I sat down tonight to write a column that I was going to call something like, “Trump’s bad faith pardons.” The New York Times reported today that Trump just pardoned a woman, Adriana Camberos, whom he had pardoned before, in 2021.
My heart is with you. It keeps sinking everyday. Yet I know that if we don't stay in the fight, we have no chance of ever turning the tide. All sane individuals want to Make America America Again. No matter how you define America, it isn't what we have now.
I think we all feel the same way, and yet we can't stop standing up against what's happening. Things are so discouraging right now, and they are just piling on, in hopes that we will be overwhelmed and give up. We won't.
But what does "Make America America Again" even mean? Trump II was born and bred in America. Would it have happened without the racism, misogyny, and ignorance of the U.S. electorate, compounded by the wealth disparities promoted by Reaganomics and of course the Citizens United decision of 2010? An old saw has it that "denial is not just a river in Egypt." It's also all too common in the US of A.
And while he keeps claiming to have stopped so many wars, he is waging war against American citizens and anyone who exercises their right to freedom of speech. He has made us the laughingstock of the world and now the aggressor in placing claim on territories that are not ours and should never be ours. He is lining his pockets and those of others, pardoning egregious criminals at a price, and at the same time wasting taxpayer dollars while our people lack for health care and food at a reasonable price. The hypocrisy of it all is mind blowing. It feels like the devil himself has taken over the White House and is painting it blacker and bleaker every day.
It is overwhelming. My husband went to medical school at the university founded by your ancestor, M. Truscott, and he is ready to pop an artery over RFK Jr.'s antics. All the other stuff DT does is pay to play, and who is really surprised--but RFK is going to kill people.
And I wasn't even aware of RFK Jr.'s latest outrage until I read it here. That's what overwhelm does. Lucian is 100% right about that: it's overwhelming.
Keep the faith. Remember Martin Luther King and his faith as he struggled for justice He never gave up. Let’s all reflect about his example and live true to his legacy. Tyrants and their followers continue to appear in human history and it’s incumbent on all of us to resist
Is it possible that Kennedy can be tried by some international court for reckless endangerment by his lack of endorsement/use of vaccines? I remember reading in the Sixties that Kansas had had a terrible epidemic of polio in the Fifties. Born in 1950, I remember how big that first vaccine was, and how everyone lined up for the new one in 1962 (?) at my school. When something is a living, common disease, people are so grateful to have a way to fight it.
Your first point is so excellent… I don’t see how this destruction of scientifically based practices can just be like burning the place down, like DOGE did with USAID and so much more… And if the study will be done in Africa, but he’s funding it, that makes it an international arena…Impeachment and removal would be great news for us all. I mean… You are right. He’s killing people. We must explore options. Can the guy.
I remember it also, Ellen. My dad rushed my sister and I to the junior high school where the county health nurses were giving the vaccine on a sugar cube. A miraculous way to save lives!
Me too, we lined up around the perimeter of the gym and got the sugar cube. Seemed to take hours. Gym was in the basement, where all the black and yellow “civil defense” signs were located. I guess you were supposed to go to the basement in case of nuclear attack
Remember this like yesterday…I was about 7. My South Jersey Catholic grammar school loaded us onto school buses. The public school kids arrived the same way and we all lined up at the local ice skating rink/event stadium to get our polio shot. It had been a scary summer— all of us were afraid of polio—and were so happy and relieved. Looking back, it was a smart coordinated effort using all the schools to get us those shots…with rotary phones , newspapers and mimeograph notes. That needle was BIG.
Born in ‘45. At age 8, I received the Salk vaccine which was being tested in my grammar school. It is inconceivable to me the children might be denied any vaccine. Only a lunatic would fail to have a child vaccinated against every possible disease that could be prevented. I worry that heard immunity will disappear; that rampant disease will follow and; that billions will die as a direct result.
