While President Donald Trump’s billionaire sidekick Elon Musk has said he is pulling back from his work with the “Department of Government Efficiency,” he is with Trump today in Saudi Arabia, along with representatives from leaders from some of the biggest companies in the United States.
That giant sucking sound is our money and data and tax dollars funneling into the pockets of Trump, Musk and their cronies. Keep talking with everyone you know about the corruption that’s betraying all of us.
It is also a big national shame.Cutting food and health programs so that already obscenely rich people can have $even$ more is morally obscene.The wealthy are, indeed, trying to destroy our country and much of the world along with it too. It saddens me and makes me angry.
This is an old old tactic used in the south and mother cities as well. African American farms were taken. It was one of the issues Mary McCloud Bethune and Mrs Roosevelt were trying to handle and it was dicey with the New Deal.
Environmental degradation always takes place in lower socio economic areas. Take one highway such as say I 90 and its creation and the battles fought for where the highway was placed. The history of discrimination there if one decides to dig. And many had no idea of the scale of what was going on. So many of the environmental groups and people came from an elite status abd helped change but they were blind to others needs in that area. And the silenced ones who had to endure the destruction of their environment really were silenced by several layers of isms. So no voice or voices were heard,
Musk and other billionaires might consider SNAP and Medicaid to be superfluous, but hungry children, people with disabilities and in nursing homes, plus rural hospitals, healthcare businesses and facilities consider these programs essential. Elon Musk doesn’t have enough social awareness to fill up a thimble, but he’s been making decisions impacting such cuts. His grandiose ideas call for more massive spending that even he can afford, so he wants the government to fund his ideas, and to hell with everybody and everything else.
Even when engaged in involuntary anal intercourse with their beloved Orange Emperor, they will still wave their MAGA flags and keep shouting: "We owned the libs!"
You know us well, or at least how Rush and Rupert changed so much about this country. There was a time when I could be proud, flawed but with purpose and compassion. We sort of knew that “There, but for the grace of God, go us. And the Golden Rule hadn’t been mocked and discarded. Nazi redux…
Then they came even for the rights of MAGAs. Follow the money.
The Civil War killed roughly 2% of the nation's population of the era. How many who fought to the death for slavery reaped any material benefit from it? Who did?
JDinTX, We don't watch the news anymore either. Now the death star folks are running an ad during the local news blaming Biden and the Ds and telling people how wonderful what they are doing is. Puke. I can mute it, but I do not even want to see it. Nearly every day I give thanks, despite the aches and pains, that I am as old as I am with no direct descendants. I wake up listening to bird song and then allclassical in Portland. The yard is full of various things blooming or starting to, so I enjoy that.
I’m glad to be old too. But my grand girls will feel the effects of their war on women. They are not MAGAts but they have no idea how their lives will change. They are cute, blond and young, so far but no protection these days. They are what Golden Rule girls should be but that is dangerous these days. I just watch weather on local, anything going on in Texas is unbearable for me. Rupert’s Fox has metastasized so that propaganda is spewed 24/7 by most all outlets. Brains are “cultified,” overwhelmed, or disconnected from reality. Bodes poorly for all…
I do feel bad for younger people and yes, the lives of women will change back to being chattel I am afraid. We watch weather too and like to know what is going on in Portland. After that, we switch to a streamed series.
I get DAILY DOSE OF DEMOOCRACY in my in-box every day, Generally, 6-8 items and the last one has wit. Yesterday there was picture of Air Force 1. It was warped with a Trogen Horse at the front end of the “flying palace.” Trump will get his way – same as taking ever the Kennedy Center. I just do not understand the stupidity of congressional republicans. But I go back to a famous quote by Napoleon – “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap!”
Sadly, it isn't just congressional republicans; add democrats and independents. Stir it well, and you have a big pot of self-serving to be served among themselves. For the rest of us, we can go pick shit with the chickens, except for election times; then it's a feast of empty promises
I stopped watching commercial TV in the run up to W's Iraq War and started getting news from a variety of seemingly vettable sources, such as The Guardian. I found it (especially in that set of circumstances) more demonstrably accurate and ahead of the curve.
"On Saturday, South Dakota nurse Jodi Doering had a night off and decided to tweet about what she was seeing as her state. Doering’s tweets were about COVID-19 patients who are literally dying from contracting the virus but still do not believe that the virus is real, or that they have it. She explained how sad and frustrating it was to watch people in such angry denial, furious that this hoax was being perpetrated on them, only to 'stop yelling at you when they get intubated. It’s like a fucking horror movie that never ends.' "
I know the commercial you are talking about. It runs on our local stations several times a day. It makes me so mad - why doesn't someone (Democrats) run a rebuttal commercial?
Read about how people are living with those giant data mining companies as neighbors. People have got to be very careful now about new development coming into their communities.
Say what you want about trump, every corrupt, illegal, and inhuman act is out in the open. Republicans stand idly by while Democrats are uncertain which act is the most heinous. Does it matter? He and everyone of his team must go to Quantanamo.
I always favor his exile to a small island in the South Atlantic Ocean, with no Internet. That would be St. Helena, where Napoleon spent his last years.
Only thing, George, it’s like playing Whack-a-Mole…he floods the zone with crap & it’s hard to deal with ALL of it at once. I’m pretty sure there would be much more significant “action” if the Dems had more control in the House/Senate AND/OR if the Repubs had any cojones to do the right thing (issues even they acknowledge in private).
This can’t be said enough between now and the November 2026 midterm election: The magic numbers for a supermajority in the U.S. House is 290 and in the Senate it is 67! In the House it should/could be possible; in the Senate, it requires a miracle.
everyone needs to contact the DNC and demand that they run a candidate in every race and provide a supportive network like republicans do for candidates, Many people in “red” states would vote for someone else of there was a Democratic choice on the ticket with a message of supporting laws for the common good of the people. Democrats were AFRAID of putting money and effort into races that they didn’t think they could win!?!?!? In many elections, there was no one there to challenge or fact check the lies being spewed by hate mongering fear inducing voices. Democrats are very culpable by not being present and challenging the take over of the Confederate thinking minority that the tech bros are using to get in power.
Anyone who has worked in politics over the last 50+ years knows that this is NOT necessarily a good idea. Putting a candidate on every ballot is a way to spend a LOT of money on races you have virtually no chance of winning. There are 7 serious swing states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada) and a handful of swing seats in Congress and a few in the Senate. Beyond that, most districts in Congress are pretty close to pre-determined, with party majorities (either Democrat or GOP) that make it virtually impossible for the opposing party to win. While money is not necessarily in short supply especially at the national level, parties do best to focus most of their money and effort on the seats that are in serious contention.
All of this could change with a new approach to redistricting which will happen again in 2030, but until then (for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections) we need to face the electoral realities that exist.
The DNC is busy fighting to get rid of the 2 new, young members who are ready to fight for us. The dinosaurs are unhappy with them and are trying to redo the elections. 😡
Young people can’t afford to sit around and wait for good timing. They have to push forward and force the change. No one from the old guard will ever give them a chance. This is why our country is so messed up.
Totally agree…too often — much too often — the Democrats find a way of shooting themselves [ourselves] in the foot or in some way crippling ourselves and failing at one of our major intents: Winning races!!!
Well, running candidates in EVERY race is a sure path to shooting yourself in the foot. Putting money into races that are virtually impossible to win is political idiocy. Money needs to be focused on the races where Democrats can win.
Running candidates in "every" district is a fool's errand. It costs money, lots of money, to run for any national office and there are simply places that a Democrat can't win. Investing money in those races is throwing good money, which can better be spent in the races where winning is possible, down the drain. Yes, there are some races which will be close enough that sorry could change the outcome but those are relatively few, maybe 20-30 seats in Congress and 5-8 seats in the Senate. Anyone who thinks a super majority for the Dems in EITHER house is even CLOSE is smoking far better weed than I ever got in my lifetime.
Does it really take a supermajority? The Rs have 220 House members to the Ds 213, and that hasn't stopped them from handing the entire country over to Donald Trump. Flip four seats, leadership changes, and the Republicans should be as powerless as the Democrats are today.
Find a few districts with a Republican representative and buyer's remorse. Pour a small fortune into recall campaigns, and flip the House right now.
We can't afford to wait till January 2027 for new leadership to be sworn in. The damage is already considerable, and these people are just getting started. Democrats must get a toehold of power in Washington soon, so Republicans don't call all the shots for the next 20 months.
Recall elections are expensive and rarely successful. This is political naïveté. I think in 2026 elections, there is a good chance that the House can be returned to Dem control by a small majority. Off-year elections for Congress favor the party that doesn't hold the White House. In the Senate, in 2026, there are 21 GOP seats up for grabs with only 12 Dem seats being elected. So taking back the Senate, while NOT simple, is at least possible.
But recall elections are a waste of money and energy. First, they aren't even permitted in many states (including more GOP states than Dem states because the GOP has always tried to put rigid restrictions on elections in their states). And recall elections are difficult to motivate people to vote. It costs a LOT of money for each vote. There is only 16 months to the 2026 elections. Most recall elections take at least 6 months to get signatures and then 4-6 more months to hold an election. That is so close to the next elections, that I think this is a complete waste of time and money.
Thanks for the analysis. I figured after floating this idea on several forums that I was missing something, and I readily admit to being politically naiive.
But it's hard to believe there aren't enough places where a recall could have some chance of succeeding, and the cost seems small in comparison to the cost of repairing the damage caused in even a few additional months of unchecked Trumpism.
Plus, it seems at least possible that the Project 2025 Republicans have a plan up their sleeve to nullify the results of future elections - do they really think the country will not take the first chance to vote them out of office and stop the increasingly obvious destruction, and would they not be prepared to respond if that happened? A threat of losing the House prematurely might throw them off balance.
If it's too expensive and unlikely to succeed, then 2026 it is. But it seems worth the discussion, at least.
You can think whatever you like but waiting is the only option you have. I don't mean waiting silently, of course we should continue to pressure the Congress critters in our districts and states and keep raising our voices as that will keep public attention on the problem.
But fantasizing that there is something that can be DONE to change this before the next election. Is just that. Fantasy. Impeachment isn't even close to an option given the current balance of power in Congress. And there are no other options for changing the administration legally.
Sure, you can say we need a revolt, but that has less chance for success than a snowball in hell. And ANY illegal action is likely to so more harm than good, and has limited if any chance of success.
It's going to be tough for 18 months, that's true, but I
don't see any other viable option in a country like ours.
You can think whatever you like but waiting is the only option you have. I don't mean waiting silently, of course we should continue to pressure the Congress critters in our districts and states and keep raising our voices as that will keep public attention on the problem.
But fantasizing that there is something that can be DONE to change this before the next election. Is just that. Fantasy. Impeachment isn't even close to an option given the current balance of power in Congress. And there are no other options for changing the administration legally.
Sure, you can say we need a revolt, but that has less chance for success than a snowball in hell. And ANY illegal action is likely to so more harm than good, and has limited if any chance of success.
It's going to be tough for 18 months, that's true, but I
don't see any other viable option in a country like ours.
Actually I think it is hardly possible in either house. The Dems would have to go from a 219-216 DISadvantage to 290-145 advantage, i.e., a gain of 71 seats. I don't see any universe where that is even REMOTELY possible. I think the Democrats will do well to regain the majority in the House, possibly even get up to 30 more seats, thereby taking a 245-190 majority. That would be a HUGE victory in 2026 if it actually happens. As for the Senate, you are quite right, that will take a miracle. They might even have a hard time getting to even although the numbers are good for that.
