The US historically has been a multiracial and multifaith society. Because it is part of our identity it cannot be taken away. It is who we are. So the Trump administration will never succeed in imposing Christian Nationalism on us. And voter suppression is only creating a new civil rights movement.

ONE THIRD of the ENTIRE NATIONAL DEBT ever accumulated by the US government was run up by Donald Trump. Why? So he, absurdly, could give tax breaks to people who don't even need them, billionaires who fund his campaigns. We are now just a banana republic with a wouldbe dictator.

US Congress House Speaker Mike Johnson has announced that the MAGA majority is just waiting until after the midterms to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security in 2027. The only thing that will stop them is a sweep by Democrats in the midterms. VOTE YOUR POCKETBOOK.

Historian Heather Cox Richardson explains why she will never give up on democracy in America, no matter what. She sees government by the people as providing the means for each individual to exercise the right of self-determination. This is a human right. youtube.com/shorts/ytlmV...

Trump didn't come to drain the swamp, he came to drain the Treasury. We the American taxpayer are paying for his useless vanity projects and his shameless grift. He is clueless that the presidency exists to serve our people, not himself. #LooterinChief

I hope, when Trump says the UFC fight cage cluttering up the White House lawn could become a permanent installation, he's just trolling. It's an eyesore. The White House is a national shrine and he's desecrating it. (I'm still in grief mode over his demolishing the East Wing.)

ABC's The View needs to get @karaswisher.bsky.social on more often to cohost: Like Whoopi she instinctively has the insight to pierce to the heart of issues, and as a journalist she has the contacts/exposure that give extraordinary perspective. I tend to find her analyses of complex issues spot on.

Detainees in Delaney Hall complain of unsanitary living conditions/contaminated food & water/lack of medical care. Yet the chief complaint is lack of due process: Judges hear 74 cases a day, five minutes per case. And ICE denies Congress its constitutional right of inspection/oversight.

New DHS Sec Markwayne Mullin refused to assure Congress that DHS would follow court orders. He tries to justify this by saying judges rule based on political opinions. But by law they are bound to follow the evidence & litigants are constitutionally guaranteed trial by a jury of their peers.

Re Delaney Hall detention center: DHSgov tweeted "It is a crime to enter the US illegally." This is a lie--it's a CIVIL offense. "Everyone being held...broke the law." Not if they were citizens or green card holders who also got swept up. This is because DHS ignores due process.

Despite all the mishegoss in the world, sailing along....

Trump's physician just declared he's in "excellent health." I would be far more convinced this was the case if he were examined by a panel of independent physicians and psychologists. After all, he turned the DOJ into his private law firm. Loyalist lawyers set aside their scruples. Same for doctors?

John Hellmann expressed he is mystified why Trump can't seem to make strategic decisions for the benefit of his party facing the midterms. No matter what his current bill of health supposedly is, this is clear evidence of dementia, deterioration in the brain of prefrontal executive functioning.

The challenge for Democrats in the midterms: Many Independents, nonMaGA Republicans & even some MAGAs are deeply disillusioned with Trumpism, but being fear driven associate Dems with too rapid societal change. How to calm their fears of us because we offer them real financial relief.

@repcasar.bsky.social In Dems' addressing the issue of getting bills through Congress with Trump still in office with the probability of vetoing them, you didn't mention Congress's ability, with a 2/3 majority of each chamber, of overriding his veto so the bill passes.

@joe-scarborough.bsky.social Re discussion on why MAGAs go w feelings rather than facts: The whole culture war is fear driven (fear of how fast society is changing). The fear center of the brain is the amygdala. Neuroscientists describe making decisions from fear as being "hijacked by the amygdala."

Thom Tillis, no longer subject to being primaried, is among the members of Congress speaking their mind. Opining about MAGA nominee for TX Senate, Ken Paxton: "To call Paxton ethically challenged is like calling Jeffrey Dahmer someone with an eating disorder."

