John Oliver just made the case against JD Vance by showing his interviews. We can see that he is the voice in TRump's ear telling him to act outside every law on the books. He essentially said the Supreme Court will decide what is legal, and then the Administration will tell them where they can shove it. He wants the Chief Justice and the country to know that no one can make them do anything.
You've described the world's largest and most dangerous criminal syndicate ever formed by the biggest psychopath that has ever sat in the Oval Office.
The record against them grows daily. The independent media is getting LARGER and LOUDER. Thank you Hartmann and Company for leading the way. You are very brave. See you the streets.
Well, Trump would ....all the Trumps including his son-in-law Kushner are so corrupt to the very core....The sooner they all go the better....including Trumps administration and those Republicans who are equally corrupt and support him!!!
So what exactly is Kushner’s investment company investing in that he needs another 5 billion from the Saudi government, he already got what? 2 billion? Are his investments losing like his father in law’s casinos?
Affinity Partners is a private equity firm founded in 2021 by Jared Kushner, primarily investing in American and Israeli companies across various sectors, including:
Technology
Media
Telecommunications
Healthcare
Financial Services
Consumer Products
Sustainable Energy
Infrastructure
The firm has secured over $3 billion in commitments, with most funds sourced from the Saudi Arabian government's Public Investment Fund. Recently, Affinity Partners has invested in companies like EGYM, Brain Co., and Electronic Arts, showcasing its focus on growth-stage investments and expanding into markets such as India, Africa, and the Middle East.
I'm so disgusted with these rich-ass vampires like Kushner sucking the blood-money of the world and destroying it in the process. Trump is the pure distillation of the worst aspects of our gunboat-driven foreign policy going back to when the gunboat was invented. And we could have expected it would come to this, when we are so dependent on oil, and the accompanying need for a seven-seas navy to protect our lifelines. Well I guess it's this or getting cancer from wind turbines.
If we want to reduce domestic demand, we have supressed the real competition - alternative energy.
The public should be clamoring to reinstate Biden energy policies to make us oil independent and reduce costs at the same time. .
AI> Estimates regarding job losses linked to the Trump administration’s policies on clean energy vary, with reports citing figures ranging from 10,000 to as many as 170,000 jobs impacted. These losses are attributed to the cancellation of federal clean energy tax credits, the imposition of new tariffs, and the suspension of various energy projects.
Agree. However, if these prices at the gas station don’t spur alternative energy demand, credits, and real interest in battery innovations, prob nothing will.
I was in a discussion re the trucking industry. Makes rail more valuable. Will bankrupt many companies. Only a few have EV vehicles, which are more prevalent in Europe.
Talking of gas prices, I live on an Island, and pay for the stuff being barged over, so my last fill up was about $5.59 a gallon, but yesterday I was on the mainland and the cheapest gas I saw wa $4.39 a galllon, so where is the $2.89 a gallon they talk about.
Consider also the horrific environmental degradation caused by the destruction of petroleum "products" and facilities along with the air pollution, water contamination, land contamination, on top of the human costs to life and human constructs. There is so much devastation and chaos all the time with chaos-conflict-confusion loving Thump in power, that the environmental horrors HE has caused in the Middle East and in North America hardly get any "media" mention anymore (like Epstein's depraved crimes and Thump + cronies associations have similarly dropped off "media" attention), but they are horrific. To Thump "the environment" is a golf course. And one of his golf courses is a cemetery where his first wife who grew up in Soviet-controlled Czech. Republic , who accused him of rape (and then retracted under $$$ issues), and who died after a very strange fall down a stairway in her home - in photos it kind of resembles the stairway in "Gone With the Wind," the one fictional Scarlet O'Hara fell down when pregnant - that golf course in New Jersey doubles as a cemetery now because of Ivana's burial site that photos show doesn't even look like there's any grave at all, but the NJ law allows to be tax-exempt as a cemetery. Con-man all the way, 'til death do us part, Thump extracts annual retribution from Ivana at tax-time.
There are many things "the public should be clamoring" for that may or may not ever be possible again. Here's another one: clamor for factual reports about job and salary losses from DOGE firings (by what authorization?! but they happened in the hundreds of thousands) of civil service workers doing legitimate work for America, government shutdowns that result in Federal workers not being paid (but Thump, Mike Johnson, members of Congress, Kushner, father AND son, and others of the self-empowered parasites like the Millers and Leavitt all get paid; Suzie Wiles gets paid AND gets taxpayer provided health care for a stage 1 breast cancer that millions of women - and men, too - have experienced without any Thump-type fanfare or health care of any kind, let alone "the best" as Thump assured about Wiles' care, while untold numbers of people can't get help for horrific health conditions!)
