He’s definitely dumb. Particularly in his cabinet picks, all unqualified and unfit for office. The blind leading the blind. I can’t imagine Putin or Xi Pinying being so stupid. They’re probably sitting back right now cooking the popcorn.
He’s definitely dumb. Particularly in his cabinet picks, all unqualified and unfit for office. The blind leading the blind. I can’t imagine Putin or Xi Pinying being so stupid. They’re probably sitting back right now cooking the popcorn.
Trump is like a dog with a stick...I honestly do not think he even knows the destructions he is wielding.....his focus (the stick ) is his Power and money....but Project 2025 planners...they KNOW -someone wants to break the US from the inside out
This is not discussed often enough. Donold is not smart enough or crafty enough to invent this. Pay attention to the Heritage Society - they seem to have disappeared, haven't they?
And this is why we need to wish Trump a healthy four years. J.D. Vance would not be an improvement, with the Project 2025 folks behind him, and as an incumbent, he might be harder to beat.
I don't think T. has the health for a healthy four years. He may be gone in two, due either to declining health or insider squabbling. Don't think the so-called Heritage Foundation will not engineer his ouster if it's convenient for their agenda.
Levers... hmmm.... that would imply Trump's understanding of their goals. All Trump understands is his three goals, and only those goals, 1.) Money, 2.) Staying out of prison and 3.) Revenge. He has no other interests... especially now that he's won the Presidency... he no longer needs votes. He's now like an out-of-control wrecking ball.
Trump is not dumb. The wrecking ball he is using is project 2025 as the retribution he promised. The project 2025 works for him to wreck what and who he sees as his enemies. I’m not sure what 2025 has for an end goal for a leader, or group of leaders. Trump is a President who is working for them at this time. 2025 will have a longer end game than Trump.
Neither seems concerned to preserve, protect or defend the Constitution of the United States. Democracy appears to be the enemy, and fear is their friend.
Bless Dr Richardson for reminding us who and what we have been. And we need to be willing to fight to have that democracy and freedom we always aspired to be.
Don’t forget how he’s been all for one crazy strategy, then turns around and says he was never for it and wants the opposite crazy strategy - the H1-B visas for example.
Someone (Project 2025 authors) has written those extremely detailed executive orders for him, probably along with Stephen Miller. Trump would not be able to.
Not just him. Project 2025 was a vehicle created long ago, in the 80’s but implemented now. The lead character is Leonard Leo who was the person behind the Federalist Society being at every Ivy League school. The “club” indoctrinated potential Republican young go-getters in their way of thinking. Leo is also the head of the Heritage Foundation which has produced this project. Russell Vought, who is slated to to be OMB director, is the louse who wrote the docs for 2025.
Prepare yourselves for the upcoming shitshow: 1) Secret Service will be replaced with Trump’s own militia, the 1600 he released AND they’ll get salaries from the government. 2) Look for the Brown Shirts to come marching into your communities. 3) Be vigilant and DON’T OBEY IN ADVANCE. 4) Demonizing democracy is not okay. Speak out!
Marlene, I'm sure that Leonard Leo is of great influence in the so-called Heritage Society. But its president is Kevin D. Roberts, who has made many outrageous statements to enable an aggressive posture where Heritage makes the rules.
As my late husband (Psychiatrist)said when Trump was elected in 2016 and Covid struck… and his response was “Bleach is ok”! Trump is a Narcissistic Psychopath….
They all fall under the definition of the word SYCOPHANT. Some know exactly what they are doing others along for the ride. we've definitely got a problem.., they reside amongst us. To our advantage is the fact we've seen this movie. We can turn it off.
I think he’s all you say he is, Bruce, but I still think his downfall will be his dumbness. I doubt he’s ever had an original thought - if we are not counting the word salad. Global politics is a game of chess, it’s not tic tac toe. He doesn’t have the smarts but stunningly, thinks he has.
Jazz, he is wily. How many other people would have been able to do what he has done and said, avoided not only prison but even trial, and yet be elected for another term?
(And for those who say he cheated to get back in, until definitive proof is shown, I won't believe it, just as I didn't believe his claims of cheating in 2020. Many of the polls which we refused to believe turned out much closer to the final result. Making these claims of cheating harms out ability to win the voters who did choose skippy tromp back in the next cycles.)
Sadly the real reason may be the millions of people who JUST DIDNT VOTE AT ALL. There is a consequence when you just don’t engage because you don’t like either .
I would clearly distinguish non-voters from third party voters. As long as someone actually gets up and goes to the polls, we always have the chance that they will make the best decision in the booth but even a third party vote is at least a statement that they care enough to be there. The real hurt comes from "sitting it out" because not only do you lose their vote at the presidential level but all the way down the ballot too.
As a substack reader and admin of a large anti Trump Facebook page since 2016, I am at the point where I think everyone of voting age should pass a class on how our government works including with the history behind it and how it has been challenged in the past before voting. This should be a big class, not some sort of little quiz. As "unAmerican" as it sounds, we desparately need it. For 8.5 years I have built a base that won't even open an article I post without a picture included or one that isn't entertaining in some way. Americans are too busy, too lazy and /or too undereducated. These groups are voting for Trump because he lies to them and they believe it. Our Latino communities love Trump because he says he will control the border, they resent illegals because they didn't enter the hard way as they had to. They know very little of the damage he has already done or his history of crime. They don't have the full picture. We need the full picture. Ever since broadcasting was deregulated we have been inundated with lies from the press, internet and social media instead of the truth. It was a perfect storm for a narcissistic, self-serving Trump. Bingo. They don't care about his criminal history of rape, extortion, bribery or other crimes. We have lost our moral compass. Our private education system has been politicized. Americans don't even read anymore. What do you expect?
