"I wonder what Barack Obama will be thinking. The 44th president presided over an ethically pristine administration, except for one glaring exception, which would be his vice president’s son, who engorged himself at every Ukrainian and Chinese trough he could get his snout into."
Steve, please give us a damn break. Hunter was not part of the administration, FFS. One of Obama's glaring exceptions was the Flint, MI water disgrace, but stop doing the fucking right wing Hunter Biden nonsense. Enough already.
I'll add that Steve's praise of George W, Bush is unwarranted. George Bush was full of shit when he said the things Steve quoted. A man who believes in democracy does not violate human rights by torturing people; he does not start a war based on a lie; he does not preside over an economy that favors the wealthy over the poor and middle class; he does not appoint Christian Nationalists like Alito to SCOTUS.
All while reading it I was thinking ‘this is way too eloquent for dubya to have written! But while saying these things he was running up the National Debt by trillions I left the country and won’t go back, right then.
No, some of us DO/DID know!! We, who watched those confirmation hearings of Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, & Barrett knew, without a shadow of doubt, that they were going to overturn Roe as fast as they could.
I knew they were lying with every fiber of my being. They gave themselves away in their wording & tone when they answered any question about Roe, in their body language, & in their facial expressions. Barrett had what I saw as a smirk in her eyes, as well as on her lips, when she claimed to believe that Roe was “settled law.”
I can’t, for the life of me, understand how even one Democratic senator was so gullible to believe those blatant lies.
Whenever Thomas & Alito, & their acceptance of “gifts,” are mentioned by our Democratic officials, it’s always qualified by “they failed to report” those gifts. It shouldn’t matter if they “reported” them; they shouldn’t be allowed to accept them at all!!! Those wildly expensive gifts are bribes, plain & simple. It isn’t hard to figure out why so many people are angry & disgusted & didn’t bother to vote; our vote doesn’t matter when the highest officials in the land, who make life & death decisions about things that affect the minutiae of our lives, are able to be bribed.
Our elected Democrats had better read the room & understand that we are enraged & disgusted with any of them who accept campaign donations from any corporation or individual who expects a bill or a vote that will benefit them in return. We are enraged & disgusted with their lies & equivocations.
Democrats still seem to believe that modeling good behavior will show MAGAs the error of their autocratic ways. That’s so yesterday. Democrats are failing to “read the room”. People want boldness, decisiveness, even bravery. But we still get politic-speak. Grand ideas, hard to decipher. Biden accomplished a lot behind the scenes, but he failed to crow about his successes. Apparently that is “unseemly”. Well, a lot of Americans want unseemly. For better or worse, Americans want a show. Drama. Proof of life.
"I don’t wish him luck. I wish him failure — across the board — because what he has pledged to do across the board is immoral, un-American and corrupt."
After his first inauguration I remember trying to be open to TFG succeeding. I thought there might be an outside chance he might rise to the occasion. He didn't by any metric - in fact he failed more spectacularly than I thought possible. He won't do any better this time either so I wish him nothing but a lack of success in any endeavor he might think up in his fever dream addled mind. Fuck him. Let every idiotic idea and/or policy crash down on him like a ten ton $hithammer. We are ALL going to suffer so I wish him to experience the maximum suffering of anyone.
They’ll spin it anyway, but the power is in the collective opposition, because WE will know. That’s the beginning of true resistance and movement toward reclaiming our freedoms.
I think that's what he's TRYING to impart but I only see a mix of emotions and conflict there. Deep down he's scared and may even know what he's going to try to do is wrong but he's MORE terrified of going to jail or looking weak, or losing his ability to squeeze more $$$ or dirty work from the "other" president. As for Gates: Geez, dude. You know damned well (or should) that your dinner companion thinks Africa, Pakistan, and the other places mentioned are "shit hole" countries and he doesn't give a whit if the people there live or die. During covid, he was even willing to let all of US die, as long enough of us were left to believe the "economy was ok" so they'd vote to keep him in office. And good ole "43"..... Interesting quotes. Where has HE even been for the past year to repeat them publicly???? Horrible president and equally horrible now.
The photograph is a portrait of a very familiar sort of person- the criminal. By criminal, I mean someone who makes a career out of using cruelty to crush people into giving him what he wants from them.
Trump is a criminal, he brags about being a deadly, thieving, raping criminal in every gesture of this portrait.
He is not just a criminal by being convicted by a court of 34 felonies. He is not just a criminal for being adjudicated by a court of actually committed sexual abuse that the judge says is indeed a rape. He is not just a criminal by stealing from donors to charities he was found by a court to have been used to trick people into donating. He is not just a criminal by fleecing tons of money by lying about offering a university, per the courts again.