Lots and lots of clamoring is called for. But - as was said by a wise writer - it's "crickets." Is this the converse of the old saying, "you get what you pay for"? In the converse is America paying for what the whole wide plutocratic-kleptocratic-oligarchic-despotic World of Thump is getting? Our gift of - everything - for the likes of the criminal con-artists? There is no IQ test powerful enough to measure the insufficiency of intelligence in America. There is no clamoring. There was no clamoring for the children in Uvalde, no clamoring for the children of Sandy Hook, no clamoring for the multitude of known, let alone unknown, victims of Epstein, Maxwell, and all of their loathsome conspirators of perversion and crime, no clamoring against the absurdity illegality of DOGE, no clamoring for the insane contrived agitating for world war while demanding awards for peace...... and on and on and on and on......
IS this the country most of us have been raised or taught was something that maybe it isn't and maybe never was??? Please pardon my long-windedness; like some others, my heart is going through a protracted state of heartbreak for my country, and the world.
"Even lacking subpoena power, Democratic leadership should convene shadow hearings to investigate this possible double-dealing that’s already killed Americans and threatens to plunge the entire world into flames.
At the very least, they should spend a few weeks holding public, on‑the‑record hearings into whether this Iran war is being steered from Riyadh, Jerusalem, and Kushner’s investment firm instead of the Pentagon."
A serious, on going, and loud public discussion is certainly needed, all channels, all stations, that and the Epstein files, but frankly I do not expect anything to come of it, as this regime is immune to criticisms or the law. A soon as a subpoena is issued and it looks serious, Trump issues a pardon.
IMO, the war started in Mar a Lago in Dec 25, when Bibi had dinner with Donald. The next month Hegseth ordered the carrier the USS Gerald Force to redeploy from the South China and Philippine seas to the Gulf.
He wold have redeployed the USS Ronald Reagan, but it as on station in the Caribbean to support his war or capture of Maduro, soon as that was accomplished it redeployed to the Mediterranean.
Want to know where the action is,follow the carriers.
At the moment there is a battle group of destroyers,frigates and bunker ships, including mine sweeper (we only have three left, as Hegseth had them all decommissioned)heading toward the gulf, It will take at least 10 days, as the mine sweeper are stationed in Malaysia, and they are so small, that they have to be refuled about every 10 days, they were built to patrol the litoral waters,and have had so many problems that they were veing decommissioned.
What we are looking with Operation Epstein FURY for the ultra-rich is a complete lack of the concept of empathy. If your brain and or training precludes looking at the world with eyes that see NOTHING of the suffering of those impacted by you and your miss deeds in governments. Actions to make money that KILLS is just smart business. ALL of this mess is illegal BUT money buys you an after blow back Trump PARDON!! Just hard to watch as a former Marine Corps officer because the beaches of IRAN are going to be soon red with young men's BLOOD. For What? another 5 billion in Kushner's bank account? Beyond Nuts.
These vermin are ours. The disease is ours. The cure will be ours or the disease will be fatal. We have November, if it isn't canceled by the felon in chief. If that fails, that pretty much leaves the Mangione option writ large. I do not for a moment endorse that; it will mean the end of everything regardless of whomever it may remove, because it will hand them a win by showing the rule of law is a dead issue in every way. But if the morbidly rich like Kushner, the Kochs, all the other plutocrats complete consolidating their control of our country, the only other option will be submission. A lot of Americans, left with nothing to lose, will not submit.
I lament that we have a beloved grandson, who has been the center of our lives since the day he was born. He has had an idyllic childhood. He faces a grim, bleak dystopian future, as does his entire generation (he turns 8 in a few weeks). Even if he stays above water materially, it will be a soul-killing time to live. I know I wish I had died before the faux orange gibberer exposed the the pestilent underbelly at our heart. Particularly as any number of people close to me are in it.
We must keep fighting using the proper tools as long as we can--the law, civil disobedience, peaceful protest, the ballot box. Shoring each other up with comments on Substack blogs, mainstream media, wherever we can. If the light is doomed to die, let it not be as a result of our apathy or inaction, as even those of us limited by health and finances can do our bit.
I know that, wreck that I am, if I could somehow martyr myself for the cause, I would; but candidly, I am less than a paramecium, and my sacrifice would have no impact, save on my family and friends. We need to fight to get back a country and lives we want and admire, not one where we need to die to make a point. Or escape.
Robert Hubbell helps me to adjust to these terrible times. I, tie, have 3 grandchildren I adore. Each new revelation raises my blood pressure and depresses my mood. Hubbell is a lawyer, who is knowledge, and is able to eliminate my worst fears,
I have 11 grandchildren, the y are all adults and some are grandparents of their own.
They are in the same boat as I, when I was born, I was born into a world and environment not of my making, and had to make my own way through it.
You can only hope that you and your own children, provide their children with the tools, especially the psychological and emotional tools, to survive and prosper.
All Americans know their government is corrupt to some extent. We just rarely stop and look at it carefully until we learn about a rare high-profile prosecution in the MSM like Watergate. There will be no special prosecutors or investigations as long as Trump owns all 3 branches of government.
The GOP senators are all multi-millionaires, but they act like losing their jobs will put them in the unemployment line. Doubtless, being voted out of office will impact their income as many, if not all, make money by passing laws that reduce the cost of operating their businesses - tax dodges and deregulations.
