"Let me make it clear that I don't harbor any idealized notion of politics and democracy," he said in a 2013 speech to NYU's Brennan Center for Justice, followed by a quip: "I worked for Lyndon Johnson, remember?"

But, he added in that speech, "there is nothing idealized or romantic about the difference between a society whose arrangements roughly serve all its citizens and one whose institutions have been converted into a stupendous fraud. That difference can be the difference between democracy and oligarchy."

Ultimately, he was right. And not just about that."

much more at the thread link

The Ugliness of Donald Trump

He should have been born a billionaire... this junta would love him.

JeffyMcCarthy will be his next sock name.....

"In a flurry of X posts several weeks ago, Musk had proposed starting a new political party.

That proposal resurfaced on Monday, when Musk said:

"It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country " the PORKY PIG PARTY!! Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people."

US Aid around the world has been one of the best investments in world peace, and our own peacekeeping expenses, we could make.

Of course, Fascist Trumpers (but I repeat myself) are more interested in a piece of the action than in a peaceful, prosperous world.

so so we members of the educated Elite
did some good things we created the
internet brunch and
mocktails you're welcome

we did some bad
things we designed a meritocracy
designed around the skills we ourselves
possess and rigged the game so we
succeeded and everybody else failed

by age 12 children American children of
affluent kids are four grade levels
above everybody else

by University the
age rich kids are 77 times more likely
to go to university or to ivy league
university than kids from poor schools

in adulthood 54% of the people at Elite
workplaces went to the same 34 Elite
colleges so we ended up creating a cast
system people with high school degrees
die nine years sooner than people with
college degrees

people with high school
degrees are five times more likely to
have kids out of wedlock people with
high school degrees are 2.4 times more
likely to say they have no friends so we
created a cast system even though we
pretend to be
egalitarian

but the worst things we did
were not Material America has a very
strong economy the worst things we did
were spiritual we privatized morality
and destroyed the moral
order

uh George Marsen is a great
historian who said what gave Martin
Luther King's rhetoric its power was the
sense there's a moral order built
into the universe

that if slavery is not
wrong nothing is wrong if segregation is
not wrong nothing is wrong

we took that essential moral order that
holds people together and we decided
it's up to you to find your own truth
find your own values

more of Brook's talk at the link above

Brooks made one of my all time favorite talks recently...

How the Elite rigged Society (and why it's falling apart) | David Brooks

Those are Blue Wave '26 numbers.... which is why the rush to pass the Billionaire's Bloated Bill.

Make America Gangsters Again!

The King Clause: Hidden in Trump's Big Beautiful Bill

They finally got the Bill to be cruel enough to pass.... but hey, they gotta keep the Objective in mind!

Tax cuts for their big donor billionaires not only pays the bills, but it's also a politicians Golden Parachute to a no-show Board position when they retire.

IS that not worth screwing over the poor and middle class?

So Trumpers, the Corporate/Establishment Republicans thank you for your service!

Trump is blaming Ukraine for this...

Closer to adding 5 Trillion in the Debt Hike Republicans have in the Bill:

'That's The Real Number Here!': Whitehouse Unleashes On GOP For Raising Debt Limit In Spending Bill

Forbes'

The point, Major, is that your bible tells you NOT to follow said lying criminal cult leader... that the literally dozens of verses about the Man of Sin will tell you WHO that is, and not to follow him to, 'perdition'.

- I really dont care.

And there we have it.

- what I am saying is true.

What you are saying is what a dull 5 year old would say after his first bible class.

Let me tell you what your bible says; it says that in the End Times the Christians in the mightiest nation on Earth will fall away from the Church and follow a lying, criminal cult leader instead.

Sound familiar?

"Thom Tillis says he will retire following Trump attacks

The two-term North Carolina senator was expected to contest one of 2026's toughest races.

Tillis made the announcement after voting "no" on a procedural vote to advance President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" " the cornerstone of his domestic policy agenda. Trump subsequently attacked Tillis in a series of social media posts.

"In Washington over the last few years, it's become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species," Tillis said in a statement."

- God said Homosexuality is sin

Not exactly, but let's look at what we know are, including:

"pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth."

How many of those are you guilty of, Major B?

And why do you condemn others for their imperfections, against both Jesus' and Pauls' commandments, and ignore your own?

Perhaps there should be a Law in this country against yours....

"Neighboring Poland scrambled jets and activated its ground-based air defense units into readiness mode because of the attacks across the border in Ukraine.

Ukraine used its full arsenal to repel the attack, including combat aircraft, officials said. F-16 fighter jets provided by Western allies have become a key tool for defending against Russia's missile attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said one F-16 pilot was killed. "Tragically, while repelling the attack, our F-16 pilot, Maksym Ustymenko, died. Today, he destroyed seven aerial targets," Zelenskyy said in a statement on Sunday."

;;
Wow, really? I thought Trump ended this war before he ever even got into Office... just like he built the Wall with Mexico's money and won the 2020 Election!

- not interested in anything you have to sell.

Of course, not; the truth makes a lot of people nervous, especially when they have no argument against it.

Your beliefs seem to serve your politics more than the other way around.

And your really need to up your decades old traditions that are for the most part self-serving and predictably in error.

You could do worse than to start here:

BJ... no one in the bible ever told you to make Christianity the Law of the Land that everyone had to follow... because that sort of just destroys the whole point of faith, doesn't it?

And Donner is exactly right about Trump being the greatest liar the world has ever known... just like the AC in your bible.

Project 2025: The Blueprint for Christian Nationalist Regime Change