Turkey and Israel are on the verge of civil wars because of far right extremism. In Paris, tens of thousands are in the streets protesting the far right and racism. French President, Emanuel Macron, is calling together a “coalition of the willing” on the 27th, to help defend Ukraine, by taking a stand against Vladimir Putin and the Russians – backed presumably by their old friend and apparent ally, Donald J. Trump.
Would Israel, be on the verge of a civil war had Kamala Harris been elected rather than Trump? Probably not. It’s doubtful she would have been able to do anything about the situation in Turkey, but she would have at least tried.
If only DJT were able to connect the dots. Instead, he’s attacking our institutions of higher learning, closing the Dept. of Education and threatening to shutter Social Security. He was about to give the keys to the Pentagon to Elon Musk, before his misstep was narrowly averted after being exposed by the New York Times. At the same time, like an angry child, he revoked the security clearances of true American patriots.
Would we be having any of these issues had Kamala Harris been elected rather than Trump? No. Instead, Kamala Harris, is one of the American patriots who has had her security clearance revoked by Donald Trump.
The world and the country, have been turned upside down by small minds unable to comprehend enormous problems.
A piece in the Washington Post, indicates that tax revenues could drop by as much as 10%, following the Trump/Musk campaign to free the government of fraud and waste. Another piece, this one in The Guardian, points to problems for the U.S. tourism industry facing “drop offs” as Trump’s new “immigration agenda deters travelers.”
At the same time, DJT, has alienated our allies, allied us with an international terrorist and is now threatening cuts to Homeland Security. According to Newsweek, “The Trump administration plans to dismiss hundreds of senior DHS officials this week to reshape the nation’s third-largest agency by removing individuals perceived as not aligning with its objectives…”
Even in the heartland, the can be no joy. NBC News reports that “Farmers face steep losses in the middle of Trump’s trade war and funding cuts.”
With each new day, the downhill slide seems to continue, as the Administration “floods the zone” with new activity, much of it, including but not limited to, warrantless searches and mass deportation without due process, quite possibly illegal, setting us up for months and months of litigation.
The temptation is to ignore all that’s happening. The fear though, is that if you do, everything might be gone when you once again start paying attention. In addition, you might be missing all the good news, like word that just rolled in that DJT won a golf tournament at his course in West Palm Beach. The President, considers the win to be a “great honor” the article says.
Of course he does. Another phony golden trophy for the mantle back at the White House.
Woke up this morning with Rome on my mind, an empire that lasted for more than 1,500 years, if you include Constantinople and the east. Even without that, the city state of Rome was around for 500 years. The United States is only approaching 250 years of age but without an eastern empire, and like Rome, we are under a direct threat.
I always believed we’d last much longer than this. If the Romans could survive Caligula and Nero, surely we can survive Donald J. Trump?
The new leadership at the DNC needs to get more speakers on board the bully pulpit train, like Wes Moore, Gavin Newsom, John Larson and dare I say it……Al Franken. Bring back Al.
Chuck Schumer is down for the count and should be kept out of the public eye.
There’s also Andrew Cuomo, probably the strongest speaker, the toughest public personality the Dems have. They need him now more than ever, despite past allegations of sexual misconduct. I have no idea if it’s true, but I can overlook his past if it means saving the Republic from Trump, Musk and their Russian allies.
JFK fooled around, I get it. He also saved the world from a nuclear crisis with his naval blockade of the Russians in the 60’s. Cuomo, an Italian son of Manhattan, may have just the stuff the country needs to beat back the Russians one more time, despite any past transgressions.
Trump treats every day like a campaign. The Dems have got to do the same. The DNC needs to step up and coordinate the effort as the country heads into the fourth quarter of the game. The Dems need to quit snapping at one another and put their best players back on the field.
With each new day it feels like we are closer to living in a dictatorship, with warrantless searches and people being snatched off the street and then being denied due process. These are not just hypotheticals anymore. These are actual events as the rule of law is being set aside, replaced by a new brand of anti-Americanism made possible by a Supreme Court that enabled Donald J. Trump, declaring him to be immune from being held accountable for pretty much anything he does. And he’s doing it, at an ever increasing pace.
But there was more. It was the one/two punch of the Supreme court, first making it possible for anyone to funnel any amount of “dark” money to support any candidate with no transparency through their “Citizens United” ruling. That, first knocked the American ideal down onto the mat, followed by the insanity of declaring the President to be above the law in a country where the rule of law is supposed to be paramount. That, was Lady Liberty, being kicked while she was down.
