What have you done American voters, you put us, our safety as a nation and individuals in the hands of this inept clowns? Everything maga touches dies.
What have you done American voters, you put us, our safety as a nation and individuals in the hands of this inept clowns? Everything maga touches dies.
Now come on Ricardo. We have to be fair, here. While we dislike Trump, we really should display the intellexual integrity to credit the trump admin. when credit is due. This team is very creative, and we need to acknowledge that. Just when we had assumed that Trump could go no lower, the cool, clever, calculating insiders find a new way to go lower.
Trump or anyone in his administration will never get a Nobel prize for anything. He thinks that economics is a zero sum game and that tariffs will bring in enough money to allow him to extend the tax cuts for the wealthy and increase them for corporations. As Rex Tillerson so elegantly pointed out, "Trump is a fucking moron."
Ricardo, I honestly don't think he cares. The cabinet of curiosities he has assembled are there to mock past American greatness, and burn it to its core. He doesnt care about our security, or that of our Allies; only his own is important to him. This is part of the vengeance he was talking about should be be elected.
This is the core of the question. Not only is Trump drumpfing Ukraine and N.A.T.O. and, likely, Taiwan in the near future, he may be, according to plan, handing our republic over to Putin.
Hello Ned... Remember, DJT is called 'Teflon Don' for a reason.. DJT never takes any responsibility for anything bad... DJT is just the Front-Man for those rthat want to destroy the American USG, and Society... Remember who wrote Plan2025... It was a multitude of bad actors... They are not creative, they are devious, and inept... The succeed only thru Corruption... Sh*t always goes lower, it always seeks the bottom... They are abetted by very Corrupt Lawyers... They give Lawyers a very Bad Name...
Apache - that is why it is incumbent on all of us to blame Trump for everything he promised to fix. Like bringing down the price of groceries on day 1, or resolving the Ukraine war in a day. Only the most uneducated and gullible really thought he could do that.
And now he's tanking the economy. As this happens he is blaming Biden.
Exactly, Gary. They are willfully and intentionally destroying the country. And doing it quickly - so they can blame the last guy. This is a plan.
$Trump and Musk:
"There will be some pain for a while. But it will be worth it in the long run. We have to fix this country!"
Are the "clowns" like Hegseth and Rubio just stupid, drunk on power or are they on a deliberate mission to destroy American security and stability? I think it is dangerous to assume the former and foolish not to consider the latter.
The Russian playbook after the USSR crumbled began with a feeble attempt at democracy. Yeltsin. A drunk who handed off the nation to a KGB agent who guaranteed his family's protection.
Then amidst the chaos of an undefined economy and no guard rails, entire industries were handed off to the guys who would become the oligarchs. Russia became feudal with a king, lords and nobles who would hoard the bulk of Russia's wealth - and power.
So not only is $Trump using the communication techniques of Hitler (refined and adapted by Roy Cohn) he is emulating Putin. Create chaos, blame it on the last guy, then claim that he is fixing the nation. The Great Con(sternation).
But it's all really just a hand off to a few oligarchs who will protect him - keep him out of prison.
And the "pain" for the 99%? Please explain, sir.
$Trump: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask how you can suffer enough so I can spend every weekend in my Florida mansion. None of this is my fault. It was all because of the Biden Crime Family. And no, I don't cheat at golf."
Bill, you explained to me why I refer to Trump and his craven quislings as Team Treason and why I believe we are headed toward civil war. These are merely intuitions on my part. Your careful analysis may not 'prove' that intuition, but it does comprehend why it might be there. ЁЯдФ
Hegseth (SmegmouthЁЯдл) and Rubio (BoobioЁЯдн) are not stupid; that is the worse of it. Liar, liar Vance on fire is a remarkable human being with amazing qualities, none moral; from Hamel to Vance to Alcibiades --that is the worst of it.
While he's doing that heтАЩs manipulating the stock market with tariff threats. He makes announcements and the market drops so the rich can buy stuff up, then he changes his mind and the market goes up so they make a tidy profit. Then he does it all over again and the inside traders are all informed so they can sell high and buy low. I watched him do this with his pronouncements the first time and promptly sold all my stock. I can handle my retirement with what I have until this is over. My husband still works.
I have a marvelous broker. While the S&P 500 was dropping 10% my broker had me breaking even and now that it's recovered a little he is riding the wave. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that aren't as fortunate.
I also have an annuity that will go up with the market but not down. I canтАЩt remember the special name. We assign yearly what we want and last year took a flat 7.5% which is better than we would have since the anniversary would have had zero.
What you say makes sense. Soros was accused of leading or running the market -- I can not recall the term, which is essentially what you are describing. I would not be surprised if the manipulators sold stocks short to reinforce the direction induced by the latest trumper tantrum. Then they take possession of the stock for its rise. The Lazarus boomerang -- ┬бnow that is a maxed out, mixed metaphor for you!
That is it, Gary. Well said, good man. Keep Trump's shimmering schei├Яe in front of the American people. Prove that his politics is neither conservative nor constructive. Build the case for treason.
They are soo much low that they reached the center of the earth. Nowhere lower to go. No wonder Musk is looking to reach Mars. They can start all over again there.
Hello Ricardo... Do you think that the Martians will deport him to Uranus? Did you see snippets of today's Cabinet meeting where DJT's Lackeys were paying Homage to Musk?
Either pronunciation -- I had it wrong, I guess -- works for me. Wish I could put my laughing snoopy vid. here with the pic. (Thirty second vid.; quite fitting.)
Reminds me of the ending of the movie Independence Day when Will SmithтАЩs character tells his sort-of-son тАЬdidnтАЩt I promise you fireworks?тАЭ as the debris of the alien ship visibly burns up in the atmosphereтАж.like the vids of several of (F)ElonтАЩs recent take off attemptsтАжdoes look pretty for all the danger it poses.
Is it another planet further away? Uranus seems to be too close for comfort. Maybe in another galaxy?
