Came here to say this. He's actually trying to show that he can shoot someone. I wonder if he'll want to go out with his ICE gangs and shoot someone himself?
And the answer is Lucian always listen to your wife. Just think of how great it would be if Hillary or Kamala had won . And how the only sane judges on the Supreme Court are women. Just sayin…
One consolation is that eventually Trump, like all dictators, will even go after his allies, especially if they have the wealth, fame, and power he craves. He turned on Epstein, and it's likely he's lining up ways to take over Meta, Amazon, Disney/ABC, and others. He'll go after "his" American oligarchs, just as Putin, his role model, has destroyed many Russian oligarchs.
Americans are mobilizing across the country. Check out NO KiNGS 2, on Saturday, October 18 - - www.nokings.org. Find a protest near you, or start one yourself. The democracy community is strong and outnumbers MAGA. More and more Trump voters oppose the regime's cruelty to immigrants, the disabled, and LGBTQ people. They oppose ignoring the Constitution, militarizing our cities, and trampling our rights. www.nokings.org.
Floating over your first sentence are the ghosts of Maximilien Robespierre, Ernst Rōhm, Mikhail Tukhachavesky, Leon Trotsky, Zhang Guotao, Wang Ming, and hundreds (thousands) of others who were, inevitably, deemed "enemies of the state."
Thanks for the list, Lawrence. Zuckerberg, Iger, Bezos, maybe even Musk, and others must be dreading the next "request" from Trump and his thugs. Revenge and extortion. Even the Corleone family couldn't compete with this crime boss.
DJT is far worse than just a run of the mill fascist or narcissist. He's a fanatic, United looney.. The more heinous acts he gets away with, the more he will do, without warning.
Yesterday's out of the blue announcement of a $100,000 fee for foreign workers with an H1B visa is a trivial example compared to murder. But absolutely no one in the business world had any inkling of this "tariff" coming down the road. But here we are and US companies are in a disrupted panic. How can the GOP possibly keep this guy in office?
Should we think John Roberts is proud of anointing Trump King of America?
They are all rubbish and a pox on all their houses.
I think the oil companies love djt. He appears to be about to invade Venezuela for them? This is almost all, as usual, about the money, except for the racism and religious bigotry side of Project 2025.
Why doesn't someone - anyone - stop and take a close look as to WHY we have these kinds of drug problems? Why not invest some of the "Department of War" budget into opening free drug treatment clinics throughout the country or offer free drug counseling or even re-open the now-closed methadone clinics? Yes, we do have a drug problem, but it's OUR problem. Killing foreign nationals in international waters is not the answer.
Why assume that Trump’s murders have anything to do with drugs? We have nothing but his word for it, and you know what that is worth. We should always assume that he is lying when he opens his mouth.
So why is he murdering people? He could be trying to show his manliness, about which he is so insecure that in the 2016 campaign he boasted about the size of his penis. He could be trying to show that he can—that he has absolute power and no one can stop him. He would try to show that for two reasons—to compensate for his massive insecurity and to prepare us for the murders of U.S protesters and political adversaries.
Little Marco Rubio started the whole penis size thing in 2016 when he pointed out how small & delicate dementia don’s hands were... and you know what THAT means, winkwink😺
This is a correct perspective -- nothing is forcing Americans to buy or consumes these drugs (apart from unscrupulous doctors who over-prescribe them, quasi-legally). But no one is killing drug abusers in the US. Yet.
In 1969-1970, I did my nursing psychiatric rotation at NH State Hospital. There seemed to be a number of youth in there for nothing more than pot conviction. NH State Hospital, at that time, was not the place you wanted to be reprimanded to.
Tracey is right, I hate to say it. I have a tiny glimmer of hope left in the lower courts but not SCOTUS! They need to be impeached too and I do know that's not possible.
I heard the woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize from the Philippines on Jon Stewart on Thursday evening and she was great as well as Jon! I learned a lot and Jon was brilliant as usual! She said that Duterte was in prison now in the Hague if I remember correctly! I only wish the same happens to DJT!
That woman is journalist Maria Ressa; research her and you'll find loads of information on how she challenged Dutarte's regime. Sitting on my desk as my next read is her book "How to Stand Up to a Dictator." She is, indeed, a force to be reckoned with and I suspect I'm going to learn a lot once I crack into her book.