Only if they fear consequences, to date there is no evidence that any hold that fear, just the opposite, they way they act to Congress,the press, the non MAGA public is an indication that they have very secure knowledge that they have nothing to fear.
"Never before in American history have US negotiators had massive personal financial stakes in the outcome of their own negotiations." It still boggles my mind that a third of Americans are OK with this blatant grift, even when it is trashing the rest of us.
“Even lacking subpoena power, Democratic leadership should convene shadow hearings to investigate this possible double-dealing that’s already killed Americans and threatens to plunge the entire world into flames”. That would require Democratic leadership.
Note: Jared will be on the hook for kickbacks to Don Don . . . say 10%, DT'll call it a tithing. Or a payment for some too-large Florsheim shoes.
Jared is stupidly playing into "Elders of Zion" style stereotypes, exactly as he does as a slum/landlord in Baltimore, apartments from which he delights in evicting old, broke Black women.
As for the war? Donald is Netanyahu's personal barbed-wire wrapped baton, doing to Iranian girls' schools what the IDF does with its batons to imprisoned Palestinians.
Has he called our KIA [war dead] suckers and losers yet?
He will. He's an ungrateful weapon of chaos. Thx, Putin.
Krasnov. The EU will not cooperate. "The European Union agreed to renew sanctions against Russia over the weekend as the bloc and other US allies questioned Washington’s decision to temporarily ease some oil restrictions against Moscow to curb a price surge caused by supply disruptions from the Iran war, Politico reported."
"EU countries on Saturday reached a unanimous deal to extend the bloc’s sanctions framework targeting Russian businesses, officials and oligarchs, ensuring the restrictions would not expire over the weekend. More than 2,600 people and entities remain under sanctions imposed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022."
Trump also didn't anticipate Iran using Trump/Epstein in a propaganda war.
Google: Iranian state media and pro-Tehran networks have successfully popularized the theory that the U.S.-Israel military campaign, dubbed "Operation Epic Fury," was launched primarily to distract from the release of 3 million new Epstein-related documents.
The Washington Post
Key Developments in the Propaganda War
"Operation Epstein Distraction": This derogatory term has been widely adopted by Iranian media and even some U.S. critics to characterize the conflict.
Trump, after basically calling our allies, useless and enemies, is now trying to bully them into helping keep the SOH open, and they have responded with a loud no, except Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte.
He is either a timid latter day Neville Chamberlain, or a compromised or covert agent of Putin.
AISez: As of March 2026, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has expressed strong support for U.S. and Israeli military actions against Iran, arguing that degrading Tehran's nuclear and missile capabilities is crucial for security. While supporting these actions, Rutte has clarified that NATO will not directly engage in the conflict
I am personally ambivalent, I would love to see a reime change and am elated that Khameni, died, He not only murdered young girls who "disrespected" the hijab, by hanging them from construction cranes, but he is responsible for abou 50,000 people killed by the Basij, during the recent protests. The man was a monster,and also corrupt, living large at the expense of the people, one of the reasons for the protest.
This war did not get a regime change, only a change in leadership, the change was his 2nd son, an even more stern andradical ayatollah.
Without boots on the ground there is no regime change. Two exceptions, but they did have boots on the ground,Libya had an armed militia in opposition . Serbia, there were UN Forces and Croatian forces. neither country was a theocracy.
I don't understand why these two replies are to me. What I wrote was about Trump threatening NATO and Ukraine. He was basically saying that if he didn't get what he wanted re. help in the Straits of Hormuz, he would take action that could lead to the loss of lives.
I just discovered that he did something else along the same lines with a threat against Zambia to get what he wants by withholding HIV treatment drugs:
"The New York Times reported that the Trump administration's Department of State has drafted a memo outlining reasons to withhold money for "lifesaving" H.I.V. reduction programs in Zambia to force the African country to hand over more of its rare earth minerals. The move could impact as many as 1.3 million Zambians who rely on the programs for medical treatment, according to the report." https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2676247953/
Trumps M.O. is blackmail, he is a crook that became president because he appealed to the baser instincts in the population.
The real issue, is the hate, fear, anxiety and angst among the population, and frankly all of it has an origin in sexual insecurity, which he shares and they know it.
Thanks for clarification- I agree that there is a major element in both Trump personally, many of his closest advisors, and his manopehere MAGA followers of mostly unconscious sexual insecurity. Read "Trump is a delusional unhinged sadist living in a phallocentric manosphere." https://halbrown.substack.com/p/trump-is-a-delusional-unhinged-sadist
I am noted for pounding rocks into sand, sand into powder. I delve into the verboten origins of things and human behavior. I go where it is taboo to go, as it is too sensitive to the human psyche.
Building on Maslows heirarchy of needs, once the primal needs of food, clothing and shelter are obtained, the next need to surface is sexual, and that is organic, genetically driven, the survival of the species through procreation,
It is especially strong in males of all species, themusth of elephants, the battle of rams butting heads, kangaroos, lizards, Komodo dragons.