Regarding the Soviet, sorry, trump's cabinet paying homage to savior Musk, i didn't see it. I was commuting from Corsica to Sardinia and I missed the embarrassment. Should I be sorry?ЁЯШБ
Hello Ned... Reading from your 'Handle', you were in the Ukraine in 2022... That is pre-Russian Invasion? How did you like the Brave, Brave, Ukrainians?
I was there for five weeks about four months after Putrid's invasion. I love the Ukrainians. I want to go back, but only to the front-line. Can not get much traxion on that. Suggestions would be welcome. All I did was walk the streets of Bucha, Kharkiv, Kyiv (75% of the time), Lviv, and Odesa. https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/digital-collage-ua-pl-hupptx/258709203
The irony -- deadening irony -- is that HELL is in the center of the Earth, and that Trumpanzee and his storm-trumpers (thank you, Jimmy Kimmel) dragged us there.
Interesting thing about Plan-2025. I was acquainted with -- did not know or spend any time with (thank G-D) -- one of the authors. He came to Iraq late in the surge and would write these blast e-mails with good news stories written in a brown-nosing manner; spare the pom-poms, okay? There were good news stories, but after a whole lot of bad news under Ambassador Bromide.
Over time, I only read one or two of this Lipton d-bag's essays and skimmed some to see if his pukedelic self-promotion had subsided. NOPE. I figured that this guy is so obviously bull-sh*tting that people would see through it. Ugggh. I read Project 2025 and it was re-cycled Reaganism extended to subsume new issues that were not around in the early 1980s.
Since Reaganism is exhausted after forty years, the ideological truculence and radicalism within Project 2025 are pronounced. The irony of it for me is that President Reagan used the kulturkampers for his power. Now the kulturkampfers are using President Reagan for theirs. Forty years ago, I was an incipient kulturkampfer; then I matured, realizing ideology breeds idiocy.
Moral of the story: intellection is wonderful but it falls to dust in the face of humility (always wavering), compassion (always working on it), and mercy (always requiring discernment in its practice). Mercy is the BIGGIE in governance. Trump is a human being. His mercy will NOT be a pardon but not being executed for treason; he will go to jail.
Yes, my husband, with the genius IQ and brilliant father, has a huge vocabulary. Sometimes when heтАЩs speaking I have to ask him to define. On the other hand, my mathematical genius grandson uses words that we constantly have to tell him donтАЩt mean what heтАЩs using them as.
Well, each of my parents were smart, my mother possibly a genius. I ended up in the shallow end of that gene pool. On your grandson, I am finding some words have altered definitions and others with different pronunciations from the ones I learned two generations ago.
My dad was an 8th grade dropout. Worked 3 jobs my whole life. He wasnтАЩt stupid, just not big on education for his girls. My mother started nursing school and stopped, started secretarial school and stopped and ended up working as a meat wrapper her whole life. Both were depression babies, born in 1929. I have 2 degrees and am constantly learning. When Covid hit I did school work with my grandson to keep him engaged. He was a high school senior who came to live with us after his mom died. He was already at the edge of suicide. I couldnтАЩt let him go over. He just finished at UCSD and we are so proud of him. He keeps us up to date on todayтАЩs language which I really appreciate.
Thank you, Sharon, for telling me about your infectious life story of the last five or ten years. Your grand-son is very fortunate to have grand-parents like and your better half. When we moved to a new house in Pittsburgh in 1969, we were blessed to have one of the best house-painters in town work on my parents' home.тЭдя╕П
Dad told me to go out to where Mr Macchioni was working and to observe him and speak with him. Dad admonished me to watch how Al Macchioni worked so I could see first-hand what went into a work ethic. My parents sacrificed a lot of time and resources to assure my receiving a decent education. ЁЯТб
Yet they tended to place a higher premium on character than on degrees or prestige in schooling. I remain thankful to my parents to this day. I do not mean to denigrate education, especially in view of your accomplishments. What I do mean to say is that education is a privilege, but, in my life at least, honor and integrity mean a whole lot more. ЁЯШЗ
Mom also pointed out that I should learn everyday, in school or not, and to understand that anyone from any station in life would teach me something, if l were open to that. Of course, I do not come close to achieving these standards, but I keep trying. ЁЯШЗ
I was taught that if youтАЩre going to do a job do it well. I was in Youngstown in 69 and it was all blue collar workers. From my first babysitting job I was taught to put 50% of my earnings into a savings account. No one was looked down on for a lack of education and from looking at todays MAGA I would have to say my father was much smarter than any of them, even the ones who went to Ivy League schools.
This is the truth. Drumpf only takes responsibility for sales pitches that eventually fail. Then his true charlatan mastery comes into play when he blames and persecutes someone else for his failures or slaps some gold leafing on his turd of creation and plops it in your lap expecting gratitude. тАЬLook what the orange king baby did!!!!тАЭ He exclaims!
Yes, heтАЩs been an asset for decades. Does he really have dementia or is he being drugged into insensibility so heтАЩs easier to handle while every other asset works for Putin?
I think the law schools and their heads and every professional school administration needs to have an extremely loud and very compelling wake up call because the slippage and ignoring ethics and the rise of celebrity and image besides everything else had become more than problematic. See Rowan FarrowтАЩs latest writing . And nothing new there have been times of great corruption before the MediciтАЩs in Italy and Some of the royal courts in Europe after colonization started. Thornton WildersтАЩ two books The Bridge of St. Louis Rey and The Eighth Day great fictionalized narratives. For hope read his Theophilious North. Dated and isms but A for effort in his works.
