Unlike Hegseth, Noem, Bondi, and Patel, Vought conceived Project 2025 so he doesn't have to lick the Felon's boots. Hegseth, Noem, Bondi, Patel and Vought should all be impeached. Hegseth, Noem, Bondi and Patel should be impeached, not only for violating US laws and violating the civil rights of Americans, but for incompetence. Vought should be impeached for violating the law.
As long as he holds all the power. It's hard to assess his power because, like Steven Miller, his first and greatest talent is his ability to lick various parts of the felon's anatomy without being obsequious. No one knows the full extent of his power, therefore, it's hard to rein it in
Senator, a very accurate tho sobering assessment of a truly heartless, cruel, and weak creep who has been given power to oppress our fellow Americans. It amazes me to see how reprehensible are his comments regarding federal employees. Hope his grim reaper avatar comes back to haunt him soon!
...And he calls himself a Christian, raised in a strict Christian home. The strict part is evident. He is not a good witness or example of Christlike love or behavior. He may be Christian in his mind but definitely not a Christ follower.
Impeached? How about imprisoned? And why was he not prosecuted for breaking the law the last administration? I would like more information about this - and the misuse of OUR dollars. I feel like there is a class action suit in this whole thing - taking OUR money which then goes through channels of congressional appropriation - and basically steals it. While I do not agree with where ALL my money goes, respecting the process is what occurs in in our constitution, which as a citizen I must abide by - why not those in power?
Not once did you mentioned that Vought is a Christian Nationalist--and his goal is to turn the US into a Christian Nationalist country. This is his secret sauce that pours over everything he does. He's not serving the billionaires--they are now serving him to stay protected. PLEASE focus on the Christian Nationalist side of things. Leonard Leo is a big part of OPUS DEI--the Catholic version of Christian Nationalism.
Thank you. Exactly what I was thinking. This is the same White Nationalism of Nazi Germany that dropped 'Christian' as soon as they didn't want the 'church' around anymore. It was always about pure power and greed. It's cruel, racist, corrupt, immoral and death dealing.
They have been slowly but thoroughly planning this for the last 40 years. Now they are out of the shadows and putting it into place.
Their 'belief' is the wealthy and powerful are 'god's chosen' and as god's chosen--they can do no wrong. The flip side of this is--if you aren't wealthy and powerful, you are not 'god's chosen' and as such, those who are 'god's chosen' do not need to care in the least about the 'not god's chosen'. That's why they do not see what they are doing as cruel and hateful. They are so twisted in their thinking that they believe they are 'doing god's work'. You can't argue them out of it--they simply must be defeated and removed.
Sadly, so many of our Congressmen/Senators are sucked into this cult in order to maintain their own wealth and power. As is the Supreme Court.
But as was true in Nazi Germany--they were ultimately defeated because humans lean towards love and creativity, not hate and destruction. Yes, the CN will instill enormous havoc in the meantime.
Hang in there folks....crazy times ahead, but we will get through this. See you all on No Kings Day!
Couldn't agree more. Hard to stomach how long this has been funded and planned. I've witnessed it in various forms for at least 50 years, personally. But it's not strength. I'm with you that strength is in love, creativity, beauty and compassion...
It's quite clear Stephen Miller and Russ Vought run the country, two shadow co-presidents who are all the more dangerous because neither of them craves the celebrity, the publicity, and the adulation that are all that allow Donald to continue to walk upright and breathe.
While the vast orange puppet is lumbering around out there claiming credit for bringing peace to the Middle East (and of course one hopes the peace is real and lasting--it would be graceless indeed to wish more suffering on suffering people merely in hopes of seeing Donald fail) Vought and Miller are in the shadows dismantling the institutional framework of the constitutional republic and preparing for a truly monstrous crackdown on democracy, worse than anything we've seen yet.
They have their $75 billion ICE army, their increasingly corrupt influence at the Pentagon, their takeover of the DOJ, and their massive agitprop network: they don't need their names in the headlines or their pictures plastered all over the universe, and indeed unlike Donald they have enough self-awareness to realize it's bad for the authoritarian cause when people actually focus on them and on what they're doing. Donald, noisy, garrulous, narcissistic, petulant, sucking up attention around the clock, is the perfect distraction.
