By rights, tonight’s post should be a picture, but Trump’s behavior today merits a marker because it feels like a dramatic escalation of the themes we’ve seen for years.
It's not Trump's deterioration, desperation and lies that frighten me, but that 7000 admirers still wanted to see him at his Wisconsin rally today. And many of them, plus thousands or millions of other Americans, still think he should be president.
It's the ones who walk out on him, though, that have me curious. How many are backing away now? We may never know. But they are starting to walk out on him in person.
His psychopathy is such that he doesn't see those people or he lies to himself about why they're walking out.
I'm even more concerned by the people at the panel with economic big wigs who applauded his nonsensical responses to their serious policy questions. What the fork is wrong with them?
Lawrence O’Donnell had an amazing segment on MSNBC about the applause in NYC. It was fantastic. He is doing what EVERY journalist should be doing—-as HCR did tonight—-and calling him out as the lunatic he is.
There were clapping rich people in Nazi Germany. They were so glad they did not have a communist speaking, because the communists were going to unionize. Unions terrify fascists!
Greed has No Limit... DJT is a Product of the Inbred Money Class of NYC.. The 'Clappers' were probably Slavering in Anticipation of their promised Tax-Cut... DJT has delivered for them in 2017, and if Elected again, will deliver again...
Wow. I'd read the "child care" response in print, but seeing & hearing it come out of his mouth? and then hearing the applause that followed? OMG. (Trump also looked like he fell asleep under a sun lamp.)
We have to all think seriously about his comment on childcare. For him to say that there are other issues that would dwarf childcare costs are mind baffling on its own. It's bad enough that he never answered the question, but wrongly implied that all his other monied interests would somehow take care of the childcare crisis. If we all watch the clip by O'Donnell, one will notice the people on DJT's left clapping after his statement: all those, *except the one* who asked the prescient question of what relief for childcare the Donald would support should he become president. She knew that he was full of sh*t! But all those other guys were simply lining up to kiss his a$$.
(1) There's nothing wrong with "preaching to the choir." The choir needs inspiration to keep singing. (2) "Local paper"? If you're lucky enough to still have one, who do you think reads it? I'm betting it's mostly members of the choir.
I saw a clip of the child care question but seeing the entire question made his answer and the applause much, much worse.
The fact that the man who would be president (again) cannot get it through his thick skull that tariffs do not harm the country on which they are placed but the consumers of the countries who enact them. Even worse, Trump has a bachelor's degree in economics from an Ivy League school!
DJT was Gifted an Admission to Wharton because a Professor liked his older Brother Freddy... DJT came in during his 3rd Year in College... Allegedly DJT paid someone to take the SATs for him per Mary Trump... Noticed how DJT's Academic, and Medical Records were seized when he became President?
I wish wish wish... everyone commenting on the costs to consumers from tariffs would explain step by step how that works. The shorthand statement that says simply that tariffs cost the consumer completely ignores that most consumers have no idea why that is.
Emphasis needs to be on who pays the tariff. The American importer of the product into into the U.S. pays the tariff to the U.S. government. The importer then gets that tariff cost back by adding a share of that cost on to the price of the product you or I buy.
Easy peasy, right? But it appears to be terribly difficult for reporters and journalists to even comprehend. Of course tffg doesnt understand it nor does he want to - just something to say!
"Is it the Justice Department indictments that showed Russia is working to get him reelected? Is it the rising popularity of Democratic nominees Kamala Harris and Tim Walz? Is it fury at the new grand jury’s indicting him for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election and install himself in power? Is it fear of Tuesday’s debate with Harris? Is it a declining ability to grapple with reality?"
I'll tell you what it is. It's the mother of all conspiracy theories—the theory that some people are important, other people are not, and “I” am one of the important people. Add enough time and power, and you get Trump, Putin, Musk, Hitler, Stalin, etc. Add time and anger at being powerless to control the "unimportant" people, and you get the authoritarian's supporters, including the panel with economic big wigs who applauded his nonsensical responses to their serious policy questions.
Or, when a large enough majority adopt the mother of all valid theories—the theory that every human being is equally important—political issues are easily resolved, including those related to the economy, crime, healthcare, immigration, education, etc.
James, it would seem that even when every human being is equally important as with crime before the law, tRump gets special treatment …which goes on, and on, and on...
Except that in the U.S. it's not remotely true that "every human being is equally important . . . before the law." Trump stands out, true, because he's at the tip of the iceberg. Justice in U.S. courts depends very much on what legal help you can afford.
Trump is an extraordinary case. Whether through guile and/or luck, he has been able to manipulate the legal system for yonks. It's only now that he's actually paying a price, both literally and figuratively. Probably his greatest win, and the nation's greatest loss, was when the US Senate failed to find him guilty after the first impeachment. If they had we wouldn't be here.
The authoritarian's success depends on getting enough people to give up. Every human being is equally important before the law if enough people believe that every human being is equally important before the law. If every human being is not equally important before the law, then it is because not enough people believe it. So, we're all counting on each other to not give up.
Please don't conflate a certain secondary sex characteristic which has been celebrated in paintings and sculpture, and which is attractive to both genders, with the former guy. Writing tRump does nothing to hurt him.
i love what you just said. the first part strikes me as brilliant, and true. The second part (when human equality reins) may or may not turn out to be true. it's hard to imagine political issues being easily resolved under ANY circumstance. but you help me understand the inevitability of what threatens to crush us all. let us pray (i'm not religious, btw. these days, i wish i were!)
What is your definition of religion? Mine is the idea that we live in a social system, the bonds holding the system together—so that the system can work—weaken over time, and so part of the "being human" job is to strengthen bonds.
The word "religion" comes from the Latin words for "redo" and "ligament", and a "ligament" is a binding. If you're working to resolve the dilemmas that inevitably emerge within and between people, you're religious in my books. And anyone who works to divide "us" from "them" is not religious regardless of the size of the thing they call their church.
Jen, indeed. They want to be his puppet masters. They can't see beyond their own bottom line and they also think their money will save them in the already beginning climate crises which will only get worse if we let greed make the decisions.
Precisely. But with respect to the applause just before the end of Felon45's discursion on the cost of child care and SPECIFIC policies to lower those costs, I suspect they started clapping to get him to STFU. And he did.
At this rate, I'm beginning to wonder if he will be. Easy to manipulate, that is. Manipulating someone who is stark ravers could be twicky. Just, PLEASE, keep him away from the Big Red Button.
And, they are lazy, very, very lazy Lady E. Dr Richardson previously quoted President Eisenhower on the appeal dictators have for people who don't want to be bothered by thinking about matters of any real importance. I'd like her to re-post Ike's words. They were in a response to a returned WWll soldier who served under him.
These aren't Ike"s words, but they do speak to the persistent undercurrent of citizens who can't be bothered to be educated voters.
In the history book These Truths, by Jill Lepore, are the following paragraphs about the first, highly successful political campaign managers, Campaigns, Inc., aka The Lie Factory, founded in 1933. They never lost a campaign. Republicans have mastered their campaign strategy rules:
'Every campaign needs a theme. Keep it simple. Rhyming is good. Never explain anything. "The more you have to explain, the more difficult it is to win support." Say the same thing over and over again. "We assume we have to get a voter's attention 7 times to make a sale". Subtlety is your enemy. "Words that lean on your mind are no good. They must dent it." Simplify, simplify, simplify. "A wall goes up when you try to make Mr. And Mrs. Average American Citizen work or think."
Make it personal. Candidates are easier to sell than issues. If your position doesn't have an opponent, invent one. Pretend that you are the voice of the people. You can't wage a defensive campaign and win. Never shy from controversy; instead win the controversy. "The average American doesn't want to be educated, he doesn't want to improve his mind; he doesn't want to work, consciously, at being a good citizen. But there are 2 ways you can interest him in a campaign, and only 2 that we have ever found successful." You can put on a fight ("He likes a good battle with no punches pulled"), or you can put on a show ("He likes the movies, he likes mysteries; he likes fireworks and parades). "So, if you can't fight, PUT ON A SHOW! If you put on a good show, Mr. And Mrs. America will turn out to see it.'
I have a friend with a long history of emotional incapacity who hasn't worked in 40 years who endlessly inveighed against the "welfare state" in recent years.
See, that's the thing that bewilders/stuns me the most about the lemmings: if nothing else, they should be voting against the person who will take away their SSA/SSI (also mess with their health insurance).
I think his escalating dementia puts him beyond control. The oligarchs thought they would be able to control Hitler - look how well that turned out. And he would surround himself with blood-thirsty minions who will egg him on.
One of them Kevin Hassett was on my Junior Year Abroad program in 1983… he was also economic advisor to many Republican presidents. read the next to the last sentence of this Wikipedia entry… re Covid… just ugh! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Hassett
And also, this may have been added after I initially wrote this comment. The last sentence now reads:
Hassett has reportedly been shortlisted for nomination as Chair of the Federal Reserve if former president Donald Trump were to win re-election in 2024.[35]
Another, the man in the upper left hand corner, was Ed Cox, husband of Tricia Nixon Cox. He was “stupidly” clapping for Trump. Thank you, Lawrence O’Donnell for this assessment on your Thursday night broadcast-impeccably TRUE.
Chair of the Federal Reserve is scary but at least Trump doesn't plan to give it to Elon Musk.... that we know of. As an aside, can you even imagine Musk putting all his assets into a blind trust if he gets appointed to any sort of post in a Trump administration? Yea, right.
Thanks Judith. I've updated the original post. I never could remember his last name. Obviously I have not kept in touch with him, but I have a friend from that year who has... until a few years ago, I guess.
They are motivated by his promise of tax breaks, efforts to get rid of the EPA, Social Security and Medicare, along with other programs that benefit workers. Then these corporate high-ups can feel free to get more profits, pollute our air, water, and land, merge into monopolies, and not have to pay worker benefits.
I agree with your disgust about the applause, but the Economic Club of New York is business moguls, not economists. Their website says "senior leaders, typically C-suite":
I did, however, note that the video shows that neither of the two women in the onstage panel applauded, including the one who asked the very cogent question about childcare.
I noticed that the woman who posed the very detailed and reasonable question did not applaud. Didn't notice the other, thanks. Once again, women are focused on logic and detail.
You have to disengage from any attempt to forage for anything he said that had to do with childcare policy at all. He was just off on his standard rants and boasts about the concept of money as power, obviously not knowing what tariffs are, and referring to the plans he just told them about as rationale for his current sentence. Of course, he never described the imaginary plan he used as his crutch in the first place. Someone pointed out that the only true and complete sentence he said was “childcare is childcare”. Otherwise, he just injected the word ‘childcare’ randomly in his word salad and everything else was just the usual bullsh*t.
Politicians are generally very good about pivoting when asked a question to which they don't have an answer or find distasteful. As Trump generally knows very little about most things, asking him a question about something specific, especially about an issue that involves human needs or that requires a demonstration of empathy and you'll get the unconnected word salad that keeps him in his comfort zone.
All they heard was “money, money, money, money”. Seriously. It’s all about tax cuts for them. Trump didn’t make a lick of sense and that’s fine with them.
DJT has always been Unhinged to a Certain Degree... It has always been a Salve to an Essentially Mediocre Person... His progressing Dementia is accelerating his psychosis... If Kamala rattles him on the 10-Sept-2024 Debate, his Mental Illness will Amplify, and Accelerate... Go Kamala!!!
I'll say to you what I say to everyone who uses the word "dementia" when talking about Trump. We can see cognitive decline, for sure, but dementia is a diagnosis that can only be made by a competent physician. His niece, who has known him all her life and is a clinical psychologist, doesn't use that word. </>
I know, right? When I saw them applaud his answer about reducing the cost of child care (tariffs?!) I felt stunned and then sick. Did I see it correctly that the woman who asked the question was not applauding?
Right after Harris mentioned her economic sources, trump counters with that Wharton experts contradict her. Interesting that it was Wharton not Harvard or Yale or his favorite school which makes him smart MIT.
Yup, you (and Karen Hagberg) are right on! The key word for Harris should be WEIRD!! Over and over again. 1.) Trump produces some of his Word Vomit and then it’s Kamala’s turn: (Psuse) Then directly to the camera, “That was WEIRD!!!” 2.) Trump proposes a stop of classroom sex change operations.” Harris - “WOW - WEIRD.” 3.) Trump strolls over to Harris’ podium (ala the Hillary debate). Harris abruptly turns and yells, “Hey, WEIRDO - are your gonna grab my Pu$$y first or my T!T$ first?? WEIRDO!!”
