A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that even before a fighter launched a slur at former First Lady Michelle Obama, and even before the sight of the corporate branding at the event, only 16% of Americans thought it was appropriate to hold an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight at the White House.
If all this wasn’t enough, video of Trump at the G7 meeting in France shows him looking detached, confused, and aimlessly wandering around. How much longer can this destructive charade of a presidency go on?
They were all treating him with kid gloves in Paris. A G7 meeting reduced to the old Twilight Zone episode where the adults in a small town tiptoe in terror around a vicious little Billy Mumy, who can kill people with a simple thought, tripping over themselves to give him little trinkets, toys and doo-dads to distract him, soothe his ruffled, delicate ego and make him forget about doing them in.
When will we finally wake up from this ghastly made-for-bad-TV nightmare to reclaim the country and the presidency we used to have?
The MSM including The NY Times, WSJ, WAPO, Fox News, etc. publicized hearsay reports from a single Republican operative about physical and emotional abuse against Graham Platner. Some of what she said probably happened as I almost always tend to believe the women who have nothing to lose by coming forward.
There has been outraged and befuddlement on pod-casts and talk radio about how the voters in Maine could still support a man who committed these heinous atrocities against a woman.
Meanwhile, no one has wondered about how Susan Collins has become an eight figure multi-millionaire with her portfolio filled with defense contracts and others she has assisted as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Or why when there is a strike at the Bath Iron Works she never sides with the workers. Or why she was one of thirty-nine Senators that voted against passage of the ACA which has helped tens of thousands of ME residences and tens of millions across the US. And, not to be too petty, but why did she marry a man who had recently divorced his wife of almost 40 years when she was dying of cancer and then marry Susan Collins.
This past weekend the Maine Monitor released a story which details 97 billionaires (all from outside Maine) that have donated to Susan Collins dark-money PACs. Maine is one of many states where no billionaires have permanent residents. This is happening in almost every state where a Senate Seat is on the ballot. So when you are pelted with ads and mailings for Lindsay, Paxton, Susan, etc. remember that it's the uber wealthy trying to buy your vote. And they don't give a flying fuck about anyone but themselves.
"Just like the man who said in 2024," I'd rather vote for an empty soup can than vote for Trump."
I agree that the woman in question had little to lose by coming forward, but given her Republican background, she had much to potentially gain. I don't like disbelieving her on that basis, but there is so much about the timing, etc. that begs the question.
I'm a Maine voter. I'm voting for Platner. I get Collins campaign mail to the house addressed to a former resident, and it is abhorrent. Collins has betrayed us all.
I've heard Platner speak in person 3 times so far and he lives a couple of towns over from me, so I often run into people that have known him his whole life and support him.
Susan has become just another wealthy Republican looking to get reelected. She's 73 and he's 41. That alone is a great reason to see her go.
Agreed. Everyone makes mistakes, it's how you react/respond and move forward that matters. There's no point being on the moral high ground if the world is burning; the flames will still get you eventually.
Our candidate selection system has flaws. Maine voters have to choose with this thought in mind: who can inflict more harm on American citizens, Collins or Platner? Collins has a well-documented track record: she isn't for the voters but rather for the oligarchs. This matters to Democratic voters, but not so much for Republican voters who focus more on the wedge issues (while their pockets are being picked): abortion, immigrants, women and gay rights advocates, transgender issues, etc. In other words, the wealthy sucker them into voting against their own best economic and social interests. Take food away from the needy, give billions and trillions of dollars in tax breaks and insider deals to the wealthy. Yes, this is sick and decidedly unchristian behavior.
I think that most of us are awake. The problem is that those who could and should be doing something (25th Amendment, for one) are either frozen by fear, are white Christian Nationalists, or both and therefore do nothing. These events are so improbable that they wouldn't even make half-way decent fiction.
What makes you believe that "most of us are awake"?
And who are "those who could and should be doing something" more precisely?
As to the 25th Amendment: it seems as if YOU are not exactly awake yet.
The GOP itself has become a neofascist party, under Biden. So why would they want to invoke the 25th Amendment, when Trump is THE perfect distraction entertaining us all while they can install fascism day after day?
Also, make no mistake, once Trump is gone, it will be WORSE. The GOP packed his administration with neofascist ideologues (including Vance). As soon as any of them takes over, it will speed up the destruction of democracy even more.
And as Kamala Harris repeated during her book tour, these events were never "improbable"; they have been decades in the making.
The “Guardrail” people had no courage to actually follow the Constitution and Protect America. They postured, posed, and pontificated. They gaslit America for a few crumbs of the Grift. They collected their paychecks on our dime. They went along with the grift knowing that most Americans would rather watch our streaming services than fight. “The Second Revolution will be bloodless - If the Left allows it.” And that’s the conundrum isn’t it? They will only stop if we make bloody revolution. We are trying to figure out a way “in-real-time” how to redesign democracy to work without bloodshed. How to build a non-violent, rules-based-order in a convulsive ejaculation of patriarchal grasping?
I remember that episode! Great analogy. Great memory you have!
I am still amazed - no - stunned at how many Republicans in Congress value their jobs over their integrity. There WAS a time when certain lines couldn't be crossed. The crap that Trump pulls every day makes Watergate seem like child's play. And yet, at that time, it was enough to remove a president.
The Twilight Zone offered many such examples. There was one that was called "The Obsolete Man" with Burgess Meredith. Another foreshadowing of the 21st century abandonment of empathy and compassion.
Ive been talking about those 2 particular episodes for a while now. What a brilliant show that was. Who ever thought that could become real life, lead by our own president.
And we will find that Trump has squandered billions of dollars. Plus, it will cost trillions to undo Trump’s wreckage. The rich should now be planning to find a new way to avoid higher taxes—perhaps by moving.
Everything he does turns to sh*t. The fact that this phrase is NOT being proclaimed loudly tells us that everyone is tiptoeing around the tantrum-enacting toddler.
Amazing the things we remember. trumps final act should mirror the pilot episode of Rod Serling's The Night Gallery.
The Story: "The Escape Route"
In this episode, a ruthless, unrepentant Nazi war criminal (played by Richard Kiley) hides in South America while being hunted by Israeli agents. He discovers a painting of a serene, idyllic fisherman at a museum and finds a way to mentally transport himself into the painting to escape reality.
The Twist
In true Rod Serling fashion, there is a horrific twist. The fugitive enters the wrong painting in the dark and finds himself trapped in a different piece of art: a terrifying image of a man in tattered concentration camp rags nailed to a cross.
If we did, who would physically take possession of him? He’ll be there till he collapses. Even in his “altered” state, no one will do anything except let him continue.
It’s been reported that due to the volume of the Reflecting Pool,(6,750,000) gallons it would require 5,000 gallons of 12% industrial-strength hydrogen peroxide to affect the algae bloom.
The workers were seen pouring gallon jugs of the chemical into the water. They’re going to be there a while, and it likely won’t work because adding the chemical at such a slow rate would make it ineffective.
We'll soon see dead ducks floating on top of it, to add to the puke smell of the original algal bloom. Just don't dip your hand in it -- and forget about the wading scene from "Forrest Gump" -- your feet just might sizzle off first.
I wonder how much peroxide they poured into the reflecting pool? It's going to take over 2000 gallons to even make a dent in that algae. Yes, he destroys everything he touches, everything.
But his own stupidity and self-infatuation blind him to the realities hitting. Plus all the toadies, sycophants, and suck-up liars around him keep him in the fantasyland a book by Kurt Andersen has already described.
I was thinking of the scene from "The Magic Christian” where people wade into a pool of slaughterhouse offal and manure in pursuit of gobs of cash. The sound track ran, “If you want it, here it is, but you better hurry ‘cause its goin’ fast.” (Badfinger, which seems to have been a Paul McCartney project.)
When seeing the chemicals being poured into the Reflecting Pool thought of the movie Idiocracy. When the protagonist (Joe) questions why they use Brawndo, an energy drink on all the crops instead of water the leaders respond "It's got electrolytes"… Yea nothing like a whole bunch of dead smelling fowl floating on top of the Reflecting Pool to generate a viable tourist attraction for all to see and smell…
Maybe they should inject some bleach and let the sunlight in. Or was that the solution to a virus? I'm sure RFK would have quick fix if the bleach doesn't work.
