Demand oversight for the Pentagon and White House! Don’t let up. All the calls, emails, snail mail, faxes - they matter.
Be LOUD! 💔🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
I've done that today, and I'll do that tomorrow. Tonight, I needed to vent a bit about the sadness and frustration I feel regarding the stupidity of this colossal blunder. The follies and hubris of the arrogant elite never cease to amaze me.
Susan, I am following the war obsessively like I did Covid. I watch Malcolm Nance and Jacob Kaarsbo's war briefings each day. There are several other former military and intel people I watch/read who are teaching me a lot about modern warfare, something the regular media cannot do because they are not embedded and no one is in Iran. In fact, I saw a report from a German journalist who was the last Western journalist to leave Iran.
I am in Germany and here the mood is, hoping that the Chancellor does not get involved in the war. Germany already is. It has US bases from which the US is managing their air operations to and from the Middle East. Israel parks their government plane "Wings of Zion" in the Berlin airport, one we won't be flying in or out of as long as it is there. Within the continent of Europe we take trains. I am looking forward to more sleeper car trains.
I attended an anti war rally last week. Here is a piece I wrote, which is mostly pics.
We are hoping that an Iranian professor that teaches with one of the people in our Indivisible Abroad group, will speak about the war at our No Kings Rally. We want his perspective. In the beginning there were 3 cities in Germany that were going to have No Kings Demonstrations. Now there are 9. Only 6 of them show up on the No Kings Map. https://www.nokings.org
There is a link tree which I currently cannot find with all of No Kings Abroad rally sign ups.
After hearing Nance, Kaarsbo, Ken Harbaugh, Denver Riggleman, Terrance Goggins, Lucian Truscott, Meidas News, and some other sources, I am hoping the our military refuses orders if they are sent into the Strait of Hormuz, to try to take an Island or the cities and villages that are helping to keep the Strait closed. All that I hear is it is a very, very foodhardy move, and we have fools at the helm. I have also seen that Hegseth and Trump treat war like a video game. Meanwhile, they are wracking up international war violations. A fellow activist I know, who is an international professor of law says that they have counted at least 10 war crimes. I am sure they are mounting daily.
CNN's Frederick Pleitgen and his team are in Tehran. One shouldn't underestimate the risks they are running with 21 western journalists currently being detained there.
Yes, and a Swedish citizen having been executed this past week, as an Israeli spy, a term that could be used on anyone. What is to protect a team in Tehran from being captured and executed as American spies?
Iraq, Qatar and numerous of the Gulf oil-and-gas exporting countries have in fact invoked "force majeure", stating this as the reason why they are not able to fulfill their contractual delivery obligations. And as Anne-Louise points out, this is language used in insurance policies and contracts.
"I watch Malcolm Nance and Jacob Kaarsbo's war briefings each day. "
They are veteran intelligence officers. They have separate substacks but in the briefings work together and with other experts. You can subscribe here for free. Or as a paid member to support their work.
I wonder what they think of Admiral Fallon’s role in preventing an earlier attack on Iran in 2008.
Though I’m most often amazed by artificial intelligence finding all sorts of wrong information and too many “hallucinations,” I think it came pretty close to what I remember about how he “Limited Military Escalation” as described from Google AI searching for, “How did Adm Fallon prevent an attack on Iran in 2008.”
“…Admiral William Fallon
, as Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), is credited with preventing a potential U.S. attack on Iran in 2008 by consistently using his military authority and public platform to oppose the "constant drumbeat of conflict" coming from the Bush administration. (World Jewish Council +3)
His actions to prevent conflict included:
• Publicly Ruling Out War: Fallon stated repeatedly that an attack on Iran "will not happen on my watch," effectively taking the military option "off the table" and undermining the White House's coercive threats.
• Limiting Military Escalation: He reportedly resisted the deployment of a third aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, sending a memo stating there was "no military requirement" for the additional force.
• Diplomatic Reassurance: During trips to the Middle East, he met with regional leaders like Egypt's Hosni Mubarak to assure them the U.S. was not planning an attack, which aimed to stabilize the region and counter-act aggressive rhetoric from Washington.
• Promotion of Dialogue: Fallon openly encouraged negotiations with Iran as the only sensible approach and criticized public calls for war as "not helpful and not useful".
• Resignation as a Final Stand: In March 2008, Fallon resigned after an Esquire magazine article titled "The Man Between War and Peace" portrayed him as the sole figure standing between the Bush administration and a war with Iran. His departure highlighted the deep rift over Iran policy and was widely interpreted as a principled stand against military action. (World Jewish Council +9)
While Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other officials denied that his resignation signaled an impending war, many observers believed Fallon’s vocal opposition made it politically and logistically difficult for the administration to launch a strike during his tenure. (Stars and Stripes +2)
AI can make mistakes, so double-check responses...”
The attendant Trumpstein atrocities are both (A)-the tip of the proverbial ruling-class iceberg and (B)-the permanent, unstoppable norm of ChristoNazi governance as proven by the fact that ChristoNazi theocracy and reigns of terror by pedophiles and rapists are effectively synonymous. Note the plutocracy-defining revelations the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn by the plaintiff in response to credible death threats: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf
Linda Weide, thank you from the bottom of this patriotic American’s heart. This is the kind of reporting that we need here. As you know, news except for a few sources, is mostly propaganda. I have stuck with MSNBC (become MSNOW) since 2016 and found it drawing the best reporters and journalists. My background with war goes back to 1938-39, as my father’s brothers were regular Navy and Army (in order of age—my sailor uncle was in a submarine in the South China Sea in 1934, the year I was born) so we heard Mutual Broadcasting System news every night at 9:00 EST from 1938 onward. My life since has been shaped by politics and that history. When we quit having a country and got a “heimweh” (George Bush, whose father I met when he was running for Congress, a person so unimpressive that he was president for two years before I remembered that I had met him), I was shocked. We have lost the importance of language as our public school system has fallen apart with racism and greed.
So again thank you for letting US know how far we have fallen. Money doesn’t buy allies. Good will does. No matter how often the Marshall Plan is dissed as “money,” this Virginian remembers who George Marshall was. He was not chosen as Allied commander for his salary, but for his intelligence and patriotism. (Someone will question this, but as a Virginian, I speak for the American 18th century Enlightenment idea and ideal, embodied in the times that made US leaders in the Free World.)
I am of the same generation and well remember the war and the post-war rebuilding of Europe and am bitterly sorry to see the USA torn away from our allies by a mentally disturbed "leader".
Likewise; I was born in 1940. My father, whose military service was between the wars, was a high-ranking War Production Board/War Assets Administration official, and his closest friends and colleagues after the war were all combat veterans. One served in the Red Army's horse cavalry under 2nd Belorussian Front commander Rokossovsky; another in the U.S. Army's Eighth Air Force as a B-24 pilot; a third as a Marine fighter-pilot against Japan.
Virginia, thank you for this post as these are my sentiments exactly. My husband made a trip to England and Sweden under the Marshall plan to see how they were handling unemployment. This was years before the internet and so actually being there was valuable.
Thank you, Michele. The cynics among US have written that the Marshall plan was only an economic self-interest program. Your firsthand refutation is priceless. At the time most of US who were aware of the program had lived through the war and were proud of the plan as we had learned to be proud of FDR’s lend-lease.
Americans need to be outside of US to avoid our endless self-congratulation (exceptionalism). Senator William Fulbright of Arkansas recognized this after WWII and edtablshed through Congress the Fulbright Scolarships. That’s how I got to Paris the first time (1958) and the last time was 2019 when I saw my Fulbright “parrain” for the last time. In between a version of my husband’s dream retirement we spent on a small boat on the canals and rivers of France (2001-2011). The years on the boat taught me about the amazing French medical system, the start of climate change lettuce, and later, from a cattle farmer friend, about the switch to more grain than cows (it “feeds more people”).
My thanks to my first French teacher who made us learn phonetics as high school students, and to my fellow graduate student in musicology at UNC-CH who encouraged me to try for a Fulbright.
You and people like you are why I love (most) of the comments on Heather's letters. I enjoy learning all sorts of new things and seeing what people have made of their lives. I lived one half a year at Fourah Bay College as part of Kalamazoo College's study abroad program then just getting started. We spent three years in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and were married in Freetown by our principals, Irish Catholic priests. They had special permission from the bishop of Freetown (also Irish) as we were not Catholic. Those three and a half years changed my view of this country forever. Did I read somewhere awhile back that Fulbrights got cut? I may be wrong about this. Anyway, kudos to you for all your achievements.
Virgina, I heard stories of the Marshall plan and how it saved Germany. In fact, I recognize it as being part of why Contemporary Europe is doing so well. It was a better plan for Germany than the Versalles Treaty.
Your years on the boat sound truly interesting. How did you end up doing this?
I am friends with several women who ended up in Germany on Fulbrights and then stayed. In fact, at a gathering last spring of local Americans working for democracy, there were 5 of the 8 of us had come on Fulbrights. Now all of them are professors here.
Virginia, you sound very full of vigor. My mom was also born in 1934. I was just discussing that with a friend today. She and her two sisters one older, one younger, taught me a lot about history just by telling family stories.
It is true that money does not buy real allies, good will does. It is the very essence of friendship. It is reciprocal and not transactional. I think the leaders of the world get shocked by Trump as well.
A lot is shocking, but we are also clear. We know right from wrong, and we do not support this administration. More and more seem to be joining us in this.
It’s worth pointing out that the YouTube channel “What’s going on with shipping” has received reports from the many ships currently stuck in the Gulf. One reported that they’re running out of water.
They can’t dock anywhere in the Gulf because Iran shoots missiles at them. And of course they can’t get out of the Gulf.
He thinks that Trump must do something to get these ships out under these circumstances.
Yes. However, Trump is of two minds. Malcolm Nance thinks Trump might be lying as subterfuge while they send people elsewhere than they say they are. The other is that he is going to send in troops, which many experts have been saying would be foolhardy. In fact, so far I have not read one expert that thinks otherwise. If you find one please share.
True enough, Elizabeth; however, I believe it goes deeper than that. Let's review for a moment: tRump denied that he had anything to do with the Israeli strike on the South Para natural gas field, and yet, the Israelis countered that argument, in addition to, Trump's own Department of Defense - uhmmm.... excuse me, I meant "war" department 😅.
To call NATO nations "cowards", frankly is the kettle calling the pot black. Trump's own cowardice regarding the Epstein files will haunt him throughout and beyond his lifetime. NATO or the far eastern nations, like Japan, don't have a dog in the fight. That is the central issue. They are not, and shold not, go to war because tRump and Netanbooboo didn't get their way. If Trump had not abandoned the JPCOA and held fast to the agreement, none of us would be in this sad state of affairs. It is clearly Trump who is to blame. For him not to accept that reality is "cowardice" personified. And frankly, I don't believe for one minute, as I suspect you also don't, that NATO is a "paper tiger" without the US. I wouldn't call France or Britain, two nations with nuclear weapons, "paper tigers." NATO, on the whole, has a formidable fighting force.
That this administration tries to sell this war in the form of "war video games" is in itself a slap in the face to every member of the military. Who would do that other than crazed war mongers? That is beyond sick. I would hope that congress investigates this parasitic behavior against the US military during their time of war. No one should be making money off of this tragic war of choice.
The crowning statement, in my opinion, is that which tRump says: “No, I’m not putting troops anywhere. If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you, but I’m not putting troops.” Let's all think about this statement for a while: tRump would not tell anyone that he would send troops, yet, he has no trouble telling the world that he is not sending troops. That statement during war is just as valuable to an enemy as saying that he would send troops. So, he is either lying through his teeth, which is no surprise, or he's clearly demented in signaling that no boots on the ground are forthcoming to an enemy which he has engaged by choice. Both are treasonous as both give valuable information to the State of Iran. Again, the impeachable offenses keep piling up. There seems to be no end to his state of dementia or at least, cognitive impairment of some sort. That republicans led by Mikey (give it Mikey, he'll eat anything) Johnson and no commonsense John Thune, the republicans are complicit in each death of a US soldier, marine, or navy pilot. One can only hope that they all lose their jobs and credibility in their hometown and state.
So when Trump sent two aircraft carriers to the Middle East did the astute observers think he wasn't going to use them? Now that Marines and yet more Marines are enroute to the Middle East what has changed?
Foolhardy rushes in when they don't have to go anywhere.
Release the Epstein files and see how many folks involved with the Iran war are in them. This is a stupid, dangerous disaster and a cover-up by billionaires who believe they are above the law and accountability.
Considering how well the Gaza "ceasefire" is progressing plus wasnt there one in Lebanon? Apparently the meaning of the word "cease - fire" has changed maybe? If I were any of the European countries cant imagine sending military someplace where a ceasefire was guaranteed by either or both the US & Israel!
I really enjoy watching someone who has a mastery of the subject the y are speaking on. Sal Mercogliano / What’s Going On With Shipping is a new favorite!
Linda, I always appreciate your reports from elsewhere. We no longer watch national news unless the lead story is something other than death star and his destruction. I am always amazed at the lack of planning and the treatment of war as a video game and a religious crusade although with this group of inept monsters, I should not be.
Michele, how correct you are. In fact, no one should be surprised or amazed by either Israel or the USA’s groups of inept monsters, and I add “War Criminals.” When and if any of them are tried and found guilty their punishment must not be the reward of “Death!” Rather prison and hard labor so they may suffer for the suffering they have inflicted upon so many others. I will not and do not consider that to be “Cruel and Unusual Punishment.”
Linda, et al: Apologies for the rant, but as I learned from Malcolm Nance in 2017, a rant can be very effective. It sticks. And we are not, generally, as a whole, students of history.
Virginia, I think rants are fine. We do have a few people here who want to judge, but sometimes airing frustrations like those caused by death star and the cabal are therapeutic as well.
This is a sad and tragic conflict - not of our own making - but of our country's so called "department of war'...and only a fool would go about insulting our allies and then expect them when we do something that's wrong to ignore or help us out of the mess we created. You've got to be kidding me! Remember, it was NATO and our allies, since this alliance was created, who came to America's defense following 9/11. It is not our president right or wrong...our nation's Congress had no role in determining what military actions would be taken against Iran, whom trump said a few months ago (June 2025) we have destroyed their ability to enrich uranium.
We have two flawed individuals - one worse than the other - believing that they are entitled to do whatever they determine that they would like to to establish themselves as heroic figures...they are both (Netanyahu and "trumpelthinskin") BAD men! BTW, has Netanyahu's name been found in the Epstein/trump Files?
And, as with Nuremberg, war crimes can be eventually brought to light and tried. It's a powerful new movie that is a reminder that such crimes in a civilized world won't go unpunished forever.
I just read your article and saw the pictures. I am glad the German people are rising in opposition. This is Trump's war. A billionaire's war for more money, more gold paint, more senseless killing, maiming, and death to the people they care nothing for. We must stop them. There are three organizations in the US devoted to nonviolent resistance. I'm sure there are more, but these are three I support and learn from: New Hampshire Peace Action; Pace e Bene in Corvallis, Oregon; The META Center in Petaluma, CA, which is devoted to Gandhian. nonviolence. These groups have Zoom classes and/or speakers. Often, the speakers are involved with global peace action. It is heartening and helpful to join with others who see a world beyond might makes right. The sign about the bombing of the girls breaks my heart. I never knew how much misogyny there was in the US until Trump took office. The guys are all crooks, and they need to go.
Hi Linda, Thank you for this. I will check out the links, and I value hearing your perspective from abroad. Trump/Hegseth are fools. Overgrown toddlers who play video games with other people's lives and livelihoods. This is both deeply concerning and extremely dangerous. This is a global catastrophe on so many levels. I will be marching in Kamuela, HI, with a retired teacher friend of ours. People have to roar ENOUGH and bring joy back to our currently broken world.
It is unlikely that the troops will refuse orders to take Kharg island, and they will probably sustain heavy attacks being only 50 miles off the mainland. I wonder if the administration thinks that the video game-type propaganda about the war will lead to more volunteers for the military.
According to reports prior to the war, military enlistment was up compared to the years before trump. I would like to see how the war has affected recruiting.
You're far from alone in those feelings. They're being shared by tens of millions here (and probably hundreds across the globe). In this case, it's much more about the mental degeneracy of a single individual in the White House -- and the mixture of fear and loyalty he exerts on people around him who dare not stand up and speak the obvious to his face.
The latter is the most difficult to understand. We are not a fascist state where any kind of dissent is met with secret police coming for you in the middle of the night -- as was standard in the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany (though it wouldn't bother some in the Administration if it were). If that were true, none of us would be here because Heather would have been sent to one of those new gulags in Florida or Texas (along with some of us as well).
A few days ago, Adam Kinzinger tried to explore what it is that makes Republicans in Congress (let's pinpoint the source) so afraid. Bad moral character and fear of being blackballed after you're primaried out of Congress plays a big part, he said (no interest from right-wing think tanks, talking shops, lobby groups willing to shell out big bucks for somebody with a Congressional resumé). Whatever it is, it's come to a head now.
The flip side is that all this is making people angry enough that they truly fear us. I don't know anybody who thinks the House won't go Democratic this November. The Senate may follow as well --- and not by small numbers, either. Take heart, it's going to be an ugly few months, but we are gaining momentum, while the forces protecting this man and his policies are splintering.
Considering the impact of the Russian Intelligence services, I would say the Trump has placed people in positions of power who are controlled by three things.
Money
Power
Kompromat.
And the greatest of these is Kompromat.
I don't know whether trump himself is actually a Russian agent, rather than just an asset - but I'm damn sure Putin has some heavy duty Kompromat on him.
What could Putin possibly have on Trump that is worse than what we already know? It must be pretty bad for the MAGAs not to be Trump-eting it (sorry for those who hate puns).
MAGA don't really care about child abuse - "Boys will be Boys! (Even if they are middle aged. . ) and "anyway, some of those girls were over 16!" If Putin shared film of trump pissing on prostitutes, Misogyny Inc. would find it hysterically funny.
No, my suspicion is that it's film of something to do with Trump's admiration of "Arnie's junk" and "Handsome men!" and "JD's wonderful blue eyes" - not to mention the way he looked at Mamdani. . .
And THAT MAGA most DEFINITELY don't like - and wouldn't excuse.
Try "snuff" tape. Supposedly epstein was into this. Maybe trump participated in one of these. I doubt the cult would even care though. The more that comes out the harder they dig in their heels. It's disturbing and frightening that so many still support this dangerous, sadistic, depraved dictator.
Bingo, milady! I've been sharing similar suspicions for a long time. Donald has, for most of his life, acted and spoken as a "closet case."
I'll review some of my observations, plus some I haven't offered before. First, few (if any) straight men spend as much time on hair and makeup as Donald. Bronzer was a thing for metrosexuals years ago, but the product is no longer popular. Neither do straight men spend time creating bouffant constructions on their heads.
As you alluded, straight men are discreet in the locker room and "turn the other cheek" to screen their junk from view. Should the opportunity arise, they might glance downward just to see if they "measure up." But straight men don't file away memories of another man's endowment to be called up years later.
I have occasionally commented that still and moving images of Donald and Epstein together strongly suggest to me that their relationship was more intimate than just "buddies." I'm convinced they were buddies, but in a different sense. We are now learning that Epstein's criminal activities were broader than just trafficking girls. What would've stopped him from trafficking boys, and what would be an even more effective blackmail tool?
Another classic behavior of closet cases is public philandering to "throw people off the scent." Donald has certainly engaged in plenty of that. And while he claims to be attracted to women as sex objects, he clearly despises women as human beings.
Finally, it should be noted that not all men who engage in homosexual activities are genetically wired for same-sex attraction. Many are subject to psychological and emotional issues that push them toward other men for sex. One documented factor is a lack of paternal affection during formative years. It is well known that Fred Trump refused to show affection for anyone, including his family, as he considered it "weakness."
As you have correctly noted, the crowd we identify as MAGA are tolerant of almost all character flaws and behaviors that some might consider improper, immoral or illegal. But MAGA unequivocally LOATHES homosexuality. If there were a revelation that Donald has been involved in that, it would end him.
The Steele Dossier probably has the answer to that. Given Trump’s racism I believed the report of the dossier without a problem. But Trump has a long history as a “useful idiot.” MSNBC has given it in bits that I have put together, so the red carpet in Alaska was no surprise. Yes, Republican members of Congress it really happened, which makes traltors of all of you. A surrender in the Cold War. I think of Gorbachev and Navalny for starters.
Doesn’t it make you cry? And Russia is helping Iran with targeting intel on our boys and our ships. Republicans, all traitors. Disgusting. Think of all those soldiers who fought in Europe and in the Pacific to wipe out fascism, and here it is right here in Washington. Everyone out to the nearest No Kings rally next Saturday. Read Timothy Snyder’s substack today. It is great!
People wonder what putin may have on trump. The golden showers "tape" comes up, but would most be appalled by that enough for him to lose their support. While it's kinky and disgusting I don't think they would care. Many have even stated they don't care if he raped children! I'm wondering if it's far more depraved: maybe a "snuff" tape? I've read somewhere that this may have been part of the horrifying abuses on epstein's island. One wonders, though, if even evidence of trump murdering a woman or girl while having forced sex with her would even sink his presidency. Heather writes that 58% of the polled don't support the war. But the flip side of that is that 42%!!! apparently do. The slavish cult is not going anywhere.
See above, Sharon. Sorry I forgot to address it to Elizabeth Crawford, who inspired the reply. Go to the Steele Dossier, remembering the international reputation of the British Secret Service. Trump’s undisguised racism makes the Dossier a reasonable account of the (at the time) worst on Trump. Now we have Epstein Connectiom.
Thanks for the lift. I hope voters really get the fact the Republicans in Congress are responsible for this catastrophe. They could have stopped this—meaning all of trump’s destructive behavior, not just this “war” (or whatever)—but they CHOSE not do. They CHOSE themselves over the country, despite their purported oaths to the Constitution. THEY DID THIS.
Vote them out of office in November and show them WE value democracy and the constitution over their cowardice. They aren’t fit to govern.
