Jack Smith Deposition Dec 2025

 

Here is the link to the Deposition on Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Jack Smith Deposition

The 25 Worst Villains of the Trump Admin

 

The worst of the worst. 

Ron Filipkowski - Dec 26

#25. JAMES BLAIR. Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff is known as ‘The Enforcer’. It is his job to keep House and Senate Republicans in line by issuing public and private threats and keeping Trump informed about whether someone has been disloyal to him in some way. He has also been the driving force behind mid-decade gerrymandering, which has included threats against state lawmakers who aren’t especially interested. In fact, Trump aides have referred to it as Blairymandering. If any Republican fails to demonstrate sufficient loyalty to Dear Leader, Blair makes it his business to find out about it and initiate retribution - often taking them to the orange malignant narcissist himself before they hit Truth Social.

#24. DOUG BURGUM. The Interior Secretary’s job has been to dismantle renewable energy production and open up federal lands for private development to construction and energy companies. Trump also named him as his ‘Energy Czar’. Burgum revoked the licenses of wind turbine projects, claiming they were a threat to national security. He has pledged to open up protected federal lands to extract trillions of dollars' worth of oil, gas and minerals via mining and drilling. He opened up over 1.5 million acres in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for that purpose, and advised Trump to use national emergency powers to keep coal plants open. Burgum isn’t protecting the Interior, he’s selling it off to industry like any other commodity.

#23. DOUG COLLINS. Trump’s VA Secretary is in the process of cutting 80,000 employees from the VA system. The cuts have been especially deep in the area of mental health, despite the fact that the suicide rate for veterans is extremely high. Collins is also pushing to privatize VA care by moving more patients to private for-profit providers. A report by the VA’s Inspector General found that there has been a 50% increase in “severe staffing shortages” at VA facilities over the past year.

#22. KEVIN HASSETT. The National Economic Council Chair is a fixture on TV - especially financial channels like Fox Business and CNBC, where he regularly lies about the economy and economic policy with a smile on his face. A once respected economist, he has decided to go all-in spewing admin propaganda on a weekly basis. He has repeatedly refused to acknowledge easily provable economic harms caused by tariffs despite the fact that he knows better. He also claims that poor jobs numbers this year are simply a result of workers becoming more efficient. According to Hassett, everything bad in the economy is Biden’s fault, while the cult leader deserves all the praise for anything halfway decent that he hasn’t screwed up yet.

#21. LINDA MCMAHON. Trump vowed to dismantle the Dept of Ed, and the former professional wrestling CEO was brought in to do just that. She has conducted mass layoffs at the agency and canceled programs, with 50% of the employees of the department terminated this year. Federal student aid is expected to be her next target, and the Trump admin announced that it will now begin garnishing the wages of over 5 million people currently in default on their payments.

#20. BROOKE ROLLINS. Agriculture Secretary Rollins is completely in the pocket of Big Ag, and her primary role this year has been to secure govt funding to bail out farmers hurt by Trump’s tariff policies while claiming on national TV that tariffs have had no negative impact, all while blaming Biden. She has opposed animal welfare laws for years, claiming they are too costly and burdensome for businesses. When egg prices were soaring earlier this year, she advised Americans to raise chickens in their backyards. She also vowed to implement Trump’s plan to cut food stamp (SNAP) benefits, calling it “an extremely corrupt program.”

#19. TULSI GABBARD. It’s probably not a good thing for the US and free world when Russian state media refers to our Director of National Intelligence as “our girl Tulsi.” She has pushed Putin’s talking points for years and her remarks on various subjects have been aired on Russian TV. She even angered Trump earlier this year when she released a video suggesting that he wasn’t going far enough and fast enough to separate the US from Ukraine, claiming he was inviting WWIII by doing so. She has fired senior career analysts for disagreeing with Trump’s claims about Venezuela, and revoked the security clearances of dozens of people for political reasons. She also recently gave a highly inflammatory Islamofobic speech at the big annual Turning Point event, which was condemned by many Muslim-American groups.

#18. BRENDAN CARR. The FCC Chair is Trump’s point man for threatening media companies, networks, reporters, and TV hosts who dare to expose and criticize the worst abuses of the admin. He has also been heavily involved leveraging the sale and mergers of media companies to people like Larry and David Ellison, who acquired CBS and now has his sights on a hostile takeover of Warner Bros. He has been the point man to cancel federal funding for PBS and NPR, and has launched investigations of multiple media companies for a variety of reasons - including ABC, YouTube, Comcast, Disney, EchoStar, Google, T-Mobile and Verizon - while threatening the broadcast licenses of networks.

#17. LEE ZELDIN. A long-time climate science denier is now in charge of the EPA. In March he announced “the largest deregulation in US history,” where he stated that the primary purpose of the EPA was no longer public health and environmental protections but deregulation and energy production. He repealed protections for wetlands, and limits on pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks. He pledged to reduce the EPA's budget by 65%. He granted exemptions to 80 coal plants from pollution restrictions. He rolled back limits on chemicals in drinking water, and declared that greenhouse gases were not a public health threat.

#16. ELBRIDGE COLBY. The Undersecretary of Defense for Policy is one of the primary architects of the new US Strategic Plan, which is far more sympathetic to Russia and overtly hostile to Europe. He is a close ally of JD Vance and Elon Musk. He ordered a pause on the delivery of weapons systems to Ukraine without informing allies or senior members of the admin. He has consistently undermined Ukraine inside the admin and has led the effort to restrict their desire to conduct long-range strikes inside Russia. Republican senators have complained repeatedly that they can’t get Colby to respond to even basic inquiries about things he is doing behind the scenes. Japan has also expressed deep frustration and outrage with Colby’s stances on Asia. Colby would definitely be Secretary of State in a future Vance admin.

#15. KASH PATEL. The tenure of the conspiracy theorist podcaster and merch grifter as FBI Director has been tumultuous to say the least. Keystone Kash bungled the Epstein files, the Charlie Kirk investigation, a major investigation in Michigan, and the mass shooting in RI. Without the relatives of suspects and homeless tipsters solving major crimes for him, they might still be searching for the killers. He conducted mass purges and firings of agents assigned to work J6 cases while flying around the country on a govt jet to watch his girlfriend sing at wrestling events, and provided her with private FBI security details.

#14. SEAN DUFFY. The former reality TV contestant and Fox host now runs the Transportation Dept, where he has repeatedly threatened to withhold federal funds appropriated by Congress to blue states and cities if they don’t do what he commands. A constant figure on Fox and social media, he appears primary interested in promoting his personal brand. Trump appointed him briefly as NASA chief which resulted in a tirade by Musk who repeatedly referred to him as ‘Sean Dummy’. His latest proposals to improve air travel include a dress code for passengers and pull-up bars in airport terminals to keep people in shape.

#13. PAM BONDI. The only reason why I don’t have Bondi higher on the list is because Todd Blanche is really running DOJ and most of the truly evil stuff comes from him. Nevertheless, Bondi is wretched as well. She claimed that she had a “list” of Epstein clients “on her desk,” then later said it doesn’t exist. She invited right-wing social media influencers to the WH where they were given Epstein binders that were nothing more than previously released materials. She refused to release additional files despite being compelled by law. Her deputies and assistants have repeatedly lied to federal courts on many issues - most notably deportation cases. The list of abuses by DOJ under Bondi is endless, with fresh outrages committed daily. A straw poll taken at last week’s Turning Point event of MAGA fans ranked Bondi as the most unpopular Trump admin official for her incompetence and lies. Even Trump’s own followers have had enough of Bondi.

