Like so many of us, I have been staggering around in the dark since November 5th. Partly just licking the wounds of a surprising and inexplicable loss, but mostly trying to figure out what lessons to take from the debacle and what to do next. As has been noted here and elsewhere, the mainstream media has been virtually useless in this process and have in fact gotten in the way with their off point races for clicks that do nothing more than divert from the necessary analysis while adding to the overall level of anxiety.
I get that it's not easy, maybe even impossible, to fully understand the big picture while it's still being painted or developed. I certainly don't have all the answers myself. But I do know a couple of things: Consistently doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result is madness and focusing on the small stuff while the big stuff is running us over is not helping.
I have come to realize that one of the biggest reasons the results of this past election were so painful is that it marked the end of an era. And that was the era in which I grew up, in which I learned whatever it is I know, in which I gained the experience to apply my knowledge in certain particular ways, in which facts were known things and formed the basis for reasoned argument, which followed a certain pattern even if it lead different people to different results. Those days are over. People like me have still not grasped just how much of a revolution the internet/digital age is. We are generals fighting the last war while the blitzkrieg zips past and around us.
Let's remember this: In 1930's Germany, if one wanted to resist the Nazis, one did not join the equivalent of the Democratic and Republican Parties (i.e. the mainstream parties). One joined or worked with the Communist Party because they were the only ones actually resisting, the only ones rising to the occasion with an understanding of how the war was being fought. That's not an endorsement of Communism. It is a dis-endorsement of traditional politics when those politics are not up to the challenge of the moment.
My personal bottom line is that the Democratic Party and many of its (loudest) supporters in the media have persisted (yes, I used that word on purpose) in bringing slingshots to machine gun fights, with predictable results. I'm done. This war (not battle) needs to be fought on many fronts simultaneously and it needs to be fought consciously, with intent using all available weapons.
So I think it's great that my dear friend Susan Wagner wants to bring the DNC Chair candidates in front of the grassroots constituency and I support that. But I'm also saying this: I'm drawing a line in the sand: If the Administration does not release BOTH the Special Counsel reports immediately (that's not a deadline, it is an expression of urgency with the outside deadline being January 19th) they can continue on without me. This has to happen and there is a straight path to get there: Just do it. Just do it, Merrick Garland. If Merrick Garland won't do it, just order him to do it, President Biden. If that doesn't work let's have our own Saturday Night Massacre until somebody does it. The President can and should provide all necessary cover with pardons for the appropriate parties. These are the tools of the new age. Use 'em or lose.
To claim to be hamstrung by an order by Aileen Cannon, Donald Trump's personal judge is absurd. It gives respect to a system that no longer exists. It is an application of old tools to a new reality. Her order is extra-judicial. Ignore it. Donald would. Instead of bemoaning Alito's conversation with Trump, let's recognize what we already know: The price of a Supreme Court vote has already been established: It's something less than $4 Million in Thomas's case and well less than that in Alito's. They are corrupt. Why do we still give them the courtesy of acting like we live in normal times? Why should the Supreme Court get to decide whether the Special Counsel reports are released? It's an executive decision. As I understand it, Trump hasn't even bothered to make a constitutional argument. As between the Supreme Court and the President the President is far better suited to make this decision.
We may well need to explain to the public that Trump either doesn't know what he's talking about or is outright lying when it comes to CA water policies and wild fires, but the bigger message is that he is casting blame, pointing fingers and wasting time at a time that requires definitive action and that his record of FAILURE in this area stands on its own. Where are the pictures of the aftermath of the August Complex Fire? Where are the memes about raking leaves as a purported solution to wildfires? Where is the observation that Mump's proposed budget would cut the hell out of FEMA? And that argument doesn't require a line by line budget analysis; it requires bold statements of inevitable consequences despite whatever sleights of hand and tongue the Trumpists try to make. We don't have to respond to their claims with detailed budget numbers; we need to respond with bottom line truth: If Trump were in charge there would be nobody to fight the fires and there sure as hell wouldn't be Canadian resources being brought to bear.
I could follow this through ad infinitum, issue by issue but the point remains the same: Not only are we being outplayed and being forced to play defense, we have become the Washington Generals*, programmed and destined to lose due to the nature of the rules of the game. If the Democrats won't play the game that's actually on the field, it's time to move on.
Thank you for so articulating exactly what I think. Like I said once before, people are disgusted with the Democrats acting as if everything is normal. Alito, SCOTUS, is already gone. We all know this. Garland and Biden need to recognize this. Release the reports. Just do it. We are not in normal times anymore. Stop pandering to something that doesn’t exist. Leonard Leo and the Federalists and the broligarchy have won. Look at what is unfolding right in front of our eyes. The Democrats in power need to fight, not just respond. Grassroots cannot do this alone. DNC has failed us. They have not seized the clickbait moment but the GOP has successfully captured the media. Where is the left wing response to this? Like I said, people are disgusted here in NJ with the status quo Democrats and are forming their own groups and political parties, which can be counterproductive. But as we watch the entrenched political parties, and see what kind of money it takes to get elected…in order to run, you can’t be working, you don’t have the time…so incumbents have the upper hand as we pay them to re-run for office…we see this. Read Lukas Kunce’s substack today about the need for incredible amounts of money needed to run for office,a she has done several times, as a normal person. Why was nothing done about Citizens United? Why didn’t the political machine fight to change SCOTUS while we had power? Notice that the DNC did not include the grassroots but they/we had to demand it. LFG. Ben Wickler understands this. But the apparatus of the Democratic Party needs to take note of what’s actually reality and take the offensive.
Well said Jeff and Kathy. Dems keep following the "rules" and proudly get trampled.
There is a law that prevents Donald Trump from becoming president. Because he attempted a coup. It was televised. We all saw it. VP Harris could have stood tall and announced that he is disqualified accordingly on Janauary 6th. President Biden could have agreed. A new election scheduled.
We keep doing the same thing and expect the crooks and traitors to humanity to appreciate it. We just don't understand. There is no time left...
I understand the frustration, I really do but VP Harris could do no such thing. She literally doesn't have the authority, and we can't just bend the system for a new election because we don't like the results.
