After Trump’s bizarre performance last night in Oaks, Pennsylvania, when he stopped taking questions and just swayed to his self-curated playlist for 39 minutes, his campaign this morning canceled a scheduled interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, according to co-host of the show Joe Kernen.
"He's one cloudless night away from baying at the moon.” Is the best and probably most accurate line I've seen written about Trump. I've been telling this story for awhile...I've personally witnessed 3 incumbent candidates literally melt down during campaigns and not be able to go on stage and communicate. Trump is VERY close to going over that edge.
In fact, Steve, I think that HCR's letter makes it very clear: If the votes go to Trump, Vance will be the next President of the United States. Peter Thiel will have unfettered influence to create the government that he wants, i.e., a dictatorship of the oligarchs. The country will become a garbage dump.
To think I once sat in front of the TV stunned as the Watergate Hearings played out and thinking in my youthful mind, “It can never get worst than this.”
Unfortunately Bloomberg news was not watched by anyone thinking about voting for Trump. You and I watched Watergate on the TV, the only media in town then.
Now? Trump can melt down in his hidden pockets without disturbing those who feel (correctly) that our society has failed them.
Harris and the Democrats are relying on big money from her upper 20% donors while leaving much of the “hurt” feeling ignored.
Feelings drive votes and Trump & Co are preparing Election Day chaos. We seem to be defenseless against systematic attack by the militias driven by a toxic combination of hate and a population that feels let down
I too, remember those hearings and realizing what a scum bag Nixon was. His tape recordings revealed what kind of person he really was. That all was before the internet. Now the internet makes "normal" what should be considered unacceptable fringe extremisms.
Yes, this is increasingly my concern. Vance is scarier than Trump and Thiel is the scariest of them all. Troubled and disturbed men who are very wealthy and have become delusional about their importance and their "creative intelligence" who think it's a good idea to do away with our system as we know it, and create their own kingdom, based on crazy thinking.
Isn't it interesting that so many of these authoritarian-curious billionaire types are from South Africa?? It really makes me wonder at times if they are trying to "get even" with the US for largely supporting Nelson Mandela when the sh*t hit the fan there.
I agree that Putin is licking his chops since he favors an oligarchy (Russia is currently an oligarchy;) however, the oligarchs here have been building this on their own for the past 70 years, really revving things up with Reagan in 1981. The ultra wealthy bought up most of the media and began their campaign to destroy a government that produced the Middle Class. [Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" (2004) and HCR's book, "How the South Won the Civil War," i.e., the oligarchs.
Richard, I have this feeling that IF Trump was to win, that within 60 days, Vance will invoke the 25th and will have plenty of supporters, like the Heritage Foundation and Leonard Leo, along with some "traditional Republicans" (if they still exist, just to get rid of Trump which might maim, but I fear won't kill MAGA)
Trump has said "they" are trying to kill him, meaning the attempts on his life, but I think he really needs to watch his back against Vance.
Richard I fear your perspective does not accurately reflect tRump's deeply ingrained narcissism and need to directly control whatever he can. There's no way I can imagine him giving up the reins of the presidency even to JD Vance regardless of his own enfeebled state short of invoking the 25th amendment. See the fate of Mike Pence for reference,...and HE had substantially more experience in government than his boss.
Johnny, Vance/Thiel will do the work and bring Trump stuff to sign in press events, telling him only a stable genius could achieve so much in so little time.
But - if the republicans invoke the 25th? The Democratic Party is hardly in a position to say "No!"
And a lot of Republican establishment figures, and major donors, hate trump - they just like the power he's set to give them. And JD is even more firmly in their corner than even trump is.
Kamala should put an ad out - "Vote for Trump! Elect J.D.Vance!"
If Trump goes the way his father did…it is not pretty. The neighborhood rumor was Old Man Trump was a shell of a person propped up in a chair unable to speak or acknowledge anyone while his loyalists convince the NYC unions everything was fine. Young Donald was taking over the business and it was going to be business as usual. The old man shuffled in and shuffled out, didn’t say a word.
Vance and Thiel will have him propped up in a corner so quick, AI will be signing his name before lunch.
I'm wondering if DJT is "sundowning." But he also seems like he could be psychotic or delusional. And that's over and above being a Dark Tetrad. Machiavellianism, Malignant Narcissism, Psychopathy, and Sadism. On top of that he's a pathological liar, antisocial, and shows signs of paranoia. I know he couldn't pass the senior cognitive test I was given.
that's what the 25th Amendment is for. and I think they plan to use it if tffg gets back to the white House. That is how Vance will ascend to the presidency: constitutionally.
Richard, I was glad to see Heather detail how bad Vance is and also the people behind him. I have thought for a long time that Vance would be running the show and he is awful. When I post Heather's letter on to my Facebook page, i end with vote D. I did today, but more emphatically. Garbage dump doesn't begin to cover it.
I wouldn't be so sure that Trump would be so easily pushed aside. If he gets in (God forbid), he's not going to simply allow Vance to do what he wants. If that is Vance's plan, or those who support him, I suspect there might be an inner executive battle. I'm not hoping for that scenario; however, should that be the case (again, God forbid), it might not be so bad seeing the two pummel each other. I love it when I see today's republicans eating their own.
One point that keeps getting ignored or missed is that Vance espouses the elimination of LGBTQ rights as stated in P2025. So where did that leave his purported ally Peter Thiel, who is quite openly gay (along with being megarich)? One wonders what kind of odd bedfellows (bad comparison?) these two make? How does JD Vance reconcile his desire to strip gay Americans of their rights while reveling in the support he gets from one of America's richest gay men? How does Peter Thiel live with himself when his gay friends are rounded up for the "American Gulag"? Or does he not even care as long as they leave him alone?
These people only care for themselves and take what they want when they want it. It is like, how can a preacher molest children and preach the gospel. Some how it seems some people can do anything and it is okay. However, it doesn't seem Christian to me!
They know that democracies are messy and in a democracy power is in the hands of the people and because they are rich they think that they know what is best. Best, essentially for themselves with rationalizations as to how it will benefit everyone.
Me too, Steve. I voted blue all the way down the ballot several weeks ago. I'm friends with a woman who joined Democrats Abroad when she relocated to Costa Rica earlier this year... we knew each other when we lived in rural-ish New Mexico and became friends working together as blue activists in our red town. I expatriated in June '21 and haven't regretted it for a second.
Same here. Then I looked at the Democrats Abroad survey, which they gave feedback on to people who filled it out. What I remember, because I cannot find it anymore in my mail, is that most had post graduate degrees, more were female, most were progressive and the average age was 67.
My vote was cast in September. Votes from Abroad are sent out on September 20 and 21. Both my daughter and I got ours via email, and they sent us a printed ballot as well. I found out that our votes arrived last week. We are team Harris-Walz all the way and are proud members of Democrats Abroad. In Democrats Abroad I am reading Project 2025 in a book club, and yesterday we were discussing the chapter on The Treasury, which is mostly about getting rid of anything Biden has done regarding taxes. They want a flat corporate tax of 18% and earners would pay either 15 or 30 percent of their income. They are really big on getting rid of benefits, and have several plans to do this. One of the things is to treat most wage jobs like driving an Uber, one has to be an independent contractor, meaning no company provided benefits, no economies of scale for buying insurances. Probably means no vacations, unless you take it, then you are not paid. This idea is talked up more in the Department of Labor chapter. When it comes to discussing Social Security and Medicare they just mention them in a list of things that they do not want to take the space to detail. That is a huge red flag. When fact checking press says, Harris is wrong to say Trump would get rid of social security they are not correct, because they cannot fact check it when they avoid saying what they are going to do. However, if we base it on past behaviors we can assume they will be getting rid of them, or privatizing them so that they are not insurance but some risky investment like going to one of Trump's casinos. So far we have read and discussed 16 of the 30 chapters and the Forward. It was clear to me from the git go that Peter Thiel places JD Vance into the VP position to be the president. I even read that Vance would use article 25 to claim Trump was mentally incompetent. Thiel and his other Billionaire Tech Bros expect to run the USA through Vance as their proxy president. The idea that we let these mediocre people get so much power is frightening. We were discussing how Musk did not invent Teslas, he bought it, and cashed in on it. Same with Twitter, and Thiel did not invent Paypal, many of them have come from money and parlayed that with the right investments into something. Not all. These in many ways mediocre men do not seem to understand that fascism never did an economy any good, and certainly not creativity and innovation. I wish all of them would get into a space ship and take off for somewhere and get stuck in orbit.
When they are living behind concertina wire, driving in bullet proof vehicles, unable to move freely throughout the country, they will question their plan. It is such an amazingly beautiful planet. Watching the news last night, I was struck by how beautiful Lebanon is, and it's getting destroyed. What a shame that we have been given this gift and it has been passed over for shallow riches.
Kim, I also was thinking about the destruction in Lebanon last night, not just the natural beauty, but all the history as well. I am not optimistic about saving the planet because it is almost impossible to get anything passed and in our own neighborhood i see most doing nothing to help us remedy the situation. Something appeared on my Facebook feed this week naming organizations and people who are trying to protect the environment as enemies of agriculture and it also listed many organizations trying to keep things as they are. For these people anything environmental is on the black list.
Bill, I’m so thrilled you voted and reported it plus; now I’m able to drink morning tea.
HCR’s vivid report and choices of quotes went far beyond a dystopian nightmare (perhaps redundant) from t, v, & their perhaps on the spectrum billionaire entrepreneurs. She’s our national historian just as we have a national poet laureate.
I posted that above---I really believe that Vance would be strongly "encouraged" to invoke the 25th within 60 days of a Trump win, and he's young, inexperienced and eager to please enough so that he'd follow along with the Project 2025.
I received a text from Leon County, FL, a day or two ago that my mail-in ballot had been received and counted. They even texted me when it was picked up from my mailbox. Some things work, even in Florida.
Except for a two minute exchange in the middle of the interview, candidate Trump did not strike me as combative.
Candidate Trump misrepresented facts -- at least those I checked casually of criminals exported by Venezuela and the number of troops in South Korea -- as he does, always.
Candidate Trump was scattered for sure, migrating from one idea to another. As time went one the "weave" -- the interwoven nature of various issues -- broke down as ideas became unrelated.
Candidate Trump's rhetorical and intellection proved his weak-points. He answered Mr Micklethwait's macro-economic questions with micro-economic anecdotes.
Candidate Trump -- while wrong-headed on many issues, at least to me -- was correct on one point: from my calculations, guesstimates range from two-to-four per cent of the participants at the 06jan21 protest actually rioting at the Capitol.
And how many do you think it would have taken of those rioters to actually take over the Capitol and achieve their aim? How many is too many to ignore that it was an attempted insurrection? What percentage constitutes that? I would say that if thousands - and it was thousands, not hundreds - of people are pressing in on the barriers to the Capitol, assaulting defenders, demanding Mike Pence for a lynching, building a gallows for it in fact, breaking windows and pushing down doors, running through the building destroying priceless antiques and leaving shit in an office all constitute an illegal action worthy of prosecution. It was an insurrection, plain and simple. I watched it with my own eyes and will not accept the many attempts at gaslighting since then. He did that. Then he sat amused and sanguine as his handiwork played itself out without him ever having to get his hands dirty.
I’ve written this before, and received some harsh criticism for it, but we need to have some compassion for DJT, who is obviously suffering from organic brain dysfunction which is mostly out of his control. We need to roundly condemn what his handlers have allowed him to become - a tool to advance fascism - and rid ourselves of this foul, pathological Republican putsch.
Mike Johnson, who holds himself above the rest of us with his obsequious sanctity, considers himself a ‘man of God’ and yet supports the flawed and mentally unfit DJT in the most brazen manner only for his own personal power. What a weak, shriveled soul he must have, and if he thinks his final reward will be to reside in “heaven” with “the almighty”, he is very mistaken. I’ve heard on good authority that St Pete has him on the “no entry” list and Old Scratch has categorically refused to allow his ilk the descent to Hades because he is concerned about a power struggle. There is only one Satan, and he holds ultimate dominion.
Trump does suffer from untreated mental conditions: Narcissism, ADHD, and dementia. Narcissism makes him dangerous and easily manipulated, ADHD makes it hard for him to focus (partially responsible for the rambling speeches) and the dementia produces his low energy, unfocused states. His campaign leadership, guilty of so many heinous acts, is also guilty of elder abuse.
I also think that Trump abuses some type of meth-amphetamine. This would explain how he can appear relatively focused for a debate on Tuesday, and go on an hours long, stream-of-consciousnesses rant on Wednesday. Dementia symptoms do not cycle that quickly. It is no wonder his campaign will not release his medical records.
