Today a report from the Department of Labor showed that inflation in May hit its highest level since early 2023, reaching an annual rate of 4.2%, up from 3.8% in April.
The 14-year-old girl’s story of Donald trying to rape her will just reveal more.
She reportedly quoted Donald in the 1990s bitterly scolding her that she should be grateful to lose her virginity to such a celebrity as he, Donald – and not some pimply 14-year-old boy who didn’t know what he was doing.
A sicko – all his life he’s been a sicko, Donald.
Now we have reports of top administration officials who formerly perhaps had some integrity to them, all now long caving to protect the sickness in Donald.
Meanwhile people driving cars get large, per-gallon price reminders everywhere they go as to the sickness in one man thinking he can start a major war and pretend he can walk away from and grievously lie about it.
Americans can put up with high finance elites offshoring their tens of millions of working-class jobs and destroying thousands of American communities. They can endure friends and family every day dying to the opioid epidemic. They can see the bottom 50% lose health care to spiking costs and tanking availability. They can rue more cynical elites lying to protect the rot atop Washington, D.C. – the rot behind all U.S. dark money.
But the story of one formerly 14-year-old girl beckoning other stories still hidden?
Try combining that with hundreds of millions of parents driving cars multiple times daily past those giant neon reminders of gas prices again and again advertising the sickness in Donald.
"President Donald Trump's ongoing war with Iran is draining America's emergency supply of crude oil — which is just days away from hitting its lowest level in more than 40 years, according to a report Wednesday."
Only Donald Trump could look at rising prices, anxious families, soaring fuel costs, and global instability and say, “I love it,” as if inflation were a loyal golden retriever bringing him a stock market chart.
Asked about the economy, he did what great statesmen always do when cornered by facts: he fled into theater. Suddenly, inflation was not the issue. The issue was oil, Iran, ships, radar, strength, toughness, and whatever military fantasy was currently playing in the IMAX theater inside his head.
This is Trumpian economics at its purest. When prices rise, call it victory. When oil markets tremble, call it leverage. When war threatens ordinary people’s wallets, insist that ordinary people should be grateful to witness such tremendous leadership. The suffering is not the story. The spectacle is the story.
For most Americans, inflation means grocery bills, rent, gas, utilities, and the slow humiliation of working harder while falling behind. For Trump, it becomes just another stage prop. A crisis is never a crisis if it can be turned into applause.
That is the trick. He does not solve the problem. He renames it. Inflation becomes strength. Instability becomes strategy. Fear becomes patriotism. Confusion becomes proof that only he understands what is going on.
And so the public asks a simple question: “Why is life getting more expensive?”
Trump answers with smoke machines, fighter jets, oil barrels, and a grin.
Somewhere, George Orwell is not taking notes. He is asking for a drink.
Once more, sir -- the comment that deserves to be first, rather than stuck in the middle of the heap. Not the play's the thing, but the spectacle in lieu of the play. Thank you.
And the arch. And the kissing-of-the-ass to Putin, Xi, Kim, Mohammed bin Salman, Netanyahu, Erdogan, Sisi, Bukele, Milei, Bolsonaro, and all the local talent capable of throwing, bestowing, festooning bribes, extortions, and all such Citizens United corruptions.
Yes, and rape becomes a gift. Thanks Phil and others, and Substack & Heather that let us blow off the steam of our fervid indignation and immense disgust. Let alone grief. Now down to work.
SCOTUS has another 23 cases to public into late June & early July.
Heads Up:
**********
SCOTUS may publish Trump v Barbara, the "Birthright Citizenship" case, as early as this morning 6/11 at 10 AM Eastern or a different important case.
I will gather at SCOTUSblog at 9:30 AM Eastern with 1000's of attorneys & other folks when the court's clerk hands out any published Opinions at 10 AM.
At some point all the insanities will cascade together, in ways till now they haven't, due to cowardice built into most all ruling, plus the extra doses of anesthetization also ruling.
that it be his last one. To heck with the 'many happy returns'. One last blast and he's out. After all, isn't the principle the greatest happiness for the greatest number? Trump dropping dead would be a serious step toward that goal.
His just rewards. Death just gives us Vance. I want Congress to grow some balls and take back their power. Impeach him. And charge him with not just corruption but treason. I want the civil suits to break him and him to become a pariah among any decent society.
I want him to know the pain of losing everything. Just like he's doing to so many of us.
BLB, II call Thune and demand that he and some GOP Senators give Trump the "Nixon" treatment, that is, go to the Oval Office and demand his resignation or they will not support a single bit of his policies. ZERO.
Probably all this does is raise my blood pressure. But I try.
THEN everyone here should be working their tails off to get the VOTES OUT TO PUT a huge majority of Democrats and Independents in the CONGRESS in November to send him and his cronies to jail or to permanent exile! I never hear anyone here talking about being a protester, or writing post cards or any other means to getting out to the people to vote for the people who will EXTIRPATE him from our government! What''s up with that?
I understand the hate 'rump sentiments and I concur. I don't wish anyone's death as I am not the judge for mankind. However with the treasonist acts of the 'rump regime I am pushing hard to do whatever it takes to flip the House and the Senate blue at which time I will be pushing for the entire regime to be impeached, prosecuted and if convicted of treason shot to death. That is the responsibility of our government. That means 'rump may have a few more birthdays as this process will take time, but I pray that his 80th is his last as free thing ( I just couldn't write man) After all, he should be in prison now, not the oval office.
I prefer a subtle greeting that would go right over his fat, orange head and yet, more accurately describe my wishes.
"May you get all that you deserve."
Since you asked us to be honest, Paul, I will be. Although death would rid the world of his stench and destruction, that is not enough for me.
Prior to that happy event, I want to hear that he is experiencing extreme pain and suffering – to use his turn of phrase – "pain and suffering, the likes of which America has never seen before."
It’s all symbols, impossible to organize, Paul. Besides, as no one has ever loved this wreckage of a person, there has to be at least an ounce of pity.
The reference to children and grandchildren is blood curdling in my thinking. He has no concept of childhood or the needs of children. He has no understanding of the Histiry of childhood in our civilization and how many people like Mother Jones and Florence Kelley and C Everett Koop MD along with Fritz Redl and the team of Klaus and Kennell trued to make things better . There are children in the detention centered, there are children who have died because of our lack vaccines management I do t know what it will take to create an uproar. I really to want to have to deal with the ending of RobertBrowning’s Pied Piper poem and its sad ending and moral. Treatment the film used this in part of its narrative of a misbegotten future time though now more in our past not future in terms of a timeline. Beautiful film of human love despite horror. Hopper dies not come to pass. Clowns of God by Morris West not that well written by again the emphasis on care and compassion and hope .
And there will STILL be some who'd vote for him! Sigh.
(cleleste, I thought I've seen you around for awhile, but your little flower next to your name says "2 months". ?? Perhaps you let your subscription lapse? If you are truly new here, as the self-appointed Walmart greeter of the forum, may I WELCOME you?! 👋🏼👋🏼 And if I'm not crazy--although this regime is driving me there--and you've been around for awhile, then just saying howdy. 😁)
The $250 per barrel price Trump dismissed is directly tied to the dwindling supply of oil already in storage tanks around the world. Once those reserved oil resources are gone—and assuming the elusive peace deal is STILL eluding the “greatest deal maker of all time”—is it certainly possible that the $250/barrel price will be hit.
The man is pathetically SICK, Phil! Mustn’t that also go for those who support him. Saw a cbc news clip tonight about the ‘Turning Point’ convention. Some pretty sick puppies there too!
John, it seems that being nuts is in with Republicans these days. They elect candidates for offices at every level who are incompetent, childish (and not in a good way), corrupt, living in a different reality from the rest of us, dismissive of the American people while whining that they are patriots and that it is the "woke" who are their enemies. Of course, Trumplandia has been groomed to think as little as possible. When I have either asked or heard asked of MAGAs Can you explain what you like about Donald Trump, they say something stupid like "he is making America great again." We all should just laugh out loud because even for those saying it, things are not better. They probably are for Musk, Vought, Theil, the Ellisons, and the other disgusting oligarchs, but not for everyone else as we watch our nation on its 250th birthday being driven into the ground as no British army in our Revolutionary War could do! We have an obligation to stop this insanity. This entire administration should be impeached and kicked out, then we should have special elections for a new president and vice president. That would at least let us start working on making our nation more just, fair, and peaceful.
I thought that the Nancy Mace defeat was REALLY telling. I mean, from our standpoint, that's great given her own conversion to MAGAt politics, but she was literally a DJT sycophant and he couldn't support even her. At some point he is going to be out of "friends".
Jon, the weird thing about the MAGAs is that all Baby ?Donnie has to do is tell them he loves them and that all is "forgiven" or "fine" or whatever the person needs to hear, and they are totally back on board. Mike Lee of Utah got bummed out that his church was not on Hegseth's unconstitutional list of religions for the military. He says he called Trump about it, and it was fixed for him and Trump told him he loved him and his religion. Yep, Lee is no longer upset. His MAGA daddy loves him. (not!)
I am guessing Nancy Mace touched a sore spot with the pedophile/rapist when she put her support behind the survivors of Epstein's horror, so Trump ordered his sycophantic voters to dump Mace for something even more disgusting in their sycophancy. It really is appalling, but just what those MAGAs claim to want while they whine about prices, gas, general affordability. They just can't see that Trump and his white house toddler pool are causing their woes and just don't care about their struggles at all. Brainwashing worked well on those folks!
He has opportunistic hangers on and parasites who either think they won’t get tossed aside or are out to collect the crumbs of grift shed like dandruff from Trump’s corruption. He does not have friends.
As we can see from some comments here, "we" must scorn the lived lives that drew the deplorables to him as such final, vulgar last resort, as our good, elite, test-savvy Dems got long-since normalized to money- (and celebrity-) only.
My mother distinguished between "childish" and "child-like", and it has seemed to me that they work as useful categories. "Childish" is something that we need to outgrow to be wise and civil. "Child-like" may present in a variety of ways, but is, I think, a retention of those qualities of childhood the we have to be strong to preserve. The abiding curiosity, the more tender emotions, the aim toward a more fruitful future. A certain playfulness; Einstein once described his creative process as "combinatory play", yet (as Einstein also displayed in his professional role) a capacity for focus, labor, and discipline. It seems to me that there is, or at least can be, a certain Child-like quality to the most mature adults even when it's often not readily visible. Also an ability to relate to an actual child. Perhaps it's what is ultimately most precious about being a human being.
JL, I use childish to describe this Trumpian toddler pool of sycophants because it is not the positive characteristics of childhood, but the whiny bratty, tantruming that it is hoped people grow through and past. The members of Trumplandia never got through it, and they are in charge around the country. It's appalling! We should be able to get them out of power and into some kind of work where they won't harm others.
You remember that clip of Donnie trying to talk to a group of four year olds - and all he could come up with was trying to explain what an "auto-pen" was, and how President Biden had used one?
I guide people back to the playful parts of themselves because play is often the antidote to stress, overwhelm, and feeling stuck. Somewhere along the journey to adulthood, many of us forgot how to enjoy life's simple, silly pleasures.
If you want to de-stress go to a school yard and play hopscotch.
Re. Trumplandia being groomed to think as little as possible: Saw Jordan Klepper questioning MAGA about the ballroom the other day. Now, nobody had mentioned the idea of a ballroom for years before trump decided it was a good idea. And suddenly "Oh, we definitely need it. It's a great idea. God bless Mr. President for coming up with the idea"
I swear if trump said "We don't want any two armed people in the GOP"- they'd all cut off their left arms.
I like when they answer 'his policies' Ruth. My next question is 'What policies? "Oh you know", they say. "No, I do not, is it the killing American citizens policy?"
All happening on America's 25th anniversary sickens me.
America's working classes really got the shaft, John.
Their kids are standardized-tested to death at school -- the death of all forms of imagination, creativity, and humanity deliberately excluded from the narrow forms of dehumanized rationality informing all those tests (whose narrowness in turn suffocates "higher" ed, too).
Other costs our working classes have had to pay? Please read: Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America”; Arlie Russell Hochschild’s “Stolen Pride,” Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money,” George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison's "The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism," George Packer’s “The Unwinding,” Diane Ravitch’s “The Language Police,” Sarah Smarsh’s “Bone of the Bone,” Matt Stoller’s “Goliath: The Hundred-year War between Monopoly Power and Democracy,” and Sheldon Whitehouse’s “The Scheme.”
Yes, I'm sure reading all those books -- plus the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica -- will really help win us the midterms. I can already smell victory. A great practical suggestion, indeed.... 🙄
But it was this class who got the shaft big-time, our working classes. And Dems have been out of touch with them -- totally, pathetically, helplessly out of touch. As if Dems, so many so largely our coastal elites, our suburban and urban comfortable have been happily willing to see first Hillary and then Kamala go down to defeat due to Dems in love mainly with raising money, and consorting with celebrities, but ever aloof from frankly embittered, otherwise abandoned working classes.
Do we really need this divisiveness to which smug, superior Dems have acceded?
ICTT, I'm sure you don't care, but I have cancelled my paid subscription to HCR's Letters because of Mr. Balla's tiresome and often irrelevant harping on the absence of Humanities and presence of standardized testing in U.S. schools, and your constant sniping at him over it. I'm aware of how the feud started, but I've had enough of it. You've taken a few shots at me as well.
I could block both of you, but the blocks would blow such a hole in the conversations, they would make no sense.
You two are not the only wet blankets who frequent this forum, but today's skirmish is the one that has drawn my rebuke.
My paid subscription ends in September, so I'll continue to comment if I have something to contribute. But frankly, I believe I'm mostly treading the same worn paths.
Figures it was CBS News reporting on turning point convention. And this week the Southern Baptist Convention is voting to ban churches with women pastors.
John, when I've watched some clips where devoted members of his cult talk, it is insanity on full view!
Just the kotex taped over the ears was nuts! It took me back about 55 years ago. I recall being a freshman in high school and was going to the big sock hop at the nearby Catholic Boys HS. All the girls started to "coordinate" their look for the event. Anyone old enough to recall the fashions of the 70s will get this. We were all going to wear our plaid, cuffed hiphugger bellbottoms with our bodysuit tops. We were all to wear our long, straight hair in "high pigtails with yarn ties". (As the time, extra wide yarn was popular to wear in your hair.) My Mom didn't allow makeup, but the girls were discussing which shade/brand of lipgloss to wear.
I am NOT joking about this. At the time, I wanted so hard to fit in with the group, but I was internally chafing at being told what to wear.
When Trump was on trial in NY and all the cronies showed up dressed in blue suits with extra long red ties, I thought "OH MY GOD! HIGH SCHOOL". And now the Florsheim shoes! I think, don't these people realize how ridiculous they look? But then, they only care what one person thinks, and they are too STUPID to realize, he'll toss them right under the bus.
The sick thing about our society is that we care more about spending more money on gasoline than we care about a vulnerable child. "She probably dressed like a sl*t" they'll say. "She was a gold-digger who chickened out" they'll say. Our society doesn't care about vulnerable girls. They're just playthings for the Epstein class. If you can take advantage of a teenager, you can pretend to be rich and powerful too! :/
Trump's intentional family separations, many of which were never rectified, seemed like a crime against humanity to me, but the newspapers just took it in stride and his followers compare him to Jesus. And the regime's human rights violations continue is multiple ways. Anything for a buck, or a sense of conquest.
Exactly, Lisa. It isn’t a coincidence that Trump came after Obama. Obama broke from his caste and achieved far more than the lowest person in the white male caste… and look at the wrath they brought on all of us as a result. (read Caste by Isabel Wilkerson for more). Racism is really more pervasive in this country than most of us realize.
I read this incredible book. We always thought we were above this but it was eye opening to read about the Jim Crow south that was never taught about in history books. The lynchings where thousands would show up to watch the hanging and burning of another human being, taking along a lunch like they were on a church picnic. Then having photos taken of themselves standing with the charred remains and printed in on-the-spot postcards that they could mail to their relatives. Or purchasing as a souvenir a lock of charred hair or apiece of shirting to show they had attended the momentous "event" like it was no different than a summer concert where you would vie to get the celebrity to sign an autograph on a memento. And how hitler used how the US treated the Blacks to base his Holocaust madness on. So much of our history has been so white washed. Things were even more obscenely, unspeakably evil than even what we, in northern schools, were taught.
Our history classes were indeed "white washed", at least here in Oregon. It was only as an adult in my 50's that I learned of the Wilmington and Tulsa "race riots". Certainly never got that information in my history classes.
Sharon-It wasn’t just northern schools that neglected to teach important parts of our history. The lack of knowledge that citizens have about aspects of what truly transpired when it comes to racism is astounding. The omission is intentional.
Edward Baptiste’s book “The Half Has Never Been Told” offers many details for a wider view of America’s practice of slavery and racism for centuries.
We can’t deal with these issues unless we honestly confront them. Racism
Is holding all of us hostage. It’s a tool that’s always worked to keep “we the people” divided. We won’t make progress until we honestly confront this issue.
“The ship that sailed up the James on a day we will never know was the beginning of America, and if we are not careful, the end”. -Lerone Bennett Jr. (1969)
Musk said last year that empathy was the foundational weakness of Western civilization. Interesting that none of Trump's "Christian" followers had any problem with that statement.
