The White House’s deplorable policies—including extrajudicial killings, informant handovers, and brazen lies about defendants—have finally caught up to it.
Unfortunately the supreme CT doesn’t care about about our laws or constitution-they reverse just about every decision the lower courts make-I’m not in the legal profession but I’ve been almost 100% correct in predicting how they will rule in every case the corrupt DOJ appeals to the SC -they rubber stamp everything the orange clown wants -
Jay - thank you!!! for this thorough, explicit and horrifying picture of what is really happening. Your extensive work in putting these daily pieces together so others see the full picture is astounding and much appreciated!
I'm genuinely waiting for the first international leaders to declare Trump and his cronies as wanted criminals for their human rights violations. It's going to happen. The only question is if it'll happen now, or when his term finally runs out.
I hope that someone, like Norm Eisen, is cataloging all these incidents and noting what crimes people like Marco Rubio and Pam Bondi can be charged with. To hell with the custom of not criminally charging preceding administrations. If we elect a Dem president in 2028, we'd better prosecute every single one of these people to the fullest extent of the law and lock them away for a long time. Stephen Miller needs to be put into a psych facility for good.
This is preemptive worrying, but what if Dumpy pardons his entire administration just before he leaves office? Could they be charged by individual states, like Illinois and Gov. Pritzker?
This is preemptive worrying, but what if Dumpy pardons his entire administration just before he leaves office? Could they be charged by individual states, like Illinois and Gov. Pritzker?
And do it promptly. No twiddle thumbs dawdling like Garland. And When the Democrats regain full control of Congress in 2026 (a guy can dream, right?), the second thing they need to do after starting multiple impeachment hearings is setting up the House Select Subcommittee on Executive Branch Crimes against America.
They also need to authorize several special counsels to prevent judges like Loose Cannon from using bad-faith arguments like "wasn't properly authorized" to let criminals skate on their crimes. I would really, really like to feel like there are long term, strategic thinkers on the left.
Re: MS-13 informants' being double crossed. That's just what we did to Afghans and Kurds who worked with us. Abandon them when it's expedient. Just ask Native American tribes about treaties...
This is an utterly deplorable, disgusting, pathetic and sinister mess of blatant corruption, murderous and lethal intent as well as cavalier disregard for life, law, our Constitution, international laws and relations and honesty, integrity and DECENCY. We need the WWII Allies to rescue us (minus us, of course)!!. I am outraged and feel so helpless at this flagrant corruption that trump embodies….
Excellent, gruesomely real reporting Jay, as usual.
Unfortunately our old allies as yet don’t have reason to “save us” - we haven’t invaded anyone (yet) which is why they got involved in WWII. Some seem to be beginning to formally distance themselves though, and I’m sure all of them are horrified.
Well, I don’t blame them, really. We’ve been alienating everyone in the world (except maybe Vlad and Kim) via trump’s punitive and rollercoaster tariff actions, his TOTAL lack of decorum and decency and ability to be diplomatic, his arrogance and dishonesty and aggressive posturing (and actions), etc! I’m thoroughly ashamed that he represents this country and I hope the world notices how many Americans hates him, too. That’s why I hope they rescue us! I imagine trump’ll start invading more, just to keep distracting from the EPSTEIN FILES.
Excellent framing and analysis. It seems that the "deep state" is anyone with integrity, a conscience, and a functioning memory - backed up by receipts.
It has long been obvious that the re-election of Donald Trump to the presidency is the crowning achievement of a political movement initiated by the Powell memorandum in 1971. That document called for a strategy to wrest control of the US from the post-WWll liberal coalition and hand it over to a conservative one that would return government to serving business and capital rather than the citizens and their needs. It was incredibly successful…promoting neoliberal economic principles that concentrated wealth for a few, while employing the ridiculously simplistic and wrong “trickle down” rhetoric to gather the votes of the many. Divide and conquer language pitted poor whites against equally poor blacks, the religious against the secular, and now the native born against immigrants. The enriched few funded the Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, Cato Institute, Alliance Defending Freedom [sic], and other advocacy groups and institutions to put the policies out that came together as Project 2025. That “Blueprint for leadership” has not been enacted…it has been unconstitutionally effectuated by Executive Order, permitted by an utterly corrupt Supreme Court and captive Congress, and now leaves us without the separation of powers or any functioning guardrails capable of protecting our civil rights.
