Michelle Obama is a stunning lady and a wonderful feminine role model for all women

 'Hope is all we have': Read Michelle Obama's full speech at Obama Center grand opening (transcript published by Channel 5 in Chicago)

Mrs. Michelle (Robinson) Obama

She ticked off highlights from her husband's eight years in office, including ordering the raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, “standing up for marriage equality” and “listening to science.”

Mrs. Michelle Obama spoke directly to her husband when she stepped up to the podium at the Obama Center grand opening ceremony -- then proceeded to bring him and members of the audience to tears.

And she didn't stop there.💗😇

She ticked off highlights from her husband's eight years in office, including ordering the raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, “standing up for marriage equality” and “listening to science.”

President Barack Obama appeared to wipe away a tear as she praised him.

Michelle Obama also referenced the current “anxious and divisive times” and warned against being cynical or complacent as “everything feels so upside down.” She pitched the center as “a respite from all that.”

Well. My goodness. I got my tissue in hand. I don't know about all of you.❓😙💟

Wow. Hello, everyone, and what a beautiful day, right❓🌞 

Nothing like a project by my husband to bring out the sun.

Let me start by thanking Addison for that magnificent introduction, and for exemplifying the heart, excellence and determination that has blossomed right here on the South Side for a very long time.

I also want to send some love to everyone who made this day a reality. The construction workers, landscapers, designers, the architects, artists, chefs, our staff, our board members, our donors. Barack and I simply cannot thank you enough for the care and brilliance you poured into every square inch of this campus. I also want to recognize all of the elected officials and distinguished leaders from around the city, the state, the country, and, yes, the world. Thank you for being here to celebrate with us,

Especially to all of my fellow formers. To Joe and Jill, George and Laura, Bill and Hillary.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your service to our country over so many years and for your constant friendship and support of our family. We love you guys. Truly.

Oh, to our daughters, Malia and Sasha, who will always be my babies. Even though we're no longer playing hide and seek on the South Lawn with Beau or hosting sleepovers in the solarium - I see a lot of sleepover girls here -you both have grown into such brilliant and beautiful young women making your way out there in the world.

Thank you for bringing so much joy and spirit and energy to a life you had no voice in choosing. And for making us proud every step of the way. Love you babe.

Oh, so please indulge me for a moment, because I'm gonna take a little time to do something that I know my husband will not do today. And that is to fully sing his praises.

Barack, you gotta look at me.

I love that.

You told me all those years ago that you couldn't promise me the world. But you could promise me an interesting life.And of course, you outdid yourself and managed to give me both.

I know it hasn't always been easy, but there hasn't been a single second through this experience that standing by your side hasn't left me in awe.

Eight years in The Crucible and not once did you melt from the heat. Not once did you let it harden you. Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence - your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage, your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency, your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber.

And to do it all as a first and the higher standard that comes with all that.

The claims that a US senator and constitutional law expert wasn't qualified for the job, the lies about your birthright, your faith, your patriotism, the outrage when you stated the biological fact that if you'd had a son that he too would be Black.

Yet you were unflappable at every turn. Always focused, always calm, always looking at the long view to how absurd it is to even imagine that you might have buckled under the pressure, even once, lashed out in frustration, lost your temper. How absurd it is to imagine that you might have done anything but make our family and this entire country proud.

No, you were too busy.

I'm not done. Y'all. Not done. So much to say.

You were doing the people's work, rescuing our economy, expanding health care, ending a war, ordering the bin laden raid, saving an auto industry, winning a peace prize. For keeping us safe from Ebola, regulating the banks, standing up for marriage equality, listening to science and comforting an entire nation in the face of unspeakable tragedies. And you did it all with such grace and class and cool that you made the hardest job in the world look like a walk in this beautiful park.

Your mother, Toot, Gramps - you are a tribute to their love. They are up there grinning and hugging today because you never forgot who you are and where you came from.

Single mother working hard to get by and get an education and show her son the world. Grandparents who didn't have much but they had the perfect recipe to nurture your flame.