I'm not surprised that those "Christians" have no empathy. I mean, their whole "faith" is based on them being "the chosen" and the rest of humanity being consigned to hellfire (despite the fact that this completely ignores the instructions of their Saviour).
But empathy doesn't disappear from humanity on the word of one very small man no matter how far his reach. Or even the reach of 1% of very small men. Looking at the news these days and the reactions to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people around the world from hunger we could have prevented, migration we could have made unnecessary, wars we could have not started..., it's clear empathy is not in vogue. Instead, just like with this 14 year old girl, we blame the poor for their poverty, the sick for their sickness, the abused for the abuse they endure.
Humanity needs to take a good long look in the mirror or we're not going to survive this. We are not a species that does well alone.
Musk also said that his plan to found a colony on Mars was because he didn't want humans to go the way of the dinosaurs. The dinosaur lineage began around 245 million years ago and lasted between 160-185 million years. Some would claim that their lineage continues today with the birds. Compare that with humans' measly 300,000 year ancestry. The coup de grace for the dinosaurs was a seven-mile wide asteroid and during their long sojourn on earth they at least didn't irrevocably fuck up the earth's ecosystems and atmosphere.
Glad you mentioned family separations. The traumatic effect of these will take years to heal, if ever! Right now, front and center, is the entire government's inability to shut down concentration camps and re-establish the rights of immigrants already here to be processed by the courts according to the Rule of Law. Also its inability to re-establish government according to the Constitution. But, lets start with voting in November, getting rid of the criminals in power, and getting to work on needed reforms. As for mail-in ballots, tRump forgot about mentioning all U.S. citizens retired or working and living in other countries. Many are also veterans. Since when can citizens be denied their right to vote. They all are taxpayers!
Ayesha, I read or heard Kristi Noem paid 5 times the market value for 5 warehouses to build into concentration camps. Who got that money? Our tax dollars.
Yup. All of it, all of our tax $ spent on these horrific camps instead of on healthcare, food stamps, affordable housing, disaster relief, etc, etc. Vote in November and whenever you can!!!
His sociopathic superpower. Some seem to mistake it for courage or competence, but no, it just pure "Mr. Hyde" invulnerable to shame because he lacks the capacity.
I was living in Manhattan and sometimes before going to work I would turn on one of the New York radio stations. One particular morning it turned out that I turned on Howard Stern and that morning he had Donald Trump with him. The conversation turned to talking about his daughter Ivanka. He commenced talking about how great she looked and then he started talking about "What a great piece of A.. " she would be. I can say that there is very little that disgusts me but his talking about his teenage daughter in that fashion I found unbelievably disgusting. If he could talk about his daughter on radio in that fashion I have no doubt in my mind that he and Epstein, his great friend, spent a great amount of time acting out their sexual fantasies.
All you have to do is watch that well-circulated film clip of the two of them at some party in New York. Donald keeps whispering little nothings in Jeffrey's ear, who promptly doubles over with laughter. A hundred to one it involved something lewd about the youngest woman at the party and Donald's secret fantasies which he seemed to share readily and frequently....
The man is a piece of excrement. If you were a father, you wouldn't want your daughter within 100 feet of him. Even if you hadn't seen the film clip or heard the grab 'em comment in 2016 -- he's always been trash. I'll never understand people who didn't figure that out from the get-go. Then again, I never watched The Apprentice -- perhaps that explains it.
I know I've shared this story before... When my Mom was dying (in a care facility), my sister and I had been with her all day, reading to her, talking about us growing up, and how amazing she had been as a mother. At about 7:45, my sister said she had to go and watch "The Apprentice", and would be back as soon as it was over (it was about a 3 minute drive to their house from the facility). I told her that Mom was close (fluttery fast heart rate and uneven breathing), and she said she'd hurry back.
At about 8:20, Mom started agonal breathing (aka the "death rattle"). I called my sister and said she needed to get back. At 8:40 I started singing "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Mom's favorite), and she died at 8:42. My sister got there at 8:55. To this day, she regrets that decision.
When we scattered her ashes a couple months later (wading out into the ocean near Yachats, OR when low tide was at 8:42) she sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water". It was a closure, but she regretted not being there at the end.
Ally, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is also one of my favorites. Of all the renditions I've heard, Sam Harris's is the best. You need big speakers to do it justice.
Hello Phil... DJT's Grip On Reality Continues To Slip... DJT cannot admit that DJT was played by Netanyahu just as DJT cannot admit that DJT lost the 2020 Presidential Election... J.D. Vance?... He demonstrates that J.D, Vance has no Honor, or Integrity...
Apache, you are right on both counts: Trump is losing it to a level not seen before and Vance has no qualities anyone should admire. The MAGAs and reluctant Democrats have saddled us with this Project 2025 cast of characters who are programmed to do what the crazies like Vought and his team want. They most likely (very likely) got Musk and his AIers to do their dirty work of interfering with the 2024 election to make sure an unpopular fool was made president again. I can't even say "elected" in this case because I don't think he was. Things would have been better if Democrats would have gotten out in large numbers to vote but they just can't stand to vote for a woman of color, OK, not all Democrats, but enough that the algorithms stood to put a nutcase in office along with select others in just the swing states, and maybe Texas, guaranteed to do whatever Trump and the oligarchs tell them to do. McCormick in my state is definitely one of those, an unknown not even from PA, over a popular Senator. They are currently plotting to steal the elections in our Midterms too if we don't find ways to stop them!
A child molester gets away with it for MANY reasons, not the least of which is ‘victim blaming’.
The 😾-grabbing POTUS will run into THE woman who will ‘take care of things’ as will be her right, and no security agent can save POTUS #47 from that wrath. ✂️… 👍
Trump may ‘own’ SCOTUS, but frontier justice will prevail, and THE woman will strike for ALL the victims too young and weak to crush him.
Trump recently ‘threatened’ to attend the World Cup in SHORTS, because he claimed, on camera, that he “looks so good in shorts”. Hmmmm…according to Stormy Daniels he looks awful ‘out of shorts’ … as if the Epstein Island victims weren’t sickened enough!🤮🤮🤮
I'm sorry if this seems like an attack, it is NOT intended that way, but threatening a sitting President, or even implying a threat, is a federal crime, and you should be VERY careful about saying things like "no security agent can save POTUS" because arresting and jailing anyone who does ANYTHING like physically endangering the President is required by our laws. And that is true regardless of how much you hate the President, which is an absolutely protected right... whereas threatening him is not.
Thanks for the warning, Jon, but I don’t think speculating on the only ‘justice’ the victims of rapists - even powerful perverts - MAY possibly get ?? is ‘my’ threatening Mr. Trump.
I asked Santa Claus for 5 minutes in an alley with that despicable man - gloves on 🥊🥊 - but he brought me a new frying pan instead (a weapon? 😱)
If I wanted to personally threaten him, HE’D KNOW IT, and I am not suicidal just yet.
PS It will be a sad day when a young girl, or woman cannot DEFEND herself…if possible. Presidents are only men…even a POTUS, but the Constitution ‘begs to differ’ about the right to such a title when the man is a ‘convicted felon’.
THANKYOU, Phil. I am a member of the “Me Too” movement and can EMPATHIZE with the victims.
It is something that scars you for life, and those young girls suffered a very warped version of sex that they will never get over. I would explain what happened to me, but it might give someone like Trump ideas.
Here’s hoping 🙏 the Epstein File victims will receive JUSTICE …a commodity in very short supply in the USA these days. 😔
Coincidentally, Jon, I watched the Netflix movie “Shooter” tonight and the character of the ‘US Senator’ was sooooo Trump. I highly recommend this film about ‘corruption’ in the US Government. It is an older movie, but, eerily current.(stars Danny Walburg).
Hi, not sure which Wahlburg brother it is ( the one who starred in “Blue Bloods). In a nutshell: he played a self-retired sharp shooter whose ‘spotter’ & best friend was killed. Jump 3 years and his recluse life in the mountains with big dog is invaded by (spoiler alert) ‘corrupt’ FBI agents who lie to him about needing a shooter to assess the ‘sitting President’s’ public speech venue because of intel about a THREAT.
He is ‘set up’ for the assassination attempt when a visiting foreign dignitary IS killed (the REAL target) but not the POTUS. It’s a good plot with overtones re the greed & corruption NOW!
Hope you can find it somewhere. There is dialogue that if you closed your eyes, would seem to be Donald Trump’s callous disregard for honest administration and his obnoxious derision of patriotic FBI as ‘suckers’.
Sorry I cannot appreciate an American’s reverence for Mr.“President”. I believe respect must be EARNED.
BTW… I don’t ‘hate’ POTUS #47, either…but think he should be made to take a LONG vacation…maybe to ALASKA…and play with the POLAR BEARS! 😆
Jon: "arresting and jailing anyone who does ANYTHING like physically endangering the President is required by our laws. "
I'm sure that you are NOT saying that if a President (any President) were to attack someone, male or female, that person would have no recourse to respond appropriately? Say, a knee in the nuts if he were groping - or something more solid if he was using a knife?
People with dementia often turn violent - there have been several cases recently of people with dementia killing or dangerously wounding their carers.
Just to clarify, the president did not attack Jean. So your suggestion is not relevant to this conversation. All I was doing was warning Jean that threats made against the President, regardless of whether they are warranted or not, are actionable under Federal law with prison sentences. It may seem unfair, especially given Trump's own constant threatening and other nonsense, but that is the federal law and if you violate it, you could find yourself in a lot of trouble.
So no, if the president (any president) did actually attack someone, regardless of gender, that person would be entitled to defend themselves in a reasonable manner. But in this case, what we had was the opposite in that Jean made a rather loosely veiled threat against POTUS. I am not going to say that I might not be sympathetic to her feelings, but it still justifies a warning because the consequences are dire.
That’s why Trump wants Todd Blanche as Attorney General—to reward him for suppressing the most damaging of the Trump/Epstein files, in the hopes that he will continue to do whatever it takes to keep the details of Trump’s most despicable crimes from being revealed. Dems need to keep hammering on this, while also tying Republican corruption across the board to the bad economy and cuts to healthcare and other social programs.
Correct! Remember that when Pam Bondi testified in her contentious hearing in the Senate , and Democrats kept asking her about the Epstein files, she told them that she had put Todd Blanche in charge of releasing all the documents! And yes- instead of releasing the documents, he suppressed them!
Mike Johnson - - our House Speaker for all Americans, just carries the MAGA flag and does all he can to smother justice for the Epstein girls. And so far, one must admit, he's been exceptionally effective.
Todd Blanche won't help either. He was, he is, and he will be Trump's personal lawyer and staunch defender.
I red the NYT story yesterday. Then Nicoll Wallace covered it on Deadline White House. I never thought I’d EVER have to endure listening to a discussion of the PRESIDENT’S love of nipples. Not to mention a long discussion of same in the WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM. Good grief. 😯
We need to be very careful about claiming things that may or may not be true. Let charges be brought and evidence presented. It's become a train
wreck accusations and counter-accusations. If the anti-Trump forces get caught spreading unproven claims, we'll lose the momentum of being judicious truth-tellers. When that happens, you might as well get out your guns and prepare for civil war.
There's so much pointing out of the outrages and horrors that people get overwhelmed and discouraged and demotivated. It's what the authoritarians want, for people to be silent.
So I'm aiming for the 20:80 rule, that I just made up:
20% of information intake and what we share should be how bad things are, all the criminality and corruption and cruelty.
Then 80% should be what groups and law firms and individuals are doing to mitigate and block all of that wrongdoing, and what strategies different people and organizations are working on.
Right now it seems like it's 95:5, the reverse! And people get beaten down and don't take action.
Therefore I'm trying to always give ideas on what any one person can do. Everyone can find their niche. No act is too small.
One place I'm putting my energy is to help make sure Dems and Independents "VOTE IN NUMBERS TOO BIG TO RIG!"
This toolkit I just made has actions any of us can take to Get Out The Vote:
A wonderful rule. Some posters here take delight in stressing -- over and over and over and over again -- that rotten people run the government. Yet virtually everyone here knows that already -- it's not like we somehow need convincing or something.
They want you to believe they're winning. But in fact, they're not. The reverse is the reality, not the illusion. Shit is hitting the fan faster than they can spin it. The lies simply don't work any more, the dogs won't hunt -- pick your metaphor.
What you see around you is mostly pure panic. Theirs, not ours. Let it stay that way. Get out the vote, donate to as many as you can, as much as you can, but volunteering is even better. Be a poll watcher -- there's a tremendous need for that. Re-familiarize yourselves with where your precinct is, how you can vote, when is the last day the Post Office will count your ballot (if you mail it in), make certain your signed name agrees with the Registrar's name, get a passport if you can, etc.
Let's not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by wallowing in rage and despair. There's simply too much positive, constructive work to be done from now until November.
At this point, with the tampering with the post office, I would avoid voting by mail if at all possible. It's unfortunate, but it's where we are. They will stop at nothing to steal the elections.
Oregon is 100% vote by mail, no polling places. You can cast your ballot in person at the Elections Office. There are also drop boxes throughout the county at public buildings (City Halls, Libraries) where you do not have to us the US Mail. If you are in line at 8:00 p.m. you can still drop off a ballot.
I really seriously doubt that. Getting millions of postal workers to engage in some kind of nefarious acts to keep people from voting is almost certain to backfire. They can talk about it to try to scare everyone, but I expect virtually all mail-in ballots will not be tampered with by anyone from the post office.
USPS union takes mail-in voting controversy into its own hands in latest move
“It is our position that it is not the job of the postal workers to verify voter eligibility," Union president Jonathan Smith stated. "It is our job to move mail from one destination to the next." He added: "We do not want to be politicized."
It is being threatened that the post office will not mail out the ballots in states that have not complied with giving the federal government they're complete voting roster information. This concerns may be because Arizona is one such rebellious state. I am so proud of our Secretary of State Adrian Fontes for his steadfast refusal to provide that information .
Well, Heather, you’re you’re right …today. Inflation was a little over 4% and Trump is trying like hell but he still can only get it less than halfway to Biden’s 9%. And even a war that’s causing gas prices to go up, but he just can’t get it anywhere close. And pretty soon the war will be over. The war will be open and you’re gonna be really disappointed because then Biden is going to be three times The inflation rate as Trump.
Hey Russell, Try this hypothetical just contemplate what if the “yaddas” turn to peace in the Middle East? Then, every Democrat on the planet is fucked
Can I piggy back on your post? If you aren’t sure what specific actions you can take but want to do something, this is an idea. Something is happening quietly in so many small towns right now—Flock cameras. They’re multiplying like bunnies. Read about their capabilities from sources other than Flock. Read about Flock’s drone program which is so dystopian. Go to DeFlock’s website to look at a map of where they are near you - start talking to your town elected officials, look for them/add to the map, start requesting public records, start organizing your neighbors. This is a tool that the authoritarians will be abusing in the future.. and we can all push back at the town levels now. If the cameras aren’t in your town yet, push for laws/ordinances/bylaws that will prevent them from being installed. My blue town with a population of 8k had 6 cameras *quietly* installed in the last 3 months.
Wrong woman jailed in deadly I-4 hit-and-run after witnesses misidentified SUV color, records show
“FHP investigators originally focused on Isaacs because she owned a black Dodge Durango matching witness descriptions and appearing on nearby Flock cameras around the time of the crash, records show.”
And it’s been used many times already for law enforcement officers to stalk their ex romantic partners. Even if you “trust” your local police, the database is searchable nationally.
And in some cases data is shared with ICE/CBP… we know where this is heading.
In my town, they’re outside schools and our polling location.
What are your sources for reading and learning about the "80% ...[of]... groups and law firms and individuals ... mitigat(ing) and block(ing) all of that wrongdoing, and what strategies ...[are]... different people and organizations are working on?" I'm not finding many news articles or columns like that.
I'd like to see follow up on what happened after a judge made a decision, etc. What is happening with the "likely criminal" killing of people in boats claimed to be carrying drugs? Any interviews with the survivors of one destroyed boat who were in American custody then quickly returned to their home country with no input from them. What is happening with prosecuting the murdereds of Renee Good and Alex Pretti?
The Minnesota AG is looking into state homicide charges in both cases. It will be hard because there is SCOTUS precedent against state charges in Federal cases, and with the current makeup of the court there's no guarantee they wont' get immunity from state prosecution.
Eric. Graham Platner's campaign has mobilized over 15 thousand volunteers across the state to make sure Susan Collins never again serves in the Senate.
She has gotten rich since she was first elected to the Senate in 1996 owning stocks in companies that she has influence to help as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
Her husband divorced his wife who had cancer in 2011 and then married Collins in 2012. His ex-wife died in 2013. They had been married for 39 years. Maybe some of his friends can shed some lied on how long Collins and him were shacking up together while he was married. We have no idea how much of a bitch Collins is behind closed doors, but I'm sure there are people that have worked for her that would be happy to tell some stories.
Really? Left his wife for her? Just as recently as 2012? Really? I can’t see it—must have been attracted to the associated power of being a senator. He’s spend the rest of his life waiting for Susan to utter one complete sentence.
