From defying Congress to rewarding loyalists and ignoring constitutional limits, America is confronting a dangerous new era where the rule of law no longer restrains those in power…
It is bad enough tat independent election commissions have been replaced by MAGA, that there is voter caging, voter suppression laws, paid and trained Republican and perhaps armed poll watchers, that a Trump billionaire bought Dominion voting machines. Now
A rolling stone gathers no moss, especially when rolling downhill.. There are laws of man, and laws of nature.
Everything runs its course. birth, growth, decay, death Be it a living being, a plant, a nation, an empire and even a planet and a sun.
Infinite growth is impossible. A tree that outgrows its roots, topples and dies.
Nations and empires are not immune to the The Second Law of Thermodynamics which states that in an isolated system, natural processes are spontaneous and irreversible, meaning they will always proceed in a direction that increases the system's overall disorder or entropy
The problem is the suffering that takes place during that stage.
Here is the way I look at life, honestly. This is an amusement park, a Disney Land, and I am impermanent. I have one entrance and one exit. I can sit on the bench and watch it all play out, or hop on as many rides as I physically am able.
The park was here long before I came through the gate (the birth canal) and will be here long after I exit.
I didn't build it, maybe my presence will have an incremental effect. The butterfly effect.
Mind you an amusement park has its pitfalls and dangers, and it is one's duty to survive as well as enjoy.
The stone is rolling down hill. It is up to you whether or not you are going to be a Sisuphus.
But don't pay attention to me. I am 87 yo, and my time in the park is coming to en end
I'm fortunate, I sample as much as one can sample, and had a good ride on the roller coaster. I have prepared myself as best I can for what happens when the roller coaster comes to a stop and shit hits the fan. What happens then is beyond my control and that is where the Serenity Prayer comes in.
I've never voted on a machine. Always a paper ballot at either my polling place or in the last 10 years or more by mail, and these days I prefer to drop it at the ballot box of our local library. I'm not sure I trust the post office these days either. It's a sad fact that the Republican Party has screwed this country in a way that makes all conservative Republicans of the past turn over in their graves. I think that's the earthquakes we keep having all over the country.
Also, too many of our so-called Reps are beholden to the same SOB’s that fund the parasites in office and are bleeding us dry of both our money and our rights. This was and is a conspiracy to take care of the public, once and for all.
Musk has never stopped being "friends". It was all theater, to set the public off balance, Psyops, misdirection, Look over there, don't watch what is going on over here.
Here's why you should know. Musk's fortune and status is totally dependent on the US Government, the FEC, FTC, and contracts (SpaceX, Starlink)
Even before Trump, Republicans lived by the maxim, "It's okay if Republicans do it". But they never took it to the unpunishable extremes Trump has. Trump is a clear criminal, and should have been dragged out of the Oval Office in handcuffs the morning of January 7, 2021. Yet here he is, taking more liberties--our liberties--while the Roberts Court opens doors for his blatant thievery and Johnson and Thune sit on their hands when they are not applauding him.
"American democracy can’t survive this sort of assault for long; it has to be stopped. And Democrats can’t afford to repeat the paralysis of the first two years of the Biden administration, when Merrick Garland’s Justice Department moved with such deliberate caution on Trump’s crimes that the clock simply ran out."
Why does all this still feel like paralysis? It is absolutely imperative that these specific details and egregious offenses be spelled out and repeated endlessly. Someone has to have the facts and the citations for all of these violations to satisfy the demands of a court and the people. That is what is meant by a nation of laws. We are very fortunate to have these things catalogued completely accurately daily for the record. But we have been accumulating all of the violations for ten years, day after day, while we stew and suffer the abuses. I just want to hear everyone saying clearly that it has been obvious from day one that this guy came with the intentions of destroying the country, raping and pillaging, and doing away with the Constitution and the laws and with democracy itself, and that actions speak louder than words. At some point there must be actions which reflect the impending danger and the outrageousness of this criminal conduct, and which penetrate the armor of even the Republicans. Somebody - do something!
That includes rigging elections. It's good to know who your county clerk and state attorney general is. Find out how the counting is done for your area.
Friends, try to keep your sanity these days. Know that the picture TRump posted of his finger on "the button" is just another way of trying to drive you crazy. Don't let him win that battle.
It's going to take time, patience, and a lot of work to take them down. Thank you Thom and Company for the work you are doing. See you in the streets in the meantime.
“[N]either the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.” Then along comes Trump with his 1776 fund to reward the insurrectionist thugs who tried to overthrow an election. That will make it easier the next time.
