House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) continues to try to pin the upcoming catastrophic lapse in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding on the Democrats.
Yes, the Regime WANTS civil unrest. That will be their Reichstag Fire if they can provoke it. Shutting off access to food might be pretty effective. I say we help each other. Mutual aid is beyond their comprehension. We need to build up our communities for what lies ahead.
I hate to see these scenes of him addressing troops. What are they thinking? They appear to be as impassive as the 800 generals. Who will they obey? They haven't sworn an oath to kill Americans, surely?
Trump and his Project 2025 team are now imposing Marshal Law in the United States with Trump as King. If Johnson will call the House into session and seat Grijalva as he is lawfully obligated to do, it will undoubtedly be established that Trump, like Prince Andrew, was a criminal client of Jeffrey Epstein. Following the precedent with Prince Andrew, there just might a public outcry to strip King Trump of his title and remove him from the White House.
I presume the judges on the supreme court and every member of congress have sworn an oath to the constitution as well. Yet here we are with six SC judges and the majority of congress abdicating that oath. An oath is only as strong as the character of the people swearing to it.
Sent that one right off to my Rep this morning. Thank You. I will save it and send it to him often. As a reminder in case he forgets what a slimeball he really is.
Indeed - we are seeing a crude assault on the Constitution and moral standards - turned into daily routine and duty by these judges whose principles they claim are rooted in the Judaeo-Christian ethic.
General Mark Hertling is a voice of reason based on years of experience in our military.
Thank you, Sandra, for linking this video. Hertling gives his compelling, first-hand reaction to current actions by the MAGA heads in control of our military. I hope this video is shared widely by this forum!
Actually, listening to General Hertling yesterday, he said the officers swear an oath to the constitution. The oath for the enlisted people is different, not an oath to the constitution.
Incorrect: The Oath of Enlistment (for enlisted of all branches): "I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." "The obligation and responsibility to act against unlawful orders is not exclusive to officers. Article 90 of the UCMJ states that service members are only obligated to obey lawful orders." https://www.quantico.marines.mil/news/news-article-display/article/611510/the-difference-between-oath-of-office-oath-of-enlistment/ That article gives the My Lai Massacre example where a non-officer disobeyed an unlawful order to fire on civilians and even threatened to fire on US troops. He was not charged and was given a Soldier's Medal for his courage to do the right thing. All the services have the same code requirement.
BTW, Federal employees also raise their hands and take the oath to defend the Constitution. "I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter."
And these are lifetime oaths. Now, how of the current administration's employees took the same oath and violate it daily?
Thank you for the correction, Eva. Obviously I heard incorrectly, or only partially. I worry, though, about situations like the audience trump had at Fort Bragg, where the soldiers seemed to be cheering for him. Maybe some of the younger folk don't realize the seriousness of the oath they take?
Has the Caribbean been a testing ground for loyalty to the president? They are already carrying out illegal orders to murder people by bombing boats in international waters. To my knowledge military personal have not refused those orders.
No but beating up on. Latin American countries to benefit trade and support regimes that benefit Americans in business there has. The Marines invading Central America and the support for dictators is Chile and Guatemala are notable. The skullduggery with El Salvador comes to mind under Trump. He likes CONTROL above all else because he's incapable of really making deals.
Are you going back in history, saying Chile has a dictator? I don't think they currently do, but please correct me if I'm wrong. Argentina currently has a dictator.
Seems to me that he is pulling back from Europe and ramping up in Latin America. Which makes me wonder if DJT and Putin have already decided how to divide the world into “spheres of influence” and are taking actions to focus on their own sphere.
If you include Xi that would be something I've been thinking for a long time now. The Argentina soybean fiasco was no accident. Asia, Europe and the Western Hemisphere. And everyone gets to plunder Africa.
Do the soldiers carrying out those orders know there is no actual intelligence that there are drugs on those boats? Even then they should know that capture instead of destruction is what should happen. Weren’t Hitler’s worker bees held responsible for carrying out his genocide orders?
Regardless, Congress knows these so-called "extra-judicial killings" are murders and illegal, yet they (including Senator Warner in his interview on PBS Newhour a couple night ago) act as if these murders may be legal, arguing that since they haven't received any information from the Trump-izis, they don't know for sure what to make of these bombings! What kind of message does that send to the troops, let alone their constituents, most of whom are sleep-walking their way into fascism.
There is a suggestion its not the military doing the Caribbean bombing, though a General associated with that area has just resigned so who knows what's going on there.
It's telling that four members of this corrupt cabinet are hiding out in military bases. They know just how unpopular they are. Do they understand that this administration will not last forever and they will habe to come out from their holes eventually? Payday is coming!
They have effectively sworn to do what they are told to do - all the way up the chain of command. Laws? The Constitution? They are what they are told they are, not as they might interpret them.
Don't kid yourself. Most military officers and enlisted are loyal to their oath! To protect and defend us against Trump and MAGA, the "enemy within". Hey, and all those "Leaders" living on military bases is great! When the times comes it will be easer to find and detain them from doing harm.
noem can do the Perky Perp Walk, hegseth will come to the party as PeeWee Herman, rubio will fly in on his Dumbo ears and miller can join the party as Garland Green from Con Air.
The Trump Administration has made the decision to attack military installations inside Venezuela and the strikes could come at any moment, sources with knowledge of the situation told the Miami Herald.
A gun in the hand of a military individual who is unclear of what his/her oath to the Constitution really means, is always a potential (putting it mildly) problem. With weapons of war, the truth is, we can't be sure of anything.
If the military favor Trump (and we have no poll numbers for that, so it's a HUGE unknown) then they will obey his unconstitutional orders, and our hopes will mean nothing without armed insurrection.
I'm sure their commanding officers made it clear about what the response from troops shall be. Open your mouth, frown or whatever & you'll be scrubbing the latrines for the rest of your career.
Eatless days and sleepless nights. The snake is rattling now watch his tail. Yes watch his tale. Never mind what his fangs are up to. Watch his rattling now listen to his tale.
With fork’ed tongue he addresses his plenum. But for us it’s prelubed fangs filled with Venom. What is prescribed is the antidote. Get off your asses and get out the vote.🫏
Ms. Richardson...We desperately need an answer to what seems to me is the ultimate question about Johnson's de facto nullification of the entire federal legislative branch. Ergo:
Is it true that if Trump wants to emulate Louis the XVI's eviction of the Estates General or Tsar Nicholas II's dismissals of the Duma, all he need do is command his Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader to suspend their respective sessions and -- as Johnson is doing -- to refuse to resume them?
I'm admittedly unsure of the facts here. But none of my 50-odd home-library volumes of U.S. history answer this question, and I'm too crippled to get to a library, where I could probably find the answer with only a few minutes of research. At age 85, I'm also too hopelessly compu-moronic to come up with the exact, mathematically precise combination of words essential to get an intelligible answer from the Internet even after more than an hour of trying.
Thus I dearly hope our hostess will address this entire matter, including whether Johnson's nullification of Congress is as unprecedented as I suspect it is.
Read the New Yorker article on vought. What a despicable person. He has a daughter who has cystic fibrous yet willfully defended any research about it. Who does such a thing?
Yes, get out the vote. But in the meantime, call. Call your reps. We must let them know we are paying attention. The Strength in Numbers link in today's letter was tremendous. The tide is turning with the voters. The economy for the non-wealthy is getting attention. Of course.
Call the R reps and tell them SNAP should be funded. If we can give money to Argentina, we can find much less to give to those who need food assistance. Keep the heat on. Flood the zone.
The Anne B. Was my father’s last fishing boat. FV Anne B. Many days we crossed the Columbia River bar out of Warrenton and llwaco and Astoria. He and mom’s names reside on the memorial to fishermen in the boat basin.
That made me laugh until I realised it was burned into my psyche and I haven't had breakfast yet... joshing, a touch of much-needed humour in these straitjacketed times we live-exist in. Ü
Truth! I fear the Epstein Ballroom is only the beginning. If it helps keep those files in a vault then once it is near completion Trump will demolish the West Wing to build a Casino with towering walls around the entire perimeter of the grounds. The wall will help conceal the quick final project of removing that old 6 level mansion and then build an 8 level Epstein Palace. If anyone thinks this sounds a bit too much then they don't have any idea who and what Trump is. He is an angry spoiled child. Angry that Obama roasted him at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeGpLg0b3DE
Anyone who doubts Trump's infatuation with intrusively chintzy, Disneyland-styled architectural grotesques -- and his neykulturny contempt for classic architecture -- need only visit Trump Tower in Manhattan, preferably after either viewing photographs of the Bonwit Teller Building he demolished, or being old enough, as I am, to remember with sadness the loss of its understated grandeur, facade sculptures included.
My daughters and I were in Chicago earlier this month. We were on foot for 4 days taking in the local events/shopping/food, etc. Felon’s tower is in the middle of it all yet it looked lonely every time we passed by, no foot traffic….and it was offering the largest discount on room rates at various online reservation services.
Typical of autocrats and dictators to surround themselves with garish furniture and decor. Name one dictation that wasn't in love with money especially gold.
I have seen in the news he has claimed he never saw a "client list." He testified he had never seen anything that would criminally implicate President Trump in the Epstein files. He felt if there was anything in the files about Trump that Biden's administration would have leaked it. Howeveer, I feel he selected his words very... as the Wicked Witch might say, "delicately."
I keep posting. According to Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA) Trumpepstein may cause an "Epstein bomb" causing over 100 Republican members to "jailbreak" from Trump.
The US military with its immense ordnance are traitors to the United States. The Trump administration, Supreme Court, and the Republicans are planning to use the US military against anyone they wish to use it against. The Supreme Court has said Trump can do whatever he wants, including stealing all further elections while blaming the Democrats for 2020 and any election they participate in. Trump has said he can do anything he wants. This is where we are now. I was raised a military brat. I cannot forgive them for this.
I have more faith in the integrity of our military. Trump and Co. have tried to purge the Brass who are not “loyal” enough to him, but those General Officers are still around, and I think they are united and ready to step in to lead again if Trump tries to mobilize the forces against the people of this country. There are already family members of serving Navy members who are alarmed that their relatives are in jeopardy by the bombing of boats and the murder of people on the high seas. One Admiral has cut short his career rather than follow orders that he knows to be illegal. Just because they’re no longer active duty does not mean that they no longer feel bound by their oath to the Constitution. The Honorable men and women will step up as they always have to serve the country.
Kari, they have found that they are unwelcome in regular neighborhoods, so are living on military bases, so they do not have to put up with pushback and are safe from all us "terrorists".
The prepping of the bunker under the East Wing fits into this administration's plan to incite riots and foment violence. Their uber-loyalty to trump has sucked the whole administration into his madness.
I voted early and got confirmation that my ballot was received and counted. We have to fight this inane regime. Trump’s popularity is tanking. This is not a game show. I’m looking for ways to help our fellow beings live through this madness.
Whatever they may want, it doesn’t follow that they will get it. To think like that is to accede to their wishes, to surrender beforehand. They want you to do that, too.
There are many ways you can slice all this. You can throw up your hands in complete despair. You can, in honor of Halloween and Hocus Pocus, wander around like Bette Midler, going “we are doomed, DOOMED.” Or, you can focus on a truth all tyrannies refuse to believe about themselves: the harder the bluster, the worse the trolling, the louder the saber-rattling, the weaker they become. There has never been a single tyranny on earth that has ever managed to figure this out. Consider the implications of that.
I suggest we start by doing what we have always done — vote, for one thing. Tens of thousands of elections — everything from school boards to state judgeships, referenda and two gubernatorial elections are taking place in just 3 days time. Many of these elections need monitors, observers. They will certainly be watching. I suggest we start watching the watchers. We are not voiceless, and not doomed. Surely that is more productive than wandering around filling our hearts with even more despair. They fear us far more than we do them. Consider the implications of that, too.
The point you appeared to make was to throw up your hands. And hungry people better damn well think about voting, especially since those now making them hungry don’t want them to vote. That would be the strongest example of mutual aid I could think of.
Please read again. To wit "I say we help each other. Mutual aid is beyond their comprehension. We need to build up our communities for what lies ahead."
Have you ever BEEN really hungry? It consumes your every waking moment. It fogs your mind. You want people to be fit enough TO vote?
FEED THEM FIRST.
To say nothing of the fact that many of the hungry can't vote because they are CHILDREN.
I don't want to assume that you are in a place of privilege. But it does seem like it.
Absolutely. Working with food banks and pantries is now a HIGH priority!!! All hands on deck. Aside from just doing it because we are decent human beings, read what experts on tyranny say about building community.
I have 4 bags of non- perishable groceries packed and ready for the annual Scout drive that begins November 3. The food will go to our local food pantry. I don’t know if it’s a national drive, but perhaps your local scout organization can do this. I’m going to suggest an ongoing drive as long as this shutdown continues. Local organizations and businesses need to step up, as well as every individual who is able to do this.
Annabel, I learned how to make a variety of meals with rice and beans and a few fresh vegetables and spices during my tough years. When my sister wanted me to give money to my lazy unemployed niece and her even lazier husband I sent the recipes. But even those ingredients are getting more expensive. When we were hungry we were fortunate to have family with a farm to give us apples and potatoes. I ate potato pancakes several times a week. This was all under Reagan and Trump is even worse. I hope you have a good food bank who can help you out.
Gina, years ago I lead a Brownie Troop. One year, some of the moms helped me organize a progressive dinner/Christmas Carol/food drive for our kids.
We planned a route where we met up for "appetizers" then broke into two groups. We went door to door caroling and collected food. (We'd previously put flyers in the doors of the area to tell them what we were doing, and if they would like, to leave the note with food at their door if they weren't home) We had a stop for bathroom break and meal, and then ended at another house for cookies and cocoa, and sorting of food.
I believe it was one of the best events we held, as it was a HUGE eye opener for the kids! As we sorted the food, one girl curled her lip and said "I wouldn't eat this junk" and I said, if you had NOTHING else, I bet you would.
It was surprising to me as well--plenty of odd cans of things like anchovies, some VERY outdated cans. Thankfully, many people gave us "good" food (according to the Brownies) and we got cash donations also, with which we were able to purchase some grocery store gift cards.
Only ONE person was nasty to our group--which was 2 adults and 8 CHILDREN. (The other group had no issues--which was also very educational for the kids. (Sadly). Who is nasty to a group of children singing Christmas carols?!?!
My understanding is slightly different. Our MAGA neighbors do think they're entitled to government benefits. But they are so obsessed with the possibility that the "undeserving" (read: people of color) might get benefits, that they are willing to forego those benefits if it will deny them to others.
They would burn down the whole neighborhood if it will make a family of color homeless.
Yes! I’ve been wondering what would happen if crowds of peaceful people showed up to be poll watchers. Just to lawfully be there and support people’s right to vote.
I really appreciate this reminder. It is easy to slip into despair, but you are right—fear and apathy are exactly what they count on. The louder the intimidation, the more it reveals their weakness. Staying engaged, voting, and showing up for local elections are powerful acts of defiance and care. Hope is not naïve; it is strategy. And it grows stronger every time we refuse to give up on one another.
And call Congress. Calls do make a difference. Senator Murphy said so. Call about whatever you want. SNAP. Argentina aid. Blowing up Venezuelan boats. Epstein.
Take a deep breath, don't allow the number of issues to paralyze, and at least find a number. You can call tomorrow if you need time to summon your courage.
This above all do not bemoan but act. We're NOT doomed. Ok inspire others to act as well. Support each other to act. Do not give in
People who relocate to military bases to live are frightened and know they have taken steps that are wrong. Let their fear consume them.A caged animal will react with overreacting. Why would they fear if they thought they were innocent? Because they are not
Trump comes from a Reality TV background, therefore if he wants civil unrest he will produce it, have his ghostwriter pen the script, direct it, and star in it invoking the Insurrection Act at the the end of the video. He might even demand a few police officers get killed just like his J6 murders. Human life means nothing to him, not as long as it keeps people from talking about those Epstein files.
Right you are. As I read this passage “ But I’d be allowed to do that, you understand that. And the courts wouldn’t get involved. Nobody would get involved. And I could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. I can send anybody I wanted.” I was afraid the next sentence would be: “And with that remark, the President of the US whipped out his little orange shrimp and started stroking it.” Man, this guy really does get off on power, doesn’t he?
Flaccid power. Useless, button-mushroom power. Non-existent, impotent power — the kind envious, small, bitter old men people kill to get — but will still never obtain.
Millions must be thinking the same thing. Little, shriveled-up orange shrimp, indeed.
Dutch, I think it's less about gratification and more about justification.
Fred Trump was a soulless, nasty individual and the worst father. He ignored his daughters, but baited and abused his sons. Eldest son and namesake, Freddy, was the heir-apparent; Donald and Robert were just "also-rans." To make things worse for Donald, he had a learning disability. Fred's plans were wrecked when Freddy "abdicated" his position and preferred to fly commercial jets for TWA.
The mantle probably would've fallen to Robert, but he was of weak constitution. Donald was desperate to prove he wasn't "the dumb son," so he plotted and schemed to undercut his brother. Fred liked Donald's "killer instinct" even though he was stupid, so he gave the job to Donald. Fred figured on propping up Donald as a cardboard mogul, knowing he could clean up the Manhattan messes from his office in Queens.
Donald had one job: To get the Trump family accepted by the Manhattan aristocracy. As with everything else, Donald failed. His loud, brash ignorance was repulsive to New York City's elite. Donald crashed more parties than he was invited to, and his parents remained ostracized in Queens.
Donald is a loser. He's spent his whole life trying to prove that he isn't. The only time he ever felt successful is when Mark Burnett and NBC cast him as a fake tycoon and paid him millions in advance for appearing in the series. Donald has been trying to recreate that sense of power ever since.
Absolutely. Little Donny Boy still thinks he's living a reality TV show in which he is an all-powerful, physically strong and mighty king. Alas, there a lot of idiots who have given him that mantle, but that wasn't able to change who he really still is - Little Dumb Donny Boy.
Indeed he does, nobody enjoying this revenge tour like he is, Vought may be close. Two types of repubs these days. Those scared shitless or those drunk with celebration. The latter have all the money.
I choose to give to a food bank that does not require the recipients to sit through a "sermon" to receive the benefits.
It's individual donors that contribute the food and money that support the food banks, not God or the spiritual leaders.
Mike Johnson is a Bible beater and a faux Christian. And yet all he does is blame the Democrats for the shutdown and for the SNAP benefits not being funded.
I hope I'm not the only person, but I am guilty of that.
I used to get a real aide, and I told them to QUIT working for him, if they were also "Christian" so as to avoid the "near occasion of sin."
