The corruption is so blatant it’s astounding. The Democrats need to hit on this corruption daily. Trump and his cronies are using the Presidency to line their pockets with billions of dollars while the average American is struggling with living costs. The advertisements write themselves and this is corruption that can be explained and exploited if Democrats would get their act together. Pound Republicans on the corruption. Bring it up every single day in every forum.
They believe that lie of great things coming for them with the new and improved America. They will follow Felon Trump into the gates of Hell if need be. Unfortunately, they will be left there and not the felon.
Unfortunately, unless FOX News brings up the corruption a significant portion of the population will never understand how bad the corruption really is. Somehow I don’t see FOX explaining how and why the corruption is bad for the economy.
Edit: Upon further reflection all of mainstream media needs to broadcast and explain how and why the corrupt regime is bad for all but the wealthiest people in our country.
I can confirm that it rarely does. I watch and read Fox because people in my circle are Trump supporters and live on Fox and I need to know what they are seeing and hearing.
I admire the fortitude it must take to do that. Mine is reduced to periodically scanning the Dem pitches to raise money to confirm that the continued assertions I feel obliged to make that the overwhelming emotions they play on continue to be fear, embarrassment, distortion, brrow-beating and nastiness. What is almost lost, therefore, is anything dealing with America's hopes, purposes, anything beneficent to ordinary people, their hopes, aspirations, and well-being. Correspondingly, my worries for the democratic Republic the founders sought to bring us abound; I feel despair, but so far I keep coming up to bat!
Well said! It seems that about 30-35% of our population is willfully ignorant, bigoted, and hateful. Now they have their man who gives them license to be their worst selves. And Fox gives them what they want. Too bad for our nation.
Fox did not report the almost $1b payout for lying to their audience on the day it was revealed. Why would they change? When Fox did try to move away from being pro Trump all the time, their audience stopped watching. The audience controls Fox’s content, not the other way around. Need to concentrate on those willing to listen and forget about the brain dead MAGAS.
Doesn’t it depend on whose corruption? I’m pretty sure some of those dems might accept freebie coffees and such. Arguably the actually rules are too rigid but people ought to at least know what they are.
My gym had Fox News on yesterday morning. The volume was muted (thankfully), but I could tell from the upbeat hosts and the cut to the "reporter" at the Great American State Fair and Grifters' Paradise that he was raving about how exciting and amazing the fair is ... even while the video showed it empty. (Hey, it was a Sunday morning! The crowds would be arriving any minute!)
All this to say, even when the pictures on Fox show one thing, the commentary says another. And who are you going to believe, them or your lying eyes?
That would require mainstream media to not be beholden to corporate interests that often do NOT align with the general public. Mainstream media exists to make itself money, not push thorough, detailed, unbiased, and truthful journalism.
I think that's the pushback in general and I have to agree with Petey B. He noted in the Biden adminstartion he was "radicalized" because he saw how hard it was to get anything done. I don't think the Dems can fully comprehend that we passed the Rubicon. We won't go BACK to the Before Trump Times (BTT) or at least not in our lifetime.
I think the issue is a lot of corporate America and especially media/entertainment don't want major changes. They are still making money hand over fist. Even with Trump and the chaos. So there is minimal interest from those groups in helping to fund or campaign on a platform to change this up.
If there is any hope of rebalance, it cannot be by going backwards. I don't want to go back. Because if we go back, then it just means a repeat of ending with Trumpism. I want something new moving forward to try to prevent a MAGA minority takeover from happening again. And that is likely illiberalism.
If Dems aren't ready and willing to court pack SCOTUS, ExecOrder everything, as well as go against individuals, states, and corporations.......this doesn't change. The biggest mistake America made was ending Reconstruction. They treated the CSA as defeated brothers and pulled them back in. We had a large portion of the voting populace, SC judges, and politicians endorse limiting representation of minorities. They CHEERED the decision.
So yeah, I don't care about tears if a Dem Prez comes in and starts stripping away representation from racists and sexists in the deep red south. Until the South and these MAGA acolytes feel the real pain of their actions, they don't change. And if they don't want to change? Fine. Strip away all federal funding. Bring about criminal charges on any and everything. Drive a knife right into the hearts of these states and leaders who spout such white ethnonationalistic BS. We won't have it. And if you persist you will be stripped away and given very little until you decide to better participate with the rest of this country.
Don't neglect the corrupting possibilities of Trump's--and Witkoff's--stablecoin, USD1. You want a pardon or approval of a sketchy deal? Send payment in USD1....
Agreed! Democrats need better messaging and need to go for the jugular. Fox and the right make a cottage industry out of Hunter and his laptop—yet for Trump, his family and their cronies, the grifts reached a level unmatched in history—to the point of absurdity. And yet all we hear are crickets!
