I don't comment much but I appreciate your articles Jim, I think America has some bad kharma coming for some of the stuff we've done, the reality has never lived up to the ideal, and now that ideal may be dead to the world looking at what we have become. We may be under a cosmic hex. I have always equated the trump phenomenon with the cult of Dionysus, his followers are possessed with the spirit of drunken revelry. Once they come into his sphere of influence they know nothing but how to debase themselves in order to please him. We have to root out this madness from the national psyche.
Their attacks against SPLC royally fuck me off. I've been a monthly supporter of that organization for years and they do phenomenal work. Their annual "Hate and Extremism" reports expose some of the worst, most heinous and deplorable elements in our country that would otherwise remain hidden. Their work fighting for true equality, not only racial but also gender, wealth, sexual identity, ethnicity, and religious based is greatly underappreciated and underreported. They went up against the KKK, the Aryan Nation, and many of the other worst hate and extremist groups in the last half century and utterly destroyed them.
I would strongly encourage anybody who isn't aware of Southern Poverty Law Center to check them out and consider offering your support in whatever way possible, especially now. There's a reason this admin chose to target them first, and that should prove to everybody just how effective and tenacious they truly are.
Otherwise, great article Jim! I try to find the little slivers of light too, but damn if it ain't hard to do recently. That said, every new attack they launch just further fuels the rage that motivates me to fight back...
want to believe you, I do Facing reality, Trump and his minions not only control Justice, including the court, but the police powers,and with only a few exceptions, county sheriffs and local police, not through legal means or chain of command, but their hearts and minds, their loyalty.
And now they are working on perfecting their control of the electoral process. Voter suppression laws,voter caging, poll watchers, even armed poll watchers in red states, MAGA election commissions, reduction and unadvertised reduction and movement of ballot boxes, voter ID laws and then there is the fact that Republican activist bought Dominion Voting Machines.
It is going to take a massive turnout by those who think like us, to defeat this organized effort to steal the vote.
Oh I didn't, hopium is the enemy. Hopium is why people climbed into box cars headed to Auschwitz, why the girl climbs into the 55 gal drum, why the man digs his own grave.
If we survive this regime, and that is a big if, we can't rebuild what was torn down, and some of it needs to be built back better, all of the institutional member is gone, the operations manuals, policies and procedures shredded, if USAID was reconstituted tomorrow it could not save one life that is being lost, because all of the people who knew where the pencils are, are gone to winds.
I am in amazement that I still get my social security check and that my Medicare bills are being paid, I guess something were left on automatic pilot.
That which has puzzled me is why the country hasn't collapsed by now. I figure one of two things or both.
We are living off the accumulated fat. Like I, at 87, despite diabets,and curving stage 4 cancer, am still in good health, my BP this morning was 109/70. I am drawing down the reserves I built up in my long career of special ops.
The other reason, is that it has all been disintegrated, but no one, not the media, has told us that yet. All those civil servants that lost their jobs, all those people who depended on them for income. all those hurt by tariffs and Trumpflation aren't making the news. Those that are hurt, have virtually disappeared as if they never existed.
We don't hear the cries of those that are in pain, so they don't exist.
I got fucking tired of people, who whine about the victims in Gaza, while at the same time, turn a blind eye to Ukraine and Sudan and everywhere people are suffering because of the action or inaction of those who run things.
How about the millions suffering because we cut off USAID, some short term moaning but now forgotten, except when communicable disease come roaring out of transcontinental flights
I find myself caught in my own contradiction. I am overjoyed that the Israeli's have taken out the religious and military leadership of Iran, bloody bastards,, alas they have a built in succession tree, you can take out one set, and like HAMAS and Hezbollah, another more radical steps up.
To change the regime, you have to kill everyone of those bastards.
And there are no moderates in the IRGC, the Basij or the mullahs, the idiots who started this war, can't get that through their head.
The Baij number in the millions, they are volunteer paramiliary, and it is the Basij that machine gunned the 30,000 to 50,000 protesters.
The Ayatollahs have issued a jihad fatwa, meaning that all Muslims are obligated to kill a kufr (unbeliever) and if you die in Jihad, you are a martyr with a fast pass to paradise, and they really believe that. You can't fight a people who want to die a martyr.
