Debra Hardesty

Pagan hippie lesbian feminist activist coffee-loving Crone

[Evon @_evon3929]

Walmart and Kroger are replacing price tags with screens that change the price based on who's standing in front of them.

Kroger is running them in 25% of stores already, and Walmart is installing them in all 4,600 US locations by the end of 2026.

It's not a rumor. The FTC is investigating it, and 5 moves opt you out:👇

[Patrick S. Tomlinson @stealthygeek]

Trump lost 2024. He is not President. They cheated in swing states and changed the vote totals. Trump admitted it publicly. Musk admitted it publicly.

It's harder to do across hundreds of smaller elections, but they have practice and proof-of-concept now.

They will do it again.

[Common Sense 🇺🇸💙 @commons96055467]

Missing children being trafficked by white men in Florida. 163 of them. Not by brown immigrant men, but by fucking white dudes. What’s happening to America?

[Ben Mullin @BenMullin]

scoop: Reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg have been barred from next week's G20 meeting in Asheville, N.C.
https://t.co/wx4dip1Rgf

[Pop Base @PopBase]

Melinda French Gates has matched Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields festival $10 million donation, bringing the total to $20 million.

The funds will go towards nonprofit organizations benefiting women and girls.

[ADAM @adamemedia1]

Trump just cut down cherry trees gifted to the united states by Japan in 1912.

The court said he couldn't and he did it anyway.

He testing the people to see what he can get away with.

[Citizens for Ethics @CREWcrew]

You may have heard that Trump brought in more than $2.2 billion last year.

But did you know that $859 million of that came from companies he had *just* formed since becoming the presumptive nominee for president in 2024? https://t.co/kOeUzuVJvg

[Thomas Kennedy @tomaskenn]

Peter Thiel getting a very cold reception outside of his new mansion in Buenos Aires. Argentineans chanting: “out, out Peter out.”

[Jonathan H. Adler @jadler1969]

So it appears Lake Ontario is named as such in the Treaty of Canandaigua, signed by President George Washington and ratified by Congress in 1795.

[Fifty Shades of Whey @davenewworld_2]

Women who were incarcerated in Colorado have learned that their strip searches had been recorded and accessed improperly at La Plata County Jail.

According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, jail commander Edward Aber, 63, accessed the evidence database over 3,000 times between February 2019 and July 2024 to view, save, and replay recorded strip searches of at least 117 women.

He allegedly accessed the footage at night, from home, and while traveling at hotels for personal sexual gratification. This is nauseating.

Aber was charged with 117 misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification and 1 count of official misconduct.

Multiple federal class-action lawsuits were filed on behalf of the affected women against Aber, the La Plata County Sheriff, and the county.

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

This is absolutely ridiculous.

EPA’s own review flagged potentially severe health risks from two new data center chemicals, including cancer, reproductive harm, neurological damage, and even acute lethality.

Then EPA admitted it did not have enough information to know just how dangerous exposure could be.

Legally, EPA has to limit or block toxic substances that pose unreasonable risk.

And yet, these new chemicals were approved anyway.

And key parts of the approval records are REDACTED, including who makes the chemicals.

If EPA sees serious risk and cannot even tell us how dangerous a chemical is, the answer cannot be approve it now and hope for the best.
https://t.co/abs0QD6qE3

[Jess Margera @jessmargera]

They just rescued 163 kidnapped kids in underground cages with duct tape over their mouths from a human trafficking ring in Florida and it hasn’t been on the news once because it’s 3 white maga Christian dudes that ran it. Take all the time you need with that one

[Warren Gunnels @GunnelsWarren]

If Bernie’s Social Security bill is signed into law, Social Security would be solvent for 75 years, benefits would go up by $2,400, 91% of Americans would not pay a penny more in taxes and the wealthy would finally pay their fair share by scrapping the cap on all taxable income.

[Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 @cmclymer]

This morning, an explosive report from The Washington Post’s Alex Horton and Tara Copp is shaping up to be the most devastating blow to Pete Hegseth’s leadership during his tenure as Trump’s Secretary of Defense — and arguably the most embarrassing pushback against a SecDef in decades.

Two weeks ago—only just being revealed now—four top military commanders gave “non-concurs” on Hegseth extending operations in the War in Iran, their reasoning outlined in the Aug. 14th edition of the Secretary of Defense Orders Book (SDOB), a classified briefing typically presented twice a month to the SecDef by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Think of the SDOB as a blunt summary of U.S. military operations worldwide: here are the assets we have, here are the places our units are currently deployed, this is our trajectory in line with national security priorities, here are our recommendations relating to the SecDef’s orders, etc.

