Observers are noting that the reflecting pool fiasco, in which Trump created the idea there was an emergency, ignored experts, bypassed normal procedures to give a wildly inflated contract to a crony, bragged about his success, ignored the problems, claimed his enemies had sabotaged him, and finally stationed troops around the landmark he had turned into a swamp, represents the Trump administration perfectly.
What strikes me is that this isn’t just about waste or corruption anymore. It’s about taking institutions Americans spent generations building—our parks, our scientific research, our military, and our public trust—and treating them as personal property. That’s not leadership; it’s plunder.
It is a dystopian nightmare that is real. I don't think most Americans were aware of all of the opportunities for grift that our government presents. At some point none of our federal tax dollars will be going to any services and at the point that it is all directly going into Trump's pockets, we should be filing a class action lawsuit against his administration and refusing to pay federal taxes.
I have been considering it since day one, because I saw the theft immediately and saw it knew no bounds with the Congress we have. We have to have a real Congress before anything can happen. What we have now is the roboton MAGA machine.
The National Parks and Federal Public Lands bring billions of tourist dollars into communities all across the US including Alaska and Hawaii.
Beginning in May, the local roads surrounding Acadia National Park begin filling up welcoming over 4 million people each year. Hundreds of businesses rely on these visitors returning every year.
In early 2025, Trump and Vought cut out all temporary staff to the National Parks. These are jobs critical to the Park functioning like maintenance of roads, trails, guides and even emergency rescues. And this was every National Park as well as monuments and National Forests.
It's not like, the local communities have the option of providing these services, so the option was to close the parks. Our county would have taken a hit of about $650 million and the state of ME over a billion.
Senators and Congressmen from dozens of other states, stepped in and got these critical jobs reinstated.
Hooray for the Republicans. Unfortunately, they have very few wins and hundreds of losses. Republicans refuse to govern and to stand up to Trump.
They deliberately try to make this more difficult for the 99% because the 1930s taught them that if people suffer economically, they will want and vote for exactly what the GOP wants too: to install fascism in the US and get rid of democracy.
People will vote against democracy because they want change to happen faster. Neofascists use that impulse to allow the wealthiest to block ANY real change that would help the 99% from happening, so that they can do whatever they want.
Republicans who understand the economy are the oligarchs and Trump sycophants stealing from the US Treasury. The remaining cult members are there for the racism and misogyny and don't care that they are being robbed. Look at how MAGA is now defending Trump's illegal Iran War. They will gladly pay $5 gas because Trump lets them publicly insult Black people and watch his ICE thugs lock up and deport Brown immigrants.
I was disgusted by the war powers vote after their meeting with Trump. Cassidy and Rand Paul should be ashamed. And I give absolutely no credit to Susan Collins - her vote is purely strategic, to enhance her "moderate" bona fides for the midterms, and is completely sanctioned by the regime for that purpose. Fortunately, I believe Mainers have gotten wise to that ploy and will vote her out in November.
One would have thought exactly that in Kentucky with Mitch McConnell, but no, he was their Senator for decades. They kept voting him in because they liked his racism and hatred of the "libtards". Owning the libs and killing the "darkies" (sorry) was and is their top priority.
My big concern as a Mainer is that Susan Collins has 97 billionaires (all from out of state) supporting her. She even received $7k from Melinda Gates who lives 3000 miles away. God only knows why. BTW, Platner has 5 billionaire donors.
It's not just the tariffs, I recently heard that an innkeeper in the Southern Utah community where tourism is life blood reported cancellations because of the Trump administration's policies.
People from Canada even, just don't want to support them, and our tourism industry is waning. That people (seniors beware) can't be warned against hiking in extreme heat despite the deaths is further proof that the regime will take the proceeds from our national parks and waste them on their follies.
It's a NEOFASCIST GOP that threw out all pro-democracy Republicans during the Biden years, and that HIRED Trump as their clown in chief to distract us 24/7 with his scandalous behavior and tweets so that they can install neofascism, step by step, day after day.
Here's what Mike Johnson PUBLICLY declared at the beginning of 2025: from now on, he said, the role of Congress is to "codify the executive orders signed by the president". That means abandoning the US Constitution and subordinating the Legislative branch of government to the Executive branch of government. And doing so is the very definition of fascism.
Also, Trump was never interested in policy in the first place. He's an ACTOR, for God's sake. How come so many people forget this crucial fact and then take him seriously?
When he was acting in The Apprentice, it's the producers of the show who decided who he had to fire. He himself NEVER made that decision.
During the 2024 presidential debate, Kamala Harris showed how easy it is to manipulate Trump.
So WHO is manipulating Trump now? Who gives him his orders - orders which, if not followed, means that the GOP can send him immediately to jail as an insurrectionist?
The GOP leadership, of course. That means: the neofascist tech billionaires and the neofascist "Christian" nationalist (Heritage Foundation etc. - more than half of the senior staff in the WH came directly from the HF, in January 2025). THESE are the people writing the executive orders and explaining them to him in front of TV cameras before he signs them.
And as Kamala Harris and so many others, including HCR have shown: this has been DECADES in the making. The GOP has plotted this and created the right conditions for it to happen year after year.
Exactly Linda. For too long the democrats were the ones always compromising while the republicans were always pushing them to their side. It started with James Buchanan and Milton Friedman, then into the John Birch Society to the TEA party, Heritage and Federalists all funded by billionaires -especially the Koch brothers who realized long ago that data and targeted advertising was a key to push their candidates. They built the machine that is now the MAGA, even though they may not like the goons, they love the tax and deregulation cuts. They earned their wealth through exploiting their suppliers. Each one lost a few dollars and with the large numbers of suppliers, the Kochs amassed large profits. They were able to beat the charges with minimal fines or in some case get off free. They were not the only ones, just one great example. Jane Mayer provided a vast list of these folks in Dark Money.
Since the 1970s, the conservatives have been methodically chipping away at the New Deal and federal government regulation. As they chipped, our liberals basically relied on the courts to uphold the laws passed which the conservatives counted on. As long as they could prevent new legislation, they new they could eventually get to where we are now. Roe is a great example where the courts were the main stay as it was never codified, which with time, the conservatives could over throw. Same with voting rights. As the SCOTUS chipped away, liberals never went back to recodify. While they chipped away, the conservative leaning judges were coaching those that brought suit on how they could return to the court with new language that would give them a road to change the law. While liberals complained softly, the laws changed. The political capital they gained in 2008 was not used to shore up the system the conservatives had changed to that point and they were able to use the push for the ACA as fuel to keep mask what they were doing and here we are. We have the distraction - trump - much better than GW Bush - and all these unqualified cronies in this administration and a totally neutered republican leadership. I want to be optimistic, but unlike the 1930s, we don't seem to have general that will come forward and it is glaringly obvious that we have a congressional leadership that will do anything trump demands. Want to be that the SAVE Act gets passed? If it doesn't, I would wager large sums that the administration will implement much of what it contains to alter the outcome of the midterms. After all, election legitimacy is needed for any autocrat to take full power.
Thanks for the book recommendation. My book club read "Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism" by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchinson, who also discusses this evolution of the neoliberalists.
"They earned their wealth through exploiting their suppliers." If you're talking about the Koch family, they made their money in energy and agriculture.
Exactly and they fear-monger around the term "Communist"...I hope most people understand this. Others must more carefully explain the idea of "Social Democracy"...Bernie Saunders...We need you to speak up here!!!
Rhonda, I am already seeing some of the local regressives throwing around the word communist. I have often explained about communism, Marx, socialism, etc. All I get is more ignorance and often name calling.
But the 'fear-mongering' comes without any definition. Ask any of the MAGAts for a definition, and all you'll get is gobbily-goop combined with expletives. They only know what the cult allows them to know.
I know. A bunch of brown shirts with submachine guns came to our door last night and asked if we were Jewish. They were polite though, and asked if they could rape my wife and steal our art. Very much as Nazis did. Also, they asked us to go to the nearby train station and bring our belongings. And then...they stole the cross from the palce above the fireplace and stepped on it. And then they yelled "remember Auschwitz! Vote for Trump)"
I had something of a yo-yo reaction to Heather's post today. On the plus side was the sense of satisfaction that it gave me that I've certainly been paying attention, by golly! The great majority of things she spoke to I already knew; only the detail on plundering of the National Parks budget was new to me! (The only thing missing in Heather's identifying the epitome of the Reflecting Pool saga, is the recent construction of the fence around it.) It helped me realize that all my daily time with HCR, and Reich, and Meidas, and Shalev, and Krugman, and Schmidt, and Leonard, and the Bulwark, etc. etc. etc. have established a solid base.
But what HCR hints at today must happen as part of the next two and a half years and then at least a dozen more after that. In November comes the midterms. They must be won by Dems, hopefully, in both houses but the thin gruel coming from the DNC in its mailed literature is underwhelming (all actions and processes and next to no statement of goals, ends, or rationales). The apparent disorganization and absence of informative balanced analysis from the Democrats as represented in the deeply annoying and difficult-to-parse gimme, gimme, gimme flood of amazingly disparate fundraising attempts we're daily exposed to ad infinitum is more than disappointing; it is positively unnerving.
Assuming dems win the midterms, then comes a 'bitzkrieg' (excuse the WWII era term) of oversight hearings to unpack for America just exactly what Trump has wrought and how many (more than thirty to my knowledge) that show exactly where the weaknesses in the Constitution have been revealed and what kinds of corruption he, his family, and his sycophants have imposed on America. Eighteen months to complete that, a campaign fought on seeking remedies, and offering the requisite leadership that Dems must sweep to victory. And then in January, 2029 begin the task of figuring out the remedies to enable a second 250-year stint with an upgraded democratic Republic.
Remember is took ten years to get from the Declaration to the Constitution first time around. Circumstances are different now; America has ridiculously wealthy oligarchs, money has been decreed speech, all three branches have demonstrable if very different weaknesses, and Congress will be working with the present Constiutution, not the blank slate following the Articles of Confederation.
There is little such discussion; it is absent from any deliberations I have been able to find forthcoming from either the Congress or the DNC.
Thank you, Heather. Oh MY . . . there's a lot of hard work to be done!
There's an old saying about "fighting city hall." I understand your anger and frustration, but what we must do is take back control of our government and stop this looting and desecration of our parks, institutions and monuments. The fastest way to do this is to vote them out of power.
"We have to have a real Congress before anything can happen. What we have now is the roboton MAGA machine" The Congress we have was elected per Article I of the constitution. It's part of the rule of law.
I think the better argument would be to stop buying stuff. Which is so hard but maybe a national day every two weeks where Americans collectively starve the beast that feeds them. Even if we stopped paying taxes, they’d most likely find a way to just attach our pay and directly pilfer it.
I could stop buying stuff one day a week and it would not hurt me or help the cause. I would simply buy what I need the other 6 days.
We would need a guaranteed mass taxpayer holdout to get attention and most of us, I think, are too afraid to withhold state and federal taxes- at least I am.
We're afraid - and rightly so - because thousands of us would be jailed in maximum security prisons for years as a warning to others. Martial law would be declared and Congress and the Supreme Court would sanction it.
Fear has got us into this. Only courage will move us forward so I am more than willing to withhold taxes if the majority will. I will withstand prison.
I lived in an authoritarian country for a year. A country that had “elections” that were bullshit. People went about their business. They complained, they cursed the high prices and the terrible job market. But they just went on with their lives. That’s where we are now. One major difference- that authoritarian country had no history of democracy. The fact that we are so stunned into inaction so easily -myself included- given our history has been the most disheartening part of this to me.
Wait no more! The government IS run by the most corrupt mobster ever to breathe air, including the killings via eliminating the USAID program, ICEassainations of fellow citizens, deaths resulting from inhumane conditions at ice concentration camps, and our troops who died in the Iran debacle!
Not just our government. It is anti-democratic groups like the Heritage Foundation and Libertarians like Russell Vaught and the Koch’s, Thiels etc who need to be brought to heel.
We have to win both chambers in November. 1. Check your voter registration, vote early and by mail or absentee ballot (if possible and permitted). Make sure your friends and family will do the same. 2. If you donate to candidates, be strategic. Organizations like Force Multiplier can help. 3. If you are able, join a grassroots organization. Elections are won on the ground. Some volunteer work can be done online and via phone. 4. If able, be a poll watcher. 5. What ever you do, don’t sit this one out.
I need the Democrats to provide a way for me to pay my federal taxes into an escrow account, inaccessible to the MAGA GOP, but which will fund the beginnings of the herculean effort to rebuild this country after the monsters are out of power.
Trump has a talent for getting everyone else to pick up the cost of his bills. He did this with his business creditors, and Vought thinks Trump is free to violate the anti-impoundment acts. Vought has forgotten Trump too is subject to the law, although the SCOTUS majority has decided to ignore precedent and rewrite the law more to its liking.
Here are the results of a Google AI search on three June 2026 deaths in the Grand Canyon:
"Breakdown of the exact locations & Incidents on the North Kaibab Trail Arizona. On June 16, a 67-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman were found deceased along this trail."
Generally, "The NPS had previously determined that the North Kaibab Trail is the least visited & most difficult of the major inner Grand Canyon canyon routes."
"South Kaibab Trail Arizona four (4)days earlier, on June 12, a 72-year-old man succumbed to heat-related illness while hiking this route. The South Kaibab Trail offers expansive views but provides virtually NO shade[☠️]and has NO water[☠️].
Thank you Wes Siler. Thank You Heather Cox Richardson.
Everyone gets offended when one compares these Nazis to the ones under Hitler, but everyone that went along with hiding this information, or not revealing it is operating like the Nazis did.
Americans are less safe than they have been in my lifetime.
I'm glad I saw the Grand Canyon during the final year of the Eisenhower administration. It never occurred to my family to venture beyond the canyon edge, but we believed, with good cause, that OUR federal government was intelligent and benign. Now, we are being dragged along in a fascist nosedive.
I have a former work cohort that spouts violently that this government is neither fascist or Nazi. Other than absolutely denying that he mansplains (his comments should be part of a dictionary definition of mansplaining and gaslighting) he is adamant that we are not in any sort of danger from this government.
Ally, I suspect this dude would refuse to listen to it, but he and all the other (bad word, plural!) would benefit from the good professors explanation. Forty minutes well spent!
Neither do I. I know a woman who was once the gatekeeper for lots of art protists did for a huge hospital. We were friends for so many years. We still speak to each other and when she asks, I do a job for her but she is so fricken closed minded. So I recently sent her the streaming Raging Grannies of New Mexico singing “Battle Hymn of the Donald.” She laughed. Big shit.
Yes we are. I’m still preventing myself from arming. I’ve been a lifelong gun control advocate. But I have thought about it. I’m not about to change now but I thought that if I did, I would buy a tank.
You know, I believe we have reached bottom. I just hope we know how to climb.
trump yukes up his ballroom but I think what he is most interested in is the bunker below it.
And then there is ivanka's new project....
Sazan Island, Albania, houses an estimated 3,600 Soviet-style nuclear bunkers and roughly 10 miles of underground atomic tunnels. Built during the communist era to withstand a nuclear attack, this former top-secret Cold War military base is now a preserved site in the Mediterranean.
My grandmother used to say, when something was very bad, "you can't fall out of the basement," meaning the only way is up. I fear we may not yet be in the basement and that if we are, we may live in its cold and dampness for a long time.
Both words are correct English, but they mean completely different things. Use ruse when talking about a trick or deception, and rouse when talking about waking someone up or exciting an emotion.
Thanks, Christine. I often encounter malaprops in the comments, and am torn between being labeled "grammar police" or trying to raise our collective level of literacy. I think the latter is the right approach, but some days, I'm just too tired.
Then there is the issue of "spellcheck" that automatically "corrects" spelling without our permission or awareness. Who committed the offense? The commenter or the software?
My only intent is to inform as a way to avoid future embarrassment. I still blush at my own mispronunciation of the word scintillating over 30 years ago. I knew it was wrong the moment it came out of my mouth. I'm sure you can guess what I said.
I reckon the Sierra Club is struggling along with its corporate sponsors, trying not to make too much of a fuss. And High Country News is a monthly magazine featuring devestating stories about what humans are doing to the planet in their ignorance and hubris.
I am saying a tax lawsuit. As the Trump regime continues to try new things, so should we. Nothing ventured, nothing gained are words we could be living by too.
* Example: "The Courts walloped trump's anti-voting agenda."
* Full disclosure: Democracy Docket took over my legal reporting duties posted on LFAA & Civil Discourse regarding the Lawsuit filed by 22 AG's across our country now pending in the state of Massachusetts to protects Voting Early & Vote-by-Mail.⚖️
I can be reached at Bryan's Substack where I do NOT accept paid subscriptions. Subsack Inc does provide "Authors" a digital tool to communicate with "Readers" more privately as necessary.
I am all about rethinking who is taxing us. I am for state taxes covering almost everything at this point. States can pool resources together if they want to. I have written on this before, but not for a while. I might write a piece. My Swiss friends says people don't pay that much in federal taxes in Switzerland, more in local. That is true in some Scandi countries as well.
The short term cure to the POTUS epidemic and longer term SCOTUS epidemic is currently in our hands....VOTUS ....Voters Of The United States must unite and vote and be counted on NoTrumpBer 3rd!
If that date passes by without an overwhelming voter demand for changeover in control, America as we remember it will be permanently lost.
NoTrumpBer 3rd is your last and best chance to save America.
Your vote is your only tool to secure your freedom.
We need a class action lawsuit called impeachment, and it would be nice if the voice of god publicly rebuked Mike Johnson for claiming to be Christian.
Sigh... read up on the law sir. Impeachment is NOT a "class action lawsuit" it is a Congressional action. And it requires 2/3 of the Senate (i.e., 67 votes) to convict and remove someone. Right now, Democrats don't even have a MAJORITY in the Senate, let alone 67 votes.
It would be nice if the voice of god rebuked this whole administration, but I don't believe in god or his/her voice, so I doubt that is going to help any of us.
I know what you mean. My chief comfort these days is reading about the Roosevelt family and the New Dealers who supported their policies. Also, my Quaker grandmother's 1940 diary. She voted for Republican Wendell Willkie,
not knowing -- typical apolitical American that she was -- that Willkie was a lifelong Democrat voter and believed that the time to stand up to Hitler had arrived, i.e. Willkie would not keep us out of the coming war, as Grandma hoped he would.
It is game, set and match point is up next.....ignorance is rampant as proven by the fact that so little serious attention was directed toward Project 2025. All written in that document is coming to fruition now!
Rich, I know what you mean. My bookclub read it, one to two chapters a week, before the election, so we know what we were voting against from more than soundbites in the Democratic Convention. I cannot understand any currently elected politician not reading it themselves, and that includes around the world. Know thy enemy! I predicted that if put into effect it was going to turn the US into a third world country. I am so glad people are standing up though. These people have been organizing for at least half a century to overthrow our democracy, and we are going to have to organize to stand up to them and take the country.
Well here I go again as a broken record. You can dislike everything that Trump does, but regardless, even if there is actual proof ON THE RECORD (court or Congress) of literal theft, none of us can legally withhold our taxes "just because", without fear of being put in prison. There is simply no legal basis for such an action, and I expect that any attempt to make such an argument in an actual court won't go far.
If it could, then it would just as rationally permit MAGA people from refusing to pay their taxes when they don't like what a Democratic President did with the money. ANd believe me, there were PLENTY of people between 2021 and 2025 who did NOT like what Biden did with our money.
Jon, Jon, Jon. You give up too easily. Change has come about because people thought of how things could be different and then went about trying to make that change. We are talking about changing things and you can tell us we cannot make this change come about until you are blue in the face, but that does not mean that We The People, cannot try for and bring about change.
Trump himself would never accept your reasoning and does not. He breaks the law all the time, and continues to get away with many things, but not all. He also files lawsuits all the time against things he does not like. Why should he be able to do that and not We The People?
