1. I fear that trump will break the country so badly that we'll never gain footing again, because........
2. Republican senators are complete toadies, and can't say these horrible nominations are DOA.
3. Those voters who don't follow politics and broke +16 pts for trump aren't paying attention now either. Only folks like us, are watching this shitty circus
If only federal law enforcement had been waiting at the other end of that Marine One ride to arrest trump for inciting an attempted coup, maybe we wouldn't be here now. I agree that the shit show is back and this will be the chaos for the coming years. I was surprised by Matt Gaetz quick withdrawal as well, but I remain skeptical that we've seen the last of him in this administration.
I feel the press has grossly underestimated the destruction we are about to watch once he is inaugurated. I believe the mechanisms are in place to do every single thing project 2025 and agenda 47 call for. U think this country has suffered from a huge case of "it can't happen here." It can and it is. I feel like I'm living a real life, political version of the movie "Don't Look Up."
"I don't know what Project 2025 is, it's not part of my campaign, blah, blah, blah" followed by, now, "I'd like to introduce you to Russ Vought, my news Project 2025 coordinator." Lies upon lies upon lies, I knew all along it would be the game plan.
Great! It will be a very timely piece now that it's officially announced that Russell Vought will be head of OMB. Of course, we already knew it was coming...
I think the press is grossly underestimating the damage that is going to be wrought. They are all afraid of him, I mean look at the Morning Joe team that went down to Mar-a-Lago and bent the knee. I’ve lost all respect for them. I don’t listen to them or watch them anymore and I don’t follow them on Instagram. The press caved and they’re going to continue to cave just like they did in Nazi Germany.
I'm an Australian but I was so depressed when Trump won I stopped following the news (even the excellent Public Notice) for two weeks and am still feel the bruising on my healing psyche. I don't know how it must feel for Americans but for those who didn't vote for Trump I extend my deepest sympathy and kindly thoughts in these difficult times.
I agree with Aaron's point. Trump's lack of judgement and general incompentence seems just as prominent and give hopes that we might have an embarrassing circus to put up with rather than a Trump who might have learned from his mistakes and would therefore be so much more dangerous. It's also comforting in a way that Gaetz actually did drop out rather than toughed it out giving us another sex criminal in high office. Let us take comfort where we find it and hope for better things after the mid terms and the end of this Presidency.
Pete Hegseth needs to go too. It would be insane for him to be confirmed. I'm from the same town as him and know there are skeletons in his closet that haven't come out publicly yet. There are lots of prominent reporters digging into it, so look for more damaging reports about him in the weeks to come.
Aaron, I almost laughed out loud when I read your sentence that it would be insane for him to be confirmed. Of course I agree. But didn’t we just elect a sex offender in this country? So talk about insanity, we’re well on the way to a government that is a laughingstock to other democracies around the world.
Yes Maggie, there's no way around the grim and absurd reality that voters (again) opted to empower one of the worst people in the world.. We're truly through the looking glass.
I’m not seeing anyone writing about what is the biggest clue to the terribleness of these Cabinet picks: the fact that not a single one of these CLEARLY unqualified bozos has said (for instance):
“Haha! Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I’m just a TV guy with a bit of National Guard service, and neither job involved any managerial experience. A modestly trained Welsh Corgi would be just as qualified as I am to run the US’ DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE with its 2,780,000 employees, so I obviously must decline.”
Tulsi Gabbard has to be seriously nuts to think she could even tread water as Director of National Intelligence. Linda McMahon for the Dept of Education?! And Gaetz was perfectly confident in his ability to head the DOJ, despite his total lack of litigation experience (or any serious legal experience of any kind), and only derailed by the burgeoning load of manure that was his past repulsive activities coming to light. The fact that any of these would think, “Yeah, I can do that. How hard could it be?” should be in itself disqualifying!
I will never forgive the people who voted this inept, cruel, corrupt monster back into power. I'm amazed R senators drew a line at Gaetz, although good, better than nothing. But Trump will ONLY try to appoint the worst, most compromised, crackpot, and corrupt people to these posts, because he isn't capable of looking past his own disordered nose. He's going to leave a huge mess, just like he did last time.....although probably worse. I hope we survive it....you don't put a "dark triad" personality disordered person in charge of the nuclear codes. He could quite literally end civilization.
He spared them from having to draw a line by resigning. I trust none of their public statements. Nearly all are toadies and if Trump really backs someone, Republican Senators will cave, maybe with the exception of Lisa Murkowski.