Above, I have posted a request that ANYONE able to create "memes" make a Johnson "LIE-O-METER" as Heather mentioned he blushes when he lies. So when I call him, I mention that WE KNOW when he tells a LIE because he turns red. So we are WATCHING. (I want to plant the seed in his smarmy brain that WE THE PEOPLE are aware of his "tell" and are looking for it.)
I remember when the 6 of us kids ate rations given us by the Shoshone women in Riverton Wyo. 60 odd years ago. Dear old dad ran off. Mom was candy striping at the hospital and we got whatever mom scraped in a bucket from patients plates. Those were some tough times. I gotta tell you the adults were hard pressed. It was a kindness in those ladies hearts and helped shape our character. If you do lend a hand this winter fill it with food. Don’t let the old and the young go hungry on your watch. That kind of neglect is on us. It’s a really big deal. I know even today my old eyes brim right up and overflow with thanks. A can of chile is a gold mine on a cold winter night.
My cousin and I got chased off that tribal land- and rightfully so- trying to fish that Wind River there back then. Just a couple of young dumb asses. I learned a great lesson in respect that day.
We attended St. Stephen’s Catholic Indian Mission School. Most of the students were Shoshone and Arapahoe. I wanted to grow up and get a job in Lander at a service station. I ran away a lot. Down the Wind River I would go on my driftwood raft.
Wow, Pat. I generally litter up the comment area with my opinions (I'm not known to be brief) but your story---no words.
Wish I could go back in time and bring a meal to you and your family. I can't, so I'm picking up a bit extra at the grocery store to donate to the local food bank, in honor of you.
This is a time we may have to embrace people we haven’t met yet. This is an all out American moment. They come around the bend ever so often. Seventeen of us once gathered at my grandads shack. Brothers sisters aunts and uncles and cousins. Moms and Dads and old Grandad. Everyone called him Grandad. The whole town. Everyone called it Grandads shack. The whole town. There were 4 to 12 extra kids most of the time. Thank you for your kindness too. Food banks and shelters and helping old people get things done is rewarding. If you get bored take a walk and introduce yourself. Ask that old man or woman if they would mind if you could use up some of your excess wood to rebuild their old fence or reconstruct that collapsed porch. Works for me because I have a sawmill and it’s the truth. Sometimes you score a fresh loaf of bread.!! One always gets some joy.
Pat, plenty of times (most of the time, actually) fraternities get a bad rap. When my son was in college, his frat did a lot of charity work. They went to an elderly woman's home and rebuilt her front porch with a ramp. (She cooked dinner for them all, and my son said she was so grateful.) They also had a campus wide fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity. All the groups had to build a shelter out of cardboard, and two members had to stay in it overnight. (it was cold) I am not sure how they chose a "winner" but I think it had something to do with voting by donating money and the top fundraiser was the "winner". (All funds went to H4H)
So many stories lack the words. Thankfully some can tell. We never went hungry but Mama wrung chickens necks and daddy butchered a pig in our back yard. Remember vividly. No store bought meat. That may be why I’m a vegetarian in my old age.
10/31/25, we got it Annabel, two (2) Judges ordered the USDA to fund ASAP now confirmed at 3:42 PM by the Associated Press. That is two Judges, 1 in Boston Mass & 1 in Rhode Island.
The legal term for the assertion that "contingency" funds were NOT available is Bull____!
Earlier 10/30 Post: Annabel, here is my updated 'good news' post from Professor Joyce Vance's Platform, Civil Discourse:
*********************************
BREAKING: & Updated10/30 at 11:30 pm PDT:
Per NPR, A federal Judge indicated Thursday she intends to " ... take steps to ensure that federal food [SNAP] assistance keeps flowing to 42 Million who depend on it".
[IMPORTANT: That's Boston U.S. District Judge, INDIRA TALWANI. Clearly, the 25 state Plaintiffs have brought more than sufficient admissible evidence to Judge Talwani's court record to support a finding of "irreparable harm" to public health & well being.
From the Bench Judge Talwani instructed the U.S.D.A that she. wants "agency action not lawyering.]
Contingency funds are in fact available to fund SNAP. Friday, 10/31 is her -- so we should have the Order by Noon today, 10/31/25 Eastern.
@Bryan---THAT is proactive. When the regime threatens starvation every person with the power to act must act with as much force as required.
I have read that in some places 1/3 of the population is food insecure. Depression level numbers. As referenced in FDR's 2nd Inaugural Address. This movie is a remake of old horrors and we know the way out. Even if it takes a battering ram to get there.
Thinking more about the hunger problem. When money is scarce, knowing how to cook is really important, and many have no idea. I get by on a ridiculously small income partly because I have been in the kitchen for 62 years, since age 7. I make almost everything from scratch.
But there are at least two generations who can barely defrost a burrito.
I have 3 Substacks of my own, and one of them is Annabel's Hard Times Kitchen. It was created for these times. I am working on a series of simple ideas for people who just figured out that they need these basic skills.
I can't afford to give to food banks, but I can show people how to manage a kitchen.
The old "Beau of the Ranch" (before his wife took over) used to say to "do what you can, when you can, for as long as you can." Every person helps in their own capacity.
What you say is very true! Years ago, my husband's uncle worked at a food bank. They had a donation of roasts, and he said, people didn't take them because "they didn't know what to do with them."
I read a book about a year ago, wish I could remember the name. Anyhow, this woman did research on poverty by trying to live working a minimum wage job AND trying to find housing. She reported on how many poor lived in hotel rooms with no fridge or means to cook. She kept ice in a cooler for milk, and had to eat cold meals--when she had them. Her best job was working in a nursing home where the staff was allowed to take any "leftover meals." She also mentioned what the food bank was able to give her--a box of pasta was useless to her.
Miselle: thank you! I have never been without some means to prepare food, but lived without refrigeration for around two months when I moved to my current city.
And without a real stove for years. Now I have both and it makes using my six decades of cooking experience so much easier to use.
The equipment problem was brought to my attention some years ago. The unhoused will not be able to cook, but the population living in motels and squats MAY be able to do work arounds. One idea I had was getting them slow cookers. These appliances are inexpensive and safe even in a motel. And can do plenty.
An instant pot is equally safe and quite versatile.
But the housed and comfortable are generally unaware that lack of equipment is a real problem.
Yes, knowing how to cook even the most basic ingredients needs to be taught to everyone. My grandson knows how to cook. He cooked most of his meals his first year in college and helps at home now. He’s up to complicated dishes now. I remember having to cook on nothing but a hot plate in Korea because the military didn’t pay my husband enough for us to live in anything but a one room flat. We ate a lot of crap.
Gold, Guns, and Ghouls: The Halloween That Ate Democracy
“Between the edible gold brownies in Tokyo and the quick reaction troops in Toledo, it’s clear that America isn’t being governed anymore; it’s being gilded, meme-ified, and militarized.”
Nothing captures the American mood this Halloween like Speaker Mike Johnson blaming Democrats for starving children while the USDA hoards $6 billion in emergency SNAP funds and the Treasury quietly ships $20 billion to Argentina to keep Trump’s gold-crowned buddy Javier Milei afloat. It’s the kind of fiscal trick-or-treating where the rich get Swiss chocolate and everyone else gets a fun-size bag of austerity.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Trump has decided that the people’s house needs a little more “him.” The East Wing is being bulldozed for a gold-plated ballroom so massive it could be seen from orbit. The man who once sold steaks and diplomas now sells sovereignty by the ounce. Nothing says “populist reformer” like melting democracy into décor.
Back in the real world, Americans are paying 44% more for Halloween candy than in 2019. Inflation is up, wages are stagnant, and Jerome Powell has started whispering the cursed word “stagflation,” which is economics’ version of “your crops have failed.” But not to worry, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promises prosperity will “flow through to working Americans next year.” Translation: the check’s in the mail, and the bank moved to the Cayman Islands.
Trump, touring Asia like an emperor without an empire, reminded U.S. troops that he could federalize the National Guard “to clean up Democrat cities,” apparently unaware that Halloween costumes are not civil unrest. He also reminded everyone that if he invoked the Insurrection Act, “I’d be allowed to do whatever I want.” Always reassuring from a man whose hobbies include defying the Constitution and collecting golden accessories.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security is pumping out propaganda videos showing agents arresting “vicious criminals,” except the footage was doctored from old clips. When asked, a White House spokesperson said they would continue producing “banger memes.” Yes, the executive branch now measures success in retweets.
The Pentagon, not to be outdone, has ordered every state’s National Guard to form “quick reaction forces” for riot control. No riots yet, but when you’re planning an election season under martial law, it’s good to stay ahead of the paperwork.
Between the edible gold brownies in Tokyo and the quick reaction troops in Toledo, it’s clear that America has entered its baroque phase of decline. The country isn’t being governed anymore; it’s being gilded, meme-ified, and militarized.
Coming soon to a ballot box near you: “Make America Gilded Again.”
Those of us who are able must donate to our local food banks. They are the most efficient points of distribution and they are struggling with this surging need.
I agree. That is one current solution. Doesn't change anything for the long haul. We are and will be contributing to the food banks. We have voted and anxiously await the vote in other states. The news out of the Netherlands is encouraging.
I feel the same urgency. When systems are used to divide and destabilize, the most powerful response is cooperation. Mutual aid, shared food networks, and community trust are how we stay connected and strong through uncertainty. But we can also think beyond survival—using this moment to reimagine how our communities feed, house, and care for one another in lasting ways. The future we build together now could be the foundation for something far more just and transformative.
Christy: If we survive this we have the best chance of truly creating a better world than ever before in human history. It is what we tried for in the 1960s but fell short. One of the threads of human culture has always been reaching for this moment. Let's make sure we get there this time...
The point of the reichstag fire that seems to escape people is that the Nazis both started it, and then used it to justify martial law. Everyone looking at the military forces Trump is putting together is ignoring all the backchannel communications to Trumps loyal fascist militias who will be the ones bombing election centers and attacking people and who will be claimed to be "Antifa" in the declaration of the Insurrection Act.
Trump doesn't NEED help from leftists in order to declare martial law and justify using military force to overthrow state governments, he already has all the help he needs.
Yes, when he says he can call anyone up after listing all the military does he mean the Proud Boys and Three Percenters? After all he called them up on 1/6 and they came.
If you are looking to support a worthwhile nonprofit, here’s the link to one I have volunteered with for several years. Located just north of DC, we have served three meals a day to those in need for more than 40 years. We’ve never missed a meal. We now routinely serve between 350-500 meals a day. Please help us continue this record run.
My Community Food Pantry is fully stocked and ready according to the director. I plan to help keep it that way even though I am a SNAP recipient myself. I foresaw this and sold my little car at a profit in January after the Trump victory. Now I no longer have a car payment to make and have diverted that money to food. My fear as a low income senior is that my housing subsidy through USDA Rural Development will be next, and there is no way my income no matter what I do will compensate for that.
Exactly! Send violent troops into cities of hungry people - what could go wrong...and what exactly is the felon, child rapist, murderer's end game? To cancel elections and stay in the bunker / ball room until he dies - which may not be too far in the future...
I kept reading yesterday that grocery stores were adding extra security to prepare for violence or uprisings? I don’t know how true this is. Do they think people will storm the doors and steal the food?
I’m thinking of the millions of American kids now losing food.
As more millions worldwide lost U.S. A.I.D. food due to Donald’s capricious cruelty.
I’m thinking about the hundreds of American and foreign underage girls trafficked by Jeffrey and Ghislaine for rape by Donald’s unaccountable pals.
I’m thinking of the millions of Ukrainians having their schools, libraries, museums, apartment buildings, hospitals, power grids, and shopping centers deliberately and every day shelled by Russian missiles, bombs, and artillery.
I’m thinking of the millions of Palestinians on their land in the West Bank daily harassed, road-blocked, and murdered by thieves from the Israeli far right regularly stealing more, more, more of their land.
Trump, Putin, Netanyahu repeatedly commit these crimes, repeatedly murder, usurp more power for more crime. So I’m not just thinking about them, their vulgarity, their in-your-face braggadocio, but also about the legions of those abetting their financially interlinked, black hole abyss.
And, inseparable from that, about the schools that so massively, systematically, criminally have failed – in corrupt, corrupted Russia, Israel, the U.S.
I am proud that our local food banks are stepping up and our Los Angeles Unified School District will continue to provide free breakfast, lunch, supper for any student 18 and under!
One of the World's most influential climate science doomsdays Mr. Bill Gates has now emphasized again and again on national media although I'm sure you've not seen or heard about it on your media now says humanity will not end because of climate change and it will not doom the planet
So stop sending your money to Paris LMAO
He has changed his mind.
You might want to check in on the whole story if you want to be completely depressed and letdown that you've been led like lemmings to the slaughter once again
I've posted the link in a few places, but on the hush-hush, he was actually making money selling products to either fight or support people due to the suffering of climate change in the future and now he's no longer invested in that. What a surprise. Bottom line you're all gonna be OK and AOC was wrong again like that's ben any different since she's come on the scene
Tell you what I'm gonna do I'm gonna take away your plausible deniability here and I'm gonna post you the links myself and there's probably 50 of them for you to enjoy and drool over with your mouth agape not believing what the hell is actually happening here and maybe you can pass it on to the other lemmings who have been lied to time and time and time again about the Russia hoax about the Hunter Biden laptop, and about Biden's failing mental capacity
It was approved by the city council of New York City and the only way it got stopped. Was somebody filed a lawsuit at the TOP court in the state and bingo stopped in its tracks.
The honest thing to do now would be to say RICK you were actually right and I was unaware and I am in shock but guess what? Nobody in the center or right of center was surprised at all because we knew the minute that he opened the gates that's exactly the purpose. You have a good night sleep on this and hopefully you'll get a sense of how much they've lied to you.
Well, I didn’t have to hear your nonsense and your questionable mental stability I have never seen so many so-called intellectuals or college graduates or professors or PhD’s buckle so easily and swallow everything like it’s their last drop. They have what I call willful ignorance because they’re afraid of the truth and that’s OK with me for now.
But as time goes on, they’re either gonna wake up or pass away into nothingness. The choice is theirs.
I have mixed feelings about Mamdani in Ny because it’s gonna go down in flames and there are many nice people there that are going to have to suffer for it and won’t necessarily be able to relocate quick enough specially businesses. But I believe with very few exceptions Life is a due to self proposition and if they do it to themselves, they only have themselves to blame.
Hello Phil... Nice Posting... Seems that the Social Consciousness of American Society has been failing since the 1980's at least... When Greed became 'Good', and Entertainment became Supreme... Mike Johnson can wear a Cross, and profess piety, but MJ does not follow the Historical Jesus' Teachings... DJT has benefited from this Societal Corruption, and until sufficient numbers rediscover their Humanity, these are Dark Days...
The bigger the cross, the bigger the hypocrite -- as per KKKaroline Leavitt and Kristi Noem. Yesterday Johnson tried to blame the shutdown on Zorhan Mamdani!! (for whom I have already voted, btw)
Yes, Apache, as you say, ". . . until sufficient numbers rediscover their Humanity."
But this is a practical self-destruction, letting the cynical rich, the dark money, the oligarchs and thieves rule, as Auden says in "August, 1968, "The Ogre does as Ogres can, / Deeds quite impossible for Man."
Schools can lead. Teachers -- so many fine ones -- can take the initiative. Enjoy with students the skills of writing essays to see, credit, and generously cite others and the humanity they unfold as they face the complications they inhabit.
Teachers can do this. As they lead in restoring the devices, tools, resources of humanity.
Can't they? Or does testing sit on all and suffocate all that, in fact, humanity abdicates?
As a retired teacher, I will tell you that when the Bush “No child left behind” passed, we lost a month of instruction time. And as an American Studies teacher I made sure my students read both the Declaration and the Constitution. But teachers have been attacked for decades now. Long gone are the days when you could call a parent and have them work in partnership with you. Now teachers are blamed for everything. Parents often do not have the emotional bandwidth to work and manage their children when society does so little to support them in the way other affluent Western nations do. We ask too much of our teachers including that they lay down their lives for their students instead of tackling our gun problems or providing free daycare for parents. We are now even suspending funds to Head Start during the shut down, a program which we know helps to pull children out f poverty, and now we are even telling them to starve and we expect teachers to fix everything that is wrong in society, or blame them??? All the while we feel that the rich should get even more tax breaks? As I have said before we are a very sick society.
Can we amend your concluding sentence, Carol, so it's not "we are"?
Can't we keep the focus on the peculiar sickness, instead, affecting (and effecting) our dehumanized rich?
Finland found a way out -- a way that made teachers supreme, and attracted such good ones, so many guaranteed good ones, that parents uniformly began deferring to them totally.
Timothy Walker tells some of this story in "Teach Like Finland." But many You Tube videos also document it (including a most charming one with Michael Moore incredulous at the Finnish model).
Phil, I am well aware of the success of the Finnish educational system. I have a Scandinavian background and am fluent in one of the languages and keep up with events happening there. Where we are at this moment in time did not happen overnight. We have forgotten who we are and the emphasis of greed over our what Americans used to value has corrupted us. I went to college in a small Midwestern town where those who had done well financially gave back to their community. Now it is how much can I accumulate for myself and damn the social consequences. This particular sickness did not happen overnight. It has been pushed by among others, the Koch brothers and the public has been encouraged to point fingers at the “othering” of others for decades. Right now it happens to be immigrants. This has been a ploy to keep Americans from recognizing that unbridled greed has kept us from investing in a good public education system, a national health care system for everyone, affordable housing etc etc that the Scandinavian countries have managed to figure out (although they are not perfect either). Where we are at this point in time was decades in the making. If you haven’t already done so I would recommend reading “Dark Money” which talks about the Koch brothers and how they used their money to begin the corruption of America that has led us to where we are today.
I think a great deal of social and political behavior that would have been considered unacceptably corrupt half a century ago has been normalized today, resulting in a plutocratic chokehold on our justice system, our culture and for the universal protections ostensibly guaranteed by our Constitution. Not to say that the past was our "good old days"; much of which we're better off without; and yet the universalization of fundamental human rights appeared to be inching forward, and seems now in retreat. A pedophilia kingpin gets he sentence substantially softened while many who are innocent are summarily imprisoned without due process or counsel. Under the hood, find the pernicious influence of untempered greed.
Yep - the - "Greed is good" of the 80ies and 90ies brought us to where we are today. It always hits a few generations later, and we knewwe were told often enough, be it climate science or be it socio-economic developments. But we didn't really want to listen, we always thought "the next generation will fix it." Although we as boomers at the same time always knew better of course 😂
i don't believe there IS anything 'perfect', Carol. just a concept...like 'forever' or 'always'...we just need to do the best we can...but i am in total agreement about the shift of values in that country over the last decades...