Eric, years ago, after seeing many references here, I finally looked up Jessica Craven's Substack "Chop Wood, Carry Water". Every Sunday, she posts a LONG list of all the good things going on in the country and world. It's QUITE a list, very impressive, and is truly balm to the souls here! Anyone unfamiliar should really check it out.
Yep. I was just trying to formulate a view that encourages people to pull up and back from all of it. Dr. Richardson is recording the history of a fascist regime in America. There is a huge amount of news going on.
For example:
There is a clear revolt within the Democratic Party. It has come down to non-corporate/AIPAC funded candidates against the Democratic Party elite. The races going on clearly reflect the last gasp of the elite Democrats trying to hang on.
David Soros is doing a good job of encapsulating the change:
"--Platner represents a unique threat to elite power and therefore the elite and its media machine are subjecting him to the kind of scrutiny that the elite do not subject themselves or their political puppets to, in order to try to get him to drop out/lose.
--The same political and media class that ignored/buried the Epstein scandal is now pretending to be genuinely mad about the substance of the Platner allegations/revelations — and their pretend outrage is patently ridiculous and inauthentic."
These are the kinds of discussions we need to be having. We can break through the fog of the consultant created, PAC-soaked candidates and incumbents and create a new reality in our Democratic Party. Mamdani, Platner, El-Sayed and others are here to wake us up.
Graham Platner won the primary with a landslide 72%. The media need to get their facts straight unless they live in a different reality. The ex-girlfriend in the NYT article with the “uncomfortable feeling” criticisms of Platner is a right wing political activist who has been the social media manager of the Heritage Foundation (the authors of Project 2025), a Congressional lobbyist and foreign representative for CRAFT Media (lobbyists for conservative corporate and industrial clients), etc.. As ex-Republican political strategist Rick Wilson says - the NYT article was a political hit job, a smear campaign. She has admitted that she is the source of calling Platner’s tattoo “Nazi” when his service members verify that they all were unaware of any Nazi association when they got the tattoo on a lark on a break from combat service. Platner has never entertained or associated with Nick Fuentes or any other Nazi group. None of them have endorsed him. There have been no accusations of sexual assault, adultery, pedophilia, association with Epstein, etc. and no police reports, FBI 302 forms, restraining orders, civil or criminal litigation, etc.. There has only been “not under oath/out of court” heresay. Platner didn’t avoid military service by falsely claiming “bone spurs”. He volunteered to serve our country for four tours of duty (as a combat Marine and army infantryman) in two different wars. He fought as a machine gunner in some of the most violent combat in Ramadi, Iraq where over 80 U.S. servicemen died and hundreds were injured. When he finally returned to normal society, he carried with him (as many combat survivors do) the psychological trauma of that experience manifest as PTSD. After struggling with this for a year or two, he got treatment at a VA Hospital and with continued treatment and aging he improved and overcame it. He had issues at the beginning of his marriage but participated in marital counseling to resolve them. His wife says their marriage is solid. This is exactly the kind of person to have as an elected official - one that recognizes problems and does what is necessary to solve them. He has a “growth mindset”. Ask the media that are howling “scandal” why they don’t cover extraordinarily nefarious “scandalous” behavior in Republicans: e.g. Ken Paxton, Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, Howard Ludnick, Kash Patel, etc. and Susan Collins who has had affairs with married men while their wives were dying of cancer and who as Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee is married to a Congressional lobbyist with stock portfolios containing stocks in companies with government contracts whose net worth has grown ten fold to almost 10 million dollars during her time in office. For those who want to smear and condemn Platner: How about you? What have you done in service to our country and democracy? Have you volunteered to risk your life and the risk of psychological combat trauma to defend our country? Who is the hypocrite?
It needs to be said - over and over. ThankYou fir saying it
Opposition to Platner is largely based on Genevieve McDonald's dishing intimate confidences as opposition research and GOP operative Lindsey Fifield's unsubstantiated and refuted assertions. Amplified by establishment Democrats and legacy media (WSJ, NYTimes, WaPo, The Atlantic et al.) Primarily because Platner stands up for equitable taxation and won't bow down to AIPAC.
Will Janet Mills endorse Platner and help unite Maine Democratic voters? Will David Costello? Their combined over 25% of the vote is significant. Costello runs vanity campaigns. Janet Mills has made some uncharacteristically bad political choices this campaign. Will she exponentially compound them by expanding her working relationship with Susan Collins to include helping elect Collins?
Let’s see if the DNC, DCCC, Schumer, et al. actually do something useful for a change and get Janet Mills to endorse Platner and unify the Maine Party. It’s going to be a real test of their colors. Do they really believe in a “big tent” and that they are willing to do “whatever it takes” to win? They need to listen to what ex-Republican strategist Rick Wilson says. Republicans “stole” many elections in the past 26 years: voter suppression and the “Brooks Brothers Invasion” of the Florida 2000 election, the “swift boating” of John Kerry, the Hillary pizza parlor child trafficking fantasy, the Al Franken right wing activist smear, now the Platner - Lyndsay Fifield/right wing/Heritage Foundation smear to name just a few. The “birther” smear didn’t work except in the heads of MAGA cultists. The fact based production of an official birth certificate didn’t register in their “alternative reality”.
But. The "low information" Republican voters get credit for uniting to vote as a joint exercise in taking power. Keeping their eyes on the prize. Including the Supreme Court.
While the nominal opposition, puts virtue signaling over winning the Senate.
He's Fetterman. No he's Trump. Wait he's the dirtbag Left. David Frum jumping the shark sez he's Roy Moore. Now Phillip Elliot jumping further sez he's Herschel Walker . . .
Maine's Platner a flawed candidate by Michael de Adder
Caligula threatened to appoint his favorite racehorse, Incitatus (yup, Incitatus) to the Roman Senate and even make him a consul. Caligula treated Incitatus very well, including having golden buckets to drink from. Caligula inherited a massive surplus (approx. 2.7 billion sesterces) left by Emperor Tiberius. He exhausted this in under a year on lavish public games, infrastructure, and personal indulgences. To cover his massive debts and ongoing expenses, he resorted to extreme taxation, extortion, and seizing private estates.
The Democrats need to do a deep dive on all of the damage Collins has done to the country especially her votes on all of Trump's nominees for SCOTUS and Trump's cabinets. She also has a strong relationship with Leonard Leo who hosted a fundraiser for her in 2020 and her husband is a Republican lobbyist. She also is endorsing Paul LePage who left Maine for Florida after he was no longer governor. Collins and LePage's combined ages is 150. They are too old to serve in Congress even though many Senators and Congresscritters are much older. It's time for new progressive blood.
I agree that Jane Mills needs to endorse Platner as well as Costello. We have to do everything we can to reveal what a scumbag Collins is.
Agree, the Maine dems have the “dirt” on Collins & now they need to expose the real Susan Collins. As a Mainer, I will urge our local Democratic Comm to take action! We need to convince people in “the county” that she’s not their sweetheart! It will take knocking on doors! So Maine, let’s do it!
You know you need to calm down a bit. Platner won. He shouldn't have but he did and now the choice is between him and Collins and that one seems obvious. Hopefully he will win and MAYBE he will prove to be the person you say he is but I honestly doubt you have any REAL insight into that, anymore than any of the rest of us do. He did acts that justify serious doubt and questioning and those fears were raised and ignored by the Maine electorate, which is their choice, just as ignoring the Trump faults was the voters' choice in 2024 and 2016. I really seriously DO wish Maine all the best with Platner, but I would continue to question, is the REALLY the best that Maine can do? Very sad if it is.
Jon, Platner lives in the next town over from me in ME. I know his Cub Scout leader and his mom. I have talked to his wife. And I have attended three of his rallies which have all been standing room only. He worked as a bartender in DC a few blocks from the Capital and chatted/served many Senators and Congresscritters.
Susan Collins has fucked over the people of ME reducing and taking away SNAP benefits from the needy and taking away affordable health care for thousands of Mainers. She is in bed with the defense contractors even owning stock in companies.
Check out her husband Jon, who divorced his wife who had cancer, to marry Susan. Oh yeah, he's a Republican lobbyist/operative.
And yeah, after voting in CA, NE, MO, FL, IA, IL and ME since 1976, I fully endorse Platner. He may not win, but I put him up there with any of the other candidates I have voted for.
I'm pretty sure they know I'm a white male and my daughter is a white female.
When we moved from FL back to ME I went to the county officer and deregistered as a voter. My daughter did the same two years later. And we still get crap from the State of FL about voting. It may be a different story if I was a person of color.
In ME, I tried to vote in a town meeting and they wouldn't let me because I was registered in FL to vote. Of course, it was a small town and everybody knew everyone, but still we were property owners but that didn't count.
I vote in Sacramento in 1980 and we voted in a neighbor's garage down the street. That was probably the coolest set-up for voting I've ever seen. Oddly enough, my next door neighbor at the time worked for the CA Secretary of State. You may recall that Jimmy Carter conceded around 9 pm EST so most of the polls west of the Mississippi River were still open. I'm sure he cost many Democrats their seats.
Jon, as a former Mainer, I can honestly say I wish I was still able to vote there. Because I believe Graham Platner is an important part of the future of America. Did he make some mistakes on his road to political genius? Of course. If you have a few hours, I can tell you all about mine. (No genius :)
The ridiculous litmus tests that Democrats perform as they create their circular firing squads are part of why we got where we are now. May I suggest we do an about face and aim (figuratively) at the real enemy....please.
Platner is right for the moment. His imperfections from the past disappoint holier than thou perfectionists and idealists. Me? I'm happy to support a Marine who survived combat and trauma and embraces personal growth.
Now. If his wife didn't support him...that would be another consideration. And for what it's worth, if his support had been marginal, that also would be telling. But his supporters are unwavering.
Mainers know their own. They know fakers. Platner is exactly the sort of candidate Democrats need to articulate our problems and offer serious solutions.
As to integrity, I think Mainers will look at what Collins has done to the nation and then listen to Platner with relief. Finally, a rough, tough guy with charisma and common sense.
Is Platner the best Maine could come up with? Was Janet Mills the right choice? Mills has been a good governor. But she is part of the generational problem that America is suffering from. She 78 years old - she would be 84 if she were to run for re-election. That makes her arrogantly disqualified, IMO.
Good grief. I am in excellent health for someone that age. I am active. I volunteer. I grow food. Doing great. But I also DO NOT have the energy, stamina and fresh ideas that someone in their 40's or 50's has. Major corporations have mandatory retirement policies for a reason! Being a senator is a 24/7 job requiring huge amounts of energy and resilience. Having people in their 80's determine the future of the nation is NOT the best we can do.
Platner is an inspirational figure. Don't be shocked if someone begins a "Platner 2028" website and SM campaign after he is sworn in as a Senator.
the subtitle is "Destroying dynamic progressive candidates for minor indiscretions is not feminism. It's stupid. And it's doing the bidding of Republicans and corporate Democrats."
Well, as someone who has a female relative who was sexually stalked, I would not EVER consider ANYTHING that relates to sexual assault as a "minor indiscretion". Is he Jeffrey Epstein? I never said that and never would.
But should ANYONE who thinks it is appropriate to send sext messages without explicit consent be given a significant position of public trust? No, not in my judgment, and CERTAINLY not a top of the line position like Senator of the United States out of the box.
If Platner had started out with a local political position and then maybe moving up to the State House in Maine, and after 4 to 8 years proving himself then decided to run for the US Senate, I might be more forgiving. But we have seen SO MANY people, particularly men, who have violated other people's space and been permitted to still take significant positions of power that I think we need to stop that permissiveness.
Will Platner turn out to be the next Andrew Weiner? I sure hope not. But literally thousands of people voted for AW in New York and we all saw what happened. Not just once but twice. You can decide for yourself if that risk is worth taking. For me, it would not ever be worth the risk. Again, if that is the BEST we can come up with, then we are already probably beyond redemption.
I agree with your sentiments about “sexual assault”. And Interviews with former girl friends reveal them saying “they always felt safe with him” even when he had been drinking heavily. As always, there are three sides to the story. “Yours, mine and the truth.”
If I were in a situation where trust would determine my fate, I would rather be standing next to Platner than Collins. And that is all that matters now. If Platner is elected, a new Senate could save millions of lives. If its Collins, the thievery and deaths will continue.
Again. I respect your feelings. But the more I read, the more I think this is closer to a Swift Boat moment than a Weiner one.
I first became aware of Graham Platner and Amy Gertner through their attendance at and organization of protests in Ellsworth - starting in early Winter of 2025. I've been volunteering at Ellsworth headquarters from day 1. I have watched Platner and the younger but experienced field organizers put together and run one of the best campaigns I've volunteered on. It reminds me of Chris Van Hollen's first House campaign. I don't have to trust their moral compass, I have daily experience and evidence of it.
(And speaking as a witness of the 1960s Womens Movement and a veteran of #MeToo who - as the French so nicely put it - named my pig #BalanceTonPorc (a professor of Persian philosophy and well protected intelligence asset.)
Chris Van Hollen on Gaza, Bernie Sanders on workers rights, Ro Khanna on the Epstein files, Elizabeth Warren on government oversight, Sheldon Whitehouse on dark money, Martin Heinrich on environmental conservation, Ruben Gallego on immigration reform - and so many others who are strong, ethical, Senate voices for good government - have welcomed Graham Platner based on his platform and their judgement of his commitment to good government.
(I am not spotlighting those such as Schumer and Gillibrand whose support is primarily strategic - although I do not discount strategy.)
Chris Van Hollen, Bernie Sanders Celebrate Graham Platner's Win In Maine...
I would vote for Platner if in Maine, because Republicans must be stopped and Collins needs to be thrown out. No question about it.
But Bernie bro leftie types need to stop pretending Platner's scandals are just propped up opposition lies. Their insistent attempts to shut down and dismiss women's concerns about Platner are no better than Trump talking about pussy grabbing. It shows a fundamental disrespect for women--all women--a disrespect that is contemptuous.
This happened before. We saw it during Hillary's run too. At the time, I closely followed a data analyst on Twitter who sussed out that the majority of those Bernie Bro posts attacking women who expressed support for Hillary came from Russia. That was a revelation. They were stirring the pot, as it were. They are probably doing it again.
Just think as I do, woman! I'm a MAN, you MUST think like ME. Shut. The. F***. Up. You stupid B****. That's the vibe online, and often much worse.
Yes, the Republican operative Fifeld, who was associated with Heritage Foundation, no less, and a woman who actually pushed for sexual assaulter Kavanaugh to be placed on the Supreme Court (OMG, what a tool!) needs to be called out as totally unreliable. 100% ignore and mock her mercilessly.
The problem is there were several *other* women who came forward, all telling similar stories despite not knowing one another, and Platner himself admitted several transgressions and social media exchanges that were quite disturbing--whether just immature stupidity or honestly held views, doesn't particularly matter.
We're not even talking about the Totenkapf tattoo that sat on his chest for 17 years. Platner apologized for it, and his wife stood by her man; great, but that doesn't absolve him from suspicion and criticism and more scrutiny, and you cannot force women to trust him going forward.
Because most of us don't trust Platner now. Don't vilify women for being less enthusiastic than you. Take a moment and think how desperately sad that is.
Do guys who hate the Epstein Class understand the women around them can probably identify sexual predators far better than they can, because we have been so much more exposed and vulnerable to Epstein Class sexual and economic attacks on us? We're also far less likely to get sucked into worshipping masculinity for the sake of masculinity.
BTW, I'm a wife of the Vietnam Veteran who saw far more combat than Platner and unlike Platner, he wasn't celebrated and constantly thanked for his Service when he returned to the States. Despite untreated PTSD and lots of anger, he would NEVER have behaved like that to a woman. Lots of men are better.
I am unsure of Platner. I love his policies, he is a charismatic speaker, but his personal behavior--what we know of it so far--shows a serious lack of judgment. I hope he takes the criticism to heart instead of sulking, that he has really changed, that he will commit steadily to the causes he speaks so eloquently about. God speed to him.
And when the rest of you feel inclined to pile onto women who express worries about Platner, boys, please remember you are proving you are not all that different than the Epstein Class.
You people are so desperate. This is the quality of talent that you want in the Senate. The guy with a Nazi tattoo of the guards of the Nazi concentration camps. Perfect.
What happened to all you lying bastards? You have to believe the women. Uh oh. Did we say that RICK? Lololol.
It’s not an accusation, Pal. And if he wanted everybody, he should’ve done it long before he started to run for office. He’s had the tattoo for a lonnnnnnnnng time. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg with all the information that’s going to come out further when he runs against collins if the Democrat party supports him they’ll be going down the tubes even further And the 20% approval rating they currently have. 20% rated by the Democrats themselves. Doubling down with shit like this
Do you know you’re great at name-calling but you’re not great at courtroom necessities nor demeanor!! What you still don’t get Daniel and you can’t put this on reruns because it’s factual. 80 million people didn’t buy the harassment, sexual harassment story. It was a fable, and the timing made it almost beyond incredible. And there are four parts to the ridiculousness of the story but you don’t care and I don’t care either and neither did 80 million people that voted for him for reelection. AND the ones that took the story and threw it in the trash when he won the first time.
See, here’s a dichotomy of your honesty. You have to believe the women, but not if their name has anything to do with Plattner?
Only after a woman waits 20 years to bring charges till we die bunny, president or a woman. The only brings charges when a man is about to get placed on the Supreme Court.
