Believe impeachment takes more votes than we have now.
But Section 4, 25th Amendment can be done by 50% of the cabinet - who may be wanting a way to get him out well before midterms. (Edit: as Jon & others note later, 2/3 vote in Congress is needed to permanently swap out T using 25th, but this 2/3 for a 'compassionate' R Pres swap-out serves most interests, whereas 2/3 for impeachment & conviction won't get R votes in congress).
Impeachment can still be pursued after a blue Tsunami, IFF that happens.
Never happen. That would be tantamount to admitting they'd made a mistake. And as we all know, the ChristoNazis have "Jesus on the main line" and do only as "God wills it" -- which means they're even more infallible than the Pope. (Or so they tell us.)
It was only yesterday that Trump threatened to commit an international war crime by destroying Iran's domestic electrical plants "starting with largest one first" IF blah, blah blah.
Seems Trump awakened to "global stock markets that had shuddered" & were ready to "tank" on Trump's threat to "hit & obliterate" blah, blah, blah if the Straight of Hormuz was not "opened in 48 hours."
Spoiler Alert: Trump backed down after the global markets freak-out & Trump made a "sudden retreat".
Bryan Sean, in the Indivisible Abroad Economic Resistance group, one of our members is a professor of International Law, he says that so far they have documented that Trump has committed AT LEAST 10 international war crimes in this war.
Malcolm Nance, ex US Intel in the region, and Jacob Kaarsbo, ex Danish Intel Chief in the region do a daily break down of the war, they were saying that to hit any energy plant with nuclear power will make sure that a fine dust of the fallout will settle all over thw world, and it is just crazy. However, Trump, Vance, Hegeth, Rubio and others will hide in their nuclear fallout proof bunkers and leave the rest of us to live with it, or die from it.
MAGA citizenry cannot see what is going on with Trump's cognitive malaise. It really doesn't take much for anyone to see the disfunction of his mind which only confirms the lack of intellect within the MAGA population. Every day this disfunction, without remedy of what is clearly this nation's most hideous presidency, continues to hammer in the reality, not only for the needed impeachment, but also the consequences for each republican sycophant who supported Trump, while knowing fully well the criminal and impeachable offenses he has, quite frankly, garnered on himself. Assuming that the democrats take back control of the House and Senate, we all should expect to see a full legal house cleaning against those who supported or even turned a blind eye to this administration's criminal acts. It's difficult to say which criminal act should be at the top of the list: the wanton rape of teen girls or the wanton murder of citizens of another nation who have done nothing to the US to deserve the unrelenting bombing and the so called "president's" heinous glee of his own self-promoted statements in order to continue to murder people from another nation. To have put all of us in the throes of moral and legal decline reminds me of what George Kostanza's words to George Steinbrenner during a Seinfeld episode: ""We have watched you take our beloved #Yankees and reduce them to a laughing stock, all for the glorification of your massive ego!" Replace the "#Yankees" with United States, and one has the perfect complaint for an impeachment that should all but bury this fu&%ing maniac!
Committing international war crimes and crimes against humanity..that's a joke. Israel has been getting away with this stuff for decades...we just had to catch up.
And on the other hand, our Republican representatives (sic) in Congress are totally devoid of character, devoid of courage, devoid of common sense, devoid of commitment to their oath to uphold the Constitution. To think that our schools, churches, synagogues produced such a worthless crop of "public servants" boggles the mind.
The Republicans are all rich, mediocre, Affirmative Action hires from their voters, but taking all of our money, even though many of us did not vote for them.
Yes, the voters did elect a "worthless crop of public servants," and have since 1981. How did they get conned into voting for politicians that would work to their own economic and social welfare detriment? The wealthy bought up medial outlets and used wedge issues: abortion, women's rights advocates, gay rights advocates, immigrants, white Christian Nationalism, etc. "What's the Matter with Kansas?" (2004) Thomas Frank; "How the South Won the Civil War," (2020) Heather Cox Richardson; "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" Feb. 2018 edition of the peer-reviewed journal, "Critical Sociology." Google it. You can get a summary.
I understand, also, from various discussions that Americans typically don't like politicians who talk policy, theories, statistics - they prefer entertainers and charisma. Politics as show business appeals to most. Compare the debates between Kennedy/Nixon - Kennedy - nice looking, from a wealthy well known family; Nixon rather bland; Reagan - a former move star. Those are not rational voters.
The brain drain will continue until the MAGA movement is dead and sadly, beyond for many years thereafter.
I've spent much of my life living in rural America and every year, the top graduates leave, further their education and don't return for 40 years if ever.
This is now happening in many of our top research universities, colleges and companies. And the ones leaving aren't the MAGAs.
trump is gifting the world our best minds. Why stay when you are valued somewhere else? Our elected “leaders have shown they don’t have the backbone to uphold the American Experiment. It’s like a giant intellectual game of Jenga. Pull away the brains in the federal work force, pull away the brains in our research institutes, pull away the brains in medicine, environmental science, Arts and Letters, Public Health, etc and we get left with billionaires fulfilling “Atlas Shrugged”.
The objective of the Trump regime is not to serve the people, but rather to put into place a form of feudalism, with peasants constituting the vast majority of the population, leaving the spoils to the ultra wealthy. This is what happens when the masses are under-educated and/or stupid. We need a well educated electorate. We don't have that. Religion is a principal hindrance because it interferes with the critical-thinking process. Take the Middle East at this time. The present conflict probably would not be if religion wasn't at the core of the issue. The Muslim countries will not accept the presence of a Jewish state in the area. The Jews (Hebrews) had not occupied Israel for 2700 years when the Assyrians conquered Israel in about 722 B.C. Jesus never lived in Israel. In fact, given that there is nothing in the New Testament written by anyone who ever saw, spoke with or listened to anything that the supposed Jesus said, there is no credible proof that Jesus existed. Look to Paul for some of this story.
Hey GJ--my daughter teaches in a super-super-super-suburb of Chicago (basically a rural area, 30 minute drive from the Chicago suburb she lives in) She's tenured, over a decade of teaching experience, and makes less than $50K. The gas prices are going to really hurt her. She could apply to teach at the hs literally a 3 block walk from her house, and probably immediately get a $20K raise, BUT, she loves teaching the same kids for three years, she loves the smaller class size, and she loves a community where the school is central to their culture. And so she commutes and has some really long days.
Don't rural kids deserve good teachers, too? She's quite proud of teaching them (well, those who want to learn and can drop the phones, and there are a handful of them)--as she can build on the three years of continuous classes. She teaches them grammar and writing, and constructs a packet that builds. She tell them to keep them all in a binder and if they go to college, it will help them write. It has, and the few that go to college are amazed that "kids from big suburban schools can't write essays but we can!"
The farms are dying off. If it isn't college, it's the military. Not much out there. THIS is a message the Dems need to get across--the GOP has done nothing for your area. Don't treat these areas as fly-overs!
Graham Platner is running against Janet Mills in the primary and he is likely to win. She is too old to be a Senator for 6 years IMO. I heard him speak at his 44th town hall a week or so ago. He already has 15,000 people working for his campaign. Most are volunteers. He is an oysterman and he said he makes about $60K a year. He understands affordability better than Janet Mills or Susan Collins.
But she has already raised over $70 million mostly from out of state PACs. She has tons of baggage and she also is in her mid-70's.
She has brought ME trinkets while her party is happy to starve the elderly and school kids. The Republicans have tanked the economy and refuse to help with housing, health care and food.
But the oligarchs may win this election for Collins. They are going to try their best to paint here as someone who cares.
The Democrats really need to get that message across rather than the one they have been sending! I see more up and coming Democrats and Independents - young progressives - popping up all over the country - but the clear, obvious lack of Dem Party backup and assistance? You only have to look at Maine & their blind push of "their" candidate, Gov.Mills, the treatment of Mamdani in NYC, to see their typical "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory" once again! And I have no doubt that kind of "oversight" happens everywhere. Then there is the Israel and Gaza issue, as well as Lebanon, Syria, AND IRAN!
IMO teachers and health care workers are the hero of this economy. The school district I attended for K-12 never failed to pass a school bond issue from 1955-2025. And they knew how important teachers were to the community. All of us kids were very fortunate to have great teachers supported by the school district and the community.
Kudos to your daughter for caring more for her students than the Almighty dollar.
Your daughter is an everyday heroine in my book... She has made sacrifices for the education of her students and the community that supports that school. Your post is inspiring and rural areas need our heartfelt attention to their needs. Please thank your daughter for me for all she is doing, and thank you for sharing this story...
Yet the dems are pushing college, instead of offering trade schools, community colleges which offer classes in trade skills (plumbers, electricians, chefs, and so on). They represent the middle and lower classes who can't afford college.
....And Loren, that portion of the coalition is doing what's 'best for us' - like their some Mother or Father, not 'sparing the rod.' They believe that.
Maybe I am being too cynical but I honestly don't think they believe they are doing what is best for us. They know they are doing what is best for themselves; and they know we know, that is why all the attacks on the Democrats. Now, the Dems are no angels and make tons of mistakes (at the end of the day we elect them - without thinking who is behind each one making them electable for their own purposes!) but the kind of corruption and ineptness this administration continues to exercise is beyond belief. I must admit I would have never imagined that any government would be allowed this level of bad behaviour in the USA.
More than ever, We the People need to face what is while imagining what might be. It feels like floating and drowning at the same time. I'm reminded of a leadership axiom that used to circulate, 'be the change you want to see in the world'. No way to estimate the force of that.
On you are not being cynical at all. They profit - we pay. Not a single member of this cabinet is interested in what happens to others, only how much they profit. Along with how much tax money they can shell out to supporters. The creation of companies that have arisen and given government contracts is unbelievable. Companies that have addresses in a UPS mail box, offices in a strip mall, have no personal or history of operation. It is astounding.
Democracy is messy. There are many factions, sometimes a leader appears who can engage, inspire most of us. The Dems have lots of good people but the media does not seem to want to interview them.
25th Amendment STILL requires a 2/3 vote of both House and Senate to have a permanent effect. Trump can negate an immediate temporary decision by the cabinet simply by saying so, and then it's up to Congress. And it takes MORE congressional votes (2/3 by BOTH houses) to permanently oust under the 25th than an impeachment takes.
And the 25th ONLY holds for the President, it can't be used against anyone else whereas impeachment can be used against any cabinet officers, etc.
And finally, I do not think there is any precedent OR law or constitutional support for a "mass" impeachment, each resolution must be brought and passed independently. That means that if you impeached Trump and succeeded, you would then have President Vance and you'd have to do the same to him. And then you'd have (god save us) President Mike Johnson, and so on.
Hate to face up to the really bad news here, but no one who ever was responsible for figuring this all out ever thought we would have such a lawless administration and a need for some kind of "mass ouster". The Constitution and its associated laws were drawn up in "normal" times with pretty much "normal" unusual (sorry for the oxymoron LOL) things happening, not a completely uncontrollable group of people leading the country.
And yet, here we are. Stay tuned, I believe it is seriously not going to be over until November 2028 when we hold the next Presidential election.
Agree about the impossibility of a 2/3 majority for another impeachment and that no mass ouster of the cabinet is in the Constitution.
However, Trump's cabinet is not necessarily beholden to Trump. I believe they, and most importantly, JD Vance, understand that if they do what the oligarchs want, they will be well rewarded.
I think the impact of the Iran War on the world economy will be so bad for business that the oligarchs will decide to ditch Trump ahead of the midterms. Trump is clearly beyond their control in his handling of the war at this point, so they will use their nuclear option and invoke the 25th.
With SCOTUS appearing to side with the no-mail-in-ballots-counted-after-election-day camp, ditching Trump is their shot at minimizing the blue wave while having a more compliant and controllable president in office.
After all, NO KINGS is directed specifically at Trump, Vance only would have to act rationally and not appear under the thumb of the oligarchs for the few months until after the midterms for there to be a relief rally in the stock market.
Basically, it is an interlude designed to lull the populace into thinking that there has been a return to normality and the Republic has been saved. Obviously, it is an illusion. But if it keeps less engaged voters away from the polls and a shit storm of state legislation outlawing mail-in ballots goes into effect, or SCOTUS rules on it even if it goes beyond what is being argued in the current case, then the blue wave is going to be less than it would be otherwise.
Once the midterms are over, Vance reverts to his true nature as the oligarchs' puppet.
PS Russia was planning a fake assassination attempt to bolster Orban's election chances in Hungary. Doesn't that sound familiar? Anybody think they might have gotten inspired by Trump's close call in Pennsylvania?
I no longer subscribe to WaPo so I can't gift their article.
Georgia, you are giving a highly simplified version of the 25th Amendment. Section 4 (which is the section which permits the VP to attempt to "oust" the President) requires (in short version - the full version is at the end of this) that the VP and a majority of the cabinet declare the President to be unable to discharge the office. Then, the President may simply write to the Senate and House that he CAN discharge his office and he resumes power. And then the VP and cabinet can once again declare him incapable and THEN the House and Senate MUST start to take action within 48 hours until the reach a decision WHICH REQUIRES 2/3 of BOTH HOUSES TO OUST HIM PERMANENTLY.
So your approach is a short-term and politically almost impossible thing to happen. Trump will NEVER be ousted by 2/3 of the HOUSE AND SENATE. And nothing else is sufficient to kick him out of the White House.
Here is the wording of Section 4 of Amendment 25. Words DO matter.
Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
Jon, you know I have written about the whole 25th amendment process. many times already. You are assuming that Vance would take that step while Trump could write a response.
Trump is undergoing infusions of some kind. We know that from the marks on his hands. Melania is not living in the White House.
If the FSB is drawing up plans for fake assassinations to help Orban win his election, do you think it is out of the question that they manufacture a health crisis for Trump that puts Vance in power temporarily or permanently? Temporarily gets around Vance’s unlikeability to portions of the MAGA base. Vance is just a temporary placeholder. Trump could come back…Or not…
In some ways Trump controllably out of commission has interesting implications. It lets Vance pardon him, it keeps MAGA loyal and the evangelicals praying for a miracle “resurrection”, and the oligarchs have Vance on a leash in case he tries to do something they don’t like. The thing about having puppets is you have to keep them on their strings.
Obviously I am fantasizing a screen play here. It would all be too too unbelievable.
It's not working out too well for many of the oligarchs at the moment, at least not financially. Of course, they got what they wanted when the OBBBA passed and now they just need to weather TOFU's daily fuck ups.
It obviously still works for Trump to manipulate the markets so many of the sleavebag uber wealthy are making huge profits when Trump posts his lies.
Yes, Georgia, this is the argument- that the 25th lets R’s swap a rapidly failing and increasingly unpopular P&N&K Epstein class puppet president they (&we) can’t well control/manage for one they (&Thiel&Techbros) can, who will soften the midterm losses with less dependence on unsure election corruption.
Softening/avoiding the midterm losses is existential for the lot of them who deserve impeachment and conviction. None of them has loyalty to T that exceeds real fear of conviction after a blue tsunami, though they DO fear him. But he can be proffered the pardon by acting Vance, then go quietly into that goodnight with his and his pardoned family.s corrupt billions. Home free.
The R’s in congress will join D’s in the 2/3 vote since it is a (relative) fix for all their electoral and criminal concerns…(and T is bought off & maga loyalists have their Icon preserved).
I don’t think this is best for D’s vis-a-vis midterms (T remaining in office is best for D’s); this is WHY this will compel enough R’s.
BUT it is best for world, including D’s, longer term.
Jon (as I amended above where it might be seen), seems the 2/3's needed for a 'compassionate' R Pres swap-out might be a quite different (less onerous) political hurdle in congress than getting a 2/3's vote for impeachment and conviction (also a different/better timeframe, in terms of getting R votes to move T out prior to midterms - impeachment would drag into 2027 just to get 2/3 votes, if even possible).
Seems using the 25th is in the R's best (existential?) midterm interests (not the D's midterm interests). But it returns sanity to world stage, ends a war prior to election, puts a responsive puppet in the WH, etc, all any oligarch might want. And longer term, peace is in the D's/everyone's interest as well.
This doesn't begin to fix a failed democracy; it ameliorates disaster of T at helm. One can't fix our oligarchy without a longterm FDR type economic model. One can't have both billionaires and democracy operating in same domain... and this issue is global, and the fix is too.
I'm thinking about Walter Scheidel's "The Great Leveler: Violence and History of Inequality from the Stone-age to the Twenty-first Century"; Paul Kennedy's "Rise and Fall of Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Power from 1500 to 2000"; and Jefferson Cowie's Pulitzer, "Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power".
US democracy failed ~1965, when top tax brackets (ave.>90% for 20 years) started to fall. Wonder if LBJ made one of his famous deals to get the Civil Rights Act passed. In 1976 we had the Bukley case that allowed the wealthy to spend all they wanted on elections, under the aegis of free speech; with a similar argument in 1978 we gave corporations the right to donate to elections. These canary corpses were present long before Citizen's United got in our faces. Both of these (and many other 'thousand cuts') transferred not merely huge wealth, but control of USA governance, to the 0.01%.
This is where we are. Using the 25th doesn't fix this, but reduces global harm. I suspect, if presented 'politically', 2/3 of congress will vote to retire DJT.
We have been taking action! Look at the Democratic election victories, NO KINGS, independent media, calls to Congress to Congress, BridgeBrigade, Minneapolis etc. All of these and much more add up to an extremely active resistance to this fascist Government.
You describe another kind of power that seems to be acknowledged and dismissed simultaneously. Watch all attempts to distract from this coming No Kings Day on March 28th -- Trump can't face it and does not want the world to see either. Robert Reich today posted about WSJ's investigations of 200 videos associated with allegations of assault against ICE and Border Patrol agents: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/a-report-you-need-to-read?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Generic ballot: Democrats lead Republicans 49% to 43% among registered voters — a 6-point margin. Democrats have led in every poll since we launched the monthly partnership in May 2025.
Presidential approval: 37% approve of Trump’s job performance; 60% disapprove (net -23). Unchanged since February.
Prices hit a new low: Trump’s approval on prices and inflation fell to net -39, down 4 points from February and the worst single-issue rating we’ve ever recorded
Border security goes underwater: Trump’s last remaining bright spot — border security — slipped from net 0 to net -2. He is now underwater on every issue we track.
Iran war: 58% of Americans say the war is a bad use of taxpayer dollars. 61% would oppose it if gas prices were to rise by $1 or more per gallon. Additionally, 26% of adults say the war will make Americans safer, vs 51% who say less safe.
Direction of country: Only 10% say things are going well in America. 52% say things are going poorly and major changes are needed. 33% say “things could be going better.”
Buyer’s remorse: 13% of Trump voters say they regret how they voted in 2024 — twice the rate of Harris voters.
The Iranians are playing it smart. They know they have limited resources but are using them to their advantage, dragging this out is all they have to do.
Gary, the Iranians are playing the long game and even if they are hard liners, they know their own country and can set back and make fun of the blithering idiot who cannot stop talking and posting bluster and lies and call out what he says which changes all the time. Also I am reading that some (I don't know the percentage) in the military are questioning if they want to die or be wounded for death star and Bibi
In Iran's case a country that arrests and tortures women who refuse to cover their hair? That sanctions throwing gay men from roofs? That follows the dictates of a mythical character as supreme law? That finances foreign terrorists groups that take no matter whether they kill innocents?
Do you really take the side of adherents to a religion that rewards murder that gunned down kids at a music festival, threw grenades willy-nilly into shelters killing women and children? And then took women, the elderly, and children as hostages where they would rape and torture them?
I agree that it is possible Trump will lie and declare victory, but the crime wasn't that he fought Iran, it was how he did it.
Yes, Trump is awful, and he screwed this up, but the Iranians and Hamas are no groups to be on the side of.
We get rid of him by voting this regime out of office. There are no shortcuts to this. It took 10 years of voter malaise, corrupt media consumed every minute by lazy voters, campaign finance corruption, and historic low voter turnout. We helped to create this mess. We get ourselves out of it.
NO KINGS MARCH 28. Strong involvement in local politics and local communities. Support of independent media. Call congress. Voter registration.
Using the 25th, which I am advocating, fixes NOTHING that is wrong with USA governance; it 'merely' lowers the probability of a world war. It doesn't even constitute a powershift toward Dems, if it is done so as to get the necessary 2/3 in congress. It is a temporization, but also a critical focus. Unfortunately there can be multiple criticalities.
US governance began to fail with whatever (?deal LBJ made that) allowed the 90%+ FDR income tax (top bracket) regime to end, beginning the end of the era of the rapid growth of US middle class and US democracy in one blow.
Today, we ARE an oligarchy. 94% of elections go to the candidate with the largest campaign war chest. You can't pass a bill with 6%.
Be nice if mid terms will be the exception, right? They MIGHT be, since our nation is in blatantly desperate straits (not just Hormuz!). Our national security is compromised in EVERY dimension under T.
The 'fix' for US and other nations around the world, is to defund the oligarchs; reclaim steerage of the ship of state; outlaw obscene power concentrations as inimical to the health of nations and world peace. Might take generations; or, democracy may never arise at scale again.
One CANNOT have both billionaires and democracy. They cannot coexist. When even one person can buy laws, elections, politicians as they choose, this is an oligarchy or worse. But all large nations now have highly consolidated power towers (billionaires and billion$ corp.s), as one unintended consequence of unbridled capitalism and unregulated tech. This may get much worse before it gets better. WE may be a police/thought control state via Palantir and AGI even before elected changes can happen, even with a blue tsunami.
We need a shared focus and understanding that enabling, or even allowing, enormous concentrations of personal (or corporate) power need to be revisited, IF we think democracy is desirable, or if we want to try reinstitute it.
Walter Scheidel's "The Great Leveler: Violence and Inequality from the Stone-age to the Twenty-first Century" is a sobering, but I think useful perspective on where we are, historically.