But in becoming a President, the very nature of crime he can commit is now elevated to the great scale. Now he is the criminal whose actions stole the lives of 300,000 Americans who were defrauded by him to not get a COVID vaccine or try bleach, or drugs that don't work. He is the criminal who is threatening to impose cruelty on a scale we have not seen in America for a long time. Threats of setting up concentration camps to detain 20 million people (per SOS Rubio), strip people born in the US of their citizenship, persecute any perceived enemy, use our military to attack people in America.
And on a global scale, this criminal is all set to switch our sides. From the side of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Lincoln, FDR to the side of fascists like Putin, Xi, and the Ayatollahs of Iran. Imagine. Imagine 100 years ago, if the United States elected a President who pledged to sign us up to join the Axis, not the Allies. This is happening right now.
So thank you Steve for ringing the alarm loud, and clear. A criminal is being given the power. Yes the media and Biden, and many of those in power did not stop him. But for my money the ultimate villain in the story is me and you, the American people. We chose him, we did this, this is who we are.
And thanks to Steve, we all know we each now have a choice, will we act to stop the criminality to be unleashed this Monday? Will we win the midterms? This regime of criminality does not have to succeed, we all still have the power to keep the US on the side of Democracy. I am committed to do so, I know with dozens of millions of others!
We were complicit in allowing things to progress without coordinated, courageous truth telling and seeing. It has always been right here, but people have refused to see it, because it was inconvenient or impossible to believe. Naïveté and laziness brought us to this brink. I totally agree with you, thank you for this wonderful post. We have power!! We just have to exercise it and be willing to be inconvenienced!! Thank you.
I will say this in defense of myself and a few others I know!
I have always known he was a bad guy!
I have family members who are estranged from me because I knew who he was the day he rode down the escalator and backed up
an inch,not one inch!
I have a sister I love but haven’t spoken to in almost 3 years! She’s been a conspiracy prepper for years!! There is no reasoning with her! She is not stupid.The cult mentality eventually causes mental illness and the personality becomes irreversible distorted!
It breaks me everyday but a person must fight the good fight to not be deceived!
I personally will never understand the Christian attraction to this little Anti-Christ!
He is truly preparing the way for a profound darkness to descend upon America 🇺🇸
These people believe in every cell of their body that they know things we are too ignorant to see!
It is a profound deception based on lies! 😢🇺🇸The idea of the “deep state”,what idiocy!
They don’t understand that the deep state keeps their SS and Medicare arriving on time.
It funds road,airports, libraries, schools etc.
It keeps their SS sir clean,waterways from being ruthlessly polluted.
Pays the military,police etc etc
They are jealous and covetous of everything!
They are lonely and confused and are angry
because all of us are not in the same condition!
They never take long look at the man in the mirror!
By and large as a group they are not introspective self correcting people!
I’ll Stop 🛑here before we all fall prey to despair!…..,,,,,😩
What is this coordinated resistance of which you speak? How does it start? Who will be its leaders? We needed to be organizing this November 6th. We are all very late to this horrible party.
exactly! I think it has started, here in this Substack. And the People's March in Washington and around the nation. We are already here. We just need to connect.
Who speaks for the 76 million Americans who said NO to this?
Who fights for them?
NO ONE. Where the Democrats should be stepping up and stepping out, they are on standby wringing their cowardly hands. They are sclerotic parasites, afraid of their own shadows. When and where we need boldness, we get weakness.
Trump wants to cut SSI by 33%. So he can make his fat cat buddies even fatter. I am 80 years old. Out of my SSI must come Medicare, rent, medication and necessities. And, oh yes, thanks to Ronald Reagan: INCOME TAX! I want to see Trump or his sphincter-sucking buds live on less than 3K/monrh.
Oligarchs are gonna cash in. Who really thinks they give a rat’s ass about us? We are gonna have to suck it for the next four years while they get richer.
Steve, I’d support your leadership. You are intelligent, honest, knowledgeable and tough-all characteristics needed in a leader (future President) particularly now. Please consider it. Greg
As I said in my post yesterday, I suggested that Steve run for a House seat. He’s run elections but as far as I know has never dipped his feet into one of the 3 Branches of Government. Running an election is quite different than serving in an official role in Congress. That experience would pay dividends.
I would support Steve as well. The Democrats seem to still be playing nicey-nice. The people who didn’t vote for Trump are angry and scared. We need someone who talks like Steve to fire everyone up and remind them of the country’s history and values. He’s very smart but doesn’t act like an elitist. I hope he seriously considers running for President.
Is Bill Gates slow? One wouldn’t think so. Trump has put Kennedy in the cabinet yet Bill Gates thinks Trump is excited about the work his Foundation is doing. Those who know Trump would say yes, of course, because Gates has a Foundation and Trump doesn’t have to pay for anything Gates is doing in “sh*thole” countries. Yet in the US, Gates doesn’t seem concerned about Kennedy, a veritable nutcase, vaccine denier and incompetent Trump nominee. So Gates was rolled. Trump must be laughing at this interview done by the WSJ editor who doesn’t seem to have a job of her own since she’s busy doing interviews with out of touch billionaires. No wonder folks think the press is crap.
