I repeat what I mentioned a few years ago. Trump was saved by russian mafia money. Deutsche bank hundreds millions of debt. Putin has trump by the short and curlies. Trump is putin best spy. A traitor to America! Punkt schluss
Thanks Jack, I agree with your comments. If someday we can read Jack Smith's report about the classified documents investigation there probably will be verification of Trump's treason. Now would be a great time for that report to leak out.
The Guiliani connection. The major competition to the Russian mob was Cosa Nostra, Rudy went afer the Russians competition. the Russian mob includes the Kushners, Trump married into the Russian mob. Just like royalty of old, where the families form an alliance by marrying their sons and daughters to each other.
The military/industrial/congressional/judicial cabal has been cancerous for decades. Trust your neighbors but tie up your camel went by the wayside long ago when too many despots around the world got way too greedy. Find the origins of TFG; his Nazi father, McCarthy and his handler Roy Cohn, many huge bankers and fraudsters, mafia types everywhere doing deals via massive construction projects, the powerful sadists pandering to TFG's libido-driven addictions surrounding sexual appetite, the money laundering crowd, worldwide, and the TFG-very-weak-spirited addict who is riddled with OCD, ADD, PTSD from childhood has been worked over by all of them. The TFG narcissistic sadism is probably built in in-utero, cuz this creature has NEVER BEEN stable. Why else would a fear-based victim of its own endocrine system - TFG - even SAY 'I am a stable genius.'? The best liars are ALWAYS fooled by greater liars. Jealousy and envy drive this entire crowd, and TFG is the aging, fat little boy who must continuously puff up itself with bravado and perverse behaviors in an attempt to show the really big boys in the bank vault that it can run with them. Paranoid fragility on steroids
Your military industrial/congressional/judicial cabal is so yesterday, You are stuck in the past Mick, we are so far beyond this "cabal" . Of course Putin wants to keep the fantasy alive as it serves his purposes.
What you have is billionaires, almost trillionaires, who have bought the USA and in process of buying Europe.
Elon Musk's mother was the daughter of a NAZI and herself a NAZI from all that I read, his father was enarmored of the NAZI Wehrner von Braun, and vonBrauns book, the Mars Project: A technical tale.
When humans reach Mars they find a civilization commanded by a leader called The Elon. His father name his son after this dictator.
Elon's dream is to be "The Elon" of Earth and Mars.
The MIC is so yesterday, they too are dependent on the good graces and whims of Musk, in fact President Musk has launched an attack on MIC, his goal is to neuter the military might of the U.S. and his first step was to place in charge a drunken, rapist who is intent on destroying the organization in which he is in charge, Pete Hegseth
i see we are parsing words. I have no disagreement with what you say, but without the MIC, as you put it, there would be no spoils to loot. I feel you overestimate Musk, just as he does. He could be taken down by dozens, if not hundreds of 'competitors. His wealth is almost completely PAPER. These illusions of wealth have dominated the addicted for many decades, if not millenia, but in the past at least they had precious metals, or land or water or healthy dirt. Now they have gadgets and yachts and rockets and buildings that house no one, or island fortresses that we all wish they would retire to - 0.000000001 percent of the land mass of the planet. I wish you would not attempt to upstage me. I am not even on the stage. So yesterday is, well, today. I like reading your observations, so can we just abandon the useless rhetoric?
I am not trying to upstage you. Strange that you would see my exception in that light.
can't put together your idea that without a MIC there would be no spoils, except that every person or government depends on armed force (we can call them police, militia or army, to secure our possessions.
As regards wealth how do we define wealth? Dollars, Special Drawing Rights, Euro's, Peso's, land, things? I define wealth as that which makes one happy.
I consider myself very wealthy indeed, though my physical condition could use a little help, but altogether at my age, not too bad.
But, forgive me, I do feel talk of the MIC and imperialism are so yesterday
Imperialism in the sense of nation states, creating an empire.
We too are so past that in today.
Power too today is the ability to command resources, and that ability relies on ones ability to command a medium of exchange and how it is utilized and distributed.
There is a no post MIC, imperialism as it were, independent of an armed force, except as a tool to be wielded to secure power.
The new imperialism, is personal, trans national, trans ideological, trans everything.
The thing is that the new imperialist will eventually come into conflict with each other, and then they will deploy their resources, their MIC, in their service.
In the digital age of communications the MIC is simply a tool, and it looks to me like the winner is going to be China, because it is hungry,not fat, full and satisfied like "Silicon valley"
Silicon valley squashes competition and incentives, China fosters both.
While Musk rapes our country in his insane ques to be the Elon of Mars, China will be trying to harvest nodules on the moon.
We, along with the rest of the world, have been condemned to watching the Trump Reality Show, starring Donald J. Trump, whether we like it or not, and each day adds a new chapter to Dante's Inferno. For Putin, Xi, and others of their ilk, the Trump Reality Show is their new favorite sitcom, and it keeps them rolling in the aisles with laughter. Even they never suspected we could be so stupid as to destroy ourselves in this way. Putin's term for people such as Trump is "a useful fool."
To be exact, a lot of China's foreign aid has been tied to projects where they get paid back and when--surprise, surprise--the poor recipient country defaults on the debt they come in and take over what they built. The U.S. at least seemed a bit better than that, though perhaps USAID (and the Peace Corps, next to go perhaps) were the last echoes of JFK's better vision for the world.
But look, any normal person who had such constant and serious criticism of his character and actions would at least ask himself if there might be something he could do to improve his image, if not his very being. Granted you have to have a pretty tough skin to be a national politician or a major CEO, but no human in touch with their feelings likes to be constantly told what is wrong with them. (Nor would they like to create endless trouble either. But maybe we elected Bart Simpson and his sidekick, Aladdin's evil enemy, Jafar.)
And to hear you-know-who talk about his imagined future for Gaza was like watching a train wreck. He presented it as a real estate deal, pure and simple. It reminded me a lot of the "urban renewal" projects of the 1950s and '60s when sustainable and culturally rich Black neighborhoods were destroyed and replaced with Interstates while the people were warehoused in unlivable apartment towers. They didn't matter, making profits off construction and easing the way for the wealthier (largely white) population was what counted.
