I wholeheartedly agree! musk & trump are sadistic psychopaths who clearly don’t have a conscience. They’re obsessed with avarice, power & ultimately despotism.
Sadly, any vote for other than Donald J TrumpMusk doesn’t count…because he is in the White House. I did not vote for him either..but every dayI ask myself “could I have done more?” We are collectively responsible as a nation, and we are collectively responsible to fight back in any way that we can.
42% of the Latino vote. The Washington Post printed an article on someone who entered the country illegally and says she voted for Trump so he could stop others from entering the county illegally. WHAT???
Not did I. He won again by cheating, threatening people, and voter suppression. There were tens of millions more people voting in 2020 versus 2024. That's the only way that he can win because he only has his maggot supporters. The rest he gets to vote for him by threats and intimidation!
anil ; they cheated and have more "speech" and power. blaming the victims is not helpful at all. they hacked the 2024 election, and clamped down on media so much that there is not a peep (except one Democrat Congressman Dan Goldman,) asking for an investigation. Hey, Death threats work.
Find the evidence of cheating. They did not "clamp down" on the media, which is all owned by corporations, and just did what their corporate masters told them to do. ABC caved because Disney didn't want trouble from DJT.
" find the evidence of cheating" , Donald Trump boasted that PA was his, because of Elon Musk's computer skills. Also there is nothing like ownership to allow "clamping down " on anything. Like the media, for example.
David, your comment and the list is terrific. Thank you. I have this from the late, great Phil Donahue during the Iraq War. He was an MSNBC host at that time.
"Corporate media shapes our opinions and our coverage. MSNBC were terrified of the anti-war voice. And it's not an understatement. Anti-war voices were not popular. And if you're General Electric you certainly don't want an anti-war voice on a cable channel that you own. Donald Rumsfeld (Defense Secretary) is your biggest customer. Btw, I had to have two conservatives on for every liberal. I could have Richard Pearl (hawk) on alone, but I couldn't have Dennis Kucinich on alone. He was considered two liberals. I wasn't good for business.
MSNBC had Phil Donahue fired in 2003. "The NBC secret memo said they didn't want their flagship show to be Phil Donahue when the other networks were waving the flag."
"Btw, that memo was written by a Republican focus group. A Republican counseling group that took the focus group revealed that most of the people in the focus group didn't like me." --- Phil Donahue
We have a long history of political apathy and misogyny + racism... Many of us worked our hearts out for Kamala Harris. Adlai Stevenson once remarked: "It's not enough that every intelligent American votes for me - I need a majority."
I believe Stevenson said the votes of "every THINKING American" was not enough to elect him. Intelligence and thinking - a subtle difference there, to me. Intelligent people can stop thinking much if they feel they've already got the truth as handed down by parents, schools, tribe, etc.
The NSA needs to move on and destroy Musk's entire business network. If he and his wrecking crew ever presume to enter their campus, they should ensure those clowns never leave.
I posted that just in case any NSA happen to be around looking for antisocial comments or participating in some way. Unlike many, I really want them to see what I have to say about this self-inflicted cluster-dumpster fire truck!
Yes, God help us. Thanks for the blessing, anil. Now please, turn your anger toward the fleecers, not the fleeced. We are fighting as hard as we can. And we will win or die.
You really should listen to Gregory Palast' findings on how votes were suppressed in the swing states, namely the black vote. He doesn't say Musk's STARLINK had anything to do with it though. Palast is a Forensic accountant/ Investigative journalist so I take him at his word. He definitively stated that Kamala Harris in fact, won the presidency and connected the dots. Vigilante, Inc. is an interesting watch. Dems have no spine. They are so busy trying to look like the "good guys" that they're being pissed on and told it's only rain.
There's an interview with Steve Bannon out there that's very telling, too, but predictable. He talks about the strategy of keeping them so confused that they don't know their @$$ from their elbow! There was a term he used (escapes me right now) that is SPOT ON. They are playing dirty checkers, not even chess. It's like they're throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. Kinda like a "smash and grab".
You're right. Greg Palast, former economist, turned journalist said if all legal votes were counted Harris won. However, i understand he refused to speak up or go on TV to publicize what he found. I'm wondering why?
Dems have no spine? I guess you don't watch C-SPAN. The Democratic Senators did an all. nighter to oppose Vought for OMB. All the Republican Senators confirmed him any way, but the Dems did all they could. The people who voted gave the Republicans control of the House and Senate. I am into praising them for what they still have the power to do. How come Democrats so often trash their own?
Actually we didn't Voters don't vote "yes" for women's autonomy & other protections for people & also "yes" for the predator/grifter as president...I would love to see all those hard copy ballots that voters cast. Prove to me they exist...musk flitting around like a butterfly doing his damage wouldn't surprise me at all..and nobody is stopping him..that in itself is telling at best
Voting isn't always based on issues either; 'hunk versus non-hunk' and 'babe versus non-babe' races exist too, 'for voters of a certain mindset' - I'm of a mind to suspect that the former took place in our U.S. House district about 10 or so weeks back. The 'buff family man in camo with a helicopter he wants to go to war with China in' beat the sane guy, and it wasn't even close.
And the sad thing is that NOT half of the Americans are supportive of him. It's those who voted for him, those who cast a protest vote against both leading candidates, and those who DIDN'T vote. Not all of America supports him but because of our damn electorial college - and whatever data breach the Musk rats did, this monster became elected. It's shameful.
Too many stupid, many more ignorant, uninformed, misinformed (lied to) or too busy trying to earn a living to pay attention, but I understand why we may all be lumped into the same pot. Many of us are still in shock, those who did pay attention.
Please be civil. And remember that Elon rigged the 'vote counting machines' according to Trump, so you can't point at all Americans, and even all Republicans who didn't vote for Trump.
You are correct for more than half of voters. They flaunted their Trump and anti-Kamala yard signs, and there were a lot of them. Some are still up on flagpoles! They and right-wing social media are so stupid they stink.
The role of decades of hate radio is a variable as well, from Father Coughlin forward (chronologically, that is, as obviously the mentality is retrograde).
"In 1986, a shocking account of what was then the WACL was published. Inside the League by investigative journalists Scott and John Lee Anderson, brothers who grew up in Taiwan, documented the WACL’s involvement with Nazi war criminals, assassins, gangsters, and Central American death squad commanders."
Correct. The photo shows him talking into a WJR microphone. "The great voice of the Great Lakes. 50 thousand watts. They had creeps like Rush Limbaugh on every day. Highly influential right-wing talk (hate) radio has creeps like him, Hannity, Savage, etc. who have a massive soliloquy, day after day after day, WITH NO REBUTTAL. And people quickly believe every word of that shit. If you told them that the moon was made out of cheese, they would believe it. Also Fox News prime time shows are the propaganda arm of the Trump administration. WJR spews endless hours of right-wing sewage. "Now a word from our sponsor."
As my comment yesterday was buried: My brother received his S.S. Disability check, $400 was deducted from an already paltry sum he struggles surviving on. DOGE has begun, & my 1st thoughts were, magats will complain & this could sort it out. Then my skepticism intuits--What if it doesn't affect their damn constituents? With A.I. tools, can they possibly sort thru voter profiles--who voted R, who voted D, & punish D people only?? This is the modern version of Death Camps.
Ruling class wants rid of the 'unproductive'. No difference between the selection ramp at Auschwitz and the blanket DNR notices and various end of life protocols, and other sophisticated allopathic strategies that operate without people's consent, that hasten death in today's Western world. I hope your brother will be OK. He is important and worthy.
Putting people into desperate situations makes crime go up, too. I'm waiting to see if they are capable of separating this death sentence to strike only Democrats. Thanks Polly, I'm advocating for him & contacting our Senators, so forth. Getting the message out is important.
That's why we need to push back hard! What is visible from them is a smoke screen. We need to watch Stephen Miller closely. 47 and Muskrat s*** are mere puppets!
They're not viewed as traitors because it wasn't a coup. It's an organised transition into Mussolini-style fascism with the help of all political parties and government structures. The ruling class who owns everything including the media and the narrative, are defending their dominance as capitalism crumbles. America is no more.
A coup doesn’t have to have a military component in this day and age. If Muck manages to gain control of most government functions from the inside, it's a coup.
Could this be a State Capture? Where oligarchs take over a government by using its own laws to accomplish it. Turkey in 2002, South Africa (Gupta Family), Bulgaria, Serbia, Latin countries, and others. All in the last 20 years. The common denominator is Russia. King Shitpants just stopped all Russian oligarch investigations and seizures of property. State Captures are pure corruption. Democracy doesn't exist.
Bourgeois 'democracy' is a version of Arbeit Macht Frei, along with meritocracy; a way for the prison camp to run itself so the ruling class can sit back and relax. Marx predicted capitalism couldn't last and the ruling class, who are globally unified, heeded his warnings. They're preparing a post capitalist future to ensure they stay on top via digital slavery or a back-up plan, Christofascism (Handmaid's Tale). That's what we're seeing now, hence dehumanization of LGBT+ and destruction of women's rights, and the simultaneous promotion of cashless society, digital ID and demonization of those who aren't on the grid (immigrants).
To understand how it's possible see Gramsci's 'Cultural Hegemony' theory. It's why Democrats, Republicans, media, judiciary, academics, even celebrities are servants of the ruling class. All roads lead to the ruling class. The infolding situation in the US is organic and reveals a more honest version of the prison camp. Everything before - our whole lives - has been a delusion, a lie.
Thank you for your comment. You're not wrong. I'm looking up your suggested reading. It's a neoliberal world. It always has been. They want the Constitution to say one thing...we own your ass. Politicians are slaves to the ruling class. Republicans don't give a fuck what the majority thinks. Democrats throw us a few carrots, but, still side with corporate capitalists. That's become clear as daylight when they refused to organize. I don't think the Civil War ever ended. It's rolled out in phases (Southern Economic Development Model www.epi.org) throughout the decades. Amerikkka. Hope is a luxury. But, this didn't happen in a vacuum, as you pointed out.
I'm fighting back. But, for too long, it feels like I'm punching air. I'm fighting for my biracial grandchildren, my daughters, and their daughters. Resist. We're are on our own. It's going to take a ground swelling grassroots united front to put a dent in this. No one is coming to rescue us. Invincible ignorance fallacy has been normalized and accepted.
As a Federal Whistleblower of DoD waste (some of it Top Secret...I found in 1987) I found as a SWQA engineer(aka "it was kinda my job to find it")... while my (MAGA-like)co-workers plotted violence against Anti-War protestors... I lost my job AND MY HEROIC ACTION BOUGHT ME ***NOTHING*** WITH ANYONE...!!!
Is America too dumb to recognize HEROIC ACTION unless their tribe recognizes it?
I've many examples of America being too dumb to recognize HEROIC ACTION unless their tribe recognizes it, (some of)"present company excepted!"
My Point: I see NO MENTION OF THE ONLY PEOPLE UNIQUELY QUALIFIED TO ROOT OUT CORRUPTION at the day to day operational level... WHISTLEBLOWERS!!!
🫣⚖️🤯😳😁💡🥷🤔🕵️
Our BEST HOPE(based on the history of Nader's Raiders) to fix multiple Federal Agencies(damaged by Musk, etc) is to RE-EMPOWER a NEW NADER'S RAIDERS... fortunately LAW SCHOOL APPLICANTS are eager to SPICE UP THEIR APPLICATIONS by following our WINNING FORMULAs.. Subscribe to play a key role in our pivotal FOCUS GROUP!!!
No body is stepping up! The whistle blowers have stopped blowing their whistles because what these creeps are doing is being reported as NORMAL NEWS on all of the right-wing media! American citizens hear it as if it were normal everyday occurrences!
Understood, I spent 8 years, 1999-2007, fighting Christian Nationalists from the local RCC at my public college employer, despite have a couple of feet of FOIAed documents that proved everything I was claiming - they REALLY hated me for that, and like Trump, it was "delay, delay, delay..." 'Oh, we don't have any time to schedule any arbitration THIS year...'
Fortunately for me, the arbitrator was smarter than all of those from the administration collectively, and it was a real pleasure to go back to work, full-time, which I never had been before.