First of all, I don’t think we have a Hardee’s in the city. I think most of them are back east northeast actually, I recall. It’s not an accusation pal. He has a tattoo on his chest that he has kept there by choice by was used by the guards of the concentration camps of the Nazi empire. It shouldn’t be there. Listen to Fred drawing on all day long with this meaningless unsubstantiated bullshit from his left wing loon point of view. So yes, I read it. Nobody cares about any of his friends or relatives. That’s unimportant and insignificant
. The man carries a reminder of the Nazi regime on his chest and had the opportunity to get rid of it since he left the service and it’s still there. There is so much more
Daniel, here’s the best part I don’t know If he will win the main election or not.. I just know that the Democrats just lowered their standards to below sea level to not only allow this guy to continue to carry the Democrat name but to actually raise his hand in victory like Bernie Sanders, the socialist communist idiot.
The other thing I mentioned, which is really hysterical there is all kinds of factual news about how he treated women in the past you with his wife, who now has to suck up to him because he’s running for office so she’s put out this last minute bullshit letter supporting him when they’re both going to therapy to see if they can fix the problem. He’s got two therapists she’s got one.
And here’s the deal right here get ready for it. YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE THE WOMEN. go check out all the complaints of all the women that he’s been involved in. Twisting their arms behind their back, locking them in a room, standing in front of the door to not let them out.
Fine if you support him and if he wins, he’ll he will dramatically tear apart the Democrat party, which is already suffering at 72% disapproval right by its own Democrats per quite recent CNN poll.
You need to calm down and try to reenter reality, Rick. Try reading cult specialist Dr. Steven Hassan, Ph.D. “Freedom of Mind” an accessible guide focused on rescue, protection and recovery or his “Combating Cult Mind Control”. Recognizing that you have a problem and working to solve it shows you have a healthy psychology - like Graham Platner did. Carol Dwick Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and author of “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, introduced the concepts of fixed mindset (believing abilities are static) and growth mindset (believing abilities can be developed through effort). She argues that a growth mindset fosters resilience, learning and success in all areas of life while a fixed mindset leads to avoiding challenges and fearing failure. Graham Platner has a growth mindset. Celebrate that our country is still producing such people.
Again, and again, verily I say to you, READ WHAT FRED WROTE AND WHAT I WROTE!
Repeating your previous "points" is meaninglessly annoying and a waste of everyone's time. The claims you make beyond your original silly "Nazi" allegations which have already been rebutted, are wholly without corroboration or any evidentiary basis whatsoever.
And whoever said, "You have to believe the women"?!? For generations, male abusers, usually of the patriarchal, racist, misogynistic sort (sound familiar?) circled the wagons and claimed that their female accusers were hysterical, and got away with it. This, thankfully, is no longer the case. Yet that does not mean that every women who makes an accusation is correct, just as every man who denies an accusation does not make the denial correct. Further inquiry is required. Fred provided that for you. Your pavlovian denial of same is worthless.
Finally, what is the "Democrat" Party? I know of no such thing in this country. We do have the Democratic Party, the party of the majority of Americans, a group whose knuckles do not drag on the increasingly climactically harmed terra firma while they walk, as do way too many of the former Party of Lincoln, now party of Lincoln Rockwell.
And finally, if these claims about Platner are true, then they should be highlighted for all Maine voters to see, along with his denials and/or claims to have changed since then. BTW, has the short fingered vulgarian you voted for, you know, the convicted sexual assaulter who is on record projecting his incestuous lust for his own daughter ever claimed to have reformed, changed or grown up?!?
Well, tell the judge your honor so he tells you you haven’t proven a thing get out of my courtroom. You can’t read but reality, Daniel. This is really not a Nazi guard tattoo on my chest. I really didn’t twisted woman’s arm behind your back and force her back into her room. pushed pushed another woman to the ground, grabbed another by your neck locked her in the room and stood in front of the door. Not to mention the other 23 different little things that are going to come out when he runs against Collins it’s gonna be funny if he wins the family wins that’s all that simple. YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE THE WOMEN.
As I said earlier and I’ll say it again Daniel it’s the Democrats but get behind this place the 20% but they’re approved now will be a distant memory and it could very well be the first time ever in recent history, that a president that had both parties of Congress and its own party when I took office has won the midterm because it hasn’t happened in 50 years. Uh oh. Talk to you soon
Well, Heather, you’re you’re right …today. Inflation was a little over 4% and Trump is trying like hell but he still can only get it less than halfway to Biden’s 9%. And even a war that’s causing gas prices to go up, but he just can’t get it anywhere close. And pretty soon the war will be over. The war will be open and you’re gonna be really disappointed because then Biden is going to be three times The inflation rate as Trump.
You're not even responding to Heather, you sack of condescending putrescence. And you can't write a coherent sentence to save your life. Nobody here gives a flying flamingo what you drool out your deranged mouth.
Well, if nobody cares, why are you so upset? You wanna fix the structure of my sense or maybe you wanna change the content of the message which do you think is more important? Let me repeat it for you in the same exact way
Well, Heather, you’re you’re right …today. Inflation was a little over 4% and Trump is trying like hell but he still can only get it less than halfway to Biden’s 9%. And even a war that’s causing gas prices to go up, but he just can’t get it anywhere close. And pretty soon the war will be over. The war will be open and you’re gonna be really disappointed because then Biden’s inflation is going to be three times The inflation rate as Trump.
I seem to remember some statement about denial and denial. I’m not sure what it was but I think you got the message. Despite my sentence structure LMAO.
The only bit of good news is that there is apparently a 65% chance of rain on the day Trump wants to celebrate his outdoor gladiatorial shit spectacle. If the courts don't crap all over it, perhaps Mother Nature will.
They have sort of sealed the top from rain but a nice thunderstorm with lightning 🌩️ would be perfect. Is it too much to hope for 100mph wind gusts to rip all of that plastic sheeting to let the rain in, you know the WH will not be open as a shelter, not to his maggot crowd anyhow. 🤷♂️
When a reporter finally brought him back to the question about inflation coming down, he said that when the war is over, “it’s gonna come down like a rock.”
Just one more thing for the Democrats to fix once the Republicans are no longer in control.
Mike Johnson revealed plans to cut SS, Medicare and Medicaid in 2027 because apparently we are all defrauding the Federal government by collecting benefits we paid for since we were teenagers.
All good points as the raping, pillaging and plundering of America continues while being protected by the republicans at all cost. November cannot come soon enough.
This is an aside, but the National Park Service is allowing feedback of the Arc d' Trumpe until 11:59 Mountain Time on June 15. Share your thoughts. It's like adding a theme park feature to a sacred space.
Thanks. I tried to use as few vulgarities as I possibly could. There was always supposed to be an uninterrupted line of direct sight between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery and the site of Lee's former mansion. It is beyond desecration that this sack of shit in the White House wants to put up his "triumphant" arch (what triumph, anyway?) interrupting what the architect clearly intended.
National Park Service is allowing feedback of the Arc d' Trumpe until 11:59 Mountain Time on June 15. Share your thoughts. It's like adding a theme park feature to a sacred space.
Everybody can paste these sentences into the link from JL Graham so we can make the 6/15/26 deadline. Please paste these few resistance sentences:
🎯
"Preserve our sacred vistas": The 250-foot arch will interrupt the historic, open views connecting the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery and Arlington House.
* "No theme park monuments": This building is an ego monument in a somber, sacred ceremonial gateway turns our national memorials into a gaudy spectacle.
* Look at the maintenance backlog": Please be aware that the millions being spent on cosmetic vanity projects should be used to repair our crumbling existing infrastructure, trails, and park ranger services.
Thank you for this information to provide “thoughts” on this grotesque arch.. took some restraint to not place in a few vulgar words to make the point.. here’s the comment if others would like to pick from..
Over a century ago architects mulled where to put a new memorial to the late President Abraham Lincoln, one location stood apart: the western edge of the National Mall, on what was then the marshy mudflats of the Potomac River. That site stood on the “same axis as the U.S. Capitol and Washington Monument” this formed a straight line between the government, the president who founded it and the president credited with saving it.
It is also directly across the Potomac river from Virginia's Arlington House, the former home of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that sits on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.
This was not a coincidence as to where these monuments were carefully thought about before building. It’s not about the memorials or monuments themselves but their spatial meaning between all of them. There are different memorials that carry so much symbolic meaning. The Potomac River was the border between the North and South, nominally, during the Civil War; It's literally crossing the border and it symbolizes the healing of a time when our nation fought brother to brother during our Civil War. Our past wounds as memorials were placed there to remember.
This 250 feet tall, “triumphal arch” is more than double the height of the Lincoln Memorial that obstructs the site line from what was well thought out over a century ago — “a straight line between the government, the president who founded it and the president credited with saving it”. This is an abomination of all our fallen whose resting place is Arlington Cemetery to the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, two presidents that one the founder to the one who saved this nation to remain whole. It benefits nothing, no significance other than a grotesque large arch that obstructs the view and meaning of our capital to appease a persons ego.
Thank you - I have just left my comments. It was difficult not to scream in all caps, but I did not. I did the same about the ballroom as thousands of others must have, but his lackeys went ahead and approved the plan. Any of the crap projects he manages to get built must be destroyed at the first opportunity! and I believe they will be.
It is all lies today from this lifelong con artist … and will be all lies until the day he is 6 feet under. The reporting on his activities does not need to be any more sophisticated than that. The only thing he ever says that is true is his name! SMH
Well Beth Trumps reckless spending is so excessive that it just made our Social Security funds be insolvent faster than before. People think SSA won’t run out of money, but if you combine the lack of job growth, and our explosive federal deficit- Trump is successfully sending We The People to the poor house.
That ""trickle down" is a yellow stream on the 90%. Even David Stockman admitted it was all a con job. But it works great for oiligarchs and money changers.
“URGENT: Mike Lee just launched the most serious attack on America's forests in a generation.
The Utah senator slipped a rider into a wildfire bill that would permanently kill the Roadless Rule.
45 million acres would lose protection.
Not next year. Not after a public debate.
Right now.
The Roadless Rule protects some of the wildest remaining national forest land in America. Salmon rivers. Elk country. Old-growth forests. Drinking water for communities across the country.
And Lee's amendment would make sure those protections can never come back.
Even after 99% of public comments opposed repeal.”~Will Pattiz
✅ Call your senators and tell them to vote NO on Mike Lee's Roadless Rule repeal. We must go all out again to deny this public land villain in his stripping of our greatest natural treasures.
One can tell when Trump and his white house toddler pool and Republicans in congress are scared. The lying and whining increase exponentially. Then, the stealing from the American people also increases with reconciliation bills that only pathetic Republicans have to vote for while they are working hard to make sure they and their rich donors don't have to pay taxes for.
I doubt a single thing Trump said in that whiny rambling speech Dr. Richardson included here was true. Vance is an opportunist who will lie, make up stuff, blame, and insult to his heart's content. It seems to give him pleasure that his lying can be right out in the open and that he can justify it as a means of getting attention. He is not as good at it as his boss Baby Donnie, but he doesn't care. His goal is to get a lot of attention from the most pathetic folks in America, the ones who will believe anything as long as it is not they who are being lied about. All of them are like bratty badly-parented toddlers who whine, lie if they think it will keep Mommy from getting mad, make up stories if it will put blame on somebody else. How anyone can think these people should be in charge of anything is beyond comprehension. Racism, misogyny, and just general hatred are alive and well in Trumplandia!
I watched a bit of that so-called press conference today. Trump seems to be in the throes of psychological decompensation. I wonder what medication they have him on. He’s truly incapable of carrying on.
Heather- Can we get some crucial and sustained on what Trump is intending to do with our priceless and precious public lands with some of that $70 billion? He and his are fast tracking a border wall through the Big Bend region of the Rio Grande Valley using record breaking, no bid contract and the abolition of dozens of environmental, historical and cultural protections. The devastation to the economy and way of life is subsequently in peril. Once the damage is done I’m afraid it will never recover. Please help us get this story out there now! I apologize for I know what all you are already doing for us now and I am a devoted fan. I don’t know what else to do. As you environment is taking a deadly blow under this administration. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾♥️♥️♥️
The 14-year-old girl’s story of Donald trying to rape her will just reveal more.
She reportedly quoted Donald in the 1990s bitterly scolding her that she should be grateful to lose her virginity to such a celebrity as he, Donald – and not some pimply 14-year-old boy who didn’t know what he was doing.
A sicko – all his life he’s been a sicko, Donald.
Now we have reports of top administration officials who formerly perhaps had some integrity to them, all now long caving to protect the sickness in Donald.
Meanwhile people driving cars get large, per-gallon price reminders everywhere they go as to the sickness in one man thinking he can start a major war and pretend he can walk away from and grievously lie about it.
Americans can put up with high finance elites offshoring their tens of millions of working-class jobs and destroying thousands of American communities. They can endure friends and family every day dying to the opioid epidemic. They can see the bottom 50% lose health care to spiking costs and tanking availability. They can rue more cynical elites lying to protect the rot atop Washington, D.C. – the rot behind all U.S. dark money.
But the story of one formerly 14-year-old girl beckoning other stories still hidden?
Try combining that with hundreds of millions of parents driving cars multiple times daily past those giant neon reminders of gas prices again and again advertising the sickness in Donald.
"President Donald Trump's ongoing war with Iran is draining America's emergency supply of crude oil — which is just days away from hitting its lowest level in more than 40 years, according to a report Wednesday."
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-war-drain-us-oil-reserve-reagan-b2993521.html
The Man Who Loved Inflation
Only Donald Trump could look at rising prices, anxious families, soaring fuel costs, and global instability and say, “I love it,” as if inflation were a loyal golden retriever bringing him a stock market chart.
Asked about the economy, he did what great statesmen always do when cornered by facts: he fled into theater. Suddenly, inflation was not the issue. The issue was oil, Iran, ships, radar, strength, toughness, and whatever military fantasy was currently playing in the IMAX theater inside his head.
This is Trumpian economics at its purest. When prices rise, call it victory. When oil markets tremble, call it leverage. When war threatens ordinary people’s wallets, insist that ordinary people should be grateful to witness such tremendous leadership. The suffering is not the story. The spectacle is the story.
For most Americans, inflation means grocery bills, rent, gas, utilities, and the slow humiliation of working harder while falling behind. For Trump, it becomes just another stage prop. A crisis is never a crisis if it can be turned into applause.
That is the trick. He does not solve the problem. He renames it. Inflation becomes strength. Instability becomes strategy. Fear becomes patriotism. Confusion becomes proof that only he understands what is going on.
And so the public asks a simple question: “Why is life getting more expensive?”
Trump answers with smoke machines, fighter jets, oil barrels, and a grin.
Somewhere, George Orwell is not taking notes. He is asking for a drink.
Of course he loves it. He's making tons of money from it.
⬆️🎯👏🏼
Once more, sir -- the comment that deserves to be first, rather than stuck in the middle of the heap. Not the play's the thing, but the spectacle in lieu of the play. Thank you.
Say it with me:
WAR IS PEACE.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
George Orwell was prescient.
You forgot the gold-gilded ballroom, Michael.
And the arch. And the kissing-of-the-ass to Putin, Xi, Kim, Mohammed bin Salman, Netanyahu, Erdogan, Sisi, Bukele, Milei, Bolsonaro, and all the local talent capable of throwing, bestowing, festooning bribes, extortions, and all such Citizens United corruptions.
Yes, and rape becomes a gift. Thanks Phil and others, and Substack & Heather that let us blow off the steam of our fervid indignation and immense disgust. Let alone grief. Now down to work.
Rape is of course a gift. That being so, why is Juanita Broaddrick so ungrateful?
While this post is pure gold, you had me at "...as if inflation were a loyal golden retriever bringing him a stock market chart."
It is a great phrase, but we all know any self-respecting dog would bite or (bad word) on his canckles.
Or bite another appendage. 🍆
"Trump warns the US will seize key Iranian oil export hub Kharg Island." CNN headline.
I guess he doesn't really love inflation all that much.
Per the BBC this 6/10 9:55 PM Eastern: "Tehran targets US Gulf bases after American forces launch new [2nd Day ] of strikes on Iran."
Per CNBC this 6/11 pre-market: "U.S. begins strikes against Iran".
Trump earlier today, 6/10, "I love inflation''. Not hyperbole nor joking as inflation has jumped over 4%. HCR more accurate reporting 4.2%.
*****************************************************
SCOTUS has another 23 cases to public into late June & early July.
Heads Up:
**********
SCOTUS may publish Trump v Barbara, the "Birthright Citizenship" case, as early as this morning 6/11 at 10 AM Eastern or a different important case.
I will gather at SCOTUSblog at 9:30 AM Eastern with 1000's of attorneys & other folks when the court's clerk hands out any published Opinions at 10 AM.
Keep us posted, Counselor. I have a couple of things to attend to this morning and cannot be tuned in.
SCOTUSBlog is invaluable. Sad that Tom Goldstein messed up his brilliant life.
A key piece you nab here, J L.
At some point all the insanities will cascade together, in ways till now they haven't, due to cowardice built into most all ruling, plus the extra doses of anesthetization also ruling.
The looting of America.