Our entire nation is going thru it with you Lucian…I take in a deep breath and reflect on the first line of the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling…”If you can keep your head while all about are losing theirs and blaming it on you”
Lucian, it’s time to gird your loins and get back to positive thinking. Give Tracy and Ruby a good hug and carry on, my friend. We’re all in this together and on this difficult day, we’ve got your back.
Minneapolis and other suburbs of Saint Paul are being targeted by a cartel of billionaires who’ve found Trump to be the most willing and ignorant wastrel to manipulate, just as Putin, and Russia did! It’s getting uglier fast, get some rest Lucian, you’re needed.
I’m sorry you are feeling overwhelmed, Lucian. And the saddest thing to me is that I am afraid I am more sorry for myself than I am for you. I have the very highest respect for you. You seem to be a very, very decent and dedicated person, intent on bringing some of that decency to our world. I take heart when YOU take heart. It makes me glad that there are people like you in the world. It gives me hope.
That’s not fair, though, is it. For me to put it on you that my ability to get through this hard time gains sustenance from YOU being able to hold on. You need a chance to be vulnerable sometimes, too. And get support from us.
Well, please believe, I’m so sorry you are feeling overwhelmed. You deserve to feel better about our world {I think we all deserve it … or most of us, anyway}. I hope ALL of us who care and are trying to find ways to hold back the darkness can take heart from each other.
I try to send good energies to you. Thank you for being Lucian Truscott IV, the man we all respect so much. We send you good energies, too.
These days, our struggle is to maintain sanity, continue with our day-to-day, and try to remain informed … the Chaos Agent in charge is well aware of how all this drags us down, and that is part of the ‘flood the zone’ strategy.
One aspect of all this is, the Left spent literally decades NOT trying to stem the gathering of power levers on the right. Now, we have to find what still remains to us, in the face of a juggernaut from the Right. I do believe we have the majority of Americans at least more sympathetic to a Roosevelt-ian New Deal than to a return to McKinley era Gilded Age, but a minority-elected president sits in our Oval Office, so having more of us has not guaranteed our ability to prevail. And STILL, I think we can win the coming elections — the little ones going on in various states as positions become open for one reason or another, AND the big one coming up in ten months. Turnout is key. Fair counting is key. They know that. The election is one area where we have to maintain EXTREME vigilance.
I do take heart from having forums like this, with thoughtful and caring people to talk to. I do not respond to calls for violence {completely self-defeating and playing into the hands of the Boogaloo boys}, or to anger devoid of rational problem solving. These forums are so important to demonstrate our very existence, our solidarity, and our hope.
My father, always the optimist, used to tell me that “it’s darkest just before it’s completely black”. I always hoped that he meant also to say something about how that’s no excuse for putting up with it but he left that unsaid.
What RFK Jr. is doing in Guinea-Bissau is nothing less than a repeat of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. Rather than African-American men descended from enslaved people in the Jim Crow-era Deep South being denied life-saving penicillin, RFK Jr. and his Danish pseudoscientist collaborators are denying life-saving vaccines from African babies. RFK Jr. is a contemporary "minister of death" not unlike a late-19th-century/early-20th-century armaments "merchant of death."
MAGA & MAHA are proving what I have long said: cults of personality inexorably and inevitably become cults of death (and murder). EVERY Republican senator who voted to confirm this ghoul as SecHHS — first & foremost "Dr." Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who could have quashed the nomination in _two_ committees-of-jurisdiction on which he serves — has blood on their hands.
Remember the Epstein Files. They need to be released in their entirety. No. More. Dribs. And. Drabs.
I think vile 47 is completely terrified of what they have to reveal about his sorry ass. He is desperate to draw attention away from them, hence - ICE raids, murder by ICE agents, Greenland, kidnapping Maduro, Iran, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
I think Dumbass would be doing all this crazy shit (ICE raids, trying to take over Greenland, Maduro kidnapping, whatever he’s planning to do in Iran, investigating the mayor and governor in Minneapolis and Minnesota, not extending the ACA, etc, etc, etc) even if there were no Epstein files because he wants to be a dictator, not the President.
