One of the Contrarian's earliest posts suggested that Democratic voters need to hear from Kamala Harris. At a time when Congress is in full scattershot mode, we need one leader to give us direction NOW. We need a unified voice, not a couple hundred with 50 different priorities.
Why is the person in whom we voters placed all of our trust and all of our livelihoods not at the forefront right now? If no one else will do it--and Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jefferies are clearly not up to the task of rallying everyone--why doesn't the person who received 75,017,613 votes speak to the 75,017,613 people who are scared out of their minds right now? Why doesn't she rally Congressional Democrats and start a process of selecting priorities for keeping us safe and solvent? Why don't all of them demand it?
The magas had a full force of malevolent planners at work for years, producing Project 2025 and finding a way to shove it down our throats. Now that we are so far behind their lightning moves to dismantle the services that we paid into and pay for now, how are we to protect ourselves?
We 75 million people cannot do this without a leader.
You make a very good point. At the same time, this is a real moment of change for the Democratic Party. We are all thirsting for new leadership, fresh blood, powerful ideas, organizational skill. Elise Slotkin, Pete Buttigieg, Janet Mills, Andy Beshear, Wes Moore -- those already in battle against the Manchurian Cantaloupe. If all Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer can come up with are fuchsia pantsuits and little paddles that make you think of an auction house, not the People's House --- well, we need new leadership all around.
I'm all for any of those you mention. We were not getting the leadership from Joe Biden that we wanted, which is why we rallied around Harris, whom I thought was quite forceful in setting that example. If she's done, there's no reason she can't usher in the next generation. For Jah's sake, somebody had better step up, yesterday.
Time is not on our side given how fast Trump has seized control of the federal government. I fully expect protests and objectors will trigger an emergency executive order and he will declare martial law. Hopefully, the military, national guard and law enforcement will not fire on unarmed citizens, but I would not count on it. Remember, Trump is not of sound mind and is on ketamine. He is out of control and thinks he is a king or some kind of deity. I think he's the devil incarnate.
Except that President Biden was working to repair our diplomacy with foreign countries after Trump's first disaster, and worked for the American people on many fronts as a U.S. president should. Unfortunately, our bought and paid for media ignored most of President Biden's work to continue focusing on Chaos.
I knew when the Washington Post first went the bothsides route that the media no longer championed democracy. We have been thwarted from all sides, my friend.
I will be forever grateful to Joe Biden for leading us safely through the pandemic and for restoring America's good name. I think what he was not seeing was our need for domestic leadership--party leadership, if that is even allowed anymore, that put individuals' needs first. We desperately needed a way to combat the lies and attacks on groups of Americans by Americans, and that, Joe could not do. Kamala Harris had the chops, but the whole machinery--the press, DNC protocol, thoughtless voters rendered dumb by a degraded educational system--was against her, and not up to the moment.
I'm sorry to say this, but Kamala Harris' actions - or rather lack of actions - in the past four months and most especially in the past six weeks, demonstrate that she wasn't the right person in that campaign. The mark of real leadership is to be able to pick oneself up and act properly in hard moments (like now). All she's done is retreat to Los Angeles and worry about getting represented at the Creative Artists Agency, the Borg of Hollywood. We are left where we always were: the only ones who can save us are ourselves. And I take strong issue with your surrender-in-advance that "we can't do this without a leader." I call BULL FUCKING SHIT on that!
If you are looking for an entity or person to criticize, look to the democratic machine of power brokers. They did not want Harris as the nominee and certainly will not support her as our democratic leader. Her gender intimidates as well as her race and to succeed as our leader, she must have the political power brokers in the Democratic Party on her side. It is tragic that in 2025, women still cannot succeed on an uneven playing field.
The old guard is what brought us to this point. They let Joe run again. The time to speak out for them was when he announced, not two GD months before the election. But to them it was "his turn," just like it was Hillary's turn; and look where that got us! All of those old rules are in the dust now, and rightly so.
No leader and no organization will only put people in the streets to no avail. 75 million people going in 75 million directions won't get us anywhere, but okay, call bullshit on me. We're on the same side. Best wishes, friend.
