Dear God! I am not prone to use profanity, but WTF?! Can his family & staff not intervene & get him help? This isn't just a "meme" or joke anymore, The man is seriously in need of help and needs to receive it before he does more serious damage to our nation/reputation. Am I over-reacting?
No, it is not an over-reaction, but let’s not forget that getting rid of tRump is not the big problem … he is steadily getting rid of himself. There is quite a pile of acolytes and cabinet ministers and even some elected officials around him that have surely got to go.
And THAT of course IS the problem. If Trump is gone, whoever takes his place could easily be worse... much more serious and capable at wrecking our country, and with 2-1/2 more years to go in the Trump II term, we will have to endure SANE dictatorship. A crazy Trump in office actually scares me LESS than a sane JD Vance under the thumb of Peter Thiel and his minions. And while some talk of impeachment, (a) it will never result in his removal, because it takes 2/3 of the Senate which is currently controlled 53-47 by Trump's sycophants and (b) you can't impeach all of Trump's underlings, its just not even practical or possible. So nothing much will change and with him gone, people will retract into their cocoons and let the underlings take over.
Nothing good is likely to come of ANY of this. Sigh...
Whether something good come out of this depends on “we the people.”
If we the people seek justice, then we the people sow the seeds of truth and reconciliation, and we reap what we sow. To paraphrase Nelson Mandela, justice always seems impossible until it’s done (aka “real justice is always obvious, but only in hindsight”).
If we the people want revenge, then we the people sow the seeds of lies and retribution, and we want what MAGA wants. So, revenge includes a visit to the local Unconstrained Ignorance vendor where a MAGA hat can be purchased and worn with pride.
Either way, “fair” is where you take your pig to get a ribbon.
Justice includes looking at the politicians and the pundits like looking at the “we the people” mirror. For the record, there are places where the mirror is NOT distorted. IMHO, they most notably include Pete Buttigieg and Letters from an American.
I'd go with Vance now who is widely hated and has no cult following. But indicting the whole Trump regime and Republicans in Congress for treason would be nice.
I probably sound like a repeating record, but everyone who mentions indictments needs to keep well in mind that Trump will pardon at least the key people and possibly a huge number of associates before he leaves office to make absolutely sure that no one of his followers who worked on various nefarious plans with him or his team will ever be indicted or convicted or spend a day in jail. Despite being a complete idiot, he is also actually quite shrewd and he clearly learned a LOT from the experience after his first term when he didn't really pardon enough people and some actually went to jail at least for a while (like Steve Bannon). I have absolute certainty that mistake will not happen again. Its a terrible flaw in our Constitution and hopefully someday it will be fixed, but for the time being, the flaw remains there and gives the President the power to pardon virtually anyone at least from federal criminal proceedings.
Yes, Jon, but Americans elected (twice) a rank criminal, rapist, fraud, serial liar.
The flaw accounting for this doesn't lie so much in the Constitution as in the character of tens of millions of Americans apparently, obviously well-schooled, well-drilled in accepting criminality, rape, fraud, and patent lies.
This "character" in people devolves not only from those Hillary castigated as deplorables, but additionally, too, from many, many lawyers, accountants, PR people, graduates of good universities, elected representatives to Congress.
Hey Phil, I have absolutely NO disagreement with HOW we got here. My comment was only intended to point out the stupidity of hitting your head against a wall over and over expecting that somehow this will change reality. Yes, there is a huge flaw. Yes, tens of millions of Americans apparently were stupid or ignorant enough to vote for him. And yes, there are plenty of reasons we can point to for why this happened. But none of that changes the ultimate outcome nor the almost absolute impotence we have in fixing it. Changes to our Constitution have to happen, or the country will sooner or later completely fail, but its not going to happen in time to solve any of our current problems, sigh.
Greed, plain, ugly, simple. Agree with the self-proclaimed rich president and you'll get your share. Whoever voted for him this term, placates/supports him now, and/or continues to work for him somehow, deep down, believes this, that pay day is coming. The billionaires got their pay day in tax cuts, mergers, and fewer and fewer regulations holding them back from profits. For some, the pay day was a pardon. The rest of them are still waiting for pay day. Greed is never satisfied. All evidence that this president has a habit of not paying his contractors and employees, etc., is ignored. They still believe they're on the gravy train.
Phil Balla, you have nailed it: Americans notoriously fabricate their own truths, their own fictions, invent their own lives, create new versions of themselves etc. It is so sad that Americans create these mythic narratives and illusions of greatness which disfigure reality, which, then, define how Americans conduct their lives ... and vote. I saw a quote recently by Plato: He imagines "human beings chained for the duration of their lives in an underground cave, knowing nothing but darkness and believing these flickering shadows as reality."
Racism has been a fault line since the founding, and misogyny is entwined with it. Notice how, shortly after the civil rights advances of the mid-1960s, the Republican Party jumped into a handbasket and started on the road to hell? The Democrats were well rid of their white/right wing, but they haven't taken advantage of it. It's pretty shocking that the so-called leadership was caught napping by the onset of Trump II.
P.S. And let's not forget Citizens United, the SCOTUS gift that keeps on giving.
But…their ‘prison’ will be a true Democracy…which they will HATE >>> a state taught very well by DJT <<< his LEGACY, linked to “MAGA”, and ironically paired with the racist, xenophobic and bigoted Christian Right advocates <<<insults to Jesus!😭
They will marinate in their ultimate failure to create a fascist ‘pure’ white America, instead of the melting pot it was always promised to become…”with Liberty and JUSTICE for all…”🇺🇸🗽⚖️
Jean, I know it's just semantics, but I prefer "tapestry" over "melting pot." Our strength is in the rich texture of our multiplicity of cultural backgrounds woven together into a thing of beauty.
Since the 18th Century, white christian nationalists have been determined to force other ethnicities into assimilating white Anglo-Saxon protestantism, creating a cultural melting pot full of beige goo.
Anyone who might be charged with a federal crime is eligible for a federal pardon from the POTUS. There are no exceptions, although the one possible exception is whether he can pardon himself. But I fully expect Trump to resign one day before he is scheduled to leave office so that JD can pardon him for sure.
I recall Michael Flynn, Roger Stone in addition to Bannon who have been in on the conspiratorial efforts. Let's not forget the Project 2025 ers who put it all into a blueprint. Miller and Vought are still doing damage and I think DT is leaning on them. Or maybe they are helping him write his tomes.
Yeah, I agree.I’ll take my chances with JD.He has zero curb appeal and all of the charisma of a gnat.And he is wildly unpopular everywhere.Trump is the head of the snake and needs to be gone.smh
In real life, poll after poll shows Vance leading, and by far, in GOP primaries. The GOP has become a neofascist party. History has shown that only the first one needs to be charismatic. The successors need to be willing to take over all the same lies and then do whatever the most powerful neofascists in the party want them to do, and that's all.
Key word here being GOP primaries. All the Republican support in the primaries is meaningless when the time for the general election comes. Whoever the nominee is, needs to get support from Independents and Democrats. Vance has all the charisma of dryer lint. He's the worst retail politician I've ever seen. He just doesn't know how to talk to people on any level.
When Orange goes, so does MAGA. And MAGA is not fond of Vance, not in the least.
First of all, Vance has been leading the primary polls for a long time already. See Russell's link below, which shows that for the first time, he's now neck and neck with Rubio. So yes, MAGA loves Vance. That's just a fact.
And it's not about charisma (although his charisma, when giving a MAGA speech for a MAGA audience, has improved a lot; he's learning on the job). It's about what the GOP media says about him, how it depicts him. Skip that fact and you forget that the GOP has become a neofascist party.
As to Independents and Democrats: if 10 million people voting for Biden in 2020 can stay home in 2024, with a convicted criminal on the ballot, what makes you believe that those same 10 million people will be more worried when it's a much more decent-looking man, able to come across as well-spoken and well-mannered in debates, who is the nominee... ?
Remember, those who hate MAGA also tend to love Dem-bashing (no matter how irrational it is to do so). And so many Independents and Democrats imagine that politics is about finding the next Obama, rather than understanding that it's about saving democracy and building on the progress Biden and Harris made...
Rubio has sold his sold more than most -- because he knows what he is supporting is wrong - and not long ago he held different positions. Contrary to his boyish looks, he is just as calculating and hungry for more power as the rest of them.
Ah, Rubio is a jerk, but he is an educated fairly intelligent one, and even though I would hate every minute of it, I doubt he would continue the insanity of the current administration. He is living in it himself right now, and he probably has little control over things, but he is the closest thing we have to a John Kelly in this second Trump term.
They're neck and neck. My guess: the Heritage Foundation and the neofascist tech billionaires prefer Vance, so he'll win the primaries. They'll use their massive propaganda machine to get their base there.
When we hit the BRICS wall and our economy is destroyed, maybe we will have a sit down w/ these bosses of our so-called Democracy and tell them to Stand Down! And the CIA: go get a job elsewhere.
If AIPAC doesn’t like it, they can just go live in Israel, if Israel is livable…Or, wherever they can buy their way in with their billions. Africa? Mars?
Don't forget about Elon Musk illegally breaking into several government agencies. Him and his DOGE boys stole and sold data that almost no one had access to.
So if you think Peter Thiel would be worse than Elon, it's not likely. It could be more of the same, but most people have already forgotten all of the damage Musk and Trump did through DOGE.
Disagree - not worse, because the cult will disintegrate. The forces behind his enablers will still be there, yes, but more people are waking up and realizing he's robbing them and the nation. We will fight back. We will overcome.
Thank You, Beverly! I agree! My armed & crazy MAGAte neighbor won't change, but my retired and now really hurting trumper ones are already stepping back from the fracas. If only we could silence Fox News...
Wait 'til after the mid terms and fox entertainment starts blaming the dems for the cuts in healthcare scheduled to take effect after the Nov election.
So 85% of Republicans still support Trump. And demographically, they are older Americans that actually believe that Trump and the current Congress are conservative Republicans. When you were born into a cult in the 1940's, 1950's and even the 1960's, it's very difficult to abandon your cult, no matter how cruel and hateful the current leader.
I worry about who will come next, but if Trump is gone none of them will hold his coalition together. Most of his minions will shrink away in bewilderment, but what I fear is the militia he has created and the fact that they will be uncontrollable and things will break into chaos. Perhaps that is the undercurrent of my not sleeping at night.
You can't just throw people out of an "alternative facts" bubble. As long as the GOP's propaganda machine exists, they will control the outcome of the primaries and their base will support anyone who wins them. The next GOP nominee will be a neofascist too and say all the falsehoods about Democrats and the country that the GOP has been telling them for decades now. That's all that is needed to get their vote.
Many are adherents to the Cult of Trump, and if he is gone they will lose interest. A core of hard liners will remain, who have designed the playbook, but without their titular head I think they will flounder. They lack his “charisma” (I don’t see it but they do) and worship the man with blinders over their eyes. The puppet masters so far do not have someone to coalesce behind. Let’s hope no one materializes. As I said before, it’s the ones with the fire power I fear, and Hegseth commands the military and I think he is unhinged.
Based on what... ? What makes you imagine that MAGA loves Trump (polls show that many traditional Republicans don't like him as a person, which is why Kamala Harris was right when she said people found his rallies utterly boring... there were often quite empty)?
What MAGA loves is a myth created by a neofascist propaganda machine, the right-wing media ecosystem. That ecosystem won't go anywhere. As long as that's the case, they can dictate their base to vote for no matter who...
Norm Eisen & his legal team, Democracy Docket, despite a string of important Court victories, filed yet another lawsuit last night but, this one goes after Trump's ENABLERS.
See, the Contrarian for their list of Trump's top ten Frauds or last night's case update.
Jon, I think neither Vance nor the shadowy power brokers care whether he is popular with voters. The Tech Bros and the Theo Bros want him in the "presidential palace," because he will help them finish remaking the U.S. into a technocratic theocracy.
No matter how much Donald deteriorates mentally and physically, they will keep him in The Oval past January 20, 2027. After that date, Vance can complete Donald's term and still run for two more terms afterward. I estimate that many GOP legislators are calculating that if they can make it past the above-mentioned date, their power is also guaranteed for as long as they want it.
This is why the 2026 midterms are so important. If Democrats control both houses, they can suspend the movement toward technocratic theocracy, regardless of who's in the White House.
How can Dems even if controlling both House and Senate suspend the movement you foresee? They can definitely make an impact by not passing legislation they hate and trying to pass legislation they like, but anything they pass STILL have to be signed by the president OR if vetoed, then has to have the veto overridden by 2/3 of both House and Senate. So Trump will just veto what he hates unless he decides to try to trade some vetos off. He certainly wouldn't surprise me if he did!
Jon, "suspend" may have been an aspirational word choice, but if nothing else, they can throw sand in the gears. What we can probably agree on is that another Congress of rubber stamps would be catastrophic.
I don't know, Jon. Trump is revered almost as a saint. I know some who absolutely cannot tolerate even the slightest criticism of Trump. How he got there is, of course, a mystery to me, but it's out there.
Exactly. In the end, this isn't about Trump at all. They merely need him and his outrageous tweets and behavior to distract us during the first stage of the installation of fascism in the US.
The GOP base may well be tired of Trump by 2028 and ready for a president who projects "decency", which is clearly what Vance is going for, all while being much more of an ideologue than Trump, so indeed, much more dangerous. And if it isn't Vance, any other Republican who wins the primaries will be equally dangerous.
THE problem today is the GOP, not any single Republican specifically.
We see things in much the same way, Jon. Those of us here tend to see the present as a reflection of illegitimate scoundrels having absconded the America we knew and loved. There is an alternative hypothesis, i.e., this IS what America has become post-Reagan. People make choices, and Americans have chosen tRump TWICE. Not all Americans, mind you, but there are now enough on the materialist, me-first side of things to carry flim-flam artists like tRump to office. However, as you note, the $$ required to propel an empty-promise pig like this into office come from somewhere, and these people are much more formidable. They have pretty much succeeded in taking down what FDR, Francis Perkins and others built, and I fear that it will get worse before it gets better. Rebuilding some sort of meaningful social collective to provide the necessary tension with wealthy capitalists will require much time and the sort of insight that seems rare in the US these days. FDR and his supporters were able to work their magic IMO only because “the people” had suffered so much and were so poorly off, that a social collective formed to blunt the mad scramble of regular individual people to always have more. The calamity of the post-Reagan times challenges the US to reinvent itself. There’s no going back. Folks will have to accept what it has become or resist and rebuild. I honestly dunno where it is going. A few potential leaders (e.g., Sanders, Warren, even Ben Sasse and Jeff Flake on the R side) were either flatly rejected or eliminated by the establishment. Until one appears, IMO, the country will scramble up a steep hill or fall into the deep, dark valley of authoritarianism. Although I am 77 after a good life, I have beaming grandchildren and have no choice but to care. The scenarios are all laid out in Arendt’s writing and things are way further downhill than most can imagine. I HOPE the optimists are right about the midterms, but taking back congress (even both houses) will give the good-guys only a toe-hold IMO.
Do not underestimate the effect of Trump’s removal……. Whether through the 25th Amendment or preferably through impeachment and conviction……would have on the cabal of grifters that now surround him. Even Bezos and Thiel (who is rumored to be acquiring a hidey hole in Argentina) are beginning to be publicly denegrated for being such obvious greedy SOBs that they are aware that they are seen as the problem, not the answer
The sycophants in Congress and in this maladministration will turn on Trump in a heartbeat when popular sentiment make it obvious that it in their interest to do so. And they will claim to have always hated the man…..with perfectly straight faces.
How much worse could it be? They have already dismantled most of the functioning govermnent departments. Most likely his removal would result in a power vacuum, since the ego size of so many of his sycophants is enormous.
All these people praying for trump's demise - he's not the only trash that needs taking out. It's like removing the corpse of a cholera victim - and not getting rid of the dirty bedsheets.
Milady, as I have often stated, Donald is just the shiny hood ornament on the hearse that MAGA is driving toward the cliff. To avoid disaster, removing the driver is a lot more important than removing the chrome trim.
Apparently the new foreign policy doctrine is “America Is Back,” provided America is defined as one elderly influencer, several AI hallucinations, and a racecar parked beside George Washington while the Space Shuttle loiters overhead like a confused Uber.
The Iran negotiations, we are told, are going beautifully, which in Trumpese means the deal is almost done, totally dead, very boring, moving rapidly, and impossible because Democrats keep chirping, all before lunch. The Strait of Hormuz was open before the war, naturally, so the obvious masterstroke was to bomb first, panic later, then demand applause for reopening the door he set on fire.
Meanwhile, the Great American State Fair is facing the terrible national tragedy of musicians discovering prior commitments, moral standards, or caller ID. No problem. Trump may replace them with the “Number One Attraction anywhere in the World,” namely Trump, whose guitarless Elvis routine consists of shouting at clouds until the clouds hire counsel. At this rate, the patriotic entertainment lineup will be Kid Rock, a cardboard cutout of Lee Greenwood, and a malfunctioning fog machine named Liberty.
Then came the AI art dump, because nothing says stable leadership like posting yourself as Washington, Rushmore, superhero admiral, basketball legend, flag kisser, king whisperer, and white-picket-fence time traveler. America is back, and apparently it is back to 1953, with fewer civil rights, more Cadillacs, and a government aesthetic best described as “Dick and Jane join a gated community.”
The Pentagon, not wanting to be outdone in the Department of Perfectly Normal Democracy, reportedly turned its press office into a classified space. Journalists may still ask questions, provided they make an appointment with secrecy itself.
So relax. It will all work out well in the end. It always does, especially when the captain says the iceberg is boring and posts himself as Poseidon.
There are also 77 million people who voted for Trump and who world would be better off without. Unfortunately, we have no way to rid ourselves of them, so we’ll have to find a workaround.
Yeah. Our side has had a lot of bad luck. Hope it turns around. We’re gonna need a lot of really good luck in November, even if we all work our pants off in the interim.
We still have to deal with a segment of our population committed to white Christian Nationalism, i.e., in other words, defeating the 21st century KKK. That will take time and effort.
Yeah, all 12 of them richard. You guys could blow a pimple out of proportion Hey richard you ever been to a Christian nationalism church ? Nope, nor have you ever heard of one I have never seen so much paranoia over belief in God no matter what the religion is
I’m surprised you have enough courage to look in a mirror at yourself
Rick, anatomically, your ancestors who qualify as modern day humans first appeared in Africa about 300,000 years ago. What that means is that your God waited 298,000 years before "fixing" the issue with humans, meaning that 298,000 years of humans had no guidance and probably ended up in Hell. What kind of God, what kind of loving God, would do that?
You know guys, you are to change the channel and get out on the street and witness some of life instead of thinking that you actually live in the real world.
Best president of your life, Paul. Deal with that fact! The Man has more smarts and imagination than anyone that sat in the White House the last hundred years. Except for maybe John F Kennedy
Wait a minute Paul did you just say Joe Biden knew went to step down ? He couldn’t even put 1 foot in front of the other let alone step down ! The Man should’ve never run for president the first time. He was an embarrassment to his country, and it will take. It will take a decade to read ourselves of all his faults and COSTLY mistakes
Nothing like reading The anti-Trump crazies. I don’t know where the hell some of these people have been living like under rocks or in caves Their witnessing greatness in the White House and in Washington DC in vision and in progress and in fact!
The government is diseased. The all American citizens, particularly the electorate (despite party affiliation), have the responsibility to think, and respond with intelligence, to honor the founding principles of the USA, to purge the government (all three branches) of the men and women who fail to represent their interests and the will of USA citizens and to act with courteous resolve to deny free passage to conspiracists and purveyors of "alternative facts".
