Here's my thought: I didn't think Trump could write anything more unhinged than his post on Easter Sunday but he followed it up today with "A whole civilization will die tonight."
Folks, this is the President of the United States!
Personally, I feel like everyday should be No Kings Day in every city and town until he is out. I'm thinking noon to 2. There are people in every community that feel this way, and enough of us retired people to pull it off.
That's easy Anne, there are only 3 people who can legally call Congress back into session. The president (either or both houses under "extraordinary occasions"), or working together both the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader. (The Speaker can also convene the House by itself.) Given who currently holds these positions, none of this is likely.
It's the VP and the cabinet that initiate the 25th amendment and congress has to approve it and that isn't going to happen...and I'm frightened to think of just what it'll take for this or impeachment to happen....
It's more important that the Democratic congress educate the people they represent. They are woefully ignorant. We used to get our news from trusted journalists and reporters like Walter Cronkite and Edward R Murrow. The legacy media has been taken over by corporatists with an insatiable for money and power. Social media is a swamp, infested with conspiracy theorists, QANON, and Nazis., feeding the people with outright lies and misinformation. Putin has his trolls out 24/7. Don't under estimate their influence.
What Thom described is off-the-shelf fascism. But the nexus of the problem is not ideological; it is biological - Trump is a demented psychopath.
We are not being "governed" by a reasonable politician who is trying to make life better for all citizens. We are being "ruled" by a demented psychopath who delights in the rape and pillage of nations and individuals who annoy him. He has the impulse control of a 4-year-old in a candy store. He has the judgment of a person with no moral compass. He thinks morality is for suckers. And to make matters worse, he is surrounded by henchmen (and macho cosplay women) who are, like him, amoral and incompetent. They see their sycophancy as a path to future wealth and power at the expense of all who stand in their leader's way. They are so clueless that they ignore their predecessors piled under the proverbial bus to MAGAdum.
Article 25 has been shown to be a joke two cabinets in a row. Impeachment likewise is stymied by legislators who have no dignity or honor - in both parties, I might add. As Thom reminds readers, the only solution is for citizens to vote these people out of office and hold the entire administration accountable for their crimes by putting them in cages where they can no longer harm humanity. Otherwise, it will be the voters who wind up in cages serving the needs of greedy oligarchs.
Do you really think that it is possible to reverse the political views and values of a sycophantic legislative cult that believes God is on their side because it says so somewhere in the Trump Bible? Trump's dementia is not subtle, nor is his psychopathic megalomania. Now he wants to exterminate all Persians and the Congress says nothing?
Trump has committed enough crimes in office to have been impeached a dozen times by now. No legislator on the Red side dares to utter the word impeach. Only a couple of Democrats have mentioned it for the first time, and that was yesterday.
The only way for our democracy to survive is if November 2026 triggers a political Jonestown massacre of Republican legislative careers. In your and my case, put a checkmark next to "Alex Vindman" for senate.
"Second, the Democratic Party needs to re-embrace the social and economic goals of the New Deal and Great Society that brought us Social Security, the minimum wage, Medicare, Medicaid, free and cheap college, etc., etc. Put “we, the people” first and again restrain the toxic impulses of billionaires and corporations through appropriate taxation and regulation."
And the Democratic Party **must** embrace the will of the people in this particular regard: no more foreign influence over US policy, whether overt or covert. No more wars for nations that can't even maintain basic human decency in their own neighborhood.
Getting the Democratic Party focused on something other than campaign fundraising and stock trading on insider information is going to be a big lift. I am hopeful but tempered that it can even happen.
There’s only one civilization that’s dying; and that’s the great civilization that the United States of America has built over the past 250 years.
We’ve had plenty of stops/starts over that time & we are far from perfect, but our country was envied by nearly every other country in the world…until this current president got away with an insurrection and was again elected via support by multimillionaires and billionaires that lied to us.
If we don’t take back our country, starting this November, our civilization is doomed and gone for the foreseeable future.
