I feel for the thousands of people who joined the Bureau (or just about any federal agency) with the goal to protect and serve. They have all made considerable sacrifices and pledged to protect our country from all enemies foreign and domestic only to find that the call is coming from inside the house.
I can’t imagine their pain at having to choose between staying in an untenable situation with the hope of righting the ship or leaving to uphold their oath.
History will not look back kindly on this time. Thank you for helping us all find ways to make a difference.
I fail to understand this administration’s logic — how everyone and everything else is the enemy except for the very administration that is hollowing out every protection our country has built over time. To what end? The very downfall and destruction of our nation? Every day is like watching a train wreck, powerless to stop it. It’s difficult to do more than simply prepare to take cover from the fallout.
You cannot understand the logic because you’re looking for the wrong kind. You answered your own question when you asked, “the downfall and destruction of our nation?”
You are not watching the train wreck, you are riding the train, or more like United Flight 93 on 9/11.
You are not powerless. Remember, those passengers fought back against the terrorists and saved our Capitol.
Sharon, through no fault of your own, even though I'm a paying subscriber I can't read much of these articles anymore. I get too upset seeing what's happening to our country and my mental health suffers. I can only imagine how you must feel as the one compiling and creating this excellent but painful reporting.
What I need are concrete, direct ways I can help right back against this authoritarian takeover. Where is the country-wide organized resistance and how can I be part of it please? (Yes of course I'll be voting!)
Hey Jay, I totally relate! I just did a 2-week break myself just to get re-energized. I have some information on resources that can help with some of the hopelessness, some of which aren’t listed publicly so as not to get attention from people who don’t share the same mission. If you or anyone reading this is interested, shoot me a message. No guarantees but we might be able to figure something out.
I completely understand this sentiment. However, you cannot look away. Call your senators and representatives- every.single.day. 5calls will give you a script for what you are most passionate about. Search up organizing groups in your area, they are everywhere, and volunteer. Do not despair - act.
My fear is: WHERE IS DEM LEADERSHIP AT. There are so many of us who are doing something - anything - to feel like we are helping to resist. This is the time for people to stand up, get loud, and ORGANIZE us.
The sad thing is Dems have no power to effect change. The media largely ignores them because Trump sucks the air out of the room. I would love to see Democratic house members back in their communities and brainstorming with constituents.
Yep! It almost feels like they're waiting for us to tell them where to lead us. And given their talent for losing elections, maybe that's the best way to steer this ship... new leadership! And perhaps clearing the way for new leaders is the only way voters will have reason to think something has fundamentally changed within the party, even if the principles remain. That's where my head is at.
Democratic leadership needs to IMMEDIATELY STOP just asking us for $5 or $3, and get with the program. We need to be protesting. Every weekend, with our elected representatives at the helm. Protesting like the people we have watched in other counties bring down walls in Eastern Europe, some by just singing! Look at the people now in Tel Aviv. This is one of the real reasons why there are national Guard and FBI in place in DC. To stop us protesting there. So let’s do it everywhere else. And don’t stop!
Sharon, such wonderful teaching THANK YOU. I did not get enough history and politics in High School; especially current era, Nixon etc.. It's hard to hear Trump's devastation but the knowledge you provide helps us all look to the future to rebuild.
I wish we could stop with the Hunter Biden drop-ins on so many topics. How did his pardon "validate" Trump's strategy and how was it controversial on the merits? Biden pled guilty to tax evasion, after he paid back all the money, penalties and interest he owed. Prosecutions for tax evasion are rare when the accused admits wrongdoing and makes full restitution. He was found guilty for making an untrue statement in connection with the purchase of a firearm, under a law the violations of which are rarely prosecuted and which Republicans want to get rid of because it's too restrictive to keep guns out of the hands of drug addicts. The actions occurred while he was in the throes of addiction, did not involve violence and he made full restitution. A pardon in a case such as that does not seem unusual, especially compared to pardons granted recently. President Biden let "his" Justice Dept fully investigate his son without interference, insisting that he would not grant a pardon, which showed he believed in the department's following the law and the Constitution, as it should. If anything, the Justice Dept under Biden went too far by prosecuting Biden's son for who he was, for actions that under normal circumstances, would not result in prosecution. It was only when Trump started making noise about weaponizing the department after he regained power that President Biden pardoned his son and, by the way, members of the J6 investigation panel and Dr. Anthony Fauci, among others. In light of the current state of affairs, looks like he made the right decision.
