red state. That is a HUGE mistake. Those supporting Trump are in a cult and cannot tolerate even the least amount of criticism of Trump personally. But, they will listen to candidates who promise to improve their miserable financial condition. "It's the economy, Stupid." Bill Clinton, 1992. I am dumbfounded that there are campaign managers and candidates who don't understand this simple fact. The DNC is failing its responsibilities miserably in not bringing in sales experts to advise on how to make a sale, i.e., to get the voters' attention and to get their votes.
Public landmarks belong to the people. It is individual persons who have each offered themselves to preserve freedoms, not only for the United States of America but also for our friends in other countries.
The lack of character within this President and within each person who is using him to do their own bidding, to enrich themselves, to change the direction of our country from ""of the people, for the people, by the people"...to "by me, for me!" is disgusting and shameful!!!
I would like to ask each one, how long will you live on this earth? What are the values you are destroying to experience personal wealth and power? There will be infighting for powers of position because none of you care for the future, none of you care for the poor and crippled.
God, the triune God who "loved me to Himself" with tenderness and compassion and who guides me each day (as I listen to Him) makes Himself available to all. He allows choices for which I am grateful, He forgives when I proceed with actions I CHOOSE WITHOUT REGARD OR RESPECT FOR HIS WISDOM. He also forgives me when I face my wrong choices and ADMIT them!
We must not ignore the actions of this person sitting in the Presidency of the United States of America...as well as those who are enriching themselves by supporting him, our country, our freedoms, "the best of each of us" is at stake!
There are those who hold that if there really was a personal transcendental God we wouldn't have the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Trump. Why even permit these people to exist if one is all-knowing, all-powerful?
This administration, if you want to still call it that, is no better than Afghanistan’s Taliban. They destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan and were never punished!
Yes ‘safeguards’ guidelines, guardrails are all inconvenient for the stupidity to rein in the💩!
We also see this the love of so-called deregulation…the removal of laws that might limit the profits of a few to the detriment of us all…the deregulation panic was so Ronald Reagan as an excuse to rape and pillage…what he did to California he did the America!
And yet we still hear some of this…I like that Pete Buttigieg is having conversations about big ideas for radical changes and the conversation must include creating level playing fields for wealth and wages, and the true costs of laws…cutting food aid hurt framers and killed perhaps hundreds of thousand children. And accomplished what?
Lack of universal health care costs us a lot in waste, fraud and abuse, as well and the even greater costs of poor health and death. We pay more and get less…this is the outcomes of the GOP!
Tax breaks for the richest!? This is fucking nuts! Unless you are the yacht builder I guess…
Reagan again…so much comes back to him…not really a conservative was he?
We need real conservatives, not ideological idiots! I’m a conservative in many, many ways…read the Mother tree book and then become a real conservative.
as if most politicians are there for 'the good of the people'? right. the most obvious difference to me between most of the 'serving' republicans and democrats is who jumps through the corporate hoops the quickest.
I think you mean lazy Americans who didn't vote in the 2024 election because - Gaza! - and MAGA fools who did vote. The Dems are neither cowardly nor appeasers - they are in the MINORITY thanks to the VOTERS.
and big companies/the rich have dictated law/policy since before 'America' existed. invasion after invasion...boatload of africans after boatload...and more etcs than i'd care to list. this pertains to all empires.
the Hebrews in Egypt. cheap labor. and i'm sure it goes back further than that...can be found amongst animal and insect species...the dominant and subdominant. politicians are, mostly, just 'front men'. while the band plays on.
I agree. I bet they have all kinds of dirt on many GOP. They should be threatening to use it to expose them if they don't impeach, if they don't force the release of the Epstein files, if they allow this idiot to continue to destroy lives, natural environment. They are complicit by not being forceful. Or do they stay silent to protect the oligarchal system to survive for when they're back in power?
My friends, I once called for the once good generals to enact a military coup in order to stop a 100% destructive maniac Antichrist from hell from entering office and I was universally criticized here for that memorandum. Y’all told me this would end the non intervention history of our military. You told me it would destroy the Constitution. My friends, ye who continues to hath such notions, please come forward an explain to my Truth and Integrity Commission.
I’m sorry if I’m an agitator this morning. But that’s me. It got me kicked out of the Catholic grade school mama sent me to in another century. An I remain an agitator.
I messaged him privately sometime back, asking in as delicate a fashion as I could muster if he had a way of letting this community know if his expiration date had arrived, and he told me there was.
Exactly. I think his feeling was that it would blow over. No not a good response. Bad people must be taken out of they will comeback to do real damage as what is happening now. Plus, when he was shot, I knew that if he won, he would revenge the world for that injury. He is now doing just that.
In hindsight, those guys and an almost legitimate beef. Federal agents surrounded the Waco, Texas religious settlement and wrecked havoc. They could have waited for the leader to walk down the street instead of sending arms to blow up everything. Same with Ruby Ridge. While I was never pro gun ownership, how dare the feds come attacking a rural settlement as they did. So I have some pause here even if those guys were the runner up to the present day extreme mega movement.
I grew up with military juntas overthrowing Autocrats or duly elected officials right and left in South and Central America. It was like a rite of spring or something. I used to wonder what the people of those countries thought when they woke up to a new regime not of their choosing. Some general would assume sole power and be worse than the person he deposed. Don’t even breathe that here ! Not with this military after Hegseth’s drunken purges .
Bill Katz, at 92, wish I’d seen your column. I have been thinking military coup since January 6. Before that hoped impeachment. My first thought in 2016 was to throw every Republican who refused to recognize Biden’s election OUT OF CONGRESS! If we’d done that we might not be in this disaster.
Most important: a month after the election of 2216 I heard a major economist say: “We may be doomed. Resist!” Child of WWII, I have with GOTV postcards and Indivisible.
I am nursing a pain of my own. My contribution is writing a book and songs. I sufficiently impressed the regional No Kings organizer to put me in the line up for two songs at a major concert this fall. I was going to be in company of national acts. Then he and I got into a dumb fuss bug and the guy dropped me. It’s a big disappointment because my songs are what and all I can do to help. Life goes on. I’m seeking other possibilities.
I think we need another George Washington, not yet another dictator-type and it may have been possible before the hegseth purge. As a former military officer, all the officers I know took their oath to the constitution very seriously.
It’s disheartening. Thank you for serving and this being said by a guy who hs always protested American wars and I knew I would have immigrated to Canada or Sweden if my draft number had been low enough. Fortunately it was super high that year during the Nixon lotto.
Joan, at best it was an imperfect option. I have known how evil Trump is from way back. I think I have a 6th sense to be able to see evil in people and I saw this person as pure evil. I recall hiring an artist designer in late 1980s or early 1990s and Trump came to my town of Hartford wanting to build a casino. My artist acquaintance met him and she told me she thought he was very creative and intelligent. I remember my response for all time”. “You gotta be kidding.” Well, that quote is of course in the intro to my book. I don’t know if we are going to make it. Trump will attempt anything he can including a fake flag he will force people to riot in the streets just so he can call out the military and suspend the midterms. I’m sorry, I would have opted for the once good generals instead.
Haha! I got kicked out of Catholic religious instructions for asking why non-Catholics or other people who never heard of Jesus would not be allowed in heaven - the nuns literally (and I mean literally) dragged me by my collar and physically threw me out the door. Like you, I have also said from the get-go that this will have to end in violence - either a civil war or a world war where the fascists lose. And I, too, having been a military officer myself (very old now!) wonder where the generals are that could take over since we unarmed civilians are at a great disadvantage against a heavily armed fascist militia.
The last teacher I had, Sister Anthony Mary, after I showed her photos of my mod and hippie pals in 1967 (of course the girls were wearing micro mini skirts and looking like delicious sluts…), she told me I wouldn’t amount too much. In a way her prediction was correct. If I could, I would go back in time and give her a big hug for being devoted to educating us kids. I abused that opportunity. But fittingly, I use my experiences in my stand up today. I once told a sister this story. In 4th grade, the lay teacher put me under her desk for talking in class. Then she put her chair back in place and continued teaching only now I was under her desk looking up at her fat thighs opening and closing. This part of my story happened. Then I go off and hypothesize what she may do if I reached up and touched IT. Scream? Or pretend nothing happened and this would make me want to touch it some more . Or the 3rd option was she would call the principal Father Emerling and tell him, “Billy Katz just touched it. What should I do?” Father might hve said, “How did that happen?” And she would explain how she put me under her desk for talking in class to which Father would pause then exclaim, “Mrs Henigan, you Sind little Billy Katz right down to my office so I can put him under my desk.”
After I told this to a Sister of Mercy, I thought she would be understanding of molestation taking place in the church but not so and she turned to me and said, “That’s not funny.”
Russell Vought is using the strategy outlined in Project 2025 to use executive orders, and then implementing them via changes in federal regulations to achieve these objectives. That way the changes do not require congressional approval, or at least that is the plan.
The same strategy is being used to give Trump more power to fill nonpartisan civil service management, supervisory, and policy making positions with political appointees by moving them to a new "Career" track with fewer civil service employment protections, so they become "at will" employees. There SCOTUS has already weighed in on the related matter of expanding Trump's ability to remove members of non-partisan boards (higher level appointments) without cause.
The changes to the national monuments boundaries can be contested in the federal courts but ultimately this is also an argument about the unitary executive theory and will depend on the circuits which have jurisdiction and how they rule, and whether SCOTUS would grant cert. It is about pushing boundaries of presidential power.
Georgia...Or could we say it is about pushing the boundaries of authoritarian power under the guise of "presidential" power... We must get to the Nov. elections...come Hell or high water....
And this is exactly why there won’t be any elections anymore. trumpty will declare a national emergency, have the elections cancelled and the Extreme Court will sign it all off, 6:3 as always. I swear, if you want to get rid of his ugly orange ass, you’ll have to drag him kicking and screaming out of that White House.
It is most of human civilization acts of taking over lands and people. The
Romans did this and not just in the area of the there is a more proper name but I will use Hebrew and Christian biblical lands. So the Picts in Britain with the Celts around in several areas taken over by Rome then the Romans left. See St Bede and his works and St Augustine of Canterbury also the author Rosemary Sutcliffe children’s books. Then the Anglo Saxon with their Germanic influences who then were taken over by the Norman’s and William the Conquer . He then colonized internally with grabs of this and that. Then after King Henry the Eight Church dissolution lands were given to high ranking folks not the people. Hence the importance of the Magna Carter. However land abd underground land rights a bevy of problems for just folks because of the concept of empire and or colonization. Our country founded on not countries but corporations and countries and sometimes church. So oppression is us though the indigenous folk from all over time and place less so but yes land still was an issue. We as a human civilization might need this crisis or line of crisis points in order to change and really change from our past efforts of grab and control lands and people.
Oh my thought that some sort of change or collapse would be part of in the very long long view a good versus bad? Not included in my thumbnail sketch of Britain are the conquering Vikings who left tracts of themselves in the people and the cities of Ireland. Human events change everything at times but there impressions remain and in random scatters. In York Minster there is down below a near Roman archeological location. So I am thinking that our country has or will reach a breaking point and what comes next is as much I
Portage as how the shift falls out . Corporations have created with the help of several systems that have created private equity worse than King Pellinore’s Questing Beast along with cracks and holes so that our country is now like a potholed brick street that needs major renovation along with the homes that are interspersed with condos and stores and auto places parking lots. Underground mineral rights legal cases from the early 1900’s and fossil fuels created issues. And many attempts to change like the New Deal frame broken just when the beginnings of racial equality were finally being addressed. See the life of Mary M. Bethune. And just a rolling stone of things no one wanted to acknowledge see, hear, much less talk about. But we are and the collapse of the CDC under RFK Jr completes issues that have been smoldering for years in science. Sabin and Salk revived no profit from the injectable or oral vaccine now too much science is profit driven rather than research inquiry driven which is a tragedy because science saves life’s and improves lives. So this is a time of reckoning and readjustment and one hopes that the changes that have been needed like in the political systems and structure will take place and the earth itself be part of an entire movement . U N and ICC have been working as land as a legal entity and rivers but the US is still not part of ICC abd not signed vital UN declarations. It’s like having a tree fall on your not really liked garage abd getting to because no other choice create a better garage. You know add a side screened porch or put in a window or a door.
