“The worst crises since the Civil War.”
This is how Sen. Bernie Sanders describes Trump’s behavior in cancelling funding in Democratic states. “We are living in an unprecedentedly dangerous moment. We have a president who is acting unconstitutionally and illegally…illegal, outrageous and unconstitutional.”
Bernie Sanders is not an alarmist. He (alone) warned America not to get into the wars in the Middle East.
But Trump is a blind bully. Trump is acting stupidly and can’t see what he is doing. By freezing funding, for example, he has cut the pay of the Controllers who land planes in the airports across America. A large portion of those dedication civil servant live paycheck-to-paycheck.
Others have also made this bet: I am willing to go on record forecasting that Trump will roll back his funding freeze within 45 days. Because the planes won’t land.
None of his advisors pointed that out, because the clown show of klutzes he has hired are afraid of him. As Robert Hubbell observed “Trump is currently withholding funds without any oversight or constraint. The Supreme Court has given Trump the green light to do so, and congressional Republicans are too frightened to object.”
The programs he’s cutting are hurting Republican states. The Clean Water fund, for example, is used in every Republican state that voted for him.
Trump doesn’t care about the people he hurts, of course…but votes still count. Republicans know they are about to be wiped out. And to those who say that Trump will cancel the 2026 mid-terms, for example, and simply declare victory, I say “look out your window on “No More Kings Day”. The people still count in America – and the military is not going to force them to be on Trump’s side.
Nor is time on Trump’s side. His approval rating now is on par with his numbers in 2017, when he earned the achievement of being the most unpopular president ever at this point in his term.
As G. Elliott Morris says, “Trump is racing against time, trying to consolidate power before his unpopularity renders his coalition too small to accomplish much, and his demands for fealty ineffective.”
Another program that Trump froze is the Affordable Care Act subsidy program. A KFF poll found over three-quarters of Americans want Congress to extend enhanced subsidies, including 92% of Democrats, 82% of independents, 59% of Republicans, and 57% of MAGA supporters. 18.7 million out of the 24.3 million Obamacare enrollees are in states won by Trump in 2024…so there are Democrat converts lurking within those states!
If the subsidies lapse, almost half say they would have to drop insurance coverage, and most of them blame Trump or the Republicans. A Washington Post poll puts the margin of blame at 17 points against the Republicans.
How did Trump get so many guns pointing at him?
It goes beyond being stupid.
There is something clinically wrong with him.
Governor Pritzker has called for Trump to be removed as “unfit for office”.
Doctors are working to keep him literally walking in a straight line.
Heather Cox Richardson made this observation, about a moment in Trump’s speech to the generals. Out of nowhere, he starts talking about how good he is going downstairs:
“We were not respected with Biden. They looked at him falling downstairs every day. Every day, the guy is falling downstairs. He said, It’s not our President. We can’t have it. I’m very careful. You know, when I walk downstairs for, like, a month, stairs, like these stairs, I’m very — I walk very slowly. Nobody has to set a record. Just try not to fall, because it doesn’t work out well. A few of our Presidents have fallen and it became a part of their legacy. We don’t want that. You walk nice and easy. You’re not having — you don’t have to set any record. Be cool. Be cool when you walk down, but don’t — don’t pop down the stairs. So one thing with Obama, I had zero respect for him as a President, but he would bop down those stairs. I’ve never seen it. Da-da, da-da, da-da, bop, bop, bop. He’d go down the stairs. Wouldn’t hold on. I said, It’s great. I don’t want to do it. I guess I could do it. But eventually, bad things are going to happen, and it only takes once. But he did a lousy job as President.”
What jumps out when you are reading this is that he is repeating a voice in his head – it was as if a doctor were talking to him. He said to himself (and the audience) “Nobody has to set a record. Just try not to fall…”
Is that what a roomful of generals needs to hear?
The man is obviously under TREATMENT, and chanting out his remedies.
He is insane to the point of delusion. He keeps claiming: “We won the popular vote. We won everything. We won everything. You have to take a look at the map. It’s almost entirely red…”
Well, here’s the map, Donald, colored in by POPULATION, not the number of acres covered by sagebrush:
What is obvious is that Trump LOST, by County popular vote.
Just like he lost to Hillary Clinton.
And a warped Electoral College system gave him the victory.
It is so skewed that Paul Krugman says that Bright Line Watch, a group of political scientists who monitor the functioning of democracy in many countries, now rates the United States as an “illiberal democracy”.
That means that we are not a full dictatorship yet because it is possible for the ruling party to still lose elections.
He notes: “Much of our legacy media is still in denial about this reality, or is actively trying to cover it up. I still see news reports describing some offense by the Trump administration as potentially “worse than Watergate” – a description that is ludicrously quaint when applied to an administration that does things worse than Watergate several times a week.”
