Marco Rubio: “I hope that the Houthis stop. They shouldn’t really do that. They got suckered into this by the Iranians. The Houthis largely were smart and stayed out of all this throughout the conflict. They now apparently have gotten themselves suckered into this by going after Saudi Arabia and their ships. Obviously, it’s not a positive development. We’ll see what happens.”
Rubio talking like trump is nauseating. Is he appealing to MAGAs? 🤢
I'd love to see her run the next time around although I'm STILL all in on Kamala Harris. 2028 is still too 'fraught' for magats and this current rabid repuke magat congress not to go all-in to stop a woman. Alexandria 'might' be too young, still, no? (I haven't checked). IF we're absolutely honest...as much as 'I' want a woman to be President...I think we need to elect an 'acceptable' (gawd I despise even saying this) male in 2028 PURELY to ensure that we take ALL of it: the Presidency, Senate and House. Frankly I don't care who won't like my choices so have no need to argue, but I have a few to toss out; Gavin Newsom, Corey Booker, Jon Ossof, Raphael Warnock, Brendan Boyle. Does Wes Moore have any interest? Naturally I can think of SEVERAL women and some other men as well but will leave them out of this for now. One thing to consider: the nasty old fuckwit savagely attacked Gavin during what was supposed to be a self-deprecatory speech with a 'couple' of jabs at those in the room. Instead he went after Gavin - which tells ME he's most afraid of him!
OH! And he went after James Talarico, calling him (again) talafreako - what the flying FUCK? THEN likened HIM to Alfred E. Neumann - again. The Correspondents' Dinner! Of course he also attacked Adam Schiff SO insultingly as well as Jack Smith, calling HIM a 'deranged lunatic'. The only deranged lunatic I saw (hubby insisted on watching this on CNN or C-Span - unsure which) was the orange piggy spewing his usual vicious bullshit. His 'hair' was a weird shade of brown today. I guess KKKaroline wasn't able to find his 'preferred' shade of 'just for men'?
Haven't we had 13 members of Scotus before? I don't believe doing so would be 'establishing precedent' so they couldn't whine about it (of course they would anyway). I'VE been yelling about going back to 13 for ages! It makes far more sense than 9. More input (hopefully from intelligent individuals WITHOUT partisan political leanings) and far more discussion without a few bulldozing a small minority. Works for me. As for John Lewis, he's my MAIN Personal hero - has been for decades. WE seem to be of the same mind-track. :)
Someone should tell old Dead-eyes that it's not going to happen. That he doesn't need to abase himself anymore. He's never going to get Cuba handed to him.
Rubio really, really has no shot. He's perceived as meek, weak and unmanly, which is the kiss of death in a party that ranks candidates by bluster. He always looks like he wishes the floor would swallow him. Even if he weren't Latino, a group the GOP has conditioned its voters to hate, he'd be done for. They want "manly."
Oh, right...liddle Mikey is SO manly. I think liddle Mikey is a shrieking cowardly shitweasel. He's been sold a unfillable bill of goods by the white Christian Nationalists who have clearly told him that signing up for their team will save his extremely unmanly ass when they take over. Mikey's problem is that he is afraid--afraid they will and afraid they won't.
Well, spreading Trump's conspiracy theories and lies around the world, about there being a global left wing terrorist group called "antifa" that is aligned with Cuba is not going to get Rubio my vote. Instead, I am now working on a truth campaign in Germany against these lies which are being embraced by the German Opus Dei Cartel that runs the country now, including Merz and his rube of an Interior Minister Dobrindt. These liars all spread conspiracy theories that mirror the crap that they are doing.
Damn jeff. I agree, just let the fucking fight it out. I mean what the fuck right? Let the dead eat the goddamned dead.
Also, Jeff, I am curious about your take on the whole Panagram thing that Substack is pushing. And how writers are going to be affected by it (because honestly), too many substackers are using AI way more than they are willing to admit.
I can't figure out how to access it. I'm wondering what it will report about my own posts, because I'm already hearing about false positives (or, at least, what people CLAIM are false positives)
Argh! This community is vital. I have no idea what you are all buzzing about concerning substack. Please keep we non-tech folks in your loop. Appreciate you all.
There is alot of talk going around, and I know a few "contributing devs" in substacks space. They would probably be very displeased by this. But people talk. The AI integrations in substack are just going to get worse and worse Jeff. I think at some point we are just going to have to go back to Wordpress (or self generated web frameworks) and pushing self promotion to get the words out to the people.
Im happy to talk via DM (or other secure medium on this fact) if you ever want deeper insight. But for the most part its just downright scary and NOT fuckin cool.
It’s a disaster , they false positive 1 in every 9000. I doubt you or I would ever get caught ( not that I care because I moved my long form to beehiiv ). But Substack is also using panagram to farm text and teach their ai model to stop what they call plagiarism. I’ve seen a few GitHub pulls
Let the enshittification begin. Already pushing replies out of order based on likes, fucking up what the back arrow does (I'm forever bouncing myself back to the PAGE rather than just the POST), and yesterday I reported what to me looked like a spammy ad. Ads?? Come the fuck on.
Funny you mention Wordpress. Just last week I was thinking "hey, remember blogs??"
Huh, I’d been puzzled by the out of order replies and random bounces and spam ads! Thank you for pointing those out. I’m not just losing it after all. 🤦🏻
Nope, it's real and has been going on for several weeks now. I still have to remind myself that if I want to like AND reply to a comment, do the reply FIRST so I don't have to hunt for the comment that jumped to elsewhere in the thread. This is completely backward from how I - and I assume others - usually interact with socmed: like then reply. WHY would a platform choose to do this? I can only assume it's to keep me on the site longer, scrolling and clicking. It's infuriating.
Me too. I figured it was my overtaxed phone picking up endless crap I have no interest in because my fingers (actually thumb) are floppy and too often hit a wrong key. Now I know it may be a purposely destructive ghost in the machine (ok internet or ether) and not only me. Good to know but bad to have to endure. Still thx for the heads up
I noticed last night while writing a post that at the bottom of the frame there is a pair of toggles for AI checking. I didn't experiment so can't offer anything more.
Oh dear! This Grammy has barely figured out Substack and now changes are coming? I got quickly lost on BlueSky as I was trying to wean off FB. Never ever was on Twitter.
I'm getting pretty good at recognizing AI slop. One can develop a rather cynical point of view after 75 years. But I may have to give up and resort to crosswords and coloring books in the near future. But I can't give up my daily read here. Thanks, Jeff.
Well jeff here you go, and all jeff readers enjoy. A NON AI DRIVEN writing for today's bullshit. Remember, we right in daily with our shit, ways to cope.
Good question. I’m glad you asked it. I just heard about it today. Also, I’ve noticed that the Like icon doesn’t always work which is maddening. Don’t know if that glitch has anything to do with this other stuff or not.
Haven't seen much of Just Dick Vance lately. Did he get tired of the stench? Is he flogging some new book? He's out there trying to be charming but it ain't goin' to happen, Couch Boy. You have no charisma at all.
Glad his wife got the excellent birthing experience denied to the rest of women in America. Betting she has reproductive choice too. Gee.
Vance is a disgusting sad excuse for a shape shifter. Which ways the wind blowing and where is the money today. Changes his life story like underwear. Lies freely and it's become a constant. Amplifies bullshit like immigrants eating pets. Repeats absolute bullshit and thinks we are stupid enough to buy it. All for me none for thee. Nope. Bye.
Thanks for the gift, but cannot read without signing in, and I left the WaPo, so not returning.
JD Vance and Peter Thiel belong to the group of people who scare and disgust me and a lot of other people. It does not stop me from being an activist though.
My son was in the Afghan war, spent 6 years in the Army. I have questions about what declassifying these four soldiers as war deaths does to their death benefits. Some have spouses, and children. Does this change what their future benefits will be? How can anyone in Washington allow this to happen? Now is the time for Piss Drunk Pete to be removed from office, and impeachment proceedings to begin. Enough bullshit, enough!
It also crossed my mind that by unpersoning these troops, less money will be paid out to the beneficiaries. More money for the golden dome, less money for you.
He can be impeached by Congress with a simple majority, but he will be tried by the Senate, but can only be convicted and removed by a Supermajority in the senate, which we will never have if Democrats don't vote in large numbers to elect Senators. Elect a Democratic President and he can removed.
Wouldn't want this stain anywhere near me. It will not come out. I guess there must be states where the actual majority of people do want women back in the kitchen, women dying being denied basic medically necessary procedures D&C, removal of ectopic pregnancies, want people removed from all assistance no matter what, healthcare is for the rich or well insured BY US (Mitch McConnell, professional parasite, we are looking at you) who are vocally supportive of ICE goons rounding up people. Who spend time worrying about what someone else reads, does for fun, sexual orientation is, what color they are. What a fucking colossal waste of time.
There was just a segment on MS-NOW about this very issue. The families will, in fact, not be entitled to the benefits from their loved ones' being killed in battle, because now the dead soldiers weren't killed during a war.
Of all the outrages perpetrated by this administration, this is the one that has evoked a white hot rage in me--beyond speech, beyond the power of words to convey. I have never heard of anything more cowardly, more dishonorable, more repulsive. We have known of Donnie Demento's contempt for the military for his entire life--what he's said as president isn't a revelation to anyone who has had any awareness of his existence from his first excursions into slimy tabloids. What pushes this into a realm of filthiness beyond any other action in this administration is that it has been approved and instituted by one of the military's own: Kegseth, who makes much of his "service" in the Armed Forces.
Is there any chance that the military will finally come to its senses, turn off Fox News, and stop supporting this collection of vileness?
That was my first thought. Swinton got a posthumous promotion to staff sgt., which might mean a bump of some kind. My uncle got promoted to bird colonel so 100% of moving from Wiesbaden back to Texas would be paid. Good commanding officers look out for their people.
I’ve made the same point in other comment sections. My dad died of a peacetime service connected accident and it took my mom three years to finally get her widow’s benefits. I’m pretty sure the families will have issues because of this evil move.
A daily reminder that Secretary of War (Crimes) Pete Hegseth, an incompetent alcoholic, former Fox "News" pundit views his "warfighters" as pawns in a video game and couldn't be bothered with those sent back in caskets. And we already know that the cowardly pedo criminal elect has called those who paid the ultimate sacrifice "losers and suckers."
I couldn’t help but notice that the four included one white male, one black male, and two Hispanic women. Hegseth can posture all day long about DEI (which to him means only white men are worthy), testosterone, and our “Warriors”, but THIS is the actual face of our troops.
Thank you Nancy -and it’s the actual face of the United States.
As you say, he can talk about it. The criminal elect can "courageously” talk about putting our sons and daughters in harm’s way (to further obscure the Epstein-Trump-Maxwell files, his blatant corruption, and his numerous policy failures), but I continue to remember his cowardice -running to get a doctors note to stay at home while his peers went to fight in Vietnam, his cowardice in his refusal to sit down with Robert Mueller, and his lack of accountability for the suffering and death he leaves in his wake on a daily basis.
I don't understand why no one has pointed out the preznit's bone spur's could have been easily removed through a minor surgery. I had bone spur's removed and lol they never came back.
My friend, who will never stop seething about this, was married to a guy who went to West Point, taught at West Point, fought in Iraq and served for 20 years in the reserves. And he has bone spurs.
He has always been a pampered rich boy afraid of any discomfort. God forbid his manicure gets messed up or his hair gets out of place. That's why they slather on the makeup like he's an aging drag queen. (My apologies to all drag queens)
I don't know about that. It seems that athletes get a pass on the melanin thing. I guess that the nutjobs just understand that they are superior physical specimins.
