While the "mean girls" bitch-slap one another, the far right is at a loss. The really foolish ones are trying to spin the spat as intentional; it's another Q Anon claim of a 4D chess game. That's funny on so many levels.
We thought gloating, Chainsaw Elon was insufferable, now we have to listen to him whine incessantly. Waaaa! Somebody should call the wambulance!
Will this turn out to be our favorite week of TRump's second term? It might be right up there with when he leaves office. In the meantime, we can dream and count all the ways that might happen.
Very curious how Elon is now on board for impeachment so Vance can take over. This sounds like his best bud, Peter Thiel talkin'. He groomed Vance politically. Speaking of impeachment, next stop some SCOTUS Justices.
Michael Wolff just described the Epstein pics he saw of Donald. Sickening. Wonder if the DOGE-bros can hack that file and publish it.
Thanks for the history and stats, Thom. See you in the streets.
Years after its initial launch, Bannon’s “War Room” Podcast continues to gain traction as a go-to media source for conspiracy theorists. As of early 2025, social media accounts for the podcast have amassed over 180K followers on Instagram, 176.7K followers on X (formerly Twitter) and one million followers on Rumble. In 2023, the “War Room” topped a Brookings Institute list of political podcasts most responsible for spreading false and misleading information.
Guests on Bannon’s show have ranged from mainstream political figures to conspiracy theorists, many of whom promote false or misleading claims related to the government, the media, health and more. This includes election deniers like Mike Lindell, QAnon-adjacent influencers like Jim Caviezel, promoters of anti-vaccine narratives like Robert Malone and far-right conspiratorial commentator Alex Jones, whom Bannon has widely praised.
Some Members of Congress frequently appear on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast.
Frequent Guests:
*Senators: Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) and Tommy Tuberville (R., Ala.).
*Representatives: Lauren Boebert (R., Colo.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.). Nancy Mace (R., S.C.).
*Chip Roy (R-Texas): Guest-hosted the show while Bannon was serving his prison sentence.
*Josh Brecheen (R-OK): Joined the show to discuss various political issues including Israel, Ukraine, and appropriations.
*Former Representative: Matt Gaetz (R-FL)
Other topics of choice on “War Room” include anti-immigration and mass deportation narratives, misleading claims about mass shootings and threats of retribution against so-called enemies like the “Deep State gestapo.”
Bannon's influence on Congress members and the broader political landscape manifests in several ways, primarily through his media platforms, particularly his "War Room" podcast, and his involvement in promoting certain political agendas.
1. Promotion of Political Agendas and "America First" Movement:
Bannon played a key role in shaping the "America First" message that resonated with many voters during the 2016 campaign, a message he continues to advocate.
His influence is linked to an uncompromising ideological and political agenda on the right, pushing for extreme and hardcore agendas.
He has also supported various far-right candidates in the U.S. and Europe.
2. Use of Media Platforms to Shape Discourse:
Bannon's "War Room" podcast serves as a platform to debut those who want to be a major part of the "Make America Great Again" movement.
He uses the platform to promote false and misleading information, including election denial narratives that contributed to the events of January 6th.
His show has been instrumental in rallying grassroots support and engaging followers to pressure specific Republican senators.
3. Impact on Republican Politics:
Some sources suggest that Bannon's influence has helped make the Republican Party more aligned with the "party of Trump".
His presence potentially encourages some Republicans to adopt more extreme stances on issues like immigration and trade.
4. Interactions with Congress:
Bannon has been in communication with lawmakers on the Hill, strategizing and gathering information.
He has faced legal repercussions related to his refusal to cooperate with the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack, including a contempt of Congress conviction, which was upheld by an appeals court.
The House of Representatives held Bannon in contempt of Congress in October 2021 for his defiance of a subpoena.
5. Precinct Strategy:
Bannon has promoted the "precinct strategy" to encourage Trump-aligned conservatives to become involved in local GOP parties.
Important Note: It's important to consider that Bannon's influence is a subject of ongoing debate, with some sources claiming his potency is overrated. Some commentators initially dismissed his influence due to his apparent failures and controversial statements, but the January 6th committee acknowledged the seriousness of his actions.
Thanks a lot, RB. That image is going to haunt me until I die.
Actually, there were (still are?) shamanic traditions in eastern Siberia where the shaman would eat amanitas and others would drink his urine. I think I'll pass.
Daniel,great post,question is,how do we fight back. That seems to always be the issue,all this dirty garbage comes out,but their is no fight back. What is the strategy,what is plan,who has a plan.Can we focus on just one issue,create a strategy,get support and carry out the plan. You're list of really bad actors is great,but what is next?
If progressive Democrats adopted the "precinct strategy" maybe we would have had a different president and congress, instead of the same old oligarch approved pablum.
At the local level it is the Republicans who are the motivated activists, from everything to the school board to the city council (something my wife as a building official had to deal with for 20 years) virtually all school boards and districts are controlled by Republicans.
The Republican party for years has poured all of their resources and effort into the General Election, neglecting local elections. While the Republican party grew its power from the roots on up, the Democrats concentrated all of their money and effort on the canopy.