The sex drive. Females don't have it, but nature has provided for that with estrus, a chemical released into the blood stream that makes the female sexually submissive even needy as in cats in heat.
Human females are different, they don't go into estrus as we know it in animals, but there is something similar in ovulation which causes an unusual release of progesterone.
Yet of all the species, human females are ready and even desirous of sexual acivity at all times, as evolution has seen fit to reward females with erogenous zones, a clitoris and an orgasm.
But even then, the female can sublimate the sex drive, she won't go nuts if she doesn't get sex, not so with the male. He will pay for sex, seek out anything that will give him an orgasm, animal, vegetable, mineral, resort to violence to get sex, and get frustrated band together under an ideology (religion) if his sexual needs are not fulfilled or threatened.
Men can be psychologically neutered, meaning that their testosterone plummets, if they are not dominant and in full command, and the changes in society of led to an increase in "impotency", which they have chemically resolved with the invention of a pill that a blood flow to the penis.
And those that can't find a female to sexually submit, have formed a club of fellow travelers and call themselves Incel's.
Why do we work,why do we strive for social status, what drives men to become Tech Bros,billionaires, what drives Musk, Thiel, Trump,Vance?
Sex, and sexual dominance requires power. Power is the great aphrodisiac \\
The Broligarchy, Trump, Jamie Dimon, hedge fund managers and founders, don't need the money, there is only so much that mney can buy, they don't need or want two yachts, four private jets. [r ovate islands, mansions all over the world, they couldn't spend even a fraction of their wealth if they tried.
It isn't money that drives them it is power, and what drives power, the sex drive and insecurity.
Prior to Trump''s bombing of Iran, there was a rapproachment between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The quarrel is 1200 years old and is political. It is over the succession of Muhammad.
A follower of Muhammad, Abu Bakr, assumed the rule of successor (Sunnah means successor), and so it stood until the Umayyad Caliphate defeated thePersian General Rustom, and Islamized Persia. A fact resented by Persians to this day, they consider Arabs to be lizard eaters. I could quote some from the 10th Century Poet, Ferdowsi, i his Book of Kings (Shahenmeh)
The hostility is all on the part of the Iranis. in 1989 Khomeini send a sucicde squad into Makka during the haj, with the purpose of taking Makka and the Qabba, (the cube that houses a black meteorite which Muslims believed was part of their god al Lihah (the moon)
The current story is The Black Stone (al-Ḥajaru al-Aswad) in the Kaaba is traditionally believed by Muslims to be a stone from heaven, placed there by Adam and Eve or sent down to help them.
The story changed as knowledge advanced.
The suicide raid killed 400 people
It is a political quarrel,not a religious one, as there is very little difference between Sunni and Shia Islam, Except the Iranis have their own saints (martyrs) like Husayn ibn Ali,the grandson of Ali ibn Abu Talib (Exalted son of the father of the Student) was the first student (convert) of Muhammad, his cousin and son in law. The name translate as cousin, and he was the grandfather of Husayn ibn Ali.
He was killed at the battle of Karbala, but the Sunni Caliph, Yazid I, and the day is "celebrated" mourned every year with Ashuar, in which the more devout Shia, flagellated themselves until the blood flows.
To DJT and MAGA Regime Leaders…Stop your damn war… it serves only you, your family and billionaire friends and many countries who are led by anti-democracy rulers/dictators! Stop this insane violence against humanity campaign that you have reeked upon innocent people both here in the US and through the world. Resign or be removed from your office!!!
Hum… it’s not enough to have an idiot clown in the White House, now we have Son-In-law to help dismantle our Country. Thx MEGA and Republicans Majority Congress!
Yep I truly believe it. Just a question to folks who know things better than me. Do you really think Vance is a valid Trump whisperer. I have other folks in mind. I read Vance's book. It was awful but he is certainly at a higher level, education-wise, than Trump. I sure don't like Vance but I can't see him really being a Trump influencer. I think he is just waiting to be President and that makes me want to run even faster than I did before.
At what point has trump's mind has to be eviscerated for him to be ousted? His behavior and the words that come out of his mouth are those of a demented person. This is who is calling the shots folks! How will members of Congress respond when their grandchildren ask, "Why didn't you do something?"
In addition.....
John Oliver just made the case against JD Vance by showing his interviews. We can see that he is the voice in TRump's ear telling him to act outside every law on the books. He essentially said the Supreme Court will decide what is legal, and then the Administration will tell them where they can shove it. He wants the Chief Justice and the country to know that no one can make them do anything.
You've described the world's largest and most dangerous criminal syndicate ever formed by the biggest psychopath that has ever sat in the Oval Office.
The record against them grows daily. The independent media is getting LARGER and LOUDER. Thank you Hartmann and Company for leading the way. You are very brave. See you the streets.
The more blood money the Trump syndicate has, the more urgent it will be for them to remain in power so they won't be prosecuted.
Jared should be where his Dad was, and for the same reasons, maybe still is - in jail.
