66 Comments

It is reasonable to ask whether Trump and Musk are intentionally sabotaging America at the behest of Putin. And whether much of the GOP is being blackmailed to stand by. It's not just Lindsey Graham that has performed a dramatic 180.

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I think this has been clear since about 2015. Putin is directing Trump and now Musk through blackmail. And now almost entirely the GOP

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Just so, and clear since 2015 as you say. Btw, Vance's attack on the NATO nations' free speech record is not everyday hypocrisy as charged. It was purely totalitarian up-is-down-ism.

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In a word, Soviet.

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It is, and has been for many years, obvious that Trump is an egregious traitor. He will do whatever his whoremaster Putin commands. Elon is even worse, because he's ideologically aligned. And I agree, the GOP are not just worried about being primaried.

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Yup, reasonable to ask. And answer with "Yup."

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I just started The Fourth Turning is Here by Neil Howe a revisit from his co-authored book with Strauss in 1997. Thoughts?

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I was intrigued by the title, so I looked it up. More than a few reviewers noted this: "The author’s clear bias against Republicans in general (and Trump in particular) seriously detracts from his presumed goal of evenhanded coverage of the current political divide. His antipathy for voters who remain unconvinced of the legitimacy of the last election is apparent in the following sentence: "And from that metaphorical understanding of "steal", it's a short distance to theories about spacecraft beaming messages to voting machines."

Which now makes it a must-read for me, and not for the alleged "political bias," but for the fact that Republicans can no longer tell the difference between "political bias" and just, well, FACTS. "The election of 2020 was not stolen." That, as far as there is EVIDENCE to prove it, is a FACT, but Republicans distract with the "political bias" trope. Ridiculous.

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Trump knew the results were legitimate...there were four sources. The Stanford group that was official, the second group out of California the US had hired to follow it, the government's own head of national elections, plus the Bill Barr DOJ investigation that found it valid. He decided to lie anyway, deliberately...the real Big Lie.

This was all reported in the press as well. This where Democrats and anyone that cared should have gone after him every time he opened his mouth. And everyone that followed him accepted the big lie. And, yet, that vulnerability was seldom exploited as it should have been.

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Ostriches aren’t bothered by facts, might as well decapitate them.

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Almost any strategy would have been better than the one we used. I would have hammered the 14th Amendment/he's not eligible thing. Biden should have refused to debate him on those grounds...showed up, announced it and left...and then every Dem should have babbled on about it for months. But nah.

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MAGA loves to leave shitty comments.

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I love GENERATIONS. I have to check it out.

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The only thing which shocks me about any of this is the capitulation of the republicans in Congress. Aside from the whackos like MTG and the power-whores like Cruz, there are plenty who know these moves, foreign and domestic, are not just wrong, but potentially devastating. They’re afraid to stand up to a primary challenge, which means they’re afraid to stand up for their beliefs (and their constituents, I suppose). The idea of elections is to compete for the vote and these clowns represent the very opposite of that. That a rich South African has them quaking in their boots amuses me to no end.

My sons are in their 20’s and the last thing I want to see is them drafted into a WW3 scenario. You know the republican’s kids aren’t going. I’ll try to figure out where they’re going to hide so I can send my boys there also.

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Repubs rolled over and bared their bellies before any need. They were all in on capitulation to evil.

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You don't get into that job as an R unless there is misanthropy in your heart.

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I don't think there will be a draft. That's one of the few things that could mobilize ALL of the country and unite Ds and Rs against them. And I don't think it's fear of being primaried. It's fear of physical safety, of harm to families, or of kompromat coming out.

The "fortunate sons" will be in New Zealand. The safest place on earth from nuclear fallout, I believe, and the uber-rich have all their gold stored in vaults there. (Sounds nuts writing it out but it's true...I met a guy at a coin show a few years ago who was selling vault space!)

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It’s TUESDAY🎉 Now I gotta buy the book! Keep calling your Senators and Reps and demand they get Elon out of our government. You might want to also tell them they must protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, while you’re on the line. Call, don’t write.

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Thanks, Lisbeth. It's heartening to see all the protests. We have to keep it up!

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Thank you, Greg. Well done. Keep up the fight. We need you.

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Thanks, Lynell!

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Excellent walk through historic conflict Greg, thanks!!

The willfully ignorant who failed to recognize Trumps criminal past. While tying it to our future, with the Butterfly Revolution and Project 2025 clearly staring down at us. The fucking around with world peace and their own self interest have been discussed ad nauseam! The disgusting equation is, and always has been, Russia and Putin! .

Vance’s betrayal and scolding this weekend opened several doors that should have remained closed… but here we are!!

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Vance opening his big yap was about the dumbest thing they could have done. It seems to have awakened Europe from delusional slumber.

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Expiration is not just an anticipation, but an expectation.

