Thank you Prof. Most uplifting! I needed this letter this morning. I am still so disgusted with his unleashed abuse of our country and what we all hold dear. I do hope/pray these candidates win in November. That we can get back to what it means to be the USA and that we don't let someone like him back in office ever again!
No doubt Trump is pushing 24 hours a day to build that monstrous "ballroom" above ground, as we post here. I just want to share a "joke" of mine, in sad fellow-feeling: Maybe it can be "The National Museum of the Crimes of the Trump Family." (It may be just big enough.)
Better yet, have national raffle, for some lucky individual to push plunger to implode it. My guess is there would be enough ticket sales to pay for it.
I agree with those emotions, but my more frugal, rational mind tells me to suggest that instead of those destructive thoughts of bidding, "Good riddance" to the trumpster-from-the-dumpster!" in that way, we turn it into something like an office dedicated to helping everyday honest workers have "A Fighting Chance" (as inspired by Senator Elizabeth Warren's book with that title) for Prosperity, and the Inalienable Rights of "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" with Democracy and Equal Rights for All - Under Law (and no more "dick-taters-wannabe". What do you think?
Frank, it's too ugly! One thing no one is mentioning (and I agree it's secondary to other disastrous results) is that our beautiful, gracious, historical, elegant, People's White House has been virtually destroyed. Parts of it may still be standing, but its integrity is gone. Until we re-create it. Just as Trump is destroying our comedians, the Kennedy Center for the Arts, other important features of our culture as free Americans, so is he destroying the grace and physical beauty of our nation's capital. Paving the Rose Garden; making unnecessary helipads on the lawns; digging up the front for carnivals; destroying parts of the capital's streets for drag-racing; permanently damaging the Reflecting Pool; building huge arches to himself that will destroy sight-lines and views of the Lincoln Memorial; spraying what remains of the White House with plastic gilt; etc. Taken together, these are important sledgehammer blows at our national identity, at a different but no less significant level than draining the Treasury for a lost war in Iran and selling access to his crazed tweets for $100k a pop so rich people can game the market in advance.
You make very good points, Kandarohe, and I appreciate your reply. I will still retain an open mind on this. I have not done a comprehensive investigation into the financial consequences of all this. And it's probably not possible to make that assessment until we are rid of him and his VP, at least, and they're hopefully imprisoned for decades to come. And I hope we can have a blue- wave-tsunami with Ro Khanna as Speaker of the House and thus in line to take the Presidency away from the foolish white elephants. But realistically, it could take a while longer than that - who knows how long? We might need to have a plan that avoids making any more terrible financially wasteful decisions for a number of years into the future as we fight global warming and all the other damage the trumpian minions have caused and continue to keep at it We may have to calmly endure their ugliness longer - even though it's been far too long already...
Kandarohe. Do you not appreciate elegance? Your beloved White House now has gold & glitter everywhere. To me it looks like the front office of a third rate BROTHEL.
I'd enter that raffle! Add-on a pay-per-view of the event, with multiple-angle shots in super-slow motion. Have organized celebration parties, and then raffle off pieces of the tawdry furnishings.
That might be easier than you think—it’s being built at such a furious pace (to get it done before 2028 so he can move in and refuse to leave?) that they’re surely not abiding by building codes and cutting corners, so it’ll be a shoddy, jerry-built pile of junk.
Who's overseeing this project, this woebegone monstrosity? Cutting corners, cheap materials, handing out contracts for personal "donations". Trump has a way of making cheap veneers that flatter for a moment or two, then fall apart.
Like everything else, the ballroom may end up just another shoddy error - deemed unsafe and demolished or collapses under the heavy weight of his own incompetence (hopefully with trump, his family, the billionaires and the rest of his ghoulish sycophants inside when it happens).
If he does build it (God forbid) all the gold decorations will last just as long as the wading pool lining lasted while the guys he hired to build it make off with $millions in stolen gold.
Chief Justice Roberts' ruling that Trump can continue building the ballroom seems to indicate that there's no halting this project now and SCOTUS will likely step aside. What else are they going to do: order Trump to take it down? It's clearly not within the court's jurisdiction to order Trump to put something else there (like a restored East Wing building) and so the alternative is that he will likely leave the whole site in a dreadful mess.
Most everybody that helps out move to Amend is Volunteer, including myself, but we do have five paid employees. Even the most efficient organization with the most strategic plan needs some money to exist. Please donate either sometime or some money because this is the strategic way to get out of this fascist mess
I am, we are, preventing project 2025 from becoming a reality, and we are ending the institutional corruption so that never again another Trump and so that Fascism shall be destroyed, long term. Learn more at movetoamend
I see that description, which I had not considered, as a history of how America saved itself, the causes of the problems, and how we can never let the threat or the problems happen again. Architecturally though, I prefer that we have the East Wing, the Rose Garden, and more back as they were rather than any kind of a monument to a hateful person.
I'm with you on that. While the White House was never a perfect design it was well designed and served its purpose. There's no way I would be in favor of keeping that monstrosity Trump is building or the dreadful other changes he's made. If at all possible I'd like to see it back the way it was.
Rhana, then we need to make stronger laws regarding what a president or anyone else in government can do to our monuments and with a strong reminder that the president is only a tenant in the white house, so has absolutely no right to do ANYTHING without a 2/3 majority of members of both houses agreeing. That doesn't count basic repairs, but does involve demolition, rebuilding, helopads, etc.!
Mmerose & Judith M, According to an article published by NPR 4/3/26, by Rachel Treisman, the ballroom is really a shell structure for the new, 6 story underground facility meant to protect the president and others from an attack.The ballroom is being built to withstand both drones and missiles. The windows are bulletproof. The fact that DT is obsessed with getting it built, as well as deceptive about it’s function concerns me.
But once they rot and die in there and we rebuild the White House to its proper appearance, I'd be willing to post a small plaque memorializing Trump above ground on the site. Something along the lines of "here lie the despised remains of a mentally-ill psychopath who once briefly controlled the US. May this remind us to never fall for this again..." It could be made of plastic gilt.
Susan, I think Trump plans to stay bunkered up after the election so he can remain president in 2+ years. I say let them stay in the bunker with only the food and water permitted by Congress and the newly-inaugurated president. No communication out of Bunker Underground that would be permitted is not permitted by the new administration and Congress. Then Baby Donnie and his pals can entertain each other until they run out of things to say and do, which will be pretty quick. Then, in abstentia, they could be tried and convicted of insurrection and the bunker could be their jail. Works for me!
I like it too. The only caveat I would enter is, there's still a lot of work to be done by us to ensure that some outlier who supports Nazi-fascism doesn't win in 2028. Tucker Carlson has now taken over the America First fragment of MAGA and is setting up as a presidential candidate for 2028. He's just as evil as Trump but far more personable and plausible. Gullible suckers will very likely vote for him. We're really just at the beginning of our fight, once we imprison this current crop in the bunker. (We could put McDonald's in exclusive charge of victualling.)
I'd suggest a little failure in the door locking mechanisms once they're all safely ensconced in that bunker. Due to shoddy workmanship, they'll likely refuse to EVER unlock once they're locked. Perhaps a complete failure in the communication systems will follow. Trump being Trump and his idiot lackeys being who they are, they'll never consider putting in failsafe systems or another possible exit to handle such emergencies.
In my more pessimistic moments, I'm convinced that, more than the ballroom, Trump wants that impenetrable command bunker beneath it to use as his command post when he tries to fully take over the government (because he thinks he's going to live that long). Of course it could easily be the man behind the curtain, little Nazi, Stevie Miller want that bunker even more than Trump.
We needed that statement. It is not uplifting to live in the USA. I would rather live elsewhere. My ancesters have been here since 1620 and look what an incompetent moron has done to a great country. I really can't leave but must stay to fight off the degenerate.
I recently attended a community event where about 20 people sat around a table talking about the end of life. Young and old people spoke up very candidly about how they view mortality and life's final days/hours. Later on, it occurred to me: Do I want to die in the United States?
Yes, Judith. I think of these matters daily as a still healthy 67 year old. If it continues as is, worrying daily about the right wing extremists who have taken over our national dialogue, and with the ever present threat of political violence, I would prefer to live elsewhere. But where?
Carol, maybe don't use that phrase. Some MAGA candidate for governor who says Adam and Eve lived at the same time as the dinosaurs used it repeatedly when told it wasn't true. Also, you might just as well say you couldn't prove, e.g., the founding of America, if you "weren't there." It's fallacious.
