The corruption, lying and secrecy is nauseating. So grateful you are documenting it so that they can all be brought before the bar of justice. May that day come soon.
"It has not been a banner day for members of the Trump administration." Since Mr. Trump entered WH, American citizens have not enjoyed a single banner day.
This is what I, and many others trying to get people to register and vote, am up against. Hopelessness is setting in at a remarkable rate, and the feeling that their vote 'doesn't count' is growing.
I won't give up and will continue to try to explain how this assault on the Constitution and our freedom can only be reversed by greater numbers of people voting to stop it, but try telling that to a black person who has heard of 'Callais'.
We need every person out there to help reinforce that voting actually DOES matter and makes a difference (especially now), and the fact that so many DID NOT vote is what helped get us here to begin with.
It's a steep hill to climb. Pack a lunch and get busy!
They believe Saint Ronnie's nonsense line that was funny, if untrue. "The most terrifying thing is 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'"
They expect stupidity and incompetence so that's exactly what they vote for.
I think you set a standard for performance, hire the most competent you can find, and hold people to that. DoJ used to do that, and they were excellent.
Jen, you are right and because of the stupidity (stupidity is a choice) of this current Trumplandia, stupidity and ignorance reigns in DC and wherever Trump and his fools have any power. We need the American people, even Republicans/Trumplicans to stand up and say really loud and clear "We aren't gonna take it anymore," and mean it!
No,no,no! Stupidity and ignorance don’t reign in DC… cheating, lying, stealing, conniving, arrogance, and greed seem to be at the top of list of goals of those in charge. And their boundaries seem to have no end. Every day they are breathing is a disappointment to me.
Harvey, it truly is all there is for Trumplandia. This is a concerted effort to drive us all into despair so they can waltz in and take over, stealing our hard-earned money paid in taxes, our communities that they can take over and run with the bullying help of ICE and whatever other paramilitary force they come up with. They think we are all stupid and that they are brilliant and deserving of whatever they can get from us; they're not even close to brilliant. They will demand our loyalty or death. They are practicing right now with their ICE and the concentration camp prisons they have put together with our tax money and no consent from the American people. If we stay silent and let them do their dirty work against us, we lose. We need to do what the people in Hungary have done and turn out in force to stop the whiny bratty greedy racist misogynistic xenophobic, homo/transphobic ignoramuses that make up Trumplandia. They need to be neutralized and the only way to do that is if we come out in force, vote in force, get even Republicans/Trumplicans to see that there is nothing for them in this Trumpian insanity. We all deserve better, even Republicans! Vote Democratic up and down the ballot everywhere to break Trump's demented hold on this nation. Then, the entire Trump regime needs to be impeached, tried and convicted of treason! IF we can get that, they can't be pardoned!
I am very grateful that frequent commentor here, TCinLA, puts the message that "we are not the crazy ones" on his daily Substac "That's Another Fine Mess".
Nope Miselle, we are not the crazy ones at all; it is truly Trumplandia that are out of touch with reality and dragging their cult along with them into stupidity and utter ignorance, all on purpose to further the aims of whiny rich white men who have no moral code and are totally OK with that. They are users and working hard to groom us all to be OK with being used by ignoramuses who are addicted to power and money, neither of which they deserve!
The GOP literally does not see the same things we see. When you ONLY get your news from Trump then you aren't seeing the whole picture. Only what Trump and company want them to see.
Many people instinctively prefer ignorance to knowledge. — The reason for this is that knowledge is inimical to prejudices, and for most people, their prejudices are essential to their sanity. —- Which is why war is more normal for the human race and in history than peace has ever been.
Where my children attended Highschool and graduated from is the place where financier and philanthropist, Cyrus Eaton, held “Peace Conferences”.
Presidents and Royalty and “Thinkers” from all over the world came to TALK to each other in PUGWASH, NOVA SCOTIA,CANADA.
The Eaton Estate also hosted a reception for Yuri Gagarin (first man in Space).
Cyrus Eaton was a visionary who saw no reason all countries couldn’t shake off the futile, war-like tendencies of our caveman ancestors and ADVANCE toward the intelligent NEEDS of the planet.
Donald Trump is a ‘clinical’ moron, so, an intelligent POTUS is desperately required for your country. 🙏
Jean, an intelligent POTUS (IPOTUS) has occurred four times in my lifetime, by my somewhat biased opinion. I am an 84 year old USA citizen by birth, turning 85 in September. I am also what I consider left center progressive. I have very dim memories of the first, FDR, who died in my fifth year. I have studied his life and leadership and consider him one of the best presidents my country has ever had. His successor, HST, I consider another of those four IPOTUS, though not to FDR’s level. The other two in my opinion were LBJ and Barack Obama. The only non-Democratic POTUS I think nearly ranks with those four was Dwight D Eisenhower. All five men faced challenges and not one of them was “perfect”, whatever that may be. But all of them gave the country their best efforts and left the country better for their service. A high “also-ran” among the others during my lifetime was Jimmy Carter.
All of this to say that an IPOTUS would be a wonderful thing for the USA but would not be sufficient in his or her self. We need to do some very dramatic and serious changes in our governance before we will be a truly worthy partner for the other democracies and a thoughtful interactor with the non-democratic countries of this world.
I believe that Fox "news" first started broadcasting in 1997, and they have done nothing but stoke hatred for anyone who does not subscribe to their racist, misogynistic philosophy. The hatred is now ingrained in the right-wing and seems to matter more to these people than an honest, trustworthy government that works for the people.
The message for voting is that if people don't get out and vote it's going to get worse! If people want to have hope then vote for a Democrat or an independent. Leave the GOP in the dustbin of the past where they're sitting right now.
RLL, kyou are new to me here. Perhaps you've been reading for free for years, but regardless, pulling out your credit card and putting your money where your mouth is (as my Mom used to say)--I am so grateful for you. In comments above, there is mention of feeling lost and hopeless, and of late there has been a few trolls here trying to build on that feeling. EVERY person who joins this community grows our base.
Celeste, keep up the good work of trying to get folks to vote. Tell them that their hopelessness is exactly what Trump and his white house toddler pool want for them and that this whole effort on the part of Trumplandia has been in the works for more than a half-century, probably a whole lot longer! We must not capitulate to the racism, misogyny, greed, ignorance, the evil of Trumplandia, the Project 2025ers, and the far too wealthy oligarchs! They are not worthy of our giving up!
So you're one of those that believes that last election was legit? Okay. Good luck.
I'm NOT saying 'don't vote'...
But if what Republicans are now doing...'redistricting', didn't give way to the possibility that they were willing to rig the LAST election...
You know...because it just makes SO much sense that after the first disastrous term, sensible people wouldn't vote...yeah...that MUST have been the reason...
And Trump bombed Iran because he was concerned about Iran having nuclear weapon capabilities...and, of course, the poooooor Iranian people...he's SUCH a considerate guy! I'm just going to HAVE to vote for him next time...
Isaac, Yep, the last election was not without fraud and all of that fraud was Trumpian, most likely by Musk and his pre-DOGErs setting us all up for what they planned to do to our government when they got their puppet Baby Donnie, an adjudicated rapist, tax cheat, 6-time bankrupter, insurrectionist, thief of classified documents elected again. They had/have the technology to "interfere" and they also had the compliance of Democrats all across the swing states, not wanting to be seen as complainers as Trump had been, calling fraud because he lost the 2020 election, when there was actually intense checking for fraud and found none, at least in the states that checked; red states don't seem to have to check because everyone just assumes they vote Republican. It has been believably suggested that the tampering was with the tallying machines and some voting machines that had just happened to "need repair" just before the election in swing states. For the tallying machines, a small device just had to be attached to the machine's cord or where it was plugged in to change say every other vote after around 250 votes passed through normally. Who would check the votes and how they laid out after as many as 250 votes or more in larger areas where precincts sent in their vote counts. Change the algorithms and one can get whatever results those doing the programming want and we know what they wanted, Trump as president and Republican control of the House and Senate. They also played the race and misogyny cards wherever they could get away with it. All of that together left us with a horrific mess, a lot of suffering, many deaths around the world due to program cuts, and now, a stupid war for Trump's ego and distraction from his strong presence in the Epstein Files which should have been fully released nearly 5 months ago and have not been. So, we do need to get the word out over and over of what is at stake for those Republicans who still cling to their Baby Donnie, an old man with dementia who cares for no one and nothing but his own personal comfort and ability to get his name and face everywhere so he can look at them while pretending to work. Ugh! We have a lot to do before November!
could hardly agree with you more, Ruth...in fact...it's almost like you copied/ pasted one(some?) of my past remarks about some of the things you've mentioned...what a mess America is in...but the Gordian knot is a myth...i'm glad you're treating it as such...
Awwwwwww are we upset Ruth? Good. Best prez of your life. And the more he wins and the less control you have the more violent you get. So fn predictable
Park your hate and join us in America at its best leading the world once again
Watching the attempts to ‘cheat’ America out of a legitimately GOOD (honest, intelligent, empathetic, statesman/woman) President, you have to wonder about the 2024 election!!
The ‘regime’ DOES LOOK DESPERATE to suppress voting where they know they will surely lose!
Against this illegal gerrymandering, is WHAT?
And…I, for one, expect an ‘end run’ of Trump just DECLARING - with the sweep of the sceptre in his hand - that there will BE NO MIDTERM ELECTIONS THIS (HIS) TERM.
Unless I have greatly underestimated the vast majority of ‘sane’ and ‘younger generation - (thus, EDUCATED) - Americans, YOU WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES!! 🤨
I have seen you play HOCKEY, and THAT is the spirit of a country that can shake off the bid of FASCISM.
It is very difficult to be PATIENT, but I am confident after the SHOCK of Trump’s re-election (🤮),and the ASSAULTS since he swore so badly being inaugurated (ie lied ⚡️⚡️⚡️) the Nation will RISE with purpose and reset its goals.
“…the courage to resist is within us…” WWII France.
Voting is the least you can do, with the all out assault on our Constitution and democracy, patriots should be more angry and outraged with every move this fascist administration and party makes. The Supreme Court is also complicit in the fascist direction we are heading.
Hear hear Celeste. Right on point! Our vote numbers must be overwhelming, or it will most certainly happen here…. America will become just another subjugated country under totalitarian rule.
Trump is too far into his delusional world for any sanity or facts to impact him. And he is protected from any bad news
(His sinking polls on every issue) by a bunch of outstanding liars, grifters,and thieves who are enriching themselves by playing the stock market by gaming this war. There will need to be some harsh retribution for these crimes. Enough to go down in history as our determination to maintain the Constitutional government that the Founders left for us.
But note too that whomever in the ChristoNazi Regime Dr. Richardson describes as "in trouble," it is an entirely meaningless designation, because there is absolute no one in this failed nation capable of stopping their atrocities. Again, our only (rational) hope for Liberation is invasion by Liberators from the remaining democratic nations.
Taking back the Congress it will be stopped. Most important is taking the Senate as then we can stop the fascist being appointed to the Federal courts. The focus is on we the people acting as "one" in November, the one capable of stopping their atrocities.
Just need to get all of the 2 out of 3 to vote out the republican majority in the House and Senate. Democratic wins are popping up all over the country, and many of the 1 in 3 are likely to sit it out this time.
Spread the word and get everyone you know to vote.
I always come back to the truest thing tRump ever said...that he could shoot someone on fifth avenue and not lose his supporters. That's the way cults work.
I think that there is a solid 34% of the country that is today's version of the pre-Civil War south. This is the white, male dominated, cisgendered, heteronormative, Christian Nationalist world that they want. They do not care how many people suffer or die as long as that is the society they live in. They also have no freaking clue that they will be next after all us alphabet people (LGBTQ+ and BIPOC) and "uppity women" are gone.
37% of Americans are mentally ill. We own that because we allowed it to fester. We turned our eyes away from generations of abuse and trauma that resulted in 37% of Americans being in a cult.
I find that number haunting and daunting, absolutely amazing! How is it possible that so many of our countrymen and women are so easily led or, perhaps worse, appreciate the cruelty, crime, and hatred this administration doles out.
A hum… you already know I would have taken my chances with the once good generals to prevent a Trump takeover through a military coup. I’m afraid we haven’t yet experienced the worst to come. Ironically now the security apparatus and milt will be used against us. Think of that. It’s coming.
Melania cannot hide her 24/7 fear. First to look up when shots were fired. First to get under the table. He either hides the fear or is unable to grasp his head might explode any minute.
Exactly. Huge, huge numbers of voters must get to the polls to decisively change the majority in Congress.
Everyone must encourage and help all people to get to the polls and vote. Everyone. Now is the time to make our numbers make a difference. It is the power we hold. We must use it.
Wrong! “Vote Blue, No Matter Who” is the recipe for disaster that got us into this mess! If the DNC had not had their heads stuck into the sand, they would have prevented Joe Biden (who was a competent first-term president) from running again, and allowed a normal presidential primary to occur. Instead, Kamala Harris was shoe-horned into a truncated campaign, when even most women still wouldn’t vote for a woman! We need to return to a normal process, but leave behind the terrible idea of just voting for anyone who runs as a Democrat! There are too many democrats zombies in the Congress already; and we sure don’t need a blue demagogue to replace the morons currently in power. Listen to Wajalit Ali; and, don’t be a fascist.
The key is if enough opponents of the Republican regime vote for Democratic candidates.
Sadly we cannot rely on right wing or left wing Americans to unite and Vote Blue.
Despite all the abuses by the Republican regime.
Despite the clear example of Hungarian voters uniting to oust Orban's majority- by a broad coalition including conservatives, liberals, and progressives willing to compromise behind a center right party.
Joanne, I cannot comprehend why this did not happen before we paid federal taxes this year. It is too late for me to move to a more liberal country but I surely would if I were 60 years younger and knew what I know now about the soul of this very UNexceptional country.
This is purely a curiosity question…since tRUMP has been doing exactly what he wants to do for decades AND getting away with it (convictions appealed, debts never repaid, ignoring laws, etc) what gives anyone any hope that a Democratic majority in Congress would make him or any of the rest of the cabal change their ways?
You have presented us with the facts just as you would with one of your classes. If you were to take all of your posts and put them into a book I would buy it immediately. The collection could then become the outline for a new course “‘How Donald J Trump abused his oath and the Constitution to destroy the Founding Father’s Dream”
I think this would make a great PHD presentation…
Of course you would need to teach it from England or a Scandinavian country to avoid arrest by American “Trumplaw” agents.
To the contrary, there are individuals, lawyers, judges, grand juries, reporters, and many others who have been slowing and sometimes stopping Trump’s depredations and continue to do so. This is a test, not a defeat. Denying what Americans are doing, as slow and difficult as it may seem is as invidious an indictment as are those of Trump’s captive DOJ.
As to outside ‘liberators’ I’d suggest you take a look at how effective our own interventions in foreign countries have been since 1965. Such is not the answer. If we cannot save ourselves, we will have failed our founding. No one else can do it for us.
Our Oligarchs are liberating us. The US wanted to liberate other countries, of their money. The Oligarchs are doing that for us. None of the people want to be treated this way. We need to be able to state just how we want to be treated, and not let the movers and shakers do that for us.
Uh... you're calling for NATO to militarily attack the US and make the GOP illegal?
In the meantime, Democrats are winning one lawsuit after the other (and these lawsuits are vital to slow down the installation of fascism), and the upcoming midterm elections are the perfect moment to get rid of the GOP in Congress. Organizing NOW to get the vote out will be a much more effective solution than more violence...
Also, please don't use the word "Nazi" lightly. Nazism is a specific form of fascism. It includes the strong belief in the murder of millions of your own citizens. Until now, US neofascists (= basically the entire GOP, today, and its tech billionaire donors) have never called for a genocide or holocaust. And neofascism is horrible already, in and of itself, so there's no need to randomly add other labels to it in the first place...
Nazism is a fascist ideology that beliefs that an entire class of its OWN citizens HAS to be actively MURDERED. That goes way beyond putting some illegal immigrants in camps. And even more importantly, today's US neofascism, as an ideology, does not NEED the extermination of an important percentage of its own population. That's why there are no attempts to repeat the holocaust.
And putting people in camps or in ovens is and remains an entirely different thing...
I sure do hope you're right.... because after listening to comments made by both Trump and Stephen Miller, I am waiting for the day when the administration goes after registered Democrats. We've been called traitors, lunatic leftists, and vermin. There has already been violent talk -- just talk, so far -- about the traitorous Dems in office. The Final Solution didn't happen right away after Hitler came to power... it took awhile. I am praying that this particular bit of history will not repeat itself.
Don’t forget Trump’s J6 private army of thugs, who are fully capable of mass murder if given the call to arms. Their targets will be democratic government officials, investigative journalists, woke non-profit groups, LGTBQ, leftists, people who they will call communists, progressive activists, you get the idea. How is this different from the Nazi party? The difference is slim: they won’t kill their targets outright; at least not at first. Detain them in concentration camps, destroy their livelihoods, and work them to death. Later, when everyone else has been silenced, the killing will be done quietly and efficiently and no one on the outside will know.
EUWDTB, thanks for this comment. I have always preferred the term, "christofascist" for exactly the reason you describe. However, I differ with your last statement. American christianists are absolutely in league with neofascists. Their motivations may be slightly different, but their goal is the same: a racially "pure" society ruled by unquestioned authority which demands that every member must live in subservience to the authority. The christianists' interpretation of that system is that the Old Testament is the final authority on all matters and Prosperity Gospel* is the economic model.
*Only the "worthy" may enjoy health and wealth.
However, I will add that I can readily imagine christofascists eventually calling for the execution of their neighbors who will not bow down to their god, famous for his legendary smiting of the enemies of his chosen people.
While members of the Republican ChristoFascist regime are prosecuting Comey for sharing a sea shell 86 47, they would most likely celebrate 88 47. In the manner of Musk.
The US political system created the current regime. It is still open to the US people to change 'their way' through the ballot box. Democratic nations (apart from USA) rarely do regime change unless physically attacked.
We cannot just sit back and hope other nations will save us. We have to keep working here and now. However hopeless it may feel, it is only hopeless if we stop fighting.
Que sera sera. Arlington Cemetery is full of the graves of people who died with courage without seeing its impact. I'm just glad I'm not like you and Drumpf who can't figure out why someone would do that. That is ... in part ... because he's mostly thinking, "Why am I here? Why am I not playing golf?"
You see you’re just a follower leaders don’t think Que sera sera they make things Que sera sera. To the best of their ability. And trust me you’ll get plenty of his golf days in if he wants to, and they will be well-deserved. I’m getting a little frustrated because it appears that it’s so easy to get you going to light your fuse. You better put that fuse out for a while. You’re gonna need it for another at least 2 1/2 years.
Wow. Considering the, supposed millions of votes Trump got in that last election...I THINK a bunch were Americans...but don't quote me on that, I'd think SOME of them were 'enjoying banner days '.
And therein lies a LARGE part of America's present problem...how to 'bridge the gap'. Because the Maga mentality has been there for over 100 years...and now they're finally getting the attention they feel they've deserved...regardless of how that seems to 'non-maga...
And if America wants to ever be undivided, as much as it is now, this will have to be addressed somehow...not an easy prospect...
But just keep up the 'them and us' mentality and see where that gets you...
Interesting thought here, Isaac. I am not sure the US has ever been completely "undivided". If you compare the geographical area of the US and Europe and note the regional and cultural differences of the nations is Europe and compare it to the regional and cultural differences in the US, it makes a good argument for division rather than unity.
I'd go with "Disunited". I kinda like the thought of either Cascadia (Washington, Oregon, and California (at least the western halves; the eastern sides can go be "Greater Idaho") or Pacifica (add Hawaii, unless they want to return to sovereign nation status.)
Ally, having lived or traveled extensively in all the lower 48 except your upper lefthand corner, it's obvious to me that a body of land with such different climactic and topographical characteristics could ever be united as one nation was doomed, even before it was perilously overpopulated.
I'd start by drawing a line at the 38th parallel, adjusted for the location of rivers where present. Over the centuries, the differences of climate between North and South have caused difference in the temperaments of the people who live in those regions. Those two halves would be divided into three sections each by the Mississippi River in the East and the Rocky Mountains in the West. Incidentally, Maine just needs to secede and join Canada. This yields countries (from east to west, north to south) named Rustbeltia, Tobaccia, Dakota, Texland, Oregonia and California. Problem solved. You're welcome. 😊
oh good. then trump can add Hawaii to his 'list of places to attack'...i'm not sure he's got anything planned after Cuba...probably, but...he just doesn't tell me ANYthing anymore...
Isaac, if I remember U.S. history correctly, George Washington, who first demonstrated that our head of state should have a limited term, by stepping down from the office of president, stated unequivocally in his "Farewell Address" that he was opposed to the notion of political parties.
That he brought the subject up in one of his most important speeches suggests that he was aware that early U.S. citizens were dividing themselves into separate schools of political thought. One can conclude that we've never been united. In fact, humans have always sorted themselves into groups of similarity. Political parties were inevitable.
In Washington's day, there were holdouts who still believed that being subjects of The Crown provided stability and prosperity, but they were made irrelevant by the revolutionists.
Best day so far of the Trump administration and she continues to deceive you and hide you from the truth. Iran it's teetering and about to say uncle Trump reinstituted the Physical fitness test for our youth to keep them in shape and brought in all the women that supported the military all these years to say thank you for their support and courage.
The stock market continues to Frank which means business is good and we all know it is despite your hate and hope that America fails. Sickening anti-American is all you are
An original American I believe his name i forget for the moment said when you see someone winning and winning and winning, you should should switch sides and join the winner
Those are pretty big words, there pal… did they come out of your mouth or out of your ass either way, they’re nothing but hot air, insults, and accusations with no foundation other than your hate for success when it’s not you that’s in control. Awwwww Don’t worry, you’ll get over it in a while maybe 10 years.
America keeps winning and is running on all cylinders and you’re getting a ride for free.
Are my words really too big for you Ricky? Perhaps I can dumb it down so that even a moronic simpleton like you and your MAGAt brethren can understand although it’s highly questionable based upon your insipid, sophomoric and delusional understanding of objective reality. Awww but please don’t overstress the 3 remaining working neurons you have trying to craft another dimwitted response. Instead, sit back in your barcolounger, turn up Faux news nice and loud, and continue whacking off to your orange turd in private and stop posting delusional nonsense!
No they are simply MEANINGLESS . Even your orthography needs work. however I’m afraid you can’t seem to find a fact anywhere.
Certainly not ONE that fits your hateful agenda..which is killing you
Not to mention that when the liberals are NOT IN CONTROL IT KILLS YOU
My posts include facts…that is why you are so fricken angry Trump keeps winning and winning and winning which destroys you …there is NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP HIM
Awwwww are we upset with Trump. Good. Do you know what that means?. That means he is doing great things.
ALSO Actually I’m in the middle of the med on our 39th international cruise having visited 119 countries and islands and all 50 states in Istanbul in the AM…. AMAZING SUCH A DIMWIT as myself who started with 400 dollars in my pocket at age 20….could manage this
LASTLY. You should remain anonymous that way you can remain ignorant anonymously and ignominiously. BE PROUD OF YOUR FAILURES. OWN THEM. THAT A BOY
Adolph Hitler told Germany some version of "I'm winning and winning and winning, you should switch sides and join the winner." Not long after, "I was wrong" was the third last thing that went through his mind because the second last thing was "pull the trigger" and the last thing was the bullet.
At your highest moment … be careful. That’s when the DEVIL comes for you!
Judge. Do you have any of those pesky little things called facts to back up I your claim. He s more active than any recent president
Has done more press activities this past week than Biden did in his two years in office.
No your honor. It’s only my hateful opinion ….isnt that enough?
Judge. Can I see your law license or your elementary school info. AND HE KEEPS WINNING ON ALL FRONTS …WAR..ECONOMY…AND SPREADING DEMOCRACY ALL OVER THE PLANET.
Best day of Trump’s current administration. Business is booming as the market continues its historical march upward under an expanding economy despite the war..amazing.
He brought back the youth PHYSICAL FITNESS program which was cancelled under Obama weakening health of our youth…and invited the women who were either in service in our military or had family members in service to thank them for their incredible support and dedication to our military. What a day. Oh. WAIT …HEATHER DIDNT SHARE THIS WITH YOU? Lmfao.
Get out of here and check out the real world So sad such incredible gullibility she is using you.