This is symptomatic and representative of the Trump group as a whole - there are no critical thinkers there, no strategic planners, no one who thinks ahead about possible consequences. The war with Iran is a case in point, ending in a disaster. In other words, at the helm of our ship is a band of imbeciles, idiots, fools and more supported by a band of cowards and white Christian Nationalists in Congress. But, it could get worse. November elections could be our last chance to avoid an even greater catastrophe.
Read Quinn Slobodian (historian), Gil Duran (or follow him on Substack) and so many others. You can even read Kevin Roberts, current director of the Heritage Foundation (= the traditionally most important GOP think tank, who provided half of the senior staff in the WH today), who wrote in 2024 "Dawn's Early Light". That's when his organization worked together with Viktor Orban (Hungary's dictator) and the Danube Institute (which Orban created to help foreign democracies transition towards neofascism) to write Project 2025, which was an ideological document mapping out all the many executive orders that Trump is now asked to sign on an almost daily basis. They all dismantle democracy and install neofascism as a political regime, day after day.
This is NOT the work of an old man who likes acting, money and fame. It's the work of neoliberal thinkers who turned into neofascists and who took over the GOP, first behind the scenes, and now in the open.
Treating it like a hot tub or hot water heater. Great brains think alike. Well it's just another fine mess Trump had gotten us into....but he doesn't care. He is so smart because he spends tax payer money, not his own.
So, the light of day makes the algae bloom in the former reflecting pool turned into another dark man made swamp in Washington DC? I thought the Retrumpicans were all about casting light and draining the swamp?
Give U.S. our failure, our daily failure.
Oh and good job donOLD...why not end your 40 billion failure war with a negitive net gain agreement that is so pathetically negotiated that even you won't read it publically.....
you have a penchant to focus on areas where nothing is wrong and inflict your failures to them.
Yeah, I noticed the gallon jugs. Now, I'm no math genius or physics genius but even I could see that gallon jugs of hydrogen peroxide was not doing a damn thing, this "ain't" a fish tank we're dealing with.
I do have a question though. I know nothing about the water system that would be used for an installation like that so my next question may be a really stupid one. (Like I said, I'm no genius!) Knowing that algae grows in stagnant water, especially warm, stagnant water, shouldn't they have set up some type of system to keep the water flowing during the repair process? Or before filling it run an algaecide through the system & remove that water before refilling the reflecting pool? Again, I stress I don't know if that is even possible but, was something along those lines even considered?
Maybe the cooking staff at the White House instead of preparing Kentucky Fried Chicken could include some hydrogen peroxide on the dinner plates in order to rid certain diseases festering inside.
A long, long time. It is a freaking disaster, but you also have to see the funny side to keep from going crazy. They are a collection of dunces. See the calamity of the reflecting pool, as just one example.
John Kennedy Toole's bestseller was called Confederacy of Dunces. Confederacy seems to be an appropriate name for those associated with Trump. They (with him semi-conscious at the helm) are certainly re-establishing the goals pursued by America's most notorious confederacy, even bringing back the statues, apparently.
But yes, occasionally it is funny, too, in a sick way. Sick humor can be pretty funny, alas.
Recall that Republicans went on and on and on about Biden being too old.
But now, not a peep out of them as Trump slumbers through major meetings, poops himself, walks so unsteadily he has to be assisted everywhere, and rambles like a demented Grandpa through speeches and 2AM social media posts.
There comes a time in every declining empire when someone looks at the seat of democratic government and says, “You know what this place needs? A cage fight.”
Apparently, that time is now.
The White House, once associated with Lincoln, Roosevelt, and the occasional functioning adult, has been reimagined as a venue for Ultimate Fighting Championship spectacle. Because nothing says “constitutional dignity” like corporate logos, sweaty bravado, and pay-per-view nationalism.
Only 16 percent of Americans thought holding a UFC fight at the White House was appropriate, and that was before a fighter reportedly launched a slur at former First Lady Michelle Obama. So yes, the evening managed to be both tacky and ugly, quite an achievement in a country overstocked with both.
Then came the announcement of an alleged plot to attack the event, adding grim absurdity to a ridiculous scene. A cage fight at the White House was not dramatic enough. It needed drones, danger, and a press conference.
This is where we are now. Government is no longer merely corrupt or chaotic. It is badly produced television. The old promise was “a republic, if you can keep it.” The new version seems to be “a republic, if it survives the undercard.”
The real satire is that no one needs to exaggerate much. The presidency has become brand management with Secret Service protection. Public service has been replaced by performance art for men who believe history began with cable news.
The Founders worried about kings, factions, corruption, mob rule, and abuse of power. What they failed to anticipate was a government so shameless that it would confuse democracy with Fight Night and still expect applause.
Perhaps this is fitting. If the republic is going to be battered, at least now it has a sponsor.
At least this time he's staying for Wednesday's evening's dinner closing the summit. He cited this as the reason he's not going to attend the largely ceremonial announcement of his MOU with Iran in Geneva on Friday.
right, so he is in Evian, France, on Wednesday evening so can't get to a meeting about an hour's drive away in Geneva for Friday. Rough travel schedule for a tired old man.
Exactly! How much more doddering has to occur before his handlers say enough? Surely J.D. will lie just as easily for them without falling asleep, spouting nonsense, and wandering off. Why prolong the inevitable?
Vance is at least capable of finishing the same sentence he starts. But his skills as a rabble rouser are limited - fortunately - so the rabble (are we allowed to call them 'deplorables'?) are not likely to be as aroused as they are under Trump.
That's an easy question to answer at this point: he will keep doing what he does, and worse, as long as the Republican majorities in the House and Senate allow it.
Congressional Republican leadership could vote to impeach and convict, and he would be gone. They refuse, so now they own this President's increasingly blatant and explicit actions intended to make them and their successors completely irrelevant.
With a few rare exceptions, all Republicans in government today follow every wish of this addled toddler while ignoring the increasing majorities of their voters. This point needs to be driven home in every statewide race this campaign season.
The Republicans staring into a coming blue wave this November have a simple two step solution to avoid electoral rout. Impeach and convict them all. Now.
Extra points would be awarded for bonus steps: investigate, prosecute and convict again.
But Republicans will not do any of that, so the solution lies in the hands of the voters. Vote them all out with margins so large they can't be argued, and allow the incoming Democratic super majorities to put the country back on the right track.
And sitting there lying about the JPCOA right in front of the countries who worked with the Obama Administration to get that deal with Iran, telling them how terrible is was. Those leaders know & we know the only reason it was "bad" was because the Obama administration is the one that got it done.
Little did we know that when trump tore up that deal that it would lead to the "Fall of the US Empire", to coin a phrase!
The pool did need renovation. There were leaks in the recirculation system and there are ozonators that are supposed to generate ozone in the recirculation system to control the algae. But they were undersized even before the dark blue coating, which absorbs way more light and heats the water. Climate change hasn't helped, but Trump thinks that is a hoax. Why listen to actual experts in the science, on any issue, big or small?
Apparently, new ozonators have been ordered, but that's more cost, and it is not clear that they will be big enough to compensate for the dark blue coating.
You can use hydrogen peroxide to kill the algae, but plastic gallon jugs won't do the job. The pool holds about 6.75 million gallons of water. To do a one-time 100 ppm hydrogen peroxide shock treatment, you would need 30 55-gallon drums of 35% hydrogen peroxide solution.
Then you would have to hire a hire platoons of pool cleaners to rake out the dead algae and the duck and goose poop to control the stink.
Maybe Trump will claim there is a "national emergency" and call out the National Guard to combat the green "enemy." There are still 2400 National Guard available in DC (through the end of 2026) to cope with the pool disaster, but Trump probably wants more on the streets after the threat that was avoided at the UFC cage matches. Maybe Ka$h spilling the beans on that early will finally get him fired.
Nonetheless, Trump wouldn't want the stench to spoil his Greatest Rally Ever on July 4th. One has to focus on national priorities...
Anyone making a bet on Polymarket that the night's playlist will include both YMCA and Macho Man?
How many school lunches could all this have bought? How many people in "shithole countries" could have been saved? How many nurses could this have trained? How many fresh drinking water projects...
Pave it over and have a bocce tournament to raise money - how about to restore electricity and water in a US territory that should be a state?
Yes, Georgia, "and call out the National Guard to combat the green 'enemy.'"