What birthday wish would you give this octogenarian who has looted America? Be honest....
that it be his last one. To heck with the 'many happy returns'. One last blast and he's out. After all, isn't the principle the greatest happiness for the greatest number? Trump dropping dead would be a serious step toward that goal.
A very long jail term.
That he vanishes in a puff of smoke
His just rewards. Death just gives us Vance. I want Congress to grow some balls and take back their power. Impeach him. And charge him with not just corruption but treason. I want the civil suits to break him and him to become a pariah among any decent society.
I want him to know the pain of losing everything. Just like he's doing to so many of us.
BLB, II call Thune and demand that he and some GOP Senators give Trump the "Nixon" treatment, that is, go to the Oval Office and demand his resignation or they will not support a single bit of his policies. ZERO.
Probably all this does is raise my blood pressure. But I try.
THEN everyone here should be working their tails off to get the VOTES OUT TO PUT a huge majority of Democrats and Independents in the CONGRESS in November to send him and his cronies to jail or to permanent exile! I never hear anyone here talking about being a protester, or writing post cards or any other means to getting out to the people to vote for the people who will EXTIRPATE him from our government! What''s up with that?
“A happy death,” as Sr Albertine used to say. Who can argue with such a sentiment? 😚
His departure from this world.
How about I wish you death.🪦🪦🪦
I understand the hate 'rump sentiments and I concur. I don't wish anyone's death as I am not the judge for mankind. However with the treasonist acts of the 'rump regime I am pushing hard to do whatever it takes to flip the House and the Senate blue at which time I will be pushing for the entire regime to be impeached, prosecuted and if convicted of treason shot to death. That is the responsibility of our government. That means 'rump may have a few more birthdays as this process will take time, but I pray that his 80th is his last as free thing ( I just couldn't write man) After all, he should be in prison now, not the oval office.
That as he sits at the 60 million dollar conundrum of a UFC fight, the heat and humidity overcome him seriously for a forever date with infamy!
I prefer a subtle greeting that would go right over his fat, orange head and yet, more accurately describe my wishes.
"May you get all that you deserve."
Since you asked us to be honest, Paul, I will be. Although death would rid the world of his stench and destruction, that is not enough for me.
Prior to that happy event, I want to hear that he is experiencing extreme pain and suffering – to use his turn of phrase – "pain and suffering, the likes of which America has never seen before."
Then my wishes will come true.
It’s all symbols, impossible to organize, Paul. Besides, as no one has ever loved this wreckage of a person, there has to be at least an ounce of pity.
His wish is to go to heaven so let him.🎈
Loren Bliss where are you?
The reference to children and grandchildren is blood curdling in my thinking. He has no concept of childhood or the needs of children. He has no understanding of the Histiry of childhood in our civilization and how many people like Mother Jones and Florence Kelley and C Everett Koop MD along with Fritz Redl and the team of Klaus and Kennell trued to make things better . There are children in the detention centered, there are children who have died because of our lack vaccines management I do t know what it will take to create an uproar. I really to want to have to deal with the ending of RobertBrowning’s Pied Piper poem and its sad ending and moral. Treatment the film used this in part of its narrative of a misbegotten future time though now more in our past not future in terms of a timeline. Beautiful film of human love despite horror. Hopper dies not come to pass. Clowns of God by Morris West not that well written by again the emphasis on care and compassion and hope .
This is the bottom line, and most are anesthetized, especially those mesmerized by the cacophony of evil swirling around us.
just wait until the depression hits. And it will.
And there will STILL be some who'd vote for him! Sigh.
(cleleste, I thought I've seen you around for awhile, but your little flower next to your name says "2 months". ?? Perhaps you let your subscription lapse? If you are truly new here, as the self-appointed Walmart greeter of the forum, may I WELCOME you?! 👋🏼👋🏼 And if I'm not crazy--although this regime is driving me there--and you've been around for awhile, then just saying howdy. 😁)
The $250 per barrel price Trump dismissed is directly tied to the dwindling supply of oil already in storage tanks around the world. Once those reserved oil resources are gone—and assuming the elusive peace deal is STILL eluding the “greatest deal maker of all time”—is it certainly possible that the $250/barrel price will be hit.
The man is pathetically SICK, Phil! Mustn’t that also go for those who support him. Saw a cbc news clip tonight about the ‘Turning Point’ convention. Some pretty sick puppies there too!
John, it seems that being nuts is in with Republicans these days. They elect candidates for offices at every level who are incompetent, childish (and not in a good way), corrupt, living in a different reality from the rest of us, dismissive of the American people while whining that they are patriots and that it is the "woke" who are their enemies. Of course, Trumplandia has been groomed to think as little as possible. When I have either asked or heard asked of MAGAs Can you explain what you like about Donald Trump, they say something stupid like "he is making America great again." We all should just laugh out loud because even for those saying it, things are not better. They probably are for Musk, Vought, Theil, the Ellisons, and the other disgusting oligarchs, but not for everyone else as we watch our nation on its 250th birthday being driven into the ground as no British army in our Revolutionary War could do! We have an obligation to stop this insanity. This entire administration should be impeached and kicked out, then we should have special elections for a new president and vice president. That would at least let us start working on making our nation more just, fair, and peaceful.
I thought that the Nancy Mace defeat was REALLY telling. I mean, from our standpoint, that's great given her own conversion to MAGAt politics, but she was literally a DJT sycophant and he couldn't support even her. At some point he is going to be out of "friends".
Jon, the weird thing about the MAGAs is that all Baby ?Donnie has to do is tell them he loves them and that all is "forgiven" or "fine" or whatever the person needs to hear, and they are totally back on board. Mike Lee of Utah got bummed out that his church was not on Hegseth's unconstitutional list of religions for the military. He says he called Trump about it, and it was fixed for him and Trump told him he loved him and his religion. Yep, Lee is no longer upset. His MAGA daddy loves him. (not!)
I am guessing Nancy Mace touched a sore spot with the pedophile/rapist when she put her support behind the survivors of Epstein's horror, so Trump ordered his sycophantic voters to dump Mace for something even more disgusting in their sycophancy. It really is appalling, but just what those MAGAs claim to want while they whine about prices, gas, general affordability. They just can't see that Trump and his white house toddler pool are causing their woes and just don't care about their struggles at all. Brainwashing worked well on those folks!
As per Donald, Jon, love how you put quotations marks around "friends."
Same with my senator, Marsha Blackburn, so far at least. And she has prostrated herself before him for 11 years.
Trump has friends?????
He has opportunistic hangers on and parasites who either think they won’t get tossed aside or are out to collect the crumbs of grift shed like dandruff from Trump’s corruption. He does not have friends.
Somebody must like him. LOL :-)
Tens of millions of Americans still do, Jon.
No laughing out loud.
As we can see from some comments here, "we" must scorn the lived lives that drew the deplorables to him as such final, vulgar last resort, as our good, elite, test-savvy Dems got long-since normalized to money- (and celebrity-) only.
Because she was concerned about the Epstein victimes?
"childish (and not in a good way),"
My mother distinguished between "childish" and "child-like", and it has seemed to me that they work as useful categories. "Childish" is something that we need to outgrow to be wise and civil. "Child-like" may present in a variety of ways, but is, I think, a retention of those qualities of childhood the we have to be strong to preserve. The abiding curiosity, the more tender emotions, the aim toward a more fruitful future. A certain playfulness; Einstein once described his creative process as "combinatory play", yet (as Einstein also displayed in his professional role) a capacity for focus, labor, and discipline. It seems to me that there is, or at least can be, a certain Child-like quality to the most mature adults even when it's often not readily visible. Also an ability to relate to an actual child. Perhaps it's what is ultimately most precious about being a human being.
JL, I use childish to describe this Trumpian toddler pool of sycophants because it is not the positive characteristics of childhood, but the whiny bratty, tantruming that it is hoped people grow through and past. The members of Trumplandia never got through it, and they are in charge around the country. It's appalling! We should be able to get them out of power and into some kind of work where they won't harm others.
You remember that clip of Donnie trying to talk to a group of four year olds - and all he could come up with was trying to explain what an "auto-pen" was, and how President Biden had used one?
I guide people back to the playful parts of themselves because play is often the antidote to stress, overwhelm, and feeling stuck. Somewhere along the journey to adulthood, many of us forgot how to enjoy life's simple, silly pleasures.
If you want to de-stress go to a school yard and play hopscotch.
Re. Trumplandia being groomed to think as little as possible: Saw Jordan Klepper questioning MAGA about the ballroom the other day. Now, nobody had mentioned the idea of a ballroom for years before trump decided it was a good idea. And suddenly "Oh, we definitely need it. It's a great idea. God bless Mr. President for coming up with the idea"
I swear if trump said "We don't want any two armed people in the GOP"- they'd all cut off their left arms.
Most of 'em— the males, anyway— would still need their right arms for je---... oh, I probably shouldn't type that here, LOL.
🫣
Apparently, there are some things that don't lend well to ambidextrous applications.
I like when they answer 'his policies' Ruth. My next question is 'What policies? "Oh you know", they say. "No, I do not, is it the killing American citizens policy?"
All happening on America's 25th anniversary sickens me.
NEWS FLASH
Best ideas and comment ever!!! Get rid of ALL of them!!! We have a gigantic mess that they made to clean up!!!
John Oliver did a piece on the golorado GOP governors race candidates.
Take a look at the certifiable Victor Marx. He's certifiably insane, and is the highest dollar getter of them all.
America's working classes really got the shaft, John.
Their kids are standardized-tested to death at school -- the death of all forms of imagination, creativity, and humanity deliberately excluded from the narrow forms of dehumanized rationality informing all those tests (whose narrowness in turn suffocates "higher" ed, too).
Other costs our working classes have had to pay? Please read: Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America”; Arlie Russell Hochschild’s “Stolen Pride,” Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money,” George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison's "The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism," George Packer’s “The Unwinding,” Diane Ravitch’s “The Language Police,” Sarah Smarsh’s “Bone of the Bone,” Matt Stoller’s “Goliath: The Hundred-year War between Monopoly Power and Democracy,” and Sheldon Whitehouse’s “The Scheme.”
Yes, I'm sure reading all those books -- plus the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica -- will really help win us the midterms. I can already smell victory. A great practical suggestion, indeed.... 🙄
John was asking about the working classes, ICTT.
My reply cited the books key to his concern.
John didn't really mention the working class at all, Phil. He mentioned sick supporters of this crazed president.
Some of whom are upper class, amazingly.
Hillary called them the deplorables, donna.
But it was this class who got the shaft big-time, our working classes. And Dems have been out of touch with them -- totally, pathetically, helplessly out of touch. As if Dems, so many so largely our coastal elites, our suburban and urban comfortable have been happily willing to see first Hillary and then Kamala go down to defeat due to Dems in love mainly with raising money, and consorting with celebrities, but ever aloof from frankly embittered, otherwise abandoned working classes.
Do we really need this divisiveness to which smug, superior Dems have acceded?
ICTT, I'm sure you don't care, but I have cancelled my paid subscription to HCR's Letters because of Mr. Balla's tiresome and often irrelevant harping on the absence of Humanities and presence of standardized testing in U.S. schools, and your constant sniping at him over it. I'm aware of how the feud started, but I've had enough of it. You've taken a few shots at me as well.
I could block both of you, but the blocks would blow such a hole in the conversations, they would make no sense.
You two are not the only wet blankets who frequent this forum, but today's skirmish is the one that has drawn my rebuke.
My paid subscription ends in September, so I'll continue to comment if I have something to contribute. But frankly, I believe I'm mostly treading the same worn paths.
Figures it was CBS News reporting on turning point convention. And this week the Southern Baptist Convention is voting to ban churches with women pastors.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/southern-baptists-vote-to-advance-a-formal-ban-on-churches-with-women-pastors/ar-AA25jMcq
And yet a majority of white Republican women support the Republicans with zeal.
a majority of white women ...
That's bs and you know it.
A majority of white women that voted in a specific election supported the scumbag.
Voters =/= everyone.
Plain stupidity GJ. How do you argue with then to try to get them thinking ?
I couldn't find the way yet.
Go figure, their heads are so far up their asses they don’t know if it’s day or night. 🤬
It’s a cult in the fine American tradition of cults.
John, when I've watched some clips where devoted members of his cult talk, it is insanity on full view!
Just the kotex taped over the ears was nuts! It took me back about 55 years ago. I recall being a freshman in high school and was going to the big sock hop at the nearby Catholic Boys HS. All the girls started to "coordinate" their look for the event. Anyone old enough to recall the fashions of the 70s will get this. We were all going to wear our plaid, cuffed hiphugger bellbottoms with our bodysuit tops. We were all to wear our long, straight hair in "high pigtails with yarn ties". (As the time, extra wide yarn was popular to wear in your hair.) My Mom didn't allow makeup, but the girls were discussing which shade/brand of lipgloss to wear.
I am NOT joking about this. At the time, I wanted so hard to fit in with the group, but I was internally chafing at being told what to wear.
When Trump was on trial in NY and all the cronies showed up dressed in blue suits with extra long red ties, I thought "OH MY GOD! HIGH SCHOOL". And now the Florsheim shoes! I think, don't these people realize how ridiculous they look? But then, they only care what one person thinks, and they are too STUPID to realize, he'll toss them right under the bus.
The sick thing about our society is that we care more about spending more money on gasoline than we care about a vulnerable child. "She probably dressed like a sl*t" they'll say. "She was a gold-digger who chickened out" they'll say. Our society doesn't care about vulnerable girls. They're just playthings for the Epstein class. If you can take advantage of a teenager, you can pretend to be rich and powerful too! :/
Trump's intentional family separations, many of which were never rectified, seemed like a crime against humanity to me, but the newspapers just took it in stride and his followers compare him to Jesus. And the regime's human rights violations continue is multiple ways. Anything for a buck, or a sense of conquest.
I believe it's ethnic cleansing. Racism tops the list of heinous attributes that define any and all republican tRump supporters.
Exactly, Lisa. It isn’t a coincidence that Trump came after Obama. Obama broke from his caste and achieved far more than the lowest person in the white male caste… and look at the wrath they brought on all of us as a result. (read Caste by Isabel Wilkerson for more). Racism is really more pervasive in this country than most of us realize.
I read this incredible book. We always thought we were above this but it was eye opening to read about the Jim Crow south that was never taught about in history books. The lynchings where thousands would show up to watch the hanging and burning of another human being, taking along a lunch like they were on a church picnic. Then having photos taken of themselves standing with the charred remains and printed in on-the-spot postcards that they could mail to their relatives. Or purchasing as a souvenir a lock of charred hair or apiece of shirting to show they had attended the momentous "event" like it was no different than a summer concert where you would vie to get the celebrity to sign an autograph on a memento. And how hitler used how the US treated the Blacks to base his Holocaust madness on. So much of our history has been so white washed. Things were even more obscenely, unspeakably evil than even what we, in northern schools, were taught.
Our history classes were indeed "white washed", at least here in Oregon. It was only as an adult in my 50's that I learned of the Wilmington and Tulsa "race riots". Certainly never got that information in my history classes.
Sharon-It wasn’t just northern schools that neglected to teach important parts of our history. The lack of knowledge that citizens have about aspects of what truly transpired when it comes to racism is astounding. The omission is intentional.
Edward Baptiste’s book “The Half Has Never Been Told” offers many details for a wider view of America’s practice of slavery and racism for centuries.
We can’t deal with these issues unless we honestly confront them. Racism
Is holding all of us hostage. It’s a tool that’s always worked to keep “we the people” divided. We won’t make progress until we honestly confront this issue.
“The ship that sailed up the James on a day we will never know was the beginning of America, and if we are not careful, the end”. -Lerone Bennett Jr. (1969)
Where is people's empathy?
Musk said last year that empathy was the foundational weakness of Western civilization. Interesting that none of Trump's "Christian" followers had any problem with that statement.
I'm not surprised that those "Christians" have no empathy. I mean, their whole "faith" is based on them being "the chosen" and the rest of humanity being consigned to hellfire (despite the fact that this completely ignores the instructions of their Saviour).
But empathy doesn't disappear from humanity on the word of one very small man no matter how far his reach. Or even the reach of 1% of very small men. Looking at the news these days and the reactions to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people around the world from hunger we could have prevented, migration we could have made unnecessary, wars we could have not started..., it's clear empathy is not in vogue. Instead, just like with this 14 year old girl, we blame the poor for their poverty, the sick for their sickness, the abused for the abuse they endure.
Humanity needs to take a good long look in the mirror or we're not going to survive this. We are not a species that does well alone.
Musk also said that his plan to found a colony on Mars was because he didn't want humans to go the way of the dinosaurs. The dinosaur lineage began around 245 million years ago and lasted between 160-185 million years. Some would claim that their lineage continues today with the birds. Compare that with humans' measly 300,000 year ancestry. The coup de grace for the dinosaurs was a seven-mile wide asteroid and during their long sojourn on earth they at least didn't irrevocably fuck up the earth's ecosystems and atmosphere.
Musk should stick to Starlink and skip the futurist and psychobabble stuff.