For that to happen, I think we the public have to shift a lot of attention away from what is commercially promoted toward one another, and the circumstances of our communities. The focus of education is a "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" thing. Our societal consciousness needs to focus to what we all need to thrive together. At least by asking better questions. Meaningful education supports that, and that supports meaningful education. We have collectively let plutocracy displace democracy for decades, and now it's getting near the edge.
Thank you for speaking out. I am beyond tired of teachers being slammed. As a retired educator, I agree with you about how dedicated, overworked, and unsupported our profession is. Now with the Special Education personnel furloughed at the Department of Education, how will states and local districts pick up those pieces? I worry about young people wanting to pursue careers in education and whether colleges will continue to fund and offer programs and degrees in education.
Yes, yes, yes! Two daughters who teach (taught) HS English. One left the field this year after about 15 years of teaching. (For many reasons)
But both have told me stories EXACTLY what you talk about.
I've related a number of those stories on this forum over the years, so I won't repeat them.
But I'll add one: my daughter's best friend is moving from Chgo to NYC. This brilliant, kind young woman is going to live with her fiancé there. My daughter said her friend offered that she and her bf come visit, but they both work in schools and make about 40% of her friend makes in Financial IT. My daughter started to cry, and said "we (her and bf) make SO LITTLE money!" She could make more by teaching in an urban/suburban HS--easily twice as much, but she loves her rural HS and they love her. Shouldn't even rural kids get excellent teachers?
Hello Phil... Perhaps it would improve our Societal Outcomes if we Empower our Children's 1st Teachers... The Parents, the Older Siblings... We could provide Good Examples of Caring for Others, and Thinking Though Outcomes, and not just Instant Gratification... OBW: How was DJT's Visit received in Japan?...
The new prime minister -- first woman in Japanese history -- disappointed me in that she went out of her way proudly to exclaim how she'd voted for criminal, rapist, murderer Donald for Nobel peace prize.
That's why it made me feel a little bit good to see and learn that King Charles stripped his brother of all his titles, including Prince, and threw him out of the house. One of the by now very, very few cases where a person in public life takes their responsibility of their role seriously.
Who do you mean when you refer to teachers, Bonnie?
Do you have in mind the so very few who assign full novels, who key essay writing among students, and who themselves brim with apt references to the arts?
Or do you mean the robot majority now serving only standardized testers?
Led by the biggest hypocrites in the land, Falwell first, Franklin Graham, and their ilk. My sister-in-law almost made me puke at her husbands funeral. So hard to have mercy..
When I hear from an Independent that his posts on social media which are critical of BOTH sides, say he gets hate mail from both sides, but has received 53 death threats from the Right ONLY! I think a whole lot of the Republican lawmakers are intimidated to stand up to Trump. If a social media poster gets that many death threats, imagine what a Congressperson who can make a difference with their vote get! How do we stop THAT? They are Trump’s MAGA henchmen.
Hello Kathryn.... We could start by Prosecuting Creditable Threats.... Setting Good Examples.... Pardoning Convicted J6 Rioters was not a Good Example... DJT's Lawlessness, and Cruelty is not setting a Good Example... JFK, and Obama set Good Examples... The Lowest Common Denominator Popular Culture Needs To Change To Set Good Examples...
After VP Harris's loss I cried for 2 days. In these terrifyingly dark and difficult times I find myself thinking of how different our country and possibly the world would be if she were sitting in the Oval.
I was in shock for a good two weeks. Nightmares and a feeling of impending doom. It's still there but I've had to regulate myself to function. Unbelievable that is what the US decided to willing go through.
Oh dear! Dont torture yourself like that. Be brave. Have faith. Don’t give up. This is indeed dark times but we have weathered storms before and we are here to fight another day. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Yes, and the Devil, and Jaws, and the T-Rex from Jurassic Park, the Deep Blue Sea, Hannibal Lecter, Caligula and Jengis Khan, too. And don’t forget Hitler and Pol Pot and Stalin and Mao and the Cyclops from The Odyssey while you’re at it.
I’m sure keeping all these bogeymen in mind will really do the trick and get out the vote in the tens of thousands of local, regional and state elections taking place in just 3 days time here in the US…
Things to consider when donating food to a pantry:
* Try to donate pop-top cans, because for many, opening a can may be a barrier.
* For many on the streets, food stamps may be their main source of ability to get food. Often, they do not have access to running water, a microwave, a can opener, a cooktop, or a stove. Items that are packaged in individual servings and ready to eat can be very helpful to them.
* Consider donating canned soups/stews with meat over canned vegetables. They are higher in protein and calories and will be much more filling.
* Protein bars or Meal bars are a good way to increase calories for individuals.
* Donate the Shells and Cheddar macaroni boxes instead of the Kraft or other similar generics. The reason is that Shells and Cheddar do not need extra ingredients like milk or butter to make them.
* Bread is always needed and hard to get from a food pantry. Loaves can be frozen and stored.
* Packages of lunch meat are RARE and very appreciated!
* Muffin mixes that only require you to add water are great.
* Tuna and Crackers or Chicken Salad and Crackers are great lunch items.
* Dehydrated meals can be a big blessing for people with reduced cooking capacity.
* Canned meats, especially canned chicken, are a huge blessing!
* Shelf-stable milk or powdered milk is useful and appreciated.
* Fresh fruits are a huge treat!
* Bags of potatoes are a great donation because they can be used in many ways for meals and ingredients.
* Bags of dried beans are often not popular, as many people do not know how to cook them. However, canned beans are utilized more frequently.
* Powdered mashed potatoes, flavored rice packets, and flavored noodles are always popular donations.
* Boxes of flavored oatmeal packets can be a great, easy way for people to start their day with calories that only need water to prepare.
* Condiments like ketchup, mustard, jelly, mayonnaise, and salad dressing are always popular and appreciated.
* Spices and pantry ingredients like vegetable oil, salt/pepper, flour, sugar, etc... allow people to make baked goods or complete recipes.
* If your food pantry accepts frozen items, consider donating items like: frozen lasagnas, frozen dinners, frozen pizzas, frozen meal kits, frozen pot pies, etc…
* Protein Shakes or Meal Replacement shakes can be a good source of nutrition for those who are struggling with calorie intake.
** Updating below to add some thoughts created from the comments **
* When possible, do not donate items in glass containers as they can often break when volunteers are packing or unpacking bags or boxes.
* Brownie mixes and cake mixes can be a great treat for individuals, especially ones that need limited additional ingredients.
* Many food banks/pantries will also accept and distribute hygiene items. These are a huge help - ESPECIALLY menstrual products!
* Consider also donating cleaning supplies, especially: Dish soap, laundry detergent, and cleaning wipes/sprays.
* Cash donations can be beneficial because they can allow them to get lower rates by buying much-needed items in bulk. You can reach out to the food bank(s) that you often support and ask them for their preference. I was always grateful when donors communicated with us because it allowed us to partner together to make the biggest impact that we could!
* You can purchase and donate P39 military can openers in bulk for pantries/food banks to give out to people who need them. You can find as many as 200 for less than $30.
* If your pantry accepts it, consider donating pet food as well. As people struggle to feed themselves, their pets will be impacted too. We used to buy big bags of pet food in bulk and then break it down into gallon-sized ziplocs to distribute at our pantry.
Founder, Executive Director, Podcast Host at Faith and Trauma Center and works at Pastor at Englewood Christian Church
Golden Rule of Donating: "Donate to others as you would hope that others would donate to you if you were in need."
Thanks, Barbara. I already knew about the poptop cans, and am committed to donating $37 per month to my local food bank (that figure is roughly what I pay to SNAP in taxes per year. I figure I can help locally as well.) I read in another place that "bundling" ingredients to be used together (when Rice a Roni calls for oil, add the smallest non-breakable glass bottle of cooking oil) is helpful.
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said today that while the stock market has done well this year, a better economy is going to “start flowing through to working Americans next year.”
Trickle down, Tsunami up…
The continued efforts to create a militaristic police presence, being trained in “riot control” and other Gestapoesque tactics are precursors to enforce voter intimidation in the coming mid-terms (next year) and the ‘28 general elections. The turnout for recent “No Kings Day” has, no doubt, contributed to the paranoia with regard to turnout for any and all opposition that the Trmposphere no doubt sees the offing.
He’s off the wall, the rails, and his rocker…it’s up to his underhanded underlings to channel his rapturous rage into actions..
With regard to tRump running in 2028, he has admitted that the Constitution prohibits it - “If you read it, it’s pretty clear,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One enroute from Japan to South Korea. “I’m not allowed to run. It’s too bad.”
We have many good souls in the U.S. who know fully well how the authoritarian playbook works.
I just wish some of them could attend a bit to the role of schools. After all, the far-right foundations that aimed to commercialize America, to tilt its judiciary to the rich, to offshore millions of working-class jobs, and widen the wealth gap -- they all knew they needed first, above all, to dehumanize the schools. It's in the history of, and in the funding of those first years of implementing the Powell memo.
Get standardized testing to take over the now-dehumanized schools, and authoritarians can just walk over the rest of us, the rest of narcotized, anesthetized, impotent, neutered us.
Some are attending to schools Phil. They are destroying everything Ben Franklin said a functioning society should have, public schools, post offices, libraries, newspapers, and a tad of freedom, for starters. As Sam Rayburn said “any jackass can kick down a barn…”
And the rest of the world is watching it, so far fairly uninvolved. Looks like the West is going towards its final convulsions, if it can't change - and in a hurry.
Boycott products and services to pressure tRump's oligarchs, and, if possible, place sanctions on tRump family businesses and accounts, similar to those placed on Putin.
Wow! What a WONDERFUL WORLD! The truth is, we have the power to MAKE IT a wonderful world by standing up to hate and bigotry wherever we encounter it. The state of our world will improve as we the people each make the effort to improve ourselves…be more loving, giving, caring daily to all and more, carry love and human kindness in our hearts!
How Johnson can look himself in the mirror each night is well beyond my understanding. There is no “god” that can rationalize his two faced behavior to the American people and his fellow Congress People. If this were Japan, he would be falling on his sword.
A great deal more needs to be said about this than has been.
Yes, evil is certainly evil. I grow weary of endless postings by those who keep repeating that like a mantra as though none of us have ever managed to figure that out. It does nothing to help us get from A to B. Integrity and solidarity are things practiced in small, almost imperceptible doses at first, but have powerful ramifications. Stories of guardsmen speaking out, prosecutors resigning rather than participate in shams, citizens at Republican town hall meetings telling their Congresscritters to “get their heads out of Trump’s ass” are far more powerful than most of us know.
We had all better start thinking hard about how we can multiply those effects.
I agree, I think. I am no longer interested in reading about how deranged Trump is or how leaderless Democrats are. It is important to stay informed, but after that it is crucial to stay optimistic, sane, and proactive.
Dan Rather asks whether we've now reached a tipping point as the shutdown of government, the attack on public health insurance and the illegal cancellation of SNAP all coincide. I am waiting for the Massachusetts judge ruling expected soon ordering the disbursement of the $6 billion the USDA has in reserve for precisely this moment.
I just want people to understand, he lies, he knows he lies, republicans allow it. Forget the health stuff, the mental failing stuff, call it what it is: lies and more lies with republican persmission.
Doom posting is akin to sitting in a foxhole obsessing over and over and over and over and over about how bad the enemy is and never doing anything about it.
I am one of those who keeps endlessly and uselessly posting. I also act when I can, speak out and identify as the opposition. I still believe that no act of kindness, compassion or opposition to tyranny is ever wasted.
It's called doom posting and can be quite addictive. Until we are forward thinking and stop obsessing about every single horror and getting triggered all the time we can't defeat this Administration.
It's really too damn bad more of my patriot ancestors didn't kill more of his southern traitor ancestors back when they had the opportunity 160 years ago.
Does not have to happen. Not written. Future is ours to shape. Once the miasma that is Trump and his spiteful, angry ways go, my hope is that the fever will break. He is the spoon that stirs the pot. And for no good reason but his own bottomless need for attention.
Well I hope Mikey Mouse does not scream, "Here I come to save the day."🤢Why did General Burkett implement Trump's order?😳Has he forgotten his oath to the Constitution?😠Galls me to no end that King Charles takes the Epstein scandal more seriously than our Pretender-in-Chief.💔
This press conference by brave survivors of the Epstein trafficking and abuse are compiling their own list. If they release that list of "their" names, those exposed will turn, hopefully, like rats on the others not mentioned.
No, I think Anna has it right. Charles III is fine human being, and, while one can raise HELL every once in a while, his sones are decent, too. Princess Diana deserves credit for that.
Go read the discussion between David Frum and Tom Nichols at The Atlantic about how the American military is supposed to be able to define an illegal order when all the lawyers who were there to advise them have been removed. The general did not "forget his oath." It would help if more of the service avoiders on our side had a better understanding of the military they pray will save them so they don't have to save themselves actually works.
He has to take it seriously or he'll have a seriously diminished monarchy to hand over to his son. Unlike Kim Jong-Don, Charlie's brain is in full working order.
He's already got a seriously diminished monarchy. The percentage of Brits who still think there should be one has fallen precipitously in the past few years. I believe the latest poll showed only 51 per cent of the UK population favors keeping the monarchy - the lowest in history. And 15 per cent want to abolish it. No surprise there.
James, I think you are pushing it a bit there. Yes, popularity has taken a bit of a slide ( 54% think its ‘very’ or ‘quite’ important to have a Monarchy, only 14% favour abolition) but the underlying point is that the Monarch, and Charles in particular, is highly sensitive to the public mood, and reacts to it. Charles was slow to to defenestrate Andrew, its a big step after all, ( and a long way down) but the public is right behind him. The monarchs popularity will bounce back, it always, always, ever since Charles 1, does. And there can be no better guardrail against rampant unchecked populism ( Ethno nationalism) than a free standing monarch. Deeply ironic, but true. If you were to invent a system from scratch ( ie 1787) you would no way consider a monarchical system. And yet, given some good will, it works. And , almost unbelievably, endures.
For me, if our very own Farage takes over ( he won’t) I personally want a sane decent Monarch to act as a ( discreet but tangible) check. Its so easy to underestimate the importance of that role, outside of politics but watching and listening.
I don’t think your wannabe King guy quite gets it!!
Love your saying "defenestrate"! Hah! Seriously, I think there is an advantage to a monarchy in constitutional governance. It provides a central post of stability. I think of a tetherball game. I wish I could put up a pic. that I have made. 🤔
The pole in the center is the monarchy. The rope is popular opinion or voters' preferences as expressed (rightly or wrongly, depending upon the degree of effective enfranchisement); the ball is the politics of the day, The two kids are the two major parties -- in the case of the United Kingdom, the Tories and the Labourites -- whacking the ball seeking to steer it in the preferred direction (i.e., the Party's platform). 🫸🏐🫷
So while the donny-brook carries on, that pole remains a constant, to maintain the parameter of the game. While Charles III could intervene to give a Trump-type Prime Minister the boot, it would likely never happen, not only out of constitutional convention. 🫱🏻🫲🏼
The fusion of executive and legislative powers in the U.K. would neither permit so tainted a figure to remain in office nor likely allow it to ascend ascend to leadership of the Party. 🙏🏾
The tetherball example works for me, though, like any analogy, it is incomplete as there are influential third (Liberals) and, perhaps, fourth (The Reform) parties active in the United Kingdom, again thanks to the fusion of powers and campaign spending limited to roughly fifty million green-backs.🤭
Forgive me, Jonathan. 😥 I had not read your whole comment. Bad, Ned, very bad. 🤫 Your explanation, built on a foundation of ready historical knowledge, is great.⚖️ Our wannabe King would never have risen to that position in your country. 🗽King Charles is a reserved and gentle monarch, not to be confused with irresolution. I am sure, he would step in, if need be.✌🏼
P.S., yes, the Statue of Liberty next to a comment on your government, is quite intentional. 🫱🏻🫲🏼
Thanks Ned. I’m far too far gone for swing ball, but your analogy to our system using a Constitutional Monarchy is excellent, no apologies needed.
However, and sadly, maybe we still hang on to a ‘good bloke’ system, from the analogue age……when we now live in a digital world with entirely new rules. Your guy gets the new rules, and a lot of ordinary Americans love him for it. Grim, but true. Our next election ( probs after yours in 2028) will be highly indicative of the way forward for the UK. (And no doubt influenced by the 2028 US election. ) Fingers crossed eh! And good luck ! No ( lousy) Kings !
I understand this is a controversial point, and I’m not even sure I’m fully invested in it myself. But I think what it would take would be for Trump voters to truly suffer under his policies. And so I’m generally not in favor of all of these Dem efforts to save healthcare and avoid hunger. A couple of years of Depression Era conditions might move the needle. The problem, of course, is that good people will suffer as well. But it may be that Dems need to stop saving Republicans from themselves.
Having grown up among the members of the white American working class who were fucking morons in school, fucking morons when I was around them in the Navy, who were fucking morons believing Tricky Dick and calling themselves the "Silent Majority," who were fucking morons when they became "Reagan Democrats" and are now fucking moron MAGAts in their dotage, these are the people who will never "get the message."
Seems to me -- feel free to correct me if this recollection is wrong -- I remember reading somewhere that German support for Hitler was still at about 44 percent even as the Red Army branch of the Allied Saviors of Humanity was finishing the Zhukov/Konev envelopment of Berlin. (Sorry I don't have time to research it tonight.) In any case, having lived amongst the proto-MAGATS in both the South and the rural Pacific Northwest, I will attest to the absolute truth of TC's assertion they will "never get the message." I will also attest to the fact they are fanatical Christonazis -- infinitely hateful, sadistically ecogenocidal moral imbeciles who emulate the disordered personality of their messiah Donald Trump, who is as anti-social and as malignantly narcissistic as a Ted Bundy. This makes their dominance a threat to human survival, witness not only the starvation and loss of health care they have already inflicted on us, but the literal death of our Mother Earth implicit in their resumption of thermonuclear testing.
I have to laugh when I read any commentary on poll numbers. The dictator has been stuck at 41% approval for the past 6 months at least, but every time a mention of poll numbers comes up, it’s always written as he’s “down to” or “fallen” to 41%. There is a base of tens of millions who no matter what want exactly what this regime is dishing out. It’s a truth about this country that’s always been there, and mostly gets glossed over. 20,00 or more showed up in Madison Square Garden in the late 1930’s roaring full-throated support for Hitler and the Nazis. The same Nazis, by the way, who took their playbook right out of the Jim Crow South in the late 1800’s. Fascism has always bubbled beneath the surface in America since its founding.
