Welcome to the To the Contrary podcast. I'm Charlie Sykes. And once again, we have to remind ourselves that every time we talk about politics, we're in kind of a twilight zone. And of course, we saw that with the president's, well, with Donald Trump's unpresidential speech, the not State of the Union address the other day.
0:30
So to try to hash all of this out, we are very fortunate to be joined by my old friend, Karen Tumulty, from The Washington Post, who has covered 10 presidential campaigns. And obviously, you're all over the new administration. So thanks for joining me, Karen. I appreciate it very much.
Because cruelty is the point. Brutality is the tactic. And vengeance is the motive.
**
In today’s ‘To the Contrary” Podcast, I talk with the Wapo’s Karen Tumulty about the fallout from Tuesday’s unpresidential address, which she wrote about here: Trump’s address to Congress was at odds with reality.
Seriously, you are the not crazy ones. So consider joining us here.
To the Contrary is a reader-supported publication.
To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
**
It occurs to me that this is a good time to take stock of just how deranged our politics have become — even by the standards of what we thought was totally off-the-rails last year.
People who said in October that Trump would blame Ukraine for not surrendering, that his tariffs would do massive economic damage, that he'd ensure none of his cronies were prosecuted while they ran steadily more absurd crypto scams, were told they had Trump Derangement Syndrome.
And I don't even know anyone who said in October that DOGE might cancel all our global HIV control efforts, killing more than a million people a year, because even Project 2025 didn't say to do that!
Plus RFK Jr. at HHS, Patel and Bongino at FBI, Gabbard at DNI, turning half the government over to Elon Musk, attempting to put Gaetz in at DoJ... Trump is better understood by his critics than by many of his supporters. His haters realize he means it.
And let’s be really frank about this. Biden was kicked to the curb because he was foggy, seemed slow, and his time was clearly passed. But if you saw a candidate who was roughly just as old say the things below, you’d call an asylum to see if they were missing anyone:
· The United States should buy Greenland.
· The Panama Canal is run by the Chinese Government.
· We should ethnically cleanse Gaza so we could make Trump Tower Gaza Strip.
· Ukraine started the war in which it was invaded by Russia
· We need a cryptocurrency reserve, because we want to stock up and control a “currency” backed by nothing, whose users shun international regulation of this sort.
· Let’s start a trade war with China, nevermind they buy most of the US Debt.
· Let’s fire all the meteorologists at the NOAA.
· Let’s fire IRS agents responsible for, you know, collecting revenue.
· Let’s put a perceived Russian agent who met with Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Asaad in as Director of National Intelligence.
· Let’s put a vaccine denier as the head of the agency making us safe from diseases.
The running gag of the first Trump administration was Trump telling people to do awful things and his subordinates just…not doing them. For example: Remember when Trump told a room full of people to get the Justice Department harass Time Warner, and Gary Cohn walked out of the meeting and told everyone within earshot “don’t you fucking dare” do that? Remember when Mark Esper had to tell Trump that he can’t shoot protesters in the legs?
It turns out that the “deep state” was actually just not-crazy people refusing to do crazy stuff.
But this time around, Trump is free to be his worst self.
Those who are now castigating Ukraine don’t even pretend that doing so is moral. Instead, they seem to argue for a worldview in which everyone is equally corrupt and murderous, so the US should simply divide the world up into spheres of influence, regardless of who is being plundered or murdered in the process.
Political scientist Mark Lilla recently explained the psychological state of this moral worldview in terms completely separate from the Russia-Ukraine war, through—ironically enough—one of Russia’s greatest intellectual and literary giants, novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky.
“In so many of his novels we meet seemingly wicked characters who are really only in despair, their original goodness having been robbed by someone or by circumstances beyond their control,” Lilla writes. “And to cope with the trauma, they convince themselves that there is no such thing as goodness, becoming prostitutes or rakes or drunkards or revolutionaries, reveling in their baseness. But then they are undone when they meet genuinely good people and grow to hate them.”
Last month, during Elon Musk’s appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, as he hoisted a chain saw in the air, stumbled over some of his words, and questioned whether there was really gold stored in Fort Knox, people on his social-media platform, X, started posting about ketamine.
Musk has said he uses ketamine regularly, so for the past couple of years, public speculation has persisted about how much he takes, whether he’s currently high, or how it might affect his behavior. Last year, Musk told CNN’s Don Lemon that he has a ketamine prescription and uses the drug roughly every other week to help with depression symptoms. When Lemon asked if Musk ever abused ketamine, Musk replied, “I don’t think so. If you use too much ketamine you can’t really get work done,” then said that investors in his companies should want him to keep up his drug regimen. Not everyone is convinced.
The Wall Street Journalhas reported that Musk also takes the drug recreationally, and in 2023, Ronan Farrow reported in The New Yorker that Musk’s “associates” worried that ketamine, “alongside his isolation and his increasingly embattled relationship with the press, might contribute to his tendency to make chaotic and impulsive statements and decisions.”
The Progress 2028 ads are so deceptive that they tricked even Scott Manley, chief lobbyist for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's largest business lobby and a big Schimel supporter.
Last week, Manley posted one of the fake pro-Crawford ads on X, formerly Twitter, that said Crawford "understands that justice is more than just punishment for criminals — it's about second chances."