Remember the idea of a "deep state"? The term was used as a way to smear basic government workers and the services they provide with taxpayer money. Whereas, in fact, the deep state is, and always has been, the billionaires, corporate thieves, and polluters--and killers of all things public, along with their army of lobbyists, that is the real deep state.
. . .and 40 percent of "the people" apparently still think, that's okay.
Well, the billionaires get what they pay for, unlike we the people. This will continue as long as the rich are allowed to have politicians in their pockets, no matter which party.
Over the last 30 years, all too many laws with more stringent guardrails for politicians have been overturned, with help from Democrats. Shame on them and shame on voters for not throwing them out.
Thank you, David Hogg, for attempting to change this system.
There will have to be a reckoning, and it can't be "business as usual" because what Vought, Vance, Noem, Bondi, Patel and so many others is not political "business as usual". Just as the Nuremburg Trials had to first define what constituted a "war crime", a new tribunal will have to determine a new kind of "political crime". Attempting to destroy the Constitution might be a place to start because the Constitution is the highest law of the land. Trump and his wrecking crew are trying to demolish it.
All true. Vought exercises, in the old pattern of abuse of position, power without responsibility. But he's only the end point in the long tradition that "Government is the problem" as Donald Duck, aka as Ronald Reagan, put it. The desire to starve government of resources, cut its ability to make the rich pay any taxes or help the poor and middle-class in any way is the driving impulse of Republicans and always has been. Trump 2 is only the same Republican class war on steroids. The simple creed of American billionaires, the IT barons and financial predators, the lords of carbon emissions and propaganda media like Fox News, is socialism for the rich: What they have is to keep, and what everyone else has is for them to take. Government is to help them get to their goals. They don't have a problem with a demented felon and sexual predator like Trump, or his mentally challenged tools such as Vought and Patel, to get what they want: a country ruled by them, for them, and exploiting the hundreds of millions of ordinary Americans with a pretense of democracy and a heavy dose of right-wing racist and xenophobic poison.
Russell Vought was a key author of Project 2025, a document proposing a way of taking over America's democracy and replacing it with Autocratic Fascism. Putting Trump into the Oval Office allowed him to implement it. America is now an Autocratic Fascist state.
What started out as a money grab (literally billions) has turned into a coup d'etat insurrection. America now has the unenviable task of trying to recover its democracy. Some universities and law firms we have found not up to the task of standing tall for democracy. They have bent low with fear and have "kissed the ring".
But others, patriots, have said firmly "NO, NOT ON MY WATCH"! It is these we should support, buy from and help to recover our democracy.
We do not have much time. It IS now or never. We either take back our democracy or we bequeath to our children a life under the thumb of Autocratic Fascism.
It scares me to think that if Trump, for whatever reason, is out of the picture, we’re going to be ruled by the unholy triumvirate of Vance, Miller and Voight.
But we must be prepared for a long and ugly fight because the billionaire robber barons have used Trumphuk and the Magamaniacs to destroy our checks and balances.
My concern is that the “figuring out” will mean violence being use to quell the opposition. Will we be ready to stand up to that?
Passing the CR would do it. After that, have Congress get its head out of its ass and make passing a budget their first priority as soon as they're sworn in. Then we won't have to deal with these stupid partisan CR fights.
For quite some time I have been a fan of yours, Senator Whitehouse. I always enjoy your chats with Lawrence O'Donnell on The Last Word. This expose of the vile Russell Vought is long overdue and should be required reading for those of us who still cling to the hope that our country can be saved from people like him. For his ilk, it's "The Constitution be damned," feed it through a shredder and replace it with Project 2025. It's not enough that the the top 1% own an outsized share of the wealth and power in this country. They want it ALL and stooges such as Vought are aiding and abetting them. Alas, what can you expect when there's a mental midget convicted felon at the top of the executive branch? A plague on all of them.
Unlike Hegseth, Noem, Bondi, and Patel, Vought conceived Project 2025 so he doesn't have to lick the Felon's boots. Hegseth, Noem, Bondi, Patel and Vought should all be impeached. Hegseth, Noem, Bondi and Patel should be impeached, not only for violating US laws and violating the civil rights of Americans, but for incompetence. Vought should be impeached for violating the law.
