The Trump presidency is the most corrupt in American history — and now it’s openly breaking laws, ignoring judges, and threatening us all with the power of the state…
The most dangerous aspect, in a sea of danger, is that big law is caving to EOs that are facially illegal. A president can issue executive orders for the sole purpose of ensuring that existing laws are “faithfully executed.” He can’t issue them to challenge existing law, he can’t issue them to retaliate against firms that applied existing law, and he can’t issue them prophylactically to insulate himself from assured legal consequences in the future.
Of those how many has Trump actually complied with
And how has SCOTUS ruled on cases he appealed.
Quickly learning the lesson, that Lower court rulings, evenCircuit court, are of no effect for Trump, If he doesn't like the ruling, he ignores it, if he appeals to SCOTUS, they rule for him. The one exception was USAID paying contractors and that upholds contract law, yet Trump has ignored the SCOTUS ruling and hasn't paid the contractors and USAID is shuttered and people will die, and Russia will rush into fill the vacuum.
Yes Trump ignores the courts. He ignores the rule of law. He ignores decency as do his sycophants. Sending many to El Salvador who apparently broke no laws and who were accorded no due process. Setting incomprehensible tariffs without a true national emergency to justify them. The tragedies for individuals and families roll on with no end in sight. Tomorrow as many of you will do I'll go to the local protest. The odd seem long that he can be stopped from ruining the country, but, hope is hope. Give it a try, at least you can say you didn't sit on your butts and yell at the TV.
It seems to me that we are currently on United States Flight 93, the terrorists have locked themselves in the cockpit, and we know they have no intention of ever landing the plane.
Today, Donald Trump took a baseball bat to the world economy before shooting America in the head by slapping a massive wall of tariffs on countries around the world with a rationale that was absolutely Kafka-esque. The markets have no idea what he’s doing or why—and uncertainty is death to investors.
Trump put a formula in his Executive Order to make things seem more scientific, or something, but it’s mathematically meaningless—two of the variables are set to result in the number 1 which is then multiplied by another number. Calling it brain-dead is too generous.
Trump slapped tariffs on uninhabited islands, and places populated exclusively by penguins, while also increasing tariffs on China to an insane 54% tax on their goods. which they will pass on to every American.
What’s important to understand is that Trump is replicating the conditions for an economic depression—on purpose. ICYMI, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act by Hoover in 1930 was an attempt to generate “more revenue” but actually turned a recession into the Great Depression. This is a feature not a bug for the Trump regime.
There are people who are trying to call this a “risk” or a “gamble,” while others are calling it a “big mistake.” It is neither. A financial meltdown is exactly the result they want and expect.
The PayPal Mafia, led by Musk, Thiel, and David Sacks—who is now White House “AI and Cryptocurrency Tsar”—have wanted to destroy the dollar and replace it with digital currency controlled by them for nearly 30 years. That’s what PayPal was originally for. Now they intend to replace the dollar with Bitcoin—no matter what the rest of us think of that idea. This isn’t a proposal, it’s sabotage, massive fraud, and the greatest heist in US history.
<knock knock>
“Hello, ma’am, I’m sorry to see your porch is engulfed in flames, would you like to buy one of my fire extinguishers?”
Grand Theft Crypto: “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve”
When I was a kid I went to New York City with my mom and there was a three card monte game going on the sidewalk so I made her stop to watch it. After a while I got the hang of it and told my mom I wanted to try it. She warned me I would never see the money again but agreed to forward me some allowance anyway, so I gave the guy $10 and he laid out the c…
We can see what’s happening right in front of our eyes. There is no version of this story where democracy survives if we continue to sit quietly in our seats on Flight 93. The economy is just one target. If we stay on this trajectory, this regime will destroy our freedom, steal our resources, co-opt our government and end the American Experiment permanently. The relative peace since WWII will be replaced by a world torn apart by wars, oppression, and genocide.
A 21st century feudalistic society. Keep people scrambling on the bottom tiers if Maslow’s Hierarchy on Needs and they will have little means, energy or opportunity to meaningfully pushback. I can’t think of anything more oppositional to the Christian religion they wave like a flag and use to enslave the masses.
A few Congressional Republicans need to stand up.....
Heather Cox Richardson: "Republican members of Congress could stop Trump at any time. In the case of tariffs, they could simply reassert their constitutional power to manage tariffs. If they choose not to and the economy doesn’t recover and thrive as Trump keeps promising, voters can be expected to hold them, as well as him, to account.".
Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, joined Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington in introducing a bipartisan bill to rein in presidential authority over tariffs and give Congress more control over future trade duties.
Why It Matters
The bipartisan bill comes a day after President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day," in which he imposed a new round of sweeping tariffs on foreign imports, reigniting debate over executive power in trade policy.
Several Republicans, many of whom are Trump allies, have raised concerns about Trump's tariffs, warning that they will raise prices and derail the economy. Many economists have warned that significant tariffs could spark a recession and that American consumers would end up shouldering the burden of the tariffs as importers pass on costs in the form of higher prices.
Jerry Weiss has been working on it for a long time. He has a list of Republicans who say they want to work with us. I've told you about Miami Dade -- 3 Republicans represent a Democratic majority.
I've been asking people to contact the Cuban American National Foundation. All 3 are Cuban Americans. More than a half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela also face the loss of their U.S. legal status as the Trump administration moves to terminate a Biden-era parole program for those countries. It’s part of a broader Trump-led effort to phase out temporary protections, including temporary protected status for Haitians and Venezuelans.
Meanwhile the least common denominator is national security. Dozens of Congressional Republicans oppose Trump on Ukraine.
That bipartisan bill Daniel, was killed by Mike Johnson in the house, I don't understand the manuever but he was able to declare the rest of the legislative session, one long day, which inhibits the ability of anyone bringing it to the flooor.
and even if they did, Trump would never sign it.
However I am sure that you are alluding to finding enough Republicans to bring an impeachment up. I am not sure if that can be done on the same day that this congress is in current session, given that Mike Johnson's maneuver.
Even if it could, it would and he was impeached, then I doubt that the Senate with what 54 Republicans would remove him.
Is it really an amendment or stand alone legislation,The way it is cast, it is stand alone legislation,and to my knowledge budget bills are not amended, if they are and they start in the house,not the senate, and reach the Senate they are sent back sans the amendment for reconciliation.
Either way it is going nowhere.Mike Johnson has seen to that,as it can't be brought to the floor until the next business day,and Johnson has declared that the congressional business day is one long day and lasts until the end of the year.
