It feels like there is a fatal equation currently governing the American republic, and I find myself returning to it with deepening dread. We live in a remarkably dangerous, deeply serious time, yet our fate is dictated by profoundly unserious, intrinsically dangerous people. This catastrophic mismatch is not merely confined to the occupants of the executive branch. It extends to the American populace itself, an electorate that looked directly at an increasingly volatile world and consciously chose to empower a lethal circus.
History does not forgive this caliber of frivolity. When the sheer volatility of the international order demands rigorous statecraft, we are instead subjected to a governing apparatus consumed by malignant narcissism and cheap political theater. The utter lack of gravity at the highest levels of power is breathtaking. Diplomatic capital is squandered dispatching the Vice President to Hungary to prop up the sagging electoral fortunes of a two-bit autocrat, while the First Lady commandeers the Cross Hall of the White House to desperately sever her own reputational liabilities from her husband’s radioactive ties to Jeffrey Epstein. These are the grotesque priorities of a decaying administration, completely unequipped for the monumental duties it holds.
We cannot afford the cowardice of blaming this solely on the politicians. The convergence of a highly volatile global environment with a cabal of petty, intellectually vacant leaders is a direct reflection of a public that has abandoned the sober duties of citizenship in favor of grievance-fueled entertainment. We are an unserious people who handed the vast, lethal apparatus of the state to dangerous amateurs. It is a terrifying equation, and the math guarantees a brutal reckoning.
A nation that insists on being entertained by arsonists has no right to weep when the republic burns.
Every empire eventally falls. Usually because they're too comfortable to adapt to an ever-changing world. Here we are. Unfortunately, it all could have been avoided.
Read Meg Wheatley. She has a recent podcast describing the collapse of civilizations—and they ALL fall. We’re living in the throes of it right now. Each time the people thought they were at the height of civilization and didn’t see the beginnings of the downside. And especially now, technology is part of it. There’s even a term for it: Technological Magisterium—the feeling technology will save us. It’s global. One other point is that at the end of civilizations, people thrive on celebrity culture for inspiration & loyalty. Sometimes it’s for relief from the constant feeling of helplessness.
I can't agree. I think it was the post WWII economic boom that led to "decadence" and eventually to where we are today. Until the oil shock of the 70's US citizens on the whole led prosperous lives. They expected their children to do so too and many times they did.
Things were shaken a bit with the surge in oil prices in the late 70's but evened out and the next economic boom came from the tech world at the turn of the century. But it was smaller than the earlier one and benefited a smaller number of people. As each subsequent decade unfolded people began to notice that they weren't doing as well economically as other people in the US were; that it took 2 adults working jobs for money to pay for what their grandparents or even parents could do with one 1 adult working. They started to look for someone to blame.
max - it’s no ONE thing. Neil Postman raised a key element in Amusing Ourselves to Death - communication/ entertainment technologies that over time fundamentally changed our ways & abilities to think. To me a second key element starting around same time as that book was the financial industry upsetting the previous more concrete models of economics. Once the cord to objective objects & services was switched out for gambling potential numbers on paper, grandpa’s job stamping out widgets was no longer the American dream
I have a bit of pique seeing numerous cites of Postman these days. I thought 'Amusing...' was a rather dumbed-down gloss on more serious and perceptive thinkers... and I had an odd micro-encounter with him in which he displayed arrogant assholery. He was writing for a wider audience than say Baudrillard or Jameson, which is laudable in a way, but not when you step right up to the role of political economy in the subject and then just paper over it, as he did in the "Now, this...." section.
Anyway, for an accessible (if not exactly lively) overview of the terrain I'd recommend 'The Condition of Postmodernity' by David Harvey.
I do think there was always a dark underbelly, corruption, migrant workers, racism, swelling incarceration, it just got ignored because of the materialistic culture that didn’t want to see.
American Traditional Conservatism (racist sexist, ethno-nationalist, nominally "Christian") has always been there, often under the surface. It is just out in the open once again.
It started with St Ronnie and his anti government/anti tax rhetoric. He also marked the beginning of the deep state bs, and the pro life agenda masking racism with it's purposeful use of the Evangelicals to form the core piece of the GOP base. Add Rush Limbaugh, FOX news, and Face Book shortly there after, wait three decades to let the bread and circus rise, and here we are.
It always could have been avoided, except in the cases where external factors (usually environmental) brought about the fall. That is always the sad part.
Those Americans alive today, who have witnessed and experienced what has happened have the answer to the question--how did someone like <insert horrible dictator> get into power? Why did so many people support them?
I mean, we KNEW the answer to that question (at least the people who were interested and cared). But it can't happen here, amiright? (which is one of the reasons it IS happening here).
Yes, empires all fall, but they are usually okay after that. The Roman empire fell but Italy is fine. The British empire dissolved but the UK is okay. The Japanese colonial empire fell catastrophically in 1945. It did not have to be that way. It might have dissolved slowly like the European colonial empires. But in any case, Japan is fine. It is better off without a colonial empire. The U.S. would be better off being just another country, rather than the World's Policeman.
You are correct, Patrick. I have to admit to being rather entertained by the Melania spectacle and the public meltdowns and MRGA (I have changed MAGA to MRGA - Make Russia Great Again in my mind) internecine warfare that broke to the surface yesterday, but I also felt utterly sick about it. You have perfectly elucidated why the sick feeling should win over the momentary glee of schadenfreude, but damn! I think (and I don't think I am alone here) that I am so desperate for a sign that the fever is breaking and the end of our national nightmare may be nigh; and this week has been so extra-insane and tense, that the petty satisfaction of witnessing the grievance-fueled entertainers turn on each other is experienced as stress relief and even joy. I am not proud of it, but there it is.
Danielle, your impulse to find temporary relief in their cannibalism is entirely human and appreciated. I've written close to a million words on how and why we need to violently disabuse ourselves of the comforting metaphor that this is a "fever." Fevers break. Fevers imply a healthy host body temporarily fighting off an acute pathogen before returning to its natural equilibrium. What we are witnessing in the American republic is not a passing illness; it is profound, structural rot.
Undoing this magnitude of civic vandalism is not a matter of surviving one disastrous administration; it requires a grueling, multi-generational rebuild, and if we look unblinkingly at the current American appetite for shared sacrifice and serious governance, it is a rebuild we are highly unlikely to execute. I could lay out a million reasons why the math of our decline is unforgiving, but the most honest response I can offer is simply this:
I understand you fully. The exhaustion of watching the collapse is profound, and the desperate desire for it to just be over is the heaviest burden of seeing reality clearly.
