The small-minded, cold-hearted trump-the-terrible, first American Dick-tater-wannabe met the repulsive, putrid, pulte-the-punk in the dumpster where the trumpster is right at home. RESIST - DEFY - PERSIST! (and, don't let the bastards wear you down!)
Pulte seems like a perfect addition to the other corrupt sociopaths, miscreants, whackos, butt lickers and unqualified idiots who've crashed the Trump Adm. I guess we'll see if Congressional Republicans have finally had enough of it.
Sure, we’ll see. Just like we’ve been seeing for the past ten years. I for one am sick of waiting to see if the supine, ball-gagged, sleeping in a locked box bring out the gimp congressional Republicans have finally had enough of it.
As Krugman suggests, Trump - along with the Epstein, the war against Iran, and everything Trump does is a distraction from the Federalist / Heritage dismantling of everything good the US had going on - including research, education, environmental protections, civil rights, reasonable elections, etc. It's a deregulation fiasco, meant to benefit the very (clueless) wealthy and that's all.
Trump made a deal with Federalist That he could go out on his revenge tour and not worry about governing, they take care of that for him. They found their stooge and we need to stop them.
Even Krugman can't seem to wrap his head around this. So far, a demented stooge has worked for his Dementors, but it seems to me his dementia is rapidly surpassing his usefulness to them.
I hope he wrecks their Project too through his reckless and disordered mind, just as he has so badly damaged our once not-too-bad country where our grandchildren had the possibility of decent lives.
You're too kind. Deregulation is far from a fiasco for the Federalist-Heritage oligarchs and none of them are "clueless." Project 2025 is a brilliant, step-by-step blueprint for dismantling the administrative state - i.e., the regulatory system that kept, despite its flaws, a democracy functioning. Yesterday's Federalist-compliant SCOTUS decision on voting rights has probably put the last major nail in the coffin of our Republic.
I think they are clueless because they think that even though they screw up the world for the not-very-wealthy, they are also screwing it up for themselves. If they were not so clueless, they would recognize the problems that they make for the world, they make for themselves.
I see your point, but I think the oligarchs are convinced that money can cushion them sufficiently from a harsh world to continue living opulently while others suffer (and in their suffering are willing to work for ever lower wages...). To an extent history supports this conception. Perhaps, though, the nobility-peon model, especially with the ravages of climate change, eventually has to collapse...a few generations from now.
I was recently reading about poisons in the water, there are poisons in the air, with have this huge extinction going on, an increasingly unpredictable climate. Sure, they think it won't affect them. That is what makes them clueless.
I am not able to discern whether Musk and Bezos actually believe that Mars is a suitable location for colonization or if they just believe they can con the gullible rich folks into financing the scheme. In any event, there is not enough money in the world to cushion even a few oligarchs living opulently. They'll be scavenging for food just like the rest of us.
They don't care. Once you have billions there is no chance that you're ever going to have to deal with any problems. You can jump from country to country, staying one step ahead of the guillotines. As long as you don't mind the smoke drifting in from the civilizations you've looted, life is good.
WAIT! GREAT NEWS! John Roberts is on the verge of impeachment NOW & Clarence Thomas on the verge of being charged with FELONY TAX FRAUD! (See Substacks: Scott Dworkin's "The Dworkin Report" - and - Christopher Armitage's "The Existentialist Republic" - PLUS, BONUS: See Alexander Verbeek's Substack: "The Planet" - for "How This Ends" - all of which I've re-stacked, so just click the little blue ball - these 3 guys are sharp & tell us simply how to help!
Trump at this point is too enthralled by his upcoming birthday and the 250th celebration of the country (and his ballroom) to leave any time or energy for governing.
Coincidence, yes, as in two things happening at about the same time, which is simply what the word means. Cause and effect? Seems very likely. So, a coincidence - and probably also much more.
Cuba will soon be operation Epstein distraction, part three and the witless media will continue to be let around by the nose, chasing video footage of explosions to show mouth breathers on Fox News
The rot that pervades the US government has such a long, evil pedigree, and has been successful at undermining all of the efforts to make government responsive to all the people, that I despair of repair, and await the changing climate to wipe the slate clean.
Empires decline only to be replaced by another empire because wealth and the corruption of religion are too powerful a combination for people to resist.
I discovered Chis Hedges when his book, "Empire of Illusion, The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle" pub. 2009 won the Pulitzer Prize. He is a gifted writer, and married to a gifted editor, and he is on Substack and has over 200,000 subscribers. Early in his career he was a correspondent in Central America and it seems later, a career academic. He taught at Princeton and I think he lives in Princeton.
He attracted me to the intellectual issue of distinguishing between illusion and reality and I am still working on it. His thesis was that a culture that cannot distinguish between the two dies and after service in Vietnam and experiencing the oil crises and economic turbulence of the 1970s and a Senate staffer, my sensibilities were shaken. In those days I was aware of the growing environmental threat to the biosphere and the world food supply and health of our species, and I was concerned that the U.S. policy and political communities were having so much difficulty in dealing with the issue. The concerns still exist.
I am still working on the realities of the environmental issue, I am older but my great grandson Jack, age 18 months, has energized my interest in the word "posterity" in our Constitutional Duty to the Future
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union... secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."
The highest purpose of constitutional government is not merely to protect the freedom of the living, but to preserve and enlarge the inheritance of those yet to come.
I have been waiting all my life for meaningful change. For a brief moment in 2008, I thought it was at hand. Considering the date of my birthday, I don’t have that long to wait.
Delete the "staying out of jail" part because he was—and still is—simply incapable of imagining this situation. And he’s definitely not wrong about that: the U.S. justice system isn’t designed to put people like Trump behind bars, even if they’ve committed crimes and have been convicted. Accountability is for the little guys, not for Trump and his buddies. But he is really tough on crime, that's for sure ...
He really didn't think he would be elected president back in 2016. It was simply a lark he enjoyed to boost his own ego. WHAT A CURSE HE HAS BESET UPON US!!
Hello Meighan... If DJT had not won Re-Election in 2024, DJT was on track to be Bankrupt, convicted again by mid-2025... That is all that matters to DJT... For this we can thank Elon Musk...