Trump will explode and I will refill my bowl of popcorn while admiring the super programming of ABC.
Thank you for making me laugh, however sadly. One of my friends suggested that Kamala could stroll over around & behind him! The problem, of course, is that he's so BIG(LY) that she would get lost behind him.
Exactly. She needs a simple repeated (mocking) response then move on. His fragile ego will cause a live meltdown. I’m planning to have popcorn ready . .
I am concerned about the debate. Trump does not debate, he steamrolls, and with the mics off, we can't hear his off-mic steamrolling which can be distracting for Harris. It's going to be the challenge of Harris' life this far. I hope she has the right people helping her with prep. His and his supporters admire the appearance of "strength." And they all see that chicken sh*t bullying as strength. She has to be clever.
Have you ever seen a high level federal prosecutor work?
She won't be set off balance by this fraud.
The thing I'd be concerned about, if it were me there, would be I might start to feel pity for him. But even then I don't think I'd back off tearing him apart. She knows what she's doing.
Yup, I agree, Jen. At some point while Trumpie is broiling behind his dead mic, Harris should just look directly at the American (and World) public (and leaders) and say, “Golly, it’s too bad you can’t hear what WEIRD stuff WEIRD DonOLD is puking. Lip-readers out there - ENJOY!!”
Good point. He can just stand there yelling I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! while she tries to answer a question? How can that be considered a fair debate?
That's not a debate at all. But although this event is denominated a "debate", it really won't be one. She will answer questions, he will dish out word salad dripping with BS dressing (not my original, but I can't resist it). I hope any people who actually plan to vote but think they are uncommitted are watching and critiquing the performances and the policies.
Each gets two minutes and then the mike is cut off. And she can ignore every bit of word salad Felon45 produces, before or after his mike is muted, except to comment to the moderator that Felon45 failed to respond to the question he was asked. Ignore him, if he interrupts, "I'm speaking now," and if he continues, address the moderator and reclaim her time, straight-arm him to fend him off if he tries the untethered limp balloon BS he inflicted on Hillary.
She's too good to get sucked into Felon45's Gish Gallop strategy, and will just address her answer to the question asked by the moderator.
It's been stale for a long time. It really bothers me that "intelligent" people were so foused on their hatred of Hilary or Democrats or business or money, that they couldn't discern the danger Trump presented. The writing was on the wall that he was a dangerous, cruel person. Hopefully this will be a lesson for many that when a person tells you who they are, believe them. But I think it's possible these people still don't see it as a matter of their faulty perception.
The Republicans spent decades demeaning and belittling Hillary. Yes, there really is a vast right wing conspiracy. Did she make mistakes as a candidate? Absolutely! She had SO much baggage heaped on her by the right. However, she is still a serious, brilliant person who would’ve tried to protect America. DonOLD is a traitor in every sense of the word.
The Cheneys, the staunchest of traditional Republican conservatives, now outliers /outlaws in the current Maga version of the GOP . I wonder how many Republicans are just waiting in the wings for all this to implode?
Regardless of the greedy tax breakers, of which there aren't enough to elect him on their own, he's doing his insane best to scare the rubes to the ballot box or pick up their ARs and start shooting their neighbors when he loses. Ugly stuff as that same sort of fear mongering has worked for dictators in the past.
Getting!? His brand is in bankruptcy. He now needs violence and fear, and reminding people of the speech in DC is important…same thing…violence at his behest!
Do you think they'll still vote for him, or perhaps not vote at all? Trump fans seem to be in a different world of values and information than I am. Perhaps they don't see his deterioration - or just blame it on Democrats for upsetting and fatiguing Trump.
They believe whatever he tells them, with no doubt or wonder. They reinforce it by repeating it to one another. He will lose their votes only by shooting someone -- himself -- in the middle of 5th Avenue.
I predict his supporters will leave as the election looms. First in a mist, then dribbles, fits and starts, a trickle, a stream, a river, a flood, a deluge.
And the Republicans are in favor of voting in person on the day of the election, so hopefully their disenchantment with him will increase as we get closer to the election.
Judging from the long endless stream of anti-Biden vitriola Maga has been pouring out these past several years, it's all about "Biden" (now Kamala) Tribal runs deep here.
The following paragraphs describe the Trump voter very aptly. After all, it's the people who don't follow the news that still support Trump....ignorant by choice, and just wanting to feel entertained. How many times have we heard MAGA supporters say they want to tear it all down. Somehow, they must believe that they will come out on top amid the chaos.
In the history book These Truths, by Jill Lepore, are the following paragraphs about the first, highly successful, Republican political campaign managers, Campaigns, Inc., aka The Lie Factory, founded in 1933.
'Every campaign needs a theme. Keep it simple. Rhyming is good. Never explain anything. "The more you have to explain, the more difficult it is to win support." Say the same thing over and over again. "We assume we have to get a voter's attention 7 times to make a sale". Subtlety is your enemy. "Words that lean on your mind are no good. They must dent it." Simplify, simplify, simplify. "A wall goes up when you try to make Mr. And Mrs. Average American Citizen work or think."
Make it personal. Candidates are easier to sell than issues. If your position doesn't have an opponent, invent one. Pretend that you are the voice of the people. You can't wage a defensive campaign and win. Never shy from controversy; instead win the controversy. "The average American doesn't want to be educated, he doesn't want to improve his mind; he doesn't want to work, consciously, at being a good citizen. But there are 2 ways you can interest him in a campaign, and only 2 that we have ever found successful." You can put on a fight ("He likes a good battle with no punches pulled"), or you can put on a show ("He likes the movies, he likes mysteries; he likes fireworks and parades). "So, if you can't fight, PUT ON A SHOW! If you put on a good show, Mr. And Mrs. America will turn out to see it.'
Lawrence O'Donnell said recently that Trump is stupid, but the people who CLAP for him are stupider. I think they're dangerous and delusional. I guess they still believe in Santa Claus. An overweight character who brings presents and joy to every boy and girl in the world. In one night. I love Santa, and I'm not disparaging him.
Santa says "Ho! Ho! Ho!" Trump says "Hoe, Hoe, Hoe" when referring to Kamala and Hillary and women who dare accuse him of improper
behavior.
Dear Santa, please bring Kamala to us as president and dump Donald Trump somewhere in Siberia.
gotta love Preacher Lawrence, he's got a great show and he uses it to the max. Nice to see him cited, i guess a few of us saw that show earlier this week.
It is a serious mistake to believe Trump is stupid. He is supremely intelligent, a genius at manipulating people around him. Those people in turn are good at manipulating others. Try to think of it as a cancer spreading out into society.
I would call him a lot of things and intelligent is not one of them. He knows how to read people and get what he wants. He reminds of the petulant child who keeps nagging and nagging 'til you give in.
He seems to have good instincts and a good read on people. I would save the word intelligent for someone like Kamala Harris.
Whether or not Trump was ever supremely intelligent, he is now suffering from dementia. He can (sometimes) read a teleprompter but as soon as he starts extemporizing you can see the obvious deterioration. Neurologically, his mind is toast. Others write his speeches and the comprehensible “truth” posts. He is rapidly devolving into word salad, tangential thinking and stream of what remains of his consciousness!
No intelligence noted here…he has a brand, and some skill, to say provocative things…which are now brain-bin word salad at best. You can choose to impose on his spew intelligence, but it’s projection while he’s the one vomiting.
But now, regardless of intelligence (or none), he is falling apart in front of his audiences. That really ought to frighten his supporters away, and apparently now it is. At least to some extent.
We will know after the election. Trump is going to lose badly. He will be slaughtered in November and republicans will lose all the way down the ticket.
That's my fantasy as well. DonOLD thinks that he will get at least as many votes as he received in 2020 when he wasn't as old and cray-cray and before January 6th.
Agree, I’m wondering the same and praying people are quietly waking away from him but keeping it to themselves. Today’s NYT polls show him ahead by 1% point. But after the last NYT poll, I’m skeptical of their data.
I read a post yesterday that said their neighbor walk outside of his house and yanked the Trump sign out of his yard and threw it away (assumingely).
I think like Heather, any number of things could have been the last straw. It had to be in the last few days obviously, so it narrows down to about 1,000,000 things. It seems the need to walk away from a likely loss at this point combined with the need to stay in power is a mental struggle Trump is losing. Will MAGA attempt to use violence at Trump’s behest? Or will MAGA turn and walk away? Will the same scenario we’re seeing at his rally’s expand to much of his base turning away from Election Day?
Either way, if he wins or loses he will become a raving madman. Demanding revenge on day one, or screaming election fraud and calling out militias. My question is, how will MAGA answer?
I am still seeing MAGAs interviewed on Jay Kuo's and Jeff Tiedrich's Substacks, who are absolutely clueless to anything that has to do with government, or crime, or economy, or history, or their rights, or the constitution or what Trump is saying. They certainly don't know about Project 2025. I live in a University community in the US, and those are certainly not my neighbors, and I don't personally know anyone like these MAGAs they show, so I cannot understand them other than what I have read about them.
Trump has unwittingly created a huge backlash from his own supporters , including those who stormed the Capitol and went to jail for him, by admitting this week that he really did lose the 2020 election.
Kamala should capitalize on that in her ads and during the debate to show how Trump betrayed his supporters and exploited them to achieve fame and fortune.
As an addendum, the record should reflect that during the debate one of the moderators pressed Trump on his admission to which he replied that he was only being “ sarcastic”, which is one of his standard defenses to admissions he inadvertently makes.
In Fascist Italy, propaganda posters everywhere proclaimed "MUSSOLINI IS ALWAYS RIGHT".
But even Mussolini gone to seed, even the man whose gross errors of judgment had made him Hitler's puppet and turned his country into a war-torn hell never uttered nonsense like "I am always right". When he died, he was still a recognizable human being, able to look back over his career with a certain lucidity.
Meanwhile, he'd reduced his last followers to rabid, bloodthirsty attack dogs... or lost, confused fools completely unable to understand what was happening. Like Achille Starace, former sports and youth minister who went out for his usual morning run in Milan and was captured, dragged through the streets and shot, his corpse left hanging alongside the Duce's.
Spreader of mass madness, America's would-be Nazi dictator seems intent on dragging his followers down to destruction with him.
" he'd reduced his last followers to rabid, bloodthirsty attack dogs... or lost, confused fools completely unable to understand what was happening." Kudos Peter. That's a perfectly accurate description of his base (minus the rich tax break whores) which he seems to be prepping for the insane massacre he'll demand when he loses.
"bloodthirsty attack dogs". Although a minority of them are that, the majority are more like Night of the Living Dead fodder, the truly dangerous ones.
Republicans are no more monolithic than Democrats or Independents--witness Republicans for Harris versus MAGA.
Michele Hornish points out that in these Republican-saturated regions (often rural), MAGA Trumpism is all that people are hearing, and this problem can be attributed in part to the DNC's having discarded the 50-State Strategy in 2006, which undermined Democratic infrastructure in Republican strongholds since then. Think Fox "news" echo chambers.
The Harris-Walz Big Tent attracts and invites "kind" and "normal," along with diversity that includes not just race, gender, and religion, but even Republican Party affiliation. This level of inclusion is a ticket to success, and it starts with each of us being open to listening to our neighbors instead of presumptively shutting them out. That's what courageous Democratic candidates have to do in order to run in previously unopposed Republican races.
Michele is the Executive Director of Every State Blue, which crowdsources funding for Democratic candidates running in traditionally unopposed races. Every State Blue is the umbrella for Blue Missouri, Blue Ohio, Blue Tennessee, and Forgotten Democrats. Read her compelling argument that builds from Timothy Snyder’s warning, “Do not obey in advance.”
Re: Republican saturated regions: Thanks to corporate monopolization of news media like Fox, Sinclair, OAN, Newsmax, etc., Trumpism is the only point of view these regions get.
I am from Missouri and often shake my head trying to figure out how we went so deeply red in the last 15 years. I am also very frustrated that there is not a National push to work on changing the Republican dominance in states like mine. I think it can be done. Simply breaking the super majority would be a great start. This is a great article. Elad Gross would do such a better job serving the people of Missouri. Andrew Bailey has wasted our money and neglected to protect Missourians in his pursuit of MAGA junk lawsuits.
