We’re over it, Republicans; we want fun and meaning back in our lives, rather than just working ourselves to death so Bezos and Zuck can buy new yachts...
Alas know of this would have happened had it not been for the complicity of the majority of the voters.
Even with inequality, enough voters have felt satisfied and complacent enough ,and stupid enough, to believe in and vote for these miscreants
When you have full bellies, leisure time, can sit around the TV at night being brainwashed by Fox, then your attention can easily be shifted to such things as the threat from minorities.
What other problems do yo have? You have a job, own a business, you can buy all of the crap that your little heart desires, you can drive up to McDonalds or KFC and buy a burger, fries and shake, life is good, but your status is threatened by those peskie minorities, black,brown, queer, trans, immigrants.
. He described a political tactic used to distract the working class: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you". LBJ
Reagan and the Republicans managed to convince 77 M voters that the D of I promised them happiness, and not just the pursuit thereof. Thus, according to Reagan & Co., if things didn't go the peoples' way, and they were unhappy and/or unsuccessful, it was the Democratic government, controlled by the liberals, that was at fault.
Yes, I think the only thing that will wake everyone up is a total economic collapse. According to Realtor.com foreclosure's are at a 6 year peak, rising at 26% a year. The European Central Bank just put out a statement that Trump's Iran War could prompt a full-blown financial crisis. I think we are in for a bumpy ride.
I would add the wars that the Republican Party started over this period for no reason other than delusional imperialist goals of no benefit to working people.
One major fun-factor that has been shelved by this MAGA economy is date night. Think about what it costs for dinner and a movie. Adults and teens alike can no longer afford the simple pleasures of life. Dancing and drinks---I don't think so, especially if you are paying rent.
We simply must take back our lives. If you work, you should get more out of it than a meager existence. These billionaires are the parasites, not the workers or those retired. Cardboard and poster paper are cheap but the gas to get to the demonstrations, not so much. See you in the streets.
I think that Trump has at last triggered a desire for change among the majority of Americans. However, so much of the Reaganist worldview has become integrated into the American worldview that it is difficult to see a change back to the 50s. Most Americans still conflate communism with socialism with liberalism with evil - a view promoted after WWII out of fear of a growing labor movement in Europe as the USSR showed signs of recovering faster than Western Europe. Opposing the growth of the labor movement is what motivated the Marshall Plan, not American largesse. Most Americans also think that if you pay more for something, like healthcare, it must be better quality, and that only businessmen are qualified to run the US government (which historically they always run into higher national debt - just like tariffic Trump is doing).
If we can dump Citizens United, create an effective way to stop presidential corruption, and rein in the two MICs (Military and Medical Industrial Complexes), that will be an amazing achievement in 4 years.
We've been in a class war all this time, only Reagan persuaded us to stop fighting, lay down our aspirations, and enjoy the benefits of wage slavery. I hope the ample evidence of the last forty-five years of backsliding will finally prove that letting corporations into our government is akin to letting foxes own and operate your henhouse.
Worse yet, everything you’ve expressed here is considered “radical” by current Democratic “leadership”, as if neolib-lite is the path forward. POSOTUS’s re-election is the ultimate Democratic failure, the cause of which remains unaddressed by those who enabled it. Our survival will demand actual Democrats, the very people current leadership abhors (see Mamdani, Zorhan and Platner, Graham).
$70 trillion transferred upward. 70,000 factories gone. Healthcare that bankrupts people in every other OECD country exactly zero times a year. This wasn't a policy disagreement... it was a 45-year coordinated looting operation sold to working people as freedom. And the cruelest part? They convinced the people being robbed to vote for it, cheer for it, and call anyone who questioned it a socialist. The con is fully exposed now. Zoomers see it clearly. The question is whether rage translates to power.
Donald has turned America into one big Reflecting Pool.
Except he's tapped Lunatic Miller to spray paint the nation Christian Male White, not Lapis Blue.
And if you disagree, he'll have his militia terminate you with prejudice.
1. Renée Nicole Good
Killed: January 7, 2026
Killed by: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Details: Good, a 37‑year‑old U.S. citizen, was fatally shot during an ICE operation. Her death triggered large protests and became the first high‑profile killing associated with the federal “Operation Metro Surge.”
2. Alex Pretti
Killed: January 26, 2026
Killed by: Federal immigration officers (ICE / U.S. Border Patrol)
Location: Downtown Minneapolis
Details: Pretti was the second U.S. citizen killed by federal forces in Minnesota in the same month. Eyewitness video contradicted DHS claims that he posed an imminent threat. His killing intensified statewide outrage and calls for federal oversight.