The debate early Friday was generally one-sided. Senate Democrats are taking full advantage of 25 hours of their available debate time, while Republicans yielded much of theirs in order to get to an all-night voting frenzy referred to as a vote-a-rama. Once lawmakers have exhausted their list of amendments and themselves, they’ll move to a final vote on the plan itself, most likely sometime Saturday morning.
The Senate is expected to approve the measure. The House will also have to pass it to unlock the process that Republicans can use to pass legislation with a simple majority and avoid a Democratic filibuster.
And that’s just the beginning.
Developing a final bill will take weeks, if not months, with the GOP leadership and Trump needing virtually every Republican vote to get a package over the finish line. The GOP leaders will confront concerns from fiscal hawks in deep red states and congressional districts who want trillions of dollars in spending cuts to help pay for the tax breaks. And they will confront dozens of lawmakers in swing districts and states worried about what those cuts will mean for their constituents, and their reelection chances.
It will be a delicate task with no guarantee of success, particularly as economic gyrations from Trump’s tariff policies test his ability to keep Republicans united.
So the Senate originated tariff limit bill is not part of the budget bill, but separate legislation and will not be appended to the house bill either,that is now I assess the situation
I also wonder the purpose of the 25 hr debate clause,of what use it is it, other to grandstand and have your words entered into the public record, which nobody ever reads anyway,speechifying changes no minds or votes,
as a procedural device it can thwart a bill, if their is a 34 hour time limit on a bill from introduction to adoption.
Ironic that the farmers who by and large are Republicans and voted for Trump are now being hit by Trump's tariffs and his attack in the Dept of Agriculture's The Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS) and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) were federal programs that provided funding for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farmers.
Yet they still support Trump because of his anti DEI program, while they whine about losing income.
Car dealers are the biggest MAGAts, like Darry Issa, them and Real estate brokers.
We cannot overstate what has just happened. It took just 71 days for Donald Trump to wreck the American economy, mortally wound NATO, and destroy the American-led world order.
It was almost 111 years earlier, on August 3, 1914, that the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, stood with a friend at dusk at a window of his room in the Foreign Office, looking out across St. James’s Park. Seeing the first lights being turned on along the Mall, Grey famously remarked, “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”
The Liberal statesman was right. World War I, the Russian Revolution, the rise of fascism, the Great Depression, Stalin and Hitler, World War II and the Holocaust—these all followed in the space of three decades. The lamps were not to be lit again in Grey’s lifetime. A century of relative stability and peace, of progress and prosperity, was followed by thirty years of chaos and war, of darkness and misery.
Midway through this terrible period, the imprisoned Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci—a very different man from Grey, but as perceptive in his own way—is said to have remarked, “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”
And so it was.
And yet. That time of monsters was succeeded by another stretch—an 80-year-long stretch—in which the forces of civilization were once again mostly in control. The United States picked up the baton of liberalism and leadership from Britain.
Many of us have had the good fortune to live for most of our lifetimes in a world more like the one Grey looked back on in 1914 than the one Gramsci experienced in the 1930s.
But now a new time of monsters—of terrible mistakes, monstrous deeds, and disastrous consequences—could well be upon us.
Yes Mr. Farrar Kristi Noem is one of those monsters. More are in the wings.
Bertrand Russell predicted what would happen if the world engaged in what became WWl. He was imprisoned for his publicly stated views. But in the end, he was correct. I love to read Russell. I have been doing it since I was 20 yrs. old.
They call WWI the cousin war because the Tsar, the King, the Kaiser were all grandchildren of Victoria. Yet they didn't start the war, they were dragged or pushed into it by political and financial interests that held the real power in Europe. Clemenceau of France was an enemy of royalists, especially the Kaiser, still smarting from the Franco Prussian war. which resulted in the loss of the Rhineland,
The rationale for entry of America into the war was specious and suspicious. one being the sinking of the Lusitania, which happened two years previous and it was carrying munitions (America using civilians as a human shield)
The Zimmerman telegram was really not a reason to declare war on Germany it was only a telegram, not an attack.
Yes Mr. Farrar, the other forces at play included the fact that the Germans announced that they would resume unrestricted submarine attacks, I think, on Feb. 1. The U.S. declared war on Germany on feb. 3. The Lusitania sinking was clearly a propaganda message, I agree. But a good one. I read that history which you alluded to when I was in ROTC 60 years ago. One of the things the U.S. Army does well, is teach history.
As for the Zimmermann telegram; the U.S. was so much more powerful than Mexico, and Mexico knew it, that there was no chance Mexico would be making war on the U.S. But it is understandable that the Germans would try their gambit anyway.
I am plowing through the American historian Page Smith's, 9600 word history of the U.S. It is in 8 volumes. I am currently in Vol. lV, the period just after the victorious war against Mexico. I'm loving it. He is much easier to follow than Eric Hobsbawm, who I am also plowing through. Hobsbawm makes the assumption, in his writing, that the reader is much more sophisticated, historically, than I am.
The Luisitiana was sunk in 1915, the US declared war on Germany on Apr6, 1917 not Feb of any year.
AFIK the US was officially neutral, but was shipping armaments to England, a, on the eve of the Lusitania's voyage, the German embassy in Washington placed advertisements in American newspapers warning that vessels flying the British flag or those of her allies were liable to destruction in the waters around the British Isles, and that travelers did so at their own risk
Perhaps people will start voting like their life depends on it, because now it truly does.
Americans must consider whether they are at risk if they travel. That has been a consideration before, but it wasn't because crossing the border when you made it home could be dangerous.
Trump and MAGA are their names---corruption is their game. It is breathtaking. Putin and the other murdering psychopath dictators must envy their success.
On a brighter note, Milwaukee ran out of ballots. You can bet they will better prepare for midterms.
Every year, I and my Bulgarian spouse spend a few months in our house in Europe. We finally decided to marry because we were sick and tired of ICE harassment every time we returned stateside on an H1B - even when I was returning from official US government business trips in Brussels. My spouse was typically put in detention for several hours upon return for no reason. Now a naturalized citizen with a US Passport, I do not for a minute assume that under Trump we will be able to keep breezing through re-entry without ICE harassment even with US Passports.
Would that Republicans were capable of doing anything in this world, not for their own financial benefit, but simply because it is the right thing to do. Then they would have had the spine to stop Trump before he ever got started. Or if so many voters weren't so easily strung along on the basis of their irrational fears and bigotry.
You identify and describe our single most important problem!
“GO TO THE HEAD OF THE CLASS!
EVERY person living in the USA has a right to be free from government oppression!
This right is guaranteed in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights!
When ANY person IN THE USA Is unlawfully seized by the government and punished in any way WITHOUT THE PROTECTION OF DUE PROCESS,
THEN, EVERY person IN THE USA is in danger of unlawful seizure and punishment by the government WITHOUT DUE PROCESS PROTECTION!