In a sense this gang of overgrown Red Guard teenagers seems to be doing the same thing with the whole country. They are strip mining it for their own sick egos. And that is putting the best spin possible on their actions. After all the coming "Golden Age for America" might be one where those with the gold get still more of it.
"In the 1930s and 1940s, the major car companies bought bus lines, rail systems, trams, and subways in dozens of American towns, then proceeded to tear them down. One bus can eliminate 35 cars; one train can eliminate 1000 cars, so car companies have solid incentives to kill other modes of transport. Our government sat on the sidelines while the car companies transformed cheap and clean mass transit systems into costly and dirty traffic nightmares- a rape of the public interest. 1956 the government intervened by underwriting a massive highway construction program with $70 billion of public funds away from public transit. Every time the government passes a law or chooses to stay on the sidelines, it affects the dynamics of markets." I quote Julian Ninio's The Empire of Ignorance, Hypocrisy and Obedience.
I hear you doc and how right you are. One thing about us, we are so self absorbed that we don't know or care what is going on in the world.
You tipped us off about China. China is slowly taking over the part of the world that America neglects. They are even more exploitative than the west, but are not hamstrung by "morality" and ethics.
Russia too. China tells undeveloped countries that they can help them. Build a railroad, hiways, a port of course this infrastructure will transport raw materials to ports where they will be loaded on Chinese bound ships. And when the loans they make are not repaid,china swoops in and scoops up the project.
Russia uses it's mercenaries,who back all kinds of murderous, rampaging, raping, thugs, they back whatever force that will allow them to abscond with the resources of that country, be it gold, or rare earth minerals.
Meanwhile American "liberals" kvetch over our 800 military bases world wide, our MIC, our supposed imperialism. Ignoring the fact that each and every one of those bases are there with the consent of the nation, and a Status of Forces Agreement, which they can and have abrogated like Chad and Mali and which Iraq has been considering, except for the threat of ISIS, which is Sunni and considers Shia Iraq to be a heresy.
Donvict and the MAGAT repugnicans have so normalized corruption that the word “corruption” is rarely if ever seen in reports of their activities or predations. None of them are the least guided by their oaths of office; that is perhaps their greatest corruption. Tragically, if not fatally, too many Democrat “leaders” aren’t far behind. This week, Schumer and Durbin and Kaine and Warner, for example, suddenly got religion and attached themselves to a very public protest energized by House Democrats. Dollar late, day short; they need to go away. Other Dem senators (incl both of those from Colorado) have voted to approve donvict’s Cabinet nominees, thereby lending their support to the most corrupt, ignorant, dangerous president ever, for no good reason. Mitch McConnell’s career has been a master class in obstruction; Democratic “leaders” for whom his name may ring a bell would do well to take note and adopt his proven, successful methods. Doing so may irritate their sugar daddies, but their oaths demand it.
I read as many of the comments as I can after Thom’s articles aa well as other authors on Substack, and learn from all of them. I am not the most knowledgeable political “expert “ by any stretch, but I am getting somewhat annoyed by the mantra of blaming the Dems for everything coming at us. The real cancer eating our country is and has always been the perverted version of conservatism, pushing policies since the all-knowing Repug god ronnie ray-gun. And since then the whole right wing media propaganda machine piling on blaming the Dems for everything have numbed and dumbed down people to the point that they can’t make a truly informed decision on candidates that will actually help make a difference for the betterment of our country. Granted there are some useless politicians on the Dem side , but then there are also spoiler chaos agents like Stein who serves her Putin purpose of drawing off votes and somehow gets gullible people to back her. I can’t understand how people vote Republican anymore- it’s not the Democrats who made threatening calls to a foreign country to find political BS on their rival, or used phony evidence (in which the witness was convicted of lying to the FBI)to justify trying to convict a sitting president and his family, sent armed insurrectionists to our capital on Jan 6 2021, defend rape, sexual assault and committing fraud in business dealings. So the majority of the responsibility for correcting our problems lie with the Republicans, and so far I don’t see too many stepping up to do the right thing because they believe in a perverse radical agenda that is not in line with the Constitution so I believe that they are the enemy.
I agree - Republicans have clearly become the enemy of democracy. Long gone are the days of constructive bipartisan governance. Nixon would never have resigned without bipartisan agreement on his criminal activity. Much greater criminality on Trump 1.0's part saw a Republican flag-waving embrace.
I have never been a D brand. Mostly I vote for them as the lesser of two evils, but there is a vast difference between R and D brands. The tactic of the sadistic narcissist is to use propaganda and extortion and intimidation to create massive distrust and antagonism amongst the masses, divide and conquer. The inherent weaknesses inside the Constitution, chief being the monarchy of a completely unchecked Supreme Court, or as I call it, the Extreme Sport of Injustice, is at the bottom of this trainwreck. There are many other gaping ethical and check and balance holes in the Constitution, and 50 years of destruction using those weaknesses has put us here, now.
@kathytankersley. I agree with every you have written and I find myself guilty of Dem- bashing when I am frustrated. Instead, I need to remind myself who the real enemies af the state are...
You are correct Kathy the real problem is conservatism, it started with Edmund Burke, then the Austrian school of Economics, then Ayn Rand, and politically William F Buckley Jr, and it's kid brother the John Birch Society, then Ronald Reagan.
But the Democratic party had/has a role in the empowerment of the right, and that role is that it drank/drinks for the same trough as the Republican party, it's leadership has been ineffective, unto absent.
The only concern has been the General elections, forsaken the local, county and state elections
And when real liberal minded populists like AOC show up, the leadership squeezes them out, ignores and tries to primary them..
Makes you wonder sometimes, whose side they are really on. Question is rhetorical: The Donors side.
An ad hominem does not help get the DNC going and organizing, does it? Organizing means making them prioritize the steps and they are not. Psychopathic neo-fascists led by Trump are the enemy that I see.
I was an elected member of the local executive committee. I chose not to run this year -- I'm 81 -- can't travel. The local chair asked my opinion. I said have Hilary Clinton talk to the 2 MAGAT amigos here in Baghad By the Sea individually to convince them to flip back.