You never forgot the folks in the union halls and church basements here in Chicago, where you first put your ideals to the test. You never forgot all the voters you've registered, and students who taught and neighbors you organized. You never fell for the temptation of a quick fix or an easy payday.

You never changed from that idealistic summer associate who showed up on that rainy day when we first met without an umbrella.

You always gave us the very best within you, and in doing so, you reminded the rest of us that we could, too.

Barack, there are no words to express how proud I am of the way you showed up and continue to show up every single day. It has been an honor to be by your side.

You have made me a better person and have given us all an example that we should strive to emulate. And I hope you know, oh, there is truly no higher calling than that. All right.

To all of you joining us today, our invited guests and everyone listening and watching from afar.

The Obama Presidential Center was created as a beacon of hope, a monument to our unshakable values. The ones my husband has exemplified his entire life: equality, empathy, honesty, inclusion, fairness. Especially during these anxious and divisive times, it is so important that we remember that those values are not unique to my husband.

They are the same ones that your husbands and wives, your parents and children, your friends and neighbors exhibit and pass on every single day. Millions of people in this country wake up doing their very best to live decent and purposeful lives.

Yet we're all tested in one way or another, and there are plenty of times we all fall short.

But deep down in our hearts and souls, we all know right from wrong. We know selflessness from greed, righteousness from injustice. We understand that we all rise and fall together, that every last one of us is an invaluable contributor to the greatness of America. And I'm talking about the workers living paycheck to paycheck, hoping to give their kids a better future. The teachers using their own money to take their students on field trips. The business owners struggling to meet payroll but refusing to close their doors. All those folks sweating over stoves to provide meals for their communities. Folks shivering in the freezing cold to deliver our packages. Picking up trash to keep our parks clean. Volunteers dedicating their weekends to coaching T-ball or directing the church choir, or mentoring a child.

That's where the truth of this country lies. Not in grabbing as much as we can get for ourselves, or knocking folks down to prop ourselves up, but in the overwhelming goodness, the relentless striving, the quiet dignity that is inside all of us, our greatest hope is that this center can reflect back just a fraction of that light, that it can capture the beauty of who we all are, no matter what we look like or where we come from, or how much money we earn, or how we pray or vote or speak or love.

It's why during our administration, we threw open the White House doors to all sorts of folks who don't usually get to meet the President or First Lady.

The families pinch and pennies to send their first child to college. The teenagers, who know that a hot afternoon means the bullets start flying. The military spouses and children serving and sacrificing just like their loved ones in uniform. The native kid showing us that resilience and pride can never be stolen. The foragers and FFA members with calluses on their hands from feeding livestock. The immigrants proving what it truly means to be a dreamer.

These folks, these folks aren't Americans too. They are America. They are the beating heart of this country. They are us and we are them.

And to ignore the simple truth, to refuse to respect the contributions and experiences of people who aren't exactly like us, y'all puts us all at risk.

Failing to see the humanity in all people puts us all on a slippery slope. And once that slide starts, there's no telling where it stops. A dangerous precedent that flies in the very face of our faith. And of the founding promise of this democracy that all of us, all of us are created equal, that each of us is a child of God with inherent value.

And no one, and I mean no one, has the right to sit in judgment of who's American enough.

And that's why, folks, we simply don't have the luxury or time to be cynical or complacent, to wring our hands in despair, to wait for someone else to fix the problem.

Y'all, hope is all we have.

Because hope is the essential spark that lights the fire of change. But hope is a choice. Whether or not we use our voices to speak up is a choice. Voting is a choice. Being a decent human being is a choice. Believing that we still hold the power to build a country that reflects us all is a choice.

The Obama Presidential Center is a living testament to the power of choice, y'all. The historic example that millions of you gave the world about what this imperfect democracy has strived for and achieved. And an urgent call to go out there and do it again.

So I hope that when you walk through this campus and bring your children here, you are reminded of the power of choice and the steady work of change. The arduous, unglamorous march march up that mountain one foot after another, day after day, generation after generation, but I also hope you fully absorb the elation of achieving something together.

