The phrase “legal authority” has become null and void. We don’t have anyone who can hold people accountable any longer. MAGA controls the House and Senate and the Supreme Court. All we can do is watch. And there is likely more happening that we do not even know about. We’re also being set up for a disaster with the mid terms because mail in voting has already been declared “a fraud.” Trump said Putin told him this.
Yuval Noah Harari said “the key issue is that democracy is based on trust, whereas dictatorship is based on terror.”
Trump has systematically attacked the bases for the social trust that used to keep the American community one. He claims that when his side loses, the elections are rigged. Courts that rule against him are biased and controlled by the forces of the “deep state.” Reports critical of him or his policies are “fake” news. MAGA claims that before RFKJr. the CDC existed to push untested and dangerous vaccines while lying about the efficacy of readily available cures from horse paste to bleach, and exercised control over the American people by shutting down schools and businesses.
Today, America is divided into two camps, MAGA and the rest of us. Trump has the MAGA cult in his pocket. He is using fear in an attempt to control the rest of us. Businesses he disapproves of lose government contracts and funding; colleges and universities which refuse to follow his directives have grants taken from them; influential individuals speaking out against him are persecuted by his politicized DOJ; the general population willing to protest is coming under increasing threat by masked ICE thugs outfitted like Darth Vader, federalized National Guard troops, and the military.
Machiavelli told the rulers of his day that love and fear could be used effectively to keep their subjects in line. He cautioned them to rely on fear since they control the peoples’ fear but the people control their love for the “prince.” However, he cautioned the rulers to avoid causing the people to hate them. Hate is a more powerful emotion than fear and if you cause the people to hate you enough, they will rebel. Make their lives intolerable and they become willing to risk them to end your reign.
We are rapidly approaching the “tipping point” in America today.
Another cause of the erosion of trust in America today is Trump's attempts to "whitewash" our history. Trump has accused the National Museum of African American History and culture of concentrating too much on "how bad slavery was." If you buy into Trump's line about slavery, in effect, not being "that bad" you have been prepped to accept anything he says. America's chattel slavery, a system which holds a slave is his master's property, was the ultimate depraved violation of human rights. We know that slaves could be beaten, whipped, have their children taken from them and auctioned off. How can the majority of Americans who know the truth about slavery believe anything Trump says or posts, even if in capitals?
Social trust, an expectation that your fellow citizens and government agents will act morally and according to accepted norms and values was the glue that held America together. Under Trump, that glue is dissolving and he intends to hold America together through terror, occupying defiant cities and states with ICE, federalized NG troops, and the military. Let's not allow this to happen.
If the midterms don’t happen. Or, if they happen and are deemed rigged by orange satan?
We’re done. Tipping point reached. We’re at the event horizon. There is no escape.
I can imagine NG troops, ICE, FBI, HS, et al on the streets for our “ safety “ and to “ protect “ us and our “ democracy “ if we protest that we aren’t allowed to vote. Or that our votes are null / void because they were mailed in which, mail in voting, has been done in this country since the 1860’s.
And, if mail in voting is rigged and a fraud what about our armed forces deployed around the globe? Are their votes null and void? Because that’s how deployed service personnel vote and have always voted.
Does orange satan realize this? Will our MSM / legacy media bring this up when questioning him?
I am thoroughly disgusted at the criminal trump -- HE ILLEGALLY DOES WHAT HE WANTS, then, because we believe in the rule of law, we WAIT months for the courts to rule in our favor (usually) -- in that stretch of time, he has inflicted so much pain, cruelty and hardship on ordinary people, that it's WRONG our "justice" is delayed so long.
While I argue for the "rule of law," my husband explodes: TAKE HIM OUT BACK AND ......... I still believe in the rule of law, but man!! ..... sometimes .......
Posted today on the contact us page at White House dot Gov:
Article this morning on Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack:
“Although Trump inherited a booming economy, he insisted that it was actually in terrible shape and that his tariffs would bring back manufacturing and make life better for those left behind by 40 years of economic policy that concentrated wealth at the top of society.
In fact, data released Tuesday show that U.S. manufacturing has contracted for six straight months. Economic journalist Catherine Rampell noted that the U.S. has fewer manufacturing jobs today than it had before the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The country has lost 78,000 manufacturing jobs this year. Seventy-two percent of Texas manufacturers say the tariffs are hurting their businesses. Only 3.7% think the tariffs are helping them.”
Today’s new jobs report, the first since Trump fired the previous director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after accusing her of rigging the numbers for political reasons, was poor. It showed that the U.S. added just 22,000 jobs in August, far below the expected 75,000, while the jobs numbers for June and July were revised downward by 21,000 jobs. The numbers show that the economy is faltering.”