Tracy has the same attitude about this as I do. Our institutions are failing us miserably! Our legal system is being rendered useless. I never thought that I would ever be hoping for military intervention, but here we are. Chief Nance has talked about "recalibration" of the government. I think that a military coup (I can't believe I just used that word!) may be the only way to do this.
I think rather than a military solution, we would have a better chance of success by employing a tactic more in keeping with democratic/rule of law values which is the assembly of 1-2 million ordinary Americans surrounding the White House and Capitol and demanding that Trump/Vance and the entire cabinet resign. And just stay there until they do. The Ukrainians did it; the French make their voices heard by going to the streets. Why can't we?
You know, when we were young, hundreds of thousands of young people were in the streets. If they start killing protesters, will they come? I don't know.
CA: On a serious level, I think should they initiate violence they will lose the country. It will be over. And the protesters will likely become a superheated angry mob a la 1/6. Who knows what they would be inclined to do or capable of doing.
On a somewhat jovial level, I think the protest organizers should hand out Hollywood-like maps of the stars showing the residences and offices for all the key players in Trump's authoritarian regime, e.g. Miller, Bondi, Patel, RFK Jr, Hegeseth, Carr, Homan, Noem, The radical right Supremes, etc. Whatever happens, happens.
I have been saying this, the U.S. Navy is now committing war crimes. The Regime will not cease at crimes upon the high seas. They will commit them here soon.
This is definitely not the bedtime story I wanted or needed to hear. I am on “team Tracy.” It’s only going to get worse. For the life of me, I cannot understand how he can get away with it all. Is there no one to take this schoolyard bully down?
I don’t want to sound like a kook but, the universe as we can see it with the James Webb and the Hubble among many others, shows a sublime and at times chaotic balance, Karma is a word used by some to refer to things being put back in balance. The “Golden Rule” is a perfect example of living in a way that leaves you in balance. Now when we look at what he is doing, it is abundantly clear that he is bringing great harm to a lot of others, people he has never met and has no reason to dislike, if you think that his life is in any way in balance, you need to have your head examined. There is a debris field that follows him wherever he goes. I’m not perfect and I’m sure most of you aren’t either, but we don’t go through life bringing harm to others, even those of us who served in the military only did that in very rare circumstances, no, we get along just fine with almost everyone we meet, we are like those star clusters in the galaxies that are orbiting around each other, basically in balance. That’s how I see it anyway, he’s an abomination to all that I hold dear, and is doing his best to destroy our great nation, but his time is rapidly running out, many of us of a certain age are only too familiar with what we see in the mirror as we pass by. The real trick will be how we act after he’s gone, the flaws in a lot of our systems have been revealed by his presence, we are going to need to fix that. Our beautiful Constitution is a blueprint for humanity that should last forever, all we have to do is hold it close. 🙏
What if every horrific thing that is happening is to show us the weaknesses and flaws in our current system? I believe the whole thing is going to come crashing down sooner than later and when it does, it will happen like that (snaps fingers). Then we will be left to pick up the pieces and build a stronger society with the knowledge of what will happen if we do not plug the holes that have been exposed. I feel like a whole lot of people are holding their collective breath, just waiting for the dam to burst.
DJT is a clear demonstration of what can go wrong with our system, especially when we have someone who hates our aspirational way of life, with his hands on the levers of power. We have never had a president like that, our founders built into our system, a way for us to put a stop to that, should it happen. Unfortunately we have people elected to office who refuse to honor their oaths, and by not honoring them they are putting their own families at risk. Diseases for instance, don’t know or care who you voted for, they are opportunistic killers. We are moving so far outside established norms, to keep someone who is clearly insane happy, and leaving nothing but wreckage in its wake, that once they start to wake up they will be falling all over themselves to join us. The crash you speak of may precipitate it, or it may happen when that crash is becoming more likely. Pendulums swing, that is their nature, and this aberrant swing that we are now on will come back, we just need to be ready for it and take advantage of it. If we can institute changes to our system that enhance it’s balance, maybe we can prevent a repeat that is so damaging. 🙏
My hope is that servicemembers recognize and refuse to follow illegal orders. That they put their oath to the Constitution ahead of the desires of the temporary holders of power who give those orders, which are increasingly in violation of international treaties and the UCMJ.
