Authoritarian prime minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary visited former president Trump in Florida on Friday, and on Sunday, Orbán assured Hungarian state media that Trump “will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russia war.
How does trump keep getting away with this?!? We’re being torn apart and if something doesn’t happen soon, I’m afraid it will be irreparable. What can we the people do when the politicians and media won’t do their jobs?
Biden is doing a great job under unbelievable circumstances and is not being given close to enough credit for all he’s accomplished. How can so few hold us all hostage?
But... excuse me... What you have just said is ridiculous.
By November, Ukraine may be occupied, the Resistance fighting Putin's occupying army with bows and arrows. Like the Danish resistance forces in WW2.
Ukraine and America betrayed.
US assurances, including the US$, US treaties, including NATO, not worth the paper they are printed on.
Johnson, Gaetz, Jordan, assorted harridans -- Putin's Little Greene Girls (and Men) in Congress feted and bemedalled in the Kremlin. Their Boss riding a Russian tank in Kyiv... Before they all go on to Pyongyang.
Later... the Victory Parade amidst the ruins of Taipei?
IMAGINE...!
*
It does not take too much imagining.
HCR is now reaching the "It seems that" stage.
But the OCCUPY CONGRESS guys and gals have already seized the Legislature, their comrades well entrenched in the Judiciary. Laughing like rats at home in a Big Cheese...
And every American from John and Jane Doe to the President is already a-pig-in-the-traitors'-poke.
Fast asleep, snoring, dreaming... Defenseless in there...
"Great Country you've got there" saith Our Lord and Master in Moscow...
"Great Country I've got here" saith Our Lard o' Mar-a-Lago...
I too "am enraged by America's institutional paralysis." Probably nearly all of us in this forum are. Biden has the bully pulpit and now is the time to label this trumpian obstruction as treason. Trump is ordering his minions to support a foreign dictator, Putin, and abandon our ally Ukraine and undermine democracy in Europe and ultimately, around the world. This is TREASON.
Been calling the election deniers traitors for months now. Will a chorus join me? Can we scare little Johnson into growing up, as his master never will?
"This IS treason!!!" and yet nothing is being done!
Israel is trying to kill all the Palestinians and take ALL of Gaza.
Netanyahu's dream being fulfilled.....
I am grateful that the US is doing something to relieve some of the suffering. Too many lives have been lost.
I am not a citizen of Israel but I cannot believe that the majority of its citizens approve of Netanyahu and his slaughter of human beings. There are other ways to communicate and work with the kidnappers and murderers involved in the October attack.
I am grateful for our servicemen and women who serve during these times to protect our ships ....to protect passageways for transport of grain, etc.
Thank you to men like Blinken and Sullivan who are working constantly to find peaceful solutions. I observe their exhausted faces. THANK YOU!!!!
Just like most Americans don’t approve of tfg’s actions, most Israelis don’t support Netanyahu. But it seems our sole recourse is voting—and voting smarter in the future. If there is one.
Netanyahu is a True Believer who has one stated goal, the destruction of Palestine. Civilian suffering is not considered. His mind has closed. And the next generation of Gazans and Israeli's will inherit the retribution mindset and the bloodshed will most certainly continue.
I don't understand how they're getting away with it. The Speaker of the House is supposed to apply the Will of the People, NOT the criminal former guy. What can we do to stop it? By the time our elections are held and these obstructionists are voted out, it may be too late! It's infuriating!
The issue is that we’re not just abandoning Ukraine but we’re also abandoning and failing to support our fellow members of NATO as well as those non-NATO members in the region and we’re putting ourselves at risk of having to possibly have to place American troops on the battle ground in the region with a potential for a world war outbreak in the not too distance future!
It is discouraging (from what hear from the press) that trump numbers are growing. I hope that the "traitors" are enough to make up the difference. I still don't understand why women want to be barefoot and pregnant wearing June Cleaver's pearls. Shall we get some berkahs made by top Paris designers?
Peter. We must at least have hope that Biden in the immediate future can find funds to supply Ukraine with the armament she needs. The nightmare you describe is too difficult to live with. I don't think Ukraine can hold out until the election, so Biden must find some way to meet the need. Biden is laying out the stark choice we voters have in November. Is it possible that tfg can so corrupt the election process that he can win? The DOJ and democrats must be vigilant, vocal, and visible.
A relative wrote to me yesterday (we've been having an exchange of political views via email...) asking whether I think Biden is "running his administration." I asked why on earth he would even come up with such a question. He said he just watches Biden give speeches and hears him say his aides won't let him answer this or that question.
I can only imagine that this comes from FOX, eh?
The problem has so many roots. Lies and encouraging distorted perceptions which, as far as I can tell, are not capable of being untwisted. Right? Or if they can be straightened out, what's the mechanism?
So... yes vote and speak out but this crisis is beyond simple ignorance.
Two words: Discharge petition. Look it up. Then write your congressperson to get behind the one to spring the national security supplemental funding bill. And tell your representative to defeat the rule for every bill that comes up. If a rule is defeated, any amendment (like supplemental funding for national security,) may be added from the floor.
Term limits would be a good place to start....one of many, including a new AG, an enlarged SCOTUS (or one absent corrupt justices), and a beginning of trials for traitor trump.
It scares and worries me to read what have written in your comments. But truth be told, I also see a possibility for the world in turmoil with the possible re-election of Trump. Virginia Witmer's comment about having been calling election deniers traitors rings true to me as well. All that said, you didn't ruin my breakfast then more prayer to continue the day.
It is amazing that Trump is still able to change the direction of world events when he should be in jail. Judge Cannon clerked for Thomas, so she is doing the job she was trained to do. Biden, as Commander and Chief should order weapons sent to Ukraine. He obviously is immune from prosecution. I don’t know why Trump isn’t being charged with treason. He is clearly aiding an enemy who is probably financing him. It’s time to send him to Gitmo— seriously.
I'm not clairvoyant, but there is a powerful, monied, primarily white male fraternity among the Citizens United crew. Trump is a shill for their ambitious aims. He's a typical candidate for their preferences: 1) A colorful figure (Reagan and Bush, 2) Not very bright, 3) Easily swayed by groupthink and money.
Other than that, they could care less while they pursue dreams of low taxes, Christian Nationalism, and the brotherhood of oligarchs. They can and will throw Trump under the bus. They are close to doing so. Nikki Haley will most likely be resurrected as their preferred candidate.
Matt, thank you for your civilized response, but it is not your words that are absurd, it is the situation.
A -- so far -- successful putsch, carried out by insiders, a determined gang of the people's Representatives, who have seized Congress on behalf of their self-styled President... an ordinary citizen Who Would Be King.
So much tidier -- no shit on the walls, only in well-dressed human form -- than the January 6th invasion.
So much more effective. The FSB do seem to have successfully updated Malaparte's little book on the technique of the coup d'etat.
Matt, I am not cynical, I am furious.
As for the music, either the band of robbers face it or we all shall.
As for America's mealy-mouthed media, some so-called columnists -- fifth -- and some so-called journalists should be made to eat their scripts, eat their articles.
All that respectable hypocrisy.
I once was an NYT reader.
In MS, they looked at me as though I were a card-carrying Commie with my copy of Pravda...
Peter. I’m with you in giving up my subscription to The NYT. Plus explained WHY!
I urge all of us to release subscriptions
to that paper explaining why re the orange monster, who still is headlined.
These news outlets need to say in their headlines how he’s planning to become a blueprint Putin dictator; wants to link up with Orban, Erdogan, Kim Jon Un, and walk arm in arm with them into the sunset of any hope for our Democracy.
"It appears as though Trump is deliberately undermining the national security of the United States."
John Kelly's new book details conversations TFFG and Kelly had regarding Hitler. TFFG told Kelly that Hitler did many good things. "Like what?" replied Kelly.
"He fixed their economy," said Trump.
"But what did do with the money? He destroyed his own country and half of Europe."
TFFG was not to be deterred. He still thinks Hitler was a swell guy. Notice how TFFG seems to love strongmen that kill hundreds of thousands to millions of their own people with impunity.
Ivana recalled that TFFG kept a book of Hitler's speeches by his bed and read them regularly. No surprise there. We've heard way too many of TFFG's Fascist ramblings.
And yesterday, TFFG said he was open to cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits. Sounds like another rich guy who has obviously never missed a meal (or a snack) in his life.
You work hard your entire life and TFFG and his rich cronies, many of whom are trustifarians and grifters, want to cut your benefits. And for those of you that think the government pays you more than you contribute, if you they had invested your contributions at 4% interest most of you would have well over a million dollars in your account when you reach retirement age. Plus the principle would keep on compounding.
Spread the word to you MAGAnazi relatives and friends that TFFG and the Republicans want to cut your Social Security benefits and Medicare and Medicaid.
It’s pure reverse psychology. Tfg loves strongmen because that’s what he wants to be, how he wants to be seen. Somewhere deep down he knows he’s anything but.
Matt, I must Google to know who your conductor is, as I like to keep up with which conductor is where (in Chicago, where Muti is conductor emeritus for life). Music got us through WWII. We sang as did the Red Army Chorus on tour afterwards. Music ties us together in peace or war. The Iliad was chanted as were the Slavic epics, and Christian liturgies. It is, in short, the unifier of all humans. If only we could sing the same songs. Orchestras bring the most of us together the most often. And orchestral pieces with chorus even more. Do you know how many performances of the Beethoven Ninth occur every year and where? Does anyone?
From WIKI: Music Director. Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård, who in fall 2023 began his tenure as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, is a highly regarded conductor in both the orchestral and opera spheres.
If I'm correct, certain musical artists (Swift) and certain recent songs ("Try that in a Small Town") have proven to be more divisive than uniting. One, inadvertently, and one, intentionally. Was there anything even remotely comparable prior to the current era?
Letters From An American ended today with the following:
“And so our country is going to be what our people have proclaimed it must be—the arsenal of democracy…. Never, in all our history, have Americans faced a job so well worth while.”
__Franklin Delano Roosevelt
arsenal
noun
ar·se·nal ˈärs-nəl ˈär-sə-
Synonyms of arsenal
1
a
: an establishment for the manufacture or storage of arms and military equipment
The city is home to a federal arsenal.
b
: a collection of weapons
2
: STORE, REPERTOIRE (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
After reading the Letter, my mind immediately flashed to the arsenal that the US is supplying to Israel. That was not the association that HCR intended and, perhaps, it just occurred to me.
Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, Haiti and more - it's complicated. The question is: what can we ordinary Americans do right now? We can vote and we can contribute more money to important campaigns than we ever have before. We can target those donations to the campaigns where the funding is needed most. And then we can hope. That the fate of a nation (Ukraine) could hinge on Speaker Johnson in the House defies reason. It is a flaw in our system, along with the Electoral College, the Filibuster and lifetime appointments for Supreme Court Justices.
Unfortunately our beloved Constitution is difficult to amend, especially when Americans are so divided and subjected to mis and dis information hyped up on social media steroids.
I think we Americans have been so enthralled with the Constitution that we fail to understand how its flaws are bringing us down. I would add that the US Senate should either be abolished, or that Senators be elected proportionately to each state's population.
Time to institute one-person one-vote democracy. Which is to say
I agree, David. People, not territory, are most important. Democracy is one person, one vote, majority rule. Will that come about ever? Perhaps, but it will take another revolution. The minority forces are well embedded in the system.
'Speaker Johnson in the House defies reason. It is a flaw in our system, along with the Electoral College, the Filibuster and lifetime appointments for Supreme Court Justices.'
" That the fate of a nation (Ukraine) could hinge on Speaker Johnson in the House defies reason. It is a flaw in our system, along with the Electoral College, the Filibuster and lifetime appointments for Supreme Court Justices."
Well said, Richard. It's maddening and unbelievable.
'The House Freedom Caucus gives a voice to countless Americans who feel that Washington does not represent them. We support open, accountable and limited government, the Constitution and the rule of law, and policies that promote the liberty, safety and prosperity of all Americans.'
The so-called House Freedom Caucus has no more of an idea of what freedom actually means than Trump does. Their eager co-option of his destructive politics of ignorance, prejudice, victimhood, hatred, and fear reflect not freedom, but at best irresponsibility and performance politics, and at worst a brutal and sustained attack on anyone who doesn't agree with their hollow pursuit of vengeance against the best interests of the nation . Freedom comes only with a sense of responsibility for the nation's future, not the mindless adherence to the whims of a would-be tinpot dictator. When the so-called Freedom Caucus separates itself wholly from Donald Trump, halts its singleminded and futile pursuit of political foes instead of the far more complex and thoughtful business of actually governing, they will have taken an enormous step towards credibility. Not until then.
So, Fern, what you seem to be saying is that I could increase the size of my retirement account by selling shares in that proverbial bridge in Brooklyn? In 2021 there were 3,659,289 babies born in America. There are 525,600 minutes in a year. Barnum's claim that "there is a sucker born every minute" may have been understated.
Richard, yes. I quickly understood that your windfall of $ was deeply thoughtful and a wise choice of ‘investment’! I’m considering doing this kind of investing because frankly our lives …at least mine…now depend on it. It’s glaringly obvious that words, even our laws are being flushed as I write this response.
Thanks to HCR and her incredibly intelligent followers, I am learning to
look into the glaring light coming straight at me without turning away.
You do realize the US is, by far, the largest weapons supplier in the world.
We have supplied dozens of strongmen their "arsenals" as you put it. In many conflicts we supply both sides.
And if a radical group that had thousands of members, like say the Proud Boys, actually took over the Capitol when it was in session and killed and raped Congresswomen, tortured and killed Congressmen, killed the VP and beat up the police would you blame about Putin for supplying the arsenal to do so?
It's ridiculous to blame Biden for killing civilians when Hamas started the whole thing and then hid behind the skirts of Palestinian women.
It is not ridiculous however to blame the weak crook Netanyahu. The one issue I have with Biden is urgency in his decision making. I know the only war the Rs want to fund is Israel, but Biden has to find a way to let the Israeli people know our patience is ending, along with support. I know meeting w Gantz is it? was a shot across the bow. The next shot needs to come now.
Of course not, Fern, but we have to be that arsenal both for Ukraine and NATO, until the UN or its successor is more powerful than universal oppression.
It is sickening that the lessons of the 1930’s have been forgotten. Or willfully ignored. And this time it is not just isolationism, but we have a person who has taken over an entire political party and its apparatus who has openly declared his intention to toss the Constitution and rule as he wishes. And half the country seems to be on board.
Thanks Peter. What you outline is a “first slowly and then all at once” sketch for the decline and fall of democracy in America. And we are in the “all at once” stage now. Your comment is a much needed siren sounding suddenly in the dark of night.
As like millions of others, the situation occupies my mind far too much of the time. Each optimistic scenario I sketch seems thin and reedy when I examine it thoroughly.
I thought Trump would be thwarted by the legal system - and then Merrick Garland did nothing. In May of 2021 I wrote on this forum to complain about having heard nothing from the DOJ in regard to Trump. There was little response and what there was from other readers was, almost to a person, bitingly critical of my point. How could I criticize the newest savior, AG Garland. Why he’d barely had time to find the washrooms in the building where he worked. Give him time - he’ll skewer Trump.
Months later when many people were beginning to complain, Garland emerged to make a sententious and sanctimonious speech, explaining to us poor know-nothings that you build an investigation from the bottom up flipping witnesses along the way. Like we didn’t know that? Like we didn’t think during this hair on fire time that surely there must be other ways to conduct an investigation? And, soon enough, some lawyers came out of the woodwork to tell us of the “hub and spokes” theory, one which if put in action would have targeted Trump from the beginning.
It wasn’t until the House Committee performed what could be ( or could have been) a superb service to the country by conducting and publicizing the results of an extraordinary investigation that MG, embarrassed that they knew more than the DOG, finally sprung into action and appointed Jack Smith as lead prosecutor. He has been a tiger, but at every turn his work has been thwarted by a combination of Trump’s desperate pursuit of delay and the scandalously generous provisions of white collar justice.
Now we fully expect that only one of the four trials in which Trump will be the guest of honor will be conducted before the election. This is thanks to the assiduous efforts of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, stepping out of the filth of their corruption long enough to slow walk Trump’s endless requests.
And yesterday there was a media report that even the New York trial may be delayed at (you’ll be shocked to hear) the request of Trump’s lawyers.
A political podcaster has been keeping an eye meanwhile on our good friend in Florida (not *that* one), Aileen Cannon. Apparently there has been “opposition research” on Jack Smith. Like any probative and serious judge Ms Cannon has seen fit to involve herself in it, approving warmly of the strategy to lean on the Prosecuting Attorney. Nothing to see here!
And we hear other suspicious tidbits. Trump meeting with Elon Musk in his hour of dire financial straits. Bud Light, furiously impugned by the deranged right for a commercial supportive of trans people, has organized a huge fund raising dinner for Donald Trump. Trump has responded by doing a 180 on the company, explaining in a long post why it’s time to lend Budweiser a forgiving hand. TikTok, threatened by a possible ban in America, is also lavishing Trump with money.
I have heard far too often in the past 8 years that Trump and his criminal cronies always “say the quiet part out loud”. I am sick to death of that self-satisfied observation, uttered as if the speaker had only to follow a trail of bread crumbs to nail the traitors to the mast.
No. No. No. They say tens of thousands of things quietly and a few out loud. What other plans do they have? What direct deals does Trump have with the Supreme Court? What plans are in place federally and in many, many state legislatures to thwart the will of the people in the November election. Not to mention Putin, Orban and MSB. What have they arranged with the Trump new Republican Party to cheat before and during the election so that Trump doesn’t have to cheat afterwards.
I circle back to you Peter. Yesterday a MaraLago employee broke his silence to add grist to the mill in the documents case. He did it because he realized that his trial has no chance of being heard before November 5 and he doesn’t want America to collapse into authoritarianism in January of 2025.
One of two things will happen. The sluice gates of information will pour open in the next few months and Trump will be (finally) thwarted. Or they won’t, and we will be stunned when the former guy completes his rise from the ashes and sets about his work.
Yes, I also noticed the “It appears as though” phrasing in regard to Trump undermining the national security of the United States. It echos the soft we go high when they go low. More like we remain calm, objective and neutral as they attack like rabid dogs. Trump is CLEARLY undermining the national security of the United States!
Where the hell is a discharge petition getting aid to Ukraine to the floor of the house?
Bingo. 1/3 of the world’s grain supply. Hmmmm. I know your are right. US or not , MATO BOOTS will be fighting in Eastern Europe. The end of the great peace, because of 1 orange idiot.
I get your anger and alarm. Democracy such as we have it is slow moving. We don’t have the ability to move fast. Plus it’s human nature to deny oppose and argue. We have the corporate MSMedia made up of people who have these traits plus the need to make their bottom lines. And people don’t know history…which HCR is really doing her bit to change.
Matt, I try like the dickens to spread the word with my former work cadre. They are deep, deep into MAGAt beliefs, and tell me everything that I believe is false. I just don't get how cops, most of them former military, do not draw the line at keeping the classified information in his bathroom;
I have been reading the book Beyond Contempt to try and bridge the gap between democrats and republicans, particularly maga. In theory it makes sense however as you have all explained they still don’t or won’t listen. I only hope that the rest of the republicans will be convinced of Trump and the threat he presents.
My MAGA acquaintances think the same way. Some of them are even brilliant people! Totally brainwashed. I try to talk to them but they get very aggressive. They are all in on the lies.
Are you referring to Russian active measures? I will never forget being frozen in front of the TV when Clint Watts testified to the Senate about the active measures Russia was taking (is taking) to subvert Western democracies.
So, it’s better to be like Trump and support Putin. He certainly has brought freedom to his people. The freedom to die in jail. That’s what he would do to Ukraine. But, still there are too many people like you who don’t care .
I think John's confused about how so many people in former enemies populations were easily converted into allies when free of their dominant parties control (and fear for their lives if daring to counteract the prevailing atmosphere of neighbor and even family members reporting even minor deviations of loyalty to the dear leaders).
