Felon Trump is seeing a lot of money come to the Treasury because of tariffs. Like a kid, he has visions of what he can do with the money, as if it was his. Of course, the “sane adults” if there are any, are too scared to correct him. He picked his staff because of their loyalty to him. They wanted to be chosen because they wanted; an easy job that paid more than they made, a job that gives a lot of prestige which they felt they were denied in their working life, a better job than they ever had, or, a job where their sociopathic plans could be unleashed on weak and vulnerable people. Take your pick. There are no adults in Felon Trump’s administration, and this is clearly on the Republicans. They own this debacle. Never let them forget that!
The bigotry of Trump et.al has been overlooked, excused, justified, tolerated, pardoned and excused since he came down the escalator.
Tentatively, early on, there were mild questions of "can we call this racism'? "Good people on both sides" should have sealed it, instead we have had no commentary on the administration's attack on DEI as racist, or the hypocrisy of an antisemite claiming he is targeting pro-Palestinian activists and protestors in defense of Jewish students.
And, as throughout his life, Trump has received no consequences for unseemly, corrupt, or illegal behavior, he feels free to post a video, so filled with hate, it has resulted in broad disgust.
But how many will finally call him out, for what he has always been? And how long will it last?
Hey, he was only joking! Don't you have a sense of humor?
I consider "bigotry" a toned down word to describe Trump. He is a White Supremacist. He has complained about not being able to use the "N" word, and implied that the military should be able to. In fact, Trump has so taken the US back to days of slavery, with a few steps in between fully realizing that, that I am no longer in the US. I left on Tuesday, and while I will be back, I don't know when. Trump is a Nazi in his politics, and his treatment of people in Chicago through ICE has been NAZI all the way. Dragging people naked out of their beds at night, and harassing US citizens and destroying their things is not protecting the people of Chicago in any way.
I agree — I use the word “bigotry” as a catch all, because there are so many words to use, that I don’t want to leave any group out, which is hard to do.
And people forget that the Nazi imperative was not just eliminating Jews, but the mentally ill/deficient and forced sterilization, gypsies, Catholics and any resistors to the regime, and I am leaving some out as well
I don't forget because that is an area of history that I have studied and continue to study. I am a Brown-skinned German so of course I know about what happened with Black Germans as well under Hitler. I live in a progressive city in Germany now, but my US home is Chicago, and it is under siege.
Last night fascism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat told us in her weekly Zoom meeting that ICE has extraordinary powers, and they are like a secret police. So comparing them to the Gestapo is pretty accurate.
Bill is spot on in this one. EVERYTHING this man says or does would have ruined political careers - in a time when common decency was a minimum requirement of a presidency.
Well.... well... nobody really doubted for a second that Trump will give 100% support to the ongoing Jewish massacre. Time to send reinforcements to the children-murdering shameless sociopathic IDF soldiers.
Tried to have a conversation about Israel with my father in law last night. Which I should have known was going to be a non-starter. The defenders and apologists of the war are fanatics based in some kind of religious certainty stemming from the Bible's Old Testament. My argument was that if we (collectively, "the world") placed Israel on the map after WW2 we could do the same with a Palestinian country.
Oh boy, that was *not* the correct answer. Evidently God doesn't recognize Palestine as a country. But Israel is ordained, so they get to do whatever they want, carte blanche, to defend their God-given land.
We were literally having two different conversations, no way to bridge it.
Andrew, Bill and Jim, Thanks for your timely reporting,commentary and analysis. Why Schumer and Jeffries went to see this idiot is beyond me. The ball is in the Republicans court and they're going to do whatever the goof wants. The Dems have so much ammunition to discharge to the American people to make the case. Let's recap the arsenal. Health care sure. Tariffs check. Corruption no brainer. Law breaking cinch. Cover ups a gimme. Murders with no evidence duck soup. Unite, get out the megaphone and shout it 24/7. Make your own power. This clown is not funny and the circus tent is coming down...on him.
"At some point, Republicans will have to face up to the fact that they have nominated this lowlife three times for president, and that their party continues to slavishly support him. Democrats will have to face up to the fact that they have twice failed to defeat him. Americans will have to face up to the fact that we have twice elected this man as president, and that far too many of us are still not repulsed by him."