CONCLUSION:
A) Trump inherited a booming economy from President Joseph R Biden
B) Trump’s dumbass ignorant actions and policies have done nothing but damage our economy
C) Our country is now on the cusp of a Trump-caused “big beautiful recession”
Even in 2016 when orange satan was elected for the first time, his followers said, “ The Trump economy is booming. “
Trump economy? Hardly.
POTUS Obama left orange satan with a strong economy. An economy that was wrecked by Bush 2.0 in 2008. In 2009 when POTUS Obama was elected the Dow was 7,949.50. And, that was after the Bush 2.0 crash. When Obama left office the Dow was 19,732. That was more than double of what he started with. When orange satan left office in 2021 the Dow was 30950.32. Do the math. Obama = 11,783 up. Trump = 11,218. Obama was left with a dumpster fire economy. Orange satan was left with a booming economy and yet he still managed to destroy it.
He also, back in the day, ran casinos. Casinos are businesses where people give you their money willingly to lose it. You have to ask yourself how could anyone fail at a business where people are actually giving you their money to lose it. Well……orange satan did just that. He bankrupted his casinos. “ Smart “ businessman? Puh-lease!
If the attack on the "Venezuelan" (since there were no survivors, how can it be certain that it was Venezuelan) boat had been made by a private force, it would have fit the Admiralty Law definition of piracy. In this case, that's a distinction without a difference. The U.S. force might as well been flying a black flag decorated with a skull and cross-bones.
My wish - We need named journalists to hold a conference and bring all of the current White House press corps together and have a serious discussion on why and how to the ask trump and his administration, questions. We, the People aren't getting answers, just lies!
The Dept. heads of the various TrumpRepubloFascist agencies are accountable, to the Head Trumpers. And so, going after so-called "illegal immigrants" and attempting to militarily take over US cities that Trump has put on the list, the ground forces doing it are being held accountable. This is just as the head managers of the German national railways were held accountable, in late 1944-45, for making sure that the trains carrying still-living survivors of the Holocaust in the East back to slave labor and concentration (literally) camps in Germany, ran on time, whether so doing interfered with the transport of military supplies to the East or not. Priorities were set and met in Nazi Germany just as they are being met in the TrumpRepubloFascist U.S.
The Holy Roman Federalist Court has decreed that donvict can do no wrong and that the lower courts are misinformed and arrogant. Should a Democrat find their way to the presidency - unlikely in the age of Schumer and Jeffries - they MUST expand the Court.
I agree, but I hope for another solution. I hope we can regain the Trifecta of government, then start the impeachment process of SCOTUS. Hopefully then, the ones that know they've done wrong by the American people, choose to retire . If they don't, then we kick their sorry asses to the curb and let that be an addendum to their legacy!
I’d like to agree, but given the Court’s disdain for voting and democracy, regaining the Trifecta will be a challenge, and impeachment is slow, difficult and fraught.
It seems like people want to fight back from being in a full blown dictatorship but don’t know where to begin. I believe we’re going to have to strike first and come up with a as many plans as we can and never stop. Let’s not put all our egg in a one basket. Talking about how stupid trump is all the time isn’t going to wake people up, we tried that before. We can use AI. We need to have more leaders than followers, including myself. I think the fireworks will really begin in 3 two 6 months
This guy is spot on about your writing. There is something about your voice that speaks with a clarity and force that no one else has. This is by far my favorite Substack!!!
It is difficult to hope for a resurgence of democracy. I hope that you are right, but FOX News is still delivering a different message, and the Democratic Party is not going to save us. I know a lot of people who are tuned out because they can’t take the stress, and killings in international waters are just the beginning. Trump is getting ready to imprison Dem leaders and to use the military against US. You imply that both sides are equally armed but his control of the military upsets the balance.
There is no accountability in Trump Land. Period end of sentence.
He's teflon Don, he has weaseled out of every legal challenge his entire life. He's had people lie, cheat and steal for him.
Now, like a parasitic disease his lack of accountability has spread to his"Party" and to the media and to everyone in his orbit. They will take credit if it makes Trump look good, and they will denounce everything if it makes Trump look bad.
I'm sure Captain Bone Spurs was instrumental in getting the Sylvanus Thayer Award to Tom Hanks canelled, because Hanks supported Biden and George Bush, but not Trump.
We live in a world and country where up is down and down is up depending on what side of the bed Trump got out of.
I've said before and I will say again, it will not be over until the entire members of the Cabinet and White House staff have been obliterated. Six feet under is good for me.
The phrase “legal authority” has become null and void. We don’t have anyone who can hold people accountable any longer. MAGA controls the House and Senate and the Supreme Court. All we can do is watch. And there is likely more happening that we do not even know about. We’re also being set up for a disaster with the mid terms because mail in voting has already been declared “a fraud.” Trump said Putin told him this.