Patrick, you are, of course correct that this will not be something we remedy with an election (See Biden 2020), but rather it will be dozens, maybe another 47 of them, to get things nudged enough to really see a difference. It took us 250 years to get here. Why should we think it will not take 250 more?
Patrick: I think MAGA can be described as a fever, an infection metaphor, in part because your concept of 'fever' is grossly inaccurate medically. Not all fevers break, with the body returning to healthy equilibrium, by a long shot. If we look at history, there are any number of instances of societies going off the deep end for awhile, and then recovering - but typically the recovery of the body politic leaves a lot of dead human bodies behind, eh?
But my hypothesis is that our current madness IS different, because the unease underneath it is different. I don't see mere moral rot as much as frightened desperate people intuiting their doom going nuts, like all the animals stampeding wildly because they sense the massive danger, Kong or Tsunami, coming though not yet visible. Which for humans involves grasping on the coat-tails of false saviors in a quest for "relief from the constant feeling of helplessness". Which helplessness, I hypothesize is rooted in intimation that the scientists are right, a climate apocalypse is not just a threat, like nuclear war has been or the singularity is now, but an already done deal that simply awaits for the loosed pachinko balls to drop the rest of the way through the maze of pins and end the game.
Ohhhhhh boy. I guess let’s dispense with the clinical pedantry regarding the exact pathology of a fever, because clinging to that metaphor is getting genuinely eye-roll inducing. Arguing over whether a biological fever always returns a host to equilibrium is a spectacular way to avoid confronting the reality of our political decay. I’m reading as you are desperately trying to frame this as an external infection, a temporary madness that simply washed over us, because the alternative is admitting that this is exactly who the American electorate is, and that they are doing exactly what they want to do.
To compound that evasion, it takes a remarkable degree of intellectual contortion to diagnose a political movement defined by gleeful anti-science resentment as a subconscious reaction to climate change. Ascribing a repressed, tragic eco-anxiety to a voting bloc that explicitly cheers for environmental deregulation and actively mocks the very concept of a changing climate is an exercise in profound projection. It assigns an unearned psychological depth to a coalition driven almost entirely by cultural grievance, racial animus, and the desire to punish out-groups.
These voters are not desperately grasping for a savior because they subconsciously intuit the collapse of the biosphere, they are rallying behind a strongman because they want to exact revenge on a modern society that no longer centers them.
Furthermore, your metaphor of "stampeding animals" sensing a tsunami is worse than inaccurate, it is an explicit evasion of accountability. By framing authoritarian foot soldiers as helpless beasts driven mad by impending environmental doom, you strip them of their agency and sanitize their malice. They are not tragic victims of a looming planetary apocalypse seeking relief from helplessness. They are conscious, willing participants in the systemic destruction of the republic.
We do ourselves no favors by inventing sophisticated, sympathetic origin stories for straightforward political cruelty. The rot we are witnessing requires no complex ecological explanations. It is simply the banality of a populace that has abandoned the rigorous duties of democracy for the cheap thrill of authoritarian retribution.
The only correction I would make here is that many of these people (politicians and media types) are VERY serious people. They are VERY serious about amassing wealth and influence. They don't much care about how they do it and have no real other end in mind, but they ARE serious about it.
I agree with you (and Mike in response), and I wonder if there are any equivalents of the Bulwark that were around in the late Roman Republic, 18th-century France (Voltaire?), or others.
We do have Orwell and "Shooting an Elephant," and I imagine Barbara Tuchman must have tapped into a few sources for "The March of Folly" (which I really have to reread), but in the end all the Cassandras in the world are forgotten while history simply remembers the terrible people who ran a good thing into the ground.
Sometimes the most agonizing element of the Cassandra curse is not the impending destruction itself, but the profound, suffocating isolation of seeing it clearly while everyone else dances on the tracks. There is no social reward for prescience in a society structurally addicted to denial. Being right early is, socially speaking, functionally identical to being a madman.
This is precisely why I value JVL's role so deeply. He does the grueling, thankless work of anchoring the conversation to the grim mathematical realities of our situation, often absorbing the nervous laughter and reflexive mockery of co-hosts who still desperately want to believe the center will hold. Pointing out the obvious trajectory of a collapsing republic is treated as a breach of etiquette, an unwelcome intrusion of physics into a room that prefers magic. JVL refuses to soften the blow, and that refusal is a rare public service.
I know the exact personal cost of this dynamic. I have lost friends simply for articulating the horrors of our reality before they materialized, and it is a bitter, universal truth that they never reach out afterward. People do not sever ties because you were wrong, they often excommunicate you because your clarity threatens their comfortable delusions. To return and admit you were right would require them to confront their own willful blindness, and most people would rather forfeit a friendship than swallow that pill. The tragic irony of demanding seriousness in an unserious time is that you will simply be left alone, watching the disaster unfold exactly as you predicted, surrounded only by the deafening silence of those who refused to listen.
Sure. The tricky thing is seeing that things are getting better when they are at their worst. I think we passed a turning point that might inspire the best from us and bring an insurgent leadership change after this MAGA tradjectory meets hard ground. The pieces need to be put back together without the AI and Cryto bros pulling the strings, Project 2025 dismantled brick by brick, a fair and equitable or even, dare I say, progressive tax structure and social benifits that provide a saftey net removing so much fear, medical bankrupcy, homlessness, lack of good education and medical neglect. Mostly though, removal of dark money and the ruling of Citizens United v. FEC is needed, that is what allowed a lot of this power grab. Also removing compromised leadership subject to blackmail might be nice.
And let's not forget the millions of voters who were too lazy/indifferent to vote and their absence from the polls helping the traitorous/pervert get elected in 2016 and 2024.
"So get off the bus, Gus. You don't need to discuss much. Just drop off the key, Lee. And set yourself free"...............Fifty Ways to lose your Lover
The problem with Melania is that she’s such a cipher, but she probably knows more about Donald’s health records than most of is do. Early positioning for when he’s gone or smoke signals of things to come — who knows. The Trump family fights once Donald is gone will be a thing of beauty. I doubt the first Trump children cherish our first lady.
She's been pretty savvy so far in positioning her spawn for the downmarket War of the Roses that's practically inevitable. No way of knowing how smart Barron is (or how he feels about being named after a financial periodical), but with the possible exception of big sister Ivanka, the competition does not seem that formidable.
I doubt she knows anything about his health records. You really think Melania is sitting with him in the waiting room before a physical? I'd be shocked if she knew what the "J" in Donald J. Trump stands for.
According to one of Michael Wolff's earlier Trump books, Melania surprised Javanka, Jr, and Eric by pwning them on every single conflict. She *always* got what she wanted.