Is that all? My my you are tough. You must have a high T number. (Pls note: comment meant to be sarcastic. It's a small way to lower my BP on reading this stuff with no one nearby to sound off to. Your memory is great)
It's what they've looked like until now, because the military was one place in society where advancement depended strictly on competence and merit. That's why it attracted so many people who would be shut out of many roles in society for not being white or male enough. Now that Hegseth has tossed all of that to the curb, he's going to significantly weaken the military.
Hegseth should watch his drinking since alcohol lowers testosterone and habitual alcohol use reduces testosterone by a lot even when the alcoholic is not consuming alcohol.
Well he swore to stop drinking to get this God of War gig. But I'll bet anyone willing to turn their camera on (like this evening) could record him pounding down the mojitos.
I think that’s why we’ve seen the resignation of many in leadership. It will also be interesting to see how many re-enlist based upon the complete hypocrisy, incompetence, and failure at the top.
I suspect the reason the criminal elect and his human garbage Secretary Pete have replaced much of the hierarchy and are trying to chill journalism is that while soldiers have a duty to disobey illegal orders, how do you prove an illegal order was given if it is completely covered up?
"...I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic... and... obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ)."
If an order is manifestly unlawful, military personnel are expected not to carry it out.
Examples often used in military ethics and law include orders to:
Intentionally kill civilians.
Torture detainees.
Execute prisoners of war.
Commit other war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Carrying out such an order can expose the individual service member to criminal liability. "I was just following orders" has generally not been accepted as a complete defense for clearly illegal acts.
If you like what you just read, please feel free to subscribe to my Substack for a dose of limericks, poems, haikus and songs that will hopefully bring a smile to your face during this time of stress and nonsense.
The hate directed at Jake Tapper by some here is ridiculous. He is a solid reporter and his book about Biden was fair game. And the idea that he is soft on Trump is beyond ridiculous. It is a flat out lie. One might even call it Trumpian.
When will Tapper's best-selling smash-hit BOOK on Donald Trump's physical and mental deterioration come out? Then when will his publicity-seeking book tour begin? Before or after January 2029?
The Democratic establishment bears a huge responsibility for this. I think we need to start a campaign to vote out every incumbent we possibly can. There are a few exceptions, but not many.
Jeffries is the worst. He’s even more passive than Johnson. Pelosi would have fought this shit, at least. He and Schumer are terrible. They’re like the team that played the Harlem Globetrotters, only on the court to simulate a game. They are not players in any way, lying down for everything Johnson has done and abdicating all power and resistance. It’s infuriating.
And Pelosi was one of the most effective speakers in history and had a good eye for talent. yes, she hand-picked the team that succeeded her, Hoyer and Clyburn, but she chose well (also Kathrine Clark and Pete Aguilar). And THEY are choosing well in bringing younger people like Joe Neguse up the leadership ladder (You really need to watch him. He's brilliant. I love his very slightly sarcastic edge when he's grilling some Trump administration idiot who clearly is not in his league.)
Exactly! I've always likened the Democrats to the Washington Generals. There to look like there's opposition, but really just meant to haplessly flail while the GOPtrotters pull their shenanigans all over the court.
Jeffries is doing an excellent job, if you actually follow him with information and not a wish list. Schumer has pretty much been kicking ass too, although he is definitely boring.
Jeffries and Schumer are competent minority leaders, but ‘excellent’ and ‘kicking ass’ don't jibe with what they have actually accomplished. Under a unified Republican government, Democrats don’t control the agenda.
Jeffries can hold a marathon speech and keep House Democrats mostly unified, and Schumer can cut defensive deals in the Senate, but the big policy outcomes still reflect Republican priorities.
If we judge them by concrete gains for Democratic voters and not just their tone or media clips, the record is more ‘not totally surrendering’ than ‘kicking ass." They need to be hamming the messaging the way Jon Osfoff is doing. They need to be feisty and resistance-centric.
Before the midterms? So we should completely destabilize the party and create chaos, and probably lose several winnable seats all because Schumer's iMAGE isn't fiery enough for you. He's doing an excellent job under the circumstances and would exactly would you replace him with (there would be a monstrous fight that would tear the party apart). BTW Schumer's voting record is more progressive than Bernie Sanders'. So there's that.
No, not before the midterms. In general. Term limits and reform of the systems. Thirteen Justices. Representation in the senate that matches congress. Campaign finance rules. Ranked choice voting. An end to so-called “originalism.” Fair taxation. Single-payer healthcare and higher education. A GI Bill for everyone.
Thank you. I keep reminding myself that many, many people weren't paying much attention to "politics" before Trump was elected the first time, and some of them didn't catch on till around Jan. 20, 2025. As to how Congress works -- they're not there yet. Which is understandable, because Congress under Republican leadership barely works at all.
I think he will be because I think people who do not follow the Senate closed profoundly misunderstand what he is supposed to be doing and what he in fact has done almost incredibly well in a situation where the Democrats are 6 votes in the majority.
Through what means? A great rising up of the unwashed hoards who have had enough of the geriatric country club? The DNC is dead, it just hasn't fallen down yet.
How many times do we have to repeat that the DNC has nothing to do with Congress, that it was plucked out of thin air to be appointed the official villain of the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016? And no one who doesn't get this should be. commenting on the job Chuck Schumer is doing.
Yeah because we need to attack Democrats since they are not enough Republicans in office. Wake up! The Democrats are doing as much as they can seeing as they are in a minority in ALL 3 branches and so the press makes no effort to cover any of the things they are actually doing, which is a lot under the circumstances.
You know why we are in this mess? Becauae Republicans vote for Republicans no matter what. But the Democrats? No they have to be perfect. But the press still won't report on it because its owned by Republicans.
Respectfully I disagree. A minority party can’t always win the vote, but it can still win time, shape the debate, force the majority to show its hand, and build the case for the next election.The tools are weak because the system is designed on the same principles that allowed for and even encouraged slavery. The entire thing is rotten and needs to be ripped out like a black mold-infested floor.
They are doing that and we need to pay attention to what they are doing. We have some amazing advocates, but too often I see us being shallow and going gaga over the last attractive person to make a fiery speech.
I agree. When republicans are the minority they do EVERYTHING possible to stymie democratic efforts to unfuck the country. They exploit the most obscure, weirdest and oldest rules. They consistently set the narrative. We can do that too.
Billionaire media has amplified this as they sanewash Trump. They did a hit job on Biden, who was a much more progressive president than anyone since Johnson in terms of policies.
I blame the fact that their biggest campaign contributors are the Citizens United super pacs owned by billionaires and their main job is to get re-elected next term, which requires lying down for their actual constituents (the billionaires) and not their nominal ones (the district of voters). The game is rigged, and we lose every time.
"Vote out every incumbent"?? Are you serious? The DNC doesn't elect legislators. The DSCC and the DCCC have a bigger hand in it, but so do state and local parties, and especially volunteer and paid campaign staff.
Know what would happen if your fantasy campaign actually succeeded? Republican legislators would have all the seniority, and on the Democratic side, much power and influence would fall to the (unelected) staff of the individual legislators and the various committees.
You are so right. And MOST of our incumbents are fantastic. Sure, we have outliers such as John Fetterman and a few others. But they are doing a phenomenal job in difficult conditions. Follow some of the hearings and listen to how they're humiliating Trump's flunkies, setting them up for worse treatment when they take the majority. WE need to stop being shallow and regurgitating stuff we've vaguely heard like "Evil DNC." Start watching the videos of some of the questioning our senators and congresspeople have been doing, and not just ones from young, attractive people we have crushes on. Old white guys like Jack Reed, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jamie Raskin and Ed Markey are doing amazing work too.
I think he's looking forward to a role he has a passion for: he's currently ranking member of the environment and public works committee, so he'd be in line to be chairman. And the environment is what drives him.
🎯👏👍Anastasia, we are in agreement on favorite 'old white guys' - and I'll add Adam Schiff to your list. Jamie Raskin has been the ideal example of what makes a truly great politician for years; without grandstanding, with honor and humility, he is a Constitutional scholar with profound love for democracy 💙. And I am blessed to have Ed Markey as my Senator.
Thank you Susanna, for pointing out what should be obvious. Some of us are letting our 'zeal' get in the way of our thinking skills. We need to be focused on voting for the most effective candidates, and replacing the ineffective with promising - tho unproven - candidates. If a legislator has a good track record, why in the world would we want to replace them?
Exactly! And I'm also weary to the bone of the yammering that the Democrats aren't doing anything.....Idiot voters put in a Republican majority in both Houses, thereby handcuffing the Democrats. However, the Democrats have been getting louder and louder and clearer and clearer about the catastrophe their GQP colleagues are allowing--even though it's also extremely difficult to break through the wall of the Trump-supporting media moguls.
People should study how are Democratic government actually works. If you really want to blame the Democrats, start with Fetterman who votes with Republicans more than with Democrats, but even though he is really a Republican, he said he will still run as a Democrat. So what do you do with that?
Fetterman is definitely a problem, although his does NOT vote with Republicans more than Democrats. While he has the worst voting record of any Democrat, he's 30 points below Liz Warren, the most progressive Democrat but SIXTY POINTS more progressive than the most progressive Republican, Susie Concern.
Ditto Collins. Maybe voters will educate themselves and stop watching TV. Maybe elections will be about issues instead of popularity. Watch season 4 of the Wire to see how elections and public office are different. Governing should be something other than a path to personal enrichment. Late-stage capitalism is eating itself before our eyes, starting with the poor as it always does.
Collins is a Republican though. But I guarantee that continuing to attack Schumer to the point. of demanding he be ousted NOW would be a real gift to her reelection campaign.
The deeper problem isn’t a few bad leaders, it’s a chamber whose very operating system was built to thwart majoritarian, especially progressive, change. The Senate was explicitly designed to be slower, more insulated, and less responsive than the House; equal state representation and six‑year terms were meant to “cool” popular impulses rather than enact them. Over time, layers of procedure that include unlimited debate, holds, blue slips, unanimous consent, committee gatekeeping have turned that bias toward caution into a systemic veto on most ambitious legislation.
LBJ knew nothing moved without mastering these arcane rules, seniority hierarchies, and back‑room unanimous consent deals. Johnson bent the institution almost to its breaking point just to get the first modest civil‑rights bill since Reconstruction because the chamber was structurally wired against it.
Think about the filibuster. it wasn’t in the Constitution at all, but emerged after the Senate accidentally deleted the “previous question” motion in 1806, which had allowed a majority to cut off debate. That housekeeping change, urged by Aaron Burr as "tidying," eventually produced a world in which a determined minority can block almost any bill unless 60 senators agree to invoke cloture.
These tools have been repeatedly used to protect sectional and reactionary interests, most notoriously by Southern blocs filibustering anti‑lynching laws and civil‑rights measures. The senior Southern committee barons atop the seniority system, could bury progressive bills in committee without ever allowing an up‑or‑down vote. They ruled the country from a back bench that voters could barely see. This is now happening in all three branches, especially SCOTUS.
The First Republic was a union built around slave and free state parity, equal state suffrage, and mechanisms that let a cohesive minority veto national policy. The Senate’s structure of two senators per state regardless of population, the seniority system, the filibuster, and the reverence for “traditions” have set that antebellum logic in stone even though the economic and moral world that produced it is long gone.
That is what your question pre-supposes, and by asking it you are defending it.
