One of the MANY reasons I’m hoping Kamala Harris becomes the 47th president of the United States is the war in Ukraine. I regularly talk to my “Millennial” son about Russia’s ILLEGAL invasion of its neighbor and for over a year I’ve been saying the Ukrainians need to take the battle to Russia, IN Russia. Well, now they’ve done so and I was reading an article tonight about Putin’s reaction to the invasion into Kursk and his seemingly lack of ability to realize what’s actually happening. To me, it’s time for the “West” to take of the “training wheels” regarding the support they’re providing to Ukraine and allow “their” weapons to be used inside of Russia. Let the Russian people feel some of what the Ukrainian people have been dealing with for nearly three years now.

Of course Putin – further convincing me he is Donald Trump’s mentor – said the following to the Russian people as he said NO to potential peace negotiations with Ukraine: “But what kind of negotiations?” he scoffed. “How do we even talk with people who indiscriminately strike at civilians, at civilian infrastructure and try to create threats to nuclear energy? What can we even talk about with them?”

Do you see the hypocritical IRONY in those words coming from Putin’s mouth. I mean the Russian are STILL dropping bombs (up to three tons in weight) on apartment complexes, shopping malls, schools, hospitals, and they’ve been controlling the largest nuclear power plant (it’s located IN UKRAINE) in Europe for the past two plus years. Seriously, are the Russian people so hidden from reality or ??? (Stupid?) to actually believe this man. Of course, being disagreeable with Putin can find you in a Penal Colony – or falling out of a window – or, mysteriously ingesting poison, but, hey……

Putin is rattled and the Ukrainians are following the age old strategy of “giving your opponent a taste of their own medicine.” The BIG difference is reports have come out the Ukrainians are helping to feed the Russian civilians caught in what crossfire there is, although, it appears the Russians were so caught off guard there was little resistance to the Ukrainian invasion. Apparently, the Russians have fortified their troops around Belgorod in an attempt to prevent ceding more territory to the Ukrainians.

For me, this is the only way the Ukrainians can actually WIN this war. Obviously, the Russians have many more troops and are willing to LOSE even many MORE than they already have – with the numbers of Russians killed or wounded in the war fast approaching 600,000. That’s a staggering number and, obviously, Putin could care less about even one of them. The Russians continue pushing WAVES of troops at Ukraine losing OVER 1,000 on an average day – that’s right, DAY!

The Ukrainians are attempting to hit the Russians where it hurts the most – airfields in Kursk where planes take off carrying bombs intended for civilian targets in Ukraine. They’re destroying bridges in Kursk making it MUCH more difficult to supply troops (and Civilians) in the (now) HUGE area controlled by Ukraine, and reports I’ve read suggest over 2000 Russian troops in the region have surrendered. To me, while the Ukrainians continue to be the underdogs – especially, with the West failing to provide enough arms for them to push the Russians out (remember, this war will go well beyond Ukraine if the Ukrainians give in) – as the old saying goes (republican no less) the Ukrainians are fighting over there so we don’t have to – or something like that.

For those in America who don’t want to see the Russians ultimately pushing into Poland, Hungary, and the other former “Soviet” states (members of NATO meaning our troops would then be involved) you should think twice about supporting Trump if you’re STUPID enough to be planning to do so. Trump called Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “genius” and says he’ll end the war in “one day.” Well, another LIE – but, I do believe he would cut off aid to Ukraine forthwith. And JD Vance, when he’s not on his couch, has said, “I could care less what happens to Ukraine.”

One reason I wasn’t worried about Joe Biden’s age was because had he won a second term and something happened to prevent him from “governing” Kamala Harris would have become president. (Well, it appears there’s a good chance she does so anyway) But, just think about the possibilities should Trump succeed (in CHEATING to win) this November. He’s the OLDEST candidate for president in the history of the country. That’s correct, he’s older than President Biden was in 2020. Can you even picture of this J.D. Vance dude becoming president. I mean the ONLY person ever to run for this office with less qualification than Vance would have been Trump in 2016.

Obviously, there’s a segment of the American public who don’t care. They still haven’t figured out the republicans are all about POWER with no idea how to govern. Trump accomplished ONE thing of significance legislatively in his first term – a tax cut which increased the national debt be several TRILLION – with MOST of the benefits going to the “top 1%” and corporations who used the benefit to buy back stocks – raising the stock prices and providing the executives with massive gains.

People like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk, to name a few (and there were MANY more) actually had their fortunes DOUBLE after the tax cuts and the pandemic. Speaking of the pandemic, Trump’s FAILURE to be able to deal with it likely is the reason he’s not still the president (praise the Lord) – not only did (by many accounts) several HUNDRED thousand Americans die needlessly, but when Trump left office (and 400 Americans were DYING daily – with NO plan to stop the carnage) there were three MILLION fewer Americans with jobs than when he took office.

You have to go back to Herbert Hoover to find a president with similar failed economic policy. (Apparently, Trump’s SIX bankruptcies SHOULD have been a clue) That’s why I was such a strong supporter of President Biden despite the FACT he’s too old. Biden, by many accounts, has been the MOST impactful president since FDR took over for the failed policies of Hoover. He managed to get MORE meaningful legislation passed in his first two years – despite a razor thing majority in the House (about the same as the republican majority over the past two years where NOTHING has been accomplished without the help of democrats – other than torpedoing their own speaker) and a 50/50 “majority” in the Senate (which included Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema) than any administration in my lifetime (I’ve been paying attention to politics since the Eisenhower years in the 50’s).

To anyone who’s paid attention to how economics and the government works for any length of time it should surprise no one that coming out of the pandemic – with supply chains choked off and MILLIONS of people out of work – that addressing those issues forthrightly would lead to inflation – especially, with corporations with little to no regard for their civic duty – for them it’s all about the “Benjamin’s” – their sole purpose is to make as MUCH money as they can. All of a sudden MILLIONS were going back to work, wages were increasing (giving people at the “bottom” money to spend) and the issue with the supply chains (plus Putin’s aforementioned war) naturally led to inflation.

Using history as a guide and knowing we seem to rely on the Fed to “jack up” interest rates as their sole defense against inflation – most “experts” were predicting there had to be a recession to slow down the increase in prices. Well, the Biden administration has inflation in America the lowest in the Western world and the economy continues to produce record levels of job growth. So much for the “experts.” And, of course, Trump’s proposed solutions (including Project 2025 which he conveniently says “I know nothing about 25” – just ANOTHER in his LONG list of LIES) will likely not only cost Americans thousands per year but will reignite inflation – but, at least he’ll solve the Ukraine war in one day (while he’s the “dictator”)

Putin and Trump are “cut from the same cloth.” Narcissistic and delusional, but obsessed with POWER. Putin is, at least as I’m writing this, entrenched at the head of Russia while he uses the same Nazi tactics as Trump. Tell your LIES over and over until the “people” believe they’re “true” and use PROJECTION when discussing your enemies. That is, put your transgressions on them before the public understands what has happened to it.

Both Putin and Trump, if they’re good at anything, it’s pathological LYING and accusing – in Putin’s case accusing Ukraine (and America) of his own policies of attacking civilians and the power grid, while in Trump’s case, the most egregious example of his PROJECTION (it’s commonplace with him) would be accusing Ms. Harris of CHEATING regarding her crowds, etc. Talk about the “Pot calling the kettle black.” Remember, this is a man who not only CHEATED to “win” back in 2016, but he CHEATS at “golf.” You really have to be a CHEATER to CHEAT at golf! (Putin CHEATS to win every time there’s an election in Russia)

The bottom line for me here is that I feel really good about Ukraine’s decision to take the fight into Russia. I mean, why on earth does all the fighting have to be on Ukrainian “soil.” Russia’s been holding a significant portion of Ukraine since the “Orange Revolution” in 2014 as Putin became more and more paranoid about having a nation which evolved to democratic rule right on its border. He became convinced Ukraine would be joining NATO and, in the process of “stopping” them (for something which was certainly not imminent at a minimum) he “encouraged” BOTH Finland and Sweden on or near its northern border to actually join NATO. (Stupid?)

Russia has proven itself to be a “paper tiger” as they’ve been emptying their reserve weaponry, sacrificing their people by the HUNDREDS of thousands, and facing an economic disaster all because Putin, in the words of Trump, is a “genius.” (I hope you see the sarcasm in that last sentence). I’ll say it again, Putin and Trump are similar in so many ways: Power hungry LIARS who PROJECT their failures on their enemies. It’s time for Trump to be voted into the history books right next to Benedict Arnold and for the Russian Army to solve the Putin problem in their traditional fashion. High up window anyone?

Final Thought: This next week is the Democratic Convention in Chicago. The first year I was eligible to vote it was 1968, right in the middle of the Viet Nam war. My chosen candidate was Robert F Kennedy and, of course, he was murdered before democrats had a chance to nominate him giving “we the people” hope THAT illegal war would be ended. Of course, there were massive demonstrations leading to what was later termed a “police riot” which pretty much ensured Richard Nixon would win the 1968 election.

Well, there are many planned demonstrations planned again this year, according to reports and my hope is the demonstrations will be peaceful. The thing I find interesting is these protests will be regarding the Israeli SLAUGHTER of civilians in GAZA. Obviously, this SHOULD stop “yesterday.” However, I’ve been pointing out since Israel sent their first troops into GAZA (and started, in essence, leveling it) that Bibi Netanyahu will drag this war on indefinitely – because his regime will be toppled the day it ends and he’ll be facing his own CORRUPTION charges.

What I find really interesting is I didn’t read about these protestors during the republican convention. They many have been there I just didn’t see them if they were because, surprise, surprise, I didn’t watch the republican convention. I get that many of these people believe President Biden has the power to stop Israel’s attack – arguably on HAMAS – but Netanyahu (and his right wing “cabinet” – not the correct term) have no interest in letting Biden influence them. My point here is, have these demonstrators considered the other option? Trump? Netanyahu was part of the CONSPIRACY to get Trump elected (according to Seth Abramson’s book “Proof of Conspiracy”) along with the Russians, the Saudi’s, the Emerati’s, and the Egyptians back in 2016. Simply put, Trump is NOT the answer to what’s happening to the Palestinian people in GAZA. I pray for a CEASEFIRE as soon as possible and for food, necessary supplies, and reconstruction of GAZA along with a plan for a Palestinian state, ASAP. Stay tuned………….

For some time I’ve been talking (OK writing) about what I read in “Proof of Conspiracy” by Seth Abramson where he tediously lays out the evidence the 2016 “Election Interference” not only came from the Russians, but also the Saudi’s, Emerati’s, Israeli’s, and the Egyptians. Well, today as I was driving around listening to MSNBC on my XM radio there was a segment about how the Egyptians, allegedly, right before the 2016 Presidential election funneled $10 MILLION to the Trump campaign – ie Trump.

Apparently, evidence of this issue was first uncovered by the Mueller investigation and, when their investigation was “shuddered,” it was “handed off” to DOJ. Of course, at that time William Barr had become the Attorney General and I suppose it won’t take the brain of a “stable genius” to figure out what happened. Well, of course Mr. Barr ended DOJ’s further investigation before it started. Would have been the end of the story, but apparently an investigative reporter (I can’t remember from where, I think the Wa Post) recently uncovered the story.

Naturally, this would have been a serious violation of American law – NO candidate can take ANYTHING of value from a foreign person or government during a political campaign. (Of course, Trump willingly did so) Shortly before Trump became president the Egyptian secret service requested the National Bank of Egypt to withdraw nearly $10 MILLION in hundred dollar bills (taking a huge “slice” of Egypt’s U.S. dollar reserves) and put them into bags – when men came to take the bags they weighed approximately 200 pounds. That’s a lot of $100 dollar bills!

