In a follow-up story to last night’s information about the Trump family’s cryptocurrency corruption, MacKenzie Sigalos of CNBC reported today that 58 crypto wallets have made more than $10 million each on Trump’s meme coin, gathering a total of $1.1 billion in profits.
Folks. There are, of course, many I would miss. They larger point is this. We need to continually be aware of building a media infrastructure that changes the narrative in this Country. The media did not inform the public of the Biden Administrations' work, nor did it present an accurate view of Kamala Harris. Voters were duped. Now we all suffer.
Barbara, I've been saying this all along. Even now, they're still at it, talking about the "conspiracy" of hiding Biden's "infirmity," and totally ignoring the enormous number of meaningful accomplishments that they never bothered to report on. That the entire spectrum of media is giving the current clown show a pass, while allowing trump to boast about his accomplishments and take credit when stocks rise after he tanked the market but continues to claim that Harris blew it during her campaign, is so infuriating.
Yes, the wealthy bought up the media outlets and spewed their propaganda, lulling the mostly religious and sometimes under-educated folks into voting against their own best economic and social interests. Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" [2004] Heather Cox Richardson, "How the South Won the Civil War." [2020] Mostly the oligarchs used wedge issues: abortion, women and gay rights, immigrants, homophobia, etc. Hate is a common denominator among the common MAGA folks.
Why/how, one wonders, can 70+ million people vote for such a flawed, despicable, malignant and cruel narcissist as Donald Trump? I anticipate a scholarly treatment soon on the shallowness of genuine Christianity in 21st century America. Trump is the proof.
We are dealing with a dearth of critical thinking skills among the MAGA folks. Along with a huge dose of racism. In my view, genuine Christianity is largely dead here in the U.S. Matthew Ch. 25's admonitions fall on deaf ears and blind eyes.
However, as Bernie Sanders said right after the election, the Democratic Party has left the lower middle class and working class over at least the last 30 years and so they are fair game for the lying overtures of the Republican Party. As long as too many in the Democratic Party continue to follow neoliberal policies and ideology, I suspect it is doomed to be as realistically irrelevant to a great many voters as the Republicans are to those who look past their lies. I am old enough (83) to remember a party which stood for the poor and for the working people. That party started losing its way in the late ‘60s and went even more astray in the ‘90s. Though I have deemed them the lesser evil for those years, if they cannot become more relevant to today’s people and their circumstances, I’m not sure they aren’t just as evil.
Without a doubt, we need a whole lot more Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Bernie makes a mistake, IMO, calling himself a "Democratic Socialist." He's no more a Socialist than I am a Communist. What Bernie is is a Pragmatic Capitalist, as are the Scandinavian countries. [Google Frances Perkins.] The Republicans have a lock on many of the MAGA Christians. Our opening may be the MAGA Republican war on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They (the wealthy and the oligarchs) may have overplayed their hand with their insatiable greed.
You say "the wealthy bought up the media outlets and spewed their propaganda, lulling the mostly religious and sometimes under-educated folks into voting against their own best economic and social interests" like it just happened out of thin air.
Have you ever heard of the Telecommunications Act of 1996?
It's easy to look down our noses at Trump voters and point fingers at Donald Trump as the moment things went off the rails, but that is a dangerous and short-sighted oversimplification. If we are going to get out of this mess we have to understand the weakening of institutions over time that landed us in favor of the Corporate/OnePercent and against the interests of regular working Americans.
With few exceptions Democratic voters have been sound asleep ever since the DLC (If you don't know what that is, that is problematic) teed up Bill Clinton to declare "the era of Big Government is over", kick Unions to the curb and put the Democratic Party SOLIDLY in bed with Wall St., Silicon Valley and Corporate/OnePercent BigDonors in a misguided attempt to win over Republican voters.
I can cite a dozen HUGE astonishing right wing policies signed into law or otherwise supported by Bill Clinton that should have made Democratic voters' heads explode and instead they cheered him on... "He looked so cool on Arsenio playing his sax with his Wayfarers on!" The Democratic Party has been a neoliberal strip mine ever since… Obama… Pelosi… Hillary would have been worse!
I think Democratic voters need to approach the current crisis and where we go from here with a sense of humility and recognition of responsibility for their part in getting us here
Clinton handled the economy better than anyone in the past 55 years, leaving with a surplus in 2001. When Reagan took office in 2001, the national debt was less than $1 trillion. He tripled the national debt and began the war on the Middle Class with his rhetoric and the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The Democrats have failed miserably to put the lie to the Republicans' use of wedge issues to sucker working class people into voting Republican. Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" [2004] and Heather Cox Richardson, "How the South Won the Civil War." [2020] Also, the article in the journal, Critical Sociology [Feb. 2018] entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" Mostly it was their racism and their desire to crush and punish gays, women's rights advocates, minorities, immigrants and more. MAGA is nothing more than 21st century KKK. An excellent read on the KKK in the 20th century is Timothy Egan's book, "A Fever in the Heartland," on the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's.
You are exactly right, we are in a fight for the first amendment, the rule of law, and the truth. These three things are what Trump and his regime fear the most, and will try to silence everyday. I will not comply, and refuse to believe one word of their daily propaganda. I'm pushing back, will you?
I tried to search for Harris' accomplishments as VP after reading an excellent article in the Christian Science Moniter about her trip to Africa- information I hadn't seen anywhere else. I found bits and pieces of her diplomatic work around the world but almost nothing to emphasize the importance of her work as a representative of the US. I'm from the SFBay Area so I am already familiar with her incredible intelligence, work ethic, and moral compass. What an excellent president she would have been. But we have a gilded turdinasuit instead.
There was a website (What Did Joe Biden Do Today?) which gave details and background of that administration’s work. Lots of people don’t think details matter.
A current version (What Did Trump Do Today) is available. A common theme is how little detail there is from him or his spokesperson or cabinet members when they open their mouths.
Great information! I'll add it to the list. Oliver Willis did an amazing job of listing all of the Biden's Administration's work. Sadly no matter how many time I published it year after year it did no good.
I have grown in my skepticism of legacy news - media and journalism. Trust is not there. There are few as principled as Dion Nissenbaum. I agree with your list, added names, and sentiment Barbara. My only concern presently is that it takes a lot of money for a consumer to secure truth in reporting. BTW- I would add Will Bunch.
I was a Steve Schmidt reader. But when he announced that he was now the campaign manager for the basically unknown Dean Phillips in the 2024 Democratic primary, over half of his subscribers left -- including me. We knew that Phillips had no chance against Biden or Harris, and IMO it was just a cynical move on his part for $$$$. I haven't looked back.
I used to subscribe to Robert Hubbell and recommended him as an objective viewer with an optimistic bent. However, his (and his wife's) continued support of Biden's campaign encouraging him not to back down was so odious to me that I will not support him at this time.
Anne Applebaum definitely and excellent!!! Ruth Ben-Ghiat is good. A specialist in fascism, she sees what is happening here from that POV. They are careful not to convey hopelessness.. so far.
I like "Raw Story", as well. Summaries of articles from multiple excellent sources which lead you back to the originals. Under "MeidasTouch", Ron Filipkowski's "Bulletins" are fabulous daily updates. (He spends 14 hrs/column, he told us.)
You are certainly listing many outstanding resources. I read some of the ones you listed -- the great Timothy Snyder -- and Joyce White Vance, as well as the two I mentioned. I realize that I no longer watch the news, and only read "The Guardian" and -- interestingly -- find "The Boston Globe" (recommended to me by someone who reads my very little substack) to be pretty much all I need. I'm going to add a few more outstanding substacks, which most people are not aware of: Olga Lautman's "Unmasking Russia"; "Judd Legum's "Public Notice"; Marc Elias's "Democracy Docket"; "Musk Watch" (also Judd Legum); "The Kiev Independent"; and Dean Blundell (Canadian, superb columnist). I spend two to three hours every day educating myself. I'm sure you do the same.
Thanks. I'll keep adding to the list. We have a unique opportunity to be the truth tellers in our circle of friends and neighbors today. I am fine with the effort needed to educate ourselves and then pass information along to others.
One more (sorry!) D. Earl Stephens, "Enough Already". He was the editor of the military newspaper, "Stars and Stripes" for around 30 years (if I remember correctly). That newspaper was obviously apolitical. "Enough Already" is anything but!
It’s difficult to analyze these things, and I certainly don’t know the answer to why Trump won, but it could just as well have been the faltering of the Democrats’ support for Joe Biden that lent credibility to the Republican narrative about him being too old and mentally unfit.
Meidas Touch does have excellent Bulletins. I support them(even though they do spend a lot of time advertising themselves. But that's ok- it is necessary in our world.)
I just X out those constant "bragging" (it feels like) ceaseless emails. It is Ron Filipkowski's incredible thorough columns that I read faithfully. The podcasts, I just ignore.
Ended up getting weary of him copying (it felt like) Jeff Teidrich's hilarious swear-style. Jeff's is light and makes me laugh. TC, not so much. Quit a month or so ago.
Ally thx for the addl recommendation!. I've already put a list of ALL these folks [via text] into an Email to Self on Substack writers :):) AND at the risk of possible redundancy (had not seen these) will add TWO links
(2) Carnegie has an EU and Russia section ["Carnegie POLITIKA"] worth a scan now and then. TODAY's post is by a journalist with the Russian Dissident Media site MEDUZA.
The URLS -- Carnegie's item by Meduzsa's Andrey Pertsev: "In Russia, Power Horizontals Are Paving the Way for a Power Transition" [sorry for long URL]
I like him too. He's rough and ready, but not necessarily "deep and steady," as, say, HCR, Joyce Vance, and others on the list. Because financial shenanigans are the center of this administration, I like Paul Krugman's economic wisdom.
Thank you Barbara for the list of writers. If I could figure out how to stay awake long enough to read everyone's views these days, I could make a million selling the product!
Amen, brother. I read him every single day and he rightfully obsesses with the MSM’s inane choice of words and topics and their active role in normalizing the tRumpster Fire. The MSM would be reporting on 1939 Germany in terms of its curious proliferation of detention centers, tolerant attitude toward its European neighbors, and skillful negotiation for peace through its rightful annexation of Sudetenland. THIS IS A FUKIN COUP PEOPLE!!!
I read most of them. As well as the erudite submissions from Heather's substack. No magical thinking here.... You are all brilliant, insightful, respectful, positive and supportive. (I hope I didn't leave out any other glowing adjectives.) Sharing anger is sometimes pleasurable. I think I am reaching a moment where I have emptied - maybe exhausted - the English language of the vitriol and enmity toward the Maga movement its conspirators and enablers. Well - their pronouncements are always lies, like believing a flat earth or the existence of the Yeti.
You promise policy, reporters can ask, fairly, well you’ve got this cabinet appointee, you’ve got that agency or department – what specifically are they doing, how in detail are they handling it?
Annoying, reality.
Campaigning, however, can be full-blown entertainment only. The wildest of empty promises. Waddling dancing “YMCA.” Cosplay double-jerking-off two guys simultaneously. More lies in alarmism at immigrants eating all the dogs and cats. More “YMCA.” Sucking-off the mic.
Double annoying, reality, too, because all the persons confirmed for highest office are record-setting in U.S. history for being incompetent, unqualified, without relevant experience, and reckless. Can’t do anything even if they wanted to. And Russell Vought over at OMB is the only one who can actually do anything, and it’s all only Project 2025 that he’s doing.
Plus, the convicted criminal in the White House is only doing what Putin wants done, plus the side deals with Netanyahu and Mohammed bin Salman as necessary to float all the bribes, emoluments, and cyber coin corruption even more flagrant than Clarence’s old-style corruption off his sugar daddy billionaires.
So not so much real fun in office. Except, of course, for how cruelty is fun – shaking down all the elite law firms, universities, and the legacy media and social media mobsters all eager to keep fronting the extortions to play the power games so reserved for all the most humanly empty.
In 15 years, our mostly moribund press has never figured how to report all these inanities. But as Jennifer Rubin points out, being a reporter isn't the same thing as being a stenographer. If Kristen Welker were Mike Wallace of the old 60 Minutes, or even Nancy Pelosi in 2019 looking right at his face, demanding to know why all paths with him end in the Kremlin, he wouldn't be allowed to get away with his idiocies. 'If you don't know you're supposed to follow the Constitution, you've clearly never read it. Have you ever read it? Explain to me what the separation of powers is. If you can't, I'll walk out of this interview now and tell everyone you're nothing but a fraud.'
There are a few around now who could, and probably would, do this. And his framed Declaration of Independence? What is it? Er, it's a declaration of love. I've seen more intellectual content in a Punch and Judy show.
lauriemcf, We need to drop the word intellectual from anything to do with death star. Any number of animals are smarter than he is. I see him as this tumor, just a cancer on the body politic. Would anyone task Rudy G's son with anything at this point. His response to the India/Pakistan makes it sound like sandbox fight. And deals.....while he is bleating other countries are busy making deals and leaving us out. Then we have those in his craven cabinet. Do you remember the cartoon about the inside of Reagan's brain... the brains of these people have ceased to function.
There is also in these times a plethora of current Indian and Pakistan poets and writers to read and another plethora of older and of course British writers on India before and after the division and Independence after World War II. I find because it was on PBS Masterpiece Theater / BBC the Jewl in the Crown a good start in understanding the politics of now. As was UpstairsDownstairs also Masterpiece Theater / BBC way back a beginning understand of social class and femanism. Not today current shows aren’t as great just a lower rung of the current ladder of the arts that now thankfully have such diverse and real voices. I never discount old I just acknowledge their times and frameworks and forgive their errors of the artist tried .
Ah the old Punch and Judy show now put to rest mostly of its patriarchal misogyny but as a kid I never saw it but checking it out oh my yes. It’s history and the puppet history globally is a great give. Shadow puppets of Asia!
Thanks for bring these back in a way and it’s like we are in one of the shows. Kuckla, Fran and Ollie much much better! And without this history the late Jim Henson could have never created the Muppets he needed this base to create all those zany puppets!
I think it is framed and posted on Oval wall as a marketing tool. How much will you pay for this treasure? Probably he sold it already and the one on the walk is a copy... like all the other treasured from the vaults, Every thing is for sale.
You know? Whatever we harp about satisfies us, but he keeps to the stringent, horrible, detailed, monstrous 2025 Playbook. His handlers are smart and no one cares if he’s a moron. They are still getting their way
Oh I so agree. Kristen Welker is the Queen of the Softball follow-up. So many missed opportunities -- we had to stop watching - it was just too annoying and frustrating.
I am so disappointed in Kristen Welker. I was expecting her to be hard hitting ask the questions that need to asked. And not let them off the hook. What Meet The Press has become is fox news ultra light. I can't watch Meet The Press any more.
I would have loved to have seen that-an interviewer walking out on trump because of his stupid answers or his word salad. I heard one interviewer on NPR interviewing a republican official. He gave the same nonanswer to every question. Finally, she said, "Thank you for coming. I hope you will return when you know some answers. "I loved it!
Germany rebuked Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he slammed the country’s intelligence agency for classifying the far-right political party Alternative for Germany a “proven-right wing extremist organization.”
“We have learnt from our history that right-wing extremism needs to be stopped,” Germany’s foreign office wrote on X, in direct reply to Rubio.
AfD, whose staunch supporters include Vice President JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk, was already under surveillance for suspected extremism by Germany’s intelligence services, which on Friday classified the party as a “proven right-wing extremist organization.”
Rubio, who on Friday became the acting national security adviser for President Donald Trump, pushed back on the designation, calling the move “tyranny in disguise,” in a post on X Friday. “Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition.”
“That’s not democracy,” Rubio said.
To that, Germany’s foreign office replied, “This is democracy.”
These so-called god-fearing Trump enablers must not fear God much. No wonder "he changed religious affiliations several times"- he can't find any moral comfort in any religious institution (sans Opus Dei). Honestly, I would not trade places with any of them and have to live in their skin- not for all the shrinking US dollars in the world.
Hello Ned... If I was a Greenlander, who wants Self-Determination, I would start to Fear... Didn't DJT tell Carney of Canada, that DJT wants Canada because it would look good on a Map showing the USA & Canada united as MAGA USA?...
