If we call him subhuman why shouldn't he have the right to do so to us? Other that I agree that he is a clod (though I see him more as festering excrement), disgusting, and completely unfit for office.
This type of rhetoric plays right into the evangelical worldview that is a binary, “cosmic drama” between good and evil. You’re on one side or the other. Evangelicals decided Trump was on their side. This gave him a huge percentage of the republican base. It was an unfortunate irrationality that he tapped into.
"Rhetoric." Trump is an actor. He fashioned himself as a archetypal hero -- the hero with a thousand faces, using the PT Barnum sales method.
He is accepted as a means to an end, as if the fundamentalist god uses him to achieve results like stacking the Supreme Court with like minded fenatics.
Nevermind that he, personally, has 5 kids by 3 women and has been convicted of sexual assault, admittely had other extramarital affairs, and supports forsaking numerous other commandments. His lies are legend.
Abe Lincoln was Honest Abe.Trump is dishonest Don.
Nevermind that the evanglical worldview is supposed to be inclusive, accept gentiles, sinners, and instead of revenge and retribution, turn the other cheek.
You have to distinguish between Christian Nationalists and everyone else. I am a cradle Catholic, but I loathe Christian Nationalism as a misuse of faith for secular political ends.
The hundreds of Evangelicals I am acquainted with have adopted a specific targeting of a hate crime against me. When I can use myself as an example of how people can overreach Constitutional laws and overlook the common good, then I know I am in trouble. What I see is that allowing Trump's moves in the name of their common good is an aggressive, nascent move from decades of passive behavior, and everyone is in trouble. Believing in lies and not educating oneself is not a common good.
The hundreds of Evangelicals I am acquainted with have adopted a specific targeting of a hate crime against me. When I can use myself as an example of how people can overreach Constitutional laws and overlook the common good, then I know I am in trouble. What I see is that allowing Trump's moves in the name of their common good is an aggressive, nascent move from decades of passive behavior, and everyone is in trouble. Believing in lies and not educating oneself is not a common good.
Yes, and it started with Nixon. There is a gulf between MAGAts and Libs that can't be bridged. It is ideological, racial, religious, and most of all patriarchal.
So what if it plays into the evangelical world view. They will not be dissuaded, they will not convert, they will not alter the path that they have chose, so we might as well call them out for what they are. We should have long ago, but they have slid along as a respectable faction of society, gaining steam and power until it is almost too late
Repent like the congregants at my uncles church. On cue every Sunday the same old faces coming forward, to be "born again" Then come Monday it is start all over.
Like an Italian hitman, or a Mexican sicario, going to confession, and then going out to whack another person.. then back to confession.
They can't repent, they can't change who they are and what they believe, as it is foundational to their ego and identity.
The victims of Hitler learned nothing. However those that were trans, queer, socialists, Jews and didn't believe Hitler, they sure learned.
Actually the only generals Hitler killed, or had killed, where those that tried to assassinate him. What he had killed, by his SS, were the leadership of Ernst Rohm's, SA (Brownshirts) in the knight of the long knives, and that was because Hitler struck a deal with the Generals.
The Generals told Hitler that they would support him, if he got rid of the Sturmabeitlung (SA) led by Rohm.
Just looking at the title of the article about the speech ( here https://news.google.com/search?q=Tump%20memorial%20day%20speech&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen ) you see how none got it right and how most or all of them got it wrong. Those that said he honored fallen solderiers got it TOTALLY wrong even though they may have said he peppered the speech with political attacks. USA Today for example: "Trump honors veterans at Arlington National Cemetery after lashing out at political opponents in Memorial Day post." At least The Guardian led with
"Trump peppers Memorial Day speech with personal boasting and partisan attacks" but their subtitle was "President paid tribute to fallen soldiers at Arlington cemetery, and also veered off into rally-style remarks."
Trump dishonored the people he was supposedly honoring. In doing so he dishonored democracy and when you do this you debase the sacrifice of those who gave their lives fighting for it.
As you note the speech (and the commencement address at West Point where he wore a MAGA hat) was tesitng the limits of how much he could get away with by his Hitlerian rehetoric.
The newspaper headlines should have shouted out "Trump declares democracy dead on Memorial Day."
While the greatest demagogue in US history, while he sounds crazy, Trump is raking it in at taxpayer expense. He and his families have allegedly made billiions since the election.