This is where our tax dollars are going, not to provide a sound education, medical care, and support for the hungry at home and abroad, but to satisfy Trump's outrageous vanity. This is why progressives are winning; MAGA and Christian nationalists have made it clear to the vast majority of Americans that their agenda is in the interests of the wealthy, rich, and male:
SCOTUS decided to allow Trump to continue building his absurd and obscene ballroom until they make a judgment as to the constitutionality of a president, without Congressional approval, spending our money to fund major "renovations" of the WH. This was in spite of the order to stop building issued by the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia:
"The federal appeals court for the District of Columbia ruled Friday that President Donald Trump must cease construction on the 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom project.
One of the arguments John Roberts was apparently influenced by was that the project was well under way and it would be wasteful to stop it now. Constitutional expert, Barbara McKay, said that is like allowing a bank robber to continue robbing the bank because the robbery was ongoing.
My take away is that Roberts, who made the decision, while the full court waits to hear the case, is nestled, I hope uncomfortably, in Trump's dirty pocket.
We are not ok and we won’t be ok until we overrule the illegitimate corrupt SCOTUS. Fascism started with Citizens United and it ends with Citizens United.
All of our movements must focus like a laser on demanding advancement of HJR54, the We the People Amendment.
All it takes is a simple demand, from everyone, and we get it.
Corporate Democrats are the party of the past and are destined to become extinct because they are corrupt and practically irrelevant. Their approval ratings are in the basement.
But they are necessary in one respect ... they've got to see the light, the logic, and what the voters want, need and are voting for and unify with the Democratic Socialists in order to gain control. Independent voters will lean toward a unified party, and they are approx 45% of voters. As it is, they don't like Trump very much.
If these things don't happen we'll never get the country and democracy back
And we need to build our beginning into institutions--
- institutions, because it is easier to get things done when you aren't starting from zero with every task,
- institutions structured to provide accessible information to the public, from firms, from researchers, from news around the world
- institutions structured to provide constituent, reliable, coordination among the interacting parties of our complex world
- institutions structured to build sustainability when individual agents left alone might not
- institutions structured to keep the economic table level, toward equity, when the wealthy would tilt it to flow into their already-bulged pockets
- institutions to invest in the people's wealth in their individual and community health, and in the environment, and in our education and sills as a community
Institutions that we must be patient in and thoughtful in building, and patient in staffing and defending.
A battlefield, even a battlefield of victory is no workplace, though it can be necessary foundation for a workplace.
This is such a well-reasoned and thoughtful contribution, Mary Ann - it builds upon Dr. Reich’s positive message and covers a lot of territory very well. Thanks for the vision of a path forward - back to the America I believe in!
Mary--The rabbit hole Trump wants us to fall into is lined with lies and deceit. If RFK Jr. would come up with a way to inject this country with a vaccine that would fill us all with the simple truth that Donald Trump has truly lost his ever loving mind, we could begin making arrangements to put on ICE a president who currently is doing his best to emulate Rip Van Winkle. Sleepy Donald Has over stayed his welcome. Time stands as the consummate thief, for it will eventually rob us of everything--we need time to take a man who has out lived his usefulness, and put an end to this nightmare.
Trump is not the problem, and the problem won't go away when Trump disappears, unless the corporate Democrats come to their senses, and recognize that they, too (not just Republicans), need to support government of the people, by the people, for the people. And not government of the people, by the rich, for the money.
To stop the Corporate Democrats, we must support only those running without any corporate $. If we only elect and support grassroots candidates (both state and federal), we can win! DO NOT send $ to the DNC. They spent 16 million against our grassroots candidates who won handily without corporate money. Give directly to candidates or groups that are supporting state legislatures only like DLCC.
Jerry --what you described is what drives the essence of the Republican party--Wealth and power isn't a defining element of the Democrats. You are correct in your understand that Trump isn't the real problem --its the morons who support him that will be our future concern....
Wrong. It has become the defining element of both parties because of Citizen United.
The only difference is that the Republicans are full-blown fascists, who all have to walk in lock step.
There is a way to unrig this corruption that created the Fascist Republican gangsters and their corporate Dem enablers.
Pramila Jayapal is lead sponsor of HJR54, House Joint Resolution 54. It is THE best and most comprehensive way to overturn Citizens United, to establish that only humans should be entitled to constitutional rights and powers, and that money in politics must be regulated to ensure that everyone has equal voice in our elections!!!
The other thing that this amendment does is to unify all of our justice, movements, from labor to our environment to peace and justice! It creates power through solidarity and clarity as to what we demand to get us out of this fucking mess of corruption and fascism.
When everyone and every organization demands this, we will get it. All that it takes is one simple and universal demand that will change everything and restore good government of and by We the People. 
I am hopeful that every candidate who runs for public office at every level will also sign this pledge.
Move to Amend is awesome but we can’t do this alone. Please start demanding HJR54, and ask everyone to join us. We don’t have to live like this. We can have authentic democracy in time to save our future. All it takes is a simple demand.
Lawrence--The Republican party remains the voice of the rich and powerful. The people's voice is held within the Democratic party. No matter how you slice it.
The “blue dog” corporate Dems remain the voice of the rich and powerful. That is why they fund them. They are also the enablers of Republican policies. Just ask Robert Reich:
Most of the Dems have been corrupted by our SCOTUS corrupted system that ushered in corporate rule and big money pay to play politics. They only serve their corporate and AIPAC masters.
Fascism started with Citizens United and it ends with Citizens United.
All of our movements must focus like a laser on demanding advancement of HJR54, the We the People Amendment.
All it takes is a simple demand, from everyone, and we get it.
Mary Ann, you seem a bit ambivalent about the accent on persons and draw attention to the devastation this regime has brought to the institutions, neede for the administration of a complicated national interest. Very much agreed.
Second, you seem worried about the accent on struggle. Fighting might be necessary, but it must be remembered that construction is needed. Very much agreed.
And of course Bob gives us a list of hopefull primaries that indicates a better future.
Those are good objectives determined and driven by politics laws enforcement of laws and money. Institutions form a system of government built and run by people with knowledge tools and organized capabilities following processes ( rules laws cultural norms including honesty and integrity) and money funded by taxes. A corrupt political legal and economic system run by billionaire oligarchy control Republicans with lying money and threats destroyed the honest institutions and replaced them with a lawless fascist autocracy that steals 95% of the wealth liberty and happiness from 95% of Americans and transfers almost all to the oligarchs with small amounts going to their agents including Republicans Supreme Court justices corporations and crumbs going to 50 million who still support Trump.
Our institutions will be as corrupted as our politics and government until we say no to the these disastrous SCOTUS decisions, with one voice! Fascism started with Citizens United and it ends with Citizens United.
All of our movements must focus like a laser on demanding advancement of HJR54, the We the People Amendment.
All it takes is a simple demand, from everyone, and we get it.
Our grassroots political group, of which I am unofficial chair, has met every Friday morning for almost ten years to write postcards to Democratic voters. About 35 of us show up at a local cafe. We have just surpassed writing 75,000 cards. All handwritten, and all done at our own expense. Right now, we are working hard on reaching Texas voters for James Talarico. We currently have written about 1300 cards for him, with more to come.
Every single one of us can do something. Even a small something. Get a few friends together. It's always better and more encouraging to work as a group, even of two or three or four. We find that it helps us feel positively engaged -- which helps to obliterate any feelings of discouragement or frustration.
You can obtain voter addresses and scripts through organizations like Activate America (activateamerica.vote), or Postcards to Voters (postcardstovoters.org), or Swing Left (swingleft.org), etc. They have all the instructions.
Polls are one thing. They can tell us that Democrats are leading. But those numbers mean nothing if we don't get people out to vote.
There are more of us who are positive about the future of America as a whole than those who look back, longing for a “gilded age” where the few accumulate vast riches and leave the many behind. It is when we act on our hopes that we turn talk into action to bring about the necessary changes - one postcard at a time!
Thank you. But I'm not any more of a hero than any number of us who put our noses to the grindstone... writing, phoning, protesting, boycotting, etc. I hate to see the US economy faltering as the rest of the world backs away from financial relationships with us. But perhaps we can amend ourselves if/when we get rid of Trump and his corrupt administration. Maybe it took this kind of demon to show us that democracy is a thing that needs to be fed and cared for all the time.
Maybe our (former) allies will forgive us, but it will take time. They have become like battered spouses who are leaving us, and now the US will have to work hard to prove that we won't let this happen ever again. The proverbial "flowers and chocolates" will not be enough. We will have to prove that we can earn their trust again. And that will take some time and a lot of hard work.
