The thing that could make a difference between us, Russia, and Hungary is that TRump is bat-shit crazy and scandal-ridden. Good grief, what a pile of baggage! It just keeps growing.
So if anyone thinks or says we should not let all that distract us, don't buy into it. It is the means to an end with him. That's the way we peel off the four Republican Senators and the handful of House members we need to stop him.
We are just seeing the beginning of Epstein-Gate, it's going to be the cover-up. He is too stupid to listen to anyone that could help.him. Spread the facts, show the footage, and print the words that have come out of his own mouth. Melania knows, so does Mossad, Putin, and Ghislaine. Bondi can destroy the contents of Epstein's safe. It won't work, and it will only make the cover-up worse. Someone is going to get him when the timing is right for THEM.
It absolutely will create a cascade. The BIG repercussions of the Project have not hit home yet. It's coming. The elections in 2026 are going to be the chance to educate and the effects will be right around the corner.
My great fear is that there will be no free elections in 2026, or that the nation is so gerrymandered and so many registered voters purged that it will be an election in name only. Again, I don't know why the Project 2025 would put all this effort in if they didn't believe they could keep it.
I don’t think Republicans in office know anymore what the right thing is even if a few decide to do something about this mess.
Russia is led by verifiable thugs who are scandal-ridden but in a system that suppresses their crimes so that it is difficult to expose them and incriminate them.
Thom: "All that Democrats need to accomplish either one of these things is a small handful of Republicans willing to do the right thing. Perhaps this could happen with enough pressure from their Democratic colleagues and if enough of us reach out to them."
Me: Amen.
I've posted this severral times. On an individual basis, some Congressional Republicans are vulnerable, morally and politically.
Of the 33 regularly scheduled elections in 2026, 13 seats are held by Democrats and 20 are held by Republicans. Four senators announced they will not seek re-election in 2026. Imagine a Democrat taking McConnell's seat in KY.
Of the 33 states holding regularly scheduled elections in 2026, Trump (R) won 21 of those states in 2024 and Harris won 12. In 2026, Democrats will be defending two states that Trump won in 2024: Georgia and Michigan. Republicans will be defending one seat in a state Harris won: Maine. The last time the 20 Republican-held seats were up for election in 2020, four were decided by a margin of less than 10 percentage points: Iowa (6.6), Maine (8.6), North Carolina (1.8), and Texas (9.6). The last time the 13 Democratic-held seats were up for election in 2020, five were decided by a margin of less than 10 percentage points: Colorado (9.3), Georgia (1.2), Michigan (1.7), Minnesota (5.3), and New Mexico (6.1).
What our candidates have failed to do is analyize them rationally. Neutralize their strengths. Compete for donors.
If Medicare and Medicaid cuts will kill their local health care, we should seek support from hospitals and other medical providers.
If Trump tariffs are killing agriculture, we should support the agricultural sector.
Like Alis says, this stuff hits the Trump as the pedofile issue, but also Russia. I remember when people like Phil Graham, Strom Thurmond, Arlen Spector, Ben Nighthouse Campbell, Ric hard Shelby, Connie Mack, et al switched parties. Sen. John (Cleghorn) Kennedy R, La, once was a Dem. Do these people have daughters? Do they support Putin?