I never wished for a military coup in America before, but it is starting to look like the most reasonable way to stop this out-of-control regime.
Soldiers in the past have tried the "I was just following orders" defense. It didn't end well for them.
Lucian, from your perspective what are the chances that the military will be the bulwark that holds, and preserves our Constitutional government?
Yes, I asked this too. I wouldn't want to see a coup unless it was to install a "constitutional" government, and the majority of the Supreme Court would have to go, for not fulfilling their duties in a constitutional way.
Steve Bannon is right, Flood the Zone is working. Our society just isn't equipped to deal with a psychopath who, once in office, violates all norms and laws and then the next day does something even worse. We're so easily distracted, while we all focus on the faux outrage over the killing of a racist demagogue, King Donald is blowing up fishing boats and paving over the Epstein files. The essential goodness of the American people will eventually prevail. Watching John Mellencamp perform Pink Houses on Farm Aid tonight is giving me hope.
Actually, the system *is* designed to prevent a tyrannical executive. What has failed is the members of the other two branches that were expected to intervene.
It is, the problem is though that repubs in Congress cower in fear over losing their jobs if they oppose Trump, and the judicial, with the right to endless appeals, can't do anything until Trump is long out of office or in dementia care.
I was thinking of his rubber-stamp SCOTUS along with legislators exactly as you describe them. Who would have thought such powerful dark forces could all come together at one time and place?
A Perfect Storm? Amid all the incompetence Trump has certainly managed to attract some truly evil people, like Stephen Miller, to plot his takeover. The rest just go along and enforce it.
It's not just a psychopath, it's the Congress too. I would be glad to see a secession of like minded states, or even just my state (CA). I also wonder if muck fixed the election in Pennsylvania and that's why t won. I feel for former Indianans, like Quayle and Pence, they saved us in 2021, but I don't see what they can do now.
Wannabe strongman Trump brays about fentanyl, but took $1 million in exchange for pardoning Ross Ulbricht, creator of the Silk Road online drug market. He’s sticking it to Maduro by bombing two fishing boats, killing eleven people and destroying evidence of any existence of drugs or gang members.
EDIT. Trump accepted $1 million, not $10 million, in exchange for paroling Ulbright. In related news, Tom Homan denies that he took $50,000 in a Cava bag. Maybe it was $40,000?
The Constitution was dead -- along with NATO, Ukraine's hopes, our economy, and the entire glorious history of the American Century -- the minute Trump put his hand on the Bible the second time.
At that moment, I had been out of the US for exactly 48 hours. (I have not returned, and have no intention of returning any time soon.) I started writing about incipient American fascism in 2006, and had said everything I had to say about it by the time Trump was elected. As a scholar of authoritarian patterns, I had no doubt that he was about to blow through every guardrail. With both houses of Congress and SCOTUS on his side, and the Project 2025 game plan in his pocket, there was simply no way the laws were going to constrain him this time. We were done for. And so I was done there.
I'm surprised that it's taken you this long to come around to it -- but a lot of epiphanies are being had this summer, and it seems like fall is bringing in a reckoning that is finally making folks hunker down for a very long, strange, lawless winter ahead. It could be another year. It could be another 20. You and I may not live to see a free America again. A new global order is congealing around the hole in the world where the US used to be; and if America's best values survive, it will be because some of us got out and were able to nurture those precious seeds in other soils.
That's where you're wrong. NATO is not dead. Yeah, the US was a big part, but NATO will live. So will Europe, Canada, Australia - it won't be a walk in the park but we'll be fine. The world order is shifting and America is changing. We are not.
I am glad you are pointing out what Trump seems to be planning. Prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat has been warning about this since before he was elected. He is following a fascist playbook.
I am aware that immigrants are in danger in the USA. It is scaring me a lot. I wrote on Thursday about how dependent I am on immigrants to help me manage 3 moves and putting our house on the market.
However, I do see Trump wanting to do what Hitler did which was he had a list of 400 people he considered enemies, even though some of them thought they were his friend, and had them all assassinated early on. In fact he was throwing a garden party for his cabinet and their families while the assassins were out doing the killings.