For the three I read, Cody, you seem to write very short posts with no recommendations or suggestions. IMO, it would be more useful if you said more about your ideas AND offered solutions.
Reich:"How to stop this? The first step is to understand it."
Me:"How to stop this? The first step is to PREVENT it."
💓Reich💓:"...allow me to take a longer-term view...“fucking nightmare” is not all bad if ... people getting clubbed [are exercising Hollywood's ability to make MILLIONS SUING TRUMP😁😁😁😁]..."
💓Reich💓 :"The only real firewall against the Trump regime... judges..."...
Me:"The only real firewall against the Trump regime in 2016 were teams of actors faking out judges with videos they staged of "expensive fights" between "MAGA" actors and actors playing the protesters at his rallies... protesters Trump incited violence against... while promising to "pay the legal fees" of the perpetrators😁😁😁😁👍
Here is the documentary ( by UC Berkeley professor ) of the thwarting of the part of democracy that should have prevented Trump in the first place:
Note: It seems like it would have been easy to fool the MAGA that witnessed the "expensive fights" to testify that the "expensive injuries" were real😁😁😁😁
In 2015 I envisioned hundreds of teams of actors fighting each other...
each team with their own Ambulance... driving off after pulling off the "Perfect Caper" ... like the final scene from the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE TV shows...
Respectfully stated, you cannot depose a dictature peacefully.
That is actually the great trap democracy: that if we act like them we are no better.
The distinction is that we demand that laws be respected. Laws that we have all agreed on.
They, on the other hand, break every rule and law. That's not a level playing field. We need to know what we believe in: that we are a country of LAWS and that those who break them have to be punished.
Nowhere YET. You are trying to put the cart ahead of the horses: First you build a resistance movement, then you press. By that time, enough people are convinced that the regime is evil that you will be able to effect arrests.
Remember that intimidation is a tool that they have been using with impunity. But the thing about intimidation: When it comes from a dictator, it makes enemies of the masses.
When intimidation comes from the masses, dictators start quaking in their boots. Trump has already backed down on a couple of things.
Call your members of Congress, your State representatives and make good trouble If they are Republicans keep them on the line as long as possible, but when you write, show your outrage and your desire to off them [Only not in those terms! you could get in bad trouble] I ask them: what so you think you are doing: The country is not with you: Your dictator was put in power by the skinniest of margins. You don't have a "mandate" to be a dictator, and YOU ARE INVITING VIOLENCE. [or words to that effect]
The way to threaten violence safely is to indicate that the mood of the country has soured a great deal since the election, and that We The People have had all we can take of their fuck*ng "austerity for thee but not for me".
I do not normally swear, but swearing does convey anger much better than reasoning does. Try it: It is cathartic!
Cecile, any time I am hit with really bad news, I react very emotionally. My comments today are my reacting from my anger over all of this. Be assured, once I have cooled off a little bit, I will get right back to work doing all the things you have suggested. Right now, I am just so damn angry I want to physically hit something! You are right, swearing is cathartic and believe you me, I have let loose a string of vulgarities my mother would have blushed and washed my mouth out with soap!
You make great sense, Cecile. My worry, though, is that we don't have time to build a resistance, because of Muck's access to government computer systems. This is a VERY BIG DEAL, more so than probably 90% of the electorate realizes. We don't know how far his team of hackers has gotten, but at the very least, goverment employees have been locked out, the hackers are installing new codes, and they've accessed at least some classified information. Our time to mount an opposition could be extremely limited. Also, we don't know how much data has been copied and sent to Muck's server farms, but it would be advisable to assume that he's gotten all the good stuff.
I believe that when those like us think of "them', this is what comes to mind:
"On a call with investors earlier this week, Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp—fresh off a week of stock surges—was euphoric. “We’re doin’ it!” he yelled, arms spread wide. “And I’m sure you’re enjoying this as much as I am!”
The “it” in question? It seemed to be a reference to enabling President Donald Trump’s administration to carry out mass deportation and police surveillance domestically, while aiding the “West” globally—actions that, “on occasion,” Karp said on the call, may involve the need to “kill.”
“I’m very happy to have you along for the journey,” the CEO said. “We are crushing it. We are dedicating our company to the service of the West and the United States of America, and we’re super-proud of the role we play, especially in places we can’t talk about.”
“Palantir is here to disrupt,” he continued. “And, when it’s necessary, to scare our enemies and, on occasion, kill them.” "
Using the power of the presidency to reward and punish companies, or to SEEM TO BE IN A POSITION to willingly use such power, is a terrific way to leverage the power of the presidency to gain more power, and Trump is doing that. The pressure for companies to suck up and fall in line can be tremendous lest they be put by the administration at disadvantage to their competitors. These things can be fought by lawsuits and boycotts and public opinion but the damage in the interim can be high.
"flying of any form of the Jolly Roger tended to instill the necessary fear in whatever ship was being attacked that they would surrender immediately. In one extreme example, in 1720, famed pirate Bartholomew Roberts sailed into a harbor at Trepassey, Newfoundland with a black flag flying. This resulted in the crews of all 22 vessels in port panicking and abandoning their ships. Combined, Roberts would have been no match for them, but the necessary fear was invoked from seeing the black flag that they all fled without a fight."
Thanks, Eugene. The GOP might be dangerous if they have ANY sense of irony. (Though they, unfortunately, sometimes have more than a little sense of history.)
You could perhaps be a little more like them. The Senate Democrat's all-nighter to signal their displeasure with the nomination of a Christian Nationalist crackpot is one example. The House Democrats' promise to hold up the budget talks when the government runs out of money next month is another. This will buy time for the blizzard of legal challenges to bite.
But why didn't the senators do 5 or 10 all nighters in a row? Why have so many cabinet appointees been approved already if the senators had the right to make speeches and delay the votes?
I honestly don't know how the Democrats strategize these things. They keep saying that they have to choose their battles carefully, but meanwhile Trump runs amok. Today, Smerconish on CNN opined that it would be a mistake for Democrats to go to war on the cancelling of foreign aid because it's not popular. This is nauseatingly weak in my view. You have thousands of aid workers being paid for doing nothing. You have large shipments of food rotting in ports and warehouses. You have more than one million insecticide-treated bed nets in a warehouse in Ethiopia that, along with antimalarial drugs and diagnostics, it now can’t deploy. Trump's got Musk on an efficiency gig but money is being wasted hand over fist right now by the administration's own daft policies.
One thing you can say about the Trump team: they are dynamic. It's all bad but it is dynamic. They have attracted/assembled a swirling ball of the most opportunistic (Gabbard),disgusting, corrupt,and wealthiest amongst us. A spiderweb of corruption. But there is alot of innovation in new ways to steal from and dismember the government.
Dem leadership needs to think outside of their institutional box and bring in more people with youth energy and fresh ideas to meet the immediate challenge. I could go for some Goldwater extremism in the defence of liberty. Whatever works.
It's hard to find a strategy behind this cascade of executive and administrative action. Are they trying to get as much done as possible before the whole house of cards collapses whereupon they can fall back on the insidious power of the Deep State to thwart their ambitions? Or are they just monumentally stupid? When will their own supporters begin to wonder what all this has to do with the price of eggs?
It's a strategy to gain as much power as possible. A dictatorship if they can make (and keep) it. They are smart enough to pull it off if "we" don't stop them. Especially if the GOP in Congress aids and abets.
As for SCOTUS, the jury is out on whether there is some shit Roberts won't eat. If they gain greater control of media all will be lost I think.
Next up: the SAVE ACT. aka "Put white nationalist men in power everywhere forever" act.
Well, they have the power already, at least for the time being. I understand the objective - to reduce the administrative state. But the way they've gone about it is barmy. I see the first major stumbling block in the budget negotiations. The Federal Reserve is warning about the likelihood of higher inflation. I know that it seems like they've accomplished much in around two weeks (of working days) but it's just 'flooding the zone with shit'. They've hardly managed to do one sensible thing since they came into office. Of course, what they've done has been hugely damaging and completely unconscionable, but by diminishing the capacity of the adminstrative state Trump has also made it almost impossible to govern the country safely and competently. What I'm seeing is not a devious strategy being carried out ruthlessly and efficiently but sheer bloody chaos.
Tut, tut, I would never suggest anything like that. Even the Washington Post (bless their little sycophantic hearts) have resumed fact-checking the Orange FartMeister. It's tedious but necessary to keep pointing out that what Trump is saying is utter rubbish.
DOGE is just another plan to take from the poor and give the funds to the MAGA PARTY Corporations Rich, “ Look at all the fun musk is having playing with others ( people and countries) financial lives”. This is a classic steal from the Working Poor and Give the wealth to the Rich. NO Congressional Oversight; Mike Johnson has Personally heard From God telling Him this is what he should Do; Be Trumpet 🎺 Accessory before and after the Fact . Mike Johnson publicly Swore an Oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States 🇺🇸.
I'm a bit surprised there isn't more posted here about tariffs as CONSUMPTION TAX, much like the FLAT TAX Steve Forbes try to sell America in 1996.
And we should never forget that this is a very specific GIFT from Trump to "his" billionaires.
Say, (very simplified) if Bezos were to make $10B this year, but manage to "get by" spending only $1B. In that event, 90% of his annual income will receive no "tariff tax".
But I suspect it's pretty obvious that much of America will be paying 100%. And of course, that's the entire point.
And if they pass a FLAT TAX on top of the tariffs? I doubt many billionaires have ever received such a gift in history.
Wednesday, at the noon rally at the state capitol, there was a probably 20 something guy with a small, (appeared to be commercially made) sign which stated "Shoot your local fascist."
We're watching in horror from Australia, Nicole, while after having just seen 'The DOGE of Washington's' (while apologies to Venetian magistrates!) latest tweet on his X which ends with a cry about the "the revolution of the people", this foul thing could easily have been written and declaimed by Maximilian Robespierre in France's Assembly in 1789. That said, Trump and his upstarts are of course radical Jacobin's, while hopefully as with their French precursors, they'll turn on each other in the end, with 'Elon Robespierre' being among the first to be sent to the guillotine by Trump (who shares a few similarities with the loud and bullish Georges Danton), while Musk will now have more blood on his hands than the now regrettably Senate approved 'Junior' given that number of persons who will die as a direct consequence to the appalling USAID cuts that he has made before he abolishes it entirely.
That’s a beautiful comparison, Marcus. Though Elon is giving me Louis XVI vibes, don’t you think? Well, Louis ended on the Guillotine as well, so it probably doesn’t matter. Tyrants never face a good end.
It's end stage capitalism. America is transitioning to Mussolini-style fascism / digital slavery. Democrats and the Republicans are on board, as are the police, the military, academia, the judiciary and the global media. It could be said that this is the class war to end all class wars. Global Ruling Class are united against the global proletariat, who are fragmented. We see this exemplified by Musk's Tesla factory in Germany that destroyed a forest. Musk complained that the German police were too soft on anti-Tesla protestors. (RC vs proletariat.)
The same patterns and dynamics are repeating as pre WW2. I predict the RC will win this time. They will get their global Huxleyian digital slave plantation - the world will become dotted with smart cities built to contain the consenting slaves who will serve the 'elite'. Gaza will be rebuilt as the prototype smart city.
I don't think everybody is on board at all.This is demonstrably false.
But if we don't keep it together it would be evidence that a party control style of government like China is superior to the American political economy re climate change. China is committed to fighting climate change, and we are not at this point. Getting down to the real nitty gritty-- this is what counts going forward more than anything else, though it may not seem like it to many. That will change as the climate further deteriorates.
Following the bourgeois coup of 1976 China became a capitalist sweatshop to service the world, which is why US companies invested in China and it's why poverty co-exists with billionaires. See Foxconn anti-suicide nets and Shein slave labour garment factories. Meanwhile a capitalist 'pollution change' catastrophe and a brutal class war rages unchallenged by the bourgeoisie because the bourgeois middle classes seek to preserve their class position by blaming the victims of capitalism rather than capitalism itself. There are a million homeless people trying to survive in the US right now. Every day twenty of those people will die. Focusing solely on climate change is another way of saying that you don't care about the working class and that you are superior.