I like the flic, much more, 'Mr North' with Anthony Edwards, Robert Mitchum, Angelica Huston, Tammy Grimes (I think), Harry Dean Stanton (my fave in that flic) and Lauren Bacall. The N.Y.T. described it as a tale of a crack-pot saint. https://youtu.be/cIfuoLnMuiY
Mar, you bring me right back to that quote that everyone should heed from a man everyone should disdain: тАЬThe [500-year] Republic had in reality ceased to exist long before the establishment of the [Roman] Empire. The interval was filled by ferocious, corrupt, and bloody factions. There was, indeed, a small but patriotic body of eminent individuals who struggled in vain to correct abuses and to restore the government to its . . . purity, and who sacrificed their lives in their endeavors to accomplish and object so virtuous and noble.тАЭ
--John C. Calhoun, тАШA Disquisition on GovernmentтАЩ; 1848.
No. That was Preston Brooks caning Senator Charles Sumner. Vice President Calhoun certainly stoked that pro-slavery fire before his death in 1850. Had he been around in 1856, V.P. Calhoun may have cheered Brooks or participated in the beating.
They have been planning this for years, some even decades. Evil minds collaborating can be very creative. Combined grievances, greed, power, envy, and even empty can really motivate. Yep, give them credit, the bottom is yet to be felt.
These are not creative people. Their goal is not to create something. Their goal is to tear down and reverse policies that level the playing field for all people.
I agree that greed, power, envy, revenge and retribution are their motivating factors but they are doing nothing that hasn't been done before.
But will our Constitution hold long enough to defeat them?
Creative would be actually reducing the cost of groceries and other consumer goods across the board. If they figure that out without totally tanking the economy I would give them credit for being creative, unless it means killing off millions of Americans or deporting half the migrant work force.
Well, many of us of a certain age might remember "wage and price controls". They didn't work. It took super high interest rates to tank demand to reign in prices. So, come to think of it, here is a scenario.
Tariffs = higher prices (inflation) = Feds stop cutting and "suggest" a hike.
$Trump freaks out, fires Powell (even though he can't but that hasn't stopped him yet, has it?). The Fed is put under the umbrella of Treasury. All illegal. Congress sits on its hands and convenes more hearings about "Sanctuary Cites" to fill in their empty schedules.
Sec Bessent folds in the Crypto Reserve con. $Trump signs a new Tax Bill that feeds money to the CR - which actually is a washing machine for $Trump Inc.
I know. Sounds too incredible and crazy to be true. But has anything sane happened lately? Let's not underestimate the potential for grift and graft. After all, Musk and Musk industries are now folded into our government. Could we predict that?
If a year ago, I had said that the President of the United States would have stood in front of a Tesla Cyber Truck on the White House lawn reading a sales pitch next to the owner of the car company...
I fear the Kleptocracy has only begun to infect our government.
Of course, there is another way to bring down the price of groceries and other consumer goods. Deport enough buyers, fire enough people and halt public investment to reduce overall consumption. Bingo! Fixed it! Let the beatings continue...
Let's ask the farmers how they are feeling about this as we wrap up the harvest season later in the year. No USAID contracts!?
"But we borrowed money to buy seed?"
"Sorry, gotta get that waste, fraud and abuse!"
"Oh well, I guess we will finally sell the land to that developer. We can't find any workers anyway..."
WOWerful, there, Bill. Crazy, surely it is. Yet -- and I can only speak for me -- I have dismissed craziness each step of the way. ┬бEt voil├а! Like cornerbacks on the footy field, we need to lead the receivers -- anticipate where they are headed -- to break up the pass. F*ck it. Trump will throw a flag for interference. Then we tell him to stick it where the red star don't shine. Forgive my digression, Bill. Fine, fraught (as Carol says) analysis.
Thank you for condensing my bloviation to the core, crucial message, Carol. There is the reason why my Yankee Dad sais I should be a Southern Senator (from the 1950s and 1960s). ЁЯШЙ
Yup, good analysis, Gary! тАЬGreed, power, envy, revenge and retribution,тАЭ etc. What I find so amazing is what The Right (the politicians AND their voters) believe about Government Regulation! This тАЬcallтАЭ is a perfect demonstration of why (they believe) we donтАЩt need no Gummint Regoolashun. BUT, what is even more amazing is the Regulation that THEIR government has been recently imposing on colleges and universities and law firms, etc.
This twenty-six minute interview, hosted by one of my conservatives whom I still trust to be intellexually honest, explains the need for regulatory reform. Not slicing people from their jobs but to eliminate jurisdictional overlap. These men assert that five per cent of the federal government's cost is personnel. What I do not know is whether that covers the cost of contractors. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/firing-line/video/philip-k-howard-and-will-marshall-awjvp6/
They are not creative in elevating the end-state of republicanism, but they are quite creative in devious means. Nothing creative about Project 2025. Shocking, yes; creative, no.
тАЬ These are not creative people. Their goal is not to create something. тАЬ
Au contrairee. To lie like they do, their brains must be working overtime on new lies. To make up new stories, file new lawsuits, defend their actions. It will take a lot of creativity to fabricate a story that explains this away.
тАЬTheir goal is to tear down and reverse policies that level the playing field for all people.тАЭ On this we agree!
They reached the center of earth JD. Can't go lower.....whait a minute....I forgot we are talking about the scumbag president here....he'll find a way, he is really good at that.
Good one Ned. Now if we could just find an appropriate (sustainable, non-destructive) use for all that excellent skill at digging lower and ever lower still. Water wells? Toxic waste dump mitigation (digging out the contamination)? We could come up with some great ideas to put this crew to work.
Send the toxic waste outside the White House and M.A.G.A. somewhere safe in the planet. Send the toxic waste of the White House and M.A.G.A. to deep space. The sooner they suck into a black-hole, the better.
Gary, when people comment, they often cause my mind to slingshot off to some place that seems irrelevant. It just happened.
I thought of Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon, the cosmetics company. He got his start in cosmetics selling nail polish door-to-door in NYC nail salons. His M.O. was to sit at the manicurist's table and "accidentally" knock bottles of polish onto the floor, then offer to replace them with his own product.
He was despised in the cosmetics industry, because he was such a "trump." Est├йe Lauder wouldn't even say his name. She just called him "THAT man." The main reason Revson was hated is that he and his company never came up with an original product.