So Ken Paxton is MAGA's nominee for Senate in TX. He's already spouting the most vicious lies about Talarico. I would hate to think our country doesn't make it past 250 because citizens are too willfully ignorant to search out the facts. Laziness is how we got Trumpism.

@hcrichardson.bsky.social Here's my second response to the AI discussion: What unnerves me most about the bubble bursting is that most of the investment, as Andrew Ross Sorkin has explained it, is unregulated by the SEC (for example in offshore private equity firms). No regulation means no oversight

@hcrichardson.bsky.social Re your convo with Krugman about AI, I have two responses. Here's the first one: As a patient who's unwittingly a medical pioneer in immunology, I do a lot of research using AI & find it reliable. It allows me to discuss complex topics with specialists.

Trump just endorsed Ken Paxton in the primary runoff for US Senate in Texas. No surprise there: He's not only a staunch MAGA loyalist, he's the most corrupt AG the state has ever had. But Talarico (D) is leading in the polls.

Trump says Ukraine needs us but the opposite is true. We need their state of the art drone technology to avoid further depletion of our military arsenal. Strikes in Iran have taken a toll. A key issue in relations with China is our ability to defend Taiwan. Incursions in Iran have reduced this.

Ukraine, with IT/engineering prowess, has used drone technology to revolutionize warfare. Asymmetric warfare is how it's beating Russia back (and how Iran defends itself against the US/Gulf allies). By becoming indispensable, Ukraine is now de facto a NATO ally. The US needs Ukraine.

AMERICANS HAVE NEVER WANTED A STATE RELIGION. NOT NOW, NOT EVER. This whole Christian nationalist ideology was taken directly from the fascist playbook of Viktor Orban, recently ousted prime minister of Hungary. Hungarians have taken their democracy back. A word to the wise, MAGA World....

Pro democracy advocates know America was founded on separation of church and state. MAGA, based in Christian nationalism, acts like this key First Amendment right shouldn't exist. This is called theocracy, and its intolerance is a big part of what we associate with oppressive regimes like in Iran.

@jbf1755.bsky.social I understand why, when visiting a Christian service, you as a Jew refused to stand, even when it offended your hosts. Most Christians don't realize that their theology, based on a trinity, is seen by us as a violation of the Second Commandment, the prohibition against idolatry.

SCOTUS in its Callais decision gives permission to legislatures in the South to roll back the civil rights of black voters to before 1965, the year the Voting Rights Act was passed. Thirty percent of Louisiana is black, yet now as redistricted no longer even one black district.

Stephen Colbert on the announcement that Transportation Sec Sean Duffy has returned to reality TV, having completed a seven month project in the off hours, a new show w his family, a road trip across America: <shrugging> "Well, better than his trying to run stuff." Recommended for the entire Cabinet

If Kamala had been elected....

After 17 US passengers on the cruise ship with the hantavirus outbreak got repatriated, acting director of the CDC Jay Bhattacharya is giving them the choice of staying in NE or going home. They're not quarantining anyone. Epidemiological experts from the pandemic disagree: better safe than sorry.

2/2 Israelis before 10/7 were divided over judicial reform. But this is no weakness--a strong Supreme Ct retains checks & balances. But even if a divided public WAS a weakness, Oct 7 happened because of an intelligence & security failure on Netanyahu's not Bennett-Lapide's watch.

1/2 The Culture Minister of Israel claims weakness under the previous administration of Bennett-Lapide led to Oct 7. theyeshivaworld.com/news/israel-news/2547170/miki-zohar-october-7-was-planned-during-bennett-lapid-govt-similar-govt-could-lead-to-another-disaster.html#respond

The Finnish language has a word with no translation. Sisu. It's not resilience, grit or toughness. It activates after all three have run out. It can't be mapped onto any existing western psychological framework. Sisu doesn't move the wall, it walks through it after the body has already hit it.