If the Republican states are able to gerrymander successfully, this regime may make itself a permanent fixture immune to electoral defeat.
This is why we need a national strike, only buy essentials. Drop all your subscriptions to streaming services and amazon...starve the beast. Buy as little as possible, buy from small and local business, see your local massage therapist, spend money on people you know.
The U.S. is different in so many ways than the smaller, older European states that have used general strikes, and while I appreciate the calls I’ve seen for one, I just don’t see it happening in this country. Of course, I could be wrong, but I think we are too big (in terms of both geography and population) and still too young and temperamentally ahistoric, and that too many people still don’t understand the extreme danger we are in. If Trump et al stop Social Security, Medicare, and the ACA altogether (which of course I hope doesn’t happen), maybe then people will understand, and there will be mass resistance across political and geographic lines.
No. I don't think an E.U. expeditionary force will sweep into DC and oust the regime, deliver justice to the conspirators, and restore our democracy. It has to be us...if it's not too late.
yes, thank you. def. makes sense. this is how i see it..and am inclined to share it. I hope OUR DEMOCRACY WILL BE SAVED because too many of us 'get it' now- that our democracy is truly at stake, too many of us are hurting now, too many of us are shocked now at the wanton cruelty, murder, extortion, abuse and all manner of despicable disregard for human beings literally trumpeted by this regime - plus hiding anything seems pretty impossible these days.... i'm for affirming whatever legal action and peaceful powerful public pressure we can actualize to get the honest-to-god traitors out of there. Democratic principles need to win, because millions of us, we, the People get it. We get the the only room in existence for ALL OF US is a DEMOCRATIC WAY. We can't miss the lies, illegality and sheer crassness of the regime at this point. Many more millions of us -soon enough- are going to have an even tougher time with affordable or ANY shelter, decent food, available quality health care and an existence worthy of our havibg been created. And it will matter to us to put ourselves on the line because our very existence IS on the line.....When that tipping point happens, and it is not far away, enough millions of us, i included, are willing to make the sacrifices called for FOR THE SAKE OF DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES and the lived democracy in the USA that our ancestors had been striving for - and benefitting from - for the past 250 years. may it be so!
Amen. All that you wrote describes exactly what has happened since the Powell memorandum. My question is, why didn't Democrats connect the dots sooner? There are so many instances since then when the march to autocracy (and/or Christian nationalism) could have been stopped. But they didn't even call it out! And now, here we are.
tRump is not done criming by any means UNLESS and UNTIL the Supreme Court says he just must stop...otherwise, it's non-stop law-breaking and flouting the Constitution. The Court has yet another opportunity to do so in regard to the DOJ "emergency" appeal of lower-court injunctions involving military deployments on the streets of Chicago...failure to check tRump here really does mean that the game is up for the democratic order here in the US, full stop.
Once SCOTUS greenlights regular military troops in Chicago/ Portland, it's game over; T. will have the military in every Blue state, with predictably catastrophic results. Apologize for my pessimism, but a review of the Roberts Court rulings thus far leads one to no other conclusion. 😦
Baht- Thankfully, you are wrong about this. It is never “game over” in the fight for freedom and justice. We keep fighting until we win. We need you with us. Never give up.
Jay, thanks once again for breaking all of this down into a narrative that is both enlightening and easy to understand. Everything these clowns do backfires on them. Sadly, it doesn’t stop the damage they’re doing. But the tide is turning and we will overcome their treachery.
Trump doesn't care about any law that doesn't serve him. He is the judge, jury and executioner. It's horrible that he's pointing a finger at the fishing boats and saying fire! This administration is evil.
This all matters only if voters who currently vote GOP hear about it and believe it. We underestimate how powerfully right wing media frames news for a big slice of the electorate.
I understand that impulse, but we don’t need the GOP to change votes. We just need people who failed to show up last time to actually show up, and for the persuadable independents to break our way.
