FACE OFF, LINES DRAWN, WISDOM FOR A PRISONER

Judging by many of the letter writers to local newspapers, it seems that many of our Santa Cruz Countians assume that the USA is still a democratic republic — a view taken for granted for too long. Those writers praising President Trump’s one-year accomplishments, including DOGE’s tidying up the ‘deep state’ by firing workers which then necessitated call-backs of employees to right the ship of state — hardly a cost-saving maneuver. Closing the border and arresting the “worst of the worst” is a joke as Proud Boys/ICE hooligans attack, arrest, and kill US citizens, never to be considered a proud moment in our history. Invading Democratic Party controlled states and cities with National Guard troops and large contingents of ICE goons purportedly to ‘control crime’ is only a cover for political harassment. ‘Drug boat strikes’ with no proof of criminality, and killing survivors struggling in the water is a violation of the ‘rules of war’!? What should we think about a deranged, senile, grifting, narcissistic dictator who is untrustworthy about keeping his finger away from the red button on the doomsday football if the Epstein files begin to become too incriminating?

Isaac Asimov once warned that one of the dangers of a democracy is that for some, ‘democracy’ translates to “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” If we persist in this direction we might one day wake up without a democracy, and finally realize that our persistent disregard for the careful and reasoned cultivation of the truth plays right into the hands of a dictator. Bertrand Russell is quoted as saying, “First, they fascinate the fools. Then, they muzzle the intelligent.” This brings up the farcical case(s) of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort being arrested for reporting on a Minneapolis church congregation’s protest against their pastor. The Trump administration has used the FACE Act in the charges, but the act itself was written, being passed in 1994, with a very specific purpose of protecting those who seek abortions without restricting First Amendment-protected speech. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances resulted after a string of attacks on reproductive care facilities and providers across the country; but, Trump is twisting its purpose to chill dissent by prosecuting two independent journalists for the crime of reporting, even though the supposed crime was a start-to-finish livestream on the protest from an organizational meeting and its conclusion at the Cities Church in St. Paul.

Allegations by federal prosecutors is that Lemon and Fort approached the part-time pastor, whose day job is running the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office, in ‘close proximity’ as they oppressed and intimidated him with questions. Shocking! What reporters won’t do to get to the truth! US Attorney Pam Bondi interprets their actions as violations of the FACE act, which has a provision focused on houses of worship, despite the fact that the act protects ‘expressive conduct (including peaceful picketing or other peaceful demonstration) from the jeopardy of prosecution. A federal magistrate and an appellate court, both refused to issue a warrant for arrests, interpreting the act as it was written, so Bondi’s Justice Department convinced a grand jury to indict the pair. In viewing the video of the protest, it’s plain that the two journalist were not interfering, obstructing, or intimidating attendees that would violate the FACE Act, regardless of the poignancy of their questioning — it’s what journalists do.

This is only one of the indicators which means a closer watch on the 2026 midterms is necessary, a Trump warning shot across the bow in which a sitting president is willing to use federal law enforcement as a secret weapon to silence his critics. This is the playbook of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Turkey’s Erdogan, and Russia’s Putin where they have arrested journalists, intimidated the opposition, and consolidated power — a line that separates democracy from autocracy. “The past weeks have seen an escalation in ICE enforcement that should terrify anyone who cares about due process,” says John Byrne of Raw America. “Reports emerged from multiple cities of immigration agents conducting questionable searches, agents entering homes without probable cause, detaining individuals based on nothing more that suspicion. This is not law enforcement — this is state-sanctioned intimidation.” Byrne goes on top say, “And where is the mainstream media in all this? Largely silent. Or worse: normalizing. Major networks don’t treat this as the incredibly damaging threat to our democracy that it is. It’s just part of their daily broadcasts, and some have stopped pushing back entirely. When autocracy creeps forward, it relies on a press that’s either too intimidated or too distracted to sound the alarm. Cruelty is the point. Punish the opposition and reward the loyal. This is governance by vendetta.”

So, using two dozen federal law enforcement officers to arrest a single journalist is not only apprehending a suspect — the message is that no journalist is safe from retribution in America, in which case we may as well crumple up the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and kick them to the curb along with Don Lemon. Trump has hated Lemon from his political beginnings, since Lemon was on his case from the start. And besides, a gay, Black, independent mainstream journalist with no corporate backing is the perfect victim for retribution. The absurdity in this whole episode is that the charges were announced by the Department of Homeland Security, and not the Justice Department. Important to note, as reported by NPR, two other reporters were arrested for covering the protest — Trahern Jean Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy, both Black. A quote attributed to Nelson Mandela seems relevant for our time: “Minds that seek revenge destroy states, while those that seek reconciliation build nations. Walking out the door to my freedom, I knew that if I didn’t leave all the anger, hatred and resentment behind me, I would still be a prisoner.” Words of wisdom for Prisoner Trump?

Perfect for the occasion, satirist Andy Borowitz writes: “Hoping to calm nerves after his government arrested reporters Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, on Friday Donald J. Trump reassured the staff at Fox News Channel that he does not consider them journalists. ‘It’s true that I’m engaging in a systematic attack on the First Amendment rights of journalists,’ he told Fox employees. ‘But obviously none of that applies to you.’ Offering further comfort, Trump added, ‘I would never have hired Pete Hegseth if I thought he was a journalist.’ In a sentiment widely echoed by his colleagues, ‘Fox & Friends’ co-host Steve Doocy responded, ‘Mr. President, we weren’t really worried.’ At the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed that Trump had sent a similar message of reassurance to CBS News chief Bari Weiss.”

Last week Trump launched yet another criminal investigation into the 2020 election by sending his FBI to search the Fulton County Georgia election center, confiscating boxes of envelopes, and raising another red flag as we look toward the midterms. The biggest red flag during the raid was the presence of Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard — not a ceremonial visit by any means. She was messaging that Trump’s political appointees are now embedded in law enforcement operations, personally overseeing investigations that align with the administration’s enemies list — political persecution with a federal badge, with justice in the rear view mirror. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told CNN’s Dana Bash he was unsure of the purpose of Gabbard’s visit to Fulton County, saying that, “She’s an expert.” Who knew that Trump University even offered a degree in election integrity to insure free and fair elections? Of course, Blanche said he believes Trump was not involved in the decision toward this action, though the president was quoted as saying, “Investigators got a signed judges order in Georgia and you’re going to see some interesting things happening.” Things like redactions?

Reuters photographer Elijah Nouvelage released a shot of Gabbard, clad in a dark jacket and a baseball cap, speaking on her phone outside the Fulton County election office, spurring Democrats to call for her to testify about the record search. The search was conducted pursuant to a warrant seeking 2020 election records authorized by US Magistrate Judge Catherine Salinas. The Deputy AG called it a “criminal investigation, tightly held under law. It’s a criminal investigation, and that’s how we’re proceeding,” Political activist Greg Palast says the real agenda behind the FBI raid is just a legal excuse for “storm trooping.” He writes, “This is NOT, as the media seems to think, about Trump’s attempt to prove he won the 2020 race, as if he’s some political Captain Ahab trying to chase the Moby Dick of 2020 revenge.” Palast believes that it’s all about 2026 and 2028, advising us to look at the map of Fulton County — the heart of ‘Blacklanta,’ with Atlanta being the electoral heart of Georgia.

Palast goes on to call Georgia “the swingiest of swing states,” and if the GOP fails to cut down on the Black vote in Atlanta, they lose the crucial seat now held by Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff — leading to a 2028 loss of the White House if they don’t suppress the vote in Fulton County. Fulton was the fulcrum of Trump’s loss in 2020, spelling a doomsday for MAGA in 2028, all because of voting drop-boxes. African-American voters are under such rigid rules, with fewer polling places which result in long lines on Election Day, that early voting has become the norm, with over one million ballots being cast in drop-boxes in the Fulton-Atlanta area in 2020. As a result, Governor Brian Kemp signed the infamous SB202 bill, his opening shot in the war against early voting — especially in secure drop-boxes which were reduced in number by 77%, and early voting days cut from 60 to only 7. To make matters worse, voters who can only vote after their workday were out of luck, as the boxes were sealed up at night in state office buildings.

In 2022 the new restrictions reduced mail-in ballots cast by 83%. Conspiracy theorists convinced MAGA — through their slippery documentary, ‘2000 Mules,’ that 2000 Black men were paid $10 each to stuff drop-boxes with tens of thousands of fraudulent ballots, targeting Fulton County. Lack of evidence didn’t sway the MAGA Mob, even though every drop-box had a video camera to prevent wrong-doing, with videos being available for public examination. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation proceeded to arrest alleged Black ballot box stuffers statewide, only to find that the accused were innocent, legal voters. The state of Georgia, in a recount failed to find any forged ballots! Joe Biden can claim that early voters were key to his 2020 election success, and voter suppression in 2024 led to Trump’s victory. After the 2020 election, over 20 Red States passed laws eliminating or restricting drop-boxes, citing the ‘evidence’ of the ‘2000 Mules’ documentary.

Palast feels that Democrats don’t get the importance of early drop-off votes, especially when it comes to Black and student communities, but the GOP certainly gets the message. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says that had he not gone to court to stop Houston from mailing out absentee ballots to voters, “Donald Trump would have lost Texas,” Houston’s population of Black voters being the largest in any American city. Palast sees Attorney General Bondi as saving her job by suppressing early voting, and saving the GOP from the wrath of an angry electorate, especially as she demands that Minnesota hand over its voter rolls. Bondi’s seizure of Minnesota voter files has to do with the restoration of more trickery — the return of ‘Interstate Crosscheck,’ a purging program that was once ruled illegal, but is now back in operation. ‘Crosscheck’ in 2016 was key to Trump’s first election, costing almost one million voters their registrations prior to the election according to Palast’s investigation as seen in Rolling Stone magazine.

Miles Taylor on his Defiance blog, writes that a few weeks ago Trump openly said he wished he had seized the ballots in the 2020 election, having “authority to do so.” Taylor says this is not the case, since he “helped write the executive order” to which the president referred in 2018 — Executive Order 13848. Trump and his cronies believe the president has the power to intervene in elections, even to the point of seizing voting machines or ballots. Taylor says, “I co-drafted the order alongside experts from DHS, DOJ, the Intelligence Community, and other agencies. The central idea was to make it easier for a president to impose real consequences on foreign actors who interfered in US elections. NOT to revisit vote counts. NOT to rummage through ballot boxes. And certainly NOT to allow a president to deploy the military against local election infrastructure because he didn’t like the outcome.” Taylor goes on to say that Trump was annoyed with being presented the executive order, not wanting to sign it, probably because he didn’t want to punish Russia for its help in his election success.

But now, Trump is conveniently reinterpreting the order as an “all-powerful election snooping tool.” Taylor wants us to understand that the order resulted from foreign interference in 2016 to make it easier for the executive to impose sanctions on foreign actors meddling in our elections — NOT to confer domestic law-enforcement authority; NOT to override state and local control of elections; NOT to authorize seizure of voting machines by the National Guard, or anyone else. The order stresses the need to “maintain an appropriate separation between intelligence functions and policy and legal judgements,” emphasizing insulation from political bias. It explicitly states that nothing creates new rights or benefits or alters existing legal authorities — certainly no new right for presidents to go rummaging about in ballot boxes. So the president wishing to do something like seize ballots is only an admission he wishes to make an illegal act and pretend the law would sanction doing so.

Senator Mark Warner is alarmed that Gabbard’s presence during the raid is either because she believes that some foreign intelligence nexus justifies her being there, or she’s dragging the intelligence community into a domestic political stunt to legitimize conspiracy theories. Miles Taylor believes her skulking about in a baseball cap means she didn’t wish to be seen, and that a Congressional oversight committee should announce an investigation immediately, calling Gabbard to explain her presence and under what directives she was acting. Since the Constitution places administration of elections with the states, the raid could be a violation of state law, and state and local prosecutors are responding by announcing action by Fight Against Federal Overreach, a national coalition of district attorneys seeking to hold federal officials accountable when they exceed their lawful authority.

ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR, EMPTY BOXES, BOTOX

Events of the past week or so bring to mind the Mike Luckovich political cartoon, where he illustrates the Devil looking into an empty box labeled ‘Trump’s Soul,’ with the realization that he has just been suckered. Many of us have read the January 8 two-hour interview with the president in The New York Times where he was asked if there are any limits to his power following his destruction of Venezuelan boats and the raid on that country when President Maduro was kidnapped. “Yeah,” was his reply, “There is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me. I don’t need international law.” As Kristin Monroe writes on MS NOW online, “Apparently we can all now rest assured, knowing that Trump’s finely tuned sense of morality will guide him as he navigates his Machiavellian world of might-makes-right, with or without the constraints of international law. Clearly, with Trump’s sense of morality as a guide, the US no longer needs to stay in the dozens of international organizations from which Trump just withdrew us.”