We should have a book on: Capito, Shelley Moore (R-WV) Cassidy, Bill (R-LA) Collins, Susan M. (R-ME) Cornyn, John (R-TX) Cotton, Tom (R-AR) Daines, Steve (R-MT) Ernst, Joni (R-IA) Graham, Lindsey (R-SC) Hagerty, Bill (R-TN) Hyde-Smith, Cindy (R-MS) Lummis, Cynthia M. (R-WY) Marshall, Roger (R-KS) McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) Mullin, Markwayne (R-OK) Ricketts, Pete (R-NE) Risch, James E. (R-ID) Rounds, Mike (R-SD) Sullivan, Dan (R-AK) Tuberville, Tommy (R-AL)
Gravity gets us all in the end. But it seems it is approaching black hole magnitude for our country. It is pretty clear to me that next year’s elections are being rigged now. They will not save us, or even start us on the road to salvation. It will take something and someone much tougher, committed, and harsher. Maybe even a little nuts but with her or his heart in the right place. Maybe even a slightly less ferocious Robespierre. Because we could sure use a busy National Razor right now. Sadly we are seeing the beginnings of one—used on the wrong people—the poor, the vulnerable, the powerless. Bullies are in the ascendant and gloating, enjoying the heady power of their masked Halloween ICE costumes and other paramilitary endeavors. Tens of millions of Americans pretty clearly support this. They deserve the pain. The rest of us do not. Have we the will to do what must be done whatever the cost? Frankly, I don’t think so.
It won’t affect me or my family right away. Some of them, impossibly to me, support what is happening and voted for the flatulent faux orange felon. I might be a target were I not 78, disabled, and of no consequence except insofar as I keep the medical profession in business. The people I worry about are our beloved grandson and his generation. Will they share the fate of the Germans under Hitler, the Chinese under Mao, the Russians under Stalin and Putin (I think it will be worse here than in Orban’s Hungary)? The thing that pains me most is that I can do no more than write comments here and there, in echo chambers of kindred voices. I fear, to borrow from Ben Franklin, that even if we all hang together, hang we will nonetheless.
Well, what I think you're saying is that we need somebody (or somebodies) who do not go along with today's Republican fascist ideas, but Democratic centrists are afraid to vote for progressivism (as with FDR's Fair Deal) because that would offend the Trumpists. Most of the Dems who worked on the Jan 6 House Committee would fill that bill if Dems would unite behind them.
I am afraid that they are Daniel, Jeffries is no friend of progressives, even now they are organizing against Mamdani, the rebuff AOC, put their hands on the scale against Bernie, Pelosi went out of her way to back a conservadem, Joe Kennedy Jr, against a progressive (Sen Markey of Mass), and of course who can forget Rahm Emanuel who called progressives fucking retards. While he and Nancy back benched single payor in favor of the Heritage foundation's ACA.
"the press is too often playing along, normalizing the abnormal, treating creeping authoritarianism as just another partisan squabble."
Watched 'Good Night and Good Luck' last night. Friendly, Murrow and even Paley put sanity over profits. Sadly profits, money, has corrupted everything in America today.
Most unfortunately, every single republican in Congress is playing along. All about money, greed and power. SCOTUS and Citizens United have literally destroyed our democracy, our country.
I was in Budapest in 1991, shooting a documentary. Perestroika was finally taking hold. The people were great, and they were very excited about what the future held for them. I watched from afar how they quickly embraced democracy and freedom, only to have it morph into the fascist autocracy it is today. I knew when Tucker Carlson began spouting his admiration and then CPAC inviting Orbán to speak, we were in serious trouble. And here we are, seemingly putting all our hopes into the possibility a handful of republicans will do the right thing, when they have proven time and again their unwillingness to do so.
Lest we forget, Trump is 79 and in marginal physical and cognitive health. Not only will he, at worst, be a short-term autocrat, he's becoming increasingly emotionally unhinged — before him when's the last time you can remember a sitting president calling anybody "fuckers"... Or afterwards for that matter. No, neither can I.
Trump in actuality is a stalking horse for Project 2025. He may think he's going to rule as king for another 20 or so years, at which time he will hand the orb and scepter to L'il DonDon and retire to his imperial lands where he will be cared lovingly by nubile 14 year-olds until the stars themselves fade and... and... The man is a moron with no grasp of the real world. He's a tool, a marionette. His Masters know exactly what he is.
Project 2025 is playing the long game. They know Trump is failing, that there is a plausible chance that he will not finish his term. They also know that if they do not solidify power in the next 12 months they are likely to be thrown out of office (and quite possibly tried for sedition); they know there isn't going to be a second chance, at least in the immediate future. Vance will be a willing, even eager, tool but 2025 knows he is utterly devoid of charisma, so again they need to get all their pieces in play more or less immediately.