The hardest part of this whole thing is seeing how much of our govt is acting as though this is all business as usual. Rs in congress have not just failed, they’ve happily ushered in this mess. Corporate CEOs have also just decided they would rather capitalize on the situation (re: Tim Cook and his golden trinket). So many people looked down on the Occupy Wallstreet movement in the early 2000s as wild exaggeration and they were just “making a big show”, etc. To every one of us who has been screaming fire for the last decade plus, we are now justified in our screams. I will never again allow others to tell me I’m overreacting when the writing on the wall is and was so unbelievably clear. Corporate greed and unfettered money in politics has made a shell of our once great nation.
To everyone that thinks this is how fascism starts, you are wrong. This is not the beginning of an authoritarian takeover. We are at least half-way there.
The crime statistics thing is always fascinating to watch play out. Politicians have been crying about rampant crime even during periods of historic lows for decades - it’s basically political suicide to not demand increased police budgets regardless of actual crime rates, otherwise you get labeled soft on crime. But I keep wondering what specific narrative MAGA is building here to justify such drastic federal takeover of DC police. Are they cherry-picking some anecdotal incidents and blowing them out of proportion? Trump’s statements never really explain the reasoning in a way that anyone outside his base could understand - and that’s intentional. He prefers creating tumultuous reactions so he can point at Democrats and claim they’re okay with whatever specific crime his supporters are fixated on. The disconnect between the 30-year low in crime data and the “liberation day” rhetoric is so stark that there has to be some alternative story they’re telling themselves. If only they were interested in getting people on board with their supposedly necessary insane provocations.
Speaking of changing narratives, I wonder if Trump would even deny Comey’s claim about demanding loyalty anymore. Back in 2017 we were shocked that a president would demand personal loyalty from the FBI director, and Trump felt compelled to deny it. But here we are almost a decade later and he’s openly firing anyone who won’t pledge fealty. He’s not even pretending to care about institutional independence anymore - Bondi literally calls DOJ lawyers “the president’s lawyers.” The authoritarian principles that once had to be hidden are now the explicit policy. It might be fun one day to dig into his statements at the time and see how they compare to his 2nd term preference for loyalty tests.
What’s darkly ironic is how the FBI has essentially handed Trump both his presidential victories. Comey’s letter about Hillary’s emails eleven days before the 2016 election, and then the Mar-a-Lago raid in 2022 (almost exactly 3 years ago) that reversed Trump’s declining relevance just when Republicans were starting to move on from him. Looking back, that was clearly the day his political resurrection began. The institution he’s now dismantling basically gave him the power to dismantle it. Ugh. It goes to show we are up against a MAGA movement that believes criminal behavior against the US government is a virtue.
The most urgent lesson here is that when we eventually get an anti-MAGA president and Congress, constitutional reform has to be the top priority. The Supreme Court’s immunity ruling shows how our founding documents can be twisted to create the very monarchy the founders rebelled against. But SCOTUS can only twist the Constitution as far as its vague phrasing will allow. We need amendments explicitly stating that the president is not above the law, that the Justice Department maintains independence from the executive, that law enforcement cannot be weaponized for political purposes. Add in clear language about gerrymandering and campaign finance while we’re at it. And of course that the government is not equipped to prosecute doctors or patients for decisions they make about their own bodies. And fix the grammar mistakes in the 2nd amendment. Basically let’s go through every terrible SCOTUS decision and make it clear that our country does actually believe in freedom from tyranny.