What America is experiencing is the Fourth Reich. Most Germans did not take seriously the Reichstag takeover of the German government. Hitler gradually chipped away at rights all Germans, like today's Americans, took for granted. Back then, as today, too many citizens had comfortable lives that they thought would not be affected by the stupid jerk who thought he was the emperor of Deutschland. It was just a passing fad. So what if a few Jews got screwed? Those ruthless Shylocks were getting what they deserved. Then one day, they themselves were stopped on the street, "Papiere bitte." And they realized it was too late to change the government.
If we wait until 2028, the game will be over. This November, we will see voting rolls purged, mailed ballots invalidated, and Trump's Gestapo welcoming us at the polls, "Papiere bitte." That is when we all will realize that Trump meant it when he said electing him would end the need for future elections.
Waiting for elections which may never happen is what Trump wants us to do, so we must double (or triple) our efforts to convince Republican leaders that our loss of freedoms is everybody's loss. Republicans however, do not understand compassion or empathy, but only fear, so we have to find something more fearsome than Trump (and his MAGA, and ICE, being primarried, etc) and right now, I don't know what that is.
I say it is all about POWER for the Republicans. Power exercised to plunder the treasury, to destroy organizations providing aid and sharing democratic values and ideals (e.g. USAID, VOA), to desecrate the Constitution, icons and ideals and empower autocracy, corruption, greed and cruelty. Always has been. Always will be. My question: To what end? Ultimately, the world loses.
The other thing Trump is interested in is pleasing Putin. Putin placed Trump in a position to destroy our democracy. And he is .
Project 25 is another source of ill will toward democracy. Power to the wealthiest , destruction of the working class.
Democrats and other opposition groups need to lean on their Congress members and Senators to loudly denounce this administration and fight like hell to reject this twisted view of
America.
Investigate the lies , propaganda and corruption bandied about by Trump and MAGA. And let’s work together to deny this authoritarian regime and hold them accountable.
I always believed that Trump had the same world view as a pre WWII German the only thing he is interested in is revenge. The entire MAGA movement wants to bring the US back to the 1890s before the progressive era. I am so made at Democratic Presidential Candidates and the press for not asking Trump the simple question when was America great and why was it great and be specific. Was it when tariffs were the only federal tax? When we had no social welfare programs and the super rich had all the power? When the world was divided into spheres of influence and control? We need a new progressive era with new Constitutional Amendments that would correct all the corruptions that the Supreme Court has allowed.
In a small “d” democratic republic the purpose of the government is to serve the people WE the People are to be helped by the government WE form In Nazi Republican terms the government is a bank account for those in power to loot the government and insure that the rich and their wealth is protected because they refuse to pull their societal weight financially So called “christen principles” of taking care of neighbor is overridden by “I’ve got mine, so get lost” mentality or “no more freeloaders(Reagan’s welfare queen)”
Reagan and the his Nazi allies created the bogus “trickle down” economic theory to perpetrate a financial hoax for their followers that giving tax breaks to the rich in the country would bring economic gains for the middle class This premise has been proven wrong and has brought about a hollowing out of the middle class today Of course Cheeto has continued this hoax with even greater tax cuts hoping that will help consolidate power from his rich cronies he’s protected in the Epstein-Trump files fiasco
The Nazis do this economic slight of hand trick by robbing from government agencies and stopping government financial commitments eg USAID to pad their own pockets now with tax cuts and blatant out in the open corruption for everyone to see They don’t even care about trying to cover up the corruption anymore At least in the Reagan years the wealthy covered it up with a cutesy made up economic theory
And now with this greed of the wealthy supported by the Nazi Republicans, We the People have become a debtor nation in decline with an insurmountable $39T debt This bastards should never see another public office for decades!
What's your role, Thom? Documentarian? You are a good one, but so are a lot of other people. Advisor for what to do? Not so good. Sending people into a fray as if they are more sophisticated than they are, and that many millions would do what you say?
Where a siloed soapbox world predominates, what we need is coordination. Belonging to something. Can't it be yours to instigate a coalition that would be at the ready for boycotts and whatever else would be effective? Not yours to gather people like me into an ad hoc group to think together, to invent what hasn't been created -- that's better than struggling to win the midterms whereby even if Democrats prevail we're still victims of the capitalistic oligarchy that will have us on the road to annihilation?
There was another piece to the IRS agreement that I think is more troubling than the $1776 billion slush fund; he and his family do have to worry about further IRS audits or investigations. They will stop paying taxes!
What happens is you have an authoritarian regime
It is bad enough tat independent election commissions have been replaced by MAGA, that there is voter caging, voter suppression laws, paid and trained Republican and perhaps armed poll watchers, that a Trump billionaire bought Dominion voting machines. Now
Elon Musk’s Ex, Ashley St. Clair, Confirms He Rigged the 2024 Election Using Technology https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/elon-musks-ex-ashley-st-clair-confirms
Who can stop this technological bypass of the democratic process? How do we do that?