They will all die of old age before any of them lifts a 25th Amendment finger to stop any of it. Plus, they despise JD Wanker. They know he has all the charisma and attraction of a small bowl of cold, wriggling eels — a man (?) who’s already risen to the full heights of weenydom with no place left to go.
“They’re fucked. And they know it, too.” Bingo. And can we once and for all quit the “…but Vance and Peter Thiel are worse….”? For gods sakes, we’ve got a demented, evil, malignantly narcissistic 34-times convicted felon with his greasy little finger on the nuclear button squatting in the Whine House posting insanity hour after hour and we’re more afraid of a couch fucker who’s reinvented himself so many times he doesn’t even know his real name? Even the Current Lunatic doesn’t like our Second Banana, recent reporting of Vance getting heat for his vacations, his flaccid support for the Big Beautiful War and releasing his inner 3rd-Grade self on Twitter with god knows who. Maybelline Eyes is already toast. Wanna be afraid of the next guy? Keep your eyes on Liddle Marco, another chameleon who’s just smooth and oily enough to bamboozle the MAGAT hordes into believing he’s the Third Coming.
Ricardo, that’s what hurts my head. The Cubans don’t deserve a repeat of Batista and the American Sugar Company—all of which I expect of Little Marco given the chance.
You are 💯 % right Virginia. I wonder, if there's a US landing in Cuba, who would be in the front lines with the Marines, the sons and daughters of the amercan families or the Cubans drinking coffee and eating "pastelitos" in Miami?
Your last sentence says it all. Suppose Congress or the Secretaries or Fate removed Trump. Who in their right mind would want to inherit this mess. It would be a thankless, ugly 2.5 year job with no benefits waiting at the end. The very rich are vilified so they will melt away to live with their riches. The politicians will fade into ignominy and disgrace, no corporate board memberships waiting. So they are all fucked. I wonder how many times Johnson has wished vile MTG was speaker instead of him? Sadly we too are fucked for the long term. Our city in ruins.
You'll be surprised Martha at how many of this critters would die to have that job since they don't care about results and consequences. Maybe Todd Blanche.....he is a bottomless SOB with no conscience or emphaty. And he is just one of the hundreds with the same characteristics. 😥
How about Whitehouse in the White House? He shows just the intelligence and sense of humor we need in the place and, as a State Department child with experience on the Senate Budget Committee, he looks like the perfect candidate.
Nobody in the MAGA-verse has the charisma (however twisted and evil it may be) of The Grump that is needed to hold that coalition together. Once he is gone it will quickly devolve into palace intrigue and infighting. That won’t help the country much in the short term, but I think the end come 2028 will be swift and severe.
Democracy and decency are always in great danger, by design. Maybe we need to make changes, even if we don't like them too much, to be able to survive and make it a more perfect system. Thanks for your comment ICTT.
You voted in the majority - as per your abysmal system - for him, at least you're getting what you deserve in the "land of the free - home of the brave". Can't find a single bit of empathy for USians, it's all for their victims.
Hold on a minute. The “majority,” in fact, did NOT vote for him. The total votes cast in the 2024 presidential election were 155,201,157. Votes for the idiot currently occupying the office of the presidency totaled 77,303,568. Votes for Harris/Walz and other candidates totaled 77,897,589. So the majority voted for someone OTHER than Orange Foolius. Sadly, not by a lot, and to be fair, FAR too many people didn’t bother because they didn’t like the choice or didn’t think their vote mattered. And, our dumb Electoral College system ensures the outcome is rarely a true reflection of the popular vote. But please don’t believe that the majority of us voted for this. We did not, and there is not, nor was there ever, a “mandate” for this abject lunatic’s self-interested and self-aggrandizing policies.
We need to stop focusing on Donald Trump and start focusing on how we went from passing the Voting Rights Act to becoming a nation where someone who ran the campaign Trump ran could garner more than 20% of the vote. That's the most serious question before us, and frankly, it comes down to enlightenment influenced liberals believing that their countrymen would apply reason in the face of well funded agitprop.
It’s because they all have drunk from the same diseased swamp of money. And if you don’t you lose. Nothing short of an economic revolution will suffice.
recall that both The Economist and the Wall Street Journal, neither of them left-leaning, said in mid- to late 2024 that the US economy was the envy of the world. So the Democrats did a lot in Biden's four years (and a lot in Obama's 8, including extending health care to millions of Americans). And that in spite of not having a majority in congress for their full terms.
I agree with this, but there's so much more that needs to be done. Biden started trying to break up monopolies, of course, drumpf fired her. The bottom line is that the government needs to work for the people in very real, tangible ways. We NEED a progressive platform. Stop the loopholes on taxes, raise the minimum wage, get rid of Citizens United, and shore up our accountability so that we never have another felon in any office of government. Enact a tax plan that is fair to all citizens, raise the cap for Social Security, solidify voting rights, and I could go on and on.
There are (again) voices suggesting, based on statistical anomalies, that Trump and cronies actually stole the 2024 election (and who better to do so than those who knew so much about fraud in 2020?) I'd really like to have these suspicions investigated.
Even Elon doesn't have the money or the resources to swing hundreds of thousands of votes in seven separate states without SOMEONE blabbing the story to some intrepid reporter. Anyone who seriously believes such nonsense is drinking too much Kool-aid.
They have found a few hundred abnormalities. Below is a table of the swing states. Please note that the margin for Trump in the 7 swing states is over 750,000 votes total. Even if 50,000 votes in each of the states was rigged (33% of the total difference), there are only TWO states (Wisconsin and Nevada) where the outcome of the election would change. The other five states would still be marked for Trump.
And that assumes you actually thing that 50,000 votes in seven states could somehow be switched or added in. Its just inconceivable to think that could happen across such a large part of the country.
There is virtually NO actual evidence that this happened to a level that would have changed the outcome of the 2024 election.
Did it (some votes being counted crookedly) happen at all? Probably yes, virtually ANYTHING CAN happen.
But to change the actual outcome of the 2024 election would require that the overall votes in 7 key swing states had to have been tampered with, and tampered with to the extent that tens of thousands of votes either disappeared (for the Democrats) or materialized (for the GOP). And that would have had to happen in a way that was NOT so obvious as to prompt an immediate investigation into abnormalities.
Anyone who understands our highly distributed election process (which involves literally thousands of people in precincts across the country, in every state, people of both parties) would realize that this simply wasn't possible to pull off.
Could they have flipped one state? Maybe, although I still highly doubt it. But SEVEN states? It is such a long shot that there is simply no credible way to believe that anyone could have done that, AND then kept it secret for almost 18 months.
It makes for a great fictional movie about election corruption... and makes absolutely no sense in reality.
“There is virtually NO actual evidence that this happened to a level that would have changed the outcome of the 2024 election.”
It’s been roughly nineteen months since the 2024 election. It took more than two years to convict Lance Armstrong of his offenses, for heaven's sake--and that was after more than a decade of scrutiny by journalists. In the Enron case the SEC began an investigation in 2001, followed by the DOJ's investigation beginning in Jan. 2002. The criminal trial against the Enron principals began in Jan. 2006. These are just two of the countless cases to be cited on the slow march of legal investigations.
Re the 2024 election: definitive, actionable evidence hasn’t been presented yet. But for any sentient being to say that in today’s America elections can’t be manipulated via money, power and technological expertise, seems naive, if not suspect.
"Anyone who understands our highly distributed election process (which involves literally thousands of people in precincts across the country, in every state, people of both parties) would realize..." well, would realize that it’s the very complexity of our system that makes election fraud difficult to unearth.
PS: The link you give in your earlier comment, datawrapper, isn't a data source at all but a chart-maker. ???
To convict Lance Armstrong, all that was needed was any (literally ANY) evidence that he had taken PEDs while riding in competitive races. ELEVEN teammates testified against him. 11:1. Once they got the evidence, it was a pretty simple case to make.
To prove (not allege, but PROVE) that a national election in which one candidate wins by over 750,000 votes in 7 critical states will take a sh*tload more evidence than that. It would take sworn testimony from senior election officials in literally dozens if not hundreds of precincts over 7 states to even START to convince ANYONE that election fraud had been committed to the level that would have changed the 2024 election. NOT. GOING. TO. HAPPEN! And even then, it would ONLY be suspicion, as HOW do you PROVE what you are alleging, that somehow all those ballots either should be thrown out (and which ones?) The reason no one who was actually involved with counting votes in the swing states has yet come forward to even suggest such a thing happened is because it didn't happen.
Allegations against Armstrong had been happening for years and it finally caught up with him. In fact there is little to suggest that it has EVER happened in our elections (especially our national ones, i.e., for President) and the reason is simply it is too complicated to pull off without literally dozens, even hundreds of people in on the scam. That just doesn't make any sense, unless you really just WANT to believe it couldn't be otherwise.
I am confident that our elections are VERY difficult to corrupt, even in a single precinct, and while that probably DOES happen occasionally, it is virtually impossible to believe as a thinking person that such a thing could actually happen across enough states to make a real difference.
Look, I’ve never been on the vote-rigging bandwagon either, but there are some suspicious signs out there. For me, how did he win Arizona when Gallego absolutely trounced Lake in the Senate race? The numbers don’t add up.
Maybe there’s nothing to see there. Lake ran a terrible campaign and was not well liked. Maybe Trump voters just single-shotted him on their ballots and ignored everything downticket, including their mega-MAGA senate candidate.
The thing is, we’ll never know, because the Democrats foolishly did not press for a full transparent audit of results.
Go to Arizona, Lake was HATED by people who otherwise would be strong GOP folks, even Trump supporters. Gallego was also well liked across Arizona, and that state (where I lived for my younger life) is also highly male-dominated and fairly misogynist, another argument against Lake and favoring Trump over Harris (Arizona was won by Biden against Trump).
And as I have pointed out, the problem is that EVEN if you proved that Arizona cheated Harris out of a win there, you still have at least 3 or 4 more states that you have to show the SAME thing, states with completely different election boards, some even run by Democrats, and with hundreds of thousands of votes for Trump. So, even if you seriously believe it happened, the cost of proving it is HUGE. If you actually have REAL EVIDENCE, maybe you might be willing to give it a shot. But no one has EVER presented any actual credible evidence that this happened except in ONE SINGLE precinct where there was an unusual question of NO votes for Harris. Probably not likely, but that wasn't the case in 99.9% of the other precincts, so no one was going to try to use that case as evidence that the entire election was thrown.
Why do people not remember that muskrat bought the election for chump. I remember the day it happened. He stopped bitching about Joe dropping out and started the stupid dancing with Elon.
Daniel, this adds to my nightmares. As soon as I heard that he had won every swing state, with margins that avoided the recount rules, I felt that the game was over and the TechBros had checkmated the election -- and that they would do it again. This YouTube breaks my heart.
Sabine Hahn’s comment was clumsily phrased, but I think “as per your miserable system” is intended to mean that the US elected Trump, which is correct (no matter what nut-case conspiracy-mongers might blather on and on about). The blame lies with the US electorate. People who are outside that electorate have a legitimate complaint against it. Right on, Sabine Hahn! You’re onto something.
Rex, being familiar with Sabine's comment history, I can attest that she has nothing but disdain for the U.S. and its citizens. But I agree that her characterization of our electoral system as "miserable" is not wrong.
However, my evaluation of our "miserable electoral system" is more specific than yours, and consists of two factors: gerrymandering and the Electoral College.
I contend that millions of U.S. citizens don't vote because they are convinced – with evidence – that their votes don't matter. If this weren't true, we wouldn't be witnessing the "gerrymandering wars" currently raging across the U.S. and millions of dollars spent on campaigns in so-called "swing states," while pittances are spent in states that are "in the bag," whether red or blue.
I haven’t seen comments by Sabine Hahn before, Dale, so I take your word for it, Nevertheless, outside observers who disdain the US electorate are, in my judgment, on solid ground. The electorate, collectively (and especially white voters, its dominant political cohort) bought into NIxon’s Southern strategy (which is based on the Wallace insight that bigotry is an effective campaign tactic all over the US), and all Republican presidents since 1968 owe their election to deployment of that strategy. Regan was plenty bad, but the nitwit son of the elderbush was beyond the pale, and the US electorate in 2016 committed a crime against humanity in 2016 and repeated the crime in 2024, saddling the world with a pariah nation with immense, raw power with a venal moron in charge, unchecked because the electorate also saw fit to install a legislative majority that, like the majority of white voters, does not value human decency. What decent human being can fail to hold such an electorate in utter contempt?
But Rex, when you (or Sabine) refer to "the electorate," you paint all voters with the racist, prejudiced brush. Admittedly, somewhere between a third and half of U.S. citizens deserve that label (and a pox on all of them). But more than half are not racist or fearful of minorities (take your pick). We don't know how many more than half because they are disaffected by the aforementioned vote-suppression devices, gerrymandering and the Electoral College. All I ask is that you acknowledge that most Americans are not horrible.
The only thing she is “on to” is the power of money driving propaganda designed to instill fear in the MAGA inclined voting cohort. Billions of Citizens United money flooded in to Trump’s 2024 campaign as Harris was gaining traction. The lies in those calculated, algorithm focused attack ads worked. Without them, the myth of strongman Trump was fading
Sadly, you are wrong. Your electoral system is what it is and Trump does have a legal mandate to govern. I agree that he is often acting well beyond the reach of his powers as president but currently the guardrails you have in place do not appear to be able to stop him acting with impunity.
And please note. Hitler won a legitimate election with the same right wing populist and plutocrat coalition which put Trump in power. And Hitler, like Trump, was put in power with an assist from the purity test far-left. When Stalin instructed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) to direct its primary hostility toward the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). As when Putin fan girl Jill Stein and others direct their primary hostility toward the Democratic party.
The nazis never won more than 44% of the popular vote and then only with widespread voter intimidation and running street battles. There was nothing 'legitimate' about the 1933 election and then they didn't bother to hold another one. Trump in his dreams would love a similar outcome.
In 1932 the Nazi party won a plurality in a legitimate election. In 1933 Hitler was legitimately appointed Chancellor.
My point about the coalition who put Hitler in power stands. And the contribution of the Communists stands.
"1932 Parliamentary Elections: The Nazi Party became the largest party in the Reichstag (parliament) but never secured a majority. Their highest peak was 37% of the vote in July 1932, dropping to 32% in November 1932.
campaigning against the SPD as "Social Fascists" was really stupid. But we have 20 years of electoral that the Far Left and Reality have never met in person.
You'd best hope that the people who oppose Trump here manage to win in November or things are going to get Really Bad for you Europeans as Trump is left unfettered to destroy the world economic system, destruction of which he's already managed a good whack at. In the meantime, why don't you crawl back to wherever it is you crawled out of.
I don't like the way Sabine expresses her opinions either but you will find them widespread amongst the citizens of countries counting themselves as US allies or allies attempting to undertake some form of decoupling from the US.
In many of the US's allies, governments have been very attached to the US for decades whilst their citizeny have been ambivalent about the relationship. The longer the US supports the genocide in Gaza, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, etc and US actions create increasing economic hardships for allied populations, the angrier people will get. And, once the people in poorer countries starving courtesy of the US's war with Iran start popping up on screens, there will be even more anger.
Best dig in for the medium term because a MAGA-connected, far right party is on the rise in Sabine's country now and the anger and frustration of a great many Sabines will only get worse. Being a citizen of the most powerful and influential country in the world, you'll have to find some grace.
When I read Sabine's comments I see something akin to people in Pacific countries drowning from climate change. They talk about industrialised countries benefiting from centuries of the kinds of economic activities that created and perpetuate climate change but they aren't saying that everyone in those countries is happy with the situation. It's just that not dealing with climate change is a national decision, and so everyone wears that decision whether they voted for it or not. That's just part of being rich and highly influential compared to other countries - a geopolitical reality.
You are trying to explain away her cruely stated lack of empathy for ALL “USians.” It is ignorance about how the US and most societies function. Blaming all Germans for Hitler. Blaming all “USians” for climate change policies (to use your reference). You can call them national policies, but the policies are made by a minority, by Trump, his regime, rich oligarchs and the complicity of a corrupt Republican party. The majority of “USians” don't agree with the regime’s climate policies. Millions are doing the best they can to fight the regime. To lack empathy because it is easier to lump everyone together and hate them en masse shows a lack of humanity.
No I'm not. Somewhere else I tried to explain how I see what's happening. I see a parallel in the Pacific island nations being drowned by climate change, people whose countries will die . They talk about how industrialised countries aren't taking CC seriously enough (or not at all) despite the fact that they created and perpetuate CC.
They know that not everyone in those countries votes to ignore CC, but it is a national decision so every voter in those countries wears that decision. That's just a consequence of being a rich and powerful country relative to the smaller countries experiencing harm.
There are all sorts of horrific things going on in the world and many good people are suffering anger, immense sadness and even grief even though they are just watching on rather than living through the 'hell'. They will respond differently and that will have geopolitical implications.
As in all things, the most powerful will need to demonstrate the most grace as we try to muddle our way through things. And, the grace the powerful can demonstrate will be remembered because it challenges the perceptions of the less powerful.
So lumping people together en masse and spreading hate and lack of empathy is the way to go? How will that help? Better to reach out to those who are dedicated to the same humanitarian and progressive values you are dedicated to and forge ahead together.
The "most powerful" need to be impeached and boycotted (corporations). They will never demonstrate grace. The grace (and true power) is coming from collective, caring friends, neighbors, your ordinary, extraordinary folks reaching out with empathy and compassion. Look at Minneapolis.
I forgot to respond to USians. I don't know if this is what is happening with Sabine, but I know people in South American countries who don't like people from the US being described as Americans because the US is not the only country in the Americas. It makes them feel disrespected which is understandable and worth accommodating (in my view).
"You voted in the majority - as per your abysmal system - for him, at least you're getting what you deserve in the "land of the free - home of the brave". Can't find a single bit of empathy for USians, it's all for their victims."
-Sabine Hahn
So who died and made you boss Avenging Angel?
Our "abysmal system"?
Nope, your abysmal rhetoric
First there are the internal contradiction of your bile. You start with your embrace of the dubious notion of collective guilt, bragging on your lack of empathy for some construct you term 'USians' And you end with a humble brag on your empathy for their [the USians] victims. Of course, many of the victims of the Trump regime are Americans.
Secondly. Many of those suffering under the Republican regime are American individuals who took on the responsibility of doing all they could to prevent a Trump presidency. While so many others - especially on the self righteous purity test Left who refuse to vote for Democrats - sat on their hands and gloated. And worse, celebrate the Trump wreckage - that they are complicit in - as proof of their view of 'the system.'
Counsellor, besides the one previously mentioned, who else is on that list? I remember my first jousts with one whose first name was "Geoffery" (can't remember his last) and I notice David Carroll is no longer posting; not sure he was a troll, per se, but certainly had a focus to his comments. I suspect this person is of that variety.
No need for a referee. And who are "they"? Important points, not wasted time. We are facing a lot. Your opinion that it is nothing. There, just wasted a minute.
Sabine-i guess my thought on your comments is this-imagine the US back in the late 1920’s and 1930’s responded to Germany and Hitler as you just did-blaming the innocents for the deeds of an evil segment of society supporting a mentally ill leader. If the US had turned our backs, blaming German citizens for all the destruction wrought by the Nazis, lacking in compassion for the pain inflicted-imagine how that would have ended. I had family there and here during WW11. Americans provided protection, food, shelter, empathy. Compassion, kindness, medicine, etc-they fought the evil and cared for the innocent. What if the US hadn’t provided the Berlin Airlift?
