Elon is a drug addict too. This is no rumor, he's freely admitted how much he loves Special K. And China is all too glad to let him build as many facilities there as he wants. Only too late will he discover what their policy on nationalizing private industry is. ;)
Your truth telling singes, and you have no choice. We are on the precipice. It seems like the only thing holding is the courts; but we must remember, they are people too. They are subject to the pressures and chaos we all feel nearly every waking moment, and surely they must wonder: how long before he steals their funding?
It is deliberate, the foxes raiding the henhouses. Our wealth as a nation and as individuals will be sucked from us and granted to billionaires and wanna bes like Trump. Papa Putin will get his taste too.
He will shut off funding to valuable disaster areas like Southern California so his comrades can step in and buy the land for pennies on the dollar.
We will be a country of American refugees: and when we are at our lowest and weakest, Putin will step in.
The cult is so indoctrinated at this point that words don't work. Facts don't move them. They repeat, mindlessly, what Fox and its progeny spews.
The more you try to reasons with them the louder and more insistent they are about their twisted statistics and vicious lies pulled out of Hannity's ass and repeated ad nauseum until they are never questioned. USAID money funding porno flicks and pedophiles, how dare the Dems. Hero Musk is saving billions of taxpayer dollars and will reduce our taxes, why can't you Dems get behind it? Thanks to Trump the cost of living is already down... so long as you don't drive your car and start raising your own chickens. Be a patriot: feel a little pain.
Here's when they will start to get it: when their folks and grandparents show up on their front stoop with a dozen valises and the family Saint Bernard, begging to be let in because Social Security and Medicare no longer exist, the light will dawn gradually over their marble heads. The sick feeling will rise in the pit of their stomachs, as they realize they have been duped.
It is already beginning for some expecting VA checks February 1, which are apparently not arriving. Calls to the VA go unanswered, as staff is being forced out the door, Disabled Vets are taking to social media to get out the word, screaming and swearing and who can blame them: soon they will be forced to turn to MAGA family members for help. Or live on the street. This as the psychopath gears up to start deploying troops to wherever he intends to build new resorts or threaten new tariffs. Trump Riviera on Gaza anyone?
The seeds of this coup were planted as the psychopath came down the elevator in 2015, right around the time I saw you begin to speak up. His obnoxious crowd of sniveling sycophants have been joined by the media, which now applaud him at the end of press conferences. His Cabinet members have commonality, vacant eyes betraying loss of soul and absence of conscience. Noam, Hegseth and my ne'er do well classmate, Little Marco. Same eyes as the GOP in Congress. Same eyes as Melania and Ivanka.
Those of us who raised red flags back then were treated like Henny Penny, even as Russian ships trolled the East Coast right after his inauguration and as he hosted Putin henchmen in the Oval Office. None of this is a surprise: I have never felt such dismay at being right.
I have never felt such dismay as not knowing what to do about it.
As a lawyer I have faith in the courts, and I pray that they hold. But as I look around I see exhaustion and bewilderment everywhere. There isn't a cogent plan: citizens are begging to know what to do, how they can make an impact. They are met with the same response: call Congress and donate more money.
And yet another aid organization gets excised. A Massachusetts social program to assist transgendered athletes get investigated and funding terminated.
Leaders like Elizabeth Warren, Adam Schiff, Gavin Newsom and Cory Booker are out on the front lines, trying to educate and engage the public and slow the roll. The public is beginning to show up in protest. Congressional offices are swamped with calls. But our bodies, minds and psyches aren't built for this. Prolonged stress is impacting our brains. The damage COVID isolation did to us was just beginning to resolve: we are back in the torrent of constant vigilance, but knowing that we can't do very much but wait it out. 'Til the midterms, they say.
Will there be anything recognizable by 2026?
I wish I were back in journalism sometimes. I want just one reporter to stick a microphone in Susan Collins' face, or Murkowski's or the physicians in Congress who ignore RFK's brainworm, family warnings and his history of addiction and sociopathic behavior. I want to ask them this: who threatened your family? Then I would ask: doesn't service to your constituents come before power to yourself and require you to step down because you are compromised.
