If they impeach Trump, we get Vance who is possibly scarier, or if they impeach Trump and Vance we get Johnson, also a Christian Nationalist. How do we right this ship?!
Vance is also openly against the rule of law. We can have a Christian nationalist in power who abides by the Constitution or is forced to do by sustained public and institutional pressure.
But “pressure” backed by what? If the penalty for violating the constitution was a swift promotion to the big chair, what on earth would be Vance’s motivation to return to a system of checks and balances?
I know it’s easy to say and hard to envision, but the people of this country need an independent institution of their own power, like unions once (sort of) were in this country.
What are steps you envision toward that? The fact is we are all instantly connected now by social media. Nothing else physical prevents a massive sharing of knowledge, which could happen very quickly.
Well, I’m a science fiction writer rather than an organizer or activist. But if I was plotting it out, it would look something like:
- the people in general, and opposition leadership in specific, observe that the mass protests (“50-50-1” etc) are not moving the needle
- the panoply of orgs agree to federate alongside some mainstream unions and groups like MoveOn, and decide on specific, far-reaching goals; i.e. not the pre-Trump status quo or the Democratic Party platform, but a New Bill of Rights with mass appeal
- the federation chooses notables like (say) Bernie/AOC and celebrities like (say) Jon Stewart and (say) Matthew McConaughey (I don’t actually know who are popular celebrities) as spokespeople to capture legacy/social media attention
- the federation establishes “dual power” institutions to provide services that government has failed to provide
- a general strike is planned INCLUDING provisions for precarious workers, the chronically ill etc to be fed/transported/cared for
- candidates for political office are pressured to support the people’s goals
- elected officials of whatever party are threatened with a mass shutdown of society unless and until progress is made
"The fact is we are all instantly connected now by social media. Nothing else physical prevents a massive sharing of knowledge, which could happen very quickly."
First, is a massive sharing of knowledge going to fix things?
Second, if all being connected by social media is what will facilitate fixing things, how come it hasn't worked yet?
Third, I can think of some factors that have prevented people from knowing about the important dynamics of what is going on, even though they are on social media. I hope other people can think of some too.
Fourth, just to point people to my top-level comment about 'DOGE Mag' print-it-yourself outreach project, because outreach to people offline is key. The "All Of US Directory" is also key, because anyone in the country can quickly find actual organizing to get involved with wherever they are.
First, massive sharing is just that— nothing requiring anyone to get off the couch.
Second, yes, we all speak the language, but again, there is no getting off the couch.
Third, nothing is happening because nothing is happening! We are all lumped together and crowded into impasse.
Fourth, ideally, someone comes up with a PLAN that has building blocks of plans that can be chosen by people who see that this particular block is something even I can do until I get where I can see some other building plan I can also do that I can use (maybe in harness with someone else’s block and THEIR plan).
There’s no substitute for a LEADER! And humans are particularly poor judges of who’s a leader and who’s an autocrat! I, by the way, am not a viable candidate for more than one reason, but I can think and I can write so if there is someone out there who can coldstart this wagon, I will gladly help them with plotting and communication.
I honest to god don't know WTH Vance really is, and suspect he's a hollow man, after TS Eliot's characterization of such men as harbingers of this epoch. Reading Hillbilly Elegy is so revealing of the pathos of a background such as his, and the lengths a child-man will go in reaction to it. For one thing, he seems to lack something that caring and present fathers provide at one pole of an intact family and/or community. Ditto the other pole provided by a mother. So he reaches out for daddy figures, and maybe mommy figures (his mother in law?) to fill the void. But as come-too-late phantoms, or images. He is so paper thin. Which is probably why he's malleable and approval-seeking toward seemingly confident people like Christian fundamentalists. For a long time now I've been saying, to the annoyance of others I suspect, that one thing can be always be said of anyone who embraces a fundamentalist religion is that they have a diagnosible anxiety disorder. Someone who has 'met' That which we call god for lack of a better vocabulary, can stand on their own two feet, which feet are rooted in an ongoing experience of the wholeness and holiness intrinsic to quantum reality. At any rate, if we were really clever in the event that Vance becomes the POTUS, we might introduce him to the works and maybe even the person(s) of grounded persons, in an effort to foster his relationship with them, which, over the long term, might have a salubrious effect. And meanwhile, scare the hell out of him with a threat of impeachment and incarceration should he step out of line with the law.
U R seeing the player’s clearly and your suggestions re introducing him to other gods and that he has an anxiety disorder which Trump is unconsciously attuned to are spot on but how to get that information to work as an agent of change? We are not power actors ourselves and even if we attract more expertise, we are not in any position to set a plan in motion. At least, not yet! We need to design a movement that has grow-power, trying not to scare anybody or alarm the crazies.
