There’s an old saying which was used when I was a young person (I’m one year younger than Trump) and I’ve become convinced lately the saying was originated in regard to HIS actions when he was likely a teenager. The saying goes: You’re so full of s@#t your eyes are brown. Now, today, after California Senator Alex Padilla was manhandled by Trump’s goon squad in a California Federal building while Kristi Noem was LYING about the Trump “mission” in Los Angeles (Suggesting Federal troops were there to “liberate” Los Angeles from their “socialist” Mayor and Governor) I had the misfortune to listen to the House Speaker Johnson as he joined this exclusive “club” – I’ll call it the “your eyes are brown club.” Johnson INCREDIBLY suggested the Senate should “censor” Senator Padilla for having the temerity to want to ask Noem a question about her “liberate” Los Angeles comments.

OMG – the protest planned for June 14th can’t come soon enough for me. I am physically handicapped and am unable to be on my feet for more than a few minutes at a time – but, I told my granddaughter I feel obligated to be at this protest. I’ll take my cane and hope to be able to find an occasional place to sit – I know there will be a “march” and I have no idea how far it will be, but I’m going to get as far as I can. I know by Saturday late afternoon after it’s all over I’m not going to be feeling too good physically, EXCEPT I will feel GREAT mentally from participating.

I graduated from High School about the time of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in the sixties (I graduated in 1965) and grew up, essentially, during the Viet Nam war. I joined the Marines in 1967 after I decided to stop playing basketball at the college I was attending – taking the oath to be part of the Marine PLC program. The physical was basically “how do you feel today?” (in January, I just didn’t want to be drafted) but when I reported for boot camp that summer I was issued a medical discharge due to a knee injury I had received during a high school football game. At the time I didn’t understand my left knee was already bone on bone (NOT “bone spurs”). I soon realized the war was based on a LIE (surprise surprise – if you are unaware of the history of the Viet Nam war) and I became involved in some of the anti-war protests which picked up steam all the way up to when the war was ended during Nixon’s second (Watergate) term.

Since those days I’ve seen MANY things that out government has done which I’ve disagreed with but not to the point where I’ve felt the OBLIGATION to participate in a protest. (Back in the day, not only did we protest the war, but also the Civil Rights issue and Voting Rights issues – both legislation passed while I was in High School, but still facing the reality MANY Americans opposed ANY legislation aimed at making this country a “more perfect union” – people like Trump, for example – who didn’t believe he should have to rent to African Americans) Thanks to Trump, things continue to turn in the direction we are headed; outright FASCISM. Read about the History of Germany back in the early 1930’s during the rise of Adolph Hitler. The parallels are alarming! And, all it has taken to allow this to spread to this point in our nation is a willfully complicit GOP Congress – led by the incredibly COWARDLY Speaker Johnson. It’s very depressing, listening to him, from my standpoint,

I wrote all that about a week ago and, well, here we are. Since then I DID “march” in the “No Kings” protest and Trump DID have a bunch of tanks and troops marching as if they didn’t give a s@#t. I checked in on Trump’s “birthday celebration” and the grandstands they had created looked almost empty. Plus there WAS a “No Kings” protest in Washington DC – despite Trump’s threats against “such a thing.” I live in a small town across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. There were TWO protests in “little” Vancouver, Washington and the one I participated in had, by my estimation, at least a couple thousand people marching. I had to walk 8 blocks just to get to where the protest started and then another 14 blocks to SLOWLY walk the route of the protest and then back to where my granddaughter parked her car. It’s been a long time since I walked that far. The other location had MORE people – likely (at least) 5000 between to two of them – in a SMALL town.

I believe the TOTAL nationwide in the NO KINGS protests – which happened in over 2100 locations – had a total number of protesters approaching 10 MILLION. Significantly MORE than the numbers I’ve heard on MSNBC – which is likely much more than what people who watch the “mainstream media” or the “right wing propagandists” would be hearing. Mark that down, because eventually the real numbers will be made public. (There were over 100,000 each in several larger cities alone. (Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York for example) If there was simply an average that is the equivalent to Vancouver WA.s and you multiply that by 2159 you get OVER 10 MILLION. Just sayin…..

I was so sore the next day I could barely get out of bed in the morning and I missed the father’s day sermon at the church I attend. But, as I predicted above, I felt great and look forward to the NEXT time I can be a part of masses of people declaring their support for our democratic republic in the face of the wannabe dictator Trump and the Project 2025 puppet masters pulling the strings in the background. As I’ve been doing for at least a year now, I urge anyone who hasn’t attempted to read Project 2025 to do so. That will help you to understand what is coming next.

The republican Congress is close to passing Trump’s big UGLY bill and the Senate, by some accounts, is making it even WORSE than the House version. The republicans finally feel they have the opportunity to take a big hunk out of the “New Deal” (what’s left of it) and LBJ’s “Great Society.” These republicans are pushing “we the people” into a second “guilded age” and, unfortunately, those of us who don’t want to go there have only the democrats to depend on. From my perspective there are way too many democrats who are attempting to move closer to the so-called MAGA movement.