Thanks for bringing this up, Ellie. The good news is that the Republican National Committee has abandoned its 50-state strategy, so maybe there's room for the DNC to get traction into those areas that they abandoned..?
I have family that have not shifted their belief of beLIEving. This is where they get their information only, and it is scary that they beLIEve The Big Lie.
Beliefs, baseless beliefs, blind faith in radically incompatible ideas. These products of degenerate religiosity undermine mental health on a massive scale, undermine religion itself and feed innocent lambs into the waiting jaws of wolves in sheep's clothing, failed extremist politicians who've found success, tax-free wealth, absolute power over obedient congregations.
America's ever-renewed infestation of Elmer Gantrys.
It's a help. Dennett makes good use of scientific research, reason and the intelligent use of metaphor to cast light on how delusions arise and spread.
Unfortunately, while there's no problem with rationality, rationalism has colossal blind spots, and these arise from our attributing to reason be-all-and-end-all qualities that it simply does not possess.
The rationalist tends towards sterile reductionism, he (it's often a he) makes extensive use of deductive reasoning while all too often failing to subject the first principles on which the exercise is based to sufficiently rigorous testing. False axioms.
Inductive reasoning -- working from the particular to the general -- calls for perhaps yet greater caution. Even when grounded in constantly repeated experience, it could when used abusively repeat the meaningless behavior of the ant climbing a blade of grass. At the same time, by thinking outside the box, this approach grounded in real life experience can provide rich material for exploratory research.
We need to be very suspicious of concepts like the SUPERnatural or, indeed, PARApsychology. These can distort and impoverish our understanding of nature itself. Admittedly, a concept that resists definition...
Rather than simply indulging in enthralling intellectual activity, the searcher should ask questions about him/herself. "Who/what am I?" That, before going on to examine the interface with his/her activity. Not just "Who AM I?" but "What do I think I'm doing here? What are the implications of this enthralling game, looking beyond the answers I'm seeking?"
Sometimes I visualize how thousands or millions of eligible voters fear a Harris/Walz win as much as I dread a Trump/Vance win.
I met a woman from Minnesota who grew up in an evangelical Christian home who asked me, are there any Republicans in Massachusetts? She described how fanatical she needed to become so she could live with the contradictions in her mind until she snapped and then methodically began to process her assumptions. She gradually allowed herself to cast off indoctrination. She drove herself to Cape Cod to see for herself, exploring her childhood aspirations to study marine environments and new career options after suspending her career as a nurse, a yoga teacher, and a landscape laborer. One person's odyssey. I continue to wonder about how each and all of us will be coping with election outcomes, whatever they may be.
For many, it's likely the feeling of being among the others who are opposed to what neoliberal policies have done to our communities over the past 40 years. They want to share their anger with others who had the rug pulled out from under their families when their jobs left the country. He conned them, and they latched on, afraid to let go.
Gloria, I wholeheartedly agree!! It’s since the late 1960’s/1970’s (and Reagan) timeframe when industrial jobs were yanked out from them. Plus, add to that, more affirmative actions that excluded the middle to lower middle class because they didn’t fall into the eligible income bracket. Now, generations of bitterness have rallied around Trump, who has been fanning the fire of their resentment- resulting in distrust of our government-elections, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, governmental agencies, etc.
It’s both for me. His demented mind and the cult following him down the river Hades. I call it “Trumptred” as his particular form of hatred is like none other we have seen in American history. This guy is McCarthy to the power of ten.
It’s not unusual for hundreds of gawkers to gather at a train derailment. Writers for Politico, NYT, WaPo and other MSM are all hunkered over the transcripts now feverishly rewriting the dementia into policy statements.
It is hard to ever convince the conned that they have been conned. I say this as I look out my window at a tRump 2024 - take America back flag and see way too many repub campaign signs in the neighborhood.
..."when voters actually saw him in this campaign, they would be shocked at how he has deteriorated, and that seems to be true: his meandering and self-indulgent speeches have had attendees leaving early, some of them bewildered."
Dr. Richardson pointed this out and I feel sure this is a harbinger of his nationwide support. I feel certain regular Republicans are fleeing him. I am sure more MAGA will sit this one out.
He is coming completely unhinged. I sure hope the media start reporting more of it. The AP’s editing of his child care word salad so it made sense was really awful.
Imagine ANY OTHER candidate for ANY office giving that incomprehensible rant.
They would be done for life.
Candidates have killed their political careers with a fist bump or a shout and DonOLD's rant is just another in a long string that he will likely be given a pass on.
Gary, the list is SO long of the “transgressions” he’s made in word or deed that would have torpedoed ANY other candidate. One thing, I guess, is true that he said: “When you’re a star they let you do it”.
Kinda reminds me of the ending of the movie “Sunset Boulevard” when an insane Nora Desmond is playing a role into a camera that she thinks is her comeback to fame and adoration, but it only is a documentary of her insanity.
So who owns the AP anyway? Does the AP have a political axe to grind these days? They used to just report the facts, leaving comment and slant to newspaper editors and columnists. Or have I been an innocent babe in the woods all these years?
The only story emanating from Trump's incoherent response to a question about daycare for children is that he doesn't know what he is talking about and has no plan or ideas at all regarding daycare.
You are correct at what AP used to be. I have no idea what’s going on there. I teach in a broadcasting department at a community college and that was always the place to send students to witness transparent news reporting. No longer.
AP is a nonprofit cooperative. It both creates original journalism and shares the journalism of its member news outlets. In its original journalism, it focuses hard on factual accuracy, which is great, but it ignores the need for *contextual* accuracy as well. The Times and, to a lesser extent, the Post do the same thing. And ignoring contextual accuracy is what gets them into trouble when they write about Trump. The ignored context here is that Trump's ravings should indicate to anyone with a pulse, and definitely to people with clinical backgrounds, that Trump is mentally unfit to be given the keys to the nuclear arsenal again.
Seriously? Is there a rule against ''contextual" accuracy? It's pretty much the only way "facts" make sense. Past time to address how to write w "contextual" accuracy in the media. Cannot even imagine how 'context' can be ignored. Context,not interpretation, seems like an important journalistic skill to acquire.
I would agree. As a hiring editor, I asked questions of people interviewing for reporting jobs that would tease out whether they understood the need for contextual accuracy and knew how to get at it. I was amazed how many editors like me I met over the years who did not do the same thing.
CGW, As DT.s behavior and speech deteriorate, I can only hope that whatever is motivating the pundits and press who engage in "sanewashing" - an excellent descriptive, by the way, will become less and less attractive to them. How can people who's lively hoods depend on robust first amendment rights support (tacitly or otherwise) someone who clearly wants to destroy them? "Sane" is not a term I would use here. Yet it is exactly what's going on. Thanks for the concept and descriptive CGW!
Mary Trump agrees with you about the media re: “…AP’s editing of his child care word salad so it made sense was really awful.”
Mary wrote this on her Substack today:
“ The corporate media, however, have decided that it is no longer the job of its journalists and pundits to report and analyze information; rather they believe they must translate Donald’s nonsensical ramblings into a version of the English language we can all understand. That’s a huge problem because, on the one hand, they’re not really translating his words—they’re imbuing them with a meaning that is not there; on the other hand, they’re doing this without telling us they’re doing it.
So, according to Politico, Donald, “laid out a sweeping economic vision of lower taxes, higher tariffs, and light-touch regulation in a speech to top Wall Street execs.”
AP chimed in by claiming that Donald “suggests tariffs can help solve rising child care costs in a major economic speech.”
The New York Times, at the forefront when it comes to covering for Donald, ran the following headline and sub-head:
“Trump Praises Tariffs, and William McKinley, to Power Brokers”.
I still do not understand the support of common, everyday people for him. I am praying that the polls are wrong - not only so he definitively loses, bit so I can regain faith in the American people.
Most are broken, abandoned, betrayed by 1) the abysmal schools their kids have had to attend (where standardized testing categorical memes and neutering conceits suffocate all); 2) the big money elites who offshored those tens of millions of working-class jobs that had previously kept them in the middle class; and 3) corporate media whose denizens came out of their educations also dehumanized, unable to reference any of our novels, films, songs, and other arts sympathetic to the plight of so many of our fellows.
Maybe. But I know too many upstate New Yorkers who support Trump who have good jobs, send their kids to private schools, and are well educated. I worry that we label the pro-Trumpers as either corporate elites or those who have been betrayed. Definitely they are part of Trump's support, but that other big group that does not fit that description baffles me.
In her "How the South Won the Civil War," Heather dwells well on how the enslaving class hated just about any role for any government institution. This meant, too, that they mortally loathed having to pay taxes for any government agency.
That book by Heather lays the case for how that class of people just continued on in America, always hating government, including public schools. As the former enslavers they and their ilk were, they never had much respect for or interest in "others," only their own narrow circles.
Also, John, I think you know that enjoying much outside one's own orbit really requires some role models in generosity, curiosity, as well as skills rhetorically to see connections much less make more, one's own of them. One needs to plan, as in making of life a larger syllabus, in order to travel more imaginatively, in the company of role models, literate predecessors, and all the good books one may build on.
Phil, I agree with you. And the way schools are controlled is the issue. Teachers are trying their best (I am a teacher myself). The vision of education is skewed in the US. I have lived in the Czech Republic for 38 years and I teach in an international school. The school is not perfect, but we deemphasize grades, focus on skill develop, conceptual understanding, and critical thinking, allow curiosity to drive the curriculum, and promote international mindedness. We do this all in a petri dish of teenage hormones, development of self-identity, and social-emotional mental health challenges. I hope that in my lifetime we will see that shift that promotes international citizenship, focus on skills and critical thinking, and a belief that schools should be communities of learners, rather than factories for standardized testing for college admissions.
When we somehow stop the public school student test scores from determining the neighborhood's real estate values, that could be a start. If a school could be rated by its positive effect on a community, say, where parents, teachers, and students work together instead of at cross purposes or blaming each other, we might get somewhere. And don't get me started on charter schools. There is a lot to fix here. However, it can be done. Schools could be places of real learning if we find the motivation for teachers, students and parents. It's going to be different in different communities.
Well said Mona. My wife and I have lived in several states and one of the barometers we looked at before selecting a home is the reputation of the schools. The realtors are usually well informed about the schools and school districts in an area and most willingly share that information.
I, too, have lived in the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, and Hungary.
Now, Japan.
My dream, that schools have programs to see (and write about) others as individuals. First in home classroom, then in a parallel or neighboring community elsewhere, maybe an allegedly opposite or opposed group.
Trouble is, as Heather saw the enslavers seeing their slaves as but units in production activities, so, too, do the standardized testers -- all of them -- see individuals as also but units (easily numbered) in groups, abstractions, and categories which the standardized testers worship.
Dead souls. Living dead. Ghouls. These for whom no individuals exist.
Nicely stated concerning the tests. Profit over principle and people or profit is their principle. IT seems that their transactional nature is all they can live by. Kind of like their cult like devotion to Friedman's free market ideas.
Good observation Phil. If we look at the history, first the COnservatives targeted the federal government for their cuts, and now it is at every level. They get elected for one purpose: to cut government power by over regulating the government agencies, underfunding the agencies, then blame the government for not doing the job. Look at every action they take at every level and you can see it happening. As a 35 year public educator in Texas, it happened there as it is the same in every GOP controlled state. Through groups like the ALEC, the CONservatives keep finding ways to "legally" undermine government from the inside. The only thing that the former guy knows that it is good for him so he can continue his con. As I heard one recently say- you can ignore politics, but politics will not ignore you. The extreme right has been plotting this take over for decades and the Lewis Powell Memo provided a framework that has now grown into P2025. Lord help us all.
My husband fits this category. I have been frustrated in trying to understand why he is voting for Trump. You could have written this with my husband in mind.
Loves, relationships, larger networks ensuing from loves, relationships.
The complications complicate.
I hope you've (many) favorite artists -- novels, songs, films -- to look into, look back on, look out of the many, many complications.
I also want to apologize for the males of our species (though I'm one of them, too).
One of the great benefits to all of us Tuesday evening -- the display of the huge difference between human qualities in one male then on display, and one very, very, very different type, which that male, his V.P. pick, and his oh-so-corrupt Clarence court consigns, reduces to Medieval As Great Again (MAGA).