Vought is the real anarchist. He would be fine with no government at all.
As long as he holds all the power. It's hard to assess his power because, like Steven Miller, his first and greatest talent is his ability to lick various parts of the felon's anatomy without being obsequious. No one knows the full extent of his power, therefore, it's hard to rein it in
Senator, a very accurate tho sobering assessment of a truly heartless, cruel, and weak creep who has been given power to oppress our fellow Americans. It amazes me to see how reprehensible are his comments regarding federal employees. Hope his grim reaper avatar comes back to haunt him soon!
...And he calls himself a Christian, raised in a strict Christian home. The strict part is evident. He is not a good witness or example of Christlike love or behavior. He may be Christian in his mind but definitely not a Christ follower.
Impeached? How about imprisoned? And why was he not prosecuted for breaking the law the last administration? I would like more information about this - and the misuse of OUR dollars. I feel like there is a class action suit in this whole thing - taking OUR money which then goes through channels of congressional appropriation - and basically steals it. While I do not agree with where ALL my money goes, respecting the process is what occurs in in our constitution, which as a citizen I must abide by - why not those in power?
Vought. He’s no tool. He has full agency and should be held to account for it. To the fullest extent of the law.
Not once did you mentioned that Vought is a Christian Nationalist--and his goal is to turn the US into a Christian Nationalist country. This is his secret sauce that pours over everything he does. He's not serving the billionaires--they are now serving him to stay protected. PLEASE focus on the Christian Nationalist side of things. Leonard Leo is a big part of OPUS DEI--the Catholic version of Christian Nationalism.
Thank you. Exactly what I was thinking. This is the same White Nationalism of Nazi Germany that dropped 'Christian' as soon as they didn't want the 'church' around anymore. It was always about pure power and greed. It's cruel, racist, corrupt, immoral and death dealing.
The truth matters.
They have been slowly but thoroughly planning this for the last 40 years. Now they are out of the shadows and putting it into place.
Their 'belief' is the wealthy and powerful are 'god's chosen' and as god's chosen--they can do no wrong. The flip side of this is--if you aren't wealthy and powerful, you are not 'god's chosen' and as such, those who are 'god's chosen' do not need to care in the least about the 'not god's chosen'. That's why they do not see what they are doing as cruel and hateful. They are so twisted in their thinking that they believe they are 'doing god's work'. You can't argue them out of it--they simply must be defeated and removed.
Sadly, so many of our Congressmen/Senators are sucked into this cult in order to maintain their own wealth and power. As is the Supreme Court.
But as was true in Nazi Germany--they were ultimately defeated because humans lean towards love and creativity, not hate and destruction. Yes, the CN will instill enormous havoc in the meantime.
Hang in there folks....crazy times ahead, but we will get through this. See you all on No Kings Day!
Couldn't agree more. Hard to stomach how long this has been funded and planned. I've witnessed it in various forms for at least 50 years, personally. But it's not strength. I'm with you that strength is in love, creativity, beauty and compassion...
Vought is a Fascist. Read Project 2025.
It's quite clear Stephen Miller and Russ Vought run the country, two shadow co-presidents who are all the more dangerous because neither of them craves the celebrity, the publicity, and the adulation that are all that allow Donald to continue to walk upright and breathe.
While the vast orange puppet is lumbering around out there claiming credit for bringing peace to the Middle East (and of course one hopes the peace is real and lasting--it would be graceless indeed to wish more suffering on suffering people merely in hopes of seeing Donald fail) Vought and Miller are in the shadows dismantling the institutional framework of the constitutional republic and preparing for a truly monstrous crackdown on democracy, worse than anything we've seen yet.
They have their $75 billion ICE army, their increasingly corrupt influence at the Pentagon, their takeover of the DOJ, and their massive agitprop network: they don't need their names in the headlines or their pictures plastered all over the universe, and indeed unlike Donald they have enough self-awareness to realize it's bad for the authoritarian cause when people actually focus on them and on what they're doing. Donald, noisy, garrulous, narcissistic, petulant, sucking up attention around the clock, is the perfect distraction.
Yup… these puppet masters are running the clown show
Remember the idea of a "deep state"? The term was used as a way to smear basic government workers and the services they provide with taxpayer money. Whereas, in fact, the deep state is, and always has been, the billionaires, corporate thieves, and polluters--and killers of all things public, along with their army of lobbyists, that is the real deep state.