In fact, my own representative, who, to her credit, defeated the “deplorable” Joe Kent in two elections (he’ll probably show up again if we still have elections going forward). However, she continues to be one of a small number of democrats willing to cross the line and vote with the “deplorable” republican House – on issues she apparently believes no one “back home” will care about. However, on that she’s wrong – I’ve written to her several times expressing my frustration with her willingness to, for example, support Trump legislation regarding immigrants. She even voted to “censure” her democratic colleague for standing up during Trump’s lie-athon causing people to understand about the pending Medicaid and SNAP cuts. Somehow democrats need to understand the way to reconnect with their traditional “base” isn’t to suck up to MAGA and support what amounts to a racist agenda. If they don’t figure this out soon, “we the people” could be saying goodbye to our republic as it has been constituted over the previous 250 years. In my district we will likely be saying goodbye to Rep. Perez in 2028.

Trump’s “mickey mouse” attempt to be like Russia or North Korea has to make him more of a laughing stock around the “free world” than I, at least, had thought possible. It grieves me to understand people in Western Europe understand what is actually happening in America better than MANY of “we the people.” Sadly, the reports I’ve read recently indicate somewhere around 50% of adult Americans have an education equivalency of the 6th grade. This is the result of what Bush/Cheney called their “no child left behind” legislation back in the early 2000’s. I was teaching at that time and it was obvious to me this legislation was aimed at undermining America’s Public Education system. Trump et al are “putting the cherry on top” of that “plan” as he continues following the “orders” of the Project 2025 fascists.

Today as I was driving around I tuned into MSNBC. To the credit of Nicole Wallace the discussion was centered on the necessity of “we the people” speaking out regarding the United States being on the tipping point of falling into becoming a fascist state. Of course, in their discussion they used the term “authoritarian” because, apparently even on MSNBC it’s against the “rules” to tell it like it is. I recommend to anyone who hasn’t done so to look up the definition of “fascism” – I’ve posted it here numerous times – and compare it to what you’re seeing here in America and what took place in Germany 60+ years ago. Admittedly, you’ll have to do a few minutes of research!

I don’t seem to have the “fire” to write every day so I’ll try to keep this going after another couple days of “vacation.” There’s just so much “sh*t” coming down the pike from Trump/Vance (formerly Musk/Trump/Vance) It’s just hard to keep up – with is exactly the point by these Nazi’s. So just let me scratch my old head to see what some of the sh*t I’m talking about actually is:

1.) Trump has another “two week” deadline for Iran – while he decides to bomb the sh*t out of them. (Should I say “TACO Trump?” – take a guess how this will end)

2.) Don’t kid yourself – ICE is arresting U.S. Citizens. God help you if you look like a Latino!

3.) Make no mistake, Trump’s plan is to send these troops into cities all across America? I have to wonder why some of the Troops don’t simply say “enough already?” But, that’s just me – I have to keep reminding myself around 49% of Americans voted for this.

4.0 “TACO Trump” will likely have the opportunity to back away from some tariff “threats” in the coming couple of weeks.

5.0 Trump has succeeded in getting American’s attention away from the Genocide being inflicted on GAZA by Bibi Netanyahu.

6.0) Not only is the attention off of the Palestinians DYING in GAZA but also the attention is off of the WAR CRIMES being carried out in Ukraine by Vladimir Putin.

7.0) Speaking of Putin, TACO Trump is publicly being humiliated by Putin in regard to Putin’s ILLEGAL and CRIMINAL invasion of Ukraine. TACO Trump is likely too STUPID to understand Putin is playing him for the world’s greatest FOOL.

8.) Trump’s poll numbers are tanking, but do you wonder why he doesn’t give a sh*t? I’ve made my prediction: Trump is planning to block any mid-term election from actually happening. He has no plan to allow the democrats to take over the House and IMPEACH him for the third time.

9.) I’m finally hearing members of the democratic party and some of the “never trumpers” recommending the ILLEGAL activity of members of TACO Trump’s administration be “memorialized” for after this nightmare is over. It appears TACO is pushing the envelope of his duty to see that our “laws are faithfully executed” due to the SCOTUS’ “deplorable” “absolute immunity” decision – in TACO’s mind, giving up their authority over his administration.

10.) Today the incompetent VP JD Vance, while speaking (lying) in Los Angeles referred to California’s Senior Senator, Alex Padillo, as “Jose” Padilla (the convicted terrorist). I’ll let you figure that one out (another example of Vance’s racism?) but, remember, it was Vance LYING about Haitian immigrants in Ohio who were “eating the dogs and cats” of the White people. I’m not kidding! Vance is “deplorable.” IMPEACHMENT 3.0 must include BOTH Trump and Vance!

11.) Trump has appointed the MOST incompetent cabinet in History. The most obvious, to me, are the ones in the Justice Department which has rendered it incoherent and incompetent and simply a tool of TACO’s revenge.

12.) And, this is likely the worst case, to me, is the dismantling of USAID. Every day more and more people in poor countries are DYING as a result of this “deplorable” action.

13.) This one comes a close second to the previous sentence. TACO Trump, in his quest to “be like Putin,” is cleaning up financially from his Trump 2.0. And, he’s doing it in the open which, apparently to him, makes it easier to get away with it. I hope those “memorializing” the ILLEGAL grifting going on in Trump 2.0 because this can’t possibly be part of the SCOTUS “absolute immunity” decision, can it?