His combativeness and insulting language the instant he is challenged with facts or an opposing viewpoint is another sign of dementia, in my view.
That his campaign people are hiding his condition signals two things: #1...they are unwilling to give up a chance at power and they know Trump is their only ticket to the WH. #2...they are probably keeping him away from the professional mental and medical help that he so obviously needs--and his family has essentially abandoned him.
To my knowledge, the few medical records Trump has released were from the discredit Ronnie (Johnson) Jackson. Who just happens to be there to put a maxi-pad on Trump's bleeding ear? Who said that Trump weighed 239 lbs which makes him not quite obese. Who release the cognitive test that Trump believes is indicative of brilliance - Again Ronnie. Trump has on numerous occasion called him Ronnie Johnson.
Let's take a look at the unedited medical results when Trump had Covid19. I doubt that Ronnie was there with the medical team, so there's a chance the records are accurate.
I was given the full cognitive test in 2021. I got a perfect score. The final challenges were to recall 7 random numbers and then recall different 7 random numbers in reverse. The social worker had never had anyone get all the way through and get a perfect score. I doubt DJT could remember 3 unrelated words.
I believe his stimulant of choice is Adderall, and I know that there are differences between amphetamine and methamphetamine. With slightly different compounds, they all have a similar effect on dopamine uptake, and adderall has a longer impact based on a different paths they take to influence dopamine uptake. (My experience and knowledge is that of a cop when dealing with people using/possessing/selling these controlled substances.
Derek, I appreciate your compassion for someone who was raised to be a demagogue, trained by Roy Cohn to think only of his own interests. But. . . while we who want to exercise empathy may even be thinking of Jesus' care for those in need (and Trump certainly is among them), Jesus also condemned the powerful who sought their own welfare over others. I'm thinking of the religious rulers of his time. Jesus called them "a brood of vipers." You can hear the hissing and see the forked tongues in his words. Thiel, Bannon, Flynn, Vance, Leo, et al, are the brood. Have compassion, indeed, for those who are trounced upon or used by the vipers, but for those who want to use their version of religion to rain down terror upon the rest of us, we can emulate the clarity of Jesus' words naming the real culprits.
Jesus was often grumpy if you read the gospels closely, and he even got irritated enough once to go up to the GOP party's tent at the county fair, overthrow their table and send their pamphlets flying to the wind before driving them off of the fair grounds.
Okay, some poetic license, but that is what the money changer's story is all about - after a fashion. Our elections should be a demonstration of the power of democracy, not the granting of power to a fascist.
But so far as I am aware, that's as close as he got to violence. Yet Christianity has been claimed for centuries to justify racism, oppression, torture, and genocide. Read some of what was said by the "pious" about wholesale massacres of indigenous people. Religion can inspire courage and compassion, and yes, a fierce sense of justice, inspired by Martin Luther King, or psychopathic burning of "witches". The horrors of US and Canadian "Indian Schools". Alleged fealty to God has rationalized some of the cruelest behavior of which humans are capable. That variety of "religion" seems the very antithesis of anything I am aware of that Jesus is said to have said, and I think it would be OK, even compelling, for caring Christians to say so.
JL: We Christians do see and speak to cruelty done in Jesus' name. Clearly, human beings (Christians among them) justify and carry out horrible treatment not only of fellow humans but of Earth itself. The heart of the Christian message is that instead of vengeance, God as Jesus was killed and forgave rather than killing others. That image is a challenge to Christians every day.
And it’s not only Jesus in the New Testament; check around the Psalms for passages condemning the rich who have gotten their wealth by oppressing the poor.
What in the behavior and values expressed by Trump maps onto the behavior and values expressed by Jesus? Seems to me that Trump would stand with those who put Jesus to death.
Well placed comments on social media...."Not suckers or losers" to vets groups, military, military dependents, history sites. Vote vets has thousands of testimonials of 2020 Trump voters that flipped. According to Facebook, there are 4 million veterans or active duty members on Facebook, and 12.5 million family members of veterans or active duty members on Facebook.
The little girl sees a frozen snake who is dying. She picks him to revive him and puts him under her coat. Then the snake bites her. "Why did you do that? I will die." The snake replied," You knew I was a snake when you picked me up." I couldn't believe my ears when I heard trump retell that story, especially since he is the snake.
Whether he is competent or not, he needs to stand trial and be found guilty and go to prison for crimes already committed. If they don't do this we will be fighting this battle between patriots of our democracy and those who want us in a dictatorship every 4 years. It must stop here!
people are saying if trump can break the law why cant I? This argument was used by Youngkin when he was told that there was a 90 day period before election where you couldn't change the rules, do purges, etc. His state did a purge 25 days before the election. His justification was," Well other people did it."
I agree that every human is worthy of some form of compassion. If we only demonize others, we become what we hate.
Therefore, when Trump is jailed in a psych ward, please be sure the temperature of his cell is comfortable, his mattress is sturdy and he is allowed all the double cheeseburgers and Diet Cokes he wants. I'd even be gracious enough to allow him twice fried French Fries (the best kind - crispy but not over cooked) with every meal. But no ketchup.
And we should apply the same compassion to his fellow inmates and the hospital workers. None should be required to be near him for longer than five minutes a day.
When I start to go down the Compassion Path I stop… I remember how intentionally mean Trump, and the MAGAs, have been. How they inflicted pain and suffering.
Let's say you are cornered by a very large bear. He is advancing with claws clearly ready to slash. He is howling and growling and....drooling. He is just a few feet away from eating you.
You have a weapon of some sort. Is it time for compassion? Or survival?
You can have compassion and accountability at the same time. Trump needs to be locked away somewhere (in compassionate surroundings) from the general public because he is endangering society, the greater good. It's a simple a principle as that.
Maybe there is a better word than compassion (IDK what it is). But I've often (not that often) thought what a sad life tfg must have had. Never feeling good enough (don't let his attitude fool you). As Mary Trump said... "Too much and never enough". It's a sad way to live. Mentally ill people are not really in control. Don't get me wrong. I HATE him. I think he should be locked up without a phone or internet. I think the things he has done are reprehensible. but he is a sick man and should never have been allowed to get as far as he did. He should have been held accountable a long time ago. Long before he ran for office. I don't know why ANYONE would vote for him. But they do??? Including my brother.
Mary Trump has said that she has compassion for what her uncle went through as a small child. His mother was ill and absent for about two of his very early years and his father was a cruel bully throughout his childhood. Interestingly, JD Vance also suffered tremendously as a child. His mother was a an erratic, unstable woman with issues of addiction. I am not quite so sure where his biological father was, but his mother had serial partners. Both of these men should quit politics asap and head to Vancouver and enter trauma therapy with Gabor Mate!
Derek, you hit upon something that I have been talking about, so thank you. While I detest Trump---and feel he has been a nasty person for a very, very long time--I don't like to see elder abuse, and I feel THAT is exactly what his sons (well, Don and Eric) and many of the MAGA are doing!
I had a brother who passed from COVID which exacerbated his dementia. He first manifested it about a decade before he passed by early signs of aphasia. He'd forget words (scary for us all!) but as it became worse, he lost more and more vocabulary. I have sad memories of his wife dying of cancer at home, while on hospice. His kids and the family all came to help the caregiving team. My brother desperately needed a purpose and so would go to the nearby grocery store with a "list" of what was needed: he'd draw pictures of what was needed, like rolls of toilet paper, or a box of blueberries. (Sometimes his own pictures confused him, and he'd bring paper towels or grapes) He paid with a credit card and actually seemed to handle money okay. Numbers weren't a problem.
In time, after his wife passed and his vocabulary dwindled, he entered memory care and he worked daily with a speech therapist. I'd sit just outside the room as they'd show him photos of people or things, and my heart still turns at he memory of seeing them hand him a fork, and his frustration and embarrassment, saying "I know what it is, I don't know the word." Conversations became more and more limited, till we gave up. We'd listen to music together, or share a meal, or do a jigsaw together when I visited.
Trump CLEARLY is in a rapid decline. Do I forgive him all his sins against the US? NOT ONE BIT. But how very sad to have family who care more about their own greed, and backers who care more about power, than to have a single person who truly loves him and would let him retire, while getting care to slow this disease! I have to think there are at least SOME MAGA who recognize what is happening to them, and SHAME on them for not speaking out.
The way Trump stands with the slumping shoulders, and the way he responded to music is entirely too familiar to me. I've watched several clips of the 39 minutes, and they are painful to watch. I don't think he has long for the world. Definitely not 4 years. I believe that Trump will never see the inside of a jail, which is truly unfortunate for our democracy.
I had no idea that Trump likes music at all, but it is interesting to know that Alzheimer's and dementia sufferers retain a love for and knowledge about music as one of the last vestiges of their previous capacities. Remember Tony Bennett's final concert, when he performed every song as if he were a young man, knowing every word, and then immediately afterwards did not know he had performed. The power of music is awesome.
Mim, one of my last visits with my brother, I brought a small, tabletop Christmas tree. I brought in a bunch of ornaments and as I put it up and decorated, I sang holiday tunes to him. (My voice is not very good, and I couldn't recall every word, but it didn't matter, as the words were gone to him, too.) We had a wonderful visit, and he kept exclaiming "You really! You really" with enthusiasm. The music lifted his spirits in spite of my off key renditions.
I wonder what you think SHOULD be done at this point, and what the consequences might be? After all, until fairly recently, DJT seemed like his usual rambling self to most people - even some of my Democrat friends. I agree with Heather that it's been evident for years, but I don't think most people have noticed.
I'm not sure "most" is accurate. It requires cognitive dissonance to think that Trump has never told a lie and that he's perfectly capable to be elected to the most powerful position in the world.
What truly scares me is JD becoming President. He believes wholeheartedly in the patriarchy and that a woman's sole purpose is to be a wife and a mother.
I cannot imagine JD as President and if he has a Republican Senate and House, we are truly fucked.
I agree that he is an organically ill person....and the people close to him will attempt to hide that fact...it's getting MUCH harder. I witnessed Truman Capote taken off stage after he ranted for 30 minutes at an audience who came to love him and listen to his stories. He swore every other word...and folks walked out in droves. It was sad.
Compassion for evil is a hard thing to do. I can say...it is sad that they are so very, very, very out of touch with the elemental workings of nature, and the natural world...which distills into into their antipathy towards the human race and everything breathing. It is a small, shriveled, invented importance, McDonald's cuisine world they live in.
Don't ever mistake my silence for ignorance, my calmness for acceptance or my kindness for weakness. Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. - The Dalai Lama
In 2016 Trump knew damn well what he was doing by spreading devision and hatred in this country. Yes he has mentally declined but that is no excuse for him to continue with his racial remarks with people of color and trying to blame them with his rhetoric of lies and using them as a scapegoat goat to divide this country with hatred not mention packing a supreme court with justices who granted him immunity for his crimes. Trump destroyed this country in 4 years. It took President Biden nearly 4 years to correct Trumps mess. Biden did a hell of a job governing this country. I have no compassion for Trump regardless of his mental decline.
I commend your insights about compassion for DJT, clearly unable to fathom becoming a pawn for technocrats that recognized long ago the expired shelf life of his competence was a callous but fortuitous means of achieving their piously heady ends. "Love thine enemies" and "turn the other cheek" are rarely referenced but that doesn't mean that one needs to condone deviance either. Our collective response needs to be extraordinary, for sure, without unconsciously adopting the same blind hatreds that ignorant "leaders" defiantly embrace.
I agree. I had a hard time stopping my laugh at this quip. It is as close an explanation of his misrepresentation of reality as one can offer. The guy clearly needs a psych eval.
one of the candidates who melted down on me ended up in the Johns Hopkins Psyche ward. He had been ahead by 20 points and lost by 20 points....amd he was far more sane than Trump before his breakdown.
Let's not disparage people who suffer from mental illness, especially depression. In the 1970s, a candidate (for vice-president, I think) had to drop out of the race when it was revealed he'd had some mental health issues in the past.
DJT's personality disorders are not classified as "mental illness." Mental illnesses go on Axis I and personality disorders go on Axis II. They are considered character disorders. Mental illnesses primarily consist of thought disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders.