Watch the Erica Chenoweth video. I think we can work on organization that has wheels and the legs we older (76) people lack. All we need to do now is to get it organized, I think. That is my drift. I am always appreciative of your input. You do way more than I.
We have VAT and VAN. My experience is that these young "experts" have lost virtually all of the campaigns because we gave up on the "precinct" model that happens to be fixed by law in most states.
Carl:The DNC needs to be slapped vigorously around the face, until it comes to its sense and acts like the peoples party it holds itself out to be, but I fear that it is now too late for that. The Musk wrecking ball has broken the egg and it can't be put back together again.
What we didn't realize all these years, is just how fragile democracy and our government is.
So fragile that an unelected man with hundreds of billions can lay waste to our institutions, irrevecobaly.
Chuck Schumer is a spectacle onto himself. He has sat by and let this happen, and finally he acts like an idiot cheerleading some group. He could have stopped this when he was Majority leader by exercising the nuclear option, by disciplining Manchin, Sinema and all the crooked money grubbers in the Democratic party
He looked ridiculous and insincere in front of the camera's, trying to salvage what is left of his reputation.
Unfortunately, it is all about fundraising. Carl. It shows everywhere they go, like in Hollywood, for money. My husband's former colleague was denied money from the Chemistry department, which had been gifted by a deceased student/philanthropist who designated it expressly for my husband's and his partner's research.
Therefore, Ken Martin could not set up a research space at the institution where they taught; he linked up with another inorganic chemist in Santa Barbara, needing to stay there for the summer. His wife, "A Man Named Sue,' ( she became labeled as such in our enclave), complained for twenty years all over campus and throughout the community, calling my husband horrible names and blaming them for her husband's absence in the summer.
Then, she started calling me names. Having never been in my kitchen, she said the kitchen was not clean. We invited them to a get-together at a resort in the east county, and others there were astounded by her aggressive outburst. She claimed the picnic utensils I was using weren't clean, for which there was no evidence.
Four years ago, near their house, a sign was posted in someone's yard stating what Sue had been promulgating. Even outsiders felt the slandering of us was out of bounds. The point is it is all about money.
I told my husband this philanthropist was dead, and there wasn't but a paper-thin difference between organic research and inorganic research in the department - all of which would enhance the same department and institution. Letting them decide - it was up to his partner Dale Shellhamer, who was charged with the account - I watched the ensuing misery.
One issue that keeps me awake at night is the thought that if protests even peaceful ones will be deemed violent or made violent by provocateurs of the right and thus giving the wanna be dictator reason to declare martial law, and cancel the 2026 elections
Yes Daniel, he is disassembling this country, with the blessings of so called patriotic MAGAts.
But who can stop him, how can they stop him?
The law, the courts, President Musk and co President Trump have demonstrated that they are scoff laws.
All those court orders are temporary stays Daniel. Key word Temporary, and are being "obeyed" while forces are gathered and approach improved.
Besides it is too late, as I said above, Humpty dumpty was kicked off the wall and all the forces in the universe can't put him back together again. The damage has been done to a surprisingly fragile "deep state".
Elon Musk’s Enemy, USAID, Was Investigating Starlink’s Contracts in Ukraine.
"The Lever reported Tuesday that USAID’s inspector general was in the process of investigating its own public-private partnership between Musk’s Starlink and the Ukrainian government at the time that the billionaire’s DOGE crippled the agency. Publicly available information about that probe is still online. An announcement from last May reads: “The USAID Office of Inspector General, Inspections and Evaluations Division, is initiating an inspection of USAID’s oversight of Starlink satellite terminals provided to the Government of Ukraine. Our objectives are to determine how (1) the Government of Ukraine used the USAID-provided Starlink terminals, and (2) USAID monitored the Government of Ukraine’s use of USAID-provided Starlink terminals.”
"Musk has called the agency “evil” and a “criminal organization,” though the fact that USAID was investigating the Starlink activities may suggest ulterior motivations for the billionaire’s vitriol. It’s unclear what the Starlink probe’s status is right now."
Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio was removed from his position atop the powerful House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, telling CBS News that House Speaker Mike Johnson fired him, citing "concerns from Mar-a-Lago."
Also interview other House Republicans like Brian Fitzpatrick, and members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, like my rep, Elvira Salazar. ,
So all of this hullaboo with Musk and USAID defaults back to Starlink.
IIRC, Starlink took Ukraine down at a crucial time when its ship drones were attacking the Russian fleet.
But I am confused Daniel:
This sentence: "The Lever reported Tuesday that USAID’s inspector general was in the process of investigating its own public-private partnership between Musk’s Starlink and the Ukrainian government at the time that the billionaire’s DOGE crippled the agency.
Sounds to me like Trump having his minions investigating Biden and Ukraine over the Burisma scandal.
In othe words a public private partnership between Ukraine and Musk
Musk has employed the "better to beg forgiveness than permission policy" as he deconstructs the government making it vulnerable to take over by hostile powers.
By the time a judge steps in and stops him, (if the judicial system does, and I doubt it at SCOTUS level), it is too late, the deed is done, and the system can't be put back together again, as the data will have been scrubbed, the offices cleared out and the institutionnal knowledge eradicated.
A multitude of people are being harmed by Trump, Musk and the GOP. Many who voted for Trump. Farmers and ranchers who had sold their foodstuffs to USAID for example. The same people are now having trouble keeping immigrant employees. The administrations illegal attention grabbing stunts have drawn the attention of even the most casual observers of the news. When it finally occurs to Trump and sycophants that they can accomplish their goals via legislation many more people than usual will be paying attention ... and hopefully calling their reps and telling them not to cut programs that are helping them. When it gets personal maybe they will act in their own best interest. Wishful thinking I know but hope is hope.
The people who sold their food products to USAID, are not people they are corporations like Cargill, Carnation, Prudential was in the 1980's the biggest farmer in the country. All grains, from rice to wheat and barley are grown by a handful of corporations, who receive subsidy from the government.
There are a few family farms, but they struggle with debt, the weather, locusts, drought and the market, which the corporate farmers brush off like sand fleas.