Charles Kushner was given a full pardon by TRump at the end of his last term. He is now the ambassador to France and Monaco.
Well, Trump would ....all the Trumps including his son-in-law Kushner are so corrupt to the very core....The sooner they all go the better....including Trumps administration and those Republicans who are equally corrupt and support him!!!
I always worried more about Jared’s ability to gain more through grift and power in Israel than all of Trump’s children combined.
Kushy job
If the Congress changes hands in November, then we may see Kushner sitting in a jail cell at some point.
Oh I hope so....!!!
So what exactly is Kushner’s investment company investing in that he needs another 5 billion from the Saudi government, he already got what? 2 billion? Are his investments losing like his father in law’s casinos?
Good question. Here you go Barbara:
Affinity Partners is a private equity firm founded in 2021 by Jared Kushner, primarily investing in American and Israeli companies across various sectors, including:
Technology
Media
Telecommunications
Healthcare
Financial Services
Consumer Products
Sustainable Energy
Infrastructure
The firm has secured over $3 billion in commitments, with most funds sourced from the Saudi Arabian government's Public Investment Fund. Recently, Affinity Partners has invested in companies like EGYM, Brain Co., and Electronic Arts, showcasing its focus on growth-stage investments and expanding into markets such as India, Africa, and the Middle East.
You have described them so well, it's absolutely perfect. Now the problem is getting them out of the government.
I'm so disgusted with these rich-ass vampires like Kushner sucking the blood-money of the world and destroying it in the process. Trump is the pure distillation of the worst aspects of our gunboat-driven foreign policy going back to when the gunboat was invented. And we could have expected it would come to this, when we are so dependent on oil, and the accompanying need for a seven-seas navy to protect our lifelines. Well I guess it's this or getting cancer from wind turbines.
If we want to reduce domestic demand, we have supressed the real competition - alternative energy.
The public should be clamoring to reinstate Biden energy policies to make us oil independent and reduce costs at the same time. .
AI> Estimates regarding job losses linked to the Trump administration’s policies on clean energy vary, with reports citing figures ranging from 10,000 to as many as 170,000 jobs impacted. These losses are attributed to the cancellation of federal clean energy tax credits, the imposition of new tariffs, and the suspension of various energy projects.
Agree. However, if these prices at the gas station don’t spur alternative energy demand, credits, and real interest in battery innovations, prob nothing will.
China is way ahead of us.
I was in a discussion re the trucking industry. Makes rail more valuable. Will bankrupt many companies. Only a few have EV vehicles, which are more prevalent in Europe.
Talking of gas prices, I live on an Island, and pay for the stuff being barged over, so my last fill up was about $5.59 a gallon, but yesterday I was on the mainland and the cheapest gas I saw wa $4.39 a galllon, so where is the $2.89 a gallon they talk about.
Consider also the horrific environmental degradation caused by the destruction of petroleum "products" and facilities along with the air pollution, water contamination, land contamination, on top of the human costs to life and human constructs. There is so much devastation and chaos all the time with chaos-conflict-confusion loving Thump in power, that the environmental horrors HE has caused in the Middle East and in North America hardly get any "media" mention anymore (like Epstein's depraved crimes and Thump + cronies associations have similarly dropped off "media" attention), but they are horrific. To Thump "the environment" is a golf course. And one of his golf courses is a cemetery where his first wife who grew up in Soviet-controlled Czech. Republic , who accused him of rape (and then retracted under $$$ issues), and who died after a very strange fall down a stairway in her home - in photos it kind of resembles the stairway in "Gone With the Wind," the one fictional Scarlet O'Hara fell down when pregnant - that golf course in New Jersey doubles as a cemetery now because of Ivana's burial site that photos show doesn't even look like there's any grave at all, but the NJ law allows to be tax-exempt as a cemetery. Con-man all the way, 'til death do us part, Thump extracts annual retribution from Ivana at tax-time.
There are many things "the public should be clamoring" for that may or may not ever be possible again. Here's another one: clamor for factual reports about job and salary losses from DOGE firings (by what authorization?! but they happened in the hundreds of thousands) of civil service workers doing legitimate work for America, government shutdowns that result in Federal workers not being paid (but Thump, Mike Johnson, members of Congress, Kushner, father AND son, and others of the self-empowered parasites like the Millers and Leavitt all get paid; Suzie Wiles gets paid AND gets taxpayer provided health care for a stage 1 breast cancer that millions of women - and men, too - have experienced without any Thump-type fanfare or health care of any kind, let alone "the best" as Thump assured about Wiles' care, while untold numbers of people can't get help for horrific health conditions!)
Lots and lots of clamoring is called for. But - as was said by a wise writer - it's "crickets." Is this the converse of the old saying, "you get what you pay for"? In the converse is America paying for what the whole wide plutocratic-kleptocratic-oligarchic-despotic World of Thump is getting? Our gift of - everything - for the likes of the criminal con-artists? There is no IQ test powerful enough to measure the insufficiency of intelligence in America. There is no clamoring. There was no clamoring for the children in Uvalde, no clamoring for the children of Sandy Hook, no clamoring for the multitude of known, let alone unknown, victims of Epstein, Maxwell, and all of their loathsome conspirators of perversion and crime, no clamoring against the absurdity illegality of DOGE, no clamoring for the insane contrived agitating for world war while demanding awards for peace...... and on and on and on and on......
