I think we need to stop calling them conservatives. They are the radical right. Nothing conservative about them at this point.
Looking at German history in 1933, the nazis dissolved the democratic government and declared a state of emergency and martial law within the first two months. In the following 12 years they nearly destroyed the world. The radical right is following the nazi play book folks.
Laurel, your reference to the Nazi State is apt, with the main factor being for the Media to normalize the Nazi's lies. This essay from Robert is perhaps his best yet, about the right wing twisting the narrative about democratic leadership's effect upon good government.
My Dad was a member of the CCC Corps in the 1930's and clearly it worked to prepare him and millions of other youths for the hard times ahead. This drivel from the drumpf apologists in media is detestable to the extreme. This is the reason that we must support the truth tellers in alternative media like Robert. I do not wish to have heavily armed bands of brownshirts marauding the streets as in the Europe of 1933.
It's a bot ad that shows up in comment sections that aren't behind a paywall; the name is always different, always a woman's name, I think. It's been reported and blocked many times but keeps coming back. Ignore it.
The CCC and the WPA were different but related in the opportunities they
provided and the benefits that resulted from the wide scope of projects
that were undertaken. The stories of both of these should be part of public
schools curriculum, even if as a jr. hi / high school elective. Knowing what was achieved in the face of horrible living conditions helps people understand their
I'll always remember frequent visits to Hungry Mother State Park in Smyth County, VA in my youth, and seeing the actual CCC camp for the workers to live in, still intact.
Yes, all of that should be a treasured aspect of America's history. But who's gonna be the "winner" to write about it? Just not "clicky" enough...
The Chair of the History Department of my uni was a consciencious objector during WWII. So, his alternate service was working for the CCC. That time turned him into a lifelong environmentalist.
He was quite a guy and an authority on the American Revolution. I took several courses from him.
Frankly, with Sun Ra's filmed projects largely under the control of AMAZON, I admit to being surprised (pleasantly, for a change!) when I came across this on HBO (or Max , or...whatever):
My dad took the family to Hungry Mother state park from NYC in the forties. If he had known there was a CCC camp near there he would have been excited. I have always just treasured being one of the cogniscenti who knows that there is a park in this world with the unique name Hungry Mother.
I'm sure Moms for Liberty and No Left Turn will get round to trying to ban any books that refer to it. Just a matter of time. They would have done so already were most of their operatives not so thick.
I like the Georgia law that says that only parents with children in THAT DISTRICT can ask that a book be banned from public availability.
There have been a small fraction of the bannings once radical groups with no true interest are excluded.
" “From the fall of 2021 to the summer of 2022, most of our challenges came from a group called No Left Turn in Education,” says Dean Jackson, a spokesperson for the Coweta County School System. “None of them had kids in our schools, so those challenges were ultimately dropped.” "
I agree. We need conservatives and liberals within our government. The idea is to balance legislation called "compromise". Remember that word? Now we have extremists supported by the master confidence man who is rapidly dissolving our democracy or what is left of it. Watching this happen is a most frightening experience. I too cannot help but see parallels with Germany 1933 and I don't think it's an over reaction.
Actually, Kamala Harris and the other non-republican candidates combined received more total votes then did the republican Donald Trump. More people voted against his party and his becoming president than voted for him. It was NOT a landslide for but a "Squeaked In" Election. Today, all Americans need to step up.
Impeachment of a sitting president is done by congress, and it was congress that gave us the equal rights and civil rights bill that became law. Some of the deserved
Impeachment grounds: Ignoring the Constitution, the courts, the congress, the people and basic human rights, law violating firings of federal workers and by de-funding unilaterally what congress has already authorized in spending for programs causing people to die that needed life giving support that has been withheld. We need all of congress, Democrats, Independents and Republicans that love our country, liberty and our way of life to step up today. Making America Great is standing up to this tyranny.
Thanks to McConnell, Trump was twice impeached but not kicked out of office. Impeachment is only useful if it terminates the rot. McConnell’s self-interest should be front and center in the future history books of this appalling right-wing coup.
No, it is not an over reaction. Remember musk’s Nazi salutes at the inauguration? I did not watch the inauguration, but I saw the video of musk making the Nazi salute. The entire way trump has gotten into the White House has followed Hitler’s path. Stir up hate against people unlike the majority and blame them for the majority’s problems. Make promises that you have no intention of keeping.
Yes. Recovering one's sight is not limited to the Bible. Awakening to the realization that the blind zeal was in fact blind and even willful ignorance, and becoming awake can be both humbling and empowering. A cult does have hypnotized acolytes, and while some of them are fully aware of their actions, others are having their shell of indoctrination start to crack. Those are the ones who have the ability to see what is going on.
Compromise is now impossible. Sane Americans know you can’t compromise with a fascist movement. There is no middle ground between fascism and anything. I’m not saying you’re suggesting it, but trying to compromise with a fascist movement is exactly the kind of normalization this essay is about.
About 13 years ago, the Republican party redefined, for them, the word "compromise" to mean "you give us what we want." Compromise has been nearly impossible since
I think your right, that said they are all spineless against the tribe, it's crazy. People that you know that you also know have in general decent judgment, that said will bend the knee to MAGA every time, shameless. Can never stand against MAGA – it’s a CULT.
I agree. Yesterday, Trump derailed a Senate budget strategy aimed at averting a government shutdown on 14 March. Instead, he approved a bill tabled by House Republicans that would add $4.5 trillion to the deficit and cut spending by $2 trillion. The bill envisages cuts of $800m in Medicaid. Trump told Fox News that neither Medicaid or Medicare would be cut. "We won't need to", he told Sean Hannity. Either he's lying or he's unaware of what's in the bill. Anyway, Steve Bannon in his War Room podcast warned "Lots of MAGAs on Medicaid". It's an iron rule of populism that you have continue to be popular. Trump might take warning from what's happened to Javier Milei, president of Argentina and a Trump fanboy. He eagerly promoted a memecoin that collapsed spectacularly triggering lawsuits and calls for his impeachment for his involvement in the scam. Former president Christina Kirchner called him a "cryptocurrency fraudster". He claims he's received no benefit from the cryptocurrency.
What a bunch of weird misfit types in this administration. They give me the creeps. e.g. Walz speaking on whether fired employees were fired on the basis of their performance. Kash Patel, wild eyed Patel, looks like he's looking for a knive fight to get involved with.
The only thing I can think of even slightly positive is IF the GOP in Congress, and it would be in the Senate, should flip on Trump, it will be sudden and fairly broad.
I agree. Walz explaining Trump's frustration that Zelensky hadn't "come to the table" when he was excluded from the talks in Saudi Arabia was ridiculous. He tried to bully Zelensky into signing away $500bn of his country's natural resources, including oil and gas. It's absolutely scandalous that the Americans should be browbeating the Ukrainians about this when thousands of them have died valiantly fighting the Russians and thus sparing the lives of American troops, as some Republican senators have previously pointed out, although not lately!
And many MAGAts still deny it is happening. Only a few farmers are losing their farms or going bankrupt as a result of the closure of USAID. Only a few MAGA federal employees have lost their jobs, and the economic ravages of the firings have not yet percolated through local then state economies. They must first admit that they have been lied to, later they can see their own complicity in that lie.
The slanderous nature of the complicity of the GOP Congress is as disgusting as any other action, but the abandonment of all virtues and principles in the face of this authoritarian power grab is mind boggling in its betrayal of the oath of office that is primarily to protect and respect the Constitution. Infamy and treason on display.
Yup. That's exactly what I see him orchestrating (wait ... that's too big and too good a word to use for the orange fuck) creating and rubbing his gross little hands together for. Marshall law so he can abuse every one of us.
100 million firearms will keep that from happening. That is why Hitler confiscated all the privately owned guns first. Trump used to be a Democrat and if he had run and won in that party, guns would be being collected as we post but Republicans will draw the line there.
Edward, good point on firearms. If the country wakes up to the nightmare it has created by putting this wannabe dictator in power, any uprising of the population has the potential to be very bloody. The power of the NRA and Republicans have allowed many Americans to have military grade firearms. Let’s hope we don’t have to witness this type of event.
On April 19th, 1775, protesters were met by redcoats that opened fire on the protesters. Later that day the protesters returned armed and ready for a fight. "The Shot hear around the world" was fired that day at Lexington-Concord. The red color in our American Flag represents the blood sacrifice of patriots who were willing to take their limited freedom to the next level called Liberty. Maintaining our Liberty in our Republic was built into our constitution that has evolved with Amendments to be all inclusive over time. Women's rights to vote, Birthright citizenship and other privileges to assemble and voice grievances against government, employers, wrongful wars or hate groups has also been bloody including the Kent State shootings of students. The students did not shoot first, but those shots were also heard around the world. This April 19th, 2025, we will start with the peaceful protests and asking congress to reign in Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Where it goes from there will depend on Congress listening to the people or acting like King George in 1775 and sending in more troops.
He was never "a Democrat," he just bought and sold them. Roy Cohn was no Democrat either, and DJT was an early and primary client of the criminal op "Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, counsel to dictators." They were remnants of the '76 Gerald Ford campaign.
"Sadist" is too kind of a word (most sadists I know at least seek consent first). Call them what they are: abusers. Because abusers never seek consent first
They are the Pro-Apartheid Neoliberal Fascist Party. I called a few Senators and asked if we are calling each other comrades now. The MSM are ass kissing cigarette holders for the regime. News is a clickbait business. Integrity doesn't apply. No, we can't have that. They are owned by oligarchs that protect their white privilege wealth.
William F Buckley Jr and the John Birch Socieity to which he was sympathetic are the grandparents of MAGA. The only difference is that of extremis, and that only because they lacked the power that organized money has bestowed on the ideology.
Conservatism is kind of like a back woods evangelical church, tottering along, slowly building up membership, then one day it is discovered by very rich people, that dump untold dollars on it, and watch it grow into a megachurch, which they of course control.
Hi. William. You are so right about Buckley and the JB Society being the grandparents of MAGA. Had never thought of it that way. Thanks for that perspective.
And some "much too little known" backstory on that:
"Ironically, the litigation unleashed by anti-free-market monopolists at home prompted Koch to look eastward, to the rising communist sphere of influence, for new contracts. From 1929 to 1932, Koch built 15 cracking units in the Soviet Union, and many others elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He also brought Soviet technicians to the United States for training – some of whom opted not to return to their Stalinist motherland."
Very true but Kamala Harris and the other non-republican candidates combined received more total votes then did the republican Donald Trump. More people voted against his party and his becoming president than voted for him. It was NOT a landslide for but a "Squeaked In" Election. Give him enough rope and he will hang himself with an impeachment by congress and crossing certain lines that could destroy the GOP future will gain enough votes to impeach in both houses. Remember the Vice president and speaker of the house, both republican, are in suggestion and the Republicans' retaining control does not depend on Donald Trump staying in office.
"There was a business offensive against FDR's New Deal policies. Things were on hold during the Second World War, but immediately afterward, the business offensive began in force. The Taft-Hartley Act and McCarthyism, for instance, were followed by massive corporate propaganda offensives, offensives to attack unions, to take over and control the educational system, sports leagues, infiltrate churches, everything, it was just massive. There's a lot of good scholarship on this.
Going along with this was getting people to have a more ambivalent attitude toward government. On the one hand, people must be induced to hate and fear government, the potential instrument of popular will, while private corporations are left unaccountable, yielding a form of tyranny, the more they have power and the less government has power, the better from the viewpoint of the rich and powerful. So on the one hand, people have to be induced to hate government, while on the other hand, they have to support government because private business relies extensively on state support, all the way from high technology economy to bailouts, to international force, and so on, a vast spectrum." --- Noam Chomsky-MIT-University of Arizona-Requiem For The American Dream
Yep, the power of propaganda. Makes the world go round. You can't browse the internet, you can't read Raw Story,or visit any website, much less turn on the TV without being bombarded with propaganda.
I have an equation. Advertising is used to sell unsought goods,things that you don't need or even harmful. The more ads I see for a product, the greater the distance to keep from that product.
Ozempic was sold to lower your blood glucose, but they discovered, in a few cases, that people also lose weight.
Now people who monitor what and how much they eat also lose weight, There is diabetic weight, for those that are insulin resistant. it is carried high in the abdomen, and differs from gluttony fat.
Anyway all drugs have a deleterious effect on the liver and endocrine system, you take a drug for one problem,only to create another, and probably shorten your life, there are efficacious drugs for sure. Like Keytruda for some types of cancer,provided one possesses a certain gene.
I've been saying this for years with the addition of "extremists." Right wing extremists are, and have been, working to destroy our way of life starting with Reagan.
But the Southern Strategy, which was the direct predecessor to Project 2025, had already been established and was working for about 20 years by 1980. Jesus was already being replaced in southern churches with hate speech against Black Americans:
Exactly. I've been saying that for the last few years. Those who are relatively historically literate could see this coming. But too many said that "we were overreacting."
That is a powerful judge speaking powerfully, and the replies she gets are
pretty bad. She makes her point, he denies seeing a problem. Well, this link showed up in a substack recently and seems very informative and quite historical as well - ties in to the above link:
Calling them cults would be more appropriate. The GOP will never be fixed as long as the felon is sitting in the Oval Office with his golden frame mug shot as if to saying to America "in your face."
But they are conservatives because they oppose the fundamental liberal values of inherent rights, equality under the law, equal opportunity, and consent to and participation in governance. Conservatives cannot exist in liberal societies because of their nature that compels them to destroy them. conservatives are the internal enemy and should be treated as such.
The definition of "conserve" is generally about "leaving unchanged", rather than the (apparently) new and improved "FRUK EVERYTHING UP!!"
I think we need a new name...
"Destructionaters"?
"IN TODAY'S NEWS - The destructionators decided that every "born big hulkin' child" (formerly known as "newborn infants") must exit the womb with the blessing TRUMP tattooed across their forehead, both forward and backward (for mirrors.) When asked how this was to be accomplished, the dumbest looking destructionator simply farted."
But two of my most significant memories happened more than 60 years ago:
1) Standing in line with my family to see President Kennedy lie in state, and
2) Seeing "legal racism" (southern segregation) for what it actually was for the first time, and despite being white, feeling scarred by the experience.
Kyle, you may be right that I may not know "normal", but I am goddamn SICK of "abnormal".