An old friend who helped kick off the Berlin Airlift as a lowly, but critically skilled Staff Sergeant, when I was a toddler dependent of a Tech Sergeant in Munich, enlightened me on a lot of other information than just that in the following links.
Before reading the text to get a feeling of John’s spirited outlook by listening to the interview at:
John Durant was 91 (still really sharp and energetic) when he was interviewed in 2018 and reveals a lot of background such as hiring German aircraft mechanics as “Janitors” (since 85% to 90% were more interested in anyone that would let them help rebuild their country as an ally rather than enemy). They (better than our defeated confederate soldiers), took up rebuilding their country as allies instead of perpetual enemies, having been given an honest opportunity so much sooner than the Ukrainians were.
Germany turned into a pretty well aligned and respected ally, I believe greatly thankful for the 277,000 flights in the Berlin Airlift (while the Soviets were expecting it to fail as had the German attempted airlift to support their soldiers in the battle for Stalingrad that only managed 300 flights).
Israel is now destroying so much of the good will we enjoyed as we supported them before the Operation Nickel Grass airlift in 1973. They were actually far more capable of defending themselves and destroying the Egyptian 3rd Army in the short term even without our Airlift, but the Airlift when it did start signaled that we would replenish and add to all their weapons systems to make sure the Soviet backed attackers would not succeed. It secured a more reasonable deescalation and potential for a lasting peace.
It did so, though, at the cost most Americans seem to forget, the oil embargo that trashed our economy, and though oil was not cut off from supporting South Vietnam, also took a toll on what we could do for them after we withdrew our troops and let them do their own fighting as we kept their supplies flowing. At least that's what it looked like to me then and still now.
I'm trying to learn more to see where at least better balances could have been made to keep Israel's creeping settlers, and preference for all-or-nothing fights with neighbors from putting us in positions we find so untenable for any lengthy period.
My mentor was captured at Corregidor and spent 3-1/2 years in POW and work camps, but was able to learn a bit about why the Japanese thought they were just doing the same thing as European colonial powers did (and feeling a bit superior for having defeat Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, not realizing Russia was much weaker even in Europe but especially so at the far end of very difficult supply lines).
He taught me about how much the average and many leading Japanese were surprised by how we used our victory to offer them the chance to join a far more peaceful way end to wars without crippling peaceful reconstruction, as we had in Germany. We were criticized by the French for one for helping former enemies more than our own allies (in their eyes). To me it was more like restorative justice where the former bad actors are given a fair chance to redeem themselves through much better future performance, cooperation instead of constant belligerence that so often leads to new wars.
It worked in Germany, Japan, and I'd even say in Vietnam where the Vietnamese learned to trust many of us as individuals, and still welcome us more than their supposed allies in Russia and less so in China as they were less helpful than the Russians tried to be.
Ukraine is going in the right direction though they had far more difficulties with trying to find better allies than Nazis and Russians they were caught in between, having thought the Russians were their worst rulers before WWII, so much so that many looked upon the Nazis as the only possible allies to counter Russians. The references to what they were doing in 2019 matters less to me than what they did when Russia attacked them in 2022.
"...And then the worst thing that is happening is those children who remained in Mariupol, they are being forced to study history that is interpreted by the Russian government. They are being told that Ukraine is a fascist country. They’re being robbed of their Ukrainian identity and they’re being “reeducated.” That’s how it’s called. And that’s quite an open process that the Russian government actually speaks about. And those children who lost their parents, they are being taken to Russia, forcefully adopted, and many of them resist that..."
Seems like some would like to see the Pravda version of truth spread here, too. Pravda means truth to the people who kill their political opposition and masses of innocent civilians.
I don't know about right-wing talking points. I've made my own assessment based on research, observation and reasoning, and I can change my view if and when newly available information challenges my assessment. I say what I think; I'm not a supporter of either Trump or Biden.
Trump and his MAGAt Republicans caught lying, AGAIN!
Republican politicians and sympathetic media outlets are claiming that America is in the midst of a violent "crime wave," driven in part by undocumented immigrants. New data, however, demonstrates that there was not a spike in violent crime in 2023. Instead, across America, rates of violent crime are dropping precipitously — and the decline is especially pronounced in border states.
In January 2024, the Republican National Committee claimed that “crime continues at historic highs in Democrat-run cities.” Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) declared in February 2024 that “[i]n Joe Biden’s America you get…cities plagued with crime.” These claims, however, are not supported by facts.
Ukraine's oppressive neo-fascist thug regime is not "democratic." In Ukraine, all the opposition parties have been suppressed after Zelensky capitulated to neo-Nazi war-mongers and reneged on his campaign promise to bring peace to the Donbass region.
A few months ago, both Zelensky and Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau applauded as the Speaker of Canada's House of Commons praised a Ukrainian who was a real-life Nazi, a member of a Nazi SS unit that committed genocide against Poles during World War II. After international condemnation, Speaker Anthony Rota quickly resigned.
When Zelensky became President, he initially moved toward fulfilling the Minsk Agreements that had "frozen" the civil war in the Donbass and outlined a pathway toward peace. But then he capitulated to the Neo-Nazis (who controlled Ukraine's Interior Ministry, in charge of the police stations) and eventually re-ignited the frozen war, precipitating the Russian invasion. We are being lied to.
In August, after U.S. Secretary of State Blinken announced more aid for Ukraine, Zelensky posted a video showing him with Ukraine's most prominent Neo-Nazi Andriy Biletsky:
See also (from 2019) "Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine":
"Five years ago, Ukraine’s Maidan uprising ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, to the cheers and support of the West. Politicians and analysts in the United States and Europe not only celebrated the uprising as a triumph of democracy, but denied reports of Maidan’s ultranationalism, smearing those who warned about the dark side of the uprising as Moscow puppets and useful idiots. Freedom was on the march in Ukraine.
"Today, increasing reports of far-right violence, ultranationalism, and erosion of basic freedoms are giving the lie to the West’s initial euphoria. There are neo-Nazi pogroms against the Roma, rampant attacks on feminists and LGBT groups, book bans, and state-sponsored glorification of Nazi collaborators.
"These stories of Ukraine’s dark nationalism aren’t coming out of Moscow; they’re being filed by Western media, including US-funded Radio Free Europe (RFE); Jewish organizations such as the World Jewish Congress and the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and watchdogs like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House, which issued a joint report warning that Kiev is losing the monopoly on the use of force in the country as far-right gangs operate with impunity."
I bought into the so-called left wing of the democratic party for 40 yrs, but at the end of day, they're not any better than the maga folks. Just a different line of bs from different oligarchs.
But what about Now? Certainly we need to vote against Any Republican these days. But ad our Texas primary, and those of other states showed, there are not enough democrats turning out. Why are all the elected Republicans allowing Trumpers to dictate how they vote? It's like the rest of us are having our country and lives completely taken over.
Letters,letters. letters to <first.last@nytimes.com> and the same, <first.last@washpost.com> .Over and over. They are getting hit hard right now for their treachery. Ezra Klein is sounding like a Likud Fascist of the 1930s. Hit him too. Whose side are they on? Over and over.
While reading your assessment of the Michigan primary this morning, it became quite clear that you, and many other notable journalists, are stuck in horse race mode. You all seem, with few exceptions, to ignore the stakes of running such a race as the mud is getting ever deeper and more dangerous. Do you understand this analogy?
With all the "Biden should drop out for..." you might benefit from reading a well thought out alternative to that common thread, as provided below, by the esteemed Rick Wilson
As a long time paying subscriber, I demand a truthful and unbiased publication of issues that impact our nation, from "The Newspaper of Record".
Your current publication of "news" is a disgrace. The evidence of such is well presented by our esteemed Lucien Trusctt IV in the attached excerpt below. It must be required reading by ALL on your editorial staff. With so many of your subscribers bailing on you, you might reconsider your overt bias.
Ransom, I really appreciate your sharing of these letters to the editors. This is clear act that every one of us can take instead of just wringing our hands in the comments here, and you're providing a template to make it quick, targeted, and simple.
I've borrowed others letters for templates too. Chaplain showed a good one weeks ago that got me cranking. She liked what I did with hers and I've been cranking them out regularly. It beats grinding my teeth. Forwarding good Substacks gives the airheads some reality to consider, if one of them reads one once in a while. I use the emails of the entire editorial staff at WaPO and NYT once in a while, figuring maybe ONE of them might read it and someone like Lucien Truscot would make them know the world is on to them.
As I mentioned in a response earlier, Heather has thousands of readers. If a small fraction of us sent letters to the MSM regularly, they would have to know they are busted.
They aim to stay on the good side of tfg in case he actually wins again. Little do they seem to know the media—all of them—are already targeted by tfg for elimination. Enemy of the people and all that.
Your “horse race” both siderisms regarding Trump’s blatant attempt to replace our Constitution with his reality TV authoritarianism is threatening to me. It should be treatening to you as well
Do you look past your current reporting that ignores the dangers of Post Constitution Life and expect that your silence today will be rewarded by a Trump dictator tomorrow? Are you hedging your bets? Are you not aware that YOUR job as editor will be rearranged by your new boss Stephen Miller? Oh whoa, what a new life you’ll have. Information Minister in New Gilead
Thank you so much for these examples, Ransom. I subscribe to both of these newspapers. I also subscribe to my local paper. I choose to support these papers both because I like to read the daily news, and also since I’m aware of the paltry number of true newspapers left here in the US.
Thank you so much Ransom. I still subscribe to both, partially out of fear of the small number of newspapers owned and operated by huge conservative conglomerates.
I ahave emailed the WH and am asking Biden to start a count of "XX number of days the MAGA is holding the budget hostage" or even better, since he won't allow the vote "XX number of days Mike Johnson is holding the budget hostage"
That was a very widely spread tag line in Carter's administration. when speaking about the hostages, and I believe it was part of him losing his reelection bid. Let's turn it onto the MAGA.
Thank you! Yesterday, someone in the American Prospect said the Democrats need to start publishing their own paper, because they can't rely on the NYTimes to make a case for Biden before the election. The author pointed out that there were once papers dedicated to promoting political parties. That started my wondering where there might be a discarded printing press or at least one for rent. Or maybe they could buy a cable channel. Surely, there are enough unemployed journalists, and when the Times has been out on strike, there has been Not The New York Times. Like most people here probably, I get a deluge of email every day from candidates and lobbying groups arguing for candidates and causes, and no matter how many times I unsubscribe, they just follow me to my phone. It's wasteful and it's NOT EFFECTIVE.
Ginni, Having observed Donald Trump increasingly absorb both the Congress and much of the judiciary, combined with the media’s failure to fulfill its role in helping people understand what their government is up to, I repeatedly have submitted that we the people are all that’s left to save our democracy. However, after reading HCR’s discussion of Journalist Jim Sciutto’s forthcoming book, I would submit that the four generals who served in the Trump Administration—John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Jim Mattis, and Mark Milley—protocol aside, are obligated to address the American people and reveal the full truth they witnessed about Trump throughout their tenure serving in his Administration. If we’re to defeat autocracy, we can’t afford for these generals to withhold anything they know that would reveal how, over and over again, Trump was intent on defying his Oath of Office. I will continue to amplify this obligation because, contrary to Trump’s first term when there were guard rails to curtail him, the American people would be subjected to an unleashed Trump were he re-elected.
In addition to the four generals Coming forward we need former Republican presidents, Colin Powell, Condelesa Rice, etc. to speak up and explain to all Americans the danger this MAGA movement presents to our freedoms we take for granted. We are running out of time to right this ship.
Joanne, I would note I underscored the generals, first, because of their presumed impartiality and, second, because of their first-hand knowledge. Still, truthful remarks from any prestigious Republican, indeed, would be critical. Regrettably, Colin Powell, from whom one could expect truth, has passed.
Biden’s predecessor seems to have watched Disney’s Little Mermaid too many times. He seems to be channeling Ursala, the evil octopus who manipulated Ariel into giving up her greatest asset.
The predatory predecessor is manipulating every institution and as many people as as possible to benefit himself. He has been swept into the long game (deregulation and tax breaks for the morbidly richh) started about 40 years ago.
Yes, indeed – how do trump and his supporters keep getting away with supporting fascists?
Why does the connection to Orban, Putin, Erdogan, Kim Yong Un and Hitler not stick?
The Republicans are good at using short, sticky terms to label Democrats. What terms can we come up with?
To me, the term fascism is a bit hifalutin. Perhaps it needs to be simplified. DICTATOR works. But so might COMMUNIST.
The Republicans call Democrats “socialists” (even though it is an incorrect and broad label). Why isn’t anyone calling trump and his supporters “COMMUNISTS” (equally as incorrect and broad)?
trump calls the United States a COMMUNIST country. He thwarts aid to Ukraine and Taiwan. He denigrates NATO. His congressional “team mates” and others support disinformation like false FBI reports to aid in impeachment proceedings.
Traitor to the Constitution, the Flag and the Republic for which it stands. Traitor to the message inscribed on the base of Lady Liberty. Traitor and oath-breaker to our Allies. Traitor to the Pledge of allegiance.
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
(I refuse to acknowledge the 'under God' version of this pledge)
As do I. We as a nation must get religion out of our government. Keep your religion, if you must, but not in politics or government. Speaker Johnson may think dinosaurs and man lived together (they didn't). He also seems to believe he and tRunp can and will save America (they can't). I believe you and I can save America (we can). Vote! Dinosaurs? Good grief.
Whom are we speaking to? Will that audience think “traitor” is just propaganda? I agree that fascist has, by now, lost meaning for many. “Criminal”? “Rapist?” National security risk”?
How about “needs lots of money for court judgments, has national security information, likes foreign dictators: you do the math.”
The word God should never appear on money or in any U.S. government setting. I don't think "God" has endorsed any of our nonsense, certainly not the U.S. Treasury!
I agree. For one thing, the trumpists took to calling anybody they disagred with "communists" quite awhile ago. They still react to being called racists or fascists tho.
I also like to point out how much they resemble old school Soviets. That one gets a rise out of the pro-putin crowd.
“These people are mobsters pretending to be politicians.” Yes, Peter, you nailed it! They belong to no “party”. They are the eternal-goal-post-moving-greedy-entitlement-rationalizing-power-mongers that have afflicted history since Time began. And they believe nothing bad will happen to them in a regime change. They believe they will come out unscathed in this manufactured “Rapture”. “Ordinary people” never rise to the level of “worth-the-effort-to-consider” in their transactional-minds. They are compassion-disabled humans. Very Dangerous.
How about simply “traitors”? All are radicals, not conservatives, ready to destroy our budding democracy. Can we exile them to Russia, China, and Hungary? If that were threatened, how quickly would they recant?
You are so right! I’m chilled and finding it hard to sleep and carry on day to day activities. I have visions of fine upstanding middle class people hard working, basically fundamental: people like the “Greatest Generation’s children”: being hoodwinked by extreme elements of their parents’ Republican Party. I really believe they are either unaware of the extremes at play here and what is at stake OR believe it’s simply politics as usual and will work out favorably as it always has with John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart leading the way.
Write your letters. It matters. Read Robert Hubble, Lucien Trusccott IV, Simon Rosenberg, Thom Hartman. They are keeping pace with the headline and content response of those MSMs. Our pressure is hitting them hard and they are beginning to show much more reality of our situation. They are even using "fascist tendencies" now.
Progress in gettng the MS to do their job requires pressure, constant pressure. There are THOUSANDS of Heather's readers on FB and in her Substack. One, two, three? letters from 1/4 of us will hit them HARD.
I like your idea. Unfortunately, even if the leading newspapers and television stations are "hit hard" and subsequently attack Trump, not much will change since people know enough about Trump -- with many in the cognitive underclass (containing many well educated automatons) knowing little else -- to make up their minds about him, pro or con. I suspect that making Trump an object of humor and laughter will do more to unhinge the traitor and undo his campaign.
Undermining Biden is what will hurt all of us. That is the point of whacking them constantly and hard. The SOTU blew away their "old" bullshit. Even Faux Snooze had to say he was on top of it. The MSM is already slipping back though and has to be reminded everyfrikkin day. Clicks, clicks clicks... rateings increase add revenue $$$.
We need to clarify our target audience. It’s not the Trumpanistas; they are hopeless. It’s the disaffected Democrats and Independents - who might stay home or vote third party.
Good point. That may be where adverts that use a brief Trump clip about sleepy Joe open ;then the substance goes over an accomplishment of President Biden; and then close with a churlish line about sleepy Joe.
Use surrogates for the middle part like the Secretary of Transportation saying, "I will not bore you with the forty-nine thousand projects we are working on." Then close with more of the sleepy Joe -- a particularly churlish moment. Does three things.
1st, lets people know that they get a better deal under President Biden. 2nd, allays some concern about the President's age -- that the Admin. is a whole lot more than one elderly man. 3rd, shows that Trump has nothing to run on other demagogy about the border.
I wake up from my personal crisis to be slapped in the face with our national crisis. Both seem inscrutable, much less solvable. Yet, time marches on, whether we rise to the occasion or not. Our children will pay the price. The young always have, whether by dying in war or by picking up the pieces of our failures.
Wishing you strength to face everything you must face. Deal with stress; otherwise it overrides your prefrontal cortex just when you need it most. You can do it!
Boy, did I find this out as my husband was being put on hospice. My body fell apart, black toenails, for starters, then what I thought were mini strokes. Yes, never underestimate what stress can do, even when you think you are handling things well. I’ve learned to listen better to body messages; sometimes the language requires quiet attention.
Jeri, every word you just wrote are my unwritten words. We have to keep pushing on with whatever particular strength we possess.thank God my parents aren’t alive to see what is happening.
Read the Substack from Jessica Craven "Chop Wod Carry Water"
EVERY person on this forum should subscribe to it. Every week she lists the WINS, most of which get ZERO media coverage, and she also gives us concrete information of tasks we can take.
Your comment is most welcome. It is waste of our time to critisize Trump and MAGA anymore. One possibility is to flip enough Republicans to join Demos to bring the bipartisan bill to the floor for vote. Alternative is to impeach Mr. Johnson. It is time to act decisively with courage.
Unfortunately, it isn't just a few. We have forgotten our history. We do not treasure our freedoms....fought for with the lives of our men and women.
It is beyond my comprehension that we have allowed the Republican Party to be "owned" by one very strange person who is only in this game for himself. He has gathered a group of selfish wretches .... criminals.... who with total disregard and disrespect for the citizens of this nation and for the ideals of hard fought for freedoms ....are destroying this nation as we watch.
Our laws are protecting this traitor and most of the once great Republican Party which no longer exists... as we stand or sit and watch.
Ukraine fights on!!!! This small brave nation is giving its all while we allow the hungry "bear"...ruled by a horrible person to have his way !!! This is NOT the United States of America I know.
Putin must be laughing as he watches us implode!!!
Why is Trump not in prison? Why is he not confined and kept away from all media resources? Are our laws so impotent?
Trump is a traitor! .....so are those using him!!!
Yes.What can WeThe People do when Trump and his Putinistas are holding our national security hostage?Are we to stand by and watch this and do nothing?There has got to be a recourse.
As Miselle said, read the Substack from Jessica Craven "Chop Wood Carry Water." She offers us concrete steps we can take, every day, to influence policy and to inform our Congress Critters of their constituents' opinions. Please join us!
Ginni, by playing what the Soviets and Hitler saw as our greatest strength as our greatest weakness - our open society, our free speech, our right to trial by jury. Playing the system against itself. The weakness of our judicial system-how slow it moves- is also its strength. Our system of checks and balances is also a strength, but a weakness.
“How does trump keep getting away with this?!?” Why? Because a majority (a 20-point to 40-point majority if you live in a red state) of your white neighbors, no matter how kind or gentle they may seem when they greet you on the street, are awful people that the world would be better off without. The rise of Trump is entirely the fault of white Americans, and there is a direct line betwee that rise and the Southern Strategy perfected by Reagan, along with his convincing white Americans that “the government is the problem.” Reagan started America down the slide to the bottom of humanity, and white Americans, for the most part, jumped on with relish.