Exactly John. I am dismayed when I hear some educated, well-to-do person repeat the orange one’s delusions. I think it is the expected tax cuts that motivate those people but clearly, they set aside any rational critical thinking.
I have concluded that they are people born into comfortable income, who have proceeded with their own pursuit of comfortable income and who have been “lucky,” to whom no terrible setback has ever occurred. They think it’s all about their own effort and “why can’t everyone else do what I did?” Who are of the Pharisee class and never have met a prophet (Jesus, the Buddha or otherwise) who preach love. Of neighbor. Of the planet. Of anything other than themselves.
Most of the ones in my world are retired cops who had successful careers of 25 years or more, who were a pleasure to work with, and with several of them that I faced life-threatening situations with.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat said recently, “at any one time there are about 30% of the population that don’t believe in democracy”. It explains that super-dense hard core supporters who never leave him.
I suspect that the portion of dedicated authoritarians fluctuates quite a bit, but there seem always to be a large number of people who prefer a king. Democracy and autocracy have always struggled with one another.
Democracy involves hard work. There have to be enough people who want to make it work. We've been luck so far, but stress, and dis/misinformation are often enough to make a lot of voters think it's not worth the effort. Let somebody else worry about it. A king or a dictator,maybe.
Some are lazy and don’t want to engage in their civic duties as citizens, and they don’t believe other people should be permitted to do so either, hence voter suppression, legalizing campaign finance bribery, and gerrymandering.
Going back to the discussion of schools, I was working in a lovely school system when repubs took over and began running schools like businesses—standardized testing and teaching for the test ruined it. It used to be enough to have the goal of making life-long learners. That idea that big business knows best and makes everyone happy only makes the rich richer.
Between the media they consume & their social circle consuming the same media they believe every word he says. They even understand his word salads because they themselves talk that way.
Exactly. Rump is a gigantic asshole, and he teaches his followers it’s completely ok to be a racist, misogynistic and narcissistic bastard. That’s why they love him: they aspire to be a gigantic asshole just like him.
No, I don't think so. I think that the idea of trying to "fix" society - which always needs work - is exhausting. It takes a lot of effort to gain and maintain Utopia. It's a lot easier just to have someone stand up and say "Life is terrible! It's not your fault! It's "them"! " And when you have someone who also says "I can fix it!" - well, that's very tempting - even if he doesn't actually say "what" or "how" he's going to fix.
Well, you're right, but it can combine perfectly with what I said: it would make sense for Rump cultists to be angry enough about their own lives to believe a liar who says it isn't their (own) fault, while at the same time being perfectly ok with being a complete asshole. I mean, remember the "fuck you, Greta!" stickers on the back of pickup trucks? How much of an asshole do you need to be to say such a thing to a young girl who's afraid of her future? How much of an asshole do you need to be to say things like "some people just need killing!", or toting assault rifles on a Christmas card?
While I agree about the general assholishness, I also agree about the exhausting work of maintaining a commitment to improve the world. In my experience with maga types, it's one experience that they see as "the government" acting against them.
A piece of property taken to build a highway, a cabin built on Forest Service or Bureau of Land Managment property that was torn down, property taxes raising to the point that grandma can't afford to live in her home anymore, or any of a thousand rules that have been developed to protect the majority against the vandalism of the minority; all of these have become the cause of grievances that are handed down from generation to generation.
The original cause may not even be remembered, but the sense of government "doing wrong by me" lives on.
I'll regain faith in the "American people" when we finally put Trump in the slammer where he belongs, and when we add a clause to the Constitution requiring all taxation to be progressive, with no upper limits on millionaires, billionaires and trilionaires.
Everything above 1 million a year of disposable income taxed at 100 %, no more loopholes requiring a team of lawyers to understand, the kind of all-inclusive social state we could easily afford if people were not always at each others' throats. How many more years of abuse can our planet take before we become an extinct species?
To paraphrase Bill Clinton: "It's the worldview, stupid". Most of DT's supporters are not fighting for a certain issue, policy, party, religion, or even dominance. They have ideas about how the world should work that make sense to them (not to me, however) that DT has somehow come to embody. DT's supporters are not any smarter or more stupid than the rest of us, they're just stuck in a Donna Reed/Father-Knows-Best world view they can't really articulate because it never really existed. Like most of us, all they want is to be seen as right. Now, however, being right and on the Right, has become very dangerous for them and the rest of us.
Steve Abbott, not all are stuck in Donna Reed /Father-Knows-Best. For some| it's more like "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome". Some have an obsessive need for violence, feeling superior, believing they are always right, controling and repressing people, constant negativity and the sport of creating conflict. You're right; they are very dangerous. Their egos are very dangerous. And those within the group, who are not this extreme, are only a few degrees of separation away, and under the right conditions would become so.
I don't understand it either but, judging by the Trump 2024 flags I see flying in yards in ID and WY, that support is real. What really concerns me is how those people will react when Trump loses.
John, I am a retired cop. Many of my Facebook friends are also retired cops. They eat that garbage like it is a fine steak dinner, then come back for dessert and coffee. I suspect that their "information" sources are some of those foreign (cough, Russian) influenced sites. I have had a former sergeant argue with me about the "post-birth abortions" and cannot get him past that (even after describing the Oregon homicide statute that defines what a person is, which is “Human being” means a person who has been born and was alive at the time of the criminal act") which means that said "post-birth abortion" would be prosecuted as a homicide. His well-thought out response <sarcasm font> is "not if they call it an abortion". Others post such vile things about Harris and Walz that I am stunned and dismayed at their lack of critical thinking skills.
My theory is that they so badly want white Christian Nationalism, where the pinnacle of humanity is a white, Christian, heteronormative, cisgendered, man.
John, its not politics for them, its the need to find some kind of validation internally that their team (think sports) can/will win at something; otherwise their lives have little meaning
I encounter Trump supporters in that they’re my patients. It seems they see him as the only option if they’re opposed to abortion. They ignore the news coverage about him.
Want to know what's worse than Trump's insanity? It's the depraved cynicism of moneyed Republicans (Leon, for example) willing to sacrifice our entire democracy for a tax cut. They will still be here long after Trump is dead and gone!
Are you perhaps referring to Leonard Leo? I'm not sure he's so much interested in another tax cut (after all, how many billions does a guy actually need?) as he is at replacing democracy with the kingdom of God on earth. His God, that is.
Or is it Elon? That guy's just a whack job with way too much money. One of those who thinks because he's good at one thing he'll be good at some other unrelated thing.
Leonid Muskovite is a true threat to national security, not to mention our tax system. He is more pathological than Trump because he is smarter, far richer, and ruthless in his own right, not dependent on the viciousness of thugs and henchmen to do his dirty work.
that'd be bad news for the criminal indictments. zero closure? *maybe* his spawn would have to foot the bill for the civil cases, but even that'd be pretty anticlimactic ...
Thanks Heather, hopefully “what happens in Wisconsin does not stay in Wisconsin “! However will we see one reference to this in now today’s corporate media news. The recent article in the Guardian by Rebecca Solnit ( thanks Robert Hubbell for bringing this to our attention) puts in context your efforts to corporate media and where would we be without you and the trifecta ( or Avengers) of you, Joyce Vance and Robert Hubbell!
I live in rural Wisconsin, in one of the poorest counties in the state. My neighbors don't have much, and they are desperately afraid of it being taken away. It happens all the time with medical bankruptcies, job layoffs, and bad weather that destroys a year's worth of profits for farmers and local businesses. They are right to be afraid; they just blame the wrong people.
He’s a monster and his supporters are so awful, too. I see them post on Nextdoor, my neighbors, this vile nonsense about migrants stealing our homes and Nancy Pelosi just giving them handouts. It’s pure lunacy but these fools believe it all. I can’t fathom another “presidency” with these MAGA psychos. If he “wins” and these fascist Nazis do what they say they’re going to do, it’s highly doubtful I’ll stay here in those country. I hope with all my heart and soul that I don’t have to make that wrenching decision. #HarrisWalzToSaveDemocracy 🙏
We've been pretty lucky with Nextdoor so far here on Oahu, except for the ads. Most of the people on the site, even politicians, generally refrain from politicking. Those that speak ill of others or spout wild conspiracy theories get shouted down pretty quickly. There is a hard core of baby boomer conspiracy theorists who write letters to the editors of the Star-Advertiser or who pollute the S-A online edition with nutso comments, but all you need to do is check out the name of the letter writer to know it's just nodda one from dat guy.
I was on Nextdoor maybe half a week. I had originally thought it would be a good place to post about lost pets, etc. (We get lots of pet dogs who get loose around here.) Turns out it is for paranoid racists who see "people who don't belong in our neighborhood" (wink, wink) under every rock.
I got banned from it for calling out the fools, idiots, and morons as the fools, idiots, and morons they are. (Why are most white people so low on the IQ scale? It's embarrassing!)
I got banned from Nextdoor for calling a woman who wanted us to "take pictures of those that don't belong here" ( when the first recreational pot shop opened) Beulah.
An English professor friend, who I wrote saying I hoped my ritirement would offer more beauty, less truth wrote me back quoting Keats" the two are one," I, from 45 years experience in clinical practice, wrote back, "They have an overlap, but the two are not one." Well spoken.
Fear leads to hate, and the combination is terrifying to watch. To what extent this will be clear to the MAGA cult is hard to predict. I can only be hopeful that Trump's behavior during the debate will make his disintegration undeniably apparent. Where is the msm that took apart every utterance of Biden's and declared him unfit to be president now that Trump's fantasies, based on fear and hate, are on full view? What are they afraid of? Whom do they hate? If they think that not speaking the truth now will protect them should Trump get re-elected, they are living in a world that is as delusional as his.
"Donald Trump brings high ratings!" - Jeff Zucker the Fucker (as we knew him in Hollywood) when he was criticized for airing Trump's 2016 hatealongs live on the Cretin News Network.
What’s really disappointing is educated women men still think that he’s the best for Israel I had one lady tell me. Oh he’s the best. Why would we vote for anyone else? He moved the embassy to Jerusalem aren’t these people watching? Don’t they hear what he says? It’s just so crazy but I fear even the Supreme Court might look to save his butt. I don’t trust them worth the damn either.
this! he already had an overdeveloped "I never said that" reflex. now it's "that was deepfaked". the 'record' is practically irrelevant
I'm more worried that the SCROTUS will finally start allowing recording and then just do the same thing. (it's already bad enough that the reactionary hack majority aren't called to account for what they've put their names to.)
If only all members of what we call, with respect, The Fourth Estate, spoke with such truth and clarity as you do. Then we wouldn’t be fearful that this utterly repulsive madman and the fascists who control him might very well take over our country in November.
He is deteriorating before our eyes. The risk to all of us personally, to the country and to the world is unimaginable if he should win. He must be defeated!
As sure as the sun rises in the east, we all knew the day would come when Donald Trump no longer held the fascination of his followers. But what comes next? How can we heal those who still feel their world view is defeated? I really believe Biden righted the Democrat’s ship to give it not just a purpose, but a mission to expose the lies of the Movement Conservatives.
We are at what President Biden keeps referring to as an inflection point - and it isn’t just about climate policy, but it’s about reinvesting in the human potential in America. In 1980, the US working-age population was peaking because of the baby boom, a throughout the last 40 years, competition for jobs has always been high. But now that the boomers are retiring, there aren’t enough workers to fill their jobs. I think the tech sector wanted AI to fill the gap, but they aren’t ready yet. As middle-class workers, we have this one shot to demand dignity in our workplace, not just for us, but also for the kids coming up. Which brings me back to my first point.
Heather was right in saying that the first discussion with a Trump voter, especially a middle class one should be about taxing the wealthy. Why do they get a pass? Why are you worried about inheritance or capital gains taxes when they most likely won’t affect you? Or when they say, “I don’t want my taxes going to illegal immigrants,” maybe respond, “I think that if full time Walmart employees can qualify for food assistance, then Walmart should pay for it - not taxpayers.” We need to turn their frustration to the real theives, and end the Bogieman myth once and for all.
This is all very scary - but what is more scary to
me is the fact that so many of our fellow citizens - at least so far - seem not to grasp or discern how really dangerous and threatening to our country Mr. Trump’s agenda for the future is becoming.