Before the Justice Department and/or the FBi could obtain Bank records associated with Trump as part of the investigation Mr. Barr, in essence, shut the investigation down. Well, this all will just be more of the absurd in relation to Trump’s bid to retake the “White House” because the statute of limitations has passed so Trump cannot face an indictment for this alleged action, but the circumstantial evidence seems to point a “finger” directly at the MOST corrupt president in American history. Keep in mind, shortly after taking office the Trump administration released close to $2 BILLION in Egyptian funds which had been frozen due to human rights violations be what Trump referred to as “my favorite dictator” in El Sisi. Classic “quid pro quo?” (I should take about two weeks for THIS Trump scandal to blow past our “liberal media”)

Whether or not it’s a “quid pro quo” it would have been grossly ILLEGAL for Trump to take that money from El Sisi. However. logic tell us Trump would have done this without a second thought. After his son and son in law met with Russian operatives offering “stuff” for Trump’s campaign back in June of 2016 Trump was asked about taking “stuff” from foreign governments and he indicated he would do so. (“Why wouldn’t I?”) Well, in the instance regarding the Egyptians mentioned above, the evidence strongly suggests he did. And, of course, connecting the dots – that is the 200 pounds of $100 dollar bills with reversing American policy regarding Egypt’s human rights abuses looks a bit more than “fishy.”

Of course, “we the people” will likely never know for sure because Trump is an expert at laundering money and, in this case, while allegedly receiving CASH he knew how to hide the money via “laundering” which he likely learned from the Russians themselves. Maybe once Trump is out of the picture – meaning LOSING another election and then facing up to the MANY criminal charges still pending in front of him – with the SCOTUS likely to stop buoying him up – maybe people like William Barr will come clean with what they know and what they did. Obviously, the Justice Department under Merrick Garland had little to no stomach for following up with allegations from Trump’s presidency regarding his criminal conduct until the January 6th Committee forced his hand.

Mr. Garland ignored the ten instances of OBSTRUCTION of Justice which Robert Mueller “memorialized” for possible indictment once Trump was no longer in office. Garland wasn’t interested. Apparently, the ILLEGAL campaign contribution alleged to have come from Egypt got no interest in Garland’s Justice Department (although, it’s possible he wasn’t aware of the investigation). Also, the ILLEGAL paying off of a couple women with whom Trump allegedly had illicit affairs while his wife was nursing his final son didn’t interest Garland DESPITE the FACT Michael Cohen was sentenced to THREE years for the CRIME. Trump was referred to as “individual 1” who directed and benefited from the CRIME.

Garland just had no interest in taking on Trump. Apparently Trump’s MO of repeated CRIMINAL conduct was just too complicated for Mr. Garland to take on. You know, like Obama’s famous “we’re going to look forward instead of back” regarding Bush/Cheney admitting on national TV they authorized TORTURE. I said, at the time (it would be in the archives) that the lawbreaking by future presidents will just get worse if they act as if they’re “above the law.” And, of course, Trump proved me right.

The SCOTUS apparently felt left out of the conversation as to whether or not presidents are “above the law.” They, of course, now “famously” decided section 2 of the 14th amendment doesn’t really mean what it CLEARLY says – because, if it did, they’d have a lot of lawsuits to handle and Trump would have been removed from MANY ballots as being ineligible to hold ANY office in the U.S. according to various states. As usual, that wasn’t enough for the court so NOW our constitution says presidents are IMMUNE from prosecutions if they commit their crimes while being officially in office. Talk about opening up “cans of worms.” Our SCOTUS has morphed to the pathetic from the disgusting. (Remembering Bush v Gore)

I wrote the above a couple of weeks ago and have been “on vacation” since then. Actually, I’m in the “old white guy” category and have been having a few visits to various doctor’s offices. The other thing is, as someone who was strongly in favor of Joe Biden (even though I, too, feel he’s too old for another four year term) and felt democrats were going to do what they’ve done so many times in my lifetime (I first voted in 1968) and that’s “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.” I was concerned with the “leaders” in the party (like President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and others) urging Biden to drop out so the democrats could have an “open convention.” To me, that was doing the republicans’ bidding.

I pointed out if Biden dropped out the ONLY alternative was for Kamala Harris to be the candidate for the reason of the time between the democratic convention PLUS the issue of raising money, organizing a campaign staff, volunteers, and field offices. V. P. Harris, I said, was the ONLY person who could “inherit” the $250 MILLION Biden had in the “bank” and the ground game Biden had produced over the previous year or so. Thankfully, Biden’s “delegates” realized right away the same thing and it only took a few days for Ms. Harris to be the “presumptive candidate.” (Within a week or so it was “official”) I wasn’t sure, at all, whether Ms. Harris would be a good candidate – but, that question was soon answered. The first three weeks where she was the “candidate” have been about as good as (someone like me would hope) it gets.

She’s raised OVER $300 MILLION in additional campaign funds and her “run” through the battleground states after she chose (surprisingly) Tim Walz as her “running mate” was witnessed by standing room only crowds everywhere they went. Based on what I’ve seen in this first three weeks I’m expecting the Harris/Walz campaign to continue showing up all across the country in the 80, or so, days left until the election. The “endorsers” lining up behind them continues to grow and is impressive. Plus, the Harris/Walz campaign is showing expertise at getting under Trump’s “skin.” Trump seems as if he’s going to get his AGE exposed (along with his distemper) going forward.

I refuse to allow myself to get at all complacent (although I don’t influence too many) because I just can’t imagine another four years of Donald Trump – especially, with “Project 2025” sitting there just waiting for Trump to get sworn in once again. Of course Trump is distancing himself from “Project 2025” but, that’s just one more in his LONG line of LIES. His (and his VP choice) fingers are all over “Project 2025.” You can read it be clicking HERE. I’ve read the first 100 pages (plus the intro) and haven’t felt the need to go any further – because it comes across to me as a roadmap to fascism. There’s a lot of detail after where I’ve stalled, but it all points to a fascist dictatorship in America. I believe Trump is too STUPID to actually read it, but “we the people” should.

Final Thought: I was watching Rachel Maddow the other night and her and her producer were talking about a book her producer wrote (out today) regarding the issue of “misinformation” and the republican party. As I listened to them – as many others do – puzzling about all the LYING coming from Trump and republicans, I wondered when someone on a TV “news” outlet is going to reference why they’ve chosen LYING as a tactic? I’ve been writing about this for years (beginning with Rush Limbaugh) and trying to get someone in the media to point out republicans long ago ADOPTED the “Big Lie Theory” of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels along with their “tactic” of PROJECTION. Just the other day Trump gave the epitome of his use of these NAZI strategies in one “Truth Social” post.

In part, it read: “She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, (at the Detroit Airport) and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people!” Mr. Trump wrote. “Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING – And they’re even worse at the Ballot Box. She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”

OK, in those few words Trump incorporated BOTH of his NAZI strategies. Not only is he LYING about her “crowd sizes” (as he’s famous for doing) but the accusation of “cheating” is PURE PROJECTION. For heaven’s sake, Trump CHEATS at GOLF. Now, I’m someone who loves to play golf. I play in a league with guys who are (mostly) older than me (I’m soon to be 77) and the idea of ANYONE cheating is, well, that person would no longer be in the league. Of course, Trump “owns” the golf courses (purchased with laundered money?) so, apparently, his CHEATING is OK. You can listen to just about any Trump “speech” (or conversation) and the LYING and PROJECTION is pervasive. (OBTW – anyone who CHEATS at golf will, you know, CHEAT at everything. They would be a CHEATER pure and simple!)

It continues to bug me that NO ONE (at least that I see/hear) in the press point out the republicans are using NAZI propaganda tactics – routinely. And, when you combine that REALITY along with the REALITY of “Project 2025” you would think the press (“liberal media”) would be pointing this out to “we the people.” Combine that with the FACT Trump has “nakedly” used Hitler’s language – “They’re poisoning the blood” of Americans and the democrats are …… “vermin.” Why are “we the people” afraid to even reference the NAZI’S when Trump’s “slow moving coup” is taking us in that direction? Praise the Lord for the Harris/Walz campaign! Stay tuned……..

About a year ago I finally got fed up with the opinion pieces for the NY Times leading me to cancel my subscription. I have not been remorseful since. Well, after Joe Biden had a bad debate performance the “pundit class” went into high gear aiming to force Biden from the Ballot – despite being the choice of democrats in the primaries – because “he’s too old.” This would suggest the voters who took place in the primaries didn’t understand Biden was soon to be 81. Of course, the weak kneed democrats in Congress, holding their fingers to the “winds” started bailing from Biden like a group of fishermen on a sinking boat.

Well, what they’re accomplishing is doing the “dirty work” for republican operatives who’ve been blasting President Biden’s age for the past 3 plus years. Of course, they’re preferred candidate is ONLY three years younger and when it comes to knowledge of government and wisdom Trump still seems to be more like a Middle Schooler than a candidate for the most important job in the world. (Sorry, Mr. Putin) Here’s what’s bugging me about all of this. The issue is Trump, the MAGA republicans, and, of course, the “Project 2025” Manifesto which is FINALLY getting more than a cursory look. For those unwilling to read, it’s a roadmap to fascism for America. (The “fever dream” of those opposing the New Deal)

The right wing fascists behind Project 2025 have been living “under the rocks” since the early days of Charles and David Koch taking over the reins of Koch Industries and their push for a right wing bent to our government. Keep in mind (If you’ve watched NPR’s “Nazi Town USA”) some of the authors of Project 2025 very well could be directly associated – by their familial relationship to the key “players” in the Nazi movement in America preceding WWII. Trump was widely recognized as their conduit to the “mainstream” of politics when he took the “torch” of the racist “birther movement.” The “cherry on top” for these white/christian nationalists is they didn’t have to “coach” Trump about the “Big Lie Theory” of Hitler’s Nazi’s. Trump is a natural.

Suddenly, a bunch of journalists and pundits discovered Joe Biden is old. For the past few weeks several, as I mentioned above, a group of “weak kneed” democrats in the House and Senate continue pushing President Biden to drop from the “race.” Well, I’ll say once again what I’ve been saying for months. The winner of the election will be either Joe Biden or Donald Trump. Put another way, a competent political government administrator or a CONVICTED felon who’s also an adjudicated sexual offender guilty of bank, insurance, and tax fraud who supports Project 2025. Put still another way it’s either a president who supports our democratic republic or one who supports a roadmap to FASCISM! I say to democrats, let’s get on with it!

Here’s something I’m finding interesting. Outlets like the NY Times, the WA Post, and several other parts of the “Mainstream Media” (MSM) have suddenly realized their two weeks of putting their “microscope” on Joe Biden and the FACT he’s 81, maybe they had better put some of their focus on Trump. And, it only takes a cursory look at what Trump is saying and his supporters are saying for these outlets to conclude what MOST of us everyday Americans concluded long ago – Trump is UNFIT to hold any office in America’s government. let alone the presidency. It’s almost time for the actual campaign to start and democrats will win if they close ranks around Biden/Harris in order to BLOCK Trump and his fascist compatriots from success.

Not only do they need to get behind Biden/Harris they also need to support the democrats who can win in November’s Senate and House elections. Republicans like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, both senators who proved to be traitors in January of 2021, SHOULD be vulnerable. Cruz who famously vamoosed to Cancun during the Freeze in Texas a few years ago and spends his time Podcasting instead of governing and Hawley, now proudly proclaiming to be a “Christian Nationalist,” (apparently like the ones backing Hitler back in the day) should even turn off some republicans. But, of course, they represent “red America,” so who knows.

My point is, Joe Biden needs a democratically controlled Congress to get ANYTHING done – keeping in mind, if Biden wins in November, nary a republican in today’s Congress will accept the results. They’re all on the “Trump train.” Once again, read Project 2025, to get an idea of what these people believe. Actually, I’m not sure they believe anything other than doing whatever it takes to remain in POWER.

Some of the hypocrisy of these republicans is startling. Of course, Ted Cruz watched Trump attack his wife and his father back in 2016 before bending over and licking Trump’s boots. Hawley had his now infamous raised fist salute to the January 6th INSURRECTIONISTS only to be video taped running for his life as they stormed the Capitol. The list is long. Now, Trump has chosen Ohio Senator – with almost NO governing experience JD Vance, who once called Trump “America’s Hitler,” called himself a “Never Trumper,” and said you’d be an “idiot” if you voted for him, as his Vice President candidate. Attention women: Not only is Vance opposed to abortion, he’s also opposed to ANY exceptions. (Maybe that’s why he now claims Trump was a “great president.” (my stomach is curdling)

Trump could have chosen “liddle” Marco Rubio who was kissing up to him as if his life depended on being the choice. Apparently, Rubio making fun of Trump’s “small hands” – just like Stormy Daniels – was a bridge too far for Trump – unforgivable. Tonight, Nikki Haley, who claimed she wouldn’t support Trump, was another of the many who “flip flopped” – again and again – gave a speech for him at the republican convention. Of course, I didn’t manage to watch the speech but I have to wonder if she mentioned her husband in the speech – the husband Trump suggested was overseas in the military to get away from her. Seriously, these people have no shame.