I agree, but she left our the part about changing the system that got us here
There is a way to unrig this corruption that created the Fascist Republican gangsters and their corporate Dem enablers.
Pramila Jayapal is lead sponsor of HJR54, House Joint Resolution 54. It is THE best and most comprehensive way to overturn Citizens United, to establish that only humans should be entitled to constitutional rights and powers, and that money in politics must be regulated to ensure that everyone has equal voice in our elections!!!
The other thing that this amendment does is to unify all of our justice, movements, from labor to our environment to peace and justice! It creates power through solidarity and clarity as to what we demand to get us out of this fucking mess of corruption and fascism.
When everyone and every organization demands this, we will get it. All that it takes is one simple and universal demand that will change everything and restore good government of and by We the People. 
I am hopeful that every candidate who runs for public office at every level will also sign this pledge.
Move to Amend is awesome but we can’t do this alone. Please start demanding HJR54, and ask everyone to join us. We don’t have to live like this. We can have authentic democracy in time to save our future. All it takes is a simple demand.
I left it out because you keep smashing it into our faces. Again and again. Most of it is copy and paste. And stop telling us that our grassroots movements aren't relevant.
There is a way to unrig this corruption that created the Fascist Republican gangsters and their corporate Dem enablers.
Pramila Jayapal is lead sponsor of HJR54, House Joint Resolution 54. It is THE best and most comprehensive way to overturn Citizens United, to establish that only humans should be entitled to constitutional rights and powers, and that money in politics must be regulated to ensure that everyone has equal voice in our elections!!!
The other thing that this amendment does is to unify all of our justice, movements, from labor to our environment to peace and justice! It creates power through solidarity and clarity as to what we demand to get us out of this fucking mess of corruption and fascism.
When everyone and every organization demands this, we will get it. All that it takes is one simple and universal demand that will change everything and restore good government of and by We the People. 
I am hopeful that every candidate who runs for public office at every level will also sign this pledge.
Move to Amend is awesome but we can’t do this alone. Please start demanding HJR54, and ask everyone to join us. We don’t have to live like this. We can have authentic democracy in time to save our future. All it takes is a simple demand.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why Democrats, the Democratic Party, liberal/progressive/Democratic substacks/podcasts, the "media", etc. are virtually ignoring a great candidate in South Carolina: the Democratic primary WINNER in SC who would have been running against Lindsey Graham but now will be running against either his sister or the other Republican, whichever one wins their run-off. DR. ANNIE ANDREWS is the Democratic candidate in SC for the U.S. Senate!! Where is the coverage for HER that even approximates the coverage for all of the other Democratic candidates??!! It would have been very satisfying to see her beat Lindsey Graham but that is not to be so it will be great to see her beat whatever Republican opponent there is. Give her some "media" love (and maybe support)! She is an M.D., a pediatrician, has been in practice for some 20 years and has a great Democratic set of values!
Great boost! I doubt she is going to be ignored, as soon as this last gasp Repub primary whimpers in. If I had any function in it, I would be pointing out that Lindsay was a member of the Taiwan Caucus in the Senate at the time he passed, but apparently she wasn't close enough to him to bother her poor li'l ol' head over that.
Robert, from Australia I hope that your confidence that democarcy will prevail.
That seems to me a much better option than the inevitable path to violence that the inequality and injustice will lead to under an authoritatian regime.
I follow your domestice politics here because the same scenario of vested interests funding a populist offering 'solutions' without any mention of the the quid pro quo is playing out.
I am not, therefore, a disinterested onlooker.
Best wishes USA! You The People are the only ones who can save you.
I like it too, but he’s wrong. No one can predict the future and saying that it will come out OK just lets people continue to be apathetic and do nothing.
There is a way to unrig this corruption that created the Fascist Republican gangsters and their corporate Dem enablers.
Pramila Jayapal is lead sponsor of HJR54, House Joint Resolution 54. It is THE best and most comprehensive way to overturn Citizens United, to establish that only humans should be entitled to constitutional rights and powers, and that money in politics must be regulated to ensure that everyone has equal voice in our elections!!!
The other thing that this amendment does is to unify all of our justice, movements, from labor to our environment to peace and justice! It creates power through solidarity and clarity as to what we demand to get us out of this fucking mess of corruption and fascism.
When everyone and every organization demands this, we will get it. All that it takes is one simple and universal demand that will change everything and restore good government of and by We the People. 
I am hopeful that every candidate who runs for public office at every level will also sign this pledge.
Move to Amend is awesome but we can’t do this alone. Please start demanding HJR54, and ask everyone to join us. We don’t have to live like this. We can have authentic democracy in time to save our future. All it takes is a simple demand.
They’ve awakened a sleeping giant. Decent Americans are sick of this nonsense from this administration. The billionaires have been living fat and happy for far too long. Since the 80s, they’ve been making millions off the backs of the rest of us. Your letter professor, is the proof that we’ve had enough.
I think we are reaching a point where the lies told by Trump and his acolytes are running out of road, in the sense that even the most brainwashed cultists can see through them.
A simple example.
I read a piece the other day about the decline of the Colorado River and the lakes and reservoirs that depend on it.
This means a water crisis for many of the western states.
It's impossible to be impacted by this and simultaneously hold on to the lie that climate science is a hoax, not least because everything the climate scientists have been predicting for years has been proved true.
In addition, people are cottoning on to the insane demands for energy and water that result from the construction of AI data centres that are simply adding to the problems created by the climate catastrophe
These twin crises are confronting people with the reality of Trumpism in a more dramatic way than mere decline in spending power, painful though that is.
I'd like to believe this. But I'm somewhat amazed that while western Europe and the UK are burning and our own west as well, plus torrential rains, e.g. Hawaii, Indiana, and more, the tech bros who are beyond determined to force A1 on us and profit handsomely are busy building data centers all over the US that will greatly increase our use of electricity. They aren't supplying those data centers with renewable sources of power, e.g. wind, water, solar or even nuclear. Is this the thing to be doing when we are witnessing the effects of GCC and they call on us to act quickly to respond and change our ways?
The people creating and promoting this powerful technology have a history of techno-fascism and an avowed aim, both individual and collective, to destroy liberal democracy.
They have zero sense of moral responsibility to humanity. All they care about is power (theirs naturally), profit, and the opportunity to realise their utopian fantasies.
The implications of these fantasies are not just inhuman. They are anti-human.
Joseph Weizenbaum warned us nearly fifty years ago:
" However much intelligence computers may attain, now or in the future, theirs must always be an intelligence alien to genuine human problems and concerns."
Do you honestly think that the likes of <enter name of tech-bro here> give a flying fig for human problems and concerns?
Look up 'The Nerd Reich' and you'll see where they are coming from.
I get it, William, although you articulate it much more eloquently than I could. I've heard the author of The Nerd Reich interviewed. It is beyond disturbing that these tech bros have the power they do in our world. And the problem is not given the attentioin it needs in the MSM. And most definitely not by our elected representatives. I consider it part of why it is so especially regrettable that Trump and his sycophants are in power now when we so desperately need a muscular and appropriate response to the development of AI from our government. We are not going to get that response.
these sociopathic nerds are being subsidized, at taxpayers' expense, by Trump. He is doing it witnhout congressional autnhorization. Yet Republicans in Congress go along with this travesty.
While I did not vote for Angie Nixon, I voted for Alex Vindman and what he did after his loss is a lesson to every single politician! He sent out an email that thanked those of us who supported him and then asked us to do like him and get behind and support Angie. I was so very proud to have voted for such an outstanding American as Alex Vindman! He showed all of the cheats and whiney losers how to accept defeat and forge ahead. I will be voting for Angie Nixon in November, and it is my fondest hope she will be victorious! You are right, Professor Reich, these younger candidates are deciding what kind of democracy they want to live in, and I am behind them all the way! We have to look to the future and turn our country into the vision these young candidates can see and want to move toward. Equality, Medicare for all, tax the rich fairly to help fund the programs that help all Americans. They are envisioning a better society, a better world and I can certainly champion that! Let these young, energetic candidates and voters make our country better, stronger and less corrupt! As a 'senior citizen' there may be some ideas I won't be comfortable with, but hey, my time is limited and theirs is just starting out! Keep fighting, America! Stay strong and stay safe!
I got another email from him saying that he was going to give the rest of his campaign $ to Angie and support her in her run for the Senate seat. I will be giving her my full support.
I'm a bit puzzled. Do only dinosaurs (like me) believe that not only would Alexander Vindman be a better candidate (more likely to be elected), but he would be a much better Senator? How would Angie Nixon answer the question about Taiwan that Darline Graham fumbled?