Anybody who thinks Trump was ever interested in running America is delusional. Even otherwise, that man couldn't run a Casino, how could he run an entire country? America would've been better if there would've been no President at all.
In the first go round the clown car had a few sentient folks, barely qualified but not fully BSC! The lesson learned by all his flock was this was a failure of leadership and they decide to go full sycophancy! Congress should never have let this happen but the GOP is so diminished and defied they can’t stand up and do their jobs!
I am shocked he hasn’t seriously began to fire them…as they fuck up Bigly!
But the meds seem to be calming him…except at night.
He seemed to enjoy things like extracting Maduro from Venezuela. He also had lots of fun with tariffs until they were struck down. The deportation agenda continues on.
Trump recently posted “I AM THE MOST DISRESPECTED PRESIDENT EVER!”
It is at once the most factual tweet he has written, but also demonstrates his complete lack of self-awareness. Another man might then ponder, “Why is that?”
I am equal parts hopeful and fearful for November. That one day will determine whether we fight on or flee.
At least I know I can still read you on Substack in Canada. Do the “detention centers” have WiFi?
The Republicans have been a racist party plotting fascism for 50 years. I 1964 Goldwater proclaimed that "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice." This has been their modus operandi since then as they use any means available to allow them to take and hold power. Their definition of liberty is White Christian Nationalists doing whatever they want and the rest of us are suffering the consequences. They are well on their way of achieving their goal.
More than 50 as I reckon it. Remember how they imported a horde of white fascists (formerly known as "Southern Democrats") after the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the mid-1960s? They need the white Christian nationalists mainly because there aren't enough oligarchs, mega-multimillionaires, and billionaires to elect anybody to anything.
You're right, they were from another age.... just pointing out the hypocrisy and/or yet another way in which they have abandoned whatever principles they used to have.
What age? You've got to go back to Eisenhower. Nixon began most of this with his racist Southern Strategy. The 4 levers of Republican power are racism. Citizens United and the Supreme Cour in general, the Electoral College, and the Senate's echo of the Electoral College. Well, maybe time to add redistricting.
Don't forget misogyny. The cherry on top of the Southern Strategy was the massive backlash to Roe v. Wade. My take is that Big Money has been all in with the Republican Party at least since the early 20th century and more likely longer. But they didn't have the votes until they pulled in all those festering white racists with the Southern Strategy and the anti-women's-liberation crowd with opposition to Roe v. Wade.
GOP knows there on the unpopular side of most issues because their policies are repressive money grabs and do nothing to create American prosperity. The only way they can win is to rig the system and that's exactly what they continue to do - up and down the ballot. In Southern GA, I started the Coastal Georgia People's PAC to counter this and invest in Democrats running for local offices in rural counties. www.coastalgapp.net.
This is the kind of work we need to be doing to rebuild power. The question for me is what do we do once we get into power? What are the most important issues to tackle? How do we ring fence our democracy to prevent a corrupt GOP from happening again in the future?
I lived on the Southern Coast of Georgia and even though it is beautiful region it is sparsely populated and like most of the sparsely populated areas in the nation, the area fails in access to quality healthcare, maternal and recently born and the related pre-k through 12 education assets.
I hope racism has disappeared but racism in these important health and education commons was also a problem.
Then there is a more sophisticated problem: air and water quality. My wife who gave birth to our second son in the area was exposed to the poor air quality of the sulfurous fumes of a nearby papermill and still has negative memories of trying to breathe. I don't know if these high toxic emissions industries still exist, but I do know that our state and local policy processes locate the seriously "dirty industries" in our less densely populated areas in an effort to attract jobs. The solution to many of these very tough industrial problems is government sponsored research in our government and university labs. Candidates need to support R&D to solve these problems.
Another solution is to build the dirty emissions industrial capacity in a very sparsely populated area and support it with a national logistics, (hopefully electric) national network.
Clearly, we can't live a good quality of life without soft toilet paper.
The Republicans have been a racist party plotting fascism for 50 years. I 1964 Goldwater proclaimed that "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice." This has been their modus operandi since then as they use any means available to allow them to take and hold power. Their definition of liberty is White Christian Nationalists doing whatever they want and the rest of us are suffering the consequences. They are well on their way of achieving their goal.
The Republicans have been a racist party plotting fascism for 50 years. I 1964 Goldwater proclaimed that "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice." This has been their modus operandi since then as they use any means available to allow them to take and hold power. Their definition of liberty is White Christian Nationalists doing whatever they want and the rest of us are suffering the consequences. They are well on their way of achieving their goal.
Later in life Goldwater came out and said the Civil Rights Act was a good thing; he also became something of a feminist. He was deeper intellectually than Reagan (obviously) and honorable whereas Nixon was not (obviously). It's unfortunate that there were no JFK-Goldwater debates in 1964, as the two of them had agreed on. That would have been very entertaining, and better than any debate other than (maybe) Lincoln-Douglas.
Republicans have always been so full of shit and propaganda! They sure push for everyone else to be 'respectful' but fail dramatically at being anything close to 'respectful'. They are a group that represents the worst of humanity.
trump’s motive for everything he says and does is to try in vain to fill the black hole in his psyche where normal people keep their self esteem. He has none. He tries desperately to replace it with a constant supply of attention, whether that is from claims he’s the greatest person ever or the most persecuted person ever. This is the closest he will ever get to thinking he is worth something, which isn’t close at all.
This year will once again be "a time that tries our souls". Can We the People, the majority, throw off the slime that has settled on what we used to call America? Can we shove the rich oligarchy that has taken over our government? Can we bring back a tolerant civic society? We better
He's a malignant narcissist, which means he relies on how others act toward him for positive reinforcement. He doesn't have any internal self esteem. I agree he's a psychopath; that's an extreme pathology where the self isn't healthy either.
Men who stand in the highest ranks of society seldom hear of their faults; if by any accident an opprobrious clamour reaches their ears, flattery is always at hand to pour in her opiates, to quiet conviction and obtund remorse. Samuel Johnson
And even if the borders here aren’t closed, a lot of other countries might prohibit, or strongly restrict, our moving there. The international status of Americans has taken a big hit!