Above here a bit, Russell John Netto has posted a link to some Monty Python. Perhaps we former subjects of a wacky Brit king ought to deploy ICE and CBP (they've nothing better to do) so half dress up in the thug uniforms they used to murder American citizens in Minneapolis, and dress up the other half as serfs and peons.
The federal thug police half could spend the day every day circling the green algae pool while Monty-Python-style "beating" the former colonial-dressed-up half.
Yes, another waste of our tax money. But better than killing Iranian schoolgirls such as those criminal Donald, drunken Hegseth, and "Kill-Kill-Kill," "Bomb-Bomb-Bomb" Lindsey Graham exercise themselves in killing.
Lots of postcards available, pestilent poolside.
Might draw tourists again, given the millions of formerly legit tourists lost to the now-ruling programs of criminality-only and stupidity-only.
I wonder can we get the pictures and names of those killed in that Iranian bombing. I never knew the name of the infants and children the Viet Cong hung by their ankles and machete chopped in half lengthwise. To help stop some of these atrocities committed by world leaders we need to make an effort to give the slaughtered an identity before they were mangled and butchered. Let us see Putin’s dead. Let us see Trump’s dead. Let us see Netanyahoo’s dead.
In order to understand the need for killing, we need to understand who is killing who and if the justification presented is legitimate. How many Ukrainians will it take to slake Putin’s thirst for blood? How many bodies does Trump need to feel good about himself. Everyone likes a good body count. What do their faces look like. Are they acting on compassion as were Alex Pretti and Nicole Good? These men need to trust but verify their kills are more than an insatiably morbid appetizer propping up their strong man projection. Give us faces of the dead. Give us names. Tell us why it is important to fill the morgues. We need to walk among the dead. We need to ask why this is necessary to prop up the flaccid virility of our world leaders. How long would any community worldwide keep a police chief amassing the sheer volume of such atrocity. Give us their faces and tell us the story of why they needed to perish so. Numbers are easily discarded but we need to mourn for our dead.
You have to wonder why is there a reflecting pool? Algae growth in that pool of still water is inevitable. My birdbath is light colored and small, but must be cleaned out regularly because of algae growth. A reflecting pool is not a great idea in practice.
Somewhere I read that ducks have aleays visited the algae in the Reflecting Pool. If that's true, will trump manage to sicken ducks? Everything he touches....
I don't know if the concentration wold be enough to harm a duck. It is a fairly benign substance for humans at low concentrations, though I imagine the 12% stuff would be caustic if not fully diluted. I don't know how long it stays active in bright sunlight.
More proof of how disastrous the Trumpian regime is...always cruel, criminal and corrupt, yet so inept, ineffectual, and ignorant...wacky, wasteful and wretched...
These are different days!!! Sanity is becoming a rare attribute within the character and/or actions of many of the occupants of The White House who hold power within our federal government, including choices of substances placed into the Reflecting Pool!!!!
Meanwhile, J.D. Vance is making his "smooth moves" to gain more power and influence.
All of this "insanity" while treasure is being taken from South America to feed the greed of our wonderful American "robbers" who only care to line their pockets as quickly as possible!
The glutinous Trump family continues to find money anywhere and everywhere to line their own pockets!!!
Where are leaders who once put our children and a good education for each and all FRONT AND CENTER!!!! Where are those who will make sure the elderly are cared for and NOT taken advantage of???? I am searching, searching for persons of character, YES, I AM!!!
Yes! See: Heather hits a bases loaded home run in her “American Conversations” interview of University of Michigan Law Professor Barbara McQuade about the criminality of the Trump administration and her new book “The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of Mob-Style Government”: “Barbara McQuade | American Conversations - YouTube”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ5_n4mTTa8
Professor McQuade draws on her prosecutorial experience, analogies to “The Godfather” and the Hungarian Revolution to explain the corruption of the Trump Administration and how to overcome it.
Agree. Every single day there is another chaotic crisis, another way for trump and his family to take more taxpayer money for their own profit and yet not one single republican has a problem with any of this. That's the frustrating part.
You've obviously taken an insufficiency of standardized tests, klutt.
If you'd taken your poisonous share, you'd know -- in the group identifications compulsory in those tests -- "trump and his family [taking] more taxpayer money for their own profit" belongs in the same group as "not one single [R]epublican [having] a problem with any of this."
Not just a nation voted "failed" by a majority of 77 million, but then quite methodically turned into a real shit-hole country of a screwworm state. With enough seed corn destroyed to put the state irrecoverably in its screwworm grave.
Yep. It is definitely illegal. The problem is that it would be a normal DOJ that would prosecute them and these idjits work for this crooked DOJ. So, no prosecutions until we have a new Democratic administration that will bring a new honest, professional DOJ. By then there will have been amass exodus of trumpies to russia and good riddance. I like to picture them all living in old shabby cold water flats in moscow.
All the more reason to start investigations when the democrats take over the House and hopefully, the Senate. I know it's a lot to ask; however, the sooner investigations start, obviously, the better.
Thank you Megan. You are so right in saying that Congress needs to be contacted. Some repubs have shut off their phones which constituents need to publicize. They represent the people not the worm in the White House. His G7 behavior makes US the laughing stock of the world.
Thanks for creating and maintaining your excellent spreadsheet of contacts for all to use!
It is incredible that algae in the Reflecting Pool is a topic in this Letter when it was avoidable in the first place. The stupidity prevalent in this regime along with the cruelty is just astounding.
Algae was avoidable; Iran War was avoidable; surge in measles cases was avoidable... Not to mention the destruction of the East Wing; the tacky cage fight; the coming ballroom disaster and the 'Trump (I have a tiny dick and am very insecure so I'm over-compensating) arch.
During the local Rise Up event, we wrote postcards to politicians. We focused on Cruz, Cornyn, and Beth Van Duyne. Our area Indivisible 24 groups have held Absent Town Halls for Van Duyne because she doesn’t do town halls. But she did show up online as it was being streamed. Hopefully the effort will get some notice. There were about fifty people at our event. And there were several in our area.
All of this Dr. Richardson just reported sounds like an Administration falling apart. We need to take advantage of this by becoming even more politically active in whatever area we choose. We will prevail.
After this current nightmare ends, It will take generations -- not just years -- to repair the damage done to the nation's justice system alone. It isn't just that the head of the FBI is both a drunk and complete fuckup -- so much so that the Secret Service itself makes a public statement to the effect that 'we kept OUR mouths shut about a conspiracy to kill hundreds to make sure all the right people were arrested FIRST' in an obvious reference to Patel rushing to take credit on social media for something he had no part in. It isn't just the charges now detailed by James Raskin (D-MD) that that huge cash payments were doled out to those FBI agents (both past and current) to protect Patels' incompetent, lying, drunken ass from public scrutiny.
In Washington DC, the US Attorney tried -- and failed three times in a row -- to indict a ham sandwich (literally) last summer, while news now surfaces of unbelievable jury-tampering and amateurism in Chicago with a federal judge intervening to dismiss the prosecutor's cases outright, on top of the Minneapolis office's trying prosecute demonstrators for wishing the country to become "ungovernable" (a double nothing if there ever was one, indeed).
No, not just about these shocking cases of incompetence and corruption (now almost routine), but the untold stories involving the SCORES of decent, conscientious, highly-trained, hard-working US attorneys resigning and fleeing a screwed-up, corrupted shell of an out-of-control, rogue Justice Department. I know one US Attorney for New Mexico, a former student of mine at George Washington University, at the beginning of his career, who resigned simply because he could no longer in good conscience associate himself with such overt incompetence, malice and stupidity.
Pete Buttigieg sometimes speaks about the damage to our country that can be repaired, the part that will take years, and the part that -- like toothpaste out of the tube -- is lost and can never be gotten back.
Our debts to a damaged country our grandchildren will inherit mount faster than we can even make the interest payments...
Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan of the NYT have tape recordings of the Nazi Republican regime scheming in the Situation Room as how to use the executive branch as a tool to put down peaceful protesters who had laid down the gauntlet for ICE agents in Minnesota as well as how to cover up Cheeto’s involvement in Trump Epstein files. There were also talks about how to pardon Maxwell.
Just Dance Vance, the most craven politician on the American landscape, wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act in order to crush the peaceful protests in Minnesota but the circumstances didn’t warrant such a policy and Vance is one of the Nazi Republicans working to destroy the Republic. Aligned with sleazebags Peter Theil and Curtis Yarvin who said “Americans need to get over their dictatorphobia”, Vance is working for that dictatorship. This is the same Just Dance who showed up in LA to make a case for the Nazi Gestapo tactics in terrorizing immigrant communities in Southern California.