The fact that “no one is above the law” even needs to be clarified in 2025 shows how successfully democratic norms have been eroded. Otherwise we’re just counting down to the next authoritarian who learns from Trump’s playbook but executes it even more competently. A pendulum swing between political philosophies is fine and healthy, but swinging between dictatorship and temporary respite before the next dictator is not the way out of this mess.
Just finished listening to The Daily while walking the dogs... yep. Apparently there's one carjacking that he's using to justify the militarization of the entire city. This despite his own officials just recently crediting Trump's influence on crime in the city being a success, backing up the statistics saying things are moving in the right direction (and already had been improving before the 2024 election). Now suddenly there's no choice but to deploy the military to do normal police work?
I just looked it up: 8 out of the 10 states with the highest CDC murder rates in 2022 voted for Trump in the last 3 elections: 1) MS 2) LA 3) AL 4) NM 5) MO 6) GA 7) SC 8) TN 9) AR 10) AK. Make that 9 out of 10 if you ignore the fact that GA went slightly toward Biden in 2020. And that's been consistent across recent years. Democrats should be relentlessly calling out "the murder epidemic in Trump states" as a campaign message.
And so the question for MAGA is: Do you support using the military for political means no matter who is president? Would you be just as comfortable if Biden threw the National Guard and the FBI on Memphis after several policemen murdered Tyre Nichols in 2023? Isn't that more "out of control" than a single carjacking by random kids in DC? Or could he have them raid Oklahoma City for no reason other than just one crime of his choosing happening there? At what point did the president using the military for non-emergency police work cease to become a red line? Does the red line disappear anytime your guy is in power?
As I was reading this article, I began to think about all the people who work in federal agencies right now, and how difficult it must be to remain employed there if you're a person of good character and ethics. How difficult it must feel to speak up when you see something wrong, because your very livelihood is on the line.
We are in such dark times. The slippery slope to authoritarianism is slipping faster and faster.
Reading this article and the comments, I begin thinking about comic books. But for real. Super heroes come in when the authorities are too corrupt or too weak to protect people. These are the stories we write because we want to be safe, and we don't believe the government can protect us. What's worse, the government is causing us real harm. So, maybe we need some new stories - stories that remind us of what is good and true.
A lot of our favorite super heroes were created by Jewish Americans around WWII. Who are our storytellers now?
I went to see the new Superman. The Lex Luthor character was so Trump. The round ups that he was making, the WWF ish characters and Mar-a-Lago faced bimbos locked up in his prison. And Superman crushed him. Kudos.
Just reading this piece now, and wow, the breaking news about the hack of the federal court filing system by suspected Russians is.. something… Like, who could’ve predicted forcing agents to round up people instead of doing their jobs would put America in danger…
There are things we can do but before I get to that, Brian Driscoll is on the right side of history, hero.
You can call your legislators (it does make a difference) on the DC issue call them every hour 5calls has a script or just speak from the heart.
Talk to your community ( your neighbours, book club, co workers, community council members. Some of my neighbours did not know or were misinformed about DC.
Reach out to DC residents get them to take pictures of peaceful DC and flood social media with them.
Yard signs- I write my own. I only use facts. This weeks is about how much land the U.S. took from Mexico and where to find the old maps.
I appreciate the information. I appreciate the facts you offer us, Sharon. I also appreciate others' posts, other very well informed and smart people like Joyce Vance, Adam Kinzinger, Bill Kristol, Andrew Agger, and others. I feel as though I understand what's happening to our country, the history that in the past has allowed takeovers by dictators, even heroic efforts that are happening right now to attempt to stem the tide. I suppose everyone's crystal ball is a bit cloudy at the moment, but after all of this, I'm left wondering whether or not we can actually save the Constitution and rule of law in the United States.
Thank you, Sharon.
I feel for the thousands of people who joined the Bureau (or just about any federal agency) with the goal to protect and serve. They have all made considerable sacrifices and pledged to protect our country from all enemies foreign and domestic only to find that the call is coming from inside the house.
I can’t imagine their pain at having to choose between staying in an untenable situation with the hope of righting the ship or leaving to uphold their oath.
