At 7:57 p.m. tonight, Donald Trump shared three images back-to-back in the same minute that said more about the future of the United States than any speech he could have given. In all three, he stood beside Chinese President Xi Jinping. In the first, they walked shoulder to shoulder down a ceremonial red carpet, presented as equals. In the second, Xi and Trump both appeared composed, confident, and comfortable, standing together before an arch projecting a private moment shared between friends. The third image was unlike the others and the most concerning of them all. In it, Donald Trump stands behind Xi in the black-and-white photo, with his face drooping and confusion in his eyes. He looks diminished. Meanwhile, Xi is radiating power and energy. He's smiling. He looks sharp. He looks like a leader in control. It was an odd way to flatter Xi if that was his intent. Or possibly Trump didn’t see it that way. Maybe the impairments he is experiencing make him believe he too looks powerful in the picture?
NK, on Tuesday the Senate Dems stood up to T**** and voted down the National Defense Authorization Act. That's a big deal, as Heather notes, and should have received more attention than it did. We are making progress.
The victor can be on the wrong side and the loser on the right. It has to do with morality. It is the republicans who will be judged by future generations as amoral and corrupt, and hopefully some will be behind bars.
Heather, I find it odd that the MAGA supporters hate communism, yet their beloved "leader" allies himself with communist dictators like Xi Ping. In Russia the country is not technically a communist country but Putin rules Russia just like a dictatorship of the bad old days; how else do you explain the length of time he's been in power? What was it that Lord Acton said about power corrupts? I believe the Dumpkof is attracted to these dictatorships because of their power, not because of their ideology.
Here in the UK we're about to have yet another Prime Minister. I just hope that Andy Burnham can stand up to the Donald. He's certainly more direct in manner than Starmer ever was.
The labels he throws around, communism, socialism, etc. are all BS to scare MAGA and us into submission. He is a dictator and a Mafia Don, plain and simple and his evil will kill him because he can't get enough of it to fill his need for destruction of our humanity.
It's all they've got, i.e., label us the enemy. I noticed Mike Johnson was doing the same thing as well yesterday. As a veteran (68-72) and a citizen of the US I am not the enemy, but I damn sure know who is.
Trump does not see America as a country with living, breathing citizens with daily lives and aspirations. He sees something that belongs to him, something he owes nothing to, but can extract everything out of. He has put this country into a dangerous mess which must soon be righted. The Republicans will have to wake up PDQ if they want to be part of the solution. It’s a hard climb back.
He sees our treasury and our natural resources as a piggy bank. And his Gestapo sees innocent people as target practice. And he sees anyone who dares to speak up or stand in his way as the enemy. I am proud to count myself among the enemies.
“He has chosen the side of the dictators, the authoritarians, and the strongmen……”
Your words in this essay, Heather, I believe, forecasts the central theme all of us will hear tomorrow night when DJT sets forth his agenda to officially become our first Dictator.
We will hear false information about election interferences that will purport to show how the 2020 vote count in Georgia robbed him of a 2nd term at that time. He will also use this mis-information to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff as U.S. Senators from Georgia.
In short, we will get DJT emerging as the Viktor Orbán of America.
This speech Thursday night will be Act One, Scene One of the Donald J Trump reality show to gain absolute and total control of our Country.
And all of it orchestrated by Stephen Miller and Company..
Von trump does not care about America. He does not care if America is bankrupt. He does not care about human lives. For him it is just a tool to become powerful, rich, filthy rich. He is the ultimate fascist corrupt traitor to the Constitution, with the support of gop, scotus and fucking maga morons. Get rid of them pdq. Gonna be bloody. Amen
I probably shouldn't have read this first thing in the morning with coffee. I should have had a shot 🥃 of Jack or something. As always - as I have for months now - I wonder why no one - and I mean no one - can stop this madness. I can't be the only person who sits there every morning waiting (bracing and cringing) for the report of what 🍊 did last night. I have faith and hope that this will all work out, but man - it sucks going through it.
I think sometimes “Why Should We/US Be Exempt”? So many people and places have experienced Mad Men at the helm.
