If anyone thinks that is far fetched, then consider the other day Trump had an hour and half phone call with Putin, reported in Russian papers, but not in American., after which he withdrew 5,000 troops from Germany, a Russian wet dream since 1945, with a promise of more to come.
Yersterday, a Ukrainian drone struck a high-rise luxury residential building in Moscow, located near the Mosfilm studio in a southwestern district. The attack was part of a larger, coordinated wave of drone strikes aimed at the Russian capital just days before their planned Victory Day parade. Last week, Putin called for a one-day cease-fire on May 9, the day of the Victory Day parade. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine rejected the offer, saying his country would welcome a lasting cease-fire, not a day off for Russia to celebrate itself. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/world/europe/moscow-drone-attack.html
Because of the threat of Ukrainian drones, Russia will hold the parade without heavy military equipment for the first time in nearly two decades. The Kremlin also canceled the participation of students from military secondary schools.
It's up to us to press Trump about why he unilaterally talks to Putin and what the details might be. Congress is supposed to have oversight.
According to sources like the Times of London, Putin is extremely vurnerable. Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges has consistently argued that Russia is in a "very vulnerable situation" due to the war in Ukraine, stating that "Russia cannot win".
As of early 2026, Russia has spent an estimated $2.5 trillion on its invasion of Ukraine. This staggering cost includes direct military expenditures, lost human capital, and economic destruction, exceeding Russia's annual $2.2 trillion GDP. Daily costs are estimated at roughly 100 million dollars in equipment losses.
Hodges believes the invasion has exposed deep logistical, personnel, and strategic weaknesses, warning that failure could lead to the collapse of the Russian Federation.Key Vulnerabilities Identified by Hodges:Logistics & Personnel: Hodges noted that Russian forces are constantly facing shortages in ammunition and trained manpower.Infrastructure Weakness: He highlighted that targeting Russian oil and gas infrastructure strikes a critical vulnerability, as Russia cannot adequately protect all its vast infrastructure.Black Sea Fleet: Hodges noted the vulnerability of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which was forced to relocate from Crimea due to Ukrainian strikes.Strategic Failure: He argued that Russia lacks the capability to achieve a decisive victory in Ukraine and has suffered unsustainable losses.Hodges has often stated that Western hesitation, rather than Russian strength, is the biggest obstacle to a Ukrainian victory, arguing that many of "Putin's red lines" are self-imposed by the West.
Absolutely correct. However all of Europe,except Spain, have caved in and kissed Trumps arse, and that is maddening because it empowers him, and apparently is world emperor, when he can beat the worlds Democacies into submission. Well not quite worldemporer, there is a triumvarate, Putin, Xi andTrump
"European nations have “gotten the message” from Trump and are now ensuring that agreements on the use of military bases are being implemented, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said today. Spain has said that military bases on its territory cannot be used for the war with Iran. But Rutte said other NATO countries such as Montenegro, Croatia, Romania, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Britain, France, and Germany were implementing requests for the use of bases and other logistical support. Andrew Gray reports for Reuters." from the Just Security daily newscast.
A cabinet full of sociopathic billionaires, 2nd-string Fox Weekend hosts, and failed reality show idiots. Not one of them has any integrity or intelligence. I'd like to wake up from this nightmare, but it is impossible as an ordinary citizen to do anything but support my favored candidates for November, and cast my vote accordingly.
I’d like to wake up one morning without another chip taken away from the Constitution and the American people. I am infuriated by what is happening. I’m 75 and still fighting in the streets. All of us have to do what Thom said here. Today. Tomorrow and every day until the midterms. Bug the shit out of them.
Even worse Derek. Trump has achieved the main reason why Orban came to power, he has garnered control of the press,. The once relatively independent CNN is now a Trump megaphone, owned by the Ellison Family, as is CBS, and all over the air broadcasting is under the Thumb of BrendanCarr, the FEC henchman of Trump
While no person owns the controlling interest in ABC, its CEO and Chairman is Robert Iger, and it;s controlling interests are Vanguard,Black Rock andState Street. Blackrock was founded and controlled by Larry Fink, and has investments and sometimes controlling interest in every vital interest in America.
