Today the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, dropped the story that senior members of the Trump administration planned the March 15 U.S.
And that is exactly what we have. They didn’t slip in under the door. Just a little subterfuge and the Trojan Horses pranced right in and claimed the throne…
I love how no one wants to ever acknowledge the clear discrepancies we all witnessed in the last election. Just blame it on messaging, shrug, and refuse to even whisper the suggestion that the GOP’s years long campaign of crying about an election being stolen was yet another example of every accusation is a confession. And what will be done about this clear breach of protocol that put us all at risk? A very harshly worded statement from Chuck and Hakeem? This is like a nightmare we can’t wake up from and there are no heroes coming to wake us up.
You may be overlooking four crucial factors in the 2024 election results: campaign spending, the ignorance (economic and otherwise) of the electorate, racism, and sexism.
This is what we get when the Senate Republican's approve cabinet members who were nominated not for the qualifications to do the jobs (relevant experience and proven abilities) but only for their loyalty to Trump. Hegseth should be fired and replaced by someone with appropriate qualifications. Perhaps others in that group should be as well.
It's clear that the administrations elimination of the Dept. of Education is purposeful . Ignorance and the lack of critical thinking skills will be passed on for generations. But that's part of the plan. It's much easier to control people who believe everything their leader tells them. If I recall correctly, Nixon said, "if the President says it, it must be true"...."legal" (corrected)
I truly believe the reactions at the town halls prove that the electorate has been kept in the dark, not that it is ignorant. For example, who knows what Machiavellian machinations caused schumer, et.cie.to throw their electorate under the bus.
Jon, some people refuse to be educated. I send these Letters to fifteen supposedly educated people, and my guess is that many of them don't bother to spend the ten minutes necessary to read them, some admitting that "politics upsets them." If they were the only ones that will suffer the consequences of their fecklessness, I'd be okay with that, but I resent the hell out of their refusal to be participants in righting the ship while the rest of us suffer for their stupidity and ignorance.
I agree, Jon. And the ignorance, racism and sexism has always been there. It was a failure to turn out, despite the many calls to do so. I wonder if a lot of people said, "Meh. She's got this. She won't need my vote."
No, I don't buy it. Do you know any MAGA people? Nothing will educate a people with their eyes closed, their fingers in their ears, and their sole source of information is fox etc or Russian backed bropodcasters.
Well, I am not sure I put the blame on us. The blame is on an uninformed citizenry who chose laziness in listening to propaganda over researching factual news. The blame is on an army of lemmings versus exercizing the brain.The failure is not on those who stayed informed, it is on those who refused to seek the facts, or stayed home. A non vote is inexcusable but is truly repugnant when democracy is on the line.
You may feel a bit better about your fellow citizens if you hear Greg Palast's report on the effect of outrageous vote suppression on the election.
In some states you can "challenge" thousands of other voters, knock them off lists, and, if they catch on in time force them to go to considerable trouble to register again. If they don't discover the knife in the back before they go to vote, they're turned away.
I did read him and others on just that topic. Huge factor in swing states. Here again though, why wasn't the opposition on top of that ? The R's even made their outrageous, to us unthinkable plans to disrupt the vote known.
Ignorance but willful ignorance, ‘it’s my tribe’ shared ignorance, something much more intentional and tribal…like ‘believing’ in Noah’s Arc is required for some to express their fealty, and we have ‘museums’ in the United States with arcs on display, all vehemently anti-science. So religion and politics, for them, have no truth based on thinking because it would violates their fealty! They are good at defecting…it is required for membership in their worlds…sexism, racism are all easier than thinking. And certainly easier than empathy! Or Love for that matter. Money can’t buy you love, but it can feed ignorance.
I remember watching the 2016 repugnicant debates, and then the Presidential debates, and being astonished that EVERY SINGLE WORD that came out of that guy's mouth was a PROJECTION! I honestly couldn't believe it. And worse: I couldn't believe that NO ONE in the media seemed to notice it, let alone call him on it. As a psychiatrist, I know about "defense mechanisms". The most primitive one is: PROJECTION.
There is no way in hell that Trump and Musk didn’t cheat in the last election.Even if nothing ever comes of it, I remain convinced of this.Too many discrepancies.Musk has all of those satellites and skilled techies working for him.I agree about the nightmare part.I almost think the country needs a mass exorcism to rid us of this scourge.
In no precinct in this country are voting machines hooked up to the internet. And do you really believe that a bunch of nerdy incels could keep that secret?
He won. We lost. The sooner we accept it the sooner we can fix what we need to.
You are correct. While accusing Democrats of stealing elections the Republicans are the ones actually doing it. All the discussion about mainstream media and big money in politics is certainly important but there is little mention of election subversion. Voter suppression in Red states was significant enough a factor to have changed the outcome in 2024, just as it likely did in 2000 Bush/Gore.
“ … every accusation is a confession.” — What an excellent observation. It is also a promise of what Trump intends to do. “They weaponized the DOJ,” means “I will weaponize the DOJ.”
There is VERY suspicious data analyses around certain swing state districts!! Until we verify some of these we can’t trust election integrity. I agree that bigotry, suppression and disinformation played a large role but to not have irrefutably addressed some of the concerns (there were weaknesses in the ‘statements’ about the security of the systems) was negligent.
There is no one reputable making the claims you talk about. We lost because we had a candidate who was too old to run, too old to talk spontaneously, and who criminally mismanaged the border. And who was too out of touch on high prices. Who then left his VP 105 days for her entire campaign.
You are spouting "Faux" talking points. Biden and the dems tried to address the border issues and even presented a compromise plan that favored the R side of the aisle. Your hero blew it up. You leave out critical facts like the U.S. inflation was lower than any other western democracy and 'dropping' when the administrations changed. Kamala was a great candidate - period.
Carolyn, I have decided that it's time for me to block Bill Katz, because his posts meet the definitions of spam (relentlessly pushes his so-called "book"), disinformation (pushes his wrong-headed opinions as fact) and he contributes nothing positive or beneficial to the conversation. In short, Katz is a troll who claims to be "on our side," but constantly throws grenades into these discussions.
JL, Bill & Carolyn, PLEASE take a step or two back and LOOK at all the Republicans have done to gerrymander and suppress votes then the highly suspicious results of ballot counting in all seven swing states all showing just enough of a margin to avoid a recount with statistically dramatic “drop-off” votes filling those margins. Other than the Democrats’ failure to keep up with all the nefarious processes, this WAS NOT the Democrats’ or Joe Bidens’ “fault”. Again, let’s stop with the circular firing squads.
Any time I point my finger, the cheerleaders here accuse me of being mean toward ole grandpa Biden. Are you kidding? He lost this election because he refused to address what most Americans wanted which was to stop hundreds of thousands and millions rushing over hot sands to enter illegally this nation. And anyone who disagrees with this premise, is simply wrong. Anytime I ask anyone why they voted for Trump the answer is summed in one word; Border.
Kathy Clark -- What you claim as "too much trouble" (to spell correctly) actually shows a total disregard and even disdain for your readers. This also goes for not correcting typos.
Predictably, we see the continual defensive squabbllng from the diehard loyalists about how Biden was faultless--this when all the manuevers of the coupsters went unchallenged and unaddressed. This small coterie of emotionally motivated loyalists, unyielding in their adamancy, blind by all common sense, present serious and confusing obstacle to the changes and realinements needed if the Democratic Party--the party of the common people--is to survive in any coherent form. Clearly serious change is needed, the voting public is demanding it, demanding an organized force to finally put up a strong fight. Witness the rapidly growing support of Bernie and AOC, two who were intentionally trivialized and neutered by the Biden cabal. Biden's actions to silence them speaks volumes, delanding that nobody speak out and present real motivation to fight back.
Case in point about ‘circular firing squads’ mentioned above. I find a lot to disagree with here. But that’s not a way to create a legit platform for resistance and Bernie & AOC would be the first to say so.
Bernie and AOC are doing just great on their own. They are both shrewd pols, and are operating from the dunce chair the Biden political cartel put them in. Wisely, they internalize their feelings about how the voters have gone from smug smirking to listening with growing enthusiasm. They see no need to gloat, and the value not to do so.. When you say " . . . that's not a way to create a legit platform for resistence . . ." I see an attempt on your part to utilize projection to include Bernie and AOC substantiazing no criticism of Biden. Bernie and AOC were trivialized and
humiliated by Biden's troops. Yet, consumate and skilled as they both are, they advanced 'a legit platform of resistence' without further scattering voting democrats and now returning independents. But your projection implies they have no criticism of the Biden- controlled party. That is a bullshit assumption, and pollutes to the voters the need to make sure they understand that a new party is afoot, and the old Biden clique must be gone.
While I agree I also fear that this will disappear with the next news cycle. Dems will once again shrug, do nothing but stand in front of cameras and make strong statements and then whine about how there is nothing more they can do.
Well, Donna, there's something we can all do on April 5: join one of the many demonstrations across the country. Meanwhile, I'm calling my 2 senators and 2 reps again today.
Heather has documented that some Congressional Republicans objected to US NATO policy last week, Besides Mike Rogers and Roger Wicker, many other Congressional Replublicans have called out Trump on national security. Mike Turner R Ohio and many others in essence call Trump a liar re Putin and Ukraine.
We only need a few to have shared government -- without Trump/Vance.
Besides national security, consituents and donors have to be pissed about Musk/DOGE. The entire cattle industry is in panic and so should about 20 Republican senators and dozens of House members in cow country. Every car dealer and the big three should be pissed about Trump's Tesla infrormercial. Everyone whon receives any govenment benefit od any kind should be concerned. Anyone who does business with Canada and Mexico.
Speaking about national security, I've got to comment on the breach of it that Heather's newsletter features today. I was watching the hearings with these clueless inept people placed in important positions including Mike Johnson. They put our country and military in danger with their games and incredibly are poo-pooing like it was nothing!
I don't like characterizing the people involved as amateurs and clowns. It diminishes what they did here. These are people who decide to send Americans into harms way. American military volunteers are killed and maimed based on their decisions. This is beyond clowns and amateurs. It's a disgrace and a slap in the face to those who choose to risk their lives for us.
You're right. I would say they are more like evil, malicious little toddlers. They have no idea what they are doing, and laughing about the harm they are causing.
Exactly. Will anything happen to these motherfuckers? Nope. Because not. enough. Dems. are. hitting. the. ceiling. And the "press" might be enjoying the discomfiture of the so-called administration (aka the clown car of idiots) but they won't do anything to jeopardize their supposed access.
Replying to your comment to me, I am realizing we voters must first assume responsibility for the actions of those elected. Then we need to respond for their lies.
For Trump administration waiting for next election 2028 is too long as you would also agree with. Thus what can we do now? Professor provides with data to act on. We are in a new era of learning to defend democracy.
Oh, definitely... But it all starts with education, and it's exactly there where the Republicans started their long game in the 80's; social media did the rest...
My first reaction was: yeah, you're damn right! But then I was thinking: can you blame voters who have been literally programmed 40 years long to think what the Heritage Foundation wants them to think?
There is one possibly decent aspect to this story. Maybe Director Waltz, who sounds level-headed, felt this use of a public social medium was wrong but did not feel strong enough to challenge the bully brigade. Accordingly. he "axidentally" brought Mr Goldberg into the feeding frenzy to guarantee a scandal sufficient to end the practice elsewhere. Though I am prone to wishful thinking, I only give assign to this scenario a 25-30% chance of being true.
Well, i think several members of Team Treason are rationalizing that they are inside the tent to contain Trump. Problem remains: each little compromise one makes to stay in the tent slowly boils him or her to death in the treason, the hapless frog. My apologies to frogs: y'all play a vital role in the cycle of life. Please due sue me, frogs, for libel.
I've not been impressed with the cred of waltz, but he had to know this was totally unacceptable. But a drunk as his boss is unpredictable, and he probably really likes his new gig, especially since he knows he's unqualified.
Plausible, Mr. McDoodle. But alas, likely just Saturday morning TV clowns amusing each other in fake roles.
Perhaps to meet the full theatrical entertainment capacity, reps from the Houthi’s office of public affairs should have been invited to the super duper security meeting.
Security Director Michael Waltz: “Good morning folks, this is so fun. Our first bombing run after giving all the honors to our Orthodox friends in Jerusalem. We have Houthi man of the hour, Abdul-Malik Bader al-Din al Houthi, also known as Shorty.”
“He will be addressing concerns about eating pork and oh ya, bombing thingies.”
Ned, I agree with you more often than not. Not on that point, though: this regime is a clown car careering through the hallowed halls of our once-respected (though not without its flaws) American government. This is all because of the narcissistic vanity of one fatted golden cow who broke American law, was investigated for it, who delayed and eventually evaded justice, and is now content to hire amateurs, drunks and fools to run the good ship America into the shoals while he is off golfing. This incident is now yet another internet meme and the subject of late night comedy, but we oughtn't be laughing.
And the other sad part about this is that he'll get away with it yet again.
Very persuasive. My hope was not that strong; thank you for ending it, altogether. Yet PXLM did raise the possibility of a subordinate of Director Waltz planting Mr Goldberg to chain-gang.