You know that feeling when you clear the tree line and see a vista that takes your breath away? A feeling that can never be erased? And I know that can be hard to grasp right now when everything feels so upside down. When fact and fiction run together. When folks seek to stifle speech, limit access to education, devalue diversity, erase the inconvenient parts of our history. When our phones constantly buzz with the latest outrage.

So I hope that this place can offer a respite from all that, at least for a little while.

I hope it can reignite the optimism and empathy and ambition that has always powered this country's greatest change.

So we want you to come here and put away your phones and talk and laugh and cry, because you gonna cry and make new friends.

Get your hands dirty in my garden. Push your baby on a swing in the playground. Have a romantic picnic on the great lawn.

Because that's the work of democracy. To being neighborly, taking care of public spaces, having some fun, enjoying each other, shaking out of the isolation and division that have crept too deeply into our lives.

And to my fellow South Siders.

I want you all to make this campus a part of your lives, be inspired by the world class art, check out the books from our beautiful public library and bring them back on time, drop some beats in the recording studio, hit some corner threes at home court, hold birthday parties, jump start clothing drives, host citywide clean up dates. Here. Use this campus to show off this place we call home.

This joyful place where Marian and Fraser Robinson taught their two kids to dream big.

This hopeful place where an unknown guy with an unknown name took flight. This stubbornly optimistic place where family after family scrapes and claws and laughs and dances their way to a better tomorrow.

That's what this has always been about.

Barack and I have always said that this center is grounded in our stories, but it has never been about us. It's never been for us. And it's going to be here long after we're gone.

So what it becomes and how it's preserved, that work has to be done by all of us. Just like our democracy.

And thankfully, you have shown the world what we are capable of. You've proven that a lasting legacy isn't an award or a name on a building or number of zeros in a bank account, but the difference we make in one another's lives.

It's about seeing each other and showing up for each other and carrying each other. When we're weary or faltering or losing faith.

That's how you build something that endures. And that's what you all have done at every twist and turn of this extraordinary journey. You have protected and proclaimed the hope that beats within the heart of this campus. You've rekindled and renewed this untamable, unpredictable and unbreakable democracy.

And I know that you all are going to astonish us even more in the months and years ahead, because you all have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, that when we truly see each other, when we strive to bring out the best in ourselves and one another, oh, there is no limit to how high we can go.

Thank you all. I love you all. God bless you and God bless this country we love.

Donald Trump cannot respond to "truth" so on national TV Meet the Press he behaved like a spoiled toddler

Echo editorial board opinion published in the Dallas Texas News:

Our expectations for Donald Trump’s sense of decorum have never been high, but even by his standard, he’s outdone himself  by hitting even a new low in his public persona. 

In an interview with NBC journalist Ms. Kristen Welker on Meet the Press that aired June 7, 2026, the Trump managed to distort the facts of record, sling insults and throw a spectacular temper tantrum unfitting of his office.

Much of the first half of the interview danced as reasonably close to the edge of normal as Trump is likely to get, with Ms. Welker pressing the president on the Iran war. As politicians are likely to do, he dodged around and only sometimes answered questions directly, infusing his responses with his trademark, pugnacious style.

As the interview progressed, though, thinks went thoroughly off rail.

Trump defended his 💲1.8 billion slush fund intended to cover legal costs for people deemed victims of "weaponization of lawfare" and said he wanted to get it approved. 

That led to a conversation about rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and whether Trump thought they should be able to get a tax payer funded payout, which he seemed totally open to.

Trump went on to claim how, "People were destroyed by dirty cops and by weaponization. Many of those people should be compensated". 😡

Trump claimed those who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers only did so because they were frightened into it.

To pretend that the violence at the Capitol was a figment of the national imagination and that those who perpetrated it were, in fact, the real victims, is as insulting as it is insane. Sadly, it's not an unusual line to take in today's GOP (a.k.a. "Growing Old Party").

Later in the interview, Trump claimed the currently ongoing California elections were "rigged". Ms. Welker then asked Trump if he had proof❓ "All I have to do is to look and listen," Trump responded.

It was shortly after that Trump went into his immature temper  tantrum by railing against the "crooked" press and all the negative treatment he gets from it.