People are wondering whether the military will just do what their "Commander-in-chief" tells them to do. Ben-Ghiat points out that he is using military in all sorts of non-military duties to acclimate people to seeing them and to intimidate people. Will Germany, where Merz is sucking up to Trump acknowledge a US election in which Trump uses the military to force people not to vote? Or to vote for him? Will they support him in denying states the rights to run their own elections? There is so much bending the knee to him that I could not imagine.
I also am wondering why wealthy people on Trump's list are staying in the US. They can afford homes elsewhere. I advised Foreign students to transfer elsewhere.
Someone told me I was asking foreign students to bend the knee. I was not, I was thinking about their vulnerable age and giving them advice for their own good. This is not their battle. It it ours.
He was absolutely correct when he said "I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get
away with it"...all he'd have to do today is say it was a drug pusher.
He wouldn’t have to say anything. He doesn’t need justification.
The Supreme Court has ruled that he may commit murder.
Came here to say this. He's actually trying to show that he can shoot someone. I wonder if he'll want to go out with his ICE gangs and shoot someone himself?
And the answer is Lucian always listen to your wife. Just think of how great it would be if Hillary or Kamala had won . And how the only sane judges on the Supreme Court are women. Just sayin…
Women...all but one.
One consolation is that eventually Trump, like all dictators, will even go after his allies, especially if they have the wealth, fame, and power he craves. He turned on Epstein, and it's likely he's lining up ways to take over Meta, Amazon, Disney/ABC, and others. He'll go after "his" American oligarchs, just as Putin, his role model, has destroyed many Russian oligarchs.
Americans are mobilizing across the country. Check out NO KiNGS 2, on Saturday, October 18 - - www.nokings.org. Find a protest near you, or start one yourself. The democracy community is strong and outnumbers MAGA. More and more Trump voters oppose the regime's cruelty to immigrants, the disabled, and LGBTQ people. They oppose ignoring the Constitution, militarizing our cities, and trampling our rights. www.nokings.org.
Floating over your first sentence are the ghosts of Maximilien Robespierre, Ernst Rōhm, Mikhail Tukhachavesky, Leon Trotsky, Zhang Guotao, Wang Ming, and hundreds (thousands) of others who were, inevitably, deemed "enemies of the state."
Thanks for the list, Lawrence. Zuckerberg, Iger, Bezos, maybe even Musk, and others must be dreading the next "request" from Trump and his thugs. Revenge and extortion. Even the Corleone family couldn't compete with this crime boss.
Basically, a glorified Mob Boss in the White House!
THiS IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR THE REST OF US—ORGANIZE YOUR OWN NO KING RALLY IN EVERY TOWN & CITY!!!
DJT is far worse than just a run of the mill fascist or narcissist. He's a fanatic, United looney.. The more heinous acts he gets away with, the more he will do, without warning.
Yesterday's out of the blue announcement of a $100,000 fee for foreign workers with an H1B visa is a trivial example compared to murder. But absolutely no one in the business world had any inkling of this "tariff" coming down the road. But here we are and US companies are in a disrupted panic. How can the GOP possibly keep this guy in office?
Should we think John Roberts is proud of anointing Trump King of America?
They are all rubbish and a pox on all their houses.
I think the oil companies love djt. He appears to be about to invade Venezuela for them? This is almost all, as usual, about the money, except for the racism and religious bigotry side of Project 2025.
Why doesn't someone - anyone - stop and take a close look as to WHY we have these kinds of drug problems? Why not invest some of the "Department of War" budget into opening free drug treatment clinics throughout the country or offer free drug counseling or even re-open the now-closed methadone clinics? Yes, we do have a drug problem, but it's OUR problem. Killing foreign nationals in international waters is not the answer.
Why treat a problem as medical or social when by making it political you can use it as an avenue to power?
That would be constructive….destruction is the name of the game for this administration.
Why assume that Trump’s murders have anything to do with drugs? We have nothing but his word for it, and you know what that is worth. We should always assume that he is lying when he opens his mouth.