Anything is possible, Ned, including that (and if that happened, maybe the leaker should get a medal for bringing this to our attention, before being fired and possibly brought up on charges.) But still, the use of an unsecured commercial comms app to exchange classified info on a military action is shockingly, stupidly dangerous. I just watched the hearing on C-SPAN in which some of the participants in the chat claimed amnesia or denial that the info was classified. Shameful.
It was hard to hear/ see T say he didn't know anything about the 'leak'. And was that because the others thought T too stupid to know what they were doing?
However, every one of these morons knew they shouldn’t be doing this. They’re the same guys who went to sexual harassment training then went out and made crude remarks to women in the workplace. DonOLD has a classified documents case against him that risks our national security and they all were on his side in saying it’s okay if he shares that with our adversaries. After all, he’s the king. He got away with it. Nothing will happen to them here, they won’t even throw someone under the bus.
DonOLD didn’t know it happened because he’s not cognizant enough to know what’s happening 90% of the time.
JD Vance sent out a spokesman to make sure a clear message was sent that he supports Trump 100% because he was caught not supporting Trump. I’m surprised he didn’t use the same line as Hegseth and claim that none of it happened.
Everyone on that group chat (except Goldberg) must be fired. Not one of them intervened to say their war planning on a public app was illegal or even inadvisable. My son said the Army would have had his head for a breach like this.
Please thank your son for his service. And thank you to all the parents out there whose son or daughter is risking their lives each day so that we can be safe. And thank you parents because you’re also serving. The least we can do is get out there and protest this clown show. Praying for you all.
We’re just grateful that our military helicopter pilot is stationed stateside and not currently deployed in the Middle East. The family members of those that are deployed must be frantic. And knowing our military and country are being run by a Clown and his Clown Cabinet? Every day there’s another reason this administration makes us less safe.
Yes, these congressmen that spoke out will still vote for everything Trump demands and do nothing about a serious breach. This is all they should be talking about on the floor and they should take action against everynone of them.
Hi Maureen, as we begin to realize the true shape of Trump administration, we must first realize that we, the voters, have elected them. We are responsible. Second, voteres were lied about what they would do. So, what can we do to remove them. Waiting another four years is not an answer because by then we lose the country. This is the question we must discuss in this column. Professor is giving us the data, but we must respond.
What we're witnessing here, pathetically, is "the gang that couldn't shoot straight." If anyone should be lined up and shot, it should be the MAGATS that voted Trump and the Republican Congress into office.
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. 🤔
Hegseth (Smegmouth🤫) and Rubio (Boobio🤭) 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 he’s 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 can’t 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.
That is it, Gary. Well said, good man. Keep Trump's shimmering scheiße 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?
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?😁
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 he’s 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 don’t mean what he’s using them as.
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. “Look what the orange king baby did!!!!” He exclaims!
Yes, he’s been an asset for decades. Does he really have dementia or is he being drugged into insensibility so he’s 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 Farrow’s latest writing . And nothing new there have been times of great corruption before the Medici’s in Italy and Some of the royal courts in Europe after colonization started. Thornton Wilders’ 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: “The [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.”
--John C. Calhoun, ‘A Disquisition on Government’; 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. ¡Et voilà! 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). 😉
Yup, good analysis, Gary! “Greed, power, envy, revenge and retribution,” etc. What I find so amazing is what The Right (the politicians AND their voters) believe about Government Regulation! This “call” is a perfect demonstration of why (they believe) we don’t 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.
“ These are not creative people. Their goal is not to create something. “
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.
“Their goal is to tear down and reverse policies that level the playing field for all people.” 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." Estée 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 “fire” 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.
Trump denies knowing anything about this, nor did he seem concerned. If true, this proves he’s just a figurehead to hold onto the base, while the inept, disorganized, incompetent, moronic jackasses in Trump’s administration are running roughshod over the country and the world.
Of course that’s the case. The Convicted Felon only ran for office to avoid prison; he had no interest in running the country. This scenario made for the perfect opportunity for nefarious people to use the executive branch as cover for them as they increase their own interests. What’s being done to veterans, those dependent on Social Security, and our federal workers is evidence of this.
Krista, you’re right he doesn’t have any interest in the job, BUT he likes to play the “tuff” President for the camera and in front of crowds. If only they hadn’t cancelled The Apprentice he might not have run for office.
One can almost always safely assume that Trump knows very little about what is going on around him unless he has instigated it himself. His unwillingness to engage in detailed discussions has always shielded him in situations like this.
He is a pathological liar. I sometimes feel that instead of producing lengthy fact checks of his speeches, the media might find it less onerous simply to indicate the parts where he hasn't lied.
I loved that painting of him. It accentuates his weak chin and pouty cheeks. I saw they took it down because of his tantrum. I wonder if they put Putin back up.
He decided that he didn’t like his presidential portrait, which has been hanging in the Colorado State Capitol for five years, and he ordered it removed—after insulting the skills of the artist.
Mary I think he knew but it didn’t really concern him. Probably thought it was a show of toughness. And since he doesn’t follow the law, he thought it was just fine.
In any other universe, Trump's entire national security team would go to prison. This is just as bad as taking Top Secret documents without clearance to do so. Putting aside the editor of The Atlantic being in the loop, God only knows who tapped into Signal without being detected!
Steve, I had a brief moment where I envisioned the whole crew, including the man himself, frog marched out of the WH/Capitol and placed on a plane headed to a prison in El Salvador. Would be fitting I think. Oh, and we’d get to see Mr T with his head shaved (now I’m just being mean…).
Yeah, I was hoping that would happen…would kinda make his mug shot, ahem, have a different vibe. I’ve long said if he is locked up he probably won’t get his “bronzer” to slather on his face, nor hairspray to whip his locks into the head-froth that it is. Sad.
I understand that Signal uses end-to-end encryption so we may grateful for small mercies but this incident shows that no encryption system is going to protect you from idiots.
Calling Jim Jordan! This is surely a worse breach than Hillary’s emails but I’m not holding my breath waiting for Jordan to take action. Remember Trey Crowdy?? Darryl Issa? crowdy’s gone but Issa is still in Congress and he’s amazingly quiet.
Gowdy and Chaffetz are gone (I want to know the story behind Chaffetz’s sudden resignation,) but Northern Ohioans are still stuck with the Trump worshipping Gym Jordan.
CNN published a reel this morning of four members of this Signal group (Hegseth, Ratcliffe, Rubio and Waltz) all attacking Hillary Clinton for using her private email account for government business. Apparently, Trump told reporters this morning that he had complete confidence in his National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz. What does that say for the rest of them?
Jim Jordan was positively fawning about how much Trump liked some wrestling match the admin bros went to - so obsequious as to make you want to throw up.
With enough money, talent, and motivation, any system can be compromised. Even apps like Signal. Their devices are likely compromised, anyway. With this bunch, it would be pathetically easy.
Signal is regarded as safe, but the phones might not be. ProPublica reported in 2017 or 2018 (I forget) about the weak encryption facilities used at Mar a Lago. I think this is going to be as much a feature of Trump's second term as it was his first, but this leak is surely the granddaddy of them all.
Pete Buttitgieg yesterday raised two concerns arising from the disclosure: firstly, that anyone on those folk's phone contact lists might have been mistakenly added to the chain (the example he gave was the Russian ambassador); and secondly, how often are these people using this messaging service to avoid a permanent record of their conversations? All we've had from Trump so far is first to deny knowing anything about what happened and then later to express his full confidence in National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, without saying anything about the others.
As an afterthought, a smarter leader than Trump might wonder why any of those people in the group had added Jeffery Goldberg to their phone contact list in the first place. The mind boggles!
Stephanie, it seems Goldberg himself first assumed someone was spoofing him or trying to entrap him, then only gradually realized he had been included in error. It seems no-one realized just how incompetent tRump appointees could be!
None of these clowns has any independence of thought. All but huddle around to protect their fellow incompetent, fellow corrupt – MAGA Congress, MAGA Clarence court, MAGA Trump cabinet.
For mealy-mouthed lies, for assaults on what we’ve left of a decent press, we can credit the dark money billionaires who decades ago knew first to gut America’s schools – end access to our great novels, memoirs, essay collections, biographies, and histories. The dark money ghouls knew they’d need more dumbed-down to salivate at their historic fix of criminality and incompetence.
Anyone who’s read a few novels, a few histories, knows the human emptiness of these charlatans and incel boys of Musk and the greased-up, venomous, orange fat one.
But why haven’t any of our mainstream media rebroadcast that video of special fool Pete Hegseth up close throwing an axe and missing the target entirely, but hitting a member of a drummer corps behind it?
Exactly. We have a kakistocracy, oligarchy, and kleptocracy all rolled into one. Trump will go down in the history books as the worst US president ever. He is the Russian asset that is destroying the USA.
Yeah, Linda, but you know he’d crow about being the NUMBER ONE worst President AND impeached twice…no president has done that either!!! Makes me want to crawl under my bed and stay there for the duration. I told a friend yesterday that I’m afraid to turn on the news each day because some new SNAFU will have emerged…I sure do miss the steady ship of state captained by Biden & Harris and their excellent competent crew…the waters were rough, but they navigated with vision and experience.
As one who has done a fair amount of renovation on my old house, destroying is so much easier (and sometimes fun w/ the old sledgehammer) than building/restoring. Even “deconstructing” portions of my house took care—especially if I wanted to salvage parts for reuse. Mump & team are just putting everything (our country!) into the wood chipper.
For those of us who really know a little something about American political history, we need to pass along a key point to those American voters who are not aware that it’s Democratic Party and it’s presidents who have so often had to come in and clean up the mess the Republicans have made or gotten us into!
Although this time, it was our country’s largest voting block - the approximately 90 million legally registered voters who sat on their “hands”, ignorant, uneducated and unmotivated to vote - that got us and our friends in the world into the mess we’re in and witnessing now!
Great idea, Barbara. Lots of opportunities for the Democratic Party to develop and implement a full-scale communication strategy. What are they waiting for?!?
So many great novels, memoirs, biographies, histories, travel writing, food and regionalism writing, and histories -- all testify to, amp up, revitalize, and energize the human.
Our schools have dumped all these. Few read any whole books anymore. And elites have gotten into the meritocracy by reading nothing longer than the short snippets sufficient for the limited and humanly dead logic of standardized testing.
Growing up in the late 40’s and the 50’s it was always fun as passenger when taking a roadtrip to read the ODA’s (outdoor advertising signs) along the highways/roadways - even the bad ones!
Fuck the handsitters. Remember the voters who tried to vote and the voters who voted but weren’t counted because of the patriarchal, racist mother fuckers who stole the show fair and square.
Alec, I could spit nails at how angry I am that SO many citizens are being disenfranchised from their right to vote…I DON’T care what party—D, R, I, Green…whatever… No eligible voter should find it difficult to register, to find an accessible voting place, or be eligible for mail-in voting. We need a movement to encourage engagement and access, not restriction. Of course we all know the name of the “restriction” game is to cheat to win—it is so blatantly obvious and cruel as well. Would not be tolerated on a kid’s sandlot baseball game, should never by tolerated by a country. 🗽🇺🇸
NO JL, I think it was not so much those who didn’t vote (although they could have helped a bit) but much more likely the vicious combination of precise gerrymandering, voter suppression both by law as well as intimidation and finally the highly suspicious findings from voting machine tabulators in all seven swing states each delivering results just outside the requirement for a recount and each showing statistically significant deviations in down-ballot drop-off all of which combined were far more likely to have delivered the results we saw from the 2024 election.
Gerrymandering and voter suppression is a crime against Democracy and should have raised a lot more stink than it has. I anticipated that our last presidential election would break all records for turnout, both sides. It did not. A whole lot of people don't vote.
I know, JL, I was gobsmacked by how many “sat this one out” in 2024. Why? Would really like to know! Maybe the days since the inauguration has slapped, hard, these folks upside the head….no, you don’t get to sit on the sidelines. Sigh. Today I went to my Post Office—in my rural town where everyone has to pick up their mail (no home delivery), so kind of a meeting place for residents. One woman I saw, used to work until recently for City Hall…a great person…had no idea about the move to privatize the PO. She said it is too distressing to keep apace of the news, so has not been aware of SO MUCH. I told her it was hard/distressing to stay attuned to what is going down, but if we don’t, we can’t fight back against things we disagree with. My philosophy is to “wade, not wallow”…that is, pay attention & informed, but don’t lose yourself to the morass of despair.
he had already achieved that status with his first term. There was no need for people to vote for him again, to see if he could tighten his grip on the prize...
I agree that he's got to go. I called Joni Ernst and left voicemail that I expect her to start impeachment proceedings against Pete Hegseth since her vote to confirm him as Secretary of Defense, even though she knew better, was critical to his being in charge of the Defense Department.
I am reconsidering the corrupting influence of power as a true addiction, for which there is neurological evidence. One the one hand, that has been assumed, at least metaphorically, for a very long time; but there is evidence of such behavior as a true addiction, and addictive behavior is both irrational and highly compulsive.