On the other hand, I am of the opinion that the only way to rid ourselves of Trumpism and the Trump regime is for it to fall flat on it's face, in disgrace
And that means fail in it's goal to force Iran to it's knees and beg for peace.
That is not going to happen, ever, any more than HAMAS giving up it's arms or Hezbollah or the Houthi's surrendering.
But maybe, fingers crossed, this whole maladventure by Bibi and Donald will be their undoing. And we will have saved secular, western culture from the theocratic fascist tyranny that is already on our doorstep.
But that means consigning the poor people of Iran, to their sufferance under their own theocratic fascist tyranny.
You are a brilliant and beautiful person. You are my favorite, and I am discriminating about who I read. You have the most insightful, wholistic and compassionate analysis. Please know how much I appreciate your hard work and deep patriotism. I am confident many others feel the same.❤️
Update to Trump-named list from Florida: Governor Rhonda Santis signed Florida bills renaming State Road 80 in south Florida the "President Donald J. Trump Highway", and renaming Palm Beach Imternational "President Donald J. Trump International Airport" (DJT). The Palm Beach County Commission has renamed a stretch of Southern Boulevard, near Mars-a-taco, "President Donald J. Trump Boulevard". There is currently a row over his proposed skyscraper library in downtown Miami to house his library, presumably for his collection of Epstein porn and MAGA swag, since he doesn't read books or keep records.
💙💯 You shared these hellish times so well. Thank you, Jim, for all your hard work in defense of our country and people and also for your priceless reminders of who We the People are and are meant to be. We must keep demanding the fulfillment of the American promise for all people here and all generations!
Thank you - excellent encapsulation of our American core, in the midst of a bold faced attempt to install autocracy. Well said, as always.
Resist every day! Sand in their machinery. Sugar in their gas tank. Every single day!
Beautifully captured, Jim! You're not wrong. At. All.
I don't comment much but I appreciate your articles Jim, I think America has some bad kharma coming for some of the stuff we've done, the reality has never lived up to the ideal, and now that ideal may be dead to the world looking at what we have become. We may be under a cosmic hex. I have always equated the trump phenomenon with the cult of Dionysus, his followers are possessed with the spirit of drunken revelry. Once they come into his sphere of influence they know nothing but how to debase themselves in order to please him. We have to root out this madness from the national psyche.
💕💕💕thank you
Their attacks against SPLC royally fuck me off. I've been a monthly supporter of that organization for years and they do phenomenal work. Their annual "Hate and Extremism" reports expose some of the worst, most heinous and deplorable elements in our country that would otherwise remain hidden. Their work fighting for true equality, not only racial but also gender, wealth, sexual identity, ethnicity, and religious based is greatly underappreciated and underreported. They went up against the KKK, the Aryan Nation, and many of the other worst hate and extremist groups in the last half century and utterly destroyed them.
I would strongly encourage anybody who isn't aware of Southern Poverty Law Center to check them out and consider offering your support in whatever way possible, especially now. There's a reason this admin chose to target them first, and that should prove to everybody just how effective and tenacious they truly are.
Otherwise, great article Jim! I try to find the little slivers of light too, but damn if it ain't hard to do recently. That said, every new attack they launch just further fuels the rage that motivates me to fight back...
Thanks for helping to keep us sane, Jim. We're with you.
Well said, as always, Jim. I visualize the "wrecking ball" as Putin's, with trump as his proxy. Your Hopium caveats are realistic.
want to believe you, I do Facing reality, Trump and his minions not only control Justice, including the court, but the police powers,and with only a few exceptions, county sheriffs and local police, not through legal means or chain of command, but their hearts and minds, their loyalty.
And now they are working on perfecting their control of the electoral process. Voter suppression laws,voter caging, poll watchers, even armed poll watchers in red states, MAGA election commissions, reduction and unadvertised reduction and movement of ballot boxes, voter ID laws and then there is the fact that Republican activist bought Dominion Voting Machines.
It is going to take a massive turnout by those who think like us, to defeat this organized effort to steal the vote.
