I don’t think I am alone when I say that I am sick and tired of reading about the madness of his midnight rants. All I want to hear now is about his removal before we are blown to smithereens. How any adult , especially a parent, can kowtow to his loony tunes is beyond me.
Rachel and David: I am with you. I do not get it. We have a lot of platitudes that are considered reflections of a level of truth. Well, I have lost my faith in a lot of them two of which are the following: "The only way to stop a bully is to stand up to him (or her)," and "There is strength in numbers." The latter, if true and if followed, could have put a stop to, or at least curbed, the actions of the crude, vulgar, fat bully and his sycophant bullies. If a vast majority of Republican congressmen would have stood up to him from the very beginning and NOT have allowed him to usurp their powers, if a majority of Democrats would come out together every day and denounce his lies, if a majority European and Asian leaders would have stood up to him on tariffs and fought back against his insults, if ALL law firms had stood up to him, if ALL universities had refused to sign his agreements....
As it stands now, the first platitude that I lost all belief in is that we are a nation of "law and order with liberty and justice for all. " A nation devoted to law and order would not allow a convicted felon to even be a candidate for president.
We’re living in an age where the brains of Project 2025 are now in charge of the government through their proxy and very entertaining fool, but somehow President of the United States, Donald Trump. The US Supreme Court has given the fool (and, in effect, Project 2025) the full green light. At the moment, both the brains and the fool are reveling in a level of success that they themselves probably never believed was achievable.
Until we figure out how to dismantle this autocratic RICO scheme, we’re fucked.
Very true … and yet here we are. I think MAGA was along for the ride as long as they were entertained. But they were betrayed too. Trump belittles Ukraine, but they stood up … and Trump became Putin starting a war he doesn’t know how to finish.
probably a ban on all 'felons' would be too broad. The precedent for permission was set in the 1920 election, when Eugene Debs ran as the Socialist Party candidate, though he was in jail at the time (for subversion or conviction of some other phony offense). Spoiler: he lost ... but he was allowed to run. His precedent prevents political prisoners (the US has had a few) from being excluded from office by such convictions.
It is of course open to the felon's opponents to persuade voters that the felony itself should dissuade them from voting for him (or her). Didn't work, unfortunately, in 2024.
The remedy for Trump's candidacy should have been (besides impeachment for Jan 6) the 14th amendment, which bars from federal office anyone who has engaged in an insurrection against the US government. Colorado (and Maine?) had the wisdom to bar him from the ballot for this reason, but the Extreme Court held that this could not be done, alas.
Mary, I feel your frustration. I once thought we should be able to have "faith" in our public servants. But painful experience has taught us--like it taught the people who wrote and gave life to the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution--that faith in people who want power is fatal to our own liberty.
James Madison (lauded as the Father of the Constitution and the Father of the Bill of Rights) emphasized that the First Amendment was written and ratified by the People to secure knowledge about, not faith in, our public servants and to secure our power to speak for ourselves about their public service.
"A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
We always were meant to doubt and question our public servants and speak out forcefully when they violate their oaths to support our Constitution. Faith in the mere people in power is the opposite of knowledge and the opposite of our own duty to support our own Constitution.
Some of the most enlightening writing about our First Amendment freedoms was sprinkled throughout a unanimous decision by SCOTUS in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan in 1964 (https://www.oyez.org/cases/1963/39). It emphasized the astonishing truth about what President Lincoln described as "government of the people, by the people, for the people."
SCOTUS emphasized that the First Amendment secures “the privilege for the citizen-critic of government. It is as much his duty to criticize as it is the official’s duty to administer.” The opposite attitude (i.e., of Trump and Carr) merely "reflect[s] the obsolete doctrine" of seditious libel, i.e., "that the governed must not criticize their governors."
Our Constitution established that all public officials are “public servants” and they cannot (logically or lawfully) enjoy “an unjustified preference" (regarding the freedom of expression and communication) "over the public they serve.” SCOTUS quoted James Madison to emphasize that our “Constitution created a [republican] form of government under which ‘The people, not the government, possess the absolute sovereignty.’ [Our Constitution] dispersed power” in many ways precisely because “of the people’s” extreme “distrust of concentrated power, and of power itself at all levels.” Our freedom of thought, expression, communication and assembly truly flow from our sovereignty. So SCOTUS quoted Madison again to emphasize that in our “Republican Government,” the “censorial power is” necessarily generally “in the people over the Government, and not in the Government over the people.”
SCOTUS quoted Madison to also emphasize that our “right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon” is “the only effectual guardian of every” American “right.” If we fail to exercise our right to self-government and fail to act to rein in our purported public servants, then the Bill of Rights really will be (as Madison warned elsewhere) a mere “parchment barrier” against very real power-hungry despots.
Not having faith in people in power is why our original Constitution established that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." It's why the First Amendment prohibited "an establishment of religion" by the national government and confirmed "the freedom of speech" and "the press." The point was to prevent confusion of God with mere men who merely want to usurp more power than our Constitution gives them. That's why the Fourteenth Amendment accomplished the same regarding state governments. Faith in people hungry for power is fatal our liberty and maybe even our lives.