And are only dinosaurs (like me) upset at Melat Kiros's lack of response to the firebombing in Boulder?
I'm with you. Vindman would have had a much better chance against Nixon. In a deep red state, it's wiser not to go too far left if you want to attract disillusioned Republicans to this side of the fence. Every smart campaign manager will advise candidates to be more moderate in your campaigns, but then be more liberal when you're elected. That's how you win moderate Republicans in a Red State.
It is precisely this kind of tactical maneuvering that has turned the corporate Democrats into weak, dependent players. In their electoral strategies they forgot to listen to the people's voice. trump took advantage of that and won twice with populist lies.
When people voted for Nixon they didn't do that for tactical reasons, but because she answered their questions. In "normal times" Vindman might have been a reliable candidate, but these aren't normal times.
Indeed they are not normal times. We rightly criticize Republicans for rejecting expertise and selecting inexperienced people who take the "correct" positions on hot-button issues. Are we doing the same thing? Are we promoting the next generation of RFK Jr.s and Pete Hegseths at the expense of people who actually know what they are doing?
Vindman would have been much more likely to win in the general. We have more registered Republicans than registered Democrats in Florida. Vindman raised 16 million dollars, none of it from PACs. He understands affordability. Do I prefer Nixon's positions? Yes. But I voted for Vindman. He was not glamorous. He did not scream and jump up and down. He would have been an honorable, intelligent senator. Our loss
Joan, We don't have a few years to get over the criminal Rick Scott, who, in case you have forgotten, was involved in a huge scandal in Tennessee involving major hospital fraud. But "oh, well, so what?" Florida loves criminals! They allow Trump to live there, don't they???
No, Merlin, I am with you. I would've voted for Vindman were I a Floridian. I am getting a little nervous about all the foreigners who are winning. We are a melting pot country, granted, but not sure I want Congress to start looking like the UN instead. Just my preference!
Right. You have to choose the Democratic candidate who has the better chance of defeating the Republican. Better to have a winner you can agree with most of the time (Vindman) than to have a winner you can't agree with any of the time (Ashley Moody).
Klare -- Not the "United Nations" but a united nation . . . appreciative of the differences as well as the commonality in all of us. I believe that the melting pot metaphor is largely inaccurate, because a blend into sameness is neither needed nor desirable. Think instead of a salad -- many disparate elements that occupy the same place, offering a mix that's compatible, harmonizing, and pleasing to the eye.
Thank you for you candor Klare. My advise is to get out and meet some of these "foreigners" so that you will not be so nervous. Fear not. We will be just fine as we have been for 250 years of new folks coming to thrive on the project of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Victor, you sent me a comment saying "Nixon a foreigner, Vindman not?" I urge you to go to Wikipedia and read up on Ukrainian-born Alexander Vindman whose service to the United States military is longer than your arm, his awards are many, AND he has at least FIVE DEGREES FROM MAJOR AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. I doubt Nixon can even come close to matching that!
Victor, I do not think that we are talking about an irrational fear, i.e., phobia, here, just an uneasiness or lack of trust at first glance of someone who looks "different."
Without a doubt, there are politicos, activists, etc., among the MAGA movement who purposely describe events and groups as violent to instill fear. They should be tried as one would for crying fire in a crowded theater! Actually a newscaster in Ruawanda was taken off to the Hague and tried for that sort of crime.
Perhaps nothing is as dangerous as trusting someone who looks like you. Appearance can be very deceiving. It is wise to be cautious with the unfamiliar, but fear and caution are not the same, and once fear sets in it is hard to curb it but easy to expand it. This is why Trump is a fearmonger. All fear is irrational.
I hope she takes your advice and learns from it. But, if what makes them "foreign" is that they have unfamiliar names and don't look like her, that's not going to change after meeting them, nor will she understand that she may seem just as "foreign" in those ways from their perspective.
I have great hopes that some of the new Representatives and Senators will take up the cause of Ukraine. Trump is still hostile to Ukraine. Both he and Vance actively support Putin. Trump just forbade the use of Starlink for Ukraine in Russia. Finally the bill to increase sanctions against Russia will pass but Trump will still be able to withhold implementation. Trump has never consistently aided anyone except Putin. Why is this not a scandal in America? Why is the American press not all over this favoring of Putin? Trump has an enormous conflict of interest when it comes to Russia. The Russians have bailed him out financially since the 1980s. He may even be on their payroll.
Jeez Louise, it's 5:00 in the morning here in Pittsburgh and already you've made me cry. For joy; for joy. To see all these young, bright, eager honest AND DIVERSE names and faces, oh, my. My heart took wing. Thanks for the tonic, dear Dr. Reich, and all of you out there also doing your part to midwife the birth of OUR new world order.
Oh, how we needed this! But I'd like to offer one clarification. Prof. you say we are creating a new America, but to me, all of the names that end in "i", "a", and "o" is reminiscent of my 1940's childhood when immigrants crossed over to land and contribute to my Chicago neighborhood. New blood, strong ideals, compassion, women and men previously dismissed because their ancestors didn't come over on the Mayflower. Thank you for this dose --no abundance --of introductions to leaders who (whom?) I pray will take your unveiling oft heir names as the opening credits of a new, technicolor production. So bright. So intelligent. So attractive that the elderly lawmakers will begin packing. But before departure, please oldsters, leave them with your wisdom and love of country. They'll take it from there.
We must change the direction. Stop the lawlessness, corruption, lies and and and and rebuild all that we’ve lost and tear down that gold 💩. ONWARD!!!!!
Thank you Prof. Most uplifting! I needed this letter this morning. I am still so disgusted with his unleashed abuse of our country and what we all hold dear. I do hope/pray these candidates win in November. That we can get back to what it means to be the USA and that we don't let someone like him back in office ever again!
No doubt Trump is pushing 24 hours a day to build that monstrous "ballroom" above ground, as we post here. I just want to share a "joke" of mine, in sad fellow-feeling: Maybe it can be "The National Museum of the Crimes of the Trump Family." (It may be just big enough.)
until we bulldoze it.
Better yet, have national raffle, for some lucky individual to push plunger to implode it. My guess is there would be enough ticket sales to pay for it.
I agree with those emotions, but my more frugal, rational mind tells me to suggest that instead of those destructive thoughts of bidding, "Good riddance" to the trumpster-from-the-dumpster!" in that way, we turn it into something like an office dedicated to helping everyday honest workers have "A Fighting Chance" (as inspired by Senator Elizabeth Warren's book with that title) for Prosperity, and the Inalienable Rights of "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" with Democracy and Equal Rights for All - Under Law (and no more "dick-taters-wannabe". What do you think?
Frank, it's too ugly! One thing no one is mentioning (and I agree it's secondary to other disastrous results) is that our beautiful, gracious, historical, elegant, People's White House has been virtually destroyed. Parts of it may still be standing, but its integrity is gone. Until we re-create it. Just as Trump is destroying our comedians, the Kennedy Center for the Arts, other important features of our culture as free Americans, so is he destroying the grace and physical beauty of our nation's capital. Paving the Rose Garden; making unnecessary helipads on the lawns; digging up the front for carnivals; destroying parts of the capital's streets for drag-racing; permanently damaging the Reflecting Pool; building huge arches to himself that will destroy sight-lines and views of the Lincoln Memorial; spraying what remains of the White House with plastic gilt; etc. Taken together, these are important sledgehammer blows at our national identity, at a different but no less significant level than draining the Treasury for a lost war in Iran and selling access to his crazed tweets for $100k a pop so rich people can game the market in advance.
You make very good points, Kandarohe, and I appreciate your reply. I will still retain an open mind on this. I have not done a comprehensive investigation into the financial consequences of all this. And it's probably not possible to make that assessment until we are rid of him and his VP, at least, and they're hopefully imprisoned for decades to come. And I hope we can have a blue- wave-tsunami with Ro Khanna as Speaker of the House and thus in line to take the Presidency away from the foolish white elephants. But realistically, it could take a while longer than that - who knows how long? We might need to have a plan that avoids making any more terrible financially wasteful decisions for a number of years into the future as we fight global warming and all the other damage the trumpian minions have caused and continue to keep at it We may have to calmly endure their ugliness longer - even though it's been far too long already...
Kandarohe. Do you not appreciate elegance? Your beloved White House now has gold & glitter everywhere. To me it looks like the front office of a third rate BROTHEL.
ken.maynard7@gmail.com
I'd enter that raffle! Add-on a pay-per-view of the event, with multiple-angle shots in super-slow motion. Have organized celebration parties, and then raffle off pieces of the tawdry furnishings.
and them with it
That might be easier than you think—it’s being built at such a furious pace (to get it done before 2028 so he can move in and refuse to leave?) that they’re surely not abiding by building codes and cutting corners, so it’ll be a shoddy, jerry-built pile of junk.