NBC is owned by Comcast,Comcast is owned primarily by Vanguard,Black Rock, State Street Group, but is controlled by Brian L. Roberts as CEO and Chairman.
If nothing else they are under the control of Brendan Carr, who can lift their license or disapprove of a merger.
Hungary is structured differently than the US, it doesn't have an FEC for one thing, however
Viktor Orbán achieved control over the Hungarian media landscape through a systematic, 15-year process (roughly 2010–2025) that involved legal restructuring, state-backed economic pressure, and the consolidation of outlets under loyalists. By 2024, it is estimated that government-connected oligarchs control roughly 80% of Hungary's media market,,so there is that similarity. .
Following you from Athens / Greece. ( being Dutch). It’s a nightmare what this administration is causing to you and the whole world. Let’s hope you get organized immediately to stop these illegal, unbelievable acts. I have read Craig Unger’s books ! Krasnov is very well known to me. Will try to inform my friends.
- For reasons unknown, Donald is either a Commie, beholden to them, or both.
- Donald knew that promulgating Putin's anti-Americanism was not enough
- He located ready internal enemies [Women, Browns, Jews, Blacks] like Mussolini/Hitler
- He bet the farm on Misogyny; White Hate; Brown self-hate; Black male stupidity
He won. Twice. 77,300,000 last time.
---------------------------------------
To paraphrase Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire."
"I have always depended on the hatred and stupidity of strangers."
Donald DuBois
----------------
Russia lost Hungary. But it gained America as its new Trophy Wife/Vassal State. And what does an abusive, horny, sadistic husband [Russia] do to a Trophy Wife / Vassal? You ought to know by now.
This is unsustainable.
# VOTE out the running dogs of communism/technocracy/apartheid
It is disheartening to see so many Black, Jewish and even Hispanic Trump humpers.
There are two ways to understand it. If you move to Utah and want to start a business, then you best become a Mormon. Only about 30% of Germany were really NAZI's after 1933, it was 90% or better.
My granddaughter has Mexican in laws, and it is an extended family, most are citizens but some are undocumented,and the undocumented are Trumpers.
Explainable because the Latin culture is culturally conservative, especially the Catholics, but even the Evangelical and Pentecostal converts.
Mayra Flores of Tex 34t herself a former border hopper is a strident Trump humper, and pro deportation of fellow border hoppers, andti feminist, anti LGBT.
Not enough attention is paid to the culture war, which is the core, the foundation of MAGA, not economics, but the culture war. Why?
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”
― Lyndon B. Johnson
And it isn't just race, it is gender, sex, anything that threatens patriarchal hegemony.
Will the Democratic party, liberals, progressives ever get over their self imposed , delirium that it is "the economy stupid". it is that yes,plus the culture war and for a sizable segment of the population the culture war is more important, that is until they actually involuntarily start to lose weight and their stomach growls.
Trump stole the elections he "won", which means he has less support than you think. That said, however, it's sick and disgusting that he has any real support at all. www.electiontruthalliance.org is digging in and finding evidence that 2024 at least was stolen.
People get the politicians they deserve and the electoral garbage who voted for Trump are certainly getting it, trouble is the rest of the world are also getting it.
"On Wednesday, Trump talked to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin for an hour and a half—the twelfth phone call between the two leaders since Trump took office a second time—and just hours later posted about removing U.S. troops from Germany. Putin has wanted to weaken the U.S. commitment to Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for a long time. As Jack Detsch, Paul McLeary, and Stefanie Bolzen of Politico note, European officials worry that Putin is making plans to attack a NATO country." (HCR)
I believe it was James Blish, in the first of his 1950s science-fiction "Cities in Flight" novels, who suggested that over time the US and the USSR would converge to the same point. Putin--he is not a Communist by any stretch but an ultra-nationalist, deeply corrupt and running what could arguably be called a fascist system, complete with an unnecessary long war. He took a failing state with no democratic traditions and created a Russia that doesn't seem so different from what Trump is trying to turn America into. The difference is that people here still have some rights and speak up to oppose what is happening. And Trump is a stupid man without any real vision beyond himself. His dream might be to create a sort of Russian state, but as usual he is being played by smarter people.