John and Jack: Thanks for your responses. Two things I like the most about Civil Discourse (even when my thoughts toward this "administration" are often not civil!) are (1) knowing I am not alone in my feelings and (2) the insights into our history offered by those who have done the research.
Mary - I could have written the same, almost word for word for the most part. Like you, I am unable to understand how such a vulgar, crude, ignorant, sexual predator, business failure, tax cheat, fraudster, pedophile, pathological liar with virtually no social skills ever ran for office, let alone was elected president of the USA. The first time just felt like a horrid aberration, but when that despicable vile creature was elected again . . . and with a GOP Congress showing about ZERO integrity or honor or adherence to their Oath of Office to protect and defend the Constitution, I couldn't believe it. Where are the Americans who actually believe in the Constitution? How did a man of limited intelligence from an immigrant family that came to America because his grandfather was running from military service in Germany, whose father never served in the military, and who himself got 5 deferments based on alleged bone spurs, ever become President? How is he permitted to constantly and repeatedly violate laws and ignore court orders for weeks and months at a time? How is it acceptable for him to insult and practically threaten the Justices in SCOTUS when they said what everyone knew already - that most of his tariffs were illegal? What has happened to America that my fellow Americans have permitted this disgusting clown show of ignorant, incompetent lying criminals to be in charge of our country?
We have what we voted for Mary. If we are allowed to vote again we can change direction. If we are not allowed to vote again we can remedy that as well. The issues confronting US are not subtle or difficult to comprehend. As we move forward stark choices will have to be made. It is sad that we have come to this place of ignominy but as the man said we're on an excursion.
Al, you are absolutely right about voting which is why I intend to continue to do so, even though the state I live in is making it difficult and even though I am less than enthused to be a Democrat anymore. I early voted in the Texas primary at the supermarket where I always early vote and am usually in and out quickly. Not this time! I actually had to stand in a line outside the store and once inside wait for a voting booth to open. I hope this is a positive sign.
I vote in Washington State. There are no lines, every ballot is cast by mail or placed in a specified drop box. Been that way for 15 years. Works great and you don't even need to find a stamp. Voting is considered a right here.
You are so lucky. In my opinion, the way it is done in your state sounds like the best and most efficient option. I used to receive a ballot for every election automatically as I was able to check a box with that request. I can still vote by mail, but the process seems much more complicated. People who have gone to the website and submit FAQs seem to feel the same way. We used to have secure drop boxes, but I think Texas got rid of those. In short, though I am pushing 80, I am in better shape than I used to be, so I am going to continue with the early vote option. If the lines are too long, I can always come back later!
If the would-be king can't handle truth about damaged tankers how is he going to deal with reports about the U.S. Marines 31st Marine Expeditionary Force moving in to the Strait of while inviting a number of other nations to "show some guts".
****************************
Sunday 3/15 Meet the Press:
"I don't know if he's alive" Kristen Welker quoted trump's saying about Iran's new leader, Mojtaba Khameni. Welker's Summary: President Trump is never going to take options off the table.
Per Axios' Barak Ravid 5 PM Eastern earlier today, the U.S. made "precision" military strikes on IRAN's Kharg Island a short distance off the straight striking some 90 targets like bunkers & other storage facilities but NOT the oil export equipment on Kharg Island. Trump says he may hit Kharg again "just for fun".
If U.S. Maine boots hit Iranian ground, It may be on or near Kharg Island sooner that we anticipate.
I am SO looking forward to No Kings Day on the 28th and a turnout that will be huge. Also worrying a bit because after the last No Kings Rally, two days later he tore down the East Wing of the White House. I imagine he already has some plan on what to do to top THAT!
He seems more knowledgeable and honest than everyone else in this administration, so grading on a curve, he would probably pass, but everyone else gets an F. I agree, he is enabling an unconstitutional war (while following the orders of a psychopathic narcissist).
So why give him a pass? Is he not just another soldier following an unlawful order? You know, the ones Mark Kelly and cohort warned them about. When do we stop giving a pass to these miscreants? General Caine should be up on charges.
I'm not a lawyer, but if I were to recommend charges, I think I would start with Hegseth for ordering the murder of shipwrecked fishermen in the Caribbean and for calling for "no quarter" in Iran. I suspect there are a few lawyers, and JAGs, left in this administration who are justifying the Iran attacks, so I suspect Gen. Caine would say that he thought these orders were lawful.
The week before, Gen. Caine was careful to acknowledge his casualties first thing and later to express respect for his adversary. Friday, he again appropropriately mentioned the KIA but then dithered over the ‘just wounded’. (Aside: one must think of the man wounded at Concord Bridge who observed “An inch to the right and I’m a dead man” to which the woman bandaging him retorted “Yes, and an inch to the left and you’re not hurt at all.”)
On Friday, Caine was much more rah-rah than he had shown before. I will not be surprised if he is dismissed by the end of March, because almost certainly he will be given an order he cannot accept.