#12. STEVE WITKOFF. Trump appointed his real estate investor pal with business ties to Russia as his special envoy to resolve the war in Ukraine, despite no foreign policy or governmental experience. He was reportedly requested by Putin after the Kremlin was dissatisfied with the initial appointment of Keith Kellogg. He has since refused to use secure communications, which resulted in some being leaked to the press. (Most likely by Ukrainian Intelligence, since they proved Witkoff was in Putin’s pocket). At Putin’s request, Witkoff met with him alone without any officials from the State Dept present, and even infamously showed up to one meeting where he embraced Putin and showed up without his own interpreter. Witkoff has made it clear that he views the war as merely an impediment to big business deals that he and other US oligarchs want to launch in Russia when sanctions are fully lifted.

#11. STEVE CHEUNG. Trump looked for the most obnoxious and repugnant person in politics to run communications for his 2024 campaign and landed on Cheung, who is now doing the same in the Trump WH as Comms Director. We have never seen nakedly partisan political attacks and personal insults come directly from WH spokespersons and govt social media accounts in the history of the US, but Cheung orchestrates it daily with zeal. He was fired from a more junior comms job by Chief of Staff John Kelly in 2018, but now he is back as the Big Boss. Legitimate media requests to the WH typically result in insults about a reporter’s physical characteristics or intelligence, as the WH press room conducts business like a group of misfit 8th graders who just hit puberty.

#10. ED MARTIN. Trump put Martin in charge of pardon recommendations after he washed out as DC US Attorney with Republican senators refusing to vote for his confirmation, and the result has been corruption on an unprecedented scale. Some of the world’s worst criminals have walked free after paying big bucks to people to lobby Martin. During his brief tenure as US Attorney, he fired every prosecutor who was assigned in any way to work on any J6 cases. He threatened to prosecute any civil servant who stood up to illegal conduct being committed by Musk’s DOGE. Over 100 former prosecutors with the office signed a letter stating that Martin "has butchered the position, effectively destroying it as a vehicle by which to pursue justice and turning it into a political arm of the current admin." Someday we will find out how Martin is personally benefitting from these corrupt pardons, besides the social media clout he seems to crave insatiably. Trump has pardoned multiple drug traffickers, politicians and wealthy fraudsters, all orchestrated by Martin. And there are a lot more to come that will be even worse.

#9. TOM HOMAN. Homan told everyone for years that he was going to be Trump’s Deportation Czar if he won the election, and he set up a consulting business with private prison companies to profit off that possibility. That led to an FBI investigation where he was credibly accused of accepting a $50,000 cash bribe, only to have it dropped by Trump’s DOJ after the inauguration. Homan seems to derive great joy from the suffering of others, and his racism has been obvious in public statements about immigrants and profiling. Masking agents, arresting US citizens, raiding businesses, terrorizing communities, lying to courts, people dying in custody, concentration camps - Homan revels in it all as the member of the Trump admin who has made the most TV appearances in 2025 by far.

#8. KRISTI NOEM. Noem is also responsible for the worst abuses of the current deportation regime, and so much more. She spent many millions in taxpayer money hiring a consulting firm run by the husband of her spokesperson to make Noem hype videos as she traveled the world, seemingly designed to set her up for a 2028 presidential run. The most infamous was her trip to El Salvador, where she filmed herself inside the prison where migrants from the US were sent - some without criminal records. She implemented onerous FEMA rules that mandated she personally approve emergency aid, which has resulted in costly and painful delays as she plays politics with it - favoring red states over blue ones for disaster relief. She moved into the Coast Guard Commandant’s house rent-free while her alleged boyfriend, travel companion, and de-facto chief-of-staff Corey Lewandowski lived nearby. The list of her abuses is endless.

#7. KAROLINE LEAVITT. It was difficult to imagine a sycophant Trump could come up with this term who would lie more shamelessly on daily basis to the American people than the press secretaries from his previous one, but he definitely found her in the ambitious young Leavitt. She led the effort to deny WH and govt agency access to mainstream press outlets while inviting in right-wing lunatic social media influencers to briefing rooms. She constantly makes up things that can easily be debunked by a 5-second Google search. She has 3 responses to questions she doesn’t want to answer truthfully: 1) Says she doesn’t know anything about it. 2) Lie about it. 3) Insult the reporter. Despite wearing a giant cross around her neck and posting Bible verses online, her official conduct and statements in no way resemble the teachings of Jesus.

#6. RFK JR. The anti-vax conspiracy theorist, former long-time heroin dealer, and serial philanderer cashed in his failing presidential campaign to endorse Trump in exchange for the HHS secretary gig. 75 Nobel Laureates wrote to senators pleading with them to vote against his confirmation, stating he would “put the public’s health in jeopardy.” He has done exactly that, undermining health recommendations and replacing them with crackpot theories which has resulted in diseases like measles making a comeback in the US. He recommended cod liver oil and Vitamin A to prevent measles, and instructed the CDC to stop making vaccine recommendations. He held a press conference in the Oval Office with Trump to announce his belief that Tylenol is the cause of autism, and later cited a debunked Danish study that claimed autism was caused by circumcision.

#5. TODD BLANCHE. Most of the worst abuses in multiple areas by DOJ are orchestrated by Blanche. While Bondi and Patel have gotten most of the public blame and scrutiny, Blanche is the architect of it all. Blanche was Trump’s criminal defense lawyer before he became president, and has acted as his criminal defense lawyer while running DOJ. He met privately with Ghislaine Maxwell in prison, then had her moved to a minimum security Club Fed. He has repeated lies about the contents of the Epstein files and is the point person for covering them up with delays and redactions. He ended investigations and dropped charges against some of America’s worst criminals for political reasons. While Bondi and Patel are bad, Blanche is even worse.

#4. RUSS VOUGHT. The man who orchestrated the comprehensive right-wing policy blueprint for this admin called ‘Project 2025’, this zealot keeps a lower profile than others - preferring tangible results with ruthless efficiency behind the scenes as OMB Director. Vought is the brains behind Stephen Miller’s evil bombast, organizing the policy agenda that controls the administration. During the 4 years Trump was out of office, Vought organized and drafted 350 different executive orders and regulations to implement if Trump got a second term - most of the ones he issued came from Vought - including the plan to invoke emergency powers and national security to justify bypassing Congress in a variety of areas. In fact, most of the agenda Vought devised was specifically intended to find ways an authoritarian-minded president could implements things while ignoring Congress, or reversing legislative acts by executive order.

#3. PETE HEGSETH. Chaos ensued almost immediately after the drunken fool former Fox host took over an office that he was unfit and unqualified for. He divulged war plans and classified info in a Signal chat which included a reporter, but then tried to cover himself by claiming he declassified it. He fired his own senior advisors because of his paranoia over press leaks, then ousted the Pentagon press corps with onerous rules that abused their first amendment rights. He gleefully released videos of nearly 100 people on boats he has murdered, without providing any evidence of their guilt or due process. He alienated allies with an insane speech in Europe that resulted in the admin sidelining him from giving any more. He ousted seasoned career officers and made it clear he has no use for women serving in the military in any role other than support positions, or for rules of engagement designed to minimize collateral damage and civilian casualties. He summoned hundred of Generals and Admirals from their commands from around the world to DC so he could give them a deranged speech they found utterly ridiculous and juvenile. He constantly gives partisan political speeches to active-duty troops in violation of laws and regulations, which he mixes with a healthy dose of christian nationalism. It is hard to imagine how Trump could have found a worse person for one of the most important jobs on the planet.