Precisely! “Who speaks for the 76 million people who did not vote for this?” Like me! Indeed, who does? Not Schumer. Not Pelosi. Not Newsome. Is the visiting club putting a team on the field? Where is Rahm Emanuel?
We can thank Joe Biden for this mess. If I am fortunate enough to get to 82 years old, I hope I have the sense enough to turn things over to the younger people around me and give thanks to The Almighty for having gotten that far.
I do believe a Democratic ticket that had arisen through the character building test of a robust and energetic and lively primary campaign would have been strong enough to defeat MAGA. But, thanks to Joe, we’ll never know.
Perhaps. After seeing Biden’s fundraiser where George Clooney decided to withdraw 50 million donations I felt he needed to get out of the race. Hubris or being overprotected, or both.
Unfortunately for Biden with all he accomplished for us has been good his legacy will be forever that his dithering and failure to stick to his promise of one term enabled Trump. And I think he should have thought long and hard about pushing Harris forward as the nominee. I knew that the country is not ready to elect a Black woman. She was outstanding and would have made an excellent President but he did not see it and by the time he agreed to go it was too late. Trump will be Bidens legacy.
Merrick Garland all Republicans who have no balls…
I could go on and on. You better thank your lucky stars for Joe. This shit is about to get real. We are all going to wish the guy at the rally had not missed a thousand times over!
Biden, who shepherded through some tremendously helpful Acts for the common American well being, then did the stupidest thing possible by thinking (actually selfishly emoting/egoing, not thinking) he should run for a second term. I find politicians to all have mental disorders of unhealthy ambition, and then feeding on that, taking the self-centered posture in their own minds that they are smarter than everybody else in the room, or country, and needing to stay in power/office to fulfill an ego that is unhealthy. It is political mental illness. Biden's ego, along with other forces, yes, allowed American fascism to not just take hold, but to wildfire with hurricane winds explode. The Democratic politicians, so far, and except for a few, show no courage, no WWII spirit of fighting the Trump Nazis on land, sea and air. I don't count on them at all. All the fossils need to voluntarily get out of the way for the young strategists and doers, the resister leaders I hope will be strategically smart, self-sacrificing, brave, full of honor and effective. Where is the Martin Luther King, the Gandhi, of today's moment and need?
From what I've read of Biden, he never thought he was the smartest guy in the room. For that reason, he's always felt he had something to prove, particularly with his working class background. And in this case, he convinced himself that because he had beaten Trump once - for a variety of reasons, most having nothing to do with him - he was the obvious one to do it again, ignoring all signs to the contrary. He still believes that, which is his fatal weakness.
Good point, Nancee, and he did/does have something to prove, a lifetime weakness. I have to assume that some of his advisors and friends were saying: No, not a good idea to run a second time, or no, or it is a terrible idea to appoint Merrick Garland as AG. Those advisors or friends were right, were the ones exercising true, selfless intelligence. Biden overrode them, and we don't know how emotional he may have been in overriding them (and I think he was grouchy about it), but he did believe himself in those moments (and probably many more) to be the alpha thinker. And it was self-delusion as well, as you well point out.
Not whining. An opinion based upon my own age and what I feel is doable in life and what the Lord grants us. We all have opinion. I have mine. You have yours.
When they reach an advanced age, one would hope they have the wisdom to step back and become an elder states(wo)man and give the country the benefit of their knowledge.
That is how I feel. I also do not venerate politicians. The ones in public service who I venerate were my school teachers, truth tellers that they were.
This is about RFK who these idiotic REPULSICANS will confirm will allow polio, measles, and other awful viral illnesses which have been eradicated for decades to come back. Talking about withholding federal money for schools who insist on children being fully vaccinated before they come to school. Does this idiot remember the iron lungs children had to be in sometimes for a year when they got polio and could not breathe? Apparently according to RFK the covid vaccine causes cancer. This guy is going to kill people. We have to stop his confirmation.
Mitch McConnell, on more than one level, is responsible for Trump II. He had two bites of the apple directly and his Supreme Court thefts certainly didn’t help anything regarding Trump’s chances. Biden’s weakness as a candidate and perception by the country comes well after those failures.
I think that our collapse mirrors much of the experience of the French Third Republic in the 1930s to its end in 1940 at the hands of the Germans. The French oligarchs and politicians who hated the Republic happily became the leaders of Vichy.