MLMinET-Tour point is so important. A lot of focus is placed on the president but the Rs who are in total control of Congress could put a stop to much of the power grabs and actions that have put the world in a tailspin.
There should be more of a concerted effort to call the Rs out individually and collectively. They’re just as corrupt as the men and women who are doing Ts bidding while overlooking his foolishness.
As I read recently, monsters (read DJT) will be monsters; they can't help themselves. The others have a choice (read Rs in Congress and MAGA followers).
If it were only as simple as the regime and the complicit Congress, we might solve the problem at the polls in November, providing we have free elections. But the polls last week show 77-85% of Republicans support the war in Iran, and overall Republican support for Trump is the same or slightly higher. The regime and the complicit Congress were voted into office, and basically, those voters still support them. Unfortunately, the regime and complicit Congress are only the obvious part of the problem. Throwing the Republicans out of office is a start, but not a final solution.
But it's also independents and supposedly they don't support trump anymore. You can't win an election with just 30% of the voters, or even 40%, unless it's a three way race. I'm not vert optimistic though with all the ways trump and his a**lickers in congress are trying to suppress the vote. We will need massive Dem turnout to defeat these dangerous people by flipping the close races blue.
I agree that a Blue Tsunami is possible, but what if Trump and his minions simply refuse to acknowledge the results? He announces that the elections were “rigged” and declares an emergency. While potentially dozens of lawsuits make their way through the courts, Trump says the sitting Congress must remain in place for “stability” or some such nonsense. When the 119th Congress convenes next January, the Trumpublicans refuse to swear in the newly elected members. I know this sounds a bit far-fetched, but who would stop it?
MLMinET, I wonder who? However, I hope you’re correct IF we actually have an election. I’m usually an optimist but this war is an atrocity on top of other atrocities. Plus, violence is seeping out more here by Magas as they drive around.
I have a Ukrainian flag on my car’s bumper; I refuse to remove it. But I’m paying a price….
now nearly every time I go out. Of course these men (mostly) are cowards. And cowards are extremely dangerous.
Yes, we need to get the billionaires out of power. They are entrenched, pulling all of the cards behind the scenes. Even after we deal with this administration, we won't be in the clear at all. If Trump and his cabinet are our number one problem, number two is the Epstein class and we can't vote them out.
We can push for public financing for all political positions, outlawing any other type of campaign financing. We can encourage all Democrats running to support public financing and Constitutional Amendments that will strengthen and secure our democracy.
Why Terry? Without free and fair elections what is left? Unless you are talking about after he rigs the mid-term election? And how about those Epstein files?
On Jan 3, there is a new House of Representatives. If Dems are in the majority, they will elect a Speaker of the House (assuming it’s Jeffries) and Jeffries will swear in the new Congress in the House.
I don’t like AIPAC myself but I find it interesting that AIPAC is the only PAC that people are pissed off about when there are other PACs that donate to them too.
But, if Trump simply “declares” that the current Congress is the “real” Congress, his Little Johnson will still be Speaker. That’s my concern. Under “the rules” USAID and all those other organizations “couldn’t” be summarily disbanded by a bunch of kids, but here we are.
Of course Trump will probably do that but we are giving him too much power that he doesn’t have. He signed EOs that have been ruled unconstitutional by the courts making his EOs unenforceable. Dems and the people won’t allow him to take over Congress ,and instead of giving him the power we must fight it.
The only way this doesn't happen is if the "supreme" court sides with trump. There is no Constitutional mechanism to keep the elected officials from being sworn into office in early January. But all bets are off now that they'll actually follow the Constitution.
There are plans to make a gold commemorative coin for 250 anniversary with trump's scowling mug on the front. This is expressly against our laws but the sycophants in the mint and at treasury are arguing for why it can be done. What is this arrogant vanity project costing us and how much will trump profit from it? But the cult stays suddenly silent. If any Democratic president had attempted this the republicans would be asking for impeachment and removal from office. The hypocrisy, as always, is beyond sickening.
Dave A.-The scenario you’ve shared is not far fetched at all. The Rs know there will be a blue tsunami so besides the SAVE ACT all they have left is to steal the election whether by declaring fraud or an “emergency”. Who will “stop the steal” is a serious question that needs to be answered now.
And although there should be no doubt about where the Supreme Court should come down on this situation, I, for one, am not confident that they will rule against trump's fascist disenfranchisement of voters nationwide.
If we get to elections swearing in can't be stopped since johnson won't be house speaker anymore since every tow years it's considered a new congress. The only way to stop this is if trump shuts down congress, which he doesn't have power to do but who will stop him? The trump owned "supreme" court? I wouldn't put it past him at all to attempt to do this. But johnson will have no power at this point, little comfort that that is.
There is no legal means to do this. The Constitution, per 20th amendment, specifies when a newly elected congress is seated, January 3, every odd year. trump could circumvent this if the complicit "supreme" court sides with him but it would still be against the Constitution.
We are not a fascist state - yet. But we're certainly trending that way. We have been for some time.
The regime already has its "secret police" (ICE), and congressional Republicans are doing everything they can to consolidate and broaden its powers. They are allowing ICE officers to hide their identities, ignore the 4th, 5th, and 14th amendments. They are resisting reforms and considering policies that would stress-test the 1st amendment.
While I agree November can't come fast enough, I'm not convinced that Trump and Mike Johnson won't try to steal the midterms. The only question is, will the "SCOTUS Six" let them.
T is a master at bogging down the judicial system. His favored six will probably give him a chance to air his “grievances” about fraud. Funny it’s only fraud if he or the Rs he wants don’t get elected.
Trump hasn’t had enough sense to be grateful for the get-out-of-jail free (literally) card SCOTUS gave him and is continuing to insult them. I wonder if they look so favorably upon them now.
Because most of the public spends their lives more concerned about sport scores or the Kardashians. They don't watch the news, they certainly don't read the news and get their info from either hate radio, fox "news", FB or youtube. We are so uninformed, it's almost criminal.
I would like to share your optimism and am working every day to elect Democrats, but . . . never underestimate the ability of the GOP to deliver a united vote, or the proclivity of the Leftish to split the opposition vote or sit on their hands.
Republicans have given over any significant sense of conscience to the principles of the Republican party - of unmitigated greed, unconscionable bigotry, and unfathomable cruelty - to advance their personal success and agenda. And indulge their worst impulses. As personified by Trump.
As for the Left. Stalin helped elect Hitler by directing German Communists to treat the Social Democratic Party (the major opposition to Hitler) as more of an enemy than the Nazi party. There is a direct line from that to the specious Leftish rhetoric against the Democratic party -to for instance, KGB man Putin's fan girl Jill Stein who helped elect Trump, twice.
IF and only if there is a fair election, and Trump and his allies are doing everything they can to prevent one. The purchase of Dominion Voting Systems by a Trump supporter is not a good sign.
And how long would that take? The 2024 election saw around 175 million ballots cast. And even with that, ballot boxes can be stolen or "misplaced" or the goons can come in and "seize" suspect ballots like they did in Fulton county. The only institutions that can save us are the courts and so far, they have a pretty piss poor record. Especially the "supremes".
Speaking from a place of inchoate fear - no facts - I think Israel is determined to do as much damage as possible before the midterms. Damage that is so catastrophic that it can’t be undone by Democrats in control of Congress.
If the Dems rake both the House and Senate, they then hold the power of the purse. They will not permit Trump’s regime to give money to Israel. They will get the lobbyists out of Congress such as the NRA and AIPAC. That is my thinking and my hope. I am not naive to think that some Dems will think they’ll “benefit” from those monies.
I’m writing 12 GOTV postcards most days. Encourage everyone who can to get connected to a postcard-writing organization and write 5. It will take little time —like buying stamps during WWII (only they were “savings stamps” for war bonds and gained in value; Trump’s USPS charges $.61 apiece and he threatens to kill vote-by-mail) and is an excellent reminder that every Democrat elected for any office, however small, is another step towards winning in November. Currently through TonyTheDemocrat writing for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. It helps me survive the 2;/7 ICE sirens in Chicago.
The midterms will determine whether maga has truly deserted him. I think it's personal not policies. Remember he could shoot somebody on Fifth Ave. and get away with it - and maga loved that. The Hollywood tapes did not repulse them. He beat and gleefully celebrated the person they hated - Hilary.
We need to get to Rural America and give them a voice. Red states need to rally like their lives depend on it. Independent media needs to unite, I would gladly cancel all my mainstream for one united mainstream, independent fee.
Also, this is a side note, where are the billionaires challenging these media buyouts? We are truly by ourselves. We can’t forget that there are more of us than them and we must find our community.
I believe that the right-wing Congress are in support of everything trump dose and that if they are avoiding their duties to provide the oversight that the voters sent them to do, they are every bit as culpable as trump.
The Democrats are failing to communicate with the public on almost every issue. They need to be louder about the funding deals they are putting forward to fund DHS for everything except ICE. They should be endlessly talking about how the Republicans timed the reduction in Medicaid and funding to happen after the midterm elections. They should be tying the GOP to every fascist tactic used by the the administration throughout the government nonstop. If legacy media won't cover these stories, they need to find other ways to get their messages out.
We find ourselves at the brink of losing our democracy because too many citizens are uninformed and uninterested in important issues that we need to consider before we vote. That must change.
This regime has tried to separate the suffering of so many from their brutal policies and actions and now they are dehumanizing “boots on the ground”.
… Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-FL) on CSPAN: Q - Would you consider the military taking over Kharg island boots on the ground? Haridopolos: I think people would see that as an occupation of a vital economic interest. As a history teacher, I consider boots on the ground occupying an entire country like we did after WW2 in Japan.”
Will this lead to some kind of civilizational catastrophe - like WWI? Could this embolden China and lead him to pursue aggressive policies in southeast Asia? Will there be other escalations worldwide - when and where will it stop? The world lacks any controlling authority at this time, IMO.
The Iranian regime was as repulsive and repressive as it gets. But there are other ways to help Iran besides bombing it into smithereens, killing innocent people, and bankrupting your country. Trump is an addled old man who cares not a whit for anything but money and power. What would you have done?
The Iranian regime was as repulsive and repressive as it gets. But there are other ways to help Iran besides bombing it into smithereens, killing innocent people, and bankrupting your country. Trump is an addled old man who cares not a whit for anything but money and power. What would you have done?
What are the "other ways"? Iranian citizens tried and were massacred (a remarkable event that led to zero protects by the Gaza crowd). And "repulsive" would describe most Muslim and African governments. Iran is dangerous, not merely repulsive. Clin,ton Bush, Obama and Biden all tried kissy face with Iran. That didn't work. So your peaceful low cost solution is?
It’s not in Trump’s interest to wind down Operation Epic Distraction. You cannot downsize distractions and expect the news to drop a story as critical as the TrumpStein Pedo Files for some new small potatoes story. Professor Richardson reminds us, Trump was asked whether he would use ground troops in Iran and he said, “I’m not putting troops anywhere, If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.” Now he heads home and post that “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts...” Don’t be surprised to see him swinging a golf club tomorrow in “Reality TV” style. He is creating the image that he does not need to be in the White House Situation Room. Obama did that the week before Seal Team Six executed Operation Neptune Spear and killed Bin Laden. He released his long form birth certificate to create an image that he was concerned about Trump’s birther B.S. thus Al-Qaeda sleep easy. But this is entirely different as Trump’s unconstitutional war is already raging. Plus he is asking Congress for an initial $200B for his war.
Right now there are approximately 50,000 U.S. troops deployed in the Middle East. Reports indicate many more will soon be headed there along with many more Navy war ships. Trump is following what Thomas Jefferson did in 1801. Without a prior declaration of war from Congress, or even a bill providing the funding to do so, Jefferson sent a four ship squadron to the Mediterranean. Tripoli declared war, prompting Jefferson to send warships to defend trade against Barbary pirates. Early the next year Jefferson secured Congressional approval and was provided enough funds for the first foreign war for the United States, 1801–1805. The battle is commemorated in the Marine Corps Hymn with the phrase "to the shores of Tripoli". The issue before Congress now will be, “If we fail to provide the $200B Trump will not be able to protect our heroes and war ships that he put in harm’s way.” That is the same issue Jefferson presented to Congress. “ To the Shores of Kharg Island; We fight Trump’s unlawful war, In the air, on land and sea;...” It's so wrong it doesn't even rhyme.
Trump, the Roberts’ 6 and many others have badly wounded our Republic, our Constitution. They are making “un-American” the new normal. Our children and grandchildren are growing up in an enemy land. In my “Memorandum to We the people” I put all the direct evidence for all those bad deeds in one place. Then I provide a comprehensive five section strong model Amendment. The professional interpretation and effective presentation of my Memorandum by Mr. Dale Rowett of Lexigraphics.Pro alone is worth a visit to my page. You can download the Meorandum plus poster size Logos for the No Kings march. No “Donate Now” buttons. Please read, discuss and share my Memorandum at UnitedWeAmend.org.
The Fox Nation.. Born into a one dimensional TV screen in their one dimesional minds as their identities are locked in to him, their identities, and in fact, they ARE him. They never wandered far from home, live calcified, cocooned lives, passing ignorance from one generation to the next, always starving for red meat, the hunger to own the libs is their primary reason for living.
Funny thing is, many of these people are the sweetest, kindest, nicest even compassionate when not surrounded by their MAGA buddies.
Sometimes even Nazis if you get them in a good mood.
Plus the educated ones who cannot apply what they memorized in school to find their way out of a bag. But their bag is full of hate, fear and greed and they want to stay in there.
Hey, you did it. Described the Fox propaganda machine in terms that resonate with every one of us and describe every one of them.. how sad that we are us and them. It’s been done deliberately and with malice.
Brain washed and addicted to the 'entertainment' on Fox News. (which is what they are licensed as). Most of them must know the station emits constant lies but they still tune in. I watched aghast as many fellow and women passengers automatically switched on Fox News as they sat down. Now that is addiction.
Just from years of practicing medicine p, Phil. Traveling from the northeast to the Deep South and treating folk from across all socioeconomic strata. I seen and treated from hardcore MAGA covered with swastika tattoos to MAGA lite and MAGA adjacent, to billionaires in Manhattan. I also practiced a couple of weeks at Queens Hospital where Donald Trump was born which means nothing unless I was there for his birth. Well, that was sinister, even for me.
As having once been a toddler military dependent living In Munich from 1947 to 1950, I was probably 3 years old or younger when I was first aware of the devastated economy that had what seemed thousands of bicycles parked at the train station and the seemingly grim people up until the Berlin Airlift, after which they seemed so much friendlier. By the time of the 1950 Passion Play, the German people seemed so much sweeter, nicer, and compassionate than my earliest memories. Years later, looking at pictures from 1950, and commenting on how friendly everyone was, my mother took the time to point out how so many of those friendly people had once supported Hitler.
I think I was around 12 when she insisted they weren't that different from us or anyone else, and that we should never think what happened to them couldn't happen to us (perhaps more likely to happen to us than the Germans who had learned from experience). Her second most remembered caution was to "not become the monsters you were fighting." A few years later, "Judgment at Nuremberg" solidified those lessons.
Though I often confuse which was closer, but I believe we lived at most about 15 miles from Dachua and 100 miles from Nuremberg when my dad was stationed at Neubiberg. I do know my parents visited Dachau and showed us the pictures when we were old enough. I believe we actually had a former German Officer's house in Munich since I have vague memories of a train station and Zoo being within walking distance.
Trump has conflicting interests. One, he wants to war profiteer, and that requires endless war; two, he wants to improve his ratings, that requires him to stop the war and not let any more Americans get killed, and get the economy back on even kilter. Of course he also wants it to be a distraction and in that objective he is successful.
He lives in a world of contradictions, which I will use the Orwellian term, "Doublethink." I wrote a piece about this use of language by Trump and his followers that helps explain what he is saying.
These people are all international war criminals, including those in Congress who allow him to continue and anyone who votes to provide him with an additional 200 billion dollars off the backs of our population.
Intentionally international war criminals. They didn’t fall into a treasonous situation, they march in proud and with intent that is blunt evil and have no shame.
Yes. However, as war correspondent and academic Janine di Giovanni of The Reckoning Project said last night on Ruth Ben-Ghiat's weekly Zoom meeting, she has seen war criminals brought to justice that no one ever thought would be. She is hopeful that it will happen to Trump, Vance, Hegseth and others in this administration. I am too.
Yes Phil. Those women who have power to send off the military and support these war crimes should be tried internationally, while the others should be tried for treason within the US, or impeached.
Those from U.S.-testable, machine-gradable schools have learned to dismiss humanities, to scorn our artists' measures of the (complicated, personal) human.
Yesterday, Trump told reporters at the White House: “I don’t want to do a ceasefire. You know you don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side”. However, hours later he posted on Truth Social that the US was close to winding down his its mission in Iran. Meanwhile, Israel's defence minister Israel Katz said there would be a “significant” rise in the attacks on the country.
Trump also reacted angrily to the suggestion from a reporter that he was contemplating a ground invasion (Netanyahu the previous day told reporters that it was probably the only way to dislodge the regime). Yet he's also ordered thousands of US marines to the region.
He's angry with Gabbard for contradicting him; he's angry with Vance because he's refused to give his whole-hearted support to the war; and he's angry with Oman's foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, who was mediating the negotiations and spoke of progress the day before the US and Israel launched their attacks on Iran. Writing in The Economist, he said that the war was a "grave miscalculation" and "catastrophe" and that Israel had pushed the US into attacking Iran. Marco Rubio had made the same point but Trump has denied this claiming that if anything he had pushed Israel into attacking. However, shortly after this he claimed that he had been influenced by Kushner and others. On Thursday, he said: “I told [Benjamin Netanyahu] don’t do that. We get along great – it’s coordinated. But on occasion, he’ll do something and if I don’t like it, [I tell him] we’re not doing that.”
It's becoming ever more clear that Israel is running the table on this war, not the US and that Trump is confused and indecisive. For example, yesterday he told reporters at the White House that the US was doing well, didn't need the Starit of Hormuz and that it would just open by itself.
Can he really still not understand that oil and gas are priced on global commodity markets and that's why energy and petrol prices are rising in the US? He had previously suggested that these price rises were a "small price to pay" for a peaceful Middle East - a prospect that has hardly been advanced by this war.
Every day of this confusion is causing economic harm around the world.
Besides doing a good job of distracting most from the Epstein Files, Trump has two opposing goals. He wants to warprofiteer, and for that he needs endless wars; and he wants to improve his popularity, and for that he needs to end the war and make the economy more stable.
Today we got a commitment from an Iranian professor here to speak at our No Kings Rally. I am going in a few to work on our safety plan with the safety team.
But he ran in the last election and the two previous ones on an agenda of keeping the US out of foreign entanglements. He was the 'peace candidate'. At that start of his second presidency, he withdrew the US from multilateral organisations like the WHO and treaties like the Paris Climate Accords and distanced himself from NATO. European leaders were told to step up and deal with Europe's problems without relying on the US and to stay out of other arenas. He claimed over and over again to have stopped several wars. All these things played to his MAGA/America First base.
Yet at the same time, in the first year of his second term he has authorised the bombing of nine different countries - before the Iran war started. It is true that some members of his family may be profiting from the war
but politically and financially the war has been a disaster for him. Bloomberg has recently reported that all those investment pledges from Gulf states are dependent on the US ensuring their security so Trump may also have been losing investment opportunities as a result of the war -those upcoming projects to build residential complexes and golf courses in Riyadh; another residential and hotel project in Dubai (UAE); new luxury housing and golf investments in Doha (Qatar) and the latest residential, golf and hotel project in Wadi Safar (Saudi Arabia). They may all have gone up in smoke.
TrumpStein is a multi-Billionaire, the most powerful person in the world, has never had to work a single day in his spoiled 80 years on Earth, a beautiful spouse and loyal children, plus the press eats out of his hand and yet he is angry at everyone on Earth. Something is way off kilter in his head. The press is being played and should not be reporting one story about his unlawful war other than the fact it is an Epic Distraction. The focus should be 95% on how AG Bondi obeys his demand to hide the real story about him in the Trumpstein Pedo Files and 5% on a weather forecast.
Please go to my web page. On the upper right side there is a button "Downloads." There you can download the Memorandum and two different logo posters: a vertical or horizontal shape. Both can be sized to fit a poster board you select at Staples, etc. My Thanks. Go to UnitedWeAmend.org
I believe the "50,000" number relates to total U.S. military troops (soldiers and sailors) in the region. I also think the count includes both land and sea-based troops.
But, therein lies the problem with this war: It's being waged by HABITUAL LIARS. Whatever we hear from ANYONE in this regime cannot be taken at face value. It's quite maddening!
Yes aircraft carriers hold around 5000 service members but mostly for maintaining the ship itself and transporting, maintaining or flying the aircraft on board. Amphibious assault ships hold about half that or possibly up to 3000 Marines and Navy personnel.
Not only another lie, more like Donold doesn't know what the hell he's doing or even talking about...
See, www.bbc.com 7 days ago. The War Zone reports the "The Second Amphibious Assault Ship Now Heading to the Middle East". It's the USS Boxer.
With your skills as a military historian you know the USS Boxer is is a WASP class amphibious assault ship. See, Thomas Newdick & Joseph Trevithick updated 3/20/26 at 6:26 PM Eastern .
I just saw your correction stating the "50,000 relates to the total U.S. Military troops (soldiers & sailor)in the region". Correct.
Your skills would be better put to use explaining the reality of military tactics in the days ahead. But, do so carefully.
About 50,000 armed personnel had been based in the region already. They're sending 3 additional warships and about 5,000 more marines. The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit had already been ordered there a few days ago, with about 2,200 Marines. That amount has been roughly doubled.
The speculation is that they're preparing for a Kharg Island attack or occupation. I don't know what else you can do with 5,000 troops. Even that's scary enough.
Yep. About 300 miles north. And it’s less than 15 miles west of the Iranian mainland. Will need a combined air, land, and sea assault to take the island. People will likely die.