Welcome to the nightmare of libertarians. A Libertarian Walks Into A Bear - great book at how a libertarian community ends up depending on surrounding communities for societal service support. The book uses the bear infiltration into their community as they had zero government services to combat the problem and then it expanded to all other serivces.
Ah yes... the Libertarians. Who's hatred of taxes is what put us into this position to begin with. Who love to pretend that everything would be perfect as long as they never had to pay for another child's education or resurfacing another road.
Welcome to OUR nightmare after you all voted for Trump and now the leopards are eating your faces too.
I have never, in my 86 years of life, met a Libertarian who is not a selfish asshole who cannot justify his ( because mostly males in my experience) “political” stance in any logical way that does not eventually come down to
an immature desire to have no regulation on THEIR behavior, while demanding the absolute right to regulate YOUR behavior.
Libertarians are nightmares. I am not making a case not to pay taxes, just not to pay them to a crooked federal government. That is a difference. Can't all libertarians now go live in Prospera, Peter Thiel's "Utopian" city in Honduras with no rules?
FINALLY! YES, Linda...organize and withhold taxes...watch the attention you get. people seem to think they don't have to take the risk. that it will be disruptive. yes. that's prob true...but look what's alREAdy happened with all the money you folks are paying.
and what will the administration do if a million...or more withhold taxes? there might be a better way to do it than outright withholding...i'm SURE that, amongst you, there are tax lawyers that might be able to come up with a, more or less, bullet resistant plan...one part being to remove your moneys from places the govt can access...
it's ALways about the bottom line, right? 'follow the money'? this would kick them where it hurts...but it WILL take courage...you folks are alREAdy at war for the soul of that country...this method needs considering...
I expect this administration would LOVE to throw 1 million people (obviously mostly Democrats) into prison for withholding their taxes. After all, they are building those prisons, they might as well use 'em.
I am not saying withhold as much as I am saying change the laws around taxes. I have written about this last year, advocating for State taxes to cover everything, and they can pay a fee to the federal government for things like the military, or some other better plan.
I have suggested arguments for changing things. I am not married to the way things have been done, or are being done.
I have said, when he stops doing that. At that point, I did not work hard my whole life just to fund Trumps' vanity projects. Did you? Are you?
We did not even really have federal taxes before the Civil war, then they were created to pay for the war. I don't want to be paying for any wars under Trump that are not approved by Congress and do not have the support of the people. In addition, what am I getting from this? My mom, who is in Medicare, had to pay over $1600 out of pocket for hearing aids last year.
We could manage all the things we need with state taxes alone.
Linda, Like you, I have been advocating that re Fed Taxes.
One of our young state Dem Reps here on the upper Cape whom I had voted for, laughed at that suggestion in front of a crowd of his supporters, whereas the crowd applauded the idea.
We need STRONG BRAVE leaders not spoiled weak teas.
I’ve also written our governor about that idea even proposing that the State create a safe way to deposit the Fed Taxes we withold; absolutely no response no answer. I indicated I’d rather donate my Fed Taxes to MA etc.. many people here at least seem ready to do this, but fear the gang’s reaction.
I understand w the increase of gulag detention centers
plus his private ICE army of criminals hungry to round up ‘woke’ citizens.
Dystopian is an accurate description, Linda, and totally foreseeable; the anti-intellectualism, anti-science, and manipulation of government information are hallmarks of Fascism and Christian nationalism.
I recently started watching The Handmaid's Tale and other than the impetus of people suddenly unable to reproduce, it is striking how closely the depiction of the ruling class and their enforcers match trump, the Evangelical Christian nationalist deep state, and federal law enforcement operate today and really since the beginning of 2025.
"At some point none of our federal tax dollars will be going to any services and at the point that it is all directly going into Trump's pockets, we should be filing a class action lawsuit against his administration and refusing to pay federal taxes."
There are very few opportunities for grift. There are, however, oppotunities for conflicts of interest, as the Biden family showed and the Trump family has magnified.
You can't file a class action because you lack legal standing to do so.
It becomes dangerous when it's allowed to become unfettered. Your institutions and legal and constitutional guardrails have failed to protect you. A growing number of Americans are beginning to realise this.
We have ceded too much power to the executive branch and that needs to be rectified when we are back in power. There is NOTHING that Trump is not attempting to destroy. He is treating the White House as his personal home and property. He is gratified h the entire country as his fiefdom and that needs to stop. Right now, I am hating all republicans because they are not even TRYING to stop him. And Russell Vought is implementing project 2025 each day and so MORE rightwing destruction.
Elizabeth, I agree that the executive branch needs a major makeover. In fact, a former participant in this forum (who left for the same reasons I'll soon be leaving) has crafted a model constitutional amendment that addresses the issues in the executive, legislative and judicial branches. You can read his work here: UnitedWeAmend.org
Thanks, Elizabeth. Unfortunately, much of the commentary here becomes repetitious. I include myself in that. Others use this discussion forum as a vehicle to display their own creative writing skills, while summarizing points HCR has already made. We can admire their word-craft, but we aren't led to productive, actionable conclusions. Also, a few personal squabbles over the same issues become tiresome.
Wasn't that always the underlying goal? It was never just about theft, about the grift, the daily violations of the Emoluments Clause which fail to move Republicans one iota. It was about the larger suborning of the American spirit to *their* private, moon-bat ideology of demonization, witch-burning, separating us all into "us" and "them" camps, and making certain the country turns into a true idiocracy in the process.
The underlying goal is the imposition and maintenance of permanent white-supremacist extremist-christian nationalism. Implicit in that are the use of fascist terror tactics; suppression of dissent by any means; unflinching oligarchic support in exchange for ongoing control of applicable financial and environmental policy; and license for those in office to grab everything they can and do any damn thing they want, and run away laughing.
This is what we will get if we do not win a majority in at least one chamber of Congress this November, and it will last for generations. It's not enough to just vote. Educate other voters. Spread the word about the existential nature of the election and the importance of voting. Register voters, especially younger voters. Write postcards to reluctant voters. Find out from your secretary of state or the ACLU or the League of Women Voters how you can help defend the voting process in your town or district. Sign up to be a poll watcher. Drive people to the polls. Bring several registered voters with you when you go to vote.
It is imperative that we have a larger voter turnout than ever before, and it is imperative that we elect candidates committed to putting the brakes on the fascist train, uncovering facts about what's been going on, and holding people at every level and in every branch of government accountable to the rule of law.
Electing the next round of "go along to get along," "don't rock the boat," "let's get back to the way it was" candidates will only enable further descent into utter failure as a democracy. The worst thing to do is to do nothing. The next worst thing is to put candidates into office who are blind to the transformational change needed and who lack the courage to step out front and lead the way.
Hmmm, where did I read about a plan that outlines how they planned to do that?
Everyone was warned about Project 2025 and yet, it is being implemented piece by piece with very little push back from anyone in Congress. And the Fascist far-right on SCOTUS are paving the way for each piece to move forward.
Those people aren't going to be Democrats, if all the off-year elections and the primary results are any indication. Democrats have learned the lesson.
Perhaps a significant number of Democratic voters have learned the lesson. But not all 'establishment Democrats.'
NY Democrat Rep. Tom Suozzi has proposed a Loyalty to Capitalism and Denial of Socialism oath which Joe McCarthy would be proud of.
Clinton advisor James Carville - architect of moving the Democratic party to Wall Street neoliberalism and away from its FDR New Deal and LBJ Great successes - is demanding that progressives leave the party.
And here in Maine, the formerly admirable Janet Mills, and recent Chuck Schumer choice for Senate, got nowhere with her campaign, lost the primary by over 50 points, has refused to concede and endorse the winner, and is hoping that the Democratic oppo research now being used by Republican Susan Collins, will so damage the Graham Platner campaign that he will refuse the candidacy and allow Mills to step in. Former Maine Democratic officials Genevieve McDonald and Lynn Bromley are among those pushing for this. So seemingly is Connecticut Rep. Madeleine Dean. And a crew of virtue signaling purity test bloviators. I have been critical of the purity test Left for helping elect Trump. Now we have the corporate Dems' Mills-stone around our neck working to elect Susan Collins and perpetuate the Republican Project 2025 regime.
"...will so damage the Graham Platner campaign that he will refuse the candidacy and allow Mills to step in": That's unlikely, so it's great way to help Susan Collins win. 😒
In this case, the money is just a side benefit. The larger goal is the Nazification of America. At his idiot ‘Freedom 250 Great American State Barf Fest’ on the Mall (so unpopular it's largely empty), there are small hordes of 'Krishhchun' revival-types trying to re-invent masculinity for themselves and their fragile senses of power under attack from Haitians, Atheists, Monsters, Little Boys with Vaginas, and Antifa Frogs. There are physical competitions, laying on hands on young men, uniforms -- the whole bit.
They've created phony 1930s Hollywood stereotyped skits -- goofy, Davy Crocket wannabe-macho contests straight from 1950s Disneyland to reinforce the concepts of Manifest Destiny --- the Ultimate Human Cockfighting Championship that disfigured the South Lawn, the "National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving" event in May. One of its organizers summed it all up in Old Testament terms (a favorite fallback with these assclowns), asserting that Moses's victory over Pharaoh was really a victory for Judaeo-Christian civilization over a "transgender Egyptian god."
One phrase from history for these pea-brains who've clearly never once bothered to study it --- Hitler Youth. Enuf said.
"The money is the enabler. It's the money that's supported the long, slow plot of destruction."
As personified by Charles Koch bagman, Dark Money shell game con man, religious extremist, Federalist Society court capture operative, and Heritage Foundation Project 2025 funder Leonard Leo.
To the extent funding can be traced, Leo has funneled billions of plutocrat money through innumerable shell companies to a myriad of populist antidemocratic initiatives. For decades. And recently through the Teneo network added tech bro money to his ChristoFascist portfolio.
Yes. No question.The campaign of democratic, constitutional perversion in "plain sight" is meant to achieve fascist, white nationalist goals and wear us down at the same time. The moral dream of American liberty and equality is on our side. Let's reclaim it.
Belly aching across Substack is therapeutic but short of the actions needed to give these criminals pause. With the majority of Americans at our back, we need focused consumer strikes against the Internet Oligarchs. Stop buying from Amazon, stop watching Amazon Prime or buying e-books through Kindle. Get off Facebook and etc..
He was parked in a leadership position for which he has impacts on society. He was picked to sabotage government's responsibilities to the public that sustains it.
RFK was one of the most obvious nutcase appointments made by trump; I thought surely he'd be the first to go. Nope, he's still evidently going strong, doling out insane advice, allowing people to die needlessly, showing up regularly in the clown shows in the oval office and being praised by the mad king.
Soooo how do we stop paying taxes and not get penalized? So far i have just delayed paying… the option during Vietnam war is no longer available- said my tax accountant. Ideas?
I suspect that Musk and his DOGE Boyzz cracked and stored all our tax information in their early 2025 rampage, and will be coming after us soon.
For a couple months, we withheld taxes, but just now paid them because, unlike past regimes, this mob would just as soon torture and kill you, your children and your pets as get a jelly donut. They are brutal and they don’t care.
Exactly so, Kelli. And we can take steps to reverse that plunder soon.
Many things need doing, of course, to begin recovering from this devastation. Some of it will take years; some damage is permanent; some can be reversed fairly quickly. One step that will cost almost nothing and could begin to make a difference is to elect non-maga candidates in close Congressional Districts this year. A prime example is Arizona’s 1st Congressional District (CD-1). While we do not have an Independent candidate this time, we will have a competent Democrat running against a maga republican.
If anyone reading this lives in or knows someone who lives in CD-1, have them check out the Arizona Independent Voter’s Network (AIVN) Substack account for more information. We will be focusing after the primaries on spreading the word by every means possible to take that District from the Red List. Check us out at https://azindy.substack.com.
This is in no way commensurate with the magnitude of our challenges. Yet, with the present numbers in the House of Representatives, the significance of each District is exponentially greater than It might otherwise be. The key is to take available steps in the right direction asap!
Our dialogue here really matters. The actions we can take because of its insights are imperative. CD-1 is is an opportunity to do that.
Ah, Paul LePage, the most recently Florida resident who while governor shut down our small business health insurance plan (Dirigo) and told the NAACP to "Kiss my ass." We moved to MA to retire and be near family. But the loss of health insurance pushed our plan to an earlier date.
Is Eliot Cutler (candidate for governor busted for child porn) still in jail? The guy who split the "reasonable vote" twice?
I hope that the feisty people of Maine are fed up enough with the bigotry, plunder and betrayal of Republicans to elect Dunlap and Platner.
Cutler is in and out of jail, but he did help us to see the need for ranked choice voting. Semi-open primaries are another step in the right direction.
If we had RCV nationally, Gore and Hillary might have been presidents. There is value in getting to choose your ideological favorite and your practical choice as well. Builds support for alternative points of view and doesn't waste votes. Good for Maine.
I certainly would support Dunlap. But I would never vote for Platner (nor Collins). What a terrible way to try to strike a blow against Trump (a guy seriously charged with sexual misconduct), i.e., vote for another guy who is seriously charged with sexual misconduct.
Platner should have gotten out of the race and then presumably the Maine governor would have won. Yeah, I know she isn't a huge liberal Democrat, but I'd rather have a conservative Democrat defeat Collins than a male who can't keep his hands to himself and thinks its okay to do sexual texting with people, even people he doesn't know well. I draw a line and that is it. Platner crossed my line and I'd never be able to vote for him. Fortunately I don't live in Maine so I don't have to.
Jon, I have read several things that the original source for the information on Platner was from a MAGAt; Platner has acknowledged his conduct and has been treated for traumatic PTSD. I have gone rounds with my former work cohort over this, who equate Platner's conduct with all of the described Epstein conduct. Platner's not clean, but he's also not filthy.
I can understand your personal position of him crossing a line that you cannot abide and acknowledge that. I would still rather have him than Collins or Mills. Like you, I do not vote in that state, so my opinion is kinda like it's rather crass definition...
It has reminded me of a smash and grab from the very beginning. They don't care what they break so long as they are enriching themselves. Maybe some of them are interested in building the 4th Reich but I'm not sure most of them are really convinced they are building anything that will last. Grab as much as you can while you can!
Exactly! No one should fall into the lazy and comfortable illusion that our American neo-fascists are stupid. They have proven that they know exactly what they want and how to get it.
I’m not sure what led you to believe that I think it will “just happen.” Many of us are working extensively to support and propel forward the pro-democracy movement. And while some of the perps may have high IQs, yes, I do think they’re stupid. I worked for a time in prison education, and some of the most brilliant minds I’ve ever met (and that’s saying a lot) are behind bars because they thought they were smarter than everyone else, and they ultimately made stupid mistakes. One has only to observe this regime to see the same dynamic.
Dana, I think there are two drivers at work. It is dangerous to dismiss this regime as an "idiocracy" or a bunch of thieves, although both are true.
There is an intelligent, treacherous cabal at work led by Steven Miller and Russell Vought. Miller is leading the charge toward white supremacy and Vought is leading the march toward christian nationalism.
They allow the smash-and-grab goons to steal our money and create chaos because it destabilizes and demoralizes us, creating a fertile field where the seeds of white christian fascism can be planted and grown.
Not just "plunder"; a vast, methodically subversive ecogenocidal conspiracy by plutocratic perpe-traitors and their legions of storm-trooper puppets to permanently reduce the failed United States to a ChristoNazi slave plantation.
WAKE UP, PEOPLE. THIS ISN'T MADNESS OR INCOMPETENCE. IT IS THE METICULOUSLY PLANNED, METHODICALLY IMPOSED DESTRUCTION NOT JUST OF OUR NATION, BUT OF EVERY HUMANITARIAN ADVANCEMENT WE'VE ACHIEVED.
Mike Johnson has it all figured out. He's in charge of the protection racket. These people speak before they think. That is their weakness. They are very fearful. Expect more outrageous behavior.
Absolutely right. The tech bro billionaires want democracy and its institutions and all their rules gone: they want to make their OWN rules, which are good for them - not for “we the people”. Because there is no ‘we’ in their world, just ‘me’.
well, GJ....considering who now owns much of MSM...as Dutch Mike put it... 'tech bro billiionaires'? there was a decent amount of consideration put into the 2025 doctrine...preparation and now implementation for a multi pronged system of control.
maybe most americans thought 'no kings day' protests would be enough? that country has not been under severe attack in so long that people seem to have gotten way too comfortable...so now more radical measures seem to be called for...and i am not, in ANY way, proposing that they be violent.
i DO like the 'defunding' possibility of withholding taxes. but there, of course, should be as MANY monkey wrenching approaches as possible...
look at Iran...they knew what to do. quite the embarrassment for Trump, et al...there are enough of you with different sorts of skills to come up with a few different ways to undermine these people...the alternative shouldn't be a livable one. look what it's gotten to NOW...worst assault on the American peoples in my considerable lifetime...it hurts to watch, even at a distance...
trump honestly believes all of this is his personal property to do with what he wants. I again can't help thinking he believes we can never run out of money. We can just print more.
''The National Theme Park of Self-Enrichment (Now With Premium Admission Paid by Everyone Else)''
Some governments manage infrastructure. Others manage ideology. This one appears to have upgraded to managing aesthetics of personal admiration, funded through what used to be called public money.
Take the West Colonnade renovation, where taxpayer funded flagstone apparently failed the vibe check and was replaced with imported polished granite. The official explanation was simple: it was paid personally. The actual paperwork, less poetic, suggested otherwise, with hundreds of thousands of dollars quietly routed through public budgets while the narrative stayed proudly self-funded .
This is not really corruption in the traditional sense. It is more like performance art with procurement forms. A kind of statecraft where the props are national parks, and the script is written in “rush project at request of POTUS” footnotes.
Meanwhile, the supporting cast, meaning the National Park Service, is asked to do more with less, preferably less staff, less funding, and less ability to fix things like safety hazards that might interrupt the aesthetic experience. If a cliff needs a guardrail, that is apparently a future problem. If a walkway needs granite, that is an emergency.
The logic extends neatly: science becomes a loyalty contest, research funding becomes an ideological filter, and expertise becomes something you consult after you have already decided what reality should look like.
Even public health gets drafted into the same philosophy, where inconvenient facts behave like partisan opinions and institutional memory is treated as optional.
The result is a governing style that resembles a luxury renovation series filmed inside a constitutional system, except the budget overruns are real and the consequences are not decorative.
At some point the satire stops being satire and starts feeling like documentation. The only real punchline left is that the people paying for the set are also cast as extras, whether they auditioned or not.
This week’s celebration will be tempered by a sense of loss. And what has been lost? It is the dream, the belief that there is a bright future ahead. The seriousness of this moment can also mark the reclaiming of the dream for all Americans and all of the people of this planet. Americans are not the only ones who are suffering. Remember the suffering of the Ukrainians, going through winters of suffering from the cold and the loss of their sons and daughters. But they have the belief that they will prevail and it is that belief that will give them the strength to prevail.
What maintains the Ukrainians who have been forced to fight a war for their very existence against a very powerful enemy? They have a dream, a vision for the future free of Russian dominance and they are willing to fight their battles to bring that dream into existence. At the beginning of the attempt by Russia to dominate Ukraine; things looked quite bleak for the Ukrainians. Yet the whole population woke up in short order and realized that they had to continue the struggle to remain in a free country.
Now the short-term future looks bleak for Americans and it has affected our national mood in a very substantive manner. Many are asking what is our path out of this situation? Others are wondering if there is even a path out?
I believe there is a path out and it first requires an inspiring and unifying vision of a what a bright future will look like. Once we have that unified vision then we must be willing to engage in struggle to achieve it. Nothing of great value comes without great struggle and struggle is what we will be facing ahead. It was struggle that birthed the United States and inspired us as a people to create a powerful vision to take on the most powerful country then existing on the planet…and we won against impossible odds.