Finally) Trump continues to push his “big UGLY (ok, “beautiful”) bill that is another great example of the republican scam of taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich. The people who benefit from the money DON’T NEED IT. I heard an economist tonight explaining how they will likely invest much of the money into “Treasuries” in order to pay for the additional national debt caused by the tax cuts in the bill. So, Congressional republicans will give money to rich people who will then “invest” it in America’s debt so that America will then be paying them interest on the “free” money republicans gift them. Yikes!! And, republicans will have to raise the “debt ceiling” by $5 TRILLION to make it all work. Conservatism at its finest!

Speaking of Ukraine – did you think TACO is actually afraid of Volodymyr Zelenskyy? TACO bailed on the G-7 Summit in order to avoid a “face to face” with Zelenskyy. I’ve come to the conclusion Ukraine should give their “rare earths” to the EU countries who continue supporting their fight against Putin’s fascist regime. Of course, these countries understand the ultimate risk of Putin actually taking Ukraine – what would come next. They’ve seen appeasement to fascists “up front and personal” (Neville Chamberlain) and they have no plans to allow the same thing to happen again. Try as he might TACO will be unable to hide what is happening in Ukraine and GAZA. Netanyahu is another who has mastered “playing” TACO in order to put off the inevitable of facing the consequences of his own criminal conduct – unless the Israeli courts are as STUPID as our own SCOTUS! Trump’s appeasement to Putin is TRAITOROUS in my view! Go figure!!!

Final Thought: Have you stopped to think about TACO Trump’s administration suggesting they called up 4000 National Guardsmen (Over the objection of California’s governor) and 700 Marines (Most who are doing NOTHING and sleeping on the floors of local armories) because a few protesters set “Waymos” on fire and battled with police. They actually said attacking police is a “red line” for them (TACO’s administration). Well, do I have to give the definition of hypocrisy to you? I’ll end this by saying, our history books will have black pages forever while explaining the PARDONS of something like 1500 January 6th, 2021 TRAITORS after being instigated by the TRAITOR in chief, TACO Trump. These TRAITORS spent the better part of 3 hours assaulting the Capitol and Metro Police officers – leading to 5 DEATHS.

There was NO National Guard called out by TACO – actually, the target of his wrath, VP Pense, was actually the one who ultimately called in the Guard. Not only did TACO Trump pardon these cop beaters – one who was the FIRST to carry the Confederate Flag in the Capitol’s rotunda – but in front of a group of American’s Army soldiers Trump announced the renaming of the Army bases which were originally named after Confederate TRAITORS but then renamed to actual America heroes back to the name of the original TRAITORS names. Sick!!! Personally, I find it more than offensive to have an American fort named after Robert E Lee. To TACO General Lee (a TRAITOR) is a hero! Stay tuned!!!

We see examples of extreme hypocrisy virtually EVERY day during Trump 2.0. I’ve pointed out here that I don’t believe America can withstand 3 1/2 years of Trump’s absurd conduct – keeping in mind he’s the puppet of the Project 2025 puppet masters. Remember, Trump has an unenviable history of support for the Military. Back in the day, during the Viet Nam War, his daddy found a doctor who would certify mysterious “bone spurs” which allowed him to avoid service back then – him calling those who were drafted and sent to Nam as “stupid.” Then, in Trump 1.0 he referred to those who gave their lives during WW II as “suckers and losers.” Now, he’s decided to send 700 Marines into Los Angeles for an emergency Trump is attempting to create.

Remember, Trump PARDONED 1500 INSURECTIONISTS who stormed our Nation’s Capitol building on January 6, 2021 and assaulted over 140 Police Officers, many with career ending injuries (along with several deaths) calling them “patriots.” These were people who were attempting to overthrow our nation’s government as part of Trump’s attempted coup. The attacks on Police were brutal and, for the officers, it was about three hours of hand to hand COMBAT. At the time, Trump sat in his dining room and watched the INSURRECTION for something like 185 minutes without calling for the National Guard to help. Over 1000 of the INSURRECTIONISTS pled guilty to assaulting police with many incarcerated for their lawbreaking. There were even two groups found GUILTY of SEDITION – ALL of them PARDONED on Trump’s first day in office.

So, well, here we are. Suddenly, Trump is concerned with the actions of people in Los Angeles who are opposed to the ICE raids on businesses where their neighbors or family members are being swept up in Trump and Stephen Miller’s white nationalist actions aimed at finding people they can deport – whether legally or not. Fathers and Mothers are disappearing – even some younger people are being caught up in the actions of ICE agents who’ve been threatened for their jobs if they can’t meet the quotas set by Miller. Apparently, like the cowardly republican members of Congress these agents value their job more than the OATH to the Constitution they had to make in order to get that job in the first place. I used to believe taking an OATH meant something. Members of the military who take an OATH which includes refusing to follow an illegal order. We’re at that line! (I took that oath in 1967)

Actually, Trump is the sucker and loser. (And, I’m talking about MORE than the reality he LOST the popular vote in TWO elections) He feels like a “strong man” because he can ORDER the National Guard and/or the Marines into situations where they are contesting the constitutional protected actions of their fellow citizens – and OBTW the local and state police are totally capable of dealing with any troublemakers who instigate violence in the protests. Trump is simply digging himself DEEPER into the hole where his legacy will lie once he’s out of office FOREVER. Will he last another 3 1/2 years – well, like I’ve said, I believe his motive behind these actions is a kind of trial run for how he’s going to stop the Mid-Term elections which will likely cause republicans to lose their “grip” on Congress.