Michelle Lafferty, I would not hesitate to make that reference to DJT. I do see where you're coming from; however, DJT demonstrates both Axis', in my opinion. I'm not a student of psychology nor psychiatry; however, what I see are character/personality disorders coupled with mental illness. When one threatens the removal, and incorporation of concentration camps for his political opponents, or even in some cases, death, then what is the difference between someone like Trump and someone who eventually goes "postal?" (with apologies to all postal workers)
Yes Ellen, I do get your point, and it's a valid one. However, I would point out that the difference between Thomas Eagleton and Trump is wider than the Grand Canyon. Eagleton didn't put up a fight after the news was released. If I remember correctly, he owned up to this issue and stepped aside. Honor and dignity were Eagleton's hallmark at that time; now, compare that to Trump. In my view, Trump demonstrates to be far less than Copus Mentus and he still sways power with cowardly Trump acolytes who support him unwaveringly. He and they deserve all the flak they get. I have zero respect for all of them.
The Republican party and entire right wing apparatus support Trump - no matter. I am leery of polls in general, but it is nice to have them on your side - and Trump increasingly does in crucial states. In many places where Harris has slipped in the polls, Jill Stein has surged. Her 1-2% support could determine the race - which is exactly what makes her attractive to those out to punish the Democratic party, no matter the pain to those a Republican administration will irreparably harm. Cue the happy music on Putin's and Netanyahu's play lists.
When Hitler's coup attempt failed, he went legit. His election win was spurred by Stalin splitting German Communists from the German Center Left. Putin allied Stein is doing the same here - splitting the American Far Left from the Center Left, as represented by the Democratic party. Cue the happy music in the quisling camp.
Those of us not dancing to those tunes, have a lot of work to do. We always have. Any negative news is a spur to our efforts in the last length of this race. Take heart.
Nice, lin, referring to "not dancing to those tunes."
The lovely, great Rufus Wainwright -- his cover of "Hallelujah" being second only to his long-time friend Leonard Cohen's original -- had to use the word "blasphemous" in his cease-and-desist letter also today to the criminal convict orange felon. Everything in the Leonard Cohen song, and everything in Rufus Wainwright's timbre honoring it -- everything speaks to the decencies in the Kamala and Tim campaign.
Heather had to take a long time to draft hers for today, and hers stands as a testament to how far they all are from decency of any sort: the sick orange felon, conniving Vance, Thiel, Musk, and all the humanly empty Republicans covering for all the mad lies that cover their worsening, worsening vulgar indecencies.
As Heather notes, too, the people queuing in Georgia for historic numbers of first-day voting may augur broader, deeper, finer American hunger for those decencies.
The pollsters sample usually around 1000 - 2000 probable voters in all 50 states.
That is .00015% of the total population. And every poll says they have a margin of error between 3% and 5%. And they all claim to be polling a legitimate sample of the population.
And then there are the aggregators, who average the questionable results and give odds of who will win based on an algorithm that has failed repeatedly for the past several cycles.
So who is the bigger liar, Trump and his allies or the pollsters?
I wish I could find the article that said that there was a RepubliKan bent to about 60% of polls that they had analyzed. Sadly, I thought I had bookmarked it, but I cannot find it.
Unfortunately many people believe the stupid polls, and those still on a fence can be swayed by them. And when a "news" person shows some poll with glee saying "republicans will be happy with this" and tries to prove that donnie is ahead is one of those scary halloween clowns that is just looking for drama.
True. I thought that when Trump's supporters saw and heard all the mean, derogatory things he said and did when he first took office, that they would see the truth about him. How stupid was I?
Trump is no longer a candidate for MAGA, but rather a “symbol” they vote for. They’ve dismissed Trump’s crazy as they clammer for “The Idea Of Trump”, as they fondly reminisce; “You’re Fired”
The Mass Psychology of Trumpism by Dan P. McAdams from February of 2024.
He analyzed data about the people who have been charged in the January 6 attack and posits that racism is the driver for those who were driven to actually act on trump's words. That's the reason why maga campaigns so hard on immigration.
In 2008 Pew came out with a projection that by 2050 white people would no longer be a majority in the US. Black people said "Oh, shit" because they knew the racists would have their hair on fire. And sure enough!
Not weird, stupid. The result of the dumbing of murica the past 50 years. Was that a democratic or republican plan? Regardless, i would rather talk to dumb than righteous religious zealots.
I know. But I suspect Trumper Cultists are people who can’t understand normal and Trump has a way to communicate with them. Someday, scientists will discover the brain disease that causes this issue.
How can it be that there's no "abort mission' button for this presidential race? How can it be that our system is structured in this way that watches an incapable candidate be plausibly electable? I might be critical of every cognitive test out there but I'd use them all as engineers would use all inspections before the launch of a possibly faulty rocket.
The newspapers described his 39 minutes of music as "cut the program short (ABC), townhall turned into an impromptu listening event (NBC), impromptu concert (AP), one unfamiliar source announces trump rally discontinued because of 2 medical emergencies. The media so made this rally look rational.
The video stories that I saw and the coverage I've read did not make this "musical interlude" look at all normal. It was the strangest thing I've ever seen from a candidate on stage.
I would only take exception to your last line…. IMHO, he has danced right OVER the edge. Surely his campaign staff, along with his largest donors, must be frantically luring him into a hot padded room feeling much like a campaign rally. Seeming full of his adoring supporters, they invite him to sway endlessly to his favorite unauthorized music. If he weren’t so very nasty, I might feel very saddened by such a personality decomposition. However, it seems that he has been working this “angle” his whole adult life. There were even hints of what was to come in his childhood. It is hard to arouse any emotion other than “It couldn’t have happened to a nastier guy!”
As much as I would like to agree with Dr Cox Richardson on her take of the interview with the Economic Cub of Chicago, I simply can not. Except for a two minute exchange in the middle of the interview, candidate Trump did not strike me as combative.
Candidate Trump's weaknesses were his inability to focus on one idea; demeaning references to President Obama and Vice President Harris; the usual misrepresentations; as well as, an inability fully to grasp conceptual questions as indicated by anecdotal answers.
Oh how I wish I had coined that phrase! ("He's one cloudless night away from baying at the moon.”) What a perfectly apt description of the orange one's final display of lunacy! Let's pray that the message was heard far & wide enough to affect the final election outcome.
Sam when I say meltdown, I mean literally not being able to function on stage at all. I've witnessed 3 candidates that I worked with get so stressed out that they could not even go on stage. One ended up in a psyche ward and the other 2 we had to keep under wraps for 2-3 days. I also saw a famous author so out of it at a speech that he had to be removed from the stage. He was making no sense and swearing at the audience. People were leaving by the dozens. That's "melting down".
Thanks for focusing on the perils of a Vance assumption of power, HCR. It is so ominous and chilling the way you have pieced together his tyranical vision for a future of the country that looks nothing like the founding principals and the shaping of the Republic since. Add: "These technology entrepreneurs envision themselves, rather than a government, planning and then creating the future." What a one/two existential punch.
You are right. What I have been stewing on since I read this dispatch is the sheer outrageousness of the whole Republican party approach to elections, and HRC's compilation of Vance's remarks just really crystallises the obscene rational. Basically, we will never be able to win elections fair in square; the majority of Americans do not share our values and policies. Therefore, we have to seize power...by redistricting, stacking the courts, threats, violence (an escalating sequence)...and impose our minority regime on the majority. I know too well that this using the facade of democracy to transform a democracy into an autocracy is exactly what happened in Russian, Hungary, Argentina, et al, but it is still stunning to see it happen in the United States in realtime, in front of our eyes. It sure puts the lie to American Exceptionalism.
Yah, but in this case it feels rottenly momentous. Rather than the US being the shiny beacon on the hill, a world role model on how to do it right, albeit messily, it is following other countries rolling into a deep, dark abyss. Don’t get me wrong, I never bought into the Exceptionalism hubris or the end of history conceit. But if this all go wrong during and post election as is really possible this fall from grace will have an outsized impact on the course of human and the living planets history.
Stepford wives, June Cleaver always in a dress, nice shoes, and wearing pearls (did she clean the toilet that way?), In Fried Green Tomatoes the wife had her husband's dinner ready as he came into the house (he grabbed it and sat in front of the TV).
wasn't there some mention of a monitoring system for women's pregnancy so they could track any abortions?
An additional deep-dive into the ideology animating all this can be read in this Vanity Fair Article about Steve Bannon and his “army”. It talks a lot about JDVance and his “friends” Even good ole Erik Prince (naturally) shows up in this circle of hell that is this ideology. I love the breadth of this article. It gives a very good view of the contours of this conflict we are in. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/steve-bannon-nato-world-order
Vance seems pretty malleable and is, I think, an even better choice as president than Trump - at least for the likes of wannabe tech demigods like Musk. They can simply buy the power and the laws they want from him.
KSC, like the oligarchs of a century ago, these technology entrepreneurs believe that a person who has led (and profited from) the new industry is automatically a “stable genius” about everything in the world. Project 2025 calls for firing all the scientists who currently forecast hurricanes because those same scientists ascribe the increasing intensity of those storms to the warming ocean waters acerbated by climate change.
Except, whose tyrannical vision? Thiel is gay. Vance is theocratic and anti-gay. Musk is libertarian, I guess? Trump is whatever makes people praise him. If they get power, I imagine the power struggles will be intense. I fear for our country if that happens.
Yeah, the tech.-rule line spooked me, too. Yesterday's vanguard of the proletariat is today's technocracy. Perfectibility of (wo)man and humankind has killed something like eighty million people under communism.
It seems Trump has been told they can’t win the vote, they can only steal it. His vanity had him working for votes. The gig is up. They are leaving it up to the billionaires and their political and legal stooges to steal.
I voted yesterday in Augusta, and got an "I voted" sticker! The Maine Dems were at the Farmers' Market, too, so there was some good chat about Harris and the Maine ticket.
Listening to Angus King on CSpan has always been encouraging.
King's Democratic opponent, like self funded independent Elliot Cutler of cursed memory, is another DC player retired to Maine and using elections to get back into the game. Of course, Cutler and his crew giving TeaParty Paul LePage two terms as governor spurred Mainers to give us Ranked Choice Voting!
I didn't vote on this question, because I really don't care about flag design, although I don't like the idea of tax money being spent on all the changes (stationery, all the official flags, etc.) that the State would have to make to effect changing. I think the proposed design is attractive BUT it has been co-opted by some right-wing fanatic religious group as the "appeal to heaven" flag, and I REALLY DO NOT want that mob or its revolting ideas associated in any way, official or unofficial, with Maine, Mainers, Maine's state government, or anything to do with Maine.
I do wish our ranked-choice voting ballot allowed us to vote AGAINST a particular candidate, as well as voting FOR a candidate or two, however!
I actually wasn’t sure I should vote on it at all given that I am nonresidential…then I could not resist because I liked the old version artistically….then I was worried that it had some hidden meaning that the right wing succeeded in getting enough votes to land it on the ballot 🙃. I did note vote on the bonds. I did vote on the campaign finance measure.
Hooray for former president Jimmy Carter! Reaching his latest goal to vote against Trimp shows us that even at 100 years old his virtue and intelligence holds up. He'll be a virtuous example to us right up to his final moment. In the course of their lives some people make their mark on the world, others like dementia Don only leave a brown stain.
My Colorado Ballot arrived today. I've made my choices and Kamala Harris has my vote.
Now I can only wait and encourage others. Let's make another Blue Wave - VOTE BLUE!!
I have but two images of former presidents on the walls of my house. One is an engraving of Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation and the 2nd is a photo of an aged Jimmy Carter. I once wanted to send the photo to him for a signature but after reading of his hospice care, I ended my quest. No matter, his photo greats me every time I exit the kitchen. And I’m pleased not because he was such a great president. But he has been a great man.
Colorado has THE Best voting process ever. I read the blue book on all the issues weeks before I got my ballot and listed my decisions and filled out my ballot from my list. Voting blue in one of the red districts. Love being the voice of reason and getting blasted by those tr***ites who drank the koolaid.
Make waves. DNC Anytime Training signup link (call on your schedule!) Share the link with your own message in an email or text: https://events.democrats.org/event/551644/
To share on any platform, just click on the link and share from there!
I’m not alone in wondering whether Vance and his ilk are trying to prop up DJT until the election, which Vance certainly would lose, but then, assuming DJT wins, within a short period of time the props are withdrawn and DJT tips over into baying at the moon; then Vance gets into power without having to run.
I've said to my wife more than once - Vance will invoke 25 is Trump is elected and we'll have a triumvirate of Musk, Thiel, and Vance - in that order. Of course, I'm quite aware of the fate of the first triumvirate . . .
I've been saying the same thing ever since Agent Orange's advancing dementia became evident. Could we be at a turning point where even MAGAts start to question their leader's sanity? The gibberish he spewed at the WSJ interview and at his rally was just.........wow.
I've been saying for a long time that Voldemort is evil beyond the pale but, Vance is younger version of Satan and the fact that he could take over when Voldemort goes over the edge is terrifying! Thank you for such a clear and concise summary of some of the danger ahead.