Hiro, when I read HCR's opening sentence that you quoted, I expected to read about defeats that the Trump regime had suffered. Instead, I read a litany of the regime's continuing success in corruption, concealment and catastrophe. This, after I read Joyce Vance's report on the Southern states' race to gerrymander Black voters out of existence unleashed by SCOTUS.
I must conclude that Professor Richardson was mistaken.
Amazing that Bezos allowed the story to be released. If the uber wealthy turn on Trump and the cowering cowardly Senate and House Republicans, who is going to buy their elections?
It's not that amazing. Compared to adaptive (cultural) evolution, evolving maladaptively takes less time, but it still takes time. Getting to full-on unconstrained ignorance involves the step-by-step shrinking of his circle of concern. Each step needs an excuse, and the more steps he takes, the harder it is to convince himself that his increasingly irrational excuses are rational.
The giant orange turd just won’t go down the drain willingly! Our plumbing system is badly plugged up! When he finally goes, we will hear a giant sucking sound as Hell reclaims his hollow soul to the deep.
No, but my bad. I should have been more specific. I'm referring to GL Loft's amazement that Bezos allowed the story to be released. Drumpf's full-on unconstrained ignorance is the product of childhood trauma. Bezos is heading in that direction, but my point is that it takes time to get there. And some people never get there. Mary Trump's father never got to a good place, but he never got there.
Thank you for gifting the article. Surprisingly informative & oh so sickening. My hope is that since it was in Bezo’s media, Trump/Hegseth/Rubio fans will actually read it.
Dream on, Patricia. Donald only reads what appears on his social media and whatever his babysitters show him (provided it's accompanied by lots of pictures). Hogsbreath only watches Fox on TV. Lil Marco Big Shoes, who has All the Jobs doesn't have time to read anything. He just flits from meeting to meeting, hoping nobody asks him a question.
Their fans follow pretty much the same patterns. WaPo is not on their reading list.
Having spent over a year trying to get WaPo to stop flooding my email with “incentives” to re-up my subscription, am not about to give them my email again just to read that article.
Corruption throughout the Trump administration is off the scale, yet roughly half of the white electorate think it’s hunky-dory. And we’re stuck with these louts. No way to rid ourselves of them. We might, with a lot of hard work and some luck, outvote them. If we do, we need to find a way to punish them to the hilt. They are not decent human beings. They deserve no mercy.
Alas, governmental corruption has become so commonplace, I think that for many it is seeming "normal". That is deadly if we fail to bring it to the fore.
There used to be a big "Your Share of the National Debt" clock in Times Square, which flicked to a higher number almost constantly. I think there should be one of these everywhere and also one to show each person's share of the expenses of the stupid Iran war and perhaps the increase in gas per gallon and the average weekly grocery bill for a family of 4. that might hit home.
J L, normalization of corruption, lying, abuse, indecency, bullying it's deadly for democracy and the coming midterms elections. We should keep up to date with the the reality of what's happening and talk to as many people as possible. The regime is given us the argument.
Both parties are capable of incompetence and corruption, true. But only one, the Grand Oil Party, has dived into the deep end of the pool of incompetence and corruption, with gusto, while having forgotten to check that there is water in the pool. The GOP, having totally betrayed democracy, are all sprawled about on the bottom of the (empty) pool, with critical injuries they have imposed on us. They will go the way of Viktor Orban, their role model.
I hope they do and at long last, meet the crystallization of public sentiment that befitted Senator Joe McCarthy, who ran a significant test-run of the techniques that now define the current "Republican" party. It is surely an Orwellian irony that when you think of what a republic is meant to be, and in particular the Enlightenment (as well as ancient Greek) philosophies embedded in out constitutional republic, it is clear that nominal "Republicans" have turned against it, as well as the roots of their historical party.
There are some major skeletons in the Democratic Party as well, especially as practiced by region. As Democrats shed major elements of the love of dominance, Republicans greedily adopted them. Lincoln knew that the love of dominance was the antithesis of "the better angels of our nature", and fought fiercely to protect them. Republican Teddy Roosevelt was wary enough of his party's attraction to concentrated wealth, that he tried and failed to start a new party.
Yes. Racists that they are, were raised and indoctrinated to think this way. You’ll never change their minds. We need to wake up to what cults, especially Mormons, are responsible for a lot of this bullshit. Their cult is worth something near a trillion dollars. This is not faith, it’s people who were raised with hate and fed mental garbage so their brains don’t function in reality. Listen to HCR, Denver Riggleman, Monte Mader, Jenny Gage. Denver, Monte, and Jenny are deconstructed Mormons and they are laying it out for the rest of us. This administration is full of these people which I know the Mormon cult are supporting with big money. It’s the same from the truly wicked, evil, evangelical tribe and I hope they beginning eating themselves faster. People are beginning to leave these dark places, no longer frightened of their own beliefs and they are speaking out they were indoctrinated, abused into this cult to control their votes. They are horrific abusers of women and children. And it’s wickedly patriarchal so men are expected to be heavy handed with their women and children. Racists cult members who (the country) gave credibility to as a religious organization? Time to call them out for their crimes. So that pretty much what’s going on in Indiana.
You have ‘researched’ well re the Mormons (it goes waaaay back to the worthless $3 bill their founder Joseph Smith ‘invented’ to bilk thousands!)
But the ‘cult’ Justice Barrett belongs to is a big wound to SCOTUS as well. The late Pope, Francis, condemned Barrett’s cult as not being a part of the Catholic religion…yet, she still was confirmed…proving that the ‘Trump Devil’ exists in modern day America.
I spent most of my youth in Northern Ohio, and about 20 years ago, when I had another reason to go there, spent some time visiting old haunts and neighborhoods. Overall places that had once been well cared for had the creepy look of economic depression. It appears to me that Republicans had a lot more to do with that fate than Democrats, yet they embrace their tormentors. Now Republicans are bankrupting the entire nation. Weird that just before Trump was elected again I saw an MSM poll that suggested that a solid majority of Americans claimed to believe that Republicans were better stewards of our economy than Democrats.
As far as I know, Indiana has always trended red, similar to Ohio (which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leslie Wexner, the sponsor of Epstein). I wonder how much money the guns ‘n ammo industry pours into Indiana political campaigns?
That ( Trump’s grip on the GOP)is THEIR problem.. One of the wisest things I ever learned was in a business seminar. The speaker’s point was that “when someone enters your space with a monkey on his back, your job is to make sure he leaves with that monkey. It is HIS monkey, not yours, and your job is to make sure it does not end up on your back”.
It is our job now to make sure that Trump is wholly owned by the cowards in the GOP.
The Congress, the Sedicious six on SCOTUS and the ignorant voters who are too selfish, uninformed, or stupid to acknowledge what the Republican Party has devolved into.
I may have misunderstood those results, but the voter turnout was low -- often the case in primaries. So if ten million people vote hard right, that's cause for concern; if a hundred show up and vote hard right, ho hum. (Just making up the #s for sake of example.)
Trump (again) demonstrated his absolute dictatorial control over the slavishly obedient "Republican" (sic) ChristoNazi Party, which is now the majority party in this failed nation. Though its power-margin is only one percent, that is more than sufficient to ensure the ChristoNazi conquest is permanent -- which after the ChristoNazis complete their disenfranchisement of women will be unassailable save by invasion from without. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/fact-sheet/party-affiliation-fact-sheet-npors/
The Pew Research poll shows that since 2020 the "solid Democrat" category has decreased from 33% to 28% while the "solid Republican" category has increased from 29% to 31%.
When the solid and lean categories are combined, Pew says the results for 2025 are Ds Net 45 vs. Rs Net 46. Looking at the graph carefully, it indicates that it is within 1% rounding error in favor of the R's. (Their graphic should have all total bars the same height if they were treating rounding errors properly.) There is 8% of the population with undetermined affiliation.
The trends are sobering.
In The Rational League Substack psychological analysis, it implies that more Republicans are becoming "identity fused" with Trump. I read the decline in committed Democrats as due to a failure of Democrats to define a party platform and provide clear leadership.
Eight million people demonstrating in the streets is NOT ENOUGH.
Congress has failed us. SCOTUS has betrayed us. Trump is coming after the midterms with voter suppression and election interference.
We, the people, are the last line of defense with our VOTE.
Make sure your vote will count. Remember that last-minute changes to the rules could occur--the Trump plan is to maximize chaos.
1. Check that you are registered and that your name on the voter roll matches your required photo ID and passport. Do it now, in 3 months and two weeks before Election Day.
2. Be sure you have documentation proving citizenship easily available- a copy of your birth certificate, a US passport, proof of name changes. A marriage certificate may not be sufficient. If SAVE America is passed by Congress, or a clone is passed by your state, you could be required to provide proof of citizenship as well as a valid photo ID. Student IDs may not be considered a valid photo ID.
3. Know what district you will now be voting in and who the candidates are, given the massive last-minute redistricting efforts that may be occurring.
4. Make sure you know where and how you will vote in case mail-in ballots are suddenly disallowed.
5. Join community outreach groups to get people registered and to the polls. The next few weeks have a lot of groups registering soon-to-be high school graduates.
6. Talk to your neighbors who lean Republican, or who are uninvolved or undecided, or who are just leaning Dem about what is at stake. Give yourself a goal of getting one other person to vote Democratic in the midterms.
7. Talk to your college-age kids who live at school and help them decide where and how they will vote. They need to have a plan for registration and voting, and their documentation assembled.
8. When you vote in the primaries, vote for the Democratic candidate who will be most electable. The more of your neighbors you talk to, the better you will be able to identify that person. Hold your nose if you have to. I know that is a big ask. But the time to fix the broken system with ranked-choice voting isn't here yet. R's are counting on us to splinter and worry about purity tests on a few controversial issues. In the meantime, Indiana just showed us that they are choosing to be monolithic behind the money.
WE CAN DO THIS. Hungary did. But we have to work our butts off for the primaries and the midterms. EVERY VOTE in EVERY ELECTION!!!
Assuming I am still alive at election time, which is unlikely, the cessation of mail-in voting would permanently disenfranchise me, as I am too severely crippled to ever again get myself to the polls. Nor is there anyone upon whom I can rationally depend to drive me to the polls. And even if there were, there is no way my useless, always painful body could endure the many hours of waiting in line that will be necessary to access the ballots. (Were I a betting man, which I'm not, I'd wager strongly Trump or his successor will have the permanently ChristoNazifed Robbers' Court outlaw mail-in voting.) Thus the millions of us who are similarly disabled will be reduced to permanent non-citizenship. And as always, too many of the non-disabled people remain at least oblivious (and often antagonistically indifferent) to the problem.)
ME Too!! We find ourselves referred to as NVA (Non-Value Added) by our oligarchy, since we have little to offer to the profiteers, buying our government for their own benefit. Project 2025, AKA Genocide by Neglect, is clearly the purpose of this Agenda, as evidenced by the devastation imposed by current government behavior!
The SCOTUS Robber Baron Six have thrown a big monkey wrench into the midterm elections by their decision giving Louisiana and other confederate states the option to redraw districts to interfere with people of color from electing candidates of their choice. This is a Supremely Racist decision and betrays the post-civil-war amendments to the Constitution, as well as the Voting Rights Act. This will be hard to overcome; but what do you think will be the price of gas by November? How about inflation? It sure looks like we’re heading into a recession, and it’s still more than six months until the election. None of the incompetent boobs in power will be turning any of this around! Reclaim the Senate as well as the House and tear down this shitshow! How will Dems deal with the most stupid war in modern history? They better figure it out! Isn’t this always the case, that Repugnican presidents consistently start unwinnable wars, wreck the economy, and leave everything in tatters (like Trump 1.0 and 2.0), leaving democrats to clean up the mess? And: Expose the full extent of the Epstein files! Name names like Ehud Barack; Alan Dershowitz; Leslie Wexner; the whole hit parade of child rapists who seemingly got away with murder (literally in some cases!). Demand that the Governor of New Mexico order a comprehensive State investigation of Zorro Ranch! It’s all there and needs to be exposed to the general public; but oh, the New York Times says it is tired of the Me-Too Movement. What is wrong with this picture?
Georgia, I just read your "We -Can-Do-This" from start to finish, and if our movement were organized enough to give out medals, it would most assuredly win you a topnotch honor. Thank you -- especially for taking the time to clarify the significance of stuff I glossed over. Dunno for whom you worked before retirement set in, but I'd bet they felt lost and abandoned when they tried to function without your analytical skills. Oh, and my apology for the delayed read; usually I read anything of yours as soon as it is available, but this has been a about a week now of interruptions and intrusions so bizarre they are almost entertaining.
Thank you for the compliment. I was lucky enough to be a research scientist and supervisor at AT&T Bell Labs before it was broken up, where I got to work with half a dozen eventual Nobel Prize winners. After the split up I became a VP of business development at a solid state laser start-up. I left to raise my daughter as a single parent and care for my disabled mother while trading stocks. My last career, and by far the most challenging, rewarding, and fun, was as a high school science teacher of students of every ability level, from learning disabled to honors.
I think a continuing theme in my life has been how thoughtlessly we in America have thrown away some of our greatest intellectual resources, whether it was Bell Labs, or the National Science Standards, to name just two. We are doing it again with NIH, CDC, NSF, NOAA and more.
The identity thing is the most concerning as it gives cover to the real problem - conservative leadership i.e. Heritage Foundation and others. There is a great article in NYT about John Roberts and the long game he has played in demolishing the VRA.
All of this was sketched out in the Lewis Powell Memo in 1973.
Thank you Georgia. The GOP has a figurehead in Trump -- the Dems have no person to point to as the head and representative of the party. Yes, there are several good people -- Raskin, Newsom, etc -- but not someone perceived as a leader. Look how many candidates are in the Primary for CA governor -- total dilution for Democrats and so risky.
We certainly cannot outvote them everywhere, but there still might be room for a trifecta in 2028 if we play our cards right. I’m mot optimistic but think it’s worth monumental effort.
I believe. Trifecta 2028. Project 2029 to restore Earth's Protection and Human Decency.
Every pendulum swings both ways. It is like karma. Sometimes it just takes too long. But it always happens.
I believe that it is impossible to cause so much damage around the globe, impossible to hurt or kill so many innocent people over a long lifetime and not have a significant blowback.
They are all dead. Hitler is dead. Mussolini is dead. Stalin is dead. The list of totalitarian monsters is long. All had expiration dates. All.
I doubt that 47 will still be around in 2028 to perform his magic wand intimidation tricks. Probably in hospice with a rubber room. The spiral dive into dementia rarely reverses itself. And Epstein is not going away.
And by then the damage done by MAGA will be obvious and irrefutable. There will always be "Nazis" and "Religious Warriors" who ignore their founding faiths. Who use "churches" to oppress and punish "others".
If the Republican Party were to have a plan to make itself as unpopular as humanly possible, they couldn't have done a better job. Their actions and lack of reaction to a Nutcase President is a recipe for defeat.
Eventually, those cretins will be forced to slither back under the rocks where they have always lived. Mainstream America will be back on track. With side trips to Hell, but basically back to something more tolerant and respectful of each other. We had it. We can get it back.
And Putin can't rule forever, either. Russia is in enormous trouble. Financially, militarily and socially. Too many body bags. Too little progress in a stupid war. Ukraine is now winning on the battlefield using technology as Putin uses troops as cannon fodder. Collapse is imminent.
Two really bad guys building a karmic payback for the ages. It's just a question of who goes down first.
Worth an effort, absolutely, but our best, most productive effort will be establishing a progressive shadow government abroad, I'd say preferably in London.
Speaking of shadow government, that was what trump was doing during the Biden administration. That was not the first time either. Nixon started that in 1968, Reagan in 1980, then trump in 2020. His was the longest shadow government. During his 4 years out of office, he violated many laws that should have resulted in prosecution, but Garland backed off due to republicans covering for him with McCarthy and McConnell saying we should just let him have his tantrums.
The boy did well with his speech to Trump and the gathered elites, with its subtle reprimand, but don't be taken in by the royals. They have two Duchys, one in Cornwall in the south of England owned by Prince William, and the other in Lancaster in the north owned by king Charles III. In the Lancaster Duchy, if someone dies without making a will the whole of the assets go to the Crown, i.e. Charles' coffers, not to the State.
His 'realm,' he is supposed to be a figurehead, but can (as his mother before him) persuade government to amend certain laws to his benefit! How's that for democarcy?
You’re right about white evangelicals. Eighty percent of them are not decent human beings. Seems ironic, but if even 40% of white evangelicals were decent human beings, Democrats would have a solid trifecta probably persisting for decades.
Hunger may very well bring people around. It's a powerful motivator. History is my witness. Republicans have blinders on with what's going on with the economy.
The suffering is increasing every day. The arrogant display by the Oligarchs at a Met Gala contrasted with SNAP benefits being cut and regional hospitals closing...unaffordable housing...gas prices...the list of financial woes for most Americans is very long. And the rich fly around, sail around with ever increasing blatant disregard for their fellow humans.
This suffering is going to be the downfall of MAGA. The pain will be too big to ignore.
Follow the money into crypto cons. Follow the money flowing away from the people into the hands of monsters.
Rex, I know a lot of them. They would disagree with your assessment by pointing to their selected "charity" work. I am not talking about Copeland or Olsteen, but Graham and is ilk all have their charity work they use to celanse their hate.
A few of the richest people in America could solve hunger and help enormously with healthcare and homelessness - easily. And still enjoy prosperity never dreamed of by previous generations. But they won't. There will be a reckoning.
David...Please note the links. So what if Democrats win in Blue regions? The information about the Republicans is so terrifying, even Pew -- normally fearlessly outspoken -- is slightly euphemizing its findings.
Yes, I really think you’re right. The White Christian Nationalists and Christian Zionists have infiltrated and completely corrupted our government to make racism the way of the land, thus ensuring they remain wealthy and in power, no matter the will of the voter (if that can ever be determined again).
Not surprised about Indiana, their governor Mike Braun, a former Federal senator, questions interracial marriages, and their white Christian Nationalist governor Micah Beckwith stupidly attacked Westfield High School’s champion drum band performance as “demonic.” They drew on some elements of Bizet’s opera Carmen and Beckwith managed to get the facts of the story Carmen tells wrong. I remember the “Pence must go” signs all over northern Indianapolis, but I guess that continual misinformation has convinced more Indiana to vote for Trump backed candidates.
It is a sad observance when we see those who call themselves "Christian" rejecting interracial marriages or attacking a champion band performance ie calling it "demonic".
America has laws to protect us from the darkness of our thoughts, or desiring to express harm towards one another, or driving too fast....etc. Our dark prejudices limit "love for one another" because we will it as if we are some "all-knowing God-like figure"! By the way, the God I know sees our sins and struggles ....yes, we each have our share of struggles ....but He gave Himself for us, He loves us, He encourages us and He provides for us and protects us and yes, sometimes because we are stubborn, allows us to "fall on our faces".
By His love, He teaches us to love. Through His provision, He encourages us to provide and to assist those who are in need.
I know there are true believers ie the Pope....but there are many who are afraid to confront those using what they refer to as "faith" against our fellow men and women who do not agree with their politics!
Very true, and I think we’re all human, we may look different on the outside, and sadly for some, it convinces some, like the SCOTUS majority and the president the differences in appearance mean they must treat others as “inferior.” I agree it’s not how God, the Son, and Holy Spirit expect us to behave. White Christian Nationalism comes from slaveholder distortion of Christianity which attempted to justify the unjustifiable.
Pope Leo would hardly justify such things, and I’m entirely with Pope Leo when it comes to criticism of the wars we see in the Middle East and Trump and Kegseth’s behavior in going to war with Iran. The war is constitutionally illegal, and neither Kegseth or Trump did any adequate planning, prepared strategy, or anticipated Iran’s drone usage. Trump and Kegseth are also taking no action to replenish our stock of short, medium range, or long range missiles. The long range missiles cost at least $15M each to manufacture, and manufacturing them takes some time to do. The Iran war won’t end well for us.
Also the intimidation has been expanding. To send the FBI (Yes Sir! Don't expect us to think Sir! Yes Sir!) goons to raid a Virginia state senator for leading a political movement is intended as revenge and to chill future movements against this wannabe King. For him to demand the names of 2020 election workers in Georgia is to chill the involvement of Democrats counting ballots in 2026 and 28. Thus making it easier for the corporatist fascist R.I.N.O. candidates to rig the election. Get involved in the Democratic party, the election and saving our Republic. We surely need to Amend our Constitution to restore our Republic. Also, because POS has created a new norm of corruption, lying and Hitler style intimidation, far beyond Nixon the Crook, we need a Section creating a means to recall a rotten apple. Maybe just amend the impeachment process to require Senators to use the clear and convincing standard for finding the truth in the evidence. I discuss this at UnitedWeAmend.org
Hello Albert... Mitt Romney stated that if the Conviction Vote in the Senate had been a Secret Ballot, DJT would have been Impeached, Convicted, and Removed... The Senator's Families were being barraged by Death-Threats... A much simpler solution to our Current Predicament is a Secret Ballot in the Senate for Criminal Cases... DJT is a Master of Spectacle, and Incitement, and DJT Minions are DJT's Puppets....
Responding to "intimidation", more of us need to come together...NOT LESS! We can come with flowers, with peace, with cups of water,,,etc.......BUT WE MUST COME! WE MUST STAND!
Trump is Mad Captain Ahab, demonically persuing his devilish White Whale across the globe. No regard for his crew. Just revenge and his just retribution. Somewhere along the path of this mad pursuit, America's current Ahab will find his end out in the void and the world can return to a quieter state of conflict
Trump and his merry band of lying thieves may be coming to some sort of end. Things are piling up. Putin is also looking more shaky. In 2 days he has to come out of hiding to face his V-Day Parade, and he cannot get Zelensky to agree to a cease fire on his terms. Will he risk it in order to keep control of his country and stave off a coup that is being discussed from leaked intel?
This clip is from Meidas News this week. He says, " I posted a video today of Trump this weekend walking on the tarmac towards Air Force One where he wasn’t able to walk in a straight line and was pretty wobbly on his feet. You can watch it on Twitter, Bluesky, or Threads.
… An anonymous doctor on Twitter reposted the clip with this caption: 'Ataxia. Issue with the cerebellum. Differential: stroke, degenerative, tumor, or drug adverse effects. We have physiological, behavioral, and observational evidence of chronic stimulant dependence. How this guy has not dropped dead of a cardiovascular or cerebrovascular event, given his poor lifestyle choices and risk factors, defies the odds. It’s coming.' "
In this piece, Fascism Expert Ruth Ben Ghiat talks about Donald Trump's Secession, but she also has a short piece on Autocrats and their Bunkers embedded in. Here is the video short on Autocrats and their Bunkers. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Pkh5sqKIePM
So, that is hopeful for us. Look at Orbán. Dictators can be tumbled if the people come out and do it. It helps to have doctors assess Trump's well being. Clearly he is up and walking about, so he is not a goner yet, but I listened to a discussion by the Free Speech for the People group who has been working on a campaign to Impeach Trump since January 20, 2025 yesterday in an Indivisible Abroad meeting. We are going to help them work on this campaign. It starts with signing a petition. Here is a link. Please consider signing. https://www.impeachtrumpagain.org/
I’d sure like to know the substance of conversations he has with Putin (a recent one I hear) and what kind of kompromat Putin has on trump….probably referred to euphemistically in convo’s they have. Enquiring minds……wanna know….
Hello Barbara.... Netanyahu, and Putin, both have the Epstein Files on DJT... People have written that Epstein's Network which Trafficked Children, Drugs, and Money, had heavy Israeli, and Russian involvement... Alisa Valdes-Rodriquez has written excellent postings on her Substack about Jeffrey's Web...
Hello Ligia.... You are correct... I highly recommend Alisa Valdes-Rodriquez' work on her Substack about Jeffrey's Web.... Multiple Foreign Intel Networks were involved....
I think they talked about how their thin lips afforded longer tongue reach for slurping up vulnerable real estate and who would be tasty. Wallowing in the swallowing. By next thanksgiving they plan to eat Turkey, and grope clubs on the new club med. Certainly they spend time preying.
Sadly, it appeared to me that T was not walking all that unsteadily, at least from the bit I saw on the Meidas video.
Meidas often seems to be clickbaiting us lately. They make some major claim of T going downhill rapidly, but then it turns out to be all the same as usual.