There were two messages in MN. One is that compassion and care for others is part of politics, not just power and violence. The second is that direct action - to be effective - must be sustained, not sporadic. Yay for NoKings, but that is not what will move the needle. It is the weekly or daily turnouts at concentration camps and processing facilities. It is the standouts at courthouses and hospitals to protect the vulnerable. And these Bridge Brigades doing regular reach-out to commuters.
And these will only build to the level we need with more attention from the media - including “independent” (i.e. noncorporate) media that reach more of the independent and indifferent citizens who are choosing to not see what is happening at home. We could also benefit from regular anti-war or anti-warcrimes demonstrations at recruiting stations and the gates of military bases. Or regular standouts at the NYSE about insider trading and corruption. There are SO MANY causes and sites to show our resistance. But we need to invest time and energy to communicate with others and build a movement. One, two three No Kings Demos are not the 3.5% that Chenoweth and others have found effective. We now need persistence and focus on the specifics of what we resist not merely a portmanteau demonstration the resistance exists.
Turn out for NO KINGS. But use it as an opportunity to introduce yourself to the people near you and to find out HOW your causes and concerns overlap with theirs. Start building networks of resistance focused on the matters you see as demanding action.
But sometimes the perfect is the enemy of the best you can get. I suspect there are 2/3 of congress votes for removing T on disability grounds, with pardons for him and his mob, just to prevent WWIII and economic disaster.
I wish I had faith in his cabinet or Congress but they, too, need to be ousted. I can’t see one of them backing a 25th amendment decision.
November is 7 months away. How can we each support our reluctant fellow citizens to vote? How far will we each go to make darn sure our votes are counted? These two questions are always on my mind.
When people see activism, they get inspired. Get out there and protest. NO KINGS MARCH 28. Until we take responsibility and get loud and get busy nothing changes. Get involved in your community on the issues, register people to vote. Worrying changes nothing.
Find your NO KINGS MARCH 28 protest near you. Make a sign that reads "protect the vote"
Vance can proffer pardons, which they all need, and they are already billionaires; bet you a nickel that Thiel and Thiel's tool Vance can whip up the votes in the cabinet. They are VCs.
By the same token, removing T would have 2/3+ bipartisan support, but for differing reasons in each party.
Agree. But invoking the 25th does not take a trial, just a vote. It still requires 2/3 in congress, but under quite different political color. The 25th can be cast as a compassionate vote for an old guy that began to have health events; Vance can make a deal to pardon the T mob and cabinet folk whose support he needs. R congressmen will have a better chance in the midterms, and so, MAY prevent a blue tsunami.
I bet one can get 2/3 of congress to support an R pres. swap for Vance, but I agree there's no way (short of the blue tsunami and 18 more months) to get an impeachment and conviction. Which ideally should happen, likely won't.
I wonder if we might have the votes in Congress after all the recent statements and 'decisions.' Look at the Cabinet memters: I don't see 2/3 of the Cabinet voting to declare him too impaired to lead. Vance, of course. Probably Rubio, who used to be normal. But how many others will turn on the hand that has fed them so well?
Expect them to fawn over Vance/Thiel exactly as assiduously & performatively?
V can offer pardons immediately upon invoking Section 4 with half the cabinet, and P.Thiel can buy their souls for a premium on what they're worth. V's pardon's are likely more sure than T's, who might throw you under the bus on a cloudy day.
Impeachment does not mean anything but a bunch of smoke screen unless there is a possibility of being found guilty. Remember the Clinton impeachment??? I am old enough to remember that. It was not nice for Clinton to have to deal with that but there was no way he was going to be removed from office and he knew that and he was not removed from office. It was a total waste.
Impeachment is never coming. That would require them to admit error, and this movement is built on the refusal of error. The Christian nationalists wrapped around Trump do not operate as a political party in any normal sense. They operate like a sect convinced that power sanctifies itself. If they win, it was God’s will. If they lose, it was sabotage. If they break the law, the law was corrupt to begin with.
Michael, but a compassionate required retirement via 25th would pass 2/3 congress, if done in a bipartisan way. Not so much a political win for Dems; just as righting the ship of state and preventing a WWIII. Vance/Thiel may be more 1984 than T, but MUCH less likely to bomb nuclear plants or invade our neighbors.
Remember TOFU--TRUMP ONLY F*CKS UP. Of course, it would be best for 99.9% of us is TOFU had a massive stroke, lingered for a couple of months and then died, but impeachment isn't going to stop him from getting dumber every day.
And since we're in primary season for the next several months, everything he does blows back on ALL of the Republicans running for, well, everything.
Donald Trump may be really incompetent at managing the operations of real things like the Presidency or foreign policy, but what he is clearly VERY competent at is corruptly making money through innuendo and propaganda. When insider trading investigations begin, let's start at the top.
They are going to have a very hard time hiding a corpse, no more appearances of any kind, and the frantic jockeying for position around the Dunce will be quite obvious. Not to mention the distress among the true believers……….😎
Donald Trump may be really incompetent at managing the operations of real things like the Presidency or foreign policy, but what he is clearly VERY competent at is corruptly making money through innuendo and propaganda. When insider trading investigations begin, let's start at the top.
Hopefully, we'll see DonOld's obit soon, but if not, we already have all the evidence needed to put him away for 1) pedophilia, 2) war crimes, 3) stealing secret documents and lying about it, 4) sex trafficking, 5) bribery, 6) market manipulation, etc.
We get rid of him by voting this regime out of office. There are no shortcuts to this. It took 10 years of voter malaise, corrupt media consumed every minute by lazy voters, campaign finance corruption, and historic low voter turnout. We helped to create this mess. We get ourselves out of it. NO KINGS MARCH 28. Strong involvement in local politics and local communities. Support of independent media. Call congress. Voter registration.
I agree completely but once we again have control I believe we need to start cleaning house in the same fashion established January 2025. Additionally, I hope several on the side of sanity are working hard on Project 2029!
Great idea - getting him out of office, out of the building, out of sight, & out of what's left of our minds. But then what? Vance sits at the Resolute Desk? Are you kidding me??? Or next, Speaker Johnson??? Argh!!! Go ahead, pick a cabinet member, ANY cabinet member. Not one in the whole bunch is qualified, let alone appealing. This is a sickening mess.
Hey, all - This was my reply to Mark Shield's comment: "Section 4, 25th Amendment." Somehow it didn't get "attached" - at least not on the screen I'm looking at. Just FYI.
Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
So, with removal of T under section 4, Vance chooses the VP - it will not necessarily be Mike J.
The power behind the Vance throne will be Peter Thiel of Palantir (VC; mass surveillance business for military AND corporations; AGI proponent for population control.)
Yeah, not pretty.
WWIII with US losing IS even worse, and where we're heading with Mr. T, as he appears to be sabotaging national security in almost every possible way P would like.
So Section 4, 25th Amendment is not a fix for what ails USA, it is a way of temporizing and slowing our rapid rate of decline. Read Paul Kennedy's "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000".
The global disease (almost an STD, reading the E files) is the obscene concentrations of personal power that (unregulated capitalism * new unmanaged tech) has brought us.
The fix, if there is one, can take generations - or worse. (Read Walter Scheidel's "The Great Leveler: Violence and History of Inequality from the Stone-age to the Twenty-first Century".
I think we are better off with him in the oval than the alternatives. Imagine how bad the speeches will be in 3 years. Then we can be done with the whole bunch. And those who don’t already have money will end up working at third rate tv shows.
Nah, the Republucans have wiped thier ass with the Constitution and Trump is the shitstain they left doing it. They can have ropes or bullets, and once they are in the ground we can put together a better system of government. Compared to what we are replacing it wouldn't be particularly hard.
I agree we need to build a better system. I feel the ideal of a Republic is fine but the problem is the lie by the Supreme Court in creating corporate personhood. Plus the "Citizens United" decision which gave us Trump two times. There are many others wounds caused by the Court and actions by others like Trump. We need to repeal corporate personhood. That is why I don't agree with Senator Adam Schiff et al., and their “Citizens Over Corporations Amendment”. Nor do I agree with the “For Our Freedom Amendment” by American Promise (primary founder Jeff Clements). Both claim to address Citizens United (2010) but I find their words to not be the rampart we need. They use legal terms such as Congress and the States “...may regulate...”, and “...shall have power to...” The problem is that allows Congress and the States to decide whether they “may” or “shall have power to ” do anything. I see those words as a gate which for a “campaign contribution” will be left wide open to mega-money in politics. Plus they offer no language repealing corporate personhood.
In my “Memorandum to We the people” I put all the direct evidence for all the bad deeds by the Supreme Court and others in one place. Then I provide a comprehensive five section model Amendment: strong medicine for our badly wounded Republic. It is the sort of language required to build a better system, a Rampart for our Republic. Please read, discuss and share my “Memorandum to We the People.” On my cite below there are downloads in the upper right corner including my Memorandun and logo posters which can be printed at Staples, etc. for the No Kings march. The professional interpretation and effective presentation of my Memorandum by Mr. Dale Rowett of LexiGraphics.Pro alone is worth a visit to my page at UnitedWeAmend.org
Corporate personhood, or whatever you want to call the selective conflation of human rights with a business beyond the universal personal rights of the people who operate it is such make-believe I cannot see how we as a society are content to tolerate it. Yes the finances of the business can be legally separated from those of the individuals who own and operate it, but the logic of "Citizens United" is as patently phony as the justification used for "Dred Scott".
I agree and have I no idea how we can tolerate the theft of our equal individual rights. Recall Mitt Romney (video below) campaigning in plain-folk style with his foot up on a bail of hay at the Iowa State Fair in 2001, saying, "Corporations are people, my friend,..." His adding “my friend” really twisted to me. It reminds me of a scene from “The Music Man.” Professor Harold Hill saying, "Ya got trouble, folks,...” Hill was selling musical instruments. Romney was selling a bold-faced lie. The thing about lies is "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it". – Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister. The big corporate personhood lie began in the late 1880's. In 1888 the case of “Pembina Consolidated Silver Mining Co. v. Pennsylvania,” 25 U.S. 181 (1888) (hereinafter, Pembina), was the scene of a prior small headnote growing big. The Court held as to the Fourteenth Amendment, “Under the designation of person there is no doubt that a private corporation is included. Such corporations are merely associations of individuals united for a special purpose ...” On page 12 of my Memorandum I explain what the Court did in practical terms, “To put the Court’s analysis of law and facts in perspective the Court worked like a street hustler playing a fast shell game. They placed the non-transferable rights endowed in individual persons under shell #1, as if it were a pea. Then as they quickly moved the shells (words) around they steal the pea from shell #1, and load it under shell #2, an assembly of individuals now having rights transferred from, and distinguishable from, the individual attendees. Then finally they move the shells (words) a last time, steal the pea again and load it under shell #3, a State’s charter, a certificate of incorporation, a shield against lawsuits for its shareholders (individual attendees), now having equal protection of the laws the same as individual Americans endowed with natural rights. Imagine Chief Justice John Mar shall in 1801, holding The Company to be a person with equal protection of the laws. The Court probably would have been tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail by the Sons of Liberty. Chief Justice John Marshall, of course, never wrote such lies. The principles of the Enlightenment, including those articulated by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, had a profound impact on him. He also invited legal briefs and oral argument before deciding important matters and used constitutional law and principles to guide his sound decisions.” – at UnitedWeAmend.org.
Albert, yes we need to build a better system however, I don’t believe that attempting to repair what we’ve got will solve our problem long-term. If we are to keep our “eyes on the prize“ we need to hold a sufficient vision to get that prize.
The constitution our forefathers had created 250 years ago was possibly one of the most amazing feats to be seen in the history of the United States. However, 250 years have passed and it’s time for us to update our vision and create the structures necessary to operate it. To do this, we have to admit that currently our system of governance, and particularly our system of economy are failed systems and they are responsible for having brought us to this place. The constitution was based on “gentlemen‘s agreements“ that we would all behave in a civilized manner. The Trump regime has torn that understanding wide open. Also, I do believe that capitalism has run its course and what better proof is there than to see how it has sucked the money from yours and my pockets to go up to the few billionaires at the top.
Is capitalism a successful system? Yes it certainly is for the ultra wealthy. For the rest of us, it sucks. It sucks the money from our pockets upward to the biggest fattest pockets on the planet.
It is time for us to have a good hard look at a very old system of economy and open ourselves to the possibility that there is something better such as Economic Democracy. This is not socialism, this is not communism and it is not the oligarchy we are operating under today. This is a much advanced system that could insure that all of us share in the wealth generated by this country and that every vote from every person counts. That is true democracy.
I disagree that "The constitution was based on “gentlemen‘s agreements“ that we would all behave in a civilized manner. The Trump regime has torn that understanding wide open." First, the Constitution was framed as a Republic, a government of law, and not of men. Second, Trump is violating the laws, not simply a "gentlemen‘s agreement," or a "understanding." For the President to openly violate the laws and not be prosecuted is the problem. We have grown from four Executive Departments in 1789 to fifteen today. We need to repeal the Elector system and the single Executive and diversify, divide those fifteen Departments among seven Executives. One of them would be the Attorney General with who has the job to enforce the laws such that no person is above the law. Under such an amended government Trump would be jail. I address such a major change in my Memorandum.
“For the President to openly violate the laws and not be prosecuted is the problem.”
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. The Constitution provides ways to head off or prevent what we are currently living with. We (the editorial we) just didn’t follow through. But I agree, that document needs some serious overhaul.
and don't forget to overhaul humans, as well...or did they spring from the document? maybe we don't watch the same movies... where drug or weapons dealers or some other profiteering bad person says, 'if you kill me someone else will just take my place'? and there has always seemed to be that 'someone'...
if there was no demand...humanity would have gone extinct...
if there actually IS a solution, it sure isn't an easy one...
what's worked well for me in life is doing what i can to take it a moment and a person at a time...and abiding by what i call 'natural law'...
and, as much as i could, not allowing others to be authorities in my life unless i've felt they'd earned it...people like Heather, even though i don't always agree with her...and that's ok with me. who hits a target 100% of the time?
Another "good luck, you're going to need it" comment. Speaking purely theoretically, this is a great idea. Speaking practically, it is just off the rails. We aren't going to see fundamental change in the very nature of our system in a few decades, probably not even in a hundred years or more. It would take either revolution (highly impractical and unlikely) or some massive sea change that doesn't seem possible. A better course of action is limited surgical changes that COULD over time, with a willing populace and intelligent leadership, result in a slow but enduring movement towards more even-handed democracy.
We are NOT a small speed boat anymore (as we may have been at the outset of our independence). We are a HUGE aircraft carrier and it takes slow patience to turn a nation like ours.
It can be turned, but restraint, caution and patience is needed to do it.
Almost all changes necessary to bring significant change to a system happen very fast, and both biology and archaeology teach us this. The system endures until some positive feedback mechanism tips over and the system runs away at speed. Historians try (and usually fail, and even they will admit to this) to point to some event that coincided with the runaway, but at the end of the day its usually more coincidental than causal.
Enough people could wake up tomorrow and decide we are all sick of this, grab pitchforks and torches, and before November rolls around we'd have new countries, new laws, new Constitutions, and seven new nuclear armed nation states. All that has to really happen is for people to stop being willing to be crushed underheel by their government in the name of being American, and if you look around, that's happening.
Not even enough people would die doing it to move the needle compared to underinsurance, car and gun fatalities, and regular old police violence, and our kids would wake up next year in a brave new world where they could finally be proud of their parents for giving them a chance at a better tomorrow.
Al, I just read your webpage document and I have to agree it makes incredibly great sense for the most part. I expect I could pick a few nits with you and maybe even suggest some improvements, but if this were possible to be enacted it would go a LONG way to improving things.
Sadly, I doubt there is any real chance to actually pass and ratify such a broad-ranging amendment. It is ALMOST like creating a new "sub-constitution" within the actual Constitution, because it changes so many things. Some of the more critical ideas absolutely need to be passed, probably as separate amendments (repeal of the effect of Citizens United decision, increase in size and re-allocation of the House of Representatives, elimination of life-terms for all judicial appointments, etc.) which MIGHT be doable, although I expect it will take a long time, maybe 50+ years to even fully put a limited number of amendments into effect.
But then again, one of the wisdoms of the founders was to make our Constitution not subject to instantaneous change, even when that frustrates some (or many) of us.
THANK YOU for reading it, Jon. Your voice here is important, and even more so when you consider other voices. I hope you two -- Jon Rosen and Albert R. Killackey keep on.
My Thanks for your reading my Memorandum. I am open to any ideas and improvements. My intent of creating what you may correctly see as a
"new "sub-constitution" within the actual Constitution, because it changes so many things" is because the Court Jesters changed so many things in the last 140 years. I understand the idea of cutting it up into separate amendments, etc. I thought about that but decided to put it all, wounds and and bindings, in one place to inform "We the People" and to encourage discussion about it. As for how long it takes to amend, I really believe Trump is better than any of the rest of us at informing Americans we need to unite and Amend our Constitution forthwith. Thanks again.
I agree 100%. CU is clearly one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever visited on this country. Unfortunately, as we have seen with a few other incredibly awful decisions (consider Dredd Scott), it is not easy to fix (Dredd Scott took a hugely destructive civil war). And today, with the kind of armaments available to the military of the US, civil war is even less likely to be useful even if we wanted it to happen. We need civil political change via voting and incremental Constitutional amendments, the kind that can be sold to a vast majority of Americans. With our current polarization, it will take leaders with incredible skill to make that happen. I fear it may not be possible, but I have hope that it will.
Jon, I'm 70, and have 3 grandchildren. I hope that one day they are among the generation to see this to fruition. I know I won't, and it's doubtful that my kids will, except in small increments should this country survive itself.
I like the image but, unfortunately, even if that fantasy were to come true, there would still be the 77 million louts who voted for the orange ding-dong sucking air, taking up space, and causing problems of all stripes.
Yes; With those sort of folks, isn't that always so ? It's still a huge point that they were all, mostly lied to. I think that's the issue for us to exploit, to assist them to self immolate. Do you understand my thinking: Divide the coalition, or help them divide themselves, according to their individual priority disappointments as part of coalition. They were all lied to and that's the fracture line to exploit. Very few coalition parts are satisfied.
Rex, I got poor grades in Geometry class, not because I got the wrong answers, but because I couldn't memorize and quote the theorems beside my work.
Don't ask me to show my work, but based on the recurring numbers in the polls, I suspect that only about 35%, or 27 million of Donald's voters are "hardcore fans" in the bleachers. The remaining 50 million are just "there for the tailgate parties." Those 50 million might not be persuaded to vote for a Democrat, but they could be convinced to choose a sane Republican.
How to make that happen? By having the next Democratic administration break up the monopolies in our mediasphere. By enacting laws requiring media to clearly label opinions as such. By enacting laws that prohibit media from broadcasting lies as truth. This wouldn't solve all the problems, but it would be a good start toward persuading 50 million voters to make their decisions based on facts rather than "beliefs."
Yes, if decency ever comes back in the legislature, I hope it will enact such laws, and hope the administration will be conscientious enough to enforce the hell out of them.
Forgot to comment on your estimates, Dale Rowett. I think your numbers are about right, for the most part, but I don’t think any Republican can win without promising to do everything possible to preserve the systemic advantages of white Americans. That promise, and delivering on it, his been the foundation of their success since 1968. They cannot do without it, politically, so they can never givern with decency.
Well, Rex, maybe a typical politician who makes the promises but doesn't deliver could win Republican votes.
Truth is, white christian males have always been the privileged class. The baby steps of progress that benefitted the other classes didn't impinge on white christian male supremacy. What changed was media amplification of those baby steps, making them appear to be giant strides that were "cancelling" white christian males.
I'm probably overlooking some major turning point that occurred in 1968, but the milestone I recall is Ronald Reagan's rise to power on his assertion that "the problematic U.S. Government was taking tax money from hard-working white Americans and handing it to Black freeloaders." He was also indifferent to the exploding AIDS epidemic, bolstering the myth spread by christians that it was "God's punishment for homosexuality."
And just to round out the Reagans' conservative appeal, Nancy was the ultimate "trad wife," staying at home, serving her husband, getting her hair done and dabbling in astrology.
interestingly enough, they feel the same about you...so where does THAT end...?
i commented above that i didn't always agree with Heather...within the last 10 days or so she dug up some of the history around legislation to promote the freedom of black people...and it seemed to have a positive conclusion...and i thought, 'BULLshit! it was all just hiding under the surface...'.
and maga proves my thought.
fear of 'other' is hardwired into most creatures...the only progress seems to be to have grown justifications of one sort or another for cruelties imposed...
and we do the best we can to survive with some quality of life in the middle of all of that...
Where it should end, in a civil war, and when the dust settles the same people will lose it as lost it last time, for EXACTLY the same reasons. And this time we won't be stupid enough to forgive the south or leave two bricks standing in the red states. And I say that having grown up in one.
The gene pool just needs a spot of chlorine is all, and I'm honestly sick of having the same conversation of "life is precious" no its not, life is cheap, and if your going to use your life to prop up ignorance and stupidity, or worse, religion, then you've already spent yours and we can put you to good use as fertilizer.
No we don't, and we never have. Every other constitutional republic that followed ours uses our constitution and system of government as an example of what NOT to do. Not to mention imagine how awesome it would be to wake up tomorrow in a country that didn't have one word in its documents and laws detailing acceptable human slavery, or establishing classes of people who's votes were worth more than anyone else's, or saying that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money on legal bribery.
Our system of government makes Iran look like a model of fairness and efficiency, and that's why we are currently trying to bomb them back to the stone age, either that or to to create conditions for bringing back a biblical messiah, depending on whom in the actual chain of command you ask.
I believe that your example of Iran being a better system of government than the USA my be a bit of hyperbole? Yes things are bad currently, snd we have a history of problems. Totally agree. But saying we are worse than a theocracy that has fueled direct terror actions for decades is just not true. I guarantee you are persecuted living a comfortable life, without any significant risk to your personal safety. With the extra cash to participate here. On a marketplace of free speech! Ee are losing our collective minds about a handful of unprecedented government driven murders as we should be. But in Iran tens of thousands were killed at protests, this year! women are punished for how they dress and hair covers. Deep breath. This country is worth fighting for.