Swap out Schumer for someone younger, or Jeffries for someone angrier, but we are still playing on a floor that was laid to preserve slave power and then repurposed to block every serious egalitarian project of the last century. At some point, the question isn’t whether to “vote out every incumbent,” it’s whether we finally rip up that rotten floor by eliminating the filibuster and supermajority choke points, breaking the seniority stranglehold, and reconsidering a chamber that can permanently overrule national majoritie rather than blaming whichever hapless Democrats happen to be standing on it at the moment.
That is how this was designed in the Declaration and only applied once, but only halfway. That reformation cost almost 800,000 American lives and divided the country in ways we still see. McConnell and Graham are southern leaders who would be right at home in the CSA defending slavery.
How on earth is the DNC involved? Do you even know what their actual role is or are you still swallowing the Bernie villainizing of the DNC from 2016 just because they needed a convenient villain. The DNC have almost no involvement in who is in Congress and none in what they do after they are there. BTW most of OUR congresspeople are doing are great job.
Yes, the DNC is not the boss of Congress. But they fund campaigns, shape messaging, and support candidate. They do not appoint members, write their votes, or run their offices once elected. It's about the money.
The Democratic Party still talks about helping working people and backs some pro‑labor policies, but in coalition terms it’s no longer the working‑class party.
Over the past few decades, non‑college and lower‑income voters have steadily migrated to the GOP, while Democrats have become the party of educated professionals and affluent districts.
Today, Republicans get more working‑class votes overall; Democrats rely on upscale metro constituencies and a shrinking share of working‑class support across races.
This has to change or we are all going to pay even more of a price. I saw this in 2000, and again in 2015 when Bernie was shut out. He represents the working class, which we saw in the stadiums he packed during his campaign, stadiums that then were packed with Trump voters who care about their families and make decisions on limited information.
They do not fund congressional campaigns nor do they shape any messages outside presidential campaign and there they cede most control to the nominee.
One of the big issue I, and the majority of the Democratic base that's too often dismissed as "centrist" or "moderate" have, is that what you say is heavily coded white male. Yes, we have lost them but not because the Democratic Party doesn't support "working people" (again, usually coded, especially on the far left, as white male) but because it isn't racist and misogynist enough. the Graham Platner thing should've made that fault line obvious — he had little support from blue collar Mainers and tons of it from white collar, affluent Mainers.
But your last paragraph reveals why you don't see this. Bernie represented WHITE PEOPLE. He was so desperate for Black faces in his campaign that ... well, I'm not going into details, but I saw closeup how he was willing to stab Democrats in the back to hire a Black face. And how many times do we have to repeat that "packed stadiums" (mostly not stadiums) aren't the same as attracting voters. Bernie was not "shut out" — he lost. In fact, he was given way more resources than he should have been for a guy who refused to join the party.
"One of the big issue I, and the majority of the Democratic base that's too often dismissed as "centrist" or "moderate" have, is that what you say is heavily coded white male."
Thank you. Also, wasn't there some analysis in 2020(?) that showed lower class white males voted for Democrats and it was the more comfortable solidly middle to upper class white males voting overwhelmingly republican?
Oh yeah, definitely. I totally see that. I am talking about his messaging, but yes.
The racial division has worked since antebellum times and is now hard-coded into the American culture. Genocidal racism is reflected in every aspect of American life, from prison population to home ownership to income.
It never went away, and the election of Obama codified that fear into a political force.
A friend once joked that when a president is elected they take him in the back and show him the REAL Kennedy assassination film and ask if they have any questions.
I also think of the different approaches of Black leaders and athletes over the years. Jack Johnson would not bow, and was penalized for it. Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis stayed in their respective lanes while being excellent. Ali did not. King stayed in his lane too, but waiting in the wings were Malcom and Carmichael and the Panthers as a counterweight.
So what will it take now? Are Americans capable of change? Is it a generational thing? I doubt any white boomer will lead us out of this mess.
AOC is my ideal of a capable, working-class and highly educated politician. Tulsi Gabbard was the opposite, but on the surface many non-college voters thought they were the same.
I doubt any white person will lead us out of this mess, although many are sympathetic, and we have to build those ranks. AOC is certain promising, although far from most educated and effective. Sadly, people like Joe Neguse and Lauren Underwood, for instance, get less attention, likely because she reads as white (I get that she is Latina, but Latina/os come in all shades) and they are very dark skinned. She also gets pretty points, another issue our society has. This is more about the coverage she gets than her—like proposing she is even remotely ready to run for president NOW instead of maybe ten or 15 years from now because it gets clicks.
As for Gabbard, anyone who thought they were the same is an idiot. She always gave shapeshifter vibes and had a problematic history. And she was dead in the water after threatening to sue Hillary Clinton for saying she thought "one" of the women running for president was groomed by Russia. There were six women running. None of the other five said anything — Tulsi told on herself!
Bernie wasn't "shut out": HE LOST, just like Trump lost in 2020. He did that by running a campaign that alienated people like me who used to think highly of him. To my shame, I voted for him in the 2016 primary because we were early in the season, and had his bumper sticker on my car, but I was quite done with him when he accused Hillary of wanting people to die because she didn't think his particular Med4All bill was well-drafted (it wasn't): I remembered Hillary fighting like hell for universal health care and taking all kinds of crap for it, managing "only" to win insurance for millions of kids, and he should have remembered that too, since he was in Congress at the time and didn't do shit.
Bernie had no Medicare for All bill that actually did anything (his "free college" bill, which all his young followers loved, was even worse). In 2020 the health care vertical on his campaign website was less than 500 words. It basically said "We'll do Medicare for All and it will be wonderful — no co-pays, no deductibles, no premiums." (Medicare has all those things but if you bring that up he goes "Well it's not really Medicare.") Meanwhile, Warren had almost 10,000 words explaining every step of how to get to universal affordable access to health care and SHE got hectored by the media with "How will you pay for it?" It was in her plan; Bernie had nothing. And I will never forgive him for insinuating he would toss reproductive care to the side of the road if he could get Medicare for Men, I mean, ALL.
He definitely skated on "how will you pay for it,"which Warren covered extensively (and was crucified for by the moneyed interests). He's more explicit now in taxing the billionaires and the corporations, but actual mechanisms for this are dead on arrival. Jockey of Norfolk, be not so bold for Dickon thy master is bought and sold, as the couplet goes.
I do take issue with your reproductive rights claim. Sanders' Medicare for All bill was, if anything, unusually aggressive on this front — it explicitly repeals the Hyde Amendment and covers abortion as part of "comprehensive reproductive care," which is why Planned Parenthood specifically praised it as going further than other bills in Congress at the time. In March 2020 he also released a standalone Reproductive Health Care Justice plan pledging to repeal Hyde via executive action and expand Planned Parenthood funding.
And I see the DNC is setting up the next election to make it three for four in 2028. As long as the leaders of the Democratic party keep turning their backs on the working poor of any gender or race, but especially those with most to lose. We need radical reform, and we are not going to get it.
Probably doesn't matter anyway at this point because the consequences of environmental recklessness over the past century will soon sicken and kill the vast majority of us (starting with the poor and vulnerable, of course).
Victor Berger introduced the concept of abolishing the Senate. It no longer represented the people, but instead was a boys’ club of special interests like the House of Lords. This was in 1916.
Berger opposed World War One and was found guilty of treason and sentenced to twenty years. Read Tad Stoermer’s Resistance History of the United States for a full accounting.
So, let’s abolish the Senate. What purpose does it serve?
Let's put it this way: there is a TON of work to be done to fix our government when the Trump Error comes to an end. While abolishing the Senate or making it more proportional is an interesting idea, it is nowhere near the top of the list.
I write/call my Senators several times a week. Especially lately. My House Rep is Madeleine Dean, a treasure! I call and write to thank her. (Also to ask they bring articles of impeachment weekly even though it won’t pass).
I hope it has an impact along with all I do to GET OUT THE VOTE!!!
I loved what this Louisville Courier Journal columnist, Joseph Gerth, wrote:
“That [Graham's death] got me thinking about Sen. Mitch McConnell, who was rumored to be dead or on life support or in a coma or whatever and was the odds-on favorite to beat Graham to the gates of hell in the days before Graham’s death. And, so with McConnell allegedly on the mend, I figured I’d go ahead and tell you what I think about McConnell now — when no one can complain, ‘How dare you write that about a dead guy?’”
The cult of Trump grows more pathetic as he declines. The odious assholes like Hegseth, Miller, and Mullen know the clock is ticking one way or another, and as he fades they need to double down on the outrage. Flooding the zone with shit is a team effort, the mission focused on exhausting and overwhelming the population so much they give up fighting and just accept the fact that they live in a dictatorship. The problem is that as they get more outrageous and awful, we only get more angry and determined.
It is much the way "strategic bombing" affects the population. Pioneered by Arthur Harris in WW2, the idea was that by dropping white phosphorous on German cities at night the RAF would "de-house" German workers. The reality was that when they were able to actually hit their target cities they burned civilians alive. When you do that, the hatred never dies. Any RAF or American airman who found themself on the ground in Germany in 1944-45 could expect to be beaten to death or worse. Same was true in Japan and Korea. You know why North Korea is the way it is? Because seventy-five years ago Curtis LeMay destroyed 95% of all buildings in the country with napalm and HE. 20% of the population died. Did they surrender? Nope. Still haven't. The only reason the fighting stopped was that Stalin died, and there has been uneasy detente ever since.
That's our future. Trump, Bibi, and Vlad all die and what we're left with is a ruin we have to fix. Maybe it's an opportunity, but if we look at what happened in Russia after Yeltsin was "elected," it still doesn't look good. Meanwhile, more shit. And more, and more.
No errors detected. There have been ideas in the past that an enemy is too far gone, are no longer even human, and that gaining a surrender is either not possible or not optimal.
There were meetings held within the US military on whether there should be a campaign to 'sterilize' the Japanese islands with phosphorus firestorms and a massive ramp-up in nuclear bomb production. The theory was, heavily informed by racist stereotypes and propaganda, that Japanese people were just not completely human, that they had an almost insect-like hive-mind that couldn't be defeated if *any* survived. The idea was that nothing could even grow there for 100 years. Like Carthage.
The proponents were shouted down and the emperor surrendered shortly thereafter. If he had not, at that moment, and resistance turned out to be effective, we would be living, or not, in a very different world.
Meanwhile, Russia is getting the shit blown out their war making warehouses left and right. This isn't going to go well for Trumps bestie Putin and time will tell. And this MFer, I have no words left in me other than just fucking die, in the next five minutes would be great.
Putin is Fubar . In his mind , dying violently by a Ukranian weapon makes him a hero and a legend . He will never resign or come to a peace deal . He will end up like Mussolini up on the telephone pole by his own Russian comrades .
Every sentence with the word FUCK in it is SPOT ON! Can someone Pretty Please take him out of the WH and into an institution (prison, perhaps?). Harp was probably there to change his diaper. Talarico-YES! AND>>>>>>Thanks for the Claudia/Katie pics! (the cassette pile looks like ours!) Have a nice weekend to all!
AGREE! Talerico and Ossoff give me hope...I'm afraid to even have hope. I'll never understand the thinking of a Natalie Harp. What pushed her to the dark side??
Cassettes...😂 Oh god....yeah. I have shoebox or two...somewhere!
I was listening to a local radio show and the host played a mix tape her husband had made. It was so much fun. I suppose the same concept is possible on spotify but there is something about handing an object to someone and saying, I made this for you.
among the cassettes & CDs I no longer have (but they're in my computer) are some with my own and friends' songs - I've fiddled with Garage Band, but it's not the same
Jeff, I find the excuses for not honoring those fallen soldiers absurd, these folks died for us but Donald and the Pentagon just don’t care. Why are they not releasing the true numbers of fallen and injured soldiers? On another topic not covered today..