"New digital ad asks voters to thank Susan Crawford for her catch and release approach (to) violent criminals," Manley wrote. "Did George Soros fund this ad? Maybe (former Milwaukee County District Attorney John) Chisholm?"
ashamed to say the gorgeous big...huge...boys were what this fan tuned in to see...but enjoyed no no not any Joy, appreciated is better word....Karen tumulty speaking with you, appreciated the back and forth interchange between you two...
typing left handedly with shoulder replacement brace on ft arm...apologies to everyone.
there is nothing hopeful about our government and the elected members of the Senate and Congress seem completely impotent if not now the walking dead.....
I keep thinking I’ve seen the bottom, the lowest the creep can go….. and then I read something like he’s going to revoke the temporary protected status of Ukrainian refugees. And it’s worse. God help us if we ever DO see the bottom of his character
Trump is an old man who will not have to worry about the deficit… he truly doesn’t care. So scary to say… I do believe he hates America, feels like America screwed him and he’s very likely ill. Those dark marks on his hand? They’re from IVs.
Join Indivisible - https://indivisible.org/ - It’s run by former congressional staffers who know how things work in Washington. These folks have an amazing level of determination, practical knowledge, and hope. Those demonstrations against Musk & Trump around the country have been organized by dozens of local Indivisible chapters. They do a Zoom every Thursday that lays out action steps. Their next focus is to identify vulnerable GOP Senators – the traitors who confirmed every dangerous cabinet head – who are coming up for re-election soon…and make sure they are voted out of office.
Speak out against the GOP’s latest attempt at voter suppression. Tell your Representatives and Senators to stop the ironically-named ”SAVE” act. Up to 34% of voting-age women don't have documents proving citizenship with their current legal name because when they married, they likely took their husband’s surname. This could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters. And that’s the whole point. HR 22 would need to be passed by both the House and Senate.
Also tell your Congress people to not give Trump one inch – on anything. (Even some Democratic Senators have, shockingly, voted to confirm dangerous Cabinet heads.)
If you’re shy about calling Congress, join Adam Kinziger’s “Country First” zooms. Hundreds of people call their congresspeople at the same time – they suggest scripts and coach you through it. Sign up at https://www.country1st.com/
Support Judge Susan Crawford in her bid for the Wisconsin Supreme court. Go to CrawfordForWI.com to learn about why this race is so important. (That Elon Musk has donated tons of money to her GOP opponent tells you something…..) Jen Rubin at The Contrarian explains - https://substack.com/home/post/p-158477872
And please support Democracy Forward – https://democracyforward.org/ These tireless lawyers are suing the Trump Administration every day. They have some impressive wins under their belt, but unfortunately there are many more battles to fight. 5,600 civil servants just got their jobs back, due to Democracy Forward’s lawsuit!
Interesting discussion regarding what Musk is doing vs what is highlighted in the GAO High-Risk Series summary. When fraud and waste are mentioned in the context of the US government, people always assume this is the fault of the government and the "corrupt" employees. However, looking at the GAO high risk summaries - with the IRS, or Medicare and Medicaid as examples, it is clear that, yes there is a lot of fraud, but it is perpetrated by the American people on the government. Not the other way round. Billions of taxpayer dollars go on fraudulent medical claims, or are lost in tax fraud. How is cutting staff that manage these areas going to help with identifying and refusing to pay fraudulent clams, or recover fraudulently withheld tax dollars? (Diana's husband posting)
I have to agree with Tom Nichols: Slotkin was not nearly strong nor tough enough. Her delivery was indeed "mature" and "adult"...God knows we long for more of that these days. But the fire/importance/downright EMERGENCY state that we are in did not come through. Her speech was good for 2017, not 2025.
mentioning Reagan? who was that for? The Maggats in gov't don't give a rat's about him. Neither do Dems. Didn't get significance of that mention. Not going to win anybody over bringing up that old actor/fake president...
I can understand what motivates POS and Skum and Miller and even Vance. But I really have a hard time trying to figure out what the real problem is with the Rs in Congress. Some are total losses, but I can understand them. I really do not understand the so-called normies, especially since most of them have far more income than the cops, agents, firefighters, military, and others who risk their lives every single day for others. If they would find the strength to oppose POS and his ilk, the country would have buried them in the dunghill of infamy.
I think it is the threat of physical violence. For example, look at Lindsey Graham. He was anti trump until he had a couple encounters with threatening MAGAots.
And in Liz Cheney's book, she mentions congresscritters that knew they should vote to impeach but they had violent threats and were worried about themselves and their families. Wives, children, etc.
It's classic. And now trump has 1600 released felons to be the seeds of his brownshirt army.
yes yes fear of violence....fear of violent speech via posts on and other online forums..fear of doxing, fear of violence towards their person and homes...maga is clearly more and more enamored by violence and threats of same.
In other words, they bow to threats that many much lower paid folks have to deal with - like the military, the firefighters, the police, etc. I really have a hard time feeling sorry for them. Especially since they don't give a damn about the people who are now threatened with losing their jobs, their incomes, their homes, etc. Now they're threatening seniors with poverty, lack of medical care, even starvation because of their cowardice.
Of course you, Charlie, Karen and Ezra are excellent, but the only good thing about today is the puppies.
I understand the the pain is the point for Trump and R's, and that they're waiting for us to just quit. But it's hard not to and instead try to salvage what one can to have a decent life in a time that our own leaders are determined to create an interminable amount of pain. Not only for us, but for the world. It's hard to fathom, hard to reconcile what is happening now with my old beliefs of what this country was and proudly stood for, even if it wasn't perfect.
