He refers to his own administration as, "Maximum Warfare. Everywhere. All the Time."

Thank you for saying that. 💙

Not all Democratic politicians care guilty of this, but the leadership is. That is why there is a hue and cry to replace them. Starting in January, they should have been expressing righteous anger. DOGE should never have been allowed to get off the ground.

The Dems are so used to being “the smartest guys in the room” that they’re trying to ‘well, actually’ the middle stages of a military dictatorship in America. It’s beyond maddening to watch.

he's literally building a golden palace and who builds a ballroom unless they aren't planning on being able to leave for a long time on their billion-dollar jet (stolen from nuclear missile maintenance fund) do we recover from this? are y'all SURE? #DemandDemocracy

Whoever is consulting the Democrats needs to be fired. Every time I hear from the experts of Democratic think tanks they just basically make fun of Democrats themselves and give these weak ass ideas. It's almost like the GOP is funding their research. It's beyond pathetic.

Thank you, Jamelle. We are fighting against the worst people ever to take control in this country & a small crew of folks want to fight over minute details. We don’t have time for that ish.

But it is intended to distract.

C’mon German citizens, the Brownshirts marching on Berlin is just a distraction, focus on how many deutsche marks it costs to buy eggs!

The big story is that fascism is here. I hate it when the Dems say it’s a distraction or it’s performative. Nah this shit’s for real and only we in our millions can stop it in mass sustained nonviolent resistance that brings this regime to a halt. refusefascism.org/featured-new...

Unfortunately, IMO, most things repeated by the legacy msm are distractions & power grabs & fear-mongerings & white supremacy cruelties & on & on & on. This isn't an either/or situation, but a web of interconnected tactics used by the mobsters/monsters currently in control of our government.

It’s not a distraction. Jeffries and Schumer are part of the problem.

Yup, Trump is enacting decades long agenda AND enacting his personal vision of America using the government including the military. I also hate “flood the zone” rhetoric because Trump is not trying to distract or confuse ppl! He’s actively hurting who he wants to hurt by any means necessary!

All true. But there's also that genocide in #Gaza that Trump is massively supporting with a never-ending supply of the deadliest weapons. It is not going unnoticed:

Correct. It's called "ground game."

Oh good god, THANK YOU for saying this!!!

So right. So clear. An historic message from my friends and neighbors to the Democratic Party: The Whole World is Watching!

It’s all a distraction and none of it is. I’m ready to get going on the revolution whenever there’s a quorum, but I barely pay attention to the individual crimes anymore because I have to function and impotent rage is not healthy.

I appreciate you. As a DC resident, thank you for calling out our occupation, the Emperor's nakedness, and Dem leadership's frustrating cowardice in directly addressing this.

These distraction takes just seem like an excuse to not do anything but wait.

Thank you! Every word of this=truth bomb. None of what the current regime is doing is “distraction.” All of it is their explicit agenda. Many of our reps are coming to that realization far too late (or not at all), although Project 2025 is right there. Blue state governors are now leading the way.

Everything Trump is doing is a distraction for Democrats who would rather be collecting campaign donations and sipping their cocktails.

We aren’t distracted, but I think Trump hopes MAGA will be. Hurting immigrants and liberals is about as important to his MAGA base as the Epstein files and the economy. He’s trying to throw them the red meat of cruelty to distract from the fact he’s a weak economy-wrecking liar.

Thank you.

Oh how I wish it was just a distraction but this is our reality. It's really happening, it's not a game or distraction, it's just the beginning.

☝🏾

YES!! THIS!! Anything that normalizes or brings forward authoritarianism HAS AN OBJECTIVE ALL ITS OWN TOO

It's not just the cowardice of the Republican congress, but also the glaring cowardice of the Democratic leaders as well.

They THINK they’re distracting us….

Yes. upine.medium.com/democratic-p...

It doesn’t even make sense. How can one of the worst things imaginable for someone’s life be ‘a distraction.’ A distraction from what? People are going to be unjustly incarcerated, people are physically intimidated in their own neighborhood by the government, we are losing our freedoms.

Righteous anger directed where it belongs.

Here’s the thing though: if you live in the suburbs, or most places really, you’re not seeing ICE or the army roaming the streets. I know they’re in Miami but I’m betting 90%+ people just aren’t seeing what we’re seeing on our various feeds and until they do, the D’s are going to keep up this BS

True. That probably explains the indifference to the fate of some people’s rights and the sentiment of other people about what is happening to them —even thought it is consistent with state terror and dictatorship.