I was renewing my drivers license ID the other day and was asked the question of whether I wanted this ID to serve as voter ID! I asked the woman helping me why there was such a question - she said many people DON'T VOTE.! and don't want it used for that! I was dumbfounded!!! Of course, I live in a very RED state but still... we must encourage more voting and civil responsibility! We are paying for our complacency!
Ten years ago, when I was consulting for Scholastic, I was in a class of eighth graders who had zero concept of what the word “Government” means. They were even unaware they had a town government. This was despite the fact that the word was in the assigned book.
Doug, when I taught government many years ago, it was obvious to me that the people who needed to vote for their own good, were apathetic and probably would not vote. This was the class, my fav actually, which had no college prep students.
The driving of the anti voting has been increasing as an active agency…and the electoral college make this even worse! Part of it has been the laws, part the perception of some that it doesn’t matter and part of it picking extremes that fewer care about. If you look at the adults in the US who could register but don’t even bother. Why!
They see that their vote doesn't result in policies that benefit most people....but the mega donors have been winning policy that enriches the donor class! Many learn that votes from the little people are not effective so 'why vote?'
We use cheat as though it must be so blatant for all to see, but it is not. Many of those who did not vote were people whose vote was suppressed by many different actions, mail in ballots not cured for multiple minor reasons, drop box elimination to make it more difficult, purged from rolls again for questionable reasons where time ran out for some of these challenges. Just look to North Carolina where they are still fighting over the election or more appropriate the reelection of one of their Supreme Court justices who by a recount not once but twice gave her the victory, but challenged again by demanding 60,000 votes be rejected, 2 of which happen to be her parents. And, IMHO, for a man who has cheated in military school, his marriages and is a 34 count convicted felon, who was preparing again to say rigged if he lost, do you really think he would demand and accept a free and fair election. I have a hard time accepting that. So I think we got the wool pulled over our eyes by not at least demanding a hand recount federally of the presidential election because we felt we had to show how gracefully we do it here in America and accept without equivocation the loss a d transfer power. We were duped, and the real power behind the puppet are the authors and participants of 2025. I for one will continue to push back in whatever way I can. I will not give in or give up. There are more of us than them and we must be loud, just as Bishop Budde was the quiet roar from the pulpit. A lone voice that day heard round the world.
Chris, I agree with you, but we all must consider that money is power and people like Trump, who gets the dirt on people then blackmails them and Musk, with enough money to buy loyalty from almost anyone, can easily corrupt and successfully manipulate the election, and get away with it. It's not hard if you suppress the voting process.
Doug, while I am not going to attack the Capitol or do any violence, I can't shake this feeling that SOMETHING went sideways. Can voters really have been so stupid as to vote for Trump and then Democratic totally down ballot? To vote for abortion rights then vote for Trump? Trump's overall number of votes stayed the same, and yet about 8 million fewer Democratic votes? I'm trying to be logical, and the logic ain't logic-ing.
Dear Miselle - it does boggle the mind to wonder how people can vote against their self-interests and yet they do. In reading and listening to post-election interviews more often than not people stated economic issues as their reasons for voting Trump into office. I hope they notice their civil rights being removed one by one.
I agree with you Miselle. At Trumps last rally I believe, he announced o everyone that he had a "secret" and was confident he would win. He never explained that quote and I bet Musk had his knickers in a twist when he heard it, but yes, I do think something was amiss.
If you want to call blatant voter suppression 'cheating', then, yeah, they cheated. But the cheating was done by the fascist legislatures of states around the country. It is that what needs addressing before the next midterms, or we'll be stuck in this dreadful loop for years and years.
Dear Daniel - voter suppression will get worse most likely due to oligarchic influence. "Oligarchs use economic power to gain and hold political power and, in turn, use politics to expand their economic power.
Oligarchies remain in power through two strategies: first, using divide-and-conquer tactics to ensure that a majority doesn’t coalesce, and second, by rigging the political system to make it harder for any emerging majority to overthrow them.
Nationalism—whether statist, ethnic, religious, or racial—serves both functions. It aligns a portion of ordinary people with the ruling oligarchy, mobilizing them to support the regime and sacrifice for it. At the same time, it divides society, ensuring that the nationalism-inspired will not join forces with everyone else to overthrow the oligarchs. "
We need to distinguish between "Nationalism" and "Constitutional Patriotism". The Constitution should be taught in every school, and compared to the explicit and implicit constitutions of other countries, particularly our NATO allies.
And my state of Ohio is the U.S. laboratory for fascist (NAZI) testing. Once they find what works here, it gets exported to the other horrid states. I envy, to a point, your living in NM. You have so far managed to hold the wolves at bay. Like Michigan to my north. I just hope you and they can maintain.
Trump and his puppet masters cheated by stacking the Supreme Court. The used the cover story of overturning Roe to get the support of the religious right but all along, the larger idea was the dismantling of democracy to turn the US into a creature that serves billionaires. Citizens United, sending redistributing back to the states - it was all scripted.
I'm left wondering if there is a last straw. When do Americans say "enough is enough" and stand up and say "No you don't"? Or are we already past the point of no return?
Sadly, I think we may be at the point of no return. Americans are complacent, undereducated, selfish, too influenced by social media and are picking creampuff heros like celebrities instead of real leaders of integrity. I hope I'm wrong.
That's right, Doug! When there is the slightest of proof he was right our credibility goes right in his toilet. We, unfortunately, haven't shoved "their" grandiosity up their backsides. Faux had it shoved up theirs, but the wind went away, and 90 (whatever) guilty verdicts , with no time in a jail-cell, made us look foolish even more. I, like many others, felt pretty-much ashamed of it. I mean, our justice system is a joke, for those with money to burn. Trouble is, we already knew that.., didn't we? Trump just rubbed our noses, Red and Blue, in it. Didn't he? Yeah.., he did. Maybe we should thank him for that, just not right at the moment, hindsight being 20/20.