So it's up to us. Without mobilization we're fucked. The real pain to be felt by the general populace is still a few years in coming, so the masses aren't ready to act. As a society those who are already being crushed by this Brave New World are dismissible, just as they have been for the last several millennia, by their "betters", the "betters" being ignorant that they are next.
I don't want to suggest we are sheep but frankly I believe we need some central figure to point us in the right direction and lead the charge. It could be a Martin Luther King, it could be a Gandhi, it could be a Mother Jones or a Che. Otherwise, we are going to be little more than an ineffectual mob ready to protest on alternate Wednesdays (from 12 til 2) and then go home to our chips and beer. They, on the other hand, already have their Quisling. Adolf, their real Adolf, can't be far away.
If you have enough money you can be kept alive way past your expiration date. Look at Murdoch 94 years old and still trucking there are likely more than 1300 billionaires over the age of 70. At least six billionaires are over the age of 80, including Murdoch,
I was prepared to disagree but then I decided to do a little research — the Internet always willing to aid in such matters. Frankly, I was stunned. Of the 31 billionaires who died in 2024, 11 were 90 or older, the oldest clocking out at 98. One or two might have been written off as a statistical fluke but not 35%.
Trump will live into his 90's despite his diet, his ankles, and his loss of collagen.
My wife pointed out that a picture of his hand shows make up covering his bruising.
I know all about it. I bruise easily, I take collagen every day, but it doesn't help, as you age you lose collagen, your skin thins and you easily bruise.
A lot of ageing depends on genetics. Not so lucky on my mothers side, but very lucky on my fathers side. My grandparents, an uncle and an aunt lived into their 90's, my Dad died young, heart murmur from childhood scarlet fever and alcoholism, his brother died young from Hodgkins contracted by his working in the oil refinery fields as a plumber.
Anyway Trump has cankles, wears a girdle and a bullet proof vest, his stance shows the osteoporsis that comes with age, his head leans forward, and his stance is off balance, possibly because of lifts. I'm sure that he wears lifts.
Other than that he shows signs of ageing, and if it weren't for his money and access to the best medical care in the world, he wouldn't be doing so good.
By the way I just took my BP 125/68 and that after 45 minutes of exercise, of course I cooled down first.
Not that I'd be around to see such an atrocity. The rich are vampires feeding off the poor (and everyone not a billionaire is poor to them) to keep from aging. Just ain't natcheral.
Congress just now subpoenaed the Epstein files, the Clinton's, Garland, and other high profile persons. They are deflecting from economic policies that are changing central banks and the Fed system to a privatized "stable coin" system away from Fed ability to moderate inflation and an economic crash.
Trump could never have succeeded without the tireless promotion of fascism as a good thing through talk radio and Fox "news", all underwritten by billionaire money. Republicans define "patriotism" as blind obedience, so that gives Trump's silly rantings and edicts forward motion. In a normal political environment, Trump would have been led away in a straight jacket already, assuming he could even have gotten nominated.
We know we wuz robbed, we know it was psy ops. What can we do about it, when lady justice is not blindfolded by looks to the right.
We need to put together an Olympic team of lawyers, file a pitch perfect suit, have it heard in a friendly venue, that answers to a friendly appeals court, and then sit there with thumb in ass waiting the ideologically and financially corrupt SCOTUS, and then if they rule in our favor, will he actually step down. And if he does, how can we ever put together again that which he broke.
The institutional knowledge is scattered to the winds, the documents, the records have been shredded, like the stockpiles of USAID food that is being burned.
We would be starting a new, with even more disabilities than the founding fathers, because new we have 40% of the population, scattered and concentrated, that is well equipped and with the tools to hinder reconstruction.
We are looking at the preconditions for a hot civil war, there has been a cold civil war raging since 1865m and they almost won in 1941.
The Japanese actually saved our democratic Republic.