It’s incredibly inspiring to see Jimmy Carter, even in hospice, continuing to demonstrate his lifelong commitment to democracy by casting his vote for Kamala Harris. His dedication to civic engagement, right to the very end, speaks volumes about his enduring belief in the importance of participating in the democratic process.
"Trump’s issues make it likely that a second Trump presidency would really mean a J.D. Vance presidency, even if Trump nominally remains in office." Exactly. That summarizes what I think German born Peter Thiel and South African born Elon Musk are counting on.
Convicted felon and dancing corrupt crime wave Trump prepares to rehabilitate his reputation on “Dancing With the Stars” thus joining previous rehab attempts by Rick Perry, Tom DeLay, and Sean Spicer.
This is the individual MAGA wants to empower with the U.S. economy and nuclear launch capability? If Trump is elevated to (or simply takes the White House) Thiel, Vance, and Musk will have trivial impact. The only two truths Trump has stated are the fact he could shoot someone (or worse, commit treason and/or incite an insurrection) -and no one would care, and this will be the last time we’ll need to cast a vote. The depth of willful MAGA ignorance is stunning and bottomless.
Very true. I suppose my point is it won’t really matter. Whether Trump, Vance, and/or others, we know Project 2025. So we are just talking about different degrees of horror. Anyone other than Harris/Walz will result in global chaos and disaster.
And don’t forget Sarah Palin’s gig on DWTS. A few of us at the time were horrified in Alaska that our quitter Governor came so near the presidency. Remember how for a while she was the darling - and spoken of as the future - of the GOP. Evangelicals too loved her. She is nothing today. May Trump go the way of Palin very soon - a silly, ridiculous joke.
Despite Trump's evident malaise and Vance's push for Christian autocracy, clearing away the "secular" ruling class, Project 2025, the polling needles have simply tightened up, if the recent NBC poll is a good example. But I did read a very interesting article indicating that with margins this tight, any prediction modelling on who wins depends almost solely on turnout, with just small percentage changes in various demographic sectors making winning differences. So it seems now it's all down to turnout, folks. At every level.
He also points out that the degree of tightness is almost unprecedented, despite all of Trump's liabilities which otherwise would be so obvious to "the average voter"...
I am incredulous at the tight numbers. It is unimaginable to me that there are so many hateful, misguided, cult members in the country. Sad and unimaginable!
Do whatever you can to get out Dem votes, Christine, and i know exactly how you feel. More tribal than "cult" i would hazard for, but loyalty to whatever that cause is is a bottom line.
I really hope a lot of Republicans are disgusted enough by Trump to just stay home and not vote, even while they're telling the posters they'd vote for him. Saying it is easy. Doing it takes a bit more effort and desire.
Thank you for focusing on JD Vance‘s relationship with Peter Thiel as much as you have here, Heather. While Trump slipping into what I guess could be called full on dementia is a big story, I think the relationship between Vance and Thiel needs to be explored even more.
It’s the middle of the night and I can’t sleep, so I don’t have the energy to research it now, but I want to find the timeline of Vance first getting hired by Peter Thiel, then being set up in business by Peter Thiel and then being financed by Thiel to become a United States, Senator… And I want to contrast that with Vance being against Trump and being for Trump, but also learn when Vance got married and the circumstances of how he met his wife. I have read suggestions that Vance is yet another closeted, gay Republican masquerading as an ultra conservative political leader. With Peter Thiel being a gay man, I would like to examine whether he somehow bought JD Vance as a personal play thing if not in actuality then in his mind. There is something very strange about their relationship that I look forward to looking into it. If anyone has already done some of this research, please let me know.
Lulu Garcia-Navarro's NYT interview with Vance was chilling - if you haven't yet, I recommend listening to it rather than reading it. He uses a reasonable tone to say outrageous things. He is one slick and nasty man and for him to be President is a very scary thought.
My alarm bells about J. D. Vance were again rung after reading James Pogue’s Oct 9, 2024 article about Steve Bannon and his “army” in Vanity Fair. It outlines the ideology behind Bannon and the forces supporting -and puppet-mastering- J. D. Vance. It’s an enlightening read about the ideology that will stay in the MAGA bloodstream long after Trump has been toddled off stage. It involves all the greatest hits from Handmaiden’s Tale, Orwellian 1984, and Fahrenheit 451, in my view. It’s good to know the enemy. This article helped me comprehend the much bigger conflict we are facing. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/steve-bannon-nato-world-order
That was a scary article - like, you can see how persuasive Bannon could be to a disaffected population, especially with no one saying “Hey!! Didn’t you get convicted of scamming millions of dollars from a bunch of citizens to build a so-called wall and get arrested on a Chinese billionaire’s yacht?”
No, they want to use the people who can work and kill or abuse the rest. They need to have groups of sufferers to make their core group happy and feel better about themselves. We don’t want to do that - just put them elsewhere where they can happily be themselves but not harm others.
Diseases can be prevented, can be cured, few have been totally eliminated. Nowadays we neglect prevention and we're better at curing symptoms than the underlying illness.
We deluded ourselves believing that by smashing regimes and killing the likes of Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo we had uprooted the poisonous ideas they represented. Yet, the most unspeakable horror inflicted by great evil is how it befouls the very memory of its victims and the hearts and minds of surviving generations. Nazi-Fascism went underground in 1945, only to burst forth now, almost eighty years later. Everywhere. Even among the descendants of the Nazis' greatest victims.
This should be a lesson for us all. A lesson that we readers of these letters should be open to. "The past is never dead, it's not even past" wrote Faulkner, perceptively.
"He's one cloudless night away from baying at the moon.” Is the best and probably most accurate line I've seen written about Trump. I've been telling this story for awhile...I've personally witnessed 3 incumbent candidates literally melt down during campaigns and not be able to go on stage and communicate. Trump is VERY close to going over that edge.
He crossed a number of lines long ago. Now he's barking mad.
Yesterday I voted early for the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris.
I live abroad. No one I know who has voted already, including myself, has voted for Trump.
In fact, Steve, I think that HCR's letter makes it very clear: If the votes go to Trump, Vance will be the next President of the United States. Peter Thiel will have unfettered influence to create the government that he wants, i.e., a dictatorship of the oligarchs. The country will become a garbage dump.
To think I once sat in front of the TV stunned as the Watergate Hearings played out and thinking in my youthful mind, “It can never get worst than this.”
And I thought there could never be anyone more corrupt and harmful to our Country than Nixon. Boy, was I wrong.
Unfortunately Bloomberg news was not watched by anyone thinking about voting for Trump. You and I watched Watergate on the TV, the only media in town then.
Now? Trump can melt down in his hidden pockets without disturbing those who feel (correctly) that our society has failed them.
Harris and the Democrats are relying on big money from her upper 20% donors while leaving much of the “hurt” feeling ignored.
Feelings drive votes and Trump & Co are preparing Election Day chaos. We seem to be defenseless against systematic attack by the militias driven by a toxic combination of hate and a population that feels let down
I too, remember those hearings and realizing what a scum bag Nixon was. His tape recordings revealed what kind of person he really was. That all was before the internet. Now the internet makes "normal" what should be considered unacceptable fringe extremisms.
I thought that during Iran-Contra
Bill, I too thought the same thing watching the hearings.
At the same time, I was hopeful that things were working to make things right.
And now we laugh and laugh hysterically about how naive we all were.
Yes, this is increasingly my concern. Vance is scarier than Trump and Thiel is the scariest of them all. Troubled and disturbed men who are very wealthy and have become delusional about their importance and their "creative intelligence" who think it's a good idea to do away with our system as we know it, and create their own kingdom, based on crazy thinking.
Isn't it interesting that so many of these authoritarian-curious billionaire types are from South Africa?? It really makes me wonder at times if they are trying to "get even" with the US for largely supporting Nelson Mandela when the sh*t hit the fan there.
If you think Thiel is scary, don’t read Yarvin
All in line with Putin, never forget him…
I agree that Putin is licking his chops since he favors an oligarchy (Russia is currently an oligarchy;) however, the oligarchs here have been building this on their own for the past 70 years, really revving things up with Reagan in 1981. The ultra wealthy bought up most of the media and began their campaign to destroy a government that produced the Middle Class. [Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" (2004) and HCR's book, "How the South Won the Civil War," i.e., the oligarchs.
We used to say, The best government money can buy, but now it’s just pure fascism with a false “Christian” front.
Richard, I have this feeling that IF Trump was to win, that within 60 days, Vance will invoke the 25th and will have plenty of supporters, like the Heritage Foundation and Leonard Leo, along with some "traditional Republicans" (if they still exist, just to get rid of Trump which might maim, but I fear won't kill MAGA)
Trump has said "they" are trying to kill him, meaning the attempts on his life, but I think he really needs to watch his back against Vance.
Amen, Miselle. Vance is a bottom feeder just waiting to eviscerate the weak old man that stands between him and power.
Exactly!
Has been the plan, man
Vance is out there with Trump, wandering around on a cloudless night, ready to bay his nonsense to the moon.
Richard I fear your perspective does not accurately reflect tRump's deeply ingrained narcissism and need to directly control whatever he can. There's no way I can imagine him giving up the reins of the presidency even to JD Vance regardless of his own enfeebled state short of invoking the 25th amendment. See the fate of Mike Pence for reference,...and HE had substantially more experience in government than his boss.
Johnny, Vance/Thiel will do the work and bring Trump stuff to sign in press events, telling him only a stable genius could achieve so much in so little time.
But - if the republicans invoke the 25th? The Democratic Party is hardly in a position to say "No!"
And a lot of Republican establishment figures, and major donors, hate trump - they just like the power he's set to give them. And JD is even more firmly in their corner than even trump is.
Kamala should put an ad out - "Vote for Trump! Elect J.D.Vance!"
If Trump goes the way his father did…it is not pretty. The neighborhood rumor was Old Man Trump was a shell of a person propped up in a chair unable to speak or acknowledge anyone while his loyalists convince the NYC unions everything was fine. Young Donald was taking over the business and it was going to be business as usual. The old man shuffled in and shuffled out, didn’t say a word.
Vance and Thiel will have him propped up in a corner so quick, AI will be signing his name before lunch.
I'm wondering if DJT is "sundowning." But he also seems like he could be psychotic or delusional. And that's over and above being a Dark Tetrad. Machiavellianism, Malignant Narcissism, Psychopathy, and Sadism. On top of that he's a pathological liar, antisocial, and shows signs of paranoia. I know he couldn't pass the senior cognitive test I was given.
that's what the 25th Amendment is for. and I think they plan to use it if tffg gets back to the white House. That is how Vance will ascend to the presidency: constitutionally.
Richard, I was glad to see Heather detail how bad Vance is and also the people behind him. I have thought for a long time that Vance would be running the show and he is awful. When I post Heather's letter on to my Facebook page, i end with vote D. I did today, but more emphatically. Garbage dump doesn't begin to cover it.
I wouldn't be so sure that Trump would be so easily pushed aside. If he gets in (God forbid), he's not going to simply allow Vance to do what he wants. If that is Vance's plan, or those who support him, I suspect there might be an inner executive battle. I'm not hoping for that scenario; however, should that be the case (again, God forbid), it might not be so bad seeing the two pummel each other. I love it when I see today's republicans eating their own.
One point that keeps getting ignored or missed is that Vance espouses the elimination of LGBTQ rights as stated in P2025. So where did that leave his purported ally Peter Thiel, who is quite openly gay (along with being megarich)? One wonders what kind of odd bedfellows (bad comparison?) these two make? How does JD Vance reconcile his desire to strip gay Americans of their rights while reveling in the support he gets from one of America's richest gay men? How does Peter Thiel live with himself when his gay friends are rounded up for the "American Gulag"? Or does he not even care as long as they leave him alone?
It is truly astonishing.
Can it be that Thiel owns Vance? If so, he can do whatever he wants. Where does the real power lie? That's what I'd like to know.
These people only care for themselves and take what they want when they want it. It is like, how can a preacher molest children and preach the gospel. Some how it seems some people can do anything and it is okay. However, it doesn't seem Christian to me!
Not a garbage dump but a play land for oligarchs.
They know that democracies are messy and in a democracy power is in the hands of the people and because they are rich they think that they know what is best. Best, essentially for themselves with rationalizations as to how it will benefit everyone.
Please say it isn’t so!
Me too, Steve. I voted blue all the way down the ballot several weeks ago. I'm friends with a woman who joined Democrats Abroad when she relocated to Costa Rica earlier this year... we knew each other when we lived in rural-ish New Mexico and became friends working together as blue activists in our red town. I expatriated in June '21 and haven't regretted it for a second.