Seriously, the Trump kids have deals with the military-including drones. Trump personally has profited millions off of stock trades based on deals he consummated. Then there are the crypto grifts, opening private clubs with $500k member fees which gains people access and deals.
Seriously, these corrupt morally bankrupt parasites make the Rominovs seem like petty thieves! And ironically, we have the Manchurian president who acts just like them and thinks he is a Romanov—Tsar!
This corruption is blatant, illegal or at least unethical and definitely unacceptable. Even if average Americans were doing well, it is still wrong. So don’t condemn it on the basis of its contrast with how average Americans are doing!
To all: I suggest it would be wise to shut down the Democratic-Socialist agenda and influence sooner rather than later. Pursuing things like Medicare for all or support for Unions are very good things - but when you look at the Dem-Socialists of America agenda (https://www.dsausa.org) it is INSANITY that makes Trump look like a savior. This is not how you win elections - nor survive to Celebrate 300 years..
You might want to read the GOP platform from 1956. It's quite interesting. Democratic Socialists could have cut and paste most of their more serious policies directly from it...including national health care.
The Democratic Party on a whole has FAR less reserve funding than the GOP. It has FAR less stable donations. It struggles with a coherent message. The Democratic Party also has no voice. No Leader. Hate Trump all you want, he made it clear who ran the GOP.
I am independent and refuse to register to a party. I despise Trump. Most of my life I grew up to hate communism/socialism and to applaud hard work and intelligence. Then as I grew I started to reflect. Is what we have really capitalism? Really democracy? We may call it that, but a lot of what makes up the system is NOT that. And it has certainly twisted into something we can say a large portion of the country are not best served by the current administration and state of affairs.
I won't say I will never vote for a DSA candidate. Probably not. But depends on my options. But I will say I am more open now to listening than ever before. And even IF they gained more traction, I doubt they could make everything that they want happen. And it would turn into an odd mix of political idealogies. Same as ours has warped from what we'd define it as.
So I am more at the point of if the Trump era is the consequence of decades of decadence, laziness, corruption, etc. from our democratic republic capitalistic society...............then I dunno, maybe it wouldn't be a terrible thing to change to something else. Cuz I would really like to not have billions given to masked men who can disappear non-whites, unqualified people put in some of the most important roles, an entire branch of the government abstain from its duties, another branch just flaunt common sense or decency, and the myriad of other anti-American actions from our government (GOP since Dems can't really stop them)
I think the question is not "how do we fix it?" but "what do we fix it into?" Because fixing OUR democracy will just rinse and repeat. So what do we fix our democracy into. At least DSA has an idea. Trump and the GOP have an idea (hint, it's facism). But the Dems don't. It's "go back and pretend Trump didn't happen". And they wonder why they struggle.
When I was a kid my parents constantly threatened to sell me to the Gypsies. At a certain point I looked around at my family and asked, "Tell me more about these Gypsies."
I have gone to the DSA website and have listened to AOC and Bernie and I just don’t get the fear. They make sense to me. We do need Medicare for All, we do need regulated capitalism, we do need to address wealth inequality, we do need change.
... this mentality will never make any sense to me. In order to defeat a system of corruption, malicious intent, oligarchy and authoritarianism, that is backed by White and Christian Nationalists, we need to... get rid of the Democratic-Socialists?
Because they have agendas you don't agree with? Why? What are they? What about their agendas is "INSANITY"? How on earth does it make Trump look like a savior?
To those already deeply entrenched in MAGA thought, sure. But they were and are always going to view anything so purely Anti-Trump as evil and terrifying. So we should hack away a strong, engaging portion of the Dems to assuage the same idiots that voted Trump in not once, but twice?
How about we embrace the Democratic-Socialists for daring to want reform? Candidates who don't agree with all of their agendas can say so, should say so, must say so. But never as an attack meant to "other" them and further divide.
If we want a true democracy/republic, how about we embrace the fact that such ideals are built on a foundation of inclusivity. Not blind assent, not total agreement, but simply allowing people with different views, goals, priorities to coexist. So that those groups can concentrate their energies on defeating the real enemy: Illiberalism, oligarchy, authoritarianism, theocracies.
We're in the midst of an authoritarian transition in this country. Fighting against our allies, even if we don't agree with everything they say, is contradictory and ill judged. DSA candidates have some of the best momentum and outreach out there: Bringing in youth and swing voters and undecideds who we are far more likely to be able to reach than the deeply intrenched and indoctrinated MAGA base.
