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ArcticStones's avatar

DEVASTATING DYSFUNCTION

Today’s "Letter From an American" by Heather Cox Richardson is a must read – an absolutely devastating description of the Trump Regime’s dysfunction and deeply damaging policies. A few choice excerpts.

"At a press opportunity at a cabinet meeting today, Trump said it wasn’t the right time to talk about his plans to phase out FEMA."

"Meanwhile, at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did not inform the White House before he stopped the shipment of weapons to Ukraine last week. … When a reporter asked the president today who had authorized the pause, Trump answered: “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?”"

"At today’s press opportunity, Trump was erratic, at one point veering off into a discussion of whether he should put gold leaf on the moldings in the room’s corners."

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-8-2025

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ArcticStones's avatar

WHO IS IN CHARGE?

And Heather also has this:

"Just who is in charge of the administration remains unclear. …Jason Zengerle pointed to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller as the “final word” on White House policy. Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem defers to him. Attorney General Pam Bondi “is so focused on preparing for and appearing on Fox News that she has essentially ceded control of the Department of Justice” to him. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles is concentrating on “producing a reality TV show every day,” a Trump advisor told Zengerle.

"So Miller, with his knack for flattering his boss, wields power."

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Lisa Iannucci's avatar

And ultimately, Putin is in charge, per Anne Applebaum. He's been manipulating Orange for decades now.

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ArcticStones's avatar

That’s "Agent Orange" – now more toxic right here in the US of A than it ever was in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos.

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Faith Wilson's avatar

Before reading this, I just posted the same quote!!!

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Elizabeth T.'s avatar

I have thought for months that Trump is controlled by three main Rasputins: Peter Navarro (economic), Stephen Miller (immigration), and Vladimir Putin. They're all sort of shadowy and invisible to the public and do an excellent job of being marionettes to this repulsive puppet.

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Simon Rosenberg's avatar

I almost included that video of Trump admitting he had no idea what was happening with his own Russia policy.....the Cabinet meeting was incredible shitshow yesterday

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Annie Bear's avatar

This was my call today—now that he’s been handed a gestapo, perhaps we should figure out who is running things.

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kitkatmia's avatar

well i hope she really drilled down on the idiotic letter he sent to countries re tarriffs. must have been written by navarro. just ridiculous and embarrassing, childish, thugish, non sensical. i thought the courts ruled he cant do tarriffs. what happened to that?

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Leslie's avatar

We have a friend with in-laws in Nebraska. They have a cattle ranch, in the family for four generations, now in danger of going under. They’re Republicans who voted for Trump but aren’t MAGA, and the father-in-law says he can’t stand the sight of Trump signs anymore.

But what’s in the way for a lot of Trump voters in that community is that they see liberals as “weak.”

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Janet Frohnmayer's avatar

Hard not to feel knocked down by the news and current happenings. My tempering antidote was meeting Mikie Sherill in person in Seattle on Monday (what a candidate!), meeting Washington State AG Nick Brown yesterday (a tremendous public servant!) and giving to all of Simon’s campaigns today including monthly donations to Mikie Sherill and Abigail Spanberger.

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Derek's avatar

I'm glad to hear you had an antidote

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Art B.'s avatar

Have you ever wondered about how on God’s green earth the concept of disposability is THE guidepost for the GOP’s Project 2025? By way of a reminder consider the following………….

In authoritarian government the disposability of elected officials and, it may come as no surprise, appointed supreme court justices, is absolute, dictated by the party's need to maintain power. Unlike democracies, their tenure hinges entirely on utility and unwavering loyalty to the fit or unfit leader or ruling party.

Officials become disposable when their usefulness diminishes, their loyalty is questioned, or they are perceived as a threat. This occurs if they fail to achieve regime objectives, or if they show any hint of dissent or independent thought. Furthermore, once an official has served their specific purpose in consolidating the regime, or possesses too much compromising knowledge, they can be discarded. Even supreme court justices, whose independence is a mere illusion, are removed if their interpretations conflict with the regime's will. Ultimately, in such systems, an official's position is conditional, and their removal is a tool for control, not a mechanism for justice.