Migrant employees are used in poultry processing, meat processing, field hands picking asparagus, fruit, tomatoes. They harvesing of greens is now done by tractor.
Salinas California uses a lot of migrant worker, they grow artichokes and strawberries
Good analogy on violence, no rules, greasing refs.
Will use Sunday with Trumplers.
Hmm, might there be a spark of light in knuckle-dragger’ noggins?
Doubtful; their tanks full with gaslighting bile, dense scales in their eyes.
Thanks to America’s failed education system, Rupert’s industrial complex lie machine, tech DBs love of money, decades deep smiling kleptocracy, eunuch Congress and MF legislators in robes.
Citizens United, Buckley; both belong in our trash heap.
Biden, our Paul Von Hindenburg, should have packed the court.
Why the eff we don’t do what they do?
I’m so mad I could scream.
Seems I’ve been doing so for 20 years, into the hurricane.
Talking of Obama Lois. I can't get the image of St Obama yakking it up with Trump at the funeral of Jimmy carter and not a peep from anyone, not even on MSNBC, so far I am the only person that has mentioned it and with alarm. To me this evidence that it is all a game, or we have been invaded by body snatchers.
The USA Today is looking for opinions on how Trump is doing.
Now we’re asking you. Looking back at Trump’s first month in office, how do you think the president is doing?
Fill out the form below or email us at forum@usatoday.com with the subject line "Forum Trump's first month." We'll post a selection of your comments later this month. Here are some questions to help you get started:
What are you most upset or excited about after Trump’s first month? Why?
What impact of Trump’s policies are you seeing in your state or region?
What issues do you want him to focus on next? Why?
Is he doing enough on the economy?
If you're a Republican, what do you want to see next from party leaders?
If you’re a Democrat, how do you feel about the future?
I feel the deconstruction of the administrative state (remember Steve Bannon coined this phrase in 2015, it is coming to fruition) is two-fold: the Republicans rob the Treasury coffers and the Muskrat funnels exorbitant amounts of money to his government contracts only; and secondly, Mango Orange man and his henchmen and women dissolve the republic of the US and put in place a single leader. Trump. This the country is financially broke as well as politically robbed.
The Rough Rider, TR, is quoted to have said - 'Walk softly and carry a big stick.' Take note of one glaring elephant in this room - the silent and un-named super powerful males who drop a few bucks and smile wanly. Muck is a blowhard, a super-grifter with a sci-fi overlord complex. Zuckerberg is a brat. TFG is very old, and we saw, for years now, how scattered and hazy its thinking is. It is the biggest wannabe in the history of despots. The best salesmen are also those most easily 'sold to' by better liars.
We now are freaking out because we see the illusion of order, the Constitution, being shredded. Why/how did this happen? It has always been a cover letter for the 400-year rape and plunder of the unwashed masses, a document so full of logical and enforcement holes that has resulted, since 1879, in a massive parasitic enterprise covering the entire globe. The document was written and amended and modified and codified and interpreted by white males, the legal/judicial/LE class, to ensure that the will and needs of the oligarchs, since the earliest days of slavery and Native genocide, were met, and enhanced with each rip off.
That the Founders intentions were noble is reflected accurately in the Federalist papers, as Thom often quotes. But these men were limited by their place in time, and their own inabilities as to how to imprison the weaker angels in an escape-proof dungeon. Hence the Roosevelt philosophy, now hijacked by the silent oligarchs who actually run their version of Camelot. Each law passed via the input of oligarch lobbyists has weakened the sovereignty of the average citizen. The CFR is so massive it could sink Bezos' yacht. Most of its protections are to keep the hierarchy in control.
The entire freak out by MAGA about 'woke' is testament to the threat that DEI has imposed upon the ruling class since WW2. The D brand, now corrupted, was once the standard bearer for the 'awakening' of the sovereign citizen. Before them were conscious R brands, from perhaps Lincoln forward, and ending with Carter, who was a southern D who did not abandon his principles of egalitarianism once Johnson gave Black folks the ERA. Now, there is no contra to the laissez faire oligarchy that will occur. The chess pieces will be scattered, and the re-arrangement will fail, due to the destruction of the ecosystem and the chaos of the polycrisis of climatology.
Will there still be a Senate for a "reconciliation" maneuver later this year? I have trouble believing that they plan to allow any shell of a government to remain and function. I believe their intention is to dispense with all of the vestiges of democracy. What use does God have for such formalities and fumbling? It's just a thought, but I wonder how many people it would take to conduct a "citizen's arrest" at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.? Three million? With big enough numbers the Secret Service, National Guard, etc., might not resist. Okay, I know we will never get that many people and they would just keep reloading and shooting people. So, let's just keep calling the hotline.
I repeat what I mentioned a few years ago. Trump was saved by russian mafia money. Deutsche bank hundreds millions of debt. Putin has trump by the short and curlies. Trump is putin best spy. A traitor to America! Punkt schluss
Thanks Jack, I agree with your comments. If someday we can read Jack Smith's report about the classified documents investigation there probably will be verification of Trump's treason. Now would be a great time for that report to leak out.
The Guiliani connection. The major competition to the Russian mob was Cosa Nostra, Rudy went afer the Russians competition. the Russian mob includes the Kushners, Trump married into the Russian mob. Just like royalty of old, where the families form an alliance by marrying their sons and daughters to each other.
The military/industrial/congressional/judicial cabal has been cancerous for decades. Trust your neighbors but tie up your camel went by the wayside long ago when too many despots around the world got way too greedy. Find the origins of TFG; his Nazi father, McCarthy and his handler Roy Cohn, many huge bankers and fraudsters, mafia types everywhere doing deals via massive construction projects, the powerful sadists pandering to TFG's libido-driven addictions surrounding sexual appetite, the money laundering crowd, worldwide, and the TFG-very-weak-spirited addict who is riddled with OCD, ADD, PTSD from childhood has been worked over by all of them. The TFG narcissistic sadism is probably built in in-utero, cuz this creature has NEVER BEEN stable. Why else would a fear-based victim of its own endocrine system - TFG - even SAY 'I am a stable genius.'? The best liars are ALWAYS fooled by greater liars. Jealousy and envy drive this entire crowd, and TFG is the aging, fat little boy who must continuously puff up itself with bravado and perverse behaviors in an attempt to show the really big boys in the bank vault that it can run with them. Paranoid fragility on steroids
Your military industrial/congressional/judicial cabal is so yesterday, You are stuck in the past Mick, we are so far beyond this "cabal" . Of course Putin wants to keep the fantasy alive as it serves his purposes.