So why is he murdering people? He could be trying to show his manliness, about which he is so insecure that in the 2016 campaign he boasted about the size of his penis. He could be trying to show that he can—that he has absolute power and no one can stop him. He would try to show that for two reasons—to compensate for his massive insecurity and to prepare us for the murders of U.S protesters and political adversaries.
Little Marco Rubio started the whole penis size thing in 2016 when he pointed out how small & delicate dementia don’s hands were... and you know what THAT means, winkwink😺
I think the murders of Venezulans is make work for Kegsbreath...
This is a correct perspective -- nothing is forcing Americans to buy or consumes these drugs (apart from unscrupulous doctors who over-prescribe them, quasi-legally). But no one is killing drug abusers in the US. Yet.
In the 60’s, sentencing folks for long prison terms for possession of small amounts of cannabis was equivalent to killing them.
In 1969-1970, I did my nursing psychiatric rotation at NH State Hospital. There seemed to be a number of youth in there for nothing more than pot conviction. NH State Hospital, at that time, was not the place you wanted to be reprimanded to.
They have no desire to do one single thing that is constructive and good. Only destroy.
Is something that has existed for thousands of years and will be around for thousands more really a “problem “ we can solve by passing “laws”?
Tracey is right, I hate to say it. I have a tiny glimmer of hope left in the lower courts but not SCOTUS! They need to be impeached too and I do know that's not possible.
I heard the woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize from the Philippines on Jon Stewart on Thursday evening and she was great as well as Jon! I learned a lot and Jon was brilliant as usual! She said that Duterte was in prison now in the Hague if I remember correctly! I only wish the same happens to DJT!
Shhhhhh! If The Convicted Felon reads your post he'll send a SEAL team into the Hague prison to rescue his fellow demagogue Duterte.
That woman is journalist Maria Ressa; research her and you'll find loads of information on how she challenged Dutarte's regime. Sitting on my desk as my next read is her book "How to Stand Up to a Dictator." She is, indeed, a force to be reckoned with and I suspect I'm going to learn a lot once I crack into her book.
Thanks so much Pat and I’ll LL into it!
Tracy has the same attitude about this as I do. Our institutions are failing us miserably! Our legal system is being rendered useless. I never thought that I would ever be hoping for military intervention, but here we are. Chief Nance has talked about "recalibration" of the government. I think that a military coup (I can't believe I just used that word!) may be the only way to do this.
I think rather than a military solution, we would have a better chance of success by employing a tactic more in keeping with democratic/rule of law values which is the assembly of 1-2 million ordinary Americans surrounding the White House and Capitol and demanding that Trump/Vance and the entire cabinet resign. And just stay there until they do. The Ukrainians did it; the French make their voices heard by going to the streets. Why can't we?
What happens if they start killing the protesters? ( Russia 1905) These bastards are capable of anything.
You know, when we were young, hundreds of thousands of young people were in the streets. If they start killing protesters, will they come? I don't know.
CA: On a serious level, I think should they initiate violence they will lose the country. It will be over. And the protesters will likely become a superheated angry mob a la 1/6. Who knows what they would be inclined to do or capable of doing.
On a somewhat jovial level, I think the protest organizers should hand out Hollywood-like maps of the stars showing the residences and offices for all the key players in Trump's authoritarian regime, e.g. Miller, Bondi, Patel, RFK Jr, Hegeseth, Carr, Homan, Noem, The radical right Supremes, etc. Whatever happens, happens.
Remember...a draft dodger is the last person we want directing our forces who work for an alcoholic.
That sounds pretty good. East Coasters, get on it!
Hear, hear!! A bas, les aristos!
Lucian,
I have been saying this, the U.S. Navy is now committing war crimes. The Regime will not cease at crimes upon the high seas. They will commit them here soon.
All the best, and watch your six.
Steve Dundas
This is definitely not the bedtime story I wanted or needed to hear. I am on “team Tracy.” It’s only going to get worse. For the life of me, I cannot understand how he can get away with it all. Is there no one to take this schoolyard bully down?
You're not alone, Christina. A neighbor emailed me earlier:
"Frequent walks outside to get away from the daily 'news' items about the Arch Demon in DC; don't help very much.
"Then when Lucian writes late at night I try to avoid reading it, read it anyway and cannot get to sleep."