People really need to stop wasting time on impeachment. Jeez! It's like nobody knows how to COUNT anymore. Impeachment requires a majority vote in the House could with a 2/3 vote to convict in the senate.
Even if you could muscle an impeachment resolution through the House, there is NO WAY short of a videotaped murder committed at high noon on the streets of Manhattan that ANYONE on EITHER SIDE is going to get convicted and sent home. No more GOP Senators will vote to convict Hegseth than Democratic Senators will vote to convict Judge Boagsberg.
Can we all just stop wasting time with nonsense like impeachment and start trying to figure out how we can REALLY save this country?
Impeachment can work if senators, congress, and elected officials become more scared of us than of the orange shit stain and the way in which that might happen is for you, me, and everyone else with a conscience to stop saying that impeachment and removal can’t work to. instead, fervently voicing our objections to this madness, placing our elected officials on speed dial, and demonstrating loudly, proudly, and often. That’s how it could happen but it’s guaranteed not to work if a defeatist attitude is proffered at the onset.
Jon, I can count, and I can read the tea leaves in DC. But part of the art of the deal, in my opinion, is asking for more than you know you can get, more, even, than you really want. I'm not looking for or expecting a call to impeachment. What I want is for Joni Ernst to stand up and admit publicly that she made a big mistake in voting for Pete Hegseth. My fantasy is that that would lead to at least a small domino effect of other cowed Republicans remembering that they have a responsibility to their constituents, to the country, and to the Constitution. If Pete Hegseth were to step down, whom would Trump choose to replace him? Unlikely that it would be someone more qualified to be Secretary of Defense. But I'm hoping for a small crack in the MAGA monolith, a small admission that this incident was totally and completely unacceptable, a small investigation of how many times similar careless laxness has happened. While I'd favor choosing a more forceful minority leader in the Senate, while I'd favor having a qualified Secretary of Defense, I'm not sure how much of a difference either change would make. What we need is a sign that both Dems and Republican'ts have heard the frustration and anger at their Town Halls and that they are ready to reclaim at least some bits and pieces of their spine, some of their mandated power as a co-equal branch of our government.
Totally agree with your comment about Ernst (and others) with respect to Hegseth. He needs to go, the sooner the better. To address a later point you make, I think it will make a follow-up nomination a lot more critical in terms of checking out any nominee, and it may also bring a lot more attention to other nominations as well.
But it is unlikely to make any major difference in the overall direction of the Trump administration. I think expecting both Dems and GOPs to "reclaim at least some bits and pieces of their spine" is actually possible but to expect that to result in some major change in this administration is much closer to zero.
In the end, we need to be braced for at least 18 more months of chaos because even if wew COULD get Trump impeached AND convicted (virtually impossible by my counting methods which I admit are primitive), then what? JD Vance? Like that will be better? Or heaven forbid, Mike Johnson? Because that is the line of succession, followed by Chuck Grassley and then... Marco Rubio! Its a total sh*t show which should not be news to any of us, and like a bad storm in the middle of the ocean, we need to be ready to "ride this one out" until we can get a relatively major change in the administration/congress and that is only going to happen at the mid-term elections.
Buckle up, folks, its a long way from over, sigh...
This is the sad reality for Congressional Republicans - no one can resist Trump. It also explains their comatose reaction to yesterday's bombshell revelations about the accidental disclosure of Yemen war plans.
Meanwhile, Russell, he's imitating the fat orange felon.
Saw him on video today just lashing out -- lies after lies after lies -- at America's free press. The nerve of them, his viciousness said -- with more lies, lies, lies from him just gushing from his mouth hole.
He thinks that he is safe lying about this because Jeffrey Goldberg has confirmed that he would not release any of the operational and tactical information he received. You're right, it's abominable and he should be sacked immediately.
Phil, I don't know if you follow "That's Another Fine Mess" but it's author (a regular commenter here) posted a cartoon; unmistakable orange to yellow pompadour, a face shape with the medical office diagram of the large intestine, with the distal end of the alimentary canal appearing as the oral orifice.
Your use of "mouth hole" prompted me to post this.
Phil. Every time I rad your comments about people who have read and been exposed to a liberal education, I think of the top ones that have guided me for decades. Top was this “I am a part of all that I have met.” Hit me between the eyes as a student. Tennyson s Ulysses. A line that could get lost in such a work. Also William Cullen Bryant’s Thanatopsis. A poem that reminds me of the wisdom of Chief Seattle. The one book that stands out above so many is by Peter Drucker, “Adventurers of a Bystander.” I have often posted pages 164 and 165 about prewar Berlin. It covers turn of the century and through his war experiences and after war in America. “The Best Way to predict the future is to create it.” Repubs did a bang up job of this. Dems can do it as well. Way past time. It’s the last hurrah…
Imagine, JDinTX, the opposite of what you and I and many here got.
Imagine the black holes that so many kids now have to experience, where schools have nothing human about them, but have turned instead into testing assembly lines.
Why? Because our billionaires see life as nothing more than enterprises where a few get to the top -- and suck in the money there -- meanwhile viewing all others beneath them as but amorphous mass. Again, with nothing human about them that any of these rich deign to see. Much less deign to give a living wage. Or health care. Or decent schools. Or media other than firehoses of nationalist conceits, hatreds, and all the other regular doses of what Hunter Thompson used to call fear and loathing.
Putin, so pleased. The U.S. rich are doing this to us, with full connivance of all the empty souls themselves tested "up" into that dead and deadening meritocracy.
They have no worries. Their kids will be in upscale private schools where no one will be concerned about revisionist history. They don’t have to be concerned about healthcare. Need an abortion, fly to a country where it’s legal. Hungry. Send your servant.
When our children are poorly educated, they will not have the time or energy to pay attention. They will be working two jobs and have no critical thinking skills. A poorly educated, hungry, with shelter insecurity will not be paying attention. They will be trying to survive.
We all dropped the ball. I think we knew that this debacle of T2 would be difficult, possibly dangerous. But, did anyone see, even with the 2025 we warned about, putting Musk in power, in charge of stripping away our government? I didn’t. And I’m pretty suspicious of them all.
Urban schools like those in the city of Milwaukee WI are forced to have police in the schools (called School Resource Officers—a money making industry spreading through K12 education like standardized testing). It is a way of putting more black students on a path to incarceration. The way to avoid a run in with an SRO is to conform early. Just another awful result of all education from kindergarten on being encroached upon and privatized so money can be made. And folks will tell you SROs have been around a long time now just like the ACT and SAT as though that is proof it is a legitimate and worthy enterprise. It is more proof the only operating paradigm is the for profit business paradigm. Folks are so undereducated nowadays they think life is a business. They have no other frame but a money-making one. If it makes money it is good is their only measure. So SROs must be good because they help enforce conformity and that protects our investment. And standardized testing makes school admissions more efficient. Everything is quantified and monetized. No soul left.
I really cannot speak to urban schools and the SRO programs and results thereof. I know that there can be positive interactions with police and the schools and am well aware that the trust established by SROs can be used improperly. You make some good points, and I would like to tell you my story.
In my 77% white county (and they don't even list anything other than "hispanic, not hispanic, and not hispanic (Asian) in their count), Eugene had a dedicated SRO program, Springfield has had one intermittently, and I am reasonably sure other small town PDs (Cottage Grove and Junction City) have at least part time SRO duties. SROs at two Eugene schools have intervened in situations involving armed intruders to campus (one random, one a parent upset in a custody dispute) that involved deadly force.
The last 5 years I worked, I was assigned as a contract deputy in a small town (5,000) that had an elementary, middle and high school (HS enrollment 350 +/-). I was NOT an SRO, but I made it a point to visit each school multiple times a week (mostly to attend assemblies or hang out with the band kids) but also to make it "normal" for me to be there. I met with the staff at the elementary school several times after Sandy Hook, and explained to them in detail what they could expect from law enforcement should something like that happen at their school.
I also did a debrief for the transportation office after one of their athletic buses had a motorcyclist lose control and slide under a bus that had taken the basketball team to an away game. I did my best to be as much a part of the school community as possible. And yes, I did play sousaphone with the pep band a few times. I earned my nickname of "Deputy Tuba."
And that, Ally, is the description of how a security officer actually connects with young people so a true security presence can be effective when push comes to shove. More security officers with tubas! "Deputy Tuba" is a mark of honor that can only be accorded by those who trusted her. Trust can only be earned, never demanded. Bravo!
Bless you Ally, and your ilk. I wish that school systems in other states with greater percentages of ethnic minorities and BIPOC were as enlightened as Oregon, but as you know the reason why they don't even bother to identify people other than "white," Hispanic," and "Asian" is because when Oregon became a territory it was able to enshrine THREE "no Blacks" law in its constitution, which has suppressed the settlement on non-white folks in the state ever since. It is ironic that Oregon has some of the most liberal systems in the US, yet began its existence as one of the most racist. I can tell you that cops in public schools in cities with large non-white populations tends to go badly. And they have also been more or less useless in school shootings and the like, as has been demonstrated time and again in places like Texas. For those unaware of the history of Oregon's settlement here ya go: https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/exclusion_laws/
You might easily add here, Mary Ellen, the U.S.'s for-profit prison industry.
I think we all know about it. And about the scandalous disproportion of U.S. imprisonment of our poor, working class, and non-white populations.
I think we all know a lot about the bits and pieces of depravity among our test-well meritocracy. Of course they test zero for anything human. Such decencies never figure even remotely close to anything in the tests.
Can we spiral anywhere deeper down this black hole run by our genteel ghouls?
You know, someone needs to speak up and challenge your indictment of the public school system. Let it be me. You are incorrect in blaming all society's ills on the public school system. That sets up the argument for private and parochial schools and charters that take money away from public schools. Try to do better, Phil.
I so often think of Whitman's line "I contain multitudes" -- the GOP does not see us as all being part of the whole but as individuals fighting for resources and power. Such a completely different world view.
Thanks for the link. I’d seen the vid several times & wondered about the fellow struck w/ the axe…didn’t go down the ‘net rabbit hole to see if there has been any resolution to the lawsuit. In retrospect, kinda sums up Hegseth’s overall “aim” & competence.
Trump and his ragtag team are stripping us for parts and laughing about it. This is yet another betrayal by all of them. And gaslighting at its finest.
This is so painfully ignorant and frightening. If it wasn’t so serious and dangerous.. it would be hilarious. It’s not. God help us.
Trump and his chosen minions, far from a meritocracy .. are, rather a gaggle of unfit knee benders .. in the process of making America a joke, our dear country.
I am an 84 y/o grandmother of 9. Heartbroken.. because no matter how ghastly this is… nothing will be done. Patricia Chandler
My hope, Patricia, is that “we the people” who are starting to rise up in increasing numbers, creating a groundswell of action, may yet turn the tide.🤞 I’ve posted here quite a few times before my “fight song” from the mid-80’s (another fraught time, but nothing compares to “now” in my lifetime)…Jackson Browne’s Til I Go Down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmzimxfqgfw
Trump is a dictator but such a clumsy one. I am not sure that makes him less dangerous, Maybe that makes him more so; yet I keep expecting more concerted pushback. I will admit be disappointed that there is not more already, but we'll see.
to storing boxes filled with documents representing top secret national security data in his bathroom at Mar a Lago -Trump has zero care about the United States.
His entire Presidency has been to stay out of jail, enrich himself, and remain in front of the so-called "news cycle" as an extension of "The Apprentice". The program now is much darker than his first crime wave -as he has replaced some of the ineffective clowns from his first crime wave with alcoholics and sociopaths.
and with a bunch of smart = conniving and evil people who have been developing plans for this time for years. They even published it, in Project 2025 - which Trump, as with the Houthi attack, said he'd never heard of.
Oh, Here we go again! So much winning, so much whining, and so much incompetence. Now it’s deny, deflecting, and blame the reporter. The ongoing bullying and bumbling of this administration goes deep and wide.
He did suspend the accounts of eight prominent journalists last year but later claimed that it was a mistake. However, Fortune reported that the number of accounts suspended on X in the first half of 2024 were nearly three times the number from the same period in 2022 (5.3 million accounts, compared to 1.6 million). These suspensions don't include spam accounts.
Of course, Hegseth would resort to an ad hominem response when he found out Jeffrey Goldberg was on the call. BTW, the Atlantic is a good magazine with articles that examine this maladministration and its incompetence in depth.
That's all they do Vicki, they screwup and then they start whining, deflecting and blaming others. And they start planning another screwup. Is this part of Proyect 2025 that the scumbag president didn't know anything about?
Unbelievable. When I started reading about this, I was reminded of a bunch of boys "playing army." Further reading, caused me to be scared. Now I sit here shaking my head. Every day, there's some incompetent, harmful, or hateful thing coming from this administration.
Trump is a spoiled ultra-wealthy playboy who has cosplayed an array of roles. In this media-age a lot of people can no longer distinguish fake from real. I mean, for real.
Claire Berlinski (and ChatGPT4.5) posted an extraordinary article today concerning the moral rot that is destroying the modern world. The point you make is one of the factors leading to this situation.