History will not look back kindly on this time. Thank you for helping us all find ways to make a difference.
Tori Jo, and also the pain they feel in watching our adversaries take advantage of our self-destruction.
I fail to understand this administration’s logic — how everyone and everything else is the enemy except for the very administration that is hollowing out every protection our country has built over time. To what end? The very downfall and destruction of our nation? Every day is like watching a train wreck, powerless to stop it. It’s difficult to do more than simply prepare to take cover from the fallout.
You cannot understand the logic because you’re looking for the wrong kind. You answered your own question when you asked, “the downfall and destruction of our nation?”
You are not watching the train wreck, you are riding the train, or more like United Flight 93 on 9/11.
You are not powerless. Remember, those passengers fought back against the terrorists and saved our Capitol.
Sharon, through no fault of your own, even though I'm a paying subscriber I can't read much of these articles anymore. I get too upset seeing what's happening to our country and my mental health suffers. I can only imagine how you must feel as the one compiling and creating this excellent but painful reporting.
What I need are concrete, direct ways I can help right back against this authoritarian takeover. Where is the country-wide organized resistance and how can I be part of it please? (Yes of course I'll be voting!)
Hey Jay, I totally relate! I just did a 2-week break myself just to get re-energized. I have some information on resources that can help with some of the hopelessness, some of which aren’t listed publicly so as not to get attention from people who don’t share the same mission. If you or anyone reading this is interested, shoot me a message. No guarantees but we might be able to figure something out.
I completely understand this sentiment. However, you cannot look away. Call your senators and representatives- every.single.day. 5calls will give you a script for what you are most passionate about. Search up organizing groups in your area, they are everywhere, and volunteer. Do not despair - act.
My fear is: WHERE IS DEM LEADERSHIP AT. There are so many of us who are doing something - anything - to feel like we are helping to resist. This is the time for people to stand up, get loud, and ORGANIZE us.
The sad thing is Dems have no power to effect change. The media largely ignores them because Trump sucks the air out of the room. I would love to see Democratic house members back in their communities and brainstorming with constituents.
Yep! It almost feels like they're waiting for us to tell them where to lead us. And given their talent for losing elections, maybe that's the best way to steer this ship... new leadership! And perhaps clearing the way for new leaders is the only way voters will have reason to think something has fundamentally changed within the party, even if the principles remain. That's where my head is at.
Democratic leadership needs to IMMEDIATELY STOP just asking us for $5 or $3, and get with the program. We need to be protesting. Every weekend, with our elected representatives at the helm. Protesting like the people we have watched in other counties bring down walls in Eastern Europe, some by just singing! Look at the people now in Tel Aviv. This is one of the real reasons why there are national Guard and FBI in place in DC. To stop us protesting there. So let’s do it everywhere else. And don’t stop!
Sharon, such wonderful teaching THANK YOU. I did not get enough history and politics in High School; especially current era, Nixon etc.. It's hard to hear Trump's devastation but the knowledge you provide helps us all look to the future to rebuild.
Kelly Ann, I’m so happy you said “rebuild,” because our country has been destroyed and must be rebuilt.
I wish we could stop with the Hunter Biden drop-ins on so many topics. How did his pardon "validate" Trump's strategy and how was it controversial on the merits? Biden pled guilty to tax evasion, after he paid back all the money, penalties and interest he owed. Prosecutions for tax evasion are rare when the accused admits wrongdoing and makes full restitution. He was found guilty for making an untrue statement in connection with the purchase of a firearm, under a law the violations of which are rarely prosecuted and which Republicans want to get rid of because it's too restrictive to keep guns out of the hands of drug addicts. The actions occurred while he was in the throes of addiction, did not involve violence and he made full restitution. A pardon in a case such as that does not seem unusual, especially compared to pardons granted recently. President Biden let "his" Justice Dept fully investigate his son without interference, insisting that he would not grant a pardon, which showed he believed in the department's following the law and the Constitution, as it should. If anything, the Justice Dept under Biden went too far by prosecuting Biden's son for who he was, for actions that under normal circumstances, would not result in prosecution. It was only when Trump started making noise about weaponizing the department after he regained power that President Biden pardoned his son and, by the way, members of the J6 investigation panel and Dr. Anthony Fauci, among others. In light of the current state of affairs, looks like he made the right decision.
