It seems as if the Trump administration is rushing to tear apart as much as it can as opponents of its wholesale destruction of the United States government organize to stop them.
Every day seems more excruciating than the last. Words of outrage and statements of, "This is not normal," are getting old. I want to know: Can these people be stopped? How can the rule of law be enforced in this situation? All of the Republican congress seem to agree with Project 2025. They seem to be okay with flaunting disobedience to the law. Protests do not arrest them and put them in jail without bond. Are we living out Germany's "too little too late" scenario with Hitler?
Yes. This quote says it all : “ one source close to the president told them that the president’s ultimate power over judges comes from the fact that they do not command an army, while he does.” I”m giving it three, four weeks tops, before the Orange Emperor siccs the US military on its own citizens.
Oh, and din’t be surprised as to how fast this is going: we HAVE seen this before, here in Germany. It took Hitler only three months to execute his political opponents and get the first concentration camp up and running. You’re in for a rough ride there in America, just because too many Americans didn’t want a black woman in the White House…
Your last sentence lays it out. And I agree—this is all accelerating so fast. I try to optimistic, but I think that the highly publicized kidnapping and torture of white middle class Canadians and Europeans by ICE is an intentional message to Americans that this treatment is not only for undocumented people of color. This week, our most storied academic institutions have been brought to their knees. Of course, they will come after perceived, vocal opponents. I worry about HCR, among others—I think we all do. And it’s only March. Where will we be by summer?
Besides Mike Rogers and Roger Wicker, many other Congressional Replublicans have called out Trump on national security. Mike Turner R Ohio and many others in essence call Trump a liar re Putin and Ukraine.
We only need a few to have shared government -- without Trump/Vance. Besides national security, consituents and donors have to be pissed about Musk/DOGE. The entire cattle industry is in panic and so should about 20 Republican senators and dozens of House members in cow country. Every car dealer and the big three should be pissed about Trump's Tesla infrormercial.
We need a lot more than these few to speak out. After all it is the Republican Party that put Trump in power and acquiesced to his agenda. If they actually disagree, they should say so loudly. Since Republicans have the majority in both houses of Congress, they should speak out even at the risk of being primaried by some right-wing aparatchik with lots of billionaire money. No way can Democrats carry the burden of reining in the felon.
Trump has declared economic war against Canada, saying he intends to destroy our economy until we are so desperate we agree to accept being a vassal state to Trump.
I was thoroughly criticized when I suggested early on that the good generals who honor the constitution move to temporarily suspend the constitution to prevent a truely unbalanced traitor from taking office. I ask my critics now, do you still think that was a bad idea? And it isn’t that it was such a good one. But it was the only alternative to saving our democracy and I would have felt better having the good generals determine my future.
While I completely understand the extraordinary level of frustration and anger behind such a suggestion, any attempt by any group of ‘good’ generals to do anything like it would be disastrous.
First of all, they would have to conceive such a plot in secret, and even if they came up with something workable, it would cause a civil war among the military before it even got off the ground. And of course, they would be committing treason in any attempt to suspend the Constitution, no matter on what grounds. That is not something life-time professional soldiers do at all easily.
Even if they were able to convince enough of their own to act in suspension of the Constitution, MAGA would be out in the streets en masse, egged on by Trump and Vance and Musk and Hegseth and all the rest, armed to the teeth, and ready to go to war. And anti-MAGA and Never-Trumpers would come out to oppose them. What would happen then is something neither you nor I would like to imagine. The generals would then have to put troops in the streets to control both. And how many of the military personnel which would have to be involved to control MAGA and everyone else would actually be in sympathy with MAGA - quite a few I imagine.
And when, on what basis, and to whom would the ‘good generals’ return their power when and if MAGA was contained?
These are just a few of the consequences I can imagine, and you should be able to do so as well.
I’m sorry, what you propose would end up in a situation even worse than what is going on now.
If Congress, the courts, and ultimately the voters do not act to control and/or remove this president according to the Constitution, then nothing else can in any way that will end with our Republic restored.
So much is being irrevocably destroyed. The sense of the immediate action needed to stop this is palpable in many comments. But how many are STILL in denial ( "it can't happen here") tuned out or okay with this, that are not here in these stacks?
As more and more awaken, it appears amassing in the streets everywhere needs to happen at least while the Congress and the courts get moving.
Courage can be contagious with energy coming from the angered and the desperate. We are not going to be able to vote as soon as we need to. And by then the vote maybe corrupted further.
In the meantime there should be sentiment gathering about impeachment in the Congress. Is that quietly happening? The Democrats and Independents need to be active and trying to bring unnerved Republicans of conscience in safely.They are afraid.
This will have to be a civil war I believe because the usurpation has spread too far. We need outward confrontation which will be contagious; we just cannot go and hide afraid, wait it out especially if this is concretized. We need to come together, give each other courage... ASAP..
I would hasten to add that we may be forgetting the possible effects of Musk possibly controlling a lot of the computer systems of various government agencies. Taking one aspect as an example, what would happen in a scenario where there was, say, armed military resistance and Musk decided to cut off payments to as many people as possible so that nobody had any money anymore to live? He could conceivably extort large segments of the population to gain their support. Do we really know exactly how much and what he could control? This something that hasn't, to my knowledge, ever really happened before.
Bill, hate to agree with you but I too thought of that when the orange liar in chief started his scourge by firing the top highly professional top brass.
I urged my senators to meet with them knowing what was to come because of Germany’s WW11 fascism.
People fled if they could leaving everything behind. If you’re able, young enough whatever, leave. We need to form an underground, Bill.
As a Marine who understands the military's place in our society, I will submit that we do not need, or want, "good generals" to do anything. It is not our place. What we NEED is to have the other two equal branches of our government (the Legislative and the Judiciary) do their Constitutional job of reigning in the Executive's overreach. If they refuse to do their job I feel calling the General's in is too little too late. Nor would I ever vote to do that.
The constitution has already been tossed aside. I can only dream of a temporary military take-over. We are approaching a critical showdown between the administration and the courts, between the rule of law and fascism.
There were many other alternatives rather than a military coup, to check-mate Trump. Instead a few "Profiles in Courage" among our representatives in Congress could have stepped forward, which would have been the legal, the constitutional, way to emasculate Trump. That we have such morally and intellectually depleted cowards representing us is a testament to the effectiveness of right-wing propaganda.
I think more important would be that the heads of the military forces make is absolutely clear to the government and their people that they will NOT use their power against their own population - that would be a first and most important step imo.
Karen, I too worry about Heather. I saw Gangrene trying to outduel Timothy Snyder at a hearing. When the Nazis entered Poland in 1939, they executed all the intellectuals which is what seems to be going on without actually shooting them. I also saw yesterday that Canada and Britain have issued travel warning for coming her. We will be lucky if we have a first rate university still standing and you can't include mRNA in any grant request. With a French woman, a female American researcher won the Nobel for her work with mRNA. I am inclined to agree also with Dutch Mike that we will soon be seeing citizens shot in the street. When we were in Budapest, we saw the bullet holes from the Hungarian Rising and now look where they are.
Good luck if you can escape and you can afford it. Many of us cannot leave and think this country is worth fighting for. You can watch from afar in the comfort of another country...shopping on the Champs-Elysees
This newsletter was truly hard to digest. I don't know what is worse, the veritable coup taking place just before our eyes, the deportations and the possibility of entering homes without warrants, the threat to our national security, or the republicans allowing all of this to happen. Are we really going to see trump's opponents murdered and the killers pardoned?
Thank you DM. Your precision and accuracy is, and should be, stunning. Indeed, the branches of government, the party leaderships, many State leaderships and legislators, corporate executives and boards, and many in law enforcement agencies throughout America, seem to be goose stepping in lock step towards the total demise of American democracy, and indeed society.
Likely it is indeed not months before all this horror will have ripened. I pray and work that this is not so.
Consider all the people who receive government benefits who have been at the mercy of Musk/DOGE.
From Meidas "… Commerce Secretary and Chief Huckster Howard Lutnick was on Fox last night urging their audience to support Musk by buying Tesla stock immediately: “Buy Tesla. It’s unbelievable that this guy’s stock is this cheap. I mean, who wouldn’t invest in Elon Musk?” "… Lutnick also said Musk is going to sell us robots soon who will take care of all our household tasks: “We are all going to be buying robots - they are going to cost around $30,000. You’re going to be buying a Tesla robot, and anybody who does not buy a Tesla robot is going to be silly.” "…
"The White House has now been turned into a Tesla dealership with Fox as a full time Tesla Shopping Network."
IMHO Musk, Trump and Lutnick are jailbait. Is Lutnick an investor? Does he hold Tesla?
Meanwhile, Murkowski, many others are now speaking out.
Are the Tesla "protest" burnings an insurance scam?
The easiest way to beat Trump in this atmosphere is Feathers of Hope. We don't control Congress but we're only a couple of votes away from shared government. Check out the Republicans who may be helpful.
It is infectious! That’s why humans used to live in small groups of extended family or larger tribes. The mutual support built into that style of living was how we evolved for hundreds of thousands of years. Small wonder that the modern nuclear family can be such a rough road, especially after the children have grown and departed.
May I add my love of nearly solitary living. I love society,and prize solitude particularly on the inner edge of deep mountain forests not far from the overlook to the ever restless sea.
Good points! I’m not much informed on the current state of sociology. From personal experience and observations of others, the nuclear family seems fissionable. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve never found suburbs or even small towns particularly congenial but insular and somewhat suspicious of other’s. Gossip is an interesting phenomenon. Even in the largest cities within neighborhoods, if a resident enters the street at one end, before the far corner is reached denizens already expect to see you and have notions as to where you may be going. In the park, I hear bird’s twitter. Perhaps people aren’t such unusual creatures after all.
You're right Dutch and in DonOLD 1.0, he asked his aides if it was alright to shoot protesters. He thought Tieniman (sp) Square was a good way to stop protest and that punk that shot 3 unarmed protesters is lauded as a hero and acquited.
Yes, that's an easy one. If Trump had lost the 2024 Election it was rigged; if he won the 2024 Election, of course, it was NOT rigged. We know that drill. And, we know it is about misinformation being served up to the Nation.
If you want to save America, I'm afraid the only way to go is a violent revolt. Trump won't listen to anything else. Trouble is: he commands the US military...
After reading that a Trump White House move to allow federal law enforcement to enter one’s home without a warrant was a thought to arm myself for the first Tim in order to protect my homestead. It would be a losing game of course but one needs to draw the line somewhere. If for example, I gave sanctuary to a non citizen who was being chased by ICE and they wanted to enter my home to take possession would I use my arms to resist.
Phew, good luck. It sounds like something that, at heart, you would never ever want to do. Makes you different from the MAGA gun bunnies, then: they have been stocking up guns for ages, yearning for civil war and the chance to "kill off some libs"...
Lady E: Maybe that unified government wasn’t a great idea after all. I don’t know. Then they would have continued enslavement and that was a deal breaker. But this mentality is all we are left with today. When visiting Mississippi last autumn, driving in the back country, I saw trailers not trailer parks but trailers sitting by the road side with people living inside. That is how Mississippi treats its citizens. I was there to lend support to the Mississippi John Hurt Foundation in Avalone where white racists burned down his original shanty because his granddaughter dared speak out about the Hurt graveyard being desecrated. That’s how they do it today; instead of burning crosses, they burn the whole house down.
Mike, the Democrats ran a terrible campaign. They left it far too late to ditch the hapless Joe Biden and this left too little time for Harris to make an impact, although at times she did herself no favours. However, she did trounce Trump in the one debate and he was so discombobulated that he actually went into the spin room telling everyone there that he had won the debate. In the final analysis, the Republicans had a more convincing narrative about the future of America than the Democrats - the problem was that they were lying as we are now seeing. The Democrats are still bickering with each other and a number of them have also, like their Republican colleagues, have found themselves under attack at town hall meetings by angry constituents. The fiasco surrounding Schumer's decision to vote with Senate Republicans on the CR bill shows that they still have much to do to convince voters that they can offer serious opposition to Trump. They have a golden opportunity now. Trump's approval rating is falling back to baseline levels, the economy is tanking, his two peace deals have gone up in smoke (literally) and his domestic agenda has run aground in the courts.
I don't agree with you entirely; this sounds to me too much like a "blame it on the Dems" game, which I think isn't quite fair. I mean, how can you campaign in an honest way against a party who's lying their asses off? How can you build on the economic successes you have brought when the media simply refuses to report on it but just keeps hacking on about your age? We should place the blame where it belongs: on the lying Republicans, the weasel McConnell, the greedy Muskolini and of course the orange sadist sociopathic narcissist, Toddler Trump.
DM, I think you nailed it with the media refusing to report on the successes of the Biden administration & instead going on about his age. I've always felt the MSM was 95% of the reason the dem's lost - not hearing truthful reporting about what the Biden administration was doing, and trying to do, to help average citizens. And IMO, when people kept shouting about inflation, Biden should've shouted back "greedflation!" Statistics were everywhere to back that up. IMO greed is the main culprit for the state we're in.
Dena, your typing of "medial" (and boy, do I understand how THAT happens) sent my mind wandering off (as it is does, especially when I am under caffeinated as I am at this moment) that the legacy press is causing medial collateral damage to our country.
(Having just had knee surgery, the medial collateral ligament is fresh in my mind.) Medial collateral ligament damage hurts, but can be repaired. I do not know how to repair the legacy press in this nation.
Human life is fragile. The circumstances of living can crush us like bugs; and every life, in the end, is brief. Somehow we are gifted with the capacity to take care of ourselves and one another. The philosophical poet Mary Oliver asked:
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"
It isn't a quiz. The turning-points persist throughout the now that is forever becoming then. Not to get flowery about it, but isn't sentient life a inundation with incoming choices"? Unending decisions about what is true, and what is possible, and choices about what is worth the effort? I don't think our culture devotes nearly enough attention to examining the latter. The is no shortage of mass produced and shrink-wrapped agenda-products, and lots of hard-sell for them in our society; but true liberty is experienced through the act of making choices, and then experiencing their consequences. What in the end, when we total up the tab, really matters? Emotionally-juvenile road-rage, or a satisfying share of non-self, or mutually destructive, arrays of human experiences? Death comes soon enough.
And we all have a internal individual and an external social nature, so which are wise choices for both? It has seemed to me that those who aim to liberate, not dominate, their neighbors used to talk more explicitly about human values, such as in the "Civil Rights era". Pointing to "decency" felled a tyrant. About what is caring and cruel. Rendering any human being to infamous foreign prisons with no pretense of due process? Withdrawing life-saving aid to save money for the absurdly rich? I am pushing my luck on the length of my message, but the list of cruel decisions is immense. Where is the voice of the victims in all this, and those who speak on their behalf? Part of the leverage of this regime is their blovations on matters of "value"; and yet their predatory values are patently obscene. It seems to me we can do a whole lot better, in a much louder voice to break though the din.
Greed is indeed one of the culprits. The Buddha spoke about the three fires or poisons of the mind—greed, hatred, and delusion/ignorance. These three unwholesome qualities cause most of the problems in the world. We are witnessing these fires burn down our country. Ignorance or delusion dominates most of the MAGA cult, while greed or lust for power is in full bloom in the current administration.
A movie villain said it, but Republicans embraced it; "Greed is good". No it is not. Look it up. What separates greed from accomplishment is the harm imposed on others; some usurpation of others fundamental rights to life, liberty, and/or pursuit of happiness. Buddha, as reported, was a wise teacher in this vein. So, if you actually look at what he is said to have said, was Jesus. Somehow, somewhere, the parts about reducing one another's suffering often gets lost. Somehow Desmond Tutu and The Dalai Lama were the best of friends.
Well, for a start they could try picking a candidate with perhaps just a little more youthful vigour and do that before the campaign starts rather than half way through. I agree that Biden's economic policies were largely responsible for the US making the strongest recovery from the pandemic of any major developed country but that didn't feed through into lower inflation in time to save him and this left an opening for Trump. Trump has been remarkably successful in associating his own abject tale of grievance and victimisation with the very real grievances of many of his supporters. "I am your retribution" he tells them. He surely made some rash promises about reducing inflation but he leaned heavily on the theme of America First, appealing to those strong isolationist instincts that afflict Americans from time to time. Of course you're right that virtually every key element of his campaign was a lie, but he's always been able to sell a lie to his followers. He spent a lot of time blaming Biden for everything and when Harris took over he had no difficulty in pointing out her involvement in the Biden regime. Harris by contrast had to pitch her own vision for America without trampling over the Biden legacy, a much more difficult assignment. I agree also that there were those in the Republican party who really should have known better who for their own selfish reasons continued to do Trump's bidding and that's sadly still the case now. Democrats now have their lowest ever approval rating and at town hall meetings they're being castigated by their constituents for not standing up to Trump. Their own supporters are blaming them for what is transpiring.
In 2020, Republicans chose Trump, dispite his unpopularity. In 2024 Democrats chose Biden because of his success. The MSM was complicit in taking down Biden for his perceived decline, but said nothing about Trump's. The Democratic town halls have not been a failure as you state. There are angry people, and they do want to know what CONGRESS is doing about this mess. Mr. Netto, you are failing our nation with your finger pointing. If you want to help, jump in and make things better. Grumbling from the sidelines doesn't help and is an unwelcome distraction...and perhaps could be described as harmful.
The media still says nothing about Trump’s declined. They insist on portraying him as a strongman with all his faculties when all you have to do is listen to him talk to know he’s not the one actually pulling the strings. Gracious, if Biden would have done any of the many incoherent things Trump is doing the media would have excoriated him and screamed for the 25th.
Until the media stops tiptoeing around this mess the country will never recover.
Susan, I'm very sorry you feel that way, but the fact remains that Americans have voted for this clown - twice! You have some serious problems. For example, what happens if the Trump administration defies court orders? It's a question that goes to the root of what is happening. Much has been written about this issue and what I've found is that nobody knows the answer. How is that acceptable? Is it really any wonder that a 230-year-old document provides so little help in the current circumstances? It would be like the British government relying on the Magna Carta in a constitutional crisis. My view is that you can only make things better by acknowledging what's wrong in the first place. The trouble is that your priority now for the time being is to resist this evil administration in any lawful way you can.
The power the Dem Congress people have right now is to inform the public of the damage and danger inflicted by right-wingers and to lead the public to stand up for our democracy, our rights, and our liberties before it is too late. Time is short!
Susan, may I politely suggest that you listen to this podcast where the Guardian's Jonathan Freedland speaks to a number of very unhappy Democrats about party leadership and messaging. Obviously, it can't be the last word on the subject, but it does show faultlines in the only democratic option that Americans have now in the light of what has happened to the Republican party. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/audio/2025/mar/21/why-are-democrats-so-divided-podcast
In my opinion, Trump is capitalizing mainly on two things: racism and misogyny. He is a pussy-grabbing, racist, narcissistic, nature-hating asshole, and his is teaching his followers that it's perfectly ok to be a pussy-grabbing, racist, narcissistic, nature-hating asshole. THAT is why so many are completely devoted to him: they want to be just like him. Then come the media, who are owned by billionaires and have strong preference for entertainment: reporting on actual political issues is just boring - and that was what Biden was, too: boring. But: it worked! At least in the real world. The media, however, prefer another world, that represented by the orange clown, which gives them viewers and brings them money. 'Kayfabe' comes to mind. How can you beat through that with boring real-world politics without resorting to ludicrous embellishment and straight-up lies? I think the Democrats' mission was impossible. The American citizens should look to themselves as to the root cause of these problems: after 40 years of destroying education, not much is left of sincere critical thinking.
Mike, racism and misogyny obviously featured largely in Trump's campaign but they weren't the reason why people outside his base voted for him. Trump spent an awful lot of time denouncing corporate media for criticising him or not offering him blinkered support. Across the post-pandemic world we've seen incumbents suffer electorally. Democrats suffered from the gap between their claims about economic recovery and Americans' perceptions about the economy, especially the lingering effects of high inflation. As everyone knows, when inflation fell prices didn't fall - they only continued to rise more slowly or stabilised at levels that meant continued hardship for many Americans. Too many Americans thought that prices were too high and Biden was too old. But even that doesn't explain why the current approval rating of the Democratic party is so low when Trump's own approval rating is falling, the economy is tanking, his peace deals are going up in flames and his domestic agenda is running aground in the courts.
