Do the masked thugs understand how this works? Because now if a group of masked men in fake gear they got at Amazon or an army/cop gear surplus store show up to OTHER masked men in camo, vests and kits who refuse to show ID from a federal office - what’s to stop them from kidnapping the kidnappers or taking them hostage? It’s almost meta waiting to happen-who will the original kidnappers be at this point? Imagine the confusion amongst the groups- thug? Legit ICE or federal agent? Kidnapper of thugs and those dressed like ICE? Criminal gang pretending to be ICE?
Not showing their faces is in some ways more dangerous now than showing a federal ID, a badge, a name, a face.
They say it’s to hide their identities but cops show their faces to arrest people, give tickets, interfere in fights, etc. every day. Many federal agents - unless it’s legit undercover operations- show their faces and carry ID.
Someone who overstayed a work visa or is just here working as a non citizen but not causing a problem is NOWHERE near the same as a drug cartel boss or their affiliates who will use intimidation and threats of officers, a sex trafficking gang member, or a legitimate terrorist cell. It’s like why are you manhandling some dude who just wants to put up drywall or cut lawns and send money home or some college student with a speeding ticket?!
Why give ICE NUMBERS to deport versus actual real targets- sex criminals, murderers, etc? It can only be racism- because instead of focusing on how to make citizenship more attainable- now they attach big price tags and just scoop up immigrant kids with cancer and deport them in the middle of treatment. They arrest people at their hearings for IMMIGRATION ISSUES NOT CRIMES. What a fake ass job to have. “What do you do, Steve?” “Oh I round up people at their job, at immigration court, at elementary schools, terrify them, send them to for profit detention centers miles away and get pats on the back for meeting quotas set up by racists. I’m due at the hospital now- gotta get those bonuses for the pregnant ones, and the seriously ill.”
Imagine going to Canada, overstaying your work visa by a day, and trying to fix it all in court, and suddenly being escorted out of the building you were told to go to to fix your IMMIGRATION problem, put in some random detention center and deported to a country you aren’t even a citizen of with a mix of people like you and maybe 2 criminals?
Do they really think even reasonable conservatives won’t see thru that? How utterly unreasonable that response is? And how it smacks of racism.
Their authoritarian logic,”Oh I see you have a small cut on your arm- let’s just cut off both arms then!”
“Got a headache- here, hit yourself in the head repeatedly with this hammer!”
“Found one poison ivy plant in your yard? Burn up your entire yard!”
After they wreck a “problem,” they distract with a new one so they can strong arm that one, too!
“We burnt down your yard, now we are going to take over your house, because by burning up your yard, we solved a problem. Once we take over your house, we will make the toilets overflow, the doors not work and put holes in your roof and walls, and call it making it safer. Once we determine your house is no longer safe, we will blame you, gaslight you, blow up the house and go back to our own homes, to start over again the next day with a new distracting fake disaster, a new conflict, a new scapegoat.”
Meanwhile, groups of dudes can wear balaclavas or masks, carpenter pants, a hat and vest, jump out of mini vans and kidnap for various mysterious reasons- because who is holding them accountable? No one.
Jen, you and Heather use the term "deport" to describe what ICE is doing. Deportation is a formal legal process against a foreign national, with the individual going through a defined process, including a court proceeding, before one is removed to one's country of origin. What we are experiencing presently is a process where thugs are kidnapping people and sending them out of the country, in some cases to prisons, without any due process at all. This is criminal conduct, perpetrated under color of law, i.e., illegal. The takeaway? Trump's presidency is not an administration but rather a regime. Mass protests alone are not enough. What to do? I'm not sure.
I agree- I think the term deport has lost its true meaning in this current regime. I think we use it because it’s habit to use the correct term for what is supposed to be a NORMAL government process- but it’s no longer that. Many, many things under the current REGIME (administration would have been the normal term to use) are no longer logical, constitutional or ethically sound.
Thus- my whole meta visual of the ICE kidnappers kidnapping each other or being kidnapped.
Kind of like the Spider-Man meme where they are pointing at each other.
How many years has it been that we don't hold the powerful in contempt of the constitution that they signed to protect? So they continue to the corruption as they know no one will hold them accountable. Not the laws, not the courts, not congress, and surely not the corrupt supreme court nor the lame street media.
Julie- Our federal governance has always been somewhat of a peer enforced honor system. Every administration has felt obligated to follow moral codes of ethical behavior. There is no "honor" in this regime now, except to only those who support it. People who support MAGA need to be shamefully embarrassed and relentlessly humiliated by the vast majority of people who oppose them for supporting clearly immoral, anti-democratic, and illegal behavior!
That's a good term - rendition. It doesn't apply to non-criminals, though the Trump regime is categorizing all as criminals. I feel for those Venezuelans who came to the U.S. to escape danger only to end up in a gulag prison in El Salvador without any hope of ever being released. The cruelty is beyond description. I've never hoped for a hell so much as now so that Trump and his regime members can burn for eternity. The cruelty is palpable. IMO, the ACLU should bring a class action lawsuit to free them from that prison while suing the U.S. for damages, including punitive damages.
That people are being sent to that hell hole of a prison in San Salvador is of grave concern. There is no vetting going on that I am aware of. They are being sent to this nightmarish place as if they were convicted murders and rapists. What, if any, actual crimes have they committed that would result in a harsh sentence in the US? Driving without a license? Driving with friends in the car, just because they are also not documented? Is it trafficking to bring everyone to work??
If I were still practicing law, I would take their cases on a contingency basis and sue the ever-lovin hell out of the U.S. govt. The punitive damages to be awarded for this should reach to the moon. The depravity that it takes to do something like this is almost unfathomable, except that it is Trump and the MAGATs. The cruelty is unimaginable to me.
Find a way to sue the prisons or punish the government of El Salvador for crimes against humanity. Go after the enablers, the ones following orders or profiting from the corruption at the lowest levels since we can't seem to touch the ones at the top. Cut the legs out from under them.
You make an excellent point on the need to find a new word to describe what the ICE THUGS are doing. With all due respect to HRC, who is a Harvard educated college professor "rendition" is NOT a good term because it's too abstract for the vast majority of Americans. As public communications professional may I suggest "abductions"? Or how about "kidnapping"? (I referred to my synonym reference books and those are the best "easy to understand" terms." ) ABDUCTIONS, KIDNAPPINGS, Let's start this NOW!
Good thought. Abductions and kidnappings are appropriate in these cases, IMO. The perpetrators are thugs. They've taken no oath to uphold any standard of behavior except to do Trump's bidding. What was it that Trump said several years ago about what to do with those who disagree with him? It involved the infliction of physical violence. Perhaps there is progress here that we're overlooking. Not that long ago they tortured them, killed them, lynched them and more. A whole, whole lot of present day MAGATs would be right at home in the Jim Crow South. Trump's racism and that of his executioners is palpable. Should we now start recall efforts of the politicians who support Trump?
A time tested if not universally honored part of the language.
It’s that sort of thing, nouning (if that’s a word) that makes English so versatile.
“ The making of the Oxford English Dictionary was a remarkable achievement, the story of which has been aching to be told. Who better to take on the challenge than the talented story-teller Simon Winchester? With his characteristic gift for bringing history alive, in The Meaning of Everything Simon Winchester charts the fascinating life of the OED leading up to the appointment of the first editor, James Murray, in 1879, through to the OED's triumphant publication in 1928 and beyond. The Meaning of Everything is a must for anyone with an interest in language and words.”
They do not arrest drug cartel bosses, they get money from them. Why do you think there are still drugs in America? Today, they have all the tools to catch them, but they get paid! It’s a lucrative business like the prisons for profit, they never stop having clients, police brings them, gets paid and everyone is making money. Probably half of the people detained are in prison for minor offenses, and should not be there.
This practice to hire companies to keep prisons it’s insane and must be illegal. Next presidency should look into it, we have the biggest number of incarcerated people in the world!
Prisons for profit! Who invented the concept? Must be a republican, hungry for some easy earned dollars helped by police and thugs working together in visible corruption, legally!
Simon, any idea how much $ the twump family gets as their cut from the for- profit prisons? Remember how much $ those 'private' boot camp places that abused kids? Wonder how many of them had to pay back some $ or fund help groups for the abused kids.
Thomas Beasely, Robert Crants, T Don Hutto and a lot of muckety muck republicans from the state of Tennessee.. CORE CIVIC.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoreCivic..originally, Corrections Corporation of America...seems like you already have the idea
It is unbelievable to me that prisons are companies paid by the government to incarcerate people. It is common sense that fraud and corruption will be the main occupation of the owners. In collaboration with police, that will bring them a constant flow of “clients” they all make money from our taxes and keep thousands of people incarcerated. No wander we have the highest number of incarcerated people on the planet! If it’s a business it must be successful, no doubt.
Like our health system, another imoral business, making money (lots of them) from suffering people.
The author and NPR host Kurt Anderson founded Spy magazine and hosted NPR's Studio 360 for 20 years. Both him and Ginni Thomas attended Westside High School in Omaha, NE. Here is an interesting tid-bit from his Wikipedia page-
"Andersen was born in Omaha, Nebraska. Growing up, he lived across the street from Ginni Thomas. He graduated from Westside High School. While a student at Harvard College, he was an editor and vice-president of the Harvard Lampoon. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard."
Although "Spy" magazine and "Mad" magazine are different they are both heavy on political satire.
I highly recommend Kurt's book, "Fantasyland" which was a NY Times bestseller.
Nope and I started young, like 7-8 years old, even though I didn't understand much at the time. My aunts and uncles, who were teens at the time had them and I was always over my Nan's house, so got to see a lot of those. I continued to read them for many years. Those aunts and uncles also introduced me to great rock and roll music!
Harvey, you are absolutely correct, but you were too modest in your description, IMO - they are racists, but even more - they are racist to the core. Studies have proved that. MAGA is 21st century KKK. Trump is today's D.C. Stephenson. If you haven't yet, get a copy of Timothy Egan's book, "A Fever in the Heartland" about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's. About the racism, the study by two Univ. of Kansas professors, David Smith and Eric Hanley, "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" published in the Feb. 2018 edition of the peer-reviewed journal, "Critical Sociology." The simple answer: they are racist to the core, they hate women's and gay rights' advocates, foreigners and more, wanting Trump to crush them. Trump knows this. Witness his current actions.
Richard, I agree with your points, but in truth, "racist" doesn't adequately cover all the vectors of hate you described. In my dictionary, "racist" describes someone who hates persons who are not of the same race as the hater.
That definition excludes the other groups that are hated by MAGA: persons with non-Aryan physical appearance, persons who are not heterosexual, persons who are not CIS gender male, and persons who do not follow conservative European religion, to name the most hated groups.
I cannot recall or find a term in the English language that describes that breadth of hate. "Sociopath" approaches, but sociopathy is defined as a "personality disorder," which falls short.
The depth and breadth of hate in MAGA is their actual nature, not a disorder. I regret that we need a more descriptive word. Maybe maga is that word.
Incidentally, I thought the Cleveland Clinic's definition of sociopath ticked every trait of one Donald Trump.
Good suggestion, Harvey. But is it strong enough? My connotation with bigots is they want "the other" disadvantaged. My understanding of MAGA is they want "the other" disappeared. As in, removed or dead.
Back in the anti-Vietnam War protests, law enforcement earned the moniker "Pig" for their violent behavior towards peaceful protesters. Today's federal law enforcement from all departments has earned the name Pig for cowardly actions like obscuring their identity and the department they represent. They brutally assault citizens and politicians who disagree with the illegal tactics taken by federal agencies to disappear people, refuse to cooperate with members of Congress to inspect federal properties used to hold detainees, and ensure that the prisoners are treated humanely.
Five million people for the No Kings protests is great, but to stop this fascist coup, we need many tens of millions of people to join us.
We must stop the fascist minority from forcing their racist, misogynistic, and crazy religious superstitions on the majority.
We all should be expecting the fascists now controlling our federal government to become more and more violent, using wildly illegal methods against citizens. If citizens haven't been disappeared yet, they will be soon to intimidate people from standing up for democracy.
I agree. We're now at the stage to go beyond protests and begin recalling the offending politicians. We need to attack them (the politicians) for being do-nothing sycophants and for violating their oaths of office.
Jen, Such sad reality inflicted for the sake of cruelty....My daughter is a school bus driver, her homeless kids, yesterday morning riding to school for the last of the year, talking about how terrified they and their family's are of being grabbed up and removed. None of the normal excitement of the Summer vacation starting....Nothing normal about it. Broke her heart and ours too....Resist, we must...none of us should have live in constant fear.
The focus on numbers is unfortunately a very common practice in all kinds of organizations - businesses, non-profits, governments. It has the good feature of helping to create accountability for money spent - but the bad feature of becoming a goal in itself if an organization is managed poorly. In the case of the Trump Regime, the emphasis on numbers is used to legitimate the most horrific, irresponsible behavior and make it hard for anyone to document who among the targeted are truly characters that most Americans would like to have deported - and who are innocent bystanders. There is no motivation to explore when all the rewards are heaped on the agents and the agency for reaching their numbers.
Who was it that said he wanted to treat “deportations” (sorry, kidnappings) like Amazon does deliveries? Ah yes, Todd Lyons, acting ICE director. The whole “human beings” as product versus you know - HUMAN BEINGS. So vile and dehumanizing.
Jen D. Clark, I have heard that here in Georgia they are planning to build the biggest detention center in the United States for immigrants in the southern part of our state. Can you imagine first they just held children now they’re holding adult.
A for profit detention center. Apparently the racism they were already cashing in on with bogus racial profiling and lame marijuana arrests wasn’t enough. They saw a way to profit off of kidnapping/deporting. Soon, it will be political enemies they want to make disappear. I know they are claiming it will now be illegal for congress to come and do unannounced inspections. Wonder what else is going on they don’t want any accountability? It floors me how they don’t seem to see the parallels between themselves and the Nazis early actions.
Maybe the people being targeted should just suit up and hide amongst the cowards. Maybe we could have a march where everyone dresses like they do. Or just put on the white KKK uniforms.
That’s what I meant when I was envisioning the whole meta scenario of kidnappers kidnapping kidnappers. Like even their fascism is not safe for the fascists. I get the confusion and anonymity is to cause intimidation and fear, but it’s a really dumb security protocol when a thug can imitate what you do to rob people or worse- or have your own agents yoinked off the street in all the confusion. They say it’s for the agents protection but if they are legit federal agents, you have to be another level of dumb to seriously threaten that high up. I think they are either on the fly deputizing some power hungry weird chodes, or they don’t care what happens. Also, they know they are trying to escape future prosecution. A cop will give their name and badge number in most states, (granted it may or may not get you justice if they mistreated or unjustly arrested you). But there’s not this weird shadow ops, gestapo/secret police feel that ICE has created or allowed to flourish.
How many people immigrated or sought asylum in the US to escape that type of situation in their countries?!
Thank you, Jen. That is so well said! I beg for “asylum seekers” or “immigrants” which with gangs and climate change seem the most accurate terms. Having seen the territory many have to cross on foot to get tho the US border, it’s hard to imagine that anyone would leave home, except to escape extremely difficult conditions, to make the trip.
It doesn’t really matter whether Trump’s father was KKK or not. His intense racism and that of his son are well established. Did you see the film of the two of them going from one Trump apartment complex to another checking on black renters?
72 years ago Iran held a truly democratic election, and the people of Iran got a true democratic outcome with Mossadegh being freely elected.
Criminals and thugs in the C.I.A., even then doing the bidding of parallel criminals and thugs atop corporate America, arranged clandestine ways to topple him, and to install the dictatorship of the Shah. The C.I.A. helped the Shah set up a spectacularly evil secret police, SAVAK -- the C.I.A. trained them in snatching people off the street, in operating namelessly, and in torture -- pretty much everything Heather reports having emerged today under the auspices of our current White House criminality and corruption.
What we did to (many) others for years finally roosts across all non-MAGA America, to terrorize as we did first to Iran, the next year Guatemala, then Vietnam, and Congo, Dominican Republic, and Iraq when Saddam was our C.I.A.'s pampered client.
Blue state Dems seem paralyzed, impotent for the excellent reason that testing for years worked to neuter all in schools, to paralyze, make impotent.
Blue state Democrats are suing, protesting, speaking out, being arrested, being assassinated, and having people accusing them of doing nothing. The problem is not the Democrats. A big part of the problem is posts like this one. Be part of the solution and support and vote Blue.
Some dems are finding their stride: Murphy, Crockett and Bernie. However, there appears not to be a whole party response. They're on a learning curve - learning how to become better messengers. But I don't think we have time for a learning curve. We are in the midst of a national moral collapse...
I have to admit that I don't understand how people can still believe stuff like this. Did you read Heather's article above? It's full of names of Democrats being ARRESTED for their courageous way of fighting back against tyranny. So stop the cynicism, the blaming, and the spreading of falsehoods and for God's sake, DO SOMETHING!
I have done something!!! Protesting, writing to representatives and senators; spending a lot of my retirement money on supporting substacks, ACLU, Common Cause, Planned Parenthood, The League of Women Voters and the local democratic party in my county. So there....
Then why do you undermine all that good work by cultivating the utterly cynical falsehoods about Democrats that the media have been cultivating for years now... ?
Yes, DO something. What is each of us doing? I am writing blogs, contacting my local, state, and federal legislators via email and letter, writing letters to the editor, postcards to swing states, donating money, active in my local community and secretary of our ward, and protesting...and each of you who read this...what are you doing?
"DO SOMETHING!" First of all, I've spent most of my 83 years thinking I'm not doing enough, so that really trips my trigger. Three days ago, a regular used the word "believe" and I asked why she didn't use "know"; Pissed her off and she blocked me. The next day her thread had several responses questioning her comments. Last Saturday, I went to the No Kings protest in Brainerd MN, a very, very red area. I thought I could at least add one to the number of protestors. Ha! There were thousands! I'm guessing Rep. Stauber needed a lot of bleach for his tighty whities Sat night. I had a prime spot on a corner, with a crosswalk; a lot of foot traffic, a lot of conversations, and a lot vehicles driving by and honking their horns (People didn't block the street). What do I know now, instead of believe? Protests can be peaceful, media is trying to downplay how many people want change, and, at least for me, my believe>know comment has been validated. BTW, since is June, I wore a Gay Pride T-shirt from 1993, and actually had one compliment!
Stuff like what? Why are you attacking her for stating facts? What falsehoods? We need more than 5% of them to be actively doing something. Please provide evidence of that. Did your representative march with you on the 14th? I didn’t see any of mine and there are several Democrats here. Alex Padilla has stood up non-stop his entire career and Smarmy Vance deliberately acted like a prepubescent bully by using the wrong name. They like to explain it away because they have it all planned.
Hm... so if you didn't see your representative, whose job it is to represent you in DC, show up during your local protests, you'll conclude that he's not doing anything? How rational are conclusions like that... ?
Well, thanks to a system set up by the efforts of two cartel parties, we can hardly expect to see names of elected Independents getting arrested now, can we? Yet the turnout at the No Kings Hands Off protests and Fair Maps voter movements to get rid of a gerrymander system possible with only two parties has to be largely Independents.
Oh for Pete’s sake! To lump the Democratic Party in with this current Republican “party” is just lazy and immature thinking. One party is rushing headlong into a dictatorship of fools and the other is hanging on to the democracy that our Founders established by our fingernails. If you cannot distinguish between the two perhaps you should refrain from commenting
Uh... "cartels"? Really? You want to compare the party that just left the WH with a pretty stellar record for the 99% (as all nonpartisan studies show) with a criminal drug cartel... ?!
More and more, it's becoming clear that neofascists were able to grab power in the DC because part of the LEFT in the US is cynically deluded too...
Stephanie, I agree and your post gives me an excuse to thank Sen. Murphy for what he said after the assassinations of MN Legislator Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband:
"Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) noted that MAGA has been “bathed in political violence” for the last five years. Trump’s pardoning of the January 6 rioters, including those convicted of extreme violence, “became a clear endorsement of violence committed in his name.” Trump has encouraged violence and cozied up to brutal dictators, while MAGA has fetishized guns. When he celebrates violence, unhinged people listen."
Sorry JDinTX.. I disagree. There is Chris Murphy, AOC, Eric Stalwell, Elizabeth Warren, Gavin Newsom, Alex Padilla, Jamie Raskin, Janet Mills and Corey Booker, Tim Walz, J.B. Pritzker and I’m sure many others. But their voices are being drowned out by all the drama and distractions of this regime. They cannot do it without us and we cannot do it without them. We have to organize, organize, organize! Organizations like INDIVISIBLE can help but at the end of the day it is up to ALL of us to make our voices heard. If my grandkids ever ask me what I did at this time, I don’t want my answer to be nothing.
I could not agree MORE. Here in New Mexico we have strong Dems who are working hard, fighting back - every day. True of our local city and county elected officials and for sure of our Senators and Congress people. They are not sitting back. Yes, they are in the minority, but they are suiting up, showing up and fighting back.
You have Melanie Stansbury in the House of Representatives. If anyone would like to hear a Democrat with fire in her belly, do a simple YouTube search for her speeches. Holy guacamole. She is an inspiration!
IMO, the problem isn't that Democrats are silent. It's that Trump and MAGA have mastered the media by using projection, lies and daily outrages - all of which distract us from the efforts of Democrats.
All of which distract us from the thievery of the Trump organization. Crypto? Phone Company? Stock in Nippon Steel?
All of which distract us from the horrors of the Big Beautiful Bill which will murder thousands and further enrich the already rich.
MAGA= thieves, traitors and murderers. See Putin smile.
In Michigan we have state reps that are fighting back every day too (Joey Andrews and Matt Longjohn to name a couple). We just need to keep supporting them and fighting. We also have to vote out people like Bill Huizenga.
Good names, all! I'd add Josh Shapiro who doesn't hesitate to speak out! And there are others. We need to keep reminding ourselves that they are out there. It keeps the despair a bit at bay.
The next big rally is being organized but there already is dissension as to when it should be held. The date of July 4th was floated, but many are crying that they "already have plans." The other is July 17, John Lewis's birthday. It's on a Thursday. Neither dates are convenient but neither is living in a fascist state.
Oh please! What could be more important than using 7/4 as a day for the family & neighborhood to work towards a common goal of peace & resistance to the crap in DC? Convenience should not be part of the equation!