You are absolutely right. Don't blame Kamala Harris for not doing something that Garrick and Biden neglected to do for years. Years!
Kathy, Jeff, I'd love to give 10 likes to your comments if I could. Even if it is legally sound the MAGA wolves could harass and bankrupt Garland with prolonged and trumped-up "investigations", so I can understand his reluctance to publish the reports. He would be in the clear should the President order him to do it. And the President would be in the clear as well, thank you SCOTUS.
Why would Biden not do it? Still clinging to the obsolete and by now totally ridiculous 'reaching out across the aisle' or 'don't deepen the rift in the American society? That ship has sailed. Not publishing the reports would make Biden an accomplice in the ongoing plot against America.
i share your feelings. Tribe and Lutig wrote an excellent letter to the SCOTUS. Colorado did a bang up job in explaining their case, but the Roberts Court still ruled against us. Please stop blaming "Dems" for literally everything.
At some point when the train of destruction comes barreling down the tracks and blows its horn to tell you exactly how fast and powerful it is .... you get off the tracks. And maybe, derail or stop somehow the runaway train.
These are not normal times. These are not normal people. They are willing to use the rule of force and abandon the rule of law.
We can watch and weep, or we can stand for something. We have our founding fathers documents, decency and a desire for respectful governance. But as they make war on humanity and the planet, don't we we owe it to our kids to try? Try and try?
But I guess embracing polio, annexing Canada, making war on humans seeking shelter, invading Panama and Greenland will help us in the eyes of God, right?
I think Dems need to run out ahead, like the GOP does. And rather than always be reacting/responding/defendning, they need to start a consolidated and comprehensive movement, *a brand*, that states who they are, what they do, and what they have in the works. Get help from sharpshooting PR firm. Take the reins and gallop past and ahead.
Kathy, you ask "Why was nothing done?" You used the passive voice. You answered your own question. Progressive Americans have been passive, complacent, nit-picking, hyper-critical, and demanding for too many decades. Myself included. I relied on the structure and the institutions of democracy to hold, while greedy rapacious ravagers worked for decades to undermine them. I did nothing. Now it's time to shoulder the responsibility, each of us individually, and work to fight what we hate and get what we want--for the benefit of everyone. I don't agree with the gentleman in an earlier post who said small acts don't matter. They do. We're in utter chaos now; we have to start building, and building starts with putting a shovel in the earth to dig out a clod of dirt to start the foundation. Then it proceeds, 2x4 by screw by drip of concrete. We don't even know what we're building yet. But we have to start today. Do something good. Fight something, or support something you value. Then rejoice that.
Jeff well stated and air agree there is a generational change taking place and the political landscape and voters have changed. It’s not our father’s politics anymore. Democrats need to adapt.
I agree with much that has been said, but please let's not call for a mere "generational" change. I knew when I was 19 that "Don't trust anyone over 30" is a stupid idea. I knew enough of some of my own generation in the 'sixties to know they couldn't lead or organize or think clearly. If the young are going to save us, where is the campus outrage against Trump and his threats to invade Greenland and Panama. We want fighters and thinkers of whatever age. I don't know the average age of members of the Hubbell Community, but from what I've gathered we are an older bunch. But we still have the will to fight, the ability to think, and the time to act. And look at the Republican Party, they have their generational change leaders in Don Jr and Charlie Kirk off to measure for drapes for their offices in Greenland and Marjorie Taylor Greene wanting to name a body of international water the Gulf of America, without any recognition that America does not just mean the United States of....
For what it's worth, I share a disappointment in the current DNC and the Democratic Party in general. A year ago, we were being told that if Trump were to be elected President again it would be the end of democracy. Well, Trump got elected and now all we hear is tsking about how silly Trump's desire to invade Greenland or "take back" the Panama Canal is together with pious desire to "work across the aisles." No one is stepping up to the mic to fight. I guess losing democracy hasn't turned out to be such a big disaster as we thought. Democrats seem almost as worried about offending Trump's base as Republicans are. So some 30% of the population together with 5% of the wealthiest people control the government of the United States?
Who knows how many of our leaders have been stepping up to the mic if the mainstream media refuses to put it out there for them? I definitely agree with you about not lauding generational changes as a sure fix for whatever ails us. It's not our age, it's the quality of our ideas and willingness to lead that counts. Give us Democrats some time to coalesce in a new way. After all, we just won two seats in Virginia because grassroots efforts came together.
It feels as though we've lost the vibe / messaging war and the conservative content creation / influencer battle right now. None of us know the future but I know we can't keep doing the same thing.
"I have come to realize that one of the biggest reasons the results of this past election were so painful is that it marked the end of an era. And that was the era in which I grew up, in which I learned whatever it is I know, in which I gained the experience to apply my knowledge in certain particular ways, in which facts were known things and formed the basis for reasoned argument, which followed a certain pattern even if it lead different people to different results."
Thank you for putting my feelings into words. I will add that this era was one that valued public service and inspired me to go into a profession in which I could help enable children and adults with disabilities to become and do what they wanted to do, to become full citizens. to become productive human beings. I mourn the end of this era and prepare to resist the rising of the next cynical, selfish, oppressive one.
Agree 100%. For years even though I am a Democrat, I have called most Democrats, Doormat Democrats. I am a Ninja Dem, through and through. Biden should release everything on trump, fuck the DOJ fuck all the liberal pussies shaking in their boots. Lets get lean, mean, aggressive and tough and show those fuckers what we’re made of. Also throw all that political correctness in the trash for now. If you’re with us you’re with us, if not get out of the way.
“Let's remember this: In 1930's Germany, if one wanted to resist the Nazis, one did not join the equivalent of the Democratic and Republican Parties (i.e. the mainstream parties). One joined or worked with the Communist Party because they were the only ones actually resisting, the only ones rising to the occasion with an understanding of how the war was being fought. That's not an endorsement of Communism. It is a dis-endorsement of traditional politics when those politics are not up to the challenge of the moment. “
And this
“I'm drawing a line in the sand: If the Administration does not release BOTH the Special Counsel reports immediately (that's not a deadline, it is an expression of urgency with the outside deadline being January 19th) they can continue on without me. This has to happen and there is a straight path to get there: Just do it. Just do it, Merrick Garland. If Merrick Garland won't do it, just order him to do it, President Biden. If that doesn't work let's have our own Saturday Night Massacre until somebody does it. The President can and should provide all necessary cover with pardons for the appropriate parties. These are the tools of the new age. Use 'em or lose.”
