21 Comments

1. Saw C-Span. Good job. However we primarily have a national security issue. Putin won. You explained how advertising works. Psy ops includes threats, intimidation -- burning ballots. Propaganda that there would be violence. Bomb threats on election day in Dem precincts. All crimes under both state and federal law.

2. Three card monte....Nothing up his sleeve? Dems are easily distracted.

Trump named hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as his Treasury Secretary. Bessent is a former protege of George Soros and is openly gay.

IMHO Trump's main goal is to become as rich as Putin and the treasury is his pot of gold.

I've been asking about arbitrage of the national debt. Borrow at low rates.... Switzerland, Scandanavia, Japan, etc. DOGE will come up with plans to privatize virtually everything. Give "naming rights" to public insitutions. When I was a kid, might have called the Pa. Supreme Court, The "Pennsy Railroaad Supreme Court." Word was that they has bought it, lock, stock, barrel and rail. The White House should forever be known as "Trump House." Color it red.

3. Pete Hegseth. His tatoos would get him courtmarshaled.

4. Heritage 2025 is old wine in new bottles. SCOTUS has empowered the dark side. As soon as Trump was elected, in 2017, he toyed with unitary executive (he lost on DACA but SCOTUS would apporove now) and started to install the spoils system, eliminating "merit selection" for my colleagues.

As to our current tactics, we need chess players. I'll take Gaetz, who is a dud, over Bondi, who is dangerous. Nikki Fried on Pam Bondi: “She was the ringleader in the attempt to sue the ACA out of existence and overturn the pre-existing conditions rule. She filed the original suit and was the lead plaintiff on the case. When Trump says he’s going to end the ACA, believe him now that he’s nominated Pam Bondi to finish the job.”

She will have to file a financial stagtement. Her law firm represented Qattar, a country that supported faimilies of suicide bombers in Israel. Does she have any Rule 11 liability for the time she filed frivolus Jan 6 cases?

Also (from Marlo and the Lever): “President-elect Donald Trump’s new choice to head the Justice Department is reportedly the sister of the lawyer who represented Elon Musk and Tesla against federal charges that Musk committed securities fraud. If confirmed, Trump’s Attorney General nominee Pamela Bondi would be in a position to shut down federal prosecutors’ ongoing investigation of Musk’s company.

Trump is also reportedly considering nominating Bondi’s brother to head the federal agency that brought fraud charges against Musk.

Bradley Bondi was listed in federal documents as Musk and Tesla’s attorney in the company’s 2018 battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a series of Musk’s tweets that the agency said misled shareholders about the financial status of the company, boosting Tesla’s stock price and leading to “significant market disruption.”

Bondi negotiated a settlement with the SEC and continued to represent Musk and Tesla when the SEC alleged that he violated the terms of the agreement a year later. “

Expand full comment

totally agree on Gaetz vs Bondi. Gaetz was never a serious pick, it was part of a Trump/Gaetz game plan hatched on his plane as the Ethics committee report was ready to be released/

The report is now dead, and it dies with the 118th Congress on Jan 2nd.

Gaetz says he wont' take office, but that is only a ruse, it keeps speculation off his ass, and his name out o f the news for two months.

He was re elected by the 1st District Florida, and will "change his mind" and be sworn in the 119th Congress on Jan 3rd.

Because he is a diehard Trump loyalist, the so called Freedom Caucus which has vastly expanded will, with Trump's nudging vote him in as Speaker.

I did predict the same day that Trump announced Gaetz as his pick for AG, and the media went wild with another shiny object to chase, that he would withdraw from nomination.

Anyone with a smattering of facts, and had exercise of critical thinking skills would have come to the same conclusion.

I also predict that he will be sworn in to the 119th Congress and be nominated and elected as Speaker of the House, Trump will have it no other way.

Expand full comment

I'm hardly an expert on the two things I'm about to mention here, but:

1) the methane that cows (and other ruminants) produce are the product of "belching," from how their two portion stomach (one part the rumen) ferments grasses, etc. May seem trivial, but precision in the words we use and the concepts generated do truly matter.

2) RE: "The Morbidly Rich are $276 billion richer just in the two weeks since November 5th, so, of course, Republicans want to give them trillions more in tax cuts." It's vital I think to emphasize that this increase in "wealth" is based on "paper," grossly inflated value of stocks. A pyramid or bubble, if you like. It's not the wealth in productive capital that a health, fair economy should be based on. Not that this "paper" wealth doesn't have obscene power, but it matters as to solutions and to the assessment of risks this inflation of wealth has.

