Musk’s demotion is to have the Federal cabinet leader liable for future Federal employee firings. Musk has thousands of civil lawsuits coming his way for fired-employee damages. There is a fraud by Trump and Musk. Americans are being played. Illegal actions are not savings, they’re crap. We are being distracted by hundreds of line item veto “ex post facto” savings, all of which are illegal. We are being distracted by Federal employee firings, all of which are illegal. We are being distracted by thousands of cancellations of grants and contracts, all of which are illegal. The courts are intervening now. The Fraud on America: Trump, Musk, and Speaker Johnson are trying to ram through the tax cuts, before: • the courts cite them with civil contempt and levy huge financial penalties • the impact of their illegal actions are reversed, and their “savings” flip back to $0.00. I call for immediate full disclosures of what currently is in douchebag Musk’s DOGE bag of findings. He is hiding that at the moment since the courts have stifled his efforts. Let us make him certify his cost and pricing data, so that it comes under the Truth in Negotiations Act, now the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data Act (Title 41 U.S.C., Chapter 35). That must be required. I also call for Musk’s testimony under oath before Congress. I call for Musk to divulge the truth of what he found, after he deletes what the courts say he cannot do. He cannot fire. He cannot cancel a single contract or grant. He cannot impound funds. Johnson intends to use Musk’s currently bogus data in his CR bid. Crook. Spare me the BS braggadocio about saving billions and billions. Illegal actions are not savings, they’re crap. I don’t buy crap when we are talking about a $4.5 trillion tax cut. I say Trump and Musk’s ploy is all a fraud founded on a bag of smoke and mirrors, now a hidden accounting not corrected by current court edicts, and a “bury you in paper” con job. Let us see it. Empty the douchebag’s DOGE bag. Transparency now! Don’t let the douchebag hide it another day. We cannot shoot any line item down until the residual data is displayed. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/empty-doges-bag?r=3m1bs
And oh, Carl, That 2 Billion dollar USAID contract which SCOTUS, in an unsigned order (thus no legal effect, said he could not cancel, is not being recognized. For one thing it falls under contract law and SCOTUS is not about to violate or condone violation of contract law, but Trump is ignoring the order, he ignored it when the lower court ruled, and he is ignoring it now.
So SCOTUS rules, and Trump ignores, and nothing happens.
(a)It is the primary role and mission of the United States Marshals Service to provide for the security and to obey, execute, and enforce all orders of the United States District Courts, the United States Courts of Appeals, the Court of International Trade, and the United States Tax Court, as provided by law.
And, who controls the US Marshalls Daniel?. Who gives the orders and the Marshall's click their heels.
U.S. Marshals yesterday escorted DOGE staff and State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance Director and acting USAID Deputy Administrator, Pete Marocco, into the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) headquarters in a “traumatizing” scene, USDAF officials said, with agency workers leaving their personal belongings behind in the office to avoid confrontation with DOGE employees and law enforcement. Brianna Tucker reports for the Washington Post.
Marshals dol NOT work for DOJ although thet may be the solurce of funding. I gave you the text of their general orders -- relegated to courts.
I was a beggar for about 30 years -- had to borrow courtrooms nationally, My wife also worked in the system. I had perosonal contact with all layers of security.
Thank you, Carl, for your clear insight. How do we make them do all this? We can protest, hit the streets, get shot? Will it make a difference or do we have to have a civil war. I think it will come to that maybe. Hope not. And will if that is what it takes.
Hope of Feathers is just a start yes removal of trump and all maga extremists from serving . But we can't very well call this a revolution until the current taxation system is taken back to where it was in the 1960s and early70s, Citizens United is dumped, and the corporate structures are replaced with cooperatives and money needs to be removed from our political system. Lets call a spade a spade. These demands will need to be clear before we bringin whatever people that will assist in transforming us into new USA.
