After yesterday’s revelation that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is blocking the release of a memo related to a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation into sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and 14 co-conspirators, Attorney General Pam Bondi added more evidence to the idea that the DOJ is engaged in covering up the relationship between members of the Trump administration, including President Donald J.
How is it possible that doge ( a fictitious entity, unsanctioned) can walk into and despoil the records of every living American and walk away uncontested from the Social security administration and we find that information for sale? I want ropes scaffolds and twitching bodies. And I want them now.
Me too, but we wiill get no ropes. Nor scaffolds nor twitching bodies. The Trump regime is entirely lawless, and there is no organization that can put a stop to their lawlessness. Our only hope of even minor containment of their lawlessness is a blue tsunami in November. The odds don’t favor that, but people who want that outcome had better put their backs into it now.
Please, that's not our only hope. It is a good hope. There are honest judges and prosecutors still. There are many members of the military who hold to their oath to the Constitution. And there are many, many of us, a majority in the country, who know that Trump and most of his administration are criminals and don't deserve an election. They require court proceedings, and refusal of orders, and substantive protests, even a general strike.
Some of these things might make a dent, but I don’t think fhe military is one of them. They acquiesced to piracy on the high seas, something that has been illegal for hundreds of years. Once they went down that road it became unrealistic to imagine them giving us a hand in stopping the regime’s lawlessness. The opposite. They are aiding the kleptocracy, and it will probably get worse. We got a hint of what was to come when all 700 general officers remained silent when Trump got them in a room to listen to his nonsensical rant.
But that was the point. They sat silent, while he ranted. They were ordered to appear. They didn't applaud, they didn't dance, they didn't froth at the mouth the way he and his Sidekick wanted them to. There wasn't a single one of them that didn't walk out that auditorium horrified to their gills.
Everyday he tests their capacity for enduring nausea. You think they didn't notice the MAGA merch hat at Dover, the crass demands for money that accompanied a "dignified" salute to the remains of US servicemen returning home? What you've seen so far at DOJ -- the mass resignations, the walk-outs -- could well be a prelude to what you may soon see at DOD.
Don't let ICTT's backhandedly pro-ChristoNazi optimism deceive you; as Mr. Page says, the military's oath-breaking criminality proves it is irremediably ChristoNazified (and therefore will never again be anything other than our deadly enemy). Because of that, I see no hope whatsoever. We need to realize our situation is identical to that of the First Nations people when they were targeted for extermination by the USian people and the always criminal regime of the failed former United States and start responding accordingly, recognizing that the best we can hope to gain by our resistance is an honorable death.
ICE is the current version of Hitler's "Brownshirts." Also known as the Storm Troopers. Trump and crew plan on taking over the country by force to maintain power. From Wikipedia: “the largest and most well-funded federal law enforcement agency in U.S. history.” Shooting people to death without consequences. The US House is effectively nullified. Often not in session. Government officers refuse to produce information. Trump has been putting military force into cities to show that he can. And he will.
One can hope that some are catching on and stepping up as - leaving the regime and speaking out. Even as whistle blowers. Even Trump acolyte Joe Kent has quit and called for threatening to pause military aid to the genocidal and suicidal Netanyahu regime; Kent's impetus includes his anti semitism. But enforcing the Leahy Laws - to pause offensive military aid but not defensive - ought to have been done by both Biden and Trump administrations.
A sacrificed career and early retirement that I remember was what I credit Admiral Fallon with. It was a critical dissent that effectively stopped an attack on Iran that the administration wanted so badly back in 2008.
Adm Fallon relinquished command of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in March 2008, about 4 months before gas prices hit one of the longest term highs, which to me, was a major factor that led to the 2008 Financial Crisis in September, and resulting Democratic victories that Fall.
To me, Adm Fallon believed in much better long term planning and effective diplomacy, over the ill-thought through actions that could produce a quick looking victory that had no Phase IV planning at all. I will never forget a Colonel, that had been part of the initial planning for Iraq, telling us that Donald Rumsfeld had told them that he would fire anyone who even mention Phase IV.
"...The post-invasion phase of the Iraq mission has been the least well-planned American military mission since Somalia in 1993, if not Lebanon in 1983, and its consequences for the nation have been far worse than any set of military mistakes since Vietnam. The U.S. armed forces simply were not prepared for the core task that the United States needed to perform when it destroyed Iraq’s existing government—to provide security, always the first responsibility of any sovereign government or occupier.
The standard explanation for this lack of preparedness among most defense and foreign policy specialists, and the U.S. military as well, is that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and much of the rest of the Bush administration insisted on fighting the war with too few troops and too Pollyannaish a view of what would happen inside Iraq once Saddam was overthrown. This explanation is largely right. Taken to an extreme, however, it is dangerously wrong. It blames the mistakes of one civilian leader of the Department of Defense, and one particular administration, for a debacle that was foreseeable and indeed foreseen by most experts in the field. Under these circumstances, planners and high-ranking officers of the U.S. armed forces were not fulfilling their responsibilities to the Constitution or their own brave fighting men and women by quietly and subserviently deferring to the civilian leadership. Congress might have been expected to do more as well, but in fact it did a considerable amount of work to highlight the issue of post-invasion planning—and in any case, it was not well positioned to critique or improve or even know the intricacies of war plans. On this issue, the country’s primary hope for an effective system of checks and balances on the mistakes of executive branch officials was the U.S. armed forces..."
It's, I have read that some in the military are questioning the war in Iraq, but some are treating it like a religious crusade as is the drunk. I would love to see mass walkouts at the DOD.
The Intercept has a new report on the Air Force BOV. Ally House shoukd know about this as well besides everyone else Michele. Erika Kirk is being appointed to the board. She is the widow of Charlie Kirk and creatur of Tirning Point which is now going into high schools. What they have done and I have seen this going on for these a decade is taking these committees and boards and infiltrating them with those who will follow the 2025 game plan. Historical societies groups formed to raise money for SCOTUS or government entities. The American Medical Association position back in the day when more male than not had an American Medical Association Auxilary more female than not. They sold things go make money for scholarships and had teas and luncheons. In Catholic parishes it was the Altar and Sanctuary Guild who helped clean the church and set up the alter and sanctuary. If you visit the Chatuataqua Institute in New York there are a wide ranging places of Protestant groups and societies along with their diverse house of many religions. It was a helpful community support in some ways but like any tool can be used badly and for terrible reasons. We don’t ban hammers we teach people how to use them to help not hurt or harm. And so tragic because the military has led in some ways in not only integration but acceptance of LBGQT plus folks. They of all people know when you are in trouble doesn’t matter what your support people believe elevate just that you can trust them to have your back.
Mother Jones highlights a Reveal podcast on Fred Rigers. There was a tine when PBS had all those lovely book to film productions and now only a shadow.
Getting on board on in these groups important. I trued with my local library board they laughed. I trued in my Chikdren’s school system to be on a parent group working on textbooks in the school. The friendly school principal delicates moved me away from joining. Looking back I had no idea of the political islands we were living on. We had just moved five miles away but Avon Lake, Ohio so so different from our town in Cuyahoga County. The mindsets of communties hard to discern. But we need to not only discern now but act if one is allowed. I had radical MSW written all over.
We're also killing a magnificent ancient culture. It's the Bibi MO to just bomb and bomb and bomb with our bombs, never mind that universities, museums, ancient architecture, etc. get targeted too.
So two allies led by weak men destined for prison when they lose their positions spread chaos and war to stay in power. As Eugene Robinson pointed out this morning, when israel assassinated every possible Iranian leader whose head is raised, the end result is a failed state with no one left to negotiate a lasting peace and the culture in ruins The ultimate tragedy for the brave Iranians who believed we were coming to help them.
No one dares to get close to Iran. Almost like Gaza: dropping 2K pound bombs and sharpshooting children or whomever, or the waving Hi! Israelis (Whoops)was the best plan...going in and having to deal with guys in sneakers placing bombs made of unexploded munitions on tanks...too much for the IDF.
I was very heartened by the expressionless, skeptical silence of the military leadership.
Pray, or whatever effort you employ to prevent it, that there is no mass resignation of the ethical and principled commanders. That would leave only a cadre of MAGAs with "armoured cars and tanks and guns" that come "to take away our sons" and daughters. We don't want to have "to stand behind the man" and woman who "stand behind the wire."
Someone else, a veteran, I think, posted about the exhaustion of those serving on aircraft carriers after months at sea. I can only imagine. Even exhaunted men and women can do heroic things for extended periods of time if they sense their leaders know what they're doing and are telling them the truth. I can't imagine what most sailors, marines and airmen/women are thinking now -- the religious zealots excluded.
Rex, I do think there is some hope for our military, or at least maybe those who served previously to Trumpian dictatorship. We do need this incompetents gone, but part of the reason they got into office in the first place is that one of our political parties, Republican, has become rogue, willing to ignore our Constitution, and scared of an old man with dementia (at least since 2019 which meant they knew he was failing before they ran him again in 2020 and 2024). They are responsible for this, but accept no responsibility because they have reverted to adult-toddlerism and can't stand up for anything positive anymore. They prefer to crawl to a cadre of rich ignorant white boys who let them think those rich white guys could "bury them." Truly distressing and disgusting!
They have also been engaged in war crimes - not just the bombing of a school in Iran (and the continued cover-up of their involvement) but also the torpedoeing of an Iranian warship in international waters some 4,000 kilometres away from the arena of the so-called 'little excursion' in the Arabian Gulf.
Sadly, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, too often at his press conferences with the execrable Hegseth joins in on extolling the efficiency of US bombing instead of reflecting on its complete ineffectiveness in dislodging the awful Iranian regime.
War crimes by our opponents doesn't justify the US committing any war crimes. But let's not forget those crimes by our opponents: Russia bombing civilians in Ukraine, Iran killing thousands of protestors. Hamas killing or raping Israelis in the attacks they started on 10/7/23. These regimes are evil and we oppose them legitimately. The scale and reach of their aggression is huge.
This report of DOGE selling/sharing private Information with a " political group" with the express intention of using that information to overturn election results in "certain states", made me actually stop breathing for a few seconds. We can easily and rightly assume what brand of "political group" is seeking this information and which "certain states" they will target.
And all the while Trump keeps whining that Democrats can "only win by cheating". Every accusation is a tell of his very own intentions. I have had vague fears about the mid-terms. Now I am simply terrified.
Rex, if only we could gather up all the military and government leaders who walked out in protest and organize a countercoup with some teeth in it and restore sanity to this world. I feel as if we are all being tested cosmically and failing the test.
The fire on the Ford aircraft carrier might—and I stress might—be a sign that some rank-and-file members of the military are fed up with the incompetence and lawlessness of this so-called Administration. The cause of this fire is under investigation. It started in the carrier’s aft laundry facility and caused extensive smoke damage. It took 30 hours to contain it and clean up the mess. About 600 sailors lost their racks (beds) and the Navy has reportedly taken 1,000 mattresses off the future USS John F. Kennedy to send to the Ford. Almost 2,000 sweatsuits and other clothing items have also been collected to distribute to the crew because many sailors are unable to clean their clothes with most of the laundry services out of commission. Fires in ship laundries are dangerous, but not uncommon. Something as simple as not cleaning dryer lint filters can spark a fire. The smoke moves through ventilation systems. The Ford’s current deployment has been extended multiple times, as part of the Navy’s engagements in the Caribbean, Venezuela, and the Gulf. The Navy claims crew morale remains strong, but I wonder about that. Is sabotage possible? Would exhausted, frustrated crew members risk court martial and the consequences if found guilty?
Having served on an aircraft carrier in the late 60's early 70's I can attest to it being a drag after 6 to 9 months at sea. Moral is degraded from the daily grind of flight operations, readiness, and lack of decent food. I'll give you an example, when we ran out of fresh eggs and milk then powdered eggs and milk would be served and it sucked, and just that aspect would wear you down. In addition, the ship itself would wear down and when people are worn out mistakes happen and in combat situations that can become deadly. I can tell you that when "general quarters" was sounded and the words of "fire on the flight deck" were spoken it would raise the hair on the back of your neck because we had all seen the USS Forrestall video from 1967, and it was bad, very bad, to the point of it being de-commissioned and scrapped. Are these guys tired, I guarantee they are.
One of our older aeronautics students, becoming a certified A&P Mechanic to work on civilian aircraft, had been aboard the Enterprise fighting the January 1969 fire.
His description of using a water hose startled me, given that fuel fires need to be fought with foam. He schooled me on the differences between the Forrestal fire where the best trained specialist fire fighters were killed when an old 500 lb bomb exploded killing most of the specialist fire fighters and at least one of the pilots next to John McCain's. McCain wounded and 134 sailors were killed, 161 wounded or otherwise injured.
They trained everyone after that in basic firefighting, which he was doing spraying water on the Zuni rockets on the aircraft in front of him to keep them from overheating and firing (standing as close to the center hoping they would go past on either side if they did fire). The more specialist fire fighters handled the foam to suppress fuel fires, and do the best to not spread fuel as had happened on the Forrestal). He credited the better training of far more of the crew with limiting the loss to 27 sailors and 314 injured. I later found another major difference was the Forrestal had very old thin shell, and unstable bombs delivered due to a shortage of the newer safer bombs.
We seemed to be trying to use up or give away as much of our old weapons and ammunition left over from Korea as we could. Makes me think of "Loose Cannons" being replaced by "Loose Bombs" (and bomber fans that think bombs can solve all problems).
Jim, it was no picnic on board an aircraft carrier. We lost an average of one person a month on board, be it pilot, or ships personal. It was a death trap if you didn't know what you were doing, case in point, we had a new-be on board on the flight deck that walked in front of an aircraft and got sucked into the engine. He died a couple of days later from his injuries. I learned a lot and when I left the Navy and entered civilian life in the construction industry, I took lessons learned on the flight deck and was never injured. Safety became my mantra for me and those that worked for me, it follows me now at 77 years of age. The military is the best training a young man can get. I'm a bleeding-heart liberal and still believe in service to country and lessons learned.
Dave A. My massage therapist served on an aircraft carrier and he is aghast at what is happening and has commented on the need to maintain ships in dry dock which is where the Ford should be.
I'm all in for a General Strike. I've been calling for one for a year now. There has so far been limited appetite for such an act. It's a heavy lift. Many people don't understand the idea, thinking only organized Union members can call a strike. Not true. General means anyone or everyone in general. Part of the issue is the idea itself is not clearly defined. Indeed, it is open to interpretation. Deciding what it should look like is a good first step. In my mind it is a political act and a movement to show the strength of We The People.
There are many, many more of us as normal, commonsense individuals, than of them, who are using positions of power to mislead our country for their own very questionable ends. It is well past time we remind Everyone where true power resides. With The People!
That is the #1 highest value response I have seen. It’s high time we went to that dance, Syd. A join in progress event. Music prayer food representatives. I remember the peace symbol in one hand and the m-60 in the other. We camped out for over 300 days and sure enough a freedom bird scooped us up. Let them come to us and tell us to our faces why we should return them to Washington D.C. or state capitols. Let’s have that conversation in face to face. Make it happen over 5 days, 10 states at a time. County fairgrounds. Bring a tent. Set up in the arena. We are the attraction.
But Trump will pardon everyone. They will never be punished.
Yes, they require court proceedings, but that guy who stole the data from SSA is probably in a non-extradtion country by now. We will never know who he is.
If one court rules in favor of the law, another court will overrule that ruling.
You know, like Cannon in FL. Even if anything gets to SCOTUS, do you think that the Robert's court would rule against Trump?
Apologies. I deleted my initial response because I'd misread your comment as saying Pat Cole's call for lynching was a good hope, when in fact you meant Rex Page's call for getting out the vote for Democratic candidates was a good hope but not the only hope.
You called it lynching lin. I called for justice sufficient to the unrelenting crimes. I don’t overlook summary justice dealt by this regime to those of us who must stem the tide. Since yours is the omnipotent view can you name all those who have been summarily executed? Can you even count them? How many dead’s are sufficient to supply retributive condemnation?
You first wrote: I want ropes scaffolds and twitching bodies. And I want them now.
Now you write: . I called for justice sufficient to the unrelenting crimes.
A fair reading of your first comment is that it graphically speaks to vigilantism. Now you have a revised speaking to a judicial process which was neither explicit nor implicit in your first comment.
I am well aware of the abuses of the Republican regime. And also of the judiciary process - slow and fraught as it is, which has released Kilmar Abrego Garcia and NYC student Dylan. For instance.
Our most immediate job is to Vote Blue No Matter Who and take back the House, Senate, and state governments. GOTV is now
Our most immediate job is to silence the rifles. I hold that these times of rampant death demand our stepping into that line of fire and stopping the shooters. I don’t much care for fools who stand by and watch as their turn in the burrow pit comes up next. I’ll take that bullet between the eyes, thank you ma’am, before I’ll countenance victims falling like spring rain. You like to project your infinite wisdom over us stupid stalwarts. So be it. I don’t expect many to follow me to the sound and the fury. I’m actually glad that clairvoyants like you can read between the lines and preinterpret everything that is uttered. Literary criticism owes much to your ranks. I’ll invent my own words in my own way. You can carry the story in the direction of your heart’s content. Tell the truth as though it were a lie so people don’t have to believe it. I’m sure that I’m wrong again, as usual. Thanks in advance.
Politely I should have explained to you the differences between scaffolding and vigilantism. You may or may not know the 13 of the scaffold, steps to the gallows, refer quite explicitly to jury, as in trial by jury and guilty verdict. Doesn’t make as good of an argument as 3-7-77 as you interpret it in favor of vigilante justice. One step up the scaffold for each jury member. Would you like me to speak slower? Perhaps I could double space leaving room for red ink. Don’t get me wrong. Your story was better than mine. You can shame this clarification as well without bringing me to grief because I admire your work ethic, your honesty and your commitment, as your clarity elevates all of us most of the time. The first string is rested now so I’ll go back to the bench.
No, it’s the same country it’s always been. Or maybe even a little better. My guess is that the fraction of white supremacists has dropped from roughly 90% of white Americans in 1950 to roughly 60% today. Before the mid-1960s, some of them voted D, since the possibility of losing white economic, legal, and political advantages was minimal until after the enactment of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. Since those acts became law, a 20-point to 40-point majority of white votes have been R because the Republicans have pledged to do everything they can to preserve white advantages and the Democrats haven’t.
I understand that the requests for conscientious objector status has been increasing. Not leaving the service but in noncombat roles. Sort of like Desmond Doss, (a medal of valor recipient) who became a combat medic and was credited for saving 75 injured soldiers in one battle.
FB got me an intro to HCR for that I’m thankful. They also relieved me of duty upon occasion. I really miss my friends but now I call them personally and catch up. I used to write back when I didn’t live near phones. I’ve always found your barometer accurate and glad you have also retired from zuckering. There sure are a lot of zuckers out there.
This is a calamity, long time coming: MAGA is 21st century KKK; our churches failed to combat racism head on and our schools failed to teach the students critical thinking skills, history and government. Passage of the 1965 Civil Rights Act should have been a springboard to address the issue of race, but still the Great Replacement Theory has a strong hold on about 30% of our population, if not more.
When the xenophobic, anti- Democracy forces on the American right wrote its 2025 plan for America under Trump, we can wonder if what we are living through all across American governance, is what those fellow Americans had in mind.
Did they imagine a rogue, fully armed, police state? Did they imagine a DOJ void of the rule of law? Did they imagine a hateful, demented lying leader whose use of the word "WE" means "ME"? Did they imagine a head of HHS who likes diseases more than cures?
And so on and so forth.
Building a White Nationalist theocracy to replace our Democracy and Constitution has been afoot in America for years. Today, it has brought a new version of our ongoing civil war. We won the last civil war. When we win this one, it is imperative we update and fortify our Constitution to better withstand such vicious assaults. We are a far different country than the agrarian country of our founders. It's way past time we fix the compromises the founders made that enable minority rule in America.
… and now, Trump is channeling Nazi eugenics. That “science” wasn’t limited to Nazi Germany. Many Americans embraced it, too. They will, or have, again.
We reportedly need around 12 million Americans to show up on March 28 - with 7 million being the previous high for the last no Kings rally. That’s a heavy lift, but I expect us to top the 7 million standing record.
My husband and I are counting the days when we will make our presence known in support of a Democracy NOT rule by a king....especially an incompetent one and the group of his "pretend leaders" who are daily destroying our country and leaving our children and young adults without a better foundation for their future as well as the future of our country!!!!
