I watched the deportation events starting with the activist who posted the “HIGHLY UNUSUAL” flights on X last Saturday. In horror, I saw the detained being herded off busses with heads down in shackles. Then they showed them shaving their heads. All beneath the post from the El Salvadoran president “Oopsie, too late!” Above the New York Post headline.
Look, the regime can cordially shove it up their butts that the judge had no jurisdiction once the flights were in the air. This was Trump running from the law. Again. And Again. And again. Ad nauseum.
Second Look, I know damn well SOME of these people were not nice friendly white folks with pocket protector pen holders in their white shirts carrying bibles on their way to church. But, and this is a big BUT, they were owed due process. Roberts is right to have rebuked Dear Leader. Any other action would have dissolved what remaining power the Judiciary has as a legitimate institution. Full stop.
I laughed out loud when I read Robert's thinly veiled warning to Trump about impeachment. Robert's and his happy gang of constitutional illiterates got us into this mess, first with Citizen's United and last July with his sophomoric Presidential immunity decision.
Just do your job as George Conway requests -- no more no less.
Gary, thank you so much for this. I didn't quite laugh out loud, but I did chuckle. Roberts is such a jerk. I have heard he looks like what one might think a judge should look like. I have no visual memory of him he was that flat to me. He did not start his bad acting with Citizens United, but was as far as I remember, a helper in getting W. Bush declared president when it was pretty clear that should not have been a decision by the Supreme Court. He wasn't on the SC at the time, but W. thought he deserved something for his "good deed," and he gave it to him and we are all paying for it decades later.
What Roberts said could be taken as him telling Trump not to trash on judges. All Trump needs to do is appeal the decision. Roberts will take care of it then. Roberts is the one who gave Trump all the power. Roberts is also aware that once people start impeaching judges he will be on the list.
Old..yes, once the precedent is set, Roberts knows that several of the Supremes are targets. Elizabeth I did not want to execute Mary Queen of Scots either because it set a bad precedent....and Charles I down the line went to the block.
Still, it was an important call from Roberts. Trump does not have any conviction of serving his voters. His illegal actions are show-offs of his power as President. Once challenged legally or mass demonstrations he can be shaken up.
Hiro, but I doubt that Trump's handlers will back down that easily. Trump is just their front man. He is not smart enough to come up with this whole government takeover, robbery of people's information, even money, etc. They want power and fear. It is going to be up to We the People to stop them because the Steves, Theil, and the rest of the corrupt rich white oligarchs will not back down no matter what Roberts or any cort says.
Jen, I too, can't forgive him, Scalia, and the rest of the Citizens United crew who just made stuff up to give corporations and rich people a way to buy elections, knowing the majority of those rich guys are not Democrats, nor do they care about this democracy, only what they can steal from it. Yep, Roberts was totally on board, even making up stuff to pretend there was some kind of Constitutional claim for it; there wasn't and isn't.
Ruth and Jen, as far as i am concerned, the Roberts Court is an aider and abetter of destroying our democracy. Most of them should not be sitting on any court.
They do it with the Bible as well, and being an anthology, there is always something there that can be trimmed to fit.
And the reach of of the current $COTUS is extra-long, even back to witch hunters. I suspect that the authority of selected cave paintings will be next. Or maybe just old cartoons of cavemen dragging women by the hair.
The "Constitution" comes and speaks to MAGA Justices, for their ears only, revealing hidden secrets of eternal jurisprudence. But the thing about those dreams is being sure that it's the "Constitution" talking, and not just an overdose of too many tallow-soaked Freedom Fries.
And of course, people are saying that "Money talks"...
Treason is defined as, : "the crime of betraying one's country". Why is it tabu to call people who are within our country and especially our government, traitors? They wear suits and robes and sit in the White house, Congress and our courtrooms, and are betraying our country more each day. The enemy is within. Press On Regardless
Treason as a crime is very narrowly defined in the country, and related to war. Nevertheless the dishonestly and treachery of Trump is screamingly obvious.
The 2000 Bush V. Gore election was manipulated by the Brooks Brothers riot in Florida. Among the Bush team were John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas was on the Supreme Court. What a coincidence.
Doug, Roberts knew exactly what he was doing. I can't help but wonder if somehow he was privy to some of the tampering that might have taken place in "swing states" to make sure the wins were just above the threshhold for recounts so their Baby Donnie would get in, and with enough Republican Senators to make sure nothing was done to stop the SC's bad decisions. Democrats so badly wanted to play nice that they didn't even call for recounts. Maybe they didn't realize just how suspicious it was for those barely wins. I hate feeling like a conspiracy theorist, but what Republicans have done recently would make anyone feel that way. When Republicans accuse others of something it is a guarantee Republicans are doing the thing they were accusing others of doing.
Thank you. If I am one of those conspiracy nuts, I am in admirable company. Our Democrat check and balancers were so afraid of being accused of interfering with “ the American transfer of power “ they were rendered impotent.
gjay, and I believe it was deliberate, planned since before the 2020 election. In 4 years, a team of anti-democracy white men with some computer and social media skill can do a lot of damage, and I believe did.
It can still be deemed a crime, he could be impeached, he just can’t be brought up on the criminal charge…like charged with murder for stopping aid to families that will cause deaths. I think he should be impeached..and likely will be some day, sooner rather than later.
Not necessarily. As I understand it, the dictum is that he cannot be "prosecuted for crimes committed while president". That is not the same as the conduct not being illegal.
Ally, as I recall, SCOTUS said basically anything the president does in the course of his (will it ever be her?) "official duties" is not illegal. And they are the arbiter of what is an official duty.
It amazes me that Roberts is being lauded for his “strong” statement. What a joke. It is absolutely meaningless, coming from a man who has given Trump virtually limitless power. Coupled with the pardon power, Trump and his minions are already above the law. They will do whatever they want. Roberts is the all-time winner of the “too little, too late” award. Fool.
Dave, while Roberts' remains an appalling figure to me, and one who will live in infamy should history be the judge, perhaps he has had enough of 47's (and 45's) behavior, and will rule against him in cases that make it to SCOTUS. After all, when they gave him presumable immunity, they also said that SCOTUS will determine what is and isn't an official duty. And I hopefully assume that actions which are anti-Constitutional will be beyond the scope of an official duty.
But then again, I'm probably foolishly naive by thinking that they will use their power to save us from the destruction of democracy.
I admire your optimism, but Trump and the MAGAdministration are no longer playing by "the rules." I have followed closely the dismantling of USAID. It was their "canary in the coal mine" for other agencies and departments. Even though judges have now repeatedly ordered Trump, Elon, and the DOGE boys to reverse many of the things they have done--including not paying contractors for work done before Trump even took office, and not opening the spigot for ongoing projects that Little Marco allegedly exempted from destruction--they are essentially ignoring those orders. The cases will wind their way through the court system, but even if the Supremes were to rule against Trump, the damage to USAID and other agencies/departments will be irreversible. Many of the major USAID contractors will go bankrupt or be shells of their former selves. No in-country partners will trust the USA again. Rubio's retweeting of the "Oopsie" comment is just another example of the Administration's absolute contempt for the law. What's more, that little airplane episode, the arrest and imprisonment of the Palestinian protestor, and the forced entry into the U.S. Agency for International Peace are all "canaries." Trump is not just pushing the boundaries of legality, he is obliterating them.
And he knows he can get away with all of it. He wasn't president when he stole the thousands of classified documents, kept them at MAL, lied continuously that he didn't have them, or returned them all, or declassified them in his "brain," to finally admitting that he had them, but it was his "right" as he was the winner of the '20 election. The never-ending crimes he has buried our country under for years is all on those 6 equally criminal SC justices.
Gjay, meaning that it all depends upon who writes (or who is *allowed* to write) the history of this present era. I've already adjudged it, as have millions of others.
Dave Dalton: and weren't the republicans, conservatives, etc the ones screaming about activist judges? They have no shame over their glaring hypocrisy.
It is Johnny come lately. Roberts did put us in this mess with his partisan decisions. The partisan judges are the best at RATIONAIZING, in order to undo precedence.
Yes, our Supreme Court simply invents ideas to support a strange sense and direction of the law. The right wing has many ideas about concepts we hold dear! Money is not free speech, corporations are not given rights above those of an individual’s, and science actually requires one to have expertise to make choices and administer the laws Congress has passed. Hydrology is a science! If can’t understand this, fine, but you can’t invent an interpretation that belittles the idea of having to see the water flow…ground water is real!
And yes, you can bring criminal charges to bear on a President…to support impeachment and further punishment.
“You can bring criminal charges to bear on a president. . .”
As in “ high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Trump, the hydrology president? His voters in Tulare County would not criticize him publicly. “He didn’t mean to cause harm,” said the Farm Bureau spokesman.
You know it’s not much of a democracy when citizens who vote for the guy are afraid to defend their own interests from his ignorant stunts.
Gary - as pointed out repeatedly, republicans only care if something negatively impacts THEM. And now here comes Roberts' and the Courts' irrelevancy, so he speaks.
Is that tool of a fool still around? I blocked it long ago, with some misgivings that there would be gaps in the threads making them hard to follow. As it turns out, there have been no holes in the conversations at all. Blocking actually eliminated the "hole."
Thank God there is a block! Several times I have considered never reading comments again (in various substacks) because of the nasty, abusive, and utterly false comments from MAGA trolls.
Michele, if I recall, you click on his name, bringing you to his profile. Find the 3 dots, click, and click on block (or mute.) It's been a while since I've done it so I may be wrong, but try that.
Yeah, it's still the same. It's important to click on his name first, and then click on those 3 dots to the right, which opens a list of several actions, one of which is "Block" in red letters. If you try clicking on the 3 dots to the right of his name on the regular comments page the "Block" feature doesn't appear.
You mean Reagan would be choosing to not only put up with MAGA but to celebrate MAGA. . MAGA is the spawn of Reagan jumping in bed with Ralph Reed and the KKK. The Southern Strategy. Movement Conservatism with the Religious Right and white supremacists. The pinstripe vested interests with the bible thumpers in sheets. Trump is Reagan writ large and writ vulgar. Red hats are the new white hoods - and brown shirts.
Hi lin. I'm not quite sure what I meant since I was trying to locate a train to go from Lyon to Marseille while writing the post. Sorry. You stroke a point with your comment regarding the internal political situation that as you said, and I agree, started with Reagan. The part of my stressed brain was mostly thinking about the cozy relationship between our scumbag president and Putin. I don't think Reagan would have let any Russian president take advantage of our nation as the current one is doing .
Trump's fawning on Putin goes back to America First fawning on Hitler. The American right has long had a taste for authoritarians. Reagan of course, from negotiating with Iran to hold the American hostages until after the election and through Iran-Contra, tended to fawn on his authoritarians behind the scenes. As with the KKK, Reagan's dog whistles paved the way for Trump's right out loud.
Who knows who what reagan's puppeteers would have allowed? I distinctly remember wondering what was going on with things he said (Turned out, his Alzheimer's was already showing). I firmly believe musk tells trump to go play (read: golf)), while he takes care of everything. Biden's brain stutters; Too much input, too fast causes difficulty in processing. "Hi lin. I'm not quite sure what I meant since I was trying to locate a train to go from Lyon to Marseille while writing the post".
Well, please inform us all how to Russian president is taking advantage of the situation? He’s taking advantage of it because Biden and Obama were in power at the time. Why don’t you open up your eyes and see Putin attacked Crimea with Obama and power. Putin attacked Ukraine with Biden and power. Hmmmmm
Yikes. I guess you don’t like great presidents for America, huh?
By the way, the races if you keep using it, it’s working really well. Your popularity is down to 29% now the lower school district will keep using racist, misogynist and all those other axioms and get you nowhere. We love it.
Yes! A well forgotten story that need to be told…for all his serious strangers, the Quaker Nixon was mild compared to Arms for hostages Ronnie, the “Thanks for the votes Suckers!’ poster was in many a California household!
Ricardo, yeah, and Reagan was not what one should think of as a decent president even though he gets all kinds of lauds, even from Democrats. He wrecked our economy, appointed less than stellar Supreme Court justices, committed criminal acts with Iran-Contra and perfected the line that he didn't know. He gave US support to a movement in the Soviet Union that was moving along, but Reagan took credit. He had Altzheimers but his handlers knew it and even proposed the Constitution be changed so he could have a third term and I am guessing the American people might have voted Grandpa in again because of all the work that was done to make him look competent and a decent guy. He was neither. He did appalling things to students while he was governor of CA and to his union while president of the actors' union. In short, he is seen as something he definitely was not. Trump may well be seen that way too because Americans have bad memories and love nostalgia. Trump has dementia and is barely functioning, but there he is, insulting President Zelensky of Ukraine to please his buddy, probably puppetmaster, Putin. Ugh!
There's nothing I would disagree with you Ruth ,it's just that I can't see Reagan dropping his pants as the scumbag president does every time. Yesterday I heard that Putin was making jokes and laughing about making trump wait to start their "conference". Embarrassing. Thanks for your comment 👍
Recardo, thanks. We do need to do some rewriting of our American history, even recent history because the right-wing or Republicans or whatever we call the folks who have warped our understanding of it have not been honest about the various actors in the story, and for a while now, they have had a presence in our media and social media far greater than their numbers or messages warrant.
If by "dumb" you mean he had dementia associated with Alzheimer's. Earlier, when he still had his wits about him, he was a rotten human being who used his fake-folksy, velvety powers of articulation to disarm and deceive people as he used his power to harm people he didn't like.
So you didn’t like Reagan either? I’d like to hear your opinion of the four best presidents of the last half of the last century till now. Just don’t send it any time around meal time I’d like to keep my meal down
Reported to Substack Inc with a request that the Corporation's Attorney, Wilson Sonsini to contact me about the platform's contractual obligations to Readers & Authors.
By the way, Brian, I didn’t ask to be here. I got an email that showed some posts and was responding to them. I had no idea it’s even called my sub stack. I didn’t ask for a sub stack. I didn’t request a sub stack I don’t wanna sub stack. This came all by itself.
Regardless, your are now contractually bound to the "Author" Terms of Service which means you have contractual obligations to both all Readers & separately to the corporation Substack Inc.
I will seems Brian is a bot because that’s all he ever posts. If you hear something he doesn’t like he threatens me with a lawsuit.
That’s the way you’re trying to run America right now and it’s not working and only 29% of democrats agree with you. Not to mention that 65% of you will vote against something good for America if Trump supports it. I don’t report that you’re returning
First of all, he’s not my boy, who is the President of the United States currently and it’s better to have one that’s actually in the office that one is lying on a beach in Delaware, not knowing where he is egg prices are coming down. Gas prices already came down $.50 inflation is coming down mortgage rates are coming down. Israel is now destroying the balance of a mass and Trump is negotiating peace in Russia and Ukraine and you people have a problem with all that it’s unbelievable.
Did you forgive Biden for defying court orders and giving student loans back? Did you stand behind him with all his partners, his entire family scumbags like Adam Schiff imo ? I read your stuff, and I have to laugh
I don’t give a fuck if Joe Biden relieved some hard working, young people of their pernicious debt load. I’m a Canadian, you fuckin idiot.
Whats more interesting is what fuck tards like yourself are willing to be a participant in, just to satisfy your asshole hatred of .. anyone.. educated.. non white.. vaccinated.. gainfully employed.. literate..
so fuck you and fuck off.. and count yourself lucky, we aren’t doing this face to fuckin face..
Just so you know how ignorant you are I’ve never seen it educated person talk like you. Please don’t pretend to be ejikated. lol.
Second of all, my wife happens to be Canadian born in Montreal. Ooooops. Was that a physical threat you just gave me? You see I told you you don’t even know me, and yet you hate me just for my political views it’s unbelievable the liberals are SO unwound right now. But don’t feel bad like I told you only another 46 months so you think it’s gonna get better you’re wrong it’s only gonna get worse for you guys to think you know it all we think you’re better than everybody else and you think that the popular majority vote means nothing.
By the way, I think it’s pretty incredible that you live in Canada and feel bad you have any right to weigh in on how America runs its business. That’s pretty laughable. If you wanna give some input, why don’t you move your become a citizen?
By the way, I’ll leave you with this guy. This country is so great that even the haters don’t wanna leave.
What’s funny about you guys is it doesn’t matter that Biden decided to eliminate student loans on his own even defined the courts but as soon as democracy is not on your side, it’s no longer democracy according to you. Waahhhhhh. Stop your crying and whining and get on board
Trump descending from the heights on a golden escalator to his rally was a direct reference to Hitler descending from the skies to his Nuremberg rally. As per Fox's Roger Ailes' favorite filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Hitler's numbers were bigger. But red hats are the new brown shirts. More importantly, Hitler hated German law. He turned it on its head to drain it of justice and to serve the abuses of his authoritarian regime. Exactly what Nazi officials were charged with at the Nuremberg Trials. And much as the Federalist justices are doing to serve the Project 2025 ChristoFascist regime. Odd Karma - Nazi deportation chief Adolf Eichmann back from the dead as Jewish GOP deportation chief Stephen Miller.
Claudia Koonz - "How the Nazis Made Anti-Semitism Respectable"
Lin, I find it a bit laughable that some of the most antisemitic folks in the Republican Party are all in on punishing Columbia University for making Jewish students unsafe, little to no evidence of that, but they are threatening to withhold $400 milllion from the school if they don't fix things and Columbia is complying, well, supposedly because, they have decided the lies are more important than the truth that their students and professors have the first Amendment right to protest and that no one has the right to kidnap someone who is a legal resident here because he is not a supporter of Israel. Trump is only a supporter of Israel for the attention it gets him from American Jews who have decided to overlook Trump's antisemitism since he is supposedly helping Israel, while Israel is committing atrocities they don't want to acknowledge are happening or they just blame them on Hamas or some other something that comes to mind. Saying that is not antisemitism, it is truth and what is going on with Trump and Kump and others in this nation in relation to Judaism and Israel is hypocrisy.
Well, all you have to do to find evidence of the stuff happening at Columbia’s to change the freaking channel. You won’t do that because most of you here are afraid of the truth. The truth is only 50 days Trump accomplish more closeted for America than Biden did in four years
Is anyone keeping even a rough tally of the number of American citizens who are now unemployed thanks to the DOGE boys? We can watch it rise--and *publicize it daily!*
I care about them all but would also like to see a list fine-tuned to white cis-male Christians, as this might have some impact on Trump's voters.
I wonder about the citizens who are now NEWLY employed that we don't know about yet, meaning the pardoned insurrectionists in the wings who are 'standing by.'
my understanding is that Bannon and the project 2025 people have thousands of people in waiting to take jobs. All properly vetted and devoted to trump.
Why would you call them insurrectionists? Do you wanna see believe that they thought they could overthrow an election? I bet you believe in climate change too. lol. By the way, that’s gone now now that they’re burning up Teslas to pollute the air and take away the millions of electric vehicles that are on the road and they wanna burn them and destroy them. Oooops
And a lot of you have a problem reading here also or researching Clinton and Gore did a public speech on shrinking government so that Schumer and Pelosi go see the videos and Obama fired a half 1 million federal employees. I could take you should look that up
Rick, oh please! Get over yourself. Calling someone what he is, is honesty and the guys playing in Trump's toddler pool are following the Nazi playbook, almost to the letter. To me and many others, that makes them Nazis since they haven't chosen another name yet.
You gotta be one of the most ignorant people I’ve ever encountered.
Tell you what let’s view with me travel to Auschwitz or Dachau and hop in to the ovens or see the corpses or see the thousands of pairs of eyeglasses or shoes from the people that he murdered. The only thing I can think of is that you’re only nine years old and don’t know any better
Pretty soon Ruth I’ll be medicine for what you have. Fact in Minneapolis, there’s no law being passed to define TDS as a mental disease. But I’m not sure there’s a cure anywhere.
But you have to admit, the description is accurate. Hateful and nasty. Nothing good coming out of anything that idiot does. Along with his little puppy the ksuM.
When it’s only a reaction to what I’m reading the insanity the delusion here, the mention of the word Nazi racist misogynist. It’s the reason your party only has a 29% approval rating now, The lowest in recorded history. And I’m angry because you guys want to stay on the wrong side of popular opinion. 80% of the country was polled and saying they don’t want men in women’s sports and most people here are supporting it. It’s unbelievable.
Hateful that you people don’t love America you only love you America but you want not be America but the rest of America ones and right now only 29% like what you’re doing. Most of you were probably pretty good at math
sure! if you STILL support this administration, you are against the thriving of our constitutional democracy, and a victim of cult influence, secondary to the greed and ideology of rupert murdoch, & project 2025, elon musk’s tech bro ideology, et al. admitting you’re mistaken is extremely difficult if not, impossible. i wish you well.
Well another one that’s gullible enough to talk about constitutional crisis. omg. I’m guessing you’re one of the ones that still believe in climate change. Yikes. Hypocrisy of that entity is more unbelievable than anything else because according to most liberals, it was the most important thing on the agenda when asked. Reversing climate change was the Democrats most important agenda item. And now they’re out burning Teslas. Omg. Climate change The perfect hoax for the gullible liberal crowd. Frankly, I don’t even know why you’re worrying about this. AOC said we only have about 4 1/2 to 5 more years to live. Lmao
Every time you use the word, Nazi, you defy believe that you have any brain cells left or any idea of history. I think you should hop over to Auschwitz lie down in an oven, count the numbers of pairs of shoes or glasses that are in piles there and apologize to the 6 million Jews that were killed by the Nazis
And the 5 million more than orange juice that were killed by the Nazis in the same inhumane way. You are nothing but a despicable human being. Go get a history lesson
They were illegal, criminal gang members they’re not entitled to due process
But like all you other people who would rather have the criminal stay here do you want to give them to process so it cost us millions of dollars not only to fight them with their attorneys but then they’re gonna stay here and presents and cost us more till they die. ?
Due process in the US isn't always what it's cracked up to be, but it is and has been the bedrock of our internal national security. The presumption of innocence unless proven otherwise is essential to liberty and justice for all. It is a primary safeguard against tyranny, and the target of tyrants worldwide. The necessity of it's protection cannot be overemphasized.
Agree JL, it’s an idea, or rather an ideal to aspire to. We do try, too often fail those who are not (sorry to cast aspersions) rich, white & male…but still we aspire. That’s what I hold on to. I am aghast at watching our Republic disassemble right in front of my eyes, and it is sobering to me that so many folks seem to be on board with this direction….well, at least until it slams into them them & theirs. Feel like I’m watching a Twilight Zone episode.
Don’t we all hear the echo of the Fascists WW11? I certainly do. Horrifying! My hope is that there are enough of us who remain actively defiant of this regime. Stress Actively.
Sadly many Americans are cheering him on. They will stop their kowtowing to him only when they are personally impacted. He knows how to exploit Me Ism.
Ricardo, sometime ago I posted here the dystopian vibe of “unreal-but-it-is- really-happening” by referencing the 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby. In particular the scene where Rosemary (Mia Farrow) rouses from surreptitiously administered sedative (by her husband who’d sold his soul to the Devil for acting fame)…the ugly, cringy, scene where she is surrounded by a “coven” watching the Devil rape her and she exclaims “This is no dream! This is really happening!”. For all the ick factor it’s the kind of realization that we’re all being screwed (‘cept those who plan to profit & the true believers) by this admin. Lol…I thought the Twilight Zone was “softer” to share, but it is really much darker than Serling.
Ricardo your A human offense to humanity in my opinion.
Have you ever gotten raped and choked to death you should try it one day like noon Garay. You’d be crying a different tune if it was a family member of yours. What happened to the Democrats being the party of empathy? Now they’re just a party of hate
"Due Process" & what process is due goes further back than 1776 or 1783. Substantive due process was first demonstrated by John Adam's successful defense of 2 Redcoats who were found not-guilty by a jury after the Boston Massacre.
Due process in 2025 is having a very good March. Let's review Professor Richardson' summary:
+ "Trump's post sounds as if he is nervous ...". Very nervous.
+ "Robert's rebuke ...". Already ignored by a House critter.
+ Judge T.D. Huang's finding ... ' Elon & his kids are "DOGE".
+ Trump's attack on the FTC is "blatantly illegal". True.
+ "Putins power play" The Ppp was humiliating to Lil' Donny Boy.
+ WAPO's Silvia Foster-Frau identification of 4 men that were living in Houston,TX.
Kudos to those investigating the identity of those kidnapped & finding what is up by using the What's App tool.
No need to log that planes used or their identification numbers or or their arrival in Guatemala times or their return flights take off times as that info has been widely reported publicly & confirmed.
We all could use more verified facts on the 4 or 5 named plaintiff in the underlying federal litigation. We have their 3 letter initials & precise physical location at the start of this rapidly collapsing fascist fiasco.
Hopefully Trump understood the massive humiliation from his "brilliant" friend Putin. We need to rub it in his face and MAGAs too. Putin is not our friend or even our frenemy. He has committed genocide of his own people as well as those of Ukraine and other countries.
Unfortunately, a slap-down from Putin isn't going to deter Trump from taking Putin's side.
Check out last nights 3/18 'The Rachel Maddow Show',Episode 44.