If you were given the task of creating an economy and a truly representative form of governance what would it look like and how will you (not “them”) communicate this vision to others. It takes more than hope that others such as our current spineless polititions will accomplish this for us. Currently our government is a train wreck that has literally stopped in its tracks. We must create dynamic new forward looking leadership and give them a vision of what we demand they will accomplish. The original motto of Europe’s Jews in 1897 that inspired the creation of Israel was first penned as the closing lines of the utopian novel “Altneuland” by Theodore Herzl:
“IF YOU WILL IT, IT IS NO DREAM.”
So first we create that vision, that dream and then through struggle we make it our new reality. It is a personal and a collective vision achieved through collective struggle and our new motto can be “WE WILL DO IT.” As Trump, MAGA and Project 2025 begin to crumble in front of our eyes now is the time to get to work and create a blueprint for our ideal society.
I think at root it's all about greed and corruption whether it's about foreign policy or domestic policy. I certainly agree that the consequences are both wide-ranging and dire and not just for the US.
unfortunately, Russell...i agree. it's almost like a second pandemic...i hope it will not prove as costly. so far that's true, at least, in lives lost...
Quite right, Kelli. Perfect exemplifications for this administration abound, but none is better than Trump himself—a malevolent charlatan pedophile insurrectionist with two impeachments and counting who couldn’t be more obviously corrupt but who nonetheless won the support of enough of the American to regain power a second time. Just as Hegseth needed to experience the immediate and devastating consequences of removing the vaccine mandate for our troops before he realized the error of his ways, I’m afraid the American people must also learn the hard way, while Trump and his cronies enrich themselves at the expense of our health, safety, education, infrastructure, medical advancement, defense, security, international soft power and reputation, and the list goes on. Not in a malicious way—but I really do hope we learn this lesson extremely well so that we never repeat the mistake.
it really amazes me that ANYone believes, esPECIALly more recently, that Trump has ever FAIRly won an election. or that he's not willing to do ANYthing he can get away with in order to win...and he HAS succeeded, obviously, in making WAY too many of you believe that any election he was involved in was won fairly. deSPITE all the evidence to the contrary....
Well said Kelli Klymenko. Republicans are in charge of all three branches of government and yet, they have done nothing to stop the Trump administration from plundering and weakening our highly advanced, wealthy country. America has been made rich by its highly productive labor force while Republicans have ensured for fifty years now that the riches go to the richest 1% and not to working people. The American people must stop them at the ballot box this November!
imagine using all the public property such as parks, labs, the country service men as employees of a personal private holding company. That is what's going on.
I don't deny that he not the only one who does this but cmon, if this continues may start feeling a slice of dystopia.
people should have been 'feeling a slice of dystopia' when, at the LAtest, Pretti and Goode were murdered. not to mention all that have already died in the concentration camps...ALL with, not only imPUnity, but the inCREdible gall of implying, or straight out SAYing, that it was the VICTIMS' faults...
that fits, all too well, part of MY definition of dystopia. as it should ANYone's with empathy/a conscience...
but, after observing most Americans' non-response to the homeless for so many years... maybe that ship has never come to port, much less sailed...
Empathy and conscience are values that have no place in MAGAt land.
I love that one of the things they love to call our side is "sheeple". Well, we are not the ones being led by the ring in our noses to whatever outrage their political gods decide to manufacture next.
And let's add that working people are just resources to use. I said this 20 years ago that changing the name Personnel Department to Human Resources in organizations was a very bad idea as people became a commodity to be used. It took the personal aspect out of those departments and made workers just another widget.
The money being syphoned off from parks and other public works is a feature not a bug. The oligarchs want to destroy public works, and DJT is happy to reap the grift. The attempt to undo the non-partisan professional civil service in a return to the spoils system likewise. It is what they have always wanted.
But the most chilling thing in tonight's letter is the return to the genocidal threat, giving the lie to the "peace accord".
True it is a threat to murder, to kill, torture and bereave. But a threat even the Iranians understand as hollow and stupid. They are likely treating it with the seriousness we treat his North Korean explanations about how the Reflecting Pool managed to turn itself green. For Trump Always Chickens Out -- a meme that didn't just arise out of nothing, but has always been part and parcel of the strutting, swaggering, 2-year-old, carnival-barking idiocy that lies at the heart of everything they try their hands at.
Ironically, the more they lie outright, the more the truth slips out. Squeaker Johnson openly admits to doing nothing more than running a bantam-weight pissant protection and racketeering service for the President. That is just remarkable. The Speaker of the House is one of the few offices singled out specifically in the Constitution as a truly national position -- a spokesperson for Congress, for the very idea of checks-and-balances, with clear historical roots in the Speaker of the House of Commons -- a position in Britain considered so important and sacrosanct it is simply not allowed to be held by a partisan figure.
The more desperate they become, the more the cult shatters into a thousand jagged edges. The tiny, tiny, tiny men surrounding the tiny, tiny, tiny little President are increasingly exposed for what they are, all trying to fob themselves off as would-be patriots and would-be defenders of the common good.
Nothing could be more transparently, laughably false right now.
Clompared with the Bobblehad, Alfred E. Neuman seems filled with a spirit of raging testosterone. 'What if Donald yells at me?' said British tabloids about Sir Keir Starmer. I can only imagine what they'd say about Mr. Flaccid with the Dorky Glasses.
Johnson is a living example of the idiocy of allowing a shallow, immoral person to hold any position of power.
Character counts! We are living through an era where the people in power are notable for their lack of character and the honesty, integrity and decency contained therein.
The Speaker of the House is an Evangelical Christian nationalist and is working to turn the nation into his dream theocracy.
Pete Hegseth is an Evangelical Christian nationalist and he has been purging the Department of Defense and the military of women, non-white people, and Officers who do not toe the Christian nationalist line.
Sadly, this was all known prior to the 2024 election because Project 2025 was published months before anyone voted.
Hopefully people can see now how important it is to be well informed in order to elect honest, respectable politicians to represent us.
The greatest danger may not be the money itself but the slow reshaping of what people come to believe government is for. If we’re taught that public institutions don’t deserve investment, that accountability is optional, or that uncomfortable truths shouldn’t be reported, those ideas eventually become normal.
History reminds us how easily collective memory can be rewritten. The fact that many young people in China have little knowledge of Tiananmen Square and ‘Tank Man’ isn’t just about one event—it’s about what happens when transparency is replaced by control. Democracies rely on an informed public. Without that, neglect and silence become easier to accept.
Americans have already accepted a much lower level of government support that other wealthy countries, so it will be hard to regain what Americans never had, and haven't had in a long time.
Eric, I disagree with your suggestion to abolish the filibuster. In a democracy, there must be some leverage allowed to the minority to prevent the worst impulses of the majority. Without it, you have an autocracy en banc.
Rather than abolishment, the filibuster must be returned to its original function. Instead of being a symbolic gesture, it must again require the filibustering legislator to stand and speak continuously, as Cory Booker did on March 31, 2025.
If the filibuster became physically difficult, it would not be so easily abused as it is now. Our mistake was not in retaining the filibuster, but in making it easy and painless.
As a constituted. I retain deep sympathy for the justices who take their commitment to justice seriously, but are powerless except for comment and witness. And occasionally a tip of the balance. I think the Robert's court serves Trump as a way to serve plutocracy, and where it costs little or nothing to the very rich, allows some justice to escape from time to time.
I think the heart of the rot in general is self-serving corruption on the part of our fiduciary officials and of we the people for failing to unite against it. I know of at least one family that suffered disastrously from the corrupt shenanigans of the banking industry in the subprime crisis, and another that suffered greatly. Yet in the end, Dick Durbin could say (the banks) "own the place" as the will to reform remained subdued. I had a long time friend who died of COVID while politics pumped the extraordinary death toll.
Many, including me, groused when bankrupt bankers got bonuses while so many lost their jobs and homes, but we failed to unite in sufficient solidarity. The ripping apart of immigrant families, a crime against humanity, is it not, failed to unite the nation in condemnation and and demands for real reform. Here I run my usual, but it should be chiseled in stone and recited in schools:
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." -Lincoln
Even though the SCOTUS “decision” was an egregious political move by a bunch of rightwing water carriers in thrall to a convicted felon, there have been so many “acts and decrees” that cannot be termed in the name of “presidential duty” that can be prosecuted if this Orange Scourge lives past his final term.
Johnson is correct. There will be investigations held if the Dems take the Congress in November. We need to make damn sure that happens!
Like "emergency" or "national security", it "presidential duty" is carte blanche "Trump card" for unaccountability. What are the criteria for "presidential duty"? Who gets to say? The whim of $COTUS, apparently.
Note that the criteria of even "Bribery" spelled out in the Constitution, along with "Treason"as a convictable high crime, is tortured by the Roberts' court to the point of de facto legality.
Yes, I agree.We the People need to file class action suits on a myriad of issues.Our tax dollars are being squandered and plundered.Our most sensitive data has been seriously compromised by Musk and his Doge group.Our public lands are being destroyed.He effectively “killed” millions by his ineptness and dangerous hair-brained policies during a worldwide pandemic.He is destroying our People’s House and National capital.The list could go on and on.We are paying these people our hard earned tax dollars to harm us.He and his group of traitors and thieves owe us big time.
Class action suits to represent the American people are necessary because the institution (DOJ) that is supposed to represent the people has been totally compromised.
I feel like he is super busy protecting voting rights. We need someone of that caliber who is not only doing voting rights. In fact, Norm Eisen was recommended when I wrote about this last year.
Last year when I suggested this and asked who would be a good lawyer for this, someone said, Norm Eisner lawyer who is also with The Contrarian. I think we should give Donald a taste of his own medicine.
Regarding the national parks: I think the objective is for Trump to say the parks have gotten shoddy and dangerous (because of Obama and Biden, of course) and the best solution is to invite the private sector to help turn things around. Think of all the tax dollars that would be saved if we had a Nvidia Grand Canyon, an Amazon Yellowstone, a Palantir Yosemite, and so on. The welcome signs at the entrances would all have gold letters with Trump’s name on them. I really wish I were kidding.
Privatizing government services has been a goal for the GOP for a very long time. It is a way to funnel taxpayer money to their cronies and donors. Remember when George W. Bush insisted on privatizing Social Security? Some things never change.
There has always been intense concentrations of money and political power that uses that power irresponsibly to gather more. The British East India Company. Slave labor cotton in the USA. Imelda Marcos and her endless collecting of shoes.
"That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." - Lincoln
I think the more rapacious strain of billionaire has been offended by the notion of anything they cannot buy and profit from, and have been engineering a selloff of the commons for a very long time. Too much is never enough.
Trump doesn't work for us. Trump works for Trump.... and uses our money to do "Trump work" (or trumped-up work). We NO LONGER HAVE A GOVERNMENT. We have a nation-wide VANITY PROJECT designed to serve the emotional needs of Trump (and also of Hegseth).
THIS IS A F-ING NATIONAL DISGRACE... and, of course, CBS News will NEVER tell anyone that this is what's going on. JFC!
Like a mob boss, DJT has "fixed" all of the government institutions for his personal gain. The GOP Senate and House work for Trump. Not for the people they swore to serve-their constituents. Trump is stealing from the citizens they represent. They must choose to serve Trump or serve the people who elected them. It cannot be both.
Like a crime family, with threats and bribes DJT and his family controls the US military, the Congress, the FBI, the Dept of Justice, the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the majority of the Supreme Court. Every lackey in his cabinet licks his boots. There is no depravity so low they will not all stoop to give him. They have all sold their sacred honor and their souls.
How does the opposition stop him? First, they must start telling the truth. When Donald blurts out the next self-serving lie, the DNC must line up the troops and counter attack. With the truth. Call out the liars. Name their names.
Blanche and Bissent opened the vaults of the Treasury for the Trump Family for $1.7 Billion of our money. Using deception and fabrications and conspiracy to commit fraud. Even after getting caught with his hands in our cookie jar, Trump is still clamoring for our cash. This and many other examples are proof that the Trump Family is organized crime. When will this truth be stated out loud by the Good Guys?
That is the plan and it doesn't take too much research to figure it out. Basically, take the citizens out of the equation. When Trump talks about a "Golden Age" he is referring to the Gilded Age only worse. A country by and for the ultra wealthy.
So it is. It also explains the drive to destroy Nature and the planet. Why would the tech bro billionaires do that? Simple. The Earth and all its living creatures (including humans) are simply resources to exploit for these genius demigods. They know no ‘we’, but only ‘me’, so why would they try to conserve Nature? Better use it all up in this lifetime, why leave any of it unused? Because they don’t give a single fuck about anyone else or anybody who should come after them, that’s why. Reductionist-materialistic thinking taken to the extreme.
Well, you have to be an extremely sociopathic malignant narcissist to think like this and not have your conscience get in the way. Most of us simply can't grasp this level of egoistic thinking - that's why they consider themselves "geniuses"...
"Capitalists usurp the power of government and pervert it to their own purposes." -Frank Blair Jr. (Missouri Representative 1848)
Debates about Democratic principles have been going on throughout history. The core issue involves the power of capitalists vs. the power of labor. Keeping laborers, working people divided is a proven way to conquer "we the people".
For Cheeto the deadliest word in the English language is loser. Cheeto wants to be a major global powerbroker but like Napoleon, Iran has become Cheeto’s Waterloo. There is prevalent magical thinking in the WH supporting his crazed policy origins. It began with the ICE lack of habeas corpus in deportation arrests, the illegal tariff policy banned by SCOTUS, the Iranian war not approved by Congress, refusing to hand over the Epstein Trump files mandated by law, the incessant election interference and subversion(SAVE Act), getting paid for pardons, refusing to help Americans with housing while giving large tax breaks to wealthy political donors, refusing to abide by court orders, blatant corruption with no bid contracts, funneling $$ into his own pockets through crypto, nepotistic awarding of contracts to companies that has loose ties to his family, and destroying the DC property.
The need for his legacy to be seen as the most powerful ruler the world ever known is the product of a demented psychotic man who wants to do what he wants to do. As he has done most of his life Cheeto is now making presidential decisions on gut instinct ignoring the advisors around him because he has some psychic powers.
But there are people who are complicit in supporting this dictatorship. And WE the People are keeping a scorecard on what can be done when this hellscape called leadership ends. The Nazi Republicans should not be allowed to run for dog catcher. And I would argue that the electorate that supports Nazi Republicans are complicit in their avowed racism, corruption, and immorality. How disgusting that there are Americans to turn a blind eye to authoritarian rule.
His instinct is one of total domination, the sickness that has plagued human history. It is the antipode of what is argued in the Declaration of Independence.
PTV, it is what some of these Americans want, with all their stony hearts. They want white, male dominated, Christian, heteronormative, cisgendered society, and to hell with religious freedom, women and the alphabet people (BIPOC and LGBTQ+).
In 1917, there were no vaccines at Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas, now widely believed to have been the incubator for the global pandemic known as the Spanish Flu, which managed to kill only somewhere between 50 and 100 million people worldwide in three distinct waves. Every single Army commander fighting the outbreak back then would have risked everything to get such a vaccine for his men, had one been available. The same goes with the mayors of every town decimated by the flu, such as Philadelphia, which lost so many people the corpses couldn't even be collected for public burial for weeks.
Yet today, Pete Kegsbreath and his idiot colleague, RFK, Jr. are attacking not just the science behind well-known vaccines, but the public trust in them. In so doing, they literally lay the foundation and schematics for the next such event. And for what? For what?
Together with the forced closure of USAID, the many random attacks on boats in the Caribbean, the Iran War, the undermining of Obamacare, there's enough evidence to put everyone in this Cabinet in prison for murder for the rest of their lives.
Like Trump who touted all the fake cures for Covid, but when he fell ill with this virus, got the finest medical treatment and latest drugs available to save his skin. He topped that off by his dramatic mask removal on the balcony of the White House to show how invulnerable he was. That set off the discard of masks by many - wonder how many of them got infected.
AND—THE US IS RUNNING OUT OF OIL. Blah blah blah. The reserves in Cushing Oklahoma are nearly empty. CNN had a report on this several days ago. The # of ships getting through the strait is a fraction of normal—AND TO REFILL THE RESERVES. WAKE UP.
The situation is beyond belief. I can understand Trump is a greedy, sick and ignorant individual who has never succeeded on his own in any honest enterprise. But how does one explain Mike johnson and his entire party?
I continue to wonder that too -- did Trump just suck up all their integrity or did they have none to begin with. They could so easily stop this madness -- but instead they cheer it on.
Why do we wonder why? Just ask Liz Cheney, John Cornyn, Thomas Massie, and Bill Cassidy why. At the root of all of this is a significant slice of the voting public that wants this shit. For my money, nowhere near enough blame is placed on the tens of millions, the stupid, bigoted, greedy, racist, misogynist who are all in on the dictator’s fascism. They’re done with pluralistic democracy, if they were ever for it to begin with.
I agree JohnC. I think the 60% or so rest of us (non maga) became complacent or fell asleep or were too busy or whatever to pay attention and especially to vote. The magas pay close attention and most importantly do vote as a bloc. The rest of us better wake up quick and get together before its too late.
I wonder this too Laurie. In fact I spend way too much time thinking about this very thing. All I can conclude is either he has so much kompromat against congress critters, or they lacked a spine before this guy came along.
Maybe it is a slippery slope we can't imagine because we are not in these positions. of power? Maybe they threatened harm to their families? I don't know. I just want it to stop already - and I don't see an end in sight which is discouraging at best.
MAGA has been threatening violence against any push back of trumps agenda for ten years now. I would expect politicians who are swayed by the threats to have quite politics by now. Betrayal of their oath to preserve and protect the Constitution is unforgivable as far as I'm concerned.
Lauriemcf, in my opinion, it wasn't an overnight transformation, but political office has evolved over time from a "public service" occupation to a "personal power" job. Many of today's elected officials have minimal education or marketable skills. If not in elected office, they'd be lucky to earn a fraction of their congressional salaries with few or no benefits. (Lauren Boebert, et al)
They are puppets launched and controlled by shadowy operatives who told them what to say, where to stump and what to do in office to keep those large donations rolling in. The idea of not having a job in Congress is terrifying for someone who can't do anything else. So they attach themselves to whomever seems to be able to protect their jobs – and it's clearly not the voters – and do the bidding of the power broker.
Trump is not the driving force in this. A bargain has been struck between Trump and the people who are really running the show…
And they plan on being here long after Trump is dead and gone. He was just the ticket into the dance.
That’s why they sit back. A hundred billion, hell even a trillion to the Trump family to gain control of the most powerful nation to ever exist for possible ply decades??? It’s peanuts, like Musk giving a few hundred MILLION in order to get BILLIONS in contracts and becoming and unbecoming a trillionaire. Does anyone think Zuckerberg or Besos gives a shit what America thinks of them? This was solely a business deal. They put up a few million and talk nonsense and flattery and get investigations squashed, government contracts, more tax breaks.
No, he doesn’t belong to Opus Dei, as he is a white Christian Nationalist Protestant. He is allied with people like Leonard Leo who do belong to Opus Dei.
He’s not pious. He’s just as greedy and power hungry as the rest. He’s just wraps it all in religion as a shield to protect against criticism. He never has to answer a question as to how he’s doing his job, why he’s ignoring laws and procedure. All he has to say is that he’s following a higher law.
That’s why they constantly want to mesh THEIR religion with government. As if….”whose laws are we breaking? We’re following a higher power’s laws, not the ones made here on earth by mere men”.
They use it on everything. To completely take a simple sentence written by the Founders and interpreting it into “originalism”where men in 2026 tell us what they were really thinking based on their beliefs on God in 1776. Not what they actually wrote down. What Clarence Thomas thinks he can get away with in order to rule in favor of a big tipper.
And the gall of them to give blanket immunity to Trump? As if the Founders would have wanted that. They would want a convicted criminal with a history of bagging on his debts, who wanted to use the military on protesters in the first term. Yes, they definitely would have wanted this.