Respectfully, experts disagree about whether that is (a) true or (b) likely. Increasing turnout among the base or independents does not yield predictable increases in Democratic votes.
Recently had a couple of heart to heart conversations with a couple of Republican friends who are now admitting that they regret their vote for trump and apologized.
I realize it’s only a couple of people, but I believe that there are many more out there that will not be voting for any Republicans in the future.
I have had similar conversations in my town, and I've heard other people say they have too. I don't get out all that much, so something is going on. More quiet people showing up online as well (along with the trolls going into high gear this last weekend- indicating something but I am not sure what). I, like David Spence below, think we are approaching or maybe even are at a nexus in this journey. Taking back the Congress depends on taking the seats up next week if we can, and for sure, getting to work on every seat we can in 2026. What we've been doing so far is moving the line, making ourselves heard, making ourselves visible, and keeping T&Co from pretending they've got us under control. The next step is registering voters and donating to candidates with winning potential as we can, and doing what we can to make the Dem party do what it should be doing. I suspect they are paying attention too. They just need to understand that we aren't doing this for them, we are doing it for us, and they need to get on board.
So.... I know I sound like a broken record, but once again - what do we do? Other than what we are already doing? We continue to be stuck because half of our Congress is a bunch of cowards and sellouts.
Each of us should do what one person can do: stay informed, speak up, organize, donate, vote. If you are doing these things—which most people still are not—then you are already doing your part and don’t need to be worried if you aren’t. It is the collective strength of millions of people doing this in concert that will sway elections and change history.
I am definitely doing all those things. It just.... all feels... like it's not enough. You know? We hear little "echoes" here and there - that the GOP lawmakers are becoming more hesitant. That something is shifting. But it's hard to keep on keeping on when you don't see any big, tangible changes.
Maria, I hear you. My experience is that when change happens, it happens pretty fast, when things come together enough to create the momentum. I always have to warn myself against wishful thinking because I don't want to feel let down again, either. But this last weekend feels different- it felt tangible. So many things on so many fronts seem to be shifting in our favor. Let's all keep on doing what we can until it IS tangible.
I was thinking down the lines of waking up one morning and discovering a CERTAIN part of our Congress had discovered their spines. And decided to impeach certain people. Or better yet - invoke article 25, because doesn't that mean we get to ditch the whole cabinet? That kind of thing.... a girl can dream...
True words, these. But we MUST continue to fight back. Whether we'll prevail may still be up in the air, but if we give up now...they will win for sure.
This may sound off-subject but we’re going on a cruise in the southern Caribbean (east of Venezuela and the Caribbean where they are blowing up the boats) in late December. When I mentioned that we were kind of concerned if things got worse, would cruise ships with many Americans onboard be safe from say Venezuelan or Columbian retaliation? If things get worse, we might consider cancelling our cruise so we’re right now doing a wait and see watch. However, here’s the thing - so many people pooh-poohed our concern (ain’t gonna happen, etc). I’m sure the cruise line itself will take precautions (change the itinerary or even cancel the cruise if bad enough). What got me though was the number of people who seemed to feel this is all something that will blow over, no retaliations, no consequences for the US. 😠
This is a VERY prevalent illness among people living in the US. Which I don't understand. The biggest example to learn from should have been WWII. Back then there were people protesting any involvement, saying the US was protected by the oceans - nothing would happen, etc. And then the Japanese government became emboldened by Hitler's successes - and bam! War came falling out of the sky.
Considering the globe has gotten much smaller since then, people really should know better. Nothing will just blow over, and there will be consequences for the US.
Agreed. The us didn’t suffer like Europe and England with towns bombed, constant terror , families devastated in many ways - homes bombed, so much death. Our military who served are the only ones who saw first hand what fascism wrought. We have fought wars since but still not on our soil. 9/11 is the closest we have come.
Head in the sand, privilege at work. A lot of what's going on WILL blow over, only to be replaced by something else as T&Co struggles to appear in control. Our recourse is to ignore the people who are delusional and keep on going. I don't think anyone can predict what Venezuela or Columbia will be doing, but blowing up cruise ships is not likely one of the things they are considering. Right now they seem to be pursuing international legal options.