. . .and 40 percent of "the people" apparently still think, that's okay.
Amazing that ~40 percent of Americans still cannot see Trumphuk as anything but a corrupt criminal conman.
Well, the billionaires get what they pay for, unlike we the people. This will continue as long as the rich are allowed to have politicians in their pockets, no matter which party.
Over the last 30 years, all too many laws with more stringent guardrails for politicians have been overturned, with help from Democrats. Shame on them and shame on voters for not throwing them out.
Thank you, David Hogg, for attempting to change this system.
There will have to be a reckoning, and it can't be "business as usual" because what Vought, Vance, Noem, Bondi, Patel and so many others is not political "business as usual". Just as the Nuremburg Trials had to first define what constituted a "war crime", a new tribunal will have to determine a new kind of "political crime". Attempting to destroy the Constitution might be a place to start because the Constitution is the highest law of the land. Trump and his wrecking crew are trying to demolish it.
All true. Vought exercises, in the old pattern of abuse of position, power without responsibility. But he's only the end point in the long tradition that "Government is the problem" as Donald Duck, aka as Ronald Reagan, put it. The desire to starve government of resources, cut its ability to make the rich pay any taxes or help the poor and middle-class in any way is the driving impulse of Republicans and always has been. Trump 2 is only the same Republican class war on steroids. The simple creed of American billionaires, the IT barons and financial predators, the lords of carbon emissions and propaganda media like Fox News, is socialism for the rich: What they have is to keep, and what everyone else has is for them to take. Government is to help them get to their goals. They don't have a problem with a demented felon and sexual predator like Trump, or his mentally challenged tools such as Vought and Patel, to get what they want: a country ruled by them, for them, and exploiting the hundreds of millions of ordinary Americans with a pretense of democracy and a heavy dose of right-wing racist and xenophobic poison.
Spread this piece as widely as you are able. Whitehouse is actually at the scene of the crime, not at some mike in rural Texas watching only FOX.
Russell Vought was a key author of Project 2025, a document proposing a way of taking over America's democracy and replacing it with Autocratic Fascism. Putting Trump into the Oval Office allowed him to implement it. America is now an Autocratic Fascist state.
What started out as a money grab (literally billions) has turned into a coup d'etat insurrection. America now has the unenviable task of trying to recover its democracy. Some universities and law firms we have found not up to the task of standing tall for democracy. They have bent low with fear and have "kissed the ring".
But others, patriots, have said firmly "NO, NOT ON MY WATCH"! It is these we should support, buy from and help to recover our democracy.
We do not have much time. It IS now or never. We either take back our democracy or we bequeath to our children a life under the thumb of Autocratic Fascism.
The way I see it, it is as simple as that.
It scares me to think that if Trump, for whatever reason, is out of the picture, we’re going to be ruled by the unholy triumvirate of Vance, Miller and Voight.
But…. WE ALREADY ARE!!
We must now figure out how to get our democracy "of the people, by the people & for the people", back.
But we must be prepared for a long and ugly fight because the billionaire robber barons have used Trumphuk and the Magamaniacs to destroy our checks and balances.
My concern is that the “figuring out” will mean violence being use to quell the opposition. Will we be ready to stand up to that?
So, what can be done about him???
"So, what can be done about him???"
Passing the CR would do it. After that, have Congress get its head out of its ass and make passing a budget their first priority as soon as they're sworn in. Then we won't have to deal with these stupid partisan CR fights.
I have been telling my friends about this before the election. Tell him to move to “Talibania”
For quite some time I have been a fan of yours, Senator Whitehouse. I always enjoy your chats with Lawrence O'Donnell on The Last Word. This expose of the vile Russell Vought is long overdue and should be required reading for those of us who still cling to the hope that our country can be saved from people like him. For his ilk, it's "The Constitution be damned," feed it through a shredder and replace it with Project 2025. It's not enough that the the top 1% own an outsized share of the wealth and power in this country. They want it ALL and stooges such as Vought are aiding and abetting them. Alas, what can you expect when there's a mental midget convicted felon at the top of the executive branch? A plague on all of them.