While he revels in revenge and retailiation, as he "bargains" over tariffs, new Trump properties pop up. IMHO demagoguery is a diversion and Trump is goal oriented. Beyond alleged violations of the emoulments clause is the potential theft of the entire national treasury.
Does a public financial reporting service, a hedge fund, a mutual fund or an ETF track Trump's daily actions?
Can we identify which players are "winning" and which are losing?
Only about 1% of the top tenth of earners are apprently benefitting. The markets are down.
So on the one hand, we have a President who cannot form coherent sentences either written or verbalized, seems barely aware of what is going on around him, and is being whisked away by staff before he can interact. And yet, on the other hand, all the evils are placed at his feet as the mastermind of all of this. That can’t be right. Who is really behind all this? Behind the curtain? What has been going on takes a coordinated effort from multiple people and departments. Who is running this show, really?
Excellent question. Trump has been called a useful idiot. Some have asked: is he Putin's useful idiot? Who wrote Project 2025? Realize, this putsch has been in the planning for decades. I always recommend three books but now I have added a fourth: Jane Mayer, Dark Money; Rachel Maddow's Prequel; Christopher Wylie's Mind F*ck; and Sarah Kendzior's Hiding In Plain Sight.
Once upon a time, a defendant charged with murder, switched his plea at the last moment to allege insanity because he ws a Nazi and was compelled to kill and couldn't tell right from wrong.
"So tell me," asked the judge, "How is it you have a Jewish lawyer if you're a Nazi?"
1) A bright red flag sounds like a good place to start...
2) Speaking of flags, he wraps himself in one for which he has only the highest level of contempt, to say nothing of the millions who have fought and bled for it. Consider his presidential grifting — it's like selling one's daughter in the market square.
3) The problem is that Trump IS BEING Trump. People evolve over time: although the past to a large degree shapes the present, it also shapes the future. The seeds of this monstrosity were sown over 70 years ago. What grew was carefully tended and pruned and, with time (and aging), has become the abomination he is today. This isn't to say how he turned out was inevitable, it wasn't. However, at every inflection point in his life the arc of probable direction became more and more constrained, until today, evenloped in his narcissism and megalomania, he is blinded by delusion and hatred and is a clear and present danger, not only to us, but to the entire world. This man controls the launch codes?
4) If the scum - that's us – doesn't push back NOW (I do hate caps) in a coherent and forceful way, our freedom and our liberty will be lost. Trump won't need to send us to El Salvador or Sudan — there are plenty of walls to line us up against right here.
Referring back to my "Trump As Plant" metaphor, he has indeed always been Trump the same as a rose is a rose (with thanks to Gertrude Stein). However, how that rose is tended determines how it turns out. What would the world be like today if Hitler had been granted admission to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 1908.
Again, Democratic “leadership” (currently supine) must recognize what we’re dealing with and craft compelling responses. Deteriorating though they may be, donvict’s mental faculties, combined with a disturbingly gullible and malleable fraction of the public, can do and are doing possibly fatal damage. If party bosses aren’t up to the task - and neither they nor past leaders seem particularly interested - they must step aside, STFU, and allow real leadership to emerge and prevail. The nation’s future depends on it.
Even if said "leadership" were willing to step aside (which clearly they aren't), the paymasters will always put up a corporate Dem and bar the way for, for instance, AOC. Look what they did to Katy Porter.
There are Democrats, and then there are Democrats. I'm not looking for ideological purity, but there has to be something better than standing up for principle by sending trump "a strongly worded letter." The "leadership" sucks; the messaging sucks; and the dependence on money from people whose interests are antithetical to the public good sucks even more. Never forget whose $$$ put Adam Schiff in the Senate.
I LIKED Solomon's post because I agree the Democrats nationally have no power. The entity to hold responsible now is the Republican Party. It's their former leader, Mitch McConnell, who gave us a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court. Attack them. In my opinion, Democrats ran on our best platform--an extension of The New Deal and The Great Society. Can we Democrats figure out who our base is and motivate them as successfully as Trump does his base? They rush to his defense, not to attack him.
Hello all. This from an army Viet Nam veteran with a father who served in England, North Africa and Italy and now reduced to the status of
“Scum”
along with approximately 150,000,00 Americans who happened to vote the “wrong way”. How can any thinking person not conclude that this person is “unqualified” to be president. President of all the people.
What shall we do with this powerful commentary. Words are inadequate. Action is required — who will lead us into the streets. Do you wonder what Barack Obama is thinking? How can he justify not urging us to the streets before the gestopo rules them. Does he respect the office of the presidency too much? Does h3 not feel a duty to those of us saw him as a new day in our country?