I would rather see it as his Waterloo. That’s where Napoleon suffered his Lis franc fracture as he was getting off of his horse. Life was downhill for him every day after that.
One can only hope. But Stalingrad's population came close to starving to death, I only pray that our version isn't 9 months of maimed people and being torn between physically fighting back, knowing full well that the Fascists, aka MAGA, want them. To do or standing their ground peacefully knowing they are the vanguard of the fight for democracy. I hope, I pray they choose to be the vanguard for democracy.
I've said since the Regan years people will only wake up when they're standing in the bread line. According to Paul Krugman history shows tyrants tend to be aided by coming in during tough times and things have no way to go but up. Nothing goes up under this one. It will and has been a terrible price to pay, especially for the disadvantaged.
This is true. But this is man is creating the "tough times." Also, his agenda is revenge, almost more than lasting power; and money. The tyrants in the past have also not dealt with the likes of the Epstein files. He is sacrificing this country to save his nonexistent soul. He will do anything to keep us from knowing, without a doubt, that he is the despicable, revolting excuse for a human being we all expected he was.
My heart is with you. It keeps sinking everyday. Yet I know that if we don't stay in the fight, we have no chance of ever turning the tide. All sane individuals want to Make America America Again. No matter how you define America, it isn't what we have now.
Thank you for this comment. Resonates. Speaks volumes.
I think we all feel the same way, and yet we can't stop standing up against what's happening. Things are so discouraging right now, and they are just piling on, in hopes that we will be overwhelmed and give up. We won't.
But what does "Make America America Again" even mean? Trump II was born and bred in America. Would it have happened without the racism, misogyny, and ignorance of the U.S. electorate, compounded by the wealth disparities promoted by Reaganomics and of course the Citizens United decision of 2010? An old saw has it that "denial is not just a river in Egypt." It's also all too common in the US of A.
Ugly, and uglier, every damned day.
And while he keeps claiming to have stopped so many wars, he is waging war against American citizens and anyone who exercises their right to freedom of speech. He has made us the laughingstock of the world and now the aggressor in placing claim on territories that are not ours and should never be ours. He is lining his pockets and those of others, pardoning egregious criminals at a price, and at the same time wasting taxpayer dollars while our people lack for health care and food at a reasonable price. The hypocrisy of it all is mind blowing. It feels like the devil himself has taken over the White House and is painting it blacker and bleaker every day.
It is overwhelming. My husband went to medical school at the university founded by your ancestor, M. Truscott, and he is ready to pop an artery over RFK Jr.'s antics. All the other stuff DT does is pay to play, and who is really surprised--but RFK is going to kill people.
And I wasn't even aware of RFK Jr.'s latest outrage until I read it here. That's what overwhelm does. Lucian is 100% right about that: it's overwhelming.
He already has. Children have died here as well as in other countries. What excuse could there ever be for killing a child?
Brain Worm, like his boss Agolf Shitler, is a psychopath, a sociopath, and every other kind of "-path" you can think of.
Keep the faith. Remember Martin Luther King and his faith as he struggled for justice He never gave up. Let’s all reflect about his example and live true to his legacy. Tyrants and their followers continue to appear in human history and it’s incumbent on all of us to resist
This is a beautiful statement of truth and strength. The spirit soaks through every word. Thank you for this.
Is it possible that Kennedy can be tried by some international court for reckless endangerment by his lack of endorsement/use of vaccines? I remember reading in the Sixties that Kansas had had a terrible epidemic of polio in the Fifties. Born in 1950, I remember how big that first vaccine was, and how everyone lined up for the new one in 1962 (?) at my school. When something is a living, common disease, people are so grateful to have a way to fight it.
Your first point is so excellent… I don’t see how this destruction of scientifically based practices can just be like burning the place down, like DOGE did with USAID and so much more… And if the study will be done in Africa, but he’s funding it, that makes it an international arena…Impeachment and removal would be great news for us all. I mean… You are right. He’s killing people. We must explore options. Can the guy.
