Opinion

Either I have firsthand evidence that the Republicans are barking up the wrong trees in their desperation to raise midterm funds, or I’m being trolled by them – or both.

This started about a week ago when I received the strangest and most hilarious email from none other than JD Vance, who has been identified in some circles as the Vice President of the United States – crazy as that seems. It was addressed to “Ray Liberalitus,” which I’m imagining has to be a purposeful misspelled slur on my proud liberalism (“Liberalitis”?).

The number one complaint I hear from liberals is that Democrats “aren’t doing anything” to push back against the illegitimate Trump regime. I understand why they might feel that way, but it also bugs me when people complain without offering solutions.

We’ve needed a dedicated Democratic Press Secretary out there every day since January 2025 to tell the truth about what’s going on in our government, or to tout their accomplishments amid the most insane political environment in modern history.

I will never forget reading New York Times book critic Dwight Garner’s 2002 review of Jared Kushner’s loathsome memoir, Breaking History, because if you cull it down and paraphrase it, it becomes a perfect description of Kushner the person.

So I’ll attempt to use the magic of Garner’s wonderful wordsmithing.

Many of us spend too much time depressed about the seemingly never-ending list of things that President Donald J. Trump gets away with. But we need to refamiliarize ourselves with the well-known dangers of what the military tends to call "mission creep," applied in a slightly different context, no less dangerous.

If one had to summarize Trump's "mission" from the golden escalator 11 years ago until today, it would be something like "all glory to Trump." And yet, of late, we see the creep (all entendre intended) push toward something a little different, less "glory," more "gaudy," less greatness, more gauche. For a guy who now spends more time worrying about his legacy than your dignity, that creep might now result in a plane crash, but not one that smolders.

Every reader here understands it is hard to overstate the importance of November's midterm elections. The GOP controls every branch in our Constitutional framework, and the vast majority of Americans agree that the nation is in crisis, providing Democrats with fertile ground on which to harvest winning issues, perhaps combining victories in both Houses of Congress. Ironically, the sheer number of problems angering voters created by the terrifying authoritarian White House presents a difficulty, a good difficulty, but a difficulty nonetheless. Standing ankle deep in red political muck, what is the single most powerful message to squeeze out the most blue political juice?

According to recent reports, leading Dems believe the answer lies in highlighting and taking up the fight against the GOP's blatant corruption.

I am hearing terrible things about Raw Story. Just terrible. People are telling me — very smart people, the smartest people — that some of you are not giving this column your complete and undivided attention. That’s bad. Very, very bad. Frankly, it’s a disgrace.

You think I don’t notice? You think I can’t tell when you’re skimming? When you’re reading every third paragraph? I notice everything, believe me. When you keep checking your phone while I’m in the middle of making an absolutely tremendous point, not good. Wrong. It makes me very upset.

Donald Trump’s deliberate vandalization of DC, along with our democracy, has reached a tipping point where even his most loyal cultists are questioning his motives.

Just not enough of them…yet.

The headlines out of the Supreme Court came at us in waves Thursday morning, like a barrage of punches to the gut:

• Supreme Court Allows Trump to Block Asylum Seekers at Border
• Supreme Court Allows Trump to End Deportation Protections for Haitians and Syrians
• Supreme Court Strikes Down Hawaii Gun Restriction Limiting When, Where People Can Carry Firearms
• Supreme Court Overturns Jury Award to Missouri Man Who Contracted Cancer Through Use of Weedkiller Roundup

I wondered when the next headline might be, “Supreme Court Approves Name Change of United States to Trump States of America, because the country is entirely his now. The court majority has kowtowed entirely to a madman, transforming us into a nation not of immigrants but white Christian fascists determined to obliterate everything this country once stood for.

After musician after musician pulled out from Trump’s “Freedom 250” concert, he was left with Lee Greenwood, an opera tenor, a couple of military bands, and Kash Patel’s girlfriend. The anthem that made Greenwood a star, “God Bless the USA,” was written in 1985 during the height of the Cold War. It begins with the specter of loss— “If tomorrow—all the things were gone, I’d worked for all my life/ And I had to start all over with my children and my wife.” Then the wounds disappear before they’re felt: “I’d thank my lucky stars to be living here today/ Because the flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away.”

Ronald Reagan made the song his campaign theme while launching a new age of American inequality by systematically busting unions and cutting taxes for the wealthiest.

Disgusting, vile, repugnant, supremacists.

I can think of more attributes along these lines to describe the six conservative justices, who handed down three rulings today that, taken together, reveal the naked, ugly face of what this court has become - disgusting, vile, repugnant supremacists.

Mitch McConnell isn't voting this week. His office isn't saying much about why, just that he's been hospitalized. Curt answers, no timeline, no details.

I worked in PR for more than 30 years, and one thing you learn is that when the news is scant, the situation usually isn't good. The less said, the worse it often is.