I'm not a fan of the DSA, but I'm in favor of doing whatever it takes to win. DSA candidates are obviously popular in NYC so I think moderate democrats should shut up and let voters in those areas elect who they want. DSA candidates won't fly in many places where moderates will do well, and that's fine too. DSA should shut up about moderates who can win in more conservative areas. I'm sure we'll get a DSA candidate in the 28 primary and candidates can fight it out for what ideology we want. Leaders of the inept Democratic party would be wise to adopt some general DSA talking points like no more aid to Israel until they stop the genocide in Gaza and whatever they're doing in Lebanon, stop sucking up to corporate donors, things like that.
Reading The Bulwark essay about people who have died because of cuts to USAID, I realized that none of these stories is going to convince Musk and his supporters of anything - other than make them feel superior because the stories mostly involved dead brown and black people.
As with Covid, every death is going to be dismissed - if acknowledged at all - as being caused by something else: co-morbidities, bad choices, other circumstances. Ranging from gun deaths to drought, we are all blameless because, gosh darn it, things are just so complicated.
Who can say if food would have saved that starving child when there could have been bad germs in the bowl or - who knows? - maybe the food itself could have choked her as she ate. There's just no way of knowing what's the best thing to do, so better to do nothing!
"As with Covid, every death is going to be dismissed - if acknowledged at all - as being caused by something else: co-morbidities, bad choices, other circumstances."
They think the vaccine killed more people than Covid did.
And now life expectancies for Red states is two years lower than for those living in Blue states. CNN: “On average, residents in blue districts can expect to live 79.9 years, about two years longer than the 77.7-year average lifespan in red districts. To put that difference into context, Karas Montez says it typically requires “over a decade of progress” for countries to raise their life expectancy level by two years. “So that means Republican-held districts have fallen over a decade behind Democratic districts,” she said.”
They don’t care about that, either. They’re pretty sure they can knock ten percent of ‘blue’ voters off the roles, especially in the states (spoiler alert, they’re virtually all ‘red’ states) that shared their voter rolls and data with the White House. Ergo, they’ll clear the life expectancy differential by a significant percentage and just build the electorate by encouraging procreation and breeding more youngins.
Today's Cheap Shot hit me hard like a punch to the gut. The reflecting pool is now surrounded by more uniformed cops and military troops than visitors, but it didn't used to be that way. It's amazing how a single photo of an innocuous scene can be so powerful.
It brought back the scene from "Forrest Gump" where after Forrest gives his remarks about Vietnam, Jenny runs across the pool to meet him. Today she would be shot for doing the same thing.
I've had the same thought! Except I carried it out to it's natural and grim conclusion: Forrest Jr. would have never been born, so Forrest Sr. would have had no reason to go to Savannah and wait for the number 7 bus, telling his story to anyone who sat down. And we'd never learn that life is like a box of chocolates.
Jenny isn't killed but wounded and Forrest scoops her body like he did with his platoonmates in Vietnam and runs her to the ER where she is saved. Of course he wouldn't disrupt the Black Panther party later that night but, oh well.
As Jamelle Bouie has noted, Elon Musk's abolition of USAID is a world-historical crime. The Democratic nominee in 2028 should promise to denaturalize and deport him.
In general, I'm against denaturalization, even for bad people. But Elon came to the U.S. on a student visa to go to grad school and decided to start a business instead. I'm not a lawyer, but there may be an actual basis for his denaturalization in particular.
So glad to see the Atlantic article written about here. My best friend is retired from a 40-year career with NPS. Can't count the number of calls he's gotten since T took office from people still employed. It's heartbreaking and enraging. Republicans have wanted to privatize the parks for ages. What makes me sick to my stomach is that once they're gone, they're gone forever.
And by letting the parks fall apart by not funding them, Trump can blame their state of disrepair on government incompetence and make the case for private ownership.
Trump: "There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started. If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!"
One of the most dangerous things about this moment is how we've become desensitized to this sort of empty threat. I suppose there's a non-zero chance Trump would follow through on this threat, but he's been making this threat since the spring.
On the other hand, Hegseth's been cleaning house in the Pentagon, and since Hegseth is all about lethality over legality, maybe Trump is biding his time until there's enough obsequious flag level officers in place before he turns Iran to ash.
But Trump (or “US sources”) always jumps in on Sunday, before the Asian markets open, with some soothing statement to keep the oil and equity markets from spiraling up/down.
"What is one to make of the last few days’ military and diplomatic developments in and around the Strait of Hormuz?"
Unlike Trump, Iran is not desperate to end the war. They have succeeded in linking Israel's actions in Lebanon and elsewhere to any peace agreement. Iran will respond to Israeli attacks not merely by striking back against Israel. They will attack the world-wide economy. The only thing Trump can do about it is to put pressure on Israel.
As bad as relations are right now between the US and Israel, they are about to get much, much worse.
They can fight the war on the cheap while we piss away our nation's treasure and weapons. With Russian and Chinese support, I believe they can economically outlast the US in this war.