3. Victor Manuel Diaz
Died in federal custody: January 2026
Agency: ICE
Location: Minnesota (detained during Operation Metro Surge)
Details: Diaz died while in ICE custody during the same federal operation. His death is counted in official tallies of fatalities linked to the surge.
I was thoroughly disheartened when Reagan was elected in 1980. In my small part of the world, social science jobs that had been freely available were now dead or dying. When Reagan was shot, I had hopes, though that wasn't something I mentioned and didn't like in myself. The alternative would have been just as bad, I suppose, though Reagan's charm did facilitate changes that happened in that era, and the assassination attempt did make him a hero. Now I look back and see exactly what you are delineating. Thanks for writing it all in one place for us. I look forward to reading your book.
The survey data Hartmann opens with... nearly half of Americans saying their lives lack fun, with 57% citing cost... is more politically significant than most analysts are treating it. When economic anxiety manifests as a quality-of-life crisis rather than an unemployment number, it's harder for either party to address with conventional policy messaging. The structural argument about union decline and wage stagnation holds up empirically regardless of how you feel about the Reagan legacy framing.
Cheeto carries the unofficial personality disorder diagnosis of malignant narcissism(MNPD) which is made worse by frontotemporal dementia of which he has shown signs with growing concerns
The personality traits of MNPD are sadism where there is blatant disregard for humanity such as when the USAID agency was totally dismantled affecting the lives of millions of people and children(done by DOGE led by Musk another MNPD) Loyalty particularly of the media is necessary due to the paranoia exhibited by the impaired And aggression as seen in his fatal decision to attack Iran
But one of the more pernicious characteristics of MNPD particularly for a leader of a country is antisocial behavior demonstrated by Cheeto’s blatant disregard for rules, the rights of others, and societal norms which leads to irrational contrarian decision making(https://bit.ly/4dG68bq) Blowing up the JCPOA(Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) which had taken 18mo of diplomatic work by the Obama administration, Cheeto showed everyone his contrarian pathology and now is trying to resurrect the agreement on his own which is now costing the American taxpayers billions of dollars a day The exhibited corruption on full display is characteristic of antisocial behavior
The risks of such contrarian attitudes with aggressive tendencies in a man with the nuclear codes should be concerning for all of Americans and the world The unpredictable nature of his actions make him a dangerous threat to not only the country’s national security but country’s of the world
Unfortunately the country is under the control of a psychopath which affects us and as WE have seen the entire geopolitical order WE the People are living in perilous times and neither WE nor the Nazi Republicans should normalize this pathological behavior and insist that the media including substack channels start calling this crazy loon who is atop our government for what he is….a crazed demented man with MNPD
Hell, we can't even be loud enough to get a majority to accept the fact of the robbery, the lying, or the crimes that would have been unthinkable a short dozen or two dozen or six dozen years ago.
We will have to start over. But we should save the remnants of what was good, and rebuild from there.
What was good? Let's hear about it.
People at Memorial Day services a few days ago, they still say how Reagan was their favorite president. We can scream out ourt agreed upon truth. We can write eloquently amongst ourselves.
The rebuild musts draw them in with a new mantra.
They will not see the flames that came when Reagan burned it down.
Far too hopeful for you, Thom. I don't put much weight on November, but it will be the proof of the pudding. If those elections, however distorted and rigged by the MAGAtocracy, do not produce a groundswell against the entire MAGA project, you can write us off. At least as a place where change can come with relative peace and via the law. Even if the unimaginable happens, there are still some 80 million Americans, or thereabouts, who support the cruel, bigoted kleptocrats now ruling us. And the narcissistic sociopath on the top of the gilded manure pile. THEY are the reason I am not hopeful.
I am ashamed, disgusted, repelled by the reality that such people exist in such numbers. Which is why though I am still more than happy to call myself a Californian, I no longer feel like an American in this America. I will not celebrate the 250th. I would do a wake but for the fact that, like so many of us, I am in a divided family, with two who support the current regime. I will certainly never celebrate July 4 again. In hindsight, better that we should have remained a British colony.
Thom paints a grim but realistic picture of our current state of affairs. The standard lament of my friends, other old guys like myself is, I'm glad I won't be around to see what happens. The guy that's building monuments to himself isn't going to leave until he sees the fruits of his nefarious labors. Hopefully midterms will be a blue wave and trump and GOP will lose enough power to see us move back towards representative democracy. Unfortunately after the last few elections I have little trust in my fellow Americans - who consistently vote against themselves.
Alas know of this would have happened had it not been for the complicity of the majority of the voters.