And the only reason they did it was fear. Not fear of Trump. Fear of the people they really care to impress. Who they really align with. And it was always going to be temporary. Had Kamala Harris won, the brief that was probably already written by Heritage to challenge that decision would have been #1 on the docket for SCOTUS to immediately reverse. This was political and purposeful to either be safe if he won and implement their buddies Project 2025 or reverse if he lost.
Literally, how many different ways did the founders have to say, write down over and over again about the separation of church and state and how NO religion should be elevated above all others. How we are a country of LAWS, not men and certainly not God.
Texas just implemented forcing kids to study the Bible. Can Dearborn MI now demand the Quran be taught in public schools? How about the Torah in the Bronx public schools? Voodoo in New Orleans? Buddhism in California?
What these people are trying to do with this country is not sustainable. We have seen it fail over and over again. Taking a nation built on laws and equality and suddenly saying religion is replacing laws and we now have a an authoritarian, not representative country in a country as heavily armed as ours? When these people looked around the work and got hard ones for dictators and fascist regimes, I’m not sure they accounted for the idea those countries didn’t have more guns than people and a second amendment.
So along with everything else this regime accused their enemy of that they are doing themselves…they’re the ones who are going to HAVE to come for your guns.
Right, Marcus, the Justices would argue that the President is only immune for crimes committed doing official Presidential duty's.
Of course as his attorneys argued in the Supreme Court, the President could have his political opponents murdered as a Presidential duty and he can surely have peaceful protesters murdered too.
The court set themselves as the arbiter as to what falls under official duties. And you can bet they would decide differently for a Democratic President than a Republican President.
Despite claiming to be Christian, Mike behaves like a grifter, and like other confidence gamers, he must play along with the Commander in Cheat? Is this post-truth politics?
Senator Tillis's criticism is notable less for its bipartisan texture than for its institutional precision: replacing demonstrated command competence with perceived loyalty is a change to the decision-making criteria the institution uses, one that a personnel framing obscures. The chain of command exists because military effectiveness requires accountability within a known structure, and substituting a political loyalty test at its apex reorients that accountability from the mission to the appointing official. Congress confirmed these officers through a process designed to give the people's representatives some purchase on who commands a force built with public blood and money. Firings without explanation bypass that mechanism regardless of whether a senator objects after the fact.
These firings of the most competent people in our military are based on racism and misogyny. It may not be evident from all of the names, but most of these military officers were either women or people of color. Their loyalty to our Constitution was never suspect, just their loyalty to a wannabe dictator.
There is some thinking that the top brass military firings are strategic. Could there be plans afoot in case the 2028 presidential election does not go its way? Is the military being groomed to step in?
And adherence to White Evangelical Christian nationalism, Betsy Smith.
I believe that Hegseth is making the military into a predominantly White Evangelical Christian nationalist force and will use it to force the country to comply if given the opportunity. And certainly to deal with civil unrest when trump and the GOP refuse to except the outcome of the midterm elections.
I keep telling you when you post it’s really important to have a point it makes it much more interesting for the reader. C’mon dude , putting my feet to sleep
I've posted bits and pieces of this before, but I'm going to take the easy route tonight and just copy and past what I wrote to 350+ people about how to save scientific research by commenting on the very dangerous OMB proposal:
A bit of background, supplied by a different friend. OMB’s Proposed Federal
Financial Assistance Rule would put into effect the recommendation in
Project 2025 to substitute scientific expertise with political influence when granting funding to scientific research projects. As this friend explained it, the OMB is proposing that "Funding for scientific research should not be controlled by a small group of highly paid and unaccountable insiders at the NIH, many of whom stay in power for decades. The NIH monopoly on directing research should be broken. Term limits should be imposed on top career leaders at the NIH. Project 2025, page 462"
Having only very general knowledge about Project 2025, I was unaware that one of their goals was to replace funding for scientific research, currently peer reviewed and then further vetted by the NIH, with funding decided by politicians and political appointees. I find this to be very dangerous, so I clicked on the above link, which put me directly on a comments page, where I posted this:
As a survivor of bilateral breast cancer, scientific research is fundamental to my health and well-being. As a Cape Codder, scientific research that tests the purity of the water in our single source aquifer is fundamental to my health and well-being. These are just two examples of ways in which scientific research, vetted by scientists, not politicians or political appointees, is fundamental not only to my health and well-being, but to the health and well-being of us all, in our country and world-wide. Therefore, I strongly oppose changing the way research is funded. The current process is rigorous and produces excellent, reliable results.
If you know me at all, you know that I'm not a research scientist, so I have no financial interest in the issue. But I do have a huge interest in the scientific research that keeps me alive and that potentially benefits all of us who share this planet. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say that they wished they could do something. Well, here's one small thing that we all can do, but that if each of us does it, it could turn into a big thing. I'm sure that you can come up with an example or two of why this is essential to you. Speak truth to power and write a comment.
How many of us alive today have had our lives extended in obvious ways (let alone ways that are hard to recognize or trace) by careful, rigorous, and vetted science?
Yes however JL there has been or was a deep forgetting and Amanda at the same time public health and it’s work was compromised. So a perfect storm so to speak. I remember as a mother in the mid nineties the number of vaccines for infants was increasing. And since my father was part of the oral polio vaccine program I had memories and great respect. As part of the AMA and the community hospitals( remember them you knew who that ER nurse was because she lived down the block from you ) the different cities police and community outreach , and businesses worked together to provide a FREE polio booster to any children. Doctors were available to talk to any parents who had concerns and there were some and my father listened then talked to the parents. But after that grand community public health action NIH and public health became silent. Just more vaccine tins and many mothers were concerned about load. Legitimate concern. There should have been a public health role out campaign addressing this concern. I think Dr Fauci or another ID doc addressed this in the last few years and oh nothing to worry about we all needed this information decades ago. There used to be much more public health type films as well with the stories of scientists and doctors instead of just the almost but quite syfy scare films. There has always been propaganda but sometimes used for legitimate good purposes the use as a twisted jackhammer blows my mind. The situation in terms of comprehension of medicine and health just started going haywire with out adequate public health messaging which always comes down to funding. This was even worse when the support systems which were never that great and full of isms. See the nonfiction book The Hospital by Jan de Hartog. So community hospitals disappeared and insurance ran the medical support game instead of physicians and hospitals. DRGs and insurance board panels with no names and control of time spent with patients under strict controls by insurance companies that were created to be nonprofit turned into profit making entities.Senator Elizabeth Warren has spoken out about this especially in terms of private equity. I saw it all imploded. Even state run programs line the Ohio Bureau of Children with Medical Handicapps was decimated. Several years ago a NFL football player tried to help out but I do t think they knew the extant and the why of the problem. ALEC took over Ohio state legislature long ago and this was one result.
Children and any vulnerable human are not respected or valued almost less chattel and property than useful mannequins to pull out of the closet every now and then. Books have been written one from an Ohio community hospital viewpoint and articles but they seem to slide into oblivion. Everything needs to change in some way. There needs to a fulcrum of new creative balance if at all possible and soon.
"Having only very general knowledge about Project 2025, I was unaware that one of their goals was to replace funding for scientific research, currently peer reviewed and then further vetted by the NIH, with funding decided by politicians and political appointees."
And that is just the tip of the iceberg in Project2025. It is but one thing in a multitude of schemes to do away with democracy. I could go on but, the end game is in sight for these maleficent actors. The plan was/is to capture all government functions within 180 days because they knew that there would be roadblocks. We are down to our last roadblock and we are that roadblock.
Posting this again to encourage everyone to send protest emails to their Senators before August 24th 🇺🇸
“An oil company leases a piece of your public land. It drills a well, pulls the oil, and posts a $10,000 bond up front as a promise to clean up the site when the well runs dry. Years later the company goes bankrupt, or it simply walks. The well stays where it is, thousands of feet deep, venting methane and leaking toxic brine into the ground. The cleanup runs north of $300,000. The company forfeits its $10,000 and disappears. You cover the rest.
The math rewards walking away.
Unplugged wells vent methane and benzene, a known carcinogen, and leak produced water laced with heavy metals and radioactive material into soil and groundwater.
These are real holes in real ground
An orphaned well is a federal term with a plain meaning. It’s a well with no company left to plug it and no bond big enough to do the job, so the responsibility lands on you.”
🇺🇸
Comment on the rule. Go to the federal docket at regulations.gov under BLM-2025-0037 and tell BLM, in your own words, that you don’t want to inherit the oil industry’s cleanup bill. Specific comments carry more weight than form letters. If a well sits near where you hunt, camp, ranch, or draw your water, say so, and name the place.
🇺🇸
Then share this. Independent public lands journalism runs on readers, not advertisers and not grants. Forward this to the person who fishes the creek downstream of a lease, and check how your members of Congress have voted on public lands at our Congressional Public Lands Scorecard.
The land is yours. So is the bill, unless enough of us say otherwise before August 24.
🇺🇸
‘Trump Admin Pushes More Public Lands Oil Cleanup Costs to Taxpayers’
The 25 comments before mine here are variously eloquent and clever in identifying and condemning the criminality, corruption and cruelty of this regime.
Please, in addition to restating the outrages, let's turn our anger into action!
To generate a Blue Tsunami and make November's election results TOO BIG TO RIG, this toolkit has actions any of us can take to Get Out The Vote:
Eric Lin - the blue wave should make sure the Democrats running in the primaries are not accepting $$$ from AIPAC - there is Anti-AIPAC sentiment and it’s causing some seats to be lost in our Democratic primaries across the country.
In Maryland, Sarah Elfreth used some of the $5 million she has taken from AIPAC to win the primary. She refuses to discuss or explain why she takes so much money from an Israeli funded pac. I will not vote for her in the general election unless she comes clean and takes questions about her need for dirty money. I will write in my own candidate. We must push them to represent us.
Not really. Maryland is a Democratic state, abd she will win regardless of my vote. I want transparency on this issue. I have called her office many times to ask why she is taking this money. Her people say that they are not qualified to answer questions about donors. They send me to the campaign office who don't answer the phone. When I leave a message with my question, they do not return my calls. If they were proud of AIPAC funding, they would respond. Gaslighting is gaslighting regardless of party.
Any chance your write in candidate would win? Is your district so blue that there’s no chance the R will win in the general?
I understand the frustration but I am also very fearful of the Dem history of only voting for perfect and then losing. The only result that matters this November is that dems win control of congress. These are not normal times!
I am becoming more comfortable by the day to respond when asked that I am from a shit hole country. And I will be happy to explain who is responsible for it. I have zero f’s to give.
He could easily stopped- if only the Congressional thugs who now support him- wake up and realize the country they are leaving to their children and grandchildren is being destroyed. Imagine that- a bipartisan Impeachment!
I think at some point of excess of money and power convinces many that they are above any sort of common consequences. That even if our species goes into collapse, that somehow they will prosper.
Embezzlement is still illegal, isn’t it? Has the Robert’s Court sanctioned such theft? The DOJ? Will the federal employees who carried out these illegal fund transfers and unauthorized projects be held to account? How far does Presidential immunity extend ?
Trump's personal lawyers conspired with the Acting Attorney General to hang a fraud on the court and on 300 million citizens for an illegal transfer of $1.7 Billion of our money from the Treasury to the Trump Family for them to spend any way they want.
The IRS exemption arranged by Trump’s former attorney now at the DOJ is a clear conflict of interest. If lower courts intervene, will the SCOTUS 6 overturn such a sleazy deal??
David-It seems that SCOTUS members may have conflicts of interest and sleazy deals themselves. The April/May issue of Fortune Magazine lists Clarence Thomas as a "self-made millionaire".
Its more than a conflict of interest. Blanche's signature on the tax evasion immunity document is clear proof of Blanche's betrayal of the office of the Attorney General. He is complicit in using a false pretext to let a family of tax cheats off the hook. Obtaining anything of value using false pretenses is the definition of felony fraud. The Attorney General is supposed to work for us. Blanche is telling us in no uncertain terms the he works for the Trump Family.
Presidential immunity is endless when no one is allowed to investigate any of his acts. SCOTUS gave us a tiny little fig leaf and said that some private acts by the President could be illegal. But that since we are not allowed to investigate any of his official acts there is no way to determine which is which.
Well said! The Robert’s exception opened the door for complete defiance of the laws, short of impeachment. But the Trump legislatures are too mired themselves to dare vote to impeach him, much less convict him.
Looking at my reply to your question I may not have been clear. The Trump Family is stealing from us. They are not hiding their stealing. The GOP Senators who are on his side are working for him. Not us. Remind every elected official at all levels that they have a choice. Either they are for us or they support the Trump Family who is stealing from us.
What strikes me is that this isn’t just about waste or corruption anymore. It’s about taking institutions Americans spent generations building—our parks, our scientific research, our military, and our public trust—and treating them as personal property. That’s not leadership; it’s plunder.
It is a dystopian nightmare that is real. I don't think most Americans were aware of all of the opportunities for grift that our government presents. At some point none of our federal tax dollars will be going to any services and at the point that it is all directly going into Trump's pockets, we should be filing a class action lawsuit against his administration and refusing to pay federal taxes.
Must we wait until the government is completely run by mobsters before considering withholding our taxes which fatten them ?
They don't give a rat's ass how much we hoot and cry. What they must have is our money, and they will very likely kill us if we don't render it.
I have been considering it since day one, because I saw the theft immediately and saw it knew no bounds with the Congress we have. We have to have a real Congress before anything can happen. What we have now is the roboton MAGA machine.
The National Parks and Federal Public Lands bring billions of tourist dollars into communities all across the US including Alaska and Hawaii.
Beginning in May, the local roads surrounding Acadia National Park begin filling up welcoming over 4 million people each year. Hundreds of businesses rely on these visitors returning every year.
In early 2025, Trump and Vought cut out all temporary staff to the National Parks. These are jobs critical to the Park functioning like maintenance of roads, trails, guides and even emergency rescues. And this was every National Park as well as monuments and National Forests.
It's not like, the local communities have the option of providing these services, so the option was to close the parks. Our county would have taken a hit of about $650 million and the state of ME over a billion.
Senators and Congressmen from dozens of other states, stepped in and got these critical jobs reinstated.
Hooray for the Republicans. Unfortunately, they have very few wins and hundreds of losses. Republicans refuse to govern and to stand up to Trump.
It is amazing how little the Republicans know about our economy.
Yep. Why are they always considered better on the economy? Baffling. They are much worse. Its a fact.
They subscribe to the theory: "What I don't know isn't worth knowing."
to say nothing of our country
I don't think it's a matter of "knowledge".
They deliberately try to make this more difficult for the 99% because the 1930s taught them that if people suffer economically, they will want and vote for exactly what the GOP wants too: to install fascism in the US and get rid of democracy.
People will vote against democracy because they want change to happen faster. Neofascists use that impulse to allow the wealthiest to block ANY real change that would help the 99% from happening, so that they can do whatever they want.
Hmm...I was just thinking, it's amazing how many commenters -- and Richardson -- know so little about our economy.
Republicans who understand the economy are the oligarchs and Trump sycophants stealing from the US Treasury. The remaining cult members are there for the racism and misogyny and don't care that they are being robbed. Look at how MAGA is now defending Trump's illegal Iran War. They will gladly pay $5 gas because Trump lets them publicly insult Black people and watch his ICE thugs lock up and deport Brown immigrants.
You got that right.
Look in the mirror.
I was disgusted by the war powers vote after their meeting with Trump. Cassidy and Rand Paul should be ashamed. And I give absolutely no credit to Susan Collins - her vote is purely strategic, to enhance her "moderate" bona fides for the midterms, and is completely sanctioned by the regime for that purpose. Fortunately, I believe Mainers have gotten wise to that ploy and will vote her out in November.
One would have thought exactly that in Kentucky with Mitch McConnell, but no, he was their Senator for decades. They kept voting him in because they liked his racism and hatred of the "libtards". Owning the libs and killing the "darkies" (sorry) was and is their top priority.
Ditsy sudsy is a fraud and federal tax dollar cheat taking a salary for kissing the orange monsters rump!
Don't you think Cassidy and Rand Paul were intimidated, threatened??? Seems possible considering the sequence of events...
My big concern as a Mainer is that Susan Collins has 97 billionaires (all from out of state) supporting her. She even received $7k from Melinda Gates who lives 3000 miles away. God only knows why. BTW, Platner has 5 billionaire donors.
I am not a believer.
And 🍊’s tariffs are discouraging foreign visitors.
It's not just the tariffs, I recently heard that an innkeeper in the Southern Utah community where tourism is life blood reported cancellations because of the Trump administration's policies.
People from Canada even, just don't want to support them, and our tourism industry is waning. That people (seniors beware) can't be warned against hiking in extreme heat despite the deaths is further proof that the regime will take the proceeds from our national parks and waste them on their follies.
Please, STOP this false framework.
This is not Trump versus the GOP.
It's a NEOFASCIST GOP that threw out all pro-democracy Republicans during the Biden years, and that HIRED Trump as their clown in chief to distract us 24/7 with his scandalous behavior and tweets so that they can install neofascism, step by step, day after day.
Here's what Mike Johnson PUBLICLY declared at the beginning of 2025: from now on, he said, the role of Congress is to "codify the executive orders signed by the president". That means abandoning the US Constitution and subordinating the Legislative branch of government to the Executive branch of government. And doing so is the very definition of fascism.
Also, Trump was never interested in policy in the first place. He's an ACTOR, for God's sake. How come so many people forget this crucial fact and then take him seriously?
When he was acting in The Apprentice, it's the producers of the show who decided who he had to fire. He himself NEVER made that decision.
During the 2024 presidential debate, Kamala Harris showed how easy it is to manipulate Trump.
So WHO is manipulating Trump now? Who gives him his orders - orders which, if not followed, means that the GOP can send him immediately to jail as an insurrectionist?
The GOP leadership, of course. That means: the neofascist tech billionaires and the neofascist "Christian" nationalist (Heritage Foundation etc. - more than half of the senior staff in the WH came directly from the HF, in January 2025). THESE are the people writing the executive orders and explaining them to him in front of TV cameras before he signs them.
And as Kamala Harris and so many others, including HCR have shown: this has been DECADES in the making. The GOP has plotted this and created the right conditions for it to happen year after year.
This IS how the GOP wants to govern.
Please wake up before it's too late!
Great statistics. But why "Hooray for the Republicans"?
Exactly Linda. For too long the democrats were the ones always compromising while the republicans were always pushing them to their side. It started with James Buchanan and Milton Friedman, then into the John Birch Society to the TEA party, Heritage and Federalists all funded by billionaires -especially the Koch brothers who realized long ago that data and targeted advertising was a key to push their candidates. They built the machine that is now the MAGA, even though they may not like the goons, they love the tax and deregulation cuts. They earned their wealth through exploiting their suppliers. Each one lost a few dollars and with the large numbers of suppliers, the Kochs amassed large profits. They were able to beat the charges with minimal fines or in some case get off free. They were not the only ones, just one great example. Jane Mayer provided a vast list of these folks in Dark Money.
Since the 1970s, the conservatives have been methodically chipping away at the New Deal and federal government regulation. As they chipped, our liberals basically relied on the courts to uphold the laws passed which the conservatives counted on. As long as they could prevent new legislation, they new they could eventually get to where we are now. Roe is a great example where the courts were the main stay as it was never codified, which with time, the conservatives could over throw. Same with voting rights. As the SCOTUS chipped away, liberals never went back to recodify. While they chipped away, the conservative leaning judges were coaching those that brought suit on how they could return to the court with new language that would give them a road to change the law. While liberals complained softly, the laws changed. The political capital they gained in 2008 was not used to shore up the system the conservatives had changed to that point and they were able to use the push for the ACA as fuel to keep mask what they were doing and here we are. We have the distraction - trump - much better than GW Bush - and all these unqualified cronies in this administration and a totally neutered republican leadership. I want to be optimistic, but unlike the 1930s, we don't seem to have general that will come forward and it is glaringly obvious that we have a congressional leadership that will do anything trump demands. Want to be that the SAVE Act gets passed? If it doesn't, I would wager large sums that the administration will implement much of what it contains to alter the outcome of the midterms. After all, election legitimacy is needed for any autocrat to take full power.