Our national tendency toward theocratic nazification dates from two events: the import of African captives as slaves by the Crown Colony of Virginia in 1619 and the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1620. I was fortunate enough to have been raised by a father who taught me to recognize this tendency, to fear it, and to do everything I possibly could to obstruct its fulfillment – a primary reason I chose late in my 14th year to dedicate my life to journalism. I already knew the addition of "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance eight months earlier was a disguised declaration of nazification by Christian theocracy. Since the candidacy of Goldwater – whose speeches could often be accurately cross-referenced to sources in "Mein Kampf" – I have feared our methodically inflicted Ayn Rand conditioning combined with the purposeful disabling of our education system would grant our capitalist masters the ultimate slave-state fulfillment their German counterparts had sought, which we humans escaped only because Hitler's fatal attack on the Soviet Union provoked the Red Army's infinitely heroic response.
Thus I maintain the former official suppression of our national tendency toward nazification was by far our most malignant Big Lie – no less evil for being a lie by omission. Thus too, I was all the more deeply troubled when the "Democratic" (sic) Party nominated as its presidential candidate a former Goldwater Girl whose recalcitrant and maliciously camouflaged Christonazism is glaringly revealed by Jeff Sharlet on pages 272-277 of "The Family: the Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" (Harper: 2008). Additional documentation of the ecogenocidal underbelly of our national history – vital to understanding our present situation – is to be found in Steven Hahn’s “Illiberal America: a History” (W.W. Norton & Company: 2024).
The Christonazism that defines the so-called “Red States” – note the deliberate perversion of vocabulary intended to deny us the traditional usage of “Red” as a synonym for fiercely uncompromising opposition to nazism – is therefore shown to have always been the underlying ethos of the (former) United States. (The labeling of the so-called “Blue States” is – probably unavoidably – a bit less deceptively confusing than “Red State” because “Bluecoats” was a Confederate pejorative for the soldiers [including both my maternal great-grandfathers] who fought the pro-slavery traitors to preserve the Republic and its constitution). But the “Blue States” are now the anomalies, and We the ("Blue State") People are therefore now the declared “enemies within.” Which is precisely why der neu Führer is invading us with “Red State” armies – to reverse the (first) Civil War and make certain all remnants of our Declaration-of-Independence humanitarianism and its constitutional protections are forever exterminated and thus “perish from the earth.”
I believe this is already happening and will soon accelerate greatly, regardless of whether anybody wants it to or not. They’ve set in motion real-life suffering on a very large scale, ironically in some of the reddest counties and regions in the country. It doesn’t make an iota of sense.
I have never wished hunger, deprivation or despair on anyone, even those whose political behavior I may despise. But disaster is coming for those who supported him, whether any of *us* want it to or not.
I was just replying to "it doesn't make any sense" Of course it doesn't to
any rational person that thinks that we have a system, admittedly flawed,
that is, "the worst form of government EXEPT for all others ..." it is mt strong impression that the Federalists, Christian Nationalists and others will willingly destroy our government and our culture to achieve their ends. I also wish no ill upon the sorry lot of the MAGA cult. Their leaders no longer need them.
Right now they, the leaders seek disaster for us all.
We have to continue to support the schools and feed and educate the children; it doesn’t matter who lies about it; local government must continue to function.
It is going to take massive voter turnout in the mid terms to take back the House and get some Representatives who are dedicated to removing the Putin Puppet. And it is going to take more of us interacting with Republican Senators to make sure that they know we are not buying their bullshit. They need to know that we are coming for them…and that we will do it within the law!
Not sure why, but it’s very suddenly struck me reading this how determined the Epstein survivors are to get those files published NOW. And I don’t think they’d be doing that to nail Bill Clinton or Bill Gates. Yes, of course, they want transparency in general. But I can’t help but think that they’re desperate to expose Trump’s role in the whole thing.
Margaret, for quite a while now, I have been thinking if Democrats like Clinton are prominently in those files, the Republicans would have released them by now
We already know that Bill Clinton is a horndog. Trump gains nothing by outing him. He is terrified of having exposed what he knows is in those files about HIMSELF.
Yes, Linda. My point is when Pam Bondi, etc., read the files (that were on her desk, remember?) she apparently did not find many, if any, Democrats who she thought needed to be exposed.
Yes Margaret, we know that they truly are just itching to get the truth out… but think of the cost of the fruitless lawsuits they will have to pay and sustain. It’s not just the courage we know that they have.
Trump continues to be crystal clear about his plans to become a dictator. And the Republican Congress refuses to object. But will his race to become dictator outpace his clear and present dangerous mental deterioration which no one can deny?
Imperial farce is taking place all around, just as surely as the fantasies of dictatorship continue to proliferate.
There’s an element of Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor” going on here, with the child emperor Pu Yi crapping into his diapers while astrologers at the Chinese imperial court peer into his baby shit for divination clues. An Empress Dowager (Stephen Miller?) resting on a golden palanquin, surrounded by ladies-in-waiting rules over scores of terrified eunuchs all plotting against us as well as each other. The court is filled with scores of courtiers envisioning a nation filled with kowtowing millions just outside the Forbidden City.
However much they want something like this, it is not a vision that holds the slightest resonance with American history or society.
San Francisco developed a plan to funded by the city and a private sector foundation. Hopefully their model can be duplicated by other communities. For smaller and rural areas some big pockets with big hearts could contribute along with massive donations to food banks. BTW I had nightmares last night.
I saw that in California. My Democratic Governor in Kentucky is also being proactive. Wendy I am truly sorry for your nightmares. We will prevail. One way or another. We will prevail.
We aren’t doing Christmas presents this year. We are boycotting corporations and buying local. We are giving to our local food banks to help our neighbors get through this. My kids and I talked about it and agreed that’s what we want do.
We haven’t been as engaged with our community as we ought to be. That is going to change.
Do NOT give Trump what he wants! Rather than yelling at ICE agents... sing songs... throw flowers (worked in the 1960s)... dance around them... wear inflatable animal costumes. Do NOTHING that could be called "threatening behavior"!!!
We should learn from Dr King, Gandhi, but also the young people who protested the Vietnam War (my flower reference). The most "aggressive" behavior we should engage in is ... laughing at them. But do NOT give them cause to arrest you. We must prevent Trump being able to declare a state of emergency at all costs!
It appears that it won't matter that the protests are largely peaceful. The government is determined to create a context in which they can use violence and they're getting help from content-creators.
You forgot that the Korean menu included a minor dish hidden at the end of all the Great Korean Cuisine the Toddler-in-Chief would never eat was "mounds of beef with catsup." They gave him a Burger King Crown and a Happy Meal. And he has no clue in hell they all went to bed last night laughing their asses off at how easy "The World's Most Powerful And Important Man" is to take for a ride.
That was a true moment of hilarity wrapped in satire hidden in a box of oleaginous contempt, similar to that ‘Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride’ moment when King Charles put him in that little bumpety-bump golden carriage for a pony ride at Windsor Castle. Mockery within deadly seriousness.
I think the world long ago figured out how to handle him, even as their sense of fear and unease about America has risen. Lots of child-minders, unctuous flattery, oily obsequiousness. It does appear to work, at least partially.
All repubs are laughing as he takes his shit show on the road. Gleeful and so happy as they have waited 40+ years for this. And they get to blame Dems. Can’t get better than that.
And my normal (which I can’t post on Facebook because I’m in a commenting ban 🤪) -
I added a calendar on my spreadsheet so we can target our calls/letters/emails/faxes to flood offices in an organized manner.
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Nokings) as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. We deserve better ❤️🩹🤍💙
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Oof I don’t want that to happen. Facebook is where I share my family life with my extended family and friends. Maybe I’ll make a separate kinda “work” ish account
I do miss some family. Some are dead now, so the numbers are diminishing. Lots of cognitive dissonance and more coming I fear. More than old age, sad to say
It blows my mind that 2 out of every 5 presumably sensate adults still think Trump is doing a good job. (I wonder if these numbers are skewed by the way the polls are conducted and who responds to them.) The number of people who are either in the cult or just completely clueless is dispiriting. We must use every peaceful tool at our disposal to push back against the insanity.
This is beyond dangerous and must not be tolerated. We don't play games with nukes. The man belongs in a strait jacket not occupying the WH. All of his behaviors, statements, and actions are certifiably batshit crazy. That he has the nuclear codes and is playing games with nuclear powers China, Russia and loose cannon North Korea is terrifying. He is already attacking U.S. cities without impunity.
And, note top trump officials (Stephen Miller, Marco Rubio, Kristi Noem, and others) have moved to military bases.
I agree -- and it should have made the headlines in the MSM -- scary indeed. Ditto what he's doing with Venezuela. He's actively trying to start wars - all the while bragging about all the imaginary wars he's stopped.
Thanks Dr. Richardson, everyone seems to think the most important name in those Epstein files will be DJ Trump. But I'm looking forward to the revelation of the uber wealthy business, corporate, entertainment, and other political scum bags who participated in these sexual abuses of girls under the age of 18. trump slime is just one of the many scum bags who participated in these years of abuse. I want their names, businesses. corporations and yes, their families, exposed to their shame. And shame and disgust is all anyone should feel toward every last stinking one of them. They aren't pitiful, they aren't repentant, treat them as the slime balls they are.
Exactly, Fay. That there are so many leaders, both political and non-political, who have resisted the release of the files by remaining silent - and silence is tacit approval, in my book, and a sign they may be in the files - could be a devastating blow to a large portion of 'elite' society. I, too, am looking forward to the day.
I suspect that while the criminal abuse of children will get the lions share of the publicity, the money laundering aspect may end up being the most damaging (from a national, not from the victim's more personal level) component to these files. It is one thing to have powerful men rape children who were trafficked*; that major financial institutions turned a blind eye to the proceeds from those ill-gotten gains.
*If I may be so bold as to say "no shit, Sherlock" to powerful men raping children...
Yes, the Regime WANTS civil unrest. That will be their Reichstag Fire if they can provoke it. Shutting off access to food might be pretty effective. I say we help each other. Mutual aid is beyond their comprehension. We need to build up our communities for what lies ahead.
Please VOTE on November 4! This is our strength, this is the way we fight back!
No violence, no intimidation! All leaders of this regime are living on military bases? Something is coming…
I hate to see these scenes of him addressing troops. What are they thinking? They appear to be as impassive as the 800 generals. Who will they obey? They haven't sworn an oath to kill Americans, surely?
They are likely as embarrassed, if not more so, than we are.
And if so, they are in a precarious position. As we are.
The Jeffery Epstein Memorial Ballroom. I love it. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
America needs to demand they rebuild the East Wing as it was, only updating basic structural issues.
Trump and his Project 2025 team are now imposing Marshal Law in the United States with Trump as King. If Johnson will call the House into session and seat Grijalva as he is lawfully obligated to do, it will undoubtedly be established that Trump, like Prince Andrew, was a criminal client of Jeffrey Epstein. Following the precedent with Prince Andrew, there just might a public outcry to strip King Trump of his title and remove him from the White House.
not just a ballroom
https://rickey125.substack.com/p/the-ballroom-perspective
😂😂😂 This is not to offend survivors. It’s such a preposterous comment that I had to laugh—and not many laughs these days.
It's perfect. You're talking about the Lincoln Project video? Back with a bang, so to speak.
We can only hope that is true.
They've sworn an oath to The Constitution - https://youtu.be/qokfpuRMzQE?si=S7qFvz5Ogl6xqkbU
I presume the judges on the supreme court and every member of congress have sworn an oath to the constitution as well. Yet here we are with six SC judges and the majority of congress abdicating that oath. An oath is only as strong as the character of the people swearing to it.
Michael Flynn comes to mind.
Sent that one right off to my Rep this morning. Thank You. I will save it and send it to him often. As a reminder in case he forgets what a slimeball he really is.
And it is also only as strong as your ability to enforce it. In this case, those who do not want to enforce it are in power.
Indeed - we are seeing a crude assault on the Constitution and moral standards - turned into daily routine and duty by these judges whose principles they claim are rooted in the Judaeo-Christian ethic.
Thank you Sandra. EVERYONE should read this. General Hertling is gold. I mean real gold.
General Mark Hertling is a voice of reason based on years of experience in our military.
Thank you, Sandra, for linking this video. Hertling gives his compelling, first-hand reaction to current actions by the MAGA heads in control of our military. I hope this video is shared widely by this forum!
Will General Hertling be even mentioned by CNN?
So what? Breaking laws is all he ever has done, why not? Never held accountable!!!!!
But that is exactly why DJT is so dangerous. He is reorganizing the military to control our country rather than to defend it. Haven't you noticed?
https://chatgpt.com/share/6903a852-2b38-800c-b065-2c68643518f3
Supposedly, so have the Oath Keepers. Where are they in all of this? I know they’re retired; however, I haven’t heard a peep from them.
They're working for ICE.
If that’s the case, so much for their “oath.”
yes, they did. But words without actions are just words.
Actually, listening to General Hertling yesterday, he said the officers swear an oath to the constitution. The oath for the enlisted people is different, not an oath to the constitution.
Incorrect: The Oath of Enlistment (for enlisted of all branches): "I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." "The obligation and responsibility to act against unlawful orders is not exclusive to officers. Article 90 of the UCMJ states that service members are only obligated to obey lawful orders." https://www.quantico.marines.mil/news/news-article-display/article/611510/the-difference-between-oath-of-office-oath-of-enlistment/ That article gives the My Lai Massacre example where a non-officer disobeyed an unlawful order to fire on civilians and even threatened to fire on US troops. He was not charged and was given a Soldier's Medal for his courage to do the right thing. All the services have the same code requirement.
BTW, Federal employees also raise their hands and take the oath to defend the Constitution. "I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter."
And these are lifetime oaths. Now, how of the current administration's employees took the same oath and violate it daily?
At least 2 members of the Illinois National Guard are refusing to deploy against their own community -
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/illinois-national-guard-members-speak-out-i-wont-turn-against-my-neighbors/
Thank you for the correction, Eva. Obviously I heard incorrectly, or only partially. I worry, though, about situations like the audience trump had at Fort Bragg, where the soldiers seemed to be cheering for him. Maybe some of the younger folk don't realize the seriousness of the oath they take?
trump never swore to do anything. His oath was hollow words.
Has the Caribbean been a testing ground for loyalty to the president? They are already carrying out illegal orders to murder people by bombing boats in international waters. To my knowledge military personal have not refused those orders.
No but beating up on. Latin American countries to benefit trade and support regimes that benefit Americans in business there has. The Marines invading Central America and the support for dictators is Chile and Guatemala are notable. The skullduggery with El Salvador comes to mind under Trump. He likes CONTROL above all else because he's incapable of really making deals.
Are you going back in history, saying Chile has a dictator? I don't think they currently do, but please correct me if I'm wrong. Argentina currently has a dictator.
Seems to me that he is pulling back from Europe and ramping up in Latin America. Which makes me wonder if DJT and Putin have already decided how to divide the world into “spheres of influence” and are taking actions to focus on their own sphere.
If you include Xi that would be something I've been thinking for a long time now. The Argentina soybean fiasco was no accident. Asia, Europe and the Western Hemisphere. And everyone gets to plunder Africa.
Trump doesn't care about Africa. "Just a bunch of sh**hole countries" was his attitude
Marge, I read about this some time ago and as Christine notes below includes China.
Do the soldiers carrying out those orders know there is no actual intelligence that there are drugs on those boats? Even then they should know that capture instead of destruction is what should happen. Weren’t Hitler’s worker bees held responsible for carrying out his genocide orders?
Regardless, Congress knows these so-called "extra-judicial killings" are murders and illegal, yet they (including Senator Warner in his interview on PBS Newhour a couple night ago) act as if these murders may be legal, arguing that since they haven't received any information from the Trump-izis, they don't know for sure what to make of these bombings! What kind of message does that send to the troops, let alone their constituents, most of whom are sleep-walking their way into fascism.
There is a suggestion its not the military doing the Caribbean bombing, though a General associated with that area has just resigned so who knows what's going on there.
The suggestion that intelligence agencies are doing the bombing, that is what you are referring to?
It's telling that four members of this corrupt cabinet are hiding out in military bases. They know just how unpopular they are. Do they understand that this administration will not last forever and they will habe to come out from their holes eventually? Payday is coming!
Sandra and Jane is urging everyone to watch the Bulwark interview with General Hertling. Please listen .
It’s great that General Hertling has officially joined the Bulwark
They have effectively sworn to do what they are told to do - all the way up the chain of command. Laws? The Constitution? They are what they are told they are, not as they might interpret them.
Don't kid yourself. Most military officers and enlisted are loyal to their oath! To protect and defend us against Trump and MAGA, the "enemy within". Hey, and all those "Leaders" living on military bases is great! When the times comes it will be easer to find and detain them from doing harm.
noem can do the Perky Perp Walk, hegseth will come to the party as PeeWee Herman, rubio will fly in on his Dumbo ears and miller can join the party as Garland Green from Con Air.
"When the times comes . . . ."
Uh-huh. Still waiting.
Those questions Anne-Louise will be answered shortly before the midterm elections. Be patient but brace yourself because the worse is coming.
The Trump Administration has made the decision to attack military installations inside Venezuela and the strikes could come at any moment, sources with knowledge of the situation told the Miami Herald.
Many of the troops are cheering . Brainwashed ?
Wonder how many of them receive SNAP benefits. A large percentage of troops do.
Of course.
A gun in the hand of a military individual who is unclear of what his/her oath to the Constitution really means, is always a potential (putting it mildly) problem. With weapons of war, the truth is, we can't be sure of anything.
Their silence is deafening.
If the military favor Trump (and we have no poll numbers for that, so it's a HUGE unknown) then they will obey his unconstitutional orders, and our hopes will mean nothing without armed insurrection.
I'm sure their commanding officers made it clear about what the response from troops shall be. Open your mouth, frown or whatever & you'll be scrubbing the latrines for the rest of your career.
Eatless days and sleepless nights. The snake is rattling now watch his tail. Yes watch his tale. Never mind what his fangs are up to. Watch his rattling now listen to his tale.
With fork’ed tongue he addresses his plenum. But for us it’s prelubed fangs filled with Venom. What is prescribed is the antidote. Get off your asses and get out the vote.🫏
Ms. Richardson...We desperately need an answer to what seems to me is the ultimate question about Johnson's de facto nullification of the entire federal legislative branch. Ergo:
Is it true that if Trump wants to emulate Louis the XVI's eviction of the Estates General or Tsar Nicholas II's dismissals of the Duma, all he need do is command his Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader to suspend their respective sessions and -- as Johnson is doing -- to refuse to resume them?
