@tenacious-z.bsky.social
“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered,” Paine wrote in that fraught moment, “yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”
December 18, 2025
“These are the times that try men’s souls.
open.substack.com
December 19, 2025 at 12:34 PM
“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered,” Paine wrote in that fraught moment, “yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”
"In The Guardian last week, Judith Levine noted that Trump is erasing the face of a federal government that served the American people, replacing it with his own."
December 14, 2025
Last Sunday, on December 7, Mydelle Wright, a well-regarded preservationist, filed a declaration before a court, saying that President Donald J.
open.substack.com
December 15, 2025 at 3:48 PM
"In The Guardian last week, Judith Levine noted that Trump is erasing the face of a federal government that served the American people, replacing it with his own."
Reposted
Two continents hit by mass shootings, #Europe declares the Pax Americana over, Trump spins snake-bite fan fiction and his #FBI nabs the wrong guy.
The world sees the hazard ahead. Too many Americans still pretend the sky is blue. #uspolitics #kakistocracy
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
The world sees the hazard ahead. Too many Americans still pretend the sky is blue. #uspolitics #kakistocracy
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
When the Adults in the World Leave the Room
Australia governs, Europe braces, Ukraine resists, and America, under Trump, forgets how to think, act, or protect its own.
open.substack.com
December 15, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Two continents hit by mass shootings, #Europe declares the Pax Americana over, Trump spins snake-bite fan fiction and his #FBI nabs the wrong guy.
The world sees the hazard ahead. Too many Americans still pretend the sky is blue. #uspolitics #kakistocracy
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
The world sees the hazard ahead. Too many Americans still pretend the sky is blue. #uspolitics #kakistocracy
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
Reposted
#Trump didn’t just ramble at his Christmas event, he told a full National Geographic snake drama starring the #Obama daughters, a mystery doctor, and a viper that doesn’t exist.
It’s a symptom. #uspolitics #25thAmendment #dementia
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
It’s a symptom. #uspolitics #25thAmendment #dementia
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
The Serpent That Slipped Its Cage
Trump’s unraveling jungle hallucination reveals a mind losing the boundaries between performance and reality.
open.substack.com
December 15, 2025 at 1:38 AM
#Trump didn’t just ramble at his Christmas event, he told a full National Geographic snake drama starring the #Obama daughters, a mystery doctor, and a viper that doesn’t exist.
It’s a symptom. #uspolitics #25thAmendment #dementia
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
It’s a symptom. #uspolitics #25thAmendment #dementia
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
Reposted
Muslim father tackles a gunman at a Hanukkah festival in Bondi, Hungarians flood the streets against Orbán, Canadians quietly prep for a MAGA spillover-Trump is online lying about an active shooter at Brown while the GOP face-plants again on healthcare. #uspolitics
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
True North Strong, America, Not So Much
Canada mobilizes a citizen army to defend democracy, Bondi Beach faces terror with courage, and the U.S. responds to rising violence by attacking the Affordable Care Act.
open.substack.com
December 14, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Muslim father tackles a gunman at a Hanukkah festival in Bondi, Hungarians flood the streets against Orbán, Canadians quietly prep for a MAGA spillover-Trump is online lying about an active shooter at Brown while the GOP face-plants again on healthcare. #uspolitics
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
Reposted
#Trump isn’t just abusing the pardon power, he’s rewriting who counts as a criminal, who counts as a victim, and what this country claims to stand for. This is how a nation’s character unravels in real time. #uspolitics #authoritarianism #kakistocracy
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
The Moral Injury of a Nation
Trump’s presidency as a collective trauma, and the undoing of American character.
open.substack.com
December 13, 2025 at 2:31 AM
#Trump isn’t just abusing the pardon power, he’s rewriting who counts as a criminal, who counts as a victim, and what this country claims to stand for. This is how a nation’s character unravels in real time. #uspolitics #authoritarianism #kakistocracy
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
"And today, eight years later, we’re rekindling that hope, that optimism, that enthusiasm. Let’s face it,” [Sen. Doug Jones] added, “there is a greater urgency for hope today than there was in 2017.”
December 12, 2025
Today former Alabama senator Doug Jones launched his campaign to become the state’s next governor.
open.substack.com
December 13, 2025 at 3:21 PM
"And today, eight years later, we’re rekindling that hope, that optimism, that enthusiasm. Let’s face it,” [Sen. Doug Jones] added, “there is a greater urgency for hope today than there was in 2017.”
