Keep speaking up! This war is causing more cracks in the Republican Party and we need to keep up the pressure!
Be LOUD! 💔🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
With all of Trump's crazed social media posts and blathering on Air Force One with his press gaggle, there was no mention of the terrorist threats on US soil.
My suggestion for the day is to write to your representatives in Congress to call in Kash Patel to testify about his plan to resurrect the Counterterrorism Division (CTD), a division of the National Security Branch of the FBI. We are facing both foreign terrorist actions on US soil as well as domestic retaliatory anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim terrorist incidents.
Since the U.S.–Israel strikes on Iran began on February 28, there have been at least two high‑profile attacks that U.S. authorities and major outlets are treating as terrorism on U.S. soil.
On March 12, a 41‑year‑old man drove his vehicle into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, with around 140 preschool children inside; he was armed with a rifle when arrested. The attacker, a Lebanese‑born naturalized U.S. citizen, had close family members reportedly killed or injured in recent Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, and investigators are probing ideological and retaliatory motives; the FBI is investigating this as a terrorism case.
Also in the last week, a gunman opened fire in a classroom at Old Dominion University in Virginia, killing one person before being killed by police. The suspect was identified as a former Virginia National Guardsman who had previously served prison time after admitting to providing material support to ISIS; authorities say he had ties to ISIS, and the FBI is investigating the shooting as terrorism.
NPR and other outlets note that, in the same week, there was also an attempted assault on the New York City mayor’s residence that the FBI has folded into a cluster of incidents it is examining for possible terrorism links, though details and motive are less clear than in the Michigan and Virginia cases.
While these attacks are not yet publicly tied to direct Iranian state orders, they are unfolding in the immediate context of the Iran war and Gaza/Iran‑related grievances, and are contributing to what officials describe as an accelerating domestic terrorism threat environment.
Meanwhile, Trump’s second term has brought significant reductions and reallocations that are directly hitting FBI and DOJ counterterrorism capacity, even when the administration claims to be “refocusing” on terrorism and violent crime.
The FY 2026 Trump budget proposal cuts the FBI’s overall budget by about $545 million, as part of broader DOJ reductions of roughly $2.5 billion and 5,000 positions across the department. Lawmakers note that within DOJ, funding for national security, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, threat screening, and WMD-related programs is being reduced, despite elevated threat levels.
A bloc of senators led by Sen. Blumenthal reported that FBI leadership plans to cut around 15% of the Bureau’s workforce—about 5,800 employees—with questions pending on how many of those positions are in counterterrorism or counterespionage.
Senior FBI terrorism specialists tied to January 6 and domestic-extremism work have been forced out or reassigned, with some terrorism investigators moved over to DHS to support mass deportation operations, directly shrinking the pool of personnel available for terrorism prevention and investigations.
About half of DOJ’s National Security Division counterterrorism prosecutors have left since the beginning of this Trump term, amid both attrition and politicized reshuffling, which weakens capacity to bring complex terrorism cases.
ProPublica reporting describes “sweeping cuts and reforms” that have effectively ended or sharply reduced federal terrorism-prevention work, including ordered shutdowns of DHS-funded projects and databases used by law enforcement to assess threats; while this is DHS, FBI relies on those capabilities as part of the broader federal counterterrorism ecosystem.
Current FBI Director Kash Patel has fired nearly a dozen top Iran-focused counterterrorism agents, including what was reported as the top 10 Iran counterterrorism agents, after they had been involved in investigations related to Trump; this is a direct blow to the Bureau’s Iran CT bench at a time of heightened tensions.
Senators and outside experts warn that arbitrary removals, forced retirements, and leadership churn have hit at least 18 of 53 Special Agents in Charge and other supervisory staff, creating gaps not only in cyber units but also in the Bureau’s counterterrorism chain of command.
Internal directives described by lawmakers indicate an effort to transform the FBI from a national security–centric agency (terrorism, espionage, public corruption) into more of a national police force focused on local violent crime, while still cutting overall headcount.
Analysts and civil society groups argue that the administration has ended or crippled federal work specifically on domestic and far-right terrorism by: defunding prevention grants, banning race-related terminology in white-supremacist violence research, and eliminating or starving programs that focused on those threats.
Trump does not care about the safety of the American people as collateral damage in this war he conjured up to deflect attention from the Epstein files and his failing approval ratings. That was clear from Day One when there were no warnings or plans to evacuate Americans put in danger in the Middle East.
Over the last three weeks, Trump’s public comments around jihadist terrorism have focused almost entirely on Iran and its proxies, and he has repeatedly downplayed the risk of a retaliatory terror attack on U.S. soil. Asked on March 11 if he was worried about Iran carrying out a terror attack inside the United States in response to the Iran war, Trump said “No, I don’t,” and insisted he was not concerned about such a threat. He claimed the U.S. has identified all Iranian “sleeper cells” and has “eyes on all of them,” presenting domestic risk as under control despite elevated threat assessments from experts and allies.
In his February 28 address announcing “major combat operations in Iran,” Trump cast the Iranian regime as an “evil terrorist regime” and framed the campaign as necessary to prevent it and its proxies from attacking U.S. forces and allies.
This is simply a continuation of his provocations to jihadist groups. Trump’s calls for the U.S. to “take over” and “develop” Gaza, with Palestinians moved elsewhere, were flagged by counterterrorism experts as handing jihadist groups a powerful “rallying cry” for targeting Americans; those remarks are still being cited in current analyses of jihadist propaganda around the Iran war.
Georgia, I will follow your suggestion in calls to my MAGAs today.📲
From Ron Filowpowski/Meidas Touch yesterday….
“… Iran Security Council leader Ali Larijani: “I’ve heard that the remaining members of Epstein’s network (that is what he calls the Trump and Netanyahu admins) have devised a conspiracy to create an incident similar to 9/11 and blame Iran for it. Iran fundamentally opposes such terrorist schemes and has no war with the American people.”
… Seyed Mohammed Marandi, Prof at Tehran Univ: “I’ve been told that recently, in a joint meeting between some extremist figures in the US and Israeli regime intelligence services, a plan was discussed to target a landmark tower in either an American city or in the UAE, and then blame it on Iran. The goal would be to create international consensus for their subsequent actions and crimes.”
Ordinary Americans' lives stateside are at elevated risk at the same time the Trump regime has cut the counterintelligence resources needed to keep us safe.
The War on Iran had to have been in the planning stages for many months, during the time the counterterrorism cuts were being made.
Trump wants chaos here to call out the troops to "protect" the midterms. Apparently, the "worst of the worst" immigrant crackdown is not getting the fear in the streets results he wants, so it's time to amp up the jihadists on American soil.
The problem is that he has some control over the fear of immigrants ploy, but he has no control whatsoever now that he has provoked and unleashed the jihadists.
Georgia said, "Trump wants chaos here to call out the troops to 'protect' the midterms. Apparently, the 'worst of the worst' immigrant crackdown is not getting the fear in the streets results he wants, so it's time to amp up the jihadists on American soil."
New Mexico just passed legislation to ban the military and ICE from polling places. All the states should pass something similar.
I don’t know if my open letter to our CT governor explaining the need to protect our residents from ice thugs but he recently stated as much and our mayor went even further stating they will be arrested if they threaten our residents.
Since pandoras box has been opened, and we now need total destruction in order to rebuild and be reborn, let oil to go to $200. And our rallies should bring out 50 million protesters.
Shut it down. Buy only basic needs. Close your Amazon accounts. A prediction of destruction is now being realized and we must protect ourselves and each other. Reduce driving to the basics. We did during Covid-19 we can do it again.
His behavior is all based on keeping the media away from the Jeffery Epstein files. Imagine that.
Time for those who can, to get their bicycles out. For those who are disabled, vehicle use should be available. However, for many of us, cycling needs to come back with a vengeance.
We're all in for March 28th in CT-even going to be a little late for our grandson's birthday party. We offered to bring "ice" but it was politely declined.
Agree 100%. It will be interesting to see if DOJ brings a suit to overturn it on some specious grounds, but sufficient to get an appellate court injunction to stop it from going into effect in a case of states sovereignity over elections versus executive power to declare an insurrection.
Trump doesn’t need right on his side; he just needs a friendly judge to eat up time on the clock with a favorable disposition of the injunctions. there isn’t a lot of time between now and November to get a resolution on the merits.
Exactly. Trump has opened a Pandora's box that will be with us for YEARS. The killing of 170+ school children will be used in Jihadist sermons/literature to recruit more terrorists to attack the "Great Satans" - at a time when our national security resources are more vulnerable and led by amateurs.
Meanwhile, Trump begging and threatening allies to bail him out in the Strait is rich! He's spent most of the last year bullying, threatening, and bad-mouthing those same allies. He should have learned the "Pottery Barn Rule" - You break it, you own it!
Trying to make it seem like closing of the strait is not a U.S. problem is BS. Whether they like it or not, the U.S. is part of the GLOBAL economy. What happens in the Gulf affects us all.
It's much worse than that. Dunces are sidelined because they say and do dumb things. This culty administration under T is dangerous, vile, immoral, and corrupt. You can't say that about dunces.
At what point has trump's mind be eviscerated for him to be ousted? His behavior and the words that come out of his mouth are those of a demented person. This is who is calling the shots folks! How will members of Congress respond when their grandchildren ask, "Why didn't you do something?"
JD Vance is worse. Listen to the You-Tube from John Oliver and you will see that Vance is worse than the Orange Menace.
Vance is backing away from the bombing of Iran, but domestically he is a disaster for women, immigrants, brown (except for his own babies)/black citizens. . .Vance is Yale Evil. Trump is Stupid Evil.
That"The U.S. does indeed produce more oil and natural gas than it consumes, but it cannot use much of what it produces. ...This means the U.S. is inextricably tied to the international oil markets" Is bullsit propaganda from Big Oil.
The refineries are controlled to a large part by the Saudis...
If we want to reduce domestic demand, we have. supressed the real competition - alternative energy.
Ask Krugman what restoration of Biden energy policy could do. .
Nuts. The United States is indeed part of the global economy, and rightly so. We should not be isolationist. In energy terms, we are the largest producers in the world of crude oil and natural gas. The column is wrong that we cannot refine our own light, sweet crude oil (meaning less viscous and with less sulfur). We do. But we also have a number of refineries, especially along the Gulf of Mexico, that are configured to refine heavy sour crude oil, which we have imported for decades from places like Venezuela, Mexico and western Canada that produce that grade of oil. We pay for it in many ways; for example, we import Mexico's heavy Maya crude oil and export to Mexico some of the gasoline and fuel oil refined from Maya crude. U.S. producers of crude oil have long been banned from exporting crude oil, but they can export refined products (from 132 refineries) such as gasoline, fuel oil and jet fuel. We have been net exporters since 2008, meaning we sell more to overseas buyers than we import. We also are net exporters of natural gas.
Loren-Thanks for the link to Krugman. When he says “Money buys a lot of influence, but to actually take over the
U. S. Government requires more than money-it requires politicians who are utterly corrupt” it’s a reminder that we should focus more on the “representatives” in Congress and the billionaires who pay them. Those enablers are the real problem.
GinaAM, you are a new paid subscriber here, so unless you've been reading for free for awhile, you wouldn't be familiar with me and my frequent posts detailing my high regard for educators. As the self-appointed Walmart greeter on the forum, I offer a WELCOME to you! 👋🏼It's good to have this community growing! Thank you for that.
Why? Do you think people couldn't read it the first time?
This is only about the 48th time you've used the term "ChristoNazi" -- congratulations for saying nothing new whatever the most frequently. No wonder you beg people to re-read the same thing over and over again....
ICTT, I notice that right above this comment is one from a person who has been subscribing only 3 weeks. Some of us have been here over five years and are well acquainted with each other, even learning much of our personal history. I don't know if today is a bad day for you, as this doesn't seem to be the tone I'm used to seeing from you. You know how much I not only value your opinions, but also am a fan of your excellent writing. Your intelligence and experience have added so much to this forum that I look for your comments. (When I can. Some days, I'm so depressed by it all that I need to take a day off to regroup.)
I'm supportive of Loren repeatedly posting, and I just skip or skim over it. I guess you could do the same, or maybe block him so you don't have to see it?
Again, this doesn't sound like you, and I am sincere in saying this: I hope that nothing bad is going on with you (other than this insanity that is impacting us ALL) and the rest of the day improves for you.
Is there not ANY protection from courts or local police for those who are bringing up legitimate charges? If we can pay to protect Melania and Baron, and Jared and Ivanka, and Don, Jr. and Eric - my god we can't even protect our citizens who pay taxes??
Then what we need is a pinball wizard like Tommy. The rock opera is actually about intergenerational trauma . Thanks for the reminder or the connection of the old and new remake Tron. Stranger Things in a visual metaphor and time sequence also used the old pin ball arcades. Though I still remember the old bowling for dollars and my at least once every game gutter ball.
Thank you. But you've no need to defend me against ICTT; he is too clever (and too cowardly) to reveal his name as a regurgitator of tacitly pro-ChristoNazi venom, and his deception is enough sophisticated that the pseudonym he cravenly hides behind is obviously an acronym for something like "Intelligence Community Trained Troublemaker." I know his ilk as much from my decades of journalism as from my decades of activism, and but for the apparent need to warn you of his malicious intent, I'd have ignored him as I do his less sophisticated colleague Rickie. A classic example, this, in why Lev Bronstein's 1905 axiom is as relevant now under Führer Trump as it was under Tzar Nicholas II: "In every gathering of three revolutionaries, there is at least one agent of the Okhrana."
This is a bit more anecdotal but I believe it provides some incite as to just how stupid and short sighted the decisions that this moron and regime makes. This is the slowest start for construction in my son's company since it started 15 years ago. People are unwilling to start projects because the heavy Hispanic trades in Minnesota don't have enough help left to do the work. Hmmm .Surprise surprise! Now we can't afford gas or fuel because we don't have the capability to refine our own crude? Now the US is asking or demanding help from our once allies after kicking the shit out of them? I keep thinking about Pink Floyd's song "Hello, hello, is there anybody in there?"
Georgia.., stop. The President wants to "have some fun" (you heard him say it.., I did too). So, are we having "fun" yet? I know of six crew members.., flying on KC135 aircraft that I launched off the runways of Guam and U-Tapao Thailand in 1969.., , whose 'fun' days are no longer. Fun? May their dear souls rest.
Trump has given all of us another look at his mental state. Who in the hell would "bomb for fun", in other words, waste tax dollar for his own amusement? Saying such statements, as ludicrous as they are, should hammer another 3-inch nail into his impeachment coffin. That republicans cannot see thuggish behavior of this WH occupant only proves who they have become.
And as we suffer the consequences momentum will build for the final solution. The jihadists are not interested in selling us dope and making money. Here we can see Putin's grand play coming to fruition. As with the game of chess all it took was a clever series of moves on the King. Of course having a dopey, ignorant, vain King was imperative.
Vance is waiting in the wings to be brought in as the sane, rational, obedient replacement puppet if Trump self-destructs. Oligarchs gotta have a Plan B. They are so close to getting their goal of a limited, regulation-free, AI-enabled government that continues to move the wealth upward. They are not going to give up easily. Trump is not alone in destroying democracy.
Enormous amounts of money are going to be spent on the midterms. It’s already happening with Ellisons buying up CBS and CNN. There are an awful lot of voters who are not engaged with the news. They will still trust what they hear on CBS and CNN. The Ellisons are placing a huge bet that they can manipulate the media narrative. Bezos is doing the same with WaPo on a smaller scale.
That White House collage on their wins against the “fake news” media was frightening. Trump and his oligarchic puppetmasters are destroying freedom of the press, free speech, and the right to dissent.
HCR.. "But again, in this moment, we look very much like the 1850s, the 1890s, and the 1930s. And in this moment, in those times, the money was there on the side of the people who were trying to destroy Democracy. But the American people showed up and their votes took over. So if you look at all at the special elections that have been held (not all of them) - but virtually all of the ones that have been held since Trump took office, the Democrats are winning by double-digit margins. So they are showing up and making a real difference..."
Later she says," But now is the time not to stop "driving". Because right now, the fate of alot of people, including the United States, hangs on what we do in this minute. And never forget how many more of us there are than the Magas. Many of Trump voters from 2024 (20% of young people and Hispanics) have turned against Trump now. If those numbers had been held back in 2024, he would not have been elected."
There have been so far some great grassroots campaigns actually reaching large groups of voters, whether they watch CBS or CNN or not... Many people are feeling the economic strain and they saw the deaths of Ruben Ray Martinez, Rene Good, and Alex Pretti and they don't want to see their neighbors and friends murdered in the streets... Yes, we have much to overcome, but the fight is still ongoing. And the Ukrainians are our example of persevering heroism. If they haven't given up after the insurmountable odds against them, we need to not give up in advance, but fight even harder. Are we up to this task??!!#
" “Really, I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory, because it is their territory. It’s the place from which they get their energy, and they should come and they should help us protect it. You could make the case that maybe we shouldn’t even be there at all, because we don’t need it. We have a lot of oil.”
I am feeling dizzy from the force of that spin.
This petty schoolyard bully started the war and now demands that our (alienated) former allies come and clean up his mess.
