Bill, you are right. Augustine is 100% right. We elected twice, (and according to his lying mind, three times) the most cruel, criminal, vulgar, perverse, ignorant, corrupt, amoral, racist and misogynistic person of my long lifetime. Anyone with half a brain could have seen this coming. And thanks Supreme Court, you own this obscenity lock, stock and barrel. Every Republican politician in America, you own every bit of this too. And you too, American people. 77 million of you decided murder and cruelty and sexual perversion, together with unimaginable stupidity, illegality and the all the rest, as well as unthinkable grift, theft and financial corruption are just fine. We have sown the wind, and we are reaping the whirlwind. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul.” Mark 8:36. America sold its soul to Trump, and I fear we are not getting it back.
Well said! The Robert’s Court has been a stain on this republic since they handed Bush the presidency without a proper hand count in Florida. And ever since, we’ve been experiencing a slow painful death, by a thousand judicial cuts!…:)
Most days i completely agree! And i am doing what i can to stay healthy and politically active for the next few decades so that i can be certain as i enter my nineties that America's great experiment in democracy and a just society for everyone is once again flourishing and on the right path.
It feels like the least i can do for a country that has provided our Baby Boomer generation with pretty much the best years of any human generation so far.
Well, I was born in Hungary. And thank God, there was a thinking R president, nicknamed Ike, in 1956 who treated my parents, my baby sister and 5-yr-old me, and thousands of other Hungarians as refugees and let us into the US. Thanks to the nuns, priests and other teachers in my grade and high schools, I learned all about the Constitution, the history of the US (good and bad - no sugar coating - had 2 fantastic history teachers), and the hope that the US held out to others, which had led my parents to risk our lives and cross between 2 unmanned (thank God!) watchtowers to freedom from the Soviets. In time, I became a federal employee and took that oath to the Constitution that President Orange Snake seems to have zero idea what it means. And it hurts to see the current administration treat that same oath as nothing but words they can ignore, defy, and treat as pieces of garbage in their reality.
Reforms need to happen. The Constitution written in the 1700's needs an overhaul. There needs to be term limits for federal judges (including the Supreme Court, expansion of the Court to equal the same number of Federal judicial districts, size of both the House and Senate need to be modified to ensure that states will small populations do not have disparate power over larger states (with larger economies and larger contributions in the form of taxes to the federal treasury), voting reform to codify in a Constitutional Amendment the intents of the voting rights act, change into Constitutional amendment a repeal of the Citizen's United SCOTUS decision. No, corporations ARE NOT people, and corporations and wealthy people should not have the rights to contribute unlimited amounts to elections. Women's rights as described in the original Roe v. Wade decision should be written into the Constitution. Those are some suggestions with which to start.
I agree with everything except the idea that large states should have more power than small states. The senate was created so every state would have two senators. The congress is made up of representatives who are elected population size. So CA has more Congressmen than Wyoming.
True about the House. BUT those Congressmen in CA have to answer to 750,000 people, vs 580,000. And the electoral votes are even more skewed: CA (54 EV) - 722,000, WY (3 EV) - 193,000. Because those 2 senators in WY skew the EV numbers.
the Senate is the most undemocratic institution in the democratic world. It would be fine if all they voted on was National Donut Day but nothing gets down without it. If the Senate we chose lead us to this place, what good was the Senate?
Moscow Mitch is also complicit. Donald should have been convicted at his second impeachment trial and barred forever from holding any public office. Only Moscow Mitch prevented that from happening. The world thanks you, Mitch.
Unfortunately, the nihilism has developed deep roots. I doubt that a majority of the US voting populace gives a damn about corruption. They've believed Congress to be corrupt for generations. Presidents have been accused of corruption, often falsely, but the general impression of politician=corrupt applies to them, as well. Trump gets a pass because he makes no attempt to hide it. The voting public sees him as "authentic" because he's open about the grift. They know that, absent restrictive laws, businesses would be wholly corrupt. Because "that's the natural way of things".
Well said. We also need to more strongly pin Trump's misdeeds on the Supreme Court. They, unlike elected Republicans, don't have to worry about being primaried and have the absolute freedom and ability to say anything they want about Trump's deeds. They have recklessly read and misinterpreted the Constitution for partisan reasons - unless there are payoffs somewhere in the background for some of them, similar to what Alito and Thomas seem to be getting.
I was right there with you up to "and I fear we are not getting it back." Yes, that's a possibility. But that's all the more reason we - Never-Trumpers from the Liz Cheney right to the Bernie Sanders left - must do everything possible to kick this cult out of power. Oh, some of the damage will remain long after they're gone, but first things first. If the last few midterms are any indication, at least half eligible voters plan not to vote in 2026. In which case, as Bill Kristol wrote:
"Not to try to stop the reckless criminality of this administration is to collude in it. It is to accept the collapse of our experiment in republican self-government into rule by a lawless gang."
We have 11 months to remind those voters, and the small % who voted for the cult in '24 and now have "buyer's remorse" of their moral obligation.
And so it goes. Trump and his Republican enablers have perfected a fiendish and age-old skill: leveraging the basic evolutionary tenet of humans: fear and suspicion. From EO Wilson: "...group-versus-group (is) a principle driving force that made us what we are...people feel compelled to belong to groups and, having joined consider them superior to competing groups."
As I remember reading him, E.O. Wilson also had a lot to say about another basic evolutionary tenet: Cooperation!
When I try to posit a world where fear & suspicion are the primary motivating human responses to the external world, I can not imagine that our species could have ever made it this far. Instead, I have to conjure up other basic dynamic 'forces of Nature' that have contributed to the world/Gaia as I perceive it in 2025 and the fact that humans have created and achieved the extraordinarily Good & Beautiful, along with all the Ugly & Evil that has been concomitant with every step along the way to our modern global civilization(s).
Since you mentioned Wilson, his !998 book on the unity and synthesis of knowledge, "Consilience" -- also comes to mind; it implies a strong (overarching, perhaps?) tendency of our species to "combine together" -- i.e., invoke cooperation -- all the feelings and 'things' that we know in order to enhance the world around us as opposed to the destructive and corrosive consequences of living merely according to 'fear and suspicion.'
I remain an optimist.
BTW.
Looking at your Substack bio/description, I see that we share an opposite but nevertheless mutual curiosity about the Other, as represented by two different countries, America and Australia. I am an American, born and bred, with a fascination for 'Down Under' because our respective societies (also including Canada and the UK) seem to offer such a rich mother-lode of comparisons & contrasts on just about any dimension of being human that one wants to explore -- from individual to group to society to government to nation-state. I always appreciate book/website suggestions along those lines.
Hegseth and the entire chain of command that followed the kill order must be tried and convicted in either a military or civilian court. Even the lowest level soldier who carried out that order knew it was illegal and did it anyway. At the very least, every officer and enlisted individual who has participated in these killings must be given a dishonorable discharge, as this is the very definition of dishonorable.
I don’t disagree, but who is going to do that? Trump when pressed will pardon those involved and claim this was part of his presidential duties and therefore squarely permissible with what SCOTUS ruled last year. I suppose we could ask SCOTUS to review and assess for far the chain of command responsibility goes and what it means for the president to exercise his official duties, but does anyone really believe the current court would put any limits of what it takes for a president to *exercise* his duties even if it means committing a war crime?
There is a way to hold Hegseth accountable, but some people may not like it.
No US court will obviously convict Hegseth if he has a pardon, but the International Criminal Court isn't bound by US Presidential Pardons.
A future Democratic President could do an end-run around the US court system and rendition Hegseth to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, in the same way that Trump stonewalled and ignored court orders and renditioned Kilmar Garcia to El Salvador.
Maybe, but we are technically not a party to the ICC, and who ends up adjudicating the legality of that: the US court system. When Hegseth runs to SCOTUS with questions about jurisdiction and legality of extradition to ICC what do you think they will say? At some point, the boundaries and downstream effects of the unitary executive and the president’s ability to act will have to be litigated by SCOTUS — presidential immunity to act is useless if he cannot do anything with it. Last year was not the end of litigation on this topic, only the beginning, and the reelection of DJT brought an end to litigation that might have provided clarity on the subject.
The other piece of what you seem to be arguing is for the next president to ignore court orders. If that is the case count me out. I find it abhorrent and illegal what Trump did in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case and even SCOTUS said the administration had to facilitate his return which they eventually did. I am not opposing the Trump regime to merely turn around and do what they did. this is a case of construing the illegal as merely unpopular.
Yeah, that's what I think too. And there will never come a time when a US government will hand over a US citizen to the United Nations or the ICC. It just won't happen. Not saying it shouldn't, but it just can't.
This was exactly my thinking. Maybe "our" hands are bound, but the rest of the world's hands are not. However, I offer this: The next Democratic President has the same immunities that Trump apparently has, therefore, they too can walk down 5th Avenue and...well, you know....get the job done. (I hope they choose to not offer protections against the International Court and leave folks like Hegseth to their own devices.)