And this
“Why do we still give them the courtesy of acting like we live in normal times? Why should the Supreme Court get to decide whether the Special Counsel reports are released? It's an executive decision. As I understand it, Trump hasn't even bothered to make a constitutional argument. As between the Supreme Court and the President the President is far better suited to make this decision.”
And
“We don't have to respond to their claims with detailed budget numbers; we need to respond with bottom line truth: If Trump were in charge there would be nobody to fight the fires and there sure as hell wouldn't be Canadian resources being brought to bear. “
I couldn't agree more which is why every day I wonder why I stay in the fight. Those who are in our party's leadership, are not leading. They deserve every sentiment you so articulately presented here. Should we schedule the Town Hall, we will be sure to raise these issues. Thanks.
So many of us are now saying the same thing, in different ways. The Dems have to wake up and citizens cannot wait for the Dems to wake up because they’ve been sleep walking for 50+ years in the face of this building threat. Citizens have to find ways to engage positively but sadly not rely on the dysfunctional Dem Party. This is not going to be easy.
Excellent post, Jeff. If I may add, President Biden has the authority, and now, thanks to a utterly corrupt Supreme Court, the immunity to order the reports released.
My advice to President Biden, AG Garland and the Justice Dept: immediately drop the stolen documents case against the last two defendants (they are worthless) and release the entirety of BOTH reports to the public.
Last night I checked in on a good friend who lives in LA. In fact she had just moved back this summer. She lives in a neighborhood next to Pacific Palisades and told me she was getting that there was high warning. I could feel her indecisiveness about when to leave and I told her to get out NOW! I said, I am not there and therefore am very clear headed. The risk of staying any longer is too great. She showed me a picture of a sky filled with flames in a distance that seemed too near, just from a smoke inhalation stance. She did then decide to leave and notified me when she was safe, many hours later. I am relieved.
A friend forwarded this link of people filming the fire around their house. Quite concerning. I hope they got rescued. I think that the stress makes people unable to make decisions sometimes. https://x.com/i/status/1876845562328146405
Trump and Musk's responses are like the Covid Chaos all over again. Trump is like a suicide bomber, blowing up everything, but this is his country too that he is destroying. He is destroying the reputation. Even autocrats, while they may welcome it will not respect him. He is ending the US empire.
I also have read Project 2025, and the only good thing about this fire is that it happened while Biden is still president, because under Trump FEMA is supposed to no longer offer financial support, or at a much reduced rate of like 25% with the municipality effected being told to food the bill. (Again, this is about tax cuts for the super wealthy, not anything else.) In any case, they also no longer intend to offer federal Flood insurance either. Everything is going to be open for predatory businesses to prey on and destroy Americans.
Robert, I am astounded that you have energy for anything beyond the welfare of your family and your community. Take some time off from politics. We’ll pick up the slack. Stay safe.
I agree with Jon. Take some time, Robert and Jill. We also know those little ones are experiencing this in ways they don’t have the words to express. I’m so thankful you all have each other.
James Woods has been commonly known in Hollywood as a piece of shit since he arrived here back in the late 70s. It's why all his "best" roles have been characters who were "worthless pieces of shit." Didn't take a lot of acting talent to fill that role. When he decided to completely shed the "performance" that he was a Hollywood lefty and rip his mask off, he's received the professional acclaim he deserves. None. Which makes him just another pissed off white male who knows he's really a genius but the damn lib'ruls don't want to recognize his geniusness. Like Trump. Birds of a feather, flock together. I met him once socially. Back when he was the "liberal bad boy." It took about 15 minutes to see he was just a bad boy. And thus a bad actor.
How do you spell T.E.F.L.O .N. ? When does #47 have any sort of accountability? I have a dream: in two years, Dems win back the House and Senate and impeach him—for the 3rd time and make it stick! I always believed in the Supreme Court…thanks McConnell 🤬you’re a big part of this! Somehow, sometime this lunacy needs to stop!
Thank you for suggesting the Watch Duty app - we've been using it since moving back to N. Calif in the wake of the Carr, Camp, and Bear fires, having survived the Marshall fire in Louisville, CO (which should have been a warning of the risk of wind-driven urban fires) and assisting in the disaster response of the Park Fire, starting in Chico. WD is a very helpful tool.
Another great app is MyShake, which detects earthquakes.
Fight, flight, freeze, fawn refers to the four primary stress response mechanisms that the human body activates when facing a perceived threat. - AI summary
The fight response is our body's way of facing any perceived threat aggressively. Flight means your body urges you to run from danger. Freeze is your body's inability to move or act against a threat. Fawn is your body's stress response to try to please someone to avoid conflict. - webmd
The initiation of these somatic reactivities is the perception of a threat. Simply put, these actions are the ways we all react to fear. They are built into the very fabric of our bodies and initiate BEFORE thought.
Acknowledging fear is very uncool. If you have any doubts just watch young people and teens work at proving to each other that they are unafraid or how someone is treated if they admit fear. I suggest it’s there if you look into your own life even now.
It’s a toss up between saying you don’t know something or that you are afraid of something for the title of worst ways to look bad which looking bad is the ultimate scaring moments in life.
What HCR just wrote about T reacting aggressively around threat prompted this writing about fear. Seen from this perspective it’s clear there is a direct correlation between T’s level of fear and level of outrageous ideas and speaking.
Clearly, his automatic response to fear is fight. Don’t confuse reactivity with thinking. There is no thinking when the automatic threat response is in charge. What’s happening is pure stimulus/response. There no time for thought. To think that the body’s reflexes constitutes thinking is to have little understanding of what thinking is.
T does not think, period, full stop.
It’s long overdue to stop calling what comes out of his mouth a product of thinking. It’s pure, constant, fear. All of it, without exception.
