We are a country that has trashed past honorable moments. We are weaker because 49.2% of voters in 2024 didn’t believe what they eyes were seeing or what their ears were hearing. We cannot assume that there will be elections in November of this 250th year of our history. Every Democratic governor must plan to do whatever it takes to protect the vote.
Their ears were hearing but not listening. There is a difference. listening is hearing with thoughtful attention. If they had thoughtful attention to what they heard and chose to go ahead and break the law then they are corrupt. DJT's pardoning of convicted felons was done by a convicted felon, himself. He is corrupt. The Republicans elected to Congress and the Senate in 2024 (most of them by far) hail these cop killers as patriots.
Steve, this piece slaps, as my kids would say. The corruption is so staggering that the word staggering doesn’t even begin to cover it. This administration resets the very definition of corruption, and we reset the definition of gullible for facilitating this irredeemable bunch, not once but twice. As I’ve encouraged before, please use The Warning and the Save America Movement to begin the hard work of creating project 2029 that can begin again fealty to the Constitution of the United States and its Bill of Rights.
Neither Jared Kushner nor Witkoff have ever been elected to anything! Why are they entrusted with such authority for our country? They are a traveling pair, and they go from one crisis to the next. They are working on business for themselves, obviously. As they plan on the monies rolling in on an immense level! This is their motivating factor no doubt! Might they be “volunteers in crime”?
Hypocrisy and corruption come together when the Trump family's use of affirmative action for their advantage is exposed:
"Over 500 institutions still give you a leg up if your mom or dad went there. But we haven’t heard a peep about that from Trump.
Maybe that’s because three of Trump’s own children attended the University of Pennsylvania, where Trump went (and where I teach).
Trump’s brother, Fred Trump Jr., was an old friend of a Penn admissions officer.
In 1966, Trump Jr. called his buddy and told him Donald Trump wanted to transfer to Penn from Fordham.
Shortly after that, Donald came down to speak with his brother’s friend. And he was accompanied at the interview by his father, the real estate mogul Fred Trump Sr.
Would Trump have gotten into Penn without the boost he received from his moneyed connections? We don’t know. But here’s what we do know: affirmative action for rich people makes all of our institutions poorer."
Read more about affirmative action for the rich by clicking on:
I believe the corruption in the Trump regime is part of the culture of the "old South." We have all heard talk about the "good 'ole boys" and the "bubbas" of the South. It seems to me, the White racist citizens of this region have made a decision to allow corruption in government at the expense of the general population as long as the "good 'ole boys" and "bubbas" re-inforce and give the sanction of law to the prejudices that make them feel so much better than the minorities they hate and fear.
Anthony, Heather Cox Richardson's book "How the South Won the Civil War" (2020) confirms your suspicions. She describes how the values of the Confederacy just moved westward after the Civil War and were embraced by Republicans as the GOP devolved from the Party of Lincoln into the Party of Trump, with a major boost from Ronald Reagan along its downward path.
Another one I found to explain how the "Old South" is still the "Same Old South" is Colin Woodard's "American Nations - A History Of The Eleven Rival Regional Cultures Of North America". These guys are reading and practicing a very old playbook.
Mike, another book I need to read! Interestingly, yesterday, my local newspaper included a column by Jill Burcum in which she explained Colin Woodward's theory that there are actually twelve regional nations within the continental United States. They include Yankeedom, the Deep South, Greater Appalachia, and the Far West. To see the map of all twelve nations click: tinyurl.com/bdakk6st.
Forget impeachment arrest Trump, Kushner and Witkoff… when they are finished with trails seize all of the money and bribes they’ve amassed deport to cecot. This is insane… I keep saying he will leave office having taken the entire treasury with him.😡😡😡😡
Trump grabs gobs of U.S. tax payer monies plus feels entitled to money from any department that has been closed by the Musk crowd. Trump is a “big timer” who has the key to the nation’s piggy bank! Our country is going to be facing bankruptcy by the time the Trump element leaves the White House. Trump operates on the million$ and trillion$ level! It is all for Trump to use with no one asking any questions or stopping him!
S. Witkoff saw Putin and he put his hand on his heart. This filthy, weasly pig might be rock bottom. Even in Trump world. Conscience-free, rock bottom.
This was a great piece....Stealing and corruption is their love language. But nothing will happen. The corporate Democrats are bidding their time until the midterms and somehow? Still want to behave like ladies and gentlemen and assume the other side will revert back to the old days somehow? If they didn't get the message from Bondi's performance or the horrible Obama meme, there is no hope.... So nothing will happen.....Money is to be made.... Schumer is my sen and I try to send him messages... but the $ from the corporate overlords is too strong.
We are Rome. We will get no answers. Caligula is in charge. Expect more of the same and worse. We are post-Democracy as a nation. It is the saddest thing I have ever seen in my long lifetime.