We should never forget that Trump, the ChristoNazi conquest and its MAGAstapo terrorism is the triumph of a multi-generation, bi-partisan scheme more than a century in the making, To learn of the carefully hidden roots of the crisis, the documentation of which include a PBS film about the enormous support for Hitler here in the '30s and additional, meticulously footnoted documentation of the plutocracy's support for Nazism, go here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-25-2026?utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=205274486
The European Union agreed to renew sanctions against Russia over the weekend as the bloc and other US allies questioned Washington’s decision to temporarily ease some oil restrictions against Moscow to curb a price surge caused by supply disruptions from the Iran war, Politico reported.
EU countries on Saturday reached a unanimous deal to extend the bloc’s sanctions framework targeting Russian businesses, officials and oligarchs, ensuring the restrictions would not expire over the weekend. More than 2,600 people and entities remain under sanctions imposed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Yes Rev Charles Gallagher and his book The Nazis of Copley Square and some of the German Bund. Originally German was suppose to be our nation’s language there was a vote I think. But in the aftermath of WWI and the anti German feeling there was a kind of backlash.
Before WWI there were neighborhoods where my grandmother grew up of both Lutheran and Catholic Germans, Irish, and Jewish enclaves. At West High in Cleveland German was the language to take not Latin. My grandmother’s new friends- she had graduated from a Catholic grade school and that year was the first year Cleveland Public Schools allowed Catholic students to enter- convinced her to take German. That was the era of sone progressive thinking so Normal Schools were the next step and then she taught at a local Open Air School( pre TB prevention public health imagine!). My grandmother had to do school marches to ask for donations to the war effort. She was incensed because this was in the location of steel mills and multiple immigration groups just surviving. After the war this community changed radically and the Jewish community left with only a few traces that most people did not mention. It was only through my grandmother’s stories and friendship with those in the Jewish community that I used my eyes and found some of the remaining spots-an old schule now turned down and an old Jewish cemetery.
Rachel Maddow!s Ultra series broadens this out to Washington DC. Adam Hochschild in American Midnight explores this era. All from the concept of Victoria and Albert wanting to have a royal united Europe!
I am also reminded of Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror - that has echoes now as well.
My 7th grade class in 1977 was the last class class to be required to take German language class. After that, students could choose Spanish instead. We were in Berks Country PA, though, so I always assumed it was the influence of the Amish, not the Nazis.
Hard to say. I am not aware of the language used and its roots! There is something with the Dutch culture and language as well. You will have to do some research and let us know! I find that ability to research helpful in so many ways!
The former U.S. military will go down in infamy as oath-breakers. No doubt seduced by ChristoNazi dogma and promised the promotions and loot implicit in wars of conquest, they have become the felonious president's war-criminal legions of death.
Chump is doing exactly what W/Dickie did. Creating enemies that we didn’t have before, for reasons that had no connections to what was in America’s interest. And the lies never stoped. Just became gospel for political fools. At least W wasn’t a pervert…
I forwarded Heather's post today to my spineless, worthless "Christian" Congressman, imploring him to do his job. We must ,mobilize the Dems and the Independents to action. The Magats are a lost cause because MAGA is in fact 21st century KKK. Timothy Egan, "A Fever in the Heartland" (2023) about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's and HCR, "How the South Won the Civil War," (2020) and "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" ("Critical Sociology," Feb. 2018) by two Univ. of Kansas professors. Google it: The Anger Games . . . .
Richard-You’ve pointed out the underlying motivation and support for this regime. The MAGA slogan is all about taking us back to the days when the hierarchy was clearly embedded in white supremacy. Letting a Black president slip through helped to create the fear, malice and hate that propelled the current regime into office.
“No more DEI and no more woke” keeps the Rs support intact. Too bad the majority of Americans can’t see the fallacies involved with racism and misogyny. They need to understand that skin color and body parts don’t define superiority in human beings.
Unfortunately those "Dems" are too often recipients of AIPAC money. AIPAC is the massive pro-Israel PAC. Go to AIPAC Tracker and learn $9.5 MILLION from AIPAC for Adam Schiff or Cory Booker who will not disavow Netanyahu and said he took around $800k from AIPAC years ago. Well. Booker has received $5.8 MILLION. Also go to integrity.index.us.
We can stop expecting the same people who stood by while we got in this nightmare to help us.
True, they, the Magats, are zero help. They comprise part of the opposition. They suffer from amathia, willful ignorance, i.e., they are unable to recognize the fact that they are racist and are being used, manipulated.. It is as strong in them as any religious belief.
Even without all your excellent research, we know Trump doesn't GAF about the American people or how many will die because of his narcissism, ignorance, corruption and greed. That Patel has essentially dismantled the counter-terrorism department and DHS has forced many experts on Iran and terrorism to deport innocent immigrants instead of doing their real jobs, clearly shows that these malignant idiots are clearing the way for terrorists to hit us hard and often. I am so furious!
It's almost as if Trump is inviting terrorist attacks in the US to justify martial law and suspension of domestic civil rights.
Of course, I could be wrong about this. But Trump's exploitation of American citizens and assets to advance his personal ends has been a through line of both of his administrations and it gets worse every time he makes a "plan" or even opens his mouth.
We need to sound the alarm. Before an attack happens, people need to be aware of where the fault lies and what domestic policy changes are likely to follow.
Hopefully none of this happens and there are no attacks to respond to, but it isn't a good idea to assume things are well in hand, either from the personal safety standpoint or for the future governance of the US.
Polymarket (where Don Jr. made an “8-figure” investment and is on the advisory board) has the odds of Dems winning the majority in the House at 85% and in the Senate at 51% at the midterms.
As the odds get higher, Trump will get more desperate, and he will get more reckless. But I have no idea what would be more reckless than starting the War with Iran. There aren’t enough soldiers, ICE, and DHS agents to stop voting in every blue city in America.
Well, if he can just issue an Executive Order declaring one of his "emergencies", especially if it's close to November, he can postpone or cancel elections and have everything stay the way it is until he's "solved" the "problem" and made it safe to vote again.
"Safe", of course, having nothing to do with the personal safety of Americans, but to making the election safe for his continuing authoritarian coup. Don Jr. will be able to tell him when that is.
I want to get Patel on the record for accountability purposes. Who told him to fire the Iran experts? When did they tell him? Why were those particular people fired as part of Trump’s retribution project? And then I want to bring in the people who were fired and ask them about their particular expertise on intelligence about Iran.
I want to see buttons pushed on what was in those boxes of classified documents that Judge Aileen Cannon has covered up for Trump. Why were Iranian experts working on that case?
I do. The news has been coming so fast and furiously I am mostly doing notes instead of full posts on my stack these days. I am trying to get back to covering the war in Ukraine but the issues here are more pressing.
Georgia, this is well documented, i think it is clear that Trump is not worried about a stateside terrorist attack, as it will not affect him, and has a likelihood of helping his popularity. Then rewind the tape of Patel in the locker room in Italy to have a good idea of who is in charge of protecting us from terrorist attacks 🤡.
I'm not a counterterrorism expert, but I would be surprised if Mar-A-Lago wasn't on some terrorists' target list. The terrorists have a pretty good idea of who is to blame for the current mess, and while they tend to attack soft targets they also try to send a message.
Georgia, thank you for this excellent and detailed post complete with sites. No one I know feels safe, mostly worried by our own jackboots. Now we can add the people provoked by this mess in the Middle East who might want to take revenge.
Just because the Strait of Hormuz is closed, blocking 20% of the world’s oil as Professor HCR points out, liberals try to make fun of President Trump’s demands for other countries to help reopen it. Jokes like “He sounds like that 1960s cartoon character Tooter Turtle. 'Help me, Mr. Wizard. Gee, it looks like I made a mess of things again! I don't want to be a War President any more!'" The truth is, if other countries were to help reopen the Strait it really would help their own economies. That truth does not depend upon what, or who, caused their economies to crap out either. Moreover, Americans voted for him as the Commander in Chief. He won twice too. First against Clinton, a First Lady for 8 years, a Senator and then a Secretary of State. He also beat Harris, a former Attorney General of Calif., a Senator and Vice President. He beat them both because he offers Americans something they both will never have, a white penis. Truth hurts. The problem is deeply related to the Salve Economy, white male privilege. That is the culture the Slave Economy created. Then, almost before the ink dried on the 14th Amendment, which repealed the Dred Scott opinion which said Mr. Scott, a person, was property with no rights, the Supreme Court used the Equal Protection Clause to say it applies to corporations. Thus a corporation, property, is a person with rights. Today we have a mixed corporate culture offspring of the Salve Economy culture. That mess gave us the corporatist fascist Roberts' 6 and the USA culture who voteed for Trump. We have some work to do: unite, unite, unite.
Please read, share and discuss my "Memorandum to We the People." I review the above and begin with the American ideals and values established 250 years ago. Then I mention some social and legal advancements. Next I review the attacks upon all of that by the Supreme Court and others beginning with corporate personhood in 1883 up to now. Then I explain the need for a national discussion by We the People to amend our Constitution and close with model amendment language needed to remedy the more than two dozen wounds the Court has created in lies about what out Constitution means. I promise the professional interpretation and effective presentation of my Memorandum by Mr. Dale Rowett of LexiGraphics.Pro is by itself worth a visit to my page at UnitedWeAmend.org.
Liberals, at least this one, don’t make fun of Trump asking for our allies’ help “Just because the Strait of Hormuz is closed, blocking 20% of the world’s oil.
We make fun of his demands for their aid because he’s tried to demolish NATO, threatened to seize, with force, Greenland from NATO ally Denmark, threatened to make Canada, another NATO member, a U.S. state, diminished support for Ukraine, repeatedly sided with Vladimir Putin over the interests of Western Europe, while personally insulting heads of state or allied nations as a whole.
We make fun of him because he is a schoolyard bully crying because nobody wants to play with him.
Sorry. I should have used the word "ridicule" and not "joke." In Saul Alinsky's book, Rules for Radicals" my favorite Rule is Rule #5. "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It's hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage." https://sliwainsights.com/saul-alinskys-12-rules-for-radicals/
And then again - which is funnier? Seeing a giraffe on the streets of Minneapolis, or seeing a fat guy dressed up as if he's going into a full scale battle?
Also, my post is tongue in cheek. I hope people read that as I intended. You are 100% correct on his demanding "allies" when all he has ever done is destroy our allied relations. Now using a fallacy he argues we helped NATO in Ukraine and therefore NATO should help us. We helped ourselves in Ukraine. He closes with a threat to NATO saying, "If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of Nato,”. This will make his fried Putin happy.
Doug, I didn't pay much attention to Donald's "board of peace" grift, its being what it is. I've looked up the list of nations that accepted his invitation. Other than Israel and the U.S. who started this war, the others have very little military power. It's doubtful that all of them together could – or would – provide much assistance.
Besides, their intention was only to buy Donald's favor; they never intended to have any skin in the game. If they refuse to participate in Donald's war, what's he gonna do, throw them off the board? Have any of them actually paid their admission fees?
Not to mention slapped arbitrary and illegal tariffs on their countries because he misguidedly -or stupidly, depends on how engaged you are- thought it would punish them for disrespecting his widdle self.
Insanity and dementia are a little hard to distinguish which at work here..
It seems trump and his clown cart full are doing their best to ignore the fact that Iran leaders only needs to exist to declare victory over the Israel and the west. For trump to accomplish a meaningful victory, he needs to open the strait, and stop missiles and drones from Iran causing regional instability. It will be a tall order to achieve this, and will be extremely unpopular by then.
You really have to give up this myth of American exceptionalism if you're going to get out of this mess you've landed yourselves in. Your country has never lived up to the ideals it claimes to espouse. Nothing shows this more than the forced eviction of Native Americans and the US's poisonous relationship with Latin America (south and central America) where since the late 19th century to today successive US administrations have systematically disrupted every attempt to set up social democracies.
You need a new constitution written in modern language, one that will properly protect the basic rights of the most vulnerable of your citizens. You need social democracy and you need it soon.
My Memorandum does not ignore the hard truths of human history. Especially not the slave economy King George III and the corrupt Parliament imposed upon the 13 colonies. My model amendment is a major re-write. It includes five sections of strong medicine for a badly wounded Republic. It also recognizes George Washington had only four executive Departments and 13 States. Today there are 15 executive Departments and 50 States. I would repeal the single executive and replace that with seven executives with each in control of a diversified group of the Departments. Thus no more having all our eggs in a single basket, or in Trump's case, no more having all our eggs in a single "Basket case."
I've been walking this path of a modern constitution for two years now. I've sent BOLO's out to those with similar (or ought to have) views and received nary a response. If you're interested, RJN, send me an email address and I'll post you the latest draft as of early December 2025. . .
When the coffins are coming back by the dozens and Tel Aviv looks like Gaza (can't happen soon enough!) it's going to be interesting where the well-known big US mouths are going to be. Every single Iranian spokesman sounds about 100 times more intelligent than any single US spokesperson, leave alone the Orange one, who probably would even have problems finding Iran on a map.
As the case is here, Israel has had mass demonstrations against Netanyahu's actions in Gaza, the war in Iran, the expansion of political control over judicial appointments, and Netanyahu's corruption.
Netanyahu, like Trump, has allied himself with ultra-Nationalist extremists to stay in power and to protect himself from corruption charges. Like here, there are secular factions in Israel that are resisting and trying to restore democracy.
AIPAC is taking advantage of Citizens United to the utmost extent possible. It should be investigated as a conduit for foreign money into elections. Netanyahu speaks and AIPAC repeats while writing checks as far as I can tell.
It is not representative of the viewpoint of all Jews.
It is also being used as a single-issue divider for the Democratic Party at a time when the last thing we can afford is purity tests. You can see that by the number of people who have recently been exclusively focusing on AIPAC. It provides an opportunity to normalize anti-Semitism and stoke Trump’s far-right Nazi supporters. This is playing into their hands.
The answer is to put AIPAC on the long list of things that have to be dealt with once Democrats are back in control of government.
We need to put our energy into winning first, and then getting rid of Citizens United so AIPAC and the entire corrupt PAC structure is outlawed.
Speaking face-to-face with someone in terms of political purity can repel them. It can provoke an argument. Because it tends to divide, it's not an effective tactic to achieve a bigger-picture win, like an election. For ex., instead of stating "No vote for anyone who takes AIPAC money," try "I'm not supporting Chuck Schumer because I believe AIPAC donors influence him on Gaza. But I will continue to support KS Rep. Sharice Davids because she's strong on other issues I care about, despite AIPAC money. It's also important to me that she's Native, female, LGBTQ, and has been reelected in a reddish state." Now both of us have plenty of room for discussion, for persuasion, and each of us gets to be heard. Maybe we each take away something to think about later.
British Journal of Social Psychology, "Purity, Politics, and Polarization:
I'm a bit over the "anti-Semitism" and "not all Jews" stories - not all Germans were Nazis and my generation - 3rd generation after the war generation - after WWII still paid reparations, so start saving your US subsidies, Israelis, you're gonna have to pay huge reparations, you should be bankrupt as a nation for decades to come, as a minimum.
My fear is the number of dignified transfers may be in the thousands at a time. Iran is planning, or likely already have done so, buying 50 advanced anti-ship ballistic missiles from China. These missiles can skim the ocean waters, are highly maneuverable and travel a long distance at speeds between Mach 3 to Mach 10. They are designed to target and destroy ships like aircraft carriers and are nicknamed "Carrier Killers." Our carriers have a crew between 5,000 to 5,800 and we have two, maybe three, in the region.
Thanks for the link. I had not heard of the Chinese “carrier killers.” High tech vs. high tech warfare.
But I think asymmetric warfare with a sub-sea drone swarm is more likely, given Iran’s expertise and financial situation. Aim the swarm at the propulsion system on the carrier so that it is dead in the water. That is a bigger humiliation for the US. That is what the Russia/China alliance and their vassal states like Iran and DPRK really want.
Trump doesn’t seem to realize that he isn’t wanted in that club. He is the stooge being used to destroy America’s former leadership position in the world order. This may be the one time Trump is meeting expectations.
I think your post may have given us signs' themes for the next No-Kings protest march..something along the lines of "Who's Dreaming of a White Penis?" or "What's the ICE Christmas Carol?"
That is a good one. It can also be, "Gov. of Laws & Not White Penis," "Trump Won 2 X, W/ 1 Penis" "Gov. of Laws & Not a Felon," "We the People = D.E.I.", "WOKE = Wise to Hist. Anti-WOKE = White Out to Hist " My web page has downloads for rally signs. See below for a vertical 22" X 28" poster and a horizontal 21" wide poster which can be made smaller or larger. I had several made on poster board today at Office Depot. Staples can also make them.
Liberals and anyone with half a brain make fun of PINO and this administration because they started a war without thinking through and planning for the obvious consequences of their actions. Under this administration, they are the tough guy who doesn't need anyone's help until they do. Since PINO likes to treat everything like a business deal, what does Europe, then UK, China, etc. get in exchange for helping the US with the situation cause by their actions? PINO has proven over his life that he doesn't honor deals or contracts. What is the upside? Short term economic relief until new and higher tariffs? More insults and attacks? PINO and DrunkSec claim we have the greatest navy in the world. If so, why do we need other countries help? BTW, notice that no mention of the Israeli navy. Why not?
Speaking of not thinking through consequences, what skills, techniques, strategies, technologies, etc. does the USN expose by working with China in these proposed convoy escorts? These types of missions requires planning and working closely with every ship. What do we expose when working with the Chinese navy? China threatens South Korea with their ever growing expansion in that region. Why is South Korea going to work with their adversary?