Your lack of empathy and compassion is hurtful and has no place here. We, the people in the US will prevail IN SPITE of people like you. Good luck with your heartlessness. I hope you never face the dystopia we experience daily. No one should.
After WW2, Germany may have been supported by our gov. because it saw that Germany was key to a better European future. And the USA had a high percent of Germans. Plus, we took in a lot of intelligent Nazis in for their smarts.
In Germany there was very little antisemitism until Hitler took it on. Th worst antisemitism was in Poland and surrounding countries. A lot from the Catholic Church..those Christ killers. Drinkers of Christian babies blood. Money lenders ...
BUT, as anyone near my age should recall (born in that hot year: 1939) the US population hated Germany and Germans..they wanted nothing to do with their arts or products ..until maybe when the wall came down.
The Israelis, on the other hand ....from what we know, they have been taught since the cradle to hate those Palestinian "animals"...Nothing can't be done to them.
Good Luck on stemming the antisemitism they are creating. Shoving it right in our faces. Look what else we can do! It serves their purposes to look like victims.
Don't criticize it because then you are the worst bullshit thing ever: an antisemite.
We did NOT vote in a majority of any kind for this man. Leaving aside the fact that 1/3 of the voters stayed home (a problem worthy of its own discussion), The Grump did not even win a majority of the votes cast. He won 49.8% of the vote. A plurality, yes, but not a majority. More than half the voters wanted someone else. And I guarantee you many more than half want someone else now.
Yeah all that is a based on misinformation but hey why not liken it or even realize that what happened in Germany under Hitler was way more of a majority that put him in power. That's not a German name is it Sabine?
My maiden name is Arndt. All my male relative fought the Germans. My grandfather in WW1 and WW2. I do not identify as a German. Frankly, I'm starting to not identify with being an American lately. I'm a person w/ a brain capable of critical thinking...thanks to Mother Nature.
What's her name and maybe the background of her ancestors got to do w/ her thoughts about stuff?
Check out sabine's site. Not bad at all. and leave her to comment without getting all up in a twist.
Okay I can understand that. I have been coming hundreds if not thousands of times on Heather's site and I am sure I can count on one hand how many times I've said anything negative to anybody about anything. This is my lifeline too. One time I made a comment to Heather about getting enough sleep. Not just because we need her but because Heather needs to take care of herself for Heather and it is proven scientific fact that you do not regain sleep debt. This is a long haul and I have mentioned a few times let's let's say over the past year that… I am glad you have the Letter done early tonight. Hope you get some good sleep…. And things like that I have also made much longer comments but never anything negative, well except djt and everything there is to be concerned about. One politics chat a ways back, Heather said a couple of times how exhausted she was and I have very good reason medically speaking to be concerned about that kind of thing (not because I know Heather personally…my own reasons) and in that night's Letter which also happened to come out very late if I remember, I kind of went about it a different way in a comment I made to Heather about something in the letter and how much rest she was able to get. It did tend to be I guess you could call it sarcastic but not really sarcasm… I was asking her if she wanted to be around to see the other side of this Etc. Hey let me tell you, she is probably the one person in the world at this point, except maybe Zelensky, that I would feel privileged and honored to meet because I admire and have so much respect and gratitude for all she is doing for us. But the Watch Dogs I guess I could call them couldn't see that I was genuinely concerned about Heather and they were a little less than asses but not much in their comments to me. Telling me Heather was a big girl she could make her own decision and don't tell her what to do and blah blah blah. And I answered one of them and said you know I'm concerned about her personally too and not just for what she gives to us. You seem to be more concerned that she just keeps going and going and going and doesn't take a break if that's what she feels like doing because you want your needs to be taken care of by her steadiness and truth and wisdom. And I said if she doesn't take better care of herself one night her letter is going to say I can't do this anymore goodbye. And I got ripped apart again because she is a big girl and can make her own decisions. One particular of this group was way more than an ass and I would not have thought this had she not mentioned that she went to my profile I couldn't decide if I was a troll or a bot because most of the things on my Facebook are good and things I donate to and support. Now this could be a coincidence but I certainly didn't believe it was. I have been on Facebook for over 15 years. I have never been hacked. I have never had some warning although I will admit, as time goes on I am surprised I haven't. 2 hours later after this little back and forth, all different parts of my Facebook were in Spanish. And you may think this is funny which would make me think your last comment not too serious or true. But it was not just an easy fix in fact this whole mess that just coincidentally happened right after this more than an ass had to tell me Heather was a big enough girl to make her own decisions and to mind my own f****** business, was just Sunday fixed and I had to actually ask and go through all this stuff directed by the Meta AI. All I could think of is some of these people are no different than MAGA. After I had explained ad nauseam ( kind of like this comment 🤷♀️), this person I will always believe went ahead and hacked….really messed….. my whole Facebook account. And yes there is that slight possibility that after 15 years with not one issue ever about anything right after these goofballs are ripping me apart because I'm just trying to in my own way watch out and protect Heather…too! I am older, I am not well physically and I made a sarcastic comment. But I may have misunderstood
Sabine's comment. Sorry for the ramble. Take care. 🇺🇲😪🙏
There is significant evidence that Kamala Harris won this election, but with this foul regime in place it’s near impossible to do anything about it. After all, he did seem to take the oath (he honors no oath he’s ever taken…) and that appears to be that. It’s enough for the Extreme Curia anyway
In that our “democracy “ was so weak that he was allowed to run the first time around, and the democrats in office have let cooperations buy favor, yes, I agree it is on us, the electorate. We were too lax, going about our capitalist lives to care, not to mention, act.
And no it is not overreacting and no it is not just the nation and the reputation but the entire world that is suffering and will continue to suffer. And why would his family help him. As long as they have money coming in and every damn one of them does by the Millions, do you think they really care what happens to this country? I'm only throwing this out there is a complete guess but do you not think that if this nation implodes everyone of his family and everyone close to him as in politically close because it's pretty obvious he doesn't have a friend in the world not a real friend who would tell him what he's doing which is making his legacy of the complete opposite of what his delusional thinking thinks but don't you think that everyone who has any idea how messed up he is and realizes the possibilities have let's call them, second residences and if things implode do you think any of them will be found in whatever is left of this country? Oh not overreacting at all. As long as they feel as though they have power and as long as they are all making money they'll go as far as they can because some of them, most of them really believe that this is a holy battle against evil hence the name Christian Nationalists. The problem is they are more evil and causing more destruction to the entire world the enemies they think they are fighting…. Which of course is first and foremost anybody in this country who doesn't worship djt. I guess they haven't ever heard of the saying, A house divided against itself cannot stand!!
Over reacting? not even ten years ago. But his family staging an intervention? Out of the question; they're all variously deranged as well. His staff? I would say the same thing.
His staff helps him post these outrageous things, at least the adoring young woman who follows him around does. I believe others do as well. Still, his platform should be shut down all night, which would protect him from sundowning posting. He cannot run a country or conduct peace negotiations via his media platform.
I wonder what it would take to undo this reputation that the US is getting. I am living abroad and go back and forth. The people around me in the US do not seem to notice how awful things are, although all of my friend's jobs have been effected and they are well off. One person I know retired 4 months early because of the Trump admin freezing funding from which he was to get paid. All of the scientists I know are having a difficult time getting their grants funded. There are different quirks. We know two that have found jobs abroad. Both of them in Asia. More are looking. Another friend's job switched to cheaper insurance coverage and it no longer covered their therapy. Another lost his non-profit job, and it took him 4 months to find another job. This is right when their son was a senior in high school so they were looking at paying for his University with one income. It goes on.
"He cannot run a country or conduct peace negotiations via his media platform." Thank you; I've been saying this for a long while. Official announcements should be made via official channels. Social media diplomacy is not productive for anyone, but reflects the influence of tech in our societies. This regime relies on it.
No you ⬆️ are not over reacting but, I am not going to pile on.
We had gorgeous June 1 weather out here in San Diego in Balboa Park. I believe I heard 5
different foreign languages among the young visitors. 'School's out for Summer'. I found a good spot inside the FREE arboretum to recharge so I can now engage on multiple fronts.
I am prone to use profanity, and this fucking asshole of a president has to go. The event horizon is clearly in view. Only a matter of time now. And time is on our side.
He is evil. Way beyond needing help. What we need are political guts before we need another Ike. FYI: the possible helpers are Vlad, P2025 cretins, devoted magats, SC, and gutless wonders like Mitch and his ilk. Iran makes him twist in the wind with clever chess moves. Democrats send begging emails and play tiddily winks. He gives ammunition by the hour. Is HCR the only one who notices.
No, we’ve been under reacting. I hope the electorate at large understands the utter incompetence of the GOP in who are not doing ANYTHING to stop this unhinged mad man and his cowardly followers. Clearly, Trump must be removed from office.
This is a sad story about America, the country that showed such a greatness in D Day, fightring for European allies to defeat Nazis to give them back peace and prosperity. Just one man yes one man destroying it all. And who enabled this to happen? We, the voters who elected him as president knowing full well this is an inferior choice over Harris.
Trump is crazy, mean, stupid, demented - all of it. And in another universe someone in his orbit would try to get him help. But this is “The trump Show” and all the sycophants are too busy propping him up and getting whatever they can while he’s still breathing. But trump is the figurehead of a whole ballroom full of people who are the architects and implementers of this terrible time in our country.
We are all seriously upset a lot of the time. Most Americans have never lived through an authoritarian regime. What we can do is become maniacs This means we can tear our eyes away from the nightmare of his regime and become 100% intent on getting them all out of office.
There are some critical races happening so we can become distracted in a healthy way. The Democratic Party is undergoing its own death/rebirth. We the People are fed up with little to no representation that never helps our lives. Every time a PAC representative calls the Democrats waffle and back down on critical issues. They have by default allowed this nightmare to happen to us. We can examine each Democratic in Office and each candidate for how much they are beholden to PACs. There is a confrontation between the elite older centrists and the younger progressives for sharing the Party values.
I am watching Democrats being held accountable for their involvement with AIPAC and the Netanyahu Israel genocide of GAZA and now Lebanon. After seeing videos of the horrors of the Israeli war, I made the decision to not vote for a US politician who takes AIPAC money. Go to AIPAC Tracker and integrityindex.us.
The detention centers and the serious human right abuses right here desperately need our attention. The detention centers in Dilley TX and Delaney Hall in NJ are a nightmare.
Sorry to go on. I am disciplining myself to not get distracted by his latest insult, injury and frightening assault on America. There are ore of us than them. And we will win.
He always reminds me of Marcus Crassus, who nobly led Roman legions into obliteration against the Parthians (modern-day Iran plus some neighbors) in the Battle of Carrhae. Crassus was reputed to be the richest man in the land, and greed guided him to battle against a supposedly easy foe. He was captured and executed by having molten gold poured down his throat (this is where GOT got the execution idea).
Tell me that doesn't sound like our boy Don Crassus Maximus!
Yes, it's been a while for me as well. I imagine Plutarch is among my first sources on the story of Marcus Crassus since I read both his works and Tacitus when I was a youngster. Cicero also muses on the downfall of Marcus Crassus in some of his writing.
ThankYou. Someplace to start. Time to pull out the old Loeb Library.
An update of Pinky and The Brain might have to be lab rats.
I think, the original Mickey Mouse was a zoot suited trickster. Whose features and wardrobe were gradually juvenilized to make him more widely appealing. (I knew a Vertebrate Paleontologist who did a cladogram documenting the evolution of Mickey's characteristics. Stephen J. Gould was amused ; )
You are right about Steamboat Willie being a 1928 presentation of Mickey Mouse. But the 1928 Plane Crazy, an homage to Lindbergh slightly preceded it.
"The Original Mickey Mouse Looked a Little Bit Different and Not So Loveable, 1928 - Rare Historical Photos"
"In his early years, the impish and mischievous Mickey looked more rat-like, with a long pointy nose, black eyes, a smallish body with spindly legs, and a long tail.
Parents wrote in expressing dismay at Mickey’s antics in the cartoons and complained that Mickey was no role model for children."
Yes that suits Donold the demented to a t. ‘Twould be a fitting ending for him too in this game of thrones dystopian superpower suicide he has brought about.
I think that it's best perhaps not to hope for one to emerge because then you're only asking to be disappointed - again. Why not just settle for a reasonably competent leader who is also sane? Surely there's someone in your country who can fulfil those criteria? You have a problem with expectations that are unrealistic and these are only encouraged by politicians like Trump who make grandiose promises they cannot hope to deliver on.
I agree with you. Maximus was fictional. That was the point.
It is going to take US years to repair the damage, and voters in the US tend not to be patient. I have been pointing out the need for Democrats to not over-promise and to be realists on what can be accomplished with slim majorities in both houses of Congress, which itself is not a sure thing.
The political landscape may get even more challenging if the conservative majority on SCOTUS decides to ignore the Constitution and continue its string of decisions favoring the unitary executive theory.
Is $24 billion more than $1.7 billion?? Iranian assets that are/were frozen? This regime and all its minions sicken me! F-king lying incompetent grifters.!
Those of us who do not monitor Trump's social media are indebted to you, Heather, for wading through all that slop. I could barely manage to read about it. I'm sure I would have thrown my shoe at my computer screen had I been looking at those images.
An unrelated question: How can anyone expect that a negotiating team of Kushner and Witkoff (or is it Witless?) would be a match for negotiators from any other country?
We owe her a true debt of gratitude for having the courage of a mama lioness to report back to us the details of the Voyage to the Center of Trump’s Amygdala — not just once, but multiple times. I know of no other widely read source exhibiting such regular, reliable, genuine testicular fortitude. It takes guts of steel to ‘go where no man (or woman) has gone before’ to give us the full lowdown from a downlow place filled with bile, delusional self-pity, and the whiny tintinnabulations of utter panic blended in equal parts with eensy-weensy pissiness.
They are not. Here in Europe I haven't heard any serious person talk about them as legitimate (worthy) liaisons. It has also been mentioned that the US always talks about 'deals' instead of agreements. That says it all.
Yes, I agree. Those are such toxic rantings, crazed ramblings and vile imagery that it’s practically hazardous duty to read and wade through all that sludge. Another reason why we’re indebted to Heather for her nightly letters and posts.
That's something I don't envy Betsy, I feel so sorry for HCR having to read, watch, chew and digest for us all the garbage coming from the demented supreme leader day in day out. It's really bad enough for me to read the description in the Letters...😮💨
I said, to myself, the same thing. How can anyone subscribe to that and see that garbage?
How can the Iranian negotiators (when they're not assassinated) bare to have anything to do with these 2 jokers? They have known there would be no agreement.
Rachel Maddow interview of Barb McQaude(https://bit.ly/4v2pCyN) is a much short watch to understand Cheeto’s approach
The protection racket of the mob boss becomes normalized illegal government behavior The law firms have made poor choices to succumb to Cheeto’s extortion scheme Although victims deserve scrutiny and disdain let's never forget the role of the real villain at work
Teflon Don seems untouchable but it’s actually a branding tactic, bragging that he’s above the law and essentially invincible Cheeto’s image all over Washington especially at the DOJ It’s a tactic designed to silence critics Satire mockery can puncture such branding
Payoff for Cheeto is support from his collaborative cronies such as suckups Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Musk The solution is to get money out of politics through legislation and there needs to be public outrage and WE the People push back since the Democratic Party is not up to the task Protests count and all of us play a role
The DOJ institution has been severely compromised by the Nazi Republicans Redemocritinization has to take place at the DOJ with reporting requirements between the WH and DOJ, regulations in policy and force oversight
Ultimately in responding to mobstyle governance it comes down to WE the People take responsibility to take our power back No one can take your power away without WE doing it voluntarily VOTE like your freedom depends on it and induce others to do the same
Belle warns that Democrats, in this case, Cory Booker, cannot afford to misread the nature of congressional Republicans' willingness to break with Trump. They are not rediscovering that they have a backbone. They are doing the political calculus on every issue and adding up whether breaking with Trump means they gain more "lean Republicans" than they lose members of the hard-core MAGA base.
Their goal is not to restore democracy. It is to retain power while leaving Trump's baggage behind.
SCOTUS will likely rule on a number of cases related to election law by the end of June, the beginning of summer recess. I think Republicans are waiting to see which way they rule because it will significantly affect how level the playing field is at the midterms. That will provide a context for determining whether Republicans are more or less likely to break with Trump on a given issue.
These cases include:
1. Birthright citizenship and Trump’s executive order in Trump v. Barbara: The Court is expected to rule on whether President Trump’s attempt to narrow birthright citizenship via executive order is consistent with the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and the Immigration and Nationality Act. This could knock millions off the voter eligibility rolls. Although the tea leaf readers thought SCOTUS was skeptical of the regime's arguments, the possibility of knocking millions of Black and brown people, more likely to be the progeny of recent immigrants, off the voter rolls may prove irresistible for some of the conservative majority.
2. Mail‑ballot deadline case (Watson v. RNC): This could invalidate state laws allowing counting of on‑time‑postmarked but late‑arriving mail ballots, which would especially affect close races and states that currently allow grace periods. Sixteen mostly blue states plus Washington, D.C., currently allow mail ballots to be counted even if they arrive after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day. The “grace period” rules vary in length, from a day or two up to about two weeks or more in some jurisdictions. You can see if your state is on the list here:
3. Campaign finance and party–candidate coordination (National Republican Senatorial Committee v. FEC): The Court will decide whether federal limits on how party committees coordinate spending with their candidates violate the First Amendment, potentially expanding party fundraising and spending power. This case was over JD Vance's Senate campaign, the one bankrolled by Peter Thiel. This is the payback to Thiel, removing the need for a fig leaf of "non-coordination" between SuperPACs and campaigns.
Thanks, Georgia. I really liked what Belle had to say (and I don't mind the drawl); we absolutely CANNOT expect the RepubliKKKans to act in any reasonable manner. I'd love to be surprised if they do, but I will count on it as much as I count on the cats to be truthful that they haven't already been fed.
Absolutely agree. WE the People continue to hope that these Nazi Republicans will wake up but to think that is completely insane. These people know EXACTLY what they are doing and every move is politically calculated. That's why they should NEVER be trusted with power for at least 2 decades. This is an all out political Civil War and will be settled in the courts as the battlefield.
There is a new phenomenon. It's called "future-faking." I'd like to give it a try... At some point, Trump's name will be removed from everything on the planet. After his death, it will happen fast. The MAGA hats and Trump banners will disappear. Melania will enter the Witness Protection Program. Barron Trump will change his name to Barron Landscape. Don Junior and Eric will be poisoned by their wives, undercover Mossad agents. Stephen Miller will die of auto-erotic asphyxiation. Kash Patel's eyes will finally pop out of their sockets and go bouncing down the steps at the FBI building. Pete Hegseth will come out of the closet wearing an old dress left behind by J. Edgar Hoover. Mike Johnson will appear on "Dancing With The Stars" with his drag queen partner Lindsey Graham, also wearing an old dress from the J. Edgar Hoover collection. Pam Bondi will reveal that, as a fourteen-year-old girl, she was sexually assaulted by Jeffrey Epstein. ICE Barbie, a.k.a. Kristi Noem, will be attacked and severely wounded by pack of feral antifa hunting dogs. RFKJR, missing for days, will be found on his knees along a deserted Arkansas two-lane highway, naked, sunburned and nibbling on the remains of a roadkill armadillo. As penance, John Roberts and Clarence Thomas will move to Harlem and never be seen again. Elon Musk will die a fiery death in a self-driving car accident. Racist, misogynist MAGANAZI rednecks will slither back under their rocks with unlimited kegs of cheap beer where they will live out their days watching reruns of "Moonshiners," "Duck Dynasty" and "Naked and Afraid." For the fourth time in his life, JD Vance will change his name, this time to Reverend DJ Test Pattern, and he will forever drive the back roads of the Confederate south preaching before hordes of evangelicals who are also utterly void of charisma. The real Jesus will finally return, this time as a stand-up comedian spouting lines like, "On his final trip to Walter Reed, Donald Trump underwent a colonoscopy, where doctors found half of Congress."