Thanks. I knew there were others who must’ve felt this way.
I don’t want to sound like a kook but, the universe as we can see it with the James Webb and the Hubble among many others, shows a sublime and at times chaotic balance, Karma is a word used by some to refer to things being put back in balance. The “Golden Rule” is a perfect example of living in a way that leaves you in balance. Now when we look at what he is doing, it is abundantly clear that he is bringing great harm to a lot of others, people he has never met and has no reason to dislike, if you think that his life is in any way in balance, you need to have your head examined. There is a debris field that follows him wherever he goes. I’m not perfect and I’m sure most of you aren’t either, but we don’t go through life bringing harm to others, even those of us who served in the military only did that in very rare circumstances, no, we get along just fine with almost everyone we meet, we are like those star clusters in the galaxies that are orbiting around each other, basically in balance. That’s how I see it anyway, he’s an abomination to all that I hold dear, and is doing his best to destroy our great nation, but his time is rapidly running out, many of us of a certain age are only too familiar with what we see in the mirror as we pass by. The real trick will be how we act after he’s gone, the flaws in a lot of our systems have been revealed by his presence, we are going to need to fix that. Our beautiful Constitution is a blueprint for humanity that should last forever, all we have to do is hold it close. 🙏
What if every horrific thing that is happening is to show us the weaknesses and flaws in our current system? I believe the whole thing is going to come crashing down sooner than later and when it does, it will happen like that (snaps fingers). Then we will be left to pick up the pieces and build a stronger society with the knowledge of what will happen if we do not plug the holes that have been exposed. I feel like a whole lot of people are holding their collective breath, just waiting for the dam to burst.
DJT is a clear demonstration of what can go wrong with our system, especially when we have someone who hates our aspirational way of life, with his hands on the levers of power. We have never had a president like that, our founders built into our system, a way for us to put a stop to that, should it happen. Unfortunately we have people elected to office who refuse to honor their oaths, and by not honoring them they are putting their own families at risk. Diseases for instance, don’t know or care who you voted for, they are opportunistic killers. We are moving so far outside established norms, to keep someone who is clearly insane happy, and leaving nothing but wreckage in its wake, that once they start to wake up they will be falling all over themselves to join us. The crash you speak of may precipitate it, or it may happen when that crash is becoming more likely. Pendulums swing, that is their nature, and this aberrant swing that we are now on will come back, we just need to be ready for it and take advantage of it. If we can institute changes to our system that enhance it’s balance, maybe we can prevent a repeat that is so damaging. 🙏
My hope is that servicemembers recognize and refuse to follow illegal orders. That they put their oath to the Constitution ahead of the desires of the temporary holders of power who give those orders, which are increasingly in violation of international treaties and the UCMJ.
I never wished for a military coup in America before, but it is starting to look like the most reasonable way to stop this out-of-control regime.
Soldiers in the past have tried the "I was just following orders" defense. It didn't end well for them.
Lucian, from your perspective what are the chances that the military will be the bulwark that holds, and preserves our Constitutional government?
I'm looking for Tracy's opinion on this as well.
Yes, I asked this too. I wouldn't want to see a coup unless it was to install a "constitutional" government, and the majority of the Supreme Court would have to go, for not fulfilling their duties in a constitutional way.
Steve Bannon is right, Flood the Zone is working. Our society just isn't equipped to deal with a psychopath who, once in office, violates all norms and laws and then the next day does something even worse. We're so easily distracted, while we all focus on the faux outrage over the killing of a racist demagogue, King Donald is blowing up fishing boats and paving over the Epstein files. The essential goodness of the American people will eventually prevail. Watching John Mellencamp perform Pink Houses on Farm Aid tonight is giving me hope.
Actually, the system *is* designed to prevent a tyrannical executive. What has failed is the members of the other two branches that were expected to intervene.
It is, the problem is though that repubs in Congress cower in fear over losing their jobs if they oppose Trump, and the judicial, with the right to endless appeals, can't do anything until Trump is long out of office or in dementia care.
I was thinking of his rubber-stamp SCOTUS along with legislators exactly as you describe them. Who would have thought such powerful dark forces could all come together at one time and place?