On the "THIS is a TEST" segment, Rachel reported NBC News polling data taken 3/7 to 3/11/25 canvassing American favorability ratings on dictator, Vladimir Putin:
This is where I remind everybody that 22 Republican senators, dozens of Republican House members voted to fund Ukraine. Many of them call Trump a liar about Putin.
Get those Republicans who oppose Putin on the record!
Bryan you are I am sure aware of this, but the whole idea of due process is a lot older than John Adams's defense of the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre. He was assigned as a barrister for the defense (since this is before there was an Anglo-American legal tradition, only an Anglo one) because of the the provision in the Great Charter (Magna Carta), first sealed in 1215 but becoming the law of the land in 1225, that "No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers and the law of the land." There are relatively few provisions of the charter that are still active today, but that is one of them. So is the provision against selling justice. Easiest access point for this info: https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/originsofparliament/birthofparliament/overview/magnacarta/magnacartaclauses/
Thank you Dr. Linda Mitchell. At the start of Trails in Marin Superior Court, I loved a particular Judge's 'Magna Carta Speech' given to seated Jurors & the Alternates.
Huge thank you for the 'living-heritage' Link.🙏
Question: Generally, how did the conquest of the Normans impact the development of the 'common law' on the medieval Emerald Isle?
Well, I guess people in Africa that come in here illegally still have due process is that what you’re saying noncitizens who came across the border illegally?
Yikes? That’s 14 million people that are due to process it came across the border illegally. My opinion, nothing but gullible idiots here
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
- John Adams at said trial.
It seems to me that justice and prosperity, certainly on a sustained basis, are rooted in fastidious fealty to logic and facts. That, and a sense of what most matters.
It's a grim irony that the guy who committed more than 80 crimes (that we know of) and used "due process" to delay justice and propel himself into the nation's highest office is now attempting to eliminate due process for everyone else.
It how a virus works; it turns the processes meant to serve the cell into the service of it's enemy. I think it is significant that the two high crimes spelled out in the Constitution as unacceptable for any civil officer are "bribery" and "treason". Both are subversions of the powers entrusted to the officer in the service of self at the expense of others. That is far worse than common thievery or war time espionage, for it sabotages our defense against abuse; a double crime in one against the trust that societies must rely on .
When the Trump War Crimes Trials are held after The Restoration, the guilty ones (all of them) should be hanged with slipknots. Let them have some suffering on the level of what they inflicted before they arrive in Hell where they belong.
It’s a long way off though , that War Crimes Trial.. Restoration.. these fuckers are just getting started.. and everyday, the once unthinkable, becomes inevitable..
Quite right Mike, I've been posting about the huge possibility of not having a midterm election in 2025 based on the same scenario you described. By then they'll control absolutely everything. People shouldn't count on returning to normality after winning the election and waiting in the meantime. It will be too late. Thanks for your accurate comment 👍
Well, then, where is everybody?? Why are we not RIGHT NOW having public demonstrations of a couple hundred thousand people, like they had in Serbia and Hungary this past weekend?? Until people get off their fat asses, and let the Nazis know that we're coming after them, they WILL NOT STOP!!
Hi Daniel, I think it's because the American it's so used to our institutions working for them and never had confronted a situation were a president is transforming himself into a dictator that a state of confusion exist. Recent political history in Hungary and Serbia makes them very aware of the risks. Not so in America. That's why I mentioned about the expectation that the midterm election would solve everything. Not so if it doesn't happens. Great possibility Daniel.
And yet it should be painfully obvious at this point that our 'institutions' are NOT working. I wouldn't tune into faux news, even with a gun to my head, but I wonder if they are just not telling the rubes exactly what is happening. If Cletus and Clem have never seen the videos of the mass demonstrations overseas. Sadly, at this point, would they even understand or care? We're in this together, Ricardo!
We are not a small country like Hungary or Serbia, so it takes logistical planning (and legal permits) to get a mass of people to the Capitol where a protest would be most noticeable. I know there has been more than one protest here at our state capitol, but with little reporting (at least on the news sources I can still stomach reading). Marching around in smaller towns just annoys your neighbors, and makes you more visible for retaliation.
There is also the risk that major protests might trigger a declaration of martial law, which would make the situation many times worse. It is clear that Trump would not feel constrained by any legal niceties about when martial law is actually justified.
very real concern. Let's just look at 2016 to 2020 to 2024 as great examples. Russia toyed with 2016, then in 2020 they got blind sided by the innovations caused by the pandemic so people could vote, then came the "integrity" laws almost immediately to stop those innovations, the attacks on the system that ensued for the next four years as democrats continued to beat back the autocrats in election after election, then came 2024 and enter Muskrat and his toadies. Muskrat has direct contact with Xi and Putin which gives him access to their technology as well. Notice where Elon poured him money and time during the 2024 election? I am not so sure that all the organizing in the world can prevent the wave of what is coming.
Ricardo, One fears that even assuming we get to have a midterm election, there are sufficient causes for alarm within the structures of who and how elections are administered starting with severe gerrymandering, through voter suppression laws and ending with multiple election tabulators in swing states. Nathan Taylor of Election Truth Alliance presents pretty convincing evidence that our 2024 elections were not “free and fair”:
Mike, I fervently await the day these reprobates are brought to justice and held accountable for their actions, if not technically treason, then insurrection and attempts to overthrow the gov’t. 🤞
Hey Mac, I think it’s important that you vent like that. Keep venting you got a long way to get back to normal. I am enjoying your commentary, so please keep it up
I appreciate the legal work of State Democracy Defenders https://statedemocracydefenders.org/. If you view the website, you'll see updates for yourself. I get a substack called The Contrarian with Jen Rubin, a journalist who left WaPo, and she often does a video update with Norm Eisen, one of the lawyers who's working daily (with success).
The Contrarian is a great source of real information--and without the boyz-waving-their-penises-around blather of Meidas+ and The Bulwark. It is definitely worth buying a subscription.
You know, I could NOT put my finger on it (now I don’t want to) but you hit a penis on the head :) -> that’s what’s weird about MEIDAS I couldn’t figure out. Thanks.
Roberts caused this problem by enabling and emboldening the rapist felon - it's all on him and Moscow Mitch, they had the opportunity to stop this fascist take over but instead they supported it. History will not be kind to them.
owed due process, absolutely! Meantime, Trump 2.0 runs roughshod breaking constitutional and congressional law with every move it makes. Remember, folks, this is NOT just Trump.
That was a photo op, the humiliation of the Venezuelans. Purely for MAGA entertainment, to show "Trump gets things done!!!". Also, he is queuing up outrage regarding 'drug dealers' so he can start a war with Panama. Testing the waters, so to speak.
If Trump can do that to Venezuelans who have no criminal record, and now it appears several green card holders were swept up, again with no criminal record, he can do it to anyone. This another reason to make it a performance. He wants you to know that. Again, testing the waters. If his administration is not held accountable for this and other violations of law, we're toast.
Yeah, tell that to the Venezuelans that landed in the El Salvador prison. Ask them if it’s just a photo op? In fact, you should go down there and visit them. Take some pictures and you can say it’s a photo op. Lmao
Hmmm. Seems like you willfully ignored my main point. I was pointing out how this is carefully crafted to scare ALL of us. How you can conclude I am downplaying what happened here is beyond me. The proof is the curious amount of effort put into getting those pictures, posing these men for the cameras so artfully and cynically. Means Trump is working awfully hard to make us feel like we need to capitulate to these injustices in advance. Means he is ultimately weak, throwing up a front. Are you just stirring the pot of anxiety and division here? Sure seems like it.
I’ve answered your main .6 times but I haven’t heard anything back and you know why there’s nothing that you can say now Trump is sealing all the holes, including the ones at the border in only two months when your newest heroin said, we don’t need anything but legislation oops and Trump said wrong. All you need is a new president and bingo
By the way, I can’t believe she’s actually running for office according to her the planet won’t be around by the time 2028 happens. Lmao
Who do you think is scared here? I’ll give you a quote from one of my independent voter friends Who’s been in independent for over 40 years? Voted for Clinton twice. Smart man. Most of what he did was good
My friend has a T-shirt that says I can’t hear your whining over my absolute sound of overwhelming freedom! The only people that are scared here are the people that are losing entitlements that they used to have with that didn’t deserve weren’t warranted.
Well, apparently you’re out of touch with World matters as well but Kelly, the president of El Salvador has taken control of the country crime is down like 80% there because of his presence and it’s been documented I believe even on 60 minutes if I’m not mistaken. He is treating the worst criminals like they should be treated. …. not with TVs and gyms, but with payback for their crimes.
Bukele is the second or third best hero in the world right now in control of crime. And that’s why Trump made a deal to send them there because that’s exactly what they deserve. They were actually sent here these Venezuelans by the government and now they’ve infiltrated this country by the naïveté, or even the desire of Biden even flying people like this year. I am certainly not dismissing your point. You’re just not aware of exactly how they treat people in El Salvador prison and that’s exactly what these people deserve and that’s exactly what these people got
Nobody with common sense, and the feeling of fairness is scared not one person. Will tell you if they keep burning Teslas there’s gonna be a lot of people thrown in prison for half their lives and that’s really sad especially when six months ago Elon musk was a god to the liberals 1.3 million Teslas in California the bastion of liberalism. Right now all the liberals have is hate and domestic violence. Not the best agendas. The Democrat party is leaderless, unless you want AOC and Crockett to be your leader who make Kamala Harris look like a superstar. They have no agenda but revolt
But the good news which hasn’t happened in a long time is that they’re relatively powerless except for these district judges they keep thinking they can stop the government from functioning.
Rick, but as far as I can see, nothing has changed. Trump's handlers will always just seem to find a way to do things ahead of a court order that tried to stop them. These guys have been working on this takeover of our democracy for decades and we all just believed it couldn't happen here. It is happening, but should not be able to. Where is law enforcement or are they in the Trump bag too, hoping to get to commit atrocities at will, with impunity? I hope that is not the case. Our military is being "reshaped" to fit Trumplandia's idea of dictatorship with Trump as dictator but since he is completely incompetent, even mocked by Putin, the guys like the Steves and Vought are running the show with their toddler drugged-up Musk a useful tool to do the damage they would not be willing to do in public. They can then dispose of Musk and Trump and put their younger puppet in place, Vance, who somehow became a lawyer, though it is not clear how, maybe a sympathy gift because he pretended to be a Hillbilly of Appalachia when he was really from near Cincinatti. It's EVIL! Maybe we need to get the word out that it is evil and decent human beings don't support evil.
Somehow I think there needs to be a more public discussion of what EVIL looks like, what EVIL is. Was slavery evil? Were "Jim Crow" laws evil? Was the Holocaust evil? What makes it evil? Harm to others? For sure. I see it as abuse of power, abuse of advantage. Big kids bullying little kids? An abusive spouse? An abusive parent? A mugger with a weapon? An abusive ethnic majority (or minority)? An unaccountable Tyrant? A predatory military force? Systematic genocide and/or repression of a culture?
I think evil has to do with what you do with advantage. We all compete in one way or another, but that, ideally, can bring shared benefits; and in a just society, limitations on victimization; though we all know of examples where it hasn't and doesn't. And we all know of victims who have suffered from circumstances beyond anyone's control; and others where harm was clearly deliberate.
Our security rests on the civilized impulses of others. Just about anyone can sneak up behind someone and mortally wound with one swing of a rock. Sometimes the distinction between competition and serious exploitation is hazy; and often not. From a standpoint truth, or universal "unalienable" rights, the thrust of the Constitution, or from the "decency" that Joe McCarthy was widely seen to have lacked, is not the former "Party of Lincoln" now engulfed in multiple acts of EVIL? Demonstrably evil? And what happens to a society that proves indifferent to such?
J L, those are good questions. I almost feel like the Justice who said "I'll know it when I see it when he was talking about Porn. I think evil is like that. Yes to your questions about what is evil that involves doing harm to people just because, and creating the circumstances for doing that harm. What Musk/Trump/Vance are doing now to the American people is evil because there is no purpose beyond power and personal gain of some kind for the perpetrators. I would not call someone with serious mental illness or with an inability to discern good from bad evil, but this crew in power now knows what it is doing but has no clue of the possible or probable outcomes and simply does not care. Shipping migrants off to a horrific prison in El Salvador with no court involved is evil and having that prison at all is evil because its abuse of the prisoners is beyond appalling. Closing most of the local Social Security offices, then demanding that people applying for or changing addresses or whatever else Muskeroo comes up with, in person at local Social Security offices that don't exist is evil. Yes, the Holocaust was evil so are the many war crimes being committed in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, etc. A partner who abuses his spouse or girlfriend for his own pleasure is evil. That is just a few of my certain examples, but there is evil around whenever someone who is evil gains power. It is almost as though they are drawn in as with a magnet or nectar to bees. Trump and Musk are evil. I am not quite sure about Vance, but I am leaning that way.
Can you please tell me how a district judge can defy executive orders that have nothing to do with due proces and have you seen how many executive orders have been denied by district judges in the past. There are 1700 district judges. Can you imagine any progress if all the district judge had to do was file a inJunction against every single order, a president makes or even an order that Congress votes upon. You’re killing me. By the way, do you care where Obama was born or Clinton was born or Biden was born? As I said earlier, The Man wrote a book that’s on there on the bestseller list for almost 2 years. Why don’t you read the book and get with the program?
Ruth, you poor dear you love picking at straws instead of looking at the evidence before your eyes. The main Thing wrong with my comportment is that I cannot believe that there’s individuals United States that can be this hateful and this ignorant, and it angers me that America has come to this. There’s no reason to hate musk, or Tesla he’s doing a good job. And here’s the hypocrisy, California 1.2 million Teslas registered. Top selling vehicles in the state. I pointed out here to other people, and I’m not gonna repeat myself, but Trump has accomplished, and only 50 some odd days. By the way, I didn’t read his book although my wife did but it’s been on the best seller list for over two years.
In reality, nobody cares where he’s from. What We care about is the positive results that they achieve.
I have seldom seen anyone so absolve and thoroughly absorbed in hate and it’s very sad that You have to feel that way so I pity you for a great degree.
This whole episode seems to be another “video op”, designed to show the American people just how tough the administration is being on immigrants. Then the follow up stating that our leader had deemed them to be very, very bad people. Somewhere in the fog the media has lost sight of the blatant disregard for our due process rights and is simply focused on the conflict between the executive and judicial branches. Every American should be outraged at the assault on one of our most cherished rights.
The media could be a lot more attentive to extreme human suffering. They can be when it suits them.
Who is suffering, or is set up to suffer at the hands of the Trump regime? How do they suffer? And why? Who in fact gains, and who suffers, as results of the regime's agenda? Somehow the deaths of a million plus COVID victims and the grief shared imposed on their families did not seem to register as one might expect in the aggregated mind of our public, even though the experience of more attentive societies suggest that many of the lives that were lost were preventable; in this, nominally "richest country in the world". The horror of children pulled from the arms of ANY family; lost, often, forever. I think that the enormity of that suffering has yet to really dawn upon us. Neither that officials of the US government argued in court that incarcerated children should be denied blankets and basic toiletries.
Whose country are we talking about, and what kind of county are we talking about?
Let’s see how you like it when 1700 judges decide against the next Democrat president and file an injunction for every single executive order that he makes
You might feel differently if they don’t want of your daughters or granddaughters or better yet Forrest Lamento prostitution that would make you happy, huh
And I’m gonna add delusional to your résumé. Bot master? Oh wow. Very sad. I hope you come out of this one day soon. Just think there’s to yourself I’m going to support Trump and see what results come and if they’re not good, I will tell you and if they’re good, I will support them. That’s exactly what I do. I think Trump is rushing through the tariffs much too fast encompassing too much at the same time but we will see time will tell the results.
Do you read other peoples post here and I’m the one that doesn’t know how to behave in public that guy below here called me a Russian cocksucker. I’ve already posted trumps accomplishments for the first two months of his presidency and it’s only gonna get better so if you don’t like it, turn off the TV.
By the way, ever since I turned off the TV, there hasn’t been any climate change. It hasn’t affected us at all. Lmao
Whatever floats your boat. Just keep venting at a lower your blood pressure. You’ll feel better at the end unfortunately for you, though the hate will remain.
Rick, are you real? I am serious. I have not experienced such ignorance, hatred, and willingness to insult others as you bring to this thread before. You should be ashamed, but alas, fearmongers, blamers, insulters clearly have no shame, no moral compass either.
So you were another one of those was on the wrong side of history at the wrong side of line order do you want to go to the door of Lakin Riley’s parents and apologize or dungarees parents and apologize when she was raped and murdered by choking buy one of these people. Seem to be the kind of person to use empathy so they should turn the flight around that house all these people in all the apartments or housing right next to yours
Oh Rick, you pick out 2 instances where undocumented immigrants committed crimes, but we don't do such harm to citizens who commit worse crimes. Drumming up fear for the sake of fear is evil!
Well, if I thought it was important enough, I’d send you some links, but you seem like an intelligent person, although incredibly biased and full of hate, so look up all the crimes committed by illegals in the last four years during Biden administration, there are thousands of criminal illegals that have committed these crimes. Including Lighting the train car on fire with the inhabitants inside sleeping.
When billionaires run the agencies and courts get ignored, its not ‘efficiency’—it’s privatized authoritarianism. USAID wasn’t just slashed; it was sold off to Musk like a corporate asset. This is exactly what my post "Government for Sale" warned about: public institutions becoming personal fiefdoms for the ultra-rich while democracy gets pushed out the door. https://forgottenfiles.substack.com/p/government-for-sale
Unfortunately, like Mad King George, mad King DonOld can do no wrong and never lies.
The Republicans are getting ready to slam through right-wing judges with one qualification -- loyalty to his heinous. And with 53 votes in the Senate, they can't be stopped.
Gary, when I posted “King Toot” the first time, an old SNL skit w/ Steve Martin played in my head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYbavuReVF4&t=168s and the “Toot” part was based on the numerous, um, “whiff 🌬️” reportings from those in his close proximity. Don’t want to give him any ideas about aspiring to being a God-Emperor instead of just a “king”….he does like a lot of gold, tho’, both in his pocket and plastered on just about every surface. Tacky King Toot!
Best president in American history deal with that and if you get on the side and watch what’s happening in the next 46 months, you’ll have no choice but to agree
Worst President in American history. I see you have sneaked back into the conversation again. It’s hard to say for certain that Trump is violating the Constitution. I don’t think he’s read it, and if he has, he doesn’t understand it. There’s a difference between how Trump is firing people and other
Presidents have “fired” people. There are rules about terminating Federal employees; these have been ignored. Musk has had several Oopsies and people critical to important functions have been fired with no idea of what they do or the potential repercussions/consequences of random firing. BTW, learn how to spell, punctuate, and complete sentences. Did you pass high school English?
kim you’re absolutely correct about Sumer did the best thing.. but you’re also correct that he could’ve negotiated something at least put it out there so he wouldn’t be on the run right now. There are many things he could’ve asked for as Minuscule as they might have been
I love when you guys pick on grammar punctuation, syntax certain structure and make a sentence with a preposition. What am I doing writing my thesis here? CONTENT OVER FORM EVERY TIME.
The firings were not random fines are based on statistical data, showing the waste fraud and abuse in these agencies that need to go. Let me point out again Obama and Clinton wanted to do the same and Obama laid off a half 1 million employees I didn’t hear you complaining back then like this
Rick is like a 2-year-old who needs attention. Maybe he is hungry or needs a diaper change, or he is just bored and needs attention. Since it would only encourage him further, please do not give in to his tantrums. Just ignore him.
Here’s some assertions for you with m’lady. Egg prices are down and only 54 days. Gas prices are down $.50 a gallon. Inflation is down and mortgage rates are down. Can you close the southern border that was allowing 11,000 illegal immigrants including criminals in every single day and now it’s down to about 70.
He set a cease-fire for Israel and Hamas that started and Hamas then refusing to give up hostages . He gave a go for it to Israel to End Hamas and they will. He’s negotiating peace for Ukraine and Russia that has killed almost 1,000,000 people are the cities have been devastated. Would you rather be at war with Russia or be at peace with Russia? There’s back up for my assertions. If you were smart, you’d be supporting all these things, not fighting them.
What assertions I just made a bunch of assertions I have a back up Obama laid off a half 1 million people… Why don’t you Google Clinton Gora presentation with hundreds of thousands of pages of paperwork behind them laying off people and talking about shrinking government even Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi talked about shrinking government and how much the waste and abuse was but because someone else is doing it, you don’t like it.
Well, that’s right pick on the accuser not on the facts. Let me tell you again if Joe Biden had brought the astronauts back during the last moments of his term you people would be standing up and cheering
I would not be back here other than I got a email from from Heather‘s website. I don’t know how or why, but there it was I certainly don’t need the likes of you guys. ALL PURE HATERS. facts do not matter to you
You want some alternative facts here they are. It’s only 50 days egg prices are down gas prices are down $.50 inflation is down. Mortgage rates are down the border is closed 50 days. Oh I forgot hostages are returned especially the guy in Russia, and those held by Hamas.
Yeah, well Fauci should be in prison right now. That would end the first epidemic. And for all those people pick on my spelling, I guess Kris doesn’t count
I haven’t created anything but nice try I got a random email the other day from Heather‘s website haven’t heard from her in months and all of a sudden there it was so here I am
I actually find the juxtaposition of his comments attempting to justify and rationalize these events actually helps underscore how serious they are, plus I find him kind of entertaining, like a court jester providing some comic relief.
Thank you Lynn sorry to bring up the facts. Egg prices down gas prices down $.50 mortgage rates down. Inflation down border is closed working on peace with Russia and Ukraine. And going to annihilate Hamas
Well, gangsters and criminal gangs that were let out of prison and purposely sent here by Venezuelan government do you think differently?
They kill people they rape women they put teenagers into prostitution rings, they bring drugs across the border.
And by the way, dutch everything DOGE does is online every single thing every single finding of waste fraud, and abuse is transparent They have a website you can go see it
And trust me Musk doesn’t have time to delete things on X. That’s the least of his worries
It is exactly what Naomi Klein described in her book The Shock Doctrine as well. It is what the GW Bush admin did when they sent Milton Friedman did when they sent him to Moscow in the early 90s. Friedman did not help Russia become democratic, but an oligarchy when he helped direct the fire sale of public property to both the Russians and Western business.
I guess you guys only listen to history that suits your point of view. Bill Clinton and Al Gore tried to eliminate the same positions 20 years ago 25 years ago and Obama fired a half 1 million federal employees. I didn’t hear you bitching about that did you
If you think you’re insulting me, you’re making a huge miss judgment.
It’s called being like a jury which you people hate because you don’t wanna hear the other side argument because it might change your opinion and God forbid that whatever happened
Mike, you’re dealing with an illness you should go seek help in my opinion
The problem with most of you here is that you don’t wanna hear another side of the story I hope as I said earlier that you’re never in a quart room as a defendant, and the jury never hears your side of the story that’s your example of justice
Here's a riddle: How can you tell the difference between Susan Collins and John Roberts?
Two possible answers: 1)You can't, because there is no difference. They both make meaningless statements.
2)You can, because they use different language. Roberts "rebukes" and Collins expresses "concern."
Oopsie...answer 2 is actually the same as answer 1. Both people refuse to take responsibility for what they know are decisions they have made that let the liars and malefactors do as much damage to our country as they choose. A pox on both their houses! And shame on all those who pretend innocence when they support the evil that is going on under their noses.
Much of the "legality" and sence of impunity for the scumbag president's actions are "covered" by Robert's decisions to rule trump as king and above the law.
The biggest test of our democracy since the Civil War is upon us. The courts and veterans are rallying against the Trump/Musk treachery. Those on Medicaid and Social Security are frightened. Genocide in Gaza has resumed, with American weapons. Trump was unable to get Putin to stand down in Ukraine. The Republican electeds shyly look away from the sadism of their leaders.
What is missing in this picture? Elected Democrats and Independents need to make a stand, make their voices heard, stand up defiantly against the False King. Show the courage of our forefathers!
I agree certainly that there are independents like Sanders and Democrats like A.O.C. who are speaking out heartfelt warnings. But in this Constitutional crisis, every elected Democrat needs to be out there, from every congressional, state, and county jurisdiction. From city councils, mayors, and police chiefs or cops and firefighters, all persons who have sworn that oath to uphold our Constitution and its principles need to speak out against our enemies, both foreign like Putin or domestic like Trump/Vance/Musk.
Making voices heard by working daily are State Democracy Defenders https://statedemocracydefenders.org/. The Contrarian is a Substack with Jen Rubin, a journalist who left WaPo, and she often does a video update with Norm Eisen, one of the lawyers.
I appreciate the serious, erudite discussions that I find here under Heather's Letters. But sometimes, it's refreshing to hear from a "trailer trash" individual who possesses a wide streak of wisdom. I subscribe to the YouTube channel of Trae Crowder, who calls himself "The Liberal Redneck." He just posted a commentary that resonates.
In the Civil War, the enemy lived in an identifiable, well-contained region. The good guys knew where to find them. Now, they are embedded throughout the population, like a pestilence. Impossible to round them up.