The irony is that respect is earned, not demanded. If someone truly believes they’re the most disrespected president ever, the obvious question is why so many people feel that way. As for the detention centers—hopefully they at least have decent Wi-Fi, because a lot of us may need it to keep up with reality.
Trump may be giving up, but in any case WE cannot; we must fight on. And this is coming from someone who the other day took the Boston Tea Party tour in Bay City on my vacation. Samuel Adams wouldn’t think too kindly of us if we decided to flee.
This is so dangerous. No one will trust us certainly in terms of sharing sensitive information. Whoever within the intelligence community who has soldiered on for the good of the country may be dumped or leave in disgust. Donald trump will be fed what he wants to hear. Foreign adversaries will be licking their chops. It’s really really really dangerous.
I agree with your point, Kathleen. The US (the state) is burning bridges like a mad person, but worse than that is the degradation of politics and community which is being determinedly pursued within the US. That is the root of the decline in trust. From abroad (Scotland), it’s not reflexive suspicion of the US, it’s the realisation that the US is being degraded beyond the point where those working relationships can thrive. You see it, I see it, I think we all can see it.
The Biden administration cultivated two intelligence groups in particular. Five Eyes is the intelligence sharing group of English-speaking countries UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The Quad is a group working in the China sphere -- India, Australia, Japan, USA.
NATO has an intelligence division which remained important. And US and Canada are conjoined in intelligence through the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
Today we can't assume any of the intelligence alliances is working or working while excluding USA, but that's likely.
If governing as a representative of the people is the metric, then no he never had an interest in governing. If exercising control and following his own dystopian ideas is the metric of governing, then he is following his playbook, for example, his insistence of tariffs in spite of judicial opinions. His belief in destruction of all who do not praise him, especially any who demonstrate his obvious flaws and weaknesses, is a manifestation of hts personality deficits not related to governing. He may have sunk so deeply into his savage dystopian self that the majority of his actions are now based on this snake pit of his inner being.
At the time of his first election, he had no experience in government whatsoever. And since then, he's shown no ability or desire to grow into the job.
His interest is and was more like "reigning"--as if he were a king.
This was evident from the start. During his acceptance speech at the 2016 RNC convention he declared: "Nobody knows the system better than me. Which is why I alone can fix it."
he said he "knows more about than anyone" on about 25 subjects. He thinks (?) his IQ rivals Einstein, DaVinci, Galileo, Sagan, Shakespeare, Wright, Bach, Oppenheimer, Turing, Patton, Ike, Pascal, Plato, Buddha, Socrates etc. But his IQ rivals Bozo the Clown, Clarabell, or even Forrest Gump.
This is paranoid, but I worry that those big detention warehouses and brutal private ICE army are not for immigrants, but for Paul Krugman and Heather Cox Richardson and, well … us! Anyone who opposes this mad, destructive regime.
I've had the same thought. And I also fear that Pulte is going to try to be instrumental in using the intelligence resources to spy on Americans and punish dissenters. Texas already just convicted protesters as terrorists because they were dressed in all black.
It’s been over a year since they deported the first US citizen and half a year since they straight up murdered the first US citizen. Why would they not also use their newly built concentration camps against US citizens?
They will if we can't stop them in time. But they won't be so quick to go after white people - that's where white people [Republican and MAGA] will draw the line! Sarcasm, but true. It will be fine for black and brown people to be illegally incarcerated, but when they start martial law and rounding up white soccer moms and their kids - well, that's when the Revolution will start. MAGAs and Republicans in general haven't learned a lesson yet.
Just like Stalin… and China… who do you think is going to lower the cost of production in the US? Slave labor… by political prisoners and other “undesirables”. We’ll have an American Gulag😱
The energy we project into the future is significant. It would behoove us all to project the best possible outcome always, not the worst possible scenario. “All of our actions—whether individual or collective—reverberate throughout the interconnected creation.” Amma
I don't disagree but I think it's good to be prepared. "Hope for the best and prepare for the worst." Then do what you are capable of to iincrease the likelihood of the best outcome.
Dunno. His continual rage (that doesn't appear to be monitored by anyone at all within his maldaministration) would appear to indicate he definitely gives quite a few damns about anyone who dares expose corruption. :(
Trump is just a useful tool for the 2025 gang. They're perfectly willing to let him indulge his vindictiveness, in return for his allowing them to turn this country into a failing corrupt kleptocracy. However, Pulte as DNI may be a bridge too far for even the submissive Senate Republicans. We will see.
NSA will supply all, I do mean all, of our txts, convos, searches, travel, credit card purchases, contributions, gun ownership, med history and buy more from data brokers
The fact that there is no real pushback to Trump's high speed demolition of the United States is more disturbing than Trump himself. People often speculate about how long it will take for the country to recover from this catastrophe. I have serious doubts that recovery is even on the menu.
I’m afraid you’re correct. The folks running the voting station in my heavily Latino neighborhood in north Newark said that as of 7 pm, only 85 people had voted in the Democratic primary. Primaries tend not to get a lot of voters, but just 85?
I’m afraid you’re correct. The folks running the voting station in my heavily Latino neighborhood in north Newark said that as of 7 pm, only 85 people had voted in the Democratic primary. Primaries tend not to get a lot of voters, but just 85?
I’m afraid you’re correct. The folks running the voting station in my heavily Latino neighborhood in north Newark said that as of 7 pm, only 85 people had voted in the Democratic primary. Primaries tend not to get a lot of voters, but just 85?
Paul’s posts have been bleak and dark reading for some time now.
Unlike Bruce’s comments (above), I recognise that Paul’s comments are his own alone, and he doesn’t pretend to be expert on every subject. However, for my part at least, I support Paul Krugman’s opinion. It has the ring of sincerity, and my guess is that Paul’s opinions are close to the truth.
What disturbs me is that the political culture in the US has fallen through the floor; there is nothing in the second Trump presidency which fits with the swings and roundabouts of two party democratic governance, and the rump of 30-40% Americans who still support Trump when polled is a truly dangerous sign for the US’ democratic future. I challenge readers who sit-on-the-fence about the US’ future to think again. Perhaps Paul’s language might be ‘colourful’, but have you considered the outcome if his words turn out to be correct?
