Trump is escalating abroad, targeting vulnerable people at home, and still demanding applause for the damage. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #iranwar #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Trace the rot behind the spectacle: TSA chaos, Trump’s signature on the dollar, allies recoiling from his Iran war, Saudi profiteering, Pentagon purges, and the ritual self-abasement of his courtiers. #uspolitics #iranwar #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Trump’s Iran cabinet meeting was less a display of strength than a propaganda reel stitched together from bombs, bluster, #NATO grievance, a bizarre Sharpie monologue #uspolitics #petehegseth #scottbessent #marcorubio #kakistocracy #authoritarianism #iranwar open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Trump wants a birthday spectacle. The country gets a war, rising prices, authoritarian theater, and a Congress too cowardly to stop it. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Europe no longer trusts Trump’s words, oil markets are convulsing, immigrant workers are being terrorized, and the Pentagon is slipping deeper into fanatic chic. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism #iranwar open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

This war is starting to look less like strategy and more like war by arbitrage: public lies, private persuasion, market convulsions, and authoritarian opportunists treating human beings like movable assets. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

This latest piece is about a president who no longer seems to describe reality so much as announce whatever fantasy is most useful in the moment. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism #iranwar #dementia open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

#Trump hunts for an Iran off-ramp and wants applause for not making the fire bigger, #ICE turns up at airport checkpoints during shutdown chaos, and even a bipartisan housing bill gets caught in his SAVE Act hostage game. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Show up for No Kings, then keep going. Weekend rallies alone won’t stop a regime escalating war, chaos, and authoritarian rule. The emergency is real. Pressure is the strategy. Read and share. #uspolitics #nokings #kakistocracy #authoritarianism #25th open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

#Trump says the war may be “winding down” while sending more troops, rejecting a ceasefire, and quietly relying on Iranian oil to steady markets. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

#Trump aestheticizes violence #PeteHegseth sanctifies it. My latest piece looks at how war under this administration is being sold not as tragedy, but as spectacle and righteous power. #uspolitics #authoritarianism #whitechristiannationalism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

A presidency built on glossy promo videos is now trying to sell a widening #MiddleEast fiasco the same way, with dead troops as props, allies stuck with the bill, and that old Epstein stink still lingering beneath the patriotic B-roll. #uspolitics #kakistocracy open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Trump is recutting visits from leaders like Japan’s PM and Ireland’s taoiseach into soft-focus promo reels designed to market Trump as a statesman. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

#PeteHegseth used grief, patriotism, and the dead as a sales pitch for more war. #uspolitics #iranwar #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

A war sold as necessary to prevent catastrophe is now being narrated in the language of obliteration. Trump’s rhetoric, Gulf energy strikes, Marines en route #uspolitics #iranwar #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Oil is up. Inflation risk is back. The body count is rising. #Trump calls it strength. I call it another expensive disaster. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

#Predictionmarkets are turning war, famine, regime change, and human suffering into wagers for profit. It’s corruption, spectacle, and moral rot with a sleek interface. Some things should never be tradable. #uspolitics @senatorchris.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Trump claimed a former president privately told him he wished he’d attacked Iran too. All four living presidents deny the claim. #uspolitics #foreignpolicy #iranwar #kakistocracy #authortarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Trump’s Iran swagger is colliding with allied backlash, troop strain, legal trouble, Cuba cruelty, and a Kennedy Center luncheon that somehow turned into a marble-and-grout vanity pageant. open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Trump says he won, says #NATO is useless, says America shouldn’t even have to do this. Trump says other countries need to send ships. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism #iranwar open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

#Trump starts the fire. #NATO gets the hose bill. #China gets threatened. The Court gets screamed at. Oil prices soar. And somehow he still expects applause. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Trump’s #Iran war is colliding with higher gas prices, oil windfalls for the powerful, threats to press freedom, and the same old donor-friendly politics at home. Chaos abroad, pain at home, profits upstairs. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism #BrendanCarr open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

#PeteHegseth turned #Pentagon briefing into a #MAGA revival and the #Trump boys chased a fresh Pentagon-adjacent drone grift. Today’s roundup is about propaganda, profiteering, and war branding. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Friday the 13th in Trumpworld: Melania turns Women’s History Month into a brand reel, Trump turns Kentucky into an ego circus, and “Operation Epic Fury” is already killing troops. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

#Trump held a #WhiteHouse event for women and mothers and somehow turned it into a rambling infomercial for himself, his “big beautiful bill,” his culture-war obsessions, and his own myth. Real women told real stories. He treated them like props. #uspolitics open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Trump’s latest war of choice is hitting families at the pump and businesses on shipping costs. #Russia is reportedly pulling in an extra $110M-$160M a day as oil prices surge, giving #Putin fresh war revenue while Ukraine pays the real price. #uspolitics open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Oil above $100, #Hormuz turning into an economic choke point, #Hegseth selling vengeance as leadership, Trump launching fresh tariff chaos, and the Brownsville refinery story exposed as another giant inflation of ego and numbers. #uspolitics #kakistocracy open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Burning ships in Hormuz. Rising gas prices. Allies scrambling to open emergency oil reserves for a crisis they were never properly consulted on. It’s #kakistocracy with global consequences. Maximum lethality, minimum competence. #uspolitics #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