That, or I should say they, meaning Vought, Miller, Ellison and the rest of the billionaire boys are the problem. Trump is their tool.
We need to elect these young, so called radical candidates who have the passion and the drive to right the ship and to overrule the old fuddy duddies in the Democratic Party who have stood around and let this happen.
The Heritage Foundation and all these Libertarian assholes need to be reined in sharply and very quickly. Time to ENFORCE the anti trust laws and enact the banking laws that should have been written after the 2008 crisis.
Carol Laborde, just what I was wondering. Naturally, the orange smear is forever trying to divert our attention as his war fails, Epstein files lurk, and apparently he’s losing some of his fervent followers to rising cost of living plus and esp his war.
HCR is beyond stalwart having to inform us about all the garbage diaper thug manages to produce daily.
I for one cannot imagine having to report on these things day by day. She’s made of somethings wonderful I lack: resilience for one.
However, like you and so many others here, as we search for solutions, I’m determined to stay informed and as active as possible in the face of all the refuse, corruption, destruction to us and the rest of our world.🌏
Congress grovels because 77 million voters stand ready to remove them from Congress if they don’t. The source of this catastrophe must be attributed to people who voted for Trump, nearly all of whom were among the 60% of white voters (including 70% of white working class voters and 80% of white evangelical voters) who voted for Trump. It makes me wish there were a hell for them to rot in. Starting now.
Thank you again, Professor Richardson. Remembering WWII, I doubly appreciate your work. (For 15 years, as appreciation for a second language was disappearing from American universities, I was teaching French. I believe the same was true of history in many universities. From Norman Davies’ history of Poland I knew some of the history of Ukraine—rebels like US—with 2 languages—they could learn our complicated weapons quickly, and now they’re teaching US drones.)
What you are doing for American education, downgraded after WWII by many, embraced by the Korean War veterans on the GI bill who taught me musicological research in a building from WWII at UNC-CH, is as priceless as what you are teaching US. Wishing you a second Medal of Freedom.
I believe behind everything this President does is probably some personal financial or vanity benefit, but also an old grudge or vendetta. Someone in his past who has offended him, told him no, limited his business, or taken him or someone he likes to court. His actions of vengeance and defiance are displayed with the equivalence of a dog marking a fire hydrant with as little thought or concern except to leave his scent everywhere possible. Apologies to our dear dogs.
His main grudge is that he has had his nose pressed against the glass door of Respectability all his life and he knows it will never be opened to such a lowlife as he.
*Everyone* in his past, present and future has, does and will offend him because his insecurities are a bottomless pit lined with his justified belief that he actually *is* the miserable, worthless creature his father assured him he was. He is the embodiment of the self-fulfilling prophecy.
IIRC, by definition it is a defined disorder with a vast array of symptoms of other disorders that individually do not meet diagnostic criteria, but cumulatively do present a milieu which qualify diagnosis.
Here's what Wiki's "Search Assistant" (read: AI) says:
"Borderline personality disorder is defined in the DSM-5 as a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affect, along with marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in various contexts. To receive a diagnosis, a person must meet at least five of nine specified symptoms such as frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, unstable intense relationships, identity disturbance, impulsivity, suicidal behavior, affective instability, chronic feelings of emptiness, inappropriate anger, and transient stress-related paranoia or dissociation."
So well said... putting his mark on anything and everything he wants - with little or no thought or concern except to get back at someone or something.
Trumps vendetta is against the American public. He has no decency. He knows he's hurting us and it's what gives him his greatest pleasure. There will be justice but it will take many years. He's infiltrated almost every aspect of our functioning government.
Bonnie, with his passion for gold and money he lacks any real education or thoughtful intelligence. Sometimes I think of a brain formed without love and horrendous nutrition. Can any reader here imagine a life of burgers with catsup?
They. Don’t. Care. Their hubris, power, and money are the only things that mean anything to them-not history, not laws, not decorum-nothing but their whims. We are at the mercy of malevolent narcissists with the restraint of toddlers. Dangerous, destructive, and deadly for everything and everyone in their path.
That’s why those letters specifically threatened the individuals choosing to participate in this criminal racket with future prosecution and imprisonment. Nothing less will do, and no one really knows whether that’s enough.
If that McDonald’s golden Arc gets built, we can blow it up. But once the timeless sanctity of Chaco Canyon gets invaded and raped, the desecration will not be so easily reversed.
I hope there are means to block the incursion on sacred sites, National Parks, etc. We all need to encourage, demand, and support such measures. In the meantime-thanks for this insight! Seriously, thank you! I’ve got some trips to plan!!! 💙
I’m in the same boat. To him, the only things sacred are himself and his money. It isn’t just profane, it’s pathetic-and if it weren’t so destructive to so many lives and spaces, it would be sad.
J L Graham, its REPUBLICANS in Congress, please. Do you remember the 40 years the Democrats held both houses? I do. Then came Newt Gingrich whose wife is reported to have laughed at the correspondents’ dinner. (Sorry I can’t remember the exact ”inappropriateness.”
The 6 person junta that currently rules our lives has a couple of cheap, immoral theories to which we must adhere: Originalism and the Unitary Executive Theory. I never thought I would ever say this, but here goes. I’m glad my husband isn’t alive to see this desecration, especially his beloved Chaco Canyon. To him I say, honey, I’ll keep fighting against these monsters.
Vision? trump has no vision, at least not in the way we see it. He is all about revenge and getting his way with whatever he wants, whatever will hurt us. You see, The Pain Is The Point. Your final paragraph says it all, dear Heather:
What is at stake is more than just buildings. It is the whitewashing and bulldozing of our history and culture, created over centuries by the many people who have built the United States, in service to the small vision of Trump and his enablers.
November cannot come soon enough. We must make these cretins pay and feel our wrath over the damage they have wrought.
Trump has something both more cynical and arguably more effective: he has an unwavering narrative of the failures of his predecessors causing the decline of the country and the possibility of a new Golden Age for America under his leadership. It has been a constant theme for him since his 2015 campaign. It allows him to blame others for all of the country's problems even though they have continued (and sometimes worsened) under his presidencies. There is some evidence that this alternative reality in which he increasingly now seems to dwell can no longer survive contact with the harsh realities that face American households but he still has a surprisingly large base of fanatical support committed to his version of reality and the backing of business, tech and media moguls, so long as their financial interests are consonant with his ambitions. It's a truly depressing state of affairs.
Now that I heard the speeches that Marco Rubio and Stephen Miller gave to a group convened by Defense Department on July 16, 2026, the very day Trump spoke in the evening, I’m afraid nothing surprises me. They revealed what they really think of anyone who doesn’t support them. From the Guardian:
“The morning belonged to the secretary of state. Before officials of more than 60 countries, he announced that the counterterrorism architecture of the free world, built over a generation against jihadist mass murder, should be rebuilt and aimed at the domestic left.”
I added the italics. You can link to the speeches here – I think every American citizen should listen to them.
Senior GOP members of Congress have for a long time wanted the president and the administration to focus on cost-of-living issues with the midterm elections only 100 days away. This seems like a desperate last-ditch attempt by Trump and his minions to create a new narrative by revisiting the 'enemy within/Deep State' motif that has been present in Trump's perpetual whinging about how badly he claims to have been treated. None of this bears remotely on the issues of most concern to the majority of Americans and that's why Trump's approval ratings continue to slump.
Miller is an attack dog, so one can understand him doing what he was born to do. Rubio, however, has pretensions to succeed Trump and so his behaviour is inexcusable. Reviving the 1950s Red Scare in relation to the Democratic party is a terrible idea but Trump's cabinet just goes along with every bad idea he has. The level of sycophancy has one reaching for the sick bucket at times.
America is going to look like an aged person with 20 levels of plastic surgery, sitting, totally deformed - no longer human looking. Grotesque. We'll be a pile of scar tissue.
Trump is like someone with the most contagious disease ever known - whatever he touches begins at once to demise. The economy, the White House grounds and other sacred sites in our Capital, our health system, our military and perhaps most significantly the standing we had as the strongest defender of freedom. I have said in other posts that it was extreme bad fortune that led to his occupying the Presidency but he is only a single person. But it is much more difficult to accept that the Congress, almost all the members of which know full well that he is so abjectly unfit, have not removed him.
theRepublican Senators and representatives have all been gelded. not a single one will stand up and say what they really think about Trump. it's what our founding fathers feared most.
In the past, some of his malevolence has gotten stopped at the gate, provided enough of a public outcry, combined with threats to wouid-be perpetrators strong enough to be taken seriously. But it’s going to require Rs as well as Ds before threats to prosecute are taken seriously, I fear.
Someone in yesterday’s letter said something very astute — Republicans are riding a high-speed merry-go-round (more like a misery-go-round) and will not jump off, even to save their own lives, it would seem. They’re addicted to the mad, uncontrollable chaos of it all.
Lindsey Graham wasn’t just a weak beta groveling in front of his alpha. He was addicted to the power the groveling brought him, stronger than heroin or fentanyl. That’s why they continue doing this. That’s why our Founders so greatly feared ambitious demagogues, intoxicated with their own petty power over others.
This is absolutely maddening! What gives one person who is elected for four years to be president of this country to permanently alter the landscape and change or destroy THE PEOPLE’s property. Please, everyone who is involved in making these decisions, remember, these monuments and buildings and sacred grounds are not HIS personal property.
Are we going to rename DC Trumpville? The US, the Abject and Subjugated States of Trump?
Dr. Richardson doesn't even mention the ongoing plan to cut down some of the oldest cherry trees, given to the US by the Japanese, to make room for a golf course. Of course.
We are being governed by a caricature of Dr. Seuss villains, but there is no magic or fairy godmother that will instantly reverse the damage once the evil is removed.
Trump is desecrating the heritage of the United States--its values, its history, its laws, its scientific and medical capability, its military, law enforcement and legal institituions, the physical landscape of the nation itself.
And every act of desecration makes the villain and his henchmen and lickspittles more desperate to claim absolute power, because they know that if they do not, they will eventually be held accountable for their crimes.
I did not know about the cherry trees. A few years ago I saw a cherry tree in a region of Japan that foreign tourists would ignore, but my daughter was teaching there. I think the tree was over 1200 years old. It was buttressed by scaffolding but it was still blooming. Urban Japanese embrace the very new,yet preserve a lot of the very old. There is a special place in homes for natural beauty. That seemed very civilized.
The trees he wants to uproot are in East Potomac Park, near where the wonderful outside four-sectioned monument to FDR is located. It’s less visible than the much more frequently visited area directly opposite the Jefferson Memorial, but no less significant.
If I believed in the Devil, I'd be forced to consider if the nominal Republican Party was in his employ. Government of the people, by the people, for the people; not some autocrat. It's not just a slogan; it's supposed to be our legacy.
I can’t think of anything that would make me want to visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History more than a sign warning me what I was about to see doesn’t meet with Steven Miller’s approval.