What you have is billionaires, almost trillionaires, who have bought the USA and in process of buying Europe.
Elon Musk's mother was the daughter of a NAZI and herself a NAZI from all that I read, his father was enarmored of the NAZI Wehrner von Braun, and vonBrauns book, the Mars Project: A technical tale.
When humans reach Mars they find a civilization commanded by a leader called The Elon. His father name his son after this dictator.
Elon's dream is to be "The Elon" of Earth and Mars.
The MIC is so yesterday, they too are dependent on the good graces and whims of Musk, in fact President Musk has launched an attack on MIC, his goal is to neuter the military might of the U.S. and his first step was to place in charge a drunken, rapist who is intent on destroying the organization in which he is in charge, Pete Hegseth
i see we are parsing words. I have no disagreement with what you say, but without the MIC, as you put it, there would be no spoils to loot. I feel you overestimate Musk, just as he does. He could be taken down by dozens, if not hundreds of 'competitors. His wealth is almost completely PAPER. These illusions of wealth have dominated the addicted for many decades, if not millenia, but in the past at least they had precious metals, or land or water or healthy dirt. Now they have gadgets and yachts and rockets and buildings that house no one, or island fortresses that we all wish they would retire to - 0.000000001 percent of the land mass of the planet. I wish you would not attempt to upstage me. I am not even on the stage. So yesterday is, well, today. I like reading your observations, so can we just abandon the useless rhetoric?
I am not trying to upstage you. Strange that you would see my exception in that light.
can't put together your idea that without a MIC there would be no spoils, except that every person or government depends on armed force (we can call them police, militia or army, to secure our possessions.
As regards wealth how do we define wealth? Dollars, Special Drawing Rights, Euro's, Peso's, land, things? I define wealth as that which makes one happy.
I consider myself very wealthy indeed, though my physical condition could use a little help, but altogether at my age, not too bad.
But, forgive me, I do feel talk of the MIC and imperialism are so yesterday
Imperialism in the sense of nation states, creating an empire.
We too are so past that in today.
Power too today is the ability to command resources, and that ability relies on ones ability to command a medium of exchange and how it is utilized and distributed.
There is a no post MIC, imperialism as it were, independent of an armed force, except as a tool to be wielded to secure power.
The new imperialism, is personal, trans national, trans ideological, trans everything.
The thing is that the new imperialist will eventually come into conflict with each other, and then they will deploy their resources, their MIC, in their service.
In the digital age of communications the MIC is simply a tool, and it looks to me like the winner is going to be China, because it is hungry,not fat, full and satisfied like "Silicon valley"
Silicon valley squashes competition and incentives, China fosters both.
While Musk rapes our country in his insane ques to be the Elon of Mars, China will be trying to harvest nodules on the moon.
Unfortunately water under the dam. Right now, Musk makes him vulnerable. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69559444/public-citizen-inc-v-trump/
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69559476/lentini-v-department-of-government-efficiency/
We, along with the rest of the world, have been condemned to watching the Trump Reality Show, starring Donald J. Trump, whether we like it or not, and each day adds a new chapter to Dante's Inferno. For Putin, Xi, and others of their ilk, the Trump Reality Show is their new favorite sitcom, and it keeps them rolling in the aisles with laughter. Even they never suspected we could be so stupid as to destroy ourselves in this way. Putin's term for people such as Trump is "a useful fool."
To be exact, a lot of China's foreign aid has been tied to projects where they get paid back and when--surprise, surprise--the poor recipient country defaults on the debt they come in and take over what they built. The U.S. at least seemed a bit better than that, though perhaps USAID (and the Peace Corps, next to go perhaps) were the last echoes of JFK's better vision for the world.
But look, any normal person who had such constant and serious criticism of his character and actions would at least ask himself if there might be something he could do to improve his image, if not his very being. Granted you have to have a pretty tough skin to be a national politician or a major CEO, but no human in touch with their feelings likes to be constantly told what is wrong with them. (Nor would they like to create endless trouble either. But maybe we elected Bart Simpson and his sidekick, Aladdin's evil enemy, Jafar.)
And to hear you-know-who talk about his imagined future for Gaza was like watching a train wreck. He presented it as a real estate deal, pure and simple. It reminded me a lot of the "urban renewal" projects of the 1950s and '60s when sustainable and culturally rich Black neighborhoods were destroyed and replaced with Interstates while the people were warehoused in unlivable apartment towers. They didn't matter, making profits off construction and easing the way for the wealthier (largely white) population was what counted.
In a sense this gang of overgrown Red Guard teenagers seems to be doing the same thing with the whole country. They are strip mining it for their own sick egos. And that is putting the best spin possible on their actions. After all the coming "Golden Age for America" might be one where those with the gold get still more of it.
"In the 1930s and 1940s, the major car companies bought bus lines, rail systems, trams, and subways in dozens of American towns, then proceeded to tear them down. One bus can eliminate 35 cars; one train can eliminate 1000 cars, so car companies have solid incentives to kill other modes of transport. Our government sat on the sidelines while the car companies transformed cheap and clean mass transit systems into costly and dirty traffic nightmares- a rape of the public interest. 1956 the government intervened by underwriting a massive highway construction program with $70 billion of public funds away from public transit. Every time the government passes a law or chooses to stay on the sidelines, it affects the dynamics of markets." I quote Julian Ninio's The Empire of Ignorance, Hypocrisy and Obedience.
I hear you doc and how right you are. One thing about us, we are so self absorbed that we don't know or care what is going on in the world.
You tipped us off about China. China is slowly taking over the part of the world that America neglects. They are even more exploitative than the west, but are not hamstrung by "morality" and ethics.