There is one little problem with that plan. Neither the United States nor any of its citizens are subject to the International Criminal Court since the US is not a party to that treaty.
Been a while since July 1st, 2024 when I fully read that SCOTUS ruling, so I don't remember if it was explicitly stated-or if it was just my assumption- that immunity would never extend to protecting a President who violates his oath to the Constitution....
I'm curious whether the fact that the US is not member of the ICC would prevent Colombian President Petro from taking Hegseth to that court? Also would be helpful to look into to what is covered by the 2002 American Servicemembers' Protection Act. I don't know if Hegseth is considered a service member who would be protected under the ASPA...
It’s more than a little disappointing to realize that our laws seem to have effectively nailed down everything designed to protect criminals and miscreants, while learning that all the guardrails we thought would protect us from them are flimsy as aluminum foil.
i would have to look at it again, but if I remember correctly it covered anything that was related to his execution of the office of president and questionable for those not directly related. This is why Jack Smith would have had to sort through the evidence as to what was related to his oath of office and what wasn’t. There was still room for further litigation. The president of Columbia, I suppose, could press litigation in a US court, but I don’t see us every handing anyone over to the ICC — not debating whether we should or not, but the political capital involved in that would be, in my opinion, too high.
Sounds like Colombian President Petro can file charges with the ICC but the US would not turn him over? Regardless, I'd like to see Petro go forward with it, even if it is only political theatre. It would at least highlight this issue on the international stage.
Here’s the can of worms SCOTUS opened up last year. As long as a president did not have immunity, one could be fairly certain commands would be legal, but a president who has immunity for all commands can’t be trusted the same way since he can make illegal demands that have no effect on him, but could have ramifications for you. The case law that has yet to be determined: what does it mean to follow orders, and what does the unitary executive demand/condone for those under the president when he is acting in his official capacities. Maybe SCOTUS thought they could side step those issues, or they wouldn’t have to rule on them anytime soon, but here we are. Now we have an example of what is clearly a war crime where if you are the military commanders you want/need cover for following commands, and that can’t just depend on the whims of the president. Someone,sooner of later, will make the argument in court that they were following orders from a president executing his oath of office and that, under the unitary executive theory and immunity conferred, they too are covered. And how will that play out in the courts?
It's the investigation attached to any prosecution that is valuable. The investigation will unearth the facts of the situation so that we can learn what to look out for, what to legislate against, how to create a decision chain that hinders such behavior. It's a way to figure out preventative measures. We as human beings seem to seek punishment and don't feel gratified if it doesn't happen, but we must become more attuned to figuring out how to prevent future similar acts.
Prediction: The individuals at the bottom of the chain will pay the price. The higher-ups. including Hegseth, will escape accountability. It does roll down hill.
That's always the way it works. Dishonorable Discharges and potential Court Martial for the low level guys, Presidential Medals of Freedom for Hegseth and crew, plus lucrative no-work gigs after this is all over.
Well then that’s still a partial victory. The little guys here DO deserve to be punished if they committed a war crime. I DGAF if they were intimidated or “chain of command” or any such nonsense. I’ll be furious if/when Hegseth et al escape justice. But I won’t cry a single tear for the rank and file dude who hit “fire.” I hope that person suffers the consequences of their actions too.
To be clear, officers are trained to deal with illegal orders. Enlisted should be able to trust that their commanding officer is asking them to follow legitimate commands. The enlisted might get out of it, but the officer corps should not. Who you prosecute and how is important.
Agreed. Prosecuting the guy who loaded the guns is pretty dumb. Prosecuting the guy who forwards the order from SecDef? He's legitimately in the wrong.
Hey Whiskey Pete. I hope the Canadians--author, Paulette Bourgeois, and illustrator, Brenda Clarke--who brought Franklin the Turtle into millions of children's lives in 1986 sue the smirk and the pants off you for your fatheaded post. Just keep telling yourself that the turnip will protect you from harm, until he doesn't.
The mean-spirited immaturity of this Hegseth character and his casual cruelty and utter disregard for any notion of human decency are breathtaking.
I feel like I use the word, “hate” too often when talking about the members of this rancid administration. But they have earned every ounce of the disgust I have for them - and especially this murderous coward.
A cross-wearing “Christian”???No! He is a vile, irredeemable “christian” cosplayer, and he makes me want to 🤮!
Right?!! That pisses me off so much and I thought I was getting immune to the depravity and stupidity...but they keep finding new lows. Fuck Kegsbreath
I was so ticked off that I called Kids Can Press in Toronto and left a message about it in hopes they'll issue a statement like so many other people whose work has been appropriated by this "administration."
How dare you implicate a beloved childrens book character in your act or murder!!! Franklin has more intelligence and morality in one of his front toes than you will ever have, EVER!
Time for the power of the Presidential pardon to go. It has become the largess of a King, not the tool of clemency of a nationally elected official. There is much that heeds to be scrutinized and adjusted in the Constitution to prevent a Trump Type from taking the reins of Government in hand. We have seen far too many weak and money motivated individuals parking in positions where real talent and public spiritedness are needed. And no, we don’t need individuals dead set to impose their religious belief systems on us.
Yeah, I think it would be a good idea to rewrite that part of the constitution to say something like "Pardons are not effective till 6 months after proclamation, in the time congress may belay the pardon in the case where there is evidence that the President is granting the pardon to benefit himself or his supporters" or something like that. Basically we should define "corrupt" pardons in some way and let congress cancel them.
Commenters keep trying to rearrange the furniture when the house has burned down. Calling Trump nasty names and propose changes in the law or imaginary constitutional amendments gets us no where.
I have to say I disagree in the latter case. I think it's perfectly reasonable to be thinking about and discussing how to build a better government later in a politically engaged comments section, just as long as you aren't getting lost in that. I agree with the name calling though, it doesn't bother me if other people do it just to make themselves feel better... but it's certainly not useful beyond that.
Amending the Constitution is a completely reasonable thing to work toward.
The 18th Amendment prohibited the sale of alcohol, which the dries thought would solve all kinds of societal problems.
But here's what happened. Corrupt people and organizations, kept it in place because 1) as long as there was a federal ban on liquor and 2) states wouldn't (or couldn't) enforce the ban, the corrupt people and organizations fought to keep it in place. Eliot Ness and all that? Not really very potent.
It took a while to unscrew all this, from 1920 to 1933, but it was done. These pardons ... every President uses it corruptly, in my view. Think not? Here's a name: Mel Reynolds. Think Trump is the only one interested in pardoning pedophiles? Think again.
I'd go further than that actually. One of the reasons I think it's worth having people with enough relevant education discuss these sort of things thoughtfully is that one eventual outcome of a serious authoritarian threat to a modern democracy is that a new constitution would be written because the old one failed. While I don't think that is the MOST likely outcome of where we are right now as I type this, nor is it the one I would prefer, it's certainly one that has a much higher probability today than I would have thought 4 years ago. So I think spending a little mental energy on such discussions is fine in the vein of the scouting motto to "Be Prepared."
Honestly though, if I had a genie that gave me political science wishes my first wish would be to make the constitution somewhat easier to amend and the second one would be to get rid of the filibuster. So this particular thing isn't where I'd go to the mat.
I was thinking the identical thing. Rearranging the chairs on the decks on the Titanic. Let's see if we can keep a Presidential system for the next 3 years and then worry about the details.
Congress should have the right to rescind any presidential pardon by a supermajority vote, taken within 6 months of issuance of said pardon. Would the current Congress do that? Probably not, given the pressure that the MAGA goon squad exerts on Hill denizens.
But isn't the challenge with any reform to the pardon process that it's embedded in the constitution? This is out of my league as a non lawyer, but if it is possible to make amendments to that constitutional privilege, I would eagerly petition my representatives to pursue this.
Will never happen, at least not in our collective lifetimes. Not that I don't agree with your sentiment.
However, setting aside the requirements to amend the constitution, there seems little incentive - or reward for - a "good government" reformer to use political capital to attempt to amend it.
A flag officer is an Admiral or General (they’re called flag officers because they have a flag associated with their rank and it flies wherever they go). There are hundreds of living 3 and 4 star retired flag officers. It’s important to note that 1 and 2 stars are referred to as “the kids” by the more senior flags (at least in the Navy), but the most senior JAG officer is a 3 star.
My point is that the retired flags have a moral obligation to speak out NOW. The people carrying out these illegal orders are not protected by the Supreme Court’s absolute free pass they gave Trump. People are going to be charged with crimes and Trump is obviously on his last legs, not that a guy who cheated on all three wives can be trusted to look out for you unless you have something he wants.
IMO, as a veteran, the “thankyouforyourservice” fake genuflecting doesn’t apply at the flag level (fake because service people with disabilities are not taken care of properly). Flag officers are people who had incredible authority and power, they received the perks of their positions and they owe our country. I understand that speaking out is not the culture (and roughly 50% are introverts), but our nation is in crisis. SPEAK UP. NOW. YOU HAVE AN OBLIGATION. DON’T LEAVE US ON THE BEACH.