Of course all these things are true and have already happened. The huge hanging question is:
Why can the republican members of Congress not see their party being destroyed before their very eyes? Do they not know that to continue to kowtow to this deranged person is to see their political dreams go up in smoke (their pink slip is already in the mail. (Or Amazon).
Also, the timber industry now runs the Forest Service. The National Forests will not be managed in the interest of the public but in the interest of sales.
Between Thom Hartmann and Christopher Armitage, whose Substacks today are must reads, we have a functional Grey’s Anatomy for Democratic politicians who have heretofore been unable to find the Repugnican jugular. We need to find some aggressive political surgeons.
We have plenty of those (aggressive political surgeons,) but the present centrist Dems powers-that-be won't let them operate; support progressives like Bernie, Warren (they are still passionate and spry) AOC, Schiff, Porter, and others.
Leave it to an imperialist faux-Christian to establish an anti-democratic anti-government dedicated to disassembling civilization and selling off its parts for a momentary personal profit. I'm sure Putin is quite happy with this turn of events; he never dreamed his influence could yield such a startlingly huge ROI.
So depressing, so scary but we must be reminded constantly of the clear and present danger of what it now called our government.
Would that we had a congress that listened to its constituents, instead longing to become a permanent and valued member of the greed and power club. Even with a both a historical and historic loss facing them in the midterms they still hold firm either in silence, or with lies left unchallenged by our now dysfunctional fourth estate (did you know that Comey placed those seashells down himself? And that the NO KINGS marches are anti-american?) Why?! Could it be that they hope the cheating succeeds, or simply a suspension of the election in order to clearly re-district every state? Maybe just suspend the elections and charge fraud and wait months for the case to go through the courts, and appeals.
And maybe the media can stop showcasing the "traditional" status quo democrats who urge the Dems not to be so feisty, concentrate on kitchen table issues (remind us that affordability is not a hoax) and move forward as if anything about these times and this administration should be treated as normal. Shut up about agreeing (of course!!) that "(trans-gender) men shouldn't compete in women's sports", and start yelling about the danger to women's health because of the anti-abortion push that is used to both endanger and limit a woman's access to healthcare, expanding its reach every day. Stand in front of a store with a sign that reminds those on SNAP that they need to check their benefits for changes -- and maybe they can't get food today. Or go to a hospital that is refusing a teen with cystic fibrosis whose lungs are bleeding needed care because of a cut or lack of health insurance (this happened to one of my students).
It is so difficult to face the horrors of our present environment but we must face these headwinds head on. Thanks for the continued reminder.
What is wrong with the GOP Congress? They are enabling the very communism that they assert hatred for. Trump has committed so much treason, in public, and yet nobody complains - in either party. One thing Thom did not dive into was the post-war mass surveillance that the USSR depended on - likely still does.
After the Wall came down, one of my students at Dreden Tech U, took me on a tour of Putin's old office. Stef pointed out that every phone line in the city went through Putin's complex. It was not possible to make a call unless there was an intel operative available to listen in. Of course, today, the MAGAs have snatched all the info needed to track even minutia like individual banking habits, travel, etc. Only today there are no wires needed - no passwords either. Thanks to DOGE, Trump, and Elon, and Karp, and Zuck... all know now everything about everybody.
Your "Report" today is accurate as usual. However, I think you're pointing to all the sycophants that Trump put in place to carry out his democracy-destroying program. Even pointing at Putin is, IMO, irrelevant. I go back to the "uneducated" Toltec fellow don Juan Matus to get a better perspective. He pointed that there are "petty tyrants' in the world who try to run...and ruin...our lives. He advocated a program of stalking them to understand their weaknesses...and then use that knowledge to defeat them. Don Juan himself was shot and left for dead by his "petty tyrant' foreman on the ranch where he was working. Don Juan's "benefactor" saved his life, and then told him he was very lucky to have come across such a splendid version of a petty tyrant. He now needed to learn how to stalk the foreman and without touching him in any way, defeat him. It turns out that the foreman had the same problem Trump has--anger. Don Juan used that weakness successfully against him. I think it's time we think of what would remove Trump from office...and suggest that it might well be this same tactic. Perhaps a continual parade of law-abiding citizens surrounding the White House with 100-ft high balloons of Trump in diapers and hanging onto his cellphone? Perhaps crashing his TruthSocial site with hilarious depictions of Trump ? But I've had enough of the finger-pointing elsewhere...and aint-it-bad all around? I think it's time for a concise plan, a directed effort, and a specific goal to drive Trump out of the White House. Many say Trump is living in an information bubble. Isn't it time we the US citizens pierce that bubble....and help him do what he does best--get mad ?