Thom, I am a subscriber & am telling everyone I know to subscribe. I posted this rant last night & my 5K FB friends seem to think that it is relevant, though it's just my opinion. It is a long screed, but important, as are your ongoing missives: For some unfathomable reason, I am actually optimistic about America, at least in the longer term… I know many, if not most, will disagree, but this is just my take. Looming horrible events will occur and we are in for a world of hurt. For example, we could have a “Reichstag Fire” national emergency moment at any time. That was the scandal in German history when Nazis set fire to what was their version of the Capitol building, blamed it on the Communists, then parlayed that into a pretext to name the elected Hitler into a dictator/Fuehrer with absolute powers. My perhaps naive optimism is this… I have termed it The Law of Political Physics. The harsher and more clearly unconstitutional and venal that Trump proceeds, the greater the backlash will be, even if it takes time. It is one thing to strip rights away from Russians, who have a long history of oppression under Tsarist, Bolshevik & Kremlin dictatorships. In the same light, it is also one thing to have the 1930s Nazi Party lord over the German people, who had experienced the severe measures imposed by the Treaty of Versailles and had pre-war runaway inflation so bad that it was said that you needed a wheelbarrow to carry the money to buy a loaf of bread. It again is one thing to restrict cultural & political freedoms in Chinese or North Korean populations that suffered generations of abject poverty, starvation & cruel wars. However, it is an ENTIRELY different matter to attempt to subjugate an arguably spoiled populace who have enjoyed historic levels of political freedom & relative prosperity for generations. I certainly do understand that there are many in the U.S. who don’t have it made, but as compared to historical levels of deprivation, it is not in the same stratosphere. I use the analogy of “Putting the genie back in the bottle.” The genie of Women’s Rights, Minority Rights, Gay Rights, Workers Rights, Student Rights, Consumer Rights and Democratic Rights are out of the bottle. My theory is certainly unproven, but I believe that a wholesale attempt to subjugate the American population is doomed to failure. The road to our eventual freedom from a Trump-Putin regime of tyranny would certainly be arduous, possibly long, and likely bloody, but I see the likelihood of an eventual Progressive victory as nearly 100%. The closest historic analogy I can muster is the Maidan Uprising in Ukraine in 2014. Putin, through direct electoral interference & Ukrainian oligarch power, as well as terror campaigns, had previously installed a puppet as president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, who was widely unpopular with youth, progressives, academics, and those in the cities. It was a ruthless, bloody regime that used assassinations, poisonings, abductions, torture, control of media, undercover infiltrators, and repression of free speech to rule with an iron fist. They even had an American advisor to help maintain Putin’s power, Paul Manafort, who later “volunteered” to be Trump’s campaign manager in 2015-2016 (coincidence? I think not). The Maidan Uprising was so successful in large part because the Ukrainian population, particularly its youth, had become “Westernized” and loved freedom, wanted to join the EU, and had a flurry of opening of coffeehouses, art galleries, gay rights, and more. Putin had already seized Crimea in 2014 and his agents were increasingly invading towns and cities in the Donbas eastern regions, where Russian language and ethnicities are more prolific. After the Maidan Uprising was successful, Putin was continuing a decades-long Kremlin plan to help Trump to gain power in the U.S., which councidentally also involved helping to implicate Biden’s son in Ukrainian intrigue & corruption, which despite Hunter Biden’s lurid pecadilloes, was pretty much the opposite of the truth. When Trump won, Putin temporarily held back on his plans to invade/take back Ukraine, because the Kremlin assessed that if Kiev fell under Trump’s first term, it could hurt Trump’s reelection chances by making America & the West look weak. The plan all along was to invade immediately after Trump won his second term, when it would no longer be an election issue. Putin correctly assessed that the West would not send in any ground troops. Once Trump lost the reelection to Biden, it was a full green light on unleashing the Ukraine invasion. If anything, doing it under Biden’s watch would weaken Biden, and Putin believed he could take Kiev in days or perhaps a few short weeks. The reason that Putin desperately wanted to invade Ukraine had NOTHING to do with worries over potential NATO expansion, nor actually about reestablishing the USSR. It was really all about neutralizing the potentially devastating political threat of having a close neighbor that, after the overthrow of the pro/Putin puppet government, was 1) full of youthful enthusiasm, 2) had a taste of freedom from Russia that could potentially spread to Russian youth (many Ukrainians had relatives in Russia & frequently traveled back & forth), 3) youth & pro-Western progressives in other republics with Russian puppet governments (Georgia, Belarus, etc.) could get the wrong idea that they too could have democracy & freedom, and 4) Ukraine, under its new liberal government, was actually prospering financially, and aside from desiring to plunder that wealth, Putin could not have an example sitting right on his doorstep of a government that rejected him & was rapidly increasing its wealth & standard of living, as opposed to Russia’s plummeting economy. So, in my final analysis, I am confident that any regime, Trump or otherwise, who tries to create a Russian-style mafia state or police state in the U.S., is doomed to failure. We are not the Russians, nor are we the Germans of the 1930s, nor are we the Chinese, and certainly not the North Koreans. Sure, many, myself included, can be cowed & silenced through tortures, abductions, murders, theft of our funds, burning our homes, losing our jobs, or threatening our families. But to accomplish that on a national scale would likely be next to impossible, both logistically and politically. I recall back in the 1960s, that whenever the police came to our civil rights & anti-war protests and brutalized us protestors, we actually loved it, because for every one of us who was injured or jailed, 10 more would join our cause. The primary political problem in the U.S. today isn’t MAGA or extremism, though those are absolutely huge, huge problems. The primary political problem today is apathy. And when you wreck the economy, strip away freedoms, slash jobs, restrict travel, instill fear, cancel large public events, oppress women & students, jail celebrities & entertainers that are wildly popular, stifle the Internet, victimize minorities, mess with Social Security of seniors, and institute harsh oppression that affects an entire population, apathy dissipates & activism multiplies. Large scale civil disobedience and general strikes, refusing to go to work, and boycotting businesses on a massive scale can bring any nation to a standstill in short order. The Law of Political Physics is like The Law of Karma… it can be delayed, but it cannot be ignored.