#2. HOWARD LUTNICK. The architect of so many corrupt, shady and misguided policies of the Trump admin while serving as Commerce Secretary - including tariffs and selling citizenship in the form of ‘Trump Gold Cards’. Lutnick is a shameless habitual liar and flip-flam huckster, constantly hyping his policies with fantastical claims while moving the goalposts weekly on his predictions. In a different century he’d be selling miracle cures out of tent at a carnival. In this century, he’s a billionaire. Lutnick is the prime mover behind the admin’s embrace of data centers, AI, and Stalinist moves like the government ownership of companies. Even Trump has grumbled behind the scenes to aides that Lutnick is a “manipulator”, but despite that he continues to adopt each of his worst ideas. Trump constantly had to reverse himself on catastrophic tariff announcements after disastrous consequences ensued - which resulted in the moniker ‘TACO’ for caving so much. All of those disastrous announcements came directly from Lutnick, with Bessent, Musk and others seeking reversal from Trump.

Note - I fully realize Bessent should probably be in this Top 25 somewhere, but I left him off simply because there is a lot of reporting that he has reversed some of the worst ideas behind the scenes despite his repugnant public persona. Go ahead and yell at me if you want - I personally can’t stand the guy either. But I have read comments from a lot of people I respect who say that without Bessent pushing back on some things behind the scenes we would be far worse off economically than we already are because everyone else is much worse. I guess I will buy that he might be the voice of reason behind the scenes, but time will tell.

#1. STEPHEN MILLER. This was the easiest selection, and there was probably never any doubt from most of you that he would be first. He is the WH policy director who is really running the US govt while Trump plays golf, receives awards, puts gold of everything, trolls social media, and builds his ballroom. Most of the policies aren’t Miller’s original ideas because he really isn’t that smart, but he knows how to implement them with a ruthlessness not seen since 1930s Germany. He has made the 2nd most TV appearances this year after Homan, much to the chagrin of Republicans running for election in swing districts. We know all the things that make Miller the worst person to ever serve in a senior position in US history, so there is no point in cataloguing them or this column would go on forever. The hate, the racism and bigotry, the phobias - he’s the personification of political evil. Trump is the only person who would even consider putting this twisted misfit in a position of authority. But he has, and as dementia takes hold and the old man plays with this trophies, ballrooms and golden baubles, Stephen Miller is running the country. Trump is President In Name Only.

Julia Navalnaya Forum Creates Post-Putin Transition Blueprint For Russia

The 3rd Yulia Navalnaya Expert Forum on Post-Putin transition has come to an end. 

Forum

Here’s what happened:

The Forum brought together 38 experts from a wide range of fields — economists, lawyers, human rights defenders, journalists, and other specialists.

This is another step toward ensuring that the democratic opposition has not just an abstract “vision of the future,” but a clear, practical roadmap for change in post-Putin Russia, with precise solutions for the transition period.

Participants worked in several expert groups to develop recommendations on key issues:

Here are links to the recommendations: 

Political Transition

Justice and the Former Regime

Transition Economy

Public Participation

International Recognition

These are expert solutions to complex problems. But we are confident we are moving in the right direction, and that these conversations need to happen now.

A particularly important part of the Forum was the participation of 10 Russian university students from different educational institutions. Once again, young people were invited so their perspectives on political transition and the country’s future could be heard.

We will continue collecting and refining proposals for building a new Russia — step by step, block by block. Work on the program for change will continue at the next Forum.

Change requires not only courage, but preparation — and that is exactly what we are doing.

Navalny’s team

 

We Have Hope!

Americans today can see the worst of the worst; and yet we can hope.

Like you, I am exhausted and disgusted from hearing about him and from him. I cannot stand his speeches, so I do not watch.

He is a two dimension being with two imperatives:

1. 'More'

2. 'Fuck now'

There is nothing else there. 

Nothing.

He is probably the worst human being who has ever lived, and that's including the worst of the worst: Stalin, Hitler, Genghis Khan, Putin, etc.

The good news is that Americans are beginning to recognize the danger we face; we will soon vomit him forth into the sewer where he belongs.

Then we can finally begin our healing journey.

Russia Cannot Win the War in Ukraine

The military and political structures in Russia and the EU lead to an inevitable conclusion, as discussed in this 20 min video from Caolan Robertson and his correspondent Jake shown in the link below:

Russia Cannot Win the War in Ukraine

The link is on Facebook and needs a login. I will try to fix this...for now it is best to log in the FB then go to my page..  Mike P. Mckeever

He Has 5 Months. It Will Be Ugly

Chaos is coming when he dies. He has 5 months.

We are not prepared. Billionaires are planning their takeover now.

NOW is the time to create a Democrat shadow government which can step in and prevent the takeover.  

A video of a statement by a PhD in physical therapy specializing in dementia and Alzheimer's suggests he has ARIA and 3 to 5 months to live. 

Here is ARIA: 'Amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA) are changes seen in brain MRI scans of patients with Alzheimer's disease, often linked to anti-amyloid treatments. There are two types: ARIA-E, which involves brain swelling, and ARIA-H, which involves small brain hemorrhages.' Wikipedia Alzheimer's Association

I was unable to locate the name of the therapist who made the film. The statement video is available in Facebook at The Heart of Scotland group.

Here's Rick Wilson at LINCOLN SQUARE on what will happen then.

'When Trump Dies - What happens next will be ugly and dangerous.

Rick Wilson, Lincoln Square Dec 7

Every aging dictator, every long-in-the-tooth autocrat, every once-terrifying strongman eventually feels the cold hand of Death reaching out to tap them on the shoulder and whisper, “It’s time.”

We all understand mortality. It’s the constant of the human condition, the endless winner of billions of lives, even that of the Dear Leaders whose rule seemed eternal.

We don’t spend enough time on how much chaos and blood comes after that tap in the Generallismo’s shoulder, on the inevitable collapse of systems built around a single man entail.

The leader dies, weakens, is defeated politically or militarily, or even loses a step, and the entire structure that pretended to be a unified movement reveals itself as what it really was all along: a feeding frenzy for sycophants who think they were born to inherit the throne. The pressure cooker of autocratic systems rewards fealty, loyalty, public and private obeisance.

If you want to understand what is coming for MAGA as Donald Trump ages and declines, you start there.

Not with his tweets, not with daily outrages and excesses, but with the iron law of personality cults: succession is their unsolved problem.

Autocrats are very good at seizing power and holding it. They are very bad at leaving it behind without blowing something up on the way out. Political scientists have long argued that personality cult regimes are especially fragile at succession because the leader spends his life eliminating rivals rather than training successors.

Trump is not unique. He is just the latest in an ancient story...'

 

Fight MAGAT Threats

I am not yet being threatened by any MAGATS. 

But, I think about MAGA threats because I am a classroom teacher and also am outspoken about the MAGA cult. 

In preparation I have read accounts and watched films about school shooter attacks in other schools written by other teachers who have been in active shooter situations.

As an analogy for a MAGAT threat, here are my very personal thoughts about how to prepare for shooters in a classroom and, by extension, outside my front door. There are no guarantees about the effectiveness or lack of it in any of these ideas.