Somebody take a look in the wings, see if Michael Flynn is hanging out in the shadows …
In the case of the GOP, I fear that a considerable number of GOP members of Congress agree with the goals of Project 2025, so they accept Trump's attacks on the First amendment.
They are also fearful of Trump endorsing extreme candidates who might challenge them.
In bith cases they are not interested in democracy or thr problems of ordinary Americans.
Yes, the GOP was always a racist group fearing a “mixed” America. But not with such viciousness and violence since the late Fifties and the civil rights movement (they were unsurprisingly agin).
The adults, at least the ones he's surrounded with, are cheering on Project 2025. It supports what they think will be a lavish lifestyle for all if we can just control the media, get rid of health care, alienate the free world, pay more for everything, get rid of immigrants, put women back in the home having babies, have only white men in charge, put DJT's gold trim and face on everything (just like North Korea with its Dear Leader), make sure a small number of friends are richer than rich, protect pedophiles, and the list goes on. I guess then after all of that happens, the world will be a better place. BTW, the History Channel just had an old (1990s) documentary from inside North Korea when an American journalist was taken at the border. Oh my, it's so scary; and DJT wants that so badly!
The adults are running for office. New candidates. All we can do is persevere and work each day to get people to participate in this democracy to elect those to office who will put 'the people' back in the drivers' seat. The majority of the citizens of this nation are ready to put our interests back where they belong, above those of the wealthy class who think it belongs to them. It doesn't.
I've started to read that twice and just have trouble getting through it. It's all too real. I tried to reread 1984 the last time he occupied the oval office and couldn't even finish it, though I had read it many years before. We are not meant to live those books.
So very true. Perhaps that’s what keeps Trump still propped up—the sheer absurdity of this ignorant man playing godlet—it’s simply unbelievable … yet here we are.
I had recently read that book and also recently read "And the Last Trump Shall Sound", the alternate history by Harry Turtledove (and others) imagining a President Pence presidency post-Trump. Note: it was written before "The Insurrection" and the falling out between him and Pence, as a result. But that sounded all too real on Trumpism and what's happening in the media (as in the consolidation of all broadcast networks into Fox state media) and the Western Coast states breaking away from the US and making their own nation. A few years ago, I read "President Joe Steele" by Harry Turtledove which was about Stalin becoming President of the USA instead of Roosevelt. In that novel, Stalin's family had emigrated from Russia before he was born. The bottom line is the US became a dictatorship and freedome of the press was no more. In that history, WW II lasted even longer and included the time frame of the Korean War.
Imagine if the regime actually held press conferences with actual journalists, not right-wing propagandists, and provided accurate and honest information, instead of the #^&%#@! from Leavitt, Trump, Hegseth, and the entire criminal treasonous mob running the US.
That's not going to happen w/ these scumbags, so don't hold your breath. Instead, plan to be at a NO KINGS protest on March 28. Find one near you at www.nokings.org.
It's time we all stand up and speak out because there are more of us than them. Trump and his gang are frightened by all of us uniting together to make the largest peaceful protest in US history and to vote them and their spineless, anti-democracy candidates out in November. Yes we can!
Our bodies on the line is all we really have. There are more of us than them and they are scared. There is no letting up. See you all out there on the 28th.
That's a powerful thought to hold dear, "there are more of us than them". Hold that thought on 3/28 and beyond, it will power us through this shit. You can feel and see it in the election cycle right now.
The more he gets backed into a corner, the more dangerous he becomes. We know this. Thank you Joyce for your continuing excellent education on these matters. I live for the day he is long gone. See y'all in the Streets on the 28th!!
Very interesting they never mention Fox when they talk about inaccurate reporting. They are the network that admitted in a lawsuit to airing content they knew was false. Also recently caught "mistakenly" posting old video of Trump at the dignified transfer ceremony. And it is so true....if you don't want negative coverage....don't do something despicable every singe day
As it happens, trump is using an accurate depiction of himself wearing the white baseball cap at the Dignified Transfer Ceremony … wait for it … in a *fund-raising solicitation*!!
“The Show” has gone from “owning the libs” to one man’s deterioration before our very eyes. Apparently the news must be happy, and deferential, and pleasing to one singular man. Otherwise, it must be banned.
See if you can find a recent documentary on the History Channel about inside North Korea. It's old but not that old (1990s), and DJT and its leader have a love affair!
TRUMP VERSUS THE MEDIA ON IRAN: WHO IS MORE ACCURATE?
Déjà vu? I remember when Attorney General John Mitchell threatened to put Washington Post Company CEO Katherine Graham’s ‘tits in a ringer,’ if the Post didn’t back off on Watergate. Mitchell ended up in the slammer, while Graham was triumphant.
The FCC chairman threatening the media—including possible loss of license- for its reporting on the Iranian ‘exclusion’ (aka war?) is both laughable and frightening. The basis for criticizing the Iranian military coverage is quick sand.
The media can not rely on what Trump whimsically announces on a daily basis. Would it be ‘criminal’ to critique Trump for saying today that he might bomb Kharg Island again ‘just for fun?’