I talked to a friend yesterday in Kroger. I had not seen her in a while. After we had talked a bit I closed with I hope to see you at the Democrat meeting this month. She replied, "I am not a Democrat anymore." Then she went farther into the conversation and said that she hadn't wanted Hillary to be president and Biden is a crook. I knew that our conversation was ending and told her to have a good day. That is what we are dealing with in Indiana. Where in the hell are people coming up with this crap? Apparently it is Fox News that even airs in our local bank!!!
It’s called minority rule, ushered in by the likes of Newt Gingrich and Mitch McConnell. With the total takeover by 45 of what’s left of the republican party, he’s now pulling the strings of all his little puppets. If Democrats don’t regain control over Congress, I fear the US as we’ve always known it is lost.
The millions and millions of dollars have propped him up and he continues to sell snake oil.
It doesn't help that he's legion'ed with a theocratic Christofascist bent of our society with tons of money that fear the 99% of free people in our country.
Thank you, Heather, for once again reminding us that we’ve been here before and our reluctance to aid democracies under attack didn’t end well. We have a choice now: send ammunition and equipment to Ukraine to stop Putin or send ammunition, equipment and US SOLDIERS to the first NATO country that Putin decides to attack after he defeats Ukraine.
It isn't that we have been here before. It is a constant and ongoing effort of the Fascists to overthrow our Democracy, starting in the mid-1930s, aided by elected members of our own Senate and Congress, and continuing to this very day. The first attempt was foiled by USMC Comandant, General Smedley Butler. The second was uncovered by a savy journalist in 1939 and went to trial, as documented in the US National Archives, as used by Rachel Maddow in her podcast "Ultra". Senator Robert Taft was deeply invoved and charged for his treason. As I have said before, "Rust never sleeps". The Kochs, the Welches of the 1950s John Birch Society are working diligently right now to eliminate the impediment to business that is The Constitution of the United States of America.
And Koch Industries, in spite of all prohibitions, continues to work in Russia, whence came part of its original fortune (the rest from Hitler’s buildup).
Yet the “Fascists” are really just the same ol’ entitled white guys who have always wanted to be king-of-the-castle. That’s why they came here in the first place. They wrote into our Constitution that it was necessary to have some people only count as 3/5ths of a person. And women don’t count at all. We have been competing with them for “America” ever since. So now is the time to Do More/ Worry Less. I love that you are writing to the major newspapers!!! I have been writing to news outlets when I feel their coverage is misleading/questionably factual. Talking to as many people as I can about following newsletter like Heather’s here, or Robert Hubbell’s, Joyce Vance’s or Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles.
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty says, in part, that member nations “…agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”
The critical words are “…will assist…with such action as it deems necessary…” That leaves a lot of room for interpretation. How do you think TFG would interpret it?
He might not withdraw, since we now have a law on the books that he cannot, but what he will do on day one is stop participating in any NATO activities.
Exactly. Congress must pass such legislation that he would then sign. This points to how important down-ballot voting will be in November. Repubs in control of both chambers of the next Congress…a most discouraging prospect!
Self-paralyzed, yes, but I cling to the notion that we will pull ourselves together. In a dim corner of my mind I murkily remember reading of some obscure French diplomat remarking that “America is only as weak as it thinks it is.” I’m keeping my fingers crossed. 🤞🤞
That’s an interesting comment from the diplomat: “America is only as weak as it thinks it is.” I believe that is part of the greater Scheme here. So many people are tuned out/impotent/inactive. Essentially sitting in the pot while it boils watching porn/reality tv/TikTok videos to distract them from what they accept is “inevitable” or biblically-ordained, or won’t affect them anyway. Steve Bannon’s strategy of “Flooding The Zone With Shit” is designed to shutdown the faint-hearted, and enflame the conspiracy-minded persuadable. It’s quite a brilliant scheme, really. You have to be a compassionate-disabled person to operate this scheme, - a person mentally disabled, unable to feel compassion for fellow humans, only fulfilled by feeding the endless addiction of hating “The Other”.
By then - January 2025- Ukraine may have already fallen. Zelensky murdered, all because he wouldn’t initiate a bogus investigation into Hunter Biden. Donald holds a grudge. And Zelensky losing his country and his life will send shivers of thrill down into Donald’s loins. The speaker of the house is just his newest well placed pet to comply and help. And thrown under the bus when the time comes. We need a Discharge Petition NOW.
Like yesterday. Yep, nothing keeps chump’s motor running like payback. Why Obama and any others on his very lengthly enemies list should expect some action if he cheats his way back in. And BTW, if he does “win,” the election will be stolen. Repubs are doing their damn best (states, courts, RNC, social media, MSM, etc) to pull it off. We should be yelling “stop the steal.” I saw a blurb on Next Door this morning that started out “why do we have to wait til the worst happens to…”. I have no idea what the subject was, but I have to ask that too. I’ll finish it with …do whatever it takes to stop it.
If you mean he could redeploy all US military units to bases outside of NATO, as CinC he has the authority and likely could find the money to accomplish it. And in doing so, NATO would implode.
Kindly, twinkling eyes, thick grey moustache, very culturally inclined (as many writers and composers discovered). VERY funny Iannucci film of recent years, "The death of Stalin". The underlings in the next room hear a thud, finally get up courage to open the door, and find him flat on his back, apparently dead. But is he dead? They bend over him gingerly, mouthing the usual flattering slogans just in case he suddenly sits up and sends them to the gulag. Or worse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9eAshaPvYw
I still can't understand why Heather simply doesn't tell it like it is: Trump and his cronies have orders from Moscow to do everything in their power to stop funding for Ukraine. There is no reasoning with them, their Great Master wants Ukraine, and he wants it now. With the US out of the way, he can easily seize it - and THAT's why the Sneaker of the House won't bring that bill up for voting. The Sauron in the Kremlin has promised them great gifts of power if they do his bidding, I'm sure...
P.S. The US will never send any soldiers to the first NATO country that Putin attacks. Putin isn't stupid. He will wait until Rump has retaken the White House, and THEN he will attack Poland - knowing that his orange lap dog won't do anything to hinder him. But he will not wait long: my bet is he will attack Poland the minute Rump becomes president again.
Mike, Heather has to back up everything with known credible news sources. You and I can say whatever we want because we’re not under close scrutiny as she is because of her notoriety.
Even when he knows he is committing a crime, he’s not even remotely smart about it. I think after re re defaming E Jean and these new witnesses from Mara Largo, a judge needs to step in. The man is not well. It’s worse than malignant narcissism. He’s delusional and because he can not help himself committing crimes, losing $100s of millions… he is a danger to himself. Such a person can’t understand National Security. He cannot even understand personal security to protect his wealth. This isn’t funny, cute, or politics even as unusual as this has been, the man is so undeniably unqualified that he is the #1 threat to our National Security of all time.
No judge will be stepping in before November to remove TFG from running. The key is to defeat him at the polls, and that means it’s up to the Biden campaign to convince enough of the 74,223,975 people who voted for TFG in 2020 to not do so this time around. No small challenge. I have always maintained faith in America and Americans. I still do, but my faith is thinning.
Clarification, I didn’t say running. The judge in the E Jean case has a responsibility to evaluate a defendant when the defendant can’t help themselves to the tune of $91 million. What will be the amount of the next judgment for endless defamation? $200 million? Should someone who exceeds the threshold of legally insane be liable for defamation? See where I’m going? It would be reason to ban him from not just running, but also from SM platforms, public speaking, etc etc.
Strong forces mustered under him like they were inside The Trojan Horse. His characteristic buffoonery slip the dark demonic force inside the White Horse with only us aware viewers clamoring the others to pay attention and heed what would have made our parent’s parents stand up united against them.
He was silent about E. Jean Carroll until he obtained a bond for her judgement, and then he started defaming her again. I don’t think he perceives that his own bank account is at risk.
Exactly. Need a lawyer and a psychiatrist to weigh in here. Clearly there is more than his stupidly here. Cognitively he can not reconcile that he lost this legal case. He won’t follow instructions from his lawyers or the judge. He will keep doubling down denials/defam until he is homeless ( or living in Rebecca Mercers basement). Isn’t that enough for a judge to order a psychiatric evaluation? Then that evaluation ( totally separate from election) would become public record?
He's more than delusional. Given his bizarre speaking problems during campaign events, a number of respected medical professionals have concluded he has some form of advanced dementia.
It's hard to know if Trump was actually selling secrets about Russian and U.S. submarines to Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt or was just bragging and showing off as Brian Butler recounted the incident in an interview with CNN's Kaitlin Collins. In either case, for this, and for many other reasons, Trump is an obvious threat to our national security, a traitor who must be stopped.
I think he was bragging. And the Australians called the FBI through the embassy. Judge Ergeron got it right, he “can’t help himself”. It is time for a psychiatric evaluation.
Once he is the official Republican candidate, he is entitled to have access to all the intelligence briefings of POTUS. THAT is the most serious issue right now. Will the Biden admunistration refuse to to grant access???
God forbid that he has access to more than he stole. Our laws and traditions just help the man with not an iota of honor. Machiavellian update needed. Bet Machiavelli never ran across the likes of chump. Or if he did, no social media or Rupert to make him look human. Chumps allegiance was clear to me as Helsinki came to a close.
Giving the briefings is a tradition, not a legal requirement. Biden will not allow them or at least order them sanitized. Also, Trump was notorious for lacking the attention span needed for such briefings when he was president and often skipped them.
Ted, we already know he’s as loony and dangerous as they come. We also know that he’s slurring his words a lot. So he either is slipping into dementia or he is taking drugs.
I think that’s the one where Trump might’ve disclosed the terminal depth available to our nuclear submarines. This sort of thing isn’t one of those little secrets. It’s one of those big secrets.
Selling or showing off is really at one level a semantic discussion. The fact that he thinks those documents are his to do with as he pleases is absolutely disgusting and 100% illegal. At the next level, selling them to foreign powers is treason, nothing less.
Trump has gone through a lot of trouble to collect, illegally, fodder just for bragging. He saw an asset of great value and stole it. The bragging is just a sidelight.
Something is way, way off in what Trump did with those sensitive documents. I get the feeling that Trumps immunity from accountability is like the "Emperor's New Clothes".
Can someone explain to me why the House Republicans who WANT to fund Ukraine do not join with the Dems, vote out Johnson and then vote in a non-MAGA Republican?
I need a real answer on this. I'm doctor ordered (yes) not to read the news except Heather's letters. But for this I have searched and cannot find anything. They'd have safety in numbers; it's what Americans want; they KNOW it's absolutely critical and a disaster for the free world if it doesn't happen soon: I don't get it.
I can't recall the term used to call for a floor vote but it does exist and a simple majority can force the Speaker to produce such bill for an up or down vote.
Fay, I only just had a chance to read Heather's March 12 letter, so I now know, as you may too, that: "House Democrats are working to get enough signatures on a discharge petition to force Johnson to bring up a vote on a supplemental bill—which is expected to pass if it makes it to a vote..." I'm not sure what this means, as it looks like no Republicans have said they'd sign it, but......Oh, man. I know the so-called moderate Republicans (ha) are leaving in droves. And we know they are being seriously threatened. But if they'd vote for the bill, how much worse could it be to join this petition?
Publicly, so far, no. But as I just said in a comment above, which quotes this from Heather's March 12 letter: "House Democrats are working to get enough signatures on a discharge petition to force Johnson to bring up a vote on a supplemental bill—which is expected to pass if it makes it to a vote..." IF they would vote for the bill, would it be that much worse for them, in terms of the serious threats they are getting, if they joined a petition?
It’s about oil Nomi. Ukraine wants to break free, and that involves breaking free of the oil and gas trade that Russia provides, corrupts, the power over democracy. If we represent the arsenal of democracy, it’s because we are not beholden to hostile foreign oil hegemony. But Mike Johnson is from Louisiana, so he is embedded in the dirty politics of oil and gas.
Actually, there is oil in offshore Ukraine. For all the talk of "Greater Russia ", Putin wants the oil. His own oil companies kept screwing up their own oil fields.
It was the coup d'gras once "Tailgunner Joe" was held in check, having over-pressed his luck. That was too much even for the mainstream "GOP" of the day. Today they feel like McCarthy acolytes on steroids.
Pretty disgusting, isn't it. In NYC , I dropped into the trial of the Garbage King of Westchester, Nick Rattenni, defense: Roy Cohn. I was also taking a mini course in Mccarthyism at Rutgers. I took the book written by Cohn in defense (I assume) of McCarthy and he signed it during a break. The teacher was mildly amused. When I think back, did Cohn think I was a fan??
It would be fair to say that the acquisition and retention of power is the fundamental motivator.
Principles, as much as they are touted and twisted to fit the narrative of the day, are secondary. Even Senator Lankford, author of the compromise bill supporting revised, bipartisan border policies that were killed by Trump, has come out in support of his nomination.
Power at all costs and fear, as another commenter here mentioned – fear of reprisals from the extremely thin-skinned (albeit abundantly fleshy) leader of their party, and from their base.
Nothing short of a rousing defeat in Congress in the upcoming election will alter their course. And the odds of that happening are not great at present. I am particularly concerned about the Senate.
Maybe they get “primaried” if it’s not too late? Maybe TFG unleashes attacks on their November candidacies? Maybe they’re just feckless and willing to cater to the extremist “base” in their districts? Political cowardice all, but just spit-balling here.
I want to laugh but certainly not at you! There are no non-MAGGOTS now. Trump, today, declared the R party as dead. He obliterated it, just the way Putin wanted. We only have Russian operatives now.
Because they are absolutely terrified of the hold that the former president has on the base of the GOP. If they went after the Speaker or any of the Freedom Caucus, the former president and de facto leader of the Republican Party has vowed to destroy them by having them primaried. Unfortunately, without term limits, both sides are guilty of wanting to stay in office by whatever means possible. So no one is going to go after the Speaker. It’s simply about the power and not about good governance.
Churchill had to deal with his sort of thing back in 1939 and his conclusion? “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.”
The design of our political system developed by the Founding Fathers was based one on assumption that we now can see was a fundamental flaw: The assumption that our elected representatives might differ on the way America could continuously become “a more perfect union” but that they would always act so as to keep America safe and secure from “all enemies both foreign and domestic”. They never imagined the “domestic enemies” of America would take over a major political party!
And, of course, in his Farewell Address, George Washington warned against the creation of separate political parties in the first place, knowing they would divide the nation. But that’s a subject for another time. 
I agree! And, sadly, that "failure of imagination" may lead to the end of the American experiment... because - even if Biden wins by the proverbial landslide - MAGA is not going to admit they have lost. I don't know what "We the People" will do when that happens. But this scenario terrifies me.
I am very concerned Steve as well which has already started with attacks on School Board, Teachers, municipalities, County Sheriffs & Supervisors aided by Britt-like disinformation on a national scale. Fight back now.
My iPad freezes up every day when looking at the comments on the various substack’s I subscribe too. It’s been doing this for weeks, the cursor no longer works until I restart, again this happens every day now.
So much time used dealing with technology. I remember not too long ago how simple life was with no cell phones or internet. Just books, a few friends and The New Yorker.
Never saw that before. I was LIKEing all over the place.... I thought maybe that guy has seen my comments and has blocked me...but, I was able to comment. What goes?? Hardly a big problem in my life.
Nailed it. The Founders never envisioned that an American government would deliberately attempt to destroy the country at the behest of one man’s venal pursuits and ego. Nor did they expect that there would be an oligarchy who would actively conspire with outside powers to overthrow the will of the people. Yes, there was always an “upper class” but the Founders always believed that regardless of class, Americans would be loyal to their country no matter what. The previous Administration exposed all of the inherent weaknesses in this system at multiple levels. And clearly, outside powers are more than willing to exploit them, and take this country down.
From a physics perspective, well not really physics except for that physics claims all reality (probably this is nuts!), no one as far as the Founding Fathers were concerned, anticipated the rise of the two party system. We need to start a debate here on HCR, continuing elsewhere perhaps, as to the causes of the two party system! But it has something to do, if I recall correctly, with winner take all and no access to proportional representation.
TFG is a fool and only interested in his own financial and political advantage. He is a disgrace to this country and the presidency. Such words should be grounds for treason.
More than a fool, he is freaking gone crazy. He’s has to go full on corrupt not from greed, although he is, he can’t even act in a way to conserve his billions! I can’t think of any other description than crazy stupid. ??? He’s lost the few marbles he had left.
Or crazy like somewhere between not well and insane, a spectrum of mania, disassociation/delusions of grandeur to real delusions, deeply insecure, malignant narcissist socio psychopath. I think he has more in common with cult leaders and despots, and con men than anything else.
Once this is over—when Trump is defeated in November—we must put back the protections we all enjoyed that prevented propaganda as “news” reporting. The consolidation of media—traditional and social—is dividing us. We can’t count on the media to ferret out the story. No longer is the media working for truth. They are now slaves to profit and ratings. It’s disgusting. Vote blue in November so our national nightmare can end once and for all!
Back in the late '80s, Saint Ronnie of Eureka pushed the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine through a Republican Congress. Without it, the critical guardrail that had formerly provided for equal points of view and/or equal time when discussing public policy on the public's airwaves, disappeared. In short order, talk radio became dominated by a new wave of shock jocks and right wing ranters and ravers, the Massive Maven of Mendacity--known as Rush Limbaugh---chief among them. Big corporations saw massive profit in subsidizing the ranters and ravers, and the public airwaves became increasingly privatized.
As a child, I remember Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley and Chet Huntley, Howard K. Smith, etc., all figures of professionalism and probity. Today, there are more Americans than I want to admit that live in news deserts, and swimming under the ceaseless tsunami of social media and clickbait, never read newspapers if they even have access to same, and often watch Fox News, and think it's "news".
Those of us on this site and others, and many other good Americans irrespective of political party, are increasingly like John the Baptist, lonely voices crying in the wilderness.
Yet still we must, as ole F. Scott so famously said, "beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
Finally, someone is acknowledging the beginning of the snowball of change in our media landscape. While the right was blaming things like the “women’s movement” of the 70’s, the men, like Limbaugh, took to the airwaves to rile us up. Then add the Telecom bill of the 90’s, and you now have broadcasters like Sinclair owning as many TV stations as they’d like, then forcing employees to broadcast a single message to incite falsehoods. I have no facts, but I do believe the Tea Party had its beginnings from places like this. Thank you Daniel for bringing up the loss of the Fairness Doctrine.
Yes, I remember them also. We only had ABC, NBC, and CBS. That was it. I remember when they televised Khrushchev banging his shoe in protest, I believe, at the UN. It was regarding the Cold War we were in with the USSR.
Lend-Lease was as important as said, but it did not go into action as easily as one might assume reading this account. Part of the law was that when American units upgraded their equipment, what they replaced was to be returned to the factories for reconditioning so they could be sent on to the allies through lend-lease. The American military, which was also beginning its expansion at this time, didn't want to let go of things. In April 1941 FDR had to sign a secret Executive Order formally ordering the military to get its actions in line with the policy. I personally saw the result of this back in 1995, when the paint was stripped from an American P-40C that had been retrieved from the forests outside Archangel in the USSR where it had laid since it was shot down i 1943. Under the Russian paint was American Olive Drab and Neutral Gray, and the markings of the 20th Pursuit Group, circa the summer of 1941. I was the only one in the hangar where the work was being done who recognized what I saw, being a serious scale airplane modeler. With the knowledge of the unit, I was able to put the airplane back "into history." The 20th PG had traded in their P-40Cs for P-40Es in June 1941, and the 48 P-40Cs were returned to the Curtiss Airplane factory in Buffalo. One June 22, 1941, Hitler attacked the USSR, and Churchill immediately offered his old enemy Stalin an unconditional alliance, and as proof he was serious, he directed that 100 P-40s that were on Lend-Lease to Britain be diverted to the Soviet Union. There was no paperwork to any of this, but what happened was Curtiss was stuck with 48 P-40s it didn't know what to do with that were the same type going to Britain, so they disassembled them, crated them up, and sent them as half of the 100 sent to the USSR (and got paid for them a second time). When they got to Murmansk, the Russians didn't care how they were painted, they painted their colors over them and they went into battle. And one survived in the forest for 60 years as a wreck until it was pulled and returned first to Britain, then sent on to Planes of Fame here to restore, and was later sold to Paul Allen. Today it sits in his museum up in Seattle, the only actual evidence of FDR's secret order.