Mitch McConnell. Trump’s been blasting him for years – including making RACIST comments about McConnell’s wife. McConnell, who couldn’t draw the courage to vote to CONVICT Trump in IMPEACHMENT #2 right before he gave a blistering speech on the floor of the Senate saying, in effect, Trump was guilty, was seen recently attempting to lick Trump’s boots at a get together at, you guessed it, the same Capitol Trump instigated the attack 3 1/2 years ago. Talk about your profiles in courage. But, as usual, there’s always more. Despite all of Trump’s ridiculing him – AND being booed at the Convention – there’s McConnell looking for extra spittle to put on Trump’s boots. I have to wonder if some of these cowardly republicans are getting on their knees for Trump (and, not to pray for him, if you know what I mean). This just gets more and more disgusting by the day.

And, still, we continue to have democrats arguing over who their candidate should be. Joe Biden sometimes slurs his words. Sometimes he forgets a name and makes a mistake. He stutters. They’re just AFRAID “we the people” are unable to understand Biden is 81 and the MOST effective president since, likely, FDR. For some reason democrats have lost sight of the FACT the issue is Donald Trump and Project 2025. Arguing over who the nominee should be is wasted air!

Hopefully, I’ll be eating “crow.” A couple days ago now, Joe Biden announced he was removing himself from the presidential election of 2024 – a decision which SHOULD further cement his “legacy” as one of America’s greatest presidents. That is, of course, if I’m eating that “crow.” I had written earlier, if he dropped out the ONLY possible choice for a “successor” was Kamala Harris for a plethora of reasons. The money, which only she can “inherit,” the campaign infrastructure and the campaign staff, and the amount of time it would take to choose someone else not to mention the divisiveness inside the party should that be their plan. (And, with many, including, apparently, Barack Obama, that WAS the plan) True to democrats of the past, there were many calling for an “open convention.” A choice which, in my view, would have guaranteed a second Trump administration.

Praise the Lord! It only took less than 48 hours for Ms. Harris to accumulate enough pledged delegates to the democratic convention to guarantee her the nomination. In addition, it’s been reported in those (less than) 48 hours something like $250 MILLION was raised. (If you don’t understand it takes a lot of money to win a presidential election I’ve got a …………. well, you know the rest) We’ve lost a great mind in making government work, in prosecuting a foreign policy which holds the Western Alliance together, and a determination to keep Putin holed up in Russia without accomplishing his fever dream of recreating the Soviet Union – starting with Ukraine.

Ms. Harris has been by Biden’s side as he’s navigated a 50/50 Senate and a House (in his first two years) with a razor thin majority into the most consequential legislative successes, from my vantage point, in my lifetime. At this point, I’m feeling the KEY to whether or not she will win in November, will be her choice for V.P. I don’t pay much attention to the polling, but, at this point, I have no idea what the polls are “saying.” I just can’t imagine the American people voting in a convicted FELON, who attempted a coup d’etat after his first FAILED term in office – where more jobs were LOST than what were there when he started (I believe he set the record) and analysis of his COVID ineptitude suggesting something like HALF A MILLION Americans aren’t here because of his folly.

Trump (and his campaign) keep asking “Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Well, unless you’re one of the tech BILLIONAIRES whose wealth doubled, tripled, or more, that answer is likely NO! People were losing jobs in droves, at this point four years ago something like 2000 to 3000 Americans PER DAY were dying of COVID – a number which rose to 4000 PER DAY by the time Trump (reluctantly) left office on January 20, 2021. He left with the economy in near free fall and NO plan for how to get us out of the COVID mess he helped exacerbate. Now he’s up against a 59 year old former prosecutor and, I’m guessing, he’s trying to figure out how to worm his way out of the September debate. (Which he already agreed to)

I’ll say it again. I’ve NEVER wished more to be wrong about one of my predictions than the one where I predicted the democrats would lose if they abandoned Biden. It still remains to be seen, but the initial enthusiasm, at least with the campaign staff and the democratic leaders who pushed Biden out of the race seems to be high. As I’ve said here and other places, I would have voted for Biden if he was on his last breath. As a friend of mine once said, “I’d vote for a can of tomato soup before I’d vote for Trump.” The next three months will be interesting and historic. I’m still hopeful for one of the last things on my bucket list: To live long enough (I’ll soon be 77 and have cancer) to see Trump go to jail. For that to happen, Ms. Harris needs to win in November!

Final Thought: I’ve written ad nauseam about the SCOTUS Citizen’s United v FEC decision back in 2010 which unleashed the “dark money” flowing into elections causing the COST of gaining a seat in Congress or, more drastically, winning the “White House” to run into the BILLIONS. For “little old me” who throws in $25 here and there it’s not much different than before – when there were actually campaign finance laws attempting to curb the effect of BILLIONAIRES on our elections. Well, it just keeps getting worse.

In the 2024 election we’ve got Trump attempting to get OIL BILLIONAIRES to drop him a “cool billion” with the promise to reverse President Biden’s environmental decisions. And, now, the latest report I’ve read has Elon Musk (yes, the same Elon Musk who claimed he was staying out of this election) ponying up $45 MILLION per month for Trump’s campaign coffers. Of course, he has to give the money to a “PAC” – which is not connected to Trump’s campaign (wink, wink). Will Trump use the money to pay his legal bills? That question doesn’t seem to be in the news lately – or all of Trump’s LIES. Even democrats are working overtime for Trump, by knifing Joe Biden in the back. I’ll say it again, that’s why I’ve never been a democrat.

Yellow Journalism Exposed: The Unfair Targeting of Biden’s Flaws vs Trump’s Crimes!

So, to answer the question about why Trump is polling better than Biden regardless of the realities in the fact-based world: “It’s the media, stupid.”

Thom Hartmann

Jul 08, 2024

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Watching and reading American media, a certain bias becomes immediately evident: stories proliferate about pundits and a handful of Democrats calling for President Biden to drop out of the race, but they are almost never “balanced” by pointing out the massively larger number of Republicans (many now “former” or “never Trump” Republicans, but Republicans nonetheless) who are calling for Trump to drop out or be defeated.

Why would this be?

Why wouldn’t American media at least try to balance their coverage of two “flawed” candidates? After all, Trump has been disowned by the former head of his own party (Michael Steele), something like half of his own former cabinet officials (including his Defense and Intelligence officials), and even his own former vice president.

There is nothing like a movement or groundswell that size on the Democratic side; virtually all of the calls for Biden to step aside have come from the media and not one current or former administration official has gone on the record against Biden.

Shouldn’t the GOP calls for Trump to step aside, be replaced, or be defeated — from old-line conservative Republicans like Liz Cheney to mainstream Republicans like Michael Steele to organized Republican movements like the Lincoln Project — at least be mentioned every time a story is written or a report done on Biden’s struggle to hang onto his candidacy?

Shouldn’t Trump’s crimes and anti-American behavior be at least mentioned whenever Biden’s age is criticized?

Why aren’t they?

Given Trump’s obvious criminality; the GOP’s hostility to women and racial, gender, and religious minorities; his pathetic economic performance pre-covid and incompetent handling of the pandemic (causing America to have the second-highest per-capita death rate in the world behind Peru); and rambling rants about sharks and batteries, you’d think he’d be far behind in the polls regardless of Biden’s occasional senior moments or gaffes.

And yet, numerous national polls conducted by reputable organizations in the past few weeks consistently show Trump beating Biden in this fall’s matchup.

So, again, what’s going on here?

One proposed answer is that the media is putting their thumb on the scale because they’re largely run by billionaires and corporations eager for more tax cuts and afraid of Biden’s Bernie-like promise to make them “pay their fair share.”

A popular meme this past weekend that went viral on social media, for example, says:

“The media’s Anti-Biden noise isn’t an accident:
— CNN: CEO Trump donor
— ABC: CEO Trump donor
— CBS: CEO Trump donor
— NBC: CEO Trump donor
— MSNBC: CEO Trump donor
— Washington Post: owner anti-union billionaire Jeff Bezos
— Wall Street Journal: Owner: Rupert Murdoch
— New York Times: CEO Trump donor.”

While not entirely accurate (and overlooking the political leanings of the billionaires who own the social media sites where some studies suggest as many as a third of us get our news these days), and with the notorious exceptions of Fox, Sinclair, and X, most media reporting isn’t so simplistically driven from the top down.

But that doesn’t mean that one of the biggest problems facing Americans (and the fate and future of our democratic republic) isn’t media bias. It’s just a very different type of bias that most people who don’t work in the media never consider.

I’m not talking about a simple left/right bias, a political preference held by reporters or publishers and editors of the nation’s major media outlets.

While there’s a strong case to be made for billion-dollar corporations and multimillionaire media personalities having a preference for low taxes and deregulation, for example, the bias I’m referencing has to do with spectacle.

Generations ago, we condescendingly referred to newspapers that emphasized scandal and celebrity intrigue as “yellow journalism.” The phrase dates back to the 1890s when William Randolph Hearst bought, in 1895, the Journal, a New York newspaper that he used to successfully compete with Joseph Pulitizer’s then-dominant and rather staid New York World.

Hearst hired away from Pulitzer’s papers a number of famous writers along with Richard Outcault, then the nation’s most famous cartoonist, who penned the wildly popular series called The Yellow Kid. Between Outcault’s draw and Hearst’s emphasis on celebrity and sensationalism, from the 1890s until the WWII era, “yellow (kid) journalism” dominated the American media scene.

It took two world wars to push public demand for real news and serious reporting — and an emphasis on fact-based reporting and substance over flash — back into media dominance. They birthed what became the era of Walter Cronkite and Kathryn Graham, with honest, credible reporting on everything from Nixon’s Watergate crimes to the horrors of the Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War.

Cronkite competed with Huntley and Brinkley based on the quality of their reporting and the credibility of their sources, as did the nation’s major and even regional newspapers and radio news networks.

Television and radio networks lost money on their news operations, but it was a price they were happy to pay to maintain their otherwise very profitable broadcast licenses.

But then something changed.

I trace the modern era of yellow journalism to the 1990s, when the nation was transfixed by Ken Starr’s (and his right-hand-man Brett Kavanaugh’s) relentless and pornographic 4-year-long pursuit of Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.

After Reagan ended enforcement of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, radio and TV stations were no longer burdened by the requirement to “program in the public interest” to maintain their broadcast licenses; within a year (1988) all three major TV networks had moved their news divisions — which had universally been losing money in the competition for “real news” — under the arm of their entertainment divisions, where they remain to this day and have become significant profit centers.

Thus was birthed the modern era of yellow journalism/infotainment, replacing classic issue-based journalism.

Rush Limbaugh’s 1988 national syndication and Rupert Murdoch’s 1996 Fox “News” set the tone for this era’s new yellow journalism, frontloading — as did Hearst back in the day — personality, celebrity, and scandal over the boring details of policy, debate, and the consequences of congressional and presidential decisions.

The “yellow” of this era’s “yellow journalism” more accurately means “profitable,” now that nobody remembers that cartoon of the 1890s. And, unlike the 1890s when there were still papers engaging in serious journalism, today’s yellow journalism is ubiquitous across the media consumed by the majority of Americans.

As a consequence, a Wall Street Journal poll found that 52% of voters claim that Trump “has a strong record of accomplishments” but only 40% say the same for Biden.

And now the researchers are weighing in, showing how 21st century yellow journalism has altered our political landscape and led to the rise of the ultimate scandal/celebrity/personality/profit spectacle: Donald Trump and his fascist cult followers.

The Columbia Journalism Review, the premiere watchdog of American news reporting, last year published a scathing indictment of pre-election political coverage in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Nothing has changed in the months since then; if anything, this profit-driven “yellow journalism” has gotten worse.