I put steep odds on Republicans or American voters ever facing up to these facts. Why should Republicans? As weak and pathetic as the anti-anti-Trump collaborators of the first term were, they at least did hold onto the idea "once he's gone, things will return to normal." But far too many of them have been replaced now with true believers and reprobates who are just as bad as Trump himself. They genuinely believe in mass election fraud and illegal voting. It's a way to "democracy-wash" their actual belief that the opposition party has no right to ever hold power. They are deadly serious about implementing authoritarianism and one-party rule, and Trump is their vehicle to do it. Why would they face up to what he is? They're the same type of person.
As for Americans... well, I can direct us all to any JVL "Leopards Eating Faces" newsletter for that. Too many Americans simply don't take any responsibility for their behavior or choices. Even if they do see what Trump is doing and are capable of determining that it is bad for them (and some aren't), they refuse to accept that they were given explicit warning from Trump's own mouth of what he wanted to do. They would rather think that he ran a con job on them, promising one thing and delivering something else, than accept that he told everyone exactly what he meant to do, is now doing it, and THEY VOTED FOR IT. Because doing the latter would mean taking responsibility for their action rather than blaming it on someone else. Too many Americans just will not do that anymore. Heaven forbid that they screwed up because they were arrogant and thought they knew better than everyone who warned them that Trump meant what he said. Oh no, this could only have happened because of some nefarious scheme to con them! Poor little innocent victims.
Sound familiar? Yeah. Fundamentally, I think these kinds of people voted for Trump because they too are the same type of person he is.
Well, there's the reckoning, at least as I see it. If this is indeed what a critical mass of voters are like, then the path forward is dark, cynical, and ugly.
What do Americans know? Do they care about losing American democracy and having our own military walk our streets? I used to think that I knew the answers but now I don’t.
I have never thought much of Chuck Schumer the way he has handled things. However I think Schumer and Jeffries have handled the latest concerning the showdown well, so far. The meeting with Trump that Trump then cancelled signals that he was never serious about negotiating. That is a plus for Democrats in the blame battle. But whether Americans see that is hard to know. I would have rather seen the Gavin Newsom/JD pritzker approach in messaging though.
Eric Swalwell isn't the only one answering maga's AI-generated or photoshopped slop with real, publicly available photos. Yesterday Leader Jeffries slammed trump's disgusting, racist fake video of himself and Schumer by posting the notorious buddy photo of trump and Jeffrey Epstein with a three-word caption: "This is real."
Loved the Cheap Shots in particular today. What would happen if Dem lawmakers took an aggressive response approach to the media icw the looming shutdown? Dems all over cable news are being asked how they are responding to angry constituents demanding to know why they're shutting down the gov't. Why aren't Dems clapping back, a la the Press Sec., and telling hosts to "get their facts straight"--Dems aren't causing any shutdown/Rs control all three branches of gov't. If Dems keep accepting that premise, then why wouldn't they get blamed for the shutdown while also having zero gov't power. If current admin officials can cow the media from asking difficult questions (e.g., Why are Argentinians being bailed out when Americans can't afford housing), then why don't the Dems cow the media from their overly-aggressive "both-sidesing"?
*****VIBE CHECK: As Democrats decide whether to plunge ahead with a high-stakes shutdown fight over healthcare spending, their own voters remain convinced party leaders are too willing to cave in such standoffs. That’s according to a series of focus groups done last month by the Democratic group Slingshot Strategies for the Agave Democratic Infrastructure Fund in Tarrant County, Texas, which contains the city of Fort Worth.*****
.
This attitude is entirely understandable. One ought to recognize, though, that the Democratic Caucus (and Sens. King and Sanders who caucus with the Democrats) are in a patently unwinnable situation.
Here are the two main ways the shutdown standoff may yet in theory go today or over the next few days:
1. Democrats negotiate hard and "successfully" for a deal on healthcare spending and/or on whatever else. A continuing resolution goes forward and shutdown is averted or sharply abbreviated.
And then, after some period of months or even mere weeks, the White House and its allies in Congress simply renege on the deal and, just as they did earlier this year through the Rescission Act of 2025, cancel the expenditure of promised but not yet obligated funds. [See Wikipedia for more on that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescissions_Act_of_2025]
.