Who is Michael Wolff? As to content, if we dare to look just under the covers, just a little, we see the total immersion into prurient addictions of the classless elite class. Eyes Wide Shut. DC, the old home to slave labor, the new home to enslaved misogyny. Being a male human in this lifetime, I can attest to the nearly incessant urge to experience everything via debauchery. It flies around men like pesky bugs looking for blood. Testosterone, I guess, is at the chemical heart of it, but that chemistry can be non-aggressively channeled, by both sexes, into much higher forms of art, continuity and knowing. I vote for raw Fear as the real culprit in this deranged and furtive, second-hand violence of male against male, and maleness against femininity. This is terrorism, and to prove it the nation now has an incel grocery bag boy keeping all of us safe from its clutches. Not. At one time, not too long ago, there was a reckoning called healthy shame. It was not punishment, it was honest reckoning with ones own conscience, a chance to change, to improve, to be a better being. The lust for mammon and prurient wet dreams has drowned conscience in semen and blood.
Joe Biden is taking a lot of heat these days, much of it deserved. Two of his worst decisions:
1. Appointing Merrick Garland, whose dereliction in pursuing Tr*mp allowed him to avoid prosecution, to AG.
2. Failing to expand the Court, which lead directly to the Court’s bizarre presidential immunity decision. Elie Mystal, among others, offered a compelling argument for expansion, which should be followed on the off chance we get another opportunity to do so.
So far there’s been precious little evidence the Dem’s feckless, intesticulate, geriatric corporate “leadership” has learned anything substantive from its latest round of defeats or its current standing with voters (Repugnicans still out-poll Dems on the economy!). Our old guard, much of which is even older than my 80 years, needs to get out of the way while there remains a way.
"Amen, brother Ben" This 86 year old totally agrees with you. Those who will have to live with the policies enacted by Congress and the executive, should be the ones, passing this legislation, one caveat though. Youth lacks institutional memory (remember he who controls the past controls the future), however corporations do not, lack institutional memory, their prime directive is survival and make as much profit as possible, and with their immense and apparently bottomless resources they buy all of the knowledge and public opinion, not to mention politics, that they can.
A reminder, Standard Oil, in one of it's many names, paid for a study, in 1974, of the effects of the carbon industry on the health of the planet, and then buried the study, and continues to spend money on propaganda and politicians, to tamp down if not kill renewable energy technology and manufacturing, while digging more and more wells
Once again seeing the articulated truth sitting on the page gives me enough hope to keep getting out of bed. I want to scream this out , put it on screen so those addicted to social media might, just might want to educate themselves with your help.
John Roberts needs to be dreaming of the truth that is his! He needs to be put out there in all naked truth! All of those so called”richest , and so called “ most powerful , need to have the naked truth be on every eyeball of America. They are simple , boring, two year olds getting away with criminal activity that WE the people have allowed. I have seen tiny children with more ethics in a grocery store. Why? Because the adults in the room have put boundaries in place. Have set standards and expectations and rules in place. The adults in the room know what good parenting looks like. Do we as Adult Americans know how to parent?
Put your toys away John Roberts, because you are going to bed without dessert. You are an out of control freak. I don’t play with children like you.
2:00 PM ET Over 200 sister events organized by Indivisible and 50501 around the country and livestreaming from the mall.
"We want those in power to know we aren’t going to sit back while they quietly try to destroy the benefits and healthcare our veterans fought to earn. We won’t accept them firing thousands of veterans and others from their jobs at the will of a child. We will not accept the attacks on our Constitution that we swore oaths to uphold."
One thing worth keeping in mind is that when the Dems had control of both houses, they did NOT pass legislation to neuter Citizens United. Thus, both parties have supported this obvious threat to democracy. I do not recall any presidential candidate since the 2010 decisions running on a platform that included undoing Citizens United. Thus, Musk America Greedy Again is a bipartisan political beast.
In addition, I would caution against enjoying a moment of schadenfreude, because the MAGA clown fight is our government that the two of them vandalized. Thus, you would be laughing at them burning down your own house.
There is a simple explanation Tom, why the Dems have not pass legislation to neuter Citizens United, and that is, that they too slop at the same trough as the Republicans, Their business plan is simply, we aren't them and that is not working. They don't know how to do anything else, because they are totally dependent on donor cash. I don't think that the muckety mucks, the strategists, the analysts, etc, actually care if they win an election, because their income is derived from the largess of the DNC., and if the Democrats lose, then they can excite the amygdala of the base, by reminding them of the threat posed by the Republicans., and continue to pick pockets via Act Blue.
Thom Hartmann, earlier this week, very dispassionately dissected Act Blue, if you wish to donate to a campaign, do so through their web page. Act Blue does not thoroughly vet, those that sign up for it's services, and truth be told most of the money goes to pay the salaries of professional politicians and strategists.
Let's talk about the filibuster and the voting threshhold in the Senate. I can't turn on TV without hearing that it takes 60 votes to pass anything in the Senate. And that is not true, all it takes is 51 votes, so what appears to be happening is that their is a quiet conspiracy in the media and among politicians, in which they assume a filibuster on any legislation. There is no 60 vote rule written into the Senate rules.
Are Trump and Musk really fighting, or is this pre planned theater to suck us in, distract us, while they go about their agenda. Musk hasn't left the White House, he has Big Balls and his crew of acne nerds embedded in essential cabinets, and now as government employees.
You see it all of the time, Democrats wetting their pants in anticipatory glee, first the Mueller Report (a dude), the appointment of Jack Smith (again a dud), the Georgia indictments, on and on it goes and now this fake falling out between Musk and Trump.