Your Law of Political Physics is exactly the kind of framework people need to understand what’s happening and, more importantly, why Trumpism will ultimately fail.
Yes, we are headed for dark times. The machinery of authoritarianism is already in motion, and the potential for a Reichstag Fire moment is terrifyingly real. But you are absolutely right, America is not Russia, not China, not Nazi Germany, and Trump is no strategic genius. He is a wrecking ball, and the more damage he does, the greater the backlash will be.
Oppression breeds resistance. Repression creates revolution. The more Trump and his MAGA enforcers attempt to strip away rights, crush dissent, and impose a Putin-style oligarchy, the more they will radicalize the very people they need to control. They cannot put the genie of civil rights, women’s liberation, LGBTQ+ visibility, and democratic governance back in the bottle. The harder they try, the more inevitable their downfall becomes.
Apathy is our biggest enemy. But oppression is the greatest antidote to apathy. When life gets worse for millions, they will rise, and when they do, Trump’s “police state” will crumble under its own weight.
History has already written the ending. We just have to get there.
On a good day I find compassion for the lifelong cruelty and suffering they must have endured to reach such a level of inhumanity. Today is not a good day.
You have so elegantly and succinctly expressed my decade of thoughts about the theocratic, wealth barons, and demise of the Republicans party that now has grabbed the reins of OUR PRECIOUS REPUBLIC. So, what do we do now?
Absolutely Green has every Right to call the President out while He, Trump is telling his lies!!! Respect you say?? WHERE WAS TRUMP's respect for all the FRAUD he has done so far?? Firing people, dissolving agencies that are important to America's functioning and to the citizen's. A stroke of a PEN because Trump can't think of a reason ??? It is just because he wants to?? And Trump had NO RIGHT TO ELON !,TO GO INTO SENSITIVE PRIVATE Materials!!!!
And sending emails to workers!! That is ILLEGAL to do. But Trump does not know any better. Trump is oblivious to the laws & our CONSTITUTION💙🇺🇸
Ten Democrats voted to censure Al Green, remember their names Ami Bera of California, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, Laura Gillen of New York, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Tom Suozzi of New York.
Gluesenkamp, of Kent Washginton, narrowly defeated Joe Kent whom Trump has appointed as head of National Counterterrorism Unit.
She represents a district south of Seattle which is notoriously right wing, includes Pierce County and SW Washington, but she is also i conservative except for her pro choice stance.
"Genuine patriots work to heal a country, to bring out its best, to strengthen its social and political fabric and make a better nation and world for future generations."
Exactly.
Patriotism is about the people, not the dirt people are standing on.
👏👏👏👏 great column today.question: why isn’t anyone writing about how Hakeem Jeffries, on behalf of the DCCC, gratefully & graciously accepted $2.5M in campaign contributions from Theill and Muck?
"They’re sexually insecure men being played as marks by the NRA and the weapons industry, who tell them that by strapping AR15 prosthetic penises across their backs they seem masculine."
Here is what I posted on Robert Reich's 10 modest reasons for optimism
Here goes Debbie downer
1. The courts. Lower court rulings mean nothing, just temporary stays. Trump appeals to SCOTUS
and we know how tha goes. So far SCOTUS has ruled that Trump can’t violate the law of contract, In that he has to. pay USAID contractor. Trump still hasn’t paid the contractors. It is an unsigned order, and Trump thanked Roberts,Here is the Nation’s take on that
2 Musk and Trump are indeed targeting social security. They aren’t going to touch the program, they are just going to neuter it by firing staff, thus rendering it ineffective. You can achieve your goal through more than one means
3. DOGES credibility is irrelevant. Neither Musk or Trump cares about public opinion, they will press on with their agenda regardless.
4. Trump telling his cabinet that they are in charge of their cabinets not Trump was made for the public theater. A recommendation from Musk is seen as a directive from Trump. More than one way to skin a cat.
5. So what Republicans are hiding from their constituents between Musk, the Oligarchs and the millionaire right wing ideologues like Andrew Mellon and Miriam Addelson they will buy the elections.
6. The economy is taking a nose dive. Despite the punditry and the press. People didn’t vote because of the price of eggs. Trump more than ever has his hand wrapped around the thing that got him into the White House, the culture war. And again, with complete control of the government and with the money of the oligarchs behind him, who really believes that there will be an honest election in 2026, there wasn’t one in 2024, Russian interference and psyops. Keep your eye on the race for the vacant seat on the Wisconsin supreme court, Musk has poured $75 million into this obscure seat for Schimel
7. Backing down on tariff’s will actually save his bacon, otherwise tariffs would heat up inflation.
8.Accepting a continuing budget resolution is saving their bacon. There is a chance that the Democrats
would obstruct the budget, as they should, thus causing the government to shut down…egg on the face for the administration in power.