A Perfect Storm? Amid all the incompetence Trump has certainly managed to attract some truly evil people, like Stephen Miller, to plot his takeover. The rest just go along and enforce it.
'Perfect storm'—exactly!
Or is the problem who is on the Esptein tapes and in the files? That's sure died down, just like he wanted. I expect a drone bomb today in AZ to boot.
Yes, and what does Putin have on all these people?
Capitalism has made sure some people are too busy trying to make a living than to worry about politics.
It's not just a psychopath, it's the Congress too. I would be glad to see a secession of like minded states, or even just my state (CA). I also wonder if muck fixed the election in Pennsylvania and that's why t won. I feel for former Indianans, like Quayle and Pence, they saved us in 2021, but I don't see what they can do now.
Wannabe strongman Trump brays about fentanyl, but took $1 million in exchange for pardoning Ross Ulbricht, creator of the Silk Road online drug market. He’s sticking it to Maduro by bombing two fishing boats, killing eleven people and destroying evidence of any existence of drugs or gang members.
EDIT. Trump accepted $1 million, not $10 million, in exchange for paroling Ulbright. In related news, Tom Homan denies that he took $50,000 in a Cava bag. Maybe it was $40,000?
Two more boats targeted. He's bragging he's killed more than 14.
The Constitution was dead -- along with NATO, Ukraine's hopes, our economy, and the entire glorious history of the American Century -- the minute Trump put his hand on the Bible the second time.
At that moment, I had been out of the US for exactly 48 hours. (I have not returned, and have no intention of returning any time soon.) I started writing about incipient American fascism in 2006, and had said everything I had to say about it by the time Trump was elected. As a scholar of authoritarian patterns, I had no doubt that he was about to blow through every guardrail. With both houses of Congress and SCOTUS on his side, and the Project 2025 game plan in his pocket, there was simply no way the laws were going to constrain him this time. We were done for. And so I was done there.
I'm surprised that it's taken you this long to come around to it -- but a lot of epiphanies are being had this summer, and it seems like fall is bringing in a reckoning that is finally making folks hunker down for a very long, strange, lawless winter ahead. It could be another year. It could be another 20. You and I may not live to see a free America again. A new global order is congealing around the hole in the world where the US used to be; and if America's best values survive, it will be because some of us got out and were able to nurture those precious seeds in other soils.
He never touched that Bible, that’s how I remember it, he was probably afraid his hand would catch fire. 🤷♂️
That's where you're wrong. NATO is not dead. Yeah, the US was a big part, but NATO will live. So will Europe, Canada, Australia - it won't be a walk in the park but we'll be fine. The world order is shifting and America is changing. We are not.
Sara, excellent comment.
He never put his hand on the Bible.
I am glad you are pointing out what Trump seems to be planning. Prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat has been warning about this since before he was elected. He is following a fascist playbook.
I am aware that immigrants are in danger in the USA. It is scaring me a lot. I wrote on Thursday about how dependent I am on immigrants to help me manage 3 moves and putting our house on the market.
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/just-for-skeets-and-giggles-92025
On Friday I had to talk about ICE because I became more aware of how it was affecting the people who are helping me.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/view-from-chicago-life-with-ice-is?r=f0qfn
However, I do see Trump wanting to do what Hitler did which was he had a list of 400 people he considered enemies, even though some of them thought they were his friend, and had them all assassinated early on. In fact he was throwing a garden party for his cabinet and their families while the assassins were out doing the killings.
People are wondering whether the military will just do what their "Commander-in-chief" tells them to do. Ben-Ghiat points out that he is using military in all sorts of non-military duties to acclimate people to seeing them and to intimidate people. Will Germany, where Merz is sucking up to Trump acknowledge a US election in which Trump uses the military to force people not to vote? Or to vote for him? Will they support him in denying states the rights to run their own elections? There is so much bending the knee to him that I could not imagine.
I also am wondering why wealthy people on Trump's list are staying in the US. They can afford homes elsewhere. I advised Foreign students to transfer elsewhere.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/foreign-students-at-a-us-university?r=f0qfn
Someone told me I was asking foreign students to bend the knee. I was not, I was thinking about their vulnerable age and giving them advice for their own good. This is not their battle. It it ours.
Tracy is an optimist.