When Empires fall, as Navalny mentioned in his autobiography, first comes leadership by senility, then the gangsters take over, then some bodies fall and the dictator for life takes over along with his small army of inherited wealth oligarchs.

Murderous liar says what?
Truth be told, probably would be a good thing for us to just walk away from the entire Middle East mental asylum...they have had several civil wars going on for centuries.

Sucking up to big money sure does something bad to one's soul...look at what today's Republican Party has turned into.
Nixon and Kissinger deliberately killed the 1968 Vietnam Peace Talks so that they could win the White House...they were both traitors..and tens of thousands of Americans and millions of Vietnamese and Cambodian fellow humans died before peace could be finally gained. For that, the traitor Kissinger got the Nobel Peace Prize...

And so Grok is responsible for the Iran debacle? Consulting the experts in the matter, any matter, beneath a President's dignity?

Trump each and every day shows he is a Putin stooge, he weakens America, divides us internally one from another, and America from our long time allies like Canada and the EU. So sure, Trump is doing what he can to please Putin by weakening VOA.

Those six conservatives...one could make a short movie with some of the footage from their nominating Senate hearings where they talked about abortion being "settled law" and then when in place on the Court, took away a woman right to choose...you cannot trust people like Alito or Thomas since they are bought by big money and are as corrupt as any corrupt judge in any court in America.

You cannot have a culture of corruption without part of the political class being in on it, and here I am referring to the MAGA idiocy that is today's Republican Party. Of course they won't work on global warming, they are paid off not to notice, and of course they are aware of crypto's and AI's dangers, but they are being paid well not to notice.

Childhood trauma..one of the many reasons I am against the death penalty...but this does tragically illustrate that while yes we all need to be held to account for our behavior, truly dangerous people are usually created in a death storm of a early family life, and the culture itself shoulders the blame for not helping and nurturing.

Well, Canadian courage showed the rest of the world just how to react to a bully who is after your lunch money, so a peace prize would be...peaceful except inside Trump's brain.

I get that Trump is our worst, ever, but is Hegseth our worst Secretary of Defense ever? Have to do some research on that, somehow I am sure we had more incompetent men in that position. Truly, it is like Putin is sitting in the White House giving Trump/Hegseth advice on how to weaken America by dividing us one from another and from our treasured international allies.

We are one insane, stupid culture, letting the rich and powerful wreck our climate for their profit. And make no mistake about it, the Republican Party is in it for the long haul, until we are a bankrupt empire and the poor are dying and the crops are rotting...but hey, the stock market.

Democracy requires a slate of candidates and an educated and caring cadre of voters, and one hopes that, since Texas has Talarico, the voters will show their willingness to give a Democrat a chance. So many Texas Republican Party members have to be mourning Trump's attack on Senator Cornyn.

Well, this old man likes Taylor Swift's music...though of course, as a boomer I like the oldie style of ballad singing, but people enjoy what they enjoy, it isn't really even a competition.

National health care, now. Tax the crap out of the billionaires until the debt is under control and until the children of the poor get the same health care as the kids of the billionaires.

Would tank the Republican Party's chances in the midterms, if such a thing happened and American under Trump didn't respond massively.

Ought to be a law...all such communications are opt in, not opt out,

I have a hunch that future history will bring people stories of the last days of the demented Don's administration that will force people to change the laws letting old men like Trump, and I, to rule anything but their lunch.

The theory is that competition breeds success, and it breeds improvements in a culture, but it is time for this idiotic capitalist country to understand that China has it right in some ways, the only thing that no holds barred capitalism does is breed a ruling class of super rich who rule with the greatest cruelty.

At what point does MAGA take a step back and admit that their guy is so over the hill he is living in a deep valley of ignorance and is a danger to the American people?

Trump trying to gain points with his base of the super rich, who know that the huge tax cuts will have to be reversed fairly soon as money is how government functions...Trump is not a man with a heart and a brain, he is a delusional character wandering around in his brain, chuckling at the fools who have to use reason and care.

Problem for Trump and his gang is that they got elected twice using MAGA's hate of those who have Black or Brown skin...the "other" but that means they are natural enemies of the Republican Party members who are "other" in that they are, as in this case, of Latino heritage.
One does wonder why Salazar stayed in the Republican Party for so long.

As empires fall, because of the greed of the few who accumulate most of the wealth and power, pretentiousness is the order of the day...and the poor realize that nothing they do can save them from the violent and the powerful. Navalny described the fall of the Soviet Union well in his autobiography "Patriot" and pointed out first came the rule of the senile, and then the rule of the gangsters, and then the dictator and the oligarchs cemented their rule over a lot of bodies.
One hopes against hope that the midterms let the Dems take back both Houses of Congress...

Remind me again, at what age did Trump's father unfortunately show signs of cognitive decline? Not mocking anyone, I am the same age as Trump...but neither one of us should be commander in chief of anything but our own kitchen or living room tv.

Well, we did, up close and personal, let Xi Jinping the leader of the largest nation on the planet know that our leader was actually a crazy person, so making any quick moves that threaten him and his grifting...yes, he is that crazy to start a nuclear war.
International politics done American style...we are a crazy people led by cognitive decline...