Perhaps - the next time you're in Africa - you could explain to child labourers whilst they are digging through mud for lithium with their bare hands in ruined landscapes, how their labour is protecting their own future. Similarly, you could lecture the street children who live in mountains of discarded capitalist obsolescence that leeches toxins into the soil and water table, how their scavenging is noble.
No Including King Trumpet 🎺 his self Knows what going to happen for sure, there are many considerations , what the victims have to retaliate with, what the markets are for the other Billionaires, what kind of money has/or will change hands.
Musk bought in for about 1/2 Billion before and after the election. A Foreign Principle can Expect about a pad of 1 To 2 Billion . Payment in Kind could run more or less depending on potential forward revenue…
I hit LIKE on your comment. But who has the power to "seize their money and put them in prison"? Four federal indictments were never brought to trial. I know you know this. I NEEDED to say it, though. I see this as the continuing campaign to overthrown our government.
Well that about sums it up. The real enemy of the people is the Republican Party because they have enabled these two millionaires at birth to destroy our country!
They could, but won’t stop them. And every single Republican, currently in Congress needs to pay with their careers, voted out at the next opportunity and blamed in perpetuity.
So there will be no 2026 election? There will be no more Democracy? Lawlessness, greed and corruption have won? The only thing I can do right now is just make sure my kids are alright. I hate all of this and I hate that nobody with any authority gives a shit and refuses to stand up to that POS!
Thank you for linking to this article from the Atlantic which I found yesterday too. Wanted to link but did not work. I - as a German/Canadian - was reading this with horror and it shows exactly that they use the same playbook. And it was already obvious in 2016. Now and already then, he uses over and over the same expressions as the Hitler Regime. I cannot understand why he was able to run again, but I guess the complicity of the Republicans and the business world made it possible. Same as in 1933 and following.
Achieving Honorable Democracy, that is so true, but every single election since that orange man entered the picture, those same republicans get voted back in over and over!
Good point, Achieving. We have gotten to the point that if they are not with us, they are against us.
I have 2 Republicans representing my interests [not] at the local level.
They are a lot more mellow than Insurrectionist Senator Ron Johnson at the Federal level, but guess what: they pay dues to the Republican Party so as to have a career, so yes, they too are enemies, and they need to hear that as long as they support all this nonsense, they made my sh*t list.
We have a business on main St. in our town who sells delicious pulled pork sandwiches. I won't buy any: Every penny I would give to his business might be sucked by the RNC. I won't shed a tear if he goes under.
We know who they are. They had one of the the least productive Congresses in history. Why didn’t people vote Congressional Republicans out in November?
But considering that THE SOUTHERN STRATEGY was "activated" > 60 years ago, there was little chance of turning it back at this late stage.
(The Southern Strategy is a Lee Atwater (and others) plan to inflame "Christian" racial hate toward the very people who did the most to make much of America wealthy (thinking Deep South.) They denied it even existed for decades but but now? They're just so GOSH, DARN PROUD of it they can't keep their traps shut.)
What the hell, Cody?? So many of us have been doing every single thing we possibly can. Unless all of us come together and physically take back our country, what the hell else can we do?
That is how we have always survived as a nation. Dump isn't the first moron we've had for President. He is the dumbest though, and a total puppet! Let's take out the trash! Dump and Muskrat s*** together! Call your Congressman today!
I do, Mark! Every single day and sometimes twice a day depending on the next stupid thing they do! I won't stop! Those two are just plain too evil to be called trash! They are the scum deposited from the trash!
Why, Mike? Nothing is going to be done. It is obvious that they have taken over and no one is going to raise a finger. No one is going to come riding in and corral the bad guys because there isn't anyone there!
The Musk Rats have families that can and should suffer from their behavior too. We need to know their names and advertise their crime, over and over again.
The Deep State, which is really the Oligarchs, is broad and deep. It is led by the many Koch brother's institutions The Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute, Federalist Society that write the conservative political policies like Project 2025. The same money that supports them is also put into campaigns for "conservative" candidates. Trump's game plan was written by a foundation funded by a guy nearly as rich as Musk. This is just more of the class war and right now Musk is leading the charge. The difference is that now they aren't really trying to hide it and are grabbing for total control. They are the Deep State.
Musk's destruction of USAID was never about cost cutting. It was a favor to China to remove competition. Musk expects to be well rewarded for it.
But they are being stopped, Cody. I know it's a slow process but eventually even MAGA is going to realise that the price of eggs is going up, not down.
I'm beginning to think there isn't a country left to save. It seems that a lot of Americans simply do not care about what is happening. There isn't an outcry by a huge majority. There seems to be only a whimper by what many are calling "far-left libtards". I never thought I was a far-left libtard, but I guess I must be because I am horrified and angry about my country being destroyed by an absolute monster!
This is apparently why the lib-talk.com website says that the push back will have to come from the maga folks. They are already ready to fight about dinner table economics. It's not going to get better under Trump. If it gets worse they will want to know why, so the message now has to be that the oligarchs have won, so blame them.
I can't say that right now your pessismism is unwarranted, but don't let it become fatalism. There are loads of people who are not just unhappy with the way the government is behaving, they're doing something about it. Take Federal Election Commission commissioner and chair Ellen Weintraub, for example, who received a letter signed by Trump which said: “You are hereby removed as a member of the Federal Election Commission, effective immediately.” In a post on X, she said: “There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners – this isn’t it." So it doesn't look like she's going anywhere. If enough people resist, someone eventually is going to have to explain to Trump that he can't 'hereby' do everything. Okay, he's made that less likely by surrounding himself with a collection of dopes and sycophants so it's going to take longer.
This is apparently why the lib-talk.com website says that the push back will have to come from the maga folks. They are already ready to fight about dinner table economics. It's not going to get better under Trump. If it gets worse they will want to know why, so the message now has to be that the oligarchs have won, so blame them.
Russell, I am proud of Ellen Weintraub; however, I am not hearing too many reports like this. I am hearing how a large number of federal employees took the scam deal the musk-rat offered. I hear a lot about how so many are caving to the orange man. I am not talking about MSM because they are treating everything he does as absolutely normal. I'm talking about news casts I trust.
Russell, as much as I would love to believe that, I just don't see it happening! The musk-rat has access to all of our personal information and can destroy any of us any time he wants to! He could drain our bank accounts and strip us of everything! What he has done is illegal but NOBODY is stopping him! Maga does not give the furry crack of a rat's ass about the price of eggs because all the care about is "owning the libs" and every single bit of noise coming out of their idol's mouth!
Cody, while I enjoy reading your comments, I do not enjoy being insulted. We are suppose to be in this together. Turning on each other and insulting each other is not going to get anyone to work any harder. A lot of my comments today are a gut reaction to the new shit coming from the musk-rat and orange man. It doesn't mean I will not continue to do everything I can to stop this. Give us a chance to absorb what has happened and react even if our reactions sound like giving up. We aren't giving up and we all know we are not powerless. The work will continue.
Ro be clear, we didn't all go quietly to tge death camps. There was Hashomer Hatzair that fought back in the forests and in the Warsaw ghetto. These heroes went on to become the founding units of Haganah.
Peggy, I know that it must be disheartening and for some even frightening and what Trump is Musk are doing is unconscionable. It will probably get worse before it gets better, and 'better' may not be all that great. Four years of this crap?!! But in March the government runs out of money, so either Trump tells Musk to unlawfully raid funds approved by Congress for other purposes or the Republicans are going to need Democrat votes in the House, and they're not going to get them while they're carrying on like this.
The "raiding" they will do will be on those programs that benefited us, Russell. Our Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP and any other program that does not benefit them! Yes, I am disheartened and frightened because those who have more voice and power than me are caving in left and right and leaving us to fight a battle we simply cannot win! Yes, it will get worse and worse and worse until America is no longer our great country but just a shell at the very bottom of every other country in the world.
Exactly! I'm beginning to think that all we are doing is giving them reasons to laugh because phone calls, letters and petitions are worth diddly squat to these a-holes! We won't get anywhere continuing to do that!
I wonder how he'd feel if he was waist deep in water in his front room because of flooding or if his house burnt down in a wildfire. It seems to me that when shit gets bad people really, really want government to step in. Apparently Norquist has said: "When I became 21, I decided that nobody learned anything about politics after the age of 21." I think he's got about right at least so far as he's concerned.
It's hard to govern when you hate government. Apparently that is the problem. A democracy is inefficient, so they want to replace the government with a CEO, which they say is called a "dictator". They seriously claim that they want to destroy the government it for the good of the country. While right now with Trump, it's just about power, it works based on the anti-government ideological efforts leading back the John Birchers.
John Birches, think government is one large conspiracy or else they would have fixed everything long ago.
I agree. This has long been the objective of the right in America, but it's never been popular. Even Reagan failed to substantially reduce the size of the state, and he was much more popular than Trump. He also promised to abolish the Department of Education, for example, and instead spending went up by 14% over his two terms in office. Trump's recent suggestion that states should pay for their own clean-up costs after natural disasters like wildfires, flooding and tornadoes went down with the public like a cup of cold sick.
Which is why there's so much chaos. He's not interested in governing, he's too stupid and lazy. He spent his first Monday in office at the golf course. He has no idea what he's doing or what's being done in his name.
It is crucial to be well informed, and it is important not to overgeneralize. Charles Koch did not endorse Trump in 2024. The Federalist Society and the Cato Institute did not endorse Project 2025. The oligarchs do not constitute a monolithic block.
Soon every family that doesn’t have millions will be suffering from the #TrumpMuskCabal. This doesn’t look like the greatness that the MAGA folks have been waiting for. Looks a lot more like exactly what it is: billionaires bleeding everyone dry and laughing all the way to the bank.
So if you’re thinking that your family is valued, it’s only that the house you’ve been in for generations will soon be available for a song.
Yes, after my family has been on this teensy-tiny scrap of land in the Deep South long enough to have (once upon a time) received a land grant from ANOTHER "king".
Many of our homes will be empty and many of us will be living in tents and cardboard boxes as the orange man, muskrat and billionaires rape the country for their own profit and greed!
Every single piece of software that Musk has his Hitler Youth infiltrating can never be trusted again, and will have to be rewritten, in total, and rebuilt from the ground up.
Question? If DOGE is supposed to be finding waste and abuse in US government agencies, why has it not looked into the biggest budget item? That would be the military. The military constantly fails audits, and overpays contractors. It is also the largest budget item, taking nearly 1/2 of the budget. If any savings could be had, they could be had by eliminating large parts of the military budget. How many secret projects are being funded? How much money can be saved by reeling in abusive contractors, who bid low to get a military contract. Then once they have a military contract, go over budget. These are the items that have to be curbed, not aid to our allies. Not aid to hungry and devastated people all over the world.
Because he is counting on the military to enforce their rule, Marshall Law and all. There are quite a few "oath keeper" type, imbued with hyper toxic masculinity in the military.
Perhaps they aren't quite sure about the reaction or support they would get from the military....The military has an oath to be faithful to the Constitution, not a host of lawless foreign and domestic traitors brazenly subverting the laws to install a fascist dictatorship. Sleepless at 3 am I tuned into the channel of progress Youtuberer, tireless defender of democracy who, in a panicked voice, stated that musk and his nazi youth had hacked into the Department of Energy where the nuclear codes are kept. I have heard nothing about this anywhere else and I sincerely hope it is not true. You think you were scared before. Can or would the military step in should this be the case (a military style coup) and arrest the entire lot of them for TREASON. Check out the website of the Dept of Energy, it already has musk's fingerprints evident at the edges.
Because those items are putting money into the billionaires' pockets! Aid to our allies and hungry, devastated people all over the world don't mean diddly squat to these psychopaths! The world has turned its back on us because of that orange demented fool. They are developing trade with other countries, our allies are helping one another AND providing aid to the hungry, devastated people. We are no longer a powerful country. Pretty soon, we will be begging for aid to help feed us!