But if you are uncomfortable, get in touch with your agent and ask questions- I know they've changed itineraries in the past to avoid hot spots. I postponed indefinitely a planned trip to Australia this fall because of a long history of political activism. I was uncertain I'd be allowed back in the US, even though I am a birthright citizen with roots going back to early New England, Virginia, and Dineteh (Navajo nation). Better cautious than marooned.
A few months ago, before I went to visit a friend in Poland, I actually wrote my will and a power of attorney for my husband to be able to access all the finances. I had my real ID, my passport, and my passport card. I've been a naturalized citizen since 2008, but I was not taking any chances. So, yeah.... nobody assume anything and take every possible precaution.
It's as though he doesn’t give a damn about the rule of law, American security, human rights, or history. Oh, wait....
Thankfully federal judges do, and they still have the power to check this regime
Unfortunately the supreme CT doesn’t care about about our laws or constitution-they reverse just about every decision the lower courts make-I’m not in the legal profession but I’ve been almost 100% correct in predicting how they will rule in every case the corrupt DOJ appeals to the SC -they rubber stamp everything the orange clown wants -
We are fu…d
This article about Roberts and Trump was linked-to by one of the Substack writers I read. It's a little long, but Roberts doesn't come out smelling like a rose, that's for sure. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/legal/supreme-court-chief-justice-john-roberts-trump-united-states
Excellent article. Thx for sharing the link.
Until it gets to the shadow docket.
But what happens when the cases go to the corrupt right wing SCOTUS
Well, at least until these cases go to the Roberts court.
Yeah.... that....
Jay - thank you!!! for this thorough, explicit and horrifying picture of what is really happening. Your extensive work in putting these daily pieces together so others see the full picture is astounding and much appreciated!
I'm genuinely waiting for the first international leaders to declare Trump and his cronies as wanted criminals for their human rights violations. It's going to happen. The only question is if it'll happen now, or when his term finally runs out.
Most are hoping that his time runs out before his term does.
His father lived into his 90’s.
My father died at 57 and I'm way past that. My eldest bro' is 78.
and he was equally corrupt!
Alec I hope you're right. They need to do it now and they will have many Americans behind them.
They bring nothing but shame.
term?
I hope that someone, like Norm Eisen, is cataloging all these incidents and noting what crimes people like Marco Rubio and Pam Bondi can be charged with. To hell with the custom of not criminally charging preceding administrations. If we elect a Dem president in 2028, we'd better prosecute every single one of these people to the fullest extent of the law and lock them away for a long time. Stephen Miller needs to be put into a psych facility for good.
JB Pritzker issued a warning that there will be consequences for those who break the law and have no immunity protection.
This is preemptive worrying, but what if Dumpy pardons his entire administration just before he leaves office? Could they be charged by individual states, like Illinois and Gov. Pritzker?
The POTUS can only pardon federal crimes. He can’t pardon state crimes. I’m expecting him to pardon the whole Cabinet— I mean, junk drawer.
That was my point. Maybe governors can somehow prosecute these people so that Dumpy can't pardon them.
That's why his 34 count felony convictions still stand. State charges. :)
This is preemptive worrying, but what if Dumpy pardons his entire administration just before he leaves office? Could they be charged by individual states, like Illinois and Gov. Pritzker?
Trump can’t pardon State crimes.
That was my point.
Missed it due to no coffee before reading. ✌🏽
I did hear Pritzker say that they are looking into ways to bring charges against the regime’s appointees and others.
I can relate. 😁
And do it promptly. No twiddle thumbs dawdling like Garland. And When the Democrats regain full control of Congress in 2026 (a guy can dream, right?), the second thing they need to do after starting multiple impeachment hearings is setting up the House Select Subcommittee on Executive Branch Crimes against America.
And putting the screws to SCOTUS by term limiting, a strict ethics code with large, sharp teeth, and expansion of the court.
They also need to authorize several special counsels to prevent judges like Loose Cannon from using bad-faith arguments like "wasn't properly authorized" to let criminals skate on their crimes. I would really, really like to feel like there are long term, strategic thinkers on the left.
Stephen Miller is a psychopath
Re: MS-13 informants' being double crossed. That's just what we did to Afghans and Kurds who worked with us. Abandon them when it's expedient. Just ask Native American tribes about treaties...