Thom, you nailed it. Outstanding. Every word. I so wish the subject was uplifting but we're in deep fascism. It's scary as hell, but WE THE PEOPLE control this country and we WILL NOT give in or give up. EVER. Many thanks for keeping me/us informed and motivated.
You are so right, Professor. We are closer to the edge than people seem to think. We might even be plunging into the abyss. My sister is willfully oblivious. Of course it’s upsetting to know what’s happening, so people need to stiffen their spines and fight back. This is a fight for our whole way of life, nothing less. Thank you, sir, for talking about this so clearly and truthfully.
A sentence ending with, "...a screaming red light that our democracy has failed." should not be stated as a conditional or counterfactual. Fait accompli!
This is along the same line of my Substack this morning. In fact, after I post this here I will put a link to this article there. I wrote: If the GOP or MAGA are having problems, does it even matter in the long run if Trump is planning to implement a police state? Here;s the link: https://halbrown.substack.com/p/if-the-gop-or-maga-are-having-problems
A quick Google search revealed four meetings between trump and Orban in 2024: March 8 (location not mentioned), July 12 at Mar-a-Lago, Oct 9 in Oval Office, Dec 10 at Mar-a-Lago. Apparently, Orban endorsed trump in 2016, but their first meeting seems to have been in 2019. Lots of coaching from one of the masters?
From the article: "nd then he spoke to Republican groups at CPAC, both in Texas and when the conservative group held its meeting in Budapest, encouraging conservatives to do in America exactly what he had done in Hungary. His suggestions about seizing control of the media, shutting down universities, going after immigrants as a way of increasing political power, trashing the rights of queer people and women, and rigging election systems was greeted with a standing ovation in both cases."
This is the culture war, it is how Trump came to power, and how he is becoming more powerful, despite his fall in public approval. Once you have power, what matters public opinion.
We are constantly told by the corporate media, and the likes of MSNBC, that it is all about the "economy stupid", the price of eggs, jobs, while they admit that the GDP, Job rate, inflation rate was the best in a decade.
Why is the corporate media, even the liberal populace, the Democratic party afraid to admit that it is all about the culture war. I do have my opinions.
Remember Maslow's hierarchy of needs? Physiological needs such a food and protection from the elements comes before love and belonging. When food and shelter can't be found, priorities will change.
Now is our moment—today take action against this harmful government. They are:
• Spitting on count orders.
• Seeding rot and corruption.
• Shielding a pedophile trafficking ring in plain sight.
• Gut-punching a broken healthcare system—ripping coverage from 13 million lives.
• Abusing the poor, the needy, and children.
• Stealing from the poor to fatten the rich.
Take to the streets! We must protest outright crooks and the pedophiles. They will start shooting us. Untrained ICE agents will shoot us. Protest until we go down or we oust these tyrants.
I made 54 protest signs to aid protest groups. I will make many more to share. You will see something different in these signs! Help yourself to this second batch, and share them as far as you can.
Make 'em hate him
The thing that could make a difference between us, Russia, and Hungary is that TRump is bat-shit crazy and scandal-ridden. Good grief, what a pile of baggage! It just keeps growing.
So if anyone thinks or says we should not let all that distract us, don't buy into it. It is the means to an end with him. That's the way we peel off the four Republican Senators and the handful of House members we need to stop him.
We are just seeing the beginning of Epstein-Gate, it's going to be the cover-up. He is too stupid to listen to anyone that could help.him. Spread the facts, show the footage, and print the words that have come out of his own mouth. Melania knows, so does Mossad, Putin, and Ghislaine. Bondi can destroy the contents of Epstein's safe. It won't work, and it will only make the cover-up worse. Someone is going to get him when the timing is right for THEM.
See you in the streets.
This is not about Trump, it's about his handlers, aka Project 2025. We need to take our axe to the root of the tree, not to the maggot-ridden fruit.
Both And is fine as well.
While the axe is handy...
I get your point, Robert, but first things first.