Whatever her ties to Epstein, they must be dreadful for her to throw Trump under the bus at this moment.
Well said! When Melania speaks, she is more transparent than anyone else in the administration.
First she wore the jacket on the way to visit migrant children at the border in detention: “I don’t care, do you!”
Moreover, this told us three things. She couldn’t care less about the kids—cryptically, and she hates being married to The Donald and her job as First Lady. And lastly, she’s as superficial and opportunistic as the rest of the Trump clan! Good riddance!
Secondly, in yesterday’s speech, she distances herself from Epstein and Trump. Actually, I believe her when she says that she didn’t have a formal relationship through Epstein.
Furthermore, she was related to Epstein through the legitimate modeling agency acting as a front for the sex trafficking ring and extortion racket—it’s not her style; she may be apathetic by nature, but she cares incessantly for her reputation and that of her son Baron—she’s protecting both of them.
That’s it—there’s no secret sauce here. Melania is protecting Baron and hates the rest of her life as a Trump—except the trappings of luxury and the power it projects.
Bottom line, she won’t go down with the ship, and if it comes down to her or Trump; she’s already half way into the lifeboat—exactly to be expected when you live in a glass house; even with the gold plated trimmings! IMHO…:)
I’m not saying she didn’t know him or wasn’t socially involved with him—amicable, but there’s a difference between knowing about some of Epstein’s illegal activities and just being friendly with a guy who happens to be friends with many of the same people Epstein hangs around with.
Trump and Epstein were friends. Trump knew, and all evidence from the birthday note, to his FBI interviews corroborates the fact that Trump knew about Epstein’s crimes and even participated.
However, there was another network; Epstein funding academics and putting diplomats and businessmen into deals and positions of power. This gave Epstein the power and influence with the rich and famous.
Therefore, and naturally, even if people in Epstein’s social circles suspected that he was a pedophile, the mere fact he had so many famous and influential people in his social circle that most people would just shrugged and say, “If it were true, why would all these famous and venerated people continue to socialize with the guy? That’s my point!
I wonder if she stated that she was never a friend of Jeffery Epstein because she was actually a victim. Maybe DJT actually purchased her from JE. Just a random thought floating around in my brain.🤷♀️
If Melania can become the person to orchestrate her husband's removal from office and banishment from relevance, even better toward a jail cell for crimes committed, then she is the one in the marriage who belongs on a future denomination of U.S. currency.
I was talking to my Gen Z son about this today. He and I do not see eye to eye on a number of things, but on Epstein we do agree. He pointed out that it would be ironic if this spurs more productive examination into the Epstein files and brings down the Trump regime she would be the most important first lady ever!
That she is makes this all the more perfect, in my mind. What we are all seeing, on full display for the world to witness, is what a world driven by unmitigated selfishness looks like.
I've assumed that any removal from office would be at the instigation of Vance, who could strike a deal with the Cabinet heads that they would keep their jobs. I don't think he'd do it; too risky. Interesting if Melania turns out to be the catalyst, getting him to resign rather than be removed.
You bet it would be risky. Trump is shedding support, but the faithful who still stand with him include fanatical, dangerous cultists. They hate Democrats with white-hot passion, but they hate Republican "traitors" even more. Vance knows that, and so does every Republican in Congress. If they doubt it, Mike Pence could explain it to them.
Trump orchestrated a huge surge in popularity for the mullahs. The Iranians will never look to us as potential saviors, never aspire to be like us, again.
First term: Trump disbands the Global Health Security and Biodefense unit attached to NSC—two years later we get COVID, and people start drinking bleach and are told they should be honored to die for the country; so others could live! In short, they couldn’t govern so death becomes patriotic—get the point?
Second term: Ridiculous tariffs on allies. Threatening to invade NATO countries. Sucking up to dictators and kleptocrats alike. Hare-brained scheme to invade Iran. And only president to ever invade 8 sovereign nations in a year.
This is madness, and we have become the pariahs of the world. And ironically, the tech bro’s and neocons who support this chaos—are still winning! Even Iran is taking payment in bitcoin, while the US dollar is eventually rendered obsolete; not fully—but we won’t be the reserve currency of the world for long; which is part of this insidious plan! IMHO…:)
"Well into the new millennium, America was the wealthiest, most powerful nation on the planet, the ideological leader of a peaceful world order. Then Trump got involved!"
Agreed if you’re talking about the Iranian’s—and exactly my point! Trump’s hare brained scheme has left the Iranian’s stronger not weaker—we are the losers because the Straight is still closed.
Additionally, Iran is making more money off of their oil than any time in the last 47 years since we’ve had sanctions imposed on them from their storming g of the US embassy in 1979.
And most importantly, the regime is still in place and allowed to continue to enrich their uranium to weapons grade. So……:)
"Vice President JD Vance went all the way to Hungary this week to rally on Orbán’s behalf, while the president last night posted a long, glowing endorsement on Truth Social."
There's a term for this; it's called "interfering in foreign elections." If PM Mark Carney came down here and campaigned for Gavin Newsom in 2028, the right would be apoplectic, and justifiably so. But for Trump, any foreign election interference on his behalf is acceptable and welcome, and any interfering he does in foreign elections is by definition righteous and just, because it's something he did, and he can only do righteous and just things.
"Trump denounced Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones"
I don't know who's responsible for the footnote, but that's my nightmare blunt rotation.
“Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz. That is not the agreement we have!”
That's one way to look at it. Or, more accurately, you could say "Iran is doing a great job of not allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz."
As for Melania's surprise press conference, it certainly was odd. Seems ominous for Donald Trump; seems ominous for Melania, even. But as far as Melania being a rat jumping off a sinking ship, we've thought that before, and she's often surprised us by being just as bad as everyone else in her orbit. She's a wretched, vile, wicked Cruella, and while she's trying to save herself, I wouldn't go so far as to say she's actively throwing her husband under the bus. She's passed up on the opportunity to do so too many times in the last decade.
But now she has her own money. FelonTrump used to brag about paying his first wife, who was in charge of choosing the decorations of Trump Tower, with “a couple of dresses.” She did all the planning and managing and got a couple of new dresses. He never paid her. At least one of those dresses cost him $100,000.00. Hope she sold it and kept the cash.
"Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, that's all anyone wants to talk about. We need to do something to change the headlines. Let's do another of those 12-hour Venezuela things, but in Iran this time."
"Mr. President, that's an incredibly great idea. That's like a move right out of 4-demensional chess. Leave it to you to find the solution. Can we get you another Big Mac?"
A few days ago:
"Iran, Iran, Iran, that's all anyone wants to talk about. We need to do something to change the headlines. Let's have Melania say something about the Epstein shit. Anything to shift the focus off the Iran thing."