Because these two newspapers are so widely read and respected, they tend to set the agenda and tone for most other reporting in the United States, and what the Review found leading up to the 2022 midterm election was shocking:

“Both emphasized the horse race and campaign palace intrigue, stories that functioned more to entertain readers than to educate them on essential differences between political parties. …

“By the numbers, of four hundred and eight articles on the front page of the Times during the period we analyzed, about half—two hundred nineteen—were about domestic politics. A generous interpretation found that just ten of those stories explained domestic public policy in any detail; only one front-page article in the lead-up to the midterms really leaned into discussion about a policy matter in Congress: Republican efforts to shrink Social Security.

“Of three hundred and ninety-three front-page articles in the Post, two hundred fifteen were about domestic politics; our research found only four stories that discussed any form of policy. The Post had no front-page stories in the months ahead of the midterms on policies that candidates aimed to bring to the fore or legislation they intended to pursue. Instead, articles speculated about candidates and discussed where voter bases were leaning.”

This is the exact same type of yellow journalism “reporting” that preceded the 2016 election and brought us Donald Trump as president, and is a clear echo of the days of Hearst’s New York Journal.

But it’s not just selective reporting of the news of the day with a heavy tilt toward the GOP (or, more correctly, a steady refusal to report on the accomplishments of Biden and Democrats).

Another factor that Hearst played on heavily — and has come to dominate what passes today for journalism — is the media’s intentional “inversion of expectation.” It’s the other side of the coin of spectacle.

As any comedian can tell you, an involuntary laugh response comes when a person thinks they know what’s coming next and is then, instead, surprised by the unexpected.

“I just flew in from New York,” Red Skelton used to famously say, deadpan. “Boy, are my arms tired!”

In his 1941 book American Journalism. A History of Newspapers in the United States through 250 Years, 1690 to 1940, Frank Luther Mott famously noted the hallmark of Hearst’s yellow journalism era:

“When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news.”

In today’s yellow journalism era, reporters are similarly far more interested in “man bites dog” stories than in examining the factors and history that may have provoked that bite, or even covering in any detail the frequency of bites of any kind.

In this regard, we’re watching a repeat of the way our national news media helped Trump into the White House in 2016.

The irrefutable example comes from an in-depth analysis of 2016 done by Media Matters comparing Hillary Clinton’s private comment about Trump’s followers being “a basket of deplorables” and Trump’s very public 2016 proclamation, literally echoing Hitler, that some of us are “vermin” who he intended to “root out” and eliminate from American society.

Clinton is a reasonable and thoughtful politician and former diplomat, so her “deplorables” comment was seen by our yellow press as “man bites dog.” It was unexpected.

Trump, on the other hand, is a sadistic fascist whose call for the extermination of his political opponents could reasonably be expected: “dog bites man.”

The 2016 data proves the thesis, as Media Matters noted:

“Media Matters reviewed the nationally syndicated broadcast news shows – ABC’s Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and This Week; CBS’ This Morning, Mornings, Evening News, and Face the Nation; and NBC’s Today, Nightly News, and Meet the Press – in the first week after each remark.

“We found that those programs aired 54 minutes of coverage of Clinton’s “deplorables” comment but just 3 minutes regarding Trump’s “vermin” remark.

“ABC News aired 20 minutes of ‘deplorables’ coverage across 13 segments and 3 teasers, but devoted only a single minute of coverage to the ‘vermin’ comment, during an interview with the network’s chief Washington correspondent, Jonathan Karl, about his new book.

“CBS News provided 13 minutes of ‘deplorables’ coverage across 11 segments and 3 teasers, compared to 1 passing mention of the ‘vermin’ remark on Face the Nation that comprised less than 30 seconds.

“And NBC News spent 21 minutes of airtime on the ‘deplorables’ comment across 11 segments, compared to 2 minutes on ‘vermin’ — one a passing mention, the other an interview in which Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker read the comment to Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and asked her, ‘Are you comfortable with this language coming from the GOP front-runner?’ (McDaniel declined to comment.)”

Cable news (CNN, Fox “News,” and MSNBC) wasn’t much different:

“On CNN, there were 553 mentions of ‘deplorable’ compared to 70 for ‘vermin.’

“On Fox News, there were 513 mentions of ‘deplorable’ compared to only 9 of ‘vermin.’

“And on MSNBC, there were 596 mentions of ‘deplorables’ compared to only 112 of ‘vermin.’”

The reporters at Media Matters then turned their attention to the nation’s five largest newspapers by circulation: “the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post — in the first week following each remark.”

Here, they found the pattern repeated.

The LA Times published 3 articles about Clintons “deplorables” comment, two on the front page. Not one single article during the week after Trump mentioned “vermin” even referenced his remark.

The New York Times had seven articles about Clinton’s comment, four on the front page; like the LA Times, there wasn’t a single news story mention of Trump’s ‘vermin’ comment during that time period.

The Wall Street Journal similarly ignored Trump’s comment altogether, but ran 8 articles about Clinton’s faux pax, four of them on the front page.

The Washington Post at least mentioned Trump’s comment once, on page A2 (including it in the headline), but gave Clinton’s remark 9 stories, one on the front page, with five using the word “deplorables” in the headline.

USA Today covered Clinton’s comment in 2 news articles but, like three of the other four papers completely ignored Trump’s.

And now they are repeating that pattern virtually step-by-profitable-step.

So, to answer the question about why Trump is polling better than Biden regardless of the realities in the fact-based world: “It’s the media, stupid.”

It’s an echo of CBS’s Les Moonves telling Donald Trump to keep it up in 2016 because Trump’s hate and bizarre lies were making so much money for the TV network:

“Man, who would have expected the ride we’re all having right now? … The money’s rolling in and this is fun. … I’ve never seen anything like this, and this going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It’s a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going.”

In the wake of Reagan ending enforcement of the Fairness Doctrine and later the Equal Time Rule, to see this issue-free spectacle-style coverage passing as news on the front pages of our nation’s largest newspapers is, frankly, a crime against our democracy.

For voters to make intelligent decisions about candidates, they must be well-informed.

Sadly, that is very much not what is happening today in America, and our era’s profit-driven yellow journalism, no longer required to “program in the public interest,” bodes ill for this fall’s election.

The best corrective, and the best chance to save our Republic, is for all of us to speak out loudly when we see this kind of modern-day yellow journalism practiced.

As we saw last week when The New York Times featured an editorial calling for its heavily Democratic readers not to vote and then altered the headline in response to public outrage, our pressure can alter media behavior.

It’s time to raise some hell!

I read news feeds from several sources and the response of the democrats, as I wrote recently, to Joe Biden’s debate performance just reminds me, it seems, every day of why I’ve never joined the democratic party. On first glance it’s outrageous, but then my mind settles in on it’s STUPID. For some reason there are a bunch of democrats who believe now is the time to replace Joe Biden on the democratic ticket. It’s like “what have you done for me lately?” It’s ALMOST as if these democrats WANT to live through another Trump administration. Obviously, they haven’t read “Project 2025” or listened to the “brass” at the Heritage Foundation crowing about how the SCOTUS has turned hard right and given Trump all the POWER he’ll need to upend our republic.

To me, the focus SHOULD be on the Court and the potential ramifications of them giving the president “absolute immunity” (I’m going to gag) for virtually any actions he/she takes during their term in office. The best example given in the majority opinion was that Trump was “immune” from criminal prosecution for his conversations with members of DOJ as he was CRIMINALLY (my characterization) attempting to foment a coup d’etat. (Could Biden now order his AG to arrest and jail Trump? Could he end the Electoral College so presidents are chosen by a majority of the people? Just wondering)

Here’s what SHOULD happen. Democrats SHOULD get their sh*t together, line up behind Biden/Harris and start campaigning as if their/our lives depend on it. Just the Courts decisions in the last week. let alone in the last two (+) years, should get their/our attention. Of course, the obvious one (since Dobbs) was the granting to Trump of his preposterous claim he was, as president, “above the law.” Not only did they grant Trump his fever dream, but they took EVERY possible day to get their decision out, I don’t know, maybe overshadowed by Biden’s debate performance. And, OBTW, to me, Trump’s debate performance was, on substance, the WORST I’ve ever seen. He did manage to limit the outright LIES to around 50 in the 90 minutes.

Why on earth is all of this not motivating democrats to get behind Biden. I’ve read several suggestions Biden should step aside for Kamala Harris. STUPID! She’s his VP and, should he be unable, for any reason, to perform the duties of his office, she would step in. In fact, I’m guessing that’s the obvious scenario which will play out. But, there’s not enough time for anyone else to set up a campaign with any chance to beat Trump. And, to all the naysayers who think Trump has this election in the bag, democrats have an excellent to awesome record of achievement over the previous 3 1/2 years, there’s the issue of abortion (and, trust me, read “Project 2025” if you actually believe there won’t be a national ban on abortion with a Trump victory) along with many others.

Project 2025 isn’t a suggestive document which is 900 pages long, in the short amount of pages I’ve been able to transverse, it’s a roadmap to “deconstructing the administrative state” and “conservative presidents” will be expected to “do as told.” (Once again, my characterization) Trump won’t read a page of it, but he’ll be surrounded by those who wrote it and he’ll be expected to do as told. All he cares about is the POWER and the LIMELIGHT. (Plus staying out of jail) The U.S. will have been, in effect, undermined from within as Hitler failed to do back in the 1930’s. Hyperbole? Check out “Nazi Town” on YouTube (by PBS, which, by the way, “Project 2025” is planning to get rid of – you know, “lights out.” (Click HERE to access the video – might be behind a paywall – I give PBS $5 per month)

We ALL have a major decision to make by November’s election. Do we care enough for our democratic republic to defend it against this right wing fascist assault. This isn’t just happening here, but if “we the people” are unwilling to defend our nation from fascism then democracies across Europe are likely to start falling. Steve Bannon just got thrown in prison, but he’s got his fingertips all over this right win sludge – not only in America – but in Europe as well. His “Cambridge Analytica” was a key proponent in the Brexit breakup of the EU, the first Trump calamity in America, and, likely what’s going on in France as I’m writing this. (Despite the fact Cambridge Analytica got exposed and shuttered – although Bannon has all the stolen data)

While we MUST keep our focus on what’s happening here, understanding there’s a global cabal (and V. Putin is right in the middle of it) is important. Ukraine’s fight to save their democracy is on the line in our election. by extension, so is the future of the countries like Poland, Slovakia, Moldova, Hungary, and others which Putin has his sights set on. And, do you really believe Trump is going to keep the U.S. as the leader of NATO? If “we the people” are STUPID enough to elect Trump 2.0 the world will be turned upside down and we’ll deserve what we get. And, when all is said and done we’ll be responsible) As it stands, there’s “more of us that there are of them” but they are doing a great job of dividing the democrats into a sniveling group of losers. And, I have to add, our “liberal media” is playing their part in all of this. Before you notice MSNBC will be showing Trump’s speeches once again, not for our benefit but for their’s hoping Trump will go easy on them as he participates in the dismantling of the foundation of our republic.

Look, “we the people” have less than a month to get our sh*t together and get this campaign focused on what’s important. It’s important for ALL of us, just in different ways. For us old people (I was going to write farts) we need to stop Trump for the sake of our children and grandchildren (if you’re fortunate enough to have any) – maybe I should just say, for those who will come after us. The ultimate consequence of ignoring the Climate Crisis, for example, won’t happen until we are long gone, (Although, brace yourself for this year’s hurricane season) The damage Trump will cause to the economy won’t affect us nearly as much as the young people of our nation (in whose futures Biden/Harris are focused on investing), And, we’re all too old to be affected by what likely will be a complete ban on abortions not to mention a president who can violate the same laws he/she is expected to ensure are faithfully executed with impunity.

This right wing coup has been brewing for over half a century. I’ve written many times how I believe it started with Lewis Powell’s “memo” to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce back in 1971 – although it had been “brewing” since the days of the New Deal. Remember, a key component of fascism is a “corporate/government” partnership of which the Powell “memo” ushered in. Remember, Lewis Powell became a Justice of the SCOTUS within a year of writing this “memo” – placed there by Richard Nixon – who, I believe, in his wildest dreams couldn’t envision what’s going on in the U.S. right now. Reagan put the Powell “recipe” into effect on steroids. Republicans have been chipping away at our “free market” system ever since, all while claiming it’s the democrats. Pure projection!