Congress is not only irresponsibly rubberstamping Trump, further enabling the consolidation of his power, it is historically underperforming as the bar graph shows. Why are We the People forced to pay them full salaries for next to no work?? Constitutionally they work for us. 🤷‍♀️

What are Trump's alternatives vis-a-vis Iran? Get this conflict over by making a deal incl nuclear issues like the JCPOA, or resume military strikes which further deplete our arsenal and cause even more economic chaos worldwide. He will be pressured into the first. #HumblePie

If you wonder how fiscal policy mismanagement in the US resulted in a $37T & rising national debt, look no further than the corporate welfare promoted by the GOP since the 1980s. Tax breaks, government contracts, subsidies, bailouts, etc. This is what built the billionaire class.

Under the GOP: Starting with 1980s Reaganomics $50T of wealth has transferred from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. It's called CORPORATE WELFARE. Think billionaire tax breaks, Elon Musk's government service contracts ($38B so far for SpaceX/Tesla/AI)etc. WORKING AMERICANS DO WITHOUT.

Trump tells Zelenskyy no cards to play, make a deal with Putin. But Z's cards are asymmetric warfare w drones. He's not losing: The Russian Defense Ministry hesitates to permit a victory parade to take place for fear of a Ukrainian drone attack. Moral: Don't attack IT specialists

Both the US & Iran are testing the truce. The Iranian regime's view: no military solution to a political crisis. US analysts see us heading toward a JCPOA type resolution. But this was essentially Obama's deal 10 years ago. Humble pie on the menu for Trump.

Historian Timothy Snyder studies authoritarian regimes. He's read the handwriting on the wall about the midterms. His take: Because Trump does not have the votes to win, he will attempt to stage a coup using the US military.(Remember, he staged one already on 01/06/2021.)

All the major power players in the nation right now are right wingers, but sure, America is being taken over by a Cultural Marxist Revolution.

As Trump's popularity sinks to new lows he has renewed efforts to make Washington DC a monument to himself. He's trying to anticipate history by making future Americans think he must have been great because of all the tributes to him in the nations capital. BUT THEY'RE ALL DONE BY HIM.😂

MAGA diehards see Trump as an agent of divine providence, here to take the burden of deciding what's best for their life as a citizen from them. Such a relief! But not really because, in his never ending quest to accumulate more power, they are merely instrumental, to serve his interests.

Trump's foreign policy mantra is "We [Americans] are the hottest country in the world." As if this were a popularity contest in high school. We don't need other countries to envy us. We just need to get their respect, trust & cooperation back. He's recklessly destroyed these.

Colin Jost's take, in the Weekend Update segment of SNL, on the special edition passport with Trump's face inside: so you always carry a reminder why you fled the country. 😂 (Time to renew mine. Thank God it doesn't get processed through the DC office.)

Trump calls into NewsMax today: "It's a problem I'm not on the ballot... If I was on the ballot we would win in a landslide. I have...some of the best poll numbers I've ever had." IS THIS JUST YET MORE LYING OR HAS TRUMP HAD A PSYCHOTIC BREAK FROM REALITY?

2/2 @booker.senate.gov Here's how well meaning people get played by Iranian proxies: H&H attack Israel knowing we'll defend. (We have that right like any sovereign nation.) FACT: WARS HAVE COLLATERAL DAMAGE. H & H use human shields knowing with Israel fighting back the world will scream "genocide!"

1/2 @booker.senate.gov Cory, I agree with you on every issue but Israel. OF COURSE Netanyahu is corrupt & not to be let off the hook. At the same time in an age of Islamist propaganda openly bent on extinction of Jews, he's Israel's greatest warrior. <continued>

@hcrichardson.bsky.social Nope HELL WILL FREEZE OVER before We the People let a white minority rule us. Just left Marc Elias a comment--I'm spitballing here: So assuming Dems sweep the midterms, what about Congress packing SCOTUS which then allows progressive justices to repeal Callais?

Louisiana v. Callais, which guts the 1965 Voting Rights Act, is the worst SCOTUS decision since Dred Scott. It destroys what little credibility the Court had before (not that Alito even cares). HELL WILL FREEZE OVER before We the People let a white minority rule us.