When you cut healthcare people don’t go to the doctor for small ailments because they can’t afford the $300 office visits or any of the tests. Then the illness becomes massive requiring emergency care, massive hospitalizations and money that in the end taxpayers pay. Instead they could have paid a negotiated office visits of $50 payments, $5 in medications and had a healthier society. These same people become massively disabled and are unable to work increasing the population of people needing assistance. I’m sure Republicans just think they should be left to die but the real Christians, Jews and other religious believers don’t feel that way. Starving children grow up to be a drain on our society instead of productive members. Studies show children don’t learn when they’re hungry.
But let’s bedazzle the White House in more garish gold garbage and add some of those crystal chandeliers DonOLD so admires. Let’s dump more methane in the air to poison people faster. Let’s keep arresting the people who protest where they shouldn’t to distract from the devastation as we rush along to turning this into a world class shithole country.
Plow the Rose Garden under and build a ballroom. The guy can't even dance. The videos I have seen of him dancing when he was younger-he looked like a 16 year old who is standing there. Irony for you: he's dancing with the Village People, a band created to appeal to the gay community. I wonder if he knew that? Google Zelinsky-a Dancing with the Stars winner.
Pres. Trump and the Congressional Republicans want to continue giving massive tax breaks to the wealthy while cutting Medicaid and other programs for ordinary Americans. In his first term, Trump's tax cut left us with an additional $8.2 trillion debt, a record. The new tax bill will add $4 trillion to the national debt. Why does the national debt matter? To the 900,000 people in the United States who have a net worth of more than $10 million and the 902 billionaires, it makes no difference. But, if you are 30, 40, 50 or 60, it is devastating. It will be your responsibility to pay the interest on this debt, to say nothing about the principal.
The U.S. population is now 340 million. So, what percentage of the population do these proposed tax cuts benefit? It is 1/4 of 1%, i.e., 0.24%. How many Americans are shafted by this tax bill? 339,000,000, or 99.76%.
If the U.S. population were only 3.4 million people, there wouldn't be any billionaires and perhaps very few with a net worth of $10 million. But, we are a nation of 340 million people and because of us, we have almost one million very wealthy people. They owe us. They wouldn't be, couldn't be, wealthy without us. So, what to do? Vote the Republicans out of office. Reinstall the New Deal
Well, when Nixon was in office, the Supreme Court was WAY more like the court of history. Even with a Chief Justice who was conservative, the SCOTUS of 1974 was pretty traditional and still apparently believed in the rule of law. This SCOTUS has gone so far off the tracks that it is hard to even recognize anymore.
"Republican lawmakers are gambling that voters will be willing to lose services ( = Their health care) in exchange for putting Trump’s agenda (= Making Trump, Musk and other billionaires get more mony they do not need.) into law." Why do Republicans are interested in achieving this national crime? For Christian law makers, please read the gospel by Luke and learn their life after death which is the sure future of all including Trump and Musk and Republican lawmakers.
The corruption is supported by a great many people. Go to amazon.com and type in Joe Biden books to see the number of hate books advertised by amazon on Mr. Biden. He sounds like the worst president of all time, just as Mr. Trump describes him. What does this mean?
Suddenly people are being arrested because something is against the law? Almost a refreshing concept. Let's widen the target audience to include this administration.
Ah, but who has the cojones to actually arrest Trump et al? I (as an Aussie) am totally gobsmacked at the apparent passive acceptance of this situation - I'm even more amazed, that in Amerika, the home of n guns (where n is a very large number) -there have been no shootings related to all this (and it's not only the right wingers who have guns). Surely there will be the Saravejo moment....
Good comment. Guns seem to be used only against the innocent and vulnerable here in our country. As far as some group or individual using force to hold Trump and his cronies to account. Well those are the ones supporting Trump. And if some group took up arms as did our forefathers of the American Revolution, well if they are successful, we Liberals would arrest and hang them. By the way love Jim Jeffries bit on gun control.
Bonnie MacEvoy, a new deportation scam is now operating out of an airport south of Phoenix,AZ:
On Monday, 5/12, deportations on three ✈️✈️✈️ Boeing 787-800 jets have begun flights out of Mesa Airport (AZA) south of Phoenix, Arizona.
Locals in Mesa, AZ noticed some 'ICE' building up on the wings of AVELO AIRLINES (XP) at the Mesa Airport (AZA) in warm weather.
Locals outed AVELO AIRLINES as the new cross border contractor for HSI specifically the U.S. Government for resumed deportations of humans to other countries. XP confirmed back in April that had signed a contract with Department of Homeland Security but, XP refused to produce a contract copy to the Associated Press on Monday.
The FAA 3 letter code for Avelo is "XP".
Avelo's HQ is at 12 Greenway Place in Houston Texas, The Founder & CEO of Avelo (XP) is ANDREW LONG the former CFO of United Airlines. There New business opportunities in fascism as HRC outlined today.
They have quietly made a place into a detention center in Newark, NJ. No plumbers, electricians. safety inspectors allowed. No permits. private contractors. The black mayor of Newark wanted to check it out along with several state Congress people. He was not allowed in. He argued with them. Standing in a public area, 20 militarily armed ICE goons came out and arrested him for trespassing (on public property) and handcuffed him, brought to jail and then released. MAJOR intimidation.
This happened in the first administration and that time Indivisible was involved. I had forgotten about ADAPT. This has been happening off and on for decades and in many parts of our last century.In terms of disability world in happened in the early seventies and how in some but not all ways the ADA and IDEA were created.
Such pure evil! Don't know how you manage to shovel your way through the daily dump of atrocities, but I am grateful for every letter, chat and podcast you produce. Thanks for your intestinal fortitude and determination to ensure an accurate record of the dastardly actions of the current occupants of the White House.
I said the other day that Dr. Heather had published one of the worst, most horrific news editions in all these years of following her, but I was wrong. Tonight's edition is even more gobsmacking, and I don't even know what else to say. Musk, Medicaid cuts, just smh... millions of Americans will die from losing healthcare and other basic services. And that Musk is as usual lying, and willing to sacrifice the lives of Black Americans and others in pursuit of expanding his AI business, as well as his harvesting of our personal information... I'm out of expletives and pejoratives for him and the FFOTUS regime and all their enablers.
"Musk’s turn from DOGE back to AI is revealing not just in providing evidence that his primary interest all along was not in “waste, fraud, and abuse” but in collecting government data about the American people. It is not likely a coincidence that the administration fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden last Thursday and Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter on Saturday. Both Hayden and Perlmutter have questioned the unauthorized use of copyrighted material to train AI."
Hello JustRaven... Musk bought DJT an Election... DJT gave Musk the Keys to the USG... Now Musk is Raping the USG, and Our Information.... I wonder where Musk will be in 5-Years... Notice how Musk is DJT's Wing-Man in Arabia?... Musk is pitching Tesla Cars, Robots, and AI to the Sheiks... Elon Musk is not Altruistic....
Hopefully on Mars. Or anywhere….just…not HERE. He is a loathsome, sick in the head, racist, neo-Nazi psychopath villain from the depths of hell. These people, all of them, are the worst of humanity. We need a reckoning; we need justice: all of these fascist, lowlife, sleazy monsters need a comeuppance. I’m so tired of feeling mentally raped by their evil.
SpaceX is requesting to increase the number of launches from Cape Canaveral from 50 to 120! This is a major concern for the shrimping,fishing industries and environmental groups as the launch site is on the coast and adjacent to a national wildlife preserve.
The airline pilots union is also fighting the request as SpaceX launches are major disruptors to flight plans.
The comment period to the FAA is restricted to May 13-15, probably by design.Anyone can comment anonymously!⬇️
I am working on the recompete of a contract that does environmental assessments of FAA commercial space launches. Wouldn’t you know it, the RFP has been tied up for months and the current contract will run out in September. Feels like Musk is just running out the clock.
Of course he’s raping Memphis black community—he’s a product of South Africa and apartheid. But Trump let into fhe country the first batch of white S Africans (who are being oppressed) yesterday.
MLM, I heard on the news yesterday that it was the first arrivals of what will eventually be 500 South Africans who are being persecuted -- these are right wingers, conservative Christians who wish to see apartheid return. So they are being welcomed here, while we ship Afganis who aided us in the war back to the Taliban (as well as their children who have spent some of their formative years in American schools and culture), and frightened Central and South Americans back to their previous existence of gamg violence. Not to mention those with student visas who dare to speak out.
Hello, Apache ... James Fell opened yesterday's Substack with this:
"Eloquent quotes tend to find their way to more famous mouths and are often altered in the process. You’ve likely read ‘I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure’ and seen it attributed to Mark Twain. The original quote did not arise until more than two decades after Twain’s death, and reads ‘I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.’ It was written by Clarence Darrow, the lawyer who defended John Scopes for teaching evolution back in 1925."
Fell went on to make the good point that DJT doesn't need to be martyred, but a stroke would be an excellent means to his end.
Elon Musk, however, does not enjoy the canonization and reverence accorded by MAGA to Donald. I don't think it matters where Elon is in 5 years, as long as it's at least six feet below grade, as a result of severe lead poisoning.
I can attest without doubt that the f*cker holds a First Class ticket entitling him to skip the lines and greeters and go directly to his destination. He won't need to pack any clothing because it's plenty warm where he's headed. (Seeing him naked is the eternal torment reserved for the other residents.)
Thanks Dale... That is how I 'Read' DJT's End.... I question Elon Musk's Loyalty to the USA... This is his 3rd Country.... I suspect that Musk will 'Slash & Burn', and then move on... The UAE?... Russia?...
Apache ... I think the population of UAE, though wealthy, is too small for Elon to exploit. He has a cozy relationship with the Russian oligarchs, but I suspect the climate is too chilly for a pasty white South Afrikan. China, however, has a huge population and a burgeoning digital infrastructure, just ripe for the picking. There's plenty of meat on those Chinese bones for Elon to devour.
Apache, do you remember that news item from somewhere around June or so last year, which showed Musk's plane at the airport in Palm Beach while the felon was down there? I think we know what they were up to: planning the takeover of America for power and profit.
That last paragraph you quoted is what got me today as well. I commented on another forum that there was no freaking way that the Librarian of Congress was letting children check out "inappropriate books", that LoC was not a "lending library". I had not heard about Perlmutter, but I have several friends of published material (both fiction and nonfiction, one of whom posts here regularly) whose material has ended up in AI's clutches.
This is what these cuts that Trump’s wants could look like. My brother suffered a traumatic brain injury on a construction site. He is on SSI. After my parents died, it took us well over five years to get him into HUD senior housing, ( now it would take 7 years). It took us several years to find appropriate medical insurance that combines both Medicare and Medicaid benefits, (not enough dental benefits for someone who needs extractions and dentures however), and the copays are high, which makes juggling his finances difficult. Our youngest sibling is his conservator and handles his finances. If his benefits are cut, both housing and Medicaid, he is on the streets. And our situation is minor compared to so many others who are dealing with much worse disabilities and lack of housing and I count our blessing that all of us have worked together to make sure that he is taken care of. There are so many others who are not so fortunate in having supportive families to navigate the often confusing aspect of getting these benefits. In the richest country in the world we are unable to take care of the poorest and downtrodden because the richest among us need a tax cut. It is obscene and immoral.
These erosions of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are heart-wrenching. Actions we can take:
The Attorneys General of Arizona, Michigan, and California have each set up a hotline for collecting individual's stories of issues with Social Security--possibly to build lawsuits. For anyone in the other 47 states, please relay your stories to your AG with a request that they also set up such a hotline.