I look to how they got through for hope as well as direction. BRAZIL’s is serving a 27y prison term. It took continuous pressure from people for that to happen.
He posts those pictures of himself because he thinks he looks equally as powerful as the Communist rulers. It’s difficult to look at a stumbling, slurring man wearing a diaper and think he’s powerful.
And the Communist rulers want nothing to do with him. It’s impossible to do business with a man that’s looking to take everything you have and give nothing in return. It tickles me that even the Communist rulers won’t accept him in their boy’s club
He wants so badly to become a "big guy" with the dictators.
It isn't for the President to do the things he has done. It is for Congress to hold the line on the democracy side.
Iran is being patient. While Potus threatens Iran, Iran is absorbing the US bombing. Iran is bombing US bases, and will probably do more. Hopefully our 60,000 troops, aircraft carriers and planes will return home.
Congress MUST DRAW THE LINE AND NOT LET POTUS GET US DEEPER BY
Reading Heather’s descriptions of evolution of ICE into a “state protection” service worthy of Stalin’s USSR I was reminded of a comment made here in the UK by the chairman of the enquiry into the Hillsborough disaster.
For those who don’t know: The Hillsborough disaster to place at the Hillsborough soccer stadium in Sheffield in northern England. Largely due to sloppy gate management and poor policing more soccer fans were allowed to rush into the stadium than it could hold and 97 fans of Liverpool football club ( the visiting team ) were crushed to death.
The police blamed the Liverpool fans , feeding false stories to the press about their behaviour and how they were “drunk and behaving like animals”
There was a public inquiry held chaired by the then Bishop of Liverpool The right reverend James Jones
The inquiry eventually demonstrated that the police and other state institutions were lying to them to protect their own careers and to protect themselves from prosecution.
There was a huge and long running campaign to change the law so that state institutions and officials had a legal obligation to tell the truth.
There was state resisted this for years, parliament and successive governments kicked it into the long grass. “The Hillsborough Law” finally made it onto the statute book this week
Bishop Jones commented that there was a hard lesson to learn from all of this which would be hard for people in Western democracies to swallow: “ the state cannot always be assumed to be a benevolent actor”
Seems the US is proving the good bishop right at the moment
And ICE Gestapo is busy carrying out trump and KKKompany’s Nazi, fascist, Eugenics, sociopathic agenda.
We have EXECUTIONS and CONCENTRATION Camps. The blame is always on the victim…they were weaponizing their vehicles, fleeing, had a weapon, etc., and with impunity so far.
Also, Lance Rosen writes about their training…very scary…shoot to kill.
I don’t doubt it for one moment! Nor do I believe that parliament ( finally) passing a law that says “state agents must tell the truth “ Will stop the cover-ups
My purpose was to highlight the shift away from a “ we the people” view of life to a self perpetuating state control as Bishop James observed
You have an extreme manifestation of this compared to the UK but it is under the covers everywhere
Hard not to draw comparisons with 1930’s Germany !
Sorry if it came across as a disagreement. I do understand what you are saying. It is actually the states that are opposing at the highest rate….well, blue and purple states. But we should NOT even have an electoral voting system. That is criminal in and of itself as they are gerrymandering for votes.
Make no mistake…we are basically 1930’s Nazi Germany com0lete with ICE Gestapo, Concentration Camps, EXECUTIONS, kidnappings of babies, children, families being separated, illegally deported, dying in ICE Custody, Concentration Camps pedophilia, rape, sex trafficking, etc.
Trump is a Russian plant, Putin useful idiot and Netanyahu, backed by a bunch of evil sociopaths, Elon Musk, Palantir’s Thiel(who also paid for Vance), the EPSTEIN Class, technofascists, the Heritage Foundation and their Project 2025, which has been going on for decades.
Please read those articles and others by Lance Rosen, Heather Cox Richardson, Eyes on ICE on ICE on Eyes on ICE, etc.
This will fill in some gaps, especially about the Nazi, fascist playbook…tr7mp=hitler with accelerating Dementia and the Nuclear Codes, heading us to a Civil War, a Jan.6-2.0, potentially WW3…he/they must be stopped. The 25th would at least slow the momentum down.