The US and Israel decided to start this war without explaining their end goals, without justifying their actions at this time, without building a coalition. Actions have consequences.
What we are watching is less a great power strategy than a Three Stooges remake with access to missile systems.
First, Curly trips into a regional war, then Moe slaps Larry for noticing, then all three turn and poke the free press in the eyes for reporting that the room is on fire.
That is apparently the governing model now.
The Strait of Hormuz trembles, oil markets twitch, diplomats reach for antacids, and the administration barrels forward like a clown car that somehow got clearance codes. Every decision arrives with the grace of a rake to the face. Whack. Bonk. Nyuk nyuk nyuk. Then comes the usual line: who could have predicted the consequences after our completely consequence-free act of aggression?
Naturally, the real villain is not the people juggling lit matches near a fuel depot. It is the reporters taking notes. The smoke, you see, is biased. The flames are woke. The fire extinguisher is part of the deep state.
This is where authoritarianism in America gets especially ridiculous. It does not even arrive dressed like Caesar. It stumbles in wearing oversized shoes, carrying a golf pencil, barking at photographers, and insisting that the collapsing set is evidence of strong leadership.
One man bangs the drum, another pulls the lever, a third gets his tie caught in the machinery, and somehow the press is blamed for the noise.
You can almost hear the soundtrack: sirens, shrieking, a cymbal crash, then an outraged press conference about disrespect.
So here we are, governed by slapstick arsonists who start international crises like they are pie fights, then demand applause while covered in soot. They are not master strategists. They are geopolitical stooges, flailing through history, smacking each other with the Constitution, and calling it strength.
Above perfectly describes the mental image of the scenario in my head. With serious regional leaders looking on shaking their heads and wringing their hands.
Excellent imagery. Imagine in Trump's pee-brain believing he was practicing to take down Iran using the "discombobulator" against Venezuela. It does sound like an evil version of Larry, Moe and Curly.
"Trump, in the meantime, we will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline". This Week will see a new phase of War in Iran specifically 20 miles BEYOND the shoreline in the Straight on Kharg Island.
Per Axios' Marco Caputo citing 4 sources say that trump will attempt to reopen the Strait of Hormuz &that trump is "weighing" the seizure of Kharg Island just 20 miles off IRAN's coast.
NYT: "As of March 14, 2026 the U.S. is deploying approximately 2,500 Marines & the U.S. amphibious assault ship, U.S.S. Tripoli to the Middle East with reports they are in position to potential seize or raid Kharg Island once Iran's main oil export hub. The NYT identified the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit as capable of seizing the Island.
Yes. The 31st Marine Expeditionary Force does wear boots & they will likely be on the ground on Kharg Island soon.
@Bryan, you might like to read Malcolm Nance's substack, describing the difficulty of actually GETTING to Kharg Is, via the SoH. It ain't a cake-walk...
I posted Malcolm Nance on Sunday & asked him weigh in with his analysis
Trump's prior attack only hit bunkers & storage facilities not any hardscape.
Per Retired Lt. General Mark Hertling on Morning Joe, 17th Day & the Dubai International Airport's the largest in the area is shut down but, how long is not certain.
Anybody do you remember them counting the number of weeks in Vietnam? Or Korea. Or Afghanistan, where Biden left $80 billion worth of modern American military equipment. By the way to all of you folks all three undeclared wars, never went to Congress for permission. And in Vietnam’s case killed 56,000 Americans thank you Lyndon Johnson democrat
and the SAVE Act. 77 instance of non-citizens and 10 undocumented immigrants voting in the last 24 years in a total of over one BILLION ballots cast needs to be hammered as well.
I remember reading Brendan Carr’s section in Project 25 and thinking “it sounds like he wants to destroy the FCC.” Thank goodness we have more independent news sources now.
PLEASE use Megan’s resource. Call and write as many Representatives as you can to protect the First Amendment.
It is possible we will see a radical reassembling of both of the major political parties as Dr. Richardson has mentioned before. See below:
"As Trump’s wars rage and income inequality soars, corporate Democrats are doubling down on crushing progressives ahead of the 2026 elections. The party’s establishment prioritizes donors over voters, leaving the left base frustrated and disillusioned. ...We discuss whether the party can be saved from its centrist chokehold or if it’s already too late to reclaim its soul. Listen in to hear what it will take for progressives to fight back, reshape the agenda, and challenge the broligarchs controlling both parties." Wajahat Ali
Actually Megan, it's true that we need to keep speaking up, and LAUD, but its as important that the scumbag president and his team of enablers keep speaking up. Each time they open their mouths, they sound more desperate and the lies are bigger.
I have not seen the cracks in the Republican Party. They seem to loudly agree with Trump or sit in their office out of sight. If there were cracks, they would be on TV Weekend shows declaring Trump a Menace and proceeding with Impeachment. If there is a crack, Trump sticks his big finger on it and it is mended.
Why does Donald think he can bully what used to be America's best allies?
As Heather relates early in her piece today, Donald is still deeply in thrall to his magical thinking.
Part of this magical thinking is his belief that, if the U.S. is committed to some war, somehow requiring all Americans to rally round the liar and bully-in-chief, everyone will forget the massive cover-up of the Epstein files. And Donald reserves his greatest magical thinking to that fantasy.
As to getting to facts, and away from fantasy, we may owe much to Oregon's U.S. senator Ron Wyden. He's been going into the financials of the Trump-Epstein orbit. From the U.S. and abroad, these elites have dealt not only in young women and underage girls but also money laundering, drug trades, and arms trafficking.
In Donald’s world including all his criminal allies, amorality, immorality rules. As Anne Applebaum has observed, none there centers oneself by reference to any history. None reads any history. Rather, they laurel the adolescence of video game and comic book violence. They all come from schools around the world that key no humanities. All their schools reduce to the conceits of testing, that dehumanized void where only numbers and commodities rule (sophomorically accompanied by those comic book videos).
Sorry, but numbers, commodities, and scores on tests all add up to nothing of any human value other than Donald’s need to keep himself centering every news cycle. The fat pig has nothing more to him than that. None of our dictators, rapists, or mass murderers has any humanity or humane literacy. Why do they now so reign? Because all near-elites have normalized today’s humanly empty assembly lines of testing-primarily, testing’s humanly eradicating measures only.
The fact that on the first day the first act is that the Americans murdered girls in school is horrifying people around the world. Many people in the populations in American allies countries are not supporting this war. I attended an anti war protest in my city in Germany, and wrote a piece to give a flavor for what people are saying on their signs.
It's Hegseth, and Donald, Linda. Both have total contempt for normal military cautions.
Commenters from the U.S. intelligence community have already noted several of the standard procedures the military would honor as part of any targeting.
I said "from the U.S. intelligence community," when I ought to have said that former community, as Hegseth fired many of the most key agents in the Pentagon and at command centers worldwide. It's his manliness show, his chest-thumping, "We're gonna kill-kill-kill" bravado -- his recklessness is so total he brags about flaunting treaties and international norms, brags about drunken-style recklessness first.
Hegseth needs to be impeached for the deaths of those 168 Iranian girls.
I agree Phil! Hegseth and Trump need to be impeached for the deaths of those girls, and for many other things, and they need to be tried as international war criminals. Add to that Witkoff and Kushner. They are traitors to the American people too.
I have been watching Malcolm Nance and Jacob Kaarsbo's daily briefings, and Ken Harbaugh, and some people who are ex military being interviewed on various podcasts. They are letting us know what a bungle job this is. It's like the young child in a home with unsecured guns playing Russian Roulette with them. Trump has made sure that the Iranian Fatwa is not just on him but on all of the American people, and Witkoff (Dumkopf), Kushner, Caine, Hegseth and Trump should all be held responsible for this.
It is very symbolic that Mr. Donald J Epstein Files himself is responsible for the murder of a school full of girls.
Yes, Linda -- the irony of that last remark of yours here.
Multiply that by the ways that he's not even aware of what he's done, what he did.
That is, Orwell nabbed it in "Politics and the English Language." Not only does "bad language" anesthetize, numb, blind us. It compounds that by thus ensuring we also do damage -- but it'll always be damage which we've made ourselves so stupid we cannot even begin to be aware of what we've caused.
It doesn’t surprise me that people with military experience are appalled at Trump and Kegseth doing everything they can to foul up an illegal war they chose to fight without planning or consideration of the consequences. You also don’t need to have any sort of military experience at all, just a modicum of common sense and knowledge of history. Trump, Kegseth & Co don’t live in the real world.
Hegseth has also foolishly said that we will give" No Quarter" to Iranians attempting to surrender. Retired military officers have already said publicly that would be a war crime.
Hegseth may know how to do pushups & pullups, but he doesn't even know the basic rules of war.
I had heard this. Kegseth is ignorant that such an order is illegal under the UCMJ and the Geneva Conventions, and we are still a signatory to the Geneva Conventions.
Kathy, neither do his followers. What little I am seeing from my MAGAt retired work cohort, some of whom are former military who saw action in GWOT, is propaganda spewed from who knows what (Russian)) source.
Agreed. We have to stand up for ethics. People are giving their lives for our country right in the streets of the USA. The military should honor that by not following illegal orders.
Hegseth needs to be impeached for being an ignorant fool who is drunk on power that he should NEVER have been given by a delusional president and a Republican Congress who have abused and neglected their responsibility to the American people and the world.
I think kegsbreath fired a bunch of the staff that would have been able to discern that building was a school. There were over 200 people in that office and now only 40. My husband told me this so I hammer verified it myself.
Can you imagine the kind of bombing and destruction and death were it to happen in your town?
Russell John, I can see the Jolene Doctrine at play. This is the doctrine of war criminals. All Democratic leaders should be keeping this in mind as they deal with Trump. Sanchez of Spain comes to mind. He is clear on what this is and that his country wants no part of it. May all other leaders reach this clarity too.
That is, when The Atlantic editor noted some of the most recent oddities by Donald, and then asked General McChrystal, "How do you explain the Trump doctrine," after a brief pause at the obvious insanity of Donald ever having anything even remotely consistent, great, great laughter by all.
Inculcating magical thinking in the target population segment that are magalonians has been of prime importance for the decades-long psychological war on the USA by fascist mafia oligopolists.
I have two questions for you, Mr. Balla, and a comment.
The concluding sentence to your post above reads: "Because all near-elites have normalized today’s humanly empty assembly lines of testing-primarily, testing’s humanly eradicating measures only." [What the fu''???????]
What in God's name does that sentence even mean???? It is, front to end, un-parsable! It doesn't even rise to the level of gobbledy-gook!
Second, where but in America -- as it now is, of course, -- could 217 of HCR's readers conceivably have punched the 'like' button to such garbage? It is an unremitting mystery, embarrassing, surely, to HCR if I were she, but it clearly shows how blissfully unaware you remain of your own intellectual flaws and your absent inclinations to ever intend to work on them.
I've given up regular perusing of the comments to HCR, in significant part because so many of your posts contain such questionable amounts of value there and launch furies in me I'm better off reserving for the Trumps, Vances, Hegseths, RFK Jr's, Millers , etc, of present-day America. This latest experience should wean me for yet another 3 to 4 week respite.
He is stark raving mad. His grandiosity knows no bounds as he tries to be the big boss of the world. He is doing everything to destroy our country and is joyful about his destructiveness. How can his cabinet members and the Republican Party be so willing to follow him in his mad, uninformed power grabbing ?
The short answer to your crucial question is that we are smack in the middle of the "Stormy Applause" stage of self-destruction, not its end.
An incident recorded in Aleksandr Solzehzenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" illustrates. At a Communist Party meeting in Moscow during the height of the Great Terror, after Stalin gave a long speech about something or other, all the delegates stood up and began clapping. (In translation, the official records always say "Stormy Applause" following -- ALWAYS using that exhausted, silly word "stormy" or even "stormy, prolonged applause" -- no other kind of applause is possible if you're a Communist). The stormy, prolonged applause went on, and on, and on, and on, and on, 1, 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes.... The terror in the room increased exponentially as each person realized that whoever sat down FIRST would be arrested the next day (if not before).
And that is exactly what happened. Somebody finally sat down. A simultaneous split second later, everyone else followed. And the person who sat first was, in fact, arrested the very next day (and may have been shot soon after, memory escapes me now).
From 1937 Moscow to 2026 Washington...According to that dangerous, left-wing rag known for its radical-liberal hatred of America, the Wall Street Journal, the planning for this Children's Crusade in Iran was limited to 5 people alone (Kegsbreath, Little Marco, General Caine (Head of the Joint Chiefs) and JD Eyeliner) in order "to prevent leaks."
That's shorthand, of course. You're being informed that the pea-brains KNEW how incompetent they were and indeed terrified of very real leaks transpiring all around. They know this is the leakiest Administration in American history. They do not enjoy the confidence and support of those working under them --- the exact opposite of the 'tight lips, tight ship' conduct and loyalty the Biden Administration always enjoyed from those within. (Not for nothing do we recall the old World War II poster -- "loose lips sink ships").
If you think this paints a picture of total fuckupery, you're right. The Journal also reports (by now what the obvious):
--Senior diplomats in the region were told nothing (they found out the bombing had started from social media, like everyone else)
--Nobody planned (or even thought about) how to evacuate hundreds of thousands of stranded Americans in the region;
--Nobody had a strategy to reopen Hormuz in case the Iranians shut it (and officials who might have raised those questions were deliberately kept out of the planning room)
--Operation 'Epic Fuckupery' was based on a group chat and a group feeling.
Sooner or later, somebody's going to sit down first -- as sure as another vicious, deranged Trump tweet in the middle of the night about God knows what. Strap yourselves in tight now, don't wait til later.
Nraecohen, I like the British expression, "barking mad," because it conjures the image of a dog chained to a stake inside his empty head barking at the darkness.
Donald has brought many "firsts" to the United States. He is likely presiding over the first war that the U.S. loses.
Some might argue that Vietnam was a loss, but I would classify it as a failure. The U.S. walked away without a resolution.
I believe ... I fear that Iran and its allies will make us pay dearly for our unprovoked attack. How much blood and how much treasure remains to be seen.
"Fun" fact (no, a real one). "Melania" is now the lowest rated movie of all time on IMDB, with 1.1 out of 10 and more than 17,000 reviews.
While last night, an apocalyptic, dark comedy-action-thriller shout-out against authoritarianism, written by a Norwegian and produced by Warner Bros., won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. 94% of 438 critics on Rotten Tomatoes gave it positive reviews.
Expect raging late night tweets from a demented 79-year-old about "One Battle Against Another" (which he has never seen) claiming it encourages wadical-wibewal tewwowism against ICE and the United States. Coming not-at-any-theater (except that of the Absurd), any day now.
I am not necessarily looking forward to just the impeachment, but to a conviction in the Senate, which is a pipe dream. Impeachment won’t relive us of him, only conviction or 25th Amendment will.
Warships cannot protect tankers from missile and drone attacks and from mines. It's unlikely that other nations would send their vessels on such a dangerous and exposed mission.
Iran now has the upper hand. It's clear that this war was started with no planning.
1. The US Navy has undoubtedly been studying for decades how it might respond to a blockade of the Straits of Hormuz, alone or with allies. Somehow what they knew never got through Hegseth to Trump.
2. But technology can surprise everyone. Nobody expected that Ukraine, starting with nothing, could quickly force the Russian Navy to stop operating in the Black Sea.
They were kept out of the planning meetings, that's why. There wasn't a mysterious "somehow" about it -- it was quite carefully planned (about the only thing in this war that was "planned").
Only Israel has a plan, which is to pulverize the Iranian regime into the dust and to keep going until this is done. Why Trump signed up to this nihilistic pact with Netanyahu is anybody's guess.
Let's not forget that while Bibi appealed to Donald's vanity, Donald's puppeteers in the White House whispered in his ear to accept Bibi's invitation. The chaos is a distraction that helps to enable domestic goals described in Vought's Project 2025 and take attention from Miller's deportation campaign and Bondi's concealment of the Trumpstein files.
Actually, the US military has "gamed" out any military scenario and then some. They have plans for nuclear war if it comes to that. We are fortunate that these plans have been in place since the beginning of the Cold War. And they are constantly updated to take advantage of the advances in technology.
Imagine if Trump or Kegsbreath were in charge of military strategy. Since neither one of them cares about the lives of anyone other than themselves, we would likely have boots on the ground in Iran right now.
Fortunately, we have brilliant minds in the military that are just following orders to attack Venezuela, Iran etc.
But what Trump and Kegsbreath are incapable of doing is trying to determine unintended consequences. Much of the midwest gets their gasoline from Canada. So far Canada hasn't put a tariff on this gasoline. But if they do, predictions are the price of gas in the midwest will shoot up by around 70 cents a gallon. And planting season is coming up.
I'm trying to figure which part is snark, and which is not. "Brilliant minds that are just following orders to attack... " that's gotta be snark. Because every last one of them is in violation of the UCMJ, in that they have followed unlawful orders. I would not call them brilliant. Canada tariffs on gasoline? You mean just raise the price they charge us for it. That works for me: it will help convince some of the red states to dump the Orange Menace.
Yes, that happened about two days ago. It practically didn't garner 5 seconds worth of attention on the major news networks. Today, the New York Times mentions a "cool, tepid response" from Britain, France, the EU and South Korea.
