The more chaos in the Straits, the more wealth the American oil producers gather into their greedy hands. There needs to be a windfall tax, perhaps that would stop the war as the big boys would no longer have a good reason to loot and kill in the Middle East.

The truth may set us free, but first it makes us wonder if the future holds anything but despair and disaster. So many greedy bloody punks like Putin and Netanyahu and, of course, Trump and Hegseth, seizing the reins of power one way or another and slamming the door on peace.

Democracy has several essential elements, and one essential is having a strong and independent media available to all the people. Thus, Russia is a pretend democracy, as is China, and if Trump and the Ellison's have their way, so will be America.

Trump said he was about protecting his friends, from those in the Epstein files to those who are crafty grifters like he.

I hope one of the first things the Dems do upon taking control of Congress is have significant VA hearings and then repair what Trump has done.

I understand what is going on by filtering the insanity of the Trump MAGA gang by simply understanding that demographers are saying that within twenty years we whites will no longer be in the majority, so what is going on with Trump and his gang is to put that day off as long as possible. They must be going nuts to see a Black Democrat just got elected to the Senate from Mississippi.
Me, I love it. One of America's greatest efforts of hope, peacefully to integrate those who have not been allowed previously to have political power.

"..attacked the Trump administration from the right"? To my way of seeing things, that is as nuts as you can get, considering Stephen Miller seems to be running this White House. Trump inspired a huge mob to attack the Capitol Police to stop the counting of ballots, I wouldn't have thought there was a "right" to his "right".

Same thing happened when Reagan was in office, second term, and he was in cognitive decline...behind the scenes a shadow government ran things. Damn, do we need age limits. I love Bernie, but one day our civilization is going to be pulverized by some 90 year old with unlimited power and full on dementia.

Yikes..freedom of speech, speech that cheers on American diversity and hope for all humans, male and female.
Fascism, if I may be so bold, modern fascism, reveals itself when it elevates the oligarchs and unites them with the largest groups of white male supremacist haters.
Guess I will never be a general.
The same age as Trump, I really, really think he needs to be retired as we oldsters, by and large, have thoughts that sometimes are not so anchored in reality.

Reminds me of the opening scene of Stargate SG-1 when the phd Daniel tries to tell a roomful of experts that they are wrong as to who built the pyramids...
Science asks those questions all the time. One day, far into the future, some human will be asking just how those Mars Rovers got on the surface of Mars...

As for me, I like to think that advanced space aliens visit Earth every few millennia, and try to help life along.
Things are so weird right now I wouldn't blame them if they decided it was time for the Earth to stand still for a bit.
But that is a daydream, and science does ask those questions all the time.
Does remind me of that opening scene in Stargate SG-1 when the phd tries to convince a hall full of experts that what they know to be true just ain't.

Actually, for an active duty military member the penalties can be really high for treason...though not sure it is treason if not at war.

A key truth is that Hegseth is not winning much support from even the Republican Party, and in the next two years, will certainly be doing and saying things that will turn off even more MAGA faithful. But he weakens America, and that has to please Putin, who some surmise is standing at Trump's shoulder helping him make wildly bad choices.

The Republican Party chased most of the really good human beings in their party out the door, so one has to sit and ponder just who might be left that wouldn't be a danger to our Republic...and who would appeal to remaining MAGA voters. Cornyn...you know, people like him...Trump favored Paxton and that was that.
Jeb Bush doing anything these days?

My property, your profits? Now, if you would just set up a payment schedule so we the people could get a monthly dividend...

As you resigned when the casinos were tanking...you know how to profit from dumping the disaster onto the losers and suckers who invested with you. Just resign, let JD pardon you and your gang, and head for the hills.
Please. Nixon did it and kept on keeping on.

As an old man, living in senior and disabled HUD housing, I have to read articles like this one, and shudder. The rich and powerful can afford the future, but we, those at the bottom, will clearly be left behind. As it is, reaching an actual human being to help get something done is harder and harder in large companies. Corporations are not people, they are run for the enrichment of the investor class, and certainly there is no money to be made looking out for ordinary Americans.

Well, makes sense for many major organizations that are foreign entities influencing American elections and politicians.
While I love Pope Leo, the Vatican is a foreign nation, inside Italy, and it pays many people to do things like influence American elections and policies. When Oregon wanted to pass Death with Dignity laws, for instance, it had to fight the Church.
AIPAC sure has been effective over the years in buying off some very important people in our Congress.

Well, what do you expect from a culture of people who keep on electing, championing, people like Trump, who say that human caused global warming is a hoax. Stupid greedy people selling the future for lower taxes today. As water warms up, it expands, and thus Florida is losing coastline, and the process will accelerate.

These days I wouldn't be surprised at criminality by a member of the far right, in any way, though I would be surprised if they didn't charge for it. From far away, it sure seems what the Republican Party has devolved into,k total grifting gang. Perhaps, in this case what she did wasn't illegal, but put it alongside, say, a Greek Ambassador setting the price for pay for play at 100k, perhaps such influence peddling should be stopped.

Why yes, sending white powder to people in order to frighten them is quite illegal, and it should be.

Trump has to recognize that his intimidation of the world press has pretty much ended, and such hard questions will come his way more and more. He can dish it out but he cannot take criticism. Still, you know Trump, as he walked away, was planning some sort of retribution. If the press can embarrass him, he can restrict their access and you know, hostages on decoy plan them.

Speaking from experience, it is frightening to be opposing a powerful force alone and with few resources, but now, we have Congress, and will have it for two years. We are not alone, we who are old, like me, and worry about Social Security, or we who are young, say 37, with a hopefully long career representing the people in politics.
And those who are female and have watched their political power be ignored...that stops here and now.
To stay out of jail, would Trump start a shooting war with China?

Over the next two years I do hope the Dems in Congress push through bill after bill, taking money out of politics and putting in age limits for some positions, and other popular issues with the voters. Sure, Trump will veto them, but that will let people see the Republican Party for what it is, still in the pocket of the Musk's and Trump's of the land.

Nice to see he is working for the people, looking to make NYCity a little more livable. No way even he can make it more affordable I fear. But I trust him and that is the most important one of a politician's tools.