William Shirer wrote:
“And more and more, as the last years of the Third Republic ticked off, the wealthy found it difficult to put the interest of the nation above that of their class. Faced with specific obligations to the country if the state were not to flounder in a financial morass, they shrank from meeting them. The Republic might go under but their valuables would be preserved. In the meantime they would not help keep it afloat by paying a fair share of the taxes. The tax burden was for others to shoulder. If that were understood by the politicians, the Republic could continue. If not… were there not other forms of government possible which promised more security for entrenched wealth? The thoughts of some of the biggest entrepreneurs began to turn to the Fascist “experiment” in Italy and to the growing success of the Nazi Party in Germany.”
See my article that will be published shortly.
All the best, keep up the fight, be safe and watch your six.
Agreed with ten thousand likes. Now, the French did resist the Nazis and the Vichy collaborators - with violence, as it was a war/occupied territory situation.
I ask Steve: what are your ideas on non-violent resistance in 2025 in America? Contribute to the solution, not just the warnings.
Will there be mass demonstrations here in America? Tens of millions pouring into the streets? Will there be mass boycotts, tens of millions boycotting companies or services or individuals that are enablers and fascist profiters or collaborators?
Will the newly arising substack and podcasters that are anti-fascist commentators band together to be leaders of resistance, or individually? Will the mainstream media come together in some kind of anti-fascist summit and say enough, and work as a single voice to educate and inspire massive resistance to Trump and his fascist crew and the entire cult and apathetic, stupid Americans that voted for him, or sat out the election? Will the unions pursue general strikes? Will the leaders of Generation Millennials and Z actually lead resistance with ideas and actions? Are they willing to go to prison while good lawyers fight for their release? The Trump authoritarians are counting on cowardice, self-interest, apathy and compliance.
For now, I will just contribute the sound of my two hands clapping in acclaim for Steve's latest posting. His unwavering lucidity and his unique eloquence have outdone themselves here. I line right up behind his extraordinary voice. You've really said it all here, Steve.
All the bluster, attempts to swagger while walking, and "masculine energy" crapola cannot cover up the classic school yard bully that lives within. Too bad there are so many other damaged chest thumpers surrounding him, either telling him what to do, or trying to do it for him, that it's bigger challenge to push back, but push back we must.
I see a spoiled rotten 11 year old brat who has to get everything he wants and for some strange reason the cowards in government have given it to him. I can’t wait to sit back and watch it all burn. I really can’t wait till he dies and then I’m having a HUGE party! Bring champagne and join me!
Bill Gates sounds just like someone born and raised in the far-flung, extremely close-knit Seattle of the 1950s and 1960s. Wholesome, intelligent, optimistic, zero sense of humor, trusting to a fault, and terribly naive, never having witnessed, and then artfully dodged, the dark underbelly of American life, with its grifters, scam artists, felons, and other shady characters, and always, always, taking everything at face value. My aunt used to buy popcorn from Boy Scout Bill Gates, who would make the rounds of the neighborhood with his dad at his side. Sixty-odd years later Bill Gates still seems like that Boy Scout. I'm sure Trump was quite a curious sight to Gates.
"I wonder what Barack Obama will be thinking. The 44th president presided over an ethically pristine administration, except for one glaring exception, which would be his vice president’s son, who engorged himself at every Ukrainian and Chinese trough he could get his snout into."
Steve, please give us a damn break. Hunter was not part of the administration, FFS. One of Obama's glaring exceptions was the Flint, MI water disgrace, but stop doing the fucking right wing Hunter Biden nonsense. Enough already.
I'll add that Steve's praise of George W, Bush is unwarranted. George Bush was full of shit when he said the things Steve quoted. A man who believes in democracy does not violate human rights by torturing people; he does not start a war based on a lie; he does not preside over an economy that favors the wealthy over the poor and middle class; he does not appoint Christian Nationalists like Alito to SCOTUS.
But you have to admit that it was a great speech he read off the teleprompter. I wonder who wrote it?
All while reading it I was thinking ‘this is way too eloquent for dubya to have written! But while saying these things he was running up the National Debt by trillions I left the country and won’t go back, right then.
You can bet it was George W. (AKA Alfred E. Neuman).
Tell me about his eloquence as a speaker and speechwriter.
Thanks for catching my typo! I meant WASN'T!!!!!
If great speeches don't lead to great actions, then they are less than meaningless and not worth a goddamn thing!
None of us know what Supreme Court Justices will do once they are elevated to
God like statues!
Term limits would go a long way toward solving many of our nation’s problems on many levels!!
No, some of us DO/DID know!! We, who watched those confirmation hearings of Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, & Barrett knew, without a shadow of doubt, that they were going to overturn Roe as fast as they could.
I knew they were lying with every fiber of my being. They gave themselves away in their wording & tone when they answered any question about Roe, in their body language, & in their facial expressions. Barrett had what I saw as a smirk in her eyes, as well as on her lips, when she claimed to believe that Roe was “settled law.”
I can’t, for the life of me, understand how even one Democratic senator was so gullible to believe those blatant lies.
