Thanks Mary. As always, spot on. Every day I am left speechless and nearly paralyzed with rage. Yes, it must suck to be them but honestly, it sucks to be us and be powerless to do anything about it right now!
Yes. It’s hard to be us now. I’m eaten up w sorrow. My daughter’s house gone in LA fires and the atmosphere now of “no help.” Friends in their 70s and 80s, faces confused and frightened. So many good people worked so hard to make this country good and we stand by now and watch meanness after meanness, cruelty after cruelty. Fuck these monsters. 🇺🇦
I'm 79 and I'm not confused or frightened. I'm mad as hell.
Maybe it's because I'm a San Francisco hippy from the 60s, but we did warn you all back then that this would happen if the establishment kept on the same path and you ignored and demonized us.
You can turn your rage into something good instead of collapsing in a heap. I'm using my rage for fuel. Get out and start protesting. You'll be amazed at how much better you will feel when you direct your rage into something positive.
Susan, your entire post is a clarion call to action. Right now during this Dark Age, we simply do not have the luxury of curling up into a ball, caving in and waving the white flag of surrender. I fully realize that we have a lot to be worried, sickened and disgusted about on an hourly or daily basis. That is all the more reason to get pissed off, get fired up and take action. Attend No Kings or other marches/rallies against authoritarians/dictators (I'm looking at you, Donald). Call or write your senators and representatives to let them know you're mad as hell even if you live in a blood red state such as I do (Louisiana). Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper if you have one. Join organizations that defend the rights enshrined in the First Amendment. Become a subscriber and supporter of people/organizations such as Mary Trump, The Contrarians, Zeteo, The Bulwark, Democracy Docket and Public Notice to just a few. I also recommend hooking up with the wonderful Jess Craven. We should take heart that since the beginning of this year, there has been an explosion of voices in reaction to pogroms and atrocities being committed by the current regime/junta. Never give up hope because if you do, they win.
You don't understand what our protest was about. I can guess that you are not old enough to have been there, and are getting your information about the hippy movement from the media.
We didn't curl up into a ball, cave in, or surrender.
Our response was a way to avoid the violence that the establishment knows far better than we do. They don't know how to respond to civil disobedience.
They don't know what to do when a large number of their constituency simply decided not to participate in the mass hysteria that was American life at that time. They did know how to respond to the Berkeley students - those we called yippies - because they wanted to fight the establishment and that's what the establishment knows how to do.
It's harder to decide to stay apart from the craziness than to respond the way your opponents want you to behave.
And now I am seeing posts about how we should be organizing groups of people to go out and form colonies in the rural areas of like-minded people and I always respond that that is what we hippies did.
You're responding out of the propaganda that the mainstream made up about us and you clearly haven't actually spoken to any of us who were there.
DJT plans to make peaceful demonstrations illegal. That enrages me. He is too stupid to realize, or perhaps he does, that allowing anonymous donors give money to reconstruct the East Wing or allowing the workers to tear it down without vetting them opens us to letting the enemy into the rooms beneath the Wing, the PEOC. Our president invited a sanctioned Russian into our country to discuss trade with Russia. All of this enrages me. Resist, demonstrate, Vote.
Same here. How many songs how many cultural icons,civil rights and anti war protests do we need? All our warring after we found out how corrupt Vietnam War Priests were should have ended! Being gay? That's your business! Women's right? Of course! Organic farming and fresh food? Who could disagree? Clean air,water and soil? That's natural right? Being kind and compassionate to each other and Self Knowledge isn't just the domain of religions,it human!
Psychedelics and Eastern thought broke the establishments cognitive dissonance. But there was no culture to support the change in consciousness needed and the Corporate Barons were having none of it.
All Donald saw was permission to be a serial pervert with his high class buddies.
So yes I'm glad I'm not like them. They've wasted their lives.
I think I can safely assume we were in the same warm hearted, friendly, determined, defiant, deeply patriotic and diverse crowd a couple of Saturdays ago. A lot of people dipped into their childhoods to remember "liberty and justice for all" as something worthy to live by, something as thrilling to me now as the first surprise of a sign that said "make love not war" nearly sixty years ago.
I've been wondering if I've lost touch somehow because mostly I'm not scared or surprised. Some days it's like a punch in the gut but I seem to recover. I've thought sometimes it's from reading all that science fiction and the dystopian nightmare tales. But growing up in the S.F. Bay Area in the 60s gave me some good training. Too young to be in the thick of things, I paid attention to protesters (cheered from the sidelines) and watched what roads the establishment went down. Rage and disgust are very useful for fuel.