I'm talking hypothetically, but not necessarily insanely. At this point in time, possibility thinking (greenlighting) seems appropriate. As in someone might think of something on a tangent, and that might be refined by someone in a position to do something. Not saying we're the ones, my brother, but we can stir the pot.
Group think implies conformity, which would be antithetical to what I imagine might work. What I think might work is for a lot of creative minds allow for a seed question or proposal to germinate within them for a while and see what comes up, which will hopefully be shared in a forum like this one, or another. Creativity is messy and inchoate in the beginning. It's only in the later stages that the process kicks out useful directions.
Correct me if anyone doesn’t agree, but I see Vance as a doofus, subject to flattery, maybe educated beyond his intellectual capacity! Anyway, he’s for AFTER Trump leaves office. In chess, he would be a castle.
I’m okay with the Christian Nationalist (for now) if he is vulnerable to public/institutional pressure. I think he might be if he weren’t strapped to Trump. How to Esperanza them?
While Vance is smarter and very threatening to the Constitution, he doesn’t seem to have the MAGA loyalty. Trump is the charismatic leader of a megacult—without him the base might just dissolve. The key is not to make a martyr out of Trump while getting him out.
Yes, vance has no charisma at all. But don’t forget his techbro handlers are quite aware of that, and yet still plan for him to be their trump replacement. They’ve got something up their sleeves that makes me very uneasy.
I think it’s a given that some major players aim to corral V for their own use! They will let him think he’s the Godfather until they have a move they want to make. I don’t know how long it will take V to figure out he’s being played or if he will care overmuch as long as he gets to be upfront in the photos!
U R right, he doesn’t have a loyal fan club, and he will fall away from Trump if somehow T falls into disrepute. V is offstage if T disappears as he has no mojo of his own.
Yes, V doesn’t have the Superman cachet of T nor the wiliness to be a natural leader. He will fall away from T if T is tripped up. I don’t see him as a leader of men!
I don’t like Vance either, but he doesn’t carry the power that Trump has, even if he were POTUS. He wouldn’t get away with what Trump is doing. Johnson wouldn’t have the balls so he’s my pick at this point.
I agree with your points, but it’s Thiel and the Dark Enlightenment bros behind Vance or the Heritage Foundation behind Johnson that make me concerned about those two. I think we’d have to clean house!
Vance is only slightly more brainy than Trump but probably more interested in money. I dream of a plan that tempts Trump and Vance to “better’ things. Maybe more of an international role? Is T. still to be tempted by money? V. certainly is!
My concern is Thiel and he is smarter than all of them, and lacking a conscience. We are navigating multiple factions who all want control, and this is a uniquely precarious moment.
Margot: I agree Thiel is all that you said but he is a total unknown except for being obviously scary which probably makes him proud! If he has strings attached to players and he is wily enough to keep his head down. We may have to deal with him sometime in the future but he is smarter than any of the players currently on the board. Could be truly dangerous.
Theil is pretty well known and has made no secret of his agenda to disempower those who don't share his white supremacist, misogynistic and technocratic beliefs and goals. He calls himself a Christian, but I think that might be a smoke screen. He is, by the way, also homosexual, which is interesting in a deeply psychological way. Probably self-hating and overcompensating. But who knows. Not sure if Thiel is really all that smart, as he lacks emotional intelligence, a major part of any holistic definition of intelligence.
Actually cretin is a form of the word Christian and was because people with mental retardation who were being bullied or called out for being possessed by devils would cry “je suis Christian “ but often mispronounce the word. True fact
"We all must make it part of our lives right now to reach out to people who are not following the developments and make them aware of the severity of what's happening. Whatever it takes to get this on people’s radar."
Please, please start using and sharing the "Print/Distro-It-Yourself" project www.linktr.ee/DOGEmag, if you agree with the sentiment in the quote.
It is there for exactly that purpose: as a tool people can print flyers from to hand out offline. Talking to people is good, but this is an additional method, something solid you can put in their hands, which they can read on their own and can also link them in to more. And you can hand them out to many people, you don't need to have conversations with everyone. But a lot of the people you hand them to, will appreciate it.
The print materials are from a variety of political sources, gathered together into one collection to collectively promote resistance to the regime: make it more visible offline, make it more accessible offline. If the concept makes sense, is there anything stopping you from doing it?
What you are facing as a nation is an irreversible process of your downfall with its consequent dismantling and collapse of the very structure which America had built over the past 200 years, if not more. The people in your government are actually the facilitators of what is inevitable, if something new is to arise. The forces behind this process use the alienated corrupt minds of its representatives to bring down the house of Usher . A nation can not stand on the roots that are decaying.