"We want her under oath because we don’t trust her,” Frost reiterated. “We want her under oath because she has shown that she is involved in a cover up…."
We want her under oath because if she lies under oath she can be prosecuted for perjury.
No scaffold, but a long prison sentence would suffice, and act as a deterrent to all future scofflaws, elected or not.
One of the things that makes winning the mid-terms imperative for the survival of democracy is that these liars/cheaters must be tried and convicted of their crimes....including the Orange Felon. That is exactly why they are being so aggresive in their refusal to obey laws that they find threatening to their hold on power. I keep praying every day that the facts hidden so far in the Epstein Files will break free before November, so that there is no doubt that our "president" is indeed a criminal who should have been imprisoned for the good of society long ago.
And the first thing we need to do is get over the myth that our elections are secure. They are not secure, and they’re getting less secure each day. The fascist machine has been busy at work for a few decades now, culminating. In 2016 in 2024. (2020 had a very large mail-in component because of Covid.) The electiontruthhttp://alliance.org shows highly manipulated tabulation data. I would also recommend reading the very latest This Will Hold Substack on the 2016 election. The conspirators were Russian, yes, but Silicon Valley and Epstein were in cahoots to get Trump into power. And now we have a MAGA Diehard owning all the formerly named Dominion machines that are used in 27 states. We have DOGE-pilfered personal data, voter suppression at peak levels, and Trump grabbing State data. And we expect free and fair elections?? And here’s Putin whispering into Trump’s ear in Alaska, ‘get rid of Mail in voting’…
We must VOTE! we must not be deterred by fear that our vote will not count.
I believe in the American citizens who will be serving and who will come to vote. I say lets make sure NOW that we have the proper IDs that are required. Lets be orderly and lets flood the voting locations ....BE PREPARED FOR LONG LINES AND FOR WAITING IF WE HAVE CHOSEN THIS TRADITIONAL METHOD OF VOTING! We can offer rides to friends and neighbors. If citizens are overseas or use the "vote by mail" method, check and double check to make sure all requirements are followed...one may even choose to make copies of their vote before placing it in the mail.
We need to be careful, pay attention to details and requirements and assist our friends and neighbors as needed.
The damage done to the postal service by DeJoy is ongoing! I saw a post yesterday that the Postal Service will run out of money in a few years. I'm concerned that what's been done to the service in tdumps first term and now WILL make a difference in the election. And THAT worries me in regard to mail in voting.
Yes we must vote, but we need to expose the corruption beforehand so the local districts can protect the election integrity. The Feds are complicit so there will be no justice there. People don’t want their votes messed with.
Jess Craven’s recent interview with a very credible whistleblower.⬇️
“Y’all, this conversation with Chuck Borges, former Social Security Administration Chief Data Officer under Trump, then whistleblower, and now candidate for State Senate in Maryland, was actually amazing—albeit a little scary. What he had to say about Social Security and our data is a must-hear.”
Let's also admit that W and trump, two swaggering, ignorant republicans, who have gone to war based on a lie (and have gotten away with it), have thrown the world into chaos. W unleashing mass migration that has angered Europe to the point of its experiencing severe anti-immigrant protests and fascist movements in many countries. And trump is causing severe energy shortages in southeast Asia which will harm economies and life.
This regime near perfects the greatest con , a corporate entity for their own leverage (the end game is straight out extortion).
And, all for more money to be extracted from whomever, by algorithms, force, by lying, by covering up for the other criminals.
They are a gang, everyone who has been complicit. Many will go to jail , but never being allowed to serve in any official capacity should be a life sentence.
Yes. The first step in that direction is a blue tsunami in November. Without that, the prospects are poor, to put it mildly, for accountability in the mob of thugs comprising the Trump regime.
The Trump administration has experienced a high rate of legal losses in lower federal courts, with some estimates showing they lost over 70% to 90% of certain types of cases, such as deregulation efforts. However, the administration has seen a, higher success rate at the Supreme Court level, winning 21 out of 24 cases in 2025.
- Lower Court Losses: A Stanford analysis found the administration lost 96% of rulings in some federal district courts, with both Republican and Democratic-appointed judges ruling against them frequently.
- Overall Litigation: Democracy Forward reports the administration lost more than 70% of over 600 lawsuits.
- Deregulation Cases: Over 90% of the administration's deregulatory efforts were blocked or withdrawn following lawsuits.
- Supreme Court Success: Despite lower court losses, the administration had a 16-case winning streak at the Supreme Court as of late 2025.
- Contextual Differences: While initial studies showed a very high loss rate, a 2025 study indicated that when controlling for specific opinions, the Trump and Biden administrations had similar, higher win rates, highlighting that counting method matters.
I agree about the blue tsunami and would add mass and judicial action against election rigging and voter suppression which will almost certainly be tried. We also need to learn from other countries' experiences when removing criminal authoritarians. Some form of amnesty or exile opportunity must be offered to at least second echelon perpetrators or out of desperation, they will fight to the end.
The odds do favor it. Attend a No Kings protest near you on March 28. It should draw 9-10 million this time. Senators and Representatives will pay attention to that. Media IS covering it. Close to 3,000 separate protests all over the U.S.
Trump will barely know it's happening, and he's irrelevant. Its aimed at politicians who have to win votes from us in November
They'll definitely know its happening.
Judges and courts are helping. Trumps incompetence is helping. There are way, way, way more if us than them. They just sound louder.
Okay, will do. However, even if 20 million or 30 million protesters showed up, if would have no effect on the Trump regime. What we need is 20 or 30 million activists working ten hours a week on get-out-the-vote projects with reputable organizations like SwingLeft or Indivisable or more local but well organized groups like the Arizona Native Democrats or the Dolores Huerta Action Fund, to name two highly effective local organizations that I have personal experience with. It’s possible to outvote the Republicans with a monumental effort and a substantial amount of luck, but MAGATs (or Trump supporters of any stripe) are shameless louts who cannot be influenced by human concerns like fairness.
I want a National Razor. I want heads to roll. Tulsi Gabbard is the Director of National Intelligence Agency. AI explains the primary job “... is to integrate all national security intelligence and set priorities for collecting, analyzing, and sharing information on foreign threats.” Acting as the principal advisor to the President is #1. National Intelligence professionals qualify themselves as “Certified Counterintelligence Threat Analyst”, “Certified Cyber Intelligence Professional”, or “Criminal Intelligence Certified Analyst”. All of which require years of experience in the filed of study. https://www.slu.edu/online/blog/what-is-an-intelligence-analyst.php Gabbard “was mostly home schooled except for two years at a girls' school in the Philippines.” And learned spiritual principles like karma. Has a B.S. degree in business administration. Wiki. Gabbard has no experience in this filed of work and is unfit for duty. It does not stop with her either.
The Department of Defense involves military science and strategy, engineering, logistics, intelligence. But the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. has only a B.A. in political science. The Department of Health and Human Services involves public health, medicine, and biomedical research. But the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a B.A. in American history and literature. and a law degree. Plus he is as off kilter as Trump. We have 15 Executive Departments and only two actually have someone properly educated for the job to oversee them, yet they both have their heads where the sun never shines. Democrats must make this corrupt favoritism of “Unfit for Duty” a campaign issue. What we really need is to stop thinking another self-educated George Washington is going to save us. We need to Amend the Constitution and set some requirements, standards, for what is required to head these Departments, Agencies and to be President. I would not allow a proctologist to touch my ass unless they have a medical degree. Yet we have an ASS in the White House? Please read, discuss and share my Memorandum at UnitedWeAmend.org.
What we really need is for voters to stop from electing billionaires since they are looking out for themselves and not the majority of our population. We should instead put heavy taxes on them. During Eisenhowers presidency the wealthy were taxed at 90%. Reagan started to really slash taxes for the wealthy/corporations, while taxing Social Security checks. He also got rid of the Inheritance tax so that when the billionairts died their children, who were already as rich as Midas, became more wealthy to use their money to their own benefit. (like bribing Supreme Court Justices)
I understand. The last thing on my mind when I wake up in the morning is "Hey, we need another hotel building billionaire in the White House. " But then there is JB Pritzker. People can say what they want about Pritzker, but because he is also a hotel building billionaire that may make too many Democrats stay home. It is true, they stayed home when Trump won over Clinton. They stayed home when Trump won over Harris. Both of those well qualified candidates should have won but for... We need to inform all progressives, liberals and moderates to vote Blue LOCKSTEP! We need to register new Democrats and assure they vote. This is all happening in our own neighborhoods. IOW, it is on us! If Pritzker wins the nomination we must give him the White House.
Not all of the wealthiest are tyrannical sociopaths, but in general the shift toward overconcentration of wealth in relatively few hands has greatly shifted the influence of the great preponderance of people away from governance of, by and for the people and toward plutocracy. Scales of justice? There is a big, fat moneybag sitting on the 1% side of the equation.
McKenzie Scott (former wife of Jeff Bezos) and Melinda Gates (former wife of Bill Gates) have given away huge sums of their fortunes to worthy causes. Musk? No. Bezos? No.
Muskrat had USAID shut down so they wouldn’t investigate his turning off Ukraine’s Starlink satellites before two separate attacks by Russia. I am suspicious about his relations with Russia and China and his chronic drug use has to impair his judgment. Quite apart from that, like Trump, he’s a narcissist and sociopath.
I'll admit I didn't and still don't know anything about JB Pritzker. But that being said, when andidates are running for my states offices, right down to schoolboards, I do my homework, looking at them from every angle, including scandals. Then when candidates are running for federal elections, I also do my homework looking into everything about them.
Too many voters vote for the letter after a candidate's name without doing their homework and make the best choice.
Pritzker is good, so is Newsom. The sad, simple fact is that virtually anyone here in the U.S. would be better than the robber baron currently in power.
I agree 100%. I would vote for a hard working person before a uber wealthy one. Tthe wealthy are out of touch with our general population. They don't understand, or care about the everyday struggles of the working class or the hopeless feeling of the poor.
I just took my dog for a walk. The warm bag of dog crap I just put in the trash can would make a better president than Trump or anyone in his toxic family.
A sack of potatoes would a least initiate no harm, but human nature is what it is, and there is a confederacy of powerful creeps. "Mr. Hyde" is wired into human DNA and we are running out of time to get societially smarter about minimizing his influence.
"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people."
Thank you for doing due diligence for a functioning democracy. I don't think I am as thorough as you, but I do try to treat candidacy as a real-world job interview, not a pep rally.
Albert, we cannot look past the fact that those two Democratic candidates that lost to ffpotus were women, one was a woman of color. I think that you are correct that Pritzker will make some Democrats stay home (see: 2016 and the Bernie Bros) and I believe the anti woman sentiment is stronger than the anti billionaire group.
Spot on, Ally! I, even as a woman, have to recognize that Americans in 2016 and 2024 were NEVER going to elect a female president. I voted in vain for the women. So, tRump was handed the win(s) because of American Misogyny. It's sick, I know, but we wouldn't be in this mess if the Democrats had chosen a white male candidate in both of those years.
It bears mentioning that tRump ONLY beat "the girls." Against the "traditional" white male candidate, tRump would have been humiliated. American Misogyny is tattooed on America's soul.
Women are hated, exploited, forced to submit to lesser males AND we are the givers of life, the primary caregivers of children, and so much more capable than men in fields requiring collaboration, cooperation, multi-tasking and caring for all of society. Frances Perkins types.
Personally, I'm sick of being hated just because of my sex. Most men I've met are simply "assholes." They actively try their best to be uncooperative and belligerent. But then, I live in Texas so my views may be jaded.
Don’t overlook the cowardice of men and their intuitive feelings of lower self worth. Both are huge contributors of the misogyny they drift towards. I spent one of my lifetimes fighting wild land fires. District hotshot smokejumper etc. and I met the acceptance of women into these rolls head on. Not a conventional woman’s occupation they said. Of course you know the level of excellence they had to achieve to break those artificial barriers. What was interesting to me was how much better we became with women in the ranks. They brought more to the table. My own crews in engines and line construction in initial attack were far more effective in our suppression efforts with female integration. I think we need to keep the door open to the best and brightest instead of capitulating. The current Congress is in desperate need of the leadership provided by today’s congresswomen.
I note that patriarchal Japan has a female PM, not so uncommon in the modern world. Angela Merkel was a powerhouse. Our failure to learn from other nations is part of our downfall. We benefited greatly from the input from in-migration is the past. Some of the stories we tell ourselves get very much in our way. Letting billionaires buy up and control so much of the media, and so much else, is big part of the problem. They who would be kings are greatly threatened by egalitarianism.
In my dotage I have come to believe that humanity's own worst enemy is our own inherent narcissism, and we cannot enjoy an environment of liberty and justice without processing our choices though inevitable responsibilities of fate of our society and the human rights of ALL of its people. Wise and responsible self-determination considers extended consequences and weighing and recognizing what matters most. Racism, sexism, homophobia, jingoism, religious discrimination, are all brands of harmful, uncivil narcissism. It seems to me that the worst forms of sociopathy, flat out 9/11 grade evil, is unmitigated, extreme self-centeredness, even if one wraps it in a grandiose, self-serving and exclusionary "cause".
Our vote, lack of it, has extended consequences, and the fallout of our conceits and our negligence tend to fall hardest on those who are already unfairly disempowered.
There is nothing any person can do that is worth a trillion dollars. Nothing. I’m a believer in going back to the 1950s when the top marginal tax rate was 91%. It didn’t seem to impede people’s creativity and patriotism. Even Henry Ford, who supported the Nazis, gave away a lot of his fortune.
From my Memorandum, I say, "Abraham Lincoln, in 1864, delivered a famous speech, 'Address at a Sanitary Fair,' in which he said, 'We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.' The same is true with the word freedom. Liberty refers to freedoms protected by government whereas freedom itself is more a concept of being able to act without restraints. The term "freedom" is frequently employed in advertisements or rallies on university campuses to appeal to voters, particularly young people. To working class Americans, the word freedom includes freedom to breathe safe air, drink safe water, eat safe food, buy safe goods, swim in safe lakes, et cetera. To those of the System the word freedom inspires a rosy picture of creatures of statute operating free of regulations (laws written to protect people, the environment, and our Earth), free of corporate taxation and themselves free from personal responsibility. It should be noted that corporate taxes are in fact a trade-off where government wins by taxing both the corporation for its profits and the shareholders for their profits from their investment in the corporation, and shareholders win by the profits they receive plus not being personally responsible for bad acts of that state chartered creature of statute: negligence, products liability, pollution, personal injuries, wrongful death, et cetera."
I certainly agree with you and Lincoln that we tend to muddle our definitions to our peril. And you know sometimes words have two (or more) meanings (which, of course, makes me wonder). Republican use of language has become genuinely Orwellian. MAGAspeak "Free Market" means no barriers to monopolization, which surely ain't free. "Citizen's United"? Don't make we laugh. "Big Beautiful Bill"? None of it's real, but it matters.
"Free" can mean just, as in "fair and free" elections or "free speech" (which is human communication, not money). FDR spoke of four freedoms, but their is no set number. What he recognized is that there is freedom from as well as freedom to; and you cannot logically separate them. Our freedom to pursue happiness does not include imposition of theft, or rape, or falsely shouting "fire!" in a theater. The alternative is some form of tyranny.
I would say that liberty, as it apples to societies, is ultimately the space for diverse yet responsible choices we grant to one another. Abridging the harmless rights of others does not sustain liberty at all, it diminishes it.
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." - Lincoln
There is a lot we properly outgrew from the 1950s, but also a lot we could learn either way. The middle class was growing, and our governmental choices had a lot to with that. Workers, by and large, got more, and CEOs., etc. got far less. The US prospered and the world continued to spin. Corruption while never absent from human history, was illegal, and that was OK. There was even antitrust.
I had PHDs, lawyers, and doctors working for me over the years and I have had people with GEDs and high school dropouts working for me as well. The letters behind a person's name in no way is an indication that they are competent in any way. Bill Gates doesn't have a college degree and yet he built Microsoft. Dr. Oz has a medical degree from University of Pennsylvania and is arguably a nutcase to use a technical term.
Some of the best programmers I worked with obtained their knowledge and skills on the job and not in the classroom. When I hired consultants, I trusted the opinions of the people that worked with them in the past unless I knew them personally. It seems that people prefer to work with competent and knowledgable people.
So many people, like Trump, have zero critical thinking skills and makes dozens of bad decisions everyday. We have no idea whether he even graduated from college, but it doesn't matter. We know he doesn't read. He doesn't understand anything about, well anything. But he could sell manure and people would buy it.
As Maria Montessori preached throughout her lifetime, "Learning for Life," and that's what I have chosen to do. I don't begrudge anyone that has an advanced degree, but it certainly isn't a top priority in my hiring process.
A degree does not necessarily mean the holder of it can solve the problem at hand. Indeed, most college graduates likely cannot recall many of the the lectures in many of the classes they took, or for that matter even name half of the classes. However, a degree does prove one thing. It proves the person has ran a gauntlet. IOW, they were given a job to do and did it. The important question is what does their transcripts show? What type of gauntlet did they run? How rigorous was their course load and for how long. Some do a four year degree in three years. For example, Gouverneur Morris, at 16 years old, graduated from what today is known as Columbia University, then completed a Master’s degree before studying law and becoming a lawyer at the age of 19. Morris drafted the final text and preamble of our Constitution. Then we had George Washington at the Constitutional Convention also. He never went to college yet his résumé included leading Virginia’s militia in the 1750s against French forces and their Indigenous allies, including tribes like the Shawnee and Delaware, and in 1776 becoming Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. At that time the name “Washington” was synonymous with “Independence.” No doubt that is why Washington sat as President of the Constitutional Convention. It is reasonable to conclude it is also why Madison and Morris framed the Constitution’s requirement to be a President in Article II, Section 1, Clause 5, as only being thirty-five years old, natural born citizen, and live fourteen years within the country. After all, who at the Constitutional Convention would dare have told Washington he is not qualified to lead the country. Unfortunately, there may never be another George Washington and that is my point. That is why We the People must set a standard of “Show me you can run a rigorous gauntlet and get the job done. Show me your classes and grades." You run your business as you please but good God, John McCain was planning on putting Sarah Palin an old man's heart beat away from being President. It took her five years to complete a four year degree in communications. Communications? Really? She bounced to five different colleges in doing so. She begins and quits. Same in her political life.
Bottom line, there is no defense for not having a relevant education and job experience to be President, or to run any of the Departments or Agencies of our country. It cannot be said that RFK, Jr. should be in the Office he oversees. Yet he is there because we have zero standards. He is a danger to us all.
We could at least pass a law that convicted felons cannot be president. The founders presumed elected officials would be of good character. The hope of good character is a flimsy foundation for a country. Look where we are now.
I thought about that when drafting my Memorandum. There I diversify the Executive branch into seven executive specialized Executives overseeing an allotment of the 15 Departments and Agencies among them. Each Executive being required to have an education and work experiences tailored for their job description. I realized being a felon cannot be listed as a "cannot be." The reason, for example, while on the campaign trail in a Yellow State an Orange party candidate will be arrested for some matter created by a Yellow party person and guess who will quickly be convicted?
Another fallacy many Americans seem to believe is that the super wealthy people are smart and competent to do any job asked of them. The "trustifarians" like Betsy DeVos were totally incompetent regardless of her degree and what "gauntlet" she ran to get it. Eating BonBons purchased with her father-in-laws money is the worst qualification I can imagine. And she's not alone in Trumpworld. RFK Jr. is a trustifarian and utterly unqualified for his office as is Trump.
I agree wealth must play no role in fitness for public office. Betsy DeVos is an example of what I am arguing as not fit for the Office. She has a B.A. in business economics and was Secretary of Education. The type of Work of the Department of Education involves Pedagogy (theories of education), sociology, education policy, and statistics. IMO, the standard to serve should be for education and experience: a Post-graduate qualification in Education Sciences of Curriculum and Instruction from an Institution of Higher Education within the United States, plus have worked full-time for ten years or more in Education Sciences of Curriculum and Instruction or a related field, or have been a full-time tenured Professor of Education Sciences of Curriculum and Instruction for five years or more at an Institution of Higher Education within the United States. Our current Secretary of Education, Linda E. McMahon, has a B.A. in French and was CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. God help us!