Trump is rabid, foaming at the sharpie and wants to destroy everything but his own cheeseburgers. He needs to be captured, quarantined, euthanized and then autopsied.
What sort of meaningful dialog are you waiting for? At 81, all I have to offer is exaggeration, ridicule, and denigration of the guy. I'm not going to follow him around and throw mud on him at rallies. One does what one can, and WYSWYG.
Agree Kazz, but "dumbness" aside.., it's his rhinocerous mouth overloading his hummingbird ass that'll be his undoing. Whether the project 2025 archetypes will be able to pull this crap off "as planned" may be thrown into array because of him.
I'll go with Rex Tillerson's (former head of ExxonMobil and former Secretary of State under Trump's first administration) astute assessment of Trump: Fucking Moron.
Correct. Ignorant is the right word with respect to the roll of the manager, a roll which Trump is trying to play with almost no applicable skills. Just one example:
America's military is formidable because its operations side is incredibly well managed. (a century of experience counts for a lot) The procurement side is a different story.
Trump is about to discard the the operations skills; fool that he is. It takes much more than simple "do or die" commands to manage a complex system of humans and their assets.
Trump is like the 4 year old child that knocks down the castle of wooden blocks his big brother spent an hour putting together.
Military leaders are not good at accepting orders to fuck up their command structure and fighting capabilities. I wonder if Pete "Hogs-breath" will run up against any pushback. We can only hope.
They will be welcome in California. I personally would offer my 3 bedroom house to any senior officer forced to retire as a place to live until they got their feet on the ground and move myself and my little dog into my old motorhome. They need not worry about pensions. The world's 5th largest economy will take care of that. Besides, when the DC government finishes inflating the currency those pensions would lose most of their value anyway.
No Kazz and Bruce. Trump is not "dumb". The word we should be using is "agent". Trump is an agent of chaos and of Putin. Xi is chuckling. Kim is loving it. Iran is thrilled.
The only question for me is:
"Is he being blackmailed or threatened with death.... or is he a willing participant in the war on democracy and Western Civilization?"
Willing participant is my view even tho Putin has something on him from the Moscow Trump tower days. Did you ever think any axis of evil would have an American in its leadership? The comments here are so astute and heart felt in their intelligence.
In a short sentence: Trump is a malignant narcissist who is in terminal senile decline. And yes, that's a twofer.
Trump's subalterns will cover for him, just as Reagan's subalterns did for Reagan as he slipped into imbecility. Reagan's chief of staff basically ran the country while Reagan, ever the actor, hit his marks and said his lines.
There are some really evil vultures, who have no use for democracy, now circling over Trump. We will be really lucky to survive the next four years.
The word that collects all your sentiments is megalomaniac. Dr David Hawkins ( my intellectual hero of all time) identified the most harmful people when his psychiatrist training called the disease: malignant messianic narcissistic despotism. Think Jim jones, pol pot or Donald j.
If only the majority of people cared about others as much as they seem to care about themselves. Self interest is a slippery mistress that can grow into a monster.
Agree Bruce.., "not dumb". Try SYCOPHANT. Trump is one. At the same time, Trump is a magnet for sycophants: parasite, sycophant, toady, leech, sponge; a usually obsequious flatterer or self-seeker; parasite applies to one who clings to a person of wealth, power, or influence or is useless to society. sycophant adds to this a strong suggestion of fawning, flattery, or adulation. THOSE ARE HIS CLINGERS! We can only '''hope''' that those of us making up the 48% are able to burst this bubble, and TIME is of the essence. NUTS to this.., let's roll!
Numb, oblivious, dumb…dumb in that he should be silent! And ego in the egotistic oblivion (spell checker liked Bolivian) for how reality influences reality..science, observation, learning, reading. You know he does not read, functional illiterate? He depends on osmotic learning…sleeps with book on the night stand and hopes that nature abhors a vacuum.
I suspect that if one is " Nuts, Social deviant, sick, insane, mendacious, evil, deranged, mad, demented, not in his right mind,
crazed , lunatic, non compos mentis, unbalanced, unhinged." whether or not they are dumb is moot as most everything they do /participate in will create dumb results.
Yep this "movie" reminds me of Thelma and Louise except at least those two women had a legitimate score to settle which led them into their suicide pact. We are all being dragged along into this one and the potential end is the same, mutual destruction. The confirmation of P Hegseth as Secretary of Defense is likely to go down as one of the most tragic moments in this drama, with a man totally unqualified being elevated to one of the most important positions in our government, fingers now attached to the nuclear codes which can wreak destruction n on the entire world..
"The world may not remember what we say here but it will long remember what we do here. " Abraham Lincoln who is undoubtedly lying prostrate in his grave at this grotesque moment in our history.
Well, Jon, it seems he'll first have to let go of either a woman in one hand or a bottle in the other before he attaches those fingers to the nuclear codes.
I always considered Senators to be more sober- and forward-thinking than their House counterparts; it's they who ratify treaties and confirm SC justices, after all.
The late Sen Warren Rudman (R-NH) from my hometown, whom I knew, said this of his fellow Republicans in his memoir:
"The Republican Party is making a terrible mistake if it appears to ally itself with the Christian right. There are some fine, sincere people in its ranks, but there are also enough anti-abortion zealots, would-be censors, homophobes, bigots and latter-day Elmer Gantrys to discredit any party that is unwise enough to embrace such a group."