Call your Senators and Congressperson, especially if they are a Republican. If they are a Democrat, ask what they are doing to pressure their Republican counterparts to keep Hands Off Social Security. They need to hear from their constituents with even a brief message.
For those of us who are able, keep showing up at local rallies with your simple sign, HANDS OFF SOCIAL SECURITY! For rallies near you, check Indivisible:
At present, the biggest headache for House Speaker Mike Johnson is that a group of Republicans from blue states are big mad that the [budget] bill does not substantially increase the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT. The tax scam that Republicans passed in 2017, during Trump’s first administration, capped the SALT deduction at $10,000, which effectively amounted to a tax increase for taxpayers who had higher incomes and pay high property taxes.
I printed a "HANDS OFF SOCIAL SECURITY" sign and placed it in my window. I HAVE had a few people inquire "what's that all about?" so I highly suggest others do so as well. ESPECIALLY if TRUMP flags remain hanging on your block. (if that isn't the sign of a brainwashed cult member, I don't know what is!!)
Meaning, I assume, Miselle, that many people are completely unaware of the Republican/MAGA/Project 2025 threat to Social Security. Well, it's not directly on the chopping block now, but it soon could be.
Ellie, my sign says "Hands Off EVERYTHING!!!". I plan to bring either that one or my NO KINGS sign (that made the local newspaper in April) to the June 14 rally.
Carol, I'm so sorry for your brother's situation and applaud you and your family for supporting and advocating for him. You mention the cause of his injury was a construction accident. OSHA, which provides safety regulations for workplaces, is also under attack by Trump and Musk. Without those protective regulations, many others may experience workplace injuries and/or death.
My God, prayers for your family. I am blessed, too, because my family all helps each other and friends too. We all pay taxes in the hope it will help our fellow Americans, citizens or not, and my God, we have such talented doctors, nurses, workers who want to help people. How can this ogre Musk rat be anything here! Damn it, king ago, my husband worked for USaid. It kills me that it has been sabotaged. Can we charge Musk with murder?
Carol S. I am so sorry for your families struggles, I believe you can judge a country by how it treats its most vulnerable. We had achieved greater strides toward this until Regan started using the term”welfare queens”, exhibiting and terrible lack of empathy, and implying fraud where there was none resulting in shifting funds to the 1% who did not need them.
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan cut spending for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, and allowed states to require welfare recipients to participate in workfare programs. There are so many on Medicaid who simply cannot work. do we really want to be a country that lacks the ability to care for it’s own?
The top 10 happiest countries, based on the 2025 World Happiness Report, are Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway, Israel, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Australia.
These countries tend to have governments that prioritize democracy, social safety nets, and a strong welfare state. These governments often offer universal healthcare, robust social programs, and high levels of social support, contributing to a sense of security and well-being among citizens. Additionally, these nations often demonstrate low levels of corruption, high levels of trust in government, and strong public services.
In 1970, I was lucky enough to work for Buckminster Fuller, among other things, he was able to demonstrate that there were no real food shortages, just distribution problems. He coined the term “spaceship Earth” which is where we all live, We are living in a time of wars with the threat of nuclear annihilation, possible extinction of our species due to global pollution, decreased diversity, and climate change which are all manmade, Maybe this will be our end, or maybe this is the wake-up call to coordinate together, as a species for the common good of Life on this rare and beautiful planet,
We need to all contact the DNC and demand that they put forth an agenda with a 50 year plan to match the programs of these other countries, I for one would love to have trust in my government because it is prioritizing democracy, social safety nets, a strong welfare state, and universal healthcare for the common good instead of one supporting a tech oligarchy, We each need to ask ourselves, what is my personal character and what do we want the character of this country to be?
If Musk took data, it is illegal and he has no immunity. Statute of Limitations is 6 years from the last act in furtherance of the crime and/or conspiracy. Revoke his naturalization and send him to CECOT? Leavenworth will do.
Yes, why is nobody screaming about Republicans importing voters? The picture I saw had lots of small children. I also read that many of those Afrikaners don’t want to come here. Who could blame them?
Remember the X-files TV series motto - "The truth is out there."
Apparently Grok has a strong aversion to lying and instead relies on the facts to determine it's answers to questions. As a result, Grok disagrees with Elon much of the time.
In other words, Grok is a progressive while Musk is a far-right criminal.
It's going to be difficult to reprogram the Project 2025 Fascist theocratic mentality into Grok without dumping misinformation and disinformation into it's database.
My thought exactly. And make his cell a tour stop on the Alcatraz tour.
I think Vonnegut outlines this scenario well in Slaughterhouse 5. Hopefully, they have loaded all of Vonnegut's novels as well as Asimov's into Grok's database.
More appropriate and affordable might be to have Musk and Trump as cell mates in the same cell where former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (who was also charged with attempted extortion), served his sentence, namely the Englewood Federal Correctional Institution in Littleton, Colorado.
"...Known mainly as ADX, this prison is among the most protected prisons globally and one of the most estranging ones. The cells are made out of concrete with solid steel doors, furnished with built-in showers and automatic chutes that open over private concrete.
The structure is built in a way that inhabitants never see a guard or another prisoner, less a visitor. ADX inmates are often assigned to the facility after having killed inmates or officers..."
Then there is the Alcatraz of the south.
"...Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola, LA)
Louisiana State Penitentiary is the most massive maximum-security prison in the country, with a 5,000 inmate population. It is recognized as the Alcatraz of the South. The facility is notorious for comprehensive violence and inmate exploitation.
The facility has also been reported as “deliberately indifferent” to inmates. The American Bar Association described the conditions inside were in an emergency state, which explains the belief that once you go into Angola, there is less possibility that you will come out.
There is also reported history of sexual slavery in early 1960. Built back in the 19th Century, Angola prison was set up to hold many of the South’s most disreputable inmates. Riots are regular here, with the last one being in 1999 where six inmates held corrections officers hostage..."
Alcatraz never had anywhere near 5,000 inmates! It is relatively small and situated on a tiny island in San Francisco Bay. It was for particularly notorious criminals, I believe.
The corruption of the ape man fat man in the White House goes beyond gargantuan.
It matches the lies emanating from the pig face non-stop. Explains the constancy of all the sycophants teetering in their spinelessness to keep sucking up to the corruption.
Our tell on them? Not their lies. Not their corruption. Not his criminal convictions. No – the abstractions. These, our demented (U.S. and abroad) live totally in the group categories really bad schools and cowardly media all erect around their human emptiness, around all their inability to detect or in any way feel any individual pain from anyone human.
I think to the days as a boy when I belonged to the Roman Catholic church, learned Latin, believed goodness larger than evil. I’d now laugh at myself then except another American Catholic boy, Robert Prevost, has become Pope Leo. And this one decent man so far outshines all the corrupt dictators our convicted fat orange felon makes his business to cozy up to, as if they could together seal up all their mass murder, corruption, lies, and banal emptiness.
What goes through the blank space between Bullshit Barbie's ears when she says the Librarian of Congress was fired because she was handing out copies of "Heather Has Two Mommies" to random children? Did any reporter laugh out loud, point out the obvious, that children do not roam the halls of the Library of Congress, that that's not what the Library of Congress does? Did anybody ask Leavitt -- do YOU know what the Library of Congress even does?
I feel like I'm living in an insane asylum. When reporters are fed distracting bulllshit on a stick, why don't the guardians of the fourth estate PUSH BACK, and ask them 'what's the REAL reason you did this?'
The lessons of the Holocaust and our ghastly, bloody 20th century are clear: it's not the fanatics and the thin layer of hard-core believers we should fear the most, but their followers, willing executioners and accomplices. There are no such things as 'bystanders' during times of great moral peril, and no one is allowed to say anymore: 'I was just following orders.'
I wonder this EVERY DAY. Every single day. I yell at the TV what I would say back to such a STUPID comment, uttered with such arrogant disdain by this detestable young fascist. I would loudly clap back at Nazi Barbie exactly what you stated, certainly risking losing my job and my access to the briefing room but hey, being a viral sound byte that would become a meme and left with my journalistic integrity and self esteem intact. Everyone is so WEAK. So afraid. Has no one a spine in these circumstances? No one??
Even so, I still hope against hope for the day when someone in that press room finally reaches their limit and lets loose with a expletive-laden rant telling Lyin' Leavitt exactly what most of the press corp thinks of her and her nonsensical, contemptuous, bs filled responses. I could even suggest a few apt terms for use; ones that I rarely use or condone others using, but that are so very appropriate here. And I would happily start or contribute to a GoFundMe to support said journalist after the fact.
Now, time to step away from the keyboard and embrace all that is good and pure in this world, aka my Golden Retrievers. Stay safe everyone.
We all need to stand up and resist. Keep calling and writing your legislators. Attend your local Democratic committee meetings and protests. Be persistent. The midterm elections are going to be very important this year. Vote!
Well said. Fear those who follow, who suck up the lies and disinformation with glee, and who will look at you with a straight face (as has happened to me) and say "not ALL <fill in your marginalized group here; for me it is LGBTQ+>; you're a "normal" lesbian. Its those radicals that force their lifestyle on others."
"why don't the guardians of the fourth estate PUSH BACK, and ask them 'what's the REAL reason you did this?'" They now have their right wing plants mixed among the real journalists, and select these shills to ask the preferred questions that flatter and prep for the fluff to come.
Recently read that he has a brother that we hear little of, a right wing nut. Amazing how siblings grow straight or bent. The influences are undercurrents from very early, so says the fourth child of eight.
Louis Prevost has said vile and false things about the former speaker and her husband husband on Xitter. The tape was a doctored video and Paul Pelosi got a skull fracture when the Q nut attacked him. The MAGAs lie about everything.
The only thing you can trust Trump to be honest about are his express desire to break the law and engage in unconstitutional behavior. Congress and the Senate are abdicating their duties. Prevost wound up taking down his postings.
Right there with you, Phil. We’ve learned by now that every stupid thing coming out of that mouth of his is pure projection. Remember shit hole countries from the first go-round? Well, we’re there. His very own shit hole country, and I really really hate to say that. But the millions who still think all of this is just swell point us in that direction. If, a very big if, the midterm elections actually take place next year and the cult maintains its majority in Congress, then we’ll know for sure.
If Dems also equipped themselves with references to novels, memoirs, histories, films, songs, and other arts well in touch with people, they would show themselves as more decently passionate, caring.
But they've no humanities. Just out of touch wonks gluttonous for money.
Decreasing revenue while increasing spending (Homeland Security) is a recipe for fiscal disaster.
Having a playbook is focusing the normally unfocused Trump on goals. Courts are ruling against most of these actions while congressional Republicans sit on their hands.
That comment about the head librarian at the Library of Congress was startling. DEI is a poor excuse that any thinking American should dismiss.
Yesterday Kristy "the dog killer" Noem revoked the refugee status of the Afghan citizens that assisted the US during the stupid 20 year Afghan war. She said that it is safe now for them to return, even the children.
I had a very odd nightmare last night about the United States’ descent into authoritarian violence and corruption. Oddly, Russell Vought was the prime villain. I woke shaking my head because I really haven’t seen much coverage of him. Now he seems to be ”it” in the darkening corridors of the White House, being tagged by Musk to keep the DOGE menace sucking the soul out of the Federal government.
I seem to be having nightmares EVERY NIGHT, which used to be very infrequent. Living in the present is most definitely hazardous to our health. FETUSES SHOULD BE TOLD TO BE BIRN AT THEIR OWN RISK!!