Circus? Circus is supposed to be fun. There is zero fun coming down the line…. Unless your a sicko who like seeing families torn apart… sickos that enjoy seeing marginalized people hurt…. Think Chump and Musk are going to make us “better”….. nope. They’re lining themselves up for the largest theft ever recorded….. Trillions of dollars all locked up by less than a dozen men….
I keep telling myself maybe some potentially good version of the future is Orange Anus Mouth sucking up all the worst people like a vacuum from all corners of our country and installing them in his craptastic circus for the hell we all know is coming… but somehow without burning down the whole country they just destroy enough of the economy and essential entitlements and regulations buckle enough that the not completely brainwashed wake up and all these clowns are run out of DC (and any position of power other than hosting a diminished Fox News here and there to the small segment still able to maintain belief that this is all for Jesus).
My feeling is that we were betrayed by the legacy media who sane washed Trump. And I will never forgive the voters who allowed Trump back into the White House. Now it’s about coping rather than fully enjoying every day. I hope the electoral backlash against MAGA is strong. And I weep for my children who have to endure this era.
Incompetence on the part of trump--Yes. But he is just thumbing his nose at all of us as he puts forward one after another of incompetent, ignorant, willfully destructive , frankly scary names for the government positions that should be being filled with people who not only understand the working of the government writ large but also the offices to which they are being nominated. A wrestiling organizer, a friend of Putin, a doctor who gave up a practice in which he achieved a great deal of respect for a chance to fool the public with his credentials to push garbage medications on tv with no care for the destruction they could wreak. This is no circus of clowns--that would be funny and make us laugh--this is pure and simple evil mixed with a good bit of ignorance.
I want to hear that Democrats are already preparing for midterms and taking back the House. I want to hear that Biden Admin is going to do some great things on the way out such as worthy pardons such as Leonard Peltier. I want to hear more from Governors who have plans, legal and practical, not just rhetoric to stop dangerous deportations and erosion of healthcare. I also wrote through the first Trump Admin at MarketWatch/WSJ in DC. It was horrible non-stop firehose of crap — in my case about ethics violations, Trump's no-show tax returns, and SEC rule roll-backs — every day that we felt compelled to react to. I want to see journalists not obey in advance in order to maintain access.
It certainly feels to me like Democrats are wandering in the wilderness right now, but of course time is of the essence, especially in the Senate with the judicial noms. We are doing some reporting right now about what Democrats can do to impede the Trump agenda in the next Congress, so look for that over the next week or two in PN.
I am heartened by the results of group action in boycotting the press or drowning Congress in letters and phone calls. We still have leverage. The2026 elections will be a real opportunity to demonstrate that being voted out of office is a real possibility. We have a chance to find homegrown candidates who know their voters’ issues from being on the ground and asking questions. We must not let the DNC make choices for us. They are out of touch and gummed up with the trappings of DC. It won’t do. New voices—that’s what’s needed.
I am also heartened that Gaetz went down. I think Hegseth may too because he wasn’t honest with DJT. I’m sorry we have a kook proposed for education, but at least she won’t kill us all the way JFK Jr. will if there is another pandemic in the immediate future.
I am also happy that Putin is in such trouble at home, and that he is losing men at a rate he cannot sustain. I am sorry for the fatalities, but it is all in his grasping shoulders. He didn’t take over Ukraine in days. He will never be a Peter the Great. So there it is.,
Approximately 100,000 North Korean soldiers are now in Russia. haven’t done the research on that but I was listening to NPR yesterday and it seems that that is happening. Also, Russia is selling weapons to North Korea. This is just a sidebar I realize and not part of the main discussion.
That number will support them until the end of December, perhaps a little longer. That is a larger number than I had heard, but still not enough. I doubt very much that Kim Jong Un planned to renew such an offer. It draws down his numbers too greatly. He will more than have met his obligation to Russia. And we know if Putin wins in Ukraine he plans to keep going. I don’t think anyone will back him then.
The clown show is not what we should worry about or report on. there folks are fools. But among Trumps appointees are very serious folks the 2025 folks, Miller. these are where we should worry. they are not fools, they are serious, and competent and as a consequence very dangerous. don't get distracted
Honestly I think Trump's deal is that when he wants to do something that's honestly crazy, he proposes something even more bizarre so that people are relieved when he changes his mind. It's a con.
Pam Bondi, another morally repugnant choice from my wonderfully corrupted state who once changed the time of an execution because it was conflicting with a campaign fundraising event.
One thing that we can seem to count on fairly consistently is speed and chaos. I suppose that means we should expect it all to get faster and faster until what? I don’t know, but I appreciate your insight and that you share what your instincts are telling you. Many times our bodies know truths that our minds refuse to acknowledge.