That is why The Joint Expeditionary Force, together with European N.A.T.O. powers should prepare a defense of Canada and Greenland. Let Trump know that he will incur significant losses. Bullies look for those unwilling to fight back.
The crazier the better. I wonder what he will come up with when the shelves get empty because the ships from China have stopped? Get ready for the shit tornado of your life time.
That scheiße-show may be by design to use the data looted by the D.O.G.E. rogues to seize power, in the nerd reich's wet dream of a digital coup. Something like the pre-text for tyranny of the Reichstag fire just after Hitler assumed power.
As great in inverse proportion as European leaders then were all fools. The diplomats. The military leaders. The bankers. And most everyone else, too. None realized what modern war had irrevocably become -- and 50 years earlier, demonstrably so, in the U.S. civil war.
Barbara Tuchman published "The Proud Tower" on this in 1966 (four years after "The Guns of August"). It deals with all those elites of that era, all so blind to what their modernity had wrought.
Dems mostly all out-of-touch fools today. Republicans, criminal and criminality-abetting worse fools.
And the young, thanks to schools killed by testing, mostly read no books in whole ever.
Per AI (of course!): "Approximately 54% of American adults read below a sixth-grade level. More than 130 million American adults, or 21% of the population, have low literacy skills." Tik Tok and podcasts are sooo much easier.
The Europeans also had more recent examples of modern warfare in East Asia: the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5 and Russo-Japanese War 1904-5. Unfortunately they learned the wrong lessons from those conflicts. They all thought they were prepared with advanced artillery, machine guns and ships, and would be the rapid victors of any modern war, like the Japanese had been twice in a row.
WOWerful comment, there, Phil. Thank you. There was reference to total war in Europe from Crimea and, to a lesser extent (i.e., more on the level of speed of operations), in the Franco-Prussian war. I once read an article that placed the origin of World War I at the feet of excess optimism, perhaps complacence and arrogance, that reason would preclude the slaughter that followed.
Someone recently warned a Canadian that her country should brace herself for a flood of English speaking illegals coming from SOUTH-of-the-border. You would contribute much toward the vibrant neighbor.
Apache, perhaps the most despicable aspect of the rogue Trumpanzee out of control flanked by obsequious marionettists is this gangster régime's despicable acts and statements becoming predictable. Good insight there, good man.
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_61472.htm P.S., on protecting Canada and Greenland: a careful reading does not limit Article #51 collective defense against attacks from nations outside the alliance. U.S. aggression, likely backed by fellow fat-so in Buda Pest could be defended by the other N.A.T.O. allies with the likely exceptions of Turkey and Slovakia.
The Netanyahu deals made to take away Americans' First Amendment rights are starting to come apart at the seams. They would disintegrate to powder if corporate media allowed this reality to be discussed openly in detail. I'm surely not counting on the NYT to inform me on this one. I wonder how many HCR readers have followed the details through recent years?
Again going on my thoughts today history is so important! 1947 and 1948. The novels of Leon Uris. And beyond into the past. Gabe Mate MD has good explanations.
Yes, it is important to look at events in 1947 and 1948. I had to put Blumenthal's book down for a week after reading Chapter 4 because it was so disturbing. You can catch it here. The book is well annotated and no one has refuted the documentation although there are massive ad hominem attacks on the compiler--as expected.
And ruling the world, Phil. That really gets him on the inside. Great for someone always with his nose pressed to the glass. And revenge must be payment enough (along with the cash), to make up for the hassles. After all, he can always blame somebody else. No matter how he screws up, he can always blame somebody else. It’s his mantra. Isn’t that what we all teach our children.
Great summary of the corrupt, mindless lunacy that we are being subjected to right now. Every Republican that voted these IDIOTS into these agencies richly deserves to lose their seats IF we have free and fair elections in the midterms.
Hey Phil in four years how many reporters got to ask Joe any questions? And his stand-in and didn’t even look like him KJP with her magical deflection notebook.
Rick, you obviously never paid attention to the hundreds of interviews Biden gave competently and to the point. You’re either willfully ignorant or a f-n troll, go away.
Boy, you better look up some stats you are feverishly misled.
During his first, entering into the political conversation before his election, he spent a good portion of his time in a basement, not answering any questions, and while Trump gives press conferences, at least once a week if not multiple times a week old Biden did with St KGP with her fake fantasy notebook you must be kidding me. Were you dreaming about these? Everyone knows that Biden refused to talk to the media refused to answer questions refused to give press conferences. Go, google how many press conferences, Joe had!
I’m looking forward to your reply. Won’t be answering you for a little while. I’ll be on vacation but I will get back to you but you’re not gonna have any answers for me nor for yourself. Joe Biden press conferences?
“I appeared on “Judging Freedom” with Judge Napolitano. We discussed President Trump’s failed attempt to put an end to the Ukraine war and his floundering foreign policy more generally. Think what has happened to the American brand around the world. It is clear after Trump’s first 100 days in office that he has mishandled the various foreign policy problems he confronted when he took office. And his prospects for fixing things do not look good at all.”
Judge Napolitano asked Mearsheimer what he feels Ukraine will look like if Ukraine resolves the conflict between Ukraine and Russia - Mearsheimer feels the longer Ukraine pushes back, the weaker Ukraine gets, to the point where Ukraine/Russia end up with a ‘frozen conflict agreement’ and the big picture is to avoid a future conflict with the six potential flashpoints;
Hello JakSaa... I wonder if a Seizure of Greenland will be attempted as a PR Stunt to reverse DJT's Political Fortunes... The Invasion of Grenada distracted from the Disastrous Lebanon Marine Barracks Bombing...
Apache, I hope not. I vetted the six flashpoints that Mearsheimer mentioned and Google Gemini AI tool recognized what he said, so I don’t trust anything Trump does, because he doesn’t read, or consult with any experienced strategic diplomats. We need Trump out asap.
They could have called the vote in the Senate to enforce the Constitution's Article 14, Section Three. But Chuck Schumer was then the fool he still is now.
They could negotiate now with moderate Republicans in the House to give majority so Hakeem Jeffries can be majority leaders and so call for that same vote in the House.
If either house of Congress calls that vote, and it fails to get the 2/3 necessary legally to clear the insurrectionist, he is legally out of office.
But Dems are still totally out of touch. Total fools (as all become who attend schools only for testing). They can do fund-raising, and more fund-raising, and e-mails every day, every day for $$$. Nothing else.
Funny . . . not . . . but in 2019 I was talking with students in Tunisia about the likelihood of a nuclear war. The two flash-points that crossed my mind were Kashmir and the Middle East, though I figured the Middle East was less likely. 🤔
We here we are with those two widely identified flash-points; nothing original in my onlook. The ones you bring up were likely around back then but had receded in the minds of all but the most perceptive and / or anti-soviet onlookers and analysts. 🤫
JaKsaa, you detail smartly the reasons why the U.S. and Europe need to aid Ukraine in defeating Russia decisively and taking back all of the lands stolen by the gangster régime. Crimea's unique history should be settled under the aegis of Ukraine. 🛑
I remember the confusion from the speed with which that Grenada Invasion was launched (2 days after the Marine Barracks in Lebanon was attacked), and a week spent trying to recover from all screw ups. Of course there were much more heroic sounding stories put out over the years following with the worst parts buried too deeply from most of the public.
Following the Mayaguez incident 8 years earlier, it just happened that our small unit was being switched from Air Weather Service to fall under the Air Force Communications Service. I had to brief the Comm Group on what we did in our detachment during one of the monthly Commander's Calls, right after we had a presentation at the unit we supported. They had a film showing how our satellite weather data had made the rescue possible by finding a safe area to refuel the helicopters despite no normal weather radar data being available right after the fall of South Vietnam. The group commander thought I did such a great presentation that he announced he wanted all of the other shops to take turns at future meetings to show what they did. Almost all the troops were encouraged, maybe even thrilled, by the heroic action portrayed (except the other shop supervisors who asked me how in the hell they were supposed to try to promote their individual shops). What really sobered me up, though, was that this was one of the two best Comm Groups in the Air Force, and there were some of the radio types in the back that looked seriously upset by the film.
When I quietly sought them out and carefully asked what was up, they said several of them had been on or around the mission. They told a much different, more complete, story of the desperation, mistakes and losses that they weren't allowed to reveal to the public so soon after evacuation of South Vietnam.
From them, I learned that though we had to sign non-disclosure agreements of from 10 to 35 years, we always had to assume the complete stories could not be told, and the silence on events seemed the best indicators that not everything went off as well as told to the public.
Almost all I know won't inflate the successes and will pointedly remain silent if asked too much about the failures (in public). I'm encouraged that they don't stay silent, though, at least in a few closed meetings where we try to prevent future similar sub optimal actions.
Fascinating experience. Jim, are you referring to the Granada 'rescue' or the Mayaguez? I am pretty sure the former, but not 100% sure. Thank you for your patience. I had a class-mate from college, whom I admired as a gentleman of Southern honor, who almost got killed.
🙏🏾
Then I ran into another class-mate ten years later in N.Y.C. who had either been to Grenada or knew of it in detail. When I asked him about our class-mate, he did not say anything but implied by facial expression and body language that my injured class-mate -- portrayed heroically in the Alumni magazine -- had made a big mistake.
🤝🏻
Jim, I still, and have always, admired both implicitly as better men than l.
This sub-thread is what I appreciate about this forum. I read, at least, and try to acknowledge each comment following one of mine. More out of politeness than egotism . . . . l hope.🤭😳🤞🏼
In this case, however, I can hardly assert a 'proprietary' interest in my throw-away quip expressing exasperation with an attention-seeking troll. The intelligence and lively discussion in this sub-thread is yours alone. Thank you, all. 🤝🏻🥳💡
Once again, a masterful letter, pulling together the pieces of this debacle of a regime. The crypto crime is of untold proportion that will take literal years to sort through. But the thing that stands out — in every situation where Trump speaks— is that he is decompensating at an accelerating rate.
His head is so spun around about tariffs, that he seems to now believe that countries shipping goods TO the US, are actually shopping in the US.
He’s clearly afraid of Canadian PM Carney, and trying to bluff his way through the publicized session where he seems to suggest that there is a pretty line painted at the top US border (like line-painting on a multi-lane highway, one supposes), and that if he just repaints it a bit higher with one of his Sharpies, the deal will be done.
Where are the cries for having him medicated and placed in long-term care??? Cabinet??? Congress? Courts? We the People?? When you realize that the likes of Hegseth, Miller, Navarro, Loomer, Lutnik and Musk are his echo chamber, you realize the terrifying peril the US — and indeed the globe — are in.
Bless you Dr. R., for steeling your resolve against the PTSD of trying to record this history. Please take care.
As an extra note: there is also the fact that the government has stopped publishing the tally of federal spending that is required under multiple federal laws (and was turned into a record-keeping website in the Biden administration). The website is gone, and the Regime is saying it no longer believes this information should be made public because it reveals too much sensitive data. Yep — that data that accounts for where and how much of our tax dollars are going. They. Don’t. Want. Us. To. Know.
Dear Jean - it's interesting you brought up the trump administration's hiding of spending. Because Germany's borrowing debt was climbing year after year, the Nazis stopped publishing their annual budgets beginning in the 1930s. Corruption ran rampant under Hitler, Orban, Putin, and other authoritarians.
Sad but true story, L. Many top U.S. firms and banks invested in Hitler's Waffen SS.
These were all pure (as in racially pure white) corporations, all through the 1930s, all led by the oldest WASP families, all with vintage private school and Ivy League educations.
Yes. Once again, Dr. Richardson’s nightly letter, that we all so appreciate, is indeed masterful. The notion, blurted out today by the President of our beloved country, that we are a mere store in which to shop makes my head explode. My heart is sick.
When you watch that video it makes you sick. THAT is the person making very serious decisions for our country.
I worry that with the lack of anyone in this administration having the knowledge that they need for that position that any one of our enemies could bomb or destroy major cities due to the lack of their incompetence. Scary times!
Or the word "groceries, as it's called." - donald trump in one of his rambling speeches.
His words reinforce how out of touch he is with regular, working-class Americans. I truly believe he hates us all. Probably not as much as we hate him, though.
BC, indeed, Donald is out of touch with regular people, but more worrisome to me is that he is out of touch with reality.
What sane, coherent adult believes they have revived a formerly disused word like "groceries?" What sane, coherent adult thinks they have to define the word?
What sane, coherent adult believes they could be electrocuted by falling in the water where a battery had been dropped?
What sane, coherent adult thinks international trade is like shopping?
These comments are those of a person who is experiencing severe mental decline. There's nothing wrong with mental decline; it happens to many elderly folks. But the right place for them is at home under nursing care or at a facility designed for that purpose. It is not the U.S. White House.
His so called speeches are simply ramblings of a sick psychopath. Quit listening and start demanding his impeachment, Every time a corporate media publishes anything the entire magas 2025 mafia says ,” we the people” are sucking on lies. Only lies and blatantly spit at we the people. May they never forget how ugly and complicit in criminal intent they are. They are treasonous felons! Death penalty to them.
“Less than two weeks after President Donald Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on goods from the tiny African nation of Lesotho, the country’s communications regulator held a meeting with representatives of Starlink.
The satellite business, owned by billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, had been seeking access to customers in Lesotho. But it was not until Trump unveiled the tariffs and called for negotiations over trade deals that leaders of the country of roughly 2 million people awarded Musk’s firm the nation’s first-ever satellite internet service license, slated to last for 10 years.”
“The decision drew a mention in an internal State Department memo obtained by The Washington Post, which states: “As the government of Lesotho negotiates a trade deal with the United States, it hopes that licensing Starlink demonstrates goodwill and intent to welcome U.S. businesses.”
A series of internal government messages obtained by The Post reveal how U.S. embassies and the State Department have pushed nations to clear hurdles for U.S. satellite companies, often mentioning Starlink by name. The documents do not show that the Trump team has explicitly demanded favors for Starlink in exchange for lower tariffs. But they do indicate that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has increasingly instructed officials to push for regulatory approvals for Musk’s satellite firm at a moment when the White House is calling for wide-ranging talks on trade.
In India, government officials have sped through approvals of Starlink with the understanding that doing so could help them cement trade deals with the administration, according to two people familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reflect private deliberations.”
>>>A month later, when the Washington Post published similar coverage, the department [DOJ] redoubled its focus on stopping leaks.<<<
Idiots. It's not a leak when the information that is released was obtiained through a legal FOIA request. The Keystone Kops just don't like the negative information, period, and want to suppress it if they can, using cheap fireworks.
Exactly. And then they release a statement like this one: “ story: “It is outrageous that as President Trump and his administration work hard every day to make America safe by deporting these violent criminals, some in the media remain intent on twisting and manipulating intelligence assessments to undermine the president’s agenda to keep the American people safe.”
Please, someone, explain to me how a woman who has just given birth is a danger to the United States. We're supposed to be this big, strong country that abides by the rule of law but evidently, not any more. What really angers me is what is being done to good people who have done nothing wrong. Those who show up to their routine scheduled ICE annual interview, and have always shown up, playing by the rules and doing things right, who are then put on a plane and removed from the country.
A woman who has just given birth is not a danger to the United States, and neither are children - unless you dehumanize them and make them into "vermin" . Classical trick from the fascist's playbook...
The MAGAt sycophants inside and outside the trump regime are like termites. They are in so many places, like DOGE, chewing on the infrastructure of our government. Unchecked termite damage can cause structural collapse.
Trouble is, Dutch, they're so far into their madness that they believe their lies.
Timothy Snyder documents this syndrome in Russia first, very carefully, in much detail, in his 2018 history, "The Road to Unfreedom."
Putin and that crowd so believe their victimizations of themselves by a degenerate West that the mass deaths of Ukrainians, and mass destruction of their country, comes off to them as blameless necessity.
Other diseased western countries must be taken out subsequent to Ukraine.
As Stephen Miller, Vance, Hegseth, Noem, and their mad boss similarly see their precious white U.S. under siege by perverts and degenerates, all the more they will excuse unleashing the U.S. military to restore "order." May be huge shipments of Americans who comment on pages like this to prisons in paid-off third-world dictatorships. Shipments with no legality -- just homeland security emergency.