I’ve seen this “corporate raider” act before. It is a movie that does not end well. The operative question for laypeople should NOT be “who has read/write or read only access?” That is way more complicated, because the information and the code are two separate things. COBOL is not a sexy language drilled into anybody these days, let alone teenagers. My point is, through sleight of hand, nuance of terms, and bottomless amounts of bullshit, what is being argued in front of a judge by a lawyer about who has access to what is moot. The only, and I mean ONLY, way to STOP exfiltration (stealing) is to PHYSICALLY DISCONNECT THEIR ABILITY TO TOUCH ANYTHING.
I’m not joking. Anyone with some knowledge of tech can back me up, because I’m 100% right. I’ve done this for 30 years. I doubt the Treasury people actually anticipated this, and as employees are wont to do, left holes standing wide open at the moment of incursion by Musk’s manchildren.
Anything short of total removal is fuckin’ MALFEASANCE on a judge, attorney, congressperson’s, or any other party to a ban or block. Excuse my language.
The real question we should be really getting down to is: How is illegal action HALTED when conducted under PRESIDENTIAL WILL with DISREGARD FOR THE LAW? The answer is, according to the constitutional attorneys right now, “NOBODY”. The closest we’ve come to this in our HISTORY was with Nixon and the release of the Tapes that started Watergate. NIXON COMPLIED and CRISIS AVERTED. But nobody ever thought, “What if Nixon had said ‘fuck off’?” That question is the root of these crises.
Disconnection may incur more problems than it may solve. If you've worked with info systems for 30 years you likely know this as well. All of this is very complicated and the issues vary dept by dept and mission. Which is why you don't want tyro's in there screwing around like Musk and his boy wonders.
You’re 100% right, of course. The scenario in my head was limited to exfiltration.of data at the time. And I don’t know (of course) how Treasury versions their changes, or what systems it tracks them in (eg, GitHub). It’s a genuinely horrifying situation to consider in the entirety of possibilities. Thanks for pointing that out.
Arrest musk and all of the coup plotters, NOW. OUR police and/or military need to counteract this coup, NOW. Illegal activity (seditious conspiracy) gives them the authority.
Deeply disappointed. American voters wanted this. Democratic lawmakers are useless...why aren't they making a stink on TV screaming every minute about what's happening and blocking (or at least trying to block) all the criminal things that are happening? Instead, we have rats like Fetterman that voted to confirm Bondi??? I give up...too old for this crap. I just feel bad for the generations that are growing up in this absolute shithole.
First step of the gop was to create the fear of socialism. And befuddle the working and middle class into thinking their interests were best served by the elites
An awful lot of "squatting" is taking place, even as we speak. (I think some just landed on top of my head, them dribbled down to my feet. Must be all that hard-to-digest caviar and foie gras.)
Dont look now, frightened elites, Socialism for the obscenely wealthy is here already. If you still want a servant/worker class you had better take care of them.
But even then, the concept of it being just ONE man (which one is still debatable) was a pretty big stretch.
Of course, destruction of all humanity by a single person would have also been a stretch...then:
"Trump (2016) Fed candidate Stephen Moore claimed to believe “capitalism is more important than democracy”, and financial markets apparently agree, seemingly going so far as to presume that capitalism is more important that humanity itself."
That's what happens when am already willingly (joyously? ORGASMICALLY!!) ignorant society is told that being "under-educated" will FINALLY be the source of Daddy's love that they have missed for so long.
Almost like "Race To the Bottom" is now America's most popular reality show (and as carefully scripted as any of them.)
And seemingly, of that self-selected, self-loathing cult, almost no one is immune.
yeah we don't need no stinkin experts. 45 years of disinvestment in America has come home to roost. 45 years of the government is the problem and capitalism (Amazon etc) is all we need is being put to the test.
Makes one wonder how a simple working American (a shit-shoveler, for example, maybe named Herk) can be able to absorb and contain as much knowledge as 99% of scientists, 99% of doctors, 99% of meteorologists, 99% of experts in SO MANY fields...
Yet still remain ignorant enough, and to remain UNDER-EDUCATED enough...
To truly be DESERVEDLY beloved of Donald.
I suppose it simply speaks to the greatmas of this special, yet very ordinary, GAWD of a man.
I watch in horror from Sydney Australia. Good job, Robert, keep naming and shaming the billionaires planning this coup of the government and the economy!!! Gina Rinehart, Anthony Pratt, James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch are all happy to help this cancer hit our sweet democracy too. They've hooked our opposition leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. We have a federal election coming soon. I'm terrified the USA cancer will hit here. These billionaires are very organised!
....Well said Virginia, while in my capacity as your Sydney compatriot, I'd recommend you check out - that is if you've not yet seen it - the vulgar and sycophantic lauding of 'Agent Orange's' thought bubble by Sky's Rowan Dean in a conversation with vile Bolt further to Trump's 'faux annexation' (as in in his head) of Gaza, while that can be seen on You Tube.
And so I continue to ask. What is the plan? Where is the Democratic version of Project 2025. At the very least, this is all a horrendous HIPAA violation, which is taken very seriously in the medical profession. That is the start. Brownshirts have already been assembled. Just waiting for Kristallnacht..
“Making government more efficient,” is the reasoning that dictators have utilized around the world to justify their disastrous grabs for power. Opposition is growing, but it is much too slow. If activists had not been lighting fires under their representatives asses, there might be hardly any opposition at all!
I’m watching in horror from Germany. Musk and Trump are traitors. Seize their money and throw them into prison.
Send them to Guantanamo, along with their supporters.
I wholeheartedly agree! musk & trump are sadistic psychopaths who clearly don’t have a conscience. They’re obsessed with avarice, power & ultimately despotism.
You stupid Americans gave them the power and have let the monster 👹 out and GOD HELP YOU!
I DIDN'T VOTE FOR THIS GUY! We aren't all stupid!
Votes were discarded. We need hard copy receipts.
Where do we get them, Laurie? Have they been destroyed so we cannot do anything about it?
Oh really? Sounds like a paranoid fantasy from the Right. Got data?
Sadly, any vote for other than Donald J TrumpMusk doesn’t count…because he is in the White House. I did not vote for him either..but every dayI ask myself “could I have done more?” We are collectively responsible as a nation, and we are collectively responsible to fight back in any way that we can.
No, we could not have done more. You know the old saying, "You can't cure stupidity."
I really, really can't imagine that many who've found their way here did vote for him.
42% of the Latino vote. The Washington Post printed an article on someone who entered the country illegally and says she voted for Trump so he could stop others from entering the county illegally. WHAT???
Neither did I but more than half are brainwashed idiots.
It is less than half, but they are loud.
Peggy
Not did I. He won again by cheating, threatening people, and voter suppression. There were tens of millions more people voting in 2020 versus 2024. That's the only way that he can win because he only has his maggot supporters. The rest he gets to vote for him by threats and intimidation!
And empty promises that he has no intention of fulfilling, don't forget those!
anil ; they cheated and have more "speech" and power. blaming the victims is not helpful at all. they hacked the 2024 election, and clamped down on media so much that there is not a peep (except one Democrat Congressman Dan Goldman,) asking for an investigation. Hey, Death threats work.
Find the evidence of cheating. They did not "clamp down" on the media, which is all owned by corporations, and just did what their corporate masters told them to do. ABC caved because Disney didn't want trouble from DJT.
Corporate Media Parents
ABC – Disney
NBC/MSNBC/CNBC – Comcast/NBC Universal
CBS – Paramount Global
CNN – Warner Media (AT&T)
FOX – 21st Century Fox, formerly News Corporation
ESPN – Disney (80%); Hearst (20%)
OAN - Herring Networks but heavily funded by AT&T
Newsmax - Newsmax Media
There was voter suppression in all the key states. Millions of votes by minorities were thrown out
" find the evidence of cheating" , Donald Trump boasted that PA was his, because of Elon Musk's computer skills. Also there is nothing like ownership to allow "clamping down " on anything. Like the media, for example.
David, your comment and the list is terrific. Thank you. I have this from the late, great Phil Donahue during the Iraq War. He was an MSNBC host at that time.
"Corporate media shapes our opinions and our coverage. MSNBC were terrified of the anti-war voice. And it's not an understatement. Anti-war voices were not popular. And if you're General Electric you certainly don't want an anti-war voice on a cable channel that you own. Donald Rumsfeld (Defense Secretary) is your biggest customer. Btw, I had to have two conservatives on for every liberal. I could have Richard Pearl (hawk) on alone, but I couldn't have Dennis Kucinich on alone. He was considered two liberals. I wasn't good for business.
MSNBC had Phil Donahue fired in 2003. "The NBC secret memo said they didn't want their flagship show to be Phil Donahue when the other networks were waving the flag."
"Btw, that memo was written by a Republican focus group. A Republican counseling group that took the focus group revealed that most of the people in the focus group didn't like me." --- Phil Donahue
Quibble, Laurie --- Goldman is a DemocratIC Congressman.
Denise , and this old lady was struggling to remember if he was in the Senate! What would we do without good proofreaders? Thanks Denise!
Anil : careful who you call stupid. This is far from over. This can reach you, too. These thugs want to own the world.
We have a long history of political apathy and misogyny + racism... Many of us worked our hearts out for Kamala Harris. Adlai Stevenson once remarked: "It's not enough that every intelligent American votes for me - I need a majority."
I believe Stevenson said the votes of "every THINKING American" was not enough to elect him. Intelligence and thinking - a subtle difference there, to me. Intelligent people can stop thinking much if they feel they've already got the truth as handed down by parents, schools, tribe, etc.
I believe you are right - I should have looked it up. Mea culpa.
The NSA needs to move on and destroy Musk's entire business network. If he and his wrecking crew ever presume to enter their campus, they should ensure those clowns never leave.
Great idea, DZK. Would love to see that happen.
I posted that just in case any NSA happen to be around looking for antisocial comments or participating in some way. Unlike many, I really want them to see what I have to say about this self-inflicted cluster-dumpster fire truck!
Yes, God help us. Thanks for the blessing, anil. Now please, turn your anger toward the fleecers, not the fleeced. We are fighting as hard as we can. And we will win or die.
Well half of us did. The other half was on to them (that’s us).
You really should listen to Gregory Palast' findings on how votes were suppressed in the swing states, namely the black vote. He doesn't say Musk's STARLINK had anything to do with it though. Palast is a Forensic accountant/ Investigative journalist so I take him at his word. He definitively stated that Kamala Harris in fact, won the presidency and connected the dots. Vigilante, Inc. is an interesting watch. Dems have no spine. They are so busy trying to look like the "good guys" that they're being pissed on and told it's only rain.
There's an interview with Steve Bannon out there that's very telling, too, but predictable. He talks about the strategy of keeping them so confused that they don't know their @$$ from their elbow! There was a term he used (escapes me right now) that is SPOT ON. They are playing dirty checkers, not even chess. It's like they're throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. Kinda like a "smash and grab".
You're right. Greg Palast, former economist, turned journalist said if all legal votes were counted Harris won. However, i understand he refused to speak up or go on TV to publicize what he found. I'm wondering why?
Dems have no spine? I guess you don't watch C-SPAN. The Democratic Senators did an all. nighter to oppose Vought for OMB. All the Republican Senators confirmed him any way, but the Dems did all they could. The people who voted gave the Republicans control of the House and Senate. I am into praising them for what they still have the power to do. How come Democrats so often trash their own?
Because our side buys Russian propaganda too, or doesn't understand they need enough votes to be the majority, to fix things.
Not all of us. Please understand most of us did not want him. He cheated. Twice.
Actually we didn't Voters don't vote "yes" for women's autonomy & other protections for people & also "yes" for the predator/grifter as president...I would love to see all those hard copy ballots that voters cast. Prove to me they exist...musk flitting around like a butterfly doing his damage wouldn't surprise me at all..and nobody is stopping him..that in itself is telling at best
The correlation between voting for progressive ballot measures and voting for a candidate who supports such measures is not as high as one might intuitively expect. This is for a variety of reasons. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13dQPeEd3fN9xOsr5VT5mOYq9VU6_UUtH/edit#slide=id.p8
Voting isn't always based on issues either; 'hunk versus non-hunk' and 'babe versus non-babe' races exist too, 'for voters of a certain mindset' - I'm of a mind to suspect that the former took place in our U.S. House district about 10 or so weeks back. The 'buff family man in camo with a helicopter he wants to go to war with China in' beat the sane guy, and it wasn't even close.