I've even read that there are some in the Democratic leadership that embrace Musk, on the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Well anyone who tried to get in between a brawl between a leopard and a lion, or a vampire and a werewolf, winds up lunch.
It is all theater, a distraction, when Trump cancels all of Musk's contracts, then maybe I will believe
Sit back, watch, eat popcorn, but realize that this is just another WWE reality show.
All true, and yest Musk admitted helping Trump in Pennsylvania, but if you expect an investigation, well there are always snipes to chase in the gas of Florida swamps.
By the way I have a bone to pick with Ro Khanna, a frequent guest on Thom's show
here's why: He us either totally naive or feckless (lots of that in the Democratic party leadership)
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) previously told The Bulwark that he believes Democrats should bring Musk back into the tent. At the very least, Politico suggests, Musk’s heel turn against Trump is “complicating the Democratic party’s portrayal of him as a chainsaw-wielding, bureaucracy-breaking villain.”
The trouble is that Musk really is a chainsaw-wielding, bureaucracy-breaking villain. He’s done immeasurable damage to our government. He may be gone from Washington, but, to return to Mark Antony’s speech, the evil Musk has done lives on after him. And more broadly he’s a thoroughgoing enemy of liberal democracy, a backer and promoter of authoritarian parties ranging from Trump’s GOP to Germany’s AfD.
Musk supports the Nazis who would turn most the occupants of Silicon Valley into crispy critters. Some of the wealthiest now live here and are not Ro's constituants. I.E. Peter Thiel who owns Palantir. In April won a $30 million contract from the ICE to develop an operating system that identifies undocumented immigrants and tracks self-deportations, its largest single award from the agency among 46 federal contract actions since 2011.
Yesterday in the oval office, Herr Merz, the president of Deutschland, opposed by an illegal Nazi party supported by Musk was available for questions.
I would have asked what about prosecuting Musk/Vance as illegal foreign influences in the Deutsche elctions?
Here is something that boggles my mind Daniel. Trump's MAGAt base, is if anything anti semitic. Who can forget the "Jews won't replace me chant", and the pro Israel position of the end times evangelicals is actually anti semitic.
Like Mel Gibson, they believe that Jews are Christ killers, and that when their Yahooshua returns, all the Jews will be wiped out, except for the 240,000 that convert to Christianity.
Trump is using claims of anti semitism to persecute universities, meanwhile he has the most anti semitic cabinet ever.
Then there is the neo NAZI Jew Stephen Miller, not to mention all of the other Jews clinging to Trump's skirt.
Then there are the Muslims who either voted for Trump or sat out the election, thus shifting Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to Trump, some of them have buyers remorse, but many haven't.
I have a suspicion that the real agenda of Stephen Miller, and it is he who is the driver of the remigration and deportation program, dates back to the anti Muslim ban in Trump 45, The real motivation of Miller is to deport Muslims, but he first have to work his way through the other migrants, he will get to them eventually.
It is mind boggling to confront Jewish NAZI's, but then there are black NAZI's like Kanye and Mark Robinson.
There is one scapegoat that unifies them all, and Trump is playing the card very well, the transgendered.
I remember the time when the right was united around demonizing gays and gay marriage, but then Trump appoints cross dressing Vance as VP, Bessent as Sec of Treasury and then there is Peter Thiel, sponsor and mentor of Vance and financier of Trump, and of course the gay country club millionaires of Log Cabin Republicans.
What a strange world, the Republican party is a party of bigots, anti semites, racists, homophobes, xenophobes, theocrats, Islamophobes and yet all of those groups are in Trump's dedicated base.
The pepole we need to educate, Congressional Republicans, obey Trump, not the base. We want them to have a conscience, not be influenced by greed or power or religous conviction or fear.
The base is easily manipulated. Lumpen proletariat. A good salesman can sell snow water in Greenland.
We all have an amigdala, sensitive to stimuli....like demagoguery. Trump, in costume, make up, as snake oil salesman, plays the "hero with a thousand faces" character for the crowd.
If there is a voter revolt, a blue tsunami, in 2026, maybe the Republicans will learn a lesson, but I doubt it, because the vast majority of Republican politicians are in office because they share the same mentality as their electorate.
Roberts was concerned about his legacy. I wonder if going down in history as the man who single handedly destroyed our democratic republic is enough of a legacy for him?
In his majority opinion, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney cited two main rationales for ruling against Scott; first, as an African American, Scott "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect," and was therefore not eligible bring a suit to court.
I held hearings in Frederick, Maryland, where he is still venerated.
But most of us think he helped cause a civil war and approximately 620,000 deaths. The National Park Service estimates that around 2% of the total population died in the war. Disease, rather than battle, was the leading cause of death, with approximately two-thirds of the deaths attributed to illness.
Thom, You need to have a conversation with Ro Khanna
Here is what I mean:
Ro disappoints. I didn't know that he was so naive and feckless.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) previously told The Bulwark that he believes Democrats should bring Musk back into the tent. At the very least, Politico suggests, Musk’s heel turn against Trump is “complicating the Democratic party’s portrayal of him as a chainsaw-wielding, bureaucracy-breaking villain.”