We do not have a king. Or we had none, until now. Until the Supreme Court, made it possible. Apparently the majority never read the Constitution.
Question: “Will John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, step up and save the Republic? It’s an outside chance, but it is, at least, something to hold onto. A flash of judicial conscience with the realization that they can actually save the country from tyranny.
And still there are those who don’t seem to care about any of it. Hopefully, it’s because they don’t understand. Even now, with the U.K. and Germany, issuing travel advisories to their citizens planning on coming into the United States. Advisories about the possible hazards of traveling to the U.S. It’s unthinkable. Impossible. But it’s happening.
Donald Trump, is turning the United States into an international pariah, and Americans are not happy about it. A new study indicates that Finland, a Socialist country, is the happiest place on Earth. Americans are the unhappiest ever, dropping down to 24th place.
Here at home losing our Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security will hurt like hell. Not for millions of younger Americans, of course. Not now. And by the time they realize what they’ve lost, it will be too late. That, however, will be next to nothing compared to the loss of their liberty. But again, odds are they won’t know what they’ve lost until they have no chance at getting it back.
An exaggeration you say? Just weeks ago, we were the leader of the free world. Now, we’re being regarded as not much more than another banana republic. That’s a flat-out fact. The European Union is drawing up plans for their defense absent the United States.
Those who support this current president should dwell on that for a time before continuing their slow-walk, confidently supporting that which is in their worst interest. Something the Republican Party has been working on for years. Something they may now, finally achieve.
The BBC is reporting that Trump and Putin will be talking about “dividing up certain assets” in regard to Ukraine, without any input from the Ukrainians.
This is beyond belief. How long will it be before all of America realizes just how utterly incompetent DJT truly is as he stumbles forward with his attempt at ending the war Russia started with its invasion of Crimea in 2014, while Elon Musk continues running rampant through the federal government, gutting institutions, ending lives and destroying careers with the stated goal of putting and end to Social Security. A move that will financially cripple millions of our senior citizens.
Musk, is unelected, an immigrant from South Africa. It’s doubtful he has an adequate understanding of our system, much less our traditions, many of which were purchased and then preserved with the blood of our friends and ancestors. Who is he to run roughshod over our institutions, many of which have made the United States, the envy of so much of the world?
For whatever problems we may have, we are still that “Shining city on a hill” that President Reagan, spoke of.
Don’t buy into Trump’s baseless argument that the United States is a mess. We were fine, with a sound and stable economy, able to work through our differences with no threat to the Republic until he came along, supported by Vladimir Putin at the polls and with Saudi money being funneled directly into his family while he promoted Roy Cohen’s immoral philosophy of striking back twice as hard, even when you’re in the wrong.
The truth, is that Donald J. Trump, has a history. Whatever he gets his hands on, falls into ruin. And he now has his hands all over the United States. Trump, moves ahead with the bravado of a monarch, suggesting the annexation of Greenland and Canada. An American dictator, ignoring the orders of federal courts, our very constitutional guarantees, as he thumbs his nose at our legal traditions, the rule of law that gives our system its balance, guaranteeing our liberty.
This is madness. Much of America, was distracted by the false prophecy of fear and hate. It’s time to wake up. We must reclaim our true allies on the world stage and demand a return to the rule of law in America, holding all accountable, including the Chief Executive and those justices of the Supreme Court, who may have been unduly influenced by personal gain. The high court’s past misjudgements can be corrected by the Congress and the Court, acting together as co-equal branches.
Both Republicans and Democrats should be screaming for Trump’s removal from office under the authority of the 25th Amendment before he destroys the United States. Doing any less is to promote the destruction of all we hold dear. The death of our very liberty. The death of the American ideal.
Well, this should be interesting. The following is from the BBC –
“Planes carrying more than 200 Venezuelans deported by the US have landed in El Salvador, hours after a US judge ordered the Trump administration not to do so.
El
Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, wrote on social media that 238
members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had arrived, along with 23
members of the international MS-13 gang, on Sunday morning.
Tonight, Wednesday the 12th of March, may have seen Lawrence O’Donnell’s finest hour on MSNBC.
Understand, that I am not a fan or follower of Lawrence O’Donnell, but tonight he went after Donald Trump and Elon Musk, in a manner that was reminiscent of Ed Murrow’s attack on Joe McCarthy.