The world is changing. What is happening in the US will harm the US most of all, of course, but given the gap left by a once-democratic US if she continues on her current path, there will be waves of instability and disruption felt around the world by the collapse of the US.
You and I wont be ‘safe’ reading about the US in Canada, or elsewhere. We’re all going to feel the shock of the US’ collapse, everywhere.
Out of destruction comes creativity. But the destruction that comes first is just that.
I was reading a few days ago the works of a Scottish journalist called Lois Miller, an extreme anti abortion activist who supports jailing woman who have them. Turns out she is on the payroll of the ADF, an American organising whose goal is to of course restrict freedom and export Trump's toxic cultural wars. I'm very glad Westminster has clamped down on dark money flowing into Britain which is causing instability.
Oh yes, Chenda. ‘We should be so lucky’ if the evangelising opinion holders such as Miller would just go away and shout at the wind!! Very much like MAGA, Reform UK (hey guys, that’s one big misnomer..!) attracts and recycles poison-word traders like fish at a fish market…
Ye Olde Westminster has a lot more work to do on turning off the tap of illicit funding of politics. Some behaviours are really persistent …
We survived the Quebec separatists (although they still exist). The Alberta crowd aren’t driven by speaking a different language. I’m not sure what their problem is. My daughter lives there and doesn’t favor them.
Don't you have to have intelligence to be director of national intelligence?
Sycophant Pulte is nothing but a nepo-baby who's only there bc of his FINANCIAL support of felon Trump. He's a miserable failure at FHFA. The incompetence within this regime is perpetual.
And he keeps on grifting... Why oh why cannot 30% of Ameicans realize he's is like the old snake oil salesman? - without a shred of empathy for anyone but himself. Just gimme the money....
I believe there has always been and always will be a "bottom 30%" of Americans who are deadly racists and supremacists - evil and sadistic. The current government opened the door wide for them in 2016 with two words, "Bad hombres".
they believe he is a christian and the preachers say if you believe the bible is the word of god you must believe everything written in it and interpreted by the preacher as what god wants, else you are not god-fearing and will go to hell
All republicans have never been interested in governing. They just want to rule over the destruction they have caused and profit from it. Trump is the endgame of this. He doesn’t care and neither do they.
For years all they've done is put on a show for voters. So laughable (if not so dangerous) that I've thought they should just be done with it and form a theatrical troupe.
Was he ever interested in governing? I don't think so. He was interested in staying out of jail and enriching himself and his family.That's it.
Absolutely correct- and revenge. Just a little guy drunk on power, control and self enrichment.
The small-minded, cold-hearted trump-the-terrible, first American Dick-tater-wannabe met the repulsive, putrid, pulte-the-punk in the dumpster where the trumpster is right at home. RESIST - DEFY - PERSIST! (and, don't let the bastards wear you down!)
He is a sado-masochist, one who takes pleasure and joy from inflicting pain and suffering onto others ... an enemy of humanity.
Speaking of humanity, this report about China looks bad for the West-
https://www.cer.eu/sites/default/files/pb_BS_ST_china_shock_2.0_18.5.26.pdf
Any comment Professor Krugman?
Pulte seems like a perfect addition to the other corrupt sociopaths, miscreants, whackos, butt lickers and unqualified idiots who've crashed the Trump Adm. I guess we'll see if Congressional Republicans have finally had enough of it.
Sure, we’ll see. Just like we’ve been seeing for the past ten years. I for one am sick of waiting to see if the supine, ball-gagged, sleeping in a locked box bring out the gimp congressional Republicans have finally had enough of it.
Per Google Trends, searches for “Epstein files“ skyrocketed in February, peaking just before Trump started the Iran War on February 28. Coincidence?
As Krugman suggests, Trump - along with the Epstein, the war against Iran, and everything Trump does is a distraction from the Federalist / Heritage dismantling of everything good the US had going on - including research, education, environmental protections, civil rights, reasonable elections, etc. It's a deregulation fiasco, meant to benefit the very (clueless) wealthy and that's all.
Trump made a deal with Federalist That he could go out on his revenge tour and not worry about governing, they take care of that for him. They found their stooge and we need to stop them.
Even Krugman can't seem to wrap his head around this. So far, a demented stooge has worked for his Dementors, but it seems to me his dementia is rapidly surpassing his usefulness to them.
I hope he wrecks their Project too through his reckless and disordered mind, just as he has so badly damaged our once not-too-bad country where our grandchildren had the possibility of decent lives.
Peter Thiel has moved to Argentina— is that significant?
You're too kind. Deregulation is far from a fiasco for the Federalist-Heritage oligarchs and none of them are "clueless." Project 2025 is a brilliant, step-by-step blueprint for dismantling the administrative state - i.e., the regulatory system that kept, despite its flaws, a democracy functioning. Yesterday's Federalist-compliant SCOTUS decision on voting rights has probably put the last major nail in the coffin of our Republic.
I think they are clueless because they think that even though they screw up the world for the not-very-wealthy, they are also screwing it up for themselves. If they were not so clueless, they would recognize the problems that they make for the world, they make for themselves.
I see your point, but I think the oligarchs are convinced that money can cushion them sufficiently from a harsh world to continue living opulently while others suffer (and in their suffering are willing to work for ever lower wages...). To an extent history supports this conception. Perhaps, though, the nobility-peon model, especially with the ravages of climate change, eventually has to collapse...a few generations from now.
I was recently reading about poisons in the water, there are poisons in the air, with have this huge extinction going on, an increasingly unpredictable climate. Sure, they think it won't affect them. That is what makes them clueless.
I am not able to discern whether Musk and Bezos actually believe that Mars is a suitable location for colonization or if they just believe they can con the gullible rich folks into financing the scheme. In any event, there is not enough money in the world to cushion even a few oligarchs living opulently. They'll be scavenging for food just like the rest of us.
They don't care. Once you have billions there is no chance that you're ever going to have to deal with any problems. You can jump from country to country, staying one step ahead of the guillotines. As long as you don't mind the smoke drifting in from the civilizations you've looted, life is good.
Love your comment. But Mother Nature's guillotine will catch up with everybody, regardless of country or continent.
Like environmental collapse?