Monroe goes on to say that Trump is at odds with the reality of what Americans consider moral, and based on psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg’s study, our president’s moral development resembles that of a toddler — not of a seasoned statesman or thoughtful head of state. Kohlberg’s study led him to develop a six-stage theory describing an individual’s morality as evolving sequentially, the subsequent stages building on earlier reasoning, with Stage 1 involving avoiding trouble and following authority figures. Stage 2 finds individuals seeking reward and personal gain, after which Stage 3 will result in subjects seeking approval and wishing to be judged ‘good’ by their peers. Stage 4 eludes Donald Trump, as it calls for respect for authority, a wish to maintain social order and obey laws out of a sense of duty. Rarer are the later stages which require individuals to contemplate abstract principles — such as justice, extremely rare for Trump, as Stage 5 recognizes the greater good in recognizing the importance of individuals rights. The pinnacle of Stage 6 shows universal ethical principles emerging, care about concepts such as justice and human rights.

President Trump seems to be stuck at Stage 2, with only a glimmer of stepping into Stage 3, as he behaves like a child who expects the world to reward him with what is best only for him. He lacks compassion with not a concern for justice and human rights, with no understanding of America’s outrage over the Minneapolis killing by ICE agents, a mother who drove her car into a chaotic scene spawned by Trump and his gang. Stripping away health care and food benefits, separating immigrant families and putting the desaparecidos into cages gets no sympathy from Donald. He has no understanding about Canadians or Greenlanders feeling threatened by his annexation threats — Canada should relish being the 51st state and Greenland should be just fine with acceptance of US greenbacks for taking over their country.

Monroe believes Trump’s greatest crime might not be the damage he has inflicted on our political system or desecration of our democracy, but what he has meted out to us by altering how we see the world and leading us to believe what was once intolerable to us morally, is now perfectly acceptable behavior. On a positive note, she thinks Trump has misjudged Americans, and even his Congressional supporters are starting to break ranks to escape his trap of ‘morality.’ Based upon her interviews with Holocaust survivors, she is convinced that there are absolute moral values; and though leaders like Trump can ignore truth and human decency, to manipulate words and try to legislate away morality, moral values still exist and that innate human desire to protect and promote human flourishing is in our DNA. She cites the January 6 Insurrection as crossing the line for most of our citizens.

Political slogans may bombard us, “but a desire for warmth, compassion and kindness exists in all except the psychopaths among us,” Monroe says. And we know who they are! “We are born wanting to be loved. Most of us eventually learn that we cannot expect to receive love unless we are willing and able to give love in return. Claiming humanity in ourselves means recognizing and honoring it in others. Trump ignores this reality. He doesn’t see the disconnect between what he finds acceptable moral behavior and what the American public considers moral behavior,” Monroe concludes.

Trump’s White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, Stephen Miller, on the other hand is assuredly forever doomed by having an empty box labeled ‘Miller’s Soul.’ And Satan will not be fooled as he cheers from the sidelines. On Fox News he greenlighted abuse in his message to ICE officers in a Will Cain interview. He maintains that ICE agents have “federal immunity in the conduct of your duties,” declaring that anyone who so much as touches or obstructs the is “committing a felony.” Legal experts have fired back by stressing that prosecution is possible, though difficult in the present political climate. Critics of Miller’s comments called his statements “utterly chilling,” amounting to “open season on immigrants AND citizens alike,” as he encouraged officers to “go and spread violence and terror.”

Miller’s stridency was especially noteworthy as he made comments amid the heightened criticism and scrutiny after ICE killed Minneapolis’ Renee Good. Trump’s deputy told ICE officers, “You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one — no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist — can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties.” He assured officers that anyone crossing the line “will face justice.” The Department of Homeland Security has also shared the Fox footage on X as a “REMINDER” to ICE officers.

Slate journalist, Laura Jedeed, conducted her own investigation into the ICE hiring process, and in her exposé, she was able to get a job offer despite failing a drug test and without completing any of the background checks. In attending an ICE recruitment session, she found that the process was “astonishingly superficial,” even after she had overlooked the initially emailed paperwork and was using cannabis before the event, which should have disqualified her. Nevertheless, in checking back she found that she had been offered a job as a deportation officer — no completed paperwork, no background check, no identification verification. Jedeed wrote, “By all appearances, I was a deportation officer. Without a single signature on agency paperwork, ICE had officially hired me.”

The article brings to light the dangerously minimal vetting in ICE recruiting, and pinpoints why the agency’s confrontations with everyday Americans have grown more violent. Improper screening allows anyone, regardless of history, criminal record, or personal beliefs to walk out with a badge, a gun and the power to enforce deportations. Incompetence? Assuredly, but it’s a policy choice as Trump and Kristi Noem recruit those willing to intimidate and harm communities with no accountability, endangering everyone in its path.

Targeting Kristi Noem, satirist Andy Borowitz tells us in The Borowitz Report: “A new study published on Wednesday by Harvard Medical School has found a link between the overuse of Botox and pathological lying. “Repeated injections of Botox to the face interact with proteins in the brain,” Professor Harland Dorrinson, who supervised the study, said. “The result is an acute allergic reaction to the truth.” Though over-injecting Botox makes it difficult for a user to move the facial muscles necessary for speech, he said, “to the extent that the person’s mouth is capable of moving, it will be lying.” The study revealed other negative side effects of Botox, such as swelling in the cranium that requires the user to wear an enormous hat.”

In a turn away from Trump, podcaster Joe Rogan voiced sympathy with Americans who have expressed anger and frustration at the way Trump’s administration has conducted immigration enforcement. “You don’t want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching up people — many of which turn out to be US citizens that just don’t have their papers on them,” Rogan said on his podcast. He added, “Are we really gonna be Gestapo, ‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?” Being a prominent media voice with young men in particular, Rogan has been outspoken on a number of issues, breaking with the president even after supporting him in the 2024 campaign. Just before the election, Trump gave Rogan a three-hour interview as he attempted to shore up his support among younger members of the electorate.

Since the killing of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis, a revolt within the Department of Justice has resulted in the resignation of six senior career officials from the Criminal Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Harry Litman, a contributor on Substack, wrote on Bluesky that the resignations were “metastatic and spreading quickly. Clearly one of 2-3 biggest scandals in DOJ history.” Following the Trump administrations justification of Good’s death, Litman wrote, “First, the highest government officials circled the wagons around Ross,” relating how both Trump and VP Vance blamed Good for her death, and Secretary Noem labeling the incident “domestic terrorism.” “At the same time, leadership of the Civil Rights Division, under Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, informed the Criminal Section that it would not be investigating the case at all — a spectacular departure from past practice. Multiple career prosecutors offered to go to the scene but were told not to,” Litman wrote.

Litman added, “It was like a fire chief watching smoke pour from a burning building and ordering the crew not to respond, even as firefighters volunteered to go in. The resigning officials, then were not merely objecting to a particular judgement call. In effect, they were saying that if the Criminal Section does not have jurisdiction over a case like this, its role has been reduced to near irrelevance. Excessive force by officers is not new. What is novel for the United States is the use of federal power afterward to stifle investigation and shield wrongdoing. That turn — from lethal force to enforced impunity — is an abuse of authority and a hallmark of authoritarian governance.”

Scary turn of events! About all we can do now is follow one of the final quotes of the late recording artist Warren Zevon: “Enjoy every sandwich.”

A PALACE IN CARACAS, FREE CUBA, WORLD COP TO WORLD BULLY

Anthony Davis wrote on his Substack blog that Donald Trump finally solved the annoying constitutional problem which states that presidents are supposed to consult Congress before taking the nation into war — simple: don’t ask! Trump demonstrated that a ‘war powers’ discussion is only theoretical — just be loudly confident and “sufficiently uninterested” in being told ‘no’. So, no consultation, no vote, no pretense of deliberation. The sovereign state of Venezuela became the victim of executive power on full volume, with the triumvirate of Trump, Miller and Hegseth flexing their ‘unitary government’ model for the whole world, flying a kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro, his wife to be held as prisoners in New York, pending their courtroom appearances.

In a November Vanity Fair interview, White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles explained that land strikes in Venezuela would require Congressional approval, because “it’s war” that needs legal justification. Trump privately admitted to Congress members the same song and dance as he continued to blow ‘drug smuggler’s’ boats to smithereens; then came the recent announcement that docks, ‘drug warehouses’ and ‘drug boats’ on Venezuela’s shores had been destroyed. The new year then brought the “large scale strike against Venezuela.” the regime change abduction of its president, and Trump’s announcement that his administration would “run the country and take over its oil reserves.” CNN reported in early November that the administration was seeking opinions from DOJ for such strikes, so quite obviously they came up with the language the president and his plotters needed to initiate the action. At his rambling press conference following the action, Trump made the comments that the strikes were about more than stopping the threat of a small-time drug-running head of state who was endangering lives of Americans.

So far, the administration has offered remarkably little care in explaining their justifications or a legal framework — it depends on who you might ask which only adds to the confusion. Vice President Vance is quoted as saying, “You don’t get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas.” Secretary of State Rubio picked up on a line that seems to be echoed by others that, “the military had been supporting a law enforcement function,” noting that Maduro was under indictment in the first Trump administration. That’s woeful news for individuals in other countries that are also under indictments — do we have enough equipment, personnel, and money to also go after them? Yikes!

One of Trump’s early suggestions was that strikes might be justified because Venezuela was sending “bad people” into the US, downplaying any role of that country’s oil reserves, but then a revision occurred — the president voiced his opinion that we needed to reclaim “the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us.” A confused Senator Lindsey Graham indicated that the administration lacked “clarity” in the messaging. He said, “I want clarity here. President Trump saying Maduro’s days are numbered. That seems to me that he’s gotta go. If it’s the goal of taking him out because it’s a threat to our country, then say it. And what happens next? Don’t you think most people want to know that?” It is interesting to note that following the Venezuela action, Graham posted on X: “Free Cuba.”

The attempt to keep the focus on the law enforcement aspect of the operation during the Saturday morning press conference became a shambles as Trump kept wandering off script to emphasize how his administration would temporarily run the government of Venezuela, with repetitious references to the oil reserves and how Venezuelans would become “rich,” all of which begs the question: If he and his bumbling gang can’t run this country successfully, how does that translate to another mismanaged country? And restructuring the Venezuelan oil industry, which is reportedly decrepit and out of date, is another question entirely. “We’re going to rebuild the oil infrastructure. We’re going to run the country right,” said Trump without a whisper of any justification, let alone a plan of action to accomplish this. Venezuela’s large geographical size could prove difficult to control, and because of its significant oil wealth, other countries will take an interest in how our government moves. China has chimed in, calling the attack a “blatant use of force against a sovereign state.”

Of course, the blustering Trump has threatened the possibility of further military options beyond kidnapping and destruction of Venezuela’s industrial and military infrastructure, making it clear that he intends to continue testing the limits his presidential authority and Americans‘ tolerance for his stretching the law. Yet, Americans probably can still be shocked and horrified at his undeclared, unprovoked, and illegal attacks, but we should recognize that this puts us on the same moral and legal footing as Putin’s Russia in their war of pure aggression against Ukraine. Senator Ruben Gallego, in a post where he remarks about his service in the Iraq War, wrote, “Second unjustified war in my life time. This was is illegal, it’s embarrassing that we went from the world cop to the world bully in less than one year. There is no reason for us to be at war with Venezuela.”

Jennifer Rubin writes in The Contrarian on Substack, “It is hard not to conclude that the action is a ‘wag the dog moment’ aimed at distracting the public from the Epstein files, the rotten economy, and Trump’s declining health. It very well could supercharge Trump’s lawless and violent domestic policies against migrants, civil society groups, and others on grounds that they are authorized by wartime powers. His rickety tower of constitutional rubbish will continue to build.” Rubin feels that we should have no expectation that congressional Republicans will do anything to thwart Trump, since they have repeatedly caved in allowing his illegal attacks on boats, even killing survivors in the sea.

With tongue firmly in cheek, the Daily Dose of Democracy site posts, “Whew! It’s almost as if there’s a festering scandal dogging the embattled president on the domestic front and his regime is desperately looking for cover wherever it can find it. Almost.” The writer says that America’s wannabe dictator is feeling frisky after the Venezuela action and is hellbent on continuing his imperial march across the planet — no matter the cost. Trump admitted that US military action against Colombia “sounds good to me,” with an ominous warning to Cuba, and a repeat statement that taking over Greenland is important for our national security. Another repeat was the threat toward Iran should that country’s  crackdown on protesters get out of hand. Unable to stop his ranting, he issued another warning to Mexico over drug trafficking, telling them to “get their act together, or else.”