To actively not only support Russia, but take actions against Ukraine – I absolutely believe that our intelligence is being shared with Russia – is a new low and the thing that brings me the most shame. In a time where this feeling of shame has been more present than I've ever experienced this says a lot. And honestly, I don't believe there is any rational reason for this other than Donald Trump's petty reign of retribution against those he perceives harmed him.
There is no strategery here, nothing good for the country. It's all personal – Zelensky got him impeached, and it's just another thing that someone must pay for.
I'm not believing a lot in fairness or justice at this point, so I doubt that we'll get to see Trump pay in any way for his heinous actions, his heinous life. But I still hope to be able see this.
I believe without a shadow of a doubt, the classified materials he stole and kept like a hoarder at Maralago was shared immediately with his dictator buds.
Has anyone taken a look at Stephen Miller? We know Trump probably doesn't write his speeches, because as he reads it appears some of the stuff surprises him. But Miller is totally evil...the book about him is titled The Hatemonger...and we know that in the first Trump administration when someone got in Miller's way, he would whisper in Donald's ear, and that person was jettisoned. Am I making any sense...if we want to know more we need to watch a listen more closely to Miller.
Every drop of blood shed since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War (February 2014) is on Vladimir Putin’s hands. Now every drop of blood shed since the trump administration paused intelligence information to Ukraine is on Donald J Trump’s hands.
The only thing I expect trump to learn from this war is that if he gets the United States into a war he can pause elections and stay in office.
I was worried about this too, but I looked it up. There is no contingency for a US President to serve more than two terms, even in the event of a war. Nor can he legally cancel or postpone a federal election—for any reason. FDR was re-elected for four terms, but that was before the passage of the 22nd Amendment in 1951. He was not simply granted extra terms because of the war or the depression. Prior to FDR several other presidents tried to win a 3rd term, but were defeated. So Trump is SOL unless Congress passes another Amendment or repeals the 22nd. Or I suppose SCOTUS could rule that the terms need to be consecutive or some other BS in his favor. And of course with Trump, extralegal means are never out of the question or surprising.
Yes. That’s why our protests have to stay peaceful. He might still gin up some kind of justification for imposing martial law, but everyone will be see that it’s phony
Trying my hardest to remember that we are mere spectators seeing a mash up of anchormanesque crazytown/idiocracy and fascist pretension but must confess the joy of watching the bordello on fire when the earthquake hits. . . well, its a bit challenging. Clown with a flame thrower, fire hose of merde. Rule by Dunning assisted by Kruger. Apologies to D&K.
My Nomi helps quite a bit. Decades ago when I had a deep depression, my 2 kitties were the only ones who kept me going. I got out of it much stronger. But there are days now when I have to fight against the even worse enemy of not caring about what's happening.
When I was a kid, we had plenty of pets. We had mostly dogs(springer spaniels and Cockers) and cats. As a kid, you never realize how important they are to your well being. Seeing Charlie and his dog pics, he knows this. They give us all that unconditional love we all need.
Can't help but wonder if Merrick Garland now understands how damaging his decisions were to our country because he dragged his feet for almost 2 years before assigning a special counsel (Smith - Nov 2022) to investigate Trump, giving no time to prosecute and incarcerate him for Jan 6, stealing classified government documents and trying to win the 2020 election by asking an election official to find 11,780 votes to win Georgia. It was well known Trump frequently won cases by delaying court orders through appeals, appeals and more appeals.
A special counsel to investigate Trump was needed to start immediately at the start of the Biden administration. Now we have a fascist President (in name only) aligning with Putin and every other dictator in the world and trying to sacrifice our country, and our Allies' countries (including our next door neighbors) in his own desire to become a dictator.
And we can't do anything about his traitorous and insurrectionist actions? Oh yeah, he's immune from prosecution because of the Republican side of SCOTUS.
Russell Moore wrote (posted today in "To the Contrary")
"...worldview in which everyone is equally corrupt and murderous, so the US should simply divide the world up into spheres of influence, regardless of who is being plundered or murdered in the process." That's who or what Trump is.
In early 2017, Trump made the following remark during an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, saying he respected his Russian counterpart. "But he’s a killer,” O’Reilly said to Trump. “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” Trump replied.
That was the beginning for what I think was well-informed ppl thinking that Trump was something of a nihilist, if they weren't already thinking that. His future actions have just confirmed it as he really sees the Russian & Chinese autocracies along w our burgeoning autocracy - if we're not going to effectively oppose him - controlling the world.
Charlie; As you pointed out a couple weeks ago, all the stories and Trump toxicity will take their toll. He wants to fire 70,000 to 80,00 at the VA., and half at the IRS. As we in the upper midwest know, wet snow makes for one nice snowball. And that snowball is getting larger and larger.
Fire the only agency that actually makes money. No wonder the idiot filed for bankruptcy so often. And Rs are willing to go along? Putin must really have something bad on them or paid them oodles of rubles.
Something I’ve noticed about republicans in general and specifically Trump and Musk, they are free about punching downward but they can’t take a punch, even if it’s a glancing blow.
Canada has given the remaining sane people in this country a blue print to handling this crisis, punch back. Not that simple because we don’t have main stream media, congress, the senate , executive branch or the Supreme Court to help us.