We are never powerless. Remember that all rulers keep their position with the consent of the governed, even enslaved people and those who live in an authoritarian regime.
It's our labor, the fact that we go to work every day and do our jobs, that keeps the wheels turning. The day we stop giving our work to our oppressors is the day they lose their power.
Please read From Dictatorship to Democracy by Dr Gene Sharp.
We need a General Strike now: don't go to work, don't go shopping except for necessities, don't drive, don't vote. Don't do anything. Visit your neighbors. Start a hobby. Walk on the grass. Love your pets.
Susan, we may be getting a general strike in the near future because the Federal employees who are supposed to be still working, but without pay, may simply say, "enough! We're not going to take it anymore!" That will be especially good if many of those strikers were traffic control workers. Reagan put millions of people at risk when he fired the air traffic controllers in 1981 and didn't care one wit even though it took years to get enough ATC workers back. I don't think that would work again because far more people are flying and depend on those workers for safety. The very rich and those in power are abusing the workers and simply do not care! Maybe they should care!
Blaming SNAP benefits aren’t happening because of the democrats via the USDA advertising is crazy. I hate that people are hurting. I also hate that many of the same people will continue to hurt if the democrats give in before the healthcare situation is fixed. People will be just as poor trying to pay outstanding medical bills without insurance.
After Reagan fired the ATC’s in 1981, my father, in his capacity as a FAA FSS Chief, was responsible for hiring in the area I live in. This was after applicants had done well enough on the test to proceed. With regular attrition and age limits, those hired back then have all retired. And it’s certainly not an easy job at all. I’ve seen it live and in action.
But I imagine a far larger general strike would do more than the democrats have been able to get done. That would seriously impede many CEO’s livelihood. I don’t know what will happen. But I do know things are seriously fucked in many ways right now. I’ve always appreciated how candid Mary is about her family.
RIGHT ON ----M ary isthe bravest person. A big old Strike right now would be great. I remember Reagan's mess up. He was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but better than what we have now. A stupid orange terd.
I'm with YOU 100%! We the People have to get to the wealthy 1-5% to crop their wings, decrease their profits to show our power and animus toward their bending their knees and pushing for tax cuts, deregulations, pay to play deals, buying candidates. General Strikes, Walk-out, Sick-outs, Unionization, Huge Boycotts! We no longer have a draft for the military service but consider this OUR CALL UP for SERVICE to our country and way of life. WE are the only soldiers, the only Resisters, the only marchers....WE ARE IT. Even with no violent militias, lots of guns, 1 or 2 Resistance Leaders We the People can do this. But, Federal, State, Local Workers must realize they get paid and are working for taxpayers and all people. They cannot expect big crocodile tears that they are missing paychecks when some of them have been helping Elon Musk, Trump/GOP, all Cabinet members sabotage, freeze, defund, dismantle our budget, laws, norms, agencies, departments, programs, release private personal information etc. ALL so they can keep their jobs! Sorry, their duty is to the People, the Constitution, law/order, moral judgments as to what is plainly right and wrong. So much is out in the open and definitely IMMORAL, ILLEGAL, WRONG. They need to join their taxpaying EMPLOYERS, the People out here. Yes, Federal Workers supply services to vulnerable people and refusing to obey, cooperate with fascist, cruel, lawless, corrupt bosses will lead to punishment, unemployment but "WE all hang together or hang separately." We cannot be "sunshine patriots" who only fight for our freedoms, rights, laws, elections, equality, fairness when it is convenient for us, WE have to fight for ourselves, each other and future generations every day with everything WE have to offer. No exceptions when our whole nation and all non-white male human beings are on the chopping block and will be subject to "special attentions" by cruel, oppressive, greedy, inhumane, amoral Trump/GOP/MAGA/Project 2025 MOBSTERS!
Becca, you are so right about this insanity. I am not sure how many Federal workers actually helped DOGE and their owner, Musk. I suspepct they ignored most of the workers because they have only contempt for them. The guys who gave DOGE/Musk free rein were those who are getting the bigger bucks, the ?Trump ultra loyalists who are not likely to be impacted by the shut-down at all, just as planned.
Hey Ruthy, the way to harness our power is to create a coalition of many millions who will be at the ready for boycotts, marches, and whatever else concerted efforts would deliver. It's so logical to me, as you'd know from reading my Substack. How to get it picked up on?