The trouble is that Musk really is a chainsaw-wielding, bureaucracy-breaking villain. He’s done immeasurable damage to our government. He may be gone from Washington, but, to return to Mark Antony’s speech, the evil Musk has done lives on after him. And more broadly he’s a thoroughgoing enemy of liberal democracy, a backer and promoter of authoritarian parties ranging from Trump’s GOP to Germany’s AfD.
Might we pause in buying into this "feud" and consider that it may be just another show, similar to the phony Pro Wrestling-staged antagonism and anger between two wrestlers?
Take care in celebrating -- and then getting caught up in -- choosing a side and cheering, like the misguided audiences at these events.
It does fit both these guys' MO for staged conflict and the commitment to monopolizing everyone's attention.
I would counsel care in allowing them to define the key issues of what is at stake.
More like rats fighting over a stinking scrap. Or would that be like two little children who really hate each other fighting like hell? The similes are endless.
Think of Democracy as Kitty Genovese*, with Trump-Musk as Winston Mosley.
Now imagine your Democrats up on The Hill just leaning out of their windows in 1964, meekly taking in the horror show.
*Kitty Genovese was a 28-year-old woman whose tragic murder in 1964 became a pivotal moment in American social psychology and media history. She was attacked outside her apartment in Queens, New York, by Winston Moseley, who stabbed and raped her.
The moral decay you speak of has a source, a seed, called capitalism!!! You'd best quit blaming people and talk about the SYSTEM that created those people. The autocrats love watching you criticize people and ignore the system that created them. You're pissing up a rope with such rhetoric.
I would make two points of clarification or distinction. The justices on the take are true believers who the billionaires recognized as subject to their influence and as desiring of their acceptance and approval. They vote on cases based on a totally reactionary and fascist-oriented philosophy, with religious zealotry and sanctimony and righteous indignation as their core motivation. They speak for a powerful minority who cling to the security of past glory and fantasy. The money can sway the people and win elections only because the people are ignorant, many willingly. They are fickle and child-like in their thinking, and apathetic. You can't fix stupid. But we could have done much to reduce ignorance, indifference, and gullibility. That choice was made (consciously by educators, legislators, and thought leaders) in favor of keeping children "servile and dumb" to use Holt's words. When children are free and it is understood that coercion in "education" transmutes education into indoctrination and trivial pursuits, democracy has a chance. The people may figure some things out on their own once again when the threats are terrifying enough, but all we are doing is biding our time and buying time - at a terrible cost. Maybe someday, education will be taken seriously by people who indulge themselves with politics and ignore the fact that education is pure politics. I'm not holding my breath. Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. Or something like that. No one wants to hear it. No one will abandon the myth and deal with the reality. Too bad.
IMHO they may be criminals. Bribery is a crime. Failure to address conflicts may not be crimes per se, but by law they require disqualification.
28 U.S. Code § 455 - Disqualification of justice, judge, or magistrate judge
(a)Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
Collateral attack via the bar is not working. On Friday morning, The Florida Bar rejected the latest Pam Bondi bar complaint. A coalition of about 70 law professors, attorneys and former Florida Supreme Court justices attacked Bondi’s record in an ethics complaint filed on Thursday with The Florida Bar. They accuse Bondi, a Florida Bar member, of violating her ethical duties as U.S. Attorney General, saying she has committed “serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice.”
The practical reality seems to be that these people are all untouchable, impervious, and immune. No one dares to take them on or is able to enforce the laws or the Constitution when they are in flagrant violation. As Thom has said, it is up to the people at this point. How mauc faith do you have in the people?
There are hundreds of thousands of laws on the books, like spitting on a sidewalk, but unless they are enforced,prosecuted and punished they are of no effect. Bribery may be a crime, but except in rare cases, and those being the out of power party, they are not prosecuted.
Chances of Pam Bondi's DOJ, holding any neo fascist feet to the fire?
While the "mean girls" bitch-slap one another, the far right is at a loss. The really foolish ones are trying to spin the spat as intentional; it's another Q Anon claim of a 4D chess game. That's funny on so many levels.
We thought gloating, Chainsaw Elon was insufferable, now we have to listen to him whine incessantly. Waaaa! Somebody should call the wambulance!
Will this turn out to be our favorite week of TRump's second term? It might be right up there with when he leaves office. In the meantime, we can dream and count all the ways that might happen.
Very curious how Elon is now on board for impeachment so Vance can take over. This sounds like his best bud, Peter Thiel talkin'. He groomed Vance politically. Speaking of impeachment, next stop some SCOTUS Justices.
Michael Wolff just described the Epstein pics he saw of Donald. Sickening. Wonder if the DOGE-bros can hack that file and publish it.
Thanks for the history and stats, Thom. See you in the streets.
IMHO inside MAGA the big threat is Bannon. Thats right. I didn't stutter.
Bannon wants Musk to be deported, demanded his alleged drug use and ties to China to be investigated, and said Musk’s company, SpaceX, should be “seized” by the government. According to the Daily Beast, "now the MAGA loyalist has turned to physical threats to demonstrate his loyalty to the president." https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-promises-punk-elon-musk-im-going-to-rip-your-fing-face-off/
Years after its initial launch, Bannon’s “War Room” Podcast continues to gain traction as a go-to media source for conspiracy theorists. As of early 2025, social media accounts for the podcast have amassed over 180K followers on Instagram, 176.7K followers on X (formerly Twitter) and one million followers on Rumble. In 2023, the “War Room” topped a Brookings Institute list of political podcasts most responsible for spreading false and misleading information.
