Great recap, Public Notice… I keep thinking we need to hear from Jack Smith… How do we get him in front of Congress? Does Epstein appear in any of his investigations? Can we connect this to any of Trump’s treasonous behavior? The dots are all connecting to one conclusion…. 47 will do anything to stay out of prison.
That image says everything: the archaic world is still in charge, and cruelty remains the currency of power.
A wannabe Authoritarian Standing shoulder to shoulder with Middle Eastern dictators isn’t just optics, it’s a behavioral signal.
The performance of dominance, the rejection of accountability, the ritual of shamelessness…all of it is inherited, rehearsed, and exported.
In my recent piece The Farce of Justice: Built on Women’s Pain, I trace how this same architecture plays out in the U.S. justice system. Women are punished for surviving violence. Vulnerability is criminalized. Meanwhile, powerful men (whether celebrities or heads of state) walk away untouched. The system doesn’t malfunction. It performs exactly as designed.
This article makes clear that Trump’s lame duck status doesn’t mean retreat, it means consolidation. He’s aligning with regimes that treat dissent as treason and cruelty as law. That photo isn’t incidental. It’s a portrait of the world we’re still living in: archaic, patriarchal, and shamelessly authoritarian.
The question now isn’t whether we see it. It’s whether we’re ready to dismantle it. Not just the figureheads, but the architecture itself…the rituals, the incentives, the inherited machinery of domination.
We name the farce.
We refuse its terms.
And we build something that doesn’t require cruelty to function.
Everything you laid out so well here is a reason why it was RIGHT to end the shutdown. The GOP can’t get out of their own way. Extending the subsidies was the obviously correct political move but they were not going to do it. Without getting back in session, Johnson would have kept AG out and none of the rest unfolds. And Schumer, who everyone wanted out, played the Epstein bill perfectly. They are on a roll, finally.
Wrong, wrong and wrong. Capitulating when all the winds were blowing in one direction was foolish. Dems could have gotten all of this AND protected ACA subsidies if they'd just held out a little longer. Instead they gave away the very thing that was the reason for the shutdown to begin with.
It is NEVER EVER correct to submit to Donald Trump - never.
I just disagree. He's been nothing but on his heels ever since, and the GOP was NOT going to give in on the subsidies. I think it is going to really hurt them and cracks are finally showing in GOP solidarity to him.
I admit that I was positively livid at the 7 Dems and 1 Indie who joined the MAGAts to end the recent government shutdown. However, it seems that they just might have facilitated one of the most stunning political turn of events we've witnessed in very long time. Opening the government compelled the sycophantic Little Mikie "Bible Thumper" Johnson to swear in Rep Adelita Grijalva who immediately signed the discharge petition to release the Epstein (or Trump) files. That single signature unleashed a tsunami of support (except for Louisiana's idiot whose name shall not be mentioned here) that no one could have predicted. Granted, the "ongoing investigation" loophole is concerning but for one brief moment, the legislative branch seems to have grown a spine. May this be the beginning of more orange-tinted caving to come.
Rs would have had to open the House anyway as effects of the shutdown compelled their own constituents to turn on them. EVERYTHING was moving in Dems favor and had they simply waited a bit longer the Rs would have capitulated. Those thinking surrender was somehow a good thing are showing why Dems can never have anything nice. That was pure surrender and gave away ACA subsidies for NOTHING.
Cannot believe folks on here are thinking that capitulating on the shutdown without getting a single thing in return was somehow a smart move.
What you are calling 'capitulation' was a well-planned strategic retreat that then forced MAGA to be the ones that actually capitulated. If you think that DJT would have ever agreed to ACA credits, fully funding SNAP, restore Medicaid cuts, restore flights at airports around the country, etc because of the shutdown, then you are flying in an alternate universe. Come down to earth and enjoy the positive results from resuming government funding. And don't forget that January 30th is right around the corner. It's time to stop bashing the eight Democrats + Schumer over what has turned out to be intelligent planning.
With Trump’s nakedness being increasingly shown, it begs the question: Who inherits the scepter? Vance? Unacceptable to MAGA, methinks. Vought? Too squirrelly. Who?
Polls currently show Vance most likely. But Rs face a massive problem post-Trump....only Trump really inspired the MAGA crowd. No one else who has tried the Trump template has revved up the red meat base like Trump. And Trump was never truly popular.
Add the fact any traditional pol (Rubio,etc) will be tainted from enabling Trump and the Rs face a real problem. About the only thing they'll have going for them is widespread mistrust/hatred of anything that sniffs of the Democratic party.
I think that Vance is not well respected by the MAGA cult … nor anyone else. His friendship with AfD is bothersome, as is his defense of those bigoted New Republicans. Not to mention his wife—to the CNats she’s the wrong religion, and the wrong color. Did I mention “beardo”?
Great recap, Public Notice… I keep thinking we need to hear from Jack Smith… How do we get him in front of Congress? Does Epstein appear in any of his investigations? Can we connect this to any of Trump’s treasonous behavior? The dots are all connecting to one conclusion…. 47 will do anything to stay out of prison.