Thank you for this link, (it worked.) VERY interesting and compelling. The argument that AI has the total of the moral arguments to hand says all we should need to hear to fight against the moral rot of this administration. Sadly, so many will not hear it.
I have been trying to understand how anyone can support Trump, who I find to be a person with not a single redeeming virtue. I found this article to be most interesting & well worth the time to read. In fact, in spite of my limited disposable income, I decided to subscribe to her Substack. Thanks!
Wow. Quite a read. I the end I think that the thing most troubling me is the lack of a moral discussion of what is morally precious to me and what is collectively precious, aright, I'll say "sacred", to collective American society. For sure modern Republicans are selling a predatory, bullying collection of values, and that seems personally so "morally wrong".
I shrink from using that language lest it be lumped with those who radiate hubris and tell everybody else what to do, often while fuming about trivial things. We have to spend more time listening to one another, but also speaking up, especially for one another.
Well said, J.L. I share your opinion and the reluctance you expressed in both paragraphs. But the rapid descent of our country into the abyss has caused me to lose that reluctance. The modern Republican party espouses values that are to me both morally wrong and a direct attack on the principles on which our country was founded.
It reminded me of an old British comedy called Dad's Army about a bunch of misfits supposedly keeping their town safe from possible German invasion in WWII. If you enjoy English humour, check out some clips on YouTube.
What will allies of the US think about Vance's comment about 'european freeloading', especially as 20 countries are involved in protecting shipping from Houthi attacks? Will other members of the Five Eyes group or other US allies now be wary of sharing intelligence with the Trump administration? Heads must roll and quickly.
Somehow, Christopher, I can’t see that MOST Americans would be willing to actively partner w/ Russia against NATO countries. Seems to me that the Trump Effect is slip sliding away..well, except for the MAGA cult. I hazard that any martial conflict will likely be “in house”….there have been the whisperers from along the political spectrum for the chance of another civil war for sometime now. Just what the country needed…a Wreck-It-Ralph leader. It’s hard to believe it’s real!
My own opinion is that Trump and Vance are stunningly ignorant about what NATO is for and why we helped to create it. Of course, Putin hates NATO since it’s designed to protect other European nations from Putin.
In 2023, Congress passed a law prohibiting a president from withdrawing from NATO absent either two-thirds backing of the Senate or a new law. Some legal experts, though, believe Trump could override that, citing presidential prerogative in national security matters - https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/08/trump-nato-congress-courts-00188426
I forgot to say thank you Professor Richardson for your eternal tireless efforts. Know while you write in the wee hours of the morning, your devoted followers are up with you waiting anxiously for your unmatched posts. 🙏🏻
Kathleen, I call LFAA my “middle-of-the-night-school”…typing these words at 1:55 PST. No wonder I take naps during the day (lucky I’m retired and can do so!).
Heather, this is where the many clowns climb into the smallest car they can get into and try to drive away. They won’t get very far because the tires on the car have deflated. I am reminded of the Queen of Hearts when she exclaimed “Off with their heads”! Our reps should be filing as many lawsuits as they can and they should file them against each individual who was on that call, separately. What they have done is expose themselves and us as having no protections in place. How dare they put us in peril?? I smell a class action lawsuit.
LOL…late at night here in far northern CA, Marlene, and I at first read your words and saw “crass action lawsuit”. Guess it kinda fits too!!! Probably time to shut the light and stack some zzzzz’s!
Kudos to Heather, per usual, for her astute summation and granular take on this latest, and possibly biggest scandal of the oh-just-about-two month old Administration of Despicable Don, the Return.
As I see it, there are three larger stories, within this larger Russian doll of a scandal story---
First--- the incredible level of "are you f***ing kidding me" incompetence.
Second--- the strong possibility that all of this, including the attack on Yemen itself went down without the President being aware, and
Third---What the fuck are we doing committing war crimes in and against Yemen in the first place?!?
Let's start at the beginning---
1. If Hegseth survives as Defense Secretary into April, that will demonstrate that Trump could care less about even the most basic stability and day to day functioning of both the military and military intelligence. God only knows what Kardashian look-alike he may have hinted about this operation to already, at some corner bar in DC while downing his fifth Grey Goose and ogling her decolletage. And let's not forget that his first club out of the bag when the news broke was to blame Goldberg, i.e., shoot the messenger, in typical Trumpian style, not realizing that this chicken shit tactic only works for the fat, spray tanned, follicularly transplanted Boss, not his sycophantic acolytes.
2. Where was Trump when the attack on Yemen was revving up? Was he informed and did he provide the constitutionally necessary approval?? At present, we don't know. Yet pending further knowledge, would it surprise anyone to learn that he was off at one of his conflict of interest tainted golf resorts, moving his ball off the fringe of the fairway and onto the fringe of the green so as to ready himself for the "win" yet again? He probably knows as much about Yemen as he does about tariffs which is in and of itself, frightening.
So, who's really in charge here with matters of life and death?????
3. The US is bombing Yemen?!? Why in God's name would we be letting loose the World's strongest military to do so?!? After all, were Houthi soldiers alighting on the shores of Martha's Vineyard ala the shark in "Jaws", threatening the homeland?!
More likely, the Trumpian powers that be other than Trump himself, all tied in either ideologically or financially with the military contractors funding the two key genocidal powers in the Middle East, Israel and the House of Saud, were yearning to punish the Houthi government in Yemen for having the temerity to support the beleaguered and long suffering Palestinian people chafing under Israeli genocide, and/or were looking to finish off the previous Saudi genocide against the Yemenis.
We cannot allow ourselves to become inured to American military attacks, wholly sans rationale or declaration of war yet again.
Well, that's all for now folks! Let's see what fresh hell tomorrow will bring!!
I don’t comment regularly but as a mother of a military helicopter pilot, if my son did this, he would be court martialed
In fascist regimes, the law only applies to citizens, not the ruling class.
And that is exactly what we have. They didn’t slip in under the door. Just a little subterfuge and the Trojan Horses pranced right in and claimed the throne…
I love how no one wants to ever acknowledge the clear discrepancies we all witnessed in the last election. Just blame it on messaging, shrug, and refuse to even whisper the suggestion that the GOP’s years long campaign of crying about an election being stolen was yet another example of every accusation is a confession. And what will be done about this clear breach of protocol that put us all at risk? A very harshly worded statement from Chuck and Hakeem? This is like a nightmare we can’t wake up from and there are no heroes coming to wake us up.
You may be overlooking four crucial factors in the 2024 election results: campaign spending, the ignorance (economic and otherwise) of the electorate, racism, and sexism.
Just the ignorance of the electorate is sufficient.
This is what we get when the Senate Republican's approve cabinet members who were nominated not for the qualifications to do the jobs (relevant experience and proven abilities) but only for their loyalty to Trump. Hegseth should be fired and replaced by someone with appropriate qualifications. Perhaps others in that group should be as well.
It's clear that the administrations elimination of the Dept. of Education is purposeful . Ignorance and the lack of critical thinking skills will be passed on for generations. But that's part of the plan. It's much easier to control people who believe everything their leader tells them. If I recall correctly, Nixon said, "if the President says it, it must be true"...."legal" (corrected)
I truly believe the reactions at the town halls prove that the electorate has been kept in the dark, not that it is ignorant. For example, who knows what Machiavellian machinations caused schumer, et.cie.to throw their electorate under the bus.
Not just ignorance, but indifference.
Democrats had plenty of money. Kamala raised more than a billion dollars. If we failed to educate voters, that’s on us.
I think Kamala did a brilliant job. But she was telling the truth. The other side was lying non-stop. On top of what Susanna posted, above.
You cannot educate those who do not wish to be educated.
Jon, some people refuse to be educated. I send these Letters to fifteen supposedly educated people, and my guess is that many of them don't bother to spend the ten minutes necessary to read them, some admitting that "politics upsets them." If they were the only ones that will suffer the consequences of their fecklessness, I'd be okay with that, but I resent the hell out of their refusal to be participants in righting the ship while the rest of us suffer for their stupidity and ignorance.
No amount of money could change the fact that Kamala (whom I voted for and will again) is a black female.
I agree, Jon. And the ignorance, racism and sexism has always been there. It was a failure to turn out, despite the many calls to do so. I wonder if a lot of people said, "Meh. She's got this. She won't need my vote."
No, I don't buy it. Do you know any MAGA people? Nothing will educate a people with their eyes closed, their fingers in their ears, and their sole source of information is fox etc or Russian backed bropodcasters.
Well, I am not sure I put the blame on us. The blame is on an uninformed citizenry who chose laziness in listening to propaganda over researching factual news. The blame is on an army of lemmings versus exercizing the brain.The failure is not on those who stayed informed, it is on those who refused to seek the facts, or stayed home. A non vote is inexcusable but is truly repugnant when democracy is on the line.
And the media
You may feel a bit better about your fellow citizens if you hear Greg Palast's report on the effect of outrageous vote suppression on the election.
In some states you can "challenge" thousands of other voters, knock them off lists, and, if they catch on in time force them to go to considerable trouble to register again. If they don't discover the knife in the back before they go to vote, they're turned away.
I did read him and others on just that topic. Huge factor in swing states. Here again though, why wasn't the opposition on top of that ? The R's even made their outrageous, to us unthinkable plans to disrupt the vote known.
Don’t forget 36% that didn’t give a rats ass and didn’t vote!
That too. Circular firing squads vs a highly unified gop.
NO excuse for not voting! Don't give me your BS reasons.
All of those factors play a part in the 2024 election, but so does Republican tampering. There's no doubt in my mind.
Ignorance but willful ignorance, ‘it’s my tribe’ shared ignorance, something much more intentional and tribal…like ‘believing’ in Noah’s Arc is required for some to express their fealty, and we have ‘museums’ in the United States with arcs on display, all vehemently anti-science. So religion and politics, for them, have no truth based on thinking because it would violates their fealty! They are good at defecting…it is required for membership in their worlds…sexism, racism are all easier than thinking. And certainly easier than empathy! Or Love for that matter. Money can’t buy you love, but it can feed ignorance.
Exactly so!
"every accusation is a confession" And that's been the case since 2015 when the orange sadist appeared on the scene.
"every accusation is a confession"...that is IT
I remember watching the 2016 repugnicant debates, and then the Presidential debates, and being astonished that EVERY SINGLE WORD that came out of that guy's mouth was a PROJECTION! I honestly couldn't believe it. And worse: I couldn't believe that NO ONE in the media seemed to notice it, let alone call him on it. As a psychiatrist, I know about "defense mechanisms". The most primitive one is: PROJECTION.
There is no way in hell that Trump and Musk didn’t cheat in the last election.Even if nothing ever comes of it, I remain convinced of this.Too many discrepancies.Musk has all of those satellites and skilled techies working for him.I agree about the nightmare part.I almost think the country needs a mass exorcism to rid us of this scourge.
In no precinct in this country are voting machines hooked up to the internet. And do you really believe that a bunch of nerdy incels could keep that secret?
He won. We lost. The sooner we accept it the sooner we can fix what we need to.
You are correct. While accusing Democrats of stealing elections the Republicans are the ones actually doing it. All the discussion about mainstream media and big money in politics is certainly important but there is little mention of election subversion. Voter suppression in Red states was significant enough a factor to have changed the outcome in 2024, just as it likely did in 2000 Bush/Gore.
https://chicagocrusader.com/palast-voter-suppression-cost-harris-the-2024-presidential-election/
Donna R -- and others: Here's what Pete Buttigieg has to say about this!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tITVY8zvIOQ
Thank you for this link, Judith.
Thx Judith. Great video.
“ … every accusation is a confession.” — What an excellent observation. It is also a promise of what Trump intends to do. “They weaponized the DOJ,” means “I will weaponize the DOJ.”
There is VERY suspicious data analyses around certain swing state districts!! Until we verify some of these we can’t trust election integrity. I agree that bigotry, suppression and disinformation played a large role but to not have irrefutably addressed some of the concerns (there were weaknesses in the ‘statements’ about the security of the systems) was negligent.
Overview: https://youtu.be/cdg5YFwNayQ?feature=shared
There is no one reputable making the claims you talk about. We lost because we had a candidate who was too old to run, too old to talk spontaneously, and who criminally mismanaged the border. And who was too out of touch on high prices. Who then left his VP 105 days for her entire campaign.
You are spouting "Faux" talking points. Biden and the dems tried to address the border issues and even presented a compromise plan that favored the R side of the aisle. Your hero blew it up. You leave out critical facts like the U.S. inflation was lower than any other western democracy and 'dropping' when the administrations changed. Kamala was a great candidate - period.
Amen
NO, we gave it to them…our Party and it’s leaders, basically handed it over to them - not just once - but twice!
Yes we did and we always have. Joe Biden should have run for president in2016 then retired. Seriously, it’s his fault.
In reading some of the comments here, I am dismayed that you are spiraling out about a lost election by democrats. Seriously? Are you bots?
Carolyn, I have decided that it's time for me to block Bill Katz, because his posts meet the definitions of spam (relentlessly pushes his so-called "book"), disinformation (pushes his wrong-headed opinions as fact) and he contributes nothing positive or beneficial to the conversation. In short, Katz is a troll who claims to be "on our side," but constantly throws grenades into these discussions.