The 77 million didn’t vote for the felon because of a bad campaign by Democrats. They voted for the felon because they liked his guarantee to continue to persecute black Americans and other people they don’t like and to preserve the economic, legal, and political advantages of white Americans. This has been the Republican message since 1968, and it gets them a ten to twenty point advantage with white Americans. When Republicans lose, it’s because they don’t state their white supremacist goals convincingly enough. It’s unlikely that they’ll make that mistake in future elections because it’s now so well established that it works with flying colors.
We all know that President Trump is hiding behind his position of "President"...hiding from the jail time he deserves for being found GUILTY of his many crimes. He stands boldly before us and pointing his fingers at his enemies. An enemy is anyone who stands up to him for his destructive choices regarding his crimes against our citizens or immigrants whom he lumps as a group of "thieves, robbers, murderers" with no trials ...no justice!!!! He is the criminal!!!!
How dare he disrespect a Judge performing his duty with honor and respect for our laws!
Trump longs for an equal relationship with but Putin!!!! This is a joke. Putin is playing him for the fool he is. Trump is not even close to Putin in his observation of character. Putin was KGB! Does Trump know how to fight? Does he know how to shoot a gun? Does he know how to kill someone with no remorse...NO!!!! Putin can do this all of these things with NO REMORSE!!!!
Does Trump think the American people have forgotten his crimes???
There are those of us who knew better than to vote for him the first time much less the second time! Remember the mass evacuation from Congress at the time of his first term ie those fairly decent congressmen and their replacements by dubious inexperienced candidates???
Remember the fear of other Republican leaders and their families who were being threatened by Trump.
Remember the crazed man who almost killed Nancy Pelosi's husband in his home due to being inflamed by the Republicans disrespectful comments regarding Nancy???
This is the man my Christian friends voted for. They will tell me...but the Democrats are for abortion!!! I would say ,"No!" the Democrats are for a woman to have the right to make a decision about her own body. They ignore the reality that Trump has mistreated women for years even while being married to beautiful gifted women. He chose to dishonor them for his own selfish pleasure.
President Trump is surrounded by very self-centered, incompetent people who are making this once great Democracy a JOKE before our enemies and the destruction of the freedom we have in the past, fought for by the shedding our own blood.
You're absolutely right, Emily. The COF is no more mature than a toddler; he is a bully and a coward at the same time: he will never do the fighting himself (he cannot hit anyone with those tiny hands), but he will let someone else do it for him. He is a bully kid who wants to play with the big boys (i.e. Putin), but definitely is no big boy himself. And yes, this gig all started because he wanted to stay out of jail. He's in it for HIMSELF and no one else. He doesn't give a shit about the America people, you can all die miserably for what he cares.
I disagree that there was too little time for Harris to make an impact. She was overwhelmingly supported by excited voters. I still think parts of the 2024 election were rigged and/or tainted via voter suppression. I also sadly think that people didn't want a black female as president. Seriously. In this day and age? I hope those people are real happy now with their traitor-in-chief.
Yes, all those Palestinian-Americans that accused her of genocide are now watching as the man they voted for is facilitating it with Bibi for his own profits.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why people believe a pathological liar who's proven over and over again that he can't be trusted and he's only out for himself. People are STILL supporting this POS.
I feel exactly the same way. The sad reality is that there are many sick, deranged, disgusting, and morally bankrupt people in the world and it seems that nothing can break them out of their trance and social media has strengthened their resolve. Look how many still support Hitler.
I wouldn't rule that out as a factor, but I don't think that it was necessarily decisive. Nor do I see any mileage in election denial as a strategy - it has some very dubious precursors. I fear that we must agree to disagree.
I disagree, Russell. Note that the two times ffpotus won election, he defeated the only two major party women who ran for president. Hillary Clinton was the recipient of 20+ years of a Republican smear campaign, and Kamala Harris was biracial. By resume, both of those women had the better "job history" (Senator, SecState, First Lady and State AG, Senator, and Vice President) that ffpotus can dream of.
Ally, I'm not ruling out that racism and misogyny has some effect on the outcome of the 2024 election, but they don't explain Trump's appeal to people outside his base. They don't explain why Harris's advantage amongst women was only 53% to 46%. It doesn't explain why Trump had the largest share of votes by African Americans since George Ford in 1976. It also doesn't explain why the current approval rating of the Democratic party is so abysmally low when Trump's own approval rating is falling, the economy is tanking with the markets in turmoil, his peace deals have gone up in smoke (literally) and his domestic agenda has hit a roadblock in the courts.
Russell - one reason virtually no one is questioning the fairness of the 2024 election is because they don't want to sound like trump's 2020 claims. That doesn't mean people aren't thinking it - and some people KNOW it.
I'm not saying it is. But FOTUS, several times, has blatantly stated this. So if we're painting a picture of all of the wrongs the Dems did, this other factor must also be mentioned. Otherwise, stop analyzing and move forward.
Trump says a whole lot of things that don't make any sense. He boasts continually about his so-called landslide so he's hardly going to admit to cheating to achieve it.
Blame blame blame. No blame and no shame. The shame belongs to anyone who voted for that orange speck. Although everyone who is not a Republican MAGA should be megaphoning everywhere to act. They are not leading in any way.
I agree, but simply heaping blame on those witless folk doesn't get one very far. The angry response Republican House representatives are getting at town hall meetings shows that their constituents had rather different expectations of the administration and they want their representatives to make that clear to the government. They want the government to reduce prices, not to sack federal workers or invade Canada. Trump's plummeting approval figures show that people are unhappy and his economic policies suggest that things are not going to get better soon. He's lucky in that he inherited a strong recovering economy from Biden (that's sort of the story of his life) but he has very little time to turn things around before the mid-terms loom. In his first term, he made such a mess that the Republicans lost the House and left him a virtual lame duck.
Only when it dawns on them how trump and the rest of their right-wing heroes have betrayed them will they realize how very, very stupid they have been, and all the time they were cheering on hurting the libs, they aren't aware of how they have betrayed themselves.
Of course, by that time, we will have lost our democracy.
I think that Rs "more convincing argument" to the electorate is "We're racist, we love cruelty, we want everyone poorer and dumber. And, we know that you want this too." 😤😱💔
I don't honestly think that's a fair description of the Republican strategy which had to persuade a lot of swing voters. Trump talked an awful lot about the economy, inflation and immigration. He promised and is still promising to make Americans richer with his addled economic policies. On education, there's piles of information and opinion on why America's public education system is failing and why outcomes are so poor. Democrats broadly refuse to blame either the federal government or the teachers; Republicans are only too happy to find the system irreparably broken.
You understand the system is only broken in the areas Republicans can control because they desperately need to privatize to continue the dumbing down of their base?
The entire reason to attack the DOE is to get at the parts of education that is actually working and turn out dissenters to Christian Nationalist Republican Control.
I have kids in the school systems. When they refuse to educate them where will they get the people to make this country successful? The Elon Musks of this world are not the genius behind the technology, they just command the geniuses. I wish people would start giving credit to the actual people doing the work. Everything Musk touches is tainted with failure. Who picked the glue for that cybertruck? Who decided it would be cool to have unfinished steel that would rust away for the body? That’s his genius.
My understanding is that the failure of the public education system is widespread across the counrty and one of the main reasons for this has been the steady decline in funding at federal and state level. Musk was once considered to be a force for scientific and technical progress. He's a member of the Royal Society. However, his recent exploits have been less than stellar.
Russell, you acknowledge (indirectly) a fact of the current U.S. electoral process that is deplorable and destructive: The only reason that the Democratic standard was passed from Biden to Harris "in the middle of the campaign" is that in the U.S., campaigning never stops. Politicians restart their campaigning and fundraising the day after they're elected.
I question the other points in your comment.
As it was concluding, many pundits acknowledged that Harris/Walz ran a near-perfect campaign. Still, it failed.
As to why, my conclusion is two-fold:
1. Trump is a failure at everything except one; he is a master-manipulator of the media. When he was a NYC business failure, he still managed to capture the attention of local media. When he descended down his "golden" escalator, he transferred that expertise to capturing the national corporate media. Ever since, corporate media has devoted massive space and airtime to Trump coverage – even if negative – because he attracts more ears and eyeballs than ANY other topic. Audience share translates to advertising revenue, the lifeblood of corporate media. As long as Trump breathes, media will stick to him like glue.
2. Kamala Harris had the audacity to run for president while Black and female. After 250 years, this is still unacceptable to the predominantly racist and misogynistic U.S. electorate. Of course, Republicans were never going to vote for her; racism and misogyny is their brand. Harris lost the election because too many Democrats and Independents are closet racists and misogynists. Some might have voted for a Black man; they did in 2008 and 2012. But a Black woman is a bridge too far for a majority of Americans.
Conclusion: Everyone can argue about messaging and management, but those are not what lost the election. Corporate media still has access to the minds of Americans. They will always go where the money is and that is Trump. Americans are not going to allow a woman to lead the country, and certainly not a Black one, now, and maybe ever.
Dale, if corporate media was pivotal to the result then why did Trump denounce corporate media throughout his campaign? And why did Biden win in 2016 or Obama twice in 2008 and 2012? If Republican-voting Americans are all racists then how did Trump get the largest share of votes from African Americans since Gerald Ford in 1976? My views are hardly eccentric - they seem to be shared by some prominent Democrats. Why is the approval rating of the Democratic party so abysmally low now? On the question of money, it was pointed out by pundits during the election that the Harris campaign had funding from more billionaires than Trump.
Russell, Trump's denouncing corporate media is as genuine as studio wrestlers trash-talking each other on TV. That staged "conflict" draws low-brow viewers like flies to dung.
I don't have time to verify or parse your "statistics," but they seem sketchy. Trump did well with younger Black men, presumably because they're misogynists.
I don't think the source of funding is relevant. I didn't even bring it up.
My comment was about the election, not about how the Democratic Party has failed since the election, which is a different conversation.
Dale, by all means check the statistics for yourself if you like but don't dismiss them until you have because that's just lazy polemic. Trump is serious about his dislike for what he calls the mainstream media. He doesn't like them reporting his affairs as news. His seriousness is vividly illustrated not just by his diatribes against them but also by the fact that he has sued them repeatedly over the years. ABC agreed to pay him $15m in a defamation lawsuit over his sexual assault of E Jean Carroll, a case in which you will recall he lost a defamation suit. He also suing CBS over their 60 Minutes interview with Harris; and the Des Moines Register over a survey that showed Harris leading in the presidential race in Iowa. He won the state days later by 13 percentage points. He's suing the Pulitzer Prize Board over a series of reports in the New York Times and Washington Post on the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. Just recently, he and Musk falsely accused media outlets, including The New York Times, of being government-financed organs of the state. Why do you suppose Jeff Bezos has made all those changes at the Washington Post, including limiting the opinion columnists in what topics they could write about, leading many key journalists to leave the paper? The New York Times has called Trump a "serial litigant" against media outlets. He's also recently shut down Voice of America. His administration has launched a vicious assault on First Amedment rights and the media is in the firing line. To compare this with the sort of posturing seen in wrestling matches is to grossly underestimate the dangers to democracy and free speech in the US.
I was able to access information directly from Jamie Raskin and cannot seem to repost for you. He outlines that Trump does not cover lawsuits for his administration and therefore one thing we can do is to start lawsuits against the staff that is carrying out the illegal acts of firing employees in their newly assigned roles and or those that do not adhere to the district courts. I’m going to check on his democratic site online. If you can share this info and put it in one your letters or do a live with him it will help everyone to feel we have other options. I currently just purchased 2 of his books and find him to be very ethical. Thanx
He has some great lives that explain this very thing, some of them are posted. His team is creating the lawsuits, that’s the oversight committee. All other watchdogs Trump illegally shut down or fired. Yes, many will not want to come back, but there are more that are ready. Remember all your info is here or in our laws.
Sorry for my spell correct . It’s all online on .gov sites and today even today the news from judges reviews are being recorded and accurately reported on corporate media and Substack of course. I’m tracking the lawsuits the oversight committee is handling and there are 4 big ones now in play. We have already won some without the Supreme Court. Anyways a lot of them could have been done more efficiently without tying up the district courts and state courts if the Executive office had sent them to Congress as stated in our constitution. Now the executive branch is going to be bogged down with paperwork by lawyers and Federal elected officials that might have passed thru quite easily. It will be a stopgate on top of new ones.
I think that it could be problematic trying to sue individuals in the Trump administration unless their unlawful activities were clearly not conducted as part of their duties. The cost of defending these lawsuits (over 100 of them now) will inevitably fall on taxpayers rather than on members of the administration.
That probably won’t be necessary as a lot of these will not go to the Supreme Court and they will push them back to the Federal courts for resolution. Things with Trumps team could be problematic as Federal employees but according to the oversight committee that has reversed the lawsuits that they are winning….they have been preparing for this for 4 years. I defer to the legal decisions of Congress and the oversight committee- they are winning
Defending any lawsuit involves a cost to government. The risk with any of the cases involving executive overreach (and that's a euphemism for the administration's arbitrariness) is that in passing judgement, SCOTUS will treat the wider issue of the scope of presidential authority and once they have ruled in his favour on this issue - the key issue in virtually all the cases - then the die is cast and Trump will have a free hand to do pretty much whatever he wants. In other words, he only needs one big case to go his way with SCOTUS. As for Congress, all the standing committees have been ineffective because of the hostility between the two parties - https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/5128410-congress-committee-governance/
Trump has sidelined the Congress and is governing without them, effectively overriding their authority and so long as this continues American democracy is under threat.
Dutch, I suspect that it is NOT "just because too many Americans didn’t want a black woman in the White House…” that tRump appeared to win the 2024 election but rather because Muskrat’s $250,000,000+ “donation” to tRump's campaign along with his “genius” understanding of and familiarity with vote tabulating machines in all seven swing states combined with voter suppression laws and tactics combined with substantial gerrymandering led to what appeared to be the slimmest margin of victory in our history.
May well be. But still WAY too many Americans voted for a racist, misogynystic, nature-hating, pussy-grabbing, narcissistic clown - and they voted for him while being conscious. That wasn't an abstruse minority of under 10%, and in that sense, the American people have a serious problem.
Indeed we do. But what can you expect of a country founded on genocide of its Indigenous Peoples to acquire land and the enslavement of kidnapped Black people as the engine for their generation of wealth?
Election numbers reveal that a slightly larger majority of 1/3 voting eligible people voted for ffpotus and a slightly smaller 1/3 voted for Harris. That leaves 1/3 (and a larger "share" of that 1/3 than voted for either of the main candidates for President) who either did not vote or were prevented from voting due to RepubliKKKan shenanigans with purging voter rolls, gerrymandering, or mucking with voting locations.
No one can claim surprise at Trump’s lawlessness m: he’s doing what he said he would do.…. But everyone can claim surprise at the GOP legislators COMPLETE abdication of their constitutional responsibilities and at the Dems’ COMPLETE messaging failures. I guess we lacked imagination.
What we lacked was an inability or unwillingness, thanks to corporate donor ownership, to speak to the real economic concerns of ordinary folks, AND the unwillingness to call a spade a spade when it came to the actions of Israel in Gaza. We showed ourselves as lacking principle on big things that mattered, and relied on our old grab bag of identity politics positions, thinking that would see us through. That the Democratic Party now still can’t own its colossal failure speaks volumes. There is no effective opposition party in the USA right now.
Chris, regarding the "calling a spade a spade" thing, it is important to note that evangelicals and other conservative christians have had heavy influence on U.S. culture and foreign policy since the nation's founding.
The bible thumpers cling to a note in the Hebrew Scriptures (aka Old Testament) which states that "God honors and protects any nation that honors and protects Israel." (Genesis 12:1-3) Based on that assertion (written coincidentally by a Hebrew), the U.S. Government has always carried Israel in its side pocket like a lucky rabbit's foot. Israel could violate every international law on the books and U.S. leadership will always look the other way.
Interesting observation. I’m certainly not suggesting we shouldn’t honor and protect a longtime ally. But it shouldn’t be a blank check. Good friends should be able to tell each other when they are wrong. If they can’t then it’s just transactional and nothing more.
So they voted for someone who would answer to no one! If, we get through this? Just maybe, we will learn from history? Thanks, Dutch Mike, for sharing.
It seems that sometimes, people simply don't want to learn from historians like Heather; they have to experience hell first-hand before they realize what they have done.
I pulled out this same paragraph you quoted, but to observe that the informal army Trump commands is why the J6 pardons happened so quickly. He needed his foot soldiers-those who have committed violence on his behalf, against the government and the rule of law, available to keep his own party under threat and in line.
Yup... As I said elsewhere: the MAGA gun bunnies have been stocking up weapons for ages now, yearning for civil war and a chance to "kill off some libs"... And they are willing and eager to follow the Orange Emperor's orders...
Don't forget, the project 2025 people have been organizing this for years. trump is their marionette getting all the attention and he gives them cover for what they are doing. They wrote all the executive orders and trump just signs them. He doesn't care what he signs as long as he's getting attention.
Yep. Perfectly said. The democrats (small “d” because that’s all they deserve) are useless, as they are run by the same corporations that run the republicans.
It is true. And that’s why the dems are kissing Trumps ass, rather than getting out there on the streets with non violent protest. That’s how you get a movement going, not by going on book tours
Sad to say it, but I think so, too. Before summer, the 'dynamic duo' will start rounding up their political enemies, and that means everyone who doesn;t write nice things about Donny-boy and Muskolini. I sincerely fear for Heather's life.
Ellen, I second this. This ”sliding from democracy to authoritarianism” is feeling like a parachuteless drop from above the clouds and the landing is just a panicked breath away. They are giddy with the power and the lack of congressional oversight.
And lack of judicial ability to interfere. Now, Trump wants to test the Supreme Court and the military to see if they are on board to help make his power grab complete.
Yah, it is hard to see how the Federal Courts can enforce their orders if the executive is full on defying and Congress is not willing to fight for separation of power.
Your sentiment is spot on. I’m just not so sure about those clouds. Seems to me, that’s been a clear blue sky for at least the past 10 years. Tragically.
Exactly. Enough with the platitudes that this isn’t normal and worse than other authoritarians. This is full on dictatorship with nobody in government, the media, the courts, or the intelligentsia providing any guidance for re-establishing A rule of law. I say A rule because the old one is gone. Ideas? Bring the country to a halt by having a nationwide strike? Literally blocking the entrances to wherever SKUM and his skum buckets want to go. Find out if the military is loyal to the orange menace or our soon to be former Constitution. Imagine how much worse this could get because with this level of corruption, vengeance, and narcissism it could get a lot worse for a lot of people. A lot of people in a lot of groups.
Patrick Henry said, "Give me Liberty or give me Death". I believe our democratic leaders would be proud to stand up and say something similar. But they are fearful of the brownshirts and what those crazed trumpers would do to their wives, their children, their parents, and their friends and relatives. Who in their right mind would want to subject their families to being swatted? George W, Mitt Romney, Gen Miley, Joe Biden, Dick Cheney, former Congressional Republicans, and former and active veterans are voices that we, the people, need to hear. But we are not. The very last line of defense is the congressional races coming up in Florida and Arizona and the race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Patriotic Americans need to turn out in record numbers to show the rest of America that our Constitution needs to stand strong and that we will use the power of the ballot to voice our disapproval of the trashing of the United States. Truly amazing that a peepee tape in Putin's possession is enough to kill the United States of America.
I don't think a peepee tape has that much influence. Being caught talking about "grabbing them by the genitals" didn't slow Trump's roll one bit. If Donald could get a copy of the tape, he would successfully market it to his fanbase. It would sell like hotcakes.
What DOES carry weight with Donald is how Russian lenders deal with borrowers who fail to pay back their loans on a timely basis. Unlike strongly worded letters from U.S. banks, Russian lenders employ remedies like polonium-laced bagels and sudden falls from upper-story windows.
Thank you, Barbara. I wonder why I’m not hearing a call for a General Strike from the more prominent voices out there? Robert Reich! Malcolm Nance? Bernie Sanders? It seems to me that the economic weapon is all we have left.
Reich recommended participation in the April 5 event just this morning. He has been pretty consistent and vocal in his recommendations to jam sticks in the spokes of the Trump/Musk/Vance bicycle.
As far as I am concerned the US is becoming like Russia. I am afraid for my German husband to go back to his job in the US right now, because he is a permanent resident. However, ICE has detained US citizens too, so I don't want to return either. I will have to to sell our house. It seems clear that the borders on both ends are no longer porous. Air travel within and into, and out of the US seems unsafe with Musk meddling with it.