I agree that there must be a courageous and charismatic leader to stand-up to this cabal of inhumane billionaire megalomaniacs. But that leader is not to be found in the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is directly and indirectly complicit in the rise of power and influence of the billionaire class. The party has effectively abdicated their duty to uphold the Constitution and defend it against all enemies, domestic and foreign. They are political dinosaurs who selfishly stayed around too long. Now when the country needs them most they don't have what it takes to stand up and fight. Their cowards and history will not judge them well in light of previous generations who gave their lives to fight for this country against fascism. The Democratic party is dead and should not be resurrected. There are some good democrats and they can be part of a new party. Obviously, the Republican Party died years ago when Reagan came to power. The dangers inherent within the two-party system must be reevaluated. This is how the billionaires bought themselves into power and acquired more wealth.
We need a shadow government with a "man-of-the-people" leader. (That's an expression; a woman would be equally effective.) The leaders of the shadow government must be beholden to no one and uncompromising. They should go to our allies and ask for their help in driving this corrupt regime out of power forever. These monsters can be defeated since what they prize most (money and power) can be systematically stripped from them. The country will go through a rough time, but it won't last long and it will be far less painful than what is ahead with this corrupt regime.
One example: NATO should preemptively throw the US out until they reestablish democracy, the rule of law, and the Constitution. Members can collectively agree to place extremely punitive sanctions on everybody and everything connected to the regime. Being shut out of international markets would devastate the wealthy.
Blue state governors and their legislatures could put enormous financial constraints on the billionaires. California could crush the techbros who are behind Trump. They are a major economy in their own right and they need to exercise their power on behalf of we the people. The federal government would be severely crippled if California and every other blue state stopped sending payments to Washington. Trump and Musk would have to rely on poor underfunded red states to function and they would be left holding the bag.
I would say, given the actions of Trump, Musk and the people behind Project 2025, it is time to declare NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. Nobody voted for an authoritarian regime that ignores the Constitution and illegally evades accountability to Congress. Nobody voted for a corrupt cabal who is firing hundreds of thousands of civil servants, crushing and eliminating agencies all with the express purpose of privatizing everything and lining their pockets with taxpayer money. The power is with the people and they need to step up and tell their state legislators and governors to shut Trump and his billionaire cronies NOW!
Once the billionaires are cut down to size, driven from power, and locked away for life, We the People with the help of a transitional shadow government can take steps to restore democracy, strengthen the Constitution and reestablish our justice system. We have learned so much from the Republicans. They have taught us how fragile our system of government is in the wrong hands. We can change that and much more and still preserve the essence of our country which began with the preamble of the Constitution.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Horrifying as it is to have lived to see the death of my country it's all the more horrifying to see how badly the larger world has been damaged by this handful of vicious old men and petulant oligarchs.
The billionaires have shredded the fragile stability that once allowed us to experience a relative state of peace (often an uneasy peace, true, but peace nonetheless) and relative prosperity that didn't only benefit the rich but also provided rewards to most citizens of democratic societies.
When the Silicon Valley billionaires pushed the Wall Streeters out of the way as majority shareholders in the Republican Party, they brought with them the cult madness that is all the fashion among the tech bros, including accelerationism, transhumanism (not to be confused with the controversy that has been so useful to the Republicans), and a childlike but quite terrifying faith in what they call the Singularity.
The Wall Streeters in turn, rather than resist and miss out on the goodies, have on the whole capitulated to the cult: men like Jamie Dimon and Howard Lutnick and Bill Ackman have become True Believers.
Everything that happens next, the cult asserts, requires smashing up the world's institutions, breaking its democracies, eliminating all restraints on wealth (taxation, regulation and oversight, the rule of law) and sending billions of humans into either starvation or peasantry, whichever comes first.
Meanwhile, as this creative destruction is rolling out, a handful of billionaires who already regard themselves as gods believe they're on the cusp of creating a new society in what they believe to be a dying world (and it will die, if they have their way): a stepping stone on their way to the stars where, they believe, AI-driven human/machine hybrids containing their own consciousnesses will populate the cosmos.