Agree with most of what you wrote. Khrushchev we will bury you was that they would out produce the US. I was a Soviet Economic Analyst from 1985-89. The Soviets were very good at producing simple but effective weapons. What they had problem producing was simple consumer products and spare parts. When Gorbachev tired to change the inspection process to increase product quality the system collapsed. The military could turn down inferior weapons but the civilian production was all sub quality. Rejecting everything produced nothing. Gorbachev believed that economic power was superior to political power and he produced the break up the Soviet Union.
China views it differently where political power is more important than Economic and the Communist held on to power and became the 2nd strongest economic force. China followed an economic authoritarian model like Nazi Germany. Putin tried to duplicate the China model after the Harvard wiz kids pushed Yeltsin to privatization. That gave you the oligarchs because only the corrupt had money to buy stock from workers who needed money now and sold their stock at 1% of value. I warned at the time that privatization was a mistake. The same mistake made by the US after the Revolutionary War when the US paid off its veteran soldiers in Western land grants. The soldiers just wanted to go hame and restart their farms and needed money now. They sold those land grants to speculators for pennies on the dollar.
The other thing is the Soviet system was focused on producing for the military sector, and if the military wanted it, they would get it. In his book “The Russians,” Hedrick Smith, who was the NYT correspondent from the Soviet Union in the early to mid 1970s, Soviet consumers knew how to keep their eyes out to find food, clothing, toiletries, medicines, and other goods which could come and go with a flash, so they would be ready once something unusual but essential for family or friends. Smith also explained how Soviet consumers would also avoid purchasing appliances and durable goods made in the last 10 days of the month. This was because in the last 10 days of the month, the workers producing goods would be busy rushing around trying to finish them and it would be highly likely the goods produced would be defective because essential parts would be missing in the haste to meet the centralized planning quotas created in Moscow for all industries. Goods produced in the last 10 days of the month would be far more likely to be defective.
Agree the Soviet citizens wasted a lot of time standing in line. Agree central planning created a made rush at the end of the month to meet the plan which lead to poor quality products. Except by looking at the serial number you could not tell when something was produced. So these purchases had to be made from inside sources at the store. That is why the blackmarket was so strong in the Soviet Union. The blackmarket leaders became the oligarchs.
True, they did. Other oligarchs were the managers of state owned factories and the businesses and they had the clout and money to buy them when the Soviet system fell. The irony was that in attempting to reform the decrepit Soviet system, Gorbachev removed the very controls which had been holding it together and the whole decrepit Soviet system fell.
Agree many of the State owned factory mangers were black market players. As we said at the time Gorbachev appears to be the only true Communist. He actually believed in the system and believed he could make it better. All the other Soviet leaders believe it was just a fraud but was away to hold power. After the fall they took the worst form of monopoly capitalism which is the only form of capitalism that they believed existed.
We are burying ourselves. The only real questions are how deep the grave will be and how long it will take us to dig it. November will go a long way to answer those questions. Do you feel lucky? I don't.
A rather sobering piece I just read by Ralph Nader ties into this post. He states a detailed report by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden concluded that Trump and his Administration are dismantling democracy in the US at a speed that is "unprecedented in modern history."
Trump is Krasnov a KGB agent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-u4d6Zwdns&t=5s
If anyone thinks that is far fetched, then consider the other day Trump had an hour and half phone call with Putin, reported in Russian papers, but not in American., after which he withdrew 5,000 troops from Germany, a Russian wet dream since 1945, with a promise of more to come.