The United States has fueled direct terrorism for decades. On a marketplace of Free Speech is particularly laughable while we have government agents murdering people in the street for participating in protest, and its not the first time this has happened, or the second, or the third. The fact that we have only started really objecting to it once they started killing white people speaks volumes about the situation.
In the United States women are raped and attacked for how they dress, without repercussion or even the benefit of investigation. Its so common at this point that its the source of a publicly joke about how a woman is safer with a wild bear, than they would be with a man, because if they say they are attacked by a bear they will be believed, and the matter investigated.
Thank you for so clearly demonstrating your privilege, this country is not the fount of greatness you clearly think it is, and an education on the matter would serve you well. A little education in what life has been like in Iran both before and after US intervention wouldn't hurt either.
The worthless weaklings in the GOP had better wake up. Trump is in fairyland. He's not just lying; he's making up stories. When that story starts to go south he will have to "do something about it." Those Iranians just aren't playing his way, as they agreed to do. He is highly likely to solve the problem the only way he can.
"What's the point of having nuclear bombs if you don't use them?"
A Madman at the helm and a useless crew. This is the Real story.
Heather describes something more dangerous than confusion. It describes government by manipulation. Trump’s threats toward Iran, his sudden claims of successful talks, and Iran’s flat denial that any such talks occurred did not merely expose disorder. They produced it. Markets lurched, oil jumped, and presidential power once again functioned as a device for chaos rather than governance.
That is the real scandal. Foreign policy is not supposed to operate like a con man’s microphone, where every reckless statement creates panic, headlines, and opportunity for someone positioned to profit from the noise. A constitutional office is being used like a personal stage prop, with military tension, market volatility, and international credibility all treated as disposable material in the construction of one man’s drama.
What this reveals is not simply incompetence, though there is plenty of that. It is a governing style built on destabilization. Contradiction is not an accident; it is the method. Confusion is not fallout; it is the product. And when the presidency becomes a machine for manufacturing fear, rumor, and financial shock, the United States stops looking like a republic and starts looking like a racket with nuclear weapons.
Donald was never "intelligent" (a subjective descriptor), due to his congenital learning disability. He had trouble acquiring and retaining information in the typical educational environment. But as a younger man still in possession of his sanity, he had "street smarts," learned from his minimally educated father. Both men had the uncanny ability to anticipate how people would react to situations they created, and use those reactions to enrich themselves.
Lying, or "bluffing" was one of the techniques they used to create favorable circumstances. In those early days, bluffing worked because by the time people caught up with the lies, Fred, then Donald, had already profited and moved on to the next con. Bigger business required bolder lies, and practice gave Donald the confidence to try them.
He has brought that same technique to his presidency, but he has not anticipated that our instantaneous mediasphere exposes his lies almost in the same moment he tells them. His lies are still creating channels for profit as before, but unlike his Manhattan business dealings, his lies are now global in impact and are surrounded with international chaos.
Why do we have just one President? Trump knows nothing about foreign policy, the economy, social security, health care, homeland security, transportation, financial systems, climate change, defense, etc. So we have bastardized the Federal government to provide 15 departments so that an expert or a committee of experts can run that department. And yet, if the person who receives the most electoral college votes (and not the majority) decides to override any decision made by the experts in each of these departments it doesn't matter what they have decided. Joe Biden arguably had the most qualified and competent cabinet of my lifetime. Over 75,000 infrastructure projects were initiated under him overseen by Pete Buttigieg. How many of these projects were Joe Biden even aware of and how many did he prevent from happening because he loves oil?
The big flaw in government is we have a system where Congress decides which projects to fund and they appropriate the money to do so, and then the President illegally and with impunity overrides those projects.
Stop even thinking about that worthless piece of paper. It was designed to look like the asswipes were "doing something" when it wouldn't have worked 50 years ago and even less so with politics as polrized as now.
Yeah, definitely not perfect. V sucks. And he's Thiel's tool. But swapping T for V may preclude insanity at the helm of the ship of state for 2.8 more years, may keep us out of wars with neighbors and allies, and end war in Iran, etc. At the moment national security is in the toilet, and swirling fast.
The line of Secession makes me concerned. All mediocre yes men and women. Who are not leaders we want. How about impeaching Trump and his whole cabinet and staff?
Both Impeachment & Conviction (Article II) and removal for disability (Section 4, 25th Amendment) will require 2/3 vote of congress to effect. My argument is that we already know that Impeachment and conviction will take a lot of R congressmen to vote with dems, AND we know we have failed with this twice, since voting to impeach one's leader is a vote to remove one's self from office in the next election.
But the 25th amendment, while requiring the same number of votes, can play as a compassionate and prudent move by both D's and R's, to remove an elder leader who has developed a disability; V will proffer pardons to entire T mob, and the T mob may accept, a) so that the midterms are not a Tsunami, and b) because if the mid terms ARE a blue tsunami, they MAY be impeached and convicted. So the 25th gives R's existential electoral cover for the midterms, and gives everyone safety from an insane old man with finger on the button.
Yes, thank you for asking. One of her good friends in high school in Ponte Vedra had a rough break-up with her boyfriend and attempted suicide. As you know, that's an automatic stay in the psych-ward.
No doubt. I was hoping maybe some would look it up. It seems apropos since Trump hangs out in FL a lot. It also has the right cachet...don't you think?
As a teacher is would have my students prepare a report to present to the class…while most did the necessary work, a few would avoid doing the job of preparation and show up with little or nothing to say. They still had to stand in front of the class and present. Donny-John sounds just like one of those, he’s just making shit up!
As are his handlers…and as far as ‘insider trading’ the clan has made billions of dollars to take to their desert island. Let’s suggest this plan ASAP! They can keep all their crapto-currency too! And we ‘promise’ to send them crapto-food. And probably, maybe, whatever…to not bomb the island.
Incoherency, lies, obfuscation, deceit, insanity ....are always in full display. Sounds like conditions for a 25th amendment proposal as you suggest, Mark. We've tried that before and failed. There's only one way to eliminate trump - I won't print it for fear of reprisals, arrest for treason and deportation....
But differ in this: Section 4 of the 25th Amendment has NEVER been invoked in US history. So I think that should be used asap to prevent more national and global harm.
Weird opposite things keep happening exponentially faster in this timeline. Whoda thought I'd ever wish he'd just go back to sending out memes of the Obamas as monkeys!
Here is the 25th Amendment, Section 4, 1st paragraph:
"Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President."
Three key bits: it takes just 50% of the cabinet plus Vance to invoke. Once invoked, Vance is acting President, and CAN PARDON. Vance/PThiel/Palantir is a venture capitalist; he/they know how to get votes from a board of corrupt billionaires.
"Section 4: Declaration by vice president and cabinet members of president's inability
Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers (The "principal officers of the executive department[s]" are the 15 Cabinet members enumerated in the United States Code at 5 U.S.C. § 101):[11][12]of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President."
The Cabinet will never do this. They know he is their lifeline. We need to focus on the concrete actions we can take.
We ARE assuming that we have an election that isn't corrupted by 5-10%, via the many ways we're already seeing...? We need to be thinking about what if that assumption fails, in this situation.
While I agree with our electoral efforts, marching, letter writing, donation, commenting on line, building community networks, etc. it is ALSO necessary that T be moved out NOW for national security, and global safety - not in Jan 2029. Not sufficient due diligence to hope for wining 2/3 of house and senate for impeachment and conviction.
I'm making the case that a credible tool for mitigating T's global harm is the 25th, section 4. Vance (/P.Thiel/Palantir) would be acting president IMMEDIATELY, and can offer pocket pardons to all the criminals in cabinet, and largesse, just as well as T. And V can immediately offer the same to T's entire mob to get their compliance with the Don's graceful as possible involuntary retirement (note: this is the ONLY kind of retirement he'll have).
Doing this would help assure there's an actual election in Nov, among other things, like no global conflict wrecking global economies and lives.
I heard from a European friend this evening asking me to explain what is going on, and I just laughed. And felt like crying, but mostly laughed because what could I tell her that would make any sense out of non-sense? There is no rational explanation for anything that comes out of Mr Trump's mouth. Is it all lies? All fantasy? All mental illness? Not being a psychiatrist, I can't come up with a diagnosis, but it is clear to everyone that the man who is supposedly in charge of our country has no grasp on reality.
> Is it all lies? All fantasy? All mental illness?
After Iran said no talks were happening and I re-listened to Trump’s comments and read this Letter, I got the worst feeling in the pit of my stomach — how completely divorced from reality (and truth) he really is, how badly the country and the Middle East and really the world are actually being f*cked — it’s the worst I’ve felt in a while…
We're all focused on his psychiatric deformities right now, as we certainly should be. But worse, by far -- by far, is the abasement and degradation of the entire Republican Party for being facilitators and apologists for these endless, non-credible, swaggering chickenshit storms blending fantasy, cruelty and arrogance together like a cake batter.
For those who study authoritarian regimes, we find ourselves in the middle of the "stormy, prolonged applause" period of a cult worship session, not at its end. A passage in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" speaks to this. In 1937 or so, Stalin has just finished speech to a Party Congress, and the entire auditorium bursts into what Communist Party hacks always describe in official records as either "stormy applause" or "stormy, prolonged applause" (if you're a robot true-believer, no other kind of applause, let alone reaction, is possible).
Seconds pass, then minutes, 2, 4, 6, 10, 20 and more. A sense of absolute dread fills the room because they all understand that the first person who dares sit down will be the first to be arrested. After about a half-hour, someone does, indeed, finally sit down -- the others follow *simultaneously* in a split second. And sure enough, the next day, that's the person arrested (and shot) first.
In Stalin's USSR, the feeling of private terror amid the public hurrahs made perfect sense. But in today's Republican Congress, all it does is make you re-think the old adage -- 'first time as history, second time as farce.' What do these rich, entitled, stupid, cowardly assholes have to fear by saying no to the Beast? Being primaried? Being doxxed? Having to re-think their questionable career choices? We are not a fascist country where dissenters literally disappear in the middle of the night (though some in the Administration wouldn't mind if that were the case). We are still a republic, though a badly degraded one. If we were not, people like Heather would already be in jail right now (along with many of us). Pretending as though we are is literally beneath the dignity of every true patriot, now and in our past. It makes no sense.
Yet the collaborators still stand, still lost in their rapturous, "stormy, prolonged applause" stage of complete, cultish degeneracy. At some point, though, somebody WILL sit down. When that happens, the whole MAGA Rube Goldberg contraption held together with nothing but lies and scotch tape will start coming down as well.
Stay strong, stay vigilant, stay hopeful, widen the cracks as much as you can. Their terror may be farcical, but it is real. What seems impermeable and mighty can all come crashing down in a split second. We must be prepared when it does.
A shortened version of my favorite Solzhenitsyn quote. We know they are lying. They know they are lying. They know we know they are lying. We know they know we know they are lying. But they are still lying.
"We are not a fascist country where dissenters literally disappear in the middle of the night". Tell that to the folks who got shipped to El Salvador, ICTT. And they weren't even dissenting, they were just trying to live their lives quietly, earn a living, support their families, etc.
I wish I had answers. Unfortunately, today, all I seem to be able to come up with are unsettling questions.
I am Sidney Reid’s godmother. Last October, my husband and I sat through her trial in DC federal court with Sid’s mother, our dear friend.
We watched the government’s case against Sidney disintegrate due to the fact that it should never have been brought to trial. Prosecutors looked incompetent, new government evidence appeared during the trial, questionable testimonies had the government down to one witness, the FBI agent, who joked about her supposed injuries as ‘boo boos’ and had mocked the arrest with colleagues in a joint text, etc.
When agents’ false testimony was debunked by video footage of the plain clothes ICE officer attacking Sidney and pinning her against a wall, making clear that he was the aggressor, it was very hard to watch, but plainly exonerated her.
In spite of this, we were gripped with panic that Sidney might be found guilty, as our faith in the justice system has eroded by the Trump administration’s fascist tactics. More recently, with the tragic murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, we know our fears are not unfounded.
I just read in a second post of RR's today, "So please don’t thank me. Thank yourself and the activists around you. Be thankful that we still have enough freedom to oppose this vicious regime. And continue to use that freedom as wisely and effectively as you can.
it was actually quite lengthy -- three volumes. But certainly a masterpiece in documenting the horror that actually transpired and that Putin now demands everyone forget.
That book was in my father’s bedside table for several years. I read some and just couldn’t go on. We also had Boris Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago.The Russian poets during the Stalin years had an extremely hard time. Also the history of Seed Institute is important to know.
I didn’t know there were three, I remember reading one when they were first published in English. If anyone wants to delve into the horror that Stalin perpetrated on Eastern Europe, read “Bloodlands” by Timothy Snyder. It all happened less than a century ago. It was the most difficult thing I have ever read.
"What do these rich, entitled, stupid, cowardly assholes have to fear by saying no to the Beast? Being primaried? Being doxxed? Having to re-think their questionable career choices?"
They are pushing us to the only logical conclusion - they are all complicit in the Russia-Epstein-Trump triangle and its coverup. There is compromat on every one of them.
Standing up for Trump? That reminds me of the SOTU where Republicans stood and had public orgasms many times in order to demonstrate their loyalty to Trump.
Hello Susan... I concur, DJT has slipped into his own Fantasy World... As things continue Crashing down, the more Insane DJT will get... DJT has failed at every Major thing he has attempted... 5X Business Bankruptcies, 2X Impeachments, the J6 Insurrection, a Military Defeat. and now the USA is teetering on the Edge Financially.... The Constitution was designed for people of Good Faith, and not for a Delusional Megalomaniac...
The Electoral College was designed to try to prevent that, but it too was thwarted! Too many States demanded that their delegates vote for the popular vote by law combined with We the People forgetting to teach it's original purpose of being a deliberate body to examine the fitness to serve of the popular winner. It is no longer a deliberate body chosen from the wisest of us, but a Party Rubber Stamp!
Sometimes I make the mistake of reading the comments on posts of people like right wing Influencer, Benny Johnson. He has supporters that are doing flips to explain his chaos. They call it the “trump magic”. They believe that he knows exactly what he is doing. There is also a lot of God has blessed him in the responses.
This is all nothing new by Trump. Read “Lucky Loser” which tracks his history from childhood. He’s acted exactly like this his entire adult life. Exactly.
Is he divorced from reality or is he cleverly using misinformation to gain wealth for his beloved followers and lead Democrats and the rest of the world over the cliff?
He has never lived in a reality that most of us are forced to live in. He has had a twisted fantasy life where he gets everything he wants. When he fucks up someone else cleans the mess. There is no such thing as a bad choice when there are no consequences. This is not a fully developed person. This is a full grown toddler! And he is our president🤔
We are being used and abused by Israel, Russia, and in a strange way the UK. So many countries in this world with decent "leadership" who are a benefit to mankind, and who would share space with an honest friend, such as we once appeared. No more. We have become the 'Blunder-Buss' loaded with creeps looking for the next opportunity to grabbem-bythe-puzie hahahaaaa cuz they can't stop us now! And if you're up here where it's still 22 degrees in the morning, the oil truck cometh. WMW
According to Professor Frank George, A former NIH Researcher in brain chemistry and how the different types of dementia work on brain functions, it is Frontotemperal Lobes Dementia mixed with Malignant Narcissism. He has brain capacity shrinkage of both the frontal lobe and both temporal lobes. Also has some symptoms of a recent stroke, possibly or the dementia is getting so advanced it is affecting his physical ability to speak. That his Cabinet hasn't invoked the 25th before now is treason! Plain and simple!
Unfortunately, his ability to type will outlast his ability to speak. And those who stand to profit will make sure he keeps on typing.
To paraphrase an old Woody Allen joke, Trump is the crazy grandmother who thinks she's a chicken. The family would get her professional help, but they need the eggs.
I think he has been medically handled for a long time and various issues and who knows which is what? Russia has had not only a Histiry of folks especially journalists falling out windows but also poisonings. And my best guess is what happened to my mother ‘s best friend ‘s son when he was born. He was in acute crisis many times and many of the nurses caring for him baptized him. He was unknowingly baptized at least five times because of the different shifts. That could be in a completely different way happening to our current president.
Tell your friends he runs the government the way he ran his reality tv shows. He just made things up, and his team scrambled to put the best face on it.
This entire administration is a reality TV show. These people aren’t qualified. The President has no idea what he is doing. Meanwhile, Congress is getting even richer from all the insider trading.
OK, I bit and looked it up: "Kayfabe (pronounced KEY-feyb) is a professional wrestling term for the practice of maintaining the illusion that scripted performances, rivalries, and characters are genuine, competitive, and real. It refers to maintaining this illusion of reality both inside and outside the ring, including interviews and social media." No wonder I don't like the "sport."
Gorgeous George was the master at profitably acting the heal in acts my dad took us to see disguised as wrestling. It was entertaining enough for me as a ten year old (70 years ago), but we weren't fooled. As I recall my dad's thinking, he had grudging respect for the way he made it possible for so many other wrestlers to make a living putting on popular shows.
I remember watching him in person more than on TV (probably because we didn't have a TV until much later than most), but he's credited with helping TV sales immensely.
Would that current villains created such shows without real damage to the well being of the country,
I heard on Morning Joe that this Mark Wayne Mullin has made over $26 million on Stock Market Trades since entering Congress. I am trying to remember exactly how many terms he has been there, but it is fairly recently. Two terms, one in the House and one in the Senate keeps floating to the top of my memory banks, here before breakfast this morning.
Five terms as Congresscritter, from 2013 to 2023, then one Senate term until he resigned to become Secretary of Homeland Security succeeding Kristi "KTD" Noem (that's KTD -> Kill The Dog :-) ). He's had a long time to pile up the money in stock trading.
Yes, that would amount to roughly 2 million dollars in stock trades a year. With all that insider trading he is alleged to have participated in, rather shabby. Must be even stupider than his Commander in Crime and Graft!
I still believe he is conning us as he conned the Draft Board -- that his mental disability is as fictional as his bone spurs -- that the truth (the terrifyingly terrible truth of our species' first thermonuclear-fingered Führer) -- is that he is Evil, absolutely, bottomlessly, infinitely Evil; the embodiment of all the Evil inflicted on the world since the advent of patriarchy and therefore probably the embodiment of the Apocalypse as well. What emerges when he speaks is the ecogenocidal venom of our species' most dangerously predatory tyrant; his words are a toxic spew, as deceptive and disruptive as they are deadly and destructive. Intentionally so. And it will take a genuine miracle to to liberate us from the ever-tightening stranglehold with which he is destroying every progressive achievement We the Empathetic Peoples have ever achieved.
Of course he is conning us. But, right now, with this "situation", he's conning himself.
I think it was his father who was behind the bone spurs con. Then he got Roy Cohn who saw the "potential'. I don't know of any other man that Roy Cohn for whom devoted so much evil wisdom.
(I got Cohn's signature on a book he had written about MacCarthy. I was taking a mini-course on MaCarthyism and he was defending Nick Rattenni, the Garbage King of Westchester County...during a break in the case.)
I’m not sure of this. Somehow it seems to me that pure evil would succeed at something! Unless you count increasing the rate at which the planet ceases to support human life a success? Persuading people to dislike and distrust people of different appearance? I don’t really know, or, more emphatically, I really don’t know.
Destroying the planet is the entire point. It’s the ultimate bully act, just like destroying that sand castle in primary school that other kids built. “Look, daddy! I destroyed the planet! Do I get your attention now?”
Excellent point. That's why I liken him to Ted Bundy: knowing he's protected (as Bundy was by the Washington state Republican Party), he measures his significance solely by the magnitude of his ability to inflict death and destruction and the terror it invokes. (I was deeply involved in covering the Bundy case, so I know of what I speak.)
I never wanted to know anything about Bundy but was defeated by Anne Rule's book The Stranger Beside me. I had started true crime because of her. Seriously charming. Seriously evil.
Caitlin Collins asked who is going to control the Strait of Hormuz and Donold said he's going to run it, saying: “Maybe me. Maybe me,” (not the United States, or an international coalition, but) “[m]e and the ayatollah, whoever the ayatollah is….
And so now there's another reality show in the making..."Me and the ayatollah"...
Many of our fellow commenters are well attempting to answer the unanswerable, Betsy.
I say "the unanswerable" because the Epstein tapes that he's still hiding, still covering up, will reveal the extent of his own raping of underage girls, and his involvements with Putin's oligarchs having needed his money laundering services.
We all know already the bottomless pit he is of vulgarity, indecency, incompetence, vainglory, and total unworthiness of the many democratic allies around the world he has betrayed.
What we do not know is the extent of ignorance and dehumanization which the tens of millions who voted for him may yet intend to keep applying to our schools. Most here on Heather's site value higher standards, would like to invest more in our finest teachers.
I'm hoping many fine Dem candidates for office in the coming November elections might articulate these higher standards and investments -- not only for already blue audiences, but also for our working-class fellow Americans in red states and rural areas.
The people in charge of the Epstein files work for the government, which is to say Trump. I believe they are busy 24/7 shredding and incinerating everything incriminating.
If I'm right, the longer they can delay the release, the less there will be to see. The current sh*tshow around the release is the distraction abd delaying action that will eventually let them say "nothing to see here", and then expect us to pat them on the back for finally being so transparent.
Sadly, this strategy will work for about half the country.
This whole thing reminds me of Hitler's orders to Felix Steiner in April 1945. Everything he ordered Steiner to do was nonsensical fantasy. Steiner himself was prone to fantasies about the war in its aftermath. It was literally a delusional tyrant giving orders to one of his delusional commanders. When reality is inconvenient, go with fantasy, which has basically been the Republican philosophy about everything from global warming to tax policy.
Psychiatrists have been telling us this for a decade.