We Have to Look Right in the Face of What We Have Become
If democracy rests on mutual recognition, on our capacity to see one another as full and equal persons, then the power to speak and be heard lies at the foundation of democratic life. It is when we speak — when we argue, appeal, explain and testify — that we put into practice our belief in the ability of others to understand, reason and empathize. Or as Thomas Jefferson remarked in 1824, “In a republican nation whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance.”
Steve catalogs the scale here, but The Firing Line traces the mechanism: The corruption isn't exceptional. It's industrial. And the scale you're documenting here isn't the scandal, it's the business model going mainstream. https://thefiringline.substack.com/p/the-187-million-quid-pro-quo-and
Our ship of state is sinking fast and there is little we the people can do about it.
Where is our Congress? Have they left us chained below decks while they take to the lifeboats?
For the first time in my life I feel estranged from the place of my birth, this once great nation's Capital, now populated by the most corrupt administration in our long and storied history.
For the sake of our children I trust another more honest nation will rise from this watery grave.
I never understood why nothing was done when we discovered that jared couldn't pass the security requirements yet was doing all the things you describe. Or why the grifting, already having started, wasn't challenged. I also recall an interview trump did with (Barbara Walters?) when newly elected the first time... something about why he'd wanted to run and now hoped to do. Response: "Oh I don't know; I never really saw myself in this position; I guess it could be good for my business." And before that, during the campaign leading up his first win, he was asked how well he knew putin. Response: "Oh, I really don't know him. I think our paths may have crossed once or twice over the years where we were introduced...but, yeah....." I didn't follow politics much back then but I knew he was lying. Ever since that, I've repeatedly said that there was a puppet and a puppet master. Had no clue how damned bad the reality would turn out to be. The epstein mess is going to expose corruption (and on an international level) that is probably going to go beyond comprehension. It wouldn't surprise me if we see some "players" (and/or those even casually associated with them) end up like epstein along the way. In the meantime, our own national security is at high risk, and we only have those who currently enable this and/or are totally incompetent at the helm
We are a country that has trashed past honorable moments. We are weaker because 49.2% of voters in 2024 didn’t believe what they eyes were seeing or what their ears were hearing. We cannot assume that there will be elections in November of this 250th year of our history. Every Democratic governor must plan to do whatever it takes to protect the vote.
Their ears were hearing but not listening. There is a difference. listening is hearing with thoughtful attention. If they had thoughtful attention to what they heard and chose to go ahead and break the law then they are corrupt. DJT's pardoning of convicted felons was done by a convicted felon, himself. He is corrupt. The Republicans elected to Congress and the Senate in 2024 (most of them by far) hail these cop killers as patriots.
Steve, this piece slaps, as my kids would say. The corruption is so staggering that the word staggering doesn’t even begin to cover it. This administration resets the very definition of corruption, and we reset the definition of gullible for facilitating this irredeemable bunch, not once but twice. As I’ve encouraged before, please use The Warning and the Save America Movement to begin the hard work of creating project 2029 that can begin again fealty to the Constitution of the United States and its Bill of Rights.
Neither Jared Kushner nor Witkoff have ever been elected to anything! Why are they entrusted with such authority for our country? They are a traveling pair, and they go from one crisis to the next. They are working on business for themselves, obviously. As they plan on the monies rolling in on an immense level! This is their motivating factor no doubt! Might they be “volunteers in crime”?
"Might they be “volunteers in crime”?"
I think they've gone pro.
Hypocrisy and corruption come together when the Trump family's use of affirmative action for their advantage is exposed:
"Over 500 institutions still give you a leg up if your mom or dad went there. But we haven’t heard a peep about that from Trump.
Maybe that’s because three of Trump’s own children attended the University of Pennsylvania, where Trump went (and where I teach).
Trump’s brother, Fred Trump Jr., was an old friend of a Penn admissions officer.
In 1966, Trump Jr. called his buddy and told him Donald Trump wanted to transfer to Penn from Fordham.
Shortly after that, Donald came down to speak with his brother’s friend. And he was accompanied at the interview by his father, the real estate mogul Fred Trump Sr.
Would Trump have gotten into Penn without the boost he received from his moneyed connections? We don’t know. But here’s what we do know: affirmative action for rich people makes all of our institutions poorer."
Read more about affirmative action for the rich by clicking on:
.gazettextra.com/opinion/columns/jonathan-zimmerman-epstein-files-reveal-affirmative-action-for-the-rich-and-powerful/article_a5e2a1b6-657f-41f4-adb7-03ee29b4a0f2.html
I believe the corruption in the Trump regime is part of the culture of the "old South." We have all heard talk about the "good 'ole boys" and the "bubbas" of the South. It seems to me, the White racist citizens of this region have made a decision to allow corruption in government at the expense of the general population as long as the "good 'ole boys" and "bubbas" re-inforce and give the sanction of law to the prejudices that make them feel so much better than the minorities they hate and fear.
Anthony, Heather Cox Richardson's book "How the South Won the Civil War" (2020) confirms your suspicions. She describes how the values of the Confederacy just moved westward after the Civil War and were embraced by Republicans as the GOP devolved from the Party of Lincoln into the Party of Trump, with a major boost from Ronald Reagan along its downward path.
