Oh, America, you are in an existential fight for your country's democratic future. It's unbelievable, and the World is watching. And the well-meaning part of the world is with you. Uh, and yes, we are fighting the same fights here (in Germany and Europe). It is the US that shows us all what to avoid: Do not accommodate radicals. Do not.
Frank, it is heartening to know that your countries are watching and learning what you absolutely must avoid in order to keep your country from turning into America. We are in the fight of our lives. I was told yesterday that our Democracy the way we know it, grew up in and lived in our whole lives is over. That doesn't mean Democracy is dead. It simply means we have to face this fact and move on. The question remains do we want to fight for a new Democracy we all can live in or allow a dictator and the oligarch to take over. For me, I will fight until I draw my last breath in order to live in a Democracy. Tell your friends not to ever let someone like the orange man to even gain a foothold in your countries! I wish you peace and happiness and above all stay safe!
Democracy is about voting, not values. Trump's presidency is an authentic product of our democracy, as were all the pro slavery and pro Jim Crow elected politicians in the distant past. Massive support for the Gaza genocide is also a product of democray, a bi-partisan product no less. Trump was well known for his appetite for vengeance, cruelty, lying with almost every breath, and the absense of humanity (short list). And it seems that his pre-election supporters are still enthusiastic about the same old Trump.
I think oppositions to Trump's governance shouil be the emphasis of community values that respect all members of the community.For example advocacy for universal health care should not be formulated as a political left/rigth issue, but as an enhancement of qual;ity of life for the many in our commuinity that lack the resources to obtain quality health care.
[I apologize in advance for this long post... this is an issue close to my heart...]
I agree that democracy requires voting, but values DO play a significant part. For a few decades in the mid-20th century, *access* to democracy -- especially in voting access -- widened significantly. There were advances in civil rights that increased the number of non-white and non-male voters, and their access to services provided by the federal government. Even with Nixon's skullduggery and some states' resistance, access to voting was appreciably wider in the '70s than it was in the '50s. Certainly not perfect, but probably the best it had ever been.
When Reagan dirty-tricked his way into the White House, though, that wider access was a target for the right. The current administration has doubled down now, and quite a few states are also pursuing this aggressively. You hear this in some of the rhetoric -- the GOP says the US is NOT a democracy; it's a republic, which is not the same thing, of course.
I live in Texas and work in state govt, and I've watched as the Republicans who have a stranglehold on the state (using dirty tricks, of course, to get there) limit access with a variety of means. In a state where the total population leans slightly to the left, voting now leans strongly to the right. For example, the state senate is 2/3 Republican and the house is around 60% Republican, meaning that Democratic voices have been effectively muted.
And the government in general has become increasingly radical. For example, Gov Abbott recently strung razor wire in the Rio Grande to prevent migrants from coming to TX (and to maim/kill as many as possible who try to cross). He also (probably illegally) sent busloads of migrants to blue states, to punish all concerned.
AG Paxton was criminally indicted for major financial crimes before he took office but used his position to evade a trial for years until the usually quite capable special prosecutors gave up. He was impeached more recently for involvement in another criminal conspiracy, but the state senate declined to remove him from office. Most importantly, he has significantly contributed to the attrition in numbers of Democrats voting by striking massive numbers of voters from the rolls, chosen more by party/ethnicity/location (for example, he targeted Houston and San Antonio, because they're more likely to vote Dem.)
In 2024, the number of voters Paxton removed was more than 1.1 million by August in a state with 18-19 million registered voters -- over 5% -- which means they removed more like 10% or more who might have voted Dem. (There were even more struck just before the election, when it looked like Kamala was ahead.) Ted Cruz won by a little less than 10%. Paxton also raided the homes of people who were active in LULAC, to reduce the number of Hispanic voters further. They're getting better all the time at restricting access not just to voting, but to state services in general.
I think this is kind of a dress rehearsal for Trump -- whom Paxton filed a bunch of legal challenges for after the 2020 election, probably hoping for a pardon; I'm guessing Trump will oblige once he removes as many of the mechanisms that protect democracy on the federal level as he can. (The crime he was impeached for may continue to be an issue.) Voter suppression has certainly worked at the state level here. Since 2003, when Tom Delay gerrymandered the state, there has been no major state office held by a Democrat, and the GOP has controlled the state's House and Senate.
This is just an example of access to democracy being curtailed. My point is that while of course it's hugely important we vote, we also need to vigorously protect the voting rights we have and try to widen access again, and that's going to take a lot of vigilance and creativity -- at least as much creativity as the 2025 Project inspired on the right. We haven't lost all of the guardrails yet, but even if we don't, the next election will be far more "rigged" than the last one.
Agree 100% with everything you say, poco loco. Except the U.S. IS a republic, which merely means a representative form of government---citizens elect other citizens to represent them in the government. Just ask Ben Franklin.
Thank you for this elucidation of life in Texas. I'll stay in California for now. But remember that fair voting for a representative is not democracy so long as he is free to vote for his own benefit rather than yours.
authentic my ass it's a sign of our election process not working well with a third of people not voting and all the bullying fear Mongering gerrymandering etc so on pugs did to barely if at all squeeze a margin of victory ... there is nothing positive hopeful sustainable about it
“Chose” or were they purged from their state’s voting list, not able to get to a voting booth nearby because many of the local voting stations and ballot boxes were shut down, or their ballot was rejected…?
Sherm Gallay - With all respect to your enthusiasm, you're wrong about the underpinnings of democracy. It is not about voting. It is about decision making. You can vote until you are blue in the face (as we do) for representatives who could not care less about what you think but make decisions that benefit themselves. Voting is a sop that is thrown to you to make you think that you are making decisions. You are not. You are being deceived. The inventors of the constitution hated democracy and feared it. They made sure there would be no democracy in the new America. Despite the improvements since then (giving many more people the vote until the Repubs suppress those votes) you still do not vote on bills or appropriations. Other people do that - people over whom you have exceedingly little control. I am always amazed when people who should know better confuse democracy with voting in periodic elections. This is the essence of anarchy - restoring people to voting over the actual decisions that affect their lives, not just voting for some haughty "representative". The problem is that the Anarchists have no idea how to accomplish that. It is possible using computers but Americans are so stuck in their ways, that it is hopeless to talk about reality here.
I'm wondering just how many people (including GOPers) are doing the math right now:
A mid-air collision over a major city, and the people that were trained for years to do their jobs properly are still there. This was essentially, "best case scenario", perhaps for the next 4 years.
What will it be like in a month if Trump gets his way, and wearing a too-long tie and baggy suit matters more than job skills? And safety regulations and oversight are trimmed to the bone, be they in consideration of the passengers, or the aircraft.
Tara it’s been hard on me, too, to get to the stage of accepting this is real, it’s happening, clear my head and calmly assert my best interests while taking care of all I value - including people I don’t know yet like you!
The average salary of a Federalworker that Trump wants to fire is $100,000 times that by 50,000 and there is not enough in the budget to pay for this, and Congress is going to have to authorize this. Any employee who resigns will get stiffed, because Trump will come back and so you resigned and don't get paid
William Farrar - Tsk tsk, the word is "multiply", not "times". I finally figured it out. You are usually so erudite. The product is only 5 billion dollars. Elon wouldn't even miss it. But you're right about getting stiffed because the Rump will divert the money into his own account.
Thank you for speaking out with us! I join you and hope Germany can pull through. I so admire your country and strong Germans who are having to fight for democracy! I read about Germany almost daily and see Musk trying to lure some Germans back into an autocratic trap - we are all under threat!
During trump's first term, I wrote a comment in the Washington Post that the USA was 'free speeching' itself into an autocracy. The rampant proliferation of harmful lies and propaganda was way too much for this 'polite' Canadian to handle as being acceptable in a society where civility rules. Underlying hatreds cloaked in the guise of freedom of expression. The blow back was swift - I was scolded, no one tampers with free speech, a cornerstone of their democracy - lies and propaganda were okay.
The outcome, it's okay for the corrupt to bamboozle their way into power. Sadly, democratic nations all now need to beef up their responses to hate and propaganda - the very freedom these laws are meant to protect are jeopardy.
Around 1950, the US instituted the Fairness Doctrine, a policy that required anyone with a broadcast license to present opposing views on issues. McCarthyism might have been much worse without it.
And Reagan repealed it in 1987, a rather hefty blow to democracy in this country.
Freedom without responsibility is unsustainable. When authoritarian/totalitarian factions take advantage of free speech to destroy freedom, reasonable safeguards must be implemented, otherwise freedom is surrendered by default.
Victor: Free speech is an oxymoron. There is no freedom that cannot be overdone and abused to deny others that same freedom. All freedoms are tentative, or provisional, insofar as they must be tempered to allow others the same freedom. The MAGA people will never understand this. Their claim to freedom means their freedom is absolute and you can go suck a rock.