This.

I agree with everything here. I also feel like Democrats spent a large chunk of the 2024 election season (correctly) calling Trump a threat to democracy, but now they don’t believe their own rhetoric and just sit by while he now destroys our democracy. Why should anyone believe what Dems say?

This 👆 you can’t say he’s a threat to democracy and a fascist and then turn around and say- why can’t we work together in a bipartisan way and focus on kitchen table issues? He’s dismantling our democracy, ACT LIKE IT.

Recently I keep going back to @elienyc.bsky.social's tweets from November 7th:

But he is, clearly. Obviously. And because it’s so clear they can’t really feign disbelief or ignorance anymore.

@schumer.senate.gov still using his 2017 playbook out here...

Yep. This. #USCollapse

They did it in 2020 as well. I have been consistent since 2024 in my response to Dem fundraising that I will not be giving until I see them acting like they mean what they say. No one who uses the word "bipartisan" like it's desirable or who grants the good faith of Rs is getting a dime.

Thank you!!!

It’s the same thing with “Breaking News” on everything.

Did not expect a “Washington, Washington” cut in 2025 but I’m here for it

There's an easy test for whether you should call something a distraction or not. Would he be doing said thing in the absence of thing he's trying to distract you from? The answer is always yes. The Guard in the streets would have happened without the pressure to release the Epstein materials.

And writing off awful violations of civil liberties and human rights as a "distraction" trivializes what the victims are enduring.

Carville and his consultant ilk needs to retire. They are slow walking us all into autocracy with their inability to bluntly call things as they are.

Imagine being a democratic consultant and getting paid a shit ton of money to be terrible at your job. It's almost as bad as the people who hired them in the first place.

Yep. Not a distraction, a wide front attack where everything serves to advance their plans. Which is creating a version of USA where it won't matter anymore what's in the Epstein Files.

There are no distractions. Chaos is purposeful

Trump wants us talking about this. The military is one of the most popular institutions in the country. It is hard for me to see Jeffries successfully convincing Americans to fear the military and simultaneously inspire the courage to resist it but to do so non-violently. What a tightrope to walk.

Agreed that each thing that happens has real effects. Still, strategically, Epstein is his weak point.

It’s not so much meant as a distraction as an information blitz meant to overwhelm citizens. Yet another Nazi tactic. One I feel we are handling better than Germany in 1930. The truth is coming out and the people grow increasingly dissatisfied with the blatant corruption.

It is pathetic. Every single Dem. Senator & Rep should be holding daily press conferences *in* DC, calling out this fascist man baby & the military occupation of DC.

Yet another method for corporate media to minimize all the damage Trump is doing

100 percent. Totalitarian power is the one major policy goal. To Trump, every other thing (Medicaid funding, any particular tariff rate) is up for grabs.

I hate these damn consultants.

🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯

could not love this more. Thank You for spelling out our situation and I hope somehow someone hears you and takes your advice.

Thank you for saying this. I'm so tired of the Democrats telling me that losing my basic civil rights is a distraction when in fact it's the main event. If Jeffries can't acknowledge alarming autocratic overreach without being distracted from rising inflation then he should resign.

The Epstein ruse Was a distaction

Democrats using "distraction" is a distraction from their cluelessness about how to confront fascist abuses of power.

Since we’ve gotta hear the rest of their nonsense, I wanna see the polling experts do a report on how voters respond to the regime taking away their basic rights being referred to as “a distraction.”

Voters, at least the ones I see online, think that every piece of news about what trump is doing is a "distraction from the Epstein files." I see this being said over and over again. No. You *should* care that your rights are being taken away piece by piece by this despot and his P2025 handlers.

The thing you need to also consider is how many of those voices are bots. A significant number of accounts on this platform (and others) are fake - the AI slop boomer memes, exclusively political/combative posts and comments, and generic bios with emojis are the dead giveaway.

If they say it's a stunt or a distraction, it's good to know that they don't consider it important.

More breathtakingly straight forward truthfulness. Thank you. Here's another kitchen table issue at our house: whether the big D hierarchy are cowards or complicit-all-along,"can't" and "won't" lead us to the same place. These are dark considerations.

IMO this is a "walk and chew gum" situation. Yes it sure as hell is real fascism. But these are premediated distractions too, and we know that because Trump continually gives away the plot: "Are they still talking about #Epstein?" Followed by daily shiny objects. Pure coinkydink I'm sure.

Yes. People should be outraged exactly because 45 is willing to do these fascistic things for such a petty purpose.