Watching in horrified disbelief from this side of the pond, especially that some 40% of Americans still support all this, often apparently to be sure of being on the winning side and to upset the 'Libs'. It will requite a sea change in understanding our mutual interdependence to move on from this polarisation - but there is no option to trusting that it is possible.
Maybe a swan, not a beast, is slouching toward Bethlehem, Erica. I will be holding onto hope unless and until something else is proved to be true. We sometimes learn from opposition, after all. That the status quo is on its last legs seems evident. And probably necessary. But now is the time to take hold of the future, and there are larger parts of the population who don't see the solution as Trump does, even if their discontents are as deep. Take heart. We ain't done yet.
When would Trump jump the shark? When would he cross the red line and lose critical popular support? Until now, the answer has been never. No red line, no shark jumping - choose your favorite idiom. One of the only truly honest & insightful things the Queens Pig has ever said was when he remarked that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Ave. and not lose any support. But now we are seeing multiple polls putting his approval rating in the low 40th percentile, the lowest for any US president at the 100 day mark in the last 80 years. Why might this be? Likely, it is the critical mass of lawless actions combined with the one great misstep in his political career as regards the support of his voters: He is fucking the economy with his bizarre and delusional tariff policy combined with the economic fallout of his harassment of our allies, his mass layoffs of federal workers and his gutting of federal programs that affect people economically.
Culturally, Americans are enthusiastically - even reverentially - capitalist, and many citizens only vote based on whether or not "the economy is doing well" for them personally. Many Americans will accept any state crime and any amount of moral degradation and malice from their politicians, as long as they are personally unaffected or gaining economically. Perhaps this is where the hubris of the Queens Pig finally boomerangs around to defeat him. His demented affinity for the Gilded Age and its ruthless economic policies may be forcing him to fail in the one domain where even his self-centered supporters will not permit him to fail: in the realm of the economy. His popularity is suddenly vulnerable and, as a result, his support among Republicans in Congress is *beginning* to feel less stable, as well.
We keep up the pressure on our reps in Congress, in the street, through our art and all our forms of expression and solidarity. We may be seeing the Queens Pig begin to teeter for same reason all authoritarians ultimately do: their own delusions and sense of invincibility undermine them.
Every single post is drowning in fear. Might be worth thinking about how the algorithms really, really want us all to be worked up, enraged, and fearful at all times.
Yesterday my fiance ran a half-marathon. The weather was beautiful. Then we had brunch with friends. Life continues to go on despite what we may think when we're staring at our screens all the time.
And if you really do want change, or "resistance", maybe try resisting what the algorithm wants, how it taps into the deepest darkest corners of our brains to motivate with fear; and instead try the opposite approach - attempting to genuinely understand and love our enemies.
I like your work David, but some of what you say is way behind. I'm a whistleblower who has been aware this day would come since 2022, and focused since then on the functional nullification of rule of law along with all checks and balances. The false assumption of institutional functionality such as the utility of impeachment and there existing levers within established mechanisms to stop this is a dangerous delusion. I'm happy to tell you more if you find me on Signal. Most of what the public needed to know over the last three years never made the news due to advanced erosions of the free press.
Look you’re just going to have to wake up. Trump is fighting a battle alongside all other countries behind the scenes. There’s an evil that has us all imprisoned and that evil is within our legal system. Our legal system is shit the judges within it most are evil. The police are evil they harass they murder the shit the judges don’t us is mortifying. Look at your birth certificate and see your name In all capital letters that’s because you are not viewed as a living person . The law sees and treats you as a cooperation. Do some digging before you write this shit your writing because it makes you part of the problem. Dig in and wake the fuck up!! Now!!
God, it’s all so overwhelming, isn’t it? I too watched Douthat’s podcast interview with the AI 2027 guy, and I’m keeping abreast of all the Trump awfulness. It feels all of a piece: the human race devouring itself, as we face existential climate collapse. I feel totally anxious and despairing. Because even if you remove AI from the equation; even if you erase Trump and global fascists, you still have existential climate collapse and late-stage capitalism run amok. I feel sick. I can’t sleep. I love life, I love this Earth, I can’t believe we are here, but fuck. It feels like it’s Game Over.
"This is illegal and without precedent in American history."
No it's not. Judges doing illegal stuff have always been (occasionally) arrested.
These judges were protecting foreign criminals from the law. even to the extreme of whisking the criminal about to be sentenced for domestic abuse from the courtroom.
Why are you feeding the hysterics?
I think the feds were wrong to stalk the courtroom. But that does not make the judge's actions sane or legal. And the guy in NM? Puh-lease.