I know Trump wants so badly to defeat Iran and spike the football for the 250th. But it's not meant to be. Instead, we will be celebrating America's humiliation and schooling at the hands of a foe with a much inferior military. Sure, he'll say we won a huge victory in Iran, and some of the voters will actually believe it, but most of us will know that we mark our big anniversary with a globally disastrous defeat in a war of choice in mere months of conflict. USA! USA!
Particularly galling is that some of the money Trump has purloined from the National Parks budget will go for not just fireworks but an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for fireworks displays. Has Trump ever been to a national park? I doubt it.
Just wait until they push to privatize the parks because of the costs. We'll have Meta National Park, X National Park, Anthropic, etc. Of course, to access any of them you'll need to have a paid account in good standing with each service.
When the plastic surgeon did scalp reduction on Dear Donald, now Dear Leader, he also threw in a BOGO of brain reduction, as Don told him he had an over abundance.
The January 1991 issue of Mad Magazine did a parody of The Wizard of Oz, with Trump revealed as the Wizard. They sing of him, “He’s making a fortune in rev-e-nues, he’s raking it in while suckers lose, and lose, and lose, and lose, and lose, AND LOSE! And pays all his debts with I.O.U.s! (Ziggity, zoggity, zoom!). We’re glad we found the Wizard- the fabulous Wizard of Odds!” He hasn’t changed a bit.
Whether it's the Putin or Orban or Bolsonaro or the Trump administration, the real motivating factor for these uber patriots is not nationalism. It's greed, and corruption is their signature administrative policy. Yes, all Dems should take their talking points from Jon Ossoff. It's the corruption that is Trump's motivator. For Stephen Miller, it's the cruelty.
For Trump the cruelty is more of a side hustle. He would most likely give up some cruelty for more cash. At least today's old man Trump. Youthful Trump was a different story.
Nowhere is it written that commitments to charitable aid must be forever, but the way Musk went about it, "feeding USAID into the wood chipper,: was the grossest of gross negligences--if not mass manslaughter. In the 20th century, the expression "crime against humanity" was coined when simple murder was insufficient. I think it's time for what Musk did to be included under crimes against humanity.
The ICC does not have jurisdiction when crimes occur in a country which is not a signatory to the Rome agreement. However, it does have jurisdiction when the crimes occur in a country that is a signatory. Just saying'.
Musk had a very good idea of the consequences of cutting USAID. In my book it was absolutely intentional. It is a crime against humanity. The other person who should never bed left off the hook is Marco Rubio, who as Sec State oversaw the whole destruction and gave it his rubber stamp of approval.
The corruption is so blatant it’s astounding. The Democrats need to hit on this corruption daily. Trump and his cronies are using the Presidency to line their pockets with billions of dollars while the average American is struggling with living costs. The advertisements write themselves and this is corruption that can be explained and exploited if Democrats would get their act together. Pound Republicans on the corruption. Bring it up every single day in every forum.
Won't sink into a lot of magats' thick skulls, they think they're in on the grift and not the mark. They're really stupid that way.
True, but as others have pointed out, the strategery should be to forget the MAGAts and try to flip the gettable Repubs / Indies.
After the confederates were defeated they were disarmed and sent home.
OK, but are they disarmed at the shoulder or neck? And did you mean defeeted, too? 😏
Agreed.
It's independent and swing votets who matter.
They believe that lie of great things coming for them with the new and improved America. They will follow Felon Trump into the gates of Hell if need be. Unfortunately, they will be left there and not the felon.
Unfortunately, unless FOX News brings up the corruption a significant portion of the population will never understand how bad the corruption really is. Somehow I don’t see FOX explaining how and why the corruption is bad for the economy.
Edit: Upon further reflection all of mainstream media needs to broadcast and explain how and why the corrupt regime is bad for all but the wealthiest people in our country.
I never watch FOX but I would guess any couption never sees the light of day over there in what they cover.
I can confirm that it rarely does. I watch and read Fox because people in my circle are Trump supporters and live on Fox and I need to know what they are seeing and hearing.
"Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril."
"If you know neither yourself nor the enemy, you are destined to succumb in every battle."
-Sun Tzu
How can you stand it? More power to ya!
I admire the fortitude it must take to do that. Mine is reduced to periodically scanning the Dem pitches to raise money to confirm that the continued assertions I feel obliged to make that the overwhelming emotions they play on continue to be fear, embarrassment, distortion, brrow-beating and nastiness. What is almost lost, therefore, is anything dealing with America's hopes, purposes, anything beneficent to ordinary people, their hopes, aspirations, and well-being. Correspondingly, my worries for the democratic Republic the founders sought to bring us abound; I feel despair, but so far I keep coming up to bat!
Well said! It seems that about 30-35% of our population is willfully ignorant, bigoted, and hateful. Now they have their man who gives them license to be their worst selves. And Fox gives them what they want. Too bad for our nation.