WAIT! GREAT NEWS! John Roberts is on the verge of impeachment NOW & Clarence Thomas on the verge of being charged with FELONY TAX FRAUD! (See Substacks: Scott Dworkin's "The Dworkin Report" - and - Christopher Armitage's "The Existentialist Republic" - PLUS, BONUS: See Alexander Verbeek's Substack: "The Planet" - for "How This Ends" - all of which I've re-stacked, so just click the little blue ball - these 3 guys are sharp & tell us simply how to help!
Do you think there are 67 votes in the US Senate to impeach ANY Republican?
They’ve been all too successful!
Trump at this point is too enthralled by his upcoming birthday and the 250th celebration of the country (and his ballroom) to leave any time or energy for governing.
Coincidence, yes, as in two things happening at about the same time, which is simply what the word means. Cause and effect? Seems very likely. So, a coincidence - and probably also much more.
It should be "Coincidence? I think not!". From the animated movie, The Incredibles.
cause and effect - you nailed it
Coincidences take a ton of planning...
You watch Malcom Nance, too?
Yes. One of the best podcasts out there.
Cuba will soon be operation Epstein distraction, part three and the witless media will continue to be let around by the nose, chasing video footage of explosions to show mouth breathers on Fox News
The rot that pervades the US government has such a long, evil pedigree, and has been successful at undermining all of the efforts to make government responsive to all the people, that I despair of repair, and await the changing climate to wipe the slate clean.
See Chris Hedges for an accurate description of the ruling class, and the ineviteablce decline of the empire.
Empires decline only to be replaced by another empire because wealth and the corruption of religion are too powerful a combination for people to resist.
Who’s Chris Hedges?
Dr. K,
I discovered Chis Hedges when his book, "Empire of Illusion, The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle" pub. 2009 won the Pulitzer Prize. He is a gifted writer, and married to a gifted editor, and he is on Substack and has over 200,000 subscribers. Early in his career he was a correspondent in Central America and it seems later, a career academic. He taught at Princeton and I think he lives in Princeton.
He attracted me to the intellectual issue of distinguishing between illusion and reality and I am still working on it. His thesis was that a culture that cannot distinguish between the two dies and after service in Vietnam and experiencing the oil crises and economic turbulence of the 1970s and a Senate staffer, my sensibilities were shaken. In those days I was aware of the growing environmental threat to the biosphere and the world food supply and health of our species, and I was concerned that the U.S. policy and political communities were having so much difficulty in dealing with the issue. The concerns still exist.
I am still working on the realities of the environmental issue, I am older but my great grandson Jack, age 18 months, has energized my interest in the word "posterity" in our Constitutional Duty to the Future
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union... secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."
The highest purpose of constitutional government is not merely to protect the freedom of the living, but to preserve and enlarge the inheritance of those yet to come.
Thanks.
tyranny or Revolution
We face a choice. Tyranny or revolution.
Jun 1 • Chris Hedges substack
OK, I found it.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/tyranny-or-revolution
Thanks for the link.
Hello Frau.... Chris Hedges is a Progressive, Ground-Breaking Correspondent...
Alas, I think you'll be waiting a very long time.
I have been waiting all my life for meaningful change. For a brief moment in 2008, I thought it was at hand. Considering the date of my birthday, I don’t have that long to wait.
the SC is complicit in giving him immunity from criming and he will give out pardons like party favors at MaL.
Delete the "staying out of jail" part because he was—and still is—simply incapable of imagining this situation. And he’s definitely not wrong about that: the U.S. justice system isn’t designed to put people like Trump behind bars, even if they’ve committed crimes and have been convicted. Accountability is for the little guys, not for Trump and his buddies. But he is really tough on crime, that's for sure ...
accountability is also for anyone who happens to be black
It was a marketing ploy to launch his own network. No one was more surprised than he was to be elected. His wife cried for days.
Exactly right. I don't know if his wife cried for days, but he was shocked that he won, according to all accounts.
Staying out of jail and grand theft are parallel projects to keeping his master(s) happy with their Kompromat leash still around his neck.
He really didn't think he would be elected president back in 2016. It was simply a lark he enjoyed to boost his own ego. WHAT A CURSE HE HAS BESET UPON US!!
Hello Meighan... If DJT had not won Re-Election in 2024, DJT was on track to be Bankrupt, convicted again by mid-2025... That is all that matters to DJT... For this we can thank Elon Musk...
Who’s about to become a trillionaire.
Hello Frau... Elon has earned Multiples on his Investment in DJT....
Definitely !
Anybody who thinks Trump was ever interested in running America is delusional. Even otherwise, that man couldn't run a Casino, how could he run an entire country? America would've been better if there would've been no President at all.
Hello Sanjeev... DJT is living proof of the 'Peter Principal'!!!...
In the first go round the clown car had a few sentient folks, barely qualified but not fully BSC! The lesson learned by all his flock was this was a failure of leadership and they decide to go full sycophancy! Congress should never have let this happen but the GOP is so diminished and defied they can’t stand up and do their jobs!
I am shocked he hasn’t seriously began to fire them…as they fuck up Bigly!
But the meds seem to be calming him…except at night.
🎯
He seemed to enjoy things like extracting Maduro from Venezuela. He also had lots of fun with tariffs until they were struck down. The deportation agenda continues on.
He’s only interested in revenge for the people who disagree with him.
Absolutely, and seeing who he could take down on the way
Pulte as acting head of ALL the intelligence agencies?! So not safe for the US.
Trump recently posted “I AM THE MOST DISRESPECTED PRESIDENT EVER!”
It is at once the most factual tweet he has written, but also demonstrates his complete lack of self-awareness. Another man might then ponder, “Why is that?”
I am equal parts hopeful and fearful for November. That one day will determine whether we fight on or flee.
At least I know I can still read you on Substack in Canada. Do the “detention centers” have WiFi?
Interestingly enough, I can vividly remember when Republicans chided people on the left by saying that respect has to be earned, not demanded.
They were the Republicans of another age. If they were the current bunch, they're lying.