Thanks for pointing that out. I'll have to read the book; sounds interesting.
Another one I found to explain how the "Old South" is still the "Same Old South" is Colin Woodard's "American Nations - A History Of The Eleven Rival Regional Cultures Of North America". These guys are reading and practicing a very old playbook.
Mike, another book I need to read! Interestingly, yesterday, my local newspaper included a column by Jill Burcum in which she explained Colin Woodward's theory that there are actually twelve regional nations within the continental United States. They include Yankeedom, the Deep South, Greater Appalachia, and the Far West. To see the map of all twelve nations click: tinyurl.com/bdakk6st.
Forget impeachment arrest Trump, Kushner and Witkoff… when they are finished with trails seize all of the money and bribes they’ve amassed deport to cecot. This is insane… I keep saying he will leave office having taken the entire treasury with him.😡😡😡😡
Yep. They are robbing us all blind. I feel like every time I pay federal taxes, the money goes directly into these thieves' pockets.
Seems that way… It’s insane that this alone doesn’t get them out of our White House
Trump grabs gobs of U.S. tax payer monies plus feels entitled to money from any department that has been closed by the Musk crowd. Trump is a “big timer” who has the key to the nation’s piggy bank! Our country is going to be facing bankruptcy by the time the Trump element leaves the White House. Trump operates on the million$ and trillion$ level! It is all for Trump to use with no one asking any questions or stopping him!
Trump is in his GLORY! A wrecking one-man crew!
Traitors all. The law is dead.
S. Witkoff saw Putin and he put his hand on his heart. This filthy, weasly pig might be rock bottom. Even in Trump world. Conscience-free, rock bottom.
Witkoff has Russian roots. It's his DNA.
This was a great piece....Stealing and corruption is their love language. But nothing will happen. The corporate Democrats are bidding their time until the midterms and somehow? Still want to behave like ladies and gentlemen and assume the other side will revert back to the old days somehow? If they didn't get the message from Bondi's performance or the horrible Obama meme, there is no hope.... So nothing will happen.....Money is to be made.... Schumer is my sen and I try to send him messages... but the $ from the corporate overlords is too strong.
Maybe take a page from PM Carney. Stop playing from the old, now tattered, playbook. 🇨🇦
it was JUST LAST WEEK that Schumer spoke in front of a group & ADMITTED that his main function is to protect Israel. $$$
We are a lawless country right now sinking in a sea of corruption.
Is there still corporal punishment for Traitors……
We are Rome. We will get no answers. Caligula is in charge. Expect more of the same and worse. We are post-Democracy as a nation. It is the saddest thing I have ever seen in my long lifetime.
Jared and Ivanka together are dumber than Trump on his own. Wow.
We Have to Look Right in the Face of What We Have Become
If democracy rests on mutual recognition, on our capacity to see one another as full and equal persons, then the power to speak and be heard lies at the foundation of democratic life. It is when we speak — when we argue, appeal, explain and testify — that we put into practice our belief in the ability of others to understand, reason and empathize. Or as Thomas Jefferson remarked in 1824, “In a republican nation whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance.”
Steve catalogs the scale here, but The Firing Line traces the mechanism: The corruption isn't exceptional. It's industrial. And the scale you're documenting here isn't the scandal, it's the business model going mainstream. https://thefiringline.substack.com/p/the-187-million-quid-pro-quo-and
check this out, then thoughts: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQexZMDkQHe/?igsh=d2ZweDcyYTFpMGhv
Our ship of state is sinking fast and there is little we the people can do about it.
Where is our Congress? Have they left us chained below decks while they take to the lifeboats?
For the first time in my life I feel estranged from the place of my birth, this once great nation's Capital, now populated by the most corrupt administration in our long and storied history.
For the sake of our children I trust another more honest nation will rise from this watery grave.
I never understood why nothing was done when we discovered that jared couldn't pass the security requirements yet was doing all the things you describe. Or why the grifting, already having started, wasn't challenged. I also recall an interview trump did with (Barbara Walters?) when newly elected the first time... something about why he'd wanted to run and now hoped to do. Response: "Oh I don't know; I never really saw myself in this position; I guess it could be good for my business." And before that, during the campaign leading up his first win, he was asked how well he knew putin. Response: "Oh, I really don't know him. I think our paths may have crossed once or twice over the years where we were introduced...but, yeah....." I didn't follow politics much back then but I knew he was lying. Ever since that, I've repeatedly said that there was a puppet and a puppet master. Had no clue how damned bad the reality would turn out to be. The epstein mess is going to expose corruption (and on an international level) that is probably going to go beyond comprehension. It wouldn't surprise me if we see some "players" (and/or those even casually associated with them) end up like epstein along the way. In the meantime, our own national security is at high risk, and we only have those who currently enable this and/or are totally incompetent at the helm