YES🇺🇸
Same here. Then I looked at the Democrats Abroad survey, which they gave feedback on to people who filled it out. What I remember, because I cannot find it anymore in my mail, is that most had post graduate degrees, more were female, most were progressive and the average age was 67.
I proudly voted in my small GA town for Kamala and Tim yesterday.
Per CNN Pam, in-person GA voters plus & also counting absentee ballots, the first day total was a new record -- above 328,000 GA voters.
Not all of them were Democrats, however. Let's hope they at least far outnumbered the R's.
Thank you!
My vote was cast in September. Votes from Abroad are sent out on September 20 and 21. Both my daughter and I got ours via email, and they sent us a printed ballot as well. I found out that our votes arrived last week. We are team Harris-Walz all the way and are proud members of Democrats Abroad. In Democrats Abroad I am reading Project 2025 in a book club, and yesterday we were discussing the chapter on The Treasury, which is mostly about getting rid of anything Biden has done regarding taxes. They want a flat corporate tax of 18% and earners would pay either 15 or 30 percent of their income. They are really big on getting rid of benefits, and have several plans to do this. One of the things is to treat most wage jobs like driving an Uber, one has to be an independent contractor, meaning no company provided benefits, no economies of scale for buying insurances. Probably means no vacations, unless you take it, then you are not paid. This idea is talked up more in the Department of Labor chapter. When it comes to discussing Social Security and Medicare they just mention them in a list of things that they do not want to take the space to detail. That is a huge red flag. When fact checking press says, Harris is wrong to say Trump would get rid of social security they are not correct, because they cannot fact check it when they avoid saying what they are going to do. However, if we base it on past behaviors we can assume they will be getting rid of them, or privatizing them so that they are not insurance but some risky investment like going to one of Trump's casinos. So far we have read and discussed 16 of the 30 chapters and the Forward. It was clear to me from the git go that Peter Thiel places JD Vance into the VP position to be the president. I even read that Vance would use article 25 to claim Trump was mentally incompetent. Thiel and his other Billionaire Tech Bros expect to run the USA through Vance as their proxy president. The idea that we let these mediocre people get so much power is frightening. We were discussing how Musk did not invent Teslas, he bought it, and cashed in on it. Same with Twitter, and Thiel did not invent Paypal, many of them have come from money and parlayed that with the right investments into something. Not all. These in many ways mediocre men do not seem to understand that fascism never did an economy any good, and certainly not creativity and innovation. I wish all of them would get into a space ship and take off for somewhere and get stuck in orbit.
When they are living behind concertina wire, driving in bullet proof vehicles, unable to move freely throughout the country, they will question their plan. It is such an amazingly beautiful planet. Watching the news last night, I was struck by how beautiful Lebanon is, and it's getting destroyed. What a shame that we have been given this gift and it has been passed over for shallow riches.
Kim, I also was thinking about the destruction in Lebanon last night, not just the natural beauty, but all the history as well. I am not optimistic about saving the planet because it is almost impossible to get anything passed and in our own neighborhood i see most doing nothing to help us remedy the situation. Something appeared on my Facebook feed this week naming organizations and people who are trying to protect the environment as enemies of agriculture and it also listed many organizations trying to keep things as they are. For these people anything environmental is on the black list.
IMO they should remove the cap on FICA. Let those CEOs and the corporations pay it on their multimillion dollar salaries.
For years I have been advocating removing the cap on the payroll tax. Why is that still not even being discussed?
Bill, I’m so thrilled you voted and reported it plus; now I’m able to drink morning tea.
HCR’s vivid report and choices of quotes went far beyond a dystopian nightmare (perhaps redundant) from t, v, & their perhaps on the spectrum billionaire entrepreneurs. She’s our national historian just as we have a national poet laureate.
But I’m still concerned about the similarities between my cat Babe and the Donvict.
Is Babe orange too? 😏
Babe is in the picture.
we did the same a few days ago by mail
I did too recently by mail but what might be the ultimate plan is to get JD Vance into the Oval Office should Trump win. Frightening beyond words.
This is increasingly on my radar. The "deep state" is actually on the GOP side, no surprise since Trump is always projecting.
I posted that above---I really believe that Vance would be strongly "encouraged" to invoke the 25th within 60 days of a Trump win, and he's young, inexperienced and eager to please enough so that he'd follow along with the Project 2025.
I did also, in Maine.
Good for you! Me, too.
I received a text from Leon County, FL, a day or two ago that my mail-in ballot had been received and counted. They even texted me when it was picked up from my mailbox. Some things work, even in Florida.
Yes our two mail ballots have been received here in Hillsborough County, Fla. we have a wonderful Election head here.
💙👏🇱🇷
I VBM in Matt Gaetz' district. I voted completely blue. Even voted out the judges because they were all seated by GOP governors.
I voted on the first day of early voting in Illinois a couple of weeks ago - and for the best candidate - Kamala.
Mary …Thiel and Vance require exhaustive documentation as to how they aspire to move “their” country forward to serve “?”.
💙🌊 Never underestimate me. MY OTHER CANE IS A CROWBAR!
Thank you!
Me.too. but her Fox interview will not convert the undecided
Me too!
I think there are real signs of dementia...rambling, getting angry...and the campaign stress makes it worse.
Under another article I read, a neurologist suggested that DJT was exhibiting typical sundowning behaviour (I had to look it up).
I think he has "sunrising" behavior. There's not a time of day or night that Donald Trump is in his right mind. (If his mind was ever right)
LOL, true.
No stress for chump, he revels in his lunacy! No need for latter day Freud’s to posit their bs. Chump has been and will be bat shit crazy!
End of diagnosis
Aarf! Aarf!
Except for a two minute exchange in the middle of the interview, candidate Trump did not strike me as combative.
Candidate Trump misrepresented facts -- at least those I checked casually of criminals exported by Venezuela and the number of troops in South Korea -- as he does, always.
Candidate Trump was scattered for sure, migrating from one idea to another. As time went one the "weave" -- the interwoven nature of various issues -- broke down as ideas became unrelated.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5137051/user-clip-lord-trump-born-ramblin-man
Candidate Trump's rhetorical and intellection proved his weak-points. He answered Mr Micklethwait's macro-economic questions with micro-economic anecdotes.
Candidate Trump -- while wrong-headed on many issues, at least to me -- was correct on one point: from my calculations, guesstimates range from two-to-four per cent of the participants at the 06jan21 protest actually rioting at the Capitol.
And how many do you think it would have taken of those rioters to actually take over the Capitol and achieve their aim? How many is too many to ignore that it was an attempted insurrection? What percentage constitutes that? I would say that if thousands - and it was thousands, not hundreds - of people are pressing in on the barriers to the Capitol, assaulting defenders, demanding Mike Pence for a lynching, building a gallows for it in fact, breaking windows and pushing down doors, running through the building destroying priceless antiques and leaving shit in an office all constitute an illegal action worthy of prosecution. It was an insurrection, plain and simple. I watched it with my own eyes and will not accept the many attempts at gaslighting since then. He did that. Then he sat amused and sanguine as his handiwork played itself out without him ever having to get his hands dirty.
I’ve written this before, and received some harsh criticism for it, but we need to have some compassion for DJT, who is obviously suffering from organic brain dysfunction which is mostly out of his control. We need to roundly condemn what his handlers have allowed him to become - a tool to advance fascism - and rid ourselves of this foul, pathological Republican putsch.
Mike Johnson, who holds himself above the rest of us with his obsequious sanctity, considers himself a ‘man of God’ and yet supports the flawed and mentally unfit DJT in the most brazen manner only for his own personal power. What a weak, shriveled soul he must have, and if he thinks his final reward will be to reside in “heaven” with “the almighty”, he is very mistaken. I’ve heard on good authority that St Pete has him on the “no entry” list and Old Scratch has categorically refused to allow his ilk the descent to Hades because he is concerned about a power struggle. There is only one Satan, and he holds ultimate dominion.
Trump does suffer from untreated mental conditions: Narcissism, ADHD, and dementia. Narcissism makes him dangerous and easily manipulated, ADHD makes it hard for him to focus (partially responsible for the rambling speeches) and the dementia produces his low energy, unfocused states. His campaign leadership, guilty of so many heinous acts, is also guilty of elder abuse.
I also think that Trump abuses some type of meth-amphetamine. This would explain how he can appear relatively focused for a debate on Tuesday, and go on an hours long, stream-of-consciousnesses rant on Wednesday. Dementia symptoms do not cycle that quickly. It is no wonder his campaign will not release his medical records.
His combativeness and insulting language the instant he is challenged with facts or an opposing viewpoint is another sign of dementia, in my view.
That his campaign people are hiding his condition signals two things: #1...they are unwilling to give up a chance at power and they know Trump is their only ticket to the WH. #2...they are probably keeping him away from the professional mental and medical help that he so obviously needs--and his family has essentially abandoned him.
His family are using him for money and power.
And every repub
Exactly what I posted above! I hate Trump, but I also hate elder abuse.
To my knowledge, the few medical records Trump has released were from the discredit Ronnie (Johnson) Jackson. Who just happens to be there to put a maxi-pad on Trump's bleeding ear? Who said that Trump weighed 239 lbs which makes him not quite obese. Who release the cognitive test that Trump believes is indicative of brilliance - Again Ronnie. Trump has on numerous occasion called him Ronnie Johnson.
Let's take a look at the unedited medical results when Trump had Covid19. I doubt that Ronnie was there with the medical team, so there's a chance the records are accurate.
I was given the full cognitive test in 2021. I got a perfect score. The final challenges were to recall 7 random numbers and then recall different 7 random numbers in reverse. The social worker had never had anyone get all the way through and get a perfect score. I doubt DJT could remember 3 unrelated words.
He has to give permission, ???
I believe his stimulant of choice is Adderall, and I know that there are differences between amphetamine and methamphetamine. With slightly different compounds, they all have a similar effect on dopamine uptake, and adderall has a longer impact based on a different paths they take to influence dopamine uptake. (My experience and knowledge is that of a cop when dealing with people using/possessing/selling these controlled substances.
I went down a rabbit hole: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2631950/
You forgot to list sociopathy.
My bad :)
I wonder if they're really 'untreated' though - my guess is that they're medicating the heck out of him sometimes, IF and when he lets them!
Wreck binges on caffeinated Coke ... for many years.
Meth, an upper, would help him to focus if he had ADHD.
Derek, I appreciate your compassion for someone who was raised to be a demagogue, trained by Roy Cohn to think only of his own interests. But. . . while we who want to exercise empathy may even be thinking of Jesus' care for those in need (and Trump certainly is among them), Jesus also condemned the powerful who sought their own welfare over others. I'm thinking of the religious rulers of his time. Jesus called them "a brood of vipers." You can hear the hissing and see the forked tongues in his words. Thiel, Bannon, Flynn, Vance, Leo, et al, are the brood. Have compassion, indeed, for those who are trounced upon or used by the vipers, but for those who want to use their version of religion to rain down terror upon the rest of us, we can emulate the clarity of Jesus' words naming the real culprits.
Jesus was often grumpy if you read the gospels closely, and he even got irritated enough once to go up to the GOP party's tent at the county fair, overthrow their table and send their pamphlets flying to the wind before driving them off of the fair grounds.
Okay, some poetic license, but that is what the money changer's story is all about - after a fashion. Our elections should be a demonstration of the power of democracy, not the granting of power to a fascist.
But so far as I am aware, that's as close as he got to violence. Yet Christianity has been claimed for centuries to justify racism, oppression, torture, and genocide. Read some of what was said by the "pious" about wholesale massacres of indigenous people. Religion can inspire courage and compassion, and yes, a fierce sense of justice, inspired by Martin Luther King, or psychopathic burning of "witches". The horrors of US and Canadian "Indian Schools". Alleged fealty to God has rationalized some of the cruelest behavior of which humans are capable. That variety of "religion" seems the very antithesis of anything I am aware of that Jesus is said to have said, and I think it would be OK, even compelling, for caring Christians to say so.
JL: We Christians do see and speak to cruelty done in Jesus' name. Clearly, human beings (Christians among them) justify and carry out horrible treatment not only of fellow humans but of Earth itself. The heart of the Christian message is that instead of vengeance, God as Jesus was killed and forgave rather than killing others. That image is a challenge to Christians every day.
And it’s not only Jesus in the New Testament; check around the Psalms for passages condemning the rich who have gotten their wealth by oppressing the poor.
What in the behavior and values expressed by Trump maps onto the behavior and values expressed by Jesus? Seems to me that Trump would stand with those who put Jesus to death.