We cannot let the authoritarian tentacles strangle our Democracy. Perhaps we can shift the obvious narrative of disposability towards the GOP by “Making Good Trouble” in the days, months and years ahead. The pen is mightier than the sword!

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Lori's avatar

So true! Plus, their belief in whole swaths of our population, who they deem as “non-productive,” should be eliminated. Really disgusting!!

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Art B.'s avatar

A la “Alligator Alcatraz “ 🤬🤬

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Lori's avatar

Yes, and depriving medicine and healthcare to people! 😡😡

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Mingo's avatar

Last night I attended my city council meeting hoping to hear about the city of Mesa AZ contract with ICE. After 90 minutes I had to leave so I don't know what the pro or con statements entailed. Unbeknownst to me a recall of my district council member had been initiated. Her crime was because she had advocated for the more vulnerable in the community, battered homeless, women and trans people and supported Ruben Gallego. The four white men that spoke for the recall acted like it was their city and their conservative values that mattered. Mesa AZ is a city of 250,00 people and is extremely diverse. This shows the MAGA mindset has infected local city government operations and impacts residents negatively. In this case to the tune of $200,000 of taxpayer money.

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Simon Rosenberg's avatar

Mingo one thing I hope happens in this community is that an increasing number of you not just call your reps, protest, volunteer, move resolutions but start running for elected office and Dem party leadership positions. Your story shows why it matters.

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Lisa Iannucci's avatar

Yep, that's what Moms Demand does, there is now one of our volunteers in Congress, Rep. Lucy McBath!

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Derek's avatar

New leaders are desperately needed, but why is current leadership providing little more than "Performative Losing?" We have protests where over 10 million take to the streets but Democratic leaders don't try to harness that energy. Worst of all, despite Trump building concentration camps and declaring he will send Americans to overseas death camps, Democratic leadership has no plans for how to respond.

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Deborah Potter's avatar

We don't agree with your negative assessment of the "current leadership" -- we are all on the same team vs. maga and do not engage in "perpetual disappointment" in our teammates.

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ArcticStones's avatar

This stance is so important! Our fight is with Trumpism and MAGA – let’s not shoot at each other. To put it bluntly: A circular firing squad is not an effective fighting force!

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Derek's avatar

We vote blue no matter who. But the during the primaries, in deep blue areas, we should consider primary challengers who are more progressive, better able to connect with young people, and not on death's doorstep

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Barbara Moschner's avatar

The Bexar County Democrats are protesting the Big Ugly Bill at Chip Roy’s office today. There should be a good turnout as this has been planned for weeks.

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Lisa Iannucci's avatar

Don't forget everyone, we need to be LOUD and push back. Raise your voice whenever and wherever you can. Silence=implied complicity. A lot of people just behave as normal in public in order to be "polite." The time for polite compliance is OVER.

So for immigration issues, as an example, we here in NJ are calling state assembly bc they are all up for reelection, and asking them to make it a campaign issue. Then we call federal electeds and demand legislation to have ICE wear ID and remove masks. We are telling folks to carry a burner phone in public. Do a Know Your Rights training, and share the trainings in your groups. There is a lot we can do to push back. Be LOUD. There was an ICE raid in Rep. Pallone's district today (NJ-06) - it was videoed and I promise you Frank P. will have a LOT to say about it. We demand that they reflect our values and push back!

Also here in NJ, they are cutting all sorts of stuff from the state budget, and they are getting pushback already. States are going to start feeling this pressure, much more so red states. We have to make sure we tell state and municipal electeds that it's unacceptable, and even the governor, who needs to be fighting for their state. Look at Gov. Shapiro, who went off a couple days ago about how PA is being treated. They cut off federal funding, so he's suing. That's what needs to be happening!

Today I called my state senator, wrote postcards to VA, and will call Sens Kim & Booker and hope to be able to make the protest v. Scumbag Smith (Traitor-NJ04). NJ Moms Demand is organizing to educate the public about the effects of budget cuts to violence prevention programs and how we can respond, & I will be making calls to set up an event.

Keep going!

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Susan Dieterlen's avatar

Love this! Re: being loud, I mentioned here recently reading the little book "On Disinformation," and the first step he names for fighting disinformation is to repeat the truth as often as possible.

So be loud! Be loud constantly!!