"Mr. President, that's an incredibly great idea. That's like a move right out of 4-demensional chess. Leave it to you to find the solution. Can we get you another Big Mac?"
Are we lost in the Doom Loop of DJT's brain? If I understand, he has sent JD, our VP, a strong advocate and crusader for Theocratic White Nationalism, Wittcoff, a Real Estate buddy and Jared, his son in law to negotiate with Iran. JD is as much a fascist as DJT, Wittcoff and Kushner are both ardent supporters of the Netanyahu government in Israel. So, I ask. What can go wrong with this strategy? Today he released completely crazed, anti immigrant tweets that have the authorship of Stephen Miller "written" all over them. What's next? Just when Trump is trying to transition from the episode "A HAPPY ENDING" to his great victory against Iran, Melania absolves herself from the Epstein business. Is anyone sane working or living at the White House?
Of course there are. And shame on you for letting the cooks, tour guides, and pages catch some strays. But if you were referring to anyone with some semblance of power or agency in the administration, than the answer is no. (Though to be fair, Sean Duffy has had a moment or two, like when he verbally slapped Elon down at a cabinet meeting when explaining how he had to intervene to prevent DOGE from firing air traffic controllers shortly after we had a number of plane crashes.)
I have to ask; Does anybody else notice the parallels between Melania’s speech, and Bill Clinton’s “I did not have sex with that woman, Monica Lewinski.”? Just before we found out that indeed he did have sex with that woman? Asking for a friend.
He supported the German hard right wing candidate a couple of months ago. I suspect he might be on a project of his own. The rest of the administration, including the president, might not care whether he does this or not.
It also occurs to me that Steve Bannon was in Europe for a while trying to stir up some sort of right wing political action. Is Vance's friend Thiel into this sort of activity too?
Melania apparently likes her revenge best served cold, which was on full display with her cold and calculated performance yesterday. If I were Donald, I’d sleep with one eye open.
She's trying to get out in front of the story that she had ICE deport someone as a personal favor to her former agent so he could win a custody battle:
Either Melania is positioning herself for a post Trump life which may indicate that Trump's health is failing rapidly or Michael Wolff's "reporting" is about to he widely disseminated.
Wolff has claimed that Melania was with Epstein before Trump, that he introduced her to Trump, and that Trump and Melania had sex for the first time on the Lolita Express. The owner of the "modeling" agency she worked for has been tied to sex trafficking of Eastern European women and had a relationship with Epstein.
Melania threatened a 1B suit against Wolff for merely mentioning that she knew Epstein. She never filed it. Wolff has responded with a SLAPP suit against her for her attempt to suppress his "journslism".
A serious investigation of all of these allegations is needed to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Actually, if Trump does not succeed in totally destroying America and the world, the backlash to his rule could be something many of us have always hoped for. That would be a somewhat diminished and chastened America, that is more willing to treat other countries as equals, negotiate in good faith with our adversaries, such as China, and restore a truer form of democracy in America, with tighter guardrails, a concern for the betterment of all of our citizens, and a genuine attempt at equal justice for all.
I think this column is a little too kind to Melania. She said not only that her acquaintance with Epstein was casual, which strains credulity, but also that Trump's acquaintance with him was casual (those overlapping social circles), which strains credulity more.
It feels like there is a fatal equation currently governing the American republic, and I find myself returning to it with deepening dread. We live in a remarkably dangerous, deeply serious time, yet our fate is dictated by profoundly unserious, intrinsically dangerous people. This catastrophic mismatch is not merely confined to the occupants of the executive branch. It extends to the American populace itself, an electorate that looked directly at an increasingly volatile world and consciously chose to empower a lethal circus.
History does not forgive this caliber of frivolity. When the sheer volatility of the international order demands rigorous statecraft, we are instead subjected to a governing apparatus consumed by malignant narcissism and cheap political theater. The utter lack of gravity at the highest levels of power is breathtaking. Diplomatic capital is squandered dispatching the Vice President to Hungary to prop up the sagging electoral fortunes of a two-bit autocrat, while the First Lady commandeers the Cross Hall of the White House to desperately sever her own reputational liabilities from her husband’s radioactive ties to Jeffrey Epstein. These are the grotesque priorities of a decaying administration, completely unequipped for the monumental duties it holds.
We cannot afford the cowardice of blaming this solely on the politicians. The convergence of a highly volatile global environment with a cabal of petty, intellectually vacant leaders is a direct reflection of a public that has abandoned the sober duties of citizenship in favor of grievance-fueled entertainment. We are an unserious people who handed the vast, lethal apparatus of the state to dangerous amateurs. It is a terrifying equation, and the math guarantees a brutal reckoning.
A nation that insists on being entertained by arsonists has no right to weep when the republic burns.
Every empire eventally falls. Usually because they're too comfortable to adapt to an ever-changing world. Here we are. Unfortunately, it all could have been avoided.
Read Meg Wheatley. She has a recent podcast describing the collapse of civilizations—and they ALL fall. We’re living in the throes of it right now. Each time the people thought they were at the height of civilization and didn’t see the beginnings of the downside. And especially now, technology is part of it. There’s even a term for it: Technological Magisterium—the feeling technology will save us. It’s global. One other point is that at the end of civilizations, people thrive on celebrity culture for inspiration & loyalty. Sometimes it’s for relief from the constant feeling of helplessness.
Jan - this synopsis is brilliant. I mean, not great for us but well stated
Makes perfect sense!
We're learning the hard way that technology (alone) will not save us. It's technology, focused by the lens of our values and vision that might.
I think about that a lot.
I blame the end of the Cold War. Until that point, we had a perceived rival that we had to stay on top of. Once we lost that, pure decadence.
I can't agree. I think it was the post WWII economic boom that led to "decadence" and eventually to where we are today. Until the oil shock of the 70's US citizens on the whole led prosperous lives. They expected their children to do so too and many times they did.
Things were shaken a bit with the surge in oil prices in the late 70's but evened out and the next economic boom came from the tech world at the turn of the century. But it was smaller than the earlier one and benefited a smaller number of people. As each subsequent decade unfolded people began to notice that they weren't doing as well economically as other people in the US were; that it took 2 adults working jobs for money to pay for what their grandparents or even parents could do with one 1 adult working. They started to look for someone to blame.
max - it’s no ONE thing. Neil Postman raised a key element in Amusing Ourselves to Death - communication/ entertainment technologies that over time fundamentally changed our ways & abilities to think. To me a second key element starting around same time as that book was the financial industry upsetting the previous more concrete models of economics. Once the cord to objective objects & services was switched out for gambling potential numbers on paper, grandpa’s job stamping out widgets was no longer the American dream
I have a bit of pique seeing numerous cites of Postman these days. I thought 'Amusing...' was a rather dumbed-down gloss on more serious and perceptive thinkers... and I had an odd micro-encounter with him in which he displayed arrogant assholery. He was writing for a wider audience than say Baudrillard or Jameson, which is laudable in a way, but not when you step right up to the role of political economy in the subject and then just paper over it, as he did in the "Now, this...." section.