Frank - thank you for your words of encouragement. Allegedly we don't negotiate with terrorists (unless it suits our needs - see dumpster/taliban agreement). it's possible that someday democrats might learn not to negotiate with terrorists, because surprise! surprise! terrorists don't seem to abide the rule of law. did i mention that the republican party is a terrorist organization that promotes violence to solve political differences? the republican party is a terrorist organization that subverts and destroys the rule of law - of evidence, precedent, grand jury procedure, truth. the republican party is a terrorist organization that promotes violence against women, children, minorities, any "other" of the moment. dumpster is a domestic terrorist, plain for all to see and hear. american has been making the world "safe for democracy" for decades. unfortunately doing that by violent means teaches that violence is the way to solve political problems. all "making safe for democracy" ever meant was "making it easier to exploit your labor, resources, the environment, and avoid taxes". now the oligarchs who've always been behind "making the world safe for democracy" are out in the open, openly destroying what passes for democracy in this bloody wasteland of a world. and so it goes
Paul Cesmat: Paul, you have a problem because you are trying to use a reasonable definition of terrorist as someone who actually employs violent terror. In the current world, terrorist actually means someone that the speaker doesn't like. To me, the Netanyahu government is a bunch of actual terrorists because of their actions. But Net. likes to refer to Hamas as terrorists while he sees himself as an angel with white wings, playing a harp. American administrations use the word the way I said- anyone opposed to them is a terrorist. It's a convenient word for them for now, similar to racist or anti-semite. When these words lose their punch, they will find new words to use.
Paul Palmer - I am not understanding your confusion about my use of the word terrorist, except that it is probably overused. So should I characterize the republican party as a criminal organization? that works for me. they are lawless, promote violence to resolve political differences, steal from us, and committ other assorted crimes and misdemeanors. And yes I completely agree that Netanyahu is a terrorist, as are those in his military who commit war crimes. In that context, when helicopters and passenger jets collide in front of an airport because the repulicans won't adequately fund air traffic controller recruitment and training, do those actions qualify, in your estimation, as terrorism?
Frank, we Americans learning from European history. Tim Snyder’s Lessons on Tyranny illustrated book highly appreciated and recommended as is his Sub stack posts regarding Ukraine.
Frank, it's good to hear from a German because you understand how democracies can slip into fascism. I hope you will keep posting, possibly giving us some insights on how to fight this authoritarian takeover.
SF Bay Area: Yep! I can't comment, and don't, of many USA matters as I live on the isolated far coast of the UK. However, it is extraordinary to me, and many around me, how so many USA voters can be seduced by the ranting Trump. Suckers who remain suckers while waiting for the Trump miracles he has promised.
I have relatives in the USA and the Trump disaster hurts way beyond the USA.
Racism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc, are powerful drugs. The GOP uses culture war politics to keep their base angry and grieved while at the same time picking their pockets.
Who wouldn't want to be told that nothing they ever did to harm others, and nothing that ever harmed others that they benefited from (thinking slavery), is their fault, or their responsibility to correct.
Trump has made their souls (and wallets) as pure as the driven snow.
foofaraw & Chiquita, I find it interesting that these christians want to be absolved by a convicted felon with no moral compass, who cares only for himself and what makes him comfortable. I can't really say "happy" because I don't think he or Musk and the rest are happy, just very needy which makes them all dangerous. Their disciples have no clue how much Toddler-Trump and the playground have contempt for them and don't even care if they die of future diseases or work accidents, or anything else. They/we are all expendable as far as they are concerned.
Jimmie, you are right about racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and homo/transphobia as I put them together in this quartet. People here want too much to believe their white skin and maleness makes them somehow superior. It seems the only thing they are probably superior in is being duped by unscrupulous white men who think everyone is inferior to themselves, when they are pretty pathetic toddler-adults who never had to grow up. Their money let them remain children and that garners a lot of sympathy from white women and envy from a lot of white and white wannabee men. Shameful, but it is where we are.
If I understand correctly, in attacking DEI, the right is pretty clearly making the claim that ONLY white, male, cis christians are capable of doing any job properly.
I'm wondering if that just might be the MOST IGNORANT statement from the right this week. (It's bad enough without trying to start a competition...)
There's a video from years ago (Oprah, I believe, it should be on YouTube), where Trump has the absolute balls to say he'd have done better as a Black man, that they get all the breaks.
I’m sad for us here in America & sadder for many who do not live here but need our continuing supports.
Trump & Project 25 Heritage Foundation will wring us out & leave us hugely depleted and in the case of probably millions of women, trapped in lives of desolation and ignorance. Too many children and no access to medical and care.
"On Tuesday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio issued a new waiver for “life-saving humanitarian assistance”, which he defined as “core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance”."
Much more than patience is required. Here is why: Trump and his backers know that his approval ratings will go down as his policies are implemented, and they are prepared for this. They intend to render Congress ineffectual one way or another, thereby validating, if not legitimizing, the president's claim of the need for an "energized presidency." In the meantime the government bureaucracy would be filled with Trump loyalists, and, as the authors of Project 2025 state, "personnel is policy."
My son is "abroad" where the state controlled media are playing the same repetitive video clips of big white men with guns, body Armour and ICE on their backs dragging skinny guys out in handcuffs. It is meant to terrorize and it is working. FACT CHECK. One clip from Chicago (my home town) is actually from 2022. Another is actually from Washington DC etc etc. The weekend numbers? Trust 'em? Totals NOT terribly different from Biden 2022-23.
So are we seeing the news or being subjected to a coordinated campaign of media terror? Which is worse and what does it say about the MSM which is caving in?
coordinated
What care I for the price of beans in Zanzibar wrote Henry David Thoreau. Tell me that when you can't get onions from Washington State cause there's no one to pick them or lettuce or bananas.
As a resident of the rural Deep South, I had presumed that we might have already learned all we needed to know about the "passions" of Trump supporters, and based purely on the gun issue:
"MOST Trump-worshippers love their own children more than they love their GUNS, but ALL Trump worshippers love their GUNS more than other people's children."
And if Covid taught us anything, it's that, "Trump-worshippers love Trump more than their own elders."
And of course, RFK,Jr. comes along when every parent was themselves safely vaccinated as kids.
What happened yesterday, with countless essential services potentially (and absolutely) shut down (even in the Deep South), begs a similar question be asked about Trump-support:
"Who do you love more, Trump or your OWN children...AND everyone else's children?"
Except that none of the vaccinated parents from 30 or 40 years prior are likely to actually know anyone who suffered from being vaccinated by those childhood disease vaccines.
But everyone of a certain age remembers someone with polio.
I tried it and Substack did not do what it used to do. apparently, the guidelines are no longer the same as they used to be, allowing profanity and hate.
I can't believe this is really what T-cultists expected. They each anticipated being enclosed in an insulating bubble of pure gold, except for an opening on top where white people would receive streams of $1,000,000 bills.
And every night, Trump was to tuck them in one and all, so they know to always leave a Diet Coke and a greasy chicken leg near the Trump-Tree!
Yes, the Federal workers do not deserve to be treated as unwanted and unnecessary expenditures. This move by Trump is pure theater at the expense of American citizenry. Robert, thank you for pointing out what a sham this whole tactic is.
This move makes it clear that Trumps current tactic is to throw the U.S. government into chaos in a way that keeps the news media and citizens attention on him. He is truly behaving like "a baby with a machine gun.” and Musk is acting like a nazi with a machine gun. So much power concentrated in the hands of such immoral individuals is a sure sign of disaster ahead. The time for planning for post-disaster rebuilding is now. Here is a link to more of my thoughts on preparing for post disaster action.https://crisistransition.substack.com/p/the-time-for-planning-is-now
I love your post on Crisis Transition, Marc. They always clear my head and give me ideas about what I can do. Like Professor Reich, you keep me sane and able to cope! Thank you!
The unbearable irony here is that Republicans had no issue with career civil servants until they got in the way of Trumps drive to consolidate power- now they are part of a "deep state", enemies within driven by their hatred of good, honest, hard-working people. Even Lindsay Graham said, "yeah, it's illegal to fire Inspectors General like that" but won't lift a finger to support them. The Inspector at the USDA had to get dragged out of her office- we need more folks like that in public office!
Professor Reich: i am so happy you said this plainly and publicly. our nation's federal employees are probably feeling alone and frightened for themselves, their families, their jobs and their futures. i don't know how many words of sound advice they are hearing, nor how they are coping with the pressure that an oligarch and his dictator are bringing to bear upon them, but i really hope they are getting good advice and support and -- if they can afford it -- that they are working with lawyers to protect them from all these robber barons.
Wife of a 20-year federal employee here. We just had a baby — 7 weeks early with some health issues — and I’m terrified and not sleeping. Our other daughter turns 9 tomorrow, and she’s probably among the most informed people her age (her choice — she’s been reading the news for years). Every day, she asks what Trump has done now, and are we going to be OK. It breaks my heart that I can’t fully assure her we will be.
Heather, thank you for giving us a real life insight for what this latest piece of theater does to families such as yours. Be assured, all of us on this substack have your back. We are all in this together.
As a parent of now 18 year old boy/girl twins , I mourn for the country they were born into. I have photos of them as toddlers holding up the newspaper when Obama was elected the first time. I've been sad & worried for them off & on ever since 2016. Now it's just on ever since Dobbs.
I'm so sorry your daughter has to worry about this at such a young age. She sounds like she'll be a future journalist. I hope she & my kids can witness how the American public , independent journalists, lawyers, etc fought to keep our democracy. My daughter has been considering switching her major to poli-sci due to her personal interests & the political climate. It goes without saying that we need to keep this country intact for the future generations, most of whom do not know the severity of the situation.
She wants to be an ornithologist. I personally think she’d make a great environmental lawyer. That girl is ridiculously smart and can lay out a logical argument without even trying. She’s a force!