Stephen Miller wanted to suspend habeas corpus which protects people from being prosecuted without just cause which would include immigrants. This crazy idea was again shot down by legal counsel. And to frame this around the nation’s birthday, the concept of eliminating habeas corpus was a key grievance of the colonists in the days of the American Revolution.
This exposure of the meeting and its attendant tapes which has not been refuted by the Black House is akin to the exposure of Nixon’s tapes of conversations. One can only hope that it has the same outcome for this regime, with its leader being decapitated, like Louis XVI.
I saw a clip of Vance on the View claiming that Trump saying "I love the inflation" really meant that Trump would love it when it came down due to the Iran "peace agreement" Joy Behar gave him the side-eye and asked if he was Vice President or Trump's interpreter. More like this please!
I believe it stands for John Doe, as his actual identity is not all that apparent since he's changed his name a few times, shapeshifting into empty suits of whatever pays the way and beholden to those pulling the puppet strings.
Also the internet search came up with this:
"The phrase "John Doe" is typically used as a placeholder name for a person whose identity is unknown or concealed, they have no backstory. Because it is designed to represent an anonymous "everyman," the character often lacks a distinct, defined personality, serving as a blank slate."
The Justice Department's own record in the Minneapolis cases undercuts the framing it is now applying to the new charges.
Federal prosecutors charged thirty-six people in December and January, then dropped eighteen cases outright and resolved eleven more through non-prosecution agreements — and a magistrate judge called one of their charging documents a "false affidavit."
Introducing a Facebook post with the phrase "become ungovernable" as evidence of criminal conspiracy, while that same phrase appeared on banners at a convention Trump attended and addressed in 2024, is not a minor rhetorical stumble; it reflects a prosecution posture in which the political signal being sent matters more than the legal standard being met, and that is a direct corruption of what the Justice Department exists to do.
Last night, Heather's occasional talk-and-draw featured Liza Donnelly commemorating June 17 with a drawing of the night watchman at the Watergate Hotel, who noticed something 'not right' with the doors to the Democratic National Committee in 1972 -- a process that would lead, step by step (thanks to the intrepid reporting of the then-Washington Post and the New York Times) to the disgraced resignation of President Nixon in 1974 for complicity in the Watergate cover-up.
Back when most of us around foolishly thought nobody could ever be sleazier, more corrupt, more venal, more foul-mouthed, or more of a petty, vicious bully and lawbreaker than thin-skinned, conspiracy-minded Richard M. Nixon....
That is a shame, but the corruption now is on full display and instead of holding their party accountable, Republican senators repeatedly protect Trump.
Perhaps we should encourage Trump and his fantastic sense of history and knowledge of design and building to tear down some other buildings in DC like he tore down the East Wing. For example, he could start with the Supreme Court.
Trump is demolishing four historic federal (government owned - that means you as a citizen) buildings: Four Federal Buildings: The administration solicited bids to analyze and recommend the demolition of the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, the GSA Regional Office Building, and the Liberty Loan Building. Heather has discussed the tragedy of this in her previous posts and videos. In March 2025 his GSA identified a further 440 government buildings to be closed/demolished/sold, etc. but has in 2026 rescinded the order “for now”.
Yes. Thank you for the reply. Everything Trump touches is examined for its grift potential and then ruined. We the people have to show up for the political candidates that will defend our interests the way the people of Bedford Falls showed up for George Bailey if we want to have the same outcome as the movie.
Heather's YouTube today on the proposed gutting of scientific research grants by white christian nationalist Russell Vought is a must-see call to action. I've linked it - you don't have to watch more than the first 11 minutes and then you can go to the website to submit a Comment, which can be anonymous, just choose that option. I've included a site that gives links and explicit directions for formulating a comment, which makes it a lot easier than it sounds.
These public comment actions actually work (and make you feel better after than doomscrolling!
Bingo. Although what comes to my mind is something I read probably 20 yers ago where an IV drug user had been using veins in their nether regions (given that all the "good" veins had collapsed) and not surprisingly ended up with an infection at the injection sites. The necessary lancing and expression caused the evacuation of that section of the ER due to the foul odor.
I think that infection just might be akin to what this government is doing.
If all this wasn’t enough, video of Trump at the G7 meeting in France shows him looking detached, confused, and aimlessly wandering around. How much longer can this destructive charade of a presidency go on?
They were all treating him with kid gloves in Paris. A G7 meeting reduced to the old Twilight Zone episode where the adults in a small town tiptoe in terror around a vicious little Billy Mumy, who can kill people with a simple thought, tripping over themselves to give him little trinkets, toys and doo-dads to distract him, soothe his ruffled, delicate ego and make him forget about doing them in.
When will we finally wake up from this ghastly made-for-bad-TV nightmare to reclaim the country and the presidency we used to have?
The MSM including The NY Times, WSJ, WAPO, Fox News, etc. publicized hearsay reports from a single Republican operative about physical and emotional abuse against Graham Platner. Some of what she said probably happened as I almost always tend to believe the women who have nothing to lose by coming forward.
There has been outraged and befuddlement on pod-casts and talk radio about how the voters in Maine could still support a man who committed these heinous atrocities against a woman.
Meanwhile, no one has wondered about how Susan Collins has become an eight figure multi-millionaire with her portfolio filled with defense contracts and others she has assisted as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Or why when there is a strike at the Bath Iron Works she never sides with the workers. Or why she was one of thirty-nine Senators that voted against passage of the ACA which has helped tens of thousands of ME residences and tens of millions across the US. And, not to be too petty, but why did she marry a man who had recently divorced his wife of almost 40 years when she was dying of cancer and then marry Susan Collins.
This past weekend the Maine Monitor released a story which details 97 billionaires (all from outside Maine) that have donated to Susan Collins dark-money PACs. Maine is one of many states where no billionaires have permanent residents. This is happening in almost every state where a Senate Seat is on the ballot. So when you are pelted with ads and mailings for Lindsay, Paxton, Susan, etc. remember that it's the uber wealthy trying to buy your vote. And they don't give a flying fuck about anyone but themselves.
"Just like the man who said in 2024," I'd rather vote for an empty soup can than vote for Trump."
I agree that the woman in question had little to lose by coming forward, but given her Republican background, she had much to potentially gain. I don't like disbelieving her on that basis, but there is so much about the timing, etc. that begs the question.
I'm a Maine voter. I'm voting for Platner. I get Collins campaign mail to the house addressed to a former resident, and it is abhorrent. Collins has betrayed us all.
I've heard Platner speak in person 3 times so far and he lives a couple of towns over from me, so I often run into people that have known him his whole life and support him.
Susan has become just another wealthy Republican looking to get reelected. She's 73 and he's 41. That alone is a great reason to see her go.
The Age of Democratic Purity Tests HAS to end
Platner is flawed, but we operate in a system where dark money amplifies these flaws out of proportion with the stakes at hand
A vote for Collins is a vote to further destroy democracy
If you can’t vote for Platner based on purity, then stay home
Agreed. Everyone makes mistakes, it's how you react/respond and move forward that matters. There's no point being on the moral high ground if the world is burning; the flames will still get you eventually.
Our candidate selection system has flaws. Maine voters have to choose with this thought in mind: who can inflict more harm on American citizens, Collins or Platner? Collins has a well-documented track record: she isn't for the voters but rather for the oligarchs. This matters to Democratic voters, but not so much for Republican voters who focus more on the wedge issues (while their pockets are being picked): abortion, immigrants, women and gay rights advocates, transgender issues, etc. In other words, the wealthy sucker them into voting against their own best economic and social interests. Take food away from the needy, give billions and trillions of dollars in tax breaks and insider deals to the wealthy. Yes, this is sick and decidedly unchristian behavior.
I think that most of us are awake. The problem is that those who could and should be doing something (25th Amendment, for one) are either frozen by fear, are white Christian Nationalists, or both and therefore do nothing. These events are so improbable that they wouldn't even make half-way decent fiction.
Horror, not science fiction, horror! Filmed at the ICE concentration camps!
What makes you believe that "most of us are awake"?
And who are "those who could and should be doing something" more precisely?
As to the 25th Amendment: it seems as if YOU are not exactly awake yet.
