Osoff mentioned her and the Qatari plane and it has gone viral. Maybe that`s the one two punch.
I've had a thought that has been stuck in my head for two days that feels like when a song gets stuck in your head.
I wonder if Dolly Parton (may she rest in peace) is the blond woman who takes Trump down?
I don't know how or why, but the thought won't leave me alone.
A fleeting thought while reading your post....what if "blonde woman" were an archetype or perhaps a collective? Lots of blondes are in a position to put out the banana peel...even Ivana from the great beyond..or from the grave. I would love to see that coffin raised. Um, "gold" is an adjective sometimes used to describe blonde hair, if you get my drift.
While waking this morning and thinking about nothing in particular, a vision popped in my head a regular playing card -- King of Diamonds (money energy and greed), and I knew it was Trump and then an Ace of Diamonds. It just popped up in my psyche, like a news story. It is likely about how much money he's making off the presidency. Every time he posts something about Iran war agreements, Canada tariffs on and off, he and his kids and his entourage make a fortune in the markets. That is why he keeps doing it.
Then I googled for news about Trump. I already knew about the 2.2 billion he made last year, but there's more.
I keep "seeing" him using the Iran war as a money making stock market insider trading game. For him it is (allegedly) like taking candy from a baby, only the baby consists of thousands of investors, including everyday people who he is cheating with insider trading. Then cbsnews.com posted this: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trumps-oil-gas-stock-trades-iran-war/
He just allegedly executes insider trades, then sits on Truth Social, making the markets swing back and forth. But I think you all already know this, right?
As David Eisenhower III said privately to me in a gathering I happened to attend in July,Trump is a caricature and a transitional figure. I figured he meant, a caricature of greed, and corruption for money and the worst of America but I didn't ask him what he meant. Transitional to what? I asked. "To the democrats," he replied, meaning he's an extreme of the darkest corruption in politics and that will cause the country to swing left.
Trump incorporated dozens of companies before taking office in 2025 and never stopped.
I've been getting an impression over the last week that the Republicans as a party will be hurting for the rest of this year and all of next year. (I don't get a sense of them beyond this timeframe.)
You know how your whole body hurts and feels constricted after you've spent a night in winter without enough blankets to keep you warm? That's the constriction I feel that the GOP's party infrastructure will experience over the next 18 months.
Some time ago, I made a rather long post in response to someone who was subsequently removed from the board for reasons I can't remember, and in removing his posts/threads, my reply was also unfortunately lost, so I can't reference it directly. I believe it was before the 2022 midterms, and I wrote that after that election, the Rs would prove beyond doubt that they are incapable of governing, and that it would mean the end of the R party, with the swing to the left beginning in earnest with the 2024 elections. Obviously, I was wrong, but I think perhaps only because my timing was two years early. What I said seems to have certainly proven out these last two years in spades. R failures have been, are, and will continue to be writ large for the next two years. R candidates are falling left and right, especially those who have been endorsed by the Orange One, almost as if his endorsement and support are not only toxic, but a huge and blatant millstone around their necks.
I also wrote that it was not just the demise of the R party, but also the end of party politics in general. It's still a bit early days, and I'm not sure I expect too many changes on the Senate side yet, but the tide is changing rapidly. The fact that more dem socialist aligned candidates are beginning to make serious inroads within the D side seems to bear this out. People are tired of the same old, same old even among the Ds, and politicians like Mamdani and Al-Sayed - along with those who are already there, like Cortez and her compatriots - seem to be in the process of surging. Progressives are also taking local elections and down-ballot races, where their influence matters most directly to voters.
The DNC seems to be quietly very unhappy that their squeaky clean, hand-picked stooges are losing. I used to be pretty solidly of the mind that Jeffries would win the gavel for the next Congress without issue, and he may yet, but there are also more insistent rumblings that he may be too close to the corporate D party to hold on to it for too long, and I would not be at all surprised to see him beaten out by a much more progressive option.
I'm sure there will be a lot of tomfoolery with this year's elections, but I also think that many of the contested seats will be won by such wide margins that even cheating and frivolous lawsuits won't help the Rs this time. I think in the end, we will have a fairly solid D majority in the House, and perhaps even a slight majority in the Senate, though not enough there to be able to force things through quickly, and of course, we will still have to contend with the sorely mentally and physically compromised Orange One's continued rubber stamping of Heritage Foundation policies.