Trump went on to make wild claims accusing Ms. Welker's network knows all about the election rigging and he insulted her straight out.

"You're either crooked or stupid," Trump said. 

He cut the interview off shortly thereafter.  In a sarcastic tone, he said "Thank you darling," and walked off the set.  

In delusional Trump's cult world, everyone is wrong if they do not agree with him and corrupt if they do not coddle him. Facts are irrelevant to him, truth is a profanity in his mind and history is how he tells it.

Somehow, we have reached a point where it is not unreasonable to expect a toddler to behave with more decorum than the leader of the free world.  From the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board

Donald Trump launched illegal war against Iran now is negotiating a "treaty" including reparations without Congressional approval

Echo opinion published in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette from Bloomberg.  

How many ways to spell "loser"❓

A Trumpzi (secret) deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is set for signature on Friday, and Donald Trump is already congratulating himself on being the first U.S. president to have made peace with Iran since the country's 1979, revolution. 

That's wrong❗ He is the first to have taken America to war with Iran, and therefore the first to have needed a truce- a.k.a., "treaty", to stop it. The peace his predecessors sought and failed to achieve has yet to come.

None of this would be cause for criticism if the decision to attack the Islamic Republic were to leave the U.S. in a substantially better negotiating position than it enjoyed before the start of hostilities. We can't be sure of the terms of the so-called Memorandum of Understanding, because they haven't been published. 

But the fact that the Iranians are gloating while Israelis are horrified strongly suggests that isn't the case.

Indeed, the Israelis are aghast, (who knew ❓) because even though they are a party to the conflict, they have had no role in the negotiations, and there's no indication that Trump's truce will end any of the problems they went to war to resolve. The nuclear issue is reserved for negotiation after the truce takes effect. Others aren't even mentioned.

The eventual deal will have at least four requirements, judging by comments where all sides agree: An end to all hostilities, including in Lebanon; reopening the Strait of Hormuz to shipping; a restart of nuclear negotiations; and the release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian funds, with conditions and a schedule that remain unclear.

Iran's negotiators also are having to sell the deal at home, where hardliners object to any agreement with the U.S. They don't believe that Washington--which, with Israel, assassinated the nation's supreme leader while engaged in the last round of nuclear talks--can be trusted. Plus in their view, they're winning the war.

Iran's state-controlled Mehr news agency has published comments from Mehdi Mohammadi, strategic adviser to the Iranian negotiating  team, as well as a leaked purported 14-point draft of the MOU (memorandum of understanding).

Mohammadi highlighted that the MOU's terms would mark the first time the U.S. has guaranteed it will control Israeli actions, something he considered highly significant. He also said the agreement would commit Trump--the architect of America's "maximum pressure" sanctions policies--to lift primary economic sanctions on Iran.

And although the MOU does require Iran to enter talks on diluting its stock of highly enriched uranium, negotiations on any other part of the country's nuclear program are not guaranteed. That would require the assent of both parties: "Without mutual agreement, there will be no negotiations," he said, according to Mehr.

Other parts of the draft published by Mehr (like the creation of a 💲300 billion reconstruction fund) are hard to credit, amounting to an Iranian wish list. Yet nothing that U.S. officials have said, on or off the record, suggests the core elements of the deal Mohammadi describes are wrong.

Trump criticized the Obama-era nuclear deal he went on to dismantle because it was impermanent, and failed to completely eliminate Iran's uranium enrichment program or address other Iranian threats, such as its ballistic missile program and network of proxies. He also faulted the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action for, in exchange for Iran's concessions, returning some frozen funds and lifting sanctions. Trump said he could do better.

Yet Friday's MOU looks set to fail on the same counts, while making even more concessions for a much more limited potential nuclear deal--and all because Iran has discovered it can hold the world to ransom by closing Hormuz. That may not save a hated regime in Tehran once peace returns, but it will make for an inherently volatile situation in the Middle East.

This is a ceasefire extension and an agreement on Hormuz, not a peace deal that would reimagine U.S.-Iran relations or bring stability to the region. It is a mark of the war's failure that all of the problems that predate it have been left to the future.