Sounds like a great beginning of a wonderful story. May it all happen just as you have foretold it, with one small addition — Princess Melania gets deported to Eswatini (sorry, Slovenia didn’t want her) for lying about being an Einstein on her immigration forms.
How do you deal with a mentally unbalanced leader when an entire party supports him? It is such a surreal time! Thanks Heather, for your dedication to presenting truth untainted by politics.
Still can’t fathom how any person with even an iota of integrity can support someone who speaks about others (and himself!) the way he does. It’s disgusting to the core.
His followers voted for him _because_ he speaks about others the way he does. They love the shit-throwing and calling stupid names. They never matured beyond kindergarten…
Spot on, Dutch Mike. I have linked a guest essay several times, and will stop doing so; it basically says "He says what we think" as an explanation for why they vote for him.
No class at all. Almost every other world leader comes across as measured, literate, gracious, respectful, polite, etc., because they either have those qualities or have the sense to try to act like they do. Not our guy, though - oh, no, definitely in a class by himself. The only other boorish leader that Trump reminds me of is/was Dutarte.
My theory of presidential elections (I'll limit this to male candidates) is that the candidate with the more genuine, better smile nearly always wins. So, Trump's comment about non-smiling Democrats is, to me, a kind of political truth amid the mountain of fecal material he shovels daily.
Democrats with good smiles died off for a long time after early Jimmy Carter. Think Mondale, Dukakis. Clinton was really smiling at the young aide over your shoulder, but it worked well enough for two terms. Gore? What a depressing campaign he ran; he didn't show a pulse until the waning days of the campaign when they tried a little populism in desperation, and he basically won. Kerry? Hard to imagine a smile. Obama--great smile, two-term president. And so on. (Trump's 'smile' could make babies cry at ten paces, so there's more to it than just a smile.)
There is a new-to-the-national-stage Democrat who has learned this lesson and is always smiling, or should I say democratic socialist: Zohran Mamdani. He looks like he's having as much fun as FDR did when he welcomed the hatred of "the old enemies of peace: business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering." Things haven't changed much from 1936, have they? And Mamdani's conducting a master class in how to fight the malefactors of great wealth with a disarming smile.
It's a possible sign, although his base loves scowls and staredowns just as much or more. Toughness and cruelty rather than an appealing smile. But this limits his reach, and if he flakes off his base he can't find support elsewhere.
Heather’s most key insight today – Donald’s demented determination to stay in power.
I watched the other day the several minute video of Ali Velshi being escorted away from that New Jersey hellhole ICE and CBP concentration camp for people of color – far away from it, totally out of sight of it, far, far away – by police: so many, many police, as if incipient police state demands it.
What are Stephen Miller, J.D. Vance, Todd Blanche, and their let’s-all-suck-up-to-criminal-Donald all doing with him to get apparently every bit of local law enforcement to join the mass and obvious police state thuggery?
Criminal/rapist Donald has hardly gotten started. He knows the only way he can stay in power is by police state brutality in killing the November elections.
I know in “Evil Geniuses” Kurt Andersen is “disinclined to explain history or current events in terms of conspiracies, neat just-so stories that impute too much genius and power to conspirators.”
But isn’t it plain how rapist Donald intends himself to appear center stage everywhere – everywhere those feasting on power might be looking? (Even if the dark money monsters yet hide their identities.)
Serving up racism. Serving up misogyny. Covering up to protect the richest pedophiles. Building police state. Killing democracy.
There is truly nothing about Donald that is new or unprecedented — save for the mango-tinted formaldehyde face mask and invisible concertina, perhaps. Though King Lear was written hundreds of years ago, it rings with modern truths there for the seeing and the taking.
Hans Christian Andersen had this naked emperor and his entourage pegged long ago. Shakespeare, Greek tragedy, the Holocaust itself —predictive lessons from the past all. What the scummiest among us wants — but what transpires instead — is perhaps the one common thread to them all. Evil always retains a powerful tendency to kaboom itself in the face. Isn’t that something to ponder, even rejoice at?
Gandhi once answered Margaret Bourke-White with something similar when asked whether non-violence would have worked against Hitler. We are witnessing the beginnings of that same kaboom stage of our own particular Shakespearean tragedy. We should all take heart.
Was this decision even part of TrumpWorld or just HegsethWorld, something to do as he was firing high ranking military members of color and several more who are women?
Good point! I believe that Hegseth is probably the number one culprit in this cabinet of curiosities. An immoral man who just can't wait to rain down "hell and death" upon _______.
Can we circulate a petition to get President Barack Obama to continue his nuclear negotiations with Iran as when the world was much, much safer place? We just need to get Trump to sign the executive order.
I'm not sure about this, but I'm guessing that Obama had a team of skilled negotiators working for us. I think that he was smart enough to use people with experience to do the endless work, four year's worth, if I'm remembering correctly, while he fulfilled his duties as President.
Indeed. The international teavm included a wide variety of skilled individuals including not only seasoned diplomats but also engineers and physicists who knew the details of Uranium enrichment who were able to design monitoring systems and associated protocols for monitoring Iran's nuclear program.
I know it will not be popular for me to say this but the US government currently lacks the ability to design a treaty regime that can prevent Iran from seruptitiously developing a nuclear weapon.
I think you are absolutely right. The Trumplicans fired anyone and everyone who might have been useful in negotiations including many who participated in the successful negotiations under president Obama.
Exactly. The Obama initiative was successful because it relied on skilled diplomats and expert scientists. And strategic patience. The Obama team defined and maintained the parameters of a specific goal as first steps to an overall plan of building a foundation for further negotiations. This was the Republicans' primary criticism of the Obama strategy and treaty - that it did not do everything all at once. But, as in scientific experiments, if you include too many variables, you get an unmanageable process and poor results. Which is exactly what is happening with the current Republican attack.
lin•, it is my belief that the current occupant views "negotiations" from a business only standpoint; in the complex world of international treaties, the methods, techniques, and modalities of business negotiations are completely unsuited for the task.
The JCPOA was a group effort with China, EU, France, Russia and the UK. Top diplomats from each country and John Kerry playing a major role in the U.S. over a period of 20 months. What we have now is two real estate developers and Michael Anton a speech writer for Rupert Murdoch among other things. Vance, Rubio and Hegseth are on standby for, who knows what. Heather mentioned that Trump said, in his truth, that he spoke to Netanyahu, and Hezbollah indirectly and they agreed to stop hostilities. I would also note that Netanyahu soon replied that he was going to do what he is already doing. So much for that game of telephone.
This war of choice will go down as the worst catastrophe in modern times. The supply shocks will stretch on for months or years even if the strait is opened. Besides oil and natural gas, helium, fertilizer and other commodities we are beginning to see inflation rise pretty fast as the energy crunch affects food prices and other goods.
How could they? Would we? No. No rational country would. Especially since this nightmare is being allowed to go on and on and on, without intervention or consequence. Thank goodness for Heather's (and others') reporting on our catastrophic reality. That Trump has not been removed from office by now is both criminal and inexplicable. That his cabinet members were actually confirmed is another travesty. This administration has been ruinous, the USA possibly (probably) irreparably harmed. I'm horrified and furious and don't know what to do.
Only if we hang all of the bastards, if we do that, then they might start to take us seriously again as a partner in progress. I mean every single one of them that enabled this disaster and profited from it.
Please do not conflate the racist right wing Jewish religious extremist Netanyahu regime with all of Zionism and every Zionist. If you read Haaretz (the oldest Israeli newspaper) you will find a wide range of critique of the history of Zionism and of Israeli policy, as well as of current events. This criticism is often more scathing (and almost always more accurate) than the most extreme antiZionists outside Israel. It is a sin of the American and European Left to abandon and even elide the Israeli Left. As we here suffer under and witness the abuses of an antidemocratic Republican regime supporting the irrational and unconscionable Trump administration - we might have some empathy for Israelis who have and continue to support justice for Palestinians within Israel and within a Palestinian state. And to resist their own government.
Haaretz | Israel News, the Middle East and the Jewish World - Haaretz.com
I paid to subscribe to Haaretz for 2 years and commented along with a few others. always published my comments. good on them.
However, the very few Israelis who don't support the genocide do not have power and prob.keep their mouths shut.
I have access to the ones who speak out...on youtube; Norman, Ilan Pappe, Max, David Levy, Gideon levy..and more...They speak the truth and they are NOT popular in Israel or with the US Zionists. Of course they are more accurate...they are independent. supported by me and others, not corp. media that reports up, to the evil forces...
I am currently in Switzerland. There is a very long article in a Swiss newspaper about T with a not so flattering photo. Since I don't read Swiss German, I asked for a translation of the article's headline. It said that T's medical check up shows that he is suffering from narcissistic behaviors with dementia and advised immediate hospitalization to address his needs True or not, even in other countries his behavior is news worthy.
Trump's most recent incoherent rantings can be attributed to a madman who just saw $1.7 billion of taxpayer money, that was destined for his own pockets , slip through his fingers, as well as seeing his great name gouged out from the edifice of the Kennedy Center. It was not a good week for a President, stricken from birth with bone spurs that prevented him from being a Vietnam war hero but at least enabled him to perfect his art of being a lecherous playboy. Let us all pray that The Donald gets what he deserves.
The White House Press Corp should boycott the press briefings altogether. All they're fed is BS anyway. You can't trust a word DJT utters. Disfunction junction!
Great idea. It amazes me that they still convene (I think, I actually stopped watching long ago since my tolerance for cringe is VERY low!). Yes - boycott the briefings, til we have (if we ever have) decent players again. Pressers used to be serious but good-natured and informative things
The rest of the world, where I live, realized, where Trump's installation into the White House was going well before it actually came to pass. Like many in America, many citizens in other countries hoped he would be controlled. Now they, like just about everyone else, realize Trump is totally out of control and it's doubtful anyone could control him. And worse, those who could stop his worst atrocities, are spineless wimps who fear him and won't stand against him. A headline in today's Japan News (Yomiuri): "Indo-Pacific seeks defense ties as U.S. doubts grow, China ascends".
Not for him. It's only new for you. It's just another facet of the same dysfunctional, uncaring, mindset that is hyperfocused on stroking ego and accumulating $$. And really, he is just the tip of the iceberg of his kind of people. It will take quite a few years to recover from the damage he will have done, and I doubt I will see it in my lifetime (I'm 76 now). But I can always hope... Just glad that I moved to Canada 30 years ago even though it seems like the same dysfunction is starting to appear here, too.
From the outset of negotiations, Iran has always given highest priority to the need for the war to end on all fronts including Lebanon.
Trump‘s continuing inability to reach a deal with Iran is due to him being unable to exert influence to stop Netanyahu’s increasingly violent attacks on southern Lebanon. Now that Israel has claimed 70% of the Gaza Strip they are now moving into a huge land grab in southern Lebanon.. Israel has no interest whatsoever in there being a successful peace deal, which has left Trump floundering.
A 10 year MOU guarantees that Israel receives $3.8 billion in Foreign Military Financing from the US until 2028.
If Congress voted to end that “aid”, then I suspect that the multi-million dollar donations via AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) to heavily influence congressional election campaigns and political outcomes would be re-directed to ensure such a vote was unsuccessful.
The US would also have to forego military sales to Israel, which have totalled a massive $32 billion since October 2023.
Unfortunately, the US is firmly entrenched in « warrior nation » status, which profoundly affects all aspects of US government, business, education and society. It is impossible to imagine how this deeply embedded and dangerous distortion of the national psyche will ever be reversed without a complete national collapse into anarchy.
Dear God! I am not prone to use profanity, but WTF?! Can his family & staff not intervene & get him help? This isn't just a "meme" or joke anymore, The man is seriously in need of help and needs to receive it before he does more serious damage to our nation/reputation. Am I over-reacting?
No, it is not an over-reaction, but let’s not forget that getting rid of tRump is not the big problem … he is steadily getting rid of himself. There is quite a pile of acolytes and cabinet ministers and even some elected officials around him that have surely got to go.
And THAT of course IS the problem. If Trump is gone, whoever takes his place could easily be worse... much more serious and capable at wrecking our country, and with 2-1/2 more years to go in the Trump II term, we will have to endure SANE dictatorship. A crazy Trump in office actually scares me LESS than a sane JD Vance under the thumb of Peter Thiel and his minions. And while some talk of impeachment, (a) it will never result in his removal, because it takes 2/3 of the Senate which is currently controlled 53-47 by Trump's sycophants and (b) you can't impeach all of Trump's underlings, its just not even practical or possible. So nothing much will change and with him gone, people will retract into their cocoons and let the underlings take over.
Nothing good is likely to come of ANY of this. Sigh...
But... to never have to hear his voice again... 🙏🏻
Or see his face
and that peculiar mouth - like a baboon sucking on a straw. . .
Husband of Ruth writing:
Like a cat’s arse.
It's a flaccid asshole.
like a fish blowing bubbles...
Excellent description!
Just ignore it and focus on what the GOP is doing instead. That is so much more important to know.
Whether something good come out of this depends on “we the people.”
If we the people seek justice, then we the people sow the seeds of truth and reconciliation, and we reap what we sow. To paraphrase Nelson Mandela, justice always seems impossible until it’s done (aka “real justice is always obvious, but only in hindsight”).
If we the people want revenge, then we the people sow the seeds of lies and retribution, and we want what MAGA wants. So, revenge includes a visit to the local Unconstrained Ignorance vendor where a MAGA hat can be purchased and worn with pride.
Either way, “fair” is where you take your pig to get a ribbon.
Justice includes looking at the politicians and the pundits like looking at the “we the people” mirror. For the record, there are places where the mirror is NOT distorted. IMHO, they most notably include Pete Buttigieg and Letters from an American.
The Gross-est Of All Time
Dave, that’s a GOAT for tRump that I find very fitting!
Or hear those incessant sniffs!
I'd go with Vance now who is widely hated and has no cult following. But indicting the whole Trump regime and Republicans in Congress for treason would be nice.
I probably sound like a repeating record, but everyone who mentions indictments needs to keep well in mind that Trump will pardon at least the key people and possibly a huge number of associates before he leaves office to make absolutely sure that no one of his followers who worked on various nefarious plans with him or his team will ever be indicted or convicted or spend a day in jail. Despite being a complete idiot, he is also actually quite shrewd and he clearly learned a LOT from the experience after his first term when he didn't really pardon enough people and some actually went to jail at least for a while (like Steve Bannon). I have absolute certainty that mistake will not happen again. Its a terrible flaw in our Constitution and hopefully someday it will be fixed, but for the time being, the flaw remains there and gives the President the power to pardon virtually anyone at least from federal criminal proceedings.
Yes, Jon, but Americans elected (twice) a rank criminal, rapist, fraud, serial liar.
The flaw accounting for this doesn't lie so much in the Constitution as in the character of tens of millions of Americans apparently, obviously well-schooled, well-drilled in accepting criminality, rape, fraud, and patent lies.
This "character" in people devolves not only from those Hillary castigated as deplorables, but additionally, too, from many, many lawyers, accountants, PR people, graduates of good universities, elected representatives to Congress.
Hey Phil, I have absolutely NO disagreement with HOW we got here. My comment was only intended to point out the stupidity of hitting your head against a wall over and over expecting that somehow this will change reality. Yes, there is a huge flaw. Yes, tens of millions of Americans apparently were stupid or ignorant enough to vote for him. And yes, there are plenty of reasons we can point to for why this happened. But none of that changes the ultimate outcome nor the almost absolute impotence we have in fixing it. Changes to our Constitution have to happen, or the country will sooner or later completely fail, but its not going to happen in time to solve any of our current problems, sigh.
Best to you, my friend, hope all is well.
Greed, plain, ugly, simple. Agree with the self-proclaimed rich president and you'll get your share. Whoever voted for him this term, placates/supports him now, and/or continues to work for him somehow, deep down, believes this, that pay day is coming. The billionaires got their pay day in tax cuts, mergers, and fewer and fewer regulations holding them back from profits. For some, the pay day was a pardon. The rest of them are still waiting for pay day. Greed is never satisfied. All evidence that this president has a habit of not paying his contractors and employees, etc., is ignored. They still believe they're on the gravy train.
Yes, yes, YES!! That ‘“character” in the tens of millions of American’ voters is the fatal flaw in the system.
Phil Balla, you have nailed it: Americans notoriously fabricate their own truths, their own fictions, invent their own lives, create new versions of themselves etc. It is so sad that Americans create these mythic narratives and illusions of greatness which disfigure reality, which, then, define how Americans conduct their lives ... and vote. I saw a quote recently by Plato: He imagines "human beings chained for the duration of their lives in an underground cave, knowing nothing but darkness and believing these flickering shadows as reality."
When Hillary castigated millions of Americans as "deplorables" she handed Trump the keys to the White House
Racism has been a fault line since the founding, and misogyny is entwined with it. Notice how, shortly after the civil rights advances of the mid-1960s, the Republican Party jumped into a handbasket and started on the road to hell? The Democrats were well rid of their white/right wing, but they haven't taken advantage of it. It's pretty shocking that the so-called leadership was caught napping by the onset of Trump II.
P.S. And let's not forget Citizens United, the SCOTUS gift that keeps on giving.
But…their ‘prison’ will be a true Democracy…which they will HATE >>> a state taught very well by DJT <<< his LEGACY, linked to “MAGA”, and ironically paired with the racist, xenophobic and bigoted Christian Right advocates <<<insults to Jesus!😭
They will marinate in their ultimate failure to create a fascist ‘pure’ white America, instead of the melting pot it was always promised to become…”with Liberty and JUSTICE for all…”🇺🇸🗽⚖️
Jean, I know it's just semantics, but I prefer "tapestry" over "melting pot." Our strength is in the rich texture of our multiplicity of cultural backgrounds woven together into a thing of beauty.
Since the 18th Century, white christian nationalists have been determined to force other ethnicities into assimilating white Anglo-Saxon protestantism, creating a cultural melting pot full of beige goo.
Perhaps there are some that his pardons can't reach, but don't ask me to name them because at the moment I can't.
Anyone who might be charged with a federal crime is eligible for a federal pardon from the POTUS. There are no exceptions, although the one possible exception is whether he can pardon himself. But I fully expect Trump to resign one day before he is scheduled to leave office so that JD can pardon him for sure.
I recall Michael Flynn, Roger Stone in addition to Bannon who have been in on the conspiratorial efforts. Let's not forget the Project 2025 ers who put it all into a blueprint. Miller and Vought are still doing damage and I think DT is leaning on them. Or maybe they are helping him write his tomes.
Yeah, I agree.I’ll take my chances with JD.He has zero curb appeal and all of the charisma of a gnat.And he is wildly unpopular everywhere.Trump is the head of the snake and needs to be gone.smh
In real life, poll after poll shows Vance leading, and by far, in GOP primaries. The GOP has become a neofascist party. History has shown that only the first one needs to be charismatic. The successors need to be willing to take over all the same lies and then do whatever the most powerful neofascists in the party want them to do, and that's all.
