I went to bed last night frightened. I am 79 years old, and I missed the comforting words of my parents. I marched this weekend in mid/coast ME -your words this morning echoed the mood and the extreme distaste for this man, his policies and his people.
Once again, thank you for your guidance a fierce defense of our democracy.
It's so easy to let our fears run away with us, especially in the quiet of the night. But please remember that there are millions of us who feel the same way. None of us are alone. We're in this fight together, and we're not giving up. Hugs!
you are doing what your parents did...they stood up and i am sure you will too. i am 77. it is our job to share the truths that stood the test of time with enthusiasm!
Another 77- year old here, and beyond disgusted with what a degenerate army of wealthy, ambitious, parasitic, lying bigots who wallow in willful ignorance (and promote it!) have done, are doing, and trying to do, to our country.
Picture a huge, complex machine, tunneling into our government structures, media, and the social fabric of the USA, funneling progressively to their few pockets the fruits of our citizens' labors, and the very hard labors of immigrants whether documented, pending, undocumented, children born here of immigrant parents, or naturalized. Power follows money, and that obscene wealth enables further concentration of power into fewer hands. For a nation grounded in "power to the people" and "provision for the Greater Good," we are now in some deep, deep tapioca.
The ONLY way out is to pull TOGETHER, relentlessly, until the whole "house" is fumigated and we can begin the hard work to put things right (NOT right-wing).
You'd think we'd have learned by now..... And for the sake of ALL that we cherish, if we get the chance again, VOTE!!!
Do not, as many animals do, freeze when they become frightened. It is time to rise up, protest, send emails, write letters, make phone calls; in short meet the threat with 'good trouble' as John Lewis did at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and afterward as he worked for Civil Rights in Congress.
I figure if John Lewis and others could get through that, I can get through this. And I am at the point in life(75) where if they kill me, I’ve had a good run. I am not complacent but calm. As for sleep, try a tiny dose (0.25mg) of melatonin. 👹
I'm 82 and fortunate to be in a good financial position to weather the awful storm that's coming. But without parents that got me on the road to being prosperous (they certainly weren't), I would be agonizing about the future. I hear you, and I'm with you.
I'm 74 and also really worried in spite of all of my communication with members of Congress, my state AG, and my Governor. I feel like we're really unprotected in so many ways. That said, it feels really good to have solid support from the communities that have grown up around The Contrarian and Heather Cox Richardson, as just a couple of examples.
I think at a certain level of disapproval, Republican legislstors will start to sweat, and maybe pull back. But it’s all about whether they can get reelected. Is that too cynical??
I think you left a couple reasons off the list of why Republicans would support the Big Bullshit Bill. First: They are making big bucks off the wide-open grifting policies of Trump. Second: They honestly don't give a flying F#@K about the middle class or the poor.
It's really not hard to find out what / how our electeds are supporting. People just like to post about soundbites that often aren't backed up by their actions.
Here are the 18 Democratic Senators who voted in favor of the GENIUS Act when it passed the Senate on June 17, 2025 (68–30):
1. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D‑MD) – co‑sponsor and staunch advocate 
2. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D‑NY) – helped negotiate the bill and defended it
3. Sen. Mark Warner (D‑VA) – delivered a public endorsement
4. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D‑MI) – described it as a “good‑faith, bipartisan start” 
5. Sen. Cory Booker (D‑NJ) – named among supporting Democrats
6. Sen. Adam Schiff (D‑CA) – also listed 
From the Senate Banking Committee markup stage, five Democrats backed the initial version:
7. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D‑MA) – though she later voted against the final bill  
8. Sen. Jack Reed (D‑RI)
9. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D‑MD)
10. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D‑NV) 
11. Sen. Tina Smith (D‑MN) 
Additional Senate Democrats who supported the final version include:
12. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D‑GA)
13. Sen. Andy Kim (D‑NJ) 
14. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D‑AZ) 
15. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D‑DE) 
16. Sen. Mark Warner (D‑VA) – included above
17. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R‑TN) – Republican sponsor
That’s 18 Democrats total. Notably, Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley opposed the final bill over anti‑corruption concerns  .
We should be shouting from the rafters to the DNC: Replay footage, replay footage. Trump, Vance, Noem, Hegseth feed us a daily diet of outrage. We don't have to write any new text at all. Road signs about gutting SNAP which helps feed 47 million Americans (heard on NPR last night), inviting Russia back into the G7, calling out the Marines for demonstration in a small part of LA County which, OBTW, has an economy and a population larger than most states, and certainly most red states. But focus on SNAP, Medicare and Medicaid Cuts. There's tons of beneficiaries out there in the RED states who didn't vote for starvation.