America is now being governed like a frat house that discovered both military power and video editing software. According to the news, the administration allegedly coordinated a strike on Iranian-linked energy infrastructure, then publicly pretended it had nothing to do with it, which is apparently the foreign policy version of setting the couch on fire and blaming the lamp. The result was a major disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil and gas flows, followed by force majeure declarations, rising prices, and the cheerful realization that starting wars is in fact not a coupon strategy for lowering inflation.
Meanwhile, Congress has chosen its traditional role in moments of crisis: expensive wallpaper. Rather than holding public hearings or asserting war powers, Republicans are reportedly opting for private briefings and public applause, because nothing says constitutional fidelity like refusing to discuss war where the public might hear it.
But the true innovation here is aesthetic. The White House, we’re told, has been packaging war footage with sports clips and movie imagery as if bombing campaigns were just another content vertical. Deadly force, but make it viral.
That’s the real nightmare, not only the recklessness, but the mood board. Empire is now a meme page, mass death is a branding exercise, and public sacrifice is being managed by people who seem to think history is something you win by posting through.
Thank you Megan have sent your information to so many and they call, email, mail almost daily ad many already do. The amount of frustration is palpable with many of us. Again, thank you.
We are seeing the consequences in so many ways of an egomaniac being elected to the Presidency of the United States.
At this point, the egomaniac himself is no longer the problem. The problem is his Republican Toadies in the House and Senate supporting and feeding his egomania. Congress members with no spine cannot be guardrails. Will a flood of letters and emails give them spine? Probably not.
Perhaps Trump will do something so catastrophic that even his Toadies will have to grow some spine. If that doesn't happen, then everything hangs on the 2026 elections, and energizing the Resistance as a build up to the election is crucial.
According to the Kyiv Independent, Russia has said it will stop feeding Iran with targeting intel if we will stop feeding Ukraine targeting intel. THE GALL OF THAT PROPOSAL has me tearing my hair out. No Americans can claim not to know that Russia is telling Iran how to kill our boys and destroy our ships. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?!?! The GALL!
I've tried via email but we're blocked if we're not in their constituent zip codes. And the PO no longer promises to deliver mail promptly while issues and upcoming votes demand immediate feedback by voters. Phone calls deven at district offices are now routinely sent to vmail, which also demands a zip code.
"This afternoon, Trump told reporters: “You know, we don’t use the strait…we don’t need it. Europe needs it, Korea, Japan, China, a lot of other people, so they’ll have to get involved a little bit on that one.” If so, what is the purpose of keep war going? Can we stop it now?
I’m not giving in, Abbi. I’m just pointing out that “the rules” don’t apply like they did before Trump 2.0. USAID is, for all intents and purposes, dead. Do you see it returning anytime soon? Even if it is revived, the damage already done is incalculable.
Yes… Because we can’t feed the poor or satisfy the rich and we’re a theocracy of a republican government where we are subordinate to religious and military oversight by the white Christian nationalists, etc.?
Sorry.. wrong country. Sounds like it could sound like Iran as well as us.
You are no different to Iran - you still have the death penalty, your government kills people protesting in the streets, you're Christian "Mullahs" just wear suits and ties and are, by all I can read and hear, substantially more corrupt. The general Iranians want and do whatever you want and do - enough food and shelter for your families, and getting on with a peaceful life. The only reason for this war is the insatiable greed of the upper 10% of eg Kushner, Trump, Musk et al. All you'll get out of it is the worldwide disdain for US Americans.
You post here several times, and each time you go out of your way *not* to identify who you are and where you are writing from (though you make certain we all know you're not American). I am sure I am not alone in finding that odd. You don't give anyone the opportunity to examine your perspective. Plenty of Americans here probably agree with many of your views. Why not just say "as a citizen of ____," why the secrecy, why the caginess?
How weird are you? I don't owe you or anybody else an introduction - what gives you that bizarre idea? Do you think you own the planet and everybody has to oblidge to your idea of what you should know? It seems to be an inherent US quality.
Hegseth is telling troops that this is a mission ordained by God -- once again, horrors are being committed "with God on [their] side" This religious justification has fucked up the world for centuries.
You are not going to hang anyone in this administration, sad to say. They will all be pardoned by Trump before leaving. You can hate it (as I do) but its the way our Constitution is written. Classic screwup by the Founding Fathers. We need to change it at some point, but that won't happen until this scurrilous regime is over.
Pretty difficult. Trump would have to become incapacitated to the extent that he couldn't issue a pardon and then the 25th Amendment could be invoked to put Vance in at least as Acting President and he would have the Presidential pardon powers. Sorry to be such a wet blanket, but I try to keep my mind focused on reality, not fantasy, sigh.
Yeah, which is sad because if Obama was doing this or Biden was doing this, you’d be standing cheer and read what Obama’s actual secretary JEH Johnson said the Democrat Democrats are wrong and trying to stop or demolish ice
It is so troubling to see someone living in a world made up of misinformation and propaganda and so made angry towards the wrong people. You’ve been had, my good man. Your pocket has been picked while you weren’t looking, by a conman, not just for now but for your entire future. Instead of suspecting everyone with experience and skills, try to read a variety of viewpoints from all over the world and see if you can integrate them into a more nuanced view. You are going to find food prices, health care costs are going to rise dramatically because of a war that the White House unilaterally decided to start. And your own party just released information that documents the most appalling crimes against children by members of this White House and its closest supporters. I can see how this would make you very embarrassed and mad at the world for having shown you the vileness at the core of the person you identify with. Well, I hope it would, because the other alternative is that you actually enjoy the gargantuan evil because of some grievance that you feel justifies the murdering, raping and wholesale destruction being perpetrated.
Well, look who just woke up on the opposite side of the bed on the stupid/ignorant side of the bed. Of course Costco go up when there’s a war like the 10 years it took the final Osama bin Laden like the. 10 months it took to kill Kadafi while Obama, who didn’t go to Congress to act nor against Syria where he dropped 21,000 bombs were bushed took four years to get Saddam Hussein and Donald Trump took all the four days to get khomeni.
Just in the nick of time to save your Trump hating ass
Maybe I should send you the link where prices went up 20% two months into Biden’s term… gas prices doubled mortgage rate rates tripled, and inflation went to 9% AND THERE WAS NO WAR. AND THEN TO YOUR OBVIOUSLY FORGETFULNESS HE DEPOSITED $170 BILLION IN THE BANKS OF UKRAINE BECAUSE BILL CLINTON FUCKED UP BUT IT’S NOT OK TO SEND 200 BILLION TO END A A 75-YEAR-OLD THREAT TO THE PLANET BY YOUR OWN AND IT’S PROXIES HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WERE SPENT BY BIDEN AND BUSH AND OBAMA AND I DIDN’T HEAR A PEEP OUT OF YOU. OOOOOOPS
Well this does rather prove my point. We see here a person who for some reason enjoys being furious and gets some sort of kick out of believing the worst lies and nonsense of other people. He will undoubtedly die of apoplexy carrying on like that. What a very sad and self indulgent way to be.
OK Maria, your turn because all you did here was what most of your failures do you put out a premise about lies and hate and insults and accusations and never back them up with facts no evidence no proof no facts just incessant and unnecessary hate
But I am a very patient individual if you’d like to tell me exactly what the ““ worst lies, and nonsense of other people I’d like to hear it. Unfortunately, I won’t because you won’t see it because all you have is he in Animous in your heart and you don’t even know why in fact I’ve proven a couple weeks ago that the liberals today have more hypocrisy and double standards, and they never had before, and Bill Maher proved that when he had Adam Schiff, On his show the other night, and buried him an a lie in public.
As I’ve already said, that, if you take Trump‘s name out of a policy or law that has been passed, and you put by Joe Biden‘s name in as the person that came up with a policy or an act of the law, many of you would be cheering standing on a chair waving a flag, but because it was Donald Trump. Ooooops If you happen to name them all if you’d like, but I’ll wait for you to tell me what lies you are referring to. I like all the other color to come out and sit and run in my back in the cave. I won’t hear from you, but if I do, you won’t be happy because your arguments won’t hold water.
Another well thought out and re-search post by a local lemming. Let me know if you have any things to say real with facts and evidence and research, etc. it’s been nice knowing you, Lorna
Talk about lemmings, that’s rich. MAGAts are nothing but. By the way, I thought I told you to see if Steven Miller could use you to wipe his boots. What happened? Why are you here again making no sense?
Do you know if I take a nap look all the information you gonna be missing out on since you’re Ballin genuflect every word out of Heather‘s mouth without verifying it, validating it or seeing the other side of the story which is really pathetic for so-called intelligent individuals
You know marky I actually hope MARK you are a defendant in a case on trial, and that the jurors are just like you
So it happens in such a case is the prosecution gets up, makes its case and takes it right to the jury without hearing from the defense that way you get a fair trial just like the one you’re faking now Pathetic
How do you feel like posting to you? I don’t give a shit about Donald Trump. I don’t give a shit about your body except for you almost fuck this country beyond repair. I care about policies and I don’t care where they emanate from if they’re past and they’re good for the American people. I don’t care who proposed them or who enacted them because the most important thing is the laws themselves. All you morons you just care of a process it’s not a results. He is now freeing the world. And freeing of America and Israel from terror, Pulaski 47 years
Do you honestly believe that this pointless war is in the best interests of ordinary Americans who polls show are against it and who are facing even higher energy and food prices as a result?
Since the war started you have already had two terrorist incidents in Texas and Michigan. Oren Segal, VP of the Anti_defamation League has said: “The operations against Iran have triggered almost an immediate surge in antisemitism and conspiratorial commentary on various social media platforms, and across the ideological spectrum".
Well, tell me what you do for your ailment then I’ll see if I can compare. You’re so funny, you people are sitting here in pain and agony and suffering and hate and accusations and insults and you think I’m basically hurting. You need the biggest mirror in the house. Don’t stand there too long because then you’ll start to understand how wrong you are
awwwwww are we upset TC. Well, you have every right to be living in California shading hill on the planet. Now is the shining hill of defecation, highest taxes, highest homelessness, highest home prices, highest crime, and highest flight.
How old is back? Welcome to Mike. It took 10 years to find and kill Osama bin Laden. It took four years to find and get Saddam Hussein. It took years to get Kadafi. And it took three days to get khomeni.
Yeah.. yer guy campaigned on no more forever war.. and you dummies believed him, and supported him. You’re in a cult you idiot. You’ll back him no matter what. Nothing he does will ever dissuade you. Not the destruction of civil society, not the inflation, not the murder of innocent civilians on your streets by ICE agent reactionaries, not global war..
If you could only see how much he fuckin hates you idiots who support him, his obvious contempt for you, you might see what’s actually happening here.
Do you know every time you post it makes my day immediately when I see your name I start to laugh. You’re so easy because all you are is full of insults and hate and accusations, and I posted a photo of you and the female form and I’ll do it again just to remind you who you are
There you go there’s TC in LA in a dying state in the nation we’re flight is right and even the big companies are leaving now finally waking up. Hope you weren’t living in Pacific Palisades. Lmao while the governor and the mayor slept.
I always do and I watch Barack Obama to exactly the same thing that Trump is doing, and when people were wrenching their guts out yelling that they needed due process When they find out only 25% of Obama’s deportees were Given just that.
He actually pulled people from their jobs. He pulled people from their homes. He divided families and he’s the one that actually built the cages for the children of a chain-link fence cages.
Now, if you want to start doing what you do best and that’s changing the subject and not addressing the issue, please feel free to do so
The violent tactics were actually caused in a defense with move because when Obama was doing it, nobody mind it there weren’t any major protests There weren’t people running around with Mexican flags and Palestinian flags when Obama was tossing people out of here. But now the vitriol is full of hate Trump. And the protests are rampant and the doxxing Of ice agents and the violence against them makes Americans sick When they protect protecting the violent immigrants who should be getting home and the Democrats are only doing what they’re doing to save them as voters
2000 Americans have now been killed by illegal criminals and that number would be guess what they’re Russell that number would be zero if they weren’t here
So stop coming up with crap that means nothing. Trump is the president that’s a fact nothing’s gonna change that so address the issue at hand. Like why England has now become a pussy and you know why because they’re afraid of offending their new immigrants
He didn’t obliterate anything, the well trained, professional US military did.. he never served a day did he.. or.. wait.. you’re so in love, you’ll probably say he actually was in Vietnam
Connection, Mark Lane. I loathe and despise Trump and his regime with the energy of a billion blazing suns. He, and they, are bereft of a single redeeming quality.
Isn’t Israel already a democracy? It’s governed by an authoritarian, much like the US is.. but it’s still a democracy.. so why do you think he’s creating a democracy in Israel?
The hypocrisy is beyond breathtaking. Trump who's called Europe the foe. Trump who's pushed Putin's line on the Ukraine. Trump who's dropped support and has Europe buy the weapons to support the Ukraine. Trump who's publicly humiliated and undermined Zelenskyy. Trump who's been so critical of NATO and now calls them cowards. Trump who's been happy to let Europe hang is now begging NATO for help in another forever war that's illegal. Stay strong Europe, and stay out of this mess. Surely you understand if you help that he'll only double cross you later with his pals Putin and Orban.
That seems to be occurring already. The German reaction was acidic in its directness. 'This is your dumb venture, don't ask us to help you unfuck yourself' from Germany's Chancellor, no less (in so many words). Europe is finally realizing that coddling, cajoling, flattering and sending the child-minders to Washington to purr and tell Baby Twumpie what a big boy he is has now reached its limits. It's much healthier for them to come to the realization that perhaps there's no going back. Worse for the world (and for us), but probably a long-term positive for them.
As a veteran, I hate saying this, but they are headed for destruction.They're going to go up against the the leading practitioners of drone warfare, and they have no equipment, no training,and no skill to face that.
I feel like we are watching the end of the superpower era. Russia has shown itself to be a paper tiger, and here we are, about to demonstrate the same. Obviously the possession of nuclear weapons is the ultimate trump card (and I hope that forever remains uncapitalized) and who could blame Iran or any other country for trying to get one?
I’m a retired clinical psychotherapist who never invested extensive study in chronic mental illness. However, it appears that Trump’s delusional beliefs in his own power, coupled with identifiable signs of dementia, have devolved into behaviors of a psychotic nature. That means that he has no idea what he has done by starting war with Iran. Now without Democratic help and his eventual removal from office, we’ve lost our country. I woke up this morning with the image of the White House being torn down, two dead Americans in Minneapolis, the death of our service members, and several thousand Marines on their way to Iran. We can’t allow this megalomania to control the reins of power any longer. And Republicans themselves have lost their own grip on reality.
The repubs haven’t lost anything but their souls. Chump is a hair away from destroying the PO, SS, Medicare and Medicaid. Their goal for 40+ years. They see success where we see destruction.
So many people don’t believe that SS and Medicare are that close to destruction. They are not paying attention. We should be demanding answers and solutions from our representatives but no one is doing a thing. Yet they keep taking money from my paycheck. Wondering what will be there when I try to claim at 62 next year.
You got that right, JD, I don't understand why people separate the actions of trump from the rest of the GOP.
This is the end game for decades of GOP machinations to secure permanent minority rule of the United States and install a white evangelical christian nationalist theocracy.
As I look back over my own life as an American and beyond that into history, it seems obvious there has always been this Christian nationalism/white supremacist movement since our founding which included slavery. They tried to prevent SS from happening in the 1930's and Medicare in the 1960's by hanging a "communist" name tag on legislators who supported those and other programs. They still do that, and since Reagan have enriched the wealthy immensely by piece by piece turning over government operations to Wall Street. Now there are people like Elon Musk and others who are worth so much money they can buy our government. Trump is just a figurehead they use, but he has become terribly dangerous. He has never been intelligent, but he reeks of megalomania. Maybe the Christian nationalists will remove him, but that doesn't solve the underlying problems.
I don't expect readers to understand or accept this assertion, but there's nothing new about Americans' -- and others' -- delusions, the loss of a grip on reality.
(In the first place, reality, like air like water, save when frozen, cannot be gripped...)
We all have a tendency to misinterpret our perceptions in terms of our beliefs, our prejudices, our supposed interests, which cause us to mistake a fragment of reality for the whole, and preset concepts, "our" private (or collective) notions of what's real.
Since America's great contribution to winning the Second World War (perhaps, even, since the Korean war) there have been episodes like the Berlin airlift and the Cuban missile crisis when war was narrowly averted, but, perhaps with the exception of the first Gulf War, no subsequent war or military incursion by the US corresponded to its stated purpose, the only real function being to provide campaign experience for the grunts and maximize the profits of the arms industry.
America had a real cause for strong military action after 9/11 -- but not for the actions actually undertaken. Islamist fanatics showed remarkable strategic skills in planning their atrocity, designing a provocation bound to cause maximum confusion, maximum emotional reactions and, in so doing, to trigger an endless series of chain reaction explosions stretching into the indefinite future.
This was a case for the bomb disposal squad, for tightly controlled explosions, closely targeted reactions but, caught completely off guard, the George W. Bush administration's reactions at home and abroad corresponded to whatever personal opportunity its intelligent but unwise high officials had long wanted to exploit to maximum effect. Maximum paranoia at home, maximum mayhem abroad. The Pentagon, of course, (focussed on the most massive and costly hitech weaponry) could not imagine that cardboard cutters might prove to be a strategic weapon as effective as David's slingshot that brought down Goliath... just as they later failed to foresee how toy aircraft could be developed into today's fearsome drones... of which we have, unfortunately, to see far worse exemplars.
So, as expected, as intended by Ben Laden and Al-Qaida's strategists, America unleashed massive (mostly irrelevant and shot-in-the-foot counterproductive) wars throughout the Middle East, the effects of which we are witnessing to this day.
And because the direct assault on America had only set warning lights flashing in the windowless boxes of experts' minds, because of the totally irrelevant and grossly mismanaged Second Gulf War, occupying and utterly ruining Iraq (and so strengthening regional rival Iran and proxies), because of the fundamentally stupid occupation of Afghanistan -- any fool could see the damage the fairly efficient Soviet attempt had done both to the country and, above all, to the USSR -- because of our failure to penetrate the mind of the real enemy, that enemy not only accomplished its mission to an extent beyond anything imaginable but was, in due course, able to design and successfully execute an even more horrific plan, a trap from which there could be no escaping, either for Israel or for fellow-Muslim victims, triggered by the vile October 7th assault on Israel.
As with 9/11, the respective planners, Ben Laden and Sinwar, are dead yet lived to see the success of their utterly ruthless project. Long-term divisions and damage projected into the far future.
This enemy is armed with a detailed knowledge of the history and collective psychology of its foes... whose hubris, blindness and short-termism have led to ignorance and gross underestimation of its opponents' skills, and thence to the even worse catastrophes embroiling Trump and regime and Netanyahu. In the latter's case, the cost of battles won will be paid by future generations, and by ordinary Jews, once again exposed to that ultimate abomination, anti-Semitism. Not to mention its variant, Islamophobia.
Pardon the length of this. As I said, the views expressed are so deeply at variance with common myths and misapprehensions that I'd not expect many to understand them well enough to put up an adequate defense against them.
I'm just hoping that Westerners will learn to think before it is too late. To think free of tight frames and boxes, free of analytical breakdowns, free of technological impedimenta -- all that hitech junk... and AI founded on natural human stupidity.
Not all Westerners. Right now, thru the manipulations of some very rich people, the US has a government filled with delusional and incompetent adherents to a set of ideas that benefit the very rich people who put them there. Stop saying Americans-most of us see all too clearly what is happening here, but we are pretty powerless to stop it.
Practically everyone -- and here I very much include myself -- reacts to perceptions on the basis of habit-formed preconceptions. I've had several times to point out that baboons, for instance, CANNOT select an incompetent leader. Only we humans can do that -- and all too often do so. We are able to react correctly and with extreme speed to immediate dangers, yet, because of the conceptual filters and distortions that condition how we interpret our perceptions, when faced with something as vast, unforeseen and, on the face of it, incomprehensible as 9/11 or 10/7, our survival instincts fail us.
Even in a society as violent as the US, "civilization" and deeply ingrained habit have caused us to lose our natural awareness that living is intrinsically dangerous.
There is a biblical passage that speaks in graphic detail of what human weakness and hubris can give rise to: Isaiah 6:9 to 13.
Hey Peter, our survival instincts never fail. It's we ourselves who don't act out trauma like baboons -- running around, waving our arms, and screaming at others. It simply wouldn't work in our society, so we often turn trauma into PTSD symptoms, e.g., sleep disruptions, excessive drug or alcohol use, extreme watchfulness or inability to form relationships. Take a look at some of the traumatic reactions of soldiers in WW I. Catatonia, or excessive shaking, sobbing, and worse.
As you’ve outlined it, Peter, that’s pretty much exactly the case. It’s where we’re at today. Regrettably, it’s where we appear to be going.
Deregulated capitalism and a surge toward the fantasy of world domination go hand in hand with our own self destruction of all we once held dear … or at least loudly claimed to believe and represent.
I'm with you on this correction. Currently it has become privatized freedom, fenced off, guarded, absolute, for the 0.01%. Unfreedom for the rest. Vermin status for those members of the household supposedly not economically useful.
I photocopied a nice image -- must be New Yorker -- by a cartoonist called Handelsman of a boss who has summoned an older member of his staff, saying:
"We have no mandatory retirement age, Dave, but under certain conditions we tend to encourage people to die."
Bill, I'd like to mention that capitalism unregulated will surely fail, as Karl Marx said. His prescription of communism wasn't correct, but his diagnosis of the problem was right on.
Crime is crime wherever one goes. Organized crime through history certainly deserves study. It has deep roots. It has fiefdoms. It has corporate structure.
We’re not at the end of capitalism by a long shot. Can’t see an end from here. Must be the weather. And I wouldn’t count on Marx, whatever he actually thought, predicting anything. I wonder occasionally, might he have predicted the generations of “Marxists” who he would have readily disavowed? How about our good friend Thomas Paine? At least Candide evolved a plan.
Lauren, you and Karl are both correct. So were the framers of the US and nearly all subsequent Administrations. I don’t think it takes economic brilliance to grasp this. Unregulated capitalism results in monopolies. Monopolies then buy the government and here we are.