And the sad thing is that NOT half of the Americans are supportive of him. It's those who voted for him, those who cast a protest vote against both leading candidates, and those who DIDN'T vote. Not all of America supports him but because of our damn electorial college - and whatever data breach the Musk rats did, this monster became elected. It's shameful.
Too many stupid, many more ignorant, uninformed, misinformed (lied to) or too busy trying to earn a living to pay attention, but I understand why we may all be lumped into the same pot. Many of us are still in shock, those who did pay attention.
Please be civil. And remember that Elon rigged the 'vote counting machines' according to Trump, so you can't point at all Americans, and even all Republicans who didn't vote for Trump.
You are correct for more than half of voters. They flaunted their Trump and anti-Kamala yard signs, and there were a lot of them. Some are still up on flagpoles! They and right-wing social media are so stupid they stink.
The role of decades of hate radio is a variable as well, from Father Coughlin forward (chronologically, that is, as obviously the mentality is retrograde).
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/exploring-hate/2022/03/09/today-in-history-the-father-coughlin-story/
https://thepainfultruth.org/2017/07/15/herbert-w-armstrong-c-i-a-agent/
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2022/01/23/2003771895
"In 1986, a shocking account of what was then the WACL was published. Inside the League by investigative journalists Scott and John Lee Anderson, brothers who grew up in Taiwan, documented the WACL’s involvement with Nazi war criminals, assassins, gangsters, and Central American death squad commanders."
https://davetroy.medium.com/the-big-history-behind-january-6th-part-1-anti-communism-domestic-surveillance-and-the-russian-824186ed6fd7
Correct. The photo shows him talking into a WJR microphone. "The great voice of the Great Lakes. 50 thousand watts. They had creeps like Rush Limbaugh on every day. Highly influential right-wing talk (hate) radio has creeps like him, Hannity, Savage, etc. who have a massive soliloquy, day after day after day, WITH NO REBUTTAL. And people quickly believe every word of that shit. If you told them that the moon was made out of cheese, they would believe it. Also Fox News prime time shows are the propaganda arm of the Trump administration. WJR spews endless hours of right-wing sewage. "Now a word from our sponsor."
As my comment yesterday was buried: My brother received his S.S. Disability check, $400 was deducted from an already paltry sum he struggles surviving on. DOGE has begun, & my 1st thoughts were, magats will complain & this could sort it out. Then my skepticism intuits--What if it doesn't affect their damn constituents? With A.I. tools, can they possibly sort thru voter profiles--who voted R, who voted D, & punish D people only?? This is the modern version of Death Camps.
Ruling class wants rid of the 'unproductive'. No difference between the selection ramp at Auschwitz and the blanket DNR notices and various end of life protocols, and other sophisticated allopathic strategies that operate without people's consent, that hasten death in today's Western world. I hope your brother will be OK. He is important and worthy.
Putting people into desperate situations makes crime go up, too. I'm waiting to see if they are capable of separating this death sentence to strike only Democrats. Thanks Polly, I'm advocating for him & contacting our Senators, so forth. Getting the message out is important.
Lesley, according to Thom Hartmann, yes.
I agree but you can include the Republican congress. God, why won't they wake up.
I they were awake, then they'd be woke...
If they were awake, they'd be woke.
Deanna
That's why we need to push back hard! What is visible from them is a smoke screen. We need to watch Stephen Miller closely. 47 and Muskrat s*** are mere puppets!
And pure hate!
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
This is news? So?
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
Send them to live in an unheated tent in Gaza where they can negotiated real estate deals with Hamas to their heart's content.
Great idea! 💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯👏👏👏
one more about hamas-condoms to Hamas=fewer terrorists in the future=good idea
Guantanamo is Interesting.
VERY interesting, in a "goose and gander" sort of way.
How?
I prefer Mars--with holey space suits.
exactly - why are they not being called traitors? why is what they are doing not being described as treason/ terrorism?
They're not viewed as traitors because it wasn't a coup. It's an organised transition into Mussolini-style fascism with the help of all political parties and government structures. The ruling class who owns everything including the media and the narrative, are defending their dominance as capitalism crumbles. America is no more.
A coup doesn’t have to have a military component in this day and age. If Muck manages to gain control of most government functions from the inside, it's a coup.
Could this be a State Capture? Where oligarchs take over a government by using its own laws to accomplish it. Turkey in 2002, South Africa (Gupta Family), Bulgaria, Serbia, Latin countries, and others. All in the last 20 years. The common denominator is Russia. King Shitpants just stopped all Russian oligarch investigations and seizures of property. State Captures are pure corruption. Democracy doesn't exist.
Bourgeois 'democracy' is a version of Arbeit Macht Frei, along with meritocracy; a way for the prison camp to run itself so the ruling class can sit back and relax. Marx predicted capitalism couldn't last and the ruling class, who are globally unified, heeded his warnings. They're preparing a post capitalist future to ensure they stay on top via digital slavery or a back-up plan, Christofascism (Handmaid's Tale). That's what we're seeing now, hence dehumanization of LGBT+ and destruction of women's rights, and the simultaneous promotion of cashless society, digital ID and demonization of those who aren't on the grid (immigrants).
To understand how it's possible see Gramsci's 'Cultural Hegemony' theory. It's why Democrats, Republicans, media, judiciary, academics, even celebrities are servants of the ruling class. All roads lead to the ruling class. The infolding situation in the US is organic and reveals a more honest version of the prison camp. Everything before - our whole lives - has been a delusion, a lie.
Thank you for your comment. You're not wrong. I'm looking up your suggested reading. It's a neoliberal world. It always has been. They want the Constitution to say one thing...we own your ass. Politicians are slaves to the ruling class. Republicans don't give a fuck what the majority thinks. Democrats throw us a few carrots, but, still side with corporate capitalists. That's become clear as daylight when they refused to organize. I don't think the Civil War ever ended. It's rolled out in phases (Southern Economic Development Model www.epi.org) throughout the decades. Amerikkka. Hope is a luxury. But, this didn't happen in a vacuum, as you pointed out.
I see your point and it does concern me.
But I for one will not go down without a FIGHT. I will spit in their faces. They may torture and kill me, and I don't care.
This regime MUST BE STOPPED. Those still in power know how.
DO IT!
I worry for my children and grandchildren.
I'm fighting back. But, for too long, it feels like I'm punching air. I'm fighting for my biracial grandchildren, my daughters, and their daughters. Resist. We're are on our own. It's going to take a ground swelling grassroots united front to put a dent in this. No one is coming to rescue us. Invincible ignorance fallacy has been normalized and accepted.
The coup Klux Klan
I think it is a coup. You're wrong.
They muzzled the Media,
I’m not so certain the media didn’t actually muzzle itself
I have to imagine that both of those models are in play.
I agree!!! I think there’s some force involved. “We fascists won’t kill the media if they appease us enough.” Sickening!
Exactly
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
As a Federal Whistleblower of DoD waste (some of it Top Secret...I found in 1987) I found as a SWQA engineer(aka "it was kinda my job to find it")... while my (MAGA-like)co-workers plotted violence against Anti-War protestors... I lost my job AND MY HEROIC ACTION BOUGHT ME ***NOTHING*** WITH ANYONE...!!!
Is America too dumb to recognize HEROIC ACTION unless their tribe recognizes it?
I've many examples of America being too dumb to recognize HEROIC ACTION unless their tribe recognizes it, (some of)"present company excepted!"
My Point: I see NO MENTION OF THE ONLY PEOPLE UNIQUELY QUALIFIED TO ROOT OUT CORRUPTION at the day to day operational level... WHISTLEBLOWERS!!!
🫣⚖️🤯😳😁💡🥷🤔🕵️
Our BEST HOPE(based on the history of Nader's Raiders) to fix multiple Federal Agencies(damaged by Musk, etc) is to RE-EMPOWER a NEW NADER'S RAIDERS... fortunately LAW SCHOOL APPLICANTS are eager to SPICE UP THEIR APPLICATIONS by following our WINNING FORMULAs.. Subscribe to play a key role in our pivotal FOCUS GROUP!!!
No body is stepping up! The whistle blowers have stopped blowing their whistles because what these creeps are doing is being reported as NORMAL NEWS on all of the right-wing media! American citizens hear it as if it were normal everyday occurrences!
The whistleblowers might as well whistle, as I'm sure they're on the chopping block already. That's up to them given their situations, of course.
"being reported as NORMAL NEWS on all of the right-wing and legacy media..."
FIFY, Peggy.
Understood, I spent 8 years, 1999-2007, fighting Christian Nationalists from the local RCC at my public college employer, despite have a couple of feet of FOIAed documents that proved everything I was claiming - they REALLY hated me for that, and like Trump, it was "delay, delay, delay..." 'Oh, we don't have any time to schedule any arbitration THIS year...'
Fortunately for me, the arbitrator was smarter than all of those from the administration collectively, and it was a real pleasure to go back to work, full-time, which I never had been before.
Suddenly, she's a whistleblower.
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/district-of-columbia/dcdce/1:2025cv00334/277129
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
For the three I read, Cody, you seem to write very short posts with no recommendations or suggestions. IMO, it would be more useful if you said more about your ideas AND offered solutions.
What? You don't consider this, for example, as a strong recommendation?
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
Apparently, you equate length with both validity and impact.
💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓
Reich:"How to stop this? The first step is to understand it."
Me:"How to stop this? The first step is to PREVENT it."
💓Reich💓:"...allow me to take a longer-term view...“fucking nightmare” is not all bad if ... people getting clubbed [are exercising Hollywood's ability to make MILLIONS SUING TRUMP😁😁😁😁]..."
💓Reich💓 :"The only real firewall against the Trump regime... judges..."...
Me:"The only real firewall against the Trump regime in 2016 were teams of actors faking out judges with videos they staged of "expensive fights" between "MAGA" actors and actors playing the protesters at his rallies... protesters Trump incited violence against... while promising to "pay the legal fees" of the perpetrators😁😁😁😁👍
Here is the documentary ( by UC Berkeley professor ) of the thwarting of the part of democracy that should have prevented Trump in the first place:
https://youtu.be/psebm9RJDvU?si=IyKX2eSZQf_T5dmL&t=4941
Note: It seems like it would have been easy to fool the MAGA that witnessed the "expensive fights" to testify that the "expensive injuries" were real😁😁😁😁
In 2015 I envisioned hundreds of teams of actors fighting each other...
...https://youtu.be/JMK6lzmSk2o?si=2KJOJCk7WPW9eFBC&t=96
each team with their own Ambulance... driving off after pulling off the "Perfect Caper" ... like the final scene from the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE TV shows...
https://youtu.be/lt8X9lrpLoc?si=Kl_6hknIxZYYH4gP&t=15771
Unfortunately…
The one thing we can't do is be like them.
However, that's kinda why things in America have turned into a fire in a dumpster filled with shit.
Never mind...
I beg to differ, Arf.
Respectfully stated, you cannot depose a dictature peacefully.
That is actually the great trap democracy: that if we act like them we are no better.
The distinction is that we demand that laws be respected. Laws that we have all agreed on.
They, on the other hand, break every rule and law. That's not a level playing field. We need to know what we believe in: that we are a country of LAWS and that those who break them have to be punished.
Cecile, I agree with you 100%; however, where are the WE? Where are the ones that will arrest them and put them in jail? NO WHERE!
Nowhere YET. You are trying to put the cart ahead of the horses: First you build a resistance movement, then you press. By that time, enough people are convinced that the regime is evil that you will be able to effect arrests.
Remember that intimidation is a tool that they have been using with impunity. But the thing about intimidation: When it comes from a dictator, it makes enemies of the masses.
When intimidation comes from the masses, dictators start quaking in their boots. Trump has already backed down on a couple of things.