Jon, I have argued that appointment with friends of mine who do background checks to hire cops. None of them would outright say they would pass him on a background, but equivocate like "I need more information on that." Even when I confront them with his statement "I promise another drop of liquor won't pass my lips IF you confirm me." Red flag if there ever was one.
He wiil be in a drunken rage the first time he has to make a decision and he doesn’t have the brains to do so. What goes around comes around and they will be in a pickle.
Eileen, I say this with respect: we will *all* be in a pickle. The felon is irrational, narcissistic and mercurial. He has no knowledge of history, especially military history. It's all about who has the bigger red button, as he once said.
He could order an action that Hegseth doesn't try to talk him out of, with horrific consequences for all. Hegseth lacks the qualifications and temperance (in all senses) to do the job. And he was fired by 2 veterans organizations for those reasons, along with financial mismanagement.
As I have posted on other days, Donald is not dumb, at least not by the popular definition. He is learning disabled. There's a difference. His learning disability was concealed mainly by his father spreading his wealth around. (Mary Anne was too absorbed in her own hypochondria to be much involved.)
Fred's money got Donald into schools he never would have gotten into otherwise. When Donald failed, Fred covered his failures with more money. Over time, Donald came to believe that the rules were for others, not for him.
When Donald ignored the rules and got into legal trouble, Roy Cohn taught him how to exploit our legal system. Because Donald is learning disabled, it took hundreds of litigations for him to learn his lessons from Cohn, but he did.
Donald's so-called "success" derives from his dependence on people who are NOT learning disabled: his managers, his lawyers, his TV producers, his campaign managers, and now, the architects of Project 2025. They are flattering weak-minded Donald into carrying out their plans, and he is too distracted by the illusion of power to realize they are exploiting him for their own purposes.
Dale, I think this makes perfect sense. I've long thought he was learning disabled, not stupid, which isnperhaps why he needs pictures and doesn't read the teleprompter well.
My own late father, I believe, was learning-disabled. He left school after the 8th grade to work, and his parents gave their permission. He always had trouble reading; i never once saw him read a book, and when he read aloud he sounded out words like a child does. But he was NOT a stupid man, he had excellent smarts.
Kazz, who knows who is really in charge. I told my husband that doesn't read the order, just signs them. You could stick one of front of him for his demise and he would probably sign it. I do think he is suffering from dementia and the orders were ready and written by others. Also Rubio should know better what happens when we stop foreign aid....someone else provides it.
He is immoral, racist, misogynist, dictatorial, but not dumb, not stupid. Those last two words belong to people voting for him. He will be marketing brown shirts any day now.
I don't know that Trump is "dumb." He has selected people who will not speak truth to power. Pam Bondi is an excellent example. During her confirmation hearing, she could not bring herself to say that Trump had lost the 2020 election for fear of offending Trump. Bondi, as Attorney General, will do Trump's bidding and weaponize the Dept. of Justice. This is going to get very, very ugly fast.
It’s calculated even if it’s stupid and the calculation is to destroy government going forward so we can have unbridled capitalism destroy the planet unchecked by the courts as fast and interestingly as possible.
Dumb as a fox is more like it. Putting unqualified ass-licking people in these positions guarantees him his every whim met. Look at what happened as soon as Hegseth was confirmed--he had IGs fired thus removing oversight from any of his actions, even though he must give Congress a 30-day notice. I think they should all show up at work on Monday like nothing happened....
He’s definitely dumb. Particularly in his cabinet picks, all unqualified and unfit for office. The blind leading the blind. I can’t imagine Putin or Xi Pinying being so stupid. They’re probably sitting back right now cooking the popcorn.
Not Dumb, Kazz, if I may. Nuts, Social deviant, sick, insane, mendacious, evil, deranged, mad, demented, not in his right mind,
crazed , lunatic, non compos mentis, unbalanced, unhinged.
However Dumb is not the right word, I think.
Trump is like a dog with a stick...I honestly do not think he even knows the destructions he is wielding.....his focus (the stick ) is his Power and money....but Project 2025 planners...they KNOW -someone wants to break the US from the inside out
Exactly. The authors of Project 2025 are pulling the levers and moving quickly to dismantle the government. The blueprint has it all.
This is not discussed often enough. Donold is not smart enough or crafty enough to invent this. Pay attention to the Heritage Society - they seem to have disappeared, haven't they?
Think Edgar Bergen & Donold McCarthy.
And this is why we need to wish Trump a healthy four years. J.D. Vance would not be an improvement, with the Project 2025 folks behind him, and as an incumbent, he might be harder to beat.
The Project 2025 folks are behind Trump also .... and pulling the strings. You can't believe that Trump is doing this all by himself?!
💯 % right Betsy ✅️
I don't think T. has the health for a healthy four years. He may be gone in two, due either to declining health or insider squabbling. Don't think the so-called Heritage Foundation will not engineer his ouster if it's convenient for their agenda.
Levers... hmmm.... that would imply Trump's understanding of their goals. All Trump understands is his three goals, and only those goals, 1.) Money, 2.) Staying out of prison and 3.) Revenge. He has no other interests... especially now that he's won the Presidency... he no longer needs votes. He's now like an out-of-control wrecking ball.
Trump is not dumb. The wrecking ball he is using is project 2025 as the retribution he promised. The project 2025 works for him to wreck what and who he sees as his enemies. I’m not sure what 2025 has for an end goal for a leader, or group of leaders. Trump is a President who is working for them at this time. 2025 will have a longer end game than Trump.
Neither seems concerned to preserve, protect or defend the Constitution of the United States. Democracy appears to be the enemy, and fear is their friend.
Bless Dr Richardson for reminding us who and what we have been. And we need to be willing to fight to have that democracy and freedom we always aspired to be.