A rolling stone gathers no moss, especially when rolling downhill.. There are laws of man, and laws of nature.
Everything runs its course. birth, growth, decay, death Be it a living being, a plant, a nation, an empire and even a planet and a sun.
Infinite growth is impossible. A tree that outgrows its roots, topples and dies.
Nations and empires are not immune to the The Second Law of Thermodynamics which states that in an isolated system, natural processes are spontaneous and irreversible, meaning they will always proceed in a direction that increases the system's overall disorder or entropy
The problem is the suffering that takes place during that stage.
Here is the way I look at life, honestly. This is an amusement park, a Disney Land, and I am impermanent. I have one entrance and one exit. I can sit on the bench and watch it all play out, or hop on as many rides as I physically am able.
The park was here long before I came through the gate (the birth canal) and will be here long after I exit.
I didn't build it, maybe my presence will have an incremental effect. The butterfly effect.
Mind you an amusement park has its pitfalls and dangers, and it is one's duty to survive as well as enjoy.
The stone is rolling down hill. It is up to you whether or not you are going to be a Sisuphus.
But don't pay attention to me. I am 87 yo, and my time in the park is coming to en end
I'm fortunate, I sample as much as one can sample, and had a good ride on the roller coaster. I have prepared myself as best I can for what happens when the roller coaster comes to a stop and shit hits the fan. What happens then is beyond my control and that is where the Serenity Prayer comes in.
You are quite a philosopher, William.
No. just been around the block quite a few times, and have learned from my experiences
I still have a tendency to beat dead horses.
That’s where the Serenity Prayer comes in.
Yep. thankfully my beloved wife, acts as a brake on my worst tendencies.
Use paper ballots and count them by hand. Very few mistakes.
I've never voted on a machine. Always a paper ballot at either my polling place or in the last 10 years or more by mail, and these days I prefer to drop it at the ballot box of our local library. I'm not sure I trust the post office these days either. It's a sad fact that the Republican Party has screwed this country in a way that makes all conservative Republicans of the past turn over in their graves. I think that's the earthquakes we keep having all over the country.
I do the same Beth. Paper ballot and drop off st the local library drop box. I also have Ballot Track so I know that it has arrived and been counted.
Also, too many of our so-called Reps are beholden to the same SOB’s that fund the parasites in office and are bleeding us dry of both our money and our rights. This was and is a conspiracy to take care of the public, once and for all.
This report is really scary = everyone should read it.
And Musk is "friends" with Trump again.
Musk has never stopped being "friends". It was all theater, to set the public off balance, Psyops, misdirection, Look over there, don't watch what is going on over here.
Here's why you should know. Musk's fortune and status is totally dependent on the US Government, the FEC, FTC, and contracts (SpaceX, Starlink)
Even before Trump, Republicans lived by the maxim, "It's okay if Republicans do it". But they never took it to the unpunishable extremes Trump has. Trump is a clear criminal, and should have been dragged out of the Oval Office in handcuffs the morning of January 7, 2021. Yet here he is, taking more liberties--our liberties--while the Roberts Court opens doors for his blatant thievery and Johnson and Thune sit on their hands when they are not applauding him.
"American democracy can’t survive this sort of assault for long; it has to be stopped. And Democrats can’t afford to repeat the paralysis of the first two years of the Biden administration, when Merrick Garland’s Justice Department moved with such deliberate caution on Trump’s crimes that the clock simply ran out."
Why does all this still feel like paralysis? It is absolutely imperative that these specific details and egregious offenses be spelled out and repeated endlessly. Someone has to have the facts and the citations for all of these violations to satisfy the demands of a court and the people. That is what is meant by a nation of laws. We are very fortunate to have these things catalogued completely accurately daily for the record. But we have been accumulating all of the violations for ten years, day after day, while we stew and suffer the abuses. I just want to hear everyone saying clearly that it has been obvious from day one that this guy came with the intentions of destroying the country, raping and pillaging, and doing away with the Constitution and the laws and with democracy itself, and that actions speak louder than words. At some point there must be actions which reflect the impending danger and the outrageousness of this criminal conduct, and which penetrate the armor of even the Republicans. Somebody - do something!
We are "somebody."
Whatever TRump says WE did---HE did.
That includes rigging elections. It's good to know who your county clerk and state attorney general is. Find out how the counting is done for your area.
Friends, try to keep your sanity these days. Know that the picture TRump posted of his finger on "the button" is just another way of trying to drive you crazy. Don't let him win that battle.
It's going to take time, patience, and a lot of work to take them down. Thank you Thom and Company for the work you are doing. See you in the streets in the meantime.
Start right now - I am in Illinois and we need to check there too...
Congress and SCOTUS protect him.
Congress, both parties.
“[N]either the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.” Then along comes Trump with his 1776 fund to reward the insurrectionist thugs who tried to overthrow an election. That will make it easier the next time.