It's mad, bizarre, the worst kind of science fiction: only they believe it, and have the power to bring about the mass destruction they crave, although not the glorious aftermath they envision for themselves, in which they live forever as Earth burns to a cinder.
They really are a combination of Boys' Own magazine, Ayn Rand, and a cabal of subway ranters. They're unhinged and destructive: but they're richer than God's great uncle, and so they're toppling the world's democracies one by one.
Ours is falling faster, and with less resistance, than would have seemed possible before 2016. It remains to be seen whether the Brexit backlash in the UK and the sense of threat and betrayal among the European nations are sufficient to revive something like democracy on the continent: but here, in our homeland, it's more or less gone.
Their various interpretations of the Singularity suck. They couldn't predict their way out of a paper bag, let alone the Armageddon that they are fomenting.
You obviously haven't been paying attention to the past 60 years of Public Miseducation that has resulted in a population the majority of whom don't know what World War II was, let alone anything about what we created from there, who think Columbus discovered America in 1942 and can't distinguish between the Revolution and World War II. 60% of them cannot read and comprehend at more than a 6th grade level, and 75% of them couldn't pass the citizenship test all immigrants have to pass to become citizens. As both an historian and a descendant of the people who founded America (the citizens who came here and answered the call), I'm mostly disgusted with the majority of the Homo Sap bipeds living in North America north of Mexico and south of Canada.
Half the country is fed lies and propaganda every day and we have no way to reach them. But they are being hurt too and hopefully they will realize it sooner rather than later.
Although this disastrous Administration is definitely not making America great, it is resulting in other countries rising and stepping up. Perhaps some good will come of it [though not necessarily for the US]. Europe is working to strengthen its defenses. That is something Russia certainly doesn't want to see happening, practically at its doorstep. Let Putin worry about that!! Mexico and Canada and Greenland and other nations are also realizing that this American President cannot be trusted at all. Thus, anything he has said and will said will always be taken with a large dose of salt. Confidence in America is taking a nose dive.
It's like living in some alternative history where Benedict Arnold handed over West Point then became governor of America, except it's the Russians this time.
Trump’s reign of retribution will be a 21st century reminiscent of Maximilien Robespierre and his Committee of Public Safety. Ultimately, it will be his downfall. But we cannot blink even for a moment.
With the monumental changes on the world stage—created by what appears to be a TrumPutin Alliance—I cannot understand why almost no is one calling out the obvious. Whatever form of quid pro quo there exists between them that is creating this bond—blackmail, bribery, money laundering, brainwashing or some combination of all of those—this by definition makes Trump a Russian Asset. Or as Senator Merkley has said, if he was a Russian Asset then his actions would be the same as what he is doing now. It seems to me that finding out the nature of that relationship should be the primary objective of all the serious journalism outlets including the Contrarian. This treachery is like that of a Shakespearean Tragedy. If Trump is acting like a Russian Asset—and it would be hard to deny that fact—then he is a Russian Asset. Dig deep journalists. This is so much bigger than Watergate!
Excellent explication of a history we all need to know. I paused on this point: “The collapse of the Soviet Union was driven by the Russian people who revolted against communist leadership.” It gave me hope. Is there any way the American people, in revolt, can bring down the Trump administration? But without also a collapse of the United States.
A valuable alliance, assembled and nurtured for 80 years, is being trashed by recklessness, greed, and ignorance. Unfortunately, our institutions are not built to work quickly enough when they are assaulted by those using those very institutions to their advantage. Corruption, the likes of which we have never seen, seems to be tearing full speed ahead through everything we hold dear.
Our top priority now is to find and support a strong, charismatic, pro-democracy leader who has the will, wisdom, and courage to stand up to and replace this menace and traitor in the White House along with his succulents.
Without this leader, we would not have any traction.
I voted for Kamala Harris not because I thought she was the leader we needed, but because I could never vote for Trump. So I surely do not look to her now for leadership.
One of the Contrarian's earliest posts suggested that Democratic voters need to hear from Kamala Harris. At a time when Congress is in full scattershot mode, we need one leader to give us direction NOW. We need a unified voice, not a couple hundred with 50 different priorities.