So weird how the WSJ editorial page is now just about the BEST Trump-takedown around, and on an almost daily basis! (Of course, the editorial page has always been kept VERY separate from the "reporting" side.)
There are important differences that should not be overlooked even as this crisis deepens. After the Reichstag Fire Decree, the Enabling Act of 1933 amended the Weimar Constitution to allow Hitler and his government to enact laws (even laws violating the constitution) without going through the Reichstag. Nazi intimidation of the opposition resulted in a vote of 444 to 94. Trump cannot realistically hope to get enough votes in Congress to change the US Constitution. That's why he has pursued a strategy of sweeping and arbitrary executive actions that he hopes will eventually be adjudicated in his favour in the Supreme Court. On Tuesday he signed an executive order stating that only the “President and the Attorney General shall provide authoritative interpretations of the law for the executive branch.” The order covers all federal employees and agencies, including independent agencies operating under the executive branch of the US government. This is a clear hint to the Supremes of what he wants them to do.
I strongly disagree. To make a distinction between MAGA/Republicans/conservatives is to somehow let the others off the hook for what MAGA is doing when Republicans and conservatives have been fully complicit for a decade now. Hanging back clutching your pears while someone else gets their hands dirty doing the things you want to see done is no profile in courage or integrity. Republicans and conservatives sold our nation. Complicity matters. In 1930's Germany, many who were not completely on board with Hitler's program went along anyway. Those folks are still known as Nazi's.
Trump is not calling himself a Conservative. Not that I have heard. But he's collecting them to him. These are people who cannot let go of their partisanship regardless even when the ground on which they stand has erupted.
Potter -No, T is not calling himself a conservative - he just called himself a king. He claims that he wants states to have the power to make decisions for themselves but he just told New York what to do while declaring himself king. If it’s not a red state then he gets to decides apparently. Not sure what is going to be the line in the sand for the republicans. Let alone the people for this bs/madness to stop.
Exactly! Was going to comment on that same thing, but then saw you beat me to it. There is no line in the sand since Republicans blew that up when the got behind tRump. They are traitors as much as tRump!
Kyle - He released the guy who created the Silk Road just to appease the Libertarians who voted for him. The pain and destruction that he caused with his black market site should have kept him in prison. Same with the J6 prisoners. T can’t make up his mind if musk is a special government employee who heads doge or not. If musk doesn’t run doge then why is he allowed to destroy our systems and fire people? If he is not in charge then he is just a guy who walked in off the street and gained illegal access to our government and should be put in prison.
Democrats also have the Independents included with them and would like to work in a bipartisan way but republicans have lost their way.
That’s just my opinion and others are free to have their own opinion.
I think what we MAY (emphasis mine, obviously) start to see soon is DonElo going after blue state surpluses.
Red states rarely have surpluses, and blue states rarely don't. I think it will bother Eloald greatly that blue states have a buffer against running low (i.e.-being robbed by the WH) that almost NO red state has. (Hmm. Really upsetting how "Donald" and "Elon" combinations look distressingly like LotR names.)
But what may be most interesting is the data on IRS collections this year. There were already MANY American millionaires that haven't bothered to even file their federal taxes for years, and now I can't imagine anyone MAGA even bothering to consider filing, unless they expect a refund. (Which they may not get, there being no money, and none incoming.) And why should the super-rich ever pay again, since anything they might have once owed would now be coming back to them...likely many times over. (Once the billionaire new tax gift goes through.)
Let's see how T-cultists feel when it's overwhelmingly obvious that:
1) THEY are paying for the "Billionaire Tax Cut".
2) THEY are paying the majority of the "Tariff Tax".
3) Trump is ONLY taking...even from WHITE MEN!
4) Trump would throw any one of them over a puddle so that Putin would not get his shoes muddy when he is in America seeing if Biltmore Estate will be suitable for his new American summer home:
- I hope they will come to realize the destruction soon. T has been so obvious from the beginning. I read an interesting article (Tom Hartman I think but could be wrong) about how T’s wife was basically a Russian plant. Putin has owned him since the beginning.
Nothing like firing the people who are responsible for keeping these people/departments from doing illegal things. They fire people without knowing what they are doing in their job/department. Sure, tax season is the best time to reduce the staff. This way there’s no one left to catch the corruption.
It breaks my heart that we are going to be complicit in helping to destroy what is left of Ukraine and the people there. If we were the ones who were attacked do you really think that we would just give up our land to the aggressors? Why would he expect Ukraine to do that? He is trying to change the narrative again to make people believe that it is all Ukraine’s fault. Just like Covid - people should not have had to die for the amusement of a wannabe dictator/king.
I really can't imagine what more could have been done by any of those of us who had an accurate appraisal of what was surely coming. To have worked any harder, and been more disappointed and crushed would have only made things at this stage feel more hopeless. And we are left with enough strength to keep on, if only for a bit. (And then another bit, and another, and...)
I tremble to think of the price Ukraine will pay for having perhaps the most truly honest leader on the planet, but that won't matter much, since I suspect Zelenskyy would never have said such things if he felt even the slightest chance of hope through any alternative strategy. He knew the game had ended before he opened his mouth, and he felt the need to at least protect the pride Ukrainians feel for themselves, and their home, by being the ONLY leader on Earth willing to "see the Emperor's nakedness".
I talk about tax revenue like it actually matters. It doesn't. The goal isn't to save money (perhaps not even to eventually channel it to billionaires), but for the world to see American cities burning.
If we don't have a constant stream of terrorist attacks from this point, I suspect it's only because Putin has essentially told his Taliban fighters, "No need to bother. Take the family to the beach."
Yeah, beautiful cheery day, Anon. Even a tiny bit snowy, here in the Deep South.
foofaraw - I would really like to have a Zelenskyy here right now. Someone who has stayed to fight with his whole country. T would flee very quickly if the fight ever came here. I am afraid that it will happen while the administration continues to concentrate on dismantling our government and destroying our democracy. If/when an attack happens the maga crowd will soon see that we were never their true boogeyman. We will be shoulder to shoulder fighting alongside each other and our religion, sexuality, gender or color will not matter. Shame that it takes a disaster to bring all of us together and how quickly we forget afterwards.
You are right about how the other countries are just sitting back while witnessing/waiting for our demise from self inflicted wounds. The rich are also waiting because then they can buy up everything on the cheap.
Keep your strength up. Wishing you some warmth in the south from the icy and snowy north. I grew up in the south and still can’t believe what climate change has done to my old stomping grounds.
I predicted the collapse of the IRS a full month ago. I realized that with Trump and Musk hollowing out the federal government, people would figure out that there was really no reason to pay taxes because no one was checking. And the timing is perfect. "Tax season" is when people think about it. The courts are being destroyed with a "flood-the-zone" tsunami of cases being filed about everything.
It's just one of the ways that government is crashing and burning. It's easy to see that it's happening. My crystal ball fogs up when I try to imagine what it will look like after it happens. The 'Great Depression' will look like a bump in the road in comparison. Maybe Canada and Mexico will just divide the wreck of the US between them. Maybe a mob will hang Trump and Musk upside down in a gas station. (Historical reference for anyone who reads history.)
We can only hope that MAYBE a handful of cultists will see this as the disconnect it truly is, rather than simply see their lives as having no more meaning than as "MAGA fodder", destined to be taken down the first instant it's convenient.
After all, there seems little doubt that Trump's Covid lies had more to do with abandoning the Pandemic Plan left in place by Obama's administration than anything else. (Losing hundreds of thousands of voters/donors/supplicants seems more to us like "one dimensional tic-tac-toe" than anything approximating "logic" or "reason"...or "sanity". But Trump's hatred for ANY person of color who is SO demonstrably smarter and more capable than he, overrides almost anything else in the "Gulf of Trump" that lies between his ears.
I'm curious to see how Trump reacts when someone (likely from AP) points out that, had he not MURDERED that many of his own "donkey-kissers" he'd have been almost certain of winning in 2024 with an REAL MAJORITY, rather than a "sharpie majority".
Everyone I know that's vaccinated for Covid gets sick multiple times a year now.
I haven't been sick since 2021 with strep throat, and I haven't had the Covid Vaccine.
If anything, Democrats killed more people thinking they couldn't transmit covid with the Vaccine, transmitting the virus to many people. Joe Biden told you that you couldn't transmit the virus, so I don't blame you on a personal level.
Precious few I bet know he called himself a king. Trump knows how to *pull our chain* and this works. He also is confident and knows he has channels of supporters. Being a king and wanting the states to have power does not go together, Anon. We cannot sit and wait for Republicans to draw a line in the sand.
We have to take responsibility for letting this "madness" come to this over the years by being complacent or not voting or complaining about "the price of gas and eggs".
You're right, Trump isn't a Conservative. However, he has attracted the Conservatives, Libertarians, and Middle of the road Americans. Why do you think that is?
Trump supporters in my opinion are anti-partisan. It seems the left is the only party pushing for and holding onto partisanship.
Kyle - Foreign interference helped him a lot. T also lied a lot. Musk did something to the election in Pennsylvania according to T. I do not care for liars and who see people as pawns. I am very much against people who demonize others just to get ahead. I also don’t wish to see people lose the rights they have fought so hard for. How’s the price of groceries going?
I vote for the person who is actually going to do what they said that they would do if elected. If they are right for the job and have the skills. No party is perfect. I have elected republicans, democrats and independents. I don’t care about their race, gender or religion but I do care about their ability to do their job and make this a better place for Everyone.
I am married to a Republican and we get along just fine. I married them for their heart, integrity and intelligence not for their politics.
Kyle - Have to disagree. Musk Bought votes - and still has not paid most of them as he promised. T said out loud that musk rigged the election in Pennsylvania during one of his speeches.
There are a lot of people who would disagree with your assessment that no rights are being lost. Eggs are going to continue to go up because they just fired a bunch of people who were studying the bird flu and the ones left have had their funding either frozen or stripped. Grocery prices have not gone down as he promised during his campaign. These things add up and are devastating a lot of Americans and their families.
It is easy to keep campaign promises if you have a trifecta and the lawmakers are too afraid of doing their jobs or don’t have a conscience. I just wonder what you will be thinking about when you are also affected by the current slash and burn stampede. Maybe you won’t be affected but others will be - possibly your friends and family. Hope not but this administration is currently showing that they don’t care who gets hurt.
Rights being lost isn't a discussion to agree or disagree, it's a factual statement that should easily be proven to be True or False.
Researching Bird Flu would not solve the current Egg Shortage.
Many prices have come down, you are choosing to focus only on the things that have gone up. Also, Trump is setting up for increased US Energy Production, which will lower all costs associated with transportation.
The only thing that will be affected by removing government waste, is my Child's future no longer being strangled by unmanageable National Debt.
If these cuts do not happen, our Children will accumulate debt that will be impossible to ever pay off.
Trump is a useful idiot, and easily used and manipulated, but he gets his power from his base.
There is something about a power base that liberals seem not to understand.
When a coherent and ideological organized and united peoples, reach 17% of the population, then the population's ideology, self imagine, beliefs start to change, and the minority grabs power.Even less than that if truly organized and dedicated.
The National Socialist German Workers Party only netted 2% in Votes, and 4% in the 1932 election.But they were organized of a single mind, unlike the American left which is disorganized with so many competing groups clamoring for attention and resources.
While the left was split by BLM, antif, pro HAMAS, immigration etc. The right wing was united under one banner, the culture war. Regardless of the issue they were united in owning the lib, anti woke, anti DEIA, subtlely racist, anti immigrants.
The more liberals pushed for what MAGAts call the woke agenda, political correctness, the more solidified and reactionary they became until they found their avatar in the form of a fraud that ripped them off, but promised them Nirvana.
The same Nirvana Hitler promised the Germans.
Liberals had a chance to elect a real, not a phony, populist, name of Bernie Sanders, but they were easily divided along the lines of race. Sanders who had a real civil rights track record, having marched, was besmirched by the establishment which ignored or demeaned his track record and elevated the faux record of Hillary Clinton in S.C. and the south.
The constituency, the forces, that control the Democratic primary, are the very forces that cost them the general, and the Democrats never learn.
Einstein said: It is insane to do the same thing over and over expecting different results each time.
By the way the same is true of the Arabs vs Israel, 1948, 1956,1967, 1973, 2006, 2023
You make an interesting point about Dems, but one I'm not sure our Trumpy "friends" always agree with.
I was talking to a Trumpy, but friendly guy at the local recycle center (which frighteningly enough, does NOT have cameras), and he said something interesting. It was about the time of the "Early GOP Speakership Wars", and he said something to the tune of, "I'll give the Democrats credit, they sure do stick together."
The more I thought about it, the more I disagreed. We don't "stick together" so much as we have TWO GUIDING PRINCIPLES, and without them I'm not certain how a Democrat might even be defined:
JUSTICE and EQUALITY
Every Democrat I know of values justice and equality above just about anything and everything else, at least as shared values go (Love and family likely still come first on a personal level.) And in fact, those are the principles of the very church these hypocritic cultists claim to value. And until 1980 (or 1960, if the Southern Strategy is our new Year Zero), that was enough.
I think that perhaps the problem we face is of reminding people that we ALL surely share these principles of brotherhood. (In fact, the guy at the Recycle Center had no trouble admitting that Trump is about as far away from "justice and equality" as humanly(?) possible.) But you get more than about 3 of them in one place, and they form some sort of a "vector of hate and ignorance", and all bets for a positive outcome are off the table,
Generally, if I present a problem I try to offer a solution.
At the moment...got nuthin'. But I'm very open to suggestion.
I don't know if you saw any of the SNL 50th Anniversary Show. The Black Jeopardy bit included Tom Hanks as a MAGA, who it turns out, had a GREAT DEAL in common with the Black guests.
And that was clearly the point: these two groups of Americans are very similar in many ways. But, of course, all that MAGAWorld was able to fixate on was how Hanks made them look stupid/genuine and authentic.
Worth watching, if you haven't seen it.
"MAGA Social Media Users Are Mad That Tom Hanks Made Fun Of Them On ‘SNL’ "
William - Agree - but sometimes I also wonder how much outside influence was there to push Clinton on us because Bernie most likely would have won the presidency.
Wrong. The problem is "inside baseball", the Democratic Party.