Trump and Musk are delusional in their lies and actions. We the people have to rein them in ourselves through civil disobedience, confrontation of their lies, and make sure they know they are not popular ( Trump and Musk are slaves to approval ratings).
"Trump is better understood by his critics than by many of his supporters". That is great analysis by Ezra. It sure sums up the reason we now have Trump 2.0
I can't listen to the podcast until later today; I just wanted to mark here how much I appreciate Karen Tumulty. Her tribute to Michael Gerson in WaPo a few years back deeply impacted me and I am forever grateful.
Charlie, you are the podcast host with the most and you always have terrific guests.
I've been rewatching Season One of Narcos, and I started thinking that what Escobar did to force the Colombian government to submit doesn't really seem much different than what MAGA is doing to the USA...
The best response to Trump’s SOTU speech was from an independent, Bernie Sanders. But no one heard it nor did the media broadcast it. Yes Bernie is a progressive but, he is a very smart man and would have made a good president. He genuinely cares which is in short supply now.
Instead we are lead into the abyss by two mentally ill, corrupt, megalomaniacs.
Stupidity has no cure. Stupidity can’t be reasoned with. Stupidity is a black hole to innovation. Trump cannot learn because he “knows everything better than anyone else.” Is Musk different ? Musk is just one cognitive level above Trump.
Trumps presidency is about making money for himself and to stay out of prison. Musk has the money so it about the power. What they both have in common is that they were born and raised in rich families with abusive fathers. Now they want to take that anger out on the rest of us . They hate authority because it’s reminds them of their fathers.
I watched Bernie after that ridiculous SOTU, and I agree; his points were spot on to what should be the "average American's." concerns. The ones who will undoubtedly be most harmed by Trump, Doge and the Republicans. He laid it out step by step, item by item, in layman terms. Bernie is very intelligent, and in this time where some less wealthy folks tied to the R brand are starting to worry, they need to hear him.
When Hillary was chosen over Bernie, there were a lot of R's who liked Bernie. Liked him more than Trump. HE has the ability to reach the middle class, regardless of party affiliation.
Democrats demonstrated their total weakness to fight back by having a brand new Congress member,Slotnik do the official response. They are hopelessly feeble.
I’m sorry the actions were not successful. Lukewarm protests aren’t helping, Dems. Republicans have sold their souls to a man who doesn’t care about them. Interpret that any way you like. I’m done anyway.
Great conversation. I am still on the fence with my WaPo subscription. I enjoy reading it but I really wonder what it is I am supporting now.
I loved MTG's comment last week about Federal government employees are worthless. She realizes that SHE IS a Federal government employee - right? Dumbshit! 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
There is bloat in the government but it needs to be surgically addressed not axed out. Gore did a great job back in the late 1990s going through and working with agencies to address that issue.
The Pentagon is chocked full of bloat. Prime example, after WWII we had FOUR four star generals. Now we have like 11. For what? We haven't won a war in decades yet we have 11 four star generals and all of the lower generals, majors, coronels and the rest of the baggage that goes with them. Never mind the God awful spending that goes on. Forget the $1K toilet seats (they were for airplanes for Christ's sake) and $500 coffee makers (again, an airplane part). It's the billion dollar fighter jets, worthless aircraft carriers, and constantly crashing Ospreys that are the real problem. We have to stop designing shit that costs a freaking fortune and then requires 11 four stars to promote this expensive crap.
Minor correction - there were 4 5 star generals and at least 7 4 star generals during WW2. Didn't check on Naval ranks.
Part of the problem with military spending is a big case of Congress wanting military bases, personnel, and their toys for their districts. So, you get instances of the military getting planes/ships/etc. that they really don't want, but Congress does!
I see ignorant comments like mtg makes and it just makes my blood boil. I worked in federal court for the last nearly 20 years and, with one exception, every single person I worked with was skilled, dedicated, and honorable. I earned leave time but was never able to take all that I earned because there was no one to cover for me and then I would have to forfeit hours at the end of the year because the rules wouldn’t allow me to roll over all that I had earned. We were doing the work we were hired for at less than we could make as a non-gov employee because we liked the stability and benefits — btw, we paid half the premium on health insurance for ourselves and all of it for eligible family members and had the choices that other large companies offer their employees; no free anything!
Ima gonna have another cup o'joe and revisit this in the immediate aftermath. I might, and probably will, make a printout to add to my file labeled Best of the Best (in this case maybe best of the best of the best) Things I've read about our current beyond-constitutional crisis. Now, Charlie, Karen, Ezra et al, please thell us, in real time aka now or soon, how we can arrest, detain, incarcerate, and or commit our PINO&the Gang to jail or a facility for the mentally ill.
“And to cope with the trauma, they convince themselves that there is no such thing as goodness, becoming prostitutes or rakes or drunkards or revolutionaries, reveling in their baseness. But then they are undone when they meet genuinely good people and grow to hate them.”
This is what Trump thinks, and he has been extremely successful -- with the help of the Fox News Disinformation Hydra -- in convincing his supporters of the same. "What makes you think America is so innocent?" Well done, all you fake ass flag waving "patriots" who actually hate America and everything it stands for. Like everything with Trump, it would be hilarious if it weren't so heartbreaking and dangerous to the world. Historians will have some fun with it 500 years from now, at least.