I had this conversation with my dual citizen daughter…even citizens should be weary of flying in as if they deny they need to provide any due process how can you contest your detention period. And they seem to be searching phones for policy related criticisms of Trump. It is surreal. Frankly, there are really safety issues with the gutting of the FAA and NOAA.
Good idea to stay where you are. My husband is British and we would return to the UK were he not so disabled - and we don't want to be apart from our son and his family. They could come for anyone now.
Of course, “they” want everyone to feel afraid. People aren’t more malleable and less critical of disinformation when they exhibit fear.
FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) is the cornerstone of marketing. It creates a ripe field for exploitation.
Fear is a normal and reflexive reaction. The best strategy in this case is don’t show it. The bully, who counts on seeing it like a shark that smells blood in the water, will then experience increased fear. See how that goes.
It's so hard to get my head around - those Republican members of Congress -- most have children or grandchildren or are uncles and aunts -- how can they look at those young faces and think that what Trump and Musk are doing is the way to go? Where is Congress??? Justice Roberts mild slap on the wrist to Trump is not nearly enough.
The Republican nitwits don’t realize that should Trump and his sociopathic minions bring Curtis Yarvin’s wet dream of destroying our government to fruition that they will be rendered useless and be purged themselves.
The dreams of those holding power in the highest offices within the USA are in power only for the short term and only for themselves.
Power and ambition have frozen their hearts and minds and brains regarding the stark reality of the future before us. They only see Mara Lago and/or the dreams of their newly acquired mansions by the sea and the grand hope of filling their egos with the power they believe they deserve.....at last, to be able to tell those who oppose them how to live under their "thumbs".
The votes of the American people have allowed this to happen.
Yet, we are not, at this moment paralyzed.....but we only have a moment.
As the U.S. has become corporatized, the rich and powerful look no more than one year into the future ... when they get their next bonus checks. For a couple decades, they have been destroying entire companies in order to get a bigger bonus check at the end of the year.
In the modern U.S., everything and everyone is disposable.
So many things come to mind. Historical parallels abound. It seems we are complicit in this if we don’t “do something” Who among us has not had our ire tamped down for fear of some kind of reprisal. I am impressed with the judges who stand up to this unconstitutional power grab and government dismantling. The “MAGA” supporters are the equivalent of “Brown Shirts” in the Nazi takeover. The actions taken by this administration and its members is INTOLERABLE. We are witnessing, in real time , the loss of our democracy and our ability to control those who for us . I am old and I am horrified for my kids and grandchildren. Bernie Sanders and AOC seem to be the only ones fighting and Tim Walz too. We can not stand by with our mouths open and let anyone destroy our democracy
The actions of the president give the appearance that his loyalty is to Russia and not the United States.
The actions of the president's appointed "efficiency czar" give the appearance that his loyalty is to China and not the United States.
Perhaps these two men are loyal to America as they demand us to assume. But they are both acting like they are against us and are working for our adversaries.
The president's supporters claim the Executive Branch can use violence against the Judicial Branch, and thereby violate the Constitution that the president has sworn to uphold.
The "efficiency czar" now controls the Treasury's payments system. He has the sole power to shut down funding for the Legislative Branch, the Judicial Branch and Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
However there are consequences to illegal actions like this. The economy will slow to a halt and the will of the people will rise up. Two criminals at the top and a few thousand MAGA supporters cannot stand against 340 million free American citizens.
Burke, what seems to be emerging is the attraction of oligarchic access to and then control of money internationally and the power it buys via which the Muskrat has built himself into the richest man in the world and which tRump now wants a piece of that action. In many respects, I fear "America First” may have also been a lie.
See the link below. The Dem Senators were not bribed with crypto coins. They were bribed with US Dollars. Crypto is a scam. Bogus. Worthless.
If the Strategic Crypto (Tulip Bulb) Reserve at the Treasury is allowed to continue, citizens would experience the next financial crisis--worse than the mortgage crisis. This will cause hyperinflation and the failure of the Dollar worldwide. Fits right into Musk's goals to grab more power.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." We must do something. Write and participate in peaceful political demonstrations. One does not have to be very strong to hold small poster signs with their political messages at political demonstrations.
"Can they be stopped" indeed. Will our military obey an illegal order from Trump to attack citizens? It seems that laws do not matter to Trump and his goons.
Following is excerpt from Robert Hubbell’s Substack discussing “attempted” secret plan to give FElon Muskrat access to top secret national security plans regarding China. Wasn’t kept secret. I’ve included excerpt because it tickles a question I’ve had of Pete Hegseth being in control. Perhaps something working in the favor of We the People? Military officials that will continue to protect us and thwart authoritarian takeover of the Pentagon? Yes. They are there. Still protecting democracy.
Careful Pres Trump of the playground you choose. You do not stand a chance.
“In other words, it appears that the Pentagon and the White House are lying to the American people. They got caught before they could divulge highly classified information to someone who presented a security risk.
Moreover—and this is the interesting part—it appears that someone at the Pentagon tried to stop the briefing by leaking to the press that it was about to happen. Stay tuned for more!”
Dr Richardson writes: "In the end, one source close to the president told them that the president’s ultimate power over judges comes from the fact that they do not command an army, while he does. 'Are they going to come and arrest him?' the advisor asked, apparently confident that the answer is no." 🤢
It may well come down to a soft military coup d'état by senior officers belaying orders, as noted by a loyal conservative. As frightening as that prospect may have sounded ten years ago, this event could occur as officers honour their oaths to the Constitution. Below a compelling analysis of the possible relinquishment of U.S. command of N.A.T.O. 🤬
"Little by little" our Federal Government is being attacked by Musk and the whole Trump's mis-administration! This is a hostile takeover of 1/3 of our Government! Never in my life would I have ever thought that a Republican President would successfully attack our Democratic Republic!
While I am terrified and outraged and my whole focus in life right now has become what is happening in this country, I have to say this! HCR, you are a hero and there NOTHING that this country can do to thank you for your service right now! I do pray that we still have a future, a future that resemblances sanity and in that future I hope I get to see you recognized for all you are doing now! A true patriot, a true public servant! I am grateful beyond words for all your letters and videos that keep me informed! Knowledge is power and you give us power! Thank you!
All true words regarding HCR. The something we can do is acknowledge, remember, teach our young, write, support, and spread the recognition of this clearly brave and brilliant soul.
Yes, there is, Bill Pierce. Doing nothing is absolutely the thing we do not want to do. My father as a young man (20 years old) was a soldier during all the major campaigns during World War II. The least I can do is to express my opinions in writing and/or participating in political demonstrations that are just getting underway around the country.
Why, why, WHY are journalists and academics surprised at the destruction of our country by the Republicans?
It was right there on paper for anyone to see. And yet supposedly learned people are surprised. Even speechless.
Get a f---ing clue.
And learn how to talk to everyday people. Do not use worthless words that communicate nothing. Authoritarian for instance. Everyday people do not know what it means. You might as well turn in their direction and fart. Instead use "Dictatorship".
Another one - Oligarchy. Instead use "Stinking Rich".
"Learn how to talk like everyday people"?... That is one of DJT Superpowers.... The MAGAs love him for that... He may wear a Suit&Tie, but DJT talks Mean, Nasty, Trash...
I strongly agree, Apache. Deceit and tyranny lay in the vague. Plain speaking demands being clear and reasonably precise. Rigor is important to avoid amplifying gossip and deception.
Thanks Bill... Seems that We, The People, are Suffering thru DJT's Demented Reality-Show... DJT wants 'Good-TV'... Sadly Crassness Sells in Contemporary American Society... Whatever happened to Learning & Good Manners?....
Most people I come across now as throughout my life are far better, more kind and honest than they have any good reason to be, given the world we live in. That’s the part I find the most difficult to explain.
These others, I have no idea. It has always appeared to me they twist on some needle
within. Since it’s their personal needle, one might ask each what it is they made or was given to them.
Hello Bill... I agree that most People are Good... Americans are mostly taught to be 'Nice'... Unfortunately some People have inherited Pathologies... They can Spoil Life for others... They tend to Congregate, and make life hard for others... The MAGAs reinforce each other, and take Pleasure in inflicting their Sickness...
I don’t think the evident perversity is entirely something passed on, often perhaps but there are other many where this doesn’t appear to be the case. Individuals vary in some respects similar to say a quickly reproducing virus. Just so, there’s the uniqueness of the individual. Quite possibly, it’s not always for the better.
You're right Apache. Actions speak louder than words and the MAGAs are deaf to everything except what Trump and the Republicans say.
Yesterday, the WH said that they are going to go into people's homes without a warrant. And they already have abandoned due process.
80% of Americans polled are in favor of deporting immigrants here with a criminal record, but to round up and deport people without due process is illegal.
They also said they are going to start deporting naturalized citizens. This, of course is as illegal as their other actions, but if they deported Elon and didn't let him back in, maybe it's not a bad thing. /S
I agree, this is the worst possible nightmare, but I don't think anyone expected Republicans in congress to be so passive. Who knew they would go so cheaply?
Yep, I remember the junk bond mess, 11-22-63 and my Repub friend disparaging FDR. Thought she was just parroting husband. And she was. All the way, sad to say
This morning MSNBC reported on the AOC, Bernie rally in Arizona last night. The sound was terrible and they only played a snipped of what they each said.
As opposed to what Trump says. Even his most banal comments are published and republished and rehashed by EVERY corporate media outlet.
It's not only Trump's Fasicst "plain" talk but it's the echo chamber normalizing his bull shit.
How are the Democrats supposed to get their messages out when the lame stream media won't report it?
I hate to say it, but Republicans are stupid and they will support Trump/Musk even after they have completely taken over the Federal government including the Treasury, Justice and the DOD.
Keep in mind that only about 1/3 of the registered voters are Republicans. It is likely they cannot be swayed no matter what happens.
I certainly see this in my world. I have (according to them) a fully developed case of "Trump* Derangement Syndrome" and just need a nice man to straighten me out.
*that is the first time I have used the name of ffpotus in over 4 years. It has quotes around it. Does that count?
All while soliciting sex from a minor the Republican needed to make a law calling it a mental illness. Glad to see he resigned but worry he will not get any substantial penalty.
I don't blame them since is uncharted terrain for them after more than two centuries of democracy in this country. It looks unreal and nobody is giving them a way, passibly, to defend themselves or say no to the take over of entire departments and secretaries whre thy work. What would happen when they start searching our houses without a warrant? That time is coming.
Only this, I’m not certain precisely who you identify as “everyday people”. I’m equally not clear on how you know how any “non-everyday people” converse with them. But I do know that a great many good folk don’t spend a moment thinking about many of these matters, or even following national news. Further, there is a general and pervasive lack of precision in language used and this is reflective of thought, though not feeling.
So go ahead and continue to underestimate your fellow man. If you think the term “stinking rich” equates well with oligarch, perhaps you might give it another think. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to give a closer study of the French Revolution from its inception to … well, when after all did it end?
As someone with a background in marketing I have a lot of experience identifying a target audience. Everyday People refers to people that are not political junkies. Low information voters.
Precision is not the goal. Effectiveness is the goal of political communication. Often I see language used that is supposedly precise while effectiveness is sacrificed. That’s bad. That’s a bad thing to do.
David, that’s so true. Most people I find are not particularly interested politics or much history. I’m not sure who the junkies are but I imagine they are very few. Policy wonks perhaps. Also few are the politicians and those that are political contractors. Then there are those who take their citizenship like serious adults or teens and realize they should pay a little attention from time to time. I see your point. I think it’s a very good one. But just as you mention errors of judgement in speech are not effective. In point of fact, they can be downright harmful.
Setting the awful path of the French Revolution aside, I look at US lynching parties, white race riots and similar events in other cultures. I would just like to understand.
So when I think of the use of a term like “stinking rich” I think of some middle class people, certainly upper middle class people, and on and on. You know, the parvenus. The great body of these people, though experiencing some nodding level of privilege, do not wield power like say a Duke, a Prince, or an oligarch.
My fundamental point is, if you’re going to mass communicate, it’s key to take care how you use your index finger. Else, surely you’ll regret it.
In marketing, one learns about what motivates people. So, if I’m feeling frustrated and perhaps a bit angry, I might without thought point out a group of people that hopefully doesn’t include me, point and say “the problem is people like that.”
That’s how lynchings and white race riots start that eventually destroy entire communities, even wipe them from the face of the Earth.
You have a good point. Speech is key. Sometimes one dearly wishes what they said could be taken back. But it can’t.
The litany of destructive acts continues, and the focus on issues of national security are of high concern. The action taken against the Institute of Museum and Library Services, however, speaks volumes about the values that lie behind much of the malign intent of the Executive administration toward the people of the United States. This modest programme is the only federal programme specifically designed to provide (modest) supports to the civic institutions that are the keeper of the nation's memory and that directly serve the population. It is the cultural counterpart to the administration's attack on the institutions, public and private, that educate the population.
Yes, agreed. I assume that some or perhaps most of the EO’s were composed in conjunction with Project 2025, and by current White House lawyers who are informed by it, so as to be ready to them roll out as they have over the past 59 days. Agreed, the change in the nature of his messaging has been striking.
They are trying to destroy the nation's memory just in time for our 250th anniversary. I fear there will be nothing left to celebrate, or just empty gestures. And you are right about it being a "modest program" -- it is only 0.003% of the Federal budget, but support from IMLS means, in many cases, whether a museum or library can continue to exist. (I am a retired history museum professional.)
I was wondering when they would get around to the museums, (and was confident they would). Having worked in the museum field most of my life, I know they have been considered some of the most "dispensable" educational institutions. Watch for Musk to be touring the Smithsonian to select things for his private collection, like Goering. And the rest of that "old stuff" can be sold to fund the king's golden toilets.
Elon Musk has been given access to and information about all aspects of the inner workings of the US Government including now its most highly secretive plans and strategies. He is a man who has just recently thrust himself into the MAGA political circle. However, his commercial interests in countries that are adversaries of the US are vast and huge. In fact, he has a working relationship with the heads of China and Russia along with several other nations. Just as a matter of US security why has he been given so much information and power and what is his commitment to the US other than a big cash profit. I doubt that he could stand up to receive a security clearance for the information that he acquiring.
There is absolutely no way in hell he could get even a low-level security clearance. The drug use alone would keep it from him. So giving him access to information at the level they are proposing (higher than your basic Top Secret-Crypto) is not just out of the question, it is illegal. The people giving it to him should be arrested on the spot.
Fred, I believe the Muskrat opened tRump’s eyes to the far greater possibilities for profit along with some attendant graft and corruption by setting his sights internationally, America First notwithstanding.
Remember Musk is one of the larger government contractors and he will promote all of is companies and services. Verizon's contract to upgrade the FAA was terminated and given to Starlink, one of Musk's companies. It should be noted that many of the grievances that have been shouted by Musk have been against governmental agencies requiring his company to comply with various rules and regulations. His payment for Starlink was held up as the company failed to meet the tests they as to speed and volume they claimed.
With their decision on Citizens United, the Roberts Supreme Court made it possible for Musk and Oligarchs to buy the President, the Presidency, and Congress.
Roberts Supreme Court is responsible for defiling our democracy.
The Roberts Court along with a number of politicians have been undermining the guardrails of democracy for some time. We are now seeing what it is like to have a "conservative" government, as they vision it. The biggest pitfall was when Reagan adopted and endorsed trickle down economics and allowed the accumulation of such great amounts of wealth in the hand of so few people. This has led to individuals with earnings more than the GDP of a small country. Robert's contribution was allowing these people with unlimited access to influence the politics and political parties.
We are now seeing these same people who are now looking at enhancing their wealth and power by taking over the government. Their view is to have government services provided by private companies they own and control with at least a twenty to thirty percent markup with less or no means of real oversight.
We no longer have to worry about stopping organized crime as we have brought the same type of folks into the White House and given them the keys to the country. They are now trying to organize what and who gets what. By the way, the recent confrontation with President Zelensky was a classic mob shakedown. we no see the great negotiator at work.
We, lacking experience after so many generations of Americans enjoying freedom and democracy, are confused to say the beast. We need to be inventive ASAP to defend what's left and start rebuilding. Thanks for your reply Brenda.
I couldn't agreed more Sheila. There're thousands of social and political activists to organize such an huge and historical event. There's always a need for leadership and a clear, wide and loud message and, with little time and intense planning could be done. Should be massive. Please keep posting. Thanks for your reply 👍
It's hard to believe there is really a single Republican left who cares about National Security. It's more like something they used to pretend to care about in hopes of getting a bigger bribe to betray it. No one who cared about National Security would have supported a felon who stole all those classified documents and shared them around Mara Lago. I just hope that the countries that used to be our allies have changed all their passwords and hardened all their security or Putin will have all their data too.
And the secondary result of their spinelessness is that those nations will think twice before handing over intel they would have heretofore thought we should be privy to. Basically, they're being taught not to trust U.S.
We are doing the damage to ourselves.....look at who was voted into the office of President...FOR THE SECOND TIME!!!!
We are experiencing the suicide of our "free nation" and all of the ideals we have said we believed in.....but evidently, we do NOT believe in, because we have a want-to-be" DICTATOR in the White House!!!!
We have no one to blame but ourselves. I have NEVER voted for him and even changed political parties when he was first put on the ballot. Trump is a "placeholder" for those who are really in power and who are day by day destroying our country...our DEMOCRACY!!!!
Something needs to be done before Trump and his lackies finish finding enough prisons to put us in....anyone of color....anyone who does NOT "bow the knee"....
I can only think of the new lives being born everyday, each life needing love and nourishment and encouragement...."a hope and a future".
I think of those who suffer with physical and mental problems....their situations will become worse. Will our schools become propaganda machines with truth twisted for political control!?
"we" equals the American citizens who voted and placed "enemies of freedom" in office. Among them are many of my dearest friends and family members who vote "Republican".
Governor Walz and the others are correct; congressional Republicans are the real villains. They swore to “protect and preserve” the US Constitution, yet they all sit in silence thus ceding congressional authority to the executive branch, which SCOTUS has enables to evolve into a monarchy in all respects except by name.
Can we keep it together until the 2026 elections? I expect the Musk/Trump junta is making preparations to declare some kind of national emergency in order to cancel the 2026 midterm elections. Congressional Republicans, knowing they would be trounced in an open, honest election, will endorse and go along with whatever Musk/Trump come up with.
I struggle to find the words to describe the MAGA Republican Congress. They are so much more than mere traitors.
There are plenty of villains in this tale, including a cadre of shadowy billionaires, who unlike showman Musk, don't show their faces much. "GOP" members of Congress might not be so smug if enough of their constituents get pissed at them. We might find ways to expedite that.
They are too chicken to hear from their constituents, and like Trump, they are out of touch and too thin skinned to hear any criticism of their actions.
Indivisible in Maine held a town meeting Wednesday & invited Collins, who of course didn’t come. 500 people filled the venue and 400 couldn’t get in due to space. The meeting is on uTube and 100’s more watched it. People spoke from the heart & a few younger people said how depressed and hopeless they feel. Our local channel tried to contact Collins & no comment! She said Indivisible just wants her to lose in 2026. What the 🤬 This isn’t about a damn campaign- this is about people’s lives- about democracy. She’ll lose in 2026 if we even have elections because she doesn’t care about her constituency!
There is a mass rally in DC on April 5th and nationwide in your states! I will be in Augusta, ME! We the people are being called to take action if the Congress & courts won’t do something. I marched in the 70’s & I’m marching again in my 70’s!
Ours here in WI have resorted to invitation only Zoom meetings. So disgusted by the vanorden character who represents our district. Claims to support Farmers but turns a blind eye when Farm Aid is chopped. And now is a presidential nominee for the Naval Academy board. Why does this feel like 1939 Germany again!?! Sorry, I do not march in lockstep with anyone!
I'm willing to bet there will be no mid-terms as we expect them. I suspect that ballots are already being completed and awaiting stuffing in ballot boxes or equivalent when the day comes.
Or they may not bother going through the charade at all.
They are destroying all that they can so why not our elections, too? Just plain despicable and Project 2025 even more despicable. If we did not see this situation coming down the pike it's a shame. Because, we were forewarned by all the rhetoric from the Trump teams' lips and the document called Project 2025. Thanks for sharing, The BobCaster.
Now REALLY, Ralph, after all the peculiarities and statistical deviations that have come to light from the 2024 election, just how do you imagine any future election, especially in 2026, could possibly emerge “open and honest”? …let alone free and fair.