True story: Revson convened his department heads and announced, "Gentlemen, we must improve our market share. We've got to copy better!"
Let's not shirk our collective guilt. Seems a common trait these days that when the sh!t hits the fan, the universe shouts "not our fault". Buy in this case it is. American Democracy has failed in its task to "keep it".
Really important moral insight, Michael. We may not have voted for Trump. But we elected him, likely knowing what we were signing up for. Exasperation -- my faith and folly -- surely is not enough. Thank you.
Heather said in a recent interview that the MAGA people receive their news from typically one source only - Fox News or NewsMax - and Fox News omits a lot of information and details so these people NEVER know the entire truth.
We looked at the Fox Spews website last night while watching Pete Buttegieg on CNN (first time we've watched CNN in years). The story was buried, "nothing to see here, folks."
And this is the message that Trump voters will get and believe. They will shrug it off or take it as just one more thing that Trump's enemies are lying about. And people like us will continue to be outraged among ourselves and powerless. And there is nothing new under the sun.
Faux news is not broadcast over the air but via cable. That said the FCC has no jurisdiction over them much less anything they may say.
Unfortunately while we may not like it (and sad as that is) they can lie all they want. I personally feel they are yelling тАЬfireтАЭ in a theatre where there is no fire and should be arrested. But they can claim/ say that is not what they are doing. In the long run lying is allowed under Free Speech. Trump does it (lies) all the time and has done so for years.
That is not a "get out of jail free" card. FOX viewers are not locked in a room with a broken remote. Their need is for "drama" and FOX delivers a potent mixture they absolutely love and thrive on.
The best spin I can put on it is this: The Trump II administration is the U.S. "hitting bottom" -- reaching the place from which there's nowhere to go but up. U.S. democracy has been heading downward since at least the Reagan administration, and I'd go further back than that, at least to the Civil War. (Read HCR's book HOW THE SOUTH WON THE CIVIL WAR [2020]. She lays it out very well.) Two major contributing factors are economic power and the general ignorance of the electorate, to which the sorry state of the news media has been contributing for decades. Whether "we the people" are capable of waking up remains an open question.
Truth be told: the American public is complicit in the installation of inept clowns at the very top of our Federal bureaucracy. "All enemies foreign or domestic" includes domestic enemies across 48.5% of the Us voting public. Shame.
A thirty-seven minute interview with Vice President Pence's homeland or national security advisor. Ms Troye blows away any excuse one may devise for this security breach. Worst of all, these people knew better and secure lines were easy. Gabbard would NOT answer whether she was on her personal phone or a U.S.G.-line.
What have you done American voters, you put us, our safety as a nation and individuals in the hands of this inept clowns? Everything maga touches dies.
Now come on Ricardo. We have to be fair, here. While we dislike Trump, we really should display the intellexual integrity to credit the trump admin. when credit is due. This team is very creative, and we need to acknowledge that. Just when we had assumed that Trump could go no lower, the cool, clever, calculating insiders find a new way to go lower.
Please clarify to me : it's worse to have a scumbag president declaring plainly ignorance or pretending to be ignorant to deflect responsibility?
HeтАЩll throw anyone under the bus to save his ass and get a novel prize.
Trump or anyone in his administration will never get a Nobel prize for anything. He thinks that economics is a zero sum game and that tariffs will bring in enough money to allow him to extend the tax cuts for the wealthy and increase them for corporations. As Rex Tillerson so elegantly pointed out, "Trump is a fucking moron."
Tillerson was right on target there. If Trump does with his gut on decision making, his gut has led him astray on numerous occasions.
Every single day, in every possible way, TrumpтАЩs gut has led him astray. The orange buffoon has never gotten anything right.
The problem, Kathy, is that he lives in a universe of one; so he he is always right while he wrongs the rest of us.
True that. The Trumpanzee is sniffin' around for a Nobel Peace Prize. He will get a peace prize, alright . . . the lenin peace prize.
Novel prize for stupidity David. What an honor, nobody ever since prehistoric times was awarded such high prize.
I think that award is called the Darwin Prize.
Good one, R.W.! At least he will be cheered on by his coarse chorus of the nattering nabobs of narcissism.
Probably a Nobel Prize, though I guess there are novel ones too.
Kinda a Tweedle Dumb or Tweedle Dee question I think! ЁЯдг
Dumb as stumps. Like that great Bob Dylan song, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb.
ЁЯШАЁЯШГЁЯШДЁЯШБЁЯШЖЁЯШЕЁЯдгЁЯШВ
Good point, there, Kathy. The answer may not matter but Ricardo's certainly does. It mourns for us.
Ricardo, I honestly don't think he cares. The cabinet of curiosities he has assembled are there to mock past American greatness, and burn it to its core. He doesnt care about our security, or that of our Allies; only his own is important to him. This is part of the vengeance he was talking about should be be elected.
This is the core of the question. Not only is Trump drumpfing Ukraine and N.A.T.O. and, likely, Taiwan in the near future, he may be, according to plan, handing our republic over to Putin.
That has been my underlying fear.
he does not need to pretend, alas...
I was kidding. Everything about this President and his co-conspirators comes down to four letters:
V-I-L-E
always
E-V-I-L
now
L-I-V-E
Oh, my G-D.
Anyway one slices it, Team Treason stinks worst at the head.
Yes
ThatтАЩs a tough one.
Hello Ned... Remember, DJT is called 'Teflon Don' for a reason.. DJT never takes any responsibility for anything bad... DJT is just the Front-Man for those rthat want to destroy the American USG, and Society... Remember who wrote Plan2025... It was a multitude of bad actors... They are not creative, they are devious, and inept... The succeed only thru Corruption... Sh*t always goes lower, it always seeks the bottom... They are abetted by very Corrupt Lawyers... They give Lawyers a very Bad Name...