HEY HEATHER! i'm an ornithologist! my (unsolicited) advice: get a double major! it will take a year longer, true, but it will provide her with SO many more professional options in the future. and it's great education for someone who might become a lawyer (ornithologists love and live for complex and subtle details, so there's that.)
She’ll likely graduate early via dual enrollment, so it might not even take longer in terms of her age! She’s supposed to be in third grade right now but is completing sixth grade, so there’s that, too. Do you have a recommendation for the two majors?
Reading your story reminds me of my granddaughter. My advice to you: Somehow ensure she takes time to be a kid and finds joy in her childhood. Sidney Freedman of M*A*S*H said it differently: Ladies and gentleman, take my advice. Pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
This heartfelt, simple and empathetic exchange between Heather and other contributors here has given me hope. Let's keep exchanging encouragement with each other. We are NOT alone in this.
My hope is that the youth will picture the world they want to live in and work together to bring it about. It doesn’t have to be the way it is. I’m sorry the adults have let them down (for now). We need to step up and help fix it.
Hi Jennifer, we're about to have our first great granddaughter next month. I wish that I could feel happier than I do about it. 😔 This isn't even the world my grandkids were born into. It's not supposed to be like this, where we have to worry about the world the next generation will inherit.
I hope it helps a bit to know that we are with you and your family. Easy to say, I know, but stay strong. Professor Reich's advice is wise and we must all keep this issue in the forefront. Rachel Maddow tonight featured the fact that thump has the lowest approval rating of any incoming president ever (how he has ANY approval is beyond me, but that's beside the point). His disapproval rating is, if I recall correctly from her program, 49%. She then made the important point of saying that if you've been feeling alone with your reactions and emotions, you are NOT alone. I hope you can also know that.
The Kennedy, Gabbard, Patel hearings, the funding freeze, and all of the other relentless chaos thump and his mob are creating are keeping us all, reporters most of all, from focusing on what should be the most prominent issue right now: this corrupt bribe offered to Federal employees. It is a huge strike against our government and country and, if effected, will decimate both in short order, probably much faster even than thump and mob hoped. It is an evil plan and must be fiercely resisted in every way, at every level.
One Kennedy stood out this week—Caroline, the former ambassador to Australia, who called out a warning against her cousin as a predator, who keeps predatory birds as pets, feeding them from a blender full of dead chickens and rats. I found the contrast between her agonized warning and the business-as-usual crowd on the Hill chilling.
Jennifer N - I agree with you about the 100 days and MSNBC. You've touched on my concern: that Maddow's return to 5-days a week for 100 days along with her promotion of her new presence on Bluesky is an indicator of her leaving at the end of the 100 days. It will be a huge loss, but maybe a boost to the anti-X/anti-Twitter site, Bluesky, and the anti-X is a good thing.
From a Declassified CIA guide to Resistance against Fascism:
Simple sabotage ideas include:
• “Insist on doing everything through ‘channels.’ Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.”
• “Make ‘speeches.’ Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your ‘points’ by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate ‘patriotic’ comments.”
• “Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.”
• “Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.”
• “‘Misunderstand’ orders. Ask endless questions or engage in long correspondence about such orders. Quibble over them when you can.”
• “In making work assignments, always sign out the unimportant jobs first. See that the important jobs are assigned to inefficient workers of poor machines.”
• “To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work.”
• “Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done.”
• “Multiply paperwork in plausible ways.”
• “Make mistakes in quantities of material when you are copying orders. Confuse similar names. Use wrong addresses.”
• “Work slowly. Think out ways to increase the number of movements necessary on your job”
• “Pretend that instructions are hard to understand, and ask to have them repeated more than once. Or pretend that you are particularly anxious to do your work, and pester the foreman with unnecessary questions.”
• “Snarl up administration in every possible way. Fill out forms illegibly so that they will have to be done over; make mistakes or omit requested information in forms.”
Heather, I am so sorry you have to go through this now. I understand how scared you are but right now just take care of yourself and the baby and your wonderful daughter. Your poor husband must be under such stress. I feel terrible for your family. You are not alone. People will help you.
Heather, my heart hurts for you and your family's predicament! Please don't fret. Your husband will be okay just don't let him take the muskrat's deal. You need your sleep in order to care for your sweet newborn and help her overcome her health issues. Many times I have thanked our tireless federal employees for all they do because essentially they are on the front line so to speak. Please know I care about you and your family's safety. Tell your nine year old Happy Birthday and if I'm still around in 25 or 30 years, she will have my vote for President of the United States! Wishing you all the best.
He would absolutely never take the deal and sees it for exactly what it is: Don’s latest con. Many federal employees are marking the email as spam and/or phishing. And our daughter would seriously make a wonderful president. She’s kind, empathetic, smart, and logical. We’re very proud of her!
With best wishes from Australia, Heather. Hang in there and reach out to others while knowing you are not alone. You'll get through this - even if it may take some time etc. Best, M.A.
Heather, thank you for sharing your family’s situation. I wish you the best with each concern and am thankful to see the wonderful responses of kind, capable, and good-willed supporters.
Your nine year old daughter sounds especially wise and gifted. I hope her future will be bright. The person who suggested that she prepare for life with a double major or a backup degree is exactly right. Many people these years are safer in being prepared in more than one field. It always helps to broaden our scopes.
I wish your family comfort, safety, good health, and success in every way needed. We each are blessed to have this opportunity to learn from Professor Robert Reich and to be comforted by being able to share here.
Dear Heather, I wish I was near and could help you out with the new baby, give you some rest, spend some time with the birthday girl. I hope there is someone near who can fill that role right now. Reading your post underscores how angry we all should be at this grab for power in broad daylight with a compliant congress standing by, reminding each of us that there are people at the end of these pointed attacks. I can carry that anger for you. Please reassure your little girl that you all will be ok, she has two parents that love her and will keep her as safe as they can, always. And that the 4 of you are a family going through it all together. And you are not alone.
Seasoned federal employees are rallying around these issues and coming together. Democracy Forward has tracker for solid legal challenges to EOs. Research underlying civil service, merit system, public administration - different than business administration. If compelling to your husband, he will find coworkers and an agency that resonates with his values and an interesting life long rewarding career.
Yes Heather your daughters you and all of us will be ok! It’s not easy, we can do this and are figuring it out. Lots of inspiration on substack and elsewhere. Keep reaching out.
I'm not a counselor, but what helps me the most is to stay in the moment and focus on the things I have control over or at least can engage in directly. Bring yourself back to Earth so to speak and in your case also birth and make the most out of every minute.
Sending back an email with the word 'resign' in the subject line further to demands made by this 'Committee for Public Safety' (in recalling the revolutionary Jacobins in 1789 France) that is the outfit now headed up by 'Citizen Musk' (as was 'apparently' the case with your head of the Department for the Interior after we here in Australia saw this on TV yesterday) seems to be the fascist equivalent of a choice between whether wanting to be shot or later on hanged.
I've no doubt who deserves to be shot, this utter nonsense could end in violence. But who is going to get rid of Trump? The Senate is full of GOP yes men. But I'm sure that they must be worried. I read an article saying that their phones are ringing non stop. I just bet they are and it will go on for as long as the orange idiot is in power.
I just emailed my GOP Senator (unfortunately, I’m in a red state) and asked WTH is going on there. We all need to be calling and writing. If they want chaos, we should give it to them.
This is SUCH a good point. If red state Senators become inundated with angry constituent's messages, they may hesitate to go along with every unconstitutional act that is being rolled out right now. I'm from a blue state but I am calling and writing and demanding that those elected officials grow a pair and offer more resistance as well!
'Let 'em eat Fake', Tamara, while I really ought have called the M-rat 'Citoyen Musk' further to T.'s mob being true Jacobin radicals in the now 'post-neoliberal age' we inhabit, while the bureaucratic staff firings are akin to these decent public servants being hoisted into tumbrils and carried down DC streets to Musk's 'national razor'!
Listen to him, folks. DO NOT RESIGN. Trump & Co. have declared war on the federal workforce. I retired a couple of years ago but this pisses the hell out of me. Resist, fight, delay.
What SoCal all Lobo said. Well said! And I would add, Unionize!!! Just to piss off the Orange Turd and the Appartheit Monkey and their collaborators. Don't let them and Peter Theil and the rest of them get their National CEO (i.e., dictator, as Thiel himself has said).
Right. Two con artists pick a quickie, arbitrary date, Feb.6, and rush you into making a decision. Two weeks to decide on an offer where the money may not be there to make good on it. Or it may not be supported in court. But Feb. 6 will happen before any adjudication finds its way through the court process. So the whole offer may be found to be illegal. Meanwhile, you’ve opted out of a job and you’re screwed. This is what happens when you elect a convicted felon for president: criminality is the coin of the realm.
fuck these people to the hell they want us in....let's get rid of em ASAP bunch of bullshit turned me into s fucking potty mouth and I'm not stoping cursing till these assholes fuck off
Stephen, I know you are angry as we all are, but I couldn't help but laugh when I read your post! I am an old woman (72) and I was raised not to use foul language. What I was laughing about was the fact that I have been saying things like that ever since that ludicrous orange clown hopped a ride on the escalator! When it comes to that particular piece of vermin, I say, curse away! They've turned me into a screamin dirty mouth as well!