Don Bacon, who's making rumblings about this in the House, is a retired brigadier general. For all my ideological disagreements with him, he's generally (no pun intended) been an honorable guy. I hope he pushes HARD on this.
If in fact Pete Hegseth actually did this (and knowing what we now do about the bone-deep endemic lawlessness in the Trump administration, is there really a good reason to doubt it?), I'll forego publicly examining the darker corners of my own heart as to who'd deserve quarter and who wouldn't on either end of such an immoral chain of command if an extrajudicial violent death ever came looking for any of those involved.
But I have absolutely no reservations at all about saying as strongly as I can that if and when - and as soon as - our federal government once again finds itself in the hands of moral, law-abiding men and women that the issuers of these orders at the very top of the military chain of command - from Donald Trump to Pete Hegseth to any others that may be responsible - along with the facilitators farther down the chain should find no quarter, and be given absolutely none whatsoever under any circumstances, from the *legal consequences* now due for their unconscionable action.
And this justice should be swift.
It should be sure.
And it should be done not with any notion of revenge or retribution but with an appropriate broken-hearted sadness and regret that this country has now shamed itself to such a point that only the surety of the unflinching application of such justice to those responsible for this and any other crimes surrounding the illegal killing of non-military foreign nationals on the high seas can suffice to redeem it.
Justice denied is morality denied, and the moral miscreants in charge of and running America's federal government have now denied and thumbed their collective noses at this fact for far long enough, confirming - and all but outright publicly declaring - that lawless amorality in complete service to themselves and their goals is their core operating principle.
Trump didn't just call Bolsonaro an innocent victim, he was involved in helping him to escape. He inadvertently gave the show away by telling a gaggle of reporters that he expected to be seeing him in the very near future, unaware that Bolsonaro had already been arrested for trying to remove his ankle monitor. When Trump learned that the escape attempt had failed, he looked very surprised and disappointed.
It would be just like Trump to think of that, but I suspect that when Seal Team 6 is not only asked to follow an illegal order but to risk ending up in a Venezuelan prison, they will remember their oath real fast.
Republican lawmakers "expressing alarm" at the murderous law-breaking in the killing of survivors of the illegal boat attacks? "Alarmed." How . . . touching. They are '"shocked, shocked, etc."
Unless and until a senior military officer stands up and refuses to proceed with an illegal order it is all hot air, hogwash, the chattering of complicit fools and cowards.
We are not shocked. We are disgusted, outraged, enraged.
Even now, until action is taken--refusal to obey by a military officer, witnesses to the extrajudicial action if they are not killed, congressional action (good luck with that)-- this insanity will continue, and will continue to be denied.
The whole purpose of forming banana republics was to give one company monopoly control over the banana market. So - bad news on a Monday morning - you cannot have cheaper bananas.
Just for you, I pledge to support any politician promising more iguanas.
Just following the prez's example here. He's pardoning ex-prez Hernandez on the recommendation of people he highly respects. Patricia's reasons for wanting more iguanas must be at least as good as theirs.
While everything here noted is either completely or probably true, I am gradually coming to realize that Donald Trump is by far the greatest gift this country could have been given at this moment in time.
When the incredulous laughter dies down, consider this. The combination of his utterly authoritarian agenda and the largely both blatant and incompetent way he is trying to put it into place is teaching Americans, most of whom have absolutely no idea about what an authoritarian state would actually be like both what such a regime in the the hands of a competent authoritarian might look like without the far greater danger a really competent authoritarian would pose.
For most of my lifetime (just over 80 years) I have watched this country slide from being, for all its flaws, the Arsenal of Democracy who, with our allies, and at great cost defeated what is almost certainly the greatest evil in human history to the now bitterly confused, divided, and rather doddering old Uncle Sam who can’t seem to find his rear end with two hands and a flashlight. Of course we retain what is likely the most powerful military and the strongest economy (maybe) in the world, but it is in the hands of an utter incompetent whose idea of projecting strength, apart from a great deal of bombast, is masked thugs seizing largely innocent if undocumented immigrants on the streets and murdering on the high seas at best low level drum mules and at worst entirely innocent South American fishermen.
We can still end the worst excesses of this tottering lunacy in a heartbeat if enough of us would just realize what is at stake here, and the fact that so many of us don’t seem to realize that is the real problem.
Over those last 80 years, we have somehow either lost the democratic muscle we need at this moment, or become far too complacent about its existence. Trump is telling us in no uncertain terms what that loss or complacency is costing us. And in doing so, he is our greatest present gift. No TV movie, no dry history lesson, and nothing else could have so successfully put the problem into such clear relief.
If we fail to regain that democratic muscle, the fault will not be Trump’s or Vance’s or Bondi’s or Hegseth’s, or Patel’s or Vought’s or Miller’s, or the fault of any other of those incompetent, sycophantic idiots, but ours alone.
For incompetent idiots they sure moved their fascist agenda forward at warp speed. I never liked the making lemonade out of the lemons life gives you thing.
Only because far too many of us who should have known better let them. Remember that in 2015, almost every Republican legislative leader knew what a disaster Trump might be, said so publicly, and then went ahead and allowed him in.
Curious coincedence that I happen to be just reading this now because I was making a very similar pitch to some folks last night -- all of us well past 60 -- and that thinking about MAGA from such a perspective could help one (well, me, at least...) find the patience and perspective to stay active and not drown in apathy and depression as tRump and his miscreant gang of grifters relentlessly double down every hour in their assault on America's marvelous experiement in creating a democracy that works for everyone.
Unfortunately, as a species, we have shown ourselves to be rather slow learners during our evolutionary journey but I agree that MAGA/tRump is causing many Americans and other global citizens to seriously ask, "Which side am I on?" That's a good thing.
As one who college majored in Anthropology with a specialty in human orgins and evolution, I certainly agree with you about us being slow learners, despite our outsize brains.
My primary concern about that, however, is not MAGA (there I think one of our most tenacious traits - what the author Robert Ardrey once called The Territorial Imperative - is at the heart of the problem) but rather as Robert E Lee is supposed to have said as he watched his army decimate Union forces trying to reach Marye’s Heights above Fredericksburg; “It is well that war is so terrible; else we would grow to love it too much”.
MAGA is working hard to turn the United States of America into the Disunited States of Trump. But our determination to rattle our sabres indiscriminately may destroy us all.
I am pretty confident that we will resist that determination to rattle our sabres indiscriminantly -- but it seems too damn close for comfort, I admit.
I also refer you to journalist/historian, Colin Woodard, and his own efforts to understand and help resolve our current American political crisis of extreme partisanship:
I just met him during his book tour in Boston and was thoroughly inspired by the depth, breadth, vision, and passion of the man. His recent books are now on top of my current stack.
Because lately it seems impossible not to be keeping a few historians in the active pile as I try to comprehend how we got here! From Ike to tRump in my lifespan -- how the heck?
(The rest of this reply is copied from my earlier response to Brendon Classon's reference to E.O Wilson -- I am just being a bit lazy; pretty sure somewhere in this overall thread but I have to get to some 'useful' work this morning!):
As I remember reading him, E.O. Wilson also had a lot to say about another basic evolutionary tenet: Cooperation!
When I try to posit a world where fear & suspicion are the primary motivating human responses to the external world, I can not imagine that our species could have ever made it this far. Instead, I have to conjure up other basic dynamic 'forces of Nature' that have contributed to the world/Gaia as I perceive it in 2025 and the fact that humans have created and achieved the extraordinarily Good & Beautiful, along with all the Ugly & Evil that has been concomitant with every step along the way to our modern global civilization(s).
Since you mentioned Wilson, his 1998 book on the unity and synthesis of knowledge, "Consilience" -- also comes to mind; it implies a strong (overarching, perhaps?) tendency of our species to "combine together" -- i.e., invoke cooperation -- all the feelings and 'things' that we know in order to enhance the world around us as opposed to the destructive and corrosive consequences of living merely according to 'fear and suspicion.'
If you have not already done so, I’d recommend adding to your list of historical works Jill LaPore’s We the People, Heather Cox Richardson’s How the South Won the Civil War and To Set Men Free.
I don’t think I mentioned Wilson, although I am familiar with some of his work. The problem with cooperation and consilience, IM (not so humble) O is that they are both constrained by our utter determination to separate ourselves into every conceivable group we can imagine (most of them imaginary) and then to peer suspiciously at each other over the boundaries we’ve thus created. We certainly cooperate within our groups, sometimes all too blindly so, but not so much outside them (territoriality).
I hope you are right about our ability to resist the ultimate potential of saber rattling. I don’t know if you are far enough over 60 to remember, as I do all too clearly, those awful 13 days in October of 1962 when we came as close as we ever have to even the comparably pale version of Armageddon we could have managed then.