It’s easy to see how fear consumes the life of others and difficult to own and accept for ourselves. Moving from fear to thoughtful is a big deal.
Also the reason I included the commentary about 2073 here is that it is all about fear and the desire of those in charge to make the citizenry forget their collective memory.
I suggest that “the desire of those in charge to make the citizenry forget their collective memory” is not thinking. It is more fear driven unthinking actions. Look closely at that which you are calling desire. What is a desire? What generates it? What drives it? Where is it coming from? What is it an expression of?
Yes, the main character in Morton has stopped speaking as she lives our her days. Not thinking by losing culture, the arts, connection, history is exactly portrayed as becoming mindless. And once they have lost power they are too overwhelmed with survival to think. Obeying is baked into them with fear.
My gratitude for this community. And also gratitude that folks I know are safe in LA.
These are beyond imaginable tough times. The other day I somehow found myself watching scifi documentary '2073', starring Samantha Morton. Throughout the film Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa (journalist in Philippines, founder of the amazing news organization rappler.com) is interviewed. The LA fires simply dovetail with many aspects of the movie. I am not necessarily recommending this dystopian flick based upon the original 1962 Le Jetée, but it challenged me In a very quiet way.
Canada, Panama Canal, California fires caused by Democrats, Trump phoning it in to Alito, Aileen Cannon way over-stepping her bounds. Chaos returns to the White House and thus to all our lives. Just remember - this could all have been stopped if McConnell had not shirked his responsibility on impeachment, electing instead to shift it to the captive courts. What a travesty.
The Democrats are missing a huge opportunity to aggressively focus on Trump trying to suppress the DOJ report and avoid being sentenced. They could create an entire campaign around what is Trump hiding and if he is innocent as he claims what is he afraid of? These situations are examples of the criminality of Trump and we should not forget this especially before he takes office.
"Cannon is running amok with impunity." It's not just Cannon. The entire Republican party, the lie-spreading media, the Supreme Court, etc. are all running amok with impunity. Indeed, there has been no justice or punishment for the rich and powerful at all. Our president-criminals from Nixon on have committed crimes with impunity. When the financial system fell apart back in '08, no bankers went to jail, and from then on it's been nothing but Mad Max. We're in a period of anarchy precisely because there is no punishment.
Trump's "Truth"Social post was to be expected, including the infantile cacography of the Governor's name. But this time it hits home too close for thousands of people. Friends of ours lived in Pacific Palisades for 40 years, in three different places. All gone, house, memories, the whole neighborhood in smoldering ruins.
I used to refer to the president-elect as 'felon'. But this is an insult to many upright and decent people. Lowlife is a much more appropriate term.
Ah yes, no climate change...except, as you say the INSURANCE INDUSTRY is. deciding some things are to risky...much like many in CA hare or are being priced out of fire insurance, those of us in coastal areas are are facing loss of hurricane and or wind insurance.....
Ok, you're right about everything again, Rob. You said it all. Now, how about Zuckerberg? Abandon fact-checking to eliminate bias? Really? Dana White? Really? Has Mark got PTSD? CTE?
OMG! Four years of this "partisan" strongman leadership and he isn't even sworn in yet (like the oath matters to him). It's started. Four long years of listening to the bully on everyone's block. God help us.
I echo the disgust of so many of us here. Hearing how Trump continues to game a system that has been corrupted on his behalf makes me want to cry, or pack up and leave. How have we sat back playing yesterday’s game while Trump and the Radical Right take over all the institutions in our government, and then lean of those when they need to be saved from accountability? With Justices such as Alito and Thomas, why do we tolerate allowing them to stay in place? This is insanity. How do we not rake Aileen Cannon over the coals and tell her to shut up and stay in her corner? How can we get Merrick Garland to do what needs to be done NOW? He’ll probably drag his feet and not release the report until it’s too late. We simply cannot win in a system where EVERY guardrail is stacked against us. I don’t believe the “American people” and “grassroots organizations” can pull this off. It didn’t work in November, and I know how hard millions of volunteers, and I was one of them, worked for Kamala Harris. Biden should never have said he would run again, and we should have had a primary. It’s absurd that we paid deference to him, when it was obvious he would not be able to take Trump on again. The Democrats not only need a plan for 2026, but we need our own version of the Federalist Society to develop good, liberal candidates to get into the judicial system. And what is our 10 or 20- year plan to keep America a democracy???? I’m sick of hearing what Leonard Leo and others have done. And, we absolutely need a Democratic rapid response team to counter every stinking lie that comes out of Trump’s mouth! Every time he, or anyone, speaks about “Biden’s open border policy”, we must respond. Show them the border now!!! Explain that Biden’s action earlier this year have controlled migration to a 4-year low!!!!! Are we afraid to tell people that???? Trump is not letting anyone know how well the border has been managed since earlier this year. It is up to us!!!!! I never understood why Kamala Harris didn’t do that during the campaign. Stop letting these corrupt liars own the narrative and the media…………..Sorry, Robert. I don’t have a well-laid out plan to do all these things. But the Democrats have now had 2 months to get our heads back in the game and figure out how we can be the loudest, most honest, but also most insistent opposition ever. The media will keep promoting Trump because they fear him. It’s about time the Democrats stoke fear in these people if they don’t cover what is good and right for the American people……..
Like so many of us, I have been staggering around in the dark since November 5th. Partly just licking the wounds of a surprising and inexplicable loss, but mostly trying to figure out what lessons to take from the debacle and what to do next. As has been noted here and elsewhere, the mainstream media has been virtually useless in this process and have in fact gotten in the way with their off point races for clicks that do nothing more than divert from the necessary analysis while adding to the overall level of anxiety.
I get that it's not easy, maybe even impossible, to fully understand the big picture while it's still being painted or developed. I certainly don't have all the answers myself. But I do know a couple of things: Consistently doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result is madness and focusing on the small stuff while the big stuff is running us over is not helping.
I have come to realize that one of the biggest reasons the results of this past election were so painful is that it marked the end of an era. And that was the era in which I grew up, in which I learned whatever it is I know, in which I gained the experience to apply my knowledge in certain particular ways, in which facts were known things and formed the basis for reasoned argument, which followed a certain pattern even if it lead different people to different results. Those days are over. People like me have still not grasped just how much of a revolution the internet/digital age is. We are generals fighting the last war while the blitzkrieg zips past and around us.