IMHO, Judge James Boasberg should accelerate his charges against the TRUMP regime!
Judge Boasberg should immediately order the TRUMP regime to retrieve EVERY PERSON UNLAWFULLY SEIZED AND PUNISHED WITHOUT DUE PROCESS !
(The government’s ploy of “State Secrets “ is unveiled as their own war plans are repeatedly discussed in open channels!)
TRUMP’S regime will continue to ignore, resist, intimidate and mock Judge Boasberg’s order!
All fascist governments do so!
Then, the Honorable James Boasberg MUST courageously use his judicial power yo PROTECT OUR MOST BASIC RIGHTS!
We urge the Honorable Judge Boasberg to DEPUTIZE the Marines ordering them, under his judicial authority, to retrieve all persons seized and punished without “due process protections” as guaranteed in the U.S. CONSTITUTION!
The MAGAs, with the help of lying Biden Democrats, put Trump and his fascist stormtropper henchmen in absolute power. When Democrats controlled Congress, they might have passed laws to neuter "Citizens United," which might have prevented the corrupt oligarch spending to put our immoral president back in power, but they did not. Thus, we should not get on our moral high-horse about criminality that America's political machines enabled.
This morning, a Catholic priest friend sent me a video of a Reagan speech decrying tariffs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj6N-WBPrVw). Reagan pointed out all the negative blowback they create, like plunging investment values and inflation, not to mention the potential for both trade and a shooting war.
As a retired servicemember and senior civil servant, I know that Trump and Musk have committed treason already by sabotaging the entire federal government. Just freezing grants for a few months will severely retrard the pace of research. It takes many months just to prepare a grant application then schedule it for peer review, then rank and fund it if it is solid science and contributes to public health.
My sense is that the only way out of this mess is for the MAGA voters to start enjoying repos and foreclosures bigly. I guess it is possible that grocery prices alone might rile some - hard to guess.
Yeahbut - honorable men are suckers. They will never become billionaires. Money is all Trump-types care about. When you think about it. Very few presidents in our lifetime would at least pass for honorable. Nevertheless, roughly half of American voters keep voting for crooks. Curiously, among the honorable presidents (Ike, Kennedy, Johnson, Ford, Carter, GHW Bush, & Obama), all had served in the military except Obama.
I have to wonder if tomorrow's Hands Off demonstrations will be the "just cause" to call out the National Guard. Since trump is "otherwise engaged in some high stakes golf watching" I imagine Pete Hegseth will gladly roll the tanks & Humvees out to curtail the non-existent "violence" in the streets. And we MUST remember that the JAGS have been fired so there are NO ROE on how to handle & act in a protest. The ROE are whatever he wants them to be, Constitution be damned Posse Comitatus be damned!
Below is my comment to Robert Reich. It would not hurt you to read it too!
Dr Reich, you must tell"THE REST OF THE STORY!" Consumers will not stop buying with inflation. The desire to consume will not stop with inflation. Credit card companies will inhale huge amounts of credit at 30% interest! The uncontrolled desire combined with the uncontrolled greed of the credit card companies will result in a bankrupt consumer economy... that will result in a default on T-Bills. Game over! Trump and his billionaires with their "offshore" trillions will move in and buy up America for pennies on the dollar or cryptocurrency. It doesn't matter if it is a bodega down on the corner or the richest nation on earth; the system is the same. People see the administration stealing from the government, not them. In a democracy, the governed are you and me! These tariffs are the greatest theft of the American individual ever committed! You need to stop talking about an inanimate government and talk about an animate you and me! It's YOUR MONEY being stolen.
Cartesian dynamics - Reality is what you say it is, if you have the viciousness and power to enforce it on others. When rules are not recognized, only exceptions exist.
Offer enough incentives to the meek and the weak, and they will soon create their own exceptions, following your lead. Right now, 'murka looks very similar to pre-invasion Gaza, ruled by zionist philosophy. With rebellion came annihilation. Will the 'murkan military and/or LE become a rogue IDF? 'murka is on the fast track back to the 15th century, a sure sign extinction is in high gear. Vanity will not save humans, nor will capitulation. At least extinction will save us from ourselves. Tragic biological mistake that will take eons to remedy.
Here is the situation with the American Military. Speaking as a regular officer that still has a commission, but is on the retired rolls, thus subject ot the Uniform Code of Military Justice
Officers take an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemeis foreign and domestic.
Enlisted take an oath to do the same but added, obey the order of the President and officers appointed over them.
There is a chain of command, and it all starts with the Commander in Chief, a title he has only in relation to the military,
The CIC orders the Secretary of Defense, he in turn orders the Secretaries of Army, Navy, Air Force, they in turn order their branches of service into action.
The Military follows orders, they are essentially programmed robots in that sense. We can only exercise personal discretion, tactically, on the field at the moment, as to the best way to achieve the objective.
We know that if we disobey an order we will or can be court martialed. And we have no idea of how the court would rule if we claimed that we did not follow legal orders, to that end Trump has fired all the Judge Advocate Generals, so there is no one to defend the Constitution.
Finally he appoints careerists and ideological toadies in the top of the chain of command.
Hitler had no problem commanding the Wehrmacht, even though there were General officers and FieldMarshalls that were not NAZI's.
Tsk, tsk, Daniel. While you wander in the weeds, the mower grinds closer. The mythology of human uniqueness is being exposed for the con job it is. I appreciate your vigor and tenacity so much I liked your comment. At least BS can be turned into compost.
Gaza: Palestinians tortured, summarily killed by Hamas forces during 2014 conflict
Hamas forces carried out a brutal campaign of abductions, torture and unlawful killings against Palestinians accused of “collaborating” with Israel and others during Israel’s military offensive against Gaza in July and August 2014, according to a new report by Amnesty International.
"‘Strangling Necks’: Abduction, torture and summary killings of Palestinians by Hamas forces during the 2014 Gaza/Israel conflict highlights a series of abuses, such as the extrajudicial execution of at least 23 Palestinians and the arrest and torture of dozens of others, including members and supporters of Hamas’s political rivals, Fatah."
In a statement issued on Wednesday night, the PA said that Hamas had to stop aligning itself with "foreign agendas" and to "prioritise the interests of the Palestinian people", in a reference to alleged Iranian support for the group.
Disengagement Plan Implementation Law in June 2004. In 2005, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip by dismantling all 21 Israeli settlements there. As part of this process, four Israeli settlements in the West Bank were dismantled as well.
As of 2023, approximately 1.782 million Muslims, or 18.1% of the total population, were Israeli citizens. Some voluntarily serve in the Israeli military. There is a Arab party that has seats in the Knesset.