I am definitely expecting "shock and awe" in January after the inauguration. Remember that in 2017, Bannon and Trump orchestrated the Muslim ban just days after Trump took office. My informed hunch is that we will see similar sudden measures taken with deportations this time around, though I'm still gathering information about what specifically that will look like, especially considering that a number of Democratic mayors and governors have been clear they will not comply.
Mark my words! 250th anniversary of 1776 coming up, Trump will declare his administration the start of a "new American revolution" and will absolutely try to overwhelm the system in the first few days.
I’ve joined the ACLU, and I’m supporting them financially. I believe that they are the bulwark against the deportations and the unfair and illegal things that are going to be attempted in this country. I also joined an online group called “resist project 2025.”
Yes. Trump is too far out on the gangplank not to jump in. He has to do what he has said and promised so many times. The responses are going to be more than just interesting... vital.
I think back to the times in which allegation of an affair or anything considered immoral resulted in a candidate immediately being disqualified any disappearing from the political scene- how low politics has become, to be in a time where all of the picks (as well as the head) have this in common. There seems to be little morality in the current Republican Party
We need journalists to keep an inventory of our well-being now so we can use it for the next election to more knowledgeably answer the question that was posed....."are you better off now.."....There are, surprise, surprise, issues more important to our well-being than the price of eggs and bacon...but people didn't hear them. I hope journalists, with their access to data, will keep reminding us...gee, when Biden was in office this is what we had...look at what we don't have anymore....Trump has SUCHth a flawed personality, but his acolytes don't care; they seem to relish that. But grocery prices or gas prices? Well gas is low, but that has become irrelevant, it seems....Keep presenting simple facts about what Biden did for us, e..g union membership, etc...employment, and giving us direct comparisons......that show we actually are BETTER OFF (which the research shows) in economies run by Democrats than by Republicans....
1. I fear that trump will break the country so badly that we'll never gain footing again, because........
2. Republican senators are complete toadies, and can't say these horrible nominations are DOA.
3. Those voters who don't follow politics and broke +16 pts for trump aren't paying attention now either. Only folks like us, are watching this shitty circus
If only federal law enforcement had been waiting at the other end of that Marine One ride to arrest trump for inciting an attempted coup, maybe we wouldn't be here now. I agree that the shit show is back and this will be the chaos for the coming years. I was surprised by Matt Gaetz quick withdrawal as well, but I remain skeptical that we've seen the last of him in this administration.
I feel the press has grossly underestimated the destruction we are about to watch once he is inaugurated. I believe the mechanisms are in place to do every single thing project 2025 and agenda 47 call for. U think this country has suffered from a huge case of "it can't happen here." It can and it is. I feel like I'm living a real life, political version of the movie "Don't Look Up."
Monday's newsletter is actually about what Trump is already doing to implement the Project 2025 agenda, so stay tuned for that.
"I don't know what Project 2025 is, it's not part of my campaign, blah, blah, blah" followed by, now, "I'd like to introduce you to Russ Vought, my news Project 2025 coordinator." Lies upon lies upon lies, I knew all along it would be the game plan.
Great! It will be a very timely piece now that it's officially announced that Russell Vought will be head of OMB. Of course, we already knew it was coming...
I think the press is grossly underestimating the damage that is going to be wrought. They are all afraid of him, I mean look at the Morning Joe team that went down to Mar-a-Lago and bent the knee. I’ve lost all respect for them. I don’t listen to them or watch them anymore and I don’t follow them on Instagram. The press caved and they’re going to continue to cave just like they did in Nazi Germany.
I'm an Australian but I was so depressed when Trump won I stopped following the news (even the excellent Public Notice) for two weeks and am still feel the bruising on my healing psyche. I don't know how it must feel for Americans but for those who didn't vote for Trump I extend my deepest sympathy and kindly thoughts in these difficult times.
I agree with Aaron's point. Trump's lack of judgement and general incompentence seems just as prominent and give hopes that we might have an embarrassing circus to put up with rather than a Trump who might have learned from his mistakes and would therefore be so much more dangerous. It's also comforting in a way that Gaetz actually did drop out rather than toughed it out giving us another sex criminal in high office. Let us take comfort where we find it and hope for better things after the mid terms and the end of this Presidency.
Pete Hegseth needs to go too. It would be insane for him to be confirmed. I'm from the same town as him and know there are skeletons in his closet that haven't come out publicly yet. There are lots of prominent reporters digging into it, so look for more damaging reports about him in the weeks to come.
Bring it on..