9. Europe may be coming together, but there are stilk cowards, intimidated by America’s economic power (at the moment, that will disappear under Trump) Macron fellates Trump, Starmer needs
Trump because Britain is in deep doo doo, for one thing they are undergoing the same threat from the fascistic right as we are.
10. The only Democrat who has shown spine is Al Green, the rest of them sat silently in their seats while he was hauled away, and 10 of them voted to censure him. They should have boycotted, to a person, his speech, that would have showed some spine. Holding up pickle ball paddles and booing is not showing spine. And every one of them voted to confirm Marco Rubio.
One suggested amendment to Thom's post - and a critical oversight.
They say they love our military, but are firing thousands of workers in the Veterans Administration.
They say they want a strong national defense, then appoint as Secretary of Defense an ex-National Guard Major who was passed over for promotion due to poor judgment, and then fired all the top-performing service chiefs in the hope of undermining the honor code that disabled their last insurrection attempt.
Thanks Tom, my thoughts exactly. I wonder how many Trump voting Vets, and they are legion,probably the majority, are still Trump humpers? Knowing the human ability for self deception as I do, I can imagine the mental gymnastics Trump humpers will go through to rationalize their vote and continuing support.
MAGAs appear to be short-sighted. The rationalizations that most MAGAs use to cope with policies and actions that they personally might not approve of are facilitated by "Yeah-but's." They remain loyal because Trump appears to support some policy or action that they feel strongly about. The beauty of yeah-but's is that they blind MAGAs to the unintended consequences that can undermine the policies and services they need.
Musk's chainsaw is an apt metaphor. Chainsaws can easily cut down huge trees - but there is the risk that one of those trees falls on your house and caves in part of your roof - ouch. "Yeah-but" - I am supporting chainsawing agencies that cave in the roofs of Democrats. Then later, a family member dies from an epidemic they did not know was coming because the chainsaw crushed CDC. Or they got hit by a tornado or flood because the chainsaw hit the weather services that used to warn them, et cetera.
I hear you Tom, but short sighted too late. The Damage is done. MAGAts in their enthusiastic hate, fear and bigotry, knocked Humpty off the wall. Too late now, there is no super glue that can put Humpty together again.
At this point all I can say is misery loves company, and huzzah I am thrilled that the stupid mother fucking haters will do down with me and the rest of the passengers as the Steamship United States hit an iceberg called Trump.
I know that I am screwed, I take some satisfaction in knowing that the idiots, the haters, the stupids have screwed themselves.
Say you have been told that you have birthright supremacy because you are a.) male; b.) Christian and c.) White.
So in poker terms you've got a straight, but turns out that you're a sucker and a loser. Turns out you're Joe-average.
To quote James Dean: Well, then, there, now . . . how do you reconcile not being able to parlay this supremacy, this straight, into a happy life?
Take the blame? Too internal.
Nah. A less-than persona's ego cannot handle the truth.
You simply hand all reasoning over to your untethered/unhinged ID.
Sure. But since ID cannot reason (no logic) I'll wait for a demagogue. He'll tell me what to do.
There he is!! He's a rancid, fake-looking, game show host (a show a notch above "The Gong Show.")
But wait . . . I see now: "I'm" the minority. The Jews did "me" in. The Blacks are freeloading off "my" taxes. The Catholics are taking over all "my" doggone politics. And don't ask about "women!"
Out-groups. Yeah !!! That's it. That's the ticket !!! Out-groups !!! They're external, so I'm not to blame for my sh*thole of a life..
Now, where is my superrich South African, tech-bro, racist, nazi???
Oh . . . Here "He" is.
At last, my uber-pale, pan-faced, alien god has descended from Silicon Valley.
You are correct and alas there is no one in the Democratic party or public prominence that will stand up to Trump or Musk, except Al Green and then ten cowards voted with the Republicans to censure him. Ami Bera of California, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, Laura Gillen of New York, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Tom Suozzi of New York.
And you wonder why there is a relentless assault on education. Ignorance is bliss.
IMHO got to ask each of them, point blank, whether they support Putin.
Get them on record.
Impeach the bastard.