The most balanced man I know lived across the ravine from my family in Montana. His father proved up a homestead next to my families vast land holdings. He wore bib overalls and pushed a single bottom plow. Somehow we ended up fence neighbors in the western part of the state where Roy Handley’s funeral was the largest ever recorded. I’m sure none of you remember Roy or his son Roy Pete, but those of us who lived beyond his days on earth cannot forget him. His influence moves on non- generationally. He had that kindness, perseverance and smile he said came from part time work as a bartender to make farming work. From him I learned about the padded shoulders under the suit and tie. I have no doubt that his own coat came from the shoulders of his father Roy Senior who was in his mid nineties.
Last year, I built a house for my daughter. I needed help from several subs and their technicians. I could have asked each of them what their educational background was and I probably would have been surprised that many of them had college degrees. But, I only cared about whether they were good at their job and that they would show up when promised. Fortunately, we have lived here for over 20 years and I knew almost every sub and their suppliers from previous projects, so even though we had some delays it all worked out well.
I have used a Drain Auger and Plumber's Snake many times. I designed my own home and built it. I am a lawyer. Can I do your next colonoscopy or are you one of those La-di-da, La-di-da types who demands a medical degree?
Too late. I'm 71 and just had my last colonoscopy (according to my doctor who saved my life years ago and I trust implicitly).
When we lived in Lincoln, NE a builder friend of mine and I were talking about one of the houses he had built for a local proctologist. His comment was, "apparently hanging around assholes rubbed off on him."
And the fact that you are a lawyer and built your own home shows the value of running the gauntlet as you said above. I am sorry for your experience with a "snake." Those are rarely good experiences.
She did pretty well coming out of grad school. Between the GTF (graduate teaching fellow position), job in the "human subjects lab", and a NIMH grant that she was able to "repay" within her time frame by doing volunteer work with our local women's center). Mostly it was with all the hoops to jump through for that degree!
We already knew she was a joke. All appointees are either blank faces or dangerous ones. Our previous homeland security chief was a sadomasochist and Telsa is a blank face meaning quite stupid.
When the xenophobic, anti- Democracy forces on the American right wrote its 2025 plan for America under Trump, we can wonder if what we are living through all across American governance, is what those fellow Americans had in mind.
Did they imagine a rogue, fully armed, police state? Did they imagine a DOJ void of the rule of law? Did they imagine a hateful, demented lying leader whose use of the word "WE" means "ME"? Did they imagine a head of HHS who likes diseases more than cures?
And so on and so forth.
Building a White Nationalist theocracy to replace our Democracy and Constitution has been afoot in America for years. Today, it has brought a new version of our ongoing civil war. We won the last civil war. When we win this one, it is imperative we update and fortify our Constitution to better withstand such vicious assaults. We are a far different country than the agrarian country of our founders. It's way past time we fix the compromises the founders made that enable minority rule in America.
That blank face yet holding a degree in economics, etc., is common. There are people with photographic memories who can pass test, earn a degree and yet cannot apply the knowledge any better than a camera can apply the photos it snapped. That is why I would demand both the degree and work experience in the filed fit for the job.
I agree with the need for intellect, training, experience, good character and a tireless desire to serve this country and its citizens....as requirements for our leaders.
It is difficult to find a man or woman who holds these treasured characteristics.
When found, we must thank them for their service and support them and force them to take a vacation from time to time to rest and recover.
I would like to interject that Harry Truman was a pretty good president. He had OTJ training, and he just knuckled down and got the job done. If only the current imposter in the Oval Office could understand that "the buck stops" at his desk, we would all be better off.
I wonder what happened to Truman's sign that he kept on his desk.. Perhaps it should be nailed firmly to the Resolute desk, with the sentiment about the Buck facing the occupant sitting in the chair at that desk. Whether he likes it or not there are lots of Bucks coming due for Trump, and he is probably not going to like paying for all the times he shoved others under the bus to avoid ever admitting what an incompetent, lying fraud he is.
So now we know what “government efficiency” means in late-stage America. It means a phantom outfit with a frat-house name allegedly wandering through the Social Security Administration’s deepest vaults, helping itself to Social Security numbers, birth dates, citizenship status, race, ethnicity, parents’ names, the intimate administrative skeleton of more than 500 million living and dead Americans. Not a burglary, you understand. A modernization initiative. A little spring cleaning for the surveillance state.
Heather's letter today is chilling because it strips away the last sentimental lie. This is not incompetence. It is architecture. Data is not being gathered for curiosity. It is being gathered for sorting, targeting, classification, and preemption. The same piece notes that FBI Director Kash Patel acknowledged the government buys Americans’ location data from private companies, which is a charming constitutional innovation if your long-term plan is to treat the Fourth Amendment as a decorative heirloom from a simpler age.
And off to the side, pretending to be mere administration, sits ICE, fattened by a $170 billion enforcement package that Reuters reports could fund detention of more than 100,000 people at a time. So there you have it: the data harvest on one side, the cages on the other, and in between the polished language of management.
Americans are not being governed now. They are being indexed. History has seen this genre before, and it never ends with better customer service. As Heather has reminded us many times recently, now is the time to speak out.
Sometimes I have to use a torch to loosen a stuck bolt. My skill set is primitive. I misspent my youth far from town. Your writing is fluid and easy impossible to change a single word. Your influence is phenomenal in these pages. Thank you and Heather both.
One reason it was possible was that last spring, SCOTUS lifted a lower court order putting a hold on DOGE access to our Soc Sec info ‘pending litigation!’ They opined that since DOGE Was not an ‘agency,’ It apparently was not subject to any laws around privacy, freedom of information act, HIPAA, etc. Really. I guess it was OK to break the law if you’re not a government agency. SCOTUS threw us under the bus last spring.
And there is no agency anywhere on this planet -- nor will there ever be -- with the blood-and-guts determination necessary to protect us. That's because what we are witnessing -- thanks to the legions of Original Nazi war criminals the failed U.S. adopted as advisors and comrades-at-arms -- is the actual birth of Hitler's Thousand-Year Reich. And this time there is no Red Army to stop it from fulling its intent of becoming the greatest Evil -- the most gleefully sadistic war-is-fun/pedophilia-is-fun/rape-is-profitable regime -- ever to savage this planet.
Nor should we ever forget the Trumpstein atrocities are both (A)-the tip of the proverbial iceberg and (B)-the permanent, unstoppable norm of ChristoNazi governance as proven by the fact that ChristoNazi theocracy and reigns of terror by pedophiles and rapists are effectively synonymous. For which see the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn by the plaintiff in response to credible death threats: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf
Janis, it's getting very frustrating to hear the words "in violation of." When will we be able to hear the word, "indictments?" We'll, we've hearsd it a few times, but nothing has changed overall. Maybe the word "prison" would help.
I don't know though. What used to be the exception is now the norm. Sad.
Long, long overdue. These criminals have been running amok through every Americans privacy since a traitor was put into the presidency, and likely before that.
According to the Forbes Billionaire List, Musk increased his wealth by $497 billion, the largest increase ever recorded in a single year, edging him ever closer to becoming the world's first trillionaire.
trump is incapable of distinguishing between death and life - and endless repetition of images of violence, hatred and destruction with his rough tactics and rough speeches (furious harangues) show he is dedicated to unleashing severe psychological damage wherever he ca. His resentment and his desire for revenge on the world provide additional fuel for his will to destroy it. These will be the blackest pages in our history.
Or firing squads, or guillotines, or tar and feathering, or to use some of Putin's techniques, thrown out of windows, poisoned, flown in airplanes that blow up - as Hegseth said it takes money to get rid of bad guys - well it also takes a little ingenuity and imagination.
Important to remember that this administration is all about disenfranchisement of immigrants and nativity citizens and people who recognize the value of other cultures to our country, while protecting the immigrants who break the law, lie on thier paperwork, and either fuck or donate millions to the presidents personal piggy bank.
I'm sure Melania has been thrilled that Jared has been too busy overseas to keep Ivanka away from daddy.
What I remember was that there was a legal challenge when this happened. But a weenie judge refused a stay on the grounds that no harm had been documented. Because DOGE claimed it was going to use the data lawfully. And then attention turned from DOGE to the next horrible thing.
My favorite quote of the day which apparently appeared in The Economist
“Although president Donald Trump says he has ‘destroyed 100% of Iran’s military capability,’ the 0% that remains is playing havoc with the global economy.”
Got to hand it to the Brits who never fail to win the gold for 'devastating, backhanded compliments' delivered to doofuses too dumb to tie their own shoelaces together.
That reminds me of a meeting that we had when I was working for a county government. There were two areas of equal importance in the department. The job of both sections was to determine as accurately as possible the value of real property for taxation purposes. While different aspects of value were determined both sections worked together to determine total value. It was apparent at the meeting that neither section knew what the other was doing concerning a critical area of valuation. When we finished with the meeting I went back to my desk & to my co-workers, put up both my hands & said: "right hand, I'd like to introduce you to left hand!"
So, yes, in this regime the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing & there is no desire to rectify the situation because it benefits the regime for things to be disorganized.
Because Iran's military has been destroyed ... except when it hasn't been. Call it "Schrodinger's Military"... it's both dead and alive at the same time!
But Trump said that Obama started the war with Iran 47 years ago when Obama was 17.
It must be accurate because Trump is always careful to get all of his numbers right, like the $17 trillion dollars of foreign investment he keeps bragging about.
Still waiting for the trickle down of any of that money as are the millions of people that were forced to drop their health insurance or that have lost their SNAP benefits.
Trump and Kegsbreath are begging the do nothing Republicans to give them $200 billion more to bomb and kill more Iranian civilians. Just curious, but isn't that a war crime? We can't give our kids free school lunches but we can buy cruise missiles and drones to shoot at innocent people.
In an interview with radio personality Hugh Hewitt, Trump said his decision to use the term “founder” was “no mistake.” “You meant that [Obama] created the vacuum, he lost the peace,” said Hewitt. “No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS, I do,” responded Trump.
Now he accuses the media of misinterpreting what he intended was a sarcastic remark. How many times have heard this excuse for an inane and objectionable comment he has made?
When you apply a number or numbers to a comment like, Obama did something 47 years ago or Hillary did something 70 years ago, can it really be taken as sarcastic.
And my fruitcake was deeply offended by your comment. /s
Pistol Pete Hegseth needs $200 billion to fund the war in Iran. A few months ago Pistol Pete spent $93 million on rib eye steaks and lobster tails. What's left of my brain created a scenario that had me yelling at all members of the American military leadership: "Every ribbon on your dress uniform stands for the name of a schoolgirl murdered at Minab! May you choke on that Pete Hegseth lobster tail... SIR!"
Thank you, Greg, for using the word "Minab," site of the U.S. killing 168 Iranian schoolgirls.
I checked via a simple search, and Minab is the place that deserves our remembering right up there (down there?) with Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, My Lai, and Abu Ghraib.
"But no president acts entirely alone—whatever Trump wants us to believe—and it is well established that Trump can be swayed by what he hears from those around him.
And Trump’s inner circle includes many people who are staunch defenders of Israel, longtime beneficiaries of Israel-related campaign contributions, or both. Trump’s
two Middle East envoys—Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner—are both ardent supporters of Israel, as is U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. Rubio, who also serves as
national security advisor, was a reflexive proponent of the special relationship during his Senate career and one of the biggest recipients of pro-Israel campaign funding.
Current White House chief of staff Susie Wiles worked as a consultant for Netanyahu’s 2020 reelection campaign. Except for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard,
who questioned excessive U.S. support for Israel in her pre-MAGA career, it is hard to think of anyone in the upper reaches of the administration who publicly favors
distancing the United States from Israel.
Second, Trump himself has acknowledged his own debt to ardent pro-Israel figures such as the late Sheldon Adelson and his widow, Miriam. As Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick recount in a recent article in the Nation (and a soon-to-be-published book), Trump singled out Miriam Adelson—the largest single contributor in recent U.S. elections—during his address to the Knesset in October 2025, and even speculated that she might love Israel more than the United States. Similar concerns may also explain why some Democratic Party leaders have been reluctant to criticize Israel for starting the war or the Trump administration for joining in and have focused instead on the failure to plan the war more carefully.
Third, this war did not come out of nowhere. To be sure, the United States and Iran have been at odds for decades, and neither Israel nor the lobby is solely responsible for the
suspicion with which each country views the other. Nonetheless, lobby groups such as AIPAC, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Zionist Organization of America, and United Against Nuclear Iran have worked to demonize Iran over the years, prevent U.S. companies from doing business there, and derail prior attempts by former Iranian presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammed Khatami to improve relations. (For evidence on the latter point, check out chapter 10 of our 2007 book.) Unlike J Street, these groups worked overtime to thwart the 2015 agreement that reduced Iran’s enrichment capacity and nuclear stockpile, and they eventually persuaded Trump to tear up the deal in 2018 even though Iran was in full compliance. Had Trump not done so, of course, there would be much less reason to worry about Iran’s nuclear program today.
Finally, by making it almost impossible for either Democratic or Republican presidents to put meaningful pressure on Israel, the lobby has enabled Netanyahu to engage in
“reckless driving” all over the region, whether in Israel’s sustained efforts to oppress its Palestinian subjects or in its repeated attacks on Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria,
Iran, and even Qatar. Although Steven Simon is correct to say that Israel did not “compel” the U.S. into this latest war—the Trump administration jumped in voluntarily and enthusiastically—the lobby’s role in defending the special relationship and enabling Israel to keep disturbing the peace helps us understand why Americans keep finding themselves embroiled in costly conflicts far from home. " ... ...
Net, We Are Living History.... Alliances Will Shift....
Netanyahu spoke yesterday addressing the claim (originally made by Rubio) that Israel's decision to launch pre-emptive strikes on Iran had prompted the US to join in those attacks. His denial was unconvincing, especially in the light of Israel's recent attack on the South Pars gasfield which has inevitably provoked swift reciprocal attacks by Iran on fossil fuel facilities in the region. Qatar claims that it would take five years for them to restore full capacity at Ras Laffan and cost them $20bn. Reports suggest that Gulf states will seek new security guarantees from the United States.
Trump immediately tried to distance the US from this reckless action in his own inimitable way, on Truth Social.
The more this goes on, the clearer it becomes that Israel, not the US, is running the table on this pointless and expensive war. Israel's attacks on southern Lebanon causing huge damage to civilian areas and over 1,000 deaths and its preparations for yet another ground offensive in Lebanon shows that its policy remains the infliction of exemplary terror on its enemies and the same applies in Iran. I doubt that Trump has sufficient leverage to influence Netanyahu in any sustained way.
Hello Russell... Thanks for your Response... Netanyahu is Wily Tactically, but Foolish Strategically... He should forged a Peace with the Palestinians during his Time in Power the past 20+ Years... Instead he used them as a Whipping Post to stay in Power... Now Netanyahu is subject to the most Far-Right Gov't in Israeli History... Under Netanyahu, Israel has gone from a Liberal Democracy, to an International Pariah... Israelis should think what comes after Netanyahu, who is now 76(?)... Israel is now losing it's most Talented People, and Protecting those that reject the 21st Century... Like DJT, Netanyahu lives only in the Moment, He Is No Statesman...
Sorry, Apache, I'm going to jump on my hobby horse and ride like the wind. The influential Zionists mentioned in the article have only been successful because of the deference to Israel baked into U.S. foreign policy, not by Jews, but by christians who have had an outsized influence on U.S. Government since its inception.
Since the "Early Church," as it is called in Christendom, was formed a couple thousand years ago, and all through its evolution, incarnations and denominations, it has clung to the declaration in Genesis 12:3 of the Hebrew Scriptures (aka the Old Testament) and numerous other passages to the same effect, which alleged Jehovah declaring to Israel: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Thus, christians of all stripes have demanded that the U.S. carry Israel around in our side pocket like a lucky rabbit's foot, pouring cash into its coffers and looking the other way when its government harasses or attacks its neighbors, under the religious delusion that "God blesses the nations that bless Israel."
Hello Dale... With Respect, I don't think that Pope Leo, "christians of all stripes have demanded that the U.S. carry Israel around in our side pocket like a lucky rabbit's foot, pouring cash into its coffers "... There is a New Testament for a Reason... I don't think that most Christians condone the Bruatlity, and Ethic Cleansing in Gaza, the West Bank, or Southern Lebanon....
Apache, I appreciate your point, but my previous comment refers to the •history• of U.S. policy toward Israel. Hence, past tense used in my comment.
Still, the policies remain, even if some christians have changed their minds. In fact, the U.S. Government has been engaged in many activities that are not condoned by We the People, christian or not. But here we are.
Note: At least in my part of the U.S., I could take you today on a driving tour of churches that display signs reading, "We stand behind Israel." If this isn't at least tacit approval of the brutality, I don't know what it is.
The miasma killed a great many people in Britain from what was later determined to be cholera. Someone finally figured out that dumping your sewage into your principle drinking water supply (Thames) leads to death. Trump keeps dumping sewage into about 40 million viewers per day.
What looks like modernization is starting to resemble something far darker: the fusion of mass data access, normalized surveillance, and expanding detention power. Read together, these are not policy details. They are warning signs for democracy....
''The State Wants to Know You Before It Decides What to Do With You
After the mid term elections, the Executive Branch needs to be thoroughly investigated to assess the degree of corruption in each of the departments. After that, the teams should report to the newly Democratically controlled Congress with recommendations on how to restore each of the Departments to their legal and proper functions. The teams also need to draft legislation to implement the recommendations. In fact, the Dems should start drafting the team charters now so they are ready on day 1. Big job ahead!
There's a Constitutional Amendment(s) working it's way through state legislatures to get out of control spending removed from our campaigns and elections.
Oh geez, Mohave, the rot goes so deeply, so widely.
It's not just the Republicans who've rolled over for Donald's multi-faceted corruption and criminality, it's also so many other institutional sides of U.S. life. From universities to elite law firms, from mainstream media normalizing the sensationalism to the social media billionaires and their algorithms making it all much more toxic, poisonous, hate-filled sensational.
Dems, face it, lost touch with working class and rural America. Easier then for Donald's lies about him being for the working man and working woman -- posturing himself as against elites when the Epstein history is revealing Donald's nastiest of ties to highest-placed, most elite pedophiles, money launderers, drug dealers, and arms traffickers -- so many sordid alliances with so many types of murderers (in abc order): Ehud Barak, Bukele, Erdogan, Mohammed bin Salman, Netanyahu, Putin.
Not just a few departments at the federal level that need fixes.
Need to center schools on teachers -- and let the teachers center classes on more history, humanities, essay writing, as if life were personal, not just corrupt institutional.
I have many friends who have left Teaching……(primarily middle and high school)…… excellent, caring individuals so fed up over the years for a wide variety of reasons. Let’s start with income?
My imagination, Bonnie, goes back to the 1950s, when I was a boy.
Teachers (K12), firemen, police, nurses, and EMT's (as ambulance personnel later became known) all had relatively the same middle-class incomes then. All thanks to union workers on assembly lines, starting all over the Great Lakes urban areas. All could buy a new car. Buy a starter home. Washing machine. Dryer. TV. Refrigerator.
Actually, the proper question is, are there enough Democrats courageous enough to repudiate the plutocracy that puppet-masters both parties -- and given that the military now supports the plutocrats rather than the (failed) constitution, I think the answer should be obvious: no there aren't. That's why -- even if the Democrats manage a landslide this fall -- nothing will change. And we'll discover once again the true, reversed-reality meaning of "change we can believe in."
"Pretorian Guard" is too polite a term for the heavily armed privatized rabble at the beck and call of a violent, stupid, pig-ignorant adjudant-turned-Generalissimo into which the Criminal-in-Chief is transforming America's honorable armed forces. Like the IDF, the tools of a madman destroying not only enemy forces, not only whole countries, whole peoples, civilians, men, women and children, not only infrastructures and key energy sources, but the very basis of government on which his country depends. Like Israel, all that tide of destruction... a diversion, to avoid facing justice.
The closing passage of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address transformed, debased. Instead of "the people", government of criminals, by criminals and for criminals.
And these criminals are allowed to kick the can down the road... till mid-April, all the way to November.
Thank you, Loren Bliss. Because I had the military so much on my mind -- no doubt because I'm the son of a naval officer whose politics were too conservative for me but whom I greatly respected, whose memory I cherish -- I'd intended to post this in its own right and so forgot that I'd reacted to your pessimistic comment.
While I too have my doubts about Americans' (and Britons'... and too many others') capacity to learn even from the hardest of hard lessons which we are all now receiving, I disagree fundamentally with something in your stated view. And now that I come to think of it, I am for the same reasons ill at ease with HCR's view, despite immense gratitude to her for the huge body of selfless and deeply invaluable work that she has put in on behalf of American citizens and thoughtful people everywhere.