Don’t forget how he’s been all for one crazy strategy, then turns around and says he was never for it and wants the opposite crazy strategy - the H1-B visas for example.
Yes !!!!!!
Yes, it's all there.
Someone (Project 2025 authors) has written those extremely detailed executive orders for him, probably along with Stephen Miller. Trump would not be able to.
Not just him. Project 2025 was a vehicle created long ago, in the 80’s but implemented now. The lead character is Leonard Leo who was the person behind the Federalist Society being at every Ivy League school. The “club” indoctrinated potential Republican young go-getters in their way of thinking. Leo is also the head of the Heritage Foundation which has produced this project. Russell Vought, who is slated to to be OMB director, is the louse who wrote the docs for 2025.
Prepare yourselves for the upcoming shitshow: 1) Secret Service will be replaced with Trump’s own militia, the 1600 he released AND they’ll get salaries from the government. 2) Look for the Brown Shirts to come marching into your communities. 3) Be vigilant and DON’T OBEY IN ADVANCE. 4) Demonizing democracy is not okay. Speak out!
Daughter of Holocaust victims here.
Marlene, I'm sure that Leonard Leo is of great influence in the so-called Heritage Society. But its president is Kevin D. Roberts, who has made many outrageous statements to enable an aggressive posture where Heritage makes the rules.
They worked hard to have their plans in place. They have even vetted people to take over when the "deep state" changes are pushed into schedule F.
As my late husband (Psychiatrist)said when Trump was elected in 2016 and Covid struck… and his response was “Bleach is ok”! Trump is a Narcissistic Psychopath….
So ‘gear up’ fellow Americans…. GEAR UP!
Trying. Trying.
YEP!!!! WE ARE AND WE WILL!
I never have figured out why Trump (or anybody) thought bleach would ward off the Covid virus.
Taking chlorine internally is very bad for your health! Would you drink heavily chlorinated pool water?
The only issue I have with your comment is the insult to all dogs by equating them to Trump.
Big insult - more so considering his absolute lack of any level of interest towards other species, or for that matter, other humans!
He’s certainly not loyal!
They all fall under the definition of the word SYCOPHANT. Some know exactly what they are doing others along for the ride. we've definitely got a problem.., they reside amongst us. To our advantage is the fact we've seen this movie. We can turn it off.
I think he’s all you say he is, Bruce, but I still think his downfall will be his dumbness. I doubt he’s ever had an original thought - if we are not counting the word salad. Global politics is a game of chess, it’s not tic tac toe. He doesn’t have the smarts but stunningly, thinks he has.
Jazz, he is wily. How many other people would have been able to do what he has done and said, avoided not only prison but even trial, and yet be elected for another term?
(And for those who say he cheated to get back in, until definitive proof is shown, I won't believe it, just as I didn't believe his claims of cheating in 2020. Many of the polls which we refused to believe turned out much closer to the final result. Making these claims of cheating harms out ability to win the voters who did choose skippy tromp back in the next cycles.)
Sadly the real reason may be the millions of people who JUST DIDNT VOTE AT ALL. There is a consequence when you just don’t engage because you don’t like either .
Betsie, that is real problem I think. Not voting or voting third party has consequences and we are reaping it in full.
I would clearly distinguish non-voters from third party voters. As long as someone actually gets up and goes to the polls, we always have the chance that they will make the best decision in the booth but even a third party vote is at least a statement that they care enough to be there. The real hurt comes from "sitting it out" because not only do you lose their vote at the presidential level but all the way down the ballot too.
Agreed, Michele, as I replied to BestieD.
Edit: grrr! No matter how or how many times I try to change it back, autocorrect keeps spelling "BestieD" instead of "BetsieD"
As a substack reader and admin of a large anti Trump Facebook page since 2016, I am at the point where I think everyone of voting age should pass a class on how our government works including with the history behind it and how it has been challenged in the past before voting. This should be a big class, not some sort of little quiz. As "unAmerican" as it sounds, we desparately need it. For 8.5 years I have built a base that won't even open an article I post without a picture included or one that isn't entertaining in some way. Americans are too busy, too lazy and /or too undereducated. These groups are voting for Trump because he lies to them and they believe it. Our Latino communities love Trump because he says he will control the border, they resent illegals because they didn't enter the hard way as they had to. They know very little of the damage he has already done or his history of crime. They don't have the full picture. We need the full picture. Ever since broadcasting was deregulated we have been inundated with lies from the press, internet and social media instead of the truth. It was a perfect storm for a narcissistic, self-serving Trump. Bingo. They don't care about his criminal history of rape, extortion, bribery or other crimes. We have lost our moral compass. Our private education system has been politicized. Americans don't even read anymore. What do you expect?
Totally agree, that could have been one of Biden’s legacy pieces - bringing in a voting subject as core curriculum in elementary school.
Alternatively, Pixar or Disney should create a highly entertaining kids movie that plays out the importance of voting - something like Chicken Run.
I was renewing my drivers license ID the other day and was asked the question of whether I wanted this ID to serve as voter ID! I asked the woman helping me why there was such a question - she said many people DON'T VOTE.! and don't want it used for that! I was dumbfounded!!! Of course, I live in a very RED state but still... we must encourage more voting and civil responsibility! We are paying for our complacency!
Ten years ago, when I was consulting for Scholastic, I was in a class of eighth graders who had zero concept of what the word “Government” means. They were even unaware they had a town government. This was despite the fact that the word was in the assigned book.
WOW….. Explains more than I wanted to know… and thank you…
Yes, BetsieD, and i have commented about the same many times on various substacks about the 90 million who chose for whatever reason not to vote.
Doug, when I taught government many years ago, it was obvious to me that the people who needed to vote for their own good, were apathetic and probably would not vote. This was the class, my fav actually, which had no college prep students.