Who could be more powerful in moving all of us to rise up together.
The definition of liberty is the time and space when there is nothing left to lose. Good stress, the crises of consciousness of life or death, and the peril of cowardice. Talk is worthless, words are poison. A failure of imagination is what despots rely upon. That, and being inaccessible to vengeance. So bring the vengeance to it, on all fronts. Time to live, or time to die. A clear choice.
Not sure. I am in Europe celebrating the anniversary of a study abroad program that I taught in. I return (hopefully ! Or hopelessly) in mid June. Let’s think about options.
I will ask Hartmann how this might be done. I see you are on substack. me also. I will try to link in that way, but I am new to it, so give me some time.
I am new to substack as well. I do not even like online presence. I only joined a couple of sites to keep informed after cancelling my NYT and Post subscriptions because they are both compromised in different ways. I also wanted to follow Krugman and Borowitz. I signed up for Richardson on the advice of friends. She is terrific but she has some domineering commenters and the rest seem to go over a and over the same old specific complaints about things that we already know about the administration—blowing off steam—I have no time or patience for that—as you well said—too many vacuous words. How far from the abyss are we.
Do you know the band Dawes? Listen to “Somewhere Along the Way”,one of the finest songs ever. In case you do not know their work Taylor Goldsmith is songwriter, lead guitarist and soloist. His lyrics are poetry and their breaks rock…do not miss them.
Trump’s handlers are no doubt still encouraged by their corporate string-pullers to allow him a limited free-hand because: 1) he can’t follow a scrip, 2) they are still interested in bolstering the violent, ignorant, more fervent constituents that are part of Trump’s base. Number 2 also protects the real people that got him elected, the uber-wealthy, from being scrutinized by the general population to any extent.
Those that control the corporations that control politics encourage Trump because he is still their ticket to changing the laws that they find intolerable (personal and corporate taxes (for the wealthy), regulation, anti-trust, truly-free press, low-cost health-care, medicare and medicaid, etc.) free education.
Ultimately, though, their biggest coup is not in fact making America great, at all, but rather tearing down its infrastructure so our treasury can be decimated. This is what the new organized crime of the 21st century looks like. Their playbook has been developed in order to take-over stable wealth in large populations. It’s fast, it’s ruthless, and unfortunately, it seems to be working, here.
Yes. Always follow the money. What is TFG's biggest effort? Still grift. The two-bit actor in it loves to use the expletives, the insults, the invectives. To belittle something or someone is projection and transference. Always look somewhere other than the intended mark. The big actors, in any polity, hate and fear each other. They use each other to leverage their way into various vectors of solidarity, where they cannot be easily displaced. All these vector have massive amounts of cash. You can purchase loyalty or fear with cash. We can be high-minded all we want, go high-go low, but once the talking heads get cottonmouth, the pain begins.
Commander-in-Chief, US Military Forces, to West Point Graduates: “The job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows, ... but to spread democracy to everybody around the world at the point of a gun.”
Holy Shit! If that is not demented drivel from the mouth of a senile dictator, then what is? Thirty-two years in uniform, and I never once heard my commander in chief say something as stupid as spreading democracy at the point of a gun. Pointing a gun at peoples' heads is not democracy. It is autocracy - something completely different. Is that really what draft dodgers think military service is?
PS: The WH-posted version of the above quote is not what I heard come out of Trump's mouth. They replaced the word "but" with "or".
Krasnov is on his way in destroying America. Drump calling Dems scum is his projection of his understanding that he himself is what he names the mirror everyone is. His self-hatred is clear to any educated in the field. Removing Putin puppets from the American scene is the obvious choice that is being forced upon us. Drump has removed all other legit forces that gave government balance in its actions. The Chosen Halfdragon is rising. Hecate will enter the Oval Office first. The Dark Divine Feminine energy Visionaries will do what none other can do. The Dragons will be with her and her members. A new government will remove the Putin puppets and a legit replacement is coming. Praise God from whom all Blessings flow.
I built on what Thom wrote, including some excerpts from this, and used my comment below, for my own Substack today which I titled "Every honest paper in the country should have headlined yesterday's Memorial Day story "Trump Destroys Democracy." You can read it here: https://halbrown.substack.com/p/every-honest-paper-in-the-country
Thanks for the comment Robert. Three out of how many? Too many people don't read beyond the headline. Those of us, Thom and his readers, you and I, and others like us know what is going on. I think most newspaper editors do too but are afraid to spell it out.