Russia too. China tells undeveloped countries that they can help them. Build a railroad, hiways, a port of course this infrastructure will transport raw materials to ports where they will be loaded on Chinese bound ships. And when the loans they make are not repaid,china swoops in and scoops up the project.
Russia uses it's mercenaries,who back all kinds of murderous, rampaging, raping, thugs, they back whatever force that will allow them to abscond with the resources of that country, be it gold, or rare earth minerals.
Meanwhile American "liberals" kvetch over our 800 military bases world wide, our MIC, our supposed imperialism. Ignoring the fact that each and every one of those bases are there with the consent of the nation, and a Status of Forces Agreement, which they can and have abrogated like Chad and Mali and which Iraq has been considering, except for the threat of ISIS, which is Sunni and considers Shia Iraq to be a heresy.
Donvict and the MAGAT repugnicans have so normalized corruption that the word “corruption” is rarely if ever seen in reports of their activities or predations. None of them are the least guided by their oaths of office; that is perhaps their greatest corruption. Tragically, if not fatally, too many Democrat “leaders” aren’t far behind. This week, Schumer and Durbin and Kaine and Warner, for example, suddenly got religion and attached themselves to a very public protest energized by House Democrats. Dollar late, day short; they need to go away. Other Dem senators (incl both of those from Colorado) have voted to approve donvict’s Cabinet nominees, thereby lending their support to the most corrupt, ignorant, dangerous president ever, for no good reason. Mitch McConnell’s career has been a master class in obstruction; Democratic “leaders” for whom his name may ring a bell would do well to take note and adopt his proven, successful methods. Doing so may irritate their sugar daddies, but their oaths demand it.
We lack leaders at the DNC that have the right priorities. It is not just fundraising. Oh that we had some organizers. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/a-movements-success?r=3m1bs
What do you know about the DNC, Carl?
The enemy is Trump.
I read as many of the comments as I can after Thom’s articles aa well as other authors on Substack, and learn from all of them. I am not the most knowledgeable political “expert “ by any stretch, but I am getting somewhat annoyed by the mantra of blaming the Dems for everything coming at us. The real cancer eating our country is and has always been the perverted version of conservatism, pushing policies since the all-knowing Repug god ronnie ray-gun. And since then the whole right wing media propaganda machine piling on blaming the Dems for everything have numbed and dumbed down people to the point that they can’t make a truly informed decision on candidates that will actually help make a difference for the betterment of our country. Granted there are some useless politicians on the Dem side , but then there are also spoiler chaos agents like Stein who serves her Putin purpose of drawing off votes and somehow gets gullible people to back her. I can’t understand how people vote Republican anymore- it’s not the Democrats who made threatening calls to a foreign country to find political BS on their rival, or used phony evidence (in which the witness was convicted of lying to the FBI)to justify trying to convict a sitting president and his family, sent armed insurrectionists to our capital on Jan 6 2021, defend rape, sexual assault and committing fraud in business dealings. So the majority of the responsibility for correcting our problems lie with the Republicans, and so far I don’t see too many stepping up to do the right thing because they believe in a perverse radical agenda that is not in line with the Constitution so I believe that they are the enemy.
I agree - Republicans have clearly become the enemy of democracy. Long gone are the days of constructive bipartisan governance. Nixon would never have resigned without bipartisan agreement on his criminal activity. Much greater criminality on Trump 1.0's part saw a Republican flag-waving embrace.
I have never been a D brand. Mostly I vote for them as the lesser of two evils, but there is a vast difference between R and D brands. The tactic of the sadistic narcissist is to use propaganda and extortion and intimidation to create massive distrust and antagonism amongst the masses, divide and conquer. The inherent weaknesses inside the Constitution, chief being the monarchy of a completely unchecked Supreme Court, or as I call it, the Extreme Sport of Injustice, is at the bottom of this trainwreck. There are many other gaping ethical and check and balance holes in the Constitution, and 50 years of destruction using those weaknesses has put us here, now.
@kathytankersley. I agree with every you have written and I find myself guilty of Dem- bashing when I am frustrated. Instead, I need to remind myself who the real enemies af the state are...
You are correct Kathy the real problem is conservatism, it started with Edmund Burke, then the Austrian school of Economics, then Ayn Rand, and politically William F Buckley Jr, and it's kid brother the John Birch Society, then Ronald Reagan.
But the Democratic party had/has a role in the empowerment of the right, and that role is that it drank/drinks for the same trough as the Republican party, it's leadership has been ineffective, unto absent.
The only concern has been the General elections, forsaken the local, county and state elections
And when real liberal minded populists like AOC show up, the leadership squeezes them out, ignores and tries to primary them..
Makes you wonder sometimes, whose side they are really on. Question is rhetorical: The Donors side.
An ad hominem does not help get the DNC going and organizing, does it? Organizing means making them prioritize the steps and they are not. Psychopathic neo-fascists led by Trump are the enemy that I see.
New officers.
I was an elected member of the local executive committee. I chose not to run this year -- I'm 81 -- can't travel. The local chair asked my opinion. I said have Hilary Clinton talk to the 2 MAGAT amigos here in Baghad By the Sea individually to convince them to flip back.
Watch the Erica Chenoweth video. I think we can work on organization that has wheels and the legs we older (76) people lack. All we need to do now is to get it organized, I think. That is my drift. I am always appreciative of your input. You do way more than I.
We have VAT and VAN. My experience is that these young "experts" have lost virtually all of the campaigns because we gave up on the "precinct" model that happens to be fixed by law in most states.
I personally think we actually won the last election. Nothing wrong with our candidates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2024_United_States_elections#:~:text=Russia's%20efforts%20represented%20the%20most,society%20and%20foster%20anti%2DAmericanism.
“Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.”
― Joseph Stalin
Carl:The DNC needs to be slapped vigorously around the face, until it comes to its sense and acts like the peoples party it holds itself out to be, but I fear that it is now too late for that. The Musk wrecking ball has broken the egg and it can't be put back together again.
What we didn't realize all these years, is just how fragile democracy and our government is.