It absolutely will create a cascade. The BIG repercussions of the Project have not hit home yet. It's coming. The elections in 2026 are going to be the chance to educate and the effects will be right around the corner.
My great fear is that there will be no free elections in 2026, or that the nation is so gerrymandered and so many registered voters purged that it will be an election in name only. Again, I don't know why the Project 2025 would put all this effort in if they didn't believe they could keep it.
I don’t think Republicans in office know anymore what the right thing is even if a few decide to do something about this mess.
Russia is led by verifiable thugs who are scandal-ridden but in a system that suppresses their crimes so that it is difficult to expose them and incriminate them.
Thom: "All that Democrats need to accomplish either one of these things is a small handful of Republicans willing to do the right thing. Perhaps this could happen with enough pressure from their Democratic colleagues and if enough of us reach out to them."
Me: Amen.
I've posted this severral times. On an individual basis, some Congressional Republicans are vulnerable, morally and politically.
Of the 33 regularly scheduled elections in 2026, 13 seats are held by Democrats and 20 are held by Republicans. Four senators announced they will not seek re-election in 2026. Imagine a Democrat taking McConnell's seat in KY.
Of the 33 states holding regularly scheduled elections in 2026, Trump (R) won 21 of those states in 2024 and Harris won 12. In 2026, Democrats will be defending two states that Trump won in 2024: Georgia and Michigan. Republicans will be defending one seat in a state Harris won: Maine. The last time the 20 Republican-held seats were up for election in 2020, four were decided by a margin of less than 10 percentage points: Iowa (6.6), Maine (8.6), North Carolina (1.8), and Texas (9.6). The last time the 13 Democratic-held seats were up for election in 2020, five were decided by a margin of less than 10 percentage points: Colorado (9.3), Georgia (1.2), Michigan (1.7), Minnesota (5.3), and New Mexico (6.1).
What our candidates have failed to do is analyize them rationally. Neutralize their strengths. Compete for donors.
If Medicare and Medicaid cuts will kill their local health care, we should seek support from hospitals and other medical providers.
If Trump tariffs are killing agriculture, we should support the agricultural sector.
Like Alis says, this stuff hits the Trump as the pedofile issue, but also Russia. I remember when people like Phil Graham, Strom Thurmond, Arlen Spector, Ben Nighthouse Campbell, Ric hard Shelby, Connie Mack, et al switched parties. Sen. John (Cleghorn) Kennedy R, La, once was a Dem. Do these people have daughters? Do they support Putin?
We should have a book on: Capito, Shelley Moore (R-WV) Cassidy, Bill (R-LA) Collins, Susan M. (R-ME) Cornyn, John (R-TX) Cotton, Tom (R-AR) Daines, Steve (R-MT) Ernst, Joni (R-IA) Graham, Lindsey (R-SC) Hagerty, Bill (R-TN) Hyde-Smith, Cindy (R-MS) Lummis, Cynthia M. (R-WY) Marshall, Roger (R-KS) McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) Mullin, Markwayne (R-OK) Ricketts, Pete (R-NE) Risch, James E. (R-ID) Rounds, Mike (R-SD) Sullivan, Dan (R-AK) Tuberville, Tommy (R-AL)
Gravity gets us all in the end. But it seems it is approaching black hole magnitude for our country. It is pretty clear to me that next year’s elections are being rigged now. They will not save us, or even start us on the road to salvation. It will take something and someone much tougher, committed, and harsher. Maybe even a little nuts but with her or his heart in the right place. Maybe even a slightly less ferocious Robespierre. Because we could sure use a busy National Razor right now. Sadly we are seeing the beginnings of one—used on the wrong people—the poor, the vulnerable, the powerless. Bullies are in the ascendant and gloating, enjoying the heady power of their masked Halloween ICE costumes and other paramilitary endeavors. Tens of millions of Americans pretty clearly support this. They deserve the pain. The rest of us do not. Have we the will to do what must be done whatever the cost? Frankly, I don’t think so.