The driving of the anti voting has been increasing as an active agency…and the electoral college make this even worse! Part of it has been the laws, part the perception of some that it doesn’t matter and part of it picking extremes that fewer care about. If you look at the adults in the US who could register but don’t even bother. Why!
They see that their vote doesn't result in policies that benefit most people....but the mega donors have been winning policy that enriches the donor class! Many learn that votes from the little people are not effective so 'why vote?'
We use cheat as though it must be so blatant for all to see, but it is not. Many of those who did not vote were people whose vote was suppressed by many different actions, mail in ballots not cured for multiple minor reasons, drop box elimination to make it more difficult, purged from rolls again for questionable reasons where time ran out for some of these challenges. Just look to North Carolina where they are still fighting over the election or more appropriate the reelection of one of their Supreme Court justices who by a recount not once but twice gave her the victory, but challenged again by demanding 60,000 votes be rejected, 2 of which happen to be her parents. And, IMHO, for a man who has cheated in military school, his marriages and is a 34 count convicted felon, who was preparing again to say rigged if he lost, do you really think he would demand and accept a free and fair election. I have a hard time accepting that. So I think we got the wool pulled over our eyes by not at least demanding a hand recount federally of the presidential election because we felt we had to show how gracefully we do it here in America and accept without equivocation the loss a d transfer power. We were duped, and the real power behind the puppet are the authors and participants of 2025. I for one will continue to push back in whatever way I can. I will not give in or give up. There are more of us than them and we must be loud, just as Bishop Budde was the quiet roar from the pulpit. A lone voice that day heard round the world.
Chris, I agree with so much of what you say here.
Chris, I agree with you, but we all must consider that money is power and people like Trump, who gets the dirt on people then blackmails them and Musk, with enough money to buy loyalty from almost anyone, can easily corrupt and successfully manipulate the election, and get away with it. It's not hard if you suppress the voting process.
I also agree there is too much money in our politics but this year was beyond too much to obscene. And yes money corrupts.
Doug, while I am not going to attack the Capitol or do any violence, I can't shake this feeling that SOMETHING went sideways. Can voters really have been so stupid as to vote for Trump and then Democratic totally down ballot? To vote for abortion rights then vote for Trump? Trump's overall number of votes stayed the same, and yet about 8 million fewer Democratic votes? I'm trying to be logical, and the logic ain't logic-ing.
Dear Miselle - it does boggle the mind to wonder how people can vote against their self-interests and yet they do. In reading and listening to post-election interviews more often than not people stated economic issues as their reasons for voting Trump into office. I hope they notice their civil rights being removed one by one.
I agree with you Miselle. At Trumps last rally I believe, he announced o everyone that he had a "secret" and was confident he would win. He never explained that quote and I bet Musk had his knickers in a twist when he heard it, but yes, I do think something was amiss.
If you want to call blatant voter suppression 'cheating', then, yeah, they cheated. But the cheating was done by the fascist legislatures of states around the country. It is that what needs addressing before the next midterms, or we'll be stuck in this dreadful loop for years and years.
Dear Daniel - voter suppression will get worse most likely due to oligarchic influence. "Oligarchs use economic power to gain and hold political power and, in turn, use politics to expand their economic power.
Oligarchies remain in power through two strategies: first, using divide-and-conquer tactics to ensure that a majority doesn’t coalesce, and second, by rigging the political system to make it harder for any emerging majority to overthrow them.
Nationalism—whether statist, ethnic, religious, or racial—serves both functions. It aligns a portion of ordinary people with the ruling oligarchy, mobilizing them to support the regime and sacrifice for it. At the same time, it divides society, ensuring that the nationalism-inspired will not join forces with everyone else to overthrow the oligarchs. "
https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/51/countering-nationalist-oligarchy/
We need to distinguish between "Nationalism" and "Constitutional Patriotism". The Constitution should be taught in every school, and compared to the explicit and implicit constitutions of other countries, particularly our NATO allies.
Where is the rule of law in all this? Voter suppression is cheating, plain and simple.
And my state of Ohio is the U.S. laboratory for fascist (NAZI) testing. Once they find what works here, it gets exported to the other horrid states. I envy, to a point, your living in NM. You have so far managed to hold the wolves at bay. Like Michigan to my north. I just hope you and they can maintain.
Trump and his puppet masters cheated by stacking the Supreme Court. The used the cover story of overturning Roe to get the support of the religious right but all along, the larger idea was the dismantling of democracy to turn the US into a creature that serves billionaires. Citizens United, sending redistributing back to the states - it was all scripted.
I'm left wondering if there is a last straw. When do Americans say "enough is enough" and stand up and say "No you don't"? Or are we already past the point of no return?
Sadly, I think we may be at the point of no return. Americans are complacent, undereducated, selfish, too influenced by social media and are picking creampuff heros like celebrities instead of real leaders of integrity. I hope I'm wrong.
I know an astrologer that did his birth chart and said she has never seen one with so many elements of sheer luck....
That's right, Doug! When there is the slightest of proof he was right our credibility goes right in his toilet. We, unfortunately, haven't shoved "their" grandiosity up their backsides. Faux had it shoved up theirs, but the wind went away, and 90 (whatever) guilty verdicts , with no time in a jail-cell, made us look foolish even more. I, like many others, felt pretty-much ashamed of it. I mean, our justice system is a joke, for those with money to burn. Trouble is, we already knew that.., didn't we? Trump just rubbed our noses, Red and Blue, in it. Didn't he? Yeah.., he did. Maybe we should thank him for that, just not right at the moment, hindsight being 20/20.
Trump is rabid, foaming at the sharpie and wants to destroy everything but his own cheeseburgers. He needs to be captured, quarantined, euthanized and then autopsied.