Officially frightened. Trump is CLEARLY helping Russia. I won't itemize his moves as you all know them. My continuing question remains.....how to stop this madness????? Is there anyone who can stop it? Is there any legal remedy? Any group of influencers to overtake or convince him to get back on Ukraines side? He's ruined our relationships with our allies. Frightened near Seattle.
While watching Slotkin's speech, I was wondering why they had a Republican give it. When I realized she was a Democrat, I was highly disappointed. She was as less inspiring than watching muddy grey paint drying on a prison wall.
Senator Slotkin does understand that Democrats need to talk to everyone they can, not just their base. She won Michigan - a result I hope the next Democratic nominee for President can match.
I get that, and I think it's important to reach the base because they make up most of those who stayed home and didn't vote for Kamala because they felt she was going too soft on the issues, not fighting back on the disinformation, and becoming Republican-lite. I get how that's important, and I think the Reagan rhetoric was too emphasized because most want to hear how we're going to stand up together and fight the MAGA shit show was lost. 🤷♀️
Because we live in a shallow society where people have the memories of a goldfish. The "swing voters" are now concerned about the "chaos" surrounding Trump? Did they forget the last fucking time? Morons.
so repeating the shallowness is the answer? no it most certainly is not...the average american has the attention span of a fruit fly, become comfortable with being a moron, and in the post truth era, bought into their feelings instead of critically thinking...they aren't concerned about the chaos,,,funny thing about chaos, you may not be interested in it, but it is interested in you...just look at the number of magats who lost their jobs who say "but I voted for shitheat"...a lesson in consequences and why being shallow hurts...
pure fantasy that started with St Ronnie. What you and I undeerstand about a government seeing to people's needs, vulture capitalist, fueled by right wing fantasy, see as an opportunity to capture for exploitation and profit...it's all about power and money
ashamed to say the gorgeous big...huge...boys were what this fan tuned in to see...but enjoyed no no not any Joy, appreciated is better word....Karen tumulty speaking with you, appreciated the back and forth interchange between you two...
typing left handedly with shoulder replacement brace on ft arm...apologies to everyone.
there is nothing hopeful about our government and the elected members of the Senate and Congress seem completely impotent if not now the walking dead.....
I keep thinking I’ve seen the bottom, the lowest the creep can go….. and then I read something like he’s going to revoke the temporary protected status of Ukrainian refugees. And it’s worse. God help us if we ever DO see the bottom of his character
It was great seeing Karen Tumulty on this podcast. I really miss her since I no longer subscribe to the Post.
This is a new low
Just breaking: SpaceX Starship just blew up! Business as usual for Elon?
Photos of your doggies are a balm for my troubled soul...and much cheaper than Xanax!
Trump is an old man who will not have to worry about the deficit… he truly doesn’t care. So scary to say… I do believe he hates America, feels like America screwed him and he’s very likely ill. Those dark marks on his hand? They’re from IVs.
Love the analogy of the medieval Catholics selling indulgences...Jesus once again turning over the tables of the Hypocrites....
Congress is on a 4 year fully funded hiatus thanks to drumpf .We are paying these knee jerk fools. Makes you wonder who is the fool, here?
What we can do now:
Join Indivisible - https://indivisible.org/ - It’s run by former congressional staffers who know how things work in Washington. These folks have an amazing level of determination, practical knowledge, and hope. Those demonstrations against Musk & Trump around the country have been organized by dozens of local Indivisible chapters. They do a Zoom every Thursday that lays out action steps. Their next focus is to identify vulnerable GOP Senators – the traitors who confirmed every dangerous cabinet head – who are coming up for re-election soon…and make sure they are voted out of office.
Speak out against the GOP’s latest attempt at voter suppression. Tell your Representatives and Senators to stop the ironically-named ”SAVE” act. Up to 34% of voting-age women don't have documents proving citizenship with their current legal name because when they married, they likely took their husband’s surname. This could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters. And that’s the whole point. HR 22 would need to be passed by both the House and Senate.
Also tell your Congress people to not give Trump one inch – on anything. (Even some Democratic Senators have, shockingly, voted to confirm dangerous Cabinet heads.)
If you’re shy about calling Congress, join Adam Kinziger’s “Country First” zooms. Hundreds of people call their congresspeople at the same time – they suggest scripts and coach you through it. Sign up at https://www.country1st.com/
Support Judge Susan Crawford in her bid for the Wisconsin Supreme court. Go to CrawfordForWI.com to learn about why this race is so important. (That Elon Musk has donated tons of money to her GOP opponent tells you something…..) Jen Rubin at The Contrarian explains - https://substack.com/home/post/p-158477872
And please support Democracy Forward – https://democracyforward.org/ These tireless lawyers are suing the Trump Administration every day. They have some impressive wins under their belt, but unfortunately there are many more battles to fight. 5,600 civil servants just got their jobs back, due to Democracy Forward’s lawsuit!
Friends, pls. re-stack this!
Thank you, Jan. Excellent information!
Interesting discussion regarding what Musk is doing vs what is highlighted in the GAO High-Risk Series summary. When fraud and waste are mentioned in the context of the US government, people always assume this is the fault of the government and the "corrupt" employees. However, looking at the GAO high risk summaries - with the IRS, or Medicare and Medicaid as examples, it is clear that, yes there is a lot of fraud, but it is perpetrated by the American people on the government. Not the other way round. Billions of taxpayer dollars go on fraudulent medical claims, or are lost in tax fraud. How is cutting staff that manage these areas going to help with identifying and refusing to pay fraudulent clams, or recover fraudulently withheld tax dollars? (Diana's husband posting)
Thank God for the Puppies.