In addition to refusing to follow the order of a judge (and then calling on him to be removed), Trump has crossed ANOTHER BRIGHT RED LINE: His co-president Musk led DOGE organization has used ARMED FORCE to throw out the leadership of the United State Institute of Peace. Rachel Maddow first reported on this Monday night. And the Associated Press reported on it on Tuesday. As Rachel noted, "We are now at a stage where disagreements are being settled with armed personnel instead of going to court." (words to that effect). Here are links to Rachel's report and the AP story...
I was appalled, Steve, to see this “break in” reported…reminded me of a home invasion by thugs. Not entirely unlike previous DOGE “takeovers” of other offices/depts, BUT this time the employees strenuously resisted & called the police. I could not believe that the “authorities” sided w/ DOGE and assisted in the removal of the employees…OMG was it THAT easy to take over the police/public safety depts and have them do the bidding of DOGE???? What next? The military? Who will stand for the rule of law? Watching the reporting, my mind wandered to wondering about offices “hardening” their spaces against intrusion, perhaps hiring security or arming themselves against being “taken over” w/o the required legal documents to do so—I did NOT like how that played out in my mind…at…all. Each day brings something that I never, in my 75 years, imagined I’d see happening in our country. There’s lots of room for improvement/growth in our country, but we’ve done a complete 180 deg turn to the times before our war of independence. I have my voice and my vote…I just hope it’s enough to count & to counter this backsliding into autocracy/theocracy/oligarchy/kakistocracy…or all of ‘em rolled into one. I miss the Biden/Harris admin when I wasn’t afraid…each day…to turn on the news. I knew they were all in for building us up, not tearing us down, and was interested in learning about what they were doing, not what was being destroyed. Sigh, miss them A LOT.
If "DOGE" was really interested in "efficiency" they would have provided Inspector Generals with additional staffing support, helped evaluate computer systems, made strong recommendations - like helping along the replacement of antique computer systems at the IRS - to make the agency MORE effective in its task of collection.
DOGE is just brown shirt Nazi scum. And if this statement by Musk didn't reveal the madness and stupidity of the unelected, unappointed Killer in Chief, I don't know what would.
Musk: "Hitler, Mao and Stalin didn't kill millions of people, their public sector workers did."
Right? Where was the court order? Did they have a warrant? No. This is our biggest fear; law enforcement siding with the Nazis, and we're seeing it. The time for mass protests is NOW! They can't shoot us all, and once they start, well, it's 1860 all over.
This is the slippery slope so many of us have warned about for years… when morality goes out the window and all we are left with is people drunk on power. But my biggest concern is not so much with the attack from MAGA. It is the Lack of a strong response from those Democrats I would’ve thought had the backbone and creative thinking ability to see where all this is headed and respond appropriately. Here is a link to additional reporting in which a Democratic congressman is interviewed after he himself was forbidden from entering the US Institute of Peace. Notice how calm he is in his demeanor. This is not good. I will publish another essay in my “wiser way forward“ Substack soon to address this crisis in response. I’ve been delayed by some personal things I’ve had to deal with, but will publish it soon.
I think Rachel had another term for it... or phrase. Something about settling our differences with weapons. Kind of sounds like what happened during the Civil War to me. SMH
Our taxes pay for law enforcement t o come after the people paying their salary. Government crushes public school incomes and gives vouches of tax dollars to wealthy people for their tuition paid by workers. The private school principal decides who goes to the segregated school. Tuition is set too high for middle class to attend.
This is the slippery slope so many of us have warned about for years… when morality goes out the window and all we are left with is people drunk on power. But my biggest concern is not so much with the attack from MAGA. It is the Lack of a strong response from those Democrats I would’ve thought had the backbone and creative thinking ability to see where all this is headed and respond appropriately.
Regarding the armed assault on the US Institute of Peace… Here is a link to additional reporting in which a Democratic congressman is interviewed after he himself was forbidden from entering the US Institute of Peace. Notice how calm he is in his demeanor. This is not good. I will publish another essay in my “wiser way forward“ Substack soon to address this crisis in response. I’ve been delayed by some personal things I’ve had to deal with, but will publish it soon.
The men we sent to El Salvador haunt me. A branch of the same tree of family separation. Our history of ‘re educating’ native children, the horrors of slavery, and our treatment of the Other..
We need to break this ugly karmic thread that runs through the foundation of our nation.
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."
Totally agree, R/W, but we are not alone in the world treating fellow humans, let alone our fellow species, in cruel usury ways….we just don’t much hear about it. America, being the (now) big bully on the block sucks all the attention—at least the attention that is available to us (we, as a country can be pretty insular/myopic in our awareness). Seems to be a malign trait of Homo “Hubris”…we def need to evolve in a more positive direction!
Related to native children -- they have also removed the pages about the Code Talkers from the website. The freaking Code Talkers??? They are trying to rewrite history to maintain that the only meaningful contributions were by white men. No women, no indigenous people, no people of color, no one from the LGBTQ community, no disabled people. It's so childish and so mean that it would be laughable were it not so real and so disgusting and so dangerous.
Just how is the erasure of the heroic deeds of military service members who are not white, male, heterosexual and Christian going to make America great again? And by the way, exactly when did America slide into ungreatness to begin with? I never got the memo. And yes, I know that “ungreatness” is not actually a word, but it should be, because it apparently happened to the whole country, as t***p and MAGA keep claiming.
lauriemcf, I posted yesterday on my FB page (where I still engage with my MAGAt cohort of retired cops on a regular basis) the post that Jim Wright made regarding the Code Talkers with the question: "My Veteran friends, what do you think of this?" Crickets. The only Veteran who responded is a Black woman who only replied: "WRONG".
Will they remove the service history of all women veterans, like me, too? Each new assault on my life, my accomplishments and history, feels like an ice pick being driven into my soul. Apparently I was lucky they let me attend and even graduate from high school. Next they’ll redesign Old Glory, using shades of country club green and cream cycle orange, with golden accents. Have they no shame or decency?
I'm sure they'd love to erase all contributions of women. I am wondering what they are doing to the Blue Angels cadre; I understand they have a fair number of women pilots. I know they've gotten rid of references to the WASPs.
Sorry I didn't get around to responding yesterday, Ally. Elderly parents. But I will now, because this is one of the most honorable moments in American history, and the thought that ANYONE would try and minimalize it is, at best, criminal, and, at worse, traitorous. I would give just about anything to find the 'person' who first brought this up, and spend about 5 minutes alone with him/her in a small, closed room.
I'll guard the door for you. Then take a turn myself.
I understand the limits in responding. My surgical recovery has limited my participation here to a great degree, as has the increase in readership. Signing on to find over 500 replies has really limited my ability to engage.
I'll TRY and save something for you, Ally! I hope your recovery is coming along well. Thankfully, spring arrives tomorrow, so you should be able to get out and about a little more. Perhaps join in with some peaceful protesting somewhere near you would be a proper therapy!! And don't you just LOVE the 500 or so replies?! I can't keep up with all of them either, but I get a great feeling seeing so many are engaged.
Can anyone remember when we didn't have to endure whining, lies, and shouting over such media as Truth Social and X. In those days, such behavior was confined to junior high school playgrounds.
I have never had a Twitter account (I refuse to stroke Musk's ego and call it what he wants)
so this befuddles me: why do people keep using it? Are there truly no good alternates? The people are forcing Tesla to take a dive--why aren't the WE who have an account not dumping it?
Seriously. Anyone who has an account, can you give me a valid reason why you can't drop it?
I had one when I wrote a cooking blog and used it to promote my posts. Then when 45 closed the government and I saw families suffering because they had no income I started using my personal profile to keep up. Thankfully I found some great people there like Heather and Joyce. I also connected with many creators and artists and supported their endeavors. I left Facebook years ago. I left Twitter after the election.
their existence is a noted failure of our system. I believe in responsible free speech, responsible journalism, responsible gun ownership, but the conservative/libertarians have abandoned the responsibility ideas in favor of chaos to undermine belief in the democratic process.
Yeah, you didn’t mind ask when it was owned and run By the left wing of the Democrat party. It was fine then, but now that it’s balanced all of your chickens have gone to blue sky
Ds have known since Nov 5 that Pi Day, 3/14, was coming and fumbled the ball. I still maintain that the main cause of the failure was Chuck Schumer. Nancy Pelosi did a great job and knew when it was time to pass the baton. Chuck Schumer needs to pass the baton.
When you have an organization that must fight an organized MAGA, Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, Project 2025, White Nationalist, Apartheid fueled enemy, you must do it with strategic and tactical planning and plans. It is now obvious that that planning either never happened or was so flawed that we failed to respond effectively to the threat. It appears to me that Ds are hoping for the rule of law to prevail and for a strong showing in the VA governor’s race this year and the midterms next year. I fear that by then we will be too late.
The deportation of Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador took place right after Schumer caved. I do not think that was a coincidence. The attacks on law firms are continuing. I fully expect Judge Boasberg’s security clearance to be pulled. We are at war with no plan and crappy leadership. Wait, looks like Schumer’s plan is to wait for Trump’s approval rating to go below 40%: https://youtu.be/W8OFrDQkfjM?si=JeN7INBFzUv8zaGP&t=435
I am Union. I am not an attorney, but I have worked with two of the best labor-side only law firms in DC. This battle is going to take a nationwide strike with picketing and stoic determination. For that to be successful you need people. Every federal employee who has been fired; every nonessential employee, every essential federal employee who is not getting paid becomes a key player in the nationwide job action. Trump’s longest ever government shutdown ended in January 2019 after 35 days. One of the reasons it ended was due to Air Traffic Controllers in the northeast being fed up with being forced to work with no pay.
The next crisis will be the debt ceiling. Will the Ds BOHICA again? After that is the end of the fiscal year on 30 September. Will the Ds BOHICA again? With Schumer as Senate Minority Leader, I fear the answer is YES!
Jason, I'm sorry but I have to call "bs" on at least some of your arguments. Pelosi is 84 years old, while Schumer is 10 years younger. Pelosi led the Dems In the House for almost 20 years, Schumer has only led the Senate for about 6. To suggest that Schumer is ready to be sent home for being past his "Best By" date is nonsense.
Using Pelosi as a comparison, he should be able to lead the Senate Dems for another 5-10 years (we could also do the same comparison between Schumer and McConnell with the same results but dealing with McConnell would make me ill so I won't).
Pelosi did many things that pissed off left wing Dems but we never tried to oust her. Schumer deserves at least the same respect. Personally I didn't like what he did but he is the leader of the Senate and I respect that he felt this was the best option.
We are all entitled to our opinion but please don't use your opinion as a justification to argue for the poster of someone who is doing the job we asked him to do. The best leaders need to be able to go against the crowd when they decide in their best judgement that the crowd may be wrong.
In the end I think I now agree with Schumer that closing down the government would be worse than an unsatisfactory but at least still running government. We can survive this. I am not sure we would survive a government shut down.
The one argument (aside from, you know, not punishing civil servants who have nothing to do with this shit show and don't deserve the financial pain of a shutdown) that I'm holding onto in order to tell myself that keeping the government open was the better choice is that keeping it open forces President Musk and his sidekick Trump to *actively* dismantle the government out in the open where everyone will continue to see what is happening, rather than being able to do so behind a curtain because Democrats shut it down for him.
For me, Justin, one “tell” was that Mump WANTED the shutdown to happen so they could make more blatant (as it that were possible!) changes to and control over the gov’t, far exceeding normal “executive” powers. IMHO Schumer was walking the razor’s edge and I imagine it was a very very very hard choice…he knew he’d be roasted, but kept moving forward. Time will tell, eventually, if it was a better strategy in a no-win situation. 🤞
I've been wanting to dump Schumer for 6 years. He's a conservative Corporate Dem. He has always tried to sell the stupid approach of "working with" the Republicans.
And I've been wanting to dump Pelosi for even more years. She's still screwing things up. Like blocking AOC from a key committee leadership.
Yes. Politics in this country (and maybe the world) are not what they used to be. We have moved on and Schumer is being left behind. Nevertheless, Dems probably should remain as united as possible, under the big tent we share. I thought Pelosi recently endorsed AOC. WE are in a new world and I understand folks are a little nervous about looking around and finding a new way forward. We do, still, have a voice, even if VOA has been shuttered.
Politics actually are exactly what they used to be. It's just that a lot of people are frustrated and want change but they have no idea how to get reasonable change and want magic bullets.
Politics is a job requiring the ability to compromise and navigate carefully. It is why I believe despite the horrible consequences of 2024 that we will survive and ultimately the MAGA crowd will disappear. But it won't happen overnight and it DEFINITELY won't happen if the Democrats give way too pressure for radical change. I was around in 1968 and I saw what happened then. It didn't go well for us (the radicals).
She should be blocking AOC. She is only in her third term! She is both radical and has minimal experience! That is NOT the recipe for a committee leader ESPECIALLY in a time like this.
I am a highly radical leftist but I also understand that Congress represents the whole country not just me. And believe me AOC does not represent the whole country!
I was astonished that anyone even suggested her for a leadership position.
Someone said she should try to primary Schumer in 2026. If she tries she will lose both the Senate seat and her seat in Congress because while she can easily win her district which is a very gentrifed district in Brooklyn, there is virtually no way she can win in New York state which is mostly a centrist Democratic state.
I wish people who expounded on stuff like this had even a scintilla of understanding about how politics actually works.
You are most definitely NOT a radical leftist. Your position is that AOC should wait her turn??? And you’re mistaken when you claim AOC should represent all of the country. She only has to represent her district.
The Democrats desperately need new energetic leadership that will realize we are at war with an enemy within.
Could she win the NY Senate seat? Right now I think she has a better chance than Schumer.
This is a reasonable discussion, Jon. I think that Schumer may have made the right decision. I also noticed that Sen Schatz (a solid "progressive) voted to approve the CR as well. Preventing "easy firing" of thousands more employees makes sense.
But what is absent in the leadership of both Houses of Congress is what millions of us are yearning for. And that is "Fire in the belly". Jeffries is also an excellent political strategist. But his speaking skills are awful. Stilted, halting and dull. Schumer sounds like a boring professor.
This is where we are. A country that is yearning for powerful emotional leadership. We are still tribal. We like to think of ourselves as logical and reasoning and highly developed humans who can work together to solve problems. Sometimes in the past and maybe in the future - maybe this can happen.
But right now we are at WAR. There are plenty of angry Americans - let's think about the Independents who are the largest voting block, whose friends and family are being hurt by the INSANITY of this administration and channel their ANGER with some heroic leadership. This should be about LOUD PUSH BACK.
Average Americans are looking for more activity like that of Bernie Sanders and AOC. Funny how their "extremism" sounds pretty logical, fair and SPOT ON right now.
If Schumer and Jeffries and all the old farts still in leadership want to make a difference they should be inspired by John Lewis. Find a bridge to cross. LEAD the PEOPLE. Make some seriously GOOD TROUBLE.
We want MORE Social Security - not less!
We want MORE healthcare - not less!
We want MORE taxes collected from the wealthy to pay for critical services - not less!
We want MORE loyalty to our allies - not less!
We want MORE freedom of expression - not less!
And some of you will disagree with this, but I'm putting it out there anyway:
We want MORE workers in this country that is reproducing at the rate of only 1.6 kids per couple - bring them in legally and they will do work not getting done and PAY TAXES!
We want MORE efforts at stopping the flow of fentanyl - which is almost always being imported by AMERICANS using legal ports of entry! The amount of fentanyl from Canada last year was point two percent.
And Canada? Same GDP as Russia. Canadians are nice. The sell us lumber and aluminum and electricity. They followed us into war, even the stupid ones.
Russians? I know some very nice Russian people who live here. But Putin's Russians murder people and invade other countries.
OK, I'm done. For now. Need more coffee. Fingers hurt.
Yes, when Schumer finally found some fire his words were wrong and he was accused of threatening violence. It’s a tricky thing to say the right words without creating a way to be attacked.
And you think AOC can do that? LOL! It always pains me here because I SO WANT what everybody else wants in my left brain but my right brain knows that it will only cause more pain. Trump was ACHING to be challenged in Congress because that is the kind of fight he lives for. He would have chewed up the Drms and spit them out. Schumer and Schatz understood that and did the right thing even if it feels wrong.
The old saying "sometimes it's best to run away and live to fight another day" was not made in jest. It understood that battles can be lost that you can never recover from. Right now we are in the middle of several and we need to be very careful.
These arguments are good and necessary to have! The thing I keep coming back to is how have we arrived at this place - a political Pearl Harbor so to speak? Admiral Kimmel and General Short were scapegoated and 40 years later exonerated. We still do that. And, no. it is not right , but is so. It did take a change of leadership in the person of Admiral Nimitz to take the helm and set it on a sound strategic course. We can do that.
In my view Schumer needs to go because he is not in the fight -- he cannot rally people. He is boring and a terrible messenger - perhaps he has behind the scenes skills - but we need more than that now -- we need someone who can really encourage resistance and call out the GOP every day for standing by while Trump and Musk dismantle all that is good.
Well I respectfully disagree. Someone who can navigate t the behind the scenes stuff is more vital than ever. THAT is where decisions are made, not in the newspapers which if you believe what people here say aren't even important anymore.
Having a great party leader who can do good PR would be helpful. But it's not the leaders of Congress who are in those positions (and rarely are). Congressional leaders need to know how to navigate the back rooms skilfully.
Schumer definitely has that skill. There are others (Raskin is one, would love to hear from Cory Booker but he seems to have disappeared, Adam Schiff is another but he is just a first year senator).
It is important that Dems remain united, as per the House. Dividing into "for and against" Schumer groups will not allow us to be strong enough to fight the anti-democracy regime currently in charge of our country.
I totally agree which is why I urge everyone even if you disagree with Schumer to support him. Switching horses midstream is typically a poor strategy. Sometimes it is necessary as we saw during the 2024 campaign when it became apparent that Biden was no longer able to win that campaign but as we also saw switching horses usually doesn't help all that much.
In that case, I think we did the best we could do. Switching here is IMHO a losing strategy for sure as Schumer is clearly competent even if you disagree with him.
Definitely Jon, shutting down the government would have been worse than the alternative accepted by Schumer and Co. I'm still wondering if they could have done anything to avoid being put into such a narrow corner.🤔
Ironically, this is military slang that originated in the Vietnam War. I had to look it up too. I knew all the acronyms listed but this one. Part of the irony is that I'm a Vietnam era veteran-got my commission in graduate school in 1968. I was always a Clinical Psychologist in the military, so never saw any action-just the results.
When you lose the support of those you are leading it’s time to step away. Schumer is only hurting the Party by staying. Let’s get some fresh blood in there so they can move forward instead of staying stuck in the past.
Chuck Schumer made the right move, but you want to study the details do you?
If Chuck Schumer would’ve left the idiots close down the government, Trump would’ve had a free hand to do everything he wanted to do and nobody could stop him
And there were 50 or 60 video tapes of Pelosi, Schumer, and all the leaders of the Democrat party saying we should never ever ever ever shut down the government
I looked at them and have to agree that it was the lesser of 2 bad choices. I, too, think that shutting down the government would have benefitted the Republicans. My complaint, and I don't know the background details, is that Schumer should have demanded some concessions. That may not have worked either.
Kim, I replied to you and I hope you got my reply. I think you’re absolutely right. Schumer should’ve asked for something he did a bad job of negotiating without a doubt. And his party on his subordinates should’ve told him that. You probably don’t know this, but on the other side of the coin, if they had shut it down, they were calling it the Schumer shut down. Then you’d have hundreds of thousands of federal employees unemployed until it was over. He made the best choice out of two bad choices
Friends, the last time Trump was in office, he ended his term by fomenting an insurrection. Fortunately, the Gang that couldn't coup straight were wholly unsuccessful. Yet upon the gob smacking election of this felonious, Seditionist, sociopathic, racist, sexist, deranged moron by millions of our fellow Americans to serve his Grover Cleveland-esque second term, we are now all thrust into a devastatingly destructive dystopia.
This time, the coup against our Republic is taking place on the daily, and right before our very eyes. Consider this: If I were to tell you a mere six months ago that any American President, any holder of the very office that was created by the Founders to execute the laws passed by Congress, would instead send hundreds of human being via extraordinary rendition to a foreign country run by a ruthless and despicable gangster who brags about the sadistic charnel house conditions in his inhumane prisons, all while spitting in the face of a federal judge who specifically ordered such renditions not to happen......you probably would have thought I was a candidate for the funny farm, or at least to be consigned forever to the corner of the bar, muttering Captain Queeg-esque about strawberries, and grousing about canine eating Haitians.
Yet, the blatantly unconstitutional rendering in violation of specific court orders and authority has happened.
We should not be distracted by Deranged Don's increasingly wacked out "Truth" Social posts, like the one wherein he defamed a well respected Judge as Heather cites. While it is certainly noteworthy that no other President in our history would ever compare a federal judge to an elected President by asking if he received whatever number of "votes", and that this type of rubber room ranting as his post reflects is getting worse and worse, we must focus on the raw, ruthless and disgusting abuse of power by the Executive branch. We must fight this with everything we have, as if our lives and liberties depend upon it, for they most assuredly do
Agreed, Daniel, but I would point out that the rounding up of hundreds of Iraqis in Bush II's (aka Shrub, named by the fabulous late Molly Ivins) illegal invasion of Iraq where they languished/continue to languish under horrific conditions in Qatar and the military base we continue to hold (illegally) in Cuba, was also an "extraordinary rendition" and Americans did basically NOTHING. Except the ACLU, which has worked tirelessly to try to get that whole thing sorted out and people sent home after more than TWENTY YEARS of incarceration without trial. Wanna talk about due process????
"The gang that couldn't coup straight". Thanks for the one moment of levity Daniel.
I have to confess that from the minute he took off for the last time (we thought) on Marine One every pundit, talking head lawyer on TV (many of whom I admire and deeply respect) and through his trials here in NYC going over the minutia of the mistakes of his failed coup, and how we dodged a bullet...every ex-cabinet member, head of CIA, FBI, military, etc. and " If I was his lawyer I would have done this or that" and I would sit shaking my head saying to myself "why are you saying this every day? Don't you think THEY are watching and listening too? Stop giving him this free ammunition to use". I believe in transparency but I also believe in not laying out all the cards because even if Trump was not going to run again the next one would be smarter We and they did not need to know this. I never thought it was smart. I'm old school.
In the meanwhile he was plotting his next coup for 4 years at Mar-a-Lago with everyone going to kiss the ring and Viktor Orban who he never shut up about (My great friend. Powerful man) was going there too? Didn't that set off any alarm to anyone in this gov't that a dictator of Hungary was going to see an ex-President of the US? Did they think he was going for the free food and a round of golf? He was giving him the authoritarian playbook.
I am not a historian and I confess 10 years ago shortly before Trump I.0 I used to call the " Tea Party" the "Tea Baggers", not as a joke, but because I was politically clueless and had no idea who they were or what they stood for until a friend of mine one night corrected me. I wasn't really engaged. I'm in NY. I casually.had the news on in the background on election night expecting Hillary to be a shoe-in and watched in horror as he won. Then came 4 years and covid, we voted him out and next up we would have Joe and be done with him 4ever. Then Jan 6th. Two years ago I found Heather and read every newsletter (I have saved each one) where she so brilliantly compared what was going on with the history of what came before and she brought all the receipts. I always say she was my professor who I didn't have to write a paper for. But I learned a lot. And now we have "crossed the rubicon". We are in unchartered territory with nothing to compare.
So, no, I could not ever imagine how after every single one of us watched the insurrection in horror on TV,, this maniac could ever be re-elected. For two years (and to this day) I believed 💯 Jack Smith would have gotten him as I watched him get away with murder. For 10 years we have never stopped hearing his repulsive voice, never stopped hearing about him every single day on TV and MSM. I have Trumper family who I love and can't give up who gleefully voted for him. I can never forgive them. I cried when Joe dropped out. I had such hope for Kamala, but I knew in my heart, with the war in Ukraine, the war in Israel, and the 2nd I knew Elon Musk was out there it was OVER and he was going to win. And for the first time in his life, I knew everything he was saying no matter how crazy, was the truth. I knew when SCOTUS gave him immunity and made him a king it would come true. Dictator from day one. But I don't think any of us could have imagined he would blow up our country and the world world in 5 days and then every day since has been one horror after another. I am not surprised at his cruelty. I was surprised how breathtaking quick everything happened. I thought we would have time. I admire the judges and every lawyer out there trying to thwart him. I think we are up against much more than we imagined. Our lives do depend on it, but I am sorry I can't be hopeful. The only thing I see is a revolution or a civil war. I don't see it at the ballot box. I don't think the center can hold against this assault of dark money and dangerous Silicon Valley tech Bros like Musk, Thiel and Vance who terrifies me. I hope I'm wrong. Everyday I look for signs like karma planes and.buses and ketamine od's and Big Macs working their magic. He has no intention of leaving.
How has the U.S. system of checks and balances so slid to near-death?
Easiest, it took the MAGA Congress to abdicate its constitutional role – to roll over and tell His Majesty Waddling Pig Face to do all he likes.
Before that, it took the MAGA Clarence court to tell His Majesty Orange Felon he’s immune to the Constitution, above all law.