The saddest and most terrifying thing about this is that at least some MAGA people are so certain he is honest that they take these crazy points as facts. Some time ago he said it (paraphrased): Believe me. Don’t believe your eyes, don’t believe your ears. Believe me.
A marker of Trump's public appeal is his meme 'no earnings-mega-loss making' stock, a 'must have' for MAGAs with little money. (No wealthy people will buy that POS unless as a tax loss and to essentially donate money to him at the same time when he starts selling.) Stock debuted at $79.38 and has been steadily sinking to $17.10 Friday. It jumped after PA shooting, proof it is not investmenting that is driving it. DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!
Now that the 6-month holding period is over, I'm waiting for him to dump the DJT stock and walk off with more millions, leaving others holding the empty bag. It doesn't matter to him if it tanks completely. He'll do just fine. That's his M.O. It's just a question of when, not if.
It's not Trump's deterioration, desperation and lies that frighten me, but that 7000 admirers still wanted to see him at his Wisconsin rally today. And many of them, plus thousands or millions of other Americans, still think he should be president.
It's the ones who walk out on him, though, that have me curious. How many are backing away now? We may never know. But they are starting to walk out on him in person.
His psychopathy is such that he doesn't see those people or he lies to himself about why they're walking out.
I'm even more concerned by the people at the panel with economic big wigs who applauded his nonsensical responses to their serious policy questions. What the fork is wrong with them?
Lawrence O’Donnell had an amazing segment on MSNBC about the applause in NYC. It was fantastic. He is doing what EVERY journalist should be doing—-as HCR did tonight—-and calling him out as the lunatic he is.
Here is the link to that Lawrence O'Donnell segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Wf5VT-Pwk
"Think about how stupid yo have to be to say that.
Then think about how stupid you have to be to APPLAUD that. . . "
I was watching him that evening. It was eye opening. And, that is a problem. The clapping rich people!
There were clapping rich people in Nazi Germany. They were so glad they did not have a communist speaking, because the communists were going to unionize. Unions terrify fascists!
Greed has No Limit... DJT is a Product of the Inbred Money Class of NYC.. The 'Clappers' were probably Slavering in Anticipation of their promised Tax-Cut... DJT has delivered for them in 2017, and if Elected again, will deliver again...
Thank you for the link. I just watched the segment. If tRump wins I will be inconsolable.
Hopefully, Tuesday nights debate will take care of our problem!
She needs to SOUNDLY take him down, not anything wishy washy. IF she's even remotely off her game, it'll be a much bigger deal than anything he'll do.
IF some of the stupid people watch it.
Wow. I'd read the "child care" response in print, but seeing & hearing it come out of his mouth? and then hearing the applause that followed? OMG. (Trump also looked like he fell asleep under a sun lamp.)
We have to all think seriously about his comment on childcare. For him to say that there are other issues that would dwarf childcare costs are mind baffling on its own. It's bad enough that he never answered the question, but wrongly implied that all his other monied interests would somehow take care of the childcare crisis. If we all watch the clip by O'Donnell, one will notice the people on DJT's left clapping after his statement: all those, *except the one* who asked the prescient question of what relief for childcare the Donald would support should he become president. She knew that he was full of sh*t! But all those other guys were simply lining up to kiss his a$$.
Thanks for this.
One of the commenters made the point that the gal who asked the child care question did NOT clap!!
I don't think any of the people on the panel clapped.
She's probably under wraps now.
Thanks, I am not the greatest “linker,” but Lawrence O is incredible on Trump, and especially all the media enablers. He is my hero.
👏👏👏
Thanks. I have seen this part in Jeff Tiedrich's substack, and he calls it word salad. https://substack.com/@jefftiedrich/p-148547994
Preaching to the choir - take an ad in your local paper and publish this and the O'Donnell piece
(1) There's nothing wrong with "preaching to the choir." The choir needs inspiration to keep singing. (2) "Local paper"? If you're lucky enough to still have one, who do you think reads it? I'm betting it's mostly members of the choir.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I love Lawrence!
He and some of his co-workers at MSNBC are the only ones calling this out. I've seen Joy Reid and Nicole Wallace follow that track too.
I saw a clip of the child care question but seeing the entire question made his answer and the applause much, much worse.
The fact that the man who would be president (again) cannot get it through his thick skull that tariffs do not harm the country on which they are placed but the consumers of the countries who enact them. Even worse, Trump has a bachelor's degree in economics from an Ivy League school!
DJT was Gifted an Admission to Wharton because a Professor liked his older Brother Freddy... DJT came in during his 3rd Year in College... Allegedly DJT paid someone to take the SATs for him per Mary Trump... Noticed how DJT's Academic, and Medical Records were seized when he became President?
Well, one professor, at least, saw Trump for who he is:
"...Trump came to Wharton thinking he already knew everything."
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/10/12/1705902/-Former-Wharton-Professor-Donald-Trump-Is-the-Dumbest-Goddam-Student-I-Ever-Had
Yeah, by him - it's illegal otherwise.
Friendly correction: in order to see academic or medical records the individual must sign a release. This applies to each and every one of us.
I wish wish wish... everyone commenting on the costs to consumers from tariffs would explain step by step how that works. The shorthand statement that says simply that tariffs cost the consumer completely ignores that most consumers have no idea why that is.
Emphasis needs to be on who pays the tariff. The American importer of the product into into the U.S. pays the tariff to the U.S. government. The importer then gets that tariff cost back by adding a share of that cost on to the price of the product you or I buy.
Easy peasy, right? But it appears to be terribly difficult for reporters and journalists to even comprehend. Of course tffg doesnt understand it nor does he want to - just something to say!
The critical thing that Trump will not -- cannot? -- admit that it's not the exporting country that pays the tariff.
Did he really? Or is that a lie?
"Is it the Justice Department indictments that showed Russia is working to get him reelected? Is it the rising popularity of Democratic nominees Kamala Harris and Tim Walz? Is it fury at the new grand jury’s indicting him for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election and install himself in power? Is it fear of Tuesday’s debate with Harris? Is it a declining ability to grapple with reality?"
I'll tell you what it is. It's the mother of all conspiracy theories—the theory that some people are important, other people are not, and “I” am one of the important people. Add enough time and power, and you get Trump, Putin, Musk, Hitler, Stalin, etc. Add time and anger at being powerless to control the "unimportant" people, and you get the authoritarian's supporters, including the panel with economic big wigs who applauded his nonsensical responses to their serious policy questions.
Or, when a large enough majority adopt the mother of all valid theories—the theory that every human being is equally important—political issues are easily resolved, including those related to the economy, crime, healthcare, immigration, education, etc.
James, it would seem that even when every human being is equally important as with crime before the law, tRump gets special treatment …which goes on, and on, and on...
Except that in the U.S. it's not remotely true that "every human being is equally important . . . before the law." Trump stands out, true, because he's at the tip of the iceberg. Justice in U.S. courts depends very much on what legal help you can afford.
Trump is an extraordinary case. Whether through guile and/or luck, he has been able to manipulate the legal system for yonks. It's only now that he's actually paying a price, both literally and figuratively. Probably his greatest win, and the nation's greatest loss, was when the US Senate failed to find him guilty after the first impeachment. If they had we wouldn't be here.
The authoritarian's success depends on getting enough people to give up. Every human being is equally important before the law if enough people believe that every human being is equally important before the law. If every human being is not equally important before the law, then it is because not enough people believe it. So, we're all counting on each other to not give up.
John, I think in the current situation, you can thank the Supreme Court, in part, for that one.
And Mitch McConnell, who made that happen.
So true and so very frustrating.
Please don't conflate a certain secondary sex characteristic which has been celebrated in paintings and sculpture, and which is attractive to both genders, with the former guy. Writing tRump does nothing to hurt him.
David, you're right, It doesn't hurt him. But I'm petty enough to enjoy the small disrespect.
It is fascism on full view James.
i love what you just said. the first part strikes me as brilliant, and true. The second part (when human equality reins) may or may not turn out to be true. it's hard to imagine political issues being easily resolved under ANY circumstance. but you help me understand the inevitability of what threatens to crush us all. let us pray (i'm not religious, btw. these days, i wish i were!)
What is your definition of religion? Mine is the idea that we live in a social system, the bonds holding the system together—so that the system can work—weaken over time, and so part of the "being human" job is to strengthen bonds.
The word "religion" comes from the Latin words for "redo" and "ligament", and a "ligament" is a binding. If you're working to resolve the dilemmas that inevitably emerge within and between people, you're religious in my books. And anyone who works to divide "us" from "them" is not religious regardless of the size of the thing they call their church.
They’re forking stupid
I wish I could believe they were . Stupid is easy - crafty, cunning and evil is a much harder fight.
They see a vulnerable old fraud who will be easy to manipulate. And they're right
They just need to keep him propped up til Nov 6
Jen, indeed. They want to be his puppet masters. They can't see beyond their own bottom line and they also think their money will save them in the already beginning climate crises which will only get worse if we let greed make the decisions.
Precisely. But with respect to the applause just before the end of Felon45's discursion on the cost of child care and SPECIFIC policies to lower those costs, I suspect they started clapping to get him to STFU. And he did.
At this rate, I'm beginning to wonder if he will be. Easy to manipulate, that is. Manipulating someone who is stark ravers could be twicky. Just, PLEASE, keep him away from the Big Red Button.
Yes, and this is also Putin's view of it.
Yes, once sworn in he can disassemble and Lance will be our Pres-in-chief. Congrats!!!
Eggzactly!
And, they are lazy, very, very lazy Lady E. Dr Richardson previously quoted President Eisenhower on the appeal dictators have for people who don't want to be bothered by thinking about matters of any real importance. I'd like her to re-post Ike's words. They were in a response to a returned WWll soldier who served under him.
These aren't Ike"s words, but they do speak to the persistent undercurrent of citizens who can't be bothered to be educated voters.
In the history book These Truths, by Jill Lepore, are the following paragraphs about the first, highly successful political campaign managers, Campaigns, Inc., aka The Lie Factory, founded in 1933. They never lost a campaign. Republicans have mastered their campaign strategy rules:
'Every campaign needs a theme. Keep it simple. Rhyming is good. Never explain anything. "The more you have to explain, the more difficult it is to win support." Say the same thing over and over again. "We assume we have to get a voter's attention 7 times to make a sale". Subtlety is your enemy. "Words that lean on your mind are no good. They must dent it." Simplify, simplify, simplify. "A wall goes up when you try to make Mr. And Mrs. Average American Citizen work or think."
Make it personal. Candidates are easier to sell than issues. If your position doesn't have an opponent, invent one. Pretend that you are the voice of the people. You can't wage a defensive campaign and win. Never shy from controversy; instead win the controversy. "The average American doesn't want to be educated, he doesn't want to improve his mind; he doesn't want to work, consciously, at being a good citizen. But there are 2 ways you can interest him in a campaign, and only 2 that we have ever found successful." You can put on a fight ("He likes a good battle with no punches pulled"), or you can put on a show ("He likes the movies, he likes mysteries; he likes fireworks and parades). "So, if you can't fight, PUT ON A SHOW! If you put on a good show, Mr. And Mrs. America will turn out to see it.'
They only see dollar signs. Not that those will help them in the future.
Greenbacks do not make a very good salad, particularly without ranch dressing. “Soilent Green” anyone?
Deliberate versus innate??
Deliberate I think. They are in the same postion as Krupp, AEg, Audi - oh, have a look at this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_involved_in_the_Holocaust
They thought Hitler could be controlled and would make them money. Then they all started fighting among themselves.
And, they are sticking the knife into their own backs!
Slitting their own throats. So many subsist on benefits he would cut if not eliminate.
I have a friend with a long history of emotional incapacity who hasn't worked in 40 years who endlessly inveighed against the "welfare state" in recent years.
See, that's the thing that bewilders/stuns me the most about the lemmings: if nothing else, they should be voting against the person who will take away their SSA/SSI (also mess with their health insurance).
Alan, unfortunately calling them "stupid" is a sure way to solifiy and increase his supporters.
They believe that he can be controlled.
I think his escalating dementia puts him beyond control. The oligarchs thought they would be able to control Hitler - look how well that turned out. And he would surround himself with blood-thirsty minions who will egg him on.