💯. Completely agree.
Every accusation is a confession with this administration.
The hardest part of this whole thing is seeing how much of our govt is acting as though this is all business as usual. Rs in congress have not just failed, they’ve happily ushered in this mess. Corporate CEOs have also just decided they would rather capitalize on the situation (re: Tim Cook and his golden trinket). So many people looked down on the Occupy Wallstreet movement in the early 2000s as wild exaggeration and they were just “making a big show”, etc. To every one of us who has been screaming fire for the last decade plus, we are now justified in our screams. I will never again allow others to tell me I’m overreacting when the writing on the wall is and was so unbelievably clear. Corporate greed and unfettered money in politics has made a shell of our once great nation.
To everyone that thinks this is how fascism starts, you are wrong. This is not the beginning of an authoritarian takeover. We are at least half-way there.
Stacey Abrams explains the 10 steps.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19LjJbx2Au/?mibextid=wwXIfr
The crime statistics thing is always fascinating to watch play out. Politicians have been crying about rampant crime even during periods of historic lows for decades - it’s basically political suicide to not demand increased police budgets regardless of actual crime rates, otherwise you get labeled soft on crime. But I keep wondering what specific narrative MAGA is building here to justify such drastic federal takeover of DC police. Are they cherry-picking some anecdotal incidents and blowing them out of proportion? Trump’s statements never really explain the reasoning in a way that anyone outside his base could understand - and that’s intentional. He prefers creating tumultuous reactions so he can point at Democrats and claim they’re okay with whatever specific crime his supporters are fixated on. The disconnect between the 30-year low in crime data and the “liberation day” rhetoric is so stark that there has to be some alternative story they’re telling themselves. If only they were interested in getting people on board with their supposedly necessary insane provocations.
Speaking of changing narratives, I wonder if Trump would even deny Comey’s claim about demanding loyalty anymore. Back in 2017 we were shocked that a president would demand personal loyalty from the FBI director, and Trump felt compelled to deny it. But here we are almost a decade later and he’s openly firing anyone who won’t pledge fealty. He’s not even pretending to care about institutional independence anymore - Bondi literally calls DOJ lawyers “the president’s lawyers.” The authoritarian principles that once had to be hidden are now the explicit policy. It might be fun one day to dig into his statements at the time and see how they compare to his 2nd term preference for loyalty tests.
What’s darkly ironic is how the FBI has essentially handed Trump both his presidential victories. Comey’s letter about Hillary’s emails eleven days before the 2016 election, and then the Mar-a-Lago raid in 2022 (almost exactly 3 years ago) that reversed Trump’s declining relevance just when Republicans were starting to move on from him. Looking back, that was clearly the day his political resurrection began. The institution he’s now dismantling basically gave him the power to dismantle it. Ugh. It goes to show we are up against a MAGA movement that believes criminal behavior against the US government is a virtue.
The most urgent lesson here is that when we eventually get an anti-MAGA president and Congress, constitutional reform has to be the top priority. The Supreme Court’s immunity ruling shows how our founding documents can be twisted to create the very monarchy the founders rebelled against. But SCOTUS can only twist the Constitution as far as its vague phrasing will allow. We need amendments explicitly stating that the president is not above the law, that the Justice Department maintains independence from the executive, that law enforcement cannot be weaponized for political purposes. Add in clear language about gerrymandering and campaign finance while we’re at it. And of course that the government is not equipped to prosecute doctors or patients for decisions they make about their own bodies. And fix the grammar mistakes in the 2nd amendment. Basically let’s go through every terrible SCOTUS decision and make it clear that our country does actually believe in freedom from tyranny.