It won’t affect me or my family right away. Some of them, impossibly to me, support what is happening and voted for the flatulent faux orange felon. I might be a target were I not 78, disabled, and of no consequence except insofar as I keep the medical profession in business. The people I worry about are our beloved grandson and his generation. Will they share the fate of the Germans under Hitler, the Chinese under Mao, the Russians under Stalin and Putin (I think it will be worse here than in Orban’s Hungary)? The thing that pains me most is that I can do no more than write comments here and there, in echo chambers of kindred voices. I fear, to borrow from Ben Franklin, that even if we all hang together, hang we will nonetheless.
Well, what I think you're saying is that we need somebody (or somebodies) who do not go along with today's Republican fascist ideas, but Democratic centrists are afraid to vote for progressivism (as with FDR's Fair Deal) because that would offend the Trumpists. Most of the Dems who worked on the Jan 6 House Committee would fill that bill if Dems would unite behind them.
"...but Democratic centrists are afraid to vote for progressivism ...."
Not according to the experts cited above. We wuz screwed.
I am afraid that they are Daniel, Jeffries is no friend of progressives, even now they are organizing against Mamdani, the rebuff AOC, put their hands on the scale against Bernie, Pelosi went out of her way to back a conservadem, Joe Kennedy Jr, against a progressive (Sen Markey of Mass), and of course who can forget Rahm Emanuel who called progressives fucking retards. While he and Nancy back benched single payor in favor of the Heritage foundation's ACA.
Jeffries supports every Dem. You exaggerate what Jeffries' position is and fall back on intercene stuff that may/may not have been otherwise.
I share your despair....
Thomas, please offer some advice on what concerned Americans can do. TIME IS RUNNING OUT. We need leadership for ACTION
Otherwise, inaction will get us nowhere except, for the more vocal of us, a pleasant stay in the swamps of Florida.
There are many roles to be played in any movement. The educators Thom), the organizers,but no leader. leaders get their heads lopped off.
Mao, in his little red book, said "Let a thousand flowers bloom"
What he meant is that by doing so their heads will stick up above the masses, and can then easily be lopped off.
Your most stark, most important article yet.
"the press is too often playing along, normalizing the abnormal, treating creeping authoritarianism as just another partisan squabble."
Watched 'Good Night and Good Luck' last night. Friendly, Murrow and even Paley put sanity over profits. Sadly profits, money, has corrupted everything in America today.
Most unfortunately, every single republican in Congress is playing along. All about money, greed and power. SCOTUS and Citizens United have literally destroyed our democracy, our country.
I was in Budapest in 1991, shooting a documentary. Perestroika was finally taking hold. The people were great, and they were very excited about what the future held for them. I watched from afar how they quickly embraced democracy and freedom, only to have it morph into the fascist autocracy it is today. I knew when Tucker Carlson began spouting his admiration and then CPAC inviting Orbán to speak, we were in serious trouble. And here we are, seemingly putting all our hopes into the possibility a handful of republicans will do the right thing, when they have proven time and again their unwillingness to do so.
Michael,great post.You're right about all points.
Lest we forget, Trump is 79 and in marginal physical and cognitive health. Not only will he, at worst, be a short-term autocrat, he's becoming increasingly emotionally unhinged — before him when's the last time you can remember a sitting president calling anybody "fuckers"... Or afterwards for that matter. No, neither can I.
Trump in actuality is a stalking horse for Project 2025. He may think he's going to rule as king for another 20 or so years, at which time he will hand the orb and scepter to L'il DonDon and retire to his imperial lands where he will be cared lovingly by nubile 14 year-olds until the stars themselves fade and... and... The man is a moron with no grasp of the real world. He's a tool, a marionette. His Masters know exactly what he is.