https://jerryweiss.substack.com/p/remove-impeach-impeach
Musk’s demotion is to have the Federal cabinet leader liable for future Federal employee firings. Musk has thousands of civil lawsuits coming his way for fired-employee damages. There is a fraud by Trump and Musk. Americans are being played. Illegal actions are not savings, they’re crap. We are being distracted by hundreds of line item veto “ex post facto” savings, all of which are illegal. We are being distracted by Federal employee firings, all of which are illegal. We are being distracted by thousands of cancellations of grants and contracts, all of which are illegal. The courts are intervening now. The Fraud on America: Trump, Musk, and Speaker Johnson are trying to ram through the tax cuts, before: • the courts cite them with civil contempt and levy huge financial penalties • the impact of their illegal actions are reversed, and their “savings” flip back to $0.00. I call for immediate full disclosures of what currently is in douchebag Musk’s DOGE bag of findings. He is hiding that at the moment since the courts have stifled his efforts. Let us make him certify his cost and pricing data, so that it comes under the Truth in Negotiations Act, now the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data Act (Title 41 U.S.C., Chapter 35). That must be required. I also call for Musk’s testimony under oath before Congress. I call for Musk to divulge the truth of what he found, after he deletes what the courts say he cannot do. He cannot fire. He cannot cancel a single contract or grant. He cannot impound funds. Johnson intends to use Musk’s currently bogus data in his CR bid. Crook. Spare me the BS braggadocio about saving billions and billions. Illegal actions are not savings, they’re crap. I don’t buy crap when we are talking about a $4.5 trillion tax cut. I say Trump and Musk’s ploy is all a fraud founded on a bag of smoke and mirrors, now a hidden accounting not corrected by current court edicts, and a “bury you in paper” con job. Let us see it. Empty the douchebag’s DOGE bag. Transparency now! Don’t let the douchebag hide it another day. We cannot shoot any line item down until the residual data is displayed. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/empty-doges-bag?r=3m1bs
And oh, Carl, That 2 Billion dollar USAID contract which SCOTUS, in an unsigned order (thus no legal effect, said he could not cancel, is not being recognized. For one thing it falls under contract law and SCOTUS is not about to violate or condone violation of contract law, but Trump is ignoring the order, he ignored it when the lower court ruled, and he is ignoring it now.
So SCOTUS rules, and Trump ignores, and nothing happens.
Check out the mandate of the US Marshals Service.
28 U.S. Code § 566 - Powers and duties
(a)It is the primary role and mission of the United States Marshals Service to provide for the security and to obey, execute, and enforce all orders of the United States District Courts, the United States Courts of Appeals, the Court of International Trade, and the United States Tax Court, as provided by law.
And, who controls the US Marshalls Daniel?. Who gives the orders and the Marshall's click their heels.
U.S. Marshals yesterday escorted DOGE staff and State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance Director and acting USAID Deputy Administrator, Pete Marocco, into the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) headquarters in a “traumatizing” scene, USDAF officials said, with agency workers leaving their personal belongings behind in the office to avoid confrontation with DOGE employees and law enforcement. Brianna Tucker reports for the Washington Post.
I saw the reporting, but it was all BULLSHIT. They were NOT marshals. They didn't have credentals.
BTW every agency has it's own security -- plus Federal police, even rent a cops.
In courthouses besides marshals, they have CSO's --"Court Security Officers -- who are contract employees.
How do you know that they weren't Marshalls Daniel. How do you know they didn't have credentials.
Federal Marshalls override agency police.
Who do the U.S. Marshall's work for anyway? Answer: Pam Bondi.
I saw the video.
Marshals dol NOT work for DOJ although thet may be the solurce of funding. I gave you the text of their general orders -- relegated to courts.
I was a beggar for about 30 years -- had to borrow courtrooms nationally, My wife also worked in the system. I had perosonal contact with all layers of security.
Carl Trump said, for public consumption, that cabinet heads will fire employees, but he also said that Musk will give them recommendations.
When a mob boss makes recommendations, is that not the same as an order.?
Thank you, Carl, for your clear insight. How do we make them do all this? We can protest, hit the streets, get shot? Will it make a difference or do we have to have a civil war. I think it will come to that maybe. Hope not. And will if that is what it takes.
Ans. Feathers of Hope.
Hope of Feathers is just a start yes removal of trump and all maga extremists from serving . But we can't very well call this a revolution until the current taxation system is taken back to where it was in the 1960s and early70s, Citizens United is dumped, and the corporate structures are replaced with cooperatives and money needs to be removed from our political system. Lets call a spade a spade. These demands will need to be clear before we bringin whatever people that will assist in transforming us into new USA.