Donald Trump continues to look for ways to prevent him and his crime family from IRS audits

Echo opinion letter published in the Florida Sun Sentinel news:

Donald Trump’s anti-weaponization slush💲 fund has been cancelled. (For now 😓😒)

Even usually compliant Republicans balked at rewarding Januart 6 rioters for the inconvenience they suffered being convicted of and then pardoned by Donald Trump for attacking the U.S. Capitol.

In Yiddish, rewarding criminal behavior is “chutzpah.” North Carolina’s outgoing Republican senator, Thom Tillis, called it “stupid on stilts.”

An unrelated provision, insulating Trump his family and their affiliated enterprises from IRS audits, remains intact. 

But, after criminal Trump is out of office, the IRS can return to business as usual and may begin an audit, which the Trump crime family will argue is prohibited by the dubious provision insulating them from audits.

The legality of that provision will come before the courts, so even though the provision masquerades as a legal settlement, it will not survive the legal justification that exempts Trump and associates from the IRS.

Call it “chutzpah on stilts.”

From  Sheldon I. Saitlin, Boca Raton, Florida

Unfortunately, news media were quick to report negative stories about Mr. Graham Platner, but somebody must speak to his friends too.

‘They don’t know Maine’

Democratic US Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at his Primary Election event on Tuesday in Blue Hill, Maine.

Maine Writer opinion: Regardless of how voters will respond to Mr. Graham Platner as a US senate candidate from Maine, the facts about how his wife's friend went to The Wall Street Journal to betray a confidence shared by Amy Gertner, who is Mr. Platner's wife, was a terrible betrayal. The informant had no business invading the couple's privacy with her "probably a paid for" interview.  Of course, The New York Times was not to be outdone, so somehow the editors decided to interview a few girls who said they dated Mr. Platner when he was single, but they did not provide proof about the unusual behavior they reported in the Times. Meanwhile, of course, Donald Trump sits and sleeps in the White House as a 34 times convicted felon, a philanderer, an enabler of child sex trafficking with Jeffrey Epstein and as a military draft dodger who claimed to have "bone spurs" during the Vietnam war.  

Mr. Graham Platner/A friends view published on social media

by Larry Hayden 

This is updated, I posted a while ago - which I just sent via email to the two women who wrote the hit piece, I mean the article about the ex-girlfriends of Graham Platner in the New York Times - one of whom, Fifield, may or may not have been an old girlfriend of Graham, but does seem to have been an old Republican operative for a while. It is strange how that seems to have been overlooked…
Subject: My friend Graham. Regarding your recent piece on my friend: “This is nonsense…”- to the New York Times

My friend Graham a year ago was sitting on his dive boat about to fix my mooring chain. He may not walk on water but he can walk and work under water - so there is that ability he has, which is considerably more useful around here than what most of the politicians, pundits, and journalists can do that I know of.
I am a School Board Director in RSU24, which recently voted to violate the Maine Human Rights Act and to require the staff, teachers, nurses, counselors etc, to discriminate against gay & trans students. As a result of this and subsequent votes, my school district is now being sued by the State of Maine for violating the laws of this state.
I voted against these measures, with the numerical majority. As it was a weighted vote, based on the population of each the nine towns in the district, a weighted minority could outvote the numerical majority on the Board and they did.

Anyway, a year ago last May, Mr. Platner, who is from Sullivan, ME, one of the towns in our district, came to the School Board meeting on May 6th 2025, when the anti-trans/anti-gay policy was first proposed by a School Board Director. During the public comment time Graham spoke out strongly against the anti-LGBTQ policy that members of the Board were proposing.

“This is nonsense,” he began in his gruff voice.

He went on to point out to the Board and to the public in attendance that we had no trans athletes in our sports program, that the kind of discrimination the Board was considering was in violation of State and Federal law and that Executive Orders are not in fact law, that this proposal was not about protecting girls but about persecuting gay and trans kids.

There were many in the audience that strongly disagreed with him but he made it clear where he stood on this matter. His point was that instituting this policy would hurt all children, regardless of their gender identity.