One of them Kevin Hassett was on my Junior Year Abroad program in 1983… he was also economic advisor to many Republican presidents. read the next to the last sentence of this Wikipedia entry… re Covid… just ugh! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Hassett
And also, this may have been added after I initially wrote this comment. The last sentence now reads:
Hassett has reportedly been shortlisted for nomination as Chair of the Federal Reserve if former president Donald Trump were to win re-election in 2024.[35]
Another, the man in the upper left hand corner, was Ed Cox, husband of Tricia Nixon Cox. He was “stupidly” clapping for Trump. Thank you, Lawrence O’Donnell for this assessment on your Thursday night broadcast-impeccably TRUE.
Andrea, I think you mean Kevin Hassett. See this link:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Hassett
Chair of the Federal Reserve is scary but at least Trump doesn't plan to give it to Elon Musk.... that we know of. As an aside, can you even imagine Musk putting all his assets into a blind trust if he gets appointed to any sort of post in a Trump administration? Yea, right.
Yeah, NLTownie, same way tRump put HIS assets in a blind trust. THAT concept of divesting oneself of possibly conflicting interests was lost in 2017!
At this point anything is possible as long as it favors the wealthy!
" Hassett's model indicated that coronavirus deaths would peak in mid-April, and subsequently drop off to near zero by May 15." May 2020.
From the CDC:
"May 11, 2023, marks the end of the federal COVID-19 PHE declaration."
So he was right that it would in May. Just three years later.
Thanks to President Biden and his decent people!
That works. Thanks.
I've updated the link in theoriginal post.
Sorry!
???? Your link goes to the article on the name Kevin.
Here's the full url. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Hassett
He sounds like the perfect man for a 2nd Trump administration! Heaven help us all!!
Andrea, could you provide a better link? This one just takes us to the 1st name, Kevin. I tried searching for Kevin Haskell and got nothing.
Here's the full url. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Hassett
Thanks Judith. I've updated the original post. I never could remember his last name. Obviously I have not kept in touch with him, but I have a friend from that year who has... until a few years ago, I guess.
so many, many sheep.
They are motivated by his promise of tax breaks, efforts to get rid of the EPA, Social Security and Medicare, along with other programs that benefit workers. Then these corporate high-ups can feel free to get more profits, pollute our air, water, and land, merge into monopolies, and not have to pay worker benefits.
MisTBlu--
I agree with your disgust about the applause, but the Economic Club of New York is business moguls, not economists. Their website says "senior leaders, typically C-suite":
https://www.econclubny.org/members
I did, however, note that the video shows that neither of the two women in the onstage panel applauded, including the one who asked the very cogent question about childcare.
I noticed that the woman who posed the very detailed and reasonable question did not applaud. Didn't notice the other, thanks. Once again, women are focused on logic and detail.
Thank you for the correction. I conflated their jobs with the name of the club.
You're welcome, but my guess is that the conflation is exactly. what they hope for with their title; a sort of stolen sagacity.
Stolen sagacity indeed.
You have to disengage from any attempt to forage for anything he said that had to do with childcare policy at all. He was just off on his standard rants and boasts about the concept of money as power, obviously not knowing what tariffs are, and referring to the plans he just told them about as rationale for his current sentence. Of course, he never described the imaginary plan he used as his crutch in the first place. Someone pointed out that the only true and complete sentence he said was “childcare is childcare”. Otherwise, he just injected the word ‘childcare’ randomly in his word salad and everything else was just the usual bullsh*t.
Politicians are generally very good about pivoting when asked a question to which they don't have an answer or find distasteful. As Trump generally knows very little about most things, asking him a question about something specific, especially about an issue that involves human needs or that requires a demonstration of empathy and you'll get the unconnected word salad that keeps him in his comfort zone.
All they heard was “money, money, money, money”. Seriously. It’s all about tax cuts for them. Trump didn’t make a lick of sense and that’s fine with them.
DJT has always been Unhinged to a Certain Degree... It has always been a Salve to an Essentially Mediocre Person... His progressing Dementia is accelerating his psychosis... If Kamala rattles him on the 10-Sept-2024 Debate, his Mental Illness will Amplify, and Accelerate... Go Kamala!!!
I'll say to you what I say to everyone who uses the word "dementia" when talking about Trump. We can see cognitive decline, for sure, but dementia is a diagnosis that can only be made by a competent physician. His niece, who has known him all her life and is a clinical psychologist, doesn't use that word. </>
Did you see this commentary about those stupid rich people?? Worth every second! https://youtu.be/t-Wf5VT-Pwk?si=386Uu6-hKCHXvWni
I know, right? When I saw them applaud his answer about reducing the cost of child care (tariffs?!) I felt stunned and then sick. Did I see it correctly that the woman who asked the question was not applauding?
Right after Harris mentioned her economic sources, trump counters with that Wharton experts contradict her. Interesting that it was Wharton not Harvard or Yale or his favorite school which makes him smart MIT.
They are anxious for Vance to take over which will be soon if trump wins!
Trump's act is getting stale.
JL - If you were debating DonOLD, what would you say about his crazy ramblings?
I'm not sure the press will even report 1/4 of what Heather did in this letter, so is it up to Kamala's campaign to attack his lunacy?
Hopefully, the down ballot candidates get some of the CFDT stink on them that they can't wash off before the election.
Someone here posted the best response Harris could make. I wish I could remember who it was, because it was perfect. “Well, that was weird.”
Yup, you (and Karen Hagberg) are right on! The key word for Harris should be WEIRD!! Over and over again. 1.) Trump produces some of his Word Vomit and then it’s Kamala’s turn: (Psuse) Then directly to the camera, “That was WEIRD!!!” 2.) Trump proposes a stop of classroom sex change operations.” Harris - “WOW - WEIRD.” 3.) Trump strolls over to Harris’ podium (ala the Hillary debate). Harris abruptly turns and yells, “Hey, WEIRDO - are your gonna grab my Pu$$y first or my T!T$ first?? WEIRDO!!”
Trump will explode and I will refill my bowl of popcorn while admiring the super programming of ABC.
Yes, he’s definitely triggered by being called weird, and that might be key to keeping him off balance during the debate.
And he's also triggered when he's called Donald, but she really should pronounce it DonOLD emphasis on the OLD.
Thank you for making me laugh, however sadly. One of my friends suggested that Kamala could stroll over around & behind him! The problem, of course, is that he's so BIG(LY) that she would get lost behind him.
I went back and found the comment. Props to Karen Hagberg!
"I'm speaking now!". With that smile and nod.
A hand and arm raised, fingers extended and joined, accompanied by a stomp for each lie. Channel Diana Ross. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jToiGpAe9HU
The "T" sign for time.
The campaigns agreed to muted mics, but did they agree to NOT record what the other person (DonOLD) was saying when Kamala is talking?
it would be so easy for her camp to record him and if he didn't know he was being recorded who knows what he'll say.
Great link, Daniel. Thanks.
Exactly. She needs a simple repeated (mocking) response then move on. His fragile ego will cause a live meltdown. I’m planning to have popcorn ready . .
I am concerned about the debate. Trump does not debate, he steamrolls, and with the mics off, we can't hear his off-mic steamrolling which can be distracting for Harris. It's going to be the challenge of Harris' life this far. I hope she has the right people helping her with prep. His and his supporters admire the appearance of "strength." And they all see that chicken sh*t bullying as strength. She has to be clever.
Have you ever seen a high level federal prosecutor work?
She won't be set off balance by this fraud.
The thing I'd be concerned about, if it were me there, would be I might start to feel pity for him. But even then I don't think I'd back off tearing him apart. She knows what she's doing.
Yup, I agree, Jen. At some point while Trumpie is broiling behind his dead mic, Harris should just look directly at the American (and World) public (and leaders) and say, “Golly, it’s too bad you can’t hear what WEIRD stuff WEIRD DonOLD is puking. Lip-readers out there - ENJOY!!”
And that's why I'm not concerned about her handling him as well.
We may not "hear" him, but with any luck, ABC will show a split-screen with his enraged, sweaty red face and wide open mouth.
Did you watch her take Brett apart during the SC confirmation hearings? I expect she'll do the same thing to Trump.
Harris is NOT Biden. I expect she will be masterful. Whatever the outcome, for most of the audience it will be preaching to the choir.
Masterful? Is this a joke? She is scared to death to give interviews?
Her rallies are by invite only? She can't think on her feet. She will show up tuesday programmed with one liners and talking points.
She is a lightweight.
Good point. He can just stand there yelling I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! while she tries to answer a question? How can that be considered a fair debate?
That's not a debate at all. But although this event is denominated a "debate", it really won't be one. She will answer questions, he will dish out word salad dripping with BS dressing (not my original, but I can't resist it). I hope any people who actually plan to vote but think they are uncommitted are watching and critiquing the performances and the policies.
Each gets two minutes and then the mike is cut off. And she can ignore every bit of word salad Felon45 produces, before or after his mike is muted, except to comment to the moderator that Felon45 failed to respond to the question he was asked. Ignore him, if he interrupts, "I'm speaking now," and if he continues, address the moderator and reclaim her time, straight-arm him to fend him off if he tries the untethered limp balloon BS he inflicted on Hillary.
She's too good to get sucked into Felon45's Gish Gallop strategy, and will just address her answer to the question asked by the moderator.
Hopefully Felon45 will be fact-checked live.
See my comment above about her camp recording him when she's got the floor. 😎
@Gary. Or his demeanor. His numerous tics, tells. His make-up. His wig.
And his odor. The moderators should have an olfactometer on their smart phones.
It's been stale for a long time. It really bothers me that "intelligent" people were so foused on their hatred of Hilary or Democrats or business or money, that they couldn't discern the danger Trump presented. The writing was on the wall that he was a dangerous, cruel person. Hopefully this will be a lesson for many that when a person tells you who they are, believe them. But I think it's possible these people still don't see it as a matter of their faulty perception.
The Republicans spent decades demeaning and belittling Hillary. Yes, there really is a vast right wing conspiracy. Did she make mistakes as a candidate? Absolutely! She had SO much baggage heaped on her by the right. However, she is still a serious, brilliant person who would’ve tried to protect America. DonOLD is a traitor in every sense of the word.
Even Dick Cheney sees the danger.
The Cheneys, the staunchest of traditional Republican conservatives, now outliers /outlaws in the current Maga version of the GOP . I wonder how many Republicans are just waiting in the wings for all this to implode?
Frank, I’m hoping in the privacy of the voting booth they will quietly do the right thing.
Regardless of the greedy tax breakers, of which there aren't enough to elect him on their own, he's doing his insane best to scare the rubes to the ballot box or pick up their ARs and start shooting their neighbors when he loses. Ugly stuff as that same sort of fear mongering has worked for dictators in the past.
Is it okay for her to mispronounce his name Don Old, and Donny-John, the circus barker, selling views of the … for a dollar.
Kim -- "Stale" since he first set foot on that golden elevator.
Getting ?
Getting!? His brand is in bankruptcy. He now needs violence and fear, and reminding people of the speech in DC is important…same thing…violence at his behest!
It started that way and gets worse by the day.
Do you think they'll still vote for him, or perhaps not vote at all? Trump fans seem to be in a different world of values and information than I am. Perhaps they don't see his deterioration - or just blame it on Democrats for upsetting and fatiguing Trump.
I don't think the reality of him is something that they can take in in the first place. They're working from an image, first the supposedly successful
businessman who hires and fires on television. Consider the term political
illiteracy, possibly with roots in the
poor transmission
of history lessons from whatever source or possibly
none. I would put
faux news at the
very center of their
misinformed lives.
Maybe a kind of
closed in life with
little exposure to other ways of living
and thinking. Just a
list to consider and amplify...
They believe whatever he tells them, with no doubt or wonder. They reinforce it by repeating it to one another. He will lose their votes only by shooting someone -- himself -- in the middle of 5th Avenue.
let's hope that stunt occurs to him and he carries through. Would that make Vance the candidate, or would RNC step in?
Interesting question, pre-election!
I predict his supporters will leave as the election looms. First in a mist, then dribbles, fits and starts, a trickle, a stream, a river, a flood, a deluge.
But is there enough time?
And the Republicans are in favor of voting in person on the day of the election, so hopefully their disenchantment with him will increase as we get closer to the election.
Especially since tfg and others are once again talking against mail ballots. Worked well for them in 2020, didn't it?
Cross pressured voters frequently don’t vote.