Please confront Congressional Republicans. You may have to implant a spine in some of them, but there is internal dissension and we only need a few to come forward.
When talking to Congressional Republicans, why not encourage them to leave their caucus in order to best defend their constituents? They can then vote against the awful bill and the awful agenda in one fell swoop and save the country with honor and likely with popular support at home. One or two will start setting up a permission structure for more.
All politics is local and Republicans in blue states have to be afraid of their constituents. Where I live 3 MAGATS represent a Dem majority. All are Cuban Americans, who are targeted by Trump as DEI regardless of what he says.
California has 9 Republican House members, who should see that Trump is attacking their constituents.
It seems evident to me that many, or most, Congressional and Senatorial Republicans do not have "best defend their constituents" anywhere near the top of their agendas, unless it might entail incidental fallout from a local project with outside funding that keeps them in good odor with donors for re-election campaigns.
These are not statesmen; they are parasitic worms. We need to start doing due diligence with our candidates. Keep up the good work, Contrarians and other Substackers!!!
The bill is a gargantuan pile of slop, cruelty and financial incoherence. It got passed in the middle of the night for good reason. It's a mess in search of a brain, not unlike Dr. Frankenstein's creature. It should not be difficult to keep driving this point home.
Well, if/when it passes, they'll find out the hard way! Just wait until their local hospital closes down and the nearest hospital is a 2-hour drive away.
But it will be too late then. Even assuming the Democrats score big in the midterms, will those hospitals reopen? Will all those people get back onto Medicaid? What about all the medical research projects that have gotten stopped? And all the people who have died around the world because US food aid and AIDS drugs have been cut off? I am fighting and acting every day, but the above is what leads me to despair.
We constantly see 35-37% of our population in favor of malicious action, such sending people to the El Salvador prisons. We are a nation with many hateful people. We need all decent people engaged, as Jennifer suggests.
There are seemingly people out there so terrible they look at the footage of CECOT and think "Yes, we should definitely send more poeple there who haven't been charged with any crime other than entering the US illegally" - or, legally, in the case of multiple asylum seekers from Venezuela, it's just that the law changed on them. We're a nation filled with ugly, hateful people.
What's scary is that there are non-jillionaires out there who have a favorable impression of this ignorant bill, most of which wasn't even read by the representatives who voted for it. That's why, though it's encouraging to see these polls, it's also a bit discouraging that people don't understand what's in the bill, or worse, are in favor of it.
In the video conversation between Jen Rubin and Wisconsin Senator Baldwin yesterday (Wednesday), the senator described her experience in Wisconsin. Voters in that state came with real-life examples of the personal devastation of Medicaid cuts - families without caregivers, closed rural hospitals, canceled health insurance, and emergency rooms filled beyond capacity.
I recommend that interview. Rubin and Baldwin describe a health-care environment that is unthinkable but very likely if the Big Ugly Bill becomes law. Democrats should not pass up an opportunity to hang this on Republicans.
Being well-informed is hard work and many of the politically apathetic are also lazy. Somehow we need to find a bunch of hooks to gain their interest and then to be more involved. A lot of the things the Big Ugly Bill would lead to cannot be undone in the short term. Force the closure of a little rural hospital - the people who made it function, will move on. The tRumpcession could become a longterm depression.
I went to bed last night frightened. I am 79 years old, and I missed the comforting words of my parents. I marched this weekend in mid/coast ME -your words this morning echoed the mood and the extreme distaste for this man, his policies and his people.
Once again, thank you for your guidance a fierce defense of our democracy.
It's so easy to let our fears run away with us, especially in the quiet of the night. But please remember that there are millions of us who feel the same way. None of us are alone. We're in this fight together, and we're not giving up. Hugs!
You aren't alone. Frightening times, unsettled sleep all around. Be strong...
you are doing what your parents did...they stood up and i am sure you will too. i am 77. it is our job to share the truths that stood the test of time with enthusiasm!
I'm also 77 and am right with you.
Standing with the other 375+ people in my small town in peaceful protest last Saturday
felt like the right approach. There was that air of enthusiasm present. More is needed.
Another 77- year old here, and beyond disgusted with what a degenerate army of wealthy, ambitious, parasitic, lying bigots who wallow in willful ignorance (and promote it!) have done, are doing, and trying to do, to our country.