And... ? How does that mean, in a period in human history when most activity happens online, that we'd need a "leader", at this stage of the fight against fascism? I'm asking, because Heather has VERY good arguments showing that this is really not the moment to want a leader, it's a moment to step up as "ordinary citizens". Anyone who has a computer can contact Reps and engage in real, respectful debates with those who don't understand what's happening yet.
What are you doing? If you think sitting here criticizing others for everything they say is helping you’re wrong. People will tune you out for nonstop criticism. I haven’t seen you post one positive fact while you’re busy telling others they’re wrong.
FYI: I don't think this is about "me". If you want to focus on random people here instead of on the topic we're discussing, read ALL my messages before jumping to conclusions.
In the meantime, any concrete counterarguments, since you seem to disagree with the content of what I wrote in this specific post? You may as well be right and I wrong, who knows? We won't find that out if you don't focus on specific counterarguments and instead make this personal though...
JDinTX & Anne-Louise, I couldn’t agree more. One of the things I think makes Bernie so visible and so palatable to us is he keeps coming back to the fundamental inequities (& iniquities) in our society, inequities which appear to be baked in. While we often get off-track following things like race, which the MAGAts exploit most effectively, I think it is actually MONEY which underlies much of the struggle we face (and hence the iniquitous and widespread effects of the Citizen’s United decision). You don’t see ICE deporting rich blacks, browns or yellows, just the ones without bags of money. That is what Bernie (and Elizabeth Warren, etc) keeps coming back to. We would be better employed and more effective if we spent our time and talent identifying all the ways the MAGAts make money and benefit from their continuous outrages. And the tRump family is exhibit A! As in the All The President’s Men, FOLLOW THE MONEY. Who’s got the money and how they got and are getting the money provides a pretty infallible lead to where and why they are doing what they are doing, regardless of political party.
I agree, JohnM. I often point out that the U.S. was founded as a capitalist nation, and its government was designed to promote and protect capitalists.
In a capitalist society without conscience or controls, EVERYTHING is for sale. Regrettably, this may include the government, itself. It seems that we crossed that Rubicon long ago. Now, there's just a fight over who's going to profit from the sale.
We must ask, is it the messenger/messaging or the listeners? Part, if not all, of the success of the GOP messaging is that people want to believe them, and/or they hate the Dems no matter what. The Repubs lie, they bully, they cheat (gerrymandering), they coopt words and concepts and redefine them, they spread myths about themselves (party of fiscal responsibility, good on the economy). Still, people drink it up. The Dems could say anything and these people will not follow them. We have a lot of greedy or stupid or just plain angry and don't want to be happy people in this country. And the sad thing is that most of these people have had many mor advantages than the people who aren't in this category of voters.
As a conservative Republican, my view is that all MAGAdom is populated by MORONS, LACKING ANY INTEGRITY, LACKING ANY UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT ACTUALLY MAKES AMERICA GREAT, AND TO BE FOREVER SHAMED along with their ORANGE DISGRACE.
The problem is Democrats in Congress and the DNC. Useless the lot of them. Complicit in their lack of action. Start by going after Trump due to breaking the emoluments clause at least.
Also, the Democrats have no power in the Senate and House now. Legally they are powerless, nothing to do but protest, organize, open law suits. Anything they can do but legally, not like the thugs in the government. See the sessions in the Senate, they protest but the republicans have the smugness characteristic, they brake the law every day. Look at Hegseth’s answers, needs some slaps over that stupid face, the A-hole!
It’s exactly the same democratic situation that Obama had the first two years of his presidency. The differences if the Democrats don’t have the power now and they’re frustrated beyond belief that they don’t have the power for the first time in a long time.
That criminal decrepit McConnell, who stole a judge seat in the Supreme Court from Obama, still in the Senate despite the age and senility, stopped everything that Obama wanted to pass as law. He promised the jerks he will stop him and he did. We must thank him for Trump’s fascist regime, and the republican dominated Supreme Court that gave the idiot immunity!
Awwwww are we sad? It’s amazing how you never complained when the liberal Supreme Court was in control. Hmmmmm. How many judges did Biden appoint,,,OR Whoever was president? lol
And unfortunately , McConnell made a bad decision. Because Merrick Garland became the most revengeful department of justice appointment/attorney general in my lifetime , although holder was a close second. LAWFARE. The failed attempt of the Democrats to stop democracy from working. By the way, you should look up the word fascist. Curious…. is that as bad as lying under oath. I seem to remember a democrat president that was saved by his own party from impeachment. Oooops. Have a nice day.
Phil, I always like a lot of the content in your posts. I think it is time to get off this testing thing. We have all read it a thousand times. There is some merit to it, but it is a small part of what is wrong in the U S society/culture that is causing all of our problems. I can't read your posts anymore because they always end up blaming testing in schools.
That is his point. But the deliberate revamping of society was multi-pronged and as assaultive as chump’s is today. Reagan just had a smoother presentation.
Not sure what you mean. I agree with Phil's whole post except the testing neutering and paralyzing democrats. Almost every post comes down to blaming testing. It's much more complex than that.
It used to be "humanities". I just asked him nicely if he could write a post without using that word, and he hasn't used it since. I always read Phil's excellent posts and just stop when we reach "testing" again.
Wendyl, I appreciate your point of view and sometimes share your lack of patience with what seems to be a repetitive theme.
But I also appreciate Phil's deep regret of the damage done to our public schools. I see how many of the challenges we face today can be attributed to the destruction of a public education system that was in many respects successful, especially when education is his passion.
Perhaps, I am more sympathetic because I have my own "hobby horse," and frequently reference (bash, if you like) evangelicalism. Many current events "pull threads" that lead back to evangelical dogma, at least in my mind.
So far, no one has asked me to stop harping on evangelicalism, but that day may come. My hope is that if someone finds it tedious, they'll just stop reading and skip to the next comment.
Accusations put Dems on the defensive but they never seem to boomerang it back on them. As Goebbels said, accuse them of what we do, over and over. In the Tx election just past, the Dems never did that, just focused on abortion as the immigrant hate was blasted 24/7 on every outlet. Propaganda works
I am also tempted to arrive at a simplistic understanding of this massively complex and tragic phase we're in. Yesterday I noticed something I'd normally pass by -- a poster for a talk about "How to Sue the Ku Klux Klan", about women, the Chattanooga Five, in 1982, whose combined ingenuity made a difference. I'll go.
I think Phil is right about the testing though. Teaching and learning is more art than science. The essence of being human is more art than science (all science equals a robot when it comes to people). Why are our Democratic lawmakers not making the connection between our country’s operating foundational paradigms of racism and misogyny and hyper religiosity and the problems we face now? In my opinion they have not considered what our African American citizenry have been telling this country all along in their books and plays and poetry and music. It seems to me they have not developed intellectually enough to recognize the truth before them. Otherwise they would be better leaders— doing a better job of setting things right. The words and examples they need are all there, laid out for them but they are too robotic to absorb the lessons. Even Kamala Harris and Barack Obama did not seize the opportunity to push our country to crush the destructive paradigms (I was disappointed on that score for both of them). They were both great in school though I bet. Probably aced every test. I get what Phil is saying. It takes the art of being human.
Hey Mary Ellen, let me tell you what’s going on in Washington, so you stop using the words racist misogynist sexist xenophobic etc carelessly
There are 61 black representatives in Congress out of 435 in the house of representatives which represents the country as a whole vs The Senate that only gets two representatives per state
So if you want to look for a schism, here’s a great example for you
61 BLACK Congress people out of 435 is 14% of the population of the United States. The black population of the United States is 14% of the total population. Coincidence? There’s your racist America of today.
I am not using it carelessly. The highest percentage of incarcerated citizens are people of color, primarily African American. Women in many places of this country do not have bodily autonomy. DEI efforts were sincere in many organizations and were making progress. African American intellectuals like Bryan Stevenson and Michelle Alexander to name only 2 of many were making inroads on chipping away at destructive paradigm and what happened? The big blowback! Women losing their bodily autonomy was catastrophic—no other word. MAGA (there is no more GOP in my opinion) has brought out the confederate flag. Disgraceful. After reconstruction many African Americans won elections. I think that lasted about one cycle. The paradigms have not been crushed. They are getting new oxygen.
Well, yes, you are using in error….the reason is because the majority of crime is committed by blacks, and I’m not making it up. Those are the statistics. . In fact, one of your friends here from England was saying the same thing. I pointed out in England that while the black community is 3.6% of the population… four times that are the people incarcerated in England. So if you’re calling us racist, then you better call England racist as well and everywhere else this issue is the same as far as the percentage of incarcerated and the percentage of crime versus the percentage of the population itself.
And I wish this was not the case but I’ll give you another example that you I’m sure you don’t know.
There are statistics that indicate that blacks abort more babies by a substantial margin than whites, or Hispanics as an example
And here’s the data that you will probably be shocked to hear
In one year, not too long ago in New York. They were more black babies aborted then were born alive. You can Google this….
In fact, I urge the blacks, and WISH if this is true to stop aborting children at the apparent current rate… because frankly, the statistic also said if blacks were aborting at a substantially lower rate, the black population of the United States would currently be 38% instead of 14%.
And I am amongst the least racist person in earnest.
And you were obviously in denial of the fact that women were actually given a reprieve from the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Donald Trump himself said I’m not going to be an authoritarian and mandate that as a federal law he said instead let the voters of every state decide what to do about this issue. He gave it back to the states and took it away from federal authoritarianism once the Supreme Court overturned Roe… and now every state can choose, and have its VOTERS
choose how to handle that issue. That’s the way democracy works by a voice of the people not by the dictum of the Federal government
If you wanna look at it another way, no problem, but those are the facts on the ground.
Do us all a favor don’t start talking about history from 200 years ago and applying it to today. The only confederate flags will see your are by right wing lunatics, that have no support from the American public
but 99% of the people in this country have forgotten about the confederacy a long time ago which by the way was a democratic institute… held by the Democratic Party
Did you even read what I wrote? The representation of the black community in this country is exactly the quantity of the black population in this country.
This is a country with an economic system based on merit. Not on special treatment for one person and not the other.
Equality, all men are created equal. Not Some people are created/or treated special.
I've seen similar notes of exasperation for my mentioning the gutting of schools.
Trouble is, this neutering machinery has become totally normalized. Its dynamics, its conceits are fully accounted for in Diane Ravitch's "The Language Police." They go exactly counter to the humanizing of reading whole books and writing essays as used to center American schools.
Worse, those who take the testing for granted also typify our elites who excelled their way into the meritocracy -- and can never in their lives in any public venue cite any novels, memoirs, histories, biographies, travel works, or essay collections.
Testing killed that in them. And so many are so void of humanities that they can't even imagine any link between the vulgarity into which we've descended and the planned, profit-making, juggernaut megalith that arranged and still arranges that descent.
Well, try this then Phil in 1979 when Jimmy Carter enacted the Department of Education, the United States was first in its level of education in the world
30 years later under Democrat control and authoritarian rule it was 18th.
And today it is listed as 40TH. And now that’s over and hopefully school choice will take place and it will be funded and people will get a better education naturally by the statistics of school choice schools.
FYI, Wendy, you'll see I, too, address the same kinds of errors of Balla's steadfast refusal to address the weaknesses of his attributions of causation respecting the supposed decline of the humanities in schooling which, while politically logical are historically false. It is near the very tail end today a comment to RJNetto, our Brit compatriot on HCR Comments.
Please, Hendrik, see Diane Ravitch's "The Language Police."
Her text and her many pages of appendices provide all the factual evidence we need for the organization and causality of what have wrought the testers as well as the corporate textbook packagers.
Phil, wasn’t that the Dulles brothers who organized the overthrow of democracy in Iran and inserted the Shah? They used similar tactics in South America and the Caribbean to promote dictatorships over democracies.
If I’m not mistaken, all this was done to promote US corporate interests and eventual control in those countries.
Bill, exactly so. “All this was done to promote US corporate interests” perfectly summarizes SO MUCH of what politics is and has been about; MONEY and the making and/or controlling more of it.
That’s big “C” Capitalism in a nutshell. The lie is that it has something to do with democracy. It doesn’t. It’s all about maintaining big “O” Oligarchy.
We get to vote as long as the big O’s can keep their thumb on the two parties. Ever wonder why there are still only two?
Bill, far earlier than the post-war era, the USA used its ability to infiltrate and attack sovereign nations for economic gain in what is known by some as the "Second Guano War" and the 1856 Guano Islands Act, which is what "justified" the imperialist invasion of places like Nicaragua and a bunch of islands near Chile and Peru. What is guano, you might ask? It is bat shit. Here's an article on it, but I have known about this for a long time because while I was working on my PhD in medieval history, I had a friend and colleague who was writing his PhD on the Guano Wars and American Imperialism. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23780231241274187
The guano on those islands was actually sea bird shit...often many hundreds of feet deep. It was scooped off and used to fertilize great swathes of the 'Murican Midwest.
Absolutely true, Linda. The colonial mindset of ever expanding greed has never abated.
I keep hearing many historian pundits rinse with the mouthwash that democracies never attack democracies. It’s a wonder anyone considers these people historians.
I suppose if being one of these historians, like Boorstin or Niall Ferguson, was all about well-paid wish fulfillment, then we’d have to deem them true academics rather than the propagandists they actually are.
Except 20 years prior to the Dulles brothers, Major General Smedley Butler was articulating what an earlier generation of elite thugs was using the U.S. military to do for U.S. corporate criminality all over the world.
I should mention little “o” capitalism., commonly known as regulated capitalism. In this instance it remains possible for voters and groups formed by voters to have a say. This has been, off and on, our democracy as we have shared in its benefits. It’s a jagged history and varied in different regions of the country.
The struggle between O and o has always persisted. Our government is entrusted and charged with preventing the development, growth, and spread of monopolies and cartels. US Administrations haven’t been doing a good job of this for quite sometime. The cost of political campaigns, while not a sole indicator, is a good metric of political responsibility. Will it be to the people, or the biggest oligarchs. Note that Obama in large part did crowd sourcing of funds. His success over 8 years changed a lot. One thing was an over-the-top effort to reestablish oligarchic control.
What else would you call Citizens United … all the “citizens” are hidden. Kinda like the recent ICE reports of assaults on “officers”.
These organizations, while Capitalist, are anti-free market and destroy democracy. They are oligarchic and when threatened move to direct autocracy. What we see now.
In summary, regulated capitalism establishes free markets while admitting real and effective public control. Unka Miltie type unregulated Capitalism creates the oligarchic control of society along with bust and boom national economic performance (a process similar to milking a reluctant cow always for the benefit of the oligarchy) that we have been seeing for quite a long time with only single administrative moments of respite.
We are the people. It rests with and within us to decide. The challenge isn’t tomorrow, the challenge is now. Right now. And every day thereafter.
Mossadegh nationalized BP. Eisenhower through CIA and MI6 toppled Mossadegh mainly to:
• Protect Western oil access and development
• Contain communism during the Cold War
• Keep Iran aligned with the West
Democracy doesn't always make the best decisions. That's how we got Trump. What it does do is let the people periodically re-evaluate their choice, which neither the Shaw nor Khamenei allowed.
Remember, it's not what you think, it's how you think. Keep an open mind. No one is infallible.
I would argue that Citizens United gave us Trump and several of the Fascist Power Hungry so-called Republicans. Greed, power, hate and arrogance all contributed.
The best I could do, trying to figure out who to trust most back in post WWII period when power vacuums could allow the worse actors to gain power they would never willingly relinquish is sort of summed up in the following answer I sent to what I presumed to be on the hard core side, unwilling to consider how softer power was more effective. I considered George Kennan to be the more careful type using a bit softer power to avoid those power vacuums that others will exploit.
My unmodified beliefs at the time:
To me, it seemed the change from OSS to CIA brought a harder, less, effective line against fears of anything remotely near communism or even the mildest socialism, seeing the world in either black or white (to me more of a fault I associated with the Dulles brothers, whom I suspect might have actually believed everything they thought, no matter how much evidence there was to the contrary). Those I knew many years past seemed to have a higher regard for the first CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith and George Kennan (to me because they could see changes and differences in Soviet countries and China, which was much further from Soviets than the Dulles brothers could grasp or admit).
"...John Foster Dulles was a dullard and a prig. “He was driven to find and confront enemies, quick to make moral judgments, and not given to subtlety or doubt,” the former New York Times reporter Stephen Kinzer writes in his new biography of the Dulles brothers. In 1957, Foster (as he was familiarly known) gave his sister Eleanor a Christmas present of “several yellow legal pads” and a check. Kinzer quotes the British politician Harold Macmillan, summarizing a meeting with the Eisenhower administration’s dour new secretary of state: “His speech was slow, but it easily kept pace with his thoughts.”
Allen Dulles was in many ways the more outgoing and high-living brother, a genial satyr and an eternal dilettante in the world of covert action. As Kinzer notes, his mind was characterized by “distraction, inability to focus, lack of attention to detail, [and] aversion to rigorous debate.” He deflected serious discussion with funny anecdotes and baseball stories. As the administratively indifferent director of the CIA, he became so excited over Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels that he asked his subordinates if they could duplicate some of 007’s fantastic tools and weapons. In the words of the writer Burton Hersh, “He remained an actor, Mr. Chips doing intelligence.”
Together, these two brothers exercised extraordinary power over their nation and their world, a closely connected pair of willfully obtuse colossi who shaped much of the twentieth century like a plaything. Leading foreign policy during the postwar zenith of American power, the brothers Dulles casually overthrew or helped to overthrow foreign governments in Guatemala, Iran, and the Congo (and tried to overthrow Sukarno, the founder of Indonesia). They helped jump-start the emerging disaster in Vietnam, plotted to kill the leaders of other nations (with the assistance of the CIA’s “health alteration committee,” which arrived at agency stations bearing tubes of poisoned toothpaste for absurdly conceived attacks on foreign statesmen), and collaborated to steer their government into a long crisis of blindness and hysteria. Apprehending real but misperceived Soviet power everywhere, they insisted on seeing postcolonial nationalism and the political neutrality of many nations as Kremlin schemes; in their reading of events, the Bandung Conference of newly independent and nonaligned Asian and African nations was a “communist road show.” Differences in time and place couldn’t change their binary view of a world divided only between Communism and freedom. Foster “treated Nikita Khrushchev just as he had treated Stalin” and joined a Washington consensus that regarded Maoist China as a “pawn of the Soviet Union.” Under the Dulles brothers’ joint guidance, American foreign policy vanished into “a fog of unexamined assumptions.”
Remarkably, we are still paying the costs of those unexamined assumptions, particularly in the Middle East. The policy efforts of the Dulles brothers, intended to produce stability in the postwar world, often did the opposite. “Foster and Allen never imagined that their intervention in foreign countries would have such devastating long-term effects,” Kinzer argues. “Their lack of foresight led them to pursue reckless adventures that, over the course of decades, palpably weakened American security.”
Two exceptionally important stories take up the bulk of Kinzer’s book, and both are told with considerable insight and disciplined prose. The first is the tale of the “secret world war” of American violence and political subversion in the early half of the Cold War, and this is the story Kinzer most clearly wishes to tell. The second, closely related, is an institutional saga of the consequences that arose from the shared power of two brothers who simultaneously ran the CIA and the State Department—the covert and public faces of American foreign policy. As Kinzer writes, the Dulles brothers, under the influence of their mutual affinity, built a “reverberating echo chamber for their shared certainties.” The State Department and the CIA made decisions by the process of one brother picking up the phone and calling the other. Argument and analysis were plowed under the family consensus as a matter of course...
... “When their own envoys advised them to tolerate Mossadegh and Árbenz, or to accept neutralist regimes in Indonesia and Laos, they could not hear,” Kinzer writes. Even those officials who weren’t formally replaced could simply be shoved aside if they argued against the consensus. An unnamed foreign-service officer contended in a meeting that Árbenz “might be only a homegrown nationalist unconnected to the Kremlin,” for example, and Undersecretary of State Walter Bedell Smith did the expected work of a senior official, duly toeing the Dulles line: “‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Smith told the offender. ‘Forget those stupid ideas and let’s get on with our work.’” ..."
Right or wrong, I believed, and still believe, that George Kennan was more discerning and effective. I do wonder about Bedell Smith and the comment he made above, since I thought he was more sensitive to differences and realities of the likely reaction of people in countries such as Iran and Guatemala. People who knew Kermit Roosevelt agreed with what I'd read about Kermit Roosevelt participating in the overthrow of Mossadegh because it was much more of a 50/50 split within the Iranian people, Mossadegh was being mislead by Russian influence, and we had Oil interests in replacing the British interests (which Iranians I've talked to saw as 85% advantages to Britain, 15% to Iran). The same people saw the American deal as more of an acceptable 60/40 split, the best deal they could get from any country or group of countries.
Kermit never made apologies for Iran (which he saw as 50/50), but he refused Eisenhower's idea that he could do the same in Guatemala. He wouldn't do Guatemala, as people I trust said, because the Armas Military group only had the support of 12% of the people compared to 88% for Arbenz.
I guess I look at it like a master mechanic, who has the best tools and uses the better ones for any given situation.
[The Shah thought he needed an equivalent of the repressive regimes secret police. i don't know who led him to that or went along with it, but it was seemingly very different than what we did in other countries right after WWII ended]
Agree with your shameful historic references, but disagree that Dems are paralyzed or impotent. Rather, they’re attempting to right this ship legally, within the confines of the law. Can you imagine if masked, unidentified “agents” started to abduct Republicans, ICE, etc. and ferry them off to some unknown detention processing center without a warrant ….. surely the reason could be that they’re “dangerous, illegal criminals” and we’re just keeping America safe.
Thank you for your comment! Not enough Americans know the history of the CIA coup in 1953 on behalf of the British Petroleum industry, because the Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh wanted to nationalize the Iranian oil industry. At the time John Foster Dulles was the US Sec. of State, & his brother Allen Dulles was head of the CIA. The Dulles brothers had a lot to answer for in the 1950s! Stephen Kinzer's excellent book entitled "The Brothers" tells us that the coup in Iran was just the 1st of many such CIA operations. They then installed the hated Shah, which years later led to the Iranian revolution & years later the taking of hostages at the US embassy in Teheran.
Next would be the CIA coup in 1954 of the democratically elected President of Guatamala, Jacobo Arbenz, on behalf of the US United Fruit Company ( Chiquita Banana) because Arbenz wanted to nationalize the coffee fincas. That beautiful country has not been the same ever since then.