Why is the person in whom we voters placed all of our trust and all of our livelihoods not at the forefront right now? If no one else will do it--and Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jefferies are clearly not up to the task of rallying everyone--why doesn't the person who received 75,017,613 votes speak to the 75,017,613 people who are scared out of their minds right now? Why doesn't she rally Congressional Democrats and start a process of selecting priorities for keeping us safe and solvent? Why don't all of them demand it?
The magas had a full force of malevolent planners at work for years, producing Project 2025 and finding a way to shove it down our throats. Now that we are so far behind their lightning moves to dismantle the services that we paid into and pay for now, how are we to protect ourselves?
We 75 million people cannot do this without a leader.
You make a very good point. At the same time, this is a real moment of change for the Democratic Party. We are all thirsting for new leadership, fresh blood, powerful ideas, organizational skill. Elise Slotkin, Pete Buttigieg, Janet Mills, Andy Beshear, Wes Moore -- those already in battle against the Manchurian Cantaloupe. If all Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer can come up with are fuchsia pantsuits and little paddles that make you think of an auction house, not the People's House --- well, we need new leadership all around.
I'm all for any of those you mention. We were not getting the leadership from Joe Biden that we wanted, which is why we rallied around Harris, whom I thought was quite forceful in setting that example. If she's done, there's no reason she can't usher in the next generation. For Jah's sake, somebody had better step up, yesterday.
Time is not on our side given how fast Trump has seized control of the federal government. I fully expect protests and objectors will trigger an emergency executive order and he will declare martial law. Hopefully, the military, national guard and law enforcement will not fire on unarmed citizens, but I would not count on it. Remember, Trump is not of sound mind and is on ketamine. He is out of control and thinks he is a king or some kind of deity. I think he's the devil incarnate.
Except that President Biden was working to repair our diplomacy with foreign countries after Trump's first disaster, and worked for the American people on many fronts as a U.S. president should. Unfortunately, our bought and paid for media ignored most of President Biden's work to continue focusing on Chaos.
I knew when the Washington Post first went the bothsides route that the media no longer championed democracy. We have been thwarted from all sides, my friend.
I will be forever grateful to Joe Biden for leading us safely through the pandemic and for restoring America's good name. I think what he was not seeing was our need for domestic leadership--party leadership, if that is even allowed anymore, that put individuals' needs first. We desperately needed a way to combat the lies and attacks on groups of Americans by Americans, and that, Joe could not do. Kamala Harris had the chops, but the whole machinery--the press, DNC protocol, thoughtless voters rendered dumb by a degraded educational system--was against her, and not up to the moment.
I'm sorry to say this, but Kamala Harris' actions - or rather lack of actions - in the past four months and most especially in the past six weeks, demonstrate that she wasn't the right person in that campaign. The mark of real leadership is to be able to pick oneself up and act properly in hard moments (like now). All she's done is retreat to Los Angeles and worry about getting represented at the Creative Artists Agency, the Borg of Hollywood. We are left where we always were: the only ones who can save us are ourselves. And I take strong issue with your surrender-in-advance that "we can't do this without a leader." I call BULL FUCKING SHIT on that!
If you are looking for an entity or person to criticize, look to the democratic machine of power brokers. They did not want Harris as the nominee and certainly will not support her as our democratic leader. Her gender intimidates as well as her race and to succeed as our leader, she must have the political power brokers in the Democratic Party on her side. It is tragic that in 2025, women still cannot succeed on an uneven playing field.
The old guard is what brought us to this point. They let Joe run again. The time to speak out for them was when he announced, not two GD months before the election. But to them it was "his turn," just like it was Hillary's turn; and look where that got us! All of those old rules are in the dust now, and rightly so.
No leader and no organization will only put people in the streets to no avail. 75 million people going in 75 million directions won't get us anywhere, but okay, call bullshit on me. We're on the same side. Best wishes, friend.