Guests on Bannon’s show have ranged from mainstream political figures to conspiracy theorists, many of whom promote false or misleading claims related to the government, the media, health and more. This includes election deniers like Mike Lindell, QAnon-adjacent influencers like Jim Caviezel, promoters of anti-vaccine narratives like Robert Malone and far-right conspiratorial commentator Alex Jones, whom Bannon has widely praised.
Some Members of Congress frequently appear on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast.
Frequent Guests:
*Senators: Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) and Tommy Tuberville (R., Ala.).
*Representatives: Lauren Boebert (R., Colo.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.). Nancy Mace (R., S.C.).
*Chip Roy (R-Texas): Guest-hosted the show while Bannon was serving his prison sentence.
*Josh Brecheen (R-OK): Joined the show to discuss various political issues including Israel, Ukraine, and appropriations.
*Former Representative: Matt Gaetz (R-FL)
Other topics of choice on “War Room” include anti-immigration and mass deportation narratives, misleading claims about mass shootings and threats of retribution against so-called enemies like the “Deep State gestapo.”
Bannon's influence on Congress members and the broader political landscape manifests in several ways, primarily through his media platforms, particularly his "War Room" podcast, and his involvement in promoting certain political agendas.
1. Promotion of Political Agendas and "America First" Movement:
Bannon played a key role in shaping the "America First" message that resonated with many voters during the 2016 campaign, a message he continues to advocate.
His influence is linked to an uncompromising ideological and political agenda on the right, pushing for extreme and hardcore agendas.
He has also supported various far-right candidates in the U.S. and Europe.
2. Use of Media Platforms to Shape Discourse:
Bannon's "War Room" podcast serves as a platform to debut those who want to be a major part of the "Make America Great Again" movement.
He uses the platform to promote false and misleading information, including election denial narratives that contributed to the events of January 6th.
His show has been instrumental in rallying grassroots support and engaging followers to pressure specific Republican senators.
3. Impact on Republican Politics:
Some sources suggest that Bannon's influence has helped make the Republican Party more aligned with the "party of Trump".
His presence potentially encourages some Republicans to adopt more extreme stances on issues like immigration and trade.
4. Interactions with Congress:
Bannon has been in communication with lawmakers on the Hill, strategizing and gathering information.
He has faced legal repercussions related to his refusal to cooperate with the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack, including a contempt of Congress conviction, which was upheld by an appeals court.
The House of Representatives held Bannon in contempt of Congress in October 2021 for his defiance of a subpoena.
5. Precinct Strategy:
Bannon has promoted the "precinct strategy" to encourage Trump-aligned conservatives to become involved in local GOP parties.
Important Note: It's important to consider that Bannon's influence is a subject of ongoing debate, with some sources claiming his potency is overrated. Some commentators initially dismissed his influence due to his apparent failures and controversial statements, but the January 6th committee acknowledged the seriousness of his actions.
Musk’s alleged drug use? Alleged?
Musk probably urinates pure ketamine.
Thanks a lot, RB. That image is going to haunt me until I die.
Actually, there were (still are?) shamanic traditions in eastern Siberia where the shaman would eat amanitas and others would drink his urine. I think I'll pass.
Daniel,great post,question is,how do we fight back. That seems to always be the issue,all this dirty garbage comes out,but their is no fight back. What is the strategy,what is plan,who has a plan.Can we focus on just one issue,create a strategy,get support and carry out the plan. You're list of really bad actors is great,but what is next?
Recent developments may be a window of opportunity.
I support the Jerry Weiss method -- shared government is possible. https://jerryweiss.substack.com/
I had hoped that Don Bacon, R. Ne, a retired general, would buck his party in the budget House vote. We only needed 2 votes.
I'm working on pressuring 3 House Republicans where I live -- all Cuban Americans. 2 of 3 had been Dems but switched due to Cuba policy.
If progressive Democrats adopted the "precinct strategy" maybe we would have had a different president and congress, instead of the same old oligarch approved pablum.
We did. Doesn't work. People don't know their neighbors anymore.
At the local level it is the Republicans who are the motivated activists, from everything to the school board to the city council (something my wife as a building official had to deal with for 20 years) virtually all school boards and districts are controlled by Republicans.
The Republican party for years has poured all of their resources and effort into the General Election, neglecting local elections. While the Republican party grew its power from the roots on up, the Democrats concentrated all of their money and effort on the canopy.
Who is Michael Wolff? As to content, if we dare to look just under the covers, just a little, we see the total immersion into prurient addictions of the classless elite class. Eyes Wide Shut. DC, the old home to slave labor, the new home to enslaved misogyny. Being a male human in this lifetime, I can attest to the nearly incessant urge to experience everything via debauchery. It flies around men like pesky bugs looking for blood. Testosterone, I guess, is at the chemical heart of it, but that chemistry can be non-aggressively channeled, by both sexes, into much higher forms of art, continuity and knowing. I vote for raw Fear as the real culprit in this deranged and furtive, second-hand violence of male against male, and maleness against femininity. This is terrorism, and to prove it the nation now has an incel grocery bag boy keeping all of us safe from its clutches. Not. At one time, not too long ago, there was a reckoning called healthy shame. It was not punishment, it was honest reckoning with ones own conscience, a chance to change, to improve, to be a better being. The lust for mammon and prurient wet dreams has drowned conscience in semen and blood.