Generic drugs will have 100% tariffs beginning in 28 then 200% in 29 according to Donald, his justification is that he wants new generic factories to produce in the US.. I’m sure all those seniors who are red hats are thrilled at paying more if in fact they are able to obtain those generic drugs.. my god, how stupid does this regime think we are?
Just heard someone say his ‘bonkers’ 🗳️ interference speech (re: chi na) was actually quite the brilliant set up for the midterms - due to the ppl w/agendas that surround him… 😖😫🤬
Just like they monopolized the numbers during Covid and the first term - you can not believe anything his administration says- they tell him whatever he wants to hear so he won’t have a tantrum ‼️
I am SO sick of this administration- the fake gold everywhere- loads of money coming in from our enemies ( money laundering?) and reporters and their bosses drank the freaking kool aid - but to me it’s all a deliberate attempt to minimize the damage of the “files” .
I wish it was November already- the midterms can’t come soon enough!
As one of those seniors who depend on numerous generic drugs, which I have to buy coverage for since Medicare doesn't do drugs, I can predict that many of my prescriptions will be left unfilled. Buh-bye blood pressure and cholesterol meds. Adios antidepressants. I'll give up food before I give up the pain meds, however. They give me my best emergency exit.
Yeah, this is going to kill lots of people. On my medicare drug plan, I pay very little for the few generics I'm on regularly, but the random ones that I need for issues that pop up - which they do when you're old, as you know - tend to be pricey even when covered. And it's pretty much guaranteed that if those generics are by some miracle made in the USA they will cost way more than even 200% tariffed ones, but we'll be forced by our plans to get them anyway.
I will never believe they died for US. They died because the idiotic so-called president wanted a trophy and his deranged secretary of war had/has a hard-on for lethally killing a bunch of brownish people.
“. . . because they didn’t want Donny to be embarrassed by the ever-rising death toll in the WAR he started for no coherent reason at all.” Well, you could say the reason he started this ridiculous war was to distract us all from his thousands of appearances in the Epstein Files. But we will never forget, right? Thank you, Jeff, as always, especially for the laughs and for the Daily Claudia, both of which keep us sane.
And yet they also are adept--and increasingly so--at getting out there and eviscerating the Republicans and their agenda: Raskin is a human flamethrower, but Ossoff is giving a run for the title; Talarico's not even in office yet and he's amazing in his verbal shots. Khanna, Booker. Kelly. Warren......the list keeps growing. And they've clearly been set loose by Schumer and Jefferies to spread the message.
House Democrats have filed multiple sets of impeachment articles against Donald Trump, most recently including 7 articles introduced by Rep. Shri Thanedar in May 2025 and 13 articles introduced by Rep. John Larson in April 2026, alongside 2 official articles passed by the House during his first term in December 2019.
But they do not have a majority in the House. Every impeachment filed goes no where. (And they have filed several) Trump has said he is afraid if the Democrats take control in November, they will impeach him. That's why he desperately is trying to fix the election this Nov. Don't let him win by your apathy with the Democrats. The Congress matters!!
its not enough....this is all theatrics since they know its going nowhere....they do not use the power they do have to the limit like the other side does so well....we just had 6 of them vote for the illegal war funding
Know who else cosigns this? The millions of Americans who voted for America's Pilonidal Cyst and his Maladministration 2.0. so they could have their prejudice, privilege and/or Internet clout catered to. The troops are only a cudgel to be used to bash anti-war protestors with, to accuse them of disloyalty. The troops themselves are just pawns. That convenient shield from criticism to be whipped out at events to say "We celebrate the troops! Don't talk about the awful things we do, look at us fete a couple soldiers! U-S-A! U-S-A!"
Those in power will bend and manipulate the media & the truth to fit their needs and perpetuate their selfs. Not just this Cavalcade of Corrupt Clowns.
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." LBJ
And a lot of them don't bother to vote or even register because they can't make a connection between parties, Fox News propaganda and the problems in their lives. They see no difference in the parties and probanly don't understand how government works.
^^^THIS. I remember a movie about suffragettes. One of them was talking to a woman protesting the triangle shirtwaist fire. She said, "A vote is an unlocked factory door". That's the message we need to get out more. A vote is medicare benefits, food regulation, better schools.
Pvt. Gonzales is from Carrollton, TX, where we lived for 15+ years and raised our son. She was only a couple of years younger than him and graduated from his rival HS. That war death--and it absolutely is a war death--hit me very hard.
today in Shit That Happened While I Was Busy Writing This Shit—
"Knives are out for Vance in the GOP. His allies say it’s a coordinated ‘op.’"
WaPo gift link: https://bit.ly/3Ruvimw
LET THEM FIGHT
Rubio really, really wants to be president.
And lots of us really really don’t want him to be
Marco Rubio: “I hope that the Houthis stop. They shouldn’t really do that. They got suckered into this by the Iranians. The Houthis largely were smart and stayed out of all this throughout the conflict. They now apparently have gotten themselves suckered into this by going after Saudi Arabia and their ships. Obviously, it’s not a positive development. We’ll see what happens.”
Rubio talking like trump is nauseating. Is he appealing to MAGAs? 🤢
C.O.R.R.E.C.T‼️
I’m with you. That little shit weasel needs to be stomped into dust by AOC!
AOC is not going to be the Democratic nominee.
I agree.
I'd love to see her run the next time around although I'm STILL all in on Kamala Harris. 2028 is still too 'fraught' for magats and this current rabid repuke magat congress not to go all-in to stop a woman. Alexandria 'might' be too young, still, no? (I haven't checked). IF we're absolutely honest...as much as 'I' want a woman to be President...I think we need to elect an 'acceptable' (gawd I despise even saying this) male in 2028 PURELY to ensure that we take ALL of it: the Presidency, Senate and House. Frankly I don't care who won't like my choices so have no need to argue, but I have a few to toss out; Gavin Newsom, Corey Booker, Jon Ossof, Raphael Warnock, Brendan Boyle. Does Wes Moore have any interest? Naturally I can think of SEVERAL women and some other men as well but will leave them out of this for now. One thing to consider: the nasty old fuckwit savagely attacked Gavin during what was supposed to be a self-deprecatory speech with a 'couple' of jabs at those in the room. Instead he went after Gavin - which tells ME he's most afraid of him!
OH! And he went after James Talarico, calling him (again) talafreako - what the flying FUCK? THEN likened HIM to Alfred E. Neumann - again. The Correspondents' Dinner! Of course he also attacked Adam Schiff SO insultingly as well as Jack Smith, calling HIM a 'deranged lunatic'. The only deranged lunatic I saw (hubby insisted on watching this on CNN or C-Span - unsure which) was the orange piggy spewing his usual vicious bullshit. His 'hair' was a weird shade of brown today. I guess KKKaroline wasn't able to find his 'preferred' shade of 'just for men'?
Wish they had done something besides sit there.
All good reasons. Perhaps 2032 pr 2036 if we can expand SCOTUS to 13 and pass the John Lewis VRA.
Haven't we had 13 members of Scotus before? I don't believe doing so would be 'establishing precedent' so they couldn't whine about it (of course they would anyway). I'VE been yelling about going back to 13 for ages! It makes far more sense than 9. More input (hopefully from intelligent individuals WITHOUT partisan political leanings) and far more discussion without a few bulldozing a small minority. Works for me. As for John Lewis, he's my MAIN Personal hero - has been for decades. WE seem to be of the same mind-track. :)
Someone should tell old Dead-eyes that it's not going to happen. That he doesn't need to abase himself anymore. He's never going to get Cuba handed to him.
Let's make sure we demand to see Rubio's "Long Form Birth Certificate" when he runs.
(The auto-fill on my phone keyboard very helpfully filled in Long Form Birth Certificate for me. I'm not sure if my iPhone is Woke or MAGA).
Rubio really, really has no shot. He's perceived as meek, weak and unmanly, which is the kiss of death in a party that ranks candidates by bluster. He always looks like he wishes the floor would swallow him. Even if he weren't Latino, a group the GOP has conditioned its voters to hate, he'd be done for. They want "manly."
He's also an embezzler. Used his Florida GOP AMEX for personal expenses (but paid it back when he got caught)
Manly, in Manly shoes😂😂😂
Big effing Florsheims!
Offhand, I can't think of a single republican i would call "manly".
Testosterone testing required?
Nailed it AP!
Yeah, Rubio is low T which is a big no-no with all of the big T men in this administration like Hogsbreath and uber manly Holy Mike🤮
Oh, right...liddle Mikey is SO manly. I think liddle Mikey is a shrieking cowardly shitweasel. He's been sold a unfillable bill of goods by the white Christian Nationalists who have clearly told him that signing up for their team will save his extremely unmanly ass when they take over. Mikey's problem is that he is afraid--afraid they will and afraid they won't.
"Oh no, pretty Marco what you going to do in those shoes"
Thank you to the Eagles for that great song, so applicable
No way an idiot like Rubio could ever be elected.....wait..
Well, spreading Trump's conspiracy theories and lies around the world, about there being a global left wing terrorist group called "antifa" that is aligned with Cuba is not going to get Rubio my vote. Instead, I am now working on a truth campaign in Germany against these lies which are being embraced by the German Opus Dei Cartel that runs the country now, including Merz and his rube of an Interior Minister Dobrindt. These liars all spread conspiracy theories that mirror the crap that they are doing.
Thanks, Linda.
He’s not big enough for Presidential shoes….
He should be floated out to sea in one of his shoes. I'm sure he would fit.
NEVER gonna happen!
100%.
They got the brainwashed cultists out there saying,"I like Rubio."
How bout no!
No Donnie sewer clowns- the stench is overwhelming.
He better get some new shoes.
OMG in those shoes ?!?!?!
They’re too big and I fairly certain republiCons, as discriminating as they are, don’t like him either. Spawn of foreigner I tell ya…
Damn jeff. I agree, just let the fucking fight it out. I mean what the fuck right? Let the dead eat the goddamned dead.
Also, Jeff, I am curious about your take on the whole Panagram thing that Substack is pushing. And how writers are going to be affected by it (because honestly), too many substackers are using AI way more than they are willing to admit.
I can't figure out how to access it. I'm wondering what it will report about my own posts, because I'm already hearing about false positives (or, at least, what people CLAIM are false positives)
Argh! This community is vital. I have no idea what you are all buzzing about concerning substack. Please keep we non-tech folks in your loop. Appreciate you all.
There is alot of talk going around, and I know a few "contributing devs" in substacks space. They would probably be very displeased by this. But people talk. The AI integrations in substack are just going to get worse and worse Jeff. I think at some point we are just going to have to go back to Wordpress (or self generated web frameworks) and pushing self promotion to get the words out to the people.
Im happy to talk via DM (or other secure medium on this fact) if you ever want deeper insight. But for the most part its just downright scary and NOT fuckin cool.
It’s a disaster , they false positive 1 in every 9000. I doubt you or I would ever get caught ( not that I care because I moved my long form to beehiiv ). But Substack is also using panagram to farm text and teach their ai model to stop what they call plagiarism. I’ve seen a few GitHub pulls
Let the enshittification begin. Already pushing replies out of order based on likes, fucking up what the back arrow does (I'm forever bouncing myself back to the PAGE rather than just the POST), and yesterday I reported what to me looked like a spammy ad. Ads?? Come the fuck on.
Funny you mention Wordpress. Just last week I was thinking "hey, remember blogs??"
