We need anther revolution, a fact lost on the corporate Democrats, and their consultants, who rule the roost. Concentrating on “kitchen table issues”, tinkering with the periphery of core problems, failing to implement fundamental reforms, failing to aggressively pursue those who have committed obvious crimes and punish them accordingly, will only allow the cancer to metastasize, as we have seen. Our status in the world is destroyed, but we can at least repair our shattered democracy if we elevate and support the generals now standing by.
The big wigs in the Democratic party are in denial, claiming that the autopsy represents the views of the author and not the DNC. They never learn.
Yes, "we wuz robbed" but the robbery would only have worked if it were uniform, we still lost Wisconsin, Michigan, . If the Democrats of Penn yslvania had been motivated to vote, it would have been harder to rob.
Yet the Democratic party will not come to terms with the stupidity of the Hispanic, Muslim and young black male vote.
There has been a big push against identity politics. but it is precisely identity politics that has brought Trump to power. White, male identity, Hispanic male identity, Black male identity and Muslim identity.
One would think that there is a lot of buyers remorse, but I personally have my doubts.
When grievance has hunger pangs, it looks to scapegoats.
Our report’s purpose is two-fold: to illuminate why the Democrats lost and to help propel the party toward a different approach and result in the future. Without a full and honest accounting of the Harris campaign and the Democratic Party’s myriad failures, there can be little realistic hope of defeating Trumpist authoritarianism in the future.
Our report identifies five main reasons for Harris’s failure:
Voter Disenchantment: Losing a whopping 6.8 million voters who supported Biden in 2020 proved pivotal in this extremely close election. Harris’s inability to mobilize these pro-Biden voters may have been the campaign’s biggest failure.
Biden’s Betrayal: Former President Joe Biden’s disastrous decision to run for reelection, and his stubborn refusal to step aside until very late in the process, robbed voters of a Democratic primary process, created confusion and chaos, and severely hindered Democrats’ chances.
Abandoning the Working-Class Base: With millions of Americans already disenchanted and desperate due to inflation, the Harris campaign lost this essential Democratic base by focusing on courting Republicans, kowtowing to corporate donors’ interests, and failing to confront the role of corporate greed in escalating inflation.
The Gaza Effect: There is ample evidence that Harris lost many voters, especially young voters, Arab-Americans, and critical support in Michigan and elsewhere, due to the campaign’s failure to shift or even signal a potential shift in policy on Israel and Palestine.
Losing Young Voters: Extensive evidence shows a huge drop-off in both turnout and Democratic support among young voters aged 18-29.
There is the enemy within and the enemy without.The enemy from without has won because those within who are suppose to be in the trenches and fighting are either corrupt, complicit or cowardly and need to be rooted out
What does a coach do. He sidelines or gets rid of the players that don't hack it.
What does he owner of the team do, he gets rid of an ineffective or corrupt coach.
The Democratic party needs a drastic overhaul, to get rid of the compromised, corrupt, lazy, entitled, ineffecient.
OK, I suspect that Democratic leaders my have sought a Slow prosecution of Trump so that the indictments would still be underway during the 2024 election. If so, that was a tragically mistaken battle tactic, due to unseen enemy cannon (Aileen). For that error they (and we) are all roasting in Hell. Trump was able to skate with the spiteful, hateful fealty of his cult.
You give the "leaders" in the Democratic party more credit than I. They are lilly livered, afraid of their own shadow, overly cautious and worse, they slop at the same donor trough as the Republicans, only they get sloppy seconds.
I have checked opensecrets.org, donors donate to both parties, but Republicans generally receive the lion share of donations.
The problem is the professionals, the stragestists, the analysts,the propagandists, they are on the payroll, they hob nob with the beltway elite, lobbyists, get invited onto TV, and get paid, get invited to parties and they don't live in the real world, they live in the beltway bubble, and have friends "across the aisle"
Everytime I hear a Democrat, and Biden was famous for this, talk about"my friends on the other side" or across the aisle, I could choke.
When you compromise with evil, you become evil.
As regards Aileen Cannon and the Documents case.
To start with the "excuse" Garland gave for sending the trial to the Southern District of Florida, was specious, it was false and Jack Smith, nor did anyone call him out on it.