My granddaughter gets tickled every single time I let loose! She says Nanny has a potty mouth! I told her when they get rid of that orange stain, I won't have to curse so much!
I don't usually curse but right now I don't fucking care....it's ok...we need to be upset but not at one another. I love your comment and fuck This shit. humans have survive horrible shit before. they do it by coming together and even if it means cursing and speaking out being ok if I am killed muzzled etc if people keep hearing truths and fighting for better so fuck being taught rules right now fuck not cursing sorry memaw Gramma pastor rabbi Iman etc we love you but this shit is fucked up and we are gonna do something even if its hair cursing to the executioner and laughing at some. pathetic bigots who are desperately trying to hold power they're loosing..fuck them..El pueblo unido jamás será vencido
Someone needs to murder the fat, disgusting Murderer in the White House ASAP. THEY STILL DON'T HAVE THE WHITE HOUSE COMMENTS LINE FUNCTIONING. THEY DON'T WANT TO HEAR WHAT THOSE WHO DIDN'T VOTE FOR TRUMP THINK!
Thanks, Professor Reich.We owe these people a debt of gratitude for all their years of service, If we sent on dollar from everyone living in America we could pay their salaries. In fact the entire payroll (except for the grifters) for one full year would be chump change for America's very own oligarchs, but they want to cut our EARNED Social Security and other programs so the fat assed grifters can have even more money - screw them all.
What a bait and switch! Someone signs the deal, then doesn’t go to work and gets fired for not showing up for work - not to mention never getting any of the severance money promised them for leaving. Result: no job, no severance pay, no pension, no unemployment.
I daydream that the muskrat is arrested, convicted and kicked out of America! I daydream that the government takes away all of their contracts with him. I daydream that people spit in his face when he walks by. Hell is just not hot enough for him and Stephen Miller!
With the thousands of contractors Don the Con has stiffed, I would trust him about as far as I could sling a baby grand piano. He will promise those workers anything, then when it comes time to pay them, he would say hat there is no money for it. Which there is no money for, because Congress did not okay this spending.
Please tell me who isn’t stepping up to say NO to this monster and why? Half of us didn’t vote for the criminal creep! He is destroying us. Get rid of him now!
He didn't, it came from OPMA, which never sends direct emails to us. The memo comes from them and our agencies send it down the pipeline to the lowest level. When I saw the first "test" email I marked it as spam.
Perhaps someone should remind King Donald that on this day in 1649, King Charles I was executed outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.
Perhaps we can all do as much as we (legally) can to make sure Trump, Musk, et al, feel VERY uneasy! I know a lot of the January 6th folk are none to happy with Trump for waiting so long to pardon them (they think he should have done it last term) and are blaming Trump for the rough going they're having how that they're out.
It is our job more than ever to “control the government.” In the short term Trump’s plan guided by Project 2025 is to shred the rights guaranteed by what was “our constitution.” In the long term, it will be our job to “Build back better.” While Trump is directing his new reality show “The President, who wants to be The Dictator” and after grieving the loss of what was, we need to plan now for a brighter future with a more resilient form of government and a fair and sustainable economy. When the Trump Tornado dies out, we must be ready to rebuild from the mess he will leave behind.
And, as usual, Democrats will step in and fix everything like they always do after Republicans, who can not govern, break it all. I wish people would stop voting in Republicans at all! They always leave such a mess when they leave.
The GOP digs a hole. The Democrats fill it back in but only 7/8ths. Repeat over decades and now we still have the hole that never gets filled back. Each time the GOP makes progress. And now we have trump.
Absolutely. We’ve a couple of hundred years of revamping our Constitution to do, which will change it quite a bit. I’m too old to think I’ll be around because this is going to take five generations. Let’s hope the younger generations can keep it up.
Absolutely, Marc! This is where your post on Crisis Transition is so, so important for everyone to read. You lay out a really great America and we can make that vision happen when we get rid of the scum inhabiting Washington right now!
We can kill him. They better quadruple-bolt the White House up one side and down another. A bullet through the head of that disgusting monster Stephen Miller is more than desirable.
Andra Watkins had a detailed Sub stack leading up to the election that fully explained P2025 almost line by line. She was raised by CN "fundamentalists" and has excellent insight into what P2025 intends.
How interesting to hear the nuts and bolts of this operation. One expects the proposal to be fraudulent, as is everything that emanates from that crew. But learning the details makes it so intriguing. Apparently they have no idea how the system works!
Thanks for talking music. The last 9 yrs have brought a lot of 60s & 70s songs back to mind for me. One regarding the protestors at Kent State, Crosby,Stills,Nash & Young, “Ohio”. I hope we don’t have a reoccurrence with this new regime.
Tecolote42, Three Dog Night was absolutely one of my favorite bands! Saw them in person and had my picture taken with them. Still have that picture! Great band!
Wife of a 20-year federal employee here. Please send this and Joyce Vance’s piece to everyone you know. Most people have no idea how much federal employees impact their daily lives and the conditions under which they work. My husband was an essential employee during Covid, researching ways to keep Navy ships safe from the virus. His workplace hasn’t had heat or air conditioning for as long as I can remember. It’s been on fire. It’s flooded. He’s the hardest worker I know, even joining meetings remotely and answering emails, among other things, while he’s supposed to be on family leave because we just had a baby. The pure glee from Trump supporters about this turns my stomach and keeps me up at night more than our newborn.
Oh, America, you are in an existential fight for your country's democratic future. It's unbelievable, and the World is watching. And the well-meaning part of the world is with you. Uh, and yes, we are fighting the same fights here (in Germany and Europe). It is the US that shows us all what to avoid: Do not accommodate radicals. Do not.
Frank, it is heartening to know that your countries are watching and learning what you absolutely must avoid in order to keep your country from turning into America. We are in the fight of our lives. I was told yesterday that our Democracy the way we know it, grew up in and lived in our whole lives is over. That doesn't mean Democracy is dead. It simply means we have to face this fact and move on. The question remains do we want to fight for a new Democracy we all can live in or allow a dictator and the oligarch to take over. For me, I will fight until I draw my last breath in order to live in a Democracy. Tell your friends not to ever let someone like the orange man to even gain a foothold in your countries! I wish you peace and happiness and above all stay safe!
Democracy is about voting, not values. Trump's presidency is an authentic product of our democracy, as were all the pro slavery and pro Jim Crow elected politicians in the distant past. Massive support for the Gaza genocide is also a product of democray, a bi-partisan product no less. Trump was well known for his appetite for vengeance, cruelty, lying with almost every breath, and the absense of humanity (short list). And it seems that his pre-election supporters are still enthusiastic about the same old Trump.
I think oppositions to Trump's governance shouil be the emphasis of community values that respect all members of the community.For example advocacy for universal health care should not be formulated as a political left/rigth issue, but as an enhancement of qual;ity of life for the many in our commuinity that lack the resources to obtain quality health care.
"Democracy is about voting, not values."
[I apologize in advance for this long post... this is an issue close to my heart...]
I agree that democracy requires voting, but values DO play a significant part. For a few decades in the mid-20th century, *access* to democracy -- especially in voting access -- widened significantly. There were advances in civil rights that increased the number of non-white and non-male voters, and their access to services provided by the federal government. Even with Nixon's skullduggery and some states' resistance, access to voting was appreciably wider in the '70s than it was in the '50s. Certainly not perfect, but probably the best it had ever been.
When Reagan dirty-tricked his way into the White House, though, that wider access was a target for the right. The current administration has doubled down now, and quite a few states are also pursuing this aggressively. You hear this in some of the rhetoric -- the GOP says the US is NOT a democracy; it's a republic, which is not the same thing, of course.
I live in Texas and work in state govt, and I've watched as the Republicans who have a stranglehold on the state (using dirty tricks, of course, to get there) limit access with a variety of means. In a state where the total population leans slightly to the left, voting now leans strongly to the right. For example, the state senate is 2/3 Republican and the house is around 60% Republican, meaning that Democratic voices have been effectively muted.
And the government in general has become increasingly radical. For example, Gov Abbott recently strung razor wire in the Rio Grande to prevent migrants from coming to TX (and to maim/kill as many as possible who try to cross). He also (probably illegally) sent busloads of migrants to blue states, to punish all concerned.
AG Paxton was criminally indicted for major financial crimes before he took office but used his position to evade a trial for years until the usually quite capable special prosecutors gave up. He was impeached more recently for involvement in another criminal conspiracy, but the state senate declined to remove him from office. Most importantly, he has significantly contributed to the attrition in numbers of Democrats voting by striking massive numbers of voters from the rolls, chosen more by party/ethnicity/location (for example, he targeted Houston and San Antonio, because they're more likely to vote Dem.)
In 2024, the number of voters Paxton removed was more than 1.1 million by August in a state with 18-19 million registered voters -- over 5% -- which means they removed more like 10% or more who might have voted Dem. (There were even more struck just before the election, when it looked like Kamala was ahead.) Ted Cruz won by a little less than 10%. Paxton also raided the homes of people who were active in LULAC, to reduce the number of Hispanic voters further. They're getting better all the time at restricting access not just to voting, but to state services in general.