The Republicans have been a racist party plotting fascism for 50 years. I 1964 Goldwater proclaimed that "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice." This has been their modus operandi since then as they use any means available to allow them to take and hold power. Their definition of liberty is White Christian Nationalists doing whatever they want and the rest of us are suffering the consequences. They are well on their way of achieving their goal.
More than 50 as I reckon it. Remember how they imported a horde of white fascists (formerly known as "Southern Democrats") after the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the mid-1960s? They need the white Christian nationalists mainly because there aren't enough oligarchs, mega-multimillionaires, and billionaires to elect anybody to anything.
You're right, they were from another age.... just pointing out the hypocrisy and/or yet another way in which they have abandoned whatever principles they used to have.
What age? You've got to go back to Eisenhower. Nixon began most of this with his racist Southern Strategy. The 4 levers of Republican power are racism. Citizens United and the Supreme Cour in general, the Electoral College, and the Senate's echo of the Electoral College. Well, maybe time to add redistricting.
Don't forget misogyny. The cherry on top of the Southern Strategy was the massive backlash to Roe v. Wade. My take is that Big Money has been all in with the Republican Party at least since the early 20th century and more likely longer. But they didn't have the votes until they pulled in all those festering white racists with the Southern Strategy and the anti-women's-liberation crowd with opposition to Roe v. Wade.
So true. And yet many women voted for Trump, even after the Access Hollywood tape came out and later a civil trial rape conviction. Dark.
GOP knows there on the unpopular side of most issues because their policies are repressive money grabs and do nothing to create American prosperity. The only way they can win is to rig the system and that's exactly what they continue to do - up and down the ballot. In Southern GA, I started the Coastal Georgia People's PAC to counter this and invest in Democrats running for local offices in rural counties. www.coastalgapp.net.
This is the kind of work we need to be doing to rebuild power. The question for me is what do we do once we get into power? What are the most important issues to tackle? How do we ring fence our democracy to prevent a corrupt GOP from happening again in the future?
Patti,
"What are the most important issues to tackle?"
I lived on the Southern Coast of Georgia and even though it is beautiful region it is sparsely populated and like most of the sparsely populated areas in the nation, the area fails in access to quality healthcare, maternal and recently born and the related pre-k through 12 education assets.
I hope racism has disappeared but racism in these important health and education commons was also a problem.
Then there is a more sophisticated problem: air and water quality. My wife who gave birth to our second son in the area was exposed to the poor air quality of the sulfurous fumes of a nearby papermill and still has negative memories of trying to breathe. I don't know if these high toxic emissions industries still exist, but I do know that our state and local policy processes locate the seriously "dirty industries" in our less densely populated areas in an effort to attract jobs. The solution to many of these very tough industrial problems is government sponsored research in our government and university labs. Candidates need to support R&D to solve these problems.
Another solution is to build the dirty emissions industrial capacity in a very sparsely populated area and support it with a national logistics, (hopefully electric) national network.
Clearly, we can't live a good quality of life without soft toilet paper.
Thank you for your work.
and owning the voting machines
and McCarthy who destroyed many careers
. . . and who lives on many decades after his death from cirrhosis.
The Republicans have been a racist party plotting fascism for 50 years. I 1964 Goldwater proclaimed that "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice." This has been their modus operandi since then as they use any means available to allow them to take and hold power. Their definition of liberty is White Christian Nationalists doing whatever they want and the rest of us are suffering the consequences. They are well on their way of achieving their goal.
The Republicans have been a racist party plotting fascism for 50 years. I 1964 Goldwater proclaimed that "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice." This has been their modus operandi since then as they use any means available to allow them to take and hold power. Their definition of liberty is White Christian Nationalists doing whatever they want and the rest of us are suffering the consequences. They are well on their way of achieving their goal.
Later in life Goldwater came out and said the Civil Rights Act was a good thing; he also became something of a feminist. He was deeper intellectually than Reagan (obviously) and honorable whereas Nixon was not (obviously). It's unfortunate that there were no JFK-Goldwater debates in 1964, as the two of them had agreed on. That would have been very entertaining, and better than any debate other than (maybe) Lincoln-Douglas.
The way things are now, common decency would be a huge leap forward.
I will never live in the south or in a red state. Bleh!
I do find people living in blue states and blue cities tend to be helpful, caring, as well as kind.
remind me of what "common decency" was. It's been so long since I heard that phrase.
I suppose it involves treating everyone with civility until there’s absolutely no doubt that they’re complete tosspots.
Republicans have always been so full of shit and propaganda! They sure push for everyone else to be 'respectful' but fail dramatically at being anything close to 'respectful'. They are a group that represents the worst of humanity.
Not Republicans, Trumpublicans. Some good Republicans out there, ashamed of what’s become of their party.
And he was afforded a chance
trump’s motive for everything he says and does is to try in vain to fill the black hole in his psyche where normal people keep their self esteem. He has none. He tries desperately to replace it with a constant supply of attention, whether that is from claims he’s the greatest person ever or the most persecuted person ever. This is the closest he will ever get to thinking he is worth something, which isn’t close at all.
He was always nothing more than a fraud, a con man, a huckster – so much so that he even tries (needs) to con himself. Sad.
It's awful not to be loved. It's the worst thing in the world...It makes you mean, and violent, and cruel. John Steinbeck, East of Eden
This year will once again be "a time that tries our souls". Can We the People, the majority, throw off the slime that has settled on what we used to call America? Can we shove the rich oligarchy that has taken over our government? Can we bring back a tolerant civic society? We better
Depends on how completely they've rigged elections in their favor, as enabled by the SCOTUS.
The world will turn one way or another in November…
I won't be feeling sorry for him
Actually I think he has lots of self esteem. Too much. Psychopaths typically think they’re great.
He's a malignant narcissist, which means he relies on how others act toward him for positive reinforcement. He doesn't have any internal self esteem. I agree he's a psychopath; that's an extreme pathology where the self isn't healthy either.
Many are not in position to flee.
Men who stand in the highest ranks of society seldom hear of their faults; if by any accident an opprobrious clamour reaches their ears, flattery is always at hand to pour in her opiates, to quiet conviction and obtund remorse. Samuel Johnson
Soon the borders will be closed . . . to keep Americans IN.
I always thought build the wall had two meanings .