I remember it also, Ellen. My dad rushed my sister and I to the junior high school where the county health nurses were giving the vaccine on a sugar cube. A miraculous way to save lives!
Yes! And I remember the long line.
Me too, we lined up around the perimeter of the gym and got the sugar cube. Seemed to take hours. Gym was in the basement, where all the black and yellow “civil defense” signs were located. I guess you were supposed to go to the basement in case of nuclear attack
Remember this like yesterday…I was about 7. My South Jersey Catholic grammar school loaded us onto school buses. The public school kids arrived the same way and we all lined up at the local ice skating rink/event stadium to get our polio shot. It had been a scary summer— all of us were afraid of polio—and were so happy and relieved. Looking back, it was a smart coordinated effort using all the schools to get us those shots…with rotary phones , newspapers and mimeograph notes. That needle was BIG.
My grandfather had polio and was lucky that he survived with only a weakened leg. You'd better believe we were first in line for a sugar cube!
One of my girlfriends contracted it at age three. She was in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
I got a paper cup of tasteless clear liquid, not a sugar cube.
Remember the cube came a later…think my younger brother got his that way.
Born in ‘45. At age 8, I received the Salk vaccine which was being tested in my grammar school. It is inconceivable to me the children might be denied any vaccine. Only a lunatic would fail to have a child vaccinated against every possible disease that could be prevented. I worry that heard immunity will disappear; that rampant disease will follow and; that billions will die as a direct result.
Our entire nation is going thru it with you Lucian…I take in a deep breath and reflect on the first line of the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling…”If you can keep your head while all about are losing theirs and blaming it on you”
Thank you for this reminder.
Thank you, James. Kipling's poem has gotten me through the worst of times (a nod to Dickens as well).
https://share.google/images/B7Tmxo7OUbtlbQOJR
Lucian, it’s time to gird your loins and get back to positive thinking. Give Tracy and Ruby a good hug and carry on, my friend. We’re all in this together and on this difficult day, we’ve got your back.
Truscott's girded loins against T***p's gilded coins? Yes!
Those gilded “Bitcoins” can get awfully heavy, Lawrence.
Minneapolis and other suburbs of Saint Paul are being targeted by a cartel of billionaires who’ve found Trump to be the most willing and ignorant wastrel to manipulate, just as Putin, and Russia did! It’s getting uglier fast, get some rest Lucian, you’re needed.
I’m sorry you are feeling overwhelmed, Lucian. And the saddest thing to me is that I am afraid I am more sorry for myself than I am for you. I have the very highest respect for you. You seem to be a very, very decent and dedicated person, intent on bringing some of that decency to our world. I take heart when YOU take heart. It makes me glad that there are people like you in the world. It gives me hope.
That’s not fair, though, is it. For me to put it on you that my ability to get through this hard time gains sustenance from YOU being able to hold on. You need a chance to be vulnerable sometimes, too. And get support from us.
Well, please believe, I’m so sorry you are feeling overwhelmed. You deserve to feel better about our world {I think we all deserve it … or most of us, anyway}. I hope ALL of us who care and are trying to find ways to hold back the darkness can take heart from each other.
I try to send good energies to you. Thank you for being Lucian Truscott IV, the man we all respect so much. We send you good energies, too.
Love this Pat Goudey OBrien
These days, our struggle is to maintain sanity, continue with our day-to-day, and try to remain informed … the Chaos Agent in charge is well aware of how all this drags us down, and that is part of the ‘flood the zone’ strategy.
One aspect of all this is, the Left spent literally decades NOT trying to stem the gathering of power levers on the right. Now, we have to find what still remains to us, in the face of a juggernaut from the Right. I do believe we have the majority of Americans at least more sympathetic to a Roosevelt-ian New Deal than to a return to McKinley era Gilded Age, but a minority-elected president sits in our Oval Office, so having more of us has not guaranteed our ability to prevail. And STILL, I think we can win the coming elections — the little ones going on in various states as positions become open for one reason or another, AND the big one coming up in ten months. Turnout is key. Fair counting is key. They know that. The election is one area where we have to maintain EXTREME vigilance.