I did not see it but have seen him walk before, and can think about the balance issues that happen when one is older. As long as he is on his feet I think we don't view him as too ill. Yet, a good friend of mine has cancer, and she is walking around with a walker which she needs so she can stop and sit. Trump mainly uses a golf cart, and he falls asleep a lot. That should tell us things are not alright. Autocrats like to be seen, so that people know they are still around.
I do not read Meidas all the time, but this piece stuck with me because of the doctor analysis attached. I don't think we will see Trump gone overnight, which is why I ask that you consider signing the impeachment petition. They have over a million signatures and are aiming for 2 million before sharing it with people in Congress again.
The falling asleep, I think, is a much more important sign than his gait. It's extremely troubling. (Except that while he's asleep he causes less damage.) I'm not arguing against the idea that he may have had a stroke or some such event. Indeed, it seems likely. I'm only saying that I didn't see anything extreme in his gait in that particular video.
But overall (as that anonymous doctor and most everyone else also says) I don't understand how he can be even staying alive at this point, given his age, poor health habits, and deep unhappiness.
My husband died of a sudden illness 3 years ago when he had just turned 72, and he was in good general health, had a positive and loving attitude, and was genuinely a fine human being. It really yanks my chain that he's gone while some of the worst examples of our species live on and on and cause so much suffering.
Elene we have a group close by offering care for kids with cancer and their families. I often make that same comparison you do - of the worst examples of our species living on and on while others are taken far too young.
An old series called “V” was the concept that reptilian space aliens are ‘living amongst us’, and by scratching off the human skin layer, they can be ‘exposed’.
Alternative explanation: his staff are slipping him sleeping pills in his diet Cokes to prevent him from completely destroying the country. They let him insane-tweet at night, then medicate him during the day. It's only a matter of time...
They need to have him sleeping at night and not posting on his social media account in which insults world leaders and wrecks the global economy. Wouldn't it be great if he just thought he was a powerful president and really was a very average low power president. He is working his way in that direction with this war he has exposed his weaknesses to the world.
Please read my piece explaining about the Campaign to Impeach Trump and members of his Cabinet and sign the petition to help us get to 2 mil.
Elene, if there is anything consistent about trump is that he is inconsistent! Personally, I look at trump’s whole “presentation” (hard to do!) rather than snippets of them….might be one minor blip, or the entire “presentation” can be gobsmackingly cringe. Edit: Oh, and speaking of the elite’s bunkers, may I suggest the novel “The Future” by Naomi Alderman as an interesting read.
I actually do not see him as inconsistent. You just have to see what is behind things he is doing. It is always, always, always about making money. Look at the money angle and then the inconsistency goes away. Also, he uses fascist speak. See my piece on this language use as learned in Orwell's "1984" and apply it to the latest on the Iran war.
It was a given that Trumo saw he could use being president to make money, and Mary Trump stated she thought Donald would use the U.S. Treasury as his own personal piggy bank.
Always labeling, stereotyping, assigning categories and groups (which testing considers high rationality).
And these attacks are always venomous. Always ploys to get the normalizing press again and again to headline him, keep him and his vulgarities center stage.
But we can't blame the press. Most of whom excelled on their standardized testing, while learning zero humanities.
Elene, I saw the clip on Jeff Diedrich's Substack. I agree with your appraisal of the clip. Not mentioned in any description was evidence of a pretty strong breeze blowing at the time. That will knock even a sure-footed person off-course, especially if they are obese and present a lot of "windage." The clip appeared to be shot through a telephoto lens, which can exaggerate movement.
I have unsubscribed from Meidas because of their excessive self-promotion and sensationalizing. They used to be good, but they are too desperate for audience share these days.
That said, Donald is definitely in decline. The evidence is all over him. He does wander, as evidenced by other more reliable clips. I pay more attention to his dementia-related symptoms. At the journalists dinner, when everyone around him was reacting normally to the shots heard, Donald was visibly, extremely slow to react. In his cabinet meetings, he scans the room, out of focus. Closeups of his eyes shows that he cannot focus on a person in front of him, but rather gazes beyond them, typical of dementia patients. He has difficulty reading. He frequently presents with aphasia. He is also presenting with extreme attention deficit disorder, such that he never finishes a complete sentence. He is visibly experiencing mental confusion and disorientation. Also, the sundowning and erratic sleep patterns are all signs of dementia.
Meidas didn't show solid evidence, but the evidence is there, and mounting.
''Kash Patel Assures Nation FBI Bourbon Program Is Under Control''
WASHINGTON, D.C. , FBI Director Kash Patel moved quickly this week to reassure the nation that the bureau’s elite bourbon security infrastructure remains fully operational.
“At no time was the American people’s personalized liquor supply in danger,” Patel reportedly said, standing before a wall of flags, seals, and one suspiciously empty velvet display case. “The FBI has faced spies, terrorists, mob bosses, cybercriminals, and now, its greatest challenge: locating the missing bottle of me.”
The controversy began after reports surfaced that Patel had traveled with custom bourbon bottles bearing his name, title, badge, signature, and the kind of restraint normally associated with gold-plated bathroom fixtures. One bottle allegedly went missing, prompting what sources described as “a calm, professional, totally normal response,” meaning people were reportedly threatened with polygraphs and possible prosecution over a collectible ego flask.
Critics accused Patel of politicizing law enforcement, misusing federal resources, and confusing public service with a bachelor party gift bag. Supporters pushed back, insisting that every FBI director deserves a signature liquor line, especially during a constitutional crisis, when the real danger is someone touching the boss’s decorative whiskey.
The bureau has since created a special task force, the Federal Bourbon Investigation, to determine whether the missing bottle was stolen, misplaced, or simply fled in search of institutional dignity.
Meanwhile, agents previously assigned to counterintelligence, organized crime, and public corruption have been reassigned to higher priorities, including glassware inventory, label protection, and securing the director’s emergency decanter.
Asked whether the incident reflected poorly on federal law enforcement, Patel dismissed the concern.
“This is exactly what strong leadership looks like,” he said. “Accountability begins with finding out who touched my bourbon.”
At press time, the bottle had not been recovered, though several witnesses had reportedly agreed to cooperate after being reminded that the FBI has both subpoena power and very fragile masculine energy.
Heinous HSI prison policy is back in the court news today on seis (6) de mayo.
Per Axios News, "A federal appeals court struck down the Trump administration's mandatory detention policy on Wednesday."
Axios Continued: "Why it matters: The Miami, Florida-based 11th Circuit ruling is the latest case to weigh [ & strike down ]the administration's controversial policy to hold people in immigration detention with the possibility for bond."
🎶 Those 6 white horses you promised were finally delivered down to the penetentiary 🎶
Hey Mojave, I really appeciate the documentation but I really think inorder for action to be taken, people sitting in leading positions/able to make change, go through all this documentation and actually imply action on it.
Indeed, we are living in Dickensian times as we now have our own "Tale of Two Countries" – the tale they want us to believe and the tale that holds the actual truth.
Where is the moral, So-called Christian, GOP in all this…they must be bending over backwards to make sure they are doing their jobs to protect and defend the Constitution?! Wow! And then there is, of course, the Ten Commandments which they want all children to be able to read in their classrooms…how many have they violated?
What do they tell their children as they violate their oaths to God and Country!!
Dear Heather, the Washington Post, the Washington Post, the Washington Post, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the New York Times, the New York Times, the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Atlantic, Reuters why don’t you just report straight from Pravda and save you all the difficulty of trying to make a salient point?
It’s sad that you left your respectful moniker behind to become a wacko liberal capitalist liberal activist dragging poor lemmings through your disassociation with reality. Please try to wake up and be a bit more objective. Hating Trump is not doing anything for your listeners or your subscribers, but bringing them down a tube to nowhere as Trump continues to win every day for America and every day for the world ridding the world of terrorists, dictators, and their proxies.
Yesterday was one of the best days of the Trump administration besides the war in Iran, he reinvested in youth physical conditioning, and brought the women of Veterans and women and mothers of our military together in public to thank them and to bless them for their support and courage.
And you come online every day and literally defecate verbally on your site Saturday
What has won exactly, Rick? His tariffs have failed and he's stuck in a war he cannot get out of. Prices are rising and his approval rating is plummeting. Most of your previous claims for the administration have already been debunked so you're just venting again, aren't you?
Go ahead and tell me what they debunked pal. Too bad you don’t have money invested in the market Awwwwwww. And if you do, you’re nothing but a hypocrite, which is no surprise
Russell do yourself a favor stop embarrassing yourself here it’s it’s really kind of Sinful and I really take pity upon you
tariffs are bringing in a quarter of Of $1 trillion per quarter. The economy is running on all cylinders right now. Look at the stock market as an example unless you’re ignorant of that particular index all three of the index is then you are in total denial, my friend.
The business environment here is only improving and starting to get hot Stuck in a war? I’ve told you 50 times now and you’re I don’t know. Maybe you’re deaf, dumb and blind. This is gonna be the first war that America has won since World War II And the wind is right around the corner, not years or decades as most wars run.
And it will take time to button up all the loose edges, but I want to see you say uncle when the war comes to an end when he run runs up the white flag very shortly here.
Yes, Rick Satan, we all appreciate the legendary accomplishments of this astounding administration! Let me count the ways (short list): 1) the economy is heading into the shredder due to the most disastrous (and illegal, as confirmed by the SCOTUS) tariff regime, which has destroyed tens of thousands of small businesses and also farmers, and which now must be paid back with interest to the tune of more than $160 Billion; but none of us consumers will receive any refunds, ever; 2) the Pwesident and his Incompetent Boob Pete Kegsbreath, at the behest of Bibi NuttinbutaYAhoo allowed themselves to be dog-walked into a disastrous war of choice against Iran, which they “bombed back to the stone ages”; (however, they failed to even try to instead capture the some 900 pounds of highly enriched 60%, near weapons-grade uranium hexafluoride gas which is enough to make at least a few nuclear weapons, and which Iran still possesses); 3) in their stupid zeal they bombed an elementary school killing at least 176 children and staff, then pretended they weren’t responsible; 4) they failed to provide any adequate air defenses for some 17 U.S. bases in the Middle East, resulting in widespread destruction of facilities; they said they knew this would happen, so evacuated personnel off-base, but seven service members were killed at one base; 5) they claimed to have destroyed Iran’s military capabilities, but widespread destruction has been inflicted on many Middle Eastern countries, leading to catastrophic economic losses for those countries that will take decades to recover from; 6) by failing to understand that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz, they have created the worst worldwide oil shock ever, cutting off the delivery of oil, natural gas, fertilizer, helium and container ship goods for the foreseeable future; 7) by the catastrophically stupid actions, Humpty and Kegsbreath have caused the domestic price of gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, natural gas, fertilizer, and as such anything that has to be transported to skyrocket (hence the demise of Spirit, and possibly other airlines - not that it bothers you, a wealthy Trumper); 8) these actions have resulted in immediate economic oil shocks, etc. for many Asian nations, including many of our Pacific Rim Allies, to their great distress; 9) these actions will certainly lead to a U.S. recession and an jump in inflation that will damage every non-wealthy person in the United States……. And that’s just the short list! But it’s no skin off your nose, Rick Satan! As I have always said, you’re happy only when everything if FUBAR: Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition! Keep buying Crypto, what could Possibly go wrong?
trump AND his GOP maga cult regime WILL stick around as long as they can still squeeze another nickel out of the American Treasury and the American taxpayers...
We're gonna need a bigger boat.....this one stuffed with cash.
Our coffers are empty right now. You can't be a part of a winning wave unless you do your part to finance it, otherwise it dies on the vine, regardless of momentum. That's the cold, hard truth about our mid-terms, which most of us have yet to accept. The devil's in the details.
Absolutely ICTT. How many times has Trump run the same stock market scheme releasing fake information of a deal to end hostilities with Iran and someone magically makes a huge profit shorting oil futures.
Meanwhile, gasoline prices have increase 40-50% since the day before Trump foolishly bombed Iranian targets.
ICTT, I cannot describe the level of rage I feel to know someone made a 125 million dollar profit playing this illegal game. Almost as outraged as knowing concentration camps are being built to house those of us who speak out about dear leader.
Trump and his hand picked band of brigands are working on a wide ranging plan to disrupt, corrupt, and cancel the midterms. It will make Hanging Chad and the Brooks Brothers riot seem like small potatoes. All I n plain sight. Read Edsall's op-ed in today's NY Times.
Trump is Mad Captain Ahab, demonically persuing his devilish White Whale across the globe. No regard for his crew. Just revenge and his just retribution. Somewhere along the path of this mad pursuit, America's current Ahab will find his end out in the void and the world can return to a quieter state of conflict
The incoherence, the fuckupery, the arrogance, lawlessness, incompetence...just overwhelms. But as another Substacker wrote, our hopelessness is by their design. So don’t cooperate with it.
The day before yesterday, the Manchurian Cantaloupe actually demanded Republican legislatures cancel ongoing primary elections to ram through more fantasy gerrymandering. “We should demand what the Supreme Court says must be done…Republicans will receive more than 20 votes in the upcoming Midterms!” (Like a giddy 3-year-old going mine! mine! mine!…) And 5 of the 6 Indiana state Senators who refused to go along with his arrogant defiance of rules and procedures did, in fact, get primaried yesterday.
But this is good news. All the easier now for Democrats to paint the whole lot as a bunch of worthless Trump-stooges…what honorable Republicans? The campaign posters showing cultified MAGAzoids posing next to his Hillbilly-Louis XIV ballroom with captions reading “Had Enough?” practically print themselves. A self-inflicted GOP kiss of death on a saltine cracker.
And pay attention to MONEY. Not theirs, but ours, or rather our lack of it. Our own coffers are empty, even as they continue to amass huge war chests of dark slush. Spend time and energy donating to Democratic committees, to organizing get-out-the-vote groups, as well as to individual Senate and House races.
And accentuate the positive. Two days ago, Pearland, Texas — a community more red than rubies — just elected a Democratic mayor. The same district that gave Trump victory margins of more than 50% and 60% during the last two cycles, the town that once sent Tom DeLay to Congress (before he got convicted of money-laundering and sentenced to three years in jail). That district. More proof that Republicans lose elections, but independents win them. Pay attention to the cracks and chasms, now wider than the Grand Canyon.
Whatever they want you to feel, remember that Trumplandia has never been anything but a Rube Goldberg contraption, held together by lies, threats and scotch tape, as unstable as a house of cards during a windstorm. And the winds, they are gaining speed. Even as we acknowledge the severity of the moment, the fear surrounding elections, Trump's cards are actually blowing away. So eyes on the prize, not the countless distractions, and make it possible for that prize to become reality.
Cool. Tell you what Russell you live by the words and the rhetoric and I'll live by the actions on the ground Of which if Ron doesn't comply I can't imagine what it's gonna look like after but I think they have no choice at this point They either comply with dignity or they comply in death
No Rick, it’s your shitshow, and your Pedo King. We are not responsible for your fuckupery or for your Manchurian Cantaloupe, which is rotting in plain view from the head down.
In case you’re not aware, I have been challenging the poor bastard frequently for going on two years. Don’t think for a second that I’m trying to change his mind! He’s two far up Trump’s anus to accomplish that. No, this is about setting the record straight, for anyone else who has any doubts about who to believe these days, and there are many such poor souls. This is called “freedom of speech”; and you have just had your say. I can’t wait to see how November turns out, but if we don’t challenge such assholes on a regular basis, we will lose the field to (them).
There is no shit show EXCEPT in liberal precincts. And the more Trump continues winning the worst it gets for you. As WHEN THE LEFT IS NOT IN CONTROL THEY GO APESHIT.
If Biden were doing half the things Trump is doing you would be celebrating ……
The “war” should be over soon and gas prices are already coming down. AT THAT POINT YOU WILL NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT.
The old this is the only place there’s a shit show right here amongst the wacko left. Everybody else is looking forward to the war in Iran being over and the world being safe from a reckless terrorist country and it’s proxies. The market is doing great. The economy is doing great. The only shit show is right here amongst the negativity and the hate without reason without cause without rational thought. All is good all around. AND getting better every day.
Guess what dumb-ass: this war will not be over a year from now. Your party has actually lost the confidence of ALL of our foreign allies! Good work! I especially appreciate Humpty’s saying, at an investment forum in Florida, sponsored by Saudi Arabia (read: MBS) that MBS had to “kiss my ass”! Talk about soft diplomacy! Your King trash-talking the Crown Prince of the largest oil-exporting country in the world. Nice work! Yeah, and of some 2800 interceptor munitions (pre-war), among the Gulf Cooperation Counsel states, they used up most of them in just the first three days; Bahrain has now used up to 87%. Lockheed Martin said they will not be able to increase production of these to 2000 per year until 2030 - and here’s the kicker: these suckers cost over $13 million each! That to knock down a cheap Iranian drone that costs less than a used Toyota! Good luck with that math. Source: well-known Canadian journalist Dean Blundell. Bet ha they didn’t mention any of this on your primary sources of news: Faux News, OAN, Truth Social, the Daily Caller, and other right wing media slop. Nice work. As a result, Saudi Arabia and other gulf states have inked Ten Year production agreements with whom? President Zelenskyy and Ukraine. Nice work!
Nostradamus would hang you by your toes until enough blood entered your brain to get it to stop making your predictions.
The world will be UNDER water by then according to AOC ALTHOUGH GORE IS NOW BACKTRACKING. THE GULFSTEAM IS ABOUT TO DIE CAUSING FRIGID TEMPS. CANT MAKE THIS SHIT UP
Well war takes time to wind down. But it has been over since the day it began. Iran as it existed before this conflict is gone gone gone
Yeah you mean like the lack of confidence so weak that ALL FIVE PUBS THAT DENIED TRUMP HIS AGENDA …..ALL FIVE….ALL FIVE …ALL FIVE LOST THEIR PRIMARIES. OOOPS.
Well it’s great to know that Lockheed Martin is letting the world know that kind of info You’ve got to be the most gullible human on the planet …and you should be out there teaching the world how to handle diplomacy Lmfao You couldn’t even negotiate yourself out of a paper bag
And further, you demonstrate your total and utter fucking ignorance about Ukraine and Russia and why they are at war right now.
Guess you don’t know that we are the second largest producer of oil in the world.
Watch and learn pal. Who will soon be joining the Abraham accord.
Talk talk talk. Words and misguided beliefs are all you have.
I hang my head and pity for you. Enjoy your misery while we enjoy our delight.
About those 5 of the 6 Indiana state Senators who lost yesterday. I feel that was the intentional result of the Roberts Five in their "Citizens United" lie. Analogies often help to explain what these Court majorities have created. In Biblical terms claiming power to make an inanimate property (a corporate charter) a person and then endow that graven image with a golden tongue of mega-money as its free speech intending full well that political candidates and office holders must loyally bow down to and serve that golden calf or lose elections is idol making: a violation of God’s Second Commandment. The Roberts Five intended to create a King with the power like that of investiture, a creation of a Lord of a Congressional District, but only those loyal to the King. IOW, once the mega-money / Dark money group has invested in a leader and wins the White Castle with the new ball room it is in their financial interest to maintain the full power of that investment, their King.
IMO Biden had no idea what the Roberts Five was all about. He, RBG and Feinstein had big egos and should have left their jobs to a younger generation. Biden should have resigned one year early to allow Harris to show America a woman can do it.
We’re definitely in one of those times that “try men’s souls.” There is a ton of doom and gloom out there, and like everyone else on here I have had my spells from time to time with staying positive and upbeat that this fucking shitshow will soon end. Today’s post from Heather certainly helps keep us in the right direction as do yours that accentuate looking forward and keeping the faith. Thanks. We will get through this.
Let’s see what you’re gonna say when the war is over and the nuclear threat is gone and gas prices come down and the economy continues to rocket ahead and the stock market reflects the sentiment of business in America and tomorrow’s future you communist/socialist shard of humanity if you want socialism, there are plenty of places you can have it. So go be average, which would be an improvement for you
Okay, well let's wait and see whether that happens. It's certainly not very likely at the moment. Qatar says that it would take them five years to restore their gas imports to pre-war levels. Some analysts say that gas prices will never return to their pre-war levels. If you just follow Fox News, Rick, you will remain an uninformed twit.
You know you’ve been wrong at every single turn and you continue to follow that same path Russell unbelievable you predicted everything upside down compared to what Trump has been able to accomplish so far so keep it up pal I’m loving it
By the way, I forgot to mention besides bringing the women of war together and thanking them and blessing them for their support and encourage there were also five Republicans in primaries yesterday that voted against Trump policies, and when Trump supported their opponents in the primaries all 51 and defeated the Republicans that didn’t give Trump their support That was done by the voters.
Think Russell if you’ve learned anything about tomorrow while I agree time will tell they predicted incredible inflation. They predicted a stock market crash. They predicted a recession. They predicted failure for this entire administration and all he’s been doing is winning and winning Some wise men in ancient history in America said when you see somebody winning and winning and winning and you’re on the other side, it might want to think about joining the winners
Hello: how exactly is he going to capture the near-weapons grade enriched uranium gas (not “dust” as Humpty calls it). Send in the Delta Force to dig around in the nuclear sites they “obliterated”? Seriously, you seem to be too willing to believe any of the daily slop they dump into the public trough! After he and Bibi killed off all the “moderates”, do you really think they will ever agree to any thing he demands? No, they won’t. You must be high on your own supply if you believe that! - from the resolute desk of Nostradamus.
Laugh away, sucker! I’m not laughing at you quite yet; I’m mocking you. Since I’m a moderate, centrist democratic voter, I will be laughing at you later this year, and then, for the rest of your miserable self-centered Epstein Class supporter’s life. I will remind you of every nasty thing your cult has done until the rest of time. We will never forget people who dance all over the Constitution like is a puppy-pooper mat. But those enablers will definitely receive due process and their day in court. Predictions number 6,987 - Noelstradamus.
Are you so narcissistic and self engrandized that you actually think I give a shit about what you think. ? You know when you go to the bathroom when you get that last little Drop that comes out.
I know you do, or you wouldn’t be baiting me. I also “Own the Pugs”, that why I care what you think. And after all, I don’t give a shit if you don’t give a shit. Isn’t that called ‘communication’? Isn’t that what we are doing? But in our case, “what we have heah, is Not a Failure tuh communicate” (play on words from Cool Hand Luke, get it?). Speaking of shit that needs to be flushed ASAP, the Grand Oil Party, now lower than whale shit in view of most independents, blacks and Latinos, is circling the Terlet raght now; too bad it will take six more months to complete the flushing operation and clear the pipes of the GOP and the giant orange turd.
The fact that some of these “red as rubies” districts are suddenly electing Democrats does show that there is finally some disgust and disillusionment among the voters. But it also shows that those districts’ voters are the uninformed, fickle, unthinking voters who swing back and forth on whatever popular grievance is at the forefront at the moment. They will be just as aggrieved in the next election if the Democrats they elect do not make their lives a magical dream. In other words, these are voters who lack principals. The Democratic party’s job, which they have failed at miserably, is to do some education about what political principles are, and why they matter. Each of us who post here can volunteer to do some of that education. Start with your local Democratic Party officials!
The E Jean Carroll case is a perfect example of Trump's temperament. The fine is pocket change compared to his grifted billions, but he can't stand losing. It goes contrary to his grandiose self-image.
What's stupid is that his pursuit of it keeps reminding the public that he was adjudicated a sex offender.
Trump is a transactional person who sees life as a series of transactions in which he has to win and someone else has to lose. It isn’t a workable concept in foreign relations, and it’s not necessarily a successful way of getting things accomplished. Besides, Donald has been the sort of person he despises, “a loser,” more often than not, and lies to offer himself comfort from uncomfortable reality.
Trump’s temperament is why he’s the most influential positively influential individual on planet earth right now. He’s a leader in the true sense obviously you don’t recognize it when you see it
Hey Phil, stop living in the past that’s 25 years ago pal. Try to catch up and if you want to see drifting, why don’t you find out why Biden pardoned his entire family down to his grandchildren’s underwear?
And the J6 committee As well as Anthony Fauci, who was involved in killing a couple million Americans
Why is it you liberals always like to live in history. The case was a fart and she waited till Trump was running for president. What a surprise. It's all a crock.
Are you keep hoping for aging? Carol will keep hoping for America. I believe you might have your priorities more than a little fucked up.
Trump was NOT a government employee (ie the POTUS) when he assaulted E Jean Carroll. If this substitution is allowed to happen, justice in America will officially be dead!
It's on life support as it is Steve. Meanwhile, the GOP keeps pushing through more far-right judges.
