Well, Mike, you've finally grown a pair. Right, you are. We are participants in a Fascist country under the iron heel of a Mussolini, Franco, or Putin look-alike. Now, if only the media would speak out as clearly and cut the bull-shit normalizations, rationalizations, and speak about what flagrantly is.
We essentially have a Manchurian candidate. There is no difference in how Trump and the Republican Congress behave from how Putin would behave.
▶︎ Violate the Constitution in many ways. Freedom of speech, of assembly, of a free Press, of Due Process, and of violation of the Emoluments Clause.
▶︎ Align with other fascist regimes and praise them. Erdoğan, Putin, Kim Jong Un, etc.
▶︎ Destroy Democracy and assert militaristic control over the citizenry. DOGE (Destroy Our Great Experiment) under Musk; appoint the most heinous cast of incompetents and morally depraved Cabinet and WH Staff since the founding of this nation; go after people of color with masked, armed so-called ICE agents; blame others for your damn incompetence, etc.
We have a rapist, fascist, amazingly corrupt POTUS & Family in power, and he is fucking this country and the world. This should be a "Never again" moment for Americans who care about what kind of life their children will live. I am 82, but I am willing to battle this disgusting man and his regime. Where are the hordes of indignant citizens, and where are our representatives who have soft-pedaled for so long? Do we maintain enough naivety that we believe there will be a fair Midterm or a Midterm at all?
You miss my point, or perhaps it is my fault. We are long past rationalizing Trump or normalizing Trump. I have listened attentively to many of Mike's essays or commentaries, and if what he has said did not resonate with my assessment, I would not have bothered to read on. My "issue" is with us not getting to the core of the matter ⇢ Trump is a corrupt, detestable being who is all about DEALS, and his own ego, envy, and self-aggrandizement. He is an American version of Putin, and all the other demagogues that have laid waste to this planet and all of its human and non-human inhabitants.
It should not have taken 10 years for our mainstream media or those who have blogs to conclude what Trump is, or what the Republican Party has become. As a cancer doc, this is akin to a very late diagnosis of cancer. It may be too late to bring the patient back into remission.
In 2020, my son and I wrote a book about the loss of democracy, titled "What We Must Demand for Our Democracy to Survive." It is on Amazon and can be easily found under my name or my son Adam's name.
Together, we have written songs that relate to what we have lost and what we must do to regain our Constitutional rights and freedoms. We failed to find a way to get these to notables like Bruce Springsteen, but we made an effort.
We also sent more than a hundred copies of our book to the mainstream media and those in political office. But accessibility to those in the public eye in this country seems impossible.
I spent hundreds of hours calling voters in Georgia to help elect Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. I have brazenly worn T-shirts and sweatshirts in cities where I have lived when voices against Trump were seldom heard. I still have and wear my "Trump for Prison 2020" sweatshirt.
I have sent group emails to many hundreds of people starting back in 2015 about the corruption of Trump, which has been documented in detail by Wayne Barrett in his book and editorials dating back to the early 1990s.
I have financially supported those in politics who are advocates for Democracy.
I have done the same in my support of Ukraine, and I have flown a Slava Ukraini (Слава Україні!) flag after Putin invaded Ukraine.
All of this has been done amid a life-threatening malignancy and chemo-immunotherapy in an 80+ aging body, former Vietnam veteran and cancer doc that has given well over thousands of hours of pro bono consulting around the world.
It has been a coup and to not recognize and deal with it is open sedition by the minute in our daily lives.
Our EXTREME COURT is protecting a madman. He can be easily shed but Project 2025 rolls on.
So much pretending that laws we know exist will be followed!
What if we don’t pay taxes?
What if we strike?
What if (with several countries now) the world responds that the USA IS UNSAFE FOR ALL LIVING BEINGS and NO INTERNATIONAL SPORTING EVENTS will take place there?
Since there’s no going back from here we need to start thinking of what we do next. These assholes are too incompetent and there are too many players with competing motives for me to believe we can’t beat them. What’s the vision we can sell? How will we rebuild better.