Okay but like, can you comment on Taoism and how it relates here? As the video about Palantir quotes from Karp’s mouth: they have no trouble being hated. Trump is an entity fueled by liberal hate, so hating him more loudly or actively actually serves to fuel him even more. You say you don’t know what to do, but you also saying ignoring it is in the interest of these fascists, but I don’t know that you’re correct. I mention Taoism because it seems like focusing on news (judicial arrests etc) is not exactly the move. Instead, trusting the fall of the American way of life is inevitable and ultimately good frees us up to get radical, loving, and safe in the way we manage our money and our relationships. No more stock market, no more 401ks, no more partaking in the system that leeches from us for war. And more building resilient communities and a resilient earth. Taoism doesn’t FIGHT the enemy, in my understanding, it redirects the enemy to fight itself.
"Regime". All your word choices skew towards more political division. As if the 2party system were functional and proper, with zero acknowledgement that deliberate acts throughout the decades quashed other "parties" to participate. Your focus on "two judges arrested oh my unprecedented!!" Is misguided and no wonder it made the trumpie happy---those judges defend the rights of criminals comjng into our country who are refugees from nothing, all 20million of them.
Face it, you only know what your government wants you to know by what you see on your phone.
This country is stupidly allowing the oldest trick in the fascist cookbook---dividing the people.
I just finished reading an article in The Nation that opened as follows: “University students snatched off the streets and spirited away by plainclothes agents of the state. So-called “enemy aliens” shipped to a Central American prison with no semblance of due process. AI-fueled witch hunts against dissidents.” I found this last sentence as troubling as the first two. If you Daniel or anyone here has any links or info to share about this use of AI, please post here. I will put my journalist hat on and follow up.
The article (link below) also states that “there was a legal architecture in place for Trump to exploit it”. IMO this architecture or darker substrate in our political history also needs to be probed deeply.
Thank you Daniel, for this powerful post and for your daily passionate wake up calls, investigations and urgent pleas.
I just received this from Roots Action:
“The U.S. is in a national crisis brought on by and essentially consisting of a shortage of actually representative government.
But at the local level, we still have many cities, counties, and towns that to various degrees and in various ways answer to public demand.
This means that we can use a powerful democratic tool to apply more pressure to the national government -- a tool that has helped numerous campaigns succeed at the national level over many years.
It is called the local resolution.
The town of Lansing, New York, recently passed a resolution titled "RESOLUTION FOR THE TOWN OF LANSING TOWN SUPERVISOR TO SEND REQUEST TO NEW YORK’S FEDERAL AND STATE ELECTED OFFICIALS TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF CITIZENS."
“Today, as we birth the Symbiotic Age, we can draw inspiration from these historical models and expand them into a truly global, interconnected network of autonomous, Symbiotic Communities.
Rather than simply resisting dominant systems, the goal of Symbiotic Culture is to create entirely new paradigms of existence—ones that nurture cooperation over competition, interdependence over isolation, and shared abundance over imposed scarcity.”
As Václav Benda wrote, authoritarianism thrives on “the atomization of society, the mutual isolation of individuals, and the destruction of all bonds and verities which might enable them to relate to some sort of higher whole and meaning.”
The Symbiotic Age seeks to heal this fracture, rekindling the deep relational networks that define a truly human existence.
By embracing the spirit of the parallel polis, the wisdom of movements like Sarvodaya, and the technological and social innovations of Symbiotic Networks, we stand at the threshold of a new world—one not dictated by systems of control, but woven from the threads of collaboration, spirituality, and collective flourishing.”
If they impeach Trump, we get Vance who is possibly scarier, or if they impeach Trump and Vance we get Johnson, also a Christian Nationalist. How do we right this ship?!
Vance is also openly against the rule of law. We can have a Christian nationalist in power who abides by the Constitution or is forced to do by sustained public and institutional pressure.
I remain hopeful we will get to the other side of this and be able to re-envision and strengthen our systems so we don’t end up here again.
Yes, Margot. That is the dream for the future but we can’t get there from here! We have to re-configure our trajectory!
But “pressure” backed by what? If the penalty for violating the constitution was a swift promotion to the big chair, what on earth would be Vance’s motivation to return to a system of checks and balances?
I know it’s easy to say and hard to envision, but the people of this country need an independent institution of their own power, like unions once (sort of) were in this country.
What are steps you envision toward that? The fact is we are all instantly connected now by social media. Nothing else physical prevents a massive sharing of knowledge, which could happen very quickly.