Glad you mentioned family separations. The traumatic effect of these will take years to heal, if ever! Right now, front and center, is the entire government's inability to shut down concentration camps and re-establish the rights of immigrants already here to be processed by the courts according to the Rule of Law. Also its inability to re-establish government according to the Constitution. But, lets start with voting in November, getting rid of the criminals in power, and getting to work on needed reforms. As for mail-in ballots, tRump forgot about mentioning all U.S. citizens retired or working and living in other countries. Many are also veterans. Since when can citizens be denied their right to vote. They all are taxpayers!
Ayesha, I read or heard Kristi Noem paid 5 times the market value for 5 warehouses to build into concentration camps. Who got that money? Our tax dollars.
Yup. All of it, all of our tax $ spent on these horrific camps instead of on healthcare, food stamps, affordable housing, disaster relief, etc, etc. Vote in November and whenever you can!!!
I knew this incredible piece of human turd would add the issues that most divide a society at the end of his rant. HE HAS NO SHAME.
His sociopathic superpower. Some seem to mistake it for courage or competence, but no, it just pure "Mr. Hyde" invulnerable to shame because he lacks the capacity.
Part of his litany of greatest hits. All he can remember these days.
He was born without the right gene for shame Bill. As many other more as important.
I was living in Manhattan and sometimes before going to work I would turn on one of the New York radio stations. One particular morning it turned out that I turned on Howard Stern and that morning he had Donald Trump with him. The conversation turned to talking about his daughter Ivanka. He commenced talking about how great she looked and then he started talking about "What a great piece of A.. " she would be. I can say that there is very little that disgusts me but his talking about his teenage daughter in that fashion I found unbelievably disgusting. If he could talk about his daughter on radio in that fashion I have no doubt in my mind that he and Epstein, his great friend, spent a great amount of time acting out their sexual fantasies.
All you have to do is watch that well-circulated film clip of the two of them at some party in New York. Donald keeps whispering little nothings in Jeffrey's ear, who promptly doubles over with laughter. A hundred to one it involved something lewd about the youngest woman at the party and Donald's secret fantasies which he seemed to share readily and frequently....
The man is a piece of excrement. If you were a father, you wouldn't want your daughter within 100 feet of him. Even if you hadn't seen the film clip or heard the grab 'em comment in 2016 -- he's always been trash. I'll never understand people who didn't figure that out from the get-go. Then again, I never watched The Apprentice -- perhaps that explains it.
I watched it a couple times, to see what the fuss was about.
I saw a fatuous stupid man who loved to be flattered and wield his power over others. He especially enjoyed humiliating people.
I thought he was disgusting.
It was the only part of the idiotic series that was accurate.
I know I've shared this story before... When my Mom was dying (in a care facility), my sister and I had been with her all day, reading to her, talking about us growing up, and how amazing she had been as a mother. At about 7:45, my sister said she had to go and watch "The Apprentice", and would be back as soon as it was over (it was about a 3 minute drive to their house from the facility). I told her that Mom was close (fluttery fast heart rate and uneven breathing), and she said she'd hurry back.
At about 8:20, Mom started agonal breathing (aka the "death rattle"). I called my sister and said she needed to get back. At 8:40 I started singing "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Mom's favorite), and she died at 8:42. My sister got there at 8:55. To this day, she regrets that decision.
When we scattered her ashes a couple months later (wading out into the ocean near Yachats, OR when low tide was at 8:42) she sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water". It was a closure, but she regretted not being there at the end.
Wow. I'm sorry to read this. What a burden for her.
Oh God! That makes my heart hurt, Ally! 💔
Ally, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is also one of my favorites. Of all the renditions I've heard, Sam Harris's is the best. You need big speakers to do it justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmGHncpjYCA
no words 🤮
Hello Phil... DJT's Grip On Reality Continues To Slip... DJT cannot admit that DJT was played by Netanyahu just as DJT cannot admit that DJT lost the 2020 Presidential Election... J.D. Vance?... He demonstrates that J.D, Vance has no Honor, or Integrity...
Apache, you are right on both counts: Trump is losing it to a level not seen before and Vance has no qualities anyone should admire. The MAGAs and reluctant Democrats have saddled us with this Project 2025 cast of characters who are programmed to do what the crazies like Vought and his team want. They most likely (very likely) got Musk and his AIers to do their dirty work of interfering with the 2024 election to make sure an unpopular fool was made president again. I can't even say "elected" in this case because I don't think he was. Things would have been better if Democrats would have gotten out in large numbers to vote but they just can't stand to vote for a woman of color, OK, not all Democrats, but enough that the algorithms stood to put a nutcase in office along with select others in just the swing states, and maybe Texas, guaranteed to do whatever Trump and the oligarchs tell them to do. McCormick in my state is definitely one of those, an unknown not even from PA, over a popular Senator. They are currently plotting to steal the elections in our Midterms too if we don't find ways to stop them!
It hurts me to even read this, I don't know how some people can live through it..
I had the same reaction.
A child molester gets away with it for MANY reasons, not the least of which is ‘victim blaming’.
The 😾-grabbing POTUS will run into THE woman who will ‘take care of things’ as will be her right, and no security agent can save POTUS #47 from that wrath. ✂️… 👍
Trump may ‘own’ SCOTUS, but frontier justice will prevail, and THE woman will strike for ALL the victims too young and weak to crush him.
Trump recently ‘threatened’ to attend the World Cup in SHORTS, because he claimed, on camera, that he “looks so good in shorts”. Hmmmm…according to Stormy Daniels he looks awful ‘out of shorts’ … as if the Epstein Island victims weren’t sickened enough!🤮🤮🤮
I'm sorry if this seems like an attack, it is NOT intended that way, but threatening a sitting President, or even implying a threat, is a federal crime, and you should be VERY careful about saying things like "no security agent can save POTUS" because arresting and jailing anyone who does ANYTHING like physically endangering the President is required by our laws. And that is true regardless of how much you hate the President, which is an absolutely protected right... whereas threatening him is not.
Thanks for the warning, Jon, but I don’t think speculating on the only ‘justice’ the victims of rapists - even powerful perverts - MAY possibly get ?? is ‘my’ threatening Mr. Trump.
I asked Santa Claus for 5 minutes in an alley with that despicable man - gloves on 🥊🥊 - but he brought me a new frying pan instead (a weapon? 😱)
If I wanted to personally threaten him, HE’D KNOW IT, and I am not suicidal just yet.
Thanks for the concern…he IS losing his grip!
🫦
PS It will be a sad day when a young girl, or woman cannot DEFEND herself…if possible. Presidents are only men…even a POTUS, but the Constitution ‘begs to differ’ about the right to such a title when the man is a ‘convicted felon’.
THANKYOU, Phil. I am a member of the “Me Too” movement and can EMPATHIZE with the victims.
It is something that scars you for life, and those young girls suffered a very warped version of sex that they will never get over. I would explain what happened to me, but it might give someone like Trump ideas.
Here’s hoping 🙏 the Epstein File victims will receive JUSTICE …a commodity in very short supply in the USA these days. 😔
Coincidentally, Jon, I watched the Netflix movie “Shooter” tonight and the character of the ‘US Senator’ was sooooo Trump. I highly recommend this film about ‘corruption’ in the US Government. It is an older movie, but, eerily current.(stars Danny Walburg).
Weird... I went to Netflix and couldn't find it. They said "we don't have Shooter but we have these other films you might like". Sigh...
And are you sure it stars Danny Wahlburg? I thought it was Mark Wahlburg (Dan's brother).
Hi, not sure which Wahlburg brother it is ( the one who starred in “Blue Bloods). In a nutshell: he played a self-retired sharp shooter whose ‘spotter’ & best friend was killed. Jump 3 years and his recluse life in the mountains with big dog is invaded by (spoiler alert) ‘corrupt’ FBI agents who lie to him about needing a shooter to assess the ‘sitting President’s’ public speech venue because of intel about a THREAT.
He is ‘set up’ for the assassination attempt when a visiting foreign dignitary IS killed (the REAL target) but not the POTUS. It’s a good plot with overtones re the greed & corruption NOW!
Hope you can find it somewhere. There is dialogue that if you closed your eyes, would seem to be Donald Trump’s callous disregard for honest administration and his obnoxious derision of patriotic FBI as ‘suckers’.
Sorry I cannot appreciate an American’s reverence for Mr.“President”. I believe respect must be EARNED.
BTW… I don’t ‘hate’ POTUS #47, either…but think he should be made to take a LONG vacation…maybe to ALASKA…and play with the POLAR BEARS! 😆
Take care!
🇨🇦🤝🇺🇸
Donnie, not Danny.
Jon: "arresting and jailing anyone who does ANYTHING like physically endangering the President is required by our laws. "
I'm sure that you are NOT saying that if a President (any President) were to attack someone, male or female, that person would have no recourse to respond appropriately? Say, a knee in the nuts if he were groping - or something more solid if he was using a knife?
People with dementia often turn violent - there have been several cases recently of people with dementia killing or dangerously wounding their carers.
Just to clarify, the president did not attack Jean. So your suggestion is not relevant to this conversation. All I was doing was warning Jean that threats made against the President, regardless of whether they are warranted or not, are actionable under Federal law with prison sentences. It may seem unfair, especially given Trump's own constant threatening and other nonsense, but that is the federal law and if you violate it, you could find yourself in a lot of trouble.
So no, if the president (any president) did actually attack someone, regardless of gender, that person would be entitled to defend themselves in a reasonable manner. But in this case, what we had was the opposite in that Jean made a rather loosely veiled threat against POTUS. I am not going to say that I might not be sympathetic to her feelings, but it still justifies a warning because the consequences are dire.
Just look at the abuse he heaped on his daughter and had it photographed. She’s developed the lying and manipulation from him.
That’s why Trump wants Todd Blanche as Attorney General—to reward him for suppressing the most damaging of the Trump/Epstein files, in the hopes that he will continue to do whatever it takes to keep the details of Trump’s most despicable crimes from being revealed. Dems need to keep hammering on this, while also tying Republican corruption across the board to the bad economy and cuts to healthcare and other social programs.
Correct! Remember that when Pam Bondi testified in her contentious hearing in the Senate , and Democrats kept asking her about the Epstein files, she told them that she had put Todd Blanche in charge of releasing all the documents! And yes- instead of releasing the documents, he suppressed them!
Of course, as the ultimate responsibility for the office as SHE was the AG, she can’t hand off all responsibility to Blanche.
Mike Johnson - - our House Speaker for all Americans, just carries the MAGA flag and does all he can to smother justice for the Epstein girls. And so far, one must admit, he's been exceptionally effective.
Todd Blanche won't help either. He was, he is, and he will be Trump's personal lawyer and staunch defender.
What about these children?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/18/children-parents-detained-trump-mass-deportation-push
https://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/a-child-under-five-could-die-every-forty-seconds-by-2030-due-to-us-aid-cuts-oxfam-analysis-finds/
They are the wrong color, Russell. These are both heartbreaking and anger provoking.
I red the NYT story yesterday. Then Nicoll Wallace covered it on Deadline White House. I never thought I’d EVER have to endure listening to a discussion of the PRESIDENT’S love of nipples. Not to mention a long discussion of same in the WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM. Good grief. 😯
🤮
We need to keep the Epstein stories coming out daily so that this administration can’t continue to create chaos for us to look the other way.
was that in the story at https://time.com/7342332/trump-epstein-files-release-latest-maxwell/
We need to be very careful about claiming things that may or may not be true. Let charges be brought and evidence presented. It's become a train
wreck accusations and counter-accusations. If the anti-Trump forces get caught spreading unproven claims, we'll lose the momentum of being judicious truth-tellers. When that happens, you might as well get out your guns and prepare for civil war.
There's so much pointing out of the outrages and horrors that people get overwhelmed and discouraged and demotivated. It's what the authoritarians want, for people to be silent.
So I'm aiming for the 20:80 rule, that I just made up:
20% of information intake and what we share should be how bad things are, all the criminality and corruption and cruelty.
Then 80% should be what groups and law firms and individuals are doing to mitigate and block all of that wrongdoing, and what strategies different people and organizations are working on.
Right now it seems like it's 95:5, the reverse! And people get beaten down and don't take action.
Therefore I'm trying to always give ideas on what any one person can do. Everyone can find their niche. No act is too small.
One place I'm putting my energy is to help make sure Dems and Independents "VOTE IN NUMBERS TOO BIG TO RIG!"
This toolkit I just made has actions any of us can take to Get Out The Vote:
https://sensational-fenglisu-96222c.netlify.app/
If you like it, share widely.
WE ARE GOING TO WIN.
A wonderful rule. Some posters here take delight in stressing -- over and over and over and over again -- that rotten people run the government. Yet virtually everyone here knows that already -- it's not like we somehow need convincing or something.
They want you to believe they're winning. But in fact, they're not. The reverse is the reality, not the illusion. Shit is hitting the fan faster than they can spin it. The lies simply don't work any more, the dogs won't hunt -- pick your metaphor.
What you see around you is mostly pure panic. Theirs, not ours. Let it stay that way. Get out the vote, donate to as many as you can, as much as you can, but volunteering is even better. Be a poll watcher -- there's a tremendous need for that. Re-familiarize yourselves with where your precinct is, how you can vote, when is the last day the Post Office will count your ballot (if you mail it in), make certain your signed name agrees with the Registrar's name, get a passport if you can, etc.
Let's not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by wallowing in rage and despair. There's simply too much positive, constructive work to be done from now until November.
At this point, with the tampering with the post office, I would avoid voting by mail if at all possible. It's unfortunate, but it's where we are. They will stop at nothing to steal the elections.
We choose to vote by mail, but take our ballots in person to the court house, ever since the felon arrived on the scene.
My thoughts too -- I've voted by mail for the last several years but I will go in person this year.
Absolutely nothing and the money is behind it. I hope the Dems have the guts to do something besides roll over
Oregon is 100% vote by mail, no polling places. You can cast your ballot in person at the Elections Office. There are also drop boxes throughout the county at public buildings (City Halls, Libraries) where you do not have to us the US Mail. If you are in line at 8:00 p.m. you can still drop off a ballot.
I really seriously doubt that. Getting millions of postal workers to engage in some kind of nefarious acts to keep people from voting is almost certain to backfire. They can talk about it to try to scare everyone, but I expect virtually all mail-in ballots will not be tampered with by anyone from the post office.
USPS union takes mail-in voting controversy into its own hands in latest move
“It is our position that it is not the job of the postal workers to verify voter eligibility," Union president Jonathan Smith stated. "It is our job to move mail from one destination to the next." He added: "We do not want to be politicized."
https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/usps-union-mail-in-voting-ballot-ad-b2957555.html
It is being threatened that the post office will not mail out the ballots in states that have not complied with giving the federal government they're complete voting roster information. This concerns may be because Arizona is one such rebellious state. I am so proud of our Secretary of State Adrian Fontes for his steadfast refusal to provide that information .
You get it! Thank you.
And yes, poll watching is one of the action options in the toolkit. Let me know of any improvements to make!
Better yet, be a poll worker.
I’ve recruited some friends for my polling place and they have thanked me—they say the really like doing the work.
Yes. Even greater need there. Thanks for adding.
Exactly right. Rather than lament the regime’s cruelty, let’s organize to vote them out AND hold them accountable.
Well, Heather, you’re you’re right …today. Inflation was a little over 4% and Trump is trying like hell but he still can only get it less than halfway to Biden’s 9%. And even a war that’s causing gas prices to go up, but he just can’t get it anywhere close. And pretty soon the war will be over. The war will be open and you’re gonna be really disappointed because then Biden is going to be three times The inflation rate as Trump.
“Yeah-but ,yeah- but, yeah-but, .. Democrats..”
That’s all ya got Sender ..
That’s all you got is hate Mike… and the reason you hate is twofold
Jealousy and you don’t have control. End of the story book
🤖
Yadda, yadda, yadda...
Hey Russell, Try this hypothetical just contemplate what if the “yaddas” turn to peace in the Middle East? Then, every Democrat on the planet is fucked
Yes indeed! Well said!!!!
Can I piggy back on your post? If you aren’t sure what specific actions you can take but want to do something, this is an idea. Something is happening quietly in so many small towns right now—Flock cameras. They’re multiplying like bunnies. Read about their capabilities from sources other than Flock. Read about Flock’s drone program which is so dystopian. Go to DeFlock’s website to look at a map of where they are near you - start talking to your town elected officials, look for them/add to the map, start requesting public records, start organizing your neighbors. This is a tool that the authoritarians will be abusing in the future.. and we can all push back at the town levels now. If the cameras aren’t in your town yet, push for laws/ordinances/bylaws that will prevent them from being installed. My blue town with a population of 8k had 6 cameras *quietly* installed in the last 3 months.
Wrong woman jailed in deadly I-4 hit-and-run after witnesses misidentified SUV color, records show
“FHP investigators originally focused on Isaacs because she owned a black Dodge Durango matching witness descriptions and appearing on nearby Flock cameras around the time of the crash, records show.”
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2026/05/24/wrong-woman-jailed-in-deadly-i-4-hit-and-run-after-witnesses-misidentified-suv-color-records-show/
And…. https://www.gadgetreview.com/flock-safety-employees-watched-kids-gymnastics-room-to-pitch-surveillance-tech
And it’s been used many times already for law enforcement officers to stalk their ex romantic partners. Even if you “trust” your local police, the database is searchable nationally.