Whenever Thomas & Alito, & their acceptance of “gifts,” are mentioned by our Democratic officials, it’s always qualified by “they failed to report” those gifts. It shouldn’t matter if they “reported” them; they shouldn’t be allowed to accept them at all!!! Those wildly expensive gifts are bribes, plain & simple. It isn’t hard to figure out why so many people are angry & disgusted & didn’t bother to vote; our vote doesn’t matter when the highest officials in the land, who make life & death decisions about things that affect the minutiae of our lives, are able to be bribed.
Our elected Democrats had better read the room & understand that we are enraged & disgusted with any of them who accept campaign donations from any corporation or individual who expects a bill or a vote that will benefit them in return. We are enraged & disgusted with their lies & equivocations.
Agree, it is getting old.
Every public person who cares about America-- not their wealth in America but the IDEAS of America-- should not show up for this inauguration.
Trump is all about optics. What better optics than EMPTY SEATS at his televised inauguration??? And possibly his televised tantrum?
Why, Democratic senators etc, would you not do this brave act? Anything you’re afraid of, he’s done or he will do anyway.
Democrats still seem to believe that modeling good behavior will show MAGAs the error of their autocratic ways. That’s so yesterday. Democrats are failing to “read the room”. People want boldness, decisiveness, even bravery. But we still get politic-speak. Grand ideas, hard to decipher. Biden accomplished a lot behind the scenes, but he failed to crow about his successes. Apparently that is “unseemly”. Well, a lot of Americans want unseemly. For better or worse, Americans want a show. Drama. Proof of life.
"I don’t wish him luck. I wish him failure — across the board — because what he has pledged to do across the board is immoral, un-American and corrupt."
After his first inauguration I remember trying to be open to TFG succeeding. I thought there might be an outside chance he might rise to the occasion. He didn't by any metric - in fact he failed more spectacularly than I thought possible. He won't do any better this time either so I wish him nothing but a lack of success in any endeavor he might think up in his fever dream addled mind. Fuck him. Let every idiotic idea and/or policy crash down on him like a ten ton $hithammer. We are ALL going to suffer so I wish him to experience the maximum suffering of anyone.
They’ll spin it anyway, but the power is in the collective opposition, because WE will know. That’s the beginning of true resistance and movement toward reclaiming our freedoms.
Expert Timothy Snyder "Do Not Obey In Advance" (7.5 min video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tocssf3w80
I don’t wish him good luck in his sick endeavors to hurt and hate!
He is a cunning,ruthless A-pex predator!
He would murder us all if he could get away with it! He actually probably could get away with it now that I think about it!?!😱
He’s not an American 🇺🇸
He will never be an American 🇺🇸
Americans want to be free to achieve their
dreams and allow other the same dream.
They believe in minding their own business
and going about their daily lives in a lawful
orderly manner!
Trump is the embodiment of devilish chaos!
Chaos is Anarchic!
Anarchy is poverty,famine, war, disease,terror !
That’s Trump’s dream!
Yes, Trump is a Destroyer. Great comment; Right On!🎯💪
That picture screams Mob Boss. It’s disgusting!
It’s also flammable.
I think that's what he's TRYING to impart but I only see a mix of emotions and conflict there. Deep down he's scared and may even know what he's going to try to do is wrong but he's MORE terrified of going to jail or looking weak, or losing his ability to squeeze more $$$ or dirty work from the "other" president. As for Gates: Geez, dude. You know damned well (or should) that your dinner companion thinks Africa, Pakistan, and the other places mentioned are "shit hole" countries and he doesn't give a whit if the people there live or die. During covid, he was even willing to let all of US die, as long enough of us were left to believe the "economy was ok" so they'd vote to keep him in office. And good ole "43"..... Interesting quotes. Where has HE even been for the past year to repeat them publicly???? Horrible president and equally horrible now.
I clearly don’t think all Billionaires are cut from the same cloth any more than the rest of us are cookie cutter people!
It’s really intellectually unfair to say or imply that!
A tree is known by the fruit it bears!
Many very wealthy people are doing Noble things.
Any physiologist will tel you that what ever
behaviors you reward is what you get more of!
Why don’t we stop talking about the Rapacious thugs and report the good,noble
humanitarian efforts made by many others!
Let’s take that on as a challenge! ⚖️🗽⚖️🗽
The photograph is a portrait of a very familiar sort of person- the criminal. By criminal, I mean someone who makes a career out of using cruelty to crush people into giving him what he wants from them.
Trump is a criminal, he brags about being a deadly, thieving, raping criminal in every gesture of this portrait.
He is not just a criminal by being convicted by a court of 34 felonies. He is not just a criminal for being adjudicated by a court of actually committed sexual abuse that the judge says is indeed a rape. He is not just a criminal by stealing from donors to charities he was found by a court to have been used to trick people into donating. He is not just a criminal by fleecing tons of money by lying about offering a university, per the courts again.