The excuse he gave was that Southern Florida is where the crime occurred.
Wrong the Crime occurred in DC, the moment that Waltine Nauta loaded the boxes of documents on the truck.
If no one buys that, then it occurred in Virginia, when the boxes were transferred from the truck to the airplane.
The second BS was accepting Garlands excuse that Cannon was appointed by a turn of the wheel.
Previously the way a presiding judge was chosen, was by a turn of the wheel, so named for the wheel of fortune, at least that is what the public is told.
This is where Jack Smith comes in for scrutiny, Jack knows what I just said, and there were many other chances for Jack to file a complaint that Aileen be taken off the case, but never did.
I feel that we have been suckered in a charade, Kabuki Theater.
Excellent summary! Isn't the path forward for the Democratic Party to downplay social issues and emphasize economic issues? To promise all Americans financial security with fair-paying jobs with dignity.
That's what they say, However Trump was elected on social issues, the culture war.
The Democratic party emphasized economics, and the IRA, ARP and CHIPS and Science Act, and the Democrats emphasized those acts, however it didn't impress 79 million people who didn't vote, and not enough Muslims, Hispanic and black males, who did vote, but voted for Trump
The Democratic party downplays the culture war constantly and thus loses
LBJ: "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."
The Democratic Party constantly ignores the absolute loathing, hatred, anger,angst and fear of white America, and exacerbates it by elevating to a public conscious level, the issues of DEI.
I am 100%DEI, but not in your face, subtle, not overt, don't alarm the bigots, because they will turn out to vote you out.
The problem with the left is that they aren't satisifed with small victories,and have too many organizations that gather money and clout, by grabbing headlines and making TV appearances. Totally self defeating, for the cause, like BLM and defund he police.
That was the absolute worse T shirt or bumper sticker of all times,and turning George Floyd, who was a small time criminal, into a martyr and angel.
That justice was done with Chauvin's conviction should have ended it there, but once a few people create and organization, it gets donations, an office, and appoints itself a President and a staff, then it is there forever.
The Post-Trump Stress Disorder PTSD metaphor that the media is using lately is, of course, a bit off. The main reason is that the traumatic stress is not "post" and it is not yet a "disorder." It is not clear if it will evolve into a disorder either.
Post-traumatic stress was first observed among service members in combat environments. As some of my psychology colleagues have pointed out, when in stress-filled environments for extended periods, our nervous systems tend to change our homeostatic setpoint for tolerating stress. That helps us stay cool when shot at, and behave appropriately - take cover and return fire as needed. The clear evidence for this phenomenon is how we behave once we return home to the safety of America. It takes about 3 months for our brains to realize the stress is gone and reset the homeostatic setpoint back to where it was. Even though there was no term for post-traumatic stress until late in the Vietnam war, all commanders since at least WWI likely understood that units returning from deployment needed several months in stand-down mode before returning to normal operations.
For first-time combatants, it takes about 6 weeks to adjust to the stress. But once adjusted, subsequent combat deployments trigger the homeostatic setpoint change almost overnight. The brain (nervous system) remembers. The "D" part, disorder, appears when even before leaving a combat zone, a service member starts over-reacting to stress, behaving unreliably, experiencing sleep problems, etc., and must be sent home, or once their unit has returned home, their nervous system cannot re-set to normal stress, and they over-react to loud noises, get violent in arguments, have nightmares, etc. that will not go away.
Not everybody is biologically equipped to handle chronic stress. The cruel irony in the case of Trump is that he uses stress as a tool of dominance and control. Like it or not, all Americans' lives are more stressful under the Trump Reich. We now have a Gestapo killing citizens being harassed by ICE agents, we must cope with runaway inflation, Trump seems to have no impulse control, so we cannot anticipate his next assault on an ally or invasion of a country on some trumped-up pretense like possession of nuclear bombs aimed at LA (like why would Iran want to blow up Hollywood?). We have the most incompetent administration in US history, so we now have to worry about getting Ebola or some other deadly disease for which there is no vaccine, because he has shut down medical research under an HHS director who thinks vaccines cause autism.