A serious FCC chairman might focus on White House false statements, Fox News, and some other fonts of misinformation, BUT not the general media (including the Wall Street Journal.)
That Trump decided to blitzkrieg Iran, despite strong Joint Chiefs’ caution about the Strait of Hormuz, is factually accurate. Trump responded that the bombing would be over in two days, and then the issue could be settled.
Ah yes, only positive coverage of the "excursion" that has only killed 13 of ours, some 1,300 Iranians, including more than 170 school kids, tanked the global economy and destabilized an entire region with almost daily shifting objectives and no clear end state. Move along, nothing to see here.
That is, unfortunately, so accurate. The shifting objectives... I truthfully think that Lindsey Graham and Netanyahu are more responsible for the war than Trump. Graham seems absolutely gleeful when talking about it. It's sick. And as to excursions? I've been on dozens of excursions, at ports of call on many cruises. None were remotely like Trump's 'excursions' with regard to Iran. OMG!
Thanks, Joyce. You're one of the people keeping me sane these days.
So far, 2026 has topped only 2025 in "longest year of my life." And I'm a certified older person -- remember Vietnam on the nightly news; Kent State, and Watergate. Etc.
Please give your household menagerie their skritches of choice, from a distant admirer.
He is simply insane, out of control without boundaries, without anyone who will or can tell him "no". He had that the first term. Now, none will stand up to him, although many in his camp think he's nuts. Russia has him in their pockets. That's what Iran is all about, make no mistake. Cannot wait for the midterms to vote the assholes out of Congress, and fight him until he drops. He, his slutty wife, con artists family, and inept, illegal cabinet cannot leave Washington fast enough. Hopefully, the Epstein debacle will dog him until he takes his last breath.
Thanks Joyce for another one of your excellent masterpieces on Trump and his attack dog Brendan Carr’s ongoing attacks on the First Amendment. Trump rants and calls them fake news while Carr threatens to pull their broadcast licenses only because they speak truth to power without fear or favor and thin skinned Trump and Hegseth “Can’t handle the truth”
Yes. Time for a change, indeed. No truer words. Time for taking these tiny, tiny, tiny, pissy, wretched wormtongues and the tiny, pissy little man they work for to the woodshed and throwing out every single Republican sycophant, toad and lickspittle who do nothing but purr to Trump's every last idiotic attempt to turn America into a North Korean Communist Party Congress.
Although the Communications Act says that the FCC shall issue licenses based on the “public interest,” the Act has never been read to allow the government to define the public interest as anything the government says it is. What used to be the Supreme Court in more than name has confirmed that the Communications Act does not grant the FCC the power to ban controversial speech. Moreover, the Act’s broad considerations in granting licenses are more restricted when it comes to license cancellations. And Congress specifically amended the Communications Act in 1996 to limit the government’s power to deny license renewals. Even if the Communications Act could be read to give the FCC power to punish broadcasters for speech it does not like, the First Amendment forbids it. Although the former Supreme Court has approved some greater regulation of broadcast than is permitted of books, newspapers, and the internet, those decisions do not sanction canceling licenses for the viewpoints expressed.
If you haven't already done so, watch the PBS documentary, "Becoming Katherine Graham," about the courageous former publisher of the (former) The Washington Post. Her fight for press freedom against the machinations of the Dark Side (aka the Nixon administration) has an all too familiar and sinister ring to it. Against the advice in so many words, she did "worry her pretty little head about it" and in so doing brought down a corrupt administration and almost certainly saved the country from further trauma.
Exercise your freedom of speech on March 28th participating in No Kings. www.nokings.org.
In Hannah Arendt’s full quote she stated: "The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie—a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days—but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please."
Lies have been the tools of this Tangerine creature his entire life. He’s incapable of any truths, he’s unable to distinguish what is truth.
If the press is not free; if speech is not independent and untrammeled... you are a subject and not a citizen…
I don’t think I am alone when I say that I am sick and tired of reading about the madness of his midnight rants. All I want to hear now is about his removal before we are blown to smithereens. How any adult , especially a parent, can kowtow to his loony tunes is beyond me.
Agreed! Just where are the adults?
Rachel and David: I am with you. I do not get it. We have a lot of platitudes that are considered reflections of a level of truth. Well, I have lost my faith in a lot of them two of which are the following: "The only way to stop a bully is to stand up to him (or her)," and "There is strength in numbers." The latter, if true and if followed, could have put a stop to, or at least curbed, the actions of the crude, vulgar, fat bully and his sycophant bullies. If a vast majority of Republican congressmen would have stood up to him from the very beginning and NOT have allowed him to usurp their powers, if a majority of Democrats would come out together every day and denounce his lies, if a majority European and Asian leaders would have stood up to him on tariffs and fought back against his insults, if ALL law firms had stood up to him, if ALL universities had refused to sign his agreements....
As it stands now, the first platitude that I lost all belief in is that we are a nation of "law and order with liberty and justice for all. " A nation devoted to law and order would not allow a convicted felon to even be a candidate for president.