But in becoming a President, the very nature of crime he can commit is now elevated to the great scale. Now he is the criminal whose actions stole the lives of 300,000 Americans who were defrauded by him to not get a COVID vaccine or try bleach, or drugs that don't work. He is the criminal who is threatening to impose cruelty on a scale we have not seen in America for a long time. Threats of setting up concentration camps to detain 20 million people (per SOS Rubio), strip people born in the US of their citizenship, persecute any perceived enemy, use our military to attack people in America.
And on a global scale, this criminal is all set to switch our sides. From the side of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Lincoln, FDR to the side of fascists like Putin, Xi, and the Ayatollahs of Iran. Imagine. Imagine 100 years ago, if the United States elected a President who pledged to sign us up to join the Axis, not the Allies. This is happening right now.
So thank you Steve for ringing the alarm loud, and clear. A criminal is being given the power. Yes the media and Biden, and many of those in power did not stop him. But for my money the ultimate villain in the story is me and you, the American people. We chose him, we did this, this is who we are.
And thanks to Steve, we all know we each now have a choice, will we act to stop the criminality to be unleashed this Monday? Will we win the midterms? This regime of criminality does not have to succeed, we all still have the power to keep the US on the side of Democracy. I am committed to do so, I know with dozens of millions of others!
We were complicit in allowing things to progress without coordinated, courageous truth telling and seeing. It has always been right here, but people have refused to see it, because it was inconvenient or impossible to believe. Naïveté and laziness brought us to this brink. I totally agree with you, thank you for this wonderful post. We have power!! We just have to exercise it and be willing to be inconvenienced!! Thank you.
I will say this in defense of myself and a few others I know!
I have always known he was a bad guy!
I have family members who are estranged from me because I knew who he was the day he rode down the escalator and backed up
an inch,not one inch!
I have a sister I love but haven’t spoken to in almost 3 years! She’s been a conspiracy prepper for years!! There is no reasoning with her! She is not stupid.The cult mentality eventually causes mental illness and the personality becomes irreversible distorted!
It breaks me everyday but a person must fight the good fight to not be deceived!
I personally will never understand the Christian attraction to this little Anti-Christ!
He is truly preparing the way for a profound darkness to descend upon America 🇺🇸
These people believe in every cell of their body that they know things we are too ignorant to see!
It is a profound deception based on lies! 😢🇺🇸The idea of the “deep state”,what idiocy!
They don’t understand that the deep state keeps their SS and Medicare arriving on time.
It funds road,airports, libraries, schools etc.
It keeps their SS sir clean,waterways from being ruthlessly polluted.
Pays the military,police etc etc
They are jealous and covetous of everything!
They are lonely and confused and are angry
because all of us are not in the same condition!
They never take long look at the man in the mirror!
By and large as a group they are not introspective self correcting people!
I’ll Stop 🛑here before we all fall prey to despair!…..,,,,,😩
We must not!🫶🏽
What is this coordinated resistance of which you speak? How does it start? Who will be its leaders? We needed to be organizing this November 6th. We are all very late to this horrible party.
exactly! I think it has started, here in this Substack. And the People's March in Washington and around the nation. We are already here. We just need to connect.
Several substacks are gearing up. We just have to link up with them all.
Who speaks for the 76 million Americans who said NO to this?
Who fights for them?
NO ONE. Where the Democrats should be stepping up and stepping out, they are on standby wringing their cowardly hands. They are sclerotic parasites, afraid of their own shadows. When and where we need boldness, we get weakness.
Trump wants to cut SSI by 33%. So he can make his fat cat buddies even fatter. I am 80 years old. Out of my SSI must come Medicare, rent, medication and necessities. And, oh yes, thanks to Ronald Reagan: INCOME TAX! I want to see Trump or his sphincter-sucking buds live on less than 3K/monrh.
He cannot diminish social security. It’s our money. We paid into it for years. It’s not the governments money.
SSI is not social security but funds for disabled who don’t have work history to qualify for SSD. Maybe the author meant social security.
Thanks for clarifying
Oligarchs are gonna cash in. Who really thinks they give a rat’s ass about us? We are gonna have to suck it for the next four years while they get richer.
You hope 4 years
I certainly hope that’s not the plan!!
If so, why are we on this platform?
I’m not sucking anything up!🔝
Hell No ! No No No !!
Nothing make me angrier than to hear some Democrats say that they’ll “find common ground” with the Orange Monster (OM). But there
Is no “common ground.” The OM’s
aims are to destroy our country and to enrich himself. The grift will be massive and so will the wreckage left behind.
It’s “makes” not “make.” Sorry for the typo.
Steve, I’d support your leadership. You are intelligent, honest, knowledgeable and tough-all characteristics needed in a leader (future President) particularly now. Please consider it. Greg
I second that wholeheartedly!
Steve’s bullshit tolerance is far too low for the office of the Presidency. It would be interesting, though.