The attack on Venezuela Rubin blames on the MAGA Supreme Court majority, and Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. specifically, who granted broad immunity never envisioned by the Framers of the Constitution, and now Trump has taken that and made a run headfirst into war. AG Pam Bondi ran headfirst to X, writing, “Nicholás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machine-guns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machine-guns and Destructive Devices against the United States.” She then added, “They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts. On behalf of the entire US DOJ, I would like to thank President Trump for having the courage to demand accountability on behalf of the American People, and a huge thank you to our brave military who conducted the incredible and highly successful mission to capture these two alleged international narco traffickers.”

Conservative commenters, concerned that New York justice would let down the country, and that Maduro wouldn’t “feel the full wrath of American justice” that Bondi seeks, posted: “So we just hyper complicated this case to a jurisdiction power struggle? In S NY? Well alrighty then;” “Indicted in SDNY? Is that to ensure something does or doesn’t happen?” Another sarcastically posted, “Hopefully not the ‘full wrath’ Ghislaine Maxwell is getting.” Ben Meiselas on MeidasTouch wrote, “I thought the American justice system was supposed to be about ‘due process’ and not ‘wrath,'” as he points out the irony in Trump’s pardon of the convicted drug trafficking Honduran president. One poster on X commented, “The Sackler family has done more to fuel the fentanyl epidemic in America than Venezuela. Can we conduct a midnight raid to arrest them too?”

The president told Fox News there were no US casualties in the raid, though helicopter troops were hurt when their craft was hit, but no Americans were killed. Venezuelan officials denounced the operation as military aggression, calling for mobilization, with reports of around forty deaths and many injuries which are still being assessed. The government’s inner circle is still intact, with vice president Delcy Rodriguez being secretly sworn in as interim president, after which she appeared on state television calling the US action “a brutal attack.” Trump later claimed she had spoken to Marco Rubio and was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary,” but that claim raises more questions than it answers, especially with all the confusion we’ve seen within the administration over the last few days as they attempt to present a convincing plan for the future.

What could be more Trumpian than The Washington Post’s report that the president has iced out opposition leader, and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Maria Corina Machado as a successor to Maduro? Her unforgivable sin of accepting the Prize rather than demanding it be given to Trump has resulted in her being thrown under the bus, with Trump stating, “It’d be very tough for her to be the leader because she doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country.” Opposition leaders were stunned because expectations that Washington would rally behind her were dashed. Daily Dose of Democracy calls this newsworthy with the president’s petulant self-serving behavior being truly unmatched — a stark reminder to anyone on the world stage willing to play ball with The Donald, that his ego and self-interest are job numero uno.

The administration’s insistence that the Venezuela action was simply to make an arrest — sure, with helicopters, fighter planes, missiles and bombs, and an armada of support ships in the sea — begs the question: Why is it necessary to now run the country? Trump insists, “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.” He and Secretary of State Rubio need to get their stories on the same page! Senator Chuck Schumer tweeted, “The idea that Trump plans now to run Venezuela should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans. The American people have seen this before and paid the devastating price.” Keep the repeating the mantra: He can’t even run THIS country!

Several MAGA dissidents oppose Trump’s attack, one arguing that, “Most Americans are enraged. American disgust with our own government’s never-ending military aggression and support of foreign wars is justified because we are forced to pay for it, and both parties — Republican and Democrat — always keep the Washington military machine funded and going.” Outgoing Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X: “This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end. Boy, were we wrong!” Podcaster and MAGA influencer Candace Owens suggested that the Trump administration had carried out the attack “at the behest of globalist psychopaths.” She says that Venezuela has been ‘liberated’ like Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq with the CIA staging another hostile takeover. “That’s it. That’s what is happening, always, and everywhere,” she said. Democrat Ro Khanna argues that Trump has “betrayed” his MAGA base by launching a war to bring regime change to Venezuela. He said that we keep voting against dumb wars, but our presidents get us entangled in conflicts abroad, while ignoring the lack of good jobs and high costs for Americans at home.

At the unhinged, reckless press conference — as described by Ben Meiselas — Trump appeared to be dozing off for extended periods of time as the military details of the operation were presented by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine. “Nothing says end of empire like a grasping regime change war launched by an aging leader who can’t even stay awake for the announcement,” posted on X by MS Now host, Krystal Ball. “A literal coup isn’t thrilling enough to keep him awake,” wrote journalist Peter Rothpletz. Given the severity of the events revealed at the press conference, author Aaron Bastani wrote on social media, “Trump sounds exhausted while talking, and can’t keep is eyes open. The neocons got what they wanted. Curious to see when he’s disposed of.”

Substack’s Anthony Davis posted: “The larger concern is not just Venezuela, but the precedent. If the world’s most powerful country can bomb a capital city, kidnap a sitting president and face little more than sternly worded statements, others may take notes. Some warn that China may see this moment as proof that force, when wielded by the powerful, comes with few consequences.” Davis observes that Trump appears increasingly comfortable with military theatrics, and positively energized by the operation to use ground forces if needed. His falling approval ratings and domestic scandals only increase the temptation to project strength abroad. Venezuela is a stress test for the international system — if the rules only apply when convenient, then there are no rules at all, only suggestions for smaller countries. Davis concludes: “Trump’s fascist playbook now extends beyond US borders, as he assumes the role of CEO of Venezuela, replacing one dictator with another.”

A RED SIREN, DEFENSIBLE, DELUSIONAL, STOP YELLING!

The synopsis by Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch of President Trump’s recent 18-minute address from the White House pretty much sums up its value as “a tantrum with a teleprompter.” “A grievance sermon delivered at warp speed, yelled at the American people, as if your bank account personally insulted him,” summarizes Ben. “It was a hostage video starring facts bound, gagged, and shoved into the trunk of a golf cart.” Meiselas surmises that Trump chose the prime time slot — sorry, fans of ‘Survivor‘ — because his “poll numbers are underwater and sinking fast,” and not because of the national emergency of a sinking economy. With sixty percent of the country disapproving of his actions — not a rounding error, but a flashing red siren screaming ‘we don’t believe you‘ — he decides to yell louder at his victims. As if speed-reading a grocery receipt he picked up in a parking lot, he spouted prices of items, and screeched that expenses are falling fast, but Meiselas points out, “You can’t shout inflation into submission. And you definitely can’t bully people into believing their expenses are cheaper just because you said so.” And adding, “Believe me,” doesn’t cut it.

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TIRING OF FEAR, MAKE YOUR OWN WEATHER, BUBBLING ORANGE PUDDLE

Democratic think tanks make the case that the party needs to move to the right in order to win back voters in ’26 and ’28, trying to prove that voters are more moderate on many social and cultural issues, but a counterargument in The New Republic by Monica Potts provides a road map for candidates that won’t require candidates to throw vulnerable coalition members under the bus. A compilation and analysis of the surveys and focus groups done since the 2024 election by Way to Win, a left-leaning ‘strategic donor collaborative and strategy hub,’ founded after the 2016 election, looks at swing voters including 2020 Biden voters in addition to those who sat out the election. This analysis provides a fuller picture than the conclusion that the electorate swung right in November, concluding that those who sat out the election are much more politically aligned with Democrats but weren’t motivated to vote for Kamala Harris and downballot Democrats, while determining what they want from future candidates.

Way to Win pinpoints several problems: Voters were upset about rising prices and longer-term economic trends — movements on the left around issues like Gaza, racial and economic justice and immigration weren’t aligned with the party. Potts says, “Fundamental to the report is an important corrective. While many Democrats lost last year because the party had moved too far left, Way to Win makes the case that voters don’t actually apply neatly defined ideological frames when they evaluate candidates’ policies and choose whom to vote for. Their decisions are more complex and filtered through their social, family, and work lives — a conclusion supported by much political science research. ‘When you go knock on doors, you hear all kinds of stories, but they almost never have to do with detailed policies or ideological framing,’ the report says.”

A path forward suggests moderation on some issues like immigration, the environment, or trans rights, and while it might be true that the party’s positions are to the left of the majority on some specific issues, there’s no evidence that those issues drove decision-making in November. Jennifer Fernandez Ancona of Way to Win found that other issues highlighted in their report are much bigger factors, especially true of those who failed to vote — they didn’t want moderation, but a stronger economic message and Democrats who would fight for them, who had failed to deliver in the past. By moderating, it was more likely to reinforce Republican talking points, weakening the Democrats’ position. Fernandez Ancona says, “We’re really saying we need to actually go towards strength, which is what we define in the report as basically standing for what you believe in.” The perception of Democrats as weak was partly shaped by Republican attacks rather than Democratic messages themselves, and Harris didn’t work to counter that impression, her campaign messaging failing to break through.

The issue of economic equality is a major factor to Democrat voters who want a strengthened enforcement against wealthy tax cheats, and making the wealthy pay what they owe. Fernandez Ancona says, “It’s making the case that the system is not working for a lot of people because of this inequality and this imbalance, and we have to make that more fair.” Political strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio believes Democrats need to embrace ‘magnetism,’ which is similar to the ‘strength’ that Way to Win advocates in staking out forceful positions that risk pushing some voters away but are also much more likely to attract voters than simply taking whatever positions the polls suggest. These arguments are strengthened by wins of Zohran Mamdani, Mikie Sherrill, and Abigail Spanberger in recent elections, despite the fact that they had ideological differences, but share an approach to politics that was combative on behalf of their constituents, by promising to tackle the big issues like affordability, and working hard to deliver without ceding ideological ground to Republicans. As Fernandez Ancona offers, “They actually went after it head-on by standing up for their values and who they were. The playbook going forward is, name it, call it out for what it is — because the voters don’t like this fear and division. They’re tired of it.”

The havoc and wreckage of the second Trump administration is motivating voters to show up for Democrats, evidenced in the recent elections, but to win big and retain power, the party must work harder to build a party brand that answers voters’ real concerns, differentiating them from the GOP. Potts concludes, “That doesn’t mean behaving like a weather vane, turning in whichever direction the political winds blow. It means having the courage and strength to make your own weather.”

David Rothkopf on The Daily Beast says, “It is hard to know whether Donald Trump or the MAGA movement he created is falling apart faster.” The 79-year old president is deteriorating rapidly — puffy cankles, bruises with bandages and makeup, slurring of speech, erratic behavior and conspicuous naps during televised events — not to mention his painful sensitivity to his health issues, suggesting that those who mention it are guilty of treason. As Rothkopf says, “Of course, every effort he makes to prove he’s not one step away from melting into a bubbling orange puddle seems to make it clear he’s losing it.” He points out that prominent Republicans are defecting at a rapid clip, former loyalists are willing to stand up to The Donald, with several speaking out against Trump’s opposition to extending health subsidies, and the courts have shot down many of his cases — most noteworthy being the James Comey and Letitia James retribution fabrications.

Trump is losing at the ballot box, suggesting that he is now electoral poison. The economy is floundering. Deficits are exploding. Tariffs are unpopular. His inhumane and draconian immigration crackdowns are alienating many, and his foreign policy has alienated allies and empowered adversaries. His overt corruption, his grifting, and catering to billionaires at the expense of our citizens is driving a tangible backlash — not to mention opinion regarding his mega-ballroom and turning the Oval Office into a gilded ‘Nawlins-looking bawdy-house. As Rothkopf says, a common view held by over 40% of Americans, is that humans and dinosaurs coexisted, making it likely that Fred and Wilma Flintstone live alongside their pet snorkasaurus — a larger percentage than those who believe Trump’s lies that he has made America the hottest economy in the world. Even so, it’s worth mentioning that when he wishes to placate his base he moves to attack science-based policies such as vaccines or climate change.

Rothkopf ends his piece with: “What those of us who do believe in empirical facts can see that the president and his movement are in deep trouble. They are entering uncharted territory in which even some of the most gullible among us are no longer buying what our president is selling. That is not to say Trump and MAGA have no future. Their presence will likely be felt by most of us for years to come, like a shiver down our collective spine. And that’s not just because something like 60% of Americans believe in ghosts.”

Andrew Egger points out in The Bulwark that the House passed a bill overturning a Trump executive order stripping union protection from some federal workers, a bill that began as a petition circulated by Democratic Representative Jared Golden of Maine. This was a slap in the face for House Speaker Johnson who has been able, up to now, to keep things clicking away for Trump. Only now is he being seen in the spot where many expected him to be from day one — a weak speaker who leads a fractious party who basically ignores him to do what they wish. Egger brings up the pessimistic assessments of party members who see a “looming disaster” headed their way, “facing certain defeat,” and “going down hard.” He says those statements would be expected from disgruntled GOP operatives outside of MAGA, but coming from Joe Gruters, a die-hard Trumper and chair of the RNC, expounding on conservative radio is pretty crazy.