It is a MAGA/MAWA KKKult.
Thanks for your response and know there are many of us still fighting on the right side of history.
Regarding the murder by ICE in Maine. Can you imagine you’re driving to work you get surrounded by black unmarked SUVs. You don’t know what’s happening. You do your best to try to escape. An ICE agent shoots you for no better reason than he’s pissed at you for trying to escape. That sure looks like what happened. I’ll be 80 this year. Same age as DJT. I want to live to be 100. Why? So I can see these people prosecuted as the killers they are. Hegseth is the most obvious of them. He clearly delights in ordering a button to be pushed that sends a missile to blow up a defenseless boat. I don’t care if they are drug traffickers or whoever they are you don’t just push a button and kill defenseless people. But you could substitute any number of them, they’re all killers. It’s sociopathic, and they’re doing it in our names. Yours and mine. We should be ashamed as well. It’s no wonder they want to abolish the International Criminal Court.
Last week I joined the Democratic Socialists of America. I did it mainly to clearly identify myself as being opposed to the trump regime. The morning after I did it, I lay in bed half asleep and terrified for myself: what if they came for me? I imagined myself committed to a concentration camp, taken away from all that I love, etc. But when I achieved full consciousness, I was once again defiant and knew that I had done the right thing. This is not the time to keep our heads down. We must stand up in any way we can.
As someone watching from the UK, I cry every day for America and the world.
Thank you.💕
America needs all the friends it can get.
Extremely difficult times.
Congress stays quiet as Rome burns.
🌼🦋🗽🇺🇲🇺🇦
NK, on Tuesday the Senate Dems stood up to T**** and voted down the National Defense Authorization Act. That's a big deal, as Heather notes, and should have received more attention than it did. We are making progress.
I'll hold onto that today
I just can't get it through my head WHY Congress stays silent.
I’ve been screaming that for months and months. I don’t know what they are getting for not serving we the people but there has to be something ‘nn
We will never be on the wrong side of history.
The victor can be on the wrong side and the loser on the right. It has to do with morality. It is the republicans who will be judged by future generations as amoral and corrupt, and hopefully some will be behind bars.
We will have our Nuremberg trials.
Hopefully, although the rich are rarely held to account in the US
Or almost any other country, for that matter.
And dishonest. Liars.
Heather, I find it odd that the MAGA supporters hate communism, yet their beloved "leader" allies himself with communist dictators like Xi Ping. In Russia the country is not technically a communist country but Putin rules Russia just like a dictatorship of the bad old days; how else do you explain the length of time he's been in power? What was it that Lord Acton said about power corrupts? I believe the Dumpkof is attracted to these dictatorships because of their power, not because of their ideology.
Here in the UK we're about to have yet another Prime Minister. I just hope that Andy Burnham can stand up to the Donald. He's certainly more direct in manner than Starmer ever was.
The labels he throws around, communism, socialism, etc. are all BS to scare MAGA and us into submission. He is a dictator and a Mafia Don, plain and simple and his evil will kill him because he can't get enough of it to fill his need for destruction of our humanity.
I wish just one hopeless scribbler of the corporate media would ask Donny to define communism & socialism! I guarantee you he can’t
It's all they've got, i.e., label us the enemy. I noticed Mike Johnson was doing the same thing as well yesterday. As a veteran (68-72) and a citizen of the US I am not the enemy, but I damn sure know who is.
Trump does not see America as a country with living, breathing citizens with daily lives and aspirations. He sees something that belongs to him, something he owes nothing to, but can extract everything out of. He has put this country into a dangerous mess which must soon be righted. The Republicans will have to wake up PDQ if they want to be part of the solution. It’s a hard climb back.
He sees our treasury and our natural resources as a piggy bank. And his Gestapo sees innocent people as target practice. And he sees anyone who dares to speak up or stand in his way as the enemy. I am proud to count myself among the enemies.
You hit the nail on the head with this one, Chris.
“He has chosen the side of the dictators, the authoritarians, and the strongmen……”
Your words in this essay, Heather, I believe, forecasts the central theme all of us will hear tomorrow night when DJT sets forth his agenda to officially become our first Dictator.