Reposted
#NYC blocks #ICE vans, #Trump melts down in a cowboy hat, threatens to defund Indiana (yes, that’s a crime), #Epstein photos drop, #Zelensky films a battlefield victory update from #Kupiansk #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritariansim
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
The Miracle on Ice… Melts Down
Trump hijacks a hockey ceremony, denies Epstein, blackmails Indiana, and rage-posts through the night while America braces for real crises.
open.substack.com
December 13, 2025 at 2:37 PM
#NYC blocks #ICE vans, #Trump melts down in a cowboy hat, threatens to defund Indiana (yes, that’s a crime), #Epstein photos drop, #Zelensky films a battlefield victory update from #Kupiansk #uspolitics #kakistocracy #authoritariansim
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
open.substack.com/pub/marygedd...
“[W]e won’t say that the House is in total chaos,” they wrote this morning. “Total chaos is when members unleash censure resolutions against each other or a trio of House Republicans publicly claim Speaker Mike Johnson has no business running the chamber. That was last week.”
December 11, 2025
On Tuesday, President Donald J.
open.substack.com
December 12, 2025 at 1:57 PM
“[W]e won’t say that the House is in total chaos,” they wrote this morning. “Total chaos is when members unleash censure resolutions against each other or a trio of House Republicans publicly claim Speaker Mike Johnson has no business running the chamber. That was last week.”
"Defense Department officials were keen to make sure survivors didn’t end up in a U.S. court where the administration’s insistence that the men were an immediate danger to the U.S. because they were trafficking drugs would come under legal scrutiny."
December 10, 2025
Today is Human Rights Day, celebrated internationally in honor of the day seventy-seven years ago, December 10, 1948, when the United Nations General Assembly announced the Universal Declaration of Hu...
open.substack.com
December 11, 2025 at 12:41 PM
"Defense Department officials were keen to make sure survivors didn’t end up in a U.S. court where the administration’s insistence that the men were an immediate danger to the U.S. because they were trafficking drugs would come under legal scrutiny."
"The administration has replaced traditional media outlets with right-wing loyalists and floods the social media space with a Trump narrative that is untethered from reality.
Communications director Steven Cheung says their goal is to create “FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE.”"
Communications director Steven Cheung says their goal is to create “FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE.”"
December 9, 2025
When G.
open.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 10:45 PM
"The administration has replaced traditional media outlets with right-wing loyalists and floods the social media space with a Trump narrative that is untethered from reality.
Communications director Steven Cheung says their goal is to create “FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE.”"
Communications director Steven Cheung says their goal is to create “FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE.”"
“Government bailouts do not make up for our loss of income. We don’t want a bailout. We want markets for our crops. We want to be able to work hard every year and enjoy the fruits of our labor and know that we did it on our own.”
December 8, 2025
Last Wednesday, December 3, a reporter asked President Donald J.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 11:44 PM
“Government bailouts do not make up for our loss of income. We don’t want a bailout. We want markets for our crops. We want to be able to work hard every year and enjoy the fruits of our labor and know that we did it on our own.”
"...a solid majority of Americans support NATO, it would be imprudent to get too fatalistic about the death of Transatlantic relations because of an incoherent National Security Strategy written by a small group in the Trump administration. Play the long game.”"
December 7, 2025
“I think it’s really important that this video be made public,” Representative Jim Himes (D-CT) said today on Face the Nation. Himes was referring to a video of the September 2 U.S. military strike on...
open.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:56 PM
"...a solid majority of Americans support NATO, it would be imprudent to get too fatalistic about the death of Transatlantic relations because of an incoherent National Security Strategy written by a small group in the Trump administration. Play the long game.”"
Well there you go.
Turns out fighting fascism helps you live longer
Retirees are mobilizing to defend democracy—and the benefits literally show up in their DNA.
www.motherjones.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Well there you go.
"President Donald J. Trump and his cronies have abandoned the principles of democracy and openly embraced the hierarchical society the U.S. fought against in World War II.
...
Will we permit the destruction of American democracy on our watch?"
...
Will we permit the destruction of American democracy on our watch?"
December 6, 2025
On the sunny Sunday morning of December 7, 1941, Messman Doris Miller had served breakfast aboard the USS West Virginia, stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and was collecting laundry when the first of...
open.substack.com
December 7, 2025 at 5:10 AM
"President Donald J. Trump and his cronies have abandoned the principles of democracy and openly embraced the hierarchical society the U.S. fought against in World War II.
...
Will we permit the destruction of American democracy on our watch?"
...
Will we permit the destruction of American democracy on our watch?"
Reposted
The whole stupid ceremony throbbed with the same delusional confidence as an out-of-business chiropractor awarding himself “Best Spine Wizard” because no one else bothered to show up.
open.substack.com/pub/jojofrom...
open.substack.com/pub/jojofrom...