Anyway, for an accessible (if not exactly lively) overview of the terrain I'd recommend 'The Condition of Postmodernity' by David Harvey.
And here I thought it was because folks were upset that blacks and women were getting "uppity".
I do think there was always a dark underbelly, corruption, migrant workers, racism, swelling incarceration, it just got ignored because of the materialistic culture that didn’t want to see.
American Traditional Conservatism (racist sexist, ethno-nationalist, nominally "Christian") has always been there, often under the surface. It is just out in the open once again.
I can't argue with any of that!
It started with St Ronnie and his anti government/anti tax rhetoric. He also marked the beginning of the deep state bs, and the pro life agenda masking racism with it's purposeful use of the Evangelicals to form the core piece of the GOP base. Add Rush Limbaugh, FOX news, and Face Book shortly there after, wait three decades to let the bread and circus rise, and here we are.
All excellent points!
It always could have been avoided, except in the cases where external factors (usually environmental) brought about the fall. That is always the sad part.
Those Americans alive today, who have witnessed and experienced what has happened have the answer to the question--how did someone like <insert horrible dictator> get into power? Why did so many people support them?
I mean, we KNEW the answer to that question (at least the people who were interested and cared). But it can't happen here, amiright? (which is one of the reasons it IS happening here).
We knew propaganda works. So we decided to swim in it.
True, but this empire didn't fall. Trump took it to the top of a building and pushed it off the roof.
The Supreme Court pushed it off the roof. Trump was the capering fool to get people to look the other way.
The court jester in other words.
Yes, empires all fall, but they are usually okay after that. The Roman empire fell but Italy is fine. The British empire dissolved but the UK is okay. The Japanese colonial empire fell catastrophically in 1945. It did not have to be that way. It might have dissolved slowly like the European colonial empires. But in any case, Japan is fine. It is better off without a colonial empire. The U.S. would be better off being just another country, rather than the World's Policeman.
Yes, we'll be fine, but it's a shame to lose our nation's position because of how lazy and selfish our society became.
You are correct, Patrick. I have to admit to being rather entertained by the Melania spectacle and the public meltdowns and MRGA (I have changed MAGA to MRGA - Make Russia Great Again in my mind) internecine warfare that broke to the surface yesterday, but I also felt utterly sick about it. You have perfectly elucidated why the sick feeling should win over the momentary glee of schadenfreude, but damn! I think (and I don't think I am alone here) that I am so desperate for a sign that the fever is breaking and the end of our national nightmare may be nigh; and this week has been so extra-insane and tense, that the petty satisfaction of witnessing the grievance-fueled entertainers turn on each other is experienced as stress relief and even joy. I am not proud of it, but there it is.
Danielle, your impulse to find temporary relief in their cannibalism is entirely human and appreciated. I've written close to a million words on how and why we need to violently disabuse ourselves of the comforting metaphor that this is a "fever." Fevers break. Fevers imply a healthy host body temporarily fighting off an acute pathogen before returning to its natural equilibrium. What we are witnessing in the American republic is not a passing illness; it is profound, structural rot.
Undoing this magnitude of civic vandalism is not a matter of surviving one disastrous administration; it requires a grueling, multi-generational rebuild, and if we look unblinkingly at the current American appetite for shared sacrifice and serious governance, it is a rebuild we are highly unlikely to execute. I could lay out a million reasons why the math of our decline is unforgiving, but the most honest response I can offer is simply this:
I understand you fully. The exhaustion of watching the collapse is profound, and the desperate desire for it to just be over is the heaviest burden of seeing reality clearly.
Thank you for being you.
Thank you, Patrick. Your clarity of thought and empathetic response has literally made me tear up at work. I agree with you. And it is a lot.
Patrick, you are, of course correct that this will not be something we remedy with an election (See Biden 2020), but rather it will be dozens, maybe another 47 of them, to get things nudged enough to really see a difference. It took us 250 years to get here. Why should we think it will not take 250 more?
Patrick: I think MAGA can be described as a fever, an infection metaphor, in part because your concept of 'fever' is grossly inaccurate medically. Not all fevers break, with the body returning to healthy equilibrium, by a long shot. If we look at history, there are any number of instances of societies going off the deep end for awhile, and then recovering - but typically the recovery of the body politic leaves a lot of dead human bodies behind, eh?
But my hypothesis is that our current madness IS different, because the unease underneath it is different. I don't see mere moral rot as much as frightened desperate people intuiting their doom going nuts, like all the animals stampeding wildly because they sense the massive danger, Kong or Tsunami, coming though not yet visible. Which for humans involves grasping on the coat-tails of false saviors in a quest for "relief from the constant feeling of helplessness". Which helplessness, I hypothesize is rooted in intimation that the scientists are right, a climate apocalypse is not just a threat, like nuclear war has been or the singularity is now, but an already done deal that simply awaits for the loosed pachinko balls to drop the rest of the way through the maze of pins and end the game.
Ohhhhhh boy. I guess let’s dispense with the clinical pedantry regarding the exact pathology of a fever, because clinging to that metaphor is getting genuinely eye-roll inducing. Arguing over whether a biological fever always returns a host to equilibrium is a spectacular way to avoid confronting the reality of our political decay. I’m reading as you are desperately trying to frame this as an external infection, a temporary madness that simply washed over us, because the alternative is admitting that this is exactly who the American electorate is, and that they are doing exactly what they want to do.
To compound that evasion, it takes a remarkable degree of intellectual contortion to diagnose a political movement defined by gleeful anti-science resentment as a subconscious reaction to climate change. Ascribing a repressed, tragic eco-anxiety to a voting bloc that explicitly cheers for environmental deregulation and actively mocks the very concept of a changing climate is an exercise in profound projection. It assigns an unearned psychological depth to a coalition driven almost entirely by cultural grievance, racial animus, and the desire to punish out-groups.
These voters are not desperately grasping for a savior because they subconsciously intuit the collapse of the biosphere, they are rallying behind a strongman because they want to exact revenge on a modern society that no longer centers them.