America will survive, the question is in what state? And, of course, the DAMAGE (which I’ve been talking about since Trump 1.0) will likely take a generation or more to alleviate. I’ve pointed out that in the case of the Supreme Court if America EVER elects another republican for, say, the next 40 years – then they (I should say “we the people”) deserve the consequences. If you are unable to see the imprint of the SCOTUS on what’s happening in America right now you haven’t been paying attention. Just off the top of my head, “Citizen’s United” (allowing the flow of MONEY from around the globe into our elections), the gutting of the Voting Rights Act (leading to voter suppression legislation in over half the states), several votes against civil rights advancements, and, of course, the “mother of all STUPID SCOTUS decisions” the “absolute Immunity” for the president.

Is the court totally in cahoots with Trump and the Project 2025 puppet masters? Well, it sure looks that way from my perspective. Just think back to the 2024 election. Trump was deemed an “insurrectionist” by the Colorado Courts thusly (potentially) taking his name off their presidential ballot. The court acted with haste and found a way to rule against their own professed beliefs – like as “originalists” or “textualists” for example – to decide against the state of Colorado – in record time. Then, of course, when it came time to rule on Trump’s appeal of his (stupid) “absolute immunity” claim – the court STALLED the ruling out to the very last day of their term – ensuring Trump would not stand trial before the 2024 election. It was as if they were part of his campaign – and, of course, they ruled he had “absolute immunity” while doing official government actions. Obviously, Trump no longer feels hindered by our constitution – thanks to the SCOTUS!

So, now, everyday members of the Los Angeles community who are attempting to come to the aid of their neighbors and family members are being referred to by the republicans as “insurrectionists” – apparently as a way to make ordinary Americans forget the actual INSURRECTIONISTS who stormed our Capitol in 2021, beat up a bunch of police officers (with no call for National Guard backup) and were PARDONED on “day one” by Trump. (Trump made numerous “day one” guarantees – PARDONING the INSURRECTIONISTS was the ONLY one he actually followed through on – of course, if you have a logical brain you KNEW he couldn’t end the wars in Ukraine and GAZA or bring down the cost of eggs and other “groceries”)

I spend a lot of time lamenting the evil doings of Trump, but since his first day in office during Trump 1.0 I’ve come to realize that possibly the greatest thing I’ve been wrong about during the entire many years I’ve been sending my thoughts out to cyberspace (If you’ve found this I have no idea how) is I fervently believed republicans in Congress would tire of Trump’s pathological LYING and extreme narcissistic behavior to the point where they would lead the effort to remove him from office. I terribly miscalculated the level of COWARDICE which permeates the republican members of Congress. Don’t get me totally wrong here, there are several democratic members of Congress who I wonder if they have what it takes to meet the danger of the day – the greatest danger to our constitutional order since the Civil War.

Trump keeps “we the people” focused on the “shiny object” while behind the scenes “stuff” (which, admittedly, I can only speculate on – with no actual factual basis) is going on which, very likely, is far worse than what is happening in the streets of Los Angeles. Just this past week there was a “blowout” of the Musk/Trump administration leaving (f)Elon Musk out if the political neverworld. Trump is worried Musk is going to fund democrats in the future, but I can’t get those two Sieg Hiels he “threw” at Trump’s inauguration out of my mind. Will democrats take his money? Probably someone will, but that certainly won’t cause me to cast my vote in their direction (If we’re still voting). Kilmer Abrego Garcia was returned from the El Salvador Gulag and jailed somewhere in Tennessee on “Trumped up charges” designed to make Trump look better if they can get a guilty verdict to charges brought by a couple guys stuck in a Tennesee jail somewhere – likely with the promise of a PARDON if Mr. Garcia is convicted.

There’s the issue with the Tariffs and the reality it’s just a matter of time until they torpedo the entire economy. To what level? I, of course, have no idea, but it could be really bad and I have NO confidence the Congressional republicans will have a clue as to how to pull “we the people” out of Trump’s personal created economic downward spiral. If we’re all focused on the protests in Los Angeles our minds will be, at least temporarily, not thinking about Trump’s disastrous economy.

I’ve always said a new president gets kind of a pass for the first year in office because he/she inherits the economy of his/her predecessor. Well, Trump inherited an economy people called the envy of the world – the BEST economy in the entire world. It only took a matter of days for Trump to start the bludgeoning process and the only reason it’s not worse is because Senate democrats didn’t have the courage to put up a fight against a “continuing resolution” back in March. Chuck Schumer seems to have a problem with “drawing a line in the sand.” This was deflative for progressives all around the nation. It’s like too many democrats don’t understand the nature of the “fight” which is happening as I write this – and, it goes much deeper, as I’ve tried to point out, than just the Los Angeles protests. (These issues will be spreading across the nation – as part of Trump’s – and project 2025 puppet master’s – plans)

I’ve been writing about how “we the people” need to vote “today’s republicans” into the History books since back in the days of Bush/Cheney. I lamented how President Obama chose to IGNORE the FACT both Bush and Cheney admitted on national TV they authorized TORTURE (and both said they’d do so again) back in the Iraq and Afghanistan fiascoes. Obama (now infamously) said “We’re going to look forward instead of back,” which I pointed out at the time was an absurd way to see that the laws be faithfully executed. To prosecute criminal conduct you MUST look back to gather the evidence for whatever trial will eventually take place. I pointed out if this lawbreaking was allowed to stand it would simply get worse the next time. A statement which has been proven TRUE in Trump 1.0 and now more so in Trump 2.0. The lawbreaking just keeps getting worse and, now, with a SCOTUS that is in collaboration. Yikes!!