Key word here being GOP primaries. All the Republican support in the primaries is meaningless when the time for the general election comes. Whoever the nominee is, needs to get support from Independents and Democrats. Vance has all the charisma of dryer lint. He's the worst retail politician I've ever seen. He just doesn't know how to talk to people on any level.
When Orange goes, so does MAGA. And MAGA is not fond of Vance, not in the least.
First of all, Vance has been leading the primary polls for a long time already. See Russell's link below, which shows that for the first time, he's now neck and neck with Rubio. So yes, MAGA loves Vance. That's just a fact.
And it's not about charisma (although his charisma, when giving a MAGA speech for a MAGA audience, has improved a lot; he's learning on the job). It's about what the GOP media says about him, how it depicts him. Skip that fact and you forget that the GOP has become a neofascist party.
As to Independents and Democrats: if 10 million people voting for Biden in 2020 can stay home in 2024, with a convicted criminal on the ballot, what makes you believe that those same 10 million people will be more worried when it's a much more decent-looking man, able to come across as well-spoken and well-mannered in debates, who is the nominee... ?
Remember, those who hate MAGA also tend to love Dem-bashing (no matter how irrational it is to do so). And so many Independents and Democrats imagine that politics is about finding the next Obama, rather than understanding that it's about saving democracy and building on the progress Biden and Harris made...
But, Vance could never convince them MAGAs that he is God, Inc.
It now appears that Vance's star is falling and Rubio's rising.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rubio-vance-neck-and-neck-in-2028-gop-matchup-poll/ar-AA24gdr5?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Rubio has sold his sold more than most -- because he knows what he is supporting is wrong - and not long ago he held different positions. Contrary to his boyish looks, he is just as calculating and hungry for more power as the rest of them.
Please, God: NO!
Ah, Rubio is a jerk, but he is an educated fairly intelligent one, and even though I would hate every minute of it, I doubt he would continue the insanity of the current administration. He is living in it himself right now, and he probably has little control over things, but he is the closest thing we have to a John Kelly in this second Trump term.
They're neck and neck. My guess: the Heritage Foundation and the neofascist tech billionaires prefer Vance, so he'll win the primaries. They'll use their massive propaganda machine to get their base there.
horrible if accurate statement about how things seem to be
When we hit the BRICS wall and our economy is destroyed, maybe we will have a sit down w/ these bosses of our so-called Democracy and tell them to Stand Down! And the CIA: go get a job elsewhere.
If AIPAC doesn’t like it, they can just go live in Israel, if Israel is livable…Or, wherever they can buy their way in with their billions. Africa? Mars?
Don't forget about Elon Musk illegally breaking into several government agencies. Him and his DOGE boys stole and sold data that almost no one had access to.
So if you think Peter Thiel would be worse than Elon, it's not likely. It could be more of the same, but most people have already forgotten all of the damage Musk and Trump did through DOGE.
Thiel and Musk are the EXACT same. They agree ideologically (both strongly believe in neofascism), and they do the exact same things.
Disagree - not worse, because the cult will disintegrate. The forces behind his enablers will still be there, yes, but more people are waking up and realizing he's robbing them and the nation. We will fight back. We will overcome.
Thank You, Beverly! I agree! My armed & crazy MAGAte neighbor won't change, but my retired and now really hurting trumper ones are already stepping back from the fracas. If only we could silence Fox News...
Wait 'til after the mid terms and fox entertainment starts blaming the dems for the cuts in healthcare scheduled to take effect after the Nov election.
So 85% of Republicans still support Trump. And demographically, they are older Americans that actually believe that Trump and the current Congress are conservative Republicans. When you were born into a cult in the 1940's, 1950's and even the 1960's, it's very difficult to abandon your cult, no matter how cruel and hateful the current leader.
I think there's another facet at work. This is a guest essay from Minocqua Brewing's Substack discussing the success of MAGAts:
https://minocquabrewingcompanytimes.substack.com/p/the-things-we-were-thinking?r=3hlhv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Sorry...What cult were we born into?
I worry about who will come next, but if Trump is gone none of them will hold his coalition together. Most of his minions will shrink away in bewilderment, but what I fear is the militia he has created and the fact that they will be uncontrollable and things will break into chaos. Perhaps that is the undercurrent of my not sleeping at night.
You can't just throw people out of an "alternative facts" bubble. As long as the GOP's propaganda machine exists, they will control the outcome of the primaries and their base will support anyone who wins them. The next GOP nominee will be a neofascist too and say all the falsehoods about Democrats and the country that the GOP has been telling them for decades now. That's all that is needed to get their vote.
Many are adherents to the Cult of Trump, and if he is gone they will lose interest. A core of hard liners will remain, who have designed the playbook, but without their titular head I think they will flounder. They lack his “charisma” (I don’t see it but they do) and worship the man with blinders over their eyes. The puppet masters so far do not have someone to coalesce behind. Let’s hope no one materializes. As I said before, it’s the ones with the fire power I fear, and Hegseth commands the military and I think he is unhinged.
Based on what... ? What makes you imagine that MAGA loves Trump (polls show that many traditional Republicans don't like him as a person, which is why Kamala Harris was right when she said people found his rallies utterly boring... there were often quite empty)?
What MAGA loves is a myth created by a neofascist propaganda machine, the right-wing media ecosystem. That ecosystem won't go anywhere. As long as that's the case, they can dictate their base to vote for no matter who...
Norm Eisen & his legal team, Democracy Docket, despite a string of important Court victories, filed yet another lawsuit last night but, this one goes after Trump's ENABLERS.
See, the Contrarian for their list of Trump's top ten Frauds or last night's case update.
Vance is smarter but seems almost worse
Jon, I think neither Vance nor the shadowy power brokers care whether he is popular with voters. The Tech Bros and the Theo Bros want him in the "presidential palace," because he will help them finish remaking the U.S. into a technocratic theocracy.
No matter how much Donald deteriorates mentally and physically, they will keep him in The Oval past January 20, 2027. After that date, Vance can complete Donald's term and still run for two more terms afterward. I estimate that many GOP legislators are calculating that if they can make it past the above-mentioned date, their power is also guaranteed for as long as they want it.
This is why the 2026 midterms are so important. If Democrats control both houses, they can suspend the movement toward technocratic theocracy, regardless of who's in the White House.
How can Dems even if controlling both House and Senate suspend the movement you foresee? They can definitely make an impact by not passing legislation they hate and trying to pass legislation they like, but anything they pass STILL have to be signed by the president OR if vetoed, then has to have the veto overridden by 2/3 of both House and Senate. So Trump will just veto what he hates unless he decides to try to trade some vetos off. He certainly wouldn't surprise me if he did!
Jon, "suspend" may have been an aspirational word choice, but if nothing else, they can throw sand in the gears. What we can probably agree on is that another Congress of rubber stamps would be catastrophic.
I'm beginning to think that they want him to destroy the US completely so the billionaire technocrats can take over without the constitution in place.
I don't know, Jon. Trump is revered almost as a saint. I know some who absolutely cannot tolerate even the slightest criticism of Trump. How he got there is, of course, a mystery to me, but it's out there.
Exactly. In the end, this isn't about Trump at all. They merely need him and his outrageous tweets and behavior to distract us during the first stage of the installation of fascism in the US.
The GOP base may well be tired of Trump by 2028 and ready for a president who projects "decency", which is clearly what Vance is going for, all while being much more of an ideologue than Trump, so indeed, much more dangerous. And if it isn't Vance, any other Republican who wins the primaries will be equally dangerous.
THE problem today is the GOP, not any single Republican specifically.
The problem is 77 million voters who do not value human decency.
That's an utterly cynical view on human nature - exactly the cynicism that fascism needs to be able to thrive.
We see things in much the same way, Jon. Those of us here tend to see the present as a reflection of illegitimate scoundrels having absconded the America we knew and loved. There is an alternative hypothesis, i.e., this IS what America has become post-Reagan. People make choices, and Americans have chosen tRump TWICE. Not all Americans, mind you, but there are now enough on the materialist, me-first side of things to carry flim-flam artists like tRump to office. However, as you note, the $$ required to propel an empty-promise pig like this into office come from somewhere, and these people are much more formidable. They have pretty much succeeded in taking down what FDR, Francis Perkins and others built, and I fear that it will get worse before it gets better. Rebuilding some sort of meaningful social collective to provide the necessary tension with wealthy capitalists will require much time and the sort of insight that seems rare in the US these days. FDR and his supporters were able to work their magic IMO only because “the people” had suffered so much and were so poorly off, that a social collective formed to blunt the mad scramble of regular individual people to always have more. The calamity of the post-Reagan times challenges the US to reinvent itself. There’s no going back. Folks will have to accept what it has become or resist and rebuild. I honestly dunno where it is going. A few potential leaders (e.g., Sanders, Warren, even Ben Sasse and Jeff Flake on the R side) were either flatly rejected or eliminated by the establishment. Until one appears, IMO, the country will scramble up a steep hill or fall into the deep, dark valley of authoritarianism. Although I am 77 after a good life, I have beaming grandchildren and have no choice but to care. The scenarios are all laid out in Arendt’s writing and things are way further downhill than most can imagine. I HOPE the optimists are right about the midterms, but taking back congress (even both houses) will give the good-guys only a toe-hold IMO.
I hope the outcome can be more optimistic with the Blue Wave in November! At least I like the trend lines in the courts and public opinion.
It will be a huge step forward in regaining control of the country but it won't solve the problem.
Do not underestimate the effect of Trump’s removal……. Whether through the 25th Amendment or preferably through impeachment and conviction……would have on the cabal of grifters that now surround him. Even Bezos and Thiel (who is rumored to be acquiring a hidey hole in Argentina) are beginning to be publicly denegrated for being such obvious greedy SOBs that they are aware that they are seen as the problem, not the answer
The sycophants in Congress and in this maladministration will turn on Trump in a heartbeat when popular sentiment make it obvious that it in their interest to do so. And they will claim to have always hated the man…..with perfectly straight faces.
How much worse could it be? They have already dismantled most of the functioning govermnent departments. Most likely his removal would result in a power vacuum, since the ego size of so many of his sycophants is enormous.
All these people praying for trump's demise - he's not the only trash that needs taking out. It's like removing the corpse of a cholera victim - and not getting rid of the dirty bedsheets.
Milady, as I have often stated, Donald is just the shiny hood ornament on the hearse that MAGA is driving toward the cliff. To avoid disaster, removing the driver is a lot more important than removing the chrome trim.
America Is Back, Mostly as a Deepfake
Apparently the new foreign policy doctrine is “America Is Back,” provided America is defined as one elderly influencer, several AI hallucinations, and a racecar parked beside George Washington while the Space Shuttle loiters overhead like a confused Uber.
The Iran negotiations, we are told, are going beautifully, which in Trumpese means the deal is almost done, totally dead, very boring, moving rapidly, and impossible because Democrats keep chirping, all before lunch. The Strait of Hormuz was open before the war, naturally, so the obvious masterstroke was to bomb first, panic later, then demand applause for reopening the door he set on fire.
Meanwhile, the Great American State Fair is facing the terrible national tragedy of musicians discovering prior commitments, moral standards, or caller ID. No problem. Trump may replace them with the “Number One Attraction anywhere in the World,” namely Trump, whose guitarless Elvis routine consists of shouting at clouds until the clouds hire counsel. At this rate, the patriotic entertainment lineup will be Kid Rock, a cardboard cutout of Lee Greenwood, and a malfunctioning fog machine named Liberty.
Then came the AI art dump, because nothing says stable leadership like posting yourself as Washington, Rushmore, superhero admiral, basketball legend, flag kisser, king whisperer, and white-picket-fence time traveler. America is back, and apparently it is back to 1953, with fewer civil rights, more Cadillacs, and a government aesthetic best described as “Dick and Jane join a gated community.”
The Pentagon, not wanting to be outdone in the Department of Perfectly Normal Democracy, reportedly turned its press office into a classified space. Journalists may still ask questions, provided they make an appointment with secrecy itself.
So relax. It will all work out well in the end. It always does, especially when the captain says the iceberg is boring and posts himself as Poseidon.
Lovely. Thanks for all the great images. Government by ADHD, with malice for all.
If this weren’t so true it would be funny. But it’s all true, and terrifying that no one is confronting or even trying to help “ the king”.
There are also 77 million people who voted for Trump and who world would be better off without. Unfortunately, we have no way to rid ourselves of them, so we’ll have to find a workaround.
It's really too bad COVID wasn't fatal to those who refused vaccination.
You might be going a little too far with that one.
ThankYou for your ethical check on violent fantasies.
Yeah. Our side has had a lot of bad luck. Hope it turns around. We’re gonna need a lot of really good luck in November, even if we all work our pants off in the interim.
That workaround is called vote Blue in such numbers that they are relegated to the fringes from whence they came.
Indeed
We still have to deal with a segment of our population committed to white Christian Nationalism, i.e., in other words, defeating the 21st century KKK. That will take time and effort.
Yeah, all 12 of them richard. You guys could blow a pimple out of proportion Hey richard you ever been to a Christian nationalism church ? Nope, nor have you ever heard of one I have never seen so much paranoia over belief in God no matter what the religion is
I’m surprised you have enough courage to look in a mirror at yourself
Rick, anatomically, your ancestors who qualify as modern day humans first appeared in Africa about 300,000 years ago. What that means is that your God waited 298,000 years before "fixing" the issue with humans, meaning that 298,000 years of humans had no guidance and probably ended up in Hell. What kind of God, what kind of loving God, would do that?
The answer is simple. At that point ..he was the first leader of the newly formed Democrat party.
No, if you come up with any real challenging questions, let me know
total agreement, john.
Armageddon
Golly Gee Willikers....who said "All publicity is good publicity? never met DT Barnum '47 going on 80...
At least Joe knew when to step down with his dignity ( and the East wing) intact......
Racking up all them losses "top of the fold" must not make for a Happy 80th...and now congress is going to withdraw from his bigly war...
You know guys, you are to change the channel and get out on the street and witness some of life instead of thinking that you actually live in the real world.
Best president of your life, Paul. Deal with that fact! The Man has more smarts and imagination than anyone that sat in the White House the last hundred years. Except for maybe John F Kennedy
Wait a minute Paul did you just say Joe Biden knew went to step down ? He couldn’t even put 1 foot in front of the other let alone step down ! The Man should’ve never run for president the first time. He was an embarrassment to his country, and it will take. It will take a decade to read ourselves of all his faults and COSTLY mistakes
Nothing like reading The anti-Trump crazies. I don’t know where the hell some of these people have been living like under rocks or in caves Their witnessing greatness in the White House and in Washington DC in vision and in progress and in fact!
The government is diseased. The all American citizens, particularly the electorate (despite party affiliation), have the responsibility to think, and respond with intelligence, to honor the founding principles of the USA, to purge the government (all three branches) of the men and women who fail to represent their interests and the will of USA citizens and to act with courteous resolve to deny free passage to conspiracists and purveyors of "alternative facts".
AMEN!
They will all die of old age before any of them lifts a 25th Amendment finger to stop any of it. Plus, they despise JD Wanker. They know he has all the charisma and attraction of a small bowl of cold, wriggling eels — a man (?) who’s already risen to the full heights of weenydom with no place left to go.
They’re fucked. And they know it, too.
“They’re fucked. And they know it, too.” Bingo. And can we once and for all quit the “…but Vance and Peter Thiel are worse….”? For gods sakes, we’ve got a demented, evil, malignantly narcissistic 34-times convicted felon with his greasy little finger on the nuclear button squatting in the Whine House posting insanity hour after hour and we’re more afraid of a couch fucker who’s reinvented himself so many times he doesn’t even know his real name? Even the Current Lunatic doesn’t like our Second Banana, recent reporting of Vance getting heat for his vacations, his flaccid support for the Big Beautiful War and releasing his inner 3rd-Grade self on Twitter with god knows who. Maybelline Eyes is already toast. Wanna be afraid of the next guy? Keep your eyes on Liddle Marco, another chameleon who’s just smooth and oily enough to bamboozle the MAGAT hordes into believing he’s the Third Coming.
Don't worry too much about Mini Marco JihnC, he'll be President of Cuba. 😅
Ricardo, that’s what hurts my head. The Cubans don’t deserve a repeat of Batista and the American Sugar Company—all of which I expect of Little Marco given the chance.
You are 💯 % right Virginia. I wonder, if there's a US landing in Cuba, who would be in the front lines with the Marines, the sons and daughters of the amercan families or the Cubans drinking coffee and eating "pastelitos" in Miami?
Vance is only a problem if 🍊💩🤡 dies. Rubio is far more electable than JV. Vance will never make the varsity squad.
He (Rubio) doesn’t seem to have any charisma at all. I don’t see him being a winning candidate at all.
PT, when you have Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Scott Leiendecker on your side, you don't have to be a "winning candidate" to "win" an election.
Vance is worse, imo
Your last sentence says it all. Suppose Congress or the Secretaries or Fate removed Trump. Who in their right mind would want to inherit this mess. It would be a thankless, ugly 2.5 year job with no benefits waiting at the end. The very rich are vilified so they will melt away to live with their riches. The politicians will fade into ignominy and disgrace, no corporate board memberships waiting. So they are all fucked. I wonder how many times Johnson has wished vile MTG was speaker instead of him? Sadly we too are fucked for the long term. Our city in ruins.
You'll be surprised Martha at how many of this critters would die to have that job since they don't care about results and consequences. Maybe Todd Blanche.....he is a bottomless SOB with no conscience or emphaty. And he is just one of the hundreds with the same characteristics. 😥
How about Whitehouse in the White House? He shows just the intelligence and sense of humor we need in the place and, as a State Department child with experience on the Senate Budget Committee, he looks like the perfect candidate.
No redundancy intended there Virginia 😅. Great idea.....👍
Thank you, Ricardo. And for those who yell about age, if possible Jon Ossoff for VP. Did you hear his “real” speech yesterday?
Nobody in the MAGA-verse has the charisma (however twisted and evil it may be) of The Grump that is needed to hold that coalition together. Once he is gone it will quickly devolve into palace intrigue and infighting. That won’t help the country much in the short term, but I think the end come 2028 will be swift and severe.
🎯🎯🎯🎯
We are fucked too ICTT.
No, we’re in great danger. They’ve sold their souls to Satan and gotten bupkess for it. There’s a difference.
Democracy and decency are always in great danger, by design. Maybe we need to make changes, even if we don't like them too much, to be able to survive and make it a more perfect system. Thanks for your comment ICTT.
You voted in the majority - as per your abysmal system - for him, at least you're getting what you deserve in the "land of the free - home of the brave". Can't find a single bit of empathy for USians, it's all for their victims.
Hold on a minute. The “majority,” in fact, did NOT vote for him. The total votes cast in the 2024 presidential election were 155,201,157. Votes for the idiot currently occupying the office of the presidency totaled 77,303,568. Votes for Harris/Walz and other candidates totaled 77,897,589. So the majority voted for someone OTHER than Orange Foolius. Sadly, not by a lot, and to be fair, FAR too many people didn’t bother because they didn’t like the choice or didn’t think their vote mattered. And, our dumb Electoral College system ensures the outcome is rarely a true reflection of the popular vote. But please don’t believe that the majority of us voted for this. We did not, and there is not, nor was there ever, a “mandate” for this abject lunatic’s self-interested and self-aggrandizing policies.