Medals, Madness, and Manufactured Merit: Trump’s FIFA Fever Dream of Faux Glory
When a collapsing strongman demands validation, even sports leagues start handing out pacifiers.
open.substack.com
December 6, 2025 at 3:38 PM
The whole stupid ceremony throbbed with the same delusional confidence as an out-of-business chiropractor awarding himself “Best Spine Wizard” because no one else bothered to show up.
open.substack.com/pub/jojofrom...
open.substack.com/pub/jojofrom...
"National security specialist Anne Applebaum wrote: “The new National Security Strategy is a propaganda document, designed to be widely read. It is also a performative suicide. Hard to think of another great power ever abdicating its influence so quickly and so publicly.”"
December 5, 2025
Late last night, the Trump administration released the 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) of the United States of America.
open.substack.com
December 6, 2025 at 3:53 PM
"National security specialist Anne Applebaum wrote: “The new National Security Strategy is a propaganda document, designed to be widely read. It is also a performative suicide. Hard to think of another great power ever abdicating its influence so quickly and so publicly.”"
“There is a difference between being accused of being a bad guy and being a bad guy. It is called the presumption of innocence. It is called due process. It is called, basically, justice that our country was founded upon.”
December 4, 2025
“What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service,” Representative Jim Himes (D-CT), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence committee, said.
open.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 12:32 PM
“There is a difference between being accused of being a bad guy and being a bad guy. It is called the presumption of innocence. It is called due process. It is called, basically, justice that our country was founded upon.”
Reposted
"The Citizens United decision is enormously unpopular. Some 75 percent of Americans disapprove of it. But most of your governors and state legislators haven’t realized that you have the authority to make Citizens United irrelevant...Use that authority to rid the nation of Citizens United."
How to Get Rid of "Citizens United"
We can do away with it without a new Supreme Court. Nor do we need a constitutional amendment. There’s a far simpler way.
open.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 12:26 PM
"The Citizens United decision is enormously unpopular. Some 75 percent of Americans disapprove of it. But most of your governors and state legislators haven’t realized that you have the authority to make Citizens United irrelevant...Use that authority to rid the nation of Citizens United."
"Trump made it clear during the Cabinet meeting that he has embraced the white nationalism of Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who reject the nation’s longstanding principle of welcoming immigrants and have vowed to purge the nation of them..."
December 2, 2025
The news of last Friday, November 28, that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Joint Special Operations commander overseeing an attack on a small vessel carrying 11 people on September 2 to “kill ev...
open.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:51 PM
"Trump made it clear during the Cabinet meeting that he has embraced the white nationalism of Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who reject the nation’s longstanding principle of welcoming immigrants and have vowed to purge the nation of them..."
"Trump insisted yesterday that “affordability” doesn’t mean anything to anybody,” but most Americans would disagree."
December 3, 2025
Republican Matt Van Epps won yesterday’s special election in Tennessee’s seventh congressional district, but Republicans aren’t celebrating triumphantly.
open.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:49 PM
"Trump insisted yesterday that “affordability” doesn’t mean anything to anybody,” but most Americans would disagree."
Reposted
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has granted a stay, allowing Texas to use its new congressional map in 2026, delivering a major win for President Donald Trump and his unprecedented national effort to rig the upcoming midterm elections.
SCOTUS Allows Texas to Use Racially Gerrymandered Map in 2026 Midterm Elections
Read more here.
www.democracydocket.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:10 PM
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has granted a stay, allowing Texas to use its new congressional map in 2026, delivering a major win for President Donald Trump and his unprecedented national effort to rig the upcoming midterm elections.
Reposted
JUST IN: Grand jury declines to reindict Letitia James.
Like Jen Rubin said in October: "Trump’s inability to keep his trap shut about his revengeful prosecutions against Comey and James provides defense counsel with ample proof that both cases are vindictive (not to mention groundless)."
Like Jen Rubin said in October: "Trump’s inability to keep his trap shut about his revengeful prosecutions against Comey and James provides defense counsel with ample proof that both cases are vindictive (not to mention groundless)."
Prosecutions Have Never Been This Vindictive—or Meritless
Trump threatens the rule of law like it's his job
contrarian.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:29 PM
JUST IN: Grand jury declines to reindict Letitia James.
Like Jen Rubin said in October: "Trump’s inability to keep his trap shut about his revengeful prosecutions against Comey and James provides defense counsel with ample proof that both cases are vindictive (not to mention groundless)."
Like Jen Rubin said in October: "Trump’s inability to keep his trap shut about his revengeful prosecutions against Comey and James provides defense counsel with ample proof that both cases are vindictive (not to mention groundless)."