I posted an article about the troop withdrawal from Germany today, and it's not about Trump being insulted by the Chancellor.
Yersterday, a Ukrainian drone struck a high-rise luxury residential building in Moscow, located near the Mosfilm studio in a southwestern district. The attack was part of a larger, coordinated wave of drone strikes aimed at the Russian capital just days before their planned Victory Day parade. Last week, Putin called for a one-day cease-fire on May 9, the day of the Victory Day parade. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine rejected the offer, saying his country would welcome a lasting cease-fire, not a day off for Russia to celebrate itself. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/world/europe/moscow-drone-attack.html
Because of the threat of Ukrainian drones, Russia will hold the parade without heavy military equipment for the first time in nearly two decades. The Kremlin also canceled the participation of students from military secondary schools.
It's up to us to press Trump about why he unilaterally talks to Putin and what the details might be. Congress is supposed to have oversight.
According to sources like the Times of London, Putin is extremely vurnerable. Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges has consistently argued that Russia is in a "very vulnerable situation" due to the war in Ukraine, stating that "Russia cannot win".
As of early 2026, Russia has spent an estimated $2.5 trillion on its invasion of Ukraine. This staggering cost includes direct military expenditures, lost human capital, and economic destruction, exceeding Russia's annual $2.2 trillion GDP. Daily costs are estimated at roughly 100 million dollars in equipment losses.
Hodges believes the invasion has exposed deep logistical, personnel, and strategic weaknesses, warning that failure could lead to the collapse of the Russian Federation.Key Vulnerabilities Identified by Hodges:Logistics & Personnel: Hodges noted that Russian forces are constantly facing shortages in ammunition and trained manpower.Infrastructure Weakness: He highlighted that targeting Russian oil and gas infrastructure strikes a critical vulnerability, as Russia cannot adequately protect all its vast infrastructure.Black Sea Fleet: Hodges noted the vulnerability of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which was forced to relocate from Crimea due to Ukrainian strikes.Strategic Failure: He argued that Russia lacks the capability to achieve a decisive victory in Ukraine and has suffered unsustainable losses.Hodges has often stated that Western hesitation, rather than Russian strength, is the biggest obstacle to a Ukrainian victory, arguing that many of "Putin's red lines" are self-imposed by the West.
I hope you and Hodges are right! T stands for Trump traitor!
Just reporting.
Absolutely correct. However all of Europe,except Spain, have caved in and kissed Trumps arse, and that is maddening because it empowers him, and apparently is world emperor, when he can beat the worlds Democacies into submission. Well not quite worldemporer, there is a triumvarate, Putin, Xi andTrump
"European nations have “gotten the message” from Trump and are now ensuring that agreements on the use of military bases are being implemented, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said today. Spain has said that military bases on its territory cannot be used for the war with Iran. But Rutte said other NATO countries such as Montenegro, Croatia, Romania, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Britain, France, and Germany were implementing requests for the use of bases and other logistical support. Andrew Gray reports for Reuters." from the Just Security daily newscast.
A cabinet full of sociopathic billionaires, 2nd-string Fox Weekend hosts, and failed reality show idiots. Not one of them has any integrity or intelligence. I'd like to wake up from this nightmare, but it is impossible as an ordinary citizen to do anything but support my favored candidates for November, and cast my vote accordingly.
I’d like to wake up one morning without another chip taken away from the Constitution and the American people. I am infuriated by what is happening. I’m 75 and still fighting in the streets. All of us have to do what Thom said here. Today. Tomorrow and every day until the midterms. Bug the shit out of them.
Even worse Derek. Trump has achieved the main reason why Orban came to power, he has garnered control of the press,. The once relatively independent CNN is now a Trump megaphone, owned by the Ellison Family, as is CBS, and all over the air broadcasting is under the Thumb of BrendanCarr, the FEC henchman of Trump
While no person owns the controlling interest in ABC, its CEO and Chairman is Robert Iger, and it;s controlling interests are Vanguard,Black Rock andState Street. Blackrock was founded and controlled by Larry Fink, and has investments and sometimes controlling interest in every vital interest in America.