Some of the people killed in the masacre were Moselms, mainly Bedouins. At least one of the hostages was an Israeli Moslem.
You are only looking at the short term. Gaza and WB are both wards of the Israeli state. The systemic oppression of Palestinians by certain elements of Israeli society has been in effect for decades. This is well documented by many ME scholars. I have heard their discussions and speeches. I am not saying all citizens of Israel are in favor of this, but the substance is true. That is why I said what I said. Hamas being elected to lead the Gaza Strip was a result of Hamas being the org. that actually found funding to assist Gazans. A poor choice, but a logical one if you were living in Gaza. It is zionist philosophy to treat Palestinians as, at best, second-class citizens.
The oppression of Arabs is another case, And I quite agree, However my point was that HAMAS ruled Gaza, not the Zionist. Unless Oct 7th was a Zionist plot.
As regards the Muslim vs Jew problem. Problems have solutions. There is no solution ergo no problem, but a difficulty.
Islam, not just Palestinians, represent and existential threat to Israel,if not Jews.
And I am referring to their sacred text, the Quran and the hadiths, I can quote sahih and book but to what use at the moment.
Israel by it's very existence blasphemes sacred Arab soil.
The only solution is not a one state, two state, but no state solution.
At first Israel is the victim (except in the eyes of antisemites and Muslims) then a turn of events,Israel becomes empowered and then Arabs are the victims, back and forth it goes.
I am neither a Zionist, an Arabist am Islamist or Judaist. Just an outsider looking in, and not swayed by propaganda and pictures.
There is no Final solution, well Hitler thought that there was, Iran, HAMAS, Hezbollah, and Islamist seem to think there is.
In the meantime, Israel has served its function as a land locked aircraft carrier, keeping watch over the Islamic oil fields. The King of Saudi Arabia, the Sheiks of Kuwait, UAE,Qata could very easily bring the world to it's knees by twisting the handle on the oil spigot clockwise.
The state of Israelis the world's insurance against such an event.
I agree with the essence of what you say. The yo-yo of grievances goes far back in time. It is also obvious that grievances have no solution. Physical situations may have solutions, absent the hegemony of grievances. HAMAS was heinously wrong to commit mass murder and kidnapping. The thought process was crazed and unforgivable. If they did not see the logical conclusion to their actions they must have been brain dead. Your tactical analysis of why Israel is needed by non-Israelis and/or non-Jews is cogent when you look at resource strategies that benefit Europe and 'murka. But this now must turn a new page too. If we persist in clinging to the ancient mythologies of humans as 'all or nothing,' managed by capitalist greed and pathetic narcissism, then the temperature will rise too high before the oil runs out. The maga denial machine is full tilt in the suicide by climate disruption paradigm. Consumptive addictions are the hardest to break, next to the addiction to grievances.
Mick, your heart is in the right place, obviously. Humanity is wrapped up in a ball of shit in the form of twine, that can't be unraveled, a real Gordeons knot.
There are a number of problems. The primary problem is mankind. We are frail creatures whose primary motivation is to survive, once we achieve that we are motivated to control the environment, that we may survive. but basic survival is not sufficient, we need to be comfortable, have spare time to do something other than find something to eat.
We need to control everything, nature, others and we develop tools for control.
Physical tools help us control the environment,or at least keep it at bay, thus we build weapons, dams, railroads, roads, vehicles to transport us over land, water and sky.
To control humans we create concepts, ideas or ideologies, like religion.
A lot, not all,of the world's ills can be laid in the lap of the Abrahamic religion, and it actually exists, not because of spiritual needs, but as a tool of social control. An excellent, out of print book, Word Controlled Humans by John Harlan.
I have no use for them or their supplicants, they are all anti human,supremacist, triumphalist, and patriarchal.
In a word,oppressive, and they sweeten the sour taste and effects, with a little myrrh, frankincense, and sugar.
The protection against detention without sufficient evidence reviewed by a judge (due process) was enshrined in the Magna Carta (1215 A.C.E.). It has been hailed as the fundamental protection in our legal system against the abuse of power. It was adapted in the US Constitution as you have outlined. It was extended to acts of the king, Charles II (1651), so he could not do through his chancellor (a bishop) what Trump is doing through ICE.
But winning this protection was not easy. The Brits only got it through repeatedly taking up arms against the powers of the day.
Well said and so upsetting! We the people must find a way to resist and end these horrid government acts of abuse! And find a way to rid us of the evil perpetrators of these illegal actions.
If the Mump maladministration and its toadies are not constrained by the law, then why would those who oppose them be? And for how long? We may soon begin to learn. Which will be the end of the ideals of this country, because of those who voted for these grotesques and the limp-wristed lukewarm too into their own small lives to bother voting. Hope they are enjoying what they enabled.
The most dangerous aspect, in a sea of danger, is that big law is caving to EOs that are facially illegal. A president can issue executive orders for the sole purpose of ensuring that existing laws are “faithfully executed.” He can’t issue them to challenge existing law, he can’t issue them to retaliate against firms that applied existing law, and he can’t issue them prophylactically to insulate himself from assured legal consequences in the future.
The role of courts. As of today 166 suits. https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/
How many of the 166 have been ruled against Trump
Of those how many has Trump actually complied with
And how has SCOTUS ruled on cases he appealed.
Quickly learning the lesson, that Lower court rulings, evenCircuit court, are of no effect for Trump, If he doesn't like the ruling, he ignores it, if he appeals to SCOTUS, they rule for him. The one exception was USAID paying contractors and that upholds contract law, yet Trump has ignored the SCOTUS ruling and hasn't paid the contractors and USAID is shuttered and people will die, and Russia will rush into fill the vacuum.
Legals suits do not assuage my fears.
Yes Trump ignores the courts. He ignores the rule of law. He ignores decency as do his sycophants. Sending many to El Salvador who apparently broke no laws and who were accorded no due process. Setting incomprehensible tariffs without a true national emergency to justify them. The tragedies for individuals and families roll on with no end in sight. Tomorrow as many of you will do I'll go to the local protest. The odd seem long that he can be stopped from ruining the country, but, hope is hope. Give it a try, at least you can say you didn't sit on your butts and yell at the TV.
Totally agree, doing nothing is indefensible, do what you must
As my 'ol pappy would say, gotta start somewhere.
I agree Mr. Farrar.
Yes he can Ms. Haake, as long as he has the power to do so. And he does have it. 77 million Americans foolishly gave it to him, a for the second time.