The hamfistedness of it all just takes your breath away. The other day, the Museum’s Director was asked by some Republican pea-brain at a Committee hearing whether she loved America, and asked her to define “Latina Power” that adorned a pink ball cap being sold in the Museum’s gift shop. How the Director didnt just burst out laughing on the spot, I do not know.
ICTT, thank you for bringing up that inane confrontation over the pink Latina Power hats made by a company started and run by two immigrants who built it from scratch. I wish the Smithsonian Museum Director Anthea Hartig had answered the question about whether those hats belonged in the gift shop at the museum by saying, "Yes, absolutely they belong because they demonstrate that immigrants are welcome in the U.S. They built this nation and are still building it."
She tried to bring in the goodness of multitudinous cultures and ethnicities in answer but it couldn't penetrate the contempt dripping from the Republican "gotcha" questions because they aren't serious.
How hard it must be to face people like Rep. Gill (R-TX) asking whether Mickey Mouse is racist. How on earth did Director Harding keep her cool?!
In any governmental organization, there are ample opportunities to address the most ridiculous and asinine questions/comments/statements made by the idiots who make them.
I’m still convinced trump is the anti-christ. He does check a lot of the boxes… “ and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God.”
I've thought about that! It just seems too too much of a coincidence that every congressman has drunk the coolaid. I was thinking back to the many years that there was a lot of visiting back and forth to Russia as part of a "let's be friends" movement. I don't know details, but maybe someone here does.
A good news development on another bad news front worth noting. Katie Phang's Epstein Transparency Act case against the DOJ will move forward with Judge Sullivan deciding the DOJ cannot be trusted an he must examine redacted documents himself.
This is the point, or we passed the point, where the framers intended Congress to be a check on a rogue executive branch. That is, a responsible Congress aware of its constitutional obligations. We no longer have one of those. The Republican congressional majority has ceded its authority and obligations and given the Trump Administration free rein to do as it pleases.
Public landmarks aren’t presidential property.
The first thing those seeking unchecked power call “red tape” is usually the safeguards standing in their way. Historic preservation laws exist because our shared heritage belongs to the public—not to whichever president happens to occupy the White House.
The moment one person can decide which laws apply to them, the issue is no longer preservation. It’s power.
It's like the party-goers clapping each other on the back after a good time, and leaving the house littered with cups, spilled wine, and bags of garbage. A swath of destruction and abuse is not a legacy one would normally want to have, but here we have a gang that languishes in it.
A reminder that it was at Trump’s orders, or with his full, violent blessing, that a mob of lowlife goons and thugs broke into the Capitol to wave confederate battle flags, sport “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirts, smear their own feces on the walls of Congress and try to destroy 435 ballots in the Electoral College, or at least those with Joe Biden’s name on them.
This is what gets me. It’s not like the whole country wasn’t warned — literally, visibly, gutturally, ahead of time, well ahead of time. Yet tens of millions voted a second time for a swaggering phony preening in front of the cameras, shrieking that Haitians were eating Springfield’s cats and dogs.
People make a thousand excuses — about Biden, about Kamala Harris, about this, about that. It’s all bullshit. Millions chose insanity and cruelty on purpose in 2024. And now all of us are being forced to reap the terrible, logical results.
Hello ICTT... HCR today on MS-Now's Nicole Wallace's, 'The Best People' show stated, that DJT landed on the 'The Apprentice' Show, because DJT was available... At that point, DJT's Business Empire was collapsing... HCR stated that at DJT's Core, DJT is a Salesman that appeals to the Bottom 30% of the Electorate that still believes that Slavery is 'Job Training'...
A great point. Serves me right since I never watched that stupid program even once. Why people choose “entertainment” starring a rotten, phony conman I’ll never figure out.
Hello ICTT... MAGA is a Cult... The USA has had many Cult's in its History... DJT is a Entertainer that appeals to the Worse Impulses...
Maybe the best Americans can hope for is that Dumpf pulls a Jim Jones and gets his MAGA minions to drink poisoned koolaid.
Apache — I’ve long believed that our current POTUS appeals to people who feel like learning to be mature humans is just too difficult. He and his gang let them off the hook by telling them, “whatever you wanna do is fine! Don’t mind your mama trying to train you up right. Don’t bother trying to parse your relationships with women — just grab ‘em by the [kitty].” <off soapbox>
He’s the drug…and the dealer…in the same wrapper. Serves a very few who make shit-loads of money…as we lose our country.
hate's the monster machine that needs venting, since energy is neither created nor destroyed...but it's gotta go SOMEwhere...which is why scapegoats have had a place throughout history...
soon enough, aGAIN, it will be the 'american commies' if the Trump ilk has its way...it's alREAdy begun...
They grew up with entertainment like fake wrestling, but they didn’t have the ability to understand that two things can be true at the same time., that they can enjoy something that’s fake, but emotionally they can’t handle the truth.
You should look up the late Wayne Barrett’s work on the current president as well as Spy magazine and Kurt Anderson who was involved with another man. Kurt wrote Empire of Evil and another tome
on all of this.
Kurt Andersen also wrote "Fantasyland: How American went Haywire: A 500 Year History" that was on The New York Times Bestseller list for weeks.
In it he says, "I have never hated a President before Trump", implying that he hates Trump.
He is friends with HCR and fun fact, he grew up in Omaha, and grew up across the street from Virginia Thomas, Clarence Thomas's wife. I'm guessing they weren't friends.
Also, Craig Unger and British journalist Catherine Belton
ICTT, I have written a number of times about my sister's attraction to that show (as liberal as they come and horribly embarrassed at her 30+ year old self for choosing to go and watch an episode of "The Apprentice" as our mother was in her last hour). I think that I was once exposed to about 10 minutes of it, and when I asked "why", no one watching could explain it in any manner that made sense even then.
On a broader level, I do not understand those contrived "reality" shows and why they are so attractive to people. I confess that I do like "The Great British Baking Show", mostly because the bakers are all so nice to each other (as well as learning a few things.)
Ally, one more thing we have in common.
There is a very distinctive difference between "The Great British Baking Show" and the reality competitions created by Mark Burnett: betrayal.
The Burnett shows all include some form of betrayal, usually formation of alliances to subvert the efforts of other competitors. Even "The Voice" enables the music-celebrity judges to "block" other judges and "steal" competitors.
The GBBS is not encumbered with that intrigue. If there are pre-ordained outcomes, I can't see them. When competitors struggle to meet the requirements, their failures are pretty obvious. As you note, genuine camaraderie and good sportsmanship prevail on that show.
Art lessons, like how to paint a President white in order to preserve monstrous evil, might make a good TV series
I'm a big fan of that show. I don't see anything contrived about it.
The personalities of the hosts are a good mix - and Paul Hollywood seems to have turned down the heat on his grumpy ogre act recently. Prue Leith is a treasure.
And I've seen nothing but cordiality among the contestants, who are all treated well on and off camera. It looks like great fun!
most of us, in one form or another, are adrenaline junkies, Ally...
Ally, it comes down to the message of the book, Merchants of Doubt and marketing and protecting of smoking…its marketing not hyper linked to so-called AI data we give when we click on the click-bait…yes Google is evil!😈
Never watched reality shows Real Housewives or the Duggars 19 children and counting with an alleged pedophile in the midst. Did you know there was one called Wife Swap? There was another show with this family whose main characters were arrested for something like fraud.
These shows all pander to the lowest intellectual denominator of the public. I suspect it all started with the "$64,000" question show that was proven to be a major fake. It's been all downhill since then. The dumbing of America happened at about that time when television was a nascent disrupter to the "normal" American household. We've since become lazier in intellect, lazier in our political discourse, lazier in the evaluation in who we send to congress, and now, the WH. Newton Minow, back in 1961, had the clearest vision of what this technology would fester. The pixels per inch that evaluates the clarity of any camera image or screen image cannot even compete with what Minow saw in 1961.
The one and only show like that I ever followed was the one on PBS back in the olden days, about the Loud family.
I looked upon it as more of sociological study than anything exploitative, though I understand there were some issues surrounding the making of it. For all of that, it was ground breaking TV for its time.
Right there with you. It totally defies all logic. And I am reeeeeeeeally really sick of all this. Bonnie M. gave a great analogy, even without mentioning all the puking.
yeah. i noticed that that got left out, as well... ; - )
There is always gonna be Rubber Neckers searching for the next Big Train Wreck
true, but funny. thanks for the laugh, Dave...
reminds me of my father, whom i didn't really get along with...we would be driving back from Jersey some Sunday afternoon...bumper to bumper traffic...and he'd be saying for miles...'some accident up ahead...and people just HAVE to stop/slow down to have a look!' something he didn't do and i respected him for...
You were right not to watch it. I watched a couple of episodes and found it to be the biggest phony baloney feature on T.V.: a major waste of time!
how did all of you forget jerry springer? not that he was worth remembering...
ICTT, I honestly don't get the entire "reality" show concept. I absolutely cannot stand the entire Kardashian crew. All of them. Their ascendancy into what appears to be billionaire status and prestige, imho, all started from the infamous sex tape launching the oldest one's "career".
I know they have their fans, whatever. I still recall my coworkers all laughing (behind her back) at another coworker who was relaying the story of "meeting" two or three of them. She lamented that she was in an airport in Cali and saw them waiting for luggage. (They were pretty famous then, but the two youngest were pre puberty then.) She approached and said "I LOVE your show!" and she said "they didn't even TALK to me! They IGNORED me!"
I recall someone saying, well, you know, they probably were busy, and so many people probably stop them, etc. etc. etc. My coworker (who wasn't a stupid woman!) actually seemed to think she had some sort of relationship with them! I think this is the cult behind Trump as well; his fans don't realize they are just a commodity to him.
Same here,ICTT
Yes, I am proud too to say I did not know the menace who came down the gold color escalator and pegged him that day as a fraud.
Trump didn't build this, precisely for the reasons you're giving here.
He's merely the clown in chief of a neofascist GOP, led by neofascist billionaires and neofascist "Christian" nationalist ideologues.
The GOP base has been thoroughly brainwashed by its media, in coordination with the GOP, for more than two decades now. What appeals to them is whatever these media tell them to like. Without Fox Entertainment and the help of so many independent and ignorant "influencers", the US would never have been turned into a neofascist state right now.
Trump is there to distract us from that fact 24/7.
i think there's a lot of truth in what you're saying here. for what that's worth.
The GOP can't die soon enough
It’s ‘kayfabe’ all the way. trumpty-dumpty is still playing out his reality tv show in which he is the successful businessman who is “always winning”, but this time, the tech bro billionaires AND millions of American voters decided to hand him real power.
yeah, sure mike...keep believing that he, with the help of others, didn't cheat in that election to come out victorious...just the Musk bribes aLONE, much less some control of the voting machines...maar je bent niet in America opgegroeid...and i'm thinking there's a number of commenters who didn't hear about Trump's antics since the early 70s on the East coast...mostly New York and New Jersey...new yorkers, more or less, threw him out, more recently. the man will do whatever it takes to come out on top. so to speak.
Mark Burnette approached others before Trump. They all said no.
But Trump needed the money. (And as a young man aspired to be an actor; his father said no.)
At least his father displayed good judgement.
Too bad he didn't take it to heart.
wrong. do YOU have 30+ million followers for spewing bullshit? from some perspective, acting is lying. something Trump does non- stop. so tell me. where's the difference? and this, imo, goes for a LOT of other politicians, as well...BOTH sides of the line.
Apache, to amplify your reference to HCR's account, Mary L. Trump and others have described the circumstances surrounding Donald's appearance on "The Apprentice."