We’re living in an age where the brains of Project 2025 are now in charge of the government through their proxy and very entertaining fool, but somehow President of the United States, Donald Trump. The US Supreme Court has given the fool (and, in effect, Project 2025) the full green light. At the moment, both the brains and the fool are reveling in a level of success that they themselves probably never believed was achievable.
Until we figure out how to dismantle this autocratic RICO scheme, we’re fucked.
Very true … and yet here we are. I think MAGA was along for the ride as long as they were entertained. But they were betrayed too. Trump belittles Ukraine, but they stood up … and Trump became Putin starting a war he doesn’t know how to finish.
probably a ban on all 'felons' would be too broad. The precedent for permission was set in the 1920 election, when Eugene Debs ran as the Socialist Party candidate, though he was in jail at the time (for subversion or conviction of some other phony offense). Spoiler: he lost ... but he was allowed to run. His precedent prevents political prisoners (the US has had a few) from being excluded from office by such convictions.
It is of course open to the felon's opponents to persuade voters that the felony itself should dissuade them from voting for him (or her). Didn't work, unfortunately, in 2024.
The remedy for Trump's candidacy should have been (besides impeachment for Jan 6) the 14th amendment, which bars from federal office anyone who has engaged in an insurrection against the US government. Colorado (and Maine?) had the wisdom to bar him from the ballot for this reason, but the Extreme Court held that this could not be done, alas.
Mary, I feel your frustration. I once thought we should be able to have "faith" in our public servants. But painful experience has taught us--like it taught the people who wrote and gave life to the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution--that faith in people who want power is fatal to our own liberty.
James Madison (lauded as the Father of the Constitution and the Father of the Bill of Rights) emphasized that the First Amendment was written and ratified by the People to secure knowledge about, not faith in, our public servants and to secure our power to speak for ourselves about their public service.
"A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
We always were meant to doubt and question our public servants and speak out forcefully when they violate their oaths to support our Constitution. Faith in the mere people in power is the opposite of knowledge and the opposite of our own duty to support our own Constitution.
Some of the most enlightening writing about our First Amendment freedoms was sprinkled throughout a unanimous decision by SCOTUS in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan in 1964 (https://www.oyez.org/cases/1963/39). It emphasized the astonishing truth about what President Lincoln described as "government of the people, by the people, for the people."
SCOTUS emphasized that the First Amendment secures “the privilege for the citizen-critic of government. It is as much his duty to criticize as it is the official’s duty to administer.” The opposite attitude (i.e., of Trump and Carr) merely "reflect[s] the obsolete doctrine" of seditious libel, i.e., "that the governed must not criticize their governors."
Our Constitution established that all public officials are “public servants” and they cannot (logically or lawfully) enjoy “an unjustified preference" (regarding the freedom of expression and communication) "over the public they serve.” SCOTUS quoted James Madison to emphasize that our “Constitution created a [republican] form of government under which ‘The people, not the government, possess the absolute sovereignty.’ [Our Constitution] dispersed power” in many ways precisely because “of the people’s” extreme “distrust of concentrated power, and of power itself at all levels.” Our freedom of thought, expression, communication and assembly truly flow from our sovereignty. So SCOTUS quoted Madison again to emphasize that in our “Republican Government,” the “censorial power is” necessarily generally “in the people over the Government, and not in the Government over the people.”
SCOTUS quoted Madison to also emphasize that our “right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon” is “the only effectual guardian of every” American “right.” If we fail to exercise our right to self-government and fail to act to rein in our purported public servants, then the Bill of Rights really will be (as Madison warned elsewhere) a mere “parchment barrier” against very real power-hungry despots.
Not having faith in people in power is why our original Constitution established that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." It's why the First Amendment prohibited "an establishment of religion" by the national government and confirmed "the freedom of speech" and "the press." The point was to prevent confusion of God with mere men who merely want to usurp more power than our Constitution gives them. That's why the Fourteenth Amendment accomplished the same regarding state governments. Faith in people hungry for power is fatal our liberty and maybe even our lives.
John and Jack: Thanks for your responses. Two things I like the most about Civil Discourse (even when my thoughts toward this "administration" are often not civil!) are (1) knowing I am not alone in my feelings and (2) the insights into our history offered by those who have done the research.
The first order of business is to remove the tyrant and the most feasible is to repeat and rerinse the magic word: Epstein.
CRIMINAL discourse.
Mary - I could have written the same, almost word for word for the most part. Like you, I am unable to understand how such a vulgar, crude, ignorant, sexual predator, business failure, tax cheat, fraudster, pedophile, pathological liar with virtually no social skills ever ran for office, let alone was elected president of the USA. The first time just felt like a horrid aberration, but when that despicable vile creature was elected again . . . and with a GOP Congress showing about ZERO integrity or honor or adherence to their Oath of Office to protect and defend the Constitution, I couldn't believe it. Where are the Americans who actually believe in the Constitution? How did a man of limited intelligence from an immigrant family that came to America because his grandfather was running from military service in Germany, whose father never served in the military, and who himself got 5 deferments based on alleged bone spurs, ever become President? How is he permitted to constantly and repeatedly violate laws and ignore court orders for weeks and months at a time? How is it acceptable for him to insult and practically threaten the Justices in SCOTUS when they said what everyone knew already - that most of his tariffs were illegal? What has happened to America that my fellow Americans have permitted this disgusting clown show of ignorant, incompetent lying criminals to be in charge of our country?