Europe is readying for war. The Finns are quite ready, yearning for reclamation of lost territory to the Russians. The Poles, who have been beaten with both the Nazi and Russian murderous lust is wary and active. Lithuania and the Baltics, who always seem to feel a heartbeat from Russian invasion, are warily looking eastward. None of them expect Putin and Russia to stop their aggression. Russia always needs to steal more resources, which was the real key of their invasion of Crimea (oil and gas offshore) and Donbas (minerals resources).

I suspect President Zelenskyy is one of the most stalked and hunted rulers in the world. His world has been incredibly dangerous since he assumed the presidency...but that would be true of most any recent ruler of Ukraine who was not a Russian stooge. So, the current situation is just more of the same...except for Ukraine's tremendous technological development of drones and the ability to befuddle Russian defenses.

I think Ukraine has the capability to take out the Kremlin, destroy it, and they should do it soon. With Russians, getting the first lick in is sound policy. They've suffered some 800,000 plus dead and a great loss in equipment and armaments...they're pushing this moment with Trump, et. al., because they're running out of time...and resources. Remember, they are gangsters just like trump...bluster and threats are the real order of the day. They are suffering a demographic crisis, with a negative growth rate (-0.38 %) and a shortage of trained forces and equipment.

Take out Trump and Vance, and Putin loses a key ace in his hand; his only ace, really. China is merely watching, understanding any action is a loser-on-loser scenario; ROC needs commerce, not war.

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Well said. Putin's desperately needs an out. With the three stooges in tow, 45, JD and Elon the Musk he sees not only an out but also gaining more than simply face saving. When negotiating and your opponent's back is to the wall it is not smart to push him through the wall, some breathing space is sensible. These clowns are giving Putin pure oxygen when there is no reason whatsoever to give him the time of day.

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I definitely agree. Consorting with enemy, I'd say.

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He has chump on a leash and can yank it as he sees fit.

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The preferable out is a high window.

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Most of Russia's army, or what's left of it, is quagmired in Donbas. North Korean troops are there. Steele told me China has forbade Putin from using nukes, and even if, I mean, do they work, this technology from 1945? Cars from 1945 don't work, we think warheads will?

Coalition force could take them out, for real, in three days.

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Very very VERY GOOD, Greg Olear.

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Thank you!

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What a history lesson! Thanks Greg.

When it comes to appeasement many people cite the 1938 Munich Agreement ceding the Sudetenland to Hitler in hopes he would stop. But it was Hitler’s 1936 occupation of the Rhineland in violation of the Treaty of Versailles that really set the permission stage for Hitlerian aggression. Most historians agree that had Britain and France said “Nein” backed up with allied troops, Hitler would have been stopped and possibly even deposed. https://www.annefrank.org/en/timeline/22/hitlers-first-military-action-german-troops-occupy-the-rhineland/#:~:text=In%20the%20morning%20of%207,He%20only%20deployed%203%2C000%20soldiers.

When Putin started his full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb 22, 2022, I said if the West does not do everything short of nuclear war to stop him, it will be the geopolitical catastrophe of the 21st Century. I stand by that statement, even more so now.

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The German units that participated in the retaking of the Rhineland in 1936 were under orders to turn around and retreat if the Allies had stopped them. The new Luftwaffe fighters flying above the troops didn't have guns. It was a complete con by Hitler. And the German Army was prepared to depose him, as they were again in 1938 had the Allies stood up. But the truth for everyone who wants to excoriate Chamberlain is that Britain didn't have the wherewithal for war in October 1938. They needed every of the next 19 months until the Panzers crossed the Meuse to rearm and they barely held on in 1940. It would have been Messerschmitt 109s against Hawker Fury biplanes in 1938; the first Spitfire had just rolled off the assembly line that summer and the first squadron was still working up while Chamberlain flew to Munich.

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Details that I had no clue about, thank you.

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Thanks for that. Chamberlain always gets a bum rap.

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Obama had been chopped at the knees by McConnell and the tea party nuts. I was optimistic when he won in 2012, but I underestimated the vipers nipping at his heels.

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He had two years of Congressional control and squandered a lot of it playing nice-nice with traitors.

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You were right, John. Further, Obama should have stopped him in 2014 with the Crimea mess.

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If we don’t fight this growing global cancer that is moving quickly to devour all that is good about humanity, and fight with all our will and determination until we push them back to the oblivion from which they came, it will be the worst mistake possible. By now we know what we will lose if we don’t fight. If we don’t fight we will gain a world filled with suspicion and mistrust and lies. No one would be able to afford to help their own neighbors for fear of being turned in to the “government”. Any lives that will be lost in this war to end all wars will not be in vain. If we fight we will either live or die as heroes to our children and grandchildren. If we don’t fight we are bound to live and die as victims of ongoing “rape” by our government and its loyal militia.

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Thanks, Susan.

Readiing your comment, it occurs to me that RFK stopping cancer research is a metaphor for the rest of them allowing this global cancer of tyranny to metastasize. Ugh.