Furthermore, your metaphor of "stampeding animals" sensing a tsunami is worse than inaccurate, it is an explicit evasion of accountability. By framing authoritarian foot soldiers as helpless beasts driven mad by impending environmental doom, you strip them of their agency and sanitize their malice. They are not tragic victims of a looming planetary apocalypse seeking relief from helplessness. They are conscious, willing participants in the systemic destruction of the republic.
We do ourselves no favors by inventing sophisticated, sympathetic origin stories for straightforward political cruelty. The rot we are witnessing requires no complex ecological explanations. It is simply the banality of a populace that has abandoned the rigorous duties of democracy for the cheap thrill of authoritarian retribution.
Thanks for allowing my eyes to stretch though.
The only correction I would make here is that many of these people (politicians and media types) are VERY serious people. They are VERY serious about amassing wealth and influence. They don't much care about how they do it and have no real other end in mind, but they ARE serious about it.
I agree with you (and Mike in response), and I wonder if there are any equivalents of the Bulwark that were around in the late Roman Republic, 18th-century France (Voltaire?), or others.
We do have Orwell and "Shooting an Elephant," and I imagine Barbara Tuchman must have tapped into a few sources for "The March of Folly" (which I really have to reread), but in the end all the Cassandras in the world are forgotten while history simply remembers the terrible people who ran a good thing into the ground.
Sometimes the most agonizing element of the Cassandra curse is not the impending destruction itself, but the profound, suffocating isolation of seeing it clearly while everyone else dances on the tracks. There is no social reward for prescience in a society structurally addicted to denial. Being right early is, socially speaking, functionally identical to being a madman.
This is precisely why I value JVL's role so deeply. He does the grueling, thankless work of anchoring the conversation to the grim mathematical realities of our situation, often absorbing the nervous laughter and reflexive mockery of co-hosts who still desperately want to believe the center will hold. Pointing out the obvious trajectory of a collapsing republic is treated as a breach of etiquette, an unwelcome intrusion of physics into a room that prefers magic. JVL refuses to soften the blow, and that refusal is a rare public service.
I know the exact personal cost of this dynamic. I have lost friends simply for articulating the horrors of our reality before they materialized, and it is a bitter, universal truth that they never reach out afterward. People do not sever ties because you were wrong, they often excommunicate you because your clarity threatens their comfortable delusions. To return and admit you were right would require them to confront their own willful blindness, and most people would rather forfeit a friendship than swallow that pill. The tragic irony of demanding seriousness in an unserious time is that you will simply be left alone, watching the disaster unfold exactly as you predicted, surrounded only by the deafening silence of those who refused to listen.
My God. You are singing my sad, sad song.
There is a reason why authors often have the truth of the case spoken by madmen.
Sure. The tricky thing is seeing that things are getting better when they are at their worst. I think we passed a turning point that might inspire the best from us and bring an insurgent leadership change after this MAGA tradjectory meets hard ground. The pieces need to be put back together without the AI and Cryto bros pulling the strings, Project 2025 dismantled brick by brick, a fair and equitable or even, dare I say, progressive tax structure and social benifits that provide a saftey net removing so much fear, medical bankrupcy, homlessness, lack of good education and medical neglect. Mostly though, removal of dark money and the ruling of Citizens United v. FEC is needed, that is what allowed a lot of this power grab. Also removing compromised leadership subject to blackmail might be nice.
And let's not forget the millions of voters who were too lazy/indifferent to vote and their absence from the polls helping the traitorous/pervert get elected in 2016 and 2024.
This made my day yesterday, with the cherry on top when she demanded congressional hearings, thus ensuring that the Epstein Files will not die.
Someone's knows she's going to live another 30 to 40 years and needs to put some distance between herself and The Donald.
Melania Throws Donald Under the Bus... exactly where he belongs! (hopefully there's plenty of roadkill down there).
And made sure she drove forwards backwards several times while wearing her designer bus driver hat.
Trump's bus must have wheels like a monster truck to have room for all the folks under there. Will be nice to see Donny himself under there as well.
It's a tremendous bus. Biggest bus you've ever seen. A big, strong bus with rain running down its headlights.
The wheels on the bus go round and round. All around the town.
If there is, don't tell the Brain Worm Host, or he will beat everyone down there.
"So get off the bus, Gus. You don't need to discuss much. Just drop off the key, Lee. And set yourself free"...............Fifty Ways to lose your Lover
The problem with Melania is that she’s such a cipher, but she probably knows more about Donald’s health records than most of is do. Early positioning for when he’s gone or smoke signals of things to come — who knows. The Trump family fights once Donald is gone will be a thing of beauty. I doubt the first Trump children cherish our first lady.
She's been pretty savvy so far in positioning her spawn for the downmarket War of the Roses that's practically inevitable. No way of knowing how smart Barron is (or how he feels about being named after a financial periodical), but with the possible exception of big sister Ivanka, the competition does not seem that formidable.
or a phony phone it in reporter
Don't imagine they like the second wife either....or their half sister.
I doubt she knows anything about his health records. You really think Melania is sitting with him in the waiting room before a physical? I'd be shocked if she knew what the "J" in Donald J. Trump stands for.
Jackass
To continue Bill's quote, " and in her time, one woman may play many parts."
According to one of Michael Wolff's earlier Trump books, Melania surprised Javanka, Jr, and Eric by pwning them on every single conflict. She *always* got what she wanted.
Whatever her ties to Epstein, they must be dreadful for her to throw Trump under the bus at this moment.
Well said! When Melania speaks, she is more transparent than anyone else in the administration.
First she wore the jacket on the way to visit migrant children at the border in detention: “I don’t care, do you!”
Moreover, this told us three things. She couldn’t care less about the kids—cryptically, and she hates being married to The Donald and her job as First Lady. And lastly, she’s as superficial and opportunistic as the rest of the Trump clan! Good riddance!
Secondly, in yesterday’s speech, she distances herself from Epstein and Trump. Actually, I believe her when she says that she didn’t have a formal relationship through Epstein.
Furthermore, she was related to Epstein through the legitimate modeling agency acting as a front for the sex trafficking ring and extortion racket—it’s not her style; she may be apathetic by nature, but she cares incessantly for her reputation and that of her son Baron—she’s protecting both of them.
That’s it—there’s no secret sauce here. Melania is protecting Baron and hates the rest of her life as a Trump—except the trappings of luxury and the power it projects.
Bottom line, she won’t go down with the ship, and if it comes down to her or Trump; she’s already half way into the lifeboat—exactly to be expected when you live in a glass house; even with the gold plated trimmings! IMHO…:)
Donald was perhaps more tolerable when he and Melania married-plus, Melania had the child she wanted, was able to being her parents to the U.S.
Now he's increasingly erratic and unhinged.
Melania got her big payoff from Amazon, and it's probably parked offshore.