Thanks for the book recommendation. My book club read "Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism" by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchinson, who also discusses this evolution of the neoliberalists.
"They earned their wealth through exploiting their suppliers." If you're talking about the Koch family, they made their money in energy and agriculture.
What we have now are Nazis.
Exactly and they fear-monger around the term "Communist"...I hope most people understand this. Others must more carefully explain the idea of "Social Democracy"...Bernie Saunders...We need you to speak up here!!!
Rhonda, I am already seeing some of the local regressives throwing around the word communist. I have often explained about communism, Marx, socialism, etc. All I get is more ignorance and often name calling.
But the 'fear-mongering' comes without any definition. Ask any of the MAGAts for a definition, and all you'll get is gobbily-goop combined with expletives. They only know what the cult allows them to know.
None dare call him "Krasnov."
sticks&stones…
more labels&names
Digging’ up bones
won’t fix insane
I know. A bunch of brown shirts with submachine guns came to our door last night and asked if we were Jewish. They were polite though, and asked if they could rape my wife and steal our art. Very much as Nazis did. Also, they asked us to go to the nearby train station and bring our belongings. And then...they stole the cross from the palce above the fireplace and stepped on it. And then they yelled "remember Auschwitz! Vote for Trump)"
You're really on to something Daniel.
I had something of a yo-yo reaction to Heather's post today. On the plus side was the sense of satisfaction that it gave me that I've certainly been paying attention, by golly! The great majority of things she spoke to I already knew; only the detail on plundering of the National Parks budget was new to me! (The only thing missing in Heather's identifying the epitome of the Reflecting Pool saga, is the recent construction of the fence around it.) It helped me realize that all my daily time with HCR, and Reich, and Meidas, and Shalev, and Krugman, and Schmidt, and Leonard, and the Bulwark, etc. etc. etc. have established a solid base.
But what HCR hints at today must happen as part of the next two and a half years and then at least a dozen more after that. In November comes the midterms. They must be won by Dems, hopefully, in both houses but the thin gruel coming from the DNC in its mailed literature is underwhelming (all actions and processes and next to no statement of goals, ends, or rationales). The apparent disorganization and absence of informative balanced analysis from the Democrats as represented in the deeply annoying and difficult-to-parse gimme, gimme, gimme flood of amazingly disparate fundraising attempts we're daily exposed to ad infinitum is more than disappointing; it is positively unnerving.
Assuming dems win the midterms, then comes a 'bitzkrieg' (excuse the WWII era term) of oversight hearings to unpack for America just exactly what Trump has wrought and how many (more than thirty to my knowledge) that show exactly where the weaknesses in the Constitution have been revealed and what kinds of corruption he, his family, and his sycophants have imposed on America. Eighteen months to complete that, a campaign fought on seeking remedies, and offering the requisite leadership that Dems must sweep to victory. And then in January, 2029 begin the task of figuring out the remedies to enable a second 250-year stint with an upgraded democratic Republic.
Remember is took ten years to get from the Declaration to the Constitution first time around. Circumstances are different now; America has ridiculously wealthy oligarchs, money has been decreed speech, all three branches have demonstrable if very different weaknesses, and Congress will be working with the present Constiutution, not the blank slate following the Articles of Confederation.
There is little such discussion; it is absent from any deliberations I have been able to find forthcoming from either the Congress or the DNC.
Thank you, Heather. Oh MY . . . there's a lot of hard work to be done!
There's an old saying about "fighting city hall." I understand your anger and frustration, but what we must do is take back control of our government and stop this looting and desecration of our parks, institutions and monuments. The fastest way to do this is to vote them out of power.
"We have to have a real Congress before anything can happen. What we have now is the roboton MAGA machine" The Congress we have was elected per Article I of the constitution. It's part of the rule of law.
I think the better argument would be to stop buying stuff. Which is so hard but maybe a national day every two weeks where Americans collectively starve the beast that feeds them. Even if we stopped paying taxes, they’d most likely find a way to just attach our pay and directly pilfer it.
I could stop buying stuff one day a week and it would not hurt me or help the cause. I would simply buy what I need the other 6 days.
We would need a guaranteed mass taxpayer holdout to get attention and most of us, I think, are too afraid to withhold state and federal taxes- at least I am.
We're afraid - and rightly so - because thousands of us would be jailed in maximum security prisons for years as a warning to others. Martial law would be declared and Congress and the Supreme Court would sanction it.
Sad but true, I believe.
Fear has got us into this. Only courage will move us forward so I am more than willing to withhold taxes if the majority will. I will withstand prison.
Yes, Marcus. The time for a general strike is NOW.
A general strike implies to me withholding federal taxes when filing for 2026.
Same here. I was upset as I paid this year…then to see the further waste, I was enraged. Enough. Is. Enough.
One day every two weeks is not enough 😢
Good idea! Then the "beast" will fire employees due to reduced demand and we can pay unemployment benefits. Did you study under Samuelson?
I lived in an authoritarian country for a year. A country that had “elections” that were bullshit. People went about their business. They complained, they cursed the high prices and the terrible job market. But they just went on with their lives. That’s where we are now. One major difference- that authoritarian country had no history of democracy. The fact that we are so stunned into inaction so easily -myself included- given our history has been the most disheartening part of this to me.
"has been the most disheartening part of this to me." - suggestion: go to Google and type in "therapists near me who take Medicare."
Wait no more! The government IS run by the most corrupt mobster ever to breathe air, including the killings via eliminating the USAID program, ICEassainations of fellow citizens, deaths resulting from inhumane conditions at ice concentration camps, and our troops who died in the Iran debacle!
Mobster? You mean plural Mobsters don’t you?
Not just our government. It is anti-democratic groups like the Heritage Foundation and Libertarians like Russell Vaught and the Koch’s, Thiels etc who need to be brought to heel.
We have to win both chambers in November. 1. Check your voter registration, vote early and by mail or absentee ballot (if possible and permitted). Make sure your friends and family will do the same. 2. If you donate to candidates, be strategic. Organizations like Force Multiplier can help. 3. If you are able, join a grassroots organization. Elections are won on the ground. Some volunteer work can be done online and via phone. 4. If able, be a poll watcher. 5. What ever you do, don’t sit this one out.
I need the Democrats to provide a way for me to pay my federal taxes into an escrow account, inaccessible to the MAGA GOP, but which will fund the beginnings of the herculean effort to rebuild this country after the monsters are out of power.
Withholding taxes would make a huge difference imo. Has to be done. Nothing else has worked so far.
Plain and as simple as can be, only now we need to explain what the term nazi means…….
In Trump talk, a “deal” means that some money goes into Trump’s pocket.
Trump has a talent for getting everyone else to pick up the cost of his bills. He did this with his business creditors, and Vought thinks Trump is free to violate the anti-impoundment acts. Vought has forgotten Trump too is subject to the law, although the SCOTUS majority has decided to ignore precedent and rewrite the law more to its liking.
"although the SCOTUS majority has decided to ignore precedent and rewrite the law more to its liking."
Help please? I'm a lawyer and read Sup Ct opinions and missed the ones you refer to. Citations please?
Substitute "some" for "most" Craig, and you'll have a situation close to what the scumbag president calls a "deal".
So false. The money is going into his sons' pockets.
Grand Canyon Hikers Take Warning!
***********************************
Here are the results of a Google AI search on three June 2026 deaths in the Grand Canyon:
"Breakdown of the exact locations & Incidents on the North Kaibab Trail Arizona. On June 16, a 67-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman were found deceased along this trail."
Generally, "The NPS had previously determined that the North Kaibab Trail is the least visited & most difficult of the major inner Grand Canyon canyon routes."
"South Kaibab Trail Arizona four (4)days earlier, on June 12, a 72-year-old man succumbed to heat-related illness while hiking this route. The South Kaibab Trail offers expansive views but provides virtually NO shade[☠️]and has NO water[☠️].
Thank you Wes Siler. Thank You Heather Cox Richardson.
Everyone gets offended when one compares these Nazis to the ones under Hitler, but everyone that went along with hiding this information, or not revealing it is operating like the Nazis did.
Americans are less safe than they have been in my lifetime.
I'm glad I saw the Grand Canyon during the final year of the Eisenhower administration. It never occurred to my family to venture beyond the canyon edge, but we believed, with good cause, that OUR federal government was intelligent and benign. Now, we are being dragged along in a fascist nosedive.
Yup!
I have a former work cohort that spouts violently that this government is neither fascist or Nazi. Other than absolutely denying that he mansplains (his comments should be part of a dictionary definition of mansplaining and gaslighting) he is adamant that we are not in any sort of danger from this government.
I do not understand those people.
Ally, I suspect this dude would refuse to listen to it, but he and all the other (bad word, plural!) would benefit from the good professors explanation. Forty minutes well spent!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nt2CQR0dpA
Neither do I. I know a woman who was once the gatekeeper for lots of art protists did for a huge hospital. We were friends for so many years. We still speak to each other and when she asks, I do a job for her but she is so fricken closed minded. So I recently sent her the streaming Raging Grannies of New Mexico singing “Battle Hymn of the Donald.” She laughed. Big shit.
Sounds like it is good that these are your former coworkers. Yikes!
Yes we are. I’m still preventing myself from arming. I’ve been a lifelong gun control advocate. But I have thought about it. I’m not about to change now but I thought that if I did, I would buy a tank.
You know, I believe we have reached bottom. I just hope we know how to climb.
I wish this was the bottom Bill- I fear we have many floors lower to go.
trump yukes up his ballroom but I think what he is most interested in is the bunker below it.
And then there is ivanka's new project....
Sazan Island, Albania, houses an estimated 3,600 Soviet-style nuclear bunkers and roughly 10 miles of underground atomic tunnels. Built during the communist era to withstand a nuclear attack, this former top-secret Cold War military base is now a preserved site in the Mediterranean.
See a pattern?
My grandmother used to say, when something was very bad, "you can't fall out of the basement," meaning the only way is up. I fear we may not yet be in the basement and that if we are, we may live in its cold and dampness for a long time.
But, this is the most transparent administration in history?!?!??!?! As many of our democrats keep reminding us, that is a rouse.
Both words are correct English, but they mean completely different things. Use ruse when talking about a trick or deception, and rouse when talking about waking someone up or exciting an emotion.
I love English Majors.
Thanks, Christine. I often encounter malaprops in the comments, and am torn between being labeled "grammar police" or trying to raise our collective level of literacy. I think the latter is the right approach, but some days, I'm just too tired.
Then there is the issue of "spellcheck" that automatically "corrects" spelling without our permission or awareness. Who committed the offense? The commenter or the software?
My only intent is to inform as a way to avoid future embarrassment. I still blush at my own mispronunciation of the word scintillating over 30 years ago. I knew it was wrong the moment it came out of my mouth. I'm sure you can guess what I said.
You're in Germany surrounded by the children of concentration camp guards. Relax, you're safe now.
The only difference for now is that they are not building extermination camps.
Yet.
Thank you. Where is the Sierra Club? Where is High Country News?
I reckon the Sierra Club is struggling along with its corporate sponsors, trying not to make too much of a fuss. And High Country News is a monthly magazine featuring devestating stories about what humans are doing to the planet in their ignorance and hubris.
If 10 million did refuse, there would be hell to pay. I must pay my taxes just so I can continue to be vocal and fight.
I am saying a tax lawsuit. As the Trump regime continues to try new things, so should we. Nothing ventured, nothing gained are words we could be living by too.
A tax lawsuit is a good idea, Linda.
See, the court actions by Democracy Docket Team.
Which ones. Do you have a link? Since I don't have a paying subscription I do not read things that only give you part of their news for free.
Of course Linda. https:// democracydocket.com.
* Example: "The Courts walloped trump's anti-voting agenda."
* Full disclosure: Democracy Docket took over my legal reporting duties posted on LFAA & Civil Discourse regarding the Lawsuit filed by 22 AG's across our country now pending in the state of Massachusetts to protects Voting Early & Vote-by-Mail.⚖️
I can be reached at Bryan's Substack where I do NOT accept paid subscriptions. Subsack Inc does provide "Authors" a digital tool to communicate with "Readers" more privately as necessary.
I think that you should aiming at proposals that limit executive and presidential power, not taxes per se.
why not a multi pronged approach, Russell...there are enough people who want to do SOMEthing to stop this administration's insanity.
I am all about rethinking who is taxing us. I am for state taxes covering almost everything at this point. States can pool resources together if they want to. I have written on this before, but not for a while. I might write a piece. My Swiss friends says people don't pay that much in federal taxes in Switzerland, more in local. That is true in some Scandi countries as well.
I have thought there must be dozens of lawyers looking into a class action lawsuit against the government. Maybe not.
For $1050 an hour I'll take your case. You'll lose, but I won't.
The short term cure to the POTUS epidemic and longer term SCOTUS epidemic is currently in our hands....VOTUS ....Voters Of The United States must unite and vote and be counted on NoTrumpBer 3rd!
If that date passes by without an overwhelming voter demand for changeover in control, America as we remember it will be permanently lost.
NoTrumpBer 3rd is your last and best chance to save America.
Your vote is your only tool to secure your freedom.
Out with the DonOLD and in with the BLUE.
We need a class action lawsuit called impeachment, and it would be nice if the voice of god publicly rebuked Mike Johnson for claiming to be Christian.
I’d pay to hear God remonstrating against Mike Johnson in the House chamber or any public place.
Sigh... read up on the law sir. Impeachment is NOT a "class action lawsuit" it is a Congressional action. And it requires 2/3 of the Senate (i.e., 67 votes) to convict and remove someone. Right now, Democrats don't even have a MAJORITY in the Senate, let alone 67 votes.
It would be nice if the voice of god rebuked this whole administration, but I don't believe in god or his/her voice, so I doubt that is going to help any of us.
I know what you mean. My chief comfort these days is reading about the Roosevelt family and the New Dealers who supported their policies. Also, my Quaker grandmother's 1940 diary. She voted for Republican Wendell Willkie,
not knowing -- typical apolitical American that she was -- that Willkie was a lifelong Democrat voter and believed that the time to stand up to Hitler had arrived, i.e. Willkie would not keep us out of the coming war, as Grandma hoped he would.
Listen to Father Coughlin, a voice of reason at the time. and Henry Ford. Everyone knows the Jews did it.
Never up, never in.
Too many contingencies to preclude hope.
Eric, if you are a US citizen or have US residency, would you please read my piece explaining the Free Speech for People campaign to impeach Trump AND his cabinet and help them get 2 million signatures by signing the petition in it? https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/indivisible-abroad-supports-the-impeach?r=f0qfn
If you can't find the link to the petition in the above piece, here it is. Just scroll down and you will find it. https://www.impeachtrumpagain.org/
i am soooooo glad to see many of the responses...great that you opened up the conversation, Linda...
Amen, Linda
It is game, set and match point is up next.....ignorance is rampant as proven by the fact that so little serious attention was directed toward Project 2025. All written in that document is coming to fruition now!
Rich, I know what you mean. My bookclub read it, one to two chapters a week, before the election, so we know what we were voting against from more than soundbites in the Democratic Convention. I cannot understand any currently elected politician not reading it themselves, and that includes around the world. Know thy enemy! I predicted that if put into effect it was going to turn the US into a third world country. I am so glad people are standing up though. These people have been organizing for at least half a century to overthrow our democracy, and we are going to have to organize to stand up to them and take the country.
Well here I go again as a broken record. You can dislike everything that Trump does, but regardless, even if there is actual proof ON THE RECORD (court or Congress) of literal theft, none of us can legally withhold our taxes "just because", without fear of being put in prison. There is simply no legal basis for such an action, and I expect that any attempt to make such an argument in an actual court won't go far.
If it could, then it would just as rationally permit MAGA people from refusing to pay their taxes when they don't like what a Democratic President did with the money. ANd believe me, there were PLENTY of people between 2021 and 2025 who did NOT like what Biden did with our money.
Jon, Jon, Jon. You give up too easily. Change has come about because people thought of how things could be different and then went about trying to make that change. We are talking about changing things and you can tell us we cannot make this change come about until you are blue in the face, but that does not mean that We The People, cannot try for and bring about change.
Trump himself would never accept your reasoning and does not. He breaks the law all the time, and continues to get away with many things, but not all. He also files lawsuits all the time against things he does not like. Why should he be able to do that and not We The People?
Welcome to the nightmare of libertarians. A Libertarian Walks Into A Bear - great book at how a libertarian community ends up depending on surrounding communities for societal service support. The book uses the bear infiltration into their community as they had zero government services to combat the problem and then it expanded to all other serivces.
Ah yes... the Libertarians. Who's hatred of taxes is what put us into this position to begin with. Who love to pretend that everything would be perfect as long as they never had to pay for another child's education or resurfacing another road.
Welcome to OUR nightmare after you all voted for Trump and now the leopards are eating your faces too.
Well said.
I have never, in my 86 years of life, met a Libertarian who is not a selfish asshole who cannot justify his ( because mostly males in my experience) “political” stance in any logical way that does not eventually come down to
an immature desire to have no regulation on THEIR behavior, while demanding the absolute right to regulate YOUR behavior.
Rickey:
Let me guess. Could I compare your recommendation to Rhinoceros (1959), the drama by Eugene Ionesco?
All dust and noise and excitement.
\Vince S
Libertarians are nightmares. I am not making a case not to pay taxes, just not to pay them to a crooked federal government. That is a difference. Can't all libertarians now go live in Prospera, Peter Thiel's "Utopian" city in Honduras with no rules?
FINALLY! YES, Linda...organize and withhold taxes...watch the attention you get. people seem to think they don't have to take the risk. that it will be disruptive. yes. that's prob true...but look what's alREAdy happened with all the money you folks are paying.
and what will the administration do if a million...or more withhold taxes? there might be a better way to do it than outright withholding...i'm SURE that, amongst you, there are tax lawyers that might be able to come up with a, more or less, bullet resistant plan...one part being to remove your moneys from places the govt can access...
it's ALways about the bottom line, right? 'follow the money'? this would kick them where it hurts...but it WILL take courage...you folks are alREAdy at war for the soul of that country...this method needs considering...
i'm REALly glad you brought it up...
I expect this administration would LOVE to throw 1 million people (obviously mostly Democrats) into prison for withholding their taxes. After all, they are building those prisons, they might as well use 'em.
I am not saying withhold as much as I am saying change the laws around taxes. I have written about this last year, advocating for State taxes to cover everything, and they can pay a fee to the federal government for things like the military, or some other better plan.
I have suggested arguments for changing things. I am not married to the way things have been done, or are being done.
I want my money back!!!
Me too! And I get to pay taxes four times a year.
Us, too. And I willingly go to the post office on the 15th to get it hand cancelled.
But surely some portion of your taxes is still going towards worthwhile and indeed necessary things.
I have said, when he stops doing that. At that point, I did not work hard my whole life just to fund Trumps' vanity projects. Did you? Are you?
We did not even really have federal taxes before the Civil war, then they were created to pay for the war. I don't want to be paying for any wars under Trump that are not approved by Congress and do not have the support of the people. In addition, what am I getting from this? My mom, who is in Medicare, had to pay over $1600 out of pocket for hearing aids last year.
We could manage all the things we need with state taxes alone.
Like what?
Linda, Like you, I have been advocating that re Fed Taxes.
One of our young state Dem Reps here on the upper Cape whom I had voted for, laughed at that suggestion in front of a crowd of his supporters, whereas the crowd applauded the idea.
We need STRONG BRAVE leaders not spoiled weak teas.
I’ve also written our governor about that idea even proposing that the State create a safe way to deposit the Fed Taxes we withold; absolutely no response no answer. I indicated I’d rather donate my Fed Taxes to MA etc.. many people here at least seem ready to do this, but fear the gang’s reaction.