As preparation, I have meditated about dying from an attack. Now, I am prepared mentally and emotionally to die. I have mentally visualized the steps that might precede an attack that kills me. I hope that the visualization exercise will allow me to fight more effectively than I might if I were afraid to die. 

In many prior shooter situations, those who fight and or run away seem to have higher success at avoiding death or injury from a shooter. I tell my classes to run and fight if there is a shooter. Do not lock the door and wait. This is my very personal recommendation and may be counter to some law enforcement recommendations. 

If a MAGAT comes in person or in a group to my home and threatens me, I will fight. I may die, but I will not die quietly.

Most MAGATS are, IMHO, cowards who may make phone threats they do not expect to carry out in actuality. But, there is always a chance that one or more MAGATS may become violent.

 

At home, I have a yappy dog who will not be quiet until he is killed; he will not attack the MAGAT as effectively as might a Doberman, Rottweiler or Presa Canario, but he will alert me to a presence. 

If I see a person or persons, I will call 911 and announce a prowler outside my door, regardless of any badge or vest he/they may wear. If he/they announce they have a warrant I will wait until city police with badges and lights on marked cars before entering any conversation. 

My house is hardened. Motion detector lights ring the exterior premises so there are no dark places. I plan to install cameras. My windows are new and double paned with effective locks.

I have hardened my exterior doors by replacing the screws which hold the striker plates in the exterior doors and deadbolts with 3 or 4 inch deck screws; this forms exterior doors which are very difficult to kick down. Dead bolts with secure screws are a must have; the half inch screws in most doors won't even slow down an attacker. 

None of these efforts will do more that slow down a determined attacker.

If there such a person attacking my house, I will open the door and shoot him in the chest with my shotgun that is loaded with heavy buckshot. The shot will probably blow a hole through him and he will bleed out quickly. If he wears a vest, I will shoot him in the head. 

My shot gun is a pump action with a 5 round chamber and not a double barrel gun with only two rounds.

If the MAGATS are in a group, I will place a mattress in front of a seven-foot high, twelve-foot wide fully loaded bookcase on the wall facing the entry door to protect against multiple shooters

Once I am sure he is dead, I will place a kitchen knife in his hand and drag his body into my house. Then I will call 911 again and report an attack.  

Exporting America's Kleptocracy

 

Heather Cox Richardson,  Dec 1

On Friday evening, the Wall Street Journal published an article about the Trump administration’s negotiations with Russia over Ukraine that illuminated the administration’s approach to the world at home, as well as overseas. Authors Drew Hinshaw, Benoit Faucon, Rebecca Ballhaus, Thomas Grove, and Joe Parkinson explained that the administration’s plan for peace was a Russian-led blueprint for joint U.S.-Russia economic cooperation that would funnel contracts for rebuilding Ukraine, extracting the valuable minerals in the Arctic, and even space exploration to a few favored U.S. and Russian businessmen.

Many of those business leaders have close ties to the White House.

“Russia has so many vast resources, vast expanses of land,” Trump envoy Steve Witkoff told the journalists. “If we do all that, and everybody’s prospering and they’re all a part of it, and there’s upside for everybody, that’s going to naturally be a bulwark against future conflicts there. Because everybody’s thriving.”

On ABC’s This Week this morning, Representative Don Bacon (R-NE), who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said to host Jonathan Karl: “Putin’s the invader, he’s the dictator, he’s murdered all his opponents. But I just don’t see that moral clarity coming from the White House. We saw that Wall Street Journal article yesterday that many people around the president are hoping to make billions of dollars—these are all billionaires in their own right—from…Russia, if they get a favorable agreement with Ukraine. That alarms me tremendously. I want to see America being the leader of the free world, standing up for what’s right, not for who can make a buck…. I don’t want to see a foreign policy based on greed. I want to see it based on doing the right thing.”

There is far more at stake here than morality, although that is clearly on the table.

The Trump administration is replacing American democracy with a kleptocracy, a system of corruption in which a network of ruling elites use the institutions of government to steal public assets for their own private gain. It permits virtually unlimited theft while the head of state provides cover for his cronies through pardons and the uneven application of the law.

It is the system Russia’s president Vladimir Putin exploits in Russia, and President Donald J. Trump is working to establish it in the United States of America.

In the New York Times today, Cecilia Kang, Tripp Mickle, Ryan Mac, David Yaffe-Bellany, and Theodore Schleifer explored the story of David Sacks, an early technology entrepreneur with Peter Thiel and Elon Musk who now advises the White House on AI and cryptocurrency policy while investing in the companies that benefit from those policies. Sacks has brought Silicon Valley leaders, including the chief executive of Nvidia, into contact with White House officials. Shortly after, the government got rid of restrictions on Nvidia’s chip sales to foreign countries, a change that could net Nvidia as much as $200 billion.

Tom Burgis of The Guardian explained today how the Trump family is using its position in the federal government to advance its personal interests and enrich itself. Trump’s sons Don Jr. and Eric have thrown themselves into cryptocurrency, broken ground on new golf courses, and rushed through permissions for new buildings in foreign countries at the same time U.S. government policies over tariffs, cryptocurrency, and pardons, for example, seem to advance those interests.

“The Trumps’ most natural allies,” Burgis wrote, “first in business, now also in politics—have long been the rulers of the Gulf’s petro-monarchies, who see no distinction between their states’ interests and their families’.”

When New York Times reporters Ken Bensinger and David Fahrenthold published an article about Trump disclosing the donors who funded his transition to his second term a full year after promising to do so, they noted that the 46 individuals on the released list included billionaires and others who were later appointed to office. White House spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said: “President Trump greatly appreciates his supporters and donors; however, unlike politicians of the past, he is not bought by anyone and does what’s in the best interest of the country. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”

As wealth and power flow through the executive branch, Trump is overriding the rule of law that is designed to protect the rest of us from self-dealing by unscrupulous individuals. On Wednesday he commuted the sentence of private equity executive David Gentile, convicted in August 2024 of defrauding 10,000 investors in a $1.6 billion scheme that included securities and wire fraud. According to Kenneth P. Vogel of the New York Times, prosecutors said the victims were small business owners, teachers, nurses, farmers, and veterans: “hardworking, everyday people.” “I lost my whole life savings,” one victim wrote about his losses. “I am living from check to check.”

A judge sentenced Gentile to seven years in prison. He reported to authorities on November 14, was incarcerated, and was released less than two weeks later after Trump commuted his sentence.

There is a growing sense that an elite group of wealthy people is running the world without accountability to the law, and that the Trump administration is protecting and even advancing the people in that group. That sense is key to popular anger at the administration’s refusal to release the FBI files about its investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The documents from the Epstein estate released by the House Oversight Committee on November 12 showed a chummy friendship between Epstein and political, academic, and economic leaders eager to retain access to Epstein’s money, information, and connections even after he pleaded guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution.

MAGA voters backed Trump in the belief that he would hold such people to account, but it is now clear he is protecting them instead. Indeed, as Mona Charon of The Bulwark noted today, Trump’s ally Steve Bannon, whom Charon describes as “Trump’s consigliere, strategist, propagandist, and former senior counselor at the White House,” was on such friendly terms with Epstein that it was to him Epstein turned to scrub his public image after his initial guilty plea.