Gruters isn’t throwing Trump under the bus with his statements; rather, he is making a specific case to the party, that, “The only person that could bring the nose up and help us win is the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.” Predicting doom risks further depressing GOP voters and encourages office holders to retire early, and it is far from clear who the party needs to step up to get elected, repairing their predicament. In speaking to swing-state GOP operatives, they told Egger bluntly that it isn’t the historical mid-term dilemma facing them, it is the world that Trump has built for them in competing for public office. One operative said, “His message sucks. It’s absolute trash. Nobody believes the economy and particularly affordability is getting better.”

Another strategist feels Republicans will be in particularly bad shape in ’26 because Trump demands that they stay loyal to him. Past presidents have accepted some disrespect, or strategic distancing, simply to have congressional majorities without enforcing personal purity tests — hardly what Donald Trump wants. This panic has led Republicans to take steps to get the president to at least change his messaging, and treat affordability as a major concern. As he headed to Pennsylvania last week for a speech purporting to focus on that topic, he revealed that he had been advised not to call it a hoax — contrary to his earlier statements. “I can’t call it a hoax, because they’ll misconstrue that,” he said. Trump still maintains that he inherited the “worst inflation in history,” but ‘tariff’ is still his favorite word, with that commitment creating the headaches we now suffer.

The GOP can only grit their teeth, cross their fingers and hope against hope that the economy will improve down the line. One of the GOP operatives interviews stated, “This isn’t going to get any better unless he either, one, shuts off the tariffs and starts a real economic turnaround, or two — well, I don’t know what two is — the GOP is looking at a very rough midterm.” So the party isn’t looking for a number three, obviously! After The Bulwark published their story, RNC spokesperson Kiersten Pels commented that The Bulwark is a bunch of shameless hacks, and that, “Republicans will defy history because of President Trump and the successful policies of the America First movement.” And number three is…?

Amie Parnes writes in The Hill that public interest lies in a third party for both Republicans and Democrats as well as those who didn’t vote in the ’24 presidential election, according to a survey released by Voto Latino. The number three we are looking for? Last month’s survey revealed that 9% of US respondents were open to a third party candidate for the next presidential election. Of those who did vote last year, 7% voiced support for a third-party candidate, with voters across party lines being concerned that both parties are doing a poor job — 45% pointing fingers at the Dems, and 50% frowning at the GOP. A majority also said both parties have become too extreme, the Democrats too liberal or progressive, with Republicans being too conservative or right wing. “Neither party is cutting it,” says Maria Teresa Kumar, CEO of Voto Latino. She felt that Biden’s economic agenda was headed in the right direction but didn’t translate fast enough to benefit local economies.

Kumar accuses the Democrats of trying to sell a poverty agenda — not what Americans want to hear, and Trump’s success at selling “a false good” only resulted in inflation, inviting criticism of his unaffordable tariff hikes. The poll also revealed that Black and Latino respondents had skipped meals to conserve money reserves. Both groups also indicated that side jobs, or side hustles, were important in making ends meet. “It’s a tremendous opportunity to come up with a thriving economic agenda. Now is the time to think really big and offer voters something,” said Kumar. She pointed to the winning campaigns of Spanberger, Sherrill and Mamdami, who did “a good job” of speaking about economic issues and seeing voters where they are. “There’s no other place but to go up. People stay home because there’s nothing to go vote for,” Kumar concludes.

As America looks forward to abandonment of our healthcare by the Trump administration, and his lackey Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s Make America Unhealthy Again thrust, satirist Andy Borowitz has come up with a perfect solution: “After decades of anticipation, on Monday congressional Republicans finally unveiled their healthcare plan, urging all Americans who seek coverage to move to Canada. ‘Under this plan, the American people will gain full access to the doctors, hospitals, and medications they deserve,’ House Speaker Mike Johnson declared. ‘They just need to wear lots of layers.’ The proposal drew widespread support from Americans, a majority asserting that they had already considered implementing such a plan since January of this year. But it sparked a strong pushback from Canadians, who called on Prime Minister Carney to build a wall.”

Cities with Democratic Party mayors have been on President Trump’s enemies list for a considerable amount of time, with one of his threats being withdrawal of the June 2026 World Cup matches from their locales. But rather than push back or intervene in any way, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has chosen to offer The Don a pacifier in the form of a specially created peace prize medal for “making the world a safer place.” The pathetic looking gold bling was awarded by FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, in the bootlicking ceremony held at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, commenting that Trump had been selected “in recognition of his exceptional and extraordinary actions to promote peace and unity around the world.” This was yet another attempt, as we have witnessed over the past year, in which other major institutions, companies, and prominent individuals have bent over backwards in a transparent effort to gain favor and purchase themselves immunity from either Trump’s political retribution or criminal prosecution — an embarrassing new low for FIFA.

As Daily Dose of Democracy’s post reads, “One of the world’s most corrupt sports organizations decided to create a participation Nobel Peace Prize to give to Donald.” Dave Braneck of Jacobin writes, “There’s a lot to dislike about the FIFA World Cup. A bloated forty-eight-team tournament spanning all of North America would be tough to pull off in the best of conditions. FIFA openly ripping off fans and charging thousands for tickets ensures that it’ll be, at base, and ugly cash grab. But there are also ills facing fans such as the United States’ immigration regime, roaming National Guard deployments throughout the country’s urban landscapes, and disconcertingly persistent threats to move match venues at President Trump’s whim. The world’s biggest sporting event will have one of its most authoritarian backdrops yet. FIFA president Infantino has responded to concerning developments in the cohost country the same way he responds to despots the world over — shameless groveling.” Braneck asks, “What could be unserious about an award presented ‘on behalf of the billions of people who love this game and want peace?‘”

He goes on to say that Trump was so “jazzed” about “one of the great honors of his life,” that he even stayed awake long enough to graciously accept it. The medal ceremony was squeezed into the formal World Cup draw, providing a bit of levity in the boring lead-in to the tourney proceedings and furnishing a look at “Trump’s authoritarian lurches and FIFA’s sycophancy.” Braneck concludes, “Faced with all this, fans need to exert their power before a terrible World Cup renders the game fully unrecognizable.” Tournaments in previous years faced more criticisms than the upcoming events, those being held in Russia and Qatar, and instead of getting pushbacks fans simply asked with a bemused, “can you believe this crap?” Sports bars in Germany even refused to show the matches on their TVs for the clientele. While Trump doesn’t seem particularly concerned with how he’s perceived prior to the upcoming tournaments, it still is feared that he could continue his threats to Democrat-run cities after the kick-offs. VP Vance offers his comforting words about foreign visitors, “They’ll have to go home, otherwise they’ll have to talk to Secretary Kristi Noem.” Sure, if there IS a next time for her!

The anti-immigrant policies and a proliferation of masked ICE agents throughout the country aren’t especially welcoming, and many foreign fans will be unable to even consider attending FIFA matches — Iran and Haiti citizens are banned from entering the country, a disappointment for Haitians whose team has qualified for the first time in fifty years. FIFA’s Infantino has chosen not to mitigate the situation, lauding his great relationship with Trump and prompting him to book the Village People as ‘entertainment‘ for the World Cup draw to please our brutish president. California’s Governor Newsom mocked FIFA’s ‘peace prize’ award, calling it a participation trophy that means little. However, Newsom’s press team piled on as they reimagined a rendering of a medallion, inscribed ‘If You Had Fun, You Won!‘ — accompanied with a cartoonish and smiling gold star.

Basking in the flood of flattery from Infantino, Trump commented that the sport of American football needs to change its name to allow the current terminology of ‘soccer’ be changed to ‘football’ to replicate that of its global counterparts. “When you think about it, shouldn’t it really be called, I mean, this is football, there’s no question about it. We have to come up with another name. It really doesn’t make sense when you think about it. This is really football.” Got that? Maybe we can call it Kennedyball since that name will soon be discarded at the Kennedy Center…or how about Donnyball…or perhaps Pardonsball? Count on the prez to come up with a self-congratulatory honorific.

After Trump appointed himself chairman of the board at DC’s Kennedy Center, dismissing all Biden appointees, he had no qualms giving FIFA exclusive use of the Center’s Concert Hall for the World Cup draw from November 24 to December 12, reportedly allowing the organization use of the prestigious center for the week. A leaked copy of the FIFA contract involves no rental fees for its use, which was offset by a $2.4 million donation and $5 million in sponsorship opportunities, for a total of $7.4 million for the Center, with FIFA covering event operational costs and security. This deal disrupted Kennedy Center programming, drawing the ire of Senate Democrats for potentially sacrificing millions in revenue for favorable political optics. It should be pointed out that the Center provided staff, utilities, and basic services at its own cost.

Eleanor Clift of The Daily Beast suggests it’s time someone red-carded Donald Trump. She reports that The Concert Hall, which seats 2,465, has been repurposed for the main event, with the Eisenhower Theatre serving as an overflow hall, and that the Roof Terrace Restaurant was reserved for a ‘VVIP‘ dinner. FIFA team seminars were held in the Terrace Theatre, along with a broadcast compound and a media center. A ‘green carpet’ will welcome arrivals, and a few fortunates will have access to a ‘Legends Lounge‘ to meet soccer greats and sports admirers from the Trump world who are lucky enough to be granted access to the inner sanctum.

Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board and ranking member on the Environment and Public Works (EPW) committee, which oversees all public buildings owned by the government, last month launched a ‘cronyism and corruption‘ investigation into the center’s management under former ambassador Germany Ric Grenell, a Trump choice. The Senator is demanding cost estimates to show the impact of the FIFA accommodations, asserting that contracts and invoices reveal the center is being used as “a playground for the President of the United States and is allies,” and is “being looted to the tune of millions of dollars…an unprecedented pattern of self-dealing, favoritism and waste.” Whitehouse alleges the FIFA event amounts to over $5 million in losses, amid broader reputational suffering and declining sales. Eleanor Clift writes that FIFA is the big winner, gaining prestige cost-free, and Trump is a winner as well, gaining a trophy, and wheeling and dealing to one of the world’s biggest sports events. “But he’s also scoring a goal by reducing a world-famous venue for the arts to another crassly branded saloon.”

According to CNN, ticket sales to this season’s ‘The Nutcracker‘ are down by 33% compared to tickets sales seen in 2002 through 2024, echoing problems of other productions since the Trump takeover. Even with a sellout on the ‘Nutcracker,’ production costs would outweigh revenue from ticket sales, and other productions have been cancelled due to the imposition of a new policy requiring all performances to ‘break even,’ or from artists resigning their leadership roles for previously scheduled events — ‘Hamilton‘ being a notable cancellation. Broadway productions touring schedules are eliminating Kennedy Center as a venue, and with Trump’s board of trustees vetting performers for their gender identities, the Center is not viewed as a safe venue.

As the Daily Dose of Democracy blog reports, “the cat’s out of the bag on our vainglorious nincompoop-in-chief’s lates pathetic move to deify himself. Having already gone to great lengths to destroy the reputation and prestige of America’s preeminent performing arts center, the MAGA cult leader ‘accidentally’ let slip just what he has in store next. During a speech at the US Institute of Peace yesterday, which he had his name slapped on earlier this week, Trump said with a chuckle, ‘You have a big event on Friday at the Trump-Kennedy Center — op, excuse me. The Kennedy Center. Pardon me, such a terrible mistake.’ Donald’s constant need for praise and validation is without parallel, and he’s not about to leave the myth-making and memorializing to posthumous chance. SAD!”

In renaming the above-mentioned Institute of Peace building, adding the ‘Trump‘ monicker, the White House called it “a powerful reminder of what strong leadership can accomplish for global stability.” Or, as Robert Reich termed it, “It’s a reminder of what a strong malignant narcissist can accomplish when untethered from reality.” The absurdity of renaming the Institute building and FIFA’s medal award are part of Trump’s effort to get the Nobel Peace Prize to keep up with President Obama. He sees himself as a valid candidate despite his declaration of war against Venezuela, sans congressional approval, and for allowing SecDef Pete Hegseth to blow over 80 people to kingdom come for ‘drug smuggling‘ — or using the incorrect bait on their fishing equipment, perhaps. Did Vladimir Putin’s flattery, for ending their war against Ukraine, persuad Trump to allow takeover of Ukrainian territory? That must count for something — if we ignore son-in-law Jared Kushner’s wheeling and dealing for business deals with Putin.