It has never been about waste, fraud and abuse. That is just a red herring tossed out by looters. It is always about the money, and money is power. Allowing more pollution means they make more money. Allowing the looting of copywrite material means they make more money. Disrupting poor communities means they make more money. We let thieves run the government, they make more money. Going to Saudi Arabia makes more money. They, the present toxic administration and its accompanying billionaires and lowly multi-millionaires, only care about money and power so they can make more.
You’re right. It stuns me that people who have billions are not content that that is enough; they must pillage our nation to get more more more for themselves. It’s pathological.
I think the Christians among them and their Republican enablers better hope that they are wrong about the existence of God, heaven, and hell. For all their public piety, I’m pretty sure there isn’t a place in heaven for them.
The star spangled stupidity of the people who voted for this crap is dragging us all down a dark path.
Some infographics and maps to visualize Republican cuts to Medicaid:
We mapped how many people there are in every congressional district that rely on Medicaid using data from The Center for American Progress. How old are they? How many live below the poverty line? How many have no other form of insurance? And who their Congressional rep is and how to call them with one click. Hold them accountable for their votes to cut Medicaid! https://thedemlabs.org/2025/04/30/republican-chainsaw-massacre-of-medicaid-to-give-tax-cuts-to-billionaires/
Elise has no shame gene ! First she was supposed to be the US Delegate to the United Nations, then she was supposed to stay in Saratoga Springs to protect her very safe House seat, then that idiot Mike Walz became the UN Delegate instead of her and she decided she might like to be governor of NY. She, after years of being the MAGA shill, thought she should have a place in the Cabinet from the get go ! She is the perfect example of Trump’s perfidy. Among others.
I would like to know --- when Miss Bullshit Barbie stands behind that podium and dribbles out vapid, insulting nonsense like she did about 'children' being exposed to 'inappropriate books' at the Library of Congress....
Did ANY reporter call her out for the obvious --- and pathetic --- lie? Laugh out loud? Point out the obvious --- children don't roam the halls of the Library of Congress? The Librarian and the head of the Copyright Office have nothing whatever to do with "DEI" --- other than both of them are Black? So the nonsense you're giving us, Ms. Krishchun Mouthpiece, is just that? What's the REAL reason they were fired? Was the one-sentence letter received by the head of the Copyright Office ghost-written by AI?
In 2019, Karoline Leavitt was a paid Qatari Government agent, receiving over $100k yearly for her services to the Emirate. Was it just a koinkidink that this former foreign agent assured us we have absolutely nothing to fear from that gold-plated Qatari 747-800 being given to Trump -- you know the one that violates the Emoluments Clause, that will no doubt to be littered with wee little listening devices, bugs and microphones everywhere?
I feel like I'm living in an insane asylum. Why do reporters shove microphones in front of these nimrods without pushing back on their obvious bullshit?
I think it was Pam Bondi, not Leavitt, and it was a whopping $115k per MONTH. Leavitt was only 22 in 2019. And Bondi is the person who determined the legality of this Trojan Horse oops I mean bribe oops I mean gift.
With the firehose of scandal and bullshit turned on us, it's inevitable that we occasionally get the facts confused. Pam Bondi was on the Qatari payroll, not Bullshit Barbie.
In the Wikipedia entry, I learned that Leavitt's hubby is 32 years her senior. Apparently, she has an affinity to elderly men. I think the popular term is "daddy issues."
The Republicans are following the Project 2025 plans for the Federal Budget. Speaker Johnson is in the Christian National fold (a Dominion - 7 Mountains), JD Vance is Peter Thiel’s Frankenstein. Musk figured out how to make Project 2025 work for Elon and bought/financed the Election for Trump. Then there are the Russians/ Putin who want to destroy the US from the inside and rebuild the old Soviet Union.
Where are the American people in all these clamoring interests? Where is the Constitution as it is written - not a Project 2025 version?
The same place the ACTUAL JESUS CHRIST is the false christianity they are peddling with Project 2025.
Republicans are so busy trying to fulfill the demands of the billionaires, and Project 2025 including funding a national religion that they forgot the
CONSTITUTION they swore an oath to uphold and defend.
The President can’t even remember if he is supposed to follow it - btw - we have been here before with Reagan 2.0 - Congress and the Judiciary are supposed to step in to uphold the Constitution,
If these so-called Christians slash funding for SNAP, Medicaid, Housing Assistance, HeadStart, Meals on Wheels, Cancer Research etc.
And finally the hammer falls. Do MAGats think we are as selfish as they are to take help away from people who need it to enrich the middle class? Donnie Two Dolls will go down in history as the grifter president and the Republican Party as spineless fools.
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." - Lincoln
That giant sucking sound is our money and data and tax dollars funneling into the pockets of Trump, Musk and their cronies. Keep talking with everyone you know about the corruption that’s betraying all of us.
MAGAts love the sound of being screwed for our future and their children’s future, not to mention animals and Mother Earth. National insanity
It is also a big national shame.Cutting food and health programs so that already obscenely rich people can have $even$ more is morally obscene.The wealthy are, indeed, trying to destroy our country and much of the world along with it too. It saddens me and makes me angry.
This is an old old tactic used in the south and mother cities as well. African American farms were taken. It was one of the issues Mary McCloud Bethune and Mrs Roosevelt were trying to handle and it was dicey with the New Deal.
Environmental degradation always takes place in lower socio economic areas. Take one highway such as say I 90 and its creation and the battles fought for where the highway was placed. The history of discrimination there if one decides to dig. And many had no idea of the scale of what was going on. So many of the environmental groups and people came from an elite status abd helped change but they were blind to others needs in that area. And the silenced ones who had to endure the destruction of their environment really were silenced by several layers of isms. So no voice or voices were heard,
Notice how the Interstate Highway System placed routes through Black, Hispanic, and poor neighbor hoods. I have.
Musk and other billionaires might consider SNAP and Medicaid to be superfluous, but hungry children, people with disabilities and in nursing homes, plus rural hospitals, healthcare businesses and facilities consider these programs essential. Elon Musk doesn’t have enough social awareness to fill up a thimble, but he’s been making decisions impacting such cuts. His grandiose ideas call for more massive spending that even he can afford, so he wants the government to fund his ideas, and to hell with everybody and everything else.
Even when engaged in involuntary anal intercourse with their beloved Orange Emperor, they will still wave their MAGA flags and keep shouting: "We owned the libs!"
You know us well, or at least how Rush and Rupert changed so much about this country. There was a time when I could be proud, flawed but with purpose and compassion. We sort of knew that “There, but for the grace of God, go us. And the Golden Rule hadn’t been mocked and discarded. Nazi redux…
Then they came even for the rights of MAGAs. Follow the money.
The Civil War killed roughly 2% of the nation's population of the era. How many who fought to the death for slavery reaped any material benefit from it? Who did?
Follow the money.
Sob….
Speaking of Murdoc, I think his media is banned in Australia. I could be wrong, though.
I think so too, also UK. Ronnie welcomed him with an agenda
That all depends on Who is wearing the diaper.
Yikes, Kirk. That remark causes some really disturbing images in my head...
Wow, Dutch- Are you thinking such crassness makes your argument stronger? Not likely.
Did you read JDinTX's response? "My MAGAt bro won’t watch the news anymore. Doesn’t want to know what chump is doing. "
The image I painted is nowhere near crass enough to describe this galactic level of denial, stupidity, and willful head-stuck-up-in-own-ass ignorance.
Tell him, need a whole new vocabulary of adjectives, but you get it. Some don’t
You're right. The current language available doesn't suffice to describe it. We'll have to invent new words for that...
And they don't even know it. They are so blinded by their devotion to trump.
My MAGAt bro won’t watch the news anymore. Doesn’t want to know what chump is doing. Hard for me to watch too, because I do know what he is doing.
JDinTX, We don't watch the news anymore either. Now the death star folks are running an ad during the local news blaming Biden and the Ds and telling people how wonderful what they are doing is. Puke. I can mute it, but I do not even want to see it. Nearly every day I give thanks, despite the aches and pains, that I am as old as I am with no direct descendants. I wake up listening to bird song and then allclassical in Portland. The yard is full of various things blooming or starting to, so I enjoy that.
I’m glad to be old too. But my grand girls will feel the effects of their war on women. They are not MAGAts but they have no idea how their lives will change. They are cute, blond and young, so far but no protection these days. They are what Golden Rule girls should be but that is dangerous these days. I just watch weather on local, anything going on in Texas is unbearable for me. Rupert’s Fox has metastasized so that propaganda is spewed 24/7 by most all outlets. Brains are “cultified,” overwhelmed, or disconnected from reality. Bodes poorly for all…
I do feel bad for younger people and yes, the lives of women will change back to being chattel I am afraid. We watch weather too and like to know what is going on in Portland. After that, we switch to a streamed series.
I really feel sorry for your grand girls, JD... :(
I get DAILY DOSE OF DEMOOCRACY in my in-box every day, Generally, 6-8 items and the last one has wit. Yesterday there was picture of Air Force 1. It was warped with a Trogen Horse at the front end of the “flying palace.” Trump will get his way – same as taking ever the Kennedy Center. I just do not understand the stupidity of congressional republicans. But I go back to a famous quote by Napoleon – “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap!”
Sadly, it isn't just congressional republicans; add democrats and independents. Stir it well, and you have a big pot of self-serving to be served among themselves. For the rest of us, we can go pick shit with the chickens, except for election times; then it's a feast of empty promises
I stopped watching commercial TV in the run up to W's Iraq War and started getting news from a variety of seemingly vettable sources, such as The Guardian. I found it (especially in that set of circumstances) more demonstrably accurate and ahead of the curve.
Indeed….. a very very serious observation written “out loud”…..
It is probably making his head spin. Give him an ass burn for his headache.
From 2020:
"On Saturday, South Dakota nurse Jodi Doering had a night off and decided to tweet about what she was seeing as her state. Doering’s tweets were about COVID-19 patients who are literally dying from contracting the virus but still do not believe that the virus is real, or that they have it. She explained how sad and frustrating it was to watch people in such angry denial, furious that this hoax was being perpetrated on them, only to 'stop yelling at you when they get intubated. It’s like a fucking horror movie that never ends.' "
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/11/16/1996206/-South-Dakota-nurse-talks-about-dying-patients-who-still-believe-COVID-19-is-a-hoax
I know the commercial you are talking about. It runs on our local stations several times a day. It makes me so mad - why doesn't someone (Democrats) run a rebuttal commercial?
Read about how people are living with those giant data mining companies as neighbors. People have got to be very careful now about new development coming into their communities.
Sure would be a shame if something were to happen to those 35 methane-powered generators.
It is insane (what the MAGATs want), but I think that it is more stupid than insane.
They are not mutually exclusive
Yeah, Linda, the grift that keeps on giving….
Corruption is now the heart and soul of the "GOP". It's in everything they say and do. And people want that because.....
MAGA:
Mobsters
Are
Governing
America
Thanks! That's gonna make a great protest sign! (May I use it?)
In response -
Make
America
GOOD
Again
I'll remember that one! Mobsters Are Governing America.
Say what you want about trump, every corrupt, illegal, and inhuman act is out in the open. Republicans stand idly by while Democrats are uncertain which act is the most heinous. Does it matter? He and everyone of his team must go to Quantanamo.
I agree with the first part of your statement, but disagree that US citizens belong in Cuba.
I'd be okay with Alcatraz, just as it is.