And even if the borders here aren’t closed, a lot of other countries might prohibit, or strongly restrict, our moving there. The international status of Americans has taken a big hit!
I always thought build the wall had two meanings .
We will NEVER FLEE!!!
A man who announces his own victimhood loudly enough rarely asks himself what he did to earn it. The question would be too dangerous.
Waah waah waah says the diapered baby in the Oval Office
The irony is that respect is earned, not demanded. If someone truly believes they’re the most disrespected president ever, the obvious question is why so many people feel that way. As for the detention centers—hopefully they at least have decent Wi-Fi, because a lot of us may need it to keep up with reality.
Sweetie, they’re gonna take your phone…
They don't even have enough toilets, so I doubt WiFi is available.
Trump may be giving up, but in any case WE cannot; we must fight on. And this is coming from someone who the other day took the Boston Tea Party tour in Bay City on my vacation. Samuel Adams wouldn’t think too kindly of us if we decided to flee.
With good reason he is
An accurate, and yet completely dispiriting, post. Heaven help us.
You said what I was thinking, but better than I could have said it.
But good to know how awful Pulte is.
Accurate and dispiriting is the condition of people who understand exactly what is happening and lack the means to stop it. That is not nothing.
This is so dangerous. No one will trust us certainly in terms of sharing sensitive information. Whoever within the intelligence community who has soldiered on for the good of the country may be dumped or leave in disgust. Donald trump will be fed what he wants to hear. Foreign adversaries will be licking their chops. It’s really really really dangerous.
I agree with your point, Kathleen. The US (the state) is burning bridges like a mad person, but worse than that is the degradation of politics and community which is being determinedly pursued within the US. That is the root of the decline in trust. From abroad (Scotland), it’s not reflexive suspicion of the US, it’s the realisation that the US is being degraded beyond the point where those working relationships can thrive. You see it, I see it, I think we all can see it.
The Biden administration cultivated two intelligence groups in particular. Five Eyes is the intelligence sharing group of English-speaking countries UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The Quad is a group working in the China sphere -- India, Australia, Japan, USA.
NATO has an intelligence division which remained important. And US and Canada are conjoined in intelligence through the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
Today we can't assume any of the intelligence alliances is working or working while excluding USA, but that's likely.
They already don't trust us with sensitive information.
They would be crazy to do so.
Trust had gone a good while ago. And once it is gone it is very hard to make it come back.
Dangerous is the word for an intelligence apparatus that now reports what the executive wants to hear. History has examples. None end well.
Was he ever interested in "governing"? No.
If governing as a representative of the people is the metric, then no he never had an interest in governing. If exercising control and following his own dystopian ideas is the metric of governing, then he is following his playbook, for example, his insistence of tariffs in spite of judicial opinions. His belief in destruction of all who do not praise him, especially any who demonstrate his obvious flaws and weaknesses, is a manifestation of hts personality deficits not related to governing. He may have sunk so deeply into his savage dystopian self that the majority of his actions are now based on this snake pit of his inner being.
Was he ever qualified to govern? No! He proves it every day.
At the time of his first election, he had no experience in government whatsoever. And since then, he's shown no ability or desire to grow into the job.
Was he ever qualified to work the counter at a Burger King? The answer is a clear no - he wouldn't last for one shift.
His interest is and was more like "reigning"--as if he were a king.
This was evident from the start. During his acceptance speech at the 2016 RNC convention he declared: "Nobody knows the system better than me. Which is why I alone can fix it."
he said he "knows more about than anyone" on about 25 subjects. He thinks (?) his IQ rivals Einstein, DaVinci, Galileo, Sagan, Shakespeare, Wright, Bach, Oppenheimer, Turing, Patton, Ike, Pascal, Plato, Buddha, Socrates etc. But his IQ rivals Bozo the Clown, Clarabell, or even Forrest Gump.
He’s only, and forever, singlemindedly focused on filling the vacuum in his psyche where normal people have self esteem. That’s it.
He’s a psychopath. They have an excess of self esteem. He had megalomania.
See my reply to your other comment
The difference between a man who never tried and a man who knew better than to try is the whole story.
This is paranoid, but I worry that those big detention warehouses and brutal private ICE army are not for immigrants, but for Paul Krugman and Heather Cox Richardson and, well … us! Anyone who opposes this mad, destructive regime.
I've had the same thought. And I also fear that Pulte is going to try to be instrumental in using the intelligence resources to spy on Americans and punish dissenters. Texas already just convicted protesters as terrorists because they were dressed in all black.
It’s been over a year since they deported the first US citizen and half a year since they straight up murdered the first US citizen. Why would they not also use their newly built concentration camps against US citizens?
They will if we can't stop them in time. But they won't be so quick to go after white people - that's where white people [Republican and MAGA] will draw the line! Sarcasm, but true. It will be fine for black and brown people to be illegally incarcerated, but when they start martial law and rounding up white soccer moms and their kids - well, that's when the Revolution will start. MAGAs and Republicans in general haven't learned a lesson yet.
The two people who were already murdered on camera by ICE were white.
Just like Stalin… and China… who do you think is going to lower the cost of production in the US? Slave labor… by political prisoners and other “undesirables”. We’ll have an American Gulag😱
after the "illegals" are dispersed the use of the, now empty CCs, will find a use for those who speak out or demonstrate vs the govt
It's only a matter of time.
Unless we the people show up and stop him.
You left out the m in stomp.
:-D
If you're paranoid, I think a lot of us are!
I'm not paranpid, they are spying on me and will eventually arrest me as well as my ilk.
It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.
That is a real possibility. Trump has the psychological profile of a totalitarian thug with the requisite political infrastructure to support him.
Yes, but if the humans get the upper hand we will detain the MAGA in those facilities.
The energy we project into the future is significant. It would behoove us all to project the best possible outcome always, not the worst possible scenario. “All of our actions—whether individual or collective—reverberate throughout the interconnected creation.” Amma
I don't disagree but I think it's good to be prepared. "Hope for the best and prepare for the worst." Then do what you are capable of to iincrease the likelihood of the best outcome.
You are not paranoid. I have thought the very same thing.
Wait until the trumpy Gestapo gets their grubby hands on my phone .