Let's remember this: In 1930's Germany, if one wanted to resist the Nazis, one did not join the equivalent of the Democratic and Republican Parties (i.e. the mainstream parties). One joined or worked with the Communist Party because they were the only ones actually resisting, the only ones rising to the occasion with an understanding of how the war was being fought. That's not an endorsement of Communism. It is a dis-endorsement of traditional politics when those politics are not up to the challenge of the moment.
My personal bottom line is that the Democratic Party and many of its (loudest) supporters in the media have persisted (yes, I used that word on purpose) in bringing slingshots to machine gun fights, with predictable results. I'm done. This war (not battle) needs to be fought on many fronts simultaneously and it needs to be fought consciously, with intent using all available weapons.
So I think it's great that my dear friend Susan Wagner wants to bring the DNC Chair candidates in front of the grassroots constituency and I support that. But I'm also saying this: I'm drawing a line in the sand: If the Administration does not release BOTH the Special Counsel reports immediately (that's not a deadline, it is an expression of urgency with the outside deadline being January 19th) they can continue on without me. This has to happen and there is a straight path to get there: Just do it. Just do it, Merrick Garland. If Merrick Garland won't do it, just order him to do it, President Biden. If that doesn't work let's have our own Saturday Night Massacre until somebody does it. The President can and should provide all necessary cover with pardons for the appropriate parties. These are the tools of the new age. Use 'em or lose.
To claim to be hamstrung by an order by Aileen Cannon, Donald Trump's personal judge is absurd. It gives respect to a system that no longer exists. It is an application of old tools to a new reality. Her order is extra-judicial. Ignore it. Donald would. Instead of bemoaning Alito's conversation with Trump, let's recognize what we already know: The price of a Supreme Court vote has already been established: It's something less than $4 Million in Thomas's case and well less than that in Alito's. They are corrupt. Why do we still give them the courtesy of acting like we live in normal times? Why should the Supreme Court get to decide whether the Special Counsel reports are released? It's an executive decision. As I understand it, Trump hasn't even bothered to make a constitutional argument. As between the Supreme Court and the President the President is far better suited to make this decision.
We may well need to explain to the public that Trump either doesn't know what he's talking about or is outright lying when it comes to CA water policies and wild fires, but the bigger message is that he is casting blame, pointing fingers and wasting time at a time that requires definitive action and that his record of FAILURE in this area stands on its own. Where are the pictures of the aftermath of the August Complex Fire? Where are the memes about raking leaves as a purported solution to wildfires? Where is the observation that Mump's proposed budget would cut the hell out of FEMA? And that argument doesn't require a line by line budget analysis; it requires bold statements of inevitable consequences despite whatever sleights of hand and tongue the Trumpists try to make. We don't have to respond to their claims with detailed budget numbers; we need to respond with bottom line truth: If Trump were in charge there would be nobody to fight the fires and there sure as hell wouldn't be Canadian resources being brought to bear.
I could follow this through ad infinitum, issue by issue but the point remains the same: Not only are we being outplayed and being forced to play defense, we have become the Washington Generals*, programmed and destined to lose due to the nature of the rules of the game. If the Democrats won't play the game that's actually on the field, it's time to move on.
Thank you for so articulating exactly what I think. Like I said once before, people are disgusted with the Democrats acting as if everything is normal. Alito, SCOTUS, is already gone. We all know this. Garland and Biden need to recognize this. Release the reports. Just do it. We are not in normal times anymore. Stop pandering to something that doesn’t exist. Leonard Leo and the Federalists and the broligarchy have won. Look at what is unfolding right in front of our eyes. The Democrats in power need to fight, not just respond. Grassroots cannot do this alone. DNC has failed us. They have not seized the clickbait moment but the GOP has successfully captured the media. Where is the left wing response to this? Like I said, people are disgusted here in NJ with the status quo Democrats and are forming their own groups and political parties, which can be counterproductive. But as we watch the entrenched political parties, and see what kind of money it takes to get elected…in order to run, you can’t be working, you don’t have the time…so incumbents have the upper hand as we pay them to re-run for office…we see this. Read Lukas Kunce’s substack today about the need for incredible amounts of money needed to run for office,a she has done several times, as a normal person. Why was nothing done about Citizens United? Why didn’t the political machine fight to change SCOTUS while we had power? Notice that the DNC did not include the grassroots but they/we had to demand it. LFG. Ben Wickler understands this. But the apparatus of the Democratic Party needs to take note of what’s actually reality and take the offensive.
Well said Jeff and Kathy. Dems keep following the "rules" and proudly get trampled.
There is a law that prevents Donald Trump from becoming president. Because he attempted a coup. It was televised. We all saw it. VP Harris could have stood tall and announced that he is disqualified accordingly on Janauary 6th. President Biden could have agreed. A new election scheduled.
We keep doing the same thing and expect the crooks and traitors to humanity to appreciate it. We just don't understand. There is no time left...
I understand the frustration, I really do but VP Harris could do no such thing. She literally doesn't have the authority, and we can't just bend the system for a new election because we don't like the results.
You are absolutely right. Don't blame Kamala Harris for not doing something that Garrick and Biden neglected to do for years. Years!
Kathy, Jeff, I'd love to give 10 likes to your comments if I could. Even if it is legally sound the MAGA wolves could harass and bankrupt Garland with prolonged and trumped-up "investigations", so I can understand his reluctance to publish the reports. He would be in the clear should the President order him to do it. And the President would be in the clear as well, thank you SCOTUS.
Why would Biden not do it? Still clinging to the obsolete and by now totally ridiculous 'reaching out across the aisle' or 'don't deepen the rift in the American society? That ship has sailed. Not publishing the reports would make Biden an accomplice in the ongoing plot against America.
„You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.“
Republicans offer a clenched fist (or worse).
Had Harris done what you suggested there would have been a political sh*storm, and ahe would be in literal fear of her life.
i share your feelings. Tribe and Lutig wrote an excellent letter to the SCOTUS. Colorado did a bang up job in explaining their case, but the Roberts Court still ruled against us. Please stop blaming "Dems" for literally everything.