So fragile that an unelected man with hundreds of billions can lay waste to our institutions, irrevecobaly.
So, don't call out the DNC for the lack of organization?
The CDC are employees civil SERVANTS Carl, they don't set policy, they follow orders and job assignments.
Fauci did as a good a job under constraints (Trump) as anyone could do
Going forward the leaders of the CDC are Trump humping loyalists.
Chuck Schumer is a spectacle onto himself. He has sat by and let this happen, and finally he acts like an idiot cheerleading some group. He could have stopped this when he was Majority leader by exercising the nuclear option, by disciplining Manchin, Sinema and all the crooked money grubbers in the Democratic party
He looked ridiculous and insincere in front of the camera's, trying to salvage what is left of his reputation.
My thoughts and words out loud (to myself) right here at home when I saw him make a joke of democracy and the Democrats.
Unfortunately, it is all about fundraising, Carl. The DNC and candidates are closely connected to Hollywood.
Unfortunately, it is all about fundraising. Carl. It shows everywhere they go, like in Hollywood, for money. My husband's former colleague was denied money from the Chemistry department, which had been gifted by a deceased student/philanthropist who designated it expressly for my husband's and his partner's research.
Therefore, Ken Martin could not set up a research space at the institution where they taught; he linked up with another inorganic chemist in Santa Barbara, needing to stay there for the summer. His wife, "A Man Named Sue,' ( she became labeled as such in our enclave), complained for twenty years all over campus and throughout the community, calling my husband horrible names and blaming them for her husband's absence in the summer.
Then, she started calling me names. Having never been in my kitchen, she said the kitchen was not clean. We invited them to a get-together at a resort in the east county, and others there were astounded by her aggressive outburst. She claimed the picnic utensils I was using weren't clean, for which there was no evidence.
Four years ago, near their house, a sign was posted in someone's yard stating what Sue had been promulgating. Even outsiders felt the slandering of us was out of bounds. The point is it is all about money.
And they are Democrats -
I told my husband this philanthropist was dead, and there wasn't but a paper-thin difference between organic research and inorganic research in the department - all of which would enhance the same department and institution. Letting them decide - it was up to his partner Dale Shellhamer, who was charged with the account - I watched the ensuing misery.
One issue that keeps me awake at night is the thought that if protests even peaceful ones will be deemed violent or made violent by provocateurs of the right and thus giving the wanna be dictator reason to declare martial law, and cancel the 2026 elections
I am so so frightened
Sonia Imaizumi
I clicked on "Liked" - but of course I didn't. I believe your fear is very rationally based. (Would that it weren't.)
“…America’s adversaries couldn’t have scripted a better betrayal than what Musk and Trump are doing…”
What? You think they didn’t?
I think Musk makes a great target defendant. Exposes himself daily.
Yes Daniel, he is disassembling this country, with the blessings of so called patriotic MAGAts.
But who can stop him, how can they stop him?
The law, the courts, President Musk and co President Trump have demonstrated that they are scoff laws.
All those court orders are temporary stays Daniel. Key word Temporary, and are being "obeyed" while forces are gathered and approach improved.
Besides it is too late, as I said above, Humpty dumpty was kicked off the wall and all the forces in the universe can't put him back together again. The damage has been done to a surprisingly fragile "deep state".
We go around on this. You don't understand damages. Remedies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_remedy
Actually I do understand damages and remedies Daniel, I had two semeters of law in university.
What I also understand that anyone can file suit for anything, but getting a judgement is a dirferent matter entirely.
And judgements can and are appealed, and given the current state of the courts, There is no real remedy, any remedy is temporary until it hits SCOTUS.
A
Can lose everything...
Plus contempt powers.
Can or have.
Hope is an anesthetic, It numbs you as they chop off one limb after another, and then you are unable to fight.
Thom should Interview Mike Turner.
Elon Musk’s Enemy, USAID, Was Investigating Starlink’s Contracts in Ukraine.
"The Lever reported Tuesday that USAID’s inspector general was in the process of investigating its own public-private partnership between Musk’s Starlink and the Ukrainian government at the time that the billionaire’s DOGE crippled the agency. Publicly available information about that probe is still online. An announcement from last May reads: “The USAID Office of Inspector General, Inspections and Evaluations Division, is initiating an inspection of USAID’s oversight of Starlink satellite terminals provided to the Government of Ukraine. Our objectives are to determine how (1) the Government of Ukraine used the USAID-provided Starlink terminals, and (2) USAID monitored the Government of Ukraine’s use of USAID-provided Starlink terminals.”
"Musk has called the agency “evil” and a “criminal organization,” though the fact that USAID was investigating the Starlink activities may suggest ulterior motivations for the billionaire’s vitriol. It’s unclear what the Starlink probe’s status is right now."
Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio was removed from his position atop the powerful House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, telling CBS News that House Speaker Mike Johnson fired him, citing "concerns from Mar-a-Lago."
Also interview other House Republicans like Brian Fitzpatrick, and members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, like my rep, Elvira Salazar. ,
So all of this hullaboo with Musk and USAID defaults back to Starlink.
IIRC, Starlink took Ukraine down at a crucial time when its ship drones were attacking the Russian fleet.
But I am confused Daniel:
This sentence: "The Lever reported Tuesday that USAID’s inspector general was in the process of investigating its own public-private partnership between Musk’s Starlink and the Ukrainian government at the time that the billionaire’s DOGE crippled the agency.
Sounds to me like Trump having his minions investigating Biden and Ukraine over the Burisma scandal.
In othe words a public private partnership between Ukraine and Musk
Musk has employed the "better to beg forgiveness than permission policy" as he deconstructs the government making it vulnerable to take over by hostile powers.
By the time a judge steps in and stops him, (if the judicial system does, and I doubt it at SCOTUS level), it is too late, the deed is done, and the system can't be put back together again, as the data will have been scrubbed, the offices cleared out and the institutionnal knowledge eradicated.
If proven, can be removed, sanctioned.
If it offends people like Turner, MAGA Mike could be toast.
I don't think it relates to 2014 and Burisma.