Reich asks, “Peace Prize? Please. Trump is taking credit for achieving ‘peace’ between nations that weren’t even at war. According to Alfred Nobel’s will, the Peace Prize is awarded to the person who in the preceding year ‘shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.’ Nobel’s will further specified that the prize be awarded by a committee of five people chosen by the Norwegian Parliament. Memo to Norwegian Parliament and the Nobel committee: No president in American history deserves the Nobel Peace Prize less than does Donald J. Trump.”

In the midst of his myth-making efforts, Trump recently mused about his eternal fate during a White House news conference when asked about about the ‘America Prays‘ initiative which “invites America’s great religious communities to pray for our nation and for our people” as we approach next year’s semiquincentennial. Trump is quoted as saying, “You know, there’s a reason to be good,” and he wants to be good to prove to God that he deserves a heavenly reward. He seems to be preoccupied with the afterlife of late, especially after his close call on the campaign trail in Butler, Pennsylvania last year; and, he told Fox News he has anxiety about gaining entry to heaven upon his demise since “I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole.” He feels he was saved from death by assassination to carry out his ultimate mission of saving America, which prompted him to make yet another appeal to his faithful — ‘send  cold, hard cash to help get the job done.‘ The grift is great, the grift is GOOD!

Satirist Andy Borowitz was inspired to fantasize Trump’s reaction upon the death of Dick Cheney: “Donald J. Trump boasted that his funeral would draw a ‘much bigger crowd’ than former Vice President Dick Cheney’s. ‘Dick Cheney, who was a loser and a terrible person, will be lucky to get a thousand people at this funeral,’ Trump posted on Truth Social. ‘My funeral will draw MILLIONS!’ Remarking that ‘nobody cares’ about Cheney’s funeral, Trump said he expects the turnout at his funeral to set records, noting, ‘Every day, people say to me, ‘Sir, I can’t wait for that day to come.‘”

Lincoln Square’s Rick Wilson speculates about what happens when ‘that day‘ comes in his piece entitled ‘When Trump Dies.‘ He writes, “Every aging dictator, every long-in-the-tooth autocrat, every once-terrifying strongman eventually feels the cold hand of Death reaching out to tap them on the shoulder and whisper, ‘It’s time.‘” Wilson says that we all understand mortality, but we should consider what comes after that tap on the shoulder with the collapse of systems built around that leader. The entire structure that pretended to be a unified movement reveals itself for what it was in actuality: a feeding frenzy for sycophants who think they were born to inherit the golden scepter. As for what happens in the post-Trump era, his daily outrages and excesses make succession the survivors unsolved problem. Reich concludes: “Autocrats are very good at seizing power and holding it. They are very bad at leaving it behind without blowing something up on the way out — personality cult regimes are especially fragile at succession because the leader spends his life eliminating rivals rather than training successors. Trump is not unique. He is just the latest in an ancient story.” What happens next will be ugly and dangerous.

MONGRELS, MATH EPIDEMIC, COMMUNICATIVE CANDOR

Robert Reich wrote on Substack this week that the shooting of two National Guard members by a gunman in DC was horrific enough, “but President Trump’s response has been disproportionate and bigoted,” vowing to “permanently pause” migrations from all Third World Countries, while deporting those considered “high risk.” Further, he threatens to strip US citizenship from naturalized migrants “who undermine domestic tranquility,” or those deemed to be “non-compatible with Western Civilization.” And true to form, he wants more migrants jailed, either in this country or within foreign borders, without due process of the law. These unconstitutional actions stir up the worst nativist impulses within our citizenry as he blames and scapegoats entire groups for the act of one gunman.

Excluding Native Americans, we are all immigrants in some form or another, possibly descended from immigrants who came voluntarily and some who came in chains; and most of us “are mongrels,” says Reich. The mixed nationalities, mixed ethnicities, mixed races, mixed creeds embrace the ideals of this nation even as we maintain our own traditions within our families, our neighborhoods, and geographical regions. Reich says he hasn’t quoted President Reagan before now, but excerpts a 1988 speech which is pertinent for today: “I received a letter not long ago from a man who said, ‘You can go to Japan and live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won’t become a German or a Turk.’ But then he added, ‘Anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American.‘”

Reich continues: “A person becomes an American by adopting America’s principles, especially those principles summarized in the ‘self-evident truths’ of the Declaration of Independence, such as ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ Carl Friedrich wrote that ‘To be and American is an ideal, while to be a Frenchman is a fact.’ As an immigrant friend once put it to me: ‘I was always an American; I was just born in the wrong country.'” Reich says, “Reagan was wrong about so many things, yet he understood something fundamental to this nation that Trump doesn’t have a clue about: America is an idea — a set of aspirations and ideals — more than a nationality. The only thing Trump knows is that he needs to fuel bigotry. His Straight White Male Christian Nationalism requires prejudice against anyone who’s ‘not.’ Like dictators before him, Trump’s road to tyranny is paved with stones hurled at ‘them.’ His entire project depends on hate.”

Andy Borowitz contributes another possible rationale for the Trump administration’s prejudice against migrants via his The Borowitz Report: “Delivering an incendiary accusation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned on Thursday that ‘an invasion force of migrants’ is smuggling math across the US-Mexico border. ‘They are bringing textbooks, calculators, and slide rules into our country, hoping to get America’s children hooked on math,’ she said. ‘President Trump has made a strong commitment to protect our country from math, whatever it takes,’ she added. Claiming that the nation was suffering from a ‘math epidemic,’ Leavitt refused to disclose how many math-smuggling migrants have invaded the US thus far, noting, ‘Using numbers is exactly what they want us to do.‘”

MeidasTouch’s Ben Meiselas writes, “This week, America got another reminder that something is fundamentally off-kilter inside Trump’s operation, and it’s bleeding straight out of his own mouth. And no, it’s not a diagnosis. It’s not a medical issue. It’s the consequences of pressure, bad advice, and a political strategy built on grievance gasoline with a match permanently lit. When the walls start closing in, Trump doesn’t adapt; he detonates.” Meiselas says starting with Mar-a-Lago — where good questions go to die — Trump detonated against CBS’s Nancy Cordes when she asked why blame President Biden for failing to vet DC shooter Rahmanullah Lakanwal, when it was actually accomplished in Afghanistan, with Trump’s own administration later granting him asylum. Trump answered, “Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” Meiselas describes this response coming from a man who feels cornered by facts and defaulting to the same insult arsenal he used as a New York tabloid curiosity — no strategy, no sign of strength.

This can be seen as the result of the president’s surrounding himself with MAGAs who tell him every problem is someone else’s fault, every question is an attack, and every woman who challenges him is showing disrespect. Bad advice equals bad behavior, and America is reacting exactly the way you would expect, resulting in frustration, exhaustion, and increasing concern. Lately, Nancy Cordes hasn’t been the only Trump target. He tagged Katie Rogers of The New York Times as “third rate, and ugly, both inside and out,” after she and a male co-author wrote a conscientious, fact-based piece about the president’s age, mobility, stamina, schedule, and his recent MRI, all elements documented and observable by anyone paying attention. Trump called the Times a “rag” and “the enemy of the people,” with no comment about the male writer.

Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucy’s question about the Epstein files, which Trump has termed a “witch hunt,” brought his now infamous response of, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.” Then came ABC’s Mary Bruce asking a question about Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, which has been linked to the Saudi Crown Prince, who happened to be in the room with Trump, and members of the press. The president immediately scolded her for “embarrassing” MBS, calling her a “terrible person” for asking an “insubordinate” question. So he’s royalty and the White House press members are his disobedient subjects, particularly women, who he can blame for holding up mirrors he can’t bear to gaze at. Meiselas says, “Karoline Leavitt stepped up and called this barrage ‘honesty’ and ‘frankness,’ as if ‘Are you stupid?’ is presidential transparency. As if ‘piggy’ is a bold new chapter in communicative candor. As if calling a journalist ‘ugly’ is something the press should appreciate.”

Meiselas remarks that America isn’t buying it, because people see the hostility, the thin skin, and a president absorbing the weight of a job his own advisers have convinced him is a battlefield, not a responsibility. He concludes, “So here’s what we know. When presidents feel confident, they lead. When they feel cornered, they lash out. Trump isn’t lashing out because he’s strong; he’s lashing out because he’s under pressure, badly advised, and increasingly aware that the media questions he hates are questions millions of Americans are asking too. And the women asking those questions aren’t the problem. They’re the truth-tellers. They’re the accountability he can’t silence. And that, more than anything, is the truth he’s afraid you’ll hear.”

As those of you who grew up with siblings, or attended the average American elementary school, learned quickly that there are lines you don’t cross. Name-calling probably got you grounded, or marched to the principal’s office resulting in a note to take home to your parents, and maybe a paddle landed on your backside somewhere along in the process. It would take a fairly large paddle to cover Trump’s rear, which is hardly a solution to quell the world’s oldest third-grader letting fly with a continuous  lunchroom tantrum. A time-out at Mar-a-Lago won’t work because the seating appears to be quite comfortable.

Last Saturday, the tantrum continued with Trump’s message that “all airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers” should avoid Venezuela’s airspace as it was now “closed in its entirety.” Giving no legal basis for his pronouncement, he left the impression that he was prepared to shoot down commercial airliners in the area, hardly a foreign policy — simply the unstable rhetoric of one who views war as a personal tool and an annoying threat based on his lethal strikes on suspected narcotics vessels in the open ocean. These strikes are not lawful acts of war, but extrajudicial killings. Defense Secretary Hegseth reportedly ordered forces to “kill everybody,” a directive that violates the most basic tenets of the laws of armed conflict — a war crime, and murder.

When asked about Hegseth’s ‘kill order,’ President Trump, per his usual answer that he “knows nothing about it” — probably the truth — and believes his Secretary of Defense’s denial of having given the order. The Washington Post reported the Special Operations commander of the strike ordered a second attack to comply with Hegseth’s wishes, which the Secretary termed “fake news.” Trump claims that he himself would not have ordered a second strike, “so, we’ll look at, we’ll look into it,” while insisting that US military actions are “lawful.” Holding your breath is not advised. Perhaps we can take some comfort from Andy Borowitz’s statement: “Pete Hegseth has made me feel so much better about my drinking.”

Trump’s announcement last week that he would pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is serving 45 years for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into this country in collaboration with El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel, flies in the face of his administration’s so-called war on drugs. Hernández vowed to “shove cocaine up the noses of gringos until they die.” The former Honduran president is connected to people like Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen and other techies, and was beloved by the crypto world for creating lawless, sovereign zones for tech utopias organized around crypto. As Alexander Willis writes on Raw Story, “The current government moved to shut down the zones. The crypto class fought back and Trump is now doing their bidding.” Perhaps Hernández can now get a job with Kristi Noem’s ICE mob, with his background of violence and his prison sentence bona fides.

As Richard Steiner, an advisor to Oasis Earth, writes that Trump’s saber-rattling about potential military action in Venezuela is indeed about drugs — not cocaine or fentanyl. Oil is the addiction of the USA. Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, larger than Saudi Arabia’s reserves. Trump and his oil industry cronies may see that getting rid of President Nicolás Maduro will give them unlimited access to the reserves under a friendly government. To hell with any hope of future climate stability! Mr. Trump and his oil industry chums are the most dangerous narco-traffickers we should worry about.

Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch commented last week that President Trump awakened in “full panic mode” allowing us to see “a violent, public unraveling from a sitting president who once again threatened to execute elected lawmakers for doing their jobs and upholding the Constitution.” The six Democrats, all military veterans or former intelligence officials, in a video were simply reminding US service personnel to remember their sworn oaths and not follow unlawful orders; yet the president himself is flailing with intensified rage and Meiselas says the question is “not whether his behavior is dangerous — it is whether our institutions, our media and our citizens are prepared to confront that danger before the chaos he is creating becomes irreversible.” Trump isn’t operating from strength — his tantrums and threats reveal his weakness, and his predicament causes his lashing out. It should be mentioned that even Fox’s legal analyst reminded viewers that refusing unlawful orders is required under US law and should be understood in a functioning democracy.

Trump posted on social media that the six are “traitors,” accusing them of “seditious behavior punishable by death.” He urged that they should be hanged because, “George Washington would hang them,” and that they should be put on trial and face their punishment. The top military lawyer overseeing operations in the Caribbean and Pacific regions concluded that recent US military actions my constitute “extrajudicial killings,” which of course, was overruled by Attorney General Pam Bondi and her Department of Justice lackeys. The Don’s media outbursts are paths to exacting revenge, but also about distractions to draw attention away from the Epstein news, the economy, unemployment, and his tariffs. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insists that her boss doesn’t wish to execute these members of Congress, merely to see them “held accountable.” She insists that the president hasn’t given any illegal orders while accusing the lawmakers of attempting to incite violence by encouraging active duty military to defy the chain of command.