I hear a lot of people say, “ We are spoiled. Americans are used to things being easy.” Well I guess that’s true—but another lens to look through is how USED WE GOT TO FREEDOM. Used to that sweet taste. Seems natural. So it is taking us a long time to wake up. That’s okay. Let’s really really try to not blame— but to creatively love any manifestation of humanness
Susan, I think we have been like a growing human being, facing all kinds of challenges, some of them inequities, while trying to figure out how to deal with them. That includes the enslavement of other human beings, allowing corporations to use and abuse workers while paying miniscule wages, welcoming immigrants here while some of us cursed and did whatever harm they could get away with to those newcomers while forgetting they themselves are the descendants of immigrants. We had growth, strength in our conviction that freedom matters and an excellent education system, at least for the wealthy. We permitted our government to give the already-too-rich, all sorts of benefits they did not earn or deserve. We have spent 249 years trying to figure things out. We have occasionally allowed ourselves to fall under the spell of someone who was destructive and unworthy of leadership, but this time, our media created a character and promoted it as though it were real, then they made sure most Americans didn't know who that character really is and that it was made up in a kind of jest or middle finger presented to the country. It is going to take a significant majority of the American people to stand up to this bullying and demand better, and get it!
Please read From Dictatorship to Democracy by Dr Gene Sharp for a handbook on how to have a successful nonviolent civil disobedience campaign against our own oppressive government. It's the best book I know of for telling us how to continue.
I Really did blame people who voted for the big orange terd for awhile but now I realize they are also hurting because of it. Some are changing their attitudes. Maybe more will and vote accordingly. We have to help each other. Things will get tough.
I will always put the blame of the mess the country is in on the people that voted for him. They may be changing their attitude only BECAUSE IT AFFECTS THEM! Things getting tough for them? Suck it up buttercups. "Things" have been tough for many already. Maybe they will vote accordingly? BWAHAHAHAHA
Tara, yes it sucks to be us and mostly powerless. Yet I know there are others behind the scenes who are NOT “going quietly into this good night!” And I’m not either! My actions are small ones…voter registration, contributions to the fight…I live in a red state community and found the brightest hot pink “I’m for Planned Parenthood” bumper sticker for my car. All our actions, big or small, make some difference. And we have each other to fall back on when it gets too hard. Fight back in any way you can. I’ll be thinking of you! Susan M-K
We need to realize that we cannot stand idly by. We have to accept at least a little inconvenience--boycott Amazon, Walmart, for example. Stop funding the Empire--it's the very smallest thing you can do!
Susan, you are right and we all need to support each other in our efforts, small they may be. We also need to find ways to get the word out about things people can do and have done, even small things. It will be hard since our media has mostly been bought up by rich corporations who have come to LOVE this current regime in DC even though those Trumpers and Trumpettes in power care nothing for their supporters and would turn on them in a moment.
Hang in there, Mary. Having your criminal, addlebrained uncle in the White House is horrible, of course, but being related to the Criminal-in-Chief must be a special kind of hell. I hope you keep fighting as best you can. You are not alone.
The daily murders of innocent fishermen and commuters outside Venezuela and Columbia are what made me cry yesterday. The massive buildup of troops and an aircraft carrier is just a massive horror show. This needs to stop now.
Holding you gently in my prayers. Thank you from my heart for your national witnessing of what happened in your family.
I went to college near Philadelphia, and my college had a cooperative student-sharing agreement with Penn. So I have been acquainted with many Penn students. Thank you for confirming what I've thought all along: Donald Trump cheated at Penn. His intellect is a zero, his knowledge of history is a zero, and he cares nothing about the USA or our people. The presidency is nothing but a bigger stage for his toxic egotism. His only God is himself, pathetically.
The more I've learned about Donald Trump, the less I believed that he was accepted by Wharton without some squalid backchannel arrangement..... and the less I believed that he'd personally done his schoolwork. He's simply not very bright, period, in stark contrast to every single other Penn graduate I've known over the course of my life.
Donald was never very bright, and I have always thought he was corrupt, even slimy, ever since his Studio 54 days with Ivana.
I am so sorry your father was treated so poorly by his family. And I am very grateful for you and your work.
Mary - We, very much, appreciate your clear and always enlightening discussions of your family. When you were growing up in that family and even today I imagine that you were very much alone with the knowledge you have. It’s not easy being the one that truly sees what is going on while being reviled as an outsider who supposedly knows nothing - like Cinderella, in the household of selfish-manipulative-dishonest-cruel people.