I should point out that both true democracy and true communism are unicorns. Neither has ever existed on a large scale. But then we do have ideals. These are wonderful. Like the North star, they provide guidance. As for the star itself, we won’t literally be going there. It’s not a destination. We are truly glad for it and rely upon it nonetheless.
… just felt I might toss in a couple random thoughts while I was at it. I do apologize.
I'm following the unicorns wherever they go, I guess. I like your references, and yes, we seem to be staring at billionaires with chainsaws and wondering how the hell we ever got so shortsighted.
George W Bush and politicians used 911 to implement the Patriot Act and invent the Department of Homeland Security to crack down on domestic freedom as much as international terrorism. The US has been taken to war based on lies several times mostly to benefit capitalism.
This whole Iran situation started in 1953 when the US and the UK engineered a coup to overthrow the democratically elected government in Iran because they intended to nationalize their oil.
It is said that capitalism is not compatible with democracy, that a government of, by and for the people would require too much regulation to protect the peoples safety and fair treatment. That is why democratic socialists worry them so much. They are now fighting to end our democracy because the peoples well being come after the profits.
Thank you, Mystic Shadow, for adding these clarifications.
I did mention the Bush Baby administration's opportunistic reactions both at home and abroad, but not paranoia as policy, not taking the pretext of the assault to transform shock into chronic fear, which makes it so much easier to manipulate the population and replace freedoms by controls. Coralling, stampeding, promoting herd instincts in place of thought. The shock of 9/11 aroused a huge rash of conspiracy theories and shadowy figures behind the scenes found it useful to propagate these.
Thank you, too, for mentioning the Anglo-American coup that overthrew the popular Mossadegh in 1953. This added insult to injury, since neutral Iran had had to put up with the humiliation of being occupied by Britain, the US and the Soviet Union during the Second World War (cfr. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/iran-during-world-war-ii).
No little resemblance with the Western treatment of Egypt, starting with the treatment of the Khedive Isma'il when his ambitious projects for modernizing the country ran up too many debts, so that Britain first interfered with the government of the country and ended up by making Egypt a protectorate. Then, in 1956, a few years after Egyptian officers led by Neguib and Nasser set up a republic, Nasser decided to nationalize the Suez Canal, leading to the Suez war when Israel, Britain and France invaded Egypt to seize back the canal -- an adventure that was put to an end by US Secretary of State Dulles.
Later, of course, the Six Day War in 1967, followed by the death of Nasser, and in 1973, the Yom Kippur war...
*
All this, to draw attention to the much neglected long-term effects of Western interference, including the overthrow of the Shah.
There is a profoundness to your words today. A pity that half this long comment thread got taken up instead by a troll desperate for attention and those who took his bait, turning what might have been a serious discussion into a dumb sludgefest instead.
For those who can access, Tom Friedman's thoughtful piece today -- 'Don't Drink Your Enemy's Whole Milkshake' is a warning to us, to Israel, to those daft enough to continue refusing to learn from history, about what "victors" in the Middle East never seem to grasp, decade after decade.
Realistically, if your grandpa was acting this way, you would take away his car keys, get a power of attorney to protect his assets, and get some adequate medical care. Anyone who has cared for someone in the early stages of dementia sees the signs clearly. The question is, who are the individuals propping the president up? Who is benefitting from allowing this to go on? Really, where are his kids? What is his wife doing, allowing this to continue? Who is paying them off, or otherwise manipulating them to stop them from protecting this increasingly impaired old man from himself?
Who are they? Stephen Miller, Hegseth, Kushner, Bessent, Lutnick, Bondi … just to name a few. People who would never be in such positions except for their slavering sycophancy to Trump and their greed. And they need to keep him in power to stave off their own potential prosecutions.
I went to a poster-making session and someone printed colored images to use. The one that grabbed me was the face of the Statue of Liberty crying. I glued it down, extended the tears down in exaggerated ways, and from the bottom, painted flames. No words. We're living a bold-faced Tragedy.
It was a local Indivisible group on Cape Cod, although it may not have been listed on their website. This is a link to them with contact info, oif you want to pursue: https://indivisiblefalmouth.org/about-us/
Maybe a few, but you can’t make this an “Everyone is equally guilty” moment. The President of the US is seriously impaired, apparently being manipulated by Netanyahu and Putin, and while a few rich people may benefit from this, the world is precarious at this point in time.
This evening, Iran announced they would not take up the US offer to lift sanctions on the international sale of Iranian oil because they have no oil to spare past the oil they sell to their regular customers.
The three word diplomatic translation of all that is: FUCK YOU TRUMP!
Again, it’s mind boggling to me there are STILL people who support the fat, orange fool! To what end? Do they like higher prices? Do they like the disruption in our economy? Lack of safety in our streets? Disregard of the Constitution and Rule of Law? How can all of this result in making America great again, as they say? It is truly baffling.
They like the fact that the “libs” are feeling horrified. They don’t care much about democracy—in fact if they’re evangelicals they may really prefer authoritarian government,
What they like is the Republican pledge, made in 1968 and delivered ever since, that they will do everything they can to preserve the system economic, legal, and political advantages of white Americans.
I can't find any other word for it than a cult. Jonestown was an awful example of how far cult members will follow their 'leader'. Handing over their life savings, homes,wives and children for the leaders use, and finally drinking poison to follow him in the after life. It's hard to understand but we've seen it time and time again with Jim Jones, Koresh, many others and now this orange creature.
I am unsure of what a lot of the folks who voted for Trump thought they were voting for. A lot of antidemocratic billionaires voted for Trump with their money bins, expecting ROI.
They aren’t the immediate threat to the world order and global economy, national security, representative democracy (or however you define our government), and the rule of law.
We have to stop the bleeding before we suture the wound.
Yes, we have to outvote the louts, but they will still be louts, all 77 million of them. This battle is forever. Or until they succeed in total suppression of their opposition. The wound will not be healed. Ever. It’s been festering on this continent for 400 years.
God, I never thought they would rule the roost. Just outliers that we had to tolerate. Chump certainly speaks for evil as he entertainingly takes us to Armageddon
For failing to allow Congress to exercise its Constitutional responsibility, the Republican Party deserves to lose all future elections so badly that it goes extinct.
It is an unusually warm Friday night in California. All week, temperatures have been roughly 22 degrees above normal. I despise war in general. Unnecessary and illegal ones like those in Iran and Ukraine, in particular. I feel as though I am watching one of those old Tyrannosaurus Rex films about dinosaurs doing one another in. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the reality check the world needs to step up the search for and development of cleaner, less costly forms of energy that are better for people and the planet. In the short term, there appears to be nothing but pain and suffering ahead for all concerned. Such a needless and pathetic waste of resources all the way around.
Commentary I’ve seen online – matching Heather’s daily – accounts for hurt.
Trouble is, Putin’s pal, our criminal in the White House, still just lies his ass off. Of course, we know from sources online, as from Heather, that Donald profits Putin – every day an extra $150 million, just thanks to Donald’s, Netanyahu’s, and Mohammed bin Salman’s war on Iran, and the higher oil revenues additionally now buoying Putin and his Russian war criminals.
How do we measure the hurt? The 168 schoolgirls killed in Minab? The thousand-plus other Iranian dead? The people of Taiwan who’ve now seen U.S. warships leaving the straights of Taiwan now open to China’s Xi? The people of South Korea and Japan soon facing new inflation and cut-backs in oil imports? U.S. farmers having to pay more for fertilizer? U.S. drivers having to pay more for gas? U.S. truckers having to pay more for diesel? U.S. consumers facing newly higher supermarket costs?
To engage the weight of hurt we must access novels, memoirs, histories, and other arts. Our schools do not do this.
So we must endure criminal Donald bloated all the more on his new center stage, spewing new cascades of lying daily. Truly our leader now, Number One totally bereft of seeing, gauging, dealing with hurt.
But if all have abandoned humanities, have eschewed, learned only to belittle references to what our best novelists, historians, and memoirists have said, we have to admit that even our most hurt will be anesthetized to their hurts, blind to what has hurt their neighbors.
Or, do the arts yet percolate, inform, grant humane perspective -- as if those in the Minnesota cities this winter did not just go along with Donald's state terrorism inflicted on them?
Welcome to lemming Ville once again. Even Jay Johnson Obama’s former Cabinet member says that Democrats are being foolish and stupid to try to stop funding ice. Oooooops
Even one former Obama cabinet member can get it wrong. No funding for unconstitutional paramilitaries running amok in our country, terrorizing citizens and others who all deserve due process and respect for our Constitution!
Why did you see what his job was and see baby he has a little bit more insight into the reality than you do. Dimension if you read my post, Barack Obama was doing exactly the same thing we’re not only did he deport 3 million people but he did it with only 25% of people having to process go look it up. Now you’re angering me with your ignorance. Do me a favor do some research before you post another words make sure your brain is engage before you put your mouth in gear
Content over form David I’m voice texting. It could give a shit if I ended sentence with a preposition or a dangling participle. This is not my dissertation nor my thesis and just like most liberals you always see process never results. And I can vocabulary my way around you and spin you like a top. My vocabulary is if I give a shit.
Content over form pal, you should’ve learned that in seventh grade
Obama did exactly what Trump‘s ice is doing. Only there was no protests and in 3000 counties in this country there were no protest but in the nine precinct that had protest ice was doxxed their families threatened at their home. Their face is posted on telephone poles for everyone to see who they were and where they lived.
Didn’t happen under Obama the God he deported 3 million people and only 25% of them had to process, which is what you were yelling and screaming about a few months ago. Go check it out yourself just hit Google and check it out. You’ll find the facts. He was pulling people from their jobs. He was pulling people from their homes. He was separating children. He even built the cages on the border to House Of the chain-link fence cages that’s correct. He built them any other questions.
Because he worked for Obama, the God. And maybe you didn’t hear me Emma, but Obama deported 3 million people and only 25% of them ever got due process And Donald Trump has 1/6 of that and people are complaining and screaming from the rafters It’s a joke. It’s a liberal drug induced stupor to complain about this.
And frankly as much as I hate it, I’m gonna love when there’s a first plane crash done by a individual that snuck into this country during Biden’s term while over 2000 Americans have been killed by illegal criminals so far with 5000 more raped than robbed and trafficked and you guys talk about a school with 140 children if you didn’t have the most outrageous double standards you might as well have no standards at all
And one other thing, you need to know when I need to make you aware, I am sitting here in a liberal lemming, close minded group of humans who Trump saved the world would find reasons why he did it wrong. And I said it many times before I don’t really care for Donald Trump, but I care for his policies that have made the world a better place and continue to do so And I illustrated that a couple nights ago with two points of hypocrisy and double standard and if you’d like to hear one of them, I will send it to you again, but it had to do with Bill Maher and Adam Schiff Essentially, what came out after Adam shift turned white as a ghost and Bill Maher surprised him and tricked them on national TV even though Bill Maher is a ultra liberal human being is it proved the hypocrisy and the double standards that the left has right now Because as I said, if you would replace Donald Trump’s name and insert Joe Biden’s name and many of the things that Trump has done, you’d be cheering for them and that’s sickening So here’s one right now and this is really funny because all these people in the background that are yelling Jim Crow 2.0 don’t even know who the hell Jim Crow is it just mimics and mimes
Chuck Schumer got up in front of Congress and railed incessantly about the perils of not having not only a voter ID or federally issued ID but also a Social Security card to prove citizenship or risk fraud in great proportion. And here’s a little cartoon to remind you
Well, it’s understandable when you can’t read what you don’t wanna read. As I said to a few of you here one day, you might be a defendant and a trial and it will go something like this. The prosecution presents its case, and the judge takes it right to the jury, disregarding anything that defense has to say. And if the jurors or anything like you, you’re going to be guilty out of your own ignorance because the root word of the word ignorance is ignore and when you ignore both sides of the story and swallow whole what they put before you without research or without hearing the entire truth is why you will suffer the rest of your life unless you wake up and you will be miserable because of it as you are now
Btw - meanwhile, your best and only buddies, the Israelis, have cut the aid to get to Gaza again, and now 100,000 children are threatened by malnutrition. That's your war as well.
I just wonder how many generations it will take for you to be forgiven by about 7.5 to 8 billion people in the world.
Personally, I hope the US and ISRAEL are never forgiven for starting WWIII. The way this "excursion" is going, there won't be a planet "Earth" anymore.
It is complete insanity to destroy your only home in the universe. And for what?? Oil? Money? To rule the world? If you and all your loved ones are dead, WTF does it matter??
Heather's report - seen as a whole - describes a political culture so incapable of functioning the way it should (with the aim being to help the American people instead of serving the warped and dangerous needs of an egotistical, mentally unwell POTUS) that I believe Trump is close to getting those Americans who only see Trump-focused news to give up... to psychologically disengage and become numb to the larger world out there. And that, of course, is one of Trump's goals.
To counteract that depression, I invite you to watch the video of the ceremony inducting new members in California's Hall of Fame. Specifically, watch the portion starting at the 34:47 mark, when Riane Eisler gets her award. Riane is almost 95 years old and in a pioneer of the study of human behavior and male vs female history. Her book "The Chalice and the Blade" described how the world centuries ago was one in which women were at the top of society not men. And her later work focused on how a Partnership culture can replace today's Domination culture. She literally knows this is possible through her research!
Here's the video. I believe it will give you hope for the future... hope that Trump does not want us to have!
Steve Brant, the segment of the 19th California Hall of Fame where 94yo Riane Eisler accepts her award fed my spirit beyond measure. I will read Eisler’s 1987 book, The Chalice and the Blade, her capstone book.
Thank you for linking the video and segment at 34:47…please continue to share your insights…yours and many others here on HCR’s Substack keep me going.
Unlike the citizens of Iran we have our Second Amendment. We can buy assault rifles. But we would face tanks. We must then Unite as Americans, register new voters and get the vote out.
I received mine in time to vote early for the March 3rd primaries. Good through YE 2027. I live in Dallas, but Collin County.
I urge you to follow up with your county's registrar's office. I was sweating bullets because my husband's new voter card came one week before mine. They usually arrive on the same day.
Compare what life was like when Joe left the White House to now. I can't. It's just off the charts unreality. I can't say (legally) what I think should happen but I bet I'm not alone.
We had an economy that was envied by the rest of the world.
The Dems weren't saying inflation wasn't as bad as people thought, but that inflation had come down from 9% to 2.5%, and that our economic future was bright due to Biden and Democratic policies. Then trump took office and it all went to shit.
Demand oversight for the Pentagon and White House! Don’t let up. All the calls, emails, snail mail, faxes - they matter.
Be LOUD! 💔🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Comments/reactions help keep this bumped ✊
I've done that today, and I'll do that tomorrow. Tonight, I needed to vent a bit about the sadness and frustration I feel regarding the stupidity of this colossal blunder. The follies and hubris of the arrogant elite never cease to amaze me.
Susan, I am following the war obsessively like I did Covid. I watch Malcolm Nance and Jacob Kaarsbo's war briefings each day. There are several other former military and intel people I watch/read who are teaching me a lot about modern warfare, something the regular media cannot do because they are not embedded and no one is in Iran. In fact, I saw a report from a German journalist who was the last Western journalist to leave Iran.
I am in Germany and here the mood is, hoping that the Chancellor does not get involved in the war. Germany already is. It has US bases from which the US is managing their air operations to and from the Middle East. Israel parks their government plane "Wings of Zion" in the Berlin airport, one we won't be flying in or out of as long as it is there. Within the continent of Europe we take trains. I am looking forward to more sleeper car trains.
I attended an anti war rally last week. Here is a piece I wrote, which is mostly pics.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/i-attended-an-anti-war-rally-in-bremen?r=f0qfn
We are hoping that an Iranian professor that teaches with one of the people in our Indivisible Abroad group, will speak about the war at our No Kings Rally. We want his perspective. In the beginning there were 3 cities in Germany that were going to have No Kings Demonstrations. Now there are 9. Only 6 of them show up on the No Kings Map. https://www.nokings.org
There is a link tree which I currently cannot find with all of No Kings Abroad rally sign ups.
After hearing Nance, Kaarsbo, Ken Harbaugh, Denver Riggleman, Terrance Goggins, Lucian Truscott, Meidas News, and some other sources, I am hoping the our military refuses orders if they are sent into the Strait of Hormuz, to try to take an Island or the cities and villages that are helping to keep the Strait closed. All that I hear is it is a very, very foodhardy move, and we have fools at the helm. I have also seen that Hegseth and Trump treat war like a video game. Meanwhile, they are wracking up international war violations. A fellow activist I know, who is an international professor of law says that they have counted at least 10 war crimes. I am sure they are mounting daily.
CNN's Frederick Pleitgen and his team are in Tehran. One shouldn't underestimate the risks they are running with 21 western journalists currently being detained there.
Yes, and a Swedish citizen having been executed this past week, as an Israeli spy, a term that could be used on anyone. What is to protect a team in Tehran from being captured and executed as American spies?
Your source?
I don't know how credible, but we watch Tousi.https://www.youtube.com/@TousiTV
According to Tousi any girl who is caught without a hajib is exposed to be executed and labeled a spy.
Wendy, This was not my source, but the first article that popped up when I did a search.
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-sweden-citizen-executed-iran/
Here is the Hindustani Times with a piece on it with a video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1utBVDJx894
The NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/world/middleeast/swedish-citizen-executed-iran.html
Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/swedish-citizen-executed-iran-swedens-foreign-minister-says-2026-03-18/
Iran International
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603181159
The National News
https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2026/03/18/swedish-citizen-executed-in-iran-after-unfair-trial/
Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/19/iran-executes-three-convicted-of-killing-police-in-recent-pre-war-unrest
BBC
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce9mzn7k722o
CNN will be corrupted soon.
It's due time to declare the trump regime and it's terrible effects at home and internationally as "force majeure".
That used to be referred to on English language insurance policies as "act of God".
The majic word is EPSTEIN.
And so it is Anne-Louise, or an act of one with God like destructive powers.
He is only powerful if everybody obeys him. Why should they do this?
I knew the term in its military context, as in the Wehrmacht blitzkrieg that conquered France, but had to look it up to find its civilian application.
Iraq, Qatar and numerous of the Gulf oil-and-gas exporting countries have in fact invoked "force majeure", stating this as the reason why they are not able to fulfill their contractual delivery obligations. And as Anne-Louise points out, this is language used in insurance policies and contracts.
"I watch Malcolm Nance and Jacob Kaarsbo's war briefings each day. "
They are veteran intelligence officers. They have separate substacks but in the briefings work together and with other experts. You can subscribe here for free. Or as a paid member to support their work.
Black Man Spy - Malcolm Nance | Substack
.https://malcolmnance.substack.com/profile/posts.
Jacob Kaarsbo | Substack
.https://jacobkaarsbo.substack.com/.
I wonder what they think of Admiral Fallon’s role in preventing an earlier attack on Iran in 2008.
Though I’m most often amazed by artificial intelligence finding all sorts of wrong information and too many “hallucinations,” I think it came pretty close to what I remember about how he “Limited Military Escalation” as described from Google AI searching for, “How did Adm Fallon prevent an attack on Iran in 2008.”
“…Admiral William Fallon
, as Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), is credited with preventing a potential U.S. attack on Iran in 2008 by consistently using his military authority and public platform to oppose the "constant drumbeat of conflict" coming from the Bush administration. (World Jewish Council +3)
His actions to prevent conflict included:
• Publicly Ruling Out War: Fallon stated repeatedly that an attack on Iran "will not happen on my watch," effectively taking the military option "off the table" and undermining the White House's coercive threats.
• Limiting Military Escalation: He reportedly resisted the deployment of a third aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, sending a memo stating there was "no military requirement" for the additional force.
• Diplomatic Reassurance: During trips to the Middle East, he met with regional leaders like Egypt's Hosni Mubarak to assure them the U.S. was not planning an attack, which aimed to stabilize the region and counter-act aggressive rhetoric from Washington.
• Promotion of Dialogue: Fallon openly encouraged negotiations with Iran as the only sensible approach and criticized public calls for war as "not helpful and not useful".
• Resignation as a Final Stand: In March 2008, Fallon resigned after an Esquire magazine article titled "The Man Between War and Peace" portrayed him as the sole figure standing between the Bush administration and a war with Iran. His departure highlighted the deep rift over Iran policy and was widely interpreted as a principled stand against military action. (World Jewish Council +9)
While Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other officials denied that his resignation signaled an impending war, many observers believed Fallon’s vocal opposition made it politically and logistically difficult for the administration to launch a strike during his tenure. (Stars and Stripes +2)
AI can make mistakes, so double-check responses...”
Trump has freed the true "Americanism" -- the criminally white-male-supremacist, fanatically Christian Americanism that is and always has been the heart of USian power – to brandish its infinite Evil and gloat in its innumerable murders. Therefore let us not forget the roll-call of the dead: https://www.theroot.com/murders-of-the-civil-rights-movement-that-we-must-not-f-1851266130 also https://www.splcenter.org/civil-rights-martyrs/ and https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/jackson-state-killings/ plus of course President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Sen. Robert Francis Kennedy, labor activist Karen Silkwood, Sen. Paul Wellstone ( https://jameshfetzer.org/2022/08/american-assassination-the-strange-death-of-senator-paul-wellstone/) and the most recently publicized victims of the one, true, relentlessly criminal, infinitely hateful Americanism -- Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Obviously, Trump is the triumph of a multi-generation, bi-partisan scheme as old as our failed nation. To learn of the more recent, carefully hidden roots of the crisis, the documentation of which include a PBS film about the enormous support for Hitler here in the '30s and additional, meticulously footnoted documentation of the plutocracy's support for Nazism, go here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-25-2026?utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=205274486 See also https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/02/11/xobm-f11.html
The attendant Trumpstein atrocities are both (A)-the tip of the proverbial ruling-class iceberg and (B)-the permanent, unstoppable norm of ChristoNazi governance as proven by the fact that ChristoNazi theocracy and reigns of terror by pedophiles and rapists are effectively synonymous. Note the plutocracy-defining revelations the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn by the plaintiff in response to credible death threats: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf
thank you for those links, lin!