Who's overseeing this project, this woebegone monstrosity? Cutting corners, cheap materials, handing out contracts for personal "donations". Trump has a way of making cheap veneers that flatter for a moment or two, then fall apart.
Like everything else, the ballroom may end up just another shoddy error - deemed unsafe and demolished or collapses under the heavy weight of his own incompetence (hopefully with trump, his family, the billionaires and the rest of his ghoulish sycophants inside when it happens).
If he does build it (God forbid) all the gold decorations will last just as long as the wading pool lining lasted while the guys he hired to build it make off with $millions in stolen gold.
Exactly!
Chief Justice Roberts' ruling that Trump can continue building the ballroom seems to indicate that there's no halting this project now and SCOTUS will likely step aside. What else are they going to do: order Trump to take it down? It's clearly not within the court's jurisdiction to order Trump to put something else there (like a restored East Wing building) and so the alternative is that he will likely leave the whole site in a dreadful mess.
Russell, I'm inclined to agree with you--no hope for a halt.
Do we know where Robert’s lives? House made of wood or steel?
Russell, yes! That's it, the perfect description of this whole Trumplandia,"a dreadful mess!"
Congress can stop it and they can have torn down.
Fascism started with Citizens United and it ends with Citizens United.
All of our movements must focus like a laser on demanding advancement of HJR54, the We the People Amendment.
All it takes is a simple demand, from everyone, and we get it.
End Citizens United!!!
www.movetoamend.org/donate
and end the insurrection
this looks like a paid add, Lawrence.
Most everybody that helps out move to Amend is Volunteer, including myself, but we do have five paid employees. Even the most efficient organization with the most strategic plan needs some money to exist. Please donate either sometime or some money because this is the strategic way to get out of this fascist mess
Lawrence, you are helping enact Project 2025, that's what would be what you would be talking about if you were concerned about fascism.
I am, we are, preventing project 2025 from becoming a reality, and we are ending the institutional corruption so that never again another Trump and so that Fascism shall be destroyed, long term. Learn more at movetoamend
Mmerose, Awesome!! That would be the only reason to keep it after the jerk is out of office!
I see that description, which I had not considered, as a history of how America saved itself, the causes of the problems, and how we can never let the threat or the problems happen again. Architecturally though, I prefer that we have the East Wing, the Rose Garden, and more back as they were rather than any kind of a monument to a hateful person.
I'm with you on that. While the White House was never a perfect design it was well designed and served its purpose. There's no way I would be in favor of keeping that monstrosity Trump is building or the dreadful other changes he's made. If at all possible I'd like to see it back the way it was.
Rhana, then we need to make stronger laws regarding what a president or anyone else in government can do to our monuments and with a strong reminder that the president is only a tenant in the white house, so has absolutely no right to do ANYTHING without a 2/3 majority of members of both houses agreeing. That doesn't count basic repairs, but does involve demolition, rebuilding, helopads, etc.!
Well then let's do it. Bug our Congressmen. Work with local activists.
Mmerose & Judith M, According to an article published by NPR 4/3/26, by Rachel Treisman, the ballroom is really a shell structure for the new, 6 story underground facility meant to protect the president and others from an attack.The ballroom is being built to withstand both drones and missiles. The windows are bulletproof. The fact that DT is obsessed with getting it built, as well as deceptive about it’s function concerns me.
Hitler died in a bunker. Osama bin Laden died in a sort-of bunker. Trump...
Can it be his tomb?
I would prefer that it be his jail cell - shared with his entire Cabinet and malignantly corrupt cohorts.
But once they rot and die in there and we rebuild the White House to its proper appearance, I'd be willing to post a small plaque memorializing Trump above ground on the site. Something along the lines of "here lie the despised remains of a mentally-ill psychopath who once briefly controlled the US. May this remind us to never fall for this again..." It could be made of plastic gilt.
Susan, I think Trump plans to stay bunkered up after the election so he can remain president in 2+ years. I say let them stay in the bunker with only the food and water permitted by Congress and the newly-inaugurated president. No communication out of Bunker Underground that would be permitted is not permitted by the new administration and Congress. Then Baby Donnie and his pals can entertain each other until they run out of things to say and do, which will be pretty quick. Then, in abstentia, they could be tried and convicted of insurrection and the bunker could be their jail. Works for me!
I like it Ruth!
I like it too. The only caveat I would enter is, there's still a lot of work to be done by us to ensure that some outlier who supports Nazi-fascism doesn't win in 2028. Tucker Carlson has now taken over the America First fragment of MAGA and is setting up as a presidential candidate for 2028. He's just as evil as Trump but far more personable and plausible. Gullible suckers will very likely vote for him. We're really just at the beginning of our fight, once we imprison this current crop in the bunker. (We could put McDonald's in exclusive charge of victualling.)
I'd suggest a little failure in the door locking mechanisms once they're all safely ensconced in that bunker. Due to shoddy workmanship, they'll likely refuse to EVER unlock once they're locked. Perhaps a complete failure in the communication systems will follow. Trump being Trump and his idiot lackeys being who they are, they'll never consider putting in failsafe systems or another possible exit to handle such emergencies.
In my more pessimistic moments, I'm convinced that, more than the ballroom, Trump wants that impenetrable command bunker beneath it to use as his command post when he tries to fully take over the government (because he thinks he's going to live that long). Of course it could easily be the man behind the curtain, little Nazi, Stevie Miller want that bunker even more than Trump.
Rather than destroy is as so many have advocated here, we should dedicate it to be a people helping headquarters for worthy organizations to occupy.
We needed that statement. It is not uplifting to live in the USA. I would rather live elsewhere. My ancesters have been here since 1620 and look what an incompetent moron has done to a great country. I really can't leave but must stay to fight off the degenerate.
I recently attended a community event where about 20 people sat around a table talking about the end of life. Young and old people spoke up very candidly about how they view mortality and life's final days/hours. Later on, it occurred to me: Do I want to die in the United States?
Yes, Judith. I think of these matters daily as a still healthy 67 year old. If it continues as is, worrying daily about the right wing extremists who have taken over our national dialogue, and with the ever present threat of political violence, I would prefer to live elsewhere. But where?
Not to get too personal, but your ancestors didn't make the best job of it either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SltPO2Y6yJM
Were you there?
Carol, maybe don't use that phrase. Some MAGA candidate for governor who says Adam and Eve lived at the same time as the dinosaurs used it repeatedly when told it wasn't true. Also, you might just as well say you couldn't prove, e.g., the founding of America, if you "weren't there." It's fallacious.
You must be a MAGA man. Sorry.
But that is why we all must always try to do better....unlike the current scourge in the White House.
Please stay and fight. Fascism started with Citizens United and it ends with Citizens United.
All of our movements must focus like a laser on demanding advancement of HJR54, the We the People Amendment.
All it takes is a simple demand, from everyone, and we get it.
End Citizens United!!!
www.movetoamend.org/donate
This is where our tax dollars are going, not to provide a sound education, medical care, and support for the hungry at home and abroad, but to satisfy Trump's outrageous vanity. This is why progressives are winning; MAGA and Christian nationalists have made it clear to the vast majority of Americans that their agenda is in the interests of the wealthy, rich, and male:
SCOTUS decided to allow Trump to continue building his absurd and obscene ballroom until they make a judgment as to the constitutionality of a president, without Congressional approval, spending our money to fund major "renovations" of the WH. This was in spite of the order to stop building issued by the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia:
"The federal appeals court for the District of Columbia ruled Friday that President Donald Trump must cease construction on the 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom project.
'The President has no — and claims no — constitutionally assigned authority over that property, which is designed and maintained for the use of all Presidents, current and future, and for the American people,' the court ruled."https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/appeals-court-rules-trump-needs-231727693.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall
One of the arguments John Roberts was apparently influenced by was that the project was well under way and it would be wasteful to stop it now. Constitutional expert, Barbara McKay, said that is like allowing a bank robber to continue robbing the bank because the robbery was ongoing.
My take away is that Roberts, who made the decision, while the full court waits to hear the case, is nestled, I hope uncomfortably, in Trump's dirty pocket.
What a mess we have to clean up.
I will look forward to a Democratic president so that Robert’s, Alito, Thomas, and Kavanaugh can be impeached and removed from power and jailed.