Final Thought: Speaking of Trump’s torpedoing of the economy I happen to follow (superficially) the doings of Wall Street pretty much on a daily basis. It’s amazing to me that America’s 2nd largest city can be getting INVADED by our OWN troops and Wall Street just keeps buzzing along – as if nothing’s happening. President Biden warned “we the people” about the potential of America becoming an OLIGARCHY and, well, here we are. For years I’ve pointed out that the foundation of any fascist nation is a “government/corporate partnership.” It should be clear to just about any clear thinking person – we’re here. There is a tiny fraction of our nation holding well over a MAJORITY of the nation’s wealth (and, of course, seeking even MORE) and these corporate leaders have lined up in support of Trump – assuming he will be their “best buddy.”

Well, (f)Elon Musk has discovered the fallacy in this “agreement.” As Trump continues to consolidate POWER he becomes less and less dependent on these corporate leaders. In fact, if you were paying attention to the Trump/Musk “breakup” when Musk threatened to decommission the space capsule which retrieves astronauts from the space station in response to Trump’s threat to cancel all Musk’s government contracts, none other than Steve Bannon responded by suggesting Trump should SEIZE Space X and Musk should be deported because he allegedly entered the country ILLEGALLY and LIED about it in his citizenship application. As Rick Wilson says, anyone Trump touches dies. (figuratively, of course)

I have to add: To any democrats who chose to abandon Biden because he was/is too old you didn’t surprise me a bit. I’ve seen this spineless behavior by democrats my entire voting life (since 1968). I guess I feel I have to keep repeating myself, President Biden was the most knowledgeable person in America at “governing” in my lifetime. The difference between him and Trump should be even MORE obvious NOW! When Trump spews his propaganda that he “inherited a mess” – well, if you believe that there’s no hope for you – Sorry to have to point that out. The issue in the 2024 election SHOULDN’T have been President Biden’s age, it SHOULD have been the FACT Trump is a 34 times FELON, he’s a pathological LIAR, he’s the MOST narcissistic person I’ve ever witnessed (maybe his sons are right in there), he attempted a coup on January 6th, 2021. he’s also a traitor to our military presence in the world (sucking up to Putin), and he has no idea how to run the government – which he proved during the pandemic. That SHOULD have been the issue in the campaign.

Democrats are so easily manipulated it’s disgusting. In other words, the blame for Trump 2.0 isn’t President Biden – he was doing a great job of managing the economy – the blame stands squarely on the shoulders of the democrats themselves – who I’ve pointed out for years are afraid to defend their own fundamental values! Just as they turned on Carter in 1980, just as they bailed on Gore in 2000 they did the same thing to Biden in 2024. Take a closer look at what transpired during the Reagan, GW Bush, and now two Trump administrations for the consequences of this spineless political party! (And, I’m talking about the democrats here) There, I got it out!

There ARE democrats with guts. The two who first come to mind are AOC and Bernie Sanders. Once again, democrats have allowed (are allowing) the republicans along with the “Main Stream Media” to label democrats like AOC and Sanders as too extreme – they are unabashed “liberals.” Might I point out republicans have been besmirching the word “liberal” since the days of Reagan. I might also remind you, virtually EVERY “right” you – or should I say “we the people” – take for granted are the result of democrats (liberals) pushing through “stuff” republicans hate. Things like voting rights, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, food safety, environmental regulations, public education, workplace safety, the 40 hour workweek, overtime pay, minimum wage (which in many places is way too low – it’s $16.75 where I live) national parks, the federal highway system, libraries, civil rights, and on and on. All this stuff is under attack because democrats are afraid to defend what has really made America “great.” Trump et al are trying to recreate the “Robber Baron era 2.0.” “We the people” need to wake up! Once Trump is out of office “we the people” will need to “Make America Great Again.” Stay tuned!!!

Are there any people other than the MAGA faithful who still believe a word that comes from Trump or his republican sycophants mouths is EVER true? As usual, there are so many things I could focus on that it renders my ADHD mind spinning like a top – exactly what the objective of the project 2025 puppet masters are intending. They’re about to inflict “we the people” with another “beautiful” tax cut which will funnel UP (not down – if you haven’t figured that out yet) approximately $5 TRILLION to (f)Elon Musk and the rest of the republican BILLIONAIRE class along with the corporate turncoats who would rather live in a fascist state as long as they are getting even RICHER.

The CORRUPTION in Washington DC has reached monumental levels – beyond even the imagination of those who’ve complained about ethics for decades – since the days of Ronald Reagan (at least). Trump, for example, appears to me to be focused on accruing as MUCH money as he can during his second assault on our constitution. Along with that, I believe the American economy is (and has been) one of his targets in his retribution campaign. I believe he’s hated the “elite” of Wall Street for most of his career because he was NEVER accepted in Manhattan – despite his showy attempts to get attention. I believe his tariff recession will be part of the pay back.