This is what a dystopian society sounds like! The lies slip out of their mouths like used motor oil covering us with misinformation and untruths! It’s going to be a long clean up to get this administration filth off our nation.
The levels of corruption are so high and widespread throughout this Trump administration. This corruption is so rampant and glaring that it is almost impossible to read a report or article without a mention of it. It is intertwined within every aspect of this administration.
Heather Cox Richardson’s explanation of the cryptocurrency earlier today helped me to better understand how the President Trump and his family are using crypto in different ways to enrich themselves.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has helpfully listed all the various acts of corruption and ethics violations. It's probably going to need updating on a regular basis to keep up.
I remember that in his first term, the Washington Post embarked on an exercise of essentially listing every misrepresentation and lie emerging from the Trump administration together with source material for those interested in examining it further. Somewhere around the 30,000 number they (and no doubt most of their readers) wearied of the process and abandoned it. They have resumed fact-checking again in this second term but wisely not the compilation as Trump's misstatements and infractions are increasing at an even faster rate than before.
Like the police killing database that the WAPO keeps that probably doesn't get as many hits as it did back when they started in 2015 I think it says. It is behind a paywall so I can't even read the entire headline anymore.
The FBI doesn't even track the people killed by police each year but the WAPO does.
Trump and almost all the Republican politicians have normalized lying and yet people still vote for them.
Ann, I'm not sure whether the Senator's staff are going to keep this list updated, but if you like lists concerning Trump, Just Security's Litigation Tracker has a very helpful chart of all the lawsuits filed against the administration which in a way serves as a list of most of the instances of executive overreach.
It's important to read accounts of this because of all his impeachable offenses, this is the worst. Every day he violates the Emoluments Clause. Every day. It's the one impeachable offense that's explicitly singled out in the Constitution not under the general "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" rubric --- a sign of how seriously our Founders took that. A President shall not profit by public service.
If we had a real media, they'd be shoving microphones in Republicans' faces every day, following them into bathrooms --- 'how can you justify doing nothing while a President openly violates the Emoluments Clause, making stratospheric amounts of money from real estate transactions, bitcoin (dark money) investments, and the like?'
But what will keep us safe from Trump and his regime? Far more dangerous and murderous and cruel than any of the so called dangerous criminals being kidnapped and sent to El Salvadore without due process. We are doing our best to stop these criminals, but my heart breaks for all those harmed, both domestically and internationally.
Oh how one begs for details of the “Biden’s Fault” administration misdeeds . I’m going to need names, places, timelines… you know, proof.
Please provide these necessary details. Accusations without proof is just bullshit. Which is what Rick is missing in his inaccurate, inane, nonsensical statement.
But Pam Bondi was not on another bender. All the illegals and arrested.
The Justice Department said law enforcement officials seized more than 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of fentanyl pills, 11.5 kilos of fentanyl powder, 80 kilos of methamphetamine, 7.5 kilos of cocaine and 4.5 kilos of heroin. The bust also netted $5 million in cash and 49 rifles and pistols, U.S. officials said, while releasing several images of the seized items. 3 milllion pills
I think I’ll just agree with my fellow Substack subscribers, you’re a troll. Not even a good one. That’s why you couldn’t stop yourself from answering my pointedly sarcastic remarks. Now, you just sound like you’re in a cult. (I’ve got a $10 riding on you’ll reply to this.) 🎲 🎲
Well, people can certainly choose to be wrong. I have no problem with that and I'm not trying to convince you I'm just showing you 40 links that you can look at yourself as verifiable facts. You want to deny them no problem with me.
One of the only honest people here who actually look at all the evidence before I render a decision versus all the people here only see this crap from one side of the aisle just look at the links and be honest with yourself not one right leaning link in any of her posts. Huffington post really ?
What’s the matter? You’re not able to use a computer.?
Why did Biden pardon his entire family? Yeah, you read that right? and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Google all the details and the fact it’ll make you sick.
Do you think it was against the law to open the border and try to get those illegals people to vote? You know we do have a quota and you know they did try to get them to vote. Oooooops . Think it was OK for people to lie about hunters laptop. think it was OK to lie about the Russia hoax. Do you think it was OK for 51 people to basically potentially liable themselves by lying about his laptop?
Do you think it was OK to send Ukraine $170 billion to kill people and bury cities instead of trying to stop it? Do you think it was OK for him to allow Russia to attack in the first place? All he was doing is following in Obamas foot steps
Do you think it was OK to leave $85 billion of brand new military equipment in Afghanistan for our enemies to use?
Did you think it was OK? Worst of all as I mentioned before, for not only him but his entire administration and staff to hide the fact of his diminishing mental and physical capacities for more than two years? Not to mention legacy media. Who is lying profusely two weeks before they ran over him with the bus and put Kamala Harris in.
I have posted a link after link after link here but you’re late to the party. I’m just giving you highlights, but you have the ability to go look it up but look it up as if you were a rabid right wing person and wanted to hear all the bad stuff you could hear. But be fully medicated first.
I sent you a long winded addition of Biden's mid steps mistakes, malfunctions, and mental incapacity
Denial isn't a good road to take
The worst of which was opening the border with the full intent of getting those people to vote Democrat, which was against the law and defying the Supreme Court's order not to give student loans.
But you keep needing to ask yourself now that books are coming up a Democrats talking about his mental defectiveness since January 1923 why they bumped him from the race he was literally thrown under the bus by fellow Democrats
Here's the funnier one she's idiotic, ?but they threw Biden under the bus after lying about it for 2 1/2 years. By the way, one of my favorite presidents was Bill Clinton just so you know top three.
CBS News pretty reliable source don't you think for you? There's dozens more but you just don't wanna search and when you find it you just don't wanna believe so there's nothing I can do for you. You need help.
It wasn't in Alcatraz, but it's your prerogative to ignore the attorney general of the United States
Let's see if anyone that's arrested by her or indicted by her can just say well she's not my Attorney General. I don't believe in her so tell her you can't arrest me. Lol
Check out the arrest of 16 illegal immigrants and the largest drug bust in decades.
You are in full denial, my dear, and unfortunately, you have four more years to go
Oooops try this one The Justice Department said law enforcement officials seized more than 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of fentanyl pills, 11.5 kilos of fentanyl powder, 80 kilos of methamphetamine, 7.5 kilos of cocaine and 4.5 kilos of heroin. The bust also netted $5 million in cash and 49 rifles and pistols, U.S. officials said, while releasing several images of the seized items. Thanks, Joe.
Please cite all references regarding your “The Justice Department said... “ FOX NEWS doesn’t count. Neither does anything Pam Bondi says. Because I can make stuff up, too. We’re going to go with manufactured bull💩 until you provide reliable sources with names, timelines, where these seizures took place and so on. You’re the one with the attention seeking behavior, so have at it.
I'm not your errand boy and of course what you still understand is your side of a ledger doesn't tell you everything at all. It's all over the news there's photos there's photos of the pills, the cash, the drugs, and the 16 that do your own searches
It's all there and by the way, we don't like Fox News tell that to the third largest audience of all TV watching that doubles the viewership of CNN and MSNBC COMBINED
I KEEP TELLING MOST OF YOU THAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU THE WHOLE STORY AND WHEN YOU DON'T SEE IT ON YOUR NETWORKS, YOU SAY IT'S DENIAL, PHOTOS, ARRESTS PHOTOS OF THE ARRESTEES PHOTOS OF THE DRUGS, PHOTOS OF THE CASH
Actually, I have a better idea. Why don't you just ask Heather let's see if she lies to you too, but she won't. She'll tell you the truth if you ask her.
By the way Barney and you might wanna pass this on there were number of people here who kept talking about fentanyl doesn't come from the illegal immigrants. It comes through the border and another means legally, but they sneak it in until today when 12 legal immigrants were arrested, and the biggest fentanyl arrest in American history 3 million pills able to kill I don't know hundred million people 50 or 60 weapons and $5 million in cash
Yeah, investigations are great just like you investigated the border right where are the arrests? Where are the seizures like the one they had the other day when people are saying most of the fentanyl comes in legally through legal border entry in hidden compartments, etc. and not buy now they found the biggest bust on record by 16 illegal immigrants
Biden did a lot of first steps followed by nothing
And the result is all the criminality that's being arrested now the number of deaths, rapes children, and missing children. But you keep backing him. I'm OK with that.
There is something you might not be familiar with: It's called the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. Among the many things in the amendment is a sentence that states that "[no person] shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
That said, indeed Biden DID deport (with due process of law) many more than Trump in his first term and a much larger rate, so far than your idol in his first 100 days:
I’m not a risk taker. I rely on old-school traditional deals and values and invest wisely based on my needs goals and aspirations and my age.
No one forces you to Barney, but nice try. Maybe you should’ve invested in Solyndra? Lmao . Maybe you should donate to Obama’s public library that’s taken eight years to build and it’s just sitting there dormant
You don’t need safety you need to join the team support America. And if you wonder why your approval rating is only 20% keep supporting the illegal criminals versus American citizens that have been injured or raped or trafficked by these people.
Ok so you’ve officially “lemminged” yourself alongside all the other closed minded gullible folks here…..good thing you’re not a juror with a loved one on trial….if the jurors are like you, they will close their eyes and ears when the defense gets up to speak.
I've heard from Trump supporters that although Trump doesn't have a clue about tariffs, the people behind him are financial experts with sophisticated knowledge to guide economic policies so that they work very, very well for America. But the people behind Trump 2.0 are not experts, just “yes people” anxious to carry out what Trump wants, and that leaves us with no way forward with tariffs or anything else.
Some cabinet members are acting precipitately as though to anticipate Trump's wishes, like the execrable Hegseth and also find themselves on the wrong side of a Trump volte face -
The butterfly effect, an underlying principle of chaos, describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state (meaning there is sensitive dependence on initial conditions). A metaphor for this behavior is that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can cause or prevent a tornado in Texas.
Move fast and break things. Trump won most of the rural counties in the US. Many of them will NEVER abandon him or MAGA. But when and if they do, because they are tired of being screwed over by the people that promised them that they would be able to afford groceries, rent and energy, many will change their minds.
Remember, there are over 100,000 elections being held all over the US in 2025. The voter turnout for most of these elections is usually very small. So take back your local governments from the Fascists and the Evangelicals by helping "normal" people to get elected.
In super conservative Fort Worth, TX they just threw out several MAGA school boards. If this can happen in TX it can happen anywhere.
There's a hugely important lawsuit involving an attempt by the North Carolina legislature to change the election rules for a vacant seat on the state supreme court after the election was won by a Democrat. A ruling yesterday by a Trump-appointed federal judge, Richard Myers II, ordered the legislature to certify the election. This is significant because this was not the first nor is it likely to be the last attempt by Republicans to flip an election.
There's a reason the testers stress linear systems only. They are all guaranteed as deterministic as the billionaires want those managing our schools and media all to be as much without humanities as can be schooled. And tested. And machine graded.
Staying focused, an individual thought wave/intention with *possibly* exponential effects. Autocracy or democracy? I liked this conversation yesterday “There are only two sides right now: Team Democracy or Team Autocracy. That’s it,” according to Julie Roginsky, editor of Salty Politics Substack and a Democratic Party strategist. With Wajahat Ali (Left Hook Sustack). https://substack.com/home/post/p-162934760
Brings to mind a bobsled hurtling down a narrow, twisting, banked, iced track powered by a gravity called Trump, packed with MAGA members who have no clue which way to lean or when.
But the bobsled will be guided by forces that are at least to some extent predictable - the geometry of the iced track, frictional forces, gravity, the skill of the bobsled team. US policy by contrast is subject to the whims and caprices of an ignorant man. The comedian Seth Meyers has likened Trump's decision-making process to a Roomba when confronted with a wall or other hard obstacle.
The ignorance of American voters about econimics is almost as bad as their complete ignorance of how government works, not even knowing that there are three branches of government and why.
Constance every single administration has nothing in it, but yes, people. With the exception of Trump, perhaps as he has two Democrats in his Cabinet ever see a Democrat have a republican in their cabinet. ?
Do you know Wendy you seem to be one of those people that have significant symptoms of TDS and also you have symptoms of hearing only out of her left ear, and only seeing out of the left eye
No, I can make a major list, but I’m just going to mention one thing just to make you more aware. Why did Joe Biden pardon his whole family? Why did 51 people make up a story about hunters laptop being a hoax? Just two little ditties out of probably 25 more that are significant but I just thought I’d post those to you, so you understand both sides of the argument. As far as I know, Trump was not accused of anything during his presidency. Joe, Biden, on the other hand, has his hands full with pardons and you know why
I agree that is the wise thing to do. Don’t bother reading and responding thoughtfully. But sometimes you need to let loose a tad. I don't read his comments.
Actually, Rick, there have been a number of presidents, both Democratic and Republican, who have had members of the opposing party serve in their administration, including cabinet posts. For example, the secretaries of defense and the treasury, the director of the CIA, and the national security advisor under JFK were Republican. LBJ, Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden all had Republicans in their administration, including the cabinet. You might want to read through this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_political_appointments_across_party_lines. Enjoy your vacation.
Actually, I said cabinet members would you mind naming any in recent history like not from 50 years ago?
Read it and if that’s the case, I stand corrected However, it’s my opinion, without having looked at your link, that none of them have been key posts/top posts. I am heading out on vacation so I won’t get back to you probably for couple weeks at least and I will read your link by feel free to update your comments regarding cabinet members prominent cabinet members. Thank you.
I’ll just throw this out: Under Obama, secretaries of defense, transportation, veterans affairs, and director of the FBI. I read what you wrote. Now read the article and stand corrected. Jesus, I was just trying to give you information without being snarky. My mistake.
You might wanna continue your investigation because a lot of of the details are not there. Such as the secretary, defense only serve two years and then was changed.
That was just my first investigation and I will get into more as I have time
So he inherited secretary of defense and smartly, actually kept him for two years, but then dumped him two years later
The director of the FBI is not a Cabinet post
I guess the secretary of transportation was indeed, although if you look at how that went on number of people were nominated and chose to bow out for various reasons like Richardson, for example of Arizona.
But I'll give you transportation that's one thank you for submitting that. Appreciate it.
Unfortunately howlin. . It’s not a simple question. Much depends on the negotiation and how it’s arrived and keep in mind that other countries have been charging us substantially more tariffs than we’ve been charging them, and we are thee consuming nation of the world. There are the things I have understood but many people are not as aware. Ever since Nafta I have always felt like while I want to buy inexpensive/or goods at a lower price… I would like to be able to buy them from people in America, rather than people from China let’s say, who potentially could end up controlling products that we need and cutting them off if we were not in control …as well as they do hardly produce much of our pharmaceutical needs. Scary proposition.
I personally would understand if prices were a little bit higher, but I was taking care of American citizens, and increasing their ability to pay bills and increase their networks versus paying somebody a dollar a day in Bangladesh. And since liberals are so keen on helping the world, which idealistically is admirable. I’d realistically rather help Americans first and the world second. Why don’t we see how this plays out and then we can make a better determination as I’ve mentioned many people here these tarps are going to play out over time because we’ve been doing things the same for 30 years and some of the left expects this thing to turn around with a snap of a finger when you’re rejiggering your entire trade relationships. Patience is what is needed here. Trump has 2 1/2 years more to prove his economic plans we are by midterm, elections happen, and in every case, when a president comes into power with both houses in control of that his party, At the midterms in every single case that has changed, we’re at least one party or both have flipped to the other party. After that, it’s game on. But if Trump is able to negotiate as he thinks he can, and he also processes his big beautiful bill, which asserts no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and more importantly, no tax on Social Security, of which, for example I pay tax on 85% of my Social Security income… but if he gets those included in the bill and it passes, I think the Democrats are gonna be hard pressed for the first time to overturn the Majority in both houses. As I said, Time will tell
“But 764,000 [Trump crypto coin] wallets, mostly owned by small holders, have lost money.”
Almost three quarters of a million sheep to be shorn. That’s a lot of wool.