When the Japanese attacked us, the British and Soviets were worried we would cut back on Lend-Lease and at first that's exactly what the War Department did, embargoing military exports. It took the British and Soviet ambassadors directly appealing to FDR to get that order rescinded at the end of January 1942, and L-L was restored.
For those interested, Doris Kearns Goodwin's "No Ordinary Time", a history of FDR's moves to prepare for war beginning in May 1940 when France was attacked, and the politics he used to run the war, is a solid source and very well-written. I've used it as a source for three of my books.
The belly of the beast. Nothing like the beginning, middle and the end. Damn, when I was young, I thought a few things were easy. As I age, it becomes clear that nothing is. We just don’t know the paths through which “easy” had to travel.
As an aspiring old fart I thought I could get to live out life only dealing with things that were easy. TFG and the MAGAniacs have delayed that dream. For that, I wish them much ill and lots of fleas. And will vote against them, if course.
Trickle down has never worked, although I'm no expert on the subject. I think we can look to the EU countries as better examples, in many cases. Just copy the best examples, and implement those.
I said it when Congress killed the Border Bill - IT WAS NEVER ABOUT THE BORDER! It’s about doing Putin’s bidding. With Democrats, all Putin gets from America is law and order; his influence and his concentrated wealth buy him nothing here. But with the MAGA Republicans, who have equated money with legislation favorable to the wealthy, Putin and his oligarchs have real-world power. And the simplicity of a half-dozen or so men ruling the world appeals to those who want to abandon the messy and pedantic rule of law.
We need to give Biden debating points regarding not supporting Russia. And tell me how to even convince Fox News to give equal time in their version of the "debate", and more importantly ask the right questions! I will contact them if it is of any use :-(.
Russia for now but the true common denominator is always FOLLOW THE MONEY! Whatever will line the oligarchs pockets with gold or bitcoin. Nobody is a true patriot. They're all out for their own gain.
As I recall (and remember I was 6 years old in 1939, so it might be faulty) FDR was opposed by the Republicans then, as Joe Biden is opposed by the formerly Republican party today, for trying to aid the "common" man and America from her foes. Obviously history does repeat itself. if not exactly pretty damned close. I just hope the maggots don't get us into WW3 in their effort to help Putin.
Thank you Heather, for laying it down so clearly. Your, I hesitate to say followers, but how about appreciators, are certainly on the same page as you. But lately, you are taking a much stronger stance, owing to the gravity of our situation, at home and abroad. Stepping beyond your academic mantle is a welcome expansion of your presenatation in your letters.
Agree. In this sentence for example – “It appears as though Trump is deliberately undermining the national security of the United States.” I’m waiting for HCR to dispense with the “it appears as though” part.
She is always a bit subtle. Testing you. As an academic, there is also the defamation issue, warrented or not, it can eat up too much time to deal with. She knows we are smart enough to understand.
It part of signaling an awareness that one's interpretations may not be entirely accurate. It's essential to both science and democracy and so far can see wisdom, and is, for that reason, more common in academic interpretations. Trump's intent seems patently odious but harder to prove beyond reasonable doubt. As to some of the effects of Trumps behavior, the evidence speaks for itself. Is Trump a #@%$& liar? Pretty safe to say so. That's different from the "both sides" approach of the press. It may seem a bit much, but complete failure to question one's own conclusions leads to delusion, fanaticism, and MAGA.
Does the Brian Butler story today pair well with the latest on U.S. Republicans supporting dictators?
Butler was just helping the orange fat guy deceive and cheat the U.S. authorities, but how many others holding higher office have been doing similarly for dictators and thieves such as Orban, Erdogan, Putin?
Think smirking Speaker of the House Howdy Doody. Think justices on the Clarence court conveniently forgetting the oath they took to the U.S. Constitution, which happens to have an Article 14, section three. Think so many Republican members of Congress who also conveniently forget the oaths they took.
Our Heather celebrates history -- the Brits who stood up to Hitler in that darkest hour. F.D.R. who galvanized U.S. Lend Lease for the few still standing for democracy then.
Good lessons all. Good for one thing -- good for the many more millions of Americans who may also turn out in massive numbers by this November to annihilate, overcome all that U.S. white trash, all those bribed by the cynical U.S. billionaire classes, all those illiterate to democracy and to America's and the world's great humanities undergirding it, which in America should overwhelmingly triumph by this November.
Thank you, Nanny Ann. But I'm not so sure about our "Higher Powers."
I learned first not to trust them when I was Vietnamese translator/interpreter U.S. Army Spec. 4 then Spec. 5 more than a half century ago. David Halberstam has the final word on those "higher power" fools in "The Best and the Brightest."
We have a very fine record of others reporting on how similar elites destroyed higher education and turned it over to the bankers and the HR perverse, destroyed K-12 and turned it over to the billionaire standardized testers,
Though our elites no longer have any public access humanities, I still trust our many great novelists, memoirists, musicians, film makers, and others well in touch with the American people who far surpass and outnumber the congressional white trash, the Clarence court bribed and perjured, and the billionaire stirrers of hate, fear, and demagogue worship.
Trump fancies himself alongside Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito, only even more bigly and badder. His ex-wife said he kept Hitlers speeches by his bedside. Like other salient sociopaths mentioned here, he somehow commands a fanatical following.
Fully Trumpified MAGA's are a lost cause, but some on the edges might become unconformable with Trump's depravity. I could see some ads detailing some of Orbán's worst excesses, with Trump saying over and over in the background “There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orbán. He’s fantastic,”
How many people know anything coherent about American politics? I'm more obsessive than most and yet my picture is still a sketchy patchwork. I seem to recall that a majority of Americans were convinced that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. We don't have a good system to keep people well informed, and as a society, we undervalue it. "Garbage in, garbage out" as they said in IT. Our system is only as good as out decisions, and our decisions are only as good as the information we bring to them and the care we take in applying it.
I am 84 and just beginning to learn about American politics. I studied literature, classics and philosophy and luckily a few courses in political science because the teacher was so good. I thought history and politics: too many names, dates places...plus, who can know the truth?? Because of Oct 7 I got very connected to that (like obsessed) and it's led to some pretty awful truths I knew some of from travel in Guatemala and friends and films from Chile, Argentina. And, of course, now Heather, the ultimate teacher of American history. So much of American history is inspiring. I'm not too happy with the current America.
Saddam Hussein: I clearly recall him saying, "I'm a man, you're not" to his executioner or did he mean Bush? I felt, yes, he's not a nice man but he's a real man.
I had the same problem with history, way back in high school. Too many dates to keep track of! Thankfully we have Heather HCR to sort this out for us!
My wife was a classics major after undergrad, and I was a physics major. We met and bonded over music and cats, just a couple of things. You should have seen the party we threw for combined physicists and classicists! It was successful but also a disaster regarding nobody mixing. I only mention this as incompatible people can end up married!
And so, could the rural and US south get together and have a conversation!? I think not in my case, as religion as scientist gets in the way. But I'm happy to have a conversation if someone will listen to my point of view.
All of that said, I'm happy to play tuba with my brass quintet at your church service if you are not a MAGA church!
Merida in the Yucatan. The safest city in Mexico. Con: it's hot and humid 7 months a year. There are many wonderful cities in Mexico. To be able to live anywhere in Mexico, getting a residency card, one has to have a decent income and/or savings. It has gone up considerable since I came in 2010. Every country has restrictions.
The border between Canada and Mexico is 3,626.45 kilometers long, or 2,253.37 miles. The Canadian border is longer than the Mexican border, with 76 border-crossing points compared to 22 on the southern border.
Thank you for this. Wish maggats had a functioning brain. They are a minority, but the majority seems frozen in time. If woke is tantamount to communism, I am a commie. The lies never stop. Bannon was right, flood the zone with schitt and people will be overwhelmed. We must learn to rise above the schitt.
How well I know, but those genetically related to me can be as brain-washed as the next guy. We don’t fight or argue, but the respect I had is gone. Trump’s treasonous behavior is broadcast all day every day, just a little curiosity about the future of the country, our children, and the future of planet earth would be a step or two up from the adoration of the MAGAt…
Gnashing of teeth and preaching to the choir are worthless self-flagellation. This year is a time for ACTION, what I did on three presidential campaigns for Obama and Hillary when I was younger and still able. From my home in the Santa Cruz Mountains, about 70 miles S of San Francisco, I drove about 320 miles NE to work around Reno, Carson City, NV, and several small towns knocking on doors, running errands, spending time on the phones. Local supporters opened their spare bedrooms to me, and to other volunteers. I was retired, and could do that. I blew out both knees running up and down stairs in Reno in 2016 for Hillary (many of our voters live in low cost housing), so at 82, my wife and I are reduced to sending money.
Please don't waste your time and energy venting here, trying to make yourself feel good. Get off your butt and DO something. Volunteers are often needed in swing states on weekends. Volunteers are hand-writing letters and postcards to voters in swing states. My wife has done that. Spend your vacation time saving the democracy! All of the volunteer work I did was VERY satisfying, and I met a LOT of great people. I met Jon Tester in a small town in NV when he came to campaign for Obama in 2008, Harry Reid and Chicago Congressman Luis Gutierrez in Sparks on later campaigns. That's in addition to the great volunteers I worked with.
Many of us live close enough to swing states to spend time there -- NV was mine, there's PA, OH, MI, WI, NC. And there are Senate and House races we can work on. Every seat matters! Don't talk about "what the Democrats are doing" -- that's US. Get off your butt and DO something. If you've got some spare cash, SPEND it on our Democracy, rather than a vacation!
I'm a White guy from WV, a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago and in Cairo, Il. It was hard work, often challenging, but extremely satisfying. My kids respect me more because I did it. Give yours another reason to respect YOU more! And give them a country!
Jim, you are amazing. I love and admire your fierce work and dedication to our shared values. . I’m grateful to you, And I’m proud to be here in the “choir” with you.
But I must tell you that I badly need to be informed in order to be more valuable in this fight. I must hear and read and listen to understand what we are up against and how to best respond.
Nothing in my upbringing or education or work experience prepared me for this day.
A madman who openly admits to admiring dictators, does Putin’s bidding and who says he will be a dictator on day one after being elected is tied in many polls to win the presidency.
I am now arming myself with knowledge and sharing it as best as I can. Im donating and trying to be smart about it.
Yes it is not enough to vote Blue alone. The Electoral College is the pathway to being elected President and is as vital to MAGA strategy as is having packed the Supreme Court.
How does trump keep getting away with this?!? We’re being torn apart and if something doesn’t happen soon, I’m afraid it will be irreparable. What can we the people do when the politicians and media won’t do their jobs?
Biden is doing a great job under unbelievable circumstances and is not being given close to enough credit for all he’s accomplished. How can so few hold us all hostage?
I'm sure everyone reading this letter except the trolls would agree with you! We need to spread the word and then vote against the MAGAs.
Yes Matt.
But... excuse me... What you have just said is ridiculous.
By November, Ukraine may be occupied, the Resistance fighting Putin's occupying army with bows and arrows. Like the Danish resistance forces in WW2.
Ukraine and America betrayed.
US assurances, including the US$, US treaties, including NATO, not worth the paper they are printed on.
Johnson, Gaetz, Jordan, assorted harridans -- Putin's Little Greene Girls (and Men) in Congress feted and bemedalled in the Kremlin. Their Boss riding a Russian tank in Kyiv... Before they all go on to Pyongyang.
Later... the Victory Parade amidst the ruins of Taipei?
IMAGINE...!
*
It does not take too much imagining.
HCR is now reaching the "It seems that" stage.
But the OCCUPY CONGRESS guys and gals have already seized the Legislature, their comrades well entrenched in the Judiciary. Laughing like rats at home in a Big Cheese...
And every American from John and Jane Doe to the President is already a-pig-in-the-traitors'-poke.
Fast asleep, snoring, dreaming... Defenseless in there...
"Great Country you've got there" saith Our Lord and Master in Moscow...
"Great Country I've got here" saith Our Lard o' Mar-a-Lago...
Sorry for ruining readers' breakfast... But I am enraged by America's institutional paralysis. Enraged.
Such an easy target. Colossus with feet of clay.
A people sold down the river, like the chattel slaves of another epoch, apparently defenseless against the power of money.
Is there really no recourse NOW?
Surely there must be...
But... WHERE?
I too "am enraged by America's institutional paralysis." Probably nearly all of us in this forum are. Biden has the bully pulpit and now is the time to label this trumpian obstruction as treason. Trump is ordering his minions to support a foreign dictator, Putin, and abandon our ally Ukraine and undermine democracy in Europe and ultimately, around the world. This is TREASON.
Been calling the election deniers traitors for months now. Will a chorus join me? Can we scare little Johnson into growing up, as his master never will?
I am joining your chorus”The election deniers are all TRAITORS!”Their putrid leader is the biggest one of all.
Virginia.
They are puppets. The Republican Party is dying infront of us. Once their usefulness is finished ......will they be able to live with themselves?
Trump promised Johnson he could sit at the Right Hand of God. Mikey Ratured
I have called them traitors for many months including the head traitor death star.
I'm not a singer, but I will provide your bass line the the chorus.
Amen
Bruce Murray,
"This IS treason!!!" and yet nothing is being done!
Israel is trying to kill all the Palestinians and take ALL of Gaza.
Netanyahu's dream being fulfilled.....
I am grateful that the US is doing something to relieve some of the suffering. Too many lives have been lost.
I am not a citizen of Israel but I cannot believe that the majority of its citizens approve of Netanyahu and his slaughter of human beings. There are other ways to communicate and work with the kidnappers and murderers involved in the October attack.
I am grateful for our servicemen and women who serve during these times to protect our ships ....to protect passageways for transport of grain, etc.
Thank you to men like Blinken and Sullivan who are working constantly to find peaceful solutions. I observe their exhausted faces. THANK YOU!!!!
Just like most Americans don’t approve of tfg’s actions, most Israelis don’t support Netanyahu. But it seems our sole recourse is voting—and voting smarter in the future. If there is one.
Netanyahu is a True Believer who has one stated goal, the destruction of Palestine. Civilian suffering is not considered. His mind has closed. And the next generation of Gazans and Israeli's will inherit the retribution mindset and the bloodshed will most certainly continue.
I don't understand how they're getting away with it. The Speaker of the House is supposed to apply the Will of the People, NOT the criminal former guy. What can we do to stop it? By the time our elections are held and these obstructionists are voted out, it may be too late! It's infuriating!
What else?
Seems to correspond to the technical definition. Certainly involves betrayal, especially of allies.
Bruce Murray -- Total agreement from me! This is TREASON.
The issue is that we’re not just abandoning Ukraine but we’re also abandoning and failing to support our fellow members of NATO as well as those non-NATO members in the region and we’re putting ourselves at risk of having to possibly have to place American troops on the battle ground in the region with a potential for a world war outbreak in the not too distance future!
I think it's treasonous but I'm not a lawyer. So I will defer to the experts. But I truly share your sentiments.
It is discouraging (from what hear from the press) that trump numbers are growing. I hope that the "traitors" are enough to make up the difference. I still don't understand why women want to be barefoot and pregnant wearing June Cleaver's pearls. Shall we get some berkahs made by top Paris designers?
Enraged is the appropriate response
That and unbelievable!
It seems very believable to me considering this has been in the dismantling stage for about 8 years now.
I am hoping Biden has a trump card when push comes to shove.
Otherwise we are screwed.
unf**kingbelievable, but it is our reality. Believe it and tell it.
Peter. We must at least have hope that Biden in the immediate future can find funds to supply Ukraine with the armament she needs. The nightmare you describe is too difficult to live with. I don't think Ukraine can hold out until the election, so Biden must find some way to meet the need. Biden is laying out the stark choice we voters have in November. Is it possible that tfg can so corrupt the election process that he can win? The DOJ and democrats must be vigilant, vocal, and visible.
The House needs to vote for a Discharge Petition to bring the aid package for a vote
What about the hundreds of billions of Russian money sequestered? Why is not more being done to free that up to supply arms and help rebuild Ukraine?
Peter, not only enraged but despairing.
A relative wrote to me yesterday (we've been having an exchange of political views via email...) asking whether I think Biden is "running his administration." I asked why on earth he would even come up with such a question. He said he just watches Biden give speeches and hears him say his aides won't let him answer this or that question.
I can only imagine that this comes from FOX, eh?
The problem has so many roots. Lies and encouraging distorted perceptions which, as far as I can tell, are not capable of being untwisted. Right? Or if they can be straightened out, what's the mechanism?
So... yes vote and speak out but this crisis is beyond simple ignorance.
Reading FDR’s words may give the Dems in Congress a punch if enough of us send them to our congresspersons.
Two words: Discharge petition. Look it up. Then write your congressperson to get behind the one to spring the national security supplemental funding bill. And tell your representative to defeat the rule for every bill that comes up. If a rule is defeated, any amendment (like supplemental funding for national security,) may be added from the floor.
God, that’s dark.
Term limits would be a good place to start....one of many, including a new AG, an enlarged SCOTUS (or one absent corrupt justices), and a beginning of trials for traitor trump.
I too am enraged. I take my frustrations out in the comments section of a few authors I respect.
I’ve also started my own Substack called POLYTRICKS. Come on over and check it out
It scares and worries me to read what have written in your comments. But truth be told, I also see a possibility for the world in turmoil with the possible re-election of Trump. Virginia Witmer's comment about having been calling election deniers traitors rings true to me as well. All that said, you didn't ruin my breakfast then more prayer to continue the day.
The damage done is already incalculable.
At the same time, enemies do us a favor by showing up our weaknesses, facing us with our responsibilities, encouraging us to be true to ourselves.
Which is what you were doing with prayer. Essential to find ourselves at times like these, isn't it?
It is amazing that Trump is still able to change the direction of world events when he should be in jail. Judge Cannon clerked for Thomas, so she is doing the job she was trained to do. Biden, as Commander and Chief should order weapons sent to Ukraine. He obviously is immune from prosecution. I don’t know why Trump isn’t being charged with treason. He is clearly aiding an enemy who is probably financing him. It’s time to send him to Gitmo— seriously.
I agree, that Trump should be tried for Treason, or at least obstruction of Congress! WTF?!
I'm not clairvoyant, but there is a powerful, monied, primarily white male fraternity among the Citizens United crew. Trump is a shill for their ambitious aims. He's a typical candidate for their preferences: 1) A colorful figure (Reagan and Bush, 2) Not very bright, 3) Easily swayed by groupthink and money.
Other than that, they could care less while they pursue dreams of low taxes, Christian Nationalism, and the brotherhood of oligarchs. They can and will throw Trump under the bus. They are close to doing so. Nikki Haley will most likely be resurrected as their preferred candidate.
I don't know what I said that was ridiculous exactly. But I agree in part with your cynicism.
I would leave you with this quote from Hindemith:
" People who make music together cannot be enemies, at least while the music lasts."
Restated by my St. Paul Civic Symphony orchestra conductor.
Matt, thank you for your civilized response, but it is not your words that are absurd, it is the situation.
A -- so far -- successful putsch, carried out by insiders, a determined gang of the people's Representatives, who have seized Congress on behalf of their self-styled President... an ordinary citizen Who Would Be King.
So much tidier -- no shit on the walls, only in well-dressed human form -- than the January 6th invasion.
So much more effective. The FSB do seem to have successfully updated Malaparte's little book on the technique of the coup d'etat.
Matt, I am not cynical, I am furious.
As for the music, either the band of robbers face it or we all shall.
Not only in America.
Worldwide.
As for America's mealy-mouthed media, some so-called columnists -- fifth -- and some so-called journalists should be made to eat their scripts, eat their articles.
All that respectable hypocrisy.
I once was an NYT reader.
In MS, they looked at me as though I were a card-carrying Commie with my copy of Pravda...
Now...
Peter. I’m with you in giving up my subscription to The NYT. Plus explained WHY!