I am not ready to say Iran has the upper hand - their military infrastructure has been severely damaged. However since the U.S. does not have a clear strategy, just tactics, I can’t evaluate anything except that by the passing of each day, to win, Trump may need to put boots on the ground.
Betsy, when Trump first created his "Board of Peace", I immediately recognized that it was a "Board of War," or "Bored of Peace." I am in a political book club and we read both "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which influenced Orwell when he wrote, "1984" and we compared the two. I then wrote this piece discussing the language of the fascists as illustrated by Orwell.
I think the "Board of Peace" serves three of Trump's impulses. As the last few months show, he is indeed bored of peace. But he gets to set up his own little club to replace the UN, which, after all, has boring rules and procedures and is full of those nasty, non-white people. The new club is more fun. He gets to be the God-Emperor of this new club. And it provides him another grift. After all, prospective members/supplicants have to cough up a billion dollars to accompany their membership applications and it's the God-Emperor himself who controls (keeps) that money.
They do if they want some influence, but there are also members who have not paid. It seems that one advantage of being on that board is that Trump uses US tax dollars to help fund your reelection campaign. If there was someone leading a lawsuit against this use of our money, I would sign on.
According to Trump, whose word about anything cannot be trusted, the "US" will contribute $10B to this fake organization. I wonder where that is coming from. Has it appeared in any budget proposal yet? Or is it all just the usual flapping of the Trump jaws, money to be conjured out of thin air, just because he said it? It would not surprise me at all if it ends up just like you say, with We the People providing cash for other would-be dictators.
To be sure, a newsflash claimed that there was a stunning victory on the Malabar front...although Donold the demented doesn't have a clue where that is and he's already losing interest in where the Strait of Hormuz is...now onto "bombing Kharg Island just for the fun of it"
Seems Donold, Hegseth and the regime will require attendance at the 2 minutes of hate...Brendan Carr is demanding networks start using Newspeak(probably Trumpspeak now)...
ICYMI: Ali Velshi, a Canadian journalist, correspondent for NBC News and anchor for MS NOW, gave a synopsis of what the Heritage foundation is doing to disempower women now that they have succeeded in implementing about half of Project 2025’s assault on our democracy. It is much more than just suppressing women’s vote as the SAVE Act does or controlling women’s healthcare as the Supreme Court’s decisions have. Velshi appears to be trying to provide at least some replacement for the “60 Minutes” program that has been censored. I recommend that all women (and men) should be aware of the information he provides in this short video which has a historical perspective.
“The Heritage Foundation’s new blueprint for American women - YouTube”
Also ICYMI: Ali Velshi also gave a historical synopsis of what the Heritage foundation is doing to give more power over our society and money to billionaires now that they have succeeded in implementing about half of Project 2025’s assault on our democracy. A short video that hits the most important facts and history:
“Trump-era billionaire boom shows America’s real divide - YouTube”
This is the Heritage document spelling out disenfranchising women and taking away the smallest amount of freedom or self agency. It is long, redundant, and repulsive.
Try to at least skim it, perhaps taking anti-nausea meds first.
Thanks, Fred, for the links above. Women in America are at risk of losing the vote that they fought so hard for - The SAVE Act would prevent a lot of women from voting [please see our monthly post for March 2026: U.S. Elections Compared to Other Democracies at oneclick2betterworld.substack.com]. And yes, the question on voters' minds as the midterm elections get underway is "Who does the American economy and our democracy really work for anymore?". Please everybody sign up for a March 28th No Kings protest near you through No Kings, Indivisible, or Common Cause and make your voices heard!
I don’t know anyone who wants to go back to the 1950s era of living when women had to endure abusive relationships and had no choice about family size. My mother was one of those ladies and warned me about it all the time. If she had been able to take the pill she would never had 5 kids boom boom boom all in a row and a scumbag first husband that didn’t provide for them.
Was the "60 Minutes" program you mentioned censored after it was aired? Or was it held back and changed and then aired? Please explain. I assume it has nothing to do with the segment on the El Salvadoran prison that was revised and ultimately aired.
And while Rome burned, Nero played his violin only in this case he was on the golf course again.
Let’s not forget that the Epstein files still need to be opened for all to see and that this administration is setting up concentration camps and their armed goons are still grabbing people off the streets and sending them there!
For years the fossil fuel industry has convinced Americans that we must produce more oil here so we’re not subject to oil price fluctuations. Environmentalists have tried to push back against this oil drilling frenzy anywhere the oil companies want, including wildlife refuges, pristine federally owned lands, and close to schools and private homes. What people weren’t told was the oil companies sell their oil to the highest bidder internationally. Oil is an international commodity.
The US is a net energy exporter but that's not going to protect it from those inevitable price rises. They would be even higher were it not for the substantial subsidies provided to the fossil fuel industries which Trump has increased by around $4bn a year, even as he turns his back to the cheapest form of electricity ever - solar energy.
Not everyone is as stupid as he is. Texas now has more solar energy than California.
We can't use most of what we produce. It has to be sold on the international market. And we are subject to the international market price. The only ones who are going to be better off are the companies that produce the oil and their shareholders. The rest of us don't count.
I am recommending that everyone in the US have a VPN and also subscribe to a platform like Steady which is in the EU, so that you have an option to use something other than Substack, in case Trump and Carr shut it down, or insist on censoring what is on it.
Thank you Linda, that's very good advice. It's a good idea to have contingency plans and ways to communicate in these chaotic and uncertain times we find ourselves in. Donold is a lunatic and the entire fascist regime is menacing enough to do something drastic like that. Hope it never comes to that but better to be prepared or at least have some options, just in case...
I first heard about Steady from American History Prof. Thomas Zimmer, a Substacker who was teaching at George Washington University, then moved back to Germany. He introduced me to Steady. He is on both Substack and Steady, trying to transition.
Now that I belong to a group looking to replace US big tech with platforms in the EU that have to follow the Digital Security Act, and to boycott these Big Tech platforms that are funding Trump and have caved to him, I am learning to live sometimes with less easy software and platforms in order to stand up for what I believe in.
My husband, who just retired from a US University, has gotten a Tuxedo Laptop that is Linux compatible. He does not use a US phone brand or email service. We have a European VPN and he has a US email. No Amazon is used. We are planning on switching from Signal to Threema for family communication.
I have friends who are more cautious than Signal which they also use, and they those who do not use Signal but use Threema. You have to pay some small amount, and then you have a Swiss platformed messaging app.
The thing is that you have to know other people in the Threema messaging network to use it, but Europe is working so that you can use one messaging app to message another app, but you cannot do that with US based apps.
Right now Trump is demanding information from Whats App, which is less secure than Signal, and frankly if more people would get off it would could just dispense with it, but for political work I am finding I have to use it because of this very reason. We shall see what he can get. Signal is set up so that they cannot give your information, or can they?
Right now Russia is hacking Signal accounts, so one has to be careful. I read this elsewhere too.
Not surprising, Trump golfing as war spreads The only serious thinking Trump has ever done is to gaining wealth, deporting immigrants, expanding DHS, ICE, and detention centers.
Oh, I forgot, also … revenge, continuing to spread the election lie, pardoning January 6th supporters, taking over the DOJ and Supreme Court.
He's appealing for assistance from erstwhile allies of the United States, allies he didn't consult before launching attacks on Iran, allies he didn't even bother to warn leaving them unprepared for Iranian retaliation (which we know from Marco Rubio's attempt to justify the pre-emptive strike was anticipated by the US). The Italian defence minister was left stranded in Dubai where he was visiting his wife for the day. Even after the first wave of attacks, he didn't contact US allies, he contacted his muse, Laura Loomer, to gauge how this would play amongst the faithful.
So far, South Korea has said it is considering how it can help and bear in mind that Trump has been withdrawing US missiles from the penninsula to use in the Middle East, again with minimal consultation.
The UK has been looking at offering some of its minesweeper drones already in the region and it has been reported that Sir Keir Starmer has tried to persuade Trump to end the war and the economic crisis it has caused. Japan (which has already suffered similar missile re-deployments as South Korea) and Australia have made it quite clear that they have no intention of sending warships to the Gulf. Jaoan is poised to become the third-biggest defence spender in the world, an indication perhaps that they realise they can no longer depend on the US as a reliable ally.
So now Trump is once again threatening the NATO alliance, an alliance to which he has never truly committed - and playing golf and shit-posting which is what he does when he's angry.
The world simply cannot afford weeks and months more of this chaos from this powerful but incredibly stupid individual.
Belle of the Ranch posted a video tonight tearing Trump / Hegseth apart over asking for international help. I invite everyone to watch. Belle is ex-military / nurse with a great team that produces three hard-hitting videos a day plus one long-form video per week.
Former JSOC commander, general Stanley McChrystal, calls it the Jolene Doctrine, a more apt description of Trump's capricious and vindictive policy-making than his own Don-Roe Doctrine.
France has also withdrawn its previous offer of a naval armada. Now he warns he might "delay" his trip to China if China doesn't unblock the Strait for him.
Always taking responsibility for his actions, this one.
You’d think we’d all be accustomed to the constant, obvious, dramatic lies, but - perhaps because we are talking about such violence, such murder, such an appalling attack that is costing so many innocents such suffering - the boasting, the pettiness, the enormity of the lies seems more poisonous, truly evil.
Iran has NEVER before closed or tried to close the Strait of Hormuz. NEVER. And even after our unprovoked attack in June, they responded with moderation. It was by anyone’s standard entirely predictable that this unprovoked, illegal action on Trump’s part (which is killing thousands of innocents and displacing millions) would be met with economic attacks by Iran, including closing the Strait.
The Europeans are wisely making their own agreements with Iran and have absolutely no interest in entering a war they were not consulted on. There are indications that Iran is allowing through some European ships.
This is TRUMP’s mess and the US has not seen a fraction of the price we’re going to pay.
It’s deeply disturbing how little we’re speaking/reading/hearing of the horror being rained upon those living in Iran - the loss of life, the terror of unpredictable and daily bombing, the destruction of homes and schools and shops and hospitals and cafes and historic sites. And in Lebanon. While the dehumanization is, at this point, expectable from this regime for whom the lives of all others (including Americans) are a matter of indifference, where is our media - even here on Substack - when it comes to the daily reality of what we are doing to the real human beings in these countries??? Where are the photos? Where are the descriptions???
WHY DONT WE SEEM TO CARE ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHOSE LIVES THIS COUNTRY IS DESTROYING IN OUR NAME WITH OUR MONEY???? Why is it only about us??
Keep speaking up! This war is causing more cracks in the Republican Party and we need to keep up the pressure!
Be LOUD! 💔🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Comments/reactions help keep this bumped ✊
With all of Trump's crazed social media posts and blathering on Air Force One with his press gaggle, there was no mention of the terrorist threats on US soil.
My suggestion for the day is to write to your representatives in Congress to call in Kash Patel to testify about his plan to resurrect the Counterterrorism Division (CTD), a division of the National Security Branch of the FBI. We are facing both foreign terrorist actions on US soil as well as domestic retaliatory anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim terrorist incidents.
Since the U.S.–Israel strikes on Iran began on February 28, there have been at least two high‑profile attacks that U.S. authorities and major outlets are treating as terrorism on U.S. soil.
On March 12, a 41‑year‑old man drove his vehicle into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, with around 140 preschool children inside; he was armed with a rifle when arrested. The attacker, a Lebanese‑born naturalized U.S. citizen, had close family members reportedly killed or injured in recent Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, and investigators are probing ideological and retaliatory motives; the FBI is investigating this as a terrorism case.
Also in the last week, a gunman opened fire in a classroom at Old Dominion University in Virginia, killing one person before being killed by police. The suspect was identified as a former Virginia National Guardsman who had previously served prison time after admitting to providing material support to ISIS; authorities say he had ties to ISIS, and the FBI is investigating the shooting as terrorism.
NPR and other outlets note that, in the same week, there was also an attempted assault on the New York City mayor’s residence that the FBI has folded into a cluster of incidents it is examining for possible terrorism links, though details and motive are less clear than in the Michigan and Virginia cases.
While these attacks are not yet publicly tied to direct Iranian state orders, they are unfolding in the immediate context of the Iran war and Gaza/Iran‑related grievances, and are contributing to what officials describe as an accelerating domestic terrorism threat environment.
Meanwhile, Trump’s second term has brought significant reductions and reallocations that are directly hitting FBI and DOJ counterterrorism capacity, even when the administration claims to be “refocusing” on terrorism and violent crime.
The FY 2026 Trump budget proposal cuts the FBI’s overall budget by about $545 million, as part of broader DOJ reductions of roughly $2.5 billion and 5,000 positions across the department. Lawmakers note that within DOJ, funding for national security, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, threat screening, and WMD-related programs is being reduced, despite elevated threat levels.
A bloc of senators led by Sen. Blumenthal reported that FBI leadership plans to cut around 15% of the Bureau’s workforce—about 5,800 employees—with questions pending on how many of those positions are in counterterrorism or counterespionage.
Senior FBI terrorism specialists tied to January 6 and domestic-extremism work have been forced out or reassigned, with some terrorism investigators moved over to DHS to support mass deportation operations, directly shrinking the pool of personnel available for terrorism prevention and investigations.
About half of DOJ’s National Security Division counterterrorism prosecutors have left since the beginning of this Trump term, amid both attrition and politicized reshuffling, which weakens capacity to bring complex terrorism cases.
ProPublica reporting describes “sweeping cuts and reforms” that have effectively ended or sharply reduced federal terrorism-prevention work, including ordered shutdowns of DHS-funded projects and databases used by law enforcement to assess threats; while this is DHS, FBI relies on those capabilities as part of the broader federal counterterrorism ecosystem.
Current FBI Director Kash Patel has fired nearly a dozen top Iran-focused counterterrorism agents, including what was reported as the top 10 Iran counterterrorism agents, after they had been involved in investigations related to Trump; this is a direct blow to the Bureau’s Iran CT bench at a time of heightened tensions.
Senators and outside experts warn that arbitrary removals, forced retirements, and leadership churn have hit at least 18 of 53 Special Agents in Charge and other supervisory staff, creating gaps not only in cyber units but also in the Bureau’s counterterrorism chain of command.
Internal directives described by lawmakers indicate an effort to transform the FBI from a national security–centric agency (terrorism, espionage, public corruption) into more of a national police force focused on local violent crime, while still cutting overall headcount.
Analysts and civil society groups argue that the administration has ended or crippled federal work specifically on domestic and far-right terrorism by: defunding prevention grants, banning race-related terminology in white-supremacist violence research, and eliminating or starving programs that focused on those threats.
Trump does not care about the safety of the American people as collateral damage in this war he conjured up to deflect attention from the Epstein files and his failing approval ratings. That was clear from Day One when there were no warnings or plans to evacuate Americans put in danger in the Middle East.
Over the last three weeks, Trump’s public comments around jihadist terrorism have focused almost entirely on Iran and its proxies, and he has repeatedly downplayed the risk of a retaliatory terror attack on U.S. soil. Asked on March 11 if he was worried about Iran carrying out a terror attack inside the United States in response to the Iran war, Trump said “No, I don’t,” and insisted he was not concerned about such a threat. He claimed the U.S. has identified all Iranian “sleeper cells” and has “eyes on all of them,” presenting domestic risk as under control despite elevated threat assessments from experts and allies.
In his February 28 address announcing “major combat operations in Iran,” Trump cast the Iranian regime as an “evil terrorist regime” and framed the campaign as necessary to prevent it and its proxies from attacking U.S. forces and allies.
This is simply a continuation of his provocations to jihadist groups. Trump’s calls for the U.S. to “take over” and “develop” Gaza, with Palestinians moved elsewhere, were flagged by counterterrorism experts as handing jihadist groups a powerful “rallying cry” for targeting Americans; those remarks are still being cited in current analyses of jihadist propaganda around the Iran war.
***********************************************************************************************
Researched using perplexity ai pro
https://www.cfr.org/articles/iran-and-terrorism-what-the-u-s-strikes-could-mean-for-homeland-security
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/national-security-daily/2026/03/11/iran-strikes-expose-us-counterterrorism-gaps-00823683
https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/as-the-trump-administration-slashes-law-enforcement-funding-and-fires-national-security-agents-senators-write-patel-bondi-about-the-impact-on-public-safety
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/06/23/congress/bondi-doj-funding-00419209
https://fortune.com/2026/03/14/us-elevated-terrorism-threats-iran-war-fbi-doj-staff-cuts-kash-patel/
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1314646140715962
https://icct.nl/publication/counter-terrorism-implications-second-trump-presidency
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-budget-cuts-terrorism-prevention
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/11/iran-war-trump-domestic-terror-attack.html
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/read-trumps-full-statement-on-iran-attack
Georgia, I will follow your suggestion in calls to my MAGAs today.📲
From Ron Filowpowski/Meidas Touch yesterday….
“… Iran Security Council leader Ali Larijani: “I’ve heard that the remaining members of Epstein’s network (that is what he calls the Trump and Netanyahu admins) have devised a conspiracy to create an incident similar to 9/11 and blame Iran for it. Iran fundamentally opposes such terrorist schemes and has no war with the American people.”
… Seyed Mohammed Marandi, Prof at Tehran Univ: “I’ve been told that recently, in a joint meeting between some extremist figures in the US and Israeli regime intelligence services, a plan was discussed to target a landmark tower in either an American city or in the UAE, and then blame it on Iran. The goal would be to create international consensus for their subsequent actions and crimes.”
https://meidastouch.substack.com/p/this-weekend-in-politics-bulletin-d83?