Frank, I’d be partial to the Mussolini style ending of ‘hanging by his ankles from the local picket fence’.
Maybe the courts will find that any documents signed by a sharpie are invalid.
Which does he think he is, a Sharpie or the Presidential Sharpie?
Frank.., who ya gonna call.., ghostbusters? Everyone most likely agrees with you. Now, let's have a meaningful dialogue before it really is too late.
What sort of meaningful dialog are you waiting for? At 81, all I have to offer is exaggeration, ridicule, and denigration of the guy. I'm not going to follow him around and throw mud on him at rallies. One does what one can, and WYSWYG.
Kazz, has he ever had a thought, period. This is a guy who operates from his reptilian brain, all hiss and strike.
aha...someone is BRILLIANT !!! And it is NOT Trump..but he is listening to BRILLIANT
Who are you referring to as "BRILLIANT?" Musk? Putin? And you forgot the /S for sarcasm.
All 3 of them are narcissists and idiot savants at best.
Brilliant is in Project 2025 .... that is where the" talent" is
This dumbness you speak of is easy to explain. Most criminals are dumb or they wouldn’t be a criminal.
Agree Kazz, but "dumbness" aside.., it's his rhinocerous mouth overloading his hummingbird ass that'll be his undoing. Whether the project 2025 archetypes will be able to pull this crap off "as planned" may be thrown into array because of him.
Wily! I forgot Wily, thanks Doug
Kazz McKnight -- I submit that most of what he says qualifies as "original thoughts". They're all lies.
I'll go with Rex Tillerson's (former head of ExxonMobil and former Secretary of State under Trump's first administration) astute assessment of Trump: Fucking Moron.
That’s an insult to morons
"However Dumb is not the right word."
Correct. Ignorant is the right word with respect to the roll of the manager, a roll which Trump is trying to play with almost no applicable skills. Just one example:
America's military is formidable because its operations side is incredibly well managed. (a century of experience counts for a lot) The procurement side is a different story.
Trump is about to discard the the operations skills; fool that he is. It takes much more than simple "do or die" commands to manage a complex system of humans and their assets.
Trump is like the 4 year old child that knocks down the castle of wooden blocks his big brother spent an hour putting together.
This is not leadership.
Military leaders are not good at accepting orders to fuck up their command structure and fighting capabilities. I wonder if Pete "Hogs-breath" will run up against any pushback. We can only hope.
How many will retire rather than follow his orders. They still need tp preserve their pensions.
Good thought and possibility, which will further degrade our military.
Unfortunately, but many people will refuse to participate so they’ll leave.
Inflation will reduce the value of their pensions. Don't trust Trump to make up the difference.
They will be welcome in California. I personally would offer my 3 bedroom house to any senior officer forced to retire as a place to live until they got their feet on the ground and move myself and my little dog into my old motorhome. They need not worry about pensions. The world's 5th largest economy will take care of that. Besides, when the DC government finishes inflating the currency those pensions would lose most of their value anyway.
We have told our grandson we will make room for any of his LGBTQ Friends that don’t feel safe where they are.
I like stupid.
No Kazz and Bruce. Trump is not "dumb". The word we should be using is "agent". Trump is an agent of chaos and of Putin. Xi is chuckling. Kim is loving it. Iran is thrilled.
The only question for me is:
"Is he being blackmailed or threatened with death.... or is he a willing participant in the war on democracy and Western Civilization?"
He’s a willing participant. All he sees is dollar signs and his controllers know that. They feed him with adulation to keep him going.
Willing participant is my view even tho Putin has something on him from the Moscow Trump tower days. Did you ever think any axis of evil would have an American in its leadership? The comments here are so astute and heart felt in their intelligence.
willing participant, Bill. As we all know, he only care about himself and what he gets out of it.
I also vote willing, as in he's a sadist.
In a short sentence: Trump is a malignant narcissist who is in terminal senile decline. And yes, that's a twofer.
Trump's subalterns will cover for him, just as Reagan's subalterns did for Reagan as he slipped into imbecility. Reagan's chief of staff basically ran the country while Reagan, ever the actor, hit his marks and said his lines.
There are some really evil vultures, who have no use for democracy, now circling over Trump. We will be really lucky to survive the next four years.
The word that collects all your sentiments is megalomaniac. Dr David Hawkins ( my intellectual hero of all time) identified the most harmful people when his psychiatrist training called the disease: malignant messianic narcissistic despotism. Think Jim jones, pol pot or Donald j.
Excellent list, Bruce.
I would add PSYCHOPATHIC.
Sick and dumb. And deteriorating before our eyes.
If only the majority of people cared about others as much as they seem to care about themselves. Self interest is a slippery mistress that can grow into a monster.
Trump has three goals, only: 1.) Money - he's hemorrhaging money and needs money to help him try to, 2.) Stay out of prison, and 3.) Revenge.
He has no other interests. No you, not me, not the country. His reach for the Presidency was driven by those three goals and nothing else.
He lacks any and all humanity!!
Agree Bruce.., "not dumb". Try SYCOPHANT. Trump is one. At the same time, Trump is a magnet for sycophants: parasite, sycophant, toady, leech, sponge; a usually obsequious flatterer or self-seeker; parasite applies to one who clings to a person of wealth, power, or influence or is useless to society. sycophant adds to this a strong suggestion of fawning, flattery, or adulation. THOSE ARE HIS CLINGERS! We can only '''hope''' that those of us making up the 48% are able to burst this bubble, and TIME is of the essence. NUTS to this.., let's roll!
Correct. He's sick. Very sick.
This word fits: Sycophant. I've never used this word or even knew what it meant, until now. Whewwww.., that guy is such a piece of s--t.