And in some cases data is shared with ICE/CBP… we know where this is heading.
In my town, they’re outside schools and our polling location.
Eugene installed them and then took them down within a couple of months. When my former work cohort called it "horrible" I knew it was a good thing.
What are your sources for reading and learning about the "80% ...[of]... groups and law firms and individuals ... mitigat(ing) and block(ing) all of that wrongdoing, and what strategies ...[are]... different people and organizations are working on?" I'm not finding many news articles or columns like that.
I'd like to see follow up on what happened after a judge made a decision, etc. What is happening with the "likely criminal" killing of people in boats claimed to be carrying drugs? Any interviews with the survivors of one destroyed boat who were in American custody then quickly returned to their home country with no input from them. What is happening with prosecuting the murdereds of Renee Good and Alex Pretti?
The Minnesota AG is looking into state homicide charges in both cases. It will be hard because there is SCOTUS precedent against state charges in Federal cases, and with the current makeup of the court there's no guarantee they wont' get immunity from state prosecution.
Eric. Graham Platner's campaign has mobilized over 15 thousand volunteers across the state to make sure Susan Collins never again serves in the Senate.
She has gotten rich since she was first elected to the Senate in 1996 owning stocks in companies that she has influence to help as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
Her husband divorced his wife who had cancer in 2011 and then married Collins in 2012. His ex-wife died in 2013. They had been married for 39 years. Maybe some of his friends can shed some lied on how long Collins and him were shacking up together while he was married. We have no idea how much of a bitch Collins is behind closed doors, but I'm sure there are people that have worked for her that would be happy to tell some stories.
Really? Left his wife for her? Just as recently as 2012? Really? I can’t see it—must have been attracted to the associated power of being a senator. He’s spend the rest of his life waiting for Susan to utter one complete sentence.
Eric, years ago, after seeing many references here, I finally looked up Jessica Craven's Substack "Chop Wood, Carry Water". Every Sunday, she posts a LONG list of all the good things going on in the country and world. It's QUITE a list, very impressive, and is truly balm to the souls here! Anyone unfamiliar should really check it out.
Eric, this is a wonderful resource!
Only one thing, in your actions to get out the vote, there is a typo in
postcardstovoters. org.
It currently is typed as postcardstvoters.org
Yep. I was just trying to formulate a view that encourages people to pull up and back from all of it. Dr. Richardson is recording the history of a fascist regime in America. There is a huge amount of news going on.
For example:
There is a clear revolt within the Democratic Party. It has come down to non-corporate/AIPAC funded candidates against the Democratic Party elite. The races going on clearly reflect the last gasp of the elite Democrats trying to hang on.
David Soros is doing a good job of encapsulating the change:
"--Platner represents a unique threat to elite power and therefore the elite and its media machine are subjecting him to the kind of scrutiny that the elite do not subject themselves or their political puppets to, in order to try to get him to drop out/lose.
--The same political and media class that ignored/buried the Epstein scandal is now pretending to be genuinely mad about the substance of the Platner allegations/revelations — and their pretend outrage is patently ridiculous and inauthentic."
These are the kinds of discussions we need to be having. We can break through the fog of the consultant created, PAC-soaked candidates and incumbents and create a new reality in our Democratic Party. Mamdani, Platner, El-Sayed and others are here to wake us up.
Thank you for this information. As a precinct worker, I will use this information abundantly!
Graham Platner won the primary with a landslide 72%. The media need to get their facts straight unless they live in a different reality. The ex-girlfriend in the NYT article with the “uncomfortable feeling” criticisms of Platner is a right wing political activist who has been the social media manager of the Heritage Foundation (the authors of Project 2025), a Congressional lobbyist and foreign representative for CRAFT Media (lobbyists for conservative corporate and industrial clients), etc.. As ex-Republican political strategist Rick Wilson says - the NYT article was a political hit job, a smear campaign. She has admitted that she is the source of calling Platner’s tattoo “Nazi” when his service members verify that they all were unaware of any Nazi association when they got the tattoo on a lark on a break from combat service. Platner has never entertained or associated with Nick Fuentes or any other Nazi group. None of them have endorsed him. There have been no accusations of sexual assault, adultery, pedophilia, association with Epstein, etc. and no police reports, FBI 302 forms, restraining orders, civil or criminal litigation, etc.. There has only been “not under oath/out of court” heresay. Platner didn’t avoid military service by falsely claiming “bone spurs”. He volunteered to serve our country for four tours of duty (as a combat Marine and army infantryman) in two different wars. He fought as a machine gunner in some of the most violent combat in Ramadi, Iraq where over 80 U.S. servicemen died and hundreds were injured. When he finally returned to normal society, he carried with him (as many combat survivors do) the psychological trauma of that experience manifest as PTSD. After struggling with this for a year or two, he got treatment at a VA Hospital and with continued treatment and aging he improved and overcame it. He had issues at the beginning of his marriage but participated in marital counseling to resolve them. His wife says their marriage is solid. This is exactly the kind of person to have as an elected official - one that recognizes problems and does what is necessary to solve them. He has a “growth mindset”. Ask the media that are howling “scandal” why they don’t cover extraordinarily nefarious “scandalous” behavior in Republicans: e.g. Ken Paxton, Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, Howard Ludnick, Kash Patel, etc. and Susan Collins who has had affairs with married men while their wives were dying of cancer and who as Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee is married to a Congressional lobbyist with stock portfolios containing stocks in companies with government contracts whose net worth has grown ten fold to almost 10 million dollars during her time in office. For those who want to smear and condemn Platner: How about you? What have you done in service to our country and democracy? Have you volunteered to risk your life and the risk of psychological combat trauma to defend our country? Who is the hypocrite?
It needs to be said - over and over. ThankYou fir saying it
Opposition to Platner is largely based on Genevieve McDonald's dishing intimate confidences as opposition research and GOP operative Lindsey Fifield's unsubstantiated and refuted assertions. Amplified by establishment Democrats and legacy media (WSJ, NYTimes, WaPo, The Atlantic et al.) Primarily because Platner stands up for equitable taxation and won't bow down to AIPAC.
Will Janet Mills endorse Platner and help unite Maine Democratic voters? Will David Costello? Their combined over 25% of the vote is significant. Costello runs vanity campaigns. Janet Mills has made some uncharacteristically bad political choices this campaign. Will she exponentially compound them by expanding her working relationship with Susan Collins to include helping elect Collins?
Let’s see if the DNC, DCCC, Schumer, et al. actually do something useful for a change and get Janet Mills to endorse Platner and unify the Maine Party. It’s going to be a real test of their colors. Do they really believe in a “big tent” and that they are willing to do “whatever it takes” to win? They need to listen to what ex-Republican strategist Rick Wilson says. Republicans “stole” many elections in the past 26 years: voter suppression and the “Brooks Brothers Invasion” of the Florida 2000 election, the “swift boating” of John Kerry, the Hillary pizza parlor child trafficking fantasy, the Al Franken right wing activist smear, now the Platner - Lyndsay Fifield/right wing/Heritage Foundation smear to name just a few. The “birther” smear didn’t work except in the heads of MAGA cultists. The fact based production of an official birth certificate didn’t register in their “alternative reality”.
Yes!
But. The "low information" Republican voters get credit for uniting to vote as a joint exercise in taking power. Keeping their eyes on the prize. Including the Supreme Court.
While the nominal opposition, puts virtue signaling over winning the Senate.
He's Fetterman. No he's Trump. Wait he's the dirtbag Left. David Frum jumping the shark sez he's Roy Moore. Now Phillip Elliot jumping further sez he's Herschel Walker . . .
Maine's Platner a flawed candidate by Michael de Adder
.https://caglecartoons.com/cartoon/308243.
While the Trump regime ...
well there is precedent.
Caligula threatened to appoint his favorite racehorse, Incitatus (yup, Incitatus) to the Roman Senate and even make him a consul. Caligula treated Incitatus very well, including having golden buckets to drink from. Caligula inherited a massive surplus (approx. 2.7 billion sesterces) left by Emperor Tiberius. He exhausted this in under a year on lavish public games, infrastructure, and personal indulgences. To cover his massive debts and ongoing expenses, he resorted to extreme taxation, extortion, and seizing private estates.
Caligula God
.https://youtu.be/NJvVEt6F_Xw?si=B91pSR1JDFM5i74K.
The Democrats need to do a deep dive on all of the damage Collins has done to the country especially her votes on all of Trump's nominees for SCOTUS and Trump's cabinets. She also has a strong relationship with Leonard Leo who hosted a fundraiser for her in 2020 and her husband is a Republican lobbyist. She also is endorsing Paul LePage who left Maine for Florida after he was no longer governor. Collins and LePage's combined ages is 150. They are too old to serve in Congress even though many Senators and Congresscritters are much older. It's time for new progressive blood.
I agree that Jane Mills needs to endorse Platner as well as Costello. We have to do everything we can to reveal what a scumbag Collins is.
Agree, the Maine dems have the “dirt” on Collins & now they need to expose the real Susan Collins. As a Mainer, I will urge our local Democratic Comm to take action! We need to convince people in “the county” that she’s not their sweetheart! It will take knocking on doors! So Maine, let’s do it!
Roger Stones forte, his fingerprints sure get around
Meanwhile, many people can't even bother to vote.
You know you need to calm down a bit. Platner won. He shouldn't have but he did and now the choice is between him and Collins and that one seems obvious. Hopefully he will win and MAYBE he will prove to be the person you say he is but I honestly doubt you have any REAL insight into that, anymore than any of the rest of us do. He did acts that justify serious doubt and questioning and those fears were raised and ignored by the Maine electorate, which is their choice, just as ignoring the Trump faults was the voters' choice in 2024 and 2016. I really seriously DO wish Maine all the best with Platner, but I would continue to question, is the REALLY the best that Maine can do? Very sad if it is.
Jon, Platner lives in the next town over from me in ME. I know his Cub Scout leader and his mom. I have talked to his wife. And I have attended three of his rallies which have all been standing room only. He worked as a bartender in DC a few blocks from the Capital and chatted/served many Senators and Congresscritters.
Susan Collins has fucked over the people of ME reducing and taking away SNAP benefits from the needy and taking away affordable health care for thousands of Mainers. She is in bed with the defense contractors even owning stock in companies.
Check out her husband Jon, who divorced his wife who had cancer, to marry Susan. Oh yeah, he's a Republican lobbyist/operative.
And yeah, after voting in CA, NE, MO, FL, IA, IL and ME since 1976, I fully endorse Platner. He may not win, but I put him up there with any of the other candidates I have voted for.
Jesus, how do you get to vote in all those states?
I only tried CA and NC and they never caught me at it LOL!
I'm pretty sure they know I'm a white male and my daughter is a white female.
When we moved from FL back to ME I went to the county officer and deregistered as a voter. My daughter did the same two years later. And we still get crap from the State of FL about voting. It may be a different story if I was a person of color.
In ME, I tried to vote in a town meeting and they wouldn't let me because I was registered in FL to vote. Of course, it was a small town and everybody knew everyone, but still we were property owners but that didn't count.
I vote in Sacramento in 1980 and we voted in a neighbor's garage down the street. That was probably the coolest set-up for voting I've ever seen. Oddly enough, my next door neighbor at the time worked for the CA Secretary of State. You may recall that Jimmy Carter conceded around 9 pm EST so most of the polls west of the Mississippi River were still open. I'm sure he cost many Democrats their seats.
Jon, as a former Mainer, I can honestly say I wish I was still able to vote there. Because I believe Graham Platner is an important part of the future of America. Did he make some mistakes on his road to political genius? Of course. If you have a few hours, I can tell you all about mine. (No genius :)
The ridiculous litmus tests that Democrats perform as they create their circular firing squads are part of why we got where we are now. May I suggest we do an about face and aim (figuratively) at the real enemy....please.
Platner is right for the moment. His imperfections from the past disappoint holier than thou perfectionists and idealists. Me? I'm happy to support a Marine who survived combat and trauma and embraces personal growth.
Now. If his wife didn't support him...that would be another consideration. And for what it's worth, if his support had been marginal, that also would be telling. But his supporters are unwavering.
Mainers know their own. They know fakers. Platner is exactly the sort of candidate Democrats need to articulate our problems and offer serious solutions.
As to integrity, I think Mainers will look at what Collins has done to the nation and then listen to Platner with relief. Finally, a rough, tough guy with charisma and common sense.
Is Platner the best Maine could come up with? Was Janet Mills the right choice? Mills has been a good governor. But she is part of the generational problem that America is suffering from. She 78 years old - she would be 84 if she were to run for re-election. That makes her arrogantly disqualified, IMO.
Good grief. I am in excellent health for someone that age. I am active. I volunteer. I grow food. Doing great. But I also DO NOT have the energy, stamina and fresh ideas that someone in their 40's or 50's has. Major corporations have mandatory retirement policies for a reason! Being a senator is a 24/7 job requiring huge amounts of energy and resilience. Having people in their 80's determine the future of the nation is NOT the best we can do.
Platner is an inspirational figure. Don't be shocked if someone begins a "Platner 2028" website and SM campaign after he is sworn in as a Senator.
Here is an excellent take on Platner's candidacy from a woman (who knows) https://substack.com/home/post/p-200443409
the subtitle is "Destroying dynamic progressive candidates for minor indiscretions is not feminism. It's stupid. And it's doing the bidding of Republicans and corporate Democrats."
Well, as someone who has a female relative who was sexually stalked, I would not EVER consider ANYTHING that relates to sexual assault as a "minor indiscretion". Is he Jeffrey Epstein? I never said that and never would.
But should ANYONE who thinks it is appropriate to send sext messages without explicit consent be given a significant position of public trust? No, not in my judgment, and CERTAINLY not a top of the line position like Senator of the United States out of the box.
If Platner had started out with a local political position and then maybe moving up to the State House in Maine, and after 4 to 8 years proving himself then decided to run for the US Senate, I might be more forgiving. But we have seen SO MANY people, particularly men, who have violated other people's space and been permitted to still take significant positions of power that I think we need to stop that permissiveness.
Will Platner turn out to be the next Andrew Weiner? I sure hope not. But literally thousands of people voted for AW in New York and we all saw what happened. Not just once but twice. You can decide for yourself if that risk is worth taking. For me, it would not ever be worth the risk. Again, if that is the BEST we can come up with, then we are already probably beyond redemption.
Jon,
I agree with your sentiments about “sexual assault”. And Interviews with former girl friends reveal them saying “they always felt safe with him” even when he had been drinking heavily. As always, there are three sides to the story. “Yours, mine and the truth.”
If I were in a situation where trust would determine my fate, I would rather be standing next to Platner than Collins. And that is all that matters now. If Platner is elected, a new Senate could save millions of lives. If its Collins, the thievery and deaths will continue.
Again. I respect your feelings. But the more I read, the more I think this is closer to a Swift Boat moment than a Weiner one.
Good luck to us all.
Wow. Thanks.
Brilliant statement Bill, and one that should be mandatory reading for all Democrats.
I first became aware of Graham Platner and Amy Gertner through their attendance at and organization of protests in Ellsworth - starting in early Winter of 2025. I've been volunteering at Ellsworth headquarters from day 1. I have watched Platner and the younger but experienced field organizers put together and run one of the best campaigns I've volunteered on. It reminds me of Chris Van Hollen's first House campaign. I don't have to trust their moral compass, I have daily experience and evidence of it.
(And speaking as a witness of the 1960s Womens Movement and a veteran of #MeToo who - as the French so nicely put it - named my pig #BalanceTonPorc (a professor of Persian philosophy and well protected intelligence asset.)
Chris Van Hollen on Gaza, Bernie Sanders on workers rights, Ro Khanna on the Epstein files, Elizabeth Warren on government oversight, Sheldon Whitehouse on dark money, Martin Heinrich on environmental conservation, Ruben Gallego on immigration reform - and so many others who are strong, ethical, Senate voices for good government - have welcomed Graham Platner based on his platform and their judgement of his commitment to good government.
(I am not spotlighting those such as Schumer and Gillibrand whose support is primarily strategic - although I do not discount strategy.)
Chris Van Hollen, Bernie Sanders Celebrate Graham Platner's Win In Maine...
.https://youtu.be/AQKy0QB53rQ?si=GS4o1xq0G0aj6xgy.
Paragraphs! Please!!
As a life long Mainer and Democrat, thank you for your post today, pointing out again, what
a man with “growth mindset” can do in the USSenate.
Thank you, Fred
I would vote for Platner if in Maine, because Republicans must be stopped and Collins needs to be thrown out. No question about it.
But Bernie bro leftie types need to stop pretending Platner's scandals are just propped up opposition lies. Their insistent attempts to shut down and dismiss women's concerns about Platner are no better than Trump talking about pussy grabbing. It shows a fundamental disrespect for women--all women--a disrespect that is contemptuous.
This happened before. We saw it during Hillary's run too. At the time, I closely followed a data analyst on Twitter who sussed out that the majority of those Bernie Bro posts attacking women who expressed support for Hillary came from Russia. That was a revelation. They were stirring the pot, as it were. They are probably doing it again.
Just think as I do, woman! I'm a MAN, you MUST think like ME. Shut. The. F***. Up. You stupid B****. That's the vibe online, and often much worse.