NBC is owned by Comcast,Comcast is owned primarily by Vanguard,Black Rock, State Street Group, but is controlled by Brian L. Roberts as CEO and Chairman.
If nothing else they are under the control of Brendan Carr, who can lift their license or disapprove of a merger.
Hungary is structured differently than the US, it doesn't have an FEC for one thing, however
Viktor Orbán achieved control over the Hungarian media landscape through a systematic, 15-year process (roughly 2010–2025) that involved legal restructuring, state-backed economic pressure, and the consolidation of outlets under loyalists. By 2024, it is estimated that government-connected oligarchs control roughly 80% of Hungary's media market,,so there is that similarity. .
Following you from Athens / Greece. ( being Dutch). It’s a nightmare what this administration is causing to you and the whole world. Let’s hope you get organized immediately to stop these illegal, unbelievable acts. I have read Craig Unger’s books ! Krasnov is very well known to me. Will try to inform my friends.
Facts:
- For reasons unknown, Donald is either a Commie, beholden to them, or both.
- Donald knew that promulgating Putin's anti-Americanism was not enough
- He located ready internal enemies [Women, Browns, Jews, Blacks] like Mussolini/Hitler
- He bet the farm on Misogyny; White Hate; Brown self-hate; Black male stupidity
He won. Twice. 77,300,000 last time.
---------------------------------------
To paraphrase Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire."
"I have always depended on the hatred and stupidity of strangers."
Donald DuBois
----------------
Russia lost Hungary. But it gained America as its new Trophy Wife/Vassal State. And what does an abusive, horny, sadistic husband [Russia] do to a Trophy Wife / Vassal? You ought to know by now.
This is unsustainable.
# VOTE out the running dogs of communism/technocracy/apartheid
# Send Eric to Iran
It is disheartening to see so many Black, Jewish and even Hispanic Trump humpers.
There are two ways to understand it. If you move to Utah and want to start a business, then you best become a Mormon. Only about 30% of Germany were really NAZI's after 1933, it was 90% or better.
My granddaughter has Mexican in laws, and it is an extended family, most are citizens but some are undocumented,and the undocumented are Trumpers.
Explainable because the Latin culture is culturally conservative, especially the Catholics, but even the Evangelical and Pentecostal converts.
Mayra Flores of Tex 34t herself a former border hopper is a strident Trump humper, and pro deportation of fellow border hoppers, andti feminist, anti LGBT.
Not enough attention is paid to the culture war, which is the core, the foundation of MAGA, not economics, but the culture war. Why?
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”
― Lyndon B. Johnson
And it isn't just race, it is gender, sex, anything that threatens patriarchal hegemony.
You're not wrong.
Will the Democratic party, liberals, progressives ever get over their self imposed , delirium that it is "the economy stupid". it is that yes,plus the culture war and for a sizable segment of the population the culture war is more important, that is until they actually involuntarily start to lose weight and their stomach growls.
Trump stole the elections he "won", which means he has less support than you think. That said, however, it's sick and disgusting that he has any real support at all. www.electiontruthalliance.org is digging in and finding evidence that 2024 at least was stolen.
People get the politicians they deserve and the electoral garbage who voted for Trump are certainly getting it, trouble is the rest of the world are also getting it.
"On Wednesday, Trump talked to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin for an hour and a half—the twelfth phone call between the two leaders since Trump took office a second time—and just hours later posted about removing U.S. troops from Germany. Putin has wanted to weaken the U.S. commitment to Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for a long time. As Jack Detsch, Paul McLeary, and Stefanie Bolzen of Politico note, European officials worry that Putin is making plans to attack a NATO country." (HCR)
I believe it was James Blish, in the first of his 1950s science-fiction "Cities in Flight" novels, who suggested that over time the US and the USSR would converge to the same point. Putin--he is not a Communist by any stretch but an ultra-nationalist, deeply corrupt and running what could arguably be called a fascist system, complete with an unnecessary long war. He took a failing state with no democratic traditions and created a Russia that doesn't seem so different from what Trump is trying to turn America into. The difference is that people here still have some rights and speak up to oppose what is happening. And Trump is a stupid man without any real vision beyond himself. His dream might be to create a sort of Russian state, but as usual he is being played by smarter people.