We have what we voted for Mary. If we are allowed to vote again we can change direction. If we are not allowed to vote again we can remedy that as well. The issues confronting US are not subtle or difficult to comprehend. As we move forward stark choices will have to be made. It is sad that we have come to this place of ignominy but as the man said we're on an excursion.
Al, you are absolutely right about voting which is why I intend to continue to do so, even though the state I live in is making it difficult and even though I am less than enthused to be a Democrat anymore. I early voted in the Texas primary at the supermarket where I always early vote and am usually in and out quickly. Not this time! I actually had to stand in a line outside the store and once inside wait for a voting booth to open. I hope this is a positive sign.
I vote in Washington State. There are no lines, every ballot is cast by mail or placed in a specified drop box. Been that way for 15 years. Works great and you don't even need to find a stamp. Voting is considered a right here.
You are so lucky. In my opinion, the way it is done in your state sounds like the best and most efficient option. I used to receive a ballot for every election automatically as I was able to check a box with that request. I can still vote by mail, but the process seems much more complicated. People who have gone to the website and submit FAQs seem to feel the same way. We used to have secure drop boxes, but I think Texas got rid of those. In short, though I am pushing 80, I am in better shape than I used to be, so I am going to continue with the early vote option. If the lines are too long, I can always come back later!
https://substack.com/@billbender/note/c-227925254?r=4avc99&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
I hope a lot of them will be at a NO KINGS protest on March 28. www.nokings.org.
If the would-be king can't handle truth about damaged tankers how is he going to deal with reports about the U.S. Marines 31st Marine Expeditionary Force moving in to the Strait of while inviting a number of other nations to "show some guts".
****************************
Sunday 3/15 Meet the Press:
"I don't know if he's alive" Kristen Welker quoted trump's saying about Iran's new leader, Mojtaba Khameni. Welker's Summary: President Trump is never going to take options off the table.
Per Axios' Barak Ravid 5 PM Eastern earlier today, the U.S. made "precision" military strikes on IRAN's Kharg Island a short distance off the straight striking some 90 targets like bunkers & other storage facilities but NOT the oil export equipment on Kharg Island. Trump says he may hit Kharg again "just for fun".
If U.S. Maine boots hit Iranian ground, It may be on or near Kharg Island sooner that we anticipate.
No Kings March 28!
I am SO looking forward to No Kings Day on the 28th and a turnout that will be huge. Also worrying a bit because after the last No Kings Rally, two days later he tore down the East Wing of the White House. I imagine he already has some plan on what to do to top THAT!
He will probably tear down the WH.
He wouldn't dare.
He or his minions fired them.
An unsupervised playground: The bully and those willing to be bullied … and everybody else, who have to endure.
Apparently not in his administration, except possibly for General Caine. All the rest are toadies and/or sociopaths.
You mean the General Caine who is conducting the felon-rapist's illegal war?
He seems more knowledgeable and honest than everyone else in this administration, so grading on a curve, he would probably pass, but everyone else gets an F. I agree, he is enabling an unconstitutional war (while following the orders of a psychopathic narcissist).
So why give him a pass? Is he not just another soldier following an unlawful order? You know, the ones Mark Kelly and cohort warned them about. When do we stop giving a pass to these miscreants? General Caine should be up on charges.
I'm not a lawyer, but if I were to recommend charges, I think I would start with Hegseth for ordering the murder of shipwrecked fishermen in the Caribbean and for calling for "no quarter" in Iran. I suspect there are a few lawyers, and JAGs, left in this administration who are justifying the Iran attacks, so I suspect Gen. Caine would say that he thought these orders were lawful.
Agree, John, up to two days ago.
The week before, Gen. Caine was careful to acknowledge his casualties first thing and later to express respect for his adversary. Friday, he again appropropriately mentioned the KIA but then dithered over the ‘just wounded’. (Aside: one must think of the man wounded at Concord Bridge who observed “An inch to the right and I’m a dead man” to which the woman bandaging him retorted “Yes, and an inch to the left and you’re not hurt at all.”)
On Friday, Caine was much more rah-rah than he had shown before. I will not be surprised if he is dismissed by the end of March, because almost certainly he will be given an order he cannot accept.
Somebody take a look in the wings, see if Michael Flynn is hanging out in the shadows …
In the case of the GOP, I fear that a considerable number of GOP members of Congress agree with the goals of Project 2025, so they accept Trump's attacks on the First amendment.
They are also fearful of Trump endorsing extreme candidates who might challenge them.
In bith cases they are not interested in democracy or thr problems of ordinary Americans.
Yes, the GOP was always a racist group fearing a “mixed” America. But not with such viciousness and violence since the late Fifties and the civil rights movement (they were unsurprisingly agin).