Quite right. The CIA laid the foundation for the massively corrupt Shah of Iran before his downfall and the rise of religious extremism in Iran. It's ironic that the U.S. created so many problems it's now trying to solve with force. If I were an Iranian I'D hate us, too.
Yeph, Phil. that "red scare" was a powerful thing. I just watch Number 24 on Netflix. It is a true story about the most decorated Norwegian from WW2. It is worth the watch in just the first few minutes when he and his friend are discussing the coming Nazi aggression. His friend comments that the Nazis would prevent them from becoming Moscow. Americans in the U.S. felt the same way as documented in Prequel by Rachel Maddow.
Phil, Add to your narrative the CIA experiments outlined in Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine: breaking people down with tortures so they could "rebuild" the kind of acquiesent yet productively working serf. All they did was destroy people's sanity. This mindset was at the core of neoliberalism as it got applied by dictators like Pinochet in Chile, another dictatorship set up by CIA coup to get rid of a "socialist" leaning democracy that threatened American business interests in the 70s. All aided and abetted and carried out by the Chicago School of Economics and Milton Friedman and both Republicans and Democrats busily hollowing out country after country, including the USA once they figured out that economic shocks in a democracy were almost as effective as actual violence. The Trump regime is reverting and regressing, using both violence and economic tactics because the violence feeds their racism more.
Blue state Democrats are suing, protesting, speaking out, being arrested, being assassinated, and having people accusing them of doing nothing. The problem is…:oh, Heather, oh my God…
Heather for the love of Joe, save us. Say we aren’t so for the mother of Joe. Save us. Heather, Joe. Please help us for the love of Joe. OMG it was Heather. Oh no. Oh no. Jesus Mary and Joe. Heather is the…OM Joe, Joe Joe ahhhhh. Heather is that you?
If he's pointing out that some are simply running about with their hair on fire and hoping HCR will save them he is correct. HCR can inform us, it is up to us to act.
Until the Substack gods gave us the ability to block the trolls there were many bad pennies. If someone repeatedly gets "out of line" just block them. Easy Peasy.
He's right though. Democrats are fighting back like hell. Just reading Heather's articles and then looking for a savior will NEVER work. Calling people you disagree with or whose posts you don't immediately understand "trolls" won't work either ;-).
I don't call anyone I disagree with a troll. This troll has been on this site off and on as a troll provacateur for a long time. And I see sarcasm in it.
The only way to engage with someone you disagree with is to refute their arguments. It's pretty clear what he's saying here so... any counterarguments, by chance?
So, David, you said, “The problem is…” and then never clearly, definitively, accurately IDENTIFIED or EXPRESSED “The problem.” I’m can only guess you intended to insert some humor, sarcasm, and/or hurtful dialogue into this discussion. As Jesus said, “Do unto others as you have them do unto you.” That is one amazing Golden Thought. So, please, David, what is your perceived problem? Thank you so kindly. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph love ALL of God’s Children.
Actually, Carol, all U.S. states reduced their higher ed funding.
This followed the 1971 Powell memo, and especially the well-funded, well-organized lobbying of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) to gut the public colleges and universities.
All part of the Powell memo's larger plan also to dehumanize K-12, conduct voter suppression, up gerrymandering, ever reduce billionaires' taxes, and eventually get Citizens United (2010).
You can’t blame the Dems alone for all the CIA bullshit. Most happened under Republican rule. And the vast number of Americans knew very little about it. We became wealthy because of the evil our corps and leaders were willing to let loose on the world. Today other countries are aware of our exploitation so the evil doers are turning their ways inward. Raping our own people and lands.
"Now he is back in office, but he remains unpopular." Hitler was very popular among Germans, I believe before he controlled the country. Mr. Trump is not popular. I predict his government will eventually lose its power. DEMS must however come up with a new leader, a star. Sooner the better.
Recent events have shown that we have a nasty habit of demanding perfection from our leaders, of focusing on their flaws instead of highlighting their positive attributes. I prefer that we strengthen the leaders we have now in Congress and state houses, and nurture the next generation of dynamos.
Yes. Best I can tell, Kamala Harris' imperfections are that her skin tone is slightly darker than a "whiter shade of pale" and she is presumed to be missing a penis.
It's not just presidential candidates but all Democrats in elected office. We eat our own, which allows those in opposition to do worse. It's not just that we eat our own, it's that we are really bad at not standing up to the opposition or, as happened yesterday with Clyburn's endorsement of Cuomo, we can't let go of the past.
No argument from me, MisTBlu ... I just gave Harris as a glaring example. I coined a statement years ago: "In people, things or ideas, the greatest strength is also the greatest weakness."
The Democratic Party really is a "big tent." With broad inclusiveness comes diversity of opinion. With that comes the extreme risk of undisciplined messaging and circular firing squads.
We build our boats out of steel, aluminum, fiberglas, cardboard, duct tape and spit. They never float very well.
Back in 2015, when Donald took his fateful escalator ride and announced his candidacy, more than half of Republicans were appalled! A faction of "Never Trumpers" even formed. But within a few months, they all forgot their objections and circled the wagons in his favor.
Right-wing politicians in elected office must be overthrown before it is too late. The coup in progress now will become ever more violent as the fascists wield their power to amass even more power and must be stopped.
Politicians who refuse to protect and defend the Constitution as they vowed to do must be removed from power and replaced with pro-democracy patriots. Let the people who want to live under fascist rule move to Russia. Our country would be much better without them.
Agree with everything you say except I can't endorse the "let them move to Russia" argument as that's precisely what has been thrown at Democrats for decades.
That's understandable but it's also true that there are many youngish politicians, particularly on the right, whose values are stuck in an era that they didn't live through but think of as fantastic.
What stands out to me is that the poll numbers quoted here show that Trump is indeed extremely popular. Taking into account ALL that is happening..... 46% is very close to 50.
Almost everyone reading and commenting here follow politics and understands what is going on and what is at stake.
When does a single parent working multiple jobs for $10 an hour have time to spend even 10 minutes a week to following politics?
Most of us are able to read HCR's newsletter without interruption, sometimes multiple times and then read the comments here. When you ride public transportation to your job when are you supposed to do what we do?
Not only that, but in addition, show up to work without an attitude and perform your work and then go home and tend to the needs of your family. Now that is real working class existence. Right there.
Exactly, which is why I feel a duty to offer time, attention, and action for those who can't. I ignored current events during most of my life, but not now! Taking in a lot helps me know when to pass what's relevant at opportune times.
EXACTLY! I know more now about how the government works, the law and how various policies and politicians affect how we can prosper--or not--than ever I did when I worked 9 hours/day with an hour's drive commute, with two --separated--days off to do housework, bills, shop for groceries and run the various errands necessary to keep the car running, registered, inspected. And I didn't have kids--which would have added more hours and 3 or 4 (or more) levels of stress to my life. Now that I have retired, I have time to inform myself and read 4 substacks and the comments (and oft times I have learned as much from the comments of all the other informed folk as from the substack article itself).
It's little wonder young folks with jobs, kids, mortgages and all the rest, have no time to inform themselves about politics. The media is no help, having abdicated their job to inform honestly. How can we reach these frantically busy people with the truth?
GJ, perhaps inadvertently, you once again highlight the we/they nature of this struggle between the 95-98% of us who must work for our income every day and the people with MONEY.
Have you ever seen the questions in those polls? Every one I ever got from Issa when he was our rep was worded so you would be giving him an answer that would work out in their favor. Some are so deliberately skewed for the results they want.
Judy, as near as I can figure, they really do support him. Don't ask me how a cadre of former cops, who wore (I can attest because I was right there along side them) the uniform, displaying the badge of office, and without a mask hiding our identity. We all had the option of listing our department address on all our "public" information (DL, Vehicle Registration) so as to avoid the potential of someone locating our home address. We all had to have "probable cause" before stopping a vehicle, or contacting a "suspicious subject" and making any sort of inquiry. If it was for the purposes of serving a warrant, that warrant had to be confirmed and validated. If it was for a traffic violation, there had to be a specific statute that was citable.
The only way that I see that they can see nothing wrong with either the "sweeps of a bus stop where brown people are" or "attending court at a scheduled time" is probable cause for detention is that the "information sources" they consume have somehow convinced them that these are necessary methods to combat the problem. I really don't get it.
God it hurts my heart to believe that people are that cruel and selfish. Fox, OAN etc have a major share of responsibility but it still makes me sick! The IQ of people is dropping maybe? This country has ignored its violent, racist past for such a long time and MAGA seems to have given permission for either denying that it ever happened or worse yet, make it a thing to be proud of! As you can tell I am not hopeful for us. At 79 years old, this is not my country anymore.😳
Education funding has been cut back repeatedly since Reagan's well-known animosity to education (especially college education) somehow became popular. the Republicans have discovered that it easier to persuade, misinform and control ignorant people than educated people
Yes, we have leaders but they are too polite, milder than necessary, look what the maga thugs are doing, no regard to law, masked and armed, no car numbers, like a gang of terrorists, while we look at them and allow to kidnap and arrest citizens just in front of out eyes. They dared to arrest Senators and judges! Where in the world is that allowed, why we do it? We should form armed militias, trained to fight, to guard the courts and fight these thugs. Maybe arrest some and put them in jail without due process, let them feel it on their own skin. Let them learn to respect the law and the legal rights of people, not do whatever their Big Brother dictates between naps and golf matches.
We have no president, this country has no government, we are occupied by a gang of terrorists that imposed us a fascist regime, illegal by all means. To not mention their total incompetence in everything they do!
I don’t understand this. What do you mean;” off the road”. Liberals tend to be intelligent and educated, have independent opinions. If all these people quit the process who will be left with you?
Gee, Janis. That sounds like a deplorable statement to me. The Democrats may have leaders, but the base is as nuts as the MAGA base. That’s my opinion over 50 years of following politics and voting in all but the Bush-Gore election. The only reason I’ve been voting for Democrats is because they’re a far less scary option than Trump.
I have been one of the democratic base for those 50 years plus 10. I don’t consider myself nuts, but I surely agree that Democrats are the less scary option, has always been so and they are not bat shit crazy. Not perfect and some do feel that the good is the enemy of the perfect. They could use a ruthless gene that the repubs have an overabundance of. Bipartisanship is dead, dead, dead
And yet, almost every day Heather gives us a page of history showing that exactly the same thing happened a century ago. Or less - the rise of fascism is worldwide.
Who said, in individuals, madness is rare. In groups, etc. it is the norm. Or something like that. Fox has incubated and promoted the seeds of madness for decades, Rupert has been kicked to the curb in some countries, but others take up the mantle. And then the tech bros slimed onto the global stage…
"The good is the enemy of the perfect" is quite a rational and wise description of the frustration I've felt with some Democrats. Still, I will vote for them as long as we're allowed until MAGA is dead.
I agree, the roll over and show your belly is often the expectation, or maybe a subdued roar. Teddy K signing on to W’s bs really floored me. I see a lot of that with this current crowd, and then there are the Kristin Gillibrand’s.
They are there. But what's needed is a real body of support, not just on protest days. How? This isn't an easy one, particularly with the proliferation of untrustworthy electronic information channels. It's increasingly urgent. "Madness in great ones must not unwatched go". And meanwhile he continues to desecrate/destroy the White House. The Rose Garden lawn has gone - dug up - it's going to be paved. I wonder it hasn't been turned into a swimming pool (I guess he doesn't look too good in the water). Giant flagpoles fore and aft. The plans are drawn up for the ballroom. (But he doesn't look too good on the dance floor either). Mar-a-Pennsylvania Avenue.
He told the American people if they voted for him there would never be need for another election! Any one remember Ann Landers, "wake up and smell the coffee burning" HE IS CRAZY,SICK AND A DEGENERATE BUT HE HAS THE POWER. I REALLY AT THIS POINT DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE POLLS. WE HAD A GREAT DAY
A WEEK AGO. We need a great day every single day. We need a demonstration in DC EVERY DAY! THAT CLEARLY SCARED THE S. OUT OF HIM. IF WE TAKE MILITARY
ACTION ON IRAN I THINK IT WILL BE THE END OF US, CERTAINLY OUR ECONOMY. WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PROTECT OUR ASSETS OR OUR MEN AND WOMEN IN SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY. AND OUR TRUSTED ALLIES NOW HAVE NO RESPECT FOR US. WHERE WILL WE TURN. THE TERRORISTS WILL COME TO GET US. The AUTHORITARIANS ARE WINNING . THEIR SUBLIMINAL PROPAGANDA IS GRASPING MORE EVERY DAY . WHILE THE DIVERSIONS OF CRAZINESS EXPLODE EVERY DAY WE ARE CRISIS WEARY AND RETREAT FARTHER INTO CONFUSION. THATS THE PLAN CONFUSE THEM, PARALIZE THEM AND ACT. THIS TREASONIST CRAZY MAN STORMED OUR CAPITAL, MAIMED AND KILLED PEOPLE ,AND STILL WE DO NOTHING... EXCEPT MAKE HIM PRESIDENT. I AM WRITING MY SENATORS EVERY DAY REPUBLICANS BOTH. ONE WROTE ME BACK SUGGESTING I CONTACT ANOTHER SENATOR WHO REPRESENTS ME BECAUSE HE IS NOT THE RIGHT ONE.
IT'S ALL PLAYING OUT, READ THE 2025 MANIFESTO AGAIN. SORRY FOR THE RANT!
Don't be sorry for the rant, it was good stuff, but please no CAPS! it looks like Trump, very off-putting. !) Google this (Bernie Sanders on YouTube): Trump: Don't Drag the US Into Netanyahu's War with Iran..
I heard the same speech and it scared me! It is not Trump alone as anyone with common sense must know! There are powerful, wealthy people pulling the strings of this Republican Party.
Our country is rushing toward the great abyss as most citizens are going to work, trying to pay their bills, children and young adults in school, many in college and also working to pay bills. In other words, with little time to complain other than with friends.
My husband and I have been to three "NO KINGS" gatherings. A great variety of American citizens were present ie all ages, all skin colors, all levels of education or social status, military, those in wheelchairs, even little children with their parents..... Standing or sitting together as Americans is such an honor.
Lou, on another topic which is heartrending to me: we cannot ignore the starvation of the population ie those hanging onto life during this horrible conflict taking place in Gaza and now if Trump sets off a bomb in Iran...the huge disaster it will create for innocent citizens.....the destruction it will bring to the land and to the population near by.
What if another country chose to bomb our air force, army or marine/navy headquarters at various times in various locations???? What if they planned to kill our greatest leaders in government or military? We recently experienced the murder of a beloved couple who were living a life of service for our country.
We should think deeply before even considering any of the actions Trump is just "carelessly throwing out" to destroy an area which is being used to enrich uranium which can be used to make a bomb...in the future.
This is insane!!! What if every country with the ability to make a bomb or those countries with a bomb were attacked as Trump is considering bombing Iran???? Trump is insane and Netanyahu is laughing at the crazy choices Trump is willing to make!!!!
As HCR explained already, now is NOT the time for ONE leader to arise. Now is the time for WE THE PEOPLE to join all Democrats and fight back, including taking risks. It's the time for us to meet, brainstorm around what future we want, come up with our own Project 2028, be interested in disagreements and counterarguments etc. This is the creative stage of fighting back. A leader is there to REPRESENT the people. So first, WE need to get our $hit together.
They will never tell, all they do is secret, they formed a paramilitary force all over the country with maga thugs. They have weapons, masks, and travel in U-Haul vans without windows! Another illegal practice. Someone called U-Haul for that, they may have changed the vans but no visible faces anyway. Despicable people, horrible mentality.
How many are not even ICE agents but are used anyway and completely lacking training? They are the violent, take them down mentality and initiate the violence.
Here in Maine, there is a new very quiet movement going on.
Democrats are re registering as Republicans....
Why? So we can vote in Republican primaries.
This simple and very stealth / private action allows us to select the most unelectable / crazy ass Republican primary candidate from their own barrel of bad apples. We move them up to become their top contestant.
The Retrumpicans have to waste their money, time, breath and lies campaigning their worst case candidate.
We can take Susan ( "he seems like such a nice young man") Collins out in the primaries.....gosh what fun....
Paul, I started out as a Republican until I got a bellyful of their nonsense as early as 2003, and changed my registration to non-party Independent. Lately, I have actually considered returning to the R's for exactly the same reason you have mentioned. I probably won't because I get inundated enough by Republican propaganda as is. One of them even came to the door to harass us the day I got out of the hospital from major surgery. I didn't know or care who he was at the time and told him I didn't care what he was selling, this was not a good time. He grumbled an angry apology and stalked off. Right after he left, I hand wrote a "No Solicitors!" sign on the door.
If some masked people try to snag me or someone else off the street (especially in an unmarked vehicle & no warrant), I’d be on 911 calling actual law enforcement. This is Gestapo methods.
Keep your pressure on every ‘representative/senator/ floor walker gov’t worker’ you have names for. Daily .. hourly if you have the time to do this deluge approach.
You’ll feel powered by strengths greater than yourself ! Do it for so many of us who don’t have the time/luxury to participate via phone ! And THANK YOU SO MUCH!
They did not throw him anywhere, he chose to resign and they agreed. He saw the difference with Kamala and she won, he was right. If Musk would not have “cooked” the election, Kamala would be president today. Biden chose the country not his ego. Trump did not get elected, they cheated and we know how, the investigations started already. Musk will talk, he already did look in X. In front of prison he will tell all and ask immunity. If you have the delusion that all this circus will end with Trump triumphant, you are very wrong. In history dictators end with a bullet in their heads or worse.
That’s exactly what I am talking about. His attitude and illegality allow people to do the same. Empowers any idiot to sustain the same lies as he does and creates chaos. He stole the elections, he said it, Musk said it. Where did go the 300 millions spend in election? Maybe maga does not care now but we care, he’s destroying the country and that will not pass, we will not allow it, no matter what.
People have died for this Democracy, it will not become a terrorist third world trap-hole!
The fact that he prints millions of T-shirts and baseball caps only underlines the mercurial nature of his presidency, nothing else. They already started to feel the lies, nothing from what he promised in campaign is done, they lose their businesses in the middle agricultural country, no workers, businesses close, restaurants, hotels, have no people to work, read the news here, not the corporate media, many people post what is going on in their places. He is a convicted felon rightly and will stay as long as he’s alive, no one can take his crown achievement, 34 convictions!
Clinton lied as any decent man would do when talking about a sex and the woman, it was very normal to lie. He did not forced her, was what she wanted. At 21 she was mature enough to do it. He made the mistake to talk about it, I would have resented the question to begin with and throw them all out!
Completely agree. Does it make sense for folks to start calling 911 to report kidnappings in progress when they see “agents” engaging in these anonymous tactics?
The demented part of my mind thinks how easy it would be to hire guys to dress like ICE then go to their homes while they are out kidnapping people. Maybe kidnap their wives for a week, no explanation or communication, and leaving the American born children to fend for themselves of course.
It could teach these proud boys something about the world around them. They sure need to learn compassion if not what/who caused the conditions in other countries, and here, to make people want to migrate.
But don’t worry folks, I’ve never acted upon my “demented thought” side… yet.
That’s exactly what I said, but not wives, them. Arrest a few, put them in a basement, no phones, no communication, jailed waiting for someone to find them. They will change the politics immediately.
If some masked guy with no uniform or official identification touches me I will defend myself as is my right. That stranger could be there to rape me. You cannot claim assault when you’re the person who initiated the attack. It’s self defense. We have stand your ground laws in this country. I had never quite associated those masks with the KKK as Heather said. Where are their body cams? Why can they never prove their claims?
Please post your song to Voices of Dissent. It needs better content than the geek-musician entries it started with. Let’s unify our voices. Together we are stronger. We can still forge our own paths, but let’s come together in one place to amplify our collective rage.
We are deep into 1984 territory. If you're not sure of that, read the book again. Rewriting the truth, presenting lies as truth, forbidding and punishing contrary thinking, etc. All straight out of Orwell.
And direct from Trump’s pile of Executive Orders, don’t forget the ever handy “memory hole”
“A memory hole is any mechanism for the deliberate alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts or other records, such as from a website or other archive, particularly as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened.[1] The concept was first popularized by George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, where the Party's Ministry of Truth systematically re-created all potentially embarrassing historical documents, in effect, re-writing all of history to match the often-changing state propaganda. These changes were complete and undetectable.”
When comparing Trump to past tyrants the proper attribution is Augsto Pinochet not Hitler. The Chilean dictator’s use of paramilitary goons to “disappear” political opponents is exactly what Trump is setting up with the masked gangs of supposed ICE, FBI, DEA, and other “law enforcement” organizations as they sweep American streets “accidentally” detaining American Citizens. Once they are rendered to foreign concentration camps they will be gone forever.
It is impossible to determine the legitimacy of these masked, unidentified goons who wear an array of official looking combat gear.
My neighbor, 89, grew up in a little village on the German side of the Rhine near the border with France. She remembers how the Nazis took power and she is terrified she’s seeing the same thing again. So am I.
Any person wearing a mask and not in uniform must be regarded as a thug intent on kidnapping and extortion. Defend yourselves. We all must do that, and we all must come to the aid of persons targeted by thugs. Or else, “Heil Hitler.”
I know of no civilized country on earth that permits its law enforcement to conceal their faces, hide their identities, not display proper credentials, ignore judicial warrants. Not one. On the other hand, I can think of dozens of tin-horn dictatorships, satrapies, rinky-dink thug states and narco-territories where criminal gangs --- in uniform or not --operate with total impunity and anonymity, threatening, arresting, beating up, terrorizing, raping anybody they feel like, anytime they want, using any pretext they want -- or none at all.
Republicans degrade themselves everyday with their silence, association and complicity with this evil. As Liz Cheney once said, 'one day, the name of Donald Trump will be a distant memory, but your dishonor will remain.'
Thank you for this reminder. Your post should be copied and sent to every GQP representative and senator who kisses the ring of this regime every time they try to push the narrative that this regime is pushing.
I wonder what would happen if a citizen tried to defend a victim from these unidentified "ICE agents" and, if charged, claimed as a defense that they could not tell if the "agents" were legitimate law enforcement or vigilante thugs?
Yes. Geheime Staatspolizei, aka Gestapo, has reincarnated here in the United States.