The GOP itself has become a neofascist party, under Biden. So why would they want to invoke the 25th Amendment, when Trump is THE perfect distraction entertaining us all while they can install fascism day after day?
Also, make no mistake, once Trump is gone, it will be WORSE. The GOP packed his administration with neofascist ideologues (including Vance). As soon as any of them takes over, it will speed up the destruction of democracy even more.
And as Kamala Harris repeated during her book tour, these events were never "improbable"; they have been decades in the making.
So really, time to wake up!!
When did Biden take control of the GOP?!?! 🤣😂😅🤣😂😅
The “Guardrail” people had no courage to actually follow the Constitution and Protect America. They postured, posed, and pontificated. They gaslit America for a few crumbs of the Grift. They collected their paychecks on our dime. They went along with the grift knowing that most Americans would rather watch our streaming services than fight. “The Second Revolution will be bloodless - If the Left allows it.” And that’s the conundrum isn’t it? They will only stop if we make bloody revolution. We are trying to figure out a way “in-real-time” how to redesign democracy to work without bloodshed. How to build a non-violent, rules-based-order in a convulsive ejaculation of patriarchal grasping?
MLRGMI
Your last sentence was a doozy
This may be the way our democracy is ended ,clothed in the guise of Christian fascism.
Totally Twilight Zone!
Good comparison. Same in DC.
I remember that episode! Great analogy. Great memory you have!
I am still amazed - no - stunned at how many Republicans in Congress value their jobs over their integrity. There WAS a time when certain lines couldn't be crossed. The crap that Trump pulls every day makes Watergate seem like child's play. And yet, at that time, it was enough to remove a president.
The Twilight Zone offered many such examples. There was one that was called "The Obsolete Man" with Burgess Meredith. Another foreshadowing of the 21st century abandonment of empathy and compassion.
We must keep hammering that MAGAs prioritize their political careers over struggling Americans!📲📲📲 They are feeling the heat !!
Speaking of Twilight Zone…..perhaps an earwig “episode” ??
https://www.thewordonpopculture.com/tv/night-gallery-earwig-episode-might-be-greatest-horror-tv-episode-ever
Ive been talking about those 2 particular episodes for a while now. What a brilliant show that was. Who ever thought that could become real life, lead by our own president.
Bill. How about the airplane stewardess episode, “Room for one more”. Buddy Holly on steroids
And we will find that Trump has squandered billions of dollars. Plus, it will cost trillions to undo Trump’s wreckage. The rich should now be planning to find a new way to avoid higher taxes—perhaps by moving.
Elon Musk should be made to pay reparations
Everything he does turns to sh*t. The fact that this phrase is NOT being proclaimed loudly tells us that everyone is tiptoeing around the tantrum-enacting toddler.
that's why Putin chose him as a weapon of our mass destruction
November, my friend.
Amazing the things we remember. trumps final act should mirror the pilot episode of Rod Serling's The Night Gallery.
The Story: "The Escape Route"
In this episode, a ruthless, unrepentant Nazi war criminal (played by Richard Kiley) hides in South America while being hunted by Israeli agents. He discovers a painting of a serene, idyllic fisherman at a museum and finds a way to mentally transport himself into the painting to escape reality.
The Twist
In true Rod Serling fashion, there is a horrific twist. The fugitive enters the wrong painting in the dark and finds himself trapped in a different piece of art: a terrifying image of a man in tattered concentration camp rags nailed to a cross.
We are living in an ongoing episode of the Maga Zone.
If we did, who would physically take possession of him? He’ll be there till he collapses. Even in his “altered” state, no one will do anything except let him continue.
He has real estate, bank accounts, etc. All subject to garnishment.
Theoretically, a court can appoint someone.
Rod Serling, prototype for Stephen King. Terrifying
No president has criticized the CIA since JFK.
It’s been reported that due to the volume of the Reflecting Pool,(6,750,000) gallons it would require 5,000 gallons of 12% industrial-strength hydrogen peroxide to affect the algae bloom.
The workers were seen pouring gallon jugs of the chemical into the water. They’re going to be there a while, and it likely won’t work because adding the chemical at such a slow rate would make it ineffective.
We'll soon see dead ducks floating on top of it, to add to the puke smell of the original algal bloom. Just don't dip your hand in it -- and forget about the wading scene from "Forrest Gump" -- your feet just might sizzle off first.
Yes I thought that too, yet another Trump cock-up. I keep thinking have we all ended up in a Monty Python Movie.
Hello Colly66... The Washington Monument Reflection Pool turned into a Cesspool?.... Everything that Trump Touches Dies!!!....
I wonder how much peroxide they poured into the reflecting pool? It's going to take over 2000 gallons to even make a dent in that algae. Yes, he destroys everything he touches, everything.
I call him King Feces, because everything FOTUS (Felon Of The United States) touches, turns to poop. King Feces is also known as Faux King.
Seems the swamps (most of which more environmentally useful), really are being replaced with failing cesspool-like money pits.
Yes so true so why does he not do us all a favour and die as well?
He is dying, Colly. Slowly.
But his own stupidity and self-infatuation blind him to the realities hitting. Plus all the toadies, sycophants, and suck-up liars around him keep him in the fantasyland a book by Kurt Andersen has already described.
Drain the swamp. bring in the open sewer.
Or Idiocracy
A prescient film if ever there was one...
Most Monty Python movies were funny!
😂
If you dunked an alleged witch in that pool you would have got a result every time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g
If you can’t be the greatest country, then be the dumbest.
Stupid people voted for this.. but the poor ducks didn’t.
I was thinking of the scene from "The Magic Christian” where people wade into a pool of slaughterhouse offal and manure in pursuit of gobs of cash. The sound track ran, “If you want it, here it is, but you better hurry ‘cause its goin’ fast.” (Badfinger, which seems to have been a Paul McCartney project.)
I think if you want something broken, trump is your guy.
exactly...and Putin understood that perfectly.
The reflecting pool is such an easy and obvious symbol of this regime’s incompetence that even Iranian social media is sharing pictures of it.
HAPPY 250TH AMERICA
When seeing the chemicals being poured into the Reflecting Pool thought of the movie Idiocracy. When the protagonist (Joe) questions why they use Brawndo, an energy drink on all the crops instead of water the leaders respond "It's got electrolytes"… Yea nothing like a whole bunch of dead smelling fowl floating on top of the Reflecting Pool to generate a viable tourist attraction for all to see and smell…
Putin must be pleased
Maybe they should inject some bleach and let the sunlight in. Or was that the solution to a virus? I'm sure RFK would have quick fix if the bleach doesn't work.
Ivermectin might fix it!
This is symptomatic and representative of the Trump group as a whole - there are no critical thinkers there, no strategic planners, no one who thinks ahead about possible consequences. The war with Iran is a case in point, ending in a disaster. In other words, at the helm of our ship is a band of imbeciles, idiots, fools and more supported by a band of cowards and white Christian Nationalists in Congress. But, it could get worse. November elections could be our last chance to avoid an even greater catastrophe.
FALSE!!
Read Quinn Slobodian (historian), Gil Duran (or follow him on Substack) and so many others. You can even read Kevin Roberts, current director of the Heritage Foundation (= the traditionally most important GOP think tank, who provided half of the senior staff in the WH today), who wrote in 2024 "Dawn's Early Light". That's when his organization worked together with Viktor Orban (Hungary's dictator) and the Danube Institute (which Orban created to help foreign democracies transition towards neofascism) to write Project 2025, which was an ideological document mapping out all the many executive orders that Trump is now asked to sign on an almost daily basis. They all dismantle democracy and install neofascism as a political regime, day after day.
This is NOT the work of an old man who likes acting, money and fame. It's the work of neoliberal thinkers who turned into neofascists and who took over the GOP, first behind the scenes, and now in the open.
Please wake up!
One cannot be a critical thinker or a strategist who thinks( or cares!) about eventual consequences and be a MAGA at the same time.
MAGA is the perfect illustration of allowing a bunch of immature spoiled brats to rule the Country.
Then they could rename it 'the pool of death'.
Any pool rename must have Trump in the name.
Call it Drain. You know, last name Swamp. Drain T. Swamp.
Treating it like a hot tub or hot water heater. Great brains think alike. Well it's just another fine mess Trump had gotten us into....but he doesn't care. He is so smart because he spends tax payer money, not his own.