Sit in silence? Ah, so that's what they were doing during his rant in the well of the House. Guess all that standing and cheering was done by CGI, sort of like the Sith in the last Star Wars movie.
Michael Lewis (“The Big Short,” many others) has fingered a stereotype.
Today with Chris Hayes, Lewis put the blame for Elon Musk’s government carnage down to how MAGA Republicans have been stereotyping federal workers as lazy, incompetent, fraudulent bureaucrats.
Quite the opposite. Lewis, along with six other contributors, by chance has a new book out, “Who is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service.” In doing it, he and the other writers came away with deep respect for the high competence, strong standards, and diligent work ethic these civil servants have brought to federal agencies for us.
So how does the stereotype come to sway?
As always, those who could be expected to know better live professional lives near totally illiterate as to who our working classes are, as well as our civil service workers recently so insulted, attacked, and fired en masse by the White House convicted criminal’s mob.
Our educated, all top Dems among them, have read none of the books, seen none of the films, heard none of the songs in touch with our working classes, civil servants included. So when we emerge from the reigning criminality, can we ask more of our schools and their “educated”?
There are so many really good books out there. I wish figures in our media, and public officials, too, could get in the habit of reading some of these -- and then applying key lessons or characters from that reading to perspectives they can lend to public issues of our day.
Teachers could teach these apt skills.
But they can't. All are crushed instead by the death trips of testing, whose narrowed, desiccated offices have only pushed the abstracted, packaged, depersonalized agendas of our living dead billionaires.
And so the wealth gap, income inequality grow, making America so much more a toxic, poisoned place that many now blindly serving the U.S.'s steroided oligarch class just naturally consider murderous fiends such as Putin (and Netanyahu, and Mohammed bin Salman, and Kim, and Xi's cadres, and Erdogan, and Nayib Bukele, and Sisi, and Milei) all just natural dictator allies.
Schools? Public good? Such quaint notions from long dead times.
I live in a town that has a large military and NASA presence... with many government workers.
It is amazing how many people, even those who work for the government(!), deride all government workers as lazy and inefficient. The counterpoint is provided by those who work for Boeing and tell that tale with honesty.
I often think that books like that are “ preaching to the choir” . I believe the information these books want to communicate to the general public need to be shorter and simpler….maybe something like the cartoon explaining how a bill is made. Many people don’t have the luxury of time to read these kinds of books so make the information more accessible and at a lower reading level…..just saying.
I worked in the federal courts for the last nearly 20 years of a long career, and was always impressed with the work ethic, skill, and dedication of everyone from janitors to judges. At that time they all had choices, some much higher paying, on where to work, and they chose public service. I get so tired of the stories of lazy, unskilled, government workers, and I never saw that; in fact, just the opposite.
I saw the Chris Hays interview last night, and his first one several months ago. When Lewis and his cohorts started looking at what government workers did, they were astounded at the high level of expertise and dedication to the public welfare. One of his examples was the mining engineer who figured out how to keep coal mines from collapsing and killing the miners, 50,000 died in the US that way in the last century, everywhere they looked they saw examples like that. Our civil servants are not self promoters unlike muck, they are dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans, they don’t see us as easy marks ripe for exploitation, again unlike muck. The more Lewis and his colleagues delved into the people who were working for us the more they were amazed at the dedication they exhibited. We are indeed lucky to have had them, and we will feel their loss most acutely now that they are being tossed aside like so much trash. To call the people orchestrating this debacle trash would be a compliment and that goes all the way to the top. 🤬
Most Republican Senators will do nothing. I got a disgusting response email just today, from Senator Dan Sullivan, sane washing his poor decision to vote to confirm the most unqualified nominee for Secretary of Defense. At least Lisa Murkowski is speaking up on some of the damage the cuts are doing to people in our state. I went to an empty chair town hall in Anchorage tonight, and the turnout was quite good for a red state. Meeting area not large enough, so the meeting overflowed to outside. Lots of angry people are doing what they can to speak up and fight back.
Same here. Form letter saying nothing but Nazi rhetoric, no matter what I wrote to him about. And I write to him and his new Nazi cohort Husted daily. (Fascist Ohio Senators)
A question: when the “Department of Government Efficiency” team shows up and sends people home, why do they leave? DOGE is neither authorized nor invested with any power by Congress or the Constitution. How, in fact, would their "commands" be enforced if everyone simply ignored them? If Trump's decrees are unconstitutional, shouldn't it rest with the administration to bring suit to have its wishes enforced?
I think the answer to your question is fear Russell. Fear it's a powerful tool in the hands of an authoritarian regime. Fear, surprise and not knowing what to do or how to respond to a sudden aggression is what makes people obey and leave. Sad situation
It's probably also incredibly chaotic when it happens and very few managers would be capable of dealing with the situation so employees are just left floundering amongst the chaos and threats.
Someone with legal knowledge and authority should issue instructions to those defenseless and confused public employees and their managers on what to do so they are not caught by surprise. Thanks for your reply Jon.
We need to start having practice drills so managers and employees can defend themselves, rather like the gun drills in schools. We can also learn a lot from the civil rights movement, with their training to stand up to abuse and their powerful boycotts.
Fear covers all aspects of our lives, personal, professional, social, spiritual. They trigger every thing about our psyche. Deliberately, and now with incredible power. I watched the ramparts crumble long before Jan 20. Now warp speed leaves most catatonic.
This is the worst time to be catatonic JD, or simply passive. We need guidance from our leaders and people with knowledge. They are destroying everything built in 250 years of perfecting the idea of democracy and we don't know how to confront them. In the meantime, except for few individuals, Congress is only appeasing and we know how that is going to end up.
And now trump is using the tactic of fear to everyone in the world. Especially our closest neighbors. Do not be afraid!! Never be afraid of bullies! Because sooner or later everyone becomes a target to a bully. And bullies are the weakest of the weak. You can never trust a bully because they are only out for themselves. Period.
No Ricardo, on many occasions in various government buildings in which government employees resisted or refused to leave, DOGE returned with armed guards or police or “marshals” to displace the employees. In that sense, I suppose it’s fear of being shot or handcuffed and arrested and imprisoned that drives employees to leave!
You are right JhonM, but the line should be drawn somewhere either by Congress if they grow a spine or by the judicial system as compromised as it is. So far, only decent judges ruled for limits that so far are being ignored. This should nor be the end of it. Americans don't have experience living under a dictatorship, authoritarian it's a nice word to describe what's building up, and I know they are not going to like it.
This is what I have been wondering about the whole time. Someone has to be the one to give the order, and someone has to comply. Unfortunately, musk apparently has a goon squad at his disposal that he has been using to force their way into offices and facilities. They’ve been ripping into all these various organizations in many cases for the purpose of privatizing them. But once the organizations have been destroyed, how long will it take for their private companies to replace the expertise and functionality that has been ripped away? What happens in the meantime?
I have for the past nine years since the BLM thinking of the Pinkertons. They literally put down many protests and strikes. The Tycoond hired them to work against and also infiltrate the unions. See John Sykes Matewan. My father was under their view and did not return home because he didn’t want his family to be involved with them.
In the case of the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), it won't be replaced with a private organization. I am sure that the destroyers think funding will be replaced with private philanthropy, but these institutions (especially museums) use that to the max now. All to save 0.003% of the Federal budget in the case of IMLS.
In the latest episode, the FBI, DC police, and US Marshalls showed up to assist DOGE in throwing out the Director and employees at an agency the executive branch has no power over.
That was tried at the NGO called Peace and the DOGE brought in FBI agents who demanded that the people leave or be arrested. So far no one has stood their ground and said "go ahead, arrest me, I will sue you and have your job". I think that is what it is going to take. People are scared. No one really expected this to happen this way although Trump made it pretty clear this is what he was going to do.
Basically nobody thought he would actually go this far and SURPRISE... he did.
US Institute for Peace called their contract security people, and when told the opposite by DOGE and DC police, the security guys switched sides, got their weapons, and gave the key to the office door of the agency's head who was resisting.
Thanks for the correction, but the gist is the same. The people in power are using their authority to shut these agencies down and it is really difficult to expect people who come to work every day to do a job to fight the power themselves.
When an armed guard or police or FBI says "get out" most people will get out. They may try to get help to file a lawsuit but they aren't armed and they aren't going to stick around to see what will happen if they refuse to leave.
Most will do the obvious... they will leave quietly.
I think you are right. Orange Felon is reveling in his power to make laws at will and coerce / threaten people to be fearful and comply. Remember, during the BLM marches in Washington while he paraded out through the streets that had been cleared for him to be able to hold up a bible like it was a cereal box, there were military helicopters flying low over the crowds as intimidation. I think ultimately he would love to make up a reason to play with ‘his’ nooks. In any case, he has already threatened to use the military.
I still can't wrap my head around the fact that people are so surprised at what Muskolini and King Trump are doing now. The writing was on the wall; in big, red capital letters.
I find it mystifying. Do any readers here know if there is any legal authority that DOGE wields? Why, for example, are payments, loans, grants and programs suspended without legal coercion?
I expect someday MAYBE a judge week decide that DOGE had no legal authority. But that will take time. Meanwhile they have the muscle in the form of FBI and police and they are backed by Trump who IS the president, like it or not.
Musk was not elected to this position. He has no experience. Trump was just impressed with him because of his mental gifts. He is a gifted human being but has no experience in governing a nation. He is as equally self-centered and amazed with himself as Trump is with himself. He really should NOT have been placed in such an important position. Our nation is NOT safer!
ffpotus would not know a mental gift if it came up and chomped on his left buttcheek. <scurries off for brain bleach, because THAT visual is horrible.>
Russell, if you followed what happened at the Institute of Peace (as best I can recall) wherein those who worked at the IoP refused to let the DOGE team in, the DOGE team returned the next day with several armed “US Marshals”. When the IoP employees called the Capitol police, thr latter arrived and let the DOGE team in. I think THAT is “why they leave.”
The US Marshals service is given authority under the DOJ, and the DOJ is given authority under the Executive branch; and so even the courts, who rely on the US Marshals Service to carry out their orders — big mistake in organizational setup, but who thought we’d EVER be where we are! — so we’re pretty screwed.
I have wondered many times in this forum…why are people following these orders? Why are websites being shut down or cleansed? Why are people leaving their office buildings because doge wants in?
It is too late to protest now because now you will arrested and thrown in jail. Watch what they are doing to people who are perceived to be dangerous. No due process. That is now the possibility that all of us face. You don’t have to be an immigrant any more, you just have to speak out against the felon in chief. That’s all it takes!
Assuming that Congress refuses, or any knowledgeable cabinet members refuse, to act. It depends now on some lower level of command in the army refusing to obey illegal commands. I fear many police are Trump followers, how many I’m not sure.
This is definitely not the America in which I grew up.
If you've seen any police procedurals on TV, there is one rule that has appeared multiple times: "Police never drive their own cars, and they never vote Democrat."
I was in law enforcement for 28 years. Sadly, you are correct about voting democratic. I was considered a crazy liberal for having left-centrist views. Law enforcement is populated by right leaning individuals. I remain befuddled how many favor loose gun laws when that directly affects their own safety.
They believe their own propaganda about a good guy with a gun. They all think they're going to be heroes. They forget that if they get into a situation where they need their weapon, they could well be shot themselves. It's not a game and you don't get extra lives.
Brother, you speak truth. I'm 12 years retired from full time Sheriffin' and I believe that in my medium-sized agency, I was one of about five more "liberal" deputies (at least on the patrol side.) In my retired cop cohort (which includes friends from multiple municipal agencies) about 10% of us are vocally liberal.
I knew someone who worked in that place. He described a bunch of drunks pissing on trees and falling off jitney busses, making condescending remarks about the general public.
It is clear that Congress must immediately arise from its coma and prove to the American people that we did not send them to Washington to kneel before a king.
Americans fear for their future - and of future generations. This is the moment where the Legislative branch could rise to meet the demands of voters who are scared, angry, and passionate about stopping the gutting of critical federal services on which they depend.
They can see the massive corruption, the end-game of doing this so power is consolidated into the hands of a few the rest of our lifetimes.
What does it take for cheap talk to stop, and leaders to stand up and be seen? I can only offer that it requires legislators to act with organization, precise communication, and winning actions to stop all of this. Individually, they have limited effectiveness. Together, across the nation, they can gather the political will and go to Washington armed with conviction, enact legislation, and stop the Executive from continuing its criminal pursuit.
I wish it were so, but we're talking about Republicans here. Those who have proven, time and time again, that they do not hear the pleas for action. Those who have shown fealty to the Orange Menace, who stood and cheered his lies in the well of the House.
They don’t listen to the people who live their districts, they listen to their big money contributors. Some Democrats have the same problem and don’t understand we are no longer fighting the Clinton wars, but autocracy that some filthy rich people think they have the right to impose on the rest of us, with the help of dictators like Putin.
About Judge Boasberg: he was indeed elected to his seat on the bench, winning by margins Trump has never dreamed of even in his most deranged postings. On March 11, 2011, Boasberg won his seat by carrying 100% of the vote in 47 states and 50% in two others. Only Idaho failed to support him. The two senators from the potato state didn’t vote that day. AN AMAZING MANDATE. The FAKE NEWS is the TRUMP HOUSE. GO BO!!!
Our choice now is to sort out who we want to be - how we want to respond - in the face of all this and find a way up be part of a solution.
This recent podcast (link below, free) from Tara Brach is AWESOME. She gives practical ideas. I’ve listened to it twice already. I hope many of you find useful information from it too.
Title:
Freedom from Inner and Outer Tyranny: The Path of Spiritual Warriors
Tara Brach
I’m SO grateful for these Letters, and for all the intelligent and insightful comments. I’ve been reading LFAA since shortly after they were started. Without these letters I have no doubt I’d be slipping into a very deep pit of debilitating depression about now.
Thanks to the letters I am, instead, steeling myself and preparing to find ways to be part of the rebel alliance in some form.
We CAN fight this tyranny.
It’s going to take a very long time.
The result is worth it.
Other people sacrificed before I was born so I could live the first 60+ years of my life in relative peace and prosperity.
Every day seems more excruciating than the last. Words of outrage and statements of, "This is not normal," are getting old. I want to know: Can these people be stopped? How can the rule of law be enforced in this situation? All of the Republican congress seem to agree with Project 2025. They seem to be okay with flaunting disobedience to the law. Protests do not arrest them and put them in jail without bond. Are we living out Germany's "too little too late" scenario with Hitler?
Yes. This quote says it all : “ one source close to the president told them that the president’s ultimate power over judges comes from the fact that they do not command an army, while he does.” I”m giving it three, four weeks tops, before the Orange Emperor siccs the US military on its own citizens.
Oh, and din’t be surprised as to how fast this is going: we HAVE seen this before, here in Germany. It took Hitler only three months to execute his political opponents and get the first concentration camp up and running. You’re in for a rough ride there in America, just because too many Americans didn’t want a black woman in the White House…
Your last sentence lays it out. And I agree—this is all accelerating so fast. I try to optimistic, but I think that the highly publicized kidnapping and torture of white middle class Canadians and Europeans by ICE is an intentional message to Americans that this treatment is not only for undocumented people of color. This week, our most storied academic institutions have been brought to their knees. Of course, they will come after perceived, vocal opponents. I worry about HCR, among others—I think we all do. And it’s only March. Where will we be by summer?
At war.
Internally
Yep.
Besides Mike Rogers and Roger Wicker, many other Congressional Replublicans have called out Trump on national security. Mike Turner R Ohio and many others in essence call Trump a liar re Putin and Ukraine.
We only need a few to have shared government -- without Trump/Vance. Besides national security, consituents and donors have to be pissed about Musk/DOGE. The entire cattle industry is in panic and so should about 20 Republican senators and dozens of House members in cow country. Every car dealer and the big three should be pissed about Trump's Tesla infrormercial.
Please address Feathers of Hope.
We need 20 senators to convict.
Let me know when they are actually willing to oppose him. I'm waiting.
We need a lot more than these few to speak out. After all it is the Republican Party that put Trump in power and acquiesced to his agenda. If they actually disagree, they should say so loudly. Since Republicans have the majority in both houses of Congress, they should speak out even at the risk of being primaried by some right-wing aparatchik with lots of billionaire money. No way can Democrats carry the burden of reining in the felon.
Karen, James and Daniel, they already ARE at war with us and the US Constitution. This is what war looks like in the 21st century!
Trump has declared economic war against Canada, saying he intends to destroy our economy until we are so desperate we agree to accept being a vassal state to Trump.
Read Feathers of Hope.
I was thoroughly criticized when I suggested early on that the good generals who honor the constitution move to temporarily suspend the constitution to prevent a truely unbalanced traitor from taking office. I ask my critics now, do you still think that was a bad idea? And it isn’t that it was such a good one. But it was the only alternative to saving our democracy and I would have felt better having the good generals determine my future.
yes, no, and yes. so true - a “truly unbalanced traitor” is the president. that’s mostly because of ignorance and racism in this country.
While I completely understand the extraordinary level of frustration and anger behind such a suggestion, any attempt by any group of ‘good’ generals to do anything like it would be disastrous.
First of all, they would have to conceive such a plot in secret, and even if they came up with something workable, it would cause a civil war among the military before it even got off the ground. And of course, they would be committing treason in any attempt to suspend the Constitution, no matter on what grounds. That is not something life-time professional soldiers do at all easily.
Even if they were able to convince enough of their own to act in suspension of the Constitution, MAGA would be out in the streets en masse, egged on by Trump and Vance and Musk and Hegseth and all the rest, armed to the teeth, and ready to go to war. And anti-MAGA and Never-Trumpers would come out to oppose them. What would happen then is something neither you nor I would like to imagine. The generals would then have to put troops in the streets to control both. And how many of the military personnel which would have to be involved to control MAGA and everyone else would actually be in sympathy with MAGA - quite a few I imagine.
And when, on what basis, and to whom would the ‘good generals’ return their power when and if MAGA was contained?
These are just a few of the consequences I can imagine, and you should be able to do so as well.
I’m sorry, what you propose would end up in a situation even worse than what is going on now.
If Congress, the courts, and ultimately the voters do not act to control and/or remove this president according to the Constitution, then nothing else can in any way that will end with our Republic restored.
So much is being irrevocably destroyed. The sense of the immediate action needed to stop this is palpable in many comments. But how many are STILL in denial ( "it can't happen here") tuned out or okay with this, that are not here in these stacks?
As more and more awaken, it appears amassing in the streets everywhere needs to happen at least while the Congress and the courts get moving.
Courage can be contagious with energy coming from the angered and the desperate. We are not going to be able to vote as soon as we need to. And by then the vote maybe corrupted further.
In the meantime there should be sentiment gathering about impeachment in the Congress. Is that quietly happening? The Democrats and Independents need to be active and trying to bring unnerved Republicans of conscience in safely.They are afraid.
This will have to be a civil war I believe because the usurpation has spread too far. We need outward confrontation which will be contagious; we just cannot go and hide afraid, wait it out especially if this is concretized. We need to come together, give each other courage... ASAP..
I would hasten to add that we may be forgetting the possible effects of Musk possibly controlling a lot of the computer systems of various government agencies. Taking one aspect as an example, what would happen in a scenario where there was, say, armed military resistance and Musk decided to cut off payments to as many people as possible so that nobody had any money anymore to live? He could conceivably extort large segments of the population to gain their support. Do we really know exactly how much and what he could control? This something that hasn't, to my knowledge, ever really happened before.
Wild, but that would get people into the streets for sure.
Bill, hate to agree with you but I too thought of that when the orange liar in chief started his scourge by firing the top highly professional top brass.
I urged my senators to meet with them knowing what was to come because of Germany’s WW11 fascism.
People fled if they could leaving everything behind. If you’re able, young enough whatever, leave. We need to form an underground, Bill.
This country, two months into this coup, is worth saving. Go if you must.
As a Marine who understands the military's place in our society, I will submit that we do not need, or want, "good generals" to do anything. It is not our place. What we NEED is to have the other two equal branches of our government (the Legislative and the Judiciary) do their Constitutional job of reigning in the Executive's overreach. If they refuse to do their job I feel calling the General's in is too little too late. Nor would I ever vote to do that.
As long as the military makes sure to the public that it will NOT fire against its own population a lot is already achieved.
The constitution has already been tossed aside. I can only dream of a temporary military take-over. We are approaching a critical showdown between the administration and the courts, between the rule of law and fascism.