Let me skip to the “young Americans” who I believe will determine who wins/loses in November. I’ll simply list some of the issues which SHOULD matter to them. Let’s start with the Climate Crisis – Biden is attempting to do something about it, Trump thinks it’s a “hoax.” Enough said. Abortion? Well, as it stands in about half of America’s 50 states getting pregnant is a life threatening condition. I’m not a “pro abortion” person other than I believe it’s up to every woman and her doctors to decide what’s best for her. I can’t imagine having a miscarriage and being denied care because the procedure is, in essence, an abortion – but, that’s the circumstances of women all across our nation. That issue SHOULD mobilize people much more than a poor debate performance.

Education? For starters Trump (via “Project 2025”) wants to eliminate the education department in America. If you’re a white, affluent (OK, I should have just said “affluent”) family in America, maybe this is OK. The damage of ending the education department is hard for me, a retired teacher, to stomach. But, that should really get the attention of young Americans. And, to further get your attention, there are already states REQUIRING the “Ten Commandments” be placed on the walls of EVERY school classroom. Those doing this are tempting the SCOTUS to give their approval, and what do you think the result will be? Do you think Trump will object or have his AG defend our freedom of (or from) religion? The ramifications of ending the education department are too numerous to mention here – but, none of it will affect us old (people).

What about your Voting Rights? You’ve already got legions of right wing republicans working to PREVENT various groups of voters who tend to vote for democrats from being able to participate in this November’s election. For example, they’re working to prevent college students from being able to vote. I’m not sure of the details, but I’m far removed from being a college student and the only way it will affect me is if the scheme works to get Trump elected. How about Gaza? While Bibi Netanyahu continues his assault on the Palestinian people there will be young people blaming Joe Biden because we/he supports Israel. Before you let what’s going on in Gaza to cause you to either not vote for Biden or vote for a third party or worse yet, vote for Trump – just consider what Trump’s position is. He’s a Netanyahu fan. They’re like two peas out of the same pod. Netanyahu was involved in the conspiracy to elect Trump in the first place, and he’s facing similar CORRUPTION charges – do you really believe Trump will be better than Biden?

What about Civil Rights? If you believe that all Americans deserve the same rights, well check out some of the underlying “hints” coming from the SCOTUS. They, according to several court watchers, have their sights set on LGBTQ rights, marriage equality, and, of course “Project 2025” is firmly entrenched in the white nationalist, Christian nationalist movement in America, so, if you’re NOT “white” why on earth would you consider doing anything which might put Trump back in office. He’s no longer being covert about his racism. Do you think Trump, and Stephen Miller, and the rest of them are kidding about rounding up “illegals” (whatever that means anymore) and putting them into what amount to concentration camps prior to deporting them? Well, after the election it will be too late to find out if Trump (cheats to) “win.”

I could go on (and on and….) but here’s the solution to all of this. First, there’s no time to put up another candidate beside Biden (for all you fine weather democrats) so it’s time to mobilize like never before. Just the decision of the Supreme Court and the likelihood Trump would place even more YOUNG judges on the court SHOULD get your attention. The courts are already COMPROMISED but the situation will get far worse if democrats continue arguing amongst themselves. (although, sadly, that’s typical – republicans are chuckling under their breath) To me, if we just limited the issues to ABORTION rights, the SCOTUS and their assault on our constitution, Ukraine, and the Climate Crisis – there SHOULD be enough Americans who don’t want the “Project 2025” solution to these issues to turn back Trump’s attempt to finalize his coup.

Final Thought: I honestly can’t believe there are enough Americans who can’t remember Trump 1.0, the attempted coup d’etat, the stealing of our nation’s top secrets and potentially giving them out/selling them to our adversaries, his being found liable for sexual assault (with about 25 more cases not adjudicated), his business found guilty of business and tax FRAUD, he (and his sons) found liable for a 450 MILLION judgement for the same, and being found GUILTY of paying off a couple women prior to the 2016 election in order to affect the outcome – and, then, hiding the campaign finance violation by hiding the payments in his “two ledger” system of accounting for his business. (Just like an organized criminal)

But, the reality is if we who DO remember Trump 1.0 and all that has transpired over the past 4 years and then get our “panties in a bunch” over a bad debate performance by Joe Biden – forgetting about his historical first term, the strong economy, the steady reporting of strong jobs data, the help with medical expenses, the infrastructure bill (and now, projects going into affect), the Chips and Science Act – bringing computer chip production back into America’s manufacturing base – the help for our veterans, and on and on (including reducing the issue of inflation) well, we deserve what we get. Many democrats are acting like scared jackrabbits – almost as if by tradition. I even read of some democrat in Maine suggesting (this is a rep to the U.S. House) another Trump administration will be just fine – our guardrails held before, they’ll do it again. Apparently, he hasn’t read “Project 2025.” (Read it HERE)

One more thing: The democratic circular firing squad is officially in high gear. These people are STUPID. There’s no time to choose a different candidate and the VOTERS chose Biden, overwhelmingly. The democrats, with an incredible BOOST from the MSM, are attempting to grab DEFEAT out of the jaws of VICTORY. What needs to happen is ALL of the people who don’t like Trump get behind Biden/Harris. If something happens to Biden where he can’t perform the duties of president then it will fall to Kamala Harris. Very simple! Let’s get on with it and stop doing the republicans work for them!

This past week has shown why I’ve never joined the democratic party. While driving around I listened to MOST of the first part of the debate between Joe Biden and our TWICE IMPEACHED so-called four times indicted 2 times popular vote LOSING (ex) president (Donald Trump) and I managed to catch the last twenty minutes, or so, on the TV. Two things were apparent to me: FIRST – Trump didn’t actually answer a single question. He BLOVIATED and LIED his way through the entire “debate.” Second: President Biden got off to a rough start and struggled to figure out how to deal with someone who, when his lips were moving, was LYING.

So, to no surprise from my standpoint, the pundits (I was watching on MSNBC) were in panic mode believing Biden had terribly lost the “debate.” Not ONE of the people I listened to (or watched) said virtually anything other than Biden should drop out of the election. This is TYPICAL democratic response to a situation which was, admittedly, less than ideal. BUT – the reality is the person President Biden was “debating” is a known pathological LIAR, a convicted FELON, facing an additional 54 FELONY charges which, with the help of HIS SCOTUS, he’s trying to worm his way out from. Not a SINGLE pundit put the onus on Trump for LYING for the entire 90 minutes – as if, that’s their measuring “stick” for the so-called “winner.”

Then, to top it off, out comes the New York Times calling on Biden to step aside – for who? That would be a good question now, wouldn’t it? If the democrats had a better candidate than Biden, it seems to me, that person would have participated in the primaries and been chosen by “we the people.” But, the truth is, the democrats DON’T have a better candidate than Biden and even if they did it would be impossible for that person to actually put together a campaign which had any chance.

I long ago quit the NY Times – the paper is accused of being “liberal” but for the couple of years I subscribed to it I saw little evidence that was true. And, suggesting to President Biden he should “put his tail between his legs” and quit the race, well NOTHING could be more stupid. Are they actually trying to help Trump back into the “White House.” I honestly can’t figure out why they would want that. And, the pundits? OMG they were unbelievable. What a bunch of wimps. It’s made me NOT want to tune into MSNBC because I got the impression they (there were several of their “hosts” in panic mode) were putting their individual “visceral” reactions out to MILLIONS without thinking what the hell they were doing.

To me, so what if it wasn’t “State of the Union” Biden? The other guy is a pathological LIAR and he was in top form. Virtually EVERYTHING coming out of his mouth was NOT true – fabricated in most instances. Why wouldn’t that be considered a devastating performance? Because he was aggressively spewing falsehoods and racist garbage we look the other way? I haven’t heard ONE MSNBC host suggesting Trump should get out of the race because of his LYING, racist rants, fascist innuendo. AND soon to be sentencing for 34 FELONY counts, re: stealing the 2016 election. Come to think of it, I don’t believe the NY Times has called on Trump to quit either. In fact – I get their headlines still in my email inbox – it appears to me the NY Times is actually pro Trump. Yikes!!!

Here’s the reason I’m going to vote for Joe Biden, no matter what the pundits on MSNBC and CNN, or papers like the Times say (I think other papers had the same editorial manure as the Times). The Biden administration passed the COVID rescue bill early on which saved several families I know (with children) from being homeless. They ACTUALLY got a bipartisan INFRASTRUCTURE bill passed which is putting people to work all across this land fixing stuff that needs fixing (Roads, Bridges, pipes with lead, etc.) plus pushing broadband access into rural areas, they passed the Chips and Science Act which is causing the manufacture of computer chips to be done here in America, they passed the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” which included the MOST significant Climate legislation yet, they got legislation passed for Veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits, and that’s just what I can remember off the top of my head.

The bottom line is Joe Biden KNOWS how the government works and he’s able to accomplish things that others (like Trump) have no idea what to do. Everyone, by now, knows the joke about Trump’s continuous “infrastructure week.” Never got done. President Biden got it done in his first two years in office. President Biden is TRYING (he needs Congress to do it right) to get a student loan forgiveness program through to help students who’ve been paying on their debt for years only to have the balances increasing. Typical bank skulduggery – and, of course, republicans oppose it.

Even to suggest President Biden doesn’t have the “stamina” to do this job you’d have to been having your head in the sand lately. He’s been flying back and forth across the Atlantic for different activities some ceremonial (like actually going to Ainse-Marne cemetery just outside of Paris where Trump said the “suckers and losers” are buried) and some official, like the G-7 Summit in Italy. Despite the BOLD FACED LIE coming from Trump that America is not respected around the world, well unless you’re focused on Russia, Iran, North Korea, and maybe China, Trump’s claim falls into the “poppycock” category. Nonsense! Yet, virtually everyone watching the “debate” let Trump get away with this.

And, CNN? I don’t watch/listen to CNN, but they were the ones putting on this debate. Their moderators were AWFUL. Now, maybe they were helpless to call out the lies based on the “rules” of the debate. But, they COULD have insisted Trump answer their questions. Here’s one I remember. Trump was asked how he would deal with the Climate Crisis (which is getting worse, year after year). He responded by blathering out about the “border” and the longer they let him go the more fanciful his response became. The number of “illegal aliens” continued to grow – seemingly exponentially – while the accusations of all the “murderers, rapists (remember Trump falls into that category while MOST immigrants DON’T), people from prisons, insane asylums, and terrorists is just MORE of Trump’s LYING. (Yes, Biden SHOULD have been prepared for this barrage of nonsense – but, as I remember it he simply said, “Everything he just said is a Lie.”

And, the issue of a CONVICTED FELON running to be president took up something like five minutes of the “debate.” Yes, I would like to have seen President Biden mention it more, but the part which caught my eye was Trump, in true mob boss form, attempted to turn the tables on the President by throwing accusations at him and suggesting Hunter Biden’s conviction for apparently lying about his drug use when he purchased a gun (think of ALL the cases which could be brought on that charge) was a more serious charge than him (Trump) LYING to (ie CHEAT) win the 2016 election. Hunter’s issue affected no one else – Trump’s something like 150 MILLION voters. And, Trump accusing Biden of being a criminal is classic (Nazi like) projection – “accuse your opponent of that which you’re guilty.”

For me, as I stated above, this “panic” by the so-called “liberal” pundits pretty much says it all. it’s the reason I’ll never join the democratic party. The democrats did this to Obama back in the 2012 election – unwilling to defend the Affordable Care Act – and, thus. LOSING control of Congress. Democrats allowed republicans to denigrate Hillary Clinton to the point where MANY either voted third party or didn’t vote – or, in some cases may have actually voted for Trump. And, now they’re complaining about the SCOTUS while attacking President Biden who’s put the most diverse judges on the various benches EVER. Once again, democrats seem to be running from their own accomplishments. The GREATEST one was keeping Trump out of office in 2021. And, they’re facing the same challenge today and, well, they’d better figure out soon the winner of the 2024 election will be either Biden or Trump. Full Stop!