Our FAA is a disaster, with planes crashing into one another, long waits to board, and now ticket prices off the charts. Trump is now encouraging the pollution of drinking water so that the fossil fuel industry can thrive and delay transitioning to EVs, which are causing severe climate change that is flattening entire neighborhoods with wind storms, wildfires, and floods that Trump laughs off as a libtard hoax. Will Post-Trump Stress turn into a Disorder? Well, it seems like there are a lot more mass shootings in the news of late - could that be related?
I don't want the felon in chief to rest in peace. I hope he gets no rest at all if there is a just God, as I believe now, but rather a period of painful recompense equivalent to the damage he has done. Which could mean eternity.
Karma is inescapable Either he gets his just due in this lifetime or the next he will have to face his own karmic debt It's right up there with Hitler's debt
A number of blue states should join together and sue Trump, the individual (not so-called president), for promoting the murder of Colbert. Yes, Trump's trashcan image depicted murder. Compensatory, punitive and statutory damages for Colbert and staff should be at least 100 BILLION DOLLARS — for assault and battery, defamation of character, intentional infliction of emotional distress, lost wages and employment for Colbert, his entire staff and crew. tRUMP and his so-called businesses have been involved in at least 4,000 lawsuits in the past 30 years, and he has filed 1,600 lawsuits himself. It's way past time that the chickens come home to roost.
A great take by Elie Mystal on the Democratic Party. Frustrating.
Worst Argument of the Week
On Thursday, the Democratic National Committee released its “autopsy” of the 2024 election—but don’t get too excited: The DNC has its head so far up its ass that we now need an autopsy for the autopsy. DNC Chair Ken Martin initially said he wasn’t going to release the report, then changed course as people, including Kamala Harris herself, demanded its release. Then, it released a report that was full of errors—like, it literally gets people’s names and positions wrong and cites figures that are provably incorrect.
In addition to the report, Martin put out a statement. This paragraph stings:
I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards. I don’t endorse what’s in this report, or what’s left out of it. I could not in good faith put the DNC’s stamp of approval on it. But transparency is paramount. So, today I am releasing the report as I received it—in its entirety, unedited and unabridged—with annotations for claims that couldn’t be verified.
It’s the most “I’m not a member of an organized political party—I’m a Democrat” moment we’ve encountered in a while.
I could end this week’s “worst argument” section here. Martin’s “I put out a shambolic report riddled with errors that I am not proud of” is a terrible look. So, for that matter, is “Ken Martin should be the head of the DNC.” Martin is so obviously bad at his job that he should be playing for the Mets.
Still, I’m not going to end this section on Martin, because there is one thing that’s even worse about the DNC report—and that is what is not in it: any mention of Gaza. Somehow, the Democratic Party did a 192-page review of what went wrong in 2024, and its response to the genocide in Gaza didn’t rate a single mention.
I don’t know how you do that. I mean, I guess I do know because I know how cowardice and complicity translate into better jobs and power within the Democratic Party. But even for an establishment from which I expect so little, the decision to ignore Gaza really shocks the conscience.
This report gives me no hope for the future. How can the party learn lessons when it won’t even acknowledge facts?
I’m not normally one of the guys who thinks that the Democratic Party needs to be burned to the ground so that we might build something better from its ashes. But in moments like these, it’s hard for me to argue that anything could be worse than the current Democrats.
Tulsi Gabbard is getting out of this lawless cabinet as director of national intelligence(DNI) Even though she seems to have a valid excuse(husband has a rare form of bone cancer) I think that with Cheeto refusing to use the information she presented to him after rationally laying out the pros and cons of what agencies were relaying to her was extremely problematic The Iran war is case in point Circumstantial information by the NYT among other sources suggest that the main factor in the decision making for the Iran war was Netanyahu Of course Cheeto denies this but his never ending lying makes this impossible to believe
How frustrating it would be that the dictator she worked for would act in contrary fashion that was not in the best interests of the country making POTUS the country’s biggest national security risk And with his incessant desire to align the country’s foreign policy by catering to other dictators such as Putin, Xi, and Netanyahu makes our country isolated from our once trusted friends and allies Since the other dictators don’t want any part of what he’s selling America is isolated and alone
With Cheeto’s DOGE purging of agencies responsible for countering foreign threats from health(Ebola response muted due to loss of USAID presence) to election interference both domestic and abroad(gutting agencies that provide risk assessment and prevention) to cybersecurity, national security becomes a major concern
America and its citizens are less safe more than it has ever been in the history of the country all due to Cheeto
Forbes is reporting that Trump's IRS immunity could save him more than $600 million on the estimated $1.4 billion he made in 2025 from crypto and licensing ventures.
