53 Comments

TCinLA—Thomas Cleaver to those who haven't spent enough time in the political trenches to earn nickname privileges—has this way of writing that makes you forget to breathe. Not in the romantic comedy way, but in the "someone finally said what we've all been thinking and dear god it's even worse when you see it in print" way. This article lays it down in no uncertain words.

Steven Beschloss asked very pointed questions today unlike he ever has before. It's funny how sometimes the most mild-mannered people snap into focus with laser-sharp clarity.

American politics in 2025? Just when you think you've seen it all—when you've witnessed every possible permutation of bad judgment, poor timing, and catastrophic decision-making—someone like Vance comes along and proves that rock bottom has a basement.

Let's talk about this, shall we?

1. Do real Americans support neo-Nazism?

Listen, my mother used to say that some questions answer themselves. This is one of them. Real Americans—the kind who put their lives on the line at Normandy, who liberated concentration camps, who came home with nightmares and medals and a bone-deep understanding of evil—they didn't fight Nazism so their grandchildren could play footsie with it at diplomatic functions. Vance might want to spend an afternoon at the World War II Memorial. Maybe bring a notebook.

2. How ugly were Vance's comments?

They were the kind of ugly that makes you want to take a shower, except no amount of hot water and expensive soap can wash away the feeling that somewhere, every history professor in America is reaching for their blood pressure medication. Fact-checkers are throwing their hands up in despair, probably contemplating career changes. Maybe they'll all become pastry chefs. At least flour and sugar don't try to rewrite history.

3. How wrong was he to interject himself into Germany's election?

Remember that time in college when you thought it would be fun to light sparklers indoors? This is worse. This is like walking into your neighbor's house during a family argument, dousing everything in kerosene, and calling it "constructive intervention." The diplomatic equivalent of bringing match to a gas leak and then acting surprised when everyone runs screaming.

4. How do you view his 30-minute meeting with the leader of the neo-Nazi AfD party?

It's like watching the worst possible dating show on earth. Plot: Authoritarianism and Opportunism walk into a bar. They have a 30-minute speed date that threatens to set democracy on fire. The maître d' is Democracy itself, watching in horror as they order totalitarianism for two. It would be funny if it weren't terrifying. It would be absurd if it weren't real.

5. What do you expect will be the fallout now and in the coming years?

Remember when Harry met Sally, they fell in love? Well, when Vance met the AfD, Europe fell out of love—with us. With our promises. With the idea that America could be trusted to remember its own history. It's the kind of breakup that leaves everyone changing their phone numbers and blocking each other on social media, except this isn't about who gets to keep the friends in the divorce. This is about the future of democratic alliances. And right now, Europe is probably downloading a dating app called "Alternative Allies."

.

In the end, it's not just about Vance. It's about who we were, who we wanted to be, and we have voted to let diplomatic amateurs turn international relations into a reality show where the prize is the destruction of 75 years of trans-Atlantic trust.

Expand full comment

Vance may have an Ivy League degree, but he doesn’t know anything history as he should. Might I recommend he spend some time reading William L. Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich?” I am embarrassed at how he so poorly represented us before Germany.

Expand full comment

I know quite a few people with Ivy League degrees. I am very underwhelmed by them.

Expand full comment

On the other hand, they are generally Very impressed.

Expand full comment

How so? 🙂

Expand full comment

... with their ivy league degrees.

Expand full comment

The question is, how many basements does the rock bottom have, and will we visit them all as a nation before this shit-storm is over.....? I see an infinity of mirrors.....

Expand full comment

Charlton Heston was right.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDLS12_a-fk

Expand full comment

I saw that movie in a small theatre in Memphis. I have never forgotten that scene nor the film.

Expand full comment

We are standing on rock bottom right now.

Expand full comment

Sorry to say I think we have further to go before we get there.

Expand full comment

I feel like we are on rock bottom with boulders being methodically thrown down on us.

Expand full comment

Ms. Horton-Young, your writing style is entrancing and it’s a privilege to come across it. No, I don’t live under a rock, but I’m working my way along like a kid with wooden building blocks, amassing my list of Substack subscriptions. I think yesterday I had a few minutes, was exploring the Substack aggregate page and something led to a remark you made. (Weather Report’s Joe Zawinol, anyone?) I clicked on subscribe and it took me to your column, the story of gloves, and how it’s a dismal proposition to believe you’ll ever be able to hang onto them, why they are worse than socks and so forth. Oh my gosh. Entertainment galore. I thank you. I clicked on subscribe but for now stayed in the free zone. Please forgive me. Gotta check the budget. Rob Hubbell, HCR and Joyce Vance used to be my staple reads. Richard Reich and Dan Rather added to that. And then the snowball effect took over. Tom Cleaver, and then Lucian Truscott IV. Dworkin. Kwo, Schmidt, Meidas, Wilson… The list goes on and on. TC in LA: the 1944 writings he shares with paid subscribers snagged me big time. The rest is history. Anyway, I’m certainly going to watch for your name and no doubt soon will be a paid subscriber. There are instances where I remember specifically an essay that packed a strong punch, was the one that moved me to click on paid subscriber that very moment. Such a rich rich pool of resources. Oh, Liza Donnelly… Never lengthy, always a treat, a mix of whimsy and downright seriousness… So if I’m short of time, there definitely are favorites when I skim the list in my inbox.