If only the media sought out people like your neighbor for interviews, especially as witnesses to the atrocities are fewer and fewer. It is remarkable that you have direct insights from her.
ICE states that masking is necessary and that wearing easily read identification would subject his agents to doxxing. Our police don't wear masks. The do wear identification on their uniforms. In many places, they even activate their cameras if they are arresting someone.
Our police are not in danger of being doxxed. They live and work in our communities, and in small towns like mine, they know many of the residents since we are their neighbors. ICE agents, on the other hand, are not part of our communities. I don't know if making their names and faces public would lead to doxxing, but the assumption that it would, the assumption that it is necessary to protect them from the people whose safety they are supposed to be guaranteeing, is both insulting and preposterous.
Yes, in fact most police are well-known and respected…tough job, we need good cops! These wanna-best’s may not even be federal employees? How do we know they are from some other contractors…really?
Betsy, I have been seeing reports of men claiming to be ICE agents--wearing masks and no ID of course--who are invading women's homes and sexually assaulting and kidnapping them. This is one of those moments when opportunism on the part of the most despicable people is going to grow. And unfortunately, using the traditional methods of going through the courts, signing petitions, and begging political representatives for help is not going to work. I recommend the tactics we all had to invent (and still have to use) to protect women going to health clinics that the anti-women's-bodily-autonomy groups had targeted. Surround people with a wall of people who link arms and who walk them through the gauntlet. And alert the press and take videos and post them everywhere.
Not substantiated, but I read a post on FB this morning that some protesters are throwing glitter on "ICE" masked agents, which of course they cannot get off their clothes and which identifies them. I think this is an excellent idea.
There is a network in MA and other states that alerts members to possible ICE operations nearby so that there is documentation of what is happening. This can only work in the case of outdoor activity, not in the case of home invasions.
If they operate in a legal, aboveboard manner, they have no reason to hide their identity and the agency they work for.
Only criminals and cowards hide who they are. If they observe everybody's Constitutional rights, they don't need to hide who they are, and if they don't, they deserve to be doxed, and society should cancel them so they live in shame for the rest of their lives.
For a significant portion of law enforcement officers, the protests allow them to abuse people, and that is the reason they became cops to begin with. They are happiest when they can abuse innocent non violent citizens.
I admit I would like to smack Karoline after all her snippy lies. It’s infuriating. I hope some day she can look at herself and honestly come to terms with who she’s been.
She's stopped wearing that cross necklace after being mocked by the Daily Show's John Stewart and she's been mercilessly parodied by the brilliant Lisandra Vazquez on YouTube. For those who may missed this:
I love the tinky-tink musical background going on behind her as she heaves and sighs, condescends and smirks. Reminds me of the scene in Jurassic Park when Sam Neill and Laura Dern have to first sit through some little vile Microsoft "Clippy" character explaining 'the science of DNA' to them.
Lisandra is great -- her breathing like the White House criminal's press room bimbo, her repeat sucking up to the criminal, her repeat echoing of the White House criminal's scorn for the Dem who soundly beat him, and her great substitution for the faux-Christianity gold emblem she always wore as sop to the White House criminal's mobs of hate-filled white supremacists.
All his Spokesbarbies are connected by a giant string in their backs. Like Chatty Kathy, you yank the cord, and some pre-programmed bullshit falls out of their mouths.
The corruption and criminality immersion is just too total. None of these people have any grounding in any humanities -- so no awareness at all of what humanity might be.
It's all just categorical, stereotyped group warfare by our most perverted who can see life only by the poisoned abstractions in which they've long sunk.
The world is full of countries now ruled by such, helping each other expand lies and violence, wars, genocide, and upped toxic scenarios and billionaire algorithms as if only they be the central victims thus justified and needing to poison more, lie more, destroy more.
Phil, I have no doubt that some of what ails them can be attributed to lack of humanities in schools. That said, some are not ready to study some things at high school level. I can give myself as an example. In 10th or 11th grade we read Great Expectations; I “got it” in the sense that I understood the plot and appreciated some of the word play and descriptive passages, but i didn’t *really* get for a number of years. A Tale of Two Cities I got right away, reading it just on my own maybe a year later. Wish we had read that first.
However, I don’t think we should lay all of the blame on schools and curricula. I think those billionaires acting in ways that now amount to mass murder suffer twice or thrice the usual allowance of greed and selfishness in their systems. I don’t know if they were born that way, or if they suffered horrors as children, but for the sake of humanity I take leave to hope they very soon suffer a Road to Damascus experience, and settle down to — as far as possible repent and atone.
I agree and understand, Karoline is extremely infuriating and disrespectful to so many reporters and journalists. But her smugness, caustic manner and condescension diminish any prospect for your hope and qualifies her for some other c word.
It has been noticed that Leavitt's press conferences have become shambolic. This clip shows one of them deteriorating into a cheery conversation between two Karens.
"...Only 46% of respondents approve of Trump’s job performance, while 54% disapprove." The poll numbers speak for themselves, but maybe it should not read "only 46% ..." but "Still 46 % ...approve of trump's job performance". Why is it still 46%?
That 46%, Marli, experienced the rape of their communities by the mass offshoring of their jobs.
They also experienced the cold-blooded rape of their schools by testing.
Add in Fentanyl and other opioids. AR-15s (now 11 million of them). Gerrymandering. Voter suppression. Lack of national single-payer health care. Social media algorithms promoting fear, hatreds, and paranoia. And tax breaks, tax breaks, tax breaks for the billionaire and dark money classes.
I'm getting a little bored with your constant throwing in "testing" when you talk about very serious issues. It actually makes me want to laugh, which is not what you want, I'm sure. Get a little perspective, please.
I've seen similar notes of exasperation for my mentioning the gutting of schools.
Trouble is, this neutering machinery has become totally normalized. Its dynamics, its conceits are fully accounted for in Diane Ravitch's "The Language Police." They go exactly counter to the humanizing of reading whole books and writing essays as used to center American schools.
Worse, those who take the testing for granted also typify our elites who excelled their way into the meritocracy -- and can never in their lives in any public venue cite any novels, memoirs, histories, biographies, travel works, or essay collections.
Testing killed that in them. And so many are so void of humanities that they can't even imagine any link between the vulgarity into which we've descended and the planned, profit-making, juggernaut megalith that arranged and still arranges that descent.
And prepare to be surveilled and to suffer vacuous posts by AI bots and partisan stooges. If you suspect they are obvious trolls, Substack offers mute and block options.
Phil has a story you should know better than to make those comments. Nestor is what created the offshoring of their jobs, and that was done by none other than William Clinton. Which only exacerbated the rate at which people in America wanted to buy the cheapest product possible, even if it were made somewhere else
Because millions of people have to work multiple jobs to provide housing, food, energy, transportation, clothing for their kids and have no time to understand WTF is going on in the world.
And the Fascist Rs want to alter the curriculums so the kids will only learn about white Fascist and Evangelical racists from history.
Did you see the story about Illinois outlawing the banning of books? Hopefully, every state will pass a similar law.
And those millions do all that trying to prepare for the next economic bad thing to happen. Like a trip to the emergency room or having to replace a set of tires or fixing the furnace or............ and so it goes.
It’s actually more than 50% but there are more Democrats in the poll numbers than republicans. And there are more independence now and there have been in a long time
No surprise the latest numbers I saw were 89% of Democrats are against Trump’s policies and 89% of Republicans are in support of Trump’s policies. Ergo with more input from the Democrats, the survey is slightly skewed.
I fear this policy of masked people in unmarked vehicles, with no ID and no warrant is opening the door for human traffickers to do their kidnapping openly and brazenly. Nobody talks about this.
Actually, some people are talking about it, but you have to go to nontraditional sources to read about it. I have seen reports of women being raped and kidnapped by masked men claiming to be ICE agents. Try Daily Beast and the Guardian (I think one of the reports was from that paper).
In 2020 some of these masked agents dragged moms into their black vans. Portland pushed back. Even those people had on uniforms and name tags. These ICE agents today look like posses mustered at the local bar and promised that they could rough people up.
My wife and I just got back from the a farmer’s market where one of the women working at a favorite fruit stand was clearly distracted and upset, she apologized to my wife…’They took my Mother and I don’t know what to do!’
This is a horror beyond horrors, we now have “The Disappeared!”
Chilean horrors of yore have found a new rich home.
Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, as well as those in others. Use your voice and make some “good trouble” ❤️🩹🤍💙
Yes, but contact your friends who live in Republican districts.
Where I live, we have 3 Cuban American Republican House members under tremedous pressure. To influence them plese contact the Cuban American National Foudation, https://www.canf.org/get-involved/contact-us
"Miami’s Hispanic Republicans push back on Trump’s mass-deportation agenda
In letters, public statements and social media posts, Republican lawmakers from Miami are pushing back on President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts. And even some of his most loyal Cuban-American backers are joining the chorus. At a bilingual press conference outside of the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez said he does not agree with Trump’s one-size-fits-all approach to immigration He said cases should be handled on a case by case basis because every immigrant’s situation is different. “We are working hard to express our opinion and let the President and the administration know that there is a better way, a more just way, for the people here in Miami-Dade County. Because they are our neighbors, and productive members of society,” he told reporters.
His remarks come as several Cuban-American officials from Miami, at both the state and federal level, have expressed disapproval and fear regarding the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and policies that heavily target Cubans, Venezuelans, and Haitians — all communities with significant populations in South Florida.
Here's an open letter Miami healthcare CEO Michael “Mike” B. Fernandez wrote the following open letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and members of the Republican Cuban-American Miami-Dade congressional delegation: U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and Maria Elvira Salazar.
"For decades, I have stood with you in defense of the freedoms we cherish, those we were denied in the country of our birth and found in the grace of this one. I know what it means to flee tyranny. Like you, I carry that history in my bones and that pain in my heart.
"But like a growing number in our community, I have watched with dismay as the very values we once found sanctuary in are now being attacked by a previously unthinkable threat — the sitting president of the United States."
It depends on what difference you’re looking for. Some won’t listen if you don’t give a zip or address within their state/district (there’s an office address for each member of Congress listed on the spreadsheet😉).
If they know you’re not in their state/district, your opinion won’t be counted, however I think we can cause little ripples. I’m thinking staff members who hear the same thing over and over via voicemail, phone calls, letter after letter, email after email - maybe they’ll be a little more receptive each time they hear from us. Maybe they’ll talk more about our talking points to friends and family, maybeeee they’ll vote differently (if we get to vote again). I think we can cause ripples to push news organizations to be more honest and maybe even a bit accusatory about what’s happening. As a collective, our volume matters. And, at the end of the day, if we just annoy and overwhelm some staffers working for people hurting the average American, I’m ok with that too 🙃
Probably depends on the individual, IMO. I wish everyone here would write to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) about his smearing of the fallen legislators in Minnesota.
He also needs to hear about how pissed off we are about his to attempt to sell half of all BLM and USFS lands. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah chairs the Senate’s Energy & Natural Resources committee and is responsible for attaching this sale of 250+ million acres of public lands to the Senate budget reconciliation package, the horrid BBB.
I've had success targeting members of specific committees. "Although I do not reside in your district, you are in the important <fill in the blank> committee and therefore do represent my interests".
trumps masked paramilitary ice agents are his version of hilter's brownshirts. They grab brown skinned people off the streets and send them to concentration camps in El Salvadore.
The images of the DHS goon squad dressed in jeans and tees, masks and backwards baseball caps are simply infuriating. And oh, the complete lack of identification as well. I’m sure that this is very satisfying to Herr Miller, but it’s really disgraceful and portends that worse is yet to come.
It's all very amateurish and unprofessional, just like this entire regime is, so unAmerican. These ICE and DHS thugs have an anonymity and unaccountability that should frighten anyone that appreciates their constitutional rights and freedom. It is really disgraceful, even more fascism from this regime letting loose this Gestapo creation that must be reigned in and unmasked.
The distractions continue..."...he is calling for a special prosecutor to investigate claims that the Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election". Isn't it about time that the Dems call for a special investigation that musk & trump and a few engineers stole the 2024 election? I can't get over trump's words that he '...had all the votes [to win] already' before the end of election day.
Hard for Dems to fight back because Trump cultists (which are same as nearly all Republicans) have the majority in the Senate and House, plus the Orange Clown owns the White House and quite a few justices and judges. This makes the 2026 congressional elections so crucial for America. If in 2026 a candidate for any office is a Democrat, vote for that person. Granted, Democratic politicians aren't simon pure, but (1) they don't come close to being as evil as Trump, and (2) Democrats can't accomplish anything if they are not the majority of their organization. Never vote for any Republican again, ever. Character counts but not until you've got a majority....or maybe a bigger gun. But in the latter case, then all bets for Democracy are off the table.
I would expect that I would want to harm a masked, unidentified man (read: creep) who approached me aggressively.
How in the world did the ICE employees agree to be kitted out to scare us?
That’s not the attitude of the officers of the law I’ve known.
Let’s get real people.
This is not acceptable in America. How about a march against this corruption of ICE and bring them back to being Americans….not little despots ( like you know who).
I'm beginning to question whether the ICE agents aren't actually members of domestic militias under contract to ICE. Their highly irregular outfits, the excessive weaponry, and the unnecessary force and disorganized manner of their apprehensions show an enormous lack of professionalism and training.
Doral, mostly Hispanic city, votes to join immigration enforcement partnership with ICE By Verónica Egui Brito and Syra Ortiz Blanes Updated April 21, 2025
What would happen if a city's police force started arresting people running around with guns and masks on their faces? What would happen if a 911 call came in saying a bunch of gang members with guns and masks were assaulting people at the Home Depot? Is it time for a conflict between municipal, county, and state law enforcement and the thugs running loose on behalf of Trump?
In regard to your last question, I suspect it might be on the horizon. In regard to your second question, I bet it is going to happen sooner rather than later. In regard to your first question, at least in this area, if it wasn't under a "high risk warrant" authorizing "special measures of safety" it would be immediate discipline if not termination.
Admittedly this was 30 or so years ago, but I was once dispatched to a call out in a small, rural community where "10 or so armed men, wearing black, are at my neighbor's house, sneaking around." I acknowledged the call when the sarge said "Check with the PD; see if it is them." About 15 seconds later I was disregarded; it was one of our neighboring cities serving a high risk arrest warrant. About a week later, there was an addition to the "policies and procedures" regarding "notifying the local jurisdiction when conducting any operations in their area.
I also had occasion, on several times, to go south into the neighboring county (both my county and the county to the south are about the size of the state of Connecticut) that I was what I termed "playing in their sandbox" making a citizen contact. If I ever had to arrest anyone, I would so advise.
And these practices are enabling criminals who pretend to be ICE agents to assault people. A number of cases of such assaults have been reported.
Do the masked thugs understand how this works? Because now if a group of masked men in fake gear they got at Amazon or an army/cop gear surplus store show up to OTHER masked men in camo, vests and kits who refuse to show ID from a federal office - what’s to stop them from kidnapping the kidnappers or taking them hostage? It’s almost meta waiting to happen-who will the original kidnappers be at this point? Imagine the confusion amongst the groups- thug? Legit ICE or federal agent? Kidnapper of thugs and those dressed like ICE? Criminal gang pretending to be ICE?
Not showing their faces is in some ways more dangerous now than showing a federal ID, a badge, a name, a face.
They say it’s to hide their identities but cops show their faces to arrest people, give tickets, interfere in fights, etc. every day. Many federal agents - unless it’s legit undercover operations- show their faces and carry ID.
Someone who overstayed a work visa or is just here working as a non citizen but not causing a problem is NOWHERE near the same as a drug cartel boss or their affiliates who will use intimidation and threats of officers, a sex trafficking gang member, or a legitimate terrorist cell. It’s like why are you manhandling some dude who just wants to put up drywall or cut lawns and send money home or some college student with a speeding ticket?!
Why give ICE NUMBERS to deport versus actual real targets- sex criminals, murderers, etc? It can only be racism- because instead of focusing on how to make citizenship more attainable- now they attach big price tags and just scoop up immigrant kids with cancer and deport them in the middle of treatment. They arrest people at their hearings for IMMIGRATION ISSUES NOT CRIMES. What a fake ass job to have. “What do you do, Steve?” “Oh I round up people at their job, at immigration court, at elementary schools, terrify them, send them to for profit detention centers miles away and get pats on the back for meeting quotas set up by racists. I’m due at the hospital now- gotta get those bonuses for the pregnant ones, and the seriously ill.”
Imagine going to Canada, overstaying your work visa by a day, and trying to fix it all in court, and suddenly being escorted out of the building you were told to go to to fix your IMMIGRATION problem, put in some random detention center and deported to a country you aren’t even a citizen of with a mix of people like you and maybe 2 criminals?
Do they really think even reasonable conservatives won’t see thru that? How utterly unreasonable that response is? And how it smacks of racism.
Their authoritarian logic,”Oh I see you have a small cut on your arm- let’s just cut off both arms then!”
“Got a headache- here, hit yourself in the head repeatedly with this hammer!”
“Found one poison ivy plant in your yard? Burn up your entire yard!”
After they wreck a “problem,” they distract with a new one so they can strong arm that one, too!
“We burnt down your yard, now we are going to take over your house, because by burning up your yard, we solved a problem. Once we take over your house, we will make the toilets overflow, the doors not work and put holes in your roof and walls, and call it making it safer. Once we determine your house is no longer safe, we will blame you, gaslight you, blow up the house and go back to our own homes, to start over again the next day with a new distracting fake disaster, a new conflict, a new scapegoat.”
Meanwhile, groups of dudes can wear balaclavas or masks, carpenter pants, a hat and vest, jump out of mini vans and kidnap for various mysterious reasons- because who is holding them accountable? No one.
Jen, you and Heather use the term "deport" to describe what ICE is doing. Deportation is a formal legal process against a foreign national, with the individual going through a defined process, including a court proceeding, before one is removed to one's country of origin. What we are experiencing presently is a process where thugs are kidnapping people and sending them out of the country, in some cases to prisons, without any due process at all. This is criminal conduct, perpetrated under color of law, i.e., illegal. The takeaway? Trump's presidency is not an administration but rather a regime. Mass protests alone are not enough. What to do? I'm not sure.
I agree- I think the term deport has lost its true meaning in this current regime. I think we use it because it’s habit to use the correct term for what is supposed to be a NORMAL government process- but it’s no longer that. Many, many things under the current REGIME (administration would have been the normal term to use) are no longer logical, constitutional or ethically sound.
Thus- my whole meta visual of the ICE kidnappers kidnapping each other or being kidnapped.
Kind of like the Spider-Man meme where they are pointing at each other.
How many years has it been that we don't hold the powerful in contempt of the constitution that they signed to protect? So they continue to the corruption as they know no one will hold them accountable. Not the laws, not the courts, not congress, and surely not the corrupt supreme court nor the lame street media.
Julie- Our federal governance has always been somewhat of a peer enforced honor system. Every administration has felt obligated to follow moral codes of ethical behavior. There is no "honor" in this regime now, except to only those who support it. People who support MAGA need to be shamefully embarrassed and relentlessly humiliated by the vast majority of people who oppose them for supporting clearly immoral, anti-democratic, and illegal behavior!
There is no honor among thieves.
Tarantino.
Just a note: HRC says the term is “rendition.”
That's a good term - rendition. It doesn't apply to non-criminals, though the Trump regime is categorizing all as criminals. I feel for those Venezuelans who came to the U.S. to escape danger only to end up in a gulag prison in El Salvador without any hope of ever being released. The cruelty is beyond description. I've never hoped for a hell so much as now so that Trump and his regime members can burn for eternity. The cruelty is palpable. IMO, the ACLU should bring a class action lawsuit to free them from that prison while suing the U.S. for damages, including punitive damages.
I miss the days when "extraordinary rendition" just referred to a Barbara Streisand performance anywhere....
More like rendering fat from meat.
That people are being sent to that hell hole of a prison in San Salvador is of grave concern. There is no vetting going on that I am aware of. They are being sent to this nightmarish place as if they were convicted murders and rapists. What, if any, actual crimes have they committed that would result in a harsh sentence in the US? Driving without a license? Driving with friends in the car, just because they are also not documented? Is it trafficking to bring everyone to work??
If I were still practicing law, I would take their cases on a contingency basis and sue the ever-lovin hell out of the U.S. govt. The punitive damages to be awarded for this should reach to the moon. The depravity that it takes to do something like this is almost unfathomable, except that it is Trump and the MAGATs. The cruelty is unimaginable to me.
Find a way to sue the prisons or punish the government of El Salvador for crimes against humanity. Go after the enablers, the ones following orders or profiting from the corruption at the lowest levels since we can't seem to touch the ones at the top. Cut the legs out from under them.
You make an excellent point on the need to find a new word to describe what the ICE THUGS are doing. With all due respect to HRC, who is a Harvard educated college professor "rendition" is NOT a good term because it's too abstract for the vast majority of Americans. As public communications professional may I suggest "abductions"? Or how about "kidnapping"? (I referred to my synonym reference books and those are the best "easy to understand" terms." ) ABDUCTIONS, KIDNAPPINGS, Let's start this NOW!
Good thought. Abductions and kidnappings are appropriate in these cases, IMO. The perpetrators are thugs. They've taken no oath to uphold any standard of behavior except to do Trump's bidding. What was it that Trump said several years ago about what to do with those who disagree with him? It involved the infliction of physical violence. Perhaps there is progress here that we're overlooking. Not that long ago they tortured them, killed them, lynched them and more. A whole, whole lot of present day MAGATs would be right at home in the Jim Crow South. Trump's racism and that of his executioners is palpable. Should we now start recall efforts of the politicians who support Trump?
It will never happen with the corrupt politicians that are in power.. congress and supremes.
They are being disappeared. Nouning the verb.
A time tested if not universally honored part of the language.
It’s that sort of thing, nouning (if that’s a word) that makes English so versatile.
“ The making of the Oxford English Dictionary was a remarkable achievement, the story of which has been aching to be told. Who better to take on the challenge than the talented story-teller Simon Winchester? With his characteristic gift for bringing history alive, in The Meaning of Everything Simon Winchester charts the fascinating life of the OED leading up to the appointment of the first editor, James Murray, in 1879, through to the OED's triumphant publication in 1928 and beyond. The Meaning of Everything is a must for anyone with an interest in language and words.”