Evangelical British immigrant Mark Burnett is the father of the reality competition genre of television shows, which is only one reason to despise him. His first success was "Survivor." He created the vocal reality competition "The Voice," the elevator-pitch-based "Shark Tank," and numerous other so-called "reality" shows. In the early 2000s, he sought to create a job-applicant-based competition with only one "judge," a high-powered business tycoon. Burnett approached several corporate executives, all of whom declined because they were too busy actually managing their businesses.
Having failed to recruit the executives he wanted, Burnett approached Donald, offering him a multi-million dollar advance if he would join the production. Donald, on the verge of bankruptcy, jumped at the deal, figuring the advance would bail him out of bankruptcy, and publicize the Trump brand without having to spend his own money to do it. Unfortunately, he was right.
The Trump offices were so dumpy and run down, Burnett never shot a single frame of the show on location. He had to construct an "executive suite" set on a soundstage.
Here, it's important to note that reality shows are not reality at all. Every outcome is carefully planned by the producers, not the judge(s). Although participants are not given lines to speak, they are carefully coached on what they should say. Donald was so stupid, he couldn't remember even the simplest guidance on what he was to say in each scene where he appeared. In post-production, Donald's appearances had to be heavily cut and spliced together just to make his speeches make sense.
Yes! This program can be heard on podcast or seen on YouTube. Well worth one's time. https://youtu.be/DPFMPztIb00?si=AS87bcY6Fu_V5PPh
well SOMEthing had to replace Jerry Springer...
ICTT, I agree with your comment, but what I want to know is how did "we" become this way? Or have we always been this way, or at least a critical mass of us? Or has a putrid, slimy undercurrent risen to the surface, one that was always present from the days of conquest and extermination of the natives, the days of slavery and Jim Crow but has now become mainstream as the various Trumps and Musks and Millers and Hegseths bob by blowing putrid bubbles of ignorance and hatred, fouling everything they touch?
I will fly to the USA from my relatively safe home in Italy to lie down in front of the bulldozers if they actually manage to begin the defacement of beautiful Washington DC, my hometown. I hope a few million US citizens will join me.
Mr. Herrick: Applause for your determination.
The Bob Marshall Wilderness in western Montana was saved from bulldozers by the vision and courage of Cecil Garland, Lincoln, Montana, who owned and ran the general store. He put his body on the line for the wilderness where he used to track mountain lions and kill them until he realized it would better to take on the challenge of treeing them and then leave them alone.
People thought he would be so maligned for taking away potential mining and timber jobs that he would lose his store. Instead, people came from all over the state to shop at Garland's Town & Country. Congress created the Bob Marshall in 1964.
REVISION OF MY COMMENT HERE:
My husband let me know I should have been referring to the Scapegoat Wilderness which Congress created in 1972. The adjoining Bob Marshall was already in existence. Cecil Garland was responsible for Scapegoat not the "Bob." Point still taken, I hope you all agree.
good story. hadn't heard it before. thanks, Melinda.
There was a great PBS show about this probably back in the 70's or 80's. I could never remember the details. Thanks for reminding me that it was about the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Basically the story was people were angry that the land was being protected, ten years later they were saying it was the best thing that ever happened to the area.
Dave, I've already made this exact statement that I am about to copy and paste as a possible answer to your question. "These shows all pander to the lowest intellectual denominator of the public. I suspect it all started with the "$64,000" question show that was proven to be a major fake. It's been all downhill since then. The dumbing of America happened at about that time when television was a nascent disrupter to the "normal" American household. We've since become lazier in intellect, lazier in our political discourse, lazier in the evaluation in who we send to congress, and now, the WH. Newton Minow, back in 1961, had the clearest vision of what this technology would fester. The pixels per inch that evaluates the clarity of any camera image or screen image cannot even compete with what Minow saw in 1961." Please forgive the double entry.
On some threads, double comments serve a purpose, especially on a site such as this where there is such lively discourse.
There is one thing and one thing only that matters to Trump and Crew: his and his family's enrichment. Further, United States history is fully rewritable to present white men as the only good reason this country exists, with Trump at the top as dictator. Did I mention he is also God on Earth. If something gets in the way of that presentation and the FACT of Trump's rulership, it will be gotten rid of. If anything gets in the way of resource extraction that benefits Trump and crew, it will be gotten rid of. If you like living in a country that Trump and crew have redesigned to enrich themselves and their friends, you are in luck. If you don't, Trump and crew consider that our problem. Here are the groups working with Trump and crew: all Republicans in this Congress and the State houses, the six so called justices of the US Supreme Court, most of the media, most industrialists, all MAGA. We have two countries. This business with Trump simply proves it. Sure, this is all in Trump and crew's minds. Sure, they intend to make that real and are making that real. Who will get in their way?
When you mention about how trump and his kids are making billions, what of Hunter Biden and Joe Biden. Did they make billions while in office? It's interesting how the trump brothers are all stocked up in companies which our military uses. The longer the war-and it is a war not just semantics-the more money they make.
War has always been a huge money maker. Remember Dick Cheney?
Go ahead and ask google AI this query: did biden and his son hunter make billions while in office. This is its response: No, Joe Biden and his son Hunter did not make billions of dollars while in office. Congressional investigations and financial analyses found that the broader Biden family and their business associates brought in roughly $20 million to $24 million total from foreign sources over several years, with Joe Biden himself receiving no direct payments or bribes from these foreign business activities.Foreign Business IncomesTotal Amounts: Investigations by the House Oversight Committee identified about $24 million in total payments from foreign entities (including from countries like China, Ukraine, and Romania) between 2014 and 2019.Family vs. Partners: Out of that total, approximately $15 million went to members of the extended Biden family—the vast majority going directly to Hunter Biden for consulting and board work—while the rest went to business partners.Post-Office EarningsBook and Speaking Deals: Joe Biden significantly increased his personal wealth only after leaving the vice presidency in 2017.Millions Earned: Between 2017 and 2019, Joe and Jill Biden earned over $15 million through book contracts and paid speaking engagements, but this occurred entirely while he was a private citizen, not while he was in public office.
As another commenter notes, war is very lucrative to those who so desire it. Go ahead and query google AI: How lucrative is war to the Trumps?
This is its response: War has become deeply lucrative for the broader Trump circle, driven by family business expansions into defense technology, lucrative Middle Eastern private equity investments tied to administration diplomacy, and an unprecedented overall surge in presidential wealth and real estate revenues.Family Business and Defense TiesDrone and Weapons Ventures: Trump’s older sons expanded business interests into drone and defense technology companies that secured military and Air Force contracts as regional conflicts escalated.Private Equity and Foreign Deals: In-law Jared Kushner’s private equity firm raised billions from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds—including Saudi Arabia—while acting as a regional envoy, merging diplomatic engagement with private financial gain.Institutional and Presidential WindfallsDirect Official Profiting: Ethics experts note that the current administration has broken traditional financial boundaries, generating billions through a mix of crypto ventures, foreign licensing, and heightened patronage at properties like Mar-a-Lago.State and Defense Connections: Appointed defense and policy officials with historical ties to major private equity or contracting firms (such as Cerberus and Lockheed-linked circles) have overseen massive military supplemental budgets, intertwining public wartime expenditures with private sector beneficiaries.
Certainly the evidence supplied by Dr. Cox Richardson and others in the time since Trump re-entered the White House supports what google AI information also supplies in terms of how much money Trump and crew have made in not even two years. This is certainly through war, but also bribes of all kinds and crypto.
When the right-wingers in power refuse to recognize the outcome of the upcoming elections, we will see how far they are willing to go to force the country to submit to their fascist rule.
Get ready to resist relentlessly.
I agree with you completely. Relentless resistance is not futile, it is required!
Trump destroys or kills everything he touches! He has already destroyed the Rose garden, the south lawn, and the Reflecting pool. He demolished the East wing of OUR White House and couldn’t stop showing renderings of what the “new” east wing would look like. He is like a 4 year old ( no offense to 4 year olds) that has to show everyone his new pretty picture. Isn’t there anyone who can get him to look at those ballroom drawings again? JFC, even that project is still in shambles!
Trump also ripped out Michelle Obama's White House Kitchen Garden - which children visited to learn about healthy eating and exercise.
Many of Trump's malign actions were presaged by Reagan. In this case, such as removing Jimmy Carter's solar panels from the White House.
as someone else already pointed out above...all distractions while the country is being gutted for profits by companies. AND, of course, from the Epstein files. hardly mentioned any more.
Colette, this is why I call him death star, a rolling ball of destruction.
you're right. millions did vote for him. the mentality of those millions has ALways been part of humanity as a whole. so the only thing that REALly put Trump over the top in the second(and prob first, as well) election is cheating. isn't that what he's been doing lately with his 'end arounds', re: laws? isn't it what he's done for over a half a century in his business dealings?
The saddest statement 😢 Greed, ignorance, racism, apathy. Please, folks, do better, be better 🙏
and, unfortunately, I'm November they will all be voting for his candidates.
What really troubles me is really nice people I know, and now hate to spend time with, are still all in with this snake oil salesman. This one man in particular, a hard working, generous vet is still all in.
About the Iran war all he can say is 'well we don't want them to have nukes.' He is still getting great VA benefits and services. He fills his diesel truck up with fuel at his job for free. He doesn't mind paying more for groceries and utilities. Makes me feel sunk.
A message to the 80+ million voters that stayed home on Election Day 2024 & all the 3x trump voters… FAFO. Your legacy of indifference &/or ignorance will be passed onto future generations.
I know! Right?
Everything these asshole right-wingers touch turns to shit!
It's America's own -goal.
History tells us not to vote for these asses, history tells us to hold people to account. Do we teach enuf history about authoritarianism, despots. Do we hold people to account. No. IMO it started with Ford pardoning Nixon. The GOP learned then that they can get away with crimes.
I'm glad I did all my exploring of Utah, Arizona canyons, indigenous lands and their culture before trump takes a wrecking ball to these sacred places.
Well, not all of us have, and the public should be able to explore these places in decades (if not centuries) to come. These lands belong to all of us... they are protected by law, even if that *#% doesn't follow the law.
Agree!
A "swath of destruction & abuse is not a legacy .... No it is not. But, that destruction can be enjoined in court to stop "irreparable harm" especially the legal actions coordinated with state Attorney Generals across this nation highlighted by the AG's of AZ, CA, Colorado, Oregon & the state of Washington.
Example: Per Courthouse News & other Rule-of-Law Platforms, "the appellate case handling the defense and maintenance of the multi-state injunction involving U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani's rulings against the Trump administration's actions is New York v. Trump, Docket No. 25-1236 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit."
"Case Name: New York v. Trump aka or State of New York, et al. v. Donald Trump, et al. Appellate Docket Number: No. 25-1236, First Circuit."
Note, the Lower Court Case Reference:
"District of Massachusetts & District of Rhode Island, associated with multi-state challenges against executive actions, executive policy breaches & federal funding freezes."
Professor Richardson identified the experts who can detail the wrongful conduct.
Rinse & Repeat ... make that Disinfect & Repeat.
Thanks, Counsellor! I'd say "Soak, Wash, Rinse & repeat" here, like I am doing with the terrycloth towels I wrapped my brisket in yesterday. While I love brisket, I do not like how the towels or cooler smell after I've rested the brisket. I think I'm gonna go for lemon-scented bleach next.
Heads Up Ally. we have a new front "Fusion Centers". My book by Brendan McQuade. 'Pacifying The Homeland' arrives today 7/26/26'
Brendan Blurb:
"The United States has poured over a billion dollars into a network of interagency intelligence centers called “fusion centers.” These centers were ostensibly set up to prevent terrorism, but politicians, the press, and policy advocates have criticized them for failing on this account."