Aaron, I almost laughed out loud when I read your sentence that it would be insane for him to be confirmed. Of course I agree. But didn’t we just elect a sex offender in this country? So talk about insanity, we’re well on the way to a government that is a laughingstock to other democracies around the world.
Yes Maggie, there's no way around the grim and absurd reality that voters (again) opted to empower one of the worst people in the world.. We're truly through the looking glass.
I’m not seeing anyone writing about what is the biggest clue to the terribleness of these Cabinet picks: the fact that not a single one of these CLEARLY unqualified bozos has said (for instance):
“Haha! Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I’m just a TV guy with a bit of National Guard service, and neither job involved any managerial experience. A modestly trained Welsh Corgi would be just as qualified as I am to run the US’ DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE with its 2,780,000 employees, so I obviously must decline.”
Tulsi Gabbard has to be seriously nuts to think she could even tread water as Director of National Intelligence. Linda McMahon for the Dept of Education?! And Gaetz was perfectly confident in his ability to head the DOJ, despite his total lack of litigation experience (or any serious legal experience of any kind), and only derailed by the burgeoning load of manure that was his past repulsive activities coming to light. The fact that any of these would think, “Yeah, I can do that. How hard could it be?” should be in itself disqualifying!
The dirt might cheer me. Please keep digging!
I will never forgive the people who voted this inept, cruel, corrupt monster back into power. I'm amazed R senators drew a line at Gaetz, although good, better than nothing. But Trump will ONLY try to appoint the worst, most compromised, crackpot, and corrupt people to these posts, because he isn't capable of looking past his own disordered nose. He's going to leave a huge mess, just like he did last time.....although probably worse. I hope we survive it....you don't put a "dark triad" personality disordered person in charge of the nuclear codes. He could quite literally end civilization.
Only four R senators “drew a line” at Gaetz. 🙁
He spared them from having to draw a line by resigning. I trust none of their public statements. Nearly all are toadies and if Trump really backs someone, Republican Senators will cave, maybe with the exception of Lisa Murkowski.
Circus? Circus is supposed to be fun. There is zero fun coming down the line…. Unless your a sicko who like seeing families torn apart… sickos that enjoy seeing marginalized people hurt…. Think Chump and Musk are going to make us “better”….. nope. They’re lining themselves up for the largest theft ever recorded….. Trillions of dollars all locked up by less than a dozen men….
Reminiscent of Russia…. You fucking betcha
I keep telling myself maybe some potentially good version of the future is Orange Anus Mouth sucking up all the worst people like a vacuum from all corners of our country and installing them in his craptastic circus for the hell we all know is coming… but somehow without burning down the whole country they just destroy enough of the economy and essential entitlements and regulations buckle enough that the not completely brainwashed wake up and all these clowns are run out of DC (and any position of power other than hosting a diminished Fox News here and there to the small segment still able to maintain belief that this is all for Jesus).
And guess who’s left to clean up after the elephants?
If it means me neglecting my taxes etc…. So be it
You’re in good company there … but with Trump, the famous non-payer of taxes.
Ohh I know. And I ain’t doing it.
I think this is more like a Roman circus with chariot races and gladiators.
And the (MAGA) mob screaming for blood.
My feeling is that we were betrayed by the legacy media who sane washed Trump. And I will never forgive the voters who allowed Trump back into the White House. Now it’s about coping rather than fully enjoying every day. I hope the electoral backlash against MAGA is strong. And I weep for my children who have to endure this era.
Incompetence on the part of trump--Yes. But he is just thumbing his nose at all of us as he puts forward one after another of incompetent, ignorant, willfully destructive , frankly scary names for the government positions that should be being filled with people who not only understand the working of the government writ large but also the offices to which they are being nominated. A wrestiling organizer, a friend of Putin, a doctor who gave up a practice in which he achieved a great deal of respect for a chance to fool the public with his credentials to push garbage medications on tv with no care for the destruction they could wreak. This is no circus of clowns--that would be funny and make us laugh--this is pure and simple evil mixed with a good bit of ignorance.
I want to hear that Democrats are already preparing for midterms and taking back the House. I want to hear that Biden Admin is going to do some great things on the way out such as worthy pardons such as Leonard Peltier. I want to hear more from Governors who have plans, legal and practical, not just rhetoric to stop dangerous deportations and erosion of healthcare. I also wrote through the first Trump Admin at MarketWatch/WSJ in DC. It was horrible non-stop firehose of crap — in my case about ethics violations, Trump's no-show tax returns, and SEC rule roll-backs — every day that we felt compelled to react to. I want to see journalists not obey in advance in order to maintain access.
