Unlike the action surrounding Trump and the mayor of New York, here in Illinois, Governor Pritzker basically told Trump to go fish when it comes to ICE relying on Illinois State Police to round up illegals (and others claimed to be undesirables). He said that his officers were too busy with issues concerning the state, and if Trump thought he needed reinforcements for ICE, he should hire them himself. Trump threatened to sue; Pritzker said "go for it". We need governors with backbones.
I've gasped at the words coming from both Hegseth and Vance. On the world stage! I'm so ashamed to be an American when our so called leaders behave as they have done.
This is part of our few hopes. These people, who are not only quasi-traitorous, but unprepared for their elite offices, will make fools of themselves. Their underlings who know a thing or two about the complex job, will run rings around them. Our allies, too.
Here we are that our “presidents” and vice president celebrate the worst mass murderers in history. These monsters are not well. When will the American people wake up?
Vance shot himself in the foot by suggesting that Trump did not need to honor court opinions. That makes the courts irrelevant. Much of this is going to end up with SCOTUS, whose activist right wing members have been happy to play along. But now, he is telling them that he does not need to ask. That they have no power. I don’t trust them on much, but I don’t think they will give away their power and disempower the entire Federal court system in the process.
The Court should have thought further ahead when giving the president ultimate cover from commission of "official" acts. They could have seen that an official act might well be to defy Court opinions and decisions. Most short-sighted of them.
I don't think it was short sighted Steve. Two of them were bought by billionaires , 3 were put there by McConnell and trump and with Robert's, you never know. And you can count on the decent other 3 ladies.
That's quite a good point. I was forgetting that we don't have an impartial Court, or one without its own agenda. It does look as if they could become irrelevant.
I agree. The only hope I see is that they gave Trump immunity but no one else. If I’m right, Musk has to rely on Trump giving him a pardon if he goes too far. He is a fool if he counts on this. Ask Rudy. Trump will till throw anyone under the bus. In a small way, he just did this to Hegseth by having him publicly advise that its unrealistic to return Ukraine to its 2014 border. Hegseth has no credibility in this area. Now he has less
Yes, universes apart. Note another detail in the JFK picture: the President is hard at work. His desk is covered with it. I was interested to learn that the knee-space was covered by doors for FDR, to hide his leg-braces.
Yes, he's just impressed the Europeans (not). Once more, I pity the poor instantaneous translators. If he gets something wrong the first time, he repeats it, but worse.
I think you are quite right Tom, it's possible, that that with the 3 only decent judges and only 2 less compromised with the total exclusions of Alito and Thomas the power of scotus would held. I think we'll have the 5 needed.
It is. It means a lot of Republican senators, house members, governors etc. are aligned behind this. It’s not just Trump. But SCOTUS, by delaying trials and giving the office immunity made this possible, but also created the possibility for their own irrelevance. If they become irrelevant they trash the court system, become a villain for all time, lose friends, lose their ability to grift. Vance turned their immunity decision against them. They look like fools.
The ABA doesn’t disbar anyone. It’s done at the state level, and ANY adult can submit a bar complaint about violating Professional Conduct Rule 3.4 to the proper authorities. For Bove, that’s Nysba.org Be sure to include his Bar number and full name:
One, with all lawyers who believe our constitution is at risk, to take action in myriad ways to hold back the takeover.
Two, we all, ALL Democrats vow to not pay taxes this year. Just not. They can't throw 45% into jail, they can't handle such an enormous civic uprising.
We pay state and local taxes, and are happy to do it. When I am paying my federal taxes, which Musk and Trump both dodge, then Musk decides MY tax money will be spent on HIS space program, or Trump decides MY tax money will not support Ukraine or the Paris Accords, then I will simply do what they do..... not pay federal taxes.
Perverting the legal system is prominent in any fascist strongman's playbook, and, for the first time in our country's history, we're forced to deal with not only a single malicious strongman, but two of them, joined at the hip. To make matters even worse, the supposedly ultimate arbiter, the Supreme Court, is controlled by the repulsive trio of Thomas/Alito/Roberts and the rest of the reprehensible MAGA Six.
It's a rigged game, in favor of the fascists. Trump and Musk are leaving nothing to chance, and soon they'll have a fanatical loyalist, Kash Patel, running the secret police. The role model for all this? Putin.
I still wait for more Specific information about what we can do from home, out in the hinterland.
This post from The People’s Union offers a single possibility. Please incorporate it into one of your discussions.
The Economic Blackout February 28th 2025
February 6, 2025
This is it. The first real test. The first demonstration of power. The first time we send a shockwave through the system that has controlled us for too long.
