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? 🤢
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."
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)
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??"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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 DNC bears a huge responsibility for this. I think we need to start a campaign to vote out every incumbent we possibly can. There are 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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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!
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?
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.
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?’”
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.
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.
“. . . 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.
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.
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
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!!
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!"
"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.
“if Joe Biden had ever told a story about ‘they couldn’t watch TV because wind,’ the press would have had a field day. five new books would have come flying out of Jake Tapper’s ass, on the spot.” My favorite quote from today. Thanks for the chuckle Jeff.
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
C.O.R.R.E.C.T‼️
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? 🤢
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."
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😂😂😂
Nailed it AP!
No way an idiot like Rubio could ever be elected.....wait..
He’s not big enough for Presidential shoes….
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.
NEVER gonna happen!
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)
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??"
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.
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.
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
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
Right on Susan!
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 ;)
"They have likened him to former president Barack Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders "
Best laugh I've had all day. . .
Who "they"?
It doesn't take much to undermine this creep. He's pretty good at making himself unlikable and toxic, no help needed.
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.
You have to give them your email to read it
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
sort’a like Roger Maris getting an asterisk for breaking the Babe’s record, JHC !!!
why on earth did Natalie Harp need to be there?
Because Hope Hicks was unavailable???
Natalie is Trump’s emotional support bimbo.
Unperson reminds me of Handmaids Tale too, for some reason.
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.
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)
And I don't see Barron or Kai enlisting.
A snowball's chance in Hell that they ever will
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Military isn't kissing any asses; they just put their heads down and do their jobs.
Anyone who won't has been pushed out.
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
100% !!!!!!!!!!!
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.
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.
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?
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!!
…which begs the question: “Why AREN’T we shaming / protesting the actual CONGRESS MEMBERS that are enabling all of this???”
The DNC bears a huge responsibility for this. I think we need to start a campaign to vote out every incumbent we possibly can. There are 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.
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
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.
Schumer's not up for reelection this year.
Recall the motherfucker.
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.
"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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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!
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?
‘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.
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
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?’”
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.
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!
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…
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 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.
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.
Money! I bet she's fleecing old Trump every day. I hope anyway.
You’re probably right. But…ew.
Make sure you have a No. 2 wooden pencil to re-spool the cassettes! 😁
HA! YES!!
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.
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.
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.
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
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!!
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.
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.
😂🤣
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.
"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
Women there must want the abortion bans to continue.
Until it impacts THEM.
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!
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.
That's not the point I'm trying to make but I understand your message.
^^^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.
“if Joe Biden had ever told a story about ‘they couldn’t watch TV because wind,’ the press would have had a field day. five new books would have come flying out of Jake Tapper’s ass, on the spot.” My favorite quote from today. Thanks for the chuckle Jeff.
Yeah. That’s an imaginary scenario I can’t get outta my mind. Poor Jake Tapper. That’s gotta be painful.
Mine too. That's gold! I love Hunter Biden taking a chunk out of Tapper.