Expand full comment

Robert, you beat me to it. Yes methane through belching apparently counts for up to 95% of its production (presumably the other 5% is farting). And 30-50% of humans produce methane from digestion - depends of the gut bacteria individuals have. And methane is odorless. Odor is typically form sulphur compounds.

Expand full comment

The climate crisis denier crowd have been using the "cow fart" claim and "imagery" to ridicule those of us who recognize the deep damage caused by raising beef and other animals for food (especially when done on an industrial scale). One can be very healthy on a plant based diet and do great good for the world by following that course of nutrition. (Do take a B-12 supplement!)

Expand full comment

Thank you. Cows do indeed belch methane as anyone knowledgeable about rumenants knows. Horses fart as they digest fiber farther back in the digestive system.

Expand full comment

I have this idea of just taking all the money in the world and shoving it into a supermax prison, then selling billionaires exclusive passes to get inside with all that money! Then slam the door shut with them inside, and we issue new currency for ourselves and go back to leading normal lives again.

Expand full comment

I'm going to miss having Lloyd Austin at the helm. Pretty sure he's the most intelligent, qualified, and wise Secretary of Defense the US has had in my lifetime. He had some things to say, and like Hans Blix, he too was shown where to go shut up.

Pete Hegseth should be a real piece..

Expand full comment

I agree Jon, but please call a turd a turd. Hegseth is a real piece of shit.

I am waiting for the dust to settle. As we should all know by now Trump is an agent of chaos, he keeps everyone off balance by sowing chaos. He spouts so many lies in 1 minute that you don't have time to fact check and correct them all, and he normalizes chaos.

We gives thanks for a breather. Gaetz had the media chasing a bright shiny object, and when Gaetz pulled out, their was a sigh of relieve, and without much ado accepted Pam Bondi who is much,much more dangerous than Gaetz with hardly a whimper.

He is stupid as a bag of hammers, but he is good at what he does.

I remember reading of Sherlock Holmes, he didn't know where a country was, and his antagonist was aghast, How could he , the great Sherlock Holmes, be so ignorant of geography and other things.His reply was to the effect why fill my head with irrelevant information. His skill was deductive reasoning, not to be an encylopedia, of useless information (which I admit is me).

Expand full comment

I listened to an Ezra Klein interview with Anne Applebaum and at the end she recommended 3 books. The quote below is from OFFSHORE, one of the books.

Offshore finance survives and thrives based on a logic of predation rather than of capitalism. It might look like capitalism, because it is possible for some to pursue profits and maximize economic self-interest. But the system is optimized for gaming the laws of other countries and for hoarding capital, rather than for putting capital to productive use.

Harrington, Brooke. Offshore: Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism (A Norton Short) (p. 40). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.

"But the system is optimized for gaming the laws of other countries and for hoarding capital, rather than for putting capital to productive use." That sentence tells me there is an economy, a system, containing trillions of dollars that operates outside of any governance. "The Common Good" is lost to this system. It seems this system has minimal use for the world of widgets, productive use, but exists in the nontangible world of Finance. Thank you, Anne Applebaum, for given me yet another swift kick in the ass to remind me of my ignorance. Reading this makes me feel like I am an OBJECT existing in a Darwinian world!

Expand full comment

Happy News from TrumpASTAN! This is really not good Thom. Despair is not an option action is. Look out everybody. This is what the voted for, Trump will fix it! Go Elizabeth Warren! Thanks Thom.

Expand full comment

You voted for Trump and he will fix it, Jackie?

WTF can Elizabeth Warren do?, The Congress is going to be a mere rubber stamp.

Expand full comment

Are all facts over? Can’t we get the facts about studs right? No one that’s a stud has to pay!

Why are we wasting our time with disinformation about stuff like this when the light of democracy is dwindling to nothing?

Rather than focus on this, we must focus on what we can do to protect democracy from them.

At WhiteChalkCrime.com you will hear teacher whistleblowers explain what crooks have been doing to our schools due to rubber stamping school boards. You can get on a school board on the platform of save democracy/end school shootings. We can build islands of democracy they can’t touch.

I know it’s hard to believe you don’t know but we didn’t know what the priests and Harvey Weinstein were doing for decades. It’s our schools that paved the way for autocracy because they are an autocracy that banished great teaching, the underpinning of democracy. Teachers’ unions folded as have most teachers. It’s a treacherous world because the media failed to report this. This is our deep state.