Trump has sucked 40% of America into his CULT. Democrats don’t need to help him enlarge that number. And, trust me, Trump’s numbers will not (ever) go up. The plan of the republicans has been, since the INSURRECTION, to bring the number of democratic voters down. That’s why Trump’s largest donor (Timothy Mellon) is also RFK Jr.’s largest donor. (One of RFK Jr.’s spokespersons flatly said, “we want to make sure Joe Biden loses”) That’s the reason behind all the voter suppression legislation and the intimidation of poll workers. That’s why Trump is, once again, making his “mob like suggestions” about whether or not he’ll accept the results of the 2024 election. I can guarantee you, the ONLY way he accepts them is if he can somehow CHEAT his way back into the “White House.”

Final Thought: It’s just as important that democrats focus on giving President Biden a Congress which will allow critical legislation to get passed – and be somewhat of a “check” on the SCOTUS. There is much President Biden was unable to accomplish because republicans were able to block important legislation. For all those out there who are not “in tune” with how the government works, Biden is limited to what he can get through Congress and, while he managed some historic “bipartisan” legislation in his first two years, republicans ALWAYS crawl back to their ugly space at the slightest suggestion from the fuhrer.

Just think about all the republicans who’ve told the truth about Trump only to come grovelling back because they fear his nasty “tweets.” (Or whatever form the latest nasty-gram comes in) Trump has insulted Ted Cruz’s wife and father – you’d never know it (he even helped with the coup). Trump insulted Marco Rubio – ruthlessly – you’d never know it. Trump has insulted Mitch McConnell and made racist comments about his wife – you’d never know it. And, on and on. Lindsey Graham, Nikki Haley, one after another, they ALL come crawling back. Is it disgusting or embarrassing or shameful, or all of the above? You decide. It’s certainly not a good look!

OK, I’ve started the process of reading “Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership” which is published by the Heritage Foundation – that which, along with the Federalist Society, gave us Trump’s three Justices on the Supreme Court. (who, apparently, are trying to return the “favor” to Trump by, at a minimum, stalling on their ruling on Trump’s absurd claim president’s are “absolutely immune” from prosecution while they’re in office.) Who knows how this court will rule, but they’ve already given Trump what he wants, which is pushing the trial in his “coup d’etat” case out past the election – his only hope to avoid this prosecution would be “we the people” proving we have collective amnesia and allowing him to somehow STEAL another election.

I’m not sure how much reporting I’m going to do on this directory of how to turn a democratic republic into a fascist state through the use of doublespeak and pure hypocrisy. For example, in the first 20+ pages there is an emphasis on whoever the next president is that he/she would strictly follow the constitution and enforce the “rule of law.” (My characterization) This, while they are eagerly funneling MILLIONS to Trump’s “Super PAC’s” and pushing for a convicted FELON to be the next “conservative” president. While, of course, making positive remembrances of Ronald Reagan as the, I guess you’d say, “kingpin” of the conservative movement. (Apparently, the “rule of law” only applies to us “liberals.”)

Of course, Reagan was a covert racist who specialized in what we now call the art of the “dog whistle.” Phrasing his comments in ways which signaled to the white nationalist community in America that he was with them. I keep hearing people rationalizing that “I’m not a racist” – I know someone who is Black. And, then of course, enthusiastically supporting an OVERT racist in Trump. For me, you just can’t have it both ways. At this point in my life I’ve met too many white old people, like myself, who’ve benefited from “white privilege” their entire lifetimes who show who they are, really, by their enthusiastic support of a LIAR, a racist, a misogynist, and, very possibly, a traitor. (who knows – well Trump does, – where all the missing Top Secret documents actually are.)

If you looked at the photos of the evidence made public after the FBI executed a search warrant on Mar a Lago (They MUST convince a judge they have the evidence of a CRIME before they can even get the search warrant) you saw all the folders labeled “Top Secret” which were empty. What did Trump do with the contents of those folders? Who knows? All I can say is I know I don’t trust Trump to not, possibly, sell them. Trump is nothing more than a cheap mob boss, but he’s the perfect stooge for the people who have published “Project 2025.” In my previous post I pointed out I’ve come to the conclusion that as evil as Trump is, he’s just the front man for the actual problem.

In other words, Trump is just the “puppet” providing the “mechanism” the people aligning themselves with “Project 2025” – or, I guess I should say, to be more precise, the people who actually wrote it all down to mainstream their fascist plans for America, need to gain POWER. In other words, the GOP’s problem goes way DEEPER than the issue with Trump. Our so-called “liberal media” spends the bulk of its time chasing their tails as they focus their airtime on the TWICE IMPEACHED so-called four times indicted (for 88 alleged FELONIES) two time popular vote LOSING (ex) president while spending a small fraction of their airtime reporting on Joe Biden’s accomplishments (which are, by the way, many) and, possibly more importantly, reporting on what’s on the pages of “Project 2025.”

I’ve bookmarked the free version you can get online (get it by clicking HERE) and, I’ve committed myself to taking the time to read as much of it as I can. It’s about 900 pages of a fascist wish-list and, of course, the authors are hoping hardly anyone reads it. (It’s almost like watching Fox “news”) Especially, they don’t want undecided VOTERS actually reading it. It’s the people behind this project who are the real problem as awful as Trump actually is. This I can guarantee you – Trump will never read it as far as I have (20+ pages of the actual document – there’s also a long intro) but, he’ll be expected to follow their plan. I’m 76 (soon to be 77) and I could NEVER have imagined our country would be facing such a challenge from within, but, if you’ve studied Lincoln, you shouldn’t be too surprised. This “challenge” is like resurrecting the “lost cause.”

Will the voters actually show up? Will they vote in record numbers for Joe Biden and democrats up and down the “ticket?” That is the challenge and that’s what republicans are working “overtime” to prevent. There are issues in this campaign which go well beyond the “stuff” which, for example, seems to be turning young people away from Biden. Even though Joe Biden is the best thing that has happened for them in their young lives. (And, yes, I agree, it would be better to have someone less than 81 years old – who knows how to run the government, but, beating Trump and his fascist backers is the challenge)

Biden recognizes the danger of the climate crisis, for one example. He understands the burden of Student Loan debt and is trying to do something to help. He’s working to create more affordable housing and has plans to help young people who want to buy their first home, but he needs a democratic Congress to accomplish this. He supports WOMEN’S reproductive rights, he supports fixing the Voting Rights Act, he supports Civil Rights for all Americans, he’s working hard to push down the excessive costs of goods and, inflation in general, he’s a strong supporter of labor, and he’s done a great job in bringing BACK together the NATO alliance which was fractured under Trump. Also, as opposed to Netanyahu (and Trump) he supports a “two state solution ” in the Israel, Hamas war, and the list goes on and on.

Speaking of the Israel/Hamas conflict, President Biden can’t ORDER Netanyahu to do anything. Israel is a sovereign nation. However, Trump and Netanyahu are on the same page so young people who plan to vote against Biden because of him standing strong with Israel, I think they should rethink their logic. For example, a vote for a third party candidate is, in essence, a vote for Trump. Young people not voting is what Trump is attempting to accomplish with his misinformation flooding Social Media which is where most young people get their “news.” Very few young voters will actually read even parts of “Project 2025” and my hope is they don’t find out the details when it’s too late. What America needs right now is a group effort, democrats, disaffected republicans, and independents working together to re-elect President Biden and give him a democratic Congress.

That would mean people like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley (who both participated in the coup attempt) and Rick Scott (who allegedly led a company which committed the greatest Medicare FRAUD of all time) should be VOTED OUT of office. Democrats need enough Senators to allow the FILIBUSTER to be removed from key legislation republicans routinely are BLOCKING. And, of course, the HOUSE must be returned to democratic control so that SOMETHING, anything, can be accomplished. Remember, this republican led House, has ONLY passed a few bills – keeping the government’s “lights” on – and, when Trump was president, the ONLY significant piece of legislation was the tax cut aimed at the “top 1%.” (And, OBTW Trump is promising to extend that tax cut in order to pull in MILLIONS from America’s Billionaires.)

From what I’m gathering so far, MOST of the DAMAGE the “Project 2025” would cause would be to the executive branch – where they are proposing what amounts to a “loyalty test” for anyone who would be employed in one of the HUGE bureaucracies and systematic purging of “career civil servants.” Think of the institutions this would undermine. The Justice Department, the State Department, the Education Department, Homeland Security, the CIA (and 17 other intelligence agencies), the Agriculture Department, the FDA, the EPA and those are the ones I could think of right off the top of my head. A MASSIVE amount of LONG TERM damage could be inflicted on the executive branch of government via “Project 2025.” (Oh yes, the SCOTUS would be FURTHER compromised as well)

Here’s the speculation of how the SCOTUS factors into this fascist takeover of the U.S. Right now, there are three YOUNG Justices who have LIFETIME appointments to the Court. If, as predicted, during a second Trump administration both (of the most CORRUPT Justices) Alito and Thomas will resign, allowing for two YOUNG replacements. The Court will be in right wing control for a generation +. There are so many CRITICAL reasons why Americans SHOULD be turning from this threat, but the Court has to be right at the top. Since the Bush v Gore decision in 2000 the Court has been pushing their corporatist bent on “we the people,” and putting two more YOUNG right wing Justices on the bench will prove unspeakably disastrous to America as we move forward with the challenges of our time. If you believe the recent decisions of this court are bad, just consider facing the likelihood of more of the same for another 30 years. Yikes!!!

Final Thought: I’ll keep reading “Project 2025” and, periodically, be giving a report on my interpretation of what’s in the document, but I hope MANY more Americans decide the future of our nation is important enough for them to read it as well. The “you know what” is about to hit the fan and it will require a unified mobilization to stop it. What Trump has accomplished for the “puppeteers” behind “Project 2025” is, through his pathological LYING, and the willingness of right wing media to mirror the LIES, to create a HUGE cult following of Americans willing to vote against their own self interests. I recently linked interviews with Trump supporters by Jordan Klepper and, if you haven’t seen them (Here’s a new one) you should check them out. You get a really good idea of why Trump loves “uneducated voters.”

It’s June 20, 2024, tomorrow will be the longest day of the year and (for me) the dreaded shorter days will start on the following day. Today is the day where the SCOTUS put a “bow” on it regarding the FACT this Court is attempting to do their part in helping Trump avoid facing accountability for his alleged CRIMINAL conduct – once again. He’s been managing to pull this off for his entire life – with the exception of the Manhattan “election interference” case where he was found GUILTY of 34 FELONIES. It appears the Court is hell bent on making sure that is the ONLY accountability he’ll face as he’s been indicted for an additional 54 FELONIES including the 4 allegations the Court has, in essence, granted Trump “immunity” from prosecution regarding January 6th, by running whatever decision they’re going to make on the ABSURD “absolute immunity” claim coming from our Twice Impeached so-called four times indicted two times popular vote LOSING (ex) president to the last possible day of this term.

I predicted right after I heard them respond to the arguments on this case there will be at least five of the Justices who will send this case – after stalling it for months – back to the district court for some kind of technicality so that Trump can once again start the appeal’s process all over again. I don’t believe the Court can grant Trump his absurd “absolute immunity” claim because that would render themselves powerless. We’re getting a “bird’s eye view” of the SHOCKING amount of CORRUPTION among these Justices – and, who knows what we don’t KNOW? (That was an odd question) And, of course, the Justices still haven’t rendered a verdict in Trump’s appeal meaning it will come either next week (the last week of their term) or they’ll push it into July. And, there are a bunch of other decisions which are likely to be controversial as well.

Here’s the deal. Even if they agree with the DC Appellate Court I believe they are attempting to make sure there’s not time for Judge Chutkin to actually try the case prior to November 5th’s election. I have had a scintilla of hope that despite the STALLING the court would rule in the obvious direction that NO person is above the law – which, obviously, would NOT be the case if they rule in Trump’s favor here. But, as I said, after listening to the oral arguments in the case I felt certain they were looking for a way to justify giving Trump what he wants by throwing it back to the district court.