Picture a huge, complex machine, tunneling into our government structures, media, and the social fabric of the USA, funneling progressively to their few pockets the fruits of our citizens' labors, and the very hard labors of immigrants whether documented, pending, undocumented, children born here of immigrant parents, or naturalized. Power follows money, and that obscene wealth enables further concentration of power into fewer hands. For a nation grounded in "power to the people" and "provision for the Greater Good," we are now in some deep, deep tapioca.
The ONLY way out is to pull TOGETHER, relentlessly, until the whole "house" is fumigated and we can begin the hard work to put things right (NOT right-wing).
You'd think we'd have learned by now..... And for the sake of ALL that we cherish, if we get the chance again, VOTE!!!
I go to bed frightened and dismayed every night. You are not alone.
Do not, as many animals do, freeze when they become frightened. It is time to rise up, protest, send emails, write letters, make phone calls; in short meet the threat with 'good trouble' as John Lewis did at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and afterward as he worked for Civil Rights in Congress.
I figure if John Lewis and others could get through that, I can get through this. And I am at the point in life(75) where if they kill me, I’ve had a good run. I am not complacent but calm. As for sleep, try a tiny dose (0.25mg) of melatonin. 👹
I think you meant to write that only 14% of people approve of a war with Iran.
I'm 82 and fortunate to be in a good financial position to weather the awful storm that's coming. But without parents that got me on the road to being prosperous (they certainly weren't), I would be agonizing about the future. I hear you, and I'm with you.
I'm 74 and also really worried in spite of all of my communication with members of Congress, my state AG, and my Governor. I feel like we're really unprotected in so many ways. That said, it feels really good to have solid support from the communities that have grown up around The Contrarian and Heather Cox Richardson, as just a couple of examples.
Public disapproval of the Big Rotten Bill should be 80%!
Could we be more confident that our disapproval will induce any Republican legislators to change their support for The Awful Bill?
I think at a certain level of disapproval, Republican legislstors will start to sweat, and maybe pull back. But it’s all about whether they can get reelected. Is that too cynical??
The Republican Party is gone. Nothing can be said about MAGA that is too cynical.
All things observed and considered, no it is not.
I think you left a couple reasons off the list of why Republicans would support the Big Bullshit Bill. First: They are making big bucks off the wide-open grifting policies of Trump. Second: They honestly don't give a flying F#@K about the middle class or the poor.
And too many Democrats are joining them in supporting another bill on Crypto which will benefit the grifters.
I hate this.
Very true and disgusting.
Joining? Gillibrand & Alsobrooks were the main Dem co-sponsors!
Add Adam Schiff and Ruben Gallego as supporters of this horrid bill.
It's really not hard to find out what / how our electeds are supporting. People just like to post about soundbites that often aren't backed up by their actions.
Here are the 18 Democratic Senators who voted in favor of the GENIUS Act when it passed the Senate on June 17, 2025 (68–30):
1. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D‑MD) – co‑sponsor and staunch advocate 
2. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D‑NY) – helped negotiate the bill and defended it
3. Sen. Mark Warner (D‑VA) – delivered a public endorsement
4. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D‑MI) – described it as a “good‑faith, bipartisan start” 
5. Sen. Cory Booker (D‑NJ) – named among supporting Democrats
6. Sen. Adam Schiff (D‑CA) – also listed 
From the Senate Banking Committee markup stage, five Democrats backed the initial version:
7. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D‑MA) – though she later voted against the final bill  
8. Sen. Jack Reed (D‑RI)
9. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D‑MD)
10. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D‑NV) 
11. Sen. Tina Smith (D‑MN) 
Additional Senate Democrats who supported the final version include:
12. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D‑GA)
13. Sen. Andy Kim (D‑NJ) 
14. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D‑AZ) 
15. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D‑DE) 
16. Sen. Mark Warner (D‑VA) – included above
17. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R‑TN) – Republican sponsor
That’s 18 Democrats total. Notably, Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley opposed the final bill over anti‑corruption concerns  .
We should be shouting from the rafters to the DNC: Replay footage, replay footage. Trump, Vance, Noem, Hegseth feed us a daily diet of outrage. We don't have to write any new text at all. Road signs about gutting SNAP which helps feed 47 million Americans (heard on NPR last night), inviting Russia back into the G7, calling out the Marines for demonstration in a small part of LA County which, OBTW, has an economy and a population larger than most states, and certainly most red states. But focus on SNAP, Medicare and Medicaid Cuts. There's tons of beneficiaries out there in the RED states who didn't vote for starvation.
This is exactly right. That security camera video of the daylight abduction in Somerville, MA begs for the caption, "This is your Republican Party."