2. Democrats insist upon their position and the White House and its Congressional allies refuse to budge. Senate Democrats deploy the filibuster to prevent a vote on the continuing resolution to fund the government and, having done so, take full responsibility for the shutdown.
Painful consequences ensue and blame for them falls upon the Democratic Party. Ultimately, Congressional Democrats capitulate, having achieved nothing positive. Or perhaps the White House and its Congressional allies make a show of yielding somewhat and the government reopens. Some period of months or even mere weeks later, same as in 1 above, a new rescissions law wipes away the concessions.
.
.
In either case, the Democrats win nothing whatsoever. Worse, under Option 2 they actually cause pain that makes even more unpopular.
One way or the other, by avoiding/abbreviating the shutdown, Democrats put themselves in the position of having endorsed all that follows.
In the public's casual perception that is. The public by and large does not comprehend rescission and it is unlikely Democrats would succeed in explaining it after it has happened. Who would pay attention?
I propose a third approach.
3. Every senator who caucuses with the Democrats participates in a talking filibuster, taking this high profile opportunity to speak to the American people about *all* the destructive and nefarious conduct of our Republican-controlled federal government. They include in this talking filibuster discussion of the cuts to healthcare. They include as well an explanation of rescission and how this abusive practice makes Democratic agreeance to funding packages pointless.
Having explained all of this, the Democrats end the filibuster and on cloture either vote "Present" or abstain from the vote. The continuing resolution goes forward, but without Democratic endorsement. All of the hardship that ensues becomes fully the responsibility of the Republican Party, without the Democratic Party having exacerbated it through a shutdown.
The full bicameral Democratic caucus can top off the day with an every-member press conference in which they succinctly make the points that they expressed through the filibuster.
There can be no victory in a no-win situation. However, by approaching it shrewdly, one can avoid defeat.
They should filibuster by reading the OBBB and Project 25 in full. That should give them *plenty* of material and give the bonus of hopefully making some people sweat.
Perhaps as well readings of incisive critiques, such as that which retired Judge J. Michael Luttig, as published by Telos on September 14. Below the link is an introduction to Luttig's essay from Ryan Lizza.
*****In July, to mark Independence Day, Telos News published J. Michael Luttig’s “The Self-Evident Truths of Freedom—and of Tyranny.” To honor Constitution Day, September 17, Luttig has returned with a new essay that we are enormously proud to share first with our readers.
In his defense of the Constitution against what he describes as Trump’s “vicious, unsustainable, and unendurable attack,” Luttig has assumed the role of a republican statesman in the old mold—part Marcus Tullius Cicero, part James Madison. Like Cicero, Luttig’s warnings have been precise, legal, insistent that republics die less from the assault than from the neglect, and that respect for the law, once forsaken, rarely returns. As Madison did, Luttig has been reminding Americans that the Constitution is not a set of suggestions, but the frame that bears the weight of the Republic. He has warned not of imminent collapse, but the creeping rot that follows when reverence for law gives way to partisan expediency. In his new essay, Luttig declares “twenty-six grievances against the forty-seventh President of the United States,” and, invoking Abraham Lincoln, he calls for the Constitution to once again “become the political religion of the nation.”*****
Am I glad that I remodeled the inside of my home a few years ago? Sure, but who could have seen these tariffs coming from there. I feel bad for other folks that are now priced out of market for that kind of thing. Or new home buyers adjusting to a more expensive proposition.
They don't bother to hide the racism. Its a feature, not a bug, because white supremacists are their primary audience. I hope latinos and other brown skinned people wake the hell up. These guys are coming for you and yours.
Felon Trump is seeing a lot of money come to the Treasury because of tariffs. Like a kid, he has visions of what he can do with the money, as if it was his. Of course, the “sane adults” if there are any, are too scared to correct him. He picked his staff because of their loyalty to him. They wanted to be chosen because they wanted; an easy job that paid more than they made, a job that gives a lot of prestige which they felt they were denied in their working life, a better job than they ever had, or, a job where their sociopathic plans could be unleashed on weak and vulnerable people. Take your pick. There are no adults in Felon Trump’s administration, and this is clearly on the Republicans. They own this debacle. Never let them forget that!