Lame title, superb book.
https://www.powells.com/book/the-meaning-of-everything-9780198607021
What they are doing is more akin to "disappearing" people, since they don't reveal where the captured are being held or sent.
Oops, HCR. Oh well, it’s pride month.
They are "disappearing" people, as authoritarian thugs have done the world over. We are "them" now.
Mass protests are required to get momentum to tackle the real legal issues without resorting to violence leading to guns & more deaths .
Project 25 is telling Trump what to do every inch of the way… Project 25 has been refining their playbook since the 1980’s and before.
They do not arrest drug cartel bosses, they get money from them. Why do you think there are still drugs in America? Today, they have all the tools to catch them, but they get paid! It’s a lucrative business like the prisons for profit, they never stop having clients, police brings them, gets paid and everyone is making money. Probably half of the people detained are in prison for minor offenses, and should not be there.
This practice to hire companies to keep prisons it’s insane and must be illegal. Next presidency should look into it, we have the biggest number of incarcerated people in the world!
Prisons for profit! Who invented the concept? Must be a republican, hungry for some easy earned dollars helped by police and thugs working together in visible corruption, legally!
Same with the sex traffickers.
Simon, any idea how much $ the twump family gets as their cut from the for- profit prisons? Remember how much $ those 'private' boot camp places that abused kids? Wonder how many of them had to pay back some $ or fund help groups for the abused kids.
They make enough selling their bitcoin, I don’t think they take money from prisons, that’s for police and the prison owners.
George Zoley GEO, for one: https://www.geogroup.com/about-us/history-timeline/
Thomas Beasely, Robert Crants, T Don Hutto and a lot of muckety muck republicans from the state of Tennessee.. CORE CIVIC.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoreCivic..originally, Corrections Corporation of America...seems like you already have the idea
It is unbelievable to me that prisons are companies paid by the government to incarcerate people. It is common sense that fraud and corruption will be the main occupation of the owners. In collaboration with police, that will bring them a constant flow of “clients” they all make money from our taxes and keep thousands of people incarcerated. No wander we have the highest number of incarcerated people on the planet! If it’s a business it must be successful, no doubt.
Like our health system, another imoral business, making money (lots of them) from suffering people.
https://substack.com/@thefrankconversnation/note/c-125060472?r=1s95aw&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Remember “Spy vs Spy”, Mad Magazine?
The author and NPR host Kurt Anderson founded Spy magazine and hosted NPR's Studio 360 for 20 years. Both him and Ginni Thomas attended Westside High School in Omaha, NE. Here is an interesting tid-bit from his Wikipedia page-
"Andersen was born in Omaha, Nebraska. Growing up, he lived across the street from Ginni Thomas. He graduated from Westside High School. While a student at Harvard College, he was an editor and vice-president of the Harvard Lampoon. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard."
Although "Spy" magazine and "Mad" magazine are different they are both heavy on political satire.
I highly recommend Kurt's book, "Fantasyland" which was a NY Times bestseller.
Spy Magazine? I know it not. "Spy vs Spy" was a regular feature of Mad Magazine.
and Evil Geniuses
Co-founded Spy, GJ -- along with co-founder Graydon Carter.
Yep. I was a constant reader of Mad.
So glad to see all these Mad Magazine aficionados! You are my people!
My introduction to political satire!
I was as well, Anne-Louise!
me too!! And I still have some tattered copies. Waiting for my grandkids to be old enough to enjoy them.
Oh, how lucky they will be! I wish I had the foresight to have saved mine, but teenage boys lack that special ability.
My dad introduced me to Mad in the early 60’s
The People: “It can’t happen here”
Trump to his goons “Here, hold my beer”
What? Me Worry?
The speaker of the house is Alfred E. Neuman's great grandchild
Ha ha ha!
Alfred is ashamed
And I thought I was the only girl that read MAD!!!
Nope and I started young, like 7-8 years old, even though I didn't understand much at the time. My aunts and uncles, who were teens at the time had them and I was always over my Nan's house, so got to see a lot of those. I continued to read them for many years. Those aunts and uncles also introduced me to great rock and roll music!
Nope, there were plenty of us. :-) My whole neighborhood read MAD Magazine. (I grew up in a small liberal town in northern CA.)
Medford, OR here.
Nope!
My wife read it too. In fact she would hide the new copy from me until she had read it.
I remember them well.
Exactly! Great example!
WHY?? Because they are nothing more than racists!! Motivated by hate and fear. Replace racist with bigot.
Harvey, you are absolutely correct, but you were too modest in your description, IMO - they are racists, but even more - they are racist to the core. Studies have proved that. MAGA is 21st century KKK. Trump is today's D.C. Stephenson. If you haven't yet, get a copy of Timothy Egan's book, "A Fever in the Heartland" about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's. About the racism, the study by two Univ. of Kansas professors, David Smith and Eric Hanley, "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" published in the Feb. 2018 edition of the peer-reviewed journal, "Critical Sociology." The simple answer: they are racist to the core, they hate women's and gay rights' advocates, foreigners and more, wanting Trump to crush them. Trump knows this. Witness his current actions.
Richard, I agree with your points, but in truth, "racist" doesn't adequately cover all the vectors of hate you described. In my dictionary, "racist" describes someone who hates persons who are not of the same race as the hater.
That definition excludes the other groups that are hated by MAGA: persons with non-Aryan physical appearance, persons who are not heterosexual, persons who are not CIS gender male, and persons who do not follow conservative European religion, to name the most hated groups.
I cannot recall or find a term in the English language that describes that breadth of hate. "Sociopath" approaches, but sociopathy is defined as a "personality disorder," which falls short.
The depth and breadth of hate in MAGA is their actual nature, not a disorder. I regret that we need a more descriptive word. Maybe maga is that word.
Incidentally, I thought the Cleveland Clinic's definition of sociopath ticked every trait of one Donald Trump.
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/sociopath-personality-disorder
In lieu of racist, bigot should cover all those who hate 'the other'.
Good suggestion, Harvey. But is it strong enough? My connotation with bigots is they want "the other" disadvantaged. My understanding of MAGA is they want "the other" disappeared. As in, removed or dead.
Back in the anti-Vietnam War protests, law enforcement earned the moniker "Pig" for their violent behavior towards peaceful protesters. Today's federal law enforcement from all departments has earned the name Pig for cowardly actions like obscuring their identity and the department they represent. They brutally assault citizens and politicians who disagree with the illegal tactics taken by federal agencies to disappear people, refuse to cooperate with members of Congress to inspect federal properties used to hold detainees, and ensure that the prisoners are treated humanely.
Five million people for the No Kings protests is great, but to stop this fascist coup, we need many tens of millions of people to join us.
We must stop the fascist minority from forcing their racist, misogynistic, and crazy religious superstitions on the majority.
We all should be expecting the fascists now controlling our federal government to become more and more violent, using wildly illegal methods against citizens. If citizens haven't been disappeared yet, they will be soon to intimidate people from standing up for democracy.
Federal law enforcement are today's pigs.
I agree. We're now at the stage to go beyond protests and begin recalling the offending politicians. We need to attack them (the politicians) for being do-nothing sycophants and for violating their oaths of office.
Pretty scary picture you paint...of reality. In this country. Unbelievable....
YOU ARE SO RIGHT JEN! WONDER WHEN WE WILL REACH THE LEVEL OF CONFUSION AND BE PARALIZED TOO.
Jen, Such sad reality inflicted for the sake of cruelty....My daughter is a school bus driver, her homeless kids, yesterday morning riding to school for the last of the year, talking about how terrified they and their family's are of being grabbed up and removed. None of the normal excitement of the Summer vacation starting....Nothing normal about it. Broke her heart and ours too....Resist, we must...none of us should have live in constant fear.
The focus on numbers is unfortunately a very common practice in all kinds of organizations - businesses, non-profits, governments. It has the good feature of helping to create accountability for money spent - but the bad feature of becoming a goal in itself if an organization is managed poorly. In the case of the Trump Regime, the emphasis on numbers is used to legitimate the most horrific, irresponsible behavior and make it hard for anyone to document who among the targeted are truly characters that most Americans would like to have deported - and who are innocent bystanders. There is no motivation to explore when all the rewards are heaped on the agents and the agency for reaching their numbers.
Who was it that said he wanted to treat “deportations” (sorry, kidnappings) like Amazon does deliveries? Ah yes, Todd Lyons, acting ICE director. The whole “human beings” as product versus you know - HUMAN BEINGS. So vile and dehumanizing.
History repeating itself? Wasn't Georgia originally a penal colony?
Jen D. Clark, I have heard that here in Georgia they are planning to build the biggest detention center in the United States for immigrants in the southern part of our state. Can you imagine first they just held children now they’re holding adult.
A for profit detention center. Apparently the racism they were already cashing in on with bogus racial profiling and lame marijuana arrests wasn’t enough. They saw a way to profit off of kidnapping/deporting. Soon, it will be political enemies they want to make disappear. I know they are claiming it will now be illegal for congress to come and do unannounced inspections. Wonder what else is going on they don’t want any accountability? It floors me how they don’t seem to see the parallels between themselves and the Nazis early actions.
Putin's predecessors, Bonnie, had all Siberia (and many other parts of Russia, too).
Maybe the people being targeted should just suit up and hide amongst the cowards. Maybe we could have a march where everyone dresses like they do. Or just put on the white KKK uniforms.
That’s what I meant when I was envisioning the whole meta scenario of kidnappers kidnapping kidnappers. Like even their fascism is not safe for the fascists. I get the confusion and anonymity is to cause intimidation and fear, but it’s a really dumb security protocol when a thug can imitate what you do to rob people or worse- or have your own agents yoinked off the street in all the confusion. They say it’s for the agents protection but if they are legit federal agents, you have to be another level of dumb to seriously threaten that high up. I think they are either on the fly deputizing some power hungry weird chodes, or they don’t care what happens. Also, they know they are trying to escape future prosecution. A cop will give their name and badge number in most states, (granted it may or may not get you justice if they mistreated or unjustly arrested you). But there’s not this weird shadow ops, gestapo/secret police feel that ICE has created or allowed to flourish.
How many people immigrated or sought asylum in the US to escape that type of situation in their countries?!
Thank you, Jen. That is so well said! I beg for “asylum seekers” or “immigrants” which with gangs and climate change seem the most accurate terms. Having seen the territory many have to cross on foot to get tho the US border, it’s hard to imagine that anyone would leave home, except to escape extremely difficult conditions, to make the trip.
Racism it is and has been from the beginning. Trump’s father was KKK and Putin encourages racism.
Virginia Witmer -- Sorry, not necessarily true about Trump's father, according to Snopes. Some references:
https://www.snopes.com/search/?q=Was%20Donald%20Trump%27s%20father%20KKK%3F#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=Was%20Donald%20Trump's%20father%20KKK%3F&gsc.page=1
It doesn’t really matter whether Trump’s father was KKK or not. His intense racism and that of his son are well established. Did you see the film of the two of them going from one Trump apartment complex to another checking on black renters?
Virginia Witmer -- No, I didn't see the film. Can you reference it maybe with a YouTube link? Or something else?
It was a news film. I saw it on MSNBC. I’l see if there’s a YouTube link.
Jen D Clark!
Fabulous! Let's have our guys ready at with masks and gear to kidnap ICE agents or whomever is behaving like one. Sounds like a Squid Game series.
How to Enjoy Trump, For Dummies.
It's not just starting now, Richard.
72 years ago Iran held a truly democratic election, and the people of Iran got a true democratic outcome with Mossadegh being freely elected.
Criminals and thugs in the C.I.A., even then doing the bidding of parallel criminals and thugs atop corporate America, arranged clandestine ways to topple him, and to install the dictatorship of the Shah. The C.I.A. helped the Shah set up a spectacularly evil secret police, SAVAK -- the C.I.A. trained them in snatching people off the street, in operating namelessly, and in torture -- pretty much everything Heather reports having emerged today under the auspices of our current White House criminality and corruption.
What we did to (many) others for years finally roosts across all non-MAGA America, to terrorize as we did first to Iran, the next year Guatemala, then Vietnam, and Congo, Dominican Republic, and Iraq when Saddam was our C.I.A.'s pampered client.
Blue state Dems seem paralyzed, impotent for the excellent reason that testing for years worked to neuter all in schools, to paralyze, make impotent.
Blue state Democrats are suing, protesting, speaking out, being arrested, being assassinated, and having people accusing them of doing nothing. The problem is not the Democrats. A big part of the problem is posts like this one. Be part of the solution and support and vote Blue.
Some dems are finding their stride: Murphy, Crockett and Bernie. However, there appears not to be a whole party response. They're on a learning curve - learning how to become better messengers. But I don't think we have time for a learning curve. We are in the midst of a national moral collapse...
I have to admit that I don't understand how people can still believe stuff like this. Did you read Heather's article above? It's full of names of Democrats being ARRESTED for their courageous way of fighting back against tyranny. So stop the cynicism, the blaming, and the spreading of falsehoods and for God's sake, DO SOMETHING!
I have done something!!! Protesting, writing to representatives and senators; spending a lot of my retirement money on supporting substacks, ACLU, Common Cause, Planned Parenthood, The League of Women Voters and the local democratic party in my county. So there....
Great.
Then why do you undermine all that good work by cultivating the utterly cynical falsehoods about Democrats that the media have been cultivating for years now... ?
Thank you. Please keep up the good work.
Yes, DO something. What is each of us doing? I am writing blogs, contacting my local, state, and federal legislators via email and letter, writing letters to the editor, postcards to swing states, donating money, active in my local community and secretary of our ward, and protesting...and each of you who read this...what are you doing?
"DO SOMETHING!" First of all, I've spent most of my 83 years thinking I'm not doing enough, so that really trips my trigger. Three days ago, a regular used the word "believe" and I asked why she didn't use "know"; Pissed her off and she blocked me. The next day her thread had several responses questioning her comments. Last Saturday, I went to the No Kings protest in Brainerd MN, a very, very red area. I thought I could at least add one to the number of protestors. Ha! There were thousands! I'm guessing Rep. Stauber needed a lot of bleach for his tighty whities Sat night. I had a prime spot on a corner, with a crosswalk; a lot of foot traffic, a lot of conversations, and a lot vehicles driving by and honking their horns (People didn't block the street). What do I know now, instead of believe? Protests can be peaceful, media is trying to downplay how many people want change, and, at least for me, my believe>know comment has been validated. BTW, since is June, I wore a Gay Pride T-shirt from 1993, and actually had one compliment!
Sounds great!!!
Stuff like what? Why are you attacking her for stating facts? What falsehoods? We need more than 5% of them to be actively doing something. Please provide evidence of that. Did your representative march with you on the 14th? I didn’t see any of mine and there are several Democrats here. Alex Padilla has stood up non-stop his entire career and Smarmy Vance deliberately acted like a prepubescent bully by using the wrong name. They like to explain it away because they have it all planned.
Hm... so if you didn't see your representative, whose job it is to represent you in DC, show up during your local protests, you'll conclude that he's not doing anything? How rational are conclusions like that... ?
Well, thanks to a system set up by the efforts of two cartel parties, we can hardly expect to see names of elected Independents getting arrested now, can we? Yet the turnout at the No Kings Hands Off protests and Fair Maps voter movements to get rid of a gerrymander system possible with only two parties has to be largely Independents.
I disagree. Why would you think the turnout last week was “largely independents”? In my red state, it was a mix of affiliations.
Oh for Pete’s sake! To lump the Democratic Party in with this current Republican “party” is just lazy and immature thinking. One party is rushing headlong into a dictatorship of fools and the other is hanging on to the democracy that our Founders established by our fingernails. If you cannot distinguish between the two perhaps you should refrain from commenting
Uh... "cartels"? Really? You want to compare the party that just left the WH with a pretty stellar record for the 99% (as all nonpartisan studies show) with a criminal drug cartel... ?!
More and more, it's becoming clear that neofascists were able to grab power in the DC because part of the LEFT in the US is cynically deluded too...
Stephanie, I agree and your post gives me an excuse to thank Sen. Murphy for what he said after the assassinations of MN Legislator Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband:
"Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) noted that MAGA has been “bathed in political violence” for the last five years. Trump’s pardoning of the January 6 rioters, including those convicted of extreme violence, “became a clear endorsement of violence committed in his name.” Trump has encouraged violence and cozied up to brutal dictators, while MAGA has fetishized guns. When he celebrates violence, unhinged people listen."
Well, they better hurry up & learn to be better messengers! We haven't much time to waste.
Bernie is an Independent.
Where is a leader…Bernie seems to be it…a herd of cats otherwise
Sorry JDinTX.. I disagree. There is Chris Murphy, AOC, Eric Stalwell, Elizabeth Warren, Gavin Newsom, Alex Padilla, Jamie Raskin, Janet Mills and Corey Booker, Tim Walz, J.B. Pritzker and I’m sure many others. But their voices are being drowned out by all the drama and distractions of this regime. They cannot do it without us and we cannot do it without them. We have to organize, organize, organize! Organizations like INDIVISIBLE can help but at the end of the day it is up to ALL of us to make our voices heard. If my grandkids ever ask me what I did at this time, I don’t want my answer to be nothing.
I could not agree MORE. Here in New Mexico we have strong Dems who are working hard, fighting back - every day. True of our local city and county elected officials and for sure of our Senators and Congress people. They are not sitting back. Yes, they are in the minority, but they are suiting up, showing up and fighting back.
You have Melanie Stansbury in the House of Representatives. If anyone would like to hear a Democrat with fire in her belly, do a simple YouTube search for her speeches. Holy guacamole. She is an inspiration!
IMO, the problem isn't that Democrats are silent. It's that Trump and MAGA have mastered the media by using projection, lies and daily outrages - all of which distract us from the efforts of Democrats.
All of which distract us from the thievery of the Trump organization. Crypto? Phone Company? Stock in Nippon Steel?
All of which distract us from the horrors of the Big Beautiful Bill which will murder thousands and further enrich the already rich.
MAGA= thieves, traitors and murderers. See Putin smile.
In Michigan we have state reps that are fighting back every day too (Joey Andrews and Matt Longjohn to name a couple). We just need to keep supporting them and fighting. We also have to vote out people like Bill Huizenga.
I wish Melanie Stansbury were my Rep. She's terrific. And I called her office to thank her for her efforts, even though I live in a different state.
Good names, all! I'd add Josh Shapiro who doesn't hesitate to speak out! And there are others. We need to keep reminding ourselves that they are out there. It keeps the despair a bit at bay.
Exactly! His HOME was burned down during Passover, WITH his entire family in it. How's that for proving that you're willing to fight back?
You are so right Nancy.
The next big rally is being organized but there already is dissension as to when it should be held. The date of July 4th was floated, but many are crying that they "already have plans." The other is July 17, John Lewis's birthday. It's on a Thursday. Neither dates are convenient but neither is living in a fascist state.
Oh please! What could be more important than using 7/4 as a day for the family & neighborhood to work towards a common goal of peace & resistance to the crap in DC? Convenience should not be part of the equation!
I recognize and appreciate all these in the herd, but a herd it is at this critical moment. MLK, rise up and roar…
Here's a fuller list, Colette.
But I append it first by noting the one thing they've not done: embraced the arts and energies of enthusiastically, aptly quoting each other.
Still:
Jamie Raskin. Sheldon Whitehouse. Katie Porter. Dan Goldberg.
Rosa DeLauro. Richard Blumenthal. Mallory McMorrow. Josh Shapiro. Madeleine Dean. Jared Moskowitz. Gretchen Whitmer. Jon Ossoff.
Ro Khanna. Abigail Spanberger. Robert Garcia. Jerry Nadler. Tim Walz. Liz Warren. Pete Buttigieg. Sherrod Brown. Shontel Brown. Ted Lieu. Amy Klobuchar. Gary Peters. Adam Schiff. Jasmine Crockett. Angus King. Cory Booker. Hakeem Jeffries. Jena Griswold. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Maxine Waters. Cassie Chambers Armstrong. Raphael Warnock. Chris Murphy. Chris Coons. Mikie Sherrill. Pete Aguilar. Justin Jones. Maxwell Frost. Ilhan Omar. Wes Moore. Melanie Stansbury. Gavin Newsom. Summer Lee. Pramila Jayapal. Eric Swalwell. Zoe Lofgren. Delia Ramirez. Bernie Sanders.
Bernie is like an inextinguishable flame.
Let's fan the embers if they wane.
At the moment the fire is roaring.
It's not just him, it's most Democrats - as usual.
Stop asking that question! YOU need to lead when your country is taken over by thugs!
Meanwhile, Democrats are fighting back like hell, being arrested for it etc.
So... WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR YOUR COUNTRY in the meantime?
JD is 80+, on a fixed income, and with mobility issues.
What are you doing?
And... ? How does that mean, in a period in human history when most activity happens online, that we'd need a "leader", at this stage of the fight against fascism? I'm asking, because Heather has VERY good arguments showing that this is really not the moment to want a leader, it's a moment to step up as "ordinary citizens". Anyone who has a computer can contact Reps and engage in real, respectful debates with those who don't understand what's happening yet.
Thank you. A lot of substantive conversation happens here, but I never appreciate scolding.
My best, and have long before chump.
What are you doing? If you think sitting here criticizing others for everything they say is helping you’re wrong. People will tune you out for nonstop criticism. I haven’t seen you post one positive fact while you’re busy telling others they’re wrong.
FYI: I don't think this is about "me". If you want to focus on random people here instead of on the topic we're discussing, read ALL my messages before jumping to conclusions.
In the meantime, any concrete counterarguments, since you seem to disagree with the content of what I wrote in this specific post? You may as well be right and I wrong, who knows? We won't find that out if you don't focus on specific counterarguments and instead make this personal though...
JDinTX & Anne-Louise, I couldn’t agree more. One of the things I think makes Bernie so visible and so palatable to us is he keeps coming back to the fundamental inequities (& iniquities) in our society, inequities which appear to be baked in. While we often get off-track following things like race, which the MAGAts exploit most effectively, I think it is actually MONEY which underlies much of the struggle we face (and hence the iniquitous and widespread effects of the Citizen’s United decision). You don’t see ICE deporting rich blacks, browns or yellows, just the ones without bags of money. That is what Bernie (and Elizabeth Warren, etc) keeps coming back to. We would be better employed and more effective if we spent our time and talent identifying all the ways the MAGAts make money and benefit from their continuous outrages. And the tRump family is exhibit A! As in the All The President’s Men, FOLLOW THE MONEY. Who’s got the money and how they got and are getting the money provides a pretty infallible lead to where and why they are doing what they are doing, regardless of political party.