Linda Weide, thank you from the bottom of this patriotic American’s heart. This is the kind of reporting that we need here. As you know, news except for a few sources, is mostly propaganda. I have stuck with MSNBC (become MSNOW) since 2016 and found it drawing the best reporters and journalists. My background with war goes back to 1938-39, as my father’s brothers were regular Navy and Army (in order of age—my sailor uncle was in a submarine in the South China Sea in 1934, the year I was born) so we heard Mutual Broadcasting System news every night at 9:00 EST from 1938 onward. My life since has been shaped by politics and that history. When we quit having a country and got a “heimweh” (George Bush, whose father I met when he was running for Congress, a person so unimpressive that he was president for two years before I remembered that I had met him), I was shocked. We have lost the importance of language as our public school system has fallen apart with racism and greed.
So again thank you for letting US know how far we have fallen. Money doesn’t buy allies. Good will does. No matter how often the Marshall Plan is dissed as “money,” this Virginian remembers who George Marshall was. He was not chosen as Allied commander for his salary, but for his intelligence and patriotism. (Someone will question this, but as a Virginian, I speak for the American 18th century Enlightenment idea and ideal, embodied in the times that made US leaders in the Free World.)
I am of the same generation and well remember the war and the post-war rebuilding of Europe and am bitterly sorry to see the USA torn away from our allies by a mentally disturbed "leader".
He is so disturbed.
Likewise; I was born in 1940. My father, whose military service was between the wars, was a high-ranking War Production Board/War Assets Administration official, and his closest friends and colleagues after the war were all combat veterans. One served in the Red Army's horse cavalry under 2nd Belorussian Front commander Rokossovsky; another in the U.S. Army's Eighth Air Force as a B-24 pilot; a third as a Marine fighter-pilot against Japan.
Virginia, thank you for this post as these are my sentiments exactly. My husband made a trip to England and Sweden under the Marshall plan to see how they were handling unemployment. This was years before the internet and so actually being there was valuable.
Thank you, Michele. The cynics among US have written that the Marshall plan was only an economic self-interest program. Your firsthand refutation is priceless. At the time most of US who were aware of the program had lived through the war and were proud of the plan as we had learned to be proud of FDR’s lend-lease.
Americans need to be outside of US to avoid our endless self-congratulation (exceptionalism). Senator William Fulbright of Arkansas recognized this after WWII and edtablshed through Congress the Fulbright Scolarships. That’s how I got to Paris the first time (1958) and the last time was 2019 when I saw my Fulbright “parrain” for the last time. In between a version of my husband’s dream retirement we spent on a small boat on the canals and rivers of France (2001-2011). The years on the boat taught me about the amazing French medical system, the start of climate change lettuce, and later, from a cattle farmer friend, about the switch to more grain than cows (it “feeds more people”).
My thanks to my first French teacher who made us learn phonetics as high school students, and to my fellow graduate student in musicology at UNC-CH who encouraged me to try for a Fulbright.
You and people like you are why I love (most) of the comments on Heather's letters. I enjoy learning all sorts of new things and seeing what people have made of their lives. I lived one half a year at Fourah Bay College as part of Kalamazoo College's study abroad program then just getting started. We spent three years in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and were married in Freetown by our principals, Irish Catholic priests. They had special permission from the bishop of Freetown (also Irish) as we were not Catholic. Those three and a half years changed my view of this country forever. Did I read somewhere awhile back that Fulbrights got cut? I may be wrong about this. Anyway, kudos to you for all your achievements.
Virgina, I heard stories of the Marshall plan and how it saved Germany. In fact, I recognize it as being part of why Contemporary Europe is doing so well. It was a better plan for Germany than the Versalles Treaty.
Your years on the boat sound truly interesting. How did you end up doing this?
I am friends with several women who ended up in Germany on Fulbrights and then stayed. In fact, at a gathering last spring of local Americans working for democracy, there were 5 of the 8 of us had come on Fulbrights. Now all of them are professors here.
Virginia, you sound very full of vigor. My mom was also born in 1934. I was just discussing that with a friend today. She and her two sisters one older, one younger, taught me a lot about history just by telling family stories.
It is true that money does not buy real allies, good will does. It is the very essence of friendship. It is reciprocal and not transactional. I think the leaders of the world get shocked by Trump as well.
A lot is shocking, but we are also clear. We know right from wrong, and we do not support this administration. More and more seem to be joining us in this.
It’s worth pointing out that the YouTube channel “What’s going on with shipping” has received reports from the many ships currently stuck in the Gulf. One reported that they’re running out of water.
They can’t dock anywhere in the Gulf because Iran shoots missiles at them. And of course they can’t get out of the Gulf.
He thinks that Trump must do something to get these ships out under these circumstances.
https://youtu.be/DcGKmkZT3Rg?si=SdSGZEP_A3XJMauC
Yes. However, Trump is of two minds. Malcolm Nance thinks Trump might be lying as subterfuge while they send people elsewhere than they say they are. The other is that he is going to send in troops, which many experts have been saying would be foolhardy. In fact, so far I have not read one expert that thinks otherwise. If you find one please share.
Also, he is hoping other countries will do something to get their ships out of there. We shall see. I know it is being discussed in the EU. They say they will help after a cease fire, so Trump and Netanyahu have to at least make what appears to Iran and others to be a cease fire. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260320-italy-germany-and-france-offer-help-with-hormuz-only-after-ceasefire
“…Trump might be lying…”. What?? How do you know Trump is lying? His lips are moving.
Yes, his vocal chords are vibrating but all we get are incoherent lies, insanity and bloodlust.
True enough, Elizabeth; however, I believe it goes deeper than that. Let's review for a moment: tRump denied that he had anything to do with the Israeli strike on the South Para natural gas field, and yet, the Israelis countered that argument, in addition to, Trump's own Department of Defense - uhmmm.... excuse me, I meant "war" department 😅.
To call NATO nations "cowards", frankly is the kettle calling the pot black. Trump's own cowardice regarding the Epstein files will haunt him throughout and beyond his lifetime. NATO or the far eastern nations, like Japan, don't have a dog in the fight. That is the central issue. They are not, and shold not, go to war because tRump and Netanbooboo didn't get their way. If Trump had not abandoned the JPCOA and held fast to the agreement, none of us would be in this sad state of affairs. It is clearly Trump who is to blame. For him not to accept that reality is "cowardice" personified. And frankly, I don't believe for one minute, as I suspect you also don't, that NATO is a "paper tiger" without the US. I wouldn't call France or Britain, two nations with nuclear weapons, "paper tigers." NATO, on the whole, has a formidable fighting force.
That this administration tries to sell this war in the form of "war video games" is in itself a slap in the face to every member of the military. Who would do that other than crazed war mongers? That is beyond sick. I would hope that congress investigates this parasitic behavior against the US military during their time of war. No one should be making money off of this tragic war of choice.
The crowning statement, in my opinion, is that which tRump says: “No, I’m not putting troops anywhere. If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you, but I’m not putting troops.” Let's all think about this statement for a while: tRump would not tell anyone that he would send troops, yet, he has no trouble telling the world that he is not sending troops. That statement during war is just as valuable to an enemy as saying that he would send troops. So, he is either lying through his teeth, which is no surprise, or he's clearly demented in signaling that no boots on the ground are forthcoming to an enemy which he has engaged by choice. Both are treasonous as both give valuable information to the State of Iran. Again, the impeachable offenses keep piling up. There seems to be no end to his state of dementia or at least, cognitive impairment of some sort. That republicans led by Mikey (give it Mikey, he'll eat anything) Johnson and no commonsense John Thune, the republicans are complicit in each death of a US soldier, marine, or navy pilot. One can only hope that they all lose their jobs and credibility in their hometown and state.
😂
So when Trump sent two aircraft carriers to the Middle East did the astute observers think he wasn't going to use them? Now that Marines and yet more Marines are enroute to the Middle East what has changed?
Foolhardy rushes in when they don't have to go anywhere.
Release the Epstein files and see how many folks involved with the Iran war are in them. This is a stupid, dangerous disaster and a cover-up by billionaires who believe they are above the law and accountability.
You just put a song lyric in my head: "Fools rush in where wise men fear to tread." Perfect description of the USA today.
Considering how well the Gaza "ceasefire" is progressing plus wasnt there one in Lebanon? Apparently the meaning of the word "cease - fire" has changed maybe? If I were any of the European countries cant imagine sending military someplace where a ceasefire was guaranteed by either or both the US & Israel!
Frau, I read about that problem in the gulf. People on ships begging for water and not getting it.
I really enjoy watching someone who has a mastery of the subject the y are speaking on. Sal Mercogliano / What’s Going On With Shipping is a new favorite!
He brings up points the news doesn’t usually cover, like the ships stuck in the Gulf.
Linda, I always appreciate your reports from elsewhere. We no longer watch national news unless the lead story is something other than death star and his destruction. I am always amazed at the lack of planning and the treatment of war as a video game and a religious crusade although with this group of inept monsters, I should not be.
Michele, how correct you are. In fact, no one should be surprised or amazed by either Israel or the USA’s groups of inept monsters, and I add “War Criminals.” When and if any of them are tried and found guilty their punishment must not be the reward of “Death!” Rather prison and hard labor so they may suffer for the suffering they have inflicted upon so many others. I will not and do not consider that to be “Cruel and Unusual Punishment.”
Linda, et al: Apologies for the rant, but as I learned from Malcolm Nance in 2017, a rant can be very effective. It sticks. And we are not, generally, as a whole, students of history.
Virginia, I think rants are fine. We do have a few people here who want to judge, but sometimes airing frustrations like those caused by death star and the cabal are therapeutic as well.
This is a sad and tragic conflict - not of our own making - but of our country's so called "department of war'...and only a fool would go about insulting our allies and then expect them when we do something that's wrong to ignore or help us out of the mess we created. You've got to be kidding me! Remember, it was NATO and our allies, since this alliance was created, who came to America's defense following 9/11. It is not our president right or wrong...our nation's Congress had no role in determining what military actions would be taken against Iran, whom trump said a few months ago (June 2025) we have destroyed their ability to enrich uranium.
We have two flawed individuals - one worse than the other - believing that they are entitled to do whatever they determine that they would like to to establish themselves as heroic figures...they are both (Netanyahu and "trumpelthinskin") BAD men! BTW, has Netanyahu's name been found in the Epstein/trump Files?
And, as with Nuremberg, war crimes can be eventually brought to light and tried. It's a powerful new movie that is a reminder that such crimes in a civilized world won't go unpunished forever.
I just read your article and saw the pictures. I am glad the German people are rising in opposition. This is Trump's war. A billionaire's war for more money, more gold paint, more senseless killing, maiming, and death to the people they care nothing for. We must stop them. There are three organizations in the US devoted to nonviolent resistance. I'm sure there are more, but these are three I support and learn from: New Hampshire Peace Action; Pace e Bene in Corvallis, Oregon; The META Center in Petaluma, CA, which is devoted to Gandhian. nonviolence. These groups have Zoom classes and/or speakers. Often, the speakers are involved with global peace action. It is heartening and helpful to join with others who see a world beyond might makes right. The sign about the bombing of the girls breaks my heart. I never knew how much misogyny there was in the US until Trump took office. The guys are all crooks, and they need to go.
Hi Linda, Thank you for this. I will check out the links, and I value hearing your perspective from abroad. Trump/Hegseth are fools. Overgrown toddlers who play video games with other people's lives and livelihoods. This is both deeply concerning and extremely dangerous. This is a global catastrophe on so many levels. I will be marching in Kamuela, HI, with a retired teacher friend of ours. People have to roar ENOUGH and bring joy back to our currently broken world.
It is unlikely that the troops will refuse orders to take Kharg island, and they will probably sustain heavy attacks being only 50 miles off the mainland. I wonder if the administration thinks that the video game-type propaganda about the war will lead to more volunteers for the military.
According to reports prior to the war, military enlistment was up compared to the years before trump. I would like to see how the war has affected recruiting.
You're far from alone in those feelings. They're being shared by tens of millions here (and probably hundreds across the globe). In this case, it's much more about the mental degeneracy of a single individual in the White House -- and the mixture of fear and loyalty he exerts on people around him who dare not stand up and speak the obvious to his face.
The latter is the most difficult to understand. We are not a fascist state where any kind of dissent is met with secret police coming for you in the middle of the night -- as was standard in the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany (though it wouldn't bother some in the Administration if it were). If that were true, none of us would be here because Heather would have been sent to one of those new gulags in Florida or Texas (along with some of us as well).
A few days ago, Adam Kinzinger tried to explore what it is that makes Republicans in Congress (let's pinpoint the source) so afraid. Bad moral character and fear of being blackballed after you're primaried out of Congress plays a big part, he said (no interest from right-wing think tanks, talking shops, lobby groups willing to shell out big bucks for somebody with a Congressional resumé). Whatever it is, it's come to a head now.
The flip side is that all this is making people angry enough that they truly fear us. I don't know anybody who thinks the House won't go Democratic this November. The Senate may follow as well --- and not by small numbers, either. Take heart, it's going to be an ugly few months, but we are gaining momentum, while the forces protecting this man and his policies are splintering.
Considering the impact of the Russian Intelligence services, I would say the Trump has placed people in positions of power who are controlled by three things.
Money
Power
Kompromat.
And the greatest of these is Kompromat.
I don't know whether trump himself is actually a Russian agent, rather than just an asset - but I'm damn sure Putin has some heavy duty Kompromat on him.
I have believed this for a long time. No one would betray his/her country the way he is doing.
What could Putin possibly have on Trump that is worse than what we already know? It must be pretty bad for the MAGAs not to be Trump-eting it (sorry for those who hate puns).
MAGA don't really care about child abuse - "Boys will be Boys! (Even if they are middle aged. . ) and "anyway, some of those girls were over 16!" If Putin shared film of trump pissing on prostitutes, Misogyny Inc. would find it hysterically funny.
No, my suspicion is that it's film of something to do with Trump's admiration of "Arnie's junk" and "Handsome men!" and "JD's wonderful blue eyes" - not to mention the way he looked at Mamdani. . .
And THAT MAGA most DEFINITELY don't like - and wouldn't excuse.
Try "snuff" tape. Supposedly epstein was into this. Maybe trump participated in one of these. I doubt the cult would even care though. The more that comes out the harder they dig in their heels. It's disturbing and frightening that so many still support this dangerous, sadistic, depraved dictator.
Bingo, milady! I've been sharing similar suspicions for a long time. Donald has, for most of his life, acted and spoken as a "closet case."
I'll review some of my observations, plus some I haven't offered before. First, few (if any) straight men spend as much time on hair and makeup as Donald. Bronzer was a thing for metrosexuals years ago, but the product is no longer popular. Neither do straight men spend time creating bouffant constructions on their heads.
As you alluded, straight men are discreet in the locker room and "turn the other cheek" to screen their junk from view. Should the opportunity arise, they might glance downward just to see if they "measure up." But straight men don't file away memories of another man's endowment to be called up years later.
I have occasionally commented that still and moving images of Donald and Epstein together strongly suggest to me that their relationship was more intimate than just "buddies." I'm convinced they were buddies, but in a different sense. We are now learning that Epstein's criminal activities were broader than just trafficking girls. What would've stopped him from trafficking boys, and what would be an even more effective blackmail tool?
Another classic behavior of closet cases is public philandering to "throw people off the scent." Donald has certainly engaged in plenty of that. And while he claims to be attracted to women as sex objects, he clearly despises women as human beings.
Finally, it should be noted that not all men who engage in homosexual activities are genetically wired for same-sex attraction. Many are subject to psychological and emotional issues that push them toward other men for sex. One documented factor is a lack of paternal affection during formative years. It is well known that Fred Trump refused to show affection for anyone, including his family, as he considered it "weakness."
As you have correctly noted, the crowd we identify as MAGA are tolerant of almost all character flaws and behaviors that some might consider improper, immoral or illegal. But MAGA unequivocally LOATHES homosexuality. If there were a revelation that Donald has been involved in that, it would end him.
Don't forget Ruddy in a dress.
The Steele Dossier probably has the answer to that. Given Trump’s racism I believed the report of the dossier without a problem. But Trump has a long history as a “useful idiot.” MSNBC has given it in bits that I have put together, so the red carpet in Alaska was no surprise. Yes, Republican members of Congress it really happened, which makes traltors of all of you. A surrender in the Cold War. I think of Gorbachev and Navalny for starters.
Doesn’t it make you cry? And Russia is helping Iran with targeting intel on our boys and our ships. Republicans, all traitors. Disgusting. Think of all those soldiers who fought in Europe and in the Pacific to wipe out fascism, and here it is right here in Washington. Everyone out to the nearest No Kings rally next Saturday. Read Timothy Snyder’s substack today. It is great!
People wonder what putin may have on trump. The golden showers "tape" comes up, but would most be appalled by that enough for him to lose their support. While it's kinky and disgusting I don't think they would care. Many have even stated they don't care if he raped children! I'm wondering if it's far more depraved: maybe a "snuff" tape? I've read somewhere that this may have been part of the horrifying abuses on epstein's island. One wonders, though, if even evidence of trump murdering a woman or girl while having forced sex with her would even sink his presidency. Heather writes that 58% of the polled don't support the war. But the flip side of that is that 42%!!! apparently do. The slavish cult is not going anywhere.
See above, Sharon. Sorry I forgot to address it to Elizabeth Crawford, who inspired the reply. Go to the Steele Dossier, remembering the international reputation of the British Secret Service. Trump’s undisguised racism makes the Dossier a reasonable account of the (at the time) worst on Trump. Now we have Epstein Connectiom.
Orange one has no shame, what could possibly be kompromat on him?
Thanks for the lift. I hope voters really get the fact the Republicans in Congress are responsible for this catastrophe. They could have stopped this—meaning all of trump’s destructive behavior, not just this “war” (or whatever)—but they CHOSE not do. They CHOSE themselves over the country, despite their purported oaths to the Constitution. THEY DID THIS.
Vote them out of office in November and show them WE value democracy and the constitution over their cowardice. They aren’t fit to govern.
MLMinET-Tour point is so important. A lot of focus is placed on the president but the Rs who are in total control of Congress could put a stop to much of the power grabs and actions that have put the world in a tailspin.
There should be more of a concerted effort to call the Rs out individually and collectively. They’re just as corrupt as the men and women who are doing Ts bidding while overlooking his foolishness.
I blame Congress more than trump....
Well, but without Trump they wouldn’t have anyone to coalesce around. What a poor excuse for a speaker is Johnson. What a craven slavish waterboy.
As I read recently, monsters (read DJT) will be monsters; they can't help themselves. The others have a choice (read Rs in Congress and MAGA followers).
They choose not to act every day! Congress OUT! They did this!
If it were only as simple as the regime and the complicit Congress, we might solve the problem at the polls in November, providing we have free elections. But the polls last week show 77-85% of Republicans support the war in Iran, and overall Republican support for Trump is the same or slightly higher. The regime and the complicit Congress were voted into office, and basically, those voters still support them. Unfortunately, the regime and complicit Congress are only the obvious part of the problem. Throwing the Republicans out of office is a start, but not a final solution.
But it's also independents and supposedly they don't support trump anymore. You can't win an election with just 30% of the voters, or even 40%, unless it's a three way race. I'm not vert optimistic though with all the ways trump and his a**lickers in congress are trying to suppress the vote. We will need massive Dem turnout to defeat these dangerous people by flipping the close races blue.
Thank you for your optimism about November. I needed that today, because innocent children are being killed, orphaned, displaced with my tax dollars.
I agree that a Blue Tsunami is possible, but what if Trump and his minions simply refuse to acknowledge the results? He announces that the elections were “rigged” and declares an emergency. While potentially dozens of lawsuits make their way through the courts, Trump says the sitting Congress must remain in place for “stability” or some such nonsense. When the 119th Congress convenes next January, the Trumpublicans refuse to swear in the newly elected members. I know this sounds a bit far-fetched, but who would stop it?
We need a plan beyond the elections.
After 2020 and getting caught on our back foot, I am sure there are several plans being developed.
MLMinET, I wonder who? However, I hope you’re correct IF we actually have an election. I’m usually an optimist but this war is an atrocity on top of other atrocities. Plus, violence is seeping out more here by Magas as they drive around.
I have a Ukrainian flag on my car’s bumper; I refuse to remove it. But I’m paying a price….
now nearly every time I go out. Of course these men (mostly) are cowards. And cowards are extremely dangerous.
The 2020 election was fair and free. How were we on our back foot?
It was the failure of the DOJ under Merrick Garland that didn't immediately pursue charges against trump for fomenting the insurrection.
I sure hope so.
perhaps, but by and for who
Yes, we need to get the billionaires out of power. They are entrenched, pulling all of the cards behind the scenes. Even after we deal with this administration, we won't be in the clear at all. If Trump and his cabinet are our number one problem, number two is the Epstein class and we can't vote them out.
We can push for public financing for all political positions, outlawing any other type of campaign financing. We can encourage all Democrats running to support public financing and Constitutional Amendments that will strengthen and secure our democracy.
Why Terry? Without free and fair elections what is left? Unless you are talking about after he rigs the mid-term election? And how about those Epstein files?
We also need to act before the elections, most voters won't educate themselves and many won't vote at all if they're not fired up on every issue.
I don’t think that sounds farfetched at all. Just terrifying and very, very possible.
On Jan 3, there is a new House of Representatives. If Dems are in the majority, they will elect a Speaker of the House (assuming it’s Jeffries) and Jeffries will swear in the new Congress in the House.
Jeffries is not a sure bet. People are angry that he accepts AIPAC money. I think he will be challenged. Not certain by whom yet.
I don’t like AIPAC myself but I find it interesting that AIPAC is the only PAC that people are pissed off about when there are other PACs that donate to them too.
But, if Trump simply “declares” that the current Congress is the “real” Congress, his Little Johnson will still be Speaker. That’s my concern. Under “the rules” USAID and all those other organizations “couldn’t” be summarily disbanded by a bunch of kids, but here we are.