Events that coincide with the return of Agent Orange to poison America's and the world's wellsprings have always been part of a worldwide crisis and there has never at any time been even the remotest possibility of a return to the status quo ante or anything like it. Our successors will face the impossibly daunting task of cleaning up our Augean Stables, healing and rebuilding a very different world.
The current phase is one of collapse and in this chaos and confusion only two groups of human beings can be in their element: criminals and those who in one way or another transcend the turbulence, the worst and the best, robbers, parasites, scavengers, on the one hand, saints, the wise and so-called primitives, closer to our true human nature, on the other... After all, if there is one thing that I, an ingrained skeptic, know for certain, it is that pack animals like wolves, baboons and African wild dogs are incapable of that human specialty: the selection of a misleader. Their strong survival instincts render that impossible. Some human beings have never lost these animal faculties.
If I am so ill-at-ease in this comments thread, in my dealings with my own people, with my own family, with many of those with whom I share a common project, it is because most of us seem to think only in tight little boxes and never to venture outside imprisoning and mentally crippling beliefs, prejudices, assumptions.
If I have particularly high regard for the example set by Abraham Lincoln, it is because, rather than speak like Jefferson of such "self-evident truths" as that all men are created equal, fine rhetoric at odds even with the facts of his own life, he spoke at Gettysburg of "a new nation... dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
The key word is PROPOSITION.
That he nailed to his masthead. A proposition to live and die by, to live and die for.
Not some half-embalmed belief, some fine abstract concept, some hand-me-down prejudice, tribal, familial, individual, not some pretext for doing whatever it is that I want to do and to hell with the consequences, but the living, beating human heart of the great American experiment.
We never leave of gargling the great words FREEDOM! LIBERTY! We are obsessed with "SUCCESS". And all too often our conception of success turns out to be the ersatz success of human failures.
Schopenhauer expressed it aptly:
"Money is human happiness in the abstract; he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes himself utterly to money."
Now, if there is anything that the American way of living to work rather than working to live exemplifies, it is how it downgrades, even tramples on happiness -- plainly something of no value (because it can't be given a cash value -- and what else IS there?)
As for the Hitech Bros, same kind of perversion, ignoring, sidelining, replacing our immeasurable innate faculties, cutting off both hands, not just like the Sharia punishment for thieves, more like what Leopold II's taskmasters did even to children who failed to meet their daily output target.
Obviously, there's room in this world for moneymen, room for improved technologies... but when we land up with so-called economics that treats most of the inhabitants of the household as expendable cogs in a machine, the others as... vermin... And when our technology is no longer prosthetic but self-serving, independent of human beings, we have entered the world of that archetypal pulp fiction figure, The Mad Scientist, with his dreams of global domination.
*
As for the chosen tool of Ultra-Oligarchy and the maddest of the mad Tech Bros, if he wasn't personally selected and primed by Putin and his New Class of FSB goons to do the fine job of undermining American society and totally sabotaging the power of the United States, they did at the very least sense correctly the value of the horse they were backing.
Meanwhile, Europe should have gotten the point way back in the early 1990s when US Secretary of State James Baker III lambasted European leaders for failing to deal with the Yugoslav civil war directly and, yet again, expecting America to pull Europe's chestnuts out of the fire.
Unfortunately, however, there were forces in America at that time which were determined to trample on Russia now that she was down, determined likewise to keep the huge impoverished country sidelined and separate from European development. For that typically short-sighted hubris, we and the world have paid a high price.
In my notebook at the time when the USSR came to an end:
"Crass materialism has triumphed over dialectical materialism; but this triumph won't last seventy years, maybe not much more than seven."
Rather longer than that until the Subprime Crash in 2007-2008 but now, thanks to a global infestation of narcissistic perverts, this world fuelled and upheld by blind greed has hit a reef.
With no disrespect intended, I fear, Dave A., you like most USians underestimate the apocalyptic depth of this criminal nation's corruption and the finality of our masters' embrace of infinite Evil. Thus I fully expect the plutocrats to find enough bribe-hungry Democrats to get the SAVE Act enacted, thereby Subjugating All Voters Evermore and guaranteeing the ChristoNazi theocracy is indeed the Thousand-Year Reich.
I too hope I am wrong, Marj -- hope with a desperate yearning more intense than I have words to express. But I have seen enough "Democratic" treachery in the post-JFK portion of my almost 86 years -- covered some of it in my working-press years -- to know the Democrats are, by far, the more untrustworthy of the two parties, routinely promising good, then breaking their promises and claiming they had no choice but to help the Republicans deliver their promised evil.
This is the task ahead. This whole mess has provided all the affidavit of what corruption and greed can produce. To that every criminal gravitates to and adds the own ‘expertise’, this whole post and commentary is so very accurately top notch ‘NAIL ON THE HEAD’ .
Unitary Executive Power needs to be discussed as we see these “feeling it in my bones” moments. It is one of the main aims of Russell Vought and the Project.
Why are we not connecting the dots
Right now??
Which Media/Law Fundi is going to be starting this conversation? I know Marc Elias has done a piece on this. Why is he not openly supported in this essential discussion widely and openly? We have a lot of questions right now.. 🧐🆘
Everything connected to this criminal enterprise masquerading as an Administration literally screams subterfuge and camouflage, masquerade and sleight-of-hand. Its true goal revolves less around politics than making vast, surreptitious amounts of money for itself as quickly, as illegally, as clumsily as it can. But it keeps getting caught in its own clumsiness and utter fuckupery.
"They think you will not notice" says a digital expert to police reviewing doctored security camera footage at the headquarters of a powerful Japanese company in Los Angeles In Michael Crichton's business-spy thriller "Rising Sun" (1993). A fake computer disc has been substituted for the real one which shows a prostitute being strangled on its boardroom table by the Chairman himself. "Most of the time, they would be right" he goes on, rebuking the undisciplined American investigators who pay no attention to culture and overlook crucial details in their dealings with Japanese businessmen linked to its powerful underworld.
The overlooking was plainly visible yesterday, vomiting itself right in front of the whole world. During an Oval Office Q-and-A session with President Dumbass and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a Japanese reporter asked: "why didn't you warn your allies before attacking Iran?"
"We wanted to surprise them -- who understands surprises better than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?" came the bizarre reply. The Prime Minister's eyes widened so much I thought they would pop out of her head, even as she kept her hands politely folded in her lap like a delicate napkin.
Donnie Poo-For-Brains Dementia was actually born one year after World War II ended. "They think you will not notice" indeed....
Donold is a demented, heartless, tactless, bullying blowhard. Why any foreign leader would come to the White House to be lectured, berated, or otherwise abused or humiliated by him, I don't know.
But that was such a deep level of cringe hearing Donold say, "Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?" He has absolutely no decency. Donold just can't refrain from blurting out his twisted thoughts and showing such utter disrespect towards Prime Minister Takaichi, who really did show grace and politeness even in such close quarters with that vile, ranting lunatic.
I’ve said it before: Trump’s single redeeming quality is that his malevolence is tempered by massive incompetency. It’s increasingly apparent that this holds true for the entire Trump Regime. Thank God!
There is no strategy in this administration, merely the 3D tactics Roy Cohn taught Donald - Deny, create Doubt, Delay - that he in turn has taught his minions.
The tech bros bought in and joined Rupert in the takeover. Then our press took a powder, sort of seems planned, doesn’t it. Vlad May be the shadow that lurks even more hideously than Roy Cohn, or is it Ronnie’s ghost.
What I so appreciate about these Letters is the vital information that doesn't seem to make it in major media I still read. Our DOGE amnesia—how we forget that our most personal secret information we American citizens have has been deliberately stolen by the Musk and the Trump administration to be sold away for profit—that it really happened and is really being used is case in point! Holy #$%$#$%. If we ever get to a place of holding these folks to account, I imagine they will all, from top to bottom, be spending the rest of their lives in prison.
And we are paying for them! The voter suppression act almost every Republican wants to pass is the final tell. If we don't have massive turnout next November, I think you're 100% correct that we will be sent to those "detention centers."
As the Jews said (reported by a guard) at the gas chambers “I can’t believe this is happening.” Power is something that sticks like super glue. Not to be easily removed
Trump is the head of a criminal organization that is no different from a classic mob family, which is often the case with dictatorships and corrupt monarchies. The one thing we haven't seen much of yet, with the possible exception of Epstein himself, is the permanent elimination of perceived weak links as is common in more experienced mob families. There has to be quite a few agents of the FBI and other federal investigative bodies, either lying low or out of government service, who have first hand knowledge of what was uncovered and documented in those investigations whose files are being systematically purged by Bondi, et. al.
And while it is illegal, one's oath of office does trump other laws, so we might hope that copies of the key parts of files are being kept safe away from Bondi's reach.
Also, I think we might find hope in the ancient wisdom and observation by Sextus Empirics who, in one common translation of the Greek original, noted that "The mills of the gods grind slow, but they grind small."
The fall will come more quickly than it might have otherwise because these folks lack the sense of an insect and are making life ever more difficult for their base. Or put another way, even the lowly honeybee pollinates the flower from which it steals.
🆘 “The United States is in a state of emergency and every state and city has the means to launch legal investigations into criminal conduct this administration commits, with sufficient evidence for those investigations present in the public record already.
🆘 The entire public has legal standing for investigation. Say the President shot someone on 5th avenue, the appropriate response would be an arrest, rather than an election or an impeachment. We must restore law and order. Anybody who has the power to do so and says “not my job” is opening the door to greater and greater horrors. They are responsible, as we all are to degrees.
🆘 Civil suits are fine but criminal investigations and criminal arrests are what will end the madness.
🆘 You don't defeat fascists with injuctions and court orders you do it with the inside of cells.”~Christopher Armitage (3/19/26)
I pay to have my data protected from “bad guys” since FB, ATT and God knows who else has dumped my data on the dark web. But who protects me from a rogue government. Journalists and democrats are just reiterating what we all have known since chump sold us out for the second time. I watched muskrat brag about what they were doing, as did anybody who wasn’t in a coma. One had to be “woke” and not plugged in to the cult crap or the propaganda machine but we have been aware and opposing the evil power machine despite democratic lethargy. Glad they are catching up to HCR and the rest of us who have been awake, but the Trojan Horses sit on the throne. When evil has the keys to the kingdom, they play by no rules. May more join us as the ruling perps shed their facades so that even Fox can’t put lipstick on these pigs.
JD you’re in Texas, as am I. I’m sure you know the same type of people I do—they are completely ignorant of anything except knowing the libs are evil and want to make your children transsexual atheists. I am so disappointed in the total apathy of my suburban neighbors and their allergy to actual thought.
I’m an Ohioan by birth and have lived there intermittently throughout my 74 years. I’ve watched, with considerable despair, the share of no-nothings grow over that time. The collapse of the steel and automobile industries played a part but doesn’t explain totally the ascendancy of characters like Jim Jordan. I am truly hoping that Sherrod Brown wins reelection. That will give me hope that the best part of Midwestern values haven’t completely devolved.
Clevelander here, Heidi, and at 70, I’m right on your heels! While I share your hopes about Sherrod, my TRUE focus is ridding Ohio of the Nazi infiltration. What was once, not THAT long ago, a forward looking state, Ohio has devolved into a testing ground for political corruption. What works here then gets shipped out to other willing states, like Texas. Columbus is a virtual cesspool, as is apparent with the likes of Jon Husted being appointed to replace the immoral jd vance, Gov DeWeenie’s son on the state ‘Supreme Court’, and the Statehouse passing a law to undo something We The People voted overwhelmingly for just 2 years ago. I could go on, but the point is, if we’re going to fix ANYTHING, it has to start in the worst of the States, and I believe the tide is shifting here, and in Texas too.
Heidi, I do not understand where that hatred of transgendered folk comes from. I have a fellow I used to call a friend who is a big time social media "influencer" (whatever that term means in today's lingo) who self-identifies as a "strong, independent free-thinker who believes in Christ" (my paraphrase) whose "Get Real" account is pretty dominated by nutjobs. He posted something mildly critical of some current event, and he got the "both barrels" replies that any of my more liberal posts get.
He then made a post suggesting that we (on that page) could try having open, honest conversations without resorting to "propaganda blasts" and so I sent up a trial balloon asking,, essentially, what the issue was with transgender folks. I got double double barrels for that, including not "reading the room" (my reply was "reading the post") and told that the site was "hard core MAGA".
I know that hate and fear are easier emotions than understanding and acceptance; boy howdy was that revealed to me.
Ally, I am also mystified by the depth of the transgender hate/fear phenomenon. My thinking is that transgender recognition serves as an easy focal point for the MAGA’s underlying fear of societal change.
Congressional Republican’s willful abrogation of their sworn constitutional duty to be a check on the executive branch’s complete abrogation of their sworn constitutional duty is a criminal conspiracy. Period. Their acquiescence is a higher crime than all the crimes of the Trump Junta. Pam Bondi’s unanswered arrogance in her congressional testimony is a slap in the face of democracy and trashes the Constitution. The same for the Republican overt, organized efforts to undermine the 2026 elections.
Yep, this is at the root of it. A fascist madness has overtaken the right-wing party, been building for decades, to the point that it has become a cult. It deserves to be annihilated, but that won’t happen, of course. 35% of the country wants exactly what it’s delivering. I have no idea what we do with these people after the dictator is dead, because as long as they walk among us our democracy will be at risk. And you’re spot on, they are traitors, in violation of the Constitution.
In today's Foreign Affairs, the former Director for Iran at the National Security Council from 2022-25 points out the obvious -- a 'splendid little war' against Iran has now backfired. It is Tehran that will now set the terms for peace, not the Oval Office.
The dumbest President in American history did what most observers thought impossible -- he elevated Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to the status of martyr -- in a country that lives for martyrdom. He gave a gift to the hard-liners in Iran they could not possibly have manufactured on their own. The mullahs are now forcing Trump to choose between reigning in Israel's future behavior (a long shot) or stabilizing global markets spinning wildly out of control now.
What few good options there once existed have now been trashed. In the words of Nate Swanson, the article's author:
"...a tragedy that only Khamenei and Trump, together, could engineer."
Iran could never oppose the might of the US and Israel in military terms. Its strategy at the outset was wild to say the least, but this results from the killing of most of its political and military leadership in the first wave of attacks and the de-centralisation of the IRGC in 2005 into 31 autonomous forces, one in each province (the so-called Mosaic Doctrine). However, now it has settled into an attritional policy where the ultimate aim is just to survive - that alone would constitute a defeat for Trump and Netanyahu. It's why in his statement yesterday, Netanyahu said that only a ground offensive could topple the regime, a suggestion quickly rebuked by Trump even though he has assembled a Marine Expeditionary Unit to take over Kharg Island to try and force Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz. Israel and the US are not on the same page.
Damn, I thought they were building compounds on military bases. Guess the ballroom will be chumps new home, maybe a Hitler-style bunker. Could become a padded cell, I guess
How is it possible that doge ( a fictitious entity, unsanctioned) can walk into and despoil the records of every living American and walk away uncontested from the Social security administration and we find that information for sale? I want ropes scaffolds and twitching bodies. And I want them now.
Me too, but we wiill get no ropes. Nor scaffolds nor twitching bodies. The Trump regime is entirely lawless, and there is no organization that can put a stop to their lawlessness. Our only hope of even minor containment of their lawlessness is a blue tsunami in November. The odds don’t favor that, but people who want that outcome had better put their backs into it now.
Please, that's not our only hope. It is a good hope. There are honest judges and prosecutors still. There are many members of the military who hold to their oath to the Constitution. And there are many, many of us, a majority in the country, who know that Trump and most of his administration are criminals and don't deserve an election. They require court proceedings, and refusal of orders, and substantive protests, even a general strike.
Some of these things might make a dent, but I don’t think fhe military is one of them. They acquiesced to piracy on the high seas, something that has been illegal for hundreds of years. Once they went down that road it became unrealistic to imagine them giving us a hand in stopping the regime’s lawlessness. The opposite. They are aiding the kleptocracy, and it will probably get worse. We got a hint of what was to come when all 700 general officers remained silent when Trump got them in a room to listen to his nonsensical rant.
But that was the point. They sat silent, while he ranted. They were ordered to appear. They didn't applaud, they didn't dance, they didn't froth at the mouth the way he and his Sidekick wanted them to. There wasn't a single one of them that didn't walk out that auditorium horrified to their gills.
Everyday he tests their capacity for enduring nausea. You think they didn't notice the MAGA merch hat at Dover, the crass demands for money that accompanied a "dignified" salute to the remains of US servicemen returning home? What you've seen so far at DOJ -- the mass resignations, the walk-outs -- could well be a prelude to what you may soon see at DOD.
The way it looks now I don’t think we’re gonna see anything.
Don't let ICTT's backhandedly pro-ChristoNazi optimism deceive you; as Mr. Page says, the military's oath-breaking criminality proves it is irremediably ChristoNazified (and therefore will never again be anything other than our deadly enemy). Because of that, I see no hope whatsoever. We need to realize our situation is identical to that of the First Nations people when they were targeted for extermination by the USian people and the always criminal regime of the failed former United States and start responding accordingly, recognizing that the best we can hope to gain by our resistance is an honorable death.
ICE is the current version of Hitler's "Brownshirts." Also known as the Storm Troopers. Trump and crew plan on taking over the country by force to maintain power. From Wikipedia: “the largest and most well-funded federal law enforcement agency in U.S. history.” Shooting people to death without consequences. The US House is effectively nullified. Often not in session. Government officers refuse to produce information. Trump has been putting military force into cities to show that he can. And he will.
One can hope that some are catching on and stepping up as - leaving the regime and speaking out. Even as whistle blowers. Even Trump acolyte Joe Kent has quit and called for threatening to pause military aid to the genocidal and suicidal Netanyahu regime; Kent's impetus includes his anti semitism. But enforcing the Leahy Laws - to pause offensive military aid but not defensive - ought to have been done by both Biden and Trump administrations.
A sacrificed career and early retirement that I remember was what I credit Admiral Fallon with. It was a critical dissent that effectively stopped an attack on Iran that the administration wanted so badly back in 2008.
There is very little of the background information I remember to be found in current stories but there is a tiny bit in a press release by Rep Maxine Waters on July 30, 2009 at https://waters.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-waters-troubled-resignation-admiral-fallon
Adm Fallon relinquished command of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in March 2008, about 4 months before gas prices hit one of the longest term highs, which to me, was a major factor that led to the 2008 Financial Crisis in September, and resulting Democratic victories that Fall.
To me, Adm Fallon believed in much better long term planning and effective diplomacy, over the ill-thought through actions that could produce a quick looking victory that had no Phase IV planning at all. I will never forget a Colonel, that had been part of the initial planning for Iraq, telling us that Donald Rumsfeld had told them that he would fire anyone who even mention Phase IV.
See"Commentary, Iraq Without a Plan," Michael E. O’Hanlon, January 1, 2005 at: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/iraq-without-a-plan/
"...The post-invasion phase of the Iraq mission has been the least well-planned American military mission since Somalia in 1993, if not Lebanon in 1983, and its consequences for the nation have been far worse than any set of military mistakes since Vietnam. The U.S. armed forces simply were not prepared for the core task that the United States needed to perform when it destroyed Iraq’s existing government—to provide security, always the first responsibility of any sovereign government or occupier.
The standard explanation for this lack of preparedness among most defense and foreign policy specialists, and the U.S. military as well, is that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and much of the rest of the Bush administration insisted on fighting the war with too few troops and too Pollyannaish a view of what would happen inside Iraq once Saddam was overthrown. This explanation is largely right. Taken to an extreme, however, it is dangerously wrong. It blames the mistakes of one civilian leader of the Department of Defense, and one particular administration, for a debacle that was foreseeable and indeed foreseen by most experts in the field. Under these circumstances, planners and high-ranking officers of the U.S. armed forces were not fulfilling their responsibilities to the Constitution or their own brave fighting men and women by quietly and subserviently deferring to the civilian leadership. Congress might have been expected to do more as well, but in fact it did a considerable amount of work to highlight the issue of post-invasion planning—and in any case, it was not well positioned to critique or improve or even know the intricacies of war plans. On this issue, the country’s primary hope for an effective system of checks and balances on the mistakes of executive branch officials was the U.S. armed forces..."
Have we learned nothing?