The realization that Trump is bolstering and protecting an entitled elite rather than defending everyday Americans victimized by them has dovetailed with this administration’s undermining of the economy, firing of civil servants, attacks on public health, and destruction of the nation’s social safety net to create angry references to “the Epstein class.”

Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) explained to NPR’s Scott Detrow earlier this month: “[T]he Epstein class is a group of people with extreme wealth who have donated to politicians and been part of a system where they think the rules don’t apply to them, and they have created a system that has shafted a lot of forgotten Americans. That’s why Donald Trump ran and was central to his campaign. And many people, like Marjorie Taylor Greene and others, believe he’s become part of the swamp that he said he would drain. He’s forgotten the forgotten Americans he said he would stand up for.”

Unlike the robber barons of the late nineteenth century, today’s power elite is, as Anand Giridharadas of The Ink wrote on November 23 in the New York Times, a borderless network of people connected not to nations or their fellow citizens but to each other. They exchange nonpublic information and capital to enable the members of that group to control events, disregarding the effects of their decisions on those outside their network.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo suggested Friday that the deep unpopularity of AI comes in part from the fact that it has become a symbol “of a society in which all the big decisions get made by the tech lords, for their own benefit and for a future society that doesn’t really seem to have a place for most of the rest of us.”

Popular anger at this “Epstein class” is sparking a political realignment. Democratic leaders have been hammering on how Republican policies benefit the wealthy at the same time that Trump’s tariffs send household costs upward and the Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill of July—the one Republicans call the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”—slashes the social safety net and drives up the cost of health care premiums. The extraordinary demand for energy caused by the massive data centers AI requires has sent energy costs skyrocketing.

In November, voters turned away from the Republicans and toward the Democrats, expressing concerns about the economy and “affordability.” Chris Stein of The Guardian explained today how 33-year-old John McAuliff flipped a Republican seat in the Virginia House of Delegates in those elections. McAuliff attracted Republican voters by going door to door, talking with voters about data centers and the infrastructure they require and noting voters’ own rising electricity costs.

McAuliff told Stein that the rising prices are “essentially an artificial tax on everyday Virginians to benefit Amazon, Google, some of the companies with the biggest market [capitalizations] in human history. Which is not to say they don’t provide benefits to those communities, but we need to do a much, much better job of extracting those benefits, because the companies can afford them.”

Voters’ anger at the administration’s support for the Epstein class is now so palpable it has inspired some MAGA leaders to try to cast themselves as populist leaders standing against the wealthy who control the government, a stand that puts them at odds with the White House. “I’ve always represented the common American man and woman as a member of the House of Representatives which is why I’ve always been despised in Washington DC and never fit in,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) began her resignation letter.

In 1932, in a similar time of political realignment, New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt attracted voters across the political spectrum when he promised “a new deal for the American people,” with “more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth.” “Let us…constitute ourselves prophets of a new order of competence and of courage,” he told the delegates to the Democratic National Convention when he accepted its nomination for president. “This is more than a political campaign; it is a call to arms. Give me your help, not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people.”

—

Notes:

https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/russia-u-s-peace-business-ties-4db9b290

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/30/don-bacon-moral-clarity-ukraine-00670982

https://www.chathamhouse.org/2022/07/what-kleptocracy-and-how-does-it-work

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/technology/david-sacks-white-house-profits.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/us/politics/trump-david-gentile-commutation.html

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-frees-former-gpb-capital-ceo-after-biden-admins-ponzi-scheme-sentence-2025-11-30/

EU Steps Up, Stops Russia !

 

'🚨 THE END GAME 🚨 AND THE REAL PLAN 🚨

Remember Trump's arrogance before the fall, when he floated his 28-point Putin-friendly “deal” and strutted around saying:

• “Zelenskyy is under pressure with little choice.”

• “We don’t really care about Europe.”

• “We’re confident he’ll sign once he sees the full plan.”

• “America’s done with the cash drain, let NATO and the EU handle it.”

Yeah. All that garbage.

All that delusion.

All that “sheriff in OUR town” energy from a man who thought Europe would kneel.

This 🤡 dismissed Europe’s €183B in aid and frozen Russian assets as something he “doesn’t really care about,” while demanding we “step up” for his freeze-line farce.

He thought Zelenskyy was cornered by frozen U.S. aid.

He thought Europe would rubber-stamp whatever Washington dictated.

And then HAWK MERZ walked onto ARD and detonated the illusion:

“Unacceptable. Impossible without Europe’s consent.”

A diplomatic sledgehammer.

Merz reminded the world that Europe controls the €183B in Brussels, the REAL leverage Trump arrogantly assumed he could seize and redistribute.

Yeah. He tried to rob us.

And Europe slammed the vault door in his face.

Trump said he “doesn’t really care” about Europe’s contributions?

Europe answered by taking over the entire negotiation.

Then came the ultimate humiliation:

Even the U.S. Ambassador in Berlin admitted the “aspirational goal” is Germany leading NATO SACEUR, a command post America held since 1951.

A German commander of NATO forces.

If that’s not a global power shift, what is?

Trump wanted Europe weak.

Instead, he forced Europe to grow titanium teeth.

Austria even cracked its sacred neutrality for the first time since 1955, bc Putin’s hybrid attacks don’t respect borders.

🇪🇺 THE REPLACED TRUMP PLAN, OUR PLAN

And this is the part that broke Washington’s spine:

Europe dropped a fully coordinated 24-point doctrine; written by Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, the Nordics, the Baltics, and London, and aligned with Kyiv from minute one.

If Russia accepts this plan, it admits strategic defeat.

If Russia rejects it, Europe keeps arming Ukraine until Russian logistics crumble.

Either way...  Europe wins.

This is why Merz launched his own Friedensvorstoß, a peace initiative without waiting for the U.S.

Germany is positioning itself as the architect of European security, while Washington can F OFF!

🇪🇺 THE 24-POINT EUROPEAN PLAN, THE  👑 JEWEL

(Every point destroys the equivalent in Trump’s plan, exactly as shown.)

1. Immediate OSCE/UN-verified ceasefire

→ Kills Trump's vague freeze that let Russia regroup.

2. No recognition of Russian territorial gains

→ Kills Trump's quiet Crimea concession.

3. Russian withdrawal from occupied regions, monitored

→ Kills Trump's "status freeze."

4. Independent monitoring mission across all fronts

→ Kills Trump’s loophole “mutual observation.”

5. 90-day compliance checks with instant snapback

→ Kills Trump’s toothless review.

6. Return of abducted Ukrainian children

→ Kills Trump’s silence on war crimes.

7. “All for all” POW exchange

→ Kills Trump’s selective exchange deal.

8. Legally binding EU-led security guarantees

→ Kills Trump’s neutrality trap.

9. No limits on Ukraine’s army

→ Kills Trump’s forced demilitarization.

10. Ukraine keeps long-range strike capability

→ Kills Trump’s 150km ban.

11. Reaffirmed NATO pathway

→ Kills Trump’s permanent neutrality.

12. Sanctions lifted only after full withdrawal

→ Kills Trump’s instant relief.

13. Automatic sanctions reinstatement

→ Kills Trump’s “consult first” loophole.

14. Zaporizhzhia NPP fully returned to Ukraine

→ Kills Trump’s insane joint control.

15. Dnipro trade routes restored under Ukraine

→ Kills Trump’s Russian veto.

16. Reconstruction funded by frozen Russian assets

→ Kills Trump’s U.S.-controlled fund.