We need to stop focusing on Donald Trump and start focusing on how we went from passing the Voting Rights Act to becoming a nation where someone who ran the campaign Trump ran could garner more than 20% of the vote. That's the most serious question before us, and frankly, it comes down to enlightenment influenced liberals believing that their countrymen would apply reason in the face of well funded agitprop.
Not just that, but the Democrats have not done anything to reverse the crap that Reagan did to our country!
It’s because they all have drunk from the same diseased swamp of money. And if you don’t you lose. Nothing short of an economic revolution will suffice.
I think I know how you got to that statement and what seems more true is that we need a values revolution.
recall that both The Economist and the Wall Street Journal, neither of them left-leaning, said in mid- to late 2024 that the US economy was the envy of the world. So the Democrats did a lot in Biden's four years (and a lot in Obama's 8, including extending health care to millions of Americans). And that in spite of not having a majority in congress for their full terms.
I agree with this, but there's so much more that needs to be done. Biden started trying to break up monopolies, of course, drumpf fired her. The bottom line is that the government needs to work for the people in very real, tangible ways. We NEED a progressive platform. Stop the loopholes on taxes, raise the minimum wage, get rid of Citizens United, and shore up our accountability so that we never have another felon in any office of government. Enact a tax plan that is fair to all citizens, raise the cap for Social Security, solidify voting rights, and I could go on and on.
There are (again) voices suggesting, based on statistical anomalies, that Trump and cronies actually stole the 2024 election (and who better to do so than those who knew so much about fraud in 2020?) I'd really like to have these suspicions investigated.
Some have investigated it. They found a lot of abnormalities.
Hello Tina... Does Elon Musk come to Mind?...
And he’s back, just in time for midterms…
Absolutely
Even Elon doesn't have the money or the resources to swing hundreds of thousands of votes in seven separate states without SOMEONE blabbing the story to some intrepid reporter. Anyone who seriously believes such nonsense is drinking too much Kool-aid.
They have found a few hundred abnormalities. Below is a table of the swing states. Please note that the margin for Trump in the 7 swing states is over 750,000 votes total. Even if 50,000 votes in each of the states was rigged (33% of the total difference), there are only TWO states (Wisconsin and Nevada) where the outcome of the election would change. The other five states would still be marked for Trump.
And that assumes you actually thing that 50,000 votes in seven states could somehow be switched or added in. Its just inconceivable to think that could happen across such a large part of the country.
https://www.datawrapper.de/_/wFyr6/
There is virtually NO actual evidence that this happened to a level that would have changed the outcome of the 2024 election.
Did it (some votes being counted crookedly) happen at all? Probably yes, virtually ANYTHING CAN happen.
But to change the actual outcome of the 2024 election would require that the overall votes in 7 key swing states had to have been tampered with, and tampered with to the extent that tens of thousands of votes either disappeared (for the Democrats) or materialized (for the GOP). And that would have had to happen in a way that was NOT so obvious as to prompt an immediate investigation into abnormalities.
Anyone who understands our highly distributed election process (which involves literally thousands of people in precincts across the country, in every state, people of both parties) would realize that this simply wasn't possible to pull off.
Could they have flipped one state? Maybe, although I still highly doubt it. But SEVEN states? It is such a long shot that there is simply no credible way to believe that anyone could have done that, AND then kept it secret for almost 18 months.
It makes for a great fictional movie about election corruption... and makes absolutely no sense in reality.
“There is virtually NO actual evidence that this happened to a level that would have changed the outcome of the 2024 election.”
It’s been roughly nineteen months since the 2024 election. It took more than two years to convict Lance Armstrong of his offenses, for heaven's sake--and that was after more than a decade of scrutiny by journalists. In the Enron case the SEC began an investigation in 2001, followed by the DOJ's investigation beginning in Jan. 2002. The criminal trial against the Enron principals began in Jan. 2006. These are just two of the countless cases to be cited on the slow march of legal investigations.
Re the 2024 election: definitive, actionable evidence hasn’t been presented yet. But for any sentient being to say that in today’s America elections can’t be manipulated via money, power and technological expertise, seems naive, if not suspect.
"Anyone who understands our highly distributed election process (which involves literally thousands of people in precincts across the country, in every state, people of both parties) would realize..." well, would realize that it’s the very complexity of our system that makes election fraud difficult to unearth.
PS: The link you give in your earlier comment, datawrapper, isn't a data source at all but a chart-maker. ???
To convict Lance Armstrong, all that was needed was any (literally ANY) evidence that he had taken PEDs while riding in competitive races. ELEVEN teammates testified against him. 11:1. Once they got the evidence, it was a pretty simple case to make.
To prove (not allege, but PROVE) that a national election in which one candidate wins by over 750,000 votes in 7 critical states will take a sh*tload more evidence than that. It would take sworn testimony from senior election officials in literally dozens if not hundreds of precincts over 7 states to even START to convince ANYONE that election fraud had been committed to the level that would have changed the 2024 election. NOT. GOING. TO. HAPPEN! And even then, it would ONLY be suspicion, as HOW do you PROVE what you are alleging, that somehow all those ballots either should be thrown out (and which ones?) The reason no one who was actually involved with counting votes in the swing states has yet come forward to even suggest such a thing happened is because it didn't happen.
Allegations against Armstrong had been happening for years and it finally caught up with him. In fact there is little to suggest that it has EVER happened in our elections (especially our national ones, i.e., for President) and the reason is simply it is too complicated to pull off without literally dozens, even hundreds of people in on the scam. That just doesn't make any sense, unless you really just WANT to believe it couldn't be otherwise.
I am confident that our elections are VERY difficult to corrupt, even in a single precinct, and while that probably DOES happen occasionally, it is virtually impossible to believe as a thinking person that such a thing could actually happen across enough states to make a real difference.
Look, I’ve never been on the vote-rigging bandwagon either, but there are some suspicious signs out there. For me, how did he win Arizona when Gallego absolutely trounced Lake in the Senate race? The numbers don’t add up.
Maybe there’s nothing to see there. Lake ran a terrible campaign and was not well liked. Maybe Trump voters just single-shotted him on their ballots and ignored everything downticket, including their mega-MAGA senate candidate.
The thing is, we’ll never know, because the Democrats foolishly did not press for a full transparent audit of results.
Go to Arizona, Lake was HATED by people who otherwise would be strong GOP folks, even Trump supporters. Gallego was also well liked across Arizona, and that state (where I lived for my younger life) is also highly male-dominated and fairly misogynist, another argument against Lake and favoring Trump over Harris (Arizona was won by Biden against Trump).
And as I have pointed out, the problem is that EVEN if you proved that Arizona cheated Harris out of a win there, you still have at least 3 or 4 more states that you have to show the SAME thing, states with completely different election boards, some even run by Democrats, and with hundreds of thousands of votes for Trump. So, even if you seriously believe it happened, the cost of proving it is HUGE. If you actually have REAL EVIDENCE, maybe you might be willing to give it a shot. But no one has EVER presented any actual credible evidence that this happened except in ONE SINGLE precinct where there was an unusual question of NO votes for Harris. Probably not likely, but that wasn't the case in 99.9% of the other precincts, so no one was going to try to use that case as evidence that the entire election was thrown.
Hello Chris... Consider also that Kamala Harris was swift to concede...
Why do people not remember that muskrat bought the election for chump. I remember the day it happened. He stopped bitching about Joe dropping out and started the stupid dancing with Elon.
It's worse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqkjJA_NzK4
Daniel, this adds to my nightmares. As soon as I heard that he had won every swing state, with margins that avoided the recount rules, I felt that the game was over and the TechBros had checkmated the election -- and that they would do it again. This YouTube breaks my heart.
A court could rule that the election is void and that everything should return to status quo January 20, 2025.
This group has an open case in the Western District of Pennsylvania.
No argument here.
Sabine Hahn’s comment was clumsily phrased, but I think “as per your miserable system” is intended to mean that the US elected Trump, which is correct (no matter what nut-case conspiracy-mongers might blather on and on about). The blame lies with the US electorate. People who are outside that electorate have a legitimate complaint against it. Right on, Sabine Hahn! You’re onto something.
Rex, being familiar with Sabine's comment history, I can attest that she has nothing but disdain for the U.S. and its citizens. But I agree that her characterization of our electoral system as "miserable" is not wrong.
However, my evaluation of our "miserable electoral system" is more specific than yours, and consists of two factors: gerrymandering and the Electoral College.
I contend that millions of U.S. citizens don't vote because they are convinced – with evidence – that their votes don't matter. If this weren't true, we wouldn't be witnessing the "gerrymandering wars" currently raging across the U.S. and millions of dollars spent on campaigns in so-called "swing states," while pittances are spent in states that are "in the bag," whether red or blue.
I haven’t seen comments by Sabine Hahn before, Dale, so I take your word for it, Nevertheless, outside observers who disdain the US electorate are, in my judgment, on solid ground. The electorate, collectively (and especially white voters, its dominant political cohort) bought into NIxon’s Southern strategy (which is based on the Wallace insight that bigotry is an effective campaign tactic all over the US), and all Republican presidents since 1968 owe their election to deployment of that strategy. Regan was plenty bad, but the nitwit son of the elderbush was beyond the pale, and the US electorate in 2016 committed a crime against humanity in 2016 and repeated the crime in 2024, saddling the world with a pariah nation with immense, raw power with a venal moron in charge, unchecked because the electorate also saw fit to install a legislative majority that, like the majority of white voters, does not value human decency. What decent human being can fail to hold such an electorate in utter contempt?
But Rex, when you (or Sabine) refer to "the electorate," you paint all voters with the racist, prejudiced brush. Admittedly, somewhere between a third and half of U.S. citizens deserve that label (and a pox on all of them). But more than half are not racist or fearful of minorities (take your pick). We don't know how many more than half because they are disaffected by the aforementioned vote-suppression devices, gerrymandering and the Electoral College. All I ask is that you acknowledge that most Americans are not horrible.
The only thing she is “on to” is the power of money driving propaganda designed to instill fear in the MAGA inclined voting cohort. Billions of Citizens United money flooded in to Trump’s 2024 campaign as Harris was gaining traction. The lies in those calculated, algorithm focused attack ads worked. Without them, the myth of strongman Trump was fading
Question: In the 2024 national election, how many registered voters did NOT Vote?
Answer. Close to 90 million.
USN&WR reporter was Kronenberg.
It is a mistake to think the outcome would have been different if the 90 million had voted. It might well have been worse.
Sadly, you are wrong. Your electoral system is what it is and Trump does have a legal mandate to govern. I agree that he is often acting well beyond the reach of his powers as president but currently the guardrails you have in place do not appear to be able to stop him acting with impunity.
as I wrote - as per your bizarre system he won.
We wuz robbed. The media needs to report on the Ashley St. Clair/Musk admissions.
Sabine Hahn, now there's a mean spirit. Do you blame the German resistance fighters for the Nazis too?
Yes.
And please note. Hitler won a legitimate election with the same right wing populist and plutocrat coalition which put Trump in power. And Hitler, like Trump, was put in power with an assist from the purity test far-left. When Stalin instructed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) to direct its primary hostility toward the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). As when Putin fan girl Jill Stein and others direct their primary hostility toward the Democratic party.
The nazis never won more than 44% of the popular vote and then only with widespread voter intimidation and running street battles. There was nothing 'legitimate' about the 1933 election and then they didn't bother to hold another one. Trump in his dreams would love a similar outcome.
I mistakenly conflated Hitler and the Nazi party.
In 1932 the Nazi party won a plurality in a legitimate election. In 1933 Hitler was legitimately appointed Chancellor.
My point about the coalition who put Hitler in power stands. And the contribution of the Communists stands.
"1932 Parliamentary Elections: The Nazi Party became the largest party in the Reichstag (parliament) but never secured a majority. Their highest peak was 37% of the vote in July 1932, dropping to 32% in November 1932.
1933 - Hitler appointed Chancellor."
Holocaust Encyclopedia
.https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/hitler-comes-to-power.
Important explainer! Thank you.
campaigning against the SPD as "Social Fascists" was really stupid. But we have 20 years of electoral that the Far Left and Reality have never met in person.
And Germany got exactly what it deserved - so there is hope that the genocide-supporting US, sadly on both sides of the aisle, will as well.
You'd best hope that the people who oppose Trump here manage to win in November or things are going to get Really Bad for you Europeans as Trump is left unfettered to destroy the world economic system, destruction of which he's already managed a good whack at. In the meantime, why don't you crawl back to wherever it is you crawled out of.
" In the meantime, why don't you crawl back to wherever it is you crawled out of."
ThankYou TC
Saved me the trouble.
Sabine Hahn - the Rick Sender of the Leftish.
I don't like the way Sabine expresses her opinions either but you will find them widespread amongst the citizens of countries counting themselves as US allies or allies attempting to undertake some form of decoupling from the US.
In many of the US's allies, governments have been very attached to the US for decades whilst their citizeny have been ambivalent about the relationship. The longer the US supports the genocide in Gaza, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, etc and US actions create increasing economic hardships for allied populations, the angrier people will get. And, once the people in poorer countries starving courtesy of the US's war with Iran start popping up on screens, there will be even more anger.
Best dig in for the medium term because a MAGA-connected, far right party is on the rise in Sabine's country now and the anger and frustration of a great many Sabines will only get worse. Being a citizen of the most powerful and influential country in the world, you'll have to find some grace.
When I read Sabine's comments I see something akin to people in Pacific countries drowning from climate change. They talk about industrialised countries benefiting from centuries of the kinds of economic activities that created and perpetuate climate change but they aren't saying that everyone in those countries is happy with the situation. It's just that not dealing with climate change is a national decision, and so everyone wears that decision whether they voted for it or not. That's just part of being rich and highly influential compared to other countries - a geopolitical reality.
You are trying to explain away her cruely stated lack of empathy for ALL “USians.” It is ignorance about how the US and most societies function. Blaming all Germans for Hitler. Blaming all “USians” for climate change policies (to use your reference). You can call them national policies, but the policies are made by a minority, by Trump, his regime, rich oligarchs and the complicity of a corrupt Republican party. The majority of “USians” don't agree with the regime’s climate policies. Millions are doing the best they can to fight the regime. To lack empathy because it is easier to lump everyone together and hate them en masse shows a lack of humanity.
No I'm not. Somewhere else I tried to explain how I see what's happening. I see a parallel in the Pacific island nations being drowned by climate change, people whose countries will die . They talk about how industrialised countries aren't taking CC seriously enough (or not at all) despite the fact that they created and perpetuate CC.
They know that not everyone in those countries votes to ignore CC, but it is a national decision so every voter in those countries wears that decision. That's just a consequence of being a rich and powerful country relative to the smaller countries experiencing harm.
There are all sorts of horrific things going on in the world and many good people are suffering anger, immense sadness and even grief even though they are just watching on rather than living through the 'hell'. They will respond differently and that will have geopolitical implications.
As in all things, the most powerful will need to demonstrate the most grace as we try to muddle our way through things. And, the grace the powerful can demonstrate will be remembered because it challenges the perceptions of the less powerful.
So lumping people together en masse and spreading hate and lack of empathy is the way to go? How will that help? Better to reach out to those who are dedicated to the same humanitarian and progressive values you are dedicated to and forge ahead together.
The "most powerful" need to be impeached and boycotted (corporations). They will never demonstrate grace. The grace (and true power) is coming from collective, caring friends, neighbors, your ordinary, extraordinary folks reaching out with empathy and compassion. Look at Minneapolis.
I forgot to respond to USians. I don't know if this is what is happening with Sabine, but I know people in South American countries who don't like people from the US being described as Americans because the US is not the only country in the Americas. It makes them feel disrespected which is understandable and worth accommodating (in my view).
Thank you Wendyl
"You voted in the majority - as per your abysmal system - for him, at least you're getting what you deserve in the "land of the free - home of the brave". Can't find a single bit of empathy for USians, it's all for their victims."
-Sabine Hahn
So who died and made you boss Avenging Angel?
Our "abysmal system"?
Nope, your abysmal rhetoric
First there are the internal contradiction of your bile. You start with your embrace of the dubious notion of collective guilt, bragging on your lack of empathy for some construct you term 'USians' And you end with a humble brag on your empathy for their [the USians] victims. Of course, many of the victims of the Trump regime are Americans.
Secondly. Many of those suffering under the Republican regime are American individuals who took on the responsibility of doing all they could to prevent a Trump presidency. While so many others - especially on the self righteous purity test Left who refuse to vote for Democrats - sat on their hands and gloated. And worse, celebrate the Trump wreckage - that they are complicit in - as proof of their view of 'the system.'
Thank you, Lin. Good, thoughtful response to hateful rhetoric.
Just ignore her.
By my count this Community has dispatched over 10 Trolls regardless of variety.
Counsellor, besides the one previously mentioned, who else is on that list? I remember my first jousts with one whose first name was "Geoffery" (can't remember his last) and I notice David Carroll is no longer posting; not sure he was a troll, per se, but certainly had a focus to his comments. I suspect this person is of that variety.
Those names ing a bell, but I am not after "Trolls" per se, but Terms of Use (TOU) violators under the Platform's applicable CA law.
Really? One guy was on for ages. I reported him numerous times...and he was still there being such an a-hole.
I did tell his responders to "please stop wasting your time. He can't be fixed."
I also do not like personal insults here. People going back and forth with insults. Good grief. Grow up!
Fight w/ the real enemies out there. Plenty to choose from.
people...people...
fighting aMONGST yourselves is DEF what 'they' want...
wasted expenditure of energy/time...
focus on the important issues. please.
Sabine's comment is NOTHING compared to what you're facing...
No need for a referee. And who are "they"? Important points, not wasted time. We are facing a lot. Your opinion that it is nothing. There, just wasted a minute.
I actually checked out her Subsack site. She's on the right side there. Go look.
I gather she's just pissed off at the USA....well, so am I. Very.
Isaac.....Isaac....
True
Sabine-i guess my thought on your comments is this-imagine the US back in the late 1920’s and 1930’s responded to Germany and Hitler as you just did-blaming the innocents for the deeds of an evil segment of society supporting a mentally ill leader. If the US had turned our backs, blaming German citizens for all the destruction wrought by the Nazis, lacking in compassion for the pain inflicted-imagine how that would have ended. I had family there and here during WW11. Americans provided protection, food, shelter, empathy. Compassion, kindness, medicine, etc-they fought the evil and cared for the innocent. What if the US hadn’t provided the Berlin Airlift?
Your lack of empathy and compassion is hurtful and has no place here. We, the people in the US will prevail IN SPITE of people like you. Good luck with your heartlessness. I hope you never face the dystopia we experience daily. No one should.
After WW2, Germany may have been supported by our gov. because it saw that Germany was key to a better European future. And the USA had a high percent of Germans. Plus, we took in a lot of intelligent Nazis in for their smarts.
In Germany there was very little antisemitism until Hitler took it on. Th worst antisemitism was in Poland and surrounding countries. A lot from the Catholic Church..those Christ killers. Drinkers of Christian babies blood. Money lenders ...
BUT, as anyone near my age should recall (born in that hot year: 1939) the US population hated Germany and Germans..they wanted nothing to do with their arts or products ..until maybe when the wall came down.
The Israelis, on the other hand ....from what we know, they have been taught since the cradle to hate those Palestinian "animals"...Nothing can't be done to them.
Good Luck on stemming the antisemitism they are creating. Shoving it right in our faces. Look what else we can do! It serves their purposes to look like victims.
Don't criticize it because then you are the worst bullshit thing ever: an antisemite.
Give me a break.