Trump is more than one man; it's a failure of the whole system that has supreme disrespect for the values and the people. Look at the way Pam Bondi addresses those who question her: complete disdain. The plane crash at La Guardia is one obvious symptom of many. Killing citizens in Minneapolis and labeling them domestic terrorists. That is insane.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, addressed the Australian parliament today. That was after signing trade and security deals. The bottom line is that everyone else is just having to get on with it..
I am Sidney Reid’s godmother. Last October, my husband and I sat through her trial in DC federal court with Sid’s mother, our dear friend.
We watched the government’s case against Sidney disintegrate due to the fact that it should never have been brought to trial. Prosecutors looked incompetent, new government evidence appeared during the trial, questionable testimonies had the government down to one witness, the FBI agent, who described her supposed injuries as ‘boo boos’ and mocked the arrest with colleagues in a joint text, testified with a joking and unserious manner. I was shocked by her unprofessional demeanor.
When agents’ false testimony was debunked by video footage of the plain clothes ICE officer attacking Sidney and pinning her against a wall, making clear that he was the aggressor, it was very hard to watch, but plainly exonerated her.
In spite of this, we were gripped with panic that Sidney might be found guilty, as our faith in the justice system has eroded by the Trump administration’s fascist tactics. More recently, with the tragic murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, we know our fears are not unfounded.
Trump has managed throughout his life to avoid responsibility for every failure and screw up in his business career. As president he has surrounded himself with yes men and yes women who tell him what he want to hear.
His primary interest has always been personal enrichment. Thr Heritage Foundation found Trump to be their vehicle for dismantling our democracy.
A friend and neighbor who spent her career as a professor of psychology at an Ivy League university and maintained a clinical practice told me the term is “malignant narcissist.”
No matter how divorced from reality or confused he gets, he holds on to one priority, and that is making money for himself, his family, and the elites. Unless someone else is steering that ship.
And yet FOTUS's supporters will say he's crazy like a fox. I don't agree with them, but how is it that he has shown continual signs of being unhinged AND still manages to profit from all of this.
Just like Paul Krugman said: One must assume that Trump is lying about all of it. His modus operandi is to fabricate a story that he likes, one woven out of thin air, and announce that it happened. It's all smoke and mirrors, and has been for decades with this guy.
Trump is a consummate liar, a professional grifter, a classless blowhard that has profited even off his failures and other people's misery and losses. Donold Trump’s companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection six times between 1991 and 2014, investors and shareholders losing money and equity while he went on to other schemes. He ran 3 casinos into the ground, one of them twice, for a total of 4 times.
Now he's running our Nation into the ground, virtually ransacking the Treasury, bankrupting us, funneling our tax dollars away from vital programs and defunding necessities, running up the national debt to over $38 trillion! And still the bastard isn't done asking for $200 billion for more war in Iran...and another bajillion here or there or wherever he feels entitled to it...
Donald Trump may be really incompetent at managing the operations of real things like the Presidency or foreign policy, but what he is clearly VERY competent at is corruptly making money through innuendo and propaganda. When insider trading investigations begin, let's start at the top.
And the mountain of lies out of Trump continues to grow. Be LOUD! We deserve better 💔🤍💙
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.
Lies plus crazy. How in the hell do you order thousands of troops to a war zone and then go to Graceland, the Home of Elvis? Out of touch. Please read, discuss and share my Memorandum at UnitedWeAmend.org.
In a word, yes. Trump cares nothing about them. "Suckers and losers," remember? God help our troops. If we invade, it's going to be very, very ugly for our Marines.
Write your Senators now that the SAVE America Act is being debated as it could be amended, as Trump desperately wants, to ban mail-in voting outright.
As I have written many times, using procedural maneuvers, the filibuster rule in the Senate can be revoked by simple majority votes initiated by any Senator, Mike Lee for example, beyond John Thune's control.
The Senate briefly shifted from the SAVE Act to take up Markwayne Mullin’s nomination, and then returned to SAVE Act debate.
According to the Senate Daily Press log for Sunday–Monday, senators spent the afternoon and early evening speaking on the SAVE America Act, then moved at 7:40 p.m. into a roll call vote on confirmation of Markwayne Mullin to be Secretary of Homeland Security, which was later confirmed that evening. Coverage of the rare weekend and Sunday sessions notes that the SAVE Act floor debate has been running as a “marathon” proceeding over multiple days, with Mullin’s nomination handled as a separate procedural and confirmation sequence in the middle of that broader schedule, and that Senate leaders plan to continue SAVE Act debate into this week.
Manipulating markets for personal gain, maintaining chaotic confusion with a fog of lies, keeping the focus on himself, while his pal Netanyahu is seizing Lebanon up to the Litani River, that ancient northern border of the Promised Land, as Jewish settlers continue to seize West Bank territories one bit at a time. Who is really in charge of this war?
Cheeto: American Fascists Don’t Get A Fair Shake With The Press
Laments come in all forms from Cheeto and his Nazi allies especially when they do bad things like killing American citizens, getting Delta Airlines to deport children and families to concentration camps(BTW boycott Delta), financial corruption in Cheeto’s regime(Lewandowski scandal), overpaying and using taxpayer $$$ for warehouses to be turned into concentration camps(as much as $50 to 100M) as happened in Utah supported by a corrupt Nazi Republican governor, an illegal war with Iran prompted by fascist Israeli Netanyahu, cratering the global economy, TSA waits due to Cheeto not wanting the funding until the SAVE Act passed(according to Cheeto “have to do it for….wait for it…Jesus!), ICE agents at airports with nothing to do, 2M Americans don’t have health insurance due to the Nazi Republican policy, Fed reserve reports zero job creation over the last 6mo, seizing ballots in California and Georgia, tried to indict 6 Congresspeople because they spoke up about military rights, killed 80+ in small boats claiming that they were narcoterroists without evidence
Have you heard enough? Meanwhile when Nazis are out on other less protected forums than they encounter on the Fox or other propaganda channels, they flail not answering commentator questions or misrepresenting facts or plan lying Truly tedious to listen to these fascists
These statements of “why do we(the fascsts) get such a raw deal from the press?” This blatant use of the victim card which has been the hallmark of Nazi Republican politics over the last 5 decades is now clearly been overplayed and WE the People are not only tired of it but refuse to believe the lies And it’s all the more reason that the press reliably cover these corrupt fascists in a way that’s appropriate to report this corrupt fascist regime
We simply cannot, should not accept anything that Trump says nor the regime. Clearly, this SOB manipulated the market and he plus others made a shitload of money, hand-over-fist, within a matter of minutes! It's abhorrent and at this point, I am ready to believe the villains in Iran over this so-called leader. How absolutely ridiculous is that?
Today, this evil schmuck sent ICE agents to airports. In San Francisco, they attacked a woman from Guatemala right in front of her children while she had been in line for hours! Stephen Miller must be peeing all over himself with sick delight. I hate them all. None have any redeeming qualities...Not.A.One.!
I said it and I mean it. I have never felt that towards anyone in my lifetime but my parents did because they were fighting against Nazism in the countries. My sister and my cousins all got gipped because we did not have grandparents. They were gassed in 1942. Life isn’t fair, I know, but does it have to be so cruel?
Marlene I’m going to sue you until you like me. I’m going to take everything you possess. I want what you have and I always get what I want. That sick man’s song and dance. Indeed he did break through the rind of that possibility. The pain he imposed was sharp painful and real. Rind, that is all he ever tasted. Rind is all he will ever know. He will never get the sweetness the succulence the richness in the heart of the fruit. He will taunt and worry and degrade you all the more because he can’t have that which flowers and grows and nourishes the best of you. Imagine passing over life and never having lived. Thank you for richness you bless us with. What one man demands another is given freely. That hippie girl will dance in our hearts forever like a friese on a vase.
My father’s extended family died in Auschwitz and Terezin. I never knew growing up, about that or about just how much our family had been robbed of. There was only a silence and a darkness. To this day, I still look for the flower growing out of a crack in the sidewalk. These days, they seem harder to find…. Hugs, sister.
Susan, it’s interesting what our parents did not tell us. My father served in the US Army in the Pacific Theater, Papua New Guinea. Never spoke about the 4 years there. My mother was different. She talked all of the time about persecution. It was in the 80’s that she and her siblings learned of their parent’s deaths. They were removed from their longtime home by the SS and taken to a work camp. This was in 1941. Then, they were transported to a gas camp called Chelmno that was in the deep forests of Poland. In January 1942, they were placed in a van with 9 others where they were gassed.
My parents had PTSD which was given to my sister and I. My husband, who is not Jewish, has it too as he is a Vietnam veteran. This is a cruel world but I try to find joy whenever I can. Soothes the heart and the soul. Thank goodness for forums like this because we really are one big beautiful family. In solidarity…💕
Art Spiegelman, author of “Maus,” said that there were 2 ways survivors dealt with their experience — not talking or talking about it all the time.
how did your mother discover her parents’ fate so many years later?
My father was considered a “Mischling,” mongrel, and spent the last 9 months of the war in a forced labor camp.
A further irony/weirdness in my family’s case was that they had all converted and lived as Christian Germans. 😵💫 we had the darkness but none of the culture. Somewhere on my hard drive is a half-finished novel based on the lives of my two great aunts in Berlin. Once we started seeing here the beginnings of what led to their demise, I just couldn’t write it anymore.
FWIW, I’ve found great comfort/help from the teachings of Thomas Hübl, an Austrian who specializes in intergenerational trauma. He brings such deep compassion and gentle presence to his videos — I’m finally learning to meditate, in my 70s!
Susan, I have the “Maus” books and cherish them dearly.
So when my mother left Berlin, she had what I thought was a passport but it was not. It was a booklet stating her rights of being a German citizen were taken away. She was deemed a non-citizen. The booklet has Nazi stamps all over it. It took her from 1933-1939 to get the Nazis to let her leave. Same for her siblings. In 1933, she was 21 yrs old. Circuitous routes out of Germany into Brussels (6 weeks there) and then onto London. She was able to get a job with an American lawyer, Fannie Holtzman, who was actually an entertainment lawyer for Gertrude Lawrence and Noel Coward. It was Holtzman who arranged for my mother, her sister, and one brother to have passage to the US. Her youngest brother stayed in London. That year was 1939.
My parents met in 1946 and 6 weeks later were married. A 51 year marriage that was based on similar goals. They moved from NYC to Lenoir, NC, a rural town that boasted Southern Baptist churches on every corner. They opened a clothing store and it stayed opened for 25 years.
When Reagan convinced Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, my uncle in Lindon flew to Germany to see if he could find out how their parents died. See, the Nazis kept copious notes on every single person they killed. That is how he found out about his grandparents demise. My mother was admittedly devastated with this news. She felt they had not done enough to get them out, but they did. Our government was corrupt too. My mom sent $$ through the government to help get her parents out. That money never made it to the Nazis or so they said. To witness my mother’s agony was so hard. But that little lady lived until she was 89 years old and was sharp as a tack! She drove me crazy but I miss her a lot. Btw, I will be 75 in September so you and I are close in age.
Perhaps Iran will be his Waterloo? But in the meantime how do you get rid of him and his cohorts, short of a civil war? If there is a God I wish he would get his finger out and do something!
However, history is full of maniacal leaders the Pharaohs, Caligula, Nero, Hitler and all were defeated; so, at least there is some hope in the human spirit. The problem is the cost in human lives.
It seems that the aphorism 'money is the root of all evil' has some grounds in truth.
Hate is a strong destructive emotion be careful it can destroy you.
It’s actually impressive, in a completely perverse way—just when you think Trump can’t possibly get any more craven or corrupt or dishonest… and just when you think the rest of the world can’t possibly believe another half a syllable of his drivel, Wall Street just gobbles it right up and begs for seconds while the Republican Party declares it just another Monday. God Bless America. We certainly need it. 🇺🇸
Some scalawag Republican out there said yesterday "we've hit rock bottom" or something similar.
Oh no. With this cult, in the words of the late great Malvina Reynolds, "there's a low below the low you know, you can't imagine how far you can go......DOWN."
Donald Trump may be really incompetent at managing the operations of real things like the Presidency or foreign policy, but what he is clearly VERY competent at is corruptly making money through innuendo and propaganda. When insider trading investigations begin, let's start at the top.
I'm sure not getting any hints in advance of bad news. Like a lot of retirees, I'm watching my hedge against illness slip further away. An incoherent, unintelligent narcissistic man is still canny enough to seize my assets, set fire to the world, and insist that gols coins in his image be minted for his own treasure house.
Almost everything in “Dr. Strangelove” was based on fact. Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" is remarkably accurate in its portrayal of Cold War nuclear strategies and operations, despite its satirical nature. Many aspects of the film were based on real-world scenarios and figures. As a nuclear war planner for Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, Daniel Ellsberg had intimate knowledge of U.S. nuclear strategies and operations. Ellsberg stated that "Dr. Strangelove" was essentially "a documentary" in its portrayal of nuclear command and control systems that actually existed at the time.
Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was True - The New Yorker -
He is clearly living in a total fantasy world. But my question is: is this all just being created in his own head or are there people around him who are deliberately feeding this fantasy to him for some purpose of their own?
“America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.”
― Joseph Stalin
tRUMP’S GIANT FACE IS EVERYWHERE: Strolling through the capital these days, you can’t go far without encountering an image of the president’s face. What is the expression playing out on his lips, magnified to a hundred times their actual size? His glowering eyes seem to follow the pedestrians scurrying around the city from above.
If you want to understand why so many love him, subscribe to The Rational League. Below is a link to the latest post on why the MAGA faithful stay faithful.
Wow. Collective narcissism and hegemonic masculinity -- I was not previously aware of this. It explains a lot (pretty much all) of MAGA's love for a cruel dictator. A long read, but well worth the time, or even a scan. Thanks Georgia!
He is repetitive in his postso I don’t read every one, but he does put together the research on why the MAGA core remains true believers. it is scary that around 30% of our population has that psychological profile, but then again they’ve been fed the storyline for decades.
Georgia, I so appreciate all you do. This article is fascinating, albeit nausea-inducing. All of HCR’s readers should read it- it clearly delineates what we’re up against, and how vitally important the mid-terms are.
Rational League is repetitive in posting his analysis shadign his argument to recent events so he isn’t an everyday read. But I think his basic argument and the resources his uses are right on the money about why the resistance to changing the minds of the MAGA hard coreabout Trump is basically impossible.
No way 47 wrote the first blurb. Way too coherent. I do believe he wrote the gobbledygook near the end. Can you believe the Repubs enable this crazy shit? WTAF happened to them? Although I disagreed with them I respected a few of them anyway. Money and power I guess.
Nothing happened to them. This is who they always have been, or have we forgotten they made a pedophile speaker of the house long before they put another one in the oval office.
Ah yes, Dennis Hastert, the former high school wrestling coach.
Other politicians who were wrestling coaches are Jim Jordan, who saw nothing when he was at Ohio State, and our newly confirmed Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin.
Easy answer Mojave, they lost their spine and they are getting richer and enjoying their apparent power. Why compromise their confort by saying no to the scumbag president?
Read the latest post from The Rational League. It discusses the psychology behind the MAGA adherents who will only worship Trump more and more the more they think he is being maligned.
Section 4, 25th Amendment
Article II , Section IV. Impeach President and Staff for Treason.
Believe impeachment takes more votes than we have now.
But Section 4, 25th Amendment can be done by 50% of the cabinet - who may be wanting a way to get him out well before midterms. (Edit: as Jon & others note later, 2/3 vote in Congress is needed to permanently swap out T using 25th, but this 2/3 for a 'compassionate' R Pres swap-out serves most interests, whereas 2/3 for impeachment & conviction won't get R votes in congress).
Impeachment can still be pursued after a blue Tsunami, IFF that happens.
Never happen. That would be tantamount to admitting they'd made a mistake. And as we all know, the ChristoNazis have "Jesus on the main line" and do only as "God wills it" -- which means they're even more infallible than the Pope. (Or so they tell us.)
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP”
MATTER = Minimise Attention To Trump Epstein Relationship
We hold trumps lies to be self evident.
Did you miss IT? Heather didn't. Paul didn't.
It was only yesterday that Trump threatened to commit an international war crime by destroying Iran's domestic electrical plants "starting with largest one first" IF blah, blah blah.
Seems Trump awakened to "global stock markets that had shuddered" & were ready to "tank" on Trump's threat to "hit & obliterate" blah, blah, blah if the Straight of Hormuz was not "opened in 48 hours."
Spoiler Alert: Trump backed down after the global markets freak-out & Trump made a "sudden retreat".
Bryan Sean, in the Indivisible Abroad Economic Resistance group, one of our members is a professor of International Law, he says that so far they have documented that Trump has committed AT LEAST 10 international war crimes in this war.
Malcolm Nance, ex US Intel in the region, and Jacob Kaarsbo, ex Danish Intel Chief in the region do a daily break down of the war, they were saying that to hit any energy plant with nuclear power will make sure that a fine dust of the fallout will settle all over thw world, and it is just crazy. However, Trump, Vance, Hegeth, Rubio and others will hide in their nuclear fallout proof bunkers and leave the rest of us to live with it, or die from it.
Worth getting lawyers to look at T and Musk and other's pump & dump (or scare & scoop) stock market manipulations.
AND…..his billionaire buddies cashed in on his decisions!
MAGA citizenry cannot see what is going on with Trump's cognitive malaise. It really doesn't take much for anyone to see the disfunction of his mind which only confirms the lack of intellect within the MAGA population. Every day this disfunction, without remedy of what is clearly this nation's most hideous presidency, continues to hammer in the reality, not only for the needed impeachment, but also the consequences for each republican sycophant who supported Trump, while knowing fully well the criminal and impeachable offenses he has, quite frankly, garnered on himself. Assuming that the democrats take back control of the House and Senate, we all should expect to see a full legal house cleaning against those who supported or even turned a blind eye to this administration's criminal acts. It's difficult to say which criminal act should be at the top of the list: the wanton rape of teen girls or the wanton murder of citizens of another nation who have done nothing to the US to deserve the unrelenting bombing and the so called "president's" heinous glee of his own self-promoted statements in order to continue to murder people from another nation. To have put all of us in the throes of moral and legal decline reminds me of what George Kostanza's words to George Steinbrenner during a Seinfeld episode: ""We have watched you take our beloved #Yankees and reduce them to a laughing stock, all for the glorification of your massive ego!" Replace the "#Yankees" with United States, and one has the perfect complaint for an impeachment that should all but bury this fu&%ing maniac!
TACO
Committing international war crimes and crimes against humanity..that's a joke. Israel has been getting away with this stuff for decades...we just had to catch up.
Pete Hegseth agrees.
Watch for the same pattern while the Trump statements roll out about negotiations on the ICE/HSA funding.
So glad you unraveled the secret code!! I am soooooooo sick of that sentence.
Me, TOO!!
(I haven't seen your name here before, Mary Ann. Perhaps I did and I forgot, but jic I haven't, WELCOME to the forum! 👋🏼Good to have you join!)
Nice wordplay!
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
And on the other hand, our Republican representatives (sic) in Congress are totally devoid of character, devoid of courage, devoid of common sense, devoid of commitment to their oath to uphold the Constitution. To think that our schools, churches, synagogues produced such a worthless crop of "public servants" boggles the mind.
well, richard...there are MANY(not just 'representatives') who equate the amount they have in the bank, etc, with their level of success, yes?
The Republicans are all rich, mediocre, Affirmative Action hires from their voters, but taking all of our money, even though many of us did not vote for them.
Yes, it boggles the mind, and they got elected to the most powerful roles in our country! It appears that incompetence rules the day!
Money rules.
As well as that frontier justice mentality - shoot 'em up, beat 'em up- with no accountability - legal or otherwise - for their actions.
Richard the voters produced this worthless crop of "public servants".
Yes, the voters did elect a "worthless crop of public servants," and have since 1981. How did they get conned into voting for politicians that would work to their own economic and social welfare detriment? The wealthy bought up medial outlets and used wedge issues: abortion, women's rights advocates, gay rights advocates, immigrants, white Christian Nationalism, etc. "What's the Matter with Kansas?" (2004) Thomas Frank; "How the South Won the Civil War," (2020) Heather Cox Richardson; "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" Feb. 2018 edition of the peer-reviewed journal, "Critical Sociology." Google it. You can get a summary.
I understand, also, from various discussions that Americans typically don't like politicians who talk policy, theories, statistics - they prefer entertainers and charisma. Politics as show business appeals to most. Compare the debates between Kennedy/Nixon - Kennedy - nice looking, from a wealthy well known family; Nixon rather bland; Reagan - a former move star. Those are not rational voters.
Best money can buy.
Bierce again: "Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage."
The brain drain will continue until the MAGA movement is dead and sadly, beyond for many years thereafter.
I've spent much of my life living in rural America and every year, the top graduates leave, further their education and don't return for 40 years if ever.
This is now happening in many of our top research universities, colleges and companies. And the ones leaving aren't the MAGAs.
trump is gifting the world our best minds. Why stay when you are valued somewhere else? Our elected “leaders have shown they don’t have the backbone to uphold the American Experiment. It’s like a giant intellectual game of Jenga. Pull away the brains in the federal work force, pull away the brains in our research institutes, pull away the brains in medicine, environmental science, Arts and Letters, Public Health, etc and we get left with billionaires fulfilling “Atlas Shrugged”.
Eloquently said. Yes, it is all just a game for Tramp. And he is a terrible loser.
Well put!
MLRGRMI, excellent catch for Atlas Shrugged.
The objective of the Trump regime is not to serve the people, but rather to put into place a form of feudalism, with peasants constituting the vast majority of the population, leaving the spoils to the ultra wealthy. This is what happens when the masses are under-educated and/or stupid. We need a well educated electorate. We don't have that. Religion is a principal hindrance because it interferes with the critical-thinking process. Take the Middle East at this time. The present conflict probably would not be if religion wasn't at the core of the issue. The Muslim countries will not accept the presence of a Jewish state in the area. The Jews (Hebrews) had not occupied Israel for 2700 years when the Assyrians conquered Israel in about 722 B.C. Jesus never lived in Israel. In fact, given that there is nothing in the New Testament written by anyone who ever saw, spoke with or listened to anything that the supposed Jesus said, there is no credible proof that Jesus existed. Look to Paul for some of this story.