17. Continuous Western military aid

→ Kills Trump’s weapons ban.

18. EU–Ukraine peace council runs the process

→ Kills Trump’s U.S.-chaired commission.

19. 50km demilitarized buffer zone

→ Kills Trump’s Russia-dictated lines.

20. Minority rights under Kyiv’s law

→ Kills Trump’s “autonomous Russian areas.”

21. Free elections only under OSCE/UN

→ Kills Trump’s Kremlin “observers.”

22. Balanced Black Sea maritime limits

→ Kills Trump’s naval restrictions on Ukraine.

23. Economic normalization only after compliance

→ Kills Trump’s reintegration despite occupation.

24. Ukraine holds veto power at every stage

→ Kills Trump’s attempt to sideline Kyiv.

🔥 THIS WAS A POWER GRAB, AND IT WORKED.

Everything about this moment screams:

ULTIMATUM.

Accept it, or Europe keeps arming Ukraine until the Kremlin is bleeding out of every supply line.

Europe seized control of the Ukraine endgame.

Not “in partnership with the U.S.”

Not “coordinating with Trump.”

Not “seeking approval.”

Europe wrote the plan.

Ukraine endorsed it.

And we removed every poison pill in Trump’s Putin-wish-list:

✔ no army caps

✔ no territorial giveaways

✔ no Russian vetoes

✔ no forced neutrality

✔ no Putin “profit” from frozen assets

✔ no U.S.-run “peace council”

✔ no American monopoly on reconstruction

⭐ THE BOTTOM LINE

Trump said Zelenskyy had “little choice.”

Trump said he “doesn’t really care” about Europe.

Europe answered by taking over the entire peace process, NATO command (in the future) shift and all.

The global power shift is real.

And it’s irreversible.'

 Rose Fleur November 24 at 5:55 AM

MAGA Is A Foreign Influence Op

Trump isn't Vladimir Putin's only American sucker. 

Rick Wilson, Nov 27, LINCOLN SQUARE 

Not “incidental to MAGA,” not touching it,” not “nudging it,” not “occasionally exploiting it.” MAGA is a foreign influence operation, root and branch.

While pundits spent more time this weekend than anyone should on RFK Jr.’s, uh, erotic poetry to Olivia Nuzzi (and by that, I mean SWEET JESUS BLEACH IT FROM MY BRAIN), we learned foreign influence operations are at the tweeting, bleating heart of the MAGA moment.

MAGA is not just a political movement of goateed, 50-ish white dudes who all rock that same avatar of them copping what they imagine is an expression of manly vigor in the front seat of their behind-on-the-payments Ford F-350.

It’s a delivery system.

A supply chain for chaos that starts in Moscow and Tehran and Beijing, runs through bot farms in industrial parks outside St. Petersburg or the Pardis Technology Park north of Tehran, or some Nigerian click farm, or a Chinese-criminal-owned social media and tech scam prison in the wilds of Burma, bounces off a rage-merchant influencer “from Ohio” who has never set foot in America, and ends up in your pissed off MAGA uncle’s Facebook feed as a “patriotic truth.”

It’s tempting to call MAGA the most gullible cohort of political suckers, mooks, rubes, and slowcoaches ever to blight this nation. I want to tell you I’m going to resist that temptation, but that would be as big a lie as the thousands of MAGA accounts with AI avatars who look and sound like American patriots, flooding social media platforms from their lairs abroad.

MAGA is the most gullible cohort of political suckers, mooks, rubes, and slowcoaches ever to blight this nation.

If that sounds harsh, good...

Trump's Replacement Already Chosen

THE SUCCESSOR - The GOP’s Hidden Plan for a Post-Trump America

Jack Hopkins, Nov 21, 2025

'READ THIS IN A QUIET ROOM.  What I’m about to walk you through is not a prediction.

It’s not a rumor. It’s not the kind of barstool chatter you hear from political junkies or Twitter addicts. This is the architecture of the operation…the GOP has already begun. It is the calm…organized…behind-the-scenes succession plan the Republican power structure has been forced to build……because their king is becoming too radioactive to protect.

And while the public is still distracted by Trump’s meltdowns…feuds…rallies…rants…polls…posts…and attacks… …the real power players in the Republican ecosystem…donors…strategists…media executives…and legal shields…are quietly doing what authoritarian movements always do…when their leader becomes more expensive to defend than to discard:

They pick a successor.  They build the escape hatch.  They prepare to feed the king to the wolves.

Today…for the first time…I’m giving you the name. Not a theory.  Not a meme.  Not an easy guess.  The actual figure the GOP is grooming in the shadows.

And once you understand who it is…and why it’s him…every strange headline of the last three months…will snap into place like a rifle bolt.

So let’s start with the foundational rule. The rule every authoritarian movement lives by…whether they admit it or not: 

RULE #1: Authoritarian Movements Always Prepare A Successor

Trump isn’t stupid.  Dangerous? Yes.  Chaotic? Extremely.  Narcissistic? Pathologically.

But stupid? No.  He knows what’s coming.  He can smell the shift in the air.  He can feel the tremors under his feet. He knows the party that once worshipped him…is quietly…carefully…systematically preparing the conditions…under which they can walk away from him…and survive.

But here’s what the base doesn’t know:

The GOP already has their replacement identified.  Already vetted.  Already modeled.  Already tested.  Already tentatively approved by the only three groups that matter:  donors…operatives…and Fox News.

And the moment Trump becomes politically irrecoverable… whether because of a scandal…a collapse…a file…a leak…or a catalyst event… …their successor will already be standing in the wings…polished…rehearsed…and wrapped in a donor-friendly bow.

So let’s talk about who it is. And why he’s far more strategically dangerous than Trump ever was.

The BIG Reveal: The Successor Is Glenn Youngkin

Yes.  Him.  The tall…polished…khaki-friendly…investor-class golden boy…from Virginia.  The man who looks like he was grown in a laboratory to be inoffensive.  The smiling assassin…who blends suburban moderation…with culture-war extremism… in the exact proportion required…to seduce swing voters…while still feeding red meat to the MAGA faithful.

But here’s the real kicker: Youngkin is not Trump without the chaos.  He’s Trumpism refined.  Trumpism professionalized.  Trumpism sanitized.

He represents the idealized version of the MAGA movement…the one Republican strategists wished Trump could be: Authoritarian without the sloppiness; Extreme without the scandals; Hard-right but soft-spoken; Ideological but not insane; Loyal to donors…not to vengeance;  Dangerous… but in a suit and tie…not a gold-plated tracksuit

He’s the “respectable authoritarian.” The brand-safe strongman. The white-collar version of the red-hatted id. And if Trump falls…collapses…or gets buried in the avalanche the GOP is already preparing… Fox News…the donor class…and the RNC…can roll Youngkin out in under 48 hours.

Let me show you the seven reasons why they chose him.

1. Donors Trust Him.

This is where everything begins.  Republican donors love Trump’s tax cuts.  They love his deregulation. They love his judicial pipeline. 

But they hate his unpredictability. They hate the instability.  They hate the risk.  

Youngkin is the anti-risk candidate. Former Carlyle Group executive. Translation:  He speaks fluent billionaire;  He understands institutional money; He knows how to stabilize markets; He won’t wake up one morning…and tank the stock market because he’s angry at a celebrity.

To donors…Youngkin is the perfect guard dog: He’ll protect their money;  He’ll protect their tax cuts;  He’ll protect their deregulation;  And he won’t blow himself up on live TV.