A Supreme Cult that legalized bribery and gave Trump the immunity to commit any crime without charges as president surely is not going to blink an eye on Trump's cheating on taxes. The unaccountable Cult was constructed by the Founders to prevent democracy, not to really dispense justice.
With so many good reporters on Substack now, you are just part of a chorus that doesn't seem like the best use of your energies. You a senior genius; I've been following since you wrote about ancient sunlight. And you have the credibility to step out and do some leading. How about a little chutzpah, Thom?
We're seeing on TV in the Revolutionary years, there were a lot of coincidences and close shaves that seemed to rescue our young nation. Now in recent decades, there seem to be happenstances that race us to its destruction. Like the vote in 2000 , close enough to steal. Or the 49-49% vote in 2024. Or the lack of any means (?!) to keep Mitch McConnell from stealing their Extreme Court nominations. The Big Money (I mean, three orders of magnitude bigger) seems to get its way.
You could go all the way back to Joe Biden sticking up for Clarence Thomas against Anita Hill. Was that a "conspiracy of cowardice" as you seem to suggest?
I believe Joe Biden had no intention to run for a second term, but his wife was so used to nursing him along that she ran it, and he lacked the sanity to resist. When Macron asked them, Jill said "Yes, our team is in place," and Joe looked confused. A hundred trillion dollar misunderstanding.
We need anther revolution, a fact lost on the corporate Democrats, and their consultants, who rule the roost. Concentrating on “kitchen table issues”, tinkering with the periphery of core problems, failing to implement fundamental reforms, failing to aggressively pursue those who have committed obvious crimes and punish them accordingly, will only allow the cancer to metastasize, as we have seen. Our status in the world is destroyed, but we can at least repair our shattered democracy if we elevate and support the generals now standing by.
The big wigs in the Democratic party are in denial, claiming that the autopsy represents the views of the author and not the DNC. They never learn.
Yes, "we wuz robbed" but the robbery would only have worked if it were uniform, we still lost Wisconsin, Michigan, . If the Democrats of Penn yslvania had been motivated to vote, it would have been harder to rob.
Yet the Democratic party will not come to terms with the stupidity of the Hispanic, Muslim and young black male vote.
There has been a big push against identity politics. but it is precisely identity politics that has brought Trump to power. White, male identity, Hispanic male identity, Black male identity and Muslim identity.
One would think that there is a lot of buyers remorse, but I personally have my doubts.
When grievance has hunger pangs, it looks to scapegoats.
https://democraticautopsy.org/
Our report’s purpose is two-fold: to illuminate why the Democrats lost and to help propel the party toward a different approach and result in the future. Without a full and honest accounting of the Harris campaign and the Democratic Party’s myriad failures, there can be little realistic hope of defeating Trumpist authoritarianism in the future.
Our report identifies five main reasons for Harris’s failure:
Voter Disenchantment: Losing a whopping 6.8 million voters who supported Biden in 2020 proved pivotal in this extremely close election. Harris’s inability to mobilize these pro-Biden voters may have been the campaign’s biggest failure.
Biden’s Betrayal: Former President Joe Biden’s disastrous decision to run for reelection, and his stubborn refusal to step aside until very late in the process, robbed voters of a Democratic primary process, created confusion and chaos, and severely hindered Democrats’ chances.
Abandoning the Working-Class Base: With millions of Americans already disenchanted and desperate due to inflation, the Harris campaign lost this essential Democratic base by focusing on courting Republicans, kowtowing to corporate donors’ interests, and failing to confront the role of corporate greed in escalating inflation.
The Gaza Effect: There is ample evidence that Harris lost many voters, especially young voters, Arab-Americans, and critical support in Michigan and elsewhere, due to the campaign’s failure to shift or even signal a potential shift in policy on Israel and Palestine.
Losing Young Voters: Extensive evidence shows a huge drop-off in both turnout and Democratic support among young voters aged 18-29.
One solution is don't financially support the D candidates unless they clearly set out what their priorities are
I only give directly to candidates. No more for the DNC until they start representing the People again.