There were many other alternatives rather than a military coup, to check-mate Trump. Instead a few "Profiles in Courage" among our representatives in Congress could have stepped forward, which would have been the legal, the constitutional, way to emasculate Trump. That we have such morally and intellectually depleted cowards representing us is a testament to the effectiveness of right-wing propaganda.
I think more important would be that the heads of the military forces make is absolutely clear to the government and their people that they will NOT use their power against their own population - that would be a first and most important step imo.
I worry about HCR as well, enough so that I would support a gofundme to provide her with armed guards.
Karen, I too worry about Heather. I saw Gangrene trying to outduel Timothy Snyder at a hearing. When the Nazis entered Poland in 1939, they executed all the intellectuals which is what seems to be going on without actually shooting them. I also saw yesterday that Canada and Britain have issued travel warning for coming her. We will be lucky if we have a first rate university still standing and you can't include mRNA in any grant request. With a French woman, a female American researcher won the Nobel for her work with mRNA. I am inclined to agree also with Dutch Mike that we will soon be seeing citizens shot in the street. When we were in Budapest, we saw the bullet holes from the Hungarian Rising and now look where they are.
I know where I'll be. We'll be in Paris speaking with a recommended real estate agent.....
Good luck if you can escape and you can afford it. Many of us cannot leave and think this country is worth fighting for. You can watch from afar in the comfort of another country...shopping on the Champs-Elysees
This newsletter was truly hard to digest. I don't know what is worse, the veritable coup taking place just before our eyes, the deportations and the possibility of entering homes without warrants, the threat to our national security, or the republicans allowing all of this to happen. Are we really going to see trump's opponents murdered and the killers pardoned?
Thank you DM. Your precision and accuracy is, and should be, stunning. Indeed, the branches of government, the party leaderships, many State leaderships and legislators, corporate executives and boards, and many in law enforcement agencies throughout America, seem to be goose stepping in lock step towards the total demise of American democracy, and indeed society.
Likely it is indeed not months before all this horror will have ripened. I pray and work that this is not so.
IMHO it's NOW!
Consider all the people who receive government benefits who have been at the mercy of Musk/DOGE.
From Meidas "… Commerce Secretary and Chief Huckster Howard Lutnick was on Fox last night urging their audience to support Musk by buying Tesla stock immediately: “Buy Tesla. It’s unbelievable that this guy’s stock is this cheap. I mean, who wouldn’t invest in Elon Musk?” "… Lutnick also said Musk is going to sell us robots soon who will take care of all our household tasks: “We are all going to be buying robots - they are going to cost around $30,000. You’re going to be buying a Tesla robot, and anybody who does not buy a Tesla robot is going to be silly.” "…
"The White House has now been turned into a Tesla dealership with Fox as a full time Tesla Shopping Network."
IMHO Musk, Trump and Lutnick are jailbait. Is Lutnick an investor? Does he hold Tesla?
Meanwhile, Murkowski, many others are now speaking out.
Shared government?
Who stole the Tesla kishka? https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/the-case-of-tesla-s-missing-1-4-billion-an-electrifying-mystery/ar-AA1BkGZM
Are the Tesla "protest" burnings an insurance scam?
The easiest way to beat Trump in this atmosphere is Feathers of Hope. We don't control Congress but we're only a couple of votes away from shared government. Check out the Republicans who may be helpful.
https://jerryweiss.substack.com/ Media should cover it. Interview Jerry Weiss.
As living beings, the only time we can be certain of is now.
Interesting links. I have wondered if hope is infectious.
Both hope and fear can snowball. History demonstrates both.
It is infectious! That’s why humans used to live in small groups of extended family or larger tribes. The mutual support built into that style of living was how we evolved for hundreds of thousands of years. Small wonder that the modern nuclear family can be such a rough road, especially after the children have grown and departed.
May I add my love of nearly solitary living. I love society,and prize solitude particularly on the inner edge of deep mountain forests not far from the overlook to the ever restless sea.
Good points! I’m not much informed on the current state of sociology. From personal experience and observations of others, the nuclear family seems fissionable. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve never found suburbs or even small towns particularly congenial but insular and somewhat suspicious of other’s. Gossip is an interesting phenomenon. Even in the largest cities within neighborhoods, if a resident enters the street at one end, before the far corner is reached denizens already expect to see you and have notions as to where you may be going. In the park, I hear bird’s twitter. Perhaps people aren’t such unusual creatures after all.
You're right Dutch and in DonOLD 1.0, he asked his aides if it was alright to shoot protesters. He thought Tieniman (sp) Square was a good way to stop protest and that punk that shot 3 unarmed protesters is lauded as a hero and acquited.
If he wants retribution, lets give irt to him.
"If he wants retribution, lets give it to him."
I'm afraid the answer to that is the same as the ones we gave to MAGA who threatened bloody civil war if trump lost - "Bring it on!"
Trump would have NO hesitation in setting the police, military, secret service - hell, even tracker dogs and poison gas on anyone who got up to fight.
There is still a FAINT chance that elections will still be held - whether Elon's little gang will have any influence on them is another question.
I would say the US is facing maybe twenty or thirty years of absolute hell. If not longer.
Welcome to The Deep South in the 1830's.
Has anyone looked into Drumpf thanking Huskthing for the beautiful voting machines? There is no way this past election wasn't rigged.
I agree. The 2024 election was rigged.
No, it wasn't rigged. It could only have been rigged if Trump lost. [/sarcasm]
Yes, that's an easy one. If Trump had lost the 2024 Election it was rigged; if he won the 2024 Election, of course, it was NOT rigged. We know that drill. And, we know it is about misinformation being served up to the Nation.
Lady Emsworth,
There are reasons Trump's children have homes in other parts of this world....maybe for times such as these. They will be protected.
We and our children and grandchildren will not!
They must hide themselves from the reality!
If you want to save America, I'm afraid the only way to go is a violent revolt. Trump won't listen to anything else. Trouble is: he commands the US military...
After reading that a Trump White House move to allow federal law enforcement to enter one’s home without a warrant was a thought to arm myself for the first Tim in order to protect my homestead. It would be a losing game of course but one needs to draw the line somewhere. If for example, I gave sanctuary to a non citizen who was being chased by ICE and they wanted to enter my home to take possession would I use my arms to resist.
Thank about it. This is what it has come too.
Phew, good luck. It sounds like something that, at heart, you would never ever want to do. Makes you different from the MAGA gun bunnies, then: they have been stocking up guns for ages, yearning for civil war and the chance to "kill off some libs"...
I agree. Our past presidents are silent. Congress is silent (except for a few). It will be up to US to revolt.
At least we know what Obama's NCAA brackets are though.
Lady E: Maybe that unified government wasn’t a great idea after all. I don’t know. Then they would have continued enslavement and that was a deal breaker. But this mentality is all we are left with today. When visiting Mississippi last autumn, driving in the back country, I saw trailers not trailer parks but trailers sitting by the road side with people living inside. That is how Mississippi treats its citizens. I was there to lend support to the Mississippi John Hurt Foundation in Avalone where white racists burned down his original shanty because his granddaughter dared speak out about the Hurt graveyard being desecrated. That’s how they do it today; instead of burning crosses, they burn the whole house down.
Just as they are burning the country down today.
They still call it "northern aggression"
Mike, the Democrats ran a terrible campaign. They left it far too late to ditch the hapless Joe Biden and this left too little time for Harris to make an impact, although at times she did herself no favours. However, she did trounce Trump in the one debate and he was so discombobulated that he actually went into the spin room telling everyone there that he had won the debate. In the final analysis, the Republicans had a more convincing narrative about the future of America than the Democrats - the problem was that they were lying as we are now seeing. The Democrats are still bickering with each other and a number of them have also, like their Republican colleagues, have found themselves under attack at town hall meetings by angry constituents. The fiasco surrounding Schumer's decision to vote with Senate Republicans on the CR bill shows that they still have much to do to convince voters that they can offer serious opposition to Trump. They have a golden opportunity now. Trump's approval rating is falling back to baseline levels, the economy is tanking, his two peace deals have gone up in smoke (literally) and his domestic agenda has run aground in the courts.
I don't agree with you entirely; this sounds to me too much like a "blame it on the Dems" game, which I think isn't quite fair. I mean, how can you campaign in an honest way against a party who's lying their asses off? How can you build on the economic successes you have brought when the media simply refuses to report on it but just keeps hacking on about your age? We should place the blame where it belongs: on the lying Republicans, the weasel McConnell, the greedy Muskolini and of course the orange sadist sociopathic narcissist, Toddler Trump.
DM, I think you nailed it with the media refusing to report on the successes of the Biden administration & instead going on about his age. I've always felt the MSM was 95% of the reason the dem's lost - not hearing truthful reporting about what the Biden administration was doing, and trying to do, to help average citizens. And IMO, when people kept shouting about inflation, Biden should've shouted back "greedflation!" Statistics were everywhere to back that up. IMO greed is the main culprit for the state we're in.
Dena, your typing of "medial" (and boy, do I understand how THAT happens) sent my mind wandering off (as it is does, especially when I am under caffeinated as I am at this moment) that the legacy press is causing medial collateral damage to our country.
(Having just had knee surgery, the medial collateral ligament is fresh in my mind.) Medial collateral ligament damage hurts, but can be repaired. I do not know how to repair the legacy press in this nation.
Thanks, Ally. Fixed it. I agree they are causing collateral damage.
Human life is fragile. The circumstances of living can crush us like bugs; and every life, in the end, is brief. Somehow we are gifted with the capacity to take care of ourselves and one another. The philosophical poet Mary Oliver asked:
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"
It isn't a quiz. The turning-points persist throughout the now that is forever becoming then. Not to get flowery about it, but isn't sentient life a inundation with incoming choices"? Unending decisions about what is true, and what is possible, and choices about what is worth the effort? I don't think our culture devotes nearly enough attention to examining the latter. The is no shortage of mass produced and shrink-wrapped agenda-products, and lots of hard-sell for them in our society; but true liberty is experienced through the act of making choices, and then experiencing their consequences. What in the end, when we total up the tab, really matters? Emotionally-juvenile road-rage, or a satisfying share of non-self, or mutually destructive, arrays of human experiences? Death comes soon enough.
And we all have a internal individual and an external social nature, so which are wise choices for both? It has seemed to me that those who aim to liberate, not dominate, their neighbors used to talk more explicitly about human values, such as in the "Civil Rights era". Pointing to "decency" felled a tyrant. About what is caring and cruel. Rendering any human being to infamous foreign prisons with no pretense of due process? Withdrawing life-saving aid to save money for the absurdly rich? I am pushing my luck on the length of my message, but the list of cruel decisions is immense. Where is the voice of the victims in all this, and those who speak on their behalf? Part of the leverage of this regime is their blovations on matters of "value"; and yet their predatory values are patently obscene. It seems to me we can do a whole lot better, in a much louder voice to break though the din.
Greed is indeed one of the culprits. The Buddha spoke about the three fires or poisons of the mind—greed, hatred, and delusion/ignorance. These three unwholesome qualities cause most of the problems in the world. We are witnessing these fires burn down our country. Ignorance or delusion dominates most of the MAGA cult, while greed or lust for power is in full bloom in the current administration.
A movie villain said it, but Republicans embraced it; "Greed is good". No it is not. Look it up. What separates greed from accomplishment is the harm imposed on others; some usurpation of others fundamental rights to life, liberty, and/or pursuit of happiness. Buddha, as reported, was a wise teacher in this vein. So, if you actually look at what he is said to have said, was Jesus. Somehow, somewhere, the parts about reducing one another's suffering often gets lost. Somehow Desmond Tutu and The Dalai Lama were the best of friends.
Well, for a start they could try picking a candidate with perhaps just a little more youthful vigour and do that before the campaign starts rather than half way through. I agree that Biden's economic policies were largely responsible for the US making the strongest recovery from the pandemic of any major developed country but that didn't feed through into lower inflation in time to save him and this left an opening for Trump. Trump has been remarkably successful in associating his own abject tale of grievance and victimisation with the very real grievances of many of his supporters. "I am your retribution" he tells them. He surely made some rash promises about reducing inflation but he leaned heavily on the theme of America First, appealing to those strong isolationist instincts that afflict Americans from time to time. Of course you're right that virtually every key element of his campaign was a lie, but he's always been able to sell a lie to his followers. He spent a lot of time blaming Biden for everything and when Harris took over he had no difficulty in pointing out her involvement in the Biden regime. Harris by contrast had to pitch her own vision for America without trampling over the Biden legacy, a much more difficult assignment. I agree also that there were those in the Republican party who really should have known better who for their own selfish reasons continued to do Trump's bidding and that's sadly still the case now. Democrats now have their lowest ever approval rating and at town hall meetings they're being castigated by their constituents for not standing up to Trump. Their own supporters are blaming them for what is transpiring.
In 2020, Republicans chose Trump, dispite his unpopularity. In 2024 Democrats chose Biden because of his success. The MSM was complicit in taking down Biden for his perceived decline, but said nothing about Trump's. The Democratic town halls have not been a failure as you state. There are angry people, and they do want to know what CONGRESS is doing about this mess. Mr. Netto, you are failing our nation with your finger pointing. If you want to help, jump in and make things better. Grumbling from the sidelines doesn't help and is an unwelcome distraction...and perhaps could be described as harmful.
The media still says nothing about Trump’s declined. They insist on portraying him as a strongman with all his faculties when all you have to do is listen to him talk to know he’s not the one actually pulling the strings. Gracious, if Biden would have done any of the many incoherent things Trump is doing the media would have excoriated him and screamed for the 25th.
Until the media stops tiptoeing around this mess the country will never recover.
Susan, I'm very sorry you feel that way, but the fact remains that Americans have voted for this clown - twice! You have some serious problems. For example, what happens if the Trump administration defies court orders? It's a question that goes to the root of what is happening. Much has been written about this issue and what I've found is that nobody knows the answer. How is that acceptable? Is it really any wonder that a 230-year-old document provides so little help in the current circumstances? It would be like the British government relying on the Magna Carta in a constitutional crisis. My view is that you can only make things better by acknowledging what's wrong in the first place. The trouble is that your priority now for the time being is to resist this evil administration in any lawful way you can.
The power the Dem Congress people have right now is to inform the public of the damage and danger inflicted by right-wingers and to lead the public to stand up for our democracy, our rights, and our liberties before it is too late. Time is short!
Susan, may I politely suggest that you listen to this podcast where the Guardian's Jonathan Freedland speaks to a number of very unhappy Democrats about party leadership and messaging. Obviously, it can't be the last word on the subject, but it does show faultlines in the only democratic option that Americans have now in the light of what has happened to the Republican party. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/audio/2025/mar/21/why-are-democrats-so-divided-podcast
In my opinion, Trump is capitalizing mainly on two things: racism and misogyny. He is a pussy-grabbing, racist, narcissistic, nature-hating asshole, and his is teaching his followers that it's perfectly ok to be a pussy-grabbing, racist, narcissistic, nature-hating asshole. THAT is why so many are completely devoted to him: they want to be just like him. Then come the media, who are owned by billionaires and have strong preference for entertainment: reporting on actual political issues is just boring - and that was what Biden was, too: boring. But: it worked! At least in the real world. The media, however, prefer another world, that represented by the orange clown, which gives them viewers and brings them money. 'Kayfabe' comes to mind. How can you beat through that with boring real-world politics without resorting to ludicrous embellishment and straight-up lies? I think the Democrats' mission was impossible. The American citizens should look to themselves as to the root cause of these problems: after 40 years of destroying education, not much is left of sincere critical thinking.
Mike, racism and misogyny obviously featured largely in Trump's campaign but they weren't the reason why people outside his base voted for him. Trump spent an awful lot of time denouncing corporate media for criticising him or not offering him blinkered support. Across the post-pandemic world we've seen incumbents suffer electorally. Democrats suffered from the gap between their claims about economic recovery and Americans' perceptions about the economy, especially the lingering effects of high inflation. As everyone knows, when inflation fell prices didn't fall - they only continued to rise more slowly or stabilised at levels that meant continued hardship for many Americans. Too many Americans thought that prices were too high and Biden was too old. But even that doesn't explain why the current approval rating of the Democratic party is so low when Trump's own approval rating is falling, the economy is tanking, his peace deals are going up in flames and his domestic agenda is running aground in the courts.
The 77 million didn’t vote for the felon because of a bad campaign by Democrats. They voted for the felon because they liked his guarantee to continue to persecute black Americans and other people they don’t like and to preserve the economic, legal, and political advantages of white Americans. This has been the Republican message since 1968, and it gets them a ten to twenty point advantage with white Americans. When Republicans lose, it’s because they don’t state their white supremacist goals convincingly enough. It’s unlikely that they’ll make that mistake in future elections because it’s now so well established that it works with flying colors.
Exactly. As Heather said so often: the racism of the Old South was never gone, it's very much alive and kicking.
But, as George Wallace taught Nixon, it’s endemic throughout the US. Mississippi is worse than Idaho, but not by much.
Dutch Mike,
We all know that President Trump is hiding behind his position of "President"...hiding from the jail time he deserves for being found GUILTY of his many crimes. He stands boldly before us and pointing his fingers at his enemies. An enemy is anyone who stands up to him for his destructive choices regarding his crimes against our citizens or immigrants whom he lumps as a group of "thieves, robbers, murderers" with no trials ...no justice!!!! He is the criminal!!!!
How dare he disrespect a Judge performing his duty with honor and respect for our laws!
Trump longs for an equal relationship with but Putin!!!! This is a joke. Putin is playing him for the fool he is. Trump is not even close to Putin in his observation of character. Putin was KGB! Does Trump know how to fight? Does he know how to shoot a gun? Does he know how to kill someone with no remorse...NO!!!! Putin can do this all of these things with NO REMORSE!!!!
Does Trump think the American people have forgotten his crimes???
There are those of us who knew better than to vote for him the first time much less the second time! Remember the mass evacuation from Congress at the time of his first term ie those fairly decent congressmen and their replacements by dubious inexperienced candidates???
Remember the fear of other Republican leaders and their families who were being threatened by Trump.
Remember the crazed man who almost killed Nancy Pelosi's husband in his home due to being inflamed by the Republicans disrespectful comments regarding Nancy???
This is the man my Christian friends voted for. They will tell me...but the Democrats are for abortion!!! I would say ,"No!" the Democrats are for a woman to have the right to make a decision about her own body. They ignore the reality that Trump has mistreated women for years even while being married to beautiful gifted women. He chose to dishonor them for his own selfish pleasure.
President Trump is surrounded by very self-centered, incompetent people who are making this once great Democracy a JOKE before our enemies and the destruction of the freedom we have in the past, fought for by the shedding our own blood.
You're absolutely right, Emily. The COF is no more mature than a toddler; he is a bully and a coward at the same time: he will never do the fighting himself (he cannot hit anyone with those tiny hands), but he will let someone else do it for him. He is a bully kid who wants to play with the big boys (i.e. Putin), but definitely is no big boy himself. And yes, this gig all started because he wanted to stay out of jail. He's in it for HIMSELF and no one else. He doesn't give a shit about the America people, you can all die miserably for what he cares.
I disagree that there was too little time for Harris to make an impact. She was overwhelmingly supported by excited voters. I still think parts of the 2024 election were rigged and/or tainted via voter suppression. I also sadly think that people didn't want a black female as president. Seriously. In this day and age? I hope those people are real happy now with their traitor-in-chief.
Yes, all those Palestinian-Americans that accused her of genocide are now watching as the man they voted for is facilitating it with Bibi for his own profits.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why people believe a pathological liar who's proven over and over again that he can't be trusted and he's only out for himself. People are STILL supporting this POS.
You could understand it if you knew the “soul” of white America.
I feel exactly the same way. The sad reality is that there are many sick, deranged, disgusting, and morally bankrupt people in the world and it seems that nothing can break them out of their trance and social media has strengthened their resolve. Look how many still support Hitler.
I’m with you 100%.
I wouldn't rule that out as a factor, but I don't think that it was necessarily decisive. Nor do I see any mileage in election denial as a strategy - it has some very dubious precursors. I fear that we must agree to disagree.
I disagree, Russell. Note that the two times ffpotus won election, he defeated the only two major party women who ran for president. Hillary Clinton was the recipient of 20+ years of a Republican smear campaign, and Kamala Harris was biracial. By resume, both of those women had the better "job history" (Senator, SecState, First Lady and State AG, Senator, and Vice President) that ffpotus can dream of.