🤣
I always favor his exile to a small island in the South Atlantic Ocean, with no Internet. That would be St. Helena, where Napoleon spent his last years.
Alcatraz is in so much disrepair that no one wants it..
Guantanamo is not part of Cuba..It is a part and parcel of the USA on the island of Cuba and under the control of the USA.
Only thing, George, it’s like playing Whack-a-Mole…he floods the zone with crap & it’s hard to deal with ALL of it at once. I’m pretty sure there would be much more significant “action” if the Dems had more control in the House/Senate AND/OR if the Repubs had any cojones to do the right thing (issues even they acknowledge in private).
Must keep snorkle on!
Empirically out in the open, shrouded in Orwellian lies and intimidation.
"Not to love the Fuhrer is a big disgrace"
to own the libs of course...
I read somewhere, Terry, that with Trump’s economy they can’t own the Libs, only rent them….🤣
This can’t be said enough between now and the November 2026 midterm election: The magic numbers for a supermajority in the U.S. House is 290 and in the Senate it is 67! In the House it should/could be possible; in the Senate, it requires a miracle.
everyone needs to contact the DNC and demand that they run a candidate in every race and provide a supportive network like republicans do for candidates, Many people in “red” states would vote for someone else of there was a Democratic choice on the ticket with a message of supporting laws for the common good of the people. Democrats were AFRAID of putting money and effort into races that they didn’t think they could win!?!?!? In many elections, there was no one there to challenge or fact check the lies being spewed by hate mongering fear inducing voices. Democrats are very culpable by not being present and challenging the take over of the Confederate thinking minority that the tech bros are using to get in power.
This is exactly what Jess Piper and Blue Missouri are fighting for - a Democrat on every ballot - especially in rural areas.
Gail, yes I love the work of Jess Piper, I wish David Hogg and the DNC would listen to this very wise woman, Have yiu contacted the DNC or d
David Hogg and let them know you agree with Jess? I have and I think we all should, it can’t hurt,
Anyone who has worked in politics over the last 50+ years knows that this is NOT necessarily a good idea. Putting a candidate on every ballot is a way to spend a LOT of money on races you have virtually no chance of winning. There are 7 serious swing states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada) and a handful of swing seats in Congress and a few in the Senate. Beyond that, most districts in Congress are pretty close to pre-determined, with party majorities (either Democrat or GOP) that make it virtually impossible for the opposing party to win. While money is not necessarily in short supply especially at the national level, parties do best to focus most of their money and effort on the seats that are in serious contention.
All of this could change with a new approach to redistricting which will happen again in 2030, but until then (for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections) we need to face the electoral realities that exist.
I see unopposed on ballots in Texas for most races.
The DNC is busy fighting to get rid of the 2 new, young members who are ready to fight for us. The dinosaurs are unhappy with them and are trying to redo the elections. 😡
Cheryl, so tired of the DNC. We give directly to candidates. Just saw yesterday that Omaha elected a D black mayor.
Kemp has said he wouldn't run against Ostoff. I hope that this isa good sign.
I think he wants to run for Senate
Yes and Republicans are working really hard to get rid of that blue dot in their state.
The young member’s (members’ — although I thought that there was only one) intent is well meaning — however, their timing of this is a bit off!
Young people can’t afford to sit around and wait for good timing. They have to push forward and force the change. No one from the old guard will ever give them a chance. This is why our country is so messed up.
Totally agree…too often — much too often — the Democrats find a way of shooting themselves [ourselves] in the foot or in some way crippling ourselves and failing at one of our major intents: Winning races!!!
Well, running candidates in EVERY race is a sure path to shooting yourself in the foot. Putting money into races that are virtually impossible to win is political idiocy. Money needs to be focused on the races where Democrats can win.
Perhaps their donors are looking forward to cuts in their taxes and the regulations that reduce their profits? Who’s funding which Democrats?
Running candidates in "every" district is a fool's errand. It costs money, lots of money, to run for any national office and there are simply places that a Democrat can't win. Investing money in those races is throwing good money, which can better be spent in the races where winning is possible, down the drain. Yes, there are some races which will be close enough that sorry could change the outcome but those are relatively few, maybe 20-30 seats in Congress and 5-8 seats in the Senate. Anyone who thinks a super majority for the Dems in EITHER house is even CLOSE is smoking far better weed than I ever got in my lifetime.
Brilliant Linda. I have questions though; Not for you per se, but ruminations addressed to the democrat party honcho’s.
Does it really take a supermajority? The Rs have 220 House members to the Ds 213, and that hasn't stopped them from handing the entire country over to Donald Trump. Flip four seats, leadership changes, and the Republicans should be as powerless as the Democrats are today.
Find a few districts with a Republican representative and buyer's remorse. Pour a small fortune into recall campaigns, and flip the House right now.
We can't afford to wait till January 2027 for new leadership to be sworn in. The damage is already considerable, and these people are just getting started. Democrats must get a toehold of power in Washington soon, so Republicans don't call all the shots for the next 20 months.
Recall elections, now.
Recall elections are expensive and rarely successful. This is political naïveté. I think in 2026 elections, there is a good chance that the House can be returned to Dem control by a small majority. Off-year elections for Congress favor the party that doesn't hold the White House. In the Senate, in 2026, there are 21 GOP seats up for grabs with only 12 Dem seats being elected. So taking back the Senate, while NOT simple, is at least possible.
But recall elections are a waste of money and energy. First, they aren't even permitted in many states (including more GOP states than Dem states because the GOP has always tried to put rigid restrictions on elections in their states). And recall elections are difficult to motivate people to vote. It costs a LOT of money for each vote. There is only 16 months to the 2026 elections. Most recall elections take at least 6 months to get signatures and then 4-6 more months to hold an election. That is so close to the next elections, that I think this is a complete waste of time and money.
Focus on 2026. That is where we need to focus.
Thanks for the analysis. I figured after floating this idea on several forums that I was missing something, and I readily admit to being politically naiive.
But it's hard to believe there aren't enough places where a recall could have some chance of succeeding, and the cost seems small in comparison to the cost of repairing the damage caused in even a few additional months of unchecked Trumpism.
Plus, it seems at least possible that the Project 2025 Republicans have a plan up their sleeve to nullify the results of future elections - do they really think the country will not take the first chance to vote them out of office and stop the increasingly obvious destruction, and would they not be prepared to respond if that happened? A threat of losing the House prematurely might throw them off balance.
If it's too expensive and unlikely to succeed, then 2026 it is. But it seems worth the discussion, at least.
It may be naïveté on my part, but when I see posts like this:
https://open.substack.com/pub/thomhartmann/p/the-final-checkmate-republicans-move-7a2?r=874j7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
it makes me think that waiting 20 months may be about a year and a half too long.
You can think whatever you like but waiting is the only option you have. I don't mean waiting silently, of course we should continue to pressure the Congress critters in our districts and states and keep raising our voices as that will keep public attention on the problem.
But fantasizing that there is something that can be DONE to change this before the next election. Is just that. Fantasy. Impeachment isn't even close to an option given the current balance of power in Congress. And there are no other options for changing the administration legally.
Sure, you can say we need a revolt, but that has less chance for success than a snowball in hell. And ANY illegal action is likely to so more harm than good, and has limited if any chance of success.
It's going to be tough for 18 months, that's true, but I
don't see any other viable option in a country like ours.
You can think whatever you like but waiting is the only option you have. I don't mean waiting silently, of course we should continue to pressure the Congress critters in our districts and states and keep raising our voices as that will keep public attention on the problem.
But fantasizing that there is something that can be DONE to change this before the next election. Is just that. Fantasy. Impeachment isn't even close to an option given the current balance of power in Congress. And there are no other options for changing the administration legally.
Sure, you can say we need a revolt, but that has less chance for success than a snowball in hell. And ANY illegal action is likely to so more harm than good, and has limited if any chance of success.
It's going to be tough for 18 months, that's true, but I
don't see any other viable option in a country like ours.
Surely Dems have a few bucks on their/our side…. Times a wasting…
That assumes there will be a vote. I think anyone who believes there will be a vote is delusional.
There will almost certainly be a vote. There are votes in Russia, too.
And we know just how fair their votes are!!!
A vote that is not predetermined. Anybody who thinks chump won fair and square is delusional.
Actually I think it is hardly possible in either house. The Dems would have to go from a 219-216 DISadvantage to 290-145 advantage, i.e., a gain of 71 seats. I don't see any universe where that is even REMOTELY possible. I think the Democrats will do well to regain the majority in the House, possibly even get up to 30 more seats, thereby taking a 245-190 majority. That would be a HUGE victory in 2026 if it actually happens. As for the Senate, you are quite right, that will take a miracle. They might even have a hard time getting to even although the numbers are good for that.
Excellent point Linda, every one of us should be an unafraid and coherent megaphone.
When you cut healthcare people don’t go to the doctor for small ailments because they can’t afford the $300 office visits or any of the tests. Then the illness becomes massive requiring emergency care, massive hospitalizations and money that in the end taxpayers pay. Instead they could have paid a negotiated office visits of $50 payments, $5 in medications and had a healthier society. These same people become massively disabled and are unable to work increasing the population of people needing assistance. I’m sure Republicans just think they should be left to die but the real Christians, Jews and other religious believers don’t feel that way. Starving children grow up to be a drain on our society instead of productive members. Studies show children don’t learn when they’re hungry.
But let’s bedazzle the White House in more garish gold garbage and add some of those crystal chandeliers DonOLD so admires. Let’s dump more methane in the air to poison people faster. Let’s keep arresting the people who protest where they shouldn’t to distract from the devastation as we rush along to turning this into a world class shithole country.
Plow the Rose Garden under and build a ballroom. The guy can't even dance. The videos I have seen of him dancing when he was younger-he looked like a 16 year old who is standing there. Irony for you: he's dancing with the Village People, a band created to appeal to the gay community. I wonder if he knew that? Google Zelinsky-a Dancing with the Stars winner.
Aw, but wisdom is work...
Just let "Flawless" (or was that "lawless"?) "Leader" "FIx It".
Pres. Trump and the Congressional Republicans want to continue giving massive tax breaks to the wealthy while cutting Medicaid and other programs for ordinary Americans. In his first term, Trump's tax cut left us with an additional $8.2 trillion debt, a record. The new tax bill will add $4 trillion to the national debt. Why does the national debt matter? To the 900,000 people in the United States who have a net worth of more than $10 million and the 902 billionaires, it makes no difference. But, if you are 30, 40, 50 or 60, it is devastating. It will be your responsibility to pay the interest on this debt, to say nothing about the principal.
The U.S. population is now 340 million. So, what percentage of the population do these proposed tax cuts benefit? It is 1/4 of 1%, i.e., 0.24%. How many Americans are shafted by this tax bill? 339,000,000, or 99.76%.
If the U.S. population were only 3.4 million people, there wouldn't be any billionaires and perhaps very few with a net worth of $10 million. But, we are a nation of 340 million people and because of us, we have almost one million very wealthy people. They owe us. They wouldn't be, couldn't be, wealthy without us. So, what to do? Vote the Republicans out of office. Reinstall the New Deal
…and sadly — it is all being done out in the open. This “idiot-in-chief” has made Nixon’s words true: When the president does it — it is not illegal”.
Yet Nixon was in a need of a crony pardon in order to get a way with it. $COTUS "fixed it" for Trump.
Well, when Nixon was in office, the Supreme Court was WAY more like the court of history. Even with a Chief Justice who was conservative, the SCOTUS of 1974 was pretty traditional and still apparently believed in the rule of law. This SCOTUS has gone so far off the tracks that it is hard to even recognize anymore.