I want you to know that we all see you now, we know that you are the truth teller and the one with vision and heart. We are with you in all of this and listening to every word you have to say. Never doubt that we are by your side and we will be for the duration. 💞
Oh, Mary! What a mess Donald has made! Each time I read the story of your dad and what he endured I'm greatly saddened by the abuse. I think of him being the outlier in the family, "the good one" just like Cinderella among her wicked step-family. Only your dad wasn't a step-child. He was The Real Deal. Thank you for sharing your story, as it always touches my heart. Thanks for everything past, present, and future.
That is true. it would be so much worse to be them. Which does not take away from my wish that all the suffering they are inflicting return to them, someday, in spades.
Btw I’ve often wondered what the effect on Donald was to send him away to boarding military school at 13. I read online a psychoanalyst’s idea: he’d been “kicked out of the house” and now he’s getting back and kicking everyone else out of the house. What do u think of that?
Or he’s taking a freaking bulldozer to the house so he doesn’t have to be reminded that he is the weakest link in the Trump family. And he will be known throughout history for the narcissicistic stupid imbecile he has always been.
I think more about his early years — like who potty trained him when his mother was absent for a year. Certainly it involved shaming. How else do we arrive at the AI video of him dumping shit on Americans? No shortage of raw material to ask “why” about.
Pettiness is hard to take for sure. It speaks to smallness and cruelty. Narrow mindedness. Enjoyment in seeing others hurt. Small small small people are petty.
Love this, Mary❤️. The pettiness of it all grinds me down too — honestly, it’s unbelievable. The thing is, this constant stream of pettiness is right in front of our faces, and anyone with even a few brain cells can see it. Even my 79-year-old mom, who voted for Donald three times (ugh), told me yesterday she wouldn’t vote for him again (I almost passed out) — even though it’s against the Constitution for him to run in the first place. But I digress.
It may be cold comfort at this point, but we should all remember that all these MAGA people supposedly running the country are, in fact, completely unable to master even the basic techniques of governing a modern complex state. This is a fundamental fact, and it is due to 🐔🌮’s unwillingness to appoint anyone in his Administration that was more intelligent or more competent than he himself is.
There are many parallels between our current band of losers and the losers responsible for trying to run other totalitarian states, and for more or less the same reason: dictators like Hitler and Stalin couldn’t allow anyone with too much intelligence or capability to arise from within their regimes, for fear that they would attempt to replace them.
Hitler’s regime was a dysfunctional mess because he purposely set up overlapping offices of government (to keep anyone developing an independent power base) and overlapping responsibilities of governmental and Party responsibilities (for the same reason.) WWII would have been much harder to win if the Nazi state had been as well-organized as Great Britain was during the War.
Stalin had a simpler course of action: if he thought that anyone was developing the ability to challenge him, he simply had them killed. The clearest example of this was the Kirov murder, but Stalin’s decapitation of the Red Army is another example of the same thing. The result, for the Red Army and the USSR, was almost disastrous; the people in charge of the Red Army in June, 1941 were almost as incompetent as Hegseth, Bondi, Noem, and Patel are today, and the German Wehrmacht almost took Moscow. It took many months and millions of lives before competent commanders like Zhukov, Koniev, and Rokossovsky showed up and beat the Germans back to Berlin.
There is no question but that 🐔🌮 and his creatures represent a clear and present danger to American democracy and the safety and health of the American people—but it would be so much worse if any of these clowns knew how to do their jobs properly.
Thanks Mary. As always, spot on. Every day I am left speechless and nearly paralyzed with rage. Yes, it must suck to be them but honestly, it sucks to be us and be powerless to do anything about it right now!
Yes. It’s hard to be us now. I’m eaten up w sorrow. My daughter’s house gone in LA fires and the atmosphere now of “no help.” Friends in their 70s and 80s, faces confused and frightened. So many good people worked so hard to make this country good and we stand by now and watch meanness after meanness, cruelty after cruelty. Fuck these monsters. 🇺🇦
I'm 79 and I'm not confused or frightened. I'm mad as hell.
Maybe it's because I'm a San Francisco hippy from the 60s, but we did warn you all back then that this would happen if the establishment kept on the same path and you ignored and demonized us.
You can turn your rage into something good instead of collapsing in a heap. I'm using my rage for fuel. Get out and start protesting. You'll be amazed at how much better you will feel when you direct your rage into something positive.