IS this the country most of us have been raised or taught was something that maybe it isn't and maybe never was??? Please pardon my long-windedness; like some others, my heart is going through a protracted state of heartbreak for my country, and the world.
What you said, Annie.
**This** is imperative:
"Even lacking subpoena power, Democratic leadership should convene shadow hearings to investigate this possible double-dealing that’s already killed Americans and threatens to plunge the entire world into flames.
At the very least, they should spend a few weeks holding public, on‑the‑record hearings into whether this Iran war is being steered from Riyadh, Jerusalem, and Kushner’s investment firm instead of the Pentagon."
Without subpoea power, can't get witnesses, documents. Just a PR exercise.
That said, a subpoena for Bondi has been authorized. Several Repoublicans crossed over to aiuthorize it.
A serious, on going, and loud public discussion is certainly needed, all channels, all stations, that and the Epstein files, but frankly I do not expect anything to come of it, as this regime is immune to criticisms or the law. A soon as a subpoena is issued and it looks serious, Trump issues a pardon.
IMO, the war started in Mar a Lago in Dec 25, when Bibi had dinner with Donald. The next month Hegseth ordered the carrier the USS Gerald Force to redeploy from the South China and Philippine seas to the Gulf.
He wold have redeployed the USS Ronald Reagan, but it as on station in the Caribbean to support his war or capture of Maduro, soon as that was accomplished it redeployed to the Mediterranean.
Want to know where the action is,follow the carriers.
At the moment there is a battle group of destroyers,frigates and bunker ships, including mine sweeper (we only have three left, as Hegseth had them all decommissioned)heading toward the gulf, It will take at least 10 days, as the mine sweeper are stationed in Malaysia, and they are so small, that they have to be refuled about every 10 days, they were built to patrol the litoral waters,and have had so many problems that they were veing decommissioned.
Kushner....another slimy worm in the tRUMP orbit that belongs in prison....
What we are looking with Operation Epstein FURY for the ultra-rich is a complete lack of the concept of empathy. If your brain and or training precludes looking at the world with eyes that see NOTHING of the suffering of those impacted by you and your miss deeds in governments. Actions to make money that KILLS is just smart business. ALL of this mess is illegal BUT money buys you an after blow back Trump PARDON!! Just hard to watch as a former Marine Corps officer because the beaches of IRAN are going to be soon red with young men's BLOOD. For What? another 5 billion in Kushner's bank account? Beyond Nuts.
These vermin are ours. The disease is ours. The cure will be ours or the disease will be fatal. We have November, if it isn't canceled by the felon in chief. If that fails, that pretty much leaves the Mangione option writ large. I do not for a moment endorse that; it will mean the end of everything regardless of whomever it may remove, because it will hand them a win by showing the rule of law is a dead issue in every way. But if the morbidly rich like Kushner, the Kochs, all the other plutocrats complete consolidating their control of our country, the only other option will be submission. A lot of Americans, left with nothing to lose, will not submit.
I lament that we have a beloved grandson, who has been the center of our lives since the day he was born. He has had an idyllic childhood. He faces a grim, bleak dystopian future, as does his entire generation (he turns 8 in a few weeks). Even if he stays above water materially, it will be a soul-killing time to live. I know I wish I had died before the faux orange gibberer exposed the the pestilent underbelly at our heart. Particularly as any number of people close to me are in it.
We must keep fighting using the proper tools as long as we can--the law, civil disobedience, peaceful protest, the ballot box. Shoring each other up with comments on Substack blogs, mainstream media, wherever we can. If the light is doomed to die, let it not be as a result of our apathy or inaction, as even those of us limited by health and finances can do our bit.
I know that, wreck that I am, if I could somehow martyr myself for the cause, I would; but candidly, I am less than a paramecium, and my sacrifice would have no impact, save on my family and friends. We need to fight to get back a country and lives we want and admire, not one where we need to die to make a point. Or escape.
Robert Hubbell helps me to adjust to these terrible times. I, tie, have 3 grandchildren I adore. Each new revelation raises my blood pressure and depresses my mood. Hubbell is a lawyer, who is knowledge, and is able to eliminate my worst fears,
I have 11 grandchildren, the y are all adults and some are grandparents of their own.
They are in the same boat as I, when I was born, I was born into a world and environment not of my making, and had to make my own way through it.
You can only hope that you and your own children, provide their children with the tools, especially the psychological and emotional tools, to survive and prosper.
All Americans know their government is corrupt to some extent. We just rarely stop and look at it carefully until we learn about a rare high-profile prosecution in the MSM like Watergate. There will be no special prosecutors or investigations as long as Trump owns all 3 branches of government.