With Trump’s actions over the years, how many red flags need to spring up to see the impossibility of dealing with a madman and a Republican party that totally enables him to continue. He's done so many impeachable offenses that we are losing track. The Republicans and Trump have so long ago pushed the envelope over the edge of the earth. The term United States is a total oxymoron. How many times does it have to be said that IT IS TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE A UNITED COUNTRY WITH THESE PEOPLE! We will all be eventually enslaved by them. How long do you want to live in tyranny? We need to do something rather than beating around the bush and denying what has to be done by just sitting around talking about it. THERE HAS BEEN ENOUGH TALK. We need to do something and it has to be soon. It's already gone too far.
So my dear sir, you have led us to the edge of the abyss. You have put all the right ideas and words onto the veneer of my existential fears. Sadly you do not even outline a plan of action. I hope that you have gotten the attention of all us readers, but please lead us forward with even an outline for a plan of action. If the existing Congress does not see the urgency of our plight what can the individual citizen do. Where is our Martin Luther King? If we are to march united what is our destination?
You are without doubt right…. What next? Do you speak with any of our leadership who see it as you do—then where are their words echoing this moment. Is any one in Congress willing to throw himself on his sword? I fear not….
ALL Congressional Democats are taking Trump on, but we are in the minority. Like Dionysis with a lantern, we search for honest Congressional Republicans.
It wad Diogenes and his lantern. When I was a young beat in uniform I hung out at Diogenes Lantern with other beats.
Dionysos, the name means Son of god,was the son of Zeus (Dios) and a moral woman, he was also the Greek God of wine, turned water into wine, his feast day the Dionysia was Dec 25th, Romans called him Bacchus,whose feast day was the Bacchanalia
The Saturnalia preceeded the Bacchanalia (Dec 17 - 23)
The only objection that Rand Paul, et al have to the House Budget is that it doesn't cut the social safety net (Medicaid, Medicare,SNAP)enough, They want a balanced budget, at the expense of "entitlements" , they do not object to the tax breaks for the plutocrats.
TRump is a loser and he damn well knows it. He has the Presidency, the Congress, and SCOTUS and he still can't quit whining. NOTHING will ever fill the hole inside of him.
As much as I want an actual president instead of a psychopath, his use of the office to attack, attack, attack (like Cohn taught him) will probably lead to a huge swing of the pendulum.
His financial crimes and propaganda are actually not recruiting new people to do his bidding. He's formed a government that is hurting his own along with the "scum". He didn't lose the plot---he never had it. West Point speech was a disaster. Remembering those who died for us, too busy playing golf. If he was being presidential and acting like a gracious winner, now that would be a much bigger problem.
Still, it's good to sound the alarm, Thom. See you in the streets.
I hope that any thinking American can see this miserable clod for exactly what he is. He's a disgusting sub- human completely unfit for office.
But like you said- thinking American. I’m afraid that there is a large segment that doesn’t.
If we call him subhuman why shouldn't he have the right to do so to us? Other that I agree that he is a clod (though I see him more as festering excrement), disgusting, and completely unfit for office.
I've seen members of the "Scum Party" call Trump many things, including mentally ill and demented, but I've never seen any of us call him "subhuman."
Google TRUMP DEMENTIA
Google TRUMP MENTALLY ILL
This type of rhetoric plays right into the evangelical worldview that is a binary, “cosmic drama” between good and evil. You’re on one side or the other. Evangelicals decided Trump was on their side. This gave him a huge percentage of the republican base. It was an unfortunate irrationality that he tapped into.
"Rhetoric." Trump is an actor. He fashioned himself as a archetypal hero -- the hero with a thousand faces, using the PT Barnum sales method.
He is accepted as a means to an end, as if the fundamentalist god uses him to achieve results like stacking the Supreme Court with like minded fenatics.
Nevermind that he, personally, has 5 kids by 3 women and has been convicted of sexual assault, admittely had other extramarital affairs, and supports forsaking numerous other commandments. His lies are legend.
Abe Lincoln was Honest Abe.Trump is dishonest Don.
Nevermind that the evanglical worldview is supposed to be inclusive, accept gentiles, sinners, and instead of revenge and retribution, turn the other cheek.
You have to distinguish between Christian Nationalists and everyone else. I am a cradle Catholic, but I loathe Christian Nationalism as a misuse of faith for secular political ends.