I urge all of us to release subscriptions
to that paper explaining why re the orange monster, who still is headlined.
These news outlets need to say in their headlines how he’s planning to become a blueprint Putin dictator; wants to link up with Orban, Erdogan, Kim Jon Un, and walk arm in arm with them into the sunset of any hope for our Democracy.
I’m revolted by the pandering news.
We need a Navalny!
Peter I understand the rage. When he bought the RNC I threw my hands up.
Why is he not arrested for treason? I suspect you or I would be.
"It appears as though Trump is deliberately undermining the national security of the United States."
John Kelly's new book details conversations TFFG and Kelly had regarding Hitler. TFFG told Kelly that Hitler did many good things. "Like what?" replied Kelly.
"He fixed their economy," said Trump.
"But what did do with the money? He destroyed his own country and half of Europe."
TFFG was not to be deterred. He still thinks Hitler was a swell guy. Notice how TFFG seems to love strongmen that kill hundreds of thousands to millions of their own people with impunity.
Ivana recalled that TFFG kept a book of Hitler's speeches by his bed and read them regularly. No surprise there. We've heard way too many of TFFG's Fascist ramblings.
And yesterday, TFFG said he was open to cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits. Sounds like another rich guy who has obviously never missed a meal (or a snack) in his life.
You work hard your entire life and TFFG and his rich cronies, many of whom are trustifarians and grifters, want to cut your benefits. And for those of you that think the government pays you more than you contribute, if you they had invested your contributions at 4% interest most of you would have well over a million dollars in your account when you reach retirement age. Plus the principle would keep on compounding.
Spread the word to you MAGAnazi relatives and friends that TFFG and the Republicans want to cut your Social Security benefits and Medicare and Medicaid.
It’s pure reverse psychology. Tfg loves strongmen because that’s what he wants to be, how he wants to be seen. Somewhere deep down he knows he’s anything but.
Wait, Trump can READ?
And it appears the befuddled Supreme Court is protecting the traitors.$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Matt, I must Google to know who your conductor is, as I like to keep up with which conductor is where (in Chicago, where Muti is conductor emeritus for life). Music got us through WWII. We sang as did the Red Army Chorus on tour afterwards. Music ties us together in peace or war. The Iliad was chanted as were the Slavic epics, and Christian liturgies. It is, in short, the unifier of all humans. If only we could sing the same songs. Orchestras bring the most of us together the most often. And orchestral pieces with chorus even more. Do you know how many performances of the Beethoven Ninth occur every year and where? Does anyone?
Yes, Virginia, that says it in a nutshell: "If only we could sing the same songs" If only...
From WIKI: Music Director. Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård, who in fall 2023 began his tenure as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, is a highly regarded conductor in both the orchestral and opera spheres.
Missed the Minneapolis conductor in Chicago, but shall keep an eye out for him in the future.
Looked him up. Also the Civic Orchestra where Matt plays.
If I'm correct, certain musical artists (Swift) and certain recent songs ("Try that in a Small Town") have proven to be more divisive than uniting. One, inadvertently, and one, intentionally. Was there anything even remotely comparable prior to the current era?
Not that I know of, but there are innumerable songs out there (as in years of songs), so some may well be divisive, as in American civil war songs.
Hurrah for music. Thanks you, Matt, for playing and making respite in the madness.
Speaking of music, have you heard this? A requiem for our times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFGrooN6YDc
Letters From An American ended today with the following:
“And so our country is going to be what our people have proclaimed it must be—the arsenal of democracy…. Never, in all our history, have Americans faced a job so well worth while.”
__Franklin Delano Roosevelt
arsenal
noun
ar·se·nal ˈärs-nəl ˈär-sə-
Synonyms of arsenal
1
a
: an establishment for the manufacture or storage of arms and military equipment
The city is home to a federal arsenal.
b
: a collection of weapons
2
: STORE, REPERTOIRE (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
After reading the Letter, my mind immediately flashed to the arsenal that the US is supplying to Israel. That was not the association that HCR intended and, perhaps, it just occurred to me.
Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, Haiti and more - it's complicated. The question is: what can we ordinary Americans do right now? We can vote and we can contribute more money to important campaigns than we ever have before. We can target those donations to the campaigns where the funding is needed most. And then we can hope. That the fate of a nation (Ukraine) could hinge on Speaker Johnson in the House defies reason. It is a flaw in our system, along with the Electoral College, the Filibuster and lifetime appointments for Supreme Court Justices.
You nailed it, Richard.
Unfortunately our beloved Constitution is difficult to amend, especially when Americans are so divided and subjected to mis and dis information hyped up on social media steroids.
I think we Americans have been so enthralled with the Constitution that we fail to understand how its flaws are bringing us down. I would add that the US Senate should either be abolished, or that Senators be elected proportionately to each state's population.
Time to institute one-person one-vote democracy. Which is to say
"real democracy".
Not one dollar one vote as our execrable Supreme Court would have it.
I agree, David. People, not territory, are most important. Democracy is one person, one vote, majority rule. Will that come about ever? Perhaps, but it will take another revolution. The minority forces are well embedded in the system.
'Speaker Johnson in the House defies reason. It is a flaw in our system, along with the Electoral College, the Filibuster and lifetime appointments for Supreme Court Justices.'
We defy reason as well. A 'flaw' in us?
ORGANIZE!
Johnson’s donors /benefactors is the gulf oil lobby.
" That the fate of a nation (Ukraine) could hinge on Speaker Johnson in the House defies reason. It is a flaw in our system, along with the Electoral College, the Filibuster and lifetime appointments for Supreme Court Justices."
Well said, Richard. It's maddening and unbelievable.
'The House Freedom Caucus gives a voice to countless Americans who feel that Washington does not represent them. We support open, accountable and limited government, the Constitution and the rule of law, and policies that promote the liberty, safety and prosperity of all Americans.'
Office of Rep. Bob Good:
461 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-4605
Phone: 202-225-4711
Fax: 202-225-5681
Member List:
Rep. Bob Good (R-VA)
Chair
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO)
Communications Chair
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX)
Policy Chair
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH)
Whip
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ)
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC)
Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK)
Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO)
Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO)
Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA)
Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX)
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA)
Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ)
Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN)
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL)
Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC)
Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-ID)
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ)
Rep. Mark Green (R-TN)
Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY)
Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD)
Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN)
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA)
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)
Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ)
Rep. Anna Luna (R-FL)
Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL)
Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV)
Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL)
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC)
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX)
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC)
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN)
Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA)
Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL)
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT)
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI)
Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX)
(FreedomHouseCaucus)
Boebert is trying to win over a group of 11 republicans in my district. They're all pretty awful.
We have some extraordinary candidates running. I think we can get rid of her
The so-called House Freedom Caucus has no more of an idea of what freedom actually means than Trump does. Their eager co-option of his destructive politics of ignorance, prejudice, victimhood, hatred, and fear reflect not freedom, but at best irresponsibility and performance politics, and at worst a brutal and sustained attack on anyone who doesn't agree with their hollow pursuit of vengeance against the best interests of the nation . Freedom comes only with a sense of responsibility for the nation's future, not the mindless adherence to the whims of a would-be tinpot dictator. When the so-called Freedom Caucus separates itself wholly from Donald Trump, halts its singleminded and futile pursuit of political foes instead of the far more complex and thoughtful business of actually governing, they will have taken an enormous step towards credibility. Not until then.
So, Fern, what you seem to be saying is that I could increase the size of my retirement account by selling shares in that proverbial bridge in Brooklyn? In 2021 there were 3,659,289 babies born in America. There are 525,600 minutes in a year. Barnum's claim that "there is a sucker born every minute" may have been understated.
Happy Birthday Fern, I hope some good news brightens your day!
Knock on doors. Spread the word . Too many have no idea.
Richard, yes. I quickly understood that your windfall of $ was deeply thoughtful and a wise choice of ‘investment’! I’m considering doing this kind of investing because frankly our lives …at least mine…now depend on it. It’s glaringly obvious that words, even our laws are being flushed as I write this response.
Thanks to HCR and her incredibly intelligent followers, I am learning to
look into the glaring light coming straight at me without turning away.
You do realize the US is, by far, the largest weapons supplier in the world.
We have supplied dozens of strongmen their "arsenals" as you put it. In many conflicts we supply both sides.
And if a radical group that had thousands of members, like say the Proud Boys, actually took over the Capitol when it was in session and killed and raped Congresswomen, tortured and killed Congressmen, killed the VP and beat up the police would you blame about Putin for supplying the arsenal to do so?
It's ridiculous to blame Biden for killing civilians when Hamas started the whole thing and then hid behind the skirts of Palestinian women.
It is not ridiculous however to blame the weak crook Netanyahu. The one issue I have with Biden is urgency in his decision making. I know the only war the Rs want to fund is Israel, but Biden has to find a way to let the Israeli people know our patience is ending, along with support. I know meeting w Gantz is it? was a shot across the bow. The next shot needs to come now.
Of course not, Fern, but we have to be that arsenal both for Ukraine and NATO, until the UN or its successor is more powerful than universal oppression.
It is sickening that the lessons of the 1930’s have been forgotten. Or willfully ignored. And this time it is not just isolationism, but we have a person who has taken over an entire political party and its apparatus who has openly declared his intention to toss the Constitution and rule as he wishes. And half the country seems to be on board.
Thanks Peter. What you outline is a “first slowly and then all at once” sketch for the decline and fall of democracy in America. And we are in the “all at once” stage now. Your comment is a much needed siren sounding suddenly in the dark of night.
As like millions of others, the situation occupies my mind far too much of the time. Each optimistic scenario I sketch seems thin and reedy when I examine it thoroughly.
I thought Trump would be thwarted by the legal system - and then Merrick Garland did nothing. In May of 2021 I wrote on this forum to complain about having heard nothing from the DOJ in regard to Trump. There was little response and what there was from other readers was, almost to a person, bitingly critical of my point. How could I criticize the newest savior, AG Garland. Why he’d barely had time to find the washrooms in the building where he worked. Give him time - he’ll skewer Trump.
Months later when many people were beginning to complain, Garland emerged to make a sententious and sanctimonious speech, explaining to us poor know-nothings that you build an investigation from the bottom up flipping witnesses along the way. Like we didn’t know that? Like we didn’t think during this hair on fire time that surely there must be other ways to conduct an investigation? And, soon enough, some lawyers came out of the woodwork to tell us of the “hub and spokes” theory, one which if put in action would have targeted Trump from the beginning.
It wasn’t until the House Committee performed what could be ( or could have been) a superb service to the country by conducting and publicizing the results of an extraordinary investigation that MG, embarrassed that they knew more than the DOG, finally sprung into action and appointed Jack Smith as lead prosecutor. He has been a tiger, but at every turn his work has been thwarted by a combination of Trump’s desperate pursuit of delay and the scandalously generous provisions of white collar justice.
Now we fully expect that only one of the four trials in which Trump will be the guest of honor will be conducted before the election. This is thanks to the assiduous efforts of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, stepping out of the filth of their corruption long enough to slow walk Trump’s endless requests.
And yesterday there was a media report that even the New York trial may be delayed at (you’ll be shocked to hear) the request of Trump’s lawyers.
A political podcaster has been keeping an eye meanwhile on our good friend in Florida (not *that* one), Aileen Cannon. Apparently there has been “opposition research” on Jack Smith. Like any probative and serious judge Ms Cannon has seen fit to involve herself in it, approving warmly of the strategy to lean on the Prosecuting Attorney. Nothing to see here!
And we hear other suspicious tidbits. Trump meeting with Elon Musk in his hour of dire financial straits. Bud Light, furiously impugned by the deranged right for a commercial supportive of trans people, has organized a huge fund raising dinner for Donald Trump. Trump has responded by doing a 180 on the company, explaining in a long post why it’s time to lend Budweiser a forgiving hand. TikTok, threatened by a possible ban in America, is also lavishing Trump with money.
I have heard far too often in the past 8 years that Trump and his criminal cronies always “say the quiet part out loud”. I am sick to death of that self-satisfied observation, uttered as if the speaker had only to follow a trail of bread crumbs to nail the traitors to the mast.
No. No. No. They say tens of thousands of things quietly and a few out loud. What other plans do they have? What direct deals does Trump have with the Supreme Court? What plans are in place federally and in many, many state legislatures to thwart the will of the people in the November election. Not to mention Putin, Orban and MSB. What have they arranged with the Trump new Republican Party to cheat before and during the election so that Trump doesn’t have to cheat afterwards.
I circle back to you Peter. Yesterday a MaraLago employee broke his silence to add grist to the mill in the documents case. He did it because he realized that his trial has no chance of being heard before November 5 and he doesn’t want America to collapse into authoritarianism in January of 2025.
One of two things will happen. The sluice gates of information will pour open in the next few months and Trump will be (finally) thwarted. Or they won’t, and we will be stunned when the former guy completes his rise from the ashes and sets about his work.
Yes, I also noticed the “It appears as though” phrasing in regard to Trump undermining the national security of the United States. It echos the soft we go high when they go low. More like we remain calm, objective and neutral as they attack like rabid dogs. Trump is CLEARLY undermining the national security of the United States!
Where the hell is a discharge petition getting aid to Ukraine to the floor of the house?
That is why I feel like crying today!
NATO boots on the ground is most likely coming.
Bingo. 1/3 of the world’s grain supply. Hmmmm. I know your are right. US or not , MATO BOOTS will be fighting in Eastern Europe. The end of the great peace, because of 1 orange idiot.
I heard or read that Trump’s bail money came from a source outside of the US. Is there any truth in that or just conjecture?
I get your anger and alarm. Democracy such as we have it is slow moving. We don’t have the ability to move fast. Plus it’s human nature to deny oppose and argue. We have the corporate MSMedia made up of people who have these traits plus the need to make their bottom lines. And people don’t know history…which HCR is really doing her bit to change.
“Enslaved by November”
Matt, I try like the dickens to spread the word with my former work cadre. They are deep, deep into MAGAt beliefs, and tell me everything that I believe is false. I just don't get how cops, most of them former military, do not draw the line at keeping the classified information in his bathroom;
Did those bankers boxes put on trumps plane, make it to New Jersey??? I think I remember that the FBI didn’t search there for top secret documents???
I have been reading the book Beyond Contempt to try and bridge the gap between democrats and republicans, particularly maga. In theory it makes sense however as you have all explained they still don’t or won’t listen. I only hope that the rest of the republicans will be convinced of Trump and the threat he presents.
My MAGA acquaintances think the same way. Some of them are even brilliant people! Totally brainwashed. I try to talk to them but they get very aggressive. They are all in on the lies.
“…all in on the lies.”
That is 100% accurate.
Active Measures Are At Play here
Are you referring to Russian active measures? I will never forget being frozen in front of the TV when Clint Watts testified to the Senate about the active measures Russia was taking (is taking) to subvert Western democracies.
Those who recite retarded Bidenista talking points are abetting Ukraine's far-right neo-Nazi terror regime.
🖕
Pleae do not enable the troll.
So, it’s better to be like Trump and support Putin. He certainly has brought freedom to his people. The freedom to die in jail. That’s what he would do to Ukraine. But, still there are too many people like you who don’t care .
Please do not enable the troll.
I think John's confused about how so many people in former enemies populations were easily converted into allies when free of their dominant parties control (and fear for their lives if daring to counteract the prevailing atmosphere of neighbor and even family members reporting even minor deviations of loyalty to the dear leaders).
An old friend who helped kick off the Berlin Airlift as a lowly, but critically skilled Staff Sergeant, when I was a toddler dependent of a Tech Sergeant in Munich, enlightened me on a lot of other information than just that in the following links.
Before reading the text to get a feeling of John’s spirited outlook by listening to the interview at:
https://www.hometownheroesradio.com/mp3/DURANTPOD.mp3
John Durant was 91 (still really sharp and energetic) when he was interviewed in 2018 and reveals a lot of background such as hiring German aircraft mechanics as “Janitors” (since 85% to 90% were more interested in anyone that would let them help rebuild their country as an ally rather than enemy). They (better than our defeated confederate soldiers), took up rebuilding their country as allies instead of perpetual enemies, having been given an honest opportunity so much sooner than the Ukrainians were.
The encouraging text on the Berlin Airlift is at:
https://www.hometownheroesradio.com/berlin-airlift-70-years-later/
Germany turned into a pretty well aligned and respected ally, I believe greatly thankful for the 277,000 flights in the Berlin Airlift (while the Soviets were expecting it to fail as had the German attempted airlift to support their soldiers in the battle for Stalingrad that only managed 300 flights).
Israel is now destroying so much of the good will we enjoyed as we supported them before the Operation Nickel Grass airlift in 1973. They were actually far more capable of defending themselves and destroying the Egyptian 3rd Army in the short term even without our Airlift, but the Airlift when it did start signaled that we would replenish and add to all their weapons systems to make sure the Soviet backed attackers would not succeed. It secured a more reasonable deescalation and potential for a lasting peace.
It did so, though, at the cost most Americans seem to forget, the oil embargo that trashed our economy, and though oil was not cut off from supporting South Vietnam, also took a toll on what we could do for them after we withdrew our troops and let them do their own fighting as we kept their supplies flowing. At least that's what it looked like to me then and still now.
I'm trying to learn more to see where at least better balances could have been made to keep Israel's creeping settlers, and preference for all-or-nothing fights with neighbors from putting us in positions we find so untenable for any lengthy period.
For a look at where my homework is beginning, see https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/arab-israeli-war-1973
I believe Ukraine is so much more like the opportunity to secure better allies was in our determined resupply of Berlin.
My mentor was captured at Corregidor and spent 3-1/2 years in POW and work camps, but was able to learn a bit about why the Japanese thought they were just doing the same thing as European colonial powers did (and feeling a bit superior for having defeat Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, not realizing Russia was much weaker even in Europe but especially so at the far end of very difficult supply lines).
He taught me about how much the average and many leading Japanese were surprised by how we used our victory to offer them the chance to join a far more peaceful way end to wars without crippling peaceful reconstruction, as we had in Germany. We were criticized by the French for one for helping former enemies more than our own allies (in their eyes). To me it was more like restorative justice where the former bad actors are given a fair chance to redeem themselves through much better future performance, cooperation instead of constant belligerence that so often leads to new wars.
It worked in Germany, Japan, and I'd even say in Vietnam where the Vietnamese learned to trust many of us as individuals, and still welcome us more than their supposed allies in Russia and less so in China as they were less helpful than the Russians tried to be.
Ukraine is going in the right direction though they had far more difficulties with trying to find better allies than Nazis and Russians they were caught in between, having thought the Russians were their worst rulers before WWII, so much so that many looked upon the Nazis as the only possible allies to counter Russians. The references to what they were doing in 2019 matters less to me than what they did when Russia attacked them in 2022.
I'm part of the way through watching "20 Days in Mariupol" and reading https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/20-days-in-mariupol-filmmaker-q-and-a/
"...And then the worst thing that is happening is those children who remained in Mariupol, they are being forced to study history that is interpreted by the Russian government. They are being told that Ukraine is a fascist country. They’re being robbed of their Ukrainian identity and they’re being “reeducated.” That’s how it’s called. And that’s quite an open process that the Russian government actually speaks about. And those children who lost their parents, they are being taken to Russia, forcefully adopted, and many of them resist that..."
Seems like some would like to see the Pravda version of truth spread here, too. Pravda means truth to the people who kill their political opposition and masses of innocent civilians.
Clearly I disagree with your assessment of Ukraine. I have explained my position at length around here today; perhaps you didn't see it.
Oldandintheway,
It's not about supporting anyone; it's about seeing the situation clearly and thinking through policy options.
Congratulations! You got all your right wing talking points in one sentence!
I don't know about right-wing talking points. I've made my own assessment based on research, observation and reasoning, and I can change my view if and when newly available information challenges my assessment. I say what I think; I'm not a supporter of either Trump or Biden.
I love your whining!
Please do not enable the troll.
...said the disabled troll
Joel, you also sound confused.
Confused?
Trump and his MAGAt Republicans caught lying, AGAIN!