So, the light of day makes the algae bloom in the former reflecting pool turned into another dark man made swamp in Washington DC? I thought the Retrumpicans were all about casting light and draining the swamp?
Give U.S. our failure, our daily failure.
Oh and good job donOLD...why not end your 40 billion failure war with a negitive net gain agreement that is so pathetically negotiated that even you won't read it publically.....
you have a penchant to focus on areas where nothing is wrong and inflict your failures to them.
jeez.
Ah Tim! Not fair using scientific understanding to expose the ongoing folly of the sub human trump!
Yeah, I noticed the gallon jugs. Now, I'm no math genius or physics genius but even I could see that gallon jugs of hydrogen peroxide was not doing a damn thing, this "ain't" a fish tank we're dealing with.
I do have a question though. I know nothing about the water system that would be used for an installation like that so my next question may be a really stupid one. (Like I said, I'm no genius!) Knowing that algae grows in stagnant water, especially warm, stagnant water, shouldn't they have set up some type of system to keep the water flowing during the repair process? Or before filling it run an algaecide through the system & remove that water before refilling the reflecting pool? Again, I stress I don't know if that is even possible but, was something along those lines even considered?
He was asleep in the photo I saw.
Maybe the cooking staff at the White House instead of preparing Kentucky Fried Chicken could include some hydrogen peroxide on the dinner plates in order to rid certain diseases festering inside.
947 days
A long, long time. It is a freaking disaster, but you also have to see the funny side to keep from going crazy. They are a collection of dunces. See the calamity of the reflecting pool, as just one example.
John Kennedy Toole's bestseller was called Confederacy of Dunces. Confederacy seems to be an appropriate name for those associated with Trump. They (with him semi-conscious at the helm) are certainly re-establishing the goals pursued by America's most notorious confederacy, even bringing back the statues, apparently.
But yes, occasionally it is funny, too, in a sick way. Sick humor can be pretty funny, alas.
Recall that Republicans went on and on and on about Biden being too old.
But now, not a peep out of them as Trump slumbers through major meetings, poops himself, walks so unsteadily he has to be assisted everywhere, and rambles like a demented Grandpa through speeches and 2AM social media posts.
Fight Night at the Republic
There comes a time in every declining empire when someone looks at the seat of democratic government and says, “You know what this place needs? A cage fight.”
Apparently, that time is now.
The White House, once associated with Lincoln, Roosevelt, and the occasional functioning adult, has been reimagined as a venue for Ultimate Fighting Championship spectacle. Because nothing says “constitutional dignity” like corporate logos, sweaty bravado, and pay-per-view nationalism.
Only 16 percent of Americans thought holding a UFC fight at the White House was appropriate, and that was before a fighter reportedly launched a slur at former First Lady Michelle Obama. So yes, the evening managed to be both tacky and ugly, quite an achievement in a country overstocked with both.
Then came the announcement of an alleged plot to attack the event, adding grim absurdity to a ridiculous scene. A cage fight at the White House was not dramatic enough. It needed drones, danger, and a press conference.
This is where we are now. Government is no longer merely corrupt or chaotic. It is badly produced television. The old promise was “a republic, if you can keep it.” The new version seems to be “a republic, if it survives the undercard.”
The real satire is that no one needs to exaggerate much. The presidency has become brand management with Secret Service protection. Public service has been replaced by performance art for men who believe history began with cable news.
The Founders worried about kings, factions, corruption, mob rule, and abuse of power. What they failed to anticipate was a government so shameless that it would confuse democracy with Fight Night and still expect applause.
Perhaps this is fitting. If the republic is going to be battered, at least now it has a sponsor.
I take it that this is what you referring to.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KCulRJR-kxQ
At least this time he's staying for Wednesday's evening's dinner closing the summit. He cited this as the reason he's not going to attend the largely ceremonial announcement of his MOU with Iran in Geneva on Friday.
right, so he is in Evian, France, on Wednesday evening so can't get to a meeting about an hour's drive away in Geneva for Friday. Rough travel schedule for a tired old man.
Doesn’t want his visage near the final document, lest people think he lost the war.
Hold tight. The show must go on. How fucking exhausting!
Exactly! How much more doddering has to occur before his handlers say enough? Surely J.D. will lie just as easily for them without falling asleep, spouting nonsense, and wandering off. Why prolong the inevitable?
Vance is at least capable of finishing the same sentence he starts. But his skills as a rabble rouser are limited - fortunately - so the rabble (are we allowed to call them 'deplorables'?) are not likely to be as aroused as they are under Trump.
Because MAGA is a cult of personality and JD doesn't have one.
imagine a guy like that 'running' a country.
Breaking on MSNOW Stephanie Ruhle:
trump will hold back the nomination of Jay Clayton while he threatens to restart the War by dropping bombs "right on their head".
Apparently, Bloomberg has a DRAFT of the 14 point MOU that has been circulating on this debacle.
That's an easy question to answer at this point: he will keep doing what he does, and worse, as long as the Republican majorities in the House and Senate allow it.
Congressional Republican leadership could vote to impeach and convict, and he would be gone. They refuse, so now they own this President's increasingly blatant and explicit actions intended to make them and their successors completely irrelevant.
With a few rare exceptions, all Republicans in government today follow every wish of this addled toddler while ignoring the increasing majorities of their voters. This point needs to be driven home in every statewide race this campaign season.
The Republicans staring into a coming blue wave this November have a simple two step solution to avoid electoral rout. Impeach and convict them all. Now.
Extra points would be awarded for bonus steps: investigate, prosecute and convict again.
But Republicans will not do any of that, so the solution lies in the hands of the voters. Vote them all out with margins so large they can't be argued, and allow the incoming Democratic super majorities to put the country back on the right track.
And sitting there lying about the JPCOA right in front of the countries who worked with the Obama Administration to get that deal with Iran, telling them how terrible is was. Those leaders know & we know the only reason it was "bad" was because the Obama administration is the one that got it done.
Little did we know that when trump tore up that deal that it would lead to the "Fall of the US Empire", to coin a phrase!
For as long as the brainless, traitors, spineless republicans have control of the house and the senate.
It will go on as long as elected Republicans require campaign cash to gaslight their constituents
Try as I might, I can't recall the federal government pouring hydrogen peroxide into the Reflecting Pool for any reason at all. Ever.
The pool did need renovation. There were leaks in the recirculation system and there are ozonators that are supposed to generate ozone in the recirculation system to control the algae. But they were undersized even before the dark blue coating, which absorbs way more light and heats the water. Climate change hasn't helped, but Trump thinks that is a hoax. Why listen to actual experts in the science, on any issue, big or small?
Apparently, new ozonators have been ordered, but that's more cost, and it is not clear that they will be big enough to compensate for the dark blue coating.
You can use hydrogen peroxide to kill the algae, but plastic gallon jugs won't do the job. The pool holds about 6.75 million gallons of water. To do a one-time 100 ppm hydrogen peroxide shock treatment, you would need 30 55-gallon drums of 35% hydrogen peroxide solution.
Then you would have to hire a hire platoons of pool cleaners to rake out the dead algae and the duck and goose poop to control the stink.
Maybe Trump will claim there is a "national emergency" and call out the National Guard to combat the green "enemy." There are still 2400 National Guard available in DC (through the end of 2026) to cope with the pool disaster, but Trump probably wants more on the streets after the threat that was avoided at the UFC cage matches. Maybe Ka$h spilling the beans on that early will finally get him fired.
Nonetheless, Trump wouldn't want the stench to spoil his Greatest Rally Ever on July 4th. One has to focus on national priorities...
Anyone making a bet on Polymarket that the night's playlist will include both YMCA and Macho Man?
Have ICE clean it. Keep them out of Minnesota
Now that’s a great idea Craig 👍🏻👍🏻
How many school lunches could all this have bought? How many people in "shithole countries" could have been saved? How many nurses could this have trained? How many fresh drinking water projects...
Pave it over and have a bocce tournament to raise money - how about to restore electricity and water in a US territory that should be a state?
Hello Georgia... It seem that you like 'Polymarket'... Did you read Paul Krugman's take on Elon Musk....
Yes, Georgia, "and call out the National Guard to combat the green 'enemy.'"
Above here a bit, Russell John Netto has posted a link to some Monty Python. Perhaps we former subjects of a wacky Brit king ought to deploy ICE and CBP (they've nothing better to do) so half dress up in the thug uniforms they used to murder American citizens in Minneapolis, and dress up the other half as serfs and peons.