Yeah - Trump abandoned the Kurds during his first go-around. Damn him.
This is an utterly deplorable, disgusting, pathetic and sinister mess of blatant corruption, murderous and lethal intent as well as cavalier disregard for life, law, our Constitution, international laws and relations and honesty, integrity and DECENCY. We need the WWII Allies to rescue us (minus us, of course)!!. I am outraged and feel so helpless at this flagrant corruption that trump embodies….
Excellent, gruesomely real reporting Jay, as usual.
Unfortunately our old allies as yet don’t have reason to “save us” - we haven’t invaded anyone (yet) which is why they got involved in WWII. Some seem to be beginning to formally distance themselves though, and I’m sure all of them are horrified.
Well, I don’t blame them, really. We’ve been alienating everyone in the world (except maybe Vlad and Kim) via trump’s punitive and rollercoaster tariff actions, his TOTAL lack of decorum and decency and ability to be diplomatic, his arrogance and dishonesty and aggressive posturing (and actions), etc! I’m thoroughly ashamed that he represents this country and I hope the world notices how many Americans hates him, too. That’s why I hope they rescue us! I imagine trump’ll start invading more, just to keep distracting from the EPSTEIN FILES.
At this rate, the US Navy may as well start flying the Jolly Roger instead of the US flag.
Excellent framing and analysis. It seems that the "deep state" is anyone with integrity, a conscience, and a functioning memory - backed up by receipts.
It has long been obvious that the re-election of Donald Trump to the presidency is the crowning achievement of a political movement initiated by the Powell memorandum in 1971. That document called for a strategy to wrest control of the US from the post-WWll liberal coalition and hand it over to a conservative one that would return government to serving business and capital rather than the citizens and their needs. It was incredibly successful…promoting neoliberal economic principles that concentrated wealth for a few, while employing the ridiculously simplistic and wrong “trickle down” rhetoric to gather the votes of the many. Divide and conquer language pitted poor whites against equally poor blacks, the religious against the secular, and now the native born against immigrants. The enriched few funded the Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, Cato Institute, Alliance Defending Freedom [sic], and other advocacy groups and institutions to put the policies out that came together as Project 2025. That “Blueprint for leadership” has not been enacted…it has been unconstitutionally effectuated by Executive Order, permitted by an utterly corrupt Supreme Court and captive Congress, and now leaves us without the separation of powers or any functioning guardrails capable of protecting our civil rights.
If the Republican states are able to gerrymander successfully, this regime may make itself a permanent fixture immune to electoral defeat.
This is why we need a national strike, only buy essentials. Drop all your subscriptions to streaming services and amazon...starve the beast. Buy as little as possible, buy from small and local business, see your local massage therapist, spend money on people you know.
The U.S. is different in so many ways than the smaller, older European states that have used general strikes, and while I appreciate the calls I’ve seen for one, I just don’t see it happening in this country. Of course, I could be wrong, but I think we are too big (in terms of both geography and population) and still too young and temperamentally ahistoric, and that too many people still don’t understand the extreme danger we are in. If Trump et al stop Social Security, Medicare, and the ACA altogether (which of course I hope doesn’t happen), maybe then people will understand, and there will be mass resistance across political and geographic lines.
And unlike Allied forces saving Europe in WW II, there will be no one coming to save us.
No. I don't think an E.U. expeditionary force will sweep into DC and oust the regime, deliver justice to the conspirators, and restore our democracy. It has to be us...if it's not too late.