Ally, I'm not ruling out that racism and misogyny has some effect on the outcome of the 2024 election, but they don't explain Trump's appeal to people outside his base. They don't explain why Harris's advantage amongst women was only 53% to 46%. It doesn't explain why Trump had the largest share of votes by African Americans since George Ford in 1976. It also doesn't explain why the current approval rating of the Democratic party is so abysmally low when Trump's own approval rating is falling, the economy is tanking with the markets in turmoil, his peace deals have gone up in smoke (literally) and his domestic agenda has hit a roadblock in the courts.
I agree that election denial isn't a good strategy, but that doesn't negate the fact that there was tampering with the 2024 election.
BTW, trump used election denial as a strategy - and it worked for him. :(
It didn't work out so well for Fox News. If you're going with let's out-Trump Trump then your going down a very dark path.
FOTUS has publicly indicated they tampered with the election, and it involves EM and their "little secret." Not to mention other means of influence.
Ellen, I don't believe that election denial is the way forward. There are some very bad precedents.
Russell - one reason virtually no one is questioning the fairness of the 2024 election is because they don't want to sound like trump's 2020 claims. That doesn't mean people aren't thinking it - and some people KNOW it.
I'm not saying it is. But FOTUS, several times, has blatantly stated this. So if we're painting a picture of all of the wrongs the Dems did, this other factor must also be mentioned. Otherwise, stop analyzing and move forward.
Trump says a whole lot of things that don't make any sense. He boasts continually about his so-called landslide so he's hardly going to admit to cheating to achieve it.
Blame blame blame. No blame and no shame. The shame belongs to anyone who voted for that orange speck. Although everyone who is not a Republican MAGA should be megaphoning everywhere to act. They are not leading in any way.
I agree, but simply heaping blame on those witless folk doesn't get one very far. The angry response Republican House representatives are getting at town hall meetings shows that their constituents had rather different expectations of the administration and they want their representatives to make that clear to the government. They want the government to reduce prices, not to sack federal workers or invade Canada. Trump's plummeting approval figures show that people are unhappy and his economic policies suggest that things are not going to get better soon. He's lucky in that he inherited a strong recovering economy from Biden (that's sort of the story of his life) but he has very little time to turn things around before the mid-terms loom. In his first term, he made such a mess that the Republicans lost the House and left him a virtual lame duck.
You know they’re blaming that on left wing paid agitators so their base continues to think there is nothing wrong in MAGAland.
Only when it dawns on them how trump and the rest of their right-wing heroes have betrayed them will they realize how very, very stupid they have been, and all the time they were cheering on hurting the libs, they aren't aware of how they have betrayed themselves.
Of course, by that time, we will have lost our democracy.
Yes, and it's only likely to further infuriate their own angry supporters.
I think that Rs "more convincing argument" to the electorate is "We're racist, we love cruelty, we want everyone poorer and dumber. And, we know that you want this too." 😤😱💔
I don't honestly think that's a fair description of the Republican strategy which had to persuade a lot of swing voters. Trump talked an awful lot about the economy, inflation and immigration. He promised and is still promising to make Americans richer with his addled economic policies. On education, there's piles of information and opinion on why America's public education system is failing and why outcomes are so poor. Democrats broadly refuse to blame either the federal government or the teachers; Republicans are only too happy to find the system irreparably broken.
You understand the system is only broken in the areas Republicans can control because they desperately need to privatize to continue the dumbing down of their base?
The entire reason to attack the DOE is to get at the parts of education that is actually working and turn out dissenters to Christian Nationalist Republican Control.
I have kids in the school systems. When they refuse to educate them where will they get the people to make this country successful? The Elon Musks of this world are not the genius behind the technology, they just command the geniuses. I wish people would start giving credit to the actual people doing the work. Everything Musk touches is tainted with failure. Who picked the glue for that cybertruck? Who decided it would be cool to have unfinished steel that would rust away for the body? That’s his genius.
My understanding is that the failure of the public education system is widespread across the counrty and one of the main reasons for this has been the steady decline in funding at federal and state level. Musk was once considered to be a force for scientific and technical progress. He's a member of the Royal Society. However, his recent exploits have been less than stellar.
Russell, you acknowledge (indirectly) a fact of the current U.S. electoral process that is deplorable and destructive: The only reason that the Democratic standard was passed from Biden to Harris "in the middle of the campaign" is that in the U.S., campaigning never stops. Politicians restart their campaigning and fundraising the day after they're elected.
I question the other points in your comment.
As it was concluding, many pundits acknowledged that Harris/Walz ran a near-perfect campaign. Still, it failed.
As to why, my conclusion is two-fold:
1. Trump is a failure at everything except one; he is a master-manipulator of the media. When he was a NYC business failure, he still managed to capture the attention of local media. When he descended down his "golden" escalator, he transferred that expertise to capturing the national corporate media. Ever since, corporate media has devoted massive space and airtime to Trump coverage – even if negative – because he attracts more ears and eyeballs than ANY other topic. Audience share translates to advertising revenue, the lifeblood of corporate media. As long as Trump breathes, media will stick to him like glue.
2. Kamala Harris had the audacity to run for president while Black and female. After 250 years, this is still unacceptable to the predominantly racist and misogynistic U.S. electorate. Of course, Republicans were never going to vote for her; racism and misogyny is their brand. Harris lost the election because too many Democrats and Independents are closet racists and misogynists. Some might have voted for a Black man; they did in 2008 and 2012. But a Black woman is a bridge too far for a majority of Americans.
Conclusion: Everyone can argue about messaging and management, but those are not what lost the election. Corporate media still has access to the minds of Americans. They will always go where the money is and that is Trump. Americans are not going to allow a woman to lead the country, and certainly not a Black one, now, and maybe ever.
Dale, if corporate media was pivotal to the result then why did Trump denounce corporate media throughout his campaign? And why did Biden win in 2016 or Obama twice in 2008 and 2012? If Republican-voting Americans are all racists then how did Trump get the largest share of votes from African Americans since Gerald Ford in 1976? My views are hardly eccentric - they seem to be shared by some prominent Democrats. Why is the approval rating of the Democratic party so abysmally low now? On the question of money, it was pointed out by pundits during the election that the Harris campaign had funding from more billionaires than Trump.
Russell, Trump's denouncing corporate media is as genuine as studio wrestlers trash-talking each other on TV. That staged "conflict" draws low-brow viewers like flies to dung.
I don't have time to verify or parse your "statistics," but they seem sketchy. Trump did well with younger Black men, presumably because they're misogynists.
I don't think the source of funding is relevant. I didn't even bring it up.
My comment was about the election, not about how the Democratic Party has failed since the election, which is a different conversation.
Dale, by all means check the statistics for yourself if you like but don't dismiss them until you have because that's just lazy polemic. Trump is serious about his dislike for what he calls the mainstream media. He doesn't like them reporting his affairs as news. His seriousness is vividly illustrated not just by his diatribes against them but also by the fact that he has sued them repeatedly over the years. ABC agreed to pay him $15m in a defamation lawsuit over his sexual assault of E Jean Carroll, a case in which you will recall he lost a defamation suit. He also suing CBS over their 60 Minutes interview with Harris; and the Des Moines Register over a survey that showed Harris leading in the presidential race in Iowa. He won the state days later by 13 percentage points. He's suing the Pulitzer Prize Board over a series of reports in the New York Times and Washington Post on the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. Just recently, he and Musk falsely accused media outlets, including The New York Times, of being government-financed organs of the state. Why do you suppose Jeff Bezos has made all those changes at the Washington Post, including limiting the opinion columnists in what topics they could write about, leading many key journalists to leave the paper? The New York Times has called Trump a "serial litigant" against media outlets. He's also recently shut down Voice of America. His administration has launched a vicious assault on First Amedment rights and the media is in the firing line. To compare this with the sort of posturing seen in wrestling matches is to grossly underestimate the dangers to democracy and free speech in the US.
It’s useless to spend time lambasting the democrats. We are in a five alarm fire!
But they're your fire service department and they're not working - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/audio/2025/mar/21/why-are-democrats-so-divided-podcast
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/03/21/polling-data-democrats-primaries-grassroots-tea-party-00241769
No. That's not how it was at all.
Then how was it, Anne-Louise? Are you proposing to expatiate on that assertion?
I was able to access information directly from Jamie Raskin and cannot seem to repost for you. He outlines that Trump does not cover lawsuits for his administration and therefore one thing we can do is to start lawsuits against the staff that is carrying out the illegal acts of firing employees in their newly assigned roles and or those that do not adhere to the district courts. I’m going to check on his democratic site online. If you can share this info and put it in one your letters or do a live with him it will help everyone to feel we have other options. I currently just purchased 2 of his books and find him to be very ethical. Thanx
He has some great lives that explain this very thing, some of them are posted. His team is creating the lawsuits, that’s the oversight committee. All other watchdogs Trump illegally shut down or fired. Yes, many will not want to come back, but there are more that are ready. Remember all your info is here or in our laws.
Sorry for my spell correct . It’s all online on .gov sites and today even today the news from judges reviews are being recorded and accurately reported on corporate media and Substack of course. I’m tracking the lawsuits the oversight committee is handling and there are 4 big ones now in play. We have already won some without the Supreme Court. Anyways a lot of them could have been done more efficiently without tying up the district courts and state courts if the Executive office had sent them to Congress as stated in our constitution. Now the executive branch is going to be bogged down with paperwork by lawyers and Federal elected officials that might have passed thru quite easily. It will be a stopgate on top of new ones.
I think that it could be problematic trying to sue individuals in the Trump administration unless their unlawful activities were clearly not conducted as part of their duties. The cost of defending these lawsuits (over 100 of them now) will inevitably fall on taxpayers rather than on members of the administration.
That probably won’t be necessary as a lot of these will not go to the Supreme Court and they will push them back to the Federal courts for resolution. Things with Trumps team could be problematic as Federal employees but according to the oversight committee that has reversed the lawsuits that they are winning….they have been preparing for this for 4 years. I defer to the legal decisions of Congress and the oversight committee- they are winning
Defending any lawsuit involves a cost to government. The risk with any of the cases involving executive overreach (and that's a euphemism for the administration's arbitrariness) is that in passing judgement, SCOTUS will treat the wider issue of the scope of presidential authority and once they have ruled in his favour on this issue - the key issue in virtually all the cases - then the die is cast and Trump will have a free hand to do pretty much whatever he wants. In other words, he only needs one big case to go his way with SCOTUS. As for Congress, all the standing committees have been ineffective because of the hostility between the two parties - https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/5128410-congress-committee-governance/
Trump has sidelined the Congress and is governing without them, effectively overriding their authority and so long as this continues American democracy is under threat.
The fact that the MAGA narrative convinced a majority of voters speaks volumes to the morality and gullibility of many people in the US!
And Trump's shameless exploitation of their credulity.
My bro wouldn’t vote for a woman, as I accused him of. He said, not a black one. God, I’m so pissed. He’s not a stupid man, just a racist to his core
...as many Americans still are. It's not a tiny minority: the old South is still very much alive in today's misogyny and racism.
Dutch, I suspect that it is NOT "just because too many Americans didn’t want a black woman in the White House…” that tRump appeared to win the 2024 election but rather because Muskrat’s $250,000,000+ “donation” to tRump's campaign along with his “genius” understanding of and familiarity with vote tabulating machines in all seven swing states combined with voter suppression laws and tactics combined with substantial gerrymandering led to what appeared to be the slimmest margin of victory in our history.
May well be. But still WAY too many Americans voted for a racist, misogynystic, nature-hating, pussy-grabbing, narcissistic clown - and they voted for him while being conscious. That wasn't an abstruse minority of under 10%, and in that sense, the American people have a serious problem.
Indeed we do. But what can you expect of a country founded on genocide of its Indigenous Peoples to acquire land and the enslavement of kidnapped Black people as the engine for their generation of wealth?
Election numbers reveal that a slightly larger majority of 1/3 voting eligible people voted for ffpotus and a slightly smaller 1/3 voted for Harris. That leaves 1/3 (and a larger "share" of that 1/3 than voted for either of the main candidates for President) who either did not vote or were prevented from voting due to RepubliKKKan shenanigans with purging voter rolls, gerrymandering, or mucking with voting locations.
All of it 100% true, Ally.
No one can claim surprise at Trump’s lawlessness m: he’s doing what he said he would do.…. But everyone can claim surprise at the GOP legislators COMPLETE abdication of their constitutional responsibilities and at the Dems’ COMPLETE messaging failures. I guess we lacked imagination.
What we lacked was an inability or unwillingness, thanks to corporate donor ownership, to speak to the real economic concerns of ordinary folks, AND the unwillingness to call a spade a spade when it came to the actions of Israel in Gaza. We showed ourselves as lacking principle on big things that mattered, and relied on our old grab bag of identity politics positions, thinking that would see us through. That the Democratic Party now still can’t own its colossal failure speaks volumes. There is no effective opposition party in the USA right now.
Chris, regarding the "calling a spade a spade" thing, it is important to note that evangelicals and other conservative christians have had heavy influence on U.S. culture and foreign policy since the nation's founding.
The bible thumpers cling to a note in the Hebrew Scriptures (aka Old Testament) which states that "God honors and protects any nation that honors and protects Israel." (Genesis 12:1-3) Based on that assertion (written coincidentally by a Hebrew), the U.S. Government has always carried Israel in its side pocket like a lucky rabbit's foot. Israel could violate every international law on the books and U.S. leadership will always look the other way.
Interesting observation. I’m certainly not suggesting we shouldn’t honor and protect a longtime ally. But it shouldn’t be a blank check. Good friends should be able to tell each other when they are wrong. If they can’t then it’s just transactional and nothing more.
So they voted for someone who would answer to no one! If, we get through this? Just maybe, we will learn from history? Thanks, Dutch Mike, for sharing.
It seems that sometimes, people simply don't want to learn from historians like Heather; they have to experience hell first-hand before they realize what they have done.
I pulled out this same paragraph you quoted, but to observe that the informal army Trump commands is why the J6 pardons happened so quickly. He needed his foot soldiers-those who have committed violence on his behalf, against the government and the rule of law, available to keep his own party under threat and in line.
Yup... As I said elsewhere: the MAGA gun bunnies have been stocking up weapons for ages now, yearning for civil war and a chance to "kill off some libs"... And they are willing and eager to follow the Orange Emperor's orders...
Don't forget, the project 2025 people have been organizing this for years. trump is their marionette getting all the attention and he gives them cover for what they are doing. They wrote all the executive orders and trump just signs them. He doesn't care what he signs as long as he's getting attention.
Dead right you are, William. They have been at it since the 80's, and very cleverly, they started in the schools...
The emperor is actually Musk as Trump is an acolyte of Putin.
Aren't they both pawns of Putin?
Yes.
Thank you At least for your dose of sanity
It's the least I can do.
We should recall that in 1933, Germany had only a 15 year history of democracy since Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in 1918.
Yep. Perfectly said. The democrats (small “d” because that’s all they deserve) are useless, as they are run by the same corporations that run the republicans.
While that may be true, somehow the Democrats could refrain from becoming lying racist sycophants kissing up to one "true leader"...
It is true. And that’s why the dems are kissing Trumps ass, rather than getting out there on the streets with non violent protest. That’s how you get a movement going, not by going on book tours
Amen!!
This is where I believe we are headed also.
Sad to say it, but I think so, too. Before summer, the 'dynamic duo' will start rounding up their political enemies, and that means everyone who doesn;t write nice things about Donny-boy and Muskolini. I sincerely fear for Heather's life.
Ellen, I second this. This ”sliding from democracy to authoritarianism” is feeling like a parachuteless drop from above the clouds and the landing is just a panicked breath away. They are giddy with the power and the lack of congressional oversight.
And lack of judicial ability to interfere. Now, Trump wants to test the Supreme Court and the military to see if they are on board to help make his power grab complete.
Yah, it is hard to see how the Federal Courts can enforce their orders if the executive is full on defying and Congress is not willing to fight for separation of power.
In the District Court I served a lot of the US Marshals were veterans. I wonder how they are processing this.
Interesting question. What I see in my cohort of retired cops who are veterans is that they love it.
Oh, that's dark. Raises the hair on the back of my neck.
That is my guess but I wonder how the cuts in the VA and retirement benefit turn down might shift
Right you are.
Your sentiment is spot on. I’m just not so sure about those clouds. Seems to me, that’s been a clear blue sky for at least the past 10 years. Tragically.
Exactly. Enough with the platitudes that this isn’t normal and worse than other authoritarians. This is full on dictatorship with nobody in government, the media, the courts, or the intelligentsia providing any guidance for re-establishing A rule of law. I say A rule because the old one is gone. Ideas? Bring the country to a halt by having a nationwide strike? Literally blocking the entrances to wherever SKUM and his skum buckets want to go. Find out if the military is loyal to the orange menace or our soon to be former Constitution. Imagine how much worse this could get because with this level of corruption, vengeance, and narcissism it could get a lot worse for a lot of people. A lot of people in a lot of groups.
Patrick Henry said, "Give me Liberty or give me Death". I believe our democratic leaders would be proud to stand up and say something similar. But they are fearful of the brownshirts and what those crazed trumpers would do to their wives, their children, their parents, and their friends and relatives. Who in their right mind would want to subject their families to being swatted? George W, Mitt Romney, Gen Miley, Joe Biden, Dick Cheney, former Congressional Republicans, and former and active veterans are voices that we, the people, need to hear. But we are not. The very last line of defense is the congressional races coming up in Florida and Arizona and the race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Patriotic Americans need to turn out in record numbers to show the rest of America that our Constitution needs to stand strong and that we will use the power of the ballot to voice our disapproval of the trashing of the United States. Truly amazing that a peepee tape in Putin's possession is enough to kill the United States of America.
I don't think a peepee tape has that much influence. Being caught talking about "grabbing them by the genitals" didn't slow Trump's roll one bit. If Donald could get a copy of the tape, he would successfully market it to his fanbase. It would sell like hotcakes.
What DOES carry weight with Donald is how Russian lenders deal with borrowers who fail to pay back their loans on a timely basis. Unlike strongly worded letters from U.S. banks, Russian lenders employ remedies like polonium-laced bagels and sudden falls from upper-story windows.
“The very last line of defense is the congressional races coming up in Florida and Arizona and the race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”
If that line of defense ever takes place…. Seriously by the time those races come to a vote it could very well be too late.
Thank you, Barbara. I wonder why I’m not hearing a call for a General Strike from the more prominent voices out there? Robert Reich! Malcolm Nance? Bernie Sanders? It seems to me that the economic weapon is all we have left.
Reich recommended participation in the April 5 event just this morning. He has been pretty consistent and vocal in his recommendations to jam sticks in the spokes of the Trump/Musk/Vance bicycle.
You can sign up for it on Substack
As far as I am concerned the US is becoming like Russia. I am afraid for my German husband to go back to his job in the US right now, because he is a permanent resident. However, ICE has detained US citizens too, so I don't want to return either. I will have to to sell our house. It seems clear that the borders on both ends are no longer porous. Air travel within and into, and out of the US seems unsafe with Musk meddling with it.
I had this conversation with my dual citizen daughter…even citizens should be weary of flying in as if they deny they need to provide any due process how can you contest your detention period. And they seem to be searching phones for policy related criticisms of Trump. It is surreal. Frankly, there are really safety issues with the gutting of the FAA and NOAA.
Not to mention physically unsafe, with airplanes falling out of the sky.
Good idea to stay where you are. My husband is British and we would return to the UK were he not so disabled - and we don't want to be apart from our son and his family. They could come for anyone now.
Of course, “they” want everyone to feel afraid. People aren’t more malleable and less critical of disinformation when they exhibit fear.
FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) is the cornerstone of marketing. It creates a ripe field for exploitation.
Fear is a normal and reflexive reaction. The best strategy in this case is don’t show it. The bully, who counts on seeing it like a shark that smells blood in the water, will then experience increased fear. See how that goes.
So many good viewpoints you have made. Thanks for sharing, Linda Weide.
My advice is not to come back physically. Telecommuting would be the safest for him, if it's possible.
It's so hard to get my head around - those Republican members of Congress -- most have children or grandchildren or are uncles and aunts -- how can they look at those young faces and think that what Trump and Musk are doing is the way to go? Where is Congress??? Justice Roberts mild slap on the wrist to Trump is not nearly enough.