The bigotry of Trump et.al has been overlooked, excused, justified, tolerated, pardoned and excused since he came down the escalator.
Tentatively, early on, there were mild questions of "can we call this racism'? "Good people on both sides" should have sealed it, instead we have had no commentary on the administration's attack on DEI as racist, or the hypocrisy of an antisemite claiming he is targeting pro-Palestinian activists and protestors in defense of Jewish students.
And, as throughout his life, Trump has received no consequences for unseemly, corrupt, or illegal behavior, he feels free to post a video, so filled with hate, it has resulted in broad disgust.
But how many will finally call him out, for what he has always been? And how long will it last?
Hey, he was only joking! Don't you have a sense of humor?
I consider "bigotry" a toned down word to describe Trump. He is a White Supremacist. He has complained about not being able to use the "N" word, and implied that the military should be able to. In fact, Trump has so taken the US back to days of slavery, with a few steps in between fully realizing that, that I am no longer in the US. I left on Tuesday, and while I will be back, I don't know when. Trump is a Nazi in his politics, and his treatment of people in Chicago through ICE has been NAZI all the way. Dragging people naked out of their beds at night, and harassing US citizens and destroying their things is not protecting the people of Chicago in any way.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/01/massive-immigration-raid-on-chicago-apartment-building-leaves-residents-reeling-i-feel-defeated?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=100225%20Morning%20Edition&utm_content=100225%20Morning%20Edition+CID_25532461fbe00edb8a20a1019595f2b5&utm_source=cst_campaign_monitor&utm_term=Massive%20immigration%20raid%20on%20Chicago%20apartment%20building%20leaves%20residents%20reeling%20I%20feel%20defeated&tpcc=cst_cm
I agree — I use the word “bigotry” as a catch all, because there are so many words to use, that I don’t want to leave any group out, which is hard to do.
And people forget that the Nazi imperative was not just eliminating Jews, but the mentally ill/deficient and forced sterilization, gypsies, Catholics and any resistors to the regime, and I am leaving some out as well
I don't forget because that is an area of history that I have studied and continue to study. I am a Brown-skinned German so of course I know about what happened with Black Germans as well under Hitler. I live in a progressive city in Germany now, but my US home is Chicago, and it is under siege.
Last night fascism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat told us in her weekly Zoom meeting that ICE has extraordinary powers, and they are like a secret police. So comparing them to the Gestapo is pretty accurate.
Bill is spot on in this one. EVERYTHING this man says or does would have ruined political careers - in a time when common decency was a minimum requirement of a presidency.
Well.... well... nobody really doubted for a second that Trump will give 100% support to the ongoing Jewish massacre. Time to send reinforcements to the children-murdering shameless sociopathic IDF soldiers.
Tried to have a conversation about Israel with my father in law last night. Which I should have known was going to be a non-starter. The defenders and apologists of the war are fanatics based in some kind of religious certainty stemming from the Bible's Old Testament. My argument was that if we (collectively, "the world") placed Israel on the map after WW2 we could do the same with a Palestinian country.
Oh boy, that was *not* the correct answer. Evidently God doesn't recognize Palestine as a country. But Israel is ordained, so they get to do whatever they want, carte blanche, to defend their God-given land.
We were literally having two different conversations, no way to bridge it.
Andrew, Bill and Jim, Thanks for your timely reporting,commentary and analysis. Why Schumer and Jeffries went to see this idiot is beyond me. The ball is in the Republicans court and they're going to do whatever the goof wants. The Dems have so much ammunition to discharge to the American people to make the case. Let's recap the arsenal. Health care sure. Tariffs check. Corruption no brainer. Law breaking cinch. Cover ups a gimme. Murders with no evidence duck soup. Unite, get out the megaphone and shout it 24/7. Make your own power. This clown is not funny and the circus tent is coming down...on him.
After impeachment, resignation with pardon, or death of the incumbent President Vance will be much worse in my opinion. YMMV.
People hate Vance more than they hate Trump.
MAGA is dead without Trump.
It breaks into many sharp, jagged pieces without Trump. Unfortunately, as far as clean up goes, those pieces will cut any and all who touch them.
For another metaphor, without Trump, they'll turn into a school of starved piranhas and cannibalize eachother looking for another meal.