"So why do these security systems persist? Brendan McQuades "Pacifying the Homeland" Brendan McQuade travels inside the secret world of intelligence fusion, looks beyond the [original Mission] the failure of fusion centers, and reveals a broader shift away from mass incarceration and toward a more surveillance- and police-intensive system of social regulation."
*********************************************************************
Fortunately this update has a former target target who is now a braver heroine APRIL WALKER who has laid it all out in pleadings in Southern California District Court filed on Friday, 7/24/26.
See, BRITTNY MEIJIA's article in L.A Times reprinted the San Diego Union on the front page right column for context & news.
"Nature of the Suit: A 55-page civil rights and privacy complaint alleging that federal agents used facial recognition and license plate readers to unlawfully surveil peaceful protesters and retaliated by revoking their Global Entry privileges."
APRIL knows how to fight back; her 'Global Entry' privileges have already been restored.
Go April!
Good point, Bryan, and if they can drag out these cases for as long as possible, as trump did with his criminal trials, it may out last trumps presidency.
But if they get fast tracted to the Supreme Court, odds are this Court will give trump everything he wants.
If there ever was a time to say: "there goes the neighborhood", this is it. However, we can't afford to say it, much less watch it. To start, we need to flood the congress with letters and see it through. This moron has to go!
Also please notify BLM that you want protections saved for Chaco Canyon: https://savingplaces.org/places/greater-chaco-landscape/updates/take-action-to-protect-chaco
Bonnie MacEvoy, your imaginative simile is exactly right. This retired Internist thanks you for it!
These are people drunk on power, and whose esthetic and moral senses are dulled or absent entirely. Their taste is so appallingly bad that they do not have the ability to recognize how bad it is.
At this point their rampage is simply to destroy any place, plan or institution that they think the “libs” treasure.
Our national parks and historic public structures are valued by the majority of the American public, not only "the libs." And contrary to what T has said in the past, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is hardly a "radical" organization.
I posted about why Chaco Canyon is so important to be protected. There are still a few days to send in comments to BLM
https://savingplaces.org/places/greater-chaco-landscape/updates/take-action-to-protect-chaco
Anyone who they(Trump and his band of thieves) do not consider “ pure” enough to be in their club is a Lib, woke, commie, traitor.
The "point" of all that tRump does is to weaken and make a mockery of America. Too many citizens gave t and partygoers a permission slip and blank check. We are living in tragic times.
They glory in it!
Trump made his intentions to sell off public lands and grazing, mineral and oil rights crystal clear one month into 2.0 with an executive order.
Below is a link to a post I wrote back then. The ramp up in the news with reducing the size of Bears Ears National Monument recently is part of the same stampede as the Chaco Canyon initiative. It is a mad rush to sell off the rights and properties to his cronies before a new Congress is seated. I am sure there are gifts to his library and sweet deals for Don Jr., Eric and Barron to be grifted by that deadline as the payoff.
https://georgiafisanick.substack.com/p/trump-sells-america
Hello Georgia... It seems that DJT considers the Public's Property, DJT's Property.... Have you seen Pictures of the Oval Office lately?... Draping the RFK Justice Dept Building with Hangings of DJT Image cost ~$1,000,000... Mary Trump speculates that the bottom of the Reflecting was ruined when DJT had his Motorcade drive across it while the Liner was still curing... DJT is a Vandal, and a Thief... Chaco Canyon was here long before any Trump, and will Outlast any Trump...
Apache, DJT has turned the Oval Office into a cheap whorehouse.
I saw video footage of the Oval Office on MSNOW last night. It is beyond garish. Lots of that fake gold stuff (the plastic decorations from Home Depot sprayed with fake gold paint), plastic airplane models (next to busts of who knows who), big garish mirrors (word is he likes to see his own image and preens a lot), every open wall space covered.
In the same way he thinks he's so clever when he gives someone an insulting nickname, he's convinced he's the arbiter of good taste - when in fact everything he touches or creates is tacky and gaudy and looks cheap and nasty. Master of self-delusion.
'In the same way he thinks he's so clever when he gives someone an insulting nickname'. yeah. good thing noone here does that.
I wonder if his FIFA Peace prize is sitting there next to the real one which was graciously given to trump? How about the gold scissors from the last ribbon cutting ceremony?
Wasn't that the style in the Louis XIV era? With the alleged words of Marie Antoinette: "Let them eat cake" in my thoughts, doesn't that reflect the trump attitude?
The incompetent contractor that applied the blue material in the reflecting pool ignored several of the directions for application. This article from the Scientific American was published before a better analysis was done, but the bottom line is the contractor didn't read the instructions on the can. For instance, you should never overlap the dry material with wet material. So the entire application should have been done all at once, instead of over several days, plus the entire pool should have been scrubbed and dry before application. But what should we expect for only $14 million? /s
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-paint-is-peeling-off-the-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-experts-explain/
And then have the same guy fix it. Makes me wonder if it is going to be any better. I realize that algae have been a problem on occasion, but has there ever been dead ducklings before?
GJ, I visited Versailles earlier this month and was awed by its Grand Canal built in the 1600s, over a period of 11 years, and the structure is more than 1600 meters long.
It is spectacular!
The end basin, Le Char d’Apollon, has no fountain within it. The water is still, clear, blue, beautiful!!!
We were told by the guide that the reason there is NO algae is that they use a certain family of trout!
Just saying!
what! Could u tell us where Mary Trump said that please?
She has a Substack. Easy to look up.
https://www.marytrump.org/?utm_source=global-search
Sorry, Patricia, I should have added this earlier. She's a fun read!
I just read your link. OMG! DOGE was worse than I thought. I do understand that oil people are not flocking droves to buy drilling lands in Alaska. The trouble is that it only takes one or two to create the damage.
he started it in trump 1.0! This Canadian was fighting the reduction in size of Bears Ears then, writing,donating to SUWA.
This has to fought in court til that fker and the GOP are gone. Glad I had the chance to do all my exploring, education if canyons, Indigenous cultural heritage when I had the chance. Still will help fight from Canada.
America ,fight.
Empire.
Georgia, to quote Steve Bannon, the Trump regime is "flooding the zone with shit." HCR has described their end run around protections of public lands and historic landmarks, but that is just one of many attacks going unnoticed.
Catherine Rampell of The Bulwark just reported on an ominous rule change regarding the census proposed by Donald's henchmen. Her original is largely behind a paywall, but she guest-posted it on Brian Tyler Cohen's Substack.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-208502285
Thanks for the link. There is a huge amount of damage that gets hidden in changes to administrative rules. Rampell is right: if Trump is planning to not count “persons” who are undocumented immigrants or immigrants on temporary visas in the 2030 census, then that will reduce the number of seats in the House and the Electoral College for states with a large number of immigrants, and cut federal funds for government services. Blue states will be the losers.
This is a little time bomb the regime is trying to plant to ensure that if a member of the regime wins the presidency in 2028, they will tilt the playing field in their favor for another 4-year term starting in 2032.
After the public comment period closes, the agency reviews and analyzes the comments, then decides whether to adopt the rule as proposed, revise it, reopen or extend comment, or abandon it. If the agency moves forward, it publishes a final rule that explains the decision and responds to significant comments, and the rule later takes effect on the date stated in that final rule. Note that there is no oversight over how the agency responds to the public comments other than to have to give an explanation of why they are responding the way they are.
The problem or benefit is that administrative rules can be changed when the administration changes. Biden undid Trump’s first rule change on civil service terminations on his first day in office. Now Trump has put it back.
To put it succinctly, Georgia, we're doing democracy wrong.
Not just power; tyranny.
Empire.
"Trump's Life Matters" and that is all that matters to Trump.
"MATTER" in Trump's case is "Minimise Attention To Trump Epstein Relationship."
Trump wants the kind of immortality reserved for Einstein, Edison or JFK ....that of a lifetime of achievement, not the life of debauchery of Epstein, Leo, or Musk, or the instantaneous immortality of an Oswald or Booth.
He does not care about anyone but himself. never has.
As his own mortality fritters away, he is grasping at loopholes, loyalty, and lawlessness to imprint his despicable will on each of us thru soiling the sheets of common decency.
He should clad his own DC Hotel made of natural granite, bordello gold if he wants an monument dedicated to himself...except that would cost HIM money.
Everything he does is his personal monument to failure..his lifetime of failures, a life time of lies. Anti achievement.
Thank you for your attention to this MATTER.
DC hotel is mostly furnished with imported things right down to the body butter (???) and soaps from Canada. bathroom faucets, chandeliers, etc. A reporter booked a room for one night. Found a trash can and a clock made in America. The gift stores are overpriced things with his brand on it which are mostly imported-some of which is from China. I thought we weren't supposed to be dealing with them.
Just a small point. He sold the lease on the old post office and no longer owns it. It’s now a Waldorf Astoria.
"The moment one person can decide which laws apply to them, the issue is no longer preservation. It’s power."
It is always about power. It is not one person but the entire right wing apparatus and Republican electorate. And it took more than a moment since the Powell Memorandum and the Republican Southern Strategy.
It is The Federalist Society notion of investing the tripartite power of government in a unitary executive. And The Heritage Foundation privileging one segment of the population through their white supremacist Christian extremist Project 2025.
One people, one nation, one leader.
We've heard that before. And from the Allied Forces defeating Hitler and Nazism to a coalition of Hungarian voters defeating Orban and Orbanism - it takes building alliances for strategic joint exercises in taking power and restoring democratic government.
Here comes the next verse, same as the first. A little bit louder and a whole lot worse. Excellent assessment, lin•
Yes, Trump is Reagan writ large and writ vulgar.
''The Lease Is Apparently Forever''
Donald Trump still wants to paint the massive gray Eisenhower Executive Office Building white. That is not redecorating. That is what a man does when he has no plans to move out.
Most presidents understand that the White House is temporary housing. You serve your term, leave a few scratches on the furniture, pardon some friends, write a memoir nobody finishes, and hand over the keys. Trump appears to be treating Washington like a family property he plans to leave to the children.
Painting historic granite white is not just bad taste. It is territorial marking. Cats spray the sofa. Dictators build arches. Trump calls a contractor and asks whether democracy comes in eggshell or high-gloss.
Experts say the paint could permanently damage the stone and create a maintenance nightmare for taxpayers. Apparently, that is not a problem. Experts are people who know things, and knowing things has become dangerously close to disloyalty in the Trump regime.
The more serious part is the effort to weaken historic-preservation rules and shut the public out of decisions about national landmarks. Let us be honest. That is not efficiency. That is changing the locks while the country is at work.
Then there is Trump’s proposed triumphal arch. Normal presidents build libraries after leaving office. Trump wants his imperial gateway installed while he is still measuring the curtains. Nothing says peaceful transfer of power like a giant monument to yourself planted between Lincoln and Arlington Cemetery.
We should stop treating this as harmless vanity. The regime is repainting buildings, bulldozing safeguards, packing boards, silencing public review, and reshaping the capital in its own image.
This is not home improvement.
It is a landlord announcing that the lease has been canceled, the security deposit is gone, and the tenants may now address him as Your Excellency.
you forgot dogs peeing their gold, territorial markings, michael.
Michael,
Outstanding post once again!Thank you!
The horrors of this administration never cease.
He's a one-man wrecking ball.
Obviously, a neofascist GOP disagrees with that. This is not about ONE PERSON. It's about the EXECUTIVE BRANCH of government deciding everything.