I believe it's to counter that phenomenon of people accepting lies when the lies are repeated often enough.

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Kate Feldman's avatar

Thank you Lisa. You are always so upbeat and ACtiVE! And I love your specific actions. They are really good. I'm getting on the phone to my gov and state electeds!

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Lisa Iannucci's avatar

My pleasure! We can text my governor--he made the tactical error (for him) of starting a Text the Governor line. So much better than voicemail, you can't really even leave a message in the office the way it's set up, but boy can you text him! I know, shocking in NJ. [not]

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Sally Thompson's avatar

Might add the Wisconsin and Pennsylvania court races to Hopium fundraising.

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Rachel Poliner's avatar

Just a friendly reminder from earlier months, Simon, that you also had "less healthy" in the list. I've been using the language, including on a protest sign. And given where I am (Boston), I added "less educated" too. Poorer, weaker, less safe, less free, less healthy, less educated.

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Simon Rosenberg's avatar

Yes Rachel let’s debate, discuss, chew on and improve, together.

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Rachel Poliner's avatar

The "less healthy" wording seems to catch people - it's so basic and more obvious with every policy - healthcare, environment, energy, food inspectors, NOAA, NWS... People shake their heads, grimace, and sigh, like they're realizing "he really wants us to live sick and die young."

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Lisa Iannucci's avatar

Brian Beutler says in his Substack we need to start calling it Trumpcare. Not sure I agree with that label per se, but we need to tie it to him for sure. https://www.offmessage.net/p/try-calling-it-trumpcare

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Susan Dieterlen's avatar

I like "sicker."

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Bill McClain's avatar

Overarching narrative: trump is selling us out to the billionaires and bankrupting our country.

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Faith Wilson's avatar

Our pressure campaign worked in peeling off Elon Musk, which also damaged trump's "strongman" populist brand. After reading Heather Cox Richardson's July 8 post, now I'm wondering about the feasibility of aiming our protest at Stephen Miller, who appears to be the driving force behind the worst of the current policies. I have no idea how this would look or where to start, but with this asshole gone, that could be another major blow.

From HCR: "Just who is in charge of the administration remains unclear. In the New York Times yesterday, Jason Zengerle pointed to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller as the “final word” on White House policy. Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem defers to him. Attorney General Pam Bondi “is so focused on preparing for and appearing on Fox News that she has essentially ceded control of the Department of Justice” to him. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles is concentrating on “producing a reality TV show every day,” a Trump advisor told Zengerle. So Miller, with his knack for flattering his boss, wields power."

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Emily H's avatar

From Senator Adam Schiff’s website, a proposed bill to install an inspector general to keep tabs on the Oval Office:

https://www.schiff.senate.gov/news/press-releases/news-sen-schiff-introduces-bill-to-install-inspector-general-in-the-executive-office-of-the-president/

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David Salzillo's avatar

I like the idea, Faith. I think the way to start is by talking about him more. On my IG, I also took care to meme about him (vs. just Trump) when the whole LA National Guard stuff was just beginning.

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Lori's avatar

Today, I called all my Representatives & my Governor to voice my concern and call for their action on squelching any future militarization in my state to snatch people off our streets & against protesters. Four (4) great conversations to resist this madness!

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Lisa Iannucci's avatar

Thank you--that's what we need to be doing!

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RP2112's avatar

Great substack by Dan Pfieffer today underscores a very important point, that we can all help with: this abomination of legislation will only hurt MAGA if people know about it. We can all use our SM platforms to get the word out, and forward/retweet/share any good entertaining content that spells out how disastrous this could be, and how Trump's current policies and approaches are either a) already harmful, b) totally ineffective, c) nothing but bluster.

Per Dan: Voters that decide elections are ones who get their political news from non-traditional sources.

This is a good example of something to forward on (a friend of mine sent it out in a group chat that has a Trump-adjacent friend in it): https://www.vox.com/politics/416901/trump-mass-deportation-obama-border-raids-ice

Cheers!

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Simon Rosenberg's avatar

Isn’t that what we do here everyday?

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RP2112's avatar

Yes, this is part of our broader campaign. Share with each other what we can share broadly, beyond Hopium. Not saying we're not doing this, just emphasizing its importance.