Of course all these things are true and have already happened. The huge hanging question is:
Why can the republican members of Congress not see their party being destroyed before their very eyes? Do they not know that to continue to kowtow to this deranged person is to see their political dreams go up in smoke (their pink slip is already in the mail. (Or Amazon).
How much more real does this have to get?!!
We need to pressure them.
With what?
Picket them, lobby them, call them, sit in....
Also, the timber industry now runs the Forest Service. The National Forests will not be managed in the interest of the public but in the interest of sales.
Between Thom Hartmann and Christopher Armitage, whose Substacks today are must reads, we have a functional Grey’s Anatomy for Democratic politicians who have heretofore been unable to find the Repugnican jugular. We need to find some aggressive political surgeons.
We have plenty of those (aggressive political surgeons,) but the present centrist Dems powers-that-be won't let them operate; support progressives like Bernie, Warren (they are still passionate and spry) AOC, Schiff, Porter, and others.
True enough. Hospital administrators should stay the hell out of surgery.
Leave it to an imperialist faux-Christian to establish an anti-democratic anti-government dedicated to disassembling civilization and selling off its parts for a momentary personal profit. I'm sure Putin is quite happy with this turn of events; he never dreamed his influence could yield such a startlingly huge ROI.
So depressing, so scary but we must be reminded constantly of the clear and present danger of what it now called our government.
Would that we had a congress that listened to its constituents, instead longing to become a permanent and valued member of the greed and power club. Even with a both a historical and historic loss facing them in the midterms they still hold firm either in silence, or with lies left unchallenged by our now dysfunctional fourth estate (did you know that Comey placed those seashells down himself? And that the NO KINGS marches are anti-american?) Why?! Could it be that they hope the cheating succeeds, or simply a suspension of the election in order to clearly re-district every state? Maybe just suspend the elections and charge fraud and wait months for the case to go through the courts, and appeals.
And maybe the media can stop showcasing the "traditional" status quo democrats who urge the Dems not to be so feisty, concentrate on kitchen table issues (remind us that affordability is not a hoax) and move forward as if anything about these times and this administration should be treated as normal. Shut up about agreeing (of course!!) that "(trans-gender) men shouldn't compete in women's sports", and start yelling about the danger to women's health because of the anti-abortion push that is used to both endanger and limit a woman's access to healthcare, expanding its reach every day. Stand in front of a store with a sign that reminds those on SNAP that they need to check their benefits for changes -- and maybe they can't get food today. Or go to a hospital that is refusing a teen with cystic fibrosis whose lungs are bleeding needed care because of a cut or lack of health insurance (this happened to one of my students).
It is so difficult to face the horrors of our present environment but we must face these headwinds head on. Thanks for the continued reminder.
What is wrong with the GOP Congress? They are enabling the very communism that they assert hatred for. Trump has committed so much treason, in public, and yet nobody complains - in either party. One thing Thom did not dive into was the post-war mass surveillance that the USSR depended on - likely still does.
After the Wall came down, one of my students at Dreden Tech U, took me on a tour of Putin's old office. Stef pointed out that every phone line in the city went through Putin's complex. It was not possible to make a call unless there was an intel operative available to listen in. Of course, today, the MAGAs have snatched all the info needed to track even minutia like individual banking habits, travel, etc. Only today there are no wires needed - no passwords either. Thanks to DOGE, Trump, and Elon, and Karp, and Zuck... all know now everything about everybody.
The Republicans in the House and Senate are spineless and trying to stay away from Trump’s dementia ridden wrath.