I’m not confused. You’re right. I’m not really frightened either. I’m m 81. I’ve lived an eventful life. That sick feeling inside me is rage.
Susan, your entire post is a clarion call to action. Right now during this Dark Age, we simply do not have the luxury of curling up into a ball, caving in and waving the white flag of surrender. I fully realize that we have a lot to be worried, sickened and disgusted about on an hourly or daily basis. That is all the more reason to get pissed off, get fired up and take action. Attend No Kings or other marches/rallies against authoritarians/dictators (I'm looking at you, Donald). Call or write your senators and representatives to let them know you're mad as hell even if you live in a blood red state such as I do (Louisiana). Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper if you have one. Join organizations that defend the rights enshrined in the First Amendment. Become a subscriber and supporter of people/organizations such as Mary Trump, The Contrarians, Zeteo, The Bulwark, Democracy Docket and Public Notice to just a few. I also recommend hooking up with the wonderful Jess Craven. We should take heart that since the beginning of this year, there has been an explosion of voices in reaction to pogroms and atrocities being committed by the current regime/junta. Never give up hope because if you do, they win.
You don't understand what our protest was about. I can guess that you are not old enough to have been there, and are getting your information about the hippy movement from the media.
We didn't curl up into a ball, cave in, or surrender.
Our response was a way to avoid the violence that the establishment knows far better than we do. They don't know how to respond to civil disobedience.
They don't know what to do when a large number of their constituency simply decided not to participate in the mass hysteria that was American life at that time. They did know how to respond to the Berkeley students - those we called yippies - because they wanted to fight the establishment and that's what the establishment knows how to do.
It's harder to decide to stay apart from the craziness than to respond the way your opponents want you to behave.
And now I am seeing posts about how we should be organizing groups of people to go out and form colonies in the rural areas of like-minded people and I always respond that that is what we hippies did.
You're responding out of the propaganda that the mainstream made up about us and you clearly haven't actually spoken to any of us who were there.
I’ve been protesting.. also been addressing any younger folks I run into and making emotional as l connections.
Please read From Dictatorship to Democracy by Dr Gene Sharp and share it.
Okay
DJT plans to make peaceful demonstrations illegal. That enrages me. He is too stupid to realize, or perhaps he does, that allowing anonymous donors give money to reconstruct the East Wing or allowing the workers to tear it down without vetting them opens us to letting the enemy into the rooms beneath the Wing, the PEOC. Our president invited a sanctioned Russian into our country to discuss trade with Russia. All of this enrages me. Resist, demonstrate, Vote.
Same here. How many songs how many cultural icons,civil rights and anti war protests do we need? All our warring after we found out how corrupt Vietnam War Priests were should have ended! Being gay? That's your business! Women's right? Of course! Organic farming and fresh food? Who could disagree? Clean air,water and soil? That's natural right? Being kind and compassionate to each other and Self Knowledge isn't just the domain of religions,it human!
Psychedelics and Eastern thought broke the establishments cognitive dissonance. But there was no culture to support the change in consciousness needed and the Corporate Barons were having none of it.
All Donald saw was permission to be a serial pervert with his high class buddies.
So yes I'm glad I'm not like them. They've wasted their lives.
I think I can safely assume we were in the same warm hearted, friendly, determined, defiant, deeply patriotic and diverse crowd a couple of Saturdays ago. A lot of people dipped into their childhoods to remember "liberty and justice for all" as something worthy to live by, something as thrilling to me now as the first surprise of a sign that said "make love not war" nearly sixty years ago.
Yes, I thought so too. It was wonderful for me to see that we are all really good at heart.
I've been wondering if I've lost touch somehow because mostly I'm not scared or surprised. Some days it's like a punch in the gut but I seem to recover. I've thought sometimes it's from reading all that science fiction and the dystopian nightmare tales. But growing up in the S.F. Bay Area in the 60s gave me some good training. Too young to be in the thick of things, I paid attention to protesters (cheered from the sidelines) and watched what roads the establishment went down. Rage and disgust are very useful for fuel.
I remember those days, and you are spot-on.
TARA, YOU ARE NOT POWERLESS.
WORDS AND ARGUMENTS COUNT.
KEEP ON FIGHTING.
AND IF YOU NEED A MORALE BOOST JUST LOOK AT HOW tRUMP IS RATING AMONG INDEPENDENTS..
Thanks 🙏
You are so right! Thanks
We are never powerless. Remember that all rulers keep their position with the consent of the governed, even enslaved people and those who live in an authoritarian regime.