Even with inequality, enough voters have felt satisfied and complacent enough ,and stupid enough, to believe in and vote for these miscreants
When you have full bellies, leisure time, can sit around the TV at night being brainwashed by Fox, then your attention can easily be shifted to such things as the threat from minorities.
What other problems do yo have? You have a job, own a business, you can buy all of the crap that your little heart desires, you can drive up to McDonalds or KFC and buy a burger, fries and shake, life is good, but your status is threatened by those peskie minorities, black,brown, queer, trans, immigrants.
. He described a political tactic used to distract the working class: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you". LBJ
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in our selves"
Reagan and the Republicans managed to convince 77 M voters that the D of I promised them happiness, and not just the pursuit thereof. Thus, according to Reagan & Co., if things didn't go the peoples' way, and they were unhappy and/or unsuccessful, it was the Democratic government, controlled by the liberals, that was at fault.
Yes, I think the only thing that will wake everyone up is a total economic collapse. According to Realtor.com foreclosure's are at a 6 year peak, rising at 26% a year. The European Central Bank just put out a statement that Trump's Iran War could prompt a full-blown financial crisis. I think we are in for a bumpy ride.
I would add the wars that the Republican Party started over this period for no reason other than delusional imperialist goals of no benefit to working people.
What's a lover supposed to do?
One major fun-factor that has been shelved by this MAGA economy is date night. Think about what it costs for dinner and a movie. Adults and teens alike can no longer afford the simple pleasures of life. Dancing and drinks---I don't think so, especially if you are paying rent.
We simply must take back our lives. If you work, you should get more out of it than a meager existence. These billionaires are the parasites, not the workers or those retired. Cardboard and poster paper are cheap but the gas to get to the demonstrations, not so much. See you in the streets.
I think that Trump has at last triggered a desire for change among the majority of Americans. However, so much of the Reaganist worldview has become integrated into the American worldview that it is difficult to see a change back to the 50s. Most Americans still conflate communism with socialism with liberalism with evil - a view promoted after WWII out of fear of a growing labor movement in Europe as the USSR showed signs of recovering faster than Western Europe. Opposing the growth of the labor movement is what motivated the Marshall Plan, not American largesse. Most Americans also think that if you pay more for something, like healthcare, it must be better quality, and that only businessmen are qualified to run the US government (which historically they always run into higher national debt - just like tariffic Trump is doing).
If we can dump Citizens United, create an effective way to stop presidential corruption, and rein in the two MICs (Military and Medical Industrial Complexes), that will be an amazing achievement in 4 years.
What a great synopsis of our collective experience! Thanks Thom.
We've been in a class war all this time, only Reagan persuaded us to stop fighting, lay down our aspirations, and enjoy the benefits of wage slavery. I hope the ample evidence of the last forty-five years of backsliding will finally prove that letting corporations into our government is akin to letting foxes own and operate your henhouse.
Worse yet, everything you’ve expressed here is considered “radical” by current Democratic “leadership”, as if neolib-lite is the path forward. POSOTUS’s re-election is the ultimate Democratic failure, the cause of which remains unaddressed by those who enabled it. Our survival will demand actual Democrats, the very people current leadership abhors (see Mamdani, Zorhan and Platner, Graham).
$70 trillion transferred upward. 70,000 factories gone. Healthcare that bankrupts people in every other OECD country exactly zero times a year. This wasn't a policy disagreement... it was a 45-year coordinated looting operation sold to working people as freedom. And the cruelest part? They convinced the people being robbed to vote for it, cheer for it, and call anyone who questioned it a socialist. The con is fully exposed now. Zoomers see it clearly. The question is whether rage translates to power.
Donald has turned America into one big Reflecting Pool.
Except he's tapped Lunatic Miller to spray paint the nation Christian Male White, not Lapis Blue.
And if you disagree, he'll have his militia terminate you with prejudice.
1. Renée Nicole Good
Killed: January 7, 2026
Killed by: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Details: Good, a 37‑year‑old U.S. citizen, was fatally shot during an ICE operation. Her death triggered large protests and became the first high‑profile killing associated with the federal “Operation Metro Surge.”
2. Alex Pretti
Killed: January 26, 2026
Killed by: Federal immigration officers (ICE / U.S. Border Patrol)
Location: Downtown Minneapolis
Details: Pretti was the second U.S. citizen killed by federal forces in Minnesota in the same month. Eyewitness video contradicted DHS claims that he posed an imminent threat. His killing intensified statewide outrage and calls for federal oversight.
3. Victor Manuel Diaz
Died in federal custody: January 2026
Agency: ICE
Location: Minnesota (detained during Operation Metro Surge)
Details: Diaz died while in ICE custody during the same federal operation. His death is counted in official tallies of fatalities linked to the surge.