I have to agree with Tom Nichols: Slotkin was not nearly strong nor tough enough. Her delivery was indeed "mature" and "adult"...God knows we long for more of that these days. But the fire/importance/downright EMERGENCY state that we are in did not come through. Her speech was good for 2017, not 2025.
mentioning Reagan? who was that for? The Maggats in gov't don't give a rat's about him. Neither do Dems. Didn't get significance of that mention. Not going to win anybody over bringing up that old actor/fake president...
I can understand what motivates POS and Skum and Miller and even Vance. But I really have a hard time trying to figure out what the real problem is with the Rs in Congress. Some are total losses, but I can understand them. I really do not understand the so-called normies, especially since most of them have far more income than the cops, agents, firefighters, military, and others who risk their lives every single day for others. If they would find the strength to oppose POS and his ilk, the country would have buried them in the dunghill of infamy.
I think it is the threat of physical violence. For example, look at Lindsey Graham. He was anti trump until he had a couple encounters with threatening MAGAots.
And in Liz Cheney's book, she mentions congresscritters that knew they should vote to impeach but they had violent threats and were worried about themselves and their families. Wives, children, etc.
It's classic. And now trump has 1600 released felons to be the seeds of his brownshirt army.
yes yes fear of violence....fear of violent speech via posts on and other online forums..fear of doxing, fear of violence towards their person and homes...maga is clearly more and more enamored by violence and threats of same.
Total mob/gangsters running our country. Shame.
just read this week that DJT sold most of the Trump tower condos to Russians in the Moscow Mafia, openly Mafia and that DJT knew all along.
In other words, they bow to threats that many much lower paid folks have to deal with - like the military, the firefighters, the police, etc. I really have a hard time feeling sorry for them. Especially since they don't give a damn about the people who are now threatened with losing their jobs, their incomes, their homes, etc. Now they're threatening seniors with poverty, lack of medical care, even starvation because of their cowardice.
Of course you, Charlie, Karen and Ezra are excellent, but the only good thing about today is the puppies.
I understand the the pain is the point for Trump and R's, and that they're waiting for us to just quit. But it's hard not to and instead try to salvage what one can to have a decent life in a time that our own leaders are determined to create an interminable amount of pain. Not only for us, but for the world. It's hard to fathom, hard to reconcile what is happening now with my old beliefs of what this country was and proudly stood for, even if it wasn't perfect.
To actively not only support Russia, but take actions against Ukraine – I absolutely believe that our intelligence is being shared with Russia – is a new low and the thing that brings me the most shame. In a time where this feeling of shame has been more present than I've ever experienced this says a lot. And honestly, I don't believe there is any rational reason for this other than Donald Trump's petty reign of retribution against those he perceives harmed him.
There is no strategery here, nothing good for the country. It's all personal – Zelensky got him impeached, and it's just another thing that someone must pay for.
I'm not believing a lot in fairness or justice at this point, so I doubt that we'll get to see Trump pay in any way for his heinous actions, his heinous life. But I still hope to be able see this.
I believe without a shadow of a doubt, the classified materials he stole and kept like a hoarder at Maralago was shared immediately with his dictator buds.
Thanks Charlie but I saw the BS of that Not State of the Union
Yes Karen obvious to me that you are not always critical of GOP
Has anyone taken a look at Stephen Miller? We know Trump probably doesn't write his speeches, because as he reads it appears some of the stuff surprises him. But Miller is totally evil...the book about him is titled The Hatemonger...and we know that in the first Trump administration when someone got in Miller's way, he would whisper in Donald's ear, and that person was jettisoned. Am I making any sense...if we want to know more we need to watch a listen more closely to Miller.
Every drop of blood shed since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War (February 2014) is on Vladimir Putin’s hands. Now every drop of blood shed since the trump administration paused intelligence information to Ukraine is on Donald J Trump’s hands.
The only thing I expect trump to learn from this war is that if he gets the United States into a war he can pause elections and stay in office.
Lord have mercy on us all.
I was worried about this too, but I looked it up. There is no contingency for a US President to serve more than two terms, even in the event of a war. Nor can he legally cancel or postpone a federal election—for any reason. FDR was re-elected for four terms, but that was before the passage of the 22nd Amendment in 1951. He was not simply granted extra terms because of the war or the depression. Prior to FDR several other presidents tried to win a 3rd term, but were defeated. So Trump is SOL unless Congress passes another Amendment or repeals the 22nd. Or I suppose SCOTUS could rule that the terms need to be consecutive or some other BS in his favor. And of course with Trump, extralegal means are never out of the question or surprising.
Never.
100% correct.
Yes, I believe there is a high probability of a ginned up skirmish/war/crisis to invoke martial law.
Yes. That’s why our protests have to stay peaceful. He might still gin up some kind of justification for imposing martial law, but everyone will be see that it’s phony
Marvin, you might enjoy this Substack written by a Ukrainian patriot:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-158527872
Thank you for sharing !
Thank you, Holli! Excellent read. 🙏
Why is he so evil? He has everything he could want!
It's never enough for someone like him and Skum. In reality, that is all they have to live for - not family, not friends, no one.