As I try to maintain some sense of normalcy in my life and career, I see vicarious trauma everywhere. As ICE targets schools and churches, the only place that migrant children have been safe, our souls ache and we shut down just to cope. The campaign is all about fear and loathing: the neighbors ratting on neighbors chapter of how U.S. democracy was obliterated by a growing and terrible fascist movement is about to be written.
A school principal in Miami announced via loudspeaker that the school would be cooperating with ICE officials should they appear on campus. Just another announcement, like the school fair and upcoming open house. This shocked kids, teachers and parents, many of whom have contacted mental health professionals and lawyers for help. No one in the system will speak up. The mental torture has begun and it is being normalized.
I love this country. I never knew how much until 2015 when the revulsion set in. In January 2021 I drove to DC, panicked that this mob boss and his thugs would interfere with President Biden's inauguration. I hung with the media in a bakery as close to the Capitol as we could get. We sobbed with relief as it happened. I had a four year reprieve from sleepless nights, dementia and drug-fueled rages, what seemed to be an intentional plan to kill off elderly and infirm with his lack of Covid response, embarrassment of his Putin worship and stupidity and the concomitant world reaction to the clown and his circus.
I look behind me to those in the first or second chapter of their lives and wonder why there is no one to pass the mantel to. I look ahead to those in their final chapter, like my 94 year old mother who developed night terrors in 2019 as she saw her beloved country taking on the characteristics of Nazi Germany. She settled down in 2021, and seemed to enjoy her retirement for awhile. It seems so brutally cruel that the specter of this idiot-cracy is what she will take to her grave. I struggle about how to discuss it with her, whether to do so at all. It hangs like the Sword of Damocles over our visits.
She tells me she has stopped watching CNN and other cable news. She watches her beloved David Muir every night after dinner. I send David sparks of pink light here and there, asking him to tell her, but not too much. And to be gentle about it.
Part of being an American is defending who we are in the world, what our values are and making a better life for our children and those who come behind us. It is expected of us. We pledge allegiance to it every day we are in school and at ceremonies and meetings. Nowadays, we are paralyzed, unable to use discernment about how to use our resources and live our lives. Soon we will realize that we don't know who we can trust.
Noel, i regret to agree with your assessment. Our 250 yr old experiment with democracy is coming to a close. The liars, thieves and morons of America have installed a Dictator with allies and sycophants to surround, encourage and protect him. Dictators once empowered never give up their throne. They are only assassinated, pass away in old age or are deposed by other Dictators. They never agree to step down.
Great column, Noel. Yeah, since when does being a follower of Jesus entail such willful hatred and cruelty? Such glee at the misfortune of others, and even more exhilaration when aid is withdrawn?
These assholes are so deluded in their self-righteousness that they completely miss the message of compassion and mercy that Jesus stood for.
That you Noel! The guardrails on our democracy are crumbling. Dems seem impotent to do anything about it. The Republicans are silent and complicit. The Courts are doing what they can but at a snails pace. The harm being done is irreparable in many ways. I fear for us all - both here in the US and around the world. And I believe they are just getting started.
I don’t think all those phone calls to Congress are from Dems. If the country is allowed to vote in 2026 w/o suppression, or even at all, it will be an overwhelming rebuke.
And that’s a big “if”. Two years worth of Voight and Miller sowing their seeds and there will never be a free and fair election again. Our 2026 election will be more like Putin’s.
So good, Noel. I ran into a MAGA fellow this morning who was upset about the $100,000,000 Hamas condom giveaway that he thought was real. But he’s happy that everything in Washington is “blowing up.” 😒
Educational. Informative. Compelling. We need you so much right now. Thank you for this wonderful article.