That image says everything: the archaic world is still in charge, and cruelty remains the currency of power.
A wannabe Authoritarian Standing shoulder to shoulder with Middle Eastern dictators isn’t just optics, it’s a behavioral signal.
The performance of dominance, the rejection of accountability, the ritual of shamelessness…all of it is inherited, rehearsed, and exported.
In my recent piece The Farce of Justice: Built on Women’s Pain, I trace how this same architecture plays out in the U.S. justice system. Women are punished for surviving violence. Vulnerability is criminalized. Meanwhile, powerful men (whether celebrities or heads of state) walk away untouched. The system doesn’t malfunction. It performs exactly as designed.
This article makes clear that Trump’s lame duck status doesn’t mean retreat, it means consolidation. He’s aligning with regimes that treat dissent as treason and cruelty as law. That photo isn’t incidental. It’s a portrait of the world we’re still living in: archaic, patriarchal, and shamelessly authoritarian.
The question now isn’t whether we see it. It’s whether we’re ready to dismantle it. Not just the figureheads, but the architecture itself…the rituals, the incentives, the inherited machinery of domination.
We name the farce.
We refuse its terms.
And we build something that doesn’t require cruelty to function.
Stop the BS now, enough is enough!
—Johan
Rollins’s attack on SNAP “fraud” is about as convincing as Reagan’s “Welfare Queens” … and equally as racist.
Everything you laid out so well here is a reason why it was RIGHT to end the shutdown. The GOP can’t get out of their own way. Extending the subsidies was the obviously correct political move but they were not going to do it. Without getting back in session, Johnson would have kept AG out and none of the rest unfolds. And Schumer, who everyone wanted out, played the Epstein bill perfectly. They are on a roll, finally.
Wrong, wrong and wrong. Capitulating when all the winds were blowing in one direction was foolish. Dems could have gotten all of this AND protected ACA subsidies if they'd just held out a little longer. Instead they gave away the very thing that was the reason for the shutdown to begin with.
It is NEVER EVER correct to submit to Donald Trump - never.
I just disagree. He's been nothing but on his heels ever since, and the GOP was NOT going to give in on the subsidies. I think it is going to really hurt them and cracks are finally showing in GOP solidarity to him.
I admit that I was positively livid at the 7 Dems and 1 Indie who joined the MAGAts to end the recent government shutdown. However, it seems that they just might have facilitated one of the most stunning political turn of events we've witnessed in very long time. Opening the government compelled the sycophantic Little Mikie "Bible Thumper" Johnson to swear in Rep Adelita Grijalva who immediately signed the discharge petition to release the Epstein (or Trump) files. That single signature unleashed a tsunami of support (except for Louisiana's idiot whose name shall not be mentioned here) that no one could have predicted. Granted, the "ongoing investigation" loophole is concerning but for one brief moment, the legislative branch seems to have grown a spine. May this be the beginning of more orange-tinted caving to come.
Rs would have had to open the House anyway as effects of the shutdown compelled their own constituents to turn on them. EVERYTHING was moving in Dems favor and had they simply waited a bit longer the Rs would have capitulated. Those thinking surrender was somehow a good thing are showing why Dems can never have anything nice. That was pure surrender and gave away ACA subsidies for NOTHING.
Cannot believe folks on here are thinking that capitulating on the shutdown without getting a single thing in return was somehow a smart move.
What you are calling 'capitulation' was a well-planned strategic retreat that then forced MAGA to be the ones that actually capitulated. If you think that DJT would have ever agreed to ACA credits, fully funding SNAP, restore Medicaid cuts, restore flights at airports around the country, etc because of the shutdown, then you are flying in an alternate universe. Come down to earth and enjoy the positive results from resuming government funding. And don't forget that January 30th is right around the corner. It's time to stop bashing the eight Democrats + Schumer over what has turned out to be intelligent planning.
OMG "well planned strategic retreat".....you are delusional.
With Trump’s nakedness being increasingly shown, it begs the question: Who inherits the scepter? Vance? Unacceptable to MAGA, methinks. Vought? Too squirrelly. Who?
Polls currently show Vance most likely. But Rs face a massive problem post-Trump....only Trump really inspired the MAGA crowd. No one else who has tried the Trump template has revved up the red meat base like Trump. And Trump was never truly popular.
Add the fact any traditional pol (Rubio,etc) will be tainted from enabling Trump and the Rs face a real problem. About the only thing they'll have going for them is widespread mistrust/hatred of anything that sniffs of the Democratic party.
I think that Vance is not well respected by the MAGA cult … nor anyone else. His friendship with AfD is bothersome, as is his defense of those bigoted New Republicans. Not to mention his wife—to the CNats she’s the wrong religion, and the wrong color. Did I mention “beardo”?
You need to have a word with your spell-checker. "Political determinant" (Try "detriment")? "[A] political fissure Trump cannot undue" (Try "undo")?
A free-lancer friend says her ACA health insurance will cost $35K in 2026.