But then the phrasing shouldn't be "it's just a distraction," rather than "can you believe he'd have our fucking military invade the Capitol, just to distract us from the Epstein files? How is he getting away with this?"

The word "just" is very important there. It's never "just" a distraction. It's part of the agenda to kill our liberal democracy. But that doesn't mean they didn't ramp it up to distract from the whole #Epstein mess 'cuz they absolutely did.

The dumpster fire would do anything to change the subject away from him raping little children! So I beg to differ with you!

Please for the love of god and the people just take his advice and stop.

Politicians, you want to keep talking about the Epstein coverup? Please do. That’s your job. It doesn’t need your punditry. Just pursue the truth.

Fucking Jeffries and Schumer

THANK you!

Had to turn off the NPR update on the commute home this evening when some politician on air called the occupation of DC a “distraction from Trump’s mishandling of the economy.” If anything, the economy is an attempt at distracting us from the Fascism.

We had (may still have) the same idea here in UK, but call it a "dead cat". Meant to have originated with Lynton Crosby who advised the Conservative Party in elections.->

“The whole point of throwing a dead cat on the table is that everyone will shout ‘Jeez, there’s a dead cat on the table!’; in other words, they will miss the point of originally heated debate,” is what he's meant to have said. Too many people now label too many things as dead cats.

Calling everything a distraction is a distraction

That Trump instinctively uses fascist performance TO distract does not magically render the lived-in fascism an inconsequential distraction.

They paid a lot of money to consultants for them to tell them to tell us that everything we see is a distraction from… 🤷 and damned if they don’t get their moneys worth of distracting us with distraction talk

The Democrats are useless and inadequate as an opposition party for a fascist government. They only exist as an option in the electoral process while we still have a democratic process.

Pritzker’s presser today was clearly calling out Trump’s lawless power grab

Okay but I WILL say at least the petition to rename Greenland to Red, White & Bluelandia was most definitely a…

None of it is a distraction. They are trying to complete Project 2025 asap, they don’t need any distractions.

The DC Dems have abandoned their own voters and citizens to Trump’s gestapo at the behest of third way consultants to look “tough on crime”. Cowards.

It's not a distraction. The guy at the store said I'm the only guy he's ever seen pull it off.

brilliant. co-sign!

Yes!!👏

Thank you!

He thinks he is a Tyrannosaurus. Probably because of the tiny hands. Rawr!

Also, you are spot on with the analysis of the Demoratic Party. They are weak. They don't lack "courage of conviction," they don't have any convictions. This is a coalition party coalesced around nothing at all. "The other guys are bad" is nothing. We need a new Party period.

Not every Democrat is laying down for this shit. (See below.) NOTE: I'm a "middle of the road" voter. I strongly dislike illegal immigration, but the way this man and many others have been treated is despicable and unambiguously unfair, cruel, and un-American. bsky.app/profile/croc...

My thoughts exactly!! It is a pathetically limp response to the seizing of power by the executive branch, supported by the usurpation of congressional authority.

Off topic: the IRS changed the rules so churches can now endorse candidates without losing their tax exempt status. I contend that there are more anti-Trump churches than the other way around. If priests, ministers & all denominations get on board we can turn this around www.npr.org/2025/07/08/n...

It seems like their take is always five months behind. “Distraction” was the internets kneejerk reaction five months ago. I have to wonder if their consultants takes are exclusively funneled through dinner party chatter and if they get absolutely no more timely suggestions (and if the anti-…

Progressive bent might not be largely influenced by consultants scared of politicians who get their talking points from convictions and today’s news. I wonder if going after the need for CONSULTANTS to stop working like it’s 1970 might not be more productive than politicians themselves

Seriously! I’m the only person I know who ever responds to polls and that’s because I once did a deep dive into the org that cold texted me and figured they’re legit enough to respond to- and I only respond because I know the orgs use it because they haven’t figured out everyone else ignores polls

The “the people that respond to the strategies that worked decades ago may not represent accurately how people are now” blind spot is a big issue that has to be resolved. ironically things like the scavenger hunt that got big numbers may be the best route to visually show there is a disjoint there

Yes! I think on a local level it’s a bit of spiraling inertia. The local orgs don’t have the energy to update how they do things, so they have a harder time attracting new people with new ideas, and that ends up going all the way to national because the delegates are the same people

I suspect you’re really onto something there. Feels like there must be an opportunity for people wanting to do something but not wanting to be the upfront candidate there…

Oh yeah, I know my local orgs are desperate for people to do behind-the-scenes organizing. I’d love to help but I’m already stretched thin at the moment with tiny humans and getting to know my neighbors

Thank you. So clear and concise. Very helpful.