They’re just instituting a national sales tax without declaring it. Tax revenue must rise to meet federal obligations. No-one can campaign on raising taxes.
I was more referring to their reaction to Barack Obama entering those agreements in the first place, which the second article is about but not the first.
"But on the US front, there's also a problem. The key thing is this: because of internal divisions in the United States, and the polarization that we have seen over the course of the last decade, this has actually undermined US leverage in international negotiations because American promises do not carry the same weight as they used to before, because no one trusts any longer that a promise that a US administration gives will be kept by the subsequent administration. This is a major problem, because countries do not make deals with governments, they make it with the nation, the country as a whole. There needs to be a norm that agreements that are signed are going to be kept. That norm has been completely broken in the United States and has weakened its negotiating position." (Dr. Trita Parsi)
Well, yes, that's my point, back then the protofascists were expressing deep concern about executive overreach in making international agreements without the consent of Congress. (And while the concern itself was valid, recent events prove that they never actually meant it and were just using it to score political points against an ideological foe.)
EDIT: This is, I would note, merely a symptom of deeper flaws with the US constitutional order, such as the fusing of the roles of head of state and head of government, and the oft-realised potential for ideological cleavage between the legislature and the executive.
Well, Mike, you've finally grown a pair. Right, you are. We are participants in a Fascist country under the iron heel of a Mussolini, Franco, or Putin look-alike. Now, if only the media would speak out as clearly and cut the bull-shit normalizations, rationalizations, and speak about what flagrantly is.
We essentially have a Manchurian candidate. There is no difference in how Trump and the Republican Congress behave from how Putin would behave.
▶︎ Violate the Constitution in many ways. Freedom of speech, of assembly, of a free Press, of Due Process, and of violation of the Emoluments Clause.
▶︎ Align with other fascist regimes and praise them. Erdoğan, Putin, Kim Jong Un, etc.
▶︎ Destroy Democracy and assert militaristic control over the citizenry. DOGE (Destroy Our Great Experiment) under Musk; appoint the most heinous cast of incompetents and morally depraved Cabinet and WH Staff since the founding of this nation; go after people of color with masked, armed so-called ICE agents; blame others for your damn incompetence, etc.
We have a rapist, fascist, amazingly corrupt POTUS & Family in power, and he is fucking this country and the world. This should be a "Never again" moment for Americans who care about what kind of life their children will live. I am 82, but I am willing to battle this disgusting man and his regime. Where are the hordes of indignant citizens, and where are our representatives who have soft-pedaled for so long? Do we maintain enough naivety that we believe there will be a fair Midterm or a Midterm at all?
Whoa! “Finally grown a pair”.
Really? Where have you been? What a negative start!
Mike is reaching over 15,000 people, not everyone is a listed subscriber.
Tell me HOW are YOU battling TRUMP?!?
He’s been a warrior for democracy from the get go.
Thank you, Mike!
You miss my point, or perhaps it is my fault. We are long past rationalizing Trump or normalizing Trump. I have listened attentively to many of Mike's essays or commentaries, and if what he has said did not resonate with my assessment, I would not have bothered to read on. My "issue" is with us not getting to the core of the matter ⇢ Trump is a corrupt, detestable being who is all about DEALS, and his own ego, envy, and self-aggrandizement. He is an American version of Putin, and all the other demagogues that have laid waste to this planet and all of its human and non-human inhabitants.
It should not have taken 10 years for our mainstream media or those who have blogs to conclude what Trump is, or what the Republican Party has become. As a cancer doc, this is akin to a very late diagnosis of cancer. It may be too late to bring the patient back into remission.
In 2020, my son and I wrote a book about the loss of democracy, titled "What We Must Demand for Our Democracy to Survive." It is on Amazon and can be easily found under my name or my son Adam's name.
Together, we have written songs that relate to what we have lost and what we must do to regain our Constitutional rights and freedoms. We failed to find a way to get these to notables like Bruce Springsteen, but we made an effort.