I'm admittedly unsure of the facts here. But none of my 50-odd home-library volumes of U.S. history answer this question, and I'm too crippled to get to a library, where I could probably find the answer with only a few minutes of research. At age 85, I'm also too hopelessly compu-moronic to come up with the exact, mathematically precise combination of words essential to get an intelligible answer from the Internet even after more than an hour of trying.
Thus I dearly hope our hostess will address this entire matter, including whether Johnson's nullification of Congress is as unprecedented as I suspect it is.
I think you are on the right track here, but this is all Heritage Foundation. The American Nazi Party.
Listen to Terry Gross’ interview with Andy Kroll in which he discusses Russ Vought and his role in the administration.
Read the New Yorker article on vought. What a despicable person. He has a daughter who has cystic fibrous yet willfully defended any research about it. Who does such a thing?
Unprecedented, deliberate and with specific goals. No AI needed.
Explore a motion to vacate the chair, Loren.
Only works if in session.
Correct. The point being to help Loren explore the “hiatus” issue, which my answer is to deduct their pay, revoke retirement also not possible.
Yes, get out the vote. But in the meantime, call. Call your reps. We must let them know we are paying attention. The Strength in Numbers link in today's letter was tremendous. The tide is turning with the voters. The economy for the non-wealthy is getting attention. Of course.
Call the R reps and tell them SNAP should be funded. If we can give money to Argentina, we can find much less to give to those who need food assistance. Keep the heat on. Flood the zone.
The Anne B. Was my father’s last fishing boat. FV Anne B. Many days we crossed the Columbia River bar out of Warrenton and llwaco and Astoria. He and mom’s names reside on the memorial to fishermen in the boat basin.
When my wife and I went to Astoria last month, we took the trolly tour. They stopped at that memorial and took a moment of silence.
We floated mom’s ashes on a bed of a thousand roses off the dock there. I hope you took in the maritime museum.
I love those images, Pat. I love that there is a memorial to fishermen, and that their names are on it.
Your name is on it too. My dear old dad was captain of the ANNE B.
Yes, please vote!
And never forget Trump's best friend, Jeffrey!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbiXMQwBEaA
The Epstein Memorial Ballroom
Share Share Share
Here’s how we fight back. Be sure everyone you know sees this video.
Don’t miss when the date rape drug goes into the elegant champagne glass.
Share this video.
Please.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbiXMQwBEaA
Epstein Memorial Ball Room -- is that per chance the brand name of Trump's (glaringly stained) jockey shorts?
That made me laugh until I realised it was burned into my psyche and I haven't had breakfast yet... joshing, a touch of much-needed humour in these straitjacketed times we live-exist in. Ü
https://rickey125.substack.com/p/the-ballroom-perspective
Truth! I fear the Epstein Ballroom is only the beginning. If it helps keep those files in a vault then once it is near completion Trump will demolish the West Wing to build a Casino with towering walls around the entire perimeter of the grounds. The wall will help conceal the quick final project of removing that old 6 level mansion and then build an 8 level Epstein Palace. If anyone thinks this sounds a bit too much then they don't have any idea who and what Trump is. He is an angry spoiled child. Angry that Obama roasted him at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeGpLg0b3DE
Anyone who doubts Trump's infatuation with intrusively chintzy, Disneyland-styled architectural grotesques -- and his neykulturny contempt for classic architecture -- need only visit Trump Tower in Manhattan, preferably after either viewing photographs of the Bonwit Teller Building he demolished, or being old enough, as I am, to remember with sadness the loss of its understated grandeur, facade sculptures included.
100%. Bonwit's was a beautiful building. The various Trump Towers are ghastly, garish and ugly.
My daughters and I were in Chicago earlier this month. We were on foot for 4 days taking in the local events/shopping/food, etc. Felon’s tower is in the middle of it all yet it looked lonely every time we passed by, no foot traffic….and it was offering the largest discount on room rates at various online reservation services.
Thank you.
Typical of autocrats and dictators to surround themselves with garish furniture and decor. Name one dictation that wasn't in love with money especially gold.
We need to get Bill Barr's comments on Epstein.
I have seen in the news he has claimed he never saw a "client list." He testified he had never seen anything that would criminally implicate President Trump in the Epstein files. He felt if there was anything in the files about Trump that Biden's administration would have leaked it. Howeveer, I feel he selected his words very... as the Wicked Witch might say, "delicately."
https://rickey125.substack.com/p/the-ballroom-perspective
Lincoln does such effective ads.
I keep posting. According to Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA) Trumpepstein may cause an "Epstein bomb" causing over 100 Republican members to "jailbreak" from Trump.
Massive Congressional visits November 18.
https://www.instagram.com/flare.usa/p/DP_mdOyjdiG/
Visit Congressional Republicans.https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/851451/
I continue to be exasperated by the parties and lawyers with cases when justices and judges who have dispositive records of bribery and prejudice are not challenged. At SCOTUS, Roberts opened the door in November, 2023. https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/Code-of-Conduct-for-Justices_November_13_2023.pdf
https://blueprint.democrats.org/
Careful, Swalwell tends to sensationalize and exaggerate.
Shared! 👍
Kathleen Weber, thank you. It’s grossly appropriate.
thanks Kathleen, I just forwarded it onto 8 people
The US military with its immense ordnance are traitors to the United States. The Trump administration, Supreme Court, and the Republicans are planning to use the US military against anyone they wish to use it against. The Supreme Court has said Trump can do whatever he wants, including stealing all further elections while blaming the Democrats for 2020 and any election they participate in. Trump has said he can do anything he wants. This is where we are now. I was raised a military brat. I cannot forgive them for this.
I have more faith in the integrity of our military. Trump and Co. have tried to purge the Brass who are not “loyal” enough to him, but those General Officers are still around, and I think they are united and ready to step in to lead again if Trump tries to mobilize the forces against the people of this country. There are already family members of serving Navy members who are alarmed that their relatives are in jeopardy by the bombing of boats and the murder of people on the high seas. One Admiral has cut short his career rather than follow orders that he knows to be illegal. Just because they’re no longer active duty does not mean that they no longer feel bound by their oath to the Constitution. The Honorable men and women will step up as they always have to serve the country.
I hope you are right.
Further, half of the US People believe anything Trump says. They want him to kill anyone who opposes him. I cannot forgive the 1/2 of a People who believe the other 1/2 need to suffer and die. I am not God. I am human. I am sure many among us are like Elena Kagan. The NYTimes said this today: "In one camp, Justice Elena Kagan believes in building consensus and picking off conservative votes to avoid the most extreme rulings. In another, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s newest member, is more confrontational. Her opinions speak more to the public — and to history — than to her conservative peers, whom she sees as beyond persuasion." (https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/dynamic/render?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20251031&instance_id=165513&isViewInBrowser=true&nl=the-morning&paid_regi=1&productCode=NN®i_id=32882287&segment_id=209690&sendId=209690&uri=nyt://newsletter/beeaf73e-a628-5589-9565-ea57a9d17bed&user_id=bdfcc370575e260f3ab7a0500f00b667). Do we any longer have the kind of time we would need to try and pursuade Trump or the Republicans of anything? Are they going to use this to send in the troops to kill us whether we do or not?
Kari, they have found that they are unwelcome in regular neighborhoods, so are living on military bases, so they do not have to put up with pushback and are safe from all us "terrorists".
The prepping of the bunker under the East Wing fits into this administration's plan to incite riots and foment violence. Their uber-loyalty to trump has sucked the whole administration into his madness.
I voted early and got confirmation that my ballot was received and counted. We have to fight this inane regime. Trump’s popularity is tanking. This is not a game show. I’m looking for ways to help our fellow beings live through this madness.
Whatever they may want, it doesn’t follow that they will get it. To think like that is to accede to their wishes, to surrender beforehand. They want you to do that, too.
There are many ways you can slice all this. You can throw up your hands in complete despair. You can, in honor of Halloween and Hocus Pocus, wander around like Bette Midler, going “we are doomed, DOOMED.” Or, you can focus on a truth all tyrannies refuse to believe about themselves: the harder the bluster, the worse the trolling, the louder the saber-rattling, the weaker they become. There has never been a single tyranny on earth that has ever managed to figure this out. Consider the implications of that.
I suggest we start by doing what we have always done — vote, for one thing. Tens of thousands of elections — everything from school boards to state judgeships, referenda and two gubernatorial elections are taking place in just 3 days time. Many of these elections need monitors, observers. They will certainly be watching. I suggest we start watching the watchers. We are not voiceless, and not doomed. Surely that is more productive than wandering around filling our hearts with even more despair. They fear us far more than we do them. Consider the implications of that, too.
Yes, vote, for as long as we can. But right now, people are about to be HUNGRY. I am food insecure myself.
The point I was making was not to give up. It was to HELP each other and push back against hunger or even potential starvation.
Hungry people don’t give a shit about voting.
The last thing the regime expects is that we get around them with mutual aid.
The point you appeared to make was to throw up your hands. And hungry people better damn well think about voting, especially since those now making them hungry don’t want them to vote. That would be the strongest example of mutual aid I could think of.
Please read again. To wit "I say we help each other. Mutual aid is beyond their comprehension. We need to build up our communities for what lies ahead."
Have you ever BEEN really hungry? It consumes your every waking moment. It fogs your mind. You want people to be fit enough TO vote?
FEED THEM FIRST.
To say nothing of the fact that many of the hungry can't vote because they are CHILDREN.
I don't want to assume that you are in a place of privilege. But it does seem like it.
Clearly, I’m talking about those who CAN vote.
Yes, we get that. And I am talking about people of all ages who are HUNGRY.
Hunger hurts. Hunger makes us weak, too weak to fight. Hunger BAD.
Absolutely. Working with food banks and pantries is now a HIGH priority!!! All hands on deck. Aside from just doing it because we are decent human beings, read what experts on tyranny say about building community.
I have 4 bags of non- perishable groceries packed and ready for the annual Scout drive that begins November 3. The food will go to our local food pantry. I don’t know if it’s a national drive, but perhaps your local scout organization can do this. I’m going to suggest an ongoing drive as long as this shutdown continues. Local organizations and businesses need to step up, as well as every individual who is able to do this.
Gina: That is exactly what must happen, and it has to be a sustained effort. Not just the holidays when people are giving anyhow.
I am food insecure myself, but have a basic pantry and will share my humble soup and bread with anyone who comes my way in need.
Annabel, I learned how to make a variety of meals with rice and beans and a few fresh vegetables and spices during my tough years. When my sister wanted me to give money to my lazy unemployed niece and her even lazier husband I sent the recipes. But even those ingredients are getting more expensive. When we were hungry we were fortunate to have family with a farm to give us apples and potatoes. I ate potato pancakes several times a week. This was all under Reagan and Trump is even worse. I hope you have a good food bank who can help you out.
Gina, years ago I lead a Brownie Troop. One year, some of the moms helped me organize a progressive dinner/Christmas Carol/food drive for our kids.
We planned a route where we met up for "appetizers" then broke into two groups. We went door to door caroling and collected food. (We'd previously put flyers in the doors of the area to tell them what we were doing, and if they would like, to leave the note with food at their door if they weren't home) We had a stop for bathroom break and meal, and then ended at another house for cookies and cocoa, and sorting of food.
I believe it was one of the best events we held, as it was a HUGE eye opener for the kids! As we sorted the food, one girl curled her lip and said "I wouldn't eat this junk" and I said, if you had NOTHING else, I bet you would.
It was surprising to me as well--plenty of odd cans of things like anchovies, some VERY outdated cans. Thankfully, many people gave us "good" food (according to the Brownies) and we got cash donations also, with which we were able to purchase some grocery store gift cards.
Only ONE person was nasty to our group--which was 2 adults and 8 CHILDREN. (The other group had no issues--which was also very educational for the kids. (Sadly). Who is nasty to a group of children singing Christmas carols?!?!
No, it’s what they want, they truly believe that it’s not the government’s job to be a nanny state.
Actually, they do want the government to hand out money and prizes, but only to the oligarchs.
You know them, not nanny handouts, but the top tier crooks. Nixon said he wasn’t a crook. These say I am but you can’t stop me
My understanding is slightly different. Our MAGA neighbors do think they're entitled to government benefits. But they are so obsessed with the possibility that the "undeserving" (read: people of color) might get benefits, that they are willing to forego those benefits if it will deny them to others.
They would burn down the whole neighborhood if it will make a family of color homeless.
They say for me, not for thee. At least the ones I know. The hypocrisy is astounding
Another way I've heard it expressed is, "Me and my four, and no more."
this should ALways be in effect, Annabel...i hope people there DO help...
Yes! I’ve been wondering what would happen if crowds of peaceful people showed up to be poll watchers. Just to lawfully be there and support people’s right to vote.
First you need the crowds of paceful people Terry
We will but not blindly. Realize that the cruelty is planned, deliberate, and with malice.
Absolutely realistic nightmare JDin.
I really appreciate this reminder. It is easy to slip into despair, but you are right—fear and apathy are exactly what they count on. The louder the intimidation, the more it reveals their weakness. Staying engaged, voting, and showing up for local elections are powerful acts of defiance and care. Hope is not naïve; it is strategy. And it grows stronger every time we refuse to give up on one another.
And call Congress. Calls do make a difference. Senator Murphy said so. Call about whatever you want. SNAP. Argentina aid. Blowing up Venezuelan boats. Epstein.
Take a deep breath, don't allow the number of issues to paralyze, and at least find a number. You can call tomorrow if you need time to summon your courage.
You will probably get a voice mail anyhow, or you can call when the office is closed.
I'd pick at most 3 issues, as when I HAVE gotten an aide, they tally the issues.
Thanks
This above all do not bemoan but act. We're NOT doomed. Ok inspire others to act as well. Support each other to act. Do not give in
People who relocate to military bases to live are frightened and know they have taken steps that are wrong. Let their fear consume them.A caged animal will react with overreacting. Why would they fear if they thought they were innocent? Because they are not
“Watch the watchers” sounds like an important thing to do, It’s Come to This.
Perfect, ICTT. Essential. Refuse to give in to fear. Vote. Monitor the elections. Get together.
And call your reps. Also essential. We must let them know we are paying attention. If hungry people can't call, I will call for them.
The math is simple, more of us than there are of them. That will hold true and only grow in numbers.
You must have enough money to survive this.
Trump comes from a Reality TV background, therefore if he wants civil unrest he will produce it, have his ghostwriter pen the script, direct it, and star in it invoking the Insurrection Act at the the end of the video. He might even demand a few police officers get killed just like his J6 murders. Human life means nothing to him, not as long as it keeps people from talking about those Epstein files.
Human life means little to him period. This isn’t about Epstein, it’s about him.
Right you are. As I read this passage “ But I’d be allowed to do that, you understand that. And the courts wouldn’t get involved. Nobody would get involved. And I could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. I can send anybody I wanted.” I was afraid the next sentence would be: “And with that remark, the President of the US whipped out his little orange shrimp and started stroking it.” Man, this guy really does get off on power, doesn’t he?
Flaccid power. Useless, button-mushroom power. Non-existent, impotent power — the kind envious, small, bitter old men people kill to get — but will still never obtain.
Millions must be thinking the same thing. Little, shriveled-up orange shrimp, indeed.
Dutch, I think it's less about gratification and more about justification.
Fred Trump was a soulless, nasty individual and the worst father. He ignored his daughters, but baited and abused his sons. Eldest son and namesake, Freddy, was the heir-apparent; Donald and Robert were just "also-rans." To make things worse for Donald, he had a learning disability. Fred's plans were wrecked when Freddy "abdicated" his position and preferred to fly commercial jets for TWA.
The mantle probably would've fallen to Robert, but he was of weak constitution. Donald was desperate to prove he wasn't "the dumb son," so he plotted and schemed to undercut his brother. Fred liked Donald's "killer instinct" even though he was stupid, so he gave the job to Donald. Fred figured on propping up Donald as a cardboard mogul, knowing he could clean up the Manhattan messes from his office in Queens.
Donald had one job: To get the Trump family accepted by the Manhattan aristocracy. As with everything else, Donald failed. His loud, brash ignorance was repulsive to New York City's elite. Donald crashed more parties than he was invited to, and his parents remained ostracized in Queens.
Donald is a loser. He's spent his whole life trying to prove that he isn't. The only time he ever felt successful is when Mark Burnett and NBC cast him as a fake tycoon and paid him millions in advance for appearing in the series. Donald has been trying to recreate that sense of power ever since.
Absolutely. Little Donny Boy still thinks he's living a reality TV show in which he is an all-powerful, physically strong and mighty king. Alas, there a lot of idiots who have given him that mantle, but that wasn't able to change who he really still is - Little Dumb Donny Boy.
Indeed he does, nobody enjoying this revenge tour like he is, Vought may be close. Two types of repubs these days. Those scared shitless or those drunk with celebration. The latter have all the money.
Those Epstein files must be dynamite. He is willing to shut the country down to keep his crimes hidden.
Those who can afford to give are called upon to donate time or money or both.
https://donate.wck.org/give/738604#!/donation/checkout
https://www.feedingamerica.org/
https://www.nokidhungry.org/
And in New Mexico (where I live): https://www.nmfoodbanks.org/
Find your local food bank or donate nationally.
🕊️ 🇺🇸 🗽 💙
I choose to give to a food bank that does not require the recipients to sit through a "sermon" to receive the benefits.
It's individual donors that contribute the food and money that support the food banks, not God or the spiritual leaders.
Mike Johnson is a Bible beater and a faux Christian. And yet all he does is blame the Democrats for the shutdown and for the SNAP benefits not being funded.
Someone here, I can't remember who, used to call Mike Johnson's office and tell the staffers that their boss worked for Satan. I loved that!
I hope I'm not the only person, but I am guilty of that.
I used to get a real aide, and I told them to QUIT working for him, if they were also "Christian" so as to avoid the "near occasion of sin."
Above, I have posted a request that ANYONE able to create "memes" make a Johnson "LIE-O-METER" as Heather mentioned he blushes when he lies. So when I call him, I mention that WE KNOW when he tells a LIE because he turns red. So we are WATCHING. (I want to plant the seed in his smarmy brain that WE THE PEOPLE are aware of his "tell" and are looking for it.)
Miselle, challenge accepted. We can't post images here, so I'm providing a link to my creation.
https://use07.thegood.cloud/apps/files/files/91020793?dir=/Public&openfile=true
I can't get in with out an account, and I don't see how to sign up for an account? Any other way I can see it? I'm pretty excited you did this!!