In terms of optimism, I keep close to my consciousness that, thanks to the events described in Ken Burns’ crowning production, The America Revolution, and the Constitution which followed it, we are both the inheritors of and the participants in the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex ongoing experiment in human society and government ever attempted. We do have the chance, as Tom Paine remarked, the chance to begin the world anew, (again and again).
E.O. Wilson was a reference to another commenter's post about the group/tribal nature of our species. I was just borrowing from my own response to that other comment.
Both LaPore (a longtime favorite) and Richardson (almost from her first Letter; though "To Make Men Free" I have not yet touched at all, except via her newlsetter & interviews. David Corn's "American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy," 2022 tells the GOP's recent history in vivid detail.) are on my shelves but like so many of my books will have bookmarks somewhere between the first and the last pages indicating where I left off before being drawn in by some other title or author (often enough, due to a footnote or bibliographic reference probably found within a few pages of wherever the bookmark has settled!).
I am saving the Ken Burns production for later this month when I should have the time to sit and absorb it. I am more of a reader when it comes to some topics but after distractedly catching the first part and also hearing several in-depth interviews before its debut, I realized that sitting and watching will be well worth the time devoted.
And invoking Tom Paine into the daily conservation should be a habit for all of us. Thanks for that. We were indeed lucky to have a few extraordinary common sense geniuses hanging about as America came into being.
It is an inheritance that somehow we all need to grasp with all the gumption that we can muster and keep spreading it far and wide. Although I have yet to read the concrete efforts of Colin Woodard's NationHoodLab to tell the American story in a new way for our nation now (and the world), I am looking forward to it and wonder what you might think...
A little less quick than I intended! I've left myself little of the day's sunlight and not quite freezing temperatures to get to some necessary outside work. So it sometimes goes when listening/reading/paricipating in the Bulwark's eclectic community.
>>>"It may seem wishful to say—once again—that the rule of law depends on a Congress willing to assert its rightful authority and to hold the executive accountable. It may seem wishful to implore—once again—Republican members of Congress to put country and Constitution over party and political convenience. But could the wish finally be father to the thought?"
Bill, I don't know about that, but boy do I have a deal for you on a bridge in Brooklyn.
Interesting article written by Paul Krugman today in Substack digging deeper into the reason Trump pardoned Hernandez. It’s all about money and corruption leading to our famous players, Peter Theil et al. Also involves bitcoins. Nothing should shock us anymore but this is unbelievable. Check it out. Thanks to the Bulwark for all you do.
Petwr thiel is a very real threat to democracy. Whilst he has the useful idiot trump fronting the many things he wants, watch out if makes vance president. Then you have someone scarily idelogical smart doing dangerous things. He is allowing trump to be the wrecking ball, thiel is what follows. All need to listen to THE REST IS POLITICS UK podcast by 2 very articulate UK gentlemen who are very well credentialled from both left and right who did a great podcast special series on Vance. They are so concerned about post trump...
You forgot to mention the pardon of Ross Ulbricht, probably because Trump has done some some crazy stuff since late January of 2025.
For those of you who don't recognize the name, he ran The Silk Road on the dark-web. It was a forum used primarily to trade in illegal narcotics, but you could use it to procure pretty much anything that you want on the Silk Road.
In effect, Ulbricht was one of the biggest drug dealers in the world. Worse, when the walls were closing in on him and he thought that an associate knew his true identity and contracted hit men on the dark web to execute the associate.
Lol, unfortunately unknown to Ulbricht, it's nearly impossible to actually hire a contract killer online, even using the dark web. 99.999% of "contract killers" online are cops working a sting.
That was the case here. The cops were obviously able to get the associate's full and generous cooperation when the murder plot was revealed to him, who then agreed to stage "murder" photos for the police. In the end Ulbricht paid a total of $750K to get FIVE PEOPLE killed.
Ross Ulbricht was ultimately arrested while using a public library's WIFI system, had a net worth of BILLIONS.
Sigh, I'll never understand criminals that keep committing crimes after say, netting $10 million in profits. A billion? What's the point in that?
Sure lots of rich people do the same, it's idiotic to keep work to accumulate more wealth than you could possibly ever enjoy--but at least the wealthy who do so with legal businesses get some sick bragging right about a meaningless number.
In illicit crime you don't even get more than a whisper of the true sum. Escobar was so paranoid about theft and had some much cash to deal with that he literally buried millions of dollars in the jungle every year (presumably killing the people who knew of its location). He had so much cash in the ground that it was at one point estimated that he probably lost more than $1 million in cash every year through the pure physical degredation of the buried bills.
“It was somewhat heartening to see the Republican chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees join the Democratic ranking members in expressing alarm at the reports of the killing of the survivors. They said they were going to look into what happened. We’ll see how far they’re really willing to go.”
On the bright side, Trump’s poll numbers are underwater quite a bit: 36% approve, 60% don’t approve of his handling of the economy. Therefore, republicans in Congress have quite the incentive to buck Trump (big ?).
I’ve heard, most of the senate republicans no longer can put up the administration’s extortion racket. Although, we have seen this movie before, so I am cautiously optimistic; but the cynic in me knows better; the true definition of a pessimist, is an optimist with lots of experience; so there’s that!
What is unambiguous is the fact that all our allies have e been mercilessly under attack, while Trump cozies up to depraved dictators, and strongmen.
Furthermore, we’re watching our allies make secret economic and security deals behind our back (in real-time); no one trusts America anymore. And say what you will about Biden; however, he did spend the last four years trying to repair the damage from Trump’s first administration, and was successful.
That said, I’m not sure where we go from here, or whether the damage Trump has inflicted worldwide, can ever be undone. Personally, I think that ship has sailed.
Bottom line, based on what I’m reading and hearing, it’s only a matter of time before many of our allies start abandoning us for good.
Additionally, we could see huge sell offs of treasuries and other government securities which could completely destroy our economy.
And based on Trump’s plan to monetize Ukraine for himself, his family and cronies, the odds are good we’re going to suffer a major recession by next fall. I m not clairvoyant, but unless Trump makes nice with Europe and Asia, we may be screwed.
Furthermore, we recently heard Trump tell Japan’s new PM, Sanae Takaichi, to stand down in Japan’s support for Taiwan, claiming that it is the US and China’s interests to police the world.
This lends nicely into the three spheres of influence scenario, in which the US becomes the de facto ruler of the America’s, Putin shapes most of Europe, and Xi gets Asia and Taiwan (in exchange for Panama), and Africa is the Wild West and open to anyone.
After all, Trump isn’t about to bomb Venezuela for nothing. It has the largest untapped oil reserves in the world, as well as being one of the richest countries in terms of mineral deposits; many of which are critical for advanced AI technology. IMHO…:)
Re: "...a little supervillain brainstorming on Truth Social."
I would like to see any journalist given an opportunity to question any administration official to lead off with questions like, "The President promised to do [insert crazy thing here]. How are plans progressing to carry out his directive?"
I mean, honestly, Pete Hegseth's got a lot to report on: invading Greenland, annexing Canada, reclaiming the Panama Canal. All of this has to be done in the next three years. We do not currently have enough troops to occupy Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal Zone, so we're going to need to reinstate the draft. Where are those plans? How are they progressing? If nothing's happening then why haven't people been fired for slow-walking Our President's agenda?
Bill, you are right. Augustine is 100% right. We elected twice, (and according to his lying mind, three times) the most cruel, criminal, vulgar, perverse, ignorant, corrupt, amoral, racist and misogynistic person of my long lifetime. Anyone with half a brain could have seen this coming. And thanks Supreme Court, you own this obscenity lock, stock and barrel. Every Republican politician in America, you own every bit of this too. And you too, American people. 77 million of you decided murder and cruelty and sexual perversion, together with unimaginable stupidity, illegality and the all the rest, as well as unthinkable grift, theft and financial corruption are just fine. We have sown the wind, and we are reaping the whirlwind. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul.” Mark 8:36. America sold its soul to Trump, and I fear we are not getting it back.
I second your thanks to John Roberts and the Roberts Court, which will be what it's referred to in future histories of this corrupt era.
I agree and think the Robert's Court will go down in history as the worst, besting/worsting the Taney Court.
I never believed it possible to go lower than the Taney Court. The Robert's Court has achieved it, and is still digging!
Just call him John Taney Roberts
John Taint Roberts
Well said! The Robert’s Court has been a stain on this republic since they handed Bush the presidency without a proper hand count in Florida. And ever since, we’ve been experiencing a slow painful death, by a thousand judicial cuts!…:)
I may not live to see it, but we will get it back. But I fear that the cost will be high to us common folks.
Most days i completely agree! And i am doing what i can to stay healthy and politically active for the next few decades so that i can be certain as i enter my nineties that America's great experiment in democracy and a just society for everyone is once again flourishing and on the right path.
It feels like the least i can do for a country that has provided our Baby Boomer generation with pretty much the best years of any human generation so far.
Best of luck to us all!
Isn’t it the truth about us Boomers? We had exceptional luck being born when we were.