Spend your time on what we can do to save democracy. We absolutely can take over our schools. Th worst case scenario is we go back to teaching democracy and in time these children will make it happen. However, democracy is a powerful force and our schools will be the light that even when small keeps the darkness from taking over like a candle in a dark room.

Expand full comment

Thank you for asking. I wrote a book to answer that which it does well. I’ll try to make this short. It won’t be.

There are some people like me who were called to teach. We are just plain gifted at teaching children. We’re like people called to head up a religion. We’re not rare but not common either. Schools used to be populated with us. In the olden days women knew how to teach but men were in charge. They respected those women because they knew. It’s like if you wanted a beautiful painting you’d hire an artist. You don’t just hire anyone.

They were like the women behind the men who ran the schools. The men didn’t dare disrespect them as they had no clue how to teach.

Then women’s lib came along and Reagan started the trickle down phenomenon. People looked at schools as businesses not a place where gifted people needed to take the lead - like if they stopped hiring artists and paintings just weren’t the same.

Meanwhile women that talented could use their talent in other professions finally. The fact they did nothing to change things when the brightest women stopped teaching speaks volumes.

It kind of works like this now. A teacher couldn’t believe how I handled a child she had the prior year. He was impossible for her. She is amazed. She then gets certified to go into administration since teaching is hard for her. Eventually she’s in charge of people like me who never want to leave the classroom. Many end up tyrants partly because they’re jealous. Meanwhile power and perks have taken over. Schools are run mafia style. They break laws. They can’t have someone like me in their midst. I report wrongdoing. I’m there because of a calling. I don’t let them harm children. So people like me are out.

Bottom line we must repopulate schools with teachers like me. They must have 51% of the power. I have a chapter on how to attract people like me. I never would have been a teacher if I wasn’t a before women’s lib person. I was a top student and didn’t think about Harvard. Things were different.

We can make a teaching job more suitable for talented teachers. I explain that in my book. It must have the power to make a difference in that called to teach teacher’s hands. They removed that and that’s why schools are a mess. Idiots make decisions for self serving reasons. They’re like Trump’s new cabinet.

This is not a right or left issue. I respect a person’s right to their values. Schools are where we were to help kids find their gifts while teaching democracy - we taught compromise. Not anymore.

My memoir has stories that will shock you. Outsiders cannot fix that without learning what’s going on from whistleblowers. You will hear one say that they criminally indicted him for trying to prevent a Columbine. Good teachers try to make a difference and crooks only want to cover up stuff. No outsider has a clue. And the unions are under their thumb too, forced to go along. They are corrupt as most teachers are corrupt. The power is skewed and no one will listen. That’s why democracy fell apart but people don’t listen to teachers. I’ve tried to expose this for 29 years. It’s like an intellectual version of Harvey Weinstein. They rape our minds. Teachers are powerless and the media doesn’t believe us.

Listen to the 5 whistleblowers at WhiteChalkCrime.com.

Do not see this as they got education wrong and no one knows how to do this. This is they hijacked education and made it their treasure chest and the people who know exactly what to do are powerless.

People think reform is impossible. The truth is administrators make it impossible.

I have a chapter with a teacher who is like me. He had a full scholarship at a top university but wanted to teach. He lasted two years and explains. No person of substance can tolerate the scum that run this show.

I’m less bothered by a trump because I lived through people just like him. Only loyalty counts. Not expertise. It’s only about money and if you have values you’re a pariah. I’m vaccinated against corruption. I’m used to the Trump way but was hoping I could stop him. People wouldn’t listen.

Lincoln said the way of the school room in one generation is the way of the government in the next. He’s proven he’s smart. They still don’t listen.

It was so disgusting I spoke out and was fired despite tenure. That’s another lie. I explain that too.

Education could be a beautiful thing just like democracy used to be. Education became what Trump has planned for government. Everyone misses the point because they don’t get how corrupt it is.

Randi Weingarten knows but she’s no Liz Chaney. She’s like most people - survive. I spent every penny I made in teaching on lawyers and have spent money as an activist. Made none. Who wants that? And look how hard it is to explain to you. You think the problem is knowing how to educate when it’s not having been able to educate due to corruption.

In my book I show a document my district altered and submitted into the legal record. That’s a crime. They’re still considered a top notch district. No one knows. They get away with everything. Sound familiar?

Education needs a leader. There hasn’t been one since Horace Mann died in 1859.

If people will read my book they’ll understand what to do. We can take over school boards on a democracy platform. Democracy means left and right learning to live together. Democracy means an end to school shootings. We have them because the teachers who cared for those troubled shooters are no longer allowed to care. If they do they might get indicted. Who wants that?