Sanders and Warren, a volatile combo. Add AOC and Frankin.
I agree, JohnM. I often point out that the U.S. was founded as a capitalist nation, and its government was designed to promote and protect capitalists.
In a capitalist society without conscience or controls, EVERYTHING is for sale. Regrettably, this may include the government, itself. It seems that we crossed that Rubicon long ago. Now, there's just a fight over who's going to profit from the sale.
We must ask, is it the messenger/messaging or the listeners? Part, if not all, of the success of the GOP messaging is that people want to believe them, and/or they hate the Dems no matter what. The Repubs lie, they bully, they cheat (gerrymandering), they coopt words and concepts and redefine them, they spread myths about themselves (party of fiscal responsibility, good on the economy). Still, people drink it up. The Dems could say anything and these people will not follow them. We have a lot of greedy or stupid or just plain angry and don't want to be happy people in this country. And the sad thing is that most of these people have had many mor advantages than the people who aren't in this category of voters.
As a conservative Republican, my view is that all MAGAdom is populated by MORONS, LACKING ANY INTEGRITY, LACKING ANY UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT ACTUALLY MAKES AMERICA GREAT, AND TO BE FOREVER SHAMED along with their ORANGE DISGRACE.
VOTE THEM OUT
VOTE THEM OUT
VOTE THEM ALL OUT
https://open.substack.com/pub/thiswillhold/p/she-won-part-iii-the-devil-is-in?r=1s95aw&utm_medium=ios
Read all the posts and restack it.
The problem is Democrats in Congress and the DNC. Useless the lot of them. Complicit in their lack of action. Start by going after Trump due to breaking the emoluments clause at least.
Also, the Democrats have no power in the Senate and House now. Legally they are powerless, nothing to do but protest, organize, open law suits. Anything they can do but legally, not like the thugs in the government. See the sessions in the Senate, they protest but the republicans have the smugness characteristic, they brake the law every day. Look at Hegseth’s answers, needs some slaps over that stupid face, the A-hole!
It’s exactly the same democratic situation that Obama had the first two years of his presidency. The differences if the Democrats don’t have the power now and they’re frustrated beyond belief that they don’t have the power for the first time in a long time.
That criminal decrepit McConnell, who stole a judge seat in the Supreme Court from Obama, still in the Senate despite the age and senility, stopped everything that Obama wanted to pass as law. He promised the jerks he will stop him and he did. We must thank him for Trump’s fascist regime, and the republican dominated Supreme Court that gave the idiot immunity!
Awwwww are we sad? It’s amazing how you never complained when the liberal Supreme Court was in control. Hmmmmm. How many judges did Biden appoint,,,OR Whoever was president? lol
And unfortunately , McConnell made a bad decision. Because Merrick Garland became the most revengeful department of justice appointment/attorney general in my lifetime , although holder was a close second. LAWFARE. The failed attempt of the Democrats to stop democracy from working. By the way, you should look up the word fascist. Curious…. is that as bad as lying under oath. I seem to remember a democrat president that was saved by his own party from impeachment. Oooops. Have a nice day.
Phil, I always like a lot of the content in your posts. I think it is time to get off this testing thing. We have all read it a thousand times. There is some merit to it, but it is a small part of what is wrong in the U S society/culture that is causing all of our problems. I can't read your posts anymore because they always end up blaming testing in schools.
That is his point. But the deliberate revamping of society was multi-pronged and as assaultive as chump’s is today. Reagan just had a smoother presentation.
Not sure what you mean. I agree with Phil's whole post except the testing neutering and paralyzing democrats. Almost every post comes down to blaming testing. It's much more complex than that.
It used to be "humanities". I just asked him nicely if he could write a post without using that word, and he hasn't used it since. I always read Phil's excellent posts and just stop when we reach "testing" again.
You are right. I remember the humanities. Thank you for stopping it. Yes, Phil’s posts are great and I will stop at the testing. 🙏
Wendyl, I appreciate your point of view and sometimes share your lack of patience with what seems to be a repetitive theme.
But I also appreciate Phil's deep regret of the damage done to our public schools. I see how many of the challenges we face today can be attributed to the destruction of a public education system that was in many respects successful, especially when education is his passion.
Perhaps, I am more sympathetic because I have my own "hobby horse," and frequently reference (bash, if you like) evangelicalism. Many current events "pull threads" that lead back to evangelical dogma, at least in my mind.
So far, no one has asked me to stop harping on evangelicalism, but that day may come. My hope is that if someone finds it tedious, they'll just stop reading and skip to the next comment.
Couldn’t agree more.
The repubs are just doing what the Lewis Powell Memo accused the liberals of doing what they never really did.
Accusations put Dems on the defensive but they never seem to boomerang it back on them. As Goebbels said, accuse them of what we do, over and over. In the Tx election just past, the Dems never did that, just focused on abortion as the immigrant hate was blasted 24/7 on every outlet. Propaganda works
Yes, Wendyl I see your point.
I am also tempted to arrive at a simplistic understanding of this massively complex and tragic phase we're in. Yesterday I noticed something I'd normally pass by -- a poster for a talk about "How to Sue the Ku Klux Klan", about women, the Chattanooga Five, in 1982, whose combined ingenuity made a difference. I'll go.
I think Phil is right about the testing though. Teaching and learning is more art than science. The essence of being human is more art than science (all science equals a robot when it comes to people). Why are our Democratic lawmakers not making the connection between our country’s operating foundational paradigms of racism and misogyny and hyper religiosity and the problems we face now? In my opinion they have not considered what our African American citizenry have been telling this country all along in their books and plays and poetry and music. It seems to me they have not developed intellectually enough to recognize the truth before them. Otherwise they would be better leaders— doing a better job of setting things right. The words and examples they need are all there, laid out for them but they are too robotic to absorb the lessons. Even Kamala Harris and Barack Obama did not seize the opportunity to push our country to crush the destructive paradigms (I was disappointed on that score for both of them). They were both great in school though I bet. Probably aced every test. I get what Phil is saying. It takes the art of being human.
Hey Mary Ellen, let me tell you what’s going on in Washington, so you stop using the words racist misogynist sexist xenophobic etc carelessly
There are 61 black representatives in Congress out of 435 in the house of representatives which represents the country as a whole vs The Senate that only gets two representatives per state
So if you want to look for a schism, here’s a great example for you
61 BLACK Congress people out of 435 is 14% of the population of the United States. The black population of the United States is 14% of the total population. Coincidence? There’s your racist America of today.
I am not using it carelessly. The highest percentage of incarcerated citizens are people of color, primarily African American. Women in many places of this country do not have bodily autonomy. DEI efforts were sincere in many organizations and were making progress. African American intellectuals like Bryan Stevenson and Michelle Alexander to name only 2 of many were making inroads on chipping away at destructive paradigm and what happened? The big blowback! Women losing their bodily autonomy was catastrophic—no other word. MAGA (there is no more GOP in my opinion) has brought out the confederate flag. Disgraceful. After reconstruction many African Americans won elections. I think that lasted about one cycle. The paradigms have not been crushed. They are getting new oxygen.
Well, yes, you are using in error….the reason is because the majority of crime is committed by blacks, and I’m not making it up. Those are the statistics. . In fact, one of your friends here from England was saying the same thing. I pointed out in England that while the black community is 3.6% of the population… four times that are the people incarcerated in England. So if you’re calling us racist, then you better call England racist as well and everywhere else this issue is the same as far as the percentage of incarcerated and the percentage of crime versus the percentage of the population itself.
And I wish this was not the case but I’ll give you another example that you I’m sure you don’t know.
There are statistics that indicate that blacks abort more babies by a substantial margin than whites, or Hispanics as an example
And here’s the data that you will probably be shocked to hear
In one year, not too long ago in New York. They were more black babies aborted then were born alive. You can Google this….
In fact, I urge the blacks, and WISH if this is true to stop aborting children at the apparent current rate… because frankly, the statistic also said if blacks were aborting at a substantially lower rate, the black population of the United States would currently be 38% instead of 14%.
And I am amongst the least racist person in earnest.
And you were obviously in denial of the fact that women were actually given a reprieve from the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Donald Trump himself said I’m not going to be an authoritarian and mandate that as a federal law he said instead let the voters of every state decide what to do about this issue. He gave it back to the states and took it away from federal authoritarianism once the Supreme Court overturned Roe… and now every state can choose, and have its VOTERS
choose how to handle that issue. That’s the way democracy works by a voice of the people not by the dictum of the Federal government
If you wanna look at it another way, no problem, but those are the facts on the ground.
Do us all a favor don’t start talking about history from 200 years ago and applying it to today. The only confederate flags will see your are by right wing lunatics, that have no support from the American public
but 99% of the people in this country have forgotten about the confederacy a long time ago which by the way was a democratic institute… held by the Democratic Party
Did you even read what I wrote? The representation of the black community in this country is exactly the quantity of the black population in this country.
This is a country with an economic system based on merit. Not on special treatment for one person and not the other.
Equality, all men are created equal. Not Some people are created/or treated special.
I've seen similar notes of exasperation for my mentioning the gutting of schools.
Trouble is, this neutering machinery has become totally normalized. Its dynamics, its conceits are fully accounted for in Diane Ravitch's "The Language Police." They go exactly counter to the humanizing of reading whole books and writing essays as used to center American schools.
Worse, those who take the testing for granted also typify our elites who excelled their way into the meritocracy -- and can never in their lives in any public venue cite any novels, memoirs, histories, biographies, travel works, or essay collections.
Testing killed that in them. And so many are so void of humanities that they can't even imagine any link between the vulgarity into which we've descended and the planned, profit-making, juggernaut megalith that arranged and still arranges that descent.
Well, try this then Phil in 1979 when Jimmy Carter enacted the Department of Education, the United States was first in its level of education in the world
30 years later under Democrat control and authoritarian rule it was 18th.
And today it is listed as 40TH. And now that’s over and hopefully school choice will take place and it will be funded and people will get a better education naturally by the statistics of school choice schools.
FYI, Wendy, you'll see I, too, address the same kinds of errors of Balla's steadfast refusal to address the weaknesses of his attributions of causation respecting the supposed decline of the humanities in schooling which, while politically logical are historically false. It is near the very tail end today a comment to RJNetto, our Brit compatriot on HCR Comments.
Please, Hendrik, see Diane Ravitch's "The Language Police."
Her text and her many pages of appendices provide all the factual evidence we need for the organization and causality of what have wrought the testers as well as the corporate textbook packagers.
Only half the story Phil go seek out the other half and open your eyes.
Phil, wasn’t that the Dulles brothers who organized the overthrow of democracy in Iran and inserted the Shah? They used similar tactics in South America and the Caribbean to promote dictatorships over democracies.
If I’m not mistaken, all this was done to promote US corporate interests and eventual control in those countries.
Correct. They were also lawyers for/ on the board of United Fruit. Thus Guatemala 1954, Cuba 1952-1962.
Bill, exactly so. “All this was done to promote US corporate interests” perfectly summarizes SO MUCH of what politics is and has been about; MONEY and the making and/or controlling more of it.
That’s big “C” Capitalism in a nutshell. The lie is that it has something to do with democracy. It doesn’t. It’s all about maintaining big “O” Oligarchy.
We get to vote as long as the big O’s can keep their thumb on the two parties. Ever wonder why there are still only two?
Bill, far earlier than the post-war era, the USA used its ability to infiltrate and attack sovereign nations for economic gain in what is known by some as the "Second Guano War" and the 1856 Guano Islands Act, which is what "justified" the imperialist invasion of places like Nicaragua and a bunch of islands near Chile and Peru. What is guano, you might ask? It is bat shit. Here's an article on it, but I have known about this for a long time because while I was working on my PhD in medieval history, I had a friend and colleague who was writing his PhD on the Guano Wars and American Imperialism. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23780231241274187
The guano on those islands was actually sea bird shit...often many hundreds of feet deep. It was scooped off and used to fertilize great swathes of the 'Murican Midwest.
Absolutely true, Linda. The colonial mindset of ever expanding greed has never abated.
I keep hearing many historian pundits rinse with the mouthwash that democracies never attack democracies. It’s a wonder anyone considers these people historians.
I suppose if being one of these historians, like Boorstin or Niall Ferguson, was all about well-paid wish fulfillment, then we’d have to deem them true academics rather than the propagandists they actually are.
Fully correct you are, Bill.
Except 20 years prior to the Dulles brothers, Major General Smedley Butler was articulating what an earlier generation of elite thugs was using the U.S. military to do for U.S. corporate criminality all over the world.
Exactly! The Shock Doctrine as Naomi Klein wrote about.
Yes
I should mention little “o” capitalism., commonly known as regulated capitalism. In this instance it remains possible for voters and groups formed by voters to have a say. This has been, off and on, our democracy as we have shared in its benefits. It’s a jagged history and varied in different regions of the country.
The struggle between O and o has always persisted. Our government is entrusted and charged with preventing the development, growth, and spread of monopolies and cartels. US Administrations haven’t been doing a good job of this for quite sometime. The cost of political campaigns, while not a sole indicator, is a good metric of political responsibility. Will it be to the people, or the biggest oligarchs. Note that Obama in large part did crowd sourcing of funds. His success over 8 years changed a lot. One thing was an over-the-top effort to reestablish oligarchic control.
What else would you call Citizens United … all the “citizens” are hidden. Kinda like the recent ICE reports of assaults on “officers”.
These organizations, while Capitalist, are anti-free market and destroy democracy. They are oligarchic and when threatened move to direct autocracy. What we see now.
In summary, regulated capitalism establishes free markets while admitting real and effective public control. Unka Miltie type unregulated Capitalism creates the oligarchic control of society along with bust and boom national economic performance (a process similar to milking a reluctant cow always for the benefit of the oligarchy) that we have been seeing for quite a long time with only single administrative moments of respite.
We are the people. It rests with and within us to decide. The challenge isn’t tomorrow, the challenge is now. Right now. And every day thereafter.
Mossadegh nationalized BP. Eisenhower through CIA and MI6 toppled Mossadegh mainly to:
• Protect Western oil access and development
• Contain communism during the Cold War
• Keep Iran aligned with the West
Democracy doesn't always make the best decisions. That's how we got Trump. What it does do is let the people periodically re-evaluate their choice, which neither the Shaw nor Khamenei allowed.
Remember, it's not what you think, it's how you think. Keep an open mind. No one is infallible.
I would argue that Citizens United gave us Trump and several of the Fascist Power Hungry so-called Republicans. Greed, power, hate and arrogance all contributed.
Supreme courts are also fallible. The best we can do is select leaders with proven foresight and good judgment. Amy Klobacher come to mind.
We can't tell friend from foe.
Trump thinks Putin is his friend. He's nuttier than a fruitcake.
Intelligence failures re Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam cost millions in lives and trillions of dollars.
Aaron & GJ Loft YES! Again and again, it’s about THE MONEY!
The best I could do, trying to figure out who to trust most back in post WWII period when power vacuums could allow the worse actors to gain power they would never willingly relinquish is sort of summed up in the following answer I sent to what I presumed to be on the hard core side, unwilling to consider how softer power was more effective. I considered George Kennan to be the more careful type using a bit softer power to avoid those power vacuums that others will exploit.
My unmodified beliefs at the time:
To me, it seemed the change from OSS to CIA brought a harder, less, effective line against fears of anything remotely near communism or even the mildest socialism, seeing the world in either black or white (to me more of a fault I associated with the Dulles brothers, whom I suspect might have actually believed everything they thought, no matter how much evidence there was to the contrary). Those I knew many years past seemed to have a higher regard for the first CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith and George Kennan (to me because they could see changes and differences in Soviet countries and China, which was much further from Soviets than the Dulles brothers could grasp or admit).
See https://www.bookforum.com/print/2004/how-allen-and-john-foster-dulles-shaped-the-many-follies-and-catastrophes-of-the-cold-war-12482
"...John Foster Dulles was a dullard and a prig. “He was driven to find and confront enemies, quick to make moral judgments, and not given to subtlety or doubt,” the former New York Times reporter Stephen Kinzer writes in his new biography of the Dulles brothers. In 1957, Foster (as he was familiarly known) gave his sister Eleanor a Christmas present of “several yellow legal pads” and a check. Kinzer quotes the British politician Harold Macmillan, summarizing a meeting with the Eisenhower administration’s dour new secretary of state: “His speech was slow, but it easily kept pace with his thoughts.”
Allen Dulles was in many ways the more outgoing and high-living brother, a genial satyr and an eternal dilettante in the world of covert action. As Kinzer notes, his mind was characterized by “distraction, inability to focus, lack of attention to detail, [and] aversion to rigorous debate.” He deflected serious discussion with funny anecdotes and baseball stories. As the administratively indifferent director of the CIA, he became so excited over Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels that he asked his subordinates if they could duplicate some of 007’s fantastic tools and weapons. In the words of the writer Burton Hersh, “He remained an actor, Mr. Chips doing intelligence.”
Together, these two brothers exercised extraordinary power over their nation and their world, a closely connected pair of willfully obtuse colossi who shaped much of the twentieth century like a plaything. Leading foreign policy during the postwar zenith of American power, the brothers Dulles casually overthrew or helped to overthrow foreign governments in Guatemala, Iran, and the Congo (and tried to overthrow Sukarno, the founder of Indonesia). They helped jump-start the emerging disaster in Vietnam, plotted to kill the leaders of other nations (with the assistance of the CIA’s “health alteration committee,” which arrived at agency stations bearing tubes of poisoned toothpaste for absurdly conceived attacks on foreign statesmen), and collaborated to steer their government into a long crisis of blindness and hysteria. Apprehending real but misperceived Soviet power everywhere, they insisted on seeing postcolonial nationalism and the political neutrality of many nations as Kremlin schemes; in their reading of events, the Bandung Conference of newly independent and nonaligned Asian and African nations was a “communist road show.” Differences in time and place couldn’t change their binary view of a world divided only between Communism and freedom. Foster “treated Nikita Khrushchev just as he had treated Stalin” and joined a Washington consensus that regarded Maoist China as a “pawn of the Soviet Union.” Under the Dulles brothers’ joint guidance, American foreign policy vanished into “a fog of unexamined assumptions.”
Remarkably, we are still paying the costs of those unexamined assumptions, particularly in the Middle East. The policy efforts of the Dulles brothers, intended to produce stability in the postwar world, often did the opposite. “Foster and Allen never imagined that their intervention in foreign countries would have such devastating long-term effects,” Kinzer argues. “Their lack of foresight led them to pursue reckless adventures that, over the course of decades, palpably weakened American security.”
Two exceptionally important stories take up the bulk of Kinzer’s book, and both are told with considerable insight and disciplined prose. The first is the tale of the “secret world war” of American violence and political subversion in the early half of the Cold War, and this is the story Kinzer most clearly wishes to tell. The second, closely related, is an institutional saga of the consequences that arose from the shared power of two brothers who simultaneously ran the CIA and the State Department—the covert and public faces of American foreign policy. As Kinzer writes, the Dulles brothers, under the influence of their mutual affinity, built a “reverberating echo chamber for their shared certainties.” The State Department and the CIA made decisions by the process of one brother picking up the phone and calling the other. Argument and analysis were plowed under the family consensus as a matter of course...
... “When their own envoys advised them to tolerate Mossadegh and Árbenz, or to accept neutralist regimes in Indonesia and Laos, they could not hear,” Kinzer writes. Even those officials who weren’t formally replaced could simply be shoved aside if they argued against the consensus. An unnamed foreign-service officer contended in a meeting that Árbenz “might be only a homegrown nationalist unconnected to the Kremlin,” for example, and Undersecretary of State Walter Bedell Smith did the expected work of a senior official, duly toeing the Dulles line: “‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Smith told the offender. ‘Forget those stupid ideas and let’s get on with our work.’” ..."
Right or wrong, I believed, and still believe, that George Kennan was more discerning and effective. I do wonder about Bedell Smith and the comment he made above, since I thought he was more sensitive to differences and realities of the likely reaction of people in countries such as Iran and Guatemala. People who knew Kermit Roosevelt agreed with what I'd read about Kermit Roosevelt participating in the overthrow of Mossadegh because it was much more of a 50/50 split within the Iranian people, Mossadegh was being mislead by Russian influence, and we had Oil interests in replacing the British interests (which Iranians I've talked to saw as 85% advantages to Britain, 15% to Iran). The same people saw the American deal as more of an acceptable 60/40 split, the best deal they could get from any country or group of countries.
Kermit never made apologies for Iran (which he saw as 50/50), but he refused Eisenhower's idea that he could do the same in Guatemala. He wouldn't do Guatemala, as people I trust said, because the Armas Military group only had the support of 12% of the people compared to 88% for Arbenz.
See https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/doc84.htm
I guess I look at it like a master mechanic, who has the best tools and uses the better ones for any given situation.
[The Shah thought he needed an equivalent of the repressive regimes secret police. i don't know who led him to that or went along with it, but it was seemingly very different than what we did in other countries right after WWII ended]
Agree with your shameful historic references, but disagree that Dems are paralyzed or impotent. Rather, they’re attempting to right this ship legally, within the confines of the law. Can you imagine if masked, unidentified “agents” started to abduct Republicans, ICE, etc. and ferry them off to some unknown detention processing center without a warrant ….. surely the reason could be that they’re “dangerous, illegal criminals” and we’re just keeping America safe.
Thank you for your comment! Not enough Americans know the history of the CIA coup in 1953 on behalf of the British Petroleum industry, because the Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh wanted to nationalize the Iranian oil industry. At the time John Foster Dulles was the US Sec. of State, & his brother Allen Dulles was head of the CIA. The Dulles brothers had a lot to answer for in the 1950s! Stephen Kinzer's excellent book entitled "The Brothers" tells us that the coup in Iran was just the 1st of many such CIA operations. They then installed the hated Shah, which years later led to the Iranian revolution & years later the taking of hostages at the US embassy in Teheran.
Next would be the CIA coup in 1954 of the democratically elected President of Guatamala, Jacobo Arbenz, on behalf of the US United Fruit Company ( Chiquita Banana) because Arbenz wanted to nationalize the coffee fincas. That beautiful country has not been the same ever since then.
