OPINIONS, 4/29/25: the first 100 days of Trumpocracy

Note:  Your Head Trucker may not agree with everything 

these folks say, but I like the way they say it.

Trae Crowder on the Tyrant's first 100 days:

 

Robert Reich gives the Tyrant a report card:

 

Former House Republican Adam Kinzinger critiques the sissified Tyrant:

 

Rachel Maddow blasts the Loser: 

 

And Bernie Sanders tells what must be done now to save democracy in America:

 

Bonus:  Mark Carney, fresh from his election victory, has a word for the Tyrant:  R-E-S-P-E-C-T!  Find out what it means to me . . . 

 Gotta love what one commenter on the above video wrote:

So which country got the better deal leader wise?
CANADA picked a Winner in MR. MARK CARNEY!

AMERICA picked a Weiner in Donald "THE FELON" Trump. 

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OPINIONS, 4/23/25

Note:  Your Head Trucker may not agree with every word these fellas say; but I like the way they say it.

Trae, Bernie, and Robert tell it like it is.

Trae Crowder irreverently "pontificates" on Pope Francis, whom he admired, and lambastes the rightwing Catholics who despised him:

 

Bernie Sanders finds out why Republicans are coming to his rallies:

 

And Robert Reich tells a Berkeley crowd why not to feed the Tyrant:

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OPINIONS, 3/12/25

Presented as a public service by the Blue Truck. Your Head Trucker may not agree with every word these guys say, but I like the way they say it. 

 Liberal Redneck: 

 

Stephen Colbert with Ezra Klein:

 

Lawrence O'Donnell with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI):

 

Robert Reich: 

  

 

Tom Powell, Jr.: 

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Playing to Win: All Gas, No Brakes

* * * * *  W E  V O T E D !  * * * * *

Only a week now till Election Day, November 5th.  Here's a few heads-up for you.

1.  It's straight out of a Frank Capra movie.  Gotta love Coach's do-or-die pep talk to Team Blue:

 

2.  Bernie Sanders cogently explains why you should vote for Kamala even if you disagree with her on some issues:

 

3.  Robert Reich warns us not to fall for the old Red Mirage trick that Trump exploited last time:

4.  Ragin' Cajun James Carville says, "We're gonna win, baby!"

5.  Mika from Morning Joe says "this is the election where you want to know you did everything you could when America was on the line":

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Robert Reich: Liz Cheney and the Future of the Republican Party

UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich was Secretary of Labor
during President Clinton's first term, 1993-1997.

I must say, it is always gratifying to your Head Trucker when he sees that leading journalists and commentators have arrived at the same conclusions as he. An excerpt from Robert Reich's syndicated column this week: 

I expect that Cheney will run for the Republican nomination for president in 2024. If Trump is still alive and coherent, and most Republican voters are still deluded by him, she will lose. I hope she then runs as a third-party candidate for a new Republican Party that represents the best values of the old GOP — one that I recall from when Dwight Eisenhower was president. 

My father was a Republican. So was my grandfather. The first administration I joined in Washington was Gerald Ford’s. One of my dearest friends is Alan Simpson, former senator from Wyoming. 

But since Ronald Reagan became president, I’ve watched the Republican Party turn from a governing institution into a crazed cult. It is not just bent on returning America to what it was before the New Deal. It is now intent on turning America into an authoritarian nation. It represents a clear and present danger to the future of the United States and the world. 

I have disagreed with Liz Cheney on almost all the substantive issues she has voted on while in Congress. But on the transcendent issue of democracy — the foundation on which all other issues depend — I salute her leadership, her dedication, and her commitment. And I grieve for the Republican Party that has lost her and lost what’s left of its moral authority.

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Russia Invades Ukraine

From Wikipedia:  Map of the first day's attacks on Ukraine - click for larger map.

What Biden has prophesied for weeks - and Putin has steadily denied - came to pass last night when Putin launched the Russian military on a multi-pronged attack against Ukraine.  This blow came while the United Nations Security Council was formulating an urgent plea for Putin not to make war on his neighbor - which goes to show Putin's contempt for the United Nations and all democracies.

There is no longer any doubt about it:  Putin is the new Hitler.  And sadly, Ukraine is shaping up to be the new Czechoslovakia, though its people and president have shown plenty of balls, defiantly insisting that they are not afraid and will defeat the overwhelming Russian forces bearing down upon them.

I hope they will - but I believe they hope in vain if they think any Western nations are going to put boots on the ground in Ukraine.  For one thing, Ukraine is not a member of NATO, and thus not entitled to that kind of aid.  For another, to put American troops on the front line against Russians would probably mean the start of World War III.  Putin threatened as much, in a veiled way, in his broadcast overnight.

God forbid.