Exactly, no Jesus no where
Our next gathering at the bear in Salmon should be a good outpouring of generous souls bearing food.
I remember when the 6 of us kids ate rations given us by the Shoshone women in Riverton Wyo. 60 odd years ago. Dear old dad ran off. Mom was candy striping at the hospital and we got whatever mom scraped in a bucket from patients plates. Those were some tough times. I gotta tell you the adults were hard pressed. It was a kindness in those ladies hearts and helped shape our character. If you do lend a hand this winter fill it with food. Don’t let the old and the young go hungry on your watch. That kind of neglect is on us. It’s a really big deal. I know even today my old eyes brim right up and overflow with thanks. A can of chile is a gold mine on a cold winter night.
My cousin and I got chased off that tribal land- and rightfully so- trying to fish that Wind River there back then. Just a couple of young dumb asses. I learned a great lesson in respect that day.
We attended St. Stephen’s Catholic Indian Mission School. Most of the students were Shoshone and Arapahoe. I wanted to grow up and get a job in Lander at a service station. I ran away a lot. Down the Wind River I would go on my driftwood raft.
Southeast along the Platte for me.
Wow, Pat. I generally litter up the comment area with my opinions (I'm not known to be brief) but your story---no words.
Wish I could go back in time and bring a meal to you and your family. I can't, so I'm picking up a bit extra at the grocery store to donate to the local food bank, in honor of you.
This is a time we may have to embrace people we haven’t met yet. This is an all out American moment. They come around the bend ever so often. Seventeen of us once gathered at my grandads shack. Brothers sisters aunts and uncles and cousins. Moms and Dads and old Grandad. Everyone called him Grandad. The whole town. Everyone called it Grandads shack. The whole town. There were 4 to 12 extra kids most of the time. Thank you for your kindness too. Food banks and shelters and helping old people get things done is rewarding. If you get bored take a walk and introduce yourself. Ask that old man or woman if they would mind if you could use up some of your excess wood to rebuild their old fence or reconstruct that collapsed porch. Works for me because I have a sawmill and it’s the truth. Sometimes you score a fresh loaf of bread.!! One always gets some joy.
Pat, plenty of times (most of the time, actually) fraternities get a bad rap. When my son was in college, his frat did a lot of charity work. They went to an elderly woman's home and rebuilt her front porch with a ramp. (She cooked dinner for them all, and my son said she was so grateful.) They also had a campus wide fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity. All the groups had to build a shelter out of cardboard, and two members had to stay in it overnight. (it was cold) I am not sure how they chose a "winner" but I think it had something to do with voting by donating money and the top fundraiser was the "winner". (All funds went to H4H)
So many stories lack the words. Thankfully some can tell. We never went hungry but Mama wrung chickens necks and daddy butchered a pig in our back yard. Remember vividly. No store bought meat. That may be why I’m a vegetarian in my old age.
amen, Pat...
I support 2 of those, among others.
10/31/25, we got it Annabel, two (2) Judges ordered the USDA to fund ASAP now confirmed at 3:42 PM by the Associated Press. That is two Judges, 1 in Boston Mass & 1 in Rhode Island.
The legal term for the assertion that "contingency" funds were NOT available is Bull____!
Wreck claims he will not fight it.
****************************************************************************************
Earlier 10/30 Post: Annabel, here is my updated 'good news' post from Professor Joyce Vance's Platform, Civil Discourse:
*********************************
BREAKING: & Updated10/30 at 11:30 pm PDT:
Per NPR, A federal Judge indicated Thursday she intends to " ... take steps to ensure that federal food [SNAP] assistance keeps flowing to 42 Million who depend on it".
[IMPORTANT: That's Boston U.S. District Judge, INDIRA TALWANI. Clearly, the 25 state Plaintiffs have brought more than sufficient admissible evidence to Judge Talwani's court record to support a finding of "irreparable harm" to public health & well being.
From the Bench Judge Talwani instructed the U.S.D.A that she. wants "agency action not lawyering.]
Contingency funds are in fact available to fund SNAP. Friday, 10/31 is her -- so we should have the Order by Noon today, 10/31/25 Eastern.
No food hostages!
@Bryan---THAT is proactive. When the regime threatens starvation every person with the power to act must act with as much force as required.
I have read that in some places 1/3 of the population is food insecure. Depression level numbers. As referenced in FDR's 2nd Inaugural Address. This movie is a remake of old horrors and we know the way out. Even if it takes a battering ram to get there.
Thinking more about the hunger problem. When money is scarce, knowing how to cook is really important, and many have no idea. I get by on a ridiculously small income partly because I have been in the kitchen for 62 years, since age 7. I make almost everything from scratch.
But there are at least two generations who can barely defrost a burrito.
I have 3 Substacks of my own, and one of them is Annabel's Hard Times Kitchen. It was created for these times. I am working on a series of simple ideas for people who just figured out that they need these basic skills.
I can't afford to give to food banks, but I can show people how to manage a kitchen.
The old "Beau of the Ranch" (before his wife took over) used to say to "do what you can, when you can, for as long as you can." Every person helps in their own capacity.
What you say is very true! Years ago, my husband's uncle worked at a food bank. They had a donation of roasts, and he said, people didn't take them because "they didn't know what to do with them."
I read a book about a year ago, wish I could remember the name. Anyhow, this woman did research on poverty by trying to live working a minimum wage job AND trying to find housing. She reported on how many poor lived in hotel rooms with no fridge or means to cook. She kept ice in a cooler for milk, and had to eat cold meals--when she had them. Her best job was working in a nursing home where the staff was allowed to take any "leftover meals." She also mentioned what the food bank was able to give her--a box of pasta was useless to her.
Be strong, Annabel.
Miselle: thank you! I have never been without some means to prepare food, but lived without refrigeration for around two months when I moved to my current city.
And without a real stove for years. Now I have both and it makes using my six decades of cooking experience so much easier to use.
The equipment problem was brought to my attention some years ago. The unhoused will not be able to cook, but the population living in motels and squats MAY be able to do work arounds. One idea I had was getting them slow cookers. These appliances are inexpensive and safe even in a motel. And can do plenty.
An instant pot is equally safe and quite versatile.
But the housed and comfortable are generally unaware that lack of equipment is a real problem.
I admit, prior to reading that book, it never crossed my mind.
SNAP now available!
Yes, knowing how to cook even the most basic ingredients needs to be taught to everyone. My grandson knows how to cook. He cooked most of his meals his first year in college and helps at home now. He’s up to complicated dishes now. I remember having to cook on nothing but a hot plate in Korea because the military didn’t pay my husband enough for us to live in anything but a one room flat. We ate a lot of crap.
Gold, Guns, and Ghouls: The Halloween That Ate Democracy
“Between the edible gold brownies in Tokyo and the quick reaction troops in Toledo, it’s clear that America isn’t being governed anymore; it’s being gilded, meme-ified, and militarized.”
Nothing captures the American mood this Halloween like Speaker Mike Johnson blaming Democrats for starving children while the USDA hoards $6 billion in emergency SNAP funds and the Treasury quietly ships $20 billion to Argentina to keep Trump’s gold-crowned buddy Javier Milei afloat. It’s the kind of fiscal trick-or-treating where the rich get Swiss chocolate and everyone else gets a fun-size bag of austerity.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Trump has decided that the people’s house needs a little more “him.” The East Wing is being bulldozed for a gold-plated ballroom so massive it could be seen from orbit. The man who once sold steaks and diplomas now sells sovereignty by the ounce. Nothing says “populist reformer” like melting democracy into décor.
Back in the real world, Americans are paying 44% more for Halloween candy than in 2019. Inflation is up, wages are stagnant, and Jerome Powell has started whispering the cursed word “stagflation,” which is economics’ version of “your crops have failed.” But not to worry, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promises prosperity will “flow through to working Americans next year.” Translation: the check’s in the mail, and the bank moved to the Cayman Islands.
Trump, touring Asia like an emperor without an empire, reminded U.S. troops that he could federalize the National Guard “to clean up Democrat cities,” apparently unaware that Halloween costumes are not civil unrest. He also reminded everyone that if he invoked the Insurrection Act, “I’d be allowed to do whatever I want.” Always reassuring from a man whose hobbies include defying the Constitution and collecting golden accessories.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security is pumping out propaganda videos showing agents arresting “vicious criminals,” except the footage was doctored from old clips. When asked, a White House spokesperson said they would continue producing “banger memes.” Yes, the executive branch now measures success in retweets.
The Pentagon, not to be outdone, has ordered every state’s National Guard to form “quick reaction forces” for riot control. No riots yet, but when you’re planning an election season under martial law, it’s good to stay ahead of the paperwork.
Between the edible gold brownies in Tokyo and the quick reaction troops in Toledo, it’s clear that America has entered its baroque phase of decline. The country isn’t being governed anymore; it’s being gilded, meme-ified, and militarized.
Coming soon to a ballot box near you: “Make America Gilded Again.”
https://essayx.substack.com/p/gold-guns-and-ghouls-the-halloween
I like the title. 😜 Sadly, MAGAs have no idea who Professor Jared Diamond is and don't get alliteration at all.
Those of us who are able must donate to our local food banks. They are the most efficient points of distribution and they are struggling with this surging need.
I agree. That is one current solution. Doesn't change anything for the long haul. We are and will be contributing to the food banks. We have voted and anxiously await the vote in other states. The news out of the Netherlands is encouraging.
I feel the same urgency. When systems are used to divide and destabilize, the most powerful response is cooperation. Mutual aid, shared food networks, and community trust are how we stay connected and strong through uncertainty. But we can also think beyond survival—using this moment to reimagine how our communities feed, house, and care for one another in lasting ways. The future we build together now could be the foundation for something far more just and transformative.
Christy: If we survive this we have the best chance of truly creating a better world than ever before in human history. It is what we tried for in the 1960s but fell short. One of the threads of human culture has always been reaching for this moment. Let's make sure we get there this time...
The point of the reichstag fire that seems to escape people is that the Nazis both started it, and then used it to justify martial law. Everyone looking at the military forces Trump is putting together is ignoring all the backchannel communications to Trumps loyal fascist militias who will be the ones bombing election centers and attacking people and who will be claimed to be "Antifa" in the declaration of the Insurrection Act.
Trump doesn't NEED help from leftists in order to declare martial law and justify using military force to overthrow state governments, he already has all the help he needs.
Yes, when he says he can call anyone up after listing all the military does he mean the Proud Boys and Three Percenters? After all he called them up on 1/6 and they came.
If you are looking to support a worthwhile nonprofit, here’s the link to one I have volunteered with for several years. Located just north of DC, we have served three meals a day to those in need for more than 40 years. We’ve never missed a meal. We now routinely serve between 350-500 meals a day. Please help us continue this record run.
https://shepherdstable.org
My Community Food Pantry is fully stocked and ready according to the director. I plan to help keep it that way even though I am a SNAP recipient myself. I foresaw this and sold my little car at a profit in January after the Trump victory. Now I no longer have a car payment to make and have diverted that money to food. My fear as a low income senior is that my housing subsidy through USDA Rural Development will be next, and there is no way my income no matter what I do will compensate for that.
Exactly! Send violent troops into cities of hungry people - what could go wrong...and what exactly is the felon, child rapist, murderer's end game? To cancel elections and stay in the bunker / ball room until he dies - which may not be too far in the future...
I kept reading yesterday that grocery stores were adding extra security to prepare for violence or uprisings? I don’t know how true this is. Do they think people will storm the doors and steal the food?
I agree.
Andra Watkins points out that getting SNAP benefitsiIs going to become forced religious indoctrination according to Project 2025.
https://open.substack.com/pub/andrawatkins/p/how-snap-will-become-forced-religious?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
I’m thinking of the millions of American kids now losing food.
As more millions worldwide lost U.S. A.I.D. food due to Donald’s capricious cruelty.
I’m thinking about the hundreds of American and foreign underage girls trafficked by Jeffrey and Ghislaine for rape by Donald’s unaccountable pals.
I’m thinking of the millions of Ukrainians having their schools, libraries, museums, apartment buildings, hospitals, power grids, and shopping centers deliberately and every day shelled by Russian missiles, bombs, and artillery.
I’m thinking of the millions of Palestinians on their land in the West Bank daily harassed, road-blocked, and murdered by thieves from the Israeli far right regularly stealing more, more, more of their land.
Trump, Putin, Netanyahu repeatedly commit these crimes, repeatedly murder, usurp more power for more crime. So I’m not just thinking about them, their vulgarity, their in-your-face braggadocio, but also about the legions of those abetting their financially interlinked, black hole abyss.
And, inseparable from that, about the schools that so massively, systematically, criminally have failed – in corrupt, corrupted Russia, Israel, the U.S.
I am proud that our local food banks are stepping up and our Los Angeles Unified School District will continue to provide free breakfast, lunch, supper for any student 18 and under!
New York, Oregon and Virginia have made emergency declarations to gain access to funds to provide food assistance to the needy.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/30/new-york-food-banks-emergency-shutdown
Fantastic! 🇺🇸
Rick Sender
just now
One of the World's most influential climate science doomsdays Mr. Bill Gates has now emphasized again and again on national media although I'm sure you've not seen or heard about it on your media now says humanity will not end because of climate change and it will not doom the planet
So stop sending your money to Paris LMAO
He has changed his mind.
You might want to check in on the whole story if you want to be completely depressed and letdown that you've been led like lemmings to the slaughter once again
I've posted the link in a few places, but on the hush-hush, he was actually making money selling products to either fight or support people due to the suffering of climate change in the future and now he's no longer invested in that. What a surprise. Bottom line you're all gonna be OK and AOC was wrong again like that's ben any different since she's come on the scene
You woke up again! Take your drugs and go back to sleep, Ricky.
Tell you what I'm gonna do I'm gonna take away your plausible deniability here and I'm gonna post you the links myself and there's probably 50 of them for you to enjoy and drool over with your mouth agape not believing what the hell is actually happening here and maybe you can pass it on to the other lemmings who have been lied to time and time and time again about the Russia hoax about the Hunter Biden laptop, and about Biden's failing mental capacity
OK, here's one from politico
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/20/new-york-noncitizen-voting-blocked-00240007
https://apnews.com/article/voting-by-noncitizens-new-york-lawsuit-30c65e13fc81136650606a37e17ed88d
Here's a good one look at the headline
https://www.newsweek.com/progressive-judges-hand-republicans-legal-win-non-citizens-voting-2047949
It was approved by the city council of New York City and the only way it got stopped. Was somebody filed a lawsuit at the TOP court in the state and bingo stopped in its tracks.
The honest thing to do now would be to say RICK you were actually right and I was unaware and I am in shock but guess what? Nobody in the center or right of center was surprised at all because we knew the minute that he opened the gates that's exactly the purpose. You have a good night sleep on this and hopefully you'll get a sense of how much they've lied to you.
Maybe one day you will be invited to dine in the Jeffery Epstein Memorial Ballroom with your Dear a leader in attendance.
Hi a Rick how was your trip to Japan?
Well, I didn’t have to hear your nonsense and your questionable mental stability I have never seen so many so-called intellectuals or college graduates or professors or PhD’s buckle so easily and swallow everything like it’s their last drop. They have what I call willful ignorance because they’re afraid of the truth and that’s OK with me for now.
But as time goes on, they’re either gonna wake up or pass away into nothingness. The choice is theirs.
I have mixed feelings about Mamdani in Ny because it’s gonna go down in flames and there are many nice people there that are going to have to suffer for it and won’t necessarily be able to relocate quick enough specially businesses. But I believe with very few exceptions Life is a due to self proposition and if they do it to themselves, they only have themselves to blame.
Where are the billionaires stepping up with funds to feed people? Perhaps it really is time to eat the rich!
Billie Eilish, who donated about $11 million, called them out at a WSJ awards event.
Hello Phil... Nice Posting... Seems that the Social Consciousness of American Society has been failing since the 1980's at least... When Greed became 'Good', and Entertainment became Supreme... Mike Johnson can wear a Cross, and profess piety, but MJ does not follow the Historical Jesus' Teachings... DJT has benefited from this Societal Corruption, and until sufficient numbers rediscover their Humanity, these are Dark Days...
The bigger the cross, the bigger the hypocrite -- as per KKKaroline Leavitt and Kristi Noem. Yesterday Johnson tried to blame the shutdown on Zorhan Mamdani!! (for whom I have already voted, btw)
Dark. Dark. Dark.
Yes, Apache, as you say, ". . . until sufficient numbers rediscover their Humanity."
But this is a practical self-destruction, letting the cynical rich, the dark money, the oligarchs and thieves rule, as Auden says in "August, 1968, "The Ogre does as Ogres can, / Deeds quite impossible for Man."
Schools can lead. Teachers -- so many fine ones -- can take the initiative. Enjoy with students the skills of writing essays to see, credit, and generously cite others and the humanity they unfold as they face the complications they inhabit.
Teachers can do this. As they lead in restoring the devices, tools, resources of humanity.
Can't they? Or does testing sit on all and suffocate all that, in fact, humanity abdicates?
As a retired teacher, I will tell you that when the Bush “No child left behind” passed, we lost a month of instruction time. And as an American Studies teacher I made sure my students read both the Declaration and the Constitution. But teachers have been attacked for decades now. Long gone are the days when you could call a parent and have them work in partnership with you. Now teachers are blamed for everything. Parents often do not have the emotional bandwidth to work and manage their children when society does so little to support them in the way other affluent Western nations do. We ask too much of our teachers including that they lay down their lives for their students instead of tackling our gun problems or providing free daycare for parents. We are now even suspending funds to Head Start during the shut down, a program which we know helps to pull children out f poverty, and now we are even telling them to starve and we expect teachers to fix everything that is wrong in society, or blame them??? All the while we feel that the rich should get even more tax breaks? As I have said before we are a very sick society.
Can we amend your concluding sentence, Carol, so it's not "we are"?
Can't we keep the focus on the peculiar sickness, instead, affecting (and effecting) our dehumanized rich?
Finland found a way out -- a way that made teachers supreme, and attracted such good ones, so many guaranteed good ones, that parents uniformly began deferring to them totally.
Timothy Walker tells some of this story in "Teach Like Finland." But many You Tube videos also document it (including a most charming one with Michael Moore incredulous at the Finnish model).