Huh, I’d been puzzled by the out of order replies and random bounces and spam ads! Thank you for pointing those out. I’m not just losing it after all. 🤦🏻
Nope, it's real and has been going on for several weeks now. I still have to remind myself that if I want to like AND reply to a comment, do the reply FIRST so I don't have to hunt for the comment that jumped to elsewhere in the thread. This is completely backward from how I - and I assume others - usually interact with socmed: like then reply. WHY would a platform choose to do this? I can only assume it's to keep me on the site longer, scrolling and clicking. It's infuriating.
Me too. I figured it was my overtaxed phone picking up endless crap I have no interest in because my fingers (actually thumb) are floppy and too often hit a wrong key. Now I know it may be a purposely destructive ghost in the machine (ok internet or ether) and not only me. Good to know but bad to have to endure. Still thx for the heads up
And the deleted comments? What is that? Most I'd have read and possibly replied. I do anyway?
I noticed last night while writing a post that at the bottom of the frame there is a pair of toggles for AI checking. I didn't experiment so can't offer anything more.
Oh dear! This Grammy has barely figured out Substack and now changes are coming? I got quickly lost on BlueSky as I was trying to wean off FB. Never ever was on Twitter.
I'm getting pretty good at recognizing AI slop. One can develop a rather cynical point of view after 75 years. But I may have to give up and resort to crosswords and coloring books in the near future. But I can't give up my daily read here. Thanks, Jeff.
Why hasn’t the next Civil War started? Deliberately deleting fallen soldiers? WTAF. 🤬🇦🇺
Jeff, you repeat some themes, like description of trump.
I suppose that could look scraped.
You’re likely to be deemed AI most days Jeff!
Well jeff here you go, and all jeff readers enjoy. A NON AI DRIVEN writing for today's bullshit. Remember, we right in daily with our shit, ways to cope.
https://thistleandmoss.com/p/what-survives-the-morning-the-shelf-the-stall-and-the-animal-that-could-take-anything
Good question. I’m glad you asked it. I just heard about it today. Also, I’ve noticed that the Like icon doesn’t always work which is maddening. Don’t know if that glitch has anything to do with this other stuff or not.
I’ve noticed that glitchy like button too. Once you back out of the comment section, and go back in, it works again.
I have feelings (based on nothing) that he and his handlers are trying to distance Vance from Trump who is as popular as toxic waste.
So is Vance
No, Vance is not as popular as toxic waste! Stop libelling toxic waste!
😂
He is very unlikable.
Aren't they all?
Right on Susan!
trust your instincts~you are NOT alone!
Haven't seen much of Just Dick Vance lately. Did he get tired of the stench? Is he flogging some new book? He's out there trying to be charming but it ain't goin' to happen, Couch Boy. You have no charisma at all.
He’s prob at mass ;)
Donnie would never pick anyone who could out-charisma him.
He's on paternity leave. Y'know, another one of those things that regular people aren't allowed.
Glad his wife got the excellent birthing experience denied to the rest of women in America. Betting she has reproductive choice too. Gee.
Vance is a disgusting sad excuse for a shape shifter. Which ways the wind blowing and where is the money today. Changes his life story like underwear. Lies freely and it's become a constant. Amplifies bullshit like immigrants eating pets. Repeats absolute bullshit and thinks we are stupid enough to buy it. All for me none for thee. Nope. Bye.
He's been on podcasts bragging how great his life is now.
Well how nice for him! I wonder why?
Possibly his tone deafness, or maybe he thinks it sounds very alpha.
He’s up nights with his new baby. Parental leave?
I hope, hope, hope more photos are published of him in his pre-beard days.
"They have likened him to former president Barack Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders "
Best laugh I've had all day. . .
Who "they"?
WTAF?
Huh?
Thanks for the gift, but cannot read without signing in, and I left the WaPo, so not returning.
JD Vance and Peter Thiel belong to the group of people who scare and disgust me and a lot of other people. It does not stop me from being an activist though.
It doesn't take much to undermine this creep. He's pretty good at making himself unlikable and toxic, no help needed.
Someone called him temu Teddy Ruxpin. Wish I'd come up with that.
He must , he is speaking exactly how dumfuck speaks . pretty ducking pathetic .😑
You have to give them your email to read it
I won't "sign in" with WaPo. I'd prefer not to get their ads forever after. But I appreciate your gift, Jeff.
I don’t really care. Do you?
Verrrrrry Interestinggggggg
fun fact: in 1984, it's "unpersoned"
but that looks wrong to me, so I used my own made-up word instead of the one Orwell made up
why on earth did Natalie Harp need to be there?
Because Hope Hicks was unavailable???
Natalie is Trump’s emotional support bimbo.
She needs a harness that says, “Support Animal,” for Orange Fatty.
PERFECT description!
tRump needs a tranquilizer slave. Remember the guy in tRump I who walked around playing Andrew Lloyd Webber songs to calm him down?
Looked it up. His name is Max Miller—former “Music Man,” now Congressman Max Miller for Ohio's 7th District
https://www.vulture.com/2021/09/donald-trump-aide-cats-memory-angry.html
Trump thinks she’s his daughter. His daughters are elsewhere.
Russian asset running our demented president. Nothing to see here!
Unperson reminds me of Handmaids Tale too, for some reason.
sort’a like Roger Maris getting an asterisk for breaking the Babe’s record, JHC !!!
Nothing wrong with that. Keeps the brain from becoming pudding like What’s His Fuck’s is.
My son was in the Afghan war, spent 6 years in the Army. I have questions about what declassifying these four soldiers as war deaths does to their death benefits. Some have spouses, and children. Does this change what their future benefits will be? How can anyone in Washington allow this to happen? Now is the time for Piss Drunk Pete to be removed from office, and impeachment proceedings to begin. Enough bullshit, enough!
good point. not being military, I didn't even think to ask this
It also crossed my mind that by unpersoning these troops, less money will be paid out to the beneficiaries. More money for the golden dome, less money for you.
He can be impeached by Congress with a simple majority, but he will be tried by the Senate, but can only be convicted and removed by a Supermajority in the senate, which we will never have if Democrats don't vote in large numbers to elect Senators. Elect a Democratic President and he can removed.
Wouldn't want this stain anywhere near me. It will not come out. I guess there must be states where the actual majority of people do want women back in the kitchen, women dying being denied basic medically necessary procedures D&C, removal of ectopic pregnancies, want people removed from all assistance no matter what, healthcare is for the rich or well insured BY US (Mitch McConnell, professional parasite, we are looking at you) who are vocally supportive of ICE goons rounding up people. Who spend time worrying about what someone else reads, does for fun, sexual orientation is, what color they are. What a fucking colossal waste of time.
100% !!!!!!!!!!!
There was just a segment on MS-NOW about this very issue. The families will, in fact, not be entitled to the benefits from their loved ones' being killed in battle, because now the dead soldiers weren't killed during a war.
Of all the outrages perpetrated by this administration, this is the one that has evoked a white hot rage in me--beyond speech, beyond the power of words to convey. I have never heard of anything more cowardly, more dishonorable, more repulsive. We have known of Donnie Demento's contempt for the military for his entire life--what he's said as president isn't a revelation to anyone who has had any awareness of his existence from his first excursions into slimy tabloids. What pushes this into a realm of filthiness beyond any other action in this administration is that it has been approved and instituted by one of the military's own: Kegseth, who makes much of his "service" in the Armed Forces.
Is there any chance that the military will finally come to its senses, turn off Fox News, and stop supporting this collection of vileness?
O. M. G. THIS IS EVIL, PERSONIFIED. These killers need to be taken down!
This enrages me too.
I would guess that this disrespect of our military people makes Hegseth despised “like never thought possible,” and Trump much harder to accept.
That was my first thought. Swinton got a posthumous promotion to staff sgt., which might mean a bump of some kind. My uncle got promoted to bird colonel so 100% of moving from Wiesbaden back to Texas would be paid. Good commanding officers look out for their people.
I thought of that too. If there's a chance to cheat and deprive people of benefits, of course they will grab it. Billionaires need more billions!
I’ve made the same point in other comment sections. My dad died of a peacetime service connected accident and it took my mom three years to finally get her widow’s benefits. I’m pretty sure the families will have issues because of this evil move.
Thank you Jeff.
A daily reminder that Secretary of War (Crimes) Pete Hegseth, an incompetent alcoholic, former Fox "News" pundit views his "warfighters" as pawns in a video game and couldn't be bothered with those sent back in caskets. And we already know that the cowardly pedo criminal elect has called those who paid the ultimate sacrifice "losers and suckers."
Why should we be surprised?
I couldn’t help but notice that the four included one white male, one black male, and two Hispanic women. Hegseth can posture all day long about DEI (which to him means only white men are worthy), testosterone, and our “Warriors”, but THIS is the actual face of our troops.
Thank you Nancy -and it’s the actual face of the United States.
As you say, he can talk about it. The criminal elect can "courageously” talk about putting our sons and daughters in harm’s way (to further obscure the Epstein-Trump-Maxwell files, his blatant corruption, and his numerous policy failures), but I continue to remember his cowardice -running to get a doctors note to stay at home while his peers went to fight in Vietnam, his cowardice in his refusal to sit down with Robert Mueller, and his lack of accountability for the suffering and death he leaves in his wake on a daily basis.
I don't understand why no one has pointed out the preznit's bone spur's could have been easily removed through a minor surgery. I had bone spur's removed and lol they never came back.
I suspect his bone spur was located in the part of the brain where "courage" would normally be located.
Well said.
My friend, who will never stop seething about this, was married to a guy who went to West Point, taught at West Point, fought in Iraq and served for 20 years in the reserves. And he has bone spurs.
ur assuming he had bone spurs
It was cheaper than bribing the draft board.
And I don't see Barron or Kai enlisting.
A snowball's chance in Hell that they ever will
He has always been a pampered rich boy afraid of any discomfort. God forbid his manicure gets messed up or his hair gets out of place. That's why they slather on the makeup like he's an aging drag queen. (My apologies to all drag queens)
Our Olympic teams reflect our diversity. Watch the rw nutjobs start handwringing over that next.
I don't know about that. It seems that athletes get a pass on the melanin thing. I guess that the nutjobs just understand that they are superior physical specimins.
The right will dump on them if they underperform
Is that all? My my you are tough. You must have a high T number. (Pls note: comment meant to be sarcastic. It's a small way to lower my BP on reading this stuff with no one nearby to sound off to. Your memory is great)
Sarcasm is encouraged, lowers BP, and is not contraindicated with other medications.
Thanks! It's one of the reasons I like Substack and this stack in particular.
And my first thought was this administration puts zero value on the life of 3 of those 4.
Four of four really. I doubt the white man was a billionaire so, they don't care about him either.
He's from Hawaii, right? According to Donnie Demento, that's not even part of the US. Plus.....Obama!
Yeah just like all the wars before. Black and brown people are disproportionately the casualties. EVERY SINGLE TIME
It's what they've looked like until now, because the military was one place in society where advancement depended strictly on competence and merit. That's why it attracted so many people who would be shut out of many roles in society for not being white or male enough. Now that Hegseth has tossed all of that to the curb, he's going to significantly weaken the military.
I noticed.
Hegseth should watch his drinking since alcohol lowers testosterone and habitual alcohol use reduces testosterone by a lot even when the alcoholic is not consuming alcohol.
Prison for war crimes would help dry him out and he could do all the pushups he wants in his cell.
Didn't he try to do a pulll up for the camera and failed?
I think the only pull-ups active in this administration are the ones the criminal elect has to wear.