"At some point, Republicans will have to face up to the fact that they have nominated this lowlife three times for president, and that their party continues to slavishly support him. Democrats will have to face up to the fact that they have twice failed to defeat him. Americans will have to face up to the fact that we have twice elected this man as president, and that far too many of us are still not repulsed by him."
I put steep odds on Republicans or American voters ever facing up to these facts. Why should Republicans? As weak and pathetic as the anti-anti-Trump collaborators of the first term were, they at least did hold onto the idea "once he's gone, things will return to normal." But far too many of them have been replaced now with true believers and reprobates who are just as bad as Trump himself. They genuinely believe in mass election fraud and illegal voting. It's a way to "democracy-wash" their actual belief that the opposition party has no right to ever hold power. They are deadly serious about implementing authoritarianism and one-party rule, and Trump is their vehicle to do it. Why would they face up to what he is? They're the same type of person.
As for Americans... well, I can direct us all to any JVL "Leopards Eating Faces" newsletter for that. Too many Americans simply don't take any responsibility for their behavior or choices. Even if they do see what Trump is doing and are capable of determining that it is bad for them (and some aren't), they refuse to accept that they were given explicit warning from Trump's own mouth of what he wanted to do. They would rather think that he ran a con job on them, promising one thing and delivering something else, than accept that he told everyone exactly what he meant to do, is now doing it, and THEY VOTED FOR IT. Because doing the latter would mean taking responsibility for their action rather than blaming it on someone else. Too many Americans just will not do that anymore. Heaven forbid that they screwed up because they were arrogant and thought they knew better than everyone who warned them that Trump meant what he said. Oh no, this could only have happened because of some nefarious scheme to con them! Poor little innocent victims.
Sound familiar? Yeah. Fundamentally, I think these kinds of people voted for Trump because they too are the same type of person he is.
Well, there's the reckoning, at least as I see it. If this is indeed what a critical mass of voters are like, then the path forward is dark, cynical, and ugly.
What do Americans know? Do they care about losing American democracy and having our own military walk our streets? I used to think that I knew the answers but now I don’t.
I have never thought much of Chuck Schumer the way he has handled things. However I think Schumer and Jeffries have handled the latest concerning the showdown well, so far. The meeting with Trump that Trump then cancelled signals that he was never serious about negotiating. That is a plus for Democrats in the blame battle. But whether Americans see that is hard to know. I would have rather seen the Gavin Newsom/JD pritzker approach in messaging though.
Eric Swalwell isn't the only one answering maga's AI-generated or photoshopped slop with real, publicly available photos. Yesterday Leader Jeffries slammed trump's disgusting, racist fake video of himself and Schumer by posting the notorious buddy photo of trump and Jeffrey Epstein with a three-word caption: "This is real."
Great tactic--keep it coming, Democrats!
Shout out to these excellent journalists. I especially appreciated Mr. Egger's column about tariffs.
Loved the Cheap Shots in particular today. What would happen if Dem lawmakers took an aggressive response approach to the media icw the looming shutdown? Dems all over cable news are being asked how they are responding to angry constituents demanding to know why they're shutting down the gov't. Why aren't Dems clapping back, a la the Press Sec., and telling hosts to "get their facts straight"--Dems aren't causing any shutdown/Rs control all three branches of gov't. If Dems keep accepting that premise, then why wouldn't they get blamed for the shutdown while also having zero gov't power. If current admin officials can cow the media from asking difficult questions (e.g., Why are Argentinians being bailed out when Americans can't afford housing), then why don't the Dems cow the media from their overly-aggressive "both-sidesing"?
Morning Shots wrote in a Quick Hit:
*****VIBE CHECK: As Democrats decide whether to plunge ahead with a high-stakes shutdown fight over healthcare spending, their own voters remain convinced party leaders are too willing to cave in such standoffs. That’s according to a series of focus groups done last month by the Democratic group Slingshot Strategies for the Agave Democratic Infrastructure Fund in Tarrant County, Texas, which contains the city of Fort Worth.*****
.
This attitude is entirely understandable. One ought to recognize, though, that the Democratic Caucus (and Sens. King and Sanders who caucus with the Democrats) are in a patently unwinnable situation.