Wow!
Ordinary Americans' lives stateside are at elevated risk at the same time the Trump regime has cut the counterintelligence resources needed to keep us safe.
The War on Iran had to have been in the planning stages for many months, during the time the counterterrorism cuts were being made.
Trump wants chaos here to call out the troops to "protect" the midterms. Apparently, the "worst of the worst" immigrant crackdown is not getting the fear in the streets results he wants, so it's time to amp up the jihadists on American soil.
The problem is that he has some control over the fear of immigrants ploy, but he has no control whatsoever now that he has provoked and unleashed the jihadists.
Georgia said, "Trump wants chaos here to call out the troops to 'protect' the midterms. Apparently, the 'worst of the worst' immigrant crackdown is not getting the fear in the streets results he wants, so it's time to amp up the jihadists on American soil."
New Mexico just passed legislation to ban the military and ICE from polling places. All the states should pass something similar.
I don’t know if my open letter to our CT governor explaining the need to protect our residents from ice thugs but he recently stated as much and our mayor went even further stating they will be arrested if they threaten our residents.
Since pandoras box has been opened, and we now need total destruction in order to rebuild and be reborn, let oil to go to $200. And our rallies should bring out 50 million protesters.
Shut it down. Buy only basic needs. Close your Amazon accounts. A prediction of destruction is now being realized and we must protect ourselves and each other. Reduce driving to the basics. We did during Covid-19 we can do it again.
His behavior is all based on keeping the media away from the Jeffery Epstein files. Imagine that.
March on March 28.
March on.
March on.
March on.
Time for those who can, to get their bicycles out. For those who are disabled, vehicle use should be available. However, for many of us, cycling needs to come back with a vengeance.
We're all in for March 28th in CT-even going to be a little late for our grandson's birthday party. We offered to bring "ice" but it was politely declined.
Agree 100%. It will be interesting to see if DOJ brings a suit to overturn it on some specious grounds, but sufficient to get an appellate court injunction to stop it from going into effect in a case of states sovereignity over elections versus executive power to declare an insurrection.
Trump doesn’t need right on his side; he just needs a friendly judge to eat up time on the clock with a favorable disposition of the injunctions. there isn’t a lot of time between now and November to get a resolution on the merits.
Exactly. Trump has opened a Pandora's box that will be with us for YEARS. The killing of 170+ school children will be used in Jihadist sermons/literature to recruit more terrorists to attack the "Great Satans" - at a time when our national security resources are more vulnerable and led by amateurs.
Meanwhile, Trump begging and threatening allies to bail him out in the Strait is rich! He's spent most of the last year bullying, threatening, and bad-mouthing those same allies. He should have learned the "Pottery Barn Rule" - You break it, you own it!
Trying to make it seem like closing of the strait is not a U.S. problem is BS. Whether they like it or not, the U.S. is part of the GLOBAL economy. What happens in the Gulf affects us all.
"Led by amateurs...," so very true. And not even intelligent or principled amateurs. So true.
Dan, led by downright criminals in many cases seeking to feed at the government trough and to demand petty things like jackets and blankets.
"[A]mateurs?" Absolutely right, but a more fitting description would be "a confederacy of dunces."
It's much worse than that. Dunces are sidelined because they say and do dumb things. This culty administration under T is dangerous, vile, immoral, and corrupt. You can't say that about dunces.
That works also! 👍
At what point has trump's mind be eviscerated for him to be ousted? His behavior and the words that come out of his mouth are those of a demented person. This is who is calling the shots folks! How will members of Congress respond when their grandchildren ask, "Why didn't you do something?"
JD Vance is worse. Listen to the You-Tube from John Oliver and you will see that Vance is worse than the Orange Menace.
Vance is backing away from the bombing of Iran, but domestically he is a disaster for women, immigrants, brown (except for his own babies)/black citizens. . .Vance is Yale Evil. Trump is Stupid Evil.
Will there be enough Florsheim shoes to go around? And will only the American made ones be worn? Some are made in China
Bryan, I love that "Pottery Barn" rule! Never heard it called that, but so appropriate.
Haha. That one's courtesy of Colin Powell. I believe the actual phrase is "You break it you buy it" or something like that.
The strait wasn't closed before, was it? $2.99-3.79 in gas.
Paul Krugman documents the capitalist cancer from which both ChristoNazism and the Trump Regime metastasized: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-billionaires-war?publication_id=277517&post_id=190710154&isFreemail=true&r=cb67r&triedRedirect=true This should be repeatedly posted, along with the link to the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn in response to credible death threats against the plaintiff: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf
That"The U.S. does indeed produce more oil and natural gas than it consumes, but it cannot use much of what it produces. ...This means the U.S. is inextricably tied to the international oil markets" Is bullsit propaganda from Big Oil.
The refineries are controlled to a large part by the Saudis...
If we want to reduce domestic demand, we have. supressed the real competition - alternative energy.
Ask Krugman what restoration of Biden energy policy could do. .
Nuts. The United States is indeed part of the global economy, and rightly so. We should not be isolationist. In energy terms, we are the largest producers in the world of crude oil and natural gas. The column is wrong that we cannot refine our own light, sweet crude oil (meaning less viscous and with less sulfur). We do. But we also have a number of refineries, especially along the Gulf of Mexico, that are configured to refine heavy sour crude oil, which we have imported for decades from places like Venezuela, Mexico and western Canada that produce that grade of oil. We pay for it in many ways; for example, we import Mexico's heavy Maya crude oil and export to Mexico some of the gasoline and fuel oil refined from Maya crude. U.S. producers of crude oil have long been banned from exporting crude oil, but they can export refined products (from 132 refineries) such as gasoline, fuel oil and jet fuel. We have been net exporters since 2008, meaning we sell more to overseas buyers than we import. We also are net exporters of natural gas.
Krugman is all in favor of renewables.
Loren-Thanks for the link to Krugman. When he says “Money buys a lot of influence, but to actually take over the
U. S. Government requires more than money-it requires politicians who are utterly corrupt” it’s a reminder that we should focus more on the “representatives” in Congress and the billionaires who pay them. Those enablers are the real problem.
GinaAM, you are a new paid subscriber here, so unless you've been reading for free for awhile, you wouldn't be familiar with me and my frequent posts detailing my high regard for educators. As the self-appointed Walmart greeter on the forum, I offer a WELCOME to you! 👋🏼It's good to have this community growing! Thank you for that.
Why? Do you think people couldn't read it the first time?
This is only about the 48th time you've used the term "ChristoNazi" -- congratulations for saying nothing new whatever the most frequently. No wonder you beg people to re-read the same thing over and over again....
ICTT, I notice that right above this comment is one from a person who has been subscribing only 3 weeks. Some of us have been here over five years and are well acquainted with each other, even learning much of our personal history. I don't know if today is a bad day for you, as this doesn't seem to be the tone I'm used to seeing from you. You know how much I not only value your opinions, but also am a fan of your excellent writing. Your intelligence and experience have added so much to this forum that I look for your comments. (When I can. Some days, I'm so depressed by it all that I need to take a day off to regroup.)
I'm supportive of Loren repeatedly posting, and I just skip or skim over it. I guess you could do the same, or maybe block him so you don't have to see it?
Again, this doesn't sound like you, and I am sincere in saying this: I hope that nothing bad is going on with you (other than this insanity that is impacting us ALL) and the rest of the day improves for you.
Is there not ANY protection from courts or local police for those who are bringing up legitimate charges? If we can pay to protect Melania and Baron, and Jared and Ivanka, and Don, Jr. and Eric - my god we can't even protect our citizens who pay taxes??
Surely there is enough room in the media to keep the ‘trumpStein’ in the forefront along with the recent failures of a made up war, isn’t there?
Do you ever feel that we are living in a pin ball machine? Chaos and cruelty.
Then what we need is a pinball wizard like Tommy. The rock opera is actually about intergenerational trauma . Thanks for the reminder or the connection of the old and new remake Tron. Stranger Things in a visual metaphor and time sequence also used the old pin ball arcades. Though I still remember the old bowling for dollars and my at least once every game gutter ball.
Oh what an appropriate image, Penny. And a deadly one that explodes.
🎯
Thank you. But you've no need to defend me against ICTT; he is too clever (and too cowardly) to reveal his name as a regurgitator of tacitly pro-ChristoNazi venom, and his deception is enough sophisticated that the pseudonym he cravenly hides behind is obviously an acronym for something like "Intelligence Community Trained Troublemaker." I know his ilk as much from my decades of journalism as from my decades of activism, and but for the apparent need to warn you of his malicious intent, I'd have ignored him as I do his less sophisticated colleague Rickie. A classic example, this, in why Lev Bronstein's 1905 axiom is as relevant now under Führer Trump as it was under Tzar Nicholas II: "In every gathering of three revolutionaries, there is at least one agent of the Okhrana."
This is a bit more anecdotal but I believe it provides some incite as to just how stupid and short sighted the decisions that this moron and regime makes. This is the slowest start for construction in my son's company since it started 15 years ago. People are unwilling to start projects because the heavy Hispanic trades in Minnesota don't have enough help left to do the work. Hmmm .Surprise surprise! Now we can't afford gas or fuel because we don't have the capability to refine our own crude? Now the US is asking or demanding help from our once allies after kicking the shit out of them? I keep thinking about Pink Floyd's song "Hello, hello, is there anybody in there?"
Georgia.., stop. The President wants to "have some fun" (you heard him say it.., I did too). So, are we having "fun" yet? I know of six crew members.., flying on KC135 aircraft that I launched off the runways of Guam and U-Tapao Thailand in 1969.., , whose 'fun' days are no longer. Fun? May their dear souls rest.
Trump has given all of us another look at his mental state. Who in the hell would "bomb for fun", in other words, waste tax dollar for his own amusement? Saying such statements, as ludicrous as they are, should hammer another 3-inch nail into his impeachment coffin. That republicans cannot see thuggish behavior of this WH occupant only proves who they have become.
And as we suffer the consequences momentum will build for the final solution. The jihadists are not interested in selling us dope and making money. Here we can see Putin's grand play coming to fruition. As with the game of chess all it took was a clever series of moves on the King. Of course having a dopey, ignorant, vain King was imperative.
Georgia, Can I use what you wrote above in my FB page w/ or w/o attribution, as you prefer?
Anything I write here can be shared, preferrably with attribution.
I suspect Peter Thiel influencing Miller is behind this.
Vance is curiously quiet these days.
Vance is waiting in the wings to be brought in as the sane, rational, obedient replacement puppet if Trump self-destructs. Oligarchs gotta have a Plan B. They are so close to getting their goal of a limited, regulation-free, AI-enabled government that continues to move the wealth upward. They are not going to give up easily. Trump is not alone in destroying democracy.
Enormous amounts of money are going to be spent on the midterms. It’s already happening with Ellisons buying up CBS and CNN. There are an awful lot of voters who are not engaged with the news. They will still trust what they hear on CBS and CNN. The Ellisons are placing a huge bet that they can manipulate the media narrative. Bezos is doing the same with WaPo on a smaller scale.
That White House collage on their wins against the “fake news” media was frightening. Trump and his oligarchic puppetmasters are destroying freedom of the press, free speech, and the right to dissent.
HCR.. "But again, in this moment, we look very much like the 1850s, the 1890s, and the 1930s. And in this moment, in those times, the money was there on the side of the people who were trying to destroy Democracy. But the American people showed up and their votes took over. So if you look at all at the special elections that have been held (not all of them) - but virtually all of the ones that have been held since Trump took office, the Democrats are winning by double-digit margins. So they are showing up and making a real difference..."
Later she says," But now is the time not to stop "driving". Because right now, the fate of alot of people, including the United States, hangs on what we do in this minute. And never forget how many more of us there are than the Magas. Many of Trump voters from 2024 (20% of young people and Hispanics) have turned against Trump now. If those numbers had been held back in 2024, he would not have been elected."
There have been so far some great grassroots campaigns actually reaching large groups of voters, whether they watch CBS or CNN or not... Many people are feeling the economic strain and they saw the deaths of Ruben Ray Martinez, Rene Good, and Alex Pretti and they don't want to see their neighbors and friends murdered in the streets... Yes, we have much to overcome, but the fight is still ongoing. And the Ukrainians are our example of persevering heroism. If they haven't given up after the insurmountable odds against them, we need to not give up in advance, but fight even harder. Are we up to this task??!!#
" “Really, I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory, because it is their territory. It’s the place from which they get their energy, and they should come and they should help us protect it. You could make the case that maybe we shouldn’t even be there at all, because we don’t need it. We have a lot of oil.”
I am feeling dizzy from the force of that spin.
This petty schoolyard bully started the war and now demands that our (alienated) former allies come and clean up his mess.
Can't wait to put Don-boy in the time-out chair.
Does the time-out chair have an electrical cord?
In a dark closet!
Thank you Georgia.
We should never forget that Trump, the ChristoNazi conquest and its MAGAstapo terrorism is the triumph of a multi-generation, bi-partisan scheme more than a century in the making, To learn of the carefully hidden roots of the crisis, the documentation of which include a PBS film about the enormous support for Hitler here in the '30s and additional, meticulously footnoted documentation of the plutocracy's support for Nazism, go here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-25-2026?utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=205274486
The European Union agreed to renew sanctions against Russia over the weekend as the bloc and other US allies questioned Washington’s decision to temporarily ease some oil restrictions against Moscow to curb a price surge caused by supply disruptions from the Iran war, Politico reported.
EU countries on Saturday reached a unanimous deal to extend the bloc’s sanctions framework targeting Russian businesses, officials and oligarchs, ensuring the restrictions would not expire over the weekend. More than 2,600 people and entities remain under sanctions imposed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Yes Rev Charles Gallagher and his book The Nazis of Copley Square and some of the German Bund. Originally German was suppose to be our nation’s language there was a vote I think. But in the aftermath of WWI and the anti German feeling there was a kind of backlash.
Before WWI there were neighborhoods where my grandmother grew up of both Lutheran and Catholic Germans, Irish, and Jewish enclaves. At West High in Cleveland German was the language to take not Latin. My grandmother’s new friends- she had graduated from a Catholic grade school and that year was the first year Cleveland Public Schools allowed Catholic students to enter- convinced her to take German. That was the era of sone progressive thinking so Normal Schools were the next step and then she taught at a local Open Air School( pre TB prevention public health imagine!). My grandmother had to do school marches to ask for donations to the war effort. She was incensed because this was in the location of steel mills and multiple immigration groups just surviving. After the war this community changed radically and the Jewish community left with only a few traces that most people did not mention. It was only through my grandmother’s stories and friendship with those in the Jewish community that I used my eyes and found some of the remaining spots-an old schule now turned down and an old Jewish cemetery.
Rachel Maddow!s Ultra series broadens this out to Washington DC. Adam Hochschild in American Midnight explores this era. All from the concept of Victoria and Albert wanting to have a royal united Europe!
I am also reminded of Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror - that has echoes now as well.
My 7th grade class in 1977 was the last class class to be required to take German language class. After that, students could choose Spanish instead. We were in Berks Country PA, though, so I always assumed it was the influence of the Amish, not the Nazis.
Hard to say. I am not aware of the language used and its roots! There is something with the Dutch culture and language as well. You will have to do some research and let us know! I find that ability to research helpful in so many ways!
Thank you for getting into the details here.
The former U.S. military will go down in infamy as oath-breakers. No doubt seduced by ChristoNazi dogma and promised the promotions and loot implicit in wars of conquest, they have become the felonious president's war-criminal legions of death.
Chump is doing exactly what W/Dickie did. Creating enemies that we didn’t have before, for reasons that had no connections to what was in America’s interest. And the lies never stoped. Just became gospel for political fools. At least W wasn’t a pervert…
I forwarded Heather's post today to my spineless, worthless "Christian" Congressman, imploring him to do his job. We must ,mobilize the Dems and the Independents to action. The Magats are a lost cause because MAGA is in fact 21st century KKK. Timothy Egan, "A Fever in the Heartland" (2023) about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's and HCR, "How the South Won the Civil War," (2020) and "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" ("Critical Sociology," Feb. 2018) by two Univ. of Kansas professors. Google it: The Anger Games . . . .
Richard-You’ve pointed out the underlying motivation and support for this regime. The MAGA slogan is all about taking us back to the days when the hierarchy was clearly embedded in white supremacy. Letting a Black president slip through helped to create the fear, malice and hate that propelled the current regime into office.
“No more DEI and no more woke” keeps the Rs support intact. Too bad the majority of Americans can’t see the fallacies involved with racism and misogyny. They need to understand that skin color and body parts don’t define superiority in human beings.
Unfortunately those "Dems" are too often recipients of AIPAC money. AIPAC is the massive pro-Israel PAC. Go to AIPAC Tracker and learn $9.5 MILLION from AIPAC for Adam Schiff or Cory Booker who will not disavow Netanyahu and said he took around $800k from AIPAC years ago. Well. Booker has received $5.8 MILLION. Also go to integrity.index.us.
We can stop expecting the same people who stood by while we got in this nightmare to help us.
True, they, the Magats, are zero help. They comprise part of the opposition. They suffer from amathia, willful ignorance, i.e., they are unable to recognize the fact that they are racist and are being used, manipulated.. It is as strong in them as any religious belief.