It took a U.S. election also to tell His Majesty Putin’s Fat Ally that, yes, he can side with the dictators, betray our former fellow democracies.
But it took American schools to give up teaching any regard for fellow others of any kind – defer instead to testing’s logic, where some come out on top, get the most points (or, same thing, pile up the most money).
This logic allows one, or a fascist few, total contempt of such quaintness as checks and balances.
But first the schools – for testing – must spurn all the now-dead ways for regarding others.
Maybe you haven’t seen the last polling we are 21% of the people think you’re heading in the right direction or approve of your Democrat party. Why 80% if you’re backing the illogical decision just because of your HATE of Trump.
In fact yesterday there was a pole that said 65% of Democrats would vote against what’s good for America if Trump supported it. No surprise TDS is now officially a mental disease
Would you stop with the spelling Craig get a life? Content over form every time. How do you suppose you would criticize the constitution if there was a misspelled word in there?
That’s all you guys got. Spelling. Wow. Let me say it again the Democrat party which includes everybody here just about is it at 29% approval rating the lowest in history. Even with an issue with the American public, who is 80% of the against women and in men sports, you people support it, and then wonder why you keep losing
The only thing that Democrats represent right now is exactly that John…
hate. They have no other agenda. They have no leaders they have no policies they have nothing right now they are disassembled.
All they can do now is protest and burn up Tesla dealerships when three years ago you were thanking God for Elon, that was making electric cars and saving the planet and now people like Mark Kelly don’t give a shit about the planet
When reading these summaries I'm dumbfounded (today in particular) by the breadth and depth of the betrayals of American democratic ideals that this so-called presidency perpetrates ON A DAILY BASIS.
HCR often uses historical illustrations as comparators--which would, ordinarily, serve to de-escalate alarmist thinking. Just the opposite happens, though, when the entirety of American history becomes the backdrop against which these perfidies are unfolding ON A DAILY BASIS.
I'm left vastly more alarmed--frantic, even--while wondering mostly about when and what the next step beyond "Constitutional crisis" will be.
And just what are those democratic ideals that you speak of? Right now there are none your party is heading in the wrong direction and you keep persisting, which is hysterical. You keep this up and Republicans will be in power for the next 12 years you have no leadership you have no organization and you’re on the wrong side of the issues.
Yesterday I read that at a very personal cost for the scumbag president and Elon Musk, it would be huge cuts at the federal agency in charge of mental health and addiction . To those always criticizing the regime that's selfishness!!!!.
Yes, the very people complaining about illegal fentanyl being consumed by illegal drug users are themselves addicts and illegal users and don’t want to help the very people they’re complaining about dying from illegal drug use.
We won't survive 100. Yesterday, Marco Rubio made fun of the decent judge ordering the stopping and return of the unlawful flights transporting immigrants to be jailed in El Salvador and Putin made fun of the scumbag president by making him wait on purpose to start a negotiaton on Ukraine and laughed about it. What could be wrong with that picture?
This RFK.Jr. is dangerous. Isn't this what Trump 1.0 wanted to do with Covid? Just.let it rip? Next.pandemic will be avian.flu bit of course no research. how.many animals and.people will die? How's he doing with the measles and cod liver oil treatment? Our country (and the world) has been destroyed in 60 days.
"I'll have the Russian Ukraine war stopped in one.day". Then he told a reporter the other.day he was.being sarcastic. " The Israeli.war.never would have happened if I was President". Well, now you are and it's not ending. You blithering idiot and bag of hot air. You think you are respected? No one can stand you. No one respects you. They laugh at you, and when are you going to stop blaming Biden for everything that is happening on your watch? They need to bring back the guillotine.
I hope that The Lincoln Project makes an ad about the anecdote that Prof. Richardson shared: “But Putin seems less eager to reach a solution [regarding Ukraine] than to demonstrate his dominance over Trump. Today, when the phone call was scheduled, Putin was on stage at an event. When his interviewer asked if he needed to go because he would be late for the call, Putin dismissed the question and laughter broke out.”
I kept scrolling and scrolling, hoping to find a comment about H5N1, but that seemed to be lost in other conversation. Granted, we are distracted by the Trump regime's lawlessness, but another pandemic following closely on the heels of the previous one would not only bring the nation to its knees, but likely bring about a total collapse.
"Chickens and turkeys don’t have the genes to resist the virus, and every infection is a chance for the virus to mutate into a more virulent form, one of which could mutate so it could spread among humans. If H5N1 were permitted to infect 5 million birds, “that’s literally five million chances for that virus to replicate or to mutate,” Hansen told Mandavilli."
RFKJR is an idiot who should be a patient confined at a mental health facility, not in charge of the entire nation's health system.
Yes, it's terrifying and I agree 💯. I read it has spread to cats on dairy farms. And I think recently to a veterinarian also (there must be more). We excelled at science and medicine and research and we are a global society and all it takes is one plane ride. Did you ever see the Steven Soderbergh film "Contagion"? It is so brilliant but it " sets the table" showing how a virus can be transmitted starting with the devastation of destroying ecosystems by tearing down forests to build and then a bat (even before covid) dropping eaten by a pig.then killed for food and so on.I won't give it away except of course the heroes were the scientists and the CDC. It was so prescient.😭 I watched it while I was cowering in my apt during covid. And there will be more. Climate change has melted ice where organisms were frozen for what we thought was eternity. All of this human knowledge and greatness for what? That will end the world before the nukes.
And you know what's crazy? I had french toast over the weekend and even though I asked for it well done, one slice was soggy inside and I was gagging and couldn't eat it because all I kept think of was the avian flu. I wrote to my doctor yesterday asking him to check my vaccines. I know I had about 5 of them all at once when I went to Croatia 10 years ago especially for measles-mumps-diptheria-hepatitis and a tetanus booster. I told him to give me everything again if he thinks I need it before they are gone. This is INSANITY! I had a polio booster I think in 2021 when they found some in the waste water in an area not far from NYC where I am. I would have taken monkeypox if they had it too but they were only giving it to gay men. When I was young before vaccines I had measles, german measles and chickenpox. I wish they had the chickenpox vaccine then because never leaves your body so you can get shingles. I had the 2 shot Shingrex vaccine and it's a killer.(and not covered by insurance and I didn't care. Who wants shingles? It's excruciating! I would take 10) Polio in NY in the 21st century. Now they will cut the funding to monitor the waste water which is also how they were able to check for covid outbreaks. Gone.
How could a doctor, a proponent of vaccines like Dr. Cassidy vote for RFK Jr. Because he's afraid of being primaried? Or screamed at by Trump? How's the cod liver oil working out. Measles has now been found in New York. Suffolk County.
Thank you for mentioning RFK, Jr.'s horrifying suggestion to just let H5N1 'rip'. Sure sounds to me like he has no idea how dangerous this disease would be if it became epidemic in humans.... or maybe he just doesn't care. Numerous members of the MAGA Gang seem to be in favor of 'decreasing the surplus population', namely everyone except themselves.
And the irony is he was so desperate to run for President and when he knew he wouldn't get the votes he contacted Kamala first but she wanted nothing to do with him, so of course Trump took him to have a Kennedy (the most insane one. Luckily his mother died before she saw this). Did you ever see the video that was taped at a restaurant in NY a few years where he was pontificating about covid and that it was bio-engineered not to affect Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews and the Chinese? Of course he's an anti-semite and racist with a heroin addled brain. I am an Ashkenazi Jew and every single one of my family, all of us who live apart (even in different states at the time) my Jewish doctor (3 times) and every Jewish person I know has had it. And the Chinese? Where the fuck did he think it came from in the first place? These crackpots will destroy us all...and yes, I think that is the point. And Trump..."I told Bobby to go wild". This all could have been avoided if Trump had.died from the first and worst covid wave infection like his buddy Herman Cain. And they want to kill Anthony Fauci who should be canonized. We are living in terrible times. I'm waiting for the black plague next.
I don't know about legal sense, but I'm guessing that it's much cheaper to pay off another corrupt government than it is for us to house detainees. When detainees are housed in this country, friends and relatives and attorneys have access to them and can raise questions about due process and demand answers. When they're imprisoned thousands of miles away, I imagine that they are not treated humanely, and I can't imagine that there is any recourse.
JL, wish someone would read the flight plan incorrectly and deliver them all to Mara Lago…. I heard Mump likes sweets, so this would be “just desserts”!.
That it makes no legal sense needs to be hammered on.
That this (and much that the "Christian Right" favors) is shockingly cruel must be hammered on.
Concessions to plutocracy have created something uncommonly ugly, uncommonly cruel. It seems to me that cruelty boils down to a sociopathic assertion of domineering power. It seems to me that the baseline function of civilization is about limiting, disciplining and reconciling the uses of personal and aggregate power. When that power is exclusive, unaccountable, and viciously cruel, how does that differ from "evil"? If that is not evil, what is?
And why do so many, in so many lands, in so many eras, put up with, even glory in it? We have fought this monster so often before, and it has yet to die. Can't we at least get a better picture of the problem?
As insulting as some may take this, we've made way too many concessions to the RW evangelicals too. They should have been pulled up short a long time ago. Politicians have treated religion like a third rail and that has to stop.
Some of the greatest horrors of history; extreme torture, genocide, slavery, prejudice, and soul-crushing totalitarianism, has been accompanied by religious justification; what what kind of religion? Desmond Tutu was instrumental in the peaceful transition to majority rule in South Africa where, despite the shortcomings of a true democracy there, a bloodbath had been widely predicted. Martin Luther King advanced recognition and some substantive remediation of racial injustice by peaceful means. I don't want to be too long winded here, but a lot of beneficial things have been done by people who frame their values in religious terms, which is why I don't just reject all religion as a self-important, malignant cult; which is many cases it has proved to be. It seems to me that there is a world of difference between "religion" that is radically inclusive and radically exclusive; that calls forward compassion or hatred. Those who are happy to torture; is that somehow good, or is that evil? What, given what is left of a record of him, did Jesus (and other revered religious teachers) actually teach? Nothing like what MAGA is doing.
That said, I keep waiting for a far more audible, far more concerted voice from "love" based Christians (and here much could be said love is and isn't) that what is being done by Trump and his minions is hostile to everything that I can remember of what Jesus is reported to have said; blatantly so. It is false, and it is ugly, and it is cruel. And it could bring, and is bringing, immense suffering and misery, for the good of what? Who is doing the crucifying in this picture? Who stands with the poor and rejected? It's not a trick question; and it's the question of the hour. Maybe it always was.
I don't think that a love of peace and justice requires religious framing, but a civilized society requires core, guiding values of some sort nevertheless. For lives worth living For our species survival. In vainglorious road rage (and I go there) what is precious gets lost, often trampled. At least now and then, we need to look deeper in and farther out than our ego-centered punyverse.
Marlene, I’m not a mean person…really I’m not…but this, his first and now, most especially, his second admin, having me fervently wish he will reap what he has sown in a way that is meaningful to him—apparently he has no sense of shame, or empathy/sympathy—so who knows what form that might take. Hmmm….maybe be destitute and selling pencils on the streets of NYC where the Manhattan elites he so longed to be a part of walk by and he KNOWS they know it’s him, but they don’t even acknowledge him & he is living in a cardboard box in some alleyway…dunno, sound about right?
Barbara, if wishing that karma actually existed is comforting, do it! But here's another kind of fun thing to think about, because it doesn't hurt any humans but does materially harm only people who tug the forelock. In Toulouse, the Tesla dealership was torched and the (this is my favorite new moniker for them) Wankpanzers all were destroyed. Here in KC someone set fire to two Wankpanzers the other night at the Tesla dealership. Wankpanzer owners are aghast at the reaction their nazimobiles are getting. And the Felon is freaking out about it--wants to charge Wankpanzer defacers with domestic terrorism. I say, suffrage for women in England happened because women started attacking property, carefully ensuring that humans were not damaged in the process. And they also made sure everyone knew about what was happening in the prisons when they were arrested. I doubt there's a whole lotta sympathy for Demon Musk so I admit I smile when I hear about Wankpanzers going up in smoke. While of course verbally tsk-tsk-ing.
I didn’t have a Twitter/X account, but just yesterday I did sign up for BlueSky…dunno if that’s a good thing or not, as I generally don’t use social media platforms.
Believe it or not, I made a fake account on Twitter and never posted a thing but wound up following many people BECAUSE of Heather. She would always link to accounts there in her newsletters. I just use to click on them and read everything until one day I got a message that I had to sign in to read. I think it was and is important to hear many voices (just like I read comments at Wapo (yes, still have it came on my kindle) NYT, the Murdoch rags like the Daily Mail and NY Post. It's valuable to know how the enemy thinks. It's valuable to know how everyone thinks. I blocked the bots and Nazis and crypto scammers and Elon was the FIRST person I blocked. I discovered some of my fave accounts were former conservative Republicans like Ron Filipkowski and George Conway and the Lincoln Project who all became Trump haters. George Conway is so witty and brilliant and put his money where his mouth was and donated $4-5 million of his own money to get Kamala elected and became registered Dem as did Ron. It was especially helpful during his trials in NY with everyone posting in real time from the courthouses. I don't go there anymore because almost everyone first moved to threads, then to Blusky, and of course to substack. I was only a lurker but now I have something like 30 substacks I follow and don't have enough hours in the day. Most people love Blusky and I can see accounts without having to register. I won't touch threads because of Zuck. Deleted that sewer FB. I do keep IG for the 4 dogs I follow there.
Sharon, once upon a time having a Tesla (and I am SO sad the inventor Nicola Tesla’s name is being besmirched by Musk) vehicle was a good, forward-thinking thing. The truck, however, no just no…that’s not a truck except maybe in a George Jetson future world. I happened to see one in the wild the other day, OK it was really just a Costco parking lot, and is the first I’d ever seen in person. The owner had the cover on the truck bed & I could see, as it’s been reported, that it would severely compromise visibility. I have a 22 yr old truck that DOES haul lots of stuff & is very useful…unlike a Tesla truck appears to be! And I’ve seen a number of vids online about the challenges the truck has with simple truck-like maneuvers.
My new Mini Countryman EV so far is superior to the Tesla is so many very important ways. We see the cybertruck often here in San Diego and even some are showing the rust that will make the entire body disintegrate if the glue doesn’t give way first.
I saw a MAGA in one of the other online forums arguing that sending them to a 3rd country was actually protecting the deportees since, "as the libs claim," they were refugees in the US because their home country was unsafe for them. The ignorance -- willful ignorance or not, I have no idea -- is just stunning.
We may wish to compare/contrast this scenario to a story from 2018, in which a woman ("Carmen") and her daughter were deported to El Salvador while their refugee claim was still being heard in the courts. The judge (Emmet Sullivan) angrily ordered the government to "return 'Carmen' and her daughter to the United States FORTHWITH" or else he would hold AG Jeff Sessions and DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in contempt. Thankfully, Judge Sullivan's command was obeyed; the plane landed in El Salvador, but immediately turned around and brought the two refugee claimants back to the US. (https://www.wrur.org/npr-news/npr-news/2018-08-09/deported-asylum-seekers-brought-back-on-angry-judges-orders)
it's only Tuesday and yet here we are facing another gross abuse of power, or perceived power.The simple truth is that we are facing the reality that was promised in the PROJECT 2025 MANIFESTO. We saw or should have seen it coming as it was fairly transparent.
Despite that fore-told promise, Dems didn't appreciate its appeal. Underestimating the appeal of that cost the Democrats the election. Whether appreciated or not, it is true.
NOW; does that translate to reality for those that thought the 'change' they voted for would come down to their friends, their family and their neighbors losing their jobs; probably not.
I won't opine about the effects of the DOGE as it relates to local stuff. That is an insult others can highlight.
I write, to you, dear-readers, about the story that was exposed on 60-Minutes. The story of the young people who were highlighted for their talent and their right to play with the National Marine Band.
I won't detail it here, but Trump canceled them. On the basis of DEI. These are talented and deserving KIDS and this was a merit-based competition that they WON only to play with the larger band...
Cancelling them is the epitome of cruel.... these are talented KIDS. Not political pawns.
I am many degrees of angry for many reasons, but THIS, this INSULT that affects the purest of our children, to celebrate art, really affects me to my core.
These people are EVIL and their motivation is not right.
H Alan, I have a sidebar story to the band kids. I learned about the event from a friend of mine who was in the President's Own Marine Band until his retirement. He shared the band's absolute dismay in this event being cancelled by that gods forsaken DEI proclamation by the ffpotus. I later learned from a retired USCG band member that retired military musicians from all 5 service bands, plus both the Naval Academy and West Point had come together to provide the workshop and the concert that ffpotus had denied these young musicians.
When I saw the 60 minutes feature, I also noted that the conductor was Rodney Dorsey, FSU band director, formerly of Indiana University (where he went under full tenure when he was denied tenure at the University of Oregon.) Dr. Dorsey is the director who admitted me to the Symphonic Band I now play in. I can think of no better "pinch hitter" as the director for this band.
I watched the deportation events starting with the activist who posted the “HIGHLY UNUSUAL” flights on X last Saturday. In horror, I saw the detained being herded off busses with heads down in shackles. Then they showed them shaving their heads. All beneath the post from the El Salvadoran president “Oopsie, too late!” Above the New York Post headline.
Look, the regime can cordially shove it up their butts that the judge had no jurisdiction once the flights were in the air. This was Trump running from the law. Again. And Again. And again. Ad nauseum.
Second Look, I know damn well SOME of these people were not nice friendly white folks with pocket protector pen holders in their white shirts carrying bibles on their way to church. But, and this is a big BUT, they were owed due process. Roberts is right to have rebuked Dear Leader. Any other action would have dissolved what remaining power the Judiciary has as a legitimate institution. Full stop.
I don't care if the deported fellows had gang tattoos on their faces. Due process is there to protect ME.
It's there to protect me from nazis currently in the government.
I laughed out loud when I read Robert's thinly veiled warning to Trump about impeachment. Robert's and his happy gang of constitutional illiterates got us into this mess, first with Citizen's United and last July with his sophomoric Presidential immunity decision.
Just do your job as George Conway requests -- no more no less.
Gary, thank you so much for this. I didn't quite laugh out loud, but I did chuckle. Roberts is such a jerk. I have heard he looks like what one might think a judge should look like. I have no visual memory of him he was that flat to me. He did not start his bad acting with Citizens United, but was as far as I remember, a helper in getting W. Bush declared president when it was pretty clear that should not have been a decision by the Supreme Court. He wasn't on the SC at the time, but W. thought he deserved something for his "good deed," and he gave it to him and we are all paying for it decades later.
What Roberts said could be taken as him telling Trump not to trash on judges. All Trump needs to do is appeal the decision. Roberts will take care of it then. Roberts is the one who gave Trump all the power. Roberts is also aware that once people start impeaching judges he will be on the list.
Oldandintheway- those are exactly my thoughts. Roberts telling Trump to shut up and let the process play out and the Court will have his back.
Ouch!
Old..yes, once the precedent is set, Roberts knows that several of the Supremes are targets. Elizabeth I did not want to execute Mary Queen of Scots either because it set a bad precedent....and Charles I down the line went to the block.
Agent Orange was quite clear that Roberts's advice did not apply to "Him" since "His Name" was not mentioned.
He who shall not be mentioned.
Please stay “ in the way”
Still, it was an important call from Roberts. Trump does not have any conviction of serving his voters. His illegal actions are show-offs of his power as President. Once challenged legally or mass demonstrations he can be shaken up.
Hiro, but I doubt that Trump's handlers will back down that easily. Trump is just their front man. He is not smart enough to come up with this whole government takeover, robbery of people's information, even money, etc. They want power and fear. It is going to be up to We the People to stop them because the Steves, Theil, and the rest of the corrupt rich white oligarchs will not back down no matter what Roberts or any cort says.
Amen!
Yes indeed, and Kavenaugh too. Both were part of the cabal that got the moron W installed where he should not have been.
But I'll never forgive the mf for Citizens United.
Jen, I too, can't forgive him, Scalia, and the rest of the Citizens United crew who just made stuff up to give corporations and rich people a way to buy elections, knowing the majority of those rich guys are not Democrats, nor do they care about this democracy, only what they can steal from it. Yep, Roberts was totally on board, even making up stuff to pretend there was some kind of Constitutional claim for it; there wasn't and isn't.
Ruth and Jen, as far as i am concerned, the Roberts Court is an aider and abetter of destroying our democracy. Most of them should not be sitting on any court.
They do it with the Bible as well, and being an anthology, there is always something there that can be trimmed to fit.
And the reach of of the current $COTUS is extra-long, even back to witch hunters. I suspect that the authority of selected cave paintings will be next. Or maybe just old cartoons of cavemen dragging women by the hair.
The "Constitution" comes and speaks to MAGA Justices, for their ears only, revealing hidden secrets of eternal jurisprudence. But the thing about those dreams is being sure that it's the "Constitution" talking, and not just an overdose of too many tallow-soaked Freedom Fries.
And of course, people are saying that "Money talks"...
J L, I can see you are on a roll today. I totally agree with all your posts.
Treason is defined as, : "the crime of betraying one's country". Why is it tabu to call people who are within our country and especially our government, traitors? They wear suits and robes and sit in the White house, Congress and our courtrooms, and are betraying our country more each day. The enemy is within. Press On Regardless
Treason as a crime is very narrowly defined in the country, and related to war. Nevertheless the dishonestly and treachery of Trump is screamingly obvious.
The 2000 Bush V. Gore election was manipulated by the Brooks Brothers riot in Florida. Among the Bush team were John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas was on the Supreme Court. What a coincidence.
Indeed, Gary. Heather writes:
'Legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern wrote: “Trump’s action here is brazenly illegal under any interpretation of the law as it stands.” '
According to Roberts' majority, it's not illegal if the president does it.
What a Pandora's box that has been opened.
Doug, Roberts knew exactly what he was doing. I can't help but wonder if somehow he was privy to some of the tampering that might have taken place in "swing states" to make sure the wins were just above the threshhold for recounts so their Baby Donnie would get in, and with enough Republican Senators to make sure nothing was done to stop the SC's bad decisions. Democrats so badly wanted to play nice that they didn't even call for recounts. Maybe they didn't realize just how suspicious it was for those barely wins. I hate feeling like a conspiracy theorist, but what Republicans have done recently would make anyone feel that way. When Republicans accuse others of something it is a guarantee Republicans are doing the thing they were accusing others of doing.
Thank you. If I am one of those conspiracy nuts, I am in admirable company. Our Democrat check and balancers were so afraid of being accused of interfering with “ the American transfer of power “ they were rendered impotent.
gjay, and I believe it was deliberate, planned since before the 2020 election. In 4 years, a team of anti-democracy white men with some computer and social media skill can do a lot of damage, and I believe did.
It can still be deemed a crime, he could be impeached, he just can’t be brought up on the criminal charge…like charged with murder for stopping aid to families that will cause deaths. I think he should be impeached..and likely will be some day, sooner rather than later.
🤞🤞🤞
Not necessarily. As I understand it, the dictum is that he cannot be "prosecuted for crimes committed while president". That is not the same as the conduct not being illegal.
Ally, as I recall, SCOTUS said basically anything the president does in the course of his (will it ever be her?) "official duties" is not illegal. And they are the arbiter of what is an official duty.
Interesting. I'll have to go back and read the decision.
Doug, you absolutely nailed it.
It amazes me that Roberts is being lauded for his “strong” statement. What a joke. It is absolutely meaningless, coming from a man who has given Trump virtually limitless power. Coupled with the pardon power, Trump and his minions are already above the law. They will do whatever they want. Roberts is the all-time winner of the “too little, too late” award. Fool.
Dave, while Roberts' remains an appalling figure to me, and one who will live in infamy should history be the judge, perhaps he has had enough of 47's (and 45's) behavior, and will rule against him in cases that make it to SCOTUS. After all, when they gave him presumable immunity, they also said that SCOTUS will determine what is and isn't an official duty. And I hopefully assume that actions which are anti-Constitutional will be beyond the scope of an official duty.
But then again, I'm probably foolishly naive by thinking that they will use their power to save us from the destruction of democracy.
I admire your optimism, but Trump and the MAGAdministration are no longer playing by "the rules." I have followed closely the dismantling of USAID. It was their "canary in the coal mine" for other agencies and departments. Even though judges have now repeatedly ordered Trump, Elon, and the DOGE boys to reverse many of the things they have done--including not paying contractors for work done before Trump even took office, and not opening the spigot for ongoing projects that Little Marco allegedly exempted from destruction--they are essentially ignoring those orders. The cases will wind their way through the court system, but even if the Supremes were to rule against Trump, the damage to USAID and other agencies/departments will be irreversible. Many of the major USAID contractors will go bankrupt or be shells of their former selves. No in-country partners will trust the USA again. Rubio's retweeting of the "Oopsie" comment is just another example of the Administration's absolute contempt for the law. What's more, that little airplane episode, the arrest and imprisonment of the Palestinian protestor, and the forced entry into the U.S. Agency for International Peace are all "canaries." Trump is not just pushing the boundaries of legality, he is obliterating them.