Elon is a drug addict too. This is no rumor, he's freely admitted how much he loves Special K. And China is all too glad to let him build as many facilities there as he wants. Only too late will he discover what their policy on nationalizing private industry is. ;)
Your truth telling singes, and you have no choice. We are on the precipice. It seems like the only thing holding is the courts; but we must remember, they are people too. They are subject to the pressures and chaos we all feel nearly every waking moment, and surely they must wonder: how long before he steals their funding?
It is deliberate, the foxes raiding the henhouses. Our wealth as a nation and as individuals will be sucked from us and granted to billionaires and wanna bes like Trump. Papa Putin will get his taste too.
He will shut off funding to valuable disaster areas like Southern California so his comrades can step in and buy the land for pennies on the dollar.
We will be a country of American refugees: and when we are at our lowest and weakest, Putin will step in.
The cult is so indoctrinated at this point that words don't work. Facts don't move them. They repeat, mindlessly, what Fox and its progeny spews.
The more you try to reasons with them the louder and more insistent they are about their twisted statistics and vicious lies pulled out of Hannity's ass and repeated ad nauseum until they are never questioned. USAID money funding porno flicks and pedophiles, how dare the Dems. Hero Musk is saving billions of taxpayer dollars and will reduce our taxes, why can't you Dems get behind it? Thanks to Trump the cost of living is already down... so long as you don't drive your car and start raising your own chickens. Be a patriot: feel a little pain.
Here's when they will start to get it: when their folks and grandparents show up on their front stoop with a dozen valises and the family Saint Bernard, begging to be let in because Social Security and Medicare no longer exist, the light will dawn gradually over their marble heads. The sick feeling will rise in the pit of their stomachs, as they realize they have been duped.
It is already beginning for some expecting VA checks February 1, which are apparently not arriving. Calls to the VA go unanswered, as staff is being forced out the door, Disabled Vets are taking to social media to get out the word, screaming and swearing and who can blame them: soon they will be forced to turn to MAGA family members for help. Or live on the street. This as the psychopath gears up to start deploying troops to wherever he intends to build new resorts or threaten new tariffs. Trump Riviera on Gaza anyone?
The seeds of this coup were planted as the psychopath came down the elevator in 2015, right around the time I saw you begin to speak up. His obnoxious crowd of sniveling sycophants have been joined by the media, which now applaud him at the end of press conferences. His Cabinet members have commonality, vacant eyes betraying loss of soul and absence of conscience. Noam, Hegseth and my ne'er do well classmate, Little Marco. Same eyes as the GOP in Congress. Same eyes as Melania and Ivanka.
Those of us who raised red flags back then were treated like Henny Penny, even as Russian ships trolled the East Coast right after his inauguration and as he hosted Putin henchmen in the Oval Office. None of this is a surprise: I have never felt such dismay at being right.
I have never felt such dismay as not knowing what to do about it.
As a lawyer I have faith in the courts, and I pray that they hold. But as I look around I see exhaustion and bewilderment everywhere. There isn't a cogent plan: citizens are begging to know what to do, how they can make an impact. They are met with the same response: call Congress and donate more money.
And yet another aid organization gets excised. A Massachusetts social program to assist transgendered athletes get investigated and funding terminated.
Leaders like Elizabeth Warren, Adam Schiff, Gavin Newsom and Cory Booker are out on the front lines, trying to educate and engage the public and slow the roll. The public is beginning to show up in protest. Congressional offices are swamped with calls. But our bodies, minds and psyches aren't built for this. Prolonged stress is impacting our brains. The damage COVID isolation did to us was just beginning to resolve: we are back in the torrent of constant vigilance, but knowing that we can't do very much but wait it out. 'Til the midterms, they say.
Will there be anything recognizable by 2026?
I wish I were back in journalism sometimes. I want just one reporter to stick a microphone in Susan Collins' face, or Murkowski's or the physicians in Congress who ignore RFK's brainworm, family warnings and his history of addiction and sociopathic behavior. I want to ask them this: who threatened your family? Then I would ask: doesn't service to your constituents come before power to yourself and require you to step down because you are compromised.