While the media kvetches over tariff’s they are missing the real picture, where it is headed
https://www.mind-war.com/p/we-are-flight-93
It seems to me that we are currently on United States Flight 93, the terrorists have locked themselves in the cockpit, and we know they have no intention of ever landing the plane.
Today, Donald Trump took a baseball bat to the world economy before shooting America in the head by slapping a massive wall of tariffs on countries around the world with a rationale that was absolutely Kafka-esque. The markets have no idea what he’s doing or why—and uncertainty is death to investors.
Trump put a formula in his Executive Order to make things seem more scientific, or something, but it’s mathematically meaningless—two of the variables are set to result in the number 1 which is then multiplied by another number. Calling it brain-dead is too generous.
Trump slapped tariffs on uninhabited islands, and places populated exclusively by penguins, while also increasing tariffs on China to an insane 54% tax on their goods. which they will pass on to every American.
What’s important to understand is that Trump is replicating the conditions for an economic depression—on purpose. ICYMI, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act by Hoover in 1930 was an attempt to generate “more revenue” but actually turned a recession into the Great Depression. This is a feature not a bug for the Trump regime.
There are people who are trying to call this a “risk” or a “gamble,” while others are calling it a “big mistake.” It is neither. A financial meltdown is exactly the result they want and expect.
The PayPal Mafia, led by Musk, Thiel, and David Sacks—who is now White House “AI and Cryptocurrency Tsar”—have wanted to destroy the dollar and replace it with digital currency controlled by them for nearly 30 years. That’s what PayPal was originally for. Now they intend to replace the dollar with Bitcoin—no matter what the rest of us think of that idea. This isn’t a proposal, it’s sabotage, massive fraud, and the greatest heist in US history.
<knock knock>
“Hello, ma’am, I’m sorry to see your porch is engulfed in flames, would you like to buy one of my fire extinguishers?”
Grand Theft Crypto: “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve”
When I was a kid I went to New York City with my mom and there was a three card monte game going on the sidewalk so I made her stop to watch it. After a while I got the hang of it and told my mom I wanted to try it. She warned me I would never see the money again but agreed to forward me some allowance anyway, so I gave the guy $10 and he laid out the c…
We can see what’s happening right in front of our eyes. There is no version of this story where democracy survives if we continue to sit quietly in our seats on Flight 93. The economy is just one target. If we stay on this trajectory, this regime will destroy our freedom, steal our resources, co-opt our government and end the American Experiment permanently. The relative peace since WWII will be replaced by a world torn apart by wars, oppression, and genocide.
So, as Todd Beamer said more than 23 years ago:
“Are you ready?”
A 21st century feudalistic society. Keep people scrambling on the bottom tiers if Maslow’s Hierarchy on Needs and they will have little means, energy or opportunity to meaningfully pushback. I can’t think of anything more oppositional to the Christian religion they wave like a flag and use to enslave the masses.
A few Congressional Republicans need to stand up.....
Heather Cox Richardson: "Republican members of Congress could stop Trump at any time. In the case of tariffs, they could simply reassert their constitutional power to manage tariffs. If they choose not to and the economy doesn’t recover and thrive as Trump keeps promising, voters can be expected to hold them, as well as him, to account.".
Grassley asserts congressional authority to oversee trade. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-republican-pushes-congressional-approval-presidents-tariffs-2025-04-03/
Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, joined Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington in introducing a bipartisan bill to rein in presidential authority over tariffs and give Congress more control over future trade duties.
Why It Matters
The bipartisan bill comes a day after President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day," in which he imposed a new round of sweeping tariffs on foreign imports, reigniting debate over executive power in trade policy.
Several Republicans, many of whom are Trump allies, have raised concerns about Trump's tariffs, warning that they will raise prices and derail the economy. Many economists have warned that significant tariffs could spark a recession and that American consumers would end up shouldering the burden of the tariffs as importers pass on costs in the form of higher prices.
Maybe this is the start of shared government. https://jerryweiss.substack.com/
This must happen before the fascists consolidate even more power. It is pathetic watching once competent people cave to a despot.
Jerry Weiss has been working on it for a long time. He has a list of Republicans who say they want to work with us. I've told you about Miami Dade -- 3 Republicans represent a Democratic majority.
I've been asking people to contact the Cuban American National Foundation. All 3 are Cuban Americans. More than a half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela also face the loss of their U.S. legal status as the Trump administration moves to terminate a Biden-era parole program for those countries. It’s part of a broader Trump-led effort to phase out temporary protections, including temporary protected status for Haitians and Venezuelans.
Meanwhile the least common denominator is national security. Dozens of Congressional Republicans oppose Trump on Ukraine.
That bipartisan bill Daniel, was killed by Mike Johnson in the house, I don't understand the manuever but he was able to declare the rest of the legislative session, one long day, which inhibits the ability of anyone bringing it to the flooor.
and even if they did, Trump would never sign it.
However I am sure that you are alluding to finding enough Republicans to bring an impeachment up. I am not sure if that can be done on the same day that this congress is in current session, given that Mike Johnson's maneuver.
Even if it could, it would and he was impeached, then I doubt that the Senate with what 54 Republicans would remove him.
Unfortunately what I see is a forlorn hope.
I don't think that's true. The budget bills in the senate are not the same.
All budget legislation starts in the house, but if the senate version is different will go to reconcilation.
Budget bills. They concern funding the government,not how to fund the government
The tariff bill in discussion is not about funding the government, or rather allocating money for each Cabinet department.
Amendment to the budget bills, which gave Trump tariff authority.
Is it really an amendment or stand alone legislation,The way it is cast, it is stand alone legislation,and to my knowledge budget bills are not amended, if they are and they start in the house,not the senate, and reach the Senate they are sent back sans the amendment for reconciliation.
Either way it is going nowhere.Mike Johnson has seen to that,as it can't be brought to the floor until the next business day,and Johnson has declared that the congressional business day is one long day and lasts until the end of the year.
That's what they happen to be doing today. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-senate-convenes-as-republicans-push-for-trumps-budget-bill-of-tax-and-spending-cuts
The debate early Friday was generally one-sided. Senate Democrats are taking full advantage of 25 hours of their available debate time, while Republicans yielded much of theirs in order to get to an all-night voting frenzy referred to as a vote-a-rama. Once lawmakers have exhausted their list of amendments and themselves, they’ll move to a final vote on the plan itself, most likely sometime Saturday morning.
The Senate is expected to approve the measure. The House will also have to pass it to unlock the process that Republicans can use to pass legislation with a simple majority and avoid a Democratic filibuster.
And that’s just the beginning.