No I’m an opinion writer. Read my book, “Donald’s Vanity Tantrums “ you’ll love.
Get over yourself.
Agreed. Time for me to use the "eject" button again. That VHS tape is worn out.
Why do you call yourself an ole curmudgeon?
That was my opinion before that election - I really felt that that’s what his favored son wanted!
JL, Bill & Carolyn, PLEASE take a step or two back and LOOK at all the Republicans have done to gerrymander and suppress votes then the highly suspicious results of ballot counting in all seven swing states all showing just enough of a margin to avoid a recount with statistically dramatic “drop-off” votes filling those margins. Other than the Democrats’ failure to keep up with all the nefarious processes, this WAS NOT the Democrats’ or Joe Bidens’ “fault”. Again, let’s stop with the circular firing squads.
Any time I point my finger, the cheerleaders here accuse me of being mean toward ole grandpa Biden. Are you kidding? He lost this election because he refused to address what most Americans wanted which was to stop hundreds of thousands and millions rushing over hot sands to enter illegally this nation. And anyone who disagrees with this premise, is simply wrong. Anytime I ask anyone why they voted for Trump the answer is summed in one word; Border.
Please - "it's" is a contraction of the words "it is". The possessive has no apostrophe, as in "our party and its leaders".
Ah yes! Someone like me that hates improper punctuation! Should read: Rebel with a Clause.
I find myself omitting the apostrophe in a lot of words just because its too much trouble. True story.
Kathy Clark -- What you claim as "too much trouble" (to spell correctly) actually shows a total disregard and even disdain for your readers. This also goes for not correcting typos.
Predictably, we see the continual defensive squabbllng from the diehard loyalists about how Biden was faultless--this when all the manuevers of the coupsters went unchallenged and unaddressed. This small coterie of emotionally motivated loyalists, unyielding in their adamancy, blind by all common sense, present serious and confusing obstacle to the changes and realinements needed if the Democratic Party--the party of the common people--is to survive in any coherent form. Clearly serious change is needed, the voting public is demanding it, demanding an organized force to finally put up a strong fight. Witness the rapidly growing support of Bernie and AOC, two who were intentionally trivialized and neutered by the Biden cabal. Biden's actions to silence them speaks volumes, delanding that nobody speak out and present real motivation to fight back.
Case in point about ‘circular firing squads’ mentioned above. I find a lot to disagree with here. But that’s not a way to create a legit platform for resistance and Bernie & AOC would be the first to say so.
Bernie and AOC are doing just great on their own. They are both shrewd pols, and are operating from the dunce chair the Biden political cartel put them in. Wisely, they internalize their feelings about how the voters have gone from smug smirking to listening with growing enthusiasm. They see no need to gloat, and the value not to do so.. When you say " . . . that's not a way to create a legit platform for resistence . . ." I see an attempt on your part to utilize projection to include Bernie and AOC substantiazing no criticism of Biden. Bernie and AOC were trivialized and
humiliated by Biden's troops. Yet, consumate and skilled as they both are, they advanced 'a legit platform of resistence' without further scattering voting democrats and now returning independents. But your projection implies they have no criticism of the Biden- controlled party. That is a bullshit assumption, and pollutes to the voters the need to make sure they understand that a new party is afoot, and the old Biden clique must be gone.
We have turned the country over to "the gang who couldn't shoot straight"!
We should all engage in a national shout --- "LOCK THEM ALL UP!!"
While I agree I also fear that this will disappear with the next news cycle. Dems will once again shrug, do nothing but stand in front of cameras and make strong statements and then whine about how there is nothing more they can do.
Well, Donna, there's something we can all do on April 5: join one of the many demonstrations across the country. Meanwhile, I'm calling my 2 senators and 2 reps again today.
They are all Felons under the big orange ballon Felon.
That would be ideal!
National security.
Heather has documented that some Congressional Republicans objected to US NATO policy last week, Besides Mike Rogers and Roger Wicker, many other Congressional Replublicans have called out Trump on national security. Mike Turner R Ohio and many others in essence call Trump a liar re Putin and Ukraine.
We only need a few to have shared government -- without Trump/Vance.
Besides national security, consituents and donors have to be pissed about Musk/DOGE. The entire cattle industry is in panic and so should about 20 Republican senators and dozens of House members in cow country. Every car dealer and the big three should be pissed about Trump's Tesla infrormercial. Everyone whon receives any govenment benefit od any kind should be concerned. Anyone who does business with Canada and Mexico.
Feathers of Hope. https://jerryweiss.substack.com/
Speaking about national security, I've got to comment on the breach of it that Heather's newsletter features today. I was watching the hearings with these clueless inept people placed in important positions including Mike Johnson. They put our country and military in danger with their games and incredibly are poo-pooing like it was nothing!
WE might need more than a few???
To take the Hoiuse, to trigger everything, only need 3. Reaf Feathers of Hope.
Anyone who has pride in oneself would not accept this with a simple “what the ?”
We have to apply pressure!!!!
Agree!
I don't like characterizing the people involved as amateurs and clowns. It diminishes what they did here. These are people who decide to send Americans into harms way. American military volunteers are killed and maimed based on their decisions. This is beyond clowns and amateurs. It's a disgrace and a slap in the face to those who choose to risk their lives for us.
You're right. I would say they are more like evil, malicious little toddlers. They have no idea what they are doing, and laughing about the harm they are causing.
Where has Jon Rosen gone? Come back, Jon. We love you.
Don't know! He is critical, but definitely not a pain in the *ss like Ricky Return-to-Sender or John Sméagol... Can't imagine Jon getting blocked.
Was on Joyce Vance this morning......
Jon was?
And here we are. Each day a new low.
Yep. And we're only two months in.
Exactly. Will anything happen to these motherfuckers? Nope. Because not. enough. Dems. are. hitting. the. ceiling. And the "press" might be enjoying the discomfiture of the so-called administration (aka the clown car of idiots) but they won't do anything to jeopardize their supposed access.
Replying to your comment to me, I am realizing we voters must first assume responsibility for the actions of those elected. Then we need to respond for their lies.
For Trump administration waiting for next election 2028 is too long as you would also agree with. Thus what can we do now? Professor provides with data to act on. We are in a new era of learning to defend democracy.
Oh, definitely... But it all starts with education, and it's exactly there where the Republicans started their long game in the 80's; social media did the rest...
Very relevant. And this fascist administration was elected by voters. So they were responsible. Do not complain.
My first reaction was: yeah, you're damn right! But then I was thinking: can you blame voters who have been literally programmed 40 years long to think what the Heritage Foundation wants them to think?
There is one possibly decent aspect to this story. Maybe Director Waltz, who sounds level-headed, felt this use of a public social medium was wrong but did not feel strong enough to challenge the bully brigade. Accordingly. he "axidentally" brought Mr Goldberg into the feeding frenzy to guarantee a scandal sufficient to end the practice elsewhere. Though I am prone to wishful thinking, I only give assign to this scenario a 25-30% chance of being true.
You are giving him too much credit. He wouldn't be on Donald's team if he had a conscience.
Yes, hence the low probability of that scenario panning out, even for Pollyanna Ned.
The messenger will be dealt with.Maybe there is a god. Someone wanted US to know.
Lock them up....all of them ,and hide the key in one of those Musk 's rockets that never comes back.
Better yet--send them up in one of his rockets.
Remember that Tesla roadster he launched into space? I suggested months ago that he be the driver in the next one.
I like your idea better than mine Abby 😄. Please guarantee it's a one way flight.
👆this!!!
I think some time in a certain camp in El Salvador might be in order…
Exactamundo.
Talk about your 'not ready for primetime players'.............................
lol
I would laugh if it wasn't so sad. You give Waltz too much credit.
The whole thing is stunningly inept and careless of national security. This is hat I’d expect of the kakistocracy Trump has created.
At this point, Kathy, I’m starting to think of it more as a
ca-ca-stocracy or maybe a crapistocracy….
Everything is inept when that orange crap has his hand in it.
I wonder about this possibility, too. Director Waltz or someone who works for him could have been tasked with setting up the chat group.
If he had that much courage (which isn’t much) or intelligence, he wouldn’t be working for this administration.
Well, i think several members of Team Treason are rationalizing that they are inside the tent to contain Trump. Problem remains: each little compromise one makes to stay in the tent slowly boils him or her to death in the treason, the hapless frog. My apologies to frogs: y'all play a vital role in the cycle of life. Please due sue me, frogs, for libel.
Wow this is a great great point. I hadn’t thought of this - you can’t “accidentally” add someone to a text chat.
how i wish I could imagine that were the case. As of now I don't think there are any moles in the administration.
I've not been impressed with the cred of waltz, but he had to know this was totally unacceptable. But a drunk as his boss is unpredictable, and he probably really likes his new gig, especially since he knows he's unqualified.
PXLM raised an interesting possibility: an aide for Director Waltz planted Mr Goldberg in the lewd chain.
Plausible, Mr. McDoodle. But alas, likely just Saturday morning TV clowns amusing each other in fake roles.
Perhaps to meet the full theatrical entertainment capacity, reps from the Houthi’s office of public affairs should have been invited to the super duper security meeting.
Security Director Michael Waltz: “Good morning folks, this is so fun. Our first bombing run after giving all the honors to our Orthodox friends in Jerusalem. We have Houthi man of the hour, Abdul-Malik Bader al-Din al Houthi, also known as Shorty.”
“He will be addressing concerns about eating pork and oh ya, bombing thingies.”
As usual, I’m thinking my next satire for my blog.
Bill, your smart and sassy satires always make me giggle.
Ned, I agree with you more often than not. Not on that point, though: this regime is a clown car careering through the hallowed halls of our once-respected (though not without its flaws) American government. This is all because of the narcissistic vanity of one fatted golden cow who broke American law, was investigated for it, who delayed and eventually evaded justice, and is now content to hire amateurs, drunks and fools to run the good ship America into the shoals while he is off golfing. This incident is now yet another internet meme and the subject of late night comedy, but we oughtn't be laughing.
And the other sad part about this is that he'll get away with it yet again.
Very persuasive. My hope was not that strong; thank you for ending it, altogether. Yet PXLM did raise the possibility of a subordinate of Director Waltz planting Mr Goldberg to chain-gang.
Anything is possible, Ned, including that (and if that happened, maybe the leaker should get a medal for bringing this to our attention, before being fired and possibly brought up on charges.) But still, the use of an unsecured commercial comms app to exchange classified info on a military action is shockingly, stupidly dangerous. I just watched the hearing on C-SPAN in which some of the participants in the chat claimed amnesia or denial that the info was classified. Shameful.
It was hard to hear/ see T say he didn't know anything about the 'leak'. And was that because the others thought T too stupid to know what they were doing?
Cindy, I assume your question is rhetorical.
Trump knew.
I doubt it; my bigger concern is that the use of an unsecured channel was deliberate so that Putrid could get in on the fun.
Russia, give us those 33,000 e-mails between you and Team Treason.
HEY EVERYONE,
Thank you for your quips and humor. We live in grim times. You gave me a yooj morale booster-shot. Thank you.
Ned McDonnell.
However, every one of these morons knew they shouldn’t be doing this. They’re the same guys who went to sexual harassment training then went out and made crude remarks to women in the workplace. DonOLD has a classified documents case against him that risks our national security and they all were on his side in saying it’s okay if he shares that with our adversaries. After all, he’s the king. He got away with it. Nothing will happen to them here, they won’t even throw someone under the bus.
DonOLD didn’t know it happened because he’s not cognizant enough to know what’s happening 90% of the time.
JD Vance sent out a spokesman to make sure a clear message was sent that he supports Trump 100% because he was caught not supporting Trump. I’m surprised he didn’t use the same line as Hegseth and claim that none of it happened.
I worry for my grandchildren’s future.
And worry we should, Sharon.
Based on competence almost every one of them should be court-martialed including trump. Only if court-martial applied.
PXLM1728. He changes all the laws at will. It’s time we did the same. Or just claim Treason. That what all this is!
Doesn’t apply to Trump he’s got immunity for anything official act in office. Thank You SCOTUS. Does not apply to his administration leaders.
But tfg didn’t know!! Not his job.
The buck stops anywhere else, unless he can stuff it in his pocket.
ML, that IS one of his standard go-to responses when he doesn’t know what to say or forgot or wants to disassociate himself from something gone wrong.
He will NEVER take responsibility. He’s a conman through and through.
Everyone on that group chat (except Goldberg) must be fired. Not one of them intervened to say their war planning on a public app was illegal or even inadvisable. My son said the Army would have had his head for a breach like this.
Please thank your son for his service. And thank you to all the parents out there whose son or daughter is risking their lives each day so that we can be safe. And thank you parents because you’re also serving. The least we can do is get out there and protest this clown show. Praying for you all.
We’re just grateful that our military helicopter pilot is stationed stateside and not currently deployed in the Middle East. The family members of those that are deployed must be frantic. And knowing our military and country are being run by a Clown and his Clown Cabinet? Every day there’s another reason this administration makes us less safe.