It's our labor, the fact that we go to work every day and do our jobs, that keeps the wheels turning. The day we stop giving our work to our oppressors is the day they lose their power.
Please read From Dictatorship to Democracy by Dr Gene Sharp.
We need a General Strike now: don't go to work, don't go shopping except for necessities, don't drive, don't vote. Don't do anything. Visit your neighbors. Start a hobby. Walk on the grass. Love your pets.
We can do this.
Susan, we may be getting a general strike in the near future because the Federal employees who are supposed to be still working, but without pay, may simply say, "enough! We're not going to take it anymore!" That will be especially good if many of those strikers were traffic control workers. Reagan put millions of people at risk when he fired the air traffic controllers in 1981 and didn't care one wit even though it took years to get enough ATC workers back. I don't think that would work again because far more people are flying and depend on those workers for safety. The very rich and those in power are abusing the workers and simply do not care! Maybe they should care!
Blaming SNAP benefits aren’t happening because of the democrats via the USDA advertising is crazy. I hate that people are hurting. I also hate that many of the same people will continue to hurt if the democrats give in before the healthcare situation is fixed. People will be just as poor trying to pay outstanding medical bills without insurance.
After Reagan fired the ATC’s in 1981, my father, in his capacity as a FAA FSS Chief, was responsible for hiring in the area I live in. This was after applicants had done well enough on the test to proceed. With regular attrition and age limits, those hired back then have all retired. And it’s certainly not an easy job at all. I’ve seen it live and in action.
But I imagine a far larger general strike would do more than the democrats have been able to get done. That would seriously impede many CEO’s livelihood. I don’t know what will happen. But I do know things are seriously fucked in many ways right now. I’ve always appreciated how candid Mary is about her family.
RIGHT ON ----M ary isthe bravest person. A big old Strike right now would be great. I remember Reagan's mess up. He was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but better than what we have now. A stupid orange terd.
I'm with YOU 100%! We the People have to get to the wealthy 1-5% to crop their wings, decrease their profits to show our power and animus toward their bending their knees and pushing for tax cuts, deregulations, pay to play deals, buying candidates. General Strikes, Walk-out, Sick-outs, Unionization, Huge Boycotts! We no longer have a draft for the military service but consider this OUR CALL UP for SERVICE to our country and way of life. WE are the only soldiers, the only Resisters, the only marchers....WE ARE IT. Even with no violent militias, lots of guns, 1 or 2 Resistance Leaders We the People can do this. But, Federal, State, Local Workers must realize they get paid and are working for taxpayers and all people. They cannot expect big crocodile tears that they are missing paychecks when some of them have been helping Elon Musk, Trump/GOP, all Cabinet members sabotage, freeze, defund, dismantle our budget, laws, norms, agencies, departments, programs, release private personal information etc. ALL so they can keep their jobs! Sorry, their duty is to the People, the Constitution, law/order, moral judgments as to what is plainly right and wrong. So much is out in the open and definitely IMMORAL, ILLEGAL, WRONG. They need to join their taxpaying EMPLOYERS, the People out here. Yes, Federal Workers supply services to vulnerable people and refusing to obey, cooperate with fascist, cruel, lawless, corrupt bosses will lead to punishment, unemployment but "WE all hang together or hang separately." We cannot be "sunshine patriots" who only fight for our freedoms, rights, laws, elections, equality, fairness when it is convenient for us, WE have to fight for ourselves, each other and future generations every day with everything WE have to offer. No exceptions when our whole nation and all non-white male human beings are on the chopping block and will be subject to "special attentions" by cruel, oppressive, greedy, inhumane, amoral Trump/GOP/MAGA/Project 2025 MOBSTERS!
Becca, you are so right about this insanity. I am not sure how many Federal workers actually helped DOGE and their owner, Musk. I suspepct they ignored most of the workers because they have only contempt for them. The guys who gave DOGE/Musk free rein were those who are getting the bigger bucks, the ?Trump ultra loyalists who are not likely to be impacted by the shut-down at all, just as planned.
Yes. A General Strike.
Hey Ruthy, the way to harness our power is to create a coalition of many millions who will be at the ready for boycotts, marches, and whatever else concerted efforts would deliver. It's so logical to me, as you'd know from reading my Substack. How to get it picked up on?
We need to persevere
Yes. I’m just learning how hard that is when faced with evil.
Yes, perseverance is easy when it's not challenged. It's only when it is tested that it really becomes perseverance.