We are not ok and we won’t be ok until we overrule the illegitimate corrupt SCOTUS. Fascism started with Citizens United and it ends with Citizens United.
All of our movements must focus like a laser on demanding advancement of HJR54, the We the People Amendment.
All it takes is a simple demand, from everyone, and we get it.
End Citizens United!!!
www.movetoamend.org/donate
Misery on that so called “JUSTICE”, starting NOW………..
Amen. I too pray for America!
Praying is lovely but God put us here to do something useful. Fascism started with Citizens United and it ends with Citizens United.
All of our movements must focus like a laser on demanding advancement of HJR54, the We the People Amendment.
All it takes is a simple demand, from everyone, and we get it.
End Citizens United!!!
www.movetoamend.org/donate
And end the insurrection.
Yes, and fix the corrupted system that enabled the insurrection
Lawrence, we get it. No need to keep repeating the same post and smashing it into our faces.
I like it!
Back to the subject ...
Corporate Democrats are the party of the past and are destined to become extinct because they are corrupt and practically irrelevant. Their approval ratings are in the basement.
But they are necessary in one respect ... they've got to see the light, the logic, and what the voters want, need and are voting for and unify with the Democratic Socialists in order to gain control. Independent voters will lean toward a unified party, and they are approx 45% of voters. As it is, they don't like Trump very much.
If these things don't happen we'll never get the country and democracy back
- Karen Cooper
Fascism started with Citizens United and it ends with Citizens United.
All of our movements must focus like a laser on demanding advancement of HJR54, the We the People Amendment.
All it takes is a simple demand, from everyone, and we get it.
End Citizens United!!!
www.movetoamend.org/donate
Please, stop with the copy and paste.
And we need to build our beginning into institutions--
- institutions, because it is easier to get things done when you aren't starting from zero with every task,
- institutions structured to provide accessible information to the public, from firms, from researchers, from news around the world
- institutions structured to provide constituent, reliable, coordination among the interacting parties of our complex world
- institutions structured to build sustainability when individual agents left alone might not
- institutions structured to keep the economic table level, toward equity, when the wealthy would tilt it to flow into their already-bulged pockets
- institutions to invest in the people's wealth in their individual and community health, and in the environment, and in our education and sills as a community
Institutions that we must be patient in and thoughtful in building, and patient in staffing and defending.
A battlefield, even a battlefield of victory is no workplace, though it can be necessary foundation for a workplace.
This is such a well-reasoned and thoughtful contribution, Mary Ann - it builds upon Dr. Reich’s positive message and covers a lot of territory very well. Thanks for the vision of a path forward - back to the America I believe in!
Or one that better fulfills its promises!
Our institutions were built on big „but not really for them“ foundations.
Mary--The rabbit hole Trump wants us to fall into is lined with lies and deceit. If RFK Jr. would come up with a way to inject this country with a vaccine that would fill us all with the simple truth that Donald Trump has truly lost his ever loving mind, we could begin making arrangements to put on ICE a president who currently is doing his best to emulate Rip Van Winkle. Sleepy Donald Has over stayed his welcome. Time stands as the consummate thief, for it will eventually rob us of everything--we need time to take a man who has out lived his usefulness, and put an end to this nightmare.
Trump is not the problem, and the problem won't go away when Trump disappears, unless the corporate Democrats come to their senses, and recognize that they, too (not just Republicans), need to support government of the people, by the people, for the people. And not government of the people, by the rich, for the money.
To stop the Corporate Democrats, we must support only those running without any corporate $. If we only elect and support grassroots candidates (both state and federal), we can win! DO NOT send $ to the DNC. They spent 16 million against our grassroots candidates who won handily without corporate money. Give directly to candidates or groups that are supporting state legislatures only like DLCC.
Only support candidates who take the pledge (to support us):
www.movetoamend.org/pledge
Please check it out. It’s not only how we win that election time but it’s how we destroy fascism, long-term
Jerry --what you described is what drives the essence of the Republican party--Wealth and power isn't a defining element of the Democrats. You are correct in your understand that Trump isn't the real problem --its the morons who support him that will be our future concern....
Wrong. It has become the defining element of both parties because of Citizen United.
The only difference is that the Republicans are full-blown fascists, who all have to walk in lock step.
There is a way to unrig this corruption that created the Fascist Republican gangsters and their corporate Dem enablers.
Pramila Jayapal is lead sponsor of HJR54, House Joint Resolution 54. It is THE best and most comprehensive way to overturn Citizens United, to establish that only humans should be entitled to constitutional rights and powers, and that money in politics must be regulated to ensure that everyone has equal voice in our elections!!!
The other thing that this amendment does is to unify all of our justice, movements, from labor to our environment to peace and justice! It creates power through solidarity and clarity as to what we demand to get us out of this fucking mess of corruption and fascism.
When everyone and every organization demands this, we will get it. All that it takes is one simple and universal demand that will change everything and restore good government of and by We the People. 
I am hopeful that every candidate who runs for public office at every level will also sign this pledge.
www.movetoamend.org/pledge
And everyone can sign on at
www.movetoamend.org/motion
Get extra points if you can get all your organizations to endorse this effort at
www.movetoamend.org/organizations.
Over 800 organizations are already signed on!
Move to Amend is awesome but we can’t do this alone. Please start demanding HJR54, and ask everyone to join us. We don’t have to live like this. We can have authentic democracy in time to save our future. All it takes is a simple demand.

Lawrence--The Republican party remains the voice of the rich and powerful. The people's voice is held within the Democratic party. No matter how you slice it.
The “blue dog” corporate Dems remain the voice of the rich and powerful. That is why they fund them. They are also the enablers of Republican policies. Just ask Robert Reich:
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/when-i-took-adam-to-the-democratic
Most of the Dems have been corrupted by our SCOTUS corrupted system that ushered in corporate rule and big money pay to play politics. They only serve their corporate and AIPAC masters.
Fascism started with Citizens United and it ends with Citizens United.
All of our movements must focus like a laser on demanding advancement of HJR54, the We the People Amendment.
All it takes is a simple demand, from everyone, and we get it.
End Citizens United!!!
www.movetoamend.org/donate
Mary Ann, you seem a bit ambivalent about the accent on persons and draw attention to the devastation this regime has brought to the institutions, neede for the administration of a complicated national interest. Very much agreed.
Second, you seem worried about the accent on struggle. Fighting might be necessary, but it must be remembered that construction is needed. Very much agreed.
And of course Bob gives us a list of hopefull primaries that indicates a better future.
Mary Ann
Those are good objectives determined and driven by politics laws enforcement of laws and money. Institutions form a system of government built and run by people with knowledge tools and organized capabilities following processes ( rules laws cultural norms including honesty and integrity) and money funded by taxes. A corrupt political legal and economic system run by billionaire oligarchy control Republicans with lying money and threats destroyed the honest institutions and replaced them with a lawless fascist autocracy that steals 95% of the wealth liberty and happiness from 95% of Americans and transfers almost all to the oligarchs with small amounts going to their agents including Republicans Supreme Court justices corporations and crumbs going to 50 million who still support Trump.
And an Institution to hold Trump, with double fences, concertina wire and sensors. Rich S. Octogenarian and Contrarian
Our institutions will be as corrupted as our politics and government until we say no to the these disastrous SCOTUS decisions, with one voice! Fascism started with Citizens United and it ends with Citizens United.
All of our movements must focus like a laser on demanding advancement of HJR54, the We the People Amendment.
All it takes is a simple demand, from everyone, and we get it.
End Citizens United!!!
www.movetoamend.org/donate
Our grassroots political group, of which I am unofficial chair, has met every Friday morning for almost ten years to write postcards to Democratic voters. About 35 of us show up at a local cafe. We have just surpassed writing 75,000 cards. All handwritten, and all done at our own expense. Right now, we are working hard on reaching Texas voters for James Talarico. We currently have written about 1300 cards for him, with more to come.
Every single one of us can do something. Even a small something. Get a few friends together. It's always better and more encouraging to work as a group, even of two or three or four. We find that it helps us feel positively engaged -- which helps to obliterate any feelings of discouragement or frustration.
You can obtain voter addresses and scripts through organizations like Activate America (activateamerica.vote), or Postcards to Voters (postcardstovoters.org), or Swing Left (swingleft.org), etc. They have all the instructions.
Polls are one thing. They can tell us that Democrats are leading. But those numbers mean nothing if we don't get people out to vote.
There are more of us who are positive about the future of America as a whole than those who look back, longing for a “gilded age” where the few accumulate vast riches and leave the many behind. It is when we act on our hopes that we turn talk into action to bring about the necessary changes - one postcard at a time!