Give them time and ICE will be showing up at all our doors, but I think we can beat them.
Yes, that is a real possibility. Trump has the psychological makeup of a totalitarian thug
with necessary political infrastructure in place.
He, very likely, could be too sick to really give a damn. He needs to GO.
That's problematic too. Who is really flying the plane?
project 2025 sycophants
Dunno. His continual rage (that doesn't appear to be monitored by anyone at all within his maldaministration) would appear to indicate he definitely gives quite a few damns about anyone who dares expose corruption. :(
Trump is just a useful tool for the 2025 gang. They're perfectly willing to let him indulge his vindictiveness, in return for his allowing them to turn this country into a failing corrupt kleptocracy. However, Pulte as DNI may be a bridge too far for even the submissive Senate Republicans. We will see.
But what can they do? He's appointed "Acting" which needs no Senate confirmation and is allowed for 210 days. He can do a lot of damage in that time.
A disturbing conversation Nicolle Wallace highlighted on her show yesterday:
Steve Bannon and Jack Posobiec celebrate the appointment of Bill Pulte as DNI, saying he will “start digging in on the domestic side of terrorism”
Posobiec and Bannon cite ICE protests and election management as areas for Pulte to dig in on
https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-and-jack-posobiec-celebrate-appointment-bill-pulte-dni-saying-he-will
"Election management" "Domestic terrorism" meaning antifa.
There is just no end to the BS and malevolent intent!
NSA will supply all, I do mean all, of our txts, convos, searches, travel, credit card purchases, contributions, gun ownership, med history and buy more from data brokers
The fact that there is no real pushback to Trump's high speed demolition of the United States is more disturbing than Trump himself. People often speculate about how long it will take for the country to recover from this catastrophe. I have serious doubts that recovery is even on the menu.
I’m afraid you’re correct. The folks running the voting station in my heavily Latino neighborhood in north Newark said that as of 7 pm, only 85 people had voted in the Democratic primary. Primaries tend not to get a lot of voters, but just 85?
I’m afraid you’re correct. The folks running the voting station in my heavily Latino neighborhood in north Newark said that as of 7 pm, only 85 people had voted in the Democratic primary. Primaries tend not to get a lot of voters, but just 85?
I’m afraid you’re correct. The folks running the voting station in my heavily Latino neighborhood in north Newark said that as of 7 pm, only 85 people had voted in the Democratic primary. Primaries tend not to get a lot of voters, but just 85?
It’s bigger than one man definitely.
Dear Paul & fellow readers,
Paul’s posts have been bleak and dark reading for some time now.
Unlike Bruce’s comments (above), I recognise that Paul’s comments are his own alone, and he doesn’t pretend to be expert on every subject. However, for my part at least, I support Paul Krugman’s opinion. It has the ring of sincerity, and my guess is that Paul’s opinions are close to the truth.
What disturbs me is that the political culture in the US has fallen through the floor; there is nothing in the second Trump presidency which fits with the swings and roundabouts of two party democratic governance, and the rump of 30-40% Americans who still support Trump when polled is a truly dangerous sign for the US’ democratic future. I challenge readers who sit-on-the-fence about the US’ future to think again. Perhaps Paul’s language might be ‘colourful’, but have you considered the outcome if his words turn out to be correct?
The world is changing. What is happening in the US will harm the US most of all, of course, but given the gap left by a once-democratic US if she continues on her current path, there will be waves of instability and disruption felt around the world by the collapse of the US.
You and I wont be ‘safe’ reading about the US in Canada, or elsewhere. We’re all going to feel the shock of the US’ collapse, everywhere.
Out of destruction comes creativity. But the destruction that comes first is just that.
Anthony, in Scotland.
I was reading a few days ago the works of a Scottish journalist called Lois Miller, an extreme anti abortion activist who supports jailing woman who have them. Turns out she is on the payroll of the ADF, an American organising whose goal is to of course restrict freedom and export Trump's toxic cultural wars. I'm very glad Westminster has clamped down on dark money flowing into Britain which is causing instability.
Oh yes, Chenda. ‘We should be so lucky’ if the evangelising opinion holders such as Miller would just go away and shout at the wind!! Very much like MAGA, Reform UK (hey guys, that’s one big misnomer..!) attracts and recycles poison-word traders like fish at a fish market…
Ye Olde Westminster has a lot more work to do on turning off the tap of illicit funding of politics. Some behaviours are really persistent …
Regards.
Trump and his group are supporting Alberta separatists in Canada.
Canadians must call out the traitors in their ranks.
We survived the Quebec separatists (although they still exist). The Alberta crowd aren’t driven by speaking a different language. I’m not sure what their problem is. My daughter lives there and doesn’t favor them.
It strikes me as geographically absurd as much as anything.
Indeed.
The tariffs have badly hit Canada already. There’s a nativist streak in MAGA. They seem to hate other countries, just like 🍊.
Don't you have to have intelligence to be director of national intelligence?
Sycophant Pulte is nothing but a nepo-baby who's only there bc of his FINANCIAL support of felon Trump. He's a miserable failure at FHFA. The incompetence within this regime is perpetual.
Blue tsunami cannot come soon enough 🟦🌊
Another great choice of music!!
So perfect!
And he keeps on grifting... Why oh why cannot 30% of Ameicans realize he's is like the old snake oil salesman? - without a shred of empathy for anyone but himself. Just gimme the money....
I believe there has always been and always will be a "bottom 30%" of Americans who are deadly racists and supremacists - evil and sadistic. The current government opened the door wide for them in 2016 with two words, "Bad hombres".
they believe he is a christian and the preachers say if you believe the bible is the word of god you must believe everything written in it and interpreted by the preacher as what god wants, else you are not god-fearing and will go to hell
He's back with the stupid tariff stuff again this morning. Goodness help us.
All republicans have never been interested in governing. They just want to rule over the destruction they have caused and profit from it. Trump is the endgame of this. He doesn’t care and neither do they.
For years all they've done is put on a show for voters. So laughable (if not so dangerous) that I've thought they should just be done with it and form a theatrical troupe.
trump was never interested in governing. He never understood that the president works FOR the people. 😡
Oh, he understood, all right.
He just doesn't care.