Copy that Maureen. Copy that.
Where is Congress? Oh wait, they're in Trump's pocket.
Yes, these congressmen that spoke out will still vote for everything Trump demands and do nothing about a serious breach. This is all they should be talking about on the floor and they should take action against everynone of them.
Any of us peons would be courtmartialed.
Hi Maureen, as we begin to realize the true shape of Trump administration, we must first realize that we, the voters, have elected them. We are responsible. Second, voteres were lied about what they would do. So, what can we do to remove them. Waiting another four years is not an answer because by then we lose the country. This is the question we must discuss in this column. Professor is giving us the data, but we must respond.
Once the cakes are burned, you cannot unburn them - but you can try not to burn the next batch!
But, like Schiff said, how many times have they done this and will they stop?
Your son would never have done this
Ah, but he'd have more sense. Those who lack that need protection from the consequences of their arrogant stupidity.
And locked away with NO contact with anyone.
What we're witnessing here, pathetically, is "the gang that couldn't shoot straight." If anyone should be lined up and shot, it should be the MAGATS that voted Trump and the Republican Congress into office.
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?
He’ll 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, Trump’s 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! 🤣
Dumb as stumps. Like that great Bob Dylan song, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb.
😀😃😄😁😆😅🤣😂
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
That’s 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."
👏👏👏
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. 🤔
Hegseth (Smegmouth🤫) and Rubio (Boobio🤭) 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 he’s 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 can’t 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.
That’s great. It’s 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 isn’t smart enough to know he’s doing it his handlers know.
That is it, Gary. Well said, good man. Keep Trump's shimmering scheiße 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 Uranus….has a nice and appropriate cachet, especially if mispronounced.
And even better, it's a gas planet!
The correct way to pronounce Uranus brings nine year olds to paroxysms of laughter.
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.
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?😁
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?
Oh, my junior high brain goes to " your anus" which seems fitting.
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...
I haven’t 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 he’s 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 don’t mean what he’s using them as.
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. “Look what the orange king baby did!!!!” He exclaims!
Yes, he’s been an asset for decades. Does he really have dementia or is he being drugged into insensibility so he’s 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 (3½min.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 Farrow’s latest writing . And nothing new there have been times of great corruption before the Medici’s in Italy and Some of the royal courts in Europe after colonization started. Thornton Wilders’ 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: “The [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.”
--John C. Calhoun, ‘A Disquisition on Government’; 1848.
Yikes Calhoun didn’t 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. ¡Et voilà! 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). 😉
Yup, good analysis, Gary! “Greed, power, envy, revenge and retribution,” etc. What I find so amazing is what The Right (the politicians AND their voters) believe about Government Regulation! This “call” is a perfect demonstration of why (they believe) we don’t 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.
“ These are not creative people. Their goal is not to create something. “
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.
“Their goal is to tear down and reverse policies that level the playing field for all people.” 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.
Sad…frighteningly and dangerously SAD - but it’s 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, he’s 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." Estée 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. 😎
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. 😏
I was not a success. So, I defer to your insights here.
Six degrees of stupidity. . .
“Six degrees” …it’s waaaaaay more than that…for separation or connection with this idiot and his MAGA-cult!!!
😝 right on target Ned 🎯
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. 😉
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 lying… 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 “fire” 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.
Trump denies knowing anything about this, nor did he seem concerned. If true, this proves he’s just a figurehead to hold onto the base, while the inept, disorganized, incompetent, moronic jackasses in Trump’s administration are running roughshod over the country and the world.
Of course that’s the case. The Convicted Felon only ran for office to avoid prison; he had no interest in running the country. This scenario made for the perfect opportunity for nefarious people to use the executive branch as cover for them as they increase their own interests. What’s being done to veterans, those dependent on Social Security, and our federal workers is evidence of this.
Krista, you’re right he doesn’t have any interest in the job, BUT he likes to play the “tuff” President for the camera and in front of crowds. If only they hadn’t cancelled The Apprentice he might not have run for office.
One can almost always safely assume that Trump knows very little about what is going on around him unless he has instigated it himself. His unwillingness to engage in detailed discussions has always shielded him in situations like this.
It doesn’t matter what trump knows, he’s a lying sack of shit.
He is a pathological liar. I sometimes feel that instead of producing lengthy fact checks of his speeches, the media might find it less onerous simply to indicate the parts where he hasn't lied.
With a pierced ear.
What do you expect?? Mary?
He denied knowing about Project 25 too.... how does that look now?
His lips were moving, turned the government over to them, on day one.
And he never put his hand on the Bible -I still think that was very odd and deliberate
I agree! Telling. He knows...
But he knows all about the paintings hanging in the Colorado statehouse!
I loved that painting of him. It accentuates his weak chin and pouty cheeks. I saw they took it down because of his tantrum. I wonder if they put Putin back up.
?
He decided that he didn’t like his presidential portrait, which has been hanging in the Colorado State Capitol for five years, and he ordered it removed—after insulting the skills of the artist.
Did it hang that long?
Mary I think he knew but it didn’t really concern him. Probably thought it was a show of toughness. And since he doesn’t follow the law, he thought it was just fine.
He also denied knowing anything about project 2025. He lies.
In any other universe, Trump's entire national security team would go to prison. This is just as bad as taking Top Secret documents without clearance to do so. Putting aside the editor of The Atlantic being in the loop, God only knows who tapped into Signal without being detected!
Steve, I had a brief moment where I envisioned the whole crew, including the man himself, frog marched out of the WH/Capitol and placed on a plane headed to a prison in El Salvador. Would be fitting I think. Oh, and we’d get to see Mr T with his head shaved (now I’m just being mean…).
🤣🤭
Not mean.. think Metacom.
They should have done that in GA, if they had do you think we would have ever seen his mug shot as many times as we have?
Yeah, I was hoping that would happen…would kinda make his mug shot, ahem, have a different vibe. I’ve long said if he is locked up he probably won’t get his “bronzer” to slather on his face, nor hairspray to whip his locks into the head-froth that it is. Sad.
I understand that Signal uses end-to-end encryption so we may grateful for small mercies but this incident shows that no encryption system is going to protect you from idiots.
Calling Jim Jordan! This is surely a worse breach than Hillary’s emails but I’m not holding my breath waiting for Jordan to take action. Remember Trey Crowdy?? Darryl Issa? crowdy’s gone but Issa is still in Congress and he’s amazingly quiet.
Don’t forget Jason Chaffetz, another purveyor of bull schitt with Trey Gowdy. Repubs have had nightmare legislators for decades
Gowdy and Chaffetz are gone (I want to know the story behind Chaffetz’s sudden resignation,) but Northern Ohioans are still stuck with the Trump worshipping Gym Jordan.
I had thankfully forgotten Chaffetz. That Congress had some real winners, didn’t it 😏
CNN published a reel this morning of four members of this Signal group (Hegseth, Ratcliffe, Rubio and Waltz) all attacking Hillary Clinton for using her private email account for government business. Apparently, Trump told reporters this morning that he had complete confidence in his National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz. What does that say for the rest of them?
Jim Jordan was positively fawning about how much Trump liked some wrestling match the admin bros went to - so obsequious as to make you want to throw up.
Jordan will prosecute the reporter.
With enough money, talent, and motivation, any system can be compromised. Even apps like Signal. Their devices are likely compromised, anyway. With this bunch, it would be pathetically easy.
Signal is regarded as safe, but the phones might not be. ProPublica reported in 2017 or 2018 (I forget) about the weak encryption facilities used at Mar a Lago. I think this is going to be as much a feature of Trump's second term as it was his first, but this leak is surely the granddaddy of them all.
yes, it's very secure. Wired magazine says we should use it in preference to WhatsApp, which also has tight end-to-end encryption.
But of course one has to watch the address list, too. Who knew?
Pete Buttitgieg yesterday raised two concerns arising from the disclosure: firstly, that anyone on those folk's phone contact lists might have been mistakenly added to the chain (the example he gave was the Russian ambassador); and secondly, how often are these people using this messaging service to avoid a permanent record of their conversations? All we've had from Trump so far is first to deny knowing anything about what happened and then later to express his full confidence in National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, without saying anything about the others.
As an afterthought, a smarter leader than Trump might wonder why any of those people in the group had added Jeffery Goldberg to their phone contact list in the first place. The mind boggles!
Does anyone think it might have been on purpose to add Goldberg???
Stephanie, it seems Goldberg himself first assumed someone was spoofing him or trying to entrap him, then only gradually realized he had been included in error. It seems no-one realized just how incompetent tRump appointees could be!
You've got to wonder, haven't you?
Our most dearly corrupt have shed all decency.
None of these clowns has any independence of thought. All but huddle around to protect their fellow incompetent, fellow corrupt – MAGA Congress, MAGA Clarence court, MAGA Trump cabinet.
For mealy-mouthed lies, for assaults on what we’ve left of a decent press, we can credit the dark money billionaires who decades ago knew first to gut America’s schools – end access to our great novels, memoirs, essay collections, biographies, and histories. The dark money ghouls knew they’d need more dumbed-down to salivate at their historic fix of criminality and incompetence.
Anyone who’s read a few novels, a few histories, knows the human emptiness of these charlatans and incel boys of Musk and the greased-up, venomous, orange fat one.
But why haven’t any of our mainstream media rebroadcast that video of special fool Pete Hegseth up close throwing an axe and missing the target entirely, but hitting a member of a drummer corps behind it?
I guess this is why the word "kakistocracy" is in the dictionary.
Exactly. We have a kakistocracy, oligarchy, and kleptocracy all rolled into one. Trump will go down in the history books as the worst US president ever. He is the Russian asset that is destroying the USA.
Yeah, Linda, but you know he’d crow about being the NUMBER ONE worst President AND impeached twice…no president has done that either!!! Makes me want to crawl under my bed and stay there for the duration. I told a friend yesterday that I’m afraid to turn on the news each day because some new SNAFU will have emerged…I sure do miss the steady ship of state captained by Biden & Harris and their excellent competent crew…the waters were rough, but they navigated with vision and experience.
Yea, give Joe and Kamala credit. But these vipers are competent at destruction.
As one who has done a fair amount of renovation on my old house, destroying is so much easier (and sometimes fun w/ the old sledgehammer) than building/restoring. Even “deconstructing” portions of my house took care—especially if I wanted to salvage parts for reuse. Mump & team are just putting everything (our country!) into the wood chipper.
Care to venture, Barbara, as to the debt he might so be owing Putin?
An irresponsible idiot with a match can effortlessly leave a wide wake of destruction.
The same old serpents (with my apologies to real snakes).
Yeah, JL, he TOLD us who he was. The cult bought it as awesome, the rest of us as awful.
Deliberately and with malice toward ALL. At least there was one or two sane people in 45, not one to be found now.
He made sure of that, JD!
For those of us who really know a little something about American political history, we need to pass along a key point to those American voters who are not aware that it’s Democratic Party and it’s presidents who have so often had to come in and clean up the mess the Republicans have made or gotten us into!
Although this time, it was our country’s largest voting block - the approximately 90 million legally registered voters who sat on their “hands”, ignorant, uneducated and unmotivated to vote - that got us and our friends in the world into the mess we’re in and witnessing now!
I’d like to see billboards w/ this info, in easy to read whilst driving graphics, on roadways across the land & in cities that have billboards too.
Great idea, Barbara. Lots of opportunities for the Democratic Party to develop and implement a full-scale communication strategy. What are they waiting for?!?
Is Your
Outlook
In a Slump
Blame
The Game
of
Donald Trump
Billboards, TikTok ads, direct mail? Sorry, Schumer is too busy “tut-tutting” to lead.
It's the human impulse they lack, Ellen.
So many great novels, memoirs, biographies, histories, travel writing, food and regionalism writing, and histories -- all testify to, amp up, revitalize, and energize the human.
Our schools have dumped all these. Few read any whole books anymore. And elites have gotten into the meritocracy by reading nothing longer than the short snippets sufficient for the limited and humanly dead logic of standardized testing.
Growing up in the late 40’s and the 50’s it was always fun as passenger when taking a roadtrip to read the ODA’s (outdoor advertising signs) along the highways/roadways - even the bad ones!
Only those of advanced age remember Burma Shave signs. But that's what we need now.
Fuck the handsitters. Remember the voters who tried to vote and the voters who voted but weren’t counted because of the patriarchal, racist mother fuckers who stole the show fair and square.
Alec, I could spit nails at how angry I am that SO many citizens are being disenfranchised from their right to vote…I DON’T care what party—D, R, I, Green…whatever… No eligible voter should find it difficult to register, to find an accessible voting place, or be eligible for mail-in voting. We need a movement to encourage engagement and access, not restriction. Of course we all know the name of the “restriction” game is to cheat to win—it is so blatantly obvious and cruel as well. Would not be tolerated on a kid’s sandlot baseball game, should never by tolerated by a country. 🗽🇺🇸
NO JL, I think it was not so much those who didn’t vote (although they could have helped a bit) but much more likely the vicious combination of precise gerrymandering, voter suppression both by law as well as intimidation and finally the highly suspicious findings from voting machine tabulators in all seven swing states each delivering results just outside the requirement for a recount and each showing statistically significant deviations in down-ballot drop-off all of which combined were far more likely to have delivered the results we saw from the 2024 election.