We will hear false information about election interferences that will purport to show how the 2020 vote count in Georgia robbed him of a 2nd term at that time. He will also use this mis-information to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff as U.S. Senators from Georgia.
In short, we will get DJT emerging as the Viktor Orbán of America.
This speech Thursday night will be Act One, Scene One of the Donald J Trump reality show to gain absolute and total control of our Country.
And all of it orchestrated by Stephen Miller and Company..
Don’t watch it and tell everyone you know not to.
Von trump does not care about America. He does not care if America is bankrupt. He does not care about human lives. For him it is just a tool to become powerful, rich, filthy rich. He is the ultimate fascist corrupt traitor to the Constitution, with the support of gop, scotus and fucking maga morons. Get rid of them pdq. Gonna be bloody. Amen
"Trump has made his choice, but he does not get to make ours (yours)" The best line to describe the current situation.
I am breathless in anticipation.
I probably shouldn't have read this first thing in the morning with coffee. I should have had a shot 🥃 of Jack or something. As always - as I have for months now - I wonder why no one - and I mean no one - can stop this madness. I can't be the only person who sits there every morning waiting (bracing and cringing) for the report of what 🍊 did last night. I have faith and hope that this will all work out, but man - it sucks going through it.
You’re not alone.
I think sometimes “Why Should We/US Be Exempt”? So many people and places have experienced Mad Men at the helm.
I look to how they got through for hope as well as direction. BRAZIL’s is serving a 27y prison term. It took continuous pressure from people for that to happen.
It hasn’t helped that the corrupt 6 on the Supreme Court continue to rule more power to Donny
SAME!
He posts those pictures of himself because he thinks he looks equally as powerful as the Communist rulers. It’s difficult to look at a stumbling, slurring man wearing a diaper and think he’s powerful.
And the Communist rulers want nothing to do with him. It’s impossible to do business with a man that’s looking to take everything you have and give nothing in return. It tickles me that even the Communist rulers won’t accept him in their boy’s club
THANK YOU HEATHER💕💕💕
GOOD ANALYSIS.
He wants so badly to become a "big guy" with the dictators.
It isn't for the President to do the things he has done. It is for Congress to hold the line on the democracy side.
Iran is being patient. While Potus threatens Iran, Iran is absorbing the US bombing. Iran is bombing US bases, and will probably do more. Hopefully our 60,000 troops, aircraft carriers and planes will return home.
Congress MUST DRAW THE LINE AND NOT LET POTUS GET US DEEPER BY
INVOLING OUR TROOPS.
Definitely! Where the hell is our Congress in all this. Cowards and defectors like BeneDickt Fetterman. Vile.
We just had an EXECUTION here in Maine just around the corner from my sister. Frightening.
We have to keep speaking out and resisting.
NK, have you read some of the posts I posted? Are you on facebook at all?
We are Heather readers including Heather Cox Richardson.
Also, Lance Rosen, I Fucking Love Australia, Eyes on ICE on Eyes on ICE, and some others.
Lance article…https://substack.com/@lancefrosen/note/c-290959835?r=71veyx&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Another about JD Vance….https://substack.com/@lancefrosen/note/p-203295139?r=71veyx&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
The spineless Republicans will do nothing to stop him
Reading Heather’s descriptions of evolution of ICE into a “state protection” service worthy of Stalin’s USSR I was reminded of a comment made here in the UK by the chairman of the enquiry into the Hillsborough disaster.
For those who don’t know: The Hillsborough disaster to place at the Hillsborough soccer stadium in Sheffield in northern England. Largely due to sloppy gate management and poor policing more soccer fans were allowed to rush into the stadium than it could hold and 97 fans of Liverpool football club ( the visiting team ) were crushed to death.
The police blamed the Liverpool fans , feeding false stories to the press about their behaviour and how they were “drunk and behaving like animals”
There was a public inquiry held chaired by the then Bishop of Liverpool The right reverend James Jones
The inquiry eventually demonstrated that the police and other state institutions were lying to them to protect their own careers and to protect themselves from prosecution.