Baht- WE are coming to save us, at WE will be sufficient.
yes, thank you. def. makes sense. this is how i see it..and am inclined to share it. I hope OUR DEMOCRACY WILL BE SAVED because too many of us 'get it' now- that our democracy is truly at stake, too many of us are hurting now, too many of us are shocked now at the wanton cruelty, murder, extortion, abuse and all manner of despicable disregard for human beings literally trumpeted by this regime - plus hiding anything seems pretty impossible these days.... i'm for affirming whatever legal action and peaceful powerful public pressure we can actualize to get the honest-to-god traitors out of there. Democratic principles need to win, because millions of us, we, the People get it. We get the the only room in existence for ALL OF US is a DEMOCRATIC WAY. We can't miss the lies, illegality and sheer crassness of the regime at this point. Many more millions of us -soon enough- are going to have an even tougher time with affordable or ANY shelter, decent food, available quality health care and an existence worthy of our havibg been created. And it will matter to us to put ourselves on the line because our very existence IS on the line.....When that tipping point happens, and it is not far away, enough millions of us, i included, are willing to make the sacrifices called for FOR THE SAKE OF DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES and the lived democracy in the USA that our ancestors had been striving for - and benefitting from - for the past 250 years. may it be so!
Amen. All that you wrote describes exactly what has happened since the Powell memorandum. My question is, why didn't Democrats connect the dots sooner? There are so many instances since then when the march to autocracy (and/or Christian nationalism) could have been stopped. But they didn't even call it out! And now, here we are.
The king is in shambles. We the people are stronger than him. The walls are closing in. Let's keep protesting every weekend! Here is a no kings anthem we can sing together: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-kings-anthem
tRump is not done criming by any means UNLESS and UNTIL the Supreme Court says he just must stop...otherwise, it's non-stop law-breaking and flouting the Constitution. The Court has yet another opportunity to do so in regard to the DOJ "emergency" appeal of lower-court injunctions involving military deployments on the streets of Chicago...failure to check tRump here really does mean that the game is up for the democratic order here in the US, full stop.
I am deeply concerned that they will use the emergency docket to greenlight troops in Chicago and Portland without even explaining why
Once SCOTUS greenlights regular military troops in Chicago/ Portland, it's game over; T. will have the military in every Blue state, with predictably catastrophic results. Apologize for my pessimism, but a review of the Roberts Court rulings thus far leads one to no other conclusion. 😦
Baht- Thankfully, you are wrong about this. It is never “game over” in the fight for freedom and justice. We keep fighting until we win. We need you with us. Never give up.
Which opens the door for SF and NYC, for which tRump has been jonesing for months.
Jay, thanks once again for breaking all of this down into a narrative that is both enlightening and easy to understand. Everything these clowns do backfires on them. Sadly, it doesn’t stop the damage they’re doing. But the tide is turning and we will overcome their treachery.
Trump doesn't care about any law that doesn't serve him. He is the judge, jury and executioner. It's horrible that he's pointing a finger at the fishing boats and saying fire! This administration is evil.
Any guess how much longer 60 minutes will be able to broadcast such whistleblower reports? (I’m boycotting CBS so I’ll guess I’ll never know)
I'm wondering how long *any* opposition journalism from *any* media outlets will be allowed to continue reporting.
I wondered that, too. And as another commenter suggested--indeed, whether ANY opposition journalism will be tolerated.
This all matters only if voters who currently vote GOP hear about it and believe it. We underestimate how powerfully right wing media frames news for a big slice of the electorate.
I understand that impulse, but we don’t need the GOP to change votes. We just need people who failed to show up last time to actually show up, and for the persuadable independents to break our way.
Respectfully, experts disagree about whether that is (a) true or (b) likely. Increasing turnout among the base or independents does not yield predictable increases in Democratic votes.
Recently had a couple of heart to heart conversations with a couple of Republican friends who are now admitting that they regret their vote for trump and apologized.
I realize it’s only a couple of people, but I believe that there are many more out there that will not be voting for any Republicans in the future.
At the rally I went to a car drove by with a sign saying: I'm a republican but not a fool.
I have had similar conversations in my town, and I've heard other people say they have too. I don't get out all that much, so something is going on. More quiet people showing up online as well (along with the trolls going into high gear this last weekend- indicating something but I am not sure what). I, like David Spence below, think we are approaching or maybe even are at a nexus in this journey. Taking back the Congress depends on taking the seats up next week if we can, and for sure, getting to work on every seat we can in 2026. What we've been doing so far is moving the line, making ourselves heard, making ourselves visible, and keeping T&Co from pretending they've got us under control. The next step is registering voters and donating to candidates with winning potential as we can, and doing what we can to make the Dem party do what it should be doing. I suspect they are paying attention too. They just need to understand that we aren't doing this for them, we are doing it for us, and they need to get on board.