Call your members of Congress, your State representatives and make good trouble If they are Republicans keep them on the line as long as possible, but when you write, show your outrage and your desire to off them [Only not in those terms! you could get in bad trouble] I ask them: what so you think you are doing: The country is not with you: Your dictator was put in power by the skinniest of margins. You don't have a "mandate" to be a dictator, and YOU ARE INVITING VIOLENCE. [or words to that effect]
The way to threaten violence safely is to indicate that the mood of the country has soured a great deal since the election, and that We The People have had all we can take of their fuck*ng "austerity for thee but not for me".
I do not normally swear, but swearing does convey anger much better than reasoning does. Try it: It is cathartic!
Cecile, any time I am hit with really bad news, I react very emotionally. My comments today are my reacting from my anger over all of this. Be assured, once I have cooled off a little bit, I will get right back to work doing all the things you have suggested. Right now, I am just so damn angry I want to physically hit something! You are right, swearing is cathartic and believe you me, I have let loose a string of vulgarities my mother would have blushed and washed my mouth out with soap!
Dunno about you, and I've never done much of it, but busting stuff up never, ever "made me feel any better."
I know. Our leaders are afraid to take the steps that we all know are necessary.
You make great sense, Cecile. My worry, though, is that we don't have time to build a resistance, because of Muck's access to government computer systems. This is a VERY BIG DEAL, more so than probably 90% of the electorate realizes. We don't know how far his team of hackers has gotten, but at the very least, goverment employees have been locked out, the hackers are installing new codes, and they've accessed at least some classified information. Our time to mount an opposition could be extremely limited. Also, we don't know how much data has been copied and sent to Muck's server farms, but it would be advisable to assume that he's gotten all the good stuff.
I believe that when those like us think of "them', this is what comes to mind:
"On a call with investors earlier this week, Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp—fresh off a week of stock surges—was euphoric. “We’re doin’ it!” he yelled, arms spread wide. “And I’m sure you’re enjoying this as much as I am!”
The “it” in question? It seemed to be a reference to enabling President Donald Trump’s administration to carry out mass deportation and police surveillance domestically, while aiding the “West” globally—actions that, “on occasion,” Karp said on the call, may involve the need to “kill.”
“I’m very happy to have you along for the journey,” the CEO said. “We are crushing it. We are dedicating our company to the service of the West and the United States of America, and we’re super-proud of the role we play, especially in places we can’t talk about.”
“Palantir is here to disrupt,” he continued. “And, when it’s necessary, to scare our enemies and, on occasion, kill them.” "
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/palantir-alex-karp-trump-private-prisons-profiteers/
Using the power of the presidency to reward and punish companies, or to SEEM TO BE IN A POSITION to willingly use such power, is a terrific way to leverage the power of the presidency to gain more power, and Trump is doing that. The pressure for companies to suck up and fall in line can be tremendous lest they be put by the administration at disadvantage to their competitors. These things can be fought by lawsuits and boycotts and public opinion but the damage in the interim can be high.
'Piracy yesterday, piracy today, piracy forever!'
https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/09/origins-of-the-jolly-roger/#google_vignette
"flying of any form of the Jolly Roger tended to instill the necessary fear in whatever ship was being attacked that they would surrender immediately. In one extreme example, in 1720, famed pirate Bartholomew Roberts sailed into a harbor at Trepassey, Newfoundland with a black flag flying. This resulted in the crews of all 22 vessels in port panicking and abandoning their ships. Combined, Roberts would have been no match for them, but the necessary fear was invoked from seeing the black flag that they all fled without a fight."
Cool!
Thanks, Eugene. The GOP might be dangerous if they have ANY sense of irony. (Though they, unfortunately, sometimes have more than a little sense of history.)
Oh, my. It's happened again.
Please re-read, with a focus on the closing of "never mind...".
(The fault is mine. I really need to switch the openings and closings of my posts.)
You could perhaps be a little more like them. The Senate Democrat's all-nighter to signal their displeasure with the nomination of a Christian Nationalist crackpot is one example. The House Democrats' promise to hold up the budget talks when the government runs out of money next month is another. This will buy time for the blizzard of legal challenges to bite.
But why didn't the senators do 5 or 10 all nighters in a row? Why have so many cabinet appointees been approved already if the senators had the right to make speeches and delay the votes?
I honestly don't know how the Democrats strategize these things. They keep saying that they have to choose their battles carefully, but meanwhile Trump runs amok. Today, Smerconish on CNN opined that it would be a mistake for Democrats to go to war on the cancelling of foreign aid because it's not popular. This is nauseatingly weak in my view. You have thousands of aid workers being paid for doing nothing. You have large shipments of food rotting in ports and warehouses. You have more than one million insecticide-treated bed nets in a warehouse in Ethiopia that, along with antimalarial drugs and diagnostics, it now can’t deploy. Trump's got Musk on an efficiency gig but money is being wasted hand over fist right now by the administration's own daft policies.
The actions Dems in Congress are taking are good.
One thing you can say about the Trump team: they are dynamic. It's all bad but it is dynamic. They have attracted/assembled a swirling ball of the most opportunistic (Gabbard),disgusting, corrupt,and wealthiest amongst us. A spiderweb of corruption. But there is alot of innovation in new ways to steal from and dismember the government.
Dem leadership needs to think outside of their institutional box and bring in more people with youth energy and fresh ideas to meet the immediate challenge. I could go for some Goldwater extremism in the defence of liberty. Whatever works.
Extremism in defense of the Constitution is a duty.
It's hard to find a strategy behind this cascade of executive and administrative action. Are they trying to get as much done as possible before the whole house of cards collapses whereupon they can fall back on the insidious power of the Deep State to thwart their ambitions? Or are they just monumentally stupid? When will their own supporters begin to wonder what all this has to do with the price of eggs?
It's a strategy to gain as much power as possible. A dictatorship if they can make (and keep) it. They are smart enough to pull it off if "we" don't stop them. Especially if the GOP in Congress aids and abets.
As for SCOTUS, the jury is out on whether there is some shit Roberts won't eat. If they gain greater control of media all will be lost I think.
Next up: the SAVE ACT. aka "Put white nationalist men in power everywhere forever" act.
Well, they have the power already, at least for the time being. I understand the objective - to reduce the administrative state. But the way they've gone about it is barmy. I see the first major stumbling block in the budget negotiations. The Federal Reserve is warning about the likelihood of higher inflation. I know that it seems like they've accomplished much in around two weeks (of working days) but it's just 'flooding the zone with shit'. They've hardly managed to do one sensible thing since they came into office. Of course, what they've done has been hugely damaging and completely unconscionable, but by diminishing the capacity of the adminstrative state Trump has also made it almost impossible to govern the country safely and competently. What I'm seeing is not a devious strategy being carried out ruthlessly and efficiently but sheer bloody chaos.
GMTA, Russell!
That's sort of my point with my closing of, "Never mind..."
But I'm still fixated on using truth to the same degree they use lies, so obviously there's no point in listening to me.
Tut, tut, I would never suggest anything like that. Even the Washington Post (bless their little sycophantic hearts) have resumed fact-checking the Orange FartMeister. It's tedious but necessary to keep pointing out that what Trump is saying is utter rubbish.
Thank you, Russell.
I kinda needed that.
You're very welcome.
DOGE is just another plan to take from the poor and give the funds to the MAGA PARTY Corporations Rich, “ Look at all the fun musk is having playing with others ( people and countries) financial lives”. This is a classic steal from the Working Poor and Give the wealth to the Rich. NO Congressional Oversight; Mike Johnson has Personally heard From God telling Him this is what he should Do; Be Trumpet 🎺 Accessory before and after the Fact . Mike Johnson publicly Swore an Oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States 🇺🇸.
Pathetic Mike Johnson…
I'm a bit surprised there isn't more posted here about tariffs as CONSUMPTION TAX, much like the FLAT TAX Steve Forbes try to sell America in 1996.
And we should never forget that this is a very specific GIFT from Trump to "his" billionaires.
Say, (very simplified) if Bezos were to make $10B this year, but manage to "get by" spending only $1B. In that event, 90% of his annual income will receive no "tariff tax".
But I suspect it's pretty obvious that much of America will be paying 100%. And of course, that's the entire point.
And if they pass a FLAT TAX on top of the tariffs? I doubt many billionaires have ever received such a gift in history.
Wednesday, at the noon rally at the state capitol, there was a probably 20 something guy with a small, (appeared to be commercially made) sign which stated "Shoot your local fascist."
Rwanda. A bad thing.
TBC, I was appalled, and yet, was forced to take it "as a sign of the times" whether I 'liked' it or not, as with so many other things.
At best, "...before they shoot you" might have been a slightly better look.
We're watching in horror from Australia, Nicole, while after having just seen 'The DOGE of Washington's' (while apologies to Venetian magistrates!) latest tweet on his X which ends with a cry about the "the revolution of the people", this foul thing could easily have been written and declaimed by Maximilian Robespierre in France's Assembly in 1789. That said, Trump and his upstarts are of course radical Jacobin's, while hopefully as with their French precursors, they'll turn on each other in the end, with 'Elon Robespierre' being among the first to be sent to the guillotine by Trump (who shares a few similarities with the loud and bullish Georges Danton), while Musk will now have more blood on his hands than the now regrettably Senate approved 'Junior' given that number of persons who will die as a direct consequence to the appalling USAID cuts that he has made before he abolishes it entirely.
...Well, at least Tesla EV sales are apparently down in California, while may it continue!
That’s a beautiful comparison, Marcus. Though Elon is giving me Louis XVI vibes, don’t you think? Well, Louis ended on the Guillotine as well, so it probably doesn’t matter. Tyrants never face a good end.
Both have a long history of using due process to avoid consequences for their greed and rapine.
That's what the military should do.
It's end stage capitalism. America is transitioning to Mussolini-style fascism / digital slavery. Democrats and the Republicans are on board, as are the police, the military, academia, the judiciary and the global media. It could be said that this is the class war to end all class wars. Global Ruling Class are united against the global proletariat, who are fragmented. We see this exemplified by Musk's Tesla factory in Germany that destroyed a forest. Musk complained that the German police were too soft on anti-Tesla protestors. (RC vs proletariat.)
The same patterns and dynamics are repeating as pre WW2. I predict the RC will win this time. They will get their global Huxleyian digital slave plantation - the world will become dotted with smart cities built to contain the consenting slaves who will serve the 'elite'. Gaza will be rebuilt as the prototype smart city.
I don't think everybody is on board at all.This is demonstrably false.
But if we don't keep it together it would be evidence that a party control style of government like China is superior to the American political economy re climate change. China is committed to fighting climate change, and we are not at this point. Getting down to the real nitty gritty-- this is what counts going forward more than anything else, though it may not seem like it to many. That will change as the climate further deteriorates.
Following the bourgeois coup of 1976 China became a capitalist sweatshop to service the world, which is why US companies invested in China and it's why poverty co-exists with billionaires. See Foxconn anti-suicide nets and Shein slave labour garment factories. Meanwhile a capitalist 'pollution change' catastrophe and a brutal class war rages unchallenged by the bourgeoisie because the bourgeois middle classes seek to preserve their class position by blaming the victims of capitalism rather than capitalism itself. There are a million homeless people trying to survive in the US right now. Every day twenty of those people will die. Focusing solely on climate change is another way of saying that you don't care about the working class and that you are superior.
Polly, Your class analysis is simplistic and shallow. You also show ignorance of how climate change impacts "the proletariat."
Perhaps - the next time you're in Africa - you could explain to child labourers whilst they are digging through mud for lithium with their bare hands in ruined landscapes, how their labour is protecting their own future. Similarly, you could lecture the street children who live in mountains of discarded capitalist obsolescence that leeches toxins into the soil and water table, how their scavenging is noble.
Do note that AI promises a world in which people, slave or otherwise, are superfluous. It would be world ruled by geek competing against geek.
Who cleans the streets, picks the crops, stacks the shelves, cleans the toilets?
Agreed!!!
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
No Including King Trumpet 🎺 his self Knows what going to happen for sure, there are many considerations , what the victims have to retaliate with, what the markets are for the other Billionaires, what kind of money has/or will change hands.