And he knows he can get away with all of it. He wasn't president when he stole the thousands of classified documents, kept them at MAL, lied continuously that he didn't have them, or returned them all, or declassified them in his "brain," to finally admitting that he had them, but it was his "right" as he was the winner of the '20 election. The never-ending crimes he has buried our country under for years is all on those 6 equally criminal SC justices.
“ should history be the judge “?
Gjay, meaning that it all depends upon who writes (or who is *allowed* to write) the history of this present era. I've already adjudged it, as have millions of others.
Supreme Court Justices do not follow law. They follow their dear leader.
Justices are now making law
Dave Dalton: and weren't the republicans, conservatives, etc the ones screaming about activist judges? They have no shame over their glaring hypocrisy.
It is Johnny come lately. Roberts did put us in this mess with his partisan decisions. The partisan judges are the best at RATIONAIZING, in order to undo precedence.
Yes, our Supreme Court simply invents ideas to support a strange sense and direction of the law. The right wing has many ideas about concepts we hold dear! Money is not free speech, corporations are not given rights above those of an individual’s, and science actually requires one to have expertise to make choices and administer the laws Congress has passed. Hydrology is a science! If can’t understand this, fine, but you can’t invent an interpretation that belittles the idea of having to see the water flow…ground water is real!
And yes, you can bring criminal charges to bear on a President…to support impeachment and further punishment.
“You can bring criminal charges to bear on a president. . .”
As in “ high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Trump, the hydrology president? His voters in Tulare County would not criticize him publicly. “He didn’t mean to cause harm,” said the Farm Bureau spokesman.
You know it’s not much of a democracy when citizens who vote for the guy are afraid to defend their own interests from his ignorant stunts.
Carol—that is after all the whole point of the stupidity…fear of ever more stupidity, and we are trolling the depths for just how dumb they can be!
Gary - as pointed out repeatedly, republicans only care if something negatively impacts THEM. And now here comes Roberts' and the Courts' irrelevancy, so he speaks.
Right! You don't give immunity then turn around and tell trump what he can't do....
I read it as, push it to us and we'll take care of you. No need for a constitutional crisis.
James Madison is turning like he’s on a rotissimat in his grave right about now.
I love the block feature in substack -- don't you rick sender?
Apologies to Rick Herbst but I blocked RS before adding this reminder that you don't have to put up with the BS from MAGAs here unless you choose to.
Is that tool of a fool still around? I blocked it long ago, with some misgivings that there would be gaps in the threads making them hard to follow. As it turns out, there have been no holes in the conversations at all. Blocking actually eliminated the "hole."
Aaaaa! Hole in one…!
I take by that, Ryan, you mean a-hole in one? 🤣
Thank God there is a block! Several times I have considered never reading comments again (in various substacks) because of the nasty, abusive, and utterly false comments from MAGA trolls.
Gary, please tell me how to block.
Michele, if I recall, you click on his name, bringing you to his profile. Find the 3 dots, click, and click on block (or mute.) It's been a while since I've done it so I may be wrong, but try that.
Yeah, it's still the same. It's important to click on his name first, and then click on those 3 dots to the right, which opens a list of several actions, one of which is "Block" in red letters. If you try clicking on the 3 dots to the right of his name on the regular comments page the "Block" feature doesn't appear.
Mute doesn’t seem to work for me but block is very effective.
That's exactly how it's done.
Even Reagan would be doing that Rick .
"Even Reagan would be doing that Rick."
You mean Reagan would be choosing to not only put up with MAGA but to celebrate MAGA. . MAGA is the spawn of Reagan jumping in bed with Ralph Reed and the KKK. The Southern Strategy. Movement Conservatism with the Religious Right and white supremacists. The pinstripe vested interests with the bible thumpers in sheets. Trump is Reagan writ large and writ vulgar. Red hats are the new white hoods - and brown shirts.
Hi lin. I'm not quite sure what I meant since I was trying to locate a train to go from Lyon to Marseille while writing the post. Sorry. You stroke a point with your comment regarding the internal political situation that as you said, and I agree, started with Reagan. The part of my stressed brain was mostly thinking about the cozy relationship between our scumbag president and Putin. I don't think Reagan would have let any Russian president take advantage of our nation as the current one is doing .
Thanks for your observation 👍
Thanks. Safe travels.
Trump's fawning on Putin goes back to America First fawning on Hitler. The American right has long had a taste for authoritarians. Reagan of course, from negotiating with Iran to hold the American hostages until after the election and through Iran-Contra, tended to fawn on his authoritarians behind the scenes. As with the KKK, Reagan's dog whistles paved the way for Trump's right out loud.
Who knows who what reagan's puppeteers would have allowed? I distinctly remember wondering what was going on with things he said (Turned out, his Alzheimer's was already showing). I firmly believe musk tells trump to go play (read: golf)), while he takes care of everything. Biden's brain stutters; Too much input, too fast causes difficulty in processing. "Hi lin. I'm not quite sure what I meant since I was trying to locate a train to go from Lyon to Marseille while writing the post".
Well, please inform us all how to Russian president is taking advantage of the situation? He’s taking advantage of it because Biden and Obama were in power at the time. Why don’t you open up your eyes and see Putin attacked Crimea with Obama and power. Putin attacked Ukraine with Biden and power. Hmmmmm
And THAT is what it really means to "maga".
Guess you saw the white supremacist during the George Floyd riots oooops
Yikes. I guess you don’t like great presidents for America, huh?
By the way, the races if you keep using it, it’s working really well. Your popularity is down to 29% now the lower school district will keep using racist, misogynist and all those other axioms and get you nowhere. We love it.
Yes! A well forgotten story that need to be told…for all his serious strangers, the Quaker Nixon was mild compared to Arms for hostages Ronnie, the “Thanks for the votes Suckers!’ poster was in many a California household!
Ricardo, yeah, and Reagan was not what one should think of as a decent president even though he gets all kinds of lauds, even from Democrats. He wrecked our economy, appointed less than stellar Supreme Court justices, committed criminal acts with Iran-Contra and perfected the line that he didn't know. He gave US support to a movement in the Soviet Union that was moving along, but Reagan took credit. He had Altzheimers but his handlers knew it and even proposed the Constitution be changed so he could have a third term and I am guessing the American people might have voted Grandpa in again because of all the work that was done to make him look competent and a decent guy. He was neither. He did appalling things to students while he was governor of CA and to his union while president of the actors' union. In short, he is seen as something he definitely was not. Trump may well be seen that way too because Americans have bad memories and love nostalgia. Trump has dementia and is barely functioning, but there he is, insulting President Zelensky of Ukraine to please his buddy, probably puppetmaster, Putin. Ugh!
There's nothing I would disagree with you Ruth ,it's just that I can't see Reagan dropping his pants as the scumbag president does every time. Yesterday I heard that Putin was making jokes and laughing about making trump wait to start their "conference". Embarrassing. Thanks for your comment 👍
Recardo, thanks. We do need to do some rewriting of our American history, even recent history because the right-wing or Republicans or whatever we call the folks who have warped our understanding of it have not been honest about the various actors in the story, and for a while now, they have had a presence in our media and social media far greater than their numbers or messages warrant.
He was too dumb to know wtf was going on. He was another poser of a reality actor president.
If by "dumb" you mean he had dementia associated with Alzheimer's. Earlier, when he still had his wits about him, he was a rotten human being who used his fake-folksy, velvety powers of articulation to disarm and deceive people as he used his power to harm people he didn't like.
So you didn’t like Reagan either? I’d like to hear your opinion of the four best presidents of the last half of the last century till now. Just don’t send it any time around meal time I’d like to keep my meal down
Well, you’re thinking tends to tell me that maybe your as old as James Madison
And as soon as you use the word Nazi, you’re a nothing you’re a historical idiot
You’re living in a glass house Sender.. and shouldn’t be throwing stones.. yer Boy, is an authoritarian..
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-democracy-report-1.7486317
Reported to Substack Inc with a request that the Corporation's Attorney, Wilson Sonsini to contact me about the platform's contractual obligations to Readers & Authors.
Where did HE appear from?
I had BLOCKED THIS *stuffing* idiot!
I guess I need to do it again.
Are you talking about Rick sender Michele?
I was busy for a while and didn't notice this guy till few minutes ago. I just reported him. Very offensive.
Blocking it's not enough Miselle. He'll keep posting. Try reporting him as I did please. Totally offensive person.
I just tried the block, and couldn't find it. Can anyone send instructions?
By the way, Brian, I didn’t ask to be here. I got an email that showed some posts and was responding to them. I had no idea it’s even called my sub stack. I didn’t ask for a sub stack. I didn’t request a sub stack I don’t wanna sub stack. This came all by itself.
Regardless, your are now contractually bound to the "Author" Terms of Service which means you have contractual obligations to both all Readers & separately to the corporation Substack Inc.
I will seems Brian is a bot because that’s all he ever posts. If you hear something he doesn’t like he threatens me with a lawsuit.
That’s the way you’re trying to run America right now and it’s not working and only 29% of democrats agree with you. Not to mention that 65% of you will vote against something good for America if Trump supports it. I don’t report that you’re returning
First of all, he’s not my boy, who is the President of the United States currently and it’s better to have one that’s actually in the office that one is lying on a beach in Delaware, not knowing where he is egg prices are coming down. Gas prices already came down $.50 inflation is coming down mortgage rates are coming down. Israel is now destroying the balance of a mass and Trump is negotiating peace in Russia and Ukraine and you people have a problem with all that it’s unbelievable.
Did you forgive Biden for defying court orders and giving student loans back? Did you stand behind him with all his partners, his entire family scumbags like Adam Schiff imo ? I read your stuff, and I have to laugh
I don’t give a fuck if Joe Biden relieved some hard working, young people of their pernicious debt load. I’m a Canadian, you fuckin idiot.
Whats more interesting is what fuck tards like yourself are willing to be a participant in, just to satisfy your asshole hatred of .. anyone.. educated.. non white.. vaccinated.. gainfully employed.. literate..
so fuck you and fuck off.. and count yourself lucky, we aren’t doing this face to fuckin face..
First of all you live in Canada on purpose? Wow.
Just so you know how ignorant you are I’ve never seen it educated person talk like you. Please don’t pretend to be ejikated. lol.
Second of all, my wife happens to be Canadian born in Montreal. Ooooops. Was that a physical threat you just gave me? You see I told you you don’t even know me, and yet you hate me just for my political views it’s unbelievable the liberals are SO unwound right now. But don’t feel bad like I told you only another 46 months so you think it’s gonna get better you’re wrong it’s only gonna get worse for you guys to think you know it all we think you’re better than everybody else and you think that the popular majority vote means nothing.
By the way, I think it’s pretty incredible that you live in Canada and feel bad you have any right to weigh in on how America runs its business. That’s pretty laughable. If you wanna give some input, why don’t you move your become a citizen?
By the way, I’ll leave you with this guy. This country is so great that even the haters don’t wanna leave.
What’s funny about you guys is it doesn’t matter that Biden decided to eliminate student loans on his own even defined the courts but as soon as democracy is not on your side, it’s no longer democracy according to you. Waahhhhhh. Stop your crying and whining and get on board
Hitler used the phrase Make Germany Great Again.
Trump descending from the heights on a golden escalator to his rally was a direct reference to Hitler descending from the skies to his Nuremberg rally. As per Fox's Roger Ailes' favorite filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Hitler's numbers were bigger. But red hats are the new brown shirts. More importantly, Hitler hated German law. He turned it on its head to drain it of justice and to serve the abuses of his authoritarian regime. Exactly what Nazi officials were charged with at the Nuremberg Trials. And much as the Federalist justices are doing to serve the Project 2025 ChristoFascist regime. Odd Karma - Nazi deportation chief Adolf Eichmann back from the dead as Jewish GOP deportation chief Stephen Miller.
Claudia Koonz - "How the Nazis Made Anti-Semitism Respectable"
.https://youtu.be/usL9bmrnQRk?si=lQjXXbwaG1z4Bm5A.
Lin, I find it a bit laughable that some of the most antisemitic folks in the Republican Party are all in on punishing Columbia University for making Jewish students unsafe, little to no evidence of that, but they are threatening to withhold $400 milllion from the school if they don't fix things and Columbia is complying, well, supposedly because, they have decided the lies are more important than the truth that their students and professors have the first Amendment right to protest and that no one has the right to kidnap someone who is a legal resident here because he is not a supporter of Israel. Trump is only a supporter of Israel for the attention it gets him from American Jews who have decided to overlook Trump's antisemitism since he is supposedly helping Israel, while Israel is committing atrocities they don't want to acknowledge are happening or they just blame them on Hamas or some other something that comes to mind. Saying that is not antisemitism, it is truth and what is going on with Trump and Kump and others in this nation in relation to Judaism and Israel is hypocrisy.
Well, all you have to do to find evidence of the stuff happening at Columbia’s to change the freaking channel. You won’t do that because most of you here are afraid of the truth. The truth is only 50 days Trump accomplish more closeted for America than Biden did in four years
Hey Name, you and I need to travel to Auschwitz together. I’m gonna let you lay down in one of the ovens and then call Trump Hitler. historical, moron
And as soon as you use the word Hitler, you’re a verifiable idiot.
Is anyone keeping even a rough tally of the number of American citizens who are now unemployed thanks to the DOGE boys? We can watch it rise--and *publicize it daily!*
I care about them all but would also like to see a list fine-tuned to white cis-male Christians, as this might have some impact on Trump's voters.
I wonder about the citizens who are now NEWLY employed that we don't know about yet, meaning the pardoned insurrectionists in the wings who are 'standing by.'
my understanding is that Bannon and the project 2025 people have thousands of people in waiting to take jobs. All properly vetted and devoted to trump.
Yes, where are they? who hired them? people are so delusional it’s unbelievable gullible deluded misled and full of hate.
Your “understanding” ? lol. Change the channel Bannon can’t even get close to Trump or his party anymore
Why would you call them insurrectionists? Do you wanna see believe that they thought they could overthrow an election? I bet you believe in climate change too. lol. By the way, that’s gone now now that they’re burning up Teslas to pollute the air and take away the millions of electric vehicles that are on the road and they wanna burn them and destroy them. Oooops
And a lot of you have a problem reading here also or researching Clinton and Gore did a public speech on shrinking government so that Schumer and Pelosi go see the videos and Obama fired a half 1 million federal employees. I could take you should look that up
Rick, oh please! Get over yourself. Calling someone what he is, is honesty and the guys playing in Trump's toddler pool are following the Nazi playbook, almost to the letter. To me and many others, that makes them Nazis since they haven't chosen another name yet.
Rick loves himself almost as much as trump. He drones on and on and on. . .
The Rick Troll
You gotta be one of the most ignorant people I’ve ever encountered.
Tell you what let’s view with me travel to Auschwitz or Dachau and hop in to the ovens or see the corpses or see the thousands of pairs of eyeglasses or shoes from the people that he murdered. The only thing I can think of is that you’re only nine years old and don’t know any better
Pretty soon Ruth I’ll be medicine for what you have. Fact in Minneapolis, there’s no law being passed to define TDS as a mental disease. But I’m not sure there’s a cure anywhere.
Ricks Substack, 0/10. Would not go back.
It’s not mine never was never asked for all the sudden they sent me a email to write a comment and I did.
I did not create the sub stack. I keep telling you I got an email from Heather’s website responded to a few posts and then this happened
But you have to admit, the description is accurate. Hateful and nasty. Nothing good coming out of anything that idiot does. Along with his little puppy the ksuM.
When it’s only a reaction to what I’m reading the insanity the delusion here, the mention of the word Nazi racist misogynist. It’s the reason your party only has a 29% approval rating now, The lowest in recorded history. And I’m angry because you guys want to stay on the wrong side of popular opinion. 80% of the country was polled and saying they don’t want men in women’s sports and most people here are supporting it. It’s unbelievable.
Hateful that you people don’t love America you only love you America but you want not be America but the rest of America ones and right now only 29% like what you’re doing. Most of you were probably pretty good at math
and you’re a current idiot. or a bot.
Very concise of and constructive and thorough informative post their JNY.
Any other factual information you’d like to add here?
sure! if you STILL support this administration, you are against the thriving of our constitutional democracy, and a victim of cult influence, secondary to the greed and ideology of rupert murdoch, & project 2025, elon musk’s tech bro ideology, et al. admitting you’re mistaken is extremely difficult if not, impossible. i wish you well.
Well another one that’s gullible enough to talk about constitutional crisis. omg. I’m guessing you’re one of the ones that still believe in climate change. Yikes. Hypocrisy of that entity is more unbelievable than anything else because according to most liberals, it was the most important thing on the agenda when asked. Reversing climate change was the Democrats most important agenda item. And now they’re out burning Teslas. Omg. Climate change The perfect hoax for the gullible liberal crowd. Frankly, I don’t even know why you’re worrying about this. AOC said we only have about 4 1/2 to 5 more years to live. Lmao
🙄
YOU are a *STUFFING STUFFING STUFFING* moronic waste of oxygen.
THERE, are ya happy you *STUFF* imbecile?
You got your attention. Now you can be happy.
Don't bother answering me, I will have blocked you by now.
🚫👎
I guess the only gang tattoos now allowed are those that indicate membership in White Christian Nationalist gangs, like the ones Pete Hegseth has.
A good insight! And one that escapes typical Nazis.
Every time you use the word, Nazi, you defy believe that you have any brain cells left or any idea of history. I think you should hop over to Auschwitz lie down in an oven, count the numbers of pairs of shoes or glasses that are in piles there and apologize to the 6 million Jews that were killed by the Nazis
And the 5 million more than orange juice that were killed by the Nazis in the same inhumane way. You are nothing but a despicable human being. Go get a history lesson
They were illegal, criminal gang members they’re not entitled to due process
But like all you other people who would rather have the criminal stay here do you want to give them to process so it cost us millions of dollars not only to fight them with their attorneys but then they’re gonna stay here and presents and cost us more till they die. ?
For sure.
It is our protection against tyranny, and looking across the globe at any moment in history, tyranny is nothing to be trifled with.
Exactly, David Of The Same Last Name (but not known relation.)
100%!!!
Due process in the US isn't always what it's cracked up to be, but it is and has been the bedrock of our internal national security. The presumption of innocence unless proven otherwise is essential to liberty and justice for all. It is a primary safeguard against tyranny, and the target of tyrants worldwide. The necessity of it's protection cannot be overemphasized.
Agree JL, it’s an idea, or rather an ideal to aspire to. We do try, too often fail those who are not (sorry to cast aspersions) rich, white & male…but still we aspire. That’s what I hold on to. I am aghast at watching our Republic disassemble right in front of my eyes, and it is sobering to me that so many folks seem to be on board with this direction….well, at least until it slams into them them & theirs. Feel like I’m watching a Twilight Zone episode.
It's not an episode Barbara, it's real and here to stay (if we let them)
Don’t we all hear the echo of the Fascists WW11? I certainly do. Horrifying! My hope is that there are enough of us who remain actively defiant of this regime. Stress Actively.
Sadly many Americans are cheering him on. They will stop their kowtowing to him only when they are personally impacted. He knows how to exploit Me Ism.
Ricardo, sometime ago I posted here the dystopian vibe of “unreal-but-it-is- really-happening” by referencing the 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby. In particular the scene where Rosemary (Mia Farrow) rouses from surreptitiously administered sedative (by her husband who’d sold his soul to the Devil for acting fame)…the ugly, cringy, scene where she is surrounded by a “coven” watching the Devil rape her and she exclaims “This is no dream! This is really happening!”. For all the ick factor it’s the kind of realization that we’re all being screwed (‘cept those who plan to profit & the true believers) by this admin. Lol…I thought the Twilight Zone was “softer” to share, but it is really much darker than Serling.
Yes, we are all Rosemary. We are all being raped and this is not a dream.
Ricardo your A human offense to humanity in my opinion.
Have you ever gotten raped and choked to death you should try it one day like noon Garay. You’d be crying a different tune if it was a family member of yours. What happened to the Democrats being the party of empathy? Now they’re just a party of hate
"Due Process" & what process is due goes further back than 1776 or 1783. Substantive due process was first demonstrated by John Adam's successful defense of 2 Redcoats who were found not-guilty by a jury after the Boston Massacre.
Due process in 2025 is having a very good March. Let's review Professor Richardson' summary:
+ "Trump's post sounds as if he is nervous ...". Very nervous.
+ "Robert's rebuke ...". Already ignored by a House critter.
+ Judge T.D. Huang's finding ... ' Elon & his kids are "DOGE".
+ Trump's attack on the FTC is "blatantly illegal". True.
+ "Putins power play" The Ppp was humiliating to Lil' Donny Boy.
+ WAPO's Silvia Foster-Frau identification of 4 men that were living in Houston,TX.
Kudos to those investigating the identity of those kidnapped & finding what is up by using the What's App tool.
No need to log that planes used or their identification numbers or or their arrival in Guatemala times or their return flights take off times as that info has been widely reported publicly & confirmed.
We all could use more verified facts on the 4 or 5 named plaintiff in the underlying federal litigation. We have their 3 letter initials & precise physical location at the start of this rapidly collapsing fascist fiasco.
Carry on & be safe All.
Hopefully Trump understood the massive humiliation from his "brilliant" friend Putin. We need to rub it in his face and MAGAs too. Putin is not our friend or even our frenemy. He has committed genocide of his own people as well as those of Ukraine and other countries.
Unfortunately, a slap-down from Putin isn't going to deter Trump from taking Putin's side.
Thank you Gary Loft.
Check out last nights 3/18 'The Rachel Maddow Show',Episode 44.
On the "THIS is a TEST" segment, Rachel reported NBC News polling data taken 3/7 to 3/11/25 canvassing American favorability ratings on dictator, Vladimir Putin:
Negative 84%
Positive 3%
This is where I remind everybody that 22 Republican senators, dozens of Republican House members voted to fund Ukraine. Many of them call Trump a liar about Putin.
Get those Republicans who oppose Putin on the record!
Impeach. Feathers of Hope. https://jerryweiss.substack.com/p/remove-impeach-impeach
Maybe not, Gary, but (and I haven't seen the video) it will make a great ad about being Putin's puppet, as Hillary called him.
Bryan you are I am sure aware of this, but the whole idea of due process is a lot older than John Adams's defense of the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre. He was assigned as a barrister for the defense (since this is before there was an Anglo-American legal tradition, only an Anglo one) because of the the provision in the Great Charter (Magna Carta), first sealed in 1215 but becoming the law of the land in 1225, that "No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers and the law of the land." There are relatively few provisions of the charter that are still active today, but that is one of them. So is the provision against selling justice. Easiest access point for this info: https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/originsofparliament/birthofparliament/overview/magnacarta/magnacartaclauses/
Thank You! Magna Carta! King John just hated that provision contained therein.
Thank you Dr. Linda Mitchell. At the start of Trails in Marin Superior Court, I loved a particular Judge's 'Magna Carta Speech' given to seated Jurors & the Alternates.
Huge thank you for the 'living-heritage' Link.🙏
Question: Generally, how did the conquest of the Normans impact the development of the 'common law' on the medieval Emerald Isle?
Well, I guess people in Africa that come in here illegally still have due process is that what you’re saying noncitizens who came across the border illegally?
Yikes? That’s 14 million people that are due to process it came across the border illegally. My opinion, nothing but gullible idiots here
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
- John Adams at said trial.
It seems to me that justice and prosperity, certainly on a sustained basis, are rooted in fastidious fealty to logic and facts. That, and a sense of what most matters.
It's a grim irony that the guy who committed more than 80 crimes (that we know of) and used "due process" to delay justice and propel himself into the nation's highest office is now attempting to eliminate due process for everyone else.
It how a virus works; it turns the processes meant to serve the cell into the service of it's enemy. I think it is significant that the two high crimes spelled out in the Constitution as unacceptable for any civil officer are "bribery" and "treason". Both are subversions of the powers entrusted to the officer in the service of self at the expense of others. That is far worse than common thievery or war time espionage, for it sabotages our defense against abuse; a double crime in one against the trust that societies must rely on .
Agreed
When the Trump War Crimes Trials are held after The Restoration, the guilty ones (all of them) should be hanged with slipknots. Let them have some suffering on the level of what they inflicted before they arrive in Hell where they belong.
It’s a long way off though , that War Crimes Trial.. Restoration.. these fuckers are just getting started.. and everyday, the once unthinkable, becomes inevitable..
Quite right Mike, I've been posting about the huge possibility of not having a midterm election in 2025 based on the same scenario you described. By then they'll control absolutely everything. People shouldn't count on returning to normality after winning the election and waiting in the meantime. It will be too late. Thanks for your accurate comment 👍
Well, then, where is everybody?? Why are we not RIGHT NOW having public demonstrations of a couple hundred thousand people, like they had in Serbia and Hungary this past weekend?? Until people get off their fat asses, and let the Nazis know that we're coming after them, they WILL NOT STOP!!
Hi Daniel, I think it's because the American it's so used to our institutions working for them and never had confronted a situation were a president is transforming himself into a dictator that a state of confusion exist. Recent political history in Hungary and Serbia makes them very aware of the risks. Not so in America. That's why I mentioned about the expectation that the midterm election would solve everything. Not so if it doesn't happens. Great possibility Daniel.