I have no sympathy; none, zero, for any small-time fool who invests as much as a dime in any financial scheme (scam!) associated with Trump, especially involving a ghost currency like crypto.
When many of the small investors are asked why they would invest their savings in any of Trump's grifts, they usually mention what a great investment it is and how DonOLD would be making them rich. And then they lose it all. And then they turn around and vote for Trump again.
When you are conditioned from birth to believe that good outcomes are "God's blessings" and unwanted outcomes are "God's will," the man you worship is exempt from responsibility or accountability.
It's worth taking a look at Scott Bessent trying desperately to avoid admitting that tariffs were paid by US importers and consumers. It really is lamentable -
At one point during the grilling, Bessent turned to his favourite explanation of Trump's chaotic tariffs policy, namely 'strategic uncertainty', a concept in game theory. A number of people have already shown more ably than I could how this is a misuse of the term.
Trump seems to think that vacillation and incoherence will throw other countries off guard and make it easier for him to succeed when actually it appear to be having exactly the opposite effect.
As the professor has pointed out, those 200 trade deals were just puffery and now Trump is saying that he doesn't need them after all. So why the tariffs?
Rather macabre high comedy, vaudeville, & Keystone Cops all in one, no, Russell?
Though, deadly, too: counting Ukrainians who pay the price, kids dying from measles, the starving abroad who no longer get U.S. AID, air passengers soon facing DOGE disasters at the FAA,, people of West Bank and Gaza dying by U.S. munitions, and decades of U.S. economic and democracy allies now MAGA-shafted.
Chaos theory as well. Trump is merely a tool for the oligarchs. Musk totally failed to find much to cut in the budget and meanwhile killed hundreds of people around the world and in the US. He also ruined the lives of many Americans.
Have you noticed how the weather reporting in your area is far less accurate than it was a few months ago? Take a look at how many top meteorologists were fired by Musk.
And you can blame the fiasco at the Newark airport and at Reagan National on Musk and Trump.
Al Gore and his team methodically went through the Federal agencies to modernize each of them in the 1990's. The result was a 17% reduction in the Federal government work force.
And after all of the chaos and illegal trespassing by Musk and his incompetent DOGE boys, they have found very little. Musk is a ketamine drug addict who can't find his ass with both hands.
Trumpism will become a metonym for incompetence and chaos. The sight of transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, being stranded at Newark airport is a perfect illustration of this.
More seriously, Trump's attacks on science and education will have profoundly damaging implications for the competitiveness of the American economy and for the safety of citizens and communities. He's doing what Hitler did in the 1930's - turning science into politics.
As your comments show, however, much of the obloquy has been successfully transferred to Elon Musk and even when he's departed Trump will continue to ensure that he has a protective blanket of advisers and ministers who can conveniently be blamed for any fiasco that occurs. For time being, with Mike Waltz's sideways move to US ambassador to the UN, he's clinging on to his 'no scalps' policy, but that's not likely to last long as his attempts to blame people outside his administration (Biden, Powell etc) have fallen on infertile ground.
Really? According to Trump, Alcatraz is strong and weak, beautiful and horrible and miserable, left and right, black and white, farty and fresh. I dare anyone to make any sense of this in policy terms.
So US foreign policy unfolds…we may be looking at an invasion of Greenland…a full on confrontation with NATO and abrogation of article 5 mutual defense, all while Bibi is unleashed to entirely demolish Gaza for a Trump Tower, ’cleansing’ it of Palestinians; nukes are brandished between Pakistan and India; and Putin is left free to roam from Ukraine to the Balkan’s to the Baltics.
no but we may be looking at a major win in the Middle East. Stay tuned.
And with any mention of Putin, you have to mention two other words, Obama and Biden end of story. And of course, you forgot to mention the mineral deal which perhaps you don’t even understand of what significance that is.
Trump to Ease Crypto Rules for U.S. Banks - TechStory
The US Is Turning a Blind Eye to Crypto Crimes under the Trump
Federal authorities are declining to charge crypto firms with a range of offenses, raising questions about which rules apply and who will enforce them. - Wired
I can't wait for Trump's great military parade. I heard it is going to go through the WH gates because Trump is too cowardly to go out in public. At least he hasn't lost all of his marbles.
You mean, like Hunter and joe and giving his entire family a pardon, you mean that nepotism and that rubber Baron stuff ? Oooops I’m sorry that was Joe’s administration.
Everything uttered by this psychotic clown just makes my head hurt. It's an affront to dignity, to education, expertise and common sense --- let alone morality and decency. If our mostly moribund press actually did its job by posting word-for-word the unedited, unredacted version of the cognitive brainfarts this 3-year-old screaming toddler in the White House spews out every day -- and followed up by demanding why Republicans support an illiterate moron who can't utter a single coherent sentence if his life depended on it --- I suspect many would start breaking under the pressure.
But they don't. They "translate" his chickenshit blather into digestible sound bites and print pablum, giving his incoherent sadism a respectability it does not deserve. With almost no exceptions, they play the same game with the witless wormtongues, dipshit incompetents and fuck-ups that populate his Cabinet and make up his official "spokespersons."
Resisting fascism first means refusing to use their language, play their games, or allow them to get away with describing insanity as common sense. Do not cooperate.
Can't wait for them to start nominating and confirming more far right Federalist society judges like Roberts, Alito, Kavanaugh, Thomas, Comey-Barrett and Gorsuch.
Yesterday, they allowed Hogsbreath to implement the purging of trans people from the military.
That last SCOTUS decision was just one more cruel choice made by the Roberts court. It had already secured its position as the nadir of Supreme Courts; this just makes sure the record will never be challenged by a future court.
I think it’s time we adjusted - strengthened - our language. For instance, quoting from the article, “Representative Lauren Underwood (D-IL), about whether she believes that ‘the Constitution gives everyone in our country the right to due process.’” NO! The Constitution doesn’t “give” everyone the right to due process, the Constitution DEMANDS the right to due process for everyone! Let’s start standing up for the power and righteousness of our Constitution, and demanding that our elected representatives do the same!
Good grief! These people are bonkers in the direction toward evil. I mean there’s bonkers like dressing up like Gloria Swanson and claiming you’re a famous movie star, and there’s bonkers like these folks — stomping all over people, countries, killing the poor, impoverishing the middle class, enriching the already rich, and most horribly, proclaiming themselves Christians.
Remind yourself often how deeply you're appreciated!
Also a must read:
Joyce White Vance
Timothy Snell
Timothy Snyder
Meidas Touch
Brian Tyler Cohen
The Contrarian
Ryan Goodman
Simon Rosenberg
The Guardian
and many, many Substack writers and other non-legacy media.
We must absolutely build our own megaphone. The lies, disinformation and ignorance of the legacy media helped get us here today.
Add: Robert Reich!
Folks. There are, of course, many I would miss. They larger point is this. We need to continually be aware of building a media infrastructure that changes the narrative in this Country. The media did not inform the public of the Biden Administrations' work, nor did it present an accurate view of Kamala Harris. Voters were duped. Now we all suffer.
Barbara, I've been saying this all along. Even now, they're still at it, talking about the "conspiracy" of hiding Biden's "infirmity," and totally ignoring the enormous number of meaningful accomplishments that they never bothered to report on. That the entire spectrum of media is giving the current clown show a pass, while allowing trump to boast about his accomplishments and take credit when stocks rise after he tanked the market but continues to claim that Harris blew it during her campaign, is so infuriating.
Yes, the wealthy bought up the media outlets and spewed their propaganda, lulling the mostly religious and sometimes under-educated folks into voting against their own best economic and social interests. Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" [2004] Heather Cox Richardson, "How the South Won the Civil War." [2020] Mostly the oligarchs used wedge issues: abortion, women and gay rights, immigrants, homophobia, etc. Hate is a common denominator among the common MAGA folks.
Why/how, one wonders, can 70+ million people vote for such a flawed, despicable, malignant and cruel narcissist as Donald Trump? I anticipate a scholarly treatment soon on the shallowness of genuine Christianity in 21st century America. Trump is the proof.
They were fed a toxic stew of lies, disinformation and distortions. The oligarch owned, MAGA media universe helped elect him in a big way.
We are dealing with a dearth of critical thinking skills among the MAGA folks. Along with a huge dose of racism. In my view, genuine Christianity is largely dead here in the U.S. Matthew Ch. 25's admonitions fall on deaf ears and blind eyes.
However, as Bernie Sanders said right after the election, the Democratic Party has left the lower middle class and working class over at least the last 30 years and so they are fair game for the lying overtures of the Republican Party. As long as too many in the Democratic Party continue to follow neoliberal policies and ideology, I suspect it is doomed to be as realistically irrelevant to a great many voters as the Republicans are to those who look past their lies. I am old enough (83) to remember a party which stood for the poor and for the working people. That party started losing its way in the late ‘60s and went even more astray in the ‘90s. Though I have deemed them the lesser evil for those years, if they cannot become more relevant to today’s people and their circumstances, I’m not sure they aren’t just as evil.
Without a doubt, we need a whole lot more Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Bernie makes a mistake, IMO, calling himself a "Democratic Socialist." He's no more a Socialist than I am a Communist. What Bernie is is a Pragmatic Capitalist, as are the Scandinavian countries. [Google Frances Perkins.] The Republicans have a lock on many of the MAGA Christians. Our opening may be the MAGA Republican war on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They (the wealthy and the oligarchs) may have overplayed their hand with their insatiable greed.
You say "the wealthy bought up the media outlets and spewed their propaganda, lulling the mostly religious and sometimes under-educated folks into voting against their own best economic and social interests" like it just happened out of thin air.
Have you ever heard of the Telecommunications Act of 1996?
It's easy to look down our noses at Trump voters and point fingers at Donald Trump as the moment things went off the rails, but that is a dangerous and short-sighted oversimplification. If we are going to get out of this mess we have to understand the weakening of institutions over time that landed us in favor of the Corporate/OnePercent and against the interests of regular working Americans.
With few exceptions Democratic voters have been sound asleep ever since the DLC (If you don't know what that is, that is problematic) teed up Bill Clinton to declare "the era of Big Government is over", kick Unions to the curb and put the Democratic Party SOLIDLY in bed with Wall St., Silicon Valley and Corporate/OnePercent BigDonors in a misguided attempt to win over Republican voters.
I can cite a dozen HUGE astonishing right wing policies signed into law or otherwise supported by Bill Clinton that should have made Democratic voters' heads explode and instead they cheered him on... "He looked so cool on Arsenio playing his sax with his Wayfarers on!" The Democratic Party has been a neoliberal strip mine ever since… Obama… Pelosi… Hillary would have been worse!
I think Democratic voters need to approach the current crisis and where we go from here with a sense of humility and recognition of responsibility for their part in getting us here
https://truthout.org/articles/democracy-in-peril-twenty-years-of-media-consolidation-under-the-telecommunications-act/
Clinton handled the economy better than anyone in the past 55 years, leaving with a surplus in 2001. When Reagan took office in 2001, the national debt was less than $1 trillion. He tripled the national debt and began the war on the Middle Class with his rhetoric and the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The Democrats have failed miserably to put the lie to the Republicans' use of wedge issues to sucker working class people into voting Republican. Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" [2004] and Heather Cox Richardson, "How the South Won the Civil War." [2020] Also, the article in the journal, Critical Sociology [Feb. 2018] entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" Mostly it was their racism and their desire to crush and punish gays, women's rights advocates, minorities, immigrants and more. MAGA is nothing more than 21st century KKK. An excellent read on the KKK in the 20th century is Timothy Egan's book, "A Fever in the Heartland," on the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's.
I cried the day Clinton 'won' the presidency.
You are exactly right, we are in a fight for the first amendment, the rule of law, and the truth. These three things are what Trump and his regime fear the most, and will try to silence everyday. I will not comply, and refuse to believe one word of their daily propaganda. I'm pushing back, will you?
I tried to search for Harris' accomplishments as VP after reading an excellent article in the Christian Science Moniter about her trip to Africa- information I hadn't seen anywhere else. I found bits and pieces of her diplomatic work around the world but almost nothing to emphasize the importance of her work as a representative of the US. I'm from the SFBay Area so I am already familiar with her incredible intelligence, work ethic, and moral compass. What an excellent president she would have been. But we have a gilded turdinasuit instead.
There was a website (What Did Joe Biden Do Today?) which gave details and background of that administration’s work. Lots of people don’t think details matter.
A current version (What Did Trump Do Today) is available. A common theme is how little detail there is from him or his spokesperson or cabinet members when they open their mouths.
Great information! I'll add it to the list. Oliver Willis did an amazing job of listing all of the Biden's Administration's work. Sadly no matter how many time I published it year after year it did no good.
Interesting! I'll look for it!
I have grown in my skepticism of legacy news - media and journalism. Trust is not there. There are few as principled as Dion Nissenbaum. I agree with your list, added names, and sentiment Barbara. My only concern presently is that it takes a lot of money for a consumer to secure truth in reporting. BTW- I would add Will Bunch.
I pay $5 a month to comment in Dr. Richardson's site. The rest or free or a very small fee.
Yes - we have to be disciplined because there are a lot of good news sources that require money to join. HCR is worth every penny - she is so good!
And Steve Schmitt - "The Warning", Dean Blundell (for a Canadian perspective), and Naughty Nana Duz (videos from a Canadian veteran).
Steve Schmidt is intense! I'll add these.
I was a Steve Schmidt reader. But when he announced that he was now the campaign manager for the basically unknown Dean Phillips in the 2024 Democratic primary, over half of his subscribers left -- including me. We knew that Phillips had no chance against Biden or Harris, and IMO it was just a cynical move on his part for $$$$. I haven't looked back.
Schmidt can be good even very good... in doses. I like his spirit. We need strong voices. I check on him.
Good information. I had forgotten. Steve made a wrong decision for sure. I'll rethink keeping him on the list. Thanks.
Public Notice.... Aaron Rupar (monitors the media)
Margaret Sullivan American Crisis (on the media)
......and Lucian Truscott.
I can't leave out Jeff Tiedrich for a humorous take on the day and a clear view of the insanity in the WH.
Absolutely don't leave out our own TCinLA!!
His "That's Another Fine Mess" Substack is excellent!
I used to read him. But he started copying Jeff Teidrich, using lots of swear words but not funny, and I didn't need it. Found better sources.
YES! Jeff!
...and Jay Kuo!
And Robert Hubbell!
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/what-will-we-tell-our-children-and?r=44m7t&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Not so much at all
I used to subscribe to Robert Hubbell and recommended him as an objective viewer with an optimistic bent. However, his (and his wife's) continued support of Biden's campaign encouraging him not to back down was so odious to me that I will not support him at this time.
I subscribed for 6 months or so, but found many other writers who were more interesting/less ponderous.
yep
Add Katie Phang, Allison Gill (Muellershewrote, UnJustified and The Daily Beans), Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Anne Applebaum.
Allison Gill is terrific!
Anne Applebaum definitely and excellent!!! Ruth Ben-Ghiat is good. A specialist in fascism, she sees what is happening here from that POV. They are careful not to convey hopelessness.. so far.
Yes! Ruth Ben-Ghiat!
And yes, Phang, Gill, and Applebaum, and has someone mentioned Joy Reid?
Though I haven’t figured out how it works to follow 50 substackers now…
I like "Raw Story", as well. Summaries of articles from multiple excellent sources which lead you back to the originals. Under "MeidasTouch", Ron Filipkowski's "Bulletins" are fabulous daily updates. (He spends 14 hrs/column, he told us.)
I am making a new list of reads. All these are fabulous!
You are certainly listing many outstanding resources. I read some of the ones you listed -- the great Timothy Snyder -- and Joyce White Vance, as well as the two I mentioned. I realize that I no longer watch the news, and only read "The Guardian" and -- interestingly -- find "The Boston Globe" (recommended to me by someone who reads my very little substack) to be pretty much all I need. I'm going to add a few more outstanding substacks, which most people are not aware of: Olga Lautman's "Unmasking Russia"; "Judd Legum's "Public Notice"; Marc Elias's "Democracy Docket"; "Musk Watch" (also Judd Legum); "The Kiev Independent"; and Dean Blundell (Canadian, superb columnist). I spend two to three hours every day educating myself. I'm sure you do the same.