So let me get this straight. We become crooks and traitors to match them on their own terms?
At some point when the train of destruction comes barreling down the tracks and blows its horn to tell you exactly how fast and powerful it is .... you get off the tracks. And maybe, derail or stop somehow the runaway train.
These are not normal times. These are not normal people. They are willing to use the rule of force and abandon the rule of law.
We can watch and weep, or we can stand for something. We have our founding fathers documents, decency and a desire for respectful governance. But as they make war on humanity and the planet, don't we we owe it to our kids to try? Try and try?
But I guess embracing polio, annexing Canada, making war on humans seeking shelter, invading Panama and Greenland will help us in the eyes of God, right?
I think Dems need to run out ahead, like the GOP does. And rather than always be reacting/responding/defendning, they need to start a consolidated and comprehensive movement, *a brand*, that states who they are, what they do, and what they have in the works. Get help from sharpshooting PR firm. Take the reins and gallop past and ahead.
If you are not ahead, you are behind. My kids will be putting that in my tombstone.
Exactly. Which is why we need to be paying attention to the DNC chair election NOW.
Hear, hear. Well done Kathy.
Kathy, you ask "Why was nothing done?" You used the passive voice. You answered your own question. Progressive Americans have been passive, complacent, nit-picking, hyper-critical, and demanding for too many decades. Myself included. I relied on the structure and the institutions of democracy to hold, while greedy rapacious ravagers worked for decades to undermine them. I did nothing. Now it's time to shoulder the responsibility, each of us individually, and work to fight what we hate and get what we want--for the benefit of everyone. I don't agree with the gentleman in an earlier post who said small acts don't matter. They do. We're in utter chaos now; we have to start building, and building starts with putting a shovel in the earth to dig out a clod of dirt to start the foundation. Then it proceeds, 2x4 by screw by drip of concrete. We don't even know what we're building yet. But we have to start today. Do something good. Fight something, or support something you value. Then rejoice that.
Jeff well stated and air agree there is a generational change taking place and the political landscape and voters have changed. It’s not our father’s politics anymore. Democrats need to adapt.
I agree with much that has been said, but please let's not call for a mere "generational" change. I knew when I was 19 that "Don't trust anyone over 30" is a stupid idea. I knew enough of some of my own generation in the 'sixties to know they couldn't lead or organize or think clearly. If the young are going to save us, where is the campus outrage against Trump and his threats to invade Greenland and Panama. We want fighters and thinkers of whatever age. I don't know the average age of members of the Hubbell Community, but from what I've gathered we are an older bunch. But we still have the will to fight, the ability to think, and the time to act. And look at the Republican Party, they have their generational change leaders in Don Jr and Charlie Kirk off to measure for drapes for their offices in Greenland and Marjorie Taylor Greene wanting to name a body of international water the Gulf of America, without any recognition that America does not just mean the United States of....
For what it's worth, I share a disappointment in the current DNC and the Democratic Party in general. A year ago, we were being told that if Trump were to be elected President again it would be the end of democracy. Well, Trump got elected and now all we hear is tsking about how silly Trump's desire to invade Greenland or "take back" the Panama Canal is together with pious desire to "work across the aisles." No one is stepping up to the mic to fight. I guess losing democracy hasn't turned out to be such a big disaster as we thought. Democrats seem almost as worried about offending Trump's base as Republicans are. So some 30% of the population together with 5% of the wealthiest people control the government of the United States?
Who knows how many of our leaders have been stepping up to the mic if the mainstream media refuses to put it out there for them? I definitely agree with you about not lauding generational changes as a sure fix for whatever ails us. It's not our age, it's the quality of our ideas and willingness to lead that counts. Give us Democrats some time to coalesce in a new way. After all, we just won two seats in Virginia because grassroots efforts came together.
It feels as though we've lost the vibe / messaging war and the conservative content creation / influencer battle right now. None of us know the future but I know we can't keep doing the same thing.
Agree and part of this is because we have old leadership and we need new blood.
100% agreed mate.
We need *imaginative* leadership. Age has little to do with imagination.
"I have come to realize that one of the biggest reasons the results of this past election were so painful is that it marked the end of an era. And that was the era in which I grew up, in which I learned whatever it is I know, in which I gained the experience to apply my knowledge in certain particular ways, in which facts were known things and formed the basis for reasoned argument, which followed a certain pattern even if it lead different people to different results."
Thank you for putting my feelings into words. I will add that this era was one that valued public service and inspired me to go into a profession in which I could help enable children and adults with disabilities to become and do what they wanted to do, to become full citizens. to become productive human beings. I mourn the end of this era and prepare to resist the rising of the next cynical, selfish, oppressive one.
Thank you Jeff Bernfield.
Agree 100%. For years even though I am a Democrat, I have called most Democrats, Doormat Democrats. I am a Ninja Dem, through and through. Biden should release everything on trump, fuck the DOJ fuck all the liberal pussies shaking in their boots. Lets get lean, mean, aggressive and tough and show those fuckers what we’re made of. Also throw all that political correctness in the trash for now. If you’re with us you’re with us, if not get out of the way.
That's what we need, Lorraine. Ninja Dems!
A huge yes to this
“Let's remember this: In 1930's Germany, if one wanted to resist the Nazis, one did not join the equivalent of the Democratic and Republican Parties (i.e. the mainstream parties). One joined or worked with the Communist Party because they were the only ones actually resisting, the only ones rising to the occasion with an understanding of how the war was being fought. That's not an endorsement of Communism. It is a dis-endorsement of traditional politics when those politics are not up to the challenge of the moment. “
And this
“I'm drawing a line in the sand: If the Administration does not release BOTH the Special Counsel reports immediately (that's not a deadline, it is an expression of urgency with the outside deadline being January 19th) they can continue on without me. This has to happen and there is a straight path to get there: Just do it. Just do it, Merrick Garland. If Merrick Garland won't do it, just order him to do it, President Biden. If that doesn't work let's have our own Saturday Night Massacre until somebody does it. The President can and should provide all necessary cover with pardons for the appropriate parties. These are the tools of the new age. Use 'em or lose.”