And yet it should be painfully obvious at this point that our 'institutions' are NOT working. I wouldn't tune into faux news, even with a gun to my head, but I wonder if they are just not telling the rubes exactly what is happening. If Cletus and Clem have never seen the videos of the mass demonstrations overseas. Sadly, at this point, would they even understand or care? We're in this together, Ricardo!
Because of those things we do not know how to line up in solidarity. We just aren't very good at it. We will learn how and be good at it.
Personally, I blame the film industry. The cavalry always comes galloping over the horizon, the hero always wins. . .
Act like you're French...sharpen the guillotines.
Protests are being organized for April 5 - "Hands Off" National Day of Action - https://handsoff2025.com/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJHwS9leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHa5xVRvoHyzQLQ3EliQ14FHblPAUma9GglsNMJ5m5c1zNUBC6qscfjt2lg_aem_cX_RN_kxwzbWBBXlQ8Fpaw
We are not a small country like Hungary or Serbia, so it takes logistical planning (and legal permits) to get a mass of people to the Capitol where a protest would be most noticeable. I know there has been more than one protest here at our state capitol, but with little reporting (at least on the news sources I can still stomach reading). Marching around in smaller towns just annoys your neighbors, and makes you more visible for retaliation.
There is also the risk that major protests might trigger a declaration of martial law, which would make the situation many times worse. It is clear that Trump would not feel constrained by any legal niceties about when martial law is actually justified.
Oooooooh a protest.
very real concern. Let's just look at 2016 to 2020 to 2024 as great examples. Russia toyed with 2016, then in 2020 they got blind sided by the innovations caused by the pandemic so people could vote, then came the "integrity" laws almost immediately to stop those innovations, the attacks on the system that ensued for the next four years as democrats continued to beat back the autocrats in election after election, then came 2024 and enter Muskrat and his toadies. Muskrat has direct contact with Xi and Putin which gives him access to their technology as well. Notice where Elon poured him money and time during the 2024 election? I am not so sure that all the organizing in the world can prevent the wave of what is coming.
Ricardo, One fears that even assuming we get to have a midterm election, there are sufficient causes for alarm within the structures of who and how elections are administered starting with severe gerrymandering, through voter suppression laws and ending with multiple election tabulators in swing states. Nathan Taylor of Election Truth Alliance presents pretty convincing evidence that our 2024 elections were not “free and fair”:
https://kmac.substack.com/p/if-the-2024-election-was-hacked-whats?triedRedirect=true
We need an official audit of at least one county in a swing state with the suspicious outcome to start to turn this around.
Mike, I fervently await the day these reprobates are brought to justice and held accountable for their actions, if not technically treason, then insurrection and attempts to overthrow the gov’t. 🤞
Hey Mac, I think it’s important that you vent like that. Keep venting you got a long way to get back to normal. I am enjoying your commentary, so please keep it up
Bravo,TC!
I'll hold on to that thought
You’ll probably already be there.
I appreciate the legal work of State Democracy Defenders https://statedemocracydefenders.org/. If you view the website, you'll see updates for yourself. I get a substack called The Contrarian with Jen Rubin, a journalist who left WaPo, and she often does a video update with Norm Eisen, one of the lawyers who's working daily (with success).
The Contrarian is a great source of real information--and without the boyz-waving-their-penises-around blather of Meidas+ and The Bulwark. It is definitely worth buying a subscription.
Last night MSNBC showed several Republican House members validating complaints about Trump/Putin and Musk. Those are the folks we need.
When will The Contrarian cover it? Meidas? MSM?
https://jerryweiss.substack.com/p/democrats-unite-we-have-a-coup-to
You know, I could NOT put my finger on it (now I don’t want to) but you hit a penis on the head :) -> that’s what’s weird about MEIDAS I couldn’t figure out. Thanks.
Why don’t you quote somebody else? Who’s not left of Santa Claus?
Roberts created this monster. He has an obligation to rebuke him, if not STOP him.
Roberts caused this problem by enabling and emboldening the rapist felon - it's all on him and Moscow Mitch, they had the opportunity to stop this fascist take over but instead they supported it. History will not be kind to them.
You know, I’m passing your post onto Pam Bondi and see if she thinks the rapist part is true and if not, maybe I’ll spend a few days away from home
owed due process, absolutely! Meantime, Trump 2.0 runs roughshod breaking constitutional and congressional law with every move it makes. Remember, folks, this is NOT just Trump.
ILLEGAL ALIENS. Do you understand the term?
That was a photo op, the humiliation of the Venezuelans. Purely for MAGA entertainment, to show "Trump gets things done!!!". Also, he is queuing up outrage regarding 'drug dealers' so he can start a war with Panama. Testing the waters, so to speak.
If Trump can do that to Venezuelans who have no criminal record, and now it appears several green card holders were swept up, again with no criminal record, he can do it to anyone. This another reason to make it a performance. He wants you to know that. Again, testing the waters. If his administration is not held accountable for this and other violations of law, we're toast.
Yeah, tell that to the Venezuelans that landed in the El Salvador prison. Ask them if it’s just a photo op? In fact, you should go down there and visit them. Take some pictures and you can say it’s a photo op. Lmao
Hmmm. Seems like you willfully ignored my main point. I was pointing out how this is carefully crafted to scare ALL of us. How you can conclude I am downplaying what happened here is beyond me. The proof is the curious amount of effort put into getting those pictures, posing these men for the cameras so artfully and cynically. Means Trump is working awfully hard to make us feel like we need to capitulate to these injustices in advance. Means he is ultimately weak, throwing up a front. Are you just stirring the pot of anxiety and division here? Sure seems like it.
I’ve answered your main .6 times but I haven’t heard anything back and you know why there’s nothing that you can say now Trump is sealing all the holes, including the ones at the border in only two months when your newest heroin said, we don’t need anything but legislation oops and Trump said wrong. All you need is a new president and bingo
By the way, I can’t believe she’s actually running for office according to her the planet won’t be around by the time 2028 happens. Lmao
Unless you have forgotten her quotes
Who do you think is scared here? I’ll give you a quote from one of my independent voter friends Who’s been in independent for over 40 years? Voted for Clinton twice. Smart man. Most of what he did was good
My friend has a T-shirt that says I can’t hear your whining over my absolute sound of overwhelming freedom! The only people that are scared here are the people that are losing entitlements that they used to have with that didn’t deserve weren’t warranted.
Well, apparently you’re out of touch with World matters as well but Kelly, the president of El Salvador has taken control of the country crime is down like 80% there because of his presence and it’s been documented I believe even on 60 minutes if I’m not mistaken. He is treating the worst criminals like they should be treated. …. not with TVs and gyms, but with payback for their crimes.
Bukele is the second or third best hero in the world right now in control of crime. And that’s why Trump made a deal to send them there because that’s exactly what they deserve. They were actually sent here these Venezuelans by the government and now they’ve infiltrated this country by the naïveté, or even the desire of Biden even flying people like this year. I am certainly not dismissing your point. You’re just not aware of exactly how they treat people in El Salvador prison and that’s exactly what these people deserve and that’s exactly what these people got
Nobody with common sense, and the feeling of fairness is scared not one person. Will tell you if they keep burning Teslas there’s gonna be a lot of people thrown in prison for half their lives and that’s really sad especially when six months ago Elon musk was a god to the liberals 1.3 million Teslas in California the bastion of liberalism. Right now all the liberals have is hate and domestic violence. Not the best agendas. The Democrat party is leaderless, unless you want AOC and Crockett to be your leader who make Kamala Harris look like a superstar. They have no agenda but revolt
But the good news which hasn’t happened in a long time is that they’re relatively powerless except for these district judges they keep thinking they can stop the government from functioning.
Rick, but as far as I can see, nothing has changed. Trump's handlers will always just seem to find a way to do things ahead of a court order that tried to stop them. These guys have been working on this takeover of our democracy for decades and we all just believed it couldn't happen here. It is happening, but should not be able to. Where is law enforcement or are they in the Trump bag too, hoping to get to commit atrocities at will, with impunity? I hope that is not the case. Our military is being "reshaped" to fit Trumplandia's idea of dictatorship with Trump as dictator but since he is completely incompetent, even mocked by Putin, the guys like the Steves and Vought are running the show with their toddler drugged-up Musk a useful tool to do the damage they would not be willing to do in public. They can then dispose of Musk and Trump and put their younger puppet in place, Vance, who somehow became a lawyer, though it is not clear how, maybe a sympathy gift because he pretended to be a Hillbilly of Appalachia when he was really from near Cincinatti. It's EVIL! Maybe we need to get the word out that it is evil and decent human beings don't support evil.
Please see Feathers of Hope.
Somehow I think there needs to be a more public discussion of what EVIL looks like, what EVIL is. Was slavery evil? Were "Jim Crow" laws evil? Was the Holocaust evil? What makes it evil? Harm to others? For sure. I see it as abuse of power, abuse of advantage. Big kids bullying little kids? An abusive spouse? An abusive parent? A mugger with a weapon? An abusive ethnic majority (or minority)? An unaccountable Tyrant? A predatory military force? Systematic genocide and/or repression of a culture?
I think evil has to do with what you do with advantage. We all compete in one way or another, but that, ideally, can bring shared benefits; and in a just society, limitations on victimization; though we all know of examples where it hasn't and doesn't. And we all know of victims who have suffered from circumstances beyond anyone's control; and others where harm was clearly deliberate.
Our security rests on the civilized impulses of others. Just about anyone can sneak up behind someone and mortally wound with one swing of a rock. Sometimes the distinction between competition and serious exploitation is hazy; and often not. From a standpoint truth, or universal "unalienable" rights, the thrust of the Constitution, or from the "decency" that Joe McCarthy was widely seen to have lacked, is not the former "Party of Lincoln" now engulfed in multiple acts of EVIL? Demonstrably evil? And what happens to a society that proves indifferent to such?
J L, those are good questions. I almost feel like the Justice who said "I'll know it when I see it when he was talking about Porn. I think evil is like that. Yes to your questions about what is evil that involves doing harm to people just because, and creating the circumstances for doing that harm. What Musk/Trump/Vance are doing now to the American people is evil because there is no purpose beyond power and personal gain of some kind for the perpetrators. I would not call someone with serious mental illness or with an inability to discern good from bad evil, but this crew in power now knows what it is doing but has no clue of the possible or probable outcomes and simply does not care. Shipping migrants off to a horrific prison in El Salvador with no court involved is evil and having that prison at all is evil because its abuse of the prisoners is beyond appalling. Closing most of the local Social Security offices, then demanding that people applying for or changing addresses or whatever else Muskeroo comes up with, in person at local Social Security offices that don't exist is evil. Yes, the Holocaust was evil so are the many war crimes being committed in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, etc. A partner who abuses his spouse or girlfriend for his own pleasure is evil. That is just a few of my certain examples, but there is evil around whenever someone who is evil gains power. It is almost as though they are drawn in as with a magnet or nectar to bees. Trump and Musk are evil. I am not quite sure about Vance, but I am leaning that way.
Can you please tell me how a district judge can defy executive orders that have nothing to do with due proces and have you seen how many executive orders have been denied by district judges in the past. There are 1700 district judges. Can you imagine any progress if all the district judge had to do was file a inJunction against every single order, a president makes or even an order that Congress votes upon. You’re killing me. By the way, do you care where Obama was born or Clinton was born or Biden was born? As I said earlier, The Man wrote a book that’s on there on the bestseller list for almost 2 years. Why don’t you read the book and get with the program?
Ruth, you poor dear you love picking at straws instead of looking at the evidence before your eyes. The main Thing wrong with my comportment is that I cannot believe that there’s individuals United States that can be this hateful and this ignorant, and it angers me that America has come to this. There’s no reason to hate musk, or Tesla he’s doing a good job. And here’s the hypocrisy, California 1.2 million Teslas registered. Top selling vehicles in the state. I pointed out here to other people, and I’m not gonna repeat myself, but Trump has accomplished, and only 50 some odd days. By the way, I didn’t read his book although my wife did but it’s been on the best seller list for over two years.
In reality, nobody cares where he’s from. What We care about is the positive results that they achieve.
I have seldom seen anyone so absolve and thoroughly absorbed in hate and it’s very sad that You have to feel that way so I pity you for a great degree.
This whole episode seems to be another “video op”, designed to show the American people just how tough the administration is being on immigrants. Then the follow up stating that our leader had deemed them to be very, very bad people. Somewhere in the fog the media has lost sight of the blatant disregard for our due process rights and is simply focused on the conflict between the executive and judicial branches. Every American should be outraged at the assault on one of our most cherished rights.
The media could be a lot more attentive to extreme human suffering. They can be when it suits them.
Who is suffering, or is set up to suffer at the hands of the Trump regime? How do they suffer? And why? Who in fact gains, and who suffers, as results of the regime's agenda? Somehow the deaths of a million plus COVID victims and the grief shared imposed on their families did not seem to register as one might expect in the aggregated mind of our public, even though the experience of more attentive societies suggest that many of the lives that were lost were preventable; in this, nominally "richest country in the world". The horror of children pulled from the arms of ANY family; lost, often, forever. I think that the enormity of that suffering has yet to really dawn upon us. Neither that officials of the US government argued in court that incarcerated children should be denied blankets and basic toiletries.
Whose country are we talking about, and what kind of county are we talking about?
And now???
John, one major problem in your post. This is not about immigrants. This is about
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. you should try reading. Our most cherished rights do not belong to illegals they belong to Americans
Excuse me?
Are you kidding or gross?
Hard to tell from your comment.
Not true ...the Judge had full control of the US Law..just another LIE
Let’s see how you like it when 1700 judges decide against the next Democrat president and file an injunction for every single executive order that he makes
Yikes. Ignorance on this thread is incredible
You might feel differently if they don’t want of your daughters or granddaughters or better yet Forrest Lamento prostitution that would make you happy, huh
OK, Rick, your bott master is not doing a very good job. You should fire him!
And I’m gonna add delusional to your résumé. Bot master? Oh wow. Very sad. I hope you come out of this one day soon. Just think there’s to yourself I’m going to support Trump and see what results come and if they’re not good, I will tell you and if they’re good, I will support them. That’s exactly what I do. I think Trump is rushing through the tariffs much too fast encompassing too much at the same time but we will see time will tell the results.
You Russian troll cocksucker you
Keep it coming back. You got a long way to go to get back to normal. But venting helps, so bring it on
Rick, pathetic! What is wrong with you? Did you never have lessons on how to behave in public? Or are you the bott I am suspecting?
Do you read other peoples post here and I’m the one that doesn’t know how to behave in public that guy below here called me a Russian cocksucker. I’ve already posted trumps accomplishments for the first two months of his presidency and it’s only gonna get better so if you don’t like it, turn off the TV.
By the way, ever since I turned off the TV, there hasn’t been any climate change. It hasn’t affected us at all. Lmao
So does curb stomping..
Whatever floats your boat. Just keep venting at a lower your blood pressure. You’ll feel better at the end unfortunately for you, though the hate will remain.
Rick, are you real? I am serious. I have not experienced such ignorance, hatred, and willingness to insult others as you bring to this thread before. You should be ashamed, but alas, fearmongers, blamers, insulters clearly have no shame, no moral compass either.
So you were another one of those was on the wrong side of history at the wrong side of line order do you want to go to the door of Lakin Riley’s parents and apologize or dungarees parents and apologize when she was raped and murdered by choking buy one of these people. Seem to be the kind of person to use empathy so they should turn the flight around that house all these people in all the apartments or housing right next to yours
Oh Rick, you pick out 2 instances where undocumented immigrants committed crimes, but we don't do such harm to citizens who commit worse crimes. Drumming up fear for the sake of fear is evil!
Well, if I thought it was important enough, I’d send you some links, but you seem like an intelligent person, although incredibly biased and full of hate, so look up all the crimes committed by illegals in the last four years during Biden administration, there are thousands of criminal illegals that have committed these crimes. Including Lighting the train car on fire with the inhabitants inside sleeping.
When billionaires run the agencies and courts get ignored, its not ‘efficiency’—it’s privatized authoritarianism. USAID wasn’t just slashed; it was sold off to Musk like a corporate asset. This is exactly what my post "Government for Sale" warned about: public institutions becoming personal fiefdoms for the ultra-rich while democracy gets pushed out the door. https://forgottenfiles.substack.com/p/government-for-sale
Small quibble - let's refrain from using the term "authoritarianism". Trump doesn't want an authoritarian government. He wants to be king.
Second, most people don't have a clue what authoritarian means. So it has zero impact. I suggest using "dictatorship".
His Magasty the King, indeed.
As someone posted awhile ago…His Heinous….love that! Lately I’ve taken to referring to him as King Toot 👑
Unfortunately, like Mad King George, mad King DonOld can do no wrong and never lies.
The Republicans are getting ready to slam through right-wing judges with one qualification -- loyalty to his heinous. And with 53 votes in the Senate, they can't be stopped.
Gary, when I posted “King Toot” the first time, an old SNL skit w/ Steve Martin played in my head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYbavuReVF4&t=168s and the “Toot” part was based on the numerous, um, “whiff 🌬️” reportings from those in his close proximity. Don’t want to give him any ideas about aspiring to being a God-Emperor instead of just a “king”….he does like a lot of gold, tho’, both in his pocket and plastered on just about every surface. Tacky King Toot!
I just say Fascism.
.
let's just say words
let's think of some great insults, let's call them some really creative names ....... while they just get on with it.
Well they despised being called weird.
Nazis
I dunno.. if it walks like a duck , and all that..
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-democracy-report-1.7486317
Best president in American history deal with that and if you get on the side and watch what’s happening in the next 46 months, you’ll have no choice but to agree
Worst President in American history. I see you have sneaked back into the conversation again. It’s hard to say for certain that Trump is violating the Constitution. I don’t think he’s read it, and if he has, he doesn’t understand it. There’s a difference between how Trump is firing people and other
Presidents have “fired” people. There are rules about terminating Federal employees; these have been ignored. Musk has had several Oopsies and people critical to important functions have been fired with no idea of what they do or the potential repercussions/consequences of random firing. BTW, learn how to spell, punctuate, and complete sentences. Did you pass high school English?
Odd the moron showed up again when I have him blocked and didn’t see his previous posts. Time to block him again. Don’t give him oxygen.
kim you’re absolutely correct about Sumer did the best thing.. but you’re also correct that he could’ve negotiated something at least put it out there so he wouldn’t be on the run right now. There are many things he could’ve asked for as Minuscule as they might have been
But you are right.
I love when you guys pick on grammar punctuation, syntax certain structure and make a sentence with a preposition. What am I doing writing my thesis here? CONTENT OVER FORM EVERY TIME.
The firings were not random fines are based on statistical data, showing the waste fraud and abuse in these agencies that need to go. Let me point out again Obama and Clinton wanted to do the same and Obama laid off a half 1 million employees I didn’t hear you complaining back then like this
Rick is like a 2-year-old who needs attention. Maybe he is hungry or needs a diaper change, or he is just bored and needs attention. Since it would only encourage him further, please do not give in to his tantrums. Just ignore him.
I'm not even sure Rick is truly "MAGA"
He never has any argument that backs up his assertions - just opinions.
Here’s some assertions for you with m’lady. Egg prices are down and only 54 days. Gas prices are down $.50 a gallon. Inflation is down and mortgage rates are down. Can you close the southern border that was allowing 11,000 illegal immigrants including criminals in every single day and now it’s down to about 70.
He set a cease-fire for Israel and Hamas that started and Hamas then refusing to give up hostages . He gave a go for it to Israel to End Hamas and they will. He’s negotiating peace for Ukraine and Russia that has killed almost 1,000,000 people are the cities have been devastated. Would you rather be at war with Russia or be at peace with Russia? There’s back up for my assertions. If you were smart, you’d be supporting all these things, not fighting them.
What assertions I just made a bunch of assertions I have a back up Obama laid off a half 1 million people… Why don’t you Google Clinton Gora presentation with hundreds of thousands of pages of paperwork behind them laying off people and talking about shrinking government even Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi talked about shrinking government and how much the waste and abuse was but because someone else is doing it, you don’t like it.
If Rick S. even read some history, he just might understand.
He won't, because he's not interested. More than likely, he's a troll paid by Russia to spew his manure here.
Well, that’s right pick on the accuser not on the facts. Let me tell you again if Joe Biden had brought the astronauts back during the last moments of his term you people would be standing up and cheering
I would not be back here other than I got a email from from Heather‘s website. I don’t know how or why, but there it was I certainly don’t need the likes of you guys. ALL PURE HATERS. facts do not matter to you
"Alternative facts"...
You want some alternative facts here they are. It’s only 50 days egg prices are down gas prices are down $.50 inflation is down. Mortgage rates are down the border is closed 50 days. Oh I forgot hostages are returned especially the guy in Russia, and those held by Hamas.
46 months.
going to have some great epedemics, Rick.
Yeah, well Fauci should be in prison right now. That would end the first epidemic. And for all those people pick on my spelling, I guess Kris doesn’t count
So far, it’s been an epidemic of winning. Enjoy it.
Isn’t there a way to block folks?
Yes you can, but look very carefully: the ‘s’ is not capitalized- he has created a second account, thus evading the blocks.
or just ignore/scroll past any such input...
What blocks? Yeah that’s Cameron says just scroll past any facts that you don’t wanna hear
I haven’t created anything but nice try I got a random email the other day from Heather‘s website haven’t heard from her in months and all of a sudden there it was so here I am
Couldn't resist, couldn't you...
I actually find the juxtaposition of his comments attempting to justify and rationalize these events actually helps underscore how serious they are, plus I find him kind of entertaining, like a court jester providing some comic relief.
Thank you Lynn sorry to bring up the facts. Egg prices down gas prices down $.50 mortgage rates down. Inflation down border is closed working on peace with Russia and Ukraine. And going to annihilate Hamas
All I’m doing is justifying facts, especially those you can’t deal with
There’s already been almost $100 billion of waste of money found or maybe you haven’t paid attention
🙄 for an independent thinker, you’re awfully gullible
Yes. Tap on 3 vertical dots to right of message, then tap on "Report" , write reason, then send.
Well, you all scream freedom of speech example of something you don’t want to hear like facts
Yeah, I don’t wanna hear the truth.
No one is better than shutting off free-speech than you guys. How about it?
Well, Trump deports people for thinking differently, and Musk deletes stuff on X he doesn't like; the users here can't do that, Ricky: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markjoyella/2024/01/09/elon-musk-silencing-his-critics-as-journalists-are-suspended-by-x/
Well, gangsters and criminal gangs that were let out of prison and purposely sent here by Venezuelan government do you think differently?
They kill people they rape women they put teenagers into prostitution rings, they bring drugs across the border.
And by the way, dutch everything DOGE does is online every single thing every single finding of waste fraud, and abuse is transparent They have a website you can go see it
And trust me Musk doesn’t have time to delete things on X. That’s the least of his worries
🤔🤣
🙄
It is exactly what Naomi Klein described in her book The Shock Doctrine as well. It is what the GW Bush admin did when they sent Milton Friedman did when they sent him to Moscow in the early 90s. Friedman did not help Russia become democratic, but an oligarchy when he helped direct the fire sale of public property to both the Russians and Western business.
agreed
And thanks, Peter, for your brilliant piece reincarnating The Yellow Kid of Hogan's Alley as Elon Musk. That's an amazing bit of work you've done..!
https://forgottenfiles.substack.com/p/from-comic-strips-to-chaos
I guess you guys only listen to history that suits your point of view. Bill Clinton and Al Gore tried to eliminate the same positions 20 years ago 25 years ago and Obama fired a half 1 million federal employees. I didn’t hear you bitching about that did you
Ricks Substack, a sad dive bar. Don’t use the bathroom!
If you think you’re insulting me, you’re making a huge miss judgment.
It’s called being like a jury which you people hate because you don’t wanna hear the other side argument because it might change your opinion and God forbid that whatever happened
Honestly? Why don’t you just shut the fuck up, you Russian talking point, repeating, fool ?
Don’t feed the troll
Mike, you’re dealing with an illness you should go seek help in my opinion
The problem with most of you here is that you don’t wanna hear another side of the story I hope as I said earlier that you’re never in a quart room as a defendant, and the jury never hears your side of the story that’s your example of justice
Fuck off
🙄
Well, we both know that’s not gonna happen
🙄
Derek, you’re the only smart one here it appears. Good job, my man
🗿
Here's a riddle: How can you tell the difference between Susan Collins and John Roberts?
Two possible answers: 1)You can't, because there is no difference. They both make meaningless statements.
2)You can, because they use different language. Roberts "rebukes" and Collins expresses "concern."
Oopsie...answer 2 is actually the same as answer 1. Both people refuse to take responsibility for what they know are decisions they have made that let the liars and malefactors do as much damage to our country as they choose. A pox on both their houses! And shame on all those who pretend innocence when they support the evil that is going on under their noses.
Nailed both
Much of the "legality" and sence of impunity for the scumbag president's actions are "covered" by Robert's decisions to rule trump as king and above the law.
Yep. Totes, Betsy.
Good one.
Well stated.
Well done, Betsy!
Wow, a pox on old both their houses huh? One guy here said it right Sumer made the right move
Ricks Substack, a pox on his establishment. Worst servers ever.