Was it HCR that reported the DOJ has lost over half of the attorneys that worked for them and that they are offering hiring bonuses for the first time ever and they still can't get any takers.
I know it is. I have not read reporting on DOJ losing half of its attorney staff. But I can imagine no lawyer trained to uphold the law would want to work there now. But of course there are law schools run by MAGA (Google says the most "conservative" is The George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School). So...
Professor Richardson -- Thanks for the succinct summary of the flood of developing stories from the Trump administration. Along with the clever Lego character videos and the creative billboards decorating Tehran, I was struck by the quote you cited from Iran’s Foreign Minister, M. B. Ghalibaf: “Operation Trust Me Bro failed. Now, back to routine with Operation Fauxios.” It made a strong impression. The Iranian government's use of social media and other rhetorical strategies to highlight the absurdity of Trump and his cabinet members' flip-flopping has been quite effective.
Also, after all of this is over, there had better be a reckoning of just who is behind all of the suspicious financial shenanigans that seem to be illegal insider trading.
It's likely that there will be a reckoning, but it remains to be seen who will be left to face it once the suspects have fled the country with their ill-gotten gains.
And they may already have fled the country, meaning Trump released the information to traders outside the US to make it harder to trace these transactions. Trump has already eliminated the whistle blowers in every agency.
I never thought of that. I was thinking that the rats would continue here until the ship got so low in the water that they would have to jump. After all, there are no consequences for corruption in this administration, unless the Boss doesn’t get his cut.
I know it’s a rhetorical question, but there are several people and organizations that explain the how. The Heritage Foundation, media that ignored 47s obvious lies, a crooked SCOTUS, and many mega donors. Putin was likely involved a bit, as well. I’m sure that there are more, but that election was purchased.
Loren, rhetorical questions don't require an answer. Because, in this case, we can know exactly how we got here and still be disgusted and appalled and even surprised to find ourselves here.
Yes, Deb, of course I understand that. But a vast majority of USians -- including, I suspect a majority here -- remain in fanatical denial of how we got here. That's why -- as obnoxious as it obviously seems to so many of you -- I keep posting these links.
I get it. We need to keep teaching history, because people keep not getting it. I live with an over-explainer, so I do find that irritating sometimes, despite the best intentions. But I'm also writing and producing sketches about historical figures to engage people in dialogue about what kind of society we want to create next. Carry on.
You're like Long John Silver's parrot in Treasure Island, Mr. Balla. Whatever else may be happening, no matter the conversation, you can be counted on to squawk "Pieces 'o Standardized Testing!" About as helpful as the parrot.
Folks don’t buy the testing argument. You might switch to (1) the compromised school textbooks that provide a biased view of history and society and (2) the State laws limiting teaching content and libraries.
Diane Ravitch in her 2003 classic (amazingly full appendices, too) "The Language Police," treated both the standardized testers and the corporate textbook packagers as essentially one.
She didn't go so much into formation of state laws, as at that time few Americans understood the reach of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) in its most-well-funded, far-right mission to manipulate all 50 state legislatures.
So the issue is that those tests focus on and only reward the content in the selected curriculum areas. Math curriculum probably doesn’t have as many issues with standardized tests.
But our disgust -- our rage and terror, actually -- will remain meaningless until someone takes the vital first step toward Liberation, that of organizing a genuinely progressive shadow government, perhaps most securely in London.
Phil...Though we agree about the anti-intellectual purpose of standardized testing, don't forget the testing was imposed in response to parental demands. This was of course proto-ChristoNazi work, but the more progressive parents, snug in their self-obsession, refused to take the oft-articulated threat seriously. (And, yes, that sort of refusal adds up to the undeclared but now probably irreversible surrender of the nation.)
Remember, too, Phil, that "education" is typically the easiest major in USian academia. This is no accident; the plutocracy knows that teachers who are dullards are also 100 percent submissive to our masters' desires. (Easiest concentration within the education major is of course "physical education.")
And, Loren, being submissive to the commercial classes = one trajectory.
From the Powell memo (1971) to Citizens United (2010) it meant ridding humanities from schools. The corporate and the moneyed hated all the energy by which the various good movements of the late 1960s drew so from books, films, songs then.
So, my latest list of humanities public officials ought access -- but can not:
films like “The Florida Project,” “Knives Out,” “The Verdict,” “Nomadland,” “The Big Short,” and “Winter’s Bone”;
novels like Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead,” Walter Mosley’s “Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned,” Tom Hanks’ “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,” and many by Richard Russo, Elmore Leonard, and Stephen King;
memoirs like Mary Karr’s “The Liars’ Club,” Joan Didion’s “Where I Was From,” Jeannette Walls’ “The Glass Castle,” Sarah Kendzior’s “The Last American Road Trip,” Tia Levings’ “A Well-Trained Wife,” Erin Gruwell’s “The Freedom Writers Diary,” and Beth Macy’s “Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America”;
essay collections such as Arlie Russell Hochschild’s “Stolen Pride,” Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America”; Sarah Smarsh’s “Bone of the Bone, and George Packer’s “The Unwinding”;
biographies such as Lindsey Stonebridge’s “We are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience”;
histories like Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money,” Rachel Maddow’s “Prequel,” Heather Cox Richardson’s “How the South Won the Civil War,” and Timothy Snyder’s “The Road to Unfreedom”;
poems such as Philip Levine’s Detroit factory poems, and those in the three volumes of Garrison Keillor’s “Good Poems”;
songs like Tim Grimm’s “Broken Truth,” Bob Seger’s “Feel Like a Number,” Carsie Blanton’s “Rich People,” Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught,” and any John Prine, Bruce Springsteen, or hip hop Ari Melber will cite.
It has been argued that the printing press and the dissemination of novels encouraged more compassion in cultures. It has been argued that Uncle Tom's Cabin is one that had that effect.
Phil, don’t forget the all-important opening line of Ginsberg’s “Howl,” the multi-generational rebellion’s epic: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.“
Nor how, in healing response, the traditional balladry rediscovered by the folk renaissance – much of it revealed by diligent scholarship to contain disguised remnants of invocations and lays of magick handed down from the many millennia when God was a Woman – furthered the rebellion by introducing an image of female power that shattered the misogynistic prison of servitude and slavery maintained by Aryan male supremacist capitalism. Here are six examples:
Remember too the opening lines of Diane diPrima’s “Loba,” at the very least the womens’ equivalent of “Howl”: “O lost moon sisters/ sea underfoot do you wander/in blue veil, in green leaf, in tattered shawl do you wander/ with goldleaf skin, with flaming hair do you wander...”
And as if in response, Tim Buckley wrote “Phantasmagorea in Two,” in the ancient form of a dialogue between the Goddess and her bard: “If you tell me of all the pain you’ve had/ I’ll never smile again.”
But young Janet says it best in “Tam Lin”: “I’ll come and go as I please...and ask no leave of thee.”
(You have just tasted the core message of my photographically back-boned, extensively footnoted, 24-year investigative-journalism project entitled “Glimpses of a Pale Dancer,” destroyed by arson just as it appeared headed for major publication. Why? Because “Dancer” documented the Counterculture and its Beat-Generation mother as personifications of the Gaia Hypothesis; the resurrection of the ancient notion our Mother Earth is alive, conscious and self-regulating; also the resurrection of the Great Goddess, whether as metaphor or something far greater than metaphor – and even in her most unremarkable form, infinitely more terrifying to our patriarchal Masters than Marxism itself.)
I think we should emphasize that voting in a nation in which governance is meant to be of, by and for the people, we vote for the common good, for the best shot at liberty and justice for all, including posterity. It is our share of duty, as well as personal choice. How could it be otherwise and still be the kind of society we claim to admire?
I agree with you whole-heartedly and you expressed it perfectly. However, in the 2024 presidential election, 85.9 million people did not vote. Will so many people be complacent again? What will motivate them that didn't in 2024? Hopefully, at least some have taken the blinders off and have seen the devastating gutting of our government. Yes, it is our shared duty, and privilege.
There is a whole lot NOT to like with MAGA. Many people, including some friends, have claimed that there is not enough difference between Republicans and Democrats to bother choosing, or that politics is so nasty, they prefer to avoid it. Well surely now there is reason to be paying more attention, and people need to be reminded of it.
Also, to how those who are already disadvantaged in our society generally bear the worst impacts of our failures to choose wisely. Often big-picture fool's choices are accompanied by a single-issue compliant with which I am sympathetic, and yet personally try for the wisest move when confronted with two or more mixed-bag choices; and if I can't gain ground, at least limit the loss of it. That's how one survives an actual war, and this is a long standing virtual war between what Lincoln called (in disapproving of the latter) "the common right of humanity" vs "the divine right of kings". A central concern of any legitimate republic is service to the common good, and that is facing a Blitzkrieg today. The least we can do is officially endorse an alternative by voting.
Also, unalienable rights and the common weal are do not stand in opposition. One demonstrably supports the other: they are two views of the same thing. The framers of the Constitution "got" that one, at least in theory.
Heather has a bit of necessary repetition today, reporting on the chaos from criminal Donald's administration. Early on, for instance, she writes, "the U.S. government is hiding the . . .." I end with ellipsis, because they're hiding everything, just adulterating the language so we know we're in continuous lies.
Or, as she quotes David Rothkopf, “Not since Vietnam have we seen a more systematic effort by an administration to lie about the nature, costs, consequences, and results of a war than we have seen from the White House on Iran.”
A couple paras more, "The administration’s shifting justifications and claims . . .."
Kash Patel and his bourbon. Howard Lutnick and his Epstein lies and cover up.
Till our last two words: "inexplicable." And its own para for concluding "Indeed."
What better spot for a family vacation than Epstein's island?????
On another topic entirely, did I hear that, in answer to a question about to what extent the war with Iran has depleted the Pentagon's weaponry and supplies, Trump asserted that the department now is much better provisioned than it was before the war? He seemed to say that we had stashes of weapons all over the world that more than made up for what we have used. If, indeed, the war has cost the U.S. approximately $1 billion/day, it's hard to believe that we've got more weaponry now than we did before.
There are pre-positioned military resources developed during the Cold War. I won’t be surprised if he begins to draw them down. They are there to protect NATO, which Trump criticizes constantly. We will wind up alone, with only 2 oceans to defend us.
Sen. Lucas also mightily pissed off former VA Gov Glenn Youngkin when she blocked his and Ted Leonsis’ plan to build - against most of Northern Virginia’s wishes - a huge arena and move the Wizards, Caps and Mystics to it. She has been in their sights for a while.
She shot Ted Cruz a short missive back in April after he backed Abbott's shameful start to the Trumpymander redistricting of Texas a few months ago. "You all started it, but we're fucking finishing it," she wrote. But unlike Texas, Virginia gave its voters final say over the plan. Clearly they couldn't let this uppity....woman get the last word in.
‘Trump Administration to Kick Bison Off Public Lands’
“That’s the cycle: subsidize the grazing, degrade the land, kill the wildlife, and send the bill to the taxpayer. And when someone shows up with an animal that actually belongs there and helps restore the ecosystem? Kick it off.
What They’re Destroying
American Prairie spent two decades building something in the depopulated outback of eastern Montana that no one else had attempted.
Their herd grew from 19 animals to 952. In 2022, the BLM approved their request to graze bison year-round on federal land — an acknowledgment, backed by environmental review, that native grazers are better for the land than cattle. The science isn’t controversial. Bison break up crusted earth with their hooves and wallows, creating openings for native grasses. They thin sagebrush, improving habitat for grouse. They graze to ideal heights for prairie dogs. They increase grassland resilience to drought. They built this prairie. And American Prairie’s herd wasn’t just restoring Phillips County — bison from their herds helped tribal nations across the northern Great Plains start and grow their own conservation and commercial herds.”
🦬 Author’s Note: “As this piece was being published, news broke that Ted Turner died today at the age of 87.
💕 Turner ran 45,000 bison across 2 million acres of the American West and spent decades proving what this piece argues — that bison belong on this land, and the land is better for having them.”
Here’s to the mighty tatanka, the iconic buffalo that once roamed over vast expanses of the American landscape. I saw some of those bison about 20 years ago outside of Bozeman, Montana on some of Ted Turner’s land that he set aside for them, so thankful to him for giving them another chance to be part of the ecosystem that they were meant to coexist in with us. RIP Ted Turner…and may the bison continue to graze in peace on the prairies and grasslands of our Nation…
During a blizzard they will stand, facing into the wind, so as not to get pushed by the wind into the swails to be drifted over. They are really athletic as well.
'When a bottle went missing during a “training seminar” with Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes in Quantico, Virginia, Patel was angry enough that he threatened to make his staff take polygraphs and face prosecution.'
It is appalling that elected Republicans and the voters who support them could be so indifferent to the lies and corruption of Trump’s crooks, so indifferent to the rule of law. Oh, I forget: weren’t the Confederate Rebels jut as immoral and corrupt?
Thank you, Dr. Richardson, for your tireless efforts to record for history the daily chronicle of the madness of this administration. I have come to the conclusion that there is no strategy or policy driving the day-to-day fluctuations of Trump 2.0. The only things that matter are to dominate the 24-hour news cycle (regardless of what might have passed for policy in the previous 24 hours), to exact revenge on critics, and above all to create opportunities for corruption. Chaos is the result, but it is not the result of a plan.
Au contraire, James -- reports are that the chaos is exactly what Herr Steve Bannon ordered, and in alignment with Project 2025. Exhaust and confuse the people so they become numb and disengaged, so you can steamroll them at your pleasure. This is their heinous plan. And this is why we must continue to RESIST.
You may well be right, Signe. Certainly with regard to domestic policy. But our foreign policy is bonkers. I’m not sure how much Bannon is involved with that, except for the destruction of USAID. Trump’s war, for the failure of which Hegseth will deservedly take the fall, is a strategic disaster, with its pursuit and objectives changing by the hour depending on the mood of our demented Commander in Chief. And I think that mood is determined by those factors I mentioned earlier, along with the bats rattling around in his belfry.
“Donald Trump fears Americans in the streets more than anything else. Millions of them, day after day, peaceful and ungovernable. It is one of the only things that can threaten his continued hold on power and the hardest to neutralize.
When someone tells you America has a left-wing violence problem, ask them why they are not talking about the right. They will probably say that there is no problem on the right. But that’s simply not true.
What Orban Learned and What Trump Hasn’t. Yet.
History suggests that massive numbers of voters or protesters are the one thing authoritarians can’t neutralize.
Trump can arrest dozens of citizens, but he can’t arrest millions. He can call protesters “terrorists”, but he can’t make that label stick when the protester is your neighbor, your doctor, your kid’s teacher, half the country standing in the street.
Orbán learned it the hard way. So will Trump, if Americans decide to show up.”
Trump Has A New Terrorist. It’s You.
HERE BE DRAGONS. WARNING SIGNS FROM THE EDGES OF DEMOCRACY by Barbara F Walter
So true. We must take to the streets! Shut down the highways and access roads to airports. Block entry to sports venues and events. Swarm the National Mall with protest chants. No violence but plenty of disruption.
right on donna, but like Barbara said, we could make our protest signs with peace + love messages, so the resistance can’t be accused of anything anti-Trump or anti-American.
😎 I won’t be able to carry my #GetTheFascistsOut. protest signs 🌞
The corruption, lying and secrecy is nauseating. So grateful you are documenting it so that they can all be brought before the bar of justice. May that day come soon.
"It has not been a banner day for members of the Trump administration." Since Mr. Trump entered WH, American citizens have not enjoyed a single banner day.
This is what I, and many others trying to get people to register and vote, am up against. Hopelessness is setting in at a remarkable rate, and the feeling that their vote 'doesn't count' is growing.
I won't give up and will continue to try to explain how this assault on the Constitution and our freedom can only be reversed by greater numbers of people voting to stop it, but try telling that to a black person who has heard of 'Callais'.
We need every person out there to help reinforce that voting actually DOES matter and makes a difference (especially now), and the fact that so many DID NOT vote is what helped get us here to begin with.
It's a steep hill to climb. Pack a lunch and get busy!
It is hard to believe that the vast majority of Republicans still support this madness. What exactly are they not seeing?
Are we so blinded by bias that we see only the negative — or is the negative simply all there is? It's all there is.
They believe Saint Ronnie's nonsense line that was funny, if untrue. "The most terrifying thing is 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'"
They expect stupidity and incompetence so that's exactly what they vote for.
I think you set a standard for performance, hire the most competent you can find, and hold people to that. DoJ used to do that, and they were excellent.
Now look at it, and DOD, and CDC.
Jen, you are right and because of the stupidity (stupidity is a choice) of this current Trumplandia, stupidity and ignorance reigns in DC and wherever Trump and his fools have any power. We need the American people, even Republicans/Trumplicans to stand up and say really loud and clear "We aren't gonna take it anymore," and mean it!
No,no,no! Stupidity and ignorance don’t reign in DC… cheating, lying, stealing, conniving, arrogance, and greed seem to be at the top of list of goals of those in charge. And their boundaries seem to have no end. Every day they are breathing is a disappointment to me.
Harvey, it truly is all there is for Trumplandia. This is a concerted effort to drive us all into despair so they can waltz in and take over, stealing our hard-earned money paid in taxes, our communities that they can take over and run with the bullying help of ICE and whatever other paramilitary force they come up with. They think we are all stupid and that they are brilliant and deserving of whatever they can get from us; they're not even close to brilliant. They will demand our loyalty or death. They are practicing right now with their ICE and the concentration camp prisons they have put together with our tax money and no consent from the American people. If we stay silent and let them do their dirty work against us, we lose. We need to do what the people in Hungary have done and turn out in force to stop the whiny bratty greedy racist misogynistic xenophobic, homo/transphobic ignoramuses that make up Trumplandia. They need to be neutralized and the only way to do that is if we come out in force, vote in force, get even Republicans/Trumplicans to see that there is nothing for them in this Trumpian insanity. We all deserve better, even Republicans! Vote Democratic up and down the ballot everywhere to break Trump's demented hold on this nation. Then, the entire Trump regime needs to be impeached, tried and convicted of treason! IF we can get that, they can't be pardoned!
I’ve asked myself that too. Essentially, am I the crazy person so far down the rabbit hole I’ve lost my mind?
I am very grateful that frequent commentor here, TCinLA, puts the message that "we are not the crazy ones" on his daily Substac "That's Another Fine Mess".
And the kitty and dog pictures, as well.
Nope Miselle, we are not the crazy ones at all; it is truly Trumplandia that are out of touch with reality and dragging their cult along with them into stupidity and utter ignorance, all on purpose to further the aims of whiny rich white men who have no moral code and are totally OK with that. They are users and working hard to groom us all to be OK with being used by ignoramuses who are addicted to power and money, neither of which they deserve!
The GOP literally does not see the same things we see. When you ONLY get your news from Trump then you aren't seeing the whole picture. Only what Trump and company want them to see.
Many people instinctively prefer ignorance to knowledge. — The reason for this is that knowledge is inimical to prejudices, and for most people, their prejudices are essential to their sanity. —- Which is why war is more normal for the human race and in history than peace has ever been.
Where my children attended Highschool and graduated from is the place where financier and philanthropist, Cyrus Eaton, held “Peace Conferences”.
Presidents and Royalty and “Thinkers” from all over the world came to TALK to each other in PUGWASH, NOVA SCOTIA,CANADA.
The Eaton Estate also hosted a reception for Yuri Gagarin (first man in Space).
Cyrus Eaton was a visionary who saw no reason all countries couldn’t shake off the futile, war-like tendencies of our caveman ancestors and ADVANCE toward the intelligent NEEDS of the planet.
Donald Trump is a ‘clinical’ moron, so, an intelligent POTUS is desperately required for your country. 🙏
That’s all!
Jean, an intelligent POTUS (IPOTUS) has occurred four times in my lifetime, by my somewhat biased opinion. I am an 84 year old USA citizen by birth, turning 85 in September. I am also what I consider left center progressive. I have very dim memories of the first, FDR, who died in my fifth year. I have studied his life and leadership and consider him one of the best presidents my country has ever had. His successor, HST, I consider another of those four IPOTUS, though not to FDR’s level. The other two in my opinion were LBJ and Barack Obama. The only non-Democratic POTUS I think nearly ranks with those four was Dwight D Eisenhower. All five men faced challenges and not one of them was “perfect”, whatever that may be. But all of them gave the country their best efforts and left the country better for their service. A high “also-ran” among the others during my lifetime was Jimmy Carter.
All of this to say that an IPOTUS would be a wonderful thing for the USA but would not be sufficient in his or her self. We need to do some very dramatic and serious changes in our governance before we will be a truly worthy partner for the other democracies and a thoughtful interactor with the non-democratic countries of this world.
Good point.
Also, knowledge requires some level of responsibility.
Ignorance, or the claim of it, tends to absolve one from responsibility.
Doesn't always work that way, but it works in the shorter run.
I believe that Fox "news" first started broadcasting in 1997, and they have done nothing but stoke hatred for anyone who does not subscribe to their racist, misogynistic philosophy. The hatred is now ingrained in the right-wing and seems to matter more to these people than an honest, trustworthy government that works for the people.
So long as he’s a committed racist, they’re fine with the rest.
The message for voting is that if people don't get out and vote it's going to get worse! If people want to have hope then vote for a Democrat or an independent. Leave the GOP in the dustbin of the past where they're sitting right now.
💯 Cynicism, complacency and resignation is what they want.
RLL, kyou are new to me here. Perhaps you've been reading for free for years, but regardless, pulling out your credit card and putting your money where your mouth is (as my Mom used to say)--I am so grateful for you. In comments above, there is mention of feeling lost and hopeless, and of late there has been a few trolls here trying to build on that feeling. EVERY person who joins this community grows our base.
THANK YOU.
And WELCOME!! 👋🏼👋🏼 It's good to have you here.
Not for years but for a month or so. IFLA is so good I have to support it.
Celeste, keep up the good work of trying to get folks to vote. Tell them that their hopelessness is exactly what Trump and his white house toddler pool want for them and that this whole effort on the part of Trumplandia has been in the works for more than a half-century, probably a whole lot longer! We must not capitulate to the racism, misogyny, greed, ignorance, the evil of Trumplandia, the Project 2025ers, and the far too wealthy oligarchs! They are not worthy of our giving up!
I will vote as I always have. But that does not mean that I have any hope that it will make any difference.
So you're one of those that believes that last election was legit? Okay. Good luck.
I'm NOT saying 'don't vote'...
But if what Republicans are now doing...'redistricting', didn't give way to the possibility that they were willing to rig the LAST election...
You know...because it just makes SO much sense that after the first disastrous term, sensible people wouldn't vote...yeah...that MUST have been the reason...
And Trump bombed Iran because he was concerned about Iran having nuclear weapon capabilities...and, of course, the poooooor Iranian people...he's SUCH a considerate guy! I'm just going to HAVE to vote for him next time...
Isaac, Yep, the last election was not without fraud and all of that fraud was Trumpian, most likely by Musk and his pre-DOGErs setting us all up for what they planned to do to our government when they got their puppet Baby Donnie, an adjudicated rapist, tax cheat, 6-time bankrupter, insurrectionist, thief of classified documents elected again. They had/have the technology to "interfere" and they also had the compliance of Democrats all across the swing states, not wanting to be seen as complainers as Trump had been, calling fraud because he lost the 2020 election, when there was actually intense checking for fraud and found none, at least in the states that checked; red states don't seem to have to check because everyone just assumes they vote Republican. It has been believably suggested that the tampering was with the tallying machines and some voting machines that had just happened to "need repair" just before the election in swing states. For the tallying machines, a small device just had to be attached to the machine's cord or where it was plugged in to change say every other vote after around 250 votes passed through normally. Who would check the votes and how they laid out after as many as 250 votes or more in larger areas where precincts sent in their vote counts. Change the algorithms and one can get whatever results those doing the programming want and we know what they wanted, Trump as president and Republican control of the House and Senate. They also played the race and misogyny cards wherever they could get away with it. All of that together left us with a horrific mess, a lot of suffering, many deaths around the world due to program cuts, and now, a stupid war for Trump's ego and distraction from his strong presence in the Epstein Files which should have been fully released nearly 5 months ago and have not been. So, we do need to get the word out over and over of what is at stake for those Republicans who still cling to their Baby Donnie, an old man with dementia who cares for no one and nothing but his own personal comfort and ability to get his name and face everywhere so he can look at them while pretending to work. Ugh! We have a lot to do before November!
could hardly agree with you more, Ruth...in fact...it's almost like you copied/ pasted one(some?) of my past remarks about some of the things you've mentioned...what a mess America is in...but the Gordian knot is a myth...i'm glad you're treating it as such...