Apache - that is why it is incumbent on all of us to blame Trump for everything he promised to fix. Like bringing down the price of groceries on day 1, or resolving the Ukraine war in a day. Only the most uneducated and gullible really thought he could do that.
And now he's tanking the economy. As this happens he is blaming Biden.
Exactly, Gary. They are willfully and intentionally destroying the country. And doing it quickly - so they can blame the last guy. This is a plan.
$Trump and Musk:
"There will be some pain for a while. But it will be worth it in the long run. We have to fix this country!"
Are the "clowns" like Hegseth and Rubio just stupid, drunk on power or are they on a deliberate mission to destroy American security and stability? I think it is dangerous to assume the former and foolish not to consider the latter.
The Russian playbook after the USSR crumbled began with a feeble attempt at democracy. Yeltsin. A drunk who handed off the nation to a KGB agent who guaranteed his family's protection.
Then amidst the chaos of an undefined economy and no guard rails, entire industries were handed off to the guys who would become the oligarchs. Russia became feudal with a king, lords and nobles who would hoard the bulk of Russia's wealth - and power.
So not only is $Trump using the communication techniques of Hitler (refined and adapted by Roy Cohn) he is emulating Putin. Create chaos, blame it on the last guy, then claim that he is fixing the nation. The Great Con(sternation).
But it's all really just a hand off to a few oligarchs who will protect him - keep him out of prison.
And the "pain" for the 99%? Please explain, sir.
$Trump: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask how you can suffer enough so I can spend every weekend in my Florida mansion. None of this is my fault. It was all because of the Biden Crime Family. And no, I don't cheat at golf."
ЁЯСПЁЯСПЁЯСП
Hear, here, Gail!
Bill, you explained to me why I refer to Trump and his craven quislings as Team Treason and why I believe we are headed toward civil war. These are merely intuitions on my part. Your careful analysis may not 'prove' that intuition, but it does comprehend why it might be there. ЁЯдФ
Hegseth (SmegmouthЁЯдл) and Rubio (BoobioЁЯдн) are not stupid; that is the worse of it. Liar, liar Vance on fire is a remarkable human being with amazing qualities, none moral; from Hamel to Vance to Alcibiades --that is the worst of it.
My personal preference is Hogsbreath. ЁЯШ▒
Better and quite a bit LESS crude. Keeps it in the animal farm.
While he's doing that heтАЩs manipulating the stock market with tariff threats. He makes announcements and the market drops so the rich can buy stuff up, then he changes his mind and the market goes up so they make a tidy profit. Then he does it all over again and the inside traders are all informed so they can sell high and buy low. I watched him do this with his pronouncements the first time and promptly sold all my stock. I can handle my retirement with what I have until this is over. My husband still works.
Sharon, you have described perfectly the mechanics of "Pump and Dump". There was a time when such blatant market manipulation was highly illegal.
I have a marvelous broker. While the S&P 500 was dropping 10% my broker had me breaking even and now that it's recovered a little he is riding the wave. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that aren't as fortunate.
I also have an annuity that will go up with the market but not down. I canтАЩt remember the special name. We assign yearly what we want and last year took a flat 7.5% which is better than we would have since the anniversary would have had zero.
ThatтАЩs great. ItтАЩs hard to find good brokers but mine are coming out of the woodwork and scheduling meetings.
Interesting thought, Sharon. Need to chew the cud on that one.
I could be wrong but I doubt it. Even if Trump isnтАЩt smart enough to know heтАЩs doing it his handlers know.
What you say makes sense. Soros was accused of leading or running the market -- I can not recall the term, which is essentially what you are describing. I would not be surprised if the manipulators sold stocks short to reinforce the direction induced by the latest trumper tantrum. Then they take possession of the stock for its rise. The Lazarus boomerang -- ┬бnow that is a maxed out, mixed metaphor for you!
That is it, Gary. Well said, good man. Keep Trump's shimmering schei├Яe in front of the American people. Prove that his politics is neither conservative nor constructive. Build the case for treason.
Roy Cohn students.
They are soo much low that they reached the center of the earth. Nowhere lower to go. No wonder Musk is looking to reach Mars. They can start all over again there.
Hello Ricardo... Do you think that the Martians will deport him to Uranus? Did you see snippets of today's Cabinet meeting where DJT's Lackeys were paying Homage to Musk?
Apache, I vote for UranusтАж.has a nice and appropriate cachet, especially if mispronounced.
And even better, it's a gas planet!
ЁЯдгЁЯдгЁЯдгЁЯдгЁЯдгЁЯдгЁЯдг
Yuk yuk yuk!!!! No, really, yuk! ЁЯдкgood one!!!!
The correct way to pronounce Uranus brings nine year olds to paroxysms of laughter.
Along with my junior high brain!
Either pronunciation -- I had it wrong, I guess -- works for me. Wish I could put my laughing snoopy vid. here with the pic. (Thirty second vid.; quite fitting.)
https://youtu.be/SH9MAhDvNjo
Perfect, Ned!
Thanks, Barbara!
Do we really need the drama of following the space craft to Uranus. How about it just blow up on take-off like his last one.
Reminds me of the ending of the movie Independence Day when Will SmithтАЩs character tells his sort-of-son тАЬdidnтАЩt I promise you fireworks?тАЭ as the debris of the alien ship visibly burns up in the atmosphereтАж.like the vids of several of (F)ElonтАЩs recent take off attemptsтАжdoes look pretty for all the danger it poses.
Is it another planet further away? Uranus seems to be too close for comfort. Maybe in another galaxy?
Regarding the Soviet, sorry, trump's cabinet paying homage to savior Musk, i didn't see it. I was commuting from Corsica to Sardinia and I missed the embarrassment. Should I be sorry?ЁЯШБ
In DJT v.1.0, the sycophants professed homage to DJT... In DJT v.2.0, they kow-tow to Musk... Commuting in the Med? What do you do for a living?
Besides commenting back and forth with you (ЁЯШД) I'm a Physical Therapist. Semi retired.