I think this is kind of a dress rehearsal for Trump -- whom Paxton filed a bunch of legal challenges for after the 2020 election, probably hoping for a pardon; I'm guessing Trump will oblige once he removes as many of the mechanisms that protect democracy on the federal level as he can. (The crime he was impeached for may continue to be an issue.) Voter suppression has certainly worked at the state level here. Since 2003, when Tom Delay gerrymandered the state, there has been no major state office held by a Democrat, and the GOP has controlled the state's House and Senate.
This is just an example of access to democracy being curtailed. My point is that while of course it's hugely important we vote, we also need to vigorously protect the voting rights we have and try to widen access again, and that's going to take a lot of vigilance and creativity -- at least as much creativity as the 2025 Project inspired on the right. We haven't lost all of the guardrails yet, but even if we don't, the next election will be far more "rigged" than the last one.
Thank you for this thoughtful, informative post.
Agree 100% with everything you say, poco loco. Except the U.S. IS a republic, which merely means a representative form of government---citizens elect other citizens to represent them in the government. Just ask Ben Franklin.
Thank you for this elucidation of life in Texas. I'll stay in California for now. But remember that fair voting for a representative is not democracy so long as he is free to vote for his own benefit rather than yours.
authentic my ass it's a sign of our election process not working well with a third of people not voting and all the bullying fear Mongering gerrymandering etc so on pugs did to barely if at all squeeze a margin of victory ... there is nothing positive hopeful sustainable about it
Its a failure of our process. More than a third of our eligible voters chose not to vote.
“Chose” or were they purged from their state’s voting list, not able to get to a voting booth nearby because many of the local voting stations and ballot boxes were shut down, or their ballot was rejected…?
There’s that, too.
Sherm Gallay - With all respect to your enthusiasm, you're wrong about the underpinnings of democracy. It is not about voting. It is about decision making. You can vote until you are blue in the face (as we do) for representatives who could not care less about what you think but make decisions that benefit themselves. Voting is a sop that is thrown to you to make you think that you are making decisions. You are not. You are being deceived. The inventors of the constitution hated democracy and feared it. They made sure there would be no democracy in the new America. Despite the improvements since then (giving many more people the vote until the Repubs suppress those votes) you still do not vote on bills or appropriations. Other people do that - people over whom you have exceedingly little control. I am always amazed when people who should know better confuse democracy with voting in periodic elections. This is the essence of anarchy - restoring people to voting over the actual decisions that affect their lives, not just voting for some haughty "representative". The problem is that the Anarchists have no idea how to accomplish that. It is possible using computers but Americans are so stuck in their ways, that it is hopeless to talk about reality here.
RESIST!
I'm wondering just how many people (including GOPers) are doing the math right now:
A mid-air collision over a major city, and the people that were trained for years to do their jobs properly are still there. This was essentially, "best case scenario", perhaps for the next 4 years.
What will it be like in a month if Trump gets his way, and wearing a too-long tie and baggy suit matters more than job skills? And safety regulations and oversight are trimmed to the bone, be they in consideration of the passengers, or the aircraft.
It's not the first thing on my list, but I do worry about ketchup stains on the Resolute Desk when he doesn't get his way.
Tara it’s been hard on me, too, to get to the stage of accepting this is real, it’s happening, clear my head and calmly assert my best interests while taking care of all I value - including people I don’t know yet like you!
Joking? This is a troll selling something. "She" posts over and over, and on multiple sites.
I am right with you, Peggy!
This same SPAM gets posted on this substack over and over and over. Can't Reich make it go away?
The average salary of a Federalworker that Trump wants to fire is $100,000 times that by 50,000 and there is not enough in the budget to pay for this, and Congress is going to have to authorize this. Any employee who resigns will get stiffed, because Trump will come back and so you resigned and don't get paid
William Farrar - Tsk tsk, the word is "multiply", not "times". I finally figured it out. You are usually so erudite. The product is only 5 billion dollars. Elon wouldn't even miss it. But you're right about getting stiffed because the Rump will divert the money into his own account.
Oh Jesus fucking Christ. I fucked up, my bad, You are so intelligent and clever. I will try to be more exact the next time I am erudite.
Ellipses ➡️ Report comment
Don’t click?
Definitely don't click!
Thank you for speaking out with us! I join you and hope Germany can pull through. I so admire your country and strong Germans who are having to fight for democracy! I read about Germany almost daily and see Musk trying to lure some Germans back into an autocratic trap - we are all under threat!
During trump's first term, I wrote a comment in the Washington Post that the USA was 'free speeching' itself into an autocracy. The rampant proliferation of harmful lies and propaganda was way too much for this 'polite' Canadian to handle as being acceptable in a society where civility rules. Underlying hatreds cloaked in the guise of freedom of expression. The blow back was swift - I was scolded, no one tampers with free speech, a cornerstone of their democracy - lies and propaganda were okay.
The outcome, it's okay for the corrupt to bamboozle their way into power. Sadly, democratic nations all now need to beef up their responses to hate and propaganda - the very freedom these laws are meant to protect are jeopardy.
Around 1950, the US instituted the Fairness Doctrine, a policy that required anyone with a broadcast license to present opposing views on issues. McCarthyism might have been much worse without it.
And Reagan repealed it in 1987, a rather hefty blow to democracy in this country.
The beginning of the end.
Freedom without responsibility is unsustainable. When authoritarian/totalitarian factions take advantage of free speech to destroy freedom, reasonable safeguards must be implemented, otherwise freedom is surrendered by default.
Victor: Free speech is an oxymoron. There is no freedom that cannot be overdone and abused to deny others that same freedom. All freedoms are tentative, or provisional, insofar as they must be tempered to allow others the same freedom. The MAGA people will never understand this. Their claim to freedom means their freedom is absolute and you can go suck a rock.
Frank - thank you for your words of encouragement. Allegedly we don't negotiate with terrorists (unless it suits our needs - see dumpster/taliban agreement). it's possible that someday democrats might learn not to negotiate with terrorists, because surprise! surprise! terrorists don't seem to abide the rule of law. did i mention that the republican party is a terrorist organization that promotes violence to solve political differences? the republican party is a terrorist organization that subverts and destroys the rule of law - of evidence, precedent, grand jury procedure, truth. the republican party is a terrorist organization that promotes violence against women, children, minorities, any "other" of the moment. dumpster is a domestic terrorist, plain for all to see and hear. american has been making the world "safe for democracy" for decades. unfortunately doing that by violent means teaches that violence is the way to solve political problems. all "making safe for democracy" ever meant was "making it easier to exploit your labor, resources, the environment, and avoid taxes". now the oligarchs who've always been behind "making the world safe for democracy" are out in the open, openly destroying what passes for democracy in this bloody wasteland of a world. and so it goes
Paul Cesmat: Paul, you have a problem because you are trying to use a reasonable definition of terrorist as someone who actually employs violent terror. In the current world, terrorist actually means someone that the speaker doesn't like. To me, the Netanyahu government is a bunch of actual terrorists because of their actions. But Net. likes to refer to Hamas as terrorists while he sees himself as an angel with white wings, playing a harp. American administrations use the word the way I said- anyone opposed to them is a terrorist. It's a convenient word for them for now, similar to racist or anti-semite. When these words lose their punch, they will find new words to use.
Paul Palmer - I am not understanding your confusion about my use of the word terrorist, except that it is probably overused. So should I characterize the republican party as a criminal organization? that works for me. they are lawless, promote violence to resolve political differences, steal from us, and committ other assorted crimes and misdemeanors. And yes I completely agree that Netanyahu is a terrorist, as are those in his military who commit war crimes. In that context, when helicopters and passenger jets collide in front of an airport because the repulicans won't adequately fund air traffic controller recruitment and training, do those actions qualify, in your estimation, as terrorism?
Frank, we Americans learning from European history. Tim Snyder’s Lessons on Tyranny illustrated book highly appreciated and recommended as is his Sub stack posts regarding Ukraine.
I esp. love these comments today. Together we will survive and win.
Frank, it's good to hear from a German because you understand how democracies can slip into fascism. I hope you will keep posting, possibly giving us some insights on how to fight this authoritarian takeover.
RESIST!
SF Bay Area: Yep! I can't comment, and don't, of many USA matters as I live on the isolated far coast of the UK. However, it is extraordinary to me, and many around me, how so many USA voters can be seduced by the ranting Trump. Suckers who remain suckers while waiting for the Trump miracles he has promised.
I have relatives in the USA and the Trump disaster hurts way beyond the USA.
Racism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc, are powerful drugs. The GOP uses culture war politics to keep their base angry and grieved while at the same time picking their pockets.
Who wouldn't want to be told that nothing they ever did to harm others, and nothing that ever harmed others that they benefited from (thinking slavery), is their fault, or their responsibility to correct.
Trump has made their souls (and wallets) as pure as the driven snow.
No wonder they think he's Gawd.
foofaraw & Chiquita, I find it interesting that these christians want to be absolved by a convicted felon with no moral compass, who cares only for himself and what makes him comfortable. I can't really say "happy" because I don't think he or Musk and the rest are happy, just very needy which makes them all dangerous. Their disciples have no clue how much Toddler-Trump and the playground have contempt for them and don't even care if they die of future diseases or work accidents, or anything else. They/we are all expendable as far as they are concerned.
You know they're NOT really Christians, right? No more than I can stand in a garage and call myself a car.