Thom, I am a subscriber & am telling everyone I know to subscribe. I posted this rant last night & my 5K FB friends seem to think that it is relevant, though it's just my opinion. It is a long screed, but important, as are your ongoing missives: For some unfathomable reason, I am actually optimistic about America, at least in the longer term… I know many, if not most, will disagree, but this is just my take. Looming horrible events will occur and we are in for a world of hurt. For example, we could have a “Reichstag Fire” national emergency moment at any time. That was the scandal in German history when Nazis set fire to what was their version of the Capitol building, blamed it on the Communists, then parlayed that into a pretext to name the elected Hitler into a dictator/Fuehrer with absolute powers. My perhaps naive optimism is this… I have termed it The Law of Political Physics. The harsher and more clearly unconstitutional and venal that Trump proceeds, the greater the backlash will be, even if it takes time. It is one thing to strip rights away from Russians, who have a long history of oppression under Tsarist, Bolshevik & Kremlin dictatorships. In the same light, it is also one thing to have the 1930s Nazi Party lord over the German people, who had experienced the severe measures imposed by the Treaty of Versailles and had pre-war runaway inflation so bad that it was said that you needed a wheelbarrow to carry the money to buy a loaf of bread. It again is one thing to restrict cultural & political freedoms in Chinese or North Korean populations that suffered generations of abject poverty, starvation & cruel wars. However, it is an ENTIRELY different matter to attempt to subjugate an arguably spoiled populace who have enjoyed historic levels of political freedom & relative prosperity for generations. I certainly do understand that there are many in the U.S. who don’t have it made, but as compared to historical levels of deprivation, it is not in the same stratosphere. I use the analogy of “Putting the genie back in the bottle.” The genie of Women’s Rights, Minority Rights, Gay Rights, Workers Rights, Student Rights, Consumer Rights and Democratic Rights are out of the bottle. My theory is certainly unproven, but I believe that a wholesale attempt to subjugate the American population is doomed to failure. The road to our eventual freedom from a Trump-Putin regime of tyranny would certainly be arduous, possibly long, and likely bloody, but I see the likelihood of an eventual Progressive victory as nearly 100%. The closest historic analogy I can muster is the Maidan Uprising in Ukraine in 2014. Putin, through direct electoral interference & Ukrainian oligarch power, as well as terror campaigns, had previously installed a puppet as president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, who was widely unpopular with youth, progressives, academics, and those in the cities. It was a ruthless, bloody regime that used assassinations, poisonings, abductions, torture, control of media, undercover infiltrators, and repression of free speech to rule with an iron fist. They even had an American advisor to help maintain Putin’s power, Paul Manafort, who later “volunteered” to be Trump’s campaign manager in 2015-2016 (coincidence? I think not). The Maidan Uprising was so successful in large part because the Ukrainian population, particularly its youth, had become “Westernized” and loved freedom, wanted to join the EU, and had a flurry of opening of coffeehouses, art galleries, gay rights, and more. Putin had already seized Crimea in 2014 and his agents were increasingly invading towns and cities in the Donbas eastern regions, where Russian language and ethnicities are more prolific. After the Maidan Uprising was successful, Putin was continuing a decades-long Kremlin plan to help Trump to gain power in the U.S., which councidentally also involved helping to implicate Biden’s son in Ukrainian intrigue & corruption, which despite Hunter Biden’s lurid pecadilloes, was pretty much the opposite of the truth. When Trump won, Putin temporarily held back on his plans to invade/take back Ukraine, because the Kremlin assessed that if Kiev fell under Trump’s first term, it could hurt Trump’s reelection chances by making America & the West look weak. The plan all along was to invade immediately after Trump won his second term, when it would no longer be an election issue. Putin correctly assessed that the West would not send in any ground troops. Once Trump lost the reelection to Biden, it was a full green light on unleashing the Ukraine invasion. If anything, doing it under Biden’s watch would weaken Biden, and Putin believed he could take Kiev in days or perhaps a few short weeks. The reason that Putin desperately wanted to invade Ukraine had NOTHING to do with worries over potential NATO expansion, nor actually about reestablishing the USSR. It was really all about neutralizing the potentially devastating political threat of having a close neighbor that, after the overthrow of the pro/Putin puppet government, was 1) full of youthful enthusiasm, 2) had a taste of freedom from Russia that could potentially spread to Russian youth (many Ukrainians had relatives in Russia & frequently traveled back & forth), 3) youth & pro-Western progressives in other republics with Russian puppet governments (Georgia, Belarus, etc.) could get the wrong idea that they too could have democracy & freedom, and 4) Ukraine, under its new liberal government, was actually prospering financially, and aside from desiring to plunder that wealth, Putin could not have an example sitting right on his doorstep of a government that rejected him & was rapidly increasing its wealth & standard of living, as opposed to Russia’s plummeting economy. So, in my final analysis, I am confident that any regime, Trump or otherwise, who tries to create a Russian-style mafia state or police state in the U.S., is doomed to failure. We are not the Russians, nor are we the Germans of the 1930s, nor are we the Chinese, and certainly not the North Koreans. Sure, many, myself included, can be cowed & silenced through tortures, abductions, murders, theft of our funds, burning our homes, losing our jobs, or threatening our families. But to accomplish that on a national scale would likely be next to impossible, both logistically and politically. I recall back in the 1960s, that whenever the police came to our civil rights & anti-war protests and brutalized us protestors, we actually loved it, because for every one of us who was injured or jailed, 10 more would join our cause. The primary political problem in the U.S. today isn’t MAGA or extremism, though those are absolutely huge, huge problems. The primary political problem today is apathy. And when you wreck the economy, strip away freedoms, slash jobs, restrict travel, instill fear, cancel large public events, oppress women & students, jail celebrities & entertainers that are wildly popular, stifle the Internet, victimize minorities, mess with Social Security of seniors, and institute harsh oppression that affects an entire population, apathy dissipates & activism multiplies. Large scale civil disobedience and general strikes, refusing to go to work, and boycotting businesses on a massive scale can bring any nation to a standstill in short order. The Law of Political Physics is like The Law of Karma… it can be delayed, but it cannot be ignored.