Well, I’m a science fiction writer rather than an organizer or activist. But if I was plotting it out, it would look something like:
- the people in general, and opposition leadership in specific, observe that the mass protests (“50-50-1” etc) are not moving the needle
- the panoply of orgs agree to federate alongside some mainstream unions and groups like MoveOn, and decide on specific, far-reaching goals; i.e. not the pre-Trump status quo or the Democratic Party platform, but a New Bill of Rights with mass appeal
- the federation chooses notables like (say) Bernie/AOC and celebrities like (say) Jon Stewart and (say) Matthew McConaughey (I don’t actually know who are popular celebrities) as spokespeople to capture legacy/social media attention
- the federation establishes “dual power” institutions to provide services that government has failed to provide
- a general strike is planned INCLUDING provisions for precarious workers, the chronically ill etc to be fed/transported/cared for
- candidates for political office are pressured to support the people’s goals
- elected officials of whatever party are threatened with a mass shutdown of society unless and until progress is made
Something like that…
Yeah. Something like that. And it will evolve from the middle ground in both directions, methinks.
"The fact is we are all instantly connected now by social media. Nothing else physical prevents a massive sharing of knowledge, which could happen very quickly."
First, is a massive sharing of knowledge going to fix things?
Second, if all being connected by social media is what will facilitate fixing things, how come it hasn't worked yet?
Third, I can think of some factors that have prevented people from knowing about the important dynamics of what is going on, even though they are on social media. I hope other people can think of some too.
Fourth, just to point people to my top-level comment about 'DOGE Mag' print-it-yourself outreach project, because outreach to people offline is key. The "All Of US Directory" is also key, because anyone in the country can quickly find actual organizing to get involved with wherever they are.
First, massive sharing is just that— nothing requiring anyone to get off the couch.
Second, yes, we all speak the language, but again, there is no getting off the couch.
Third, nothing is happening because nothing is happening! We are all lumped together and crowded into impasse.
Fourth, ideally, someone comes up with a PLAN that has building blocks of plans that can be chosen by people who see that this particular block is something even I can do until I get where I can see some other building plan I can also do that I can use (maybe in harness with someone else’s block and THEIR plan).
There’s no substitute for a LEADER! And humans are particularly poor judges of who’s a leader and who’s an autocrat! I, by the way, am not a viable candidate for more than one reason, but I can think and I can write so if there is someone out there who can coldstart this wagon, I will gladly help them with plotting and communication.
Probably, legislating capital punishment laws to right these wrongs is off the table so they don’t need to be in the equation.
How about forfeiture of any public office here on?
I honest to god don't know WTH Vance really is, and suspect he's a hollow man, after TS Eliot's characterization of such men as harbingers of this epoch. Reading Hillbilly Elegy is so revealing of the pathos of a background such as his, and the lengths a child-man will go in reaction to it. For one thing, he seems to lack something that caring and present fathers provide at one pole of an intact family and/or community. Ditto the other pole provided by a mother. So he reaches out for daddy figures, and maybe mommy figures (his mother in law?) to fill the void. But as come-too-late phantoms, or images. He is so paper thin. Which is probably why he's malleable and approval-seeking toward seemingly confident people like Christian fundamentalists. For a long time now I've been saying, to the annoyance of others I suspect, that one thing can be always be said of anyone who embraces a fundamentalist religion is that they have a diagnosible anxiety disorder. Someone who has 'met' That which we call god for lack of a better vocabulary, can stand on their own two feet, which feet are rooted in an ongoing experience of the wholeness and holiness intrinsic to quantum reality. At any rate, if we were really clever in the event that Vance becomes the POTUS, we might introduce him to the works and maybe even the person(s) of grounded persons, in an effort to foster his relationship with them, which, over the long term, might have a salubrious effect. And meanwhile, scare the hell out of him with a threat of impeachment and incarceration should he step out of line with the law.
U R seeing the player’s clearly and your suggestions re introducing him to other gods and that he has an anxiety disorder which Trump is unconsciously attuned to are spot on but how to get that information to work as an agent of change? We are not power actors ourselves and even if we attract more expertise, we are not in any position to set a plan in motion. At least, not yet! We need to design a movement that has grow-power, trying not to scare anybody or alarm the crazies.
I'm talking hypothetically, but not necessarily insanely. At this point in time, possibility thinking (greenlighting) seems appropriate. As in someone might think of something on a tangent, and that might be refined by someone in a position to do something. Not saying we're the ones, my brother, but we can stir the pot.
The whole idea for group think! How else could it be done?
Group think implies conformity, which would be antithetical to what I imagine might work. What I think might work is for a lot of creative minds allow for a seed question or proposal to germinate within them for a while and see what comes up, which will hopefully be shared in a forum like this one, or another. Creativity is messy and inchoate in the beginning. It's only in the later stages that the process kicks out useful directions.
How does one citizen participate in the “pressure” you speak of?
That is probably what the plan for righting this wrong will have to just accept as a non-starter.
Correct me if anyone doesn’t agree, but I see Vance as a doofus, subject to flattery, maybe educated beyond his intellectual capacity! Anyway, he’s for AFTER Trump leaves office. In chess, he would be a castle.
Not a bishop?