Might be a long time to dig out. Don’t mistake my point for hopium. We have a lot of work to do. Elections are just a small part.
Oh I didn't, hopium is the enemy. Hopium is why people climbed into box cars headed to Auschwitz, why the girl climbs into the 55 gal drum, why the man digs his own grave.
If we survive this regime, and that is a big if, we can't rebuild what was torn down, and some of it needs to be built back better, all of the institutional member is gone, the operations manuals, policies and procedures shredded, if USAID was reconstituted tomorrow it could not save one life that is being lost, because all of the people who knew where the pencils are, are gone to winds.
I am in amazement that I still get my social security check and that my Medicare bills are being paid, I guess something were left on automatic pilot.
That which has puzzled me is why the country hasn't collapsed by now. I figure one of two things or both.
We are living off the accumulated fat. Like I, at 87, despite diabets,and curving stage 4 cancer, am still in good health, my BP this morning was 109/70. I am drawing down the reserves I built up in my long career of special ops.
The other reason, is that it has all been disintegrated, but no one, not the media, has told us that yet. All those civil servants that lost their jobs, all those people who depended on them for income. all those hurt by tariffs and Trumpflation aren't making the news. Those that are hurt, have virtually disappeared as if they never existed.
We don't hear the cries of those that are in pain, so they don't exist.
I got fucking tired of people, who whine about the victims in Gaza, while at the same time, turn a blind eye to Ukraine and Sudan and everywhere people are suffering because of the action or inaction of those who run things.
How about the millions suffering because we cut off USAID, some short term moaning but now forgotten, except when communicable disease come roaring out of transcontinental flights
I find myself caught in my own contradiction. I am overjoyed that the Israeli's have taken out the religious and military leadership of Iran, bloody bastards,, alas they have a built in succession tree, you can take out one set, and like HAMAS and Hezbollah, another more radical steps up.
To change the regime, you have to kill everyone of those bastards.
And there are no moderates in the IRGC, the Basij or the mullahs, the idiots who started this war, can't get that through their head.
The Baij number in the millions, they are volunteer paramiliary, and it is the Basij that machine gunned the 30,000 to 50,000 protesters.
The Ayatollahs have issued a jihad fatwa, meaning that all Muslims are obligated to kill a kufr (unbeliever) and if you die in Jihad, you are a martyr with a fast pass to paradise, and they really believe that. You can't fight a people who want to die a martyr.
On the other hand, I am of the opinion that the only way to rid ourselves of Trumpism and the Trump regime is for it to fall flat on it's face, in disgrace
And that means fail in it's goal to force Iran to it's knees and beg for peace.
That is not going to happen, ever, any more than HAMAS giving up it's arms or Hezbollah or the Houthi's surrendering.
But maybe, fingers crossed, this whole maladventure by Bibi and Donald will be their undoing. And we will have saved secular, western culture from the theocratic fascist tyranny that is already on our doorstep.
But that means consigning the poor people of Iran, to their sufferance under their own theocratic fascist tyranny.
You are a brilliant and beautiful person. You are my favorite, and I am discriminating about who I read. You have the most insightful, wholistic and compassionate analysis. Please know how much I appreciate your hard work and deep patriotism. I am confident many others feel the same.❤️
I agree. Substack has many good journalists. Jim is definitely one of the best.
💙
Beautifully written. Thank you for all you do.
Update to Trump-named list from Florida: Governor Rhonda Santis signed Florida bills renaming State Road 80 in south Florida the "President Donald J. Trump Highway", and renaming Palm Beach Imternational "President Donald J. Trump International Airport" (DJT). The Palm Beach County Commission has renamed a stretch of Southern Boulevard, near Mars-a-taco, "President Donald J. Trump Boulevard". There is currently a row over his proposed skyscraper library in downtown Miami to house his library, presumably for his collection of Epstein porn and MAGA swag, since he doesn't read books or keep records.
💙💯 You shared these hellish times so well. Thank you, Jim, for all your hard work in defense of our country and people and also for your priceless reminders of who We the People are and are meant to be. We must keep demanding the fulfillment of the American promise for all people here and all generations!