The federal thug police half could spend the day every day circling the green algae pool while Monty-Python-style "beating" the former colonial-dressed-up half.
Yes, another waste of our tax money. But better than killing Iranian schoolgirls such as those criminal Donald, drunken Hegseth, and "Kill-Kill-Kill," "Bomb-Bomb-Bomb" Lindsey Graham exercise themselves in killing.
Lots of postcards available, pestilent poolside.
Might draw tourists again, given the millions of formerly legit tourists lost to the now-ruling programs of criminality-only and stupidity-only.
I wonder can we get the pictures and names of those killed in that Iranian bombing. I never knew the name of the infants and children the Viet Cong hung by their ankles and machete chopped in half lengthwise. To help stop some of these atrocities committed by world leaders we need to make an effort to give the slaughtered an identity before they were mangled and butchered. Let us see Putin’s dead. Let us see Trump’s dead. Let us see Netanyahoo’s dead.
In order to understand the need for killing, we need to understand who is killing who and if the justification presented is legitimate. How many Ukrainians will it take to slake Putin’s thirst for blood? How many bodies does Trump need to feel good about himself. Everyone likes a good body count. What do their faces look like. Are they acting on compassion as were Alex Pretti and Nicole Good? These men need to trust but verify their kills are more than an insatiably morbid appetizer propping up their strong man projection. Give us faces of the dead. Give us names. Tell us why it is important to fill the morgues. We need to walk among the dead. We need to ask why this is necessary to prop up the flaccid virility of our world leaders. How long would any community worldwide keep a police chief amassing the sheer volume of such atrocity. Give us their faces and tell us the story of why they needed to perish so. Numbers are easily discarded but we need to mourn for our dead.
You have to wonder why is there a reflecting pool? Algae growth in that pool of still water is inevitable. My birdbath is light colored and small, but must be cleaned out regularly because of algae growth. A reflecting pool is not a great idea in practice.
Somewhere I read that ducks have aleays visited the algae in the Reflecting Pool. If that's true, will trump manage to sicken ducks? Everything he touches....
I don't know if the concentration wold be enough to harm a duck. It is a fairly benign substance for humans at low concentrations, though I imagine the 12% stuff would be caustic if not fully diluted. I don't know how long it stays active in bright sunlight.
So Trump's many sins will be seen to be as harmless as hydrogen peroxide off a duck's back. Hooray, a new simile for new times...
More proof of how disastrous the Trumpian regime is...always cruel, criminal and corrupt, yet so inept, ineffectual, and ignorant...wacky, wasteful and wretched...
The irony of the last sentence of today’s Letter was not list on me.
It's Come to This,
These are different days!!! Sanity is becoming a rare attribute within the character and/or actions of many of the occupants of The White House who hold power within our federal government, including choices of substances placed into the Reflecting Pool!!!!
Meanwhile, J.D. Vance is making his "smooth moves" to gain more power and influence.
All of this "insanity" while treasure is being taken from South America to feed the greed of our wonderful American "robbers" who only care to line their pockets as quickly as possible!
The glutinous Trump family continues to find money anywhere and everywhere to line their own pockets!!!
Where are leaders who once put our children and a good education for each and all FRONT AND CENTER!!!! Where are those who will make sure the elderly are cared for and NOT taken advantage of???? I am searching, searching for persons of character, YES, I AM!!!
Well, remember, this the “President” who wanted us all to inject bleach. So, par for the course.
A waste of time to yack, yack, yack about hydrogen peroxide.
Next it will be the orange dye the amoral Trump uses on his body!
Scum on the water in the Reflecting Pool is just a reflection of the scum permeating this regime.
Yes! See: Heather hits a bases loaded home run in her “American Conversations” interview of University of Michigan Law Professor Barbara McQuade about the criminality of the Trump administration and her new book “The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of Mob-Style Government”: “Barbara McQuade | American Conversations - YouTube”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ5_n4mTTa8
Professor McQuade draws on her prosecutorial experience, analogies to “The Godfather” and the Hungarian Revolution to explain the corruption of the Trump Administration and how to overcome it.
Quite the metaphor, Betsy.
Righto
The Groundhog Day administration. Every day is just a slightly different version on the same theme of grift and lies.
That's an analogy I'm going to have to remember -- thanks.
Agree. Every single day there is another chaotic crisis, another way for trump and his family to take more taxpayer money for their own profit and yet not one single republican has a problem with any of this. That's the frustrating part.
You've obviously taken an insufficiency of standardized tests, klutt.
If you'd taken your poisonous share, you'd know -- in the group identifications compulsory in those tests -- "trump and his family [taking] more taxpayer money for their own profit" belongs in the same group as "not one single [R]epublican [having] a problem with any of this."
Well, another day, another pack of lies, but the $ and human costs are mounting. Trump is roasting a lot of seed corn.
Not just a nation voted "failed" by a majority of 77 million, but then quite methodically turned into a real shit-hole country of a screwworm state. With enough seed corn destroyed to put the state irrecoverably in its screwworm grave.
And routine murder, fellow-Phil, and heaving our neighbors of color into torture prisons.
Terse and stinging!
The DoJ lawyers bringing these cases need to be sanctioned and possibly disbarred. Corrupting grand jury actions is not illegal?
Yep. It is definitely illegal. The problem is that it would be a normal DOJ that would prosecute them and these idjits work for this crooked DOJ. So, no prosecutions until we have a new Democratic administration that will bring a new honest, professional DOJ. By then there will have been amass exodus of trumpies to russia and good riddance. I like to picture them all living in old shabby cold water flats in moscow.
All the more reason to start investigations when the democrats take over the House and hopefully, the Senate. I know it's a lot to ask; however, the sooner investigations start, obviously, the better.
And our tax dollars are paying the salaries of these incompetent people…amongst all the other foolishness!
If a Republican does it, it's not illegal. Or so says the Ministry of Justice.
disbarred for sure. If not more.
Don’t just doom scroll about everything! Read, listen and speak up!
Trump/the administration is dangerous for our country/the world 💔🤍💙 Don’t just doom scroll about everything! Read and speak up!
Resource below to easily contact all of Congress - Be LOUD. Unrelentingly.
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Comments/reactions help keep this bumped ✊
Thank you Megan. You are so right in saying that Congress needs to be contacted. Some repubs have shut off their phones which constituents need to publicize. They represent the people not the worm in the White House. His G7 behavior makes US the laughing stock of the world.
Gigi- please name the Republican legislators here who have shut off their phones.
It was a while ago and the message was something like — this phone is not in service. Please try your call later. Vance was one.
Thank you, Megan!
Thanks for creating and maintaining your excellent spreadsheet of contacts for all to use!
It is incredible that algae in the Reflecting Pool is a topic in this Letter when it was avoidable in the first place. The stupidity prevalent in this regime along with the cruelty is just astounding.
Algae was avoidable; Iran War was avoidable; surge in measles cases was avoidable... Not to mention the destruction of the East Wing; the tacky cage fight; the coming ballroom disaster and the 'Trump (I have a tiny dick and am very insecure so I'm over-compensating) arch.
During the local Rise Up event, we wrote postcards to politicians. We focused on Cruz, Cornyn, and Beth Van Duyne. Our area Indivisible 24 groups have held Absent Town Halls for Van Duyne because she doesn’t do town halls. But she did show up online as it was being streamed. Hopefully the effort will get some notice. There were about fifty people at our event. And there were several in our area.
Thx, Megan! I’m hugging you in my heart!
Always, Megan!
All of this Dr. Richardson just reported sounds like an Administration falling apart. We need to take advantage of this by becoming even more politically active in whatever area we choose. We will prevail.
After this current nightmare ends, It will take generations -- not just years -- to repair the damage done to the nation's justice system alone. It isn't just that the head of the FBI is both a drunk and complete fuckup -- so much so that the Secret Service itself makes a public statement to the effect that 'we kept OUR mouths shut about a conspiracy to kill hundreds to make sure all the right people were arrested FIRST' in an obvious reference to Patel rushing to take credit on social media for something he had no part in. It isn't just the charges now detailed by James Raskin (D-MD) that that huge cash payments were doled out to those FBI agents (both past and current) to protect Patels' incompetent, lying, drunken ass from public scrutiny.