Agree! So why don't the DNC and Dem-supporting groups "flood the zone" as the Repubs do!?
The $64 question
Cruelty is all the Republicans have to offer the majority of Americans.
Please confront Congressional Republicans. You may have to implant a spine in some of them, but there is internal dissension and we only need a few to come forward.
When talking to Congressional Republicans, why not encourage them to leave their caucus in order to best defend their constituents? They can then vote against the awful bill and the awful agenda in one fell swoop and save the country with honor and likely with popular support at home. One or two will start setting up a permission structure for more.
That's what Jerry Weiss et al have been doing.
All politics is local and Republicans in blue states have to be afraid of their constituents. Where I live 3 MAGATS represent a Dem majority. All are Cuban Americans, who are targeted by Trump as DEI regardless of what he says.
California has 9 Republican House members, who should see that Trump is attacking their constituents.
Only takes about 3 to derail the Trump agenda.
It seems evident to me that many, or most, Congressional and Senatorial Republicans do not have "best defend their constituents" anywhere near the top of their agendas, unless it might entail incidental fallout from a local project with outside funding that keeps them in good odor with donors for re-election campaigns.
These are not statesmen; they are parasitic worms. We need to start doing due diligence with our candidates. Keep up the good work, Contrarians and other Substackers!!!
Only need a few.
https://news.yahoo.com/news/senate-gop-leader-faces-pushback-100000271.html
The bill is a gargantuan pile of slop, cruelty and financial incoherence. It got passed in the middle of the night for good reason. It's a mess in search of a brain, not unlike Dr. Frankenstein's creature. It should not be difficult to keep driving this point home.
"Why Republicans Toil in the Wee Hours" https://substack.com/home/post/p-164157490
My question is: How many people who live in a Fox/Sinclair/Lee media bubble even know about all of the bad stuff in the bill?
Well, if/when it passes, they'll find out the hard way! Just wait until their local hospital closes down and the nearest hospital is a 2-hour drive away.
But it will be too late then. Even assuming the Democrats score big in the midterms, will those hospitals reopen? Will all those people get back onto Medicaid? What about all the medical research projects that have gotten stopped? And all the people who have died around the world because US food aid and AIDS drugs have been cut off? I am fighting and acting every day, but the above is what leads me to despair.
ZERO. And when we present the facts, they scream "fake news!"
And the Republicans are working hard to KEEP it that way.
You forgot Murdoch...
We constantly see 35-37% of our population in favor of malicious action, such sending people to the El Salvador prisons. We are a nation with many hateful people. We need all decent people engaged, as Jennifer suggests.
There are seemingly people out there so terrible they look at the footage of CECOT and think "Yes, we should definitely send more poeple there who haven't been charged with any crime other than entering the US illegally" - or, legally, in the case of multiple asylum seekers from Venezuela, it's just that the law changed on them. We're a nation filled with ugly, hateful people.
Only a part of the population. If 1/3 is awful, the rest are either woke or persuadable. 👹
Certainly a lot more of them than I once thought.
Cruelty is their love language.
As Hamilton's King George III sings: "I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love."
That's nicely put.
This is a question I ask the LIVs (low information voters): “Can you name one thing Republicans have passed that makes your life better?”
"Topically, less than 16 percent, and less than 1/4 of Republicans, disapprove of jumping into a war against Iran."
Did you mean to say approve instead of disapprove?
I have the same question.
What's scary is that there are non-jillionaires out there who have a favorable impression of this ignorant bill, most of which wasn't even read by the representatives who voted for it. That's why, though it's encouraging to see these polls, it's also a bit discouraging that people don't understand what's in the bill, or worse, are in favor of it.
In the video conversation between Jen Rubin and Wisconsin Senator Baldwin yesterday (Wednesday), the senator described her experience in Wisconsin. Voters in that state came with real-life examples of the personal devastation of Medicaid cuts - families without caregivers, closed rural hospitals, canceled health insurance, and emergency rooms filled beyond capacity.
I recommend that interview. Rubin and Baldwin describe a health-care environment that is unthinkable but very likely if the Big Ugly Bill becomes law. Democrats should not pass up an opportunity to hang this on Republicans.
Being well-informed is hard work and many of the politically apathetic are also lazy. Somehow we need to find a bunch of hooks to gain their interest and then to be more involved. A lot of the things the Big Ugly Bill would lead to cannot be undone in the short term. Force the closure of a little rural hospital - the people who made it function, will move on. The tRumpcession could become a longterm depression.
Throw the bums out!
Co-opt them first. Time is fleeting....https://jerryweiss.substack.com/