The GOP senators are all multi-millionaires, but they act like losing their jobs will put them in the unemployment line. Doubtless, being voted out of office will impact their income as many, if not all, make money by passing laws that reduce the cost of operating their businesses - tax dodges and deregulations.
FEAR of being implicated as a perp should cause a few attitude adjustments.
Only if they fear consequences, to date there is no evidence that any hold that fear, just the opposite, they way they act to Congress,the press, the non MAGA public is an indication that they have very secure knowledge that they have nothing to fear.
"Never before in American history have US negotiators had massive personal financial stakes in the outcome of their own negotiations." It still boggles my mind that a third of Americans are OK with this blatant grift, even when it is trashing the rest of us.
“Even lacking subpoena power, Democratic leadership should convene shadow hearings to investigate this possible double-dealing that’s already killed Americans and threatens to plunge the entire world into flames”. That would require Democratic leadership.
Note: Jared will be on the hook for kickbacks to Don Don . . . say 10%, DT'll call it a tithing. Or a payment for some too-large Florsheim shoes.
Jared is stupidly playing into "Elders of Zion" style stereotypes, exactly as he does as a slum/landlord in Baltimore, apartments from which he delights in evicting old, broke Black women.
As for the war? Donald is Netanyahu's personal barbed-wire wrapped baton, doing to Iranian girls' schools what the IDF does with its batons to imprisoned Palestinians.
Has he called our KIA [war dead] suckers and losers yet?
He will. He's an ungrateful weapon of chaos. Thx, Putin.
DC or Pyongyang? See https://zeteo.com/p/donald-trump-pyongyang
#VOTE #SEND BARRON
Here's my take on the war and on Trump: Not fake news: The headlines should read that Trump threatened to help Russia kill more Ukrainians if he doesn't get his way >>> https://halbrown.substack.com/p/not-fake-news-the-headlines-should
Krasnov. The EU will not cooperate. "The European Union agreed to renew sanctions against Russia over the weekend as the bloc and other US allies questioned Washington’s decision to temporarily ease some oil restrictions against Moscow to curb a price surge caused by supply disruptions from the Iran war, Politico reported."
"EU countries on Saturday reached a unanimous deal to extend the bloc’s sanctions framework targeting Russian businesses, officials and oligarchs, ensuring the restrictions would not expire over the weekend. More than 2,600 people and entities remain under sanctions imposed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022."
Trump also didn't anticipate Iran using Trump/Epstein in a propaganda war.
Google: Iranian state media and pro-Tehran networks have successfully popularized the theory that the U.S.-Israel military campaign, dubbed "Operation Epic Fury," was launched primarily to distract from the release of 3 million new Epstein-related documents.
The Washington Post
Key Developments in the Propaganda War
"Operation Epstein Distraction": This derogatory term has been widely adopted by Iranian media and even some U.S. critics to characterize the conflict.
Trump, after basically calling our allies, useless and enemies, is now trying to bully them into helping keep the SOH open, and they have responded with a loud no, except Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte.
He is either a timid latter day Neville Chamberlain, or a compromised or covert agent of Putin.
AISez: As of March 2026, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has expressed strong support for U.S. and Israeli military actions against Iran, arguing that degrading Tehran's nuclear and missile capabilities is crucial for security. While supporting these actions, Rutte has clarified that NATO will not directly engage in the conflict
I am personally ambivalent, I would love to see a reime change and am elated that Khameni, died, He not only murdered young girls who "disrespected" the hijab, by hanging them from construction cranes, but he is responsible for abou 50,000 people killed by the Basij, during the recent protests. The man was a monster,and also corrupt, living large at the expense of the people, one of the reasons for the protest.
This war did not get a regime change, only a change in leadership, the change was his 2nd son, an even more stern andradical ayatollah.
Without boots on the ground there is no regime change. Two exceptions, but they did have boots on the ground,Libya had an armed militia in opposition . Serbia, there were UN Forces and Croatian forces. neither country was a theocracy.
You can't regime change a theocracy.
I don't understand why these two replies are to me. What I wrote was about Trump threatening NATO and Ukraine. He was basically saying that if he didn't get what he wanted re. help in the Straits of Hormuz, he would take action that could lead to the loss of lives.
I just discovered that he did something else along the same lines with a threat against Zambia to get what he wants by withholding HIV treatment drugs:
"The New York Times reported that the Trump administration's Department of State has drafted a memo outlining reasons to withhold money for "lifesaving" H.I.V. reduction programs in Zambia to force the African country to hand over more of its rare earth minerals. The move could impact as many as 1.3 million Zambians who rely on the programs for medical treatment, according to the report." https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2676247953/
My reply wasn't to you, it was to Daniel.
Trumps M.O. is blackmail, he is a crook that became president because he appealed to the baser instincts in the population.
The real issue, is the hate, fear, anxiety and angst among the population, and frankly all of it has an origin in sexual insecurity, which he shares and they know it.