It's, I have read that some in the military are questioning the war in Iraq, but some are treating it like a religious crusade as is the drunk. I would love to see mass walkouts at the DOD.
The Intercept has a new report on the Air Force BOV. Ally House shoukd know about this as well besides everyone else Michele. Erika Kirk is being appointed to the board. She is the widow of Charlie Kirk and creatur of Tirning Point which is now going into high schools. What they have done and I have seen this going on for these a decade is taking these committees and boards and infiltrating them with those who will follow the 2025 game plan. Historical societies groups formed to raise money for SCOTUS or government entities. The American Medical Association position back in the day when more male than not had an American Medical Association Auxilary more female than not. They sold things go make money for scholarships and had teas and luncheons. In Catholic parishes it was the Altar and Sanctuary Guild who helped clean the church and set up the alter and sanctuary. If you visit the Chatuataqua Institute in New York there are a wide ranging places of Protestant groups and societies along with their diverse house of many religions. It was a helpful community support in some ways but like any tool can be used badly and for terrible reasons. We don’t ban hammers we teach people how to use them to help not hurt or harm. And so tragic because the military has led in some ways in not only integration but acceptance of LBGQT plus folks. They of all people know when you are in trouble doesn’t matter what your support people believe elevate just that you can trust them to have your back.
Mother Jones highlights a Reveal podcast on Fred Rigers. There was a tine when PBS had all those lovely book to film productions and now only a shadow.
Getting on board on in these groups important. I trued with my local library board they laughed. I trued in my Chikdren’s school system to be on a parent group working on textbooks in the school. The friendly school principal delicates moved me away from joining. Looking back I had no idea of the political islands we were living on. We had just moved five miles away but Avon Lake, Ohio so so different from our town in Cuyahoga County. The mindsets of communties hard to discern. But we need to not only discern now but act if one is allowed. I had radical MSW written all over.
Not enough. We are killing in an undeclared war. Dropping bombs from a airplane is impersonal.
We're also killing a magnificent ancient culture. It's the Bibi MO to just bomb and bomb and bomb with our bombs, never mind that universities, museums, ancient architecture, etc. get targeted too.
So two allies led by weak men destined for prison when they lose their positions spread chaos and war to stay in power. As Eugene Robinson pointed out this morning, when israel assassinated every possible Iranian leader whose head is raised, the end result is a failed state with no one left to negotiate a lasting peace and the culture in ruins The ultimate tragedy for the brave Iranians who believed we were coming to help them.
No one dares to get close to Iran. Almost like Gaza: dropping 2K pound bombs and sharpshooting children or whomever, or the waving Hi! Israelis (Whoops)was the best plan...going in and having to deal with guys in sneakers placing bombs made of unexploded munitions on tanks...too much for the IDF.
I wonder how many have lost their careers since that day. Only yes men need apply.
I was very heartened by the expressionless, skeptical silence of the military leadership.
Pray, or whatever effort you employ to prevent it, that there is no mass resignation of the ethical and principled commanders. That would leave only a cadre of MAGAs with "armoured cars and tanks and guns" that come "to take away our sons" and daughters. We don't want to have "to stand behind the man" and woman who "stand behind the wire."
ICTT, I posted my response to Rex Page before I read yours. Just wanted you to know that I agree with you totally on this.
Thanks much, Janet.
Someone else, a veteran, I think, posted about the exhaustion of those serving on aircraft carriers after months at sea. I can only imagine. Even exhaunted men and women can do heroic things for extended periods of time if they sense their leaders know what they're doing and are telling them the truth. I can't imagine what most sailors, marines and airmen/women are thinking now -- the religious zealots excluded.
I take it you’re okay with the piracy, then. No violation of military codes or oaths?
Rex, I do think there is some hope for our military, or at least maybe those who served previously to Trumpian dictatorship. We do need this incompetents gone, but part of the reason they got into office in the first place is that one of our political parties, Republican, has become rogue, willing to ignore our Constitution, and scared of an old man with dementia (at least since 2019 which meant they knew he was failing before they ran him again in 2020 and 2024). They are responsible for this, but accept no responsibility because they have reverted to adult-toddlerism and can't stand up for anything positive anymore. They prefer to crawl to a cadre of rich ignorant white boys who let them think those rich white guys could "bury them." Truly distressing and disgusting!
They have also been engaged in war crimes - not just the bombing of a school in Iran (and the continued cover-up of their involvement) but also the torpedoeing of an Iranian warship in international waters some 4,000 kilometres away from the arena of the so-called 'little excursion' in the Arabian Gulf.
Sadly, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, too often at his press conferences with the execrable Hegseth joins in on extolling the efficiency of US bombing instead of reflecting on its complete ineffectiveness in dislodging the awful Iranian regime.
War crimes by our opponents doesn't justify the US committing any war crimes. But let's not forget those crimes by our opponents: Russia bombing civilians in Ukraine, Iran killing thousands of protestors. Hamas killing or raping Israelis in the attacks they started on 10/7/23. These regimes are evil and we oppose them legitimately. The scale and reach of their aggression is huge.
This report of DOGE selling/sharing private Information with a " political group" with the express intention of using that information to overturn election results in "certain states", made me actually stop breathing for a few seconds. We can easily and rightly assume what brand of "political group" is seeking this information and which "certain states" they will target.
And all the while Trump keeps whining that Democrats can "only win by cheating". Every accusation is a tell of his very own intentions. I have had vague fears about the mid-terms. Now I am simply terrified.
Precisely!
Rex, if only we could gather up all the military and government leaders who walked out in protest and organize a countercoup with some teeth in it and restore sanity to this world. I feel as if we are all being tested cosmically and failing the test.
The fire on the Ford aircraft carrier might—and I stress might—be a sign that some rank-and-file members of the military are fed up with the incompetence and lawlessness of this so-called Administration. The cause of this fire is under investigation. It started in the carrier’s aft laundry facility and caused extensive smoke damage. It took 30 hours to contain it and clean up the mess. About 600 sailors lost their racks (beds) and the Navy has reportedly taken 1,000 mattresses off the future USS John F. Kennedy to send to the Ford. Almost 2,000 sweatsuits and other clothing items have also been collected to distribute to the crew because many sailors are unable to clean their clothes with most of the laundry services out of commission. Fires in ship laundries are dangerous, but not uncommon. Something as simple as not cleaning dryer lint filters can spark a fire. The smoke moves through ventilation systems. The Ford’s current deployment has been extended multiple times, as part of the Navy’s engagements in the Caribbean, Venezuela, and the Gulf. The Navy claims crew morale remains strong, but I wonder about that. Is sabotage possible? Would exhausted, frustrated crew members risk court martial and the consequences if found guilty?
Having served on an aircraft carrier in the late 60's early 70's I can attest to it being a drag after 6 to 9 months at sea. Moral is degraded from the daily grind of flight operations, readiness, and lack of decent food. I'll give you an example, when we ran out of fresh eggs and milk then powdered eggs and milk would be served and it sucked, and just that aspect would wear you down. In addition, the ship itself would wear down and when people are worn out mistakes happen and in combat situations that can become deadly. I can tell you that when "general quarters" was sounded and the words of "fire on the flight deck" were spoken it would raise the hair on the back of your neck because we had all seen the USS Forrestall video from 1967, and it was bad, very bad, to the point of it being de-commissioned and scrapped. Are these guys tired, I guarantee they are.
And in case you have any doubts fix yourself up a plate of powdered eggs and wash it down with Alba.
Al, I haven't had any since those days and I'm too old to try them now. 😂
🤢
One of our older aeronautics students, becoming a certified A&P Mechanic to work on civilian aircraft, had been aboard the Enterprise fighting the January 1969 fire.
His description of using a water hose startled me, given that fuel fires need to be fought with foam. He schooled me on the differences between the Forrestal fire where the best trained specialist fire fighters were killed when an old 500 lb bomb exploded killing most of the specialist fire fighters and at least one of the pilots next to John McCain's. McCain wounded and 134 sailors were killed, 161 wounded or otherwise injured.
They trained everyone after that in basic firefighting, which he was doing spraying water on the Zuni rockets on the aircraft in front of him to keep them from overheating and firing (standing as close to the center hoping they would go past on either side if they did fire). The more specialist fire fighters handled the foam to suppress fuel fires, and do the best to not spread fuel as had happened on the Forrestal). He credited the better training of far more of the crew with limiting the loss to 27 sailors and 314 injured. I later found another major difference was the Forrestal had very old thin shell, and unstable bombs delivered due to a shortage of the newer safer bombs.
We seemed to be trying to use up or give away as much of our old weapons and ammunition left over from Korea as we could. Makes me think of "Loose Cannons" being replaced by "Loose Bombs" (and bomber fans that think bombs can solve all problems).
Jim, it was no picnic on board an aircraft carrier. We lost an average of one person a month on board, be it pilot, or ships personal. It was a death trap if you didn't know what you were doing, case in point, we had a new-be on board on the flight deck that walked in front of an aircraft and got sucked into the engine. He died a couple of days later from his injuries. I learned a lot and when I left the Navy and entered civilian life in the construction industry, I took lessons learned on the flight deck and was never injured. Safety became my mantra for me and those that worked for me, it follows me now at 77 years of age. The military is the best training a young man can get. I'm a bleeding-heart liberal and still believe in service to country and lessons learned.
Dave A. My massage therapist served on an aircraft carrier and he is aghast at what is happening and has commented on the need to maintain ships in dry dock which is where the Ford should be.
I'm all in for a General Strike. I've been calling for one for a year now. There has so far been limited appetite for such an act. It's a heavy lift. Many people don't understand the idea, thinking only organized Union members can call a strike. Not true. General means anyone or everyone in general. Part of the issue is the idea itself is not clearly defined. Indeed, it is open to interpretation. Deciding what it should look like is a good first step. In my mind it is a political act and a movement to show the strength of We The People.
There are many, many more of us as normal, commonsense individuals, than of them, who are using positions of power to mislead our country for their own very questionable ends. It is well past time we remind Everyone where true power resides. With The People!
That is the #1 highest value response I have seen. It’s high time we went to that dance, Syd. A join in progress event. Music prayer food representatives. I remember the peace symbol in one hand and the m-60 in the other. We camped out for over 300 days and sure enough a freedom bird scooped us up. Let them come to us and tell us to our faces why we should return them to Washington D.C. or state capitols. Let’s have that conversation in face to face. Make it happen over 5 days, 10 states at a time. County fairgrounds. Bring a tent. Set up in the arena. We are the attraction.
You better hope the SAVE Act doesn't pass. If i does we are doomed.
Let us not forget the good citizens comprising Grand Juries.
But Trump will pardon everyone. They will never be punished.
Yes, they require court proceedings, but that guy who stole the data from SSA is probably in a non-extradtion country by now. We will never know who he is.
If one court rules in favor of the law, another court will overrule that ruling.
You know, like Cannon in FL. Even if anything gets to SCOTUS, do you think that the Robert's court would rule against Trump?
Apologies. I deleted my initial response because I'd misread your comment as saying Pat Cole's call for lynching was a good hope, when in fact you meant Rex Page's call for getting out the vote for Democratic candidates was a good hope but not the only hope.
You called it lynching lin. I called for justice sufficient to the unrelenting crimes. I don’t overlook summary justice dealt by this regime to those of us who must stem the tide. Since yours is the omnipotent view can you name all those who have been summarily executed? Can you even count them? How many dead’s are sufficient to supply retributive condemnation?
You first wrote: I want ropes scaffolds and twitching bodies. And I want them now.
Now you write: . I called for justice sufficient to the unrelenting crimes.
A fair reading of your first comment is that it graphically speaks to vigilantism. Now you have a revised speaking to a judicial process which was neither explicit nor implicit in your first comment.
I am well aware of the abuses of the Republican regime. And also of the judiciary process - slow and fraught as it is, which has released Kilmar Abrego Garcia and NYC student Dylan. For instance.
Our most immediate job is to Vote Blue No Matter Who and take back the House, Senate, and state governments. GOTV is now
Our most immediate job is to silence the rifles. I hold that these times of rampant death demand our stepping into that line of fire and stopping the shooters. I don’t much care for fools who stand by and watch as their turn in the burrow pit comes up next. I’ll take that bullet between the eyes, thank you ma’am, before I’ll countenance victims falling like spring rain. You like to project your infinite wisdom over us stupid stalwarts. So be it. I don’t expect many to follow me to the sound and the fury. I’m actually glad that clairvoyants like you can read between the lines and preinterpret everything that is uttered. Literary criticism owes much to your ranks. I’ll invent my own words in my own way. You can carry the story in the direction of your heart’s content. Tell the truth as though it were a lie so people don’t have to believe it. I’m sure that I’m wrong again, as usual. Thanks in advance.
Politely I should have explained to you the differences between scaffolding and vigilantism. You may or may not know the 13 of the scaffold, steps to the gallows, refer quite explicitly to jury, as in trial by jury and guilty verdict. Doesn’t make as good of an argument as 3-7-77 as you interpret it in favor of vigilante justice. One step up the scaffold for each jury member. Would you like me to speak slower? Perhaps I could double space leaving room for red ink. Don’t get me wrong. Your story was better than mine. You can shame this clarification as well without bringing me to grief because I admire your work ethic, your honesty and your commitment, as your clarity elevates all of us most of the time. The first string is rested now so I’ll go back to the bench.
Okay, okay we'll have a trial first. Then we'll get the twisting, twisting slowly in the wind.
Still, I feel like I'm living in a different country....
No, it’s the same country it’s always been. Or maybe even a little better. My guess is that the fraction of white supremacists has dropped from roughly 90% of white Americans in 1950 to roughly 60% today. Before the mid-1960s, some of them voted D, since the possibility of losing white economic, legal, and political advantages was minimal until after the enactment of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. Since those acts became law, a 20-point to 40-point majority of white votes have been R because the Republicans have pledged to do everything they can to preserve white advantages and the Democrats haven’t.
Agreed.
I understand that the requests for conscientious objector status has been increasing. Not leaving the service but in noncombat roles. Sort of like Desmond Doss, (a medal of valor recipient) who became a combat medic and was credited for saving 75 injured soldiers in one battle.
Lawless while claiming legitimacy. Sounds like Nazis to me
Nazis were hanged.
Took a while though
Sounds like?
I got banned from FB and T for saying so in 2020. Been their playbook for a while. Proud of it since chump
I think being banned from Facebook is a badge of honor. It is a bit like being on Nixon's enemy's list. Well done!
FB got me an intro to HCR for that I’m thankful. They also relieved me of duty upon occasion. I really miss my friends but now I call them personally and catch up. I used to write back when I didn’t live near phones. I’ve always found your barometer accurate and glad you have also retired from zuckering. There sure are a lot of zuckers out there.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/02/11/xobm-f11.html
This is a calamity, long time coming: MAGA is 21st century KKK; our churches failed to combat racism head on and our schools failed to teach the students critical thinking skills, history and government. Passage of the 1965 Civil Rights Act should have been a springboard to address the issue of race, but still the Great Replacement Theory has a strong hold on about 30% of our population, if not more.
When the xenophobic, anti- Democracy forces on the American right wrote its 2025 plan for America under Trump, we can wonder if what we are living through all across American governance, is what those fellow Americans had in mind.
Did they imagine a rogue, fully armed, police state? Did they imagine a DOJ void of the rule of law? Did they imagine a hateful, demented lying leader whose use of the word "WE" means "ME"? Did they imagine a head of HHS who likes diseases more than cures?
And so on and so forth.
Building a White Nationalist theocracy to replace our Democracy and Constitution has been afoot in America for years. Today, it has brought a new version of our ongoing civil war. We won the last civil war. When we win this one, it is imperative we update and fortify our Constitution to better withstand such vicious assaults. We are a far different country than the agrarian country of our founders. It's way past time we fix the compromises the founders made that enable minority rule in America.
… and now, Trump is channeling Nazi eugenics. That “science” wasn’t limited to Nazi Germany. Many Americans embraced it, too. They will, or have, again.
Not just past or future, Dave.... It's here.
We reportedly need around 12 million Americans to show up on March 28 - with 7 million being the previous high for the last no Kings rally. That’s a heavy lift, but I expect us to top the 7 million standing record.
William Burke,
My husband and I are counting the days when we will make our presence known in support of a Democracy NOT rule by a king....especially an incompetent one and the group of his "pretend leaders" who are daily destroying our country and leaving our children and young adults without a better foundation for their future as well as the future of our country!!!!
The first national protest, "Hands Off" brought out 2-3 million.
The next national protest "No Kings 1" - 5 million.
The October "No Kings 2" brought 7 million and got national media attention.
March 28 "No Kings 3" should hit the 10 million mark.
"We want her under oath because we don’t trust her,” Frost reiterated. “We want her under oath because she has shown that she is involved in a cover up…."
We want her under oath because if she lies under oath she can be prosecuted for perjury.
No scaffold, but a long prison sentence would suffice, and act as a deterrent to all future scofflaws, elected or not.
One of the things that makes winning the mid-terms imperative for the survival of democracy is that these liars/cheaters must be tried and convicted of their crimes....including the Orange Felon. That is exactly why they are being so aggresive in their refusal to obey laws that they find threatening to their hold on power. I keep praying every day that the facts hidden so far in the Epstein Files will break free before November, so that there is no doubt that our "president" is indeed a criminal who should have been imprisoned for the good of society long ago.
Jeeze Linda every time someone brings up mid-terms I panic because I know I haven’t studied yet it’s been 50 years since.
And the first thing we need to do is get over the myth that our elections are secure. They are not secure, and they’re getting less secure each day. The fascist machine has been busy at work for a few decades now, culminating. In 2016 in 2024. (2020 had a very large mail-in component because of Covid.) The electiontruthhttp://alliance.org shows highly manipulated tabulation data. I would also recommend reading the very latest This Will Hold Substack on the 2016 election. The conspirators were Russian, yes, but Silicon Valley and Epstein were in cahoots to get Trump into power. And now we have a MAGA Diehard owning all the formerly named Dominion machines that are used in 27 states. We have DOGE-pilfered personal data, voter suppression at peak levels, and Trump grabbing State data. And we expect free and fair elections?? And here’s Putin whispering into Trump’s ear in Alaska, ‘get rid of Mail in voting’…
Heather Elowe,
We must VOTE! we must not be deterred by fear that our vote will not count.
I believe in the American citizens who will be serving and who will come to vote. I say lets make sure NOW that we have the proper IDs that are required. Lets be orderly and lets flood the voting locations ....BE PREPARED FOR LONG LINES AND FOR WAITING IF WE HAVE CHOSEN THIS TRADITIONAL METHOD OF VOTING! We can offer rides to friends and neighbors. If citizens are overseas or use the "vote by mail" method, check and double check to make sure all requirements are followed...one may even choose to make copies of their vote before placing it in the mail.
We need to be careful, pay attention to details and requirements and assist our friends and neighbors as needed.
I still and will always use mail-in voting. The tRvmp regime is working overtime to get rid of this method because it works.
The damage done to the postal service by DeJoy is ongoing! I saw a post yesterday that the Postal Service will run out of money in a few years. I'm concerned that what's been done to the service in tdumps first term and now WILL make a difference in the election. And THAT worries me in regard to mail in voting.
Use drop boxes if possible. I do that, and I even take my ballot inside the election commission to hand deliver it. I won't count on the mail.
Yes we must vote, but we need to expose the corruption beforehand so the local districts can protect the election integrity. The Feds are complicit so there will be no justice there. People don’t want their votes messed with.
Jess Craven’s recent interview with a very credible whistleblower.⬇️
“Y’all, this conversation with Chuck Borges, former Social Security Administration Chief Data Officer under Trump, then whistleblower, and now candidate for State Senate in Maryland, was actually amazing—albeit a little scary. What he had to say about Social Security and our data is a must-hear.”
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/p/live-with-charles-borges-social-security?
Chuck Borges
State Senate - District 29
FATHER.VETERAN.LEADER
https://chuck4md.com/
Thanks so much, Kathy - very scary but he is the kind of person we need in government - local and national!
Again, thanks - will share this on other blogs.
Let's also admit that W and trump, two swaggering, ignorant republicans, who have gone to war based on a lie (and have gotten away with it), have thrown the world into chaos. W unleashing mass migration that has angered Europe to the point of its experiencing severe anti-immigrant protests and fascist movements in many countries. And trump is causing severe energy shortages in southeast Asia which will harm economies and life.
TY REX, no doubt ,period.
This regime near perfects the greatest con , a corporate entity for their own leverage (the end game is straight out extortion).