Here are the two main ways the shutdown standoff may yet in theory go today or over the next few days:
1. Democrats negotiate hard and "successfully" for a deal on healthcare spending and/or on whatever else. A continuing resolution goes forward and shutdown is averted or sharply abbreviated.
And then, after some period of months or even mere weeks, the White House and its allies in Congress simply renege on the deal and, just as they did earlier this year through the Rescission Act of 2025, cancel the expenditure of promised but not yet obligated funds. [See Wikipedia for more on that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescissions_Act_of_2025]
.
2. Democrats insist upon their position and the White House and its Congressional allies refuse to budge. Senate Democrats deploy the filibuster to prevent a vote on the continuing resolution to fund the government and, having done so, take full responsibility for the shutdown.
Painful consequences ensue and blame for them falls upon the Democratic Party. Ultimately, Congressional Democrats capitulate, having achieved nothing positive. Or perhaps the White House and its Congressional allies make a show of yielding somewhat and the government reopens. Some period of months or even mere weeks later, same as in 1 above, a new rescissions law wipes away the concessions.
.
.
In either case, the Democrats win nothing whatsoever. Worse, under Option 2 they actually cause pain that makes even more unpopular.
One way or the other, by avoiding/abbreviating the shutdown, Democrats put themselves in the position of having endorsed all that follows.
In the public's casual perception that is. The public by and large does not comprehend rescission and it is unlikely Democrats would succeed in explaining it after it has happened. Who would pay attention?
I propose a third approach.
3. Every senator who caucuses with the Democrats participates in a talking filibuster, taking this high profile opportunity to speak to the American people about *all* the destructive and nefarious conduct of our Republican-controlled federal government. They include in this talking filibuster discussion of the cuts to healthcare. They include as well an explanation of rescission and how this abusive practice makes Democratic agreeance to funding packages pointless.
Having explained all of this, the Democrats end the filibuster and on cloture either vote "Present" or abstain from the vote. The continuing resolution goes forward, but without Democratic endorsement. All of the hardship that ensues becomes fully the responsibility of the Republican Party, without the Democratic Party having exacerbated it through a shutdown.
The full bicameral Democratic caucus can top off the day with an every-member press conference in which they succinctly make the points that they expressed through the filibuster.
There can be no victory in a no-win situation. However, by approaching it shrewdly, one can avoid defeat.
They should filibuster by reading the OBBB and Project 25 in full. That should give them *plenty* of material and give the bonus of hopefully making some people sweat.
Perhaps as well readings of incisive critiques, such as that which retired Judge J. Michael Luttig, as published by Telos on September 14. Below the link is an introduction to Luttig's essay from Ryan Lizza.
https://www.telos.news/p/americas-grievances-against-its-king
*****In July, to mark Independence Day, Telos News published J. Michael Luttig’s “The Self-Evident Truths of Freedom—and of Tyranny.” To honor Constitution Day, September 17, Luttig has returned with a new essay that we are enormously proud to share first with our readers.
In his defense of the Constitution against what he describes as Trump’s “vicious, unsustainable, and unendurable attack,” Luttig has assumed the role of a republican statesman in the old mold—part Marcus Tullius Cicero, part James Madison. Like Cicero, Luttig’s warnings have been precise, legal, insistent that republics die less from the assault than from the neglect, and that respect for the law, once forsaken, rarely returns. As Madison did, Luttig has been reminding Americans that the Constitution is not a set of suggestions, but the frame that bears the weight of the Republic. He has warned not of imminent collapse, but the creeping rot that follows when reverence for law gives way to partisan expediency. In his new essay, Luttig declares “twenty-six grievances against the forty-seventh President of the United States,” and, invoking Abraham Lincoln, he calls for the Constitution to once again “become the political religion of the nation.”*****
Warning, sarcasm ahead: Yeah! Lets give nation building in the middle east one more try, shall we?
Am I glad that I remodeled the inside of my home a few years ago? Sure, but who could have seen these tariffs coming from there. I feel bad for other folks that are now priced out of market for that kind of thing. Or new home buyers adjusting to a more expensive proposition.
Everybody loses.
They don't bother to hide the racism. Its a feature, not a bug, because white supremacists are their primary audience. I hope latinos and other brown skinned people wake the hell up. These guys are coming for you and yours.