Thanks for clarification- I agree that there is a major element in both Trump personally, many of his closest advisors, and his manopehere MAGA followers of mostly unconscious sexual insecurity. Read "Trump is a delusional unhinged sadist living in a phallocentric manosphere." https://halbrown.substack.com/p/trump-is-a-delusional-unhinged-sadist
I am noted for pounding rocks into sand, sand into powder. I delve into the verboten origins of things and human behavior. I go where it is taboo to go, as it is too sensitive to the human psyche.
Building on Maslows heirarchy of needs, once the primal needs of food, clothing and shelter are obtained, the next need to surface is sexual, and that is organic, genetically driven, the survival of the species through procreation,
It is especially strong in males of all species, themusth of elephants, the battle of rams butting heads, kangaroos, lizards, Komodo dragons.
The sex drive. Females don't have it, but nature has provided for that with estrus, a chemical released into the blood stream that makes the female sexually submissive even needy as in cats in heat.
Human females are different, they don't go into estrus as we know it in animals, but there is something similar in ovulation which causes an unusual release of progesterone.
Yet of all the species, human females are ready and even desirous of sexual acivity at all times, as evolution has seen fit to reward females with erogenous zones, a clitoris and an orgasm.
But even then, the female can sublimate the sex drive, she won't go nuts if she doesn't get sex, not so with the male. He will pay for sex, seek out anything that will give him an orgasm, animal, vegetable, mineral, resort to violence to get sex, and get frustrated band together under an ideology (religion) if his sexual needs are not fulfilled or threatened.
Men can be psychologically neutered, meaning that their testosterone plummets, if they are not dominant and in full command, and the changes in society of led to an increase in "impotency", which they have chemically resolved with the invention of a pill that a blood flow to the penis.
And those that can't find a female to sexually submit, have formed a club of fellow travelers and call themselves Incel's.
Why do we work,why do we strive for social status, what drives men to become Tech Bros,billionaires, what drives Musk, Thiel, Trump,Vance?
Sex, and sexual dominance requires power. Power is the great aphrodisiac \\
The Broligarchy, Trump, Jamie Dimon, hedge fund managers and founders, don't need the money, there is only so much that mney can buy, they don't need or want two yachts, four private jets. [r ovate islands, mansions all over the world, they couldn't spend even a fraction of their wealth if they tried.
It isn't money that drives them it is power, and what drives power, the sex drive and insecurity.
In addition to "follow the money", there is the enmity between the Sunni Muslims (Saudi) and the Shia Muslims (Iran).
No shit?
Prior to Trump''s bombing of Iran, there was a rapproachment between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The quarrel is 1200 years old and is political. It is over the succession of Muhammad.
A follower of Muhammad, Abu Bakr, assumed the rule of successor (Sunnah means successor), and so it stood until the Umayyad Caliphate defeated thePersian General Rustom, and Islamized Persia. A fact resented by Persians to this day, they consider Arabs to be lizard eaters. I could quote some from the 10th Century Poet, Ferdowsi, i his Book of Kings (Shahenmeh)
The hostility is all on the part of the Iranis. in 1989 Khomeini send a sucicde squad into Makka during the haj, with the purpose of taking Makka and the Qabba, (the cube that houses a black meteorite which Muslims believed was part of their god al Lihah (the moon)
The current story is The Black Stone (al-Ḥajaru al-Aswad) in the Kaaba is traditionally believed by Muslims to be a stone from heaven, placed there by Adam and Eve or sent down to help them.
The story changed as knowledge advanced.
The suicide raid killed 400 people
It is a political quarrel,not a religious one, as there is very little difference between Sunni and Shia Islam, Except the Iranis have their own saints (martyrs) like Husayn ibn Ali,the grandson of Ali ibn Abu Talib (Exalted son of the father of the Student) was the first student (convert) of Muhammad, his cousin and son in law. The name translate as cousin, and he was the grandfather of Husayn ibn Ali.
He was killed at the battle of Karbala, but the Sunni Caliph, Yazid I, and the day is "celebrated" mourned every year with Ashuar, in which the more devout Shia, flagellated themselves until the blood flows.
To DJT and MAGA Regime Leaders…Stop your damn war… it serves only you, your family and billionaire friends and many countries who are led by anti-democracy rulers/dictators! Stop this insane violence against humanity campaign that you have reeked upon innocent people both here in the US and through the world. Resign or be removed from your office!!!
Hum… it’s not enough to have an idiot clown in the White House, now we have Son-In-law to help dismantle our Country. Thx MEGA and Republicans Majority Congress!
Yep I truly believe it. Just a question to folks who know things better than me. Do you really think Vance is a valid Trump whisperer. I have other folks in mind. I read Vance's book. It was awful but he is certainly at a higher level, education-wise, than Trump. I sure don't like Vance but I can't see him really being a Trump influencer. I think he is just waiting to be President and that makes me want to run even faster than I did before.
At what point has trump's mind has to be eviscerated for him to be ousted? His behavior and the words that come out of his mouth are those of a demented person. This is who is calling the shots folks! How will members of Congress respond when their grandchildren ask, "Why didn't you do something?"