Logs on the pyre...
gawd-awful
or gawd-offal
Jimmie, you are right about racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and homo/transphobia as I put them together in this quartet. People here want too much to believe their white skin and maleness makes them somehow superior. It seems the only thing they are probably superior in is being duped by unscrupulous white men who think everyone is inferior to themselves, when they are pretty pathetic toddler-adults who never had to grow up. Their money let them remain children and that garners a lot of sympathy from white women and envy from a lot of white and white wannabee men. Shameful, but it is where we are.
If I understand correctly, in attacking DEI, the right is pretty clearly making the claim that ONLY white, male, cis christians are capable of doing any job properly.
I'm wondering if that just might be the MOST IGNORANT statement from the right this week. (It's bad enough without trying to start a competition...)
Correct.
If Kamala was a white man rather than a black woman she would be in the White House.
Funny (not funny) you say that.
There's a video from years ago (Oprah, I believe, it should be on YouTube), where Trump has the absolute balls to say he'd have done better as a Black man, that they get all the breaks.
I’m sad for us here in America & sadder for many who do not live here but need our continuing supports.
Trump & Project 25 Heritage Foundation will wring us out & leave us hugely depleted and in the case of probably millions of women, trapped in lives of desolation and ignorance. Too many children and no access to medical and care.
So, what happens when promised, essential aid from America no longer exists?
People travel north to America in hopes of keeping their families alive.
"On Tuesday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio issued a new waiver for “life-saving humanitarian assistance”, which he defined as “core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance”."
Translation: "MAJORITY-WHITE COUNTRIES ONLY"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/30/trump-aid-freeze-latin-america
Because Trump is president.
Trump is a horribly racist person who would never have any desire to help or improve what he calls "shithole countries." (Google it)
Or, education.
Didn't Barnum say There's a sucker born every minute?
"Trump begins term with historically low approval rating, poll shows
With 47% approval rating Republican is only president to have sub-50% reading at start of term, Gallup poll indicates"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/30/trump-low-approval-rating
Some day, it just requires patience...
Much more than patience is required. Here is why: Trump and his backers know that his approval ratings will go down as his policies are implemented, and they are prepared for this. They intend to render Congress ineffectual one way or another, thereby validating, if not legitimizing, the president's claim of the need for an "energized presidency." In the meantime the government bureaucracy would be filled with Trump loyalists, and, as the authors of Project 2025 state, "personnel is policy."
Of the few things within our control, patience is a personal favorite.
Yep, and a LOT of people believed him.
No, a lot of people prove him right every day.
Sorry.
Meant as a joke.
My son is "abroad" where the state controlled media are playing the same repetitive video clips of big white men with guns, body Armour and ICE on their backs dragging skinny guys out in handcuffs. It is meant to terrorize and it is working. FACT CHECK. One clip from Chicago (my home town) is actually from 2022. Another is actually from Washington DC etc etc. The weekend numbers? Trust 'em? Totals NOT terribly different from Biden 2022-23.
So are we seeing the news or being subjected to a coordinated campaign of media terror? Which is worse and what does it say about the MSM which is caving in?
coordinated
What care I for the price of beans in Zanzibar wrote Henry David Thoreau. Tell me that when you can't get onions from Washington State cause there's no one to pick them or lettuce or bananas.
Imagine being an American and seeing it unfold. I go through the day at 55WTAF"s per hour!!!!
Broga, you and your country will be hurt. Hold Rupert Murdoch accountable.
As a resident of the rural Deep South, I had presumed that we might have already learned all we needed to know about the "passions" of Trump supporters, and based purely on the gun issue:
"MOST Trump-worshippers love their own children more than they love their GUNS, but ALL Trump worshippers love their GUNS more than other people's children."
And if Covid taught us anything, it's that, "Trump-worshippers love Trump more than their own elders."
And of course, RFK,Jr. comes along when every parent was themselves safely vaccinated as kids.
What happened yesterday, with countless essential services potentially (and absolutely) shut down (even in the Deep South), begs a similar question be asked about Trump-support:
"Who do you love more, Trump or your OWN children...AND everyone else's children?"
Good question, foof! Alas, bad things always happen to somebody else. How else to explain Trump et al indifference to climate change?
True.
Except that none of the vaccinated parents from 30 or 40 years prior are likely to actually know anyone who suffered from being vaccinated by those childhood disease vaccines.
But everyone of a certain age remembers someone with polio.
TROLL ALERT! DO NOT RESPOND. CLICK ON THE THREE DOTS TO THE RIGHT OF THE TROLLS NAME AND REPORT IT.
I tried it and Substack did not do what it used to do. apparently, the guidelines are no longer the same as they used to be, allowing profanity and hate.
I was able to report the troll.
krishere, thank you for this information. I would hate to see substack influenced or bought up by bad news bots.
I reported too.
Reported
I reported more than once, and “blocked,” in quotes since I continue to see these same posts/ads.
Muted.
SF Bay Area ; You profane hating troll
Maybe not forever.
I can't believe this is really what T-cultists expected. They each anticipated being enclosed in an insulating bubble of pure gold, except for an opening on top where white people would receive streams of $1,000,000 bills.
And every night, Trump was to tuck them in one and all, so they know to always leave a Diet Coke and a greasy chicken leg near the Trump-Tree!
Yeah, there's some disappointment.
They're even getting it from Fox News...
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fox-news-jessica-tarlov-trump-federal-funding-freeze_n_679b08a0e4b09af1b437c0df
Fuck yourself, nazi. We're coming for you. 🖕
SF--Do you know why Trump screws us on the edge of a cliff? That way we push back. Who is fucking stupid now. Anyone with a red hat.
Speaking from your own personal experiences? Your another classic case of invincible ignorance fallacy.
Yes, the Federal workers do not deserve to be treated as unwanted and unnecessary expenditures. This move by Trump is pure theater at the expense of American citizenry. Robert, thank you for pointing out what a sham this whole tactic is.
This move makes it clear that Trumps current tactic is to throw the U.S. government into chaos in a way that keeps the news media and citizens attention on him. He is truly behaving like "a baby with a machine gun.” and Musk is acting like a nazi with a machine gun. So much power concentrated in the hands of such immoral individuals is a sure sign of disaster ahead. The time for planning for post-disaster rebuilding is now. Here is a link to more of my thoughts on preparing for post disaster action.https://crisistransition.substack.com/p/the-time-for-planning-is-now
I love your post on Crisis Transition, Marc. They always clear my head and give me ideas about what I can do. Like Professor Reich, you keep me sane and able to cope! Thank you!
He's gonna be SO angry today, at not being the center of attention.
The unbearable irony here is that Republicans had no issue with career civil servants until they got in the way of Trumps drive to consolidate power- now they are part of a "deep state", enemies within driven by their hatred of good, honest, hard-working people. Even Lindsay Graham said, "yeah, it's illegal to fire Inspectors General like that" but won't lift a finger to support them. The Inspector at the USDA had to get dragged out of her office- we need more folks like that in public office!
But wait! Didn't they just task the Pentagon IG with harassing Mark Milley for his patriotism and life long service?
Federal workers pledge allegiance to the flag, not the fascists. We are protecting democracy by undermining Trump. That is why he is trying to fire us: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/i-pledge-allegiance-to-the-flag-not
Professor Reich: i am so happy you said this plainly and publicly. our nation's federal employees are probably feeling alone and frightened for themselves, their families, their jobs and their futures. i don't know how many words of sound advice they are hearing, nor how they are coping with the pressure that an oligarch and his dictator are bringing to bear upon them, but i really hope they are getting good advice and support and -- if they can afford it -- that they are working with lawyers to protect them from all these robber barons.
Wife of a 20-year federal employee here. We just had a baby — 7 weeks early with some health issues — and I’m terrified and not sleeping. Our other daughter turns 9 tomorrow, and she’s probably among the most informed people her age (her choice — she’s been reading the news for years). Every day, she asks what Trump has done now, and are we going to be OK. It breaks my heart that I can’t fully assure her we will be.
Heather, thank you for giving us a real life insight for what this latest piece of theater does to families such as yours. Be assured, all of us on this substack have your back. We are all in this together.
As a parent of now 18 year old boy/girl twins , I mourn for the country they were born into. I have photos of them as toddlers holding up the newspaper when Obama was elected the first time. I've been sad & worried for them off & on ever since 2016. Now it's just on ever since Dobbs.
I'm so sorry your daughter has to worry about this at such a young age. She sounds like she'll be a future journalist. I hope she & my kids can witness how the American public , independent journalists, lawyers, etc fought to keep our democracy. My daughter has been considering switching her major to poli-sci due to her personal interests & the political climate. It goes without saying that we need to keep this country intact for the future generations, most of whom do not know the severity of the situation.
She wants to be an ornithologist. I personally think she’d make a great environmental lawyer. That girl is ridiculously smart and can lay out a logical argument without even trying. She’s a force!
HEY HEATHER! i'm an ornithologist! my (unsolicited) advice: get a double major! it will take a year longer, true, but it will provide her with SO many more professional options in the future. and it's great education for someone who might become a lawyer (ornithologists love and live for complex and subtle details, so there's that.)
She’ll likely graduate early via dual enrollment, so it might not even take longer in terms of her age! She’s supposed to be in third grade right now but is completing sixth grade, so there’s that, too. Do you have a recommendation for the two majors?