Judging from the long endless stream of anti-Biden vitriola Maga has been pouring out these past several years, it's all about "Biden" (now Kamala) Tribal runs deep here.
"Tribal runs deep" indeed it does.
It's run on from the Obama presidency. Felon45 has never been able to cope with it. Weird.
Well, we gotta remember he tapped into a very willing audience, in fact he now heads a mass political movement
Hoping for the "not vote at all" component...
They exist in Dystopian Dreamland Laurie! Their ability to discern fact form fiction has been removed from their brains.
The following paragraphs describe the Trump voter very aptly. After all, it's the people who don't follow the news that still support Trump....ignorant by choice, and just wanting to feel entertained. How many times have we heard MAGA supporters say they want to tear it all down. Somehow, they must believe that they will come out on top amid the chaos.
In the history book These Truths, by Jill Lepore, are the following paragraphs about the first, highly successful, Republican political campaign managers, Campaigns, Inc., aka The Lie Factory, founded in 1933.
'Every campaign needs a theme. Keep it simple. Rhyming is good. Never explain anything. "The more you have to explain, the more difficult it is to win support." Say the same thing over and over again. "We assume we have to get a voter's attention 7 times to make a sale". Subtlety is your enemy. "Words that lean on your mind are no good. They must dent it." Simplify, simplify, simplify. "A wall goes up when you try to make Mr. And Mrs. Average American Citizen work or think."
Make it personal. Candidates are easier to sell than issues. If your position doesn't have an opponent, invent one. Pretend that you are the voice of the people. You can't wage a defensive campaign and win. Never shy from controversy; instead win the controversy. "The average American doesn't want to be educated, he doesn't want to improve his mind; he doesn't want to work, consciously, at being a good citizen. But there are 2 ways you can interest him in a campaign, and only 2 that we have ever found successful." You can put on a fight ("He likes a good battle with no punches pulled"), or you can put on a show ("He likes the movies, he likes mysteries; he likes fireworks and parades). "So, if you can't fight, PUT ON A SHOW! If you put on a good show, Mr. And Mrs. America will turn out to see it.'
Good point. When I read that once in person they see clearly, here lies the possibility of an awakening.
Lawrence O'Donnell said recently that Trump is stupid, but the people who CLAP for him are stupider. I think they're dangerous and delusional. I guess they still believe in Santa Claus. An overweight character who brings presents and joy to every boy and girl in the world. In one night. I love Santa, and I'm not disparaging him.
Santa says "Ho! Ho! Ho!" Trump says "Hoe, Hoe, Hoe" when referring to Kamala and Hillary and women who dare accuse him of improper
behavior.
Dear Santa, please bring Kamala to us as president and dump Donald Trump somewhere in Siberia.
Love, Pam
gotta love Preacher Lawrence, he's got a great show and he uses it to the max. Nice to see him cited, i guess a few of us saw that show earlier this week.
Sadly, I miss 2+ nights a week due to rehearsals. I'm gonna have to start to DVR his show.
Defintely DVR!!! 😉
There was a clip on the innertubez: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Wf5VT-Pwk.
Enjoy!
It is a serious mistake to believe Trump is stupid. He is supremely intelligent, a genius at manipulating people around him. Those people in turn are good at manipulating others. Try to think of it as a cancer spreading out into society.
He is skilled at manipulation because that's all he's got. Supremely intelligent? I think not.
I would call him a lot of things and intelligent is not one of them. He knows how to read people and get what he wants. He reminds of the petulant child who keeps nagging and nagging 'til you give in.
He seems to have good instincts and a good read on people. I would save the word intelligent for someone like Kamala Harris.
as someone said while he was president, he's an idiot, but he's very good at it.
A useful idiot for......
Whether or not Trump was ever supremely intelligent, he is now suffering from dementia. He can (sometimes) read a teleprompter but as soon as he starts extemporizing you can see the obvious deterioration. Neurologically, his mind is toast. Others write his speeches and the comprehensible “truth” posts. He is rapidly devolving into word salad, tangential thinking and stream of what remains of his consciousness!
Donald is an excellent conman. He is fantastic at manipulation. That is not "intelligent" the way we think of it. That is a conman's street smarts.
No intelligence noted here…he has a brand, and some skill, to say provocative things…which are now brain-bin word salad at best. You can choose to impose on his spew intelligence, but it’s projection while he’s the one vomiting.
But now, regardless of intelligence (or none), he is falling apart in front of his audiences. That really ought to frighten his supporters away, and apparently now it is. At least to some extent.
What the group that asked the ChildCare question…New York Economissed? They clapped! WTF!
It is the ones who do not walk out on him that we need to worry about.
Those who leave the rally early are only trying to beat the traffic. They will still vote for him.
Remember thst his rally's are small and cicsost of pretty much the same people over Andover,
They seem to need to find a life.
At least one woman in the crowd shouted “We love Kamala!”
Well maybe they left because their bladders needed relief after hours of speeches......who knows?
my bladder doesn't take "the heat" lol
When Dick Cheney walks out on Trump as he has, there is hope. Do something; write postcards, donate—let’s win this.
We will know after the election. Trump is going to lose badly. He will be slaughtered in November and republicans will lose all the way down the ticket.
That's my fantasy as well. DonOLD thinks that he will get at least as many votes as he received in 2020 when he wasn't as old and cray-cray and before January 6th.
"Trump's hellscape" may only be "in his mind," but in their guts they know he's nuts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crMe-O10j9g
thanks for that Midas Touch inaugural and the Maga Granny! Ill take in the rest of it while im doing a little photoshop later today :)
Agree, I’m wondering the same and praying people are quietly waking away from him but keeping it to themselves. Today’s NYT polls show him ahead by 1% point. But after the last NYT poll, I’m skeptical of their data.
I read a post yesterday that said their neighbor walk outside of his house and yanked the Trump sign out of his yard and threw it away (assumingely).
I think like Heather, any number of things could have been the last straw. It had to be in the last few days obviously, so it narrows down to about 1,000,000 things. It seems the need to walk away from a likely loss at this point combined with the need to stay in power is a mental struggle Trump is losing. Will MAGA attempt to use violence at Trump’s behest? Or will MAGA turn and walk away? Will the same scenario we’re seeing at his rally’s expand to much of his base turning away from Election Day?
Either way, if he wins or loses he will become a raving madman. Demanding revenge on day one, or screaming election fraud and calling out militias. My question is, how will MAGA answer?
I confess I do worry about violence after the election. I'm a champion worrier, but still.
Sadly I think many who are walking out will still vote for him, believing Democrats to be worse. 🤷♂️
I am still seeing MAGAs interviewed on Jay Kuo's and Jeff Tiedrich's Substacks, who are absolutely clueless to anything that has to do with government, or crime, or economy, or history, or their rights, or the constitution or what Trump is saying. They certainly don't know about Project 2025. I live in a University community in the US, and those are certainly not my neighbors, and I don't personally know anyone like these MAGAs they show, so I cannot understand them other than what I have read about them.
Americans hate negativity…. trump, the pitiful loser, has a bleak future ahead of him to complete his absurd and annoying life.
Trump has unwittingly created a huge backlash from his own supporters , including those who stormed the Capitol and went to jail for him, by admitting this week that he really did lose the 2020 election.
Kamala should capitalize on that in her ads and during the debate to show how Trump betrayed his supporters and exploited them to achieve fame and fortune.
I want them to go after the bigwigs who promoted this, not the small fry.
I want them all prosecuted and jailed from top to bottom, senators to proud boys!
Hear hear, Terry!
It's bad that the big wigs too often get off, but it's important to hold the small fry accountable as well.
To Kathy Hughes - and those in Congress too.
Speaking of ads…Team Harris/Walz just released three,short reproductive rights ads that show how Trump has betrayed all women. Powerful ! 📣
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lKA_GeGwIo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYGc5HG-kHo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7a11XkQhYM
Thank you for posting these! Powerful!
There's nothing like watching him speak the words. Hard to deny when you see him actually state his intentions.
Compare these ads to Trump's dire predictions of death and destruction, the likes of which we have never seen before.
These are well done. Thanks!
I hope many more women will see this too. Thank you Kathy
TRUMP admitted that he lost the election?? When, where?
Lex Fridman podcast on 9/3/24, 11 minutes in:
https://youtu.be/qCbfTN-caFI?si=5F85dWlErr_RDdLT
It was on a podcast with Lex Fridman. Steve Schmidt wrote about it. https://open.substack.com/pub/steveschmidt/p/donalds-big-lie-revealed?r=uxe&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-admits-he-lost-in-2020-leading-white-nationalist-nick-fuentes-to-disavow-him/ar-AA1q4sB8?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Trump said he lost by a whisker
Great, but when/where?
I think it was at that 'town hall' he had with Hannity but I'm not 100% sure. Or it might have been in an interview he did with some right wing person
That should be TRUMPeted far & wide!
As an addendum, the record should reflect that during the debate one of the moderators pressed Trump on his admission to which he replied that he was only being “ sarcastic”, which is one of his standard defenses to admissions he inadvertently makes.
Oh please do 👏
L. D. Michaels, I agree!
In Fascist Italy, propaganda posters everywhere proclaimed "MUSSOLINI IS ALWAYS RIGHT".
But even Mussolini gone to seed, even the man whose gross errors of judgment had made him Hitler's puppet and turned his country into a war-torn hell never uttered nonsense like "I am always right". When he died, he was still a recognizable human being, able to look back over his career with a certain lucidity.
Meanwhile, he'd reduced his last followers to rabid, bloodthirsty attack dogs... or lost, confused fools completely unable to understand what was happening. Like Achille Starace, former sports and youth minister who went out for his usual morning run in Milan and was captured, dragged through the streets and shot, his corpse left hanging alongside the Duce's.
Spreader of mass madness, America's would-be Nazi dictator seems intent on dragging his followers down to destruction with him.
" he'd reduced his last followers to rabid, bloodthirsty attack dogs... or lost, confused fools completely unable to understand what was happening." Kudos Peter. That's a perfectly accurate description of his base (minus the rich tax break whores) which he seems to be prepping for the insane massacre he'll demand when he loses.
"bloodthirsty attack dogs". Although a minority of them are that, the majority are more like Night of the Living Dead fodder, the truly dangerous ones.
trump might want that but even his supporters have enough concern for their own lives to step away. Jan 6 convictions are fresh in their minds…
I like to believe that some are going out of curiosity. Like going to see the tasmanian devil at the zoo.
Republicans are no more monolithic than Democrats or Independents--witness Republicans for Harris versus MAGA.
Michele Hornish points out that in these Republican-saturated regions (often rural), MAGA Trumpism is all that people are hearing, and this problem can be attributed in part to the DNC's having discarded the 50-State Strategy in 2006, which undermined Democratic infrastructure in Republican strongholds since then. Think Fox "news" echo chambers.
The Harris-Walz Big Tent attracts and invites "kind" and "normal," along with diversity that includes not just race, gender, and religion, but even Republican Party affiliation. This level of inclusion is a ticket to success, and it starts with each of us being open to listening to our neighbors instead of presumptively shutting them out. That's what courageous Democratic candidates have to do in order to run in previously unopposed Republican races.
Michele is the Executive Director of Every State Blue, which crowdsources funding for Democratic candidates running in traditionally unopposed races. Every State Blue is the umbrella for Blue Missouri, Blue Ohio, Blue Tennessee, and Forgotten Democrats. Read her compelling argument that builds from Timothy Snyder’s warning, “Do not obey in advance.”
https://substack.com/@michelehornish
https://michelehornish.substack.com/p/turning-the-temperature-down-by-showing
https://everystateblue.org/
Re: Republican saturated regions: Thanks to corporate monopolization of news media like Fox, Sinclair, OAN, Newsmax, etc., Trumpism is the only point of view these regions get.
I am from Missouri and often shake my head trying to figure out how we went so deeply red in the last 15 years. I am also very frustrated that there is not a National push to work on changing the Republican dominance in states like mine. I think it can be done. Simply breaking the super majority would be a great start. This is a great article. Elad Gross would do such a better job serving the people of Missouri. Andrew Bailey has wasted our money and neglected to protect Missourians in his pursuit of MAGA junk lawsuits.