One photo Wolff described:
Topless teens (3 of them) laughing and pointing at what is [likely] a cum-stain on the front of the 45th-47th President's pants.
Stay classy D.C.
Joe Biden is taking a lot of heat these days, much of it deserved. Two of his worst decisions:
1. Appointing Merrick Garland, whose dereliction in pursuing Tr*mp allowed him to avoid prosecution, to AG.
2. Failing to expand the Court, which lead directly to the Court’s bizarre presidential immunity decision. Elie Mystal, among others, offered a compelling argument for expansion, which should be followed on the off chance we get another opportunity to do so.
So far there’s been precious little evidence the Dem’s feckless, intesticulate, geriatric corporate “leadership” has learned anything substantive from its latest round of defeats or its current standing with voters (Repugnicans still out-poll Dems on the economy!). Our old guard, much of which is even older than my 80 years, needs to get out of the way while there remains a way.
"Amen, brother Ben" This 86 year old totally agrees with you. Those who will have to live with the policies enacted by Congress and the executive, should be the ones, passing this legislation, one caveat though. Youth lacks institutional memory (remember he who controls the past controls the future), however corporations do not, lack institutional memory, their prime directive is survival and make as much profit as possible, and with their immense and apparently bottomless resources they buy all of the knowledge and public opinion, not to mention politics, that they can.
A reminder, Standard Oil, in one of it's many names, paid for a study, in 1974, of the effects of the carbon industry on the health of the planet, and then buried the study, and continues to spend money on propaganda and politicians, to tamp down if not kill renewable energy technology and manufacturing, while digging more and more wells
Once again seeing the articulated truth sitting on the page gives me enough hope to keep getting out of bed. I want to scream this out , put it on screen so those addicted to social media might, just might want to educate themselves with your help.
John Roberts needs to be dreaming of the truth that is his! He needs to be put out there in all naked truth! All of those so called”richest , and so called “ most powerful , need to have the naked truth be on every eyeball of America. They are simple , boring, two year olds getting away with criminal activity that WE the people have allowed. I have seen tiny children with more ethics in a grocery store. Why? Because the adults in the room have put boundaries in place. Have set standards and expectations and rules in place. The adults in the room know what good parenting looks like. Do we as Adult Americans know how to parent?
Put your toys away John Roberts, because you are going to bed without dessert. You are an out of control freak. I don’t play with children like you.
Use your words America: IMPEACH….
Vets on the mall today.
2:00 PM ET Over 200 sister events organized by Indivisible and 50501 around the country and livestreaming from the mall.
"We want those in power to know we aren’t going to sit back while they quietly try to destroy the benefits and healthcare our veterans fought to earn. We won’t accept them firing thousands of veterans and others from their jobs at the will of a child. We will not accept the attacks on our Constitution that we swore oaths to uphold."
FP Wellman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFXqb3IVf3s
It should have been called "Billionaires United"
One thing worth keeping in mind is that when the Dems had control of both houses, they did NOT pass legislation to neuter Citizens United. Thus, both parties have supported this obvious threat to democracy. I do not recall any presidential candidate since the 2010 decisions running on a platform that included undoing Citizens United. Thus, Musk America Greedy Again is a bipartisan political beast.
In addition, I would caution against enjoying a moment of schadenfreude, because the MAGA clown fight is our government that the two of them vandalized. Thus, you would be laughing at them burning down your own house.
Didn't Bernie run on overturning Citizens United?
As a primary candidate - yes. But DNC quickly sidelined him despite his appeal because he was too progressive.
There is a simple explanation Tom, why the Dems have not pass legislation to neuter Citizens United, and that is, that they too slop at the same trough as the Republicans, Their business plan is simply, we aren't them and that is not working. They don't know how to do anything else, because they are totally dependent on donor cash. I don't think that the muckety mucks, the strategists, the analysts, etc, actually care if they win an election, because their income is derived from the largess of the DNC., and if the Democrats lose, then they can excite the amygdala of the base, by reminding them of the threat posed by the Republicans., and continue to pick pockets via Act Blue.
Thom Hartmann, earlier this week, very dispassionately dissected Act Blue, if you wish to donate to a campaign, do so through their web page. Act Blue does not thoroughly vet, those that sign up for it's services, and truth be told most of the money goes to pay the salaries of professional politicians and strategists.
Never really had "control".
Obama had control of both houses and blew it.
Agreed,Obama not a fighter.
Martin Luther Obama. Talks a good talk but never delivers.
For a couple of weeks. Teddy Kennedy died and was replaced by a Republican and Dems lost control.
Did have control under Clinton until '94.
Citizens United happened in 2010. Kennedy died in 2009 - Dems still had control of Congress until 2011.
Lost the capacity to break the filibuster when he died. If you think Manchin, several others were "controlable" There's a bridge to Brooklyn....
Let's talk about the filibuster and the voting threshhold in the Senate. I can't turn on TV without hearing that it takes 60 votes to pass anything in the Senate. And that is not true, all it takes is 51 votes, so what appears to be happening is that their is a quiet conspiracy in the media and among politicians, in which they assume a filibuster on any legislation. There is no 60 vote rule written into the Senate rules.
Valid point.