And, of course, he’s setting himself and his two sons up to be among the greatest benefactors of the impending recession. Remember, when the market tanks, those with lots of cash will swoop in and pick up the pieces – people like Musk and the other BILLIONAIRES who’ve been sucking up to Trump since the day he “won” re-election. The best examples I can give would focus on Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. Both of these “progressives” were among the first to throw down a MILLION bucks for Trump’s inauguration celebration (where Musk showed his fascist bona fides with a couple Sieg Hiels). I believe both Bezos and Zuckerberg were/are looking for the repeal of regulations making their quest for even MORE billions much easier.

And, keep in mind, they don’t think in terms of “millions.” Giving Trump a cool MILLION is like a rounding error to each of these turncoats. Bezos has since stuck his (now) Trump loving nose into the business of his famous Newspaper the Washington Post – with many of the best reporters and opinion writers on to new horizons. Zuckerberg showed his true colors as he changed the moderation policy of Facebook to “be like Elon.” Meaning full of right wing Nazi like dribble – affecting the minds of untold numbers of unsuspecting Americans. And, the list goes on, the other day i heard a report on Peter Thiel – he of the “I helped JD Vance” segment of our right wing BILLIONAIRE population, where Thiel’s Palantir corporation has gained around $1 BILLION in government contracts since Trump took (lied about) the oath of office on January 20th, 2025 – to gather DATA on “we the people.” Surprise Surprise.

I’ve pointed this out several times here before – both Peter Thiel and (f)Elon Musk are immigrants – in Musk’s case a bit “sketchy” (Just ask Steve Bannon) – Thiel from Germany and Musk from Apartheid South Africa – and they’ve got their “fingers” in a lot of what’s going on in America which goes over the heads of “we the people” (present company included). To say I don’t trust either of these moneyed dudes is putting it mildly. I believe it was Thiel I read about who was purchasing isolated parts of New Zealand for his “escape” once the shit hits the fan. (As far as I can tell, that day is here)

Now, I began this rant before the Trump/Musk administration hit the “rocks” with Musk going off on Trump’s “big beautiful bill” as an abomination. (Of course, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder) I would caution all the “libs” out there to avoid getting excited about this dustup because Musk’s issue with the bill was there wasn’t ENOUGH “cutting” – suddenly, he seems worried about the national debt. Of course, had he been paying attention to recent American History, he shouldn’t have been a bit surprised. Aside from all the complaints about deficits coming from republicans when a democrat is in the “Oval Office” – they kick in a “new” tax cut for the “rich” as soon as they gain control once again. This goes all the way back to Nixon me working from my memory. Of course, it was Reagan who first inflicted “we the people” with the “trickle down” LIE. You’d think we would have figured this out by now – but, whatever!

So, here we are. Trump is about four or five months into his second regime and he’s got, this time, some really “nasty” dudes filling out his “executive orders” for him – I put that in quotes because I’ve been pointing out since his first day in Trump 2.0 that he only learns what’s on these “orders” when they are presented to him at the signing ceremony – where the spokesperson for, I’m saying this by inference, project 2025 actually explains to him what he’s about to sign. I’ve called them the “puppet masters” since before January 30th, 2025 – and, if you’ve been paying attention it should have been obvious. True to form I’m now noticing some of the “crack” members of the so-called “Mainstream Media” beginning to figure out Trump has no idea what he’s signing.

Well, all of this “governing” has left us in a precarious place, hasn’t it? The world is watching and LAUGHING at America – while, at the same time, wondering “what the hell is going on over there/” How could the American people be so STUPID as to put a 34 times FELON who actually attempted a coup d’etat four years earlier back in “charge?” I could list so many reasons why this SHOULDN’T have happened, but the reality is that people like Musk, Thiel, Bezos, Zuckerberg and many other OLIGARCHS understand how easy it is to manipulate the “thinking” of the American public – a public which, by many reports I’ve read, has over 50% with an educational equivalent of 6th grade or lower. (That actually explains it, doesn’t it)

And, the so-called Mainstream Media certainly don’t help the situation with the inability to actually report “news” based on facts – NOT on seeking ratings, or believing in “both sidesing” issues or, out and out attempting to push a pre-ordained narrative. In 2024, as soon as the democrats “turned” on Joe Biden (who, admittedly was too old – although, 19 MILLION primary voters supported him KNOWING he was too old) I KNEW Trump was likely to be the next president, once again. The republicans had succeeded in changing to topic from Trump and his “roadmap to fascism” with project 2025 (which we are now seeing being carried out – daily) to Joe Biden as too old. Of course, Trump is ALSO too old – but, apparently, that’s a different “story.”

Here’s the major difference between Trump and Biden. Trump has no idea what’s in the constitution (nor, does he care), he has no idea how to govern (nor, does he care), and he’s violating basic ethical tenets in order to make TONS of money (as far as the ethical tenets – he obviously doesn’t care). When Trump accuses others of “hating this country,” that’s the purest form of projection – he clearly hates this country. And, talk about projection? Just think for a quiet moment about Trump referring to the “Biden crime family.” Hunter Biden’s “crimes?” “Crimes” which would NEVER have been pursued had he not been Biden’s son – but NEVER connected to President Biden despite four years of attempts. But, the constant barrage of LIES influenced many of those Americans who actually believed Trump would end the wars in Ukraine and GAZA on “day one,” bring down the prices of groceries on “day one,” and “Make America Great Again” to vote for him (with about $300 MILLION in “help” from his now estranged Musk).