Thanks. I'll keep adding to the list. We have a unique opportunity to be the truth tellers in our circle of friends and neighbors today. I am fine with the effort needed to educate ourselves and then pass information along to others.
One more (sorry!) D. Earl Stephens, "Enough Already". He was the editor of the military newspaper, "Stars and Stripes" for around 30 years (if I remember correctly). That newspaper was obviously apolitical. "Enough Already" is anything but!
The Guardian for a more outsider perspective.
I am fortunate to have the Boston Globe as my daily paper, still delivered at my door each morning!
I'm in SC and I subscribe! I find it to be an excellent paper, and am not sorry to have canceled my NYT and WaPo subscriptions.
What do you dislike about Robert Hubbell?
I read him for a long time, but ending up finding him ponderous. Found quite a few other writers whose writing styles I preferred.
See my comment above. I blame Biden's refusal to step down as instrumental in Trump's win and Hubbell encouraged him to stay steady.
It’s difficult to analyze these things, and I certainly don’t know the answer to why Trump won, but it could just as well have been the faltering of the Democrats’ support for Joe Biden that lent credibility to the Republican narrative about him being too old and mentally unfit.
Meidas Touch does have excellent Bulletins. I support them(even though they do spend a lot of time advertising themselves. But that's ok- it is necessary in our world.)
I just X out those constant "bragging" (it feels like) ceaseless emails. It is Ron Filipkowski's incredible thorough columns that I read faithfully. The podcasts, I just ignore.
Also Robert Hubbell
Add TCinLA. Immediately.
Salud!
🗽
Well TC will certainly wake you up!
Ended up getting weary of him copying (it felt like) Jeff Teidrich's hilarious swear-style. Jeff's is light and makes me laugh. TC, not so much. Quit a month or so ago.
MANY thanks Christine for the info on TCinLA. Had not known of this commenter before. Googled for link, read a bit and subscribed. :):)
He's a gem. I've read him since early on.
Ally thx for the addl recommendation!. I've already put a list of ALL these folks [via text] into an Email to Self on Substack writers :):) AND at the risk of possible redundancy (had not seen these) will add TWO links
(1) the MEDUZA site: https://meduza.io/en
(2) Carnegie has an EU and Russia section ["Carnegie POLITIKA"] worth a scan now and then. TODAY's post is by a journalist with the Russian Dissident Media site MEDUZA.
The URLS -- Carnegie's item by Meduzsa's Andrey Pertsev: "In Russia, Power Horizontals Are Paving the Way for a Power Transition" [sorry for long URL]
https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/politika/2025/05/russia-elites-transit-anticipation?lang=en&utm_source=carnegieemail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=autoemail&mkt_tok=ODEzLVhZVS00MjIAAAGaSZ_N3KDdQqdiyxxC4SGxTTX5_Q0ZvLK-4k7XCyr84Pk4hCMAS4VemjBoku-nAWQ0ukqfk-CeeR5hdrdxNeFOWOguCyeZSJ8it7KlWmJ50kqn
https://meduza.io/en
Tom is a published author as well.
TC is a little too incoherent and "over-the-top" for me.
I like him too. He's rough and ready, but not necessarily "deep and steady," as, say, HCR, Joyce Vance, and others on the list. Because financial shenanigans are the center of this administration, I like Paul Krugman's economic wisdom.
He is readily coherent to me and fits at my top with myself and several others.
I consider as over the top
Or under the bottom sleaze news sources or outlets that intentionally mock democracy or defy diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Salud NannyAnn!
🗽
Give him a few more chances. He is brilliant and definitely grows on you.
Nope. Not at all.
Not so much
Don't forget the Bulwark group and Rick Wilson's Lincoln Project. We really need them.
And one more: Elizabeth Graham's "From Democracy to Democracy" for her insights into Russia as someone who has lived there.
Ken Klipenstien is another must read
Thank you Barbara for the list of writers. If I could figure out how to stay awake long enough to read everyone's views these days, I could make a million selling the product!
Please add Jeff Tiedrich to the list.
Amen, brother. I read him every single day and he rightfully obsesses with the MSM’s inane choice of words and topics and their active role in normalizing the tRumpster Fire. The MSM would be reporting on 1939 Germany in terms of its curious proliferation of detention centers, tolerant attitude toward its European neighbors, and skillful negotiation for peace through its rightful annexation of Sudetenland. THIS IS A FUKIN COUP PEOPLE!!!
and Bill McKibben!
Our planet is still mighty inconveniently burning up faster than ever, even though climate change as an issue is not a thing anymore.
Please add “Belle of the Ranch” on YouTube. Very informative and educational.
I read most of them. As well as the erudite submissions from Heather's substack. No magical thinking here.... You are all brilliant, insightful, respectful, positive and supportive. (I hope I didn't leave out any other glowing adjectives.) Sharing anger is sometimes pleasurable. I think I am reaching a moment where I have emptied - maybe exhausted - the English language of the vitriol and enmity toward the Maga movement its conspirators and enablers. Well - their pronouncements are always lies, like believing a flat earth or the existence of the Yeti.
Trouble is, being in office meets reality checks.
You promise policy, reporters can ask, fairly, well you’ve got this cabinet appointee, you’ve got that agency or department – what specifically are they doing, how in detail are they handling it?
Annoying, reality.
Campaigning, however, can be full-blown entertainment only. The wildest of empty promises. Waddling dancing “YMCA.” Cosplay double-jerking-off two guys simultaneously. More lies in alarmism at immigrants eating all the dogs and cats. More “YMCA.” Sucking-off the mic.
Double annoying, reality, too, because all the persons confirmed for highest office are record-setting in U.S. history for being incompetent, unqualified, without relevant experience, and reckless. Can’t do anything even if they wanted to. And Russell Vought over at OMB is the only one who can actually do anything, and it’s all only Project 2025 that he’s doing.
Plus, the convicted criminal in the White House is only doing what Putin wants done, plus the side deals with Netanyahu and Mohammed bin Salman as necessary to float all the bribes, emoluments, and cyber coin corruption even more flagrant than Clarence’s old-style corruption off his sugar daddy billionaires.
So not so much real fun in office. Except, of course, for how cruelty is fun – shaking down all the elite law firms, universities, and the legacy media and social media mobsters all eager to keep fronting the extortions to play the power games so reserved for all the most humanly empty.
In 15 years, our mostly moribund press has never figured how to report all these inanities. But as Jennifer Rubin points out, being a reporter isn't the same thing as being a stenographer. If Kristen Welker were Mike Wallace of the old 60 Minutes, or even Nancy Pelosi in 2019 looking right at his face, demanding to know why all paths with him end in the Kremlin, he wouldn't be allowed to get away with his idiocies. 'If you don't know you're supposed to follow the Constitution, you've clearly never read it. Have you ever read it? Explain to me what the separation of powers is. If you can't, I'll walk out of this interview now and tell everyone you're nothing but a fraud.'
There are a few around now who could, and probably would, do this. And his framed Declaration of Independence? What is it? Er, it's a declaration of love. I've seen more intellectual content in a Punch and Judy show.
Way more intellectual content on Sesame Street!
lauriemcf, We need to drop the word intellectual from anything to do with death star. Any number of animals are smarter than he is. I see him as this tumor, just a cancer on the body politic. Would anyone task Rudy G's son with anything at this point. His response to the India/Pakistan makes it sound like sandbox fight. And deals.....while he is bleating other countries are busy making deals and leaving us out. Then we have those in his craven cabinet. Do you remember the cartoon about the inside of Reagan's brain... the brains of these people have ceased to function.
There is also in these times a plethora of current Indian and Pakistan poets and writers to read and another plethora of older and of course British writers on India before and after the division and Independence after World War II. I find because it was on PBS Masterpiece Theater / BBC the Jewl in the Crown a good start in understanding the politics of now. As was UpstairsDownstairs also Masterpiece Theater / BBC way back a beginning understand of social class and femanism. Not today current shows aren’t as great just a lower rung of the current ladder of the arts that now thankfully have such diverse and real voices. I never discount old I just acknowledge their times and frameworks and forgive their errors of the artist tried .
https://youtu.be/wKjxFJfcrcA?si=MbmwbSYOOe_rS1sN
That is perfect. We just need to put Trump in Sandlers spot!
I have you heard his definition of "concession"? Friendship he says.
Ah the old Punch and Judy show now put to rest mostly of its patriarchal misogyny but as a kid I never saw it but checking it out oh my yes. It’s history and the puppet history globally is a great give. Shadow puppets of Asia!
Thanks for bring these back in a way and it’s like we are in one of the shows. Kuckla, Fran and Ollie much much better! And without this history the late Jim Henson could have never created the Muppets he needed this base to create all those zany puppets!
I think it is framed and posted on Oval wall as a marketing tool. How much will you pay for this treasure? Probably he sold it already and the one on the walk is a copy... like all the other treasured from the vaults, Every thing is for sale.
You know? Whatever we harp about satisfies us, but he keeps to the stringent, horrible, detailed, monstrous 2025 Playbook. His handlers are smart and no one cares if he’s a moron. They are still getting their way
"love and unity" -- uh, right.
“They are breaking the law and undermining our nation’s security and democracy” -sorry Tulsi it’s not the media that’s doing that
THEY’re Building PROJECT 25 for the billionaire’s club of MEN
who want free sex and subservient women carrying their progeny.
I miss Edward R. Murrow. And Walter Cronkite.
Irreplaceable, but we could try.
Even Tom Brokaw and David Brinkley — though they are not on the same level as the aforementioned two!
What we can do is stick an I phone in the face of a Congressional Republican and ask whether the president must follow the Consitution.
Whether everyone in this country, citizen or otherwise is entitled to due process.
Post the product to local news, the internet, or here!
Daniel, the local cops would probably carry you off.
I'd bail Daniel out!!
I miss Tim Russert. He was so accurate. Florida, Florida, Florida.
And Rachel Carson... and...
Oh I so agree. Kristen Welker is the Queen of the Softball follow-up. So many missed opportunities -- we had to stop watching - it was just too annoying and frustrating.
I agree. Chuck Todd wasn’t great but Walker is no better.
Kristen Welker is a pathetic journalist.
He was in great because he was honest and you didn’t like it
Both Todd and Welker are a reason to do the crossword Sunday am instead of watching them and getting nauseated.
I am so disappointed in Kristen Welker. I was expecting her to be hard hitting ask the questions that need to asked. And not let them off the hook. What Meet The Press has become is fox news ultra light. I can't watch Meet The Press any more.
I just found a softball in my attic…I’m going to mail it to Welker.
I like that, walk out of the interview if no substantive answer given.
Lord, I miss Mike, Chris is not his like as far as I can tell. Sad for us.
He wasn't so great....was an apologist for Reagan.
THANK YOU!!!!!! Daniel!!!!!
I watched him take scum to the woodshed more than once. Never saw him as Repub tool. Chris certainly is or has been.
Kristen Welker is a pushover and I can’t bear to watch her.
I would have loved to have seen that-an interviewer walking out on trump because of his stupid answers or his word salad. I heard one interviewer on NPR interviewing a republican official. He gave the same nonanswer to every question. Finally, she said, "Thank you for coming. I hope you will return when you know some answers. "I loved it!
I read they may deport people, probably innocent families to Libya. God help us. Shame on Rubio Batista. It makes me cry
OMG. Rubio -- he's become a Dementor.
lauriemcf, excellent description. i think his Senate colleagues thought he would be better than this.
Yep, Libya—an unstable country with two governments for different halves—is the latest destination for migrants.
Rubio has become an apologist for Nazis.
Germany rebuked Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he slammed the country’s intelligence agency for classifying the far-right political party Alternative for Germany a “proven-right wing extremist organization.”
“We have learnt from our history that right-wing extremism needs to be stopped,” Germany’s foreign office wrote on X, in direct reply to Rubio.
AfD, whose staunch supporters include Vice President JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk, was already under surveillance for suspected extremism by Germany’s intelligence services, which on Friday classified the party as a “proven right-wing extremist organization.”
Rubio, who on Friday became the acting national security adviser for President Donald Trump, pushed back on the designation, calling the move “tyranny in disguise,” in a post on X Friday. “Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition.”
“That’s not democracy,” Rubio said.
To that, Germany’s foreign office replied, “This is democracy.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/germany-hits-back-at-rubio-s-defense-of-far-right-afd-party/ar-AA1E6mLU
Protest to Norman Braman, Miami, FL; to CANF (Jewbans are contributors); to JDL; to AIPAC.
IMHO the Nazi Party or any group that advocates for the exermination of people, should be outlawed here as is Deutschland.
Marco rubio is a million times worse than I expected. He is a completely complicit fool and is doing terrible damage to OUR country.
Rubio- fleshy, soft little boy trying to walk in a man's shoes.
Daniel Solomon, you have posted an important message.
Hey, can you name any left-wing extremist organizations? Today it’s called a Democrat party led by AOC and Bernie Sanders. Antifa BLM.
BDI… also qualify
These so-called god-fearing Trump enablers must not fear God much. No wonder "he changed religious affiliations several times"- he can't find any moral comfort in any religious institution (sans Opus Dei). Honestly, I would not trade places with any of them and have to live in their skin- not for all the shrinking US dollars in the world.
Despicable, yes. But there may be an emerging tone of desperation; of things unravelling.
Hello Ned... If I was a Greenlander, who wants Self-Determination, I would start to Fear... Didn't DJT tell Carney of Canada, that DJT wants Canada because it would look good on a Map showing the USA & Canada united as MAGA USA?...
That is why The Joint Expeditionary Force, together with European N.A.T.O. powers should prepare a defense of Canada and Greenland. Let Trump know that he will incur significant losses. Bullies look for those unwilling to fight back.
So many problems, so let’s make some more. Otherwise known as flooding the zone with shit…
The crazier the better. I wonder what he will come up with when the shelves get empty because the ships from China have stopped? Get ready for the shit tornado of your life time.
Easy to figure it up Sabine: "it's Biden fault"
Hello Sabine... That is when Greenlanders should Fear the Most...
Blame others is ALL he ever does besides deny, deny, deny. And pretend that any descent is crazy or lying.
That scheiße-show may be by design to use the data looted by the D.O.G.E. rogues to seize power, in the nerd reich's wet dream of a digital coup. Something like the pre-text for tyranny of the Reichstag fire just after Hitler assumed power.
The Guns of August are close at hand.
A great book, Chris.
As great in inverse proportion as European leaders then were all fools. The diplomats. The military leaders. The bankers. And most everyone else, too. None realized what modern war had irrevocably become -- and 50 years earlier, demonstrably so, in the U.S. civil war.
Barbara Tuchman published "The Proud Tower" on this in 1966 (four years after "The Guns of August"). It deals with all those elites of that era, all so blind to what their modernity had wrought.
Dems mostly all out-of-touch fools today. Republicans, criminal and criminality-abetting worse fools.
And the young, thanks to schools killed by testing, mostly read no books in whole ever.
Per AI (of course!): "Approximately 54% of American adults read below a sixth-grade level. More than 130 million American adults, or 21% of the population, have low literacy skills." Tik Tok and podcasts are sooo much easier.
All of her books worth a read and. Online with more current books to get a wide view. That’s the best part of reading two books at once!
The Europeans also had more recent examples of modern warfare in East Asia: the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5 and Russo-Japanese War 1904-5. Unfortunately they learned the wrong lessons from those conflicts. They all thought they were prepared with advanced artillery, machine guns and ships, and would be the rapid victors of any modern war, like the Japanese had been twice in a row.
WOWerful comment, there, Phil. Thank you. There was reference to total war in Europe from Crimea and, to a lesser extent (i.e., more on the level of speed of operations), in the Franco-Prussian war. I once read an article that placed the origin of World War I at the feet of excess optimism, perhaps complacence and arrogance, that reason would preclude the slaughter that followed.
That's my fear.
If Canada wanted a 67 year old gimpy lady to help them, I would.
Someone recently warned a Canadian that her country should brace herself for a flood of English speaking illegals coming from SOUTH-of-the-border. You would contribute much toward the vibrant neighbor.