I understand w the increase of gulag detention centers
plus his private ICE army of criminals hungry to round up ‘woke’ citizens.
Dystopian is an accurate description, Linda, and totally foreseeable; the anti-intellectualism, anti-science, and manipulation of government information are hallmarks of Fascism and Christian nationalism.
I recently started watching The Handmaid's Tale and other than the impetus of people suddenly unable to reproduce, it is striking how closely the depiction of the ruling class and their enforcers match trump, the Evangelical Christian nationalist deep state, and federal law enforcement operate today and really since the beginning of 2025.
"At some point none of our federal tax dollars will be going to any services and at the point that it is all directly going into Trump's pockets, we should be filing a class action lawsuit against his administration and refusing to pay federal taxes."
There are very few opportunities for grift. There are, however, oppotunities for conflicts of interest, as the Biden family showed and the Trump family has magnified.
You can't file a class action because you lack legal standing to do so.
Power becomes dangerous when it stops protecting institutions and starts consuming them.
It becomes dangerous when it's allowed to become unfettered. Your institutions and legal and constitutional guardrails have failed to protect you. A growing number of Americans are beginning to realise this.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/27/next250-declaration-of-interdependence-art-gallery
Power as in the President of the United States.
We have ceded too much power to the executive branch and that needs to be rectified when we are back in power. There is NOTHING that Trump is not attempting to destroy. He is treating the White House as his personal home and property. He is gratified h the entire country as his fiefdom and that needs to stop. Right now, I am hating all republicans because they are not even TRYING to stop him. And Russell Vought is implementing project 2025 each day and so MORE rightwing destruction.
Elizabeth, I agree that the executive branch needs a major makeover. In fact, a former participant in this forum (who left for the same reasons I'll soon be leaving) has crafted a model constitutional amendment that addresses the issues in the executive, legislative and judicial branches. You can read his work here: UnitedWeAmend.org
Wish you wouldn’t go!!! We need all voices and plenty of discussion.
Thanks, Elizabeth. Unfortunately, much of the commentary here becomes repetitious. I include myself in that. Others use this discussion forum as a vehicle to display their own creative writing skills, while summarizing points HCR has already made. We can admire their word-craft, but we aren't led to productive, actionable conclusions. Also, a few personal squabbles over the same issues become tiresome.
word.
Excellent statement, Homo.
Wasn't that always the underlying goal? It was never just about theft, about the grift, the daily violations of the Emoluments Clause which fail to move Republicans one iota. It was about the larger suborning of the American spirit to *their* private, moon-bat ideology of demonization, witch-burning, separating us all into "us" and "them" camps, and making certain the country turns into a true idiocracy in the process.
The underlying goal is the imposition and maintenance of permanent white-supremacist extremist-christian nationalism. Implicit in that are the use of fascist terror tactics; suppression of dissent by any means; unflinching oligarchic support in exchange for ongoing control of applicable financial and environmental policy; and license for those in office to grab everything they can and do any damn thing they want, and run away laughing.
This is what we will get if we do not win a majority in at least one chamber of Congress this November, and it will last for generations. It's not enough to just vote. Educate other voters. Spread the word about the existential nature of the election and the importance of voting. Register voters, especially younger voters. Write postcards to reluctant voters. Find out from your secretary of state or the ACLU or the League of Women Voters how you can help defend the voting process in your town or district. Sign up to be a poll watcher. Drive people to the polls. Bring several registered voters with you when you go to vote.
It is imperative that we have a larger voter turnout than ever before, and it is imperative that we elect candidates committed to putting the brakes on the fascist train, uncovering facts about what's been going on, and holding people at every level and in every branch of government accountable to the rule of law.
Electing the next round of "go along to get along," "don't rock the boat," "let's get back to the way it was" candidates will only enable further descent into utter failure as a democracy. The worst thing to do is to do nothing. The next worst thing is to put candidates into office who are blind to the transformational change needed and who lack the courage to step out front and lead the way.
Hmmm, where did I read about a plan that outlines how they planned to do that?
Everyone was warned about Project 2025 and yet, it is being implemented piece by piece with very little push back from anyone in Congress. And the Fascist far-right on SCOTUS are paving the way for each piece to move forward.
Those people aren't going to be Democrats, if all the off-year elections and the primary results are any indication. Democrats have learned the lesson.
Perhaps a significant number of Democratic voters have learned the lesson. But not all 'establishment Democrats.'
NY Democrat Rep. Tom Suozzi has proposed a Loyalty to Capitalism and Denial of Socialism oath which Joe McCarthy would be proud of.
Clinton advisor James Carville - architect of moving the Democratic party to Wall Street neoliberalism and away from its FDR New Deal and LBJ Great successes - is demanding that progressives leave the party.
And here in Maine, the formerly admirable Janet Mills, and recent Chuck Schumer choice for Senate, got nowhere with her campaign, lost the primary by over 50 points, has refused to concede and endorse the winner, and is hoping that the Democratic oppo research now being used by Republican Susan Collins, will so damage the Graham Platner campaign that he will refuse the candidacy and allow Mills to step in. Former Maine Democratic officials Genevieve McDonald and Lynn Bromley are among those pushing for this. So seemingly is Connecticut Rep. Madeleine Dean. And a crew of virtue signaling purity test bloviators. I have been critical of the purity test Left for helping elect Trump. Now we have the corporate Dems' Mills-stone around our neck working to elect Susan Collins and perpetuate the Republican Project 2025 regime.
"...will so damage the Graham Platner campaign that he will refuse the candidacy and allow Mills to step in": That's unlikely, so it's great way to help Susan Collins win. 😒
'grab everything they can and do any damn thing they want, and run away laughing.'
who's running?
Follow the money.
In this case, the money is just a side benefit. The larger goal is the Nazification of America. At his idiot ‘Freedom 250 Great American State Barf Fest’ on the Mall (so unpopular it's largely empty), there are small hordes of 'Krishhchun' revival-types trying to re-invent masculinity for themselves and their fragile senses of power under attack from Haitians, Atheists, Monsters, Little Boys with Vaginas, and Antifa Frogs. There are physical competitions, laying on hands on young men, uniforms -- the whole bit.
They've created phony 1930s Hollywood stereotyped skits -- goofy, Davy Crocket wannabe-macho contests straight from 1950s Disneyland to reinforce the concepts of Manifest Destiny --- the Ultimate Human Cockfighting Championship that disfigured the South Lawn, the "National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving" event in May. One of its organizers summed it all up in Old Testament terms (a favorite fallback with these assclowns), asserting that Moses's victory over Pharaoh was really a victory for Judaeo-Christian civilization over a "transgender Egyptian god."
One phrase from history for these pea-brains who've clearly never once bothered to study it --- Hitler Youth. Enuf said.
The money is the enabler. It's the money that's supported the long, slow plot of destruction.
"The money is the enabler. It's the money that's supported the long, slow plot of destruction."
As personified by Charles Koch bagman, Dark Money shell game con man, religious extremist, Federalist Society court capture operative, and Heritage Foundation Project 2025 funder Leonard Leo.
To the extent funding can be traced, Leo has funneled billions of plutocrat money through innumerable shell companies to a myriad of populist antidemocratic initiatives. For decades. And recently through the Teneo network added tech bro money to his ChristoFascist portfolio.
Yes, Senator Whitehouse had a chart showing these shell companies that he presented on the floor of the senate not too long ago.
agreed, Stephen.
ICTT called it the "Ultimate Human Cockfighting Championship” — this made my day. Thank you for naming the abhorrent spectacle. Perfect!
Yes. No question.The campaign of democratic, constitutional perversion in "plain sight" is meant to achieve fascist, white nationalist goals and wear us down at the same time. The moral dream of American liberty and equality is on our side. Let's reclaim it.
Belly aching across Substack is therapeutic but short of the actions needed to give these criminals pause. With the majority of Americans at our back, we need focused consumer strikes against the Internet Oligarchs. Stop buying from Amazon, stop watching Amazon Prime or buying e-books through Kindle. Get off Facebook and etc..
Our democracy is worth a little inconvenience.
As I read this, I'm pretty sure that you're underestimating all that "they" want from us.
Indeed.
And how is RFK Jr a "leader?" What does he lead? Where is he going?
He was parked in a leadership position for which he has impacts on society. He was picked to sabotage government's responsibilities to the public that sustains it.
Every single “leader” in this regime has been given a special mission of destruction and for the most part, they are fully executing their missions.
RFK was one of the most obvious nutcase appointments made by trump; I thought surely he'd be the first to go. Nope, he's still evidently going strong, doling out insane advice, allowing people to die needlessly, showing up regularly in the clown shows in the oval office and being praised by the mad king.
Says something though doesn't it. Trump got rid of all the women first before the actual 'Dumocrat'.
Brooke Rollins and Linda McMahon are still in the cabinet
Soooo how do we stop paying taxes and not get penalized? So far i have just delayed paying… the option during Vietnam war is no longer available- said my tax accountant. Ideas?
I suspect that Musk and his DOGE Boyzz cracked and stored all our tax information in their early 2025 rampage, and will be coming after us soon.
For a couple months, we withheld taxes, but just now paid them because, unlike past regimes, this mob would just as soon torture and kill you, your children and your pets as get a jelly donut. They are brutal and they don’t care.
Exactly so, Kelli. And we can take steps to reverse that plunder soon.
Many things need doing, of course, to begin recovering from this devastation. Some of it will take years; some damage is permanent; some can be reversed fairly quickly. One step that will cost almost nothing and could begin to make a difference is to elect non-maga candidates in close Congressional Districts this year. A prime example is Arizona’s 1st Congressional District (CD-1). While we do not have an Independent candidate this time, we will have a competent Democrat running against a maga republican.
If anyone reading this lives in or knows someone who lives in CD-1, have them check out the Arizona Independent Voter’s Network (AIVN) Substack account for more information. We will be focusing after the primaries on spreading the word by every means possible to take that District from the Red List. Check us out at https://azindy.substack.com.
This is in no way commensurate with the magnitude of our challenges. Yet, with the present numbers in the House of Representatives, the significance of each District is exponentially greater than It might otherwise be. The key is to take available steps in the right direction asap!
Our dialogue here really matters. The actions we can take because of its insights are imperative. CD-1 is is an opportunity to do that.
It can be done.
And here in Maine CD2 we have Democrat Matt Dunlap (running against self-styled Trump Before Trump Paul LePage.)
Matt Dunlap | Maine Democrat for U. S. Congress
.https://www.mattdunlapforuscongress.com/.
And for US Senate Graham Platner (to replace Republican Susan Collins.)
Graham Platner | Maine Democrat for U.S. Senate
.https://www.grahamforsenate.com/.
Ah, Paul LePage, the most recently Florida resident who while governor shut down our small business health insurance plan (Dirigo) and told the NAACP to "Kiss my ass." We moved to MA to retire and be near family. But the loss of health insurance pushed our plan to an earlier date.
Is Eliot Cutler (candidate for governor busted for child porn) still in jail? The guy who split the "reasonable vote" twice?
I hope that the feisty people of Maine are fed up enough with the bigotry, plunder and betrayal of Republicans to elect Dunlap and Platner.
Cutler is in and out of jail, but he did help us to see the need for ranked choice voting. Semi-open primaries are another step in the right direction.
If we had RCV nationally, Gore and Hillary might have been presidents. There is value in getting to choose your ideological favorite and your practical choice as well. Builds support for alternative points of view and doesn't waste votes. Good for Maine.
I certainly would support Dunlap. But I would never vote for Platner (nor Collins). What a terrible way to try to strike a blow against Trump (a guy seriously charged with sexual misconduct), i.e., vote for another guy who is seriously charged with sexual misconduct.
Platner should have gotten out of the race and then presumably the Maine governor would have won. Yeah, I know she isn't a huge liberal Democrat, but I'd rather have a conservative Democrat defeat Collins than a male who can't keep his hands to himself and thinks its okay to do sexual texting with people, even people he doesn't know well. I draw a line and that is it. Platner crossed my line and I'd never be able to vote for him. Fortunately I don't live in Maine so I don't have to.
Jon, I have read several things that the original source for the information on Platner was from a MAGAt; Platner has acknowledged his conduct and has been treated for traumatic PTSD. I have gone rounds with my former work cohort over this, who equate Platner's conduct with all of the described Epstein conduct. Platner's not clean, but he's also not filthy.
I can understand your personal position of him crossing a line that you cannot abide and acknowledge that. I would still rather have him than Collins or Mills. Like you, I do not vote in that state, so my opinion is kinda like it's rather crass definition...
I reside in Arizona CD 4. I follow your work in CD 1...so glad to know more about it! Thanks for the tip on AIVN!
It has reminded me of a smash and grab from the very beginning. They don't care what they break so long as they are enriching themselves. Maybe some of them are interested in building the 4th Reich but I'm not sure most of them are really convinced they are building anything that will last. Grab as much as you can while you can!
They care what they break. A whole lot of time went into figuring that out in advance.
It is the Hungarian playbook, and I expect the Reign of Stupidity will end the same way as it did in Hungary. Implosion due to insanity in government.
think it will 'just happen', signe? not without your helping it to...
and your first mistake would be to think they're stupid.
Isaac:
Exactly! No one should fall into the lazy and comfortable illusion that our American neo-fascists are stupid. They have proven that they know exactly what they want and how to get it.
Stay alert! Stay engaged! Resist.
\Vince S
I’m not sure what led you to believe that I think it will “just happen.” Many of us are working extensively to support and propel forward the pro-democracy movement. And while some of the perps may have high IQs, yes, I do think they’re stupid. I worked for a time in prison education, and some of the most brilliant minds I’ve ever met (and that’s saying a lot) are behind bars because they thought they were smarter than everyone else, and they ultimately made stupid mistakes. One has only to observe this regime to see the same dynamic.
Dana, I think there are two drivers at work. It is dangerous to dismiss this regime as an "idiocracy" or a bunch of thieves, although both are true.
There is an intelligent, treacherous cabal at work led by Steven Miller and Russell Vought. Miller is leading the charge toward white supremacy and Vought is leading the march toward christian nationalism.
They allow the smash-and-grab goons to steal our money and create chaos because it destabilizes and demoralizes us, creating a fertile field where the seeds of white christian fascism can be planted and grown.
Well said.
Not just "plunder"; a vast, methodically subversive ecogenocidal conspiracy by plutocratic perpe-traitors and their legions of storm-trooper puppets to permanently reduce the failed United States to a ChristoNazi slave plantation.
WAKE UP, PEOPLE. THIS ISN'T MADNESS OR INCOMPETENCE. IT IS THE METICULOUSLY PLANNED, METHODICALLY IMPOSED DESTRUCTION NOT JUST OF OUR NATION, BUT OF EVERY HUMANITARIAN ADVANCEMENT WE'VE ACHIEVED.
Mike Johnson has it all figured out. He's in charge of the protection racket. These people speak before they think. That is their weakness. They are very fearful. Expect more outrageous behavior.
Absolutely right. The tech bro billionaires want democracy and its institutions and all their rules gone: they want to make their OWN rules, which are good for them - not for “we the people”. Because there is no ‘we’ in their world, just ‘me’.
goede middag, mike...ik ben blij dat je niet in the heat heeft gesmolten. ; - )
Jij leeft dus ook nog, gelukkig :)
I think you are absolutely right. It sounds over the top crazy. But it’s exactly where we are.
and Loren's been pointing this out all along...
He called it “retribution “. He’s all in.
What was once called paranoia is now reality. But yet, where is the outrage against all of these acts?
Trump and the Fascist Congress have only F*CKED UP. And the MSM normalizes it every minute of every day.
well, GJ....considering who now owns much of MSM...as Dutch Mike put it... 'tech bro billiionaires'? there was a decent amount of consideration put into the 2025 doctrine...preparation and now implementation for a multi pronged system of control.
maybe most americans thought 'no kings day' protests would be enough? that country has not been under severe attack in so long that people seem to have gotten way too comfortable...so now more radical measures seem to be called for...and i am not, in ANY way, proposing that they be violent.
i DO like the 'defunding' possibility of withholding taxes. but there, of course, should be as MANY monkey wrenching approaches as possible...
look at Iran...they knew what to do. quite the embarrassment for Trump, et al...there are enough of you with different sorts of skills to come up with a few different ways to undermine these people...the alternative shouldn't be a livable one. look what it's gotten to NOW...worst assault on the American peoples in my considerable lifetime...it hurts to watch, even at a distance...
Many of us know what to do: withhold taxes!
trump honestly believes all of this is his personal property to do with what he wants. I again can't help thinking he believes we can never run out of money. We can just print more.
just like with all the other businesses he's bankrupted, he assumes(so far RIGHTly...VERY 'right'ly) that he can just move on to the next project...
''The National Theme Park of Self-Enrichment (Now With Premium Admission Paid by Everyone Else)''
Some governments manage infrastructure. Others manage ideology. This one appears to have upgraded to managing aesthetics of personal admiration, funded through what used to be called public money.
Take the West Colonnade renovation, where taxpayer funded flagstone apparently failed the vibe check and was replaced with imported polished granite. The official explanation was simple: it was paid personally. The actual paperwork, less poetic, suggested otherwise, with hundreds of thousands of dollars quietly routed through public budgets while the narrative stayed proudly self-funded .
This is not really corruption in the traditional sense. It is more like performance art with procurement forms. A kind of statecraft where the props are national parks, and the script is written in “rush project at request of POTUS” footnotes.
Meanwhile, the supporting cast, meaning the National Park Service, is asked to do more with less, preferably less staff, less funding, and less ability to fix things like safety hazards that might interrupt the aesthetic experience. If a cliff needs a guardrail, that is apparently a future problem. If a walkway needs granite, that is an emergency.
The logic extends neatly: science becomes a loyalty contest, research funding becomes an ideological filter, and expertise becomes something you consult after you have already decided what reality should look like.
Even public health gets drafted into the same philosophy, where inconvenient facts behave like partisan opinions and institutional memory is treated as optional.
The result is a governing style that resembles a luxury renovation series filmed inside a constitutional system, except the budget overruns are real and the consequences are not decorative.
At some point the satire stops being satire and starts feeling like documentation. The only real punchline left is that the people paying for the set are also cast as extras, whether they auditioned or not.
This week’s celebration will be tempered by a sense of loss. And what has been lost? It is the dream, the belief that there is a bright future ahead. The seriousness of this moment can also mark the reclaiming of the dream for all Americans and all of the people of this planet. Americans are not the only ones who are suffering. Remember the suffering of the Ukrainians, going through winters of suffering from the cold and the loss of their sons and daughters. But they have the belief that they will prevail and it is that belief that will give them the strength to prevail.
What maintains the Ukrainians who have been forced to fight a war for their very existence against a very powerful enemy? They have a dream, a vision for the future free of Russian dominance and they are willing to fight their battles to bring that dream into existence. At the beginning of the attempt by Russia to dominate Ukraine; things looked quite bleak for the Ukrainians. Yet the whole population woke up in short order and realized that they had to continue the struggle to remain in a free country.
Now the short-term future looks bleak for Americans and it has affected our national mood in a very substantive manner. Many are asking what is our path out of this situation? Others are wondering if there is even a path out?
I believe there is a path out and it first requires an inspiring and unifying vision of a what a bright future will look like. Once we have that unified vision then we must be willing to engage in struggle to achieve it. Nothing of great value comes without great struggle and struggle is what we will be facing ahead. It was struggle that birthed the United States and inspired us as a people to create a powerful vision to take on the most powerful country then existing on the planet…and we won against impossible odds.
If you were given the task of creating an economy and a truly representative form of governance what would it look like and how will you (not “them”) communicate this vision to others. It takes more than hope that others such as our current spineless polititions will accomplish this for us. Currently our government is a train wreck that has literally stopped in its tracks. We must create dynamic new forward looking leadership and give them a vision of what we demand they will accomplish. The original motto of Europe’s Jews in 1897 that inspired the creation of Israel was first penned as the closing lines of the utopian novel “Altneuland” by Theodore Herzl:
“IF YOU WILL IT, IT IS NO DREAM.”