Yuval Noah Harari said “the key issue is that democracy is based on trust, whereas dictatorship is based on terror.”
Trump has systematically attacked the bases for the social trust that used to keep the American community one. He claims that when his side loses, the elections are rigged. Courts that rule against him are biased and controlled by the forces of the “deep state.” Reports critical of him or his policies are “fake” news. MAGA claims that before RFKJr. the CDC existed to push untested and dangerous vaccines while lying about the efficacy of readily available cures from horse paste to bleach, and exercised control over the American people by shutting down schools and businesses.
Today, America is divided into two camps, MAGA and the rest of us. Trump has the MAGA cult in his pocket. He is using fear in an attempt to control the rest of us. Businesses he disapproves of lose government contracts and funding; colleges and universities which refuse to follow his directives have grants taken from them; influential individuals speaking out against him are persecuted by his politicized DOJ; the general population willing to protest is coming under increasing threat by masked ICE thugs outfitted like Darth Vader, federalized National Guard troops, and the military.
Machiavelli told the rulers of his day that love and fear could be used effectively to keep their subjects in line. He cautioned them to rely on fear since they control the peoples’ fear but the people control their love for the “prince.” However, he cautioned the rulers to avoid causing the people to hate them. Hate is a more powerful emotion than fear and if you cause the people to hate you enough, they will rebel. Make their lives intolerable and they become willing to risk them to end your reign.
We are rapidly approaching the “tipping point” in America today.
Another cause of the erosion of trust in America today is Trump's attempts to "whitewash" our history. Trump has accused the National Museum of African American History and culture of concentrating too much on "how bad slavery was." If you buy into Trump's line about slavery, in effect, not being "that bad" you have been prepped to accept anything he says. America's chattel slavery, a system which holds a slave is his master's property, was the ultimate depraved violation of human rights. We know that slaves could be beaten, whipped, have their children taken from them and auctioned off. How can the majority of Americans who know the truth about slavery believe anything Trump says or posts, even if in capitals?
Social trust, an expectation that your fellow citizens and government agents will act morally and according to accepted norms and values was the glue that held America together. Under Trump, that glue is dissolving and he intends to hold America together through terror, occupying defiant cities and states with ICE, federalized NG troops, and the military. Let's not allow this to happen.
If the midterms don’t happen. Or, if they happen and are deemed rigged by orange satan?
We’re done. Tipping point reached. We’re at the event horizon. There is no escape.
I can imagine NG troops, ICE, FBI, HS, et al on the streets for our “ safety “ and to “ protect “ us and our “ democracy “ if we protest that we aren’t allowed to vote. Or that our votes are null / void because they were mailed in which, mail in voting, has been done in this country since the 1860’s.
And, if mail in voting is rigged and a fraud what about our armed forces deployed around the globe? Are their votes null and void? Because that’s how deployed service personnel vote and have always voted.
Does orange satan realize this? Will our MSM / legacy media bring this up when questioning him?
I am thoroughly disgusted at the criminal trump -- HE ILLEGALLY DOES WHAT HE WANTS, then, because we believe in the rule of law, we WAIT months for the courts to rule in our favor (usually) -- in that stretch of time, he has inflicted so much pain, cruelty and hardship on ordinary people, that it's WRONG our "justice" is delayed so long.
While I argue for the "rule of law," my husband explodes: TAKE HIM OUT BACK AND ......... I still believe in the rule of law, but man!! ..... sometimes .......
I understand where you are coming from Martha, but in this instance I have to side with your husband!
Posted today on the contact us page at White House dot Gov:
Article this morning on Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack:
“Although Trump inherited a booming economy, he insisted that it was actually in terrible shape and that his tariffs would bring back manufacturing and make life better for those left behind by 40 years of economic policy that concentrated wealth at the top of society.
In fact, data released Tuesday show that U.S. manufacturing has contracted for six straight months. Economic journalist Catherine Rampell noted that the U.S. has fewer manufacturing jobs today than it had before the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The country has lost 78,000 manufacturing jobs this year. Seventy-two percent of Texas manufacturers say the tariffs are hurting their businesses. Only 3.7% think the tariffs are helping them.”
Today’s new jobs report, the first since Trump fired the previous director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after accusing her of rigging the numbers for political reasons, was poor. It showed that the U.S. added just 22,000 jobs in August, far below the expected 75,000, while the jobs numbers for June and July were revised downward by 21,000 jobs. The numbers show that the economy is faltering.”
CONCLUSION:
A) Trump inherited a booming economy from President Joseph R Biden
B) Trump’s dumbass ignorant actions and policies have done nothing but damage our economy
C) Our country is now on the cusp of a Trump-caused “big beautiful recession”
Thank you for your attention to this matter !