He did. It was pathetic.
Wasn't that rfkjr?
both have done pathetic attempts at chinups
He didn't do the pull ups correctly. In other words, he cheated . He was doing all sorts of shenanigans to get his chin up.
That was rfkjr, I believe.
both of them
(Coukde?)
For the particular war crimes he committed, the precedent is that death is mandatory. Some were shot, others hanged, but none allowed to live.
Well he swore to stop drinking to get this God of War gig. But I'll bet anyone willing to turn their camera on (like this evening) could record him pounding down the mojitos.
You wonder how the IC & Military really are handling all this internally…
Military keeps kissing his ASS - when we all know what they should do!!
I think that’s why we’ve seen the resignation of many in leadership. It will also be interesting to see how many re-enlist based upon the complete hypocrisy, incompetence, and failure at the top.
Absolutely.
Anyone who won't has been pushed out.
Military isn't kissing any asses; they just put their heads down and do their jobs.
Defend the constitution - isn’t that a priority? The prob is they are under the Presidents
guidance; and if the President isn’t defending the constitution, then the military goes along with him.
I suspect the reason the criminal elect and his human garbage Secretary Pete have replaced much of the hierarchy and are trying to chill journalism is that while soldiers have a duty to disobey illegal orders, how do you prove an illegal order was given if it is completely covered up?
"...I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic... and... obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ)."
If an order is manifestly unlawful, military personnel are expected not to carry it out.
Examples often used in military ethics and law include orders to:
Intentionally kill civilians.
Torture detainees.
Execute prisoners of war.
Commit other war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Carrying out such an order can expose the individual service member to criminal liability. "I was just following orders" has generally not been accepted as a complete defense for clearly illegal acts.
Intentionally kill citizens… as in over 100 school children.
Oooops… we hit the wrong target!.
There once was a Tapper named Jake
A newsman? No more of a snake
Lashed out at ol' Joe
While sucking Drumpf's toes
You think this is news? It is FAKE!
As for Drumpf, he's a madman, insane
His mind has now swirled down the drain
A sweaty dumb fuck
He is running amok
I wish I could truly refrain.
From the curse words that sear through my mind
'Cause MAGA is willfully blind
To their hallowed dear leader
A ghastly old creature
Oh Lord, help me get through this grind!
If you like what you just read, please feel free to subscribe to my Substack for a dose of limericks, poems, haikus and songs that will hopefully bring a smile to your face during this time of stress and nonsense.
From last month, when Vance was bypassed by Qatar PM al Thani in a high level meeting in Switzerland:
Phony stuffed shirt Vance
Did not even rate a glance
From Qatar's prime minister
Because JD's too sinister
For giving that couch no chance
That poor couch should call the police!
This is your best one yet. Gotta save it for posterity.
One of your best!
Thank you!!
The hate directed at Jake Tapper by some here is ridiculous. He is a solid reporter and his book about Biden was fair game. And the idea that he is soft on Trump is beyond ridiculous. It is a flat out lie. One might even call it Trumpian.
You appear to be Jake Tapper's publicist, Kimmel.
So tell us, when is Tapper's "bombshell" book on the mental and physical failings of Donald Trump coming out?
You appear not to understand how journalism works. He's reporting on the failures of the Trump maladministration every day.
You did not answer my question.
When will Tapper's best-selling smash-hit BOOK on Donald Trump's physical and mental deterioration come out? Then when will his publicity-seeking book tour begin? Before or after January 2029?
…which begs the question: “Why AREN’T we shaming / protesting the actual CONGRESS MEMBERS that are enabling all of this???”
The Democratic establishment bears a huge responsibility for this. I think we need to start a campaign to vote out every incumbent we possibly can. There are a few exceptions, but not many.
Start with Charles E. Schumer.
And Hakeem Jeffries. As Wajahat Ali has stated for many months, Jeffries is not made for this moment.
Jeffries is the worst. He’s even more passive than Johnson. Pelosi would have fought this shit, at least. He and Schumer are terrible. They’re like the team that played the Harlem Globetrotters, only on the court to simulate a game. They are not players in any way, lying down for everything Johnson has done and abdicating all power and resistance. It’s infuriating.
Agree, J. And Jeffries was Nancy’s hand-picked successor. Grrr. 😖
And Pelosi was one of the most effective speakers in history and had a good eye for talent. yes, she hand-picked the team that succeeded her, Hoyer and Clyburn, but she chose well (also Kathrine Clark and Pete Aguilar). And THEY are choosing well in bringing younger people like Joe Neguse up the leadership ladder (You really need to watch him. He's brilliant. I love his very slightly sarcastic edge when he's grilling some Trump administration idiot who clearly is not in his league.)
Exactly! I've always likened the Democrats to the Washington Generals. There to look like there's opposition, but really just meant to haplessly flail while the GOPtrotters pull their shenanigans all over the court.
Jeffries is doing an excellent job, if you actually follow him with information and not a wish list. Schumer has pretty much been kicking ass too, although he is definitely boring.
Jeffries and Schumer are competent minority leaders, but ‘excellent’ and ‘kicking ass’ don't jibe with what they have actually accomplished. Under a unified Republican government, Democrats don’t control the agenda.
Jeffries can hold a marathon speech and keep House Democrats mostly unified, and Schumer can cut defensive deals in the Senate, but the big policy outcomes still reflect Republican priorities.
If we judge them by concrete gains for Democratic voters and not just their tone or media clips, the record is more ‘not totally surrendering’ than ‘kicking ass." They need to be hamming the messaging the way Jon Osfoff is doing. They need to be feisty and resistance-centric.
Interesting
Schumer's not up for reelection this year.
So what? He can still be replaced as Minority Leader and it needs to happen before the midterms.
Before the midterms? So we should completely destabilize the party and create chaos, and probably lose several winnable seats all because Schumer's iMAGE isn't fiery enough for you. He's doing an excellent job under the circumstances and would exactly would you replace him with (there would be a monstrous fight that would tear the party apart). BTW Schumer's voting record is more progressive than Bernie Sanders'. So there's that.
No, not before the midterms. In general. Term limits and reform of the systems. Thirteen Justices. Representation in the senate that matches congress. Campaign finance rules. Ranked choice voting. An end to so-called “originalism.” Fair taxation. Single-payer healthcare and higher education. A GI Bill for everyone.
Thank you. I keep reminding myself that many, many people weren't paying much attention to "politics" before Trump was elected the first time, and some of them didn't catch on till around Jan. 20, 2025. As to how Congress works -- they're not there yet. Which is understandable, because Congress under Republican leadership barely works at all.
Not going to happen. Safe bet that if the Democrats win the majority in the Senate, he will not be re-elected majority leader.
Fwiw, in that scenario I wouldn't be surprised if Schumer decided to stand down, as Pelosi did in the House.
I think he will be because I think people who do not follow the Senate closed profoundly misunderstand what he is supposed to be doing and what he in fact has done almost incredibly well in a situation where the Democrats are 6 votes in the majority.
Through what means? A great rising up of the unwashed hoards who have had enough of the geriatric country club? The DNC is dead, it just hasn't fallen down yet.
How many times do we have to repeat that the DNC has nothing to do with Congress, that it was plucked out of thin air to be appointed the official villain of the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016? And no one who doesn't get this should be. commenting on the job Chuck Schumer is doing.
Recall the motherfucker.
No such process exists.
My knowledge of procedure is lacking. We can recall mayors but not senators, got it. That's too bad. Might something else be done?
Yeah because we need to attack Democrats since they are not enough Republicans in office. Wake up! The Democrats are doing as much as they can seeing as they are in a minority in ALL 3 branches and so the press makes no effort to cover any of the things they are actually doing, which is a lot under the circumstances.
You know why we are in this mess? Becauae Republicans vote for Republicans no matter what. But the Democrats? No they have to be perfect. But the press still won't report on it because its owned by Republicans.
Respectfully I disagree. A minority party can’t always win the vote, but it can still win time, shape the debate, force the majority to show its hand, and build the case for the next election.The tools are weak because the system is designed on the same principles that allowed for and even encouraged slavery. The entire thing is rotten and needs to be ripped out like a black mold-infested floor.
They are doing that and we need to pay attention to what they are doing. We have some amazing advocates, but too often I see us being shallow and going gaga over the last attractive person to make a fiery speech.
or the twenty seconds you see in Instagram or Tiktok.
I agree. When republicans are the minority they do EVERYTHING possible to stymie democratic efforts to unfuck the country. They exploit the most obscure, weirdest and oldest rules. They consistently set the narrative. We can do that too.
Billionaire media has amplified this as they sanewash Trump. They did a hit job on Biden, who was a much more progressive president than anyone since Johnson in terms of policies.
Start with all the Republican senators who voted against the war powers act this week.
And stop blaming the minority party for being the minority. Blame the voters who put them in the minority.
I blame the fact that their biggest campaign contributors are the Citizens United super pacs owned by billionaires and their main job is to get re-elected next term, which requires lying down for their actual constituents (the billionaires) and not their nominal ones (the district of voters). The game is rigged, and we lose every time.
"Vote out every incumbent"?? Are you serious? The DNC doesn't elect legislators. The DSCC and the DCCC have a bigger hand in it, but so do state and local parties, and especially volunteer and paid campaign staff.
Know what would happen if your fantasy campaign actually succeeded? Republican legislators would have all the seniority, and on the Democratic side, much power and influence would fall to the (unelected) staff of the individual legislators and the various committees.
You are so right. And MOST of our incumbents are fantastic. Sure, we have outliers such as John Fetterman and a few others. But they are doing a phenomenal job in difficult conditions. Follow some of the hearings and listen to how they're humiliating Trump's flunkies, setting them up for worse treatment when they take the majority. WE need to stop being shallow and regurgitating stuff we've vaguely heard like "Evil DNC." Start watching the videos of some of the questioning our senators and congresspeople have been doing, and not just ones from young, attractive people we have crushes on. Old white guys like Jack Reed, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jamie Raskin and Ed Markey are doing amazing work too.
Sheldon Whitehouse is one of my heroes. He'd be a fantastic Majority Leader.
I think he's looking forward to a role he has a passion for: he's currently ranking member of the environment and public works committee, so he'd be in line to be chairman. And the environment is what drives him.
🎯👏👍Anastasia, we are in agreement on favorite 'old white guys' - and I'll add Adam Schiff to your list. Jamie Raskin has been the ideal example of what makes a truly great politician for years; without grandstanding, with honor and humility, he is a Constitutional scholar with profound love for democracy 💙. And I am blessed to have Ed Markey as my Senator.
Thank you Susanna, for pointing out what should be obvious. Some of us are letting our 'zeal' get in the way of our thinking skills. We need to be focused on voting for the most effective candidates, and replacing the ineffective with promising - tho unproven - candidates. If a legislator has a good track record, why in the world would we want to replace them?
Exactly! And I'm also weary to the bone of the yammering that the Democrats aren't doing anything.....Idiot voters put in a Republican majority in both Houses, thereby handcuffing the Democrats. However, the Democrats have been getting louder and louder and clearer and clearer about the catastrophe their GQP colleagues are allowing--even though it's also extremely difficult to break through the wall of the Trump-supporting media moguls.
They needed to be intensely loud in January 2025.
People should study how are Democratic government actually works. If you really want to blame the Democrats, start with Fetterman who votes with Republicans more than with Democrats, but even though he is really a Republican, he said he will still run as a Democrat. So what do you do with that?