With the truth as his only weapon, and following up on Steve Liesman’s earlier allegation on CNBC that Trump is quite simply “insane,” O’Donnell laid bare the horrendous scam, the horrible attack on American Democracy Trump and Musk are perpetrating. Above all else, he had the courage to call Donald Trump’s mental fitness into question, something most American journalists have either skirted or failed to do despite repeated warnings from numerous professionals in the field of mental health.
Considering the overt threats made against the media by the Administration, what O’Donnell and MSNBC are doing takes considerable courage, both for O’Donnell personally, and on a corporate level, and is in the very finest tradition of broadcast journalism.
Statement by conservative commentator David Brooks, following Friday’s meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky, in the Oval Office.
“I was nauseated, just nauseated. All my life, I have had a certain idea of about America, that we’re a flawed country, but we’re fundamentally a force for good in the world, that we defeated Soviet Union, we defeated fascism, we did the Marshall Plan, we did PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) to help people live in Africa. And we make mistakes, Iraq, Vietnam, but they’re usually mistakes out of stupidity, naivete and arrogance.”“They’re not because we’re ill-intentioned. What I have seen over the last six weeks is the United States behaving vilely, vilely to our friends in Canada and Mexico, vilely to our friends in Europe. And today was the bottom of the barrel, vilely to a man who is defending Western values, at great personal risk to him and his countrymen.”“Donald Trump believes in one thing. He believes that might makes right. And, in that, he agrees with Vladimir Putin that they are birds of a feather. And he and Vladimir Putin together are trying to create a world that’s safe for gangsters, where ruthless people can thrive. And we saw the product of that effort today in the Oval Office.”“And I have — I first started thinking, is it — am I feeling grief? Am I feeling shock, like I’m in a hallucination? But I just think shame, moral shame. It’s a moral injury to see the country you love behave in this way.”
Don’t be surprised if you feel a little nauseous. This is what happens when your plane is in a tailspin with Mr. Magoo, in the cockpit. Or you see some idiot with a chainsaw jumping around on a stage while other idiots cheer him on.
What’s happening to the country is truly sickening.
A peculiar feature of our system is that so many of us are apparently more concerned with how much we’ll make this year as opposed to worries over whether our country will survive Trump, Musk and Putin.
How long will it take the Republican Party, or what’s left of it, to wake up to this attempted destruction of the American Republic?
Call it what you will, a crack in the dam, a sliver of sunshine breaking through the vast darkness of Republican sloth. Whatever you want to call it, it has happened.
First, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins stood up against the misguided and just plain irrational nomination of Kash Patel for director of the FBI. The guy, who clearly shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near any branch of law enforcement, was confirmed anyway, as Murkowski and Collins were the only two Republicans with the courage to stand up against Donald Trump, but they did.
Then came Senator Thom Tillis, of North Carolina. He was a another beam of light and truthfulness to cut through all the Trumpian insanity, as he took to the senate floor to lambaste Vladimir Putin and Trump’s demented stand on supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine while turning his back on NATO and our traditional allies.
Three Republican senators may not be much, but it’s a start. A beginning in what hopefully will be a return to sane and responsible governance by the Republican Party, before Donald J. Trump, brings us all down, destroying our “shining city on a hill” that took 250 years to build.
We can only pray there will be more, joining in the patriotic fight against creeping despotism, until the entire Republican Party, or most of it at least, can regain their senses and stand as a block against Donald Trump, refusing to accept his attempted overthrow of our Constitutional Democracy.
America needs heroes not cowards, and we need them now. People willing to take the lead, like Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska.
Use any metaphor you like, the train carrying American patriots to the continued successful future of our Constitutional Democracy is about to leave the station. Time to pick a side, Democracy or dictator.
When we were growing up we were criticized for doing stupid things. We were told “you better go and take a smart pill or you won’t be able to get into college.” It worked, I think, as many of us tried harder to develop our minds as well as our bodies. And a bunch of us, did get into college.
Then it happened. Somewhere in the 80’s, the country began celebrating ignorance and chastising higher learning as being “elitist.” The country started glorifying commonality and demeaning higher learning for anything other than an MBA. Diplomacy was displaced by a bigger and badder war machine as we adopted “Greed is good” as our national mantra.
What was left of any spiritual ethos we might have had was beaten bloody and left lying on the floor.
Now, here we all are. Half the country has no reading comprehension and the only thing anybody can agree on is football. A perfect satellite for Putin and his Russian machine as the United States turns it back on its allies in favor of dictators, oil rich kingdoms and terrorists.