Phil, I am well aware of the success of the Finnish educational system. I have a Scandinavian background and am fluent in one of the languages and keep up with events happening there. Where we are at this moment in time did not happen overnight. We have forgotten who we are and the emphasis of greed over our what Americans used to value has corrupted us. I went to college in a small Midwestern town where those who had done well financially gave back to their community. Now it is how much can I accumulate for myself and damn the social consequences. This particular sickness did not happen overnight. It has been pushed by among others, the Koch brothers and the public has been encouraged to point fingers at the “othering” of others for decades. Right now it happens to be immigrants. This has been a ploy to keep Americans from recognizing that unbridled greed has kept us from investing in a good public education system, a national health care system for everyone, affordable housing etc etc that the Scandinavian countries have managed to figure out (although they are not perfect either). Where we are at this point in time was decades in the making. If you haven’t already done so I would recommend reading “Dark Money” which talks about the Koch brothers and how they used their money to begin the corruption of America that has led us to where we are today.
I think a great deal of social and political behavior that would have been considered unacceptably corrupt half a century ago has been normalized today, resulting in a plutocratic chokehold on our justice system, our culture and for the universal protections ostensibly guaranteed by our Constitution. Not to say that the past was our "good old days"; much of which we're better off without; and yet the universalization of fundamental human rights appeared to be inching forward, and seems now in retreat. A pedophilia kingpin gets he sentence substantially softened while many who are innocent are summarily imprisoned without due process or counsel. Under the hood, find the pernicious influence of untempered greed.
Yep - the - "Greed is good" of the 80ies and 90ies brought us to where we are today. It always hits a few generations later, and we knewwe were told often enough, be it climate science or be it socio-economic developments. But we didn't really want to listen, we always thought "the next generation will fix it." Although we as boomers at the same time always knew better of course 😂
Good to hear more of your own background, Carol.
I agree with everything you say here, especially so the Jane Mayer book.
And further yes: the cynical rich have gamed this scheme "for decades."
i don't believe there IS anything 'perfect', Carol. just a concept...like 'forever' or 'always'...we just need to do the best we can...but i am in total agreement about the shift of values in that country over the last decades...
For that to happen, I think we the public have to shift a lot of attention away from what is commercially promoted toward one another, and the circumstances of our communities. The focus of education is a "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" thing. Our societal consciousness needs to focus to what we all need to thrive together. At least by asking better questions. Meaningful education supports that, and that supports meaningful education. We have collectively let plutocracy displace democracy for decades, and now it's getting near the edge.
Thank you for speaking out. I am beyond tired of teachers being slammed. As a retired educator, I agree with you about how dedicated, overworked, and unsupported our profession is. Now with the Special Education personnel furloughed at the Department of Education, how will states and local districts pick up those pieces? I worry about young people wanting to pursue careers in education and whether colleges will continue to fund and offer programs and degrees in education.
Carol:
🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷
Yes, yes, yes! Two daughters who teach (taught) HS English. One left the field this year after about 15 years of teaching. (For many reasons)
But both have told me stories EXACTLY what you talk about.
I've related a number of those stories on this forum over the years, so I won't repeat them.
But I'll add one: my daughter's best friend is moving from Chgo to NYC. This brilliant, kind young woman is going to live with her fiancé there. My daughter said her friend offered that she and her bf come visit, but they both work in schools and make about 40% of her friend makes in Financial IT. My daughter started to cry, and said "we (her and bf) make SO LITTLE money!" She could make more by teaching in an urban/suburban HS--easily twice as much, but she loves her rural HS and they love her. Shouldn't even rural kids get excellent teachers?
Hello Phil... Perhaps it would improve our Societal Outcomes if we Empower our Children's 1st Teachers... The Parents, the Older Siblings... We could provide Good Examples of Caring for Others, and Thinking Though Outcomes, and not just Instant Gratification... OBW: How was DJT's Visit received in Japan?...
They fawned over him. Disgusting.
The new prime minister -- first woman in Japanese history -- disappointed me in that she went out of her way proudly to exclaim how she'd voted for criminal, rapist, murderer Donald for Nobel peace prize.
.... while at home his people face starving - he really couldn't care less, could he?
Yes, correct, Sabine.
Look at his embrace of fellow criminal Netanyahu while over a million starve in Gaza.
It was disgustingly obsequious. And that crown????
Check Jeff Tiedrich's substack post about the crown. Be warned: it is worse than you might expect. https://substack.com/home/post/p-177473504
Make responsible behavior cool again.
That's why it made me feel a little bit good to see and learn that King Charles stripped his brother of all his titles, including Prince, and threw him out of the house. One of the by now very, very few cases where a person in public life takes their responsibility of their role seriously.
If you want an interesting take on that, watch Lawrence O'Donnell's segment on that.
Nah, don't drop it on teachers. Really?
Who do you mean when you refer to teachers, Bonnie?
Do you have in mind the so very few who assign full novels, who key essay writing among students, and who themselves brim with apt references to the arts?
Or do you mean the robot majority now serving only standardized testers?
They kicked Jesus to the curb long ago. The MAGAts didn’t notice or care
I recall a meme that stated "Jesus is a victim of identity theft"
Couldn’t be truer, the Christianity claimants are the truest thieves among our citizens
They did the kicking.
Led by the biggest hypocrites in the land, Falwell first, Franklin Graham, and their ilk. My sister-in-law almost made me puke at her husbands funeral. So hard to have mercy..
When I hear from an Independent that his posts on social media which are critical of BOTH sides, say he gets hate mail from both sides, but has received 53 death threats from the Right ONLY! I think a whole lot of the Republican lawmakers are intimidated to stand up to Trump. If a social media poster gets that many death threats, imagine what a Congressperson who can make a difference with their vote get! How do we stop THAT? They are Trump’s MAGA henchmen.
Hello Kathryn.... We could start by Prosecuting Creditable Threats.... Setting Good Examples.... Pardoning Convicted J6 Rioters was not a Good Example... DJT's Lawlessness, and Cruelty is not setting a Good Example... JFK, and Obama set Good Examples... The Lowest Common Denominator Popular Culture Needs To Change To Set Good Examples...
After VP Harris's loss I cried for 2 days. In these terrifyingly dark and difficult times I find myself thinking of how different our country and possibly the world would be if she were sitting in the Oval.
I was in shock for a good two weeks. Nightmares and a feeling of impending doom. It's still there but I've had to regulate myself to function. Unbelievable that is what the US decided to willing go through.
You knew, as did I, from the first moment.
Oh dear! Dont torture yourself like that. Be brave. Have faith. Don’t give up. This is indeed dark times but we have weathered storms before and we are here to fight another day. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Phil. Don’t forget to include Orban and Erdogan who repeat those same crimes.
Yes, David.
And Bukele, Duterte, the Iranian mullahs, Kim, Milei, Modi, Mohammed bin Salman, Sisi, Xi . . .
Yes, and the Devil, and Jaws, and the T-Rex from Jurassic Park, the Deep Blue Sea, Hannibal Lecter, Caligula and Jengis Khan, too. And don’t forget Hitler and Pol Pot and Stalin and Mao and the Cyclops from The Odyssey while you’re at it.
I’m sure keeping all these bogeymen in mind will really do the trick and get out the vote in the tens of thousands of local, regional and state elections taking place in just 3 days time here in the US…
Things to consider when donating food to a pantry:
* Try to donate pop-top cans, because for many, opening a can may be a barrier.
* For many on the streets, food stamps may be their main source of ability to get food. Often, they do not have access to running water, a microwave, a can opener, a cooktop, or a stove. Items that are packaged in individual servings and ready to eat can be very helpful to them.
* Consider donating canned soups/stews with meat over canned vegetables. They are higher in protein and calories and will be much more filling.
* Protein bars or Meal bars are a good way to increase calories for individuals.
* Donate the Shells and Cheddar macaroni boxes instead of the Kraft or other similar generics. The reason is that Shells and Cheddar do not need extra ingredients like milk or butter to make them.
* Bread is always needed and hard to get from a food pantry. Loaves can be frozen and stored.
* Packages of lunch meat are RARE and very appreciated!
* Muffin mixes that only require you to add water are great.
* Tuna and Crackers or Chicken Salad and Crackers are great lunch items.
* Dehydrated meals can be a big blessing for people with reduced cooking capacity.
* Canned meats, especially canned chicken, are a huge blessing!
* Shelf-stable milk or powdered milk is useful and appreciated.
* Fresh fruits are a huge treat!
* Bags of potatoes are a great donation because they can be used in many ways for meals and ingredients.
* Bags of dried beans are often not popular, as many people do not know how to cook them. However, canned beans are utilized more frequently.
* Powdered mashed potatoes, flavored rice packets, and flavored noodles are always popular donations.
* Boxes of flavored oatmeal packets can be a great, easy way for people to start their day with calories that only need water to prepare.
* Condiments like ketchup, mustard, jelly, mayonnaise, and salad dressing are always popular and appreciated.
* Spices and pantry ingredients like vegetable oil, salt/pepper, flour, sugar, etc... allow people to make baked goods or complete recipes.
* If your food pantry accepts frozen items, consider donating items like: frozen lasagnas, frozen dinners, frozen pizzas, frozen meal kits, frozen pot pies, etc…
* Protein Shakes or Meal Replacement shakes can be a good source of nutrition for those who are struggling with calorie intake.
** Updating below to add some thoughts created from the comments **
* When possible, do not donate items in glass containers as they can often break when volunteers are packing or unpacking bags or boxes.
* Brownie mixes and cake mixes can be a great treat for individuals, especially ones that need limited additional ingredients.
* Many food banks/pantries will also accept and distribute hygiene items. These are a huge help - ESPECIALLY menstrual products!
* Consider also donating cleaning supplies, especially: Dish soap, laundry detergent, and cleaning wipes/sprays.
* Cash donations can be beneficial because they can allow them to get lower rates by buying much-needed items in bulk. You can reach out to the food bank(s) that you often support and ask them for their preference. I was always grateful when donors communicated with us because it allowed us to partner together to make the biggest impact that we could!
* You can purchase and donate P39 military can openers in bulk for pantries/food banks to give out to people who need them. You can find as many as 200 for less than $30.
* If your pantry accepts it, consider donating pet food as well. As people struggle to feed themselves, their pets will be impacted too. We used to buy big bags of pet food in bulk and then break it down into gallon-sized ziplocs to distribute at our pantry.
Founder, Executive Director, Podcast Host at Faith and Trauma Center and works at Pastor at Englewood Christian Church
Golden Rule of Donating: "Donate to others as you would hope that others would donate to you if you were in need."
Thanks, Barbara. I already knew about the poptop cans, and am committed to donating $37 per month to my local food bank (that figure is roughly what I pay to SNAP in taxes per year. I figure I can help locally as well.) I read in another place that "bundling" ingredients to be used together (when Rice a Roni calls for oil, add the smallest non-breakable glass bottle of cooking oil) is helpful.
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said today that while the stock market has done well this year, a better economy is going to “start flowing through to working Americans next year.”
Trickle down, Tsunami up…
The continued efforts to create a militaristic police presence, being trained in “riot control” and other Gestapoesque tactics are precursors to enforce voter intimidation in the coming mid-terms (next year) and the ‘28 general elections. The turnout for recent “No Kings Day” has, no doubt, contributed to the paranoia with regard to turnout for any and all opposition that the Trmposphere no doubt sees the offing.
He’s off the wall, the rails, and his rocker…it’s up to his underhanded underlings to channel his rapturous rage into actions..
With regard to tRump running in 2028, he has admitted that the Constitution prohibits it - “If you read it, it’s pretty clear,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One enroute from Japan to South Korea. “I’m not allowed to run. It’s too bad.”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-says-its-too-bad-he-cant-run-for-a-third-term
Bookmark and save that quote, to help combat the threats and disinformation that will probably continue to suggest he can and will run.
I’m thinking of the Republican glee over what you just wrote.
Depravity ensues regularly these days, JD.
We have many good souls in the U.S. who know fully well how the authoritarian playbook works.
I just wish some of them could attend a bit to the role of schools. After all, the far-right foundations that aimed to commercialize America, to tilt its judiciary to the rich, to offshore millions of working-class jobs, and widen the wealth gap -- they all knew they needed first, above all, to dehumanize the schools. It's in the history of, and in the funding of those first years of implementing the Powell memo.
Get standardized testing to take over the now-dehumanized schools, and authoritarians can just walk over the rest of us, the rest of narcotized, anesthetized, impotent, neutered us.
Some are attending to schools Phil. They are destroying everything Ben Franklin said a functioning society should have, public schools, post offices, libraries, newspapers, and a tad of freedom, for starters. As Sam Rayburn said “any jackass can kick down a barn…”
And the rest of the world is watching it, so far fairly uninvolved. Looks like the West is going towards its final convulsions, if it can't change - and in a hurry.
any suggestions as to what we, in the 'rest of the world' should be doing, Sabine?
Boycott products and services to pressure tRump's oligarchs, and, if possible, place sanctions on tRump family businesses and accounts, similar to those placed on Putin.
good suggestion, Jane...
Nope - each to their own, I suppose, not be at the wrong time at the wrong place, all that sort of thing.
If
#ChaosCrueltyCorruption = The Republican Party
#TaxTechBroligarchy
Wow! What a WONDERFUL WORLD! The truth is, we have the power to MAKE IT a wonderful world by standing up to hate and bigotry wherever we encounter it. The state of our world will improve as we the people each make the effort to improve ourselves…be more loving, giving, caring daily to all and more, carry love and human kindness in our hearts!
How Johnson can look himself in the mirror each night is well beyond my understanding. There is no “god” that can rationalize his two faced behavior to the American people and his fellow Congress People. If this were Japan, he would be falling on his sword.
The inability to feel shame, much less compassion is the "Republican"evil superpower. Sociopathy. Integrity and solidarity are part of the antidote.
A great deal more needs to be said about this than has been.
Yes, evil is certainly evil. I grow weary of endless postings by those who keep repeating that like a mantra as though none of us have ever managed to figure that out. It does nothing to help us get from A to B. Integrity and solidarity are things practiced in small, almost imperceptible doses at first, but have powerful ramifications. Stories of guardsmen speaking out, prosecutors resigning rather than participate in shams, citizens at Republican town hall meetings telling their Congresscritters to “get their heads out of Trump’s ass” are far more powerful than most of us know.
We had all better start thinking hard about how we can multiply those effects.
I agree, I think. I am no longer interested in reading about how deranged Trump is or how leaderless Democrats are. It is important to stay informed, but after that it is crucial to stay optimistic, sane, and proactive.
Dan Rather asks whether we've now reached a tipping point as the shutdown of government, the attack on public health insurance and the illegal cancellation of SNAP all coincide. I am waiting for the Massachusetts judge ruling expected soon ordering the disbursement of the $6 billion the USDA has in reserve for precisely this moment.
https://open.substack.com/pub/steady/p/have-we-reached-the-tipping-point?r=4nyd56&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I just want people to understand, he lies, he knows he lies, republicans allow it. Forget the health stuff, the mental failing stuff, call it what it is: lies and more lies with republican persmission.
We know this. Ok?
Doom posting is akin to sitting in a foxhole obsessing over and over and over and over and over about how bad the enemy is and never doing anything about it.
He knows they know he lies. They just don’t care.
True, but we need to call it what it is. No more miss spoken, no more not what he meant.
I am one of those who keeps endlessly and uselessly posting. I also act when I can, speak out and identify as the opposition. I still believe that no act of kindness, compassion or opposition to tyranny is ever wasted.
It's called doom posting and can be quite addictive. Until we are forward thinking and stop obsessing about every single horror and getting triggered all the time we can't defeat this Administration.
Hello IBS... "If this were Japan, he would be falling on his sword."... That would be if Tinny, Tiny MJ, had any Honor....
It's really too damn bad more of my patriot ancestors didn't kill more of his southern traitor ancestors back when they had the opportunity 160 years ago.
Hello TC... Are You talking about killing more of the those that fought to Defend Human Bondage, and Rape?....
Genealogy research will find both killing each other, seems we are set to do it again
Does not have to happen. Not written. Future is ours to shape. Once the miasma that is Trump and his spiteful, angry ways go, my hope is that the fever will break. He is the spoon that stirs the pot. And for no good reason but his own bottomless need for attention.
Optimism agrees with you. I’ll try to hang on to it
He is gleeful, smirks with his triumph and thinks his God doesn’t notice.
As is the case with all vampires, he probably sees no reflection in the mirror.
Happy Halloween!
Perhaps they put him on a stool.
Well I hope Mikey Mouse does not scream, "Here I come to save the day."🤢Why did General Burkett implement Trump's order?😳Has he forgotten his oath to the Constitution?😠Galls me to no end that King Charles takes the Epstein scandal more seriously than our Pretender-in-Chief.💔
King Charles takes it seriously because he, himself, was in no way involved.
So, true. I am hoping that someone copied these files and will leak them anonymously.
https://www.c-span.org/clip/news-conference/user-clip-brave-women-recount-harrowing-epstein-events-40minvid/5171015
This press conference by brave survivors of the Epstein trafficking and abuse are compiling their own list. If they release that list of "their" names, those exposed will turn, hopefully, like rats on the others not mentioned.
Charles III is fortunate to have heirs who know the value of honor and reputation. Their names will be carved in stone.
Hear, hear, Anna! 🫱🏻🫲🏼So well said, I have no response.😇
Um,….don’t be fooled by any pretended “honor” in the British Royal Family. They are just doing the usual managing of the narrative.
No, I think Anna has it right. Charles III is fine human being, and, while one can raise HELL every once in a while, his sones are decent, too. Princess Diana deserves credit for that.
Huh? Have you forgotten the horrors of the British Empire? The American Revolution?
No, but I know good people when I see them.
Go read the discussion between David Frum and Tom Nichols at The Atlantic about how the American military is supposed to be able to define an illegal order when all the lawyers who were there to advise them have been removed. The general did not "forget his oath." It would help if more of the service avoiders on our side had a better understanding of the military they pray will save them so they don't have to save themselves actually works.
Our commander in chief is corrupt; he has no interest in leading, non whatsoever.
He has to take it seriously or he'll have a seriously diminished monarchy to hand over to his son. Unlike Kim Jong-Don, Charlie's brain is in full working order.
He's already got a seriously diminished monarchy. The percentage of Brits who still think there should be one has fallen precipitously in the past few years. I believe the latest poll showed only 51 per cent of the UK population favors keeping the monarchy - the lowest in history. And 15 per cent want to abolish it. No surprise there.
James, I think you are pushing it a bit there. Yes, popularity has taken a bit of a slide ( 54% think its ‘very’ or ‘quite’ important to have a Monarchy, only 14% favour abolition) but the underlying point is that the Monarch, and Charles in particular, is highly sensitive to the public mood, and reacts to it. Charles was slow to to defenestrate Andrew, its a big step after all, ( and a long way down) but the public is right behind him. The monarchs popularity will bounce back, it always, always, ever since Charles 1, does. And there can be no better guardrail against rampant unchecked populism ( Ethno nationalism) than a free standing monarch. Deeply ironic, but true. If you were to invent a system from scratch ( ie 1787) you would no way consider a monarchical system. And yet, given some good will, it works. And , almost unbelievably, endures.