It’s only hard to understand what is happening here when you’re looking at things through the prism of traditional American thought where each side is at least trusted by the other side to respect the constitution – really! Of course, Trump and the republicans shroud themselves in the flag and profess their undying fealty to the constitution – in one breath – while making plans to shred it, under that same breath – although their plans are becoming more and more obvious by the day. I haven’t had a chance (or the energy) to “tackle” the so-called “2025 project” – but, I feel an obligation to force myself to at least begin reading it – to get as far into it as I can. After all, I read Mueller’s report TWICE.

From what I understand, the “2025 project” is being put together by people like Stephen Miller – he of the infamous taking babies from mothers at the border fame – AND, after appearing on the Sunday talk shows one week while as a Trump “senior advisor” flashing the “white power” hand signal on national TV. Plus, others who have visions of a federal government where the number one requirement of a government worker will be to pledge undying LOYALTY to Trump. All, the while, Trump will, in essence, be doing as he’s told by whoever, in this tale, is portraying the “wizard of OZ” – behind the curtain.

Here’s the conclusion I’m coming to. Donald Trump is the puppet. The Billionaires “behind the curtain” are the puppet masters and they know how to manipulate Trump just as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Jinping, MBS, Netanyahu, and other dictators know how to manipulate him. The “trick,” is simple: compliment him – tell him how great he is. Obviously, this is why these dictators around the world will be attempting to “interfere” in the 2024 election because it will render the U.S. as impotent regarding foreign policy should Trump return to the Oval Office and will cause even more division in America making their positions even stronger in their own nations.

As someone who’s been willingly participating in the American political process since I was able to vote in 1968 I can’t believe I’m feeling forced to write these words. In 1967 I joined the U.S. Marines while a junior in college. When I reported for boot camp after the conclusion of the school year, and after taking a more detailed physical, I was given an honorable medical discharge because of a knee injury I suffered in high school football, which I didn’t consider all that serious, but was too much for the Marines. I’m saying this because I’ve been a supporter of EVERYTHING in this country, even when it seemed all wrong. It always seemed as if both sides believed in the “rule of law.” But, nothing has seemed as WRONG as Trump. He really does act as if he’s an organized crime “boss” and the laws shouldn’t apply to him.

As a comparison, I vividly remember being on the edge of my seat back during the Watergate hearings. In that case, as in the case of Trump, it was obvious to me Richard Nixon had committed egregious crimes and should be IMPEACHED and removed from office. Although, I hadn’t given Nixon’s criminal liability much thought, at the time, when Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon I was thoroughly disgusted. As I look back on it, I thought if Nixon hadn’t committed enforceable CRIMES why would he need a pardon? If he felt he was innocent of crimes, why would he accept a pardon?

Well, Trump has turned Watergate into what now seems like child’s play. He’s surpassed Nixon in what seems exponential terms and the republican party has lowered itself to levels which still seem almost unbelievable to me. To watch them, during Trump’s trial, violating his “gag order” for him as a way to challenge the judge to hold HIM accountable for his surrogates doing his “dirty work” was nauseating. So much for the “party of law and order.” And, even worse, a week or so ago when Trump returned to Capitol Hill, watching the republicans essentially attempting to force their way past each other to get to “touch” him and singing happy birthday to him (not even on his birthday) was, well, embarrassing. Remember, these video clips are seen around the world. McConnell was there, Graham was there, several others acting as if Trump is the fuhrer.

Not only are the Trump supporters coming across as willfully STUPID, but so are these members of Congress who are willing to push whatever LIE Trump orders. And, keep in mind, these republicans are the “puppets” as well as Trump. We KNOW who some of the puppeteers are – like the Koch’s, the Coors family, the Walton family, the DeVos family, Timothy Mellon, and other BILLIONAIRES (Elon Musk? Peter Thiel? Mark Zuckerberg??? the “new breed?”) For example, it’s been reported Mellon (also the largest donor to RFK Jr.’s campaign) recently donated $50 MILLION to a Trump “Super PAC.” Do you really believe these people are donating all these MILLIONS with no expectations? In fact, it’s been reported Trump has actually suggested what he’d do in return for “donations.” A true quid pro quo. He actually has been reported to have asked for a “cool BILLION” from a group of oil executives. Yikes!!!

Getting back to the issue of the Court. These “puppeteers” have been working to create a “conservative” Court for decades and they FINALLY hit the “bullseye” with, what amounts to the Trump Court. The THREE Justices he appointed to the court – under extremely devious circumstances – a combination of Mitch McConnell’s brazen hubris and the dark money orchestrated by Leonard Leo – remember Alito and Roberts are holdovers who resulted from the Bush v Gore abomination back in 2000 – they were nominated by George W Bush – has given us this court which seems not to understand the concept of stare decisis as they’ve furthered Lewis Powell’s vision of a corporatocracy. (I hope I didn’t make up a new word) Remember, as I’ve said here, the foundation of fascism is a corporate/government partnership.

All that’s been missing for these puppeteers has been a pathological LIAR willing to stand before the republican minions and spew the most outrageous LIES imaginable and demonstrate to the republican leaders – including members of Congress, Governors, and on down the line, how effective a strategy of “The Big Lie” is – it works! Enter Trump! The MASTER of LYING. And, I’ve been saying for years the republicans are all about POWER and not about governing with the belief “the end justifies the means.” So, Trump is the needed “puppet” to make all this work, and the SCOTUS is the mechanism to protect Trump from “we the people.” The final challenge, for them, is to figure out how to make sure Trump “wins” the 2024 election.

Final Thought: For the above conspiracy to work, you need a willing audience. There was a significant (more than I understood) segment of America who are full blown white nationalists/supremacists who’ve been waiting for a “Trump” for years. They reacted in true backlash fashion after the election of Barack Obama via the so-called “Tea Party.” Then there was the “evangelical Christians” professing to be “pro-life” and singularly opposed to abortion. Facilitating the Justices necessary to overturn Roe v Wade got Trump a significant and loyal following. It appears he’s got a strong base of something between 40 – 45% of the voting public.

That’s not enough to “win.” Hence, the voter suppression efforts in numerous states, the intimidation of election workers, the supporting of third party candidates by Trump’s biggest donors, all of this in an effort to create an election Trump can win with a significant minority of the voters. Add to that a MASSIVE misinformation campaign on Social Media platforms and Trump has, despite attempting a coup in 2021 put himself – with the help of his puppeteers and the SCOTUS they’ve created – in a genuine position where he has a chance to save himself from the 54 FELONY counts which he’s been charged via “winning” November’s election – by any means possible.

I have to add this, because, as a Christian myself, Trump’s pandering to the evangelical Christian community has been very offensive to me. The other day I saw video of him standing in front of an audience of Christian “leaders” and professing to be a “strong Christian.” Of course, he just finished a trial where he was found guilty of hiding payments to two women he had affairs with while his now wife was nursing his last son, and he’s been found liable by a unanimous jury of sexually assaulting another woman, plus he’s been accused of sexual assault by over 25 other women. He makes mob like THREATS to anyone who doesn’t bend the knee to him (he hasn’t discovered me yet) I’m not sure there’s one of the Ten Commandments, which are now legally required to be in EVERY public school classroom in Louisiana, he has actually followed.

You have to be STUPID not to understand he’s a pathological LIAR. In each of his THREE marriages he’s been credibly accused of committing adultery, he’s been found liable for HUNDREDS of millions in business and tax fraud, and on and on. Yet, a large segment of his “base” are people to profess to be Christians. I don’t think Trump has set foot in a church more than, maybe, a dozen times in his life. By my research, as a child it was the Easter and Christmas routine in his family. When he stands in front of a group of church leaders and professes to be a “strong Christian” they have to understand he’s LYING straight to their faces. I’m sure he laughs at them in private. As he recently said at a rally, he “doesn’t need them, he just needs their votes.

Yet, they put up with it because now they’ve got the Court. The SCOTUS is the key to all this and, their decisions likely are going to get a lot worse. From the standpoint we still have an election to stop it all, especially if you’re a young person, if you can’t see the importance of Biden winning the 2024 election – for your future – then, in essence you will deserve the consequences. I hate to put it that way, but to me, the choice is obvious! As many are saying, vote as if your life depends on it, because it very well might.

America’s Darkest Hour: Battling the Second Great Insurrection

The new GOP motto might as well be, “We don’t need no stinkin’ issues; we just want power and revenge for the heroes of the Old South and the New Insurrection.”

Thom Hartmann

Jun 19, 2024

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Have you noticed how rarely Republicans talk about actual issues?

— They rant about brown people pouring over the southern border but refuse to even discuss what could be done about it. In fact, when the Senate came up with a workable solution, Republicans in the House killed it at the insistence of Donald Trump. No policies, no solutions other than a Nazi-like round-up of 11 million people and a series of concentration camps.

— They complain about the state of the economy, but have no arguments about what can be done to enhance the economy other than more tax cuts for billionaires, who are already paying a pathetic average 3.4% income tax.

— They whine that our students aren’t doing well but refuse to engage in any serious discussion about how to take us back to the era when America had the newest and most successful public education system in the world.

— They’ll yell about prescription drug prices and the high cost of insurance, but their only policy suggestion is to end Obamacare and Medicaid. 

— They love to slander BLM and big cities with large Black populations but refuse to even entertain a conversation about healing the racial divide in this country; instead, their efforts are directed toward outlawing or decertifying Black History classes, as just happened in South Carolina.

All of this is because the GOP is now a post-politics party.

The reason why is simple and straightforward: The people who’ve captured the Republican Party envision a day when they won’t have to even pretend that they’re engaging in good-faith political discussions or negotiations because they will have outlawed, sidelined, or intimidated their opposition into impotence and silence.

They’re using our political system this election year, in other words, so they can seize enough power to destroy our political system.

And they have a model they’re using for what they want to replace it with: the Confederacy.

In the first decade of the 19th century, the invention of the cotton gin transformed the South, as I detail in The Hidden History of American Oligarchy. The machine could do the work of 50 enslaved people, so the wealthiest plantation owners could wipe out thousands of small farmers and other competitors.

Now that one machine could clean as much cotton as fifty people, every cotton plantation faced the possibility that it could produce 50 times as much cotton (and profit), if only it had 50 times as much land to grow the cotton on and 50 times as many people to pick it.

The wealthiest among the Southern oligarchs colluded on price-fixing to bankrupt and then buy out small farms and plantations for pennies on the dollar. Within a few decades, by the early 1840s, a handful of fabulously wealthy families had seized complete control of the economic and political systems of each state in the Old South.

And they brooked no opposition: White men who dared run or vote against them in elections were often assassinated or lynched; newspapers were seized and handed over to oligarchs friendly to the plantation owners; elections became a mere charade. They even monitored the mail: if you wrote a letter to a friend complaining about the end of democracy you’d find yourself in prison or hanged from a tree.

Democracy in the South, by the 1850s, was completely dead. The Confederacy had become a police state. And then they reached out to try to end that pesky remnant of democracy in the North, as well.

It’s nearly exactly what the MAGA GOP is trying to do today.

As historian Dr. Forrest A. Nabors wrote in his brilliant book From Oligarchy to Republicanism: The Great Task of Reconstruction, the richest families in the South had replaced democracy with a violent oligarchy, what today I’d call fascism:

“A new generation of rulers reshaped the South around their new ruling principle. … The development of Southern oligarchy portended the rupture of the union, regardless of the ties that bound them together, because no ties, physical, legal, or otherwise, can overcome the difference between fundamentally opposed types of political regimes.”

Illinois’ Representative John Farnsworth noted that history in his 1864 speech on the floor of the US House of Representatives:       

“[With t]he invention of the cotton-gin, … the greed for power took possession of the slaveholders, and the avarice of these men overleaped itself…

“Then it was, Mr. Speaker, that the slave power got the control of the Government, of the executive, legislative, and judicial departments.

“Then it was that they got possession of the high places of society. They took possession of the churches. They took possession of the lands. Then it became criminal for a man to open his lips in denunciation of [them].

“Then followed … the throttling of the right to petition; suppressing the freedom of the press; the suppression of the freedom of the mails; all these things followed the taking possession of the Government and lands by the slave power, until we were the slaves of slaves, being chained to the car of this slave Juggernaut…”

This is the model that today’s GOP, the reinvented Confederacy, is using to replace modern American democracy.