And, all for more money to be extracted from whomever, by algorithms, force, by lying, by covering up for the other criminals.
They are a gang, everyone who has been complicit. Many will go to jail , but never being allowed to serve in any official capacity should be a life sentence.
Like Paladin(Richard Boone) we will stay on that trail. To jail.
None of them will go to jail.
'promising to share Social Security data in order to OVERTURN ELECTION RESULTS IN CERTAIN STATES'!!??
And yet, let's discuss the spat between ICTT and Loren Bliss?
And if the election is overturned or manipulated using data stolen by DOGE, what will you do then?
We should not give up on holding these criminals accountable. That is submitting in advance.
Yes. The first step in that direction is a blue tsunami in November. Without that, the prospects are poor, to put it mildly, for accountability in the mob of thugs comprising the Trump regime.
No quarter!! 😜
The Trump administration has experienced a high rate of legal losses in lower federal courts, with some estimates showing they lost over 70% to 90% of certain types of cases, such as deregulation efforts. However, the administration has seen a, higher success rate at the Supreme Court level, winning 21 out of 24 cases in 2025.
- Lower Court Losses: A Stanford analysis found the administration lost 96% of rulings in some federal district courts, with both Republican and Democratic-appointed judges ruling against them frequently.
- Overall Litigation: Democracy Forward reports the administration lost more than 70% of over 600 lawsuits.
- Deregulation Cases: Over 90% of the administration's deregulatory efforts were blocked or withdrawn following lawsuits.
- Supreme Court Success: Despite lower court losses, the administration had a 16-case winning streak at the Supreme Court as of late 2025.
- Contextual Differences: While initial studies showed a very high loss rate, a 2025 study indicated that when controlling for specific opinions, the Trump and Biden administrations had similar, higher win rates, highlighting that counting method matters.
Yes. Those things are hopeful signs, but at present, there is no organization available to enforce those decisions.
Well, let's take Nancy Reagan's advice and Just Say No. (no more, anyway)
Uh… okay. I presume you remember how effective that bimbo’s message was.
I agree about the blue tsunami and would add mass and judicial action against election rigging and voter suppression which will almost certainly be tried. We also need to learn from other countries' experiences when removing criminal authoritarians. Some form of amnesty or exile opportunity must be offered to at least second echelon perpetrators or out of desperation, they will fight to the end.
The odds do favor it. Attend a No Kings protest near you on March 28. It should draw 9-10 million this time. Senators and Representatives will pay attention to that. Media IS covering it. Close to 3,000 separate protests all over the U.S.
Trump will barely know it's happening, and he's irrelevant. Its aimed at politicians who have to win votes from us in November
They'll definitely know its happening.
Judges and courts are helping. Trumps incompetence is helping. There are way, way, way more if us than them. They just sound louder.
Okay, will do. However, even if 20 million or 30 million protesters showed up, if would have no effect on the Trump regime. What we need is 20 or 30 million activists working ten hours a week on get-out-the-vote projects with reputable organizations like SwingLeft or Indivisable or more local but well organized groups like the Arizona Native Democrats or the Dolores Huerta Action Fund, to name two highly effective local organizations that I have personal experience with. It’s possible to outvote the Republicans with a monumental effort and a substantial amount of luck, but MAGATs (or Trump supporters of any stripe) are shameless louts who cannot be influenced by human concerns like fairness.
I want a National Razor. I want heads to roll. Tulsi Gabbard is the Director of National Intelligence Agency. AI explains the primary job “... is to integrate all national security intelligence and set priorities for collecting, analyzing, and sharing information on foreign threats.” Acting as the principal advisor to the President is #1. National Intelligence professionals qualify themselves as “Certified Counterintelligence Threat Analyst”, “Certified Cyber Intelligence Professional”, or “Criminal Intelligence Certified Analyst”. All of which require years of experience in the filed of study. https://www.slu.edu/online/blog/what-is-an-intelligence-analyst.php Gabbard “was mostly home schooled except for two years at a girls' school in the Philippines.” And learned spiritual principles like karma. Has a B.S. degree in business administration. Wiki. Gabbard has no experience in this filed of work and is unfit for duty. It does not stop with her either.
The Department of Defense involves military science and strategy, engineering, logistics, intelligence. But the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. has only a B.A. in political science. The Department of Health and Human Services involves public health, medicine, and biomedical research. But the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a B.A. in American history and literature. and a law degree. Plus he is as off kilter as Trump. We have 15 Executive Departments and only two actually have someone properly educated for the job to oversee them, yet they both have their heads where the sun never shines. Democrats must make this corrupt favoritism of “Unfit for Duty” a campaign issue. What we really need is to stop thinking another self-educated George Washington is going to save us. We need to Amend the Constitution and set some requirements, standards, for what is required to head these Departments, Agencies and to be President. I would not allow a proctologist to touch my ass unless they have a medical degree. Yet we have an ASS in the White House? Please read, discuss and share my Memorandum at UnitedWeAmend.org.
What we really need is for voters to stop from electing billionaires since they are looking out for themselves and not the majority of our population. We should instead put heavy taxes on them. During Eisenhowers presidency the wealthy were taxed at 90%. Reagan started to really slash taxes for the wealthy/corporations, while taxing Social Security checks. He also got rid of the Inheritance tax so that when the billionairts died their children, who were already as rich as Midas, became more wealthy to use their money to their own benefit. (like bribing Supreme Court Justices)
JHC.... Musk paid $0 taxes last year !
I understand. The last thing on my mind when I wake up in the morning is "Hey, we need another hotel building billionaire in the White House. " But then there is JB Pritzker. People can say what they want about Pritzker, but because he is also a hotel building billionaire that may make too many Democrats stay home. It is true, they stayed home when Trump won over Clinton. They stayed home when Trump won over Harris. Both of those well qualified candidates should have won but for... We need to inform all progressives, liberals and moderates to vote Blue LOCKSTEP! We need to register new Democrats and assure they vote. This is all happening in our own neighborhoods. IOW, it is on us! If Pritzker wins the nomination we must give him the White House.
Not all of the wealthiest are tyrannical sociopaths, but in general the shift toward overconcentration of wealth in relatively few hands has greatly shifted the influence of the great preponderance of people away from governance of, by and for the people and toward plutocracy. Scales of justice? There is a big, fat moneybag sitting on the 1% side of the equation.
McKenzie Scott (former wife of Jeff Bezos) and Melinda Gates (former wife of Bill Gates) have given away huge sums of their fortunes to worthy causes. Musk? No. Bezos? No.
Muskrat had USAID shut down so they wouldn’t investigate his turning off Ukraine’s Starlink satellites before two separate attacks by Russia. I am suspicious about his relations with Russia and China and his chronic drug use has to impair his judgment. Quite apart from that, like Trump, he’s a narcissist and sociopath.
I feel bad now that I went to Whole Foods yesterday and bought purple sweet potatoes, lol.
What was the last number I heard? Last election was predominantly funded by about 238 people? And it wasn’t me.
I'll admit I didn't and still don't know anything about JB Pritzker. But that being said, when andidates are running for my states offices, right down to schoolboards, I do my homework, looking at them from every angle, including scandals. Then when candidates are running for federal elections, I also do my homework looking into everything about them.
Too many voters vote for the letter after a candidate's name without doing their homework and make the best choice.
Pritzker is good, so is Newsom. The sad, simple fact is that virtually anyone here in the U.S. would be better than the robber baron currently in power.
I agree 100%. I would vote for a hard working person before a uber wealthy one. Tthe wealthy are out of touch with our general population. They don't understand, or care about the everyday struggles of the working class or the hopeless feeling of the poor.
I just took my dog for a walk. The warm bag of dog crap I just put in the trash can would make a better president than Trump or anyone in his toxic family.
A sack of potatoes would a least initiate no harm, but human nature is what it is, and there is a confederacy of powerful creeps. "Mr. Hyde" is wired into human DNA and we are running out of time to get societially smarter about minimizing his influence.
"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people."
– John Adams,
Thank you for doing due diligence for a functioning democracy. I don't think I am as thorough as you, but I do try to treat candidacy as a real-world job interview, not a pep rally.
Albert, we cannot look past the fact that those two Democratic candidates that lost to ffpotus were women, one was a woman of color. I think that you are correct that Pritzker will make some Democrats stay home (see: 2016 and the Bernie Bros) and I believe the anti woman sentiment is stronger than the anti billionaire group.
Spot on, Ally! I, even as a woman, have to recognize that Americans in 2016 and 2024 were NEVER going to elect a female president. I voted in vain for the women. So, tRump was handed the win(s) because of American Misogyny. It's sick, I know, but we wouldn't be in this mess if the Democrats had chosen a white male candidate in both of those years.
It bears mentioning that tRump ONLY beat "the girls." Against the "traditional" white male candidate, tRump would have been humiliated. American Misogyny is tattooed on America's soul.
Women are hated, exploited, forced to submit to lesser males AND we are the givers of life, the primary caregivers of children, and so much more capable than men in fields requiring collaboration, cooperation, multi-tasking and caring for all of society. Frances Perkins types.
Personally, I'm sick of being hated just because of my sex. Most men I've met are simply "assholes." They actively try their best to be uncooperative and belligerent. But then, I live in Texas so my views may be jaded.
Don’t overlook the cowardice of men and their intuitive feelings of lower self worth. Both are huge contributors of the misogyny they drift towards. I spent one of my lifetimes fighting wild land fires. District hotshot smokejumper etc. and I met the acceptance of women into these rolls head on. Not a conventional woman’s occupation they said. Of course you know the level of excellence they had to achieve to break those artificial barriers. What was interesting to me was how much better we became with women in the ranks. They brought more to the table. My own crews in engines and line construction in initial attack were far more effective in our suppression efforts with female integration. I think we need to keep the door open to the best and brightest instead of capitulating. The current Congress is in desperate need of the leadership provided by today’s congresswomen.
I had my first inkling when Obama beat Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary.
I note that patriarchal Japan has a female PM, not so uncommon in the modern world. Angela Merkel was a powerhouse. Our failure to learn from other nations is part of our downfall. We benefited greatly from the input from in-migration is the past. Some of the stories we tell ourselves get very much in our way. Letting billionaires buy up and control so much of the media, and so much else, is big part of the problem. They who would be kings are greatly threatened by egalitarianism.
In my dotage I have come to believe that humanity's own worst enemy is our own inherent narcissism, and we cannot enjoy an environment of liberty and justice without processing our choices though inevitable responsibilities of fate of our society and the human rights of ALL of its people. Wise and responsible self-determination considers extended consequences and weighing and recognizing what matters most. Racism, sexism, homophobia, jingoism, religious discrimination, are all brands of harmful, uncivil narcissism. It seems to me that the worst forms of sociopathy, flat out 9/11 grade evil, is unmitigated, extreme self-centeredness, even if one wraps it in a grandiose, self-serving and exclusionary "cause".
Our vote, lack of it, has extended consequences, and the fallout of our conceits and our negligence tend to fall hardest on those who are already unfairly disempowered.
I like that assessment, J L.
Muskrat also doesn’t deserve a trillion dollar salary either.
There is nothing any person can do that is worth a trillion dollars. Nothing. I’m a believer in going back to the 1950s when the top marginal tax rate was 91%. It didn’t seem to impede people’s creativity and patriotism. Even Henry Ford, who supported the Nazis, gave away a lot of his fortune.
So do I. The excessive wealth inequality is a serious sign of our national decline
It's a serious symptom of a "third world" nation.
From my Memorandum, I say, "Abraham Lincoln, in 1864, delivered a famous speech, 'Address at a Sanitary Fair,' in which he said, 'We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.' The same is true with the word freedom. Liberty refers to freedoms protected by government whereas freedom itself is more a concept of being able to act without restraints. The term "freedom" is frequently employed in advertisements or rallies on university campuses to appeal to voters, particularly young people. To working class Americans, the word freedom includes freedom to breathe safe air, drink safe water, eat safe food, buy safe goods, swim in safe lakes, et cetera. To those of the System the word freedom inspires a rosy picture of creatures of statute operating free of regulations (laws written to protect people, the environment, and our Earth), free of corporate taxation and themselves free from personal responsibility. It should be noted that corporate taxes are in fact a trade-off where government wins by taxing both the corporation for its profits and the shareholders for their profits from their investment in the corporation, and shareholders win by the profits they receive plus not being personally responsible for bad acts of that state chartered creature of statute: negligence, products liability, pollution, personal injuries, wrongful death, et cetera."
I certainly agree with you and Lincoln that we tend to muddle our definitions to our peril. And you know sometimes words have two (or more) meanings (which, of course, makes me wonder). Republican use of language has become genuinely Orwellian. MAGAspeak "Free Market" means no barriers to monopolization, which surely ain't free. "Citizen's United"? Don't make we laugh. "Big Beautiful Bill"? None of it's real, but it matters.
"Free" can mean just, as in "fair and free" elections or "free speech" (which is human communication, not money). FDR spoke of four freedoms, but their is no set number. What he recognized is that there is freedom from as well as freedom to; and you cannot logically separate them. Our freedom to pursue happiness does not include imposition of theft, or rape, or falsely shouting "fire!" in a theater. The alternative is some form of tyranny.
I would say that liberty, as it apples to societies, is ultimately the space for diverse yet responsible choices we grant to one another. Abridging the harmless rights of others does not sustain liberty at all, it diminishes it.
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." - Lincoln
There is a lot we properly outgrew from the 1950s, but also a lot we could learn either way. The middle class was growing, and our governmental choices had a lot to with that. Workers, by and large, got more, and CEOs., etc. got far less. The US prospered and the world continued to spin. Corruption while never absent from human history, was illegal, and that was OK. There was even antitrust.
Righto
I had PHDs, lawyers, and doctors working for me over the years and I have had people with GEDs and high school dropouts working for me as well. The letters behind a person's name in no way is an indication that they are competent in any way. Bill Gates doesn't have a college degree and yet he built Microsoft. Dr. Oz has a medical degree from University of Pennsylvania and is arguably a nutcase to use a technical term.
Some of the best programmers I worked with obtained their knowledge and skills on the job and not in the classroom. When I hired consultants, I trusted the opinions of the people that worked with them in the past unless I knew them personally. It seems that people prefer to work with competent and knowledgable people.
So many people, like Trump, have zero critical thinking skills and makes dozens of bad decisions everyday. We have no idea whether he even graduated from college, but it doesn't matter. We know he doesn't read. He doesn't understand anything about, well anything. But he could sell manure and people would buy it.
As Maria Montessori preached throughout her lifetime, "Learning for Life," and that's what I have chosen to do. I don't begrudge anyone that has an advanced degree, but it certainly isn't a top priority in my hiring process.
Dr. Oz, UPenn, Pete Hegseth, Princeton. Why do I think that my cat is smarter than either one of these guys?
Because it is 😸
A degree does not necessarily mean the holder of it can solve the problem at hand. Indeed, most college graduates likely cannot recall many of the the lectures in many of the classes they took, or for that matter even name half of the classes. However, a degree does prove one thing. It proves the person has ran a gauntlet. IOW, they were given a job to do and did it. The important question is what does their transcripts show? What type of gauntlet did they run? How rigorous was their course load and for how long. Some do a four year degree in three years. For example, Gouverneur Morris, at 16 years old, graduated from what today is known as Columbia University, then completed a Master’s degree before studying law and becoming a lawyer at the age of 19. Morris drafted the final text and preamble of our Constitution. Then we had George Washington at the Constitutional Convention also. He never went to college yet his résumé included leading Virginia’s militia in the 1750s against French forces and their Indigenous allies, including tribes like the Shawnee and Delaware, and in 1776 becoming Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. At that time the name “Washington” was synonymous with “Independence.” No doubt that is why Washington sat as President of the Constitutional Convention. It is reasonable to conclude it is also why Madison and Morris framed the Constitution’s requirement to be a President in Article II, Section 1, Clause 5, as only being thirty-five years old, natural born citizen, and live fourteen years within the country. After all, who at the Constitutional Convention would dare have told Washington he is not qualified to lead the country. Unfortunately, there may never be another George Washington and that is my point. That is why We the People must set a standard of “Show me you can run a rigorous gauntlet and get the job done. Show me your classes and grades." You run your business as you please but good God, John McCain was planning on putting Sarah Palin an old man's heart beat away from being President. It took her five years to complete a four year degree in communications. Communications? Really? She bounced to five different colleges in doing so. She begins and quits. Same in her political life.
Bottom line, there is no defense for not having a relevant education and job experience to be President, or to run any of the Departments or Agencies of our country. It cannot be said that RFK, Jr. should be in the Office he oversees. Yet he is there because we have zero standards. He is a danger to us all.
We could at least pass a law that convicted felons cannot be president. The founders presumed elected officials would be of good character. The hope of good character is a flimsy foundation for a country. Look where we are now.
I thought about that when drafting my Memorandum. There I diversify the Executive branch into seven executive specialized Executives overseeing an allotment of the 15 Departments and Agencies among them. Each Executive being required to have an education and work experiences tailored for their job description. I realized being a felon cannot be listed as a "cannot be." The reason, for example, while on the campaign trail in a Yellow State an Orange party candidate will be arrested for some matter created by a Yellow party person and guess who will quickly be convicted?
Another fallacy many Americans seem to believe is that the super wealthy people are smart and competent to do any job asked of them. The "trustifarians" like Betsy DeVos were totally incompetent regardless of her degree and what "gauntlet" she ran to get it. Eating BonBons purchased with her father-in-laws money is the worst qualification I can imagine. And she's not alone in Trumpworld. RFK Jr. is a trustifarian and utterly unqualified for his office as is Trump.
I agree wealth must play no role in fitness for public office. Betsy DeVos is an example of what I am arguing as not fit for the Office. She has a B.A. in business economics and was Secretary of Education. The type of Work of the Department of Education involves Pedagogy (theories of education), sociology, education policy, and statistics. IMO, the standard to serve should be for education and experience: a Post-graduate qualification in Education Sciences of Curriculum and Instruction from an Institution of Higher Education within the United States, plus have worked full-time for ten years or more in Education Sciences of Curriculum and Instruction or a related field, or have been a full-time tenured Professor of Education Sciences of Curriculum and Instruction for five years or more at an Institution of Higher Education within the United States. Our current Secretary of Education, Linda E. McMahon, has a B.A. in French and was CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. God help us!
GJ, you can add Lutnick and Bessent to be included in that group.
👍
The most balanced man I know lived across the ravine from my family in Montana. His father proved up a homestead next to my families vast land holdings. He wore bib overalls and pushed a single bottom plow. Somehow we ended up fence neighbors in the western part of the state where Roy Handley’s funeral was the largest ever recorded. I’m sure none of you remember Roy or his son Roy Pete, but those of us who lived beyond his days on earth cannot forget him. His influence moves on non- generationally. He had that kindness, perseverance and smile he said came from part time work as a bartender to make farming work. From him I learned about the padded shoulders under the suit and tie. I have no doubt that his own coat came from the shoulders of his father Roy Senior who was in his mid nineties.
Well said GJ, what needs to be said; your viewpoint can be a guide to how we communicate and learn with each other.
Last year, I built a house for my daughter. I needed help from several subs and their technicians. I could have asked each of them what their educational background was and I probably would have been surprised that many of them had college degrees. But, I only cared about whether they were good at their job and that they would show up when promised. Fortunately, we have lived here for over 20 years and I knew almost every sub and their suppliers from previous projects, so even though we had some delays it all worked out well.
I have used a Drain Auger and Plumber's Snake many times. I designed my own home and built it. I am a lawyer. Can I do your next colonoscopy or are you one of those La-di-da, La-di-da types who demands a medical degree?
Too late. I'm 71 and just had my last colonoscopy (according to my doctor who saved my life years ago and I trust implicitly).
When we lived in Lincoln, NE a builder friend of mine and I were talking about one of the houses he had built for a local proctologist. His comment was, "apparently hanging around assholes rubbed off on him."
And the fact that you are a lawyer and built your own home shows the value of running the gauntlet as you said above. I am sorry for your experience with a "snake." Those are rarely good experiences.
With AI and YouTube videos at our disposal, many such procedures may become DIY projects.
phd-piled higher and deeper.
My wife (a Ph.D. psychologist) says it stands for "Piled higher and Deeper."
Referring, no doubt, to the student loan debt .
😮
She did pretty well coming out of grad school. Between the GTF (graduate teaching fellow position), job in the "human subjects lab", and a NIMH grant that she was able to "repay" within her time frame by doing volunteer work with our local women's center). Mostly it was with all the hoops to jump through for that degree!