I agree that there must be a courageous and charismatic leader to stand-up to this cabal of inhumane billionaire megalomaniacs. But that leader is not to be found in the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is directly and indirectly complicit in the rise of power and influence of the billionaire class. The party has effectively abdicated their duty to uphold the Constitution and defend it against all enemies, domestic and foreign. They are political dinosaurs who selfishly stayed around too long. Now when the country needs them most they don't have what it takes to stand up and fight. Their cowards and history will not judge them well in light of previous generations who gave their lives to fight for this country against fascism. The Democratic party is dead and should not be resurrected. There are some good democrats and they can be part of a new party. Obviously, the Republican Party died years ago when Reagan came to power. The dangers inherent within the two-party system must be reevaluated. This is how the billionaires bought themselves into power and acquired more wealth.
We need a shadow government with a "man-of-the-people" leader. (That's an expression; a woman would be equally effective.) The leaders of the shadow government must be beholden to no one and uncompromising. They should go to our allies and ask for their help in driving this corrupt regime out of power forever. These monsters can be defeated since what they prize most (money and power) can be systematically stripped from them. The country will go through a rough time, but it won't last long and it will be far less painful than what is ahead with this corrupt regime.
One example: NATO should preemptively throw the US out until they reestablish democracy, the rule of law, and the Constitution. Members can collectively agree to place extremely punitive sanctions on everybody and everything connected to the regime. Being shut out of international markets would devastate the wealthy.
Blue state governors and their legislatures could put enormous financial constraints on the billionaires. California could crush the techbros who are behind Trump. They are a major economy in their own right and they need to exercise their power on behalf of we the people. The federal government would be severely crippled if California and every other blue state stopped sending payments to Washington. Trump and Musk would have to rely on poor underfunded red states to function and they would be left holding the bag.
I would say, given the actions of Trump, Musk and the people behind Project 2025, it is time to declare NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. Nobody voted for an authoritarian regime that ignores the Constitution and illegally evades accountability to Congress. Nobody voted for a corrupt cabal who is firing hundreds of thousands of civil servants, crushing and eliminating agencies all with the express purpose of privatizing everything and lining their pockets with taxpayer money. The power is with the people and they need to step up and tell their state legislators and governors to shut Trump and his billionaire cronies NOW!
Once the billionaires are cut down to size, driven from power, and locked away for life, We the People with the help of a transitional shadow government can take steps to restore democracy, strengthen the Constitution and reestablish our justice system. We have learned so much from the Republicans. They have taught us how fragile our system of government is in the wrong hands. We can change that and much more and still preserve the essence of our country which began with the preamble of the Constitution.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Horrifying as it is to have lived to see the death of my country it's all the more horrifying to see how badly the larger world has been damaged by this handful of vicious old men and petulant oligarchs.
The billionaires have shredded the fragile stability that once allowed us to experience a relative state of peace (often an uneasy peace, true, but peace nonetheless) and relative prosperity that didn't only benefit the rich but also provided rewards to most citizens of democratic societies.
When the Silicon Valley billionaires pushed the Wall Streeters out of the way as majority shareholders in the Republican Party, they brought with them the cult madness that is all the fashion among the tech bros, including accelerationism, transhumanism (not to be confused with the controversy that has been so useful to the Republicans), and a childlike but quite terrifying faith in what they call the Singularity.
The Wall Streeters in turn, rather than resist and miss out on the goodies, have on the whole capitulated to the cult: men like Jamie Dimon and Howard Lutnick and Bill Ackman have become True Believers.
Everything that happens next, the cult asserts, requires smashing up the world's institutions, breaking its democracies, eliminating all restraints on wealth (taxation, regulation and oversight, the rule of law) and sending billions of humans into either starvation or peasantry, whichever comes first.
Meanwhile, as this creative destruction is rolling out, a handful of billionaires who already regard themselves as gods believe they're on the cusp of creating a new society in what they believe to be a dying world (and it will die, if they have their way): a stepping stone on their way to the stars where, they believe, AI-driven human/machine hybrids containing their own consciousnesses will populate the cosmos.
It's mad, bizarre, the worst kind of science fiction: only they believe it, and have the power to bring about the mass destruction they crave, although not the glorious aftermath they envision for themselves, in which they live forever as Earth burns to a cinder.