The Republican nitwits don’t realize that should Trump and his sociopathic minions bring Curtis Yarvin’s wet dream of destroying our government to fruition that they will be rendered useless and be purged themselves.
Bingo.
Oh, yeah, they are having their own fevered dreams of grandeur and think they are immune from the coming purge.
lauriemcf,
The dreams of those holding power in the highest offices within the USA are in power only for the short term and only for themselves.
Power and ambition have frozen their hearts and minds and brains regarding the stark reality of the future before us. They only see Mara Lago and/or the dreams of their newly acquired mansions by the sea and the grand hope of filling their egos with the power they believe they deserve.....at last, to be able to tell those who oppose them how to live under their "thumbs".
The votes of the American people have allowed this to happen.
Yet, we are not, at this moment paralyzed.....but we only have a moment.
Emily, your observation is profound.
As the U.S. has become corporatized, the rich and powerful look no more than one year into the future ... when they get their next bonus checks. For a couple decades, they have been destroying entire companies in order to get a bigger bonus check at the end of the year.
In the modern U.S., everything and everyone is disposable.
Nonpartisan Senate and house. Most of this oversite committee. Wikipedia gives you a quick review of the 3 branches of govt
So many things come to mind. Historical parallels abound. It seems we are complicit in this if we don’t “do something” Who among us has not had our ire tamped down for fear of some kind of reprisal. I am impressed with the judges who stand up to this unconstitutional power grab and government dismantling. The “MAGA” supporters are the equivalent of “Brown Shirts” in the Nazi takeover. The actions taken by this administration and its members is INTOLERABLE. We are witnessing, in real time , the loss of our democracy and our ability to control those who for us . I am old and I am horrified for my kids and grandchildren. Bernie Sanders and AOC seem to be the only ones fighting and Tim Walz too. We can not stand by with our mouths open and let anyone destroy our democracy
The actions of the president give the appearance that his loyalty is to Russia and not the United States.
The actions of the president's appointed "efficiency czar" give the appearance that his loyalty is to China and not the United States.
Perhaps these two men are loyal to America as they demand us to assume. But they are both acting like they are against us and are working for our adversaries.
The president's supporters claim the Executive Branch can use violence against the Judicial Branch, and thereby violate the Constitution that the president has sworn to uphold.
The "efficiency czar" now controls the Treasury's payments system. He has the sole power to shut down funding for the Legislative Branch, the Judicial Branch and Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
However there are consequences to illegal actions like this. The economy will slow to a halt and the will of the people will rise up. Two criminals at the top and a few thousand MAGA supporters cannot stand against 340 million free American citizens.
Burke, what seems to be emerging is the attraction of oligarchic access to and then control of money internationally and the power it buys via which the Muskrat has built himself into the richest man in the world and which tRump now wants a piece of that action. In many respects, I fear "America First” may have also been a lie.
See the link below. The Dem Senators were not bribed with crypto coins. They were bribed with US Dollars. Crypto is a scam. Bogus. Worthless.
If the Strategic Crypto (Tulip Bulb) Reserve at the Treasury is allowed to continue, citizens would experience the next financial crisis--worse than the mortgage crisis. This will cause hyperinflation and the failure of the Dollar worldwide. Fits right into Musk's goals to grab more power.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/26/crypto-democrats-gop-legislation-elizabeth-warren-00206018?link_id=1&can_id=61c02972b79cbe2d8539227966115e3a&source=email-tell-dems-to-filibuster-musks-crypto-bill-9&email_referrer=email_2665291&email_subject=tell-dems-to-filibuster-musks-crypto-bill&&
The German people see what is happening and aparf from AfD, they are very concerned for us.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." We must do something. Write and participate in peaceful political demonstrations. One does not have to be very strong to hold small poster signs with their political messages at political demonstrations.
"Can they be stopped" indeed. Will our military obey an illegal order from Trump to attack citizens? It seems that laws do not matter to Trump and his goons.
I believe this is exactly where we are headed.
Following is excerpt from Robert Hubbell’s Substack discussing “attempted” secret plan to give FElon Muskrat access to top secret national security plans regarding China. Wasn’t kept secret. I’ve included excerpt because it tickles a question I’ve had of Pete Hegseth being in control. Perhaps something working in the favor of We the People? Military officials that will continue to protect us and thwart authoritarian takeover of the Pentagon? Yes. They are there. Still protecting democracy.
Careful Pres Trump of the playground you choose. You do not stand a chance.
“In other words, it appears that the Pentagon and the White House are lying to the American people. They got caught before they could divulge highly classified information to someone who presented a security risk.
Moreover—and this is the interesting part—it appears that someone at the Pentagon tried to stop the briefing by leaking to the press that it was about to happen. Stay tuned for more!”
There is no one to stop Hegseth from giving this information to Musk. It will no matter how many leaks or how much outrage.
Afraid so, the warnings have been there for decades
Dr Richardson writes: "In the end, one source close to the president told them that the president’s ultimate power over judges comes from the fact that they do not command an army, while he does. 'Are they going to come and arrest him?' the advisor asked, apparently confident that the answer is no." 🤢
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-kirchick-trump-coup-20160719-snap-story.html
It may well come down to a soft military coup d'état by senior officers belaying orders, as noted by a loyal conservative. As frightening as that prospect may have sounded ten years ago, this event could occur as officers honour their oaths to the Constitution. Below a compelling analysis of the possible relinquishment of U.S. command of N.A.T.O. 🤬
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/supreme-allied-commander-must-be-american-nato-europe-trump-saceur
"Little by little" our Federal Government is being attacked by Musk and the whole Trump's mis-administration! This is a hostile takeover of 1/3 of our Government! Never in my life would I have ever thought that a Republican President would successfully attack our Democratic Republic!
We may be reliving the beginning of the Dark Ages.
YES
While I am terrified and outraged and my whole focus in life right now has become what is happening in this country, I have to say this! HCR, you are a hero and there NOTHING that this country can do to thank you for your service right now! I do pray that we still have a future, a future that resemblances sanity and in that future I hope I get to see you recognized for all you are doing now! A true patriot, a true public servant! I am grateful beyond words for all your letters and videos that keep me informed! Knowledge is power and you give us power! Thank you!
All true words regarding HCR. The something we can do is acknowledge, remember, teach our young, write, support, and spread the recognition of this clearly brave and brilliant soul.
This is a something we can all do.
Yes, there is, Bill Pierce. Doing nothing is absolutely the thing we do not want to do. My father as a young man (20 years old) was a soldier during all the major campaigns during World War II. The least I can do is to express my opinions in writing and/or participating in political demonstrations that are just getting underway around the country.
To clarify my remark, it has zero to do with doing nothing. It is not an address to the necessity of activism.
My remark is only and very specifically an amplification of Luca Van Dam’s comment:
“HCR, you are a hero and there NOTHING that this country can do to thank you for your service.”
I hope that makes it more clear.
Yes, it is more clear, Bill Pierce. Thanks for that.
Absolutely!
Absolutely HCR we are grateful for your letters…yes, “knowledge is power!!”
Why, why, WHY are journalists and academics surprised at the destruction of our country by the Republicans?
It was right there on paper for anyone to see. And yet supposedly learned people are surprised. Even speechless.
Get a f---ing clue.
And learn how to talk to everyday people. Do not use worthless words that communicate nothing. Authoritarian for instance. Everyday people do not know what it means. You might as well turn in their direction and fart. Instead use "Dictatorship".
Another one - Oligarchy. Instead use "Stinking Rich".
Learn how to talk like everyday people.
"Learn how to talk like everyday people"?... That is one of DJT Superpowers.... The MAGAs love him for that... He may wear a Suit&Tie, but DJT talks Mean, Nasty, Trash...
I strongly agree, Apache. Deceit and tyranny lay in the vague. Plain speaking demands being clear and reasonably precise. Rigor is important to avoid amplifying gossip and deception.
Thanks Bill... Seems that We, The People, are Suffering thru DJT's Demented Reality-Show... DJT wants 'Good-TV'... Sadly Crassness Sells in Contemporary American Society... Whatever happened to Learning & Good Manners?....
Most people I come across now as throughout my life are far better, more kind and honest than they have any good reason to be, given the world we live in. That’s the part I find the most difficult to explain.
These others, I have no idea. It has always appeared to me they twist on some needle
within. Since it’s their personal needle, one might ask each what it is they made or was given to them.
I think at this point, I’m mystified.
Hello Bill... I agree that most People are Good... Americans are mostly taught to be 'Nice'... Unfortunately some People have inherited Pathologies... They can Spoil Life for others... They tend to Congregate, and make life hard for others... The MAGAs reinforce each other, and take Pleasure in inflicting their Sickness...
I don’t think the evident perversity is entirely something passed on, often perhaps but there are other many where this doesn’t appear to be the case. Individuals vary in some respects similar to say a quickly reproducing virus. Just so, there’s the uniqueness of the individual. Quite possibly, it’s not always for the better.
You're right Apache. Actions speak louder than words and the MAGAs are deaf to everything except what Trump and the Republicans say.
Yesterday, the WH said that they are going to go into people's homes without a warrant. And they already have abandoned due process.
80% of Americans polled are in favor of deporting immigrants here with a criminal record, but to round up and deport people without due process is illegal.
They also said they are going to start deporting naturalized citizens. This, of course is as illegal as their other actions, but if they deported Elon and didn't let him back in, maybe it's not a bad thing. /S
If they start raiding homes without warrants, the coup is over and they won.
I’m sure they already are but they put these guys on flights so fast no one finds out.
I agree, this is the worst possible nightmare, but I don't think anyone expected Republicans in congress to be so passive. Who knew they would go so cheaply?
Just got a reply back from my Congressman. He thinks it's all terrific and rumpy musk are doing an amazing job. How does one respond to that?
What state and district Kathy? I'm in ME-01 with Jared Golden who mistakenly believes that it is possible to reason with the Trump/Musk regime.
Are there any live town halls that haven't turned into a sh*t show in the last 3 weeks?
Brainwashed, want to be part of the gang, scared, jackasses…
Been giving us a clue since 2000
Long before that for those who had been paying closer than average attention.
Yep, I remember the junk bond mess, 11-22-63 and my Repub friend disparaging FDR. Thought she was just parroting husband. And she was. All the way, sad to say
22 November 1963 or corporate response to the New Deal even?
No backbones, whatsoever! Though, the leader supposedly has bone spurs.
No backbone, but those Republicans do have bank accounts...
So true and those bank accounts are so important in order to win at the voting polls.
Me.
I think they showed us during 45 just how compliant they are.
This morning MSNBC reported on the AOC, Bernie rally in Arizona last night. The sound was terrible and they only played a snipped of what they each said.
As opposed to what Trump says. Even his most banal comments are published and republished and rehashed by EVERY corporate media outlet.
It's not only Trump's Fasicst "plain" talk but it's the echo chamber normalizing his bull shit.
How are the Democrats supposed to get their messages out when the lame stream media won't report it?
It’s not a surprise to me. I think many people are passive as they don’t want to lose what little they have.
I hate to say it, but Republicans are stupid and they will support Trump/Musk even after they have completely taken over the Federal government including the Treasury, Justice and the DOD.
Keep in mind that only about 1/3 of the registered voters are Republicans. It is likely they cannot be swayed no matter what happens.
I certainly see this in my world. I have (according to them) a fully developed case of "Trump* Derangement Syndrome" and just need a nice man to straighten me out.
*that is the first time I have used the name of ffpotus in over 4 years. It has quotes around it. Does that count?
All while soliciting sex from a minor the Republican needed to make a law calling it a mental illness. Glad to see he resigned but worry he will not get any substantial penalty.
They have already taken ivermectin treasury, DOD, and justice.
I don't blame them since is uncharted terrain for them after more than two centuries of democracy in this country. It looks unreal and nobody is giving them a way, passibly, to defend themselves or say no to the take over of entire departments and secretaries whre thy work. What would happen when they start searching our houses without a warrant? That time is coming.
Only this, I’m not certain precisely who you identify as “everyday people”. I’m equally not clear on how you know how any “non-everyday people” converse with them. But I do know that a great many good folk don’t spend a moment thinking about many of these matters, or even following national news. Further, there is a general and pervasive lack of precision in language used and this is reflective of thought, though not feeling.
So go ahead and continue to underestimate your fellow man. If you think the term “stinking rich” equates well with oligarch, perhaps you might give it another think. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to give a closer study of the French Revolution from its inception to … well, when after all did it end?
As someone with a background in marketing I have a lot of experience identifying a target audience. Everyday People refers to people that are not political junkies. Low information voters.
Precision is not the goal. Effectiveness is the goal of political communication. Often I see language used that is supposedly precise while effectiveness is sacrificed. That’s bad. That’s a bad thing to do.
David, that’s so true. Most people I find are not particularly interested politics or much history. I’m not sure who the junkies are but I imagine they are very few. Policy wonks perhaps. Also few are the politicians and those that are political contractors. Then there are those who take their citizenship like serious adults or teens and realize they should pay a little attention from time to time. I see your point. I think it’s a very good one. But just as you mention errors of judgement in speech are not effective. In point of fact, they can be downright harmful.
Setting the awful path of the French Revolution aside, I look at US lynching parties, white race riots and similar events in other cultures. I would just like to understand.
So when I think of the use of a term like “stinking rich” I think of some middle class people, certainly upper middle class people, and on and on. You know, the parvenus. The great body of these people, though experiencing some nodding level of privilege, do not wield power like say a Duke, a Prince, or an oligarch.
My fundamental point is, if you’re going to mass communicate, it’s key to take care how you use your index finger. Else, surely you’ll regret it.
In marketing, one learns about what motivates people. So, if I’m feeling frustrated and perhaps a bit angry, I might without thought point out a group of people that hopefully doesn’t include me, point and say “the problem is people like that.”
That’s how lynchings and white race riots start that eventually destroy entire communities, even wipe them from the face of the Earth.
You have a good point. Speech is key. Sometimes one dearly wishes what they said could be taken back. But it can’t.
I believe many people would say you hit the nail on the head...several excellent points, David Gagne! Thanks so much for sharing.
Yes.
The litany of destructive acts continues, and the focus on issues of national security are of high concern. The action taken against the Institute of Museum and Library Services, however, speaks volumes about the values that lie behind much of the malign intent of the Executive administration toward the people of the United States. This modest programme is the only federal programme specifically designed to provide (modest) supports to the civic institutions that are the keeper of the nation's memory and that directly serve the population. It is the cultural counterpart to the administration's attack on the institutions, public and private, that educate the population.
Consider the evident. Drumpf has a lifelong reading problem. Destroy all that one cannot achieve?
You don’t actually think he writes any of the multi-sentence tweets he blasts out do you? And you know he doesn’t write any of the orders he signs.
I suppose he may get to choose which of the phrases fed to his phone he wants in CAPS. That’s probably pretty much it.
Yes, agreed. I assume that some or perhaps most of the EO’s were composed in conjunction with Project 2025, and by current White House lawyers who are informed by it, so as to be ready to them roll out as they have over the past 59 days. Agreed, the change in the nature of his messaging has been striking.
John, given the tone of cruelty and short-fuse anger, I suspect Stephen Miller may be the author of the text diatribes.
More that they know that a poorly educated, ignorant population is much easier to control.
You, Bill Pierce, are describing reality. Thanks, again, for sharing.
They are trying to destroy the nation's memory just in time for our 250th anniversary. I fear there will be nothing left to celebrate, or just empty gestures. And you are right about it being a "modest program" -- it is only 0.003% of the Federal budget, but support from IMLS means, in many cases, whether a museum or library can continue to exist. (I am a retired history museum professional.)
the Federal judges can stop this. I hope they will. It’s illegal to shut down government agencies.
Indeed, they are using Orwell's Big Brother tactics as a guide to erase true history throughout all of government.
Truly Orwellian!
I was wondering when they would get around to the museums, (and was confident they would). Having worked in the museum field most of my life, I know they have been considered some of the most "dispensable" educational institutions. Watch for Musk to be touring the Smithsonian to select things for his private collection, like Goering. And the rest of that "old stuff" can be sold to fund the king's golden toilets.
Elon Musk has been given access to and information about all aspects of the inner workings of the US Government including now its most highly secretive plans and strategies. He is a man who has just recently thrust himself into the MAGA political circle. However, his commercial interests in countries that are adversaries of the US are vast and huge. In fact, he has a working relationship with the heads of China and Russia along with several other nations. Just as a matter of US security why has he been given so much information and power and what is his commitment to the US other than a big cash profit. I doubt that he could stand up to receive a security clearance for the information that he acquiring.
There is absolutely no way in hell he could get even a low-level security clearance. The drug use alone would keep it from him. So giving him access to information at the level they are proposing (higher than your basic Top Secret-Crypto) is not just out of the question, it is illegal. The people giving it to him should be arrested on the spot.
Under the old rules James. They went out the window with the 45 debacle
I'm thinking that at this point anything Musk or Trump knows is being fed straight to China and Russia.
Deed so. The way they (Trump and Musk) talk and act...it would be hard to believe anything else. It seems to me their talk and walk are a match.
Fred, I believe the Muskrat opened tRump’s eyes to the far greater possibilities for profit along with some attendant graft and corruption by setting his sights internationally, America First notwithstanding.
Remember Musk is one of the larger government contractors and he will promote all of is companies and services. Verizon's contract to upgrade the FAA was terminated and given to Starlink, one of Musk's companies. It should be noted that many of the grievances that have been shouted by Musk have been against governmental agencies requiring his company to comply with various rules and regulations. His payment for Starlink was held up as the company failed to meet the tests they as to speed and volume they claimed.
With their decision on Citizens United, the Roberts Supreme Court made it possible for Musk and Oligarchs to buy the President, the Presidency, and Congress.
Roberts Supreme Court is responsible for defiling our democracy.
The Roberts Court along with a number of politicians have been undermining the guardrails of democracy for some time. We are now seeing what it is like to have a "conservative" government, as they vision it. The biggest pitfall was when Reagan adopted and endorsed trickle down economics and allowed the accumulation of such great amounts of wealth in the hand of so few people. This has led to individuals with earnings more than the GDP of a small country. Robert's contribution was allowing these people with unlimited access to influence the politics and political parties.
We are now seeing these same people who are now looking at enhancing their wealth and power by taking over the government. Their view is to have government services provided by private companies they own and control with at least a twenty to thirty percent markup with less or no means of real oversight.
We no longer have to worry about stopping organized crime as we have brought the same type of folks into the White House and given them the keys to the country. They are now trying to organize what and who gets what. By the way, the recent confrontation with President Zelensky was a classic mob shakedown. we no see the great negotiator at work.
If they don't find any needle in the haystack, and they wont, they'll invent one to justify their destruction .
repub plan - over regulate the government, under fund it, blame it for not working, bring in the private guys.
And blame it all on Biden and Obama.
And mess up the whole nation to their advantage. Thanks for your reply Rickey
This is an eerily familiar refrain.
Invent is the operative word! Thanks for sharing.
We, lacking experience after so many generations of Americans enjoying freedom and democracy, are confused to say the beast. We need to be inventive ASAP to defend what's left and start rebuilding. Thanks for your reply Brenda.
National strike! Including air traffic controllers, trains, trucks and ports.
I couldn't agreed more Sheila. There're thousands of social and political activists to organize such an huge and historical event. There's always a need for leadership and a clear, wide and loud message and, with little time and intense planning could be done. Should be massive. Please keep posting. Thanks for your reply 👍
It's hard to believe there is really a single Republican left who cares about National Security. It's more like something they used to pretend to care about in hopes of getting a bigger bribe to betray it. No one who cared about National Security would have supported a felon who stole all those classified documents and shared them around Mara Lago. I just hope that the countries that used to be our allies have changed all their passwords and hardened all their security or Putin will have all their data too.
And the secondary result of their spinelessness is that those nations will think twice before handing over intel they would have heretofore thought we should be privy to. Basically, they're being taught not to trust U.S.
I agree. I think that’s the point. Putin’s puppets want to make sure we have no allies ever again.
Angela B,
We are doing the damage to ourselves.....look at who was voted into the office of President...FOR THE SECOND TIME!!!!
We are experiencing the suicide of our "free nation" and all of the ideals we have said we believed in.....but evidently, we do NOT believe in, because we have a want-to-be" DICTATOR in the White House!!!!
We have no one to blame but ourselves. I have NEVER voted for him and even changed political parties when he was first put on the ballot. Trump is a "placeholder" for those who are really in power and who are day by day destroying our country...our DEMOCRACY!!!!