Reading your story reminds me of my granddaughter. My advice to you: Somehow ensure she takes time to be a kid and finds joy in her childhood. Sidney Freedman of M*A*S*H said it differently: Ladies and gentleman, take my advice. Pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
Do you recall "The Birdman"? Infectious diseases and immunology in birds are relevant to humans as well.
This heartfelt, simple and empathetic exchange between Heather and other contributors here has given me hope. Let's keep exchanging encouragement with each other. We are NOT alone in this.
She may be our future president.
My hope is that the youth will picture the world they want to live in and work together to bring it about. It doesn’t have to be the way it is. I’m sorry the adults have let them down (for now). We need to step up and help fix it.
Hi Jennifer, we're about to have our first great granddaughter next month. I wish that I could feel happier than I do about it. 😔 This isn't even the world my grandkids were born into. It's not supposed to be like this, where we have to worry about the world the next generation will inherit.
My heart goes out to you. Please know that half of America is still sane and appreciates you. Seek those people out in your community. Hug.
I hope it helps a bit to know that we are with you and your family. Easy to say, I know, but stay strong. Professor Reich's advice is wise and we must all keep this issue in the forefront. Rachel Maddow tonight featured the fact that thump has the lowest approval rating of any incoming president ever (how he has ANY approval is beyond me, but that's beside the point). His disapproval rating is, if I recall correctly from her program, 49%. She then made the important point of saying that if you've been feeling alone with your reactions and emotions, you are NOT alone. I hope you can also know that.
The Kennedy, Gabbard, Patel hearings, the funding freeze, and all of the other relentless chaos thump and his mob are creating are keeping us all, reporters most of all, from focusing on what should be the most prominent issue right now: this corrupt bribe offered to Federal employees. It is a huge strike against our government and country and, if effected, will decimate both in short order, probably much faster even than thump and mob hoped. It is an evil plan and must be fiercely resisted in every way, at every level.
One Kennedy stood out this week—Caroline, the former ambassador to Australia, who called out a warning against her cousin as a predator, who keeps predatory birds as pets, feeding them from a blender full of dead chickens and rats. I found the contrast between her agonized warning and the business-as-usual crowd on the Hill chilling.
I believe the chickens and rats are alive when RFK Jr puts them in his blender . . .
RFKjr is an effective demonizer of the federal government. This is why Trump and other libertarians like him.
I hope she stays on past the 100 days. MSNBC is the last main stream media speaking the truth.
I will say Meet the Press was pretty good yesterday regarding RFK Jr.
Jennifer N - I agree with you about the 100 days and MSNBC. You've touched on my concern: that Maddow's return to 5-days a week for 100 days along with her promotion of her new presence on Bluesky is an indicator of her leaving at the end of the 100 days. It will be a huge loss, but maybe a boost to the anti-X/anti-Twitter site, Bluesky, and the anti-X is a good thing.
From a Declassified CIA guide to Resistance against Fascism:
Simple sabotage ideas include:
• “Insist on doing everything through ‘channels.’ Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.”
• “Make ‘speeches.’ Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your ‘points’ by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate ‘patriotic’ comments.”
• “Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.”
• “Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.”
• “‘Misunderstand’ orders. Ask endless questions or engage in long correspondence about such orders. Quibble over them when you can.”
• “In making work assignments, always sign out the unimportant jobs first. See that the important jobs are assigned to inefficient workers of poor machines.”
• “To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work.”
• “Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done.”
• “Multiply paperwork in plausible ways.”
• “Make mistakes in quantities of material when you are copying orders. Confuse similar names. Use wrong addresses.”
• “Work slowly. Think out ways to increase the number of movements necessary on your job”
• “Pretend that instructions are hard to understand, and ask to have them repeated more than once. Or pretend that you are particularly anxious to do your work, and pester the foreman with unnecessary questions.”
• “Snarl up administration in every possible way. Fill out forms illegibly so that they will have to be done over; make mistakes or omit requested information in forms.”
Heather, I am so sorry you have to go through this now. I understand how scared you are but right now just take care of yourself and the baby and your wonderful daughter. Your poor husband must be under such stress. I feel terrible for your family. You are not alone. People will help you.
Heather, my heart hurts for you and your family's predicament! Please don't fret. Your husband will be okay just don't let him take the muskrat's deal. You need your sleep in order to care for your sweet newborn and help her overcome her health issues. Many times I have thanked our tireless federal employees for all they do because essentially they are on the front line so to speak. Please know I care about you and your family's safety. Tell your nine year old Happy Birthday and if I'm still around in 25 or 30 years, she will have my vote for President of the United States! Wishing you all the best.
He would absolutely never take the deal and sees it for exactly what it is: Don’s latest con. Many federal employees are marking the email as spam and/or phishing. And our daughter would seriously make a wonderful president. She’s kind, empathetic, smart, and logical. We’re very proud of her!
With best wishes from Australia, Heather. Hang in there and reach out to others while knowing you are not alone. You'll get through this - even if it may take some time etc. Best, M.A.
Heather, thank you for sharing your family’s situation. I wish you the best with each concern and am thankful to see the wonderful responses of kind, capable, and good-willed supporters.
Your nine year old daughter sounds especially wise and gifted. I hope her future will be bright. The person who suggested that she prepare for life with a double major or a backup degree is exactly right. Many people these years are safer in being prepared in more than one field. It always helps to broaden our scopes.
I wish your family comfort, safety, good health, and success in every way needed. We each are blessed to have this opportunity to learn from Professor Robert Reich and to be comforted by being able to share here.
Dear Heather, I wish I was near and could help you out with the new baby, give you some rest, spend some time with the birthday girl. I hope there is someone near who can fill that role right now. Reading your post underscores how angry we all should be at this grab for power in broad daylight with a compliant congress standing by, reminding each of us that there are people at the end of these pointed attacks. I can carry that anger for you. Please reassure your little girl that you all will be ok, she has two parents that love her and will keep her as safe as they can, always. And that the 4 of you are a family going through it all together. And you are not alone.
Seasoned federal employees are rallying around these issues and coming together. Democracy Forward has tracker for solid legal challenges to EOs. Research underlying civil service, merit system, public administration - different than business administration. If compelling to your husband, he will find coworkers and an agency that resonates with his values and an interesting life long rewarding career.
You will teach your children wekk. They will grow strong and keep us free Don't succumb to the darkness
Yes Heather your daughters you and all of us will be ok! It’s not easy, we can do this and are figuring it out. Lots of inspiration on substack and elsewhere. Keep reaching out.
Well whatever you do, tell your husband DON'T QUIT! Sounds like Trump is engaging in psychological warfare.
He definitely won’t be quitting! Even if the offer was 100% legit, which it’s not, we can’t afford for him to take it.
I'm not a counselor, but what helps me the most is to stay in the moment and focus on the things I have control over or at least can engage in directly. Bring yourself back to Earth so to speak and in your case also birth and make the most out of every minute.
Sending back an email with the word 'resign' in the subject line further to demands made by this 'Committee for Public Safety' (in recalling the revolutionary Jacobins in 1789 France) that is the outfit now headed up by 'Citizen Musk' (as was 'apparently' the case with your head of the Department for the Interior after we here in Australia saw this on TV yesterday) seems to be the fascist equivalent of a choice between whether wanting to be shot or later on hanged.
I've no doubt who deserves to be shot, this utter nonsense could end in violence. But who is going to get rid of Trump? The Senate is full of GOP yes men. But I'm sure that they must be worried. I read an article saying that their phones are ringing non stop. I just bet they are and it will go on for as long as the orange idiot is in power.
I just emailed my GOP Senator (unfortunately, I’m in a red state) and asked WTH is going on there. We all need to be calling and writing. If they want chaos, we should give it to them.
This is SUCH a good point. If red state Senators become inundated with angry constituent's messages, they may hesitate to go along with every unconstitutional act that is being rolled out right now. I'm from a blue state but I am calling and writing and demanding that those elected officials grow a pair and offer more resistance as well!
Cake or death? Monty python
'Let 'em eat Fake', Tamara, while I really ought have called the M-rat 'Citoyen Musk' further to T.'s mob being true Jacobin radicals in the now 'post-neoliberal age' we inhabit, while the bureaucratic staff firings are akin to these decent public servants being hoisted into tumbrils and carried down DC streets to Musk's 'national razor'!
Or the Comfy Chair?
100% agree, GrrlScientist!
Listen to him, folks. DO NOT RESIGN. Trump & Co. have declared war on the federal workforce. I retired a couple of years ago but this pisses the hell out of me. Resist, fight, delay.
What SoCal all Lobo said. Well said! And I would add, Unionize!!! Just to piss off the Orange Turd and the Appartheit Monkey and their collaborators. Don't let them and Peter Theil and the rest of them get their National CEO (i.e., dictator, as Thiel himself has said).
Right. Two con artists pick a quickie, arbitrary date, Feb.6, and rush you into making a decision. Two weeks to decide on an offer where the money may not be there to make good on it. Or it may not be supported in court. But Feb. 6 will happen before any adjudication finds its way through the court process. So the whole offer may be found to be illegal. Meanwhile, you’ve opted out of a job and you’re screwed. This is what happens when you elect a convicted felon for president: criminality is the coin of the realm.
criminality is the coin of the realm
Bears repeating.
Yes, the key words " convicted Felon and Hitler follower
in the White House, playing Dictator.
They are Very, Very Cruel Thugs.