As a compassionate lady I have no compassion for ass hat. You get what you give.
I believe it is imperative to stop threats to human rights and safety, doing as little harm as is practical, while doing whatever it takes.
Gospels Corrupted, they really resemble no real Christian I have ever known. A precious few but still…
Time to throw them out of the temple.
I offer those crippled souls only one pinch more compassion than they would offer me.
Just a pinch, and no more. All the rest of it goes out to their innocent victims.
Agreed.
We have the capacity to flip Trump 2020 voters. . https://rvat.org/
Well placed comments on social media...."Not suckers or losers" to vets groups, military, military dependents, history sites. Vote vets has thousands of testimonials of 2020 Trump voters that flipped. According to Facebook, there are 4 million veterans or active duty members on Facebook, and 12.5 million family members of veterans or active duty members on Facebook.
Trump hates dogs. Pet/animal charity sites.
Trump stole from kids with cancer.
Don't slit your own throat.
In your gut you know he's nuts.
'In your gut you know he's nuts' good bumper sticker!
Comment on Facebook.
The Villages has the largest vet population in the country. They had at least 1,000 golf carts lined up, waiting to vote. DJT may lose FL.
Al Cardenas, former Republican state chair has flipped for Kamala. Here's the Sun Sentinel this morning. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/10/16/three-new-co-chairs-join-republicans-for-harris-in-florida-one-calls-trump-a-blustering-name-calling-bully/
We think Debbie is running ahead of Kamala.....
But the entire Spanish radio undermines even Dems.
Do it FB people.
You certainly have a lot of leftover compassion to give thos
Agreed.
My late dad used to say he wouldn't spit on someone to revive them.
Compassion for a felon and a rapist - you have lost your mind as well...he will destroy this country if given a chance.
The little girl sees a frozen snake who is dying. She picks him to revive him and puts him under her coat. Then the snake bites her. "Why did you do that? I will die." The snake replied," You knew I was a snake when you picked me up." I couldn't believe my ears when I heard trump retell that story, especially since he is the snake.
Just projecting again or did he actually have a moment of self awareness …
Put him in forensic psych for the rest of his life. He's not competent to stand trial.
Whether he is competent or not, he needs to stand trial and be found guilty and go to prison for crimes already committed. If they don't do this we will be fighting this battle between patriots of our democracy and those who want us in a dictatorship every 4 years. It must stop here!
people are saying if trump can break the law why cant I? This argument was used by Youngkin when he was told that there was a 90 day period before election where you couldn't change the rules, do purges, etc. His state did a purge 25 days before the election. His justification was," Well other people did it."
Thanks, Terry. 🙄
he is who he has always been - nothing new...
I agree that every human is worthy of some form of compassion. If we only demonize others, we become what we hate.
Therefore, when Trump is jailed in a psych ward, please be sure the temperature of his cell is comfortable, his mattress is sturdy and he is allowed all the double cheeseburgers and Diet Cokes he wants. I'd even be gracious enough to allow him twice fried French Fries (the best kind - crispy but not over cooked) with every meal. But no ketchup.
And we should apply the same compassion to his fellow inmates and the hospital workers. None should be required to be near him for longer than five minutes a day.
Nah, he lost his right for twice fried French fries when he tore babies from their mama's arms.
Compassionate conservatism, ala W
I keep wondering if he goes to jail does he lose his Secret Service detail?
When I start to go down the Compassion Path I stop… I remember how intentionally mean Trump, and the MAGAs, have been. How they inflicted pain and suffering.
When I do that my compassion evaporates.
Let's say you are cornered by a very large bear. He is advancing with claws clearly ready to slash. He is howling and growling and....drooling. He is just a few feet away from eating you.
You have a weapon of some sort. Is it time for compassion? Or survival?
I agree, compassion is much harder to find amidst all the cruel purposeful things Trump says.
You can have compassion and accountability at the same time. Trump needs to be locked away somewhere (in compassionate surroundings) from the general public because he is endangering society, the greater good. It's a simple a principle as that.
Maybe there is a better word than compassion (IDK what it is). But I've often (not that often) thought what a sad life tfg must have had. Never feeling good enough (don't let his attitude fool you). As Mary Trump said... "Too much and never enough". It's a sad way to live. Mentally ill people are not really in control. Don't get me wrong. I HATE him. I think he should be locked up without a phone or internet. I think the things he has done are reprehensible. but he is a sick man and should never have been allowed to get as far as he did. He should have been held accountable a long time ago. Long before he ran for office. I don't know why ANYONE would vote for him. But they do??? Including my brother.
Mary Trump has said that she has compassion for what her uncle went through as a small child. His mother was ill and absent for about two of his very early years and his father was a cruel bully throughout his childhood. Interestingly, JD Vance also suffered tremendously as a child. His mother was a an erratic, unstable woman with issues of addiction. I am not quite so sure where his biological father was, but his mother had serial partners. Both of these men should quit politics asap and head to Vancouver and enter trauma therapy with Gabor Mate!
How about justice?
Derek, you hit upon something that I have been talking about, so thank you. While I detest Trump---and feel he has been a nasty person for a very, very long time--I don't like to see elder abuse, and I feel THAT is exactly what his sons (well, Don and Eric) and many of the MAGA are doing!
I had a brother who passed from COVID which exacerbated his dementia. He first manifested it about a decade before he passed by early signs of aphasia. He'd forget words (scary for us all!) but as it became worse, he lost more and more vocabulary. I have sad memories of his wife dying of cancer at home, while on hospice. His kids and the family all came to help the caregiving team. My brother desperately needed a purpose and so would go to the nearby grocery store with a "list" of what was needed: he'd draw pictures of what was needed, like rolls of toilet paper, or a box of blueberries. (Sometimes his own pictures confused him, and he'd bring paper towels or grapes) He paid with a credit card and actually seemed to handle money okay. Numbers weren't a problem.
In time, after his wife passed and his vocabulary dwindled, he entered memory care and he worked daily with a speech therapist. I'd sit just outside the room as they'd show him photos of people or things, and my heart still turns at he memory of seeing them hand him a fork, and his frustration and embarrassment, saying "I know what it is, I don't know the word." Conversations became more and more limited, till we gave up. We'd listen to music together, or share a meal, or do a jigsaw together when I visited.
Trump CLEARLY is in a rapid decline. Do I forgive him all his sins against the US? NOT ONE BIT. But how very sad to have family who care more about their own greed, and backers who care more about power, than to have a single person who truly loves him and would let him retire, while getting care to slow this disease! I have to think there are at least SOME MAGA who recognize what is happening to them, and SHAME on them for not speaking out.
The way Trump stands with the slumping shoulders, and the way he responded to music is entirely too familiar to me. I've watched several clips of the 39 minutes, and they are painful to watch. I don't think he has long for the world. Definitely not 4 years. I believe that Trump will never see the inside of a jail, which is truly unfortunate for our democracy.
I do not forgive DJT’s sins whatsoever.
Derek, I don't either. I just don't like to see any elder abuse.
I had no idea that Trump likes music at all, but it is interesting to know that Alzheimer's and dementia sufferers retain a love for and knowledge about music as one of the last vestiges of their previous capacities. Remember Tony Bennett's final concert, when he performed every song as if he were a young man, knowing every word, and then immediately afterwards did not know he had performed. The power of music is awesome.
Mim, one of my last visits with my brother, I brought a small, tabletop Christmas tree. I brought in a bunch of ornaments and as I put it up and decorated, I sang holiday tunes to him. (My voice is not very good, and I couldn't recall every word, but it didn't matter, as the words were gone to him, too.) We had a wonderful visit, and he kept exclaiming "You really! You really" with enthusiasm. The music lifted his spirits in spite of my off key renditions.
I wonder what you think SHOULD be done at this point, and what the consequences might be? After all, until fairly recently, DJT seemed like his usual rambling self to most people - even some of my Democrat friends. I agree with Heather that it's been evident for years, but I don't think most people have noticed.
I'm not sure "most" is accurate. It requires cognitive dissonance to think that Trump has never told a lie and that he's perfectly capable to be elected to the most powerful position in the world.
What truly scares me is JD becoming President. He believes wholeheartedly in the patriarchy and that a woman's sole purpose is to be a wife and a mother.
I cannot imagine JD as President and if he has a Republican Senate and House, we are truly fucked.
Same, Gary. Especially your last line.
I think I should have said, "...but I don't think most people noticed until more recently." Definitely folks do now!
I agree that he is an organically ill person....and the people close to him will attempt to hide that fact...it's getting MUCH harder. I witnessed Truman Capote taken off stage after he ranted for 30 minutes at an audience who came to love him and listen to his stories. He swore every other word...and folks walked out in droves. It was sad.
Compassion for evil is a hard thing to do. I can say...it is sad that they are so very, very, very out of touch with the elemental workings of nature, and the natural world...which distills into into their antipathy towards the human race and everything breathing. It is a small, shriveled, invented importance, McDonald's cuisine world they live in.
I have compassion for the little kid Donnie who was neglected by his mother and abused by his cruel father. Not so much for the grownup.
Even Adolf was a cute baby
I have no compassion for his venality.
Don't ever mistake my silence for ignorance, my calmness for acceptance or my kindness for weakness. Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. - The Dalai Lama
In 2016 Trump knew damn well what he was doing by spreading devision and hatred in this country. Yes he has mentally declined but that is no excuse for him to continue with his racial remarks with people of color and trying to blame them with his rhetoric of lies and using them as a scapegoat goat to divide this country with hatred not mention packing a supreme court with justices who granted him immunity for his crimes. Trump destroyed this country in 4 years. It took President Biden nearly 4 years to correct Trumps mess. Biden did a hell of a job governing this country. I have no compassion for Trump regardless of his mental decline.
Sorry less than zero compassion. Using my compassion for those who need it.
I commend your insights about compassion for DJT, clearly unable to fathom becoming a pawn for technocrats that recognized long ago the expired shelf life of his competence was a callous but fortuitous means of achieving their piously heady ends. "Love thine enemies" and "turn the other cheek" are rarely referenced but that doesn't mean that one needs to condone deviance either. Our collective response needs to be extraordinary, for sure, without unconsciously adopting the same blind hatreds that ignorant "leaders" defiantly embrace.
In mental health court, only misdemeanors can be adjudicated. Felonies get hard time.
Johnson: A wolf in sheep's clothing
https://yadontknow.blogspot.com/2023/11/sheeps-clothing.html
Donnie might get a lot more sympathy if when his brain WAS working, he'd behaved like a decent human being.
As it is, he doesn't even get any support or sympathy now even from his "nearest and dearest."
Too far gone
I have compassion for the United States. None for those trying to destroy my chosen country.
I agree. I had a hard time stopping my laugh at this quip. It is as close an explanation of his misrepresentation of reality as one can offer. The guy clearly needs a psych eval.
one of the candidates who melted down on me ended up in the Johns Hopkins Psyche ward. He had been ahead by 20 points and lost by 20 points....amd he was far more sane than Trump before his breakdown.
Let's not disparage people who suffer from mental illness, especially depression. In the 1970s, a candidate (for vice-president, I think) had to drop out of the race when it was revealed he'd had some mental health issues in the past.
Thomas Eagleton. Was a senator, picked by McGovern for VP. Had gone through ECT previously.
Yes. That's who I was thinking of.
DJT's personality disorders are not classified as "mental illness." Mental illnesses go on Axis I and personality disorders go on Axis II. They are considered character disorders. Mental illnesses primarily consist of thought disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders.
Michelle Lafferty, I would not hesitate to make that reference to DJT. I do see where you're coming from; however, DJT demonstrates both Axis', in my opinion. I'm not a student of psychology nor psychiatry; however, what I see are character/personality disorders coupled with mental illness. When one threatens the removal, and incorporation of concentration camps for his political opponents, or even in some cases, death, then what is the difference between someone like Trump and someone who eventually goes "postal?" (with apologies to all postal workers)
My comment was addressed to Mike Wicklein about "the candidate who... ended up in the Johns Hopkins Psyche [sic] ward." I wasn't referring to DJT.
Yes Ellen, I do get your point, and it's a valid one. However, I would point out that the difference between Thomas Eagleton and Trump is wider than the Grand Canyon. Eagleton didn't put up a fight after the news was released. If I remember correctly, he owned up to this issue and stepped aside. Honor and dignity were Eagleton's hallmark at that time; now, compare that to Trump. In my view, Trump demonstrates to be far less than Copus Mentus and he still sways power with cowardly Trump acolytes who support him unwaveringly. He and they deserve all the flak they get. I have zero respect for all of them.