So first we create that vision, that dream and then through struggle we make it our new reality. It is a personal and a collective vision achieved through collective struggle and our new motto can be “WE WILL DO IT.” As Trump, MAGA and Project 2025 begin to crumble in front of our eyes now is the time to get to work and create a blueprint for our ideal society.
I think at root it's all about greed and corruption whether it's about foreign policy or domestic policy. I certainly agree that the consequences are both wide-ranging and dire and not just for the US.
unfortunately, Russell...i agree. it's almost like a second pandemic...i hope it will not prove as costly. so far that's true, at least, in lives lost...
Quite right, Kelli. Perfect exemplifications for this administration abound, but none is better than Trump himself—a malevolent charlatan pedophile insurrectionist with two impeachments and counting who couldn’t be more obviously corrupt but who nonetheless won the support of enough of the American to regain power a second time. Just as Hegseth needed to experience the immediate and devastating consequences of removing the vaccine mandate for our troops before he realized the error of his ways, I’m afraid the American people must also learn the hard way, while Trump and his cronies enrich themselves at the expense of our health, safety, education, infrastructure, medical advancement, defense, security, international soft power and reputation, and the list goes on. Not in a malicious way—but I really do hope we learn this lesson extremely well so that we never repeat the mistake.
it really amazes me that ANYone believes, esPECIALly more recently, that Trump has ever FAIRly won an election. or that he's not willing to do ANYthing he can get away with in order to win...and he HAS succeeded, obviously, in making WAY too many of you believe that any election he was involved in was won fairly. deSPITE all the evidence to the contrary....
Well said Kelli Klymenko. Republicans are in charge of all three branches of government and yet, they have done nothing to stop the Trump administration from plundering and weakening our highly advanced, wealthy country. America has been made rich by its highly productive labor force while Republicans have ensured for fifty years now that the riches go to the richest 1% and not to working people. The American people must stop them at the ballot box this November!
Yes. They’re complicit in all of it. They’ve had unified control and used it to reward billionaires while making life harder for ordinary Americans.
imagine using all the public property such as parks, labs, the country service men as employees of a personal private holding company. That is what's going on.
I don't deny that he not the only one who does this but cmon, if this continues may start feeling a slice of dystopia.
My own 2 cents, dont have to agree with me.
people should have been 'feeling a slice of dystopia' when, at the LAtest, Pretti and Goode were murdered. not to mention all that have already died in the concentration camps...ALL with, not only imPUnity, but the inCREdible gall of implying, or straight out SAYing, that it was the VICTIMS' faults...
that fits, all too well, part of MY definition of dystopia. as it should ANYone's with empathy/a conscience...
but, after observing most Americans' non-response to the homeless for so many years... maybe that ship has never come to port, much less sailed...
Empathy and conscience are values that have no place in MAGAt land.
I love that one of the things they love to call our side is "sheeple". Well, we are not the ones being led by the ring in our noses to whatever outrage their political gods decide to manufacture next.
And let's add that working people are just resources to use. I said this 20 years ago that changing the name Personnel Department to Human Resources in organizations was a very bad idea as people became a commodity to be used. It took the personal aspect out of those departments and made workers just another widget.
They keep screaming about waste fraud and abuse here in Minnesota. Another example of watch what I say, not what I do.
The money being syphoned off from parks and other public works is a feature not a bug. The oligarchs want to destroy public works, and DJT is happy to reap the grift. The attempt to undo the non-partisan professional civil service in a return to the spoils system likewise. It is what they have always wanted.
But the most chilling thing in tonight's letter is the return to the genocidal threat, giving the lie to the "peace accord".
True it is a threat to murder, to kill, torture and bereave. But a threat even the Iranians understand as hollow and stupid. They are likely treating it with the seriousness we treat his North Korean explanations about how the Reflecting Pool managed to turn itself green. For Trump Always Chickens Out -- a meme that didn't just arise out of nothing, but has always been part and parcel of the strutting, swaggering, 2-year-old, carnival-barking idiocy that lies at the heart of everything they try their hands at.
Ironically, the more they lie outright, the more the truth slips out. Squeaker Johnson openly admits to doing nothing more than running a bantam-weight pissant protection and racketeering service for the President. That is just remarkable. The Speaker of the House is one of the few offices singled out specifically in the Constitution as a truly national position -- a spokesperson for Congress, for the very idea of checks-and-balances, with clear historical roots in the Speaker of the House of Commons -- a position in Britain considered so important and sacrosanct it is simply not allowed to be held by a partisan figure.
The more desperate they become, the more the cult shatters into a thousand jagged edges. The tiny, tiny, tiny men surrounding the tiny, tiny, tiny little President are increasingly exposed for what they are, all trying to fob themselves off as would-be patriots and would-be defenders of the common good.
Nothing could be more transparently, laughably false right now.
and would-be Christians when they have no compassion; no sense of community and foment hate for anyone who is other than their white-bread selves.
ICTT - and Squeaker Johnson is second in line for presidency, scary indeed.
He reminds me of Alfred E. Neuman, the Mad magazine guy.
Clompared with the Bobblehad, Alfred E. Neuman seems filled with a spirit of raging testosterone. 'What if Donald yells at me?' said British tabloids about Sir Keir Starmer. I can only imagine what they'd say about Mr. Flaccid with the Dorky Glasses.
Johnson is a living example of the idiocy of allowing a shallow, immoral person to hold any position of power.
Character counts! We are living through an era where the people in power are notable for their lack of character and the honesty, integrity and decency contained therein.
The Speaker of the House is an Evangelical Christian nationalist and is working to turn the nation into his dream theocracy.
Pete Hegseth is an Evangelical Christian nationalist and he has been purging the Department of Defense and the military of women, non-white people, and Officers who do not toe the Christian nationalist line.
Sadly, this was all known prior to the 2024 election because Project 2025 was published months before anyone voted.
Hopefully people can see now how important it is to be well informed in order to elect honest, respectable politicians to represent us.
The greatest danger may not be the money itself but the slow reshaping of what people come to believe government is for. If we’re taught that public institutions don’t deserve investment, that accountability is optional, or that uncomfortable truths shouldn’t be reported, those ideas eventually become normal.
History reminds us how easily collective memory can be rewritten. The fact that many young people in China have little knowledge of Tiananmen Square and ‘Tank Man’ isn’t just about one event—it’s about what happens when transparency is replaced by control. Democracies rely on an informed public. Without that, neglect and silence become easier to accept.
Americans have already accepted a much lower level of government support that other wealthy countries, so it will be hard to regain what Americans never had, and haven't had in a long time.
First 3 steps to reclaiming and improving democracy, when Dems have a federal trifecta:
1. Expand the Supreme Court to 27 justices.
2. Abolish the filibuster, so that
3. The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act can be passed.
Necessary but not sufficient measures; a baseline.
Eric, I disagree with your suggestion to abolish the filibuster. In a democracy, there must be some leverage allowed to the minority to prevent the worst impulses of the majority. Without it, you have an autocracy en banc.
Rather than abolishment, the filibuster must be returned to its original function. Instead of being a symbolic gesture, it must again require the filibustering legislator to stand and speak continuously, as Cory Booker did on March 31, 2025.
If the filibuster became physically difficult, it would not be so easily abused as it is now. Our mistake was not in retaining the filibuster, but in making it easy and painless.
He steals our money and we should be suing him.
Thank $COTUS for blanket immunity.
I think Trump and his corrupt administration should be sued regardless of SCOTUS and we should be impeaching members of SCOTUS who are corrupt.
I have a special hate for this misbegotten “supreme court”.
As a constituted. I retain deep sympathy for the justices who take their commitment to justice seriously, but are powerless except for comment and witness. And occasionally a tip of the balance. I think the Robert's court serves Trump as a way to serve plutocracy, and where it costs little or nothing to the very rich, allows some justice to escape from time to time.
The heart of the rot…..
I think the heart of the rot in general is self-serving corruption on the part of our fiduciary officials and of we the people for failing to unite against it. I know of at least one family that suffered disastrously from the corrupt shenanigans of the banking industry in the subprime crisis, and another that suffered greatly. Yet in the end, Dick Durbin could say (the banks) "own the place" as the will to reform remained subdued. I had a long time friend who died of COVID while politics pumped the extraordinary death toll.
Many, including me, groused when bankrupt bankers got bonuses while so many lost their jobs and homes, but we failed to unite in sufficient solidarity. The ripping apart of immigrant families, a crime against humanity, is it not, failed to unite the nation in condemnation and and demands for real reform. Here I run my usual, but it should be chiseled in stone and recited in schools:
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." -Lincoln
Even though the SCOTUS “decision” was an egregious political move by a bunch of rightwing water carriers in thrall to a convicted felon, there have been so many “acts and decrees” that cannot be termed in the name of “presidential duty” that can be prosecuted if this Orange Scourge lives past his final term.
Johnson is correct. There will be investigations held if the Dems take the Congress in November. We need to make damn sure that happens!
Like "emergency" or "national security", it "presidential duty" is carte blanche "Trump card" for unaccountability. What are the criteria for "presidential duty"? Who gets to say? The whim of $COTUS, apparently.
Note that the criteria of even "Bribery" spelled out in the Constitution, along with "Treason"as a convictable high crime, is tortured by the Roberts' court to the point of de facto legality.
Yes, I agree.We the People need to file class action suits on a myriad of issues.Our tax dollars are being squandered and plundered.Our most sensitive data has been seriously compromised by Musk and his Doge group.Our public lands are being destroyed.He effectively “killed” millions by his ineptness and dangerous hair-brained policies during a worldwide pandemic.He is destroying our People’s House and National capital.The list could go on and on.We are paying these people our hard earned tax dollars to harm us.He and his group of traitors and thieves owe us big time.
Class action suits to represent the American people are necessary because the institution (DOJ) that is supposed to represent the people has been totally compromised.
Yet $COTUS has shown hostility to class action the protects workers.
Maybe Mark Elias can help us file the suit?
I feel like he is super busy protecting voting rights. We need someone of that caliber who is not only doing voting rights. In fact, Norm Eisen was recommended when I wrote about this last year.
Racketeer influenced corruption.
Last year when I suggested this and asked who would be a good lawyer for this, someone said, Norm Eisner lawyer who is also with The Contrarian. I think we should give Donald a taste of his own medicine.
Regarding the national parks: I think the objective is for Trump to say the parks have gotten shoddy and dangerous (because of Obama and Biden, of course) and the best solution is to invite the private sector to help turn things around. Think of all the tax dollars that would be saved if we had a Nvidia Grand Canyon, an Amazon Yellowstone, a Palantir Yosemite, and so on. The welcome signs at the entrances would all have gold letters with Trump’s name on them. I really wish I were kidding.
Privatizing government services has been a goal for the GOP for a very long time. It is a way to funnel taxpayer money to their cronies and donors. Remember when George W. Bush insisted on privatizing Social Security? Some things never change.
There has always been intense concentrations of money and political power that uses that power irresponsibly to gather more. The British East India Company. Slave labor cotton in the USA. Imelda Marcos and her endless collecting of shoes.
"That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." - Lincoln
Bearing in mind that Lincoln helped to found the Republican Party and the Democrats were once the principle shelter for committed racists.
I think the more rapacious strain of billionaire has been offended by the notion of anything they cannot buy and profit from, and have been engineering a selloff of the commons for a very long time. Too much is never enough.
Trump doesn't work for us. Trump works for Trump.... and uses our money to do "Trump work" (or trumped-up work). We NO LONGER HAVE A GOVERNMENT. We have a nation-wide VANITY PROJECT designed to serve the emotional needs of Trump (and also of Hegseth).
THIS IS A F-ING NATIONAL DISGRACE... and, of course, CBS News will NEVER tell anyone that this is what's going on. JFC!
WHAT DECADES of HISTORY have shown us ALL...
trump has NO LOYALTY to ANYONE ELSE EVER!!
NEVER EVER TRUST A BULLY because they are SO insecure narcissistic and paranoid that sooner than later EVERYONE becomes one of their TARGETS!!
If you hang out with backstabbers, you had better watch your back.
Never ever trust a right-winger.
Like a mob boss, DJT has "fixed" all of the government institutions for his personal gain. The GOP Senate and House work for Trump. Not for the people they swore to serve-their constituents. Trump is stealing from the citizens they represent. They must choose to serve Trump or serve the people who elected them. It cannot be both.
Like a crime family, with threats and bribes DJT and his family controls the US military, the Congress, the FBI, the Dept of Justice, the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the majority of the Supreme Court. Every lackey in his cabinet licks his boots. There is no depravity so low they will not all stoop to give him. They have all sold their sacred honor and their souls.
How does the opposition stop him? First, they must start telling the truth. When Donald blurts out the next self-serving lie, the DNC must line up the troops and counter attack. With the truth. Call out the liars. Name their names.
Blanche and Bissent opened the vaults of the Treasury for the Trump Family for $1.7 Billion of our money. Using deception and fabrications and conspiracy to commit fraud. Even after getting caught with his hands in our cookie jar, Trump is still clamoring for our cash. This and many other examples are proof that the Trump Family is organized crime. When will this truth be stated out loud by the Good Guys?
The notsupreme 6 has allowed DJT to “fix” everything.
Like all right-wingers.
Billionaires are among the few for whom this kakistocracy is an opportunity.
That is the plan and it doesn't take too much research to figure it out. Basically, take the citizens out of the equation. When Trump talks about a "Golden Age" he is referring to the Gilded Age only worse. A country by and for the ultra wealthy.
So it is. It also explains the drive to destroy Nature and the planet. Why would the tech bro billionaires do that? Simple. The Earth and all its living creatures (including humans) are simply resources to exploit for these genius demigods. They know no ‘we’, but only ‘me’, so why would they try to conserve Nature? Better use it all up in this lifetime, why leave any of it unused? Because they don’t give a single fuck about anyone else or anybody who should come after them, that’s why. Reductionist-materialistic thinking taken to the extreme.
Right you are. It's the why that is hard to get our head around and I think that is why so many people are complacent.
Well, you have to be an extremely sociopathic malignant narcissist to think like this and not have your conscience get in the way. Most of us simply can't grasp this level of egoistic thinking - that's why they consider themselves "geniuses"...
"Capitalists usurp the power of government and pervert it to their own purposes." -Frank Blair Jr. (Missouri Representative 1848)
Debates about Democratic principles have been going on throughout history. The core issue involves the power of capitalists vs. the power of labor. Keeping laborers, working people divided is a proven way to conquer "we the people".
I’m Not A Loser! Am I??
For Cheeto the deadliest word in the English language is loser. Cheeto wants to be a major global powerbroker but like Napoleon, Iran has become Cheeto’s Waterloo. There is prevalent magical thinking in the WH supporting his crazed policy origins. It began with the ICE lack of habeas corpus in deportation arrests, the illegal tariff policy banned by SCOTUS, the Iranian war not approved by Congress, refusing to hand over the Epstein Trump files mandated by law, the incessant election interference and subversion(SAVE Act), getting paid for pardons, refusing to help Americans with housing while giving large tax breaks to wealthy political donors, refusing to abide by court orders, blatant corruption with no bid contracts, funneling $$ into his own pockets through crypto, nepotistic awarding of contracts to companies that has loose ties to his family, and destroying the DC property.
The need for his legacy to be seen as the most powerful ruler the world ever known is the product of a demented psychotic man who wants to do what he wants to do. As he has done most of his life Cheeto is now making presidential decisions on gut instinct ignoring the advisors around him because he has some psychic powers.
But there are people who are complicit in supporting this dictatorship. And WE the People are keeping a scorecard on what can be done when this hellscape called leadership ends. The Nazi Republicans should not be allowed to run for dog catcher. And I would argue that the electorate that supports Nazi Republicans are complicit in their avowed racism, corruption, and immorality. How disgusting that there are Americans to turn a blind eye to authoritarian rule.
His instinct is one of total domination, the sickness that has plagued human history. It is the antipode of what is argued in the Declaration of Independence.
I propose that henceforth yet another worthy title be bestowed upon the Stable Genius: LOSER IN CHIEF.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. 😠😠
Good one
PTV, it is what some of these Americans want, with all their stony hearts. They want white, male dominated, Christian, heteronormative, cisgendered society, and to hell with religious freedom, women and the alphabet people (BIPOC and LGBTQ+).
Well said, Ally.
You nailed it.
It is not a subset of Republicans like your "Nazi Republicans or MAGA Republicans" it is all Republicans all right-wingers that are complicit.
Hold them all accountable. The GOP deserves to die as a political party; they have all betrayed the Constitution and the people.
Amen
In 1917, there were no vaccines at Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas, now widely believed to have been the incubator for the global pandemic known as the Spanish Flu, which managed to kill only somewhere between 50 and 100 million people worldwide in three distinct waves. Every single Army commander fighting the outbreak back then would have risked everything to get such a vaccine for his men, had one been available. The same goes with the mayors of every town decimated by the flu, such as Philadelphia, which lost so many people the corpses couldn't even be collected for public burial for weeks.
Yet today, Pete Kegsbreath and his idiot colleague, RFK, Jr. are attacking not just the science behind well-known vaccines, but the public trust in them. In so doing, they literally lay the foundation and schematics for the next such event. And for what? For what?
Together with the forced closure of USAID, the many random attacks on boats in the Caribbean, the Iran War, the undermining of Obamacare, there's enough evidence to put everyone in this Cabinet in prison for murder for the rest of their lives.
You can betcha they ARE taking these vaccines themselves…
Like Trump who touted all the fake cures for Covid, but when he fell ill with this virus, got the finest medical treatment and latest drugs available to save his skin. He topped that off by his dramatic mask removal on the balcony of the White House to show how invulnerable he was. That set off the discard of masks by many - wonder how many of them got infected.
They must think vaccines are "woke" - their catchall word for anything most of us think of as good but, they think must be obliterated.
You ask "for what"?
To implement Evangelical Christian nationalism nationwide.
AND—THE US IS RUNNING OUT OF OIL. Blah blah blah. The reserves in Cushing Oklahoma are nearly empty. CNN had a report on this several days ago. The # of ships getting through the strait is a fraction of normal—AND TO REFILL THE RESERVES. WAKE UP.
The situation is beyond belief. I can understand Trump is a greedy, sick and ignorant individual who has never succeeded on his own in any honest enterprise. But how does one explain Mike johnson and his entire party?
Cult. Kool-Aid. Pants-Shitting Terror. Small, tiny scalawags and wormtongues converging around their deteriorating Alpha. Lather, rinse, repeat....
A facetious take clearly. Explaining such suicidally stupid behavior is a true puzzle.
I continue to wonder that too -- did Trump just suck up all their integrity or did they have none to begin with. They could so easily stop this madness -- but instead they cheer it on.
Why do we wonder why? Just ask Liz Cheney, John Cornyn, Thomas Massie, and Bill Cassidy why. At the root of all of this is a significant slice of the voting public that wants this shit. For my money, nowhere near enough blame is placed on the tens of millions, the stupid, bigoted, greedy, racist, misogynist who are all in on the dictator’s fascism. They’re done with pluralistic democracy, if they were ever for it to begin with.
I agree JohnC. I think the 60% or so rest of us (non maga) became complacent or fell asleep or were too busy or whatever to pay attention and especially to vote. The magas pay close attention and most importantly do vote as a bloc. The rest of us better wake up quick and get together before its too late.
You forgot about the third of our citizens who stayed home on election day John C, or who were purged from their voting rolls.
I wonder this too Laurie. In fact I spend way too much time thinking about this very thing. All I can conclude is either he has so much kompromat against congress critters, or they lacked a spine before this guy came along.
Maybe it is a slippery slope we can't imagine because we are not in these positions. of power? Maybe they threatened harm to their families? I don't know. I just want it to stop already - and I don't see an end in sight which is discouraging at best.