When your enemy is sailing toward destruction, don't cripple their ships.
Don't correct your enemy when he is making a mistake, Napoleon.
There are lots of pithy sayings.
So you're beating up on Democrats while the enemy marches in lock step/Glock step?
There is the enemy within and the enemy without.The enemy from without has won because those within who are suppose to be in the trenches and fighting are either corrupt, complicit or cowardly and need to be rooted out
What does a coach do. He sidelines or gets rid of the players that don't hack it.
What does he owner of the team do, he gets rid of an ineffective or corrupt coach.
The Democratic party needs a drastic overhaul, to get rid of the compromised, corrupt, lazy, entitled, ineffecient.
OK, I suspect that Democratic leaders my have sought a Slow prosecution of Trump so that the indictments would still be underway during the 2024 election. If so, that was a tragically mistaken battle tactic, due to unseen enemy cannon (Aileen). For that error they (and we) are all roasting in Hell. Trump was able to skate with the spiteful, hateful fealty of his cult.
You give the "leaders" in the Democratic party more credit than I. They are lilly livered, afraid of their own shadow, overly cautious and worse, they slop at the same donor trough as the Republicans, only they get sloppy seconds.
I have checked opensecrets.org, donors donate to both parties, but Republicans generally receive the lion share of donations.
The problem is the professionals, the stragestists, the analysts,the propagandists, they are on the payroll, they hob nob with the beltway elite, lobbyists, get invited onto TV, and get paid, get invited to parties and they don't live in the real world, they live in the beltway bubble, and have friends "across the aisle"
Everytime I hear a Democrat, and Biden was famous for this, talk about"my friends on the other side" or across the aisle, I could choke.
When you compromise with evil, you become evil.
As regards Aileen Cannon and the Documents case.
To start with the "excuse" Garland gave for sending the trial to the Southern District of Florida, was specious, it was false and Jack Smith, nor did anyone call him out on it.
The excuse he gave was that Southern Florida is where the crime occurred.
Wrong the Crime occurred in DC, the moment that Waltine Nauta loaded the boxes of documents on the truck.
If no one buys that, then it occurred in Virginia, when the boxes were transferred from the truck to the airplane.
The second BS was accepting Garlands excuse that Cannon was appointed by a turn of the wheel.
Previously the way a presiding judge was chosen, was by a turn of the wheel, so named for the wheel of fortune, at least that is what the public is told.
This is where Jack Smith comes in for scrutiny, Jack knows what I just said, and there were many other chances for Jack to file a complaint that Aileen be taken off the case, but never did.
I feel that we have been suckered in a charade, Kabuki Theater.
Excellent summary! Isn't the path forward for the Democratic Party to downplay social issues and emphasize economic issues? To promise all Americans financial security with fair-paying jobs with dignity.
That's what they say, However Trump was elected on social issues, the culture war.
The Democratic party emphasized economics, and the IRA, ARP and CHIPS and Science Act, and the Democrats emphasized those acts, however it didn't impress 79 million people who didn't vote, and not enough Muslims, Hispanic and black males, who did vote, but voted for Trump
The Democratic party downplays the culture war constantly and thus loses
LBJ: "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."
The Democratic Party constantly ignores the absolute loathing, hatred, anger,angst and fear of white America, and exacerbates it by elevating to a public conscious level, the issues of DEI.
I am 100%DEI, but not in your face, subtle, not overt, don't alarm the bigots, because they will turn out to vote you out.
The problem with the left is that they aren't satisifed with small victories,and have too many organizations that gather money and clout, by grabbing headlines and making TV appearances. Totally self defeating, for the cause, like BLM and defund he police.
That was the absolute worse T shirt or bumper sticker of all times,and turning George Floyd, who was a small time criminal, into a martyr and angel.
That justice was done with Chauvin's conviction should have ended it there, but once a few people create and organization, it gets donations, an office, and appoints itself a President and a staff, then it is there forever.
It doesn't knowingly commit suicide.
The Post-Trump Stress Disorder PTSD metaphor that the media is using lately is, of course, a bit off. The main reason is that the traumatic stress is not "post" and it is not yet a "disorder." It is not clear if it will evolve into a disorder either.