Fetterman is definitely a problem, although his does NOT vote with Republicans more than Democrats. While he has the worst voting record of any Democrat, he's 30 points below Liz Warren, the most progressive Democrat but SIXTY POINTS more progressive than the most progressive Republican, Susie Concern.
LOL, Susie Concern.
Ditto Collins. Maybe voters will educate themselves and stop watching TV. Maybe elections will be about issues instead of popularity. Watch season 4 of the Wire to see how elections and public office are different. Governing should be something other than a path to personal enrichment. Late-stage capitalism is eating itself before our eyes, starting with the poor as it always does.
Collins is a Republican though. But I guarantee that continuing to attack Schumer to the point. of demanding he be ousted NOW would be a real gift to her reelection campaign.
I'll concede the basic point, but with caveats.
The deeper problem isn’t a few bad leaders, it’s a chamber whose very operating system was built to thwart majoritarian, especially progressive, change. The Senate was explicitly designed to be slower, more insulated, and less responsive than the House; equal state representation and six‑year terms were meant to “cool” popular impulses rather than enact them. Over time, layers of procedure that include unlimited debate, holds, blue slips, unanimous consent, committee gatekeeping have turned that bias toward caution into a systemic veto on most ambitious legislation.
LBJ knew nothing moved without mastering these arcane rules, seniority hierarchies, and back‑room unanimous consent deals. Johnson bent the institution almost to its breaking point just to get the first modest civil‑rights bill since Reconstruction because the chamber was structurally wired against it.
Think about the filibuster. it wasn’t in the Constitution at all, but emerged after the Senate accidentally deleted the “previous question” motion in 1806, which had allowed a majority to cut off debate. That housekeeping change, urged by Aaron Burr as "tidying," eventually produced a world in which a determined minority can block almost any bill unless 60 senators agree to invoke cloture.
These tools have been repeatedly used to protect sectional and reactionary interests, most notoriously by Southern blocs filibustering anti‑lynching laws and civil‑rights measures. The senior Southern committee barons atop the seniority system, could bury progressive bills in committee without ever allowing an up‑or‑down vote. They ruled the country from a back bench that voters could barely see. This is now happening in all three branches, especially SCOTUS.
The First Republic was a union built around slave and free state parity, equal state suffrage, and mechanisms that let a cohesive minority veto national policy. The Senate’s structure of two senators per state regardless of population, the seniority system, the filibuster, and the reverence for “traditions” have set that antebellum logic in stone even though the economic and moral world that produced it is long gone.
That is what your question pre-supposes, and by asking it you are defending it.
Swap out Schumer for someone younger, or Jeffries for someone angrier, but we are still playing on a floor that was laid to preserve slave power and then repurposed to block every serious egalitarian project of the last century. At some point, the question isn’t whether to “vote out every incumbent,” it’s whether we finally rip up that rotten floor by eliminating the filibuster and supermajority choke points, breaking the seniority stranglehold, and reconsidering a chamber that can permanently overrule national majoritie rather than blaming whichever hapless Democrats happen to be standing on it at the moment.
That is how this was designed in the Declaration and only applied once, but only halfway. That reformation cost almost 800,000 American lives and divided the country in ways we still see. McConnell and Graham are southern leaders who would be right at home in the CSA defending slavery.
Very factual and rational. Sometimes that's not how it goes.
How on earth is the DNC involved? Do you even know what their actual role is or are you still swallowing the Bernie villainizing of the DNC from 2016 just because they needed a convenient villain. The DNC have almost no involvement in who is in Congress and none in what they do after they are there. BTW most of OUR congresspeople are doing are great job.
Yes, the DNC is not the boss of Congress. But they fund campaigns, shape messaging, and support candidate. They do not appoint members, write their votes, or run their offices once elected. It's about the money.
The Democratic Party still talks about helping working people and backs some pro‑labor policies, but in coalition terms it’s no longer the working‑class party.
Over the past few decades, non‑college and lower‑income voters have steadily migrated to the GOP, while Democrats have become the party of educated professionals and affluent districts.
Today, Republicans get more working‑class votes overall; Democrats rely on upscale metro constituencies and a shrinking share of working‑class support across races.
This has to change or we are all going to pay even more of a price. I saw this in 2000, and again in 2015 when Bernie was shut out. He represents the working class, which we saw in the stadiums he packed during his campaign, stadiums that then were packed with Trump voters who care about their families and make decisions on limited information.
They do not fund congressional campaigns nor do they shape any messages outside presidential campaign and there they cede most control to the nominee.
One of the big issue I, and the majority of the Democratic base that's too often dismissed as "centrist" or "moderate" have, is that what you say is heavily coded white male. Yes, we have lost them but not because the Democratic Party doesn't support "working people" (again, usually coded, especially on the far left, as white male) but because it isn't racist and misogynist enough. the Graham Platner thing should've made that fault line obvious — he had little support from blue collar Mainers and tons of it from white collar, affluent Mainers.
But your last paragraph reveals why you don't see this. Bernie represented WHITE PEOPLE. He was so desperate for Black faces in his campaign that ... well, I'm not going into details, but I saw closeup how he was willing to stab Democrats in the back to hire a Black face. And how many times do we have to repeat that "packed stadiums" (mostly not stadiums) aren't the same as attracting voters. Bernie was not "shut out" — he lost. In fact, he was given way more resources than he should have been for a guy who refused to join the party.
"One of the big issue I, and the majority of the Democratic base that's too often dismissed as "centrist" or "moderate" have, is that what you say is heavily coded white male."
Thank you. Also, wasn't there some analysis in 2020(?) that showed lower class white males voted for Democrats and it was the more comfortable solidly middle to upper class white males voting overwhelmingly republican?
Oh yeah, definitely. I totally see that. I am talking about his messaging, but yes.
The racial division has worked since antebellum times and is now hard-coded into the American culture. Genocidal racism is reflected in every aspect of American life, from prison population to home ownership to income.
It never went away, and the election of Obama codified that fear into a political force.
A friend once joked that when a president is elected they take him in the back and show him the REAL Kennedy assassination film and ask if they have any questions.
I also think of the different approaches of Black leaders and athletes over the years. Jack Johnson would not bow, and was penalized for it. Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis stayed in their respective lanes while being excellent. Ali did not. King stayed in his lane too, but waiting in the wings were Malcom and Carmichael and the Panthers as a counterweight.
So what will it take now? Are Americans capable of change? Is it a generational thing? I doubt any white boomer will lead us out of this mess.
AOC is my ideal of a capable, working-class and highly educated politician. Tulsi Gabbard was the opposite, but on the surface many non-college voters thought they were the same.
I doubt any white person will lead us out of this mess, although many are sympathetic, and we have to build those ranks. AOC is certain promising, although far from most educated and effective. Sadly, people like Joe Neguse and Lauren Underwood, for instance, get less attention, likely because she reads as white (I get that she is Latina, but Latina/os come in all shades) and they are very dark skinned. She also gets pretty points, another issue our society has. This is more about the coverage she gets than her—like proposing she is even remotely ready to run for president NOW instead of maybe ten or 15 years from now because it gets clicks.
As for Gabbard, anyone who thought they were the same is an idiot. She always gave shapeshifter vibes and had a problematic history. And she was dead in the water after threatening to sue Hillary Clinton for saying she thought "one" of the women running for president was groomed by Russia. There were six women running. None of the other five said anything — Tulsi told on herself!
Bernie wasn't "shut out": HE LOST, just like Trump lost in 2020. He did that by running a campaign that alienated people like me who used to think highly of him. To my shame, I voted for him in the 2016 primary because we were early in the season, and had his bumper sticker on my car, but I was quite done with him when he accused Hillary of wanting people to die because she didn't think his particular Med4All bill was well-drafted (it wasn't): I remembered Hillary fighting like hell for universal health care and taking all kinds of crap for it, managing "only" to win insurance for millions of kids, and he should have remembered that too, since he was in Congress at the time and didn't do shit.
Bernie had no Medicare for All bill that actually did anything (his "free college" bill, which all his young followers loved, was even worse). In 2020 the health care vertical on his campaign website was less than 500 words. It basically said "We'll do Medicare for All and it will be wonderful — no co-pays, no deductibles, no premiums." (Medicare has all those things but if you bring that up he goes "Well it's not really Medicare.") Meanwhile, Warren had almost 10,000 words explaining every step of how to get to universal affordable access to health care and SHE got hectored by the media with "How will you pay for it?" It was in her plan; Bernie had nothing. And I will never forgive him for insinuating he would toss reproductive care to the side of the road if he could get Medicare for Men, I mean, ALL.
He definitely skated on "how will you pay for it,"which Warren covered extensively (and was crucified for by the moneyed interests). He's more explicit now in taxing the billionaires and the corporations, but actual mechanisms for this are dead on arrival. Jockey of Norfolk, be not so bold for Dickon thy master is bought and sold, as the couplet goes.
I do take issue with your reproductive rights claim. Sanders' Medicare for All bill was, if anything, unusually aggressive on this front — it explicitly repeals the Hyde Amendment and covers abortion as part of "comprehensive reproductive care," which is why Planned Parenthood specifically praised it as going further than other bills in Congress at the time. In March 2020 he also released a standalone Reproductive Health Care Justice plan pledging to repeal Hyde via executive action and expand Planned Parenthood funding.
And I see the DNC is setting up the next election to make it three for four in 2028. As long as the leaders of the Democratic party keep turning their backs on the working poor of any gender or race, but especially those with most to lose. We need radical reform, and we are not going to get it.
Probably doesn't matter anyway at this point because the consequences of environmental recklessness over the past century will soon sicken and kill the vast majority of us (starting with the poor and vulnerable, of course).
Victor Berger introduced the concept of abolishing the Senate. It no longer represented the people, but instead was a boys’ club of special interests like the House of Lords. This was in 1916.
Berger opposed World War One and was found guilty of treason and sentenced to twenty years. Read Tad Stoermer’s Resistance History of the United States for a full accounting.
So, let’s abolish the Senate. What purpose does it serve?
Let's put it this way: there is a TON of work to be done to fix our government when the Trump Error comes to an end. While abolishing the Senate or making it more proportional is an interesting idea, it is nowhere near the top of the list.
‘controlled’ opposition much?…😒
My point is that the world has but the rules still favor the 19th century slaveowners.
Yes, you should shame the Republucans who do not call out Trump ever.
I write/call my Senators several times a week. Especially lately. My House Rep is Madeleine Dean, a treasure! I call and write to thank her. (Also to ask they bring articles of impeachment weekly even though it won’t pass).
I hope it has an impact along with all I do to GET OUT THE VOTE!!!
The internet is outdoing itself these days. Saw "Mitch McConnell is on Eternity Leave", and TFG referred to as "Dozo the Clown."
Eternity Leave is *chef’s kiss*
I loved what this Louisville Courier Journal columnist, Joseph Gerth, wrote:
“That [Graham's death] got me thinking about Sen. Mitch McConnell, who was rumored to be dead or on life support or in a coma or whatever and was the odds-on favorite to beat Graham to the gates of hell in the days before Graham’s death. And, so with McConnell allegedly on the mend, I figured I’d go ahead and tell you what I think about McConnell now — when no one can complain, ‘How dare you write that about a dead guy?’”
😂😂😂
Hadn’t heard the one about “Eternity Leave.” That’s brilliant!
The cult of Trump grows more pathetic as he declines. The odious assholes like Hegseth, Miller, and Mullen know the clock is ticking one way or another, and as he fades they need to double down on the outrage. Flooding the zone with shit is a team effort, the mission focused on exhausting and overwhelming the population so much they give up fighting and just accept the fact that they live in a dictatorship. The problem is that as they get more outrageous and awful, we only get more angry and determined.