Are Trump and Musk really fighting, or is this pre planned theater to suck us in, distract us, while they go about their agenda. Musk hasn't left the White House, he has Big Balls and his crew of acne nerds embedded in essential cabinets, and now as government employees.
You see it all of the time, Democrats wetting their pants in anticipatory glee, first the Mueller Report (a dude), the appointment of Jack Smith (again a dud), the Georgia indictments, on and on it goes and now this fake falling out between Musk and Trump.
I've even read that there are some in the Democratic leadership that embrace Musk, on the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Well anyone who tried to get in between a brawl between a leopard and a lion, or a vampire and a werewolf, winds up lunch.
It is all theater, a distraction, when Trump cancels all of Musk's contracts, then maybe I will believe
Sit back, watch, eat popcorn, but realize that this is just another WWE reality show.
Hope not. The Big Beautiful budget is at stake. If it wins, we lose. Lots of ramifications.
Did Trump admit that Musk fixed Pennsylvania? A Pennsylvaninia grandjury should be on the case.
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a new report entitled, “Special Interests over the Public Interest: Elon Musk's 130 Days in the Trump Administration.” https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/130_days_of_elon_musk_report.pdf
What about other liability exposure? The other day Bill Gates, accused Musk of the killing of 300,000 Africans.
Yesterday, Musk lost around $34 billion, primarily due to a 14% plunge in Tesla's stock price. He has billions in federal contracts at stake.
All true, and yest Musk admitted helping Trump in Pennsylvania, but if you expect an investigation, well there are always snipes to chase in the gas of Florida swamps.
By the way I have a bone to pick with Ro Khanna, a frequent guest on Thom's show
here's why: He us either totally naive or feckless (lots of that in the Democratic party leadership)
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) previously told The Bulwark that he believes Democrats should bring Musk back into the tent. At the very least, Politico suggests, Musk’s heel turn against Trump is “complicating the Democratic party’s portrayal of him as a chainsaw-wielding, bureaucracy-breaking villain.”
The trouble is that Musk really is a chainsaw-wielding, bureaucracy-breaking villain. He’s done immeasurable damage to our government. He may be gone from Washington, but, to return to Mark Antony’s speech, the evil Musk has done lives on after him. And more broadly he’s a thoroughgoing enemy of liberal democracy, a backer and promoter of authoritarian parties ranging from Trump’s GOP to Germany’s AfD.
Musk supports the Nazis who would turn most the occupants of Silicon Valley into crispy critters. Some of the wealthiest now live here and are not Ro's constituants. I.E. Peter Thiel who owns Palantir. In April won a $30 million contract from the ICE to develop an operating system that identifies undocumented immigrants and tracks self-deportations, its largest single award from the agency among 46 federal contract actions since 2011.
Yesterday in the oval office, Herr Merz, the president of Deutschland, opposed by an illegal Nazi party supported by Musk was available for questions.
I would have asked what about prosecuting Musk/Vance as illegal foreign influences in the Deutsche elctions?
Was fur Nazis?
Here is something that boggles my mind Daniel. Trump's MAGAt base, is if anything anti semitic. Who can forget the "Jews won't replace me chant", and the pro Israel position of the end times evangelicals is actually anti semitic.
Like Mel Gibson, they believe that Jews are Christ killers, and that when their Yahooshua returns, all the Jews will be wiped out, except for the 240,000 that convert to Christianity.
Trump is using claims of anti semitism to persecute universities, meanwhile he has the most anti semitic cabinet ever.
Then there is the neo NAZI Jew Stephen Miller, not to mention all of the other Jews clinging to Trump's skirt.
Then there are the Muslims who either voted for Trump or sat out the election, thus shifting Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to Trump, some of them have buyers remorse, but many haven't.
I have a suspicion that the real agenda of Stephen Miller, and it is he who is the driver of the remigration and deportation program, dates back to the anti Muslim ban in Trump 45, The real motivation of Miller is to deport Muslims, but he first have to work his way through the other migrants, he will get to them eventually.
It is mind boggling to confront Jewish NAZI's, but then there are black NAZI's like Kanye and Mark Robinson.
There is one scapegoat that unifies them all, and Trump is playing the card very well, the transgendered.
I remember the time when the right was united around demonizing gays and gay marriage, but then Trump appoints cross dressing Vance as VP, Bessent as Sec of Treasury and then there is Peter Thiel, sponsor and mentor of Vance and financier of Trump, and of course the gay country club millionaires of Log Cabin Republicans.
What a strange world, the Republican party is a party of bigots, anti semites, racists, homophobes, xenophobes, theocrats, Islamophobes and yet all of those groups are in Trump's dedicated base.
The pepole we need to educate, Congressional Republicans, obey Trump, not the base. We want them to have a conscience, not be influenced by greed or power or religous conviction or fear.
The base is easily manipulated. Lumpen proletariat. A good salesman can sell snow water in Greenland.
We all have an amigdala, sensitive to stimuli....like demagoguery. Trump, in costume, make up, as snake oil salesman, plays the "hero with a thousand faces" character for the crowd.
If there is a voter revolt, a blue tsunami, in 2026, maybe the Republicans will learn a lesson, but I doubt it, because the vast majority of Republican politicians are in office because they share the same mentality as their electorate.
Here's a new report from Democracy Defender. https://www.democracydefendersfund.org/_files/ugd/cfce73_0e90707e639347ae9432933e7c01ba65.pdf
Roberts was concerned about his legacy. I wonder if going down in history as the man who single handedly destroyed our democratic republic is enough of a legacy for him?