J.D. - Just Dumb.
We already knew she was a joke. All appointees are either blank faces or dangerous ones. Our previous homeland security chief was a sadomasochist and Telsa is a blank face meaning quite stupid.
When the xenophobic, anti- Democracy forces on the American right wrote its 2025 plan for America under Trump, we can wonder if what we are living through all across American governance, is what those fellow Americans had in mind.
Did they imagine a rogue, fully armed, police state? Did they imagine a DOJ void of the rule of law? Did they imagine a hateful, demented lying leader whose use of the word "WE" means "ME"? Did they imagine a head of HHS who likes diseases more than cures?
And so on and so forth.
Building a White Nationalist theocracy to replace our Democracy and Constitution has been afoot in America for years. Today, it has brought a new version of our ongoing civil war. We won the last civil war. When we win this one, it is imperative we update and fortify our Constitution to better withstand such vicious assaults. We are a far different country than the agrarian country of our founders. It's way past time we fix the compromises the founders made that enable minority rule in America.
And we can thank the Republican senators for this.
They seemed to have chosen based on how loud the Dems would scream. Revenge is their elixir
That blank face yet holding a degree in economics, etc., is common. There are people with photographic memories who can pass test, earn a degree and yet cannot apply the knowledge any better than a camera can apply the photos it snapped. That is why I would demand both the degree and work experience in the filed fit for the job.
Albert R. Killackey, Esq.,
I agree with the need for intellect, training, experience, good character and a tireless desire to serve this country and its citizens....as requirements for our leaders.
It is difficult to find a man or woman who holds these treasured characteristics.
When found, we must thank them for their service and support them and force them to take a vacation from time to time to rest and recover.
I would like to interject that Harry Truman was a pretty good president. He had OTJ training, and he just knuckled down and got the job done. If only the current imposter in the Oval Office could understand that "the buck stops" at his desk, we would all be better off.
I would like to mail a desk sign to Trump that says, "Trump Meme Bucks Sold Here."
I wonder what happened to Truman's sign that he kept on his desk.. Perhaps it should be nailed firmly to the Resolute desk, with the sentiment about the Buck facing the occupant sitting in the chair at that desk. Whether he likes it or not there are lots of Bucks coming due for Trump, and he is probably not going to like paying for all the times he shoved others under the bus to avoid ever admitting what an incompetent, lying fraud he is.
Truman's desk sign is on display here
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/trivia/buck-stops-here-sign
We watched it happen, remember the golden chain saw.
Drumpf washed ashore in the jetsam of Project 2025. Turn the page. We’re already onto Project 2026.
So now we know what “government efficiency” means in late-stage America. It means a phantom outfit with a frat-house name allegedly wandering through the Social Security Administration’s deepest vaults, helping itself to Social Security numbers, birth dates, citizenship status, race, ethnicity, parents’ names, the intimate administrative skeleton of more than 500 million living and dead Americans. Not a burglary, you understand. A modernization initiative. A little spring cleaning for the surveillance state.
Heather's letter today is chilling because it strips away the last sentimental lie. This is not incompetence. It is architecture. Data is not being gathered for curiosity. It is being gathered for sorting, targeting, classification, and preemption. The same piece notes that FBI Director Kash Patel acknowledged the government buys Americans’ location data from private companies, which is a charming constitutional innovation if your long-term plan is to treat the Fourth Amendment as a decorative heirloom from a simpler age.
And off to the side, pretending to be mere administration, sits ICE, fattened by a $170 billion enforcement package that Reuters reports could fund detention of more than 100,000 people at a time. So there you have it: the data harvest on one side, the cages on the other, and in between the polished language of management.
Americans are not being governed now. They are being indexed. History has seen this genre before, and it never ends with better customer service. As Heather has reminded us many times recently, now is the time to speak out.
Sometimes I have to use a torch to loosen a stuck bolt. My skill set is primitive. I misspent my youth far from town. Your writing is fluid and easy impossible to change a single word. Your influence is phenomenal in these pages. Thank you and Heather both.
One reason it was possible was that last spring, SCOTUS lifted a lower court order putting a hold on DOGE access to our Soc Sec info ‘pending litigation!’ They opined that since DOGE Was not an ‘agency,’ It apparently was not subject to any laws around privacy, freedom of information act, HIPAA, etc. Really. I guess it was OK to break the law if you’re not a government agency. SCOTUS threw us under the bus last spring.
And he continues to run us over again and again and again.......
How can they get away with it…bc there are no laws that this administration cares to follow.
And there is no agency anywhere on this planet -- nor will there ever be -- with the blood-and-guts determination necessary to protect us. That's because what we are witnessing -- thanks to the legions of Original Nazi war criminals the failed U.S. adopted as advisors and comrades-at-arms -- is the actual birth of Hitler's Thousand-Year Reich. And this time there is no Red Army to stop it from fulling its intent of becoming the greatest Evil -- the most gleefully sadistic war-is-fun/pedophilia-is-fun/rape-is-profitable regime -- ever to savage this planet.
We should never forget that Trump, his efforts to legitimize white-male-supremacist racist and misogynistic ecogenocide, the resultant ChristoNazi conquest and its MAGAstapo terrorism is the triumph of a multi-generation, bi-partisan scheme more than a century in the making, To learn of the carefully hidden roots of the crisis, the documentation of which include a PBS film about the enormous support for Hitler here in the '30s and additional, meticulously footnoted documentation of the plutocracy's support for Nazism, go here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-25-2026?utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=205274486 See also https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/02/11/xobm-f11.html
Nor should we ever forget the Trumpstein atrocities are both (A)-the tip of the proverbial iceberg and (B)-the permanent, unstoppable norm of ChristoNazi governance as proven by the fact that ChristoNazi theocracy and reigns of terror by pedophiles and rapists are effectively synonymous. For which see the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn by the plaintiff in response to credible death threats: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf
Janis, it's getting very frustrating to hear the words "in violation of." When will we be able to hear the word, "indictments?" We'll, we've hearsd it a few times, but nothing has changed overall. Maybe the word "prison" would help.
I don't know though. What used to be the exception is now the norm. Sad.
Long, long overdue. These criminals have been running amok through every Americans privacy since a traitor was put into the presidency, and likely before that.
Twitching bodies, indeed.
People behind bars would suffice. Although treason is a capital crime, if you believe in that.
This article might help people understand what happened in the early months of Trump's second term and why.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/mar/17/elon-musk-gamify-government
According to the Forbes Billionaire List, Musk increased his wealth by $497 billion, the largest increase ever recorded in a single year, edging him ever closer to becoming the world's first trillionaire.
The President, the DOJ, the Supreme Cult are a criminal organization, in collusion to serve an Oligarchy 50 years in the making
When the corrupter gets to decide who is, or is not corrupt, the Constitution becomes just a quaint piece of paper
trump is incapable of distinguishing between death and life - and endless repetition of images of violence, hatred and destruction with his rough tactics and rough speeches (furious harangues) show he is dedicated to unleashing severe psychological damage wherever he ca. His resentment and his desire for revenge on the world provide additional fuel for his will to destroy it. These will be the blackest pages in our history.
Or firing squads, or guillotines, or tar and feathering, or to use some of Putin's techniques, thrown out of windows, poisoned, flown in airplanes that blow up - as Hegseth said it takes money to get rid of bad guys - well it also takes a little ingenuity and imagination.
Important to remember that this administration is all about disenfranchisement of immigrants and nativity citizens and people who recognize the value of other cultures to our country, while protecting the immigrants who break the law, lie on thier paperwork, and either fuck or donate millions to the presidents personal piggy bank.
I'm sure Melania has been thrilled that Jared has been too busy overseas to keep Ivanka away from daddy.
Melania - the self-proclaimed "visionary" is as awful as her husband.
But she came here on an Einstein visa sponsored by Epstein and Trump. So she must be really really smart. /s
Impeach Bondi NOW!
What I remember was that there was a legal challenge when this happened. But a weenie judge refused a stay on the grounds that no harm had been documented. Because DOGE claimed it was going to use the data lawfully. And then attention turned from DOGE to the next horrible thing.
This is what happens when the Keystone Mafia runs the country.
Professor you did not take tonight off….
My favorite quote of the day which apparently appeared in The Economist
“Although president Donald Trump says he has ‘destroyed 100% of Iran’s military capability,’ the 0% that remains is playing havoc with the global economy.”
Got to hand it to the Brits who never fail to win the gold for 'devastating, backhanded compliments' delivered to doofuses too dumb to tie their own shoelaces together.
I beg to differ. That seems to be precisely what the doofuses have done: tie together the shoelaces of their left and right shoe.
That reminds me of a meeting that we had when I was working for a county government. There were two areas of equal importance in the department. The job of both sections was to determine as accurately as possible the value of real property for taxation purposes. While different aspects of value were determined both sections worked together to determine total value. It was apparent at the meeting that neither section knew what the other was doing concerning a critical area of valuation. When we finished with the meeting I went back to my desk & to my co-workers, put up both my hands & said: "right hand, I'd like to introduce you to left hand!"
So, yes, in this regime the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing & there is no desire to rectify the situation because it benefits the regime for things to be disorganized.
Tragically, only the amoral creature trump’s hands matter!
Can we get to the part where he falls off the cliff, like in Hot Shots Part Deux?
Because Iran's military has been destroyed ... except when it hasn't been. Call it "Schrodinger's Military"... it's both dead and alive at the same time!
Kinda like those people who were killed so badly and are now walking around with no legs.
...and the "0% that remains" requires $ 200 billions stolen from non-millionaires, and non-billionaires?
But Trump said that Obama started the war with Iran 47 years ago when Obama was 17.
It must be accurate because Trump is always careful to get all of his numbers right, like the $17 trillion dollars of foreign investment he keeps bragging about.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-17-trillion-tariff-investment-investigation-b2838370.html
Still waiting for the trickle down of any of that money as are the millions of people that were forced to drop their health insurance or that have lost their SNAP benefits.
Trump and Kegsbreath are begging the do nothing Republicans to give them $200 billion more to bomb and kill more Iranian civilians. Just curious, but isn't that a war crime? We can't give our kids free school lunches but we can buy cruise missiles and drones to shoot at innocent people.
Your fruitcake president has also repeatedly claimed that Obama and Hillary Clinton were the co-founders of Isis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6ed0ETdpQo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Sy-TUrchE
In an interview with radio personality Hugh Hewitt, Trump said his decision to use the term “founder” was “no mistake.” “You meant that [Obama] created the vacuum, he lost the peace,” said Hewitt. “No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS, I do,” responded Trump.
Now he accuses the media of misinterpreting what he intended was a sarcastic remark. How many times have heard this excuse for an inane and objectionable comment he has made?
When you apply a number or numbers to a comment like, Obama did something 47 years ago or Hillary did something 70 years ago, can it really be taken as sarcastic.
And my fruitcake was deeply offended by your comment. /s
Little pugilist petey and the amoral trump are war criminals!
Great quote!
That’s one for the history books.
Pistol Pete Hegseth needs $200 billion to fund the war in Iran. A few months ago Pistol Pete spent $93 million on rib eye steaks and lobster tails. What's left of my brain created a scenario that had me yelling at all members of the American military leadership: "Every ribbon on your dress uniform stands for the name of a schoolgirl murdered at Minab! May you choke on that Pete Hegseth lobster tail... SIR!"
Thank you, Greg, for using the word "Minab," site of the U.S. killing 168 Iranian schoolgirls.
I checked via a simple search, and Minab is the place that deserves our remembering right up there (down there?) with Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, My Lai, and Abu Ghraib.
Hello Phil... Some Interesting Reading In Honor Of Minab..... .... Foreign Policy: 17-Mar-2026: Stephen Walt, Harvard Foreign Relations Professor: https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/17/israel-lobby-iran-war-trump-responsibility/
Excerpts Follow:
"But no president acts entirely alone—whatever Trump wants us to believe—and it is well established that Trump can be swayed by what he hears from those around him.
And Trump’s inner circle includes many people who are staunch defenders of Israel, longtime beneficiaries of Israel-related campaign contributions, or both. Trump’s
two Middle East envoys—Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner—are both ardent supporters of Israel, as is U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. Rubio, who also serves as
national security advisor, was a reflexive proponent of the special relationship during his Senate career and one of the biggest recipients of pro-Israel campaign funding.
Current White House chief of staff Susie Wiles worked as a consultant for Netanyahu’s 2020 reelection campaign. Except for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard,
who questioned excessive U.S. support for Israel in her pre-MAGA career, it is hard to think of anyone in the upper reaches of the administration who publicly favors
distancing the United States from Israel.
Second, Trump himself has acknowledged his own debt to ardent pro-Israel figures such as the late Sheldon Adelson and his widow, Miriam. As Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick recount in a recent article in the Nation (and a soon-to-be-published book), Trump singled out Miriam Adelson—the largest single contributor in recent U.S. elections—during his address to the Knesset in October 2025, and even speculated that she might love Israel more than the United States. Similar concerns may also explain why some Democratic Party leaders have been reluctant to criticize Israel for starting the war or the Trump administration for joining in and have focused instead on the failure to plan the war more carefully.
Third, this war did not come out of nowhere. To be sure, the United States and Iran have been at odds for decades, and neither Israel nor the lobby is solely responsible for the
suspicion with which each country views the other. Nonetheless, lobby groups such as AIPAC, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Zionist Organization of America, and United Against Nuclear Iran have worked to demonize Iran over the years, prevent U.S. companies from doing business there, and derail prior attempts by former Iranian presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammed Khatami to improve relations. (For evidence on the latter point, check out chapter 10 of our 2007 book.) Unlike J Street, these groups worked overtime to thwart the 2015 agreement that reduced Iran’s enrichment capacity and nuclear stockpile, and they eventually persuaded Trump to tear up the deal in 2018 even though Iran was in full compliance. Had Trump not done so, of course, there would be much less reason to worry about Iran’s nuclear program today.
Finally, by making it almost impossible for either Democratic or Republican presidents to put meaningful pressure on Israel, the lobby has enabled Netanyahu to engage in
“reckless driving” all over the region, whether in Israel’s sustained efforts to oppress its Palestinian subjects or in its repeated attacks on Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria,
Iran, and even Qatar. Although Steven Simon is correct to say that Israel did not “compel” the U.S. into this latest war—the Trump administration jumped in voluntarily and enthusiastically—the lobby’s role in defending the special relationship and enabling Israel to keep disturbing the peace helps us understand why Americans keep finding themselves embroiled in costly conflicts far from home. " ... ...
Net, We Are Living History.... Alliances Will Shift....
Netanyahu spoke yesterday addressing the claim (originally made by Rubio) that Israel's decision to launch pre-emptive strikes on Iran had prompted the US to join in those attacks. His denial was unconvincing, especially in the light of Israel's recent attack on the South Pars gasfield which has inevitably provoked swift reciprocal attacks by Iran on fossil fuel facilities in the region. Qatar claims that it would take five years for them to restore full capacity at Ras Laffan and cost them $20bn. Reports suggest that Gulf states will seek new security guarantees from the United States.
Trump immediately tried to distance the US from this reckless action in his own inimitable way, on Truth Social.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116253388303392718
The more this goes on, the clearer it becomes that Israel, not the US, is running the table on this pointless and expensive war. Israel's attacks on southern Lebanon causing huge damage to civilian areas and over 1,000 deaths and its preparations for yet another ground offensive in Lebanon shows that its policy remains the infliction of exemplary terror on its enemies and the same applies in Iran. I doubt that Trump has sufficient leverage to influence Netanyahu in any sustained way.
And the numbers of refugees ensures that things will not calm down quickly.
Hello Russell... Thanks for your Response... Netanyahu is Wily Tactically, but Foolish Strategically... He should forged a Peace with the Palestinians during his Time in Power the past 20+ Years... Instead he used them as a Whipping Post to stay in Power... Now Netanyahu is subject to the most Far-Right Gov't in Israeli History... Under Netanyahu, Israel has gone from a Liberal Democracy, to an International Pariah... Israelis should think what comes after Netanyahu, who is now 76(?)... Israel is now losing it's most Talented People, and Protecting those that reject the 21st Century... Like DJT, Netanyahu lives only in the Moment, He Is No Statesman...
Sorry, Apache, I'm going to jump on my hobby horse and ride like the wind. The influential Zionists mentioned in the article have only been successful because of the deference to Israel baked into U.S. foreign policy, not by Jews, but by christians who have had an outsized influence on U.S. Government since its inception.
Since the "Early Church," as it is called in Christendom, was formed a couple thousand years ago, and all through its evolution, incarnations and denominations, it has clung to the declaration in Genesis 12:3 of the Hebrew Scriptures (aka the Old Testament) and numerous other passages to the same effect, which alleged Jehovah declaring to Israel: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Thus, christians of all stripes have demanded that the U.S. carry Israel around in our side pocket like a lucky rabbit's foot, pouring cash into its coffers and looking the other way when its government harasses or attacks its neighbors, under the religious delusion that "God blesses the nations that bless Israel."
Hello Dale... With Respect, I don't think that Pope Leo, "christians of all stripes have demanded that the U.S. carry Israel around in our side pocket like a lucky rabbit's foot, pouring cash into its coffers "... There is a New Testament for a Reason... I don't think that most Christians condone the Bruatlity, and Ethic Cleansing in Gaza, the West Bank, or Southern Lebanon....
Apache, I appreciate your point, but my previous comment refers to the •history• of U.S. policy toward Israel. Hence, past tense used in my comment.
Still, the policies remain, even if some christians have changed their minds. In fact, the U.S. Government has been engaged in many activities that are not condoned by We the People, christian or not. But here we are.
Note: At least in my part of the U.S., I could take you today on a driving tour of churches that display signs reading, "We stand behind Israel." If this isn't at least tacit approval of the brutality, I don't know what it is.
I would like to see a line item budget for that $200 billion. They keep pulling numbers out of their asses!
Power asks no permission
This air is getting hard to breathe.
Indeed, Anne-Louise. This air has the distinct scent of rot.
March 28, No Kings & No Billions to any King nor his Co-conspirators. Not a penny!
Grim news a jury found protesters in TX guilty.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/13/8-accused-of-antifa-ties-convicted-on-terrorism-charges-over-shooting-at-texas-immigration-facility-00829182
This is scary stuff, Marj. I heard it on MSNow last night.
"The Miasma is strong with these ones, listen to Obi-Wan you should..."
The miasma killed a great many people in Britain from what was later determined to be cholera. Someone finally figured out that dumping your sewage into your principle drinking water supply (Thames) leads to death. Trump keeps dumping sewage into about 40 million viewers per day.
Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi, it almost seems that you're our only hope!
Instead, we are cursed with Obi Wanker Newbie.
What looks like modernization is starting to resemble something far darker: the fusion of mass data access, normalized surveillance, and expanding detention power. Read together, these are not policy details. They are warning signs for democracy....
''The State Wants to Know You Before It Decides What to Do With You
When mass data access meets mass detention power, Americans should stop calling it efficiency and start calling it what it is.'' https://essayx.substack.com/p/the-state-wants-to-know-you-before
"should" stop? Is that all?
Indeed!
After the mid term elections, the Executive Branch needs to be thoroughly investigated to assess the degree of corruption in each of the departments. After that, the teams should report to the newly Democratically controlled Congress with recommendations on how to restore each of the Departments to their legal and proper functions. The teams also need to draft legislation to implement the recommendations. In fact, the Dems should start drafting the team charters now so they are ready on day 1. Big job ahead!
That’s a good idea Mojave. Overturn Citizens United.
… How could I forget ?
Impeach John Roberts !
There's a Constitutional Amendment(s) working it's way through state legislatures to get out of control spending removed from our campaigns and elections.
https://americanpromise.net/for-our-freedom-amendment/
It all starts there!
Oh geez, Mohave, the rot goes so deeply, so widely.
It's not just the Republicans who've rolled over for Donald's multi-faceted corruption and criminality, it's also so many other institutional sides of U.S. life. From universities to elite law firms, from mainstream media normalizing the sensationalism to the social media billionaires and their algorithms making it all much more toxic, poisonous, hate-filled sensational.
Dems, face it, lost touch with working class and rural America. Easier then for Donald's lies about him being for the working man and working woman -- posturing himself as against elites when the Epstein history is revealing Donald's nastiest of ties to highest-placed, most elite pedophiles, money launderers, drug dealers, and arms traffickers -- so many sordid alliances with so many types of murderers (in abc order): Ehud Barak, Bukele, Erdogan, Mohammed bin Salman, Netanyahu, Putin.