As might be expected, Republicans went to the president’s defense, attacking the six Democrats for threatening the country’s national security. Wishy-washy House Speaker Johnson interpreted Trump’s statement as “defining sedition,” and that the “so-called leaders in Congress” are “out of control” in their “wildly inappropriate” behavior. Senator Chuck Schumer commented, “When Trump uses the language of execution and treason, some of his supporters may very well listen. He is lighting a match in a country soaked with political gasoline.” Senator Rand Paul told Chris Cuomo, “There is no resistance on the the Republican side. They are afraid, they are frightened to cross him. He’s become more involved in primaries than any president has. They are just afraid. Even the ones who have a correct instinct are afraid to say anything.” Paul said on ‘Face the Nation‘ that the president’s remark were “reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible” and that the country “can do better.” In this same vein, former Trump DOJ appointee, Chad Mizelle laid out his approach at a Federalist Society meeting on winning judicial fights in Pennsylvania. He shared a story involving his father’s implicit threats to put down stray cats in the family’s yard, suggesting that Trump should stand up to judges and say, “Judges, I know how to deal with stray cats.” This would seem to be the new strategy on the extreme-right: “If you can’t beat ’em, kill ’em.”

Joyce Vance writes on her Civil Discourse blog: “Trump continues to use his claimed power to kill people who have received no due process, in international waters, based on his administration’s assertion that they are narcoterrorists.” It is telling that Trump last week met with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who likely ordered the killing of US-based Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi during Trump’s first term as president. Trump tells a reporter who brought up the correspondent’s death, “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.” The point is evident that even if the six Congress members who made the video had done something traitorous or unlawful, neither of which they did, the president doesn’t get to impose punishment or impose the death penalty. That only happens in countries like North Korea, Iran, and…Saudi Arabia, writes Vance. Further, she says, “George Washington would, most certainly, not have hung members of Congress for expressing their views. He would not have approved of what Donald Trump said today, or pretty much any day…this president’s words have all too frequently become actions once spoken to his followers.”

One of Trump’s ‘condemned,’ Senator Mark Kelly, called on Republicans in Congress to denounce President Trump’s threats against he and his five ‘traitor‘ compatriots. “We’ve heard very little, basically crickets, from Republicans in the US Congress about what the president has said about hanging members of Congress,” Kelly told host Margaret Brennan on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation.’ In a piece on MS Now, retired USAF Lt. Col. Rachel E. VanLandingham, wrote, “the six well-intentioned congressional Democrats who made the video likely did more harm than good for those of us who appreciate the quandary our service members are actually in — a political stunt that disrespects those in uniform.” The six are demanding that military members disobey unlawful orders without specifying just what military orders they are to disobey without acknowledging the grave risk that disobedience carries, VanLandingham believes — which only adds to the moral injury those in uniform are carrying, since there is no specificity.

Orders are issued with a presumption of legality, and disobedience would come at great risk to a service member’s career and liberty, and should that member interpret the ‘refuse unlawful orders’ demand as permission to not obey, then that member would be refusing at the risk of having to prove the illegality for their actions in a court-martial. VanLandingham says, “It’s awfully cavalier for lawmakers to urge that some unspecified order be disobeyed when they’re not the ones who’d be risking their career or even jail time for refusing an order.” The military also could always forgo court-martial and instead use what’s called ‘adverse administrative action’ to force a discharge, which would make it more difficult for a judge to answer the question about a particular order’s legality. The ‘Manual for Courts-Martial‘ has a subset of orders termed ‘patently’ or ‘manifestly’ illegal — an order ‘that directs the commission of a crime,’ under which a service member would be criminally liable.

VanLandingham goes on to say, “However, the bar for what constitutes a patently unlawful order is high and has, practically speaking, been largely reserved to obvious war crimes, that concept being forged  during the famous Nuremberg trials when the victorious Allies refused to allow the ‘superior orders’ defense to excuse the worst industrial-scale atrocities witnessed by mankind. The Nuremberg legacy is that a ‘patently unlawful order’ must be disobeyed, and the highest US military appellate court has described such an order as ‘one which a man of ordinary sense and understanding would, under the circumstances, know to be unlawful, or if the order in question is actually known to the accused to be unlawful.”” An example is when the court applied this standard to uphold US Army Lt. William Calley’s murder convictions for killing unarmed Vietnamese men, women and children at the hamlet of My Lai during the Vietnam War, despite the Nuremberg-esque defense that he was just following orders.

VanLandingham concludes, “What these lawmakers should have done is work to get enough bipartisan support to stop the executive branch’s excesses. Instead, they confused the issue and wrongly put service members in the middle of a political struggle. The sooner lawmakers on Capitol Hill realize that the military is not going to save us — and that’s by design — the sooner they will acknowledge that that’s a job for civilians. Hopefully with Congress leading the way.”

Again, last week, Trump press secretary Leavitt was forced to defend his badmouthing a reporter who asked a legitimate Epstein files question that he refused to face. The president lashed out at the female reporter by saying, “Quiet, piggy!” Leavitt justified his outburst, telling journalists at the White House briefing, “Look, the president is very frank and honest with everyone in the room. You’ve all seen it yourself. You’ve all experienced it yourselves. And I think it’s one of the many reasons that the American people reelected this president, because of his frankness. And he calls out fake news when he sees it. He gets frustrated with reporters when you lie about him, when you spread fake news about him and his administration. But he is the most transparent president in history, and he gives all of you in this room, as you all know, unprecedented access. So I think everyone in this room should appreciate the frankness and the openness that you get from President Trump on a near-daily basis.”

The Daily Dose of Democracy website, calling Leavitt ‘The Minister of Doublegrift Trumpthink,’ calls the “president’s disgusting, misogynistic attack on a female reporter with a smirking tornado of condescending lies would have left George Orwell speechless. That’s right, piggies, you should be GRATEFUL that the Most Beneficent Golden Leader magnanimously graces you swine with his presence. You should be grateful for the opportunity to have your dignity and professionalism disparaged on a daily basis!” Cynthia Miller-Idriss wrote on MS Now, “Those two little words — a low among lows for sexist comments from a sitting president — speak volumes about how Trump views women. They should be a warning sign about the rampant normalization of misogyny in the US political culture, and how it could affect our democracy more broadly. Hostile sexism is now the biggest — or among the top three — predictors of support for political violence and willingness to engage in it in survey research across multiple countries, including the US. We should be very concerned about how overt misogyny from political leaders may affect democracy, political violence and social cohesion.”

Miller-Idriss writes, “Some of this misogyny is cloaked as a call for a return to male leadership or more ‘masculine’ approaches over supposedly lesser feminine ones.” As examples, she notes Mark Zuckerberg’s call for more masculine energy in the corporate world, and Defense Secretary Hegseth’s announcing a return to the “highest male standards” for combat roles. She terms Trump’s bigger, bolder kind of misogyny taking center stage with his gendered slur as an attempt to disparage, belittle and put a woman in her place, an intent to insult and to erode the confidence and authority of a woman. The writer says it is no coincidence that Trump so easily reached for an animal slur to degrade and dehumanize a woman who was just doing her job. His slurs convey that a woman is insufficiently disciplined or slender, or that her behavior is unnatural, so aggressive that it can only be described as unhuman — similar to the popular slur ‘bitch,’ often directed at powerful or ambitious women whose behavior is cast as ‘uppity’ or difficult, and seen as insufficiently feminine, deferential, gentle, helpful or pleasing.

Miller-Idriss maintains that pairing ‘piggy‘ with an actual directive to be quiet makes it clearer that the goal is to silence women for speaking up, to punish her for daring to question Trump’s authority, a phrase that just popped out of his mouth spontaneously. Women who violate the unspoken rules about where they belong are met with swift reminders to stay in their place — such as the postelection celebratory chants and memes “get back in the kitchen” or “make me a sandwich.” She concludes: “‘Quiet, piggy‘ is only the latest terrible example. And if we stay quiet, the one thing we know is it won’t be the last.”

At this writing it’s too early to know if Trump will initiate his ‘stray cats‘ strategy for US District Judge Cameron Currie who dismissed the cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, by ruling that Trump’s retribution appointee, attorney Lindsey Halligan, was never eligible to assume that post. Cameron dismissed the indictments without prejudice, meaning another prosecutor could try to bring charges at a later time. It’s a good bet that Trump will continue to harass his perceived adversaries in any way possible since it’s taxpayer money footing the bill, so expect him to continue his technique of asking his DOJ to pinpoint his victim, then establish a crime.

Is it possible that President Trump is beginning to see the folly of his ways regarding his tariffs and the burden being place upon the American taxpayer? He has proposed sending $2,000 checks to “low and middle income” citizens, funded by tariff collections, with any money left over to go to “SUBSTANTIALLY PAY DOWN NATIONAL DEBT.” Middle class income ranges from $56,000 to $169,800, depending on residency location, but it is estimated that even if the proposal were capped at $100,000, the tariff revenue would not be enough to cover the cost of checks — and forget addressing the national debt! The Tax Foundation’s Erica York notes that about 150 million citizens earn less than $100,000, resulting in a $300 billion payout against the annual tariff revenue of $217 billion. Trump posted on social media, “We are taking in Trillions of Dollars and will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT, $37 Trillion,” just as the Supreme Court is set to weigh in on the legality of his tariffs.

It has been reported that singer Katy Perry and former Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, are “making plans for the holidays” after stepping out publicly as a couple. According to Harry Thompson of The Daily Beast, the Canadian politician who led his country for nine years “is much happier now, his stresses are greatly diminished. And he is intrigued by Katy.” As you might expect, Andy Borowitz, in his The Borowitz Report has contributed to this news: “In a move that has further imperiled relations between the US and its northern neighbor, on Monday Melania Trump hiked tariffs on Canada to 10,000% in retaliation for Katy Perry dating Justin Trudeau. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney attempted to mollify the First Lady by stressing that his government had no jurisdiction over the love lives of his predecessor and the pop star. But Mrs. Trump was unmoved, holding a White House press conference to blast the Trudeau-Perry romance. ‘There are many bad things in world right now,’ she said. ‘This be worst.‘”

FBI INFORMANT, LIQUOR IS FEAR, CURRENCY IS LOYALTY

A recent report from Drop Site News detailing Jeffrey Epstein’s international influence in assisting to broker a defense agreement between Israel and Côte d’Ivoire led Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to suggest that the bombshell news might keep the House of Representatives out of session throughout next year. Drop Site had previously reported on Epstein’s brokering of a security cooperation agreement between Israel and Mongolia, as well as helping to establish a backchannel for Israel to communicate with Russia during the Syrian Civil War. Of course, we know that the extended recess will not be in the cards, with the end of the government shutdown, also coinciding with release of Epstein emails, and forcing Speaker Johnson to throw in the towel on the prolonged vacation he gave the governing body. The Speaker had the ability to reconvene the House, even with the shutdown, with critics arguing that he was following the president’s directive to avoid a vote on an Epstein-related piece of legislation. The legislation in question was a discharge petition filed by Representative Thomas Massie which would compel the Justice Department to release all of its files on Epstein, and requiring 218 signatures, being one short with Johnson’s refusal to swear in Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva from Arizona.

Johnson’s efforts to protect the MAGA cult leader led him to lie that Trump was once an FBI informant given the duty of gathering incriminating evidence on Epstein, but he later had to walk that one back, wearing his boyish grin. The New Republic’s reporting has senior Republicans privately admitting that the Epstein files are potentially worse for Trump than previously thought, and former insiders now allege that the photos and documents held by the FBI will expose the president’s deep ties to the convicted sex trafficker. The fight about transparency, accountability, and truth terrifies the MAGA gang, who can see what’s left of Trump’s credibility being destroyed among the faithful. Speaker Johnson is holding relatively steady, accusing Democrats of zero accomplishments, adding that Jeffrey Epstein is their “entire game plan.” “President Trump has clean hands. He’s not worried about it. I talk to him all the time. He has nothing to do with this. He’s frustrated that they’re turning this into a political issue,” Johnson told Fox News.

David Shuster writes on Blue Amp Media that Trump and his enablers have converted the Situation Room, a chamber of national vigilance for the often grave business of safeguarding the nation, into a sleazy coordination center against the Epstein scandal. Last week, AG Pam Bondi, Deputy AG Todd Blanche, and FBI Director Kash Patel packed themselves into that secure vault in an attempt to coerce Congresswoman Lauren Boebert into withdrawing her name from Thomas Massie’s petition demanding that the FBI and DOJ release all the Epstein files. “It was Trumpism on full display: the art of turning every instrument of the federal government into a personal weapon. Cell phones won’t work in a SCIF and must be kept outside to prevent recordings. And everything said in the Situation Room is shielded not just from the outside world, but from the rest of the White House. The ambiance is deadly serious and stately. A contrast, of course, with the self-absorbed and tacky Trump. He cannot tell the difference between national security and his own political security; between classified secrets and personal embarrassments; between the power of the President and the extended and ongoing act of vandalism.”