Donna, you are my hero!
Thank you. But I'm not any more of a hero than any number of us who put our noses to the grindstone... writing, phoning, protesting, boycotting, etc. I hate to see the US economy faltering as the rest of the world backs away from financial relationships with us. But perhaps we can amend ourselves if/when we get rid of Trump and his corrupt administration. Maybe it took this kind of demon to show us that democracy is a thing that needs to be fed and cared for all the time.
Maybe our (former) allies will forgive us, but it will take time. They have become like battered spouses who are leaving us, and now the US will have to work hard to prove that we won't let this happen ever again. The proverbial "flowers and chocolates" will not be enough. We will have to prove that we can earn their trust again. And that will take some time and a lot of hard work.
I agree, but she left our the part about changing the system that got us here
There is a way to unrig this corruption that created the Fascist Republican gangsters and their corporate Dem enablers.
Pramila Jayapal is lead sponsor of HJR54, House Joint Resolution 54. It is THE best and most comprehensive way to overturn Citizens United, to establish that only humans should be entitled to constitutional rights and powers, and that money in politics must be regulated to ensure that everyone has equal voice in our elections!!!
The other thing that this amendment does is to unify all of our justice, movements, from labor to our environment to peace and justice! It creates power through solidarity and clarity as to what we demand to get us out of this fucking mess of corruption and fascism.
When everyone and every organization demands this, we will get it. All that it takes is one simple and universal demand that will change everything and restore good government of and by We the People. 
I am hopeful that every candidate who runs for public office at every level will also sign this pledge.
www.movetoamend.org/pledge
And everyone can sign on at
www.movetoamend.org/motion
Get extra points if you can get all your organizations to endorse this effort at
www.movetoamend.org/organizations.
Over 800 organizations are already signed on!
Move to Amend is awesome but we can’t do this alone. Please start demanding HJR54, and ask everyone to join us. We don’t have to live like this. We can have authentic democracy in time to save our future. All it takes is a simple demand.

I left it out because you keep smashing it into our faces. Again and again. Most of it is copy and paste. And stop telling us that our grassroots movements aren't relevant.
Great work, Donna. You are a true patriot.
There is a way to unrig this corruption that created the Fascist Republican gangsters and their corporate Dem enablers.
Pramila Jayapal is lead sponsor of HJR54, House Joint Resolution 54. It is THE best and most comprehensive way to overturn Citizens United, to establish that only humans should be entitled to constitutional rights and powers, and that money in politics must be regulated to ensure that everyone has equal voice in our elections!!!
The other thing that this amendment does is to unify all of our justice, movements, from labor to our environment to peace and justice! It creates power through solidarity and clarity as to what we demand to get us out of this fucking mess of corruption and fascism.
When everyone and every organization demands this, we will get it. All that it takes is one simple and universal demand that will change everything and restore good government of and by We the People. 
I am hopeful that every candidate who runs for public office at every level will also sign this pledge.
www.movetoamend.org/pledge
And everyone can sign on at
www.movetoamend.org/motion
Get extra points if you can get all your organizations to endorse this effort at
www.movetoamend.org/organizations.
Over 800 organizations are already signed on!
Move to Amend is awesome but we can’t do this alone. Please start demanding HJR54, and ask everyone to join us. We don’t have to live like this. We can have authentic democracy in time to save our future. All it takes is a simple demand.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why Democrats, the Democratic Party, liberal/progressive/Democratic substacks/podcasts, the "media", etc. are virtually ignoring a great candidate in South Carolina: the Democratic primary WINNER in SC who would have been running against Lindsey Graham but now will be running against either his sister or the other Republican, whichever one wins their run-off. DR. ANNIE ANDREWS is the Democratic candidate in SC for the U.S. Senate!! Where is the coverage for HER that even approximates the coverage for all of the other Democratic candidates??!! It would have been very satisfying to see her beat Lindsey Graham but that is not to be so it will be great to see her beat whatever Republican opponent there is. Give her some "media" love (and maybe support)! She is an M.D., a pediatrician, has been in practice for some 20 years and has a great Democratic set of values!
Great boost! I doubt she is going to be ignored, as soon as this last gasp Repub primary whimpers in. If I had any function in it, I would be pointing out that Lindsay was a member of the Taiwan Caucus in the Senate at the time he passed, but apparently she wasn't close enough to him to bother her poor li'l ol' head over that.
Dr. Annie Andrews has recently been interviewed on MSNOW. I'm impressed and am supporting her with monthly donations (from Ohio).
Robert, from Australia I hope that your confidence that democarcy will prevail.
That seems to me a much better option than the inevitable path to violence that the inequality and injustice will lead to under an authoritatian regime.
I follow your domestice politics here because the same scenario of vested interests funding a populist offering 'solutions' without any mention of the the quid pro quo is playing out.
I am not, therefore, a disinterested onlooker.
Best wishes USA! You The People are the only ones who can save you.
Is Murdoch the pestilence there, too? Never have been clear about that. Best wishes to you too!
Murdoch is as you say. He owns a large bit of the print media and uses his unelected power to promote his right wing agenda.
I like it too, but he’s wrong. No one can predict the future and saying that it will come out OK just lets people continue to be apathetic and do nothing.
There is a way to unrig this corruption that created the Fascist Republican gangsters and their corporate Dem enablers.
Pramila Jayapal is lead sponsor of HJR54, House Joint Resolution 54. It is THE best and most comprehensive way to overturn Citizens United, to establish that only humans should be entitled to constitutional rights and powers, and that money in politics must be regulated to ensure that everyone has equal voice in our elections!!!
The other thing that this amendment does is to unify all of our justice, movements, from labor to our environment to peace and justice! It creates power through solidarity and clarity as to what we demand to get us out of this fucking mess of corruption and fascism.
When everyone and every organization demands this, we will get it. All that it takes is one simple and universal demand that will change everything and restore good government of and by We the People. 
I am hopeful that every candidate who runs for public office at every level will also sign this pledge.
www.movetoamend.org/pledge
And everyone can sign on at
www.movetoamend.org/motion
Get extra points if you can get all your organizations to endorse this effort at
www.movetoamend.org/organizations.
Over 800 organizations are already signed on!
Move to Amend is awesome but we can’t do this alone. Please start demanding HJR54, and ask everyone to join us. We don’t have to live like this. We can have authentic democracy in time to save our future. All it takes is a simple demand.

They’ve awakened a sleeping giant. Decent Americans are sick of this nonsense from this administration. The billionaires have been living fat and happy for far too long. Since the 80s, they’ve been making millions off the backs of the rest of us. Your letter professor, is the proof that we’ve had enough.
When you said "decent," it triggered me about all the good we Americans were sharing with each other and abroad. Who hated that?
I think we are reaching a point where the lies told by Trump and his acolytes are running out of road, in the sense that even the most brainwashed cultists can see through them.
A simple example.
I read a piece the other day about the decline of the Colorado River and the lakes and reservoirs that depend on it.
This means a water crisis for many of the western states.
It's impossible to be impacted by this and simultaneously hold on to the lie that climate science is a hoax, not least because everything the climate scientists have been predicting for years has been proved true.
In addition, people are cottoning on to the insane demands for energy and water that result from the construction of AI data centres that are simply adding to the problems created by the climate catastrophe
These twin crises are confronting people with the reality of Trumpism in a more dramatic way than mere decline in spending power, painful though that is.
I'd like to believe this. But I'm somewhat amazed that while western Europe and the UK are burning and our own west as well, plus torrential rains, e.g. Hawaii, Indiana, and more, the tech bros who are beyond determined to force A1 on us and profit handsomely are busy building data centers all over the US that will greatly increase our use of electricity. They aren't supplying those data centers with renewable sources of power, e.g. wind, water, solar or even nuclear. Is this the thing to be doing when we are witnessing the effects of GCC and they call on us to act quickly to respond and change our ways?
The people creating and promoting this powerful technology have a history of techno-fascism and an avowed aim, both individual and collective, to destroy liberal democracy.
They have zero sense of moral responsibility to humanity. All they care about is power (theirs naturally), profit, and the opportunity to realise their utopian fantasies.
The implications of these fantasies are not just inhuman. They are anti-human.
Joseph Weizenbaum warned us nearly fifty years ago:
" However much intelligence computers may attain, now or in the future, theirs must always be an intelligence alien to genuine human problems and concerns."
Do you honestly think that the likes of <enter name of tech-bro here> give a flying fig for human problems and concerns?
Look up 'The Nerd Reich' and you'll see where they are coming from.