I am talking about the corporate centrist Democrats.
Even without all your excellent research, we know Trump doesn't GAF about the American people or how many will die because of his narcissism, ignorance, corruption and greed. That Patel has essentially dismantled the counter-terrorism department and DHS has forced many experts on Iran and terrorism to deport innocent immigrants instead of doing their real jobs, clearly shows that these malignant idiots are clearing the way for terrorists to hit us hard and often. I am so furious!
It's almost as if Trump is inviting terrorist attacks in the US to justify martial law and suspension of domestic civil rights.
Of course, I could be wrong about this. But Trump's exploitation of American citizens and assets to advance his personal ends has been a through line of both of his administrations and it gets worse every time he makes a "plan" or even opens his mouth.
We need to sound the alarm. Before an attack happens, people need to be aware of where the fault lies and what domestic policy changes are likely to follow.
Hopefully none of this happens and there are no attacks to respond to, but it isn't a good idea to assume things are well in hand, either from the personal safety standpoint or for the future governance of the US.
Mobiguy, I don't think you're wrong. I suspect that is part of his (well, not his, whoever is really pulling the strings (cough, Miller, cough)) plan.
Polymarket (where Don Jr. made an “8-figure” investment and is on the advisory board) has the odds of Dems winning the majority in the House at 85% and in the Senate at 51% at the midterms.
As the odds get higher, Trump will get more desperate, and he will get more reckless. But I have no idea what would be more reckless than starting the War with Iran. There aren’t enough soldiers, ICE, and DHS agents to stop voting in every blue city in America.
https://polymarket.com/dashboards/global-elections.
Well, if he can just issue an Executive Order declaring one of his "emergencies", especially if it's close to November, he can postpone or cancel elections and have everything stay the way it is until he's "solved" the "problem" and made it safe to vote again.
"Safe", of course, having nothing to do with the personal safety of Americans, but to making the election safe for his continuing authoritarian coup. Don Jr. will be able to tell him when that is.
Forget Patel. Have them call in the twenty-five year old counter-terror "expert" the Trumpers installed.
I want to get Patel on the record for accountability purposes. Who told him to fire the Iran experts? When did they tell him? Why were those particular people fired as part of Trump’s retribution project? And then I want to bring in the people who were fired and ask them about their particular expertise on intelligence about Iran.
I want to see buttons pushed on what was in those boxes of classified documents that Judge Aileen Cannon has covered up for Trump. Why were Iranian experts working on that case?
Why do you not have a separate Substack, Georgia?
Salud.
🗽
I do. The news has been coming so fast and furiously I am mostly doing notes instead of full posts on my stack these days. I am trying to get back to covering the war in Ukraine but the issues here are more pressing.
https://georgiafisanick.substack.com/
He wants a major terrorist attack so he can declare martial law and federalize, or cancel, the midterms.
So he can become king.
Georgia, this is well documented, i think it is clear that Trump is not worried about a stateside terrorist attack, as it will not affect him, and has a likelihood of helping his popularity. Then rewind the tape of Patel in the locker room in Italy to have a good idea of who is in charge of protecting us from terrorist attacks 🤡.
I'm not a counterterrorism expert, but I would be surprised if Mar-A-Lago wasn't on some terrorists' target list. The terrorists have a pretty good idea of who is to blame for the current mess, and while they tend to attack soft targets they also try to send a message.
Thank you for this! I will follow your suggestion although I think Susan Collins is a waste of my time.
Georgia, thank you for this excellent and detailed post complete with sites. No one I know feels safe, mostly worried by our own jackboots. Now we can add the people provoked by this mess in the Middle East who might want to take revenge.
Wow
A lot to digest! Thank you for the effort and time to present this information.
Just because the Strait of Hormuz is closed, blocking 20% of the world’s oil as Professor HCR points out, liberals try to make fun of President Trump’s demands for other countries to help reopen it. Jokes like “He sounds like that 1960s cartoon character Tooter Turtle. 'Help me, Mr. Wizard. Gee, it looks like I made a mess of things again! I don't want to be a War President any more!'" The truth is, if other countries were to help reopen the Strait it really would help their own economies. That truth does not depend upon what, or who, caused their economies to crap out either. Moreover, Americans voted for him as the Commander in Chief. He won twice too. First against Clinton, a First Lady for 8 years, a Senator and then a Secretary of State. He also beat Harris, a former Attorney General of Calif., a Senator and Vice President. He beat them both because he offers Americans something they both will never have, a white penis. Truth hurts. The problem is deeply related to the Salve Economy, white male privilege. That is the culture the Slave Economy created. Then, almost before the ink dried on the 14th Amendment, which repealed the Dred Scott opinion which said Mr. Scott, a person, was property with no rights, the Supreme Court used the Equal Protection Clause to say it applies to corporations. Thus a corporation, property, is a person with rights. Today we have a mixed corporate culture offspring of the Salve Economy culture. That mess gave us the corporatist fascist Roberts' 6 and the USA culture who voteed for Trump. We have some work to do: unite, unite, unite.
Please read, share and discuss my "Memorandum to We the People." I review the above and begin with the American ideals and values established 250 years ago. Then I mention some social and legal advancements. Next I review the attacks upon all of that by the Supreme Court and others beginning with corporate personhood in 1883 up to now. Then I explain the need for a national discussion by We the People to amend our Constitution and close with model amendment language needed to remedy the more than two dozen wounds the Court has created in lies about what out Constitution means. I promise the professional interpretation and effective presentation of my Memorandum by Mr. Dale Rowett of LexiGraphics.Pro is by itself worth a visit to my page at UnitedWeAmend.org.
Liberals, at least this one, don’t make fun of Trump asking for our allies’ help “Just because the Strait of Hormuz is closed, blocking 20% of the world’s oil.
We make fun of his demands for their aid because he’s tried to demolish NATO, threatened to seize, with force, Greenland from NATO ally Denmark, threatened to make Canada, another NATO member, a U.S. state, diminished support for Ukraine, repeatedly sided with Vladimir Putin over the interests of Western Europe, while personally insulting heads of state or allied nations as a whole.
We make fun of him because he is a schoolyard bully crying because nobody wants to play with him.
Not just a bully, but the dumbest kid in the schoolyard.
Sorry. I should have used the word "ridicule" and not "joke." In Saul Alinsky's book, Rules for Radicals" my favorite Rule is Rule #5. "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It's hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage." https://sliwainsights.com/saul-alinskys-12-rules-for-radicals/
Hence the many costumes showing up at protests against ICE. It’s hard to take people in full combat drag arresting a giraffe very seriously.
And then again - which is funnier? Seeing a giraffe on the streets of Minneapolis, or seeing a fat guy dressed up as if he's going into a full scale battle?
Fair— ICE sliding butt first on a patch of ice definitely trumps a giraffe.
Also, my post is tongue in cheek. I hope people read that as I intended. You are 100% correct on his demanding "allies" when all he has ever done is destroy our allied relations. Now using a fallacy he argues we helped NATO in Ukraine and therefore NATO should help us. We helped ourselves in Ukraine. He closes with a threat to NATO saying, "If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of Nato,”. This will make his fried Putin happy.
Trump killed help for Ukraine shortly after he was elected. No more financial aid, although I believe the US still shares intelligence.
Or a Frog. Or a pink pony.
Or unicorns. Don’t forget the unicorns! 🦄
Capital comment!
And Tim, I'm surprised he hasn't convened his "board of peace" members to force them to contribute militarily to his foolish demands.
Doug, I didn't pay much attention to Donald's "board of peace" grift, its being what it is. I've looked up the list of nations that accepted his invitation. Other than Israel and the U.S. who started this war, the others have very little military power. It's doubtful that all of them together could – or would – provide much assistance.
Besides, their intention was only to buy Donald's favor; they never intended to have any skin in the game. If they refuse to participate in Donald's war, what's he gonna do, throw them off the board? Have any of them actually paid their admission fees?
Exactly my implied sarcastic point, Dale.
Not to mention slapped arbitrary and illegal tariffs on their countries because he misguidedly -or stupidly, depends on how engaged you are- thought it would punish them for disrespecting his widdle self.
Insanity and dementia are a little hard to distinguish which at work here..
The bully is usually the dumbest. That is how he got there.
It seems trump and his clown cart full are doing their best to ignore the fact that Iran leaders only needs to exist to declare victory over the Israel and the west. For trump to accomplish a meaningful victory, he needs to open the strait, and stop missiles and drones from Iran causing regional instability. It will be a tall order to achieve this, and will be extremely unpopular by then.
While recovering any or all enriched uranium; which will involve a protracted ground war.
Yay us. 🙄
Tim: I agree wholeheartedly with your statement.
Exactly, Tim Trew.
You really have to give up this myth of American exceptionalism if you're going to get out of this mess you've landed yourselves in. Your country has never lived up to the ideals it claimes to espouse. Nothing shows this more than the forced eviction of Native Americans and the US's poisonous relationship with Latin America (south and central America) where since the late 19th century to today successive US administrations have systematically disrupted every attempt to set up social democracies.
You need a new constitution written in modern language, one that will properly protect the basic rights of the most vulnerable of your citizens. You need social democracy and you need it soon.
My Memorandum does not ignore the hard truths of human history. Especially not the slave economy King George III and the corrupt Parliament imposed upon the 13 colonies. My model amendment is a major re-write. It includes five sections of strong medicine for a badly wounded Republic. It also recognizes George Washington had only four executive Departments and 13 States. Today there are 15 executive Departments and 50 States. I would repeal the single executive and replace that with seven executives with each in control of a diversified group of the Departments. Thus no more having all our eggs in a single basket, or in Trump's case, no more having all our eggs in a single "Basket case."
John T. Cullen's novel "Washington Under Siege" illustrates why a new Constitutional Convention could lead to disaster.
Russell, you forgot to add Canada to the list of US's poisonous relationship created by the scumbag president.
Charles Koch had one all ready
May he go toes up before it sees the light of day
I agree with you. Under current circumstances, with the level of division we have, it is almost impossible.
I've been walking this path of a modern constitution for two years now. I've sent BOLO's out to those with similar (or ought to have) views and received nary a response. If you're interested, RJN, send me an email address and I'll post you the latest draft as of early December 2025. . .
Agrée wholeheartedly with
When the coffins are coming back by the dozens and Tel Aviv looks like Gaza (can't happen soon enough!) it's going to be interesting where the well-known big US mouths are going to be. Every single Iranian spokesman sounds about 100 times more intelligent than any single US spokesperson, leave alone the Orange one, who probably would even have problems finding Iran on a map.
Do you want to see DC leveled too?
As the case is here, Israel has had mass demonstrations against Netanyahu's actions in Gaza, the war in Iran, the expansion of political control over judicial appointments, and Netanyahu's corruption.
Netanyahu, like Trump, has allied himself with ultra-Nationalist extremists to stay in power and to protect himself from corruption charges. Like here, there are secular factions in Israel that are resisting and trying to restore democracy.
The resistors surely are not the folks funding AIPAC and AIPAC's chosen candidates.
AIPAC is taking advantage of Citizens United to the utmost extent possible. It should be investigated as a conduit for foreign money into elections. Netanyahu speaks and AIPAC repeats while writing checks as far as I can tell.
It is not representative of the viewpoint of all Jews.
It is also being used as a single-issue divider for the Democratic Party at a time when the last thing we can afford is purity tests. You can see that by the number of people who have recently been exclusively focusing on AIPAC. It provides an opportunity to normalize anti-Semitism and stoke Trump’s far-right Nazi supporters. This is playing into their hands.
The answer is to put AIPAC on the long list of things that have to be dealt with once Democrats are back in control of government.
We need to put our energy into winning first, and then getting rid of Citizens United so AIPAC and the entire corrupt PAC structure is outlawed.
Hello Georgia... I wouldn't Equate Anti-AIPAC with Anti-Semitism....
Speaking face-to-face with someone in terms of political purity can repel them. It can provoke an argument. Because it tends to divide, it's not an effective tactic to achieve a bigger-picture win, like an election. For ex., instead of stating "No vote for anyone who takes AIPAC money," try "I'm not supporting Chuck Schumer because I believe AIPAC donors influence him on Gaza. But I will continue to support KS Rep. Sharice Davids because she's strong on other issues I care about, despite AIPAC money. It's also important to me that she's Native, female, LGBTQ, and has been reelected in a reddish state." Now both of us have plenty of room for discussion, for persuasion, and each of us gets to be heard. Maybe we each take away something to think about later.
British Journal of Social Psychology, "Purity, Politics, and Polarization:
https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjso.12596
I'm a bit over the "anti-Semitism" and "not all Jews" stories - not all Germans were Nazis and my generation - 3rd generation after the war generation - after WWII still paid reparations, so start saving your US subsidies, Israelis, you're gonna have to pay huge reparations, you should be bankrupt as a nation for decades to come, as a minimum.
Israelis needed to never put that toad back in power. But we of course have our own poisonous frog
My fear is the number of dignified transfers may be in the thousands at a time. Iran is planning, or likely already have done so, buying 50 advanced anti-ship ballistic missiles from China. These missiles can skim the ocean waters, are highly maneuverable and travel a long distance at speeds between Mach 3 to Mach 10. They are designed to target and destroy ships like aircraft carriers and are nicknamed "Carrier Killers." Our carriers have a crew between 5,000 to 5,800 and we have two, maybe three, in the region.
source please
Sorry. I read about this "deal" in a couple of articles. One said that the target ship would have only a few seconds to respond after detection of the approaching missile. I cannot believe the high brass failed to demand Trump first get the Declaration of War from Congress. It is as if they are all nuts. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/3/12/the-war-of-signals-how-russia-and-china-help-iran-see-the-battlefield
Thanks for the link. I had not heard of the Chinese “carrier killers.” High tech vs. high tech warfare.
But I think asymmetric warfare with a sub-sea drone swarm is more likely, given Iran’s expertise and financial situation. Aim the swarm at the propulsion system on the carrier so that it is dead in the water. That is a bigger humiliation for the US. That is what the Russia/China alliance and their vassal states like Iran and DPRK really want.
Trump doesn’t seem to realize that he isn’t wanted in that club. He is the stooge being used to destroy America’s former leadership position in the world order. This may be the one time Trump is meeting expectations.
"It is as if they are all nuts."
Waddya mean, "As IF?"
They are all nuts, trump being the lead nutter. When a leader of a country makes decisions based on what he feels, well, that says it all.
@ARK, that Al Jazeera article is gold. Very interesting and informative. Thanks for the link.
Hello Albert... I worry about that Marine Amphibious Battle Group....
So do I
I think your post may have given us signs' themes for the next No-Kings protest march..something along the lines of "Who's Dreaming of a White Penis?" or "What's the ICE Christmas Carol?"
Suggestions welcome!
"No Boots on Kharg Island. NO Kings"
I don't think I'd spend much time on that white penis idea, Ed. According to Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels), there's not much to work with.
🤣🤣🤣
Pa-dump-ump! I'm here all week. Please tip your waitress.
That is a good one. It can also be, "Gov. of Laws & Not White Penis," "Trump Won 2 X, W/ 1 Penis" "Gov. of Laws & Not a Felon," "We the People = D.E.I.", "WOKE = Wise to Hist. Anti-WOKE = White Out to Hist " My web page has downloads for rally signs. See below for a vertical 22" X 28" poster and a horizontal 21" wide poster which can be made smaller or larger. I had several made on poster board today at Office Depot. Staples can also make them.
file:///C:/Users/AKillackey/Downloads/UnitedWeAmendLogoVPstr.pdf
file:///C:/Users/AKillackey/Downloads/UnitedWeAmendLogoBnnr.pdf
WOKE=Whatever Offends the Klan Easily. Someone else came up with this.
Thanks for the poster ideas... but those references are to files on your computer, and no one will be able to reach them.
Here ya go.
https://unitedweamend.org/downloads.html
Liberals and anyone with half a brain make fun of PINO and this administration because they started a war without thinking through and planning for the obvious consequences of their actions. Under this administration, they are the tough guy who doesn't need anyone's help until they do. Since PINO likes to treat everything like a business deal, what does Europe, then UK, China, etc. get in exchange for helping the US with the situation cause by their actions? PINO has proven over his life that he doesn't honor deals or contracts. What is the upside? Short term economic relief until new and higher tariffs? More insults and attacks? PINO and DrunkSec claim we have the greatest navy in the world. If so, why do we need other countries help? BTW, notice that no mention of the Israeli navy. Why not?
Speaking of not thinking through consequences, what skills, techniques, strategies, technologies, etc. does the USN expose by working with China in these proposed convoy escorts? These types of missions requires planning and working closely with every ship. What do we expose when working with the Chinese navy? China threatens South Korea with their ever growing expansion in that region. Why is South Korea going to work with their adversary?
The US and Israel decided to start this war without explaining their end goals, without justifying their actions at this time, without building a coalition. Actions have consequences.
"Drizzle drazzle, drazzle drone. Time for this one to come home." (Mr. Wizard)
What we are watching is less a great power strategy than a Three Stooges remake with access to missile systems.
First, Curly trips into a regional war, then Moe slaps Larry for noticing, then all three turn and poke the free press in the eyes for reporting that the room is on fire.
That is apparently the governing model now.