In Washington DC, the US Attorney tried -- and failed three times in a row -- to indict a ham sandwich (literally) last summer, while news now surfaces of unbelievable jury-tampering and amateurism in Chicago with a federal judge intervening to dismiss the prosecutor's cases outright, on top of the Minneapolis office's trying prosecute demonstrators for wishing the country to become "ungovernable" (a double nothing if there ever was one, indeed).
No, not just about these shocking cases of incompetence and corruption (now almost routine), but the untold stories involving the SCORES of decent, conscientious, highly-trained, hard-working US attorneys resigning and fleeing a screwed-up, corrupted shell of an out-of-control, rogue Justice Department. I know one US Attorney for New Mexico, a former student of mine at George Washington University, at the beginning of his career, who resigned simply because he could no longer in good conscience associate himself with such overt incompetence, malice and stupidity.
Pete Buttigieg sometimes speaks about the damage to our country that can be repaired, the part that will take years, and the part that -- like toothpaste out of the tube -- is lost and can never be gotten back.
Our debts to a damaged country our grandchildren will inherit mount faster than we can even make the interest payments...
Pete Buttigieg a smart, wise young man… The tube of toothpaste needs to stop being squeezed..
The Nixon Tapes In 2026
Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan of the NYT have tape recordings of the Nazi Republican regime scheming in the Situation Room as how to use the executive branch as a tool to put down peaceful protesters who had laid down the gauntlet for ICE agents in Minnesota as well as how to cover up Cheeto’s involvement in Trump Epstein files. There were also talks about how to pardon Maxwell.
Just Dance Vance, the most craven politician on the American landscape, wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act in order to crush the peaceful protests in Minnesota but the circumstances didn’t warrant such a policy and Vance is one of the Nazi Republicans working to destroy the Republic. Aligned with sleazebags Peter Theil and Curtis Yarvin who said “Americans need to get over their dictatorphobia”, Vance is working for that dictatorship. This is the same Just Dance who showed up in LA to make a case for the Nazi Gestapo tactics in terrorizing immigrant communities in Southern California.
Stephen Miller wanted to suspend habeas corpus which protects people from being prosecuted without just cause which would include immigrants. This crazy idea was again shot down by legal counsel. And to frame this around the nation’s birthday, the concept of eliminating habeas corpus was a key grievance of the colonists in the days of the American Revolution.
This exposure of the meeting and its attendant tapes which has not been refuted by the Black House is akin to the exposure of Nixon’s tapes of conversations. One can only hope that it has the same outcome for this regime, with its leader being decapitated, like Louis XVI.
I always thought that the J.D. stood for "juvenile delinquent."
Or maybe ‘just dumb’.
Personally, I prefer Maybeline Couch-Fucker, or Wanker Boy, but maybe that's just me. Pope-Murderer will do fine, too, though.
I saw a clip of Vance on the View claiming that Trump saying "I love the inflation" really meant that Trump would love it when it came down due to the Iran "peace agreement" Joy Behar gave him the side-eye and asked if he was Vice President or Trump's interpreter. More like this please!
The Rational National did a great piece on this... we watched it last night:
https://youtu.be/LaZL9sSDR-o?si=e4vSX2J2Axmu8NLj
How about “Justice Debauched”?
I believe it stands for John Doe, as his actual identity is not all that apparent since he's changed his name a few times, shapeshifting into empty suits of whatever pays the way and beholden to those pulling the puppet strings.
Also the internet search came up with this:
"The phrase "John Doe" is typically used as a placeholder name for a person whose identity is unknown or concealed, they have no backstory. Because it is designed to represent an anonymous "everyman," the character often lacks a distinct, defined personality, serving as a blank slate."
Good one
Not for this oldster😊
in comments elsewhere a person had a typo and his name came out JV Dunce..
I’m likin’ that.
The Justice Department's own record in the Minneapolis cases undercuts the framing it is now applying to the new charges.
Federal prosecutors charged thirty-six people in December and January, then dropped eighteen cases outright and resolved eleven more through non-prosecution agreements — and a magistrate judge called one of their charging documents a "false affidavit."
Introducing a Facebook post with the phrase "become ungovernable" as evidence of criminal conspiracy, while that same phrase appeared on banners at a convention Trump attended and addressed in 2024, is not a minor rhetorical stumble; it reflects a prosecution posture in which the political signal being sent matters more than the legal standard being met, and that is a direct corruption of what the Justice Department exists to do.
Yes, it’s about the signal. “When we don’t like you, we’ll prosecute and arrest you, no matter if there is any evidence or not.”
That's SO the Regime's M.O.
A signal to the minions
How many stints in jail, lost jobs, massive legal bills, and smeared reputations will it take to quell uprising?
Putting it mildly.
Last night, Heather's occasional talk-and-draw featured Liza Donnelly commemorating June 17 with a drawing of the night watchman at the Watergate Hotel, who noticed something 'not right' with the doors to the Democratic National Committee in 1972 -- a process that would lead, step by step (thanks to the intrepid reporting of the then-Washington Post and the New York Times) to the disgraced resignation of President Nixon in 1974 for complicity in the Watergate cover-up.
Back when most of us around foolishly thought nobody could ever be sleazier, more corrupt, more venal, more foul-mouthed, or more of a petty, vicious bully and lawbreaker than thin-skinned, conspiracy-minded Richard M. Nixon....
Good times, good times.
The shame is that we no longer have the Washington Post to reveal corruption.
That is a shame, but the corruption now is on full display and instead of holding their party accountable, Republican senators repeatedly protect Trump.
"GOP" esprit de corpse
I thought that. Silly me
It’s time to drain the swamp, for real this time.
Perhaps they could rename it The Donald J. Trump Wildlife Refuge.
The Trump Memorial Cesspool.
Perhaps we should encourage Trump and his fantastic sense of history and knowledge of design and building to tear down some other buildings in DC like he tore down the East Wing. For example, he could start with the Supreme Court.
Trump is demolishing four historic federal (government owned - that means you as a citizen) buildings: Four Federal Buildings: The administration solicited bids to analyze and recommend the demolition of the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, the GSA Regional Office Building, and the Liberty Loan Building. Heather has discussed the tragedy of this in her previous posts and videos. In March 2025 his GSA identified a further 440 government buildings to be closed/demolished/sold, etc. but has in 2026 rescinded the order “for now”.
“Trump takes steps toward demolishing four federal buildings, preservationist alleges | CNN Politics” https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/11/politics/federal-buildings-demolition-trump. And “Trump administration took down its list of hundreds of federal buildings targeted for potential sale | PBS News”. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-administration-took-down-its-list-of-hundreds-of-federal-buildings-targeted-for-potential-sale
And Trump friends will “purchase” the demolished building locations.
Pottervillle
Yes. Thank you for the reply. Everything Trump touches is examined for its grift potential and then ruined. We the people have to show up for the political candidates that will defend our interests the way the people of Bedford Falls showed up for George Bailey if we want to have the same outcome as the movie.
It’s almost like we’re living in an episode of the Three Stooges.
Well, yeah, but with nuclear weapons.
It may be beyond absurb, but it's too serious for that comparison.
Heather's YouTube today on the proposed gutting of scientific research grants by white christian nationalist Russell Vought is a must-see call to action. I've linked it - you don't have to watch more than the first 11 minutes and then you can go to the website to submit a Comment, which can be anonymous, just choose that option. I've included a site that gives links and explicit directions for formulating a comment, which makes it a lot easier than it sounds.
These public comment actions actually work (and make you feel better after than doomscrolling!
Thanks for working to save democracy.
Directions to submit comment:
https://solvecfs.org/how-to-submit-a-public-comment-on-the-proposed-federal-grant-rule/
Heather's video
https://youtu.be/w73g5wJTHg8?si=YYyTr7U2HiLtfwVk
thanks for this Alexandra, I summited and got confirmation 👍
Of course! Thanks for doing it.
Kill the algae. Drain the swamp.
"Draining the swamp" was always such an apt metaphor given the role that wetlands have in protecting the environment.
It's more like lancing a pustule.
Bingo. Although what comes to my mind is something I read probably 20 yers ago where an IV drug user had been using veins in their nether regions (given that all the "good" veins had collapsed) and not surprisingly ended up with an infection at the injection sites. The necessary lancing and expression caused the evacuation of that section of the ER due to the foul odor.
I think that infection just might be akin to what this government is doing.