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.
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.
Agreed about the down ballot votes, Jon. But I think the 3rd party voters are the ones responsible for electing people like Bush and the felon, MUCH more so than the non-voters. They knew their choice wouldn't win, but thought was beneath them to select the lesser of 2 evils, if thats how they viewed Harris and the felon. Their principles interfered with the greater good, I believe. (And I once voted for a 3rd party candidate: in 1980, I chose John Anderson over Jimmy Carter -- though I voted for him in '76 -- because I was staunch against nuclear energy, which Carter favored, despite Three Mile Island.) I've never gone 3rd party since.
I understand why you make this distinction. However, our system is not kind to third party votes and they often act to get someone like death star elected as does not voting. We do not have a parliamentary system which several parties can form a coalition.
How true, Jon! I got a new phone a few months ago and the error rate resulting from auto-correct is much higher now. Very frustrating to see mistakes occur after I post something and then re-read it; I've long been a stickler for spelling, grammar and word usage (note: I typed “a” before the word stickler just now and it then “corrected” to the word “all” 🤦♂️ )
Can't you turn off "autocorrect"? I do not allow it on any of my devices. I do know how to spell, but typos happen, and they will be mine, gloriously mine, to be followed if necessary by apologies.
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?
Well, maybe they could produce a film that subtly undermines the lies of the American Führer. They would have to be subtle to avoid further attacks, as by Gov. DeSantis in Florida, or by T. versus the ABC network.
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.
Horrors! After December 7, 1941 it’s hard to believe any school child who lived through that day didn’t know what government was—what governments were. With parents not voting and schools not teaching history and civics however, perhaps such ignorance is not surprising.
That's very distressing. I had a class in HS, "American Government" and it wasn't my best subject, but it allowed me to understand how government functions at the local, state and federal level, more importantly it gave me enough information to make me inquisitive and want to stay informed. It must have meant enough to me to remember my teachers name, Mr. Davis.
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?'
Marie, Your vote does count. This last election was lost by bare margins. The truth is people can't see beyond themselves, nor do they seem to have critical thinking skills anymore. That's the problem.
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.
It might help to not only teach "Constitutional Patriotism" and the freedoms and rights that come along with it but also compare it to Putin's and Orban's governments.
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 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 about the down ballot votes, Jon. But I think the 3rd party voters are the ones responsible for electing people like Bush and the felon, MUCH more so than the non-voters. They knew their choice wouldn't win, but thought was beneath them to select the lesser of 2 evils, if thats how they viewed Harris and the felon. Their principles interfered with the greater good, I believe. (And I once voted for a 3rd party candidate: in 1980, I chose John Anderson over Jimmy Carter -- though I voted for him in '76 -- because I was staunch against nuclear energy, which Carter favored, despite Three Mile Island.) I've never gone 3rd party since.
I understand why you make this distinction. However, our system is not kind to third party votes and they often act to get someone like death star elected as does not voting. We do not have a parliamentary system which several parties can form a coalition.
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"
At least it doesn't call her BeastieD 🙃
In the world of auto-error, be grateful for small favors LOL!
How true, Jon! I got a new phone a few months ago and the error rate resulting from auto-correct is much higher now. Very frustrating to see mistakes occur after I post something and then re-read it; I've long been a stickler for spelling, grammar and word usage (note: I typed “a” before the word stickler just now and it then “corrected” to the word “all” 🤦♂️ )
Can't you turn off "autocorrect"? I do not allow it on any of my devices. I do know how to spell, but typos happen, and they will be mine, gloriously mine, to be followed if necessary by apologies.
LOL no worries.
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.
Well, maybe they could produce a film that subtly undermines the lies of the American Führer. They would have to be subtle to avoid further attacks, as by Gov. DeSantis in Florida, or by T. versus the ABC network.
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.
Horrors! After December 7, 1941 it’s hard to believe any school child who lived through that day didn’t know what government was—what governments were. With parents not voting and schools not teaching history and civics however, perhaps such ignorance is not surprising.
That's very distressing. I had a class in HS, "American Government" and it wasn't my best subject, but it allowed me to understand how government functions at the local, state and federal level, more importantly it gave me enough information to make me inquisitive and want to stay informed. It must have meant enough to me to remember my teachers name, Mr. Davis.
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?'
Marie, Your vote does count. This last election was lost by bare margins. The truth is people can't see beyond themselves, nor do they seem to have critical thinking skills anymore. That's the problem.
Marie: That is the self fulfilling fallacy
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.
Yes. Citizen's United, an oxymoron if there ever was one.
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.
It might help to not only teach "Constitutional Patriotism" and the freedoms and rights that come along with it but also compare it to Putin's and Orban's governments.
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.