In this particular edition of the SDOB, the heads of U.S. European Command, U.S. Pacific Command, and U.S. Southern Command—along with the Chief of Naval Operations—each offered a “non-concur” in response to Hegseth’s plan to extend forces in the War in Iran.

Army and Air Force officials reportedly “concurred” with Hegseth’s strategy but expressed significant concerns regarding the challenges.

Their collective reasoning amounts to the operation being “unsustainable” and degrading force readiness in other parts of the world and basically putting our military in a globally weaker position for potential wars in the future.

As Ms. Copp and Mr. Horton correctly highlighted in their reporting, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Daryl Caudle, offered the most immediately concerning feedback: quite simply that the U.S. Navy cannot sustain force readiness at the current level in the Iran operation.

That’s basically the bus driver turning their head around an hour into a road trip and pointing out that we can’t do this on a quarter tank of gas. Oh, and one or two tires might be flat. Oh, and no there’s no spare available.

To be clear, it’s not highly unusual for a military commander to give a “non-concur” in an SDOB that’s backed up with a reasonable assessment.

The SDOB is intended to be an avenue through which top military commanders can disagree with the SecDef’s grand strategy and/or offer honest feedback, but in current practice—in this Pentagon and under this president—mere disagreement, even in a classified setting, is obviously quite risky.

Several generals and admirals have been fired or forced into early retirement in the past year over their private disagreements with Trump and Hegseth.

In August of 2025, Hegseth fired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, then head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, when LTG Kruse produced a preliminary intelligence assessment that contradicted Trump and Hegseth, claiming their missile strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities that June had only set back the regime’s nuclear program “by months” and had not “completely obliterated” them as Trump and Hegseth had told the American public.

Last October, Admiral Alvin Holsey, then-head of U.S. Southern Command, was reportedly forced out when he clashed with Hegseth over operations in Latin America and the growing concern over the legality of the Pentagon’s strikes on civilian boats.

Hegseth then forced out Gen. George Randy—the widely-respected Army Chief of Staff—this past April, supposedly over the general’s refusal to shut down an investigation into the unauthorized and highly controversial helicopter flyby of Kid Rock’s property in Tennessee.

These aren’t including the wider purge of generals and admirals during Hegseth’s time leading the Pentagon, mostly based on anti-DEI reasoning: U.S. Air Force General (and then-Chairman of the JCS) Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, Jr. in February of 2025; U.S. Navy Admiral (and then-Chief of Naval of Operations) Lisa Franchetti the same month; U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Lisa Fagan (and then-Commandant) early in the admin — and the list goes on and on.

Nearly all of them were removed early in their tenures, most with no clear reasoning given for their removals.

The first 19 months of Trump 2.0 have been characterized by what seems to be an ongoing, blatant campaign of intimidation to keep senior brass in the Pentagon toeing the line and not pushing back against administration officials.

That’s partly what makes this morning’s story all the more jarring.

While it’s not necessarily a red flag or particularly unusual for a senior military officer to disagree respectfully in these classified briefings—even before Trump’s time—there’s simply no precedent for the range of disagreement that was registered across military branches in the Aug. 14th SDOB.

If any of the defense secretaries under Presidents Biden, Obama, or Bush had gotten this degree and range of pushback from top uniformed personnel, there would be immediate congressional hearings, calls for resignations, and talks of impeachment.

In this especially heightened environment of censorship and browbeating within the current culture of the Pentagon, four of the most senior military officers serving at the highest levels of our national security apparatus made it clear to Hegseth, in no uncertain terms, that they disagree with his strategy regarding Iran, which, after the sluggish economy, has grown into the most potent weakness Trump has with the American people.

Only 31 percent approved of Trump’s handling of Iran in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released earlier this week, down from 34 percent at the start of this month and 37 percent back in February, a shift that is blamed on a growing number of Republican voters turning against the operation.

Moreover, someone had to leak the information contained in this classified briefing and did so knowing that it would further confirm the extraordinary weakness the Trump administration has exhibited in its apparently dead-on-arrival “negotiations” with the Iranian regime to end the war.

In political circles in D.C., across party lines, it is the consensus perception that the War in Iran has already been lost.