It is much the way "strategic bombing" affects the population. Pioneered by Arthur Harris in WW2, the idea was that by dropping white phosphorous on German cities at night the RAF would "de-house" German workers. The reality was that when they were able to actually hit their target cities they burned civilians alive. When you do that, the hatred never dies. Any RAF or American airman who found themself on the ground in Germany in 1944-45 could expect to be beaten to death or worse. Same was true in Japan and Korea. You know why North Korea is the way it is? Because seventy-five years ago Curtis LeMay destroyed 95% of all buildings in the country with napalm and HE. 20% of the population died. Did they surrender? Nope. Still haven't. The only reason the fighting stopped was that Stalin died, and there has been uneasy detente ever since.
That's our future. Trump, Bibi, and Vlad all die and what we're left with is a ruin we have to fix. Maybe it's an opportunity, but if we look at what happened in Russia after Yeltsin was "elected," it still doesn't look good. Meanwhile, more shit. And more, and more.
No errors detected. There have been ideas in the past that an enemy is too far gone, are no longer even human, and that gaining a surrender is either not possible or not optimal.
There were meetings held within the US military on whether there should be a campaign to 'sterilize' the Japanese islands with phosphorus firestorms and a massive ramp-up in nuclear bomb production. The theory was, heavily informed by racist stereotypes and propaganda, that Japanese people were just not completely human, that they had an almost insect-like hive-mind that couldn't be defeated if *any* survived. The idea was that nothing could even grow there for 100 years. Like Carthage.
The proponents were shouted down and the emperor surrendered shortly thereafter. If he had not, at that moment, and resistance turned out to be effective, we would be living, or not, in a very different world.
Who is Mullen?
Markwayne Kristi Noem II Electric Boogaloo
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Secretary of Homeland Security
Ta. I didn’t recognize him without his first names.
Meanwhile, Russia is getting the shit blown out their war making warehouses left and right. This isn't going to go well for Trumps bestie Putin and time will tell. And this MFer, I have no words left in me other than just fucking die, in the next five minutes would be great.
🥂🥂
"in the next five minutes"
We say that every day. PLEASE!
Putin is Fubar . In his mind , dying violently by a Ukranian weapon makes him a hero and a legend . He will never resign or come to a peace deal . He will end up like Mussolini up on the telephone pole by his own Russian comrades .
I know Trump has said this, but my gut tells me Putin doesn’t have long before he’s toppled in a coup. In the next 5 minutes would also be good.
everything in 5 minutes,George?
err… Bill?
Every sentence with the word FUCK in it is SPOT ON! Can someone Pretty Please take him out of the WH and into an institution (prison, perhaps?). Harp was probably there to change his diaper. Talarico-YES! AND>>>>>>Thanks for the Claudia/Katie pics! (the cassette pile looks like ours!) Have a nice weekend to all!
AGREE! Talerico and Ossoff give me hope...I'm afraid to even have hope. I'll never understand the thinking of a Natalie Harp. What pushed her to the dark side??
Cassettes...😂 Oh god....yeah. I have shoebox or two...somewhere!
Make sure you have a No. 2 wooden pencil to re-spool the cassettes! 😁
HA! YES!!
Money! I bet she's fleecing old Trump every day. I hope anyway.
You’re probably right. But…ew.
Is “fleecing” another word for something else?
thanks to a move 10 yrs ago, I am pleased to announce that I have ZERO cassettes, 8-tracks or CDs
LOL! I remember painstakingly mixing cassettes with my favorite workout music. And that little Sony Walkman finally bit the dust…I wore it out! 😂
I still have my CD’s though.
Never 8-Tracks…
I was listening to a local radio show and the host played a mix tape her husband had made. It was so much fun. I suppose the same concept is possible on spotify but there is something about handing an object to someone and saying, I made this for you.
For sure! Someone took their time! A precious gift.
among the cassettes & CDs I no longer have (but they're in my computer) are some with my own and friends' songs - I've fiddled with Garage Band, but it's not the same
Thats so cool…Garage Band is above my pay grade but keep exploring and doing! good for the soul!
Oh I have cds, 8 tracks , cassettes… albums… and what do I listen to? Apple Music or Spotify… or an oldies station!
Same. I’m not a fan of being held “hostage” to a streaming service, so I have kept all my CD’s. You have to feel like you have SOME control. 🤣
I think I got rid of mine during some clean-0ut. They still pop up from time to time. Still holding on to all my CDs.
I dumped Apple music- my cassettes & CDs are sufficient!
She's part of a line of succession that included Ivanka and Hope Hicks. Young women willing to sell their souls for proximity to power and wealth.
Fuck, yeah!
Harp is there to feed him tidbits of fake news that makes him look good 👹
Love Telerico and also Jon Ossoff. They are great. Hopefully Telkerico wins TX. All Democrats in TX must vote for him.
Jeff, I find the excuses for not honoring those fallen soldiers absurd, these folks died for us but Donald and the Pentagon just don’t care. Why are they not releasing the true numbers of fallen and injured soldiers? On another topic not covered today..
Generic drugs will have 100% tariffs beginning in 28 then 200% in 29 according to Donald, his justification is that he wants new generic factories to produce in the US.. I’m sure all those seniors who are red hats are thrilled at paying more if in fact they are able to obtain those generic drugs.. my god, how stupid does this regime think we are?
Seems like he’s really not worried abt public opinion much, doesn’t it…?
CHANGE MY MIND
I am sure he is out of it. His handlers are pushing this forward.
Welp that could be
Just heard someone say his ‘bonkers’ 🗳️ interference speech (re: chi na) was actually quite the brilliant set up for the midterms - due to the ppl w/agendas that surround him… 😖😫🤬
Just like they monopolized the numbers during Covid and the first term - you can not believe anything his administration says- they tell him whatever he wants to hear so he won’t have a tantrum ‼️
I am SO sick of this administration- the fake gold everywhere- loads of money coming in from our enemies ( money laundering?) and reporters and their bosses drank the freaking kool aid - but to me it’s all a deliberate attempt to minimize the damage of the “files” .
I wish it was November already- the midterms can’t come soon enough!
But Democrars need to vote and stop the Democrats in office for the Republican blind support for Trump.
As one of those seniors who depend on numerous generic drugs, which I have to buy coverage for since Medicare doesn't do drugs, I can predict that many of my prescriptions will be left unfilled. Buh-bye blood pressure and cholesterol meds. Adios antidepressants. I'll give up food before I give up the pain meds, however. They give me my best emergency exit.
Putting tariffs on generics will kill people. Not that a single republican in office cares.
Yeah, this is going to kill lots of people. On my medicare drug plan, I pay very little for the few generics I'm on regularly, but the random ones that I need for issues that pop up - which they do when you're old, as you know - tend to be pricey even when covered. And it's pretty much guaranteed that if those generics are by some miracle made in the USA they will cost way more than even 200% tariffed ones, but we'll be forced by our plans to get them anyway.
I will never believe they died for US. They died because the idiotic so-called president wanted a trophy and his deranged secretary of war had/has a hard-on for lethally killing a bunch of brownish people.
Oh, pretty stupid. Yes, sir.
Source?
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/22/trump-generic-drug-tariffs-prices-explained.html?msockid=1d6ee311c5d46ddb295ff307c44d6c5d
“. . . because they didn’t want Donny to be embarrassed by the ever-rising death toll in the WAR he started for no coherent reason at all.” Well, you could say the reason he started this ridiculous war was to distract us all from his thousands of appearances in the Epstein Files. But we will never forget, right? Thank you, Jeff, as always, especially for the laughs and for the Daily Claudia, both of which keep us sane.
How many died in Ben Gazi…’four’? Yeah right…
(and Martha Stewart went to prison for what - $45,000?… uh huh)
The Democrats simply do not know how to go for the jugular
The Democrats are there to govern, not to grandstand for social media.
And yet they also are adept--and increasingly so--at getting out there and eviscerating the Republicans and their agenda: Raskin is a human flamethrower, but Ossoff is giving a run for the title; Talarico's not even in office yet and he's amazing in his verbal shots. Khanna, Booker. Kelly. Warren......the list keeps growing. And they've clearly been set loose by Schumer and Jefferies to spread the message.
And don't forget Buttigieg.
they can govern while still fighting these fascists instead of sending strongly worded letters
House Democrats have filed multiple sets of impeachment articles against Donald Trump, most recently including 7 articles introduced by Rep. Shri Thanedar in May 2025 and 13 articles introduced by Rep. John Larson in April 2026, alongside 2 official articles passed by the House during his first term in December 2019.
But they do not have a majority in the House. Every impeachment filed goes no where. (And they have filed several) Trump has said he is afraid if the Democrats take control in November, they will impeach him. That's why he desperately is trying to fix the election this Nov. Don't let him win by your apathy with the Democrats. The Congress matters!!
its not enough....this is all theatrics since they know its going nowhere....they do not use the power they do have to the limit like the other side does so well....we just had 6 of them vote for the illegal war funding
well known for arriving at a gun fight with knives
Oh yes, you are right. There was definitely a reason and it was definitely the Epstein files. Bibi saw his opportunity and he took it.
Reminds me of his Covid debacle. Remember the cruise ship? If the ill folks didn’t touch land then we had no cases. 🙄
And we'd have fewer cases if we stopped testing, too.
Yeah...
Know who else cosigns this? The millions of Americans who voted for America's Pilonidal Cyst and his Maladministration 2.0. so they could have their prejudice, privilege and/or Internet clout catered to. The troops are only a cudgel to be used to bash anti-war protestors with, to accuse them of disloyalty. The troops themselves are just pawns. That convenient shield from criticism to be whipped out at events to say "We celebrate the troops! Don't talk about the awful things we do, look at us fete a couple soldiers! U-S-A! U-S-A!"
Pilonidal Cyst. Damn, thats good.
I still like Seth’s “Pricktator”
Those in power will bend and manipulate the media & the truth to fit their needs and perpetuate their selfs. Not just this Cavalcade of Corrupt Clowns.
How is the TX race even close?!!! What is wrong with TX?
We have a crappy education system, there’s a lot of ignorance and people don’t vote. It’s sorta like Hell but warmer.
😂🤣
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." LBJ
There is a *lot* of voter suppression involved, especially in the major urban areas (which are blue), so we have horrible voter participation rates.
This is a longstanding problem in Texas, and I love how Beto O'Rourke's group, Powered by People, is targeting it and tackling it head-on.
Good question, but I have never trusted our polling system. The results are too easily skewed.
What's WRONG? The fact that it's this close in a deep red state shows what's RIGHT.
I guess. But Paxton is so freaking corrupt!
Women there must want the abortion bans to continue.
Until it impacts THEM.
How much time do you have?
Over four hundred thousand people in Arizona have lost SNAP benefits. Of course there's other things but that brings me to tears.
Death stalks hunger with a grin on his face.
And a lot of them don't bother to vote or even register because they can't make a connection between parties, Fox News propaganda and the problems in their lives. They see no difference in the parties and probanly don't understand how government works.
^^^THIS. I remember a movie about suffragettes. One of them was talking to a woman protesting the triangle shirtwaist fire. She said, "A vote is an unlocked factory door". That's the message we need to get out more. A vote is medicare benefits, food regulation, better schools.
That's not the point I'm trying to make but I understand your message.
Pvt. Gonzales is from Carrollton, TX, where we lived for 15+ years and raised our son. She was only a couple of years younger than him and graduated from his rival HS. That war death--and it absolutely is a war death--hit me very hard.