And Trump didn't invent this. Changing the NHPA is part of Project 2025, the detailed roadmap to install neofascism in the US.
Trump didn't write Project 2025. It's the Project 2025 architects who, after having written it together with Hungarian neofascist Orban's Danube Institute, are now ordering their lawyers to come up with one modification of the law after the other in the direction of an all-powerful executive branch.
As Kamala Harris showed so masterfully during the one and only "presidential" debate, Trump is highly manipulable.
To understand what is going on right now, we need to focus on Project 2025 and the people behind the scenes, inside the executive branch, who ARE in command and order Trump what to do next - just like The Apprentice's producers told him whom to fire when.
"Then there is Trump’s proposed triumphal arch. Normal presidents build libraries after leaving office. Trump wants his imperial gateway installed while he is still measuring the curtains. Nothing says peaceful transfer of power like a giant monument to yourself planted between Lincoln and Arlington Cemetery."
And of course today's Republicans are against all Lincoln stood for. And no Trump can be buried at Arlington. Refusing military service is a family tradition: grandfather Trump came to the US as a draft dodger and was barred from returning to German. Fred Trump was a WW2 war profiteer on government contracts. Despite playing dress up soldier at boarding school, Don dodged the draft with bone spurs. Now his gun toting progeny go on safari - and are war profiteering on contracts with Hegseth's DOD.
It's not about Trump.
We need to urgently focus on the GOP instead.
Kelli, Trump said it directly: "I am president of the United States and I can do whatever I want." Laws? Trump doesn't care about laws. As president, Trump wants to remake America in his image. And yes, he has exquisite taste. Gold leaf. Arches. Reflecting pools. A ballroom. All reimagined by the man with the best taste in America—a man who thinks gold-plated everything screams elegance. He's defacing the White House with his personal aesthetic because the White House wasn't tacky enough. He's minting coins with his face on them because humility is for other presidents. He's renaming buildings after himself because democracy is just a backdrop for his brand. This is what happens when a narcissist gains absolute power: America becomes a Trump property. And Trump properties all look the same—gaudy, gold-leafed, and utterly devoid of restraint. He's not governing a country. He's redecorating it. That's not leadership. That's pathology.
Harvey, I think that’s exactly what makes this moment different. It isn’t just about one building or one project—it’s the repeated blurring of the line between what belongs to the public and what one person treats as personal property. I wrote about that pattern a few months ago if you’re interested: https://wehavefriendseverywhere.substack.com/p/the-peoples-house-is-not-his-house
The president fancies himself as a great builder and developer with impeccable taste. Now the entire US is a giant victim for his notion of (self-reflecting) grandiosity.
He wasn’t elected to redesign building. He was elected to govern. He’s not doing that either.
All while a war he began trudged on, with no imminent end.
What we have in Trump is "a bull in a China shop." The wreckage from this regime will take decades to repair, if ever. I receive emails, texts and correspondence from candidates who criticize Trump. That is happening here in Florida, which is a red state. That is a HUGE mistake. Those supporting Trump are in a cult and cannot tolerate even the least amount of criticism of Trump personally. But, they will listen to candidates who promise to improve their miserable financial condition. "It's the economy, Stupid." Bill Clinton, 1992. I am dumbfounded that there are campaign managers and candidates who don't understand this simple fact. The DNC is failing its responsibilities miserably in not bringing in sales experts to advise on how to make a sale, i.e., to get the voters' attention and to get their votes.
Kelli Klymenko,
Public landmarks belong to the people. It is individual persons who have each offered themselves to preserve freedoms, not only for the United States of America but also for our friends in other countries.
The lack of character within this President and within each person who is using him to do their own bidding, to enrich themselves, to change the direction of our country from ""of the people, for the people, by the people"...to "by me, for me!" is disgusting and shameful!!!
I would like to ask each one, how long will you live on this earth? What are the values you are destroying to experience personal wealth and power? There will be infighting for powers of position because none of you care for the future, none of you care for the poor and crippled.
God, the triune God who "loved me to Himself" with tenderness and compassion and who guides me each day (as I listen to Him) makes Himself available to all. He allows choices for which I am grateful, He forgives when I proceed with actions I CHOOSE WITHOUT REGARD OR RESPECT FOR HIS WISDOM. He also forgives me when I face my wrong choices and ADMIT them!
We must not ignore the actions of this person sitting in the Presidency of the United States of America...as well as those who are enriching themselves by supporting him, our country, our freedoms, "the best of each of us" is at stake!
There are those who hold that if there really was a personal transcendental God we wouldn't have the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Trump. Why even permit these people to exist if one is all-knowing, all-powerful?
These people since the 2nd Bush administration have sought to exert total control. They are doing it now with approval of republicans in Congress
This administration, if you want to still call it that, is no better than Afghanistan’s Taliban. They destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan and were never punished!
Yes ‘safeguards’ guidelines, guardrails are all inconvenient for the stupidity to rein in the💩!
We also see this the love of so-called deregulation…the removal of laws that might limit the profits of a few to the detriment of us all…the deregulation panic was so Ronald Reagan as an excuse to rape and pillage…what he did to California he did the America!
And yet we still hear some of this…I like that Pete Buttigieg is having conversations about big ideas for radical changes and the conversation must include creating level playing fields for wealth and wages, and the true costs of laws…cutting food aid hurt framers and killed perhaps hundreds of thousand children. And accomplished what?
Lack of universal health care costs us a lot in waste, fraud and abuse, as well and the even greater costs of poor health and death. We pay more and get less…this is the outcomes of the GOP!
Tax breaks for the richest!? This is fucking nuts! Unless you are the yacht builder I guess…
Reagan again…so much comes back to him…not really a conservative was he?
We need real conservatives, not ideological idiots! I’m a conservative in many, many ways…read the Mother tree book and then become a real conservative.
Doesn’t Congress have any power to stop all of this nonsense?
Of course it does - impeachment! But the treasonous Repubs won’t allow it.
Don't let the cowardly, complicit appeaser dems off the hook. They have all contributed to this nightmare.
You just read (I assume) a list of Democrats who are EXTREMELY CONCERNED and doing what they CAN to fight.
I’m not sure you know this but the Republicans control all three branches of government.Please tell me the steps YOU would have taken to prevent this.
Thank you. This is no time to blame democrats for republican silence and complicity.
:-) I wasn't going to reply, but am glad you did.
Thank you, Barbara.
as if most politicians are there for 'the good of the people'? right. the most obvious difference to me between most of the 'serving' republicans and democrats is who jumps through the corporate hoops the quickest.
I know you’re trying to say something but I’m not sure what it is.
The focus for Democrats now MUST be winning the midterms. If you want to replace a candidate make DAMN sure that seat remains DEMOCRAT!
Otherwise we lose.
if a loaded truck loses its brakes on the way downhill, i'd get out of the way. greetings from the NL...
Heather mentioned that the BLM is taking public comments about Chaco Canyon. I published a post elsewhere today regarding why it should continue to be protected. They have not begun to drill yet, and public commentary is still open. Please everyone send in a comment to: https://savingplaces.org/places/greater-chaco-landscape/updates/take-action-to-protect-chaco
I think you mean lazy Americans who didn't vote in the 2024 election because - Gaza! - and MAGA fools who did vote. The Dems are neither cowardly nor appeasers - they are in the MINORITY thanks to the VOTERS.
Thank you Carol Ann. I am tired of people bashing the Dems bc it is not useful. The Dems have shortcomings. The Republicans own DC right now.
and big companies/the rich have dictated law/policy since before 'America' existed. invasion after invasion...boatload of africans after boatload...and more etcs than i'd care to list. this pertains to all empires.
the Hebrews in Egypt. cheap labor. and i'm sure it goes back further than that...can be found amongst animal and insect species...the dominant and subdominant. politicians are, mostly, just 'front men'. while the band plays on.
I agree. I bet they have all kinds of dirt on many GOP. They should be threatening to use it to expose them if they don't impeach, if they don't force the release of the Epstein files, if they allow this idiot to continue to destroy lives, natural environment. They are complicit by not being forceful. Or do they stay silent to protect the oligarchal system to survive for when they're back in power?
agree. interesting how rarely this is brought up.
My friends, I once called for the once good generals to enact a military coup in order to stop a 100% destructive maniac Antichrist from hell from entering office and I was universally criticized here for that memorandum. Y’all told me this would end the non intervention history of our military. You told me it would destroy the Constitution. My friends, ye who continues to hath such notions, please come forward an explain to my Truth and Integrity Commission.
I’m sorry if I’m an agitator this morning. But that’s me. It got me kicked out of the Catholic grade school mama sent me to in another century. An I remain an agitator.
I hope Loren Bliss is alright. I haven’t seen him in a few days.
I messaged him privately sometime back, asking in as delicate a fashion as I could muster if he had a way of letting this community know if his expiration date had arrived, and he told me there was.
I share your concern.
thanks, Ally.
I’ve come to enjoy his style of writing about christoNazi. I love it.
Interesting you should say this as I was wondering about this yesterday.
Bill, you had the imagination suited for the moment. Unfortunately, Merrick Garland lacked the necessary imagination that met the moment.
Exactly. I think his feeling was that it would blow over. No not a good response. Bad people must be taken out of they will comeback to do real damage as what is happening now. Plus, when he was shot, I knew that if he won, he would revenge the world for that injury. He is now doing just that.
If you read Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism, you would see that Garland was far too timid to rock the boat.
In hindsight, those guys and an almost legitimate beef. Federal agents surrounded the Waco, Texas religious settlement and wrecked havoc. They could have waited for the leader to walk down the street instead of sending arms to blow up everything. Same with Ruby Ridge. While I was never pro gun ownership, how dare the feds come attacking a rural settlement as they did. So I have some pause here even if those guys were the runner up to the present day extreme mega movement.
I did not criticise you Bill. I wanted a revolution when he was allowed to put his scummy name on the ballot!
It’s ok, Marj. I just like to shake things up.
I grew up with military juntas overthrowing Autocrats or duly elected officials right and left in South and Central America. It was like a rite of spring or something. I used to wonder what the people of those countries thought when they woke up to a new regime not of their choosing. Some general would assume sole power and be worse than the person he deposed. Don’t even breathe that here ! Not with this military after Hegseth’s drunken purges .
Bill Katz, at 92, wish I’d seen your column. I have been thinking military coup since January 6. Before that hoped impeachment. My first thought in 2016 was to throw every Republican who refused to recognize Biden’s election OUT OF CONGRESS! If we’d done that we might not be in this disaster.
Most important: a month after the election of 2216 I heard a major economist say: “We may be doomed. Resist!” Child of WWII, I have with GOTV postcards and Indivisible.
Thank you Virginia!
I am nursing a pain of my own. My contribution is writing a book and songs. I sufficiently impressed the regional No Kings organizer to put me in the line up for two songs at a major concert this fall. I was going to be in company of national acts. Then he and I got into a dumb fuss bug and the guy dropped me. It’s a big disappointment because my songs are what and all I can do to help. Life goes on. I’m seeking other possibilities.
I think we need another George Washington, not yet another dictator-type and it may have been possible before the hegseth purge. As a former military officer, all the officers I know took their oath to the constitution very seriously.
It’s disheartening. Thank you for serving and this being said by a guy who hs always protested American wars and I knew I would have immigrated to Canada or Sweden if my draft number had been low enough. Fortunately it was super high that year during the Nixon lotto.