Developing a final bill will take weeks, if not months, with the GOP leadership and Trump needing virtually every Republican vote to get a package over the finish line. The GOP leaders will confront concerns from fiscal hawks in deep red states and congressional districts who want trillions of dollars in spending cuts to help pay for the tax breaks. And they will confront dozens of lawmakers in swing districts and states worried about what those cuts will mean for their constituents, and their reelection chances.
It will be a delicate task with no guarantee of success, particularly as economic gyrations from Trump’s tariff policies test his ability to keep Republicans united.
So the Senate originated tariff limit bill is not part of the budget bill, but separate legislation and will not be appended to the house bill either,that is now I assess the situation
I also wonder the purpose of the 25 hr debate clause,of what use it is it, other to grandstand and have your words entered into the public record, which nobody ever reads anyway,speechifying changes no minds or votes,
as a procedural device it can thwart a bill, if their is a 34 hour time limit on a bill from introduction to adoption.
Things are in a state of flux.
GOP owns tariff war pain inflicted on US farmers
https://investigatemidwest.org/2025/03/18/gop-owns-tariff-war-pain-inflicted-on-us-farmers/
The MAGAT a-hole that represents my home town also happens to be a car dealer. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/04/trump-tariffs-trade-war-consumers-pennsylvania-mike-kelly-00268645
5 more Republican car dealers in Congress.
Canada is a major issue for 4 in senate.
Ironic that the farmers who by and large are Republicans and voted for Trump are now being hit by Trump's tariffs and his attack in the Dept of Agriculture's The Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS) and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) were federal programs that provided funding for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farmers.
Yet they still support Trump because of his anti DEI program, while they whine about losing income.
Car dealers are the biggest MAGAts, like Darry Issa, them and Real estate brokers.
Thom: Some years ago on your TV show you mentioned the 80 year cycle. Time for you to revisit, because I received this email today from the Bulwark quoted in part https://www.thebulwark.com/p/lamps-going-out-around-us-trump-markets-nato-american-decline
We cannot overstate what has just happened. It took just 71 days for Donald Trump to wreck the American economy, mortally wound NATO, and destroy the American-led world order.
It was almost 111 years earlier, on August 3, 1914, that the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, stood with a friend at dusk at a window of his room in the Foreign Office, looking out across St. James’s Park. Seeing the first lights being turned on along the Mall, Grey famously remarked, “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”
The Liberal statesman was right. World War I, the Russian Revolution, the rise of fascism, the Great Depression, Stalin and Hitler, World War II and the Holocaust—these all followed in the space of three decades. The lamps were not to be lit again in Grey’s lifetime. A century of relative stability and peace, of progress and prosperity, was followed by thirty years of chaos and war, of darkness and misery.
Midway through this terrible period, the imprisoned Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci—a very different man from Grey, but as perceptive in his own way—is said to have remarked, “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”
And so it was.
And yet. That time of monsters was succeeded by another stretch—an 80-year-long stretch—in which the forces of civilization were once again mostly in control. The United States picked up the baton of liberalism and leadership from Britain.
Many of us have had the good fortune to live for most of our lifetimes in a world more like the one Grey looked back on in 1914 than the one Gramsci experienced in the 1930s.
But now a new time of monsters—of terrible mistakes, monstrous deeds, and disastrous consequences—could well be upon us.
Yes Mr. Farrar Kristi Noem is one of those monsters. More are in the wings.
Bertrand Russell predicted what would happen if the world engaged in what became WWl. He was imprisoned for his publicly stated views. But in the end, he was correct. I love to read Russell. I have been doing it since I was 20 yrs. old.
They call WWI the cousin war because the Tsar, the King, the Kaiser were all grandchildren of Victoria. Yet they didn't start the war, they were dragged or pushed into it by political and financial interests that held the real power in Europe. Clemenceau of France was an enemy of royalists, especially the Kaiser, still smarting from the Franco Prussian war. which resulted in the loss of the Rhineland,
The rationale for entry of America into the war was specious and suspicious. one being the sinking of the Lusitania, which happened two years previous and it was carrying munitions (America using civilians as a human shield)
The Zimmerman telegram was really not a reason to declare war on Germany it was only a telegram, not an attack.
Other forces at play
Yes Mr. Farrar, the other forces at play included the fact that the Germans announced that they would resume unrestricted submarine attacks, I think, on Feb. 1. The U.S. declared war on Germany on feb. 3. The Lusitania sinking was clearly a propaganda message, I agree. But a good one. I read that history which you alluded to when I was in ROTC 60 years ago. One of the things the U.S. Army does well, is teach history.
As for the Zimmermann telegram; the U.S. was so much more powerful than Mexico, and Mexico knew it, that there was no chance Mexico would be making war on the U.S. But it is understandable that the Germans would try their gambit anyway.
I am plowing through the American historian Page Smith's, 9600 word history of the U.S. It is in 8 volumes. I am currently in Vol. lV, the period just after the victorious war against Mexico. I'm loving it. He is much easier to follow than Eric Hobsbawm, who I am also plowing through. Hobsbawm makes the assumption, in his writing, that the reader is much more sophisticated, historically, than I am.
I must misread your comment.
The Luisitiana was sunk in 1915, the US declared war on Germany on Apr6, 1917 not Feb of any year.
AFIK the US was officially neutral, but was shipping armaments to England, a, on the eve of the Lusitania's voyage, the German embassy in Washington placed advertisements in American newspapers warning that vessels flying the British flag or those of her allies were liable to destruction in the waters around the British Isles, and that travelers did so at their own risk
Mr. Farrar, I was off on my date by by two months. I don't know why. You are right it was April, not Feb. Old man's faulty memory of school lessons.
Perhaps people will start voting like their life depends on it, because now it truly does.
Americans must consider whether they are at risk if they travel. That has been a consideration before, but it wasn't because crossing the border when you made it home could be dangerous.
Trump and MAGA are their names---corruption is their game. It is breathtaking. Putin and the other murdering psychopath dictators must envy their success.
On a brighter note, Milwaukee ran out of ballots. You can bet they will better prepare for midterms.
Bring the light Saturday. See you there.
Every year, I and my Bulgarian spouse spend a few months in our house in Europe. We finally decided to marry because we were sick and tired of ICE harassment every time we returned stateside on an H1B - even when I was returning from official US government business trips in Brussels. My spouse was typically put in detention for several hours upon return for no reason. Now a naturalized citizen with a US Passport, I do not for a minute assume that under Trump we will be able to keep breezing through re-entry without ICE harassment even with US Passports.
Hitler 2.0 has arrived!
Would that Republicans were capable of doing anything in this world, not for their own financial benefit, but simply because it is the right thing to do. Then they would have had the spine to stop Trump before he ever got started. Or if so many voters weren't so easily strung along on the basis of their irrational fears and bigotry.