Awwwwwww are we upset Ruth? Good. Best prez of your life. And the more he wins and the less control you have the more violent you get. So fn predictable
Park your hate and join us in America at its best leading the world once again
Watching the attempts to ‘cheat’ America out of a legitimately GOOD (honest, intelligent, empathetic, statesman/woman) President, you have to wonder about the 2024 election!!
The ‘regime’ DOES LOOK DESPERATE to suppress voting where they know they will surely lose!
Against this illegal gerrymandering, is WHAT?
And…I, for one, expect an ‘end run’ of Trump just DECLARING - with the sweep of the sceptre in his hand - that there will BE NO MIDTERM ELECTIONS THIS (HIS) TERM.
Agree?
i don't like putting it this way, Jean...but even if i DO agree, what's more important to me is, 'what will Americans do about that?'
Unless I have greatly underestimated the vast majority of ‘sane’ and ‘younger generation - (thus, EDUCATED) - Americans, YOU WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES!! 🤨
I have seen you play HOCKEY, and THAT is the spirit of a country that can shake off the bid of FASCISM.
It is very difficult to be PATIENT, but I am confident after the SHOCK of Trump’s re-election (🤮),and the ASSAULTS since he swore so badly being inaugurated (ie lied ⚡️⚡️⚡️) the Nation will RISE with purpose and reset its goals.
“…the courage to resist is within us…” WWII France.
🇨🇦🤝🇺🇸
Lol.
🪞
Voting is the least you can do, with the all out assault on our Constitution and democracy, patriots should be more angry and outraged with every move this fascist administration and party makes. The Supreme Court is also complicit in the fascist direction we are heading.
Hear hear Celeste. Right on point! Our vote numbers must be overwhelming, or it will most certainly happen here…. America will become just another subjugated country under totalitarian rule.
"This evening, Iran’s foreign minister M.B. Ghalibaf posted: “Operation Trust Me Bro failed. Now back to routine with Operation Fauxios."
Never has a mocking insult been so appropriate.
I hope it made Trump squirm.
Iran's response made Trump look exactly like what he is — an uneducated bully facing a composed and intelligent adversary.
It is So obvious: Iran is a composed and intelligent adversary.
If anyone allowed him to hear about it, I’m sure it went over his head.
Trump is too far into his delusional world for any sanity or facts to impact him. And he is protected from any bad news
(His sinking polls on every issue) by a bunch of outstanding liars, grifters,and thieves who are enriching themselves by playing the stock market by gaming this war. There will need to be some harsh retribution for these crimes. Enough to go down in history as our determination to maintain the Constitutional government that the Founders left for us.
Good sources of information - often ahead of our press.
In fact, often sources for our press.
Read it here:
Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
.https://www.aljazeera.com/.
Learn about it here.
US-IRAN WAR … ISH - DAY 70 - w/Malcolm Nance, Jacob Kaarsbo, Wajeeh Lion
.https://malcolmnance.substack.com/p/us-iran-war-ish-day-70-wmalcolm-nance?publication_id=1227278&play_audio=true&utm_content=watch_now_gif&triedRedirect=true.
Shortest war in American history. Oooops and the only one we have won since WWll
yeah. like all the OTHER insults/perceived threats he never reacts to...he's thought of nothing ELSE since becoming aware of the comment.
Squirm? He probably doesn't even understand it!
Trump does have a knack for snark; he will get the dig.
But note too that whomever in the ChristoNazi Regime Dr. Richardson describes as "in trouble," it is an entirely meaningless designation, because there is absolute no one in this failed nation capable of stopping their atrocities. Again, our only (rational) hope for Liberation is invasion by Liberators from the remaining democratic nations.
Taking back the Congress it will be stopped. Most important is taking the Senate as then we can stop the fascist being appointed to the Federal courts. The focus is on we the people acting as "one" in November, the one capable of stopping their atrocities.
Good luck trying to persuade the 1 in 3 people that still, STILL!! support this depravity!
Just need to get all of the 2 out of 3 to vote out the republican majority in the House and Senate. Democratic wins are popping up all over the country, and many of the 1 in 3 are likely to sit it out this time.
Spread the word and get everyone you know to vote.
This assumes that Trump does not abort the midterms.
Except for all picks in Indiana yesterday Celeste.
37% of Americans support what Trump is doing. Sit with that for a moment.
That number means either millions are consuming a diet of pure propaganda — or they see exactly what's happening and choose to look away.
Either way, it's damning.
I always come back to the truest thing tRump ever said...that he could shoot someone on fifth avenue and not lose his supporters. That's the way cults work.
I think that there is a solid 34% of the country that is today's version of the pre-Civil War south. This is the white, male dominated, cisgendered, heteronormative, Christian Nationalist world that they want. They do not care how many people suffer or die as long as that is the society they live in. They also have no freaking clue that they will be next after all us alphabet people (LGBTQ+ and BIPOC) and "uppity women" are gone.
37% of Americans are mentally ill. We own that because we allowed it to fester. We turned our eyes away from generations of abuse and trauma that resulted in 37% of Americans being in a cult.
I find that number haunting and daunting, absolutely amazing! How is it possible that so many of our countrymen and women are so easily led or, perhaps worse, appreciate the cruelty, crime, and hatred this administration doles out.
Amazing mind control. How are they able to hide such lies in the open? The loyalty to the Shyster is unsettling.
A hum… you already know I would have taken my chances with the once good generals to prevent a Trump takeover through a military coup. I’m afraid we haven’t yet experienced the worst to come. Ironically now the security apparatus and milt will be used against us. Think of that. It’s coming.
Melania cannot hide her 24/7 fear. First to look up when shots were fired. First to get under the table. He either hides the fear or is unable to grasp his head might explode any minute.
She probably bumped her head.
Bill, maybe we could flood the Secret Service offices with M&Ms (only the blue ones) spelling out
86 47, then the Palace Guard might take the hint and give him the Caligula treatment.
I guess that might be too much to hope for...
Exactly. Huge, huge numbers of voters must get to the polls to decisively change the majority in Congress.
Everyone must encourage and help all people to get to the polls and vote. Everyone. Now is the time to make our numbers make a difference. It is the power we hold. We must use it.
Yes!
Get Out The Vote for Democratic candidates.
Vote Blue No Matter Who
No exceptions, No Excuses
Wrong! “Vote Blue, No Matter Who” is the recipe for disaster that got us into this mess! If the DNC had not had their heads stuck into the sand, they would have prevented Joe Biden (who was a competent first-term president) from running again, and allowed a normal presidential primary to occur. Instead, Kamala Harris was shoe-horned into a truncated campaign, when even most women still wouldn’t vote for a woman! We need to return to a normal process, but leave behind the terrible idea of just voting for anyone who runs as a Democrat! There are too many democrats zombies in the Congress already; and we sure don’t need a blue demagogue to replace the morons currently in power. Listen to Wajalit Ali; and, don’t be a fascist.
The key to winning the midterm election will be if enough REPUBLICANS vote blue.
The key is if enough opponents of the Republican regime vote for Democratic candidates.
Sadly we cannot rely on right wing or left wing Americans to unite and Vote Blue.
Despite all the abuses by the Republican regime.
Despite the clear example of Hungarian voters uniting to oust Orban's majority- by a broad coalition including conservatives, liberals, and progressives willing to compromise behind a center right party.
I'd say it is the number of Republican-leaning Independents that will decide the election.
TAX STRIKE!!
Joanne, I cannot comprehend why this did not happen before we paid federal taxes this year. It is too late for me to move to a more liberal country but I surely would if I were 60 years younger and knew what I know now about the soul of this very UNexceptional country.
This is purely a curiosity question…since tRUMP has been doing exactly what he wants to do for decades AND getting away with it (convictions appealed, debts never repaid, ignoring laws, etc) what gives anyone any hope that a Democratic majority in Congress would make him or any of the rest of the cabal change their ways?
You have presented us with the facts just as you would with one of your classes. If you were to take all of your posts and put them into a book I would buy it immediately. The collection could then become the outline for a new course “‘How Donald J Trump abused his oath and the Constitution to destroy the Founding Father’s Dream”
I think this would make a great PHD presentation…
Of course you would need to teach it from England or a Scandinavian country to avoid arrest by American “Trumplaw” agents.
...abused his oath and the Constitution? Betrayed is oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.
Agreed. Not abuse, betrayal. He is an oath breaker.
To the contrary, there are individuals, lawyers, judges, grand juries, reporters, and many others who have been slowing and sometimes stopping Trump’s depredations and continue to do so. This is a test, not a defeat. Denying what Americans are doing, as slow and difficult as it may seem is as invidious an indictment as are those of Trump’s captive DOJ.
As to outside ‘liberators’ I’d suggest you take a look at how effective our own interventions in foreign countries have been since 1965. Such is not the answer. If we cannot save ourselves, we will have failed our founding. No one else can do it for us.
Our Oligarchs are liberating us. The US wanted to liberate other countries, of their money. The Oligarchs are doing that for us. None of the people want to be treated this way. We need to be able to state just how we want to be treated, and not let the movers and shakers do that for us.
we have to liberate ourselves.
Uh... you're calling for NATO to militarily attack the US and make the GOP illegal?
In the meantime, Democrats are winning one lawsuit after the other (and these lawsuits are vital to slow down the installation of fascism), and the upcoming midterm elections are the perfect moment to get rid of the GOP in Congress. Organizing NOW to get the vote out will be a much more effective solution than more violence...
Also, please don't use the word "Nazi" lightly. Nazism is a specific form of fascism. It includes the strong belief in the murder of millions of your own citizens. Until now, US neofascists (= basically the entire GOP, today, and its tech billionaire donors) have never called for a genocide or holocaust. And neofascism is horrible already, in and of itself, so there's no need to randomly add other labels to it in the first place...
How about what this administration is doing to our immigrates? I know we are not putting them in ovens, but they are being put in concentration camps.
That's not the same thing at all.
Nazism is a fascist ideology that beliefs that an entire class of its OWN citizens HAS to be actively MURDERED. That goes way beyond putting some illegal immigrants in camps. And even more importantly, today's US neofascism, as an ideology, does not NEED the extermination of an important percentage of its own population. That's why there are no attempts to repeat the holocaust.
And putting people in camps or in ovens is and remains an entirely different thing...
I sure do hope you're right.... because after listening to comments made by both Trump and Stephen Miller, I am waiting for the day when the administration goes after registered Democrats. We've been called traitors, lunatic leftists, and vermin. There has already been violent talk -- just talk, so far -- about the traitorous Dems in office. The Final Solution didn't happen right away after Hitler came to power... it took awhile. I am praying that this particular bit of history will not repeat itself.
I almost hate to do this, but do you recall that old standard "First they came for ____ but I did nothing because I am not ____?
How are the "detention centers" any different from the concentration camps that the Nazi's ran? We are in the first 18 months or so of this regime.
It is not identical to what the Nazi's did, but there are certainly parallels.
Don’t forget Trump’s J6 private army of thugs, who are fully capable of mass murder if given the call to arms. Their targets will be democratic government officials, investigative journalists, woke non-profit groups, LGTBQ, leftists, people who they will call communists, progressive activists, you get the idea. How is this different from the Nazi party? The difference is slim: they won’t kill their targets outright; at least not at first. Detain them in concentration camps, destroy their livelihoods, and work them to death. Later, when everyone else has been silenced, the killing will be done quietly and efficiently and no one on the outside will know.
As I've heard said, history may not repeat itself, but it rhymes.
EUWDTB, thanks for this comment. I have always preferred the term, "christofascist" for exactly the reason you describe. However, I differ with your last statement. American christianists are absolutely in league with neofascists. Their motivations may be slightly different, but their goal is the same: a racially "pure" society ruled by unquestioned authority which demands that every member must live in subservience to the authority. The christianists' interpretation of that system is that the Old Testament is the final authority on all matters and Prosperity Gospel* is the economic model.
*Only the "worthy" may enjoy health and wealth.
However, I will add that I can readily imagine christofascists eventually calling for the execution of their neighbors who will not bow down to their god, famous for his legendary smiting of the enemies of his chosen people.
Yes, but ...
While members of the Republican ChristoFascist regime are prosecuting Comey for sharing a sea shell 86 47, they would most likely celebrate 88 47. In the manner of Musk.
Clue: H is the 8th letter of the alphabet.
Yes, some like to admire Hitler. That's not enough to turn a neofascist ideology into a Nazi fascist ideology.
The US political system created the current regime. It is still open to the US people to change 'their way' through the ballot box. Democratic nations (apart from USA) rarely do regime change unless physically attacked.
We cannot just sit back and hope other nations will save us. We have to keep working here and now. However hopeless it may feel, it is only hopeless if we stop fighting.
I had a similar thought. It seems not to matter whether anyone in this administration has a 'banner day' or not.... nothing ever happens as a result.
Those who watch Fox News have Better Banner Days.
Or Bannon days.
Ooof. That’s a good one, J L… But damn, it hurts, as well.
ew ew ew. Pock face pedo.
Hiro ... I agree, but every real American will have a banner Christmas this year.
Yep we will. Two more years of great leadership. You are catching on Zames
Que sera sera. Arlington Cemetery is full of the graves of people who died with courage without seeing its impact. I'm just glad I'm not like you and Drumpf who can't figure out why someone would do that. That is ... in part ... because he's mostly thinking, "Why am I here? Why am I not playing golf?"
You see you’re just a follower leaders don’t think Que sera sera they make things Que sera sera. To the best of their ability. And trust me you’ll get plenty of his golf days in if he wants to, and they will be well-deserved. I’m getting a little frustrated because it appears that it’s so easy to get you going to light your fuse. You better put that fuse out for a while. You’re gonna need it for another at least 2 1/2 years.
Wow. Considering the, supposed millions of votes Trump got in that last election...I THINK a bunch were Americans...but don't quote me on that, I'd think SOME of them were 'enjoying banner days '.
And therein lies a LARGE part of America's present problem...how to 'bridge the gap'. Because the Maga mentality has been there for over 100 years...and now they're finally getting the attention they feel they've deserved...regardless of how that seems to 'non-maga...
And if America wants to ever be undivided, as much as it is now, this will have to be addressed somehow...not an easy prospect...
But just keep up the 'them and us' mentality and see where that gets you...
Interesting thought here, Isaac. I am not sure the US has ever been completely "undivided". If you compare the geographical area of the US and Europe and note the regional and cultural differences of the nations is Europe and compare it to the regional and cultural differences in the US, it makes a good argument for division rather than unity.
Yeah...but the countries you refer to have different names...so just change the name to Ununited States and I'll be okay with that...
I'd go with "Disunited". I kinda like the thought of either Cascadia (Washington, Oregon, and California (at least the western halves; the eastern sides can go be "Greater Idaho") or Pacifica (add Hawaii, unless they want to return to sovereign nation status.)
Ally, having lived or traveled extensively in all the lower 48 except your upper lefthand corner, it's obvious to me that a body of land with such different climactic and topographical characteristics could ever be united as one nation was doomed, even before it was perilously overpopulated.
I'd start by drawing a line at the 38th parallel, adjusted for the location of rivers where present. Over the centuries, the differences of climate between North and South have caused difference in the temperaments of the people who live in those regions. Those two halves would be divided into three sections each by the Mississippi River in the East and the Rocky Mountains in the West. Incidentally, Maine just needs to secede and join Canada. This yields countries (from east to west, north to south) named Rustbeltia, Tobaccia, Dakota, Texland, Oregonia and California. Problem solved. You're welcome. 😊
I always liked their previous title best: The Sandwich Isles.
Seems to me you could always count on getting a decent lunch, if nothing else.
oh good. then trump can add Hawaii to his 'list of places to attack'...i'm not sure he's got anything planned after Cuba...probably, but...he just doesn't tell me ANYthing anymore...
btw...did you mean 'dysunited'?
good to plan early....and i still like Ununited mo betta...i'm crazy about alliteration...or just plain crazy, if you prefer...
Isaac, if I remember U.S. history correctly, George Washington, who first demonstrated that our head of state should have a limited term, by stepping down from the office of president, stated unequivocally in his "Farewell Address" that he was opposed to the notion of political parties.
That he brought the subject up in one of his most important speeches suggests that he was aware that early U.S. citizens were dividing themselves into separate schools of political thought. One can conclude that we've never been united. In fact, humans have always sorted themselves into groups of similarity. Political parties were inevitable.
In Washington's day, there were holdouts who still believed that being subjects of The Crown provided stability and prosperity, but they were made irrelevant by the revolutionists.
Nothing to do with that Isaac. It’s that the left has gone too far left. Come back with rational thought and you will be back and fine.
Best day so far of the Trump administration and she continues to deceive you and hide you from the truth. Iran it's teetering and about to say uncle Trump reinstituted the Physical fitness test for our youth to keep them in shape and brought in all the women that supported the military all these years to say thank you for their support and courage.
The stock market continues to Frank which means business is good and we all know it is despite your hate and hope that America fails. Sickening anti-American is all you are
An original American I believe his name i forget for the moment said when you see someone winning and winning and winning, you should should switch sides and join the winner
It’s sad really, even if this is probably a troll or bot, that any person still supports such an evil, corrupt, and completely incompetent regime.
He’s been here for years. Ignore him
Block him
Done
The depraved Orwellian belief in the fictional reality you cheer is breathtakingly horrifying and ignorant!
Those are pretty big words, there pal… did they come out of your mouth or out of your ass either way, they’re nothing but hot air, insults, and accusations with no foundation other than your hate for success when it’s not you that’s in control. Awwwww Don’t worry, you’ll get over it in a while maybe 10 years.
America keeps winning and is running on all cylinders and you’re getting a ride for free.
Are my words really too big for you Ricky? Perhaps I can dumb it down so that even a moronic simpleton like you and your MAGAt brethren can understand although it’s highly questionable based upon your insipid, sophomoric and delusional understanding of objective reality. Awww but please don’t overstress the 3 remaining working neurons you have trying to craft another dimwitted response. Instead, sit back in your barcolounger, turn up Faux news nice and loud, and continue whacking off to your orange turd in private and stop posting delusional nonsense!
please don't feed the troll....
No they are simply MEANINGLESS . Even your orthography needs work. however I’m afraid you can’t seem to find a fact anywhere.
Certainly not ONE that fits your hateful agenda..which is killing you
Not to mention that when the liberals are NOT IN CONTROL IT KILLS YOU
My posts include facts…that is why you are so fricken angry Trump keeps winning and winning and winning which destroys you …there is NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP HIM
Awwwww are we upset with Trump. Good. Do you know what that means?. That means he is doing great things.
ALSO Actually I’m in the middle of the med on our 39th international cruise having visited 119 countries and islands and all 50 states in Istanbul in the AM…. AMAZING SUCH A DIMWIT as myself who started with 400 dollars in my pocket at age 20….could manage this
LASTLY. You should remain anonymous that way you can remain ignorant anonymously and ignominiously. BE PROUD OF YOUR FAILURES. OWN THEM. THAT A BOY
Adolph Hitler told Germany some version of "I'm winning and winning and winning, you should switch sides and join the winner." Not long after, "I was wrong" was the third last thing that went through his mind because the second last thing was "pull the trigger" and the last thing was the bullet.
At your highest moment … be careful. That’s when the DEVIL comes for you!
Rant on, Ricky. Your boy is falling apart right in front of you.
Your honor Trump is falling apart.
Judge. Do you have any of those pesky little things called facts to back up I your claim. He s more active than any recent president
Has done more press activities this past week than Biden did in his two years in office.
No your honor. It’s only my hateful opinion ….isnt that enough?
Judge. Can I see your law license or your elementary school info. AND HE KEEPS WINNING ON ALL FRONTS …WAR..ECONOMY…AND SPREADING DEMOCRACY ALL OVER THE PLANET.
CASE DISMISSED.
I hear dementia is contagious.
The stock market continues to Frank - Best day ever - An original American I believe his name i forget - WINNING!! 🤣🤣🤣
💯
True story Hiro!
Best day of Trump’s current administration. Business is booming as the market continues its historical march upward under an expanding economy despite the war..amazing.
He brought back the youth PHYSICAL FITNESS program which was cancelled under Obama weakening health of our youth…and invited the women who were either in service in our military or had family members in service to thank them for their incredible support and dedication to our military. What a day. Oh. WAIT …HEATHER DIDNT SHARE THIS WITH YOU? Lmfao.
Get out of here and check out the real world So sad such incredible gullibility she is using you.
Hiro, when I read HCR's opening sentence that you quoted, I expected to read about defeats that the Trump regime had suffered. Instead, I read a litany of the regime's continuing success in corruption, concealment and catastrophe. This, after I read Joyce Vance's report on the Southern states' race to gerrymander Black voters out of existence unleashed by SCOTUS.
I must conclude that Professor Richardson was mistaken.
Here's a gift link to the Wapo story on damage to American Military Assets.
https://wapo.st/4w8pfDL
Amazing that Bezos allowed the story to be released. If the uber wealthy turn on Trump and the cowering cowardly Senate and House Republicans, who is going to buy their elections?
It's not that amazing. Compared to adaptive (cultural) evolution, evolving maladaptively takes less time, but it still takes time. Getting to full-on unconstrained ignorance involves the step-by-step shrinking of his circle of concern. Each step needs an excuse, and the more steps he takes, the harder it is to convince himself that his increasingly irrational excuses are rational.
Convince himself??
Are we refering to President 45 talking to President 47 as 47 pointed out early in the war??
When a schizophrenic president talks to himselves should they both be removed? They are both whirling near the drain. Time to flush!
“talks to himselves” — 🤣
The giant orange turd just won’t go down the drain willingly! Our plumbing system is badly plugged up! When he finally goes, we will hear a giant sucking sound as Hell reclaims his hollow soul to the deep.
No, but my bad. I should have been more specific. I'm referring to GL Loft's amazement that Bezos allowed the story to be released. Drumpf's full-on unconstrained ignorance is the product of childhood trauma. Bezos is heading in that direction, but my point is that it takes time to get there. And some people never get there. Mary Trump's father never got to a good place, but he never got there.
😂😅
Gas prices are probably starting to impact his bottom line.
Thank you, Kathleen.
You have to create an account to read it.
Here’s a gift version:
https://wapo.st/4w8pfDL
Thank you for gifting the article. Surprisingly informative & oh so sickening. My hope is that since it was in Bezo’s media, Trump/Hegseth/Rubio fans will actually read it.
Dream on, Patricia. Donald only reads what appears on his social media and whatever his babysitters show him (provided it's accompanied by lots of pictures). Hogsbreath only watches Fox on TV. Lil Marco Big Shoes, who has All the Jobs doesn't have time to read anything. He just flits from meeting to meeting, hoping nobody asks him a question.
Their fans follow pretty much the same patterns. WaPo is not on their reading list.
Thank you!
Thank you! The cost of the “gift link” is your email address!
Having spent over a year trying to get WaPo to stop flooding my email with “incentives” to re-up my subscription, am not about to give them my email again just to read that article.
Linda, if you're an Apple user, you can provide an Apple "Hide my email" address, then delete it after you've read the article.
Thank you Kathleen!
Here it is as a gift link;
https://wapo.st/4w8pfDL
You still have to create an account to accept the free article, but thanks for the thought.
Who knew? That’s aggravating.
Corruption throughout the Trump administration is off the scale, yet roughly half of the white electorate think it’s hunky-dory. And we’re stuck with these louts. No way to rid ourselves of them. We might, with a lot of hard work and some luck, outvote them. If we do, we need to find a way to punish them to the hilt. They are not decent human beings. They deserve no mercy.
Alas, governmental corruption has become so commonplace, I think that for many it is seeming "normal". That is deadly if we fail to bring it to the fore.
There used to be a big "Your Share of the National Debt" clock in Times Square, which flicked to a higher number almost constantly. I think there should be one of these everywhere and also one to show each person's share of the expenses of the stupid Iran war and perhaps the increase in gas per gallon and the average weekly grocery bill for a family of 4. that might hit home.
lauriemcf, this is not for the faint of heart, but if you're sitting down:
https://www.usdebtclock.org
J L, normalization of corruption, lying, abuse, indecency, bullying it's deadly for democracy and the coming midterms elections. We should keep up to date with the the reality of what's happening and talk to as many people as possible. The regime is given us the argument.