Something needs to be done before Trump and his lackies finish finding enough prisons to put us in....anyone of color....anyone who does NOT "bow the knee"....
I can only think of the new lives being born everyday, each life needing love and nourishment and encouragement...."a hope and a future".
I think of those who suffer with physical and mental problems....their situations will become worse. Will our schools become propaganda machines with truth twisted for political control!?
Who is this “we” you speak of? 🤔
Susan,
"we" equals the American citizens who voted and placed "enemies of freedom" in office. Among them are many of my dearest friends and family members who vote "Republican".
I'm sure our access to a lot of intelligence has been cut off. Who would trust us anymore?
I wouldn't trust us.
Too late.
They certainly don't act like it.
Governor Walz and the others are correct; congressional Republicans are the real villains. They swore to “protect and preserve” the US Constitution, yet they all sit in silence thus ceding congressional authority to the executive branch, which SCOTUS has enables to evolve into a monarchy in all respects except by name.
Can we keep it together until the 2026 elections? I expect the Musk/Trump junta is making preparations to declare some kind of national emergency in order to cancel the 2026 midterm elections. Congressional Republicans, knowing they would be trounced in an open, honest election, will endorse and go along with whatever Musk/Trump come up with.
I struggle to find the words to describe the MAGA Republican Congress. They are so much more than mere traitors.
There are plenty of villains in this tale, including a cadre of shadowy billionaires, who unlike showman Musk, don't show their faces much. "GOP" members of Congress might not be so smug if enough of their constituents get pissed at them. We might find ways to expedite that.
GOP members of Congress sre going out of their way not to hear from constituents by, for one, not holding any more townhall-type meetings.
They are too chicken to hear from their constituents, and like Trump, they are out of touch and too thin skinned to hear any criticism of their actions.
Indivisible in Maine held a town meeting Wednesday & invited Collins, who of course didn’t come. 500 people filled the venue and 400 couldn’t get in due to space. The meeting is on uTube and 100’s more watched it. People spoke from the heart & a few younger people said how depressed and hopeless they feel. Our local channel tried to contact Collins & no comment! She said Indivisible just wants her to lose in 2026. What the 🤬 This isn’t about a damn campaign- this is about people’s lives- about democracy. She’ll lose in 2026 if we even have elections because she doesn’t care about her constituency!
There is a mass rally in DC on April 5th and nationwide in your states! I will be in Augusta, ME! We the people are being called to take action if the Congress & courts won’t do something. I marched in the 70’s & I’m marching again in my 70’s!
Ours here in WI have resorted to invitation only Zoom meetings. So disgusted by the vanorden character who represents our district. Claims to support Farmers but turns a blind eye when Farm Aid is chopped. And now is a presidential nominee for the Naval Academy board. Why does this feel like 1939 Germany again!?! Sorry, I do not march in lockstep with anyone!
I'm willing to bet there will be no mid-terms as we expect them. I suspect that ballots are already being completed and awaiting stuffing in ballot boxes or equivalent when the day comes.
Or they may not bother going through the charade at all.
They are destroying all that they can so why not our elections, too? Just plain despicable and Project 2025 even more despicable. If we did not see this situation coming down the pike it's a shame. Because, we were forewarned by all the rhetoric from the Trump teams' lips and the document called Project 2025. Thanks for sharing, The BobCaster.
I think your second suggestion is the more likely. I think we have voted in our last election.
I think you are probably right. None of the MAGA bunch are smart enough to work out the substitute ballot scheme.
I mean, apparently all Trump has to do to get the world he wants is to issue another Executive Order.
Preserve, Protect, and Defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Now REALLY, Ralph, after all the peculiarities and statistical deviations that have come to light from the 2024 election, just how do you imagine any future election, especially in 2026, could possibly emerge “open and honest”? …let alone free and fair.
Most people are blissfully ignorant about the peculiarities and statistical deviations. Please educate yourselves at Smart Elections. Com.
Sit in silence? Ah, so that's what they were doing during his rant in the well of the House. Guess all that standing and cheering was done by CGI, sort of like the Sith in the last Star Wars movie.
And since then? What?
Michael Lewis (“The Big Short,” many others) has fingered a stereotype.
Today with Chris Hayes, Lewis put the blame for Elon Musk’s government carnage down to how MAGA Republicans have been stereotyping federal workers as lazy, incompetent, fraudulent bureaucrats.
Quite the opposite. Lewis, along with six other contributors, by chance has a new book out, “Who is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service.” In doing it, he and the other writers came away with deep respect for the high competence, strong standards, and diligent work ethic these civil servants have brought to federal agencies for us.
So how does the stereotype come to sway?
As always, those who could be expected to know better live professional lives near totally illiterate as to who our working classes are, as well as our civil service workers recently so insulted, attacked, and fired en masse by the White House convicted criminal’s mob.
Our educated, all top Dems among them, have read none of the books, seen none of the films, heard none of the songs in touch with our working classes, civil servants included. So when we emerge from the reigning criminality, can we ask more of our schools and their “educated”?
his book The Fifth Risk made the case for government workers and now his new book will be even deeper.
Thank you for the info, Rickey.
There are so many really good books out there. I wish figures in our media, and public officials, too, could get in the habit of reading some of these -- and then applying key lessons or characters from that reading to perspectives they can lend to public issues of our day.
Teachers could teach these apt skills.
But they can't. All are crushed instead by the death trips of testing, whose narrowed, desiccated offices have only pushed the abstracted, packaged, depersonalized agendas of our living dead billionaires.
And so the wealth gap, income inequality grow, making America so much more a toxic, poisoned place that many now blindly serving the U.S.'s steroided oligarch class just naturally consider murderous fiends such as Putin (and Netanyahu, and Mohammed bin Salman, and Kim, and Xi's cadres, and Erdogan, and Nayib Bukele, and Sisi, and Milei) all just natural dictator allies.
Schools? Public good? Such quaint notions from long dead times.
I live in a town that has a large military and NASA presence... with many government workers.
It is amazing how many people, even those who work for the government(!), deride all government workers as lazy and inefficient. The counterpoint is provided by those who work for Boeing and tell that tale with honesty.
I often think that books like that are “ preaching to the choir” . I believe the information these books want to communicate to the general public need to be shorter and simpler….maybe something like the cartoon explaining how a bill is made. Many people don’t have the luxury of time to read these kinds of books so make the information more accessible and at a lower reading level…..just saying.
Yes, Deborah -- the dumb down bit is enormously winning now.
They will probably ban this book.
Love Michael Lewis. Maybe he is our Woodward and Bernstein
I worked in the federal courts for the last nearly 20 years of a long career, and was always impressed with the work ethic, skill, and dedication of everyone from janitors to judges. At that time they all had choices, some much higher paying, on where to work, and they chose public service. I get so tired of the stories of lazy, unskilled, government workers, and I never saw that; in fact, just the opposite.
I saw the Chris Hays interview last night, and his first one several months ago. When Lewis and his cohorts started looking at what government workers did, they were astounded at the high level of expertise and dedication to the public welfare. One of his examples was the mining engineer who figured out how to keep coal mines from collapsing and killing the miners, 50,000 died in the US that way in the last century, everywhere they looked they saw examples like that. Our civil servants are not self promoters unlike muck, they are dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans, they don’t see us as easy marks ripe for exploitation, again unlike muck. The more Lewis and his colleagues delved into the people who were working for us the more they were amazed at the dedication they exhibited. We are indeed lucky to have had them, and we will feel their loss most acutely now that they are being tossed aside like so much trash. To call the people orchestrating this debacle trash would be a compliment and that goes all the way to the top. 🤬
Phil Balla,
SPOT ON!!!
Most Republican Senators will do nothing. I got a disgusting response email just today, from Senator Dan Sullivan, sane washing his poor decision to vote to confirm the most unqualified nominee for Secretary of Defense. At least Lisa Murkowski is speaking up on some of the damage the cuts are doing to people in our state. I went to an empty chair town hall in Anchorage tonight, and the turnout was quite good for a red state. Meeting area not large enough, so the meeting overflowed to outside. Lots of angry people are doing what they can to speak up and fight back.
I get verbose but uncommitted responses from Bernie Moreno, and I didn’t vote for him.
Same here. Form letter saying nothing but Nazi rhetoric, no matter what I wrote to him about. And I write to him and his new Nazi cohort Husted daily. (Fascist Ohio Senators)
Me also. Don't think we'll change their minds, no matter how we stuff their voicemail or inboxes.
But they'll hear from ME daily, regardless!
Every day that passes, we are a day closer to a full dictatorship. Never a break, it's a cruel, well executed plan.
A question: when the “Department of Government Efficiency” team shows up and sends people home, why do they leave? DOGE is neither authorized nor invested with any power by Congress or the Constitution. How, in fact, would their "commands" be enforced if everyone simply ignored them? If Trump's decrees are unconstitutional, shouldn't it rest with the administration to bring suit to have its wishes enforced?
I think the answer to your question is fear Russell. Fear it's a powerful tool in the hands of an authoritarian regime. Fear, surprise and not knowing what to do or how to respond to a sudden aggression is what makes people obey and leave. Sad situation
It's probably also incredibly chaotic when it happens and very few managers would be capable of dealing with the situation so employees are just left floundering amongst the chaos and threats.
And remember the forces backing up DOGE are armed. Most civil service workers are not.
Someone with legal knowledge and authority should issue instructions to those defenseless and confused public employees and their managers on what to do so they are not caught by surprise. Thanks for your reply Jon.
We need to start having practice drills so managers and employees can defend themselves, rather like the gun drills in schools. We can also learn a lot from the civil rights movement, with their training to stand up to abuse and their powerful boycotts.
Absolutely true Sandra.
Fear covers all aspects of our lives, personal, professional, social, spiritual. They trigger every thing about our psyche. Deliberately, and now with incredible power. I watched the ramparts crumble long before Jan 20. Now warp speed leaves most catatonic.
This is the worst time to be catatonic JD, or simply passive. We need guidance from our leaders and people with knowledge. They are destroying everything built in 250 years of perfecting the idea of democracy and we don't know how to confront them. In the meantime, except for few individuals, Congress is only appeasing and we know how that is going to end up.
And now trump is using the tactic of fear to everyone in the world. Especially our closest neighbors. Do not be afraid!! Never be afraid of bullies! Because sooner or later everyone becomes a target to a bully. And bullies are the weakest of the weak. You can never trust a bully because they are only out for themselves. Period.
No Ricardo, on many occasions in various government buildings in which government employees resisted or refused to leave, DOGE returned with armed guards or police or “marshals” to displace the employees. In that sense, I suppose it’s fear of being shot or handcuffed and arrested and imprisoned that drives employees to leave!
You are right JhonM, but the line should be drawn somewhere either by Congress if they grow a spine or by the judicial system as compromised as it is. So far, only decent judges ruled for limits that so far are being ignored. This should nor be the end of it. Americans don't have experience living under a dictatorship, authoritarian it's a nice word to describe what's building up, and I know they are not going to like it.
This is what I have been wondering about the whole time. Someone has to be the one to give the order, and someone has to comply. Unfortunately, musk apparently has a goon squad at his disposal that he has been using to force their way into offices and facilities. They’ve been ripping into all these various organizations in many cases for the purpose of privatizing them. But once the organizations have been destroyed, how long will it take for their private companies to replace the expertise and functionality that has been ripped away? What happens in the meantime?
I have for the past nine years since the BLM thinking of the Pinkertons. They literally put down many protests and strikes. The Tycoond hired them to work against and also infiltrate the unions. See John Sykes Matewan. My father was under their view and did not return home because he didn’t want his family to be involved with them.
Don Elliot, I know how long it will take for private companies to replace these highly functioning departments…
precisely never.
In the case of the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), it won't be replaced with a private organization. I am sure that the destroyers think funding will be replaced with private philanthropy, but these institutions (especially museums) use that to the max now. All to save 0.003% of the Federal budget in the case of IMLS.
In the latest episode, the FBI, DC police, and US Marshalls showed up to assist DOGE in throwing out the Director and employees at an agency the executive branch has no power over.
I’ve been wondering the same! Why do people listen to these idiots?? Why don’t they just say “you have no authority here” and go on with their jobs?
That was tried at the NGO called Peace and the DOGE brought in FBI agents who demanded that the people leave or be arrested. So far no one has stood their ground and said "go ahead, arrest me, I will sue you and have your job". I think that is what it is going to take. People are scared. No one really expected this to happen this way although Trump made it pretty clear this is what he was going to do.
Basically nobody thought he would actually go this far and SURPRISE... he did.
US Institute for Peace called their contract security people, and when told the opposite by DOGE and DC police, the security guys switched sides, got their weapons, and gave the key to the office door of the agency's head who was resisting.
Thanks for the correction, but the gist is the same. The people in power are using their authority to shut these agencies down and it is really difficult to expect people who come to work every day to do a job to fight the power themselves.
When an armed guard or police or FBI says "get out" most people will get out. They may try to get help to file a lawsuit but they aren't armed and they aren't going to stick around to see what will happen if they refuse to leave.
Most will do the obvious... they will leave quietly.
This is a particularly horrifying detail.
So now we have to wonder which way the military will fall, toward Trump or the Constitution, for it may come to that.
Correction: it WILL come to that. The military will decide the fate of the US: fight back for democracy or go full-out totalitarian.
I think you are right. Orange Felon is reveling in his power to make laws at will and coerce / threaten people to be fearful and comply. Remember, during the BLM marches in Washington while he paraded out through the streets that had been cleared for him to be able to hold up a bible like it was a cereal box, there were military helicopters flying low over the crowds as intimidation. I think ultimately he would love to make up a reason to play with ‘his’ nooks. In any case, he has already threatened to use the military.
I still can't wrap my head around the fact that people are so surprised at what Muskolini and King Trump are doing now. The writing was on the wall; in big, red capital letters.
I find it mystifying. Do any readers here know if there is any legal authority that DOGE wields? Why, for example, are payments, loans, grants and programs suspended without legal coercion?
I expect someday MAYBE a judge week decide that DOGE had no legal authority. But that will take time. Meanwhile they have the muscle in the form of FBI and police and they are backed by Trump who IS the president, like it or not.
It is sick but it is hard to fight.
Russell Meyer,
Musk was not elected to this position. He has no experience. Trump was just impressed with him because of his mental gifts. He is a gifted human being but has no experience in governing a nation. He is as equally self-centered and amazed with himself as Trump is with himself. He really should NOT have been placed in such an important position. Our nation is NOT safer!
Mental gifts my left buttcheek. It was the $$$$
ffpotus would not know a mental gift if it came up and chomped on his left buttcheek. <scurries off for brain bleach, because THAT visual is horrible.>
Russell, if you followed what happened at the Institute of Peace (as best I can recall) wherein those who worked at the IoP refused to let the DOGE team in, the DOGE team returned the next day with several armed “US Marshals”. When the IoP employees called the Capitol police, thr latter arrived and let the DOGE team in. I think THAT is “why they leave.”
The US Marshals service is given authority under the DOJ, and the DOJ is given authority under the Executive branch; and so even the courts, who rely on the US Marshals Service to carry out their orders — big mistake in organizational setup, but who thought we’d EVER be where we are! — so we’re pretty screwed.
It was actually Metro DC Police. Same agency that botched Jan 6th response.
One would think the Capitol Police would be loyal to a legitimate government body, not DOGE.
That seems so contrary to what and who they should be protecting. Guess you can’t call on the blue anymore for help.
Congressmen and women could defend the Constitution by showing up at the agencies that DOGE invades. We need more behavior like Adam Kisinger's.
I have wondered many times in this forum…why are people following these orders? Why are websites being shut down or cleansed? Why are people leaving their office buildings because doge wants in?
It is too late to protest now because now you will arrested and thrown in jail. Watch what they are doing to people who are perceived to be dangerous. No due process. That is now the possibility that all of us face. You don’t have to be an immigrant any more, you just have to speak out against the felon in chief. That’s all it takes!
Good question.
Chump has power and knows how to exact revenge. Muskrat has his bona fides, so everyone thinks. Likely true, so far
Unfortunately, the US Constitution has no real mechanisms for summarily removing a dangerously incompetent or malicious president.
Assuming that Congress refuses, or any knowledgeable cabinet members refuse, to act. It depends now on some lower level of command in the army refusing to obey illegal commands. I fear many police are Trump followers, how many I’m not sure.
This is definitely not the America in which I grew up.
If you've seen any police procedurals on TV, there is one rule that has appeared multiple times: "Police never drive their own cars, and they never vote Democrat."
I was in law enforcement for 28 years. Sadly, you are correct about voting democratic. I was considered a crazy liberal for having left-centrist views. Law enforcement is populated by right leaning individuals. I remain befuddled how many favor loose gun laws when that directly affects their own safety.
They believe their own propaganda about a good guy with a gun. They all think they're going to be heroes. They forget that if they get into a situation where they need their weapon, they could well be shot themselves. It's not a game and you don't get extra lives.
Brother, you speak truth. I'm 12 years retired from full time Sheriffin' and I believe that in my medium-sized agency, I was one of about five more "liberal" deputies (at least on the patrol side.) In my retired cop cohort (which includes friends from multiple municipal agencies) about 10% of us are vocally liberal.
What’s going on at Bohemian Grove these days?
I knew someone who worked in that place. He described a bunch of drunks pissing on trees and falling off jitney busses, making condescending remarks about the general public.
It is clear that Congress must immediately arise from its coma and prove to the American people that we did not send them to Washington to kneel before a king.
Americans fear for their future - and of future generations. This is the moment where the Legislative branch could rise to meet the demands of voters who are scared, angry, and passionate about stopping the gutting of critical federal services on which they depend.
They can see the massive corruption, the end-game of doing this so power is consolidated into the hands of a few the rest of our lifetimes.
What does it take for cheap talk to stop, and leaders to stand up and be seen? I can only offer that it requires legislators to act with organization, precise communication, and winning actions to stop all of this. Individually, they have limited effectiveness. Together, across the nation, they can gather the political will and go to Washington armed with conviction, enact legislation, and stop the Executive from continuing its criminal pursuit.
I wish it were so, but we're talking about Republicans here. Those who have proven, time and time again, that they do not hear the pleas for action. Those who have shown fealty to the Orange Menace, who stood and cheered his lies in the well of the House.
They don’t listen to the people who live their districts, they listen to their big money contributors. Some Democrats have the same problem and don’t understand we are no longer fighting the Clinton wars, but autocracy that some filthy rich people think they have the right to impose on the rest of us, with the help of dictators like Putin.
About Judge Boasberg: he was indeed elected to his seat on the bench, winning by margins Trump has never dreamed of even in his most deranged postings. On March 11, 2011, Boasberg won his seat by carrying 100% of the vote in 47 states and 50% in two others. Only Idaho failed to support him. The two senators from the potato state didn’t vote that day. AN AMAZING MANDATE. The FAKE NEWS is the TRUMP HOUSE. GO BO!!!
! ! !
I am unsurprised by any of this.
Deeply crushed.
And unsurprised.
Our choice now is to sort out who we want to be - how we want to respond - in the face of all this and find a way up be part of a solution.
This recent podcast (link below, free) from Tara Brach is AWESOME. She gives practical ideas. I’ve listened to it twice already. I hope many of you find useful information from it too.
Title:
Freedom from Inner and Outer Tyranny: The Path of Spiritual Warriors
Tara Brach
I’m SO grateful for these Letters, and for all the intelligent and insightful comments. I’ve been reading LFAA since shortly after they were started. Without these letters I have no doubt I’d be slipping into a very deep pit of debilitating depression about now.
Thanks to the letters I am, instead, steeling myself and preparing to find ways to be part of the rebel alliance in some form.
We CAN fight this tyranny.
It’s going to take a very long time.
The result is worth it.
Other people sacrificed before I was born so I could live the first 60+ years of my life in relative peace and prosperity.
My turn.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/cQOkq6MXJek
Tara’s website:
https://www.tarabrach.com/talk-freedom-from-inner-and-outer-tyranny/
Won't work without the app. So no phone, no listen. Anyone got a more conventional link to this?
Yes!
YouTube:
https://youtu.be/cQOkq6MXJek
And her website:
https://www.tarabrach.com/talk-freedom-from-inner-and-outer-tyranny/
Thanks - now, in response to the joke she makes at the beginning - is Trump or the American people, the lighthouse?
Lol.
Depends on which Americans you’re referring to. :-)
https://overcast.fm/+AASWwirQ0hs
Thanks!