Your "Report" today is accurate as usual. However, I think you're pointing to all the sycophants that Trump put in place to carry out his democracy-destroying program. Even pointing at Putin is, IMO, irrelevant. I go back to the "uneducated" Toltec fellow don Juan Matus to get a better perspective. He pointed that there are "petty tyrants' in the world who try to run...and ruin...our lives. He advocated a program of stalking them to understand their weaknesses...and then use that knowledge to defeat them. Don Juan himself was shot and left for dead by his "petty tyrant' foreman on the ranch where he was working. Don Juan's "benefactor" saved his life, and then told him he was very lucky to have come across such a splendid version of a petty tyrant. He now needed to learn how to stalk the foreman and without touching him in any way, defeat him. It turns out that the foreman had the same problem Trump has--anger. Don Juan used that weakness successfully against him. I think it's time we think of what would remove Trump from office...and suggest that it might well be this same tactic. Perhaps a continual parade of law-abiding citizens surrounding the White House with 100-ft high balloons of Trump in diapers and hanging onto his cellphone? Perhaps crashing his TruthSocial site with hilarious depictions of Trump ? But I've had enough of the finger-pointing elsewhere...and aint-it-bad all around? I think it's time for a concise plan, a directed effort, and a specific goal to drive Trump out of the White House. Many say Trump is living in an information bubble. Isn't it time we the US citizens pierce that bubble....and help him do what he does best--get mad ?
Agree with most of what you wrote. Khrushchev we will bury you was that they would out produce the US. I was a Soviet Economic Analyst from 1985-89. The Soviets were very good at producing simple but effective weapons. What they had problem producing was simple consumer products and spare parts. When Gorbachev tired to change the inspection process to increase product quality the system collapsed. The military could turn down inferior weapons but the civilian production was all sub quality. Rejecting everything produced nothing. Gorbachev believed that economic power was superior to political power and he produced the break up the Soviet Union.
China views it differently where political power is more important than Economic and the Communist held on to power and became the 2nd strongest economic force. China followed an economic authoritarian model like Nazi Germany. Putin tried to duplicate the China model after the Harvard wiz kids pushed Yeltsin to privatization. That gave you the oligarchs because only the corrupt had money to buy stock from workers who needed money now and sold their stock at 1% of value. I warned at the time that privatization was a mistake. The same mistake made by the US after the Revolutionary War when the US paid off its veteran soldiers in Western land grants. The soldiers just wanted to go hame and restart their farms and needed money now. They sold those land grants to speculators for pennies on the dollar.
The other thing is the Soviet system was focused on producing for the military sector, and if the military wanted it, they would get it. In his book “The Russians,” Hedrick Smith, who was the NYT correspondent from the Soviet Union in the early to mid 1970s, Soviet consumers knew how to keep their eyes out to find food, clothing, toiletries, medicines, and other goods which could come and go with a flash, so they would be ready once something unusual but essential for family or friends. Smith also explained how Soviet consumers would also avoid purchasing appliances and durable goods made in the last 10 days of the month. This was because in the last 10 days of the month, the workers producing goods would be busy rushing around trying to finish them and it would be highly likely the goods produced would be defective because essential parts would be missing in the haste to meet the centralized planning quotas created in Moscow for all industries. Goods produced in the last 10 days of the month would be far more likely to be defective.
Agree the Soviet citizens wasted a lot of time standing in line. Agree central planning created a made rush at the end of the month to meet the plan which lead to poor quality products. Except by looking at the serial number you could not tell when something was produced. So these purchases had to be made from inside sources at the store. That is why the blackmarket was so strong in the Soviet Union. The blackmarket leaders became the oligarchs.
True, they did. Other oligarchs were the managers of state owned factories and the businesses and they had the clout and money to buy them when the Soviet system fell. The irony was that in attempting to reform the decrepit Soviet system, Gorbachev removed the very controls which had been holding it together and the whole decrepit Soviet system fell.
Agree many of the State owned factory mangers were black market players. As we said at the time Gorbachev appears to be the only true Communist. He actually believed in the system and believed he could make it better. All the other Soviet leaders believe it was just a fraud but was away to hold power. After the fall they took the worst form of monopoly capitalism which is the only form of capitalism that they believed existed.
We are burying ourselves. The only real questions are how deep the grave will be and how long it will take us to dig it. November will go a long way to answer those questions. Do you feel lucky? I don't.
A rather sobering piece I just read by Ralph Nader ties into this post. He states a detailed report by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden concluded that Trump and his Administration are dismantling democracy in the US at a speed that is "unprecedented in modern history."
We are living in interesting times indeed.
https://nader.org/2026/05/01/alert-civic-indicators-needed/