The biggest test of our democracy since the Civil War is upon us. The courts and veterans are rallying against the Trump/Musk treachery. Those on Medicaid and Social Security are frightened. Genocide in Gaza has resumed, with American weapons. Trump was unable to get Putin to stand down in Ukraine. The Republican electeds shyly look away from the sadism of their leaders.
What is missing in this picture? Elected Democrats and Independents need to make a stand, make their voices heard, stand up defiantly against the False King. Show the courage of our forefathers!
Senators Sanders and King, both Independents, are the most articulate and loud voices speaking out today. , lo
AOC, Democrat, is a third.
Yes, I was remiss in not saying her name. She's in the House, which is proably why I didn't includee her but she is terrific.
Glad to see she's no longer dismissed. Even Nancy Pelosi seems to have come around.
They speak the same language . Only the passion in their voices are a little bit different .
T
AOC, Raskin, Schiff and Murphy too.
Better listen to Adam Schiff before anointing Sanders & King as most articulate.
I would add Chris Murphy.
King voted for cloture. Not, perhaps, as reliable as first thought.
I agree certainly that there are independents like Sanders and Democrats like A.O.C. who are speaking out heartfelt warnings. But in this Constitutional crisis, every elected Democrat needs to be out there, from every congressional, state, and county jurisdiction. From city councils, mayors, and police chiefs or cops and firefighters, all persons who have sworn that oath to uphold our Constitution and its principles need to speak out against our enemies, both foreign like Putin or domestic like Trump/Vance/Musk.
Making voices heard by working daily are State Democracy Defenders https://statedemocracydefenders.org/. The Contrarian is a Substack with Jen Rubin, a journalist who left WaPo, and she often does a video update with Norm Eisen, one of the lawyers.
I appreciate the serious, erudite discussions that I find here under Heather's Letters. But sometimes, it's refreshing to hear from a "trailer trash" individual who possesses a wide streak of wisdom. I subscribe to the YouTube channel of Trae Crowder, who calls himself "The Liberal Redneck." He just posted a commentary that resonates.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7QG9vuJ75g
Thanks for that great introduction. Trash Daddy is a hoot and right now we can all use one.
Nancy, if you haven't seen them, his "fancy" cooking demos are both hilarious and legit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNsoavy3QtI
In the Civil War, the enemy lived in an identifiable, well-contained region. The good guys knew where to find them. Now, they are embedded throughout the population, like a pestilence. Impossible to round them up.
In addition to refusing to follow the order of a judge (and then calling on him to be removed), Trump has crossed ANOTHER BRIGHT RED LINE: His co-president Musk led DOGE organization has used ARMED FORCE to throw out the leadership of the United State Institute of Peace. Rachel Maddow first reported on this Monday night. And the Associated Press reported on it on Tuesday. As Rachel noted, "We are now at a stage where disagreements are being settled with armed personnel instead of going to court." (words to that effect). Here are links to Rachel's report and the AP story...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlLv_EIL9OE
https://apnews.com/article/doge-trump-us-institute-of-peace-03362c3440884c6b29e28ad0d88f5014
I was appalled, Steve, to see this “break in” reported…reminded me of a home invasion by thugs. Not entirely unlike previous DOGE “takeovers” of other offices/depts, BUT this time the employees strenuously resisted & called the police. I could not believe that the “authorities” sided w/ DOGE and assisted in the removal of the employees…OMG was it THAT easy to take over the police/public safety depts and have them do the bidding of DOGE???? What next? The military? Who will stand for the rule of law? Watching the reporting, my mind wandered to wondering about offices “hardening” their spaces against intrusion, perhaps hiring security or arming themselves against being “taken over” w/o the required legal documents to do so—I did NOT like how that played out in my mind…at…all. Each day brings something that I never, in my 75 years, imagined I’d see happening in our country. There’s lots of room for improvement/growth in our country, but we’ve done a complete 180 deg turn to the times before our war of independence. I have my voice and my vote…I just hope it’s enough to count & to counter this backsliding into autocracy/theocracy/oligarchy/kakistocracy…or all of ‘em rolled into one. I miss the Biden/Harris admin when I wasn’t afraid…each day…to turn on the news. I knew they were all in for building us up, not tearing us down, and was interested in learning about what they were doing, not what was being destroyed. Sigh, miss them A LOT.
If "DOGE" was really interested in "efficiency" they would have provided Inspector Generals with additional staffing support, helped evaluate computer systems, made strong recommendations - like helping along the replacement of antique computer systems at the IRS - to make the agency MORE effective in its task of collection.
DOGE is just brown shirt Nazi scum. And if this statement by Musk didn't reveal the madness and stupidity of the unelected, unappointed Killer in Chief, I don't know what would.
Musk: "Hitler, Mao and Stalin didn't kill millions of people, their public sector workers did."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-yes-musk-repost-171100348.html
Musk, $Trump, Vance, Thiel and the rest of the PayPal Mafia are criminally insane.
Bravo, Bill, so succinctly and accurately stated!
Right? Where was the court order? Did they have a warrant? No. This is our biggest fear; law enforcement siding with the Nazis, and we're seeing it. The time for mass protests is NOW! They can't shoot us all, and once they start, well, it's 1860 all over.
I agree, like a home invasion. They took over a non-government building owned by a nonprofit agency…..! It is pretty easy to envision what is next.
This is the slippery slope so many of us have warned about for years… when morality goes out the window and all we are left with is people drunk on power. But my biggest concern is not so much with the attack from MAGA. It is the Lack of a strong response from those Democrats I would’ve thought had the backbone and creative thinking ability to see where all this is headed and respond appropriately. Here is a link to additional reporting in which a Democratic congressman is interviewed after he himself was forbidden from entering the US Institute of Peace. Notice how calm he is in his demeanor. This is not good. I will publish another essay in my “wiser way forward“ Substack soon to address this crisis in response. I’ve been delayed by some personal things I’ve had to deal with, but will publish it soon.
https://youtu.be/s-BpoC8wb_k?si=8424CmeaMdidqx5l
It has entered the UGLY zone now
I think Rachel had another term for it... or phrase. Something about settling our differences with weapons. Kind of sounds like what happened during the Civil War to me. SMH
Don’t shake your head support trump in America and 46 months you’ll see a new America. When that is winning and respected by the world
I block MAGA
Our taxes pay for law enforcement t o come after the people paying their salary. Government crushes public school incomes and gives vouches of tax dollars to wealthy people for their tuition paid by workers. The private school principal decides who goes to the segregated school. Tuition is set too high for middle class to attend.
This is the slippery slope so many of us have warned about for years… when morality goes out the window and all we are left with is people drunk on power. But my biggest concern is not so much with the attack from MAGA. It is the Lack of a strong response from those Democrats I would’ve thought had the backbone and creative thinking ability to see where all this is headed and respond appropriately.
Regarding the armed assault on the US Institute of Peace… Here is a link to additional reporting in which a Democratic congressman is interviewed after he himself was forbidden from entering the US Institute of Peace. Notice how calm he is in his demeanor. This is not good. I will publish another essay in my “wiser way forward“ Substack soon to address this crisis in response. I’ve been delayed by some personal things I’ve had to deal with, but will publish it soon.
https://youtu.be/s-BpoC8wb_k?si=8424CmeaMdidqx5l
The men we sent to El Salvador haunt me. A branch of the same tree of family separation. Our history of ‘re educating’ native children, the horrors of slavery, and our treatment of the Other..
We need to break this ugly karmic thread that runs through the foundation of our nation.
How we treat others, and racism, will forever prevent us from being great.
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."
--Lincoln
Totally agree, R/W, but we are not alone in the world treating fellow humans, let alone our fellow species, in cruel usury ways….we just don’t much hear about it. America, being the (now) big bully on the block sucks all the attention—at least the attention that is available to us (we, as a country can be pretty insular/myopic in our awareness). Seems to be a malign trait of Homo “Hubris”…we def need to evolve in a more positive direction!
Hubris is ugly. Even deadly.
Related to native children -- they have also removed the pages about the Code Talkers from the website. The freaking Code Talkers??? They are trying to rewrite history to maintain that the only meaningful contributions were by white men. No women, no indigenous people, no people of color, no one from the LGBTQ community, no disabled people. It's so childish and so mean that it would be laughable were it not so real and so disgusting and so dangerous.
Just how is the erasure of the heroic deeds of military service members who are not white, male, heterosexual and Christian going to make America great again? And by the way, exactly when did America slide into ungreatness to begin with? I never got the memo. And yes, I know that “ungreatness” is not actually a word, but it should be, because it apparently happened to the whole country, as t***p and MAGA keep claiming.
These assholes even wanted to remove the iconic Iwo Jima photo!! My hatred grows more each day!
I wonder what the current Marine Commandant thinks about that one?
I'm a former Jarhead, and if the Commandant feels like I do, the beaches at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. are about to be stormed!!
lauriemcf, I posted yesterday on my FB page (where I still engage with my MAGAt cohort of retired cops on a regular basis) the post that Jim Wright made regarding the Code Talkers with the question: "My Veteran friends, what do you think of this?" Crickets. The only Veteran who responded is a Black woman who only replied: "WRONG".
Will they remove the service history of all women veterans, like me, too? Each new assault on my life, my accomplishments and history, feels like an ice pick being driven into my soul. Apparently I was lucky they let me attend and even graduate from high school. Next they’ll redesign Old Glory, using shades of country club green and cream cycle orange, with golden accents. Have they no shame or decency?
I'm sure they'd love to erase all contributions of women. I am wondering what they are doing to the Blue Angels cadre; I understand they have a fair number of women pilots. I know they've gotten rid of references to the WASPs.
Sorry I didn't get around to responding yesterday, Ally. Elderly parents. But I will now, because this is one of the most honorable moments in American history, and the thought that ANYONE would try and minimalize it is, at best, criminal, and, at worse, traitorous. I would give just about anything to find the 'person' who first brought this up, and spend about 5 minutes alone with him/her in a small, closed room.
I'll guard the door for you. Then take a turn myself.
I understand the limits in responding. My surgical recovery has limited my participation here to a great degree, as has the increase in readership. Signing on to find over 500 replies has really limited my ability to engage.
I'll TRY and save something for you, Ally! I hope your recovery is coming along well. Thankfully, spring arrives tomorrow, so you should be able to get out and about a little more. Perhaps join in with some peaceful protesting somewhere near you would be a proper therapy!! And don't you just LOVE the 500 or so replies?! I can't keep up with all of them either, but I get a great feeling seeing so many are engaged.
That is disappointing, to say the least.
At the very least.
If you want to read about the prisons read this. It's horrifying.
https://open.substack.com/pub/chuckkeller/p/el-salvador-prison?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2o7uvb
As well as human nature. It could doom us all.
Can anyone remember when we didn't have to endure whining, lies, and shouting over such media as Truth Social and X. In those days, such behavior was confined to junior high school playgrounds.
I remember, but young people likely don’t
Of course. It wasn't very long ago. And we all know when it started. It was so ridiculous that we used to enjoy jokes about it.
I have never had a Twitter account (I refuse to stroke Musk's ego and call it what he wants)
so this befuddles me: why do people keep using it? Are there truly no good alternates? The people are forcing Tesla to take a dive--why aren't the WE who have an account not dumping it?
Seriously. Anyone who has an account, can you give me a valid reason why you can't drop it?
I had one when I wrote a cooking blog and used it to promote my posts. Then when 45 closed the government and I saw families suffering because they had no income I started using my personal profile to keep up. Thankfully I found some great people there like Heather and Joyce. I also connected with many creators and artists and supported their endeavors. I left Facebook years ago. I left Twitter after the election.
Good for you, Sharon!
their existence is a noted failure of our system. I believe in responsible free speech, responsible journalism, responsible gun ownership, but the conservative/libertarians have abandoned the responsibility ideas in favor of chaos to undermine belief in the democratic process.
Yeah, you didn’t mind ask when it was owned and run By the left wing of the Democrat party. It was fine then, but now that it’s balanced all of your chickens have gone to blue sky
Wow, so Putin pays you so well you could make a second account! Congrats, Kameradski!
Get yourself a mirror and you’ll identify what insanity looks like.
I didn’t make any account. Poor guys will have Putin DS.
Collapsing is satisfying.
Ds have known since Nov 5 that Pi Day, 3/14, was coming and fumbled the ball. I still maintain that the main cause of the failure was Chuck Schumer. Nancy Pelosi did a great job and knew when it was time to pass the baton. Chuck Schumer needs to pass the baton.
When you have an organization that must fight an organized MAGA, Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, Project 2025, White Nationalist, Apartheid fueled enemy, you must do it with strategic and tactical planning and plans. It is now obvious that that planning either never happened or was so flawed that we failed to respond effectively to the threat. It appears to me that Ds are hoping for the rule of law to prevail and for a strong showing in the VA governor’s race this year and the midterms next year. I fear that by then we will be too late.
The deportation of Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador took place right after Schumer caved. I do not think that was a coincidence. The attacks on law firms are continuing. I fully expect Judge Boasberg’s security clearance to be pulled. We are at war with no plan and crappy leadership. Wait, looks like Schumer’s plan is to wait for Trump’s approval rating to go below 40%: https://youtu.be/W8OFrDQkfjM?si=JeN7INBFzUv8zaGP&t=435
I am Union. I am not an attorney, but I have worked with two of the best labor-side only law firms in DC. This battle is going to take a nationwide strike with picketing and stoic determination. For that to be successful you need people. Every federal employee who has been fired; every nonessential employee, every essential federal employee who is not getting paid becomes a key player in the nationwide job action. Trump’s longest ever government shutdown ended in January 2019 after 35 days. One of the reasons it ended was due to Air Traffic Controllers in the northeast being fed up with being forced to work with no pay.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/25/trump-shutdown-announcement-1125529
Joyce Vance did a Civil Discourse post back on 3 July 2024 titled: "Bloodless if the left allows it to be". That quote keeps echoing in my head. We *are* at war! "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Roberts told Brat on Steve Bannon's War Room. https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/bloodless-if-the-left-allows-it-to?r=5k7fz&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
The next crisis will be the debt ceiling. Will the Ds BOHICA again? After that is the end of the fiscal year on 30 September. Will the Ds BOHICA again? With Schumer as Senate Minority Leader, I fear the answer is YES!
Jason, I'm sorry but I have to call "bs" on at least some of your arguments. Pelosi is 84 years old, while Schumer is 10 years younger. Pelosi led the Dems In the House for almost 20 years, Schumer has only led the Senate for about 6. To suggest that Schumer is ready to be sent home for being past his "Best By" date is nonsense.
Using Pelosi as a comparison, he should be able to lead the Senate Dems for another 5-10 years (we could also do the same comparison between Schumer and McConnell with the same results but dealing with McConnell would make me ill so I won't).
Pelosi did many things that pissed off left wing Dems but we never tried to oust her. Schumer deserves at least the same respect. Personally I didn't like what he did but he is the leader of the Senate and I respect that he felt this was the best option.
We are all entitled to our opinion but please don't use your opinion as a justification to argue for the poster of someone who is doing the job we asked him to do. The best leaders need to be able to go against the crowd when they decide in their best judgement that the crowd may be wrong.
In the end I think I now agree with Schumer that closing down the government would be worse than an unsatisfactory but at least still running government. We can survive this. I am not sure we would survive a government shut down.
The one argument (aside from, you know, not punishing civil servants who have nothing to do with this shit show and don't deserve the financial pain of a shutdown) that I'm holding onto in order to tell myself that keeping the government open was the better choice is that keeping it open forces President Musk and his sidekick Trump to *actively* dismantle the government out in the open where everyone will continue to see what is happening, rather than being able to do so behind a curtain because Democrats shut it down for him.
For me, Justin, one “tell” was that Mump WANTED the shutdown to happen so they could make more blatant (as it that were possible!) changes to and control over the gov’t, far exceeding normal “executive” powers. IMHO Schumer was walking the razor’s edge and I imagine it was a very very very hard choice…he knew he’d be roasted, but kept moving forward. Time will tell, eventually, if it was a better strategy in a no-win situation. 🤞
I've been wanting to dump Schumer for 6 years. He's a conservative Corporate Dem. He has always tried to sell the stupid approach of "working with" the Republicans.
And I've been wanting to dump Pelosi for even more years. She's still screwing things up. Like blocking AOC from a key committee leadership.
With McConnell in the Senate there was never any chance of working with Republicans.
Yes. Politics in this country (and maybe the world) are not what they used to be. We have moved on and Schumer is being left behind. Nevertheless, Dems probably should remain as united as possible, under the big tent we share. I thought Pelosi recently endorsed AOC. WE are in a new world and I understand folks are a little nervous about looking around and finding a new way forward. We do, still, have a voice, even if VOA has been shuttered.
Politics actually are exactly what they used to be. It's just that a lot of people are frustrated and want change but they have no idea how to get reasonable change and want magic bullets.
Politics is a job requiring the ability to compromise and navigate carefully. It is why I believe despite the horrible consequences of 2024 that we will survive and ultimately the MAGA crowd will disappear. But it won't happen overnight and it DEFINITELY won't happen if the Democrats give way too pressure for radical change. I was around in 1968 and I saw what happened then. It didn't go well for us (the radicals).
She should be blocking AOC. She is only in her third term! She is both radical and has minimal experience! That is NOT the recipe for a committee leader ESPECIALLY in a time like this.
I am a highly radical leftist but I also understand that Congress represents the whole country not just me. And believe me AOC does not represent the whole country!
I was astonished that anyone even suggested her for a leadership position.
Someone said she should try to primary Schumer in 2026. If she tries she will lose both the Senate seat and her seat in Congress because while she can easily win her district which is a very gentrifed district in Brooklyn, there is virtually no way she can win in New York state which is mostly a centrist Democratic state.
I wish people who expounded on stuff like this had even a scintilla of understanding about how politics actually works.
Arrogant much? LOL
You are most definitely NOT a radical leftist. Your position is that AOC should wait her turn??? And you’re mistaken when you claim AOC should represent all of the country. She only has to represent her district.
The Democrats desperately need new energetic leadership that will realize we are at war with an enemy within.
Could she win the NY Senate seat? Right now I think she has a better chance than Schumer.
I guess I did SOMETHING right lol. I've got you telling me in not radical at all and Sharon telling me I'm a highly radical attacker.
If i can draw fire from both sides, I guess I am really in the middle :-).
I'd better enjoy this while I can!
This is a reasonable discussion, Jon. I think that Schumer may have made the right decision. I also noticed that Sen Schatz (a solid "progressive) voted to approve the CR as well. Preventing "easy firing" of thousands more employees makes sense.
But what is absent in the leadership of both Houses of Congress is what millions of us are yearning for. And that is "Fire in the belly". Jeffries is also an excellent political strategist. But his speaking skills are awful. Stilted, halting and dull. Schumer sounds like a boring professor.
This is where we are. A country that is yearning for powerful emotional leadership. We are still tribal. We like to think of ourselves as logical and reasoning and highly developed humans who can work together to solve problems. Sometimes in the past and maybe in the future - maybe this can happen.
But right now we are at WAR. There are plenty of angry Americans - let's think about the Independents who are the largest voting block, whose friends and family are being hurt by the INSANITY of this administration and channel their ANGER with some heroic leadership. This should be about LOUD PUSH BACK.
Average Americans are looking for more activity like that of Bernie Sanders and AOC. Funny how their "extremism" sounds pretty logical, fair and SPOT ON right now.
If Schumer and Jeffries and all the old farts still in leadership want to make a difference they should be inspired by John Lewis. Find a bridge to cross. LEAD the PEOPLE. Make some seriously GOOD TROUBLE.
We want MORE Social Security - not less!
We want MORE healthcare - not less!
We want MORE taxes collected from the wealthy to pay for critical services - not less!
We want MORE loyalty to our allies - not less!
We want MORE freedom of expression - not less!
And some of you will disagree with this, but I'm putting it out there anyway:
We want MORE workers in this country that is reproducing at the rate of only 1.6 kids per couple - bring them in legally and they will do work not getting done and PAY TAXES!
We want MORE efforts at stopping the flow of fentanyl - which is almost always being imported by AMERICANS using legal ports of entry! The amount of fentanyl from Canada last year was point two percent.
And Canada? Same GDP as Russia. Canadians are nice. The sell us lumber and aluminum and electricity. They followed us into war, even the stupid ones.
Russians? I know some very nice Russian people who live here. But Putin's Russians murder people and invade other countries.
OK, I'm done. For now. Need more coffee. Fingers hurt.
SLAVA UKRAINI!
Hope you got a nice cuppa your favorite roast. I'm on cup number two of my local place's "Tango Blend" (Italian and French, dark roast).
Yes, when Schumer finally found some fire his words were wrong and he was accused of threatening violence. It’s a tricky thing to say the right words without creating a way to be attacked.
And you think AOC can do that? LOL! It always pains me here because I SO WANT what everybody else wants in my left brain but my right brain knows that it will only cause more pain. Trump was ACHING to be challenged in Congress because that is the kind of fight he lives for. He would have chewed up the Drms and spit them out. Schumer and Schatz understood that and did the right thing even if it feels wrong.
The old saying "sometimes it's best to run away and live to fight another day" was not made in jest. It understood that battles can be lost that you can never recover from. Right now we are in the middle of several and we need to be very careful.
Where did I say AOC? You are a highly radical attackers out to criticize others without actually reading and thinking about what they said.
You give Trump too much credit for what he is capable of just like everyone else that is terrified of him.
These arguments are good and necessary to have! The thing I keep coming back to is how have we arrived at this place - a political Pearl Harbor so to speak? Admiral Kimmel and General Short were scapegoated and 40 years later exonerated. We still do that. And, no. it is not right , but is so. It did take a change of leadership in the person of Admiral Nimitz to take the helm and set it on a sound strategic course. We can do that.
Good point but Nimitz was no radical or beginner-dilettante like AOC. He was a skilled experienced General who knew the ropes.
AOC is barely out of diapers in Congress. She has a brilliant future ahead of her if she can figure out how to get there.
But she is NOT there yet.
Fair point, that.
In my view Schumer needs to go because he is not in the fight -- he cannot rally people. He is boring and a terrible messenger - perhaps he has behind the scenes skills - but we need more than that now -- we need someone who can really encourage resistance and call out the GOP every day for standing by while Trump and Musk dismantle all that is good.
Well I respectfully disagree. Someone who can navigate t the behind the scenes stuff is more vital than ever. THAT is where decisions are made, not in the newspapers which if you believe what people here say aren't even important anymore.
Having a great party leader who can do good PR would be helpful. But it's not the leaders of Congress who are in those positions (and rarely are). Congressional leaders need to know how to navigate the back rooms skilfully.
Schumer definitely has that skill. There are others (Raskin is one, would love to hear from Cory Booker but he seems to have disappeared, Adam Schiff is another but he is just a first year senator).
Agree.
It is important that Dems remain united, as per the House. Dividing into "for and against" Schumer groups will not allow us to be strong enough to fight the anti-democracy regime currently in charge of our country.
I totally agree which is why I urge everyone even if you disagree with Schumer to support him. Switching horses midstream is typically a poor strategy. Sometimes it is necessary as we saw during the 2024 campaign when it became apparent that Biden was no longer able to win that campaign but as we also saw switching horses usually doesn't help all that much.
In that case, I think we did the best we could do. Switching here is IMHO a losing strategy for sure as Schumer is clearly competent even if you disagree with him.
Definitely Jon, shutting down the government would have been worse than the alternative accepted by Schumer and Co. I'm still wondering if they could have done anything to avoid being put into such a narrow corner.🤔
BOHICA? A new acronym to me.
Oh, hah! Old military thing.
Bend
Over
Here
It
Comes
Again
thank you! that's great. Pronunciation?
bo - HE -ca
I had to look it up, Kim.
Ironically, this is military slang that originated in the Vietnam War. I had to look it up too. I knew all the acronyms listed but this one. Part of the irony is that I'm a Vietnam era veteran-got my commission in graduate school in 1968. I was always a Clinical Psychologist in the military, so never saw any action-just the results.
Kim, my wife is a Clinical Psychologist; her Dad was USAF and a Vietnam veteran (Cambodia 1971 USAF detailed 5th SFG.)
When you lose the support of those you are leading it’s time to step away. Schumer is only hurting the Party by staying. Let’s get some fresh blood in there so they can move forward instead of staying stuck in the past.
Chuck Schumer made the right move, but you want to study the details do you?
If Chuck Schumer would’ve left the idiots close down the government, Trump would’ve had a free hand to do everything he wanted to do and nobody could stop him
And there were 50 or 60 video tapes of Pelosi, Schumer, and all the leaders of the Democrat party saying we should never ever ever ever shut down the government
But you won’t look at those will you?
I looked at them and have to agree that it was the lesser of 2 bad choices. I, too, think that shutting down the government would have benefitted the Republicans. My complaint, and I don't know the background details, is that Schumer should have demanded some concessions. That may not have worked either.
Kim, I replied to you and I hope you got my reply. I think you’re absolutely right. Schumer should’ve asked for something he did a bad job of negotiating without a doubt. And his party on his subordinates should’ve told him that. You probably don’t know this, but on the other side of the coin, if they had shut it down, they were calling it the Schumer shut down. Then you’d have hundreds of thousands of federal employees unemployed until it was over. He made the best choice out of two bad choices
Good Evening to All!