Every article I read that you write shines a light I just recently joined your site and I must say that just today’s article is worth every cent I paid for a year
Regardless what happens tonight all of us tomorrow must start to unite this country. I know what it feels like there is nothing that we can do but there is. Each one of us counts regardless of “who” you are. I am a Quaker born in 1955 in Philadelphia I was educated differently than most but I am no smarter of a human being than the rest of America. My family came here in 1787 have fought every war and have the headstones to prove it yet we are equal I am not a better American citizen because of this. I am one of the few that can prove that I am related by DNA that my great ancestor is Benjamin Franklin and our family since day one kept journals it is required generation after generation kept in good condition each generation adds their story. My father was a apprentice for Leeds and Northrop in 1942 he followed seven other scientists two that were personal friends of Nicholas Tesla they created a device that can switch from using oil to using other sources of power. Not nuclear technology In 1959 my father was the only survivor and spent his life overseas mostly in Japan and Middle East his stories and friendships with Iran lasted till his death in 1999. Most of the stories we hear about the Middle East are how horrific the women are treated yet you don’t have to look too far to see in our own country how women are treated worse there would never had been a “ Epstein “ in Iran. From the friends I have had all of my life from Iran I have never seen or heard even close to the evil that happens daily here. I have no communication with my friends even with my short wave radio does not make it through this was our main communication with the world since I was a kid “ Morse code” We have become the country of greed and you and I will have a price to be paid. I can tell you many things about the past of this country but the most important message is that you must be part of your own community first there is no other way to survive unfortunately with all this technology we don’t even know our neighbors anymore nor we don’t like them for ridiculous reasons we praise our faiths yet we don’t follow the words. There is no magic wand like the mid term elections for instance. Everyone tells me there is nothing they can do yet there is so much we can do Think about it add some common sense.UNITED WE STAND
You know, setting people against each other is an old trick that the colonial powers played in their African and Asian colonies. You give one group (sometimes it didn’t even exist until the Europeans created it) a little more power and have them lord it over the others. Then you get them fighting one another rather than uniting against you. The “superior” group is also going to ally with you to keep their privileges. And the place is run on a cash economy, so to pay their taxes everyone has to work for your enterprises.
After these countries became independent the deep divisions between the groups remained, sometimes erupting into revolutions or genocide, as in Rwanda. Meanwhile the former colonial states still controlled much of their economies, as France does in a lot of west and central Africa. It’s a model that the GOP, the Democratic stooges, and their rich masters may be applying here.
There is a sound basis in our early history for 13 Justices. Originally (and Scalia loved that concept), there was one judge for each circuit. We now have 13 circuits, ergo four more Justices on the SCOTUS.
While we are imaging improvements: DC should be a state and Puerto Rico if it wishes.
Actually, the Brits set up two distinct territories that paid no attention to what tribes/ethnic groups/religious groups were where, and walked out the door. See India and Pakistan as well as Israel and the remaining territory within what had been the Ottoman Empire until the victorious Allied powers handed it over to the Brits after WW1
Most of us were exposed to Kipling, "the white man's burden." The idea was that left on their own, the natives would live in anarchy, indiscrimiately torturing and killing each other.
The flip side: "The horror! The horror!" Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad. Written in 1899, when colonial powers ruled, documented that there was little difference between "civilised people" and "savages".
In China, the Brits used drugs to control the population. In India pitted the Hindus against the Moslems. Same in many places in Africa.
Many of the countries in the middle east were established arbitrarily, without regard to local involvement. Same was true in eastern Europe after WW I.
And that is for certain. Consider the Boers in southern Africa, the Belgians in the Congo, the French in southeast Asia, the Spanish in the Americas. The list goes on from the earliest days of colonialism.
..."in china, the Brits used drugs to control the..." Is that why, on TV, we see so many ads from the pharmaceutical industrial complex? Drug the people of the nation so they don't know and don't have the will to care that they are being fleeced? Ho. Lee. Shit.
It looks like you and Daniel know your history. The actual mechanics varied, and the British tended to run their colonies through local native leaders, though in the Caribbean the whites pretty well controlled everything. The Raj was a special case since it was so large and politically complicated.
In the French and Portuguese colonies there were very thin films of "assimilated" local people with the mass very much pushed down under them. And another factor was bringing in Chinese merchants to act as middlemen (the Brits also used a lot of East Indians). When the economy went sour they were easy targets for the blame. An example was in Indonesia after Sukarno was kicked out, when substantial numbers were killed.
