Raquel 🟧 💙

“I will walk with you even as I work for you. You can’t lead the people unless you love the people. You can’t love the people unless you know the people. And you can’t know the people unless you walk among the people. You cannot serve me if you cannot see me” Sen. Raphael Warnock

Alex Jones on Trump: "When your ankles swell up three times the size they were before, that means heart failure. And he does look sick. And he does babble. And you know he sounds like his brain's not doing too hot." Damn. Alex Jones.

Of all the dangerous and illegal things Trump is doing to tear apart the fabric of our constitutional republic while Republicans remain cowardly silent, in the final year of his term the politicization of the US military may turn out to be the biggest problem.

Kristi Noem rigging the property appraiser’s exam while governor so her daughter could get her license, killing a puppy, & giving her boyfriend a powerful job in govt while cheating on her cross-dressing spouse is not that unusual on the spectrum of Republican politician behavior

Alex Jones says Trump is done: “When your ankles swell up three times the size they were before, that means heart failure. And he does look sick. And he does babble and it sounds like the brain’s not doing too hot. So we just cut bait on Trump.”

Reminder: Today is not April Fools Day. We have to wait another 24 hours for that. But this morning’s news will make you wonder if it arrived early open.substack.com/pub/macfarlane…

Drama Queen Cat vs Nail Clippers

That's it. That's the best picture from Saturday's No Kings protests in the USA. The literal Statue of Liberty being detained by police. It doesn't get much more poetic than this.

I WANT TO THANK DONALD J. TRUMP FOR TAKING TIME OFF FROM FIGHTING WARS, DESTROYING THE ECONOMY, CONSTITUTION, FREEDOM, & LIVES - TO SHOW US PLANS FOR DESTROYING THE WHITE HOUSE. NO ONE IS BETTER AT MULTITASKING OUR DESTRUCTION THAN DONALD.

It seems increasingly possible that Trump, looking for an exit from Iran, is desperately trying to negotiate nearly the same Iran nuclear deal Obama negotiated which Trump ripped up in 2018. This would highlight his incredible incompetence and would be humiliating but for his pigheaded sensibility that he can steer every narrative, thanks to his supplicants in Congress and Fox. And he'd HAVE to steer the narrative, because to show any deference for Obama, directly or indirectly, is impossible for Trump. I mean, you don't have to be a mental health professional to notice Trump's decades-long obsession with Obama, do you? He hates Obamacare - mostly because of the name. He wanted the Nobel Peace Prize more urgently because Obama won it. He hates Chicago because Obama loves it. Remember that underneath a malignant narcissist's veneer of bluster and bravado is deep insecurity. Trump badly craves respect and legitimacy. The kind Obama has. That he never will.

CONGRATULATIONS TO DONALD TRUMP ON STOPPING 85 WORLD WARS, 27 CIVIL WARS, AND 9 TUG-OF-WARS. I'M HONORED TO NOMINATE DONALD FOR HIS SECOND "HAPPY MEAL PEACE PRIZE FROM FIFA", AND WHOEVER ELSE WANTS TO GIVE DONALD THEIR PEACE PRIZE SO HE DOESN'T CARPET BOMB YOUR COUNTRY. --GCN

Trump posted early, about negotiations with a new regime, and a sentence later he threatened to commit more war crimes and blow everything up. More false narratives, more bluster, more ambiguity, more evidence he's unfit and unhinged. Happy Monday.

A man with no official title, no confirmed role, and no public accountability allegedly walked into DHS and started running a pay-to-play scheme with BILLION-dollar contracts.    His name is Corey Lewandowski. Multiple companies say they were pressured to pay him or risk losing government contracts. And guess what? Trump knew and did nothing to stop it.     Welcome to Episode 10 of the Corruption Chronicles.

White House statement tonight: “President Trump does not bluff. He is prepared to unleash hell. Iran should not miscalculate again.” “Iran has been defeated militarily. Any violence beyond this point will be because Iran refused to understand they have already been defeated.”

Martha Stewart made $45,000 in profits. 👇🏼 They caught her. They prosecuted her. She spent five months in federal prison. Members of Congress are making hundreds of millions. And the head of the enforcement division tasked with policing this resigned last week. She couldn’t get the agency focused on it. Now let’s talk about the bipartisan nature of this corruption. Because I want to be clear, this is not a Republican problem. This is a Washington problem. That’s the scandal. As an American I am embarrassed by it. As an American I want it to stop. Get Citizens United off the books. Pass the Bets Off Act. Reinstate the Stock Act with teeth. Or just keep watching them get rich while you pay the price.

Let me tell you exactly what Fox figured out in 1993. Roger Ailes looked around and asked — who’s the threat? Not Bill Clinton, the threat is Hillary Clinton. They spent billions of dollars over decades destroying her narrative. By the time she ran for president 51% of the country had a negative opinion of her before she said a word on the campaign trail. That’s the playbook. Now ask yourself — where’s the threat today? California. The fourth largest economy in the world. Agriculture, Defense, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, AI. — which is literally the exportation of American culture globally. A politician coming out of California from the left could beat the right decisively. So what do you do? Spend billions destroying the narrative around California. Make it synonymous with crime and homelessness and radical politics. Do it for two or three decades until the brand is toxic. Newsom has an image problem today the exact same way Hillary had an image problem. It was manufactured. Deliberately. Systematically.

When winning matters more than the rules of the game.. 😂

Top 10 Signs of No Kings, 3/28/26. After reviewing thousands of photos from yesterday, here are my Top 10. Links to my Top 10s from No Kings in April, June and October are included. open.substack.com/pub/meidastouc…

I’ve been in Congress through divided governments, bitter fights, and historic crises. I’ve never seen anything like the last 24 hours. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson killed Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s bipartisan deal to fund the TSA, Coast Guard, and FEMA.  It was a deal that had the support of Senate Republicans and Democrats alike, 100-0! Why? Because Johnson places his own political survival and fealty to Trump over all else, including long waits at airports or anything else. We could have passed it in the House easily if only Johnson had allowed the vote to proceed. But instead he blew up the whole thing. Where this goes next is anyone’s guess, but what’s very clear is that Johnson is the worst and most subservient speaker in modern American history.

Thousands of people in Charlotte turned out for the No Kings protest

🚨BREAKING: Pam Bondi just said…“Being a citizen in our country is a privilege, not a right.” Citizenship is a right, guaranteed by the Constitution… not something granted based on opinion, loyalty, or who they like. This is authoritarian rhetoric.