"Linda H Perot" 🙂, I agree completely. Your post is, sincerely, so smart and true I'm (almost) speechless! 😶
"Republican lawmakers are gambling that voters will be willing to lose services ( = Their health care) in exchange for putting Trump’s agenda (= Making Trump, Musk and other billionaires get more mony they do not need.) into law." Why do Republicans are interested in achieving this national crime? For Christian law makers, please read the gospel by Luke and learn their life after death which is the sure future of all including Trump and Musk and Republican lawmakers.
Yup - doesnt it seem like time to ask our "representatives" in Congress & the Senate how much THEIR "benefits" will be cut in order to save us all?
Not just Republicans!!!!!!
The corruption is supported by a great many people. Go to amazon.com and type in Joe Biden books to see the number of hate books advertised by amazon on Mr. Biden. He sounds like the worst president of all time, just as Mr. Trump describes him. What does this mean?
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=joe+biden+books&crid=EXHVHZWGN9DR&sprefix=%2Caps%2C133&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_1_0_recent
Suddenly people are being arrested because something is against the law? Almost a refreshing concept. Let's widen the target audience to include this administration.
Make Crime Shameful Again
Milk and Gut America :MAGA
Make Lies Great Again.....GOP motto
Wishing that I could triple or quadruple ‘like’ that notion JL.
Ah, but who has the cojones to actually arrest Trump et al? I (as an Aussie) am totally gobsmacked at the apparent passive acceptance of this situation - I'm even more amazed, that in Amerika, the home of n guns (where n is a very large number) -there have been no shootings related to all this (and it's not only the right wingers who have guns). Surely there will be the Saravejo moment....
Good comment. Guns seem to be used only against the innocent and vulnerable here in our country. As far as some group or individual using force to hold Trump and his cronies to account. Well those are the ones supporting Trump. And if some group took up arms as did our forefathers of the American Revolution, well if they are successful, we Liberals would arrest and hang them. By the way love Jim Jeffries bit on gun control.
We are gobsmacked too. I hope someday Congress remembers to add consequences to those Constitutional laws.
Bonnie MacEvoy, a new deportation scam is now operating out of an airport south of Phoenix,AZ:
On Monday, 5/12, deportations on three ✈️✈️✈️ Boeing 787-800 jets have begun flights out of Mesa Airport (AZA) south of Phoenix, Arizona.
Locals in Mesa, AZ noticed some 'ICE' building up on the wings of AVELO AIRLINES (XP) at the Mesa Airport (AZA) in warm weather.
Locals outed AVELO AIRLINES as the new cross border contractor for HSI specifically the U.S. Government for resumed deportations of humans to other countries. XP confirmed back in April that had signed a contract with Department of Homeland Security but, XP refused to produce a contract copy to the Associated Press on Monday.
The FAA 3 letter code for Avelo is "XP".
Avelo's HQ is at 12 Greenway Place in Houston Texas, The Founder & CEO of Avelo (XP) is ANDREW LONG the former CFO of United Airlines. There New business opportunities in fascism as HRC outlined today.
STOP body snatching by Avelo or any one else!
They have quietly made a place into a detention center in Newark, NJ. No plumbers, electricians. safety inspectors allowed. No permits. private contractors. The black mayor of Newark wanted to check it out along with several state Congress people. He was not allowed in. He argued with them. Standing in a public area, 20 militarily armed ICE goons came out and arrested him for trespassing (on public property) and handcuffed him, brought to jail and then released. MAJOR intimidation.
Good context Karen & 'Good Trouble'.
Thanks, Counselor. I think.
Absolutely disgusting.
The "ICE" Freedom of Information Telephone number just rings busy.
"ICE" is part of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS). I will try banging on the front door at ICE-FOIA@dhs.gov.
After all their motto is "Enhancing the Health & Well Being of All Americans".
My health is good ... I just need my well being enhanced. I don't want to see an Avelo - Steve Miller 1 year contract for body snatching.
A HUGE A M E N TO THAT!!!
This happened in the first administration and that time Indivisible was involved. I had forgotten about ADAPT. This has been happening off and on for decades and in many parts of our last century.In terms of disability world in happened in the early seventies and how in some but not all ways the ADA and IDEA were created.
Such pure evil! Don't know how you manage to shovel your way through the daily dump of atrocities, but I am grateful for every letter, chat and podcast you produce. Thanks for your intestinal fortitude and determination to ensure an accurate record of the dastardly actions of the current occupants of the White House.
Brilliantly put!
I said the other day that Dr. Heather had published one of the worst, most horrific news editions in all these years of following her, but I was wrong. Tonight's edition is even more gobsmacking, and I don't even know what else to say. Musk, Medicaid cuts, just smh... millions of Americans will die from losing healthcare and other basic services. And that Musk is as usual lying, and willing to sacrifice the lives of Black Americans and others in pursuit of expanding his AI business, as well as his harvesting of our personal information... I'm out of expletives and pejoratives for him and the FFOTUS regime and all their enablers.
"Musk’s turn from DOGE back to AI is revealing not just in providing evidence that his primary interest all along was not in “waste, fraud, and abuse” but in collecting government data about the American people. It is not likely a coincidence that the administration fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden last Thursday and Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter on Saturday. Both Hayden and Perlmutter have questioned the unauthorized use of copyrighted material to train AI."
Hello JustRaven... Musk bought DJT an Election... DJT gave Musk the Keys to the USG... Now Musk is Raping the USG, and Our Information.... I wonder where Musk will be in 5-Years... Notice how Musk is DJT's Wing-Man in Arabia?... Musk is pitching Tesla Cars, Robots, and AI to the Sheiks... Elon Musk is not Altruistic....
Hopefully on Mars. Or anywhere….just…not HERE. He is a loathsome, sick in the head, racist, neo-Nazi psychopath villain from the depths of hell. These people, all of them, are the worst of humanity. We need a reckoning; we need justice: all of these fascist, lowlife, sleazy monsters need a comeuppance. I’m so tired of feeling mentally raped by their evil.
Help us fight against Elon in Florida !🚀
SpaceX is requesting to increase the number of launches from Cape Canaveral from 50 to 120! This is a major concern for the shrimping,fishing industries and environmental groups as the launch site is on the coast and adjacent to a national wildlife preserve.
The airline pilots union is also fighting the request as SpaceX launches are major disruptors to flight plans.
The comment period to the FAA is restricted to May 13-15, probably by design.Anyone can comment anonymously!⬇️
https://www.regulations.gov/document/FAA-2025-0114-0001
SpaceX wants to launch more rockets — a lot more — from Florida’s Space Coast
https://www.yahoo.com/news/spacex-wants-launch-more-rockets-141046973.html
I am working on the recompete of a contract that does environmental assessments of FAA commercial space launches. Wouldn’t you know it, the RFP has been tied up for months and the current contract will run out in September. Feels like Musk is just running out the clock.
Just submitted a comment, thanks for the link.
I have three professional pilots in my family; two commercial and one freight. They hate what SpaceX does.
Kathy, thank you for the link. Comment submitted.
Just submitted my comment as I feel very strongly about this issue. Thanks for the info, Kathy.
Of course he’s raping Memphis black community—he’s a product of South Africa and apartheid. But Trump let into fhe country the first batch of white S Africans (who are being oppressed) yesterday.
MLM, I heard on the news yesterday that it was the first arrivals of what will eventually be 500 South Africans who are being persecuted -- these are right wingers, conservative Christians who wish to see apartheid return. So they are being welcomed here, while we ship Afganis who aided us in the war back to the Taliban (as well as their children who have spent some of their formative years in American schools and culture), and frightened Central and South Americans back to their previous existence of gamg violence. Not to mention those with student visas who dare to speak out.
His plan is to inhabit Mars because he knows he is destroying Earth.
Linda, let's send him! He and the trump crime family can have their own planet.
Why should they bother to pack and go, when they already own this planet?
Mars is too good for him and the Trump family. Send them on to Jupiter, Saturn, or Uranus.
WOW Jessie…. You have written how I feel…. A sad Thank YOU….
Wonder if he has wondered that. I vote for Mars, but unlikely. Hell would be better.
He’s already in hell. He’s just too unconscious/un-woke to realize it!
Or us.
Preferably on a spacecraft to Mars - with a one way ticket.
Hello, Apache ... James Fell opened yesterday's Substack with this:
"Eloquent quotes tend to find their way to more famous mouths and are often altered in the process. You’ve likely read ‘I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure’ and seen it attributed to Mark Twain. The original quote did not arise until more than two decades after Twain’s death, and reads ‘I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.’ It was written by Clarence Darrow, the lawyer who defended John Scopes for teaching evolution back in 1925."
Fell went on to make the good point that DJT doesn't need to be martyred, but a stroke would be an excellent means to his end.
Elon Musk, however, does not enjoy the canonization and reverence accorded by MAGA to Donald. I don't think it matters where Elon is in 5 years, as long as it's at least six feet below grade, as a result of severe lead poisoning.
https://jamesfell.substack.com/p/when-he-dies
I have had a bottle of champagne chilling for 7 years that I will open (and drink all of) the day that f*cker meets Jesus.
I can attest without doubt that the f*cker holds a First Class ticket entitling him to skip the lines and greeters and go directly to his destination. He won't need to pack any clothing because it's plenty warm where he's headed. (Seeing him naked is the eternal torment reserved for the other residents.)
Thanks Dale... That is how I 'Read' DJT's End.... I question Elon Musk's Loyalty to the USA... This is his 3rd Country.... I suspect that Musk will 'Slash & Burn', and then move on... The UAE?... Russia?...
Apache ... I think the population of UAE, though wealthy, is too small for Elon to exploit. He has a cozy relationship with the Russian oligarchs, but I suspect the climate is too chilly for a pasty white South Afrikan. China, however, has a huge population and a burgeoning digital infrastructure, just ripe for the picking. There's plenty of meat on those Chinese bones for Elon to devour.
Apache, do you remember that news item from somewhere around June or so last year, which showed Musk's plane at the airport in Palm Beach while the felon was down there? I think we know what they were up to: planning the takeover of America for power and profit.
Mars Apache?
Mars?... Only if Musk completely pilfers the USG for his Trillion$ 'Joy-Ride' with his 'Legion'...
Absolute Power corrupts absolutely.
So true; thank you, Lord Acton!
That last paragraph you quoted is what got me today as well. I commented on another forum that there was no freaking way that the Librarian of Congress was letting children check out "inappropriate books", that LoC was not a "lending library". I had not heard about Perlmutter, but I have several friends of published material (both fiction and nonfiction, one of whom posts here regularly) whose material has ended up in AI's clutches.
She’s so freaking dumb and is never afraid to open her mouth and show it. Honestly, where do they find these people?
Just Raven: agreed completely!!!
This is what these cuts that Trump’s wants could look like. My brother suffered a traumatic brain injury on a construction site. He is on SSI. After my parents died, it took us well over five years to get him into HUD senior housing, ( now it would take 7 years). It took us several years to find appropriate medical insurance that combines both Medicare and Medicaid benefits, (not enough dental benefits for someone who needs extractions and dentures however), and the copays are high, which makes juggling his finances difficult. Our youngest sibling is his conservator and handles his finances. If his benefits are cut, both housing and Medicaid, he is on the streets. And our situation is minor compared to so many others who are dealing with much worse disabilities and lack of housing and I count our blessing that all of us have worked together to make sure that he is taken care of. There are so many others who are not so fortunate in having supportive families to navigate the often confusing aspect of getting these benefits. In the richest country in the world we are unable to take care of the poorest and downtrodden because the richest among us need a tax cut. It is obscene and immoral.