So I agree that there wasn't a single model, but still the idea was to divide the natives and control them, either directly or through toy governments. I do think something like that is being tried here, whether as a conscious copy or just "what works" Is debatable.
The system of using local “rulers” who were in “charge” under the aegis of the colonial power proved effective for a long time. There were people native to the area who enjoyed wealth and position so long as they served the interests of the foreign power. Keep the booty flowing. Keep the unrest down.
I don't trust the power brokers to form a new form of gov't, if we should ever have that opportunity. The system I grew up in worked pretty well until Reagan became President.
We first have to cleanse the gov't with a strong disinfectant. Impeachment of tRump and Vance or the 25th Amendment! We need leaders in gov't who have proven that their interest is, first and foremost, in the people. They should have sterling reputations that are supported by previous acts of generosity, kindness and knowledge. Initially, we have to rehire our civil servants. Our agencies have been severely depleted. Major cuts have affected Social Security, Department of Education, National Institute of Health, United Postal Service, FEMA and NOAA. All of these agencies have faced significant budget cuts, raising concerns about our elderly, the education of our children, disaster preparedness and most importantly the ability of the postal service to deliver our mail-in-ballots without interference. These agencies need to be led by scrupulously, honest experts in their respective fields. Next we need to trash Citizens United, and initiate campaign finance reform, which aims to regulate the influence of money in politics. Next, we need to expand the SC from from 9 to 15 Justices, which would "restore balance among the three branches of government, increase transparency to improve public trust in America’s courts, and modernize the courts to ensure greater access to justice for more Americans.”
Last but certainly not least, we must restore our relationship with NATO, Canada, Denmark, Greenland, USAID and all of the countries tRump has insulted, humiliated and embarrassed
In summary, we have to acknowledge our sins to the world, take responsibility and seek forgiveness by apologizing for choosing as our President a vile man who is a pathological liar a narcissist who doesn’t respect the dignity of others and is now suffering from a form of dementia . A huge Mia Culpa is in order.
I can't believe how far we've come from realizing the American Dream. I feel so fortunate to have been part of it. My father, a poor immigrant from Greece, fulfilled it. He worked on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Co., which gave him a pension and paid for my undergraduate degree. And he was able to make his fortune in the stock market. I am eternally grateful to him, yet today this seems to be a fantasy....
People have been losing power and influence in society as corporate mergers and acquisitions have gradually destroyed locally based business and concentrated more wealth in fewer places and fewer hands. Politics follows the money, not the will of the people, so people sense that they don't count for anything anymore. That's fatal for democracy.
Agree. The last 40 or so years are like a feeding frenzy of sharks gobbling up every viable business and business idea (via patents), and stock repurchases in order to show unreal growth, profit, and protection of the few.
Those who control and influence these corporations, like primitive sharks continue to consume the raw power, influence and to abuse their power, neither concerned for the majority of the population nor seemingly even aware we exist, only seemingly concerned by their direct competition for contracts and deals.
Our country has been remodeled right in front of our eyes and we are now reaping the results. There is only one reason this crazy so-called leader was put into office: to fulfill promises to help achieve this power of the few in exchange for $$$$. It became a win-win for both sides of the deal: protection, power, and access to the majority’s tax money. Both sides get to act like vampires bleeding the American public dry while they live increasingly protected lives.
This same mind-set is what created Epstein crimes. People who are only concerned with the heady feeling of power and addiction to their own personal highs of choice.
“I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” — is spoken by Krishna, the Hindu deity, in the Bhagavad Gita. And now by the fake American "President."
Commie, Felon, Pedo-Psycho, Carnival Barker, Thief, Rapist, Pimp Donald is way too comfy, too confident. The Queens whackjob is fairly reveling in his recent "I am become death" batshit craziness.
Why?
Pretty sure the election fix is in. Rs are going to preplace brass knuckles inside their boxing gloves. Then stealthily slip the brass knuckles on in the ring in November. Check those gloves, ref.