We did NOT vote in a majority of any kind for this man. Leaving aside the fact that 1/3 of the voters stayed home (a problem worthy of its own discussion), The Grump did not even win a majority of the votes cast. He won 49.8% of the vote. A plurality, yes, but not a majority. More than half the voters wanted someone else. And I guarantee you many more than half want someone else now.
Yeah all that is a based on misinformation but hey why not liken it or even realize that what happened in Germany under Hitler was way more of a majority that put him in power. That's not a German name is it Sabine?
My maiden name is Arndt. All my male relative fought the Germans. My grandfather in WW1 and WW2. I do not identify as a German. Frankly, I'm starting to not identify with being an American lately. I'm a person w/ a brain capable of critical thinking...thanks to Mother Nature.
What's her name and maybe the background of her ancestors got to do w/ her thoughts about stuff?
Check out sabine's site. Not bad at all. and leave her to comment without getting all up in a twist.
Ignore her and save your energy.
I was being sarcastic and seems you're the one now getting all up in a twist if you have to answer FOR her🤔🤔🤔. odd
Your "sarcasm" did get me in a twist. I take people seriously on Heather's site.
It would have been helpful if you had added a note on the end to that effect.
oh well.
Okay I can understand that. I have been coming hundreds if not thousands of times on Heather's site and I am sure I can count on one hand how many times I've said anything negative to anybody about anything. This is my lifeline too. One time I made a comment to Heather about getting enough sleep. Not just because we need her but because Heather needs to take care of herself for Heather and it is proven scientific fact that you do not regain sleep debt. This is a long haul and I have mentioned a few times let's let's say over the past year that… I am glad you have the Letter done early tonight. Hope you get some good sleep…. And things like that I have also made much longer comments but never anything negative, well except djt and everything there is to be concerned about. One politics chat a ways back, Heather said a couple of times how exhausted she was and I have very good reason medically speaking to be concerned about that kind of thing (not because I know Heather personally…my own reasons) and in that night's Letter which also happened to come out very late if I remember, I kind of went about it a different way in a comment I made to Heather about something in the letter and how much rest she was able to get. It did tend to be I guess you could call it sarcastic but not really sarcasm… I was asking her if she wanted to be around to see the other side of this Etc. Hey let me tell you, she is probably the one person in the world at this point, except maybe Zelensky, that I would feel privileged and honored to meet because I admire and have so much respect and gratitude for all she is doing for us. But the Watch Dogs I guess I could call them couldn't see that I was genuinely concerned about Heather and they were a little less than asses but not much in their comments to me. Telling me Heather was a big girl she could make her own decision and don't tell her what to do and blah blah blah. And I answered one of them and said you know I'm concerned about her personally too and not just for what she gives to us. You seem to be more concerned that she just keeps going and going and going and doesn't take a break if that's what she feels like doing because you want your needs to be taken care of by her steadiness and truth and wisdom. And I said if she doesn't take better care of herself one night her letter is going to say I can't do this anymore goodbye. And I got ripped apart again because she is a big girl and can make her own decisions. One particular of this group was way more than an ass and I would not have thought this had she not mentioned that she went to my profile I couldn't decide if I was a troll or a bot because most of the things on my Facebook are good and things I donate to and support. Now this could be a coincidence but I certainly didn't believe it was. I have been on Facebook for over 15 years. I have never been hacked. I have never had some warning although I will admit, as time goes on I am surprised I haven't. 2 hours later after this little back and forth, all different parts of my Facebook were in Spanish. And you may think this is funny which would make me think your last comment not too serious or true. But it was not just an easy fix in fact this whole mess that just coincidentally happened right after this more than an ass had to tell me Heather was a big enough girl to make her own decisions and to mind my own f****** business, was just Sunday fixed and I had to actually ask and go through all this stuff directed by the Meta AI. All I could think of is some of these people are no different than MAGA. After I had explained ad nauseam ( kind of like this comment 🤷♀️), this person I will always believe went ahead and hacked….really messed….. my whole Facebook account. And yes there is that slight possibility that after 15 years with not one issue ever about anything right after these goofballs are ripping me apart because I'm just trying to in my own way watch out and protect Heather…too! I am older, I am not well physically and I made a sarcastic comment. But I may have misunderstood
Sabine's comment. Sorry for the ramble. Take care. 🇺🇲😪🙏
You're not wrong, but you're also not helpful.
There is significant evidence that Kamala Harris won this election, but with this foul regime in place it’s near impossible to do anything about it. After all, he did seem to take the oath (he honors no oath he’s ever taken…) and that appears to be that. It’s enough for the Extreme Curia anyway
In that our “democracy “ was so weak that he was allowed to run the first time around, and the democrats in office have let cooperations buy favor, yes, I agree it is on us, the electorate. We were too lax, going about our capitalist lives to care, not to mention, act.
WHY was he born? That was before abortion was legal. The SCOTUS is counting on many more like him.
And no it is not overreacting and no it is not just the nation and the reputation but the entire world that is suffering and will continue to suffer. And why would his family help him. As long as they have money coming in and every damn one of them does by the Millions, do you think they really care what happens to this country? I'm only throwing this out there is a complete guess but do you not think that if this nation implodes everyone of his family and everyone close to him as in politically close because it's pretty obvious he doesn't have a friend in the world not a real friend who would tell him what he's doing which is making his legacy of the complete opposite of what his delusional thinking thinks but don't you think that everyone who has any idea how messed up he is and realizes the possibilities have let's call them, second residences and if things implode do you think any of them will be found in whatever is left of this country? Oh not overreacting at all. As long as they feel as though they have power and as long as they are all making money they'll go as far as they can because some of them, most of them really believe that this is a holy battle against evil hence the name Christian Nationalists. The problem is they are more evil and causing more destruction to the entire world the enemies they think they are fighting…. Which of course is first and foremost anybody in this country who doesn't worship djt. I guess they haven't ever heard of the saying, A house divided against itself cannot stand!!
Over reacting? not even ten years ago. But his family staging an intervention? Out of the question; they're all variously deranged as well. His staff? I would say the same thing.
His staff helps him post these outrageous things, at least the adoring young woman who follows him around does. I believe others do as well. Still, his platform should be shut down all night, which would protect him from sundowning posting. He cannot run a country or conduct peace negotiations via his media platform.
I wonder what it would take to undo this reputation that the US is getting. I am living abroad and go back and forth. The people around me in the US do not seem to notice how awful things are, although all of my friend's jobs have been effected and they are well off. One person I know retired 4 months early because of the Trump admin freezing funding from which he was to get paid. All of the scientists I know are having a difficult time getting their grants funded. There are different quirks. We know two that have found jobs abroad. Both of them in Asia. More are looking. Another friend's job switched to cheaper insurance coverage and it no longer covered their therapy. Another lost his non-profit job, and it took him 4 months to find another job. This is right when their son was a senior in high school so they were looking at paying for his University with one income. It goes on.
If you are a US citizen or have US residency, would you please read my piece explaining the Free Speech for People campaign to impeach Trump AND his cabinet and help them get 2 million signatures by signing the petition in it? https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/indivisible-abroad-supports-the-impeach?r=f0qfn
If you can't find the link to the petition in the above piece, here it is. Just scroll down and you will find it. https://www.impeachtrumpagain.org/
"He cannot run a country or conduct peace negotiations via his media platform." Thank you; I've been saying this for a long while. Official announcements should be made via official channels. Social media diplomacy is not productive for anyone, but reflects the influence of tech in our societies. This regime relies on it.
No you ⬆️ are not over reacting but, I am not going to pile on.
We had gorgeous June 1 weather out here in San Diego in Balboa Park. I believe I heard 5
different foreign languages among the young visitors. 'School's out for Summer'. I found a good spot inside the FREE arboretum to recharge so I can now engage on multiple fronts.
Ready Now.
I am prone to use profanity, and this fucking asshole of a president has to go. The event horizon is clearly in view. Only a matter of time now. And time is on our side.
No you are not over-reacting. Where are the patriotic Republicans? Can they not see that this man is in need of help and removal from office?
He doesn't need help. He needs to be 86'd. Off to a life w/ saints just like him.
WE are the ones who need help...and, the world.
He is evil. Way beyond needing help. What we need are political guts before we need another Ike. FYI: the possible helpers are Vlad, P2025 cretins, devoted magats, SC, and gutless wonders like Mitch and his ilk. Iran makes him twist in the wind with clever chess moves. Democrats send begging emails and play tiddily winks. He gives ammunition by the hour. Is HCR the only one who notices.
JD, I'd love your take on the Minocqua Substack guest post here:
https://minocquabrewingcompanytimes.substack.com/p/the-things-we-were-thinking?r=3hlhv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Thanks AllyHouse, no redeeming features, not one.
No, we’ve been under reacting. I hope the electorate at large understands the utter incompetence of the GOP in who are not doing ANYTHING to stop this unhinged mad man and his cowardly followers. Clearly, Trump must be removed from office.
This is a sad story about America, the country that showed such a greatness in D Day, fightring for European allies to defeat Nazis to give them back peace and prosperity. Just one man yes one man destroying it all. And who enabled this to happen? We, the voters who elected him as president knowing full well this is an inferior choice over Harris.
He is doing what they want...to destroy our country. Vote straight BLUE in November!!!!
Trump is crazy, mean, stupid, demented - all of it. And in another universe someone in his orbit would try to get him help. But this is “The trump Show” and all the sycophants are too busy propping him up and getting whatever they can while he’s still breathing. But trump is the figurehead of a whole ballroom full of people who are the architects and implementers of this terrible time in our country.
We are all seriously upset a lot of the time. Most Americans have never lived through an authoritarian regime. What we can do is become maniacs This means we can tear our eyes away from the nightmare of his regime and become 100% intent on getting them all out of office.
There are some critical races happening so we can become distracted in a healthy way. The Democratic Party is undergoing its own death/rebirth. We the People are fed up with little to no representation that never helps our lives. Every time a PAC representative calls the Democrats waffle and back down on critical issues. They have by default allowed this nightmare to happen to us. We can examine each Democratic in Office and each candidate for how much they are beholden to PACs. There is a confrontation between the elite older centrists and the younger progressives for sharing the Party values.
I am watching Democrats being held accountable for their involvement with AIPAC and the Netanyahu Israel genocide of GAZA and now Lebanon. After seeing videos of the horrors of the Israeli war, I made the decision to not vote for a US politician who takes AIPAC money. Go to AIPAC Tracker and integrityindex.us.
The detention centers and the serious human right abuses right here desperately need our attention. The detention centers in Dilley TX and Delaney Hall in NJ are a nightmare.
Sorry to go on. I am disciplining myself to not get distracted by his latest insult, injury and frightening assault on America. There are ore of us than them. And we will win.
Obama was Marcus Aurelius, Trump is Commodus.
According to Monte Python in “The Life of Brian”, Trump was Dickus Biggus and his wife, Incontinentia Buttocks.
Biggus Dickus? I beg your pardon. More like Pissius Micropenis Inconsequentia.
And Life of Brian was done in an era when nobody had ever heard of Mango Malfeaseus.
Don't you get the feeling that he now is seeing himself that way also? Feeling his true self: worthless, weak, emasculated. Limp Dicksville.
Yo, no libido.
Life of Brian: What did J say? "The Greeks are going to inherit the Earth?"
I want to play in this little side thread. He is Agaricus Bisporus and she is Meretrix Glacialis.
He always reminds me of Marcus Crassus, who nobly led Roman legions into obliteration against the Parthians (modern-day Iran plus some neighbors) in the Battle of Carrhae. Crassus was reputed to be the richest man in the land, and greed guided him to battle against a supposedly easy foe. He was captured and executed by having molten gold poured down his throat (this is where GOT got the execution idea).
Tell me that doesn't sound like our boy Don Crassus Maximus!
Would you please note your classical sources?
It's been a while.
But I'll add a more modern take on Caligula.
Caligula God
.https://youtu.be/NJvVEt6F_Xw?si=B91pSR1JDFM5i74K.
And of course, Pinky and The Brain
Pinky and The Brain Intro
.https://youtu.be/GBkT19uH2RQ?si=5iJbL911IBK0RR0y.
Yes, it's been a while for me as well. I imagine Plutarch is among my first sources on the story of Marcus Crassus since I read both his works and Tacitus when I was a youngster. Cicero also muses on the downfall of Marcus Crassus in some of his writing.
Love Pinky and The Brain
ThankYou. Someplace to start. Time to pull out the old Loeb Library.
An update of Pinky and The Brain might have to be lab rats.
I think, the original Mickey Mouse was a zoot suited trickster. Whose features and wardrobe were gradually juvenilized to make him more widely appealing. (I knew a Vertebrate Paleontologist who did a cladogram documenting the evolution of Mickey's characteristics. Stephen J. Gould was amused ; )
I always thought Steamboat Willie was the first cartoon adaptation of Mickey Mouse…just about 100 years ago (1928!)
You are right about Steamboat Willie being a 1928 presentation of Mickey Mouse. But the 1928 Plane Crazy, an homage to Lindbergh slightly preceded it.
"The Original Mickey Mouse Looked a Little Bit Different and Not So Loveable, 1928 - Rare Historical Photos"
"In his early years, the impish and mischievous Mickey looked more rat-like, with a long pointy nose, black eyes, a smallish body with spindly legs, and a long tail.
Parents wrote in expressing dismay at Mickey’s antics in the cartoons and complained that Mickey was no role model for children."
.https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/original-mickey-mouse-pictures-1928/.
Hello Marcus... Excellent Historical Reference....
I would almost pay to see this scenario.
Join the crowd Tina.
Now I can’t think of a more appropriate execution for someone who loves gold so much but the image is just too much for me to contemplate.
Yes that suits Donold the demented to a t. ‘Twould be a fitting ending for him too in this game of thrones dystopian superpower suicide he has brought about.
Am waiting for the ultimate distraction.. let them have 100 days of games. Like Titus. He's set the circus infront of the white house already.
Who is our Maximus, fictional though he may be????
I think that it's best perhaps not to hope for one to emerge because then you're only asking to be disappointed - again. Why not just settle for a reasonably competent leader who is also sane? Surely there's someone in your country who can fulfil those criteria? You have a problem with expectations that are unrealistic and these are only encouraged by politicians like Trump who make grandiose promises they cannot hope to deliver on.
I agree with you. Maximus was fictional. That was the point.
It is going to take US years to repair the damage, and voters in the US tend not to be patient. I have been pointing out the need for Democrats to not over-promise and to be realists on what can be accomplished with slim majorities in both houses of Congress, which itself is not a sure thing.
The political landscape may get even more challenging if the conservative majority on SCOTUS decides to ignore the Constitution and continue its string of decisions favoring the unitary executive theory.
Exactly, nearly all the pictures of the sub creature trump, show him sitting in his on the commode posture!
Is $24 billion more than $1.7 billion?? Iranian assets that are/were frozen? This regime and all its minions sicken me! F-king lying incompetent grifters.!
This demented husk is bored now 😐 🥴😵💫🤑
It seems that there's a bit of the Commodus even in Obama.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/jun/02/klingon-prison-barack-obamas-presidential-library-chicago
I think you might need to consider taking your presidents down a peg or two in future.
Those of us who do not monitor Trump's social media are indebted to you, Heather, for wading through all that slop. I could barely manage to read about it. I'm sure I would have thrown my shoe at my computer screen had I been looking at those images.
An unrelated question: How can anyone expect that a negotiating team of Kushner and Witkoff (or is it Witless?) would be a match for negotiators from any other country?
We owe her a true debt of gratitude for having the courage of a mama lioness to report back to us the details of the Voyage to the Center of Trump’s Amygdala — not just once, but multiple times. I know of no other widely read source exhibiting such regular, reliable, genuine testicular fortitude. It takes guts of steel to ‘go where no man (or woman) has gone before’ to give us the full lowdown from a downlow place filled with bile, delusional self-pity, and the whiny tintinnabulations of utter panic blended in equal parts with eensy-weensy pissiness.
It reflects true political guts and historical accuracy. Rare indeed
Too bad it can't be seen as funny. Instead of insane.
I CTT, have you not been reading Psychiatrist Brandy X Lee who has warned us for as long as Trump became a candidate?
They are not. Here in Europe I haven't heard any serious person talk about them as legitimate (worthy) liaisons. It has also been mentioned that the US always talks about 'deals' instead of agreements. That says it all.
Couldn't agree more. No previous administrations and their State Departments used words like "deal" until the Orange guy came along.
Yes, I agree. Those are such toxic rantings, crazed ramblings and vile imagery that it’s practically hazardous duty to read and wade through all that sludge. Another reason why we’re indebted to Heather for her nightly letters and posts.
That's something I don't envy Betsy, I feel so sorry for HCR having to read, watch, chew and digest for us all the garbage coming from the demented supreme leader day in day out. It's really bad enough for me to read the description in the Letters...😮💨
I said, to myself, the same thing. How can anyone subscribe to that and see that garbage?
How can the Iranian negotiators (when they're not assassinated) bare to have anything to do with these 2 jokers? They have known there would be no agreement.
They know they have to fight it out.
An Important PSA
Rachel Maddow interview of Barb McQaude(https://bit.ly/4v2pCyN) is a much short watch to understand Cheeto’s approach
The protection racket of the mob boss becomes normalized illegal government behavior The law firms have made poor choices to succumb to Cheeto’s extortion scheme Although victims deserve scrutiny and disdain let's never forget the role of the real villain at work
Teflon Don seems untouchable but it’s actually a branding tactic, bragging that he’s above the law and essentially invincible Cheeto’s image all over Washington especially at the DOJ It’s a tactic designed to silence critics Satire mockery can puncture such branding
Payoff for Cheeto is support from his collaborative cronies such as suckups Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Musk The solution is to get money out of politics through legislation and there needs to be public outrage and WE the People push back since the Democratic Party is not up to the task Protests count and all of us play a role
The DOJ institution has been severely compromised by the Nazi Republicans Redemocritinization has to take place at the DOJ with reporting requirements between the WH and DOJ, regulations in policy and force oversight
Ultimately in responding to mobstyle governance it comes down to WE the People take responsibility to take our power back No one can take your power away without WE doing it voluntarily VOTE like your freedom depends on it and induce others to do the same
As with the MOB;
Mob boss John Gotti had tons of money, many many followers, and the best attorneys money could buy.
Gotti won so many of his court cases that he was dubbed The Teflon Don.
BUT...it still didn't stop him from Dying in Prison in Missouri.
8647ASAP!
Brava !
Fight like a Ukrainian
Vote like a Hungarian!
If only…
These are the same hungarians who voted in Orban four times in a row with large majorities.
Vote like a Hungarian in 2026!
A video warning from my favorite common sense commentator Belle of the Ranch. Listen at 1.5X to get past the drawl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VV_D9FTqPI
Belle warns that Democrats, in this case, Cory Booker, cannot afford to misread the nature of congressional Republicans' willingness to break with Trump. They are not rediscovering that they have a backbone. They are doing the political calculus on every issue and adding up whether breaking with Trump means they gain more "lean Republicans" than they lose members of the hard-core MAGA base.
Their goal is not to restore democracy. It is to retain power while leaving Trump's baggage behind.
SCOTUS will likely rule on a number of cases related to election law by the end of June, the beginning of summer recess. I think Republicans are waiting to see which way they rule because it will significantly affect how level the playing field is at the midterms. That will provide a context for determining whether Republicans are more or less likely to break with Trump on a given issue.