Very well put Janelle!

Holy fuck the rarely seen "appeal to Brad Neely" debate tactic nice one

Agree. I've gotten really sick of all the "Keep on the Epstein Files! Everything else is a distraction!" No, it's not. It's a real thing that's happening. And they really don't seem to give a crap about the Epstein Files at this point.

Now life has thrown me more than I can handle, and I would never reach out if this weren’t urgent. It weighs heavily on my heart — but I still trust in our compassion and shared humanity. Your kindness could make all the difference. If you can help🙏💙 gofund.me/0af928df

Their intention is to keep us overwhelmed w outrages. I remember during the pandemic when over 1k people were dying every day from Covid but the media focused on people protesting masks. We must be vigilant at all times and always maintain our focus.

very well said!

Both things can be true—an authoritarian takeover and a distraction.

Thank you, Jamelle. Calling everything a “distraction” diminishes the immediate peril that we’re in.

This is NOT a distraction:

Yes! I know. It’s excruciating because even if it is a distraction people are being disapeared . We are losing our jobs and they are making people ‘illegal’. My anxiety even driving to the store is so bad it’s hard to say ‘ oh yeah this is another distraction ‘

Please!

Yes, this matters.

Anyone calling what's going on distraction, is trying to distract you from what's going on.

How sustainable is it, though? It costs money to field armies. Sure, I'm sure crime will go down. But at what cost?

Who’s more dangerous, David Shor, or Trump?

It’s a toss up

What do we do about it? If this is our party, we are sunk. General strikes are impossible to pull off. So what now? Time is running out.

hear, hear

Good points that apply to the current leadership, pretty distraction adjacent Replace Jeffries and Schumer they are an unwelcome distraction from the current issues at hand

What can we do to stop any of this? I have been protesting and every other possible thing I can think of. I would be willing to hide someone if needed. I am sickened by the Trump regime. One of their tactics is to divide us. Don’t let us be divided. Maybe write to Jeffries instead? With ideas.

Yes, if they can’t summon the required moral outrage at the abuses going on right now, they should step aside. It seems clear that many top dems lack the will to fight on the ample ground afforded. This is the Madness of King Trump, and that is a softball hanging over the plate to hit.

I also don’t know why lawyers aren’t in court arguing the same thing, there is real madness here, beyond the constitutionality of these actions, they are destructive of the fabric of our society. We are being sucked into Trump’s fever dream, and we need stronger people to stand up and resist.

It's all part of the plan

Distraction isn't the right word. Their m.o. is to OVERWHELM the opposition with a continuous firehose torrent of horrific, illegal, unconstitutional acts including massive power grabs and daylight grifting. Like with a Gish gallop, Dems need to pick a limited number of atrocities and message hard

Yes, but even more Dems need to SET THE NARRATIVE as per Reagan's "There you go again." If the theme is corruption, then EVERY atrocity must be framed in that context. OR if it's he's screwing you, voter, then every atrocity must be how Republicans are making everyone worse off. It needs cohesion.

Obama was fond of saying America was a 60/40 nation in agreement with Democratic values and policies. I agree with that. But our Dem communication 'consultants' are absolutely terrible. Almost makes me think they want us to lose so they can keep charging us fees - election after election. 😀

Make that 70-30 now. So it’s a good time to stop with the careful stilted handwringing. Where’s that gotten Democrats the past decade?

@stevemnomoremister.bsky.social said that he thinks that maybe the consultants are trying to keep the democrats from tacking to the left whether or not they win or lose elections. We know the billionaire donors want that.

They make money whether they win or lose. ANd they keep getting rehired even after losing. DC is where a meritocracy is NOT a thing. It's about the well-connected making money at the rest of our expense. The consultants firmly fit into that.

The consultancy class is another artificial caste way overdue for a makeover.

It is A #coup

Amen!

Good on ya. How is this even a question? Seriously, how that it's being treated as if any way normal/ ok is just gobsmacking. All his chicanery distracts from all the other simultaneous outrages as an added bonus, sure, but people are being disappeared, citizens intimidated. & it's just starting

Agreed

You’re right.

Agreed. Spot on. Also: The paranthetical, offhand “It's pathetic.” 🏆

It's not pathetic. It's fucking terrifying.

Spot On

Stop distracting me from all the distractions!