Reichstag fire? Check the want ads, they may be looking for a mad Dutch firebug equivalent.
VOTE. #Send Barron and Eric to Iran
PS Who is Crazy Donnie's paymaster? Addled Adleson? Mercer? Zuck? Theil? MBS? Vlad? All?
Trump runs a crime family. Couple that with malignant narcissism, bigotry, misogyny, Putin blackmail, and senile dementia. "Expect sobriety and judgement"? Not going to happen!
Stearns' proposals for a mixed-member proportional system are worth talking about. We cannot return to the FDR days. Those days were a specific time. The Democratic party is too compromised to be effective. A new system is needed. Just as Germany needed to turn the corner in 1949 with a new system, so do we now.
Let's start talking about the future and what we should do, not a return to the past.
Absolutely agreed but we have to have a game plan beyond that. Currently, the only one I am seeing with the DNC is "Rush $x because. . ." We are tired of the grift.
A political duopoly reliably serves the interests of the rich and powerful because the robber barons possess virtually unlimited resources to shape, influence, and ultimately game the system. Over time, this dynamic becomes self‑reinforcing. The history of our system, its institutions, norms, and precedents, have worked to undermine every attempt at meaningful reform. What was originally intended as a mechanism for democratic representation has gradually calcified into a structure that protects entrenched power, making genuine improvements increasingly difficult to achieve.
I don't trust the power brokers to form a new form of gov't, if we should ever have that opportunity. The system I grew up in worked pretty well until Reagan became President.
We first have to cleanse the gov't with a strong disinfectant. Impeachment of tRump and Vance or the 25th Amendment! We need leaders in gov't who have proven that their interest is, first and foremost, in the people. They should have sterling reputations that are supported by previous acts of generosity, kindness and knowledge. Initially, we have to rehire our civil servants. Our agencies have been severely depleted. Major cuts have affected Social Security, Department of Education, National Institute of Health, United Postal Service, FEMA and NOAA. All of these agencies have faced significant budget cuts, raising concerns about our elderly, the education of our children, disaster preparedness and most importantly the ability of the postal service to deliver our mail-in-ballots without interference. These agencies need to be led by scrupulously, honest experts in their respective fields. Next we need to trash Citizens United, and initiate campaign finance reform, which aims to regulate the influence of money in politics. Next, we need to expand the SC from from 9 to 15 Justices, which would "restore balance among the three branches of government, increase transparency to improve public trust in America’s courts, and modernize the courts to ensure greater access to justice for more Americans.”
Last but certainly not least, we must restore our relationship with NATO, Canada, Denmark, Greenland, USAID and all of the countries tRump has insulted, humiliated and embarrassed. Other countries no longer trust our leadership. It's imperative we reestablish that trust. Without trust, democracy cannot exist.
In summary, we have to acknowledge our sins to the world, take responsibility and seek forgiveness by apologizing for choosing, as our President, a vile man who is a pathological liar, a narcissist who doesn’t respect the dignity of other,s and is now suffering from a form of dementia . A huge Mia Culpa is in order.
If I may add a Fourth point, the critical need to re-establish trust requires that the inevitable calls for “unity”, as have prevailed with all administrations since Watergate, must yield to demands for justice. Properly courageous, principled leadership can unify the nation around the need for justice in pursuit of good, honest, responsive, for-the-people government. The price of rinse and repeat politics has been far, far too high.
I have noticed an increase in articles and op-eds complaining about Boomers stealing all the resources from social safety nets so that there will be nothing left for younger generations. I suspect these are being planted, just like similar pieces against DEI and immigrants, to have us blaming each other when they defund Medicare and Social Security, rather than look at the superwealthy and their corrupt practices.
Here's my thought: I didn't think Trump could write anything more unhinged than his post on Easter Sunday but he followed it up today with "A whole civilization will die tonight."
Folks, this is the President of the United States!
Personally, I feel like everyday should be No Kings Day in every city and town until he is out. I'm thinking noon to 2. There are people in every community that feel this way, and enough of us retired people to pull it off.
What are we waiting for to be the final straw?
Why isn't Congress coming back to Washington DC to stop this maniac?