It certainly feels to me like Democrats are wandering in the wilderness right now, but of course time is of the essence, especially in the Senate with the judicial noms. We are doing some reporting right now about what Democrats can do to impede the Trump agenda in the next Congress, so look for that over the next week or two in PN.
Too busy finger pointing.
and Lady, I am with YOU.
I am heartened by the results of group action in boycotting the press or drowning Congress in letters and phone calls. We still have leverage. The2026 elections will be a real opportunity to demonstrate that being voted out of office is a real possibility. We have a chance to find homegrown candidates who know their voters’ issues from being on the ground and asking questions. We must not let the DNC make choices for us. They are out of touch and gummed up with the trappings of DC. It won’t do. New voices—that’s what’s needed.
I am also heartened that Gaetz went down. I think Hegseth may too because he wasn’t honest with DJT. I’m sorry we have a kook proposed for education, but at least she won’t kill us all the way JFK Jr. will if there is another pandemic in the immediate future.
I am also happy that Putin is in such trouble at home, and that he is losing men at a rate he cannot sustain. I am sorry for the fatalities, but it is all in his grasping shoulders. He didn’t take over Ukraine in days. He will never be a Peter the Great. So there it is.,
Thanks Alexandra, and I agree with you that hope is not lost.
Approximately 100,000 North Korean soldiers are now in Russia. haven’t done the research on that but I was listening to NPR yesterday and it seems that that is happening. Also, Russia is selling weapons to North Korea. This is just a sidebar I realize and not part of the main discussion.
That number will support them until the end of December, perhaps a little longer. That is a larger number than I had heard, but still not enough. I doubt very much that Kim Jong Un planned to renew such an offer. It draws down his numbers too greatly. He will more than have met his obligation to Russia. And we know if Putin wins in Ukraine he plans to keep going. I don’t think anyone will back him then.
The clown show is not what we should worry about or report on. there folks are fools. But among Trumps appointees are very serious folks the 2025 folks, Miller. these are where we should worry. they are not fools, they are serious, and competent and as a consequence very dangerous. don't get distracted
Honestly I think Trump's deal is that when he wants to do something that's honestly crazy, he proposes something even more bizarre so that people are relieved when he changes his mind. It's a con.
FULLY AGREE....
Pam Bondi, another morally repugnant choice from my wonderfully corrupted state who once changed the time of an execution because it was conflicting with a campaign fundraising event.
One thing that we can seem to count on fairly consistently is speed and chaos. I suppose that means we should expect it all to get faster and faster until what? I don’t know, but I appreciate your insight and that you share what your instincts are telling you. Many times our bodies know truths that our minds refuse to acknowledge.
I am definitely expecting "shock and awe" in January after the inauguration. Remember that in 2017, Bannon and Trump orchestrated the Muslim ban just days after Trump took office. My informed hunch is that we will see similar sudden measures taken with deportations this time around, though I'm still gathering information about what specifically that will look like, especially considering that a number of Democratic mayors and governors have been clear they will not comply.
Mark my words! 250th anniversary of 1776 coming up, Trump will declare his administration the start of a "new American revolution" and will absolutely try to overwhelm the system in the first few days.
I’ve joined the ACLU, and I’m supporting them financially. I believe that they are the bulwark against the deportations and the unfair and illegal things that are going to be attempted in this country. I also joined an online group called “resist project 2025.”
Yes. Trump is too far out on the gangplank not to jump in. He has to do what he has said and promised so many times. The responses are going to be more than just interesting... vital.
I think back to the times in which allegation of an affair or anything considered immoral resulted in a candidate immediately being disqualified any disappearing from the political scene- how low politics has become, to be in a time where all of the picks (as well as the head) have this in common. There seems to be little morality in the current Republican Party
Daily tantrums, daily crises—the Trump circus is back in town, pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
He's not even hiding behind a curtain. He's loud and proud about his treason.
But safe, again, in courts … where he is now totally immune.
We need journalists to keep an inventory of our well-being now so we can use it for the next election to more knowledgeably answer the question that was posed....."are you better off now.."....There are, surprise, surprise, issues more important to our well-being than the price of eggs and bacon...but people didn't hear them. I hope journalists, with their access to data, will keep reminding us...gee, when Biden was in office this is what we had...look at what we don't have anymore....Trump has SUCHth a flawed personality, but his acolytes don't care; they seem to relish that. But grocery prices or gas prices? Well gas is low, but that has become irrelevant, it seems....Keep presenting simple facts about what Biden did for us, e..g union membership, etc...employment, and giving us direct comparisons......that show we actually are BETTER OFF (which the research shows) in economies run by Democrats than by Republicans....