Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦

70+ years and going. From a long humanist, progressive tradition. Sort of retired photographer. Woodworker. Aesthete. Yogi. @Carlsergosum.bsky.social

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow”

[Anthony Scaramucci @Scaramucci]

Trump said something outside a press gaggle that I don’t think enough people caught.

A reporter called him out on the corruption. He gave three responses.

1. I have the right to do it.
2. He’s not stealing that much. A billion or two billion dollars. Not that much money. Classic Trump.
3. People don’t care.

That’s the permission structure. Our collective apathy is what they’re using to justify everything happening in Washington right now.

Please stand up and prove him wrong.

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

@MacFarlaneNews @mirandamuseum Let’s see if they miss the filing deadline again.

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

@CalltoActivism @VeronicaTellsIt Scavino checking #BooTrump

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

"Blanche’s DOJ has no interest at all in investigating or prosecuting the men who have done truly horrible things. After all, 'it isn’t a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.' Trump rewarded Blanche for the Epstein coverup."

But the Senate can reject him.

https://t.co/2wlyaadaAF

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

@IanLogan3 @sofiakinzinger @AntiToxicPeople Cheung knows farm country. With any luck he’ll lose his job and have to go on welfare, sit on a sidewalk grate begging for money and eventually get deported after taking up the space of three people in ICE-contracted detention warehouse.

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

@ShirleysGalaxy @sofiakinzinger Brilliant.

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

@sofiakinzinger @bkaydw Excellent and insightful analysis. It’s still a successful and complex strategy. Forewarned is forearmed. Is this now a tool and will others follow suit? Certainly not CBS.

[Caolan @CaolanReports]

Ireland has been welcoming the Russians en masse and allowing them to own and export massive industries on their soil. An extremely embarrassing and pathetic situation in 2026.

https://t.co/6G9LVDBTxx

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

@Acyn The Dunning-Kruger president.

[Q The Storm Rider @Q_TheStormRider]

JUST IN: Reporter Catherine Herridge testifies that CBS News locked her out of the building and seized all her files, says she was working with sources to "expose government corruption."

Nothing at all going on here, folks.

"CBS News’ decision to seize my reporting records crossed a red line that I believe should never be crossed by any media organization."

"Multiple sources said they were concerned that by working with me to expose government corruption and misconduct they would be identified and exposed."

"CBS News locked me out of the building and seized hundreds of pages of my reporting files, including confidential source information."

FOLLOW ME, THE NEXT DROP WILL BE SHOCKING.

[Maria Shriver @mariashriver]

I’ve been thinking a lot about the extraordinary outbursts of the President of the United States against female journalists... well, actually against journalists in general and journalism. But it feels like he saves his most childlike behavior and irrational language for female reporters, calling them all kinds of names that kids in kindergarten are given times out for. It’s stunning to me to witness such behavior from any leader, any CEO, any person of influence or importance. I’ve never witnessed someone like this raging, this weekend with @meetthepress host @kwelkernbc, just last week in the Oval Office with @cnn’s @kaitlancollins, calling women stupid or piggy, telling them to “smile”, calling them darling, demeaning their credibility. Every good man should denounce this behavior. Every person should be able to stand up for their colleagues and say “No more.”

Imagine this man screaming like this at your daughter, your wife, your sister, your mother... would you stand for it? No, you wouldn’t! And neither should any of us. It’s unacceptable and undignified. Period. End of story.

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

@Gerashchenko_en I would so love to see Lavrov try to defy the law of gravity.

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

@Gerashchenko_en Oh well.
I’m waiting for a simple symbolic act like destroying Putin’s childhood home. And then his Sochi dacha palace.

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

@joshgerstein @AntiToxicPeople Why give them to June 10? That is a courtesy that should not be extended. Just sanction them. They’ve wasted and disrespected the court’s and the defendant’s time. Cost them inordinate amounts of money. It has now become a tactic in an obvious strategy.

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

Well said.

[Save Jackson Park @Speaking4Trees]

Congrats!!
Re Amerika... i think some of us thought that voting for what we believed would be lower prices on gas and food, while engaging in racism was okay. Now we have an administration that is imprisoning/murdering people, both citizens and not, destroying environmental protections and societal norms and news resources, and using any way to become more rich.... while ripping apart a social safety net that was never very big nor strong to begin with. We're learning that many of our citizens have absolutely no capacity to understand politics, politicians, or authoritarianism. To put it simply, apparently a lot of us are politically dumb and racist.

Well, usually you can't fix dumb nor racist. We're going to have to see if we can overwhelm it. No American can ignore
politics and our mostly money hungry politicians. We all must engage, protest and vote.

If we don't, we're going to lose America.

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

@RonFilipkowski Because he neither knows nor understands history. History began with his birth and his omniscience and flat out genius will solve it all. [sarcasm].

[Citizens for Ethics @CREWcrew]

Not enough people know that the DOJ is keeping the part of Trump's IRS settlement in place that shields Trump and his family from IRS audits.

That's *extraordinarily* corrupt. Don't let it fly under the radar. https://t.co/4I2ovkLZQq

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

@Maks_NAFO_FELLA Just leave. Or surrender.

[Carl S. Ergo Sum 🇺🇦 @CSanSoc]

Pretty good strategy, actually. A bit maximalist but that’s just to bring things back to status quo ante.

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

Trump wants the Strait of Hormuz open. Europe can help make that happen. General Sir Richard Shirreff, NATO’s former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, says there is a price for that assistance, and it is not a small one.

The deal Shirreff is describing is straightforward. Europe provides diplomatic support and a maritime stabilisation mission to reopen Hormuz. In return, the United States fully backs Ukraine against Russia, stops undermining NATO and honours its Article 5 commitments without qualification or complaint.

That is the leverage Europe has been sitting on without using it. Trump is stuck. Iran has him cornered in the Gulf, gas prices are wrecking his domestic approval numbers and he has no credible exit. He needs allies to help him out of the hole he dug. Europe can be those allies. But not for free.

The terms are not unreasonable. They are, in fact, exactly what the United States promised when its presidents still read the alliance documents. Full support for Ukraine. No more briefings against NATO burden-sharing. No more suggesting that Article 5 is conditional on payment. Just the commitments Washington already made, honoured as if they meant something.

Shirreff’s argument is that Europe has spent three months treating its leverage as a liability rather than an asset. The bases, the logistics, the drone expertise from Ukraine, the diplomatic legitimacy Trump craves internationally. All of it has been offered at no charge while the US simultaneously withdraws troops from Germany and threatens the alliance that underpins European security.

The war in Iran has changed the arithmetic. Trump needs a win. Europe can provide the scaffolding for one. The question is whether European leaders have the nerve to name their price before Trump finds another way out.

stay connected, follow @Gandalv

[Citizens for Ethics @CREWcrew]

Transportation Secretary Duffy's participation in the "Great American Road Trip" may have violated several ethics rules.

So we've filed a complaint.
https://t.co/N7Bf0r6VVG