David, The adults are lost in income inequality.......trump better beware, there is power in nothing left to lose.
trump gave MAGAS hope...and then he took it away, he dashed their hopes of a better future...let's hope they noticed.
The adults, at least the ones he's surrounded with, are cheering on Project 2025. It supports what they think will be a lavish lifestyle for all if we can just control the media, get rid of health care, alienate the free world, pay more for everything, get rid of immigrants, put women back in the home having babies, have only white men in charge, put DJT's gold trim and face on everything (just like North Korea with its Dear Leader), make sure a small number of friends are richer than rich, protect pedophiles, and the list goes on. I guess then after all of that happens, the world will be a better place. BTW, the History Channel just had an old (1990s) documentary from inside North Korea when an American journalist was taken at the border. Oh my, it's so scary; and DJT wants that so badly!
Ah, those P2025 Boyz! A grand world to be had … not unlike a plantation circa 1860.
The adults are running for office. New candidates. All we can do is persevere and work each day to get people to participate in this democracy to elect those to office who will put 'the people' back in the drivers' seat. The majority of the citizens of this nation are ready to put our interests back where they belong, above those of the wealthy class who think it belongs to them. It doesn't.
I recently read that everything from Trump is ignorance, malevolence and lies. To which I would add unquenchable greed.
Beyond me too - how do they go home and look their children in the eyes?
Thank you. And their grandchildren-
South Pacific 1949 lyrics
'You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made
And people whose skin is a different shade
You've got to be carefully taught
You've got to be taught before it's too late
Before you are six or seven or eight
To hate all the people your relatives hate'
They look right at them and think how wonderful a white dominated, women-submissive world will be, especially for those grifting off the US and us.
Am reading Sinclair Lewis’s “It Can’t Happen Here” … but it already is.
I've started to read that twice and just have trouble getting through it. It's all too real. I tried to reread 1984 the last time he occupied the oval office and couldn't even finish it, though I had read it many years before. We are not meant to live those books.
So very true. Perhaps that’s what keeps Trump still propped up—the sheer absurdity of this ignorant man playing godlet—it’s simply unbelievable … yet here we are.
Patricia I tried to re-read 1984 also and it felt too much like non-fiction - I couldn't do it.
YES - For those who genuinely care for DEMOCRACY - Read It & Weep!!!
I had recently read that book and also recently read "And the Last Trump Shall Sound", the alternate history by Harry Turtledove (and others) imagining a President Pence presidency post-Trump. Note: it was written before "The Insurrection" and the falling out between him and Pence, as a result. But that sounded all too real on Trumpism and what's happening in the media (as in the consolidation of all broadcast networks into Fox state media) and the Western Coast states breaking away from the US and making their own nation. A few years ago, I read "President Joe Steele" by Harry Turtledove which was about Stalin becoming President of the USA instead of Roosevelt. In that novel, Stalin's family had emigrated from Russia before he was born. The bottom line is the US became a dictatorship and freedome of the press was no more. In that history, WW II lasted even longer and included the time frame of the Korean War.
Turtledove is good. As was Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America”.
Imagine if the regime actually held press conferences with actual journalists, not right-wing propagandists, and provided accurate and honest information, instead of the #^&%#@! from Leavitt, Trump, Hegseth, and the entire criminal treasonous mob running the US.
That's not going to happen w/ these scumbags, so don't hold your breath. Instead, plan to be at a NO KINGS protest on March 28. Find one near you at www.nokings.org.
It's time we all stand up and speak out because there are more of us than them. Trump and his gang are frightened by all of us uniting together to make the largest peaceful protest in US history and to vote them and their spineless, anti-democracy candidates out in November. Yes we can!
Our bodies on the line is all we really have. There are more of us than them and they are scared. There is no letting up. See you all out there on the 28th.
That's a powerful thought to hold dear, "there are more of us than them". Hold that thought on 3/28 and beyond, it will power us through this shit. You can feel and see it in the election cycle right now.
The more he gets backed into a corner, the more dangerous he becomes. We know this. Thank you Joyce for your continuing excellent education on these matters. I live for the day he is long gone. See y'all in the Streets on the 28th!!
Very interesting they never mention Fox when they talk about inaccurate reporting. They are the network that admitted in a lawsuit to airing content they knew was false. Also recently caught "mistakenly" posting old video of Trump at the dignified transfer ceremony. And it is so true....if you don't want negative coverage....don't do something despicable every singe day
As it happens, trump is using an accurate depiction of himself wearing the white baseball cap at the Dignified Transfer Ceremony … wait for it … in a *fund-raising solicitation*!!
Fundraising off of dead service men and women is so beyond the pale. It's revolting and insulting to all who serve.
Or served!
“The Show” has gone from “owning the libs” to one man’s deterioration before our very eyes. Apparently the news must be happy, and deferential, and pleasing to one singular man. Otherwise, it must be banned.
See if you can find a recent documentary on the History Channel about inside North Korea. It's old but not that old (1990s), and DJT and its leader have a love affair!