I get it, William, although you articulate it much more eloquently than I could. I've heard the author of The Nerd Reich interviewed. It is beyond disturbing that these tech bros have the power they do in our world. And the problem is not given the attentioin it needs in the MSM. And most definitely not by our elected representatives. I consider it part of why it is so especially regrettable that Trump and his sycophants are in power now when we so desperately need a muscular and appropriate response to the development of AI from our government. We are not going to get that response.
these sociopathic nerds are being subsidized, at taxpayers' expense, by Trump. He is doing it witnhout congressional autnhorization. Yet Republicans in Congress go along with this travesty.
While I did not vote for Angie Nixon, I voted for Alex Vindman and what he did after his loss is a lesson to every single politician! He sent out an email that thanked those of us who supported him and then asked us to do like him and get behind and support Angie. I was so very proud to have voted for such an outstanding American as Alex Vindman! He showed all of the cheats and whiney losers how to accept defeat and forge ahead. I will be voting for Angie Nixon in November, and it is my fondest hope she will be victorious! You are right, Professor Reich, these younger candidates are deciding what kind of democracy they want to live in, and I am behind them all the way! We have to look to the future and turn our country into the vision these young candidates can see and want to move toward. Equality, Medicare for all, tax the rich fairly to help fund the programs that help all Americans. They are envisioning a better society, a better world and I can certainly champion that! Let these young, energetic candidates and voters make our country better, stronger and less corrupt! As a 'senior citizen' there may be some ideas I won't be comfortable with, but hey, my time is limited and theirs is just starting out! Keep fighting, America! Stay strong and stay safe!
I got another email from him saying that he was going to give the rest of his campaign $ to Angie and support her in her run for the Senate seat. I will be giving her my full support.
I got that one, too, Kate! While I truly wanted Alex Vindman to win, I will also be giving Angie Nixon my full support!
Thank you Professor Reich.
"The power of the people is greater than the people in power."
Make our voices and votes count so loud that it’s heard around the world…
thank you for the rainbow amid the downpour.
A rainbow, in actuality, being an optical illusion. A fitting metaphor.
I love your optimism. No, really I do.
I'm a bit puzzled. Do only dinosaurs (like me) believe that not only would Alexander Vindman be a better candidate (more likely to be elected), but he would be a much better Senator? How would Angie Nixon answer the question about Taiwan that Darline Graham fumbled?
And are only dinosaurs (like me) upset at Melat Kiros's lack of response to the firebombing in Boulder?
I'm with you. Vindman would have had a much better chance against Nixon. In a deep red state, it's wiser not to go too far left if you want to attract disillusioned Republicans to this side of the fence. Every smart campaign manager will advise candidates to be more moderate in your campaigns, but then be more liberal when you're elected. That's how you win moderate Republicans in a Red State.
It is precisely this kind of tactical maneuvering that has turned the corporate Democrats into weak, dependent players. In their electoral strategies they forgot to listen to the people's voice. trump took advantage of that and won twice with populist lies.
When people voted for Nixon they didn't do that for tactical reasons, but because she answered their questions. In "normal times" Vindman might have been a reliable candidate, but these aren't normal times.
.
Indeed they are not normal times. We rightly criticize Republicans for rejecting expertise and selecting inexperienced people who take the "correct" positions on hot-button issues. Are we doing the same thing? Are we promoting the next generation of RFK Jr.s and Pete Hegseths at the expense of people who actually know what they are doing?
Vindman would have been much more likely to win in the general. We have more registered Republicans than registered Democrats in Florida. Vindman raised 16 million dollars, none of it from PACs. He understands affordability. Do I prefer Nixon's positions? Yes. But I voted for Vindman. He was not glamorous. He did not scream and jump up and down. He would have been an honorable, intelligent senator. Our loss
Vindman can run against Scott in a few years !
We may not have a few years to waste. Look what Trump has done in less than two years. What will he do in the next 2 1/2?
Joan, We don't have a few years to get over the criminal Rick Scott, who, in case you have forgotten, was involved in a huge scandal in Tennessee involving major hospital fraud. But "oh, well, so what?" Florida loves criminals! They allow Trump to live there, don't they???
No, Merlin, I am with you. I would've voted for Vindman were I a Floridian. I am getting a little nervous about all the foreigners who are winning. We are a melting pot country, granted, but not sure I want Congress to start looking like the UN instead. Just my preference!
"Foreigners"? 🙄
Me,too
Just now at least half the Congress looks like Ku Klux Clan without camouflage. I doubt that this is better for the USA.
No question that if I were a Floridian I would vote for Nixon over the Republican (appointed) incumbent. But is that the majority opinion in Florida?
Right. You have to choose the Democratic candidate who has the better chance of defeating the Republican. Better to have a winner you can agree with most of the time (Vindman) than to have a winner you can't agree with any of the time (Ashley Moody).
Klare -- Not the "United Nations" but a united nation . . . appreciative of the differences as well as the commonality in all of us. I believe that the melting pot metaphor is largely inaccurate, because a blend into sameness is neither needed nor desirable. Think instead of a salad -- many disparate elements that occupy the same place, offering a mix that's compatible, harmonizing, and pleasing to the eye.
Thank you for you candor Klare. My advise is to get out and meet some of these "foreigners" so that you will not be so nervous. Fear not. We will be just fine as we have been for 250 years of new folks coming to thrive on the project of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Xenophobia is hard to put back in the box once it has been released.
Victor, you sent me a comment saying "Nixon a foreigner, Vindman not?" I urge you to go to Wikipedia and read up on Ukrainian-born Alexander Vindman whose service to the United States military is longer than your arm, his awards are many, AND he has at least FIVE DEGREES FROM MAJOR AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. I doubt Nixon can even come close to matching that!
Victor, I do not think that we are talking about an irrational fear, i.e., phobia, here, just an uneasiness or lack of trust at first glance of someone who looks "different."
Without a doubt, there are politicos, activists, etc., among the MAGA movement who purposely describe events and groups as violent to instill fear. They should be tried as one would for crying fire in a crowded theater! Actually a newscaster in Ruawanda was taken off to the Hague and tried for that sort of crime.
Perhaps nothing is as dangerous as trusting someone who looks like you. Appearance can be very deceiving. It is wise to be cautious with the unfamiliar, but fear and caution are not the same, and once fear sets in it is hard to curb it but easy to expand it. This is why Trump is a fearmonger. All fear is irrational.
I hope she takes your advice and learns from it. But, if what makes them "foreign" is that they have unfamiliar names and don't look like her, that's not going to change after meeting them, nor will she understand that she may seem just as "foreign" in those ways from their perspective.
Nixon a foreigner, but Vidman not?
Victor, see my reply to you above.
I root for Taiwan, but America comes first.
I have great hopes that some of the new Representatives and Senators will take up the cause of Ukraine. Trump is still hostile to Ukraine. Both he and Vance actively support Putin. Trump just forbade the use of Starlink for Ukraine in Russia. Finally the bill to increase sanctions against Russia will pass but Trump will still be able to withhold implementation. Trump has never consistently aided anyone except Putin. Why is this not a scandal in America? Why is the American press not all over this favoring of Putin? Trump has an enormous conflict of interest when it comes to Russia. The Russians have bailed him out financially since the 1980s. He may even be on their payroll.
Traitor tRUmp should have been married to Putin years ago! Literally!
Jeez Louise, it's 5:00 in the morning here in Pittsburgh and already you've made me cry. For joy; for joy. To see all these young, bright, eager honest AND DIVERSE names and faces, oh, my. My heart took wing. Thanks for the tonic, dear Dr. Reich, and all of you out there also doing your part to midwife the birth of OUR new world order.
Oh, how we needed this! But I'd like to offer one clarification. Prof. you say we are creating a new America, but to me, all of the names that end in "i", "a", and "o" is reminiscent of my 1940's childhood when immigrants crossed over to land and contribute to my Chicago neighborhood. New blood, strong ideals, compassion, women and men previously dismissed because their ancestors didn't come over on the Mayflower. Thank you for this dose --no abundance --of introductions to leaders who (whom?) I pray will take your unveiling oft heir names as the opening credits of a new, technicolor production. So bright. So intelligent. So attractive that the elderly lawmakers will begin packing. But before departure, please oldsters, leave them with your wisdom and love of country. They'll take it from there.
We must change the direction. Stop the lawlessness, corruption, lies and and and and rebuild all that we’ve lost and tear down that gold 💩. ONWARD!!!!!
This is a fantastic reminder that the tide will turn. How many ways can I say thank you, Robert? Here is one: gracias.
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