Thom Hartmann!
You identify and describe our single most important problem!
“GO TO THE HEAD OF THE CLASS!
EVERY person living in the USA has a right to be free from government oppression!
This right is guaranteed in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights!
When ANY person IN THE USA Is unlawfully seized by the government and punished in any way WITHOUT THE PROTECTION OF DUE PROCESS,
THEN, EVERY person IN THE USA is in danger of unlawful seizure and punishment by the government WITHOUT DUE PROCESS PROTECTION!
IMHO, Judge James Boasberg should accelerate his charges against the TRUMP regime!
Judge Boasberg should immediately order the TRUMP regime to retrieve EVERY PERSON UNLAWFULLY SEIZED AND PUNISHED WITHOUT DUE PROCESS !
(The government’s ploy of “State Secrets “ is unveiled as their own war plans are repeatedly discussed in open channels!)
TRUMP’S regime will continue to ignore, resist, intimidate and mock Judge Boasberg’s order!
All fascist governments do so!
Then, the Honorable James Boasberg MUST courageously use his judicial power yo PROTECT OUR MOST BASIC RIGHTS!
We urge the Honorable Judge Boasberg to DEPUTIZE the Marines ordering them, under his judicial authority, to retrieve all persons seized and punished without “due process protections” as guaranteed in the U.S. CONSTITUTION!
The MAGAs, with the help of lying Biden Democrats, put Trump and his fascist stormtropper henchmen in absolute power. When Democrats controlled Congress, they might have passed laws to neuter "Citizens United," which might have prevented the corrupt oligarch spending to put our immoral president back in power, but they did not. Thus, we should not get on our moral high-horse about criminality that America's political machines enabled.
This morning, a Catholic priest friend sent me a video of a Reagan speech decrying tariffs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj6N-WBPrVw). Reagan pointed out all the negative blowback they create, like plunging investment values and inflation, not to mention the potential for both trade and a shooting war.
As a retired servicemember and senior civil servant, I know that Trump and Musk have committed treason already by sabotaging the entire federal government. Just freezing grants for a few months will severely retrard the pace of research. It takes many months just to prepare a grant application then schedule it for peer review, then rank and fund it if it is solid science and contributes to public health.
My sense is that the only way out of this mess is for the MAGA voters to start enjoying repos and foreclosures bigly. I guess it is possible that grocery prices alone might rile some - hard to guess.
One would think that anyone who took an oath to defend the Constitution -- would defend it.
All Congressional Republicans took it. Don Bacon, for example, could ask all of them to follow his lead....
Yeahbut - honorable men are suckers. They will never become billionaires. Money is all Trump-types care about. When you think about it. Very few presidents in our lifetime would at least pass for honorable. Nevertheless, roughly half of American voters keep voting for crooks. Curiously, among the honorable presidents (Ike, Kennedy, Johnson, Ford, Carter, GHW Bush, & Obama), all had served in the military except Obama.
I have to wonder if tomorrow's Hands Off demonstrations will be the "just cause" to call out the National Guard. Since trump is "otherwise engaged in some high stakes golf watching" I imagine Pete Hegseth will gladly roll the tanks & Humvees out to curtail the non-existent "violence" in the streets. And we MUST remember that the JAGS have been fired so there are NO ROE on how to handle & act in a protest. The ROE are whatever he wants them to be, Constitution be damned Posse Comitatus be damned!
It's Saturday -- nobody home. In fact most of the restaurants near the mall are closed......
Below is my comment to Robert Reich. It would not hurt you to read it too!
Dr Reich, you must tell"THE REST OF THE STORY!" Consumers will not stop buying with inflation. The desire to consume will not stop with inflation. Credit card companies will inhale huge amounts of credit at 30% interest! The uncontrolled desire combined with the uncontrolled greed of the credit card companies will result in a bankrupt consumer economy... that will result in a default on T-Bills. Game over! Trump and his billionaires with their "offshore" trillions will move in and buy up America for pennies on the dollar or cryptocurrency. It doesn't matter if it is a bodega down on the corner or the richest nation on earth; the system is the same. People see the administration stealing from the government, not them. In a democracy, the governed are you and me! These tariffs are the greatest theft of the American individual ever committed! You need to stop talking about an inanimate government and talk about an animate you and me! It's YOUR MONEY being stolen.
CORRUPT and INCOMPETENT. Being 'corrupt' is a moral flaw, being 'criminal' is a societal label. Thank you for saying it like it is.
Cartesian dynamics - Reality is what you say it is, if you have the viciousness and power to enforce it on others. When rules are not recognized, only exceptions exist.
Offer enough incentives to the meek and the weak, and they will soon create their own exceptions, following your lead. Right now, 'murka looks very similar to pre-invasion Gaza, ruled by zionist philosophy. With rebellion came annihilation. Will the 'murkan military and/or LE become a rogue IDF? 'murka is on the fast track back to the 15th century, a sure sign extinction is in high gear. Vanity will not save humans, nor will capitulation. At least extinction will save us from ourselves. Tragic biological mistake that will take eons to remedy.
Here is the situation with the American Military. Speaking as a regular officer that still has a commission, but is on the retired rolls, thus subject ot the Uniform Code of Military Justice
Officers take an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemeis foreign and domestic.
Enlisted take an oath to do the same but added, obey the order of the President and officers appointed over them.
There is a chain of command, and it all starts with the Commander in Chief, a title he has only in relation to the military,
The CIC orders the Secretary of Defense, he in turn orders the Secretaries of Army, Navy, Air Force, they in turn order their branches of service into action.
The Military follows orders, they are essentially programmed robots in that sense. We can only exercise personal discretion, tactically, on the field at the moment, as to the best way to achieve the objective.
We know that if we disobey an order we will or can be court martialed. And we have no idea of how the court would rule if we claimed that we did not follow legal orders, to that end Trump has fired all the Judge Advocate Generals, so there is no one to defend the Constitution.
Finally he appoints careerists and ideological toadies in the top of the chain of command.
Hitler had no problem commanding the Wehrmacht, even though there were General officers and FieldMarshalls that were not NAZI's.
What bullshit.
Tsk, tsk, Daniel. While you wander in the weeds, the mower grinds closer. The mythology of human uniqueness is being exposed for the con job it is. I appreciate your vigor and tenacity so much I liked your comment. At least BS can be turned into compost.