Even in 2016 when orange satan was elected for the first time, his followers said, “ The Trump economy is booming. “
Trump economy? Hardly.
POTUS Obama left orange satan with a strong economy. An economy that was wrecked by Bush 2.0 in 2008. In 2009 when POTUS Obama was elected the Dow was 7,949.50. And, that was after the Bush 2.0 crash. When Obama left office the Dow was 19,732. That was more than double of what he started with. When orange satan left office in 2021 the Dow was 30950.32. Do the math. Obama = 11,783 up. Trump = 11,218. Obama was left with a dumpster fire economy. Orange satan was left with a booming economy and yet he still managed to destroy it.
He also, back in the day, ran casinos. Casinos are businesses where people give you their money willingly to lose it. You have to ask yourself how could anyone fail at a business where people are actually giving you their money to lose it. Well……orange satan did just that. He bankrupted his casinos. “ Smart “ businessman? Puh-lease!
Truth stranger than fiction.
If the attack on the "Venezuelan" (since there were no survivors, how can it be certain that it was Venezuelan) boat had been made by a private force, it would have fit the Admiralty Law definition of piracy. In this case, that's a distinction without a difference. The U.S. force might as well been flying a black flag decorated with a skull and cross-bones.
Steve, you are our Tom Paine. Thank you for your courage.
With the exception of some independent media, like Substack, journalism has utterly failed us. Profit and access are their only driving forces.
My wish - We need named journalists to hold a conference and bring all of the current White House press corps together and have a serious discussion on why and how to the ask trump and his administration, questions. We, the People aren't getting answers, just lies!
And how long will they survive without all of us supporting them? They’ll come crawling back when he’s gone. I’m done with them.
The Dept. heads of the various TrumpRepubloFascist agencies are accountable, to the Head Trumpers. And so, going after so-called "illegal immigrants" and attempting to militarily take over US cities that Trump has put on the list, the ground forces doing it are being held accountable. This is just as the head managers of the German national railways were held accountable, in late 1944-45, for making sure that the trains carrying still-living survivors of the Holocaust in the East back to slave labor and concentration (literally) camps in Germany, ran on time, whether so doing interfered with the transport of military supplies to the East or not. Priorities were set and met in Nazi Germany just as they are being met in the TrumpRepubloFascist U.S.
Warm-up for the as-yet murder on Fith Avenue.
The Trump regime has eviscerated the Rule of Law and operates on Might Makes Right. How does one curtail murderous anarchy? By voting?
The Holy Roman Federalist Court has decreed that donvict can do no wrong and that the lower courts are misinformed and arrogant. Should a Democrat find their way to the presidency - unlikely in the age of Schumer and Jeffries - they MUST expand the Court.
I agree, but I hope for another solution. I hope we can regain the Trifecta of government, then start the impeachment process of SCOTUS. Hopefully then, the ones that know they've done wrong by the American people, choose to retire . If they don't, then we kick their sorry asses to the curb and let that be an addendum to their legacy!
I’d like to agree, but given the Court’s disdain for voting and democracy, regaining the Trifecta will be a challenge, and impeachment is slow, difficult and fraught.
That was great, thank you Keith and Steve!
It seems like people want to fight back from being in a full blown dictatorship but don’t know where to begin. I believe we’re going to have to strike first and come up with a as many plans as we can and never stop. Let’s not put all our egg in a one basket. Talking about how stupid trump is all the time isn’t going to wake people up, we tried that before. We can use AI. We need to have more leaders than followers, including myself. I think the fireworks will really begin in 3 two 6 months
This guy is spot on about your writing. There is something about your voice that speaks with a clarity and force that no one else has. This is by far my favorite Substack!!!
It is difficult to hope for a resurgence of democracy. I hope that you are right, but FOX News is still delivering a different message, and the Democratic Party is not going to save us. I know a lot of people who are tuned out because they can’t take the stress, and killings in international waters are just the beginning. Trump is getting ready to imprison Dem leaders and to use the military against US. You imply that both sides are equally armed but his control of the military upsets the balance.
There is no accountability in Trump Land. Period end of sentence.
He's teflon Don, he has weaseled out of every legal challenge his entire life. He's had people lie, cheat and steal for him.
Now, like a parasitic disease his lack of accountability has spread to his"Party" and to the media and to everyone in his orbit. They will take credit if it makes Trump look good, and they will denounce everything if it makes Trump look bad.
I'm sure Captain Bone Spurs was instrumental in getting the Sylvanus Thayer Award to Tom Hanks canelled, because Hanks supported Biden and George Bush, but not Trump.
We live in a world and country where up is down and down is up depending on what side of the bed Trump got out of.
I've said before and I will say again, it will not be over until the entire members of the Cabinet and White House staff have been obliterated. Six feet under is good for me.