For me, if our very own Farage takes over ( he won’t) I personally want a sane decent Monarch to act as a ( discreet but tangible) check. Its so easy to underestimate the importance of that role, outside of politics but watching and listening.
I don’t think your wannabe King guy quite gets it!!
Love your saying "defenestrate"! Hah! Seriously, I think there is an advantage to a monarchy in constitutional governance. It provides a central post of stability. I think of a tetherball game. I wish I could put up a pic. that I have made. 🤔
The pole in the center is the monarchy. The rope is popular opinion or voters' preferences as expressed (rightly or wrongly, depending upon the degree of effective enfranchisement); the ball is the politics of the day, The two kids are the two major parties -- in the case of the United Kingdom, the Tories and the Labourites -- whacking the ball seeking to steer it in the preferred direction (i.e., the Party's platform). 🫸🏐🫷
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/constitution-unit/constitution-unit-publications/constitution-unit-explainers/what-royal-prerogative
So while the donny-brook carries on, that pole remains a constant, to maintain the parameter of the game. While Charles III could intervene to give a Trump-type Prime Minister the boot, it would likely never happen, not only out of constitutional convention. 🫱🏻🫲🏼
The fusion of executive and legislative powers in the U.K. would neither permit so tainted a figure to remain in office nor likely allow it to ascend ascend to leadership of the Party. 🙏🏾
The tetherball example works for me, though, like any analogy, it is incomplete as there are influential third (Liberals) and, perhaps, fourth (The Reform) parties active in the United Kingdom, again thanks to the fusion of powers and campaign spending limited to roughly fifty million green-backs.🤭
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/party-spending-and-pre-poll-donations-and-loans-uk-parliamentary-general-election/spending-limit
Please note that my knowledge is superficial, here. I may have mis-read information available to me on British constitutionalism.
Forgive me, Jonathan. 😥 I had not read your whole comment. Bad, Ned, very bad. 🤫 Your explanation, built on a foundation of ready historical knowledge, is great.⚖️ Our wannabe King would never have risen to that position in your country. 🗽King Charles is a reserved and gentle monarch, not to be confused with irresolution. I am sure, he would step in, if need be.✌🏼
P.S., yes, the Statue of Liberty next to a comment on your government, is quite intentional. 🫱🏻🫲🏼
EDIT P.P.S., a fuzzy equivalent to tetherball in Great Britain is "swing ball". https://select.schoolspecialty.com/kelpro-in-ground-tetherball-pole-12-feet-x-1-12-inches-steel-087948
Thanks Ned. I’m far too far gone for swing ball, but your analogy to our system using a Constitutional Monarchy is excellent, no apologies needed.
However, and sadly, maybe we still hang on to a ‘good bloke’ system, from the analogue age……when we now live in a digital world with entirely new rules. Your guy gets the new rules, and a lot of ordinary Americans love him for it. Grim, but true. Our next election ( probs after yours in 2028) will be highly indicative of the way forward for the UK. (And no doubt influenced by the 2028 US election. ) Fingers crossed eh! And good luck ! No ( lousy) Kings !
Mighty Mouse, actually, but point well-taken.
Intentional re-name.😉
The fact that Trump enjoys a 41% approval rating amazes me. What would it take?
I understand this is a controversial point, and I’m not even sure I’m fully invested in it myself. But I think what it would take would be for Trump voters to truly suffer under his policies. And so I’m generally not in favor of all of these Dem efforts to save healthcare and avoid hunger. A couple of years of Depression Era conditions might move the needle. The problem, of course, is that good people will suffer as well. But it may be that Dems need to stop saving Republicans from themselves.
Having grown up among the members of the white American working class who were fucking morons in school, fucking morons when I was around them in the Navy, who were fucking morons believing Tricky Dick and calling themselves the "Silent Majority," who were fucking morons when they became "Reagan Democrats" and are now fucking moron MAGAts in their dotage, these are the people who will never "get the message."
Seems to me -- feel free to correct me if this recollection is wrong -- I remember reading somewhere that German support for Hitler was still at about 44 percent even as the Red Army branch of the Allied Saviors of Humanity was finishing the Zhukov/Konev envelopment of Berlin. (Sorry I don't have time to research it tonight.) In any case, having lived amongst the proto-MAGATS in both the South and the rural Pacific Northwest, I will attest to the absolute truth of TC's assertion they will "never get the message." I will also attest to the fact they are fanatical Christonazis -- infinitely hateful, sadistically ecogenocidal moral imbeciles who emulate the disordered personality of their messiah Donald Trump, who is as anti-social and as malignantly narcissistic as a Ted Bundy. This makes their dominance a threat to human survival, witness not only the starvation and loss of health care they have already inflicted on us, but the literal death of our Mother Earth implicit in their resumption of thermonuclear testing.
And those are their positive characteristics...
I know them well, loved a few.
I have to laugh when I read any commentary on poll numbers. The dictator has been stuck at 41% approval for the past 6 months at least, but every time a mention of poll numbers comes up, it’s always written as he’s “down to” or “fallen” to 41%. There is a base of tens of millions who no matter what want exactly what this regime is dishing out. It’s a truth about this country that’s always been there, and mostly gets glossed over. 20,00 or more showed up in Madison Square Garden in the late 1930’s roaring full-throated support for Hitler and the Nazis. The same Nazis, by the way, who took their playbook right out of the Jim Crow South in the late 1800’s. Fascism has always bubbled beneath the surface in America since its founding.
Actually, maybe "risen" to 41%?
Our national tendency toward theocratic nazification dates from two events: the import of African captives as slaves by the Crown Colony of Virginia in 1619 and the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1620. I was fortunate enough to have been raised by a father who taught me to recognize this tendency, to fear it, and to do everything I possibly could to obstruct its fulfillment – a primary reason I chose late in my 14th year to dedicate my life to journalism. I already knew the addition of "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance eight months earlier was a disguised declaration of nazification by Christian theocracy. Since the candidacy of Goldwater – whose speeches could often be accurately cross-referenced to sources in "Mein Kampf" – I have feared our methodically inflicted Ayn Rand conditioning combined with the purposeful disabling of our education system would grant our capitalist masters the ultimate slave-state fulfillment their German counterparts had sought, which we humans escaped only because Hitler's fatal attack on the Soviet Union provoked the Red Army's infinitely heroic response.
Thus I maintain the former official suppression of our national tendency toward nazification was by far our most malignant Big Lie – no less evil for being a lie by omission. Thus too, I was all the more deeply troubled when the "Democratic" (sic) Party nominated as its presidential candidate a former Goldwater Girl whose recalcitrant and maliciously camouflaged Christonazism is glaringly revealed by Jeff Sharlet on pages 272-277 of "The Family: the Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" (Harper: 2008). Additional documentation of the ecogenocidal underbelly of our national history – vital to understanding our present situation – is to be found in Steven Hahn’s “Illiberal America: a History” (W.W. Norton & Company: 2024).
The Christonazism that defines the so-called “Red States” – note the deliberate perversion of vocabulary intended to deny us the traditional usage of “Red” as a synonym for fiercely uncompromising opposition to nazism – is therefore shown to have always been the underlying ethos of the (former) United States. (The labeling of the so-called “Blue States” is – probably unavoidably – a bit less deceptively confusing than “Red State” because “Bluecoats” was a Confederate pejorative for the soldiers [including both my maternal great-grandfathers] who fought the pro-slavery traitors to preserve the Republic and its constitution). But the “Blue States” are now the anomalies, and We the ("Blue State") People are therefore now the declared “enemies within.” Which is precisely why der neu Führer is invading us with “Red State” armies – to reverse the (first) Civil War and make certain all remnants of our Declaration-of-Independence humanitarianism and its constitutional protections are forever exterminated and thus “perish from the earth.”
I believe this is already happening and will soon accelerate greatly, regardless of whether anybody wants it to or not. They’ve set in motion real-life suffering on a very large scale, ironically in some of the reddest counties and regions in the country. It doesn’t make an iota of sense.
Planned, deliberate and with malice. Who knew. They told us…
It is their intention to beggar us and destroy our civilization.
It makes perfect sense if you accept that premise and the Christian Nationalists'
goals.
I was talking about us, not them.
I have never wished hunger, deprivation or despair on anyone, even those whose political behavior I may despise. But disaster is coming for those who supported him, whether any of *us* want it to or not.
I was just replying to "it doesn't make any sense" Of course it doesn't to
any rational person that thinks that we have a system, admittedly flawed,
that is, "the worst form of government EXEPT for all others ..." it is mt strong impression that the Federalists, Christian Nationalists and others will willingly destroy our government and our culture to achieve their ends. I also wish no ill upon the sorry lot of the MAGA cult. Their leaders no longer need them.
Right now they, the leaders seek disaster for us all.
I believe we share the same opinion.
We have to continue to support the schools and feed and educate the children; it doesn’t matter who lies about it; local government must continue to function.
Seems that the repubs are getting what they want and their worshippers are the targets as well. Boo hoo
Amen.
Agree. There are perhaps 30% that will stick with Trump even if they end up suffering. Our only hope is that remaining 10 to 12%.
It is going to take massive voter turnout in the mid terms to take back the House and get some Representatives who are dedicated to removing the Putin Puppet. And it is going to take more of us interacting with Republican Senators to make sure that they know we are not buying their bullshit. They need to know that we are coming for them…and that we will do it within the law!
Not sure why, but it’s very suddenly struck me reading this how determined the Epstein survivors are to get those files published NOW. And I don’t think they’d be doing that to nail Bill Clinton or Bill Gates. Yes, of course, they want transparency in general. But I can’t help but think that they’re desperate to expose Trump’s role in the whole thing.
Margaret, for quite a while now, I have been thinking if Democrats like Clinton are prominently in those files, the Republicans would have released them by now
Absolutely!
I am with you, Lynell, on that thought.
Well, Republicans are nothing but allegations and innuendo and if they publish anything that disputes those they would have nothing.
We already know that Bill Clinton is a horndog. Trump gains nothing by outing him. He is terrified of having exposed what he knows is in those files about HIMSELF.
Yes, Linda. My point is when Pam Bondi, etc., read the files (that were on her desk, remember?) she apparently did not find many, if any, Democrats who she thought needed to be exposed.
They've nailed 'Prince' Andrew.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/30/prince-andrew-leave-royal-lodge-windsor
This news will send a shiver down Mike Johnson's spine (assuming he has one).
He has no spine.
We need them to succeed in exposing the truth.
Yes Margaret, we know that they truly are just itching to get the truth out… but think of the cost of the fruitless lawsuits they will have to pay and sustain. It’s not just the courage we know that they have.
Trump continues to be crystal clear about his plans to become a dictator. And the Republican Congress refuses to object. But will his race to become dictator outpace his clear and present dangerous mental deterioration which no one can deny?
His insane instruction to start underground nuclear weapons testing is surely a sign of this that's too hard even for Senate Republicans to ignore.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5582215-trump-nuclear-weapons-testing-putin-congress/
Imperial farce is taking place all around, just as surely as the fantasies of dictatorship continue to proliferate.
There’s an element of Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor” going on here, with the child emperor Pu Yi crapping into his diapers while astrologers at the Chinese imperial court peer into his baby shit for divination clues. An Empress Dowager (Stephen Miller?) resting on a golden palanquin, surrounded by ladies-in-waiting rules over scores of terrified eunuchs all plotting against us as well as each other. The court is filled with scores of courtiers envisioning a nation filled with kowtowing millions just outside the Forbidden City.
However much they want something like this, it is not a vision that holds the slightest resonance with American history or society.
Meanwhile. What are you and/or community doing to address the upcoming cancellation of SNAP?
We can either use these comments as a place where people play author or we can promote ways to fight back, promote activism and share information.
San Francisco developed a plan to funded by the city and a private sector foundation. Hopefully their model can be duplicated by other communities. For smaller and rural areas some big pockets with big hearts could contribute along with massive donations to food banks. BTW I had nightmares last night.
I saw that in California. My Democratic Governor in Kentucky is also being proactive. Wendy I am truly sorry for your nightmares. We will prevail. One way or another. We will prevail.
Are you sure about that. Seems to have been an undercurrent for much of my life.
We aren’t doing Christmas presents this year. We are boycotting corporations and buying local. We are giving to our local food banks to help our neighbors get through this. My kids and I talked about it and agreed that’s what we want do.
We haven’t been as engaged with our community as we ought to be. That is going to change.
Do NOT give Trump what he wants! Rather than yelling at ICE agents... sing songs... throw flowers (worked in the 1960s)... dance around them... wear inflatable animal costumes. Do NOTHING that could be called "threatening behavior"!!!
We should learn from Dr King, Gandhi, but also the young people who protested the Vietnam War (my flower reference). The most "aggressive" behavior we should engage in is ... laughing at them. But do NOT give them cause to arrest you. We must prevent Trump being able to declare a state of emergency at all costs!
It appears that it won't matter that the protests are largely peaceful. The government is determined to create a context in which they can use violence and they're getting help from content-creators.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/16/rightwing-influencers-trump-antifa
And they're shooting at people now.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/30/ice-agents-southern-california-shooting
All the while, they create emergencies where there were none. They can hire rioters, and have, but we can laugh and cry at the same time.
I agree - kill them (metaphorically) with kindness. Used effectively, kindness can shame cruelty.
You forgot that the Korean menu included a minor dish hidden at the end of all the Great Korean Cuisine the Toddler-in-Chief would never eat was "mounds of beef with catsup." They gave him a Burger King Crown and a Happy Meal. And he has no clue in hell they all went to bed last night laughing their asses off at how easy "The World's Most Powerful And Important Man" is to take for a ride.
That was a true moment of hilarity wrapped in satire hidden in a box of oleaginous contempt, similar to that ‘Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride’ moment when King Charles put him in that little bumpety-bump golden carriage for a pony ride at Windsor Castle. Mockery within deadly seriousness.
I think the world long ago figured out how to handle him, even as their sense of fear and unease about America has risen. Lots of child-minders, unctuous flattery, oily obsequiousness. It does appear to work, at least partially.
All repubs are laughing as he takes his shit show on the road. Gleeful and so happy as they have waited 40+ years for this. And they get to blame Dems. Can’t get better than that.
Thank you! As always!
And my normal (which I can’t post on Facebook because I’m in a commenting ban 🤪) -
I added a calendar on my spreadsheet so we can target our calls/letters/emails/faxes to flood offices in an organized manner.
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Nokings) as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. We deserve better ❤️🩹🤍💙
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Damn Megan, I got banned permanently, after a couple of short bans. Blue Sky works for me. But Zuck still has the numbers.
Oof I don’t want that to happen. Facebook is where I share my family life with my extended family and friends. Maybe I’ll make a separate kinda “work” ish account
I do miss some family. Some are dead now, so the numbers are diminishing. Lots of cognitive dissonance and more coming I fear. More than old age, sad to say
It blows my mind that 2 out of every 5 presumably sensate adults still think Trump is doing a good job. (I wonder if these numbers are skewed by the way the polls are conducted and who responds to them.) The number of people who are either in the cult or just completely clueless is dispiriting. We must use every peaceful tool at our disposal to push back against the insanity.
Propaganda works. And the cult sucks
There are still too many people who live to do nothing but hate and cause harm to others. He’s their hero.
Just before meeting with China's Xi Jinping trump announced "the U.S. would begin the testing of nuclear weapons again for the first time in decades". https://www.npr.org/2025/10/30/nx-s1-5590818/trump-nuclear-testing
This is beyond dangerous and must not be tolerated. We don't play games with nukes. The man belongs in a strait jacket not occupying the WH. All of his behaviors, statements, and actions are certifiably batshit crazy. That he has the nuclear codes and is playing games with nuclear powers China, Russia and loose cannon North Korea is terrifying. He is already attacking U.S. cities without impunity.
And, note top trump officials (Stephen Miller, Marco Rubio, Kristi Noem, and others) have moved to military bases.
I knew that one year ago, before we put the evil on the throne. So did anyone with an IQ over 30
I agree -- and it should have made the headlines in the MSM -- scary indeed. Ditto what he's doing with Venezuela. He's actively trying to start wars - all the while bragging about all the imaginary wars he's stopped.
Geez, if we ever had to protect the gene pool that group sure isn't going to enhance the survival of mankind!!!
Is ANYTHING these rotten-to-the-core Rs are doing or saying getting through to the majority of low information voter types? I can't tell.
I would sure like to believe that they're at least beginning to see it amid all the lies and BS. 🤷♀️
Have any of them ever "seen the facts" in 250 years?
Not that I've seen... :-(
Yeah, that's what is so dismaying to me.
I don't think we can get out of this nightmarish Groundhog Day until those people hit a real pain point.
Yet, I fear even then they will likely as a whole still blame the Democrats, Karen...ugh!
Morning, Lynell. You're right, they will blame Democrats and the Democratic Party for all their evil carp.
Morning, Ally!
ICYMI, here's my U.S. Rep Suhas Subramanyam's very short post on FB. We need humor during these dark times, and he delivers!
https://www.facebook.com/reel/849544017427852
That is funny!!!
Trump to America: I'm taking away your health care and food. Pick the one you want most. Maybe I'll give it back.
just like a mobster.....Be a shame if something were to happen to your store.....give us some money to keep that from happening.....
Thanks Dr. Richardson, everyone seems to think the most important name in those Epstein files will be DJ Trump. But I'm looking forward to the revelation of the uber wealthy business, corporate, entertainment, and other political scum bags who participated in these sexual abuses of girls under the age of 18. trump slime is just one of the many scum bags who participated in these years of abuse. I want their names, businesses. corporations and yes, their families, exposed to their shame. And shame and disgust is all anyone should feel toward every last stinking one of them. They aren't pitiful, they aren't repentant, treat them as the slime balls they are.
Exactly, Fay. That there are so many leaders, both political and non-political, who have resisted the release of the files by remaining silent - and silence is tacit approval, in my book, and a sign they may be in the files - could be a devastating blow to a large portion of 'elite' society. I, too, am looking forward to the day.
The web is wide
I suspect that while the criminal abuse of children will get the lions share of the publicity, the money laundering aspect may end up being the most damaging (from a national, not from the victim's more personal level) component to these files. It is one thing to have powerful men rape children who were trafficked*; that major financial institutions turned a blind eye to the proceeds from those ill-gotten gains.
*If I may be so bold as to say "no shit, Sherlock" to powerful men raping children...