First they are heavily dependent upon donor cash, it started with Bill clinton, Rahm Emanuel and James Carville
However the culture within the DNC is to move up and promote loyalists, who have patiently bade their time, accumulated what the DNC thinks are the important qualifications for the job.
Hillary Clinton had presidential intentions but in our misogynistic society she had no chance,, but being the wife of an ex president she had a headlock in the DNC on a nomination. She ran in the primary against Obama and lost. However, probably because of Bill's influence. she got bumped up the list.
The values within the DNC at the time, was an emphasis on foreign service, probably because of donor support from international financial institutions and the then all important Council on Foreign Relations.
Having failed in her bid against Obama. the DNC interceded and got Obama to appoint her as Secretary of State that she could accumulate the coveted foreign service credentials.
Further evidence that the modus operandi, the culture of the DNC is to pick a race horse from the stable of horses, one that has paid it's dues, accumulated creds (run minor races), is loyal to the donors, reliable and will follow orders, and that describes Terry McAuliffe, whose major achievement was to be head of the DNC.
A creature of the Beltway, hob nobbing with the "real people" and out of touch with the people, and he showed that in his campaign and lost to Youngkin.
Youngkin was insincere, all pols are, but he knew how to pull emotional srings, Terry didn't. Terry said he would listen to the teachers (teachers union big contibutors and voting block) Youngkin said he would listen to the parents (pulled the right emotional chain.
Democratic party likes to present itself as party of the people, but they are far removed from the people, all except people like AOC.
Your comment "The same Nirvana Hitler promised the Germans" was known as Lebensraum, the ideological basis of Nazism. I was contending that there's very little difference between that and the concept of Manifest Destiny that drove Americans to the extirpation of Native American Indians and the bloody war with Mexico in 1812. Trump's covetous attitude towards Canada, Panama, Greenland and Gaza suggets that the frontier spirit is still alive and kicking. By the way, it was a rhetorical aside. I wasn't expecting an essay.
Ideological Basis: Lebensraum was based on racial superiority and the idea of expanding territory for the German "master race." Manifest Destiny, on the other hand, was rooted in the belief of spreading democracy and civilization, with a sense of divine mission.
Methods: Lebensraum involved military aggression, invasion, and genocide. Manifest Destiny primarily involved territorial expansion through treaties, purchases, and wars, though it also led to significant conflicts and displacement of indigenous peoples.
Historical Context: Lebensraum was central to Nazi policies during the 1930s and 1940s, leading to World War II and the Holocaust. Manifest Destiny was prominent in the 19th century, shaping U.S. expansion and the development of the American West.
In summary, while both Lebensraum and Manifest Destiny involved territorial expansion, they were driven by different ideologies and resulted in distinct historical consequences.
Well I guess your "treaties, purchases and wars" were somebody else's "military invasion, aggression and genocide", specifically the Mexicons and Native American Indians. The racism was the same. Hitler admired Madison Grant's 'The Passing of the Great Race' and nazi eugenicists were inspired by American ones. I personally do not see a qualitiative difference between the white supremacy of Jackson and Jefferson and the aryan master race claptrap of the nazis.
Hey, I'm a Trump supporter, and I can't find any arguments to your logic here.
In my opinion, it's also due to Democrats trying to push the Overton window in so many places, too hard and too fast, and people have a natural adverse reaction to that.
Conservatives,even the best of them, can't let go of their pathological reaction to liberalism.
I read the Bulwark daily, and they are a great source of the resistance, but read it long enough and you see the same strain of conservatism that fathered MAGA.
They are Hobbsians, when it comes to business, regulations, restraints, they inner Hayek, Milton Friedman comes out, Even on cultural issues, when it comes to migration race, even LGB, they appear progressive, but draw the line at the T in LGBT.
Those traitors who attacked the Capitol are the ideological. emotional children of George Will, William Buckley, William Kristol.
Libertarian theology grew, and this might be surprising, out of Bolshevik Russia.
Ayn Rand ... Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum was born and raised in Russia
Fred Koch, the father of the Koch brothers, made his fortune building oil wells and refineries for Stalin. He liked Stalin so much that his sons incorporated Art 12, of the 1936 Soviet Consitution into their ideology, "if you don't work, you don't eat" and like the Soviet Union were and are adamant advocates of the 100% gold standard.
Insightful comments. I find that all of the "Libertarians" I know, are really some hybrid quasi-Libertarians of their own concocted ideas. They keep the anti-government ideology until they or their family member needs a service that normally would be forbidden under pure Libertarianism. It is a political ideology that has never really lasted long in any society that I know about. I could be wrong.
You aren't wrong, They are hypcrites like Ayn Rand who deid on Social Security and Medicare.
They often propose to build Libertarian utopias, but these utopians would implode.
Somalia is a prime example of a libertarian utopia, heck Afghanistan is, so is Saudi Arabia, theocracies ruled by religion, not by a constitution or laws of men.
I think we underestimate the commitment that Libertarians have about saving America.
For years, Grover Norquist's claim to fame was that he said he wanted government to be "small enough to drown in a bathtub." Overcoming the macabre imagery, we should instead focus on Mr. Norquist's noble intentions...
Not only to work for free (since a teensy-tiny government clearly has no means of collecting or disbursing taxes), but apparently he expresses a willingness to take the place of ALL law enforcement, ALL educators (and in fact, seems willing to pay for building materials and build the schools with his very own, very drowny hands.)
Likewise, these patriotic libertarians are clearly willing, able and very ready to build our roads, highways, and pretty much any aspect of infrastructure costing no more than about $2.32...$2.01...$1.34...$0.43...
How can we even begin to reach people who would never even think to question such a ridiculous concept? You might ALMOST think some of these idiots might even believe that a baby can be "aborted AFTER birth."
Admittedly a Pain-ful concept for Trump right now!
As a kid of the 60's I was very influenced by writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
Essays such as Emerson's "Self Reliance" and "The Oversoul" did so much to open this curious young mind, as did Walden Pond, and I don't even think I'd be the same person now, had I not been exposed to them, and been curious to read and learn more.
And now Americans no longer even know how to read or write cursive...
You say conservative media. I think all legacy media had a hand in this. It’s why I’ve cancelled my NYT and WaPo subscriptions last year. We need better from them.
As far as State Media, well, they gonna State Media
MSNBC is still reporting actual information about the daily assaults on our institutions by an unelected immigrant with $$$$ and a delusional crook who thinks he can become a dictator for life. Hope the station will be able to continue telling truth to the public. 🙏 💔🇺🇸💔
MSNBC still lies badly. A week or so back they had graphics showing how Israel has swallowed up Palestine since 1947. The next day they retract the segment, saying it was false and the info was inaccurate - without stating or showing what was inaccurate and what was correct. It reeked of AIPAC playing their heavy hand and probably a few advertisers. It was a disgusting display of the gutless style of journalism that monopolistic control of US media has produced.
In my view, he is trying to save his country, & during this time of war, he decided to remain in leadership. FDR did the same during WW2. Calling Z a dictator is another example of tRump using inflammatory language as a smoke screen to hide & disparage what's really going on. IMHO.
It's all male games in the sandbox. Z is not an innocent with his offshore investments, etc. And Ukraine is noted for its corruption; thus, the US delay to allow it as part of NATO. The U.S. resolve to be in this fight is strictly money for defense contractors--nothing more.
No, in Ukraine martial law was declared when Russia invaded and it's in their laws that elections cannot be held when martial law is in force, from what I've read in a couple places.
Sooner than you may think. Control , intimidate, threaten the economic life & attack reputations of “dissenting” journalists etc is step on of shutting down any opposition, after which one bans access to outside critical media & finally you set up internal Propaganda spewers to justify despotic actions.
Just like Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Stalin, Putin… “Name your Dictator”. ,
I saw a tiny sliver of light peep thru on my local news tonight, significant IMO because I live in a midsized city in Texas. They did a nice report on a restaurant in D.C. that trains refugees in the culinary arts, helping them integrate and contribute and earn. Kudos..spread that news!!
Yeah … but The Guardian is still on my shit list after they jumped on the “Dump Joe Biden” bandwagon last summer. I was furious and cancelled my paid subscription.
But weren't they right that he couldn't handle another campaign and probably would have lost. We needed someone better--he should have stepped down long ago.
I Guess they have been threatened.One way to fight back is to boycott products advertised on those networks.It is vey easy,call the advertisers,tell them you plan a nationwide boycott of their products.
The Guardian is firing 100+ journalists according to one writer there, Carole Cadwalladr, who has written essential stories about Brexit and the tampering that led to it. This is from her, two days ago:
“Meanwhile, I’m one of 100+ Guardian journalists whose employment will be terminated next month. On Friday, the organisation signed a deal with OpenAI. If you find my (human!) work of value, I’d be grateful if you shared this and consider upgrading to paid. With enormous thanks to the 50,000 people who have signed up so far. I so appreciate it, Carole”
She has a Substack now, as you can see. It looks quite good.
I am agonizing over getting rid of the NYT. I am planning on cancelling WAPO next month. I even have trepidation about The Atlantic now. Some of their articles lately strike me as complicit.
I ditched WaPo and NYT last year. I'm feeling the same way about the Atlantic. The new issue just came and looking at the titles of the articles, I'm not sure I can bring myself to read them. I'm also worried about Time magazine and recently wrote a letter to the editor, stating my concerns with them At this point in time, I'm depending on The Guardian and a variety of substacks writers for my news.
Pamela, I got rip of WA Po long ago. I too am struggling with NYTIMES. But they are definitely part of the problem. Big part. Maggie Haberman, TRUMP EXPERT, explains him— thereby normalizing him. I started a subscription to THE GUARDIAN, and that should replace NYTimes easily. All I like in the NYTimes are word games! Wish GUARDIAN would add some! We watch Rachel Maddow, and what she is sharing is very frightening.
From a journalist at the Guardian, who is being fired along with another 100 journalists, their contributions will now be replaced by AI written pieces. See Carole Cadwalladr, a very good journalist who will be let go next week.
I know it is. I am determined not to let them drag me down. I am trying to get my footing and trying to get a plan that I can do. Indivisible is organizing protests all over the country.. There was one in my town Monday as across the country. This is Trump country and there were WAY more Democrats out there.
They have an entire network of these sycophants. YouTube, Tik-Tock, and the list continues. Even the Wall Street Journal is owned by Murdock. Without these tenacles, Trump would never have won. Also, without the Project 2025 tenacles, these things would not be happening at such lightening speed.
First thing a despot does is seek control of the Media, through coercion, threat, or collusion with the oligarch who owns particular outlets. The ownership concentration and drive to profits over and above honest critical, news reporting against a background of historical awareness & a wide knowledge of social & economic systems, has led to what the MSM is today.
I still subscribe even though I mainly look at the headlines and read some comments, but when I do read them, the articles seem so tepid, and have such long winded analyses, comparing past and present policies, outlooks, etc. , that I don’t learn very much from reading them.
I agree, mass media needs to be called out on all this stuff. There were mass demonstrations in all fifty states on Monday, with many still happening in places like Los Angeles, yet almost no coverage that I noticed on most media--obscene disgrace.
In that disgusting interview of trumpmuskrat Hannity actually said that muskateer is working for FREE with DOGE.
Free? He has made $200 billion or so since the election and there was a headline I saw today that his various companies have increased their value by over 600 BILLION.
This is the biggest corruption in the history of the world!
There are no ethics in business & thats what Trump & Musk are all about. The accumulation of wealth & power; that’s all that matters like little kids standing on a pile of dumped sand declaring themselves to be “King of the World”!!
I was at the Philadelphia protest Monday at City Hall- only one local news station was there. It was one the 5 o’clock news for 30 seconds. I know the media are either owned/purchased or scared but I just do not understand not having integrity or eyeballs to want to do something.
It’s hard to accept the reality that many Americans find Democracy, or even demonstrably proven facts , too inconvenient to bother with. Who thought autocracy gets established because people are making the real choice between paying the mortgage, or student loans, or even groceries and Democracy? The biggest Myth I bought into was believing Americans “would rise up”. There are many of us disgusted and doing what we can to fight against this. But the first, best thing we can do is see the situation clearly. The Planter-Class / sure-it’s-okay-to-own-people crowd have always been here. They gamed us for the moment. Many Americans really don’t care. Many other Americans long for things to “go-back-to-normal” meaning: “Do I really have to actually DO something to have Democracy?” And Many other Americans simply hate conflict and check out to save what’s left of their sanity. The upshot is that WE are all we got. Let’s turn it into a “Loaves and Fishes” moment. Do what we can in our spheres of influence and have faith it will produce other loaves and fishes. Let’s Roll.
There are no "actual news media here," just as in most places in the country these days I imagine, just 'corporate propaganda outfits like Nexstar & News-Nation.'
apparently the Dem AGs in their haste did not give the judge what she needed to shut DOGE down.
I find it hard to believe that laws to protect confidentiality of much of the data being accessed can't be invoked to stop this madness, but I guess we will find out. Trump seems to be always one step ahead of the law.
Absolutely, Wayne. 30,000 turned out in Berlin to protest against the right wing, and it got international attention, except here. The national protests here should have been front page in every newspaper in America.
Yeah, Berlin could burn down and it would hardly get mentioned in American papers because we are so insular. But you are right European politics not a biggie in MSM.
Yes, and there should have been photos of marchers in many cities to give the reporting the visual effect. And not just an article, like in the NYTimes.
A friend of mine told me about 138 firings at Bonneville energy last last week and it’s tearing all their hearts out. This kind of cruelty will be their undoing.
Hang in there, Steve! I hate every single time I go online I have to see his orange putrid face before I can get to where I'm going! He disgust me to no end; however, I will continue to call out his lies, his corruption and his just plain evilness because not doing so means he gets away with it. We must push back every single time even though we are sick to death of him!
Republicans, of course, want it both ways. Senators from Alaska, Idaho, Louisiana, and several other states have all called for exceptions to cuts. They all want to reduce the size and scope of the federal government but not in their state! Jeebus forbid they have to tell their universities and hospitals, highway departments and research facilities that they can no longer bring home the bacon. Cuts for thee but not for me.
So the choice should be obvious if you’re a House Republican, whose district is getting hammered by all these cuts. Stay the course and you’ll never be reelected.
Find your spine, start the impeachment, and you’ll be a hero for the history books.
Americans should be able to file a class action lawsuit against Trump and all his thugs. It should include his first term also, when he let so many of our fellow Americans die from Covid+, due to his negligence.