It’s what they always suspected of both parties, now out in the open.
Both parties are capable of incompetence and corruption, true. But only one, the Grand Oil Party, has dived into the deep end of the pool of incompetence and corruption, with gusto, while having forgotten to check that there is water in the pool. The GOP, having totally betrayed democracy, are all sprawled about on the bottom of the (empty) pool, with critical injuries they have imposed on us. They will go the way of Viktor Orban, their role model.
I hope they do and at long last, meet the crystallization of public sentiment that befitted Senator Joe McCarthy, who ran a significant test-run of the techniques that now define the current "Republican" party. It is surely an Orwellian irony that when you think of what a republic is meant to be, and in particular the Enlightenment (as well as ancient Greek) philosophies embedded in out constitutional republic, it is clear that nominal "Republicans" have turned against it, as well as the roots of their historical party.
There are some major skeletons in the Democratic Party as well, especially as practiced by region. As Democrats shed major elements of the love of dominance, Republicans greedily adopted them. Lincoln knew that the love of dominance was the antithesis of "the better angels of our nature", and fought fiercely to protect them. Republican Teddy Roosevelt was wary enough of his party's attraction to concentrated wealth, that he tried and failed to start a new party.
The results in the Indiana primaries have confirmed Trump's grip on the Republican party.
This is perhaps the most disturbing of the election results of the past year.
Not a proud day for Indiana.
Yes. Racists that they are, were raised and indoctrinated to think this way. You’ll never change their minds. We need to wake up to what cults, especially Mormons, are responsible for a lot of this bullshit. Their cult is worth something near a trillion dollars. This is not faith, it’s people who were raised with hate and fed mental garbage so their brains don’t function in reality. Listen to HCR, Denver Riggleman, Monte Mader, Jenny Gage. Denver, Monte, and Jenny are deconstructed Mormons and they are laying it out for the rest of us. This administration is full of these people which I know the Mormon cult are supporting with big money. It’s the same from the truly wicked, evil, evangelical tribe and I hope they beginning eating themselves faster. People are beginning to leave these dark places, no longer frightened of their own beliefs and they are speaking out they were indoctrinated, abused into this cult to control their votes. They are horrific abusers of women and children. And it’s wickedly patriarchal so men are expected to be heavy handed with their women and children. Racists cult members who (the country) gave credibility to as a religious organization? Time to call them out for their crimes. So that pretty much what’s going on in Indiana.
I grew up in Indiana. It’s always been a misplaced Southern state.
You have ‘researched’ well re the Mormons (it goes waaaay back to the worthless $3 bill their founder Joseph Smith ‘invented’ to bilk thousands!)
But the ‘cult’ Justice Barrett belongs to is a big wound to SCOTUS as well. The late Pope, Francis, condemned Barrett’s cult as not being a part of the Catholic religion…yet, she still was confirmed…proving that the ‘Trump Devil’ exists in modern day America.
They are like Indiana’s neighbor Ohio, where I happen to live. The Republican Borg has taken Ohio hostage.
Thank God you’re still able to get your reports out from the inside of what has to be maddening.
I spent most of my youth in Northern Ohio, and about 20 years ago, when I had another reason to go there, spent some time visiting old haunts and neighborhoods. Overall places that had once been well cared for had the creepy look of economic depression. It appears to me that Republicans had a lot more to do with that fate than Democrats, yet they embrace their tormentors. Now Republicans are bankrupting the entire nation. Weird that just before Trump was elected again I saw an MSM poll that suggested that a solid majority of Americans claimed to believe that Republicans were better stewards of our economy than Democrats.
Uh, how about history?
As far as I know, Indiana has always trended red, similar to Ohio (which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leslie Wexner, the sponsor of Epstein). I wonder how much money the guns ‘n ammo industry pours into Indiana political campaigns?
That ( Trump’s grip on the GOP)is THEIR problem.. One of the wisest things I ever learned was in a business seminar. The speaker’s point was that “when someone enters your space with a monkey on his back, your job is to make sure he leaves with that monkey. It is HIS monkey, not yours, and your job is to make sure it does not end up on your back”.
It is our job now to make sure that Trump is wholly owned by the cowards in the GOP.
The Congress, the Sedicious six on SCOTUS and the ignorant voters who are too selfish, uninformed, or stupid to acknowledge what the Republican Party has devolved into.
I may have misunderstood those results, but the voter turnout was low -- often the case in primaries. So if ten million people vote hard right, that's cause for concern; if a hundred show up and vote hard right, ho hum. (Just making up the #s for sake of example.)
Actually it's more than half the white majority are ChristoNazis. Thus anyone foolish enough to believe the ChristoNazis will be "voted out" need only look at yesterday's election results: https://apnews.com/article/primaries-indiana-ohio-michigan-takeaways-722f8ee155920578db6964f54e910449?user_email=e72e7137fe6cf09f434b4234223ed439a7bda75191bf5fbb046317f8fa97fb36
Trump (again) demonstrated his absolute dictatorial control over the slavishly obedient "Republican" (sic) ChristoNazi Party, which is now the majority party in this failed nation. Though its power-margin is only one percent, that is more than sufficient to ensure the ChristoNazi conquest is permanent -- which after the ChristoNazis complete their disenfranchisement of women will be unassailable save by invasion from without. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/fact-sheet/party-affiliation-fact-sheet-npors/
The Pew Research poll shows that since 2020 the "solid Democrat" category has decreased from 33% to 28% while the "solid Republican" category has increased from 29% to 31%.
When the solid and lean categories are combined, Pew says the results for 2025 are Ds Net 45 vs. Rs Net 46. Looking at the graph carefully, it indicates that it is within 1% rounding error in favor of the R's. (Their graphic should have all total bars the same height if they were treating rounding errors properly.) There is 8% of the population with undetermined affiliation.
The trends are sobering.
In The Rational League Substack psychological analysis, it implies that more Republicans are becoming "identity fused" with Trump. I read the decline in committed Democrats as due to a failure of Democrats to define a party platform and provide clear leadership.
Eight million people demonstrating in the streets is NOT ENOUGH.
Congress has failed us. SCOTUS has betrayed us. Trump is coming after the midterms with voter suppression and election interference.
We, the people, are the last line of defense with our VOTE.
Make sure your vote will count. Remember that last-minute changes to the rules could occur--the Trump plan is to maximize chaos.
1. Check that you are registered and that your name on the voter roll matches your required photo ID and passport. Do it now, in 3 months and two weeks before Election Day.
2. Be sure you have documentation proving citizenship easily available- a copy of your birth certificate, a US passport, proof of name changes. A marriage certificate may not be sufficient. If SAVE America is passed by Congress, or a clone is passed by your state, you could be required to provide proof of citizenship as well as a valid photo ID. Student IDs may not be considered a valid photo ID.
3. Know what district you will now be voting in and who the candidates are, given the massive last-minute redistricting efforts that may be occurring.
4. Make sure you know where and how you will vote in case mail-in ballots are suddenly disallowed.
5. Join community outreach groups to get people registered and to the polls. The next few weeks have a lot of groups registering soon-to-be high school graduates.
6. Talk to your neighbors who lean Republican, or who are uninvolved or undecided, or who are just leaning Dem about what is at stake. Give yourself a goal of getting one other person to vote Democratic in the midterms.
7. Talk to your college-age kids who live at school and help them decide where and how they will vote. They need to have a plan for registration and voting, and their documentation assembled.
8. When you vote in the primaries, vote for the Democratic candidate who will be most electable. The more of your neighbors you talk to, the better you will be able to identify that person. Hold your nose if you have to. I know that is a big ask. But the time to fix the broken system with ranked-choice voting isn't here yet. R's are counting on us to splinter and worry about purity tests on a few controversial issues. In the meantime, Indiana just showed us that they are choosing to be monolithic behind the money.
WE CAN DO THIS. Hungary did. But we have to work our butts off for the primaries and the midterms. EVERY VOTE in EVERY ELECTION!!!
Assuming I am still alive at election time, which is unlikely, the cessation of mail-in voting would permanently disenfranchise me, as I am too severely crippled to ever again get myself to the polls. Nor is there anyone upon whom I can rationally depend to drive me to the polls. And even if there were, there is no way my useless, always painful body could endure the many hours of waiting in line that will be necessary to access the ballots. (Were I a betting man, which I'm not, I'd wager strongly Trump or his successor will have the permanently ChristoNazifed Robbers' Court outlaw mail-in voting.) Thus the millions of us who are similarly disabled will be reduced to permanent non-citizenship. And as always, too many of the non-disabled people remain at least oblivious (and often antagonistically indifferent) to the problem.)
ME Too!! We find ourselves referred to as NVA (Non-Value Added) by our oligarchy, since we have little to offer to the profiteers, buying our government for their own benefit. Project 2025, AKA Genocide by Neglect, is clearly the purpose of this Agenda, as evidenced by the devastation imposed by current government behavior!
In my polling place, disabled people do not wait in line—they go to the front.
The SCOTUS Robber Baron Six have thrown a big monkey wrench into the midterm elections by their decision giving Louisiana and other confederate states the option to redraw districts to interfere with people of color from electing candidates of their choice. This is a Supremely Racist decision and betrays the post-civil-war amendments to the Constitution, as well as the Voting Rights Act. This will be hard to overcome; but what do you think will be the price of gas by November? How about inflation? It sure looks like we’re heading into a recession, and it’s still more than six months until the election. None of the incompetent boobs in power will be turning any of this around! Reclaim the Senate as well as the House and tear down this shitshow! How will Dems deal with the most stupid war in modern history? They better figure it out! Isn’t this always the case, that Repugnican presidents consistently start unwinnable wars, wreck the economy, and leave everything in tatters (like Trump 1.0 and 2.0), leaving democrats to clean up the mess? And: Expose the full extent of the Epstein files! Name names like Ehud Barack; Alan Dershowitz; Leslie Wexner; the whole hit parade of child rapists who seemingly got away with murder (literally in some cases!). Demand that the Governor of New Mexico order a comprehensive State investigation of Zorro Ranch! It’s all there and needs to be exposed to the general public; but oh, the New York Times says it is tired of the Me-Too Movement. What is wrong with this picture?
Georgia, I just read your "We -Can-Do-This" from start to finish, and if our movement were organized enough to give out medals, it would most assuredly win you a topnotch honor. Thank you -- especially for taking the time to clarify the significance of stuff I glossed over. Dunno for whom you worked before retirement set in, but I'd bet they felt lost and abandoned when they tried to function without your analytical skills. Oh, and my apology for the delayed read; usually I read anything of yours as soon as it is available, but this has been a about a week now of interruptions and intrusions so bizarre they are almost entertaining.
Thank you for the compliment. I was lucky enough to be a research scientist and supervisor at AT&T Bell Labs before it was broken up, where I got to work with half a dozen eventual Nobel Prize winners. After the split up I became a VP of business development at a solid state laser start-up. I left to raise my daughter as a single parent and care for my disabled mother while trading stocks. My last career, and by far the most challenging, rewarding, and fun, was as a high school science teacher of students of every ability level, from learning disabled to honors.
I think a continuing theme in my life has been how thoughtlessly we in America have thrown away some of our greatest intellectual resources, whether it was Bell Labs, or the National Science Standards, to name just two. We are doing it again with NIH, CDC, NSF, NOAA and more.
The identity thing is the most concerning as it gives cover to the real problem - conservative leadership i.e. Heritage Foundation and others. There is a great article in NYT about John Roberts and the long game he has played in demolishing the VRA.
All of this was sketched out in the Lewis Powell Memo in 1973.
Thank you Georgia. The GOP has a figurehead in Trump -- the Dems have no person to point to as the head and representative of the party. Yes, there are several good people -- Raskin, Newsom, etc -- but not someone perceived as a leader. Look how many candidates are in the Primary for CA governor -- total dilution for Democrats and so risky.
Excellent post, Georgia. Thank you.
We certainly cannot outvote them everywhere, but there still might be room for a trifecta in 2028 if we play our cards right. I’m mot optimistic but think it’s worth monumental effort.
I believe. Trifecta 2028. Project 2029 to restore Earth's Protection and Human Decency.
Every pendulum swings both ways. It is like karma. Sometimes it just takes too long. But it always happens.
I believe that it is impossible to cause so much damage around the globe, impossible to hurt or kill so many innocent people over a long lifetime and not have a significant blowback.
They are all dead. Hitler is dead. Mussolini is dead. Stalin is dead. The list of totalitarian monsters is long. All had expiration dates. All.
I doubt that 47 will still be around in 2028 to perform his magic wand intimidation tricks. Probably in hospice with a rubber room. The spiral dive into dementia rarely reverses itself. And Epstein is not going away.
And by then the damage done by MAGA will be obvious and irrefutable. There will always be "Nazis" and "Religious Warriors" who ignore their founding faiths. Who use "churches" to oppress and punish "others".
If the Republican Party were to have a plan to make itself as unpopular as humanly possible, they couldn't have done a better job. Their actions and lack of reaction to a Nutcase President is a recipe for defeat.
Eventually, those cretins will be forced to slither back under the rocks where they have always lived. Mainstream America will be back on track. With side trips to Hell, but basically back to something more tolerant and respectful of each other. We had it. We can get it back.
And Putin can't rule forever, either. Russia is in enormous trouble. Financially, militarily and socially. Too many body bags. Too little progress in a stupid war. Ukraine is now winning on the battlefield using technology as Putin uses troops as cannon fodder. Collapse is imminent.
Two really bad guys building a karmic payback for the ages. It's just a question of who goes down first.
And now, to collect some sea shells.
Thanks, Bill. This is a nice summary of where we are.
Nice Bill. Maybe Cretans too mild a pejorative, but I like going down to the seashore sifting sand. 8647 to all. Here here to expiration.
Pat, your little comment inspired me to create a meme.
8647 to all who celebrate.
I harbor cautious optimism. Other societies have managed to throw the rascals out, at least for a while, as has ours.
Worth an effort, absolutely, but our best, most productive effort will be establishing a progressive shadow government abroad, I'd say preferably in London.
Speaking of shadow government, that was what trump was doing during the Biden administration. That was not the first time either. Nixon started that in 1968, Reagan in 1980, then trump in 2020. His was the longest shadow government. During his 4 years out of office, he violated many laws that should have resulted in prosecution, but Garland backed off due to republicans covering for him with McCarthy and McConnell saying we should just let him have his tantrums.
Loren Bliss,
I have been impressed with the positions King Charles has taken regarding corruption within his "realm".
The boy did well with his speech to Trump and the gathered elites, with its subtle reprimand, but don't be taken in by the royals. They have two Duchys, one in Cornwall in the south of England owned by Prince William, and the other in Lancaster in the north owned by king Charles III. In the Lancaster Duchy, if someone dies without making a will the whole of the assets go to the Crown, i.e. Charles' coffers, not to the State.
His 'realm,' he is supposed to be a figurehead, but can (as his mother before him) persuade government to amend certain laws to his benefit! How's that for democarcy?
Or Canada…
You’re right about white evangelicals. Eighty percent of them are not decent human beings. Seems ironic, but if even 40% of white evangelicals were decent human beings, Democrats would have a solid trifecta probably persisting for decades.
Hunger may very well bring people around. It's a powerful motivator. History is my witness. Republicans have blinders on with what's going on with the economy.
Yes. Follow the money.
The suffering is increasing every day. The arrogant display by the Oligarchs at a Met Gala contrasted with SNAP benefits being cut and regional hospitals closing...unaffordable housing...gas prices...the list of financial woes for most Americans is very long. And the rich fly around, sail around with ever increasing blatant disregard for their fellow humans.
This suffering is going to be the downfall of MAGA. The pain will be too big to ignore.
Follow the money into crypto cons. Follow the money flowing away from the people into the hands of monsters.
We are close to a "Let them eat cake" moment.
Rex, I know a lot of them. They would disagree with your assessment by pointing to their selected "charity" work. I am not talking about Copeland or Olsteen, but Graham and is ilk all have their charity work they use to celanse their hate.
On a grander scale:
A few of the richest people in America could solve hunger and help enormously with healthcare and homelessness - easily. And still enjoy prosperity never dreamed of by previous generations. But they won't. There will be a reckoning.
They're not taking lessons from the Gilded Age. Reading history is too hard.
Example: Ted Turner, philanthropist and environmentalist, may he rest in peace.
Loren, I Hope you are exaggerating . I'm worried you are not, however.
David...Please note the links. So what if Democrats win in Blue regions? The information about the Republicans is so terrifying, even Pew -- normally fearlessly outspoken -- is slightly euphemizing its findings.
Yes, I really think you’re right. The White Christian Nationalists and Christian Zionists have infiltrated and completely corrupted our government to make racism the way of the land, thus ensuring they remain wealthy and in power, no matter the will of the voter (if that can ever be determined again).
Not surprised about Indiana, their governor Mike Braun, a former Federal senator, questions interracial marriages, and their white Christian Nationalist governor Micah Beckwith stupidly attacked Westfield High School’s champion drum band performance as “demonic.” They drew on some elements of Bizet’s opera Carmen and Beckwith managed to get the facts of the story Carmen tells wrong. I remember the “Pence must go” signs all over northern Indianapolis, but I guess that continual misinformation has convinced more Indiana to vote for Trump backed candidates.
Kathy Hughes,
It is a sad observance when we see those who call themselves "Christian" rejecting interracial marriages or attacking a champion band performance ie calling it "demonic".
America has laws to protect us from the darkness of our thoughts, or desiring to express harm towards one another, or driving too fast....etc. Our dark prejudices limit "love for one another" because we will it as if we are some "all-knowing God-like figure"! By the way, the God I know sees our sins and struggles ....yes, we each have our share of struggles ....but He gave Himself for us, He loves us, He encourages us and He provides for us and protects us and yes, sometimes because we are stubborn, allows us to "fall on our faces".
By His love, He teaches us to love. Through His provision, He encourages us to provide and to assist those who are in need.
I know there are true believers ie the Pope....but there are many who are afraid to confront those using what they refer to as "faith" against our fellow men and women who do not agree with their politics!
Very true, and I think we’re all human, we may look different on the outside, and sadly for some, it convinces some, like the SCOTUS majority and the president the differences in appearance mean they must treat others as “inferior.” I agree it’s not how God, the Son, and Holy Spirit expect us to behave. White Christian Nationalism comes from slaveholder distortion of Christianity which attempted to justify the unjustifiable.
Pope Leo would hardly justify such things, and I’m entirely with Pope Leo when it comes to criticism of the wars we see in the Middle East and Trump and Kegseth’s behavior in going to war with Iran. The war is constitutionally illegal, and neither Kegseth or Trump did any adequate planning, prepared strategy, or anticipated Iran’s drone usage. Trump and Kegseth are also taking no action to replenish our stock of short, medium range, or long range missiles. The long range missiles cost at least $15M each to manufacture, and manufacturing them takes some time to do. The Iran war won’t end well for us.
Single issue voters helped us get where we presently are.
Sad news, Loren. Very sad. Hitler's American Model has come home.
Also the intimidation has been expanding. To send the FBI (Yes Sir! Don't expect us to think Sir! Yes Sir!) goons to raid a Virginia state senator for leading a political movement is intended as revenge and to chill future movements against this wannabe King. For him to demand the names of 2020 election workers in Georgia is to chill the involvement of Democrats counting ballots in 2026 and 28. Thus making it easier for the corporatist fascist R.I.N.O. candidates to rig the election. Get involved in the Democratic party, the election and saving our Republic. We surely need to Amend our Constitution to restore our Republic. Also, because POS has created a new norm of corruption, lying and Hitler style intimidation, far beyond Nixon the Crook, we need a Section creating a means to recall a rotten apple. Maybe just amend the impeachment process to require Senators to use the clear and convincing standard for finding the truth in the evidence. I discuss this at UnitedWeAmend.org
Hello Albert... Mitt Romney stated that if the Conviction Vote in the Senate had been a Secret Ballot, DJT would have been Impeached, Convicted, and Removed... The Senator's Families were being barraged by Death-Threats... A much simpler solution to our Current Predicament is a Secret Ballot in the Senate for Criminal Cases... DJT is a Master of Spectacle, and Incitement, and DJT Minions are DJT's Puppets....
Thanks. I never read that about Romney. A required secret ballot should have jumped out at me. I will make a note of that.
Albert R. Killackey, Esq.,
Responding to "intimidation", more of us need to come together...NOT LESS! We can come with flowers, with peace, with cups of water,,,etc.......BUT WE MUST COME! WE MUST STAND!
Trump is Mad Captain Ahab, demonically persuing his devilish White Whale across the globe. No regard for his crew. Just revenge and his just retribution. Somewhere along the path of this mad pursuit, America's current Ahab will find his end out in the void and the world can return to a quieter state of conflict
Trump and his merry band of lying thieves may be coming to some sort of end. Things are piling up. Putin is also looking more shaky. In 2 days he has to come out of hiding to face his V-Day Parade, and he cannot get Zelensky to agree to a cease fire on his terms. Will he risk it in order to keep control of his country and stave off a coup that is being discussed from leaked intel?
This clip is from Meidas News this week. He says, " I posted a video today of Trump this weekend walking on the tarmac towards Air Force One where he wasn’t able to walk in a straight line and was pretty wobbly on his feet. You can watch it on Twitter, Bluesky, or Threads.
… An anonymous doctor on Twitter reposted the clip with this caption: 'Ataxia. Issue with the cerebellum. Differential: stroke, degenerative, tumor, or drug adverse effects. We have physiological, behavioral, and observational evidence of chronic stimulant dependence. How this guy has not dropped dead of a cardiovascular or cerebrovascular event, given his poor lifestyle choices and risk factors, defies the odds. It’s coming.' "
In this piece, Fascism Expert Ruth Ben Ghiat talks about Donald Trump's Secession, but she also has a short piece on Autocrats and their Bunkers embedded in. Here is the video short on Autocrats and their Bunkers. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Pkh5sqKIePM
In the article itself she is talking about both Trump and Putin being vulnerable. https://lucid.substack.com/p/succession-the-trump-drama?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
So, that is hopeful for us. Look at Orbán. Dictators can be tumbled if the people come out and do it. It helps to have doctors assess Trump's well being. Clearly he is up and walking about, so he is not a goner yet, but I listened to a discussion by the Free Speech for the People group who has been working on a campaign to Impeach Trump since January 20, 2025 yesterday in an Indivisible Abroad meeting. We are going to help them work on this campaign. It starts with signing a petition. Here is a link. Please consider signing. https://www.impeachtrumpagain.org/
I’d sure like to know the substance of conversations he has with Putin (a recent one I hear) and what kind of kompromat Putin has on trump….probably referred to euphemistically in convo’s they have. Enquiring minds……wanna know….
Hello Barbara.... Netanyahu, and Putin, both have the Epstein Files on DJT... People have written that Epstein's Network which Trafficked Children, Drugs, and Money, had heavy Israeli, and Russian involvement... Alisa Valdes-Rodriquez has written excellent postings on her Substack about Jeffrey's Web...
If I remember correctly, I had read when he was first incarcerated, that Epstein was deeply connected to Mossad.
Hello Ligia.... You are correct... I highly recommend Alisa Valdes-Rodriquez' work on her Substack about Jeffrey's Web.... Multiple Foreign Intel Networks were involved....
Thank you, will definitely look it up.
We're getting into Tom Clancy territory here now, Ligia.
Except these dark, murderous, moneyed connections are not fiction.
I hear you.
I think they talked about how their thin lips afforded longer tongue reach for slurping up vulnerable real estate and who would be tasty. Wallowing in the swallowing. By next thanksgiving they plan to eat Turkey, and grope clubs on the new club med. Certainly they spend time preying.
“Spend time preying”….ah, so very apt in many ways to describe them Pat!
Sadly, it appeared to me that T was not walking all that unsteadily, at least from the bit I saw on the Meidas video.
Meidas often seems to be clickbaiting us lately. They make some major claim of T going downhill rapidly, but then it turns out to be all the same as usual.
I did not see it but have seen him walk before, and can think about the balance issues that happen when one is older. As long as he is on his feet I think we don't view him as too ill. Yet, a good friend of mine has cancer, and she is walking around with a walker which she needs so she can stop and sit. Trump mainly uses a golf cart, and he falls asleep a lot. That should tell us things are not alright. Autocrats like to be seen, so that people know they are still around.