Republican politicians and sympathetic media outlets are claiming that America is in the midst of a violent "crime wave," driven in part by undocumented immigrants. New data, however, demonstrates that there was not a spike in violent crime in 2023. Instead, across America, rates of violent crime are dropping precipitously — and the decline is especially pronounced in border states.
In January 2024, the Republican National Committee claimed that “crime continues at historic highs in Democrat-run cities.” Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) declared in February 2024 that “[i]n Joe Biden’s America you get…cities plagued with crime.” These claims, however, are not supported by facts.
Um, what does that have to do with Ukraine?
Dear me. Did you get lost on the way to a Trump rally? Or maybe you’re here for some much-needed coherence.
Sophie Nussle,
I explained my view at length around here today; perhaps you didn't see it.
At length! Indeed.
So much nonsense in one short sentence.
Martin Reiter,
Ukraine's oppressive neo-fascist thug regime is not "democratic." In Ukraine, all the opposition parties have been suppressed after Zelensky capitulated to neo-Nazi war-mongers and reneged on his campaign promise to bring peace to the Donbass region.
A few months ago, both Zelensky and Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau applauded as the Speaker of Canada's House of Commons praised a Ukrainian who was a real-life Nazi, a member of a Nazi SS unit that committed genocide against Poles during World War II. After international condemnation, Speaker Anthony Rota quickly resigned.
When Zelensky became President, he initially moved toward fulfilling the Minsk Agreements that had "frozen" the civil war in the Donbass and outlined a pathway toward peace. But then he capitulated to the Neo-Nazis (who controlled Ukraine's Interior Ministry, in charge of the police stations) and eventually re-ignited the frozen war, precipitating the Russian invasion. We are being lied to.
In August, after U.S. Secretary of State Blinken announced more aid for Ukraine, Zelensky posted a video showing him with Ukraine's most prominent Neo-Nazi Andriy Biletsky:
https://mronline.org/2023/08/21/zelensky-holds-court-with-ukraines-most-notorious-neo-nazi/
See also "Ukraine is Brutally Repressing the Left, Criminalizing Socialist Parties, Imprisoning Activists"
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2022/03/21/ukraine-repressing-left-criminalizing-socialist-parties/
See also "How Zelensky Made Peace with Neo-Nazis"
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/04/how-zelensky-made-peace-with-neo-nazis/
See also "How One Ukrainian Billionaire Funded Hunter Biden, President Volodymyr Zelensky, And Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion"
https://greatgameindia.com/hunter-biden-zelensky-neo-nazi/
See also (from 2019) "Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine":
"Five years ago, Ukraine’s Maidan uprising ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, to the cheers and support of the West. Politicians and analysts in the United States and Europe not only celebrated the uprising as a triumph of democracy, but denied reports of Maidan’s ultranationalism, smearing those who warned about the dark side of the uprising as Moscow puppets and useful idiots. Freedom was on the march in Ukraine.
"Today, increasing reports of far-right violence, ultranationalism, and erosion of basic freedoms are giving the lie to the West’s initial euphoria. There are neo-Nazi pogroms against the Roma, rampant attacks on feminists and LGBT groups, book bans, and state-sponsored glorification of Nazi collaborators.
"These stories of Ukraine’s dark nationalism aren’t coming out of Moscow; they’re being filed by Western media, including US-funded Radio Free Europe (RFE); Jewish organizations such as the World Jewish Congress and the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and watchdogs like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House, which issued a joint report warning that Kiev is losing the monopoly on the use of force in the country as far-right gangs operate with impunity."
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
Quit your whining. What a baby.
Brenda Phillips,
You sound confused.
I bought into the so-called left wing of the democratic party for 40 yrs, but at the end of day, they're not any better than the maga folks. Just a different line of bs from different oligarchs.
But what about Now? Certainly we need to vote against Any Republican these days. But ad our Texas primary, and those of other states showed, there are not enough democrats turning out. Why are all the elected Republicans allowing Trumpers to dictate how they vote? It's like the rest of us are having our country and lives completely taken over.
Letters,letters. letters to <first.last@nytimes.com> and the same, <first.last@washpost.com> .Over and over. They are getting hit hard right now for their treachery. Ezra Klein is sounding like a Likud Fascist of the 1930s. Hit him too. Whose side are they on? Over and over.
My letters always say "Paying Subsciber"
For example :
to: <aaron.blake@washpost.com>
Dear Mr. Blake,
While reading your assessment of the Michigan primary this morning, it became quite clear that you, and many other notable journalists, are stuck in horse race mode. You all seem, with few exceptions, to ignore the stakes of running such a race as the mud is getting ever deeper and more dangerous. Do you understand this analogy?
With all the "Biden should drop out for..." you might benefit from reading a well thought out alternative to that common thread, as provided below, by the esteemed Rick Wilson
Or this :
Tue, Mar 5, 3:08 PM
to <editorial@nytimes.com>
Dear Experts,
As a long time paying subscriber, I demand a truthful and unbiased publication of issues that impact our nation, from "The Newspaper of Record".
Your current publication of "news" is a disgrace. The evidence of such is well presented by our esteemed Lucien Trusctt IV in the attached excerpt below. It must be required reading by ALL on your editorial staff. With so many of your subscribers bailing on you, you might reconsider your overt bias.
Yours,
Ransom W. Rideout Jr.
Ransom, I really appreciate your sharing of these letters to the editors. This is clear act that every one of us can take instead of just wringing our hands in the comments here, and you're providing a template to make it quick, targeted, and simple.
THANK YOU.
I've borrowed others letters for templates too. Chaplain showed a good one weeks ago that got me cranking. She liked what I did with hers and I've been cranking them out regularly. It beats grinding my teeth. Forwarding good Substacks gives the airheads some reality to consider, if one of them reads one once in a while. I use the emails of the entire editorial staff at WaPO and NYT once in a while, figuring maybe ONE of them might read it and someone like Lucien Truscot would make them know the world is on to them.
As I mentioned in a response earlier, Heather has thousands of readers. If a small fraction of us sent letters to the MSM regularly, they would have to know they are busted.
Ransom Ridout, you should get a medal for this public-spirited work.
Unfortunately, media speak with forked tongue, purest hypocrisy, all dolled up as "objectivity".
The Devil will delight in such "objectivity".
They aim to stay on the good side of tfg in case he actually wins again. Little do they seem to know the media—all of them—are already targeted by tfg for elimination. Enemy of the people and all that.
Ransom
Dear Editor Wapo
From a subscriber
Your “horse race” both siderisms regarding Trump’s blatant attempt to replace our Constitution with his reality TV authoritarianism is threatening to me. It should be treatening to you as well
Do you look past your current reporting that ignores the dangers of Post Constitution Life and expect that your silence today will be rewarded by a Trump dictator tomorrow? Are you hedging your bets? Are you not aware that YOUR job as editor will be rearranged by your new boss Stephen Miller? Oh whoa, what a new life you’ll have. Information Minister in New Gilead
Dave (Go ahead and tattle on me to Trump) Dalton
Sent from my iPhone
Keep'm coming Dave.
Thank you so much for these examples, Ransom. I subscribe to both of these newspapers. I also subscribe to my local paper. I choose to support these papers both because I like to read the daily news, and also since I’m aware of the paltry number of true newspapers left here in the US.
Time to begin the letters to the editors!!
Thank you so much Ransom. I still subscribe to both, partially out of fear of the small number of newspapers owned and operated by huge conservative conglomerates.
Now is the time to write msm many times!
I ahave emailed the WH and am asking Biden to start a count of "XX number of days the MAGA is holding the budget hostage" or even better, since he won't allow the vote "XX number of days Mike Johnson is holding the budget hostage"
That was a very widely spread tag line in Carter's administration. when speaking about the hostages, and I believe it was part of him losing his reelection bid. Let's turn it onto the MAGA.
Thank you! Yesterday, someone in the American Prospect said the Democrats need to start publishing their own paper, because they can't rely on the NYTimes to make a case for Biden before the election. The author pointed out that there were once papers dedicated to promoting political parties. That started my wondering where there might be a discarded printing press or at least one for rent. Or maybe they could buy a cable channel. Surely, there are enough unemployed journalists, and when the Times has been out on strike, there has been Not The New York Times. Like most people here probably, I get a deluge of email every day from candidates and lobbying groups arguing for candidates and causes, and no matter how many times I unsubscribe, they just follow me to my phone. It's wasteful and it's NOT EFFECTIVE.
Bravo
Ginni, Having observed Donald Trump increasingly absorb both the Congress and much of the judiciary, combined with the media’s failure to fulfill its role in helping people understand what their government is up to, I repeatedly have submitted that we the people are all that’s left to save our democracy. However, after reading HCR’s discussion of Journalist Jim Sciutto’s forthcoming book, I would submit that the four generals who served in the Trump Administration—John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Jim Mattis, and Mark Milley—protocol aside, are obligated to address the American people and reveal the full truth they witnessed about Trump throughout their tenure serving in his Administration. If we’re to defeat autocracy, we can’t afford for these generals to withhold anything they know that would reveal how, over and over again, Trump was intent on defying his Oath of Office. I will continue to amplify this obligation because, contrary to Trump’s first term when there were guard rails to curtail him, the American people would be subjected to an unleashed Trump were he re-elected.
In addition to the four generals Coming forward we need former Republican presidents, Colin Powell, Condelesa Rice, etc. to speak up and explain to all Americans the danger this MAGA movement presents to our freedoms we take for granted. We are running out of time to right this ship.
Joanne, I would note I underscored the generals, first, because of their presumed impartiality and, second, because of their first-hand knowledge. Still, truthful remarks from any prestigious Republican, indeed, would be critical. Regrettably, Colin Powell, from whom one could expect truth, has passed.
I like to think they’re all saving it for October but realistically I suspect they’re all scared. Understandably. It’s a mob America is dealing with.
They all act like none of the fallout from inaction will affect their lives. What else can explain the cowardly quiet?
Biden’s predecessor seems to have watched Disney’s Little Mermaid too many times. He seems to be channeling Ursala, the evil octopus who manipulated Ariel into giving up her greatest asset.
The predatory predecessor is manipulating every institution and as many people as as possible to benefit himself. He has been swept into the long game (deregulation and tax breaks for the morbidly richh) started about 40 years ago.
Yes, indeed – how do trump and his supporters keep getting away with supporting fascists?
Why does the connection to Orban, Putin, Erdogan, Kim Yong Un and Hitler not stick?
The Republicans are good at using short, sticky terms to label Democrats. What terms can we come up with?
To me, the term fascism is a bit hifalutin. Perhaps it needs to be simplified. DICTATOR works. But so might COMMUNIST.
The Republicans call Democrats “socialists” (even though it is an incorrect and broad label). Why isn’t anyone calling trump and his supporters “COMMUNISTS” (equally as incorrect and broad)?
trump calls the United States a COMMUNIST country. He thwarts aid to Ukraine and Taiwan. He denigrates NATO. His congressional “team mates” and others support disinformation like false FBI reports to aid in impeachment proceedings.
Time to fight fire with fire.
“Anti-American” says it for me….
simple, direct and the antithesis of “hi-falutin”. The documents story is getting more chilling with each revelation.
Traitor is simpler.
Traitor to the Constitution, the Flag and the Republic for which it stands. Traitor to the message inscribed on the base of Lady Liberty. Traitor and oath-breaker to our Allies. Traitor to the Pledge of allegiance.
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
(I refuse to acknowledge the 'under God' version of this pledge)
As do I. We as a nation must get religion out of our government. Keep your religion, if you must, but not in politics or government. Speaker Johnson may think dinosaurs and man lived together (they didn't). He also seems to believe he and tRunp can and will save America (they can't). I believe you and I can save America (we can). Vote! Dinosaurs? Good grief.
I too leave out the 'under God' part as well -- that part always makes it feel like a prayer.
Whom are we speaking to? Will that audience think “traitor” is just propaganda? I agree that fascist has, by now, lost meaning for many. “Criminal”? “Rapist?” National security risk”?
How about “needs lots of money for court judgments, has national security information, likes foreign dictators: you do the math.”
Or perhaps "Putin's b*tch"? Simple and too the point!
The word God should never appear on money or in any U.S. government setting. I don't think "God" has endorsed any of our nonsense, certainly not the U.S. Treasury!
Likewise, Stephen.
I agree. For one thing, the trumpists took to calling anybody they disagred with "communists" quite awhile ago. They still react to being called racists or fascists tho.
I also like to point out how much they resemble old school Soviets. That one gets a rise out of the pro-putin crowd.
Lying, manipulative, self serving. I prefer calling him Don. It seems to show a total lack of respect, as intended.
CRIMINALS. MAFIA. THE ARMY OF CRIME.
THAT is the nature of the Beast. These people are mobsters pretending to be politicians.
They don't deserve the name of any kind of political party. Not even "Fascist".
They're like the Wolf That Ate Grandma, all dolled up in Grandma's nightdress and nightcap.
"Grandma, what big teeth you've got!"
"All the better to eat you with, my dear!"
“These people are mobsters pretending to be politicians.” Yes, Peter, you nailed it! They belong to no “party”. They are the eternal-goal-post-moving-greedy-entitlement-rationalizing-power-mongers that have afflicted history since Time began. And they believe nothing bad will happen to them in a regime change. They believe they will come out unscathed in this manufactured “Rapture”. “Ordinary people” never rise to the level of “worth-the-effort-to-consider” in their transactional-minds. They are compassion-disabled humans. Very Dangerous.
Well put. Especially the last two words.
How about simply “traitors”? All are radicals, not conservatives, ready to destroy our budding democracy. Can we exile them to Russia, China, and Hungary? If that were threatened, how quickly would they recant?
I like “whack jobs”…that says it for me.
I use MAGGOTS, it seems to fit 😎
You are so right! I’m chilled and finding it hard to sleep and carry on day to day activities. I have visions of fine upstanding middle class people hard working, basically fundamental: people like the “Greatest Generation’s children”: being hoodwinked by extreme elements of their parents’ Republican Party. I really believe they are either unaware of the extremes at play here and what is at stake OR believe it’s simply politics as usual and will work out favorably as it always has with John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart leading the way.
The immediacy of a response grows day by day!!
Write your letters. It matters. Read Robert Hubble, Lucien Trusccott IV, Simon Rosenberg, Thom Hartman. They are keeping pace with the headline and content response of those MSMs. Our pressure is hitting them hard and they are beginning to show much more reality of our situation. They are even using "fascist tendencies" now.
Progress in gettng the MS to do their job requires pressure, constant pressure. There are THOUSANDS of Heather's readers on FB and in her Substack. One, two, three? letters from 1/4 of us will hit them HARD.
I like your idea. Unfortunately, even if the leading newspapers and television stations are "hit hard" and subsequently attack Trump, not much will change since people know enough about Trump -- with many in the cognitive underclass (containing many well educated automatons) knowing little else -- to make up their minds about him, pro or con. I suspect that making Trump an object of humor and laughter will do more to unhinge the traitor and undo his campaign.
Undermining Biden is what will hurt all of us. That is the point of whacking them constantly and hard. The SOTU blew away their "old" bullshit. Even Faux Snooze had to say he was on top of it. The MSM is already slipping back though and has to be reminded everyfrikkin day. Clicks, clicks clicks... rateings increase add revenue $$$.
We need to clarify our target audience. It’s not the Trumpanistas; they are hopeless. It’s the disaffected Democrats and Independents - who might stay home or vote third party.
Good point. That may be where adverts that use a brief Trump clip about sleepy Joe open ;then the substance goes over an accomplishment of President Biden; and then close with a churlish line about sleepy Joe.
Use surrogates for the middle part like the Secretary of Transportation saying, "I will not bore you with the forty-nine thousand projects we are working on." Then close with more of the sleepy Joe -- a particularly churlish moment. Does three things.
1st, lets people know that they get a better deal under President Biden. 2nd, allays some concern about the President's age -- that the Admin. is a whole lot more than one elderly man. 3rd, shows that Trump has nothing to run on other demagogy about the border.
Tricky. Even repeating a lie can reinforce it……..
I wake up from my personal crisis to be slapped in the face with our national crisis. Both seem inscrutable, much less solvable. Yet, time marches on, whether we rise to the occasion or not. Our children will pay the price. The young always have, whether by dying in war or by picking up the pieces of our failures.
Wishing you strength to face everything you must face. Deal with stress; otherwise it overrides your prefrontal cortex just when you need it most. You can do it!
Boy, did I find this out as my husband was being put on hospice. My body fell apart, black toenails, for starters, then what I thought were mini strokes. Yes, never underestimate what stress can do, even when you think you are handling things well. I’ve learned to listen better to body messages; sometimes the language requires quiet attention.
❤️
Back to you
Jeri, every word you just wrote are my unwritten words. We have to keep pushing on with whatever particular strength we possess.thank God my parents aren’t alive to see what is happening.
Read the Substack from Jessica Craven "Chop Wod Carry Water"
EVERY person on this forum should subscribe to it. Every week she lists the WINS, most of which get ZERO media coverage, and she also gives us concrete information of tasks we can take.
My parents were Republicans, I voted Republican. It used to be respectable.
Your comment is most welcome. It is waste of our time to critisize Trump and MAGA anymore. One possibility is to flip enough Republicans to join Demos to bring the bipartisan bill to the floor for vote. Alternative is to impeach Mr. Johnson. It is time to act decisively with courage.
Ginni Simpson,
Unfortunately, it isn't just a few. We have forgotten our history. We do not treasure our freedoms....fought for with the lives of our men and women.
It is beyond my comprehension that we have allowed the Republican Party to be "owned" by one very strange person who is only in this game for himself. He has gathered a group of selfish wretches .... criminals.... who with total disregard and disrespect for the citizens of this nation and for the ideals of hard fought for freedoms ....are destroying this nation as we watch.
Our laws are protecting this traitor and most of the once great Republican Party which no longer exists... as we stand or sit and watch.
Ukraine fights on!!!! This small brave nation is giving its all while we allow the hungry "bear"...ruled by a horrible person to have his way !!! This is NOT the United States of America I know.
Putin must be laughing as he watches us implode!!!
Why is Trump not in prison? Why is he not confined and kept away from all media resources? Are our laws so impotent?
Trump is a traitor! .....so are those using him!!!
Yes.What can WeThe People do when Trump and his Putinistas are holding our national security hostage?Are we to stand by and watch this and do nothing?There has got to be a recourse.
As Miselle said, read the Substack from Jessica Craven "Chop Wood Carry Water." She offers us concrete steps we can take, every day, to influence policy and to inform our Congress Critters of their constituents' opinions. Please join us!
Ginni, by playing what the Soviets and Hitler saw as our greatest strength as our greatest weakness - our open society, our free speech, our right to trial by jury. Playing the system against itself. The weakness of our judicial system-how slow it moves- is also its strength. Our system of checks and balances is also a strength, but a weakness.
Biden is basically being ignored by the media
“How does trump keep getting away with this?!?” Why? Because a majority (a 20-point to 40-point majority if you live in a red state) of your white neighbors, no matter how kind or gentle they may seem when they greet you on the street, are awful people that the world would be better off without. The rise of Trump is entirely the fault of white Americans, and there is a direct line betwee that rise and the Southern Strategy perfected by Reagan, along with his convincing white Americans that “the government is the problem.” Reagan started America down the slide to the bottom of humanity, and white Americans, for the most part, jumped on with relish.
I talked to a friend yesterday in Kroger. I had not seen her in a while. After we had talked a bit I closed with I hope to see you at the Democrat meeting this month. She replied, "I am not a Democrat anymore." Then she went farther into the conversation and said that she hadn't wanted Hillary to be president and Biden is a crook. I knew that our conversation was ending and told her to have a good day. That is what we are dealing with in Indiana. Where in the hell are people coming up with this crap? Apparently it is Fox News that even airs in our local bank!!!
They break or change the rules to get and keep themselves in power.
This has gotta stop. Vote blue.
It’s called minority rule, ushered in by the likes of Newt Gingrich and Mitch McConnell. With the total takeover by 45 of what’s left of the republican party, he’s now pulling the strings of all his little puppets. If Democrats don’t regain control over Congress, I fear the US as we’ve always known it is lost.