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Lisa Iannucci's avatar

Dan knows his stuff, and it reflects what I already posted today. Also sign up for DNC socials training!

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Deborah Potter's avatar

UPDATE: I have a separate post with audio recording, and a description of what happened. (An objection by one of 13 Councilors caused the resolution to be referred to committee before it can be further considered.)

Boston City Council meeting, livestream of Rachel's resolution being introduced, has concluded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_o1e_BESvU&ab_channel=BostonCityCouncil or

https://www.boston.gov/departments/city-council/watch-boston-city-council-tv

Today's agenda shows the resolution under item 7. MOTIONS, ORDERS AND RESOLUTIONS docket no.1379. Councilor Weber and Pepén: Resolution for July 4, 2025, in support of democracy and calling for a return to the constitutional principles that are the foundation of this republic https://www.boston.gov/public-notices/16266721

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Susan Dieterlen's avatar

Outstanding!

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ArcticStones's avatar

Awesome! It is so profoundly satisfying and reassuring to see this fight for democracy go viral. Thank you for your service!

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Deborah Potter's avatar

Speaking of viral, here is something creepy. "AI" wrote a story about the BernCo resolution that featured me and my photo, and I did not like that at all. I wrote to the website admin, and asked them to remove it. Well, at least they removed my photo, expanded the story to include other testimonies, and used a photo of the County Commission in session instead. Wrong details remain -- I did not present the resolution, I was just the first speaker. The resolution was presented by the Chair and CoChair of the Commission. I'm sure there are other AI errors. https://citizenportal.ai/articles/5072409/Bernalillo-County/New-Mexico/Bernalillo-County-residents-advocate-for-resolution-defending-constitutional-rights-and-separation-of-powers and includes a transcript.

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Lisa Iannucci's avatar

Popping back in again - looks like ICE is using vehicle insurance claims & medical bills etc. to search for its victims. Another opportunity for us to push back on electeds, and AGs. https://www.404media.co/ice-is-searching-a-massive-insurance-and-medical-bill-database-to-find-deportation-targets

[PS-404Media is excellent on tech & security.]

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Jayne M's avatar

I have started receiving posts from the Substack Democratic Wins Media-- I think someone here recommended. Today's headline: Even Fox News is Calling Out Trump's Reckless Trade Team.

Here's an excerpt for those who want to know the gist of the article/interview of Peter Navarro: "Something remarkable happened this morning on Fox News—a network often seen as one of Donald Trump’s staunchest allies. Conservative host Maria Bartiromo, known for her business acumen and generally friendly interviews with Republican figures, took Trump’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, to task over the chaos and damage caused by Trump’s tariff policies.

If Fox News anchors like Bartiromo are willing to press Trump’s inner circle on-air, that’s a flashing red warning sign for the former president: even Conservatives are fed up with the erratic, economically damaging path he’s pushing the country down."

And: "Bartiromo pushed Navarro to explain how this “America First” rhetoric squares with the damage done to U.S. manufacturers and farmers, who have borne the brunt of retaliatory tariffs from trading partners like China. She highlighted rising costs, lost export markets, and an erosion of the global trust that American companies once relied on. Navarro, for his part, fell back on the same tired slogans: that tariffs are good, that they bring jobs back home, that America can win a trade war."

Here's the article link for more details: https://open.substack.com/pub/demwinsmedia/p/even-fox-news-is-calling-out-trumps?r=8iimt&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

.

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Michael G Baer's avatar

What is not being highlighted is that Trump is a weak minded, greedy, impulsive, criminal, cognitively impaired, megalomaniacal extreme narcissist, thug.

He's a lazy, crazy, hazy mad king.

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Jayne M's avatar

agreed, but the point of the article is that it's remarkable that a Fox anchor is willing to challenge his narrative on tariffs. We take the wins! 🙂

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Lisa Iannucci's avatar

Yep, i get that newsletter - it's a great motivational tool and pick-me-up!

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Faith Wilson's avatar

Katlyn Jetelina’s post today has excellent info for sharing out debunking common MAGA “fraud” Medicaid talking points:

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/

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Julie Fisher Melton's avatar

Joined Stand Up For Science and contributed.. They are now part of my research for my upcoming paper on democratic civil society in America.

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