OH YEAH!!!
I've said for several years to Steve the same suggestion. He would be a great president.
As I said in my post yesterday, I suggested that Steve run for a House seat. He’s run elections but as far as I know has never dipped his feet into one of the 3 Branches of Government. Running an election is quite different than serving in an official role in Congress. That experience would pay dividends.
I would support Steve as well. The Democrats seem to still be playing nicey-nice. The people who didn’t vote for Trump are angry and scared. We need someone who talks like Steve to fire everyone up and remind them of the country’s history and values. He’s very smart but doesn’t act like an elitist. I hope he seriously considers running for President.
Is Bill Gates slow? One wouldn’t think so. Trump has put Kennedy in the cabinet yet Bill Gates thinks Trump is excited about the work his Foundation is doing. Those who know Trump would say yes, of course, because Gates has a Foundation and Trump doesn’t have to pay for anything Gates is doing in “sh*thole” countries. Yet in the US, Gates doesn’t seem concerned about Kennedy, a veritable nutcase, vaccine denier and incompetent Trump nominee. So Gates was rolled. Trump must be laughing at this interview done by the WSJ editor who doesn’t seem to have a job of her own since she’s busy doing interviews with out of touch billionaires. No wonder folks think the press is crap.
I've always thought Bill Gates a cut above the other bros. It's disappointing, but also irrelevant.
Precisely! “Who speaks for the 76 million people who did not vote for this?” Like me! Indeed, who does? Not Schumer. Not Pelosi. Not Newsome. Is the visiting club putting a team on the field? Where is Rahm Emanuel?
Maybe Hakeem Jeffries, Adam Kingsinger, Pete Bud…, Andy Bearshears,
Maybe the DNC.,,.
which question are you answering?
We can thank Joe Biden for this mess. If I am fortunate enough to get to 82 years old, I hope I have the sense enough to turn things over to the younger people around me and give thanks to The Almighty for having gotten that far.
Muller, Mitch McConnell, Merrick Garland, SCOTUS, mainstream and social media, Republicans ….
I do believe a Democratic ticket that had arisen through the character building test of a robust and energetic and lively primary campaign would have been strong enough to defeat MAGA. But, thanks to Joe, we’ll never know.
Perhaps. After seeing Biden’s fundraiser where George Clooney decided to withdraw 50 million donations I felt he needed to get out of the race. Hubris or being overprotected, or both.
Yes to both. Tragic failing.
Unfortunately for Biden with all he accomplished for us has been good his legacy will be forever that his dithering and failure to stick to his promise of one term enabled Trump. And I think he should have thought long and hard about pushing Harris forward as the nominee. I knew that the country is not ready to elect a Black woman. She was outstanding and would have made an excellent President but he did not see it and by the time he agreed to go it was too late. Trump will be Bidens legacy.
Perhaps. Some hubris or being overprotected, or both.
Yep. An accumulation of blame-worthy moments and actors, any one of which, handled with courage instead of weakness, could have averted this mess.
Bullshit! I’m sick of hearing this!
Substitute Mitch McConnell
Merrick Garland all Republicans who have no balls…
I could go on and on. You better thank your lucky stars for Joe. This shit is about to get real. We are all going to wish the guy at the rally had not missed a thousand times over!
Biden, who shepherded through some tremendously helpful Acts for the common American well being, then did the stupidest thing possible by thinking (actually selfishly emoting/egoing, not thinking) he should run for a second term. I find politicians to all have mental disorders of unhealthy ambition, and then feeding on that, taking the self-centered posture in their own minds that they are smarter than everybody else in the room, or country, and needing to stay in power/office to fulfill an ego that is unhealthy. It is political mental illness. Biden's ego, along with other forces, yes, allowed American fascism to not just take hold, but to wildfire with hurricane winds explode. The Democratic politicians, so far, and except for a few, show no courage, no WWII spirit of fighting the Trump Nazis on land, sea and air. I don't count on them at all. All the fossils need to voluntarily get out of the way for the young strategists and doers, the resister leaders I hope will be strategically smart, self-sacrificing, brave, full of honor and effective. Where is the Martin Luther King, the Gandhi, of today's moment and need?
From what I've read of Biden, he never thought he was the smartest guy in the room. For that reason, he's always felt he had something to prove, particularly with his working class background. And in this case, he convinced himself that because he had beaten Trump once - for a variety of reasons, most having nothing to do with him - he was the obvious one to do it again, ignoring all signs to the contrary. He still believes that, which is his fatal weakness.
Good point, Nancee, and he did/does have something to prove, a lifetime weakness. I have to assume that some of his advisors and friends were saying: No, not a good idea to run a second time, or no, or it is a terrible idea to appoint Merrick Garland as AG. Those advisors or friends were right, were the ones exercising true, selfless intelligence. Biden overrode them, and we don't know how emotional he may have been in overriding them (and I think he was grouchy about it), but he did believe himself in those moments (and probably many more) to be the alpha thinker. And it was self-delusion as well, as you well point out.