You are very brave. The future is not rosy.
Fox did not report the almost $1b payout for lying to their audience on the day it was revealed. Why would they change? When Fox did try to move away from being pro Trump all the time, their audience stopped watching. The audience controls Fox’s content, not the other way around. Need to concentrate on those willing to listen and forget about the brain dead MAGAS.
Isn't brain dead MAGAS a repetitive redundancy?
Ver good!👍
Thanks, Katherine. 🥂
Doesn’t it depend on whose corruption? I’m pretty sure some of those dems might accept freebie coffees and such. Arguably the actually rules are too rigid but people ought to at least know what they are.
My gym had Fox News on yesterday morning. The volume was muted (thankfully), but I could tell from the upbeat hosts and the cut to the "reporter" at the Great American State Fair and Grifters' Paradise that he was raving about how exciting and amazing the fair is ... even while the video showed it empty. (Hey, it was a Sunday morning! The crowds would be arriving any minute!)
All this to say, even when the pictures on Fox show one thing, the commentary says another. And who are you going to believe, them or your lying eyes?
Weren’t all the people at the Great American Fair Church?
That would require mainstream media to not be beholden to corporate interests that often do NOT align with the general public. Mainstream media exists to make itself money, not push thorough, detailed, unbiased, and truthful journalism.
I think that's the pushback in general and I have to agree with Petey B. He noted in the Biden adminstartion he was "radicalized" because he saw how hard it was to get anything done. I don't think the Dems can fully comprehend that we passed the Rubicon. We won't go BACK to the Before Trump Times (BTT) or at least not in our lifetime.
I think the issue is a lot of corporate America and especially media/entertainment don't want major changes. They are still making money hand over fist. Even with Trump and the chaos. So there is minimal interest from those groups in helping to fund or campaign on a platform to change this up.
If there is any hope of rebalance, it cannot be by going backwards. I don't want to go back. Because if we go back, then it just means a repeat of ending with Trumpism. I want something new moving forward to try to prevent a MAGA minority takeover from happening again. And that is likely illiberalism.
If Dems aren't ready and willing to court pack SCOTUS, ExecOrder everything, as well as go against individuals, states, and corporations.......this doesn't change. The biggest mistake America made was ending Reconstruction. They treated the CSA as defeated brothers and pulled them back in. We had a large portion of the voting populace, SC judges, and politicians endorse limiting representation of minorities. They CHEERED the decision.
So yeah, I don't care about tears if a Dem Prez comes in and starts stripping away representation from racists and sexists in the deep red south. Until the South and these MAGA acolytes feel the real pain of their actions, they don't change. And if they don't want to change? Fine. Strip away all federal funding. Bring about criminal charges on any and everything. Drive a knife right into the hearts of these states and leaders who spout such white ethnonationalistic BS. We won't have it. And if you persist you will be stripped away and given very little until you decide to better participate with the rest of this country.
Don't neglect the corrupting possibilities of Trump's--and Witkoff's--stablecoin, USD1. You want a pardon or approval of a sketchy deal? Send payment in USD1....
They are, and hopefully it gets through to enough people. See: Jon Ossoff, Mayor Pete, etc.
I’m amazed! I had to stop watching FOX a while ago. Unfortunately I have missed performances from local musicians that I enjoy.
Agreed! Democrats need better messaging and need to go for the jugular. Fox and the right make a cottage industry out of Hunter and his laptop—yet for Trump, his family and their cronies, the grifts reached a level unmatched in history—to the point of absurdity. And yet all we hear are crickets!
Seriously, the Trump kids have deals with the military-including drones. Trump personally has profited millions off of stock trades based on deals he consummated. Then there are the crypto grifts, opening private clubs with $500k member fees which gains people access and deals.
Seriously, these corrupt morally bankrupt parasites make the Rominovs seem like petty thieves! And ironically, we have the Manchurian president who acts just like them and thinks he is a Romanov—Tsar!
This corruption is blatant, illegal or at least unethical and definitely unacceptable. Even if average Americans were doing well, it is still wrong. So don’t condemn it on the basis of its contrast with how average Americans are doing!
To all: I suggest it would be wise to shut down the Democratic-Socialist agenda and influence sooner rather than later. Pursuing things like Medicare for all or support for Unions are very good things - but when you look at the Dem-Socialists of America agenda (https://www.dsausa.org) it is INSANITY that makes Trump look like a savior. This is not how you win elections - nor survive to Celebrate 300 years..
***
https://www.dsausa.org/2026-democratic-socialists-summit-general-information/
https://www.dsausa.org/socialists-summit-timeline/
You might want to read the GOP platform from 1956. It's quite interesting. Democratic Socialists could have cut and paste most of their more serious policies directly from it...including national health care.