I don't disagree.
The Republican party and entire right wing apparatus support Trump - no matter. I am leery of polls in general, but it is nice to have them on your side - and Trump increasingly does in crucial states. In many places where Harris has slipped in the polls, Jill Stein has surged. Her 1-2% support could determine the race - which is exactly what makes her attractive to those out to punish the Democratic party, no matter the pain to those a Republican administration will irreparably harm. Cue the happy music on Putin's and Netanyahu's play lists.
When Hitler's coup attempt failed, he went legit. His election win was spurred by Stalin splitting German Communists from the German Center Left. Putin allied Stein is doing the same here - splitting the American Far Left from the Center Left, as represented by the Democratic party. Cue the happy music in the quisling camp.
Those of us not dancing to those tunes, have a lot of work to do. We always have. Any negative news is a spur to our efforts in the last length of this race. Take heart.
Nice, lin, referring to "not dancing to those tunes."
The lovely, great Rufus Wainwright -- his cover of "Hallelujah" being second only to his long-time friend Leonard Cohen's original -- had to use the word "blasphemous" in his cease-and-desist letter also today to the criminal convict orange felon. Everything in the Leonard Cohen song, and everything in Rufus Wainwright's timbre honoring it -- everything speaks to the decencies in the Kamala and Tim campaign.
Heather had to take a long time to draft hers for today, and hers stands as a testament to how far they all are from decency of any sort: the sick orange felon, conniving Vance, Thiel, Musk, and all the humanly empty Republicans covering for all the mad lies that cover their worsening, worsening vulgar indecencies.
As Heather notes, too, the people queuing in Georgia for historic numbers of first-day voting may augur broader, deeper, finer American hunger for those decencies.
I wonder if after the election, Vance’s wife will want to remain married to him?
Such a mystery to me. But I guess the same could be said of Melania but we kind of know who she is.
I think that's what it's come down to. Decency versus vileness.
The GOP has no moral compass. They are like addicts. Power is their drug of choice.
Don't believe the polls - they are BS
The pollsters sample usually around 1000 - 2000 probable voters in all 50 states.
That is .00015% of the total population. And every poll says they have a margin of error between 3% and 5%. And they all claim to be polling a legitimate sample of the population.
And then there are the aggregators, who average the questionable results and give odds of who will win based on an algorithm that has failed repeatedly for the past several cycles.
So who is the bigger liar, Trump and his allies or the pollsters?
I guess time will tell.
Yes. And how do they get even that many answers? Who is picking up the phone? Certainly not anyone I know.
They are answering surveys online. I do. I did one yesterday for a company that does polling (on lots of subjects, not just politics) called YouGov.
It asks who you voted or intend to vote for.
HARRIS AND DEMS ALL THE WAY!!
I wish I could find the article that said that there was a RepubliKan bent to about 60% of polls that they had analyzed. Sadly, I thought I had bookmarked it, but I cannot find it.
I read one on The Big Picture: Weaponized Polling is More Dangerous Than Ever.
That’s it!
Only believe the voting polls. They are the ones that, literally, count. Puns intended.
We hope they will be counted. As Stalin said, it doesn’t matter who votes, it matters who counts the votes. We have been warned.
Unfortunately many people believe the stupid polls, and those still on a fence can be swayed by them. And when a "news" person shows some poll with glee saying "republicans will be happy with this" and tries to prove that donnie is ahead is one of those scary halloween clowns that is just looking for drama.
The amount of stupid people in this country is staggering - not much I can do about it...
True. I thought that when Trump's supporters saw and heard all the mean, derogatory things he said and did when he first took office, that they would see the truth about him. How stupid was I?
I get it. But they are not rational but are just white supremacists who like that the felon rapist says it out loud.
The see what they want to see, based on the fears and biases in their hearts.
Did Rupert ever show the chump that we see. Cut and paste, ad nauseam…
Trump is no longer a candidate for MAGA, but rather a “symbol” they vote for. They’ve dismissed Trump’s crazy as they clammer for “The Idea Of Trump”, as they fondly reminisce; “You’re Fired”
My landlords hate Kamala Harris because she’s hard to understand and talks in circles. Trump is easier for them to understand. Weird.
Not merely weird; I'm guessing it's more like willful ignorance...plus a touch of racism and misogyny, perhaps?
I think it is backwards, TL: Racism and misogyny (and let's toss in some homophobia for good measure) with willful ignorance as the intent element.
The Mass Psychology of Trumpism by Dan P. McAdams from February of 2024.
He analyzed data about the people who have been charged in the January 6 attack and posits that racism is the driver for those who were driven to actually act on trump's words. That's the reason why maga campaigns so hard on immigration.
In 2008 Pew came out with a projection that by 2050 white people would no longer be a majority in the US. Black people said "Oh, shit" because they knew the racists would have their hair on fire. And sure enough!
Exactly. She is clear and articulate. Chump is word salad, but hate requires no finesse
Racism and misogyny, you got it.
Our data shows that tenants trend 70% Democratic.
Sure.
Not weird, stupid. The result of the dumbing of murica the past 50 years. Was that a democratic or republican plan? Regardless, i would rather talk to dumb than righteous religious zealots.
How ‘bout creepy.
I have no trouble understanding her. She enunciates and speaks in complete sentences. Her only salad is on a plate.
I know. But I suspect Trumper Cultists are people who can’t understand normal and Trump has a way to communicate with them. Someday, scientists will discover the brain disease that causes this issue.
Why am I blocked from liking this comment?
Louis, sometimes the "like" button malfunctions. You can either refresh your machine, or wait it out. Sometimes it is on "delay".
Full moon tomorrow, too.
Maybe "Werwolves of London" will be on his next dance party playlist ??
Aaaaahh Woooo
This is all far stranger than House of Cards, except for the Zooey getting pushed on to the tracks scene.
Made me laugh, then gag at the truth of it.
He's getting farther off the chain...I told my wife that he might get to a full "Coal Miner's Daughter" collapse on stage in a week at this rate.
LOL, MIke
I don't think Trump's hair would be "perfect" though!
I can just visualize the music video...that could be an SNL skit....
How can it be that there's no "abort mission' button for this presidential race? How can it be that our system is structured in this way that watches an incapable candidate be plausibly electable? I might be critical of every cognitive test out there but I'd use them all as engineers would use all inspections before the launch of a possibly faulty rocket.
The newspapers described his 39 minutes of music as "cut the program short (ABC), townhall turned into an impromptu listening event (NBC), impromptu concert (AP), one unfamiliar source announces trump rally discontinued because of 2 medical emergencies. The media so made this rally look rational.
The video stories that I saw and the coverage I've read did not make this "musical interlude" look at all normal. It was the strangest thing I've ever seen from a candidate on stage.
I would only take exception to your last line…. IMHO, he has danced right OVER the edge. Surely his campaign staff, along with his largest donors, must be frantically luring him into a hot padded room feeling much like a campaign rally. Seeming full of his adoring supporters, they invite him to sway endlessly to his favorite unauthorized music. If he weren’t so very nasty, I might feel very saddened by such a personality decomposition. However, it seems that he has been working this “angle” his whole adult life. There were even hints of what was to come in his childhood. It is hard to arouse any emotion other than “It couldn’t have happened to a nastier guy!”
As much as I would like to agree with Dr Cox Richardson on her take of the interview with the Economic Cub of Chicago, I simply can not. Except for a two minute exchange in the middle of the interview, candidate Trump did not strike me as combative.
¿Assertive? Definitely yes.
¿Aggressive? Arguably yes.
¿Combative? Not really, at least by my reckoning.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5137051/user-clip-lord-trump-born-ramblin-man
Candidate Trump's weaknesses were his inability to focus on one idea; demeaning references to President Obama and Vice President Harris; the usual misrepresentations; as well as, an inability fully to grasp conceptual questions as indicated by anecdotal answers.
I absolutely love that turn of a phrase! I actually laughed out loud. 😂😂
Yet the polls show him in the lead now. I bet he could moon the crowd and they'd still vote for him.
I just posted that very line on my FB timeline. I love David Rothkopf!
Oh how I wish I had coined that phrase! ("He's one cloudless night away from baying at the moon.”) What a perfectly apt description of the orange one's final display of lunacy! Let's pray that the message was heard far & wide enough to affect the final election outcome.
I think he's already gone over that edge.. a drop that will continue to worsen.
Sam when I say meltdown, I mean literally not being able to function on stage at all. I've witnessed 3 candidates that I worked with get so stressed out that they could not even go on stage. One ended up in a psyche ward and the other 2 we had to keep under wraps for 2-3 days. I also saw a famous author so out of it at a speech that he had to be removed from the stage. He was making no sense and swearing at the audience. People were leaving by the dozens. That's "melting down".
Thanks for focusing on the perils of a Vance assumption of power, HCR. It is so ominous and chilling the way you have pieced together his tyranical vision for a future of the country that looks nothing like the founding principals and the shaping of the Republic since. Add: "These technology entrepreneurs envision themselves, rather than a government, planning and then creating the future." What a one/two existential punch.
More like A Handmaid's Tale.
You are right. What I have been stewing on since I read this dispatch is the sheer outrageousness of the whole Republican party approach to elections, and HRC's compilation of Vance's remarks just really crystallises the obscene rational. Basically, we will never be able to win elections fair in square; the majority of Americans do not share our values and policies. Therefore, we have to seize power...by redistricting, stacking the courts, threats, violence (an escalating sequence)...and impose our minority regime on the majority. I know too well that this using the facade of democracy to transform a democracy into an autocracy is exactly what happened in Russian, Hungary, Argentina, et al, but it is still stunning to see it happen in the United States in realtime, in front of our eyes. It sure puts the lie to American Exceptionalism.
Which is proof, this can happen anywhere!
Yah, but in this case it feels rottenly momentous. Rather than the US being the shiny beacon on the hill, a world role model on how to do it right, albeit messily, it is following other countries rolling into a deep, dark abyss. Don’t get me wrong, I never bought into the Exceptionalism hubris or the end of history conceit. But if this all go wrong during and post election as is really possible this fall from grace will have an outsized impact on the course of human and the living planets history.
A banned book, since it was written about amy comey barrett on the supreme court and how she was raised and the rich cult she came from.
Stepford wives, June Cleaver always in a dress, nice shoes, and wearing pearls (did she clean the toilet that way?), In Fried Green Tomatoes the wife had her husband's dinner ready as he came into the house (he grabbed it and sat in front of the TV).
wasn't there some mention of a monitoring system for women's pregnancy so they could track any abortions?
A Handmaid's Tale plus The Circle, by Dave Eggers.
An additional deep-dive into the ideology animating all this can be read in this Vanity Fair Article about Steve Bannon and his “army”. It talks a lot about JDVance and his “friends” Even good ole Erik Prince (naturally) shows up in this circle of hell that is this ideology. I love the breadth of this article. It gives a very good view of the contours of this conflict we are in. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/steve-bannon-nato-world-order
Thanks, will read that.
Long and important reading — thank you.
Thanks for the link. Now, to get past that photo...
Vance seems pretty malleable and is, I think, an even better choice as president than Trump - at least for the likes of wannabe tech demigods like Musk. They can simply buy the power and the laws they want from him.
Clearly. Vance is 100% for sale.
Just the way the billionaires like it...
KSC, like the oligarchs of a century ago, these technology entrepreneurs believe that a person who has led (and profited from) the new industry is automatically a “stable genius” about everything in the world. Project 2025 calls for firing all the scientists who currently forecast hurricanes because those same scientists ascribe the increasing intensity of those storms to the warming ocean waters acerbated by climate change.
Except, whose tyrannical vision? Thiel is gay. Vance is theocratic and anti-gay. Musk is libertarian, I guess? Trump is whatever makes people praise him. If they get power, I imagine the power struggles will be intense. I fear for our country if that happens.
Yeah, the tech.-rule line spooked me, too. Yesterday's vanguard of the proletariat is today's technocracy. Perfectibility of (wo)man and humankind has killed something like eighty million people under communism.
Today is a GREAT day for me…in Scarborough, Maine. I get to vote for Kamala Harris for President of the United States!!!
It seems Trump has been told they can’t win the vote, they can only steal it. His vanity had him working for votes. The gig is up. They are leaving it up to the billionaires and their political and legal stooges to steal.
Trump pulled a Roberto Duran. That’s what I saw.
Congrats Carol, from another (abroad) Maine voter to another!
I hope you vote for Golden.
I voted yesterday in Augusta, and got an "I voted" sticker! The Maine Dems were at the Farmers' Market, too, so there was some good chat about Harris and the Maine ticket.
I hope you also vote for Golden.