This was months before he declared his campaign for Senate. He has continued to defend communities of color, women, trans and gay kids, and stand up for old and young people of this state during literally hundreds of public meetings he has attended. His candor about his past and his own failings is simply uncompromising.

Mr. Graham Platner is my neighbor and my friend. I know his mother who runs a local restaurant. His father was my lawyer and represented many of my neighbors until he retired, handling our title searches, divorces, bankruptcies, and wills. He was the closest thing to Atticus Finch we had in Ellsworth.

When I needed new top chain on my mooring last spring Graham simply said “No problem.” He drove his dive boat over from Sullivan to our harbor, suited up, dove down fixed things up
for me. That is the kind of neighbor he is.

We in Maine know a good man when we meet him. Thousands have now had that honor, although Mr. Graham would insist that the honor his, to be able to meet, to speak with, and listen to so many good people in these troubled times.

As for Graham’s friends old and new, we will stay the course we have embarked on. We will hold fast & do our best to elect this good man to do his best for all of us.

Oh yes, I saw that tattoo when he put on his wet suit - I saw a crude cartoon skull and bones. I saw a pirate tattoo. It looked nothing like the SS Nazi Totenkopf. The skull and bones is a symbol that appears on grave stones in every old graveyard in New England, often with “Momento Mori” written below it, or “Remember Death,” - not a bad thing for a soldier, or any of us, to remember.

Skull and Bones is also the name of the most famous secret society at Yale, whose symbol is: a skull & bones. It is or was for sale in the gift shop embroidered on neck ties. I do not recall hearing talk about their members being Nazis, nor the Knights Templar, nor the Free Masons, nor the numerous college fraternities that use that symbol.
The powers that be want desperately to discredit my friend Graham. They will have to do a lot better. I am sure they will do their best or their worst but we who know him and his wife will hold fast, like the new mooring chain Graham fixed for me.

Written by Newbold Noyes in Sorrento, Maine

Americans must vote to remove maga cult insanity from government- Impeach Trump now and VOTE BLUE

Echo opinion letter published in Lancaster OnLine: 

Trump is a chronic liar and we must vote blue in November.

Liar, liar. 🤥❗After watching Donald Trump's recent Sunday disaster interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker, I believe that millions of people saw just what an unhinged liar Trump is, and always has been❗

I’m sure that Trump's MAGA cult supporters will not care how much Trump is lacking in morals and values. Most likely, they will say that I have Trump Derangement Syndrome when the real truth is that members of MAGA have Democratic Derangement Syndrome.

Nevertheless, I am an independent voter who can clearly see a demented lying fool❗ 🤡In my view, Trump is not fit for any office. He falls asleep at meetings and events, and he lies, 🤥cheats and has no respect for anyone but himself. He has alienated our allies and made the United States a laughingstock. He has broken many laws and couldn’t care less about our Constitution. He frees convicted criminals who are his allies, and he wants to reward those people with our tax dollars. He has no respect for the law.

November's midterm elections are coming, and we will get a chance to change this daily chaos. The Democrats have their flaws. However, they are not insane and can make things better than they are now, without all the craziness and chaos❗ Trump and his MAGA cult criticized President Joe Biden’s economy daily, and they have now created one that’s much worse. They seemingly have no problem making the rich richer and the poor poorer. This needs to change. Please vote blue in November, or I believe you may wind up being ruled by a completely autocratic government!

From Denny Borrell in Lebanon, Pennsylvania

#ImpeachTrumpNOW

Donald Trump and maga cult Republicans must impeach Trump because he continues to break the law!

Trump is losing in courts, Congress, and the polls. Be more worried, not less. | Editorial Board published by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
(Kudos to the Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial Board❗ I wish the Baltimore Sun Editorial Board has the same anti-Trumpzi courage❗)

The courts and Congress are pushing back. But, the damage is mounting, and complacency may be the biggest threat of all.

Donald Trump continues to inflict historic damage on the United States through his corruption, incompetence, and cruelty. 

But, amid the daily chaos and nightly fury, Trump has suffered significant losses that should give citizens who support the Constitution and democracy a glimmer of hope.