Gerrymandering and voter suppression is a crime against Democracy and should have raised a lot more stink than it has. I anticipated that our last presidential election would break all records for turnout, both sides. It did not. A whole lot of people don't vote.
I know, JL, I was gobsmacked by how many “sat this one out” in 2024. Why? Would really like to know! Maybe the days since the inauguration has slapped, hard, these folks upside the head….no, you don’t get to sit on the sidelines. Sigh. Today I went to my Post Office—in my rural town where everyone has to pick up their mail (no home delivery), so kind of a meeting place for residents. One woman I saw, used to work until recently for City Hall…a great person…had no idea about the move to privatize the PO. She said it is too distressing to keep apace of the news, so has not been aware of SO MUCH. I told her it was hard/distressing to stay attuned to what is going down, but if we don’t, we can’t fight back against things we disagree with. My philosophy is to “wade, not wallow”…that is, pay attention & informed, but don’t lose yourself to the morass of despair.
…see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKDw2rlLAs0 for more complete discussion.
Can you imagine how this time period will read in the history books?
I'm afraid it depends on who writes the history books....
👆this!!! Has always been thus…and makes one wonder about our species true “history”.
Won't that just be something else, Kelli, left for Putin to decide?
he had already achieved that status with his first term. There was no need for people to vote for him again, to see if he could tighten his grip on the prize...
Well, history books will only contain certain things.
Will the "Firemen" burn all the books?
Would love, JL, if they turned the powerful water jets on those demanding revisionist history…and flush them into a “waste eddy” of limp oligarchs.
He was throwing axes at Atlantic journalist Jeffery Goldberg too - and missing spectacularly. He's surely got to go.
I agree that he's got to go. I called Joni Ernst and left voicemail that I expect her to start impeachment proceedings against Pete Hegseth since her vote to confirm him as Secretary of Defense, even though she knew better, was critical to his being in charge of the Defense Department.
It’s only a matter of time before Hegseth further embarrasses himself and the country.
he's a frat boy high on power. Another douche among many.
"a frat boy high on power."
I am reconsidering the corrupting influence of power as a true addiction, for which there is neurological evidence. One the one hand, that has been assumed, at least metaphorically, for a very long time; but there is evidence of such behavior as a true addiction, and addictive behavior is both irrational and highly compulsive.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10461512/
(It's a NIH website so get it before DOGE does).
We should all send him a bottle of Scotch as a gift. I doubt he could resist!
I already assume that after his shouting match with reporters yesterday, Pete went home & poured himself a couple of stiff ones.
Maybe he did that before the shouting match? And I agree, afterwards also.
I assume he's sunning on a beach in Hawaii today.
No resting on his laurels?
Didn't I read something about her boffing a couple of lobbyists? Fat chance she'll go for impeaching Hegseth, methinks.
People really need to stop wasting time on impeachment. Jeez! It's like nobody knows how to COUNT anymore. Impeachment requires a majority vote in the House could with a 2/3 vote to convict in the senate.
Even if you could muscle an impeachment resolution through the House, there is NO WAY short of a videotaped murder committed at high noon on the streets of Manhattan that ANYONE on EITHER SIDE is going to get convicted and sent home. No more GOP Senators will vote to convict Hegseth than Democratic Senators will vote to convict Judge Boagsberg.
Can we all just stop wasting time with nonsense like impeachment and start trying to figure out how we can REALLY save this country?
PLEASE????
Impeachment can work if senators, congress, and elected officials become more scared of us than of the orange shit stain and the way in which that might happen is for you, me, and everyone else with a conscience to stop saying that impeachment and removal can’t work to. instead, fervently voicing our objections to this madness, placing our elected officials on speed dial, and demonstrating loudly, proudly, and often. That’s how it could happen but it’s guaranteed not to work if a defeatist attitude is proffered at the onset.
Jon, I can count, and I can read the tea leaves in DC. But part of the art of the deal, in my opinion, is asking for more than you know you can get, more, even, than you really want. I'm not looking for or expecting a call to impeachment. What I want is for Joni Ernst to stand up and admit publicly that she made a big mistake in voting for Pete Hegseth. My fantasy is that that would lead to at least a small domino effect of other cowed Republicans remembering that they have a responsibility to their constituents, to the country, and to the Constitution. If Pete Hegseth were to step down, whom would Trump choose to replace him? Unlikely that it would be someone more qualified to be Secretary of Defense. But I'm hoping for a small crack in the MAGA monolith, a small admission that this incident was totally and completely unacceptable, a small investigation of how many times similar careless laxness has happened. While I'd favor choosing a more forceful minority leader in the Senate, while I'd favor having a qualified Secretary of Defense, I'm not sure how much of a difference either change would make. What we need is a sign that both Dems and Republican'ts have heard the frustration and anger at their Town Halls and that they are ready to reclaim at least some bits and pieces of their spine, some of their mandated power as a co-equal branch of our government.
Totally agree with your comment about Ernst (and others) with respect to Hegseth. He needs to go, the sooner the better. To address a later point you make, I think it will make a follow-up nomination a lot more critical in terms of checking out any nominee, and it may also bring a lot more attention to other nominations as well.
But it is unlikely to make any major difference in the overall direction of the Trump administration. I think expecting both Dems and GOPs to "reclaim at least some bits and pieces of their spine" is actually possible but to expect that to result in some major change in this administration is much closer to zero.
In the end, we need to be braced for at least 18 more months of chaos because even if wew COULD get Trump impeached AND convicted (virtually impossible by my counting methods which I admit are primitive), then what? JD Vance? Like that will be better? Or heaven forbid, Mike Johnson? Because that is the line of succession, followed by Chuck Grassley and then... Marco Rubio! Its a total sh*t show which should not be news to any of us, and like a bad storm in the middle of the ocean, we need to be ready to "ride this one out" until we can get a relatively major change in the administration/congress and that is only going to happen at the mid-term elections.
Buckle up, folks, its a long way from over, sigh...
Joni Ernst and Nancy Mace.
A couple of rape victims who've hitched themselves to Trump & Hegseth.
I don’t believe Mace was ever raped. She came out with that story for attention. She needs serious mental healthcare.
She caved in to some serious pressure from MAGA fanatics (although not from Trump himself) to eventually vote for Hegseth's confirmation - https://apnews.com/article/trump-senate-confirmation-ernst-hegseth-dd15a8b031ca8cad2a99237ab99b53a8
This is the sad reality for Congressional Republicans - no one can resist Trump. It also explains their comatose reaction to yesterday's bombshell revelations about the accidental disclosure of Yemen war plans.
Waiting for Murkowski's statement.
As luck would have it both Gabbard and Ratcliffe are appearing right now before the Senate Intelligence committee.
Betsy, we ALL should send letters or phone calls to Joni Ernst and any who voted to confirm Hegseth as Secretary of Defense! https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/24/us/hegseth-senate-vote-roll-call-dg/index.html
Joni is useless
Meanwhile, Russell, he's imitating the fat orange felon.
Saw him on video today just lashing out -- lies after lies after lies -- at America's free press. The nerve of them, his viciousness said -- with more lies, lies, lies from him just gushing from his mouth hole.
He thinks that he is safe lying about this because Jeffrey Goldberg has confirmed that he would not release any of the operational and tactical information he received. You're right, it's abominable and he should be sacked immediately.
Phil, I don't know if you follow "That's Another Fine Mess" but it's author (a regular commenter here) posted a cartoon; unmistakable orange to yellow pompadour, a face shape with the medical office diagram of the large intestine, with the distal end of the alimentary canal appearing as the oral orifice.
Your use of "mouth hole" prompted me to post this.
Phil. Every time I rad your comments about people who have read and been exposed to a liberal education, I think of the top ones that have guided me for decades. Top was this “I am a part of all that I have met.” Hit me between the eyes as a student. Tennyson s Ulysses. A line that could get lost in such a work. Also William Cullen Bryant’s Thanatopsis. A poem that reminds me of the wisdom of Chief Seattle. The one book that stands out above so many is by Peter Drucker, “Adventurers of a Bystander.” I have often posted pages 164 and 165 about prewar Berlin. It covers turn of the century and through his war experiences and after war in America. “The Best Way to predict the future is to create it.” Repubs did a bang up job of this. Dems can do it as well. Way past time. It’s the last hurrah…
Imagine, JDinTX, the opposite of what you and I and many here got.
Imagine the black holes that so many kids now have to experience, where schools have nothing human about them, but have turned instead into testing assembly lines.
Why? Because our billionaires see life as nothing more than enterprises where a few get to the top -- and suck in the money there -- meanwhile viewing all others beneath them as but amorphous mass. Again, with nothing human about them that any of these rich deign to see. Much less deign to give a living wage. Or health care. Or decent schools. Or media other than firehoses of nationalist conceits, hatreds, and all the other regular doses of what Hunter Thompson used to call fear and loathing.
Putin, so pleased. The U.S. rich are doing this to us, with full connivance of all the empty souls themselves tested "up" into that dead and deadening meritocracy.
They have no worries. Their kids will be in upscale private schools where no one will be concerned about revisionist history. They don’t have to be concerned about healthcare. Need an abortion, fly to a country where it’s legal. Hungry. Send your servant.
When our children are poorly educated, they will not have the time or energy to pay attention. They will be working two jobs and have no critical thinking skills. A poorly educated, hungry, with shelter insecurity will not be paying attention. They will be trying to survive.
We all dropped the ball. I think we knew that this debacle of T2 would be difficult, possibly dangerous. But, did anyone see, even with the 2025 we warned about, putting Musk in power, in charge of stripping away our government? I didn’t. And I’m pretty suspicious of them all.
I think it's safe to say that if one of them wants an abortion, there will be tame doctors here available.
They promised rapid change and shocked even me, a hater of their hate for decades
Urban schools like those in the city of Milwaukee WI are forced to have police in the schools (called School Resource Officers—a money making industry spreading through K12 education like standardized testing). It is a way of putting more black students on a path to incarceration. The way to avoid a run in with an SRO is to conform early. Just another awful result of all education from kindergarten on being encroached upon and privatized so money can be made. And folks will tell you SROs have been around a long time now just like the ACT and SAT as though that is proof it is a legitimate and worthy enterprise. It is more proof the only operating paradigm is the for profit business paradigm. Folks are so undereducated nowadays they think life is a business. They have no other frame but a money-making one. If it makes money it is good is their only measure. So SROs must be good because they help enforce conformity and that protects our investment. And standardized testing makes school admissions more efficient. Everything is quantified and monetized. No soul left.
I really cannot speak to urban schools and the SRO programs and results thereof. I know that there can be positive interactions with police and the schools and am well aware that the trust established by SROs can be used improperly. You make some good points, and I would like to tell you my story.
In my 77% white county (and they don't even list anything other than "hispanic, not hispanic, and not hispanic (Asian) in their count), Eugene had a dedicated SRO program, Springfield has had one intermittently, and I am reasonably sure other small town PDs (Cottage Grove and Junction City) have at least part time SRO duties. SROs at two Eugene schools have intervened in situations involving armed intruders to campus (one random, one a parent upset in a custody dispute) that involved deadly force.
The last 5 years I worked, I was assigned as a contract deputy in a small town (5,000) that had an elementary, middle and high school (HS enrollment 350 +/-). I was NOT an SRO, but I made it a point to visit each school multiple times a week (mostly to attend assemblies or hang out with the band kids) but also to make it "normal" for me to be there. I met with the staff at the elementary school several times after Sandy Hook, and explained to them in detail what they could expect from law enforcement should something like that happen at their school.
I also did a debrief for the transportation office after one of their athletic buses had a motorcyclist lose control and slide under a bus that had taken the basketball team to an away game. I did my best to be as much a part of the school community as possible. And yes, I did play sousaphone with the pep band a few times. I earned my nickname of "Deputy Tuba."
And that, Ally, is the description of how a security officer actually connects with young people so a true security presence can be effective when push comes to shove. More security officers with tubas! "Deputy Tuba" is a mark of honor that can only be accorded by those who trusted her. Trust can only be earned, never demanded. Bravo!
Bless you Ally, and your ilk. I wish that school systems in other states with greater percentages of ethnic minorities and BIPOC were as enlightened as Oregon, but as you know the reason why they don't even bother to identify people other than "white," Hispanic," and "Asian" is because when Oregon became a territory it was able to enshrine THREE "no Blacks" law in its constitution, which has suppressed the settlement on non-white folks in the state ever since. It is ironic that Oregon has some of the most liberal systems in the US, yet began its existence as one of the most racist. I can tell you that cops in public schools in cities with large non-white populations tends to go badly. And they have also been more or less useless in school shootings and the like, as has been demonstrated time and again in places like Texas. For those unaware of the history of Oregon's settlement here ya go: https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/exclusion_laws/
I saw positive interactions where I worked also, none involved the tuba though. Music can be magical, as you know…
You might easily add here, Mary Ellen, the U.S.'s for-profit prison industry.