I've already commented on this, but I'll do it again. Yesterday, February 18, Trump signed an executive order called "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies". It is starting to get more attention but it needs to be the focus of a lot more. One thing that needs to be emphasized, and you mention in your post. These independent regulatory agencies, like the Federal Elections Commission, are not part of executive functions. They were set up by Congress under legislation establishing their mandate under Congressional, not Executive, oversight. They were specifically designed to control executive overreach.
Trump's latest executive order establishes what many conservatives call a total unified Executive as meaning the authority of the President. This is blatantly unconstitutional.
All federal agencies now come under the supervision and overall jurisdiction of the White House with the exception of the Federal Reserve in its application of monetary policy (it's primary role as a central bank) but not in relation to oversight of financial institutions. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shall provide guidance and supervision to all regulatory agencies in how they function. All report to the President.
"Moreover, all executive departments and agencies, including so-called independent agencies, shall submit for review all proposed and final significant regulatory actions to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Executive Office of the President before publication in the Federal Register." This includes the Federal Elections Commission, specifically mentioned in this EO.
"The Director of OMB shall, on an ongoing basis review independent regulatory agencies’ obligations for consistency with the President’s policies and priorities." It also looks like the Director of the OMB, under the authority of the President, can "apportion" appropriations for any agency according to whether their performance is consistent with the President's policies and priorities. This includes withholding funds for specific projects. This is impoundment, and is illegal and unconstitutional.
Finally, "The President and the Attorney General, subject to the President’s supervision and control, shall provide authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch. The President and the Attorney General’s opinions on questions of law are controlling on all employees in the conduct of their official duties. No employee of the executive branch acting in their official capacity may advance an interpretation of the law as the position of the United States that contravenes the President or the Attorney General’s opinion on a matter of law, including but not limited to the issuance of regulations, guidance, and positions advanced in litigation, unless authorized to do so by the President or in writing by the Attorney General." This overrides tge judicial review of the courts.
It's put in the legalistic language of the Constitution, but the meaning of this Executive Order is clear. Trump has just declared himself to be a dictator. Congressional and judicial oversight of executive action is (purportedly) abolished by this Order.
The dictatorship is formalized. The coup is almost complete. The "Constitution" as a structure for the nation that was known as the United States of America no longer applies. It remains as a historical document that is advisory as it stands. It also has some uses as a reference in foreign policy and other areas.
Now the entity that calls itself the "United States of America" is free to legislate and enforce rules and laws as well as conduct foreign relations as it chooses and is able, inasmuch as it will need some recognition as an actual nation by others. But some nations in our world have found it useful to negotiate directly with powerful gangs who are not yet recognized as "nations".
Look for new methods of taking control of some state governments that seem to show some opposition to the new monarch and future changes in the membership of the Congress and federal judiciary aa well as military assets consistent with the international promotion of the new "nation".
Thank you for sharing this highly disturbing development. Hasn’t this entire #TrumpMuskProject2025Cabal stepped into the realm of seditious conspiracy by now?
Agent orange hasn't had an original idea in his life. What he sees on fox or is told by musk . putin , miller or other traitors spins in his brain for 2 minutes before it comes out his mouth. Sorry excuse for a human let alone a president.
I think injecting bleach to kill Covid was pretty original. He's the only person in the world who could have thought that one up. Well, I have to think about that one as there's always RFK.....
Well if the “ remedy” killed the affected body, then I guess that killed the Covid virus inhabiting therein too.
So…. It’s obvious that if you let anybody infected by Covid just die than the epidemic would soon be over. Tough about those who survive & left damaged. Trump has the IQ of a 5 YO. & a well established propensity to turn a challenge 180 Degrees & blame the Victim; as he just has The Ukraine. It’s that country’s fault, continuing to defend itself against a Border Invader, that the war there hasn’t “ stopped already”. 🤮
tRump has enabled corruption, he has been corrupt from the start, now he is trying to fix it so his supporters like Musk can get in on it. As of now Musk can access his competitors financials. With that information, he and his friends can engage in insider trading, and tRumps justice department will not investigate. There will be no criminal investigations until he and most of the Republicans are out of office. Start now with recall petitions, and join with others to vote them out in 2026. There is no time to waste.
There is absolutely NOTHING NORMAL about this orange man! The republicans can try all they want but he will go down in history as the 'so-called' president that instigated an insurrection against our country. He will go down in history as the most prolific liars ever to set foot in the White House and that is saying something because 'truth be told' presidents do tell stories, that is a fact. He will go down in history as trying to dismantle our Democracy. These republicans honestly think they are going to white-wash this? They are sadly mistaken. We will remember and we will never forget! Our kids will know exactly the kind of disreputable human being he was.
With this bird flu, he's going to destroy the great American holiday of Thanksgiving. Faux non'news will tell us to be thankful for mashed potatoes with a side of borscht.
I'm more worried about muskrat than frump. The musk is young and superrich and seems willing to stop at nothing to boost his own sick ego; he is such a sick man and the damage he is doing is off the charts.
I think we need to stop calling them conservatives. They are the radical right. Nothing conservative about them at this point.
Looking at German history in 1933, the nazis dissolved the democratic government and declared a state of emergency and martial law within the first two months. In the following 12 years they nearly destroyed the world. The radical right is following the nazi play book folks.
Laurel, your reference to the Nazi State is apt, with the main factor being for the Media to normalize the Nazi's lies. This essay from Robert is perhaps his best yet, about the right wing twisting the narrative about democratic leadership's effect upon good government.
My Dad was a member of the CCC Corps in the 1930's and clearly it worked to prepare him and millions of other youths for the hard times ahead. This drivel from the drumpf apologists in media is detestable to the extreme. This is the reason that we must support the truth tellers in alternative media like Robert. I do not wish to have heavily armed bands of brownshirts marauding the streets as in the Europe of 1933.
YEP~ agree ; other countries are observing.Plus the next generations deserve democracy intact.Thanks
I used to think I would suffer from brain fog for the rest of my life..."𝐛𝐮𝐭" this changed everything.... https://t.co/TRDM7yXASq
advertising is not welcome here, but then you knew that.
shame on you!
It's a bot ad that shows up in comment sections that aren't behind a paywall; the name is always different, always a woman's name, I think. It's been reported and blocked many times but keeps coming back. Ignore it.
I myself have reported it on various substacks. It's annoying but I agree with you -- just ignore it.
I used to suffer from BRAIN FOG too!
No, wait. That's you, Jenny...
Really disgusting.
I did not click on Jenny's link, since it reads like an ad...and if it is, wondering to see what kind of real-person reply might show up.
One cure for a foggy brain is to detach from any digital device.
Can you summarize or comment a bit for us, instead of just
attempt to "entice"?
was this written by trump?
Can you stop this spam Sunstack? Ikeep bobbing up. The same text from a temporay fake account.
The CCC and the WPA were different but related in the opportunities they
provided and the benefits that resulted from the wide scope of projects
that were undertaken. The stories of both of these should be part of public
schools curriculum, even if as a jr. hi / high school elective. Knowing what was achieved in the face of horrible living conditions helps people understand their
heritage as citizens.
I'll always remember frequent visits to Hungry Mother State Park in Smyth County, VA in my youth, and seeing the actual CCC camp for the workers to live in, still intact.
Yes, all of that should be a treasured aspect of America's history. But who's gonna be the "winner" to write about it? Just not "clicky" enough...
The Chair of the History Department of my uni was a consciencious objector during WWII. So, his alternate service was working for the CCC. That time turned him into a lifelong environmentalist.
He was quite a guy and an authority on the American Revolution. I took several courses from him.
Marla,
I am S-O-O jealous!!
Thank you for sharing.
Here's another visionary that was also a CO:
https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/sounds-tomorrows-world/
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/1997/09/brother-from-another-planet.html
Thank you!
Frankly, with Sun Ra's filmed projects largely under the control of AMAZON, I admit to being surprised (pleasantly, for a change!) when I came across this on HBO (or Max , or...whatever):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072195/?ref_=nm_flmg_job_1_cdt_t_3
He may have belonged to this:
____________
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Resisters_League
____________
My dad took the family to Hungry Mother state park from NYC in the forties. If he had known there was a CCC camp near there he would have been excited. I have always just treasured being one of the cogniscenti who knows that there is a park in this world with the unique name Hungry Mother.
I'm sure Moms for Liberty and No Left Turn will get round to trying to ban any books that refer to it. Just a matter of time. They would have done so already were most of their operatives not so thick.
I like the Georgia law that says that only parents with children in THAT DISTRICT can ask that a book be banned from public availability.
There have been a small fraction of the bannings once radical groups with no true interest are excluded.
" “From the fall of 2021 to the summer of 2022, most of our challenges came from a group called No Left Turn in Education,” says Dean Jackson, a spokesperson for the Coweta County School System. “None of them had kids in our schools, so those challenges were ultimately dropped.” "
https://www.atlantamagazine.com/news-culture-articles/whats-the-state-of-book-bans-in-georgia-schools/
(Not that there aren't other issues, just none that cause the significant number of book bans in many states.)
maybe they have brain fog-then they're qualified to be president
Those who've had their brains removed entirely are, of course, vastly more qualified for this mal-administration.
'Consequences? What kind of word is that?'
I agree. We need conservatives and liberals within our government. The idea is to balance legislation called "compromise". Remember that word? Now we have extremists supported by the master confidence man who is rapidly dissolving our democracy or what is left of it. Watching this happen is a most frightening experience. I too cannot help but see parallels with Germany 1933 and I don't think it's an over reaction.
Actually, Kamala Harris and the other non-republican candidates combined received more total votes then did the republican Donald Trump. More people voted against his party and his becoming president than voted for him. It was NOT a landslide for but a "Squeaked In" Election. Today, all Americans need to step up.
Impeachment of a sitting president is done by congress, and it was congress that gave us the equal rights and civil rights bill that became law. Some of the deserved
Impeachment grounds: Ignoring the Constitution, the courts, the congress, the people and basic human rights, law violating firings of federal workers and by de-funding unilaterally what congress has already authorized in spending for programs causing people to die that needed life giving support that has been withheld. We need all of congress, Democrats, Independents and Republicans that love our country, liberty and our way of life to step up today. Making America Great is standing up to this tyranny.
Thanks to McConnell, Trump was twice impeached but not kicked out of office. Impeachment is only useful if it terminates the rot. McConnell’s self-interest should be front and center in the future history books of this appalling right-wing coup.
No, it is not an over reaction. Remember musk’s Nazi salutes at the inauguration? I did not watch the inauguration, but I saw the video of musk making the Nazi salute. The entire way trump has gotten into the White House has followed Hitler’s path. Stir up hate against people unlike the majority and blame them for the majority’s problems. Make promises that you have no intention of keeping.
When will they wake up and see truth?
"When?"
NEVER.
Those are the hard core MAGAs. I think a few are beginning to realize that they made a big mistake.
Yes. Recovering one's sight is not limited to the Bible. Awakening to the realization that the blind zeal was in fact blind and even willful ignorance, and becoming awake can be both humbling and empowering. A cult does have hypnotized acolytes, and while some of them are fully aware of their actions, others are having their shell of indoctrination start to crack. Those are the ones who have the ability to see what is going on.
Let's hope so...
Of course you didn't watch it but saw a clip and decided your whole reality based off that short clip.
Wake up from the deep sleep Virginia. The far left media has put you into a trance.
I do not watch, listen to, or read any far left media. I get my news from Substack. I get the truth.
Actually 'consensus' is what is needed across the board! Look at both sides of an argument; then, find the balance for the common good.
Compromise is now impossible. Sane Americans know you can’t compromise with a fascist movement. There is no middle ground between fascism and anything. I’m not saying you’re suggesting it, but trying to compromise with a fascist movement is exactly the kind of normalization this essay is about.
That was the way it worked until trump and his MAGA Party came into power. He does not believe in compromise. We say that the first time around.
About 13 years ago, the Republican party redefined, for them, the word "compromise" to mean "you give us what we want." Compromise has been nearly impossible since
It used to be consensus that ruled; then, sadly morphed into compromise--not a good alternative open to high crimes and misdemeanors!
The P.O.S. will create a national crisis and then declare a state of emergency to quell the torch and pitchfork crowd with his MAGAt army.
Even MAGA did not expect this tyranny against our workers and fellow Americans.
I think your right, that said they are all spineless against the tribe, it's crazy. People that you know that you also know have in general decent judgment, that said will bend the knee to MAGA every time, shameless. Can never stand against MAGA – it’s a CULT.
I agree. Yesterday, Trump derailed a Senate budget strategy aimed at averting a government shutdown on 14 March. Instead, he approved a bill tabled by House Republicans that would add $4.5 trillion to the deficit and cut spending by $2 trillion. The bill envisages cuts of $800m in Medicaid. Trump told Fox News that neither Medicaid or Medicare would be cut. "We won't need to", he told Sean Hannity. Either he's lying or he's unaware of what's in the bill. Anyway, Steve Bannon in his War Room podcast warned "Lots of MAGAs on Medicaid". It's an iron rule of populism that you have continue to be popular. Trump might take warning from what's happened to Javier Milei, president of Argentina and a Trump fanboy. He eagerly promoted a memecoin that collapsed spectacularly triggering lawsuits and calls for his impeachment for his involvement in the scam. Former president Christina Kirchner called him a "cryptocurrency fraudster". He claims he's received no benefit from the cryptocurrency.
What a bunch of weird misfit types in this administration. They give me the creeps. e.g. Walz speaking on whether fired employees were fired on the basis of their performance. Kash Patel, wild eyed Patel, looks like he's looking for a knive fight to get involved with.
The only thing I can think of even slightly positive is IF the GOP in Congress, and it would be in the Senate, should flip on Trump, it will be sudden and fairly broad.
I agree. Walz explaining Trump's frustration that Zelensky hadn't "come to the table" when he was excluded from the talks in Saudi Arabia was ridiculous. He tried to bully Zelensky into signing away $500bn of his country's natural resources, including oil and gas. It's absolutely scandalous that the Americans should be browbeating the Ukrainians about this when thousands of them have died valiantly fighting the Russians and thus sparing the lives of American troops, as some Republican senators have previously pointed out, although not lately!
MAGA Sucks harder than a BLACK HOLE which even collapses gravit, such quality folk!