That you would write such a thing, and I would agree.
Unthinkable,6 months ago.
Apache, perhaps the most despicable aspect of the rogue Trumpanzee out of control flanked by obsequious marionettists is this gangster régime's despicable acts and statements becoming predictable. Good insight there, good man.
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_61472.htm P.S., on protecting Canada and Greenland: a careful reading does not limit Article #51 collective defense against attacks from nations outside the alliance. U.S. aggression, likely backed by fellow fat-so in Buda Pest could be defended by the other N.A.T.O. allies with the likely exceptions of Turkey and Slovakia.
The Netanyahu deals made to take away Americans' First Amendment rights are starting to come apart at the seams. They would disintegrate to powder if corporate media allowed this reality to be discussed openly in detail. I'm surely not counting on the NYT to inform me on this one. I wonder how many HCR readers have followed the details through recent years?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTy0jq0Czto
Corporate media is complicit. More like aiding and abetting
https://onaquietday.org/tag/fairness-and-accuracy-in-reporting/
A case in point.
Again going on my thoughts today history is so important! 1947 and 1948. The novels of Leon Uris. And beyond into the past. Gabe Mate MD has good explanations.
Yes, it is important to look at events in 1947 and 1948. I had to put Blumenthal's book down for a week after reading Chapter 4 because it was so disturbing. You can catch it here. The book is well annotated and no one has refuted the documentation although there are massive ad hominem attacks on the compiler--as expected.
https://lawanddisorder.org/wp-content/uploads/9781568586342-text-LOW-RES.pdf
The Hill of Shame Chapter 4 refutes Netanyahu government's propaganda that The Gaza War began on October 7, 2023
And the inhumanity continues to this present day.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/07/israel-starving-gaza?CMP=GTUS_email
Thanks for your reply!
And ruling the world, Phil. That really gets him on the inside. Great for someone always with his nose pressed to the glass. And revenge must be payment enough (along with the cash), to make up for the hassles. After all, he can always blame somebody else. No matter how he screws up, he can always blame somebody else. It’s his mantra. Isn’t that what we all teach our children.
Phil, I share your ANGER!
That was quite a rant.
Well done, Phil. Especially "humanly empty" and the quaint Clarence Thomas.
Great summary of the corrupt, mindless lunacy that we are being subjected to right now. Every Republican that voted these IDIOTS into these agencies richly deserves to lose their seats IF we have free and fair elections in the midterms.
I want them ALL out. They all stood and applauded at the SOU. They don't deserve re-election, they deserve a fair trial.
Trump is a mentally ill man and someone needs to 25th him. Anyone?….anyone?….out there brave enough to call it what it is?
Considering how much trump loves LBGT community, I wonder if he knew the Village People was formed to appeal to gays?
Everyone was probably afraid to explain the Village People.
Says it all.
Hey Phil in four years how many reporters got to ask Joe any questions? And his stand-in and didn’t even look like him KJP with her magical deflection notebook.
Rick, you obviously never paid attention to the hundreds of interviews Biden gave competently and to the point. You’re either willfully ignorant or a f-n troll, go away.
Boy, you better look up some stats you are feverishly misled.
During his first, entering into the political conversation before his election, he spent a good portion of his time in a basement, not answering any questions, and while Trump gives press conferences, at least once a week if not multiple times a week old Biden did with St KGP with her fake fantasy notebook you must be kidding me. Were you dreaming about these? Everyone knows that Biden refused to talk to the media refused to answer questions refused to give press conferences. Go, google how many press conferences, Joe had!
I’m looking forward to your reply. Won’t be answering you for a little while. I’ll be on vacation but I will get back to you but you’re not gonna have any answers for me nor for yourself. Joe Biden press conferences?
https://www.axios.com/2024/07/04/biden-media-interviews-press-data
And this is from one of the most left-leaning media companies covering the White House.
36 in four years. Trump has done almost as many already.
Actually, I’m sending you another link by Axios Joe Biden participated in less press conferences that his last six predecessors
Let me see how many years is that. Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush ,and Reagan…. 44 years !!!!
https://www.axios.com/2024/07/04/biden-media-interviews-press-data. It would be good for you to change the channel from time to time
BS troll
I believe it's wise not to feed them after midnight, lest they turn into Goonies.
No, they turn into facts that make it hard for you to sleep
ZZZZzzzzz. Bad, Ricky, bad. Sit and stay.
Trump Blew It - Mearsheimer (5/1/25) 38-minute interview
https://www.youtube.com/live/V-CEnF0ZV2k?si=whUuVKzvTKAlFiEE
“I appeared on “Judging Freedom” with Judge Napolitano. We discussed President Trump’s failed attempt to put an end to the Ukraine war and his floundering foreign policy more generally. Think what has happened to the American brand around the world. It is clear after Trump’s first 100 days in office that he has mishandled the various foreign policy problems he confronted when he took office. And his prospects for fixing things do not look good at all.”
Judge Napolitano asked Mearsheimer what he feels Ukraine will look like if Ukraine resolves the conflict between Ukraine and Russia - Mearsheimer feels the longer Ukraine pushes back, the weaker Ukraine gets, to the point where Ukraine/Russia end up with a ‘frozen conflict agreement’ and the big picture is to avoid a future conflict with the six potential flashpoints;
1. a war that could involve the Arctic
2. or a war around the Baltic Sea
3. around Kaliningrad
4. around Moldova
5. around Belarus
6. or around the Black Sea
Hello JakSaa... I wonder if a Seizure of Greenland will be attempted as a PR Stunt to reverse DJT's Political Fortunes... The Invasion of Grenada distracted from the Disastrous Lebanon Marine Barracks Bombing...
Apache, I hope not. I vetted the six flashpoints that Mearsheimer mentioned and Google Gemini AI tool recognized what he said, so I don’t trust anything Trump does, because he doesn’t read, or consult with any experienced strategic diplomats. We need Trump out asap.
Hello JaKsaa... I hope not as well.... With DJT, always imagine the Worst, and DJT will exceed it in the Worst Way....
Tell it to our fool Dems, JaKsaa.
They could have called the vote in the Senate to enforce the Constitution's Article 14, Section Three. But Chuck Schumer was then the fool he still is now.
They could negotiate now with moderate Republicans in the House to give majority so Hakeem Jeffries can be majority leaders and so call for that same vote in the House.
If either house of Congress calls that vote, and it fails to get the 2/3 necessary legally to clear the insurrectionist, he is legally out of office.
But Dems are still totally out of touch. Total fools (as all become who attend schools only for testing). They can do fund-raising, and more fund-raising, and e-mails every day, every day for $$$. Nothing else.
Funny . . . not . . . but in 2019 I was talking with students in Tunisia about the likelihood of a nuclear war. The two flash-points that crossed my mind were Kashmir and the Middle East, though I figured the Middle East was less likely. 🤔
We here we are with those two widely identified flash-points; nothing original in my onlook. The ones you bring up were likely around back then but had receded in the minds of all but the most perceptive and / or anti-soviet onlookers and analysts. 🤫
JaKsaa, you detail smartly the reasons why the U.S. and Europe need to aid Ukraine in defeating Russia decisively and taking back all of the lands stolen by the gangster régime. Crimea's unique history should be settled under the aegis of Ukraine. 🛑
I remember the confusion from the speed with which that Grenada Invasion was launched (2 days after the Marine Barracks in Lebanon was attacked), and a week spent trying to recover from all screw ups. Of course there were much more heroic sounding stories put out over the years following with the worst parts buried too deeply from most of the public.
Following the Mayaguez incident 8 years earlier, it just happened that our small unit was being switched from Air Weather Service to fall under the Air Force Communications Service. I had to brief the Comm Group on what we did in our detachment during one of the monthly Commander's Calls, right after we had a presentation at the unit we supported. They had a film showing how our satellite weather data had made the rescue possible by finding a safe area to refuel the helicopters despite no normal weather radar data being available right after the fall of South Vietnam. The group commander thought I did such a great presentation that he announced he wanted all of the other shops to take turns at future meetings to show what they did. Almost all the troops were encouraged, maybe even thrilled, by the heroic action portrayed (except the other shop supervisors who asked me how in the hell they were supposed to try to promote their individual shops). What really sobered me up, though, was that this was one of the two best Comm Groups in the Air Force, and there were some of the radio types in the back that looked seriously upset by the film.
When I quietly sought them out and carefully asked what was up, they said several of them had been on or around the mission. They told a much different, more complete, story of the desperation, mistakes and losses that they weren't allowed to reveal to the public so soon after evacuation of South Vietnam.
From them, I learned that though we had to sign non-disclosure agreements of from 10 to 35 years, we always had to assume the complete stories could not be told, and the silence on events seemed the best indicators that not everything went off as well as told to the public.
Almost all I know won't inflate the successes and will pointedly remain silent if asked too much about the failures (in public). I'm encouraged that they don't stay silent, though, at least in a few closed meetings where we try to prevent future similar sub optimal actions.
Fascinating experience. Jim, are you referring to the Granada 'rescue' or the Mayaguez? I am pretty sure the former, but not 100% sure. Thank you for your patience. I had a class-mate from college, whom I admired as a gentleman of Southern honor, who almost got killed.
🙏🏾
Then I ran into another class-mate ten years later in N.Y.C. who had either been to Grenada or knew of it in detail. When I asked him about our class-mate, he did not say anything but implied by facial expression and body language that my injured class-mate -- portrayed heroically in the Alumni magazine -- had made a big mistake.
🤝🏻
Jim, I still, and have always, admired both implicitly as better men than l.
Jim... Silence Can Be 'Golden'... Sometimes the 'Real Hard-Men' are the Quiet Ones...
This sub-thread is what I appreciate about this forum. I read, at least, and try to acknowledge each comment following one of mine. More out of politeness than egotism . . . . l hope.🤭😳🤞🏼
In this case, however, I can hardly assert a 'proprietary' interest in my throw-away quip expressing exasperation with an attention-seeking troll. The intelligence and lively discussion in this sub-thread is yours alone. Thank you, all. 🤝🏻🥳💡
Once again, a masterful letter, pulling together the pieces of this debacle of a regime. The crypto crime is of untold proportion that will take literal years to sort through. But the thing that stands out — in every situation where Trump speaks— is that he is decompensating at an accelerating rate.
His head is so spun around about tariffs, that he seems to now believe that countries shipping goods TO the US, are actually shopping in the US.
He’s clearly afraid of Canadian PM Carney, and trying to bluff his way through the publicized session where he seems to suggest that there is a pretty line painted at the top US border (like line-painting on a multi-lane highway, one supposes), and that if he just repaints it a bit higher with one of his Sharpies, the deal will be done.
Where are the cries for having him medicated and placed in long-term care??? Cabinet??? Congress? Courts? We the People?? When you realize that the likes of Hegseth, Miller, Navarro, Loomer, Lutnik and Musk are his echo chamber, you realize the terrifying peril the US — and indeed the globe — are in.
Bless you Dr. R., for steeling your resolve against the PTSD of trying to record this history. Please take care.
As an extra note: there is also the fact that the government has stopped publishing the tally of federal spending that is required under multiple federal laws (and was turned into a record-keeping website in the Biden administration). The website is gone, and the Regime is saying it no longer believes this information should be made public because it reveals too much sensitive data. Yep — that data that accounts for where and how much of our tax dollars are going. They. Don’t. Want. Us. To. Know.
Dear Jean - it's interesting you brought up the trump administration's hiding of spending. Because Germany's borrowing debt was climbing year after year, the Nazis stopped publishing their annual budgets beginning in the 1930s. Corruption ran rampant under Hitler, Orban, Putin, and other authoritarians.
Sad but true story, L. Many top U.S. firms and banks invested in Hitler's Waffen SS.
These were all pure (as in racially pure white) corporations, all through the 1930s, all led by the oldest WASP families, all with vintage private school and Ivy League educations.
Sad but true, L.
Phil,
Ivy League “non-education”. Pure gratifying bull shit about how the elite put themselves above regular well educated people.
Yes. Once again, Dr. Richardson’s nightly letter, that we all so appreciate, is indeed masterful. The notion, blurted out today by the President of our beloved country, that we are a mere store in which to shop makes my head explode. My heart is sick.
He also doesn’t know the meaning of the word “shopping.”
Yes. You have to see it to believe it: https://youtu.be/rWF4Bpp2e34?feature=shared
I'm getting a Pavlovian cringe at the sound of the word "deal".
Art of the Deal - here’s another take: he’s using a marked deck. (He calls himself a real estate guy, but remember, card sharks also “deal.”)
When you watch that video it makes you sick. THAT is the person making very serious decisions for our country.
I worry that with the lack of anyone in this administration having the knowledge that they need for that position that any one of our enemies could bomb or destroy major cities due to the lack of their incompetence. Scary times!
Or the word "groceries, as it's called." - donald trump in one of his rambling speeches.
His words reinforce how out of touch he is with regular, working-class Americans. I truly believe he hates us all. Probably not as much as we hate him, though.
BC, indeed, Donald is out of touch with regular people, but more worrisome to me is that he is out of touch with reality.
What sane, coherent adult believes they have revived a formerly disused word like "groceries?" What sane, coherent adult thinks they have to define the word?
What sane, coherent adult believes they could be electrocuted by falling in the water where a battery had been dropped?
What sane, coherent adult thinks international trade is like shopping?
These comments are those of a person who is experiencing severe mental decline. There's nothing wrong with mental decline; it happens to many elderly folks. But the right place for them is at home under nursing care or at a facility designed for that purpose. It is not the U.S. White House.
Would he apply to Medicare/ Medicaid to pay for his care?
What, hasn't he abolished them yet?
His so called speeches are simply ramblings of a sick psychopath. Quit listening and start demanding his impeachment, Every time a corporate media publishes anything the entire magas 2025 mafia says ,” we the people” are sucking on lies. Only lies and blatantly spit at we the people. May they never forget how ugly and complicit in criminal intent they are. They are treasonous felons! Death penalty to them.
He thinks that sharpie can be as effective as executive orders. Surprise, sharpies have no republican sycophants to back them up.
So, the Art of the Deal becomes clearer: Get a “Get-Out-Of-Tariff-Jail Free card if you buy a massive Starlink subscription.
Here’s the latest from WaPo: ….
https://wapo.st/3GIrckO
“Less than two weeks after President Donald Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on goods from the tiny African nation of Lesotho, the country’s communications regulator held a meeting with representatives of Starlink.
The satellite business, owned by billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, had been seeking access to customers in Lesotho. But it was not until Trump unveiled the tariffs and called for negotiations over trade deals that leaders of the country of roughly 2 million people awarded Musk’s firm the nation’s first-ever satellite internet service license, slated to last for 10 years.”
“The decision drew a mention in an internal State Department memo obtained by The Washington Post, which states: “As the government of Lesotho negotiates a trade deal with the United States, it hopes that licensing Starlink demonstrates goodwill and intent to welcome U.S. businesses.”
A series of internal government messages obtained by The Post reveal how U.S. embassies and the State Department have pushed nations to clear hurdles for U.S. satellite companies, often mentioning Starlink by name. The documents do not show that the Trump team has explicitly demanded favors for Starlink in exchange for lower tariffs. But they do indicate that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has increasingly instructed officials to push for regulatory approvals for Musk’s satellite firm at a moment when the White House is calling for wide-ranging talks on trade.
In India, government officials have sped through approvals of Starlink with the understanding that doing so could help them cement trade deals with the administration, according to two people familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reflect private deliberations.”
I didn't know this. Thank you for informing.
Amen
What WON’T they not do??
Had no idea about this.
Appreciate this additional (yet dreaded) information.
I saw that yesterday, and I think also that that is being remedied. Haven't yet checked this morning.
A couple of Congressional committees have issued strongly worded (and actually bipartisan) letters.
Good luck with that. You know it’s going to take a SC ruling to ensure that the law is followed (and sadly, that’s no sure thing).
>>>A month later, when the Washington Post published similar coverage, the department [DOJ] redoubled its focus on stopping leaks.<<<
Idiots. It's not a leak when the information that is released was obtiained through a legal FOIA request. The Keystone Kops just don't like the negative information, period, and want to suppress it if they can, using cheap fireworks.