The bad guys are no longer at the gate, they have kicked down the front door and made a home for themselves in the Oval Office. They are standing the American ideal on its head and probably laughing about it while the Republican Party, the only ones left with the power to put our house back in order, cower in a dark corner of some basement room at the Capitol.
This current Republican Party gives new meaning to the term political cowardice, as they watch the country die from a thousand cuts with influence being purchased through dark money courtesy of a totally politicized Supreme Court.
It may be too late to hope that people will develop critical thinking. Instead we’re losing the Dept. of Education, denying Science and hoping the Oligarchy, our new rulers that are slowly tearing apart our American Democracy, will be kind to us.
The hotline to the Kremlin, installed years ago to keep the peace in an increasingly dangerous world, is undoubtedly coming in handy to receive instructions from Vladimir Putin, advising Trump how and when to act, so that we the sheeple will continue behaving according to plan, making as little trouble as possible as they continue laying waste to our institutions.
You didn’t really think Donald J. Trump was smart enough to come up with all this stuff on his own, did you?
Feels like people are complaining a lot, doesn’t it?
I went in for a blood draw with an appointment for one o’clock. There were three women in the waiting area when I arrived around 12:50. All three were complaining about how long they had been waiting. I finally asked if they had an appointment. They did not. I then suggested that maybe the people who worked at the office might be on a lunch break. That was a mistake, as all three then directed their frustration at me, because it would, they explained, be only reasonable to put up an “out to lunch” sign. At one o’clock, on the nose, a phlibotomist came out and invited me into the office for my blood draw. Because I had an appointment. Easy to get one. You can do it online in just three or four minutes.
Next came a guy the at supermarket, loudly complaining about all the federal workers being “Paid big money for just sittin’ around.” I wondered if he could name three, or even two, and what his complaint will be when he needs help from that same Federal Government, but there’s nobody to take his call. Bet that’ll set him off.
I wonder if he knows that our President, a guy he may have voted for, is now claiming that Ukraine started the war with Russia, and not the other way around. Or that people working for Elon Musk, are now scrambling to try and re-hire some of the federal workers they recently fired, because it turns out those recently dismissed had filled positions of critical importance within the Federal Government? Like keeping tabs on our nuclear industry and watching the expanding Bird Flu problem.
I wonder if he knows any of that, or even cares. Thing is, if you tried to tell him, he’d probably just get mad. Therein lies the heart of it. Telling people what they don’t know but should is a blow to their egos. So, suggestions like making an appointment might be a good idea or maybe you should read a newspaper now and then, will only draw their ire.
It seems to be epidemic. So many of our fellow Americans now seem to think with their collective gut and not with their heads. Which should probably be expected in a country led by a man who frequently complains and divides but seldom if ever, does anything designed to heal and bring people together. He seems great at tearing things down and then playing the victim when he fails, but lousy when it comes to building things up. And he once billed himself as a real estate developer?
The really scary thing, if you’ve been paying any attention at all, is that his condition is obviously systemic. This time when he crashes, turning his back on NATO, denying Science and attempting to silence the legitimate press, he’s gonna try and take us all down with him. It’s built in to his psychosis. Simply put, it’s who he is.
In the words of retired U.S. Army 4-star General Barry McCaffrey, “It’s utter madness. It’s against the security of the United States and its allies.”
Don’t watch CNN much anymore, but inadvertently landed there this morning. Pamela Brown, was hosting CNN Newsroom, and did an excellent interview with Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee.
It was one of the best interviews I’ve heard with a Trump supporter, with Brown keeping it on topic when the congressman tried to compare an American solider taking a rifle off a Japanese solider during WW II to Elon Musk’s young geeks conducting raids on the U.S. Government. Kudos to her. She exposed Burchett, for exactly what he is, not losing her temper while he continued referring to her as “Ma’am.” The way the good old boy from Tennessee was using it sounded more like a slur than a complement. Brown eventually ended the interview as he continued to spew talking points and got personal, attacking Brown and CNN’s poor ratings rather than addressing actual issues.
She also did an excellent segment on the non-summit, summit in Saudi Arabia. Interesting setup, with the Americans on one side, the Russians on the other and the Saudis at the head of the table and the Ukrainians nowhere to be found. Real through the looking glass stuff. By my way of thinking, anyway. Just an excuse to get Russia and the U.S. back together again, following four years of separation. Happy to see CNN is still letting Jill Dougherty come back to provide input on Putin and the Russians.