But woe betide anyone who tries to take away their state benefits!
And many MAGAts still deny it is happening. Only a few farmers are losing their farms or going bankrupt as a result of the closure of USAID. Only a few MAGA federal employees have lost their jobs, and the economic ravages of the firings have not yet percolated through local then state economies. They must first admit that they have been lied to, later they can see their own complicity in that lie.
The slanderous nature of the complicity of the GOP Congress is as disgusting as any other action, but the abandonment of all virtues and principles in the face of this authoritarian power grab is mind boggling in its betrayal of the oath of office that is primarily to protect and respect the Constitution. Infamy and treason on display.
Yup. That's exactly what I see him orchestrating (wait ... that's too big and too good a word to use for the orange fuck) creating and rubbing his gross little hands together for. Marshall law so he can abuse every one of us.
100 million firearms will keep that from happening. That is why Hitler confiscated all the privately owned guns first. Trump used to be a Democrat and if he had run and won in that party, guns would be being collected as we post but Republicans will draw the line there.
That is the ONLY thing for which they would draw the line.
Edward, good point on firearms. If the country wakes up to the nightmare it has created by putting this wannabe dictator in power, any uprising of the population has the potential to be very bloody. The power of the NRA and Republicans have allowed many Americans to have military grade firearms. Let’s hope we don’t have to witness this type of event.
On April 19th, 1775, protesters were met by redcoats that opened fire on the protesters. Later that day the protesters returned armed and ready for a fight. "The Shot hear around the world" was fired that day at Lexington-Concord. The red color in our American Flag represents the blood sacrifice of patriots who were willing to take their limited freedom to the next level called Liberty. Maintaining our Liberty in our Republic was built into our constitution that has evolved with Amendments to be all inclusive over time. Women's rights to vote, Birthright citizenship and other privileges to assemble and voice grievances against government, employers, wrongful wars or hate groups has also been bloody including the Kent State shootings of students. The students did not shoot first, but those shots were also heard around the world. This April 19th, 2025, we will start with the peaceful protests and asking congress to reign in Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Where it goes from there will depend on Congress listening to the people or acting like King George in 1775 and sending in more troops.
Edward, Are you aware of organized April 19 protests? Is there a link to a website.
This needs to be done. Our legislators and the courts can’t stop him but maybe the people can.
He was never "a Democrat," he just bought and sold them. Roy Cohn was no Democrat either, and DJT was an early and primary client of the criminal op "Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, counsel to dictators." They were remnants of the '76 Gerald Ford campaign.
https://www.villagevoice.com/the-dirty-deal-that-helped-make-donald-trump/
https://grondamorin.com/2017/03/23/roger-stone-paul-manafort-and-donald-trump-go-way-back/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/paul-manafort-american-hustler/550925/
NOTHING pleases sadists like the infliction of pain on the un-deserving.
"Sadist" is too kind of a word (most sadists I know at least seek consent first). Call them what they are: abusers. Because abusers never seek consent first
POS? Huh?
Yes. Do you have a problem with that?
Yep!
Trump is a lying sack of diarrhea also.
They are the Pro-Apartheid Neoliberal Fascist Party. I called a few Senators and asked if we are calling each other comrades now. The MSM are ass kissing cigarette holders for the regime. News is a clickbait business. Integrity doesn't apply. No, we can't have that. They are owned by oligarchs that protect their white privilege wealth.
Nailed it.
William F Buckley Jr and the John Birch Socieity to which he was sympathetic are the grandparents of MAGA. The only difference is that of extremis, and that only because they lacked the power that organized money has bestowed on the ideology.
Conservatism is kind of like a back woods evangelical church, tottering along, slowly building up membership, then one day it is discovered by very rich people, that dump untold dollars on it, and watch it grow into a megachurch, which they of course control.
Hi. William. You are so right about Buckley and the JB Society being the grandparents of MAGA. Had never thought of it that way. Thanks for that perspective.
And some "much too little known" backstory on that:
"Ironically, the litigation unleashed by anti-free-market monopolists at home prompted Koch to look eastward, to the rising communist sphere of influence, for new contracts. From 1929 to 1932, Koch built 15 cracking units in the Soviet Union, and many others elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He also brought Soviet technicians to the United States for training – some of whom opted not to return to their Stalinist motherland."
https://jbs.org/person/koch-fred/
Very true but Kamala Harris and the other non-republican candidates combined received more total votes then did the republican Donald Trump. More people voted against his party and his becoming president than voted for him. It was NOT a landslide for but a "Squeaked In" Election. Give him enough rope and he will hang himself with an impeachment by congress and crossing certain lines that could destroy the GOP future will gain enough votes to impeach in both houses. Remember the Vice president and speaker of the house, both republican, are in suggestion and the Republicans' retaining control does not depend on Donald Trump staying in office.
Vance must be impeached as well. He is just as dangerous as trump.
ANY AND ALL members of crime families have NO business being in Congress.
"There was a business offensive against FDR's New Deal policies. Things were on hold during the Second World War, but immediately afterward, the business offensive began in force. The Taft-Hartley Act and McCarthyism, for instance, were followed by massive corporate propaganda offensives, offensives to attack unions, to take over and control the educational system, sports leagues, infiltrate churches, everything, it was just massive. There's a lot of good scholarship on this.
Going along with this was getting people to have a more ambivalent attitude toward government. On the one hand, people must be induced to hate and fear government, the potential instrument of popular will, while private corporations are left unaccountable, yielding a form of tyranny, the more they have power and the less government has power, the better from the viewpoint of the rich and powerful. So on the one hand, people have to be induced to hate government, while on the other hand, they have to support government because private business relies extensively on state support, all the way from high technology economy to bailouts, to international force, and so on, a vast spectrum." --- Noam Chomsky-MIT-University of Arizona-Requiem For The American Dream
Yep, the power of propaganda. Makes the world go round. You can't browse the internet, you can't read Raw Story,or visit any website, much less turn on the TV without being bombarded with propaganda.
I have an equation. Advertising is used to sell unsought goods,things that you don't need or even harmful. The more ads I see for a product, the greater the distance to keep from that product.
Ozempic was sold to lower your blood glucose, but they discovered, in a few cases, that people also lose weight.
Now people who monitor what and how much they eat also lose weight, There is diabetic weight, for those that are insulin resistant. it is carried high in the abdomen, and differs from gluttony fat.
Anyway all drugs have a deleterious effect on the liver and endocrine system, you take a drug for one problem,only to create another, and probably shorten your life, there are efficacious drugs for sure. Like Keytruda for some types of cancer,provided one possesses a certain gene.
Correct. I hear celebrities have been using Ozempic to lose weight, They can pay whatever the costs.
The costs are to their health,so good on them. Just remember the liver is the body's filter.
Correct.
'This is the SAME government that inflicted Reconstruction on us, and I don't have to spell out for you what THAT means!'
He is the new Nazi president. We now live in Nazi America.
I've been saying this for years with the addition of "extremists." Right wing extremists are, and have been, working to destroy our way of life starting with Reagan.
It certainly does appear that way.
But the Southern Strategy, which was the direct predecessor to Project 2025, had already been established and was working for about 20 years by 1980. Jesus was already being replaced in southern churches with hate speech against Black Americans:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy
Newt.
And thousands of others with their "Contract On America."
Exactly. I've been saying that for the last few years. Those who are relatively historically literate could see this coming. But too many said that "we were overreacting."
Apropos of little, Gregg, except hopefully the coming reality for the "DON & LEON SHOW".
This just may be the MOST UPLIFTING thing I've read all day...
"Judge Blasts DOJ Lawyers After They Argue Transgender People Aren't Discriminated Against
The Trump administration’s attempt to ban transgender people from military service is under fire in court."
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/judge-blasts-trumps-doj-after-they-try-to-say-transgender-people-arent-discriminated-against_n_67b640bae4b0cc5d77995671
That is a powerful judge speaking powerfully, and the replies she gets are
pretty bad. She makes her point, he denies seeing a problem. Well, this link showed up in a substack recently and seems very informative and quite historical as well - ties in to the above link:
___________
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-trans-clinic/
___________
Thanks, Richard! (BMed for more complete reading soon.)
And backatcha...
"The Hidden History of Trans Health Care
Trump calls gender-affirming care a “dangerous trend.” It’s older than he is—and way less dangerous."
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/hidden-history-transgender-affirming-health-care/
Calling them cults would be more appropriate. The GOP will never be fixed as long as the felon is sitting in the Oval Office with his golden frame mug shot as if to saying to America "in your face."
Typically, the DEFINITION of "cult" is: "Any religion that isn't yours."
But this Trump cult is WAY easier to spot than even Jim Jones ever was...
"The only difference between a religion and a cult is the amount of real estate they own." George Carlin
Good one Gregg!
I wonder how many have appropriated his mug shot glare? A local fraudster who's being prosecuted for illegal scams has adopted it.
https://www.wlns.com/stolenvalorinvestigation/veteran-nonprofit-owner-charged-with-embezzling-400k-from-vulnerable-adult/
Great point, I agree!
But they are conservatives because they oppose the fundamental liberal values of inherent rights, equality under the law, equal opportunity, and consent to and participation in governance. Conservatives cannot exist in liberal societies because of their nature that compels them to destroy them. conservatives are the internal enemy and should be treated as such.
The definition of "conserve" is generally about "leaving unchanged", rather than the (apparently) new and improved "FRUK EVERYTHING UP!!"
I think we need a new name...
"Destructionaters"?
"IN TODAY'S NEWS - The destructionators decided that every "born big hulkin' child" (formerly known as "newborn infants") must exit the womb with the blessing TRUMP tattooed across their forehead, both forward and backward (for mirrors.) When asked how this was to be accomplished, the dumbest looking destructionator simply farted."
You are disregarding the fact things have changed so much, we are going back to when things were normal.
It's been abnormal for so long, you became to think it was normal.
Maybe.
But two of my most significant memories happened more than 60 years ago:
1) Standing in line with my family to see President Kennedy lie in state, and
2) Seeing "legal racism" (southern segregation) for what it actually was for the first time, and despite being white, feeling scarred by the experience.
Kyle, you may be right that I may not know "normal", but I am goddamn SICK of "abnormal".
(Of Abbie Normal, if you're a Mel Brooks fan.)
And communists like yourself are a threat to the Republic and our national freedoms, and you should be treated as such. You are a threat to Freedom.
“Radical right” is outstanding. Maybe even something involving “fascist” since that’s what they truly are.
And George Will, like most WSJ “journalists,” is full of shit.
So weird how the WSJ editorial page is now just about the BEST Trump-takedown around, and on an almost daily basis! (Of course, the editorial page has always been kept VERY separate from the "reporting" side.)
There are important differences that should not be overlooked even as this crisis deepens. After the Reichstag Fire Decree, the Enabling Act of 1933 amended the Weimar Constitution to allow Hitler and his government to enact laws (even laws violating the constitution) without going through the Reichstag. Nazi intimidation of the opposition resulted in a vote of 444 to 94. Trump cannot realistically hope to get enough votes in Congress to change the US Constitution. That's why he has pursued a strategy of sweeping and arbitrary executive actions that he hopes will eventually be adjudicated in his favour in the Supreme Court. On Tuesday he signed an executive order stating that only the “President and the Attorney General shall provide authoritative interpretations of the law for the executive branch.” The order covers all federal employees and agencies, including independent agencies operating under the executive branch of the US government. This is a clear hint to the Supremes of what he wants them to do.
GAWD !!! I didn't believe it when I first read your message. So I searched and found that it's all true.
https://www.jurist.org/news/2025/02/trump-signs-order-declaring-only-president-and-ag-can-interpret-us-law-for-executive-branch/
There simply isn't any limit to the depths this monster will sink.
They're drating him an executive order to sign that would make him the definitive authority on international law as well.
Label doesn't fit & never did . GOP is an extreme bunch for ineuality!
I strongly disagree. To make a distinction between MAGA/Republicans/conservatives is to somehow let the others off the hook for what MAGA is doing when Republicans and conservatives have been fully complicit for a decade now. Hanging back clutching your pears while someone else gets their hands dirty doing the things you want to see done is no profile in courage or integrity. Republicans and conservatives sold our nation. Complicity matters. In 1930's Germany, many who were not completely on board with Hitler's program went along anyway. Those folks are still known as Nazi's.
Trump is not calling himself a Conservative. Not that I have heard. But he's collecting them to him. These are people who cannot let go of their partisanship regardless even when the ground on which they stand has erupted.
Potter -No, T is not calling himself a conservative - he just called himself a king. He claims that he wants states to have the power to make decisions for themselves but he just told New York what to do while declaring himself king. If it’s not a red state then he gets to decides apparently. Not sure what is going to be the line in the sand for the republicans. Let alone the people for this bs/madness to stop.
Exactly! Was going to comment on that same thing, but then saw you beat me to it. There is no line in the sand since Republicans blew that up when the got behind tRump. They are traitors as much as tRump!
'If only RICO laws applied to the very biggest criminals...'
Or ANY law...
(Even the Law of Averages might be a welcome respite. Come to think of it,, that might just be our best hope.)
so you are saying Republicans put their partisanship aside and supported Trump with Libertarians?
Wouldn't that make Democrats the only party holding onto their Partisanship?
Kyle - He released the guy who created the Silk Road just to appease the Libertarians who voted for him. The pain and destruction that he caused with his black market site should have kept him in prison. Same with the J6 prisoners. T can’t make up his mind if musk is a special government employee who heads doge or not. If musk doesn’t run doge then why is he allowed to destroy our systems and fire people? If he is not in charge then he is just a guy who walked in off the street and gained illegal access to our government and should be put in prison.
Democrats also have the Independents included with them and would like to work in a bipartisan way but republicans have lost their way.
That’s just my opinion and others are free to have their own opinion.
Wouldn't that prove Trump is non-partisan, because he was willing to do things a different Party wanted?
Hello, Anon,
I think what we MAY (emphasis mine, obviously) start to see soon is DonElo going after blue state surpluses.
Red states rarely have surpluses, and blue states rarely don't. I think it will bother Eloald greatly that blue states have a buffer against running low (i.e.-being robbed by the WH) that almost NO red state has. (Hmm. Really upsetting how "Donald" and "Elon" combinations look distressingly like LotR names.)