Nah, straight lines til ya drop or crash!
You mean lines at right angles to the grid. Bishops move in straight lines on the diagonal!
I never win at chess!
I’m okay with the Christian Nationalist (for now) if he is vulnerable to public/institutional pressure. I think he might be if he weren’t strapped to Trump. How to Esperanza them?
Esperanza them! AI strikes again! Seperate is the word needed.
Ha ha ha. Maybe a cosmic AI! Look up Esperanza.
While Vance is smarter and very threatening to the Constitution, he doesn’t seem to have the MAGA loyalty. Trump is the charismatic leader of a megacult—without him the base might just dissolve. The key is not to make a martyr out of Trump while getting him out.
I fully agree with all of this.
Yes, vance has no charisma at all. But don’t forget his techbro handlers are quite aware of that, and yet still plan for him to be their trump replacement. They’ve got something up their sleeves that makes me very uneasy.
Hmmm, good point. Hungry ghosts never sleep…
I think it’s a given that some major players aim to corral V for their own use! They will let him think he’s the Godfather until they have a move they want to make. I don’t know how long it will take V to figure out he’s being played or if he will care overmuch as long as he gets to be upfront in the photos!
My guess is they plan to play him like a puppet!
U R right, he doesn’t have a loyal fan club, and he will fall away from Trump if somehow T falls into disrepute. V is offstage if T disappears as he has no mojo of his own.
Yes, V doesn’t have the Superman cachet of T nor the wiliness to be a natural leader. He will fall away from T if T is tripped up. I don’t see him as a leader of men!
Absolutely! But I’m getting a secret thrill thinking about the headlines!
I don’t like Vance either, but he doesn’t carry the power that Trump has, even if he were POTUS. He wouldn’t get away with what Trump is doing. Johnson wouldn’t have the balls so he’s my pick at this point.
Corey Booker live outside the capitol— on the steps— rallying the people. Live. I can feel the beginning…https://www.youtube.com/live/5ceR90lihX8?feature=shared
YES!
Share it and tell your friends, MARGOT
Already done!
I agree with your points, but it’s Thiel and the Dark Enlightenment bros behind Vance or the Heritage Foundation behind Johnson that make me concerned about those two. I think we’d have to clean house!
Vance is only slightly more brainy than Trump but probably more interested in money. I dream of a plan that tempts Trump and Vance to “better’ things. Maybe more of an international role? Is T. still to be tempted by money? V. certainly is!
My concern is Thiel and he is smarter than all of them, and lacking a conscience. We are navigating multiple factions who all want control, and this is a uniquely precarious moment.
Margot: I agree Thiel is all that you said but he is a total unknown except for being obviously scary which probably makes him proud! If he has strings attached to players and he is wily enough to keep his head down. We may have to deal with him sometime in the future but he is smarter than any of the players currently on the board. Could be truly dangerous.
Theil is pretty well known and has made no secret of his agenda to disempower those who don't share his white supremacist, misogynistic and technocratic beliefs and goals. He calls himself a Christian, but I think that might be a smoke screen. He is, by the way, also homosexual, which is interesting in a deeply psychological way. Probably self-hating and overcompensating. But who knows. Not sure if Thiel is really all that smart, as he lacks emotional intelligence, a major part of any holistic definition of intelligence.
That or he misspelled cretin!
Actually cretin is a form of the word Christian and was because people with mental retardation who were being bullied or called out for being possessed by devils would cry “je suis Christian “ but often mispronounce the word. True fact
lMAO, thanks!
Impeachment now seems weak, seeing how little effect on Trump it has had!
"We all must make it part of our lives right now to reach out to people who are not following the developments and make them aware of the severity of what's happening. Whatever it takes to get this on people’s radar."
Please, please start using and sharing the "Print/Distro-It-Yourself" project www.linktr.ee/DOGEmag, if you agree with the sentiment in the quote.
It is there for exactly that purpose: as a tool people can print flyers from to hand out offline. Talking to people is good, but this is an additional method, something solid you can put in their hands, which they can read on their own and can also link them in to more. And you can hand them out to many people, you don't need to have conversations with everyone. But a lot of the people you hand them to, will appreciate it.
The print materials are from a variety of political sources, gathered together into one collection to collectively promote resistance to the regime: make it more visible offline, make it more accessible offline. If the concept makes sense, is there anything stopping you from doing it?
What you are facing as a nation is an irreversible process of your downfall with its consequent dismantling and collapse of the very structure which America had built over the past 200 years, if not more. The people in your government are actually the facilitators of what is inevitable, if something new is to arise. The forces behind this process use the alienated corrupt minds of its representatives to bring down the house of Usher . A nation can not stand on the roots that are decaying.