Gaza: Palestinians tortured, summarily killed by Hamas forces during 2014 conflict
Hamas forces carried out a brutal campaign of abductions, torture and unlawful killings against Palestinians accused of “collaborating” with Israel and others during Israel’s military offensive against Gaza in July and August 2014, according to a new report by Amnesty International.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/05/gaza-palestinians-tortured-summarily-killed-by-hamas-forces-during-2014-conflict/
"‘Strangling Necks’: Abduction, torture and summary killings of Palestinians by Hamas forces during the 2014 Gaza/Israel conflict highlights a series of abuses, such as the extrajudicial execution of at least 23 Palestinians and the arrest and torture of dozens of others, including members and supporters of Hamas’s political rivals, Fatah."
2025. The Fatah-run Palestinian Authority (PA) has called on Hamas to respond to the demands of protesters in the Gaza Strip who are calling for the group to abandon its control over the territory. https://www.newarab.com/news/pa-breaks-silence-anti-hamas-protests-gaza
In a statement issued on Wednesday night, the PA said that Hamas had to stop aligning itself with "foreign agendas" and to "prioritise the interests of the Palestinian people", in a reference to alleged Iranian support for the group.
Disengagement Plan Implementation Law in June 2004. In 2005, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip by dismantling all 21 Israeli settlements there. As part of this process, four Israeli settlements in the West Bank were dismantled as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_the_Gaza_Strip#:~:text=In%202005%2C%20Israel%20disengaged%20from,Bank%20were%20dismantled%20as%20well.
Instead of investing in their economy, Hamas chose total war.
2025. Palestinian man tortured to death by Hamas militants after criticizing group and attending protests, family says https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/01/middleeast/uday-rabie-palestinian-tortured-hamas-intl-latam/index.html
Anti Hamas Palistinian protests.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2025/04/04/gaza-protests-hamas-palestinians-terror/82774426007/
As of 2023, approximately 1.782 million Muslims, or 18.1% of the total population, were Israeli citizens. Some voluntarily serve in the Israeli military. There is a Arab party that has seats in the Knesset.
Some of the people killed in the masacre were Moselms, mainly Bedouins. At least one of the hostages was an Israeli Moslem.
Uh Mick, Pre invasion Gaza was ruled by HAMAS not Zionist philosophy.
You are only looking at the short term. Gaza and WB are both wards of the Israeli state. The systemic oppression of Palestinians by certain elements of Israeli society has been in effect for decades. This is well documented by many ME scholars. I have heard their discussions and speeches. I am not saying all citizens of Israel are in favor of this, but the substance is true. That is why I said what I said. Hamas being elected to lead the Gaza Strip was a result of Hamas being the org. that actually found funding to assist Gazans. A poor choice, but a logical one if you were living in Gaza. It is zionist philosophy to treat Palestinians as, at best, second-class citizens.
The oppression of Arabs is another case, And I quite agree, However my point was that HAMAS ruled Gaza, not the Zionist. Unless Oct 7th was a Zionist plot.
As regards the Muslim vs Jew problem. Problems have solutions. There is no solution ergo no problem, but a difficulty.
Islam, not just Palestinians, represent and existential threat to Israel,if not Jews.
And I am referring to their sacred text, the Quran and the hadiths, I can quote sahih and book but to what use at the moment.
Israel by it's very existence blasphemes sacred Arab soil.
The only solution is not a one state, two state, but no state solution.
At first Israel is the victim (except in the eyes of antisemites and Muslims) then a turn of events,Israel becomes empowered and then Arabs are the victims, back and forth it goes.
I am neither a Zionist, an Arabist am Islamist or Judaist. Just an outsider looking in, and not swayed by propaganda and pictures.
There is no Final solution, well Hitler thought that there was, Iran, HAMAS, Hezbollah, and Islamist seem to think there is.
In the meantime, Israel has served its function as a land locked aircraft carrier, keeping watch over the Islamic oil fields. The King of Saudi Arabia, the Sheiks of Kuwait, UAE,Qata could very easily bring the world to it's knees by twisting the handle on the oil spigot clockwise.
The state of Israelis the world's insurance against such an event.
I agree with the essence of what you say. The yo-yo of grievances goes far back in time. It is also obvious that grievances have no solution. Physical situations may have solutions, absent the hegemony of grievances. HAMAS was heinously wrong to commit mass murder and kidnapping. The thought process was crazed and unforgivable. If they did not see the logical conclusion to their actions they must have been brain dead. Your tactical analysis of why Israel is needed by non-Israelis and/or non-Jews is cogent when you look at resource strategies that benefit Europe and 'murka. But this now must turn a new page too. If we persist in clinging to the ancient mythologies of humans as 'all or nothing,' managed by capitalist greed and pathetic narcissism, then the temperature will rise too high before the oil runs out. The maga denial machine is full tilt in the suicide by climate disruption paradigm. Consumptive addictions are the hardest to break, next to the addiction to grievances.
Mick, your heart is in the right place, obviously. Humanity is wrapped up in a ball of shit in the form of twine, that can't be unraveled, a real Gordeons knot.
There are a number of problems. The primary problem is mankind. We are frail creatures whose primary motivation is to survive, once we achieve that we are motivated to control the environment, that we may survive. but basic survival is not sufficient, we need to be comfortable, have spare time to do something other than find something to eat.
We need to control everything, nature, others and we develop tools for control.
Physical tools help us control the environment,or at least keep it at bay, thus we build weapons, dams, railroads, roads, vehicles to transport us over land, water and sky.
To control humans we create concepts, ideas or ideologies, like religion.
A lot, not all,of the world's ills can be laid in the lap of the Abrahamic religion, and it actually exists, not because of spiritual needs, but as a tool of social control. An excellent, out of print book, Word Controlled Humans by John Harlan.
I have no use for them or their supplicants, they are all anti human,supremacist, triumphalist, and patriarchal.
In a word,oppressive, and they sweeten the sour taste and effects, with a little myrrh, frankincense, and sugar.
The protection against detention without sufficient evidence reviewed by a judge (due process) was enshrined in the Magna Carta (1215 A.C.E.). It has been hailed as the fundamental protection in our legal system against the abuse of power. It was adapted in the US Constitution as you have outlined. It was extended to acts of the king, Charles II (1651), so he could not do through his chancellor (a bishop) what Trump is doing through ICE.
But winning this protection was not easy. The Brits only got it through repeatedly taking up arms against the powers of the day.
Well said and so upsetting! We the people must find a way to resist and end these horrid government acts of abuse! And find a way to rid us of the evil perpetrators of these illegal actions.
Be sure to get out tomorrow and every day from now on. Do not let fear paralyze you!
If the Mump maladministration and its toadies are not constrained by the law, then why would those who oppose them be? And for how long? We may soon begin to learn. Which will be the end of the ideals of this country, because of those who voted for these grotesques and the limp-wristed lukewarm too into their own small lives to bother voting. Hope they are enjoying what they enabled.