And this
“Why do we still give them the courtesy of acting like we live in normal times? Why should the Supreme Court get to decide whether the Special Counsel reports are released? It's an executive decision. As I understand it, Trump hasn't even bothered to make a constitutional argument. As between the Supreme Court and the President the President is far better suited to make this decision.”
And
“We don't have to respond to their claims with detailed budget numbers; we need to respond with bottom line truth: If Trump were in charge there would be nobody to fight the fires and there sure as hell wouldn't be Canadian resources being brought to bear. “
Yes Yes Yes! Jeff Bernfeld, thank you!
I couldn't agree more which is why every day I wonder why I stay in the fight. Those who are in our party's leadership, are not leading. They deserve every sentiment you so articulately presented here. Should we schedule the Town Hall, we will be sure to raise these issues. Thanks.
Why are Democrats playing „Mother May I“, rather than just doing the right thing and dealing with the fallout later?
Best. Post. Ever.
So many of us are now saying the same thing, in different ways. The Dems have to wake up and citizens cannot wait for the Dems to wake up because they’ve been sleep walking for 50+ years in the face of this building threat. Citizens have to find ways to engage positively but sadly not rely on the dysfunctional Dem Party. This is not going to be easy.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/02/new-apostolic-reformation-christian-movement-trump/681092/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/02/trump-populist-conspiracism-autocracy-rfk-jr/681088/
Thank you , Jeff.
Perfectly stated and explained Jeff. Thank you!
Excellent post, Jeff. If I may add, President Biden has the authority, and now, thanks to a utterly corrupt Supreme Court, the immunity to order the reports released.
My advice to President Biden, AG Garland and the Justice Dept: immediately drop the stolen documents case against the last two defendants (they are worthless) and release the entirety of BOTH reports to the public.
Last night I checked in on a good friend who lives in LA. In fact she had just moved back this summer. She lives in a neighborhood next to Pacific Palisades and told me she was getting that there was high warning. I could feel her indecisiveness about when to leave and I told her to get out NOW! I said, I am not there and therefore am very clear headed. The risk of staying any longer is too great. She showed me a picture of a sky filled with flames in a distance that seemed too near, just from a smoke inhalation stance. She did then decide to leave and notified me when she was safe, many hours later. I am relieved.
A friend forwarded this link of people filming the fire around their house. Quite concerning. I hope they got rescued. I think that the stress makes people unable to make decisions sometimes. https://x.com/i/status/1876845562328146405
Trump and Musk's responses are like the Covid Chaos all over again. Trump is like a suicide bomber, blowing up everything, but this is his country too that he is destroying. He is destroying the reputation. Even autocrats, while they may welcome it will not respect him. He is ending the US empire.
I also have read Project 2025, and the only good thing about this fire is that it happened while Biden is still president, because under Trump FEMA is supposed to no longer offer financial support, or at a much reduced rate of like 25% with the municipality effected being told to food the bill. (Again, this is about tax cuts for the super wealthy, not anything else.) In any case, they also no longer intend to offer federal Flood insurance either. Everything is going to be open for predatory businesses to prey on and destroy Americans.
Robert, I am astounded that you have energy for anything beyond the welfare of your family and your community. Take some time off from politics. We’ll pick up the slack. Stay safe.
I agree with Jon. Take some time, Robert and Jill. We also know those little ones are experiencing this in ways they don’t have the words to express. I’m so thankful you all have each other.
James Woods has been commonly known in Hollywood as a piece of shit since he arrived here back in the late 70s. It's why all his "best" roles have been characters who were "worthless pieces of shit." Didn't take a lot of acting talent to fill that role. When he decided to completely shed the "performance" that he was a Hollywood lefty and rip his mask off, he's received the professional acclaim he deserves. None. Which makes him just another pissed off white male who knows he's really a genius but the damn lib'ruls don't want to recognize his geniusness. Like Trump. Birds of a feather, flock together. I met him once socially. Back when he was the "liberal bad boy." It took about 15 minutes to see he was just a bad boy. And thus a bad actor.
How do you spell T.E.F.L.O .N. ? When does #47 have any sort of accountability? I have a dream: in two years, Dems win back the House and Senate and impeach him—for the 3rd time and make it stick! I always believed in the Supreme Court…thanks McConnell 🤬you’re a big part of this! Somehow, sometime this lunacy needs to stop!
TEFLON =>
FELON + ELON
(not relevant but mildly amusing)
Methinks quite relevant 😉 Nice one!
Thank you for suggesting the Watch Duty app - we've been using it since moving back to N. Calif in the wake of the Carr, Camp, and Bear fires, having survived the Marshall fire in Louisville, CO (which should have been a warning of the risk of wind-driven urban fires) and assisting in the disaster response of the Park Fire, starting in Chico. WD is a very helpful tool.
Another great app is MyShake, which detects earthquakes.
T shares something with the rest of us: Fear
Fight, flight, freeze, fawn refers to the four primary stress response mechanisms that the human body activates when facing a perceived threat. - AI summary
The fight response is our body's way of facing any perceived threat aggressively. Flight means your body urges you to run from danger. Freeze is your body's inability to move or act against a threat. Fawn is your body's stress response to try to please someone to avoid conflict. - webmd
The initiation of these somatic reactivities is the perception of a threat. Simply put, these actions are the ways we all react to fear. They are built into the very fabric of our bodies and initiate BEFORE thought.
Acknowledging fear is very uncool. If you have any doubts just watch young people and teens work at proving to each other that they are unafraid or how someone is treated if they admit fear. I suggest it’s there if you look into your own life even now.
It’s a toss up between saying you don’t know something or that you are afraid of something for the title of worst ways to look bad which looking bad is the ultimate scaring moments in life.
What HCR just wrote about T reacting aggressively around threat prompted this writing about fear. Seen from this perspective it’s clear there is a direct correlation between T’s level of fear and level of outrageous ideas and speaking.