Well, I was born in Hungary. And thank God, there was a thinking R president, nicknamed Ike, in 1956 who treated my parents, my baby sister and 5-yr-old me, and thousands of other Hungarians as refugees and let us into the US. Thanks to the nuns, priests and other teachers in my grade and high schools, I learned all about the Constitution, the history of the US (good and bad - no sugar coating - had 2 fantastic history teachers), and the hope that the US held out to others, which had led my parents to risk our lives and cross between 2 unmanned (thank God!) watchtowers to freedom from the Soviets. In time, I became a federal employee and took that oath to the Constitution that President Orange Snake seems to have zero idea what it means. And it hurts to see the current administration treat that same oath as nothing but words they can ignore, defy, and treat as pieces of garbage in their reality.
As a teen and young adult in the 60s and 70s, it astonishes me that my hippie cohorts have become Trumpers.
Reforms need to happen. The Constitution written in the 1700's needs an overhaul. There needs to be term limits for federal judges (including the Supreme Court, expansion of the Court to equal the same number of Federal judicial districts, size of both the House and Senate need to be modified to ensure that states will small populations do not have disparate power over larger states (with larger economies and larger contributions in the form of taxes to the federal treasury), voting reform to codify in a Constitutional Amendment the intents of the voting rights act, change into Constitutional amendment a repeal of the Citizen's United SCOTUS decision. No, corporations ARE NOT people, and corporations and wealthy people should not have the rights to contribute unlimited amounts to elections. Women's rights as described in the original Roe v. Wade decision should be written into the Constitution. Those are some suggestions with which to start.
I agree with everything except the idea that large states should have more power than small states. The senate was created so every state would have two senators. The congress is made up of representatives who are elected population size. So CA has more Congressmen than Wyoming.
True about the House. BUT those Congressmen in CA have to answer to 750,000 people, vs 580,000. And the electoral votes are even more skewed: CA (54 EV) - 722,000, WY (3 EV) - 193,000. Because those 2 senators in WY skew the EV numbers.
the Senate is the most undemocratic institution in the democratic world. It would be fine if all they voted on was National Donut Day but nothing gets down without it. If the Senate we chose lead us to this place, what good was the Senate?
Moscow Mitch is also complicit. Donald should have been convicted at his second impeachment trial and barred forever from holding any public office. Only Moscow Mitch prevented that from happening. The world thanks you, Mitch.
He said the courts would take care of him once he left office. How did that turn out?
Unfortunately, the nihilism has developed deep roots. I doubt that a majority of the US voting populace gives a damn about corruption. They've believed Congress to be corrupt for generations. Presidents have been accused of corruption, often falsely, but the general impression of politician=corrupt applies to them, as well. Trump gets a pass because he makes no attempt to hide it. The voting public sees him as "authentic" because he's open about the grift. They know that, absent restrictive laws, businesses would be wholly corrupt. Because "that's the natural way of things".
This is true. I see this argument a lot from Trump supporters.
Trump has no soul.
Well said. We also need to more strongly pin Trump's misdeeds on the Supreme Court. They, unlike elected Republicans, don't have to worry about being primaried and have the absolute freedom and ability to say anything they want about Trump's deeds. They have recklessly read and misinterpreted the Constitution for partisan reasons - unless there are payoffs somewhere in the background for some of them, similar to what Alito and Thomas seem to be getting.
Does anyone know if a supreme court justices can be impeached?
Rick A. - 100% right
I was right there with you up to "and I fear we are not getting it back." Yes, that's a possibility. But that's all the more reason we - Never-Trumpers from the Liz Cheney right to the Bernie Sanders left - must do everything possible to kick this cult out of power. Oh, some of the damage will remain long after they're gone, but first things first. If the last few midterms are any indication, at least half eligible voters plan not to vote in 2026. In which case, as Bill Kristol wrote:
"Not to try to stop the reckless criminality of this administration is to collude in it. It is to accept the collapse of our experiment in republican self-government into rule by a lawless gang."
We have 11 months to remind those voters, and the small % who voted for the cult in '24 and now have "buyer's remorse" of their moral obligation.
And so it goes. Trump and his Republican enablers have perfected a fiendish and age-old skill: leveraging the basic evolutionary tenet of humans: fear and suspicion. From EO Wilson: "...group-versus-group (is) a principle driving force that made us what we are...people feel compelled to belong to groups and, having joined consider them superior to competing groups."
As I remember reading him, E.O. Wilson also had a lot to say about another basic evolutionary tenet: Cooperation!
When I try to posit a world where fear & suspicion are the primary motivating human responses to the external world, I can not imagine that our species could have ever made it this far. Instead, I have to conjure up other basic dynamic 'forces of Nature' that have contributed to the world/Gaia as I perceive it in 2025 and the fact that humans have created and achieved the extraordinarily Good & Beautiful, along with all the Ugly & Evil that has been concomitant with every step along the way to our modern global civilization(s).
Since you mentioned Wilson, his !998 book on the unity and synthesis of knowledge, "Consilience" -- also comes to mind; it implies a strong (overarching, perhaps?) tendency of our species to "combine together" -- i.e., invoke cooperation -- all the feelings and 'things' that we know in order to enhance the world around us as opposed to the destructive and corrosive consequences of living merely according to 'fear and suspicion.'
I remain an optimist.
BTW.
Looking at your Substack bio/description, I see that we share an opposite but nevertheless mutual curiosity about the Other, as represented by two different countries, America and Australia. I am an American, born and bred, with a fascination for 'Down Under' because our respective societies (also including Canada and the UK) seem to offer such a rich mother-lode of comparisons & contrasts on just about any dimension of being human that one wants to explore -- from individual to group to society to government to nation-state. I always appreciate book/website suggestions along those lines.
Hegseth and the entire chain of command that followed the kill order must be tried and convicted in either a military or civilian court. Even the lowest level soldier who carried out that order knew it was illegal and did it anyway. At the very least, every officer and enlisted individual who has participated in these killings must be given a dishonorable discharge, as this is the very definition of dishonorable.
I don’t disagree, but who is going to do that? Trump when pressed will pardon those involved and claim this was part of his presidential duties and therefore squarely permissible with what SCOTUS ruled last year. I suppose we could ask SCOTUS to review and assess for far the chain of command responsibility goes and what it means for the president to exercise his official duties, but does anyone really believe the current court would put any limits of what it takes for a president to *exercise* his duties even if it means committing a war crime?
There is a way to hold Hegseth accountable, but some people may not like it.
No US court will obviously convict Hegseth if he has a pardon, but the International Criminal Court isn't bound by US Presidential Pardons.
A future Democratic President could do an end-run around the US court system and rendition Hegseth to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, in the same way that Trump stonewalled and ignored court orders and renditioned Kilmar Garcia to El Salvador.
Maybe, but we are technically not a party to the ICC, and who ends up adjudicating the legality of that: the US court system. When Hegseth runs to SCOTUS with questions about jurisdiction and legality of extradition to ICC what do you think they will say? At some point, the boundaries and downstream effects of the unitary executive and the president’s ability to act will have to be litigated by SCOTUS — presidential immunity to act is useless if he cannot do anything with it. Last year was not the end of litigation on this topic, only the beginning, and the reelection of DJT brought an end to litigation that might have provided clarity on the subject.
The other piece of what you seem to be arguing is for the next president to ignore court orders. If that is the case count me out. I find it abhorrent and illegal what Trump did in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case and even SCOTUS said the administration had to facilitate his return which they eventually did. I am not opposing the Trump regime to merely turn around and do what they did. this is a case of construing the illegal as merely unpopular.
Yeah, that's what I think too. And there will never come a time when a US government will hand over a US citizen to the United Nations or the ICC. It just won't happen. Not saying it shouldn't, but it just can't.
This was exactly my thinking. Maybe "our" hands are bound, but the rest of the world's hands are not. However, I offer this: The next Democratic President has the same immunities that Trump apparently has, therefore, they too can walk down 5th Avenue and...well, you know....get the job done. (I hope they choose to not offer protections against the International Court and leave folks like Hegseth to their own devices.)
There is one little problem with that plan. Neither the United States nor any of its citizens are subject to the International Criminal Court since the US is not a party to that treaty.
Been a while since July 1st, 2024 when I fully read that SCOTUS ruling, so I don't remember if it was explicitly stated-or if it was just my assumption- that immunity would never extend to protecting a President who violates his oath to the Constitution....
I'm curious whether the fact that the US is not member of the ICC would prevent Colombian President Petro from taking Hegseth to that court? Also would be helpful to look into to what is covered by the 2002 American Servicemembers' Protection Act. I don't know if Hegseth is considered a service member who would be protected under the ASPA...