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That is an excellent metaphor. And the rooting out of DEI and censorship is their way of “helping us remember” that some people are more equal than others and that the most equal of all are the ones who get to choose the hierarchy. In their world there are the servers and the served. They will never be able to cram that square peg into that round hole without our help and agreement to do so. We must resist even their smallest efforts.

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Excellent.

My unfortunate takeaway is that Ukraine is the OK Corral, a last stand assuming the Europeans decide enough is enough. This calls out Putin but more importantly the US administration. I completely agree that appeasement is a losing proposition. The alternative is perhaps unthinkable but the only real option. War is not the feel good moment of soldiers raising a flag over Iwo Jima or a soldier kissing a women on Les Champs Elysees. It is the horror that came before depicted so well in 1962's "The Longest Day" or the opening sequence of "Saving Private Ryan". More dangerously it is the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If that is the realistic outcome which EU leader has the resolve of a Churchill to ensure the cloud rises over Moscow?

The only other option, where is 007? He needs in quick succession to deal with first DC then Moscow. Are these thoughts those of one whose brain is rattled by a bad reaction to post surgery meds? Perhaps but as I recover from the bad reaction I can only think that the solution to a "very, very, very bad" situation is only very, very, very bad answer. I see no Psellos, not that he is a realistic answer.

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A few well-placed "terminate with extreme prejudice" guys could go a long way in halting this. Putin should not be around, period.

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I thought this was an appropriate reminder as Greg pointed out. It’s not always about money as tramp always insists.

https://youtu.be/iuDxTyDILsw?si=jdVVjBeO6w6hh9Kr

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Thanks for sharing!

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I felt SO SMART this morning because I've read "Empress" and remember it. In fact, whenever I see the word now, I always think of the Byzantine Empire. So, imagine my feelings about Elmo being labeled The Empress of America! It fits. The column is devastating to the muskmelon, but it's exactly what's happening. He's all but taken over the entire government while Trump sits in the cuck chair giving the evil eye to a four-year-old.

Vance is giving "Yay Nazis!" speeches in Munich. Musk wants into the IRS computers and also claims that 150-year-olds are still getting Social Security -- oh, THERE'S the fraud!! What a fuckin' joke this is. The joke that never ends without a punch line.

Here's an article on all the "FRAUD" Elon is finding: https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-doge-social-security-150-year-old-benefits/

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The British PM is due in Washington. Behind the cameras he needs to spit in dipshit 45's face and unnerve him. Sadly 45 is best in front of cameras, the PM not at all. Unnerving dipshit and get him off his game at any press conference will be a start for Europe to draw a line, hopefully embolden others to stand up, not to this clown but his administration. Ideally someone will kick JD in the balls to further the message. Biggest question is it too little to late?

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Maybe Starmer is so serious that it chills Trump even publicly? As they say on Severance: in Keir we trust.

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Thanks, Steve. Funnily, I saw a headline from AP that said something like "IRS Is Not Sending Payments to Dead People" and I didn't see the word "dead" and thought the article was about how Musk had stopped the IRS from issuing tax returns. We are in the crazy.

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4dEdited

What's going to be *really fucking bad* is that on May 8, 2025, Putin and Xi (who has already accepted the invitation to come to Moscow to celebrate the victory 80 years ago and the one they will proclaim at the end of this day) will welcome the world's "most determined ignoramus I ever knew" in the words of John Kelly, on his arrival in Moscow for that meeting he announced last week would happen "sometime" (May 8 will be when)and they will make Dilbert a co-conspirator in their conspiracy to destroy the modern world. And that fucking worthless bag of pus will think he did something great as they carve him up for the main course in the victory meal that evening.

“And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.” - Winston Churchill, remarks on the Munich Agreement, 1938

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Thank you. Is he really going to Moscow for that? Ugh. Disgraceful.

Churchill was an imperfect human, but good god, he knew exactly how to deal with Hitler and Stalin. The quotes are chilling to read now: prescient and uncomfortably relevant.

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I admit I don't see the parallel between a smart woman being stuffed into a bag because the world idolizes testosterone and an egomaniacal bag of testosterone having to lean on a psychopath's charisma in order to perpetrate evil, but I totally picture the described outcomes. At the same time, I'm watching my blue state about to turn red because our Empress gave the electric company permission to raise our bills by 300+% (!!!) in order to subsidize solar & EVs, on backs of citizenry while corporate prospers. I have solar and now can't afford my electric bill. (My tale to illustrate part of how we got into our national mess.) Nighmares. But as we go down in flames, I'm, again, so impressed by your research!

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Your Empress may be even worse than the federal one, honestly.

It doesn't have to do with gender, it has to do with power dynamics. Musk can only operate and do his thing if Trump is there. And they keep doing these public appearances together! It's so weird.

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Yes. I guess, depending on experience, the gender aspect can stand out enough to momentarily derail attention from the intended point, which needs 200% focus.

Our Empress intends to run again. Like we need blue helping red. How do we stop her?

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Perhaps someone can slip novochok in the celebratory drink on May 8?

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Please.

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