I do not read Meidas all the time, but this piece stuck with me because of the doctor analysis attached. I don't think we will see Trump gone overnight, which is why I ask that you consider signing the impeachment petition. They have over a million signatures and are aiming for 2 million before sharing it with people in Congress again.
The falling asleep, I think, is a much more important sign than his gait. It's extremely troubling. (Except that while he's asleep he causes less damage.) I'm not arguing against the idea that he may have had a stroke or some such event. Indeed, it seems likely. I'm only saying that I didn't see anything extreme in his gait in that particular video.
But overall (as that anonymous doctor and most everyone else also says) I don't understand how he can be even staying alive at this point, given his age, poor health habits, and deep unhappiness.
My husband died of a sudden illness 3 years ago when he had just turned 72, and he was in good general health, had a positive and loving attitude, and was genuinely a fine human being. It really yanks my chain that he's gone while some of the worst examples of our species live on and on and cause so much suffering.
I’m sorry about the loss of your husband. We need more good people like him, and fewer people who are malignant narcissists and sociopaths like Trump.
I'm sorry for your loss. 72 is too young. The evil Henry Kissinger lived to 100. It makes no sense to us.
Elene we have a group close by offering care for kids with cancer and their families. I often make that same comparison you do - of the worst examples of our species living on and on while others are taken far too young.
That is hard, Elene. I'm sorry for your sudden loss.
His reptilian eyes are as beady as necessary. Poison tongue darting at all hours of the night. Poisontongue, hmmnn
You nailed it! 🐍
An old series called “V” was the concept that reptilian space aliens are ‘living amongst us’, and by scratching off the human skin layer, they can be ‘exposed’.
START SCRATCHING THE ORANGE BLOB!
😆
Alternative explanation: his staff are slipping him sleeping pills in his diet Cokes to prevent him from completely destroying the country. They let him insane-tweet at night, then medicate him during the day. It's only a matter of time...
Especially if he falls asleep while standing!
They need to have him sleeping at night and not posting on his social media account in which insults world leaders and wrecks the global economy. Wouldn't it be great if he just thought he was a powerful president and really was a very average low power president. He is working his way in that direction with this war he has exposed his weaknesses to the world.
Please read my piece explaining about the Campaign to Impeach Trump and members of his Cabinet and sign the petition to help us get to 2 mil.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/indivisible-abroad-supports-the-impeach?r=f0qfn
Elene, if there is anything consistent about trump is that he is inconsistent! Personally, I look at trump’s whole “presentation” (hard to do!) rather than snippets of them….might be one minor blip, or the entire “presentation” can be gobsmackingly cringe. Edit: Oh, and speaking of the elite’s bunkers, may I suggest the novel “The Future” by Naomi Alderman as an interesting read.
I actually do not see him as inconsistent. You just have to see what is behind things he is doing. It is always, always, always about making money. Look at the money angle and then the inconsistency goes away. Also, he uses fascist speak. See my piece on this language use as learned in Orwell's "1984" and apply it to the latest on the Iran war.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/the-language-of-the-fascist-regime?r=f0qfn
It was a given that Trumo saw he could use being president to make money, and Mary Trump stated she thought Donald would use the U.S. Treasury as his own personal piggy bank.
As I have been saying, he has been stealing from the American people. The ways in which our tax dollars are being used... !! 😡
Yes, always about making money-- or getting attention, which may also lead to making money.
And how he gets attention, Elene.
Always labeling, stereotyping, assigning categories and groups (which testing considers high rationality).
And these attacks are always venomous. Always ploys to get the normalizing press again and again to headline him, keep him and his vulgarities center stage.
But we can't blame the press. Most of whom excelled on their standardized testing, while learning zero humanities.
Elene you are not the first to notice Meidas clickbaiting us - sadly. Everything he reports is now 'breaking' news.
Elene, I saw the clip on Jeff Diedrich's Substack. I agree with your appraisal of the clip. Not mentioned in any description was evidence of a pretty strong breeze blowing at the time. That will knock even a sure-footed person off-course, especially if they are obese and present a lot of "windage." The clip appeared to be shot through a telephoto lens, which can exaggerate movement.
I have unsubscribed from Meidas because of their excessive self-promotion and sensationalizing. They used to be good, but they are too desperate for audience share these days.
That said, Donald is definitely in decline. The evidence is all over him. He does wander, as evidenced by other more reliable clips. I pay more attention to his dementia-related symptoms. At the journalists dinner, when everyone around him was reacting normally to the shots heard, Donald was visibly, extremely slow to react. In his cabinet meetings, he scans the room, out of focus. Closeups of his eyes shows that he cannot focus on a person in front of him, but rather gazes beyond them, typical of dementia patients. He has difficulty reading. He frequently presents with aphasia. He is also presenting with extreme attention deficit disorder, such that he never finishes a complete sentence. He is visibly experiencing mental confusion and disorientation. Also, the sundowning and erratic sleep patterns are all signs of dementia.
Meidas didn't show solid evidence, but the evidence is there, and mounting.
I agree on every point you made. DonOld is doing quite poorly.
Keep stressing him out. Don't let up.
Thank you for the links Linda.
I pray you’re correct.
''Kash Patel Assures Nation FBI Bourbon Program Is Under Control''
WASHINGTON, D.C. , FBI Director Kash Patel moved quickly this week to reassure the nation that the bureau’s elite bourbon security infrastructure remains fully operational.
“At no time was the American people’s personalized liquor supply in danger,” Patel reportedly said, standing before a wall of flags, seals, and one suspiciously empty velvet display case. “The FBI has faced spies, terrorists, mob bosses, cybercriminals, and now, its greatest challenge: locating the missing bottle of me.”
The controversy began after reports surfaced that Patel had traveled with custom bourbon bottles bearing his name, title, badge, signature, and the kind of restraint normally associated with gold-plated bathroom fixtures. One bottle allegedly went missing, prompting what sources described as “a calm, professional, totally normal response,” meaning people were reportedly threatened with polygraphs and possible prosecution over a collectible ego flask.
Critics accused Patel of politicizing law enforcement, misusing federal resources, and confusing public service with a bachelor party gift bag. Supporters pushed back, insisting that every FBI director deserves a signature liquor line, especially during a constitutional crisis, when the real danger is someone touching the boss’s decorative whiskey.
The bureau has since created a special task force, the Federal Bourbon Investigation, to determine whether the missing bottle was stolen, misplaced, or simply fled in search of institutional dignity.
Meanwhile, agents previously assigned to counterintelligence, organized crime, and public corruption have been reassigned to higher priorities, including glassware inventory, label protection, and securing the director’s emergency decanter.
Asked whether the incident reflected poorly on federal law enforcement, Patel dismissed the concern.
“This is exactly what strong leadership looks like,” he said. “Accountability begins with finding out who touched my bourbon.”
At press time, the bottle had not been recovered, though several witnesses had reportedly agreed to cooperate after being reminded that the FBI has both subpoena power and very fragile masculine energy.
Did u say federal “cask” force?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Well played, Michael. "...securing the emergency decanter."
Beautiful, sarcastic mind!
Heinous HSI prison policy is back in the court news today on seis (6) de mayo.
Per Axios News, "A federal appeals court struck down the Trump administration's mandatory detention policy on Wednesday."
Axios Continued: "Why it matters: The Miami, Florida-based 11th Circuit ruling is the latest case to weigh [ & strike down ]the administration's controversial policy to hold people in immigration detention with the possibility for bond."
🎶 Those 6 white horses you promised were finally delivered down to the penetentiary 🎶
🎶 To live outside the law you must be honest🎶
'So where are you tonight?'
**************************************************************************************
MORE GOOD NEWS:
Per WAPO, "Former ICE Deputy [MADISON SHEEHAN] lost a Congressional Primary in Ohio Ohio.
🎶 I went back to Ohio & my city as gone 🎶 But, now its back, 🎶 O-HI-O. 🎶
Thanks, Counsellor.
Always Sheriff.
somebody dropped a bomb on her street...
Say whut?
I went back to Ohio & my city as gone...are words from a Chrissie Hynde/ Pretenders song. as were mine. Bryan would have gotten this...
Still not following your meaning…. From an old Boomer who did not follow the Pretenders. What is your point, anyway?
i explained it. it wasn't addressed to you in the first place and now i have to explain it again to you how? sorry, not obligated to.
Clearly enough in this HRC report for the United States to qualify as a full-fledged banana republic 😳😡🤬
Hey Mojave, I really appeciate the documentation but I really think inorder for action to be taken, people sitting in leading positions/able to make change, go through all this documentation and actually imply action on it.
May that day come sooner than soon.
Drunk on power; drunk on other people's money; and / or drunk on licquor = sober-minded policy
NOT!
The Liquor Cabinet! Let’s steal all of Kash’s booze! Might help to keep him on a shorter leash!
He will find a way. Need to get him off of the cocaine, too; at least jusging by his occasional manner in public hearinsg.
Hear, hear!
I guess noone's told you about the current Supreme Court?
Indeed, we are living in Dickensian times as we now have our own "Tale of Two Countries" – the tale they want us to believe and the tale that holds the actual truth.
Where is the moral, So-called Christian, GOP in all this…they must be bending over backwards to make sure they are doing their jobs to protect and defend the Constitution?! Wow! And then there is, of course, the Ten Commandments which they want all children to be able to read in their classrooms…how many have they violated?
What do they tell their children as they violate their oaths to God and Country!!
Dear Heather, the Washington Post, the Washington Post, the Washington Post, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the New York Times, the New York Times, the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Atlantic, Reuters why don’t you just report straight from Pravda and save you all the difficulty of trying to make a salient point?
It’s sad that you left your respectful moniker behind to become a wacko liberal capitalist liberal activist dragging poor lemmings through your disassociation with reality. Please try to wake up and be a bit more objective. Hating Trump is not doing anything for your listeners or your subscribers, but bringing them down a tube to nowhere as Trump continues to win every day for America and every day for the world ridding the world of terrorists, dictators, and their proxies.
Yesterday was one of the best days of the Trump administration besides the war in Iran, he reinvested in youth physical conditioning, and brought the women of Veterans and women and mothers of our military together in public to thank them and to bless them for their support and courage.
And you come online every day and literally defecate verbally on your site Saturday
What has won exactly, Rick? His tariffs have failed and he's stuck in a war he cannot get out of. Prices are rising and his approval rating is plummeting. Most of your previous claims for the administration have already been debunked so you're just venting again, aren't you?
Rick, do all of us a great big favor. Pull your head out of trump’s ass, stop licking his scrotum and perhaps most of all, stop posting nonsense!
All bad faith posts by the TOU violator have been reported including the syntax errors.
Substack Inc. bound us all to CA law & remedies which the Platform agrees binds Substack Inc as well.
Go ahead and tell me what they debunked pal. Too bad you don’t have money invested in the market Awwwwwww. And if you do, you’re nothing but a hypocrite, which is no surprise
Russell do yourself a favor stop embarrassing yourself here it’s it’s really kind of Sinful and I really take pity upon you
tariffs are bringing in a quarter of Of $1 trillion per quarter. The economy is running on all cylinders right now. Look at the stock market as an example unless you’re ignorant of that particular index all three of the index is then you are in total denial, my friend.
The business environment here is only improving and starting to get hot Stuck in a war? I’ve told you 50 times now and you’re I don’t know. Maybe you’re deaf, dumb and blind. This is gonna be the first war that America has won since World War II And the wind is right around the corner, not years or decades as most wars run.
And it will take time to button up all the loose edges, but I want to see you say uncle when the war comes to an end when he run runs up the white flag very shortly here.
“And you come online every day and literally defecate verbally on your site Saturday” - 🤣🤣🤣
Yes, Rick Satan, we all appreciate the legendary accomplishments of this astounding administration! Let me count the ways (short list): 1) the economy is heading into the shredder due to the most disastrous (and illegal, as confirmed by the SCOTUS) tariff regime, which has destroyed tens of thousands of small businesses and also farmers, and which now must be paid back with interest to the tune of more than $160 Billion; but none of us consumers will receive any refunds, ever; 2) the Pwesident and his Incompetent Boob Pete Kegsbreath, at the behest of Bibi NuttinbutaYAhoo allowed themselves to be dog-walked into a disastrous war of choice against Iran, which they “bombed back to the stone ages”; (however, they failed to even try to instead capture the some 900 pounds of highly enriched 60%, near weapons-grade uranium hexafluoride gas which is enough to make at least a few nuclear weapons, and which Iran still possesses); 3) in their stupid zeal they bombed an elementary school killing at least 176 children and staff, then pretended they weren’t responsible; 4) they failed to provide any adequate air defenses for some 17 U.S. bases in the Middle East, resulting in widespread destruction of facilities; they said they knew this would happen, so evacuated personnel off-base, but seven service members were killed at one base; 5) they claimed to have destroyed Iran’s military capabilities, but widespread destruction has been inflicted on many Middle Eastern countries, leading to catastrophic economic losses for those countries that will take decades to recover from; 6) by failing to understand that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz, they have created the worst worldwide oil shock ever, cutting off the delivery of oil, natural gas, fertilizer, helium and container ship goods for the foreseeable future; 7) by the catastrophically stupid actions, Humpty and Kegsbreath have caused the domestic price of gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, natural gas, fertilizer, and as such anything that has to be transported to skyrocket (hence the demise of Spirit, and possibly other airlines - not that it bothers you, a wealthy Trumper); 8) these actions have resulted in immediate economic oil shocks, etc. for many Asian nations, including many of our Pacific Rim Allies, to their great distress; 9) these actions will certainly lead to a U.S. recession and an jump in inflation that will damage every non-wealthy person in the United States……. And that’s just the short list! But it’s no skin off your nose, Rick Satan! As I have always said, you’re happy only when everything if FUBAR: Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition! Keep buying Crypto, what could Possibly go wrong?
Sorry as I was voice texting the TV said Saturday, and I didn’t catch it in time but I would say here I am for your daily defecation
“Sorry as I was voice texting the TV said Saturday” - 🤣🤣🤣
Well, look what happened here anonymous said uncle
trump AND his GOP maga cult regime WILL stick around as long as they can still squeeze another nickel out of the American Treasury and the American taxpayers...
Because that's what GRIFTERS do!!
SAVE AMERICA!!
SAVE DEMOCRACY!!!
VOTE 'EM ALL OUT!!
We're gonna need a bigger boat.....this one stuffed with cash.
Our coffers are empty right now. You can't be a part of a winning wave unless you do your part to finance it, otherwise it dies on the vine, regardless of momentum. That's the cold, hard truth about our mid-terms, which most of us have yet to accept. The devil's in the details.
Absolutely ICTT. How many times has Trump run the same stock market scheme releasing fake information of a deal to end hostilities with Iran and someone magically makes a huge profit shorting oil futures.
Meanwhile, gasoline prices have increase 40-50% since the day before Trump foolishly bombed Iranian targets.
And, I'm sure, not to mention profits.
The DNC needs to change its membership and tactics to reflect we are in a different era than we were when Clinton was president.
ICTT, I cannot describe the level of rage I feel to know someone made a 125 million dollar profit playing this illegal game. Almost as outraged as knowing concentration camps are being built to house those of us who speak out about dear leader.
Or is it Ka$h??
Next voting is going to be so interesting, if after all this documentation there's still nothing changed, then I dont know what to say.
Trump and his hand picked band of brigands are working on a wide ranging plan to disrupt, corrupt, and cancel the midterms. It will make Hanging Chad and the Brooks Brothers riot seem like small potatoes. All I n plain sight. Read Edsall's op-ed in today's NY Times.
Trump is Mad Captain Ahab, demonically persuing his devilish White Whale across the globe. No regard for his crew. Just revenge and his just retribution. Somewhere along the path of this mad pursuit, America's current Ahab will find his end out in the void and the world can return to a quieter state of conflict
Or primary them out like Madison Sheehan.
He’s going to bankrupt the country.
Oh and Thank you for your attention to this BS.
The incoherence, the fuckupery, the arrogance, lawlessness, incompetence...just overwhelms. But as another Substacker wrote, our hopelessness is by their design. So don’t cooperate with it.
The day before yesterday, the Manchurian Cantaloupe actually demanded Republican legislatures cancel ongoing primary elections to ram through more fantasy gerrymandering. “We should demand what the Supreme Court says must be done…Republicans will receive more than 20 votes in the upcoming Midterms!” (Like a giddy 3-year-old going mine! mine! mine!…) And 5 of the 6 Indiana state Senators who refused to go along with his arrogant defiance of rules and procedures did, in fact, get primaried yesterday.
But this is good news. All the easier now for Democrats to paint the whole lot as a bunch of worthless Trump-stooges…what honorable Republicans? The campaign posters showing cultified MAGAzoids posing next to his Hillbilly-Louis XIV ballroom with captions reading “Had Enough?” practically print themselves. A self-inflicted GOP kiss of death on a saltine cracker.
And pay attention to MONEY. Not theirs, but ours, or rather our lack of it. Our own coffers are empty, even as they continue to amass huge war chests of dark slush. Spend time and energy donating to Democratic committees, to organizing get-out-the-vote groups, as well as to individual Senate and House races.
And accentuate the positive. Two days ago, Pearland, Texas — a community more red than rubies — just elected a Democratic mayor. The same district that gave Trump victory margins of more than 50% and 60% during the last two cycles, the town that once sent Tom DeLay to Congress (before he got convicted of money-laundering and sentenced to three years in jail). That district. More proof that Republicans lose elections, but independents win them. Pay attention to the cracks and chasms, now wider than the Grand Canyon.
Whatever they want you to feel, remember that Trumplandia has never been anything but a Rube Goldberg contraption, held together by lies, threats and scotch tape, as unstable as a house of cards during a windstorm. And the winds, they are gaining speed. Even as we acknowledge the severity of the moment, the fear surrounding elections, Trump's cards are actually blowing away. So eyes on the prize, not the countless distractions, and make it possible for that prize to become reality.
''the Manchurian Cantaloupe''
Priceless!
Thanks. It remains my favorite epithet of many...
my fave is still Shitstain carpetbagger
I love it!
“Fuckupery”. Thanks for the grin in the midst of a shitshow.
Members of the US armed services in the region are calling it Operation Project FUBAR.
Reminds me- I had to Google "BOHICA": Bend Over Here It Comes Again
Cool. Tell you what Russell you live by the words and the rhetoric and I'll live by the actions on the ground Of which if Ron doesn't comply I can't imagine what it's gonna look like after but I think they have no choice at this point They either comply with dignity or they comply in death
Thank You Sir May I Have Another?”
I use " enshitification"
Quite appropriate, and describes everything the sewerclown administration is doing . ..
Hey Jorge, don't kill yourself. You're part of the fuck upary right here and the shit show.
No Rick, it’s your shitshow, and your Pedo King. We are not responsible for your fuckupery or for your Manchurian Cantaloupe, which is rotting in plain view from the head down.
Noel...please don't feed the troll...
In case you’re not aware, I have been challenging the poor bastard frequently for going on two years. Don’t think for a second that I’m trying to change his mind! He’s two far up Trump’s anus to accomplish that. No, this is about setting the record straight, for anyone else who has any doubts about who to believe these days, and there are many such poor souls. This is called “freedom of speech”; and you have just had your say. I can’t wait to see how November turns out, but if we don’t challenge such assholes on a regular basis, we will lose the field to (them).
There is no shit show EXCEPT in liberal precincts. And the more Trump continues winning the worst it gets for you. As WHEN THE LEFT IS NOT IN CONTROL THEY GO APESHIT.
If Biden were doing half the things Trump is doing you would be celebrating ……
The “war” should be over soon and gas prices are already coming down. AT THAT POINT YOU WILL NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT.
Define “soon”. Two weeks, as in “two-week Taco? Or is it “too weak because too stupid” admirer of “Donny Two Dolls Instead of Thirty Dolls”.
You defined soon. Lololol. How long did it take Lincoln to make things right? On the other hand, Truman did it quickly.
It will be the shortest war that America ever won in the shortest war America ever fought
Oh yeah: Humpty called it a “mini-war”!
And that is what it is……BUT IT WILL FREE THE WORLD
The old this is the only place there’s a shit show right here amongst the wacko left. Everybody else is looking forward to the war in Iran being over and the world being safe from a reckless terrorist country and it’s proxies. The market is doing great. The economy is doing great. The only shit show is right here amongst the negativity and the hate without reason without cause without rational thought. All is good all around. AND getting better every day.
Guess what dumb-ass: this war will not be over a year from now. Your party has actually lost the confidence of ALL of our foreign allies! Good work! I especially appreciate Humpty’s saying, at an investment forum in Florida, sponsored by Saudi Arabia (read: MBS) that MBS had to “kiss my ass”! Talk about soft diplomacy! Your King trash-talking the Crown Prince of the largest oil-exporting country in the world. Nice work! Yeah, and of some 2800 interceptor munitions (pre-war), among the Gulf Cooperation Counsel states, they used up most of them in just the first three days; Bahrain has now used up to 87%. Lockheed Martin said they will not be able to increase production of these to 2000 per year until 2030 - and here’s the kicker: these suckers cost over $13 million each! That to knock down a cheap Iranian drone that costs less than a used Toyota! Good luck with that math. Source: well-known Canadian journalist Dean Blundell. Bet ha they didn’t mention any of this on your primary sources of news: Faux News, OAN, Truth Social, the Daily Caller, and other right wing media slop. Nice work. As a result, Saudi Arabia and other gulf states have inked Ten Year production agreements with whom? President Zelenskyy and Ukraine. Nice work!
Nostradamus would hang you by your toes until enough blood entered your brain to get it to stop making your predictions.
The world will be UNDER water by then according to AOC ALTHOUGH GORE IS NOW BACKTRACKING. THE GULFSTEAM IS ABOUT TO DIE CAUSING FRIGID TEMPS. CANT MAKE THIS SHIT UP
Well war takes time to wind down. But it has been over since the day it began. Iran as it existed before this conflict is gone gone gone
Yeah you mean like the lack of confidence so weak that ALL FIVE PUBS THAT DENIED TRUMP HIS AGENDA …..ALL FIVE….ALL FIVE …ALL FIVE LOST THEIR PRIMARIES. OOOPS.
Well it’s great to know that Lockheed Martin is letting the world know that kind of info You’ve got to be the most gullible human on the planet …and you should be out there teaching the world how to handle diplomacy Lmfao You couldn’t even negotiate yourself out of a paper bag
And further, you demonstrate your total and utter fucking ignorance about Ukraine and Russia and why they are at war right now.
Guess you don’t know that we are the second largest producer of oil in the world.
Watch and learn pal. Who will soon be joining the Abraham accord.
Talk talk talk. Words and misguided beliefs are all you have.
I hang my head and pity for you. Enjoy your misery while we enjoy our delight.
The Manchurian Cantalope is the best I've heard!
Wow, thank you for sharing this insight. I learn something new everyday!
Your writing is always so colorful but also so very informative. Thank you.
About those 5 of the 6 Indiana state Senators who lost yesterday. I feel that was the intentional result of the Roberts Five in their "Citizens United" lie. Analogies often help to explain what these Court majorities have created. In Biblical terms claiming power to make an inanimate property (a corporate charter) a person and then endow that graven image with a golden tongue of mega-money as its free speech intending full well that political candidates and office holders must loyally bow down to and serve that golden calf or lose elections is idol making: a violation of God’s Second Commandment. The Roberts Five intended to create a King with the power like that of investiture, a creation of a Lord of a Congressional District, but only those loyal to the King. IOW, once the mega-money / Dark money group has invested in a leader and wins the White Castle with the new ball room it is in their financial interest to maintain the full power of that investment, their King.
Albert, we need a court expansion when the Dems are back in power. Why didn't Biden do this?
IMO Biden had no idea what the Roberts Five was all about. He, RBG and Feinstein had big egos and should have left their jobs to a younger generation. Biden should have resigned one year early to allow Harris to show America a woman can do it.
I have read that the DNC is not as organized or cohesive as it should be. Many want the new guy gone.
Conservatives and progressives need to stop fight each other.
Focus on what matters, especially the corruption.
Leave the transgender issue alone.
Most Americans don’t care enough about it.
The lies, the cover up, the revenge tour, all of it! Make that the focus!
We’re definitely in one of those times that “try men’s souls.” There is a ton of doom and gloom out there, and like everyone else on here I have had my spells from time to time with staying positive and upbeat that this fucking shitshow will soon end. Today’s post from Heather certainly helps keep us in the right direction as do yours that accentuate looking forward and keeping the faith. Thanks. We will get through this.