Musk bought in for about 1/2 Billion before and after the election. A Foreign Principle can Expect about a pad of 1 To 2 Billion . Payment in Kind could run more or less depending on potential forward revenue…
I hit LIKE on your comment. But who has the power to "seize their money and put them in prison"? Four federal indictments were never brought to trial. I know you know this. I NEEDED to say it, though. I see this as the continuing campaign to overthrown our government.
Not one second too soon!!!!
strap them to the next spacex launch and see if god saves them
Mike Johnson
I know the MAGAt mafia like to explain it away to US consumers, but >clearly< the rest of the world just ain't a'buyin' it - literally:
https://youtu.be/vbXFQ1RH-8M?si=d8f9DBtb3DvahZYv
No one will bell the cat. Everyone stands by - many of those that could do something probably voted for the fool and his minion, anyway.
Well that about sums it up. The real enemy of the people is the Republican Party because they have enabled these two millionaires at birth to destroy our country!
They could, but won’t stop them. And every single Republican, currently in Congress needs to pay with their careers, voted out at the next opportunity and blamed in perpetuity.
IF there is a "next election"...
We have a Kleptocracy in the making. The authors of 2025 understand this 👇 all too well.
“The big joke on democracy is that it gives its mortal enemies the means to its own destruction.” - Joseph Goebbels, March 23, 1933
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/hitler-germany-constitution-authoritarianism/681233/
AND the destruction IS the point! 👇
https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/the-logic-of-destruction?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2rctb
https://bsky.app/profile/justinsg.bsky.social
So there will be no 2026 election? There will be no more Democracy? Lawlessness, greed and corruption have won? The only thing I can do right now is just make sure my kids are alright. I hate all of this and I hate that nobody with any authority gives a shit and refuses to stand up to that POS!
The First Amendment was never meant to be a license for some individuals to inflict harm on others.
Thank you for linking to this article from the Atlantic which I found yesterday too. Wanted to link but did not work. I - as a German/Canadian - was reading this with horror and it shows exactly that they use the same playbook. And it was already obvious in 2016. Now and already then, he uses over and over the same expressions as the Hitler Regime. I cannot understand why he was able to run again, but I guess the complicity of the Republicans and the business world made it possible. Same as in 1933 and following.
Achieving Honorable Democracy, that is so true, but every single election since that orange man entered the picture, those same republicans get voted back in over and over!
Good point, Achieving. We have gotten to the point that if they are not with us, they are against us.
I have 2 Republicans representing my interests [not] at the local level.
They are a lot more mellow than Insurrectionist Senator Ron Johnson at the Federal level, but guess what: they pay dues to the Republican Party so as to have a career, so yes, they too are enemies, and they need to hear that as long as they support all this nonsense, they made my sh*t list.
We have a business on main St. in our town who sells delicious pulled pork sandwiches. I won't buy any: Every penny I would give to his business might be sucked by the RNC. I won't shed a tear if he goes under.
Their careers would serve only as a down payment.
We know who they are. They had one of the the least productive Congresses in history. Why didn’t people vote Congressional Republicans out in November?
Well, yes.
But considering that THE SOUTHERN STRATEGY was "activated" > 60 years ago, there was little chance of turning it back at this late stage.
(The Southern Strategy is a Lee Atwater (and others) plan to inflame "Christian" racial hate toward the very people who did the most to make much of America wealthy (thinking Deep South.) They denied it even existed for decades but but now? They're just so GOSH, DARN PROUD of it they can't keep their traps shut.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy
GOOD BOOK (but, please, NOT from Amazon)
"The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics"
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-long-southern-strategy-angie-maxwell/1131044111?ean=9780197579039
Lee Atwater from Black, Manafort & Stone, legals reps for DJT and numerous notorious bloody dictators that is.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/02/the-dirty-trickster
He won't bother anyone now.
Hopefully his deathbed regrets were real, and I fear the damage isn't half finished.
Thanks, eugene.
also Kevin Phillips, American Theocracy (2006), a very important warning that went unheeded.
So? Wtf are you going to do about it?
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
What the hell, Cody?? So many of us have been doing every single thing we possibly can. Unless all of us come together and physically take back our country, what the hell else can we do?
Peggy
That is how we have always survived as a nation. Dump isn't the first moron we've had for President. He is the dumbest though, and a total puppet! Let's take out the trash! Dump and Muskrat s*** together! Call your Congressman today!
I do, Mark! Every single day and sometimes twice a day depending on the next stupid thing they do! I won't stop! Those two are just plain too evil to be called trash! They are the scum deposited from the trash!
Peggy,
You may wish not to bother. I do now.
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
Other "real enemies" include the ignorant and greedy who voted for Trump and everyone who had voted for Biden in the past and sat this one out.
Exactly
Keep publishing the Musk Rat names!
Why, Mike? Nothing is going to be done. It is obvious that they have taken over and no one is going to raise a finger. No one is going to come riding in and corral the bad guys because there isn't anyone there!
But there can be!
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
The Musk Rats have families that can and should suffer from their behavior too. We need to know their names and advertise their crime, over and over again.
The Deep State, which is really the Oligarchs, is broad and deep. It is led by the many Koch brother's institutions The Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute, Federalist Society that write the conservative political policies like Project 2025. The same money that supports them is also put into campaigns for "conservative" candidates. Trump's game plan was written by a foundation funded by a guy nearly as rich as Musk. This is just more of the class war and right now Musk is leading the charge. The difference is that now they aren't really trying to hide it and are grabbing for total control. They are the Deep State.
Musk's destruction of USAID was never about cost cutting. It was a favor to China to remove competition. Musk expects to be well rewarded for it.
It's becoming abundantly clear that what Trump means by the Deep State is in fact the federal government - all of it!
You know, Trump and particularly Musk, are laughing about all this noise. They know that no one will do squat to stop them.
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
But they are being stopped, Cody. I know it's a slow process but eventually even MAGA is going to realise that the price of eggs is going up, not down.
Total nonsense. By that time, if ever, they're won't be a country left to save.
I'm beginning to think there isn't a country left to save. It seems that a lot of Americans simply do not care about what is happening. There isn't an outcry by a huge majority. There seems to be only a whimper by what many are calling "far-left libtards". I never thought I was a far-left libtard, but I guess I must be because I am horrified and angry about my country being destroyed by an absolute monster!
Peggy, there's really nothing new here. The lesson of history is that every civilization teaches an apex and then declines.
In the first place, America was never a democracy; that's just a self serving myth.
Even if we were, however, an "oligarchic democracy" is oxymoronic.
This is apparently why the lib-talk.com website says that the push back will have to come from the maga folks. They are already ready to fight about dinner table economics. It's not going to get better under Trump. If it gets worse they will want to know why, so the message now has to be that the oligarchs have won, so blame them.
I can't say that right now your pessismism is unwarranted, but don't let it become fatalism. There are loads of people who are not just unhappy with the way the government is behaving, they're doing something about it. Take Federal Election Commission commissioner and chair Ellen Weintraub, for example, who received a letter signed by Trump which said: “You are hereby removed as a member of the Federal Election Commission, effective immediately.” In a post on X, she said: “There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners – this isn’t it." So it doesn't look like she's going anywhere. If enough people resist, someone eventually is going to have to explain to Trump that he can't 'hereby' do everything. Okay, he's made that less likely by surrounding himself with a collection of dopes and sycophants so it's going to take longer.
Bullshit. You're dreaming if you think litigation will stop them.
" In a post on X"
Why is ANYONE opposed to them helping them to make money?
This is apparently why the lib-talk.com website says that the push back will have to come from the maga folks. They are already ready to fight about dinner table economics. It's not going to get better under Trump. If it gets worse they will want to know why, so the message now has to be that the oligarchs have won, so blame them.
Russell, I am proud of Ellen Weintraub; however, I am not hearing too many reports like this. I am hearing how a large number of federal employees took the scam deal the musk-rat offered. I hear a lot about how so many are caving to the orange man. I am not talking about MSM because they are treating everything he does as absolutely normal. I'm talking about news casts I trust.
Wow! negativity on steroids.
Russell, as much as I would love to believe that, I just don't see it happening! The musk-rat has access to all of our personal information and can destroy any of us any time he wants to! He could drain our bank accounts and strip us of everything! What he has done is illegal but NOBODY is stopping him! Maga does not give the furry crack of a rat's ass about the price of eggs because all the care about is "owning the libs" and every single bit of noise coming out of their idol's mouth!
You all sound like the Jews after Kristalnacht telling each other "we're powerless"
Cody, while I enjoy reading your comments, I do not enjoy being insulted. We are suppose to be in this together. Turning on each other and insulting each other is not going to get anyone to work any harder. A lot of my comments today are a gut reaction to the new shit coming from the musk-rat and orange man. It doesn't mean I will not continue to do everything I can to stop this. Give us a chance to absorb what has happened and react even if our reactions sound like giving up. We aren't giving up and we all know we are not powerless. The work will continue.
Ro be clear, we didn't all go quietly to tge death camps. There was Hashomer Hatzair that fought back in the forests and in the Warsaw ghetto. These heroes went on to become the founding units of Haganah.
Peggy, I know that it must be disheartening and for some even frightening and what Trump is Musk are doing is unconscionable. It will probably get worse before it gets better, and 'better' may not be all that great. Four years of this crap?!! But in March the government runs out of money, so either Trump tells Musk to unlawfully raid funds approved by Congress for other purposes or the Republicans are going to need Democrat votes in the House, and they're not going to get them while they're carrying on like this.
The "raiding" they will do will be on those programs that benefited us, Russell. Our Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP and any other program that does not benefit them! Yes, I am disheartened and frightened because those who have more voice and power than me are caving in left and right and leaving us to fight a battle we simply cannot win! Yes, it will get worse and worse and worse until America is no longer our great country but just a shell at the very bottom of every other country in the world.
Exactly! I'm beginning to think that all we are doing is giving them reasons to laugh because phone calls, letters and petitions are worth diddly squat to these a-holes! We won't get anywhere continuing to do that!
'If you have ANY ability to come after me for criminal activity, I'm coming for you FIRST!'
With yet more criminal activity?
For years, Glenn Norquist (President of Americans for Tax Reform) claimed he wanted government to be "so small I could drown it in my bathtub."
But I'd guess he'll also be in that tub, since he seems to be willing to WORK FOR FREE without any government to collect (and distribute) taxes.
Congratulations, Grover, Project 2025 may be so successful that we'll ALL be working FOR FREE!!!
I wonder how he'd feel if he was waist deep in water in his front room because of flooding or if his house burnt down in a wildfire. It seems to me that when shit gets bad people really, really want government to step in. Apparently Norquist has said: "When I became 21, I decided that nobody learned anything about politics after the age of 21." I think he's got about right at least so far as he's concerned.
Indeed...
Thank you, Russell.
'"Free labor," the Dream since before it was even a country.'
It's hard to govern when you hate government. Apparently that is the problem. A democracy is inefficient, so they want to replace the government with a CEO, which they say is called a "dictator". They seriously claim that they want to destroy the government it for the good of the country. While right now with Trump, it's just about power, it works based on the anti-government ideological efforts leading back the John Birchers.
John Birches, think government is one large conspiracy or else they would have fixed everything long ago.
I agree. This has long been the objective of the right in America, but it's never been popular. Even Reagan failed to substantially reduce the size of the state, and he was much more popular than Trump. He also promised to abolish the Department of Education, for example, and instead spending went up by 14% over his two terms in office. Trump's recent suggestion that states should pay for their own clean-up costs after natural disasters like wildfires, flooding and tornadoes went down with the public like a cup of cold sick.
Trump made this clear in 2016. Now Donald Trump is the federal government.
Which is why there's so much chaos. He's not interested in governing, he's too stupid and lazy. He spent his first Monday in office at the golf course. He has no idea what he's doing or what's being done in his name.
This is some interesting background context:
https://gizmodo.com/elon-musks-enemy-usaid-was-investigating-starlink-over-its-contracts-in-ukraine-2000559365
It is crucial to be well informed, and it is important not to overgeneralize. Charles Koch did not endorse Trump in 2024. The Federalist Society and the Cato Institute did not endorse Project 2025. The oligarchs do not constitute a monolithic block.