It’s more than a little disappointing to realize that our laws seem to have effectively nailed down everything designed to protect criminals and miscreants, while learning that all the guardrails we thought would protect us from them are flimsy as aluminum foil.
i would have to look at it again, but if I remember correctly it covered anything that was related to his execution of the office of president and questionable for those not directly related. This is why Jack Smith would have had to sort through the evidence as to what was related to his oath of office and what wasn’t. There was still room for further litigation. The president of Columbia, I suppose, could press litigation in a US court, but I don’t see us every handing anyone over to the ICC — not debating whether we should or not, but the political capital involved in that would be, in my opinion, too high.
Sounds like Colombian President Petro can file charges with the ICC but the US would not turn him over? Regardless, I'd like to see Petro go forward with it, even if it is only political theatre. It would at least highlight this issue on the international stage.
I don't know who will do it. But as the esteemed poet/philosopher Larry the Cable Guy is apt to say, "Get 'er done."
Here’s the can of worms SCOTUS opened up last year. As long as a president did not have immunity, one could be fairly certain commands would be legal, but a president who has immunity for all commands can’t be trusted the same way since he can make illegal demands that have no effect on him, but could have ramifications for you. The case law that has yet to be determined: what does it mean to follow orders, and what does the unitary executive demand/condone for those under the president when he is acting in his official capacities. Maybe SCOTUS thought they could side step those issues, or they wouldn’t have to rule on them anytime soon, but here we are. Now we have an example of what is clearly a war crime where if you are the military commanders you want/need cover for following commands, and that can’t just depend on the whims of the president. Someone,sooner of later, will make the argument in court that they were following orders from a president executing his oath of office and that, under the unitary executive theory and immunity conferred, they too are covered. And how will that play out in the courts?
It's the investigation attached to any prosecution that is valuable. The investigation will unearth the facts of the situation so that we can learn what to look out for, what to legislate against, how to create a decision chain that hinders such behavior. It's a way to figure out preventative measures. We as human beings seem to seek punishment and don't feel gratified if it doesn't happen, but we must become more attuned to figuring out how to prevent future similar acts.
Astute observation. We are a slow-learning species and we have to make terrible mistakes in order to learn from them...
Eventually.
True justice requires a great deal of patient but unyielding determination despite the brick walls and dead ends encountered along the way.
Prediction: The individuals at the bottom of the chain will pay the price. The higher-ups. including Hegseth, will escape accountability. It does roll down hill.
That's always the way it works. Dishonorable Discharges and potential Court Martial for the low level guys, Presidential Medals of Freedom for Hegseth and crew, plus lucrative no-work gigs after this is all over.
Well then that’s still a partial victory. The little guys here DO deserve to be punished if they committed a war crime. I DGAF if they were intimidated or “chain of command” or any such nonsense. I’ll be furious if/when Hegseth et al escape justice. But I won’t cry a single tear for the rank and file dude who hit “fire.” I hope that person suffers the consequences of their actions too.
To be clear, officers are trained to deal with illegal orders. Enlisted should be able to trust that their commanding officer is asking them to follow legitimate commands. The enlisted might get out of it, but the officer corps should not. Who you prosecute and how is important.
I hope they start at the top and work their way down. The J6 strategy of starting at the bottom was an abject failure.
Agreed. Prosecuting the guy who loaded the guns is pretty dumb. Prosecuting the guy who forwards the order from SecDef? He's legitimately in the wrong.
They’ve already got their story: “Hegseth says he didn’t issue a kill order.”
He can present that defense at the trial.
Let’s hope there is a trial.
Hey Whiskey Pete. I hope the Canadians--author, Paulette Bourgeois, and illustrator, Brenda Clarke--who brought Franklin the Turtle into millions of children's lives in 1986 sue the smirk and the pants off you for your fatheaded post. Just keep telling yourself that the turnip will protect you from harm, until he doesn't.
Yes!
The mean-spirited immaturity of this Hegseth character and his casual cruelty and utter disregard for any notion of human decency are breathtaking.
I feel like I use the word, “hate” too often when talking about the members of this rancid administration. But they have earned every ounce of the disgust I have for them - and especially this murderous coward.
A cross-wearing “Christian”???No! He is a vile, irredeemable “christian” cosplayer, and he makes me want to 🤮!
Right?!! That pisses me off so much and I thought I was getting immune to the depravity and stupidity...but they keep finding new lows. Fuck Kegsbreath
I was so ticked off that I called Kids Can Press in Toronto and left a message about it in hopes they'll issue a statement like so many other people whose work has been appropriated by this "administration."
That's excellent! Thank you. You've inspired me to channel my anger as well! Cheers
You're welcome. I saw your restack of Quiet Piggy. Thanks for that!
22 Minutes! They are a Canadian gem. :)
How dare you implicate a beloved childrens book character in your act or murder!!! Franklin has more intelligence and morality in one of his front toes than you will ever have, EVER!
Time for the power of the Presidential pardon to go. It has become the largess of a King, not the tool of clemency of a nationally elected official. There is much that heeds to be scrutinized and adjusted in the Constitution to prevent a Trump Type from taking the reins of Government in hand. We have seen far too many weak and money motivated individuals parking in positions where real talent and public spiritedness are needed. And no, we don’t need individuals dead set to impose their religious belief systems on us.
At the very least it needs to be reviewable by Congress.
Yeah, I think it would be a good idea to rewrite that part of the constitution to say something like "Pardons are not effective till 6 months after proclamation, in the time congress may belay the pardon in the case where there is evidence that the President is granting the pardon to benefit himself or his supporters" or something like that. Basically we should define "corrupt" pardons in some way and let congress cancel them.
Commenters keep trying to rearrange the furniture when the house has burned down. Calling Trump nasty names and propose changes in the law or imaginary constitutional amendments gets us no where.
I have to say I disagree in the latter case. I think it's perfectly reasonable to be thinking about and discussing how to build a better government later in a politically engaged comments section, just as long as you aren't getting lost in that. I agree with the name calling though, it doesn't bother me if other people do it just to make themselves feel better... but it's certainly not useful beyond that.
Amending the Constitution is a completely reasonable thing to work toward.
The 18th Amendment prohibited the sale of alcohol, which the dries thought would solve all kinds of societal problems.
But here's what happened. Corrupt people and organizations, kept it in place because 1) as long as there was a federal ban on liquor and 2) states wouldn't (or couldn't) enforce the ban, the corrupt people and organizations fought to keep it in place. Eliot Ness and all that? Not really very potent.
It took a while to unscrew all this, from 1920 to 1933, but it was done. These pardons ... every President uses it corruptly, in my view. Think not? Here's a name: Mel Reynolds. Think Trump is the only one interested in pardoning pedophiles? Think again.
It's got to go or be modified in some way.
I'd go further than that actually. One of the reasons I think it's worth having people with enough relevant education discuss these sort of things thoughtfully is that one eventual outcome of a serious authoritarian threat to a modern democracy is that a new constitution would be written because the old one failed. While I don't think that is the MOST likely outcome of where we are right now as I type this, nor is it the one I would prefer, it's certainly one that has a much higher probability today than I would have thought 4 years ago. So I think spending a little mental energy on such discussions is fine in the vein of the scouting motto to "Be Prepared."
Honestly though, if I had a genie that gave me political science wishes my first wish would be to make the constitution somewhat easier to amend and the second one would be to get rid of the filibuster. So this particular thing isn't where I'd go to the mat.
I was thinking the identical thing. Rearranging the chairs on the decks on the Titanic. Let's see if we can keep a Presidential system for the next 3 years and then worry about the details.
Congress should have the right to rescind any presidential pardon by a supermajority vote, taken within 6 months of issuance of said pardon. Would the current Congress do that? Probably not, given the pressure that the MAGA goon squad exerts on Hill denizens.
But isn't the challenge with any reform to the pardon process that it's embedded in the constitution? This is out of my league as a non lawyer, but if it is possible to make amendments to that constitutional privilege, I would eagerly petition my representatives to pursue this.
Will never happen, at least not in our collective lifetimes. Not that I don't agree with your sentiment.
However, setting aside the requirements to amend the constitution, there seems little incentive - or reward for - a "good government" reformer to use political capital to attempt to amend it.
A flag officer is an Admiral or General (they’re called flag officers because they have a flag associated with their rank and it flies wherever they go). There are hundreds of living 3 and 4 star retired flag officers. It’s important to note that 1 and 2 stars are referred to as “the kids” by the more senior flags (at least in the Navy), but the most senior JAG officer is a 3 star.
My point is that the retired flags have a moral obligation to speak out NOW. The people carrying out these illegal orders are not protected by the Supreme Court’s absolute free pass they gave Trump. People are going to be charged with crimes and Trump is obviously on his last legs, not that a guy who cheated on all three wives can be trusted to look out for you unless you have something he wants.
IMO, as a veteran, the “thankyouforyourservice” fake genuflecting doesn’t apply at the flag level (fake because service people with disabilities are not taken care of properly). Flag officers are people who had incredible authority and power, they received the perks of their positions and they owe our country. I understand that speaking out is not the culture (and roughly 50% are introverts), but our nation is in crisis. SPEAK UP. NOW. YOU HAVE AN OBLIGATION. DON’T LEAVE US ON THE BEACH.