I wrote about what happens when extremists get a foothold in local office. In Coos County, we’ve watched conspiracy politics, intimidation, and cruelty get laundered through the machinery of government. This is not just one man. It’s a political project. #uspolitics open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

We follow Trump’s “Operation Epic Failure” from #Iran and the #StraitofHormuz to rising oil prices, climate sabotage, and election clown shows back home. #uspolitics #foreignpolicy #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Oil prices fell. #Trump declared victory. The bombs are still warm. I wrote about how the messaging shifted, why markets reacted, and how even America’s 250th somehow became part of the same gaudy Trump branding machine. #uspolitics #kakistocracy open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

The spike may be temporary. The damage is not. My latest on how Trump’s #Iran escalation helped harden the regime, wreck oil market buffers, and set up another round of sticky price hikes for everyone else. #uspolitics #oilprices #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

#Trump and #Hegseth are treating war like a video game while the real-world costs pile up: oil spikes, recession fears, poisoned skies, fraying alliances, and a Pentagon talking like a crusader livestream. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

If you want to understand this moment, stop translating Trump into pundit English. Let the tape run. New Substack on bluster, war, and why the Middle East hears threat where U.S. media hears “optics.” #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Trump hosted his “Shield of the Americas” summit at his own Doral resort and pitched a new “Americas Counter Cartel Coalition” built on “lethal military force,” floated missiles “right into the living room,” and let Hegseth sell gym-bro energy. #uspolitics open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

The #WhiteHouse tried to sell the Iran attack like a video game, literally, a killstreak-style montage, while a Dubai establishment billionaire (Habtoor) fired back: “Who gave you permission to turn our region into a battlefield?” #uspolitics #kakistocracy open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Trump’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” posting meets the supply-chain of reality: Ras Laffan hit, force majeure declared, oil jitters, interceptor burn rates, and a #Pentagon pep rally that basically translates to “we’re fine… but build it yesterday.” #uspolitics open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Trump just fired #KristiNoem as Homeland Security Secretary after a brutal hearing and a $220M propaganda scandal. Her replacement? A “MAGA warrior” MMA fighter #MarkWayneMullin open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

A war launched on “gut instinct.” No phase two plan. Gas prices already rising. We warned during the tariff fiasco this kind of governance is #kakistrophic. Ukraine’s drone revolution, and the consequences of Congress refusing to act. #uspolitics #foreignpolicy open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

A judge has ordered the government to start refunding $130+ billion in unlawful #tariffs. This is what happens when Congress refuses to use its constitutional powers over the purse while presidents stretch emergency authorities. A kakistrophic lesson. #uspolitics open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

#KristiNoem told Congress #CoreyLewandowski has no role approving DHS contracts. Internal DHS documents reportedly show his signature on the approval chain before contracts reach her desk. So why is a “volunteer” helping control spending? #uspolitics open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

#Iran appears to be executing a retaliation plan prepared long before the strikes that killed its leadership. Now allies are pushing back, #Congress is scrambling over war powers, and Trump’s base is questioning the conflict. #uspolitics #middleeast #kakistocracy open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Trump’s bilateral somehow included “unlimited” ammunition, threats to embargo Spain, windmills “ruining the fields,” Sharia courts in London, and a grievance about Diego Garcia, while Chancellor Merz calmly talked trade and Ukraine’s security. #uspolitics open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

#Congress votes this week on war powers as the U.S. wages sustained war in Iran without authorization. #peteHegseth boasts of “maximum authorities” and “no stupid rules of engagement.” Allies are watching. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

The #StraitofHormuz is “closed.” Except it’s not. Except it kind of is. Missiles flying, tankers idling, insurers pulling war-risk coverage, oil climbing into the $70s and the real story isn’t the headlines, it’s the plumbing of global trade. #uspolitics #iran open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Oil spikes. Shipping stalls. U.S. casualties mount. France rethinks nuclear deterrence. Trump who wanted a Nobel Peace Prize has instead triggered cascading global consequences with no clear end state in sight. #uspolitics #iran #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Missiles in #Hormuz don’t just sink ships. They move oil prices. They move insurance markets. They move your grocery bill. This war is a systemic shock, not just a strike package. #uspolitics #iran #foreignpolicy #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

#Iran confirms Khamenei is dead. #Congress was notified, not consulted. War Powers math won’t stop a veto. Oil markets are eyeing the Strait of Hormuz. And yes, someone floated a “friendly takeover” of Cuba. #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

A girl can’t even leave for one short road trip without waking up to regime-change speeches, missiles over the Gulf, allies hedging, and Congress nowhere in sight. #iran #foreignpolicy #kakistocracy #authoritarianism open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

Re-Bomb #Iran, call it victory. Offer $31,000 deductibles. Hand utilities $26.5B loans, freeze rates now, bill your kids later. Billionaires write AI laws while markets hedge for “implosions.” The price isn’t gone. It’s deferred. #uspolitics #kakistocracy open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...