Hey GJ--my daughter teaches in a super-super-super-suburb of Chicago (basically a rural area, 30 minute drive from the Chicago suburb she lives in) She's tenured, over a decade of teaching experience, and makes less than $50K. The gas prices are going to really hurt her. She could apply to teach at the hs literally a 3 block walk from her house, and probably immediately get a $20K raise, BUT, she loves teaching the same kids for three years, she loves the smaller class size, and she loves a community where the school is central to their culture. And so she commutes and has some really long days.
Don't rural kids deserve good teachers, too? She's quite proud of teaching them (well, those who want to learn and can drop the phones, and there are a handful of them)--as she can build on the three years of continuous classes. She teaches them grammar and writing, and constructs a packet that builds. She tell them to keep them all in a binder and if they go to college, it will help them write. It has, and the few that go to college are amazed that "kids from big suburban schools can't write essays but we can!"
The farms are dying off. If it isn't college, it's the military. Not much out there. THIS is a message the Dems need to get across--the GOP has done nothing for your area. Don't treat these areas as fly-overs!
Graham Platner is running against Janet Mills in the primary and he is likely to win. She is too old to be a Senator for 6 years IMO. I heard him speak at his 44th town hall a week or so ago. He already has 15,000 people working for his campaign. Most are volunteers. He is an oysterman and he said he makes about $60K a year. He understands affordability better than Janet Mills or Susan Collins.
But she has already raised over $70 million mostly from out of state PACs. She has tons of baggage and she also is in her mid-70's.
She has brought ME trinkets while her party is happy to starve the elderly and school kids. The Republicans have tanked the economy and refuse to help with housing, health care and food.
But the oligarchs may win this election for Collins. They are going to try their best to paint here as someone who cares.
We'll see.
The Democrats really need to get that message across rather than the one they have been sending! I see more up and coming Democrats and Independents - young progressives - popping up all over the country - but the clear, obvious lack of Dem Party backup and assistance? You only have to look at Maine & their blind push of "their" candidate, Gov.Mills, the treatment of Mamdani in NYC, to see their typical "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory" once again! And I have no doubt that kind of "oversight" happens everywhere. Then there is the Israel and Gaza issue, as well as Lebanon, Syria, AND IRAN!
IMO teachers and health care workers are the hero of this economy. The school district I attended for K-12 never failed to pass a school bond issue from 1955-2025. And they knew how important teachers were to the community. All of us kids were very fortunate to have great teachers supported by the school district and the community.
Kudos to your daughter for caring more for her students than the Almighty dollar.
Your daughter is an everyday heroine in my book... She has made sacrifices for the education of her students and the community that supports that school. Your post is inspiring and rural areas need our heartfelt attention to their needs. Please thank your daughter for me for all she is doing, and thank you for sharing this story...
Yet the dems are pushing college, instead of offering trade schools, community colleges which offer classes in trade skills (plumbers, electricians, chefs, and so on). They represent the middle and lower classes who can't afford college.
@Loren. The magic word is EPSTEIN.
....And Loren, that portion of the coalition is doing what's 'best for us' - like their some Mother or Father, not 'sparing the rod.' They believe that.
Maybe I am being too cynical but I honestly don't think they believe they are doing what is best for us. They know they are doing what is best for themselves; and they know we know, that is why all the attacks on the Democrats. Now, the Dems are no angels and make tons of mistakes (at the end of the day we elect them - without thinking who is behind each one making them electable for their own purposes!) but the kind of corruption and ineptness this administration continues to exercise is beyond belief. I must admit I would have never imagined that any government would be allowed this level of bad behaviour in the USA.
More than ever, We the People need to face what is while imagining what might be. It feels like floating and drowning at the same time. I'm reminded of a leadership axiom that used to circulate, 'be the change you want to see in the world'. No way to estimate the force of that.
On you are not being cynical at all. They profit - we pay. Not a single member of this cabinet is interested in what happens to others, only how much they profit. Along with how much tax money they can shell out to supporters. The creation of companies that have arisen and given government contracts is unbelievable. Companies that have addresses in a UPS mail box, offices in a strip mall, have no personal or history of operation. It is astounding.
Let me count the ways democrats have made life better for ordinary citizens... well that would take to long.
How about counting the ways republicans have made life better?
Democracy is messy. There are many factions, sometimes a leader appears who can engage, inspire most of us. The Dems have lots of good people but the media does not seem to want to interview them.
Scott Bessent is the perfect example of that -- with his dripping condescension he clearly thinks Father Knows Best.
“Dripping condescension.” Perfect description.
Never wise to say never in politics.
There you go again with the Christonazi stuff. That term makes no more sense than Trump's gibberish. The nazi's killed way more Christians than Jews.
25th Amendment STILL requires a 2/3 vote of both House and Senate to have a permanent effect. Trump can negate an immediate temporary decision by the cabinet simply by saying so, and then it's up to Congress. And it takes MORE congressional votes (2/3 by BOTH houses) to permanently oust under the 25th than an impeachment takes.
And the 25th ONLY holds for the President, it can't be used against anyone else whereas impeachment can be used against any cabinet officers, etc.
And finally, I do not think there is any precedent OR law or constitutional support for a "mass" impeachment, each resolution must be brought and passed independently. That means that if you impeached Trump and succeeded, you would then have President Vance and you'd have to do the same to him. And then you'd have (god save us) President Mike Johnson, and so on.
Hate to face up to the really bad news here, but no one who ever was responsible for figuring this all out ever thought we would have such a lawless administration and a need for some kind of "mass ouster". The Constitution and its associated laws were drawn up in "normal" times with pretty much "normal" unusual (sorry for the oxymoron LOL) things happening, not a completely uncontrollable group of people leading the country.
And yet, here we are. Stay tuned, I believe it is seriously not going to be over until November 2028 when we hold the next Presidential election.
Agree about the impossibility of a 2/3 majority for another impeachment and that no mass ouster of the cabinet is in the Constitution.
However, Trump's cabinet is not necessarily beholden to Trump. I believe they, and most importantly, JD Vance, understand that if they do what the oligarchs want, they will be well rewarded.
I think the impact of the Iran War on the world economy will be so bad for business that the oligarchs will decide to ditch Trump ahead of the midterms. Trump is clearly beyond their control in his handling of the war at this point, so they will use their nuclear option and invoke the 25th.
With SCOTUS appearing to side with the no-mail-in-ballots-counted-after-election-day camp, ditching Trump is their shot at minimizing the blue wave while having a more compliant and controllable president in office.
After all, NO KINGS is directed specifically at Trump, Vance only would have to act rationally and not appear under the thumb of the oligarchs for the few months until after the midterms for there to be a relief rally in the stock market.
Basically, it is an interlude designed to lull the populace into thinking that there has been a return to normality and the Republic has been saved. Obviously, it is an illusion. But if it keeps less engaged voters away from the polls and a shit storm of state legislation outlawing mail-in ballots goes into effect, or SCOTUS rules on it even if it goes beyond what is being argued in the current case, then the blue wave is going to be less than it would be otherwise.
Once the midterms are over, Vance reverts to his true nature as the oligarchs' puppet.
PS Russia was planning a fake assassination attempt to bolster Orban's election chances in Hungary. Doesn't that sound familiar? Anybody think they might have gotten inspired by Trump's close call in Pennsylvania?
I no longer subscribe to WaPo so I can't gift their article.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/03/21/hungary-election-interference-russia-orban/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/budapest-denies-russia-offered-to-stage-fake-assassination-attempt-on-orban/ar-AA1Z9ZR9
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/72377
Georgia, you are giving a highly simplified version of the 25th Amendment. Section 4 (which is the section which permits the VP to attempt to "oust" the President) requires (in short version - the full version is at the end of this) that the VP and a majority of the cabinet declare the President to be unable to discharge the office. Then, the President may simply write to the Senate and House that he CAN discharge his office and he resumes power. And then the VP and cabinet can once again declare him incapable and THEN the House and Senate MUST start to take action within 48 hours until the reach a decision WHICH REQUIRES 2/3 of BOTH HOUSES TO OUST HIM PERMANENTLY.
So your approach is a short-term and politically almost impossible thing to happen. Trump will NEVER be ousted by 2/3 of the HOUSE AND SENATE. And nothing else is sufficient to kick him out of the White House.
Here is the wording of Section 4 of Amendment 25. Words DO matter.
Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
Jon, you know I have written about the whole 25th amendment process. many times already. You are assuming that Vance would take that step while Trump could write a response.
Trump is undergoing infusions of some kind. We know that from the marks on his hands. Melania is not living in the White House.
If the FSB is drawing up plans for fake assassinations to help Orban win his election, do you think it is out of the question that they manufacture a health crisis for Trump that puts Vance in power temporarily or permanently? Temporarily gets around Vance’s unlikeability to portions of the MAGA base. Vance is just a temporary placeholder. Trump could come back…Or not…
In some ways Trump controllably out of commission has interesting implications. It lets Vance pardon him, it keeps MAGA loyal and the evangelicals praying for a miracle “resurrection”, and the oligarchs have Vance on a leash in case he tries to do something they don’t like. The thing about having puppets is you have to keep them on their strings.
Obviously I am fantasizing a screen play here. It would all be too too unbelievable.
A lot of wishful thinking going on...
It's not working out too well for many of the oligarchs at the moment, at least not financially. Of course, they got what they wanted when the OBBBA passed and now they just need to weather TOFU's daily fuck ups.
It obviously still works for Trump to manipulate the markets so many of the sleavebag uber wealthy are making huge profits when Trump posts his lies.
Yes, Georgia, this is the argument- that the 25th lets R’s swap a rapidly failing and increasingly unpopular P&N&K Epstein class puppet president they (&we) can’t well control/manage for one they (&Thiel&Techbros) can, who will soften the midterm losses with less dependence on unsure election corruption.
Softening/avoiding the midterm losses is existential for the lot of them who deserve impeachment and conviction. None of them has loyalty to T that exceeds real fear of conviction after a blue tsunami, though they DO fear him. But he can be proffered the pardon by acting Vance, then go quietly into that goodnight with his and his pardoned family.s corrupt billions. Home free.
The R’s in congress will join D’s in the 2/3 vote since it is a (relative) fix for all their electoral and criminal concerns…(and T is bought off & maga loyalists have their Icon preserved).
I don’t think this is best for D’s vis-a-vis midterms (T remaining in office is best for D’s); this is WHY this will compel enough R’s.
BUT it is best for world, including D’s, longer term.
Jon (as I amended above where it might be seen), seems the 2/3's needed for a 'compassionate' R Pres swap-out might be a quite different (less onerous) political hurdle in congress than getting a 2/3's vote for impeachment and conviction (also a different/better timeframe, in terms of getting R votes to move T out prior to midterms - impeachment would drag into 2027 just to get 2/3 votes, if even possible).
Seems using the 25th is in the R's best (existential?) midterm interests (not the D's midterm interests). But it returns sanity to world stage, ends a war prior to election, puts a responsive puppet in the WH, etc, all any oligarch might want. And longer term, peace is in the D's/everyone's interest as well.
This doesn't begin to fix a failed democracy; it ameliorates disaster of T at helm. One can't fix our oligarchy without a longterm FDR type economic model. One can't have both billionaires and democracy operating in same domain... and this issue is global, and the fix is too.
I'm thinking about Walter Scheidel's "The Great Leveler: Violence and History of Inequality from the Stone-age to the Twenty-first Century"; Paul Kennedy's "Rise and Fall of Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Power from 1500 to 2000"; and Jefferson Cowie's Pulitzer, "Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power".
US democracy failed ~1965, when top tax brackets (ave.>90% for 20 years) started to fall. Wonder if LBJ made one of his famous deals to get the Civil Rights Act passed. In 1976 we had the Bukley case that allowed the wealthy to spend all they wanted on elections, under the aegis of free speech; with a similar argument in 1978 we gave corporations the right to donate to elections. These canary corpses were present long before Citizen's United got in our faces. Both of these (and many other 'thousand cuts') transferred not merely huge wealth, but control of USA governance, to the 0.01%.
This is where we are. Using the 25th doesn't fix this, but reduces global harm. I suspect, if presented 'politically', 2/3 of congress will vote to retire DJT.
We don't need votes, we need action.
This is very frightening.
I am sure Iranian leaders know what they are up against.
They are more aware than our leaders are.
We have been taking action! Look at the Democratic election victories, NO KINGS, independent media, calls to Congress to Congress, BridgeBrigade, Minneapolis etc. All of these and much more add up to an extremely active resistance to this fascist Government.
You describe another kind of power that seems to be acknowledged and dismissed simultaneously. Watch all attempts to distract from this coming No Kings Day on March 28th -- Trump can't face it and does not want the world to see either. Robert Reich today posted about WSJ's investigations of 200 videos associated with allegations of assault against ICE and Border Patrol agents: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/a-report-you-need-to-read?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Headline poll findings
Generic ballot: Democrats lead Republicans 49% to 43% among registered voters — a 6-point margin. Democrats have led in every poll since we launched the monthly partnership in May 2025.
Presidential approval: 37% approve of Trump’s job performance; 60% disapprove (net -23). Unchanged since February.
Prices hit a new low: Trump’s approval on prices and inflation fell to net -39, down 4 points from February and the worst single-issue rating we’ve ever recorded
Border security goes underwater: Trump’s last remaining bright spot — border security — slipped from net 0 to net -2. He is now underwater on every issue we track.
Iran war: 58% of Americans say the war is a bad use of taxpayer dollars. 61% would oppose it if gas prices were to rise by $1 or more per gallon. Additionally, 26% of adults say the war will make Americans safer, vs 51% who say less safe.
Direction of country: Only 10% say things are going well in America. 52% say things are going poorly and major changes are needed. 33% say “things could be going better.”
Buyer’s remorse: 13% of Trump voters say they regret how they voted in 2024 — twice the rate of Harris voters.
Source: Strength in Numbers
Why Civil Resistance Works
https://www.ericachenoweth.com/research/wcrw#:~:text=Teaching-,Why%20Civil%20Resistance%20Works,-Erica%20Chenoweth%20and
The Iranians are playing it smart. They know they have limited resources but are using them to their advantage, dragging this out is all they have to do.
We have to win, they just need to not lose.
Gary, the Iranians are playing the long game and even if they are hard liners, they know their own country and can set back and make fun of the blithering idiot who cannot stop talking and posting bluster and lies and call out what he says which changes all the time. Also I am reading that some (I don't know the percentage) in the military are questioning if they want to die or be wounded for death star and Bibi
The Irans will not lose. "We" won't win, but trump will lie that we won.
I hate to say "we" because I am on the side of the "terrorists"...have been since about a week after Oct7 when I started getting educated.
I ask, are you really on the side of terrorists?
In Iran's case a country that arrests and tortures women who refuse to cover their hair? That sanctions throwing gay men from roofs? That follows the dictates of a mythical character as supreme law? That finances foreign terrorists groups that take no matter whether they kill innocents?
Do you really take the side of adherents to a religion that rewards murder that gunned down kids at a music festival, threw grenades willy-nilly into shelters killing women and children? And then took women, the elderly, and children as hostages where they would rape and torture them?
I agree that it is possible Trump will lie and declare victory, but the crime wasn't that he fought Iran, it was how he did it.
Yes, Trump is awful, and he screwed this up, but the Iranians and Hamas are no groups to be on the side of.
Sam Harris summed it up nicely,
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/WhctKLcDqcnmVlbnnSWBwkjDNfHDBdQwfDXbSvdrzLfWTMLTRjCbVxmlCnjwzddJbQqrkRb
He’s been 25th Amendment material since Day 1 of this administration.Get rid of him!
We get rid of him by voting this regime out of office. There are no shortcuts to this. It took 10 years of voter malaise, corrupt media consumed every minute by lazy voters, campaign finance corruption, and historic low voter turnout. We helped to create this mess. We get ourselves out of it.
NO KINGS MARCH 28. Strong involvement in local politics and local communities. Support of independent media. Call congress. Voter registration.
I think one focus on the midterms is critical.
Using the 25th, which I am advocating, fixes NOTHING that is wrong with USA governance; it 'merely' lowers the probability of a world war. It doesn't even constitute a powershift toward Dems, if it is done so as to get the necessary 2/3 in congress. It is a temporization, but also a critical focus. Unfortunately there can be multiple criticalities.
US governance began to fail with whatever (?deal LBJ made that) allowed the 90%+ FDR income tax (top bracket) regime to end, beginning the end of the era of the rapid growth of US middle class and US democracy in one blow.
Today, we ARE an oligarchy. 94% of elections go to the candidate with the largest campaign war chest. You can't pass a bill with 6%.
Be nice if mid terms will be the exception, right? They MIGHT be, since our nation is in blatantly desperate straits (not just Hormuz!). Our national security is compromised in EVERY dimension under T.
The 'fix' for US and other nations around the world, is to defund the oligarchs; reclaim steerage of the ship of state; outlaw obscene power concentrations as inimical to the health of nations and world peace. Might take generations; or, democracy may never arise at scale again.
One CANNOT have both billionaires and democracy. They cannot coexist. When even one person can buy laws, elections, politicians as they choose, this is an oligarchy or worse. But all large nations now have highly consolidated power towers (billionaires and billion$ corp.s), as one unintended consequence of unbridled capitalism and unregulated tech. This may get much worse before it gets better. WE may be a police/thought control state via Palantir and AGI even before elected changes can happen, even with a blue tsunami.
We need a shared focus and understanding that enabling, or even allowing, enormous concentrations of personal (or corporate) power need to be revisited, IF we think democracy is desirable, or if we want to try reinstitute it.
Walter Scheidel's "The Great Leveler: Violence and Inequality from the Stone-age to the Twenty-first Century" is a sobering, but I think useful perspective on where we are, historically.
The Cabinet is not going to remove the orange felon from office. He’s their protection from legal jeopardy.
Vance would be the replacement, and he and Thiel are likely right now, and continuously, 'whipping the cabinet vote' for invoking the 25th.
They are VC's, after all.
Vance can promise immunity; not all of the cabinet can rely on getting that care from T. He's as apt to throw any of them under the bus.
There were two messages in MN. One is that compassion and care for others is part of politics, not just power and violence. The second is that direct action - to be effective - must be sustained, not sporadic. Yay for NoKings, but that is not what will move the needle. It is the weekly or daily turnouts at concentration camps and processing facilities. It is the standouts at courthouses and hospitals to protect the vulnerable. And these Bridge Brigades doing regular reach-out to commuters.
And these will only build to the level we need with more attention from the media - including “independent” (i.e. noncorporate) media that reach more of the independent and indifferent citizens who are choosing to not see what is happening at home. We could also benefit from regular anti-war or anti-warcrimes demonstrations at recruiting stations and the gates of military bases. Or regular standouts at the NYSE about insider trading and corruption. There are SO MANY causes and sites to show our resistance. But we need to invest time and energy to communicate with others and build a movement. One, two three No Kings Demos are not the 3.5% that Chenoweth and others have found effective. We now need persistence and focus on the specifics of what we resist not merely a portmanteau demonstration the resistance exists.
Turn out for NO KINGS. But use it as an opportunity to introduce yourself to the people near you and to find out HOW your causes and concerns overlap with theirs. Start building networks of resistance focused on the matters you see as demanding action.
Tnx, these are several very important points.
The thing is, the whole cabinet warrants impeachment, too.
Absolutely true!
But sometimes the perfect is the enemy of the best you can get. I suspect there are 2/3 of congress votes for removing T on disability grounds, with pardons for him and his mob, just to prevent WWIII and economic disaster.
I wish I had faith in his cabinet or Congress but they, too, need to be ousted. I can’t see one of them backing a 25th amendment decision.
November is 7 months away. How can we each support our reluctant fellow citizens to vote? How far will we each go to make darn sure our votes are counted? These two questions are always on my mind.
When people see activism, they get inspired. Get out there and protest. NO KINGS MARCH 28. Until we take responsibility and get loud and get busy nothing changes. Get involved in your community on the issues, register people to vote. Worrying changes nothing.
Find your NO KINGS MARCH 28 protest near you. Make a sign that reads "protect the vote"
https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=ff2ca1c6b8dc9e8c04735dba8ef6e8eec0433ef3acab21634fdc4a255b2fed6aJmltdHM9MTc3NDMxMDQwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=22216e63-947f-6417-0fa3-7b7795f96515&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubm9raW5ncy5vcmcv
I would NOT advocate, nor wish for, faith in this cabinet!
I am suggesting that one can show a self-interested person an insight into their best interests.
The cabinet? RU kidding?
Vance can proffer pardons, which they all need, and they are already billionaires; bet you a nickel that Thiel and Thiel's tool Vance can whip up the votes in the cabinet. They are VCs.
By the same token, removing T would have 2/3+ bipartisan support, but for differing reasons in each party.
Pursuing impeachment is a distraction as conviction in the Senate is virtually impossible.
Agree. But invoking the 25th does not take a trial, just a vote. It still requires 2/3 in congress, but under quite different political color. The 25th can be cast as a compassionate vote for an old guy that began to have health events; Vance can make a deal to pardon the T mob and cabinet folk whose support he needs. R congressmen will have a better chance in the midterms, and so, MAY prevent a blue tsunami.
I bet one can get 2/3 of congress to support an R pres. swap for Vance, but I agree there's no way (short of the blue tsunami and 18 more months) to get an impeachment and conviction. Which ideally should happen, likely won't.
I wonder if we might have the votes in Congress after all the recent statements and 'decisions.' Look at the Cabinet memters: I don't see 2/3 of the Cabinet voting to declare him too impaired to lead. Vance, of course. Probably Rubio, who used to be normal. But how many others will turn on the hand that has fed them so well?
Vance and Peter Thiel will be the new hands that feed them. Can offer pardons and largesse. What's not to like?