Don Bacon, who's making rumblings about this in the House, is a retired brigadier general. For all my ideological disagreements with him, he's generally (no pun intended) been an honorable guy. I hope he pushes HARD on this.
Retiring Don Bacon . . . . Attempts to form a beachhead within the Republican Party against Trump always end in . . . . retirement.
So far. That noise you’re hearing is power leaking out of this administration.
RE: Pete Hegseth's alleged "no quarter" order
If in fact Pete Hegseth actually did this (and knowing what we now do about the bone-deep endemic lawlessness in the Trump administration, is there really a good reason to doubt it?), I'll forego publicly examining the darker corners of my own heart as to who'd deserve quarter and who wouldn't on either end of such an immoral chain of command if an extrajudicial violent death ever came looking for any of those involved.
But I have absolutely no reservations at all about saying as strongly as I can that if and when - and as soon as - our federal government once again finds itself in the hands of moral, law-abiding men and women that the issuers of these orders at the very top of the military chain of command - from Donald Trump to Pete Hegseth to any others that may be responsible - along with the facilitators farther down the chain should find no quarter, and be given absolutely none whatsoever under any circumstances, from the *legal consequences* now due for their unconscionable action.
And this justice should be swift.
It should be sure.
And it should be done not with any notion of revenge or retribution but with an appropriate broken-hearted sadness and regret that this country has now shamed itself to such a point that only the surety of the unflinching application of such justice to those responsible for this and any other crimes surrounding the illegal killing of non-military foreign nationals on the high seas can suffice to redeem it.
Justice denied is morality denied, and the moral miscreants in charge of and running America's federal government have now denied and thumbed their collective noses at this fact for far long enough, confirming - and all but outright publicly declaring - that lawless amorality in complete service to themselves and their goals is their core operating principle.
Well said.
Trump didn't just call Bolsonaro an innocent victim, he was involved in helping him to escape. He inadvertently gave the show away by telling a gaggle of reporters that he expected to be seeing him in the very near future, unaware that Bolsonaro had already been arrested for trying to remove his ankle monitor. When Trump learned that the escape attempt had failed, he looked very surprised and disappointed.
Will we now get a seal team 6 jail rescue attempt now that Bolsonaro is behind bars?
It would be just like Trump to think of that, but I suspect that when Seal Team 6 is not only asked to follow an illegal order but to risk ending up in a Venezuelan prison, they will remember their oath real fast.
They already failed that test. They were the one's who executed Hegseth's order to kill the survivors.
I expected that to be written about today on TB; surprised it's not in this MS. Maybe JVL's? or Tim's pod?
Might a 36% approval rating be causing R senators and reps to simulate having a spine?
I'm not sure our illustrious Republican Congress has ever had a better rating, not since Senator McCain died.
Trump rating is now down to a 38% approval rating.
Nah.
Republican lawmakers "expressing alarm" at the murderous law-breaking in the killing of survivors of the illegal boat attacks? "Alarmed." How . . . touching. They are '"shocked, shocked, etc."
Unless and until a senior military officer stands up and refuses to proceed with an illegal order it is all hot air, hogwash, the chattering of complicit fools and cowards.
We are not shocked. We are disgusted, outraged, enraged.
It only took 83 murders to get their attention, sigh.
Jeanne,
Even now, until action is taken--refusal to obey by a military officer, witnesses to the extrajudicial action if they are not killed, congressional action (good luck with that)-- this insanity will continue, and will continue to be denied.
j2
If we're going to live in a banana republic, can we at least have cheaper bananas? And fewer snowstorms? And more iguanas? I love iguanas.
The whole purpose of forming banana republics was to give one company monopoly control over the banana market. So - bad news on a Monday morning - you cannot have cheaper bananas.
Just for you, I pledge to support any politician promising more iguanas.
Are you sure we need more iguanas, Lewis? Don't we already have enough lizard brains on the loose in DC and just about everywhere else?
Just following the prez's example here. He's pardoning ex-prez Hernandez on the recommendation of people he highly respects. Patricia's reasons for wanting more iguanas must be at least as good as theirs.
OK. Can you do anything about the fewer snowstorms thing? The iguanas would probably appreciate it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klezdVsUvo0
While everything here noted is either completely or probably true, I am gradually coming to realize that Donald Trump is by far the greatest gift this country could have been given at this moment in time.
When the incredulous laughter dies down, consider this. The combination of his utterly authoritarian agenda and the largely both blatant and incompetent way he is trying to put it into place is teaching Americans, most of whom have absolutely no idea about what an authoritarian state would actually be like both what such a regime in the the hands of a competent authoritarian might look like without the far greater danger a really competent authoritarian would pose.
For most of my lifetime (just over 80 years) I have watched this country slide from being, for all its flaws, the Arsenal of Democracy who, with our allies, and at great cost defeated what is almost certainly the greatest evil in human history to the now bitterly confused, divided, and rather doddering old Uncle Sam who can’t seem to find his rear end with two hands and a flashlight. Of course we retain what is likely the most powerful military and the strongest economy (maybe) in the world, but it is in the hands of an utter incompetent whose idea of projecting strength, apart from a great deal of bombast, is masked thugs seizing largely innocent if undocumented immigrants on the streets and murdering on the high seas at best low level drum mules and at worst entirely innocent South American fishermen.
We can still end the worst excesses of this tottering lunacy in a heartbeat if enough of us would just realize what is at stake here, and the fact that so many of us don’t seem to realize that is the real problem.
Over those last 80 years, we have somehow either lost the democratic muscle we need at this moment, or become far too complacent about its existence. Trump is telling us in no uncertain terms what that loss or complacency is costing us. And in doing so, he is our greatest present gift. No TV movie, no dry history lesson, and nothing else could have so successfully put the problem into such clear relief.
If we fail to regain that democratic muscle, the fault will not be Trump’s or Vance’s or Bondi’s or Hegseth’s, or Patel’s or Vought’s or Miller’s, or the fault of any other of those incompetent, sycophantic idiots, but ours alone.
Complacency kills.
I would only amend that to say that complacency lets the killers in.
For incompetent idiots they sure moved their fascist agenda forward at warp speed. I never liked the making lemonade out of the lemons life gives you thing.
Only because far too many of us who should have known better let them. Remember that in 2015, almost every Republican legislative leader knew what a disaster Trump might be, said so publicly, and then went ahead and allowed him in.
Curious coincedence that I happen to be just reading this now because I was making a very similar pitch to some folks last night -- all of us well past 60 -- and that thinking about MAGA from such a perspective could help one (well, me, at least...) find the patience and perspective to stay active and not drown in apathy and depression as tRump and his miscreant gang of grifters relentlessly double down every hour in their assault on America's marvelous experiement in creating a democracy that works for everyone.
Unfortunately, as a species, we have shown ourselves to be rather slow learners during our evolutionary journey but I agree that MAGA/tRump is causing many Americans and other global citizens to seriously ask, "Which side am I on?" That's a good thing.
As one who college majored in Anthropology with a specialty in human orgins and evolution, I certainly agree with you about us being slow learners, despite our outsize brains.
My primary concern about that, however, is not MAGA (there I think one of our most tenacious traits - what the author Robert Ardrey once called The Territorial Imperative - is at the heart of the problem) but rather as Robert E Lee is supposed to have said as he watched his army decimate Union forces trying to reach Marye’s Heights above Fredericksburg; “It is well that war is so terrible; else we would grow to love it too much”.
MAGA is working hard to turn the United States of America into the Disunited States of Trump. But our determination to rattle our sabres indiscriminately may destroy us all.
I am pretty confident that we will resist that determination to rattle our sabres indiscriminantly -- but it seems too damn close for comfort, I admit.
I also refer you to journalist/historian, Colin Woodard, and his own efforts to understand and help resolve our current American political crisis of extreme partisanship:
https://nationhoodlab.org/
https://colinwoodard.com/
I just met him during his book tour in Boston and was thoroughly inspired by the depth, breadth, vision, and passion of the man. His recent books are now on top of my current stack.
Along with David Hackett Fischer...
https://www.vitalsource.com/products/fairness-and-freedom-david-hackett-fischer-v9780199912957 et al.
Because lately it seems impossible not to be keeping a few historians in the active pile as I try to comprehend how we got here! From Ike to tRump in my lifespan -- how the heck?
(The rest of this reply is copied from my earlier response to Brendon Classon's reference to E.O Wilson -- I am just being a bit lazy; pretty sure somewhere in this overall thread but I have to get to some 'useful' work this morning!):
As I remember reading him, E.O. Wilson also had a lot to say about another basic evolutionary tenet: Cooperation!
When I try to posit a world where fear & suspicion are the primary motivating human responses to the external world, I can not imagine that our species could have ever made it this far. Instead, I have to conjure up other basic dynamic 'forces of Nature' that have contributed to the world/Gaia as I perceive it in 2025 and the fact that humans have created and achieved the extraordinarily Good & Beautiful, along with all the Ugly & Evil that has been concomitant with every step along the way to our modern global civilization(s).