#RIP Trump's Murder Victims #VOTE or Else THAT
I was thoroughly disheartened when Reagan was elected in 1980. In my small part of the world, social science jobs that had been freely available were now dead or dying. When Reagan was shot, I had hopes, though that wasn't something I mentioned and didn't like in myself. The alternative would have been just as bad, I suppose, though Reagan's charm did facilitate changes that happened in that era, and the assassination attempt did make him a hero. Now I look back and see exactly what you are delineating. Thanks for writing it all in one place for us. I look forward to reading your book.
The survey data Hartmann opens with... nearly half of Americans saying their lives lack fun, with 57% citing cost... is more politically significant than most analysts are treating it. When economic anxiety manifests as a quality-of-life crisis rather than an unemployment number, it's harder for either party to address with conventional policy messaging. The structural argument about union decline and wage stagnation holds up empirically regardless of how you feel about the Reagan legacy framing.
Cheeto: Narcissistic Ego And Contrarianism
Cheeto carries the unofficial personality disorder diagnosis of malignant narcissism(MNPD) which is made worse by frontotemporal dementia of which he has shown signs with growing concerns
The personality traits of MNPD are sadism where there is blatant disregard for humanity such as when the USAID agency was totally dismantled affecting the lives of millions of people and children(done by DOGE led by Musk another MNPD) Loyalty particularly of the media is necessary due to the paranoia exhibited by the impaired And aggression as seen in his fatal decision to attack Iran
But one of the more pernicious characteristics of MNPD particularly for a leader of a country is antisocial behavior demonstrated by Cheeto’s blatant disregard for rules, the rights of others, and societal norms which leads to irrational contrarian decision making(https://bit.ly/4dG68bq) Blowing up the JCPOA(Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) which had taken 18mo of diplomatic work by the Obama administration, Cheeto showed everyone his contrarian pathology and now is trying to resurrect the agreement on his own which is now costing the American taxpayers billions of dollars a day The exhibited corruption on full display is characteristic of antisocial behavior
The risks of such contrarian attitudes with aggressive tendencies in a man with the nuclear codes should be concerning for all of Americans and the world The unpredictable nature of his actions make him a dangerous threat to not only the country’s national security but country’s of the world
Unfortunately the country is under the control of a psychopath which affects us and as WE have seen the entire geopolitical order WE the People are living in perilous times and neither WE nor the Nazi Republicans should normalize this pathological behavior and insist that the media including substack channels start calling this crazy loon who is atop our government for what he is….a crazed demented man with MNPD
I don't think that we can save what's left.
Hell, we can't even be loud enough to get a majority to accept the fact of the robbery, the lying, or the crimes that would have been unthinkable a short dozen or two dozen or six dozen years ago.
We will have to start over. But we should save the remnants of what was good, and rebuild from there.
What was good? Let's hear about it.
People at Memorial Day services a few days ago, they still say how Reagan was their favorite president. We can scream out ourt agreed upon truth. We can write eloquently amongst ourselves.
The rebuild musts draw them in with a new mantra.
They will not see the flames that came when Reagan burned it down.
I think they are buying more bunkers than yachts. Perhaps deep down they know they are contributing to making the world a worse place to live in.
So long as one person is left who dreams the dream, the dream is not dead. A single spark at the right time and place can light a wildfire.
Far too hopeful for you, Thom. I don't put much weight on November, but it will be the proof of the pudding. If those elections, however distorted and rigged by the MAGAtocracy, do not produce a groundswell against the entire MAGA project, you can write us off. At least as a place where change can come with relative peace and via the law. Even if the unimaginable happens, there are still some 80 million Americans, or thereabouts, who support the cruel, bigoted kleptocrats now ruling us. And the narcissistic sociopath on the top of the gilded manure pile. THEY are the reason I am not hopeful.
I am ashamed, disgusted, repelled by the reality that such people exist in such numbers. Which is why though I am still more than happy to call myself a Californian, I no longer feel like an American in this America. I will not celebrate the 250th. I would do a wake but for the fact that, like so many of us, I am in a divided family, with two who support the current regime. I will certainly never celebrate July 4 again. In hindsight, better that we should have remained a British colony.
Thom paints a grim but realistic picture of our current state of affairs. The standard lament of my friends, other old guys like myself is, I'm glad I won't be around to see what happens. The guy that's building monuments to himself isn't going to leave until he sees the fruits of his nefarious labors. Hopefully midterms will be a blue wave and trump and GOP will lose enough power to see us move back towards representative democracy. Unfortunately after the last few elections I have little trust in my fellow Americans - who consistently vote against themselves.