Think Roger B Taney. Dred Scott.
In his majority opinion, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney cited two main rationales for ruling against Scott; first, as an African American, Scott "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect," and was therefore not eligible bring a suit to court.
I held hearings in Frederick, Maryland, where he is still venerated.
But most of us think he helped cause a civil war and approximately 620,000 deaths. The National Park Service estimates that around 2% of the total population died in the war. Disease, rather than battle, was the leading cause of death, with approximately two-thirds of the deaths attributed to illness.
Thom, You need to have a conversation with Ro Khanna
Here is what I mean:
Ro disappoints. I didn't know that he was so naive and feckless.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) previously told The Bulwark that he believes Democrats should bring Musk back into the tent. At the very least, Politico suggests, Musk’s heel turn against Trump is “complicating the Democratic party’s portrayal of him as a chainsaw-wielding, bureaucracy-breaking villain.”
The trouble is that Musk really is a chainsaw-wielding, bureaucracy-breaking villain. He’s done immeasurable damage to our government. He may be gone from Washington, but, to return to Mark Antony’s speech, the evil Musk has done lives on after him. And more broadly he’s a thoroughgoing enemy of liberal democracy, a backer and promoter of authoritarian parties ranging from Trump’s GOP to Germany’s AfD.
Might we pause in buying into this "feud" and consider that it may be just another show, similar to the phony Pro Wrestling-staged antagonism and anger between two wrestlers?
Take care in celebrating -- and then getting caught up in -- choosing a side and cheering, like the misguided audiences at these events.
It does fit both these guys' MO for staged conflict and the commitment to monopolizing everyone's attention.
I would counsel care in allowing them to define the key issues of what is at stake.
D.
More like rats fighting over a stinking scrap. Or would that be like two little children who really hate each other fighting like hell? The similes are endless.
Warning: Gruesome Analogy follows.
Think of Democracy as Kitty Genovese*, with Trump-Musk as Winston Mosley.
Now imagine your Democrats up on The Hill just leaning out of their windows in 1964, meekly taking in the horror show.
*Kitty Genovese was a 28-year-old woman whose tragic murder in 1964 became a pivotal moment in American social psychology and media history. She was attacked outside her apartment in Queens, New York, by Winston Moseley, who stabbed and raped her.
We know how this came about, what do we do to fix it? I grow weary of the analysis, give us a plan.
We are where we are due to both Dems and Repubs.
The moral decay you speak of has a source, a seed, called capitalism!!! You'd best quit blaming people and talk about the SYSTEM that created those people. The autocrats love watching you criticize people and ignore the system that created them. You're pissing up a rope with such rhetoric.
I would make two points of clarification or distinction. The justices on the take are true believers who the billionaires recognized as subject to their influence and as desiring of their acceptance and approval. They vote on cases based on a totally reactionary and fascist-oriented philosophy, with religious zealotry and sanctimony and righteous indignation as their core motivation. They speak for a powerful minority who cling to the security of past glory and fantasy. The money can sway the people and win elections only because the people are ignorant, many willingly. They are fickle and child-like in their thinking, and apathetic. You can't fix stupid. But we could have done much to reduce ignorance, indifference, and gullibility. That choice was made (consciously by educators, legislators, and thought leaders) in favor of keeping children "servile and dumb" to use Holt's words. When children are free and it is understood that coercion in "education" transmutes education into indoctrination and trivial pursuits, democracy has a chance. The people may figure some things out on their own once again when the threats are terrifying enough, but all we are doing is biding our time and buying time - at a terrible cost. Maybe someday, education will be taken seriously by people who indulge themselves with politics and ignore the fact that education is pure politics. I'm not holding my breath. Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. Or something like that. No one wants to hear it. No one will abandon the myth and deal with the reality. Too bad.
IMHO they may be criminals. Bribery is a crime. Failure to address conflicts may not be crimes per se, but by law they require disqualification.
28 U.S. Code § 455 - Disqualification of justice, judge, or magistrate judge
(a)Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
In November, 2023 Roberts established a Code of Conduct. https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/Code-of-Conduct-for-Justices_November_13_2023.pdf
If the minority justices have witnessed violations, they have a duty to come forward.
Collateral attack via the bar is not working. On Friday morning, The Florida Bar rejected the latest Pam Bondi bar complaint. A coalition of about 70 law professors, attorneys and former Florida Supreme Court justices attacked Bondi’s record in an ethics complaint filed on Thursday with The Florida Bar. They accuse Bondi, a Florida Bar member, of violating her ethical duties as U.S. Attorney General, saying she has committed “serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice.”
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article307770070.html#storylink=cpy
The practical reality seems to be that these people are all untouchable, impervious, and immune. No one dares to take them on or is able to enforce the laws or the Constitution when they are in flagrant violation. As Thom has said, it is up to the people at this point. How mauc faith do you have in the people?
Bullshit.
We may never get a vote. The budget crisis may be our only opportunity.
There are hundreds of thousands of laws on the books, like spitting on a sidewalk, but unless they are enforced,prosecuted and punished they are of no effect. Bribery may be a crime, but except in rare cases, and those being the out of power party, they are not prosecuted.
Chances of Pam Bondi's DOJ, holding any neo fascist feet to the fire?