It should be obvious this all really bugs me – hence another rant in cyberspace. But, here’s what bugs me more than knowing many of the people I know who I consider good hard working Americans are, when it comes to politics, STUPID – and, in MOST instances they claim their “brilliance” comes from their dedication to Fox “news” – and, it’s – ONCE AGAIN – aimed at the “Main Stream Media.” Now, I don’t pretend to watch a lot of television “news” – but, when I do it’s almost always MSNBC. I do read a lot of “stuff” from various sources although I’ve pretty much eliminated the NY Times and the WA Post from those sources. Almost universally I’m seeing these outlets referring to what they’re seeing from Trump as “authoritarianism.” I’ve written about this before, and OBVIOUSLY, pretty much no one who counts in the “news” is paying attention.

However, I’m going to keep saying this until either I’m blue in the face or, hopefully better, some of these national news outlets start paying attention. The word they SHOULD be using is FASCISM! Authoritarianism is simply a euphemism for what apparently is a word which is so unpopular based on WW II and the attempted genocide by Hitler’s Nazi’s that we have to find words which don’t sound so “harsh.” Be that as it may, what Trump is attempting (and, on the verge of succeeding thanks in part to that “Main Stream Media”) is the turning of America into a fascist state. Don’t believe me? Read project 2025 and you’ll see what is happening in America right now is exactly what they had planned as their “manifesto for the next ‘conservative’ administration.”

I read well into project 2025 – as far as I needed to realize what the authors were advocating – and, that is defeating our democratic republic from “within” – something Hitler failed to do from the outside – back when my father was in the Army. I put links on this site so anyone who happened by could get it easily. In fact, the last time I put a link up, the people at Project 2025 required my email address – and, silly me, I gave it to them. Since then I’ve been battered by and endless barrage of right wing emails from Trump and many others – and, I can’t seem to get rid of them. So, if you’re interested in actually understanding what is happening to our nation it’s easy to find – it’s not so easy to read if you love America’s 250 year old democratic republic. Stay tuned!!!

Final Thought: next weekend (from when I’m writing this) will be the next big protest planned for June 14th – the day Trump is giving himself a birthday present – that would please Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong un – tearing up Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. with a military parade aimed at cementing our place among fascist states around the globe. Trump is working to turn Benedict Arnold’s memory into one of a true patriot. Yikes!!!

I have to add: For anyone who is confused about what Trump is doing in Los Angeles – first with calling out the National Guard over the objections of California’s governor – who SHOULD be the one to do so if he sees fit – and, secondly NOW by including 700 Marines to help INSTIGATE a violent reaction from protesters – this is part of the project 2025 plan to make sure all the democrats out there who are planning on taking back control of Congress in the 2026 Mid-Terms Trump (and his puppet masters) have another plan. They are going to continue stirring up opposition to their lawless actions to the point where Trump will claim some kind of national emergency and there will NOT be Mid-Term elections in 2026. I’m sure that sounds bizarre to MOST who might read this, but that’s exactly what I believe the plan to be. That’s exactly why I keep encouraging our Main Stream Media to use the correct description when analyzing Trump 2.0. IT’S FASCISM!!! (Read Project 2025)