Well I am mex-green with envy. ЁЯдЭ
Oh, my junior high brain goes to " your anus" which seems fitting.
As does mine. Too bad I peaked in the eighth grade.
No apologies. Grief.
Given the homo-erotic after-taste of this bro-job with Putin, Uranus is an interesting choice for the new Saint Helena.
EDIT NOTE: Uranus in this case is pronounced your-A-nis for your highness King Kompromat, the First. No not the First -- King Kompomat the Worst.
Hello Ned... "King Kompomat the Worst"... Excellent...
Thank you, Apache; you honour me.
Hello Ned... Reading from your 'Handle', you were in the Ukraine in 2022... That is pre-Russian Invasion? How did you like the Brave, Brave, Ukrainians?
I was there for five weeks about four months after Putrid's invasion. I love the Ukrainians. I want to go back, but only to the front-line. Can not get much traxion on that. Suggestions would be welcome. All I did was walk the streets of Bucha, Kharkiv, Kyiv (75% of the time), Lviv, and Odesa. https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/digital-collage-ua-pl-hupptx/258709203
Hello Ned... Curious, what brought you there?
I havenтАЩt seen that story yet.
The irony -- deadening irony -- is that HELL is in the center of the Earth, and that Trumpanzee and his storm-trumpers (thank you, Jimmy Kimmel) dragged us there.
We have to find our way out Ned. Before it's too late.
Agreed 111%, Ricardo.
Interesting thing about Plan-2025. I was acquainted with -- did not know or spend any time with (thank G-D) -- one of the authors. He came to Iraq late in the surge and would write these blast e-mails with good news stories written in a brown-nosing manner; spare the pom-poms, okay? There were good news stories, but after a whole lot of bad news under Ambassador Bromide.
Over time, I only read one or two of this Lipton d-bag's essays and skimmed some to see if his pukedelic self-promotion had subsided. NOPE. I figured that this guy is so obviously bull-sh*tting that people would see through it. Ugggh. I read Project 2025 and it was re-cycled Reaganism extended to subsume new issues that were not around in the early 1980s.
Since Reaganism is exhausted after forty years, the ideological truculence and radicalism within Project 2025 are pronounced. The irony of it for me is that President Reagan used the kulturkampers for his power. Now the kulturkampfers are using President Reagan for theirs. Forty years ago, I was an incipient kulturkampfer; then I matured, realizing ideology breeds idiocy.
Moral of the story: intellection is wonderful but it falls to dust in the face of humility (always wavering), compassion (always working on it), and mercy (always requiring discernment in its practice). Mercy is the BIGGIE in governance. Trump is a human being. His mercy will NOT be a pardon but not being executed for treason; he will go to jail.
I love your vocabulary. It brings everything into bright images.
Well, so many thanks. My dear departed parents thank you for affirming their decision to invest in my education. I have been fortunate.
Yes, my husband, with the genius IQ and brilliant father, has a huge vocabulary. Sometimes when heтАЩs speaking I have to ask him to define. On the other hand, my mathematical genius grandson uses words that we constantly have to tell him donтАЩt mean what heтАЩs using them as.
Well, each of my parents were smart, my mother possibly a genius. I ended up in the shallow end of that gene pool. On your grandson, I am finding some words have altered definitions and others with different pronunciations from the ones I learned two generations ago.
My dad was an 8th grade dropout. Worked 3 jobs my whole life. He wasnтАЩt stupid, just not big on education for his girls. My mother started nursing school and stopped, started secretarial school and stopped and ended up working as a meat wrapper her whole life. Both were depression babies, born in 1929. I have 2 degrees and am constantly learning. When Covid hit I did school work with my grandson to keep him engaged. He was a high school senior who came to live with us after his mom died. He was already at the edge of suicide. I couldnтАЩt let him go over. He just finished at UCSD and we are so proud of him. He keeps us up to date on todayтАЩs language which I really appreciate.
Thank you, Sharon, for telling me about your infectious life story of the last five or ten years. Your grand-son is very fortunate to have grand-parents like and your better half. When we moved to a new house in Pittsburgh in 1969, we were blessed to have one of the best house-painters in town work on my parents' home.тЭдя╕П
Dad told me to go out to where Mr Macchioni was working and to observe him and speak with him. Dad admonished me to watch how Al Macchioni worked so I could see first-hand what went into a work ethic. My parents sacrificed a lot of time and resources to assure my receiving a decent education. ЁЯТб
Yet they tended to place a higher premium on character than on degrees or prestige in schooling. I remain thankful to my parents to this day. I do not mean to denigrate education, especially in view of your accomplishments. What I do mean to say is that education is a privilege, but, in my life at least, honor and integrity mean a whole lot more. ЁЯШЗ
Mom also pointed out that I should learn everyday, in school or not, and to understand that anyone from any station in life would teach me something, if l were open to that. Of course, I do not come close to achieving these standards, but I keep trying. ЁЯШЗ
I was taught that if youтАЩre going to do a job do it well. I was in Youngstown in 69 and it was all blue collar workers. From my first babysitting job I was taught to put 50% of my earnings into a savings account. No one was looked down on for a lack of education and from looking at todays MAGA I would have to say my father was much smarter than any of them, even the ones who went to Ivy League schools.
This is the truth. Drumpf only takes responsibility for sales pitches that eventually fail. Then his true charlatan mastery comes into play when he blames and persecutes someone else for his failures or slaps some gold leafing on his turd of creation and plops it in your lap expecting gratitude. тАЬLook what the orange king baby did!!!!тАЭ He exclaims!
Yes, heтАЩs been an asset for decades. Does he really have dementia or is he being drugged into insensibility so heтАЩs easier to handle while every other asset works for Putin?
Reminds me of this scene from 'Star Trek' that I saw as a kid and never forgot. https://youtu.be/EvusFZh3ubw (3┬╜min.vid.)