On Friday, February 28th, we go dark. For 24 hours, we stop feeding the machine. No spending. No unnecessary purchases. No engagement with major corporations.
Because for decades, they’ve made you believe that you’re just a worker. Just a consumer. Just another cog in their endless cycle of profit and control.
But they’ve lied.
The truth is simple: they don’t run this country—we do. And the moment we choose to stop playing by their rules, the moment we cut off their supply, the moment we remind them that they need us, not the other way around, that’s the moment we begin to take control back.
WHAT HAPPENS ON FEBRUARY 28TH?
• No purchases. No Amazon. No Walmart. No Starbucks. No unnecessary gas fill-ups. No online orders.
• No engagement. Skip the big-brand entertainment, the news cycles designed to distract and divide.
• Absolute focus. This is about unity, discipline, and demonstrating collective will.
This is not a protest. It’s not a gimmick. It’s a warning shot.
Because if they ignore this one-day blackout?
We escalate. We go longer. We go deeper. And they will have to listen.
This is only the beginning.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Every major shift in history started with one moment. One act of defiance. One refusal to comply with a broken system.
This is that moment.
We are done waiting for politicians to fix what is broken.
We are done watching billionaires hoard wealth while the working class struggles.
We need the people to recall their representatives and senators, inasmuch as they have ceded their power to unelected officials like Elon Musk. We need to spark a recall of President Donald J, Trump for lying to his voters about his lack of association with Project 2025, only to enact that very project after being elected. We have never in this country had more blatant refusal to obey the rule of law, and by the POTUS and the United States Congress, no less. He has installed criminals to dismantle our government. Those who pledge an oath to obey the tenets of the Constitution, but do the opposite should not be allowed anywhere near the levers of power.
Those Republicans who made a pilgrimage to Russia years ago need to be investigated -- we need to know their reasons for making the trip. Jill Stein, in particular, needs to be investigated, as she was there. She has been a third wheel in each Presidential election since, and the very last time garnered enough in 2024 (19%) to assist in handing the election to Donald Trump. There is enough of a pattern that a law should be enacted to prevent non-serious candidates from running for any elective office, given they are running to disrupt the fair administration of elections.
Politicians who lack policy and run on no platform other than to destroy the opposition, should not be allowed to earn 6 figures on the backs of struggling Americans. We need news laws to shore up the old laws that Republicans no longer feel any duty to follow. The Founding Fathers clearly never anticipated a Donald J. Trump, but we must make certain he is never forgotten, and that he is prevented from destroying the very country he was elected to preserve and secure!
We need protests at all the GOP offices in every state telling them to stand behind their oaths, do their job and stand up to the Executive branch. And keep it up until the next election. If they can't or won't they won't have to worry about being primaried by the billionaires as the Dems will show that their behavior is unacceptable and we will beat them all.
It seems to me that refusing court orders is clearly an act that conflicts with the promise of the oath of office: to defend the Constitution. In that case, the military could defy any presidential order in their effort to defend their own oath to protect the Constitution. At some point, although a very serious event, such action by the military will be clearly warranted in the face of true defiance of legal judgements. I think honorable military staff should be preparing for such an necessity. As General Milley was quoted, "we have the guns". True patriotism will be tested, perhaps most so upon the military. I'm supporting them, as well as the ACLU.
Unlike the action surrounding Trump and the mayor of New York, here in Illinois, Governor Pritzker basically told Trump to go fish when it comes to ICE relying on Illinois State Police to round up illegals (and others claimed to be undesirables). He said that his officers were too busy with issues concerning the state, and if Trump thought he needed reinforcements for ICE, he should hire them himself. Trump threatened to sue; Pritzker said "go for it". We need governors with backbones.
Excellent! I love knowing this. Thank you, Steve.
Love to hear your take on the idiocy that spewed from the mouths of our Veep and Our so-called head of the military…
I've gasped at the words coming from both Hegseth and Vance. On the world stage! I'm so ashamed to be an American when our so called leaders behave as they have done.
This is part of our few hopes. These people, who are not only quasi-traitorous, but unprepared for their elite offices, will make fools of themselves. Their underlings who know a thing or two about the complex job, will run rings around them. Our allies, too.
I cringe every time I hear Vance. He blames Europeans for not adhering to their values, then goes and visits a Nazi.
Here we are that our “presidents” and vice president celebrate the worst mass murderers in history. These monsters are not well. When will the American people wake up?