The hundreds of Evangelicals I am acquainted with have adopted a specific targeting of a hate crime against me. When I can use myself as an example of how people can overreach Constitutional laws and overlook the common good, then I know I am in trouble. What I see is that allowing Trump's moves in the name of their common good is an aggressive, nascent move from decades of passive behavior, and everyone is in trouble. Believing in lies and not educating oneself is not a common good.
The hundreds of Evangelicals I am acquainted with have adopted a specific targeting of a hate crime against me. When I can use myself as an example of how people can overreach Constitutional laws and overlook the common good, then I know I am in trouble. What I see is that allowing Trump's moves in the name of their common good is an aggressive, nascent move from decades of passive behavior, and everyone is in trouble. Believing in lies and not educating oneself is not a common good.
Yes, and it started with Nixon. There is a gulf between MAGAts and Libs that can't be bridged. It is ideological, racial, religious, and most of all patriarchal.
So what if it plays into the evangelical world view. They will not be dissuaded, they will not convert, they will not alter the path that they have chose, so we might as well call them out for what they are. We should have long ago, but they have slid along as a respectable faction of society, gaining steam and power until it is almost too late
Maybe we can convence THEM to repent.
Repent like the congregants at my uncles church. On cue every Sunday the same old faces coming forward, to be "born again" Then come Monday it is start all over.
Like an Italian hitman, or a Mexican sicario, going to confession, and then going out to whack another person.. then back to confession.
They can't repent, they can't change who they are and what they believe, as it is foundational to their ego and identity.
The victims of Hitler learned nothing. However those that were trans, queer, socialists, Jews and didn't believe Hitler, they sure learned.
Actually the only generals Hitler killed, or had killed, where those that tried to assassinate him. What he had killed, by his SS, were the leadership of Ernst Rohm's, SA (Brownshirts) in the knight of the long knives, and that was because Hitler struck a deal with the Generals.
The Generals told Hitler that they would support him, if he got rid of the Sturmabeitlung (SA) led by Rohm.
Just looking at the title of the article about the speech ( here https://news.google.com/search?q=Tump%20memorial%20day%20speech&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen ) you see how none got it right and how most or all of them got it wrong. Those that said he honored fallen solderiers got it TOTALLY wrong even though they may have said he peppered the speech with political attacks. USA Today for example: "Trump honors veterans at Arlington National Cemetery after lashing out at political opponents in Memorial Day post." At least The Guardian led with
"Trump peppers Memorial Day speech with personal boasting and partisan attacks" but their subtitle was "President paid tribute to fallen soldiers at Arlington cemetery, and also veered off into rally-style remarks."
Trump dishonored the people he was supposedly honoring. In doing so he dishonored democracy and when you do this you debase the sacrifice of those who gave their lives fighting for it.
As you note the speech (and the commencement address at West Point where he wore a MAGA hat) was tesitng the limits of how much he could get away with by his Hitlerian rehetoric.
The newspaper headlines should have shouted out "Trump declares democracy dead on Memorial Day."
While the greatest demagogue in US history, while he sounds crazy, Trump is raking it in at taxpayer expense. He and his families have allegedly made billiions since the election.
While he revels in revenge and retailiation, as he "bargains" over tariffs, new Trump properties pop up. IMHO demagoguery is a diversion and Trump is goal oriented. Beyond alleged violations of the emoulments clause is the potential theft of the entire national treasury.
Does a public financial reporting service, a hedge fund, a mutual fund or an ETF track Trump's daily actions?
Can we identify which players are "winning" and which are losing?
Only about 1% of the top tenth of earners are apprently benefitting. The markets are down.
So on the one hand, we have a President who cannot form coherent sentences either written or verbalized, seems barely aware of what is going on around him, and is being whisked away by staff before he can interact. And yet, on the other hand, all the evils are placed at his feet as the mastermind of all of this. That can’t be right. Who is really behind all this? Behind the curtain? What has been going on takes a coordinated effort from multiple people and departments. Who is running this show, really?
Excellent question. Trump has been called a useful idiot. Some have asked: is he Putin's useful idiot? Who wrote Project 2025? Realize, this putsch has been in the planning for decades. I always recommend three books but now I have added a fourth: Jane Mayer, Dark Money; Rachel Maddow's Prequel; Christopher Wylie's Mind F*ck; and Sarah Kendzior's Hiding In Plain Sight.