How would you "win elections"?
The Democratic Party on a whole has FAR less reserve funding than the GOP. It has FAR less stable donations. It struggles with a coherent message. The Democratic Party also has no voice. No Leader. Hate Trump all you want, he made it clear who ran the GOP.
I am independent and refuse to register to a party. I despise Trump. Most of my life I grew up to hate communism/socialism and to applaud hard work and intelligence. Then as I grew I started to reflect. Is what we have really capitalism? Really democracy? We may call it that, but a lot of what makes up the system is NOT that. And it has certainly twisted into something we can say a large portion of the country are not best served by the current administration and state of affairs.
I won't say I will never vote for a DSA candidate. Probably not. But depends on my options. But I will say I am more open now to listening than ever before. And even IF they gained more traction, I doubt they could make everything that they want happen. And it would turn into an odd mix of political idealogies. Same as ours has warped from what we'd define it as.
So I am more at the point of if the Trump era is the consequence of decades of decadence, laziness, corruption, etc. from our democratic republic capitalistic society...............then I dunno, maybe it wouldn't be a terrible thing to change to something else. Cuz I would really like to not have billions given to masked men who can disappear non-whites, unqualified people put in some of the most important roles, an entire branch of the government abstain from its duties, another branch just flaunt common sense or decency, and the myriad of other anti-American actions from our government (GOP since Dems can't really stop them)
I think the question is not "how do we fix it?" but "what do we fix it into?" Because fixing OUR democracy will just rinse and repeat. So what do we fix our democracy into. At least DSA has an idea. Trump and the GOP have an idea (hint, it's facism). But the Dems don't. It's "go back and pretend Trump didn't happen". And they wonder why they struggle.
When I was a kid my parents constantly threatened to sell me to the Gypsies. At a certain point I looked around at my family and asked, "Tell me more about these Gypsies."
YES. This. Yes.
I have gone to the DSA website and have listened to AOC and Bernie and I just don’t get the fear. They make sense to me. We do need Medicare for All, we do need regulated capitalism, we do need to address wealth inequality, we do need change.
... this mentality will never make any sense to me. In order to defeat a system of corruption, malicious intent, oligarchy and authoritarianism, that is backed by White and Christian Nationalists, we need to... get rid of the Democratic-Socialists?
Because they have agendas you don't agree with? Why? What are they? What about their agendas is "INSANITY"? How on earth does it make Trump look like a savior?
To those already deeply entrenched in MAGA thought, sure. But they were and are always going to view anything so purely Anti-Trump as evil and terrifying. So we should hack away a strong, engaging portion of the Dems to assuage the same idiots that voted Trump in not once, but twice?
How about we embrace the Democratic-Socialists for daring to want reform? Candidates who don't agree with all of their agendas can say so, should say so, must say so. But never as an attack meant to "other" them and further divide.
If we want a true democracy/republic, how about we embrace the fact that such ideals are built on a foundation of inclusivity. Not blind assent, not total agreement, but simply allowing people with different views, goals, priorities to coexist. So that those groups can concentrate their energies on defeating the real enemy: Illiberalism, oligarchy, authoritarianism, theocracies.
We're in the midst of an authoritarian transition in this country. Fighting against our allies, even if we don't agree with everything they say, is contradictory and ill judged. DSA candidates have some of the best momentum and outreach out there: Bringing in youth and swing voters and undecideds who we are far more likely to be able to reach than the deeply intrenched and indoctrinated MAGA base.
I'm not a fan of the DSA, but I'm in favor of doing whatever it takes to win. DSA candidates are obviously popular in NYC so I think moderate democrats should shut up and let voters in those areas elect who they want. DSA candidates won't fly in many places where moderates will do well, and that's fine too. DSA should shut up about moderates who can win in more conservative areas. I'm sure we'll get a DSA candidate in the 28 primary and candidates can fight it out for what ideology we want. Leaders of the inept Democratic party would be wise to adopt some general DSA talking points like no more aid to Israel until they stop the genocide in Gaza and whatever they're doing in Lebanon, stop sucking up to corporate donors, things like that.
Reading The Bulwark essay about people who have died because of cuts to USAID, I realized that none of these stories is going to convince Musk and his supporters of anything - other than make them feel superior because the stories mostly involved dead brown and black people.
As with Covid, every death is going to be dismissed - if acknowledged at all - as being caused by something else: co-morbidities, bad choices, other circumstances. Ranging from gun deaths to drought, we are all blameless because, gosh darn it, things are just so complicated.
Who can say if food would have saved that starving child when there could have been bad germs in the bowl or - who knows? - maybe the food itself could have choked her as she ate. There's just no way of knowing what's the best thing to do, so better to do nothing!