But what may be most interesting is the data on IRS collections this year. There were already MANY American millionaires that haven't bothered to even file their federal taxes for years, and now I can't imagine anyone MAGA even bothering to consider filing, unless they expect a refund. (Which they may not get, there being no money, and none incoming.) And why should the super-rich ever pay again, since anything they might have once owed would now be coming back to them...likely many times over. (Once the billionaire new tax gift goes through.)
Let's see how T-cultists feel when it's overwhelmingly obvious that:
1) THEY are paying for the "Billionaire Tax Cut".
2) THEY are paying the majority of the "Tariff Tax".
3) Trump is ONLY taking...even from WHITE MEN!
4) Trump would throw any one of them over a puddle so that Putin would not get his shoes muddy when he is in America seeing if Biltmore Estate will be suitable for his new American summer home:
https://www.biltmore.com/
Let's hope it matters!
Hi foofaraw
- I hope they will come to realize the destruction soon. T has been so obvious from the beginning. I read an interesting article (Tom Hartman I think but could be wrong) about how T’s wife was basically a Russian plant. Putin has owned him since the beginning.
Nothing like firing the people who are responsible for keeping these people/departments from doing illegal things. They fire people without knowing what they are doing in their job/department. Sure, tax season is the best time to reduce the staff. This way there’s no one left to catch the corruption.
It breaks my heart that we are going to be complicit in helping to destroy what is left of Ukraine and the people there. If we were the ones who were attacked do you really think that we would just give up our land to the aggressors? Why would he expect Ukraine to do that? He is trying to change the narrative again to make people believe that it is all Ukraine’s fault. Just like Covid - people should not have had to die for the amusement of a wannabe dictator/king.
Anon,
I really can't imagine what more could have been done by any of those of us who had an accurate appraisal of what was surely coming. To have worked any harder, and been more disappointed and crushed would have only made things at this stage feel more hopeless. And we are left with enough strength to keep on, if only for a bit. (And then another bit, and another, and...)
I tremble to think of the price Ukraine will pay for having perhaps the most truly honest leader on the planet, but that won't matter much, since I suspect Zelenskyy would never have said such things if he felt even the slightest chance of hope through any alternative strategy. He knew the game had ended before he opened his mouth, and he felt the need to at least protect the pride Ukrainians feel for themselves, and their home, by being the ONLY leader on Earth willing to "see the Emperor's nakedness".
I talk about tax revenue like it actually matters. It doesn't. The goal isn't to save money (perhaps not even to eventually channel it to billionaires), but for the world to see American cities burning.
If we don't have a constant stream of terrorist attacks from this point, I suspect it's only because Putin has essentially told his Taliban fighters, "No need to bother. Take the family to the beach."
Yeah, beautiful cheery day, Anon. Even a tiny bit snowy, here in the Deep South.
foofaraw - Also, crushed is a very apt description.
foofaraw - I would really like to have a Zelenskyy here right now. Someone who has stayed to fight with his whole country. T would flee very quickly if the fight ever came here. I am afraid that it will happen while the administration continues to concentrate on dismantling our government and destroying our democracy. If/when an attack happens the maga crowd will soon see that we were never their true boogeyman. We will be shoulder to shoulder fighting alongside each other and our religion, sexuality, gender or color will not matter. Shame that it takes a disaster to bring all of us together and how quickly we forget afterwards.
You are right about how the other countries are just sitting back while witnessing/waiting for our demise from self inflicted wounds. The rich are also waiting because then they can buy up everything on the cheap.
Keep your strength up. Wishing you some warmth in the south from the icy and snowy north. I grew up in the south and still can’t believe what climate change has done to my old stomping grounds.
I predicted the collapse of the IRS a full month ago. I realized that with Trump and Musk hollowing out the federal government, people would figure out that there was really no reason to pay taxes because no one was checking. And the timing is perfect. "Tax season" is when people think about it. The courts are being destroyed with a "flood-the-zone" tsunami of cases being filed about everything.
It's just one of the ways that government is crashing and burning. It's easy to see that it's happening. My crystal ball fogs up when I try to imagine what it will look like after it happens. The 'Great Depression' will look like a bump in the road in comparison. Maybe Canada and Mexico will just divide the wreck of the US between them. Maybe a mob will hang Trump and Musk upside down in a gas station. (Historical reference for anyone who reads history.)
The third 'Chinese Curse' ==
"May you live in 'Interesting Times'."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times
Ah gotta say this about Trump. These times are certainly interesting.
We can only hope that MAYBE a handful of cultists will see this as the disconnect it truly is, rather than simply see their lives as having no more meaning than as "MAGA fodder", destined to be taken down the first instant it's convenient.
After all, there seems little doubt that Trump's Covid lies had more to do with abandoning the Pandemic Plan left in place by Obama's administration than anything else. (Losing hundreds of thousands of voters/donors/supplicants seems more to us like "one dimensional tic-tac-toe" than anything approximating "logic" or "reason"...or "sanity". But Trump's hatred for ANY person of color who is SO demonstrably smarter and more capable than he, overrides almost anything else in the "Gulf of Trump" that lies between his ears.
I'm curious to see how Trump reacts when someone (likely from AP) points out that, had he not MURDERED that many of his own "donkey-kissers" he'd have been almost certain of winning in 2024 with an REAL MAJORITY, rather than a "sharpie majority".
Everyone I know that's vaccinated for Covid gets sick multiple times a year now.
I haven't been sick since 2021 with strep throat, and I haven't had the Covid Vaccine.
If anything, Democrats killed more people thinking they couldn't transmit covid with the Vaccine, transmitting the virus to many people. Joe Biden told you that you couldn't transmit the virus, so I don't blame you on a personal level.
Precious few I bet know he called himself a king. Trump knows how to *pull our chain* and this works. He also is confident and knows he has channels of supporters. Being a king and wanting the states to have power does not go together, Anon. We cannot sit and wait for Republicans to draw a line in the sand.
We have to take responsibility for letting this "madness" come to this over the years by being complacent or not voting or complaining about "the price of gas and eggs".
Potter - Agree wholeheartedly.
You're right, Trump isn't a Conservative. However, he has attracted the Conservatives, Libertarians, and Middle of the road Americans. Why do you think that is?
Trump supporters in my opinion are anti-partisan. It seems the left is the only party pushing for and holding onto partisanship.
First paragraph-to your question I say they all strongly dislike the left or what they think the leftist about. They, not the left,
are the partisans!! The left is a multitude. Your second paragraph doesn’t ring true at all.
Kyle - Foreign interference helped him a lot. T also lied a lot. Musk did something to the election in Pennsylvania according to T. I do not care for liars and who see people as pawns. I am very much against people who demonize others just to get ahead. I also don’t wish to see people lose the rights they have fought so hard for. How’s the price of groceries going?
I vote for the person who is actually going to do what they said that they would do if elected. If they are right for the job and have the skills. No party is perfect. I have elected republicans, democrats and independents. I don’t care about their race, gender or religion but I do care about their ability to do their job and make this a better place for Everyone.
I am married to a Republican and we get along just fine. I married them for their heart, integrity and intelligence not for their politics.
Scott Pressler is the main attribute to Pennsylvania's success. Elon helped but the grass roots movement from Scott Pressler was far more effective.
There are no rights being lost, Grocery prices are not going up (besides eggs due to temporary supply/demand issues)
Trump has been the first President in my LIFETIME to actually do the things he promised during his campaign.
Kyle - Have to disagree. Musk Bought votes - and still has not paid most of them as he promised. T said out loud that musk rigged the election in Pennsylvania during one of his speeches.
There are a lot of people who would disagree with your assessment that no rights are being lost. Eggs are going to continue to go up because they just fired a bunch of people who were studying the bird flu and the ones left have had their funding either frozen or stripped. Grocery prices have not gone down as he promised during his campaign. These things add up and are devastating a lot of Americans and their families.
It is easy to keep campaign promises if you have a trifecta and the lawmakers are too afraid of doing their jobs or don’t have a conscience. I just wonder what you will be thinking about when you are also affected by the current slash and burn stampede. Maybe you won’t be affected but others will be - possibly your friends and family. Hope not but this administration is currently showing that they don’t care who gets hurt.
Imagine getting an Annual Dividend Payment due to the country hitting a Net Profit.
This would uplift ALL Americans in Poverty, and create a Golden Age of Prosperity for all.
Rights being lost isn't a discussion to agree or disagree, it's a factual statement that should easily be proven to be True or False.
Researching Bird Flu would not solve the current Egg Shortage.
Many prices have come down, you are choosing to focus only on the things that have gone up. Also, Trump is setting up for increased US Energy Production, which will lower all costs associated with transportation.
The only thing that will be affected by removing government waste, is my Child's future no longer being strangled by unmanageable National Debt.
If these cuts do not happen, our Children will accumulate debt that will be impossible to ever pay off.
You can’t “normalize” depicting yourself as a king as Trump just did.
If that’s the road we’re going down then we’ll have no choice but to “normalize” the guillotine.
👏🏼😂
Not meant to be funny, I think. Traitors should be shot. All Republican/ f
Fascists are traitors to America.
Most likely just another "trial balloon". Trump does this about once a day.
If it gets traction, ratings-wise, then he'll go with it.
If not, then it was a "joke", or he was "being sarcastic".
As if...
I suspect that drumpf has stepped over the line from which he won't backtrack. Someone will need to drag him off his throne.
Trump is a useful idiot, and easily used and manipulated, but he gets his power from his base.
There is something about a power base that liberals seem not to understand.
When a coherent and ideological organized and united peoples, reach 17% of the population, then the population's ideology, self imagine, beliefs start to change, and the minority grabs power.Even less than that if truly organized and dedicated.
The National Socialist German Workers Party only netted 2% in Votes, and 4% in the 1932 election.But they were organized of a single mind, unlike the American left which is disorganized with so many competing groups clamoring for attention and resources.
While the left was split by BLM, antif, pro HAMAS, immigration etc. The right wing was united under one banner, the culture war. Regardless of the issue they were united in owning the lib, anti woke, anti DEIA, subtlely racist, anti immigrants.
The more liberals pushed for what MAGAts call the woke agenda, political correctness, the more solidified and reactionary they became until they found their avatar in the form of a fraud that ripped them off, but promised them Nirvana.
The same Nirvana Hitler promised the Germans.
Liberals had a chance to elect a real, not a phony, populist, name of Bernie Sanders, but they were easily divided along the lines of race. Sanders who had a real civil rights track record, having marched, was besmirched by the establishment which ignored or demeaned his track record and elevated the faux record of Hillary Clinton in S.C. and the south.
The constituency, the forces, that control the Democratic primary, are the very forces that cost them the general, and the Democrats never learn.
Einstein said: It is insane to do the same thing over and over expecting different results each time.
By the way the same is true of the Arabs vs Israel, 1948, 1956,1967, 1973, 2006, 2023
William,
You make an interesting point about Dems, but one I'm not sure our Trumpy "friends" always agree with.
I was talking to a Trumpy, but friendly guy at the local recycle center (which frighteningly enough, does NOT have cameras), and he said something interesting. It was about the time of the "Early GOP Speakership Wars", and he said something to the tune of, "I'll give the Democrats credit, they sure do stick together."
The more I thought about it, the more I disagreed. We don't "stick together" so much as we have TWO GUIDING PRINCIPLES, and without them I'm not certain how a Democrat might even be defined:
JUSTICE and EQUALITY
Every Democrat I know of values justice and equality above just about anything and everything else, at least as shared values go (Love and family likely still come first on a personal level.) And in fact, those are the principles of the very church these hypocritic cultists claim to value. And until 1980 (or 1960, if the Southern Strategy is our new Year Zero), that was enough.
I think that perhaps the problem we face is of reminding people that we ALL surely share these principles of brotherhood. (In fact, the guy at the Recycle Center had no trouble admitting that Trump is about as far away from "justice and equality" as humanly(?) possible.) But you get more than about 3 of them in one place, and they form some sort of a "vector of hate and ignorance", and all bets for a positive outcome are off the table,
Generally, if I present a problem I try to offer a solution.
At the moment...got nuthin'. But I'm very open to suggestion.
We have to keep talking about what we all have in common.
Absolutely, Joan.
I don't know if you saw any of the SNL 50th Anniversary Show. The Black Jeopardy bit included Tom Hanks as a MAGA, who it turns out, had a GREAT DEAL in common with the Black guests.
And that was clearly the point: these two groups of Americans are very similar in many ways. But, of course, all that MAGAWorld was able to fixate on was how Hanks made them look stupid/genuine and authentic.
Worth watching, if you haven't seen it.
"MAGA Social Media Users Are Mad That Tom Hanks Made Fun Of Them On ‘SNL’ "
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tom-hanks-maga-racist-snl-black-jeopardy_n_67b4c991e4b0765f4479cede
(It's long enough to require 2 YouTube links: one near the top, and one at the very bottom of the article.)
Be realistic, Joan. That ship has sailed a long time ago.
William - Agree - but sometimes I also wonder how much outside influence was there to push Clinton on us because Bernie most likely would have won the presidency.
Lots of outside influence!
Wrong. The problem is "inside baseball", the Democratic Party.
First they are heavily dependent upon donor cash, it started with Bill clinton, Rahm Emanuel and James Carville
However the culture within the DNC is to move up and promote loyalists, who have patiently bade their time, accumulated what the DNC thinks are the important qualifications for the job.
Hillary Clinton had presidential intentions but in our misogynistic society she had no chance,, but being the wife of an ex president she had a headlock in the DNC on a nomination. She ran in the primary against Obama and lost. However, probably because of Bill's influence. she got bumped up the list.
The values within the DNC at the time, was an emphasis on foreign service, probably because of donor support from international financial institutions and the then all important Council on Foreign Relations.
Having failed in her bid against Obama. the DNC interceded and got Obama to appoint her as Secretary of State that she could accumulate the coveted foreign service credentials.
Further evidence that the modus operandi, the culture of the DNC is to pick a race horse from the stable of horses, one that has paid it's dues, accumulated creds (run minor races), is loyal to the donors, reliable and will follow orders, and that describes Terry McAuliffe, whose major achievement was to be head of the DNC.
A creature of the Beltway, hob nobbing with the "real people" and out of touch with the people, and he showed that in his campaign and lost to Youngkin.