Move on. Recriminations are not going to.do.anything to.fight back. Whining is not winning.
Not whining. An opinion based upon my own age and what I feel is doable in life and what the Lord grants us. We all have opinion. I have mine. You have yours.
When they reach an advanced age, one would hope they have the wisdom to step back and become an elder states(wo)man and give the country the benefit of their knowledge.
That is how I feel. I also do not venerate politicians. The ones in public service who I venerate were my school teachers, truth tellers that they were.
This is about RFK who these idiotic REPULSICANS will confirm will allow polio, measles, and other awful viral illnesses which have been eradicated for decades to come back. Talking about withholding federal money for schools who insist on children being fully vaccinated before they come to school. Does this idiot remember the iron lungs children had to be in sometimes for a year when they got polio and could not breathe? Apparently according to RFK the covid vaccine causes cancer. This guy is going to kill people. We have to stop his confirmation.
Mitch McConnell, on more than one level, is responsible for Trump II. He had two bites of the apple directly and his Supreme Court thefts certainly didn’t help anything regarding Trump’s chances. Biden’s weakness as a candidate and perception by the country comes well after those failures.
Steve,
I think that our collapse mirrors much of the experience of the French Third Republic in the 1930s to its end in 1940 at the hands of the Germans. The French oligarchs and politicians who hated the Republic happily became the leaders of Vichy.
William Shirer wrote:
“And more and more, as the last years of the Third Republic ticked off, the wealthy found it difficult to put the interest of the nation above that of their class. Faced with specific obligations to the country if the state were not to flounder in a financial morass, they shrank from meeting them. The Republic might go under but their valuables would be preserved. In the meantime they would not help keep it afloat by paying a fair share of the taxes. The tax burden was for others to shoulder. If that were understood by the politicians, the Republic could continue. If not… were there not other forms of government possible which promised more security for entrenched wealth? The thoughts of some of the biggest entrepreneurs began to turn to the Fascist “experiment” in Italy and to the growing success of the Nazi Party in Germany.”
See my article that will be published shortly.
All the best, keep up the fight, be safe and watch your six.
Steve Dundas
Agreed with ten thousand likes. Now, the French did resist the Nazis and the Vichy collaborators - with violence, as it was a war/occupied territory situation.
I ask Steve: what are your ideas on non-violent resistance in 2025 in America? Contribute to the solution, not just the warnings.
Will there be mass demonstrations here in America? Tens of millions pouring into the streets? Will there be mass boycotts, tens of millions boycotting companies or services or individuals that are enablers and fascist profiters or collaborators?
Will the newly arising substack and podcasters that are anti-fascist commentators band together to be leaders of resistance, or individually? Will the mainstream media come together in some kind of anti-fascist summit and say enough, and work as a single voice to educate and inspire massive resistance to Trump and his fascist crew and the entire cult and apathetic, stupid Americans that voted for him, or sat out the election? Will the unions pursue general strikes? Will the leaders of Generation Millennials and Z actually lead resistance with ideas and actions? Are they willing to go to prison while good lawyers fight for their release? The Trump authoritarians are counting on cowardice, self-interest, apathy and compliance.
For now, I will just contribute the sound of my two hands clapping in acclaim for Steve's latest posting. His unwavering lucidity and his unique eloquence have outdone themselves here. I line right up behind his extraordinary voice. You've really said it all here, Steve.
"Phony tough guy" 100%! He wouldn't last five seconds in a street fight. FAT SLOB.
All the bluster, attempts to swagger while walking, and "masculine energy" crapola cannot cover up the classic school yard bully that lives within. Too bad there are so many other damaged chest thumpers surrounding him, either telling him what to do, or trying to do it for him, that it's bigger challenge to push back, but push back we must.
TFG: John Wayne mouth, Mickey Mouse a$$.
I see a spoiled rotten 11 year old brat who has to get everything he wants and for some strange reason the cowards in government have given it to him. I can’t wait to sit back and watch it all burn. I really can’t wait till he dies and then I’m having a HUGE party! Bring champagne and join me!
Bill Gates sounds just like someone born and raised in the far-flung, extremely close-knit Seattle of the 1950s and 1960s. Wholesome, intelligent, optimistic, zero sense of humor, trusting to a fault, and terribly naive, never having witnessed, and then artfully dodged, the dark underbelly of American life, with its grifters, scam artists, felons, and other shady characters, and always, always, taking everything at face value. My aunt used to buy popcorn from Boy Scout Bill Gates, who would make the rounds of the neighborhood with his dad at his side. Sixty-odd years later Bill Gates still seems like that Boy Scout. I'm sure Trump was quite a curious sight to Gates.