Daddy, I wanna Hermit Kingdom of my own!
TRUMP VERSUS THE MEDIA ON IRAN: WHO IS MORE ACCURATE?
Déjà vu? I remember when Attorney General John Mitchell threatened to put Washington Post Company CEO Katherine Graham’s ‘tits in a ringer,’ if the Post didn’t back off on Watergate. Mitchell ended up in the slammer, while Graham was triumphant.
The FCC chairman threatening the media—including possible loss of license- for its reporting on the Iranian ‘exclusion’ (aka war?) is both laughable and frightening. The basis for criticizing the Iranian military coverage is quick sand.
The media can not rely on what Trump whimsically announces on a daily basis. Would it be ‘criminal’ to critique Trump for saying today that he might bomb Kharg Island again ‘just for fun?’
A serious FCC chairman might focus on White House false statements, Fox News, and some other fonts of misinformation, BUT not the general media (including the Wall Street Journal.)
That Trump decided to blitzkrieg Iran, despite strong Joint Chiefs’ caution about the Strait of Hormuz, is factually accurate. Trump responded that the bombing would be over in two days, and then the issue could be settled.
Time to put Trump's balls in a ringer . . . Oh, that's right he doesn't have any.
JK What a eunuch thought! Big piper has no pecker.
Trump thinks in slogans -- the same way he talks. And no one "confuses" him with the facts.
Ah yes, only positive coverage of the "excursion" that has only killed 13 of ours, some 1,300 Iranians, including more than 170 school kids, tanked the global economy and destabilized an entire region with almost daily shifting objectives and no clear end state. Move along, nothing to see here.
That is, unfortunately, so accurate. The shifting objectives... I truthfully think that Lindsey Graham and Netanyahu are more responsible for the war than Trump. Graham seems absolutely gleeful when talking about it. It's sick. And as to excursions? I've been on dozens of excursions, at ports of call on many cruises. None were remotely like Trump's 'excursions' with regard to Iran. OMG!
Thanks, Joyce. You're one of the people keeping me sane these days.
So far, 2026 has topped only 2025 in "longest year of my life." And I'm a certified older person -- remember Vietnam on the nightly news; Kent State, and Watergate. Etc.
Please give your household menagerie their skritches of choice, from a distant admirer.
"Our continued exercise of our rights under the First Amendment is essential to its survival."
Which is essential for our survival as a free people.
He is simply insane, out of control without boundaries, without anyone who will or can tell him "no". He had that the first term. Now, none will stand up to him, although many in his camp think he's nuts. Russia has him in their pockets. That's what Iran is all about, make no mistake. Cannot wait for the midterms to vote the assholes out of Congress, and fight him until he drops. He, his slutty wife, con artists family, and inept, illegal cabinet cannot leave Washington fast enough. Hopefully, the Epstein debacle will dog him until he takes his last breath.
Thanks Joyce for another one of your excellent masterpieces on Trump and his attack dog Brendan Carr’s ongoing attacks on the First Amendment. Trump rants and calls them fake news while Carr threatens to pull their broadcast licenses only because they speak truth to power without fear or favor and thin skinned Trump and Hegseth “Can’t handle the truth”
Yes. Time for a change, indeed. No truer words. Time for taking these tiny, tiny, tiny, pissy, wretched wormtongues and the tiny, pissy little man they work for to the woodshed and throwing out every single Republican sycophant, toad and lickspittle who do nothing but purr to Trump's every last idiotic attempt to turn America into a North Korean Communist Party Congress.
Not on my goddamn watch.
Although the Communications Act says that the FCC shall issue licenses based on the “public interest,” the Act has never been read to allow the government to define the public interest as anything the government says it is. What used to be the Supreme Court in more than name has confirmed that the Communications Act does not grant the FCC the power to ban controversial speech. Moreover, the Act’s broad considerations in granting licenses are more restricted when it comes to license cancellations. And Congress specifically amended the Communications Act in 1996 to limit the government’s power to deny license renewals. Even if the Communications Act could be read to give the FCC power to punish broadcasters for speech it does not like, the First Amendment forbids it. Although the former Supreme Court has approved some greater regulation of broadcast than is permitted of books, newspapers, and the internet, those decisions do not sanction canceling licenses for the viewpoints expressed.
If you haven't already done so, watch the PBS documentary, "Becoming Katherine Graham," about the courageous former publisher of the (former) The Washington Post. Her fight for press freedom against the machinations of the Dark Side (aka the Nixon administration) has an all too familiar and sinister ring to it. Against the advice in so many words, she did "worry her pretty little head about it" and in so doing brought down a corrupt administration and almost certainly saved the country from further trauma.
Thank you Professor Vance.
Exercise your freedom of speech on March 28th participating in No Kings. www.nokings.org.
In Hannah Arendt’s full quote she stated: "The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie—a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days—but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please."
Lies have been the tools of this Tangerine creature his entire life. He’s incapable of any truths, he’s unable to distinguish what is truth.
If the press is not free; if speech is not independent and untrammeled... you are a subject and not a citizen…