I hear a lot of people say, “ We are spoiled. Americans are used to things being easy.” Well I guess that’s true—but another lens to look through is how USED WE GOT TO FREEDOM. Used to that sweet taste. Seems natural. So it is taking us a long time to wake up. That’s okay. Let’s really really try to not blame— but to creatively love any manifestation of humanness
This is why Thomas Jefferson said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." He was warning us not to get too complacent.
However, we did, as you say, get used to it and stopped defending it. That's how you lose it.
Susan, I think we have been like a growing human being, facing all kinds of challenges, some of them inequities, while trying to figure out how to deal with them. That includes the enslavement of other human beings, allowing corporations to use and abuse workers while paying miniscule wages, welcoming immigrants here while some of us cursed and did whatever harm they could get away with to those newcomers while forgetting they themselves are the descendants of immigrants. We had growth, strength in our conviction that freedom matters and an excellent education system, at least for the wealthy. We permitted our government to give the already-too-rich, all sorts of benefits they did not earn or deserve. We have spent 249 years trying to figure things out. We have occasionally allowed ourselves to fall under the spell of someone who was destructive and unworthy of leadership, but this time, our media created a character and promoted it as though it were real, then they made sure most Americans didn't know who that character really is and that it was made up in a kind of jest or middle finger presented to the country. It is going to take a significant majority of the American people to stand up to this bullying and demand better, and get it!
Please read From Dictatorship to Democracy by Dr Gene Sharp for a handbook on how to have a successful nonviolent civil disobedience campaign against our own oppressive government. It's the best book I know of for telling us how to continue.
I Really did blame people who voted for the big orange terd for awhile but now I realize they are also hurting because of it. Some are changing their attitudes. Maybe more will and vote accordingly. We have to help each other. Things will get tough.
I will always put the blame of the mess the country is in on the people that voted for him. They may be changing their attitude only BECAUSE IT AFFECTS THEM! Things getting tough for them? Suck it up buttercups. "Things" have been tough for many already. Maybe they will vote accordingly? BWAHAHAHAHA
Tara, yes it sucks to be us and mostly powerless. Yet I know there are others behind the scenes who are NOT “going quietly into this good night!” And I’m not either! My actions are small ones…voter registration, contributions to the fight…I live in a red state community and found the brightest hot pink “I’m for Planned Parenthood” bumper sticker for my car. All our actions, big or small, make some difference. And we have each other to fall back on when it gets too hard. Fight back in any way you can. I’ll be thinking of you! Susan M-K
We need to realize that we cannot stand idly by. We have to accept at least a little inconvenience--boycott Amazon, Walmart, for example. Stop funding the Empire--it's the very smallest thing you can do!
Yes
Susan, you are right and we all need to support each other in our efforts, small they may be. We also need to find ways to get the word out about things people can do and have done, even small things. It will be hard since our media has mostly been bought up by rich corporations who have come to LOVE this current regime in DC even though those Trumpers and Trumpettes in power care nothing for their supporters and would turn on them in a moment.
The truth of that is what is eating into our souls
Yay you!
Hang in there, Mary. Having your criminal, addlebrained uncle in the White House is horrible, of course, but being related to the Criminal-in-Chief must be a special kind of hell. I hope you keep fighting as best you can. You are not alone.
As your uncle shows the world hue despicable a human being can be, you show the world how a human being can become good , thoughtful and loving.
The daily murders of innocent fishermen and commuters outside Venezuela and Columbia are what made me cry yesterday. The massive buildup of troops and an aircraft carrier is just a massive horror show. This needs to stop now.
Holding you gently in my prayers. Thank you from my heart for your national witnessing of what happened in your family.
I went to college near Philadelphia, and my college had a cooperative student-sharing agreement with Penn. So I have been acquainted with many Penn students. Thank you for confirming what I've thought all along: Donald Trump cheated at Penn. His intellect is a zero, his knowledge of history is a zero, and he cares nothing about the USA or our people. The presidency is nothing but a bigger stage for his toxic egotism. His only God is himself, pathetically.
The more I've learned about Donald Trump, the less I believed that he was accepted by Wharton without some squalid backchannel arrangement..... and the less I believed that he'd personally done his schoolwork. He's simply not very bright, period, in stark contrast to every single other Penn graduate I've known over the course of my life.
Donald was never very bright, and I have always thought he was corrupt, even slimy, ever since his Studio 54 days with Ivana.