Youngkin was insincere, all pols are, but he knew how to pull emotional srings, Terry didn't. Terry said he would listen to the teachers (teachers union big contibutors and voting block) Youngkin said he would listen to the parents (pulled the right emotional chain.
Democratic party likes to present itself as party of the people, but they are far removed from the people, all except people like AOC.
Explain the difference between Lebensraum and Manifest Destiny in fewer than 500 words.
'WHERE can we find a good dictator type?'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntZo17MowRs
Thank you, eugene.
Good way to start the day!
What the fuck is that about? How is that question even relevant to the discussion, and why the fuck are you asking me?
Your comment "The same Nirvana Hitler promised the Germans" was known as Lebensraum, the ideological basis of Nazism. I was contending that there's very little difference between that and the concept of Manifest Destiny that drove Americans to the extirpation of Native American Indians and the bloody war with Mexico in 1812. Trump's covetous attitude towards Canada, Panama, Greenland and Gaza suggets that the frontier spirit is still alive and kicking. By the way, it was a rhetorical aside. I wasn't expecting an essay.
MS CO PILOT AI:
Key Differences
Ideological Basis: Lebensraum was based on racial superiority and the idea of expanding territory for the German "master race." Manifest Destiny, on the other hand, was rooted in the belief of spreading democracy and civilization, with a sense of divine mission.
Methods: Lebensraum involved military aggression, invasion, and genocide. Manifest Destiny primarily involved territorial expansion through treaties, purchases, and wars, though it also led to significant conflicts and displacement of indigenous peoples.
Historical Context: Lebensraum was central to Nazi policies during the 1930s and 1940s, leading to World War II and the Holocaust. Manifest Destiny was prominent in the 19th century, shaping U.S. expansion and the development of the American West.
In summary, while both Lebensraum and Manifest Destiny involved territorial expansion, they were driven by different ideologies and resulted in distinct historical consequences.
Well I guess your "treaties, purchases and wars" were somebody else's "military invasion, aggression and genocide", specifically the Mexicons and Native American Indians. The racism was the same. Hitler admired Madison Grant's 'The Passing of the Great Race' and nazi eugenicists were inspired by American ones. I personally do not see a qualitiative difference between the white supremacy of Jackson and Jefferson and the aryan master race claptrap of the nazis.
Hey, I'm a Trump supporter, and I can't find any arguments to your logic here.
In my opinion, it's also due to Democrats trying to push the Overton window in so many places, too hard and too fast, and people have a natural adverse reaction to that.
Exactly.
Conservatives,even the best of them, can't let go of their pathological reaction to liberalism.
I read the Bulwark daily, and they are a great source of the resistance, but read it long enough and you see the same strain of conservatism that fathered MAGA.
They are Hobbsians, when it comes to business, regulations, restraints, they inner Hayek, Milton Friedman comes out, Even on cultural issues, when it comes to migration race, even LGB, they appear progressive, but draw the line at the T in LGBT.
Those traitors who attacked the Capitol are the ideological. emotional children of George Will, William Buckley, William Kristol.
Libertarian theology grew, and this might be surprising, out of Bolshevik Russia.
Ayn Rand ... Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum was born and raised in Russia
Fred Koch, the father of the Koch brothers, made his fortune building oil wells and refineries for Stalin. He liked Stalin so much that his sons incorporated Art 12, of the 1936 Soviet Consitution into their ideology, "if you don't work, you don't eat" and like the Soviet Union were and are adamant advocates of the 100% gold standard.
Insightful comments. I find that all of the "Libertarians" I know, are really some hybrid quasi-Libertarians of their own concocted ideas. They keep the anti-government ideology until they or their family member needs a service that normally would be forbidden under pure Libertarianism. It is a political ideology that has never really lasted long in any society that I know about. I could be wrong.
You aren't wrong, They are hypcrites like Ayn Rand who deid on Social Security and Medicare.
They often propose to build Libertarian utopias, but these utopians would implode.
Somalia is a prime example of a libertarian utopia, heck Afghanistan is, so is Saudi Arabia, theocracies ruled by religion, not by a constitution or laws of men.
I think we underestimate the commitment that Libertarians have about saving America.
For years, Grover Norquist's claim to fame was that he said he wanted government to be "small enough to drown in a bathtub." Overcoming the macabre imagery, we should instead focus on Mr. Norquist's noble intentions...
Not only to work for free (since a teensy-tiny government clearly has no means of collecting or disbursing taxes), but apparently he expresses a willingness to take the place of ALL law enforcement, ALL educators (and in fact, seems willing to pay for building materials and build the schools with his very own, very drowny hands.)
Likewise, these patriotic libertarians are clearly willing, able and very ready to build our roads, highways, and pretty much any aspect of infrastructure costing no more than about $2.32...$2.01...$1.34...$0.43...
How can we even begin to reach people who would never even think to question such a ridiculous concept? You might ALMOST think some of these idiots might even believe that a baby can be "aborted AFTER birth."
Or is that just TOO silly...
Of course, the current 'Libertarians/Randians' had predecessors with very different ideas.
https://learninglink.oup.com/access/content/ramgotra-choat1e-resources/ramgotra-choat1e-key-thinker-emma-goldman
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-mutual-aid-a-factor-of-evolution
I did not know you can read the Bulwark. I thought it was just a video channel with Tim.
Lately I've "learned " from The Atlantic that progressives are responsible for so many bad things going on. Really? Who knew.
In America the law is King ~ Thomas Pain
Common Sense (1776). He wrote:
"For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other"
Admittedly a Pain-ful concept for Trump right now!
As a kid of the 60's I was very influenced by writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
Essays such as Emerson's "Self Reliance" and "The Oversoul" did so much to open this curious young mind, as did Walden Pond, and I don't even think I'd be the same person now, had I not been exposed to them, and been curious to read and learn more.
And now Americans no longer even know how to read or write cursive...
Where did all the curiosity go?
Screens.
Perhaps simply victims of the "hate bump-stock."
"Once it starts, it NEVER stops!!!"
You say conservative media. I think all legacy media had a hand in this. It’s why I’ve cancelled my NYT and WaPo subscriptions last year. We need better from them.
As far as State Media, well, they gonna State Media
Yes! It's all media in this country...BBC, The Guardian etc, are the ones naming what is going on...SHAME ON YOU ABC. CBS. NBC etc.etc.
MSNBC is still reporting actual information about the daily assaults on our institutions by an unelected immigrant with $$$$ and a delusional crook who thinks he can become a dictator for life. Hope the station will be able to continue telling truth to the public. 🙏 💔🇺🇸💔
MSNBC still lies badly. A week or so back they had graphics showing how Israel has swallowed up Palestine since 1947. The next day they retract the segment, saying it was false and the info was inaccurate - without stating or showing what was inaccurate and what was correct. It reeked of AIPAC playing their heavy hand and probably a few advertisers. It was a disgusting display of the gutless style of journalism that monopolistic control of US media has produced.
Fox wouldn’t bother to retract at all. I watch. It is the only corporate media I consume. The Guardian, too.
Thank God for independent media. Mr Reich, you are the best.
I wonder what percentage of the viewership is aware of this?
https://marriedceleb.com/andrea-mitchell-and-alan-greenspan-married-life
Again...history has always proven to REPEAT ITSELF!!! ##SAVEDEMOCRACY #STOPPROJECT2025 #USEYOURVOICE #HUMANITY #COMPASSIONHEALS #NEVERGIVEUP #GODBLESSOURTROOPS #CHANGETHEWORLD #IHAVEADREAM #PRAY
How long before he suppresses broadcasting of foreign media, a la Kim Jong-un and other despots?
His calling Pres. Zelenskky a dictator isn't reassuring at all, not to mention deranged, diabolical, disgusting.
I mean, didn't Zelenskky promote himself to Dictator by cancelling the elections? How do you justify that?
In my view, he is trying to save his country, & during this time of war, he decided to remain in leadership. FDR did the same during WW2. Calling Z a dictator is another example of tRump using inflammatory language as a smoke screen to hide & disparage what's really going on. IMHO.
It's all male games in the sandbox. Z is not an innocent with his offshore investments, etc. And Ukraine is noted for its corruption; thus, the US delay to allow it as part of NATO. The U.S. resolve to be in this fight is strictly money for defense contractors--nothing more.
How long shall the war continue? Indefinitely? How many more lives need to be lost.
It's the 21st Century, why can't they just go talk with them?
No, in Ukraine martial law was declared when Russia invaded and it's in their laws that elections cannot be held when martial law is in force, from what I've read in a couple places.
I wish Biden had done that while he had total immunity.
You wish Biden became a Dictator? Yikes... Why do you people always project so much?
You call Trump a Fascist and a Nazi, and yet you wish Biden was a Fascist and a Nazi..... My goodness
Sooner than you may think. Control , intimidate, threaten the economic life & attack reputations of “dissenting” journalists etc is step on of shutting down any opposition, after which one bans access to outside critical media & finally you set up internal Propaganda spewers to justify despotic actions.
Just like Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Stalin, Putin… “Name your Dictator”. ,
It's happening now.
I worry about that daily.
He's booted CNN and another media outlet from pentagon briefings I believe? It's starting.
Done.
I was so angry at abc news for ignoring most of his actions that I stopped watching all of their news programs I had watched since my teens.
Now it feels like PBS is doing it too! I do believe he has chilled them too with all of the defunding talk about PBS and NPR.
I agree, I still watch/read their emails, but sometimes I am angry at what they leave out .
In recent weeks, I've often noticed that multiple cooking shows are on, but many fewer documentaries than before.
I did the same with NBC News during the last Trash administration.
It is so upsetting to see them all doing it.
Understatement of the century, Tracey.
I've resorted to that because I'm on tiktok at lot where most of my comments are removed due to 'community standards.' 🤷♀️
'Journalism? That's not allowed here!'
I saw a tiny sliver of light peep thru on my local news tonight, significant IMO because I live in a midsized city in Texas. They did a nice report on a restaurant in D.C. that trains refugees in the culinary arts, helping them integrate and contribute and earn. Kudos..spread that news!!
I've been of the opinion that ALL of them have one purpose: 'normalizing' fascism.
Take CBS for example - how much of the "prime-time programming" is focused on the illegal antics of openly fascistic 'law enforcement organizations?'
'Rights? You have no 'rights' but the right to have us inflict pain on you!'
Yeah … but The Guardian is still on my shit list after they jumped on the “Dump Joe Biden” bandwagon last summer. I was furious and cancelled my paid subscription.
I understand, but for me, in the here & now, I think they are a great source of information
And now they are firing 100+ journalists and replacing them with AI.
Your source of this? I engage with insiders on journalism (former press corp member). What enterprise do you speak of here?
The Guardian; I just posted links above.
Joe is not an innocent by any means. Sorry to say.
I saw a column yesterday by someone who WAS there - they (Guardian) have apparently chosen AI over actual human staffers.
https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-guardian-is-the-latest-news-organization-to-partner-with-openai-155555243.html
https://broligarchy.substack.com/p/artificial-ignorance
But weren't they right that he couldn't handle another campaign and probably would have lost. We needed someone better--he should have stepped down long ago.
I Guess they have been threatened.One way to fight back is to boycott products advertised on those networks.It is vey easy,call the advertisers,tell them you plan a nationwide boycott of their products.
Get some help dude, this isn't healthy behavior
Wrong, Kyle Olson, this is correct. Advertisers have great control over content more than you know.
What do you mean "control over content"
Why do you want content to be controlled? Isn't that an Authoritarian way of thinking?
The Guardian is firing 100+ journalists according to one writer there, Carole Cadwalladr, who has written essential stories about Brexit and the tampering that led to it. This is from her, two days ago:
“Meanwhile, I’m one of 100+ Guardian journalists whose employment will be terminated next month. On Friday, the organisation signed a deal with OpenAI. If you find my (human!) work of value, I’d be grateful if you shared this and consider upgrading to paid. With enormous thanks to the 50,000 people who have signed up so far. I so appreciate it, Carole”
She has a Substack now, as you can see. It looks quite good.
The Guardian is an independent news source. They depend on a Trust and readers support to stay in business.
Same! I was a NYT subscriber and reader for most of my 30s, but at 36, two years ago, I cancelled it. Not worth the bites of data used on my phone.
I am agonizing over getting rid of the NYT. I am planning on cancelling WAPO next month. I even have trepidation about The Atlantic now. Some of their articles lately strike me as complicit.
I ditched WaPo and NYT last year. I'm feeling the same way about the Atlantic. The new issue just came and looking at the titles of the articles, I'm not sure I can bring myself to read them. I'm also worried about Time magazine and recently wrote a letter to the editor, stating my concerns with them At this point in time, I'm depending on The Guardian and a variety of substacks writers for my news.
Pamela, I got rip of WA Po long ago. I too am struggling with NYTIMES. But they are definitely part of the problem. Big part. Maggie Haberman, TRUMP EXPERT, explains him— thereby normalizing him. I started a subscription to THE GUARDIAN, and that should replace NYTimes easily. All I like in the NYTimes are word games! Wish GUARDIAN would add some! We watch Rachel Maddow, and what she is sharing is very frightening.
From a journalist at the Guardian, who is being fired along with another 100 journalists, their contributions will now be replaced by AI written pieces. See Carole Cadwalladr, a very good journalist who will be let go next week.
I hadn't heard that. Discouraging.
I got rid of the NYT but kept the cooking section ($1 a month). You can subscribe to Wired, the Athlete, etc, but not the basic newspaper.
I know it is. I am determined not to let them drag me down. I am trying to get my footing and trying to get a plan that I can do. Indivisible is organizing protests all over the country.. There was one in my town Monday as across the country. This is Trump country and there were WAY more Democrats out there.
Pamela,I get the NY times on line,they have decided to thread softly at a time when bold action is required.Toss the NYT ,Washington Post.
I've been giving The Atlantic the side eye lately, too. I haven't made a decision yet. 🤔
Same here. Just when I think that, then I see an article I admire.
Yes, Daniel - I also have cancelled the NYT. I couldn't take it anymore.
You are referring to FOX so-called news as the State Media, aren't you?
Fox, most of talk radio, financial news, the NY Post, and many more
They have an entire network of these sycophants. YouTube, Tik-Tock, and the list continues. Even the Wall Street Journal is owned by Murdock. Without these tenacles, Trump would never have won. Also, without the Project 2025 tenacles, these things would not be happening at such lightening speed.