These erosions of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are heart-wrenching. Actions we can take:
The Attorneys General of Arizona, Michigan, and California have each set up a hotline for collecting individual's stories of issues with Social Security--possibly to build lawsuits. For anyone in the other 47 states, please relay your stories to your AG with a request that they also set up such a hotline.
Call your Senators and Congressperson, especially if they are a Republican. If they are a Democrat, ask what they are doing to pressure their Republican counterparts to keep Hands Off Social Security. They need to hear from their constituents with even a brief message.
For those of us who are able, keep showing up at local rallies with your simple sign, HANDS OFF SOCIAL SECURITY! For rallies near you, check Indivisible:
https://indivisible.org/
From Daily Kos:
At present, the biggest headache for House Speaker Mike Johnson is that a group of Republicans from blue states are big mad that the [budget] bill does not substantially increase the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT. The tax scam that Republicans passed in 2017, during Trump’s first administration, capped the SALT deduction at $10,000, which effectively amounted to a tax increase for taxpayers who had higher incomes and pay high property taxes.
We only need a few using the Jerry Weiss scenario. https://jerryweiss.substack.com/
If they can't pass a budget, the tax cuts expire at the end of the year.
"Sen. Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, said the bill makes unacceptable cuts to Medicaid that he said would be “politically suicidal” for the GOP.
"And Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin are mad that the bill adds to the deficit and raises the debt ceiling."
Strange to see Senator Hawley on the right side of any issue!
I printed a "HANDS OFF SOCIAL SECURITY" sign and placed it in my window. I HAVE had a few people inquire "what's that all about?" so I highly suggest others do so as well. ESPECIALLY if TRUMP flags remain hanging on your block. (if that isn't the sign of a brainwashed cult member, I don't know what is!!)
Meaning, I assume, Miselle, that many people are completely unaware of the Republican/MAGA/Project 2025 threat to Social Security. Well, it's not directly on the chopping block now, but it soon could be.
Bingo
Ellie, my sign says "Hands Off EVERYTHING!!!". I plan to bring either that one or my NO KINGS sign (that made the local newspaper in April) to the June 14 rally.
The suffering will be catastrophic while the band plays on and the rich dance on the graves they have consigned us to.
Carol, I'm so sorry for your brother's situation and applaud you and your family for supporting and advocating for him. You mention the cause of his injury was a construction accident. OSHA, which provides safety regulations for workplaces, is also under attack by Trump and Musk. Without those protective regulations, many others may experience workplace injuries and/or death.
My God, prayers for your family. I am blessed, too, because my family all helps each other and friends too. We all pay taxes in the hope it will help our fellow Americans, citizens or not, and my God, we have such talented doctors, nurses, workers who want to help people. How can this ogre Musk rat be anything here! Damn it, king ago, my husband worked for USaid. It kills me that it has been sabotaged. Can we charge Musk with murder?
Carol S. I am so sorry for your families struggles, I believe you can judge a country by how it treats its most vulnerable. We had achieved greater strides toward this until Regan started using the term”welfare queens”, exhibiting and terrible lack of empathy, and implying fraud where there was none resulting in shifting funds to the 1% who did not need them.
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan cut spending for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, and allowed states to require welfare recipients to participate in workfare programs. There are so many on Medicaid who simply cannot work. do we really want to be a country that lacks the ability to care for it’s own?
The top 10 happiest countries, based on the 2025 World Happiness Report, are Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway, Israel, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Australia.
These countries tend to have governments that prioritize democracy, social safety nets, and a strong welfare state. These governments often offer universal healthcare, robust social programs, and high levels of social support, contributing to a sense of security and well-being among citizens. Additionally, these nations often demonstrate low levels of corruption, high levels of trust in government, and strong public services.
In 1970, I was lucky enough to work for Buckminster Fuller, among other things, he was able to demonstrate that there were no real food shortages, just distribution problems. He coined the term “spaceship Earth” which is where we all live, We are living in a time of wars with the threat of nuclear annihilation, possible extinction of our species due to global pollution, decreased diversity, and climate change which are all manmade, Maybe this will be our end, or maybe this is the wake-up call to coordinate together, as a species for the common good of Life on this rare and beautiful planet,
We need to all contact the DNC and demand that they put forth an agenda with a 50 year plan to match the programs of these other countries, I for one would love to have trust in my government because it is prioritizing democracy, social safety nets, a strong welfare state, and universal healthcare for the common good instead of one supporting a tech oligarchy, We each need to ask ourselves, what is my personal character and what do we want the character of this country to be?
Completely agree.
If Musk took data, it is illegal and he has no immunity. Statute of Limitations is 6 years from the last act in furtherance of the crime and/or conspiracy. Revoke his naturalization and send him to CECOT? Leavenworth will do.
White South African? But he'd be in the next planeload being resettled in one of ten States. Perhaps all ten of them - lots of children, I believe.
Indeed, he is teaching another generation of crooks, legal crooks that is.
Yes, why is nobody screaming about Republicans importing voters? The picture I saw had lots of small children. I also read that many of those Afrikaners don’t want to come here. Who could blame them?
Perhaps Liberia would be a better choice than El Salvador.
Remember the X-files TV series motto - "The truth is out there."
Apparently Grok has a strong aversion to lying and instead relies on the facts to determine it's answers to questions. As a result, Grok disagrees with Elon much of the time.
In other words, Grok is a progressive while Musk is a far-right criminal.
It's going to be difficult to reprogram the Project 2025 Fascist theocratic mentality into Grok without dumping misinformation and disinformation into it's database.
Great historical perspectives discussion this morning on Stay Tuned with Preet Bharara Heather and Joanne Freeman at https://staytuned.substack.com/p/live-with-preet-bharara
I can imagine the trouble Grok will have with the gaslighted history in Project 1776 and the basis for Project 2025
I just happened to tune in to that live yesterday. HCR is amazing.
I like to read her face while she absorbs and processes what's being said.
I watched it too. Agree.
I'm sure they'll manage.
Dust off a cell in Alcatraz.
My thought exactly. And make his cell a tour stop on the Alcatraz tour.
I think Vonnegut outlines this scenario well in Slaughterhouse 5. Hopefully, they have loaded all of Vonnegut's novels as well as Asimov's into Grok's database.
More appropriate and affordable might be to have Musk and Trump as cell mates in the same cell where former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (who was also charged with attempted extortion), served his sentence, namely the Englewood Federal Correctional Institution in Littleton, Colorado.
I vote for CECOT!!
We do have a few other candidate prisons like, United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility (Florence, CO). See https://usabynumbers.com/worst-prisons-in-the-us/
"...Known mainly as ADX, this prison is among the most protected prisons globally and one of the most estranging ones. The cells are made out of concrete with solid steel doors, furnished with built-in showers and automatic chutes that open over private concrete.
The structure is built in a way that inhabitants never see a guard or another prisoner, less a visitor. ADX inmates are often assigned to the facility after having killed inmates or officers..."
Then there is the Alcatraz of the south.
"...Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola, LA)
Louisiana State Penitentiary is the most massive maximum-security prison in the country, with a 5,000 inmate population. It is recognized as the Alcatraz of the South. The facility is notorious for comprehensive violence and inmate exploitation.
The facility has also been reported as “deliberately indifferent” to inmates. The American Bar Association described the conditions inside were in an emergency state, which explains the belief that once you go into Angola, there is less possibility that you will come out.
There is also reported history of sexual slavery in early 1960. Built back in the 19th Century, Angola prison was set up to hold many of the South’s most disreputable inmates. Riots are regular here, with the last one being in 1999 where six inmates held corrections officers hostage..."
Alcatraz never had anywhere near 5,000 inmates! It is relatively small and situated on a tiny island in San Francisco Bay. It was for particularly notorious criminals, I believe.
The corruption of the ape man fat man in the White House goes beyond gargantuan.
It matches the lies emanating from the pig face non-stop. Explains the constancy of all the sycophants teetering in their spinelessness to keep sucking up to the corruption.
Our tell on them? Not their lies. Not their corruption. Not his criminal convictions. No – the abstractions. These, our demented (U.S. and abroad) live totally in the group categories really bad schools and cowardly media all erect around their human emptiness, around all their inability to detect or in any way feel any individual pain from anyone human.
I think to the days as a boy when I belonged to the Roman Catholic church, learned Latin, believed goodness larger than evil. I’d now laugh at myself then except another American Catholic boy, Robert Prevost, has become Pope Leo. And this one decent man so far outshines all the corrupt dictators our convicted fat orange felon makes his business to cozy up to, as if they could together seal up all their mass murder, corruption, lies, and banal emptiness.
Empty spineless suits indeed.
What goes through the blank space between Bullshit Barbie's ears when she says the Librarian of Congress was fired because she was handing out copies of "Heather Has Two Mommies" to random children? Did any reporter laugh out loud, point out the obvious, that children do not roam the halls of the Library of Congress, that that's not what the Library of Congress does? Did anybody ask Leavitt -- do YOU know what the Library of Congress even does?
I feel like I'm living in an insane asylum. When reporters are fed distracting bulllshit on a stick, why don't the guardians of the fourth estate PUSH BACK, and ask them 'what's the REAL reason you did this?'
The lessons of the Holocaust and our ghastly, bloody 20th century are clear: it's not the fanatics and the thin layer of hard-core believers we should fear the most, but their followers, willing executioners and accomplices. There are no such things as 'bystanders' during times of great moral peril, and no one is allowed to say anymore: 'I was just following orders.'
I wonder this EVERY DAY. Every single day. I yell at the TV what I would say back to such a STUPID comment, uttered with such arrogant disdain by this detestable young fascist. I would loudly clap back at Nazi Barbie exactly what you stated, certainly risking losing my job and my access to the briefing room but hey, being a viral sound byte that would become a meme and left with my journalistic integrity and self esteem intact. Everyone is so WEAK. So afraid. Has no one a spine in these circumstances? No one??
I agree completely -- the press needs to push back and push back more. I suspect they're afraid they'll be thrown out and denied access.
Some of the most apt contempt I've seen has come from Lawrence O'Donnell on the Washington press in the White House press room.
They love "access," which is some bastard form of English for suck-up.
I agree. I watch his show without fail. His contempt for Trump oozes out of my TV.
Well said. Lawrence speaks with the knowledge base he has, and his contempt is well founded.
It has been said with reason that their viewed as stenographers to the people in power and all too often it’s true.
Even so, I still hope against hope for the day when someone in that press room finally reaches their limit and lets loose with a expletive-laden rant telling Lyin' Leavitt exactly what most of the press corp thinks of her and her nonsensical, contemptuous, bs filled responses. I could even suggest a few apt terms for use; ones that I rarely use or condone others using, but that are so very appropriate here. And I would happily start or contribute to a GoFundMe to support said journalist after the fact.
Now, time to step away from the keyboard and embrace all that is good and pure in this world, aka my Golden Retrievers. Stay safe everyone.
The Library of Congress statement was so surreal I had to think Leavitt was trolling us.
Imagine the number of people that actually believed her.
We all need to stand up and resist. Keep calling and writing your legislators. Attend your local Democratic committee meetings and protests. Be persistent. The midterm elections are going to be very important this year. Vote!