Nothing has been accomplished in service to the range of dubiously-claimed objectives sloppily laid out by Trump, but worse than that, the Iranian regime is in a stronger position than it was this past February when the operation was launched.

Nothing has gone right. Traditional allies of the U.S. have been openly critical of the operation and resistant—if not directly opposed—to assisting in it. The Pentagon has been besieged by reports on everything from depleted weapons stockpiles to service members enduring intolerable living conditions, most notably on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

The Strait of Hormuz—the shipping lane for trade in the region, critical for commerce and security around the globe—has been completely closed or partially closed for the past six months.

Despite Trump’s claims that commercial vessels are getting through, he fails to mention that shipping is down more than 90 percent from its usual traffic, which will soon compound the economic consequences already being felt globally and certainly here in the United States.

On top of that, the Iranian regime is more extremist now and far less conducive to cooperating with the U.S. government in a way that would be beneficial to our own interests, notably national security and preventing the development of Iranian nuclear weapons.

This leak emerging from the Pentagon will significantly weaken the already anemic position of the Trump administration in negotiating at least some kind of face-saving resolution to what is clearly the most embarrassing foreign policy venture in recent memory, even more so than Iraq.

In six months, Trump and Hegseth have managed to diminish our military readiness, weaken our economy, alienate our allies, strengthen the Iranian regime, and get civilians and service members needlessly killed — all without any concessions that would justify the operation in the first place.

It has been enormously costly, egregiously humiliating, and wholly without gain.

In light of all this, perhaps the cordial lack of confidence in Hegseth expressed by our senior military leaders is being rather kind on their part.
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Link to full essay available here for easier sharing: https://t.co/LSZz3bpxW4

[King Arthur Fan @brandilwells]

💯

[Patrick S. Tomlinson @stealthygeek]

Reminder Trump and the GOP hid some of the most deadly, cruel provisions of the Billionaire Blowing Bill so they wouldn't start to harm Americans until AFTER the midterms.

They want you to blame the new Democratic majority for the evil THEY passed years back.

Don't fall for it.

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

Trump is very clearly stating that if the press publishes the truth instead of his propaganda, he’ll put the weight of the federal government behind punishing them.

In case you’re confused, crushing dissent and punishing the press is what authoritarians do.

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

The bottom 94% of US workers pay into Social Security with 100% of their paycheck.

The top 6% pay into it with only a fraction of theirs.

Scrap the cap on Social Security, so we can fully fund Social Security.

[Dorothy Eubanks @DorothyEubank16]

What Trump doesn’t want you to know..

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

The Copycat Dictator: Trump Echoes Hitler's Tactics

This is not a deal. It is a stickup with letterhead.

Trump did not negotiate 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil. He bagged a president, propped up the next available strongman, and announced that the ground under other people's feet now answers to Washington. Delcy Rodríguez did not sit down as an equal. She sat down as a hostage who still had a pen. The United States pointed a gun at a country, then invoiced it for the privilege.

That is the old dictator's sequence, not some American innovation. Invent the emergency. Hit the neighbor. Install the local who will sign. Seize the asset. Call it destiny. Hitler wrapped conquest in grievance and "restoration." Trump used drugs as the cover story and crude as the payoff.

If Maduro were the point, the story ends in a courtroom. It didn't. Rodríguez is not a partner. She is a quisling with stationery. Majority control. Oil at cost. A hundred-year claim. A press release screaming HISTORY while a shattered country is told to be grateful for the occupation's investment. McFaul called it theft dressed as policy. He was being polite. It is a colonial concession signed after a midnight kidnapping.

Kaine was right: this pads the family firm and Big Oil and kicks any clean-energy future further down a burning road. Van Hollen was right: troops in harm's way so billionaire friends can book reserves is not statecraft. It is a fiduciary crime with a flag pin.

Spare the gasoline fairy tale. Prices will not collapse because he typed in all caps. What lasts is uglier: Washington owning a slice of another nation's geology, carbon locked in for generations, Venezuelans watching their inheritance sold by a regime that exists because the raid allowed it to exist. After a year of government equity stakes, even a Cato economist gagged: a majority-state oil vehicle branded as private enterprise. That is not capitalism. That is the state as holding company for its donors.

If this were about Venezuelans, there would be an election before a concession.

First the force. Then the asset. Then the lie that it was always ours.

Trump is not Hitler. He is the copy: same method, cheaper suit, commodities desk attached. A dictator-wannabe who looked at a broken country and saw a warehouse.

The people calling it a win are the people expecting to cash the receipt.