Because it is controlled by No. 1 LACKEY, Mike Johnson
That's easy Anne, there are only 3 people who can legally call Congress back into session. The president (either or both houses under "extraordinary occasions"), or working together both the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader. (The Speaker can also convene the House by itself.) Given who currently holds these positions, none of this is likely.
It's the VP and the cabinet that initiate the 25th amendment and congress has to approve it and that isn't going to happen...and I'm frightened to think of just what it'll take for this or impeachment to happen....
It's more important that the Democratic congress educate the people they represent. They are woefully ignorant. We used to get our news from trusted journalists and reporters like Walter Cronkite and Edward R Murrow. The legacy media has been taken over by corporatists with an insatiable for money and power. Social media is a swamp, infested with conspiracy theorists, QANON, and Nazis., feeding the people with outright lies and misinformation. Putin has his trolls out 24/7. Don't under estimate their influence.
What Thom described is off-the-shelf fascism. But the nexus of the problem is not ideological; it is biological - Trump is a demented psychopath.
We are not being "governed" by a reasonable politician who is trying to make life better for all citizens. We are being "ruled" by a demented psychopath who delights in the rape and pillage of nations and individuals who annoy him. He has the impulse control of a 4-year-old in a candy store. He has the judgment of a person with no moral compass. He thinks morality is for suckers. And to make matters worse, he is surrounded by henchmen (and macho cosplay women) who are, like him, amoral and incompetent. They see their sycophancy as a path to future wealth and power at the expense of all who stand in their leader's way. They are so clueless that they ignore their predecessors piled under the proverbial bus to MAGAdum.
Article 25 has been shown to be a joke two cabinets in a row. Impeachment likewise is stymied by legislators who have no dignity or honor - in both parties, I might add. As Thom reminds readers, the only solution is for citizens to vote these people out of office and hold the entire administration accountable for their crimes by putting them in cages where they can no longer harm humanity. Otherwise, it will be the voters who wind up in cages serving the needs of greedy oligarchs.
That's not the ONLY solution.
Are you telling people NOT to pressure Congressional Republicans?
Do you really think that it is possible to reverse the political views and values of a sycophantic legislative cult that believes God is on their side because it says so somewhere in the Trump Bible? Trump's dementia is not subtle, nor is his psychopathic megalomania. Now he wants to exterminate all Persians and the Congress says nothing?
Trump has committed enough crimes in office to have been impeached a dozen times by now. No legislator on the Red side dares to utter the word impeach. Only a couple of Democrats have mentioned it for the first time, and that was yesterday.
The only way for our democracy to survive is if November 2026 triggers a political Jonestown massacre of Republican legislative careers. In your and my case, put a checkmark next to "Alex Vindman" for senate.
Not what I think. If there's a chance, we need to take it.
I totally agree! VOTE THE BASTARDS OUT!
"Second, the Democratic Party needs to re-embrace the social and economic goals of the New Deal and Great Society that brought us Social Security, the minimum wage, Medicare, Medicaid, free and cheap college, etc., etc. Put “we, the people” first and again restrain the toxic impulses of billionaires and corporations through appropriate taxation and regulation."
And the Democratic Party **must** embrace the will of the people in this particular regard: no more foreign influence over US policy, whether overt or covert. No more wars for nations that can't even maintain basic human decency in their own neighborhood.
Getting the Democratic Party focused on something other than campaign fundraising and stock trading on insider information is going to be a big lift. I am hopeful but tempered that it can even happen.
There’s only one civilization that’s dying; and that’s the great civilization that the United States of America has built over the past 250 years.
We’ve had plenty of stops/starts over that time & we are far from perfect, but our country was envied by nearly every other country in the world…until this current president got away with an insurrection and was again elected via support by multimillionaires and billionaires that lied to us.
If we don’t take back our country, starting this November, our civilization is doomed and gone for the foreseeable future.
Starting TODAY.
Krasnov is doing the job, that he was assigned. The complete destruction of America, It will no longer be a threat to Russia
And the world order. Then they pick up the pieces.
What is the "world order", who is in it, who directs and controls it.?