We also sent more than a hundred copies of our book to the mainstream media and those in political office. But accessibility to those in the public eye in this country seems impossible.
I spent hundreds of hours calling voters in Georgia to help elect Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. I have brazenly worn T-shirts and sweatshirts in cities where I have lived when voices against Trump were seldom heard. I still have and wear my "Trump for Prison 2020" sweatshirt.
I have sent group emails to many hundreds of people starting back in 2015 about the corruption of Trump, which has been documented in detail by Wayne Barrett in his book and editorials dating back to the early 1990s.
I have financially supported those in politics who are advocates for Democracy.
I have done the same in my support of Ukraine, and I have flown a Slava Ukraini (Слава Україні!) flag after Putin invaded Ukraine.
All of this has been done amid a life-threatening malignancy and chemo-immunotherapy in an 80+ aging body, former Vietnam veteran and cancer doc that has given well over thousands of hours of pro bono consulting around the world.
How's that?
Really great. Thank you. Now a name: Sarah Kendzoir who warned us all long before 2020.
Best to you and hoping treatment gives comfort and healing ❤️🩹
I have so much admiration for your skillful writing and courageous honesty. You have my respect and support.
It has been a coup and to not recognize and deal with it is open sedition by the minute in our daily lives.
Our EXTREME COURT is protecting a madman. He can be easily shed but Project 2025 rolls on.
So much pretending that laws we know exist will be followed!
What if we don’t pay taxes?
What if we strike?
What if (with several countries now) the world responds that the USA IS UNSAFE FOR ALL LIVING BEINGS and NO INTERNATIONAL SPORTING EVENTS will take place there?
Note what’s happening with Canada and Mexico:
https://substack.com/@deanblundell/note/p-168863068?r=1pkk6n&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Quick comment, before I finish reading. It's not that most Americans don't care, it's that most Americans don't understand what's happening
Yes We the people have allowed and approve the descent into Constitutional Corruption and worse.
Hitlarian fascist, dictatorship!
Since there’s no going back from here we need to start thinking of what we do next. These assholes are too incompetent and there are too many players with competing motives for me to believe we can’t beat them. What’s the vision we can sell? How will we rebuild better.
They’re just instituting a national sales tax without declaring it. Tax revenue must rise to meet federal obligations. No-one can campaign on raising taxes.
Anyone remember when the protofascists got triggered by and melted down over the Paris Climate Accords and the JCPOA?
1. https://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/rep/release/49-senate-republicans-tell-president-biden-an-iran-agreement-without-broad-congressional-support-will-not-survive
2.https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/republican-platform-rejects-paris-climate-agreement/
FURTHER PROOF THAT PROGRESS & PROTECTION IS BIG GOVERNMENT TO REPUBLICANS!
I was more referring to their reaction to Barack Obama entering those agreements in the first place, which the second article is about but not the first.
"But on the US front, there's also a problem. The key thing is this: because of internal divisions in the United States, and the polarization that we have seen over the course of the last decade, this has actually undermined US leverage in international negotiations because American promises do not carry the same weight as they used to before, because no one trusts any longer that a promise that a US administration gives will be kept by the subsequent administration. This is a major problem, because countries do not make deals with governments, they make it with the nation, the country as a whole. There needs to be a norm that agreements that are signed are going to be kept. That norm has been completely broken in the United States and has weakened its negotiating position." (Dr. Trita Parsi)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/10/republican-squabble-on-iran-nuclear-deal-plays-in-obamas-favour?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
What about this, “blast from the past?”.
Well, yes, that's my point, back then the protofascists were expressing deep concern about executive overreach in making international agreements without the consent of Congress. (And while the concern itself was valid, recent events prove that they never actually meant it and were just using it to score political points against an ideological foe.)
EDIT: This is, I would note, merely a symptom of deeper flaws with the US constitutional order, such as the fusing of the roles of head of state and head of government, and the oft-realised potential for ideological cleavage between the legislature and the executive.
Thank you!!