Time to spend LOTS more time in NYC and Mar-a-Lago fir Melania
Well said! Don’t forget she renegotiated her prenuptial’s twice! Ironically, both times right before he assumed the office of the president…:)
There are, however, public photos of Melania with Epstein and Maxwell.
I’m not saying she didn’t know him or wasn’t socially involved with him—amicable, but there’s a difference between knowing about some of Epstein’s illegal activities and just being friendly with a guy who happens to be friends with many of the same people Epstein hangs around with.
Trump and Epstein were friends. Trump knew, and all evidence from the birthday note, to his FBI interviews corroborates the fact that Trump knew about Epstein’s crimes and even participated.
However, there was another network; Epstein funding academics and putting diplomats and businessmen into deals and positions of power. This gave Epstein the power and influence with the rich and famous.
Therefore, and naturally, even if people in Epstein’s social circles suspected that he was a pedophile, the mere fact he had so many famous and influential people in his social circle that most people would just shrugged and say, “If it were true, why would all these famous and venerated people continue to socialize with the guy? That’s my point!
OK. Got it. Your additional points serve as more proof as to how murky the whole Epstein Affair really is.
I wonder if she stated that she was never a friend of Jeffery Epstein because she was actually a victim. Maybe DJT actually purchased her from JE. Just a random thought floating around in my brain.🤷♀️
Agreed!
Like Jack and Rose in Titanic. Only we hate Both.
This puts the Melania documentary in a very different light for me.
Yes, we all laughed and groaned that it was another giant grift, and it was.
But now it looks more like an image savvy person establishing their own "brand" distinct from the "Trump" brand.
Well, the $40MM didn't hurt her any!
She could walk away from this marriage in excellent shape.
Maybe she took a lesson from the Ivanka playbook: don't get even, get everything.
Sigh. I was really hoping those crazy kids would make it.
I'm extremely skeptical that this could lead to any real action. I suspect Trump is fine with what she said because it's juicy and distracts from Iran
The Streisand Effect (though this had to be somewhat deliberate) comes to the White House.
I see icier relations between that cute couple. This time coming from DJT s side. Could another affair be far beside?
If Melania can become the person to orchestrate her husband's removal from office and banishment from relevance, even better toward a jail cell for crimes committed, then she is the one in the marriage who belongs on a future denomination of U.S. currency.
I was talking to my Gen Z son about this today. He and I do not see eye to eye on a number of things, but on Epstein we do agree. He pointed out that it would be ironic if this spurs more productive examination into the Epstein files and brings down the Trump regime she would be the most important first lady ever!
She is a deeply uninteresting, narcissistic and vapid person. She's not trying to help the American people - she's looking out for herself.
That she is makes this all the more perfect, in my mind. What we are all seeing, on full display for the world to witness, is what a world driven by unmitigated selfishness looks like.
I've assumed that any removal from office would be at the instigation of Vance, who could strike a deal with the Cabinet heads that they would keep their jobs. I don't think he'd do it; too risky. Interesting if Melania turns out to be the catalyst, getting him to resign rather than be removed.
You bet it would be risky. Trump is shedding support, but the faithful who still stand with him include fanatical, dangerous cultists. They hate Democrats with white-hot passion, but they hate Republican "traitors" even more. Vance knows that, and so does every Republican in Congress. If they doubt it, Mike Pence could explain it to them.
If nothing else, the Franklin Mint will put something out, though I suspect she'll happily receded from prominent view when this is all over.
Franklin Graham mint. The scales on evangelicals' eyes. Insufferable.
I'll start working up a draft proposal to nominate her for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Let's not get too carried away Mr. D. (-;
I'm just saying, in jest, considering the proposed alternative ...
True.
I knew you were funnin'.
“In short, the Iranian people were as close as they’d come since 1979 to overthrowing their torturers and oppressors. Then Trump got involved!”
Never more prescient words; and it pretty much sums up Trump’s entire two presidencies!..:)
Trump orchestrated a huge surge in popularity for the mullahs. The Iranians will never look to us as potential saviors, never aspire to be like us, again.
Exactly. Everything the guy touches dies.
First term: Trump disbands the Global Health Security and Biodefense unit attached to NSC—two years later we get COVID, and people start drinking bleach and are told they should be honored to die for the country; so others could live! In short, they couldn’t govern so death becomes patriotic—get the point?
Second term: Ridiculous tariffs on allies. Threatening to invade NATO countries. Sucking up to dictators and kleptocrats alike. Hare-brained scheme to invade Iran. And only president to ever invade 8 sovereign nations in a year.
This is madness, and we have become the pariahs of the world. And ironically, the tech bro’s and neocons who support this chaos—are still winning! Even Iran is taking payment in bitcoin, while the US dollar is eventually rendered obsolete; not fully—but we won’t be the reserve currency of the world for long; which is part of this insidious plan! IMHO…:)
The worst part for me is that his actions have turned activists for democracy into traitors in Iranians' perception.
"Well into the new millennium, America was the wealthiest, most powerful nation on the planet, the ideological leader of a peaceful world order. Then Trump got involved!"
Exactly, he’s the gift that keeps on giving us anxiety disorders!….:)
Did you mean grift? That sounds like the felon. Gift giving is not his style. His niece said about him.
No, actually I was being sarcastic; a play on the adage “the gift that keeps on giving.” That said, yours is better…:)
Robert - wisdom of the crowd here, brother ☺️
The regime is stronger now than it was before PINO’s War.
Agreed if you’re talking about the Iranian’s—and exactly my point! Trump’s hare brained scheme has left the Iranian’s stronger not weaker—we are the losers because the Straight is still closed.
Additionally, Iran is making more money off of their oil than any time in the last 47 years since we’ve had sanctions imposed on them from their storming g of the US embassy in 1979.
And most importantly, the regime is still in place and allowed to continue to enrich their uranium to weapons grade. So……:)
ETTD
Let’s not absolve Melania. Is she telling the truth or is she getting out in front of some damaging information? She deserves to be heard. But
Melania’s #1 concern is not the Epstein victims. It’s Melania.
Agreed. No heroes in the story; it has a real Alien v. Predator vibe.
She's getting out in front of this story:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/us/paolo-zampolli-ice-melania-trump-epstein.html
She had ICE arrest her former agents' girlfriend and deport her so he could win a custody battle.
Absolutely.
She might be as guilty as DJT and JE, or she might be a victim of DJT and JE, or a product of her own making.
"Vice President JD Vance went all the way to Hungary this week to rally on Orbán’s behalf, while the president last night posted a long, glowing endorsement on Truth Social."