I am so sorry your father was treated so poorly by his family. And I am very grateful for you and your work.
Thank you.
I thank heaven that you’re not like them.
Thank you, Dr. Mary. A horrible but important summary of his behaviour.
Mary - We, very much, appreciate your clear and always enlightening discussions of your family. When you were growing up in that family and even today I imagine that you were very much alone with the knowledge you have. It’s not easy being the one that truly sees what is going on while being reviled as an outsider who supposedly knows nothing - like Cinderella, in the household of selfish-manipulative-dishonest-cruel people.
I want you to know that we all see you now, we know that you are the truth teller and the one with vision and heart. We are with you in all of this and listening to every word you have to say. Never doubt that we are by your side and we will be for the duration. 💞
He never progressed past the grade school bully. He is a weak, petty coward, a felon, rapist and a pedophile. We must remove him as soon as possible.
Then please read From Dictatorship to Democracy by Dr Gene Sharp
Yes however the correct word
Is “neutralize” as soon as possible
Oh, Mary! What a mess Donald has made! Each time I read the story of your dad and what he endured I'm greatly saddened by the abuse. I think of him being the outlier in the family, "the good one" just like Cinderella among her wicked step-family. Only your dad wasn't a step-child. He was The Real Deal. Thank you for sharing your story, as it always touches my heart. Thanks for everything past, present, and future.
"It would be so much worse to be them."
That is true. it would be so much worse to be them. Which does not take away from my wish that all the suffering they are inflicting return to them, someday, in spades.
Btw I’ve often wondered what the effect on Donald was to send him away to boarding military school at 13. I read online a psychoanalyst’s idea: he’d been “kicked out of the house” and now he’s getting back and kicking everyone else out of the house. What do u think of that?
Or he’s taking a freaking bulldozer to the house so he doesn’t have to be reminded that he is the weakest link in the Trump family. And he will be known throughout history for the narcissicistic stupid imbecile he has always been.
I think more about his early years — like who potty trained him when his mother was absent for a year. Certainly it involved shaming. How else do we arrive at the AI video of him dumping shit on Americans? No shortage of raw material to ask “why” about.
Pettiness is hard to take for sure. It speaks to smallness and cruelty. Narrow mindedness. Enjoyment in seeing others hurt. Small small small people are petty.
Excellent read and perspective of this pattern. Thank you for speaking truth when its difficult.
Love this, Mary❤️. The pettiness of it all grinds me down too — honestly, it’s unbelievable. The thing is, this constant stream of pettiness is right in front of our faces, and anyone with even a few brain cells can see it. Even my 79-year-old mom, who voted for Donald three times (ugh), told me yesterday she wouldn’t vote for him again (I almost passed out) — even though it’s against the Constitution for him to run in the first place. But I digress.
Thank you, Mary. It helps just a little to know that I am not alone
and I am not crazy feeling like I do❤️🙏
It may be cold comfort at this point, but we should all remember that all these MAGA people supposedly running the country are, in fact, completely unable to master even the basic techniques of governing a modern complex state. This is a fundamental fact, and it is due to 🐔🌮’s unwillingness to appoint anyone in his Administration that was more intelligent or more competent than he himself is.
There are many parallels between our current band of losers and the losers responsible for trying to run other totalitarian states, and for more or less the same reason: dictators like Hitler and Stalin couldn’t allow anyone with too much intelligence or capability to arise from within their regimes, for fear that they would attempt to replace them.
Hitler’s regime was a dysfunctional mess because he purposely set up overlapping offices of government (to keep anyone developing an independent power base) and overlapping responsibilities of governmental and Party responsibilities (for the same reason.) WWII would have been much harder to win if the Nazi state had been as well-organized as Great Britain was during the War.
Stalin had a simpler course of action: if he thought that anyone was developing the ability to challenge him, he simply had them killed. The clearest example of this was the Kirov murder, but Stalin’s decapitation of the Red Army is another example of the same thing. The result, for the Red Army and the USSR, was almost disastrous; the people in charge of the Red Army in June, 1941 were almost as incompetent as Hegseth, Bondi, Noem, and Patel are today, and the German Wehrmacht almost took Moscow. It took many months and millions of lives before competent commanders like Zhukov, Koniev, and Rokossovsky showed up and beat the Germans back to Berlin.
There is no question but that 🐔🌮 and his creatures represent a clear and present danger to American democracy and the safety and health of the American people—but it would be so much worse if any of these clowns knew how to do their jobs properly.