I think the law schools and their heads and every professional school administration needs to have an extremely loud and very compelling wake up call because the slippage and ignoring ethics and the rise of celebrity and image besides everything else had become more than problematic. See Rowan FarrowтАЩs latest writing . And nothing new there have been times of great corruption before the MediciтАЩs in Italy and Some of the royal courts in Europe after colonization started. Thornton WildersтАЩ two books The Bridge of St. Louis Rey and The Eighth Day great fictionalized narratives. For hope read his Theophilious North. Dated and isms but A for effort in his works.
I like the flic, much more, 'Mr North' with Anthony Edwards, Robert Mitchum, Angelica Huston, Tammy Grimes (I think), Harry Dean Stanton (my fave in that flic) and Lauren Bacall. The N.Y.T. described it as a tale of a crack-pot saint. https://youtu.be/cIfuoLnMuiY
Mar, you bring me right back to that quote that everyone should heed from a man everyone should disdain: тАЬThe [500-year] Republic had in reality ceased to exist long before the establishment of the [Roman] Empire. The interval was filled by ferocious, corrupt, and bloody factions. There was, indeed, a small but patriotic body of eminent individuals who struggled in vain to correct abuses and to restore the government to its . . . purity, and who sacrificed their lives in their endeavors to accomplish and object so virtuous and noble.тАЭ
--John C. Calhoun, тАШA Disquisition on GovernmentтАЩ; 1848.
Yikes Calhoun didnтАЩt he almost kill a peer on the floor? But yes Mr North was an interesting take on the book.
No. That was Preston Brooks caning Senator Charles Sumner. Vice President Calhoun certainly stoked that pro-slavery fire before his death in 1850. Had he been around in 1856, V.P. Calhoun may have cheered Brooks or participated in the beating.
They have been planning this for years, some even decades. Evil minds collaborating can be very creative. Combined grievances, greed, power, envy, and even empty can really motivate. Yep, give them credit, the bottom is yet to be felt.
These are not creative people. Their goal is not to create something. Their goal is to tear down and reverse policies that level the playing field for all people.
I agree that greed, power, envy, revenge and retribution are their motivating factors but they are doing nothing that hasn't been done before.
But will our Constitution hold long enough to defeat them?
Creative would be actually reducing the cost of groceries and other consumer goods across the board. If they figure that out without totally tanking the economy I would give them credit for being creative, unless it means killing off millions of Americans or deporting half the migrant work force.
Well, many of us of a certain age might remember "wage and price controls". They didn't work. It took super high interest rates to tank demand to reign in prices. So, come to think of it, here is a scenario.
Tariffs = higher prices (inflation) = Feds stop cutting and "suggest" a hike.
$Trump freaks out, fires Powell (even though he can't but that hasn't stopped him yet, has it?). The Fed is put under the umbrella of Treasury. All illegal. Congress sits on its hands and convenes more hearings about "Sanctuary Cites" to fill in their empty schedules.
Sec Bessent folds in the Crypto Reserve con. $Trump signs a new Tax Bill that feeds money to the CR - which actually is a washing machine for $Trump Inc.
I know. Sounds too incredible and crazy to be true. But has anything sane happened lately? Let's not underestimate the potential for grift and graft. After all, Musk and Musk industries are now folded into our government. Could we predict that?
If a year ago, I had said that the President of the United States would have stood in front of a Tesla Cyber Truck on the White House lawn reading a sales pitch next to the owner of the car company...
I fear the Kleptocracy has only begun to infect our government.
Of course, there is another way to bring down the price of groceries and other consumer goods. Deport enough buyers, fire enough people and halt public investment to reduce overall consumption. Bingo! Fixed it! Let the beatings continue...
Let's ask the farmers how they are feeling about this as we wrap up the harvest season later in the year. No USAID contracts!?
"But we borrowed money to buy seed?"
"Sorry, gotta get that waste, fraud and abuse!"
"Oh well, I guess we will finally sell the land to that developer. We can't find any workers anyway..."
WOWerful, there, Bill. Crazy, surely it is. Yet -- and I can only speak for me -- I have dismissed craziness each step of the way. ┬бEt voil├а! Like cornerbacks on the footy field, we need to lead the receivers -- anticipate where they are headed -- to break up the pass. F*ck it. Trump will throw a flag for interference. Then we tell him to stick it where the red star don't shine. Forgive my digression, Bill. Fine, fraught (as Carol says) analysis.
Horrifying and bleak analysis, Bill. We do need to be aware of such possible scenarios. Thinking ahead is wise.
Thank you for condensing my bloviation to the core, crucial message, Carol. There is the reason why my Yankee Dad sais I should be a Southern Senator (from the 1950s and 1960s). ЁЯШЙ
Yup, good analysis, Gary! тАЬGreed, power, envy, revenge and retribution,тАЭ etc. What I find so amazing is what The Right (the politicians AND their voters) believe about Government Regulation! This тАЬcallтАЭ is a perfect demonstration of why (they believe) we donтАЩt need no Gummint Regoolashun. BUT, what is even more amazing is the Regulation that THEIR government has been recently imposing on colleges and universities and law firms, etc.
This twenty-six minute interview, hosted by one of my conservatives whom I still trust to be intellexually honest, explains the need for regulatory reform. Not slicing people from their jobs but to eliminate jurisdictional overlap. These men assert that five per cent of the federal government's cost is personnel. What I do not know is whether that covers the cost of contractors. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/firing-line/video/philip-k-howard-and-will-marshall-awjvp6/
They are not creative in elevating the end-state of republicanism, but they are quite creative in devious means. Nothing creative about Project 2025. Shocking, yes; creative, no.
тАЬ These are not creative people. Their goal is not to create something. тАЬ
Au contrairee. To lie like they do, their brains must be working overtime on new lies. To make up new stories, file new lawsuits, defend their actions. It will take a lot of creativity to fabricate a story that explains this away.
тАЬTheir goal is to tear down and reverse policies that level the playing field for all people.тАЭ On this we agree!