The Strait of Hormuz trembles, oil markets twitch, diplomats reach for antacids, and the administration barrels forward like a clown car that somehow got clearance codes. Every decision arrives with the grace of a rake to the face. Whack. Bonk. Nyuk nyuk nyuk. Then comes the usual line: who could have predicted the consequences after our completely consequence-free act of aggression?
Naturally, the real villain is not the people juggling lit matches near a fuel depot. It is the reporters taking notes. The smoke, you see, is biased. The flames are woke. The fire extinguisher is part of the deep state.
This is where authoritarianism in America gets especially ridiculous. It does not even arrive dressed like Caesar. It stumbles in wearing oversized shoes, carrying a golf pencil, barking at photographers, and insisting that the collapsing set is evidence of strong leadership.
One man bangs the drum, another pulls the lever, a third gets his tie caught in the machinery, and somehow the press is blamed for the noise.
You can almost hear the soundtrack: sirens, shrieking, a cymbal crash, then an outraged press conference about disrespect.
So here we are, governed by slapstick arsonists who start international crises like they are pie fights, then demand applause while covered in soot. They are not master strategists. They are geopolitical stooges, flailing through history, smacking each other with the Constitution, and calling it strength.
Above perfectly describes the mental image of the scenario in my head. With serious regional leaders looking on shaking their heads and wringing their hands.
Excellent imagery. Imagine in Trump's pee-brain believing he was practicing to take down Iran using the "discombobulator" against Venezuela. It does sound like an evil version of Larry, Moe and Curly.
"Trump, in the meantime, we will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline". This Week will see a new phase of War in Iran specifically 20 miles BEYOND the shoreline in the Straight on Kharg Island.
Per Axios' Marco Caputo citing 4 sources say that trump will attempt to reopen the Strait of Hormuz &that trump is "weighing" the seizure of Kharg Island just 20 miles off IRAN's coast.
NYT: "As of March 14, 2026 the U.S. is deploying approximately 2,500 Marines & the U.S. amphibious assault ship, U.S.S. Tripoli to the Middle East with reports they are in position to potential seize or raid Kharg Island once Iran's main oil export hub. The NYT identified the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit as capable of seizing the Island.
Yes. The 31st Marine Expeditionary Force does wear boots & they will likely be on the ground on Kharg Island soon.
@Bryan, you might like to read Malcolm Nance's substack, describing the difficulty of actually GETTING to Kharg Is, via the SoH. It ain't a cake-walk...
I posted Malcolm Nance on Sunday & asked him weigh in with his analysis
Trump's prior attack only hit bunkers & storage facilities not any hardscape.
Per Retired Lt. General Mark Hertling on Morning Joe, 17th Day & the Dubai International Airport's the largest in the area is shut down but, how long is not certain.
My sister in law is a FedEx 777 Captain, and flies into Dubai a lot. Her plane flew in on the morning of the initial attack. It was some dicey flying.
My brother is a FedEx 777 Captain. I worry.
💗
A drone hit the fuel farm at Dubai International (DBX). Apparently, it's still burning. I haven't seen any casualty figures or updates.
Anybody do you remember them counting the number of weeks in Vietnam? Or Korea. Or Afghanistan, where Biden left $80 billion worth of modern American military equipment. By the way to all of you folks all three undeclared wars, never went to Congress for permission. And in Vietnam’s case killed 56,000 Americans thank you Lyndon Johnson democrat
Thank you, Megan.
and the SAVE Act. 77 instance of non-citizens and 10 undocumented immigrants voting in the last 24 years in a total of over one BILLION ballots cast needs to be hammered as well.
YES.
This isn’t just cheerleading. Megan Rothery again gives us practical advice on how to stop a looming disaster. Invaluable.
ThankYou, Megan!
I remember reading Brendan Carr’s section in Project 25 and thinking “it sounds like he wants to destroy the FCC.” Thank goodness we have more independent news sources now.
PLEASE use Megan’s resource. Call and write as many Representatives as you can to protect the First Amendment.
It is possible we will see a radical reassembling of both of the major political parties as Dr. Richardson has mentioned before. See below:
"As Trump’s wars rage and income inequality soars, corporate Democrats are doubling down on crushing progressives ahead of the 2026 elections. The party’s establishment prioritizes donors over voters, leaving the left base frustrated and disillusioned. ...We discuss whether the party can be saved from its centrist chokehold or if it’s already too late to reclaim its soul. Listen in to hear what it will take for progressives to fight back, reshape the agenda, and challenge the broligarchs controlling both parties." Wajahat Ali
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcg5-D6BgHI&t=370s#:~:text=Corporate%20Dems%20vs%2E%20The%20Base%3A%20Is%202026%20the%20Breaking%20Point
Actually Megan, it's true that we need to keep speaking up, and LAUD, but its as important that the scumbag president and his team of enablers keep speaking up. Each time they open their mouths, they sound more desperate and the lies are bigger.
Love your diligence!
Thank you Megan!
At least some reps are saying "I only represent my constituents" unlike our rep here in OH who says "I was elected to represent trump".
Whattt. Not ok!
I have not seen the cracks in the Republican Party. They seem to loudly agree with Trump or sit in their office out of sight. If there were cracks, they would be on TV Weekend shows declaring Trump a Menace and proceeding with Impeachment. If there is a crack, Trump sticks his big finger on it and it is mended.
Eggzactly!
Why does Donald think he can bully what used to be America's best allies?
As Heather relates early in her piece today, Donald is still deeply in thrall to his magical thinking.
Part of this magical thinking is his belief that, if the U.S. is committed to some war, somehow requiring all Americans to rally round the liar and bully-in-chief, everyone will forget the massive cover-up of the Epstein files. And Donald reserves his greatest magical thinking to that fantasy.
As to getting to facts, and away from fantasy, we may owe much to Oregon's U.S. senator Ron Wyden. He's been going into the financials of the Trump-Epstein orbit. From the U.S. and abroad, these elites have dealt not only in young women and underage girls but also money laundering, drug trades, and arms trafficking.
In Donald’s world including all his criminal allies, amorality, immorality rules. As Anne Applebaum has observed, none there centers oneself by reference to any history. None reads any history. Rather, they laurel the adolescence of video game and comic book violence. They all come from schools around the world that key no humanities. All their schools reduce to the conceits of testing, that dehumanized void where only numbers and commodities rule (sophomorically accompanied by those comic book videos).
Sorry, but numbers, commodities, and scores on tests all add up to nothing of any human value other than Donald’s need to keep himself centering every news cycle. The fat pig has nothing more to him than that. None of our dictators, rapists, or mass murderers has any humanity or humane literacy. Why do they now so reign? Because all near-elites have normalized today’s humanly empty assembly lines of testing-primarily, testing’s humanly eradicating measures only.
The fact that on the first day the first act is that the Americans murdered girls in school is horrifying people around the world. Many people in the populations in American allies countries are not supporting this war. I attended an anti war protest in my city in Germany, and wrote a piece to give a flavor for what people are saying on their signs.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/i-attended-an-anti-war-rally-in-bremen?r=f0qfn
It's Hegseth, and Donald, Linda. Both have total contempt for normal military cautions.
Commenters from the U.S. intelligence community have already noted several of the standard procedures the military would honor as part of any targeting.
I said "from the U.S. intelligence community," when I ought to have said that former community, as Hegseth fired many of the most key agents in the Pentagon and at command centers worldwide. It's his manliness show, his chest-thumping, "We're gonna kill-kill-kill" bravado -- his recklessness is so total he brags about flaunting treaties and international norms, brags about drunken-style recklessness first.
Hegseth needs to be impeached for the deaths of those 168 Iranian girls.
I agree Phil! Hegseth and Trump need to be impeached for the deaths of those girls, and for many other things, and they need to be tried as international war criminals. Add to that Witkoff and Kushner. They are traitors to the American people too.
I have been watching Malcolm Nance and Jacob Kaarsbo's daily briefings, and Ken Harbaugh, and some people who are ex military being interviewed on various podcasts. They are letting us know what a bungle job this is. It's like the young child in a home with unsecured guns playing Russian Roulette with them. Trump has made sure that the Iranian Fatwa is not just on him but on all of the American people, and Witkoff (Dumkopf), Kushner, Caine, Hegseth and Trump should all be held responsible for this.
It is very symbolic that Mr. Donald J Epstein Files himself is responsible for the murder of a school full of girls.
Yes, Linda -- the irony of that last remark of yours here.
Multiply that by the ways that he's not even aware of what he's done, what he did.
That is, Orwell nabbed it in "Politics and the English Language." Not only does "bad language" anesthetize, numb, blind us. It compounds that by thus ensuring we also do damage -- but it'll always be damage which we've made ourselves so stupid we cannot even begin to be aware of what we've caused.
That was the goal in "1984" to truncate the language so that words only existed for thoughts that Big Brother wanted us to have.
Trump is nothing if not an exemplar of Orwellian conduct.
Trump, Kegsbreath, Vance,Noem, Bondi, Patel -- NONE OF THEM HAVE ANY RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE. They should all be impeached and tried for murder.
I agree!
It doesn’t surprise me that people with military experience are appalled at Trump and Kegseth doing everything they can to foul up an illegal war they chose to fight without planning or consideration of the consequences. You also don’t need to have any sort of military experience at all, just a modicum of common sense and knowledge of history. Trump, Kegseth & Co don’t live in the real world.
Hegseth has also foolishly said that we will give" No Quarter" to Iranians attempting to surrender. Retired military officers have already said publicly that would be a war crime.
Hegseth may know how to do pushups & pullups, but he doesn't even know the basic rules of war.
I had heard this. Kegseth is ignorant that such an order is illegal under the UCMJ and the Geneva Conventions, and we are still a signatory to the Geneva Conventions.
That is against every tenant of military law.
No Kathy, they don't!
Kathy, neither do his followers. What little I am seeing from my MAGAt retired work cohort, some of whom are former military who saw action in GWOT, is propaganda spewed from who knows what (Russian)) source.
And the deaths of every fisherman in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
Furthermore, we need to court martial the Generals and Admirals that ordered the strikes.
Mark Kelly and Elisa Slotkin are right -- Military members should not follow illegal orders, nor should any Federal employee.
Agreed. We have to stand up for ethics. People are giving their lives for our country right in the streets of the USA. The military should honor that by not following illegal orders.
Hegseth needs to be impeached for being an ignorant fool who is drunk on power that he should NEVER have been given by a delusional president and a Republican Congress who have abused and neglected their responsibility to the American people and the world.
I think kegsbreath fired a bunch of the staff that would have been able to discern that building was a school. There were over 200 people in that office and now only 40. My husband told me this so I hammer verified it myself.
Can you imagine the kind of bombing and destruction and death were it to happen in your town?
So I have heard. That is on Trump and Hegseth, and Patel and Gabbard. Probably the Pentagon too, but ultimately on Trump and Hegseth.
Things will get worse and uglier according to what I am listening to Malcolm Nance and Jacob Kaarsbo each day.
Former JSOC commander, general Stanley McChrystal, calls it the Jolene Doctrine.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IIHMAuaG8NI
Russell John, I can see the Jolene Doctrine at play. This is the doctrine of war criminals. All Democratic leaders should be keeping this in mind as they deal with Trump. Sanchez of Spain comes to mind. He is clear on what this is and that his country wants no part of it. May all other leaders reach this clarity too.
Love the audience laughter here, Russell.
That is, when The Atlantic editor noted some of the most recent oddities by Donald, and then asked General McChrystal, "How do you explain the Trump doctrine," after a brief pause at the obvious insanity of Donald ever having anything even remotely consistent, great, great laughter by all.
Just watched Russell, hilarious if not were tragic. Thanks for the link.
Inculcating magical thinking in the target population segment that are magalonians has been of prime importance for the decades-long psychological war on the USA by fascist mafia oligopolists.
I have two questions for you, Mr. Balla, and a comment.
The concluding sentence to your post above reads: "Because all near-elites have normalized today’s humanly empty assembly lines of testing-primarily, testing’s humanly eradicating measures only." [What the fu''???????]
What in God's name does that sentence even mean???? It is, front to end, un-parsable! It doesn't even rise to the level of gobbledy-gook!
Second, where but in America -- as it now is, of course, -- could 217 of HCR's readers conceivably have punched the 'like' button to such garbage? It is an unremitting mystery, embarrassing, surely, to HCR if I were she, but it clearly shows how blissfully unaware you remain of your own intellectual flaws and your absent inclinations to ever intend to work on them.
I've given up regular perusing of the comments to HCR, in significant part because so many of your posts contain such questionable amounts of value there and launch furies in me I'm better off reserving for the Trumps, Vances, Hegseths, RFK Jr's, Millers , etc, of present-day America. This latest experience should wean me for yet another 3 to 4 week respite.
Comfort, Convenience and illusion of Control over compassion, curiosity and courage
He is stark raving mad. His grandiosity knows no bounds as he tries to be the big boss of the world. He is doing everything to destroy our country and is joyful about his destructiveness. How can his cabinet members and the Republican Party be so willing to follow him in his mad, uninformed power grabbing ?
The short answer to your crucial question is that we are smack in the middle of the "Stormy Applause" stage of self-destruction, not its end.
An incident recorded in Aleksandr Solzehzenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" illustrates. At a Communist Party meeting in Moscow during the height of the Great Terror, after Stalin gave a long speech about something or other, all the delegates stood up and began clapping. (In translation, the official records always say "Stormy Applause" following -- ALWAYS using that exhausted, silly word "stormy" or even "stormy, prolonged applause" -- no other kind of applause is possible if you're a Communist). The stormy, prolonged applause went on, and on, and on, and on, and on, 1, 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes.... The terror in the room increased exponentially as each person realized that whoever sat down FIRST would be arrested the next day (if not before).
And that is exactly what happened. Somebody finally sat down. A simultaneous split second later, everyone else followed. And the person who sat first was, in fact, arrested the very next day (and may have been shot soon after, memory escapes me now).
From 1937 Moscow to 2026 Washington...According to that dangerous, left-wing rag known for its radical-liberal hatred of America, the Wall Street Journal, the planning for this Children's Crusade in Iran was limited to 5 people alone (Kegsbreath, Little Marco, General Caine (Head of the Joint Chiefs) and JD Eyeliner) in order "to prevent leaks."
That's shorthand, of course. You're being informed that the pea-brains KNEW how incompetent they were and indeed terrified of very real leaks transpiring all around. They know this is the leakiest Administration in American history. They do not enjoy the confidence and support of those working under them --- the exact opposite of the 'tight lips, tight ship' conduct and loyalty the Biden Administration always enjoyed from those within. (Not for nothing do we recall the old World War II poster -- "loose lips sink ships").
If you think this paints a picture of total fuckupery, you're right. The Journal also reports (by now what the obvious):
--Senior diplomats in the region were told nothing (they found out the bombing had started from social media, like everyone else)
--Nobody planned (or even thought about) how to evacuate hundreds of thousands of stranded Americans in the region;
--Nobody had a strategy to reopen Hormuz in case the Iranians shut it (and officials who might have raised those questions were deliberately kept out of the planning room)
--Operation 'Epic Fuckupery' was based on a group chat and a group feeling.
Sooner or later, somebody's going to sit down first -- as sure as another vicious, deranged Trump tweet in the middle of the night about God knows what. Strap yourselves in tight now, don't wait til later.
Danger, dead ahead, Will Robinson. Danger.
“Trump leaves top Republicans clapping so long critics say no one dares be the first to stop — until one finally tries and immediately regrets it.”
https://atlantablackstar.com/2026/03/10/oh-my-goodness-watch-trump-leaves-top-republicans-clapping-so-long-critics-say-no-one-dares-be-the-first-to-stop-until-one-finally-tries-and-immediately-regrets-it/
"Top Republicans with the clap."
🤣
Apparently, the Solzhenitsyn meme has entered modern life....Apparently, the shoe fits...
So right ICTT
Plutocratic total corruption
Nraecohen, I like the British expression, "barking mad," because it conjures the image of a dog chained to a stake inside his empty head barking at the darkness.
Donald has brought many "firsts" to the United States. He is likely presiding over the first war that the U.S. loses.
Some might argue that Vietnam was a loss, but I would classify it as a failure. The U.S. walked away without a resolution.
I believe ... I fear that Iran and its allies will make us pay dearly for our unprovoked attack. How much blood and how much treasure remains to be seen.
We have a president who might drop more bombs”just for fun.”
I look forward to Trump’s third impeachment.
We gather on March 28 to make sure that day comes sooner rather than later.
I just can't wait for it. What little grip he had, he's lost. He's like a toddler destroying all his toys to get attention.
"Fun" fact (no, a real one). "Melania" is now the lowest rated movie of all time on IMDB, with 1.1 out of 10 and more than 17,000 reviews.
While last night, an apocalyptic, dark comedy-action-thriller shout-out against authoritarianism, written by a Norwegian and produced by Warner Bros., won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. 94% of 438 critics on Rotten Tomatoes gave it positive reviews.
Expect raging late night tweets from a demented 79-year-old about "One Battle Against Another" (which he has never seen) claiming it encourages wadical-wibewal tewwowism against ICE and the United States. Coming not-at-any-theater (except that of the Absurd), any day now.
Unfortunately, it means nothing if we don’t have a large enough vote to convict in the Senate.
I am not necessarily looking forward to just the impeachment, but to a conviction in the Senate, which is a pipe dream. Impeachment won’t relive us of him, only conviction or 25th Amendment will.