Of course Trump will probably do that but we are giving him too much power that he doesn’t have. He signed EOs that have been ruled unconstitutional by the courts making his EOs unenforceable. Dems and the people won’t allow him to take over Congress ,and instead of giving him the power we must fight it.
The only way this doesn't happen is if the "supreme" court sides with trump. There is no Constitutional mechanism to keep the elected officials from being sworn into office in early January. But all bets are off now that they'll actually follow the Constitution.
There are plans to make a gold commemorative coin for 250 anniversary with trump's scowling mug on the front. This is expressly against our laws but the sycophants in the mint and at treasury are arguing for why it can be done. What is this arrogant vanity project costing us and how much will trump profit from it? But the cult stays suddenly silent. If any Democratic president had attempted this the republicans would be asking for impeachment and removal from office. The hypocrisy, as always, is beyond sickening.
Dave A.-The scenario you’ve shared is not far fetched at all. The Rs know there will be a blue tsunami so besides the SAVE ACT all they have left is to steal the election whether by declaring fraud or an “emergency”. Who will “stop the steal” is a serious question that needs to be answered now.
Dave it doesn't sound far fetched at all unfortunately. I fully expect it.
And although there should be no doubt about where the Supreme Court should come down on this situation, I, for one, am not confident that they will rule against trump's fascist disenfranchisement of voters nationwide.
If we get to elections swearing in can't be stopped since johnson won't be house speaker anymore since every tow years it's considered a new congress. The only way to stop this is if trump shuts down congress, which he doesn't have power to do but who will stop him? The trump owned "supreme" court? I wouldn't put it past him at all to attempt to do this. But johnson will have no power at this point, little comfort that that is.
If Trump says the current Congress is the “real” Congress, Johnson would still be Speaker. That’s my concern.
There is no legal means to do this. The Constitution, per 20th amendment, specifies when a newly elected congress is seated, January 3, every odd year. trump could circumvent this if the complicit "supreme" court sides with him but it would still be against the Constitution.
https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-20/
Who indeed?
We are not a fascist state - yet. But we're certainly trending that way. We have been for some time.
The regime already has its "secret police" (ICE), and congressional Republicans are doing everything they can to consolidate and broaden its powers. They are allowing ICE officers to hide their identities, ignore the 4th, 5th, and 14th amendments. They are resisting reforms and considering policies that would stress-test the 1st amendment.
While I agree November can't come fast enough, I'm not convinced that Trump and Mike Johnson won't try to steal the midterms. The only question is, will the "SCOTUS Six" let them.
T is a master at bogging down the judicial system. His favored six will probably give him a chance to air his “grievances” about fraud. Funny it’s only fraud if he or the Rs he wants don’t get elected.
Someone on Twitter said it’s interesting that none of the other 44 presidents complained about election fraud until Trump came along.
Trump hasn’t had enough sense to be grateful for the get-out-of-jail free (literally) card SCOTUS gave him and is continuing to insult them. I wonder if they look so favorably upon them now.
That DHS is fighting to require judicial warrants and unmasking federal law enforcement officers is outrageous and unconstitutional.
Why isn't there more public outrage?
Because most of the public spends their lives more concerned about sport scores or the Kardashians. They don't watch the news, they certainly don't read the news and get their info from either hate radio, fox "news", FB or youtube. We are so uninformed, it's almost criminal.
I would like to share your optimism and am working every day to elect Democrats, but . . . never underestimate the ability of the GOP to deliver a united vote, or the proclivity of the Leftish to split the opposition vote or sit on their hands.
Republicans have given over any significant sense of conscience to the principles of the Republican party - of unmitigated greed, unconscionable bigotry, and unfathomable cruelty - to advance their personal success and agenda. And indulge their worst impulses. As personified by Trump.
As for the Left. Stalin helped elect Hitler by directing German Communists to treat the Social Democratic Party (the major opposition to Hitler) as more of an enemy than the Nazi party. There is a direct line from that to the specious Leftish rhetoric against the Democratic party -to for instance, KGB man Putin's fan girl Jill Stein who helped elect Trump, twice.
IF and only if there is a fair election, and Trump and his allies are doing everything they can to prevent one. The purchase of Dominion Voting Systems by a Trump supporter is not a good sign.
Have no fear as we can always return to hand-counting ballots for concrete results.
And how long would that take? The 2024 election saw around 175 million ballots cast. And even with that, ballot boxes can be stolen or "misplaced" or the goons can come in and "seize" suspect ballots like they did in Fulton county. The only institutions that can save us are the courts and so far, they have a pretty piss poor record. Especially the "supremes".
Speaking from a place of inchoate fear - no facts - I think Israel is determined to do as much damage as possible before the midterms. Damage that is so catastrophic that it can’t be undone by Democrats in control of Congress.
If the Dems rake both the House and Senate, they then hold the power of the purse. They will not permit Trump’s regime to give money to Israel. They will get the lobbyists out of Congress such as the NRA and AIPAC. That is my thinking and my hope. I am not naive to think that some Dems will think they’ll “benefit” from those monies.
I’m writing 12 GOTV postcards most days. Encourage everyone who can to get connected to a postcard-writing organization and write 5. It will take little time —like buying stamps during WWII (only they were “savings stamps” for war bonds and gained in value; Trump’s USPS charges $.61 apiece and he threatens to kill vote-by-mail) and is an excellent reminder that every Democrat elected for any office, however small, is another step towards winning in November. Currently through TonyTheDemocrat writing for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. It helps me survive the 2;/7 ICE sirens in Chicago.
Thanks both for the reminder and for your diligence and love for our republic.
The midterms will determine whether maga has truly deserted him. I think it's personal not policies. Remember he could shoot somebody on Fifth Ave. and get away with it - and maga loved that. The Hollywood tapes did not repulse them. He beat and gleefully celebrated the person they hated - Hilary.
And be prepared, after a Democratic takeover of the government those 30% of Americans who think this war is a good idea will rebel.
There will be blood.
We need to get to Rural America and give them a voice. Red states need to rally like their lives depend on it. Independent media needs to unite, I would gladly cancel all my mainstream for one united mainstream, independent fee.
Also, this is a side note, where are the billionaires challenging these media buyouts? We are truly by ourselves. We can’t forget that there are more of us than them and we must find our community.
Norm Eisen from The Contrarian just wrote about this, emphasizing Jim Acosta's testimony to Congress against the attempted Paramount buy-out.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-191623934
I believe that the right-wing Congress are in support of everything trump dose and that if they are avoiding their duties to provide the oversight that the voters sent them to do, they are every bit as culpable as trump.
The Democrats are failing to communicate with the public on almost every issue. They need to be louder about the funding deals they are putting forward to fund DHS for everything except ICE. They should be endlessly talking about how the Republicans timed the reduction in Medicaid and funding to happen after the midterm elections. They should be tying the GOP to every fascist tactic used by the the administration throughout the government nonstop. If legacy media won't cover these stories, they need to find other ways to get their messages out.
We find ourselves at the brink of losing our democracy because too many citizens are uninformed and uninterested in important issues that we need to consider before we vote. That must change.
Let’s hope you are right. But they are doing everything they can to interfere with the vote so….
Not just a blunder. Misplaced loyalty, because in his weakness he mistook flattery for friendship.
Arrogant elite has never been more descriptive. And misapplied to so many who think their new found usefulness will not become a heavy albatross …
"Arrogant elite" was most properly descriptive, JD, when applied to testing.
There, they elevate only the rationality conceits suitable to "success" in all the dehumanized silos of all the similarly neutered specializations.
They exclude wider references to humanities as marginal, ornamental only.
They insist on always one correct answer -- and only one. No complications. No overlapping contingencies bearing attention.
And those being tested can never proffer any questions of their own.
Be obedient. Submit to unquestioned authority -- our ruling, arrogant elites.
Hang Hegseth
A veteran friend called him a “banty rooster.” Perfect.
I need to find friends like yours who speak more gentile.. we just use expletives around here, when describing these bastards
This regime has tried to separate the suffering of so many from their brutal policies and actions and now they are dehumanizing “boots on the ground”.
… Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-FL) on CSPAN: Q - Would you consider the military taking over Kharg island boots on the ground? Haridopolos: I think people would see that as an occupation of a vital economic interest. As a history teacher, I consider boots on the ground occupying an entire country like we did after WW2 in Japan.”
https://meidastouch.substack.com/p/today-in-politics-bulletin-332-32026?
So disrespectful to active duty/veterans! 📲💻📣
(If you’re in FL-08, call DC office and press #1, then #3 to get a live person)
http://haridopolos.house.gov/contact/office-locations
And just for fun,inexpensive 😡I Did That stickers on Etsy!
https://www.etsy.com/market/trump_i_did_that_stickers
Elites? Drunk frat boys are running this show....
Will this lead to some kind of civilizational catastrophe - like WWI? Could this embolden China and lead him to pursue aggressive policies in southeast Asia? Will there be other escalations worldwide - when and where will it stop? The world lacks any controlling authority at this time, IMO.
I feel you Susan
So Iran as it was should be left as it was?
The Iranian regime was as repulsive and repressive as it gets. But there are other ways to help Iran besides bombing it into smithereens, killing innocent people, and bankrupting your country. Trump is an addled old man who cares not a whit for anything but money and power. What would you have done?
The Iranian regime was as repulsive and repressive as it gets. But there are other ways to help Iran besides bombing it into smithereens, killing innocent people, and bankrupting your country. Trump is an addled old man who cares not a whit for anything but money and power. What would you have done?
What are the "other ways"? Iranian citizens tried and were massacred (a remarkable event that led to zero protects by the Gaza crowd). And "repulsive" would describe most Muslim and African governments. Iran is dangerous, not merely repulsive. Clin,ton Bush, Obama and Biden all tried kissy face with Iran. That didn't work. So your peaceful low cost solution is?
It’s not in Trump’s interest to wind down Operation Epic Distraction. You cannot downsize distractions and expect the news to drop a story as critical as the TrumpStein Pedo Files for some new small potatoes story. Professor Richardson reminds us, Trump was asked whether he would use ground troops in Iran and he said, “I’m not putting troops anywhere, If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.” Now he heads home and post that “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts...” Don’t be surprised to see him swinging a golf club tomorrow in “Reality TV” style. He is creating the image that he does not need to be in the White House Situation Room. Obama did that the week before Seal Team Six executed Operation Neptune Spear and killed Bin Laden. He released his long form birth certificate to create an image that he was concerned about Trump’s birther B.S. thus Al-Qaeda sleep easy. But this is entirely different as Trump’s unconstitutional war is already raging. Plus he is asking Congress for an initial $200B for his war.
Right now there are approximately 50,000 U.S. troops deployed in the Middle East. Reports indicate many more will soon be headed there along with many more Navy war ships. Trump is following what Thomas Jefferson did in 1801. Without a prior declaration of war from Congress, or even a bill providing the funding to do so, Jefferson sent a four ship squadron to the Mediterranean. Tripoli declared war, prompting Jefferson to send warships to defend trade against Barbary pirates. Early the next year Jefferson secured Congressional approval and was provided enough funds for the first foreign war for the United States, 1801–1805. The battle is commemorated in the Marine Corps Hymn with the phrase "to the shores of Tripoli". The issue before Congress now will be, “If we fail to provide the $200B Trump will not be able to protect our heroes and war ships that he put in harm’s way.” That is the same issue Jefferson presented to Congress. “ To the Shores of Kharg Island; We fight Trump’s unlawful war, In the air, on land and sea;...” It's so wrong it doesn't even rhyme.
Trump, the Roberts’ 6 and many others have badly wounded our Republic, our Constitution. They are making “un-American” the new normal. Our children and grandchildren are growing up in an enemy land. In my “Memorandum to We the people” I put all the direct evidence for all those bad deeds in one place. Then I provide a comprehensive five section strong model Amendment. The professional interpretation and effective presentation of my Memorandum by Mr. Dale Rowett of Lexigraphics.Pro alone is worth a visit to my page. You can download the Meorandum plus poster size Logos for the No Kings march. No “Donate Now” buttons. Please read, discuss and share my Memorandum at UnitedWeAmend.org.
The Fox Nation.. Born into a one dimensional TV screen in their one dimesional minds as their identities are locked in to him, their identities, and in fact, they ARE him. They never wandered far from home, live calcified, cocooned lives, passing ignorance from one generation to the next, always starving for red meat, the hunger to own the libs is their primary reason for living.
Funny thing is, many of these people are the sweetest, kindest, nicest even compassionate when not surrounded by their MAGA buddies.
Sometimes even Nazis if you get them in a good mood.
Plus the educated ones who cannot apply what they memorized in school to find their way out of a bag. But their bag is full of hate, fear and greed and they want to stay in there.
The self-imprisoned magats. How sadly true
Hey, you did it. Described the Fox propaganda machine in terms that resonate with every one of us and describe every one of them.. how sad that we are us and them. It’s been done deliberately and with malice.
Exactly so. They pass their fears from one generation to the next like the prized family Sunday roast recipe.
Brain washed and addicted to the 'entertainment' on Fox News. (which is what they are licensed as). Most of them must know the station emits constant lies but they still tune in. I watched aghast as many fellow and women passengers automatically switched on Fox News as they sat down. Now that is addiction.
You are right on Mike Hammer, about Fox Nation.
Do you describe, Mike, our social and mainstream media, or academic departments?
Just from years of practicing medicine p, Phil. Traveling from the northeast to the Deep South and treating folk from across all socioeconomic strata. I seen and treated from hardcore MAGA covered with swastika tattoos to MAGA lite and MAGA adjacent, to billionaires in Manhattan. I also practiced a couple of weeks at Queens Hospital where Donald Trump was born which means nothing unless I was there for his birth. Well, that was sinister, even for me.
As having once been a toddler military dependent living In Munich from 1947 to 1950, I was probably 3 years old or younger when I was first aware of the devastated economy that had what seemed thousands of bicycles parked at the train station and the seemingly grim people up until the Berlin Airlift, after which they seemed so much friendlier. By the time of the 1950 Passion Play, the German people seemed so much sweeter, nicer, and compassionate than my earliest memories. Years later, looking at pictures from 1950, and commenting on how friendly everyone was, my mother took the time to point out how so many of those friendly people had once supported Hitler.
I think I was around 12 when she insisted they weren't that different from us or anyone else, and that we should never think what happened to them couldn't happen to us (perhaps more likely to happen to us than the Germans who had learned from experience). Her second most remembered caution was to "not become the monsters you were fighting." A few years later, "Judgment at Nuremberg" solidified those lessons.
Though I often confuse which was closer, but I believe we lived at most about 15 miles from Dachua and 100 miles from Nuremberg when my dad was stationed at Neubiberg. I do know my parents visited Dachau and showed us the pictures when we were old enough. I believe we actually had a former German Officer's house in Munich since I have vague memories of a train station and Zoo being within walking distance.
So well said!!!
Trump has conflicting interests. One, he wants to war profiteer, and that requires endless war; two, he wants to improve his ratings, that requires him to stop the war and not let any more Americans get killed, and get the economy back on even kilter. Of course he also wants it to be a distraction and in that objective he is successful.
He lives in a world of contradictions, which I will use the Orwellian term, "Doublethink." I wrote a piece about this use of language by Trump and his followers that helps explain what he is saying.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/the-language-of-the-fascist-regime?r=f0qfn
These people are all international war criminals, including those in Congress who allow him to continue and anyone who votes to provide him with an additional 200 billion dollars off the backs of our population.
Intentionally international war criminals. They didn’t fall into a treasonous situation, they march in proud and with intent that is blunt evil and have no shame.
Yes. However, as war correspondent and academic Janine di Giovanni of The Reckoning Project said last night on Ruth Ben-Ghiat's weekly Zoom meeting, she has seen war criminals brought to justice that no one ever thought would be. She is hopeful that it will happen to Trump, Vance, Hegseth and others in this administration. I am too.
https://www.thereckoningproject.com/
And the girls, please don't forget, Linda: Bondi, Noem, Gabbard.
Yes Phil. Those women who have power to send off the military and support these war crimes should be tried internationally, while the others should be tried for treason within the US, or impeached.
Shame is human, JD.
Those from U.S.-testable, machine-gradable schools have learned to dismiss humanities, to scorn our artists' measures of the (complicated, personal) human.
Yesterday, Trump told reporters at the White House: “I don’t want to do a ceasefire. You know you don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side”. However, hours later he posted on Truth Social that the US was close to winding down his its mission in Iran. Meanwhile, Israel's defence minister Israel Katz said there would be a “significant” rise in the attacks on the country.
Trump also reacted angrily to the suggestion from a reporter that he was contemplating a ground invasion (Netanyahu the previous day told reporters that it was probably the only way to dislodge the regime). Yet he's also ordered thousands of US marines to the region.
He's angry with Gabbard for contradicting him; he's angry with Vance because he's refused to give his whole-hearted support to the war; and he's angry with Oman's foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, who was mediating the negotiations and spoke of progress the day before the US and Israel launched their attacks on Iran. Writing in The Economist, he said that the war was a "grave miscalculation" and "catastrophe" and that Israel had pushed the US into attacking Iran. Marco Rubio had made the same point but Trump has denied this claiming that if anything he had pushed Israel into attacking. However, shortly after this he claimed that he had been influenced by Kushner and others. On Thursday, he said: “I told [Benjamin Netanyahu] don’t do that. We get along great – it’s coordinated. But on occasion, he’ll do something and if I don’t like it, [I tell him] we’re not doing that.”
It's becoming ever more clear that Israel is running the table on this war, not the US and that Trump is confused and indecisive. For example, yesterday he told reporters at the White House that the US was doing well, didn't need the Starit of Hormuz and that it would just open by itself.
https://x.com/HQNewsNow/status/2035089776638894517
Can he really still not understand that oil and gas are priced on global commodity markets and that's why energy and petrol prices are rising in the US? He had previously suggested that these price rises were a "small price to pay" for a peaceful Middle East - a prospect that has hardly been advanced by this war.
Every day of this confusion is causing economic harm around the world.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/20/iran-war-shocks-across-globe-effects-key-takeaways
Russell John, Trump is practicing "Doublethink" which we learn about in Orwell's "1984" and I wrote a piece about this.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/the-language-of-the-fascist-regime?r=f0qfn
Besides doing a good job of distracting most from the Epstein Files, Trump has two opposing goals. He wants to warprofiteer, and for that he needs endless wars; and he wants to improve his popularity, and for that he needs to end the war and make the economy more stable.
Today we got a commitment from an Iranian professor here to speak at our No Kings Rally. I am going in a few to work on our safety plan with the safety team.
But he ran in the last election and the two previous ones on an agenda of keeping the US out of foreign entanglements. He was the 'peace candidate'. At that start of his second presidency, he withdrew the US from multilateral organisations like the WHO and treaties like the Paris Climate Accords and distanced himself from NATO. European leaders were told to step up and deal with Europe's problems without relying on the US and to stay out of other arenas. He claimed over and over again to have stopped several wars. All these things played to his MAGA/America First base.
Yet at the same time, in the first year of his second term he has authorised the bombing of nine different countries - before the Iran war started. It is true that some members of his family may be profiting from the war
https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-sons-accused-of-trying-to-profit-off-iran-war-with-drone-investment/
but politically and financially the war has been a disaster for him. Bloomberg has recently reported that all those investment pledges from Gulf states are dependent on the US ensuring their security so Trump may also have been losing investment opportunities as a result of the war -those upcoming projects to build residential complexes and golf courses in Riyadh; another residential and hotel project in Dubai (UAE); new luxury housing and golf investments in Doha (Qatar) and the latest residential, golf and hotel project in Wadi Safar (Saudi Arabia). They may all have gone up in smoke.
TrumpStein is a multi-Billionaire, the most powerful person in the world, has never had to work a single day in his spoiled 80 years on Earth, a beautiful spouse and loyal children, plus the press eats out of his hand and yet he is angry at everyone on Earth. Something is way off kilter in his head. The press is being played and should not be reporting one story about his unlawful war other than the fact it is an Epic Distraction. The focus should be 95% on how AG Bondi obeys his demand to hide the real story about him in the Trumpstein Pedo Files and 5% on a weather forecast.
I am sure Trump does not care a hoot about his ratings. His ego might get involved but his main mission is to destroy the economy to keep Putin happy…
How can I download the Memorandum plus to get the Logos for No Kings. I’m ready to make my posters
Please go to my web page. On the upper right side there is a button "Downloads." There you can download the Memorandum and two different logo posters: a vertical or horizontal shape. Both can be sized to fit a poster board you select at Staples, etc. My Thanks. Go to UnitedWeAmend.org
Thank you for these. The Armed Services committee is a good place to start with congressfolk outside your district.
Per Deadline White House's opening segment Friday afternoon puts the TOTAL number of deployed Marines at about 50,000. 3 U.S. ships are in route.
We know about the 13 U.S, Service women & men killed in action. Pentagon Tonight: "232 total U.S. Troops injured 10 seriously".
I believe the "50,000" number relates to total U.S. military troops (soldiers and sailors) in the region. I also think the count includes both land and sea-based troops.
But, therein lies the problem with this war: It's being waged by HABITUAL LIARS. Whatever we hear from ANYONE in this regime cannot be taken at face value. It's quite maddening!
Not physically possible, by the ships they are supposed to be on. Another Trump lie.
Yes aircraft carriers hold around 5000 service members but mostly for maintaining the ship itself and transporting, maintaining or flying the aircraft on board. Amphibious assault ships hold about half that or possibly up to 3000 Marines and Navy personnel.
Not only another lie, more like Donold doesn't know what the hell he's doing or even talking about...
Correct horhai.
Not 50K Marines on 3 ships Tom.
See, www.bbc.com 7 days ago. The War Zone reports the "The Second Amphibious Assault Ship Now Heading to the Middle East". It's the USS Boxer.
With your skills as a military historian you know the USS Boxer is is a WASP class amphibious assault ship. See, Thomas Newdick & Joseph Trevithick updated 3/20/26 at 6:26 PM Eastern .
I just saw your correction stating the "50,000 relates to the total U.S. Military troops (soldiers & sailor)in the region". Correct.