Once upon a time, a defendant charged with murder, switched his plea at the last moment to allege insanity because he ws a Nazi and was compelled to kill and couldn't tell right from wrong.
"So tell me," asked the judge, "How is it you have a Jewish lawyer if you're a Nazi?"
"I said I'm crazy. I didn't say I'm stupid."
Shame, shame on the Jewish lawyer.
Verdict: guilty.
Sentence. A day with Ol' Sparky.
Oh, I bet it was a real quickie, just like L'il DonDon.
But we know lawyers know no shame when it comes to being paid to represent a client.
This is a good one!
1) A bright red flag sounds like a good place to start...
2) Speaking of flags, he wraps himself in one for which he has only the highest level of contempt, to say nothing of the millions who have fought and bled for it. Consider his presidential grifting — it's like selling one's daughter in the market square.
3) The problem is that Trump IS BEING Trump. People evolve over time: although the past to a large degree shapes the present, it also shapes the future. The seeds of this monstrosity were sown over 70 years ago. What grew was carefully tended and pruned and, with time (and aging), has become the abomination he is today. This isn't to say how he turned out was inevitable, it wasn't. However, at every inflection point in his life the arc of probable direction became more and more constrained, until today, evenloped in his narcissism and megalomania, he is blinded by delusion and hatred and is a clear and present danger, not only to us, but to the entire world. This man controls the launch codes?
4) If the scum - that's us – doesn't push back NOW (I do hate caps) in a coherent and forceful way, our freedom and our liberty will be lost. Trump won't need to send us to El Salvador or Sudan — there are plenty of walls to line us up against right here.
People may evolve, gain information and insight, and change their opinions, (beliefs are another thing though).
Voltaire said that a man can no longer change his character than a leopard his spots.
Trump has always been what he is, since he was a child and Fred dumped a bowl of mashed potatoes on his head.
Baby, he WAS born that way.
I think my new protest sign is going to be: We Need a President---Not A Psychopath.
So right, William.
Referring back to my "Trump As Plant" metaphor, he has indeed always been Trump the same as a rose is a rose (with thanks to Gertrude Stein). However, how that rose is tended determines how it turns out. What would the world be like today if Hitler had been granted admission to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 1908.
Again, Democratic “leadership” (currently supine) must recognize what we’re dealing with and craft compelling responses. Deteriorating though they may be, donvict’s mental faculties, combined with a disturbingly gullible and malleable fraction of the public, can do and are doing possibly fatal damage. If party bosses aren’t up to the task - and neither they nor past leaders seem particularly interested - they must step aside, STFU, and allow real leadership to emerge and prevail. The nation’s future depends on it.
Even if said "leadership" were willing to step aside (which clearly they aren't), the paymasters will always put up a corporate Dem and bar the way for, for instance, AOC. Look what they did to Katy Porter.
While the Titantic sinks, you guys are fixated on moving deck chairs.
The Democratic party needs revision, not reinforcement.
We are a big tent party. We want to include, not remove support.
BTW, George Soros, Warren Buffet and the Gates/Bezos ex wives' club don't control the party.
Where did you get the idea that I thought that Soros et al controlled the party.
My bitch is that Soros, despite the conspiracy theories of the right, hasn't done enough, He could buy up a cable channel like Murdoch.
Who said anything about Removing support? What support would be removed?
We need fresh blood,like David Hogg and AOC in leadership, not tired old racehorses that should have been put out to pasture.
That is correct, and it’s the problem we won’t examine. We cannot ignore it.
Who, precisely, are "you guys"? And what makes you think I'm one of them? Finally, is there a snap-of-the-fingers solution you propose?
"Corporate Dems." BS.
We are a minority party. We have no power. The entire Trump story should be limited to Republicans, who have the capacity to stop him.
Instead, you guys are obsessed with undermining Democrats.
There are Democrats, and then there are Democrats. I'm not looking for ideological purity, but there has to be something better than standing up for principle by sending trump "a strongly worded letter." The "leadership" sucks; the messaging sucks; and the dependence on money from people whose interests are antithetical to the public good sucks even more. Never forget whose $$$ put Adam Schiff in the Senate.
Psy ops works.
You work with what you have.
I LIKED Solomon's post because I agree the Democrats nationally have no power. The entity to hold responsible now is the Republican Party. It's their former leader, Mitch McConnell, who gave us a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court. Attack them. In my opinion, Democrats ran on our best platform--an extension of The New Deal and The Great Society. Can we Democrats figure out who our base is and motivate them as successfully as Trump does his base? They rush to his defense, not to attack him.