There's a term for this; it's called "interfering in foreign elections." If PM Mark Carney came down here and campaigned for Gavin Newsom in 2028, the right would be apoplectic, and justifiably so. But for Trump, any foreign election interference on his behalf is acceptable and welcome, and any interfering he does in foreign elections is by definition righteous and just, because it's something he did, and he can only do righteous and just things.
"Trump denounced Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones"
I don't know who's responsible for the footnote, but that's my nightmare blunt rotation.
“Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz. That is not the agreement we have!”
That's one way to look at it. Or, more accurately, you could say "Iran is doing a great job of not allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz."
As for Melania's surprise press conference, it certainly was odd. Seems ominous for Donald Trump; seems ominous for Melania, even. But as far as Melania being a rat jumping off a sinking ship, we've thought that before, and she's often surprised us by being just as bad as everyone else in her orbit. She's a wretched, vile, wicked Cruella, and while she's trying to save herself, I wouldn't go so far as to say she's actively throwing her husband under the bus. She's passed up on the opportunity to do so too many times in the last decade.
Hey, you’re giving Cruella a bad name.
True. Wearing a coat made from Dalmatian puppies would probably bolster Melania's image at this point.
Agree w/ all of it, but esp. the Melania part.
But now she has her own money. FelonTrump used to brag about paying his first wife, who was in charge of choosing the decorations of Trump Tower, with “a couple of dresses.” She did all the planning and managing and got a couple of new dresses. He never paid her. At least one of those dresses cost him $100,000.00. Hope she sold it and kept the cash.
She's trying to get out in front of the news that she uses ICE to arrest and deport people for personal favors.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/us/paolo-zampolli-ice-melania-trump-epstein.html
A few weeks ago:
"Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, that's all anyone wants to talk about. We need to do something to change the headlines. Let's do another of those 12-hour Venezuela things, but in Iran this time."
"Mr. President, that's an incredibly great idea. That's like a move right out of 4-demensional chess. Leave it to you to find the solution. Can we get you another Big Mac?"
A few days ago:
"Iran, Iran, Iran, that's all anyone wants to talk about. We need to do something to change the headlines. Let's have Melania say something about the Epstein shit. Anything to shift the focus off the Iran thing."
"Mr. President, that's an incredibly great idea. That's like a move right out of 4-demensional chess. Leave it to you to find the solution. Can we get you another Big Mac?"
4-dimensional chess? Trump is still trying to figure out how to cheat at Candyland.
That does seem like the other possibility. Trump knows chum!
When you're between a rock and a hard place, what are you gonna do?
Apparently, t-rump never heard the geography joke, Where is Iran located? Between a rock (Iraq) and a hard place.
EPSTEIN!
That's saying something!
Are we lost in the Doom Loop of DJT's brain? If I understand, he has sent JD, our VP, a strong advocate and crusader for Theocratic White Nationalism, Wittcoff, a Real Estate buddy and Jared, his son in law to negotiate with Iran. JD is as much a fascist as DJT, Wittcoff and Kushner are both ardent supporters of the Netanyahu government in Israel. So, I ask. What can go wrong with this strategy? Today he released completely crazed, anti immigrant tweets that have the authorship of Stephen Miller "written" all over them. What's next? Just when Trump is trying to transition from the episode "A HAPPY ENDING" to his great victory against Iran, Melania absolves herself from the Epstein business. Is anyone sane working or living at the White House?
Apparently not.
I assume that's rhetorical...
Of course there are. And shame on you for letting the cooks, tour guides, and pages catch some strays. But if you were referring to anyone with some semblance of power or agency in the administration, than the answer is no. (Though to be fair, Sean Duffy has had a moment or two, like when he verbally slapped Elon down at a cabinet meeting when explaining how he had to intervene to prevent DOGE from firing air traffic controllers shortly after we had a number of plane crashes.)
The WH cook is the only sane one, he/she serves up the tacos Rump eats
Hah. I said the same thing, although I included tour guides and pages. No need for those folks to catch strays on behalf of Metamucilini.
Don’t overthink this. Melania is concerned about herself, full stop.
True, but the use of a well-placed shiv still feels good.
I have to ask; Does anybody else notice the parallels between Melania’s speech, and Bill Clinton’s “I did not have sex with that woman, Monica Lewinski.”? Just before we found out that indeed he did have sex with that woman? Asking for a friend.
Am I the only one who thinks Vance is in Hungary to do recon for how to rig the midterms?
He supported the German hard right wing candidate a couple of months ago. I suspect he might be on a project of his own. The rest of the administration, including the president, might not care whether he does this or not.
It also occurs to me that Steve Bannon was in Europe for a while trying to stir up some sort of right wing political action. Is Vance's friend Thiel into this sort of activity too?
This <<insert upward pointing finger here>>
Melania apparently likes her revenge best served cold, which was on full display with her cold and calculated performance yesterday. If I were Donald, I’d sleep with one eye open.
Be best.
And she takes it in her separate apartment at Trump tower, so she doesn't have to interact with Trump.
She's trying to get out in front of the story that she had ICE deport someone as a personal favor to her former agent so he could win a custody battle:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/us/paolo-zampolli-ice-melania-trump-epstein.html
Either Melania is positioning herself for a post Trump life which may indicate that Trump's health is failing rapidly or Michael Wolff's "reporting" is about to he widely disseminated.
Wolff has claimed that Melania was with Epstein before Trump, that he introduced her to Trump, and that Trump and Melania had sex for the first time on the Lolita Express. The owner of the "modeling" agency she worked for has been tied to sex trafficking of Eastern European women and had a relationship with Epstein.
Melania threatened a 1B suit against Wolff for merely mentioning that she knew Epstein. She never filed it. Wolff has responded with a SLAPP suit against her for her attempt to suppress his "journslism".
A serious investigation of all of these allegations is needed to separate the wheat from the chaff.
What happened to Jeffrey’s video of the action on the plane?
Actually, if Trump does not succeed in totally destroying America and the world, the backlash to his rule could be something many of us have always hoped for. That would be a somewhat diminished and chastened America, that is more willing to treat other countries as equals, negotiate in good faith with our adversaries, such as China, and restore a truer form of democracy in America, with tighter guardrails, a concern for the betterment of all of our citizens, and a genuine attempt at equal justice for all.
What a lovely dream.
I think this column is a little too kind to Melania. She said not only that her acquaintance with Epstein was casual, which strains credulity, but also that Trump's acquaintance with him was casual (those overlapping social circles), which strains credulity more.
"Melania is perhaps not a deep thinker . . . ."
Perhaps.
If Melania were a deeper thinker she would never have tied the knot with old Donnie.
Nor does she talk pretty.