Exactly. And then they release a statement like this one: “ story: “It is outrageous that as President Trump and his administration work hard every day to make America safe by deporting these violent criminals, some in the media remain intent on twisting and manipulating intelligence assessments to undermine the president’s agenda to keep the American people safe.”
…in which literally EVERY word is a lie.
Please, someone, explain to me how a woman who has just given birth is a danger to the United States. We're supposed to be this big, strong country that abides by the rule of law but evidently, not any more. What really angers me is what is being done to good people who have done nothing wrong. Those who show up to their routine scheduled ICE annual interview, and have always shown up, playing by the rules and doing things right, who are then put on a plane and removed from the country.
A woman who has just given birth is not a danger to the United States, and neither are children - unless you dehumanize them and make them into "vermin" . Classical trick from the fascist's playbook...
The MAGAt sycophants inside and outside the trump regime are like termites. They are in so many places, like DOGE, chewing on the infrastructure of our government. Unchecked termite damage can cause structural collapse.
How about deporting a child with stage 4 cancer who is in treatment? This government does not have a human bone in the entire basket of deplorables.
Heart-breaking and so slimy.
Trouble is, Dutch, they're so far into their madness that they believe their lies.
Timothy Snyder documents this syndrome in Russia first, very carefully, in much detail, in his 2018 history, "The Road to Unfreedom."
Putin and that crowd so believe their victimizations of themselves by a degenerate West that the mass deaths of Ukrainians, and mass destruction of their country, comes off to them as blameless necessity.
Other diseased western countries must be taken out subsequent to Ukraine.
As Stephen Miller, Vance, Hegseth, Noem, and their mad boss similarly see their precious white U.S. under siege by perverts and degenerates, all the more they will excuse unleashing the U.S. military to restore "order." May be huge shipments of Americans who comment on pages like this to prisons in paid-off third-world dictatorships. Shipments with no legality -- just homeland security emergency.
I'm sad to say I share your assessment. I'm still convinced that Heather's Substack will be forbidden by "law" before the end of this year.
You assess them as I do, just waiting for a significant foe to disappear or have an “accident,” if we ever get one.
Every word any of them utter, and they can’t suppress the smirks.
Even the spaces in between words are lies Dutch.😳
Dutch Mike, I don't know about you, but I feel less safe these days.
Me, too... And I live in Europe. But Trump's chaos and malignancy is also felt here.
This is what a dystopian society sounds like! The lies slip out of their mouths like used motor oil covering us with misinformation and untruths! It’s going to be a long clean up to get this administration filth off our nation.
Please Dutch substitute President Trump for Kim Jong -un and the statement would make the same sense.
I'm sorry, but I can't: I will never call that sad orange excuse for a human being "president".
The levels of corruption are so high and widespread throughout this Trump administration. This corruption is so rampant and glaring that it is almost impossible to read a report or article without a mention of it. It is intertwined within every aspect of this administration.
Heather Cox Richardson’s explanation of the cryptocurrency earlier today helped me to better understand how the President Trump and his family are using crypto in different ways to enrich themselves.
.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has helpfully listed all the various acts of corruption and ethics violations. It's probably going to need updating on a regular basis to keep up.
https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-warren-reads-100-acts-of-trump-corruption-into-congressional-record-to-mark-100-days-of-the-trump-administration
Senator Patty Murray and others are tracking the amount of funds the administration is illegally withholding.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/trumps-team-has-disrupted-some-430b-in-federal-funds-top-democrats-say-often-against-the-law/
I remember that in his first term, the Washington Post embarked on an exercise of essentially listing every misrepresentation and lie emerging from the Trump administration together with source material for those interested in examining it further. Somewhere around the 30,000 number they (and no doubt most of their readers) wearied of the process and abandoned it. They have resumed fact-checking again in this second term but wisely not the compilation as Trump's misstatements and infractions are increasing at an even faster rate than before.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
Like the police killing database that the WAPO keeps that probably doesn't get as many hits as it did back when they started in 2015 I think it says. It is behind a paywall so I can't even read the entire headline anymore.
The FBI doesn't even track the people killed by police each year but the WAPO does.
Trump and almost all the Republican politicians have normalized lying and yet people still vote for them.
GJ, the fact that people still vote for them, proves that there's no cure for stupidity.
Go Patty! Go Maria! Go Smith! Go Jayapal! Proud to have these people & others trying to publicize the effects on the budgets
This is really helpful—keeping a full list of corruption and ethics violations—because it’s impossible to keep track any other way. Simply too many.
Ann, I'm not sure whether the Senator's staff are going to keep this list updated, but if you like lists concerning Trump, Just Security's Litigation Tracker has a very helpful chart of all the lawsuits filed against the administration which in a way serves as a list of most of the instances of executive overreach.
https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/
Thank you!
You're welcome, Ann.
Thanks, I will read that.
It's important to read accounts of this because of all his impeachable offenses, this is the worst. Every day he violates the Emoluments Clause. Every day. It's the one impeachable offense that's explicitly singled out in the Constitution not under the general "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" rubric --- a sign of how seriously our Founders took that. A President shall not profit by public service.
If we had a real media, they'd be shoving microphones in Republicans' faces every day, following them into bathrooms --- 'how can you justify doing nothing while a President openly violates the Emoluments Clause, making stratospheric amounts of money from real estate transactions, bitcoin (dark money) investments, and the like?'
Where are the qui tam suits?
Let me count the ways…
But what will keep us safe from Trump and his regime? Far more dangerous and murderous and cruel than any of the so called dangerous criminals being kidnapped and sent to El Salvadore without due process. We are doing our best to stop these criminals, but my heart breaks for all those harmed, both domestically and internationally.
The oligarchs are winning. Their universal ideology is - "Whoever dies with the most money wins." And also "FUCK the non-billionaires."
GJ Loft, it’s not just the billionaires. For those with limited empathy, it’s “I’ve got mine; fuck you!”
So haven't the oligarchs been winning since placating them was firmly ensconced in the Constitution?
It’s the same as Adolf did labeling the Jews as enemies. Repeat the lies and soon they will be believed.
Well, you just threw all credibility out the window. Anyone that uses Adolf or any reference to Nazi Germany here is a freaking ignorant idiot.
Trump is actually keeping you safe from all the damage that Biden did during his administration although we’re not so sure if it was really Biden.
Be patient there, Wendy I’ll be on vacation for a few weeks and you’ll have a reprieve, but lots of unanswered questions above
BS troll
Oh how one begs for details of the “Biden’s Fault” administration misdeeds . I’m going to need names, places, timelines… you know, proof.
Please provide these necessary details. Accusations without proof is just bullshit. Which is what Rick is missing in his inaccurate, inane, nonsensical statement.
Rick sender is obviously on another bender!
But Pam Bondi was not on another bender. All the illegals and arrested.
The Justice Department said law enforcement officials seized more than 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of fentanyl pills, 11.5 kilos of fentanyl powder, 80 kilos of methamphetamine, 7.5 kilos of cocaine and 4.5 kilos of heroin. The bust also netted $5 million in cash and 49 rifles and pistols, U.S. officials said, while releasing several images of the seized items. 3 milllion pills
Thank you, Joe and add that to the list
I think I’ll just agree with my fellow Substack subscribers, you’re a troll. Not even a good one. That’s why you couldn’t stop yourself from answering my pointedly sarcastic remarks. Now, you just sound like you’re in a cult. (I’ve got a $10 riding on you’ll reply to this.) 🎲 🎲
I'm a cult for common sense and reason. You might want to try that combination.
I'm not a partisan or have been for 40 years or more. FYI Bill Clinton is my third favorite president.
Voted for him twice, despite his wandering PP
Well, people can certainly choose to be wrong. I have no problem with that and I'm not trying to convince you I'm just showing you 40 links that you can look at yourself as verifiable facts. You want to deny them no problem with me.
One of the only honest people here who actually look at all the evidence before I render a decision versus all the people here only see this crap from one side of the aisle just look at the links and be honest with yourself not one right leaning link in any of her posts. Huffington post really ?
Never smoked, never drank, never took any drugs any other questions
Got a mirror?
So? What’s your point?
What’s the matter? You’re not able to use a computer.?
Why did Biden pardon his entire family? Yeah, you read that right? and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Google all the details and the fact it’ll make you sick.
Do you think it was against the law to open the border and try to get those illegals people to vote? You know we do have a quota and you know they did try to get them to vote. Oooooops . Think it was OK for people to lie about hunters laptop. think it was OK to lie about the Russia hoax. Do you think it was OK for 51 people to basically potentially liable themselves by lying about his laptop?
Do you think it was OK to send Ukraine $170 billion to kill people and bury cities instead of trying to stop it? Do you think it was OK for him to allow Russia to attack in the first place? All he was doing is following in Obamas foot steps
Do you think it was OK to leave $85 billion of brand new military equipment in Afghanistan for our enemies to use?
Did you think it was OK? Worst of all as I mentioned before, for not only him but his entire administration and staff to hide the fact of his diminishing mental and physical capacities for more than two years? Not to mention legacy media. Who is lying profusely two weeks before they ran over him with the bus and put Kamala Harris in.
I have posted a link after link after link here but you’re late to the party. I’m just giving you highlights, but you have the ability to go look it up but look it up as if you were a rabid right wing person and wanted to hear all the bad stuff you could hear. But be fully medicated first.
Rick, seriously you’re gullible and in a cult. I just watched Pam Bondi’s Alcatraz press conference. She’s idiotic.
How creative!
Honesty is seldom creative
I sent you a long winded addition of Biden's mid steps mistakes, malfunctions, and mental incapacity
Denial isn't a good road to take
The worst of which was opening the border with the full intent of getting those people to vote Democrat, which was against the law and defying the Supreme Court's order not to give student loans.
But you keep needing to ask yourself now that books are coming up a Democrats talking about his mental defectiveness since January 1923 why they bumped him from the race he was literally thrown under the bus by fellow Democrats
Here's the funnier one she's idiotic, ?but they threw Biden under the bus after lying about it for 2 1/2 years. By the way, one of my favorite presidents was Bill Clinton just so you know top three.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/doj-announces-largest-fentanyl-bust-in-us-history-targeting-operation-led-by-sinaloa-cartel-5853472
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/doj-announces-largest-fentanyl-bust-in-us-history-targeting-operation-led-by-sinaloa-cartel-5853472 I could go on with these for days. Tamp down on your TDS.
I'm getting on a plane check out USA today as well and any number of other sites it's all there. Oooops
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fentany-bust-arrests-justice-department-pam-bondi/
CBS News pretty reliable source don't you think for you? There's dozens more but you just don't wanna search and when you find it you just don't wanna believe so there's nothing I can do for you. You need help.
It wasn't in Alcatraz, but it's your prerogative to ignore the attorney general of the United States
Let's see if anyone that's arrested by her or indicted by her can just say well she's not my Attorney General. I don't believe in her so tell her you can't arrest me. Lol
Check out the arrest of 16 illegal immigrants and the largest drug bust in decades.
You are in full denial, my dear, and unfortunately, you have four more years to go
Read below where they are and that’s just a few.
Oooops try this one The Justice Department said law enforcement officials seized more than 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of fentanyl pills, 11.5 kilos of fentanyl powder, 80 kilos of methamphetamine, 7.5 kilos of cocaine and 4.5 kilos of heroin. The bust also netted $5 million in cash and 49 rifles and pistols, U.S. officials said, while releasing several images of the seized items. Thanks, Joe.
Please cite all references regarding your “The Justice Department said... “ FOX NEWS doesn’t count. Neither does anything Pam Bondi says. Because I can make stuff up, too. We’re going to go with manufactured bull💩 until you provide reliable sources with names, timelines, where these seizures took place and so on. You’re the one with the attention seeking behavior, so have at it.
I'm not your errand boy and of course what you still understand is your side of a ledger doesn't tell you everything at all. It's all over the news there's photos there's photos of the pills, the cash, the drugs, and the 16 that do your own searches
It's all there and by the way, we don't like Fox News tell that to the third largest audience of all TV watching that doubles the viewership of CNN and MSNBC COMBINED
I KEEP TELLING MOST OF YOU THAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU THE WHOLE STORY AND WHEN YOU DON'T SEE IT ON YOUR NETWORKS, YOU SAY IT'S DENIAL, PHOTOS, ARRESTS PHOTOS OF THE ARRESTEES PHOTOS OF THE DRUGS, PHOTOS OF THE CASH
Actually, I have a better idea. Why don't you just ask Heather let's see if she lies to you too, but she won't. She'll tell you the truth if you ask her.
Lol
I found about 40 references, but I only sent you like six
Certain until the cows come home and you'll still be in denial
Yeah, Good don't pay any attention to the Attorney General of the United States Good call. Lololol
You have a brief reply below. Enjoy
Put all your savings into the Trump cryptos. Let us know how it all works out. It surely will protect all of us.
By the way Barney and you might wanna pass this on there were number of people here who kept talking about fentanyl doesn't come from the illegal immigrants. It comes through the border and another means legally, but they sneak it in until today when 12 legal immigrants were arrested, and the biggest fentanyl arrest in American history 3 million pills able to kill I don't know hundred million people 50 or 60 weapons and $5 million in cash
You didn't mention that the investigation into this gang started before Trump was president.
Yeah, investigations are great just like you investigated the border right where are the arrests? Where are the seizures like the one they had the other day when people are saying most of the fentanyl comes in legally through legal border entry in hidden compartments, etc. and not buy now they found the biggest bust on record by 16 illegal immigrants
Biden did a lot of first steps followed by nothing
And the result is all the criminality that's being arrested now the number of deaths, rapes children, and missing children. But you keep backing him. I'm OK with that.
There is something you might not be familiar with: It's called the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. Among the many things in the amendment is a sentence that states that "[no person] shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
That said, indeed Biden DID deport (with due process of law) many more than Trump in his first term and a much larger rate, so far than your idol in his first 100 days:
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/trump-2-immigration-first-100-days
I’m not a risk taker. I rely on old-school traditional deals and values and invest wisely based on my needs goals and aspirations and my age.
No one forces you to Barney, but nice try. Maybe you should’ve invested in Solyndra? Lmao . Maybe you should donate to Obama’s public library that’s taken eight years to build and it’s just sitting there dormant
Indeed, I have a financial advisor. are you buying Bitcoin? These are a few words from his monthly newsletter:
"There is a growing consensus that the age of American
exceptionalism is over, and that after years of riding the US tech
boom, investors should diversify their portfolios away from US
markets. The economy shrank in Q1, the first time in three years and
the stock market reflected it. Geoeconomic tensions are running
high, around the globe, and the world’s two biggest economies are
exchanging salvos in a nasty trade war.
The world has changed. Tariff wars are sending economies into
recession and essentially, the American president has instituted an
enormous tax hike on consumers, which would be the largest tax hike
in history. Elsewhere, Japan cut its economic growth forecast and
this is happening everywhere. After Trump's April 2nd "Liberation
Day" levies sent stock markets reeling, we are now in the period of
"pause" until early July while the administration is seeking to rewrite
100 different trade agreements. "
Sounds great. doesn't it Rick?
Yeah, harvey take a breath and exhale and you'll be fine
I surprise your age you don't have more patience, but anything from Trump thats good I'm not surprised. You hate it whether it's good for you or not.
Let me repeat, breathe in, breathe out. Lol
You don’t need safety you need to join the team support America. And if you wonder why your approval rating is only 20% keep supporting the illegal criminals versus American citizens that have been injured or raped or trafficked by these people.
Write all you like. I don't read your comments. See your name and move on.
Ok so you’ve officially “lemminged” yourself alongside all the other closed minded gullible folks here…..good thing you’re not a juror with a loved one on trial….if the jurors are like you, they will close their eyes and ears when the defense gets up to speak.
I've heard from Trump supporters that although Trump doesn't have a clue about tariffs, the people behind him are financial experts with sophisticated knowledge to guide economic policies so that they work very, very well for America. But the people behind Trump 2.0 are not experts, just “yes people” anxious to carry out what Trump wants, and that leaves us with no way forward with tariffs or anything else.