They really are a combination of Boys' Own magazine, Ayn Rand, and a cabal of subway ranters. They're unhinged and destructive: but they're richer than God's great uncle, and so they're toppling the world's democracies one by one.
Ours is falling faster, and with less resistance, than would have seemed possible before 2016. It remains to be seen whether the Brexit backlash in the UK and the sense of threat and betrayal among the European nations are sufficient to revive something like democracy on the continent: but here, in our homeland, it's more or less gone.
Their various interpretations of the Singularity suck. They couldn't predict their way out of a paper bag, let alone the Armageddon that they are fomenting.
Trump is a Wrecking Ball, not a Leader. Why the Citizens of a Country would vote for their own destruction, is beyond me!
You obviously haven't been paying attention to the past 60 years of Public Miseducation that has resulted in a population the majority of whom don't know what World War II was, let alone anything about what we created from there, who think Columbus discovered America in 1942 and can't distinguish between the Revolution and World War II. 60% of them cannot read and comprehend at more than a 6th grade level, and 75% of them couldn't pass the citizenship test all immigrants have to pass to become citizens. As both an historian and a descendant of the people who founded America (the citizens who came here and answered the call), I'm mostly disgusted with the majority of the Homo Sap bipeds living in North America north of Mexico and south of Canada.
Agree totally
He has destroyed all he touches, all his life.
An alliance built and maintained by "exceptional intellectual leadership."
An attribute absolutely no one believes Donald Trump possesses. On top of being an obvious Russian patsy.
Half the country is fed lies and propaganda every day and we have no way to reach them. But they are being hurt too and hopefully they will realize it sooner rather than later.
Although this disastrous Administration is definitely not making America great, it is resulting in other countries rising and stepping up. Perhaps some good will come of it [though not necessarily for the US]. Europe is working to strengthen its defenses. That is something Russia certainly doesn't want to see happening, practically at its doorstep. Let Putin worry about that!! Mexico and Canada and Greenland and other nations are also realizing that this American President cannot be trusted at all. Thus, anything he has said and will said will always be taken with a large dose of salt. Confidence in America is taking a nose dive.
It's like living in some alternative history where Benedict Arnold handed over West Point then became governor of America, except it's the Russians this time.
Trump’s reign of retribution will be a 21st century reminiscent of Maximilien Robespierre and his Committee of Public Safety. Ultimately, it will be his downfall. But we cannot blink even for a moment.
With the monumental changes on the world stage—created by what appears to be a TrumPutin Alliance—I cannot understand why almost no is one calling out the obvious. Whatever form of quid pro quo there exists between them that is creating this bond—blackmail, bribery, money laundering, brainwashing or some combination of all of those—this by definition makes Trump a Russian Asset. Or as Senator Merkley has said, if he was a Russian Asset then his actions would be the same as what he is doing now. It seems to me that finding out the nature of that relationship should be the primary objective of all the serious journalism outlets including the Contrarian. This treachery is like that of a Shakespearean Tragedy. If Trump is acting like a Russian Asset—and it would be hard to deny that fact—then he is a Russian Asset. Dig deep journalists. This is so much bigger than Watergate!
How will Trump like it when he is no longer known as "the leader of the free world"?
Well said. I agree.
Excellent explication of a history we all need to know. I paused on this point: “The collapse of the Soviet Union was driven by the Russian people who revolted against communist leadership.” It gave me hope. Is there any way the American people, in revolt, can bring down the Trump administration? But without also a collapse of the United States.
A valuable alliance, assembled and nurtured for 80 years, is being trashed by recklessness, greed, and ignorance. Unfortunately, our institutions are not built to work quickly enough when they are assaulted by those using those very institutions to their advantage. Corruption, the likes of which we have never seen, seems to be tearing full speed ahead through everything we hold dear.
Our top priority now is to find and support a strong, charismatic, pro-democracy leader who has the will, wisdom, and courage to stand up to and replace this menace and traitor in the White House along with his succulents.
Without this leader, we would not have any traction.
I voted for Kamala Harris not because I thought she was the leader we needed, but because I could never vote for Trump. So I surely do not look to her now for leadership.