Poor Donald doesn't understand how "I'm rubber you're glue" works. The name-caller is the one the name sticks to.
Hello all. This from an army Viet Nam veteran with a father who served in England, North Africa and Italy and now reduced to the status of
“Scum”
along with approximately 150,000,00 Americans who happened to vote the “wrong way”. How can any thinking person not conclude that this person is “unqualified” to be president. President of all the people.
What shall we do with this powerful commentary. Words are inadequate. Action is required — who will lead us into the streets. Do you wonder what Barack Obama is thinking? How can he justify not urging us to the streets before the gestopo rules them. Does he respect the office of the presidency too much? Does h3 not feel a duty to those of us saw him as a new day in our country?
Who could be more powerful in moving all of us to rise up together.
What is the definition of dictatorship?
“Resistance is futile”.
The definition of liberty is the time and space when there is nothing left to lose. Good stress, the crises of consciousness of life or death, and the peril of cowardice. Talk is worthless, words are poison. A failure of imagination is what despots rely upon. That, and being inaccessible to vengeance. So bring the vengeance to it, on all fronts. Time to live, or time to die. A clear choice.
We need to talk
I am game. How?
Not sure. I am in Europe celebrating the anniversary of a study abroad program that I taught in. I return (hopefully ! Or hopelessly) in mid June. Let’s think about options.
I will ask Hartmann how this might be done. I see you are on substack. me also. I will try to link in that way, but I am new to it, so give me some time.
I am new to substack as well. I do not even like online presence. I only joined a couple of sites to keep informed after cancelling my NYT and Post subscriptions because they are both compromised in different ways. I also wanted to follow Krugman and Borowitz. I signed up for Richardson on the advice of friends. She is terrific but she has some domineering commenters and the rest seem to go over a and over the same old specific complaints about things that we already know about the administration—blowing off steam—I have no time or patience for that—as you well said—too many vacuous words. How far from the abyss are we.
Do you know the band Dawes? Listen to “Somewhere Along the Way”,one of the finest songs ever. In case you do not know their work Taylor Goldsmith is songwriter, lead guitarist and soloist. His lyrics are poetry and their breaks rock…do not miss them.
Trump’s handlers are no doubt still encouraged by their corporate string-pullers to allow him a limited free-hand because: 1) he can’t follow a scrip, 2) they are still interested in bolstering the violent, ignorant, more fervent constituents that are part of Trump’s base. Number 2 also protects the real people that got him elected, the uber-wealthy, from being scrutinized by the general population to any extent.
Those that control the corporations that control politics encourage Trump because he is still their ticket to changing the laws that they find intolerable (personal and corporate taxes (for the wealthy), regulation, anti-trust, truly-free press, low-cost health-care, medicare and medicaid, etc.) free education.
Ultimately, though, their biggest coup is not in fact making America great, at all, but rather tearing down its infrastructure so our treasury can be decimated. This is what the new organized crime of the 21st century looks like. Their playbook has been developed in order to take-over stable wealth in large populations. It’s fast, it’s ruthless, and unfortunately, it seems to be working, here.
Yes. Always follow the money. What is TFG's biggest effort? Still grift. The two-bit actor in it loves to use the expletives, the insults, the invectives. To belittle something or someone is projection and transference. Always look somewhere other than the intended mark. The big actors, in any polity, hate and fear each other. They use each other to leverage their way into various vectors of solidarity, where they cannot be easily displaced. All these vector have massive amounts of cash. You can purchase loyalty or fear with cash. We can be high-minded all we want, go high-go low, but once the talking heads get cottonmouth, the pain begins.
Commander-in-Chief, US Military Forces, to West Point Graduates: “The job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows, ... but to spread democracy to everybody around the world at the point of a gun.”
Holy Shit! If that is not demented drivel from the mouth of a senile dictator, then what is? Thirty-two years in uniform, and I never once heard my commander in chief say something as stupid as spreading democracy at the point of a gun. Pointing a gun at peoples' heads is not democracy. It is autocracy - something completely different. Is that really what draft dodgers think military service is?
PS: The WH-posted version of the above quote is not what I heard come out of Trump's mouth. They replaced the word "but" with "or".
Everyone in that captive audience was recruited under a real president not a psychopath. Biden never forgot to express blessings for the Troops.