Very well written and helpful to see these difficult times in a better like. Thank you.
Your Law of Political Physics is exactly the kind of framework people need to understand what’s happening and, more importantly, why Trumpism will ultimately fail.
Yes, we are headed for dark times. The machinery of authoritarianism is already in motion, and the potential for a Reichstag Fire moment is terrifyingly real. But you are absolutely right, America is not Russia, not China, not Nazi Germany, and Trump is no strategic genius. He is a wrecking ball, and the more damage he does, the greater the backlash will be.
Oppression breeds resistance. Repression creates revolution. The more Trump and his MAGA enforcers attempt to strip away rights, crush dissent, and impose a Putin-style oligarchy, the more they will radicalize the very people they need to control. They cannot put the genie of civil rights, women’s liberation, LGBTQ+ visibility, and democratic governance back in the bottle. The harder they try, the more inevitable their downfall becomes.
Apathy is our biggest enemy. But oppression is the greatest antidote to apathy. When life gets worse for millions, they will rise, and when they do, Trump’s “police state” will crumble under its own weight.
History has already written the ending. We just have to get there.
On a good day I find compassion for the lifelong cruelty and suffering they must have endured to reach such a level of inhumanity. Today is not a good day.
You have so elegantly and succinctly expressed my decade of thoughts about the theocratic, wealth barons, and demise of the Republicans party that now has grabbed the reins of OUR PRECIOUS REPUBLIC. So, what do we do now?
Absolutely Green has every Right to call the President out while He, Trump is telling his lies!!! Respect you say?? WHERE WAS TRUMP's respect for all the FRAUD he has done so far?? Firing people, dissolving agencies that are important to America's functioning and to the citizen's. A stroke of a PEN because Trump can't think of a reason ??? It is just because he wants to?? And Trump had NO RIGHT TO ELON !,TO GO INTO SENSITIVE PRIVATE Materials!!!!
And sending emails to workers!! That is ILLEGAL to do. But Trump does not know any better. Trump is oblivious to the laws & our CONSTITUTION💙🇺🇸
Is Joe Manchin ever going to stop being such a pain in the butt? He’s supposed to be retired. Phooey.
Ten Democrats voted to censure Al Green, remember their names Ami Bera of California, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, Laura Gillen of New York, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Tom Suozzi of New York.
Gluesenkamp, of Kent Washginton, narrowly defeated Joe Kent whom Trump has appointed as head of National Counterterrorism Unit.
She represents a district south of Seattle which is notoriously right wing, includes Pierce County and SW Washington, but she is also i conservative except for her pro choice stance.
I will donate to her primary opponent in 2026.
I'm still struggling to bliev that Jared Moskowitz of Florida was one of those Dems
Me too! I would line to know why, ? I haven't heard him in any committees. Is he silent for a reason?? Jared was always right on top of everything.
"Genuine patriots work to heal a country, to bring out its best, to strengthen its social and political fabric and make a better nation and world for future generations."
Exactly.
Patriotism is about the people, not the dirt people are standing on.
👏👏👏👏 great column today.question: why isn’t anyone writing about how Hakeem Jeffries, on behalf of the DCCC, gratefully & graciously accepted $2.5M in campaign contributions from Theill and Muck?
State whether or not you support impeachment.
"They’re sexually insecure men being played as marks by the NRA and the weapons industry, who tell them that by strapping AR15 prosthetic penises across their backs they seem masculine."
Hawtdamn!
Say it ain't so!
You outdid yourself on that one, Mr. Hartmann.
Can't deny it.
Here is what I posted on Robert Reich's 10 modest reasons for optimism
Here goes Debbie downer
1. The courts. Lower court rulings mean nothing, just temporary stays. Trump appeals to SCOTUS
and we know how tha goes. So far SCOTUS has ruled that Trump can’t violate the law of contract, In that he has to. pay USAID contractor. Trump still hasn’t paid the contractors. It is an unsigned order, and Trump thanked Roberts,Here is the Nation’s take on that
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/supreme-court-usaid-trump/
2 Musk and Trump are indeed targeting social security. They aren’t going to touch the program, they are just going to neuter it by firing staff, thus rendering it ineffective. You can achieve your goal through more than one means
3. DOGES credibility is irrelevant. Neither Musk or Trump cares about public opinion, they will press on with their agenda regardless.
4. Trump telling his cabinet that they are in charge of their cabinets not Trump was made for the public theater. A recommendation from Musk is seen as a directive from Trump. More than one way to skin a cat.
5. So what Republicans are hiding from their constituents between Musk, the Oligarchs and the millionaire right wing ideologues like Andrew Mellon and Miriam Addelson they will buy the elections.