Vance shot himself in the foot by suggesting that Trump did not need to honor court opinions. That makes the courts irrelevant. Much of this is going to end up with SCOTUS, whose activist right wing members have been happy to play along. But now, he is telling them that he does not need to ask. That they have no power. I don’t trust them on much, but I don’t think they will give away their power and disempower the entire Federal court system in the process.
The Court should have thought further ahead when giving the president ultimate cover from commission of "official" acts. They could have seen that an official act might well be to defy Court opinions and decisions. Most short-sighted of them.
I don't think it was short sighted Steve. Two of them were bought by billionaires , 3 were put there by McConnell and trump and with Robert's, you never know. And you can count on the decent other 3 ladies.
That's quite a good point. I was forgetting that we don't have an impartial Court, or one without its own agenda. It does look as if they could become irrelevant.
It's irrelevant because the majority are not doing their job. Thanks for your reply 👍
I agree. The only hope I see is that they gave Trump immunity but no one else. If I’m right, Musk has to rely on Trump giving him a pardon if he goes too far. He is a fool if he counts on this. Ask Rudy. Trump will till throw anyone under the bus. In a small way, he just did this to Hegseth by having him publicly advise that its unrealistic to return Ukraine to its 2014 border. Hegseth has no credibility in this area. Now he has less
Definitely trump won't pardon Mu$k's son X after he questioned what trump was doing in his dad's chair.
But isn't it nice to see the Oval Office turning into a family room! children everywhere, hardly room for the encroaching press corps...
Trying to copy JFK's and his son under the desk picture? They are universes apart.
Yes, universes apart. Note another detail in the JFK picture: the President is hard at work. His desk is covered with it. I was interested to learn that the knee-space was covered by doors for FDR, to hide his leg-braces.
Hegseth? credibility? isn't he the one who was previously a weekend announcer for Fox?
He didn't have any credibility even before Fox and much less after.
Yes. That is his credential to lead the military
Yes, he's just impressed the Europeans (not). Once more, I pity the poor instantaneous translators. If he gets something wrong the first time, he repeats it, but worse.
Then civil/state charges need to be made against musk.
Trump can’t forgive those
My guess is musk is not a teflon don, even with all of his money
State charges also. Blue states are the only enforcer.
I think you are quite right Tom, it's possible, that that with the 3 only decent judges and only 2 less compromised with the total exclusions of Alito and Thomas the power of scotus would held. I think we'll have the 5 needed.
Let's sure hope not.
I hope you’re right, Tom, but isn’t it sad that they are our last line of defense.
It is. It means a lot of Republican senators, house members, governors etc. are aligned behind this. It’s not just Trump. But SCOTUS, by delaying trials and giving the office immunity made this possible, but also created the possibility for their own irrelevance. If they become irrelevant they trash the court system, become a villain for all time, lose friends, lose their ability to grift. Vance turned their immunity decision against them. They look like fools.
EARLY WARNING SIGNS OF FASCISM from the Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government Intertwined
9. Corporate Power Protected
10. Labor Power Suppressed
11. Distain for Intellectuals & the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime & Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism & Corruption, 14. Fraudulent Elections
Looks like we've already covered them all. There you go. Done. Time to turn it around the other way and push back hard.
That's something to go on the fridge door.
Excited to hear that Monday will have Heather Cox Richardson. She is a rock star.
Agreed!
Rudy got disbarred for his misconduct after the last election. I think lawyers need to start lobbying the American Bar Association to disbar Bove.
The ABA doesn’t disbar anyone. It’s done at the state level, and ANY adult can submit a bar complaint about violating Professional Conduct Rule 3.4 to the proper authorities. For Bove, that’s Nysba.org Be sure to include his Bar number and full name:
NY Bar #4700696
EMIL JOSEPH BOVE III
Thank you, thank you, the Contrarian.
Shall we give DOGE the respect it deserves by referring to Musk's so-called department as 'doggy'? Maybe we can start a trend.
"Dodgy" is more like it.
Dodgy Mump, dodgy coin, dodgy everything...
“Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.“ Or, as I read it: judges must control the executive’s illegitimate power.
Thank you Norm.
Let us remember we are the majority here.
We need everyone and we shall get through this !!
Can we start two movements?
One, with all lawyers who believe our constitution is at risk, to take action in myriad ways to hold back the takeover.
Two, we all, ALL Democrats vow to not pay taxes this year. Just not. They can't throw 45% into jail, they can't handle such an enormous civic uprising.
Anybody in???
As I understand it, our taxes support mainly state and local government, which is where we should throw our support.