Trying my hardest to remember that we are mere spectators seeing a mash up of anchormanesque crazytown/idiocracy and fascist pretension but must confess the joy of watching the bordello on fire when the earthquake hits. . . well, its a bit challenging. Clown with a flame thrower, fire hose of merde. Rule by Dunning assisted by Kruger. Apologies to D&K.
As always, Auggie and Eli are a most welcome respite. They are our therapy dogs!
My Nomi helps quite a bit. Decades ago when I had a deep depression, my 2 kitties were the only ones who kept me going. I got out of it much stronger. But there are days now when I have to fight against the even worse enemy of not caring about what's happening.
When I was a kid, we had plenty of pets. We had mostly dogs(springer spaniels and Cockers) and cats. As a kid, you never realize how important they are to your well being. Seeing Charlie and his dog pics, he knows this. They give us all that unconditional love we all need.
Can't help but wonder if Merrick Garland now understands how damaging his decisions were to our country because he dragged his feet for almost 2 years before assigning a special counsel (Smith - Nov 2022) to investigate Trump, giving no time to prosecute and incarcerate him for Jan 6, stealing classified government documents and trying to win the 2020 election by asking an election official to find 11,780 votes to win Georgia. It was well known Trump frequently won cases by delaying court orders through appeals, appeals and more appeals.
A special counsel to investigate Trump was needed to start immediately at the start of the Biden administration. Now we have a fascist President (in name only) aligning with Putin and every other dictator in the world and trying to sacrifice our country, and our Allies' countries (including our next door neighbors) in his own desire to become a dictator.
And we can't do anything about his traitorous and insurrectionist actions? Oh yeah, he's immune from prosecution because of the Republican side of SCOTUS.
The J6 arrests should have been started on J6, imho. And not with the bottom fish but at the top. But wouldda shouldda couldda does no good now. 😣
Russell Moore wrote (posted today in "To the Contrary")
"...worldview in which everyone is equally corrupt and murderous, so the US should simply divide the world up into spheres of influence, regardless of who is being plundered or murdered in the process." That's who or what Trump is.
In early 2017, Trump made the following remark during an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, saying he respected his Russian counterpart. "But he’s a killer,” O’Reilly said to Trump. “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” Trump replied.
That was the beginning for what I think was well-informed ppl thinking that Trump was something of a nihilist, if they weren't already thinking that. His future actions have just confirmed it as he really sees the Russian & Chinese autocracies along w our burgeoning autocracy - if we're not going to effectively oppose him - controlling the world.
Charlie; As you pointed out a couple weeks ago, all the stories and Trump toxicity will take their toll. He wants to fire 70,000 to 80,00 at the VA., and half at the IRS. As we in the upper midwest know, wet snow makes for one nice snowball. And that snowball is getting larger and larger.
Fire the only agency that actually makes money. No wonder the idiot filed for bankruptcy so often. And Rs are willing to go along? Putin must really have something bad on them or paid them oodles of rubles.
They are just stooges.
Something I’ve noticed about republicans in general and specifically Trump and Musk, they are free about punching downward but they can’t take a punch, even if it’s a glancing blow.
Canada has given the remaining sane people in this country a blue print to handling this crisis, punch back. Not that simple because we don’t have main stream media, congress, the senate , executive branch or the Supreme Court to help us.
Trump and Musk are delusional in their lies and actions. We the people have to rein them in ourselves through civil disobedience, confrontation of their lies, and make sure they know they are not popular ( Trump and Musk are slaves to approval ratings).
"Trump is better understood by his critics than by many of his supporters". That is great analysis by Ezra. It sure sums up the reason we now have Trump 2.0
I didn’t think Karen Tumulty’s points were very winning.
I can't listen to the podcast until later today; I just wanted to mark here how much I appreciate Karen Tumulty. Her tribute to Michael Gerson in WaPo a few years back deeply impacted me and I am forever grateful.
Charlie, you are the podcast host with the most and you always have terrific guests.
I've been rewatching Season One of Narcos, and I started thinking that what Escobar did to force the Colombian government to submit doesn't really seem much different than what MAGA is doing to the USA...
The best response to Trump’s SOTU speech was from an independent, Bernie Sanders. But no one heard it nor did the media broadcast it. Yes Bernie is a progressive but, he is a very smart man and would have made a good president. He genuinely cares which is in short supply now.
Instead we are lead into the abyss by two mentally ill, corrupt, megalomaniacs.
Stupidity has no cure. Stupidity can’t be reasoned with. Stupidity is a black hole to innovation. Trump cannot learn because he “knows everything better than anyone else.” Is Musk different ? Musk is just one cognitive level above Trump.
Trumps presidency is about making money for himself and to stay out of prison. Musk has the money so it about the power. What they both have in common is that they were born and raised in rich families with abusive fathers. Now they want to take that anger out on the rest of us . They hate authority because it’s reminds them of their fathers.
Both need a padded cell.
I watched Bernie after that ridiculous SOTU, and I agree; his points were spot on to what should be the "average American's." concerns. The ones who will undoubtedly be most harmed by Trump, Doge and the Republicans. He laid it out step by step, item by item, in layman terms. Bernie is very intelligent, and in this time where some less wealthy folks tied to the R brand are starting to worry, they need to hear him.
When Hillary was chosen over Bernie, there were a lot of R's who liked Bernie. Liked him more than Trump. HE has the ability to reach the middle class, regardless of party affiliation.
Democrats demonstrated their total weakness to fight back by having a brand new Congress member,Slotnik do the official response. They are hopelessly feeble.
