Girls were abused, trafficked, not believed, not protected, and not prioritized. And now, years later, the state that failed them in life managed to fail them in disclosure. #EPSTEİN -Mary Geddry

Reflecting pool: $13.1 million. For paint. Trump’s National Park Service’s report said the company was charging a 20% profit, when government work like this runs 6-12%. That means at least $850,000 extra, out of your pocket and into the contractor’s. -Scott Dworkin

The 19 percent of Americans who support MAGA, many of whom literally believe that Trump was sent by God, say that the economy is good. The other 81 percent of Americans say that it’s very bad. Which group is more likely to have economic perceptions that are warped by politics? -Paul Krugman

This ‘Best-Kept Secret’ in Health Care Can Shave Down Your Medical Debt @nysfocus.com

The #Trump regime struck another small boat in the eastern Pacific last night, killing 1 man and leaving 2 survivors. The death toll is now 194 people. Where the dead have been identified by their families, governments, or survivors, they have been fishermen. -Crust News

RE HAWAII If CA & NY adopt this model, the impact on American political financing would be seismic. The Republican who gave the floor speech, Hawaii state rep Kainani Sousa, asked a question: “To whom does this democracy actually belong?” -Mary Geddry

As one British analyst observed, the more #Trump talks about what he’s building, the more it sounds like exactly the kind of compound in which a president who one day decides not to leave power could hole himself up, protected by loyal members of the military. -Mary Geddry

#America is officially traumatized, and the diagnosis is in. Robert Reich, writing at Raw Story this week, points out what every therapist, primary care physician, and exhausted spouse already knew: we are a nation with full-blown #PTSD. -The Hartmann Report

The American Psychological Association now reports that 76 percent of Americans cite the future of the country as their leading source of stress, outpacing the economy, work, and money.

Bezos, Backlash and Zombies open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

“Billionaire Brain: That special blend of ignorance and arrogance that occurs all too frequently in men who believe that their success in accumulating personal wealth means that they understand everything, no need to do any homework.” -Paul Krugman

It is clear that members of the #Trump administration never intended to honor the Constitution or serve the American people, raising the question of what exactly they do intend. -Heather Cox Richardson

#Trump’s platform: “I want absolute loyalty. I want to trade stocks, make millions of dollars. I want my 1776 fund to get JSixers money I owe them. I want immunity for me & my family from an audit forever….I want to get rich & I don’t care that you are poorer.” -Jessica Tarlov

PTSD Nation? open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

nysfocus.com/2026/05/14/n... Boycott DoorDash

From its origins in resistance to the British government, the story of America has been the opposite of obeying. It has been about questioning, debating, criticizing leaders, and working to build “a more perfect Union,” as the Framers charged us to do. -Heather Cox Richardson

Vendors at today’s Trump event handed out buttons that said: “WIVES SUBMIT, HUSBANDS LOVE, CHILDREN OBEY.” But blindly obeying authority has never been the story of America. -Heather Cox Richardson

The theme of obeying the leader runs deep in Trump’s politics & in MAGA. The Bible passage #Trump read emphasizes obedience, warning the chosen people that if they “forsake my statutes & my commandments, which I have set before you,” then they will be destroyed. -Heather Cox Richardson

Replacing Americans’ civic identity with Christian nationalism destroys that vitally important understanding of the role of citizens in a democracy. Instead, it demands that Americans do as they are told, turning them into subjects. -Heather Cox Richardson

The rights & duties of citizens who live in a nation that rests on “We the People:”. They must think for themselves, question elected officials & take an active role in their government. -Heather Cox Richardson

You Are Already Evidence open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...

When the people with the most resources choose control over connection, center their judgment over our reality, and treat our lives like a balance sheet, they’re not supporting us. They’re harming us. -Trauma Aware America

When it comes to making big money doing global deals, Trump’s merry band of CEOs has about as much loyalty to the United States as does Trump himself. The Most Important Thing You Should Know About the CEOs Traveling to China with Trump open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

Republicans who vote yes on the $1 billion funding to build the #ballroom will hand Democrats a perfect symbol of misplaced priorities. #Republicans who vote no face #Trump’s wrath. -Status Kuo

In a recently signed executive order, #Trump directed the #DHS to create a secret list of administration-approved eligible voters, and then ordered the U.S. Postal Service to throw out ballots cast by anyone not on that list. -Robert Reich

Americans are being asked to pay for the war, pay for higher gas prices, pay for the debt from tax cuts for the rich, brace for cuts to programs they rely on, and somehow also pay for Trump’s vanity projects and personal legal escape hatches. -Mary Geddry

TRUMP: “I don’t think about American’s financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.”

What Ted Cruz himself called the “dirty little secret” of the GOP’s “Trump Accounts”: they’re a Trojan horse for #SocialSecurity privatization. Cruz waxed nostalgic about 50 years of conservatives trying and failing to get their hands on payroll tax revenue. -The Hartmann Report

Corporations only exist because states allow them to. Every power a corporation has was given to it by the state. Hawaii just took one of those powers off the list—starting next year, corporations in Hawaii can no longer spend money on elections. No more Citizens United. -Scott Dworkin

Roughly 37% of Americans over 55 are in the work force. The largest single reason is financial, according to an AARP survey conducted this winter. That survey of around 2,000 Americans over 50 found that 48% returned to work because they needed the money. -NYT

It Was Never About Witchcraft open.substack.com/pub/jesspipe...

Thomas Massie reminds everyone that when X initially started revealing account locations, the Official DHS Twitter account of the United States showed it was set up in Israel… “There should at the very least be an investigation into this.” -Thomas Massie

The Daily Beast: “Not since Vietnam have we seen a more systematic effort by an administration to lie about the nature, costs, consequences, and results of a war than we have seen from the White House on Iran.”

The US admin is hiding the true cost of the war in Iran from the American people. Journalists note it is “unusually difficult” to get satellite imagery from the Middle East. Two satellite providers, Vantor & Planet, were ordered to withhold images. -HCR

A detail I didn’t know: “The Herald entered the Epstein series for a Pulitzer Prize that year, but it was not a finalist. Alan Dershowitz … who helped broker Epstein’s original deal, wrote a letter to the Pulitzer committee that year, urging them not to honor Brown’s work.” share.inquirer.com/THMiUZ

U.S. and Iranian ships are exchanging missile fire today in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump’s claims that hostilities have ceased were bullsh*t. He is lying to the American people and prolonging his disastrous war of choice—And he’s doing it illegally. -Sen Duckworth

In his head, #Trump is always the winner. So he can’t be losing. A guy who can’t admit that he lost a presidential election to Joe Biden is not going to be able to admit that he lost a war to the mullahs of Iran. -Paul Krugman

Thousands of people across the U.S. are participating in “May Day Strong” protests, organizing walkouts, marches, and an economic blackout urging “no school, no work, no shopping.” -Aaron Parnas

Filling an Empty Jar open.substack.com/pub/jesspipe...