These cases include:
1. Birthright citizenship and Trump’s executive order in Trump v. Barbara: The Court is expected to rule on whether President Trump’s attempt to narrow birthright citizenship via executive order is consistent with the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and the Immigration and Nationality Act. This could knock millions off the voter eligibility rolls. Although the tea leaf readers thought SCOTUS was skeptical of the regime's arguments, the possibility of knocking millions of Black and brown people, more likely to be the progeny of recent immigrants, off the voter rolls may prove irresistible for some of the conservative majority.
2. Mail‑ballot deadline case (Watson v. RNC): This could invalidate state laws allowing counting of on‑time‑postmarked but late‑arriving mail ballots, which would especially affect close races and states that currently allow grace periods. Sixteen mostly blue states plus Washington, D.C., currently allow mail ballots to be counted even if they arrive after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day. The “grace period” rules vary in length, from a day or two up to about two weeks or more in some jurisdictions. You can see if your state is on the list here:
https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/table-11-receipt-and-postmark-deadlines-for-absentee-mail-ballots
3. Campaign finance and party–candidate coordination (National Republican Senatorial Committee v. FEC): The Court will decide whether federal limits on how party committees coordinate spending with their candidates violate the First Amendment, potentially expanding party fundraising and spending power. This case was over JD Vance's Senate campaign, the one bankrolled by Peter Thiel. This is the payback to Thiel, removing the need for a fig leaf of "non-coordination" between SuperPACs and campaigns.
Thanks, Georgia. I really liked what Belle had to say (and I don't mind the drawl); we absolutely CANNOT expect the RepubliKKKans to act in any reasonable manner. I'd love to be surprised if they do, but I will count on it as much as I count on the cats to be truthful that they haven't already been fed.
I grew up in NYC—so I am a fast talker, and have to work at it to not be an impatient listener. LOL
Got it. Apparently, my “raised in Oregon” drawl is similar to Oklahoma, a place where on one in 3 generations ever was. 🤷♂️
Absolutely agree. WE the People continue to hope that these Nazi Republicans will wake up but to think that is completely insane. These people know EXACTLY what they are doing and every move is politically calculated. That's why they should NEVER be trusted with power for at least 2 decades. This is an all out political Civil War and will be settled in the courts as the battlefield.
Please use punctuation! It’s difficult to follow you.
Thank you for the link. What a wonderful interview! I pre-ordered her book too.
There is a new phenomenon. It's called "future-faking." I'd like to give it a try... At some point, Trump's name will be removed from everything on the planet. After his death, it will happen fast. The MAGA hats and Trump banners will disappear. Melania will enter the Witness Protection Program. Barron Trump will change his name to Barron Landscape. Don Junior and Eric will be poisoned by their wives, undercover Mossad agents. Stephen Miller will die of auto-erotic asphyxiation. Kash Patel's eyes will finally pop out of their sockets and go bouncing down the steps at the FBI building. Pete Hegseth will come out of the closet wearing an old dress left behind by J. Edgar Hoover. Mike Johnson will appear on "Dancing With The Stars" with his drag queen partner Lindsey Graham, also wearing an old dress from the J. Edgar Hoover collection. Pam Bondi will reveal that, as a fourteen-year-old girl, she was sexually assaulted by Jeffrey Epstein. ICE Barbie, a.k.a. Kristi Noem, will be attacked and severely wounded by pack of feral antifa hunting dogs. RFKJR, missing for days, will be found on his knees along a deserted Arkansas two-lane highway, naked, sunburned and nibbling on the remains of a roadkill armadillo. As penance, John Roberts and Clarence Thomas will move to Harlem and never be seen again. Elon Musk will die a fiery death in a self-driving car accident. Racist, misogynist MAGANAZI rednecks will slither back under their rocks with unlimited kegs of cheap beer where they will live out their days watching reruns of "Moonshiners," "Duck Dynasty" and "Naked and Afraid." For the fourth time in his life, JD Vance will change his name, this time to Reverend DJ Test Pattern, and he will forever drive the back roads of the Confederate south preaching before hordes of evangelicals who are also utterly void of charisma. The real Jesus will finally return, this time as a stand-up comedian spouting lines like, "On his final trip to Walter Reed, Donald Trump underwent a colonoscopy, where doctors found half of Congress."
Sounds like a great beginning of a wonderful story. May it all happen just as you have foretold it, with one small addition — Princess Melania gets deported to Eswatini (sorry, Slovenia didn’t want her) for lying about being an Einstein on her immigration forms.
👆🤣👆[be on the lookout for film-rights offers….should be a blockbuster!!!]
Amused through this whole journalistic essay, Greg. Until I got to the punchline...OMG, priceless!
I would read that book or watch that movie!
Thank you for the much-welcomed laugh!
Thank you, Greg. Stand-up material. I miss The Late Show and Colbert humor nightly in his monologue. This was good interlude.
Salud!
🗽
Loved it…
Thanks for this. Brilliant and a great antidote to the miasma in which we live. You rock.
Great break from reality
Greg, that last couple lines... you win the internet. "...where the doctors found half of Congress." Bravo!
Very clever writing, but, Please, make paragraphs. That much copy needs some breathing spaces.
👏👏👏
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻💥💥💥👍🏻👍🏻🎯
A little harsh, perhaps. But I suppose we have to fight the beyond-harsh with some degree of harshness.
How do you deal with a mentally unbalanced leader when an entire party supports him? It is such a surreal time! Thanks Heather, for your dedication to presenting truth untainted by politics.
“How do you solve a problem like a MAGA?…” 🎻
The Sisters at the Abbey only had to figure out flibbertigibbets. We have to deal with real assholes, many of them armed.
ICCT, I follow Kirk Banksted from Minocqua Brewing and Wisconsin politics. His guest essay today is really a good one.
https://minocquabrewingcompanytimes.substack.com/p/the-things-we-were-thinking?r=3hlhv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Thanks!
Still can’t fathom how any person with even an iota of integrity can support someone who speaks about others (and himself!) the way he does. It’s disgusting to the core.
His followers voted for him _because_ he speaks about others the way he does. They love the shit-throwing and calling stupid names. They never matured beyond kindergarten…
Spot on, Dutch Mike. I have linked a guest essay several times, and will stop doing so; it basically says "He says what we think" as an explanation for why they vote for him.
Yep.. You're basically stuck with, say 30% of the population being eeaaally rotten apples
It's he American educational system.
Critical thinking skills? ......Huh? What's dat?
No class at all. Almost every other world leader comes across as measured, literate, gracious, respectful, polite, etc., because they either have those qualities or have the sense to try to act like they do. Not our guy, though - oh, no, definitely in a class by himself. The only other boorish leader that Trump reminds me of is/was Dutarte.
A side comment/tangent:
My theory of presidential elections (I'll limit this to male candidates) is that the candidate with the more genuine, better smile nearly always wins. So, Trump's comment about non-smiling Democrats is, to me, a kind of political truth amid the mountain of fecal material he shovels daily.
Democrats with good smiles died off for a long time after early Jimmy Carter. Think Mondale, Dukakis. Clinton was really smiling at the young aide over your shoulder, but it worked well enough for two terms. Gore? What a depressing campaign he ran; he didn't show a pulse until the waning days of the campaign when they tried a little populism in desperation, and he basically won. Kerry? Hard to imagine a smile. Obama--great smile, two-term president. And so on. (Trump's 'smile' could make babies cry at ten paces, so there's more to it than just a smile.)
There is a new-to-the-national-stage Democrat who has learned this lesson and is always smiling, or should I say democratic socialist: Zohran Mamdani. He looks like he's having as much fun as FDR did when he welcomed the hatred of "the old enemies of peace: business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering." Things haven't changed much from 1936, have they? And Mamdani's conducting a master class in how to fight the malefactors of great wealth with a disarming smile.
Trump hasn’t been smiling much lately I’ve noticed. Or if he does it is a smirk. Does this mean he is on his way out?
It's a possible sign, although his base loves scowls and staredowns just as much or more. Toughness and cruelty rather than an appealing smile. But this limits his reach, and if he flakes off his base he can't find support elsewhere.
Never submit a baby to the sight of Trump. Too young to witness an evil monster.
Heather’s most key insight today – Donald’s demented determination to stay in power.
I watched the other day the several minute video of Ali Velshi being escorted away from that New Jersey hellhole ICE and CBP concentration camp for people of color – far away from it, totally out of sight of it, far, far away – by police: so many, many police, as if incipient police state demands it.
What are Stephen Miller, J.D. Vance, Todd Blanche, and their let’s-all-suck-up-to-criminal-Donald all doing with him to get apparently every bit of local law enforcement to join the mass and obvious police state thuggery?
Criminal/rapist Donald has hardly gotten started. He knows the only way he can stay in power is by police state brutality in killing the November elections.
I know in “Evil Geniuses” Kurt Andersen is “disinclined to explain history or current events in terms of conspiracies, neat just-so stories that impute too much genius and power to conspirators.”
But isn’t it plain how rapist Donald intends himself to appear center stage everywhere – everywhere those feasting on power might be looking? (Even if the dark money monsters yet hide their identities.)
Serving up racism. Serving up misogyny. Covering up to protect the richest pedophiles. Building police state. Killing democracy.
Hi Phil, perhaps it's time to reread King Lear. What Trump intends to happen and what happens are very different outcomes and it's all a tragedy.
There is truly nothing about Donald that is new or unprecedented — save for the mango-tinted formaldehyde face mask and invisible concertina, perhaps. Though King Lear was written hundreds of years ago, it rings with modern truths there for the seeing and the taking.
Hans Christian Andersen had this naked emperor and his entourage pegged long ago. Shakespeare, Greek tragedy, the Holocaust itself —predictive lessons from the past all. What the scummiest among us wants — but what transpires instead — is perhaps the one common thread to them all. Evil always retains a powerful tendency to kaboom itself in the face. Isn’t that something to ponder, even rejoice at?
Gandhi once answered Margaret Bourke-White with something similar when asked whether non-violence would have worked against Hitler. We are witnessing the beginnings of that same kaboom stage of our own particular Shakespearean tragedy. We should all take heart.
Good to see you responding, ICTT, on same thread with ref to Kurt Andersen.
??
Also, ICTT, lovely to see the many wonderfully human refs you have here.
I wonder if your next book, coming out in August, will rehearse similar honors.
A tragedy for others, our immigrants for instance. Not for that NOT A Hero w/ nothing but fatal flaws.
Ali Velshi !
I just checked it out.
What about all the other hellholes our immigrants are being thrown into???
This is MY country! GODDAMMIT ALL!
There is an inherent (and absurd) conflict in reclassifying a press office as a SCIF.
But in TrumpWorld, the purpose is whatever he says it is. And it is never about providing the public with facts.
Was this decision even part of TrumpWorld or just HegsethWorld, something to do as he was firing high ranking military members of color and several more who are women?
Good point! I believe that Hegseth is probably the number one culprit in this cabinet of curiosities. An immoral man who just can't wait to rain down "hell and death" upon _______.
That is why I rarely consume Corp. Media. It all scif.
On the other hand, perhaps it's a good idea that Hegseth should not be allowed to hold press conferences.
Can we circulate a petition to get President Barack Obama to continue his nuclear negotiations with Iran as when the world was much, much safer place? We just need to get Trump to sign the executive order.
I'm not sure about this, but I'm guessing that Obama had a team of skilled negotiators working for us. I think that he was smart enough to use people with experience to do the endless work, four year's worth, if I'm remembering correctly, while he fulfilled his duties as President.
Indeed. The international teavm included a wide variety of skilled individuals including not only seasoned diplomats but also engineers and physicists who knew the details of Uranium enrichment who were able to design monitoring systems and associated protocols for monitoring Iran's nuclear program.
I know it will not be popular for me to say this but the US government currently lacks the ability to design a treaty regime that can prevent Iran from seruptitiously developing a nuclear weapon.
I think you are absolutely right. The Trumplicans fired anyone and everyone who might have been useful in negotiations including many who participated in the successful negotiations under president Obama.
Popular or not, it's the truth.
Exactly. The Obama initiative was successful because it relied on skilled diplomats and expert scientists. And strategic patience. The Obama team defined and maintained the parameters of a specific goal as first steps to an overall plan of building a foundation for further negotiations. This was the Republicans' primary criticism of the Obama strategy and treaty - that it did not do everything all at once. But, as in scientific experiments, if you include too many variables, you get an unmanageable process and poor results. Which is exactly what is happening with the current Republican attack.
lin•, it is my belief that the current occupant views "negotiations" from a business only standpoint; in the complex world of international treaties, the methods, techniques, and modalities of business negotiations are completely unsuited for the task.
The JCPOA was a group effort with China, EU, France, Russia and the UK. Top diplomats from each country and John Kerry playing a major role in the U.S. over a period of 20 months. What we have now is two real estate developers and Michael Anton a speech writer for Rupert Murdoch among other things. Vance, Rubio and Hegseth are on standby for, who knows what. Heather mentioned that Trump said, in his truth, that he spoke to Netanyahu, and Hezbollah indirectly and they agreed to stop hostilities. I would also note that Netanyahu soon replied that he was going to do what he is already doing. So much for that game of telephone.
This war of choice will go down as the worst catastrophe in modern times. The supply shocks will stretch on for months or years even if the strait is opened. Besides oil and natural gas, helium, fertilizer and other commodities we are beginning to see inflation rise pretty fast as the energy crunch affects food prices and other goods.
Worst catastrophe by a US President in all of US history.
Hey, is Rupert still the power behind the throne (commode)
The problem is, Mike, will anybody trust the US again for several generations?
How could they? Would we? No. No rational country would. Especially since this nightmare is being allowed to go on and on and on, without intervention or consequence. Thank goodness for Heather's (and others') reporting on our catastrophic reality. That Trump has not been removed from office by now is both criminal and inexplicable. That his cabinet members were actually confirmed is another travesty. This administration has been ruinous, the USA possibly (probably) irreparably harmed. I'm horrified and furious and don't know what to do.
Only if we hang all of the bastards, if we do that, then they might start to take us seriously again as a partner in progress. I mean every single one of them that enabled this disaster and profited from it.
They may never need to.
We are quickly losing the respect and power and promise of a better life that we had for 250 years.
Many countries are now looking to China.
In the future, that could even include Iran.
Right. Think there wouldn't be a false flag ending for Obama?
Bottom line: the Zionists will never tolerate "a deal".
Our military was sent in there for one reason only: total destruction of Iran as a sovereign country. Of course are troops don't know it yet.
Then the brave Zionists can concentrate on getting us to do their wars on Turkey and Egypt.
I hope not too many more of our forces die or return maimed for Israel.
Please do not conflate the racist right wing Jewish religious extremist Netanyahu regime with all of Zionism and every Zionist. If you read Haaretz (the oldest Israeli newspaper) you will find a wide range of critique of the history of Zionism and of Israeli policy, as well as of current events. This criticism is often more scathing (and almost always more accurate) than the most extreme antiZionists outside Israel. It is a sin of the American and European Left to abandon and even elide the Israeli Left. As we here suffer under and witness the abuses of an antidemocratic Republican regime supporting the irrational and unconscionable Trump administration - we might have some empathy for Israelis who have and continue to support justice for Palestinians within Israel and within a Palestinian state. And to resist their own government.
Haaretz | Israel News, the Middle East and the Jewish World - Haaretz.com
https://www.haaretz.com/
I paid to subscribe to Haaretz for 2 years and commented along with a few others. always published my comments. good on them.
However, the very few Israelis who don't support the genocide do not have power and prob.keep their mouths shut.
I have access to the ones who speak out...on youtube; Norman, Ilan Pappe, Max, David Levy, Gideon levy..and more...They speak the truth and they are NOT popular in Israel or with the US Zionists. Of course they are more accurate...they are independent. supported by me and others, not corp. media that reports up, to the evil forces...
This is the latest on Iran and the world:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y3XB9xUcnc
Big news...Iran is done fooling around with stupid USA.
I am currently in Switzerland. There is a very long article in a Swiss newspaper about T with a not so flattering photo. Since I don't read Swiss German, I asked for a translation of the article's headline. It said that T's medical check up shows that he is suffering from narcissistic behaviors with dementia and advised immediate hospitalization to address his needs True or not, even in other countries his behavior is news worthy.
That ain't news. Or, it's from the last decade.
Trump's most recent incoherent rantings can be attributed to a madman who just saw $1.7 billion of taxpayer money, that was destined for his own pockets , slip through his fingers, as well as seeing his great name gouged out from the edifice of the Kennedy Center. It was not a good week for a President, stricken from birth with bone spurs that prevented him from being a Vietnam war hero but at least enabled him to perfect his art of being a lecherous playboy. Let us all pray that The Donald gets what he deserves.
And it appears that the DoJ has decided to drop the slush fund altogether now even though no court has ruled unfavourably on its legality.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0mnYq4CAZ5M
He will be taking to Mar-a-Lago his hard earned billions plus a truck load of files labeled Secret Security.
The original plan was that Trump should loot $10 billion from the IRS.
The White House Press Corp should boycott the press briefings altogether. All they're fed is BS anyway. You can't trust a word DJT utters. Disfunction junction!
They still have to pretend. Performance is everything…
Great idea. It amazes me that they still convene (I think, I actually stopped watching long ago since my tolerance for cringe is VERY low!). Yes - boycott the briefings, til we have (if we ever have) decent players again. Pressers used to be serious but good-natured and informative things
It's still the same old gong show. Nothing new here of any real substance from the orange man.
I respectfully disagree. This is getting almost (?) dangerous.
The rest of the world worked out how dangerous it all is the day he was sworn in again.
The rest of the world, where I live, realized, where Trump's installation into the White House was going well before it actually came to pass. Like many in America, many citizens in other countries hoped he would be controlled. Now they, like just about everyone else, realize Trump is totally out of control and it's doubtful anyone could control him. And worse, those who could stop his worst atrocities, are spineless wimps who fear him and won't stand against him. A headline in today's Japan News (Yomiuri): "Indo-Pacific seeks defense ties as U.S. doubts grow, China ascends".
So did I, sadly
Except that now he's launched a war with Iran that threatens to tip the global economy into recession - that's new!
Not for him. It's only new for you. It's just another facet of the same dysfunctional, uncaring, mindset that is hyperfocused on stroking ego and accumulating $$. And really, he is just the tip of the iceberg of his kind of people. It will take quite a few years to recover from the damage he will have done, and I doubt I will see it in my lifetime (I'm 76 now). But I can always hope... Just glad that I moved to Canada 30 years ago even though it seems like the same dysfunction is starting to appear here, too.
From the outset of negotiations, Iran has always given highest priority to the need for the war to end on all fronts including Lebanon.
Trump‘s continuing inability to reach a deal with Iran is due to him being unable to exert influence to stop Netanyahu’s increasingly violent attacks on southern Lebanon. Now that Israel has claimed 70% of the Gaza Strip they are now moving into a huge land grab in southern Lebanon.. Israel has no interest whatsoever in there being a successful peace deal, which has left Trump floundering.
It’s so easy though. Just cut off all aid until Israel complies.
A 10 year MOU guarantees that Israel receives $3.8 billion in Foreign Military Financing from the US until 2028.
If Congress voted to end that “aid”, then I suspect that the multi-million dollar donations via AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) to heavily influence congressional election campaigns and political outcomes would be re-directed to ensure such a vote was unsuccessful.
The US would also have to forego military sales to Israel, which have totalled a massive $32 billion since October 2023.
Unfortunately, the US is firmly entrenched in « warrior nation » status, which profoundly affects all aspects of US government, business, education and society. It is impossible to imagine how this deeply embedded and dangerous distortion of the national psyche will ever be reversed without a complete national collapse into anarchy.