And I very much doubt that economic sanctions will have any effect on Putin's plans, any more than they had on Hitler's.  The Bear is hungry, and will gobble up all he wants, regardless of consequences.  His recent statements suggest he will not be satisfied with devouring Ukraine only.  And he is sitting on some nasty weapons of his own - at least Hitler didn't have nukes or ICBM's.  But President Biden has said we will defend "every inch" of NATO territory, no matter what.  The what might come at any time.

So if careful steps are not taken, we could soon be facing the nightmare that has haunted the world for seventy years.  Nobody has said this out loud yet on TV, but I'm saying it.  As many commentators have noted.

I see no easy way out of this crisis.  As a truckbuddy said to me, after many subtle moves here and there, the scheming grandmaster Putin has put us in check, if not checkmate.  He has been playing to win, while we have been playing with ourselves, it seems like.  We should all be praying for our president and for all those working for the common good, that they may see clearly and act wisely.

I won't rehash here all the details of the Ukrainian struggle, but for whatever help it may be to my truckbuddies, here are some useful links to related information that you might want to bookmark.

News sources:

American TV network news websites are clogged with stupid advertisements that make it hard to get to the videos of what you want to see.   Here are three European broadcasters with 24/7 live coverage in English always available on YouTube - sometimes they provide a perspective on issues different from what is provided on American news shows.

Sky News (United Kingdom)

France24 (France)

DW News (Germany)

And the Guardian, which favors the views of the Labour Party, is one of the few British newspapers not hidden behind a paywall; in times of crisis, the website usually carries a live blog of events and commentary.

Wikipedia:

Wikipedia is to a large extent a leisure site for lonely, nerdy guys to write on, and get into bitch fights over political correctness, so what you read there should always be taken with a grain of salt unless supported by other, more reliable sources.  Nevertheless, it is usually a good source for quick facts about countries and notable people.  Here are a few topics you might want to refresh your memory of.

NATO and the European Union - they are not the same thing.

Ukraine - did you know it's nearly as big as Texas?

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine - yes, there's already a wikiarticle on it.

Russia - nearly twice as big as the United States, but less than half the population.

Other reading:

Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration - "Eight Sobering Realities about Putin's Invasion of Ukraine," 2/24/22

Editorial in The Guardian (U.K.) - "Putin's War in Ukraine:  A Bleak New Beginning." 2/24/22

The past is never dead - it's not even past.

--William Faulkner

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Got Presidential Dysfunction?

A witty PSA from Robert Reich:




What I Say:  I don't know, fellas.  Seems like all the hateful, dumbass creeps and jerks who used to sit at the back of the classroom, throwing spitballs and pulling the girls' hair, when they weren't stealing other kids' lunches or beating up sissies behind the gym, are now in control of all three branches of government of the richest, most powerful nation on earth - and they mean to have their way.

They have been planning it for years, like a military operation, gerrymandering all the state legislatures and House seats they could - then selling their souls to the Devil to elect a completely unqualified President.  And now that they have achieved their goals, you think they will just throw up their hands and walk away from all that on account of some little midterm elections?  Seriously?

The fascist revolution was just made complete with the confirmation of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.  There is now no check whatsoever on the power of the raving right. In less than two years, our republic has been subverted and changed into a New Order under the guise of the old forms, for the present.  That's usually the way it happens, if you'll check your history books.

But in reality, the nation you and I grew up in no longer exists.  The outward appearance of a democratic republic is merely an empty shell now, and everyone is at the mercy of the Trumpocracy.

Despite Robert Reich's optimism, it just seems to me this state of things is not going to end well, or soon.  But I hope I'm wrong.  What do you think?


Update, 10/10/18, 10:30 pm:

And then there's this.

And this, from Mother Jones:

Click to enlarge.

So what good is a so-called free press now?  Is it in fact already co-opted by backhanded means?  Does it matter?  What does matter at this point?

Does anybody care?

Robert Reich: Unchecked and Unbalanced

Robert Reich: "A Malignant Megalomaniac" and How to Stop HIm

The Trump-O-Matic
one of many intriguing prints and posters available at The Art of Mark Bryan

Robert Reich (b. 1946) is a political commentator, professor, and author who served as Secretary of Labor during the Clinton Administration.  He currently teaches in the Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley.  (Note for the benefit of my overseas truckbuddies:  Berkeley, just across the bay from San Francisco, has always been a hotbed of left-wing thought.  The 1960's were invented there.)

Reich has made a number of short, thought-provoking YouTube essays on the current constitutional crisis;  here is a sampling.

Listen Up, Dems

Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, tells us in two and a half minutes exactly how to proceed from here:



A word to the wise is sufficient. If the wise have any balls.


Honk to Grandmere Mimi at Wounded Bird.