Your skills would be better put to use explaining the reality of military tactics in the days ahead. But, do so carefully.
About 50,000 armed personnel had been based in the region already. They're sending 3 additional warships and about 5,000 more marines. The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit had already been ordered there a few days ago, with about 2,200 Marines. That amount has been roughly doubled.
The speculation is that they're preparing for a Kharg Island attack or occupation. I don't know what else you can do with 5,000 troops. Even that's scary enough.
It's Come To This, I believe you are correct..
Kharg Island is north of Hormuz. There are elevated positions to the east of the island.
Yep. About 300 miles north. And it’s less than 15 miles west of the Iranian mainland. Will need a combined air, land, and sea assault to take the island. People will likely die.
💥💥💥 DON'T MISS! This video is spectacular! 🧨🧨🧨 See how the official Chinese government TV channel presents the Iran War to its citizens.
https://kathleenweber.substack.com/p/dont-miss-video
I am not on X and cannot play the video. Do you have any other source for it?
Try this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dGY0_pgkv8
Oh...My...
Wow 🤯
Sorry, got banned from T - or X
Try this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dGY0_pgkv8
America is now being governed like a frat house that discovered both military power and video editing software. According to the news, the administration allegedly coordinated a strike on Iranian-linked energy infrastructure, then publicly pretended it had nothing to do with it, which is apparently the foreign policy version of setting the couch on fire and blaming the lamp. The result was a major disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil and gas flows, followed by force majeure declarations, rising prices, and the cheerful realization that starting wars is in fact not a coupon strategy for lowering inflation.
Meanwhile, Congress has chosen its traditional role in moments of crisis: expensive wallpaper. Rather than holding public hearings or asserting war powers, Republicans are reportedly opting for private briefings and public applause, because nothing says constitutional fidelity like refusing to discuss war where the public might hear it.
But the true innovation here is aesthetic. The White House, we’re told, has been packaging war footage with sports clips and movie imagery as if bombing campaigns were just another content vertical. Deadly force, but make it viral.
That’s the real nightmare, not only the recklessness, but the mood board. Empire is now a meme page, mass death is a branding exercise, and public sacrifice is being managed by people who seem to think history is something you win by posting through.
Thank you Megan have sent your information to so many and they call, email, mail almost daily ad many already do. The amount of frustration is palpable with many of us. Again, thank you.
Thanks Megan for this.
Thank you, Megan.
I have no words this morning, just continued horror and incredulity at what has been happening to this country over the past few weeks.
Thank you, Megan. I know, I’ll never be able to thank you enough. 🫶✌️
We are seeing the consequences in so many ways of an egomaniac being elected to the Presidency of the United States.
At this point, the egomaniac himself is no longer the problem. The problem is his Republican Toadies in the House and Senate supporting and feeding his egomania. Congress members with no spine cannot be guardrails. Will a flood of letters and emails give them spine? Probably not.
Perhaps Trump will do something so catastrophic that even his Toadies will have to grow some spine. If that doesn't happen, then everything hangs on the 2026 elections, and energizing the Resistance as a build up to the election is crucial.
According to the Kyiv Independent, Russia has said it will stop feeding Iran with targeting intel if we will stop feeding Ukraine targeting intel. THE GALL OF THAT PROPOSAL has me tearing my hair out. No Americans can claim not to know that Russia is telling Iran how to kill our boys and destroy our ships. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?!?! The GALL!
We must do these actions Megan . Thank you!
I've tried via email but we're blocked if we're not in their constituent zip codes. And the PO no longer promises to deliver mail promptly while issues and upcoming votes demand immediate feedback by voters. Phone calls deven at district offices are now routinely sent to vmail, which also demands a zip code.
"This afternoon, Trump told reporters: “You know, we don’t use the strait…we don’t need it. Europe needs it, Korea, Japan, China, a lot of other people, so they’ll have to get involved a little bit on that one.” If so, what is the purpose of keep war going? Can we stop it now?
I’m not giving in, Abbi. I’m just pointing out that “the rules” don’t apply like they did before Trump 2.0. USAID is, for all intents and purposes, dead. Do you see it returning anytime soon? Even if it is revived, the damage already done is incalculable.
Don’t let up!
I am finding that my disgust has no limits. It is infinite.
Yes… Because we can’t feed the poor or satisfy the rich and we’re a theocracy of a republican government where we are subordinate to religious and military oversight by the white Christian nationalists, etc.?
Sorry.. wrong country. Sounds like it could sound like Iran as well as us.
You are no different to Iran - you still have the death penalty, your government kills people protesting in the streets, you're Christian "Mullahs" just wear suits and ties and are, by all I can read and hear, substantially more corrupt. The general Iranians want and do whatever you want and do - enough food and shelter for your families, and getting on with a peaceful life. The only reason for this war is the insatiable greed of the upper 10% of eg Kushner, Trump, Musk et al. All you'll get out of it is the worldwide disdain for US Americans.
You get no argument from me.
Or me, sad to say
I still believe Trump is trying to make the world hate us even more than before. He truly is a madman out of control!
And the WH producing entertainment videos using actual clips of the war is just awful! WTAF?
Par for the chump course. He is a master of the grotesque
the 4chan bros are playing war. The inmates are officially running the asylum.
"You are no different to Iran." I may be mistaken, but I think that is the point Mike is making about the U.S.
Morning, Lynell! I agree; Christian Taliban on display over at Kirkville and with every one of his doting admirers.
You post here several times, and each time you go out of your way *not* to identify who you are and where you are writing from (though you make certain we all know you're not American). I am sure I am not alone in finding that odd. You don't give anyone the opportunity to examine your perspective. Plenty of Americans here probably agree with many of your views. Why not just say "as a citizen of ____," why the secrecy, why the caginess?
Why would that matter? I'm on the other side of the world, or "across the big drink" as we say, in Australia. That's all - it's just a chat 😊
It's not just a chat. It's a forum for intelligent discussion (hopefully). Why not identify yourself as an Aussie to begin with?
How weird are you? I don't owe you or anybody else an introduction - what gives you that bizarre idea? Do you think you own the planet and everybody has to oblidge to your idea of what you should know? It seems to be an inherent US quality.
I've mentioned that several times and certainly don't make a secret out of it.
Hegseth is telling troops that this is a mission ordained by God -- once again, horrors are being committed "with God on [their] side" This religious justification has fucked up the world for centuries.
Hang Hegseth
You are not going to hang anyone in this administration, sad to say. They will all be pardoned by Trump before leaving. You can hate it (as I do) but its the way our Constitution is written. Classic screwup by the Founding Fathers. We need to change it at some point, but that won't happen until this scurrilous regime is over.
But wouldn’t it be delicious if he, um, lost the ability to pardon them by some twist of health?
Pretty difficult. Trump would have to become incapacitated to the extent that he couldn't issue a pardon and then the 25th Amendment could be invoked to put Vance in at least as Acting President and he would have the Presidential pardon powers. Sorry to be such a wet blanket, but I try to keep my mind focused on reality, not fantasy, sigh.
It is such a heavy burden to bear LOL!
Don't forget he wants all of us to "pray to Jesus on bended knee" for our success.
Sorry for my second reply. Your full comment did not show on my screen until now.
Indeed
Donold’s disgustingness has no limits either, his malice and destruction seems almost infinite too.
Well, take this to the limit
Yeah, which is sad because if Obama was doing this or Biden was doing this, you’d be standing cheer and read what Obama’s actual secretary JEH Johnson said the Democrat Democrats are wrong and trying to stop or demolish ice
It is so troubling to see someone living in a world made up of misinformation and propaganda and so made angry towards the wrong people. You’ve been had, my good man. Your pocket has been picked while you weren’t looking, by a conman, not just for now but for your entire future. Instead of suspecting everyone with experience and skills, try to read a variety of viewpoints from all over the world and see if you can integrate them into a more nuanced view. You are going to find food prices, health care costs are going to rise dramatically because of a war that the White House unilaterally decided to start. And your own party just released information that documents the most appalling crimes against children by members of this White House and its closest supporters. I can see how this would make you very embarrassed and mad at the world for having shown you the vileness at the core of the person you identify with. Well, I hope it would, because the other alternative is that you actually enjoy the gargantuan evil because of some grievance that you feel justifies the murdering, raping and wholesale destruction being perpetrated.
Well, look who just woke up on the opposite side of the bed on the stupid/ignorant side of the bed. Of course Costco go up when there’s a war like the 10 years it took the final Osama bin Laden like the. 10 months it took to kill Kadafi while Obama, who didn’t go to Congress to act nor against Syria where he dropped 21,000 bombs were bushed took four years to get Saddam Hussein and Donald Trump took all the four days to get khomeni.
Just in the nick of time to save your Trump hating ass
Maybe I should send you the link where prices went up 20% two months into Biden’s term… gas prices doubled mortgage rate rates tripled, and inflation went to 9% AND THERE WAS NO WAR. AND THEN TO YOUR OBVIOUSLY FORGETFULNESS HE DEPOSITED $170 BILLION IN THE BANKS OF UKRAINE BECAUSE BILL CLINTON FUCKED UP BUT IT’S NOT OK TO SEND 200 BILLION TO END A A 75-YEAR-OLD THREAT TO THE PLANET BY YOUR OWN AND IT’S PROXIES HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WERE SPENT BY BIDEN AND BUSH AND OBAMA AND I DIDN’T HEAR A PEEP OUT OF YOU. OOOOOOPS
Well this does rather prove my point. We see here a person who for some reason enjoys being furious and gets some sort of kick out of believing the worst lies and nonsense of other people. He will undoubtedly die of apoplexy carrying on like that. What a very sad and self indulgent way to be.
OK Maria, your turn because all you did here was what most of your failures do you put out a premise about lies and hate and insults and accusations and never back them up with facts no evidence no proof no facts just incessant and unnecessary hate
But I am a very patient individual if you’d like to tell me exactly what the ““ worst lies, and nonsense of other people I’d like to hear it. Unfortunately, I won’t because you won’t see it because all you have is he in Animous in your heart and you don’t even know why in fact I’ve proven a couple weeks ago that the liberals today have more hypocrisy and double standards, and they never had before, and Bill Maher proved that when he had Adam Schiff, On his show the other night, and buried him an a lie in public.
As I’ve already said, that, if you take Trump‘s name out of a policy or law that has been passed, and you put by Joe Biden‘s name in as the person that came up with a policy or an act of the law, many of you would be cheering standing on a chair waving a flag, but because it was Donald Trump. Ooooops If you happen to name them all if you’d like, but I’ll wait for you to tell me what lies you are referring to. I like all the other color to come out and sit and run in my back in the cave. I won’t hear from you, but if I do, you won’t be happy because your arguments won’t hold water.
You are replying to a Nazibot, Marie. It is programmed to push misinformation, probably by Elon Musk.
It is best ignore this bot and avoid feeding the algorithm.
Take a nap already !
Please don't feed the troll...
Another well thought out and re-search post by a local lemming. Let me know if you have any things to say real with facts and evidence and research, etc. it’s been nice knowing you, Lorna
Go fuck yourself in your face, repeatedly, you fucking worthless Trump traitor.
Talk about lemmings, that’s rich. MAGAts are nothing but. By the way, I thought I told you to see if Steven Miller could use you to wipe his boots. What happened? Why are you here again making no sense?
Do you know if I take a nap look all the information you gonna be missing out on since you’re Ballin genuflect every word out of Heather‘s mouth without verifying it, validating it or seeing the other side of the story which is really pathetic for so-called intelligent individuals
You know marky I actually hope MARK you are a defendant in a case on trial, and that the jurors are just like you
So it happens in such a case is the prosecution gets up, makes its case and takes it right to the jury without hearing from the defense that way you get a fair trial just like the one you’re faking now Pathetic
Rick Sender is the most persistent dumbass after the fat old traitor whose ass Rick keeps his head up.
Yup.. Sender is the dumbest fuck-in- the -arse I’ve ever encountered..
How do you feel like posting to you? I don’t give a shit about Donald Trump. I don’t give a shit about your body except for you almost fuck this country beyond repair. I care about policies and I don’t care where they emanate from if they’re past and they’re good for the American people. I don’t care who proposed them or who enacted them because the most important thing is the laws themselves. All you morons you just care of a process it’s not a results. He is now freeing the world. And freeing of America and Israel from terror, Pulaski 47 years
Do you honestly believe that this pointless war is in the best interests of ordinary Americans who polls show are against it and who are facing even higher energy and food prices as a result?
Since the war started you have already had two terrorist incidents in Texas and Michigan. Oren Segal, VP of the Anti_defamation League has said: “The operations against Iran have triggered almost an immediate surge in antisemitism and conspiratorial commentary on various social media platforms, and across the ideological spectrum".
You're wrong about everything.
Does it actually physically hurt to be so stupid?
Please don't feed the troll...
I know, but sometimes I just can't help it 😄
I keep thinking of the troll in monty python and the holy grail !!! maybe that will make it go away
It makes his balls sweat apparently.
Well, tell me what you do for your ailment then I’ll see if I can compare. You’re so funny, you people are sitting here in pain and agony and suffering and hate and accusations and insults and you think I’m basically hurting. You need the biggest mirror in the house. Don’t stand there too long because then you’ll start to understand how wrong you are
Says the guy who voted for a convicted fraudster as president.
You really are the most persistent ignoramus on the planet, after your Dear Leader. You worthless piece of shit.
awwwwww are we upset TC. Well, you have every right to be living in California shading hill on the planet. Now is the shining hill of defecation, highest taxes, highest homelessness, highest home prices, highest crime, and highest flight.
Enjoy your forever war fuck head..
How old is back? Welcome to Mike. It took 10 years to find and kill Osama bin Laden. It took four years to find and get Saddam Hussein. It took years to get Kadafi. And it took three days to get khomeni.
You guys make me laugh
Yeah.. yer guy campaigned on no more forever war.. and you dummies believed him, and supported him. You’re in a cult you idiot. You’ll back him no matter what. Nothing he does will ever dissuade you. Not the destruction of civil society, not the inflation, not the murder of innocent civilians on your streets by ICE agent reactionaries, not global war..
If you could only see how much he fuckin hates you idiots who support him, his obvious contempt for you, you might see what’s actually happening here.
Do you know every time you post it makes my day immediately when I see your name I start to laugh. You’re so easy because all you are is full of insults and hate and accusations, and I posted a photo of you and the female form and I’ll do it again just to remind you who you are
There you go there’s TC in LA in a dying state in the nation we’re flight is right and even the big companies are leaving now finally waking up. Hope you weren’t living in Pacific Palisades. Lmao while the governor and the mayor slept.
She has also attacked CBP and ICE for their violent tactics, a point that you conveniently ignore. Why don't you do some research, Rick?
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/2/4/jeh-johnson-iop-forum/
I always do and I watch Barack Obama to exactly the same thing that Trump is doing, and when people were wrenching their guts out yelling that they needed due process When they find out only 25% of Obama’s deportees were Given just that.
He actually pulled people from their jobs. He pulled people from their homes. He divided families and he’s the one that actually built the cages for the children of a chain-link fence cages.
Now, if you want to start doing what you do best and that’s changing the subject and not addressing the issue, please feel free to do so
The violent tactics were actually caused in a defense with move because when Obama was doing it, nobody mind it there weren’t any major protests There weren’t people running around with Mexican flags and Palestinian flags when Obama was tossing people out of here. But now the vitriol is full of hate Trump. And the protests are rampant and the doxxing Of ice agents and the violence against them makes Americans sick When they protect protecting the violent immigrants who should be getting home and the Democrats are only doing what they’re doing to save them as voters
2000 Americans have now been killed by illegal criminals and that number would be guess what they’re Russell that number would be zero if they weren’t here
So stop coming up with crap that means nothing. Trump is the president that’s a fact nothing’s gonna change that so address the issue at hand. Like why England has now become a pussy and you know why because they’re afraid of offending their new immigrants
So you’re a boomer then.. of course you are. You guys couldn’t betray your parents generation fast enough.. I sure hope you got paid off fuckhead
He didn’t obliterate anything, the well trained, professional US military did.. he never served a day did he.. or.. wait.. you’re so in love, you’ll probably say he actually was in Vietnam
Connection, Mark Lane. I loathe and despise Trump and his regime with the energy of a billion blazing suns. He, and they, are bereft of a single redeeming quality.
Isn’t Israel already a democracy? It’s governed by an authoritarian, much like the US is.. but it’s still a democracy.. so why do you think he’s creating a democracy in Israel?
The hypocrisy is beyond breathtaking. Trump who's called Europe the foe. Trump who's pushed Putin's line on the Ukraine. Trump who's dropped support and has Europe buy the weapons to support the Ukraine. Trump who's publicly humiliated and undermined Zelenskyy. Trump who's been so critical of NATO and now calls them cowards. Trump who's been happy to let Europe hang is now begging NATO for help in another forever war that's illegal. Stay strong Europe, and stay out of this mess. Surely you understand if you help that he'll only double cross you later with his pals Putin and Orban.
That seems to be occurring already. The German reaction was acidic in its directness. 'This is your dumb venture, don't ask us to help you unfuck yourself' from Germany's Chancellor, no less (in so many words). Europe is finally realizing that coddling, cajoling, flattering and sending the child-minders to Washington to purr and tell Baby Twumpie what a big boy he is has now reached its limits. It's much healthier for them to come to the realization that perhaps there's no going back. Worse for the world (and for us), but probably a long-term positive for them.
"The administration is currently moving thousands of Marines to the Middle East."
The Marines should quietly change course and head directly to the White House. They will find the enemy there.
As a veteran, I hate saying this, but they are headed for destruction.They're going to go up against the the leading practitioners of drone warfare, and they have no equipment, no training,and no skill to face that.
Yes, and how many waves of 5000 of them at a time will he send?
He does not value human life.
Unfortunately true.
I feel like we are watching the end of the superpower era. Russia has shown itself to be a paper tiger, and here we are, about to demonstrate the same. Obviously the possession of nuclear weapons is the ultimate trump card (and I hope that forever remains uncapitalized) and who could blame Iran or any other country for trying to get one?
Or - hopefully - on Air Force One heading (unknown to #47) to The Hague.
But first they'll get a red hat and burger. Trump is a smooth operator.
I’m a retired clinical psychotherapist who never invested extensive study in chronic mental illness. However, it appears that Trump’s delusional beliefs in his own power, coupled with identifiable signs of dementia, have devolved into behaviors of a psychotic nature. That means that he has no idea what he has done by starting war with Iran. Now without Democratic help and his eventual removal from office, we’ve lost our country. I woke up this morning with the image of the White House being torn down, two dead Americans in Minneapolis, the death of our service members, and several thousand Marines on their way to Iran. We can’t allow this megalomania to control the reins of power any longer. And Republicans themselves have lost their own grip on reality.
The repubs haven’t lost anything but their souls. Chump is a hair away from destroying the PO, SS, Medicare and Medicaid. Their goal for 40+ years. They see success where we see destruction.
So many people don’t believe that SS and Medicare are that close to destruction. They are not paying attention. We should be demanding answers and solutions from our representatives but no one is doing a thing. Yet they keep taking money from my paycheck. Wondering what will be there when I try to claim at 62 next year.
You got that right, JD, I don't understand why people separate the actions of trump from the rest of the GOP.
This is the end game for decades of GOP machinations to secure permanent minority rule of the United States and install a white evangelical christian nationalist theocracy.
Absolutely correct, MysticShadow.
As I look back over my own life as an American and beyond that into history, it seems obvious there has always been this Christian nationalism/white supremacist movement since our founding which included slavery. They tried to prevent SS from happening in the 1930's and Medicare in the 1960's by hanging a "communist" name tag on legislators who supported those and other programs. They still do that, and since Reagan have enriched the wealthy immensely by piece by piece turning over government operations to Wall Street. Now there are people like Elon Musk and others who are worth so much money they can buy our government. Trump is just a figurehead they use, but he has become terribly dangerous. He has never been intelligent, but he reeks of megalomania. Maybe the Christian nationalists will remove him, but that doesn't solve the underlying problems.
I don't expect readers to understand or accept this assertion, but there's nothing new about Americans' -- and others' -- delusions, the loss of a grip on reality.
(In the first place, reality, like air like water, save when frozen, cannot be gripped...)
We all have a tendency to misinterpret our perceptions in terms of our beliefs, our prejudices, our supposed interests, which cause us to mistake a fragment of reality for the whole, and preset concepts, "our" private (or collective) notions of what's real.
Since America's great contribution to winning the Second World War (perhaps, even, since the Korean war) there have been episodes like the Berlin airlift and the Cuban missile crisis when war was narrowly averted, but, perhaps with the exception of the first Gulf War, no subsequent war or military incursion by the US corresponded to its stated purpose, the only real function being to provide campaign experience for the grunts and maximize the profits of the arms industry.
America had a real cause for strong military action after 9/11 -- but not for the actions actually undertaken. Islamist fanatics showed remarkable strategic skills in planning their atrocity, designing a provocation bound to cause maximum confusion, maximum emotional reactions and, in so doing, to trigger an endless series of chain reaction explosions stretching into the indefinite future.
This was a case for the bomb disposal squad, for tightly controlled explosions, closely targeted reactions but, caught completely off guard, the George W. Bush administration's reactions at home and abroad corresponded to whatever personal opportunity its intelligent but unwise high officials had long wanted to exploit to maximum effect. Maximum paranoia at home, maximum mayhem abroad. The Pentagon, of course, (focussed on the most massive and costly hitech weaponry) could not imagine that cardboard cutters might prove to be a strategic weapon as effective as David's slingshot that brought down Goliath... just as they later failed to foresee how toy aircraft could be developed into today's fearsome drones... of which we have, unfortunately, to see far worse exemplars.
So, as expected, as intended by Ben Laden and Al-Qaida's strategists, America unleashed massive (mostly irrelevant and shot-in-the-foot counterproductive) wars throughout the Middle East, the effects of which we are witnessing to this day.