Watching in horrified disbelief from this side of the pond, especially that some 40% of Americans still support all this, often apparently to be sure of being on the winning side and to upset the 'Libs'. It will requite a sea change in understanding our mutual interdependence to move on from this polarisation - but there is no option to trusting that it is possible.
Maybe a swan, not a beast, is slouching toward Bethlehem, Erica. I will be holding onto hope unless and until something else is proved to be true. We sometimes learn from opposition, after all. That the status quo is on its last legs seems evident. And probably necessary. But now is the time to take hold of the future, and there are larger parts of the population who don't see the solution as Trump does, even if their discontents are as deep. Take heart. We ain't done yet.
When would Trump jump the shark? When would he cross the red line and lose critical popular support? Until now, the answer has been never. No red line, no shark jumping - choose your favorite idiom. One of the only truly honest & insightful things the Queens Pig has ever said was when he remarked that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Ave. and not lose any support. But now we are seeing multiple polls putting his approval rating in the low 40th percentile, the lowest for any US president at the 100 day mark in the last 80 years. Why might this be? Likely, it is the critical mass of lawless actions combined with the one great misstep in his political career as regards the support of his voters: He is fucking the economy with his bizarre and delusional tariff policy combined with the economic fallout of his harassment of our allies, his mass layoffs of federal workers and his gutting of federal programs that affect people economically.
Culturally, Americans are enthusiastically - even reverentially - capitalist, and many citizens only vote based on whether or not "the economy is doing well" for them personally. Many Americans will accept any state crime and any amount of moral degradation and malice from their politicians, as long as they are personally unaffected or gaining economically. Perhaps this is where the hubris of the Queens Pig finally boomerangs around to defeat him. His demented affinity for the Gilded Age and its ruthless economic policies may be forcing him to fail in the one domain where even his self-centered supporters will not permit him to fail: in the realm of the economy. His popularity is suddenly vulnerable and, as a result, his support among Republicans in Congress is *beginning* to feel less stable, as well.
We keep up the pressure on our reps in Congress, in the street, through our art and all our forms of expression and solidarity. We may be seeing the Queens Pig begin to teeter for same reason all authoritarians ultimately do: their own delusions and sense of invincibility undermine them.
Every single post is drowning in fear. Might be worth thinking about how the algorithms really, really want us all to be worked up, enraged, and fearful at all times.
Yesterday my fiance ran a half-marathon. The weather was beautiful. Then we had brunch with friends. Life continues to go on despite what we may think when we're staring at our screens all the time.
And if you really do want change, or "resistance", maybe try resisting what the algorithm wants, how it taps into the deepest darkest corners of our brains to motivate with fear; and instead try the opposite approach - attempting to genuinely understand and love our enemies.
I like your work David, but some of what you say is way behind. I'm a whistleblower who has been aware this day would come since 2022, and focused since then on the functional nullification of rule of law along with all checks and balances. The false assumption of institutional functionality such as the utility of impeachment and there existing levers within established mechanisms to stop this is a dangerous delusion. I'm happy to tell you more if you find me on Signal. Most of what the public needed to know over the last three years never made the news due to advanced erosions of the free press.
Look you’re just going to have to wake up. Trump is fighting a battle alongside all other countries behind the scenes. There’s an evil that has us all imprisoned and that evil is within our legal system. Our legal system is shit the judges within it most are evil. The police are evil they harass they murder the shit the judges don’t us is mortifying. Look at your birth certificate and see your name In all capital letters that’s because you are not viewed as a living person . The law sees and treats you as a cooperation. Do some digging before you write this shit your writing because it makes you part of the problem. Dig in and wake the fuck up!! Now!!
Totally agree Michael Nelson. He is so busy supporting a political party line he cannot report nor discuss larger implications.
Chilling. Sometimes I wonder if I am paranoid, but I think my fears are warranted. Protest!
God, it’s all so overwhelming, isn’t it? I too watched Douthat’s podcast interview with the AI 2027 guy, and I’m keeping abreast of all the Trump awfulness. It feels all of a piece: the human race devouring itself, as we face existential climate collapse. I feel totally anxious and despairing. Because even if you remove AI from the equation; even if you erase Trump and global fascists, you still have existential climate collapse and late-stage capitalism run amok. I feel sick. I can’t sleep. I love life, I love this Earth, I can’t believe we are here, but fuck. It feels like it’s Game Over.
"This is illegal and without precedent in American history."
No it's not. Judges doing illegal stuff have always been (occasionally) arrested.
These judges were protecting foreign criminals from the law. even to the extreme of whisking the criminal about to be sentenced for domestic abuse from the courtroom.
Why are you feeding the hysterics?
I think the feds were wrong to stalk the courtroom. But that does not make the judge's actions sane or legal. And the guy in NM? Puh-lease.