Let’s see what you’re gonna say when the war is over and the nuclear threat is gone and gas prices come down and the economy continues to rocket ahead and the stock market reflects the sentiment of business in America and tomorrow’s future you communist/socialist shard of humanity if you want socialism, there are plenty of places you can have it. So go be average, which would be an improvement for you
Okay, well let's wait and see whether that happens. It's certainly not very likely at the moment. Qatar says that it would take them five years to restore their gas imports to pre-war levels. Some analysts say that gas prices will never return to their pre-war levels. If you just follow Fox News, Rick, you will remain an uninformed twit.
What are the thing Russell I don't need to be informed. All I need to do is have a pair of eyes.
Blah, Blah Blah.
You're like some of the other idiots that wanna blame a two-faced qatar for any credibility
That is just like some of the socialist Americans taking the word over the leader of Iran over the devastation right in front of their eyes
You know you’ve been wrong at every single turn and you continue to follow that same path Russell unbelievable you predicted everything upside down compared to what Trump has been able to accomplish so far so keep it up pal I’m loving it
By the way, I forgot to mention besides bringing the women of war together and thanking them and blessing them for their support and encourage there were also five Republicans in primaries yesterday that voted against Trump policies, and when Trump supported their opponents in the primaries all 51 and defeated the Republicans that didn’t give Trump their support That was done by the voters.
Think Russell if you’ve learned anything about tomorrow while I agree time will tell they predicted incredible inflation. They predicted a stock market crash. They predicted a recession. They predicted failure for this entire administration and all he’s been doing is winning and winning Some wise men in ancient history in America said when you see somebody winning and winning and winning and you’re on the other side, it might want to think about joining the winners
By the way, are these Predictors said the world is coming to an end for years of the oceans are going to flood the land everywhere?
I keep telling you, Russell one thing is absolutely positive And even you have to admit this nobody nobody predicts tomorrow
Hello: how exactly is he going to capture the near-weapons grade enriched uranium gas (not “dust” as Humpty calls it). Send in the Delta Force to dig around in the nuclear sites they “obliterated”? Seriously, you seem to be too willing to believe any of the daily slop they dump into the public trough! After he and Bibi killed off all the “moderates”, do you really think they will ever agree to any thing he demands? No, they won’t. You must be high on your own supply if you believe that! - from the resolute desk of Nostradamus.
p.s. I’m too old now to put every prediction into intriguing quatrains!
Why don’t you ask him? Lmao. Maybe you could be a consultant. Omg I can’t stop laughing at you.
Laugh away, sucker! I’m not laughing at you quite yet; I’m mocking you. Since I’m a moderate, centrist democratic voter, I will be laughing at you later this year, and then, for the rest of your miserable self-centered Epstein Class supporter’s life. I will remind you of every nasty thing your cult has done until the rest of time. We will never forget people who dance all over the Constitution like is a puppy-pooper mat. But those enablers will definitely receive due process and their day in court. Predictions number 6,987 - Noelstradamus.
By the way, don’t forget to remind me about all the wonderful things. Trump has done as well. That this will be a lot longer. Awwwwww
Back in May, I post the 20 great things that nobody here could refuse and now there’s about 50 more. Number one closing the border.
Have a good night and have a restful 2 1/2 years. Don’t blow up a heart valve.
Well, that name will definitely go down in infamy. Along with all your other wet dreams Mock away.
Thanks, I will.
Are you so narcissistic and self engrandized that you actually think I give a shit about what you think. ? You know when you go to the bathroom when you get that last little Drop that comes out.
That’s you
I know you do, or you wouldn’t be baiting me. I also “Own the Pugs”, that why I care what you think. And after all, I don’t give a shit if you don’t give a shit. Isn’t that called ‘communication’? Isn’t that what we are doing? But in our case, “what we have heah, is Not a Failure tuh communicate” (play on words from Cool Hand Luke, get it?). Speaking of shit that needs to be flushed ASAP, the Grand Oil Party, now lower than whale shit in view of most independents, blacks and Latinos, is circling the Terlet raght now; too bad it will take six more months to complete the flushing operation and clear the pipes of the GOP and the giant orange turd.
Indeed!!
The fact that some of these “red as rubies” districts are suddenly electing Democrats does show that there is finally some disgust and disillusionment among the voters. But it also shows that those districts’ voters are the uninformed, fickle, unthinking voters who swing back and forth on whatever popular grievance is at the forefront at the moment. They will be just as aggrieved in the next election if the Democrats they elect do not make their lives a magical dream. In other words, these are voters who lack principals. The Democratic party’s job, which they have failed at miserably, is to do some education about what political principles are, and why they matter. Each of us who post here can volunteer to do some of that education. Start with your local Democratic Party officials!
The E Jean Carroll case is a perfect example of Trump's temperament. The fine is pocket change compared to his grifted billions, but he can't stand losing. It goes contrary to his grandiose self-image.
What's stupid is that his pursuit of it keeps reminding the public that he was adjudicated a sex offender.
Trump is a transactional person who sees life as a series of transactions in which he has to win and someone else has to lose. It isn’t a workable concept in foreign relations, and it’s not necessarily a successful way of getting things accomplished. Besides, Donald has been the sort of person he despises, “a loser,” more often than not, and lies to offer himself comfort from uncomfortable reality.
in his deep sub- sub conscience his mind knows he's a loser. The analysts will get cutting up his brain for eons to study his psychosis .
He truly is the most broken, sick example of a human being
Trump’s temperament is why he’s the most influential positively influential individual on planet earth right now. He’s a leader in the true sense obviously you don’t recognize it when you see it
Hey Phil, stop living in the past that’s 25 years ago pal. Try to catch up and if you want to see drifting, why don’t you find out why Biden pardoned his entire family down to his grandchildren’s underwear?
And the J6 committee As well as Anthony Fauci, who was involved in killing a couple million Americans
Why is it you liberals always like to live in history. The case was a fart and she waited till Trump was running for president. What a surprise. It's all a crock.
Are you keep hoping for aging? Carol will keep hoping for America. I believe you might have your priorities more than a little fucked up.
“Are you keep hoping for aging?” - 🤣🤣🤣
Unlike you, I’m not hoping for anything except what’s going on right now
Trump was NOT a government employee (ie the POTUS) when he assaulted E Jean Carroll. If this substitution is allowed to happen, justice in America will officially be dead!
It's on life support as it is Steve. Meanwhile, the GOP keeps pushing through more far-right judges.
Was it HCR that reported the DOJ has lost over half of the attorneys that worked for them and that they are offering hiring bonuses for the first time ever and they still can't get any takers.
I know it is. I have not read reporting on DOJ losing half of its attorney staff. But I can imagine no lawyer trained to uphold the law would want to work there now. But of course there are law schools run by MAGA (Google says the most "conservative" is The George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School). So...
Professor Richardson -- Thanks for the succinct summary of the flood of developing stories from the Trump administration. Along with the clever Lego character videos and the creative billboards decorating Tehran, I was struck by the quote you cited from Iran’s Foreign Minister, M. B. Ghalibaf: “Operation Trust Me Bro failed. Now, back to routine with Operation Fauxios.” It made a strong impression. The Iranian government's use of social media and other rhetorical strategies to highlight the absurdity of Trump and his cabinet members' flip-flopping has been quite effective.
Also, after all of this is over, there had better be a reckoning of just who is behind all of the suspicious financial shenanigans that seem to be illegal insider trading.
It's likely that there will be a reckoning, but it remains to be seen who will be left to face it once the suspects have fled the country with their ill-gotten gains.
And they may already have fled the country, meaning Trump released the information to traders outside the US to make it harder to trace these transactions. Trump has already eliminated the whistle blowers in every agency.
I never thought of that. I was thinking that the rats would continue here until the ship got so low in the water that they would have to jump. After all, there are no consequences for corruption in this administration, unless the Boss doesn’t get his cut.
I hope that it is technically still possible to trace such transactions.
Good point!
Indeed.
All of it is inexplicable.
How in the world did we end up here?
I know it’s a rhetorical question, but there are several people and organizations that explain the how. The Heritage Foundation, media that ignored 47s obvious lies, a crooked SCOTUS, and many mega donors. Putin was likely involved a bit, as well. I’m sure that there are more, but that election was purchased.
I'm willing to be that Putin was involved in much more than "a bit".
I know.
Rhetorical question answered: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/02/11/xobm-f11.html?
To learn more about the carefully hidden roots of the crisis, the documentation of which include a PBS film about the enormous support for Hitler here in the '30s and additional, meticulously footnoted documentation of the plutocracy's support for Nazism, go to “All of which is the legacy of this,” here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-25-2026?utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=205274486
Loren, rhetorical questions don't require an answer. Because, in this case, we can know exactly how we got here and still be disgusted and appalled and even surprised to find ourselves here.
Yes, Deb, of course I understand that. But a vast majority of USians -- including, I suspect a majority here -- remain in fanatical denial of how we got here. That's why -- as obnoxious as it obviously seems to so many of you -- I keep posting these links.
I get it. We need to keep teaching history, because people keep not getting it. I live with an over-explainer, so I do find that irritating sometimes, despite the best intentions. But I'm also writing and producing sketches about historical figures to engage people in dialogue about what kind of society we want to create next. Carry on.
Add Fox, its clones, fake-posting bots, and hundreds of unsupervised media sites.
Great Q, Deb.
Simple answer: we're here, and the rich are where they are, due to decades of schools doing nothing more than repeat cycles of standardized testing.
You're like Long John Silver's parrot in Treasure Island, Mr. Balla. Whatever else may be happening, no matter the conversation, you can be counted on to squawk "Pieces 'o Standardized Testing!" About as helpful as the parrot.
And what is so special about your load of fifth grade pap just now?
Folks don’t buy the testing argument. You might switch to (1) the compromised school textbooks that provide a biased view of history and society and (2) the State laws limiting teaching content and libraries.
Yes, Craig.
Diane Ravitch in her 2003 classic (amazingly full appendices, too) "The Language Police," treated both the standardized testers and the corporate textbook packagers as essentially one.
She didn't go so much into formation of state laws, as at that time few Americans understood the reach of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) in its most-well-funded, far-right mission to manipulate all 50 state legislatures.
So the issue is that those tests focus on and only reward the content in the selected curriculum areas. Math curriculum probably doesn’t have as many issues with standardized tests.
Exactly, yes. It was rhetorical-- and sarcastic. But our disgust currently outweighs everything else. For now.
But our disgust -- our rage and terror, actually -- will remain meaningless until someone takes the vital first step toward Liberation, that of organizing a genuinely progressive shadow government, perhaps most securely in London.
Phil...Though we agree about the anti-intellectual purpose of standardized testing, don't forget the testing was imposed in response to parental demands. This was of course proto-ChristoNazi work, but the more progressive parents, snug in their self-obsession, refused to take the oft-articulated threat seriously. (And, yes, that sort of refusal adds up to the undeclared but now probably irreversible surrender of the nation.)
I don't know about parental demands. I think it was sold and a lot of us bought, or passively accepted it.
Yes, Loren.
So they brought in exclusively the quantifiers, commodifiers -- who in turn made the whole business machine-gradable.
Remember, too, Phil, that "education" is typically the easiest major in USian academia. This is no accident; the plutocracy knows that teachers who are dullards are also 100 percent submissive to our masters' desires. (Easiest concentration within the education major is of course "physical education.")
And, Loren, being submissive to the commercial classes = one trajectory.
From the Powell memo (1971) to Citizens United (2010) it meant ridding humanities from schools. The corporate and the moneyed hated all the energy by which the various good movements of the late 1960s drew so from books, films, songs then.
So, my latest list of humanities public officials ought access -- but can not:
films like “The Florida Project,” “Knives Out,” “The Verdict,” “Nomadland,” “The Big Short,” and “Winter’s Bone”;
novels like Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead,” Walter Mosley’s “Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned,” Tom Hanks’ “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,” and many by Richard Russo, Elmore Leonard, and Stephen King;
memoirs like Mary Karr’s “The Liars’ Club,” Joan Didion’s “Where I Was From,” Jeannette Walls’ “The Glass Castle,” Sarah Kendzior’s “The Last American Road Trip,” Tia Levings’ “A Well-Trained Wife,” Erin Gruwell’s “The Freedom Writers Diary,” and Beth Macy’s “Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America”;
essay collections such as Arlie Russell Hochschild’s “Stolen Pride,” Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America”; Sarah Smarsh’s “Bone of the Bone, and George Packer’s “The Unwinding”;
biographies such as Lindsey Stonebridge’s “We are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience”;
histories like Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money,” Rachel Maddow’s “Prequel,” Heather Cox Richardson’s “How the South Won the Civil War,” and Timothy Snyder’s “The Road to Unfreedom”;
poems such as Philip Levine’s Detroit factory poems, and those in the three volumes of Garrison Keillor’s “Good Poems”;
songs like Tim Grimm’s “Broken Truth,” Bob Seger’s “Feel Like a Number,” Carsie Blanton’s “Rich People,” Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught,” and any John Prine, Bruce Springsteen, or hip hop Ari Melber will cite.
It has been argued that the printing press and the dissemination of novels encouraged more compassion in cultures. It has been argued that Uncle Tom's Cabin is one that had that effect.
Phil, don’t forget the all-important opening line of Ginsberg’s “Howl,” the multi-generational rebellion’s epic: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.“
Nor how, in healing response, the traditional balladry rediscovered by the folk renaissance – much of it revealed by diligent scholarship to contain disguised remnants of invocations and lays of magick handed down from the many millennia when God was a Woman – furthered the rebellion by introducing an image of female power that shattered the misogynistic prison of servitude and slavery maintained by Aryan male supremacist capitalism. Here are six examples:
“Thomas Rhymer” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DwE1u45a5U
“Silver Dagger” -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWU0NIoCP5k&list=RDWWU0NIoCP5k&start_radio=1
“Eppie Morrie” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ykBfwsFt6Y
“Cruel Sister” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wf8W45l8k8
“Jackaroe” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vTNcDk3jHE&list=RD2vTNcDk3jHE&start_radio=1
“Tam Lin” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FuaSdOdpzw
Remember too the opening lines of Diane diPrima’s “Loba,” at the very least the womens’ equivalent of “Howl”: “O lost moon sisters/ sea underfoot do you wander/in blue veil, in green leaf, in tattered shawl do you wander/ with goldleaf skin, with flaming hair do you wander...”
https://digitalcollections.poetshouse.org/digital-collection/chapbook-collection/Loba%2C-Part-1 (Go to Page 9)
And as if in response, Tim Buckley wrote “Phantasmagorea in Two,” in the ancient form of a dialogue between the Goddess and her bard: “If you tell me of all the pain you’ve had/ I’ll never smile again.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsO756lqfVM
But young Janet says it best in “Tam Lin”: “I’ll come and go as I please...and ask no leave of thee.”
(You have just tasted the core message of my photographically back-boned, extensively footnoted, 24-year investigative-journalism project entitled “Glimpses of a Pale Dancer,” destroyed by arson just as it appeared headed for major publication. Why? Because “Dancer” documented the Counterculture and its Beat-Generation mother as personifications of the Gaia Hypothesis; the resurrection of the ancient notion our Mother Earth is alive, conscious and self-regulating; also the resurrection of the Great Goddess, whether as metaphor or something far greater than metaphor – and even in her most unremarkable form, infinitely more terrifying to our patriarchal Masters than Marxism itself.)
Faux News.
Because of inbreds like Rick Sender that cheer and celebrate depraved injustice, cruelty, deceit, hatred, bigotry, and thievery
Follow the money
by voting blindly?
Or people not voting at all.
I think we should emphasize that voting in a nation in which governance is meant to be of, by and for the people, we vote for the common good, for the best shot at liberty and justice for all, including posterity. It is our share of duty, as well as personal choice. How could it be otherwise and still be the kind of society we claim to admire?
I agree with you whole-heartedly and you expressed it perfectly. However, in the 2024 presidential election, 85.9 million people did not vote. Will so many people be complacent again? What will motivate them that didn't in 2024? Hopefully, at least some have taken the blinders off and have seen the devastating gutting of our government. Yes, it is our shared duty, and privilege.
There is a whole lot NOT to like with MAGA. Many people, including some friends, have claimed that there is not enough difference between Republicans and Democrats to bother choosing, or that politics is so nasty, they prefer to avoid it. Well surely now there is reason to be paying more attention, and people need to be reminded of it.
Also, to how those who are already disadvantaged in our society generally bear the worst impacts of our failures to choose wisely. Often big-picture fool's choices are accompanied by a single-issue compliant with which I am sympathetic, and yet personally try for the wisest move when confronted with two or more mixed-bag choices; and if I can't gain ground, at least limit the loss of it. That's how one survives an actual war, and this is a long standing virtual war between what Lincoln called (in disapproving of the latter) "the common right of humanity" vs "the divine right of kings". A central concern of any legitimate republic is service to the common good, and that is facing a Blitzkrieg today. The least we can do is officially endorse an alternative by voting.
Also, unalienable rights and the common weal are do not stand in opposition. One demonstrably supports the other: they are two views of the same thing. The framers of the Constitution "got" that one, at least in theory.
Black comedy?
Heather has a bit of necessary repetition today, reporting on the chaos from criminal Donald's administration. Early on, for instance, she writes, "the U.S. government is hiding the . . .." I end with ellipsis, because they're hiding everything, just adulterating the language so we know we're in continuous lies.
Or, as she quotes David Rothkopf, “Not since Vietnam have we seen a more systematic effort by an administration to lie about the nature, costs, consequences, and results of a war than we have seen from the White House on Iran.”
A couple paras more, "The administration’s shifting justifications and claims . . .."
Kash Patel and his bourbon. Howard Lutnick and his Epstein lies and cover up.
Till our last two words: "inexplicable." And its own para for concluding "Indeed."
Dr. Richardson is a master of style. The concluding paragraph to each day's LFAA always carries a punch.
What better spot for a family vacation than Epstein's island?????
On another topic entirely, did I hear that, in answer to a question about to what extent the war with Iran has depleted the Pentagon's weaponry and supplies, Trump asserted that the department now is much better provisioned than it was before the war? He seemed to say that we had stashes of weapons all over the world that more than made up for what we have used. If, indeed, the war has cost the U.S. approximately $1 billion/day, it's hard to believe that we've got more weaponry now than we did before.
Lying about just everything comes so easy to trump...weaponry does not grow overnight like weeds, or?
There are pre-positioned military resources developed during the Cold War. I won’t be surprised if he begins to draw them down. They are there to protect NATO, which Trump criticizes constantly. We will wind up alone, with only 2 oceans to defend us.
Sen. Lucas also mightily pissed off former VA Gov Glenn Youngkin when she blocked his and Ted Leonsis’ plan to build - against most of Northern Virginia’s wishes - a huge arena and move the Wizards, Caps and Mystics to it. She has been in their sights for a while.
She shot Ted Cruz a short missive back in April after he backed Abbott's shameful start to the Trumpymander redistricting of Texas a few months ago. "You all started it, but we're fucking finishing it," she wrote. But unlike Texas, Virginia gave its voters final say over the plan. Clearly they couldn't let this uppity....woman get the last word in.
How about “Trumpfix” or “Trumpfick” as the obedient behavior?
‘Trump Administration to Kick Bison Off Public Lands’
“That’s the cycle: subsidize the grazing, degrade the land, kill the wildlife, and send the bill to the taxpayer. And when someone shows up with an animal that actually belongs there and helps restore the ecosystem? Kick it off.
What They’re Destroying
American Prairie spent two decades building something in the depopulated outback of eastern Montana that no one else had attempted.
Their herd grew from 19 animals to 952. In 2022, the BLM approved their request to graze bison year-round on federal land — an acknowledgment, backed by environmental review, that native grazers are better for the land than cattle. The science isn’t controversial. Bison break up crusted earth with their hooves and wallows, creating openings for native grasses. They thin sagebrush, improving habitat for grouse. They graze to ideal heights for prairie dogs. They increase grassland resilience to drought. They built this prairie. And American Prairie’s herd wasn’t just restoring Phillips County — bison from their herds helped tribal nations across the northern Great Plains start and grow their own conservation and commercial herds.”
🦬 Author’s Note: “As this piece was being published, news broke that Ted Turner died today at the age of 87.
💕 Turner ran 45,000 bison across 2 million acres of the American West and spent decades proving what this piece argues — that bison belong on this land, and the land is better for having them.”
JIM PATTIZ AND MORE THAN JUST PARKS
MAY 6 2026 | Substack
https://morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/trump-administration-to-kick-bison?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios
.
Here’s to the mighty tatanka, the iconic buffalo that once roamed over vast expanses of the American landscape. I saw some of those bison about 20 years ago outside of Bozeman, Montana on some of Ted Turner’s land that he set aside for them, so thankful to him for giving them another chance to be part of the ecosystem that they were meant to coexist in with us. RIP Ted Turner…and may the bison continue to graze in peace on the prairies and grasslands of our Nation…
During a blizzard they will stand, facing into the wind, so as not to get pushed by the wind into the swails to be drifted over. They are really athletic as well.
'When a bottle went missing during a “training seminar” with Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes in Quantico, Virginia, Patel was angry enough that he threatened to make his staff take polygraphs and face prosecution.'
Can you say "Captain Queeg"?
We need a LOT more fearless badasses like the one mentioned.
It is appalling that elected Republicans and the voters who support them could be so indifferent to the lies and corruption of Trump’s crooks, so indifferent to the rule of law. Oh, I forget: weren’t the Confederate Rebels jut as immoral and corrupt?
but those voters have no idea that any of it is happening because they get their 'news' from Fox and its ilk.
I wish that were so, but they see more from other sources than Fox, such as the cost of gas and loss of affordable health care.
Thank you, Dr. Richardson, for your tireless efforts to record for history the daily chronicle of the madness of this administration. I have come to the conclusion that there is no strategy or policy driving the day-to-day fluctuations of Trump 2.0. The only things that matter are to dominate the 24-hour news cycle (regardless of what might have passed for policy in the previous 24 hours), to exact revenge on critics, and above all to create opportunities for corruption. Chaos is the result, but it is not the result of a plan.
Au contraire, James -- reports are that the chaos is exactly what Herr Steve Bannon ordered, and in alignment with Project 2025. Exhaust and confuse the people so they become numb and disengaged, so you can steamroll them at your pleasure. This is their heinous plan. And this is why we must continue to RESIST.
You may well be right, Signe. Certainly with regard to domestic policy. But our foreign policy is bonkers. I’m not sure how much Bannon is involved with that, except for the destruction of USAID. Trump’s war, for the failure of which Hegseth will deservedly take the fall, is a strategic disaster, with its pursuit and objectives changing by the hour depending on the mood of our demented Commander in Chief. And I think that mood is determined by those factors I mentioned earlier, along with the bats rattling around in his belfry.
‘Trump Has A New Terrorist. It’s You.’
“The plan is to criminalize protests. The answer is to protest more”.
https://barbarafwalter.substack.com/p/trump-has-a-new-terrorist-its-you?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios
“Donald Trump fears Americans in the streets more than anything else. Millions of them, day after day, peaceful and ungovernable. It is one of the only things that can threaten his continued hold on power and the hardest to neutralize.
When someone tells you America has a left-wing violence problem, ask them why they are not talking about the right. They will probably say that there is no problem on the right. But that’s simply not true.
What Orban Learned and What Trump Hasn’t. Yet.
History suggests that massive numbers of voters or protesters are the one thing authoritarians can’t neutralize.
Trump can arrest dozens of citizens, but he can’t arrest millions. He can call protesters “terrorists”, but he can’t make that label stick when the protester is your neighbor, your doctor, your kid’s teacher, half the country standing in the street.
Orbán learned it the hard way. So will Trump, if Americans decide to show up.”
Trump Has A New Terrorist. It’s You.
HERE BE DRAGONS. WARNING SIGNS FROM THE EDGES OF DEMOCRACY by Barbara F Walter
MAY 6 2026 | Substack
So true. We must take to the streets! Shut down the highways and access roads to airports. Block entry to sports venues and events. Swarm the National Mall with protest chants. No violence but plenty of disruption.
right on donna, but like Barbara said, we could make our protest signs with peace + love messages, so the resistance can’t be accused of anything anti-Trump or anti-American.
😎 I won’t be able to carry my #GetTheFascistsOut. protest signs 🌞
Peace and love and humor work just fine!
JaK, did you read the comments in this article?