Sure
Oh yes. 0f course. I admit that the Angus King senate race gave me pause.
ThankYou.
Listening to Angus King on CSpan has always been encouraging.
King's Democratic opponent, like self funded independent Elliot Cutler of cursed memory, is another DC player retired to Maine and using elections to get back into the game. Of course, Cutler and his crew giving TeaParty Paul LePage two terms as governor spurred Mainers to give us Ranked Choice Voting!
My curiosity is getting the best of me: How did you Mainers vote on the flag referendum?
I didn't vote on this question, because I really don't care about flag design, although I don't like the idea of tax money being spent on all the changes (stationery, all the official flags, etc.) that the State would have to make to effect changing. I think the proposed design is attractive BUT it has been co-opted by some right-wing fanatic religious group as the "appeal to heaven" flag, and I REALLY DO NOT want that mob or its revolting ideas associated in any way, official or unofficial, with Maine, Mainers, Maine's state government, or anything to do with Maine.
I do wish our ranked-choice voting ballot allowed us to vote AGAINST a particular candidate, as well as voting FOR a candidate or two, however!
I voted for the new “old” flag for its pine tree connection to nature and its one North Star. We’ll see…..
I actually wasn’t sure I should vote on it at all given that I am nonresidential…then I could not resist because I liked the old version artistically….then I was worried that it had some hidden meaning that the right wing succeeded in getting enough votes to land it on the ballot 🙃. I did note vote on the bonds. I did vote on the campaign finance measure.
My curiosity is getting the best of me: How did you Mainers vote on the flag referendum?
🇱🇷👏🩵
Hooray for former president Jimmy Carter! Reaching his latest goal to vote against Trimp shows us that even at 100 years old his virtue and intelligence holds up. He'll be a virtuous example to us right up to his final moment. In the course of their lives some people make their mark on the world, others like dementia Don only leave a brown stain.
My Colorado Ballot arrived today. I've made my choices and Kamala Harris has my vote.
Now I can only wait and encourage others. Let's make another Blue Wave - VOTE BLUE!!
I have but two images of former presidents on the walls of my house. One is an engraving of Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation and the 2nd is a photo of an aged Jimmy Carter. I once wanted to send the photo to him for a signature but after reading of his hospice care, I ended my quest. No matter, his photo greats me every time I exit the kitchen. And I’m pleased not because he was such a great president. But he has been a great man.
Colorado has THE Best voting process ever. I read the blue book on all the issues weeks before I got my ballot and listed my decisions and filled out my ballot from my list. Voting blue in one of the red districts. Love being the voice of reason and getting blasted by those tr***ites who drank the koolaid.
Coloradan here. Love that when my ballot arrives to where it is intended I get a text and an email to let me know.
Hey! California has the best! 😉 I know because I work at election centers every election. ¡Salúd!
Make waves. DNC Anytime Training signup link (call on your schedule!) Share the link with your own message in an email or text: https://events.democrats.org/event/551644/
To share on any platform, just click on the link and share from there!
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/reel/8700220780030813
BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/call-crew-dems.bsky.social/post/3l6i7ek7ar422
TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@call_crew_dems/video/7425650523291897134?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7424214167135847966
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBG_lriP8g0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Threads
https://www.threads.net/@call.crew.dems/post/DBG_rxuPmXf?xmt=AQGzH2vwgsu0KMyELxy40VA_BGr_rfvPhmMhy7wZvrz0aQ
YouTube
https://youtube.com/shorts/md3j9XPeOeA?feature=shared
Oregon's ballots go out today.
💙🇺🇸
I’m not alone in wondering whether Vance and his ilk are trying to prop up DJT until the election, which Vance certainly would lose, but then, assuming DJT wins, within a short period of time the props are withdrawn and DJT tips over into baying at the moon; then Vance gets into power without having to run.
I've said to my wife more than once - Vance will invoke 25 is Trump is elected and we'll have a triumvirate of Musk, Thiel, and Vance - in that order. Of course, I'm quite aware of the fate of the first triumvirate . . .
I've been saying the same thing ever since Agent Orange's advancing dementia became evident. Could we be at a turning point where even MAGAts start to question their leader's sanity? The gibberish he spewed at the WSJ interview and at his rally was just.........wow.
I guess his keepers aren’t bothering to make sure he’s taking his meds or maybe he’s so far gone the meds don’t work effectively.
Meds can't stop dementia.
My neighbor took meds and it helped put off a lot of his issues for a few years. Then it stopped working.
thump is their puppet!
I've been saying for a long time that Voldemort is evil beyond the pale but, Vance is younger version of Satan and the fact that he could take over when Voldemort goes over the edge is terrifying! Thank you for such a clear and concise summary of some of the danger ahead.
"He's one cloudless night away from baying at the moon.” -- best line ever.
It’s incredibly inspiring to see Jimmy Carter, even in hospice, continuing to demonstrate his lifelong commitment to democracy by casting his vote for Kamala Harris. His dedication to civic engagement, right to the very end, speaks volumes about his enduring belief in the importance of participating in the democratic process.
The term "Fascist" has become normalised.
You should call him a NAZI.
Nazis hate being called Nazis.
I didn’t know that.
The whole world is watching - and this s**t is scaring it.
"Trump’s issues make it likely that a second Trump presidency would really mean a J.D. Vance presidency, even if Trump nominally remains in office." Exactly. That summarizes what I think German born Peter Thiel and South African born Elon Musk are counting on.
Wonder if they're on the deportation list? 😈
No… they are white men.
Convicted felon and dancing corrupt crime wave Trump prepares to rehabilitate his reputation on “Dancing With the Stars” thus joining previous rehab attempts by Rick Perry, Tom DeLay, and Sean Spicer.
This is the individual MAGA wants to empower with the U.S. economy and nuclear launch capability? If Trump is elevated to (or simply takes the White House) Thiel, Vance, and Musk will have trivial impact. The only two truths Trump has stated are the fact he could shoot someone (or worse, commit treason and/or incite an insurrection) -and no one would care, and this will be the last time we’ll need to cast a vote. The depth of willful MAGA ignorance is stunning and bottomless.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/15/trump-dancing-pennsylvania-rally?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
I feel the plan more actually will be if Trump takes the White House, his tenure will be truncated by Vance empowering the 25th Amendment.
Theil and Musk hold their greatest destructive capabilities that way. Why else push to get Vance put on the ticket?
Very true. I suppose my point is it won’t really matter. Whether Trump, Vance, and/or others, we know Project 2025. So we are just talking about different degrees of horror. Anyone other than Harris/Walz will result in global chaos and disaster.
And don’t forget Sarah Palin’s gig on DWTS. A few of us at the time were horrified in Alaska that our quitter Governor came so near the presidency. Remember how for a while she was the darling - and spoken of as the future - of the GOP. Evangelicals too loved her. She is nothing today. May Trump go the way of Palin very soon - a silly, ridiculous joke.
True, and hope justice prevails and has something more fitting for Trump to finally pay for his numerous crimes.
Despite Trump's evident malaise and Vance's push for Christian autocracy, clearing away the "secular" ruling class, Project 2025, the polling needles have simply tightened up, if the recent NBC poll is a good example. But I did read a very interesting article indicating that with margins this tight, any prediction modelling on who wins depends almost solely on turnout, with just small percentage changes in various demographic sectors making winning differences. So it seems now it's all down to turnout, folks. At every level.
"So it seems now it's all down to turnout, folks. At every level."
ThankYou! This.
Nate Cohn, polling analyst of the NYTimes, is remarkable in emphasizing the limitations of polls and the importance of turnout.
Gift link to Cohn's latest.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/14/upshot/polling-trump-harris-election.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Sk4.mxwj.XqIqHqrblc9u&smid=url-share
He also points out that the degree of tightness is almost unprecedented, despite all of Trump's liabilities which otherwise would be so obvious to "the average voter"...
I am incredulous at the tight numbers. It is unimaginable to me that there are so many hateful, misguided, cult members in the country. Sad and unimaginable!
Do whatever you can to get out Dem votes, Christine, and i know exactly how you feel. More tribal than "cult" i would hazard for, but loyalty to whatever that cause is is a bottom line.
Thank you Lin
IMO, Cohn's latest reads like he (Cohn) still has grievances with Democrats.
The only polls that matter are the ones ya go to on election day
And it's organization which turns out "more of the vote" to quite possibly make a difference in a tight election.
And fighting against the republican lawsuits attempting to purge voter rolls of hundreds of thousands of voters.
The NBC poll almost seems an outlier, despite being presented as demonstrating a 'dead heat' 48 to 48, since several others put Harris up 2-5 pts. Also the judicial system has given the Dems support, getting rid of the extra hand-counting 3 republicans on a Georgian election board wanted to install, citing that this late in the process it would only sow confusion, here's Joyce Vance's newsletter on this and related news. https://joycevance.substack.com/p/good-news-tonight-from-georgia-and?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=607357&post_id=150159722&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2wuwd&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
I really hope a lot of Republicans are disgusted enough by Trump to just stay home and not vote, even while they're telling the posters they'd vote for him. Saying it is easy. Doing it takes a bit more effort and desire.
Thank you for focusing on JD Vance‘s relationship with Peter Thiel as much as you have here, Heather. While Trump slipping into what I guess could be called full on dementia is a big story, I think the relationship between Vance and Thiel needs to be explored even more.
It’s the middle of the night and I can’t sleep, so I don’t have the energy to research it now, but I want to find the timeline of Vance first getting hired by Peter Thiel, then being set up in business by Peter Thiel and then being financed by Thiel to become a United States, Senator… And I want to contrast that with Vance being against Trump and being for Trump, but also learn when Vance got married and the circumstances of how he met his wife. I have read suggestions that Vance is yet another closeted, gay Republican masquerading as an ultra conservative political leader. With Peter Thiel being a gay man, I would like to examine whether he somehow bought JD Vance as a personal play thing if not in actuality then in his mind. There is something very strange about their relationship that I look forward to looking into it. If anyone has already done some of this research, please let me know.
Back to bed now…
Interesting questions
Thank you.
Lulu Garcia-Navarro's NYT interview with Vance was chilling - if you haven't yet, I recommend listening to it rather than reading it. He uses a reasonable tone to say outrageous things. He is one slick and nasty man and for him to be President is a very scary thought.
Alfred Hitchcock years ago said fascism would come at us with a smile not a grimace.
My alarm bells about J. D. Vance were again rung after reading James Pogue’s Oct 9, 2024 article about Steve Bannon and his “army” in Vanity Fair. It outlines the ideology behind Bannon and the forces supporting -and puppet-mastering- J. D. Vance. It’s an enlightening read about the ideology that will stay in the MAGA bloodstream long after Trump has been toddled off stage. It involves all the greatest hits from Handmaiden’s Tale, Orwellian 1984, and Fahrenheit 451, in my view. It’s good to know the enemy. This article helped me comprehend the much bigger conflict we are facing. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/steve-bannon-nato-world-order
That was a scary article - like, you can see how persuasive Bannon could be to a disaffected population, especially with no one saying “Hey!! Didn’t you get convicted of scamming millions of dollars from a bunch of citizens to build a so-called wall and get arrested on a Chinese billionaire’s yacht?”
I keep saying they all need to be rounded up and rehomed on their own island together since we’re never getting rid of them otherwise.
Careful, Lisa -- isn't that what they want to do with the rest of us?
I've not forgotten graffiti on a Paris wall over 60 years ago...
Someone had written: FASCISM SHALL NOT PASS!!!
Underneath, another hand had added: NO, IT WILL REMAIN...
Like disease and death, an unpleasant reality...
No, they want to use the people who can work and kill or abuse the rest. They need to have groups of sufferers to make their core group happy and feel better about themselves. We don’t want to do that - just put them elsewhere where they can happily be themselves but not harm others.
… so I guess that there’s no antidote for FASCISM?
No, there isn’t. It will always crop up. Best thing to do is to help democracy thrive and to educate people. It will help us become less susceptible.
Diseases can be prevented, can be cured, few have been totally eliminated. Nowadays we neglect prevention and we're better at curing symptoms than the underlying illness.
We deluded ourselves believing that by smashing regimes and killing the likes of Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo we had uprooted the poisonous ideas they represented. Yet, the most unspeakable horror inflicted by great evil is how it befouls the very memory of its victims and the hearts and minds of surviving generations. Nazi-Fascism went underground in 1945, only to burst forth now, almost eighty years later. Everywhere. Even among the descendants of the Nazis' greatest victims.
This should be a lesson for us all. A lesson that we readers of these letters should be open to. "The past is never dead, it's not even past" wrote Faulkner, perceptively.