Well said. Fear those who follow, who suck up the lies and disinformation with glee, and who will look at you with a straight face (as has happened to me) and say "not ALL <fill in your marginalized group here; for me it is LGBTQ+>; you're a "normal" lesbian. Its those radicals that force their lifestyle on others."
"why don't the guardians of the fourth estate PUSH BACK, and ask them 'what's the REAL reason you did this?'" They now have their right wing plants mixed among the real journalists, and select these shills to ask the preferred questions that flatter and prep for the fluff to come.
Recently read that he has a brother that we hear little of, a right wing nut. Amazing how siblings grow straight or bent. The influences are undercurrents from very early, so says the fourth child of eight.
Louis Prevost has said vile and false things about the former speaker and her husband husband on Xitter. The tape was a doctored video and Paul Pelosi got a skull fracture when the Q nut attacked him. The MAGAs lie about everything.
Lying seems to be their MO and way of life!
The only thing you can trust Trump to be honest about are his express desire to break the law and engage in unconstitutional behavior. Congress and the Senate are abdicating their duties. Prevost wound up taking down his postings.
Right there with you, Phil. We’ve learned by now that every stupid thing coming out of that mouth of his is pure projection. Remember shit hole countries from the first go-round? Well, we’re there. His very own shit hole country, and I really really hate to say that. But the millions who still think all of this is just swell point us in that direction. If, a very big if, the midterm elections actually take place next year and the cult maintains its majority in Congress, then we’ll know for sure.
If Dems have any humanity at all, John, they could have some accompanying humanities.
If not, they'll keep living on in their "theory" world of abstractions, formula-speak, clichés, and wonk generalities.
And their forever-world of messages only dunning for money, money, money.
Yes! My email and text apps are constantly full of Democratic Party requests for money. Annoying.
That, in and of itself, Alan, wouldn't be so bad.
If Dems also equipped themselves with references to novels, memoirs, histories, films, songs, and other arts well in touch with people, they would show themselves as more decently passionate, caring.
But they've no humanities. Just out of touch wonks gluttonous for money.
Prevost.
I'd meant to do a search to confirm his family name, Anne-Louise. But didn't.
So thank you. Such a decent man, it was the least I could have done to have gotten his name right.
Autocorrect knows better. /s
I’m hopeful Pope Leo (his choice of name is significant) can have a positive effect on our brokenness, which is abundant.
Decreasing revenue while increasing spending (Homeland Security) is a recipe for fiscal disaster.
Having a playbook is focusing the normally unfocused Trump on goals. Courts are ruling against most of these actions while congressional Republicans sit on their hands.
That comment about the head librarian at the Library of Congress was startling. DEI is a poor excuse that any thinking American should dismiss.
Each new revelation is less startling and more blood-chilling.
"Decreasing revenue while increasing spending (Homeland Security) is a recipe for fiscal disaster."
Yet also the modern Republican Modus Operandi.
Yesterday Kristy "the dog killer" Noem revoked the refugee status of the Afghan citizens that assisted the US during the stupid 20 year Afghan war. She said that it is safe now for them to return, even the children.
Even Goebbel's wasn't this cruel.
And yet the group of white Afrikaners are given refugee status?
Because they complained they were being monetarily persecuted. Wait until they see how monetarily abused they are here.
They will be welcomed at the Church of Elon.
Both check the boxes for a malicious sociopath.
I had a very odd nightmare last night about the United States’ descent into authoritarian violence and corruption. Oddly, Russell Vought was the prime villain. I woke shaking my head because I really haven’t seen much coverage of him. Now he seems to be ”it” in the darkening corridors of the White House, being tagged by Musk to keep the DOGE menace sucking the soul out of the Federal government.
Vought has been a prime mover, in the shadows, like the Picture of Dorian Gray. Will his increasing exposure be a death knell or an elevation.
I seem to be having nightmares EVERY NIGHT, which used to be very infrequent. Living in the present is most definitely hazardous to our health. FETUSES SHOULD BE TOLD TO BE BIRN AT THEIR OWN RISK!!
I thought my nightmares were bad but this is terrifying.
It has never been about waste, fraud and abuse. That is just a red herring tossed out by looters. It is always about the money, and money is power. Allowing more pollution means they make more money. Allowing the looting of copywrite material means they make more money. Disrupting poor communities means they make more money. We let thieves run the government, they make more money. Going to Saudi Arabia makes more money. They, the present toxic administration and its accompanying billionaires and lowly multi-millionaires, only care about money and power so they can make more.
You’re right. It stuns me that people who have billions are not content that that is enough; they must pillage our nation to get more more more for themselves. It’s pathological.
I think the Christians among them and their Republican enablers better hope that they are wrong about the existence of God, heaven, and hell. For all their public piety, I’m pretty sure there isn’t a place in heaven for them.
The star spangled stupidity of the people who voted for this crap is dragging us all down a dark path.
All of our grousing, disgust, etc. THEY DON’T CARE. We are nothing to them. Serfs.
Some infographics and maps to visualize Republican cuts to Medicaid:
We mapped how many people there are in every congressional district that rely on Medicaid using data from The Center for American Progress. How old are they? How many live below the poverty line? How many have no other form of insurance? And who their Congressional rep is and how to call them with one click. Hold them accountable for their votes to cut Medicaid! https://thedemlabs.org/2025/04/30/republican-chainsaw-massacre-of-medicaid-to-give-tax-cuts-to-billionaires/
Follow the Republican scheme to deny you Medicaid by adding bogus requirements https://thedemlabs.org/2025/04/29/follow-the-republican-scheme-to-deny-you-medicaid-with-bogus-requirements-and-paperwork/
American Genocide: Mapping the Republican scheme to eliminate poor, disabled seniors by cutting Medicaid https://thedemlabs.org/2025/04/10/american-genocide-mapping-the-republican-scheme-to-eliminate-poor-disabled-seniors-by-cutting-medicaid/
Which 26 Republican Districts will suffer the most from MEDICAID being slashed? Check this map. https://thedemlabs.org/2025/02/28/26-republican-districts-to-suffer-most-from-medicaid-cuts-map/
How to bird-dog MAGA reps to hold them accountable for stealing your Federal benefits to give tax cuts to billionaires https://thedemlabs.org/2025/01/28/how-to-bird-dog-maga-reps-for-stealing-your-federal-benefits-medicaid-food-stamps/
Trump suck-up Elise Stefanik represents one of the 26 Republican districts that will suffer the most from cuts to Medicaid. Shame on her.
Elise has no shame gene ! First she was supposed to be the US Delegate to the United Nations, then she was supposed to stay in Saratoga Springs to protect her very safe House seat, then that idiot Mike Walz became the UN Delegate instead of her and she decided she might like to be governor of NY. She, after years of being the MAGA shill, thought she should have a place in the Cabinet from the get go ! She is the perfect example of Trump’s perfidy. Among others.
Give her a call and encourage others too as well.
https://callyourrep.glide.page/dl/d0a5f4
How very appropriate that Elon Musk named his AI super computer “Colossus”.
Back in 1970 a science fiction movie, “Colossus: , The Forbin Project”, told of an AI super computer which took over the world and subjugated mankind.
Probably why Elon chose the name.
Betcha muskrat knows about it and thinks that he can be the master of it. His ego is as toxic as any Colossus
He had to steal that too. The only name he can come up with is X. He has never created anything original in his entire life.
I would like to know --- when Miss Bullshit Barbie stands behind that podium and dribbles out vapid, insulting nonsense like she did about 'children' being exposed to 'inappropriate books' at the Library of Congress....
Did ANY reporter call her out for the obvious --- and pathetic --- lie? Laugh out loud? Point out the obvious --- children don't roam the halls of the Library of Congress? The Librarian and the head of the Copyright Office have nothing whatever to do with "DEI" --- other than both of them are Black? So the nonsense you're giving us, Ms. Krishchun Mouthpiece, is just that? What's the REAL reason they were fired? Was the one-sentence letter received by the head of the Copyright Office ghost-written by AI?
In 2019, Karoline Leavitt was a paid Qatari Government agent, receiving over $100k yearly for her services to the Emirate. Was it just a koinkidink that this former foreign agent assured us we have absolutely nothing to fear from that gold-plated Qatari 747-800 being given to Trump -- you know the one that violates the Emoluments Clause, that will no doubt to be littered with wee little listening devices, bugs and microphones everywhere?
I feel like I'm living in an insane asylum. Why do reporters shove microphones in front of these nimrods without pushing back on their obvious bullshit?
I think it was Pam Bondi, not Leavitt, and it was a whopping $115k per MONTH. Leavitt was only 22 in 2019. And Bondi is the person who determined the legality of this Trojan Horse oops I mean bribe oops I mean gift.
OH. Bullshit Bondi, rather than Bullshit Barbie....I get all these dumb blondes confused sometimes. Apologies! 🙏
It’s so hard to keep all the bullshitters straight!
Don't you mean grift? :)
All the things!
I have seen reports that Pam Bondi was a lobbyist for Qatar, but no such reports about Leavitt. Do you have a source for Leavitt's ties to Qatar?
With the firehose of scandal and bullshit turned on us, it's inevitable that we occasionally get the facts confused. Pam Bondi was on the Qatari payroll, not Bullshit Barbie.
In the Wikipedia entry, I learned that Leavitt's hubby is 32 years her senior. Apparently, she has an affinity to elderly men. I think the popular term is "daddy issues."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karoline_Leavitt
Both Karoline Leavitt and Pam Bondi were paid by Qatar? If so, how many others in the regime?
If the reporters push back with the truth, they’re not invited back. Soon, pushing back with the truth will result to a one-way ticket to CECOT.
Well, this is certainly disturbing. I expected this was the path Musk was on, but didn't realize how far down the road he was..
The Republicans are following the Project 2025 plans for the Federal Budget. Speaker Johnson is in the Christian National fold (a Dominion - 7 Mountains), JD Vance is Peter Thiel’s Frankenstein. Musk figured out how to make Project 2025 work for Elon and bought/financed the Election for Trump. Then there are the Russians/ Putin who want to destroy the US from the inside and rebuild the old Soviet Union.
Where are the American people in all these clamoring interests? Where is the Constitution as it is written - not a Project 2025 version?
The same place the ACTUAL JESUS CHRIST is the false christianity they are peddling with Project 2025.
Republicans are so busy trying to fulfill the demands of the billionaires, and Project 2025 including funding a national religion that they forgot the
CONSTITUTION they swore an oath to uphold and defend.
The President can’t even remember if he is supposed to follow it - btw - we have been here before with Reagan 2.0 - Congress and the Judiciary are supposed to step in to uphold the Constitution,
If these so-called Christians slash funding for SNAP, Medicaid, Housing Assistance, HeadStart, Meals on Wheels, Cancer Research etc.
Then they certainly ARE NOT CHRISTIANS!!!!
Seven Mountain Mandate. Read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Mountain_Mandate
Now if I could just put all that great summary on one protest sign.
And finally the hammer falls. Do MAGats think we are as selfish as they are to take help away from people who need it to enrich the middle class? Donnie Two Dolls will go down in history as the grifter president and the Republican Party as spineless fools.
It's strange how some of the wealthiest people in the world want to really stick it to the poor.
I wake up thinking that exact thing, J L
Enrich the middle class? I spit out my coffee on that one. Pure pablum, and a sound bite that will be the next talking point. Is no one asking How?
Yes.
And what have we to replace them - whether conservative OR liberal?
Integrity?
And decency J L
Joe McCarthy sociopathy gone epidemic.
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." - Lincoln
Zip, at present
You can add the Democratic Party, with some exceptions to that definition Gigi.