The fact that “no one is above the law” even needs to be clarified in 2025 shows how successfully democratic norms have been eroded. Otherwise we’re just counting down to the next authoritarian who learns from Trump’s playbook but executes it even more competently. A pendulum swing between political philosophies is fine and healthy, but swinging between dictatorship and temporary respite before the next dictator is not the way out of this mess.
Just finished listening to The Daily while walking the dogs... yep. Apparently there's one carjacking that he's using to justify the militarization of the entire city. This despite his own officials just recently crediting Trump's influence on crime in the city being a success, backing up the statistics saying things are moving in the right direction (and already had been improving before the 2024 election). Now suddenly there's no choice but to deploy the military to do normal police work?
I just looked it up: 8 out of the 10 states with the highest CDC murder rates in 2022 voted for Trump in the last 3 elections: 1) MS 2) LA 3) AL 4) NM 5) MO 6) GA 7) SC 8) TN 9) AR 10) AK. Make that 9 out of 10 if you ignore the fact that GA went slightly toward Biden in 2020. And that's been consistent across recent years. Democrats should be relentlessly calling out "the murder epidemic in Trump states" as a campaign message.
And so the question for MAGA is: Do you support using the military for political means no matter who is president? Would you be just as comfortable if Biden threw the National Guard and the FBI on Memphis after several policemen murdered Tyre Nichols in 2023? Isn't that more "out of control" than a single carjacking by random kids in DC? Or could he have them raid Oklahoma City for no reason other than just one crime of his choosing happening there? At what point did the president using the military for non-emergency police work cease to become a red line? Does the red line disappear anytime your guy is in power?
As I was reading this article, I began to think about all the people who work in federal agencies right now, and how difficult it must be to remain employed there if you're a person of good character and ethics. How difficult it must feel to speak up when you see something wrong, because your very livelihood is on the line.
We are in such dark times. The slippery slope to authoritarianism is slipping faster and faster.
Reading this article and the comments, I begin thinking about comic books. But for real. Super heroes come in when the authorities are too corrupt or too weak to protect people. These are the stories we write because we want to be safe, and we don't believe the government can protect us. What's worse, the government is causing us real harm. So, maybe we need some new stories - stories that remind us of what is good and true.
A lot of our favorite super heroes were created by Jewish Americans around WWII. Who are our storytellers now?
I went to see the new Superman. The Lex Luthor character was so Trump. The round ups that he was making, the WWF ish characters and Mar-a-Lago faced bimbos locked up in his prison. And Superman crushed him. Kudos.
I haven't seen it yet, but I'm looking forward to it!
Great piece, Elise! Thanks!
Just reading this piece now, and wow, the breaking news about the hack of the federal court filing system by suspected Russians is.. something… Like, who could’ve predicted forcing agents to round up people instead of doing their jobs would put America in danger…
There are things we can do but before I get to that, Brian Driscoll is on the right side of history, hero.
You can call your legislators (it does make a difference) on the DC issue call them every hour 5calls has a script or just speak from the heart.
Talk to your community ( your neighbours, book club, co workers, community council members. Some of my neighbours did not know or were misinformed about DC.
Reach out to DC residents get them to take pictures of peaceful DC and flood social media with them.
Yard signs- I write my own. I only use facts. This weeks is about how much land the U.S. took from Mexico and where to find the old maps.
Thanks again Sharon for keeping us updated.
I appreciate the information. I appreciate the facts you offer us, Sharon. I also appreciate others' posts, other very well informed and smart people like Joyce Vance, Adam Kinzinger, Bill Kristol, Andrew Agger, and others. I feel as though I understand what's happening to our country, the history that in the past has allowed takeovers by dictators, even heroic efforts that are happening right now to attempt to stem the tide. I suppose everyone's crystal ball is a bit cloudy at the moment, but after all of this, I'm left wondering whether or not we can actually save the Constitution and rule of law in the United States.
This is terrifying. Republicans have always claimed to care about the
Constitution and Rule of Law until Trump came along.
Operative word -claimed.
Sharon, I want to thank you for connecting the dots with the history and hypocrisy within current events. This is what journalism should be!