Every article I read that you write shines a light I just recently joined your site and I must say that just today’s article is worth every cent I paid for a year
Regardless what happens tonight all of us tomorrow must start to unite this country. I know what it feels like there is nothing that we can do but there is. Each one of us counts regardless of “who” you are. I am a Quaker born in 1955 in Philadelphia I was educated differently than most but I am no smarter of a human being than the rest of America. My family came here in 1787 have fought every war and have the headstones to prove it yet we are equal I am not a better American citizen because of this. I am one of the few that can prove that I am related by DNA that my great ancestor is Benjamin Franklin and our family since day one kept journals it is required generation after generation kept in good condition each generation adds their story. My father was a apprentice for Leeds and Northrop in 1942 he followed seven other scientists two that were personal friends of Nicholas Tesla they created a device that can switch from using oil to using other sources of power. Not nuclear technology In 1959 my father was the only survivor and spent his life overseas mostly in Japan and Middle East his stories and friendships with Iran lasted till his death in 1999. Most of the stories we hear about the Middle East are how horrific the women are treated yet you don’t have to look too far to see in our own country how women are treated worse there would never had been a “ Epstein “ in Iran. From the friends I have had all of my life from Iran I have never seen or heard even close to the evil that happens daily here. I have no communication with my friends even with my short wave radio does not make it through this was our main communication with the world since I was a kid “ Morse code” We have become the country of greed and you and I will have a price to be paid. I can tell you many things about the past of this country but the most important message is that you must be part of your own community first there is no other way to survive unfortunately with all this technology we don’t even know our neighbors anymore nor we don’t like them for ridiculous reasons we praise our faiths yet we don’t follow the words. There is no magic wand like the mid term elections for instance. Everyone tells me there is nothing they can do yet there is so much we can do Think about it add some common sense.UNITED WE STAND
You know, setting people against each other is an old trick that the colonial powers played in their African and Asian colonies. You give one group (sometimes it didn’t even exist until the Europeans created it) a little more power and have them lord it over the others. Then you get them fighting one another rather than uniting against you. The “superior” group is also going to ally with you to keep their privileges. And the place is run on a cash economy, so to pay their taxes everyone has to work for your enterprises.
After these countries became independent the deep divisions between the groups remained, sometimes erupting into revolutions or genocide, as in Rwanda. Meanwhile the former colonial states still controlled much of their economies, as France does in a lot of west and central Africa. It’s a model that the GOP, the Democratic stooges, and their rich masters may be applying here.
There is a sound basis in our early history for 13 Justices. Originally (and Scalia loved that concept), there was one judge for each circuit. We now have 13 circuits, ergo four more Justices on the SCOTUS.
While we are imaging improvements: DC should be a state and Puerto Rico if it wishes.
Actually, the Brits set up two distinct territories that paid no attention to what tribes/ethnic groups/religious groups were where, and walked out the door. See India and Pakistan as well as Israel and the remaining territory within what had been the Ottoman Empire until the victorious Allied powers handed it over to the Brits after WW1
Most of us were exposed to Kipling, "the white man's burden." The idea was that left on their own, the natives would live in anarchy, indiscrimiately torturing and killing each other.
The flip side: "The horror! The horror!" Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad. Written in 1899, when colonial powers ruled, documented that there was little difference between "civilised people" and "savages".
In China, the Brits used drugs to control the population. In India pitted the Hindus against the Moslems. Same in many places in Africa.
Many of the countries in the middle east were established arbitrarily, without regard to local involvement. Same was true in eastern Europe after WW I.
And that is for certain. Consider the Boers in southern Africa, the Belgians in the Congo, the French in southeast Asia, the Spanish in the Americas. The list goes on from the earliest days of colonialism.
..."in china, the Brits used drugs to control the..." Is that why, on TV, we see so many ads from the pharmaceutical industrial complex? Drug the people of the nation so they don't know and don't have the will to care that they are being fleeced? Ho. Lee. Shit.
It looks like you and Daniel know your history. The actual mechanics varied, and the British tended to run their colonies through local native leaders, though in the Caribbean the whites pretty well controlled everything. The Raj was a special case since it was so large and politically complicated.