Not just a few departments at the federal level that need fixes.
Need to center schools on teachers -- and let the teachers center classes on more history, humanities, essay writing, as if life were personal, not just corrupt institutional.
I have many friends who have left Teaching……(primarily middle and high school)…… excellent, caring individuals so fed up over the years for a wide variety of reasons. Let’s start with income?
My imagination, Bonnie, goes back to the 1950s, when I was a boy.
Teachers (K12), firemen, police, nurses, and EMT's (as ambulance personnel later became known) all had relatively the same middle-class incomes then. All thanks to union workers on assembly lines, starting all over the Great Lakes urban areas. All could buy a new car. Buy a starter home. Washing machine. Dryer. TV. Refrigerator.
In many Red states, politicians regularly diss teachers and professors and say things like “ if you don’t like it, leave,”
And they throw in books they want burned? Out of circulation?
Maybe not the “main” reason since these friends were (are!) dedicated to their profession.
Amen!
Are enough democrats awake.
Actually, the proper question is, are there enough Democrats courageous enough to repudiate the plutocracy that puppet-masters both parties -- and given that the military now supports the plutocrats rather than the (failed) constitution, I think the answer should be obvious: no there aren't. That's why -- even if the Democrats manage a landslide this fall -- nothing will change. And we'll discover once again the true, reversed-reality meaning of "change we can believe in."
"Pretorian Guard" is too polite a term for the heavily armed privatized rabble at the beck and call of a violent, stupid, pig-ignorant adjudant-turned-Generalissimo into which the Criminal-in-Chief is transforming America's honorable armed forces. Like the IDF, the tools of a madman destroying not only enemy forces, not only whole countries, whole peoples, civilians, men, women and children, not only infrastructures and key energy sources, but the very basis of government on which his country depends. Like Israel, all that tide of destruction... a diversion, to avoid facing justice.
The closing passage of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address transformed, debased. Instead of "the people", government of criminals, by criminals and for criminals.
And these criminals are allowed to kick the can down the road... till mid-April, all the way to November.
While the world burns and starves.
Well said.
Thank you, Loren Bliss. Because I had the military so much on my mind -- no doubt because I'm the son of a naval officer whose politics were too conservative for me but whom I greatly respected, whose memory I cherish -- I'd intended to post this in its own right and so forgot that I'd reacted to your pessimistic comment.
While I too have my doubts about Americans' (and Britons'... and too many others') capacity to learn even from the hardest of hard lessons which we are all now receiving, I disagree fundamentally with something in your stated view. And now that I come to think of it, I am for the same reasons ill at ease with HCR's view, despite immense gratitude to her for the huge body of selfless and deeply invaluable work that she has put in on behalf of American citizens and thoughtful people everywhere.
Events that coincide with the return of Agent Orange to poison America's and the world's wellsprings have always been part of a worldwide crisis and there has never at any time been even the remotest possibility of a return to the status quo ante or anything like it. Our successors will face the impossibly daunting task of cleaning up our Augean Stables, healing and rebuilding a very different world.
The current phase is one of collapse and in this chaos and confusion only two groups of human beings can be in their element: criminals and those who in one way or another transcend the turbulence, the worst and the best, robbers, parasites, scavengers, on the one hand, saints, the wise and so-called primitives, closer to our true human nature, on the other... After all, if there is one thing that I, an ingrained skeptic, know for certain, it is that pack animals like wolves, baboons and African wild dogs are incapable of that human specialty: the selection of a misleader. Their strong survival instincts render that impossible. Some human beings have never lost these animal faculties.
If I am so ill-at-ease in this comments thread, in my dealings with my own people, with my own family, with many of those with whom I share a common project, it is because most of us seem to think only in tight little boxes and never to venture outside imprisoning and mentally crippling beliefs, prejudices, assumptions.
If I have particularly high regard for the example set by Abraham Lincoln, it is because, rather than speak like Jefferson of such "self-evident truths" as that all men are created equal, fine rhetoric at odds even with the facts of his own life, he spoke at Gettysburg of "a new nation... dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
The key word is PROPOSITION.
That he nailed to his masthead. A proposition to live and die by, to live and die for.
Not some half-embalmed belief, some fine abstract concept, some hand-me-down prejudice, tribal, familial, individual, not some pretext for doing whatever it is that I want to do and to hell with the consequences, but the living, beating human heart of the great American experiment.
We never leave of gargling the great words FREEDOM! LIBERTY! We are obsessed with "SUCCESS". And all too often our conception of success turns out to be the ersatz success of human failures.
Schopenhauer expressed it aptly:
"Money is human happiness in the abstract; he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes himself utterly to money."
Now, if there is anything that the American way of living to work rather than working to live exemplifies, it is how it downgrades, even tramples on happiness -- plainly something of no value (because it can't be given a cash value -- and what else IS there?)
As for the Hitech Bros, same kind of perversion, ignoring, sidelining, replacing our immeasurable innate faculties, cutting off both hands, not just like the Sharia punishment for thieves, more like what Leopold II's taskmasters did even to children who failed to meet their daily output target.
Obviously, there's room in this world for moneymen, room for improved technologies... but when we land up with so-called economics that treats most of the inhabitants of the household as expendable cogs in a machine, the others as... vermin... And when our technology is no longer prosthetic but self-serving, independent of human beings, we have entered the world of that archetypal pulp fiction figure, The Mad Scientist, with his dreams of global domination.
*
As for the chosen tool of Ultra-Oligarchy and the maddest of the mad Tech Bros, if he wasn't personally selected and primed by Putin and his New Class of FSB goons to do the fine job of undermining American society and totally sabotaging the power of the United States, they did at the very least sense correctly the value of the horse they were backing.
Meanwhile, Europe should have gotten the point way back in the early 1990s when US Secretary of State James Baker III lambasted European leaders for failing to deal with the Yugoslav civil war directly and, yet again, expecting America to pull Europe's chestnuts out of the fire.
Unfortunately, however, there were forces in America at that time which were determined to trample on Russia now that she was down, determined likewise to keep the huge impoverished country sidelined and separate from European development. For that typically short-sighted hubris, we and the world have paid a high price.
In my notebook at the time when the USSR came to an end:
"Crass materialism has triumphed over dialectical materialism; but this triumph won't last seventy years, maybe not much more than seven."
Rather longer than that until the Subprime Crash in 2007-2008 but now, thanks to a global infestation of narcissistic perverts, this world fuelled and upheld by blind greed has hit a reef.
There can be no going back, only forward.
Rome wasn’t built in a day but it didn’t take many days to destroy it.
This is what VETTING should establish . TY Loren!!!
I doubt the new Congress will be seated. Trump will claim the elections were stolen and chaos will ensue.
With no disrespect intended, I fear, Dave A., you like most USians underestimate the apocalyptic depth of this criminal nation's corruption and the finality of our masters' embrace of infinite Evil. Thus I fully expect the plutocrats to find enough bribe-hungry Democrats to get the SAVE Act enacted, thereby Subjugating All Voters Evermore and guaranteeing the ChristoNazi theocracy is indeed the Thousand-Year Reich.
Let's hope you are wrong on the Save Act passing the senate Loren. That is as grim as I can go.
I too hope I am wrong, Marj -- hope with a desperate yearning more intense than I have words to express. But I have seen enough "Democratic" treachery in the post-JFK portion of my almost 86 years -- covered some of it in my working-press years -- to know the Democrats are, by far, the more untrustworthy of the two parties, routinely promising good, then breaking their promises and claiming they had no choice but to help the Republicans deliver their promised evil.
Why wait? Evidence collection should have begun on Jan. 20, 2025.
This is the task ahead. This whole mess has provided all the affidavit of what corruption and greed can produce. To that every criminal gravitates to and adds the own ‘expertise’, this whole post and commentary is so very accurately top notch ‘NAIL ON THE HEAD’ .
The best ever exposé.
Unitary Executive Power needs to be discussed as we see these “feeling it in my bones” moments. It is one of the main aims of Russell Vought and the Project.
Why are we not connecting the dots
Right now??
Which Media/Law Fundi is going to be starting this conversation? I know Marc Elias has done a piece on this. Why is he not openly supported in this essential discussion widely and openly? We have a lot of questions right now.. 🧐🆘
The opposition to P2025 is scattered and piecemeal. It is becoming more widespread, but still a “cat” brigade.
All the more reason to start or reignite conversation on this.
Hope we do better than I have herding my cats. Cats have an excuse, Dems don’t
Christel- A so-called “unitary executive” is nothing but a dictator. Let’s call a spade a spade.
Everything connected to this criminal enterprise masquerading as an Administration literally screams subterfuge and camouflage, masquerade and sleight-of-hand. Its true goal revolves less around politics than making vast, surreptitious amounts of money for itself as quickly, as illegally, as clumsily as it can. But it keeps getting caught in its own clumsiness and utter fuckupery.
"They think you will not notice" says a digital expert to police reviewing doctored security camera footage at the headquarters of a powerful Japanese company in Los Angeles In Michael Crichton's business-spy thriller "Rising Sun" (1993). A fake computer disc has been substituted for the real one which shows a prostitute being strangled on its boardroom table by the Chairman himself. "Most of the time, they would be right" he goes on, rebuking the undisciplined American investigators who pay no attention to culture and overlook crucial details in their dealings with Japanese businessmen linked to its powerful underworld.
The overlooking was plainly visible yesterday, vomiting itself right in front of the whole world. During an Oval Office Q-and-A session with President Dumbass and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a Japanese reporter asked: "why didn't you warn your allies before attacking Iran?"
"We wanted to surprise them -- who understands surprises better than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?" came the bizarre reply. The Prime Minister's eyes widened so much I thought they would pop out of her head, even as she kept her hands politely folded in her lap like a delicate napkin.
Donnie Poo-For-Brains Dementia was actually born one year after World War II ended. "They think you will not notice" indeed....
That Oval Office moment was truly shocking. I give PM Takaichi huge credit for retaining her composure.
Her body language said it all. Culturally Japanese non-communication is much deeper than English.
Donold is a demented, heartless, tactless, bullying blowhard. Why any foreign leader would come to the White House to be lectured, berated, or otherwise abused or humiliated by him, I don't know.
But that was such a deep level of cringe hearing Donold say, "Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?" He has absolutely no decency. Donold just can't refrain from blurting out his twisted thoughts and showing such utter disrespect towards Prime Minister Takaichi, who really did show grace and politeness even in such close quarters with that vile, ranting lunatic.
Yo.., Horhai. AWAY.., AWAY. (Are We Ashamed Yet)!
I’ve said it before: Trump’s single redeeming quality is that his malevolence is tempered by massive incompetency. It’s increasingly apparent that this holds true for the entire Trump Regime. Thank God!
He is a rogue insulter, running off at the mouth, and aiming at friend and foe alike
It was a new, unexpected chapter in Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" indeed.
Promises, distractions, threats, legal maneuvers, lawsuits, physical violence, takeover. Who needs friends anymore. Or voters.
There is no strategy in this administration, merely the 3D tactics Roy Cohn taught Donald - Deny, create Doubt, Delay - that he in turn has taught his minions.
The tech bros bought in and joined Rupert in the takeover. Then our press took a powder, sort of seems planned, doesn’t it. Vlad May be the shadow that lurks even more hideously than Roy Cohn, or is it Ronnie’s ghost.
What I so appreciate about these Letters is the vital information that doesn't seem to make it in major media I still read. Our DOGE amnesia—how we forget that our most personal secret information we American citizens have has been deliberately stolen by the Musk and the Trump administration to be sold away for profit—that it really happened and is really being used is case in point! Holy #$%$#$%. If we ever get to a place of holding these folks to account, I imagine they will all, from top to bottom, be spending the rest of their lives in prison.
The concentration camps they are building are for us.
And we are paying for them! The voter suppression act almost every Republican wants to pass is the final tell. If we don't have massive turnout next November, I think you're 100% correct that we will be sent to those "detention centers."
Why are we paying taxes this year?
As the Jews said (reported by a guard) at the gas chambers “I can’t believe this is happening.” Power is something that sticks like super glue. Not to be easily removed
I’ve heard and read nothing in the mainstream media about the cover-up by the DoJ of drug running by Epstein.
Trump is the head of a criminal organization that is no different from a classic mob family, which is often the case with dictatorships and corrupt monarchies. The one thing we haven't seen much of yet, with the possible exception of Epstein himself, is the permanent elimination of perceived weak links as is common in more experienced mob families. There has to be quite a few agents of the FBI and other federal investigative bodies, either lying low or out of government service, who have first hand knowledge of what was uncovered and documented in those investigations whose files are being systematically purged by Bondi, et. al.
And while it is illegal, one's oath of office does trump other laws, so we might hope that copies of the key parts of files are being kept safe away from Bondi's reach.
Also, I think we might find hope in the ancient wisdom and observation by Sextus Empirics who, in one common translation of the Greek original, noted that "The mills of the gods grind slow, but they grind small."
The fall will come more quickly than it might have otherwise because these folks lack the sense of an insect and are making life ever more difficult for their base. Or put another way, even the lowly honeybee pollinates the flower from which it steals.
Good points, hope some covert work in the mill.
🆘 “The United States is in a state of emergency and every state and city has the means to launch legal investigations into criminal conduct this administration commits, with sufficient evidence for those investigations present in the public record already.
🆘 The entire public has legal standing for investigation. Say the President shot someone on 5th avenue, the appropriate response would be an arrest, rather than an election or an impeachment. We must restore law and order. Anybody who has the power to do so and says “not my job” is opening the door to greater and greater horrors. They are responsible, as we all are to degrees.
🆘 Civil suits are fine but criminal investigations and criminal arrests are what will end the madness.
🆘 You don't defeat fascists with injuctions and court orders you do it with the inside of cells.”~Christopher Armitage (3/19/26)
I pay to have my data protected from “bad guys” since FB, ATT and God knows who else has dumped my data on the dark web. But who protects me from a rogue government. Journalists and democrats are just reiterating what we all have known since chump sold us out for the second time. I watched muskrat brag about what they were doing, as did anybody who wasn’t in a coma. One had to be “woke” and not plugged in to the cult crap or the propaganda machine but we have been aware and opposing the evil power machine despite democratic lethargy. Glad they are catching up to HCR and the rest of us who have been awake, but the Trojan Horses sit on the throne. When evil has the keys to the kingdom, they play by no rules. May more join us as the ruling perps shed their facades so that even Fox can’t put lipstick on these pigs.
JD you’re in Texas, as am I. I’m sure you know the same type of people I do—they are completely ignorant of anything except knowing the libs are evil and want to make your children transsexual atheists. I am so disappointed in the total apathy of my suburban neighbors and their allergy to actual thought.
Well, this is not peculiar to Texas alone.....
...says this Ohioan!
I’m an Ohioan by birth and have lived there intermittently throughout my 74 years. I’ve watched, with considerable despair, the share of no-nothings grow over that time. The collapse of the steel and automobile industries played a part but doesn’t explain totally the ascendancy of characters like Jim Jordan. I am truly hoping that Sherrod Brown wins reelection. That will give me hope that the best part of Midwestern values haven’t completely devolved.
Clevelander here, Heidi, and at 70, I’m right on your heels! While I share your hopes about Sherrod, my TRUE focus is ridding Ohio of the Nazi infiltration. What was once, not THAT long ago, a forward looking state, Ohio has devolved into a testing ground for political corruption. What works here then gets shipped out to other willing states, like Texas. Columbus is a virtual cesspool, as is apparent with the likes of Jon Husted being appointed to replace the immoral jd vance, Gov DeWeenie’s son on the state ‘Supreme Court’, and the Statehouse passing a law to undo something We The People voted overwhelmingly for just 2 years ago. I could go on, but the point is, if we’re going to fix ANYTHING, it has to start in the worst of the States, and I believe the tide is shifting here, and in Texas too.
Heidi, I do not understand where that hatred of transgendered folk comes from. I have a fellow I used to call a friend who is a big time social media "influencer" (whatever that term means in today's lingo) who self-identifies as a "strong, independent free-thinker who believes in Christ" (my paraphrase) whose "Get Real" account is pretty dominated by nutjobs. He posted something mildly critical of some current event, and he got the "both barrels" replies that any of my more liberal posts get.
He then made a post suggesting that we (on that page) could try having open, honest conversations without resorting to "propaganda blasts" and so I sent up a trial balloon asking,, essentially, what the issue was with transgender folks. I got double double barrels for that, including not "reading the room" (my reply was "reading the post") and told that the site was "hard core MAGA".
I know that hate and fear are easier emotions than understanding and acceptance; boy howdy was that revealed to me.
Ally, I am also mystified by the depth of the transgender hate/fear phenomenon. My thinking is that transgender recognition serves as an easy focal point for the MAGA’s underlying fear of societal change.
I suspect it goes deeper than that, but I can’t get any of them to talk honestly about it.
ugh
Yep, the propaganda is non stop. Maybe no more Noam now but still ruled by evil. My UU church helps me stay sane
I would like to know more about how your UU church is keeping you sane. Is it being with like minded intelligent humans or something more?
I'm glad you have that refuge!
Congressional Republican’s willful abrogation of their sworn constitutional duty to be a check on the executive branch’s complete abrogation of their sworn constitutional duty is a criminal conspiracy. Period. Their acquiescence is a higher crime than all the crimes of the Trump Junta. Pam Bondi’s unanswered arrogance in her congressional testimony is a slap in the face of democracy and trashes the Constitution. The same for the Republican overt, organized efforts to undermine the 2026 elections.
It’s treason. Plain and simple.
Yep, this is at the root of it. A fascist madness has overtaken the right-wing party, been building for decades, to the point that it has become a cult. It deserves to be annihilated, but that won’t happen, of course. 35% of the country wants exactly what it’s delivering. I have no idea what we do with these people after the dictator is dead, because as long as they walk among us our democracy will be at risk. And you’re spot on, they are traitors, in violation of the Constitution.
In today's Foreign Affairs, the former Director for Iran at the National Security Council from 2022-25 points out the obvious -- a 'splendid little war' against Iran has now backfired. It is Tehran that will now set the terms for peace, not the Oval Office.
The dumbest President in American history did what most observers thought impossible -- he elevated Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to the status of martyr -- in a country that lives for martyrdom. He gave a gift to the hard-liners in Iran they could not possibly have manufactured on their own. The mullahs are now forcing Trump to choose between reigning in Israel's future behavior (a long shot) or stabilizing global markets spinning wildly out of control now.
What few good options there once existed have now been trashed. In the words of Nate Swanson, the article's author:
"...a tragedy that only Khamenei and Trump, together, could engineer."
Iran could never oppose the might of the US and Israel in military terms. Its strategy at the outset was wild to say the least, but this results from the killing of most of its political and military leadership in the first wave of attacks and the de-centralisation of the IRGC in 2005 into 31 autonomous forces, one in each province (the so-called Mosaic Doctrine). However, now it has settled into an attritional policy where the ultimate aim is just to survive - that alone would constitute a defeat for Trump and Netanyahu. It's why in his statement yesterday, Netanyahu said that only a ground offensive could topple the regime, a suggestion quickly rebuked by Trump even though he has assembled a Marine Expeditionary Unit to take over Kharg Island to try and force Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz. Israel and the US are not on the same page.
Russell, I would posit that no one can be on the same page with someone who doesn't read.
How does one coordinate or collaborate with someone who has the attention span of a coked-up squirrel*?
*Credit to Jeff Tiedrich
I've seen calmer coked-up squirrels.
Please take that day off when you need to.
Is there a $300 million bunker being built under the Whitehouse East Wing.
There’s a conversation circulating on Substack between Drey Dossier and Frank Figliuzzi - link below:
https://substack.com/@thedreydossier/note/c-229950280?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Sent from my iPhone
Damn, I thought they were building compounds on military bases. Guess the ballroom will be chumps new home, maybe a Hitler-style bunker. Could become a padded cell, I guess
...with lots of 'ears' and possibly cameras to make sure everybody falls in line...
Yikes, JK. This is a biggie. Thanks for highlighting this important conversation.
Morning, Lynell; I'd heard rumblings about this before, but this is the first link I've seen.
But of course there is. I think that will end up being "the bunker" where ffpotus takes cover when we come for him.
I first saw this in mid-January on a bluesky post.
Not really a problem. We'll just seal up the underground doors and all air vents. Make it his own private tomb.