Unlike the days of Nixon, Trump has a Republican party that has become so extreme, so unwilling to acknowledge that opposition is even legitimate, that none of his actions get punished.
Today’s Republicans show no hesitation whatsoever in adopting whatever the leader says.
The centrist, bipartisan bloc that forced Nixon out no longer exists.
The parties today are completely polarized:
How much of that is due to Trump and how much to organized disinformation from the billionaire camp is an open question.
But what is certain is that the wealth at the top is growing faster than anywhere else. The top 1% have seen their wealth increase by $4 trillion over the past year, an increase of 7%. The top 0.1% saw their wealth grow by 10% over the past year. The top 10% have added over $40 trillion to their wealth since 2020, and now account for half of all consumer spending - the highest level since data started being compiled in 1989.
Most of this wealth comes from the stock market, which is showing signs of uncertainty.
And let us not forget the role of the “Supreme” Court in giving Trump these powers. The Trump administration regularly ignores court orders. Contempt proceedings against government lawyers should be happening NOW.
The billionaire divide will just keep getting worse.
And this will be a big problem for the wealthy class, in the near future.
The Left is coming. Follow Mamdani in New York.
Is there nobody defending the people?
The stars whose light only shines because of the people, are solidly on board.
The “direct reach” champions like Jimmy Kimmbel and Steven Colbert are valued over the mega-corporations that carry their talent.
Hollywood actors have re-launched the Committee for the First Amendment. 550 actors say that “The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry.” It is headed by activist Jane Fonda — whose father, actor Henry Fonda, was one of the early members of the first Committee for the First Amendment, which was founded in the 1940s to oppose the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee.
Sneer if you will at these champions of the people, but reflect on how bad our cause would seem if they were on Trump’s side.
They see the threat, because they see the people.
I would like to add a personal note. It seems to me that nothing ever happens to the media that lie, and the bots that flood the ‘Net with insane rumors. We need to revoke Reagan’s “OK” for media to tell a one-sided story.
This brings me to another rant, specifically against Fox News.
The American right dislikes Canada for one reason only. They perceive it as a “socialist” country that actually works. Canada is rated as the “Number One Nation in the World”, at least according to a study published last year by US News and World Reports.
Canada is not a socialist country, but a democratic, parliamentary “monarchy” that apparently drives America’s alt-right into helpless rage.
Canada is everything that Fox stands against.
It’s an immigrant-receiving nation that has embraced the principles of multiculturalism.
It operates a universally accessible, government-operated health care insurance system to ensure that medical treatment is free at the point of service.
It is one of the most respected nations in the world, ranking higher than the United States in most key metrics other than military power and the number of deadly weapons in the hands of private citizens.
It is led by a well-liked Prime Minister who is attuned and responsive to contemporary social issues of most concern to his constituents.
Unlike the United States, Canada’s citizens put the interests of the majority ahead of the narcissistic entitlements and privileges claimed by so-called “rugged individualists”.
Canadians continue to respect their political, social, and cultural institutions and usually conduct themselves in a reasonable, responsible and civil manner.
In Canada the mantra is not “Freedom”, it’s “Peace, Order and Good Government”.
Canada also has no room for a “Citizens United” movement, whereby the rich can pour as much money as they want into a campaign. That US law has to come down.
Back to subject: To oppose Trump, be aware that he is in a very weak and time-limited position. His net approval turned negative within weeks after taking office and has just continued to fall. Twice as many people “disapprove strongly” with his position as approve. He has done nothing right: the economy is tanking, international relations are underwater, police are storming the cities, governors and mayors are up in arms…if you wanted to force him to select a bunch of loser positions you could not have done better.
Trump can always try to declare martial law…but the military won’t back him, so it will end up as the usual Trump screw-up.
And it the Democratic states get really nasty, they could stop paying federal taxes.
At least half the states have court cases against him.
If even 25 states withheld fed taxes, it would force Trump down.
No matter how carefully he tried to walk the stairs…
Let’s give him a hand…
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In the next two weeks we will review why we a living a lie – the lie of a mesmerizing spell cast on economists by David Ricardo three centuries ago, whose theory of comparative advantage has misled economics ever since: RICARDO’S DREAM, by Nat Dyer. Thank you to our readers for suggesting this book!
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" an invasive species " - he does resemble a LOCUST.& he acts like a COCKROACH. This THING has been chipping away at our freedoms like some sort of barely human metastasizing cancer, endangering lives, etc. & with no intention of doing ANYTHING that will actually AID anyone except his associates, sycophants / lackeys while he treats this nation as if it's YET ANOTHER failed business soon to crash into the ground leaving flaming wreckage. This amoral, IMMORAL creature has to go !
Thank you!