What's even different - except for the prospect of removing insanity from the nuclear button?
This cabinet probably doesn't know that and is nothing more than a tool for him. Very unlikely.
The cabinet that was fawning over him in Tennessee? That cabinet?
Expect them to fawn over Vance/Thiel exactly as assiduously & performatively?
V can offer pardons immediately upon invoking Section 4 with half the cabinet, and P.Thiel can buy their souls for a premium on what they're worth. V's pardon's are likely more sure than T's, who might throw you under the bus on a cloudy day.
Impeachment does not mean anything but a bunch of smoke screen unless there is a possibility of being found guilty. Remember the Clinton impeachment??? I am old enough to remember that. It was not nice for Clinton to have to deal with that but there was no way he was going to be removed from office and he knew that and he was not removed from office. It was a total waste.
Impeachment is never coming. That would require them to admit error, and this movement is built on the refusal of error. The Christian nationalists wrapped around Trump do not operate as a political party in any normal sense. They operate like a sect convinced that power sanctifies itself. If they win, it was God’s will. If they lose, it was sabotage. If they break the law, the law was corrupt to begin with.
Well said; that about sums it up.
The Republicans feel “entitled” to be the managers of our government.
I believe you are correct ✅
A perfect summation of the dangerous, foolish effects of organized religion.
Michael, but a compassionate required retirement via 25th would pass 2/3 congress, if done in a bipartisan way. Not so much a political win for Dems; just as righting the ship of state and preventing a WWIII. Vance/Thiel may be more 1984 than T, but MUCH less likely to bomb nuclear plants or invade our neighbors.
Remember TOFU--TRUMP ONLY F*CKS UP. Of course, it would be best for 99.9% of us is TOFU had a massive stroke, lingered for a couple of months and then died, but impeachment isn't going to stop him from getting dumber every day.
And since we're in primary season for the next several months, everything he does blows back on ALL of the Republicans running for, well, everything.
Donald Trump may be really incompetent at managing the operations of real things like the Presidency or foreign policy, but what he is clearly VERY competent at is corruptly making money through innuendo and propaganda. When insider trading investigations begin, let's start at the top.
GJ, I do not want him to linger. I do want it to happen in public because I think the cabal will hide it as long as they can.
They are going to have a very hard time hiding a corpse, no more appearances of any kind, and the frantic jockeying for position around the Dunce will be quite obvious. Not to mention the distress among the true believers……….😎
I still want it in public. That way we will all know immediately. And I do think that they will hide maybe not long, but as long as they can.
Donald Trump may be really incompetent at managing the operations of real things like the Presidency or foreign policy, but what he is clearly VERY competent at is corruptly making money through innuendo and propaganda. When insider trading investigations begin, let's start at the top.
Hopefully, we'll see DonOld's obit soon, but if not, we already have all the evidence needed to put him away for 1) pedophilia, 2) war crimes, 3) stealing secret documents and lying about it, 4) sex trafficking, 5) bribery, 6) market manipulation, etc.
TOFU TACO its a delicious breakfast. Serving on the streets in Tehran daily.
TOFU! Love that
AND this time CONVICT AND REMOVE!!!
We get rid of him by voting this regime out of office. There are no shortcuts to this. It took 10 years of voter malaise, corrupt media consumed every minute by lazy voters, campaign finance corruption, and historic low voter turnout. We helped to create this mess. We get ourselves out of it. NO KINGS MARCH 28. Strong involvement in local politics and local communities. Support of independent media. Call congress. Voter registration.
I agree completely but once we again have control I believe we need to start cleaning house in the same fashion established January 2025. Additionally, I hope several on the side of sanity are working hard on Project 2029!
Exactly!
Dream on...
Yes, this one.
Yes, if you want to save America. Off ramp for America. This is the only way out.
Great idea - getting him out of office, out of the building, out of sight, & out of what's left of our minds. But then what? Vance sits at the Resolute Desk? Are you kidding me??? Or next, Speaker Johnson??? Argh!!! Go ahead, pick a cabinet member, ANY cabinet member. Not one in the whole bunch is qualified, let alone appealing. This is a sickening mess.
Candace. My solution (in my mind). The idiot has a BIG BEAUTIFUL party at Maralago and invite all the other idiots and the earth swallows them ALL😌
Love it -- a fabulous Florida sinkhole!
Hey, all - This was my reply to Mark Shield's comment: "Section 4, 25th Amendment." Somehow it didn't get "attached" - at least not on the screen I'm looking at. Just FYI.
But what if it's 2027 and Jeffries is the Speaker and Vance goes as well?
Section 2 of the 25th:
Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
So, with removal of T under section 4, Vance chooses the VP - it will not necessarily be Mike J.
The power behind the Vance throne will be Peter Thiel of Palantir (VC; mass surveillance business for military AND corporations; AGI proponent for population control.)
Yeah, not pretty.
WWIII with US losing IS even worse, and where we're heading with Mr. T, as he appears to be sabotaging national security in almost every possible way P would like.
So Section 4, 25th Amendment is not a fix for what ails USA, it is a way of temporizing and slowing our rapid rate of decline. Read Paul Kennedy's "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000".
The global disease (almost an STD, reading the E files) is the obscene concentrations of personal power that (unregulated capitalism * new unmanaged tech) has brought us.
The fix, if there is one, can take generations - or worse. (Read Walter Scheidel's "The Great Leveler: Violence and History of Inequality from the Stone-age to the Twenty-first Century".
I think we are better off with him in the oval than the alternatives. Imagine how bad the speeches will be in 3 years. Then we can be done with the whole bunch. And those who don’t already have money will end up working at third rate tv shows.
Nah, the Republucans have wiped thier ass with the Constitution and Trump is the shitstain they left doing it. They can have ropes or bullets, and once they are in the ground we can put together a better system of government. Compared to what we are replacing it wouldn't be particularly hard.
I agree we need to build a better system. I feel the ideal of a Republic is fine but the problem is the lie by the Supreme Court in creating corporate personhood. Plus the "Citizens United" decision which gave us Trump two times. There are many others wounds caused by the Court and actions by others like Trump. We need to repeal corporate personhood. That is why I don't agree with Senator Adam Schiff et al., and their “Citizens Over Corporations Amendment”. Nor do I agree with the “For Our Freedom Amendment” by American Promise (primary founder Jeff Clements). Both claim to address Citizens United (2010) but I find their words to not be the rampart we need. They use legal terms such as Congress and the States “...may regulate...”, and “...shall have power to...” The problem is that allows Congress and the States to decide whether they “may” or “shall have power to ” do anything. I see those words as a gate which for a “campaign contribution” will be left wide open to mega-money in politics. Plus they offer no language repealing corporate personhood.
In my “Memorandum to We the people” I put all the direct evidence for all the bad deeds by the Supreme Court and others in one place. Then I provide a comprehensive five section model Amendment: strong medicine for our badly wounded Republic. It is the sort of language required to build a better system, a Rampart for our Republic. Please read, discuss and share my “Memorandum to We the People.” On my cite below there are downloads in the upper right corner including my Memorandun and logo posters which can be printed at Staples, etc. for the No Kings march. The professional interpretation and effective presentation of my Memorandum by Mr. Dale Rowett of LexiGraphics.Pro alone is worth a visit to my page at UnitedWeAmend.org
Corporate personhood, or whatever you want to call the selective conflation of human rights with a business beyond the universal personal rights of the people who operate it is such make-believe I cannot see how we as a society are content to tolerate it. Yes the finances of the business can be legally separated from those of the individuals who own and operate it, but the logic of "Citizens United" is as patently phony as the justification used for "Dred Scott".
I agree and have I no idea how we can tolerate the theft of our equal individual rights. Recall Mitt Romney (video below) campaigning in plain-folk style with his foot up on a bail of hay at the Iowa State Fair in 2001, saying, "Corporations are people, my friend,..." His adding “my friend” really twisted to me. It reminds me of a scene from “The Music Man.” Professor Harold Hill saying, "Ya got trouble, folks,...” Hill was selling musical instruments. Romney was selling a bold-faced lie. The thing about lies is "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it". – Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister. The big corporate personhood lie began in the late 1880's. In 1888 the case of “Pembina Consolidated Silver Mining Co. v. Pennsylvania,” 25 U.S. 181 (1888) (hereinafter, Pembina), was the scene of a prior small headnote growing big. The Court held as to the Fourteenth Amendment, “Under the designation of person there is no doubt that a private corporation is included. Such corporations are merely associations of individuals united for a special purpose ...” On page 12 of my Memorandum I explain what the Court did in practical terms, “To put the Court’s analysis of law and facts in perspective the Court worked like a street hustler playing a fast shell game. They placed the non-transferable rights endowed in individual persons under shell #1, as if it were a pea. Then as they quickly moved the shells (words) around they steal the pea from shell #1, and load it under shell #2, an assembly of individuals now having rights transferred from, and distinguishable from, the individual attendees. Then finally they move the shells (words) a last time, steal the pea again and load it under shell #3, a State’s charter, a certificate of incorporation, a shield against lawsuits for its shareholders (individual attendees), now having equal protection of the laws the same as individual Americans endowed with natural rights. Imagine Chief Justice John Mar shall in 1801, holding The Company to be a person with equal protection of the laws. The Court probably would have been tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail by the Sons of Liberty. Chief Justice John Marshall, of course, never wrote such lies. The principles of the Enlightenment, including those articulated by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, had a profound impact on him. He also invited legal briefs and oral argument before deciding important matters and used constitutional law and principles to guide his sound decisions.” – at UnitedWeAmend.org.
Mitt Romney, my friend... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxUsRedO4UY
Mitt Romney is NOT your friend LOL!
Exactly. As Marc Elias reminds us - Stop looking for heroes among villains.
Albert, yes we need to build a better system however, I don’t believe that attempting to repair what we’ve got will solve our problem long-term. If we are to keep our “eyes on the prize“ we need to hold a sufficient vision to get that prize.
The constitution our forefathers had created 250 years ago was possibly one of the most amazing feats to be seen in the history of the United States. However, 250 years have passed and it’s time for us to update our vision and create the structures necessary to operate it. To do this, we have to admit that currently our system of governance, and particularly our system of economy are failed systems and they are responsible for having brought us to this place. The constitution was based on “gentlemen‘s agreements“ that we would all behave in a civilized manner. The Trump regime has torn that understanding wide open. Also, I do believe that capitalism has run its course and what better proof is there than to see how it has sucked the money from yours and my pockets to go up to the few billionaires at the top.
Is capitalism a successful system? Yes it certainly is for the ultra wealthy. For the rest of us, it sucks. It sucks the money from our pockets upward to the biggest fattest pockets on the planet.
It is time for us to have a good hard look at a very old system of economy and open ourselves to the possibility that there is something better such as Economic Democracy. This is not socialism, this is not communism and it is not the oligarchy we are operating under today. This is a much advanced system that could insure that all of us share in the wealth generated by this country and that every vote from every person counts. That is true democracy.
https://crisistransition.substack.com/p/a-programmatic-agenda-for-economic?triedRedirect=true
I disagree that "The constitution was based on “gentlemen‘s agreements“ that we would all behave in a civilized manner. The Trump regime has torn that understanding wide open." First, the Constitution was framed as a Republic, a government of law, and not of men. Second, Trump is violating the laws, not simply a "gentlemen‘s agreement," or a "understanding." For the President to openly violate the laws and not be prosecuted is the problem. We have grown from four Executive Departments in 1789 to fifteen today. We need to repeal the Elector system and the single Executive and diversify, divide those fifteen Departments among seven Executives. One of them would be the Attorney General with who has the job to enforce the laws such that no person is above the law. Under such an amended government Trump would be jail. I address such a major change in my Memorandum.
“For the President to openly violate the laws and not be prosecuted is the problem.”
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. The Constitution provides ways to head off or prevent what we are currently living with. We (the editorial we) just didn’t follow through. But I agree, that document needs some serious overhaul.
and don't forget to overhaul humans, as well...or did they spring from the document? maybe we don't watch the same movies... where drug or weapons dealers or some other profiteering bad person says, 'if you kill me someone else will just take my place'? and there has always seemed to be that 'someone'...
if there was no demand...humanity would have gone extinct...
if there actually IS a solution, it sure isn't an easy one...
what's worked well for me in life is doing what i can to take it a moment and a person at a time...and abiding by what i call 'natural law'...
and, as much as i could, not allowing others to be authorities in my life unless i've felt they'd earned it...people like Heather, even though i don't always agree with her...and that's ok with me. who hits a target 100% of the time?
Another "good luck, you're going to need it" comment. Speaking purely theoretically, this is a great idea. Speaking practically, it is just off the rails. We aren't going to see fundamental change in the very nature of our system in a few decades, probably not even in a hundred years or more. It would take either revolution (highly impractical and unlikely) or some massive sea change that doesn't seem possible. A better course of action is limited surgical changes that COULD over time, with a willing populace and intelligent leadership, result in a slow but enduring movement towards more even-handed democracy.
We are NOT a small speed boat anymore (as we may have been at the outset of our independence). We are a HUGE aircraft carrier and it takes slow patience to turn a nation like ours.
It can be turned, but restraint, caution and patience is needed to do it.
Almost all changes necessary to bring significant change to a system happen very fast, and both biology and archaeology teach us this. The system endures until some positive feedback mechanism tips over and the system runs away at speed. Historians try (and usually fail, and even they will admit to this) to point to some event that coincided with the runaway, but at the end of the day its usually more coincidental than causal.
Enough people could wake up tomorrow and decide we are all sick of this, grab pitchforks and torches, and before November rolls around we'd have new countries, new laws, new Constitutions, and seven new nuclear armed nation states. All that has to really happen is for people to stop being willing to be crushed underheel by their government in the name of being American, and if you look around, that's happening.
Not even enough people would die doing it to move the needle compared to underinsurance, car and gun fatalities, and regular old police violence, and our kids would wake up next year in a brave new world where they could finally be proud of their parents for giving them a chance at a better tomorrow.
Al, I just read your webpage document and I have to agree it makes incredibly great sense for the most part. I expect I could pick a few nits with you and maybe even suggest some improvements, but if this were possible to be enacted it would go a LONG way to improving things.
Sadly, I doubt there is any real chance to actually pass and ratify such a broad-ranging amendment. It is ALMOST like creating a new "sub-constitution" within the actual Constitution, because it changes so many things. Some of the more critical ideas absolutely need to be passed, probably as separate amendments (repeal of the effect of Citizens United decision, increase in size and re-allocation of the House of Representatives, elimination of life-terms for all judicial appointments, etc.) which MIGHT be doable, although I expect it will take a long time, maybe 50+ years to even fully put a limited number of amendments into effect.
But then again, one of the wisdoms of the founders was to make our Constitution not subject to instantaneous change, even when that frustrates some (or many) of us.
THANK YOU for reading it, Jon. Your voice here is important, and even more so when you consider other voices. I hope you two -- Jon Rosen and Albert R. Killackey keep on.
This has been a great dialogue, and could be listed as one of the examples of how much good this forum does.
My Thanks for your reading my Memorandum. I am open to any ideas and improvements. My intent of creating what you may correctly see as a
"new "sub-constitution" within the actual Constitution, because it changes so many things" is because the Court Jesters changed so many things in the last 140 years. I understand the idea of cutting it up into separate amendments, etc. I thought about that but decided to put it all, wounds and and bindings, in one place to inform "We the People" and to encourage discussion about it. As for how long it takes to amend, I really believe Trump is better than any of the rest of us at informing Americans we need to unite and Amend our Constitution forthwith. Thanks again.
Bravo - Citizen's United must perish. It's one of the pillars of another part of the coalition.
I agree 100%. CU is clearly one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever visited on this country. Unfortunately, as we have seen with a few other incredibly awful decisions (consider Dredd Scott), it is not easy to fix (Dredd Scott took a hugely destructive civil war). And today, with the kind of armaments available to the military of the US, civil war is even less likely to be useful even if we wanted it to happen. We need civil political change via voting and incremental Constitutional amendments, the kind that can be sold to a vast majority of Americans. With our current polarization, it will take leaders with incredible skill to make that happen. I fear it may not be possible, but I have hope that it will.
Jon, I'm 70, and have 3 grandchildren. I hope that one day they are among the generation to see this to fruition. I know I won't, and it's doubtful that my kids will, except in small increments should this country survive itself.
Every last one of them, the bodies left to rot off the ropes.
I like the image but, unfortunately, even if that fantasy were to come true, there would still be the 77 million louts who voted for the orange ding-dong sucking air, taking up space, and causing problems of all stripes.
I really question how the 77 plus million really happened. Greg Sargent explained a lot of this, but I also must add this observation:
you don't campaign the way he did, you don't involve a tech leader with a small army of hackers along with the army of Russian bots and win fairly.
Supposedly 77 million Rex. And they were lied to.
They wanted to be lied to. Willful ignorance.
Yes; With those sort of folks, isn't that always so ? It's still a huge point that they were all, mostly lied to. I think that's the issue for us to exploit, to assist them to self immolate. Do you understand my thinking: Divide the coalition, or help them divide themselves, according to their individual priority disappointments as part of coalition. They were all lied to and that's the fracture line to exploit. Very few coalition parts are satisfied.
Rex, I got poor grades in Geometry class, not because I got the wrong answers, but because I couldn't memorize and quote the theorems beside my work.
Don't ask me to show my work, but based on the recurring numbers in the polls, I suspect that only about 35%, or 27 million of Donald's voters are "hardcore fans" in the bleachers. The remaining 50 million are just "there for the tailgate parties." Those 50 million might not be persuaded to vote for a Democrat, but they could be convinced to choose a sane Republican.
How to make that happen? By having the next Democratic administration break up the monopolies in our mediasphere. By enacting laws requiring media to clearly label opinions as such. By enacting laws that prohibit media from broadcasting lies as truth. This wouldn't solve all the problems, but it would be a good start toward persuading 50 million voters to make their decisions based on facts rather than "beliefs."
Yes, if decency ever comes back in the legislature, I hope it will enact such laws, and hope the administration will be conscientious enough to enforce the hell out of them.
Forgot to comment on your estimates, Dale Rowett. I think your numbers are about right, for the most part, but I don’t think any Republican can win without promising to do everything possible to preserve the systemic advantages of white Americans. That promise, and delivering on it, his been the foundation of their success since 1968. They cannot do without it, politically, so they can never givern with decency.
Well, Rex, maybe a typical politician who makes the promises but doesn't deliver could win Republican votes.
Truth is, white christian males have always been the privileged class. The baby steps of progress that benefitted the other classes didn't impinge on white christian male supremacy. What changed was media amplification of those baby steps, making them appear to be giant strides that were "cancelling" white christian males.
I'm probably overlooking some major turning point that occurred in 1968, but the milestone I recall is Ronald Reagan's rise to power on his assertion that "the problematic U.S. Government was taking tax money from hard-working white Americans and handing it to Black freeloaders." He was also indifferent to the exploding AIDS epidemic, bolstering the myth spread by christians that it was "God's punishment for homosexuality."
And just to round out the Reagans' conservative appeal, Nancy was the ultimate "trad wife," staying at home, serving her husband, getting her hair done and dabbling in astrology.
interestingly enough, they feel the same about you...so where does THAT end...?
i commented above that i didn't always agree with Heather...within the last 10 days or so she dug up some of the history around legislation to promote the freedom of black people...and it seemed to have a positive conclusion...and i thought, 'BULLshit! it was all just hiding under the surface...'.
and maga proves my thought.
fear of 'other' is hardwired into most creatures...the only progress seems to be to have grown justifications of one sort or another for cruelties imposed...
and we do the best we can to survive with some quality of life in the middle of all of that...
same as blacks have had to do in that country...
Yes, they do indeed feel the same about me. Reminds me of the early 1860s.
Where it should end, in a civil war, and when the dust settles the same people will lose it as lost it last time, for EXACTLY the same reasons. And this time we won't be stupid enough to forgive the south or leave two bricks standing in the red states. And I say that having grown up in one.
The gene pool just needs a spot of chlorine is all, and I'm honestly sick of having the same conversation of "life is precious" no its not, life is cheap, and if your going to use your life to prop up ignorance and stupidity, or worse, religion, then you've already spent yours and we can put you to good use as fertilizer.
We have a good system, it just needs to be shored up against the degree of corruption and wealth not anticipated by the framers.
No we don't, and we never have. Every other constitutional republic that followed ours uses our constitution and system of government as an example of what NOT to do. Not to mention imagine how awesome it would be to wake up tomorrow in a country that didn't have one word in its documents and laws detailing acceptable human slavery, or establishing classes of people who's votes were worth more than anyone else's, or saying that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money on legal bribery.
Our system of government makes Iran look like a model of fairness and efficiency, and that's why we are currently trying to bomb them back to the stone age, either that or to to create conditions for bringing back a biblical messiah, depending on whom in the actual chain of command you ask.
I believe that your example of Iran being a better system of government than the USA my be a bit of hyperbole? Yes things are bad currently, snd we have a history of problems. Totally agree. But saying we are worse than a theocracy that has fueled direct terror actions for decades is just not true. I guarantee you are persecuted living a comfortable life, without any significant risk to your personal safety. With the extra cash to participate here. On a marketplace of free speech! Ee are losing our collective minds about a handful of unprecedented government driven murders as we should be. But in Iran tens of thousands were killed at protests, this year! women are punished for how they dress and hair covers. Deep breath. This country is worth fighting for.
The United States has fueled direct terrorism for decades. On a marketplace of Free Speech is particularly laughable while we have government agents murdering people in the street for participating in protest, and its not the first time this has happened, or the second, or the third. The fact that we have only started really objecting to it once they started killing white people speaks volumes about the situation.
In the United States women are raped and attacked for how they dress, without repercussion or even the benefit of investigation. Its so common at this point that its the source of a publicly joke about how a woman is safer with a wild bear, than they would be with a man, because if they say they are attacked by a bear they will be believed, and the matter investigated.