Maybe we have finally reached a turning point. Hope so.
I had one too!! Step-by-step..
Yes, that’s how it starts to change.
We all have more in common than not and the labels need to stop. We are all human beings suffering from this regime with more to come.
I remain hopeful.
So.... I know I sound like a broken record, but once again - what do we do? Other than what we are already doing? We continue to be stuck because half of our Congress is a bunch of cowards and sellouts.
Each of us should do what one person can do: stay informed, speak up, organize, donate, vote. If you are doing these things—which most people still are not—then you are already doing your part and don’t need to be worried if you aren’t. It is the collective strength of millions of people doing this in concert that will sway elections and change history.
I am definitely doing all those things. It just.... all feels... like it's not enough. You know? We hear little "echoes" here and there - that the GOP lawmakers are becoming more hesitant. That something is shifting. But it's hard to keep on keeping on when you don't see any big, tangible changes.
Maria, I hear you. My experience is that when change happens, it happens pretty fast, when things come together enough to create the momentum. I always have to warn myself against wishful thinking because I don't want to feel let down again, either. But this last weekend feels different- it felt tangible. So many things on so many fronts seem to be shifting in our favor. Let's all keep on doing what we can until it IS tangible.
I was thinking down the lines of waking up one morning and discovering a CERTAIN part of our Congress had discovered their spines. And decided to impeach certain people. Or better yet - invoke article 25, because doesn't that mean we get to ditch the whole cabinet? That kind of thing.... a girl can dream...
True words, these. But we MUST continue to fight back. Whether we'll prevail may still be up in the air, but if we give up now...they will win for sure.
Oh absolutely. I am not stopping. It's just hard... Then again, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.
I know...I know... Sigh.
This may sound off-subject but we’re going on a cruise in the southern Caribbean (east of Venezuela and the Caribbean where they are blowing up the boats) in late December. When I mentioned that we were kind of concerned if things got worse, would cruise ships with many Americans onboard be safe from say Venezuelan or Columbian retaliation? If things get worse, we might consider cancelling our cruise so we’re right now doing a wait and see watch. However, here’s the thing - so many people pooh-poohed our concern (ain’t gonna happen, etc). I’m sure the cruise line itself will take precautions (change the itinerary or even cancel the cruise if bad enough). What got me though was the number of people who seemed to feel this is all something that will blow over, no retaliations, no consequences for the US. 😠
This is a VERY prevalent illness among people living in the US. Which I don't understand. The biggest example to learn from should have been WWII. Back then there were people protesting any involvement, saying the US was protected by the oceans - nothing would happen, etc. And then the Japanese government became emboldened by Hitler's successes - and bam! War came falling out of the sky.
Considering the globe has gotten much smaller since then, people really should know better. Nothing will just blow over, and there will be consequences for the US.
Agreed. The us didn’t suffer like Europe and England with towns bombed, constant terror , families devastated in many ways - homes bombed, so much death. Our military who served are the only ones who saw first hand what fascism wrought. We have fought wars since but still not on our soil. 9/11 is the closest we have come.
Head in the sand, privilege at work. A lot of what's going on WILL blow over, only to be replaced by something else as T&Co struggles to appear in control. Our recourse is to ignore the people who are delusional and keep on going. I don't think anyone can predict what Venezuela or Columbia will be doing, but blowing up cruise ships is not likely one of the things they are considering. Right now they seem to be pursuing international legal options.
But if you are uncomfortable, get in touch with your agent and ask questions- I know they've changed itineraries in the past to avoid hot spots. I postponed indefinitely a planned trip to Australia this fall because of a long history of political activism. I was uncertain I'd be allowed back in the US, even though I am a birthright citizen with roots going back to early New England, Virginia, and Dineteh (Navajo nation). Better cautious than marooned.
A few months ago, before I went to visit a friend in Poland, I actually wrote my will and a power of attorney for my husband to be able to access all the finances. I had my real ID, my passport, and my passport card. I've been a naturalized citizen since 2008, but I was not taking any chances. So, yeah.... nobody assume anything and take every possible precaution.