Clearly, his automatic response to fear is fight. Don’t confuse reactivity with thinking. There is no thinking when the automatic threat response is in charge. What’s happening is pure stimulus/response. There no time for thought. To think that the body’s reflexes constitutes thinking is to have little understanding of what thinking is.
T does not think, period, full stop.
It’s long overdue to stop calling what comes out of his mouth a product of thinking. It’s pure, constant, fear. All of it, without exception.
It’s easy to see how fear consumes the life of others and difficult to own and accept for ourselves. Moving from fear to thoughtful is a big deal.
Also the reason I included the commentary about 2073 here is that it is all about fear and the desire of those in charge to make the citizenry forget their collective memory.
I suggest that “the desire of those in charge to make the citizenry forget their collective memory” is not thinking. It is more fear driven unthinking actions. Look closely at that which you are calling desire. What is a desire? What generates it? What drives it? Where is it coming from? What is it an expression of?
Yes, the main character in Morton has stopped speaking as she lives our her days. Not thinking by losing culture, the arts, connection, history is exactly portrayed as becoming mindless. And once they have lost power they are too overwhelmed with survival to think. Obeying is baked into them with fear.
My gratitude for this community. And also gratitude that folks I know are safe in LA.
These are beyond imaginable tough times. The other day I somehow found myself watching scifi documentary '2073', starring Samantha Morton. Throughout the film Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa (journalist in Philippines, founder of the amazing news organization rappler.com) is interviewed. The LA fires simply dovetail with many aspects of the movie. I am not necessarily recommending this dystopian flick based upon the original 1962 Le Jetée, but it challenged me In a very quiet way.
All true but we all fear the words in his mouth become real.
Why the refute of “but”? Why the yeah but? What are you saying?
Your right.
Thanks for saying that and it misses the point which tells me I didn’t communicate clearly. That’s useful feedback. Thank you.
Canada, Panama Canal, California fires caused by Democrats, Trump phoning it in to Alito, Aileen Cannon way over-stepping her bounds. Chaos returns to the White House and thus to all our lives. Just remember - this could all have been stopped if McConnell had not shirked his responsibility on impeachment, electing instead to shift it to the captive courts. What a travesty.
Why doesn’t President Biden just release Jack Smith’s report? He has immunity to do so, right?
The Democrats are missing a huge opportunity to aggressively focus on Trump trying to suppress the DOJ report and avoid being sentenced. They could create an entire campaign around what is Trump hiding and if he is innocent as he claims what is he afraid of? These situations are examples of the criminality of Trump and we should not forget this especially before he takes office.
"Cannon is running amok with impunity." It's not just Cannon. The entire Republican party, the lie-spreading media, the Supreme Court, etc. are all running amok with impunity. Indeed, there has been no justice or punishment for the rich and powerful at all. Our president-criminals from Nixon on have committed crimes with impunity. When the financial system fell apart back in '08, no bankers went to jail, and from then on it's been nothing but Mad Max. We're in a period of anarchy precisely because there is no punishment.
Trump's "Truth"Social post was to be expected, including the infantile cacography of the Governor's name. But this time it hits home too close for thousands of people. Friends of ours lived in Pacific Palisades for 40 years, in three different places. All gone, house, memories, the whole neighborhood in smoldering ruins.
I used to refer to the president-elect as 'felon'. But this is an insult to many upright and decent people. Lowlife is a much more appropriate term.
Lowlife Felon
Ah yes, no climate change...except, as you say the INSURANCE INDUSTRY is. deciding some things are to risky...much like many in CA hare or are being priced out of fire insurance, those of us in coastal areas are are facing loss of hurricane and or wind insurance.....
Take care....
Ok, you're right about everything again, Rob. You said it all. Now, how about Zuckerberg? Abandon fact-checking to eliminate bias? Really? Dana White? Really? Has Mark got PTSD? CTE?
No, Zuckerberg's just another spineless rich boy.
We could all do something bold. Leave Facebook! I did that several years ago and I've never regretted it. Don't give Zuc money or oxygen.
Zuckerberg is simply another amoral POS.
OMG! Four years of this "partisan" strongman leadership and he isn't even sworn in yet (like the oath matters to him). It's started. Four long years of listening to the bully on everyone's block. God help us.
I echo the disgust of so many of us here. Hearing how Trump continues to game a system that has been corrupted on his behalf makes me want to cry, or pack up and leave. How have we sat back playing yesterday’s game while Trump and the Radical Right take over all the institutions in our government, and then lean of those when they need to be saved from accountability? With Justices such as Alito and Thomas, why do we tolerate allowing them to stay in place? This is insanity. How do we not rake Aileen Cannon over the coals and tell her to shut up and stay in her corner? How can we get Merrick Garland to do what needs to be done NOW? He’ll probably drag his feet and not release the report until it’s too late. We simply cannot win in a system where EVERY guardrail is stacked against us. I don’t believe the “American people” and “grassroots organizations” can pull this off. It didn’t work in November, and I know how hard millions of volunteers, and I was one of them, worked for Kamala Harris. Biden should never have said he would run again, and we should have had a primary. It’s absurd that we paid deference to him, when it was obvious he would not be able to take Trump on again. The Democrats not only need a plan for 2026, but we need our own version of the Federalist Society to develop good, liberal candidates to get into the judicial system. And what is our 10 or 20- year plan to keep America a democracy???? I’m sick of hearing what Leonard Leo and others have done. And, we absolutely need a Democratic rapid response team to counter every stinking lie that comes out of Trump’s mouth! Every time he, or anyone, speaks about “Biden’s open border policy”, we must respond. Show them the border now!!! Explain that Biden’s action earlier this year have controlled migration to a 4-year low!!!!! Are we afraid to tell people that???? Trump is not letting anyone know how well the border has been managed since earlier this year. It is up to us!!!!! I never understood why Kamala Harris didn’t do that during the campaign. Stop letting these corrupt liars own the narrative and the media…………..Sorry, Robert. I don’t have a well-laid out plan to do all these things. But the Democrats have now had 2 months to get our heads back in the game and figure out how we can be the loudest, most honest, but also most insistent opposition ever. The media will keep promoting Trump because they fear him. It’s about time the Democrats stoke fear in these people if they don’t cover what is good and right for the American people……..