Warships cannot protect tankers from missile and drone attacks and from mines. It's unlikely that other nations would send their vessels on such a dangerous and exposed mission.
Iran now has the upper hand. It's clear that this war was started with no planning.
Two random thoughts.
1. The US Navy has undoubtedly been studying for decades how it might respond to a blockade of the Straits of Hormuz, alone or with allies. Somehow what they knew never got through Hegseth to Trump.
2. But technology can surprise everyone. Nobody expected that Ukraine, starting with nothing, could quickly force the Russian Navy to stop operating in the Black Sea.
They were kept out of the planning meetings, that's why. There wasn't a mysterious "somehow" about it -- it was quite carefully planned (about the only thing in this war that was "planned").
They fired all of the experts and replaced them with Fox "newscasters" and know nothing sycophants.
Israel Iran War: Why Iran Opened Strait Of Hormuz For India (3/14/26)
🆘 we need India to help in diplomatic talks said ex-general
https://youtu.be/anRYKSB9WX0?si=24MoTsDRrRPIwGc1
Only Israel has a plan, which is to pulverize the Iranian regime into the dust and to keep going until this is done. Why Trump signed up to this nihilistic pact with Netanyahu is anybody's guess.
The why is easy. Bibi told him this war was what a big, strong man would do. He's such an easy mark.
"Only Israel has a plan, which is to pulverize the Iranian regime into the dust and to keep going until this is done."
Make that: To keep the U.S. going until it is done to Israel's satisfaction.
Let's not forget that while Bibi appealed to Donald's vanity, Donald's puppeteers in the White House whispered in his ear to accept Bibi's invitation. The chaos is a distraction that helps to enable domestic goals described in Vought's Project 2025 and take attention from Miller's deportation campaign and Bondi's concealment of the Trumpstein files.
Nothing to guess here Russell, trump is an idiotic narcissistic scumbag.
"Why Trump signed up to this nihilistic pact with Netanyahu is anybody's guess."
My guess: total rights in Gaza.
Actually, the US military has "gamed" out any military scenario and then some. They have plans for nuclear war if it comes to that. We are fortunate that these plans have been in place since the beginning of the Cold War. And they are constantly updated to take advantage of the advances in technology.
Imagine if Trump or Kegsbreath were in charge of military strategy. Since neither one of them cares about the lives of anyone other than themselves, we would likely have boots on the ground in Iran right now.
Fortunately, we have brilliant minds in the military that are just following orders to attack Venezuela, Iran etc.
But what Trump and Kegsbreath are incapable of doing is trying to determine unintended consequences. Much of the midwest gets their gasoline from Canada. So far Canada hasn't put a tariff on this gasoline. But if they do, predictions are the price of gas in the midwest will shoot up by around 70 cents a gallon. And planting season is coming up.
I'm trying to figure which part is snark, and which is not. "Brilliant minds that are just following orders to attack... " that's gotta be snark. Because every last one of them is in violation of the UCMJ, in that they have followed unlawful orders. I would not call them brilliant. Canada tariffs on gasoline? You mean just raise the price they charge us for it. That works for me: it will help convince some of the red states to dump the Orange Menace.
Macron has already nixed France sending any vessels.
Yes, that happened about two days ago. It practically didn't garner 5 seconds worth of attention on the major news networks. Today, the New York Times mentions a "cool, tepid response" from Britain, France, the EU and South Korea.
I am not ready to say Iran has the upper hand - their military infrastructure has been severely damaged. However since the U.S. does not have a clear strategy, just tactics, I can’t evaluate anything except that by the passing of each day, to win, Trump may need to put boots on the ground.
My banned book group is reading 1984. When I closed the book this evening, I'd just read:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
No indication, however, whether Big Brother would say that it's more fun to play golf or to drop bombs on a target.
Betsy, when Trump first created his "Board of Peace", I immediately recognized that it was a "Board of War," or "Bored of Peace." I am in a political book club and we read both "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which influenced Orwell when he wrote, "1984" and we compared the two. I then wrote this piece discussing the language of the fascists as illustrated by Orwell.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/the-language-of-the-fascist-regime?r=f0qfn
I think the "Board of Peace" serves three of Trump's impulses. As the last few months show, he is indeed bored of peace. But he gets to set up his own little club to replace the UN, which, after all, has boring rules and procedures and is full of those nasty, non-white people. The new club is more fun. He gets to be the God-Emperor of this new club. And it provides him another grift. After all, prospective members/supplicants have to cough up a billion dollars to accompany their membership applications and it's the God-Emperor himself who controls (keeps) that money.
They do if they want some influence, but there are also members who have not paid. It seems that one advantage of being on that board is that Trump uses US tax dollars to help fund your reelection campaign. If there was someone leading a lawsuit against this use of our money, I would sign on.
According to Trump, whose word about anything cannot be trusted, the "US" will contribute $10B to this fake organization. I wonder where that is coming from. Has it appeared in any budget proposal yet? Or is it all just the usual flapping of the Trump jaws, money to be conjured out of thin air, just because he said it? It would not surprise me at all if it ends up just like you say, with We the People providing cash for other would-be dictators.
Putin is 'Big Brother'. Trump is Monty Python's version of 'Big Brother'.
I think Xi is Big Brother. But Big Brother looks more like Stalin as he is depicted.
Here is a film to see to help us understand what we are living through.
https://youtu.be/5tKAaEqoJq0?si=yBb2a8OrNJTBaTEa
To be sure, a newsflash claimed that there was a stunning victory on the Malabar front...although Donold the demented doesn't have a clue where that is and he's already losing interest in where the Strait of Hormuz is...now onto "bombing Kharg Island just for the fun of it"
Seems Donold, Hegseth and the regime will require attendance at the 2 minutes of hate...Brendan Carr is demanding networks start using Newspeak(probably Trumpspeak now)...
ICYMI: Ali Velshi, a Canadian journalist, correspondent for NBC News and anchor for MS NOW, gave a synopsis of what the Heritage foundation is doing to disempower women now that they have succeeded in implementing about half of Project 2025’s assault on our democracy. It is much more than just suppressing women’s vote as the SAVE Act does or controlling women’s healthcare as the Supreme Court’s decisions have. Velshi appears to be trying to provide at least some replacement for the “60 Minutes” program that has been censored. I recommend that all women (and men) should be aware of the information he provides in this short video which has a historical perspective.
“The Heritage Foundation’s new blueprint for American women - YouTube”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orbSiS-9ZWU
Also ICYMI: Ali Velshi also gave a historical synopsis of what the Heritage foundation is doing to give more power over our society and money to billionaires now that they have succeeded in implementing about half of Project 2025’s assault on our democracy. A short video that hits the most important facts and history:
“Trump-era billionaire boom shows America’s real divide - YouTube”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJz-V6TO8lo
https://www.heritage.org/marriage-and-family/report/saving-america-saving-the-family-foundation-the-next-250-years
This is the Heritage document spelling out disenfranchising women and taking away the smallest amount of freedom or self agency. It is long, redundant, and repulsive.
Try to at least skim it, perhaps taking anti-nausea meds first.
Thanks, Fred, for the links above. Women in America are at risk of losing the vote that they fought so hard for - The SAVE Act would prevent a lot of women from voting [please see our monthly post for March 2026: U.S. Elections Compared to Other Democracies at oneclick2betterworld.substack.com]. And yes, the question on voters' minds as the midterm elections get underway is "Who does the American economy and our democracy really work for anymore?". Please everybody sign up for a March 28th No Kings protest near you through No Kings, Indivisible, or Common Cause and make your voices heard!
I don’t know anyone who wants to go back to the 1950s era of living when women had to endure abusive relationships and had no choice about family size. My mother was one of those ladies and warned me about it all the time. If she had been able to take the pill she would never had 5 kids boom boom boom all in a row and a scumbag first husband that didn’t provide for them.
🤮
Was the "60 Minutes" program you mentioned censored after it was aired? Or was it held back and changed and then aired? Please explain. I assume it has nothing to do with the segment on the El Salvadoran prison that was revised and ultimately aired.
And while Rome burned, Nero played his violin only in this case he was on the golf course again.
Let’s not forget that the Epstein files still need to be opened for all to see and that this administration is setting up concentration camps and their armed goons are still grabbing people off the streets and sending them there!
For years the fossil fuel industry has convinced Americans that we must produce more oil here so we’re not subject to oil price fluctuations. Environmentalists have tried to push back against this oil drilling frenzy anywhere the oil companies want, including wildlife refuges, pristine federally owned lands, and close to schools and private homes. What people weren’t told was the oil companies sell their oil to the highest bidder internationally. Oil is an international commodity.
The US is a net energy exporter but that's not going to protect it from those inevitable price rises. They would be even higher were it not for the substantial subsidies provided to the fossil fuel industries which Trump has increased by around $4bn a year, even as he turns his back to the cheapest form of electricity ever - solar energy.
Not everyone is as stupid as he is. Texas now has more solar energy than California.
We can't use most of what we produce. It has to be sold on the international market. And we are subject to the international market price. The only ones who are going to be better off are the companies that produce the oil and their shareholders. The rest of us don't count.
I am recommending that everyone in the US have a VPN and also subscribe to a platform like Steady which is in the EU, so that you have an option to use something other than Substack, in case Trump and Carr shut it down, or insist on censoring what is on it.
https://steady.page/en/vs/substack
If you post on both, you can migrate to Steady if there is a problem with Substack and other US based media channels.
Thank you Linda, that's very good advice. It's a good idea to have contingency plans and ways to communicate in these chaotic and uncertain times we find ourselves in. Donold is a lunatic and the entire fascist regime is menacing enough to do something drastic like that. Hope it never comes to that but better to be prepared or at least have some options, just in case...
Thanks, Linda. Every time more than a day passes without a sign of LFAA, I fear that this has happened. I thought "Steady" was Dan Rather?
Anne-Louise, What is LFAA?
I first heard about Steady from American History Prof. Thomas Zimmer, a Substacker who was teaching at George Washington University, then moved back to Germany. He introduced me to Steady. He is on both Substack and Steady, trying to transition.
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/
and
https://steady.page/en/democracyamericana/about
Now that I belong to a group looking to replace US big tech with platforms in the EU that have to follow the Digital Security Act, and to boycott these Big Tech platforms that are funding Trump and have caved to him, I am learning to live sometimes with less easy software and platforms in order to stand up for what I believe in.
Linda!!! LFAA = Letter from an American. I can recommend it...
Aha. I guess I do not refer to it in that way. It is HCRs Substack in my book.
Proton.me family, DuckDuckGo and Libre Office are a good start...
Thanks for the recommendations Pete.
I have a Proton account and a Posteo account. I don't know Libre Office but will try it. I was given this list.
https://european-alternatives.eu/
My husband, who just retired from a US University, has gotten a Tuxedo Laptop that is Linux compatible. He does not use a US phone brand or email service. We have a European VPN and he has a US email. No Amazon is used. We are planning on switching from Signal to Threema for family communication.
What is Threema?
I have friends who are more cautious than Signal which they also use, and they those who do not use Signal but use Threema. You have to pay some small amount, and then you have a Swiss platformed messaging app.
https://threema.com/en
The thing is that you have to know other people in the Threema messaging network to use it, but Europe is working so that you can use one messaging app to message another app, but you cannot do that with US based apps.
Right now Trump is demanding information from Whats App, which is less secure than Signal, and frankly if more people would get off it would could just dispense with it, but for political work I am finding I have to use it because of this very reason. We shall see what he can get. Signal is set up so that they cannot give your information, or can they?
Right now Russia is hacking Signal accounts, so one has to be careful. I read this elsewhere too.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-backed-hackers-breach-signal-whatsapp-accounts-officials-journalists-2026-03-09/
Prof. Zimmer has excellent insights.
Yes. I was introduced to him when he spoke to Democrats Abroad during the election campaign in the summer of 2024.
I want to subscribe to his articles.
I like his writing too.
Hey @Linda, I just signed up for Steady, and Tom Zimmer. Thanks heaps for the links!
Pete, that is great! I think that we need to be looking for alternate sources of information that cannot be shut down by Trump and his baddies.
Not surprising, Trump golfing as war spreads The only serious thinking Trump has ever done is to gaining wealth, deporting immigrants, expanding DHS, ICE, and detention centers.
Oh, I forgot, also … revenge, continuing to spread the election lie, pardoning January 6th supporters, taking over the DOJ and Supreme Court.
Lies, delusion and revenge, and the greatest of these is revenge.
His second term has indeed been very busy, but mostly on his own behalf and in pursuit of his own interests rather than those of the American people.
How else does Trump think he’s going to line his pockets as he imagines he deserves?
Not quite golfing, more cheating at golf, which is more Trump’s style.
He's not used to consequences. He stepped in it and no one wants to help him, because he is a jerk.
Yes, to put it plainly. A jerk. Always has been.
A Jerk and The King of Bullshit.
Good to meet you here @MusingsofAngela. Your bird photos are uplifting! I look forward to reading your newsletter!
Thank you! Getting outside with the birds is kind of a coping mechanism in the chaotic world :D
I’m just getting started with birding and love the curiosity and focus.
Trump is losing interest in this war. This is what he's been posting on Truth Social even as the war intensifies under Israeli direction.
https://europa.today.it/en/2026-iran-war-what-donald-trump-posts-while-bombing.html
He's appealing for assistance from erstwhile allies of the United States, allies he didn't consult before launching attacks on Iran, allies he didn't even bother to warn leaving them unprepared for Iranian retaliation (which we know from Marco Rubio's attempt to justify the pre-emptive strike was anticipated by the US). The Italian defence minister was left stranded in Dubai where he was visiting his wife for the day. Even after the first wave of attacks, he didn't contact US allies, he contacted his muse, Laura Loomer, to gauge how this would play amongst the faithful.
So far, South Korea has said it is considering how it can help and bear in mind that Trump has been withdrawing US missiles from the penninsula to use in the Middle East, again with minimal consultation.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/11/redeployment-us-missiles-thaad-south-korea-middle-east-seoul-iran
The UK has been looking at offering some of its minesweeper drones already in the region and it has been reported that Sir Keir Starmer has tried to persuade Trump to end the war and the economic crisis it has caused. Japan (which has already suffered similar missile re-deployments as South Korea) and Australia have made it quite clear that they have no intention of sending warships to the Gulf. Jaoan is poised to become the third-biggest defence spender in the world, an indication perhaps that they realise they can no longer depend on the US as a reliable ally.
https://www.euronews.com/business/2025/12/26/japan-on-track-to-become-worlds-third-largest-defence-spender
So now Trump is once again threatening the NATO alliance, an alliance to which he has never truly committed - and playing golf and shit-posting which is what he does when he's angry.
The world simply cannot afford weeks and months more of this chaos from this powerful but incredibly stupid individual.
Belle of the Ranch posted a video tonight tearing Trump / Hegseth apart over asking for international help. I invite everyone to watch. Belle is ex-military / nurse with a great team that produces three hard-hitting videos a day plus one long-form video per week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxHQEshdhbc
Brilliant!
Former JSOC commander, general Stanley McChrystal, calls it the Jolene Doctrine, a more apt description of Trump's capricious and vindictive policy-making than his own Don-Roe Doctrine.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IIHMAuaG8NI
Thanks for the video link. That’s an absolutely brilliant answer from General Stanley McChrystal!
France has also withdrawn its previous offer of a naval armada. Now he warns he might "delay" his trip to China if China doesn't unblock the Strait for him.
Always taking responsibility for his actions, this one.
Powerful? Only because power is given to him by his sycophants/handlers.
So much for the independence of the FCC.
Purging opposition seems to take up a lot of this administration’s energy.
What about domestic programs that support the common good?
More "the uncommon good", i.e. the good of the Trump tribe.
Come on now, Phil. We can't have radical, left, Marxist programs like "promoting the general welfare" now, can we?!?
There you go, using that W word.........
You’d think we’d all be accustomed to the constant, obvious, dramatic lies, but - perhaps because we are talking about such violence, such murder, such an appalling attack that is costing so many innocents such suffering - the boasting, the pettiness, the enormity of the lies seems more poisonous, truly evil.
Iran has NEVER before closed or tried to close the Strait of Hormuz. NEVER. And even after our unprovoked attack in June, they responded with moderation. It was by anyone’s standard entirely predictable that this unprovoked, illegal action on Trump’s part (which is killing thousands of innocents and displacing millions) would be met with economic attacks by Iran, including closing the Strait.
The Europeans are wisely making their own agreements with Iran and have absolutely no interest in entering a war they were not consulted on. There are indications that Iran is allowing through some European ships.
This is TRUMP’s mess and the US has not seen a fraction of the price we’re going to pay.
It’s deeply disturbing how little we’re speaking/reading/hearing of the horror being rained upon those living in Iran - the loss of life, the terror of unpredictable and daily bombing, the destruction of homes and schools and shops and hospitals and cafes and historic sites. And in Lebanon. While the dehumanization is, at this point, expectable from this regime for whom the lives of all others (including Americans) are a matter of indifference, where is our media - even here on Substack - when it comes to the daily reality of what we are doing to the real human beings in these countries??? Where are the photos? Where are the descriptions???
WHY DONT WE SEEM TO CARE ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHOSE LIVES THIS COUNTRY IS DESTROYING IN OUR NAME WITH OUR MONEY???? Why is it only about us??
As usual Trump orders other people to clean up the mess that he leaves behind.
Ketchup on the wall.