Okay but like, can you comment on Taoism and how it relates here? As the video about Palantir quotes from Karp’s mouth: they have no trouble being hated. Trump is an entity fueled by liberal hate, so hating him more loudly or actively actually serves to fuel him even more. You say you don’t know what to do, but you also saying ignoring it is in the interest of these fascists, but I don’t know that you’re correct. I mention Taoism because it seems like focusing on news (judicial arrests etc) is not exactly the move. Instead, trusting the fall of the American way of life is inevitable and ultimately good frees us up to get radical, loving, and safe in the way we manage our money and our relationships. No more stock market, no more 401ks, no more partaking in the system that leeches from us for war. And more building resilient communities and a resilient earth. Taoism doesn’t FIGHT the enemy, in my understanding, it redirects the enemy to fight itself.
"Regime". All your word choices skew towards more political division. As if the 2party system were functional and proper, with zero acknowledgement that deliberate acts throughout the decades quashed other "parties" to participate. Your focus on "two judges arrested oh my unprecedented!!" Is misguided and no wonder it made the trumpie happy---those judges defend the rights of criminals comjng into our country who are refugees from nothing, all 20million of them.
Face it, you only know what your government wants you to know by what you see on your phone.
This country is stupidly allowing the oldest trick in the fascist cookbook---dividing the people.
I just finished reading an article in The Nation that opened as follows: “University students snatched off the streets and spirited away by plainclothes agents of the state. So-called “enemy aliens” shipped to a Central American prison with no semblance of due process. AI-fueled witch hunts against dissidents.” I found this last sentence as troubling as the first two. If you Daniel or anyone here has any links or info to share about this use of AI, please post here. I will put my journalist hat on and follow up.
The article (link below) also states that “there was a legal architecture in place for Trump to exploit it”. IMO this architecture or darker substrate in our political history also needs to be probed deeply.
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/trumps-immigration-laws/
Thank you for keeping us informed in this barrage of distraction. Your words are so important, I will share them far and wide.
https://open.substack.com/pub/morfmorford/p/multiple-choice-2025-style?r=9hujo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Thank you Daniel, for this powerful post and for your daily passionate wake up calls, investigations and urgent pleas.
I just received this from Roots Action:
“The U.S. is in a national crisis brought on by and essentially consisting of a shortage of actually representative government.
But at the local level, we still have many cities, counties, and towns that to various degrees and in various ways answer to public demand.
This means that we can use a powerful democratic tool to apply more pressure to the national government -- a tool that has helped numerous campaigns succeed at the national level over many years.
It is called the local resolution.
The town of Lansing, New York, recently passed a resolution titled "RESOLUTION FOR THE TOWN OF LANSING TOWN SUPERVISOR TO SEND REQUEST TO NEW YORK’S FEDERAL AND STATE ELECTED OFFICIALS TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF CITIZENS."
Here is the text of that excellent resolution. https://default.salsalabs.org/T9841776e-b397-4d7c-afba-16811977a5d6/a84e4d2f-6aa3-479c-b759-697855f6e8c8
Here is a one-page fact-sheet addressing common objections from local officials to passing resolutions on national issues. https://default.salsalabs.org/T53658834-accd-4ecb-8299-5dbff47bb850/a84e4d2f-6aa3-479c-b759-697855f6e8c8
Here is the RootsAction DIY petition site that you can use to build a petition in support of your local resolution. https://default.salsalabs.org/Ta9b7f8e2-70d4-48ce-9636-5a63ef19cd2b/a84e4d2f-6aa3-479c-b759-697855f6e8c8 “
Another “around the system” approach: Have you heard of the work Richard Flyer is doing and his Birthing the Symbiotic Age book? He has a Substack page here. https://open.substack.com/pub/richardflyer?r=nwll&utm_medium=ios
“Today, as we birth the Symbiotic Age, we can draw inspiration from these historical models and expand them into a truly global, interconnected network of autonomous, Symbiotic Communities.
Rather than simply resisting dominant systems, the goal of Symbiotic Culture is to create entirely new paradigms of existence—ones that nurture cooperation over competition, interdependence over isolation, and shared abundance over imposed scarcity.”
As Václav Benda wrote, authoritarianism thrives on “the atomization of society, the mutual isolation of individuals, and the destruction of all bonds and verities which might enable them to relate to some sort of higher whole and meaning.”
The Symbiotic Age seeks to heal this fracture, rekindling the deep relational networks that define a truly human existence.
By embracing the spirit of the parallel polis, the wisdom of movements like Sarvodaya, and the technological and social innovations of Symbiotic Networks, we stand at the threshold of a new world—one not dictated by systems of control, but woven from the threads of collaboration, spirituality, and collective flourishing.”