I think we all know about it. And about the scandalous disproportion of U.S. imprisonment of our poor, working class, and non-white populations.
I think we all know a lot about the bits and pieces of depravity among our test-well meritocracy. Of course they test zero for anything human. Such decencies never figure even remotely close to anything in the tests.
Can we spiral anywhere deeper down this black hole run by our genteel ghouls?
You know, someone needs to speak up and challenge your indictment of the public school system. Let it be me. You are incorrect in blaming all society's ills on the public school system. That sets up the argument for private and parochial schools and charters that take money away from public schools. Try to do better, Phil.
How about "blaming all society's ills," Kathy, on the rich?
And yet some vilify those who have been cheated out of the most. Kneecap some and then kick their crutches away. Cruelty and power learned early.
I so often think of Whitman's line "I contain multitudes" -- the GOP does not see us as all being part of the whole but as individuals fighting for resources and power. Such a completely different world view.
Testing's logic, Laurie, is that life is quantified only.
Those with the most points (also read, dollars) stand atop all the rest of us.
They do not fight for resources & power. They just lie and saunter.
Omg, that is horrifying that Pete accidently hit someone with an axe!!! 🤯
I was unaware if this. So much depravity, so little time.
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/392248-man-sues-fox-friends-host-after-hes-struck-by-axe-on-set/
Thanks for the link. I’d seen the vid several times & wondered about the fellow struck w/ the axe…didn’t go down the ‘net rabbit hole to see if there has been any resolution to the lawsuit. In retrospect, kinda sums up Hegseth’s overall “aim” & competence.
Seems like Pete being sloppy drunk as usual.
Given Hegseth’s well known love for booze, I wonder if Hegseth was drunk when he threw the axe at the man he hit.
Hegseth himself is a threat to national security with this behavior.
Quite so.
The caving of legacy media, Universities and Big Law was not on my bingo card a couple of years ago.
Nooo. I expected some, but not like this.
Trump and his ragtag team are stripping us for parts and laughing about it. This is yet another betrayal by all of them. And gaslighting at its finest.
This is so painfully ignorant and frightening. If it wasn’t so serious and dangerous.. it would be hilarious. It’s not. God help us.
Trump and his chosen minions, far from a meritocracy .. are, rather a gaggle of unfit knee benders .. in the process of making America a joke, our dear country.
I am an 84 y/o grandmother of 9. Heartbroken.. because no matter how ghastly this is… nothing will be done. Patricia Chandler
My hope, Patricia, is that “we the people” who are starting to rise up in increasing numbers, creating a groundswell of action, may yet turn the tide.🤞 I’ve posted here quite a few times before my “fight song” from the mid-80’s (another fraught time, but nothing compares to “now” in my lifetime)…Jackson Browne’s Til I Go Down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmzimxfqgfw
Trump is a dictator but such a clumsy one. I am not sure that makes him less dangerous, Maybe that makes him more so; yet I keep expecting more concerted pushback. I will admit be disappointed that there is not more already, but we'll see.
Thank You, Barbara. Shared "Til I Go Down" to add to the groundswell.
That’s what I’m hoping for too Barbara. We must!
Thank you Professor Richardson.
From his first term sharing classified information with the Russian Ambassador (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39931012)
to storing boxes filled with documents representing top secret national security data in his bathroom at Mar a Lago -Trump has zero care about the United States.
(https://www.reuters.com/legal/how-secret-were-documents-found-mar-a-lago-2023-06-09/)
His entire Presidency has been to stay out of jail, enrich himself, and remain in front of the so-called "news cycle" as an extension of "The Apprentice". The program now is much darker than his first crime wave -as he has replaced some of the ineffective clowns from his first crime wave with alcoholics and sociopaths.
Add now his allegiance to Vlad.
and with a bunch of smart = conniving and evil people who have been developing plans for this time for years. They even published it, in Project 2025 - which Trump, as with the Houthi attack, said he'd never heard of.
Oh, Here we go again! So much winning, so much whining, and so much incompetence. Now it’s deny, deflecting, and blame the reporter. The ongoing bullying and bumbling of this administration goes deep and wide.
And, oh her emails!!!
Sigh—
Hillary Clinton on Twitter/X yesterday: "You have got to be kidding me!"
I'm surprised she wasn't banned there long ago.
He did suspend the accounts of eight prominent journalists last year but later claimed that it was a mistake. However, Fortune reported that the number of accounts suspended on X in the first half of 2024 were nearly three times the number from the same period in 2022 (5.3 million accounts, compared to 1.6 million). These suspensions don't include spam accounts.
Ad hominem attacks are always a telltale sign that the facts cannot be disputed. In other words, “shoot the messenger.”
Of course, Hegseth would resort to an ad hominem response when he found out Jeffrey Goldberg was on the call. BTW, the Atlantic is a good magazine with articles that examine this maladministration and its incompetence in depth.
I subscribe to The Atlantic and have for years
Same here.
That's all they do Vicki, they screwup and then they start whining, deflecting and blaming others. And they start planning another screwup. Is this part of Proyect 2025 that the scumbag president didn't know anything about?
Unbelievable. When I started reading about this, I was reminded of a bunch of boys "playing army." Further reading, caused me to be scared. Now I sit here shaking my head. Every day, there's some incompetent, harmful, or hateful thing coming from this administration.
Trump is a spoiled ultra-wealthy playboy who has cosplayed an array of roles. In this media-age a lot of people can no longer distinguish fake from real. I mean, for real.
Claire Berlinski (and ChatGPT4.5) posted an extraordinary article today concerning the moral rot that is destroying the modern world. The point you make is one of the factors leading to this situation.
https://claireberlinski.substack.com/p/profiles-in-cowardice?utm_source=substack&publication_id=16235&post_id=159688286&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=false&r=1cvz80&triedRedirect=true
I'm not sure if the link will work. I used the "share" function from the article. The title of the article is "Profiles in Cowardice: Part 1"
EXTRAORDINARY Article! Thank You, James. Shared.
Thank you for this link, (it worked.) VERY interesting and compelling. The argument that AI has the total of the moral arguments to hand says all we should need to hear to fight against the moral rot of this administration. Sadly, so many will not hear it.
I have been trying to understand how anyone can support Trump, who I find to be a person with not a single redeeming virtue. I found this article to be most interesting & well worth the time to read. In fact, in spite of my limited disposable income, I decided to subscribe to her Substack. Thanks!
Thank you for sharing!
Wow! Thank you.
Wow. Quite a read. I the end I think that the thing most troubling me is the lack of a moral discussion of what is morally precious to me and what is collectively precious, aright, I'll say "sacred", to collective American society. For sure modern Republicans are selling a predatory, bullying collection of values, and that seems personally so "morally wrong".
I shrink from using that language lest it be lumped with those who radiate hubris and tell everybody else what to do, often while fuming about trivial things. We have to spend more time listening to one another, but also speaking up, especially for one another.
Well said, J.L. I share your opinion and the reluctance you expressed in both paragraphs. But the rapid descent of our country into the abyss has caused me to lose that reluctance. The modern Republican party espouses values that are to me both morally wrong and a direct attack on the principles on which our country was founded.
One of the best articles I've read about what's happening and ties a lot of loose ends together. Thanks for sharing. I've subscribed to her substack.
It reminded me of an old British comedy called Dad's Army about a bunch of misfits supposedly keeping their town safe from possible German invasion in WWII. If you enjoy English humour, check out some clips on YouTube.
I love Dad's Army -- and at least their intentions were good, even if they were a bit bumbling at times! Wonderful old show.
Truth.
What will allies of the US think about Vance's comment about 'european freeloading', especially as 20 countries are involved in protecting shipping from Houthi attacks? Will other members of the Five Eyes group or other US allies now be wary of sharing intelligence with the Trump administration? Heads must roll and quickly.
.
Well what would you think Russell?
There are already meetings of NATO leaders without the US.
One wonders how the 31 countries comprising NATO without the US would fare against the combined might of the US and Russia.
Badly I fear.
Somehow, Christopher, I can’t see that MOST Americans would be willing to actively partner w/ Russia against NATO countries. Seems to me that the Trump Effect is slip sliding away..well, except for the MAGA cult. I hazard that any martial conflict will likely be “in house”….there have been the whisperers from along the political spectrum for the chance of another civil war for sometime now. Just what the country needed…a Wreck-It-Ralph leader. It’s hard to believe it’s real!
My own opinion is that Trump and Vance are stunningly ignorant about what NATO is for and why we helped to create it. Of course, Putin hates NATO since it’s designed to protect other European nations from Putin.
In 2023, Congress passed a law prohibiting a president from withdrawing from NATO absent either two-thirds backing of the Senate or a new law. Some legal experts, though, believe Trump could override that, citing presidential prerogative in national security matters - https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/08/trump-nato-congress-courts-00188426
Oh shit.
I suspect that it's already the subject of heated discussions within foreign intelligence agencies.
I'm sure they already know what Trump and Co thinks of them. He's been very vocal about it.
I agree, but they nevertheless will be most unhappy about the revelations emerging from the conversation - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/25/stunning-signal-leak-reveals-depths-of-trump-administrations-loathing-of-europe
The death of a moral compass, right there in their words. As quoted above: https://claireberlinski.substack.com/p/profiles-in-cowardice?publication_id=16235&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share&isFreemail=false&triedRedirect=true
Our country has become the most untrustworthy and incompetent thing and in only 2 months.
well, credit where credit is due - they've been planning this for years, as they published in Project 2025 - see the part about the first 180 days.
I don't think they published the part about including journalists in secret discussions, though...
Clearly one for the record books, right?
All it took was one slippery dope to slide us right to the bottom.
He hires only the best people. Idiots that bow to him.
That's what makes them be "best".
I forgot to say thank you Professor Richardson for your eternal tireless efforts. Know while you write in the wee hours of the morning, your devoted followers are up with you waiting anxiously for your unmatched posts. 🙏🏻
Kathleen, I call LFAA my “middle-of-the-night-school”…typing these words at 1:55 PST. No wonder I take naps during the day (lucky I’m retired and can do so!).
Yes!
And this waking nightmare is just two months old.
Heather, this is where the many clowns climb into the smallest car they can get into and try to drive away. They won’t get very far because the tires on the car have deflated. I am reminded of the Queen of Hearts when she exclaimed “Off with their heads”! Our reps should be filing as many lawsuits as they can and they should file them against each individual who was on that call, separately. What they have done is expose themselves and us as having no protections in place. How dare they put us in peril?? I smell a class action lawsuit.
LOL…late at night here in far northern CA, Marlene, and I at first read your words and saw “crass action lawsuit”. Guess it kinda fits too!!! Probably time to shut the light and stack some zzzzz’s!
😂
Evening to All!
Kudos to Heather, per usual, for her astute summation and granular take on this latest, and possibly biggest scandal of the oh-just-about-two month old Administration of Despicable Don, the Return.
As I see it, there are three larger stories, within this larger Russian doll of a scandal story---
First--- the incredible level of "are you f***ing kidding me" incompetence.
Second--- the strong possibility that all of this, including the attack on Yemen itself went down without the President being aware, and
Third---What the fuck are we doing committing war crimes in and against Yemen in the first place?!?
Let's start at the beginning---
1. If Hegseth survives as Defense Secretary into April, that will demonstrate that Trump could care less about even the most basic stability and day to day functioning of both the military and military intelligence. God only knows what Kardashian look-alike he may have hinted about this operation to already, at some corner bar in DC while downing his fifth Grey Goose and ogling her decolletage. And let's not forget that his first club out of the bag when the news broke was to blame Goldberg, i.e., shoot the messenger, in typical Trumpian style, not realizing that this chicken shit tactic only works for the fat, spray tanned, follicularly transplanted Boss, not his sycophantic acolytes.
2. Where was Trump when the attack on Yemen was revving up? Was he informed and did he provide the constitutionally necessary approval?? At present, we don't know. Yet pending further knowledge, would it surprise anyone to learn that he was off at one of his conflict of interest tainted golf resorts, moving his ball off the fringe of the fairway and onto the fringe of the green so as to ready himself for the "win" yet again? He probably knows as much about Yemen as he does about tariffs which is in and of itself, frightening.
So, who's really in charge here with matters of life and death?????
3. The US is bombing Yemen?!? Why in God's name would we be letting loose the World's strongest military to do so?!? After all, were Houthi soldiers alighting on the shores of Martha's Vineyard ala the shark in "Jaws", threatening the homeland?!
More likely, the Trumpian powers that be other than Trump himself, all tied in either ideologically or financially with the military contractors funding the two key genocidal powers in the Middle East, Israel and the House of Saud, were yearning to punish the Houthi government in Yemen for having the temerity to support the beleaguered and long suffering Palestinian people chafing under Israeli genocide, and/or were looking to finish off the previous Saudi genocide against the Yemenis.
We cannot allow ourselves to become inured to American military attacks, wholly sans rationale or declaration of war yet again.
Well, that's all for now folks! Let's see what fresh hell tomorrow will bring!!