Since you mentioned Wilson, his 1998 book on the unity and synthesis of knowledge, "Consilience" -- also comes to mind; it implies a strong (overarching, perhaps?) tendency of our species to "combine together" -- i.e., invoke cooperation -- all the feelings and 'things' that we know in order to enhance the world around us as opposed to the destructive and corrosive consequences of living merely according to 'fear and suspicion.'
I remain an optimist.
If you have not already done so, I’d recommend adding to your list of historical works Jill LaPore’s We the People, Heather Cox Richardson’s How the South Won the Civil War and To Set Men Free.
I don’t think I mentioned Wilson, although I am familiar with some of his work. The problem with cooperation and consilience, IM (not so humble) O is that they are both constrained by our utter determination to separate ourselves into every conceivable group we can imagine (most of them imaginary) and then to peer suspiciously at each other over the boundaries we’ve thus created. We certainly cooperate within our groups, sometimes all too blindly so, but not so much outside them (territoriality).
I hope you are right about our ability to resist the ultimate potential of saber rattling. I don’t know if you are far enough over 60 to remember, as I do all too clearly, those awful 13 days in October of 1962 when we came as close as we ever have to even the comparably pale version of Armageddon we could have managed then.
In terms of optimism, I keep close to my consciousness that, thanks to the events described in Ken Burns’ crowning production, The America Revolution, and the Constitution which followed it, we are both the inheritors of and the participants in the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex ongoing experiment in human society and government ever attempted. We do have the chance, as Tom Paine remarked, the chance to begin the world anew, (again and again).
Just to quickly clarify...
E.O. Wilson was a reference to another commenter's post about the group/tribal nature of our species. I was just borrowing from my own response to that other comment.
Both LaPore (a longtime favorite) and Richardson (almost from her first Letter; though "To Make Men Free" I have not yet touched at all, except via her newlsetter & interviews. David Corn's "American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy," 2022 tells the GOP's recent history in vivid detail.) are on my shelves but like so many of my books will have bookmarks somewhere between the first and the last pages indicating where I left off before being drawn in by some other title or author (often enough, due to a footnote or bibliographic reference probably found within a few pages of wherever the bookmark has settled!).
I am saving the Ken Burns production for later this month when I should have the time to sit and absorb it. I am more of a reader when it comes to some topics but after distractedly catching the first part and also hearing several in-depth interviews before its debut, I realized that sitting and watching will be well worth the time devoted.
And invoking Tom Paine into the daily conservation should be a habit for all of us. Thanks for that. We were indeed lucky to have a few extraordinary common sense geniuses hanging about as America came into being.
It is an inheritance that somehow we all need to grasp with all the gumption that we can muster and keep spreading it far and wide. Although I have yet to read the concrete efforts of Colin Woodard's NationHoodLab to tell the American story in a new way for our nation now (and the world), I am looking forward to it and wonder what you might think...
https://colinwoodard.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Nationhood-Lab-Report-May-2025.pdf
A little less quick than I intended! I've left myself little of the day's sunlight and not quite freezing temperatures to get to some necessary outside work. So it sometimes goes when listening/reading/paricipating in the Bulwark's eclectic community.
>>>"It may seem wishful to say—once again—that the rule of law depends on a Congress willing to assert its rightful authority and to hold the executive accountable. It may seem wishful to implore—once again—Republican members of Congress to put country and Constitution over party and political convenience. But could the wish finally be father to the thought?"
Bill, I don't know about that, but boy do I have a deal for you on a bridge in Brooklyn.
Interesting article written by Paul Krugman today in Substack digging deeper into the reason Trump pardoned Hernandez. It’s all about money and corruption leading to our famous players, Peter Theil et al. Also involves bitcoins. Nothing should shock us anymore but this is unbelievable. Check it out. Thanks to the Bulwark for all you do.
Thank you for suggesting this reading. I figured a payoff had to be involved somewhere.
Petwr thiel is a very real threat to democracy. Whilst he has the useful idiot trump fronting the many things he wants, watch out if makes vance president. Then you have someone scarily idelogical smart doing dangerous things. He is allowing trump to be the wrecking ball, thiel is what follows. All need to listen to THE REST IS POLITICS UK podcast by 2 very articulate UK gentlemen who are very well credentialled from both left and right who did a great podcast special series on Vance. They are so concerned about post trump...
You forgot to mention the pardon of Ross Ulbricht, probably because Trump has done some some crazy stuff since late January of 2025.
For those of you who don't recognize the name, he ran The Silk Road on the dark-web. It was a forum used primarily to trade in illegal narcotics, but you could use it to procure pretty much anything that you want on the Silk Road.
In effect, Ulbricht was one of the biggest drug dealers in the world. Worse, when the walls were closing in on him and he thought that an associate knew his true identity and contracted hit men on the dark web to execute the associate.
Lol, unfortunately unknown to Ulbricht, it's nearly impossible to actually hire a contract killer online, even using the dark web. 99.999% of "contract killers" online are cops working a sting.
That was the case here. The cops were obviously able to get the associate's full and generous cooperation when the murder plot was revealed to him, who then agreed to stage "murder" photos for the police. In the end Ulbricht paid a total of $750K to get FIVE PEOPLE killed.
Ross Ulbricht was ultimately arrested while using a public library's WIFI system, had a net worth of BILLIONS.
Sigh, I'll never understand criminals that keep committing crimes after say, netting $10 million in profits. A billion? What's the point in that?
Sure lots of rich people do the same, it's idiotic to keep work to accumulate more wealth than you could possibly ever enjoy--but at least the wealthy who do so with legal businesses get some sick bragging right about a meaningless number.
In illicit crime you don't even get more than a whisper of the true sum. Escobar was so paranoid about theft and had some much cash to deal with that he literally buried millions of dollars in the jungle every year (presumably killing the people who knew of its location). He had so much cash in the ground that it was at one point estimated that he probably lost more than $1 million in cash every year through the pure physical degredation of the buried bills.
Hypocrisy is the core value of Trumpism.
Trump also pardoned CP Zhao of Binance, where drug money was laundered.
“It was somewhat heartening to see the Republican chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees join the Democratic ranking members in expressing alarm at the reports of the killing of the survivors. They said they were going to look into what happened. We’ll see how far they’re really willing to go.”
On the bright side, Trump’s poll numbers are underwater quite a bit: 36% approve, 60% don’t approve of his handling of the economy. Therefore, republicans in Congress have quite the incentive to buck Trump (big ?).
I’ve heard, most of the senate republicans no longer can put up the administration’s extortion racket. Although, we have seen this movie before, so I am cautiously optimistic; but the cynic in me knows better; the true definition of a pessimist, is an optimist with lots of experience; so there’s that!
What is unambiguous is the fact that all our allies have e been mercilessly under attack, while Trump cozies up to depraved dictators, and strongmen.
Furthermore, we’re watching our allies make secret economic and security deals behind our back (in real-time); no one trusts America anymore. And say what you will about Biden; however, he did spend the last four years trying to repair the damage from Trump’s first administration, and was successful.
That said, I’m not sure where we go from here, or whether the damage Trump has inflicted worldwide, can ever be undone. Personally, I think that ship has sailed.
Bottom line, based on what I’m reading and hearing, it’s only a matter of time before many of our allies start abandoning us for good.
Additionally, we could see huge sell offs of treasuries and other government securities which could completely destroy our economy.
And based on Trump’s plan to monetize Ukraine for himself, his family and cronies, the odds are good we’re going to suffer a major recession by next fall. I m not clairvoyant, but unless Trump makes nice with Europe and Asia, we may be screwed.
Furthermore, we recently heard Trump tell Japan’s new PM, Sanae Takaichi, to stand down in Japan’s support for Taiwan, claiming that it is the US and China’s interests to police the world.
This lends nicely into the three spheres of influence scenario, in which the US becomes the de facto ruler of the America’s, Putin shapes most of Europe, and Xi gets Asia and Taiwan (in exchange for Panama), and Africa is the Wild West and open to anyone.
After all, Trump isn’t about to bomb Venezuela for nothing. It has the largest untapped oil reserves in the world, as well as being one of the richest countries in terms of mineral deposits; many of which are critical for advanced AI technology. IMHO…:)
I agree that 47’s belligerence towards Venezuela is all about its oil and minerals.
Re: "...a little supervillain brainstorming on Truth Social."
I would like to see any journalist given an opportunity to question any administration official to lead off with questions like, "The President promised to do [insert crazy thing here]. How are plans progressing to carry out his directive?"
I mean, honestly, Pete Hegseth's got a lot to report on: invading Greenland, annexing Canada, reclaiming the Panama Canal. All of this has to be done in the next three years. We do not currently have enough troops to occupy Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal Zone, so we're going to need to reinstate the draft. Where are those plans? How are they progressing? If nothing's happening then why haven't people been fired for slow-walking Our President's agenda?