I think this, sadly, is mainly how he gets away with it: https://yadontknow.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-true-believer.html
The millions and millions of dollars have propped him up and he continues to sell snake oil.
It doesn't help that he's legion'ed with a theocratic Christofascist bent of our society with tons of money that fear the 99% of free people in our country.
Thank you, Heather, for once again reminding us that we’ve been here before and our reluctance to aid democracies under attack didn’t end well. We have a choice now: send ammunition and equipment to Ukraine to stop Putin or send ammunition, equipment and US SOLDIERS to the first NATO country that Putin decides to attack after he defeats Ukraine.
It isn't that we have been here before. It is a constant and ongoing effort of the Fascists to overthrow our Democracy, starting in the mid-1930s, aided by elected members of our own Senate and Congress, and continuing to this very day. The first attempt was foiled by USMC Comandant, General Smedley Butler. The second was uncovered by a savy journalist in 1939 and went to trial, as documented in the US National Archives, as used by Rachel Maddow in her podcast "Ultra". Senator Robert Taft was deeply invoved and charged for his treason. As I have said before, "Rust never sleeps". The Kochs, the Welches of the 1950s John Birch Society are working diligently right now to eliminate the impediment to business that is The Constitution of the United States of America.
And Koch Industries, in spite of all prohibitions, continues to work in Russia, whence came part of its original fortune (the rest from Hitler’s buildup).
Yup.
Shout out to Smedley Butler.
Ransom, good points! Thanks for reminding us.
And shout out for Rachel Maddow's "Prequel". To reach Rachel, go to "Rachel Maddow Official PERSONAL Website":-- rachelmaddow.com
Bryan, that’s a great book ! It’s even better when she reads it!
On 4/1/24 Rachel will complete the 1st full year of her 2nd Half Century on the Planet, 51.
Yes, of course.
Yet the “Fascists” are really just the same ol’ entitled white guys who have always wanted to be king-of-the-castle. That’s why they came here in the first place. They wrote into our Constitution that it was necessary to have some people only count as 3/5ths of a person. And women don’t count at all. We have been competing with them for “America” ever since. So now is the time to Do More/ Worry Less. I love that you are writing to the major newspapers!!! I have been writing to news outlets when I feel their coverage is misleading/questionably factual. Talking to as many people as I can about following newsletter like Heather’s here, or Robert Hubbell’s, Joyce Vance’s or Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles.
US democracy has been hijacked.
Perhaps the grestest fifth collumn operation in history indeed
I tend to agree.
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty says, in part, that member nations “…agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”
The critical words are “…will assist…with such action as it deems necessary…” That leaves a lot of room for interpretation. How do you think TFG would interpret it?
Emil, it wouldn’t matter how he interpreted it—he would withdraw from NATO on day two.
He might not withdraw, since we now have a law on the books that he cannot, but what he will do on day one is stop participating in any NATO activities.
Exactly. Congress must pass such legislation that he would then sign. This points to how important down-ballot voting will be in November. Repubs in control of both chambers of the next Congress…a most discouraging prospect!
TC, what makes you think that he’ll obey a law that he doesn’t agree with? (See Emoluments clause of the Constitution).
You will hate me for asking this... But... is America not paralyzed and in need of assistance?
Self-paralyzed, yes, but I cling to the notion that we will pull ourselves together. In a dim corner of my mind I murkily remember reading of some obscure French diplomat remarking that “America is only as weak as it thinks it is.” I’m keeping my fingers crossed. 🤞🤞
That’s an interesting comment from the diplomat: “America is only as weak as it thinks it is.” I believe that is part of the greater Scheme here. So many people are tuned out/impotent/inactive. Essentially sitting in the pot while it boils watching porn/reality tv/TikTok videos to distract them from what they accept is “inevitable” or biblically-ordained, or won’t affect them anyway. Steve Bannon’s strategy of “Flooding The Zone With Shit” is designed to shutdown the faint-hearted, and enflame the conspiracy-minded persuadable. It’s quite a brilliant scheme, really. You have to be a compassionate-disabled person to operate this scheme, - a person mentally disabled, unable to feel compassion for fellow humans, only fulfilled by feeding the endless addiction of hating “The Other”.
Chump will pull us out of NATO on his first day. Problem solved…
By then - January 2025- Ukraine may have already fallen. Zelensky murdered, all because he wouldn’t initiate a bogus investigation into Hunter Biden. Donald holds a grudge. And Zelensky losing his country and his life will send shivers of thrill down into Donald’s loins. The speaker of the house is just his newest well placed pet to comply and help. And thrown under the bus when the time comes. We need a Discharge Petition NOW.
Like yesterday. Yep, nothing keeps chump’s motor running like payback. Why Obama and any others on his very lengthly enemies list should expect some action if he cheats his way back in. And BTW, if he does “win,” the election will be stolen. Repubs are doing their damn best (states, courts, RNC, social media, MSM, etc) to pull it off. We should be yelling “stop the steal.” I saw a blurb on Next Door this morning that started out “why do we have to wait til the worst happens to…”. I have no idea what the subject was, but I have to ask that too. I’ll finish it with …do whatever it takes to stop it.
If you mean he could redeploy all US military units to bases outside of NATO, as CinC he has the authority and likely could find the money to accomplish it. And in doing so, NATO would implode.
You’re right. But please don’t give the idiot child ideas!
I'm sure Miller has researched all the ways that they could undo everything that Joe has done.
Probably should have been SHALL ASSIST maybe? Language matters.
Defeats Ukraine? Obliterates Ukraine.
Hard to believe a political leader in this country is not only an isolationist but also condones genocide.
"Political leader" - you don't mean Trump, surely? He's a mobster dressed up as lamb.
Stalin did it, so can Putin, his disciple.
Kindly, twinkling eyes, thick grey moustache, very culturally inclined (as many writers and composers discovered). VERY funny Iannucci film of recent years, "The death of Stalin". The underlings in the next room hear a thud, finally get up courage to open the door, and find him flat on his back, apparently dead. But is he dead? They bend over him gingerly, mouthing the usual flattering slogans just in case he suddenly sits up and sends them to the gulag. Or worse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9eAshaPvYw
I still can't understand why Heather simply doesn't tell it like it is: Trump and his cronies have orders from Moscow to do everything in their power to stop funding for Ukraine. There is no reasoning with them, their Great Master wants Ukraine, and he wants it now. With the US out of the way, he can easily seize it - and THAT's why the Sneaker of the House won't bring that bill up for voting. The Sauron in the Kremlin has promised them great gifts of power if they do his bidding, I'm sure...
P.S. The US will never send any soldiers to the first NATO country that Putin attacks. Putin isn't stupid. He will wait until Rump has retaken the White House, and THEN he will attack Poland - knowing that his orange lap dog won't do anything to hinder him. But he will not wait long: my bet is he will attack Poland the minute Rump becomes president again.
Mike, Heather has to back up everything with known credible news sources. You and I can say whatever we want because we’re not under close scrutiny as she is because of her notoriety.
If and when Putin attacks a NATO member, it will be when the USA is no longer a risk to him, when our “experiment” has ended.
Mitchell, I’m not sure that he would wait for that. But, sure. If 45 is reelected.
Is Trump selling national security secrets he stole to now help pay for the $500 million he owes in court judgments?
Will we ever have proof of what seems quite plausible if not likely?
Even when he knows he is committing a crime, he’s not even remotely smart about it. I think after re re defaming E Jean and these new witnesses from Mara Largo, a judge needs to step in. The man is not well. It’s worse than malignant narcissism. He’s delusional and because he can not help himself committing crimes, losing $100s of millions… he is a danger to himself. Such a person can’t understand National Security. He cannot even understand personal security to protect his wealth. This isn’t funny, cute, or politics even as unusual as this has been, the man is so undeniably unqualified that he is the #1 threat to our National Security of all time.
No judge will be stepping in before November to remove TFG from running. The key is to defeat him at the polls, and that means it’s up to the Biden campaign to convince enough of the 74,223,975 people who voted for TFG in 2020 to not do so this time around. No small challenge. I have always maintained faith in America and Americans. I still do, but my faith is thinning.
We did that once, how many times will it take…
As many as it takes, as long as we’re up to it. If we aren’t, then we need to send a letter: “Dear Mr. Franklin, We couldn’t.”
Ben was my favorite "founder." Hope I die before such a message is sent.
Clarification, I didn’t say running. The judge in the E Jean case has a responsibility to evaluate a defendant when the defendant can’t help themselves to the tune of $91 million. What will be the amount of the next judgment for endless defamation? $200 million? Should someone who exceeds the threshold of legally insane be liable for defamation? See where I’m going? It would be reason to ban him from not just running, but also from SM platforms, public speaking, etc etc.
I have always believed that his best and most credible defense is Insanity. Of course, he won't use it because he's insane.
Several million are dead and several million more will be eligible to vote in 2024 that couldn't in 2020.
Mine too 😢
Strong forces mustered under him like they were inside The Trojan Horse. His characteristic buffoonery slip the dark demonic force inside the White Horse with only us aware viewers clamoring the others to pay attention and heed what would have made our parent’s parents stand up united against them.
Yup.
It’s beyond reckless irresponsibility. If he can’t protect his own savings account, how can he protect a country, an economy, the people? Erghhh
He was silent about E. Jean Carroll until he obtained a bond for her judgement, and then he started defaming her again. I don’t think he perceives that his own bank account is at risk.
Exactly. Need a lawyer and a psychiatrist to weigh in here. Clearly there is more than his stupidly here. Cognitively he can not reconcile that he lost this legal case. He won’t follow instructions from his lawyers or the judge. He will keep doubling down denials/defam until he is homeless ( or living in Rebecca Mercers basement). Isn’t that enough for a judge to order a psychiatric evaluation? Then that evaluation ( totally separate from election) would become public record?
But so loved by our friends and family. The makings of a division that is hard to overcome…
He's more than delusional. Given his bizarre speaking problems during campaign events, a number of respected medical professionals have concluded he has some form of advanced dementia.
It's hard to know if Trump was actually selling secrets about Russian and U.S. submarines to Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt or was just bragging and showing off as Brian Butler recounted the incident in an interview with CNN's Kaitlin Collins. In either case, for this, and for many other reasons, Trump is an obvious threat to our national security, a traitor who must be stopped.
I think he was bragging. And the Australians called the FBI through the embassy. Judge Ergeron got it right, he “can’t help himself”. It is time for a psychiatric evaluation.
Once he is the official Republican candidate, he is entitled to have access to all the intelligence briefings of POTUS. THAT is the most serious issue right now. Will the Biden admunistration refuse to to grant access???
Fortunately or unfortunately, he doesn’t like to read. But some cronies do.
Bannon and Miller will use this as public fodder on their touch issues
God forbid that he has access to more than he stole. Our laws and traditions just help the man with not an iota of honor. Machiavellian update needed. Bet Machiavelli never ran across the likes of chump. Or if he did, no social media or Rupert to make him look human. Chumps allegiance was clear to me as Helsinki came to a close.
Oh no. sigh.
Giving the briefings is a tradition, not a legal requirement. Biden will not allow them or at least order them sanitized. Also, Trump was notorious for lacking the attention span needed for such briefings when he was president and often skipped them.
That's encouraging. I had only just heard about it.
Order them sanitized.
Ted, we already know he’s as loony and dangerous as they come. We also know that he’s slurring his words a lot. So he either is slipping into dementia or he is taking drugs.
Or a combination of the two
👍
He’s been on adderall for decades.
And detention until trial.
I think that’s the one where Trump might’ve disclosed the terminal depth available to our nuclear submarines. This sort of thing isn’t one of those little secrets. It’s one of those big secrets.
And how many nuclear missiles on each ship. Traitor.
Selling or showing off is really at one level a semantic discussion. The fact that he thinks those documents are his to do with as he pleases is absolutely disgusting and 100% illegal. At the next level, selling them to foreign powers is treason, nothing less.
Trump has gone through a lot of trouble to collect, illegally, fodder just for bragging. He saw an asset of great value and stole it. The bragging is just a sidelight.
Something is way, way off in what Trump did with those sensitive documents. I get the feeling that Trumps immunity from accountability is like the "Emperor's New Clothes".
I’m under the impression they did not search Bedminster or Trump Towers, only Mar A Lago…am I correct?
The feds must have lacked the probable cause need to get a judge to approve a search warrant.
Exactly!!!! What is he doing with them????
Maybe Orbán knows.
More like Humpty Dumpty …perhaps?
How much is he being paid for hosting?
He has so many ways to collect hidden bribes.
Most likely he made copies.
I wish I could see into the future, if there is one, what the history books will say in 50 years- if there are history books. So depressing.
My belief…
We can x-Ray Ivanna’s grave site at Bedminster. Just curious how that happened as DJT was hustling boxes up that way…
Yes, Michael…. What happened to those boxes loaded on trumps plane to New Jersey????
Can someone explain to me why the House Republicans who WANT to fund Ukraine do not join with the Dems, vote out Johnson and then vote in a non-MAGA Republican?
I need a real answer on this. I'm doctor ordered (yes) not to read the news except Heather's letters. But for this I have searched and cannot find anything. They'd have safety in numbers; it's what Americans want; they KNOW it's absolutely critical and a disaster for the free world if it doesn't happen soon: I don't get it.
Or demand a floor vote. Why does ONE MAN hold the power to even prevent discussion of a bill, let alone the ability to vote?
Ah, I didn't know this was possible until just now. Yes, or this?!
I can't recall the term used to call for a floor vote but it does exist and a simple majority can force the Speaker to produce such bill for an up or down vote.
Fay, the procedure to which you refer may be a 'discharge petition'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discharge_petition
Way past time
Thank you, words often escape my memory. Much appreciated, David
Fay, I only just had a chance to read Heather's March 12 letter, so I now know, as you may too, that: "House Democrats are working to get enough signatures on a discharge petition to force Johnson to bring up a vote on a supplemental bill—which is expected to pass if it makes it to a vote..." I'm not sure what this means, as it looks like no Republicans have said they'd sign it, but......Oh, man. I know the so-called moderate Republicans (ha) are leaving in droves. And we know they are being seriously threatened. But if they'd vote for the bill, how much worse could it be to join this petition?
Discharge petition
Have any Republicans in the House said they will vote for a discharge petition?
Publicly, so far, no. But as I just said in a comment above, which quotes this from Heather's March 12 letter: "House Democrats are working to get enough signatures on a discharge petition to force Johnson to bring up a vote on a supplemental bill—which is expected to pass if it makes it to a vote..." IF they would vote for the bill, would it be that much worse for them, in terms of the serious threats they are getting, if they joined a petition?
It is anti-democratic to be sure. Where are the checks and balances?
Apparently the "Party of Make America Great Again" (per Junior) doesn't believe in checks and balances, those are against authoritarian principles.
It’s about oil Nomi. Ukraine wants to break free, and that involves breaking free of the oil and gas trade that Russia provides, corrupts, the power over democracy. If we represent the arsenal of democracy, it’s because we are not beholden to hostile foreign oil hegemony. But Mike Johnson is from Louisiana, so he is embedded in the dirty politics of oil and gas.
The love of money (and other forms of power) really does seem to be "the root of all evil".
Pick a massive historical moral catastrophe and follow the money.
Plus, he's expecting to be "Raptured" momentarily and it will all be moot.
🕚
Actually, there is oil in offshore Ukraine. For all the talk of "Greater Russia ", Putin wants the oil. His own oil companies kept screwing up their own oil fields.
Yup that too. Always oil.
Acting on their consciences is not GOP approved behavior
At long last, they have left no sense of decency. None whatsoever.
Just think, that phrase stopped McCarthy dead. It has zero effect on this bunch.
It was the coup d'gras once "Tailgunner Joe" was held in check, having over-pressed his luck. That was too much even for the mainstream "GOP" of the day. Today they feel like McCarthy acolytes on steroids.
Pretty disgusting, isn't it. In NYC , I dropped into the trial of the Garbage King of Westchester, Nick Rattenni, defense: Roy Cohn. I was also taking a mini course in Mccarthyism at Rutgers. I took the book written by Cohn in defense (I assume) of McCarthy and he signed it during a break. The teacher was mildly amused. When I think back, did Cohn think I was a fan??
Did you burn the book or at least get good money for it?
100%
It would be fair to say that the acquisition and retention of power is the fundamental motivator.
Principles, as much as they are touted and twisted to fit the narrative of the day, are secondary. Even Senator Lankford, author of the compromise bill supporting revised, bipartisan border policies that were killed by Trump, has come out in support of his nomination.
Power at all costs and fear, as another commenter here mentioned – fear of reprisals from the extremely thin-skinned (albeit abundantly fleshy) leader of their party, and from their base.
Nothing short of a rousing defeat in Congress in the upcoming election will alter their course. And the odds of that happening are not great at present. I am particularly concerned about the Senate.
Maybe they get “primaried” if it’s not too late? Maybe TFG unleashes attacks on their November candidacies? Maybe they’re just feckless and willing to cater to the extremist “base” in their districts? Political cowardice all, but just spit-balling here.
I want to laugh but certainly not at you! There are no non-MAGGOTS now. Trump, today, declared the R party as dead. He obliterated it, just the way Putin wanted. We only have Russian operatives now.
Heather's been writing for months that many (most??) of the Republicans in the House want Ukraine funded.
They do, but they are terrified of being primaried in their heavily gerrymandered districts.
But, what would Putin say??
Just look at what Orban says and you'll know.
Because they are absolutely terrified of the hold that the former president has on the base of the GOP. If they went after the Speaker or any of the Freedom Caucus, the former president and de facto leader of the Republican Party has vowed to destroy them by having them primaried. Unfortunately, without term limits, both sides are guilty of wanting to stay in office by whatever means possible. So no one is going to go after the Speaker. It’s simply about the power and not about good governance.
🔔
Cuz that would require growing a spine?
That’s never gonna happen. His tail is between his legs!
Because they are afraid of not being reelected and/or of threats, just like the rest of the party.
Churchill had to deal with his sort of thing back in 1939 and his conclusion? “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.”
The design of our political system developed by the Founding Fathers was based one on assumption that we now can see was a fundamental flaw: The assumption that our elected representatives might differ on the way America could continuously become “a more perfect union” but that they would always act so as to keep America safe and secure from “all enemies both foreign and domestic”. They never imagined the “domestic enemies” of America would take over a major political party!
And, of course, in his Farewell Address, George Washington warned against the creation of separate political parties in the first place, knowing they would divide the nation. But that’s a subject for another time. 
We are so screwed!
I don't think they envisioned an entire political party becoming a criminal organization.
I agree! And, sadly, that "failure of imagination" may lead to the end of the American experiment... because - even if Biden wins by the proverbial landslide - MAGA is not going to admit they have lost. I don't know what "We the People" will do when that happens. But this scenario terrifies me.
I am very concerned Steve as well which has already started with attacks on School Board, Teachers, municipalities, County Sheriffs & Supervisors aided by Britt-like disinformation on a national scale. Fight back now.
Very very very true!!!
Washington was kinda right about political parties.
I got a message: "You are blocked from liking this comment."
What is that about? I am able to comment.....
My iPad freezes up every day when looking at the comments on the various substack’s I subscribe too. It’s been doing this for weeks, the cursor no longer works until I restart, again this happens every day now.
So much time used dealing with technology. I remember not too long ago how simple life was with no cell phones or internet. Just books, a few friends and The New Yorker.
How about trying this one?🙋♂️
Never saw that before. I was LIKEing all over the place.... I thought maybe that guy has seen my comments and has blocked me...but, I was able to comment. What goes?? Hardly a big problem in my life.
Substack glitch. Not too infrequent...
🔔
Worked fine!👍😉
Nailed it. The Founders never envisioned that an American government would deliberately attempt to destroy the country at the behest of one man’s venal pursuits and ego. Nor did they expect that there would be an oligarchy who would actively conspire with outside powers to overthrow the will of the people. Yes, there was always an “upper class” but the Founders always believed that regardless of class, Americans would be loyal to their country no matter what. The previous Administration exposed all of the inherent weaknesses in this system at multiple levels. And clearly, outside powers are more than willing to exploit them, and take this country down.