In the French and Portuguese colonies there were very thin films of "assimilated" local people with the mass very much pushed down under them. And another factor was bringing in Chinese merchants to act as middlemen (the Brits also used a lot of East Indians). When the economy went sour they were easy targets for the blame. An example was in Indonesia after Sukarno was kicked out, when substantial numbers were killed.
So I agree that there wasn't a single model, but still the idea was to divide the natives and control them, either directly or through toy governments. I do think something like that is being tried here, whether as a conscious copy or just "what works" Is debatable.
The system of using local “rulers” who were in “charge” under the aegis of the colonial power proved effective for a long time. There were people native to the area who enjoyed wealth and position so long as they served the interests of the foreign power. Keep the booty flowing. Keep the unrest down.
I don't trust the power brokers to form a new form of gov't, if we should ever have that opportunity. The system I grew up in worked pretty well until Reagan became President.
We first have to cleanse the gov't with a strong disinfectant. Impeachment of tRump and Vance or the 25th Amendment! We need leaders in gov't who have proven that their interest is, first and foremost, in the people. They should have sterling reputations that are supported by previous acts of generosity, kindness and knowledge. Initially, we have to rehire our civil servants. Our agencies have been severely depleted. Major cuts have affected Social Security, Department of Education, National Institute of Health, United Postal Service, FEMA and NOAA. All of these agencies have faced significant budget cuts, raising concerns about our elderly, the education of our children, disaster preparedness and most importantly the ability of the postal service to deliver our mail-in-ballots without interference. These agencies need to be led by scrupulously, honest experts in their respective fields. Next we need to trash Citizens United, and initiate campaign finance reform, which aims to regulate the influence of money in politics. Next, we need to expand the SC from from 9 to 15 Justices, which would "restore balance among the three branches of government, increase transparency to improve public trust in America’s courts, and modernize the courts to ensure greater access to justice for more Americans.”
Last but certainly not least, we must restore our relationship with NATO, Canada, Denmark, Greenland, USAID and all of the countries tRump has insulted, humiliated and embarrassed
In summary, we have to acknowledge our sins to the world, take responsibility and seek forgiveness by apologizing for choosing as our President a vile man who is a pathological liar a narcissist who doesn’t respect the dignity of others and is now suffering from a form of dementia . A huge Mia Culpa is in order.
I can't believe how far we've come from realizing the American Dream. I feel so fortunate to have been part of it. My father, a poor immigrant from Greece, fulfilled it. He worked on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Co., which gave him a pension and paid for my undergraduate degree. And he was able to make his fortune in the stock market. I am eternally grateful to him, yet today this seems to be a fantasy....
People have been losing power and influence in society as corporate mergers and acquisitions have gradually destroyed locally based business and concentrated more wealth in fewer places and fewer hands. Politics follows the money, not the will of the people, so people sense that they don't count for anything anymore. That's fatal for democracy.
Agree. The last 40 or so years are like a feeding frenzy of sharks gobbling up every viable business and business idea (via patents), and stock repurchases in order to show unreal growth, profit, and protection of the few.
Those who control and influence these corporations, like primitive sharks continue to consume the raw power, influence and to abuse their power, neither concerned for the majority of the population nor seemingly even aware we exist, only seemingly concerned by their direct competition for contracts and deals.
Our country has been remodeled right in front of our eyes and we are now reaping the results. There is only one reason this crazy so-called leader was put into office: to fulfill promises to help achieve this power of the few in exchange for $$$$. It became a win-win for both sides of the deal: protection, power, and access to the majority’s tax money. Both sides get to act like vampires bleeding the American public dry while they live increasingly protected lives.
This same mind-set is what created Epstein crimes. People who are only concerned with the heady feeling of power and addiction to their own personal highs of choice.
“I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” — is spoken by Krishna, the Hindu deity, in the Bhagavad Gita. And now by the fake American "President."
Commie, Felon, Pedo-Psycho, Carnival Barker, Thief, Rapist, Pimp Donald is way too comfy, too confident. The Queens whackjob is fairly reveling in his recent "I am become death" batshit craziness.
Why?
Pretty sure the election fix is in. Rs are going to preplace brass knuckles inside their boxing gloves. Then stealthily slip the brass knuckles on in the ring in November. Check those gloves, ref.