Friends, the last time Trump was in office, he ended his term by fomenting an insurrection. Fortunately, the Gang that couldn't coup straight were wholly unsuccessful. Yet upon the gob smacking election of this felonious, Seditionist, sociopathic, racist, sexist, deranged moron by millions of our fellow Americans to serve his Grover Cleveland-esque second term, we are now all thrust into a devastatingly destructive dystopia.
This time, the coup against our Republic is taking place on the daily, and right before our very eyes. Consider this: If I were to tell you a mere six months ago that any American President, any holder of the very office that was created by the Founders to execute the laws passed by Congress, would instead send hundreds of human being via extraordinary rendition to a foreign country run by a ruthless and despicable gangster who brags about the sadistic charnel house conditions in his inhumane prisons, all while spitting in the face of a federal judge who specifically ordered such renditions not to happen......you probably would have thought I was a candidate for the funny farm, or at least to be consigned forever to the corner of the bar, muttering Captain Queeg-esque about strawberries, and grousing about canine eating Haitians.
Yet, the blatantly unconstitutional rendering in violation of specific court orders and authority has happened.
We should not be distracted by Deranged Don's increasingly wacked out "Truth" Social posts, like the one wherein he defamed a well respected Judge as Heather cites. While it is certainly noteworthy that no other President in our history would ever compare a federal judge to an elected President by asking if he received whatever number of "votes", and that this type of rubber room ranting as his post reflects is getting worse and worse, we must focus on the raw, ruthless and disgusting abuse of power by the Executive branch. We must fight this with everything we have, as if our lives and liberties depend upon it, for they most assuredly do
👍
Agreed, Daniel, but I would point out that the rounding up of hundreds of Iraqis in Bush II's (aka Shrub, named by the fabulous late Molly Ivins) illegal invasion of Iraq where they languished/continue to languish under horrific conditions in Qatar and the military base we continue to hold (illegally) in Cuba, was also an "extraordinary rendition" and Americans did basically NOTHING. Except the ACLU, which has worked tirelessly to try to get that whole thing sorted out and people sent home after more than TWENTY YEARS of incarceration without trial. Wanna talk about due process????
"The gang that couldn't coup straight". Thanks for the one moment of levity Daniel.
I have to confess that from the minute he took off for the last time (we thought) on Marine One every pundit, talking head lawyer on TV (many of whom I admire and deeply respect) and through his trials here in NYC going over the minutia of the mistakes of his failed coup, and how we dodged a bullet...every ex-cabinet member, head of CIA, FBI, military, etc. and " If I was his lawyer I would have done this or that" and I would sit shaking my head saying to myself "why are you saying this every day? Don't you think THEY are watching and listening too? Stop giving him this free ammunition to use". I believe in transparency but I also believe in not laying out all the cards because even if Trump was not going to run again the next one would be smarter We and they did not need to know this. I never thought it was smart. I'm old school.
In the meanwhile he was plotting his next coup for 4 years at Mar-a-Lago with everyone going to kiss the ring and Viktor Orban who he never shut up about (My great friend. Powerful man) was going there too? Didn't that set off any alarm to anyone in this gov't that a dictator of Hungary was going to see an ex-President of the US? Did they think he was going for the free food and a round of golf? He was giving him the authoritarian playbook.
I am not a historian and I confess 10 years ago shortly before Trump I.0 I used to call the " Tea Party" the "Tea Baggers", not as a joke, but because I was politically clueless and had no idea who they were or what they stood for until a friend of mine one night corrected me. I wasn't really engaged. I'm in NY. I casually.had the news on in the background on election night expecting Hillary to be a shoe-in and watched in horror as he won. Then came 4 years and covid, we voted him out and next up we would have Joe and be done with him 4ever. Then Jan 6th. Two years ago I found Heather and read every newsletter (I have saved each one) where she so brilliantly compared what was going on with the history of what came before and she brought all the receipts. I always say she was my professor who I didn't have to write a paper for. But I learned a lot. And now we have "crossed the rubicon". We are in unchartered territory with nothing to compare.
So, no, I could not ever imagine how after every single one of us watched the insurrection in horror on TV,, this maniac could ever be re-elected. For two years (and to this day) I believed 💯 Jack Smith would have gotten him as I watched him get away with murder. For 10 years we have never stopped hearing his repulsive voice, never stopped hearing about him every single day on TV and MSM. I have Trumper family who I love and can't give up who gleefully voted for him. I can never forgive them. I cried when Joe dropped out. I had such hope for Kamala, but I knew in my heart, with the war in Ukraine, the war in Israel, and the 2nd I knew Elon Musk was out there it was OVER and he was going to win. And for the first time in his life, I knew everything he was saying no matter how crazy, was the truth. I knew when SCOTUS gave him immunity and made him a king it would come true. Dictator from day one. But I don't think any of us could have imagined he would blow up our country and the world world in 5 days and then every day since has been one horror after another. I am not surprised at his cruelty. I was surprised how breathtaking quick everything happened. I thought we would have time. I admire the judges and every lawyer out there trying to thwart him. I think we are up against much more than we imagined. Our lives do depend on it, but I am sorry I can't be hopeful. The only thing I see is a revolution or a civil war. I don't see it at the ballot box. I don't think the center can hold against this assault of dark money and dangerous Silicon Valley tech Bros like Musk, Thiel and Vance who terrifies me. I hope I'm wrong. Everyday I look for signs like karma planes and.buses and ketamine od's and Big Macs working their magic. He has no intention of leaving.
How has the U.S. system of checks and balances so slid to near-death?
Easiest, it took the MAGA Congress to abdicate its constitutional role – to roll over and tell His Majesty Waddling Pig Face to do all he likes.
Before that, it took the MAGA Clarence court to tell His Majesty Orange Felon he’s immune to the Constitution, above all law.
It took a U.S. election also to tell His Majesty Putin’s Fat Ally that, yes, he can side with the dictators, betray our former fellow democracies.
But it took American schools to give up teaching any regard for fellow others of any kind – defer instead to testing’s logic, where some come out on top, get the most points (or, same thing, pile up the most money).
This logic allows one, or a fascist few, total contempt of such quaintness as checks and balances.
But first the schools – for testing – must spurn all the now-dead ways for regarding others.
Agree, agree, agree.
You people are really sick. you have Russia on the brain?
Maybe you haven’t seen the last polling we are 21% of the people think you’re heading in the right direction or approve of your Democrat party. Why 80% if you’re backing the illogical decision just because of your HATE of Trump.
In fact yesterday there was a pole that said 65% of Democrats would vote against what’s good for America if Trump supported it. No surprise TDS is now officially a mental disease
That is a-poleling
It's also completely untrue.
It’s a CNN poll. Oooooops
Would you stop with the spelling Craig get a life? Content over form every time. How do you suppose you would criticize the constitution if there was a misspelled word in there?
Ricks Substack, a bar and grill that is a-pole-ing.
That’s all you guys got. Spelling. Wow. Let me say it again the Democrat party which includes everybody here just about is it at 29% approval rating the lowest in history. Even with an issue with the American public, who is 80% of the against women and in men sports, you people support it, and then wonder why you keep losing
REASONS elevate to Hate
The only thing that Democrats represent right now is exactly that John…
hate. They have no other agenda. They have no leaders they have no policies they have nothing right now they are disassembled.
All they can do now is protest and burn up Tesla dealerships when three years ago you were thanking God for Elon, that was making electric cars and saving the planet and now people like Mark Kelly don’t give a shit about the planet
When reading these summaries I'm dumbfounded (today in particular) by the breadth and depth of the betrayals of American democratic ideals that this so-called presidency perpetrates ON A DAILY BASIS.
HCR often uses historical illustrations as comparators--which would, ordinarily, serve to de-escalate alarmist thinking. Just the opposite happens, though, when the entirety of American history becomes the backdrop against which these perfidies are unfolding ON A DAILY BASIS.
I'm left vastly more alarmed--frantic, even--while wondering mostly about when and what the next step beyond "Constitutional crisis" will be.
And just what are those democratic ideals that you speak of? Right now there are none your party is heading in the wrong direction and you keep persisting, which is hysterical. You keep this up and Republicans will be in power for the next 12 years you have no leadership you have no organization and you’re on the wrong side of the issues.
Tap the three dots to the right of Rocs and select Collapse
And "Report" him while you are at it.
I have him blocked but still see him. I just reported this to Substack.
There is no bottom to this sewer.
Yesterday I read that at a very personal cost for the scumbag president and Elon Musk, it would be huge cuts at the federal agency in charge of mental health and addiction . To those always criticizing the regime that's selfishness!!!!.
Lesson learned.
Yes, the very people complaining about illegal fentanyl being consumed by illegal drug users are themselves addicts and illegal users and don’t want to help the very people they’re complaining about dying from illegal drug use.
The hypocrisy is astounding.
Bottom is 4 years minus 7 weeks away.
We won't survive 100. Yesterday, Marco Rubio made fun of the decent judge ordering the stopping and return of the unlawful flights transporting immigrants to be jailed in El Salvador and Putin made fun of the scumbag president by making him wait on purpose to start a negotiaton on Ukraine and laughed about it. What could be wrong with that picture?
This RFK.Jr. is dangerous. Isn't this what Trump 1.0 wanted to do with Covid? Just.let it rip? Next.pandemic will be avian.flu bit of course no research. how.many animals and.people will die? How's he doing with the measles and cod liver oil treatment? Our country (and the world) has been destroyed in 60 days.
"I'll have the Russian Ukraine war stopped in one.day". Then he told a reporter the other.day he was.being sarcastic. " The Israeli.war.never would have happened if I was President". Well, now you are and it's not ending. You blithering idiot and bag of hot air. You think you are respected? No one can stand you. No one respects you. They laugh at you, and when are you going to stop blaming Biden for everything that is happening on your watch? They need to bring back the guillotine.
I hope that The Lincoln Project makes an ad about the anecdote that Prof. Richardson shared: “But Putin seems less eager to reach a solution [regarding Ukraine] than to demonstrate his dominance over Trump. Today, when the phone call was scheduled, Putin was on stage at an event. When his interviewer asked if he needed to go because he would be late for the call, Putin dismissed the question and laughter broke out.”
Then I hope they run that ad repeatedly on Fox.
I saw it. They all laughed merrily.
Can you post a link to it?
There are lots. This one has subtitles.
https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/putin-trump-phone-call-ukraine-russia-us-ceasefire-joke-b2717483.html
This one was my fave Lincoln Project one so far. From 2 weeks ago. Him and his "Vladdy Daddy". They really are brilliant.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UbFjoTymFLk
I kept scrolling and scrolling, hoping to find a comment about H5N1, but that seemed to be lost in other conversation. Granted, we are distracted by the Trump regime's lawlessness, but another pandemic following closely on the heels of the previous one would not only bring the nation to its knees, but likely bring about a total collapse.
"Chickens and turkeys don’t have the genes to resist the virus, and every infection is a chance for the virus to mutate into a more virulent form, one of which could mutate so it could spread among humans. If H5N1 were permitted to infect 5 million birds, “that’s literally five million chances for that virus to replicate or to mutate,” Hansen told Mandavilli."
RFKJR is an idiot who should be a patient confined at a mental health facility, not in charge of the entire nation's health system.
Yes, it's terrifying and I agree 💯. I read it has spread to cats on dairy farms. And I think recently to a veterinarian also (there must be more). We excelled at science and medicine and research and we are a global society and all it takes is one plane ride. Did you ever see the Steven Soderbergh film "Contagion"? It is so brilliant but it " sets the table" showing how a virus can be transmitted starting with the devastation of destroying ecosystems by tearing down forests to build and then a bat (even before covid) dropping eaten by a pig.then killed for food and so on.I won't give it away except of course the heroes were the scientists and the CDC. It was so prescient.😭 I watched it while I was cowering in my apt during covid. And there will be more. Climate change has melted ice where organisms were frozen for what we thought was eternity. All of this human knowledge and greatness for what? That will end the world before the nukes.
And you know what's crazy? I had french toast over the weekend and even though I asked for it well done, one slice was soggy inside and I was gagging and couldn't eat it because all I kept think of was the avian flu. I wrote to my doctor yesterday asking him to check my vaccines. I know I had about 5 of them all at once when I went to Croatia 10 years ago especially for measles-mumps-diptheria-hepatitis and a tetanus booster. I told him to give me everything again if he thinks I need it before they are gone. This is INSANITY! I had a polio booster I think in 2021 when they found some in the waste water in an area not far from NYC where I am. I would have taken monkeypox if they had it too but they were only giving it to gay men. When I was young before vaccines I had measles, german measles and chickenpox. I wish they had the chickenpox vaccine then because never leaves your body so you can get shingles. I had the 2 shot Shingrex vaccine and it's a killer.(and not covered by insurance and I didn't care. Who wants shingles? It's excruciating! I would take 10) Polio in NY in the 21st century. Now they will cut the funding to monitor the waste water which is also how they were able to check for covid outbreaks. Gone.
How could a doctor, a proponent of vaccines like Dr. Cassidy vote for RFK Jr. Because he's afraid of being primaried? Or screamed at by Trump? How's the cod liver oil working out. Measles has now been found in New York. Suffolk County.
Thank you for mentioning RFK, Jr.'s horrifying suggestion to just let H5N1 'rip'. Sure sounds to me like he has no idea how dangerous this disease would be if it became epidemic in humans.... or maybe he just doesn't care. Numerous members of the MAGA Gang seem to be in favor of 'decreasing the surplus population', namely everyone except themselves.
And the irony is he was so desperate to run for President and when he knew he wouldn't get the votes he contacted Kamala first but she wanted nothing to do with him, so of course Trump took him to have a Kennedy (the most insane one. Luckily his mother died before she saw this). Did you ever see the video that was taped at a restaurant in NY a few years where he was pontificating about covid and that it was bio-engineered not to affect Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews and the Chinese? Of course he's an anti-semite and racist with a heroin addled brain. I am an Ashkenazi Jew and every single one of my family, all of us who live apart (even in different states at the time) my Jewish doctor (3 times) and every Jewish person I know has had it. And the Chinese? Where the fuck did he think it came from in the first place? These crackpots will destroy us all...and yes, I think that is the point. And Trump..."I told Bobby to go wild". This all could have been avoided if Trump had.died from the first and worst covid wave infection like his buddy Herman Cain. And they want to kill Anthony Fauci who should be canonized. We are living in terrible times. I'm waiting for the black plague next.
Yes, and I remarked that here we are 5 years later still dealing with iterations of Covid.
This deport to third country thing makes no legal sense to me' the legality of the deportation aside.
I don't know about legal sense, but I'm guessing that it's much cheaper to pay off another corrupt government than it is for us to house detainees. When detainees are housed in this country, friends and relatives and attorneys have access to them and can raise questions about due process and demand answers. When they're imprisoned thousands of miles away, I imagine that they are not treated humanely, and I can't imagine that there is any recourse.
That's why he is doing it, but it is hard to believe it is not illegal on a number of counts.
Can you say 'due process'? We have a government that has openly flouted the law. And defiled the Constitution.
JL, wish someone would read the flight plan incorrectly and deliver them all to Mara Lago…. I heard Mump likes sweets, so this would be “just desserts”!.
An "official" act perhaps?
https://open.substack.com/pub/chuckkeller/p/el-salvador-prison?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2o7uvb
J L, doesn’t have to make sense because cruelty is the point.
That it makes no legal sense needs to be hammered on.
That this (and much that the "Christian Right" favors) is shockingly cruel must be hammered on.
Concessions to plutocracy have created something uncommonly ugly, uncommonly cruel. It seems to me that cruelty boils down to a sociopathic assertion of domineering power. It seems to me that the baseline function of civilization is about limiting, disciplining and reconciling the uses of personal and aggregate power. When that power is exclusive, unaccountable, and viciously cruel, how does that differ from "evil"? If that is not evil, what is?
And why do so many, in so many lands, in so many eras, put up with, even glory in it? We have fought this monster so often before, and it has yet to die. Can't we at least get a better picture of the problem?
As insulting as some may take this, we've made way too many concessions to the RW evangelicals too. They should have been pulled up short a long time ago. Politicians have treated religion like a third rail and that has to stop.
Some of the greatest horrors of history; extreme torture, genocide, slavery, prejudice, and soul-crushing totalitarianism, has been accompanied by religious justification; what what kind of religion? Desmond Tutu was instrumental in the peaceful transition to majority rule in South Africa where, despite the shortcomings of a true democracy there, a bloodbath had been widely predicted. Martin Luther King advanced recognition and some substantive remediation of racial injustice by peaceful means. I don't want to be too long winded here, but a lot of beneficial things have been done by people who frame their values in religious terms, which is why I don't just reject all religion as a self-important, malignant cult; which is many cases it has proved to be. It seems to me that there is a world of difference between "religion" that is radically inclusive and radically exclusive; that calls forward compassion or hatred. Those who are happy to torture; is that somehow good, or is that evil? What, given what is left of a record of him, did Jesus (and other revered religious teachers) actually teach? Nothing like what MAGA is doing.
That said, I keep waiting for a far more audible, far more concerted voice from "love" based Christians (and here much could be said love is and isn't) that what is being done by Trump and his minions is hostile to everything that I can remember of what Jesus is reported to have said; blatantly so. It is false, and it is ugly, and it is cruel. And it could bring, and is bringing, immense suffering and misery, for the good of what? Who is doing the crucifying in this picture? Who stands with the poor and rejected? It's not a trick question; and it's the question of the hour. Maybe it always was.
I don't think that a love of peace and justice requires religious framing, but a civilized society requires core, guiding values of some sort nevertheless. For lives worth living For our species survival. In vainglorious road rage (and I go there) what is precious gets lost, often trampled. At least now and then, we need to look deeper in and farther out than our ego-centered punyverse.
Marlene, I’m not a mean person…really I’m not…but this, his first and now, most especially, his second admin, having me fervently wish he will reap what he has sown in a way that is meaningful to him—apparently he has no sense of shame, or empathy/sympathy—so who knows what form that might take. Hmmm….maybe be destitute and selling pencils on the streets of NYC where the Manhattan elites he so longed to be a part of walk by and he KNOWS they know it’s him, but they don’t even acknowledge him & he is living in a cardboard box in some alleyway…dunno, sound about right?
Barbara, if wishing that karma actually existed is comforting, do it! But here's another kind of fun thing to think about, because it doesn't hurt any humans but does materially harm only people who tug the forelock. In Toulouse, the Tesla dealership was torched and the (this is my favorite new moniker for them) Wankpanzers all were destroyed. Here in KC someone set fire to two Wankpanzers the other night at the Tesla dealership. Wankpanzer owners are aghast at the reaction their nazimobiles are getting. And the Felon is freaking out about it--wants to charge Wankpanzer defacers with domestic terrorism. I say, suffrage for women in England happened because women started attacking property, carefully ensuring that humans were not damaged in the process. And they also made sure everyone knew about what was happening in the prisons when they were arrested. I doubt there's a whole lotta sympathy for Demon Musk so I admit I smile when I hear about Wankpanzers going up in smoke. While of course verbally tsk-tsk-ing.
I tell ya, "Wankpanzers" has GOT to be the best new word this year!
Count me in as an Aye on that!
I wish people would help destroy Twitter. I seriously do not understand why a single intelligent, reasonable person maintains an account.
I didn’t have a Twitter/X account, but just yesterday I did sign up for BlueSky…dunno if that’s a good thing or not, as I generally don’t use social media platforms.
Believe it or not, I made a fake account on Twitter and never posted a thing but wound up following many people BECAUSE of Heather. She would always link to accounts there in her newsletters. I just use to click on them and read everything until one day I got a message that I had to sign in to read. I think it was and is important to hear many voices (just like I read comments at Wapo (yes, still have it came on my kindle) NYT, the Murdoch rags like the Daily Mail and NY Post. It's valuable to know how the enemy thinks. It's valuable to know how everyone thinks. I blocked the bots and Nazis and crypto scammers and Elon was the FIRST person I blocked. I discovered some of my fave accounts were former conservative Republicans like Ron Filipkowski and George Conway and the Lincoln Project who all became Trump haters. George Conway is so witty and brilliant and put his money where his mouth was and donated $4-5 million of his own money to get Kamala elected and became registered Dem as did Ron. It was especially helpful during his trials in NY with everyone posting in real time from the courthouses. I don't go there anymore because almost everyone first moved to threads, then to Blusky, and of course to substack. I was only a lurker but now I have something like 30 substacks I follow and don't have enough hours in the day. Most people love Blusky and I can see accounts without having to register. I won't touch threads because of Zuck. Deleted that sewer FB. I do keep IG for the 4 dogs I follow there.
I have to limit the amount of news I consume as well.
I only pay for 3: Heathe, TC's "That's another fine mess" and Roland & Sanny Merullo's "Hi Pa, Hi Zan".
I subscribe to many others for free, but I don't read them all each day.
Wankpanzer 🤣 And now they’re falling apart in cold weather. Chuckling into my coffee.
I am glad we traded in our swasticar before all this destruction started.
Sharon, once upon a time having a Tesla (and I am SO sad the inventor Nicola Tesla’s name is being besmirched by Musk) vehicle was a good, forward-thinking thing. The truck, however, no just no…that’s not a truck except maybe in a George Jetson future world. I happened to see one in the wild the other day, OK it was really just a Costco parking lot, and is the first I’d ever seen in person. The owner had the cover on the truck bed & I could see, as it’s been reported, that it would severely compromise visibility. I have a 22 yr old truck that DOES haul lots of stuff & is very useful…unlike a Tesla truck appears to be! And I’ve seen a number of vids online about the challenges the truck has with simple truck-like maneuvers.
My new Mini Countryman EV so far is superior to the Tesla is so many very important ways. We see the cybertruck often here in San Diego and even some are showing the rust that will make the entire body disintegrate if the glue doesn’t give way first.
Dang it! I gotta clean the coffee mess now at that one. Where are the paper towels when ya need 'em?
Nah, just 🔫 him.
Wish they hadn't sent a boy to do a man's job last summer
Sounds right to me Barbara!
Cruelty IS the policy
I saw a MAGA in one of the other online forums arguing that sending them to a 3rd country was actually protecting the deportees since, "as the libs claim," they were refugees in the US because their home country was unsafe for them. The ignorance -- willful ignorance or not, I have no idea -- is just stunning.
Yep, that MAGA must be listening to a helluva lot of Fox!
Don’t forget OAN and Newsmax, as a MAGAt I was in “discussion “ with proudly proclaimed as her “sources”.
Cruelty
We may wish to compare/contrast this scenario to a story from 2018, in which a woman ("Carmen") and her daughter were deported to El Salvador while their refugee claim was still being heard in the courts. The judge (Emmet Sullivan) angrily ordered the government to "return 'Carmen' and her daughter to the United States FORTHWITH" or else he would hold AG Jeff Sessions and DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in contempt. Thankfully, Judge Sullivan's command was obeyed; the plane landed in El Salvador, but immediately turned around and brought the two refugee claimants back to the US. (https://www.wrur.org/npr-news/npr-news/2018-08-09/deported-asylum-seekers-brought-back-on-angry-judges-orders)
Not likely to happen this time.
it's only Tuesday and yet here we are facing another gross abuse of power, or perceived power.The simple truth is that we are facing the reality that was promised in the PROJECT 2025 MANIFESTO. We saw or should have seen it coming as it was fairly transparent.
Despite that fore-told promise, Dems didn't appreciate its appeal. Underestimating the appeal of that cost the Democrats the election. Whether appreciated or not, it is true.
NOW; does that translate to reality for those that thought the 'change' they voted for would come down to their friends, their family and their neighbors losing their jobs; probably not.
I won't opine about the effects of the DOGE as it relates to local stuff. That is an insult others can highlight.
I write, to you, dear-readers, about the story that was exposed on 60-Minutes. The story of the young people who were highlighted for their talent and their right to play with the National Marine Band.
I won't detail it here, but Trump canceled them. On the basis of DEI. These are talented and deserving KIDS and this was a merit-based competition that they WON only to play with the larger band...
Cancelling them is the epitome of cruel.... these are talented KIDS. Not political pawns.
I am many degrees of angry for many reasons, but THIS, this INSULT that affects the purest of our children, to celebrate art, really affects me to my core.
These people are EVIL and their motivation is not right.
H Alan, I have a sidebar story to the band kids. I learned about the event from a friend of mine who was in the President's Own Marine Band until his retirement. He shared the band's absolute dismay in this event being cancelled by that gods forsaken DEI proclamation by the ffpotus. I later learned from a retired USCG band member that retired military musicians from all 5 service bands, plus both the Naval Academy and West Point had come together to provide the workshop and the concert that ffpotus had denied these young musicians.
When I saw the 60 minutes feature, I also noted that the conductor was Rodney Dorsey, FSU band director, formerly of Indiana University (where he went under full tenure when he was denied tenure at the University of Oregon.) Dr. Dorsey is the director who admitted me to the Symphonic Band I now play in. I can think of no better "pinch hitter" as the director for this band.