What America is experiencing is the Fourth Reich. Most Germans did not take seriously the Reichstag takeover of the German government. Hitler gradually chipped away at rights all Germans, like today's Americans, took for granted. Back then, as today, too many citizens had comfortable lives that they thought would not be affected by the stupid jerk who thought he was the emperor of Deutschland. It was just a passing fad. So what if a few Jews got screwed? Those ruthless Shylocks were getting what they deserved. Then one day, they themselves were stopped on the street, "Papiere bitte." And they realized it was too late to change the government.
If we wait until 2028, the game will be over. This November, we will see voting rolls purged, mailed ballots invalidated, and Trump's Gestapo welcoming us at the polls, "Papiere bitte." That is when we all will realize that Trump meant it when he said electing him would end the need for future elections.
Waiting for elections which may never happen is what Trump wants us to do, so we must double (or triple) our efforts to convince Republican leaders that our loss of freedoms is everybody's loss. Republicans however, do not understand compassion or empathy, but only fear, so we have to find something more fearsome than Trump (and his MAGA, and ICE, being primarried, etc) and right now, I don't know what that is.
I say it is all about POWER for the Republicans. Power exercised to plunder the treasury, to destroy organizations providing aid and sharing democratic values and ideals (e.g. USAID, VOA), to desecrate the Constitution, icons and ideals and empower autocracy, corruption, greed and cruelty. Always has been. Always will be. My question: To what end? Ultimately, the world loses.
The other thing Trump is interested in is pleasing Putin. Putin placed Trump in a position to destroy our democracy. And he is .
Project 25 is another source of ill will toward democracy. Power to the wealthiest , destruction of the working class.
Democrats and other opposition groups need to lean on their Congress members and Senators to loudly denounce this administration and fight like hell to reject this twisted view of
America.
Investigate the lies , propaganda and corruption bandied about by Trump and MAGA. And let’s work together to deny this authoritarian regime and hold them accountable.
Nobody is going to do a damn thing about any of this, no matter how bad it gets. We are on a downhill slide, and there is nothing that can stop it.
I always believed that Trump had the same world view as a pre WWII German the only thing he is interested in is revenge. The entire MAGA movement wants to bring the US back to the 1890s before the progressive era. I am so made at Democratic Presidential Candidates and the press for not asking Trump the simple question when was America great and why was it great and be specific. Was it when tariffs were the only federal tax? When we had no social welfare programs and the super rich had all the power? When the world was divided into spheres of influence and control? We need a new progressive era with new Constitutional Amendments that would correct all the corruptions that the Supreme Court has allowed.
The Financial World Of The Nazi Republicans
In a small “d” democratic republic the purpose of the government is to serve the people WE the People are to be helped by the government WE form In Nazi Republican terms the government is a bank account for those in power to loot the government and insure that the rich and their wealth is protected because they refuse to pull their societal weight financially So called “christen principles” of taking care of neighbor is overridden by “I’ve got mine, so get lost” mentality or “no more freeloaders(Reagan’s welfare queen)”
Reagan and the his Nazi allies created the bogus “trickle down” economic theory to perpetrate a financial hoax for their followers that giving tax breaks to the rich in the country would bring economic gains for the middle class This premise has been proven wrong and has brought about a hollowing out of the middle class today Of course Cheeto has continued this hoax with even greater tax cuts hoping that will help consolidate power from his rich cronies he’s protected in the Epstein-Trump files fiasco
The Nazis do this economic slight of hand trick by robbing from government agencies and stopping government financial commitments eg USAID to pad their own pockets now with tax cuts and blatant out in the open corruption for everyone to see They don’t even care about trying to cover up the corruption anymore At least in the Reagan years the wealthy covered it up with a cutesy made up economic theory
And now with this greed of the wealthy supported by the Nazi Republicans, We the People have become a debtor nation in decline with an insurmountable $39T debt This bastards should never see another public office for decades!
What's your role, Thom? Documentarian? You are a good one, but so are a lot of other people. Advisor for what to do? Not so good. Sending people into a fray as if they are more sophisticated than they are, and that many millions would do what you say?
Where a siloed soapbox world predominates, what we need is coordination. Belonging to something. Can't it be yours to instigate a coalition that would be at the ready for boycotts and whatever else would be effective? Not yours to gather people like me into an ad hoc group to think together, to invent what hasn't been created -- that's better than struggling to win the midterms whereby even if Democrats prevail we're still victims of the capitalistic oligarchy that will have us on the road to annihilation?
What happens when Congress refuses to obey the Constitution?
There was another piece to the IRS agreement that I think is more troubling than the $1776 billion slush fund; he and his family do have to worry about further IRS audits or investigations. They will stop paying taxes!