He said to SHARE this so I’ve done the best I could.  The Hartmann Report The Normalization of Evil: We Thought We Were Free How ordinary Americans became numb to authoritarianism—step by chilling step Thom HartmannJun I fear our mistakes far more than the strategy of our enemies. —Thucydides (470–400 b.c.), Pericles’ Funeral OrationIt It wasn’t all at once (although sometimes the last three months seem that way). Authoritarianism never is. It happens drip by drip, crisis by crisis, until people forget what normal even felt like. This is how fascism seduces a nation: not by storming the gates, but by wearing down our ability to be outraged. And Donald Trump, more than any political figure in modern American history, has weaponized this steady march into moral and civic numbness. Ten years ago, if you’d told Americans that a U.S. president would attempt to overturn an election, openly praise dictators, take naked bribes from both foreign potentates and drug dealers, call the press the “enemy of the people,” cage children, pardon traitors and war criminals, and promise to act as a dictator on his first day in office, they’d have laughed. They would’ve told you, “That can’t happen here.” But it did. And now the real danger is that we’re getting used to it .Let’s not forget: — When Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power in 2020, the political class gasped. Now it’s barely discussed. — When he orchestrated an attempted coup on January 6th, 2021, it was the top story in the world. Today, most Republicans call it “a protest” or a “tour.” — Had any previous president invited an immigrant billionaire who promotes fascist memes to rip the guts out of the Social Security Administration and shut down USAID (handing our soft power to the Russians and Chinese) there would have been hell to pay. Now Musk’s extraordinary damage to our government is barely discussed. — When Trump began calling undocumented immigrants “animals” and labeling judges and prosecutors as “scum,” it horrified the media. Now it’s part of the daily churn. — When a federal judge’s son was murdered by a Trump campaign volunteer it shocked America; now judges are routinely threatened and Republicans won’t even give the judiciary control over the US Marshall’s Service to protect them. — When Trump praised Putin and Viktor Orbán and suggested suspending the Constitution, the headlines flared, but then faded fast. — When he arrested a Tufts University student for having written an op-ed in the student paper critical of Netanyahu and threw her into prison for months, the country was appalled. Now he’s rolling out loyalty tests for civil servants and investigating the social media posts of American citizens returning to the country and nobody’s even discussing it any more. — When ICE agents showed up in Portland in 2020 in unmarked vans without uniforms and their ID missing, kidnapping people off the streets without warrants, Americans and the media were shocked. Now seeing jackbooted thugs with masks covering their faces and refusing to identify themselves has become “normal.” This is the playbook. Fascism doesn’t arrive with jackboots; it arrives with media and voter fatigue. As the political theorist Hannah Arendt warned, the very banality and ordinariness of evil is its greatest weapon. Victor Klemperer, a Jew who converted to Lutheranism and then chronicled the rise of Nazism in Germany, saw how average people learned to live with, to adapt to, to bear the unbearable. In his 1942 diary he wrote:“Today over breakfast we talked about the extraordinary capacity of human beings to bear and become accustomed to things. The fantastic hideousness of our existence… and yet still hours of pleasure… and so we go on eking out a bare existence and go on hoping.” Sebastian Haffner, another German observer, noted in Defying Hitler that even he, a staunch anti-Nazi, found himself one day saluting, wearing a uniform, and marching (and even secretly enjoying the feeling of authority associated with it).“To resist seemed pointless;” he wrote, “finally, with astonishment, he observed himself raising his arm, fitted with a swastika armband, in the Nazi salute.” And Milton Mayer, in They Thought They Were Free, described how good, decent Germans came to accept fascism. He was a Chicago reporter who, following World War II, went to Germany to interview “average Germans” to try to learn how such a terrible thing could have happened and, hopefully, thus prevent it from ever happening here. “What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people,” Mayer wrote, “little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security….” He wrote about living there and the ten Germans he befriended: I found his description of a college professor to be the most poignant. As Mayer’s professor friend noted, and Mayer recorded in his book: “This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter. …“ “To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it — please try to believe me — unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.” In this conversation, Mayer’s friend suggests that he wasn’t making an excuse for not resisting the rise of the fascists, but was simply pointing out what happens when you keep your head down and just “do your job” without engaging in politics. “You see,” Mayer’s friend continued, “one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next.“ You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even to talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not? Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.“ Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. … “But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and the smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked — if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. “But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D. “And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jew swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. “The world you live in — your nation, your people — is not the world you were in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. “But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. ”Sound familiar?Stephen Miller’s recent musing about suspending habeas corpus to lock up immigrants and even protestors without trial? That would’ve sparked emergency hearings a decade ago. Now it’s barely a blip. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a blueprint to purge civil servants and replace them with regime loyalists in complete defiance of the Pendelton Civil Service Act (and the reasons it came into being), should be setting off alarm bells. Instead, it’s getting the same treatment Trump gave Covid and his multiple defiances of the law and the courts: denial, deflection, delay. It all comes back to normalization, as M. Gessen so brilliantly chronicles in The New York Times: “And so just when we most need to act — while there is indeed room for action and some momentum to the resistance — we tend to be lulled into complacency by the sense of relief on the one hand and boredom on the other. “Think of the trajectory of the so-called travel ban during Trump’s first term. Its first iteration drew thousands into the streets. The courts blocked it. The second iteration didn’t attract nearly as much attention, and most people didn’t notice when the third iteration of the travel ban, which had hardly changed, went into effect. Now Trump’s administration is drafting a new travel ban that targets more than five times as many countries.” When we stop being shocked, we stop reacting. And when we stop reacting, democracy dies. But there is a path forward. The antidote to normalization is resistance. Not just in voting booths, but in the streets, in courtrooms, in classrooms, in boardrooms, in pulpits, and at dinner tables. Thucydides, who had one of the clearest eyes in history about the dangers faced by democracies, said: “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet nonetheless go out to meet it.” We must regain our vision and resensitize ourselves. We must reclaim our capacity to be appalled. That means when Trump calls Democrats “vermin,” we don’t say “that’s just Trump being Trump”; we say “That’s fascist rhetoric.” When he promises to use the military against American citizens and sends out immigration officers dressed up like soldiers at war, we don’t shrug; we organize. When Project 2025 tries to turn federal agencies into tools of vengeance, we don’t wait and see; we fight back now. When armed federal agents hide their identification and their faces the way terroristic police do in dictatorships as they kidnap people off our streets, we call them out. History won’t forgive us for sleepwalking into tyranny. And our children won’t either. This is the time to remember that democracy is not self-sustaining. It requires outrage. It demands vigilance. And sometimes, it needs us in the streets with our fists in the air and our boots on the pavement. If we still believe in this republic, in its ideals, and in the sacred value of a free and fair society, then our answer to Trump’s authoritarianism must be more than words. It must be peaceful action. Don’t get used to fascism. Get loud. Get active. Get in its way. The Hartmann Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my daily work to stop lies and fascism from consuming our form of government, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.