We pay state and local taxes, and are happy to do it. When I am paying my federal taxes, which Musk and Trump both dodge, then Musk decides MY tax money will be spent on HIS space program, or Trump decides MY tax money will not support Ukraine or the Paris Accords, then I will simply do what they do..... not pay federal taxes.
Yeah, trump et al are getting rid of IRS agents, so who's gonna come after us?
They already have most of our money. We file to get returns.
Perverting the legal system is prominent in any fascist strongman's playbook, and, for the first time in our country's history, we're forced to deal with not only a single malicious strongman, but two of them, joined at the hip. To make matters even worse, the supposedly ultimate arbiter, the Supreme Court, is controlled by the repulsive trio of Thomas/Alito/Roberts and the rest of the reprehensible MAGA Six.
It's a rigged game, in favor of the fascists. Trump and Musk are leaving nothing to chance, and soon they'll have a fanatical loyalist, Kash Patel, running the secret police. The role model for all this? Putin.
trump spent a lot of down time with orban
I still wait for more Specific information about what we can do from home, out in the hinterland.
This post from The People’s Union offers a single possibility. Please incorporate it into one of your discussions.
The Economic Blackout February 28th 2025
February 6, 2025
This is it. The first real test. The first demonstration of power. The first time we send a shockwave through the system that has controlled us for too long.
On Friday, February 28th, we go dark. For 24 hours, we stop feeding the machine. No spending. No unnecessary purchases. No engagement with major corporations.
Because for decades, they’ve made you believe that you’re just a worker. Just a consumer. Just another cog in their endless cycle of profit and control.
But they’ve lied.
The truth is simple: they don’t run this country—we do. And the moment we choose to stop playing by their rules, the moment we cut off their supply, the moment we remind them that they need us, not the other way around, that’s the moment we begin to take control back.
WHAT HAPPENS ON FEBRUARY 28TH?
• No purchases. No Amazon. No Walmart. No Starbucks. No unnecessary gas fill-ups. No online orders.
• No engagement. Skip the big-brand entertainment, the news cycles designed to distract and divide.
• Absolute focus. This is about unity, discipline, and demonstrating collective will.
This is not a protest. It’s not a gimmick. It’s a warning shot.
Because if they ignore this one-day blackout?
We escalate. We go longer. We go deeper. And they will have to listen.
This is only the beginning.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Every major shift in history started with one moment. One act of defiance. One refusal to comply with a broken system.
This is that moment.
We are done waiting for politicians to fix what is broken.
We are done watching billionaires hoard wealth while the working class struggles.
We are done believing we are powerless
What do we think Hegseth was sipping on at his press conference?
We need the people to recall their representatives and senators, inasmuch as they have ceded their power to unelected officials like Elon Musk. We need to spark a recall of President Donald J, Trump for lying to his voters about his lack of association with Project 2025, only to enact that very project after being elected. We have never in this country had more blatant refusal to obey the rule of law, and by the POTUS and the United States Congress, no less. He has installed criminals to dismantle our government. Those who pledge an oath to obey the tenets of the Constitution, but do the opposite should not be allowed anywhere near the levers of power.
Those Republicans who made a pilgrimage to Russia years ago need to be investigated -- we need to know their reasons for making the trip. Jill Stein, in particular, needs to be investigated, as she was there. She has been a third wheel in each Presidential election since, and the very last time garnered enough in 2024 (19%) to assist in handing the election to Donald Trump. There is enough of a pattern that a law should be enacted to prevent non-serious candidates from running for any elective office, given they are running to disrupt the fair administration of elections.
Politicians who lack policy and run on no platform other than to destroy the opposition, should not be allowed to earn 6 figures on the backs of struggling Americans. We need news laws to shore up the old laws that Republicans no longer feel any duty to follow. The Founding Fathers clearly never anticipated a Donald J. Trump, but we must make certain he is never forgotten, and that he is prevented from destroying the very country he was elected to preserve and secure!
We need protests at all the GOP offices in every state telling them to stand behind their oaths, do their job and stand up to the Executive branch. And keep it up until the next election. If they can't or won't they won't have to worry about being primaried by the billionaires as the Dems will show that their behavior is unacceptable and we will beat them all.
It seems to me that refusing court orders is clearly an act that conflicts with the promise of the oath of office: to defend the Constitution. In that case, the military could defy any presidential order in their effort to defend their own oath to protect the Constitution. At some point, although a very serious event, such action by the military will be clearly warranted in the face of true defiance of legal judgements. I think honorable military staff should be preparing for such an necessity. As General Milley was quoted, "we have the guns". True patriotism will be tested, perhaps most so upon the military. I'm supporting them, as well as the ACLU.
(I'm a 'Nam veteran.)