MAGA has been threatening violence against any push back of trumps agenda for ten years now. I would expect politicians who are swayed by the threats to have quite politics by now. Betrayal of their oath to preserve and protect the Constitution is unforgivable as far as I'm concerned.
Lauriemcf, in my opinion, it wasn't an overnight transformation, but political office has evolved over time from a "public service" occupation to a "personal power" job. Many of today's elected officials have minimal education or marketable skills. If not in elected office, they'd be lucky to earn a fraction of their congressional salaries with few or no benefits. (Lauren Boebert, et al)
They are puppets launched and controlled by shadowy operatives who told them what to say, where to stump and what to do in office to keep those large donations rolling in. The idea of not having a job in Congress is terrifying for someone who can't do anything else. So they attach themselves to whomever seems to be able to protect their jobs – and it's clearly not the voters – and do the bidding of the power broker.
And many politicians use their positions for insider trading and leave government much richer than they were before their "public service".
Trump is not the driving force in this. A bargain has been struck between Trump and the people who are really running the show…
And they plan on being here long after Trump is dead and gone. He was just the ticket into the dance.
That’s why they sit back. A hundred billion, hell even a trillion to the Trump family to gain control of the most powerful nation to ever exist for possible ply decades??? It’s peanuts, like Musk giving a few hundred MILLION in order to get BILLIONS in contracts and becoming and unbecoming a trillionaire. Does anyone think Zuckerberg or Besos gives a shit what America thinks of them? This was solely a business deal. They put up a few million and talk nonsense and flattery and get investigations squashed, government contracts, more tax breaks.
We
Your theory makes sense to me and actually is the most troubling as they will be around for a long long time if we don’t recognize and address it!!
One explains Johnson with religion. I assume he is opus. Most of the rest one can explain with money.
No, he doesn’t belong to Opus Dei, as he is a white Christian Nationalist Protestant. He is allied with people like Leonard Leo who do belong to Opus Dei.
Shows how much I pay attn. I figured because of leo and also his housing situation.
He’s not pious. He’s just as greedy and power hungry as the rest. He’s just wraps it all in religion as a shield to protect against criticism. He never has to answer a question as to how he’s doing his job, why he’s ignoring laws and procedure. All he has to say is that he’s following a higher law.
That’s why they constantly want to mesh THEIR religion with government. As if….”whose laws are we breaking? We’re following a higher power’s laws, not the ones made here on earth by mere men”.
They use it on everything. To completely take a simple sentence written by the Founders and interpreting it into “originalism”where men in 2026 tell us what they were really thinking based on their beliefs on God in 1776. Not what they actually wrote down. What Clarence Thomas thinks he can get away with in order to rule in favor of a big tipper.
And the gall of them to give blanket immunity to Trump? As if the Founders would have wanted that. They would want a convicted criminal with a history of bagging on his debts, who wanted to use the military on protesters in the first term. Yes, they definitely would have wanted this.
And the only reason they did it was fear. Not fear of Trump. Fear of the people they really care to impress. Who they really align with. And it was always going to be temporary. Had Kamala Harris won, the brief that was probably already written by Heritage to challenge that decision would have been #1 on the docket for SCOTUS to immediately reverse. This was political and purposeful to either be safe if he won and implement their buddies Project 2025 or reverse if he lost.
Literally, how many different ways did the founders have to say, write down over and over again about the separation of church and state and how NO religion should be elevated above all others. How we are a country of LAWS, not men and certainly not God.
Texas just implemented forcing kids to study the Bible. Can Dearborn MI now demand the Quran be taught in public schools? How about the Torah in the Bronx public schools? Voodoo in New Orleans? Buddhism in California?
What these people are trying to do with this country is not sustainable. We have seen it fail over and over again. Taking a nation built on laws and equality and suddenly saying religion is replacing laws and we now have a an authoritarian, not representative country in a country as heavily armed as ours? When these people looked around the work and got hard ones for dictators and fascist regimes, I’m not sure they accounted for the idea those countries didn’t have more guns than people and a second amendment.
So along with everything else this regime accused their enemy of that they are doing themselves…they’re the ones who are going to HAVE to come for your guns.
Right, Marcus, the Justices would argue that the President is only immune for crimes committed doing official Presidential duty's.
Of course as his attorneys argued in the Supreme Court, the President could have his political opponents murdered as a Presidential duty and he can surely have peaceful protesters murdered too.
The court set themselves as the arbiter as to what falls under official duties. And you can bet they would decide differently for a Democratic President than a Republican President.
Opus? No that's the SCOTUS witch's thing. She is a religious fanatic.
Johnson is just plain old Evangelical Protestant. He's not a religious fanatic. He just uses religion to cloak the greed and control the masses.
His housing situation would be odd for someone not fanatical. He seems like pence’s evil twin.
I believe Mike Johnson is an Evangelical , Emma.
The extremist Catholic Opus Dei is equally involved and complicit in the corruption of the government and right-wing Supreme Court Justices.
Yes see above ;)
I commented before reading further down the thread.
Happens a lot.
Despite claiming to be Christian, Mike behaves like a grifter, and like other confidence gamers, he must play along with the Commander in Cheat? Is this post-truth politics?
They’re kkkkristians first, always first,
White Evangelical Christian nationalism.
Senator Tillis's criticism is notable less for its bipartisan texture than for its institutional precision: replacing demonstrated command competence with perceived loyalty is a change to the decision-making criteria the institution uses, one that a personnel framing obscures. The chain of command exists because military effectiveness requires accountability within a known structure, and substituting a political loyalty test at its apex reorients that accountability from the mission to the appointing official. Congress confirmed these officers through a process designed to give the people's representatives some purchase on who commands a force built with public blood and money. Firings without explanation bypass that mechanism regardless of whether a senator objects after the fact.
These firings of the most competent people in our military are based on racism and misogyny. It may not be evident from all of the names, but most of these military officers were either women or people of color. Their loyalty to our Constitution was never suspect, just their loyalty to a wannabe dictator.
There is some thinking that the top brass military firings are strategic. Could there be plans afoot in case the 2028 presidential election does not go its way? Is the military being groomed to step in?
I think that this is precisely what is going on. I hope these fired generals can be leaders in our resistance.
Or as soon as the midterm elections, Clare.
And adherence to White Evangelical Christian nationalism, Betsy Smith.
I believe that Hegseth is making the military into a predominantly White Evangelical Christian nationalist force and will use it to force the country to comply if given the opportunity. And certainly to deal with civil unrest when trump and the GOP refuse to except the outcome of the midterm elections.
Like banning masks in a deadly pandemic, "Republican" leadership wants power and spoils and could care less about the fate of our society.
I keep telling you when you post it’s really important to have a point it makes it much more interesting for the reader. C’mon dude , putting my feet to sleep
🤖
By the way, I just saw the JD Vance’s new book is number one best seller this week. You all oughta pick up a copy 👍😇
I've posted bits and pieces of this before, but I'm going to take the easy route tonight and just copy and past what I wrote to 350+ people about how to save scientific research by commenting on the very dangerous OMB proposal:
A friend I trust recently gave me this link: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/OMB-2026-0034-0001 so that I could add my opinion about the best way to fund scientific research to that of many other people.
A bit of background, supplied by a different friend. OMB’s Proposed Federal
Financial Assistance Rule would put into effect the recommendation in
Project 2025 to substitute scientific expertise with political influence when granting funding to scientific research projects. As this friend explained it, the OMB is proposing that "Funding for scientific research should not be controlled by a small group of highly paid and unaccountable insiders at the NIH, many of whom stay in power for decades. The NIH monopoly on directing research should be broken. Term limits should be imposed on top career leaders at the NIH. Project 2025, page 462"
Having only very general knowledge about Project 2025, I was unaware that one of their goals was to replace funding for scientific research, currently peer reviewed and then further vetted by the NIH, with funding decided by politicians and political appointees. I find this to be very dangerous, so I clicked on the above link, which put me directly on a comments page, where I posted this:
As a survivor of bilateral breast cancer, scientific research is fundamental to my health and well-being. As a Cape Codder, scientific research that tests the purity of the water in our single source aquifer is fundamental to my health and well-being. These are just two examples of ways in which scientific research, vetted by scientists, not politicians or political appointees, is fundamental not only to my health and well-being, but to the health and well-being of us all, in our country and world-wide. Therefore, I strongly oppose changing the way research is funded. The current process is rigorous and produces excellent, reliable results.
If you know me at all, you know that I'm not a research scientist, so I have no financial interest in the issue. But I do have a huge interest in the scientific research that keeps me alive and that potentially benefits all of us who share this planet. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say that they wished they could do something. Well, here's one small thing that we all can do, but that if each of us does it, it could turn into a big thing. I'm sure that you can come up with an example or two of why this is essential to you. Speak truth to power and write a comment.
How many of us alive today have had our lives extended in obvious ways (let alone ways that are hard to recognize or trace) by careful, rigorous, and vetted science?
Yes however JL there has been or was a deep forgetting and Amanda at the same time public health and it’s work was compromised. So a perfect storm so to speak. I remember as a mother in the mid nineties the number of vaccines for infants was increasing. And since my father was part of the oral polio vaccine program I had memories and great respect. As part of the AMA and the community hospitals( remember them you knew who that ER nurse was because she lived down the block from you ) the different cities police and community outreach , and businesses worked together to provide a FREE polio booster to any children. Doctors were available to talk to any parents who had concerns and there were some and my father listened then talked to the parents. But after that grand community public health action NIH and public health became silent. Just more vaccine tins and many mothers were concerned about load. Legitimate concern. There should have been a public health role out campaign addressing this concern. I think Dr Fauci or another ID doc addressed this in the last few years and oh nothing to worry about we all needed this information decades ago. There used to be much more public health type films as well with the stories of scientists and doctors instead of just the almost but quite syfy scare films. There has always been propaganda but sometimes used for legitimate good purposes the use as a twisted jackhammer blows my mind. The situation in terms of comprehension of medicine and health just started going haywire with out adequate public health messaging which always comes down to funding. This was even worse when the support systems which were never that great and full of isms. See the nonfiction book The Hospital by Jan de Hartog. So community hospitals disappeared and insurance ran the medical support game instead of physicians and hospitals. DRGs and insurance board panels with no names and control of time spent with patients under strict controls by insurance companies that were created to be nonprofit turned into profit making entities.Senator Elizabeth Warren has spoken out about this especially in terms of private equity. I saw it all imploded. Even state run programs line the Ohio Bureau of Children with Medical Handicapps was decimated. Several years ago a NFL football player tried to help out but I do t think they knew the extant and the why of the problem. ALEC took over Ohio state legislature long ago and this was one result.
Children and any vulnerable human are not respected or valued almost less chattel and property than useful mannequins to pull out of the closet every now and then. Books have been written one from an Ohio community hospital viewpoint and articles but they seem to slide into oblivion. Everything needs to change in some way. There needs to a fulcrum of new creative balance if at all possible and soon.
Have you posted a comment on the link above?
Did it and no this comment site was new to me
: )
I might have tried. I will check and see. Thanks. Sometimes the comment section is confusing.
I'll raise my hand.
Have you posted a comment on the link above?
Have you posted a comment on the link above?
"Having only very general knowledge about Project 2025, I was unaware that one of their goals was to replace funding for scientific research, currently peer reviewed and then further vetted by the NIH, with funding decided by politicians and political appointees."
And that is just the tip of the iceberg in Project2025. It is but one thing in a multitude of schemes to do away with democracy. I could go on but, the end game is in sight for these maleficent actors. The plan was/is to capture all government functions within 180 days because they knew that there would be roadblocks. We are down to our last roadblock and we are that roadblock.
Yep, J., it blows my mind that anyone actually believed trump when he denied having anything to do with Project 2025.
Why would anyone trust someone convicted on 34 counts of fraud?
Have you posted a comment on the link above?
👍✊✊✊
Have you posted a comment on the link above?
I am a breast cancer warrior. I live in the PNW where NOAA monitoring equipment in the ocean is crucial in many endeavors.
Have you posted a comment on the link above?
WHY...in an unprecedented move...
have rubio, hegseth, bondi, miller, AND others in the maga regime...
Suddenly MOVED OUT of their OWN HOMES and MOVED ON to Military Bases around DC??
Even trump wants a bunker under his ballroom!!
WHAT EXACTLY ARE THEY AFRAID OF??
IS IT possible they ARE AFRAID of US???
They are afraid that the coming apocalypse they have been going on about is not going to happen unless they do more to bring it about.
If this is true, are the locations public knowledge?
Google the locations they have moved to by entering:
Where does (pick a name) live now?
Thank you!
Most likely, Sky Blue, they are preparing for reaction to what they are planning to do in the very near future.
TRUE DAT, MysticShadow!
Chicken shit WEAKLINGS…
ALL OF THEM!
Posting this again to encourage everyone to send protest emails to their Senators before August 24th 🇺🇸
“An oil company leases a piece of your public land. It drills a well, pulls the oil, and posts a $10,000 bond up front as a promise to clean up the site when the well runs dry. Years later the company goes bankrupt, or it simply walks. The well stays where it is, thousands of feet deep, venting methane and leaking toxic brine into the ground. The cleanup runs north of $300,000. The company forfeits its $10,000 and disappears. You cover the rest.
The math rewards walking away.
Unplugged wells vent methane and benzene, a known carcinogen, and leak produced water laced with heavy metals and radioactive material into soil and groundwater.
These are real holes in real ground
An orphaned well is a federal term with a plain meaning. It’s a well with no company left to plug it and no bond big enough to do the job, so the responsibility lands on you.”
🇺🇸
Comment on the rule. Go to the federal docket at regulations.gov under BLM-2025-0037 and tell BLM, in your own words, that you don’t want to inherit the oil industry’s cleanup bill. Specific comments carry more weight than form letters. If a well sits near where you hunt, camp, ranch, or draw your water, say so, and name the place.
🇺🇸
Then share this. Independent public lands journalism runs on readers, not advertisers and not grants. Forward this to the person who fishes the creek downstream of a lease, and check how your members of Congress have voted on public lands at our Congressional Public Lands Scorecard.
The land is yours. So is the bill, unless enough of us say otherwise before August 24.
🇺🇸
‘Trump Admin Pushes More Public Lands Oil Cleanup Costs to Taxpayers’
MORE THAN JUST PARKS by WILL PATTIZ
JUN 24 2026 | Substack
https://morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/trump-admin-pushes-more-public-lands?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios
The 25 comments before mine here are variously eloquent and clever in identifying and condemning the criminality, corruption and cruelty of this regime.
Please, in addition to restating the outrages, let's turn our anger into action!
To generate a Blue Tsunami and make November's election results TOO BIG TO RIG, this toolkit has actions any of us can take to Get Out The Vote:
https://tinyurl.com/4e2zsxmj
Everyone can find their niche. No act is too small.
Will we win? No one knows, but do sports teams go out on the field time after time yelling, "We are going to lose!"?
Eric Lin - the blue wave should make sure the Democrats running in the primaries are not accepting $$$ from AIPAC - there is Anti-AIPAC sentiment and it’s causing some seats to be lost in our Democratic primaries across the country.
One reason Dan Goldman was defeated by Brad Lander in NY
In Maryland, Sarah Elfreth used some of the $5 million she has taken from AIPAC to win the primary. She refuses to discuss or explain why she takes so much money from an Israeli funded pac. I will not vote for her in the general election unless she comes clean and takes questions about her need for dirty money. I will write in my own candidate. We must push them to represent us.
Wouldn't it be better not to waste your vote karenm, than to let another dirty republican into office?
Not really. Maryland is a Democratic state, abd she will win regardless of my vote. I want transparency on this issue. I have called her office many times to ask why she is taking this money. Her people say that they are not qualified to answer questions about donors. They send me to the campaign office who don't answer the phone. When I leave a message with my question, they do not return my calls. If they were proud of AIPAC funding, they would respond. Gaslighting is gaslighting regardless of party.
Any chance your write in candidate would win? Is your district so blue that there’s no chance the R will win in the general?
I understand the frustration but I am also very fearful of the Dem history of only voting for perfect and then losing. The only result that matters this November is that dems win control of congress. These are not normal times!
My write in will not win. The AIPAC supported democrat will win. 💯
💯
Orbanate Trump.
👍✊✊
We know what works, in terms of diplomacy, scientific research, military readiness, foreign aid, and more.
Trump and his lackeys are gutting institutional knowledge as fast as they can (and sometimes seeing the costs in real time, as with flu vaccinations).
I hope that we can get back to doing what works while there are still enough dedicated professionals around to guide us out of this debacle.
Those abroad who wish our nation long term harm are getting a hell of a show.
Surprising, no shocking that Trump didn’t want his black granite to be sent back where it came from in some shit hole country.
It is already in some shit hole country it seems.
I am becoming more comfortable by the day to respond when asked that I am from a shit hole country. And I will be happy to explain who is responsible for it. I have zero f’s to give.
We will accept anyone's natural resources.
And if they don't offer their natural resources we'll just take them. It's the same attitude as how Trump thinks about women.
Betsy, you really hit the nail on the head with that one!
Spot on. "What is mine is mine. What is yours is mine."
One way to beautify Washington - dump tRump and the regime .
A beatific vision!
He could easily stopped- if only the Congressional thugs who now support him- wake up and realize the country they are leaving to their children and grandchildren is being destroyed. Imagine that- a bipartisan Impeachment!
I think at some point of excess of money and power convinces many that they are above any sort of common consequences. That even if our species goes into collapse, that somehow they will prosper.
No, Congress is smarter than that. Why would you ever want to stop success what’s the matter with you?
Embezzlement is still illegal, isn’t it? Has the Robert’s Court sanctioned such theft? The DOJ? Will the federal employees who carried out these illegal fund transfers and unauthorized projects be held to account? How far does Presidential immunity extend ?
Trump's personal lawyers conspired with the Acting Attorney General to hang a fraud on the court and on 300 million citizens for an illegal transfer of $1.7 Billion of our money from the Treasury to the Trump Family for them to spend any way they want.
https://courthousenews.com/states-take-aim-at-trumps-irs-settlement/
If Trump controls the FBI, DOJ and Supreme Court, who will stop him? Congress? He controls the Senate and the Speaker of the House.
The IRS exemption arranged by Trump’s former attorney now at the DOJ is a clear conflict of interest. If lower courts intervene, will the SCOTUS 6 overturn such a sleazy deal??
David-It seems that SCOTUS members may have conflicts of interest and sleazy deals themselves. The April/May issue of Fortune Magazine lists Clarence Thomas as a "self-made millionaire".
Its more than a conflict of interest. Blanche's signature on the tax evasion immunity document is clear proof of Blanche's betrayal of the office of the Attorney General. He is complicit in using a false pretext to let a family of tax cheats off the hook. Obtaining anything of value using false pretenses is the definition of felony fraud. The Attorney General is supposed to work for us. Blanche is telling us in no uncertain terms the he works for the Trump Family.
Apparently as long as it is a tip, ie paid after service, it is all cool.
As for immunity, I think people stretch that case way too far.
Those federal officials who carry out clearly corrupt orders should themselves be personally liable. Just following orders is no legal defense.
And then some. Someone should remind them about that.
Republicans see their role as one of making law, not following it.
Presidential immunity is endless when no one is allowed to investigate any of his acts. SCOTUS gave us a tiny little fig leaf and said that some private acts by the President could be illegal. But that since we are not allowed to investigate any of his official acts there is no way to determine which is which.
Well said! The Robert’s exception opened the door for complete defiance of the laws, short of impeachment. But the Trump legislatures are too mired themselves to dare vote to impeach him, much less convict him.
Looking at my reply to your question I may not have been clear. The Trump Family is stealing from us. They are not hiding their stealing. The GOP Senators who are on his side are working for him. Not us. Remind every elected official at all levels that they have a choice. Either they are for us or they support the Trump Family who is stealing from us.