No, but Musk qualifies and that's all that is needed.
I haven't researched it, but it seems like the new leadership of the Heritage Foundation is even more extreme than the previous.
So? What are you going to about it?
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
Soon every family that doesn’t have millions will be suffering from the #TrumpMuskCabal. This doesn’t look like the greatness that the MAGA folks have been waiting for. Looks a lot more like exactly what it is: billionaires bleeding everyone dry and laughing all the way to the bank.
So if you’re thinking that your family is valued, it’s only that the house you’ve been in for generations will soon be available for a song.
Yes, after my family has been on this teensy-tiny scrap of land in the Deep South long enough to have (once upon a time) received a land grant from ANOTHER "king".
But that won't help us now...
Where's the rest of the deep south.
Well, it's all around.
No matter exactly how it's define it a pretty vast area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_South
Gloriann, I'm afraid I may not have understood your question, but I'm willing to try again.
Many of our homes will be empty and many of us will be living in tents and cardboard boxes as the orange man, muskrat and billionaires rape the country for their own profit and greed!
Focus on what you know to be true Peggy. And evidence.
Will do, Steve, thanks!
Perfectly stated
"Honorable Democracy"
What a beautiful concept, and ID!
Thank you.
Every single piece of software that Musk has his Hitler Youth infiltrating can never be trusted again, and will have to be rewritten, in total, and rebuilt from the ground up.
I don't see that happening, Philip! That information is out there now and none of us are safe!
What did the do to our elections?
Or restored from whatever backups exist. I hope the backups are safely out of MAGA hands.
Why hasn’t Musk and his rats been arrested?
I keep asking that as well! WTH. 😤
You are all dumb as a bag of rocks. Who, precisely, is going to arrest the President?
Really stupid. Take an action!
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
Insulting people and expecting them to want to listen to what you have to say-
So don't then.
The federal DOJ won’t touch them. It has to be done at the state level.
Yes, MAGA are for state rights, and if Trump attacks states he may face a backlash from his own base.
Is that because the federal DOJ is now in the orange man's pocket?
Good question, Moore! Perhaps because breaking the law has become acceptable and no one wants to "rock the boat"!
Wow, are you in lala land.
Question? If DOGE is supposed to be finding waste and abuse in US government agencies, why has it not looked into the biggest budget item? That would be the military. The military constantly fails audits, and overpays contractors. It is also the largest budget item, taking nearly 1/2 of the budget. If any savings could be had, they could be had by eliminating large parts of the military budget. How many secret projects are being funded? How much money can be saved by reeling in abusive contractors, who bid low to get a military contract. Then once they have a military contract, go over budget. These are the items that have to be curbed, not aid to our allies. Not aid to hungry and devastated people all over the world.
I could go on, but this is enough for starters.
Also all they had to do was look at the yearly audit reports. This was never about saving money
Much more to do with building a broad swath of projects to offer a little something...
...for EVERY potential voter...
...but only in THEIR district.
DOGE is not about fraud waste and abuse. It's about transfer of power.
Because he is counting on the military to enforce their rule, Marshall Law and all. There are quite a few "oath keeper" type, imbued with hyper toxic masculinity in the military.
they see themselves as Rambos.
Perhaps they aren't quite sure about the reaction or support they would get from the military....The military has an oath to be faithful to the Constitution, not a host of lawless foreign and domestic traitors brazenly subverting the laws to install a fascist dictatorship. Sleepless at 3 am I tuned into the channel of progress Youtuberer, tireless defender of democracy who, in a panicked voice, stated that musk and his nazi youth had hacked into the Department of Energy where the nuclear codes are kept. I have heard nothing about this anywhere else and I sincerely hope it is not true. You think you were scared before. Can or would the military step in should this be the case (a military style coup) and arrest the entire lot of them for TREASON. Check out the website of the Dept of Energy, it already has musk's fingerprints evident at the edges.
It has been reported in a few places, but not widely. Lots of military folks are really upset and angry. Will anything happen? IDK.
Because those items are putting money into the billionaires' pockets! Aid to our allies and hungry, devastated people all over the world don't mean diddly squat to these psychopaths! The world has turned its back on us because of that orange demented fool. They are developing trade with other countries, our allies are helping one another AND providing aid to the hungry, devastated people. We are no longer a powerful country. Pretty soon, we will be begging for aid to help feed us!
Musk is receiving lots of money from Pentagon for spacex and starlink; he never talks about cutting anything from the defense budget.
I’ve seen this “corporate raider” act before. It is a movie that does not end well. The operative question for laypeople should NOT be “who has read/write or read only access?” That is way more complicated, because the information and the code are two separate things. COBOL is not a sexy language drilled into anybody these days, let alone teenagers. My point is, through sleight of hand, nuance of terms, and bottomless amounts of bullshit, what is being argued in front of a judge by a lawyer about who has access to what is moot. The only, and I mean ONLY, way to STOP exfiltration (stealing) is to PHYSICALLY DISCONNECT THEIR ABILITY TO TOUCH ANYTHING.
I’m not joking. Anyone with some knowledge of tech can back me up, because I’m 100% right. I’ve done this for 30 years. I doubt the Treasury people actually anticipated this, and as employees are wont to do, left holes standing wide open at the moment of incursion by Musk’s manchildren.
Anything short of total removal is fuckin’ MALFEASANCE on a judge, attorney, congressperson’s, or any other party to a ban or block. Excuse my language.
The real question we should be really getting down to is: How is illegal action HALTED when conducted under PRESIDENTIAL WILL with DISREGARD FOR THE LAW? The answer is, according to the constitutional attorneys right now, “NOBODY”. The closest we’ve come to this in our HISTORY was with Nixon and the release of the Tapes that started Watergate. NIXON COMPLIED and CRISIS AVERTED. But nobody ever thought, “What if Nixon had said ‘fuck off’?” That question is the root of these crises.
Nixon & Co feared Communism, hence some humility and responsibility. Today's oligarchs fear nobody, but they do hate the "woke" and the "Left".
Disconnection may incur more problems than it may solve. If you've worked with info systems for 30 years you likely know this as well. All of this is very complicated and the issues vary dept by dept and mission. Which is why you don't want tyro's in there screwing around like Musk and his boy wonders.
You’re 100% right, of course. The scenario in my head was limited to exfiltration.of data at the time. And I don’t know (of course) how Treasury versions their changes, or what systems it tracks them in (eg, GitHub). It’s a genuinely horrifying situation to consider in the entirety of possibilities. Thanks for pointing that out.
Arrest musk and all of the coup plotters, NOW. OUR police and/or military need to counteract this coup, NOW. Illegal activity (seditious conspiracy) gives them the authority.
Who, precisely, is going to do this?
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
Deeply disappointed. American voters wanted this. Democratic lawmakers are useless...why aren't they making a stink on TV screaming every minute about what's happening and blocking (or at least trying to block) all the criminal things that are happening? Instead, we have rats like Fetterman that voted to confirm Bondi??? I give up...too old for this crap. I just feel bad for the generations that are growing up in this absolute shithole.
The media is has bent the knee. Not many tv senders airing the truth
Let's give them the credit they're due...
There's just no money in it!
And here's the credit...
(Hmmm. I know it's here somewhere. Musta dropped it out in the parking lot...)
"The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite."
Thomas Jefferson
First step of the gop was to create the fear of socialism. And befuddle the working and middle class into thinking their interests were best served by the elites
Fear has been used far too often throughout history and reminds me of this >
"When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty." ~ Thomas Jefferson
When people fear each other they get totalitarianism.
We NEED a Thomas Jefferson right now!
You're dreaming man. Trump and particularly Musk are laughing at all of you; they know you're not going to do squat!
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
Interesting turn of phrase.
An awful lot of "squatting" is taking place, even as we speak. (I think some just landed on top of my head, them dribbled down to my feet. Must be all that hard-to-digest caviar and foie gras.)
And it's no one wearing BLUE that's doing it.
Dont look now, frightened elites, Socialism for the obscenely wealthy is here already. If you still want a servant/worker class you had better take care of them.
The difference is the Founders took ACTION!
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
tRUMP was never even vetted in the first place, and could not pass a security clearance in 2016. Still can't .
But even then, the concept of it being just ONE man (which one is still debatable) was a pretty big stretch.
Of course, destruction of all humanity by a single person would have also been a stretch...then:
"Trump (2016) Fed candidate Stephen Moore claimed to believe “capitalism is more important than democracy”, and financial markets apparently agree, seemingly going so far as to presume that capitalism is more important that humanity itself."
https://medium.com/@foofaraw/not-all-climate-deaths-will-be-equal-but-all-are-avoidable-cc41dfee91c9
What are you talking about? You didn't understand what I wrote.
Perhaps, but I think that may go both ways.
My point is that times have changed drastically since then, and we must incorporate these newer realities into ANY plan, in order to achieve success.
And even then, there are no certainties.
(Nice talk, Cody. Thank you.)
And Vought was confirmed.
This is just getting worse and worse. 😰
So this is what we have as a cabinet, the lizard brains and the lacking brains.
That's what happens when am already willingly (joyously? ORGASMICALLY!!) ignorant society is told that being "under-educated" will FINALLY be the source of Daddy's love that they have missed for so long.
Almost like "Race To the Bottom" is now America's most popular reality show (and as carefully scripted as any of them.)
And seemingly, of that self-selected, self-loathing cult, almost no one is immune.
yeah we don't need no stinkin experts. 45 years of disinvestment in America has come home to roost. 45 years of the government is the problem and capitalism (Amazon etc) is all we need is being put to the test.
Makes one wonder how a simple working American (a shit-shoveler, for example, maybe named Herk) can be able to absorb and contain as much knowledge as 99% of scientists, 99% of doctors, 99% of meteorologists, 99% of experts in SO MANY fields...
Yet still remain ignorant enough, and to remain UNDER-EDUCATED enough...
To truly be DESERVEDLY beloved of Donald.
I suppose it simply speaks to the greatmas of this special, yet very ordinary, GAWD of a man.
"We don need no steekin leaders...we got TRUMP!"
He was "confirmed" in my mind as soon as I heard "Project 2025".
Confirmed dangerous and full of hate...and SHIT.
That goalpost (and rest assured it IS THE GOAL) has been moved so many times it's been worn down almost to a tiny nub.
Of course, that makes the KICKINGS so much easier for "them".
I watch in horror from Sydney Australia. Good job, Robert, keep naming and shaming the billionaires planning this coup of the government and the economy!!! Gina Rinehart, Anthony Pratt, James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch are all happy to help this cancer hit our sweet democracy too. They've hooked our opposition leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. We have a federal election coming soon. I'm terrified the USA cancer will hit here. These billionaires are very organised!
....Well said Virginia, while in my capacity as your Sydney compatriot, I'd recommend you check out - that is if you've not yet seen it - the vulgar and sycophantic lauding of 'Agent Orange's' thought bubble by Sky's Rowan Dean in a conversation with vile Bolt further to Trump's 'faux annexation' (as in in his head) of Gaza, while that can be seen on You Tube.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast
They own Sky I think.
And so I continue to ask. What is the plan? Where is the Democratic version of Project 2025. At the very least, this is all a horrendous HIPAA violation, which is taken very seriously in the medical profession. That is the start. Brownshirts have already been assembled. Just waiting for Kristallnacht..
Everyone knew this was the plan, yet the democrats are totally unprepared it seems. How?
EXACTLY!
The Southern Strategy was "activated" > 60 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy
Yeah, what's the plan and who will execute it?
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
Cody Lawrence ' do you have any ideas?
https://open.substack.com/pub/codylawrence/p/you-can-keep-babbling-about-what?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1jv9y
“Making government more efficient,” is the reasoning that dictators have utilized around the world to justify their disastrous grabs for power. Opposition is growing, but it is much too slow. If activists had not been lighting fires under their representatives asses, there might be hardly any opposition at all!
And Mussolini did NOT "make the trains run on time" as he used to brag.
The common refrain on rightwing radio is Musk and his wroecking crew are getting rid of corruption.
The train masters under Mussolini reported falsely they were running on time.
And the grain harvests have exceeded production once again! Glory to our leader.