As I try to maintain some sense of normalcy in my life and career, I see vicarious trauma everywhere. As ICE targets schools and churches, the only place that migrant children have been safe, our souls ache and we shut down just to cope. The campaign is all about fear and loathing: the neighbors ratting on neighbors chapter of how U.S. democracy was obliterated by a growing and terrible fascist movement is about to be written.
A school principal in Miami announced via loudspeaker that the school would be cooperating with ICE officials should they appear on campus. Just another announcement, like the school fair and upcoming open house. This shocked kids, teachers and parents, many of whom have contacted mental health professionals and lawyers for help. No one in the system will speak up. The mental torture has begun and it is being normalized.
I love this country. I never knew how much until 2015 when the revulsion set in. In January 2021 I drove to DC, panicked that this mob boss and his thugs would interfere with President Biden's inauguration. I hung with the media in a bakery as close to the Capitol as we could get. We sobbed with relief as it happened. I had a four year reprieve from sleepless nights, dementia and drug-fueled rages, what seemed to be an intentional plan to kill off elderly and infirm with his lack of Covid response, embarrassment of his Putin worship and stupidity and the concomitant world reaction to the clown and his circus.
I look behind me to those in the first or second chapter of their lives and wonder why there is no one to pass the mantel to. I look ahead to those in their final chapter, like my 94 year old mother who developed night terrors in 2019 as she saw her beloved country taking on the characteristics of Nazi Germany. She settled down in 2021, and seemed to enjoy her retirement for awhile. It seems so brutally cruel that the specter of this idiot-cracy is what she will take to her grave. I struggle about how to discuss it with her, whether to do so at all. It hangs like the Sword of Damocles over our visits.
She tells me she has stopped watching CNN and other cable news. She watches her beloved David Muir every night after dinner. I send David sparks of pink light here and there, asking him to tell her, but not too much. And to be gentle about it.
Part of being an American is defending who we are in the world, what our values are and making a better life for our children and those who come behind us. It is expected of us. We pledge allegiance to it every day we are in school and at ceremonies and meetings. Nowadays, we are paralyzed, unable to use discernment about how to use our resources and live our lives. Soon we will realize that we don't know who we can trust.
It is, on earth, Purgatory.
Karen, thank you for your brilliant insight. So well-written, and I'm glad to find another kindred soul on substack.💙
Thank you for another great column Noel. Always enjoy your writing, although I wish it was fiction.
https://www.google.com/search?q=all+apologies+lyrics&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#ebo=1
Noel, i regret to agree with your assessment. Our 250 yr old experiment with democracy is coming to a close. The liars, thieves and morons of America have installed a Dictator with allies and sycophants to surround, encourage and protect him. Dictators once empowered never give up their throne. They are only assassinated, pass away in old age or are deposed by other Dictators. They never agree to step down.
Great column, Noel. Yeah, since when does being a follower of Jesus entail such willful hatred and cruelty? Such glee at the misfortune of others, and even more exhilaration when aid is withdrawn?
These assholes are so deluded in their self-righteousness that they completely miss the message of compassion and mercy that Jesus stood for.
That you Noel! The guardrails on our democracy are crumbling. Dems seem impotent to do anything about it. The Republicans are silent and complicit. The Courts are doing what they can but at a snails pace. The harm being done is irreparable in many ways. I fear for us all - both here in the US and around the world. And I believe they are just getting started.
I don’t think all those phone calls to Congress are from Dems. If the country is allowed to vote in 2026 w/o suppression, or even at all, it will be an overwhelming rebuke.
And that’s a big “if”. Two years worth of Voight and Miller sowing their seeds and there will never be a free and fair election again. Our 2026 election will be more like Putin’s.
I know .
So good, Noel. I ran into a MAGA fellow this morning who was upset about the $100,000,000 Hamas condom giveaway that he thought was real. But he’s happy that everything in Washington is “blowing up.” 😒
Yeah, if he believes the condom bullshit, no wonder he's MAGA. According to Felon 47, HAMAS can make bombs out of those condoms. Hooeee. Batshit