Shuster asks us to picture the scene beneath the buzzing fluorescents, and beside the hum of surveillance screens, the three top law enforcement officers together not tracking an enemy or manage a national crisis, but to cajole a “Congressional backbencher into conformity and silence.” He calls the Situation Room a “holy bunker of national security turned into an immoral brew pub, where the liquor is fear and the currency is loyalty.” The documents from Epstein’s estate chronicle Trump’s name repeatedly, establishing that Trump and Epstein were best friends for over a decade, with contacts advising that those materials being withheld by the administration are even more graphic and disturbing than those seen publicly. The materials include grand jury testimony, witness statements, victim interviews, photographs, and videos, indicating that Trump’s denials and accusations about a “democratic hoax” are merely a ploy to prevent the swamp from being drained.

In conclusion, Shuster writes: “In any halfway decent America, this would provoke a constitutional crisis. In ours, among far too many republicans, it provokes a shrug…Our nation’s founders warned of tyranny, not anticipating a farce. They imagined a Caesar, not a demented carnival barker with a spray tan and social media addiction…a grotesque sideshow…Trump’s lobbying antics did nothing except underscore his weakness…Lauren Boebert wasn’t intimidated…and now, more republicans are joining the jail break.” Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said that President Trump, despite his best efforts, has exhausted his efforts to block the “Epstein Train,” as it is characterized by CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield. Representative Melanie Stansbury, sitting on the House committee actively investigating Jefferey Epstein and potential co-conspirators, predicted that the fallout from an impending vote would be as “explosive as Watergate. We know that the White House is engaged in a cover-up. I think we can see the cracks in his strategy…the president went full-bore attack on Marjorie Taylor Greene… trying to make an example of her.”

Stansbury says that the Trump administration has already failed to comply with lawful requests of her committee’s subpoena powers, calling the non-compliance by the White House and the DOJ another stalling tactic. Trump’s response has been an announcement that the Attorney General will be asked to launch an investigation into Epstein’s ties with former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and other Democratic Party figures. “This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats. Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.’ Stay tuned!!!”

“Trump is completely panicked,” said Representative Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. “He is desperate. He knows the American public is all now lining up to fight to ensure that the release of the files actually happens, and he’s doing everything that he can to intimidate, to politicize and weaponize the government to stop the files from being released.” Garcia predicts that the discharge petition will sail through the House without an issue. Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch points out that “Trump is crashing out, erupting online, unleashing tirade after tirade at members of his own party and spiraling into increasingly erratic behavior, all in the wake of the 23,000 Epstein emails whose release has shattered what remains of Trump’s political equilibrium.” Meiselas says it is an extraordinary and deeply disturbing fact that Trump’s name appears on more than half to the Epstein email threads, and that the president’s reaction is somehow even more revealing…”this is not strategy. This is collapse.”

“Trump is soft on pedophiles!” wrote Dede Watson, a social media consultant and strategtist, when she heard that Jeffrey Epstein’s partner-in-crime, Ghislaine Maxwell might be privileged to leave her minimum security prison for ‘work assignments.’ Maxwell has been the subject of countless reports in recent weeks after the Trump administration transferred the British socialite to her low security prison in Texas, and which recently resulted in the firing of some staff members after they provided information about her special treatment. She is clearly angling for a presidential pardon to assist Trump in making the Epstein problem go away, but it appears the scandal is only escalating because the red-hatted horde wants names — and the heads that go with them.

The fired whistleblower revealed that Maxwell has customized meals prepared by federal prison camp employees and then personally delivered to her cell, and is also provided snacks and refreshments for her guests who meet with her in a special cordoned-off area. She is allowed to go alone after hours to the exercise area, and has a special proviso to contact people outside the jail with the help of the prison warden or other personnel. Ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Jaimie Raskin, has written to the president about ‘Documents and information received…indicating that Dr. Tanisha Hall, the warden at the Bryan, Texas facility, has federal law enforcement staff waiting on Ms. Maxwell hand and foot. The deference and servility to Ms. Maxwell have reached such preposterous levels that one of the top officials at the facility has complained that he is ‘sick of having to be Maxwell’s bitch.’ Raskin is demanding that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche be made available for a public hearing before the committee “to answer for the corrupt misuse of law enforcement resources and potential exchange of favors for false testimony exonerating you and other Epstein accomplices.”

To top it all off, Maxwell has been given a puppy as part of her preferential treatment says the whistleblower, an inmate who trains puppies to become service dogs. The sex offender is allowed to play with the animal for a specified period of time, a favor not granted to other inmates or staff who are not allowed to touch them as part of the training regime. Animal lovers need to speak out on this issue! Who knows how she might corrupt a poor defenseless puppy into becoming a total failure at serving mankind!

Conservative attorney George Conway suggests that Trump would be toying with fate should he offer Maxwell a pardon after she was convicted of child sex trafficking and felony conspiracy along with other charges. Conway says that we may not remember what Roger Stone and Paul Manafort were charged with, and were convicted, but who can forget what Maxwell’s conviction was about? “It’s very simple. It’s like it’s worse than just the abstract. You know, this went on for years. This is what, a thousand victims? Ghislaine Maxwell was right there telling them what to do, how to do it, taking their passports away so they couldn’t get off Epstein Island, okay? This is not going to work for Donald Trump, okay? He does this, he’s pushing a big bomb to blow himself up,” says Conway. Back in July, Speaker Johnson told Kristen Welker on ‘Meet the Press‘ that Maxwell’s 20-year sentence was “a pittance…it should be a life sentence, at least.” Trump’s former White House press secretary Sean ‘Spicey’ Spicer warned his old boss that unprecedented fallout would ensue should he issue a pardon to the notorious sex trafficker, “Outrage like never before — this will transcend partisan lines…I hope to God nobody in the White House has led him to believe that that’s the case, that it would be a smart move.”

Satirist Andy Borowitz brings his take on The Borowitz Report: “In what experts are calling one of the most remarkable comebacks for a convicted sex offender in recent memory, on Friday Donald J. Trump announced that he was replacing Attorney General Pam Bondi with Ghislaine Maxwell. Explaining his decision, Trump said, ‘Pam said there was a client list, and Ghislaine said there isn’t. So I have decided Ghislaine would be better at this job than Pam.’ In another stunning reversal of fortune, Trump announced that Bondi would be taking Maxwell’s place in prison, adding, ‘I wish her well.’ He said he was confident that Maxwell would receive speedy confirmation by Senate Republicans, noting, ‘If they confirmed Hegseth they’ll confirm anyone.'”

In a startling reversal, late on Sunday, Trump reversed his stand on release of the Epstein files, writing on social media, “We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party.” He now says House Republicans should vote to release the files after previously fighting the proposal, even as a growing number of the MAGA base supported doing so. The president’s change of heart is an acknowledgment that supporters of the measure have enough votes to pass it in the House, although a possible verdict in the Senate is still unclear. So, why the big arm-twisting meeting in the Situation Room? As Marjorie Taylor Greene has been saying, “I have no idea what’s in the files. I can’t even guess. But that is the question everyone is asking, ‘Why fight this so hard?‘” To be continued…strategy or collapse?

People for the American Way website has a new report entitled Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears, in which they evaluate how far Trump’s judges and justices are inclined to rule in his favor as the president goes for the long game — no short-term power grab for him! In September through October, the report highlights 14 new rulings that undermine civil rights, environmental protections, and those agencies meant to serve our population. The organization expresses alarm that these results show exactly why Trump’s judicial legacy continues to be one the most dangerous aspects of his gangster regime.

Upholding Trump’s authority are decisions that splinter our rights, each one accentuates the importance of fighting against confirming judges nominated by Trump. People for the American Way track the various rulings, document patterns, and make the particulars available to journalists, activists, and lawmakers, for which they also provide a database. Among those disturbing decisions by various Trump judges is a case letting coal companies off the hook for black lung disease; another granted broad immunity to prison officials accused of serious abuse and denying justice to those that were harmed; a district judge allowed the administration to terminate billions in climate change grants, and halt foreign aid already approved by Congress; and, a most egregious one — the Supreme Court voted to uphold Trump’s authority to fire officials protected by law, thereby gutting oversight and accountability.

Steve Schmidt writes on The Warning of Judge Mark Wolf, a 78-year old serving since 1985 after being nominated and confirmed by the US Senate to serve a life term. Wolf has resigned from a job that he loved, explaining in his article in The Atlantic, that appointed at 38 years old, he eagerly looked forward to public service for the rest of his life. He gives his simple reason: “I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom. President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment. This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench. The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence, for me, is now intolerable.”

Schmidt calls Wolf’s resignation a great service for the country with his powerful dissent against a metastasizing corruption that destroys justice, liberty and democracy. Schmidt writes, “The president of the United States, a sick, twisted and sinister man, has desecrated his oath of office. He has unleashed the power of the state against innocent Americans — per his promise — using his power to seek revenge, retribution and payback against his enemies, real and imagined. He has directed his malignant attorney general and a bevy of hideously deranged prosecutors — a mix of Fox News loons and vapid beauty queens — with a deep disdain for the law to lock up his political enemies as if America was the Soviet Union. What is happening in America is real, dangerous and unjust.”

Schmidt quotes federal judge Sara Ellis in her ruling about the obscenity code-named ‘Midway Blitz‘ which was led by liar and fascist Greg Bovino: “The government would have people believe instead that the Chicagoland area is in a vice hold of violence, ransacked by rioters and attacked by agitators. That simply is untrue, and the government’s own evidence in this case belies that assertion.” Schmidt charges that Trump has turned federal law enforcement into his Gestapo, and set it loose on the American people, targeting innocent Americans for prosecution because he hates them. He points out that Trump has ordered the US military to direct weapons at the American people; he has ordered the murder of more than 70 people on the high seas, without any credible evidence or legal authority; there are long lines at food banks across the country, but champagne continues to flow at Mar-a-Lago; and, Ghislaine Maxwell awaits at her Texas ‘Club Fed‘ looking forward to a pardon.

Liar/fascist/assistant deputy attorney general Todd Blanche recently threatened the arrest of California’s Governor Newsom, his attorney general Rob Bonta, US Representative Nancy Pelosi, and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins for interference of federal agents and officers who “are tirelessly working to keep America safe.” The speech policeman says, “You have a right to watch your mouth, you have a right to my opinion, and if you don’t have an opinion, one will be provided for you.” ICE isn’t enforcing federal law, they are enforcing the whims of a madman, a demented traitorous sociopath. J. David McSwane and Hannah Allam of ProPublica write about ICE storming into Santa Ana, California in June, resulting in panicked calls flooding the city’s emergency response system to report masked men ambushing and forcing residents into unmarked cars. Complaints to the mayor and the police chief had little chance of holding individual agents accountable for alleged abuses with no way to identify them. There are virtually no limits on what Trump’s agents can do to achieve his goal of mass deportations, and Santa Ana is only providing a template for larger raids and more violent arrests.

Kat Lonsdorf reports on NPR that Trump has talked of invoking the Insurrection Act many times, especially in regard to deploying the National Guard. In doing so, to allow troops to help with immigration enforcement; it’s also something Stephen Miller has mentioned, and as far back as 2023, he is quoted as saying, “President Trump will do whatever it takes.” That probability has both legal experts and immigration authorities worried, especially about the implications it could have for Americans at large. Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center, an immigration rights advocacy group, says it has her worried about the upcoming 2026 midterm elections and what the presence of troops might mean for voters as they cast ballots. “What I have said repeatedly is that the path to authoritarianism in this country is being built on the backs of immigrants. They will begin with immigrants. They will not end with immigrants,” she says.

After the off-year elections last week, Trump seemed to wake up with the realization that the GOP is in trouble, the shutdown causing a political disaster for his MAGA monsters as blame is falling on them according to polls. But since Trump can only think in political terms, he isn’t worried about the human costs of the shutdown — only ways to increase political pressure. So look for your life to continue its journey through hell, since this is the way the president operates. He only knows how to destroy, whether a federal agency, American businesses, or actual livelihoods, so expect more pain and destruction. Increasing suffering in hopes of achieving a policy goal can’t work, but that’s all Republicans have to offer.