And because the direct assault on America had only set warning lights flashing in the windowless boxes of experts' minds, because of the totally irrelevant and grossly mismanaged Second Gulf War, occupying and utterly ruining Iraq (and so strengthening regional rival Iran and proxies), because of the fundamentally stupid occupation of Afghanistan -- any fool could see the damage the fairly efficient Soviet attempt had done both to the country and, above all, to the USSR -- because of our failure to penetrate the mind of the real enemy, that enemy not only accomplished its mission to an extent beyond anything imaginable but was, in due course, able to design and successfully execute an even more horrific plan, a trap from which there could be no escaping, either for Israel or for fellow-Muslim victims, triggered by the vile October 7th assault on Israel.
As with 9/11, the respective planners, Ben Laden and Sinwar, are dead yet lived to see the success of their utterly ruthless project. Long-term divisions and damage projected into the far future.
This enemy is armed with a detailed knowledge of the history and collective psychology of its foes... whose hubris, blindness and short-termism have led to ignorance and gross underestimation of its opponents' skills, and thence to the even worse catastrophes embroiling Trump and regime and Netanyahu. In the latter's case, the cost of battles won will be paid by future generations, and by ordinary Jews, once again exposed to that ultimate abomination, anti-Semitism. Not to mention its variant, Islamophobia.
Pardon the length of this. As I said, the views expressed are so deeply at variance with common myths and misapprehensions that I'd not expect many to understand them well enough to put up an adequate defense against them.
I'm just hoping that Westerners will learn to think before it is too late. To think free of tight frames and boxes, free of analytical breakdowns, free of technological impedimenta -- all that hitech junk... and AI founded on natural human stupidity.
Not all Westerners. Right now, thru the manipulations of some very rich people, the US has a government filled with delusional and incompetent adherents to a set of ideas that benefit the very rich people who put them there. Stop saying Americans-most of us see all too clearly what is happening here, but we are pretty powerless to stop it.
Practically everyone -- and here I very much include myself -- reacts to perceptions on the basis of habit-formed preconceptions. I've had several times to point out that baboons, for instance, CANNOT select an incompetent leader. Only we humans can do that -- and all too often do so. We are able to react correctly and with extreme speed to immediate dangers, yet, because of the conceptual filters and distortions that condition how we interpret our perceptions, when faced with something as vast, unforeseen and, on the face of it, incomprehensible as 9/11 or 10/7, our survival instincts fail us.
Even in a society as violent as the US, "civilization" and deeply ingrained habit have caused us to lose our natural awareness that living is intrinsically dangerous.
There is a biblical passage that speaks in graphic detail of what human weakness and hubris can give rise to: Isaiah 6:9 to 13.
I've thought of this often in recent years.
Hey Peter, our survival instincts never fail. It's we ourselves who don't act out trauma like baboons -- running around, waving our arms, and screaming at others. It simply wouldn't work in our society, so we often turn trauma into PTSD symptoms, e.g., sleep disruptions, excessive drug or alcohol use, extreme watchfulness or inability to form relationships. Take a look at some of the traumatic reactions of soldiers in WW I. Catatonia, or excessive shaking, sobbing, and worse.
As you’ve outlined it, Peter, that’s pretty much exactly the case. It’s where we’re at today. Regrettably, it’s where we appear to be going.
Deregulated capitalism and a surge toward the fantasy of world domination go hand in hand with our own self destruction of all we once held dear … or at least loudly claimed to believe and represent.
Bill, I'll add misunderstanding and abuse of freedom to "Deregulated capitalism and a surge toward the fantasy of world domination".
I'm with you on this correction. Currently it has become privatized freedom, fenced off, guarded, absolute, for the 0.01%. Unfreedom for the rest. Vermin status for those members of the household supposedly not economically useful.
I photocopied a nice image -- must be New Yorker -- by a cartoonist called Handelsman of a boss who has summoned an older member of his staff, saying:
"We have no mandatory retirement age, Dave, but under certain conditions we tend to encourage people to die."
Peter, without the New Yorker cartoons and Borowitz, my outlook for our future would be much dimmer.
Bill, I'd like to mention that capitalism unregulated will surely fail, as Karl Marx said. His prescription of communism wasn't correct, but his diagnosis of the problem was right on.
But I don't recall Marx predicting that the final stage of capitalism would be the rule of organized crime.
LOL, Yeah, Peter, Marx apparently didn't have that much foresight.
Crime is crime wherever one goes. Organized crime through history certainly deserves study. It has deep roots. It has fiefdoms. It has corporate structure.
We’re not at the end of capitalism by a long shot. Can’t see an end from here. Must be the weather. And I wouldn’t count on Marx, whatever he actually thought, predicting anything. I wonder occasionally, might he have predicted the generations of “Marxists” who he would have readily disavowed? How about our good friend Thomas Paine? At least Candide evolved a plan.
Lauren, you and Karl are both correct. So were the framers of the US and nearly all subsequent Administrations. I don’t think it takes economic brilliance to grasp this. Unregulated capitalism results in monopolies. Monopolies then buy the government and here we are.
I should point out that both true democracy and true communism are unicorns. Neither has ever existed on a large scale. But then we do have ideals. These are wonderful. Like the North star, they provide guidance. As for the star itself, we won’t literally be going there. It’s not a destination. We are truly glad for it and rely upon it nonetheless.
… just felt I might toss in a couple random thoughts while I was at it. I do apologize.
I'm following the unicorns wherever they go, I guess. I like your references, and yes, we seem to be staring at billionaires with chainsaws and wondering how the hell we ever got so shortsighted.
Nailed that. Length was useful.
George W Bush and politicians used 911 to implement the Patriot Act and invent the Department of Homeland Security to crack down on domestic freedom as much as international terrorism. The US has been taken to war based on lies several times mostly to benefit capitalism.
This whole Iran situation started in 1953 when the US and the UK engineered a coup to overthrow the democratically elected government in Iran because they intended to nationalize their oil.
It is said that capitalism is not compatible with democracy, that a government of, by and for the people would require too much regulation to protect the peoples safety and fair treatment. That is why democratic socialists worry them so much. They are now fighting to end our democracy because the peoples well being come after the profits.
Thank you, Mystic Shadow, for adding these clarifications.
I did mention the Bush Baby administration's opportunistic reactions both at home and abroad, but not paranoia as policy, not taking the pretext of the assault to transform shock into chronic fear, which makes it so much easier to manipulate the population and replace freedoms by controls. Coralling, stampeding, promoting herd instincts in place of thought. The shock of 9/11 aroused a huge rash of conspiracy theories and shadowy figures behind the scenes found it useful to propagate these.
Thank you, too, for mentioning the Anglo-American coup that overthrew the popular Mossadegh in 1953. This added insult to injury, since neutral Iran had had to put up with the humiliation of being occupied by Britain, the US and the Soviet Union during the Second World War (cfr. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/iran-during-world-war-ii).
No little resemblance with the Western treatment of Egypt, starting with the treatment of the Khedive Isma'il when his ambitious projects for modernizing the country ran up too many debts, so that Britain first interfered with the government of the country and ended up by making Egypt a protectorate. Then, in 1956, a few years after Egyptian officers led by Neguib and Nasser set up a republic, Nasser decided to nationalize the Suez Canal, leading to the Suez war when Israel, Britain and France invaded Egypt to seize back the canal -- an adventure that was put to an end by US Secretary of State Dulles.
Later, of course, the Six Day War in 1967, followed by the death of Nasser, and in 1973, the Yom Kippur war...
*
All this, to draw attention to the much neglected long-term effects of Western interference, including the overthrow of the Shah.
There is a profoundness to your words today. A pity that half this long comment thread got taken up instead by a troll desperate for attention and those who took his bait, turning what might have been a serious discussion into a dumb sludgefest instead.
For those who can access, Tom Friedman's thoughtful piece today -- 'Don't Drink Your Enemy's Whole Milkshake' is a warning to us, to Israel, to those daft enough to continue refusing to learn from history, about what "victors" in the Middle East never seem to grasp, decade after decade.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/opinion/iran-israel-united-states-hamas.html
Astute observations; happy to have read it.
"....reality, like air like water, save when frozen, cannot be gripped". Yep! I'll come back to read your details later, thank you Peter Burnett.
And when gripped, ice melts...
YES! (with any and all emojis that amplify that).
Realistically, if your grandpa was acting this way, you would take away his car keys, get a power of attorney to protect his assets, and get some adequate medical care. Anyone who has cared for someone in the early stages of dementia sees the signs clearly. The question is, who are the individuals propping the president up? Who is benefitting from allowing this to go on? Really, where are his kids? What is his wife doing, allowing this to continue? Who is paying them off, or otherwise manipulating them to stop them from protecting this increasingly impaired old man from himself?
Who are they? Stephen Miller, Hegseth, Kushner, Bessent, Lutnick, Bondi … just to name a few. People who would never be in such positions except for their slavering sycophancy to Trump and their greed. And they need to keep him in power to stave off their own potential prosecutions.
And the people behind those people…
They are gaining billions of dollars from his presidency.
They have no intention to end the grift and the GOP has no intention to end grift either.
A bunch of democrats have been right there with them.
I went to a poster-making session and someone printed colored images to use. The one that grabbed me was the face of the Statue of Liberty crying. I glued it down, extended the tears down in exaggerated ways, and from the bottom, painted flames. No words. We're living a bold-faced Tragedy.
Who offered the poster making session? Do you happen to have a link handy?
It was a local Indivisible group on Cape Cod, although it may not have been listed on their website. This is a link to them with contact info, oif you want to pursue: https://indivisiblefalmouth.org/about-us/
Too many
Maybe a few, but you can’t make this an “Everyone is equally guilty” moment. The President of the US is seriously impaired, apparently being manipulated by Netanyahu and Putin, and while a few rich people may benefit from this, the world is precarious at this point in time.
This evening, Iran announced they would not take up the US offer to lift sanctions on the international sale of Iranian oil because they have no oil to spare past the oil they sell to their regular customers.
The three word diplomatic translation of all that is: FUCK YOU TRUMP!
Our government is being held hostage by a lunatic.
77 million of your fellow Americans voted for this. They are problem. Trump is just the ticket they’ve been looking for these many years.
Again, it’s mind boggling to me there are STILL people who support the fat, orange fool! To what end? Do they like higher prices? Do they like the disruption in our economy? Lack of safety in our streets? Disregard of the Constitution and Rule of Law? How can all of this result in making America great again, as they say? It is truly baffling.
They like the fact that the “libs” are feeling horrified. They don’t care much about democracy—in fact if they’re evangelicals they may really prefer authoritarian government,
What they like is the Republican pledge, made in 1968 and delivered ever since, that they will do everything they can to preserve the system economic, legal, and political advantages of white Americans.
I can't find any other word for it than a cult. Jonestown was an awful example of how far cult members will follow their 'leader'. Handing over their life savings, homes,wives and children for the leaders use, and finally drinking poison to follow him in the after life. It's hard to understand but we've seen it time and time again with Jim Jones, Koresh, many others and now this orange creature.
I am unsure of what a lot of the folks who voted for Trump thought they were voting for. A lot of antidemocratic billionaires voted for Trump with their money bins, expecting ROI.
They aren’t the immediate threat to the world order and global economy, national security, representative democracy (or however you define our government), and the rule of law.
We have to stop the bleeding before we suture the wound.
Yes, we have to outvote the louts, but they will still be louts, all 77 million of them. This battle is forever. Or until they succeed in total suppression of their opposition. The wound will not be healed. Ever. It’s been festering on this continent for 400 years.
We imprisoned ourselves
30% of Americans approved? Who are these people?!?!
30% of any group always fail to get the message.
God, I never thought they would rule the roost. Just outliers that we had to tolerate. Chump certainly speaks for evil as he entertainingly takes us to Armageddon
In sane countries? Really?
The trumpanzees and tRump/epstein class
I shake my head in disgusted wonder at that every day.
The roughly 1/3 of the population that is mired in the Lost Cause of slavery and southern dominance wedded with evangelical Christianity.
Rick Sender, resident troll, is an example of a diehard Trump supporter.
For failing to allow Congress to exercise its Constitutional responsibility, the Republican Party deserves to lose all future elections so badly that it goes extinct.
My dad predicted it would go the way of the American Whig Party, extinct.
My dream but need “woke” Dems
It is an unusually warm Friday night in California. All week, temperatures have been roughly 22 degrees above normal. I despise war in general. Unnecessary and illegal ones like those in Iran and Ukraine, in particular. I feel as though I am watching one of those old Tyrannosaurus Rex films about dinosaurs doing one another in. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the reality check the world needs to step up the search for and development of cleaner, less costly forms of energy that are better for people and the planet. In the short term, there appears to be nothing but pain and suffering ahead for all concerned. Such a needless and pathetic waste of resources all the way around.
What do you mean, illegal war in Ukraine? Ukraine is fighting an invader.
I am guessing that she was referring to Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine as illegal.
I hope so, because some people do claim that helping Ukraine is wrong.
Commentary I’ve seen online – matching Heather’s daily – accounts for hurt.
Trouble is, Putin’s pal, our criminal in the White House, still just lies his ass off. Of course, we know from sources online, as from Heather, that Donald profits Putin – every day an extra $150 million, just thanks to Donald’s, Netanyahu’s, and Mohammed bin Salman’s war on Iran, and the higher oil revenues additionally now buoying Putin and his Russian war criminals.
How do we measure the hurt? The 168 schoolgirls killed in Minab? The thousand-plus other Iranian dead? The people of Taiwan who’ve now seen U.S. warships leaving the straights of Taiwan now open to China’s Xi? The people of South Korea and Japan soon facing new inflation and cut-backs in oil imports? U.S. farmers having to pay more for fertilizer? U.S. drivers having to pay more for gas? U.S. truckers having to pay more for diesel? U.S. consumers facing newly higher supermarket costs?
To engage the weight of hurt we must access novels, memoirs, histories, and other arts. Our schools do not do this.
So we must endure criminal Donald bloated all the more on his new center stage, spewing new cascades of lying daily. Truly our leader now, Number One totally bereft of seeing, gauging, dealing with hurt.
The hurt will metastasize to us all
True, JD.
But if all have abandoned humanities, have eschewed, learned only to belittle references to what our best novelists, historians, and memoirists have said, we have to admit that even our most hurt will be anesthetized to their hurts, blind to what has hurt their neighbors.
Or, do the arts yet percolate, inform, grant humane perspective -- as if those in the Minnesota cities this winter did not just go along with Donald's state terrorism inflicted on them?
Welcome to lemming Ville once again. Even Jay Johnson Obama’s former Cabinet member says that Democrats are being foolish and stupid to try to stop funding ice. Oooooops
Take a lonnnng nap
Please don't feed the troll...
Even one former Obama cabinet member can get it wrong. No funding for unconstitutional paramilitaries running amok in our country, terrorizing citizens and others who all deserve due process and respect for our Constitution!
Why did you see what his job was and see baby he has a little bit more insight into the reality than you do. Dimension if you read my post, Barack Obama was doing exactly the same thing we’re not only did he deport 3 million people but he did it with only 25% of people having to process go look it up. Now you’re angering me with your ignorance. Do me a favor do some research before you post another words make sure your brain is engage before you put your mouth in gear
You really need to take writing and English classes. I would be embarrassed if I wrote as poorly as you. You border on illiterate. You make no sense.
Content over form David I’m voice texting. It could give a shit if I ended sentence with a preposition or a dangling participle. This is not my dissertation nor my thesis and just like most liberals you always see process never results. And I can vocabulary my way around you and spin you like a top. My vocabulary is if I give a shit.
Content over form pal, you should’ve learned that in seventh grade
I don’t understand what you wrote. What are you saying Obama did?
Obama did exactly what Trump‘s ice is doing. Only there was no protests and in 3000 counties in this country there were no protest but in the nine precinct that had protest ice was doxxed their families threatened at their home. Their face is posted on telephone poles for everyone to see who they were and where they lived.
Didn’t happen under Obama the God he deported 3 million people and only 25% of them had to process, which is what you were yelling and screaming about a few months ago. Go check it out yourself just hit Google and check it out. You’ll find the facts. He was pulling people from their jobs. He was pulling people from their homes. He was separating children. He even built the cages on the border to House Of the chain-link fence cages that’s correct. He built them any other questions.
How is that oops? Dude was DHS. His loyalty was always with ICE. Can’t imagine why I would give his thoughts on that any weight.
Ignore him. It’s the only way.
Hey Frau. Do you know what the root word of ignorance is? It’s called ignore.
So when you choose to ignore, you don’t hear the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and you in fact remain ignorant
Because he worked for Obama, the God. And maybe you didn’t hear me Emma, but Obama deported 3 million people and only 25% of them ever got due process And Donald Trump has 1/6 of that and people are complaining and screaming from the rafters It’s a joke. It’s a liberal drug induced stupor to complain about this.
And frankly as much as I hate it, I’m gonna love when there’s a first plane crash done by a individual that snuck into this country during Biden’s term while over 2000 Americans have been killed by illegal criminals so far with 5000 more raped than robbed and trafficked and you guys talk about a school with 140 children if you didn’t have the most outrageous double standards you might as well have no standards at all
I know it doesn't bother you that no one likes you but I also generally find you boring.
And one other thing, you need to know when I need to make you aware, I am sitting here in a liberal lemming, close minded group of humans who Trump saved the world would find reasons why he did it wrong. And I said it many times before I don’t really care for Donald Trump, but I care for his policies that have made the world a better place and continue to do so And I illustrated that a couple nights ago with two points of hypocrisy and double standard and if you’d like to hear one of them, I will send it to you again, but it had to do with Bill Maher and Adam Schiff Essentially, what came out after Adam shift turned white as a ghost and Bill Maher surprised him and tricked them on national TV even though Bill Maher is a ultra liberal human being is it proved the hypocrisy and the double standards that the left has right now Because as I said, if you would replace Donald Trump’s name and insert Joe Biden’s name and many of the things that Trump has done, you’d be cheering for them and that’s sickening So here’s one right now and this is really funny because all these people in the background that are yelling Jim Crow 2.0 don’t even know who the hell Jim Crow is it just mimics and mimes
Chuck Schumer got up in front of Congress and railed incessantly about the perils of not having not only a voter ID or federally issued ID but also a Social Security card to prove citizenship or risk fraud in great proportion. And here’s a little cartoon to remind you
Well, it’s understandable when you can’t read what you don’t wanna read. As I said to a few of you here one day, you might be a defendant and a trial and it will go something like this. The prosecution presents its case, and the judge takes it right to the jury, disregarding anything that defense has to say. And if the jurors or anything like you, you’re going to be guilty out of your own ignorance because the root word of the word ignorance is ignore and when you ignore both sides of the story and swallow whole what they put before you without research or without hearing the entire truth is why you will suffer the rest of your life unless you wake up and you will be miserable because of it as you are now
Btw - meanwhile, your best and only buddies, the Israelis, have cut the aid to get to Gaza again, and now 100,000 children are threatened by malnutrition. That's your war as well.
I just wonder how many generations it will take for you to be forgiven by about 7.5 to 8 billion people in the world.
Personally, I hope the US and ISRAEL are never forgiven for starting WWIII. The way this "excursion" is going, there won't be a planet "Earth" anymore.
It is complete insanity to destroy your only home in the universe. And for what?? Oil? Money? To rule the world? If you and all your loved ones are dead, WTF does it matter??
The best way this war will be described “ The operation was a success but unfortunately the patient died.”
😢
Make that, " . . . but unfortunately, the PLANET died."
Heather's report - seen as a whole - describes a political culture so incapable of functioning the way it should (with the aim being to help the American people instead of serving the warped and dangerous needs of an egotistical, mentally unwell POTUS) that I believe Trump is close to getting those Americans who only see Trump-focused news to give up... to psychologically disengage and become numb to the larger world out there. And that, of course, is one of Trump's goals.
To counteract that depression, I invite you to watch the video of the ceremony inducting new members in California's Hall of Fame. Specifically, watch the portion starting at the 34:47 mark, when Riane Eisler gets her award. Riane is almost 95 years old and in a pioneer of the study of human behavior and male vs female history. Her book "The Chalice and the Blade" described how the world centuries ago was one in which women were at the top of society not men. And her later work focused on how a Partnership culture can replace today's Domination culture. She literally knows this is possible through her research!
Here's the video. I believe it will give you hope for the future... hope that Trump does not want us to have!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwZRYqqsmbY
Steve Brant, the segment of the 19th California Hall of Fame where 94yo Riane Eisler accepts her award fed my spirit beyond measure. I will read Eisler’s 1987 book, The Chalice and the Blade, her capstone book.
Thank you for linking the video and segment at 34:47…please continue to share your insights…yours and many others here on HCR’s Substack keep me going.
Thanks for your very kind remarks. I’m thrilled you’re now planning to read her book! Here’s the website for her work as well…
https://centerforpartnership.org
More of us need to be Riane Eislers. Thank you for this link.
You’re welcome! And I agree! Also, here is the website for her work
https://centerforpartnership.org
Thanks, Steve.
Thank you Steve for this link.
You’re welcome! And here’s the website for her work…
https://centerforpartnership.org
The grift is so over the top it’s too much even for Faux news. Repubs fiddle while Rome burns 🎻🔥
Unlike the citizens of Iran we have our Second Amendment. We can buy assault rifles. But we would face tanks. We must then Unite as Americans, register new voters and get the vote out.
Texas hasn’t sent out new voter cards, don’t know when they will. Just more voter confusion - deliberately and with malice
I received mine in time to vote early for the March 3rd primaries. Good through YE 2027. I live in Dallas, but Collin County.
I urge you to follow up with your county's registrar's office. I was sweating bullets because my husband's new voter card came one week before mine. They usually arrive on the same day.
Has Rupert reformed???? Hahaha
Compare what life was like when Joe left the White House to now. I can't. It's just off the charts unreality. I can't say (legally) what I think should happen but I bet I'm not alone.
No, you're not!
We had an economy that was envied by the rest of the world.
The Dems weren't saying inflation wasn't as bad as people thought, but that inflation had come down from 9% to 2.5%, and that our economic future was bright due to Biden and Democratic policies. Then trump took office and it all went to shit.