Project 2025 is playing the long game. They know Trump is failing, that there is a plausible chance that he will not finish his term. They also know that if they do not solidify power in the next 12 months they are likely to be thrown out of office (and quite possibly tried for sedition); they know there isn't going to be a second chance, at least in the immediate future. Vance will be a willing, even eager, tool but 2025 knows he is utterly devoid of charisma, so again they need to get all their pieces in play more or less immediately.
So it's up to us. Without mobilization we're fucked. The real pain to be felt by the general populace is still a few years in coming, so the masses aren't ready to act. As a society those who are already being crushed by this Brave New World are dismissible, just as they have been for the last several millennia, by their "betters", the "betters" being ignorant that they are next.
I don't want to suggest we are sheep but frankly I believe we need some central figure to point us in the right direction and lead the charge. It could be a Martin Luther King, it could be a Gandhi, it could be a Mother Jones or a Che. Otherwise, we are going to be little more than an ineffectual mob ready to protest on alternate Wednesdays (from 12 til 2) and then go home to our chips and beer. They, on the other hand, already have their Quisling. Adolf, their real Adolf, can't be far away.
If you have enough money you can be kept alive way past your expiration date. Look at Murdoch 94 years old and still trucking there are likely more than 1300 billionaires over the age of 70. At least six billionaires are over the age of 80, including Murdoch,
I was prepared to disagree but then I decided to do a little research — the Internet always willing to aid in such matters. Frankly, I was stunned. Of the 31 billionaires who died in 2024, 11 were 90 or older, the oldest clocking out at 98. One or two might have been written off as a statistical fluke but not 35%.
Trump will live into his 90's despite his diet, his ankles, and his loss of collagen.
My wife pointed out that a picture of his hand shows make up covering his bruising.
I know all about it. I bruise easily, I take collagen every day, but it doesn't help, as you age you lose collagen, your skin thins and you easily bruise.
A lot of ageing depends on genetics. Not so lucky on my mothers side, but very lucky on my fathers side. My grandparents, an uncle and an aunt lived into their 90's, my Dad died young, heart murmur from childhood scarlet fever and alcoholism, his brother died young from Hodgkins contracted by his working in the oil refinery fields as a plumber.
Anyway Trump has cankles, wears a girdle and a bullet proof vest, his stance shows the osteoporsis that comes with age, his head leans forward, and his stance is off balance, possibly because of lifts. I'm sure that he wears lifts.
Other than that he shows signs of ageing, and if it weren't for his money and access to the best medical care in the world, he wouldn't be doing so good.
By the way I just took my BP 125/68 and that after 45 minutes of exercise, of course I cooled down first.
Not that I'd be around to see such an atrocity. The rich are vampires feeding off the poor (and everyone not a billionaire is poor to them) to keep from aging. Just ain't natcheral.
To draw a parallel, the attitude of the lord of the manor towards the serf.
to that extent I know a business owner who believes customers exist for his benefit.
Congress just now subpoenaed the Epstein files, the Clinton's, Garland, and other high profile persons. They are deflecting from economic policies that are changing central banks and the Fed system to a privatized "stable coin" system away from Fed ability to moderate inflation and an economic crash.
Subpoena Woddy Allen. Alex Acosta. Donald J. Trump.
Trump could never have succeeded without the tireless promotion of fascism as a good thing through talk radio and Fox "news", all underwritten by billionaire money. Republicans define "patriotism" as blind obedience, so that gives Trump's silly rantings and edicts forward motion. In a normal political environment, Trump would have been led away in a straight jacket already, assuming he could even have gotten nominated.
Psy ops in action. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2024_United_States_elections
We know we wuz robbed, we know it was psy ops. What can we do about it, when lady justice is not blindfolded by looks to the right.
We need to put together an Olympic team of lawyers, file a pitch perfect suit, have it heard in a friendly venue, that answers to a friendly appeals court, and then sit there with thumb in ass waiting the ideologically and financially corrupt SCOTUS, and then if they rule in our favor, will he actually step down. And if he does, how can we ever put together again that which he broke.
The institutional knowledge is scattered to the winds, the documents, the records have been shredded, like the stockpiles of USAID food that is being burned.