Thank you for so clearly demonstrating your privilege, this country is not the fount of greatness you clearly think it is, and an education on the matter would serve you well. A little education in what life has been like in Iran both before and after US intervention wouldn't hurt either.
The worthless weaklings in the GOP had better wake up. Trump is in fairyland. He's not just lying; he's making up stories. When that story starts to go south he will have to "do something about it." Those Iranians just aren't playing his way, as they agreed to do. He is highly likely to solve the problem the only way he can.
"What's the point of having nuclear bombs if you don't use them?"
A Madman at the helm and a useless crew. This is the Real story.
Don't give him ideas! This is my personal biggest fear that he will actually resort to this when he is cornered, which I fear he is very close to.
Everybody has this thought; they just don't say it...as if saying something makes it happen.
The unmentionable horror.
they have zero integrity left.
LEFT? thanks for the laugh, Rickey...
Heather describes something more dangerous than confusion. It describes government by manipulation. Trump’s threats toward Iran, his sudden claims of successful talks, and Iran’s flat denial that any such talks occurred did not merely expose disorder. They produced it. Markets lurched, oil jumped, and presidential power once again functioned as a device for chaos rather than governance.
That is the real scandal. Foreign policy is not supposed to operate like a con man’s microphone, where every reckless statement creates panic, headlines, and opportunity for someone positioned to profit from the noise. A constitutional office is being used like a personal stage prop, with military tension, market volatility, and international credibility all treated as disposable material in the construction of one man’s drama.
What this reveals is not simply incompetence, though there is plenty of that. It is a governing style built on destabilization. Contradiction is not an accident; it is the method. Confusion is not fallout; it is the product. And when the presidency becomes a machine for manufacturing fear, rumor, and financial shock, the United States stops looking like a republic and starts looking like a racket with nuclear weapons.
"government by manipulation" ✅
very nicely put, Michael...thank you.
Donald was never "intelligent" (a subjective descriptor), due to his congenital learning disability. He had trouble acquiring and retaining information in the typical educational environment. But as a younger man still in possession of his sanity, he had "street smarts," learned from his minimally educated father. Both men had the uncanny ability to anticipate how people would react to situations they created, and use those reactions to enrich themselves.
Lying, or "bluffing" was one of the techniques they used to create favorable circumstances. In those early days, bluffing worked because by the time people caught up with the lies, Fred, then Donald, had already profited and moved on to the next con. Bigger business required bolder lies, and practice gave Donald the confidence to try them.
He has brought that same technique to his presidency, but he has not anticipated that our instantaneous mediasphere exposes his lies almost in the same moment he tells them. His lies are still creating channels for profit as before, but unlike his Manhattan business dealings, his lies are now global in impact and are surrounded with international chaos.
Why do we have just one President? Trump knows nothing about foreign policy, the economy, social security, health care, homeland security, transportation, financial systems, climate change, defense, etc. So we have bastardized the Federal government to provide 15 departments so that an expert or a committee of experts can run that department. And yet, if the person who receives the most electoral college votes (and not the majority) decides to override any decision made by the experts in each of these departments it doesn't matter what they have decided. Joe Biden arguably had the most qualified and competent cabinet of my lifetime. Over 75,000 infrastructure projects were initiated under him overseen by Pete Buttigieg. How many of these projects were Joe Biden even aware of and how many did he prevent from happening because he loves oil?
The big flaw in government is we have a system where Congress decides which projects to fund and they appropriate the money to do so, and then the President illegally and with impunity overrides those projects.
Stop even thinking about that worthless piece of paper. It was designed to look like the asswipes were "doing something" when it wouldn't have worked 50 years ago and even less so with politics as polrized as now.
It might be too late but it's still not too late. Damn...I'm starting to sound like Trump!
Yeah, definitely not perfect. V sucks. And he's Thiel's tool. But swapping T for V may preclude insanity at the helm of the ship of state for 2.8 more years, may keep us out of wars with neighbors and allies, and end war in Iran, etc. At the moment national security is in the toilet, and swirling fast.
The line of Secession makes me concerned. All mediocre yes men and women. Who are not leaders we want. How about impeaching Trump and his whole cabinet and staff?
Both Impeachment & Conviction (Article II) and removal for disability (Section 4, 25th Amendment) will require 2/3 vote of congress to effect. My argument is that we already know that Impeachment and conviction will take a lot of R congressmen to vote with dems, AND we know we have failed with this twice, since voting to impeach one's leader is a vote to remove one's self from office in the next election.
But the 25th amendment, while requiring the same number of votes, can play as a compassionate and prudent move by both D's and R's, to remove an elder leader who has developed a disability; V will proffer pardons to entire T mob, and the T mob may accept, a) so that the midterms are not a Tsunami, and b) because if the mid terms ARE a blue tsunami, they MAY be impeached and convicted. So the 25th gives R's existential electoral cover for the midterms, and gives everyone safety from an insane old man with finger on the button.
25th Amendment? Hell, Baker Act the fucker.
You'll have to explain the Baker Act to most non-Floridians. My daughter had a few friends that were Baker Acted for attempting suicide in Florida.
Is your daughter ok?
Yes, thank you for asking. One of her good friends in high school in Ponte Vedra had a rough break-up with her boyfriend and attempted suicide. As you know, that's an automatic stay in the psych-ward.
It's not easy being young. Glad you and yours are ok.
No doubt. I was hoping maybe some would look it up. It seems apropos since Trump hangs out in FL a lot. It also has the right cachet...don't you think?
As a teacher is would have my students prepare a report to present to the class…while most did the necessary work, a few would avoid doing the job of preparation and show up with little or nothing to say. They still had to stand in front of the class and present. Donny-John sounds just like one of those, he’s just making shit up!
As are his handlers…and as far as ‘insider trading’ the clan has made billions of dollars to take to their desert island. Let’s suggest this plan ASAP! They can keep all their crapto-currency too! And we ‘promise’ to send them crapto-food. And probably, maybe, whatever…to not bomb the island.
Target practice as needed.
Incoherency, lies, obfuscation, deceit, insanity ....are always in full display. Sounds like conditions for a 25th amendment proposal as you suggest, Mark. We've tried that before and failed. There's only one way to eliminate trump - I won't print it for fear of reprisals, arrest for treason and deportation....
Agree, now is the time for action.
But differ in this: Section 4 of the 25th Amendment has NEVER been invoked in US history. So I think that should be used asap to prevent more national and global harm.
The most glorious day awaits..... Soon please!
Weird opposite things keep happening exponentially faster in this timeline. Whoda thought I'd ever wish he'd just go back to sending out memes of the Obamas as monkeys!
yeah...🙄
But this would depend on Vance, so seems like an extremely unlikely path.
But you have to get his whole bootlicking cabinet to vote for it and that’s NOT going to happen !
Actually, it is just 50% of the cabinet.
Here is the 25th Amendment, Section 4, 1st paragraph:
"Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President."
Three key bits: it takes just 50% of the cabinet plus Vance to invoke. Once invoked, Vance is acting President, and CAN PARDON. Vance/PThiel/Palantir is a venture capitalist; he/they know how to get votes from a board of corrupt billionaires.
Dream on...
"Section 4: Declaration by vice president and cabinet members of president's inability
Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers (The "principal officers of the executive department[s]" are the 15 Cabinet members enumerated in the United States Code at 5 U.S.C. § 101):[11][12]of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President."
The Cabinet will never do this. They know he is their lifeline. We need to focus on the concrete actions we can take.
NO KINGS MARCH 28
Source: Wikipedia
We ARE assuming that we have an election that isn't corrupted by 5-10%, via the many ways we're already seeing...? We need to be thinking about what if that assumption fails, in this situation.
While I agree with our electoral efforts, marching, letter writing, donation, commenting on line, building community networks, etc. it is ALSO necessary that T be moved out NOW for national security, and global safety - not in Jan 2029. Not sufficient due diligence to hope for wining 2/3 of house and senate for impeachment and conviction.
I'm making the case that a credible tool for mitigating T's global harm is the 25th, section 4. Vance (/P.Thiel/Palantir) would be acting president IMMEDIATELY, and can offer pocket pardons to all the criminals in cabinet, and largesse, just as well as T. And V can immediately offer the same to T's entire mob to get their compliance with the Don's graceful as possible involuntary retirement (note: this is the ONLY kind of retirement he'll have).
Doing this would help assure there's an actual election in Nov, among other things, like no global conflict wrecking global economies and lives.
I heard from a European friend this evening asking me to explain what is going on, and I just laughed. And felt like crying, but mostly laughed because what could I tell her that would make any sense out of non-sense? There is no rational explanation for anything that comes out of Mr Trump's mouth. Is it all lies? All fantasy? All mental illness? Not being a psychiatrist, I can't come up with a diagnosis, but it is clear to everyone that the man who is supposedly in charge of our country has no grasp on reality.
> Is it all lies? All fantasy? All mental illness?
After Iran said no talks were happening and I re-listened to Trump’s comments and read this Letter, I got the worst feeling in the pit of my stomach — how completely divorced from reality (and truth) he really is, how badly the country and the Middle East and really the world are actually being f*cked — it’s the worst I’ve felt in a while…
We're all focused on his psychiatric deformities right now, as we certainly should be. But worse, by far -- by far, is the abasement and degradation of the entire Republican Party for being facilitators and apologists for these endless, non-credible, swaggering chickenshit storms blending fantasy, cruelty and arrogance together like a cake batter.
For those who study authoritarian regimes, we find ourselves in the middle of the "stormy, prolonged applause" period of a cult worship session, not at its end. A passage in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" speaks to this. In 1937 or so, Stalin has just finished speech to a Party Congress, and the entire auditorium bursts into what Communist Party hacks always describe in official records as either "stormy applause" or "stormy, prolonged applause" (if you're a robot true-believer, no other kind of applause, let alone reaction, is possible).
Seconds pass, then minutes, 2, 4, 6, 10, 20 and more. A sense of absolute dread fills the room because they all understand that the first person who dares sit down will be the first to be arrested. After about a half-hour, someone does, indeed, finally sit down -- the others follow *simultaneously* in a split second. And sure enough, the next day, that's the person arrested (and shot) first.
In Stalin's USSR, the feeling of private terror amid the public hurrahs made perfect sense. But in today's Republican Congress, all it does is make you re-think the old adage -- 'first time as history, second time as farce.' What do these rich, entitled, stupid, cowardly assholes have to fear by saying no to the Beast? Being primaried? Being doxxed? Having to re-think their questionable career choices? We are not a fascist country where dissenters literally disappear in the middle of the night (though some in the Administration wouldn't mind if that were the case). We are still a republic, though a badly degraded one. If we were not, people like Heather would already be in jail right now (along with many of us). Pretending as though we are is literally beneath the dignity of every true patriot, now and in our past. It makes no sense.
Yet the collaborators still stand, still lost in their rapturous, "stormy, prolonged applause" stage of complete, cultish degeneracy. At some point, though, somebody WILL sit down. When that happens, the whole MAGA Rube Goldberg contraption held together with nothing but lies and scotch tape will start coming down as well.
Stay strong, stay vigilant, stay hopeful, widen the cracks as much as you can. Their terror may be farcical, but it is real. What seems impermeable and mighty can all come crashing down in a split second. We must be prepared when it does.
A shortened version of my favorite Solzhenitsyn quote. We know they are lying. They know they are lying. They know we know they are lying. We know they know we know they are lying. But they are still lying.
"We are not a fascist country where dissenters literally disappear in the middle of the night". Tell that to the folks who got shipped to El Salvador, ICTT. And they weren't even dissenting, they were just trying to live their lives quietly, earn a living, support their families, etc.
I wish I had answers. Unfortunately, today, all I seem to be able to come up with are unsettling questions.
Perhaps read Robert Reich's [post today https://robertreich.substack.com/p/a-report-you-need-to-read?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email. Wall Street Journal's investigations of more than 200 American citizens that the Trump administration has accused of attacking federal ICE and Border Patrol officers
I am Sidney Reid’s godmother. Last October, my husband and I sat through her trial in DC federal court with Sid’s mother, our dear friend.
We watched the government’s case against Sidney disintegrate due to the fact that it should never have been brought to trial. Prosecutors looked incompetent, new government evidence appeared during the trial, questionable testimonies had the government down to one witness, the FBI agent, who joked about her supposed injuries as ‘boo boos’ and had mocked the arrest with colleagues in a joint text, etc.
When agents’ false testimony was debunked by video footage of the plain clothes ICE officer attacking Sidney and pinning her against a wall, making clear that he was the aggressor, it was very hard to watch, but plainly exonerated her.
In spite of this, we were gripped with panic that Sidney might be found guilty, as our faith in the justice system has eroded by the Trump administration’s fascist tactics. More recently, with the tragic murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, we know our fears are not unfounded.
Wow, I first looked on my phone and didnt see your entire report -- no surprise. Fears are not unfounded these days, for sure.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story. I can only imagine what might have happened without the existence of that video footage.
Double yikes!
Yikes!
I just read in a second post of RR's today, "So please don’t thank me. Thank yourself and the activists around you. Be thankful that we still have enough freedom to oppose this vicious regime. And continue to use that freedom as wisely and effectively as you can.
RR"
Please. Do you really think I'm not aware of this?
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago".
Read so many years ago....it's a masterpiece and I recall it was short.
it was actually quite lengthy -- three volumes. But certainly a masterpiece in documenting the horror that actually transpired and that Putin now demands everyone forget.
I think I read only one. Just checking Amazon for reviews...it should be on everyone's reading list...and to mine.
That book was in my father’s bedside table for several years. I read some and just couldn’t go on. We also had Boris Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago.The Russian poets during the Stalin years had an extremely hard time. Also the history of Seed Institute is important to know.
I didn’t know there were three, I remember reading one when they were first published in English. If anyone wants to delve into the horror that Stalin perpetrated on Eastern Europe, read “Bloodlands” by Timothy Snyder. It all happened less than a century ago. It was the most difficult thing I have ever read.
A post of some hope. Thanks. Old saying "Expect the best, prepare for the worst."
Terrific article by artist Shelah Horvitz on antisemitism and the plight and dilemma of the Jewish people. This is really worth a read!
https://shelah.substack.com/p/what-matters
Excerpt: "There’s an adage, “You tell me what you accuse the Jew of, and I’ll tell you what you’ve done.”"
And here is her artwork:
https://www.shelah-horvitz-art.com/
"What do these rich, entitled, stupid, cowardly assholes have to fear by saying no to the Beast? Being primaried? Being doxxed? Having to re-think their questionable career choices?"
They are pushing us to the only logical conclusion - they are all complicit in the Russia-Epstein-Trump triangle and its coverup. There is compromat on every one of them.
I doubt it. They’re just small, wretched cowards.
Standing up for Trump? That reminds me of the SOTU where Republicans stood and had public orgasms many times in order to demonstrate their loyalty to Trump.
I like that phrase ‘widen the cracks.’ Need to think about that. Doable suggestions?
Hello Susan... I concur, DJT has slipped into his own Fantasy World... As things continue Crashing down, the more Insane DJT will get... DJT has failed at every Major thing he has attempted... 5X Business Bankruptcies, 2X Impeachments, the J6 Insurrection, a Military Defeat. and now the USA is teetering on the Edge Financially.... The Constitution was designed for people of Good Faith, and not for a Delusional Megalomaniac...
Just sayin', but I suspect Playboy Donnie would have burned through his inheritance long ago without "a lot of money pouring in from Russia."
He has lost his mind, but he still has a finger.
All the more reason to amp up the pressure and dissent. I long to see his empty skull explode.
Look out Captain, she's gonna blow...
The Electoral College was designed to try to prevent that, but it too was thwarted! Too many States demanded that their delegates vote for the popular vote by law combined with We the People forgetting to teach it's original purpose of being a deliberate body to examine the fitness to serve of the popular winner. It is no longer a deliberate body chosen from the wisest of us, but a Party Rubber Stamp!
Sometimes I make the mistake of reading the comments on posts of people like right wing Influencer, Benny Johnson. He has supporters that are doing flips to explain his chaos. They call it the “trump magic”. They believe that he knows exactly what he is doing. There is also a lot of God has blessed him in the responses.
This is all nothing new by Trump. Read “Lucky Loser” which tracks his history from childhood. He’s acted exactly like this his entire adult life. Exactly.
All the worse for all of us then
Is he divorced from reality or is he cleverly using misinformation to gain wealth for his beloved followers and lead Democrats and the rest of the world over the cliff?
I just have an image of Donald Trump with a fife leading a bunch of furry looking Americans over a cliff.
I think your theory could be right. His cronies are also using him to get rich.
He’s not clever. I think ppl are using him, certainly. The “useful idiot”.
Shall we give serious consideration to his having endured STDs to the point there is no clear brain function?
He said STDs (avoidance of them) were his personal Viet Nam. Perhsps he lost his war too…
He has never lived in a reality that most of us are forced to live in. He has had a twisted fantasy life where he gets everything he wants. When he fucks up someone else cleans the mess. There is no such thing as a bad choice when there are no consequences. This is not a fully developed person. This is a full grown toddler! And he is our president🤔
I’m fully aware of his background and most of the things he does and has done. Occasionally the implications hit me very hard in the feels. 🤷♀️
We are being used and abused by Israel, Russia, and in a strange way the UK. So many countries in this world with decent "leadership" who are a benefit to mankind, and who would share space with an honest friend, such as we once appeared. No more. We have become the 'Blunder-Buss' loaded with creeps looking for the next opportunity to grabbem-bythe-puzie hahahaaaa cuz they can't stop us now! And if you're up here where it's still 22 degrees in the morning, the oil truck cometh. WMW
According to Professor Frank George, A former NIH Researcher in brain chemistry and how the different types of dementia work on brain functions, it is Frontotemperal Lobes Dementia mixed with Malignant Narcissism. He has brain capacity shrinkage of both the frontal lobe and both temporal lobes. Also has some symptoms of a recent stroke, possibly or the dementia is getting so advanced it is affecting his physical ability to speak. That his Cabinet hasn't invoked the 25th before now is treason! Plain and simple!
His Cabinet is made up of a bunch of inept people who would NEVER invoke the 25th Amendment on him, EVER.
I know they won't, and that is why they should be charged with treason. Charged ,convicted and removed!
And don’t want to as they need him to prevent their own prosecutions.
The sooner he fails the ability to speak, the happier we’d all be!
Unfortunately, his ability to type will outlast his ability to speak. And those who stand to profit will make sure he keeps on typing.
To paraphrase an old Woody Allen joke, Trump is the crazy grandmother who thinks she's a chicken. The family would get her professional help, but they need the eggs.
Meds? I know you can't kill him or tie him up..but, can't someone enroll a physician...for the sake of the country and the world.
Slip it in his diet coke; keep him in nodding off mode.
I think he has been medically handled for a long time and various issues and who knows which is what? Russia has had not only a Histiry of folks especially journalists falling out windows but also poisonings. And my best guess is what happened to my mother ‘s best friend ‘s son when he was born. He was in acute crisis many times and many of the nurses caring for him baptized him. He was unknowingly baptized at least five times because of the different shifts. That could be in a completely different way happening to our current president.
But, we're not Russia that murders dissidents.
Trump takes various meds, like Kennedy did, speed and maybe something to come down off the speed.
His doctor has him on medications to keep him alive. Blood pressure meds.etc.
In the past, doctors would put defective babies to "sleep". Mother cats will push aside a defective kitten or swallow it.
Why have they not? Why have the republican leaders not?
Follow the money.
Tell your friends he runs the government the way he ran his reality tv shows. He just made things up, and his team scrambled to put the best face on it.
This entire administration is a reality TV show. These people aren’t qualified. The President has no idea what he is doing. Meanwhile, Congress is getting even richer from all the insider trading.
Exactly! It’s kayfabe all the way.
I bet you will need to explain that term LOL. I doubt too many folks on this substack watch WWF, Dutch :-)
OK, I bit and looked it up: "Kayfabe (pronounced KEY-feyb) is a professional wrestling term for the practice of maintaining the illusion that scripted performances, rivalries, and characters are genuine, competitive, and real. It refers to maintaining this illusion of reality both inside and outside the ring, including interviews and social media." No wonder I don't like the "sport."
so...it's a synonym for 'democracy'?
Gorgeous George was the master at profitably acting the heal in acts my dad took us to see disguised as wrestling. It was entertaining enough for me as a ten year old (70 years ago), but we weren't fooled. As I recall my dad's thinking, he had grudging respect for the way he made it possible for so many other wrestlers to make a living putting on popular shows.
I remember watching him in person more than on TV (probably because we didn't have a TV until much later than most), but he's credited with helping TV sales immensely.
Would that current villains created such shows without real damage to the well being of the country,
Hahaha! I agree. But... Wait. Didn't Heather write about it, not too long ago?
I heard on Morning Joe that this Mark Wayne Mullin has made over $26 million on Stock Market Trades since entering Congress. I am trying to remember exactly how many terms he has been there, but it is fairly recently. Two terms, one in the House and one in the Senate keeps floating to the top of my memory banks, here before breakfast this morning.
Five terms as Congresscritter, from 2013 to 2023, then one Senate term until he resigned to become Secretary of Homeland Security succeeding Kristi "KTD" Noem (that's KTD -> Kill The Dog :-) ). He's had a long time to pile up the money in stock trading.
Yes, that would amount to roughly 2 million dollars in stock trades a year. With all that insider trading he is alleged to have participated in, rather shabby. Must be even stupider than his Commander in Crime and Graft!
I still believe he is conning us as he conned the Draft Board -- that his mental disability is as fictional as his bone spurs -- that the truth (the terrifyingly terrible truth of our species' first thermonuclear-fingered Führer) -- is that he is Evil, absolutely, bottomlessly, infinitely Evil; the embodiment of all the Evil inflicted on the world since the advent of patriarchy and therefore probably the embodiment of the Apocalypse as well. What emerges when he speaks is the ecogenocidal venom of our species' most dangerously predatory tyrant; his words are a toxic spew, as deceptive and disruptive as they are deadly and destructive. Intentionally so. And it will take a genuine miracle to to liberate us from the ever-tightening stranglehold with which he is destroying every progressive achievement We the Empathetic Peoples have ever achieved.