Reichstag fire? Check the want ads, they may be looking for a mad Dutch firebug equivalent.
VOTE. #Send Barron and Eric to Iran
PS Who is Crazy Donnie's paymaster? Addled Adleson? Mercer? Zuck? Theil? MBS? Vlad? All?
Trump runs a crime family. Couple that with malignant narcissism, bigotry, misogyny, Putin blackmail, and senile dementia. "Expect sobriety and judgement"? Not going to happen!
Needed: A fundamental redefinition of the two-party presidential system. As Maxwell Stearns aptly notes, the system never worked well from the early years. https://www.lawweekly.org/front-page/2024/3/28/could-americas-future-be-parliamentary
Stearns' proposals for a mixed-member proportional system are worth talking about. We cannot return to the FDR days. Those days were a specific time. The Democratic party is too compromised to be effective. A new system is needed. Just as Germany needed to turn the corner in 1949 with a new system, so do we now.
Let's start talking about the future and what we should do, not a return to the past.
First order of business: remove the cancer.
Absolutely agreed but we have to have a game plan beyond that. Currently, the only one I am seeing with the DNC is "Rush $x because. . ." We are tired of the grift.
Please! Read the Blue Print.https://blueprint.democrats.org/
A political duopoly reliably serves the interests of the rich and powerful because the robber barons possess virtually unlimited resources to shape, influence, and ultimately game the system. Over time, this dynamic becomes self‑reinforcing. The history of our system, its institutions, norms, and precedents, have worked to undermine every attempt at meaningful reform. What was originally intended as a mechanism for democratic representation has gradually calcified into a structure that protects entrenched power, making genuine improvements increasingly difficult to achieve.
I don't trust the power brokers to form a new form of gov't, if we should ever have that opportunity. The system I grew up in worked pretty well until Reagan became President.
We first have to cleanse the gov't with a strong disinfectant. Impeachment of tRump and Vance or the 25th Amendment! We need leaders in gov't who have proven that their interest is, first and foremost, in the people. They should have sterling reputations that are supported by previous acts of generosity, kindness and knowledge. Initially, we have to rehire our civil servants. Our agencies have been severely depleted. Major cuts have affected Social Security, Department of Education, National Institute of Health, United Postal Service, FEMA and NOAA. All of these agencies have faced significant budget cuts, raising concerns about our elderly, the education of our children, disaster preparedness and most importantly the ability of the postal service to deliver our mail-in-ballots without interference. These agencies need to be led by scrupulously, honest experts in their respective fields. Next we need to trash Citizens United, and initiate campaign finance reform, which aims to regulate the influence of money in politics. Next, we need to expand the SC from from 9 to 15 Justices, which would "restore balance among the three branches of government, increase transparency to improve public trust in America’s courts, and modernize the courts to ensure greater access to justice for more Americans.”
Last but certainly not least, we must restore our relationship with NATO, Canada, Denmark, Greenland, USAID and all of the countries tRump has insulted, humiliated and embarrassed. Other countries no longer trust our leadership. It's imperative we reestablish that trust. Without trust, democracy cannot exist.
In summary, we have to acknowledge our sins to the world, take responsibility and seek forgiveness by apologizing for choosing, as our President, a vile man who is a pathological liar, a narcissist who doesn’t respect the dignity of other,s and is now suffering from a form of dementia . A huge Mia Culpa is in order.
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If I may add a Fourth point, the critical need to re-establish trust requires that the inevitable calls for “unity”, as have prevailed with all administrations since Watergate, must yield to demands for justice. Properly courageous, principled leadership can unify the nation around the need for justice in pursuit of good, honest, responsive, for-the-people government. The price of rinse and repeat politics has been far, far too high.
At over 70 years, this is the first time in my life that I am ashamed to be an American.
I have noticed an increase in articles and op-eds complaining about Boomers stealing all the resources from social safety nets so that there will be nothing left for younger generations. I suspect these are being planted, just like similar pieces against DEI and immigrants, to have us blaming each other when they defund Medicare and Social Security, rather than look at the superwealthy and their corrupt practices.