6. The economy is taking a nose dive. Despite the punditry and the press. People didn’t vote because of the price of eggs. Trump more than ever has his hand wrapped around the thing that got him into the White House, the culture war. And again, with complete control of the government and with the money of the oligarchs behind him, who really believes that there will be an honest election in 2026, there wasn’t one in 2024, Russian interference and psyops. Keep your eye on the race for the vacant seat on the Wisconsin supreme court, Musk has poured $75 million into this obscure seat for Schimel
7. Backing down on tariff’s will actually save his bacon, otherwise tariffs would heat up inflation.
8.Accepting a continuing budget resolution is saving their bacon. There is a chance that the Democrats
would obstruct the budget, as they should, thus causing the government to shut down…egg on the face for the administration in power.
9. Europe may be coming together, but there are stilk cowards, intimidated by America’s economic power (at the moment, that will disappear under Trump) Macron fellates Trump, Starmer needs
Trump because Britain is in deep doo doo, for one thing they are undergoing the same threat from the fascistic right as we are.
10. The only Democrat who has shown spine is Al Green, the rest of them sat silently in their seats while he was hauled away, and 10 of them voted to censure him. They should have boycotted, to a person, his speech, that would have showed some spine. Holding up pickle ball paddles and booing is not showing spine. And every one of them voted to confirm Marco Rubio.
The Achilles heel can be Ukraine. Do you support Putin?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PUmG-6ypn7o
One suggested amendment to Thom's post - and a critical oversight.
They say they love our military, but are firing thousands of workers in the Veterans Administration.
They say they want a strong national defense, then appoint as Secretary of Defense an ex-National Guard Major who was passed over for promotion due to poor judgment, and then fired all the top-performing service chiefs in the hope of undermining the honor code that disabled their last insurrection attempt.
Thanks Tom, my thoughts exactly. I wonder how many Trump voting Vets, and they are legion,probably the majority, are still Trump humpers? Knowing the human ability for self deception as I do, I can imagine the mental gymnastics Trump humpers will go through to rationalize their vote and continuing support.
MAGAs appear to be short-sighted. The rationalizations that most MAGAs use to cope with policies and actions that they personally might not approve of are facilitated by "Yeah-but's." They remain loyal because Trump appears to support some policy or action that they feel strongly about. The beauty of yeah-but's is that they blind MAGAs to the unintended consequences that can undermine the policies and services they need.
Musk's chainsaw is an apt metaphor. Chainsaws can easily cut down huge trees - but there is the risk that one of those trees falls on your house and caves in part of your roof - ouch. "Yeah-but" - I am supporting chainsawing agencies that cave in the roofs of Democrats. Then later, a family member dies from an epidemic they did not know was coming because the chainsaw crushed CDC. Or they got hit by a tornado or flood because the chainsaw hit the weather services that used to warn them, et cetera.
I hear you Tom, but short sighted too late. The Damage is done. MAGAts in their enthusiastic hate, fear and bigotry, knocked Humpty off the wall. Too late now, there is no super glue that can put Humpty together again.
At this point all I can say is misery loves company, and huzzah I am thrilled that the stupid mother fucking haters will do down with me and the rest of the passengers as the Steamship United States hit an iceberg called Trump.
I know that I am screwed, I take some satisfaction in knowing that the idiots, the haters, the stupids have screwed themselves.
Say you have been told that you have birthright supremacy because you are a.) male; b.) Christian and c.) White.
So in poker terms you've got a straight, but turns out that you're a sucker and a loser. Turns out you're Joe-average.
To quote James Dean: Well, then, there, now . . . how do you reconcile not being able to parlay this supremacy, this straight, into a happy life?
Take the blame? Too internal.
Nah. A less-than persona's ego cannot handle the truth.
You simply hand all reasoning over to your untethered/unhinged ID.
Sure. But since ID cannot reason (no logic) I'll wait for a demagogue. He'll tell me what to do.
There he is!! He's a rancid, fake-looking, game show host (a show a notch above "The Gong Show.")
But wait . . . I see now: "I'm" the minority. The Jews did "me" in. The Blacks are freeloading off "my" taxes. The Catholics are taking over all "my" doggone politics. And don't ask about "women!"
Out-groups. Yeah !!! That's it. That's the ticket !!! Out-groups !!! They're external, so I'm not to blame for my sh*thole of a life..
Now, where is my superrich South African, tech-bro, racist, nazi???
Oh . . . Here "He" is.
At last, my uber-pale, pan-faced, alien god has descended from Silicon Valley.
Twilight Zone S4 E4 "He's Alive"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hQvBIyOC6Y
Only need to "raise" a few......https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyiGHFGCf2U
Those were the days!! :)
Joe Manchin was always a prick in my mind. I agree with your opinions and will pass this on. Thank you.
Sadly all that you are saying is true, however, bullies can be marginalized by standing up to them and out smarting them.
You are correct and alas there is no one in the Democratic party or public prominence that will stand up to Trump or Musk, except Al Green and then ten cowards voted with the Republicans to censure him. Ami Bera of California, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, Laura Gillen of New York, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Tom Suozzi of New York.