Yes, the Republican operative Fifeld, who was associated with Heritage Foundation, no less, and a woman who actually pushed for sexual assaulter Kavanaugh to be placed on the Supreme Court (OMG, what a tool!) needs to be called out as totally unreliable. 100% ignore and mock her mercilessly.
The problem is there were several *other* women who came forward, all telling similar stories despite not knowing one another, and Platner himself admitted several transgressions and social media exchanges that were quite disturbing--whether just immature stupidity or honestly held views, doesn't particularly matter.
We're not even talking about the Totenkapf tattoo that sat on his chest for 17 years. Platner apologized for it, and his wife stood by her man; great, but that doesn't absolve him from suspicion and criticism and more scrutiny, and you cannot force women to trust him going forward.
Because most of us don't trust Platner now. Don't vilify women for being less enthusiastic than you. Take a moment and think how desperately sad that is.
Do guys who hate the Epstein Class understand the women around them can probably identify sexual predators far better than they can, because we have been so much more exposed and vulnerable to Epstein Class sexual and economic attacks on us? We're also far less likely to get sucked into worshipping masculinity for the sake of masculinity.
BTW, I'm a wife of the Vietnam Veteran who saw far more combat than Platner and unlike Platner, he wasn't celebrated and constantly thanked for his Service when he returned to the States. Despite untreated PTSD and lots of anger, he would NEVER have behaved like that to a woman. Lots of men are better.
I am unsure of Platner. I love his policies, he is a charismatic speaker, but his personal behavior--what we know of it so far--shows a serious lack of judgment. I hope he takes the criticism to heart instead of sulking, that he has really changed, that he will commit steadily to the causes he speaks so eloquently about. God speed to him.
And when the rest of you feel inclined to pile onto women who express worries about Platner, boys, please remember you are proving you are not all that different than the Epstein Class.
You people are so desperate. This is the quality of talent that you want in the Senate. The guy with a Nazi tattoo of the guards of the Nazi concentration camps. Perfect.
What happened to all you lying bastards? You have to believe the women. Uh oh. Did we say that RICK? Lololol.
Rick,
Did you read what Fred just wrote, or did you slobber/scroll through it while in the drive through line at Hardee's?!?
Barring further evidence, a concept that you have long had trouble with, he just rebutted the dumb Nazi accusation.
And since the low life vulgarian, moronic criminal you voted for was actually CONVICTED of sexual assault, where is your outrage against him?!?
So please, as I have requested on numerous prior occasions, fuck off!!!
It’s not an accusation, Pal. And if he wanted everybody, he should’ve done it long before he started to run for office. He’s had the tattoo for a lonnnnnnnnng time. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg with all the information that’s going to come out further when he runs against collins if the Democrat party supports him they’ll be going down the tubes even further And the 20% approval rating they currently have. 20% rated by the Democrats themselves. Doubling down with shit like this
Do you know you’re great at name-calling but you’re not great at courtroom necessities nor demeanor!! What you still don’t get Daniel and you can’t put this on reruns because it’s factual. 80 million people didn’t buy the harassment, sexual harassment story. It was a fable, and the timing made it almost beyond incredible. And there are four parts to the ridiculousness of the story but you don’t care and I don’t care either and neither did 80 million people that voted for him for reelection. AND the ones that took the story and threw it in the trash when he won the first time.
See, here’s a dichotomy of your honesty. You have to believe the women, but not if their name has anything to do with Plattner?
Only after a woman waits 20 years to bring charges till we die bunny, president or a woman. The only brings charges when a man is about to get placed on the Supreme Court.
Life goes on 2.5 More wonderful years…
You voted for a convicted fraudster as your president, you moron.
First of all, I don’t think we have a Hardee’s in the city. I think most of them are back east northeast actually, I recall. It’s not an accusation pal. He has a tattoo on his chest that he has kept there by choice by was used by the guards of the concentration camps of the Nazi empire. It shouldn’t be there. Listen to Fred drawing on all day long with this meaningless unsubstantiated bullshit from his left wing loon point of view. So yes, I read it. Nobody cares about any of his friends or relatives. That’s unimportant and insignificant
. The man carries a reminder of the Nazi regime on his chest and had the opportunity to get rid of it since he left the service and it’s still there. There is so much more
Daniel, here’s the best part I don’t know If he will win the main election or not.. I just know that the Democrats just lowered their standards to below sea level to not only allow this guy to continue to carry the Democrat name but to actually raise his hand in victory like Bernie Sanders, the socialist communist idiot.
The other thing I mentioned, which is really hysterical there is all kinds of factual news about how he treated women in the past you with his wife, who now has to suck up to him because he’s running for office so she’s put out this last minute bullshit letter supporting him when they’re both going to therapy to see if they can fix the problem. He’s got two therapists she’s got one.
And here’s the deal right here get ready for it. YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE THE WOMEN. go check out all the complaints of all the women that he’s been involved in. Twisting their arms behind their back, locking them in a room, standing in front of the door to not let them out.
Fine if you support him and if he wins, he’ll he will dramatically tear apart the Democrat party, which is already suffering at 72% disapproval right by its own Democrats per quite recent CNN poll.
Have a good night
You need to calm down and try to reenter reality, Rick. Try reading cult specialist Dr. Steven Hassan, Ph.D. “Freedom of Mind” an accessible guide focused on rescue, protection and recovery or his “Combating Cult Mind Control”. Recognizing that you have a problem and working to solve it shows you have a healthy psychology - like Graham Platner did. Carol Dwick Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and author of “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, introduced the concepts of fixed mindset (believing abilities are static) and growth mindset (believing abilities can be developed through effort). She argues that a growth mindset fosters resilience, learning and success in all areas of life while a fixed mindset leads to avoiding challenges and fearing failure. Graham Platner has a growth mindset. Celebrate that our country is still producing such people.
Stop drinking the Kool Aid.
Again, and again, verily I say to you, READ WHAT FRED WROTE AND WHAT I WROTE!
Repeating your previous "points" is meaninglessly annoying and a waste of everyone's time. The claims you make beyond your original silly "Nazi" allegations which have already been rebutted, are wholly without corroboration or any evidentiary basis whatsoever.
And whoever said, "You have to believe the women"?!? For generations, male abusers, usually of the patriarchal, racist, misogynistic sort (sound familiar?) circled the wagons and claimed that their female accusers were hysterical, and got away with it. This, thankfully, is no longer the case. Yet that does not mean that every women who makes an accusation is correct, just as every man who denies an accusation does not make the denial correct. Further inquiry is required. Fred provided that for you. Your pavlovian denial of same is worthless.
Finally, what is the "Democrat" Party? I know of no such thing in this country. We do have the Democratic Party, the party of the majority of Americans, a group whose knuckles do not drag on the increasingly climactically harmed terra firma while they walk, as do way too many of the former Party of Lincoln, now party of Lincoln Rockwell.
And finally, if these claims about Platner are true, then they should be highlighted for all Maine voters to see, along with his denials and/or claims to have changed since then. BTW, has the short fingered vulgarian you voted for, you know, the convicted sexual assaulter who is on record projecting his incestuous lust for his own daughter ever claimed to have reformed, changed or grown up?!?
I rest my case.
Good night. Go and sin no more
Well, tell the judge your honor so he tells you you haven’t proven a thing get out of my courtroom. You can’t read but reality, Daniel. This is really not a Nazi guard tattoo on my chest. I really didn’t twisted woman’s arm behind your back and force her back into her room. pushed pushed another woman to the ground, grabbed another by your neck locked her in the room and stood in front of the door. Not to mention the other 23 different little things that are going to come out when he runs against Collins it’s gonna be funny if he wins the family wins that’s all that simple. YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE THE WOMEN.
As I said earlier and I’ll say it again Daniel it’s the Democrats but get behind this place the 20% but they’re approved now will be a distant memory and it could very well be the first time ever in recent history, that a president that had both parties of Congress and its own party when I took office has won the midterm because it hasn’t happened in 50 years. Uh oh. Talk to you soon
Do you really want to talk about tattoos?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FmrzdnOjdfg
You have to believe the women? How about Pete Hegseth's mom?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vWIuc9fMcA&t=5s
You are such a fucking idiot, Rick.
Tsk, tsk
Well, Heather, you’re you’re right …today. Inflation was a little over 4% and Trump is trying like hell but he still can only get it less than halfway to Biden’s 9%. And even a war that’s causing gas prices to go up, but he just can’t get it anywhere close. And pretty soon the war will be over. The war will be open and you’re gonna be really disappointed because then Biden is going to be three times The inflation rate as Trump.
You're not even responding to Heather, you sack of condescending putrescence. And you can't write a coherent sentence to save your life. Nobody here gives a flying flamingo what you drool out your deranged mouth.
Well, if nobody cares, why are you so upset? You wanna fix the structure of my sense or maybe you wanna change the content of the message which do you think is more important? Let me repeat it for you in the same exact way
Well, Heather, you’re you’re right …today. Inflation was a little over 4% and Trump is trying like hell but he still can only get it less than halfway to Biden’s 9%. And even a war that’s causing gas prices to go up, but he just can’t get it anywhere close. And pretty soon the war will be over. The war will be open and you’re gonna be really disappointed because then Biden’s inflation is going to be three times The inflation rate as Trump.
I seem to remember some statement about denial and denial. I’m not sure what it was but I think you got the message. Despite my sentence structure LMAO.
Tsk, tsk
The only bit of good news is that there is apparently a 65% chance of rain on the day Trump wants to celebrate his outdoor gladiatorial shit spectacle. If the courts don't crap all over it, perhaps Mother Nature will.
Mother Nature is weaponizing the weather against him. She's in with the "Woke" crowd.
Remember, Nature always bats last."
I approve of your message.
Beat me to it!!
Nobody's woker.
Just like the truth and reality are well known to have a liberal bias, so does Mother Nature...
They have sort of sealed the top from rain but a nice thunderstorm with lightning 🌩️ would be perfect. Is it too much to hope for 100mph wind gusts to rip all of that plastic sheeting to let the rain in, you know the WH will not be open as a shelter, not to his maggot crowd anyhow. 🤷♂️
When a reporter finally brought him back to the question about inflation coming down, he said that when the war is over, “it’s gonna come down like a rock.”
Just vanish like magic, like COVID.
Just sit on a light bulb, ingest some Clorox, snort some Ivermectin -- surely, egg prices will go into a catastrophic spin dive, no?
Just one more thing for the Democrats to fix once the Republicans are no longer in control.
Mike Johnson revealed plans to cut SS, Medicare and Medicaid in 2027 because apparently we are all defrauding the Federal government by collecting benefits we paid for since we were teenagers.
Like a rock?
Like a huge BOMB???
All good points as the raping, pillaging and plundering of America continues while being protected by the republicans at all cost. November cannot come soon enough.
This is an aside, but the National Park Service is allowing feedback of the Arc d' Trumpe until 11:59 Mountain Time on June 15. Share your thoughts. It's like adding a theme park feature to a sacred space.
https://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?documentID=151576
Thanks. I tried to use as few vulgarities as I possibly could. There was always supposed to be an uninterrupted line of direct sight between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery and the site of Lee's former mansion. It is beyond desecration that this sack of shit in the White House wants to put up his "triumphant" arch (what triumph, anyway?) interrupting what the architect clearly intended.
Thanks JL!
National Park Service is allowing feedback of the Arc d' Trumpe until 11:59 Mountain Time on June 15. Share your thoughts. It's like adding a theme park feature to a sacred space.
https://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?documentID=151576
Everybody can paste these sentences into the link from JL Graham so we can make the 6/15/26 deadline. Please paste these few resistance sentences:
🎯
"Preserve our sacred vistas": The 250-foot arch will interrupt the historic, open views connecting the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery and Arlington House.
* "No theme park monuments": This building is an ego monument in a somber, sacred ceremonial gateway turns our national memorials into a gaudy spectacle.
* Look at the maintenance backlog": Please be aware that the millions being spent on cosmetic vanity projects should be used to repair our crumbling existing infrastructure, trails, and park ranger services.
Write suggesting it be gold plated and there should be a McDonald's under it selling burgers.
Thank you for this information to provide “thoughts” on this grotesque arch.. took some restraint to not place in a few vulgar words to make the point.. here’s the comment if others would like to pick from..
Over a century ago architects mulled where to put a new memorial to the late President Abraham Lincoln, one location stood apart: the western edge of the National Mall, on what was then the marshy mudflats of the Potomac River. That site stood on the “same axis as the U.S. Capitol and Washington Monument” this formed a straight line between the government, the president who founded it and the president credited with saving it.
It is also directly across the Potomac river from Virginia's Arlington House, the former home of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that sits on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.
This was not a coincidence as to where these monuments were carefully thought about before building. It’s not about the memorials or monuments themselves but their spatial meaning between all of them. There are different memorials that carry so much symbolic meaning. The Potomac River was the border between the North and South, nominally, during the Civil War; It's literally crossing the border and it symbolizes the healing of a time when our nation fought brother to brother during our Civil War. Our past wounds as memorials were placed there to remember.
This 250 feet tall, “triumphal arch” is more than double the height of the Lincoln Memorial that obstructs the site line from what was well thought out over a century ago — “a straight line between the government, the president who founded it and the president credited with saving it”. This is an abomination of all our fallen whose resting place is Arlington Cemetery to the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, two presidents that one the founder to the one who saved this nation to remain whole. It benefits nothing, no significance other than a grotesque large arch that obstructs the view and meaning of our capital to appease a persons ego.
Thank you - I have just left my comments. It was difficult not to scream in all caps, but I did not. I did the same about the ballroom as thousands of others must have, but his lackeys went ahead and approved the plan. Any of the crap projects he manages to get built must be destroyed at the first opportunity! and I believe they will be.
Thanks for the link. I was able to refrain from profanity, blasphemy, and vulgarity in my reply.
✅
It is all lies today from this lifelong con artist … and will be all lies until the day he is 6 feet under. The reporting on his activities does not need to be any more sophisticated than that. The only thing he ever says that is true is his name! SMH
and even that was a polished turd....used to be Drumpf!
Thank you! I remember when John Oliver did a huge presentation about the name change.
we should just proclaim Trump " the King of Bullshit". He's certainly won that title over and over!
He is losing it and, yet, MSM keep sane washing his lies and delusions.
Yes they do
I’m starting to wonder if US Federal Government spending should be considered a vehicle for money laundering and fraud…
Well Beth Trumps reckless spending is so excessive that it just made our Social Security funds be insolvent faster than before. People think SSA won’t run out of money, but if you combine the lack of job growth, and our explosive federal deficit- Trump is successfully sending We The People to the poor house.
Exactly
Best economy for billionaires, but for lower 90%, not good, not great, or worse.
AKA "Reaganomics".
That ""trickle down" is a yellow stream on the 90%. Even David Stockman admitted it was all a con job. But it works great for oiligarchs and money changers.
“URGENT: Mike Lee just launched the most serious attack on America's forests in a generation.
The Utah senator slipped a rider into a wildfire bill that would permanently kill the Roadless Rule.
45 million acres would lose protection.
Not next year. Not after a public debate.
Right now.
The Roadless Rule protects some of the wildest remaining national forest land in America. Salmon rivers. Elk country. Old-growth forests. Drinking water for communities across the country.
And Lee's amendment would make sure those protections can never come back.
Even after 99% of public comments opposed repeal.”~Will Pattiz
✅ Call your senators and tell them to vote NO on Mike Lee's Roadless Rule repeal. We must go all out again to deny this public land villain in his stripping of our greatest natural treasures.
Share with someone who will also make the call.
Trump’s descent into madness continues and he will take us all down with him.
One can tell when Trump and his white house toddler pool and Republicans in congress are scared. The lying and whining increase exponentially. Then, the stealing from the American people also increases with reconciliation bills that only pathetic Republicans have to vote for while they are working hard to make sure they and their rich donors don't have to pay taxes for.
I doubt a single thing Trump said in that whiny rambling speech Dr. Richardson included here was true. Vance is an opportunist who will lie, make up stuff, blame, and insult to his heart's content. It seems to give him pleasure that his lying can be right out in the open and that he can justify it as a means of getting attention. He is not as good at it as his boss Baby Donnie, but he doesn't care. His goal is to get a lot of attention from the most pathetic folks in America, the ones who will believe anything as long as it is not they who are being lied about. All of them are like bratty badly-parented toddlers who whine, lie if they think it will keep Mommy from getting mad, make up stories if it will put blame on somebody else. How anyone can think these people should be in charge of anything is beyond comprehension. Racism, misogyny, and just general hatred are alive and well in Trumplandia!
I watched a bit of that so-called press conference today. Trump seems to be in the throes of psychological decompensation. I wonder what medication they have him on. He’s truly incapable of carrying on.
Heather- Can we get some crucial and sustained on what Trump is intending to do with our priceless and precious public lands with some of that $70 billion? He and his are fast tracking a border wall through the Big Bend region of the Rio Grande Valley using record breaking, no bid contract and the abolition of dozens of environmental, historical and cultural protections. The devastation to the economy and way of life is subsequently in peril. Once the damage is done I’m afraid it will never recover. Please help us get this story out there now! I apologize for I know what all you are already doing for us now and I am a devoted fan. I don’t know what else to do. As you environment is taking a deadly blow under this administration. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾♥️♥️♥️