We’ll never hear a Republican propose assurances that tax advantages will directly benefit lower income workers, before actually approving business tax cuts, since the GOP philosophy says that the poor will try to take you for every penny — though the corporations and others at the top of the wealth ladder are a constant and can surely be trusted fully. However, take the nation’s tax gap, or the difference between taxes owed and taxes the IRS is equipped to collect, an estimated $1 trillion annually. Charles Rettig, Trump’s former IRS commissioner, says, “Most of the unpaid taxes result from evasion by the wealthy and large corporations.” Yet, Republicans blame it all on the lack of work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP recipients. As inequality.org reported in September, the richest top 0.1% of Americans are worth a combined $22.48 trillion and the bottom 50% are worth a total of $2.44 trillion. As Dana Wormald writes in the New Hampshire Bulletin, “I’m certain because, try as I might, I just can’t seem to see poverty as the lucrative endeavor Republicans tell me it is.”

Michael Tomasky writes in The New Republic that November 1 marked the day that the Trump administration stopped paying SNAP benefits to 42 million Americans to buy food for themselves and their families — an average of $175 a month — despite a $6 billion reserve for food stamp emergencies, though the administration argued in court that it’s no emergency. The date also marked 51 days since the House of Representatives had cast a vote, denying Arizona’s Adelita Grijalva the House seat she had won. House Speaker and lying Christian, Mike Johnson, is making children go hungry while protecting pedophiles, a reasonable explanation for the situation. Mikey has no power to block the Epstein vote from coming to the floor if the House were back in session with new Democratic member Grijalva, and as Tomasky argues the GOP/MAGA gang are only hurting their own constituents of rural white folks. People point to this fact as if the GOP don’t know this, and telling them would make them respond, “Oh, heck, we forgot, thank you, we better go change our ways. Praise Jesus.” News flash: They know. They just don’t care. After all, who can forget the imperishable New Testament chapter where Jesus said to let the poor go hungry and the undeserving poor take ill and die for the sake of protecting sexual predators? Keep on a-smilin’ Mikey!

Satirist Andy Borowitz jumps on Mikey’s bandwagon with this Borowitz Report exclusive: “Calling it the ‘nuclear option,’ House Speaker Mike Johnson opted on Tuesday to enter a medically induced coma to avoid swearing in newly elected Democratic congresswoman Adelita Grijalva. Johnson spoke to reporters at Walter Reed Army Medical Center moments before doctors administered pentobarbital through an intravenous tube connected to this left hand. ‘I’m doing this as a last resort,’ he said. ‘I was really hoping that people would forget about the Epstein files or that the Rapture would happen, but no such luck.’ A Republican colleague who visited Johnson’s bedside hours after he fell into a coma said that the Speaker ‘seemed like his usual self.'”

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough says that President Trump’s ‘self-dealing’ is becoming a political issue for the GOP, as it’s been estimated the president and his family have raked in up to $1 billion since his return to the Oval Office in January. Tweedledumb and Tweedledee, his two sons, have been using their father’s position for their own benefit in business ventures. But to ‘Morning Joe,’ the ‘Great Gatsby‘-themed party at Mar-a-Lago a couple of weeks ago epitomizes a snowballing problem for Republicans. “As far as approval ratings on the economy here, only 34 percent of Americans believe that he’s lived up to expectations on the economy. Nearly two out of three say he’s fallen short, and with food assistance being torn from people in  red state America especially, but also blue state America, there are a lot of people in his own party asking, what the hell’s going on?”

Now we find that the Trump Syndicate is reaching into the US military by selling Trump-branded wine and cider, tax-free for military members at Coast Guard Exchanges, using his position of power to boost his brand and personally profit off the Presidency. Happy Veteran’s Day! Under any other president, it would be a shocking revelation — for Trump, it’s just another day in the USA. Forbes magazine quotes Jordan Libowitz of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who points out that, “You don’t want the military essentially playing sides,” and sees the wine sales as an ethics issue. It’s not established how long the Trump products have been on the shelves, but the administration is not backing down, with Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin saying, “The brave men and women of the USCG are pleased to be able to buy Trump wine and cider tax free.”

Dekleptocracy says this is not the behavior, not the statement, of an administration that is taking corruption or conflicts of interest seriously. Assistant Secretary McLaughlin is practically writing advertisements for Trump brands in thinly veiled PR statements when she should be focused on homeland security. Jimmy Carter sold his peanut farm to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest before taking the oath of office, but for Trump raking it in is never enough. He simply can’t stop himself from trying to squeeze every last dollar and cent out of the American public, using the Presidency as an aesthetic along the way, and now the military is paying the price as he sets an authoritarian backdrop for our troops — inculcating them with the idea that they serve Donald J. Trump, the person, not the US Constitution. Hey, sailor, how about a Trump Bible, or a pair of golden tennis shoes to go with that wine?

The Lincoln Square website declares that with Trump losing the shutdown fight, he wants kids to starve anyway, so, “Donald Trump cancelled Thanksgiving.” The writer challenges Democrats to take that message and run with it, knowing it will result in a 500-page briefing book on SNAP — however, talk is better. Divulging that, ‘kids are starving‘ is much more effective than ‘the fiscal and health-impacts of the discontinuation of 7 CFR 272 programmatic efforts to ameliorate food insecurity,’ so forget the study! The GOP can taste the defeat of losing the shutdown — they lost it as soon as The Don turned the federal government into a hostage for his own vanity, and as protection from the release of the Epstein files.

“They lost it again when reality showed up with receipts: polls, long lines at food banks, missed paychecks, grounded flights, and, coming soon to an aisle near you, the SNAP freeze that wallops retailers,” asserts Lincoln Square, “this isn’t 5D chess. It’s 1D cruelty dressed up as strategy, and it’s detonating in their faces. Even little Mike Johnson, Trump’s latest meatbot who obviously finds self-abnegation and public embarrassment arousing, can’t hold it together too much longer.” New national polling shows Americans continue to blame Trump and Congress, with worsening numbers: Washington Post/ABC/Ipsos indicates voters are pointing fingers at the Trump-GOP side by a solid margin, with independents breaking against them by an almost 2-1 margin.

Michael Cohen writes on MeidasTouch, “Let’s be brutally honest: we’re not moving the needle because Democrats have suddenly figured out how to talk to voters or craft a compelling message. We’re moving it because the Republican Party has completely lost its mind. The GOP isn’t just bad at governing anymore; they’re morally bankrupt, publicly cruel, and proudly arrogant. And for once, the American people seem to be noticing.” Cohen interprets figures from the Quinniac poll that he says should both encourage and alarm Democrats, and not because the left is inspiring hope or offering visionary leadership. The fifty percent of voters who say they would rather see Democrats control the House is because they are disgusted by what the right is doing — in being “so detached from basic humanity that they think hunger, poverty, and suffering are punchlines.”

For example, Cohen refers to Louisiana’s Representative Clay Higgins, who told the 42 million citizens who are losing access to food assistance to “stop smoking crack.” Go tell your neighbor, your aging parent or grandparent that Higgins mockingly suggests their monthly stipend is some sort of unnecessary luxury with which MAGA sees no need to be concerned with. Eighteen percent of his own constituents are among his state’s one million SNAP recipients, but instead of his empathy, they get his contempt, no understanding, classed as stereotypical. The GOP has become a mockery by mocking the poor as it worships the powerful, the greedy. At Mar-a-Lago, Trump was the host of a ‘Roaring 20s’ Halloween gala, serving champagne and wagyu beef to a crowd that doesn’t care about the bottom line on their grocery bill, feasting while the country starves. Cohen writes, “The optics couldn’t be clearer — the Republican message to working Americans is simple: you’re on your own, peasants.”

Though poll numbers are shifting, Republicans being blamed for the shutdown and the economy, the cruelty and the chaos, with voters sick of it, Democrats can’t assume it’s because of their own success. With a year left until the mid-terms, complacency could doom the polls downward trajectory faster than MAGA’s corruption. Cohen believes the GOP is imploding under the weight of its own lunacy, but they’re still ruthless, still organized, and still willing to burn democracy to the ground if it means clinging to their money and power; however, Democrats aren’t winning because they’ve inspired confidence — they’re winning because Republicans are terrifying. Trump is underwater on every issue, except Israel where a fragile ceasefire is supposedly holding, but this self-proclaimed “business genius” would view customers shedding tears at the checkout counter, if only he were able to see beyond his potbelly.

Cohen concludes: “The Republican Party’s cruelty isn’t strategic anymore. It’s reflexive. It’s who they are. They can’t help themselves. When millions of Americans lose access to food, healthcare, or housing, they don’t feel shame; they feel pride. They call it ‘tough love.’ They sneer about ‘personal responsibility.’ They talk about crack pipes instead of policy, mock the hungry instead feeding them, and think empathy is weakness. If the Democrats don’t retake the House — and possibly the Senate — we’re in for another cycle of dysfunction, shutdowns, and moral decay, watching as Trump and his enablers turn hunger into a weapon and governance into performance art. Democrats need to stop assuming voters will automatically side with sanity. They won’t — not unless we remind them, daily, what’s at stake. The needle is moving only because the other side has revealed who they really are. The clock is ticking — one year to prove that America still has a conscience. The fight doesn’t end because the polls look good; it starts because they finally do.”

Conservative and former federal judge J. Michael Luttig wrote in The Atlantic, suggesting in his article that Trump has already taken steps in this second term to ensure he never relinquishes power. “With every word and deed, Trump has given Americans reason to believe that he will seek a third term, in defiance of the Constitution,” Luttig says. “It seems abundantly clear that he will hold on to the office at any cost, including America’s ruin.” The president has admitted to reporters that he would “love” to violate the Constitution by running for a third term, and Trump loyalist Steve Bannon has never let the possibility wane that there are “different alternatives” that could allow his golden idol run again. Luttig cites Trump’s use of the US military to carry out personal vendettas against Democratic-led cities, his efforts to eliminate birthright citizenship, and the conservative-majority Supreme Court giving the president its “imprimatur to continue his power grab.”

Luttig writes, “Trump has always told us exactly who he is. We have just not wanted to believe him. But we must believe him now. If America is to long endure, we must summon courage, or fearlessness, our hope, our spirited sense of invulnerability to political enthrall, and, most important, or abiding faith in the divine providence of this nation. We have been given the high charge of our forbears to ‘keep’ the republic they founded a quarter of a millennium ago. If we do not keep it now, we will surely lose it.” On MSNBC’S Morning Joe, Judge Luttig said, “Donald Trump has seized near absolute unchecked power in the United States — unchecked by either Congress, the Supreme Court, the several states, or the media itself. There’s no question at all that, as of today, Donald Trump has all the power he would ever need to run for a third term and be seated as the next president, whether or not he actually won that election.” As The Onion ‘quotes’ Trump — “I will not rule out a Third Reich.”

Concerns about the president’s health has been a big topic of late, and his claim of passing with ease his recent MRI, raises even more questions about his acuity to remain in office, with many looking for an early expiration date. Andy Borowitz has jumped into the conversation with usual satiric jab: “Donald J. Trump ordered members of his Cabinet on Wednesday to start wearing three pairs of tube socks to make his ankles appear normal. At the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to downplay Trump’s demand, as well as his order that Cabinet members use a hammer to create bruises on the back of their hands. ‘The press has been trafficking in stories about the President’s health which are entirely malicious and false,’ said Leavitt, black sweat socks protruding from her Ann Taylor slingbacks. According to sources, Trump has also mandated that Cabinet members periodically babble incoherently and fall down, a directive immediately embraced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.”

Robert Reich, on his blog, writes: “Trump is incapable of allowing tensions and stresses to ease without creating new ones.” One recent example comes after his meeting with China’s Ji, and the announcement that our countries will de-escalate the trade war — all well and good, but we are now in the same place before Trump created that tension in the first place. Then, what does he do? He announces the USA will restart nuclear testing after a 30-year lull by the three major military powers. His only explanation? “Other nations” are doing so — another Trump lie to fester the chaos. His refusal to fund food stamps, to extend Obamacare subsidies, to ease up on tariffs which are killing US farmers, to end criminal prosecutions of his ‘political foes,’ to end the violence of ICE raids, or to end the bullying of our neighboring countries to the south all ramp up the stress in our lives.

Reich says we cannot ignore the news, because it plays into Trump’s hands by allowing him to cause even more mayhem if we aren’t watching — all of it matters and denial only weakens our resolve. If we fall into despair or hopelessness, Trump wins it all, becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy; we cope by becoming stronger, by coming out in record numbers as on ‘No Kings‘ day, or calling our Congress members and showing up at their town halls, by protecting the vulnerable among us, and importantly — organize for the mid-term elections. His conclusion is: “We keep the faith in America’s ideals. We stay as close as we can to our loved ones and dearest friends. And we celebrate small and noble acts of decency, wherever they occur.”