If we had more like Slotkin in the party, our approval rating might be higher than 21%.
I’m sorry the actions were not successful. Lukewarm protests aren’t helping, Dems. Republicans have sold their souls to a man who doesn’t care about them. Interpret that any way you like. I’m done anyway.
Great to see the dogs as always.
Great conversation. I am still on the fence with my WaPo subscription. I enjoy reading it but I really wonder what it is I am supporting now.
I loved MTG's comment last week about Federal government employees are worthless. She realizes that SHE IS a Federal government employee - right? Dumbshit! 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
There is bloat in the government but it needs to be surgically addressed not axed out. Gore did a great job back in the late 1990s going through and working with agencies to address that issue.
The Pentagon is chocked full of bloat. Prime example, after WWII we had FOUR four star generals. Now we have like 11. For what? We haven't won a war in decades yet we have 11 four star generals and all of the lower generals, majors, coronels and the rest of the baggage that goes with them. Never mind the God awful spending that goes on. Forget the $1K toilet seats (they were for airplanes for Christ's sake) and $500 coffee makers (again, an airplane part). It's the billion dollar fighter jets, worthless aircraft carriers, and constantly crashing Ospreys that are the real problem. We have to stop designing shit that costs a freaking fortune and then requires 11 four stars to promote this expensive crap.
Minor correction - there were 4 5 star generals and at least 7 4 star generals during WW2. Didn't check on Naval ranks.
Part of the problem with military spending is a big case of Congress wanting military bases, personnel, and their toys for their districts. So, you get instances of the military getting planes/ships/etc. that they really don't want, but Congress does!
I see ignorant comments like mtg makes and it just makes my blood boil. I worked in federal court for the last nearly 20 years and, with one exception, every single person I worked with was skilled, dedicated, and honorable. I earned leave time but was never able to take all that I earned because there was no one to cover for me and then I would have to forfeit hours at the end of the year because the rules wouldn’t allow me to roll over all that I had earned. We were doing the work we were hired for at less than we could make as a non-gov employee because we liked the stability and benefits — btw, we paid half the premium on health insurance for ourselves and all of it for eligible family members and had the choices that other large companies offer their employees; no free anything!
It ALL Retribution!
Ima gonna have another cup o'joe and revisit this in the immediate aftermath. I might, and probably will, make a printout to add to my file labeled Best of the Best (in this case maybe best of the best of the best) Things I've read about our current beyond-constitutional crisis. Now, Charlie, Karen, Ezra et al, please thell us, in real time aka now or soon, how we can arrest, detain, incarcerate, and or commit our PINO&the Gang to jail or a facility for the mentally ill.
And still we burn. 🔥
It’s not fine, for anyone but the insane.
“And to cope with the trauma, they convince themselves that there is no such thing as goodness, becoming prostitutes or rakes or drunkards or revolutionaries, reveling in their baseness. But then they are undone when they meet genuinely good people and grow to hate them.”
This is what Trump thinks, and he has been extremely successful -- with the help of the Fox News Disinformation Hydra -- in convincing his supporters of the same. "What makes you think America is so innocent?" Well done, all you fake ass flag waving "patriots" who actually hate America and everything it stands for. Like everything with Trump, it would be hilarious if it weren't so heartbreaking and dangerous to the world. Historians will have some fun with it 500 years from now, at least.
Trump University, Trump Charity, 34 felonies, E Jean Carroll — seems he wants to penalize America for his being an incompetent crook.
Officially frightened. Trump is CLEARLY helping Russia. I won't itemize his moves as you all know them. My continuing question remains.....how to stop this madness????? Is there anyone who can stop it? Is there any legal remedy? Any group of influencers to overtake or convince him to get back on Ukraines side? He's ruined our relationships with our allies. Frightened near Seattle.
While watching Slotkin's speech, I was wondering why they had a Republican give it. When I realized she was a Democrat, I was highly disappointed. She was as less inspiring than watching muddy grey paint drying on a prison wall.
Senator Slotkin does understand that Democrats need to talk to everyone they can, not just their base. She won Michigan - a result I hope the next Democratic nominee for President can match.
I get that, and I think it's important to reach the base because they make up most of those who stayed home and didn't vote for Kamala because they felt she was going too soft on the issues, not fighting back on the disinformation, and becoming Republican-lite. I get how that's important, and I think the Reagan rhetoric was too emphasized because most want to hear how we're going to stand up together and fight the MAGA shit show was lost. 🤷♀️
and how many prisons have you visited? why are people so enamored with style over substance?
Because we live in a shallow society where people have the memories of a goldfish. The "swing voters" are now concerned about the "chaos" surrounding Trump? Did they forget the last fucking time? Morons.
so repeating the shallowness is the answer? no it most certainly is not...the average american has the attention span of a fruit fly, become comfortable with being a moron, and in the post truth era, bought into their feelings instead of critically thinking...they aren't concerned about the chaos,,,funny thing about chaos, you may not be interested in it, but it is interested in you...just look at the number of magats who lost their jobs who say "but I voted for shitheat"...a lesson in consequences and why being shallow hurts...
I'm tired of hearing folks say the government is "bloated." What is this comment based on? Be specific please.
pure fantasy that started with St Ronnie. What you and I undeerstand about a government seeing to people's needs, vulture capitalist, fueled by right wing fantasy, see as an opportunity to capture for exploitation and profit...it's all about power and money