In fact, he’s lost in Congress, the court of public opinion, and courtrooms across the country. Even the Iran war has turned into a no-win situation. (Has Iran surrendered yet❓)

Adding to the indignity, Trump was roundly booed in his hometown by Knicks fans when he made an appearance at an NBA Finals game at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Monday (June 8, 2026).

(Donald Trump was booed by the audience when he attended this basketball game, but he told reporters it was "mostly cheers"😲😦😕😉😵😏)

But, here’s the thing about Trump: He’s never more dangerous than when he’s losing. Trump continues to dismantle democracy even as the country prepares to celebrate 250 years since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. And, unfortunately, Trump still wields immense power over his MAGA cult base.

But fissures abound.

Just look at the Congress. After largely serving as lapdogs, (some) Republicans who control the House and Senate have begun to push back.
The Senate shelved Trump’s brazen scheme to create a 💲1.8 billion slush fund to reward loyal lackeys prosecuted and convicted of crimes, including the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection — but passed on reining in his tax audit chicanery.
Senate Republicans also dropped 💲1 billion in security funding for Trump’s ballroom — an obscene waste of tax dollars that keeps growing in price and size as many Americans struggle to make ends meet.

In a rare rebuke, four GOP House members — including U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.) — joined with Democratic lawmakers to pass a war powers resolution that called for ending the conflict in Iran that is costing taxpayers 💲2 billion a day and sent oil prices soaring.

In defiance of Trump’s refusal to help Ukraine, 18 House Republicans joined Democrats to pass a measure to provide more than 💲1 billion in aid and impose new sanctions on Russia. (Recall how Trump repeatedly said he would end that war within 24 hours after returning to office.)

The sudden turn against Trump by some GOP lawmakers is likely driven more by the looming midterm elections than any allegiance to their constitutional oath.

Trump’s poll numbers are sinking. There are even cracks among white working-class voters without a college degree who now disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy. They could tolerate Trump’s lies, corruption, and incompetence, but not 💲5-a-gallon gasoline.

At the same time, Trump — who has spent a lifetime litigating thousands of grievances — is losing in many courtrooms on issues big and small.

On Monday, a judge voided “in its entirety” Trump’s scheme to impose 💲100,000 fees on employers seeking visas for skilled foreign workers — one in a series of misguided moves by the administration to target immigrants, which hurts all Americans.
U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.) called Trump’s continued deference to Russian leader Vladimir Putin a “moral blindness” that “communicates weakness.”

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump’s cockamamie plan to impose tariffs on countries in a way best described as willy-nilly. 

Beyond being fiscally stupid, the court found Trump’s signature economic policy was unconstitutional❗

The Supreme Court will soon rule on Trump’s signature immigration policy to end birthright citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants or those on temporary visas.

Most legal experts believe Trump will lose this case because birthright citizenship is guaranteed under the 14th Amendment. Even Trump predicted the court would “probably rule against me.” As it should, since the law is not on his side.

A federal judge ruled that Trump’s name must come off the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The judge said the law is “crystal clear,” and that only Congress can change the name.

After beating four criminal indictments, Trump is still subject to the law.

In fact, the Trump administration has lost 70％ of the more than 600 lawsuits it has faced over the past year or so. The record of futility underscores Trump’s overreach, since the federal government traditionally prevails in court.

Judges and grand juries have rejected many of the slapdash legal arguments from the Trump administration. The U.S. Department of Justice has parted ways with thousands of career prosecutors and is forfeiting its credibility with the bench.

The losses are real. And they matter. But, democracy doesn’t survive on court rulings and poll numbers alone — it survives because people keep showing up.

Trump’s losing streak obscures the harder truth that he continues to trample the rule of law, attack countries, install lackeys, line his pockets, and upend the economy — moves that systematically weaken the U.S. at home and abroad.

It is, after all, a reminder that the arc of the moral universe can bend toward justice — even in these “dark, disturbing, and dangerous times.” The bending, though, is up to us: follow the Constitution, hold wrongdoers accountable, and vote.

#ImpeachTrumpNOW❗