Great comment, Tom. Hope some cherished memories of our fellow vets was part of your Memorial Day.
Krasnov is on his way in destroying America. Drump calling Dems scum is his projection of his understanding that he himself is what he names the mirror everyone is. His self-hatred is clear to any educated in the field. Removing Putin puppets from the American scene is the obvious choice that is being forced upon us. Drump has removed all other legit forces that gave government balance in its actions. The Chosen Halfdragon is rising. Hecate will enter the Oval Office first. The Dark Divine Feminine energy Visionaries will do what none other can do. The Dragons will be with her and her members. A new government will remove the Putin puppets and a legit replacement is coming. Praise God from whom all Blessings flow.
I built on what Thom wrote, including some excerpts from this, and used my comment below, for my own Substack today which I titled "Every honest paper in the country should have headlined yesterday's Memorial Day story "Trump Destroys Democracy." You can read it here: https://halbrown.substack.com/p/every-honest-paper-in-the-country
The honest papers probably did, all three of them (consider the number an estimate only; it could have been see).
Thanks for the comment Robert. Three out of how many? Too many people don't read beyond the headline. Those of us, Thom and his readers, you and I, and others like us know what is going on. I think most newspaper editors do too but are afraid to spell it out.
With Trump’s actions over the years, how many red flags need to spring up to see the impossibility of dealing with a madman and a Republican party that totally enables him to continue. He's done so many impeachable offenses that we are losing track. The Republicans and Trump have so long ago pushed the envelope over the edge of the earth. The term United States is a total oxymoron. How many times does it have to be said that IT IS TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE A UNITED COUNTRY WITH THESE PEOPLE! We will all be eventually enslaved by them. How long do you want to live in tyranny? We need to do something rather than beating around the bush and denying what has to be done by just sitting around talking about it. THERE HAS BEEN ENOUGH TALK. We need to do something and it has to be soon. It's already gone too far.
So my dear sir, you have led us to the edge of the abyss. You have put all the right ideas and words onto the veneer of my existential fears. Sadly you do not even outline a plan of action. I hope that you have gotten the attention of all us readers, but please lead us forward with even an outline for a plan of action. If the existing Congress does not see the urgency of our plight what can the individual citizen do. Where is our Martin Luther King? If we are to march united what is our destination?
You are without doubt right…. What next? Do you speak with any of our leadership who see it as you do—then where are their words echoing this moment. Is any one in Congress willing to throw himself on his sword? I fear not….
ALL Congressional Democats are taking Trump on, but we are in the minority. Like Dionysis with a lantern, we search for honest Congressional Republicans.
Recently there are glimmers of hope.... https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/blumenthal-and-grahams-hard-hitting-sanctions-bill-has-over-80-cosponsors
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/02/nx-s1-5381400/lawmaker-stock-ban-trump
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gop-senator-resistance-trumps-big-beautiful-bill-stop/story?id=122179072. Rand Paul told "Fox News Sunday" that he won't vote for the legislation unless the debt ceiling increase is stripped because he said it would "explode deficits."
It wad Diogenes and his lantern. When I was a young beat in uniform I hung out at Diogenes Lantern with other beats.
Dionysos, the name means Son of god,was the son of Zeus (Dios) and a moral woman, he was also the Greek God of wine, turned water into wine, his feast day the Dionysia was Dec 25th, Romans called him Bacchus,whose feast day was the Bacchanalia
The Saturnalia preceeded the Bacchanalia (Dec 17 - 23)
The only objection that Rand Paul, et al have to the House Budget is that it doesn't cut the social safety net (Medicaid, Medicare,SNAP)enough, They want a balanced budget, at the expense of "entitlements" , they do not object to the tax breaks for the plutocrats.
Beat me to it.
Sore Loser/Winner
TRump is a loser and he damn well knows it. He has the Presidency, the Congress, and SCOTUS and he still can't quit whining. NOTHING will ever fill the hole inside of him.
As much as I want an actual president instead of a psychopath, his use of the office to attack, attack, attack (like Cohn taught him) will probably lead to a huge swing of the pendulum.
His financial crimes and propaganda are actually not recruiting new people to do his bidding. He's formed a government that is hurting his own along with the "scum". He didn't lose the plot---he never had it. West Point speech was a disaster. Remembering those who died for us, too busy playing golf. If he was being presidential and acting like a gracious winner, now that would be a much bigger problem.
Still, it's good to sound the alarm, Thom. See you in the streets.