If they’re not willing to listen to teachers it is hopeless and we have the government we deserve.

I made a pledge I’ll write about this every day now that Trump has hijacked democracy in a similar way with hope people will read my book.

It was all those forgotten people that schools used to love who felt abandoned. They were abandoned but are now in the arms of something worse.

Schools hold a democracy together. If people want democracy they must learn what happened.

Real schools will be easy once this is exposed. Until then they seem impossible because the deep state of education wants you to think that. The solution is in my book. The question: who will listen to a teacher? I’m hoping people who want to thwart Trump. Taking over school boards is our only hope

Expand full comment

Karen, we know that Education is a problem, but it is also a scapegoat for left and right.

So how do we fix it?

What form should education be.

Should it regress to the 18th and early 19th Century, where it was the responsibility of the father to tutor the sons, and if there was no father or he lacked the means then the child grew up illiterate.

Parochial schools, Madrasas, yeshivas, Christian Academies. I do not know of any secular Academies, the trend now is for State run Christian education.

Expand full comment

I'm still disillusioned with Thom for poo-poo-ing the Spoonamore letter to Harris warning her about possible fraud in the election. Thom said the letter gave no credible evidence. The term Spoonamore uses in his "duty to warn" letter to Harris is "a near certainty" that the data was hacked. Spoonamore is no quack, but a highly respected expert in the field. His warning should be taken very seriously.

Expand full comment

There is nothing Thom could have done, and I can almost guarantee that the Spoonamore letter to Harris would not have been read by her,or anyone in her campaign, you have no idea how much paper of that nature comes into a campaign, the only way to get attention is to have access to a high ranking campaign advisor.

As regards credible evidence, credible EVIDENCE is needed in any case, saying that some one is a "highly respected expert in the field" is not credible evidence or sufficient.

There is credible evidence from highly respected experts in the field of climatology that the species is marching itself towards extinction at a rapid pace, and Trumps election hit the afterburner on that pace.

And will that make a difference? Nope, especially when each and everyone one of will not give up our jobs, our transportation, our comfortable lives, our heated homes, and our cell phones,

TV and internet.

Expand full comment

The new strategy is to get the people to understand that fear is not the way to freedom and economic prosperity but that high frequency produces abundance in all areas or a win win. It will take a while because the path of fear is well worn while love and peace have not been much used so the path is a bit overgrown with weeds. Will proceed anyway.

Expand full comment

So you don't believe that Project 2025 is a blueprint and game plan for Tyranny Clayton.

That love conquers all. Sell that to those who will be trampled underfoot by the Dear Leader regime, old folks, gays, immigrants, pols, scientists, media that he considers his enemy.

Your Jesus is not a knight on shiny armor coming to your rescue, and I am not at all interested in some mythical reward in the hereafter.

Actually it does sound to me like, you have already decided to switch gears and get in the good graces with Dear Leader.

Expand full comment

I will take this opportunity to remind the readers that Merrick Garland is AG simply because Obama selected him for associate justice on the Supreme .

The Obama who was editor of the Harvard Law Review was a conservative, not a liberal, not a progressive,

As president he wanted a win, He wanted to go down in history as a president who had appointed a Supreme Court Justice, he knew that he faced a hostile senate, so he asked the most right wing of Senators at the time, Orrin Hatch R-UT for a name that would pass muster with the right wing Republican Senators. He wasn't planning on McConnell playing politics and wanting to deny Obama this victory.

Orrin Hatch's choice, Merrick Garland, has impeccable conservative right wing credentials, he served as a Moderator for the Federalist Society, and his tour of duty as AG is marked by the deftness with which he has avoided prosecuting the seditionists in Congress and Trump Administration. He only appointed Jack Smith as special counsel after being embarrassed publicly by his peers.

He gladly appointed David Weiss, himself a Trump Schedule F appointee to investigate and prosecute a civilian, Hunter Biden. Weiss couldn't restrain himself, "send me in coach". Meanwhile despite their crimes, abusing their relationship, tax evasion, taking gifts from a foreign government, the Trump children have been given a free pass, And, well Joe's , bipartisan mentality has come back to bite him in the ass.

To be honest, the only reason I voted for him, was to keep Trump away from the levers of power.

Expand full comment

Samba, bossa nova, bikini waxing and now defense of democracy by a national justice system. America must keep looking to Brazil for directional inspiration, because it continues to already be where this nation doesn't realize it wants to go.

Expand full comment