"As with Covid, every death is going to be dismissed - if acknowledged at all - as being caused by something else: co-morbidities, bad choices, other circumstances."
They think the vaccine killed more people than Covid did.
And now life expectancies for Red states is two years lower than for those living in Blue states. CNN: “On average, residents in blue districts can expect to live 79.9 years, about two years longer than the 77.7-year average lifespan in red districts. To put that difference into context, Karas Montez says it typically requires “over a decade of progress” for countries to raise their life expectancy level by two years. “So that means Republican-held districts have fallen over a decade behind Democratic districts,” she said.”
I'm shocked! Shocked!
Shush, shush! We can’t let them know they’re killing off their own voters…
They don’t care about that, either. They’re pretty sure they can knock ten percent of ‘blue’ voters off the roles, especially in the states (spoiler alert, they’re virtually all ‘red’ states) that shared their voter rolls and data with the White House. Ergo, they’ll clear the life expectancy differential by a significant percentage and just build the electorate by encouraging procreation and breeding more youngins.
Well, there's hope with that too: they lead in infant mortality.
What is the average lifespan of white people in red states?
White residents: Average of ~76.0 years. Black residents: Average of ~69.5 years
Of all the things this regime is doing, the killing of humanitarian aid hurts my heart the worst. The assault on immigrants is a close second
The corruption, the threat to free and fair elections et al hit me on a more intellectual level. All horrible just diffrrent kind of pain.
If all the Brown and Black people are dying off, they can’t possibly replace us lily White folks, don’t you know?
Today's Cheap Shot hit me hard like a punch to the gut. The reflecting pool is now surrounded by more uniformed cops and military troops than visitors, but it didn't used to be that way. It's amazing how a single photo of an innocuous scene can be so powerful.
It brought back the scene from "Forrest Gump" where after Forrest gives his remarks about Vietnam, Jenny runs across the pool to meet him. Today she would be shot for doing the same thing.
I've had the same thought! Except I carried it out to it's natural and grim conclusion: Forrest Jr. would have never been born, so Forrest Sr. would have had no reason to go to Savannah and wait for the number 7 bus, telling his story to anyone who sat down. And we'd never learn that life is like a box of chocolates.
Jenny isn't killed but wounded and Forrest scoops her body like he did with his platoonmates in Vietnam and runs her to the ER where she is saved. Of course he wouldn't disrupt the Black Panther party later that night but, oh well.
It should now be clear to Sonny Bunch that the Bulwark community has a favorite movie.
She can't even run across the pool. Isn't it currently surrounded by hurricane fencing and tarps?
Well, you know those damned hippies would have created an opening somehow. 😀
“Fake news”
"...the adviser said. “When the clash came, Israel was naive to think that we would be able to be exempt from those expectations.”"
To correct this statement, it wasn't Israel's naivety, it was their arrogance.
Bibi's in particular.
As Jamelle Bouie has noted, Elon Musk's abolition of USAID is a world-historical crime. The Democratic nominee in 2028 should promise to denaturalize and deport him.
In general, I'm against denaturalization, even for bad people. But Elon came to the U.S. on a student visa to go to grad school and decided to start a business instead. I'm not a lawyer, but there may be an actual basis for his denaturalization in particular.
He is, in magat terms, an "illegal".
So glad to see the Atlantic article written about here. My best friend is retired from a 40-year career with NPS. Can't count the number of calls he's gotten since T took office from people still employed. It's heartbreaking and enraging. Republicans have wanted to privatize the parks for ages. What makes me sick to my stomach is that once they're gone, they're gone forever.
And by letting the parks fall apart by not funding them, Trump can blame their state of disrepair on government incompetence and make the case for private ownership.
That’s the Republican plan for everything. Make a mess then blame someone else, blame the government and go private. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Trump: "There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started. If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!"
One of the most dangerous things about this moment is how we've become desensitized to this sort of empty threat. I suppose there's a non-zero chance Trump would follow through on this threat, but he's been making this threat since the spring.
On the other hand, Hegseth's been cleaning house in the Pentagon, and since Hegseth is all about lethality over legality, maybe Trump is biding his time until there's enough obsequious flag level officers in place before he turns Iran to ash.
Happy Monday.
Trump’s crazy, all over the place comments abt Iran are Farsical, at least to Iranians.
Hahaha!
But Trump (or “US sources”) always jumps in on Sunday, before the Asian markets open, with some soothing statement to keep the oil and equity markets from spiraling up/down.
"What is one to make of the last few days’ military and diplomatic developments in and around the Strait of Hormuz?"
Unlike Trump, Iran is not desperate to end the war. They have succeeded in linking Israel's actions in Lebanon and elsewhere to any peace agreement. Iran will respond to Israeli attacks not merely by striking back against Israel. They will attack the world-wide economy. The only thing Trump can do about it is to put pressure on Israel.