It's the coalition Loren; His 'Royal Heinous' is only the face forward of the coalition.
"His Royal Heinous" is pejorative perfection. Thank you!
Perfect: "Royal Heinous".
Gad.
Of course he is conning us. But, right now, with this "situation", he's conning himself.
I think it was his father who was behind the bone spurs con. Then he got Roy Cohn who saw the "potential'. I don't know of any other man that Roy Cohn for whom devoted so much evil wisdom.
(I got Cohn's signature on a book he had written about MacCarthy. I was taking a mini-course on MaCarthyism and he was defending Nick Rattenni, the Garbage King of Westchester County...during a break in the case.)
I’m not sure of this. Somehow it seems to me that pure evil would succeed at something! Unless you count increasing the rate at which the planet ceases to support human life a success? Persuading people to dislike and distrust people of different appearance? I don’t really know, or, more emphatically, I really don’t know.
Destroying the planet is the entire point. It’s the ultimate bully act, just like destroying that sand castle in primary school that other kids built. “Look, daddy! I destroyed the planet! Do I get your attention now?”
Excellent point. That's why I liken him to Ted Bundy: knowing he's protected (as Bundy was by the Washington state Republican Party), he measures his significance solely by the magnitude of his ability to inflict death and destruction and the terror it invokes. (I was deeply involved in covering the Bundy case, so I know of what I speak.)
Triple Gad!
I never wanted to know anything about Bundy but was defeated by Anne Rule's book The Stranger Beside me. I had started true crime because of her. Seriously charming. Seriously evil.
Caitlin Collins asked who is going to control the Strait of Hormuz and Donold said he's going to run it, saying: “Maybe me. Maybe me,” (not the United States, or an international coalition, but) “[m]e and the ayatollah, whoever the ayatollah is….
And so now there's another reality show in the making..."Me and the ayatollah"...
"Me and the ayatollah"
Worst buddy movie ever.
😂
😏
He never ever ran the tv show. It was Mark Burnett and it was all scripted and heavily edited.
More like a surreality program.
The crazy thing is that the oil market appears to be tracking every mood change.
That's by design, Russell.
Big money is tracking and profiteering on it all Russ.
Many of our fellow commenters are well attempting to answer the unanswerable, Betsy.
I say "the unanswerable" because the Epstein tapes that he's still hiding, still covering up, will reveal the extent of his own raping of underage girls, and his involvements with Putin's oligarchs having needed his money laundering services.
We all know already the bottomless pit he is of vulgarity, indecency, incompetence, vainglory, and total unworthiness of the many democratic allies around the world he has betrayed.
What we do not know is the extent of ignorance and dehumanization which the tens of millions who voted for him may yet intend to keep applying to our schools. Most here on Heather's site value higher standards, would like to invest more in our finest teachers.
I'm hoping many fine Dem candidates for office in the coming November elections might articulate these higher standards and investments -- not only for already blue audiences, but also for our working-class fellow Americans in red states and rural areas.
Bibi's got the dirt.
BTW, is he still among the living?
Good Q, Judith, given how dead his soul is.
The people in charge of the Epstein files work for the government, which is to say Trump. I believe they are busy 24/7 shredding and incinerating everything incriminating.
If I'm right, the longer they can delay the release, the less there will be to see. The current sh*tshow around the release is the distraction abd delaying action that will eventually let them say "nothing to see here", and then expect us to pat them on the back for finally being so transparent.
Sadly, this strategy will work for about half the country.
We need a mole inside DOJ.
This whole thing reminds me of Hitler's orders to Felix Steiner in April 1945. Everything he ordered Steiner to do was nonsensical fantasy. Steiner himself was prone to fantasies about the war in its aftermath. It was literally a delusional tyrant giving orders to one of his delusional commanders. When reality is inconvenient, go with fantasy, which has basically been the Republican philosophy about everything from global warming to tax policy.
Psychiatrists have been telling us this for a decade.
Trump is more than one man; it's a failure of the whole system that has supreme disrespect for the values and the people. Look at the way Pam Bondi addresses those who question her: complete disdain. The plane crash at La Guardia is one obvious symptom of many. Killing citizens in Minneapolis and labeling them domestic terrorists. That is insane.
Is this the end of the country?
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, addressed the Australian parliament today. That was after signing trade and security deals. The bottom line is that everyone else is just having to get on with it..
And then this orange bag of pus has the audacity to say “it’s a very inflamed world”… YOU’RE the main cause of that, dilweed!!!!
I am Sidney Reid’s godmother. Last October, my husband and I sat through her trial in DC federal court with Sid’s mother, our dear friend.
We watched the government’s case against Sidney disintegrate due to the fact that it should never have been brought to trial. Prosecutors looked incompetent, new government evidence appeared during the trial, questionable testimonies had the government down to one witness, the FBI agent, who described her supposed injuries as ‘boo boos’ and mocked the arrest with colleagues in a joint text, testified with a joking and unserious manner. I was shocked by her unprofessional demeanor.
When agents’ false testimony was debunked by video footage of the plain clothes ICE officer attacking Sidney and pinning her against a wall, making clear that he was the aggressor, it was very hard to watch, but plainly exonerated her.
In spite of this, we were gripped with panic that Sidney might be found guilty, as our faith in the justice system has eroded by the Trump administration’s fascist tactics. More recently, with the tragic murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, we know our fears are not unfounded.
Trump has managed throughout his life to avoid responsibility for every failure and screw up in his business career. As president he has surrounded himself with yes men and yes women who tell him what he want to hear.
His primary interest has always been personal enrichment. Thr Heritage Foundation found Trump to be their vehicle for dismantling our democracy.
And here we are
A friend and neighbor who spent her career as a professor of psychology at an Ivy League university and maintained a clinical practice told me the term is “malignant narcissist.”
It is all tranactional!
here it is again...
Trump is not stupid. he's a VERY good manipulator...
he, of course, doesn't care about most (poorer) people...
in the first term, imo, he downplayed covid to stop the market from crashing...
NOW his peers are making bundles off of the market roller coaster...
and Putin has made billions just when Russia was just about bankrupt.
and few, if any, of you have mentioned Epstein today...
Trump's been doing this sort of dance since, at least, the early 70s...
does he care about maga? i wonder how many of them died from covid...
and that they continue to support him doesn't surprise me...they think he shares their values...we all have our blind spots...
I think he does share their values.
No matter how divorced from reality or confused he gets, he holds on to one priority, and that is making money for himself, his family, and the elites. Unless someone else is steering that ship.
And yet FOTUS's supporters will say he's crazy like a fox. I don't agree with them, but how is it that he has shown continual signs of being unhinged AND still manages to profit from all of this.
Just like Paul Krugman said: One must assume that Trump is lying about all of it. His modus operandi is to fabricate a story that he likes, one woven out of thin air, and announce that it happened. It's all smoke and mirrors, and has been for decades with this guy.
Joseph in Fairport, NY
Trump is a consummate liar, a professional grifter, a classless blowhard that has profited even off his failures and other people's misery and losses. Donold Trump’s companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection six times between 1991 and 2014, investors and shareholders losing money and equity while he went on to other schemes. He ran 3 casinos into the ground, one of them twice, for a total of 4 times.
Now he's running our Nation into the ground, virtually ransacking the Treasury, bankrupting us, funneling our tax dollars away from vital programs and defunding necessities, running up the national debt to over $38 trillion! And still the bastard isn't done asking for $200 billion for more war in Iran...and another bajillion here or there or wherever he feels entitled to it...
Donald Trump may be really incompetent at managing the operations of real things like the Presidency or foreign policy, but what he is clearly VERY competent at is corruptly making money through innuendo and propaganda. When insider trading investigations begin, let's start at the top.
And the mountain of lies out of Trump continues to grow. Be LOUD! We deserve better 💔🤍💙
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 ✊
Lies plus crazy. How in the hell do you order thousands of troops to a war zone and then go to Graceland, the Home of Elvis? Out of touch. Please read, discuss and share my Memorandum at UnitedWeAmend.org.
Will the US Military sacrifice thousands of troops???
Israel should send their brave sharpshooters.
I feel we should send Cadet Bone Spurs and Barron Trump. If Trump wants a ground assault then he must lead the way along with his child.
In a word, yes. Trump cares nothing about them. "Suckers and losers," remember? God help our troops. If we invade, it's going to be very, very ugly for our Marines.
The SCOTUS arguments on accepting mail-in ballots that arrive after election day went badly. You can hear Harry Litman's analysis on the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOvUGsq0WF0
Write your Senators now that the SAVE America Act is being debated as it could be amended, as Trump desperately wants, to ban mail-in voting outright.
As I have written many times, using procedural maneuvers, the filibuster rule in the Senate can be revoked by simple majority votes initiated by any Senator, Mike Lee for example, beyond John Thune's control.
The Senate briefly shifted from the SAVE Act to take up Markwayne Mullin’s nomination, and then returned to SAVE Act debate.
According to the Senate Daily Press log for Sunday–Monday, senators spent the afternoon and early evening speaking on the SAVE America Act, then moved at 7:40 p.m. into a roll call vote on confirmation of Markwayne Mullin to be Secretary of Homeland Security, which was later confirmed that evening. Coverage of the rare weekend and Sunday sessions notes that the SAVE Act floor debate has been running as a “marathon” proceeding over multiple days, with Mullin’s nomination handled as a separate procedural and confirmation sequence in the middle of that broader schedule, and that Senate leaders plan to continue SAVE Act debate into this week.
https://www.dailypress.senate.gov/
Thank you, Megan.
Manipulating markets for personal gain, maintaining chaotic confusion with a fog of lies, keeping the focus on himself, while his pal Netanyahu is seizing Lebanon up to the Litani River, that ancient northern border of the Promised Land, as Jewish settlers continue to seize West Bank territories one bit at a time. Who is really in charge of this war?
They (trump & enablers) think they are.
Cheeto: American Fascists Don’t Get A Fair Shake With The Press
Laments come in all forms from Cheeto and his Nazi allies especially when they do bad things like killing American citizens, getting Delta Airlines to deport children and families to concentration camps(BTW boycott Delta), financial corruption in Cheeto’s regime(Lewandowski scandal), overpaying and using taxpayer $$$ for warehouses to be turned into concentration camps(as much as $50 to 100M) as happened in Utah supported by a corrupt Nazi Republican governor, an illegal war with Iran prompted by fascist Israeli Netanyahu, cratering the global economy, TSA waits due to Cheeto not wanting the funding until the SAVE Act passed(according to Cheeto “have to do it for….wait for it…Jesus!), ICE agents at airports with nothing to do, 2M Americans don’t have health insurance due to the Nazi Republican policy, Fed reserve reports zero job creation over the last 6mo, seizing ballots in California and Georgia, tried to indict 6 Congresspeople because they spoke up about military rights, killed 80+ in small boats claiming that they were narcoterroists without evidence
Have you heard enough? Meanwhile when Nazis are out on other less protected forums than they encounter on the Fox or other propaganda channels, they flail not answering commentator questions or misrepresenting facts or plan lying Truly tedious to listen to these fascists
These statements of “why do we(the fascsts) get such a raw deal from the press?” This blatant use of the victim card which has been the hallmark of Nazi Republican politics over the last 5 decades is now clearly been overplayed and WE the People are not only tired of it but refuse to believe the lies And it’s all the more reason that the press reliably cover these corrupt fascists in a way that’s appropriate to report this corrupt fascist regime
You've distilled the s#@tshow to its essence.
We simply cannot, should not accept anything that Trump says nor the regime. Clearly, this SOB manipulated the market and he plus others made a shitload of money, hand-over-fist, within a matter of minutes! It's abhorrent and at this point, I am ready to believe the villains in Iran over this so-called leader. How absolutely ridiculous is that?
Today, this evil schmuck sent ICE agents to airports. In San Francisco, they attacked a woman from Guatemala right in front of her children while she had been in line for hours! Stephen Miller must be peeing all over himself with sick delight. I hate them all. None have any redeeming qualities...Not.A.One.!
I hate them too 🤬🤬🤬
I try my best to roar with righteous indignation and anger, Marlene, yet never step into hatred.
It's hard to impossible now, is it not?!?
I said it and I mean it. I have never felt that towards anyone in my lifetime but my parents did because they were fighting against Nazism in the countries. My sister and my cousins all got gipped because we did not have grandparents. They were gassed in 1942. Life isn’t fair, I know, but does it have to be so cruel?
Marlene I’m going to sue you until you like me. I’m going to take everything you possess. I want what you have and I always get what I want. That sick man’s song and dance. Indeed he did break through the rind of that possibility. The pain he imposed was sharp painful and real. Rind, that is all he ever tasted. Rind is all he will ever know. He will never get the sweetness the succulence the richness in the heart of the fruit. He will taunt and worry and degrade you all the more because he can’t have that which flowers and grows and nourishes the best of you. Imagine passing over life and never having lived. Thank you for richness you bless us with. What one man demands another is given freely. That hippie girl will dance in our hearts forever like a friese on a vase.
So well said, Pat! He and his like are doomed. All the money in the world will not save them.
He’s what Tibetan Buddhists call a hungry ghost. So much need beneath the greed…
My father’s extended family died in Auschwitz and Terezin. I never knew growing up, about that or about just how much our family had been robbed of. There was only a silence and a darkness. To this day, I still look for the flower growing out of a crack in the sidewalk. These days, they seem harder to find…. Hugs, sister.
Susan, it’s interesting what our parents did not tell us. My father served in the US Army in the Pacific Theater, Papua New Guinea. Never spoke about the 4 years there. My mother was different. She talked all of the time about persecution. It was in the 80’s that she and her siblings learned of their parent’s deaths. They were removed from their longtime home by the SS and taken to a work camp. This was in 1941. Then, they were transported to a gas camp called Chelmno that was in the deep forests of Poland. In January 1942, they were placed in a van with 9 others where they were gassed.
My parents had PTSD which was given to my sister and I. My husband, who is not Jewish, has it too as he is a Vietnam veteran. This is a cruel world but I try to find joy whenever I can. Soothes the heart and the soul. Thank goodness for forums like this because we really are one big beautiful family. In solidarity…💕
Art Spiegelman, author of “Maus,” said that there were 2 ways survivors dealt with their experience — not talking or talking about it all the time.
how did your mother discover her parents’ fate so many years later?
My father was considered a “Mischling,” mongrel, and spent the last 9 months of the war in a forced labor camp.
A further irony/weirdness in my family’s case was that they had all converted and lived as Christian Germans. 😵💫 we had the darkness but none of the culture. Somewhere on my hard drive is a half-finished novel based on the lives of my two great aunts in Berlin. Once we started seeing here the beginnings of what led to their demise, I just couldn’t write it anymore.
FWIW, I’ve found great comfort/help from the teachings of Thomas Hübl, an Austrian who specializes in intergenerational trauma. He brings such deep compassion and gentle presence to his videos — I’m finally learning to meditate, in my 70s!
Susan, I have the “Maus” books and cherish them dearly.
So when my mother left Berlin, she had what I thought was a passport but it was not. It was a booklet stating her rights of being a German citizen were taken away. She was deemed a non-citizen. The booklet has Nazi stamps all over it. It took her from 1933-1939 to get the Nazis to let her leave. Same for her siblings. In 1933, she was 21 yrs old. Circuitous routes out of Germany into Brussels (6 weeks there) and then onto London. She was able to get a job with an American lawyer, Fannie Holtzman, who was actually an entertainment lawyer for Gertrude Lawrence and Noel Coward. It was Holtzman who arranged for my mother, her sister, and one brother to have passage to the US. Her youngest brother stayed in London. That year was 1939.
My parents met in 1946 and 6 weeks later were married. A 51 year marriage that was based on similar goals. They moved from NYC to Lenoir, NC, a rural town that boasted Southern Baptist churches on every corner. They opened a clothing store and it stayed opened for 25 years.
When Reagan convinced Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, my uncle in Lindon flew to Germany to see if he could find out how their parents died. See, the Nazis kept copious notes on every single person they killed. That is how he found out about his grandparents demise. My mother was admittedly devastated with this news. She felt they had not done enough to get them out, but they did. Our government was corrupt too. My mom sent $$ through the government to help get her parents out. That money never made it to the Nazis or so they said. To witness my mother’s agony was so hard. But that little lady lived until she was 89 years old and was sharp as a tack! She drove me crazy but I miss her a lot. Btw, I will be 75 in September so you and I are close in age.
Perhaps Iran will be his Waterloo? But in the meantime how do you get rid of him and his cohorts, short of a civil war? If there is a God I wish he would get his finger out and do something!
However, history is full of maniacal leaders the Pharaohs, Caligula, Nero, Hitler and all were defeated; so, at least there is some hope in the human spirit. The problem is the cost in human lives.
It seems that the aphorism 'money is the root of all evil' has some grounds in truth.
Hate is a strong destructive emotion be careful it can destroy you.
I wish you hope and peace.
The “LOVE” of money is the root of all evil.
Thank you for the correction. :-)
Where there’s money, there’s corruption.
It’s actually impressive, in a completely perverse way—just when you think Trump can’t possibly get any more craven or corrupt or dishonest… and just when you think the rest of the world can’t possibly believe another half a syllable of his drivel, Wall Street just gobbles it right up and begs for seconds while the Republican Party declares it just another Monday. God Bless America. We certainly need it. 🇺🇸
Some scalawag Republican out there said yesterday "we've hit rock bottom" or something similar.
Oh no. With this cult, in the words of the late great Malvina Reynolds, "there's a low below the low you know, you can't imagine how far you can go......DOWN."
Gah.
Donald Trump may be really incompetent at managing the operations of real things like the Presidency or foreign policy, but what he is clearly VERY competent at is corruptly making money through innuendo and propaganda. When insider trading investigations begin, let's start at the top.
I'm sure not getting any hints in advance of bad news. Like a lot of retirees, I'm watching my hedge against illness slip further away. An incoherent, unintelligent narcissistic man is still canny enough to seize my assets, set fire to the world, and insist that gols coins in his image be minted for his own treasure house.
We are living in a very dangerous upside down reality now. I’m terrified how it will end.
Will this be the next scenario?
Almost everything in “Dr. Strangelove” was based on fact. Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" is remarkably accurate in its portrayal of Cold War nuclear strategies and operations, despite its satirical nature. Many aspects of the film were based on real-world scenarios and figures. As a nuclear war planner for Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, Daniel Ellsberg had intimate knowledge of U.S. nuclear strategies and operations. Ellsberg stated that "Dr. Strangelove" was essentially "a documentary" in its portrayal of nuclear command and control systems that actually existed at the time.
Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was True - The New Yorker -
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/almost-everything-in-dr-strangelove-was-true
The orange felon is just making shit up as he goes.
Clearly!
seeing these quotes in the context you’ve placed them drives home what a fucking imbecile our orange moron-in-chief is
thank you for your patience in so clearly documenting what is transpiring 💕
He is clearly living in a total fantasy world. But my question is: is this all just being created in his own head or are there people around him who are deliberately feeding this fantasy to him for some purpose of their own?
The answer to your question Barbara it's not A, B or C, it's all of the above.
Stalin’s wish is coming true…
“America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.”
― Joseph Stalin
tRUMP’S GIANT FACE IS EVERYWHERE: Strolling through the capital these days, you can’t go far without encountering an image of the president’s face. What is the expression playing out on his lips, magnified to a hundred times their actual size? His glowering eyes seem to follow the pedestrians scurrying around the city from above.
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/03/trump-face-all-over-washington-dc/686467/?gift=7VkzbskWAOZHlgIHYdtne6_CLeFMnccJ4FOB4uhR3Cc
UGH creepy!
the man is a buffoon (among other things) and yet many love him … it gives me deep unrelenting pause
If you want to understand why so many love him, subscribe to The Rational League. Below is a link to the latest post on why the MAGA faithful stay faithful.
https://substack.com/@therationalleague/p-191783729
Wow. Collective narcissism and hegemonic masculinity -- I was not previously aware of this. It explains a lot (pretty much all) of MAGA's love for a cruel dictator. A long read, but well worth the time, or even a scan. Thanks Georgia!
He is repetitive in his postso I don’t read every one, but he does put together the research on why the MAGA core remains true believers. it is scary that around 30% of our population has that psychological profile, but then again they’ve been fed the storyline for decades.
Scary indeed. The challenge is to provide therapy and re-education for those millions afflicted. :(
Georgia, I so appreciate all you do. This article is fascinating, albeit nausea-inducing. All of HCR’s readers should read it- it clearly delineates what we’re up against, and how vitally important the mid-terms are.
Thank you!
Rational League is repetitive in posting his analysis shadign his argument to recent events so he isn’t an everyday read. But I think his basic argument and the resources his uses are right on the money about why the resistance to changing the minds of the MAGA hard coreabout Trump is basically impossible.
Just did.
Just started reading it; thank you for the link. Definitely worth the read.
No way 47 wrote the first blurb. Way too coherent. I do believe he wrote the gobbledygook near the end. Can you believe the Repubs enable this crazy shit? WTAF happened to them? Although I disagreed with them I respected a few of them anyway. Money and power I guess.
Nothing happened to them. This is who they always have been, or have we forgotten they made a pedophile speaker of the house long before they put another one in the oval office.
Ah yes, Dennis Hastert, the former high school wrestling coach.
Other politicians who were wrestling coaches are Jim Jordan, who saw nothing when he was at Ohio State, and our newly confirmed Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin.
Just saying...
Easy answer Mojave, they lost their spine and they are getting richer and enjoying their apparent power. Why compromise their confort by saying no to the scumbag president?
Read the latest post from The Rational League. It discusses the psychology behind the MAGA adherents who will only worship Trump more and more the more they think he is being maligned.
https://substack.com/@therationalleague/p-191783729