First thing a despot does is seek control of the Media, through coercion, threat, or collusion with the oligarch who owns particular outlets. The ownership concentration and drive to profits over and above honest critical, news reporting against a background of historical awareness & a wide knowledge of social & economic systems, has led to what the MSM is today.
Where are the Truth Seekers?
"Hiding in plain sight for generations."
https://historyheist.com/ny-herald-tribune-exposes-hitlers-angels-the-us-bush-harriman-thyssen-funding-of-hitler-later-quietly-revealed-in-2003-foia-docs/
http://lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=6438
I call it Foxy Lady non-News.
To my mind, they are Fox Fake News FASCISTS.
I still subscribe even though I mainly look at the headlines and read some comments, but when I do read them, the articles seem so tepid, and have such long winded analyses, comparing past and present policies, outlooks, etc. , that I don’t learn very much from reading them.
Can someone tell them to cover the illegal fed worker firings and the suicides that are now occurring?
I agree, mass media needs to be called out on all this stuff. There were mass demonstrations in all fifty states on Monday, with many still happening in places like Los Angeles, yet almost no coverage that I noticed on most media--obscene disgrace.
In that disgusting interview of trumpmuskrat Hannity actually said that muskateer is working for FREE with DOGE.
Free? He has made $200 billion or so since the election and there was a headline I saw today that his various companies have increased their value by over 600 BILLION.
This is the biggest corruption in the history of the world!
Talk about conflict of interest! It is obscene.
There are no ethics in business & thats what Trump & Musk are all about. The accumulation of wealth & power; that’s all that matters like little kids standing on a pile of dumped sand declaring themselves to be “King of the World”!!
Obscenity and cruelty "are their calling cards."
I was at the Philadelphia protest Monday at City Hall- only one local news station was there. It was one the 5 o’clock news for 30 seconds. I know the media are either owned/purchased or scared but I just do not understand not having integrity or eyeballs to want to do something.
It’s hard to accept the reality that many Americans find Democracy, or even demonstrably proven facts , too inconvenient to bother with. Who thought autocracy gets established because people are making the real choice between paying the mortgage, or student loans, or even groceries and Democracy? The biggest Myth I bought into was believing Americans “would rise up”. There are many of us disgusted and doing what we can to fight against this. But the first, best thing we can do is see the situation clearly. The Planter-Class / sure-it’s-okay-to-own-people crowd have always been here. They gamed us for the moment. Many Americans really don’t care. Many other Americans long for things to “go-back-to-normal” meaning: “Do I really have to actually DO something to have Democracy?” And Many other Americans simply hate conflict and check out to save what’s left of their sanity. The upshot is that WE are all we got. Let’s turn it into a “Loaves and Fishes” moment. Do what we can in our spheres of influence and have faith it will produce other loaves and fishes. Let’s Roll.
the game isn't over. Stick around. Agree, there will be rolling.
There are no "actual news media here," just as in most places in the country these days I imagine, just 'corporate propaganda outfits like Nexstar & News-Nation.'
'Playing defense for criminals.'
https://www.wlns.com/news/ap-us-news/ap-doge-notches-courtroom-wins-as-elon-musk-crusades-to-slash-federal-government/
https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/former-fox-news-co-president-white-house-comms-director-bill-shine-joins-newsnation-as-consultant/
https://robertfeder.dailyherald.com/2021/02/08/consultant-bill-shine-casts-fox-shadow-newsnation/
apparently the Dem AGs in their haste did not give the judge what she needed to shut DOGE down.
I find it hard to believe that laws to protect confidentiality of much of the data being accessed can't be invoked to stop this madness, but I guess we will find out. Trump seems to be always one step ahead of the law.
'Owning judges is 9/10 of the law.'
I agree! There is definitely a groundswell of resistance but media not covering because the letters TRUMP pull eyeballs . Disgusting.
They must all be afraid or they want in the game. I think it is fear.
Absolutely, Wayne. 30,000 turned out in Berlin to protest against the right wing, and it got international attention, except here. The national protests here should have been front page in every newspaper in America.
We must quit corporate media entirely.
Yeah, Berlin could burn down and it would hardly get mentioned in American papers because we are so insular. But you are right European politics not a biggie in MSM.
Yes, and there should have been photos of marchers in many cities to give the reporting the visual effect. And not just an article, like in the NYTimes.
they are all over youtube.
A friend of mine told me about 138 firings at Bonneville energy last last week and it’s tearing all their hearts out. This kind of cruelty will be their undoing.
lmao suicides? that's hilarious
There is something seriously wrong with you if you think suicide is funny. You need psychiatric evaluation and treatment.
troll
I'm so tired of thinking about Trump and seeing him and talking about him and reading about him
Hang in there, Steve! I hate every single time I go online I have to see his orange putrid face before I can get to where I'm going! He disgust me to no end; however, I will continue to call out his lies, his corruption and his just plain evilness because not doing so means he gets away with it. We must push back every single time even though we are sick to death of him!
You go girl.
It’s only been a month. Pace yourself.
Trying. Really trying.
Good advice...for us all !
A decade of continuous anxiety because of one cheap conman.
And his LEGIONS of enablers.
I can't count the times I've seen Shit for Brains on TV and yelled, "You're an f'ing idiot!"
Steve, we all are. Totally sick of him. But we must stand up to him.
And do what?
Steve - Keep reading about Trump even if superficiallly.
Knowledge is power.
Don't worry, you got many more years to come! There will be multiple generations of MAGA voters.
Troll
Republicans, of course, want it both ways. Senators from Alaska, Idaho, Louisiana, and several other states have all called for exceptions to cuts. They all want to reduce the size and scope of the federal government but not in their state! Jeebus forbid they have to tell their universities and hospitals, highway departments and research facilities that they can no longer bring home the bacon. Cuts for thee but not for me.
So the choice should be obvious if you’re a House Republican, whose district is getting hammered by all these cuts. Stay the course and you’ll never be reelected.
Find your spine, start the impeachment, and you’ll be a hero for the history books.
Or you'll be killed when Cheeto sends his cult to storm your house.
That's insane to live your life like this in falsified fear
The conservative media is realizing that you can put lipstick on a pig all you want, but eventually you run out of pig…
But then you get a hog and a boar.
portmanteau : bog & a hoar.
A bog. Reminds me of a toxic swamp that needs draining because all the mutants are seeing their heads getting so big they’re about to burst…
You just boggled my mind.
Sounds more like a metathesis, but still... good one!
Did I wix my mords? Always happy to learn, & that's another good one. Cheers Christopher.
Well played my friend!
Americans should be able to file a class action lawsuit against Trump and all his thugs. It should include his first term also, when he let so many of our fellow Americans die from Covid+, due to his negligence.
And putting us through the horror of January 6th after Joe whipped his arse in 2020. I will never un-see that dreadful day as long as I live.
Yup, it seemed an obvious coup to me.
Me either. It tore me apart, and still does.
If there were presidential malpractice, he would’ve gotten the boot three weeks into the job the first time..
Well known and 'accomplished' felons should NEVER be allowed to get anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania, and NOT just as POTUS.
'The right to engage in criminal activity sans any legal consequences is THE most important right and power of a POTUS.'
And yes, that IS sarcasm...
I've already commented on this, but I'll do it again. Yesterday, February 18, Trump signed an executive order called "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies". It is starting to get more attention but it needs to be the focus of a lot more. One thing that needs to be emphasized, and you mention in your post. These independent regulatory agencies, like the Federal Elections Commission, are not part of executive functions. They were set up by Congress under legislation establishing their mandate under Congressional, not Executive, oversight. They were specifically designed to control executive overreach.
Trump's latest executive order establishes what many conservatives call a total unified Executive as meaning the authority of the President. This is blatantly unconstitutional.
All federal agencies now come under the supervision and overall jurisdiction of the White House with the exception of the Federal Reserve in its application of monetary policy (it's primary role as a central bank) but not in relation to oversight of financial institutions. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shall provide guidance and supervision to all regulatory agencies in how they function. All report to the President.
"Moreover, all executive departments and agencies, including so-called independent agencies, shall submit for review all proposed and final significant regulatory actions to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Executive Office of the President before publication in the Federal Register." This includes the Federal Elections Commission, specifically mentioned in this EO.
"The Director of OMB shall, on an ongoing basis review independent regulatory agencies’ obligations for consistency with the President’s policies and priorities." It also looks like the Director of the OMB, under the authority of the President, can "apportion" appropriations for any agency according to whether their performance is consistent with the President's policies and priorities. This includes withholding funds for specific projects. This is impoundment, and is illegal and unconstitutional.
Finally, "The President and the Attorney General, subject to the President’s supervision and control, shall provide authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch. The President and the Attorney General’s opinions on questions of law are controlling on all employees in the conduct of their official duties. No employee of the executive branch acting in their official capacity may advance an interpretation of the law as the position of the United States that contravenes the President or the Attorney General’s opinion on a matter of law, including but not limited to the issuance of regulations, guidance, and positions advanced in litigation, unless authorized to do so by the President or in writing by the Attorney General." This overrides tge judicial review of the courts.
It's put in the legalistic language of the Constitution, but the meaning of this Executive Order is clear. Trump has just declared himself to be a dictator. Congressional and judicial oversight of executive action is (purportedly) abolished by this Order.
EXACTLY. So now the question is: what can we do about it, and how, before the damage becomes irreversible??
Indeed!
The dictatorship is formalized. The coup is almost complete. The "Constitution" as a structure for the nation that was known as the United States of America no longer applies. It remains as a historical document that is advisory as it stands. It also has some uses as a reference in foreign policy and other areas.
Now the entity that calls itself the "United States of America" is free to legislate and enforce rules and laws as well as conduct foreign relations as it chooses and is able, inasmuch as it will need some recognition as an actual nation by others. But some nations in our world have found it useful to negotiate directly with powerful gangs who are not yet recognized as "nations".
Look for new methods of taking control of some state governments that seem to show some opposition to the new monarch and future changes in the membership of the Congress and federal judiciary aa well as military assets consistent with the international promotion of the new "nation".
Yes, how will our states respond is important!
Alas, i expect to see "more bending of the knee than resistance" on the part of pols.
'But, but, they might come after me!'
Thank you for sharing this highly disturbing development. Hasn’t this entire #TrumpMuskProject2025Cabal stepped into the realm of seditious conspiracy by now?
I think it's possible!
"Seditious conspiracy" was the PROMISE that they made.
🤬🤬
Agent orange hasn't had an original idea in his life. What he sees on fox or is told by musk . putin , miller or other traitors spins in his brain for 2 minutes before it comes out his mouth. Sorry excuse for a human let alone a president.
I think injecting bleach to kill Covid was pretty original. He's the only person in the world who could have thought that one up. Well, I have to think about that one as there's always RFK.....
MB Matthews, your last sentence gave me my first laugh in a few days! Thanks.
Well if the “ remedy” killed the affected body, then I guess that killed the Covid virus inhabiting therein too.
So…. It’s obvious that if you let anybody infected by Covid just die than the epidemic would soon be over. Tough about those who survive & left damaged. Trump has the IQ of a 5 YO. & a well established propensity to turn a challenge 180 Degrees & blame the Victim; as he just has The Ukraine. It’s that country’s fault, continuing to defend itself against a Border Invader, that the war there hasn’t “ stopped already”. 🤮
Are you really this retarded, that you believe the "inject bleach" Lie?
Of all the things Trump has done, you choose a FALSE example?
Wow you're retarded bro
Sarcasm, dude. Geez.
Yes, she was just kidding.
troll
I've harbored the guilty lust to punch George Will in his smarmy, entitled face for neigh on a half a century - the friggin' prat!
I wish I could afford to take out full page ads in all the major papers blasting this jerk georgie will
Take comfort in knowing that w/o that cash, you've no ability to make a MAGAt publisher richer.
tRump has enabled corruption, he has been corrupt from the start, now he is trying to fix it so his supporters like Musk can get in on it. As of now Musk can access his competitors financials. With that information, he and his friends can engage in insider trading, and tRumps justice department will not investigate. There will be no criminal investigations until he and most of the Republicans are out of office. Start now with recall petitions, and join with others to vote them out in 2026. There is no time to waste.
Good valid points ALL.
THANKS,RESPECTFULLY
you mean disabled corruption?????
What are you talking about
Disabled?
There is absolutely NOTHING NORMAL about this orange man! The republicans can try all they want but he will go down in history as the 'so-called' president that instigated an insurrection against our country. He will go down in history as the most prolific liars ever to set foot in the White House and that is saying something because 'truth be told' presidents do tell stories, that is a fact. He will go down in history as trying to dismantle our Democracy. These republicans honestly think they are going to white-wash this? They are sadly mistaken. We will remember and we will never forget! Our kids will know exactly the kind of disreputable human being he was.
War is Peace.
Ignorance is Strength.
2 + 2 = 5.
Orwell was right!
Orwell was referring to people like you..........................
??
This Kyle Olson has every characteristic of a troll.
...and millions believe these lies.
Like you are doing right now..........
Democrats are literally the warmongers. What are you talking about, fucking clown
Busy troll; busy, busy. Full of creative word uses.
Broken Eggs
Arrested in a pulp carton
Top shells shattered, yolks exposed.
We in our beggared phase
Exhausted, broken
With no protection
Will soon be guerrilla
Omelets out from cooler doors.
We strive to keep yolks intact
Waiting for the next attack,
In the beggared belief
We have nothing to lose.
Our biggest advantage?
They don’t seem to know eggs
Hold all source potential.
felon is a Yolkel
With this bird flu, he's going to destroy the great American holiday of Thanksgiving. Faux non'news will tell us to be thankful for mashed potatoes with a side of borscht.
are brown eggs unAmerican?
Surely you know the answer to that...
It's like calling Jack's bean stalk the weed in the back yard. There is nothing normal about that man.
I'm more worried about muskrat than frump. The musk is young and superrich and seems willing to stop at nothing to boost his own sick ego; he is such a sick man and the damage he is doing is off the charts.
What Damage?
There's nothing HUMAN about that vile, orange tub of Pillsbury goo.
Actually the Pillsbury family are good folks I have met. So your reference is inapprpriate to me.
There is nothing human about your retarded ass but here we are
troll
That is a fairy tale, friend. Come back to reality when you are ready.