They reached the center of earth JD. Can't go lower.....whait a minute....I forgot we are talking about the scumbag president here....he'll find a way, he is really good at that.
SadтАжfrighteningly and dangerously SAD - but itтАЩs also embarrassingly so for some of us - yet not so for them!!!
Good one Ned. Now if we could just find an appropriate (sustainable, non-destructive) use for all that excellent skill at digging lower and ever lower still. Water wells? Toxic waste dump mitigation (digging out the contamination)? We could come up with some great ideas to put this crew to work.
Barb, I was thinking that Mike Rowe could find some dirty jobs for them, although now that I think about it, heтАЩs a magat too.
Send the toxic waste outside the White House and M.A.G.A. somewhere safe in the planet. Send the toxic waste of the White House and M.A.G.A. to deep space. The sooner they suck into a black-hole, the better.
Ned, Republicans are not creative. Heather gave us the list of people in the meeting and none of them have ever been tagged as being creative.
Creativity was the trait that set my company apart from the other much larger consulting firms along with intelligence and good communication skills.
Trump looks for rich, cruel, greedy and groveling individuals. He doesn't even know what creative is.
Gary, when people comment, they often cause my mind to slingshot off to some place that seems irrelevant. It just happened.
I thought of Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon, the cosmetics company. He got his start in cosmetics selling nail polish door-to-door in NYC nail salons. His M.O. was to sit at the manicurist's table and "accidentally" knock bottles of polish onto the floor, then offer to replace them with his own product.
He was despised in the cosmetics industry, because he was such a "trump." Est├йe Lauder wouldn't even say his name. She just called him "THAT man." The main reason Revson was hated is that he and his company never came up with an original product.
True story: Revson convened his department heads and announced, "Gentlemen, we must improve our market share. We've got to copy better!"
Dale, my wife asked me the other day "how does your brain work that way?"
And she was referring to the "slingshot" off to irrelevancy. After being married to me for 40 years, she gets exasperated with me rather easily.
Maybe you and I should hang out. ЁЯШО
I'm totally down with that!
Maybe I could appeal to Mrs. Loft's sympathetic nature and explain that we're born this way. We don't do it on purpose. ЁЯШП
I was not a success. So, I defer to your insights here.
Six degrees of stupidity. . .
тАЬSix degreesтАЭ тАжitтАЩs waaaaaay more than thatтАжfor separation or connection with this idiot and his MAGA-cult!!!
ЁЯШЭ right on target Ned ЁЯОп
Ned, we long ago passed through the 9 circles of hell, only to find out there is no bottom. But it's still "Drill, baby, drill!"
Doug, as per the Revson, good commenters create, great ones steal. In my desperate quest for relevance, consider your tangy remark plagiarized. ЁЯШЙ
Why thank you, Ned! I do it all the time.
Let's not shirk our collective guilt. Seems a common trait these days that when the sh!t hits the fan, the universe shouts "not our fault". Buy in this case it is. American Democracy has failed in its task to "keep it".
Really important moral insight, Michael. We may not have voted for Trump. But we elected him, likely knowing what we were signing up for. Exasperation -- my faith and folly -- surely is not enough. Thank you.
Heather said in a recent interview that the MAGA people receive their news from typically one source only - Fox News or NewsMax - and Fox News omits a lot of information and details so these people NEVER know the entire truth.
After this news broke yesterday afternoon, we turned on Fox News to see how they were covering it. No surprise - there was no mention of this snafu.
We looked at the Fox Spews website last night while watching Pete Buttegieg on CNN (first time we've watched CNN in years). The story was buried, "nothing to see here, folks."
And this is the message that Trump voters will get and believe. They will shrug it off or take it as just one more thing that Trump's enemies are lying about. And people like us will continue to be outraged among ourselves and powerless. And there is nothing new under the sun.
We are not powerless. We will not be defeated.
Correct Ellen. We will NOT be buried. We will do what needs to be done to save our democracy.
Why is fux no news allowed to be on the air.? Lying is not free speech. It is lyingтАж maybe you should ask your children?
Faux news is not broadcast over the air but via cable. That said the FCC has no jurisdiction over them much less anything they may say.
Unfortunately while we may not like it (and sad as that is) they can lie all they want. I personally feel they are yelling тАЬfireтАЭ in a theatre where there is no fire and should be arrested. But they can claim/ say that is not what they are doing. In the long run lying is allowed under Free Speech. Trump does it (lies) all the time and has done so for years.
My 2 siblings listen to FOX and check no facts. They are awed by FOX! Pathetic sample of maga's base.
Exactly. I have 2 lost causes in my family. So sad.
That is not a "get out of jail free" card. FOX viewers are not locked in a room with a broken remote. Their need is for "drama" and FOX delivers a potent mixture they absolutely love and thrive on.
All of MSM omits a lot of information and details.
The best spin I can put on it is this: The Trump II administration is the U.S. "hitting bottom" -- reaching the place from which there's nowhere to go but up. U.S. democracy has been heading downward since at least the Reagan administration, and I'd go further back than that, at least to the Civil War. (Read HCR's book HOW THE SOUTH WON THE CIVIL WAR [2020]. She lays it out very well.) Two major contributing factors are economic power and the general ignorance of the electorate, to which the sorry state of the news media has been contributing for decades. Whether "we the people" are capable of waking up remains an open question.
Truth be told: the American public is complicit in the installation of inept clowns at the very top of our Federal bureaucracy. "All enemies foreign or domestic" includes domestic enemies across 48.5% of the Us voting public. Shame.
Hi all,
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/wtf-20-the-text-message-mess?utm_source=live-stream-redirect&triedRedirect=true
A thirty-seven minute interview with Vice President Pence's homeland or national security advisor. Ms Troye blows away any excuse one may devise for this security breach. Worst of all, these people knew better and secure lines were easy. Gabbard would NOT answer whether she was on her personal phone or a U.S.G.-line.