Numb, oblivious, dumb…dumb in that he should be silent! And ego in the egotistic oblivion (spell checker liked Bolivian) for how reality influences reality..science, observation, learning, reading. You know he does not read, functional illiterate? He depends on osmotic learning…sleeps with book on the night stand and hopes that nature abhors a vacuum.
I suspect that if one is " Nuts, Social deviant, sick, insane, mendacious, evil, deranged, mad, demented, not in his right mind,
crazed , lunatic, non compos mentis, unbalanced, unhinged." whether or not they are dumb is moot as most everything they do /participate in will create dumb results.
Yep this "movie" reminds me of Thelma and Louise except at least those two women had a legitimate score to settle which led them into their suicide pact. We are all being dragged along into this one and the potential end is the same, mutual destruction. The confirmation of P Hegseth as Secretary of Defense is likely to go down as one of the most tragic moments in this drama, with a man totally unqualified being elevated to one of the most important positions in our government, fingers now attached to the nuclear codes which can wreak destruction n on the entire world..
"The world may not remember what we say here but it will long remember what we do here. " Abraham Lincoln who is undoubtedly lying prostrate in his grave at this grotesque moment in our history.
Well, Jon, it seems he'll first have to let go of either a woman in one hand or a bottle in the other before he attaches those fingers to the nuclear codes.
I always considered Senators to be more sober- and forward-thinking than their House counterparts; it's they who ratify treaties and confirm SC justices, after all.
The late Sen Warren Rudman (R-NH) from my hometown, whom I knew, said this of his fellow Republicans in his memoir:
"The Republican Party is making a terrible mistake if it appears to ally itself with the Christian right. There are some fine, sincere people in its ranks, but there are also enough anti-abortion zealots, would-be censors, homophobes, bigots and latter-day Elmer Gantrys to discredit any party that is unwise enough to embrace such a group."
Barry Goldwater was right!
Jon, I have argued that appointment with friends of mine who do background checks to hire cops. None of them would outright say they would pass him on a background, but equivocate like "I need more information on that." Even when I confront them with his statement "I promise another drop of liquor won't pass my lips IF you confirm me." Red flag if there ever was one.
Ally, Let's start calling Hegseth "Breathalyzer", because he should be tested every 6 hours.
He wiil be in a drunken rage the first time he has to make a decision and he doesn’t have the brains to do so. What goes around comes around and they will be in a pickle.
Eileen, I say this with respect: we will *all* be in a pickle. The felon is irrational, narcissistic and mercurial. He has no knowledge of history, especially military history. It's all about who has the bigger red button, as he once said.
He could order an action that Hegseth doesn't try to talk him out of, with horrific consequences for all. Hegseth lacks the qualifications and temperance (in all senses) to do the job. And he was fired by 2 veterans organizations for those reasons, along with financial mismanagement.
As I have posted on other days, Donald is not dumb, at least not by the popular definition. He is learning disabled. There's a difference. His learning disability was concealed mainly by his father spreading his wealth around. (Mary Anne was too absorbed in her own hypochondria to be much involved.)
Fred's money got Donald into schools he never would have gotten into otherwise. When Donald failed, Fred covered his failures with more money. Over time, Donald came to believe that the rules were for others, not for him.
When Donald ignored the rules and got into legal trouble, Roy Cohn taught him how to exploit our legal system. Because Donald is learning disabled, it took hundreds of litigations for him to learn his lessons from Cohn, but he did.
Donald's so-called "success" derives from his dependence on people who are NOT learning disabled: his managers, his lawyers, his TV producers, his campaign managers, and now, the architects of Project 2025. They are flattering weak-minded Donald into carrying out their plans, and he is too distracted by the illusion of power to realize they are exploiting him for their own purposes.
Dale, I think this makes perfect sense. I've long thought he was learning disabled, not stupid, which isnperhaps why he needs pictures and doesn't read the teleprompter well.
My own late father, I believe, was learning-disabled. He left school after the 8th grade to work, and his parents gave their permission. He always had trouble reading; i never once saw him read a book, and when he read aloud he sounded out words like a child does. But he was NOT a stupid man, he had excellent smarts.
Sycophants!
The Architects of Project 2025: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identitarian_movement
Kazz, who knows who is really in charge. I told my husband that doesn't read the order, just signs them. You could stick one of front of him for his demise and he would probably sign it. I do think he is suffering from dementia and the orders were ready and written by others. Also Rubio should know better what happens when we stop foreign aid....someone else provides it.
Isolationism causes blindness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identitarian_movement
He is immoral, racist, misogynist, dictatorial, but not dumb, not stupid. Those last two words belong to people voting for him. He will be marketing brown shirts any day now.
And he just pardoned a whole battalion, almost 1500 who now directly owe their freedom to him. Beyond scary.
Exactly. For all his BS about "illegals" being criminals, the J6 crowd is full of them.
Leibstandarte!
I don't know that Trump is "dumb." He has selected people who will not speak truth to power. Pam Bondi is an excellent example. During her confirmation hearing, she could not bring herself to say that Trump had lost the 2020 election for fear of offending Trump. Bondi, as Attorney General, will do Trump's bidding and weaponize the Dept. of Justice. This is going to get very, very ugly fast.
while they watch Rome burn :( :(
It’s calculated even if it’s stupid and the calculation is to destroy government going forward so we can have unbridled capitalism destroy the planet unchecked by the courts as fast and interestingly as possible.
Dumb as a fox is more like it. Putting unqualified ass-licking people in these positions guarantees him his every whim met. Look at what happened as soon as Hegseth was confirmed--he had IGs fired thus removing oversight from any of his actions, even though he must give Congress a 30-day notice. I think they should all show up at work on Monday like nothing happened....