From a physics perspective, well not really physics except for that physics claims all reality (probably this is nuts!), no one as far as the Founding Fathers were concerned, anticipated the rise of the two party system. We need to start a debate here on HCR, continuing elsewhere perhaps, as to the causes of the two party system! But it has something to do, if I recall correctly, with winner take all and no access to proportional representation.
The two party system goes back to the animosity between Jefferson and Adams -- Federalists and Anti-Federalists. It's almost as old as the country.
The root of the two party system goes back to slavery, I think.
Steve Brant: I am blocked from LIKING your comments. Is it you or is it me? Or, is it the Deep State?
TFG is a fool and only interested in his own financial and political advantage. He is a disgrace to this country and the presidency. Such words should be grounds for treason.
More than a fool, he is freaking gone crazy. He’s has to go full on corrupt not from greed, although he is, he can’t even act in a way to conserve his billions! I can’t think of any other description than crazy stupid. ??? He’s lost the few marbles he had left.
Crazy like a fox.
Or crazy like somewhere between not well and insane, a spectrum of mania, disassociation/delusions of grandeur to real delusions, deeply insecure, malignant narcissist socio psychopath. I think he has more in common with cult leaders and despots, and con men than anything else.
That pretty much sums it up.
But the Repubs are following right along!
Like the Davidian's, the Moonies, every cult. Mass Delusions. Aggrieved follower/leader dynamic.”only he can save us”
Once this is over—when Trump is defeated in November—we must put back the protections we all enjoyed that prevented propaganda as “news” reporting. The consolidation of media—traditional and social—is dividing us. We can’t count on the media to ferret out the story. No longer is the media working for truth. They are now slaves to profit and ratings. It’s disgusting. Vote blue in November so our national nightmare can end once and for all!
Back in the late '80s, Saint Ronnie of Eureka pushed the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine through a Republican Congress. Without it, the critical guardrail that had formerly provided for equal points of view and/or equal time when discussing public policy on the public's airwaves, disappeared. In short order, talk radio became dominated by a new wave of shock jocks and right wing ranters and ravers, the Massive Maven of Mendacity--known as Rush Limbaugh---chief among them. Big corporations saw massive profit in subsidizing the ranters and ravers, and the public airwaves became increasingly privatized.
As a child, I remember Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley and Chet Huntley, Howard K. Smith, etc., all figures of professionalism and probity. Today, there are more Americans than I want to admit that live in news deserts, and swimming under the ceaseless tsunami of social media and clickbait, never read newspapers if they even have access to same, and often watch Fox News, and think it's "news".
Those of us on this site and others, and many other good Americans irrespective of political party, are increasingly like John the Baptist, lonely voices crying in the wilderness.
Yet still we must, as ole F. Scott so famously said, "beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
Finally, someone is acknowledging the beginning of the snowball of change in our media landscape. While the right was blaming things like the “women’s movement” of the 70’s, the men, like Limbaugh, took to the airwaves to rile us up. Then add the Telecom bill of the 90’s, and you now have broadcasters like Sinclair owning as many TV stations as they’d like, then forcing employees to broadcast a single message to incite falsehoods. I have no facts, but I do believe the Tea Party had its beginnings from places like this. Thank you Daniel for bringing up the loss of the Fairness Doctrine.
Yes, I remember them also. We only had ABC, NBC, and CBS. That was it. I remember when they televised Khrushchev banging his shoe in protest, I believe, at the UN. It was regarding the Cold War we were in with the USSR.
Worse - AI is now being used as disinformation. Things are going to be released in social media that will not leave time to respond, rebut or debunk.
The LIARS have new weapons.
AI is the October surprise that scares me the most.
agree
It is Pandora's Box, and we are not going to like the result of opening it.
Lend-Lease was as important as said, but it did not go into action as easily as one might assume reading this account. Part of the law was that when American units upgraded their equipment, what they replaced was to be returned to the factories for reconditioning so they could be sent on to the allies through lend-lease. The American military, which was also beginning its expansion at this time, didn't want to let go of things. In April 1941 FDR had to sign a secret Executive Order formally ordering the military to get its actions in line with the policy. I personally saw the result of this back in 1995, when the paint was stripped from an American P-40C that had been retrieved from the forests outside Archangel in the USSR where it had laid since it was shot down i 1943. Under the Russian paint was American Olive Drab and Neutral Gray, and the markings of the 20th Pursuit Group, circa the summer of 1941. I was the only one in the hangar where the work was being done who recognized what I saw, being a serious scale airplane modeler. With the knowledge of the unit, I was able to put the airplane back "into history." The 20th PG had traded in their P-40Cs for P-40Es in June 1941, and the 48 P-40Cs were returned to the Curtiss Airplane factory in Buffalo. One June 22, 1941, Hitler attacked the USSR, and Churchill immediately offered his old enemy Stalin an unconditional alliance, and as proof he was serious, he directed that 100 P-40s that were on Lend-Lease to Britain be diverted to the Soviet Union. There was no paperwork to any of this, but what happened was Curtiss was stuck with 48 P-40s it didn't know what to do with that were the same type going to Britain, so they disassembled them, crated them up, and sent them as half of the 100 sent to the USSR (and got paid for them a second time). When they got to Murmansk, the Russians didn't care how they were painted, they painted their colors over them and they went into battle. And one survived in the forest for 60 years as a wreck until it was pulled and returned first to Britain, then sent on to Planes of Fame here to restore, and was later sold to Paul Allen. Today it sits in his museum up in Seattle, the only actual evidence of FDR's secret order.
When the Japanese attacked us, the British and Soviets were worried we would cut back on Lend-Lease and at first that's exactly what the War Department did, embargoing military exports. It took the British and Soviet ambassadors directly appealing to FDR to get that order rescinded at the end of January 1942, and L-L was restored.
For those interested, Doris Kearns Goodwin's "No Ordinary Time", a history of FDR's moves to prepare for war beginning in May 1940 when France was attacked, and the politics he used to run the war, is a solid source and very well-written. I've used it as a source for three of my books.
The belly of the beast. Nothing like the beginning, middle and the end. Damn, when I was young, I thought a few things were easy. As I age, it becomes clear that nothing is. We just don’t know the paths through which “easy” had to travel.
As an aspiring old fart I thought I could get to live out life only dealing with things that were easy. TFG and the MAGAniacs have delayed that dream. For that, I wish them much ill and lots of fleas. And will vote against them, if course.
As will I and i will conjure up all the fleas I can find. Happily, my cats are flea free…
Thank you.
What an interesting story, TC. Thank you.
🔔
"In his defense of the middle class as the engine of economic growth and his declaration that the days of trickle-down economics are over, "
In fact, they never even dripped.
Trickle down has never worked, although I'm no expert on the subject. I think we can look to the EU countries as better examples, in many cases. Just copy the best examples, and implement those.
Will Rogers knew it in 1932
"Just copy the best examples, and implement those. "
Only as a last resort.
I said it when Congress killed the Border Bill - IT WAS NEVER ABOUT THE BORDER! It’s about doing Putin’s bidding. With Democrats, all Putin gets from America is law and order; his influence and his concentrated wealth buy him nothing here. But with the MAGA Republicans, who have equated money with legislation favorable to the wealthy, Putin and his oligarchs have real-world power. And the simplicity of a half-dozen or so men ruling the world appeals to those who want to abandon the messy and pedantic rule of law.
RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA! It was always RUSSIA!
I understand. Very hard for me to fathom, though…in America?!
We need to give Biden debating points regarding not supporting Russia. And tell me how to even convince Fox News to give equal time in their version of the "debate", and more importantly ask the right questions! I will contact them if it is of any use :-(.
Russia for now but the true common denominator is always FOLLOW THE MONEY! Whatever will line the oligarchs pockets with gold or bitcoin. Nobody is a true patriot. They're all out for their own gain.
As I recall (and remember I was 6 years old in 1939, so it might be faulty) FDR was opposed by the Republicans then, as Joe Biden is opposed by the formerly Republican party today, for trying to aid the "common" man and America from her foes. Obviously history does repeat itself. if not exactly pretty damned close. I just hope the maggots don't get us into WW3 in their effort to help Putin.
Hats off to you girl! You're 6! years my senior. And, I'm the oldest person I know!
....and, then there's very problematic Israel.
You have a spectacular memory Fay! Impressive.
Thank you Heather, for laying it down so clearly. Your, I hesitate to say followers, but how about appreciators, are certainly on the same page as you. But lately, you are taking a much stronger stance, owing to the gravity of our situation, at home and abroad. Stepping beyond your academic mantle is a welcome expansion of your presenatation in your letters.
Agree. In this sentence for example – “It appears as though Trump is deliberately undermining the national security of the United States.” I’m waiting for HCR to dispense with the “it appears as though” part.
She is always a bit subtle. Testing you. As an academic, there is also the defamation issue, warrented or not, it can eat up too much time to deal with. She knows we are smart enough to understand.
It part of signaling an awareness that one's interpretations may not be entirely accurate. It's essential to both science and democracy and so far can see wisdom, and is, for that reason, more common in academic interpretations. Trump's intent seems patently odious but harder to prove beyond reasonable doubt. As to some of the effects of Trumps behavior, the evidence speaks for itself. Is Trump a #@%$& liar? Pretty safe to say so. That's different from the "both sides" approach of the press. It may seem a bit much, but complete failure to question one's own conclusions leads to delusion, fanaticism, and MAGA.
Ransom, "Readers" works as a good global label for those of us here. It is what Substack calls us.
Yes, I have used that many times before. "Appreciators" is something those of us here will relate to, I am sure.
“It appears as though Trump is deliberately undermining the national security of the United States.” Trump is a traitor.
No?!?
Does the Brian Butler story today pair well with the latest on U.S. Republicans supporting dictators?
Butler was just helping the orange fat guy deceive and cheat the U.S. authorities, but how many others holding higher office have been doing similarly for dictators and thieves such as Orban, Erdogan, Putin?
Think smirking Speaker of the House Howdy Doody. Think justices on the Clarence court conveniently forgetting the oath they took to the U.S. Constitution, which happens to have an Article 14, section three. Think so many Republican members of Congress who also conveniently forget the oaths they took.
Our Heather celebrates history -- the Brits who stood up to Hitler in that darkest hour. F.D.R. who galvanized U.S. Lend Lease for the few still standing for democracy then.
Good lessons all. Good for one thing -- good for the many more millions of Americans who may also turn out in massive numbers by this November to annihilate, overcome all that U.S. white trash, all those bribed by the cynical U.S. billionaire classes, all those illiterate to democracy and to America's and the world's great humanities undergirding it, which in America should overwhelmingly triumph by this November.
from your lips to the Higher Powers ears!
Thank you, Nanny Ann. But I'm not so sure about our "Higher Powers."
I learned first not to trust them when I was Vietnamese translator/interpreter U.S. Army Spec. 4 then Spec. 5 more than a half century ago. David Halberstam has the final word on those "higher power" fools in "The Best and the Brightest."
We have a very fine record of others reporting on how similar elites destroyed higher education and turned it over to the bankers and the HR perverse, destroyed K-12 and turned it over to the billionaire standardized testers,
Though our elites no longer have any public access humanities, I still trust our many great novelists, memoirists, musicians, film makers, and others well in touch with the American people who far surpass and outnumber the congressional white trash, the Clarence court bribed and perjured, and the billionaire stirrers of hate, fear, and demagogue worship.
Phil, my use of Higher Power is rooted in my 12 step beliefs. It circumvents the use of the G*d word. Not at all related to "elites."
Also need to think about U.S. voters who voted for Howdy Doody, et al.
Orban speaking on behalf of trump is akin to nailing the coffin shut on trump's presidential campaign!
imagine the conservative slogan this year: Trump/Orban 2024
We can't make this up! Thank God conservatives group together in a proverbial circular, firing squad
Trump fancies himself alongside Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito, only even more bigly and badder. His ex-wife said he kept Hitlers speeches by his bedside. Like other salient sociopaths mentioned here, he somehow commands a fanatical following.
Read Hitler’s sequel to Mein Kompf, “ My New Order”. Donnie studied this one big time. If Hitler and Roy Cohn were ur only teachers…. Well
You're joking, right? Just when you think he's down, back up he comes, as loved by the magas as ever.
Fully Trumpified MAGA's are a lost cause, but some on the edges might become unconformable with Trump's depravity. I could see some ads detailing some of Orbán's worst excesses, with Trump saying over and over in the background “There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orbán. He’s fantastic,”
It's potential meat for the Lincoln Project. But, how many voters know who this Orbán is?
How many people know anything coherent about American politics? I'm more obsessive than most and yet my picture is still a sketchy patchwork. I seem to recall that a majority of Americans were convinced that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. We don't have a good system to keep people well informed, and as a society, we undervalue it. "Garbage in, garbage out" as they said in IT. Our system is only as good as out decisions, and our decisions are only as good as the information we bring to them and the care we take in applying it.
I am 84 and just beginning to learn about American politics. I studied literature, classics and philosophy and luckily a few courses in political science because the teacher was so good. I thought history and politics: too many names, dates places...plus, who can know the truth?? Because of Oct 7 I got very connected to that (like obsessed) and it's led to some pretty awful truths I knew some of from travel in Guatemala and friends and films from Chile, Argentina. And, of course, now Heather, the ultimate teacher of American history. So much of American history is inspiring. I'm not too happy with the current America.
Saddam Hussein: I clearly recall him saying, "I'm a man, you're not" to his executioner or did he mean Bush? I felt, yes, he's not a nice man but he's a real man.
I had the same problem with history, way back in high school. Too many dates to keep track of! Thankfully we have Heather HCR to sort this out for us!
My wife was a classics major after undergrad, and I was a physics major. We met and bonded over music and cats, just a couple of things. You should have seen the party we threw for combined physicists and classicists! It was successful but also a disaster regarding nobody mixing. I only mention this as incompatible people can end up married!
And so, could the rural and US south get together and have a conversation!? I think not in my case, as religion as scientist gets in the way. But I'm happy to have a conversation if someone will listen to my point of view.
All of that said, I'm happy to play tuba with my brass quintet at your church service if you are not a MAGA church!
Since the newspapers have all gone well informed people is a thing of the past. This was by design.
I asked a 25 yo on election day last week if she voted. She asked me 'for what'? She was serious.
We, the readers here, are informed. Others not so much.
JL, I keep hoping for sanity amongst my former workmates, but they are edging farther and farther away.
Say hello to Pres Trump this year, sadly
A LOT of people will move to Mexico where I live. There are some inconveniences but one doesn't have to worry about getting shot.
judith, what part of Mexico, I'm thinking Ontario, canada even if I have to sneak across their border.
Merida in the Yucatan. The safest city in Mexico. Con: it's hot and humid 7 months a year. There are many wonderful cities in Mexico. To be able to live anywhere in Mexico, getting a residency card, one has to have a decent income and/or savings. It has gone up considerable since I came in 2010. Every country has restrictions.
AI info from google.
The border between Canada and Mexico is 3,626.45 kilometers long, or 2,253.37 miles. The Canadian border is longer than the Mexican border, with 76 border-crossing points compared to 22 on the southern border.
There are loads of Canadians in Mexico. They get here by plane.
At least Trump didn't get us into wars.
Like obama, the military folks engaged him to point at a map
Will the Dems have the guts to promote that slogan. Putin/Trump 2024 might be better
i think you're right jeri
Two tyrants for the vote of one.
What a deal, is the first traitorous McCarthy spinning in his grave. What a blacklist he could have today…
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-global-anti-democracy-movement?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=365422&post_id=142118610&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=g2ipj&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Thank you for this. Wish maggats had a functioning brain. They are a minority, but the majority seems frozen in time. If woke is tantamount to communism, I am a commie. The lies never stop. Bannon was right, flood the zone with schitt and people will be overwhelmed. We must learn to rise above the schitt.
jeri, please consider, there are many brothers and sisters on the other side of this conflict.
How well I know, but those genetically related to me can be as brain-washed as the next guy. We don’t fight or argue, but the respect I had is gone. Trump’s treasonous behavior is broadcast all day every day, just a little curiosity about the future of the country, our children, and the future of planet earth would be a step or two up from the adoration of the MAGAt…
half my family are Trumpers
Gnashing of teeth and preaching to the choir are worthless self-flagellation. This year is a time for ACTION, what I did on three presidential campaigns for Obama and Hillary when I was younger and still able. From my home in the Santa Cruz Mountains, about 70 miles S of San Francisco, I drove about 320 miles NE to work around Reno, Carson City, NV, and several small towns knocking on doors, running errands, spending time on the phones. Local supporters opened their spare bedrooms to me, and to other volunteers. I was retired, and could do that. I blew out both knees running up and down stairs in Reno in 2016 for Hillary (many of our voters live in low cost housing), so at 82, my wife and I are reduced to sending money.
Please don't waste your time and energy venting here, trying to make yourself feel good. Get off your butt and DO something. Volunteers are often needed in swing states on weekends. Volunteers are hand-writing letters and postcards to voters in swing states. My wife has done that. Spend your vacation time saving the democracy! All of the volunteer work I did was VERY satisfying, and I met a LOT of great people. I met Jon Tester in a small town in NV when he came to campaign for Obama in 2008, Harry Reid and Chicago Congressman Luis Gutierrez in Sparks on later campaigns. That's in addition to the great volunteers I worked with.
Many of us live close enough to swing states to spend time there -- NV was mine, there's PA, OH, MI, WI, NC. And there are Senate and House races we can work on. Every seat matters! Don't talk about "what the Democrats are doing" -- that's US. Get off your butt and DO something. If you've got some spare cash, SPEND it on our Democracy, rather than a vacation!
I'm a White guy from WV, a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago and in Cairo, Il. It was hard work, often challenging, but extremely satisfying. My kids respect me more because I did it. Give yours another reason to respect YOU more! And give them a country!
Jim, you are amazing. I love and admire your fierce work and dedication to our shared values. . I’m grateful to you, And I’m proud to be here in the “choir” with you.
But I must tell you that I badly need to be informed in order to be more valuable in this fight. I must hear and read and listen to understand what we are up against and how to best respond.
Nothing in my upbringing or education or work experience prepared me for this day.
A madman who openly admits to admiring dictators, does Putin’s bidding and who says he will be a dictator on day one after being elected is tied in many polls to win the presidency.
I am now arming myself with knowledge and sharing it as best as I can. Im donating and trying to be smart about it.
Yes it is not enough to vote Blue alone. The Electoral College is the pathway to being elected President and is as vital to MAGA strategy as is having packed the Supreme Court.
Warmongers are running the show. Nuland may be gone, but her warmongering ilk are still calling the shots, ie Jake and his asskissers.
https://www.aol.com/republican-group-planning-50m-campaign-164129371.html
Go get ‘em, I will too
don't mess around with big Jim
Uptown got its hustlers
The Bowery got its bums
42nd Street got big Jim Walker
He a pool-shootin' son of a gun
Yeah, he big and dumb as a man can come
But he stronger than a country hoss
And when the bad folks all get together at night
You know they all call big Jim "Boss", just because
And they say
"You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim"
Well, outta south Alabama came a country boy
He said, "I'm lookin' for a man named Jim
I am a pool-shootin' boy, my name is Willie McCoy
But down at home they call me Slim
Yeah, I'm lookin' for the king of 42nd Street
He drivin' a drop top Cadillac
Last week he took all my money, and it may sound funny
But I come to get my money back"
And everybody say, "Jack, ooh, don't you know
You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim"
Well, a hush fell over the pool room
Jimmy come boppin' in off the street
And when the cuttin' was done
The only part that wasn't bloody
Was the soles of the big man's feet, woo
Yeah, he was cut in 'bout a hundred places
And he was shot in a couple more
And you better believe
They sung a different kind of story
When big Jim hit the floor, oh
There's a sayin'
You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Slim
Yeah, big Jim got his hat
Find out where it's at
It's not hustlin' people strange to you
Even if you do got a two piece custom-made pool cue
Yeah, you don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Slim