Quite right. The CIA laid the foundation for the massively corrupt Shah of Iran before his downfall and the rise of religious extremism in Iran. It's ironic that the U.S. created so many problems it's now trying to solve with force. If I were an Iranian I'D hate us, too.
Yeph, Phil. that "red scare" was a powerful thing. I just watch Number 24 on Netflix. It is a true story about the most decorated Norwegian from WW2. It is worth the watch in just the first few minutes when he and his friend are discussing the coming Nazi aggression. His friend comments that the Nazis would prevent them from becoming Moscow. Americans in the U.S. felt the same way as documented in Prequel by Rachel Maddow.
Thanks, Rickey. I'd not heard of "Number 24" on Netflix.
An online search got me to its trailer from earlier this year:
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=number+24+on+netflix&&mid=A8083EF1FF0333240D7AA8083EF1FF0333240D7A&FORM=VAMGZC
Thank you for this tip, Rickey. I just watched the trailer and added it to my watchlist.
Thank you, Phil Balla. Mossadegh at last! Been thinking of him for weeks. It was Eisenhower and oil.
Phil, Add to your narrative the CIA experiments outlined in Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine: breaking people down with tortures so they could "rebuild" the kind of acquiesent yet productively working serf. All they did was destroy people's sanity. This mindset was at the core of neoliberalism as it got applied by dictators like Pinochet in Chile, another dictatorship set up by CIA coup to get rid of a "socialist" leaning democracy that threatened American business interests in the 70s. All aided and abetted and carried out by the Chicago School of Economics and Milton Friedman and both Republicans and Democrats busily hollowing out country after country, including the USA once they figured out that economic shocks in a democracy were almost as effective as actual violence. The Trump regime is reverting and regressing, using both violence and economic tactics because the violence feeds their racism more.
Blue state Democrats are suing, protesting, speaking out, being arrested, being assassinated, and having people accusing them of doing nothing. The problem is…:oh, Heather, oh my God…
Heather for the love of Joe, save us. Say we aren’t so for the mother of Joe. Save us. Heather, Joe. Please help us for the love of Joe. OMG it was Heather. Oh no. Oh no. Jesus Mary and Joe. Heather is the…OM Joe, Joe Joe ahhhhh. Heather is that you?
Joe…
WTH???
It must be the weather.
If he's pointing out that some are simply running about with their hair on fire and hoping HCR will save them he is correct. HCR can inform us, it is up to us to act.
Troll, haven't seen you for awhile.
Why does there have to be at least one bad penny in every jar?
Until the Substack gods gave us the ability to block the trolls there were many bad pennies. If someone repeatedly gets "out of line" just block them. Easy Peasy.
He's right though. Democrats are fighting back like hell. Just reading Heather's articles and then looking for a savior will NEVER work. Calling people you disagree with or whose posts you don't immediately understand "trolls" won't work either ;-).
I don't call anyone I disagree with a troll. This troll has been on this site off and on as a troll provacateur for a long time. And I see sarcasm in it.
The only way to engage with someone you disagree with is to refute their arguments. It's pretty clear what he's saying here so... any counterarguments, by chance?
So, David, you said, “The problem is…” and then never clearly, definitively, accurately IDENTIFIED or EXPRESSED “The problem.” I’m can only guess you intended to insert some humor, sarcasm, and/or hurtful dialogue into this discussion. As Jesus said, “Do unto others as you have them do unto you.” That is one amazing Golden Thought. So, please, David, what is your perceived problem? Thank you so kindly. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph love ALL of God’s Children.
Testing yes, and lack of consistent public education funding in CA, the fourth largest economy in the world…
Actually, Carol, all U.S. states reduced their higher ed funding.
This followed the 1971 Powell memo, and especially the well-funded, well-organized lobbying of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) to gut the public colleges and universities.
All part of the Powell memo's larger plan also to dehumanize K-12, conduct voter suppression, up gerrymandering, ever reduce billionaires' taxes, and eventually get Citizens United (2010).
You can’t blame the Dems alone for all the CIA bullshit. Most happened under Republican rule. And the vast number of Americans knew very little about it. We became wealthy because of the evil our corps and leaders were willing to let loose on the world. Today other countries are aware of our exploitation so the evil doers are turning their ways inward. Raping our own people and lands.
Can't we better credit the Justin Morrill land grant bill which Lincoln signed into law in 1862?
From that date until the Powell memo (1971) it gave us the greatest universities in the world.
"Now he is back in office, but he remains unpopular." Hitler was very popular among Germans, I believe before he controlled the country. Mr. Trump is not popular. I predict his government will eventually lose its power. DEMS must however come up with a new leader, a star. Sooner the better.
Recent events have shown that we have a nasty habit of demanding perfection from our leaders, of focusing on their flaws instead of highlighting their positive attributes. I prefer that we strengthen the leaders we have now in Congress and state houses, and nurture the next generation of dynamos.
Yes. Best I can tell, Kamala Harris' imperfections are that her skin tone is slightly darker than a "whiter shade of pale" and she is presumed to be missing a penis.
It's not just presidential candidates but all Democrats in elected office. We eat our own, which allows those in opposition to do worse. It's not just that we eat our own, it's that we are really bad at not standing up to the opposition or, as happened yesterday with Clyburn's endorsement of Cuomo, we can't let go of the past.
No argument from me, MisTBlu ... I just gave Harris as a glaring example. I coined a statement years ago: "In people, things or ideas, the greatest strength is also the greatest weakness."
The Democratic Party really is a "big tent." With broad inclusiveness comes diversity of opinion. With that comes the extreme risk of undisciplined messaging and circular firing squads.
We build our boats out of steel, aluminum, fiberglas, cardboard, duct tape and spit. They never float very well.
Back in 2015, when Donald took his fateful escalator ride and announced his candidacy, more than half of Republicans were appalled! A faction of "Never Trumpers" even formed. But within a few months, they all forgot their objections and circled the wagons in his favor.
Democrats only dream of that kind of unity.
Excellent!
Right-wing politicians in elected office must be overthrown before it is too late. The coup in progress now will become ever more violent as the fascists wield their power to amass even more power and must be stopped.
Politicians who refuse to protect and defend the Constitution as they vowed to do must be removed from power and replaced with pro-democracy patriots. Let the people who want to live under fascist rule move to Russia. Our country would be much better without them.
Agree with everything you say except I can't endorse the "let them move to Russia" argument as that's precisely what has been thrown at Democrats for decades.
Except some of those that are there need to be replaced.
Agreed. But we can't do that if we stand in the way of those who seek to unseat them.
This is so true. My grandson and his college friends lament that candidates are all so old and out of touch. It’s hard for them to see their future.
That's understandable but it's also true that there are many youngish politicians, particularly on the right, whose values are stuck in an era that they didn't live through but think of as fantastic.
Hiro
What stands out to me is that the poll numbers quoted here show that Trump is indeed extremely popular. Taking into account ALL that is happening..... 46% is very close to 50.
Almost everyone reading and commenting here follow politics and understands what is going on and what is at stake.
When does a single parent working multiple jobs for $10 an hour have time to spend even 10 minutes a week to following politics?
Most of us are able to read HCR's newsletter without interruption, sometimes multiple times and then read the comments here. When you ride public transportation to your job when are you supposed to do what we do?
Not only that, but in addition, show up to work without an attitude and perform your work and then go home and tend to the needs of your family. Now that is real working class existence. Right there.
Exactly, which is why I feel a duty to offer time, attention, and action for those who can't. I ignored current events during most of my life, but not now! Taking in a lot helps me know when to pass what's relevant at opportune times.
EXACTLY! I know more now about how the government works, the law and how various policies and politicians affect how we can prosper--or not--than ever I did when I worked 9 hours/day with an hour's drive commute, with two --separated--days off to do housework, bills, shop for groceries and run the various errands necessary to keep the car running, registered, inspected. And I didn't have kids--which would have added more hours and 3 or 4 (or more) levels of stress to my life. Now that I have retired, I have time to inform myself and read 4 substacks and the comments (and oft times I have learned as much from the comments of all the other informed folk as from the substack article itself).
It's little wonder young folks with jobs, kids, mortgages and all the rest, have no time to inform themselves about politics. The media is no help, having abdicated their job to inform honestly. How can we reach these frantically busy people with the truth?
My UU church is very active in helping those who struggle so much. Hope enough “Christian” churches remember what they now give lip service to.
GJ, perhaps inadvertently, you once again highlight the we/they nature of this struggle between the 95-98% of us who must work for our income every day and the people with MONEY.
Hard to believe that he has 46%, Rupert has screwed the pooch since the 80’s so the propaganda continues, but with plenty of company. No mystery
Have you ever seen the questions in those polls? Every one I ever got from Issa when he was our rep was worded so you would be giving him an answer that would work out in their favor. Some are so deliberately skewed for the results they want.
And how *frightening”!
Yes I often wonder who these 46%% are! They cannot really support him.
Judy, as near as I can figure, they really do support him. Don't ask me how a cadre of former cops, who wore (I can attest because I was right there along side them) the uniform, displaying the badge of office, and without a mask hiding our identity. We all had the option of listing our department address on all our "public" information (DL, Vehicle Registration) so as to avoid the potential of someone locating our home address. We all had to have "probable cause" before stopping a vehicle, or contacting a "suspicious subject" and making any sort of inquiry. If it was for the purposes of serving a warrant, that warrant had to be confirmed and validated. If it was for a traffic violation, there had to be a specific statute that was citable.
The only way that I see that they can see nothing wrong with either the "sweeps of a bus stop where brown people are" or "attending court at a scheduled time" is probable cause for detention is that the "information sources" they consume have somehow convinced them that these are necessary methods to combat the problem. I really don't get it.
God it hurts my heart to believe that people are that cruel and selfish. Fox, OAN etc have a major share of responsibility but it still makes me sick! The IQ of people is dropping maybe? This country has ignored its violent, racist past for such a long time and MAGA seems to have given permission for either denying that it ever happened or worse yet, make it a thing to be proud of! As you can tell I am not hopeful for us. At 79 years old, this is not my country anymore.😳
Education funding has been cut back repeatedly since Reagan's well-known animosity to education (especially college education) somehow became popular. the Republicans have discovered that it easier to persuade, misinform and control ignorant people than educated people
I hear you, Judy!
The Democrats have leaders. You followers have a problem. Get on the bandwagon or off the road.
Yes, we have leaders but they are too polite, milder than necessary, look what the maga thugs are doing, no regard to law, masked and armed, no car numbers, like a gang of terrorists, while we look at them and allow to kidnap and arrest citizens just in front of out eyes. They dared to arrest Senators and judges! Where in the world is that allowed, why we do it? We should form armed militias, trained to fight, to guard the courts and fight these thugs. Maybe arrest some and put them in jail without due process, let them feel it on their own skin. Let them learn to respect the law and the legal rights of people, not do whatever their Big Brother dictates between naps and golf matches.
We have no president, this country has no government, we are occupied by a gang of terrorists that imposed us a fascist regime, illegal by all means. To not mention their total incompetence in everything they do!
I don’t understand this. What do you mean;” off the road”. Liberals tend to be intelligent and educated, have independent opinions. If all these people quit the process who will be left with you?
She meant out of the way of the liberals. With us or out of the way, don’t stop the wagon!
Gee, Janis. That sounds like a deplorable statement to me. The Democrats may have leaders, but the base is as nuts as the MAGA base. That’s my opinion over 50 years of following politics and voting in all but the Bush-Gore election. The only reason I’ve been voting for Democrats is because they’re a far less scary option than Trump.
I have been one of the democratic base for those 50 years plus 10. I don’t consider myself nuts, but I surely agree that Democrats are the less scary option, has always been so and they are not bat shit crazy. Not perfect and some do feel that the good is the enemy of the perfect. They could use a ruthless gene that the repubs have an overabundance of. Bipartisanship is dead, dead, dead
And yet, almost every day Heather gives us a page of history showing that exactly the same thing happened a century ago. Or less - the rise of fascism is worldwide.
Who said, in individuals, madness is rare. In groups, etc. it is the norm. Or something like that. Fox has incubated and promoted the seeds of madness for decades, Rupert has been kicked to the curb in some countries, but others take up the mantle. And then the tech bros slimed onto the global stage…
"The good is the enemy of the perfect" is quite a rational and wise description of the frustration I've felt with some Democrats. Still, I will vote for them as long as we're allowed until MAGA is dead.
My frustration as well. Long standing and getting worse
They could use a ruthless gene.
I agree, the roll over and show your belly is often the expectation, or maybe a subdued roar. Teddy K signing on to W’s bs really floored me. I see a lot of that with this current crowd, and then there are the Kristin Gillibrand’s.
They are there. But what's needed is a real body of support, not just on protest days. How? This isn't an easy one, particularly with the proliferation of untrustworthy electronic information channels. It's increasingly urgent. "Madness in great ones must not unwatched go". And meanwhile he continues to desecrate/destroy the White House. The Rose Garden lawn has gone - dug up - it's going to be paved. I wonder it hasn't been turned into a swimming pool (I guess he doesn't look too good in the water). Giant flagpoles fore and aft. The plans are drawn up for the ballroom. (But he doesn't look too good on the dance floor either). Mar-a-Pennsylvania Avenue.
He told the American people if they voted for him there would never be need for another election! Any one remember Ann Landers, "wake up and smell the coffee burning" HE IS CRAZY,SICK AND A DEGENERATE BUT HE HAS THE POWER. I REALLY AT THIS POINT DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE POLLS. WE HAD A GREAT DAY
A WEEK AGO. We need a great day every single day. We need a demonstration in DC EVERY DAY! THAT CLEARLY SCARED THE S. OUT OF HIM. IF WE TAKE MILITARY
ACTION ON IRAN I THINK IT WILL BE THE END OF US, CERTAINLY OUR ECONOMY. WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PROTECT OUR ASSETS OR OUR MEN AND WOMEN IN SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY. AND OUR TRUSTED ALLIES NOW HAVE NO RESPECT FOR US. WHERE WILL WE TURN. THE TERRORISTS WILL COME TO GET US. The AUTHORITARIANS ARE WINNING . THEIR SUBLIMINAL PROPAGANDA IS GRASPING MORE EVERY DAY . WHILE THE DIVERSIONS OF CRAZINESS EXPLODE EVERY DAY WE ARE CRISIS WEARY AND RETREAT FARTHER INTO CONFUSION. THATS THE PLAN CONFUSE THEM, PARALIZE THEM AND ACT. THIS TREASONIST CRAZY MAN STORMED OUR CAPITAL, MAIMED AND KILLED PEOPLE ,AND STILL WE DO NOTHING... EXCEPT MAKE HIM PRESIDENT. I AM WRITING MY SENATORS EVERY DAY REPUBLICANS BOTH. ONE WROTE ME BACK SUGGESTING I CONTACT ANOTHER SENATOR WHO REPRESENTS ME BECAUSE HE IS NOT THE RIGHT ONE.
IT'S ALL PLAYING OUT, READ THE 2025 MANIFESTO AGAIN. SORRY FOR THE RANT!
Don't be sorry for the rant, it was good stuff, but please no CAPS! it looks like Trump, very off-putting. !) Google this (Bernie Sanders on YouTube): Trump: Don't Drag the US Into Netanyahu's War with Iran..
Yes, they are hard to read.
Lou Schmitt,
I heard the same speech and it scared me! It is not Trump alone as anyone with common sense must know! There are powerful, wealthy people pulling the strings of this Republican Party.
Our country is rushing toward the great abyss as most citizens are going to work, trying to pay their bills, children and young adults in school, many in college and also working to pay bills. In other words, with little time to complain other than with friends.
My husband and I have been to three "NO KINGS" gatherings. A great variety of American citizens were present ie all ages, all skin colors, all levels of education or social status, military, those in wheelchairs, even little children with their parents..... Standing or sitting together as Americans is such an honor.
Lou, on another topic which is heartrending to me: we cannot ignore the starvation of the population ie those hanging onto life during this horrible conflict taking place in Gaza and now if Trump sets off a bomb in Iran...the huge disaster it will create for innocent citizens.....the destruction it will bring to the land and to the population near by.
What if another country chose to bomb our air force, army or marine/navy headquarters at various times in various locations???? What if they planned to kill our greatest leaders in government or military? We recently experienced the murder of a beloved couple who were living a life of service for our country.
We should think deeply before even considering any of the actions Trump is just "carelessly throwing out" to destroy an area which is being used to enrich uranium which can be used to make a bomb...in the future.
This is insane!!! What if every country with the ability to make a bomb or those countries with a bomb were attacked as Trump is considering bombing Iran???? Trump is insane and Netanyahu is laughing at the crazy choices Trump is willing to make!!!!
I find it hard to read all caps on my little phone screen and you really don't need to shout. An occasional all caps word for emphasis works better.
As HCR reported after the 2024 election, 18% of the Trump voters followed politics and had no idea that Trump was an incompetent, demented liar.
As HCR explained already, now is NOT the time for ONE leader to arise. Now is the time for WE THE PEOPLE to join all Democrats and fight back, including taking risks. It's the time for us to meet, brainstorm around what future we want, come up with our own Project 2028, be interested in disagreements and counterarguments etc. This is the creative stage of fighting back. A leader is there to REPRESENT the people. So first, WE need to get our $hit together.
Do you have any suggestions for that “Star”?
Not popular but feared by all the toadies in Congress who will just sit back and let him rule as if a king.
LIARS. THUGS. DISHONORABLE. From the top down.
How many of the newer I.C.E. agents are pardoned insurrectionists?
They will never tell, all they do is secret, they formed a paramilitary force all over the country with maga thugs. They have weapons, masks, and travel in U-Haul vans without windows! Another illegal practice. Someone called U-Haul for that, they may have changed the vans but no visible faces anyway. Despicable people, horrible mentality.
True, that.
How many are not even ICE agents but are used anyway and completely lacking training? They are the violent, take them down mentality and initiate the violence.
My question is, how many of these masked "agents" are actually convicted J-6ers, or otherwise members of those groups who assaulted the Capitol?
Here in Maine, there is a new very quiet movement going on.
Democrats are re registering as Republicans....
Why? So we can vote in Republican primaries.
This simple and very stealth / private action allows us to select the most unelectable / crazy ass Republican primary candidate from their own barrel of bad apples. We move them up to become their top contestant.
The Retrumpicans have to waste their money, time, breath and lies campaigning their worst case candidate.
We can take Susan ( "he seems like such a nice young man") Collins out in the primaries.....gosh what fun....
DIRIGO!
.
What if we even then had Democrats run as Republicans and get elected, then change parties or just vote against the fascist regime?
Paul, I started out as a Republican until I got a bellyful of their nonsense as early as 2003, and changed my registration to non-party Independent. Lately, I have actually considered returning to the R's for exactly the same reason you have mentioned. I probably won't because I get inundated enough by Republican propaganda as is. One of them even came to the door to harass us the day I got out of the hospital from major surgery. I didn't know or care who he was at the time and told him I didn't care what he was selling, this was not a good time. He grumbled an angry apology and stalked off. Right after he left, I hand wrote a "No Solicitors!" sign on the door.
That’s funny. But who is the nice young man she speaks of?
SCOTUS Boofer .....Kavanaugh
If some masked people try to snag me or someone else off the street (especially in an unmarked vehicle & no warrant), I’d be on 911 calling actual law enforcement. This is Gestapo methods.
They still have not been assaulted by people. Wait until they do, it will be bloody.
Enough it’s enough, they lie and arrest innocent people who live here for a lifetime,
not criminals, not rapists, none who eats cats and dogs!
It’s a good idea to form a militia dressed like them, trained in martial arts, and arrest ICE thugs,
put them in a basement somewhere and let the others look for them! No due process!
Make this several times, in different states simultaneously, and scare the sheep out of them!
Keep your pressure on every ‘representative/senator/ floor walker gov’t worker’ you have names for. Daily .. hourly if you have the time to do this deluge approach.
You’ll feel powered by strengths greater than yourself ! Do it for so many of us who don’t have the time/luxury to participate via phone ! And THANK YOU SO MUCH!
They did not throw him anywhere, he chose to resign and they agreed. He saw the difference with Kamala and she won, he was right. If Musk would not have “cooked” the election, Kamala would be president today. Biden chose the country not his ego. Trump did not get elected, they cheated and we know how, the investigations started already. Musk will talk, he already did look in X. In front of prison he will tell all and ask immunity. If you have the delusion that all this circus will end with Trump triumphant, you are very wrong. In history dictators end with a bullet in their heads or worse.
That’s exactly what I am talking about. His attitude and illegality allow people to do the same. Empowers any idiot to sustain the same lies as he does and creates chaos. He stole the elections, he said it, Musk said it. Where did go the 300 millions spend in election? Maybe maga does not care now but we care, he’s destroying the country and that will not pass, we will not allow it, no matter what.
People have died for this Democracy, it will not become a terrorist third world trap-hole!
The fact that he prints millions of T-shirts and baseball caps only underlines the mercurial nature of his presidency, nothing else. They already started to feel the lies, nothing from what he promised in campaign is done, they lose their businesses in the middle agricultural country, no workers, businesses close, restaurants, hotels, have no people to work, read the news here, not the corporate media, many people post what is going on in their places. He is a convicted felon rightly and will stay as long as he’s alive, no one can take his crown achievement, 34 convictions!
Clinton lied as any decent man would do when talking about a sex and the woman, it was very normal to lie. He did not forced her, was what she wanted. At 21 she was mature enough to do it. He made the mistake to talk about it, I would have resented the question to begin with and throw them all out!
Completely agree. Does it make sense for folks to start calling 911 to report kidnappings in progress when they see “agents” engaging in these anonymous tactics?
The demented part of my mind thinks how easy it would be to hire guys to dress like ICE then go to their homes while they are out kidnapping people. Maybe kidnap their wives for a week, no explanation or communication, and leaving the American born children to fend for themselves of course.
It could teach these proud boys something about the world around them. They sure need to learn compassion if not what/who caused the conditions in other countries, and here, to make people want to migrate.
But don’t worry folks, I’ve never acted upon my “demented thought” side… yet.
That’s exactly what I said, but not wives, them. Arrest a few, put them in a basement, no phones, no communication, jailed waiting for someone to find them. They will change the politics immediately.