Donors don’t want charisma.  They want control.  Youngkin…is controllable.

2. FOX NEWS Loves Him…And They’ve Already Tested Him

This part matters more than almost anyone realizes.  Fox does not randomly elevate people.  They test.  They measure.  They probe.  They check viewer retention.

3. He Wins Suburbs Without Losing Rural Voters

This is the single most valuable trait a GOP candidate can have in modern politics.  Trump loses the suburbs.  DeSantis loses the suburbs.  Vance hemorrhages them.  Abbott is radioactive outside Texas.

But Youngkin? He walks into the suburbs like a golden retriever in a polo shirt and people relax.  This freaks Democrats out and delights donors.  He is the first Republican since before 2016 who can:  appeal to moms; appeal to college-educated whites; appeal to moderate men; appeal to older independents; …while still feeding rural conservatives the culture-war red meat they require. He’s the bridge.

Trump was the wrecking ball. Youngkin is the salesman.

4. He Carries MAGA Themes Without MAGA Baggage.  This is the part that makes him dangerous.  

Youngkin pushes:  anti-trans laws; book-banning rhetoric; anti-public education crusades; election restrictions; Christian nationalist dog whistles; anti-woke crusades; corporate capture; and, extremist school-board takeovers.

But he does it with a smile.  He packages authoritarian policy in “parental choice” language. He disguises extremism as “community values.” He masks culture war with khakis and fleece vests.  He’s a wolf in Vineyard Vines.  Republicans believe…correctly…that Youngkin can get away with pushing the same agenda as Trump……but without terrifying the moderates they need to win.

5. He’s A Blank Slate…And That Makes Him Lethal

Trump is a known quantity. His weaknesses are baked in.

But Youngkin? He’s undefined to most Americans. That gives GOP strategists a blank canvas to paint whatever character they need him to be: The unifier; The businessman outsider; The “normal” Republican; The suburban dad; The stable conservative; The future of the party

Blank-slate candidates…are the most dangerous…because people project what they want onto them.

6. He Is Authoritarian-Friendly...Just More Polished About It

Let’s be blunt: Youngkin governs like a smiling authoritarian. Not the loud, ranting…carnival-barker kind. The corporate…polite…boardroom kind. He advances: voter restrictions; surveillance-friendly policies; school censorship; state power over local boards; culture-war crackdowns; and, judicial alignment.

He does it quietly, Efficiently, With donor approval, He’s the authoritarian the Wall Street crowd…wished Trump had been. And that’s exactly why he’s their successor.

7. Donors, Operatives, And FOX See Him As The Post-Trump Bridge. This is the core of the plan. The GOP knows their movement cannot survive without Trump’s base. But they also know their movement cannot exist with a leader as unstable and self-destructive as Trump. 

Enter Youngkin: Acceptable to MAGA; Acceptable to donors; Acceptable to Fox; Acceptable to suburban moderates; Acceptable to the party establishment; He’s the only person who satisfies all factions…without triggering war. 

That’s why he’s the chosen successor. Not because he’s brilliant. Not because he’s charismatic. Not because he’s powerful. But because he’s…useful.

Authoritarian movements…don’t crown leaders based on strength. They crown leaders based on utility. 

The Plan: How They’ll Roll Him Out If The Avalanche Takes Trump

If Trump collapses…legally…politically…or psychologically…the GOP’s succession plan kicks in immediately. Here’s what it looks like behind the curtain:

1. Donors freeze Trump instantly. No money. No oxygen. No lifeline.

2. Fox pivots to a “future of the party” narrative. Soft. Earnest. Patriotic. Suburban-friendly. You’ll see Youngkin sitting comfortably on prime-time couches within 48 hours.

3. GOP leaders begin issuing statements about “stability” and “unity.” This is how they justify the pivot.

4. Operatives start pushing coordinated messaging: “It’s time for new leadership.” This is the real kill shot.

5. Youngkin is elevated as the calm…reasonable…safe alternative. He’ll appear moderate. He’ll appear steady. He’ll appear like the “antidote” to chaos. But underneath the performance is the same authoritarian project…just dressed in a fleece vest instead of a spray tan.

6. The Truth Democrats Must Understand …Youngkin Is More Dangerous Than Trump.  Trump is a blunt instrument. Youngkin is a scalpel. Trump mobilizes chaos. Youngkin mobilizes compliance. Trump incites rebellion. Youngkin manufactures consent. Trump destroys institutions. Youngkin repurposes them. Trump relies on rage. Youngkin relies on branding. Trump is the explosion. Youngkin is the quiet takeover.

Which one is more dangerous? You already know the answer.

7. This Is The Moment To Pay Attention

We are living in the early stages of the GOP’s succession plan. The headlines are shifting. The operatives are whispering. The donors are moving. The media is testing. The king is wobbling. And the successor is waiting in the wings.

This is what authoritarian movements do. They protect the project…not the person. And if Trump falls…collapses…or detonates under the weight of his own scandals…Glenn Youngkin will not be a surprise.

He will be the plan. And you’ll be ready… Because the avalanche…is coming. 

And One Last Thing Before We Close:

I’m not pretending to be a prophet…but I am telling you this as plainly as I can: When you follow the real signals…Glenn Youngkin isn’t just a “possibility.” He’s the logical endpoint of the GOP’s internal incentives. He’s the only figure who checks every box the power brokers care about: donor-safe…scandal-light…Fox-approved…suburban-friendly…MAGA-adjacent…and disciplined enough to carry the authoritarian project without the chaos Trump drags behind him.'

Here's the VIDEO

Is Donald Trump’s power about to collapse?

The Real Resistance is all of us..........

'Is Donald Trump’s power about to collapse?

On Friday, aboard Air Force One, the President of the United States, unable to maintain even the bare minimum of composure, turned toward a female reporter, pointed at her face, and snarled, “Quiet. Quiet, Piggy.”

She had asked a question that any functioning democracy should welcome: Would the newly released Epstein emails, where Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls” at Mar-a-Lago, carry legal consequences?

It was clear. It was necessary. It was the kind of question a free press exists to ask. And instead of answering it, the President of the United States chose to degrade her.

This wasn’t a throwaway insult. It was calculated humiliation. It was the full weight of the presidency bearing down on a woman doing her job. And it wasn’t the first time. When Trump feels cornered, especially by a woman, he doesn’t argue. He attacks.

But if you look underneath the noise, the insults, the shouting, the constant stream of outrage, the cracks are showing. And he is terrified that we’re starting to notice. Authoritarian leaders often appear untouchable until they’re not. Mussolini’s grip on Italy looked solid until the military started to turn, and he was arrested by his own king. Ferdinand Marcos ruled the Philippines under martial law for years, but a popular uprising forced him into exile. Nicolae Ceaușescu ruled Romania with an iron fist until he lost control of a public speech, broadcast live, and was executed by his own people days later. These leaders didn’t fall because they lost all their power at once. They fell when the illusion of total control began to fade and the public stopped being afraid. That’s the moment we’re entering now. Trump still has power, but he’s no longer in complete control. And he knows it.