I do take heart from having forums like this, with thoughtful and caring people to talk to. I do not respond to calls for violence {completely self-defeating and playing into the hands of the Boogaloo boys}, or to anger devoid of rational problem solving. These forums are so important to demonstrate our very existence, our solidarity, and our hope.
Thank you Pat. I am saving your response, it is so inspiring to me. From another grandma🌹
Grandma Solidarity! Thanks for being part of “my” support network, too. Good people inspire hope. 🤗🌸
Always!
👏👏❤️
My father, always the optimist, used to tell me that “it’s darkest just before it’s completely black”. I always hoped that he meant also to say something about how that’s no excuse for putting up with it but he left that unsaid.
Good one for Bill’s dad. Haha.
What RFK Jr. is doing in Guinea-Bissau is nothing less than a repeat of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. Rather than African-American men descended from enslaved people in the Jim Crow-era Deep South being denied life-saving penicillin, RFK Jr. and his Danish pseudoscientist collaborators are denying life-saving vaccines from African babies. RFK Jr. is a contemporary "minister of death" not unlike a late-19th-century/early-20th-century armaments "merchant of death."
MAGA & MAHA are proving what I have long said: cults of personality inexorably and inevitably become cults of death (and murder). EVERY Republican senator who voted to confirm this ghoul as SecHHS — first & foremost "Dr." Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who could have quashed the nomination in _two_ committees-of-jurisdiction on which he serves — has blood on their hands.
“…I feel overwhelmed tonight. We are living in dark times, and I don’t see the sun coming up anytime soon.”
I feel you and am sending blessings, love, and hugs to you and everyone else on here since we’ve all feeling it.
Thank you for all you do to educate, inspire, and support us. I now lend my support to you. 🫶🏼🙏🏻
The dark cloud vs the light… the regime is cruel and dangerous
Remember the Epstein Files. They need to be released in their entirety. No. More. Dribs. And. Drabs.
I think vile 47 is completely terrified of what they have to reveal about his sorry ass. He is desperate to draw attention away from them, hence - ICE raids, murder by ICE agents, Greenland, kidnapping Maduro, Iran, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
I think Dumbass would be doing all this crazy shit (ICE raids, trying to take over Greenland, Maduro kidnapping, whatever he’s planning to do in Iran, investigating the mayor and governor in Minneapolis and Minnesota, not extending the ACA, etc, etc, etc) even if there were no Epstein files because he wants to be a dictator, not the President.
Yep he's a tyrant, and the Epstein threat just adds fuel to the fire.
Maybe Minneapolis is Trump’s Stalingrad?
I would rather see it as his Waterloo. That’s where Napoleon suffered his Lis franc fracture as he was getting off of his horse. Life was downhill for him every day after that.
One can only hope. But Stalingrad's population came close to starving to death, I only pray that our version isn't 9 months of maimed people and being torn between physically fighting back, knowing full well that the Fascists, aka MAGA, want them. To do or standing their ground peacefully knowing they are the vanguard of the fight for democracy. I hope, I pray they choose to be the vanguard for democracy.
I've said since the Regan years people will only wake up when they're standing in the bread line. According to Paul Krugman history shows tyrants tend to be aided by coming in during tough times and things have no way to go but up. Nothing goes up under this one. It will and has been a terrible price to pay, especially for the disadvantaged.
This is true. But this is man is creating the "tough times." Also, his agenda is revenge, almost more than lasting power; and money. The tyrants in the past have also not dealt with the likes of the Epstein files. He is sacrificing this country to save his nonexistent soul. He will do anything to keep us from knowing, without a doubt, that he is the despicable, revolting excuse for a human being we all expected he was.
It is overwhelming. And maddening. And so so sad. This is not the America we knew,