No wonder Dems are struggling to raise money. What for?

so many believe that once the Epstein Files are release all of the cultish members of MAGA will turn against trump and force him out of office. Yes, all this other stuff is more outrageous than the last, yes we should focus on his tyranny, but the more they push the Epstein button...the more he

Not to be disrespectful, just spectrummy, whenever I see jabouie, I hear “Shipoopi” from “Music Man”

Thank you!

The fact that at this stage any of this is still political is proof that the US is lost. None of this is political, almost none of this has been political since January 3rd, it's all criminal. The police, the FBI, the military, all of them should have stepped in and forcefully arrested him ages ago

ty, it feels like they just tune this out if it's not a media person calling them out. maybe avoiding bad press will finally motivate them

If I’m Hakeem Jeffries, I’m starting a YouTube channel called “Here’s What the trump Administration Did Today and Why It’s Bad For America”. And I get on there every day and outline whatever shitty things they did. And I encourage the people to resist. But I’m not a corporate owned politician, soo

Distractions from what exactly? Egg prices? Epstein? Jobs reports? We have a giant ball of shit rolling downhill and Democratic leadership wants to focus on the twigs it picks up along the way? You guys need to lock the doors and break out the bats. Clean house and let someone else take charge.

But if they call it a distraction, they won't have to do anything about it.

A thing can serve more than one purpose.

If everything is a "distraction" from the Epstein files, then please tell me what you think will happen when Trumps name is on them. Bad news has never slowed him down before.

Distraction we’re in a slow jog to losing our democracy and way of life to a religious cult of insanity

This is good stuff.

Its authoritarianism wrapped up in a big package with a bigly bow.

The actual distraction is in calling everything a distraction

FWIW, I find this videoto be a distraction from my mindless scrolling.

Great video.

Trump is insane. He has a Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which causes him to behave so lawlessly. If Trump had ordered National Guard Troops into DC on day one, everyone, except for his diehard fanatics, would know his deep seated mental illness and act upon it.

We must multitask. The more egregious facist moves are part of the plan.

Thank you.

Right on, Jamelle! Absolutely correct!

Spot on.

it's project 2025 + the psychopath being an impulsive vengeful psychopath

Trump is killing two birds with one stone: he is both distracting and using it as a dummy run to see if the defense secretary will help him hold onto power in 2028.

LOUDER SO MAYBE THE DEMS WILL HEAR YOU!!! 📢📢📢📢

Absolutely. Definitely. Positively. Every Dem pol should be forced to watch this dude.

He’s so fucking right

Nothing is a distraction. They are all real issues that we are being splattered with so we can't turn and face any one thing. It's meant to be disorienting and overwhelming. The problem is the establishment Dems only care about one thing, so they can't see anything else as serious.

I agree. It is ALL bad. We need to address all of the corruption and atrocities.

This is the thing we have been warning about since 2015/2016. We knew he was corrupt. We knew he was incompetent. We knew he was going to destroy institutions. We knew he was a criminal. We knew all of that. It was all in service of becoming a dictator. This was the main goal.

Exactly, like the Beer Hall Putsch and Kristallnacht were just 'distractions'.

I think he’s right!

Every single thing being labeled a distraction by the media would be an impeachable offense for any other president in history.

When someone says all savvy that this or that atrocity/crime/corrupt act/etc is a "distraction" what I hear is that THEY ARE OK WITH IT. Not worth bothering with. Normal even.

Banger as usual

YOU WERE WARNED. KAMALA HARRIS WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER .

Dems are watching this unfold like a VHS of Bambi thinking maybe this time his mom is gonna survive.

@timmiller.bsky.social made same point a few days ago. So frustrating

apparently you have some definition of distraction that I don't know about. the tactic is to throw all this bullshit at a simultaneously to lessen us rallying around one transgression. everything that comes out of that regime is distraction, engineered to be that.

Hakeem puts me to sleep before he opens his mouth. Janelle is 🎯

Same. I wonder how he ever got into politics with that demeanor let alone elected!

Fascism is here and the regime is trying to entrench it, while Democrats in Congress pretend these are normal political times. What the Hell is wrong with them?

¿Por que no los dos? I mean the plan is To flood the zone so we can't focus on one thing.

Good, really good piece. Thank you

Also getting tired of being told we're approaching authoritarianism. We're fucking there.

☝️ Amen. Now it's not a question of whether, but simply how much.

It's a pattern of insane behavior executed by public servants.

A distraction from what? Evidence? They want to shut down your voice. They are distracting you by changing the subject to what trump doesn’t want to talk about. What about her emails?