Often they don't even know what Trump is going to do and have to react quickly -
https://x.com/howardlutnick/status/1919179324910944354
only then to find out that he's changed his mind again -
https://www.nme.com/news/film/donald-trump-softens-plans-for-hefty-tariffs-on-foreign-films-im-not-looking-to-hurt-the-industry-3860727
Some cabinet members are acting precipitately as though to anticipate Trump's wishes, like the execrable Hegseth and also find themselves on the wrong side of a Trump volte face -
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/06/canceled-ukraine-military-aid-shipments-trump-hegseth
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/u-s-will-immediately-resume-military-aid-to-ukraine-trump-administration-says
It's chaos, pure and simple.
From Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory
The butterfly effect, an underlying principle of chaos, describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state (meaning there is sensitive dependence on initial conditions). A metaphor for this behavior is that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can cause or prevent a tornado in Texas.
Move fast and break things. Trump won most of the rural counties in the US. Many of them will NEVER abandon him or MAGA. But when and if they do, because they are tired of being screwed over by the people that promised them that they would be able to afford groceries, rent and energy, many will change their minds.
Remember, there are over 100,000 elections being held all over the US in 2025. The voter turnout for most of these elections is usually very small. So take back your local governments from the Fascists and the Evangelicals by helping "normal" people to get elected.
In super conservative Fort Worth, TX they just threw out several MAGA school boards. If this can happen in TX it can happen anywhere.
There's a hugely important lawsuit involving an attempt by the North Carolina legislature to change the election rules for a vacant seat on the state supreme court after the election was won by a Democrat. A ruling yesterday by a Trump-appointed federal judge, Richard Myers II, ordered the legislature to certify the election. This is significant because this was not the first nor is it likely to be the last attempt by Republicans to flip an election.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/06/north-carolina-supreme-court-election-ruling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Auu_k7PRU
Love it, GJ.
There's a reason the testers stress linear systems only. They are all guaranteed as deterministic as the billionaires want those managing our schools and media all to be as much without humanities as can be schooled. And tested. And machine graded.
Staying focused, an individual thought wave/intention with *possibly* exponential effects. Autocracy or democracy? I liked this conversation yesterday “There are only two sides right now: Team Democracy or Team Autocracy. That’s it,” according to Julie Roginsky, editor of Salty Politics Substack and a Democratic Party strategist. With Wajahat Ali (Left Hook Sustack). https://substack.com/home/post/p-162934760
Brings to mind a bobsled hurtling down a narrow, twisting, banked, iced track powered by a gravity called Trump, packed with MAGA members who have no clue which way to lean or when.
But the bobsled will be guided by forces that are at least to some extent predictable - the geometry of the iced track, frictional forces, gravity, the skill of the bobsled team. US policy by contrast is subject to the whims and caprices of an ignorant man. The comedian Seth Meyers has likened Trump's decision-making process to a Roomba when confronted with a wall or other hard obstacle.
Great analogy
Well-planned and deliberate
The ignorance of American voters about econimics is almost as bad as their complete ignorance of how government works, not even knowing that there are three branches of government and why.
I despair.
Constance every single administration has nothing in it, but yes, people. With the exception of Trump, perhaps as he has two Democrats in his Cabinet ever see a Democrat have a republican in their cabinet. ?
Seems like you are of Trump's same criminal mind , troll
Same ignorant criminal mind.
Do you know Wendy you seem to be one of those people that have significant symptoms of TDS and also you have symptoms of hearing only out of her left ear, and only seeing out of the left eye
No, I can make a major list, but I’m just going to mention one thing just to make you more aware. Why did Joe Biden pardon his whole family? Why did 51 people make up a story about hunters laptop being a hoax? Just two little ditties out of probably 25 more that are significant but I just thought I’d post those to you, so you understand both sides of the argument. As far as I know, Trump was not accused of anything during his presidency. Joe, Biden, on the other hand, has his hands full with pardons and you know why
I agree that is the wise thing to do. Don’t bother reading and responding thoughtfully. But sometimes you need to let loose a tad. I don't read his comments.
There's something pharmacological going on there --- or perhaps in dire need of pharmacology, I'm not sure which.
Actually, Rick, there have been a number of presidents, both Democratic and Republican, who have had members of the opposing party serve in their administration, including cabinet posts. For example, the secretaries of defense and the treasury, the director of the CIA, and the national security advisor under JFK were Republican. LBJ, Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden all had Republicans in their administration, including the cabinet. You might want to read through this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_political_appointments_across_party_lines. Enjoy your vacation.
Actually, I said cabinet members would you mind naming any in recent history like not from 50 years ago?
Read it and if that’s the case, I stand corrected However, it’s my opinion, without having looked at your link, that none of them have been key posts/top posts. I am heading out on vacation so I won’t get back to you probably for couple weeks at least and I will read your link by feel free to update your comments regarding cabinet members prominent cabinet members. Thank you.
I’ll just throw this out: Under Obama, secretaries of defense, transportation, veterans affairs, and director of the FBI. I read what you wrote. Now read the article and stand corrected. Jesus, I was just trying to give you information without being snarky. My mistake.
You might wanna continue your investigation because a lot of of the details are not there. Such as the secretary, defense only serve two years and then was changed.
That was just my first investigation and I will get into more as I have time
So he inherited secretary of defense and smartly, actually kept him for two years, but then dumped him two years later
The director of the FBI is not a Cabinet post
I guess the secretary of transportation was indeed, although if you look at how that went on number of people were nominated and chose to bow out for various reasons like Richardson, for example of Arizona.
But I'll give you transportation that's one thank you for submitting that. Appreciate it.
This, absolutely. If they were experts they wouldn’t hem and haw trying to answer a simple question like “who pays the tariffs?”
Unfortunately howlin. . It’s not a simple question. Much depends on the negotiation and how it’s arrived and keep in mind that other countries have been charging us substantially more tariffs than we’ve been charging them, and we are thee consuming nation of the world. There are the things I have understood but many people are not as aware. Ever since Nafta I have always felt like while I want to buy inexpensive/or goods at a lower price… I would like to be able to buy them from people in America, rather than people from China let’s say, who potentially could end up controlling products that we need and cutting them off if we were not in control …as well as they do hardly produce much of our pharmaceutical needs. Scary proposition.
I personally would understand if prices were a little bit higher, but I was taking care of American citizens, and increasing their ability to pay bills and increase their networks versus paying somebody a dollar a day in Bangladesh. And since liberals are so keen on helping the world, which idealistically is admirable. I’d realistically rather help Americans first and the world second. Why don’t we see how this plays out and then we can make a better determination as I’ve mentioned many people here these tarps are going to play out over time because we’ve been doing things the same for 30 years and some of the left expects this thing to turn around with a snap of a finger when you’re rejiggering your entire trade relationships. Patience is what is needed here. Trump has 2 1/2 years more to prove his economic plans we are by midterm, elections happen, and in every case, when a president comes into power with both houses in control of that his party, At the midterms in every single case that has changed, we’re at least one party or both have flipped to the other party. After that, it’s game on. But if Trump is able to negotiate as he thinks he can, and he also processes his big beautiful bill, which asserts no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and more importantly, no tax on Social Security, of which, for example I pay tax on 85% of my Social Security income… but if he gets those included in the bill and it passes, I think the Democrats are gonna be hard pressed for the first time to overturn the Majority in both houses. As I said, Time will tell
“But 764,000 [Trump crypto coin] wallets, mostly owned by small holders, have lost money.”
Almost three quarters of a million sheep to be shorn. That’s a lot of wool.
I have no sympathy; none, zero, for any small-time fool who invests as much as a dime in any financial scheme (scam!) associated with Trump, especially involving a ghost currency like crypto.
If they don’t know by now……
When many of the small investors are asked why they would invest their savings in any of Trump's grifts, they usually mention what a great investment it is and how DonOLD would be making them rich. And then they lose it all. And then they turn around and vote for Trump again.
Cults do that
When you are conditioned from birth to believe that good outcomes are "God's blessings" and unwanted outcomes are "God's will," the man you worship is exempt from responsibility or accountability.
It's worth taking a look at Scott Bessent trying desperately to avoid admitting that tariffs were paid by US importers and consumers. It really is lamentable -
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Le04tfS3MRE
At one point during the grilling, Bessent turned to his favourite explanation of Trump's chaotic tariffs policy, namely 'strategic uncertainty', a concept in game theory. A number of people have already shown more ably than I could how this is a misuse of the term.
https://emergingstrategy.substack.com/p/strategic-uncertainty-isnt-strategy
Trump himself has already undermined this description of his policy -
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EG5Hsgaj7Ns
Trump seems to think that vacillation and incoherence will throw other countries off guard and make it easier for him to succeed when actually it appear to be having exactly the opposite effect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1ypUqbKkz4
As the professor has pointed out, those 200 trade deals were just puffery and now Trump is saying that he doesn't need them after all. So why the tariffs?
Rather macabre high comedy, vaudeville, & Keystone Cops all in one, no, Russell?
Though, deadly, too: counting Ukrainians who pay the price, kids dying from measles, the starving abroad who no longer get U.S. AID, air passengers soon facing DOGE disasters at the FAA,, people of West Bank and Gaza dying by U.S. munitions, and decades of U.S. economic and democracy allies now MAGA-shafted.
Trump 2.0 is Trump 1.0 on steroids.
Chaos theory as well. Trump is merely a tool for the oligarchs. Musk totally failed to find much to cut in the budget and meanwhile killed hundreds of people around the world and in the US. He also ruined the lives of many Americans.
Have you noticed how the weather reporting in your area is far less accurate than it was a few months ago? Take a look at how many top meteorologists were fired by Musk.
And you can blame the fiasco at the Newark airport and at Reagan National on Musk and Trump.
Al Gore and his team methodically went through the Federal agencies to modernize each of them in the 1990's. The result was a 17% reduction in the Federal government work force.
And after all of the chaos and illegal trespassing by Musk and his incompetent DOGE boys, they have found very little. Musk is a ketamine drug addict who can't find his ass with both hands.
Trumpism will become a metonym for incompetence and chaos. The sight of transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, being stranded at Newark airport is a perfect illustration of this.
More seriously, Trump's attacks on science and education will have profoundly damaging implications for the competitiveness of the American economy and for the safety of citizens and communities. He's doing what Hitler did in the 1930's - turning science into politics.
As your comments show, however, much of the obloquy has been successfully transferred to Elon Musk and even when he's departed Trump will continue to ensure that he has a protective blanket of advisers and ministers who can conveniently be blamed for any fiasco that occurs. For time being, with Mike Waltz's sideways move to US ambassador to the UN, he's clinging on to his 'no scalps' policy, but that's not likely to last long as his attempts to blame people outside his administration (Biden, Powell etc) have fallen on infertile ground.
They all have mastered the word salad of their master, as well as Goebbels rules for propaganda.
Really? According to Trump, Alcatraz is strong and weak, beautiful and horrible and miserable, left and right, black and white, farty and fresh. I dare anyone to make any sense of this in policy terms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhy_tBk-BCM
The most his officials can do is enthusiastically support any new statement of policy, however contradictory and their contortions are cringeworthy -
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5orjmgjXJaw
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Le04tfS3MRE
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zJNdTtNYKS0
They all lie with every breath…
Amen.
Russell, thanks for the links. Not a single second wasted..!!!!
So US foreign policy unfolds…we may be looking at an invasion of Greenland…a full on confrontation with NATO and abrogation of article 5 mutual defense, all while Bibi is unleashed to entirely demolish Gaza for a Trump Tower, ’cleansing’ it of Palestinians; nukes are brandished between Pakistan and India; and Putin is left free to roam from Ukraine to the Balkan’s to the Baltics.
no but we may be looking at a major win in the Middle East. Stay tuned.
And with any mention of Putin, you have to mention two other words, Obama and Biden end of story. And of course, you forgot to mention the mineral deal which perhaps you don’t even understand of what significance that is.
BS troll
Rick, I actually do know a bit about the mineral deal/extortion but I don’t want to go down that road today. But I do hope you have a good day.
We understand all right. We understand that you are ignoirant.
Tulsi Gabbard wants to keep the American people safe? QUIT with all your fellow cruel conspirators against the American people.
Add EVERY Republican politician to that list. Cowards are just as complicit as Trump/Musk and their gang of cruel and evil money grubbing sycophants.
And all the “hate the libs” voters who sicced this evil, horrible criminal and his cruel co-conspirators on us.
Prime motivation from way back
Goebbels’s lies, they went to the master
Before quitting Wendyl, they need authorization from Putin and two weeks notice for him to find "qualified" replacements.
Trump’s Global MemeCoin Grift: Follow the money with this interactive relationship map.
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/05/05/trumps-global-memecoin-grift-follow-the-money-map/
Trump to Ease Crypto Rules for U.S. Banks - TechStory
The US Is Turning a Blind Eye to Crypto Crimes under the Trump
Federal authorities are declining to charge crypto firms with a range of offenses, raising questions about which rules apply and who will enforce them. - Wired
The trail of money leaves a stench. No bloodhound is needed to follow it, but most of MSM can’t smell a thing.
.
Nepotism, robber barons and mobsters - yay - America is great again.
I can't wait for Trump's great military parade. I heard it is going to go through the WH gates because Trump is too cowardly to go out in public. At least he hasn't lost all of his marbles.
How much is Musk going to pay people to attend?
any idea how that parade can stopped?
You mean, like Hunter and joe and giving his entire family a pardon, you mean that nepotism and that rubber Baron stuff ? Oooops I’m sorry that was Joe’s administration.
BS troll
Yep Rick, thats right, you know... America. Nothing new here.
Which is your football team?
Everything uttered by this psychotic clown just makes my head hurt. It's an affront to dignity, to education, expertise and common sense --- let alone morality and decency. If our mostly moribund press actually did its job by posting word-for-word the unedited, unredacted version of the cognitive brainfarts this 3-year-old screaming toddler in the White House spews out every day -- and followed up by demanding why Republicans support an illiterate moron who can't utter a single coherent sentence if his life depended on it --- I suspect many would start breaking under the pressure.
But they don't. They "translate" his chickenshit blather into digestible sound bites and print pablum, giving his incoherent sadism a respectability it does not deserve. With almost no exceptions, they play the same game with the witless wormtongues, dipshit incompetents and fuck-ups that populate his Cabinet and make up his official "spokespersons."
Resisting fascism first means refusing to use their language, play their games, or allow them to get away with describing insanity as common sense. Do not cooperate.
Can't wait for them to start nominating and confirming more far right Federalist society judges like Roberts, Alito, Kavanaugh, Thomas, Comey-Barrett and Gorsuch.
Yesterday, they allowed Hogsbreath to implement the purging of trans people from the military.
That last SCOTUS decision was just one more cruel choice made by the Roberts court. It had already secured its position as the nadir of Supreme Courts; this just makes sure the record will never be challenged by a future court.
Yes. Time was, the Taney (Dred Scott) court was considered the nadir, but the Roberts court has surpassed it and the bottom is not yet in sight.
Wish our MSM would take your advice. They sell us down the river every day.
Thanks again AR Moxon, " do not treat the illegitimate like they are legitimate"
I think it’s time we adjusted - strengthened - our language. For instance, quoting from the article, “Representative Lauren Underwood (D-IL), about whether she believes that ‘the Constitution gives everyone in our country the right to due process.’” NO! The Constitution doesn’t “give” everyone the right to due process, the Constitution DEMANDS the right to due process for everyone! Let’s start standing up for the power and righteousness of our Constitution, and demanding that our elected representatives do the same!
Good grief! These people are bonkers in the direction toward evil. I mean there’s bonkers like dressing up like Gloria Swanson and claiming you’re a famous movie star, and there’s bonkers like these folks — stomping all over people, countries, killing the poor, impoverishing the middle class, enriching the already rich, and most horribly, proclaiming themselves Christians.
Proclaiming themselves Christians? There's a word for that in the New Testament, but how would they know that?
Evidence, please. Thank you.
Open your eyes, troll
Mr. Troll is exercising his right to speak BS.