Thanks again. I’m thrilled to have come across your own Substack and will watch for you in the comments. With admiration, Kathie Terhune

Expand full comment

Finding Substack is finding the addiction you never knew about but always craved.

Expand full comment

Wow! Bad news well written😲! Thank you😖😠

Expand full comment

It is bad news and nobody explains it better than Tom.

Expand full comment

Spot on Gloria, watching this while living inside it is more than challenging. Just knowing that those two numb-nuts were sent to meet with our European allies, and yes they are our allies, and have neither one of them say anything in the least bit constructive, while we look at the rising storm, and this is happening because of “the price of eggs”………People are going to snap, and we are armed to the teeth. I seem to remember that you are in Europe, I was blessed to spend a month there in ‘96, it’s where my relatives lived out their lives. But I’m not sure anywhere is safe, we came so close to putting the demons back in their boxes, and now we have the insipid orange turd nourishing them and promoting them to his maggot base, who have no idea what he is doing. The rest of the world can see what he’s doing.

Expand full comment

“All the good will we’ve built up since 1918, pissed away in three weeks by a fucking draft-dodging coward.”

FUCKIN" A! .....

Expand full comment

I am an American. I say Fuck the United States, too! I am glad Canadia people booed when the American national anthem was sung at the hockey game! I would boo with them! America that I know is lost. I am ashamed to be called an American.

Expand full comment

Re the Gulf of Mexico: 43 U.S.C. §§364-364f gives the Board on Geographic Names (under the Dept of the Interior) the power to make geographic names consistent in federal publications and to change geographic names upon petition. It appears that Trump’s executive order was an order to the Secretary of the Interior to order the BGN to change the name of the Gulf and Denali. The Geographic Names Information System (the official name list) has been changed for the Gulf, but not for Denali apparently because Congress changed the name of the national park to Denali in 1980.

I think we need legislation to clarify that only the petition process can be used to change geographic names. To allow name changes on a whim is just too confusing and arbitrary and can run contrary to state law and international naming conventions and can cause hazards to navigation, for example.

Expand full comment

If anybody would abide by that…. The power on the throne has broken our social contracts

Expand full comment

Re:CBS. If I was a director there is no way I would vote in favor of, or abstain from voting, on the settlement with Trump. I would vote no. Shareholder lawsuits are a certainty and while the business judgment rule is likely a shield for all directors except Ms. Redstone, I would see no reason to risk it. Granted, fully litigating the case (using the Wall Street firms that they likely will use with teams of lawyers charging at billing rates of up to $2,500 per hour), will cost about $6 million (a big waste at that—any decent small firm in Manhattan can handle a stupid case like this), but the obvious attempt to feather Ms. Reddtone’s nest at the expense of the shareholders is just the sort of fact pattern that could sink a business judgment rule defense.

Having been counsel to dissenting directors in similar (and smaller) litigation I can tell you that the pressure on wavering directors is intense. I suspect what is going on is that the directors are being told that they have no choice but to settle, and even that they could be sued if they don’t. I’ll bet you they are even being literally shouted at in board meetings. It gets that visceral. However, some independent directors have separate counsel who are giving them good advice to the contrary, and they are sharing that with other directors privately. Anyway from my distant vantage point, knowing nothing more than what I read in the newspapers, that’s what I suspect the dynamics are.

Expand full comment

I read Matt Belloni on duh Biz at Puck, and the legal analysts there, who have been following this, and your analysis fits with their reporting. All this is sad because David Ellison - whatever else can be said about him - genuinely loves what Hollywood used to be, and wants to preserve and build on that with Paramount from what is reported. He was the only bidder for Paramount who wasn't planning to break it up and sell it off for parts.

Expand full comment

Interesting information. Would shareholder input have any value in the discussion if it didn't come from people who count their holdings in millions?

Expand full comment

Nope. There aren't any of those there now.

Expand full comment

Vance & Musk and the Nazis.

Nice to know where they

stand. Y'know, Vance may

just have guaranteed

Germany's democracy in their

coming election. He sure

gave us in America a

bird's-eye view where he's

coming from.

Expand full comment

T’” Stuart Stevens: PLEASE SPILL THE TEA!!!

Expand full comment

Re Munich: Indeed the U.S. has sunk to a low ebb. We should be embarrassed by the sophomoric mistakes and nonsensical speeches of the VP and the drunkard. We have lost the trust of Europe for a generation.