A multitude of people are being harmed by Trump, Musk and the GOP. Many who voted for Trump. Farmers and ranchers who had sold their foodstuffs to USAID for example. The same people are now having trouble keeping immigrant employees. The administrations illegal attention grabbing stunts have drawn the attention of even the most casual observers of the news. When it finally occurs to Trump and sycophants that they can accomplish their goals via legislation many more people than usual will be paying attention ... and hopefully calling their reps and telling them not to cut programs that are helping them. When it gets personal maybe they will act in their own best interest. Wishful thinking I know but hope is hope.
The people who sold their food products to USAID, are not people they are corporations like Cargill, Carnation, Prudential was in the 1980's the biggest farmer in the country. All grains, from rice to wheat and barley are grown by a handful of corporations, who receive subsidy from the government.
There are a few family farms, but they struggle with debt, the weather, locusts, drought and the market, which the corporate farmers brush off like sand fleas.
Migrant employees are used in poultry processing, meat processing, field hands picking asparagus, fruit, tomatoes. They harvesing of greens is now done by tractor.
Salinas California uses a lot of migrant worker, they grow artichokes and strawberries
Thom…
Good analogy on violence, no rules, greasing refs.
Will use Sunday with Trumplers.
Hmm, might there be a spark of light in knuckle-dragger’ noggins?
Doubtful; their tanks full with gaslighting bile, dense scales in their eyes.
Thanks to America’s failed education system, Rupert’s industrial complex lie machine, tech DBs love of money, decades deep smiling kleptocracy, eunuch Congress and MF legislators in robes.
Citizens United, Buckley; both belong in our trash heap.
Biden, our Paul Von Hindenburg, should have packed the court.
Why the eff we don’t do what they do?
I’m so mad I could scream.
Seems I’ve been doing so for 20 years, into the hurricane.
Feels very very late.
Is she gone, Lady Liberty..?
Lady Liberty left when Junior’s administration coined “Homeland”. You could smell all this coming in the wind like the scent of snow.
A few of us started screaming early on, but were told to calm down. I may have done during the Obama years but I was a fool.
Talking of Obama Lois. I can't get the image of St Obama yakking it up with Trump at the funeral of Jimmy carter and not a peep from anyone, not even on MSNBC, so far I am the only person that has mentioned it and with alarm. To me this evidence that it is all a game, or we have been invaded by body snatchers.
Where the hell ,is the FBI, the CIA, any organization sworn to protect us? Is there not anyone with the courage to do the necessary thing?
Henceforth, we should only refer to the Republican congress and cabinet members as co-conspirators.
The USA Today is looking for opinions on how Trump is doing.
Now we’re asking you. Looking back at Trump’s first month in office, how do you think the president is doing?
Fill out the form below or email us at forum@usatoday.com with the subject line "Forum Trump's first month." We'll post a selection of your comments later this month. Here are some questions to help you get started:
What are you most upset or excited about after Trump’s first month? Why?
What impact of Trump’s policies are you seeing in your state or region?
What issues do you want him to focus on next? Why?
Is he doing enough on the economy?
If you're a Republican, what do you want to see next from party leaders?
If you’re a Democrat, how do you feel about the future?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-president-nearly-month-think-110743933.html
Sarah Kendzior was so right - This is a transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a government.
I feel the deconstruction of the administrative state (remember Steve Bannon coined this phrase in 2015, it is coming to fruition) is two-fold: the Republicans rob the Treasury coffers and the Muskrat funnels exorbitant amounts of money to his government contracts only; and secondly, Mango Orange man and his henchmen and women dissolve the republic of the US and put in place a single leader. Trump. This the country is financially broke as well as politically robbed.
The Rough Rider, TR, is quoted to have said - 'Walk softly and carry a big stick.' Take note of one glaring elephant in this room - the silent and un-named super powerful males who drop a few bucks and smile wanly. Muck is a blowhard, a super-grifter with a sci-fi overlord complex. Zuckerberg is a brat. TFG is very old, and we saw, for years now, how scattered and hazy its thinking is. It is the biggest wannabe in the history of despots. The best salesmen are also those most easily 'sold to' by better liars.
We now are freaking out because we see the illusion of order, the Constitution, being shredded. Why/how did this happen? It has always been a cover letter for the 400-year rape and plunder of the unwashed masses, a document so full of logical and enforcement holes that has resulted, since 1879, in a massive parasitic enterprise covering the entire globe. The document was written and amended and modified and codified and interpreted by white males, the legal/judicial/LE class, to ensure that the will and needs of the oligarchs, since the earliest days of slavery and Native genocide, were met, and enhanced with each rip off.
That the Founders intentions were noble is reflected accurately in the Federalist papers, as Thom often quotes. But these men were limited by their place in time, and their own inabilities as to how to imprison the weaker angels in an escape-proof dungeon. Hence the Roosevelt philosophy, now hijacked by the silent oligarchs who actually run their version of Camelot. Each law passed via the input of oligarch lobbyists has weakened the sovereignty of the average citizen. The CFR is so massive it could sink Bezos' yacht. Most of its protections are to keep the hierarchy in control.
The entire freak out by MAGA about 'woke' is testament to the threat that DEI has imposed upon the ruling class since WW2. The D brand, now corrupted, was once the standard bearer for the 'awakening' of the sovereign citizen. Before them were conscious R brands, from perhaps Lincoln forward, and ending with Carter, who was a southern D who did not abandon his principles of egalitarianism once Johnson gave Black folks the ERA. Now, there is no contra to the laissez faire oligarchy that will occur. The chess pieces will be scattered, and the re-arrangement will fail, due to the destruction of the ecosystem and the chaos of the polycrisis of climatology.
Will there still be a Senate for a "reconciliation" maneuver later this year? I have trouble believing that they plan to allow any shell of a government to remain and function. I believe their intention is to dispense with all of the vestiges of democracy. What use does God have for such formalities and fumbling? It's just a thought, but I wonder how many people it would take to conduct a "citizen's arrest" at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.? Three million? With big enough numbers the Secret Service, National Guard, etc., might not resist. Okay, I know we will never get that many people and they would just keep reloading and shooting people. So, let's just keep calling the hotline.