Joan, at best it was an imperfect option. I have known how evil Trump is from way back. I think I have a 6th sense to be able to see evil in people and I saw this person as pure evil. I recall hiring an artist designer in late 1980s or early 1990s and Trump came to my town of Hartford wanting to build a casino. My artist acquaintance met him and she told me she thought he was very creative and intelligent. I remember my response for all time”. “You gotta be kidding.” Well, that quote is of course in the intro to my book. I don’t know if we are going to make it. Trump will attempt anything he can including a fake flag he will force people to riot in the streets just so he can call out the military and suspend the midterms. I’m sorry, I would have opted for the once good generals instead.
Haha! I got kicked out of Catholic religious instructions for asking why non-Catholics or other people who never heard of Jesus would not be allowed in heaven - the nuns literally (and I mean literally) dragged me by my collar and physically threw me out the door. Like you, I have also said from the get-go that this will have to end in violence - either a civil war or a world war where the fascists lose. And I, too, having been a military officer myself (very old now!) wonder where the generals are that could take over since we unarmed civilians are at a great disadvantage against a heavily armed fascist militia.
The last teacher I had, Sister Anthony Mary, after I showed her photos of my mod and hippie pals in 1967 (of course the girls were wearing micro mini skirts and looking like delicious sluts…), she told me I wouldn’t amount too much. In a way her prediction was correct. If I could, I would go back in time and give her a big hug for being devoted to educating us kids. I abused that opportunity. But fittingly, I use my experiences in my stand up today. I once told a sister this story. In 4th grade, the lay teacher put me under her desk for talking in class. Then she put her chair back in place and continued teaching only now I was under her desk looking up at her fat thighs opening and closing. This part of my story happened. Then I go off and hypothesize what she may do if I reached up and touched IT. Scream? Or pretend nothing happened and this would make me want to touch it some more . Or the 3rd option was she would call the principal Father Emerling and tell him, “Billy Katz just touched it. What should I do?” Father might hve said, “How did that happen?” And she would explain how she put me under her desk for talking in class to which Father would pause then exclaim, “Mrs Henigan, you Sind little Billy Katz right down to my office so I can put him under my desk.”
After I told this to a Sister of Mercy, I thought she would be understanding of molestation taking place in the church but not so and she turned to me and said, “That’s not funny.”
why are you apologizing...? America was founded by agitators...i can hardly believe that I'M the one reminding you of this...
lol.
Russell Vought is using the strategy outlined in Project 2025 to use executive orders, and then implementing them via changes in federal regulations to achieve these objectives. That way the changes do not require congressional approval, or at least that is the plan.
The same strategy is being used to give Trump more power to fill nonpartisan civil service management, supervisory, and policy making positions with political appointees by moving them to a new "Career" track with fewer civil service employment protections, so they become "at will" employees. There SCOTUS has already weighed in on the related matter of expanding Trump's ability to remove members of non-partisan boards (higher level appointments) without cause.
The changes to the national monuments boundaries can be contested in the federal courts but ultimately this is also an argument about the unitary executive theory and will depend on the circuits which have jurisdiction and how they rule, and whether SCOTUS would grant cert. It is about pushing boundaries of presidential power.
Georgia...Or could we say it is about pushing the boundaries of authoritarian power under the guise of "presidential" power... We must get to the Nov. elections...come Hell or high water....
And this is exactly why there won’t be any elections anymore. trumpty will declare a national emergency, have the elections cancelled and the Extreme Court will sign it all off, 6:3 as always. I swear, if you want to get rid of his ugly orange ass, you’ll have to drag him kicking and screaming out of that White House.
Or in a straight jacket. That would make things easier. He is batsh*t crazy…
Or…
...defenestration?
Just or. Use your imagination.
Yep, just or.
Empire.
It is most of human civilization acts of taking over lands and people. The
Romans did this and not just in the area of the there is a more proper name but I will use Hebrew and Christian biblical lands. So the Picts in Britain with the Celts around in several areas taken over by Rome then the Romans left. See St Bede and his works and St Augustine of Canterbury also the author Rosemary Sutcliffe children’s books. Then the Anglo Saxon with their Germanic influences who then were taken over by the Norman’s and William the Conquer . He then colonized internally with grabs of this and that. Then after King Henry the Eight Church dissolution lands were given to high ranking folks not the people. Hence the importance of the Magna Carter. However land abd underground land rights a bevy of problems for just folks because of the concept of empire and or colonization. Our country founded on not countries but corporations and countries and sometimes church. So oppression is us though the indigenous folk from all over time and place less so but yes land still was an issue. We as a human civilization might need this crisis or line of crisis points in order to change and really change from our past efforts of grab and control lands and people.
Hum… yaa.
How is this a change?
Oh my thought that some sort of change or collapse would be part of in the very long long view a good versus bad? Not included in my thumbnail sketch of Britain are the conquering Vikings who left tracts of themselves in the people and the cities of Ireland. Human events change everything at times but there impressions remain and in random scatters. In York Minster there is down below a near Roman archeological location. So I am thinking that our country has or will reach a breaking point and what comes next is as much I
Portage as how the shift falls out . Corporations have created with the help of several systems that have created private equity worse than King Pellinore’s Questing Beast along with cracks and holes so that our country is now like a potholed brick street that needs major renovation along with the homes that are interspersed with condos and stores and auto places parking lots. Underground mineral rights legal cases from the early 1900’s and fossil fuels created issues. And many attempts to change like the New Deal frame broken just when the beginnings of racial equality were finally being addressed. See the life of Mary M. Bethune. And just a rolling stone of things no one wanted to acknowledge see, hear, much less talk about. But we are and the collapse of the CDC under RFK Jr completes issues that have been smoldering for years in science. Sabin and Salk revived no profit from the injectable or oral vaccine now too much science is profit driven rather than research inquiry driven which is a tragedy because science saves life’s and improves lives. So this is a time of reckoning and readjustment and one hopes that the changes that have been needed like in the political systems and structure will take place and the earth itself be part of an entire movement . U N and ICC have been working as land as a legal entity and rivers but the US is still not part of ICC abd not signed vital UN declarations. It’s like having a tree fall on your not really liked garage abd getting to because no other choice create a better garage. You know add a side screened porch or put in a window or a door.
That, or I should say they, meaning Vought, Miller, Ellison and the rest of the billionaire boys are the problem. Trump is their tool.
We need to elect these young, so called radical candidates who have the passion and the drive to right the ship and to overrule the old fuddy duddies in the Democratic Party who have stood around and let this happen.
The Heritage Foundation and all these Libertarian assholes need to be reined in sharply and very quickly. Time to ENFORCE the anti trust laws and enact the banking laws that should have been written after the 2008 crisis.
Congress? Oh you refer to little M. Johnson's holidaying bunch.
Carol Laborde, just what I was wondering. Naturally, the orange smear is forever trying to divert our attention as his war fails, Epstein files lurk, and apparently he’s losing some of his fervent followers to rising cost of living plus and esp his war.
HCR is beyond stalwart having to inform us about all the garbage diaper thug manages to produce daily.
I for one cannot imagine having to report on these things day by day. She’s made of somethings wonderful I lack: resilience for one.
However, like you and so many others here, as we search for solutions, I’m determined to stay informed and as active as possible in the face of all the refuse, corruption, destruction to us and the rest of our world.🌏
Congress has abdicated its power and now grovels at the feet of that festering sore in the People's House.
Congress grovels because 77 million voters stand ready to remove them from Congress if they don’t. The source of this catastrophe must be attributed to people who voted for Trump, nearly all of whom were among the 60% of white voters (including 70% of white working class voters and 80% of white evangelical voters) who voted for Trump. It makes me wish there were a hell for them to rot in. Starting now.
Thank you again, Professor Richardson. Remembering WWII, I doubly appreciate your work. (For 15 years, as appreciation for a second language was disappearing from American universities, I was teaching French. I believe the same was true of history in many universities. From Norman Davies’ history of Poland I knew some of the history of Ukraine—rebels like US—with 2 languages—they could learn our complicated weapons quickly, and now they’re teaching US drones.)
What you are doing for American education, downgraded after WWII by many, embraced by the Korean War veterans on the GI bill who taught me musicological research in a building from WWII at UNC-CH, is as priceless as what you are teaching US. Wishing you a second Medal of Freedom.
It's never been about power, only political will.
Stop splitting hairs.
Power, yes. Will, no. Lap dogs.
yeah, they do! But the sycophants in the GOP aren't bluntly telling him to fk off. They need to impeach!!!
I believe behind everything this President does is probably some personal financial or vanity benefit, but also an old grudge or vendetta. Someone in his past who has offended him, told him no, limited his business, or taken him or someone he likes to court. His actions of vengeance and defiance are displayed with the equivalence of a dog marking a fire hydrant with as little thought or concern except to leave his scent everywhere possible. Apologies to our dear dogs.
His main grudge is that he has had his nose pressed against the glass door of Respectability all his life and he knows it will never be opened to such a lowlife as he.
*Everyone* in his past, present and future has, does and will offend him because his insecurities are a bottomless pit lined with his justified belief that he actually *is* the miserable, worthless creature his father assured him he was. He is the embodiment of the self-fulfilling prophecy.
A case-report for a whole panel of psychiatrists to analyze. He will be in many medical textbooks going forward.
His diagnosis, malignant narcissism, was developed specifically to define Hitler.
I'd throw in borderline personality disorder as well.
Borderline?
Yeah, Anne-Louise, he crossed that border a looooonnnngggg time ago!
IIRC, by definition it is a defined disorder with a vast array of symptoms of other disorders that individually do not meet diagnostic criteria, but cumulatively do present a milieu which qualify diagnosis.
Here's what Wiki's "Search Assistant" (read: AI) says:
"Borderline personality disorder is defined in the DSM-5 as a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affect, along with marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in various contexts. To receive a diagnosis, a person must meet at least five of nine specified symptoms such as frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, unstable intense relationships, identity disturbance, impulsivity, suicidal behavior, affective instability, chronic feelings of emptiness, inappropriate anger, and transient stress-related paranoia or dissociation."
I don't want him to be anywhere at all going forward.
He and the movent that created him will fill up volumes, assuming free inquiry survives.
If anyone can make it through without retching. Repeatedly.
So well said... putting his mark on anything and everything he wants - with little or no thought or concern except to get back at someone or something.
"I believe behind everything this President does is probably some personal financial or vanity benefit, but also an old grudge or vendetta."
(channeling Jethro Gibbs): Ya think?
Trumps vendetta is against the American public. He has no decency. He knows he's hurting us and it's what gives him his greatest pleasure. There will be justice but it will take many years. He's infiltrated almost every aspect of our functioning government.
Bonnie, with his passion for gold and money he lacks any real education or thoughtful intelligence. Sometimes I think of a brain formed without love and horrendous nutrition. Can any reader here imagine a life of burgers with catsup?
They. Don’t. Care. Their hubris, power, and money are the only things that mean anything to them-not history, not laws, not decorum-nothing but their whims. We are at the mercy of malevolent narcissists with the restraint of toddlers. Dangerous, destructive, and deadly for everything and everyone in their path.
That’s why those letters specifically threatened the individuals choosing to participate in this criminal racket with future prosecution and imprisonment. Nothing less will do, and no one really knows whether that’s enough.
If that McDonald’s golden Arc gets built, we can blow it up. But once the timeless sanctity of Chaco Canyon gets invaded and raped, the desecration will not be so easily reversed.
There are some things that cannot be replaced, ever.
I think I am going to plan a visit to Chaco Canyon before it disappears from the earth under a strip mine.
I hope there are means to block the incursion on sacred sites, National Parks, etc. We all need to encourage, demand, and support such measures. In the meantime-thanks for this insight! Seriously, thank you! I’ve got some trips to plan!!! 💙
Sacred to me is totally different from what the current occupant thinks is sacred. His version is profane in every sense of the word.