And they’re not even bashful about it: It’s why ten Republican-controlled states officially commemorate the Confederacy with state holidays every year and six refuse to recognize Juneteenth: Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Reagan’s massive tax cuts (and Bush’s and Trump’s) had the same oligarch-producing impact as the cotton gin; before Reagan, billionaires were virtually unknown and few wealthy people were politically active. Today, they own Congress, our social- and news-media, and the Supreme Court.

The billionaire-funded Project 2025 is this generation’s version of John C. Calhoun’s nullification speech and South Carolina’s secession proclamation.

In this brave new world run by Citizen Trump and the MAGA GOP:

— Slave labor is replaced by the perpetual poverty and servitude of a $7.25 minimum wage and Red state laws hostile to unions. Children are encouraged to leave school and enter the workplace in dangerous jobs like slaughterhouses.

— Quality education becomes exclusively the province of the rich and white as public schools are gutted by voucher programs while college tuition explodes.  

— Healthcare is a luxury only available to the wealthy as insurance becomes unaffordable, Republican governors refuse to expand Medicaid, and medical practices are acquired by hedge funds and converted to concierge practices with $3000/year annual fees.

— Media that speaks truth to power are bankrupted by new libel laws, taken over, and turned into Republican propaganda machines.

— Women, people of color, and religious minorities are made culturally and legally subordinate to white “Christian” men.

— In any Republican-controlled part of the country where there’s a chance a Democrat could win an election, the voter rolls are purged of Democrats and those voters who survive the purges find increasingly complex barriers to casting a ballot.

— And, of course, they want to preserve the Confederate names and monuments still extant and bring back the monuments that have been removed. As we saw on January 6th, the Confederate battle flag is one of their favorite totems.

The new GOP motto might as well be, “We don’t need no stinkin’ issues; we just want power and revenge for the heroes of the Old South and the New Insurrection.”

It’s why they lie so easily on the Sunday talk shows and in political campaigns: They don’t give a damn about issues. All they care about is power.

And their base is with them. As Oliver Markus Malloy wrote in the headline for his Bad Choices Substack newsletter yesterday, “MAGA dumbfucks are so fucking dumb, they have no idea that the pro-slavery Confederates were the bad guys!”

In fact, they know what the sides were in the Civil War, and they are intentionally choosing — embracing — the Confederacy.

Democrats — and Americans more generally — must finally realize that Trump’s MAGA GOP is no longer interested in policy or politics but solely wants to seize absolute political and economic power to end our democracy and reinvent the confederacy.

Only then we can begin a discussion about how to deal with this Second Great Insurrection that they hope will reboot the Civil War only — now outfitted with deadly bump-stocks — this time with a different outcome.

Until then, as we try to debate “issues,” we’re merely engaging in meaningless political theater. Instead, we must identify, ostracize, and politically and legally crush this growing and violent insurrection against America and her traditional ideals.

The Hartmann Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my daily efforts to rescue American democracy, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

As I stated when I first began allowing my need for venting to end up on these pages I was, during the last 23 years of my working life, a sixth grade teacher. And, while my focus here has been a political bent based on my distaste for the republican party I have to give a few details of some of the feedback I’ve received from former students which gives an idea of why I have such a strong belief in the young people in America. Most of the students who were in my classes are now in ages ranging from 20 to 40. I’m going to share some examples of students who I know about and what they’ve accomplished.

This past week I was attending a celebration for the end of the school year where my wife was honored as a retiring teacher after 34 years in the classroom. She has been a first grade teacher over the past 7 years, but worked in just about every grade level from 1st grade through the middle school grades. For me, it’s always fun to be around teachers at the end of a school year because it’s time for them to take a deep breath and to soon begin preparing for the next year. Any time I hear someone badmouthing school teachers the hair on my back (there is none :o) stands on end. I worked in several occupations prior to teaching, including 7 years in a sawmill, and teaching was the most challenging, mostly due to mental exhaustion, of them all. I love teachers!

While I was at this celebration a young lady came up to me and said, “Did you teach at McLoughlin Middle School?” I, of course, had no choice but to answer, “Yes.” Her response was – in an excited tone, “I was in your 6th grade class!” I wasn’t able to place her (grown up) face to any students I had and I (embarrassingly) didn’t remember her name – she was in my classroom 20 years ago – in the second year after I stopped teaching in a “self contained” classroom. Fortunately for me, her memories of being in my classroom were quite positive. But, that’s not my point here.

She worked this past year in my wife’s school as an occupational therapist working with students who are still dealing with the after affects of the COVID pandemic. I asked her about her higher education and she shared with me she graduated from the University of Washington with both a four year Bachelor of Science degree and then she got a Masters degree in whatever the category was (I can’t remember) allowing her to work in the public schools helping low socioeconomic students manage the mental challenges of making it through High School. All I could say was “wow.”

But, there’s more. She told me she was part of a group of 2nd grade students who a local non-profit offered to pay for their higher education should they graduate from high school with a pre-determined grade point average. This offer was made to four groups of second graders (four successive years) at an elementary school (where my wife was teaching when I met her) that “fed” into the Middle School where I was teaching. I remember the students who got that “promise” and I often wondered whether it would ever really amount to helping kids from low income families actually attend college.

Well, this girl was the first example I’ve encountered proving that the people who made that offer over 20 years ago actually came through for the students. And, attending the University of Washington is not for the “faint of heart.” First, in my case, it was way too expensive. Secondly, it takes a high school GPA of at least 3.75 (on the 1 to 4 grading scale) to be admitted. Also, there are more than 40,000 students at, what we call here in the state of Washington, “The U.” It’s a world class University and it’s very challenging to succeed there. All I could think of was “Thank God, I didn’t ruin this girl’s education.”

We had a long conversation and she remembered more of what took place back then than I – although, she “triggered” some of the stuff I had forgotten. I was a teacher who focused on “relationship” with my students because MOST of them were two to three years behind grade level expectations when they arrived for the sixth grade and had lost their “love” of education. They needed someone they could trust encouraging them. Many of these students were in families where no one had graduated High School. Stories like this remind me how brilliant most of our young people are, no matter the environment they grow up in. And, as I thought about it, there are many more stories just as inspiring. I’ll share a couple more.

During my career I had many students who would be considered “Hispanic” or “Latina.” I never really understood the “category” into which they should be labeled, but, to me, they were simply part of my sixth grade classroom. One circumstance I distinctly remember was a young girl who was struggling during the year she spent in my classroom and I had numerous conversations with her outside the room. (Other teachers referred to the center area of our “Pod” as my psychology lab) She was in a “single mom” household and her Mom was very negative with her. When she was in High School she sent me a note reminding me I had compared her to a “flower which was about to bloom” in one of our conversations. Apparently, she really internalized the conversation and, when in High School, she became an Honor Student and a student leader.

After she graduated she sent me a note about what she was doing with her life. Surprisingly, to me, at 19 years old she was running for the school board in our city. Despite the fact she was not elected I was so proud of her. In my 60 years of observing the school system here I had NEVER heard of someone her age running for and campaigning for a seat at the school board. But, that wasn’t all she was doing.

She told me she was involved with a group organizing young people of Hispanic descent in order to help them get registered to vote. That really caused me to feel even more proud of her. One of the things I always emphasized to my students was the IMPORTANCE of them VOTING once the were old enough to be eligible. They would almost always ask me “who did you vote for” especially in the years there was a presidential election. I would always answer something like the following, “I won’t share that because I’m not encouraging to vote the way I would vote, your challenge is to educate yourself on the options and then make an informed decision.” (Obviously, if any of them have “wondered” onto this site, they know who I’m going to VOTE for in the next election)

I had another experience with a former student who used to sit in my classroom drawing the pictures of airplanes. For reasons I won’t document here, I had an extra level of “love” for this student, (OK his older brother died while he was in my classroom) I can’t remember the number of times I met with him outside the classroom (a conversation only for the two of us) encouraging him to apply himself because his grades were even close to his potential. I remember telling him “If you would apply yourself to your education maybe someday you could actually be designing airplanes.” In my mind, I thought that was far fetched, but I was trying to motivate him to apply himself to his own education.

Well, several years later – I had lost track of him – his family had moved to Southern California after his sixth grade school year – but toward the end of my time as a full time teacher he showed up at our school while we were in the meetings (I loathed) prior to the beginning of the school year and he took me to lunch. His parents had flown him up from California because he wanted to thank me for words which “stuck with him” and, of course, I couldn’t remember. But, here’s what’s significant about this: He graduated from High School with ABOVE a 4.0 grade average (at the time, I didn’t know that was possible) and, once we ended our lunch together he was flying back down to California and starting his college education. He had a “full ride” to the University of California at Davis in “Aeronautical Engineering.” He was still determined to design airplanes! To say the least, I was totally blown away and, of course, EXTREMELY proud of him.

My point here is there are young Americans all across this nation working to follow their dreams via some form of higher education. The examples are endless, I’m just sharing some of the ones I know of regarding students who were in my actual classroom. I also came across a young lady recently who was in the classroom right next to mine. My students were always at a level well below grade level and this young lady was in the “gifted” program on the other side of a removable partition between the two classrooms. I met her while attending a performance of my granddaughter who is an amazing dancer. Her daughter was one of the youngest children in the performance – which, by the way, was amazing.

When she saw me she reminded me of her name – which I did remember – and I had a short conversation with her about what was happening in her life. When she got into High School she was accepted into what’s called the “IB program.” (International Baccalaureate) As it turns out, this is one of the High School programs where a student can achieve HIGHER than a 4.0 grade average because several of the classes are eligible for college credit. This young lady graduated from college with a BA and a Master’s degree and now she’s actually a teacher in today’s IB program – at the same school. It just reminded me of another young American who is following his/her dreams and being a positive part of our society. I’ve been to presentations by students in this program and have been totally blown away. (That seems to keep happening)

I just wanted to write something a bit (OK a lot) more uplifting than the normal rants you might experience at this “blog.” (If that’s what it is) There are endless stories about the young people in America and I’m a strong advocate in “we the people” INVESTING in them. They are incredibly more sophisticated than those of us in the “old person” category were at the same age. And, of course, there are an un-calculable number of young people who are dealing with the affects of the pandemic. Who better to be part of the intervention for those suffering from issues like depression or anxiety than their peers who can identify with their challenges. Every time I meet a former student who is focused on helping others I get a warm feeling in my heart. They ARE our future!

Final Thought: Not all of the “success stories” I’ve encountered over the previous years are students who made it to/through college. There’s one in particular – a young Hispanic lady – I frequently run into as I do my shopping at Costco. (Most of what I purchase comes from Costco) She works part time at Costco and has a family of three young ones and a Husband she assures me treats her with the respect a mom deserves. It always lifts my spirits when I see her and she shares with her fellow workers “He was my sixth grade teacher.” I feel no less a sense of pride when I meet a former student who is being a responsible adult whether they made it through college or not. Keeping in mind, MOST of my students were in the “at risk” category, meaning something approaching 50% of these students were predicted to not graduate from High School. A large part of my focus in my real life is supporting “we the people” INVESTING in our future – America’s young people.

One more thing: I have many former students who, I believe, are “Dreamers.” That is, students who came to America when they were very young with parents who were “illegal.” (I hate that label) Many of them have gone to college, many have entered the military, and many are doing other positive things too numerous to mention here. I hope to live long enough to see “Dreamers” being offered a “pathway” to citizenship. Many of them know more about what SHOULD be routine for “citizens” and “citizenship” than those of us born here. They are also a positive part of America’s citizenry and SHOULD have the opportunity to “cement” their feeling of being an American into a formality.

During my last year in the classroom Donald Trump was elected president and I’ll never forget needing to allow my students (at that time I was teaching 7th graders) a couple class periods to discuss amongst themselves what that meant to them. The question I heard which I can’t get out of my mind was them asking each other “Are you legal?” Personally, I didn’t care, but it was obvious that, to them, it was of paramount importance. To me, it’s no wonder why their challenges are much greater than mine at the same age. And, again, I believe America’s young people are worth INVESTING in! They ARE our FUTURE! Stay tuned….