All in all, the next two years will be chaotic as the Ds do everything they can to stop new things and try to reverse old ones, as well as the myriad investigations and potential impeachments take over the news cycles. I just hope the messaging to the public gets more open and honest about what's actually been going on and who's really behind it all.
What came to me today while focusing on the midterms and aftermath:
I saw the U.S. as a boat that is listing heavily to one side. The boat is our democracy—badly battered, taking on water, and dangerously close to capsizing.
Yet I also see a powerful counterforce building toward the midterms. My sense is that voters will give Democrats a majority in both houses of Congress.
A Democratic victory would give people a stronger voice and create the conditions for repairing our democracy. The repair itself would take determination, cooperation, and time.
There is more that I see: A blue sweep would not bring immediate stability or the kind of ending we see in movies, where justice arrives and all the wrongdoers are led away and the good guys are laughing and hugging at the end. T would still be president, and he would fight to keep his power.
In my vision, the boat has leaning until it is low in the water towards authoritarianism and economic collapse. A blue sweep would shift its weight in the other direction. But then it would swing back again, tossing from side to side as factions within both parties struggle for power. It will not be in balance, but that is how the process will eventually find balance.
The ocean waves represent the American collective’s emotions—the shifting anger, fear, hopes, and demands created by propaganda and lies in social media, and the dashed hopes, demands, and expectations of so many Americans.
The divisiveness and turmoil are striking. I can feel them because, in the vision, I am also in that boat, trying to stand and move without falling. Each step I take causes the boat to quickly lean one way then the other. There is no keel, it seems.
I see the president standing up and trying to walk to the back of the boat. I see he is going for a gas tank there, which makes me think the motor must be sputtering. His presidency has run out of gas, literally (Hormuz crisis) and figuratively (the majority of Americans think he is an incompetent conman).
The fuel also brings to mind gasoline itself. The high prices and scarcity of gas and diesel fuel that he caused, is a major source of collective anger toward him, and a problem he cannot fix.
As the waves toss the boat, he has to step carefully to keep his balance.
After the midterms, I see him having to sit down to keep from falling overboard. He takes up the oars and rows like hell through the turbulent waters of American sentiment.
The rowing feels important. He is losing power, but he keeps finding ways to move forward. Drawing attention away from the things he does not want people to examine.
So when does the country and the democracy become stable and strong?
2029-30: I feel that the president who takes office in 2029 will be a Democrat, probably someone closer to the center, although it is too early for me to be confident about that person’s politics. If the presidential election were today, I feel it would be Newsom, with Ossoff, or possibly Buttigieg or AOC. A few months ago I was seeing Gretchen Whitmore and Newsom, but these visions shift as their standing shifts. We will get a better sense next year.
During 2029, I see Congress passing laws intended to keep our democracy from coming this close to capsizing again.
By around 2030, I sense greater stability in the country, the economy, and our relationships with the world. I don’t mean that everyone will agree. I mean enough unity to begin facing the climate and AI crises with the sustained attention they require.
This fits a prediction I posted in 2015: that democracy would take a beating during the 2020s, but emerge in tact from the decade in time to face the climate crisis, except now we have a greater, more dire and immediate crisis -- the AI crisis. We have to address AI sooner.
I am hearing that song from the 70s. Rock the Boat
Our love is like a ship on the ocean, we've been sailing with a cargo full of love and devotion.
@jeanne-mayell Thank you for sharing your vision of the boat. Somehow it feels reassuring that there's no happily-ever-after waiting for us following the midterms. By that I mean, we know there is so much work to do to clean up the current mess and to codify laws that ensure this never happens again in the US. We're not going to sugarcoat the ugly reality and wish it away, like those in power did after the Civil War. We're going to painstakingly redefine our country for the better through concrete actions, even if it's a messy process. It feels achievable and 2030 isn't too far away, if we use the next 3 1/2 years wisely.
@jeanne-mayell I "feel" that Gavin Newsome is not a good fit.... that.. in fact if he got in office he would be like a smarter more savvy orange 2.0. Not the hope we are working for.
I feel more like Kelly/Ossoff/Buttigieg (Secretary of State) line up would be our saving Grace.
I myself? Would love to see Ossify President, Kelly VP,Buttiegieg Secretary of State.