There was a huge and long running campaign to change the law so that state institutions and officials had a legal obligation to tell the truth.
There was state resisted this for years, parliament and successive governments kicked it into the long grass. “The Hillsborough Law” finally made it onto the statute book this week
Bishop Jones commented that there was a hard lesson to learn from all of this which would be hard for people in Western democracies to swallow: “ the state cannot always be assumed to be a benevolent actor”
Seems the US is proving the good bishop right at the moment
Richard, they’ve tried some of that here as well.
And ICE Gestapo is busy carrying out trump and KKKompany’s Nazi, fascist, Eugenics, sociopathic agenda.
We have EXECUTIONS and CONCENTRATION Camps. The blame is always on the victim…they were weaponizing their vehicles, fleeing, had a weapon, etc., and with impunity so far.
Also, Lance Rosen writes about their training…very scary…shoot to kill.
Here’s some articles…https://substack.com/@lancefrosen/note/c-290959835?r=71veyx&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
https://substack.com/@lancefrosen/note/p-204742271?r=71veyx&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Shelly
I don’t doubt it for one moment! Nor do I believe that parliament ( finally) passing a law that says “state agents must tell the truth “ Will stop the cover-ups
My purpose was to highlight the shift away from a “ we the people” view of life to a self perpetuating state control as Bishop James observed
You have an extreme manifestation of this compared to the UK but it is under the covers everywhere
Hard not to draw comparisons with 1930’s Germany !
Sorry if it came across as a disagreement. I do understand what you are saying. It is actually the states that are opposing at the highest rate….well, blue and purple states. But we should NOT even have an electoral voting system. That is criminal in and of itself as they are gerrymandering for votes.
Make no mistake…we are basically 1930’s Nazi Germany com0lete with ICE Gestapo, Concentration Camps, EXECUTIONS, kidnappings of babies, children, families being separated, illegally deported, dying in ICE Custody, Concentration Camps pedophilia, rape, sex trafficking, etc.
Trump is a Russian plant, Putin useful idiot and Netanyahu, backed by a bunch of evil sociopaths, Elon Musk, Palantir’s Thiel(who also paid for Vance), the EPSTEIN Class, technofascists, the Heritage Foundation and their Project 2025, which has been going on for decades.
Please read those articles and others by Lance Rosen, Heather Cox Richardson, Eyes on ICE on ICE on Eyes on ICE, etc.
This will fill in some gaps, especially about the Nazi, fascist playbook…tr7mp=hitler with accelerating Dementia and the Nuclear Codes, heading us to a Civil War, a Jan.6-2.0, potentially WW3…he/they must be stopped. The 25th would at least slow the momentum down.
It is a MAGA/MAWA KKKult.
Thanks for your response and know there are many of us still fighting on the right side of history.
Regarding the murder by ICE in Maine. Can you imagine you’re driving to work you get surrounded by black unmarked SUVs. You don’t know what’s happening. You do your best to try to escape. An ICE agent shoots you for no better reason than he’s pissed at you for trying to escape. That sure looks like what happened. I’ll be 80 this year. Same age as DJT. I want to live to be 100. Why? So I can see these people prosecuted as the killers they are. Hegseth is the most obvious of them. He clearly delights in ordering a button to be pushed that sends a missile to blow up a defenseless boat. I don’t care if they are drug traffickers or whoever they are you don’t just push a button and kill defenseless people. But you could substitute any number of them, they’re all killers. It’s sociopathic, and they’re doing it in our names. Yours and mine. We should be ashamed as well. It’s no wonder they want to abolish the International Criminal Court.
He will be remembered as the traitor he is.
We used to know how to handle traitors
We still do but for some strange reason we won’t.
Thank you Heather.
...is this "fighting communism"?
Last week I joined the Democratic Socialists of America. I did it mainly to clearly identify myself as being opposed to the trump regime. The morning after I did it, I lay in bed half asleep and terrified for myself: what if they came for me? I imagined myself committed to a concentration camp, taken away from all that I love, etc. But when I achieved full consciousness, I was once again defiant and knew that I had done the right thing. This is not the time to keep our heads down. We must stand up in any way we can.