We would be starting a new, with even more disabilities than the founding fathers, because new we have 40% of the population, scattered and concentrated, that is well equipped and with the tools to hinder reconstruction.
We are looking at the preconditions for a hot civil war, there has been a cold civil war raging since 1865m and they almost won in 1941.
The Japanese actually saved our democratic Republic.
100%
- 3 out of 5 Whites wanted this.
- 50% of Browns.
- 1 out of 5 Black men.
As we see w/ his panic about Epstein, DJT is nothing w/out his voters,
So, They are the real problem.
D is just a money-grubbing kiddie-rapist.
Thom, you nailed it. Outstanding. Every word. I so wish the subject was uplifting but we're in deep fascism. It's scary as hell, but WE THE PEOPLE control this country and we WILL NOT give in or give up. EVER. Many thanks for keeping me/us informed and motivated.
You are so right, Professor. We are closer to the edge than people seem to think. We might even be plunging into the abyss. My sister is willfully oblivious. Of course it’s upsetting to know what’s happening, so people need to stiffen their spines and fight back. This is a fight for our whole way of life, nothing less. Thank you, sir, for talking about this so clearly and truthfully.
Can Dems learn to be ruthless?
Should have hired Karl Rove.
A sentence ending with, "...a screaming red light that our democracy has failed." should not be stated as a conditional or counterfactual. Fait accompli!
This is along the same line of my Substack this morning. In fact, after I post this here I will put a link to this article there. I wrote: If the GOP or MAGA are having problems, does it even matter in the long run if Trump is planning to implement a police state? Here;s the link: https://halbrown.substack.com/p/if-the-gop-or-maga-are-having-problems
Suicide is not a good option.
Who is suggesting suicide?
Read his substack. Vey ist mir.
A quick Google search revealed four meetings between trump and Orban in 2024: March 8 (location not mentioned), July 12 at Mar-a-Lago, Oct 9 in Oval Office, Dec 10 at Mar-a-Lago. Apparently, Orban endorsed trump in 2016, but their first meeting seems to have been in 2019. Lots of coaching from one of the masters?
From the article: "nd then he spoke to Republican groups at CPAC, both in Texas and when the conservative group held its meeting in Budapest, encouraging conservatives to do in America exactly what he had done in Hungary. His suggestions about seizing control of the media, shutting down universities, going after immigrants as a way of increasing political power, trashing the rights of queer people and women, and rigging election systems was greeted with a standing ovation in both cases."
This is the culture war, it is how Trump came to power, and how he is becoming more powerful, despite his fall in public approval. Once you have power, what matters public opinion.
We are constantly told by the corporate media, and the likes of MSNBC, that it is all about the "economy stupid", the price of eggs, jobs, while they admit that the GDP, Job rate, inflation rate was the best in a decade.
Why is the corporate media, even the liberal populace, the Democratic party afraid to admit that it is all about the culture war. I do have my opinions.
Remember Maslow's hierarchy of needs? Physiological needs such a food and protection from the elements comes before love and belonging. When food and shelter can't be found, priorities will change.
Yup, that's what I've been saying if not here on Thom's substack, then over on Robert Reich's.
90% of MAGATs vote against their own economic and physical health.
It's all about the culture these days.
Now is our moment—today take action against this harmful government. They are:
• Spitting on count orders.
• Seeding rot and corruption.
• Shielding a pedophile trafficking ring in plain sight.
• Gut-punching a broken healthcare system—ripping coverage from 13 million lives.
• Abusing the poor, the needy, and children.
• Stealing from the poor to fatten the rich.
Take to the streets! We must protest outright crooks and the pedophiles. They will start shooting us. Untrained ICE agents will shoot us. Protest until we go down or we oust these tyrants.
I made 54 protest signs to aid protest groups. I will make many more to share. You will see something different in these signs! Help yourself to this second batch, and share them as far as you can.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/more-free-protest-signs?r=3m1bs