Yet I fear that the Europeans may not yet be ready for moving on without American leadership or protection. President Zelenskyy delivered a very direct and unadorned speech at Munich. The thrust was advocating European unity in the face of Russian challenges in order to demonstrate to Trump that Europe was united and strong and likely to win. He knows that Trump backs whomever he thinks is the winner. (The subtext being Trump is too much a coward to do otherwise.) President Zelenskyy acknowledged the differences among the EU member states, but noted, “But let’s be clear – if not Brussels, then Moscow. It’s your decision. That’s geopolitics. That’s history.” And he was met with silence. He paused for reaction, and none came. Only after the disappointment on his face showed did the assembled delegates applaud. Without trust in America, Europe could easily default to Moscow. It’s that serious.

Expand full comment

I know. That silence was gutting, but I'm hoping it was just that it really took that moment to digest.

Expand full comment

I didn’t see it but I hope you are right. Western Europe saw what the Russians did at the end of WWII, nobody in their right mind would want to embrace that.

Expand full comment

MAGAts and their ilk will, in a NY minute.

Expand full comment

Zelensky is the hero of the hour, if only America didn’t have a long term relationship with evil. There is no excuse for what is happening, cult or no cult.

Expand full comment

I wonder how many MAGAs are aware of the history….first they came for the gays.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-trans-clinic/

Expand full comment

Thanks Kathy - obviously never was aware of that - I'm sure not many people were or are.

Expand full comment

When you say "remember that there are 630 days till the mid-terms, and the fuckwits are giving us ammunition to run with every day" I'm startled to realize you are actually more optimistic than I am. Although it in no way reduces the justification for fighting this - in fact it intensifies our need to fight it immediately and hard - I myself really do believe that already the fix was in on our election and is only spreading, deepening. It's gotten so every day or two seems to bring some new suggestion of voting shadiness. Possibly most recently it was a PA House rep asking for data from a district that voted 70% for FFOTUS and being told they wouldn't produce what they had and that other data isn't kept. He was incredulous and it sounds like he's going after more fundamental info now on repair and maintenance info, number of ballots ordered and used and so forth. I do believe that the worse the Rs are, the more people will be motivated to vote against them, but I also believe it's a race between growing discontent and new ideas for ways to add suppression techniques to ID requirements, gerrymandering, bomb threats in blue regions with red judges, voter register challenges and so on. Obviously if one feels this way the answer is to fight it now in every way possible rather than to even assume voting will be our way out. I'm donating to the legal groups that are fighting in the courts for one thing. Making as much noise as possible because in a room of 500 quiet people ten can seem threatening (we see that with the MAGAts), and insisting our representatives D and R stand up or stand up ever more aggressively.

Anyway, it is almost with a sense of relief I discover you are far more disgusted with Axios than I am. It restores my faith in your capacity for fury! Sure, I'd like to slap them silly for even using the name Gulf of America, but at least they made some cogent explanations for the AP for not using it, unlike any of the other press groups I've heard who have just quietly begun to cooperate with the foolishness. I don't give CBS so much credit for having begun to second guess their decision to fork over their share of bribes upon demand though. I'm not sure it's all just figuring out what they already knew. I suspect that being very dependent upon viewership they are especially alert to national temperature and the rising protests have encouraged baby step defiance and provoked them to consider the possibility their crystal ball reading of the future might not have been entirely accurate and their total capitulation not a good look when maybe, just maybe, it may turn out this administration isn't the overwhelming power they thought.

Expand full comment

I'm not necessarily more optimistic than you, but I plan to act as if we will do that till events prove otherwise.

Expand full comment

If they realize that, maybe the ghosts of their stellar reporters will stop spinning. CBS was my news channel for decades, until Karl Rove trashed Dan and CBS lost their way. This has been going on for a long time. The end is not in sight.

Expand full comment

Everybody: So What's Happening with Senator Warren's creation the CFPB?

All is OPEN if not well while CFPB's Counter Attack is pending.

The Homepage is down so go to the general Info webpage:

CFPB Open am to [8 am - 8 PM] except on Federal holidays such as 2/17/25.

There is a Whistleblower CFPB Pipeline go to "Whistleblower Tips & Leads".

For those who crave compulsory 'Freedom of Information' use ➡️ FOI@cfpb.gov

Call the CFPB for those Corps that do no want to give up anything:

➡️Tel: 855-444-3642

More Later.

Expand full comment

Second time today I've seen the quote from Stuart, and the second time I'm telling him to give in to the temptation.

Expand full comment

That's some first rate Doublespeak from axios.

Expand full comment

TC, this says it all, “All the good will we’ve built up since 1918, pissed away in three weeks by a fucking draft-dodging coward.”

Expand full comment

“…a fucking, bully, self-righteous, hypocrite, ugly, traitorous, thief, and con man, draft-dodging coward and mob boss.” The one man who has not one redeeming characteristic.

Expand full comment

"Find yourself another country to be part of!" I recognized this line immediately. His songs just keep coming back to mind..................Thanks, TC.

Expand full comment