Post-traumatic stress was first observed among service members in combat environments. As some of my psychology colleagues have pointed out, when in stress-filled environments for extended periods, our nervous systems tend to change our homeostatic setpoint for tolerating stress. That helps us stay cool when shot at, and behave appropriately - take cover and return fire as needed. The clear evidence for this phenomenon is how we behave once we return home to the safety of America. It takes about 3 months for our brains to realize the stress is gone and reset the homeostatic setpoint back to where it was. Even though there was no term for post-traumatic stress until late in the Vietnam war, all commanders since at least WWI likely understood that units returning from deployment needed several months in stand-down mode before returning to normal operations.
For first-time combatants, it takes about 6 weeks to adjust to the stress. But once adjusted, subsequent combat deployments trigger the homeostatic setpoint change almost overnight. The brain (nervous system) remembers. The "D" part, disorder, appears when even before leaving a combat zone, a service member starts over-reacting to stress, behaving unreliably, experiencing sleep problems, etc., and must be sent home, or once their unit has returned home, their nervous system cannot re-set to normal stress, and they over-react to loud noises, get violent in arguments, have nightmares, etc. that will not go away.
Not everybody is biologically equipped to handle chronic stress. The cruel irony in the case of Trump is that he uses stress as a tool of dominance and control. Like it or not, all Americans' lives are more stressful under the Trump Reich. We now have a Gestapo killing citizens being harassed by ICE agents, we must cope with runaway inflation, Trump seems to have no impulse control, so we cannot anticipate his next assault on an ally or invasion of a country on some trumped-up pretense like possession of nuclear bombs aimed at LA (like why would Iran want to blow up Hollywood?). We have the most incompetent administration in US history, so we now have to worry about getting Ebola or some other deadly disease for which there is no vaccine, because he has shut down medical research under an HHS director who thinks vaccines cause autism.
Our FAA is a disaster, with planes crashing into one another, long waits to board, and now ticket prices off the charts. Trump is now encouraging the pollution of drinking water so that the fossil fuel industry can thrive and delay transitioning to EVs, which are causing severe climate change that is flattening entire neighborhoods with wind storms, wildfires, and floods that Trump laughs off as a libtard hoax. Will Post-Trump Stress turn into a Disorder? Well, it seems like there are a lot more mass shootings in the news of late - could that be related?
I don't want the felon in chief to rest in peace. I hope he gets no rest at all if there is a just God, as I believe now, but rather a period of painful recompense equivalent to the damage he has done. Which could mean eternity.
Karma is inescapable Either he gets his just due in this lifetime or the next he will have to face his own karmic debt It's right up there with Hitler's debt
A number of blue states should join together and sue Trump, the individual (not so-called president), for promoting the murder of Colbert. Yes, Trump's trashcan image depicted murder. Compensatory, punitive and statutory damages for Colbert and staff should be at least 100 BILLION DOLLARS — for assault and battery, defamation of character, intentional infliction of emotional distress, lost wages and employment for Colbert, his entire staff and crew. tRUMP and his so-called businesses have been involved in at least 4,000 lawsuits in the past 30 years, and he has filed 1,600 lawsuits himself. It's way past time that the chickens come home to roost.
A great take by Elie Mystal on the Democratic Party. Frustrating.
Worst Argument of the Week
On Thursday, the Democratic National Committee released its “autopsy” of the 2024 election—but don’t get too excited: The DNC has its head so far up its ass that we now need an autopsy for the autopsy. DNC Chair Ken Martin initially said he wasn’t going to release the report, then changed course as people, including Kamala Harris herself, demanded its release. Then, it released a report that was full of errors—like, it literally gets people’s names and positions wrong and cites figures that are provably incorrect.
In addition to the report, Martin put out a statement. This paragraph stings:
I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards. I don’t endorse what’s in this report, or what’s left out of it. I could not in good faith put the DNC’s stamp of approval on it. But transparency is paramount. So, today I am releasing the report as I received it—in its entirety, unedited and unabridged—with annotations for claims that couldn’t be verified.
It’s the most “I’m not a member of an organized political party—I’m a Democrat” moment we’ve encountered in a while.