Let’s start with his speech today at the McDonald’s summit. Trump stood before a room of fast-food executives, franchise owners, and suppliers and declared, “You are so damn lucky that I won that election, I’m telling you.” He bragged that inflation was the highest in U.S. history when he took office and that he had fixed it. He boasted that Thanksgiving dinner at Walmart was now cheaper. He claimed prices were dropping across the board. He took jabs at Kamala Harris multiple times, casually mentioned military attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, rambled about his personal devotion to McDonald’s products, and even said he had renamed the Gulf of Mexico.

Every bit of his “facts” was false, and the rest were the ramblings of a madman.

Inflation peaked in June 2022, under Biden, at 9.1%. But in 1980, it hit 14.6%. The worst inflation in recent U.S. history happened decades ago. And even now, with inflation slowing, prices remain painfully high. A Big Mac costs over six dollars. Grocery bills are pushing families to the edge, and Thanksgiving is going to cost more.

This is how authoritarianism works. It’s all smoke and mirrors, lies dressed up as victories, propaganda sold as truth. You manufacture a crisis or make an existing one worse, then claim credit for solving it, even when the so-called solution causes more harm. In the Soviet Union, leaders praised “record harvests” while people stood in bread lines. In Venezuela, stores posted fake prices while shelves sat empty. And in America today, Trump is following the same playbook, pretending everything is great while millions are barely holding on.

That’s one crack.

Here’s another crack: New York City. During the campaign for mayor, Trump targeted Zohran Mamdani, calling him a radical, a communist, a threat to America. He warned that if Mamdani won, New York would lose federal funding and face “big problems.” But Mamdani won by nine points. And now, suddenly, Trump says he wants to meet with him. Says they’ll “work something out.” Says he “loves New York.” This isn’t a change of heart. It’s a strategic retreat. Trump talks tough until the pressure doesn’t work. He threatens governors, mayors, and entire states, but when voters push back, when people hold the line, he folds. That’s the pattern. The lesson here isn’t that he’s soft. It’s that resistance works. Not in a single knockout, but by dragging it out, slowing him down, and jamming the gears. Authoritarian movements thrive on speed and fear. They hate delay. They hate friction. Because the longer this drags on, the more people start paying attention, and waking up.

Another crack: the Epstein files. For months, Trump and his Republican cronies buried any effort to release the Department of Justice’s Epstein records. He called the investigation a hoax. House leadership refused to bring it to the floor. MAGA loyalists fell in line. But everything shifted after the recent special elections. Republicans saw the writing on the wall, MAGA’s grip is slipping. A bipartisan group filed a discharge petition, a rarely used procedural move to bypass leadership. They reached the magic number: 218 signatures. The bill had to move forward. So Trump flipped. Suddenly, he wanted transparency. Suddenly, he encouraged Republicans to vote yes. Claimed he had “nothing to hide.” But that’s not true.

Behind the scenes, he directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to open a new investigation, not into Epstein’s circle as a whole, but narrowly focused on Democrats. He used legal language to hint that an “ongoing investigation” could prevent full disclosure. It’s not transparency, it’s preemptive sanitization. He wants to scrub the files before they ever see daylight.

And looking at the facts, the accusations peaked between 2002 and 2005. This is important because this new “investigation” is only targeting Democrats. And during that time, Trump himself was a registered Democrat, from 2001 to 2009. So if Democrats are to blame during that window, by his own logic, he’s included. And we already know he’s involved. His name appears in the flight logs. Victims say he attended parties. Emails mention him by name. We don’t need the files to confirm the connection. The only remaining question is: how deep does it go? And if these files are released, don’t expect clarity. Expect redactions. Expect missing pages. Expect a carefully managed show. Because Trump doesn’t want the truth, he wants control of what truth is released. If it hurts an enemy, it’s fair game. If it hurts him, it’s a Democrat hoax or his old favorite “fake news”.

Then there’s the courts. This is where we are seeing big cracks, too. Since Trump took office again in January, he has treated the Department of Justice not as an independent institution, but as a weapon for personal revenge. Trump has a personal vendetta for James Comey, and he has been desperate to punish him using the legal system. He wants Comey humiliated just like Trump himself was. And the DOJ, under pressure, delivered.

But this week, a federal judge pushed back. He questioned the entire foundation of the case, suggesting prosecutors indicted Comey first and investigated later, a complete reversal of how law is supposed to work. In a rare move, the judge ordered the release of grand jury materials to the defense, raising serious concerns about abuse of process. That almost never happens. This wasn’t just a procedural rebuke. It was a warning flare that this whole case could be thrown out.

What the DOJ under Trump did is exactly how autocracies operate. They don’t need facts. They need targets. In Nazi Germany, the judiciary swore loyalty not to law, but to Hitler himself. In Putin’s Russia, courts exist to silence dissent, jail journalists, and erase political rivals. In Turkey, Erdoğan responded to unfavorable rulings by jailing judges and reshaping the bench. Trump has praised all of these leaders. He has studied their playbooks. And he’s using the same tactics here, demanding prosecutions of his enemies, attacking judges who rule against him.

We have not lost our judiciary. But the pressure is mounting. What’s holding the line right now is not the system; it’s individuals. Judges who still believe in their oath. Their courage is what stands between democracy and collapse. But courage is not permanent. It doesn’t last forever. It’s a window. And if we don’t act while it’s open, it will close. We need them to hold the line.

And then, the final crack. The one Trump fears the most. Us pushing back.

Not in Washington. Not in a courtroom. Not even on a ballot.

On the streets of Chicago, immigrant street vendors continue to be hunted. Under “Operation Midway Blitz,” ICE raids have swept through neighborhoods, leading to more than 3,000 arrests. Vendors are disappearing. Food carts are gone. Entire blocks have gone quiet. The threat is real, and it is relentless. But even in the shadow of fear, the community is fighting back.

Every weekend, a group of cyclists rides through Little Village, Brighton Park, and other immigrant neighborhoods. When they find a tamale vendor, they don’t just stop to eat. They buy everything. Every tamale. Every bottle of juice. Then they send the vendor home with cash, safety, and dignity. The food? Donated to shelters, to families who need it most.

Because as much as some of these individuals would love to shelter away from the modern day Gestapo, they can’t afford to not work. What these cyclists are doing is a grassroots movement that is making a difference.

This is resistance.

The Street Vendors Association has raised over $300,000. Their work has kept hundreds of people off the streets, out of ICE vans, and in the arms of their communities. They are not waiting for legislation. They are not waiting for elections. They are not waiting for heroes. They are the heroes.

This is what resistance has always looked like. In 1943, Danish citizens risked their lives to ferry Jewish neighbors across the sea to Sweden. In Selma, Black churches scraped together donations to bail out jailed marchers. In Poland, shipyard workers cooked in secret to feed entire neighborhoods under occupation. Resistance doesn’t always look like a protest sign or a headline. Sometimes, it looks like people working within the law to save each other.

Trump doesn’t fear Congress. He doesn’t fear subpoenas. He doesn’t even fear the truth. What he fears, what all authoritarians fear, is the people who refuse to be intimidated. The ones who say no. The ones who organize, protect, and hold the line.

And so tonight, as we watch the strong man weaken and crack before our very eyes, we need to take comfort and strength in knowing everything we are doing is working. We might not see it in every headline and news cycle, but the momentum is building. We have a very long year ahead of us where we are going to have to use every ounce of grit and every tool we have to slow and derail Trump’s sinister plans, but I can’t think of anyone better than Americans to get it done. We’ve fought strong men in the past, and we’ll get it done this time, too.

I’ll see you tomorrow,

Heather Cox Richardson '

from another FB post..