I’m in the same boat. To him, the only things sacred are himself and his money. It isn’t just profane, it’s pathetic-and if it weren’t so destructive to so many lives and spaces, it would be sad.
Exactly right.
That and breaking all the rules just because he can, because Congress, $COTUS, and the holders of tons of money are pleased to let him.
J L Graham, its REPUBLICANS in Congress, please. Do you remember the 40 years the Democrats held both houses? I do. Then came Newt Gingrich whose wife is reported to have laughed at the correspondents’ dinner. (Sorry I can’t remember the exact ”inappropriateness.”
Gotta make money!
That is their god. Talk about a golden calf moment in history…😡
The 6 person junta that currently rules our lives has a couple of cheap, immoral theories to which we must adhere: Originalism and the Unitary Executive Theory. I never thought I would ever say this, but here goes. I’m glad my husband isn’t alive to see this desecration, especially his beloved Chaco Canyon. To him I say, honey, I’ll keep fighting against these monsters.
I commit my intent to my Dad, who was such a supporter of National Parks.
Not on my watch!
Lauren, I, and I am sure many many others, feel the same. That I am glad you did not have to see this taking place. Rest in peace.
Vision? trump has no vision, at least not in the way we see it. He is all about revenge and getting his way with whatever he wants, whatever will hurt us. You see, The Pain Is The Point. Your final paragraph says it all, dear Heather:
What is at stake is more than just buildings. It is the whitewashing and bulldozing of our history and culture, created over centuries by the many people who have built the United States, in service to the small vision of Trump and his enablers.
November cannot come soon enough. We must make these cretins pay and feel our wrath over the damage they have wrought.
Trump has something both more cynical and arguably more effective: he has an unwavering narrative of the failures of his predecessors causing the decline of the country and the possibility of a new Golden Age for America under his leadership. It has been a constant theme for him since his 2015 campaign. It allows him to blame others for all of the country's problems even though they have continued (and sometimes worsened) under his presidencies. There is some evidence that this alternative reality in which he increasingly now seems to dwell can no longer survive contact with the harsh realities that face American households but he still has a surprisingly large base of fanatical support committed to his version of reality and the backing of business, tech and media moguls, so long as their financial interests are consonant with his ambitions. It's a truly depressing state of affairs.
Now that I heard the speeches that Marco Rubio and Stephen Miller gave to a group convened by Defense Department on July 16, 2026, the very day Trump spoke in the evening, I’m afraid nothing surprises me. They revealed what they really think of anyone who doesn’t support them. From the Guardian:
“The morning belonged to the secretary of state. Before officials of more than 60 countries, he announced that the counterterrorism architecture of the free world, built over a generation against jihadist mass murder, should be rebuilt and aimed at the domestic left.”
I added the italics. You can link to the speeches here – I think every American citizen should listen to them.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/22/stephen-miller-marco-rubio-trump-speeches?CMP=share_btn_url
Senior GOP members of Congress have for a long time wanted the president and the administration to focus on cost-of-living issues with the midterm elections only 100 days away. This seems like a desperate last-ditch attempt by Trump and his minions to create a new narrative by revisiting the 'enemy within/Deep State' motif that has been present in Trump's perpetual whinging about how badly he claims to have been treated. None of this bears remotely on the issues of most concern to the majority of Americans and that's why Trump's approval ratings continue to slump.
Miller is an attack dog, so one can understand him doing what he was born to do. Rubio, however, has pretensions to succeed Trump and so his behaviour is inexcusable. Reviving the 1950s Red Scare in relation to the Democratic party is a terrible idea but Trump's cabinet just goes along with every bad idea he has. The level of sycophancy has one reaching for the sick bucket at times.
Here's Rubio, for example:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/O2bKABIrmXA
That's almost the equal of Vance:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7SvA0Qz1Qow
Here's an example of the 'domestic left' that I just came across.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/y64c227VDRk
Wow Peggy I just wrote the same thing you did! Great minds think alike 😀
Thanks for telling me, Mojave Rich! Great minds think alike!
America is going to look like an aged person with 20 levels of plastic surgery, sitting, totally deformed - no longer human looking. Grotesque. We'll be a pile of scar tissue.
A blind person has more vision than the rump
“This project is stone-cold illegal,”
A line that could be used for pretty much everything the orange overlord touches..
Trump is like someone with the most contagious disease ever known - whatever he touches begins at once to demise. The economy, the White House grounds and other sacred sites in our Capital, our health system, our military and perhaps most significantly the standing we had as the strongest defender of freedom. I have said in other posts that it was extreme bad fortune that led to his occupying the Presidency but he is only a single person. But it is much more difficult to accept that the Congress, almost all the members of which know full well that he is so abjectly unfit, have not removed him.
Agree with you about the Congress. It's dismantled.
theRepublican Senators and representatives have all been gelded. not a single one will stand up and say what they really think about Trump. it's what our founding fathers feared most.
And yet there is all this chest-pounding about masculinity and "high-T" -- positively cartoonish.
Who could have thought that a tarted up pimple on a golden escalator would end up leaking in the peoples house?
I fear the people's house is beyond repair. How about a mass no pasaran demonstration around the Eisenhower building?
It's absolutely incomprehensible! When will all this destruction and stupidity end!
This is a disturbing one. I hope the courts can issue fast injunctions to stop them.
In the past, some of his malevolence has gotten stopped at the gate, provided enough of a public outcry, combined with threats to wouid-be perpetrators strong enough to be taken seriously. But it’s going to require Rs as well as Ds before threats to prosecute are taken seriously, I fear.
Someone in yesterday’s letter said something very astute — Republicans are riding a high-speed merry-go-round (more like a misery-go-round) and will not jump off, even to save their own lives, it would seem. They’re addicted to the mad, uncontrollable chaos of it all.
Lindsey Graham wasn’t just a weak beta groveling in front of his alpha. He was addicted to the power the groveling brought him, stronger than heroin or fentanyl. That’s why they continue doing this. That’s why our Founders so greatly feared ambitious demagogues, intoxicated with their own petty power over others.
Interesting assessment regarding power. I sure don't understand the lure of that sort of power.
They must... this kind of unnecessary, disgusting destruction has to stop... and soon.
This is absolutely maddening! What gives one person who is elected for four years to be president of this country to permanently alter the landscape and change or destroy THE PEOPLE’s property. Please, everyone who is involved in making these decisions, remember, these monuments and buildings and sacred grounds are not HIS personal property.
Trump thinks EVERYTHING is his: every dollar, buildings, historical sites, the WH, all government employees . . .
GGGRRRR!
Are we going to rename DC Trumpville? The US, the Abject and Subjugated States of Trump?
Dr. Richardson doesn't even mention the ongoing plan to cut down some of the oldest cherry trees, given to the US by the Japanese, to make room for a golf course. Of course.
We are being governed by a caricature of Dr. Seuss villains, but there is no magic or fairy godmother that will instantly reverse the damage once the evil is removed.
Trump is desecrating the heritage of the United States--its values, its history, its laws, its scientific and medical capability, its military, law enforcement and legal institituions, the physical landscape of the nation itself.
And every act of desecration makes the villain and his henchmen and lickspittles more desperate to claim absolute power, because they know that if they do not, they will eventually be held accountable for their crimes.
I did not know about the cherry trees. A few years ago I saw a cherry tree in a region of Japan that foreign tourists would ignore, but my daughter was teaching there. I think the tree was over 1200 years old. It was buttressed by scaffolding but it was still blooming. Urban Japanese embrace the very new,yet preserve a lot of the very old. There is a special place in homes for natural beauty. That seemed very civilized.
The trees he wants to uproot are in East Potomac Park, near where the wonderful outside four-sectioned monument to FDR is located. It’s less visible than the much more frequently visited area directly opposite the Jefferson Memorial, but no less significant.
They actually do go out and observe, contemplate, appreciate the cherry trees.
The only thing we need to rename is a prison and then install king trump on the electric throne there!!
And, like the East Wing, he won’t wait for approval to remove trees. He’ll just give the order and his will be done.
Every day, these cretins work overtime to destroy our country.
If I believed in the Devil, I'd be forced to consider if the nominal Republican Party was in his employ. Government of the people, by the people, for the people; not some autocrat. It's not just a slogan; it's supposed to be our legacy.
"Trump orders warning signs outside Smithsonian to claim national museum ‘does not present American history’
The signs will be installed by the National Parks Service along sidewalks and walkways near the museum"
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-warning-signs-smithsonian-museum-b3021508.html
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and of your ears. It was their final, most essential command.” -- "1984"
I can’t think of anything that would make me want to visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History more than a sign warning me what I was about to see doesn’t meet with Steven Miller’s approval.
The hamfistedness of it all just takes your breath away. The other day, the Museum’s Director was asked by some Republican pea-brain at a Committee hearing whether she loved America, and asked her to define “Latina Power” that adorned a pink ball cap being sold in the Museum’s gift shop. How the Director didnt just burst out laughing on the spot, I do not know.
ICTT, thank you for bringing up that inane confrontation over the pink Latina Power hats made by a company started and run by two immigrants who built it from scratch. I wish the Smithsonian Museum Director Anthea Hartig had answered the question about whether those hats belonged in the gift shop at the museum by saying, "Yes, absolutely they belong because they demonstrate that immigrants are welcome in the U.S. They built this nation and are still building it."
She tried to bring in the goodness of multitudinous cultures and ethnicities in answer but it couldn't penetrate the contempt dripping from the Republican "gotcha" questions because they aren't serious.
How hard it must be to face people like Rep. Gill (R-TX) asking whether Mickey Mouse is racist. How on earth did Director Harding keep her cool?!
In any governmental organization, there are ample opportunities to address the most ridiculous and asinine questions/comments/statements made by the idiots who make them.
In Trump's case the essential command is 'look at this instead of that' and it almost always works.
I’m still convinced trump is the anti-christ. He does check a lot of the boxes… “ and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God.”
Cankles’ socks are there to hide the cloven hoof… all that hiding is causing the swelling.
🤣👏
You're definitely on to something, Signe.
So, the diaper contains the pointed tail?
I've thought about that! It just seems too too much of a coincidence that every congressman has drunk the coolaid. I was thinking back to the many years that there was a lot of visiting back and forth to Russia as part of a "let's be friends" movement. I don't know details, but maybe someone here does.
Legend.
A good news development on another bad news front worth noting. Katie Phang's Epstein Transparency Act case against the DOJ will move forward with Judge Sullivan deciding the DOJ cannot be trusted an he must examine redacted documents himself.
The DOJ is so in Trump's pocket that he should be paying them out of his personal accounts, not ours.
This is the point, or we passed the point, where the framers intended Congress to be a check on a rogue executive branch. That is, a responsible Congress aware of its constitutional obligations. We no longer have one of those. The Republican congressional majority has ceded its authority and obligations and given the Trump Administration free rein to do as it pleases.
Come November…
MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To stop Republican abuse we must unite and elect Democrats.
The right wing understands Yes *We* Can. While too many on the Left indulge in No *I* Won't.
lin•, I think it needs to be "We F*****g Better"
Check this map for the hundreds of Historic Preservation Sites put at risk of demolition by Trump gutting Section 106 to build his Arch
https://thedemlabs.org/2026/07/25/trump-arch-section-106-jeopardizes-historic-preservation-sites/
Be aware that the comment period for the 106 assessment for the arch was reopened. It closes on the 30th.
https://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=186&projectID=136973&documentID=151576
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