As bad as relations are right now between the US and Israel, they are about to get much, much worse.
They can fight the war on the cheap while we piss away our nation's treasure and weapons. With Russian and Chinese support, I believe they can economically outlast the US in this war.
I know Trump wants so badly to defeat Iran and spike the football for the 250th. But it's not meant to be. Instead, we will be celebrating America's humiliation and schooling at the hands of a foe with a much inferior military. Sure, he'll say we won a huge victory in Iran, and some of the voters will actually believe it, but most of us will know that we mark our big anniversary with a globally disastrous defeat in a war of choice in mere months of conflict. USA! USA!
US - eh?
Particularly galling is that some of the money Trump has purloined from the National Parks budget will go for not just fireworks but an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for fireworks displays. Has Trump ever been to a national park? I doubt it.
Just wait until they push to privatize the parks because of the costs. We'll have Meta National Park, X National Park, Anthropic, etc. Of course, to access any of them you'll need to have a paid account in good standing with each service.
Hasn't Disney pushed for something like this for years?
That is too much walking for Private Bone Spurs. Remember when he refused to attend a memorial service because it was raining?
Rain and wind are challenges when you have had your entire scalp yanked forward surgically.
When the plastic surgeon did scalp reduction on Dear Donald, now Dear Leader, he also threw in a BOGO of brain reduction, as Don told him he had an over abundance.
The proverbial ten pounds of shit into a five pound bag.
I just thought it would disturb his comb over and all that hairspray.
The "comb" is forward and surgical. The hair on the top of his head used to be at the back. What's at the back used to be his neck.
Incidentally, in filing for divorce, one his wives related that Trump didn't like the result and was furious at her for recommending the surgeon.
As Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan point out: always assume what comes out of the mouth's of DJT government as being false. And I do.
The January 1991 issue of Mad Magazine did a parody of The Wizard of Oz, with Trump revealed as the Wizard. They sing of him, “He’s making a fortune in rev-e-nues, he’s raking it in while suckers lose, and lose, and lose, and lose, and lose, AND LOSE! And pays all his debts with I.O.U.s! (Ziggity, zoggity, zoom!). We’re glad we found the Wizard- the fabulous Wizard of Odds!” He hasn’t changed a bit.
Whether it's the Putin or Orban or Bolsonaro or the Trump administration, the real motivating factor for these uber patriots is not nationalism. It's greed, and corruption is their signature administrative policy. Yes, all Dems should take their talking points from Jon Ossoff. It's the corruption that is Trump's motivator. For Stephen Miller, it's the cruelty.
Don’t leave Trump out of the cruelty part. He loves being cruel.
For Trump the cruelty is more of a side hustle. He would most likely give up some cruelty for more cash. At least today's old man Trump. Youthful Trump was a different story.
OK, I guess maybe having some cash could deter him from being a monster.
Just like having a piece of paper entitled Diploma makes the Straw Man a genius.
Yeah, I was being sarcastic. He loves being a monster and having all the monsters that follow him eat it up like monsters.
Nowhere is it written that commitments to charitable aid must be forever, but the way Musk went about it, "feeding USAID into the wood chipper,: was the grossest of gross negligences--if not mass manslaughter. In the 20th century, the expression "crime against humanity" was coined when simple murder was insufficient. I think it's time for what Musk did to be included under crimes against humanity.
The ICC does not have jurisdiction when crimes occur in a country which is not a signatory to the Rome agreement. However, it does have jurisdiction when the crimes occur in a country that is a signatory. Just saying'.
Musk had a very good idea of the consequences of cutting USAID. In my book it was absolutely intentional. It is a crime against humanity. The other person who should never bed left off the hook is Marco Rubio, who as Sec State oversaw the whole destruction and gave it his rubber stamp of approval.
Despite having been a proponent of USAID as a Senator.
As much as I dislike Vance and his abrupt 180 turn to MAGA, he didn't have much of a track record to betray. Rubio is very different story. Sickening.
Imagine Donald Trump criticizing anyone for not learning. If he was ever capable of learning, that seems to have ended back in the early 1980s.
He finished learning in the early 80's because, by that time, he was convinced he knew everything.
I've been posting the " man behind the curtain " since summer 2025. He even did it for me at the Kennedy Center Curtain.
The National Park plunder is infuriating. People have died and wildlife is/ will.
Theodore Roosevelt would strangle him if he could.
Teddy would use that big stick he talked about.
I hate AI, but that would be a good use of AI Teddy.
Yes!
Wish someone would do that. It would be a great way to get the Plight of America's Parks out to the Brick Brains.
Brick brains is an apt qualifier. Good one!
I usually use Jethro Tull's thick as a brick. Poetic license.