If some masked guy with no uniform or official identification touches me I will defend myself as is my right. That stranger could be there to rape me. You cannot claim assault when you’re the person who initiated the attack. It’s self defense. We have stand your ground laws in this country. I had never quite associated those masks with the KKK as Heather said. Where are their body cams? Why can they never prove their claims?
Exactly. People need to know their rights.
As Bob Marley sang,
“ Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight.”
We must!
No kings! No fear! Democracy is here!
Let’s keep singing the no kings anthems as we protest to fight fascism: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-kings-anthem
Indivisible did a wonderful mash up of scenes from No Kings day, using a song written by Allison Russell, performed by Gangstagrass -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89jmD-Y1Rvs
Thank you! Have shared and been uplifted. 👍
Please post your song to Voices of Dissent. It needs better content than the geek-musician entries it started with. Let’s unify our voices. Together we are stronger. We can still forge our own paths, but let’s come together in one place to amplify our collective rage.
https://services.tremho.com/vod/+
The Chicks March March from 4 years ago works well, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwBjF_VVFvE
Thanks.
That's been playing on a loop in my head. Great song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhJ0q7X3DLM
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Ohio" has been playing in my head for weeks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9INnMMwvnk
Can’t leave out Country Joe and the Fish’s ode to the insanity of the Vietnam War.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LxEyg61LC4g
Yes, I’ve been listening to Steel Pulse’s Album “Earth Crisis”!! Gets me through the day!! 😵💫
I used Bob’s words on my sign for the No Kings protest last week.
We are deep into 1984 territory. If you're not sure of that, read the book again. Rewriting the truth, presenting lies as truth, forbidding and punishing contrary thinking, etc. All straight out of Orwell.
I saw a hat advertised like the red one that said " Make Orwell Fiction Again." Really want to work for that.
And direct from Trump’s pile of Executive Orders, don’t forget the ever handy “memory hole”
“A memory hole is any mechanism for the deliberate alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts or other records, such as from a website or other archive, particularly as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened.[1] The concept was first popularized by George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, where the Party's Ministry of Truth systematically re-created all potentially embarrassing historical documents, in effect, re-writing all of history to match the often-changing state propaganda. These changes were complete and undetectable.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_hole
When comparing Trump to past tyrants the proper attribution is Augsto Pinochet not Hitler. The Chilean dictator’s use of paramilitary goons to “disappear” political opponents is exactly what Trump is setting up with the masked gangs of supposed ICE, FBI, DEA, and other “law enforcement” organizations as they sweep American streets “accidentally” detaining American Citizens. Once they are rendered to foreign concentration camps they will be gone forever.
It is impossible to determine the legitimacy of these masked, unidentified goons who wear an array of official looking combat gear.
In his own voice.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IhQEBAl3Gpk&pp=ygUaYm9iIG1hcmxleSBnZXQgdXAgc3RhbmQgdXA%3D
Great
My neighbor, 89, grew up in a little village on the German side of the Rhine near the border with France. She remembers how the Nazis took power and she is terrified she’s seeing the same thing again. So am I.
Any person wearing a mask and not in uniform must be regarded as a thug intent on kidnapping and extortion. Defend yourselves. We all must do that, and we all must come to the aid of persons targeted by thugs. Or else, “Heil Hitler.”
I know of no civilized country on earth that permits its law enforcement to conceal their faces, hide their identities, not display proper credentials, ignore judicial warrants. Not one. On the other hand, I can think of dozens of tin-horn dictatorships, satrapies, rinky-dink thug states and narco-territories where criminal gangs --- in uniform or not --operate with total impunity and anonymity, threatening, arresting, beating up, terrorizing, raping anybody they feel like, anytime they want, using any pretext they want -- or none at all.
Republicans degrade themselves everyday with their silence, association and complicity with this evil. As Liz Cheney once said, 'one day, the name of Donald Trump will be a distant memory, but your dishonor will remain.'
Thank you for this reminder. Your post should be copied and sent to every GQP representative and senator who kisses the ring of this regime every time they try to push the narrative that this regime is pushing.
We have devolved and are now a banana republic.
I wonder what would happen if a citizen tried to defend a victim from these unidentified "ICE agents" and, if charged, claimed as a defense that they could not tell if the "agents" were legitimate law enforcement or vigilante thugs?
Did you hear Heather likes ICE? She’s from Maine. 🥺
Yes. Geheime Staatspolizei, aka Gestapo, has reincarnated here in the United States.
If only the media sought out people like your neighbor for interviews, especially as witnesses to the atrocities are fewer and fewer. It is remarkable that you have direct insights from her.
Or Else, Hi Heather. WTF. 😳 are they going to kidnap us? Thugs. Oh…. Heil Heather ;)
ICE states that masking is necessary and that wearing easily read identification would subject his agents to doxxing. Our police don't wear masks. The do wear identification on their uniforms. In many places, they even activate their cameras if they are arresting someone.
Our police are not in danger of being doxxed. They live and work in our communities, and in small towns like mine, they know many of the residents since we are their neighbors. ICE agents, on the other hand, are not part of our communities. I don't know if making their names and faces public would lead to doxxing, but the assumption that it would, the assumption that it is necessary to protect them from the people whose safety they are supposed to be guaranteeing, is both insulting and preposterous.
Insulting, preposterous... and ominous.
Yes, in fact most police are well-known and respected…tough job, we need good cops! These wanna-best’s may not even be federal employees? How do we know they are from some other contractors…really?
And suppose they showed their faces. Would anyone object? It's all about inducing fear.
Betsy, I have been seeing reports of men claiming to be ICE agents--wearing masks and no ID of course--who are invading women's homes and sexually assaulting and kidnapping them. This is one of those moments when opportunism on the part of the most despicable people is going to grow. And unfortunately, using the traditional methods of going through the courts, signing petitions, and begging political representatives for help is not going to work. I recommend the tactics we all had to invent (and still have to use) to protect women going to health clinics that the anti-women's-bodily-autonomy groups had targeted. Surround people with a wall of people who link arms and who walk them through the gauntlet. And alert the press and take videos and post them everywhere.
Not liking this. At all.
Not substantiated, but I read a post on FB this morning that some protesters are throwing glitter on "ICE" masked agents, which of course they cannot get off their clothes and which identifies them. I think this is an excellent idea.
Now THAT's funny!! Word on the street is that it is hard to get out of beards.
There is a network in MA and other states that alerts members to possible ICE operations nearby so that there is documentation of what is happening. This can only work in the case of outdoor activity, not in the case of home invasions.
If they operate in a legal, aboveboard manner, they have no reason to hide their identity and the agency they work for.
Only criminals and cowards hide who they are. If they observe everybody's Constitutional rights, they don't need to hide who they are, and if they don't, they deserve to be doxed, and society should cancel them so they live in shame for the rest of their lives.
For a significant portion of law enforcement officers, the protests allow them to abuse people, and that is the reason they became cops to begin with. They are happiest when they can abuse innocent non violent citizens.
I admit I would like to smack Karoline after all her snippy lies. It’s infuriating. I hope some day she can look at herself and honestly come to terms with who she’s been.
She will never look at herself honestly, so my hope is that one day soon we never have to hear her voice, or see her smirky looks, again.
She's stopped wearing that cross necklace after being mocked by the Daily Show's John Stewart and she's been mercilessly parodied by the brilliant Lisandra Vazquez on YouTube. For those who may missed this:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6Ko_YDr_xF4
I love the tinky-tink musical background going on behind her as she heaves and sighs, condescends and smirks. Reminds me of the scene in Jurassic Park when Sam Neill and Laura Dern have to first sit through some little vile Microsoft "Clippy" character explaining 'the science of DNA' to them.
Thank you, Russell, for the link.
Lisandra is great -- her breathing like the White House criminal's press room bimbo, her repeat sucking up to the criminal, her repeat echoing of the White House criminal's scorn for the Dem who soundly beat him, and her great substitution for the faux-Christianity gold emblem she always wore as sop to the White House criminal's mobs of hate-filled white supremacists.
She's absolutely nailed it.
Not the cross.
Are you really the , the smirky one? Or are you two? Don’t lie now. I can hear it in your voice.
Are you done yet?
I wish i could have liked the above comment a thousand times!
True confessions from both of us LOL!
I hate too. Thanks.
She is irritating isn’t she.
All his Spokesbarbies are connected by a giant string in their backs. Like Chatty Kathy, you yank the cord, and some pre-programmed bullshit falls out of their mouths.
What Leavitt needs is to be in a supermax federal prison.
So frisky. Listen to you. Oh my now. Leavitt alone bitchybe
No, Lynne. No chance.
The corruption and criminality immersion is just too total. None of these people have any grounding in any humanities -- so no awareness at all of what humanity might be.
It's all just categorical, stereotyped group warfare by our most perverted who can see life only by the poisoned abstractions in which they've long sunk.
The world is full of countries now ruled by such, helping each other expand lies and violence, wars, genocide, and upped toxic scenarios and billionaire algorithms as if only they be the central victims thus justified and needing to poison more, lie more, destroy more.
Phil, I have no doubt that some of what ails them can be attributed to lack of humanities in schools. That said, some are not ready to study some things at high school level. I can give myself as an example. In 10th or 11th grade we read Great Expectations; I “got it” in the sense that I understood the plot and appreciated some of the word play and descriptive passages, but i didn’t *really* get for a number of years. A Tale of Two Cities I got right away, reading it just on my own maybe a year later. Wish we had read that first.
However, I don’t think we should lay all of the blame on schools and curricula. I think those billionaires acting in ways that now amount to mass murder suffer twice or thrice the usual allowance of greed and selfishness in their systems. I don’t know if they were born that way, or if they suffered horrors as children, but for the sake of humanity I take leave to hope they very soon suffer a Road to Damascus experience, and settle down to — as far as possible repent and atone.
I agree and understand, Karoline is extremely infuriating and disrespectful to so many reporters and journalists. But her smugness, caustic manner and condescension diminish any prospect for your hope and qualifies her for some other c word.
It has been noticed that Leavitt's press conferences have become shambolic. This clip shows one of them deteriorating into a cheery conversation between two Karens.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LD8hKItwEDc
Shambolic. Are you , oh no. Not that.
"...Only 46% of respondents approve of Trump’s job performance, while 54% disapprove." The poll numbers speak for themselves, but maybe it should not read "only 46% ..." but "Still 46 % ...approve of trump's job performance". Why is it still 46%?
That 46%, Marli, experienced the rape of their communities by the mass offshoring of their jobs.
They also experienced the cold-blooded rape of their schools by testing.
Add in Fentanyl and other opioids. AR-15s (now 11 million of them). Gerrymandering. Voter suppression. Lack of national single-payer health care. Social media algorithms promoting fear, hatreds, and paranoia. And tax breaks, tax breaks, tax breaks for the billionaire and dark money classes.
I'm getting a little bored with your constant throwing in "testing" when you talk about very serious issues. It actually makes me want to laugh, which is not what you want, I'm sure. Get a little perspective, please.
I've seen similar notes of exasperation for my mentioning the gutting of schools.
Trouble is, this neutering machinery has become totally normalized. Its dynamics, its conceits are fully accounted for in Diane Ravitch's "The Language Police." They go exactly counter to the humanizing of reading whole books and writing essays as used to center American schools.
Worse, those who take the testing for granted also typify our elites who excelled their way into the meritocracy -- and can never in their lives in any public venue cite any novels, memoirs, histories, biographies, travel works, or essay collections.
Testing killed that in them. And so many are so void of humanities that they can't even imagine any link between the vulgarity into which we've descended and the planned, profit-making, juggernaut megalith that arranged and still arranges that descent.
I think you need to give it a bit of a rest.
And prepare to be surveilled and to suffer vacuous posts by AI bots and partisan stooges. If you suspect they are obvious trolls, Substack offers mute and block options.
https://thegrayzone.substack.com/p/us-army-appoints-palantir-meta-openai?publication_id=474765&post_id=166447882&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=rdp7&triedRedirect=true
Phil has a story you should know better than to make those comments. Nestor is what created the offshoring of their jobs, and that was done by none other than William Clinton. Which only exacerbated the rate at which people in America wanted to buy the cheapest product possible, even if it were made somewhere else
Marli, my question also.
Because millions of people have to work multiple jobs to provide housing, food, energy, transportation, clothing for their kids and have no time to understand WTF is going on in the world.
And the Fascist Rs want to alter the curriculums so the kids will only learn about white Fascist and Evangelical racists from history.
Did you see the story about Illinois outlawing the banning of books? Hopefully, every state will pass a similar law.
And those millions do all that trying to prepare for the next economic bad thing to happen. Like a trip to the emergency room or having to replace a set of tires or fixing the furnace or............ and so it goes.
It’s actually more than 50% but there are more Democrats in the poll numbers than republicans. And there are more independence now and there have been in a long time
No surprise the latest numbers I saw were 89% of Democrats are against Trump’s policies and 89% of Republicans are in support of Trump’s policies. Ergo with more input from the Democrats, the survey is slightly skewed.
I fear this policy of masked people in unmarked vehicles, with no ID and no warrant is opening the door for human traffickers to do their kidnapping openly and brazenly. Nobody talks about this.
Actually, some people are talking about it, but you have to go to nontraditional sources to read about it. I have seen reports of women being raped and kidnapped by masked men claiming to be ICE agents. Try Daily Beast and the Guardian (I think one of the reports was from that paper).
This needs way more attention than it is getting!
In 2020 some of these masked agents dragged moms into their black vans. Portland pushed back. Even those people had on uniforms and name tags. These ICE agents today look like posses mustered at the local bar and promised that they could rough people up.
Yes Portland fought back and the news media made it very visible, showed the randomly grabbed folks, kids. Where is the coverage?
It’s a sanctuary from sanity. A regular riot ya know.
And don't you wonder how many of them were pardoned by Trump in January, 2025?
Trump has pardoned dozens of fraudsters forgiving their restitution of several billion dollars.
Job security for the high school bullies who never grew up. Blanket permission to bully anyone they want.
My wife and I just got back from the a farmer’s market where one of the women working at a favorite fruit stand was clearly distracted and upset, she apologized to my wife…’They took my Mother and I don’t know what to do!’
This is a horror beyond horrors, we now have “The Disappeared!”
Chilean horrors of yore have found a new rich home.
Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, as well as those in others. Use your voice and make some “good trouble” ❤️🩹🤍💙
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit?usp=drivesdk
Does contacting elected officials outside of your own district make any difference?
Yes, but contact your friends who live in Republican districts.
Where I live, we have 3 Cuban American Republican House members under tremedous pressure. To influence them plese contact the Cuban American National Foudation, https://www.canf.org/get-involved/contact-us
"Miami’s Hispanic Republicans push back on Trump’s mass-deportation agenda
In letters, public statements and social media posts, Republican lawmakers from Miami are pushing back on President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts. And even some of his most loyal Cuban-American backers are joining the chorus. At a bilingual press conference outside of the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez said he does not agree with Trump’s one-size-fits-all approach to immigration He said cases should be handled on a case by case basis because every immigrant’s situation is different. “We are working hard to express our opinion and let the President and the administration know that there is a better way, a more just way, for the people here in Miami-Dade County. Because they are our neighbors, and productive members of society,” he told reporters.
His remarks come as several Cuban-American officials from Miami, at both the state and federal level, have expressed disapproval and fear regarding the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and policies that heavily target Cubans, Venezuelans, and Haitians — all communities with significant populations in South Florida.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article309089620.html#storylink=cpy
Here's an open letter Miami healthcare CEO Michael “Mike” B. Fernandez wrote the following open letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and members of the Republican Cuban-American Miami-Dade congressional delegation: U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and Maria Elvira Salazar.
"For decades, I have stood with you in defense of the freedoms we cherish, those we were denied in the country of our birth and found in the grace of this one. I know what it means to flee tyranny. Like you, I carry that history in my bones and that pain in my heart.
"But like a growing number in our community, I have watched with dismay as the very values we once found sanctuary in are now being attacked by a previously unthinkable threat — the sitting president of the United States."
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article304271841.html#storylink=cpy
It depends on what difference you’re looking for. Some won’t listen if you don’t give a zip or address within their state/district (there’s an office address for each member of Congress listed on the spreadsheet😉).
If they know you’re not in their state/district, your opinion won’t be counted, however I think we can cause little ripples. I’m thinking staff members who hear the same thing over and over via voicemail, phone calls, letter after letter, email after email - maybe they’ll be a little more receptive each time they hear from us. Maybe they’ll talk more about our talking points to friends and family, maybeeee they’ll vote differently (if we get to vote again). I think we can cause ripples to push news organizations to be more honest and maybe even a bit accusatory about what’s happening. As a collective, our volume matters. And, at the end of the day, if we just annoy and overwhelm some staffers working for people hurting the average American, I’m ok with that too 🙃
Probably depends on the individual, IMO. I wish everyone here would write to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) about his smearing of the fallen legislators in Minnesota.
Yes! I 2nd that! I wrote an email and left a voicemail at every office number I have listed for him.
He also needs to hear about how pissed off we are about his to attempt to sell half of all BLM and USFS lands. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah chairs the Senate’s Energy & Natural Resources committee and is responsible for attaching this sale of 250+ million acres of public lands to the Senate budget reconciliation package, the horrid BBB.
https://www.wilderness.org/articles/media-resources/250-million-acres-public-lands-eligible-sale-senr-bill
https://thenationalparksexperience.substack.com/p/250-million-acres-of-public-lands
Utah is experiencing a major drop-off of foreign visitors to it's national forests and parks. Canadians are avoiding Utah like the plague.
As business after business fold in Utah, maybe they will begin to understand that isolationism, tariffs and hateful actions are bigly bad.
I've had success targeting members of specific committees. "Although I do not reside in your district, you are in the important <fill in the blank> committee and therefore do represent my interests".
This google doc is so helpful. Thank you.
You’re welcome! Thanks for speaking up right now!
trumps masked paramilitary ice agents are his version of hilter's brownshirts. They grab brown skinned people off the streets and send them to concentration camps in El Salvadore.
Brown shirts are the correct image without the brown shirts. Tom Homan looks a lot like Ernst Rohm.
Will he meet a similar fate?
not just brown skinned apparently
True, they are also targeting political opponents of their regime. As Hitler did and Putin does.
Stay off balconies. They get slippery and icy, even in summer.
They are trumps secret police. They do not represent the rule of law.
The images of the DHS goon squad dressed in jeans and tees, masks and backwards baseball caps are simply infuriating. And oh, the complete lack of identification as well. I’m sure that this is very satisfying to Herr Miller, but it’s really disgraceful and portends that worse is yet to come.
It's all very amateurish and unprofessional, just like this entire regime is, so unAmerican. These ICE and DHS thugs have an anonymity and unaccountability that should frighten anyone that appreciates their constitutional rights and freedom. It is really disgraceful, even more fascism from this regime letting loose this Gestapo creation that must be reigned in and unmasked.
The distractions continue..."...he is calling for a special prosecutor to investigate claims that the Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election". Isn't it about time that the Dems call for a special investigation that musk & trump and a few engineers stole the 2024 election? I can't get over trump's words that he '...had all the votes [to win] already' before the end of election day.
Hard for Dems to fight back because Trump cultists (which are same as nearly all Republicans) have the majority in the Senate and House, plus the Orange Clown owns the White House and quite a few justices and judges. This makes the 2026 congressional elections so crucial for America. If in 2026 a candidate for any office is a Democrat, vote for that person. Granted, Democratic politicians aren't simon pure, but (1) they don't come close to being as evil as Trump, and (2) Democrats can't accomplish anything if they are not the majority of their organization. Never vote for any Republican again, ever. Character counts but not until you've got a majority....or maybe a bigger gun. But in the latter case, then all bets for Democracy are off the table.
And no one seems to be investigating in Pennsylvania… musk fixed the win in my state!!!! Do a hand recount Governor Shapiro!
I would expect that I would want to harm a masked, unidentified man (read: creep) who approached me aggressively.
How in the world did the ICE employees agree to be kitted out to scare us?
That’s not the attitude of the officers of the law I’ve known.
Let’s get real people.
This is not acceptable in America. How about a march against this corruption of ICE and bring them back to being Americans….not little despots ( like you know who).
What real, honest cop would join ICE? ICE is for goons who get their kicks by bullying people who can't fight back.
I liked it when we opened the door to Open Borders. Ice that baby. No Dokell kidding. Spread them wide open. Millions.
I'm beginning to question whether the ICE agents aren't actually members of domestic militias under contract to ICE. Their highly irregular outfits, the excessive weaponry, and the unnecessary force and disorganized manner of their apprehensions show an enormous lack of professionalism and training.
They are the ones that he pardoned!!!
Proud Boy Enrique Tarrio wants you to report undocumented people – and get paid for it By Syra Ortiz Blanes Updated June 13, 2025
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article308487610.html#storylink=cpy
Doral, mostly Hispanic city, votes to join immigration enforcement partnership with ICE By Verónica Egui Brito and Syra Ortiz Blanes Updated April 21, 2025
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article304212151.html#storylink=cpy
What would happen if a city's police force started arresting people running around with guns and masks on their faces? What would happen if a 911 call came in saying a bunch of gang members with guns and masks were assaulting people at the Home Depot? Is it time for a conflict between municipal, county, and state law enforcement and the thugs running loose on behalf of Trump?
In regard to your last question, I suspect it might be on the horizon. In regard to your second question, I bet it is going to happen sooner rather than later. In regard to your first question, at least in this area, if it wasn't under a "high risk warrant" authorizing "special measures of safety" it would be immediate discipline if not termination.
Admittedly this was 30 or so years ago, but I was once dispatched to a call out in a small, rural community where "10 or so armed men, wearing black, are at my neighbor's house, sneaking around." I acknowledged the call when the sarge said "Check with the PD; see if it is them." About 15 seconds later I was disregarded; it was one of our neighboring cities serving a high risk arrest warrant. About a week later, there was an addition to the "policies and procedures" regarding "notifying the local jurisdiction when conducting any operations in their area.
I also had occasion, on several times, to go south into the neighboring county (both my county and the county to the south are about the size of the state of Connecticut) that I was what I termed "playing in their sandbox" making a citizen contact. If I ever had to arrest anyone, I would so advise.
Vance's press secretary must have gone to the same school as Ms Leavitt.
From the same cheerleaders squad.
Oh, YESSS! I can picture them.
Well, they could do backflips and somersaults over KJP …. lol. By the way, has now left your party.