I could end this week’s “worst argument” section here. Martin’s “I put out a shambolic report riddled with errors that I am not proud of” is a terrible look. So, for that matter, is “Ken Martin should be the head of the DNC.” Martin is so obviously bad at his job that he should be playing for the Mets.
Still, I’m not going to end this section on Martin, because there is one thing that’s even worse about the DNC report—and that is what is not in it: any mention of Gaza. Somehow, the Democratic Party did a 192-page review of what went wrong in 2024, and its response to the genocide in Gaza didn’t rate a single mention.
I don’t know how you do that. I mean, I guess I do know because I know how cowardice and complicity translate into better jobs and power within the Democratic Party. But even for an establishment from which I expect so little, the decision to ignore Gaza really shocks the conscience.
This report gives me no hope for the future. How can the party learn lessons when it won’t even acknowledge facts?
I’m not normally one of the guys who thinks that the Democratic Party needs to be burned to the ground so that we might build something better from its ashes. But in moments like these, it’s hard for me to argue that anything could be worse than the current Democrats.
…Except, of course, for the current Republicans.
Cheeto: America’s Major National Security Risk
Tulsi Gabbard is getting out of this lawless cabinet as director of national intelligence(DNI) Even though she seems to have a valid excuse(husband has a rare form of bone cancer) I think that with Cheeto refusing to use the information she presented to him after rationally laying out the pros and cons of what agencies were relaying to her was extremely problematic The Iran war is case in point Circumstantial information by the NYT among other sources suggest that the main factor in the decision making for the Iran war was Netanyahu Of course Cheeto denies this but his never ending lying makes this impossible to believe
How frustrating it would be that the dictator she worked for would act in contrary fashion that was not in the best interests of the country making POTUS the country’s biggest national security risk And with his incessant desire to align the country’s foreign policy by catering to other dictators such as Putin, Xi, and Netanyahu makes our country isolated from our once trusted friends and allies Since the other dictators don’t want any part of what he’s selling America is isolated and alone
With Cheeto’s DOGE purging of agencies responsible for countering foreign threats from health(Ebola response muted due to loss of USAID presence) to election interference both domestic and abroad(gutting agencies that provide risk assessment and prevention) to cybersecurity, national security becomes a major concern
America and its citizens are less safe more than it has ever been in the history of the country all due to Cheeto
How many days has Congress been productive other than passing bills to protect Tempertantrump?
Hearing AI content just dampens everything for me Your content is much better coming from you
Forbes is reporting that Trump's IRS immunity could save him more than $600 million on the estimated $1.4 billion he made in 2025 from crypto and licensing ventures.
Is Elon Musk the new Jeffrey Epstein? Trillionaire protected by immunity? Government agent?
Tempertantrump must foresee a cigar business for his familia.
Will Rubio be appointed president of Cuba?
Never. Rubio should live out the rest of his fraudulent life in a Cuban prison.
A Supreme Cult that legalized bribery and gave Trump the immunity to commit any crime without charges as president surely is not going to blink an eye on Trump's cheating on taxes. The unaccountable Cult was constructed by the Founders to prevent democracy, not to really dispense justice.
With so many good reporters on Substack now, you are just part of a chorus that doesn't seem like the best use of your energies. You a senior genius; I've been following since you wrote about ancient sunlight. And you have the credibility to step out and do some leading. How about a little chutzpah, Thom?
OK, guy, express your feelings.
We're seeing on TV in the Revolutionary years, there were a lot of coincidences and close shaves that seemed to rescue our young nation. Now in recent decades, there seem to be happenstances that race us to its destruction. Like the vote in 2000 , close enough to steal. Or the 49-49% vote in 2024. Or the lack of any means (?!) to keep Mitch McConnell from stealing their Extreme Court nominations. The Big Money (I mean, three orders of magnitude bigger) seems to get its way.
You could go all the way back to Joe Biden sticking up for Clarence Thomas against Anita Hill. Was that a "conspiracy of cowardice" as you seem to suggest?
I believe Joe Biden had no intention to run for a second term, but his wife was so used to nursing him along that she ran it, and he lacked the sanity to resist. When Macron asked them, Jill said "Yes, our team is in place," and Joe looked confused. A hundred trillion dollar misunderstanding.
And almost every Republican member of Congress, and every Republican Governor, continues to “lick his boots.” Remember that in November.