Look at what is happening right in front of the American people, Guantanamo Bay 2.0 , IE: What ? Camps ?
fuck these people to the hell they want us in....let's get rid of em ASAP bunch of bullshit turned me into s fucking potty mouth and I'm not stoping cursing till these assholes fuck off
You are only saying out loud what we are all thinking!
intentionally...ur welcome and thanks
Stephen, I know you are angry as we all are, but I couldn't help but laugh when I read your post! I am an old woman (72) and I was raised not to use foul language. What I was laughing about was the fact that I have been saying things like that ever since that ludicrous orange clown hopped a ride on the escalator! When it comes to that particular piece of vermin, I say, curse away! They've turned me into a screamin dirty mouth as well!
Peggy Freeman, I'm swearing like a pirate now 😆
Hahahahahahaha! Me, too, Diane!
Same here, Peggy. I never used to swear. Now I’m the old lady cursing at the TV.
Me too!
Curse on, Midwest, curse on!
Peggy, I am 85 and I sound like a sailor 😂
My granddaughter gets tickled every single time I let loose! She says Nanny has a potty mouth! I told her when they get rid of that orange stain, I won't have to curse so much!
My airline backroom potty mouth has returned with a vengeance. 😆
I don't usually curse but right now I don't fucking care....it's ok...we need to be upset but not at one another. I love your comment and fuck This shit. humans have survive horrible shit before. they do it by coming together and even if it means cursing and speaking out being ok if I am killed muzzled etc if people keep hearing truths and fighting for better so fuck being taught rules right now fuck not cursing sorry memaw Gramma pastor rabbi Iman etc we love you but this shit is fucked up and we are gonna do something even if its hair cursing to the executioner and laughing at some. pathetic bigots who are desperately trying to hold power they're loosing..fuck them..El pueblo unido jamás será vencido
I bet some people are learning how to shoot.
I'm wondering at just what point the Trump Administration will/has become the largest CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE in the history of the world.
And can we now go all Barney Fife on them, and make a, "CITIZENS ARREST!!!"?
The Guinness Book of World Records - biggest criminal enterprise.
I've been seriously considering a handgun and classes for the first time in my life.
...Hey, don't hold back, while what is it that your actually trying to say here?
Get on the phone to your senators and rep. If this admin want chaos, give it to them.
YES.
For everyone suffering a relapse of Tourette's: https://youtu.be/kazCtHwIjLo?si=bkLkVAbgQ_JNdBFH
Someone needs to murder the fat, disgusting Murderer in the White House ASAP. THEY STILL DON'T HAVE THE WHITE HOUSE COMMENTS LINE FUNCTIONING. THEY DON'T WANT TO HEAR WHAT THOSE WHO DIDN'T VOTE FOR TRUMP THINK!
Try your senators and Rep. Phone or email.
Create chaos if you want to empower Trump, but don't forget that Guantanamo has vacancies.
Thanks, Professor Reich.We owe these people a debt of gratitude for all their years of service, If we sent on dollar from everyone living in America we could pay their salaries. In fact the entire payroll (except for the grifters) for one full year would be chump change for America's very own oligarchs, but they want to cut our EARNED Social Security and other programs so the fat assed grifters can have even more money - screw them all.
Yes kick the grifters out without a cent.
Yes!
What a bait and switch! Someone signs the deal, then doesn’t go to work and gets fired for not showing up for work - not to mention never getting any of the severance money promised them for leaving. Result: no job, no severance pay, no pension, no unemployment.
Such a Mump (musk/trump) style deal.
I daydream that the muskrat is arrested, convicted and kicked out of America! I daydream that the government takes away all of their contracts with him. I daydream that people spit in his face when he walks by. Hell is just not hot enough for him and Stephen Miller!
Zoe, 💯🎯
That's exactly what their game is!
With the thousands of contractors Don the Con has stiffed, I would trust him about as far as I could sling a baby grand piano. He will promise those workers anything, then when it comes time to pay them, he would say hat there is no money for it. Which there is no money for, because Congress did not okay this spending.
Please tell me who isn’t stepping up to say NO to this monster and why? Half of us didn’t vote for the criminal creep! He is destroying us. Get rid of him now!
Why the HELL is MUSK sending emails to federal employees! If I were a federal employee an email from him would be a really big red flag!
He didn't, it came from OPMA, which never sends direct emails to us. The memo comes from them and our agencies send it down the pipeline to the lowest level. When I saw the first "test" email I marked it as spam.
Good for you, Carrie! The muskrat is spam!
Some of the documentation handed down had its metadata intact. It shows Project 2025 members as the authors.
Thank you for your service, and for your resistance!!
*OPM not OPMA
Yes do the opposite of what he says. The two of them are making so many enemies it won't end well for either of them.
You are right, Maryann! I wouldn't have clicked on it. I would have sent it to spam.
I would have reported it to IT as a phishing attempt.
I keep hoping Muskrat will get caught in the "unscheduled rapid disassemblies" of one of his own rockets.
Why is he trying to get into all my social media accounts
Would go into my spam folder
Perhaps someone should remind King Donald that on this day in 1649, King Charles I was executed outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.
Excellent.
Your lips to God’s ears…
Perhaps we can all do as much as we (legally) can to make sure Trump, Musk, et al, feel VERY uneasy! I know a lot of the January 6th folk are none to happy with Trump for waiting so long to pardon them (they think he should have done it last term) and are blaming Trump for the rough going they're having how that they're out.
Defenestration, anyone?
I _love_ that P011:5809 and Miller (and others) think he’s supposed to control the govt. I thought that was OUR job.
Exactly. He's no king and he serves at our pleasure. Let us not forget that.
It is our job more than ever to “control the government.” In the short term Trump’s plan guided by Project 2025 is to shred the rights guaranteed by what was “our constitution.” In the long term, it will be our job to “Build back better.” While Trump is directing his new reality show “The President, who wants to be The Dictator” and after grieving the loss of what was, we need to plan now for a brighter future with a more resilient form of government and a fair and sustainable economy. When the Trump Tornado dies out, we must be ready to rebuild from the mess he will leave behind.
And, as usual, Democrats will step in and fix everything like they always do after Republicans, who can not govern, break it all. I wish people would stop voting in Republicans at all! They always leave such a mess when they leave.
Except this is much worse than the usual mess. Much, much worse…
The GOP digs a hole. The Democrats fill it back in but only 7/8ths. Repeat over decades and now we still have the hole that never gets filled back. Each time the GOP makes progress. And now we have trump.
Absolutely. We’ve a couple of hundred years of revamping our Constitution to do, which will change it quite a bit. I’m too old to think I’ll be around because this is going to take five generations. Let’s hope the younger generations can keep it up.
Absolutely, Marc! This is where your post on Crisis Transition is so, so important for everyone to read. You lay out a really great America and we can make that vision happen when we get rid of the scum inhabiting Washington right now!
How and when is he going to be got rid of? In 4 years he can do a lot of damage.
We can kill him. They better quadruple-bolt the White House up one side and down another. A bullet through the head of that disgusting monster Stephen Miller is more than desirable.
I understand your feelings right now. But advocating for assassination gets you put on a list rather quickly.
We have to work against this monster in a civilized manner, until such time that civilized actions have no effect. Then it’s “Katy bar the door.”
and if it is not him, it will be Vance.
The "Trump Tornado" was planned in the 1990s, and if the storm-troopers succeed you may end day dreaming on a sidewalk.
Is there a Cliff Notes for Project 2025? I don’t know anyone who has actually read it. It looks like we all need to read it!
Andra Watkins had a detailed Sub stack leading up to the election that fully explained P2025 almost line by line. She was raised by CN "fundamentalists" and has excellent insight into what P2025 intends.
How interesting to hear the nuts and bolts of this operation. One expects the proposal to be fraudulent, as is everything that emanates from that crew. But learning the details makes it so intriguing. Apparently they have no idea how the system works!
What happens when one hires people dumber than he is. Should have kept those DEI! Sorry, just trying to keep a sense of humor.
For all their claims of superiority, they are only showing they are superior screw-ups!
And I'm a current old person (still gainfully employed), inspired by your message to listen to Liar by Three Dog Night. Seems to fit.
Thanks for talking music. The last 9 yrs have brought a lot of 60s & 70s songs back to mind for me. One regarding the protestors at Kent State, Crosby,Stills,Nash & Young, “Ohio”. I hope we don’t have a reoccurrence with this new regime.
I love that song.
Tecolote42, Three Dog Night was absolutely one of my favorite bands! Saw them in person and had my picture taken with them. Still have that picture! Great band!
Wife of a 20-year federal employee here. Please send this and Joyce Vance’s piece to everyone you know. Most people have no idea how much federal employees impact their daily lives and the conditions under which they work. My husband was an essential employee during Covid, researching ways to keep Navy ships safe from the virus. His workplace hasn’t had heat or air conditioning for as long as I can remember. It’s been on fire. It’s flooded. He’s the hardest worker I know, even joining meetings remotely and answering emails, among other things, while he’s supposed to be on family leave because we just had a baby. The pure glee from Trump supporters about this turns my stomach and keeps me up at night more than our newborn.
Don’t let MAGA wreck your health. They aren’t worth it.
Life can be precarious but you have your family with you. Calm your mind before bed. Count your blessings. Live to fight another day.
Good advise! Also, have good lawyers represent you and others who are affected.