Missouri has another treasure in Jess Piper who works to break the supermajority and go blue.
https://jesspiper.substack.com/
Thanks for bringing this up, Ellie. The good news is that the Republican National Committee has abandoned its 50-state strategy, so maybe there's room for the DNC to get traction into those areas that they abandoned..?
Thanks for this, Ellie. The hubris of that strategy in 2006 has bitten Democracy hard.
I have family that have not shifted their belief of beLIEving. This is where they get their information only, and it is scary that they beLIEve The Big Lie.
Beliefs, baseless beliefs, blind faith in radically incompatible ideas. These products of degenerate religiosity undermine mental health on a massive scale, undermine religion itself and feed innocent lambs into the waiting jaws of wolves in sheep's clothing, failed extremist politicians who've found success, tax-free wealth, absolute power over obedient congregations.
America's ever-renewed infestation of Elmer Gantrys.
Watch this to better understand "blind Faith":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzGjEkp772s
It's a help. Dennett makes good use of scientific research, reason and the intelligent use of metaphor to cast light on how delusions arise and spread.
Unfortunately, while there's no problem with rationality, rationalism has colossal blind spots, and these arise from our attributing to reason be-all-and-end-all qualities that it simply does not possess.
The rationalist tends towards sterile reductionism, he (it's often a he) makes extensive use of deductive reasoning while all too often failing to subject the first principles on which the exercise is based to sufficiently rigorous testing. False axioms.
Inductive reasoning -- working from the particular to the general -- calls for perhaps yet greater caution. Even when grounded in constantly repeated experience, it could when used abusively repeat the meaningless behavior of the ant climbing a blade of grass. At the same time, by thinking outside the box, this approach grounded in real life experience can provide rich material for exploratory research.
We need to be very suspicious of concepts like the SUPERnatural or, indeed, PARApsychology. These can distort and impoverish our understanding of nature itself. Admittedly, a concept that resists definition...
Rather than simply indulging in enthralling intellectual activity, the searcher should ask questions about him/herself. "Who/what am I?" That, before going on to examine the interface with his/her activity. Not just "Who AM I?" but "What do I think I'm doing here? What are the implications of this enthralling game, looking beyond the answers I'm seeking?"
And so on...
And "What do we owe to each other?"
@ Linda. "Trump hates dogs" and "stole from kids with cancer" when repeated daily works. https://rvat.org/
Sometimes I visualize how thousands or millions of eligible voters fear a Harris/Walz win as much as I dread a Trump/Vance win.
I met a woman from Minnesota who grew up in an evangelical Christian home who asked me, are there any Republicans in Massachusetts? She described how fanatical she needed to become so she could live with the contradictions in her mind until she snapped and then methodically began to process her assumptions. She gradually allowed herself to cast off indoctrination. She drove herself to Cape Cod to see for herself, exploring her childhood aspirations to study marine environments and new career options after suspending her career as a nurse, a yoga teacher, and a landscape laborer. One person's odyssey. I continue to wonder about how each and all of us will be coping with election outcomes, whatever they may be.
For many, it's likely the feeling of being among the others who are opposed to what neoliberal policies have done to our communities over the past 40 years. They want to share their anger with others who had the rug pulled out from under their families when their jobs left the country. He conned them, and they latched on, afraid to let go.
They also blame unions and women for policies greedy executives decided to pursue.
Yeah, Kathy. Like with the immigration problem, they blame the victims.
Gloria, I wholeheartedly agree!! It’s since the late 1960’s/1970’s (and Reagan) timeframe when industrial jobs were yanked out from them. Plus, add to that, more affirmative actions that excluded the middle to lower middle class because they didn’t fall into the eligible income bracket. Now, generations of bitterness have rallied around Trump, who has been fanning the fire of their resentment- resulting in distrust of our government-elections, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, governmental agencies, etc.
Yeah, but they love their dogs and their government benefits.
https://rvat.org/
It’s both for me. His demented mind and the cult following him down the river Hades. I call it “Trumptred” as his particular form of hatred is like none other we have seen in American history. This guy is McCarthy to the power of ten.
LOL, Dana, I initially read it as “Trumpturd”…both can be valid!
True. There are a lot of bots or real people on X that believe Trump, who’s headed further into unreality.
Precisely.
And that a major US political party finds him suitable as a nominee. How can so many politicians still get behind this?
Some are in it for the money.
Money and Power. Or: Money = Power
It’s not unusual for hundreds of gawkers to gather at a train derailment. Writers for Politico, NYT, WaPo and other MSM are all hunkered over the transcripts now feverishly rewriting the dementia into policy statements.
I think it was Mark Twain that said this:
It is hard to ever convince the conned that they have been conned. I say this as I look out my window at a tRump 2024 - take America back flag and see way too many repub campaign signs in the neighborhood.
I think the quote is, it’s much easier to con people than to convince them that they’ve been conned
..."when voters actually saw him in this campaign, they would be shocked at how he has deteriorated, and that seems to be true: his meandering and self-indulgent speeches have had attendees leaving early, some of them bewildered."
Dr. Richardson pointed this out and I feel sure this is a harbinger of his nationwide support. I feel certain regular Republicans are fleeing him. I am sure more MAGA will sit this one out.
And of those 7000 some will become dead enders after Trump looses. These will be the most dangerous in the months / years after the election.
He is coming completely unhinged. I sure hope the media start reporting more of it. The AP’s editing of his child care word salad so it made sense was really awful.
Imagine ANY OTHER candidate for ANY office giving that incomprehensible rant.
They would be done for life.
Candidates have killed their political careers with a fist bump or a shout and DonOLD's rant is just another in a long string that he will likely be given a pass on.
Gary, the list is SO long of the “transgressions” he’s made in word or deed that would have torpedoed ANY other candidate. One thing, I guess, is true that he said: “When you’re a star they let you do it”.
Kinda reminds me of the ending of the movie “Sunset Boulevard” when an insane Nora Desmond is playing a role into a camera that she thinks is her comeback to fame and adoration, but it only is a documentary of her insanity.
Great flick….boy would he and Nora be a pair!
Not too bright and terrified by propaganda. It's a dangerous combination.
So who owns the AP anyway? Does the AP have a political axe to grind these days? They used to just report the facts, leaving comment and slant to newspaper editors and columnists. Or have I been an innocent babe in the woods all these years?
The only story emanating from Trump's incoherent response to a question about daycare for children is that he doesn't know what he is talking about and has no plan or ideas at all regarding daycare.
You are correct at what AP used to be. I have no idea what’s going on there. I teach in a broadcasting department at a community college and that was always the place to send students to witness transparent news reporting. No longer.
AP is a nonprofit cooperative. It both creates original journalism and shares the journalism of its member news outlets. In its original journalism, it focuses hard on factual accuracy, which is great, but it ignores the need for *contextual* accuracy as well. The Times and, to a lesser extent, the Post do the same thing. And ignoring contextual accuracy is what gets them into trouble when they write about Trump. The ignored context here is that Trump's ravings should indicate to anyone with a pulse, and definitely to people with clinical backgrounds, that Trump is mentally unfit to be given the keys to the nuclear arsenal again.
Seriously? Is there a rule against ''contextual" accuracy? It's pretty much the only way "facts" make sense. Past time to address how to write w "contextual" accuracy in the media. Cannot even imagine how 'context' can be ignored. Context,not interpretation, seems like an important journalistic skill to acquire.
I would agree. As a hiring editor, I asked questions of people interviewing for reporting jobs that would tease out whether they understood the need for contextual accuracy and knew how to get at it. I was amazed how many editors like me I met over the years who did not do the same thing.
I want to see it mentioned daily on every newscast just like the media did with Biden. Trump is in much worse shape mentally.
You might find my comment on "sanewashing" <https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/september-7-2024?r=z91m7&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=68209464> interesting.
CGW, As DT.s behavior and speech deteriorate, I can only hope that whatever is motivating the pundits and press who engage in "sanewashing" - an excellent descriptive, by the way, will become less and less attractive to them. How can people who's lively hoods depend on robust first amendment rights support (tacitly or otherwise) someone who clearly wants to destroy them? "Sane" is not a term I would use here. Yet it is exactly what's going on. Thanks for the concept and descriptive CGW!
Actually, “Sanewashing” was coined by journalist Aaron Rupar.
CGW acknowledges that in the comment he made in the link to the comment that he made.
Ally; you are right about that. I opened the link and saw it was attributed to Aaron Rupar after I posted my reply to Steve Abbott.
INSANEwashing is more like what’s happening.
Brilliant. Applies to the treatment by the MSM and right-wing media perfectly.
I was livid at AP for publishing that concoction. I don’t know why I expect better of them or any of the 4th Estate.
MSNBC has been....
Mary Trump agrees with you about the media re: “…AP’s editing of his child care word salad so it made sense was really awful.”
Mary wrote this on her Substack today:
“ The corporate media, however, have decided that it is no longer the job of its journalists and pundits to report and analyze information; rather they believe they must translate Donald’s nonsensical ramblings into a version of the English language we can all understand. That’s a huge problem because, on the one hand, they’re not really translating his words—they’re imbuing them with a meaning that is not there; on the other hand, they’re doing this without telling us they’re doing it.
So, according to Politico, Donald, “laid out a sweeping economic vision of lower taxes, higher tariffs, and light-touch regulation in a speech to top Wall Street execs.”
AP chimed in by claiming that Donald “suggests tariffs can help solve rising child care costs in a major economic speech.”
The New York Times, at the forefront when it comes to covering for Donald, ran the following headline and sub-head:
“Trump Praises Tariffs, and William McKinley, to Power Brokers”.
I still do not understand the support of common, everyday people for him. I am praying that the polls are wrong - not only so he definitively loses, bit so I can regain faith in the American people.
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the average American."
- H.L. Mencken
"No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public." PT Barnum.
They were both onto the truth of the matter.
Most, John, are not "common, everyday people."
Most are broken, abandoned, betrayed by 1) the abysmal schools their kids have had to attend (where standardized testing categorical memes and neutering conceits suffocate all); 2) the big money elites who offshored those tens of millions of working-class jobs that had previously kept them in the middle class; and 3) corporate media whose denizens came out of their educations also dehumanized, unable to reference any of our novels, films, songs, and other arts sympathetic to the plight of so many of our fellows.
Maybe. But I know too many upstate New Yorkers who support Trump who have good jobs, send their kids to private schools, and are well educated. I worry that we label the pro-Trumpers as either corporate elites or those who have been betrayed. Definitely they are part of Trump's support, but that other big group that does not fit that description baffles me.
The private schools bit may be a giveaway, John.
In her "How the South Won the Civil War," Heather dwells well on how the enslaving class hated just about any role for any government institution. This meant, too, that they mortally loathed having to pay taxes for any government agency.
That book by Heather lays the case for how that class of people just continued on in America, always hating government, including public schools. As the former enslavers they and their ilk were, they never had much respect for or interest in "others," only their own narrow circles.
Also, John, I think you know that enjoying much outside one's own orbit really requires some role models in generosity, curiosity, as well as skills rhetorically to see connections much less make more, one's own of them. One needs to plan, as in making of life a larger syllabus, in order to travel more imaginatively, in the company of role models, literate predecessors, and all the good books one may build on.
See, John, we're back at schools.
Phil, I agree with you. And the way schools are controlled is the issue. Teachers are trying their best (I am a teacher myself). The vision of education is skewed in the US. I have lived in the Czech Republic for 38 years and I teach in an international school. The school is not perfect, but we deemphasize grades, focus on skill develop, conceptual understanding, and critical thinking, allow curiosity to drive the curriculum, and promote international mindedness. We do this all in a petri dish of teenage hormones, development of self-identity, and social-emotional mental health challenges. I hope that in my lifetime we will see that shift that promotes international citizenship, focus on skills and critical thinking, and a belief that schools should be communities of learners, rather than factories for standardized testing for college admissions.
When we somehow stop the public school student test scores from determining the neighborhood's real estate values, that could be a start. If a school could be rated by its positive effect on a community, say, where parents, teachers, and students work together instead of at cross purposes or blaming each other, we might get somewhere. And don't get me started on charter schools. There is a lot to fix here. However, it can be done. Schools could be places of real learning if we find the motivation for teachers, students and parents. It's going to be different in different communities.
Well said Mona. My wife and I have lived in several states and one of the barometers we looked at before selecting a home is the reputation of the schools. The realtors are usually well informed about the schools and school districts in an area and most willingly share that information.
". . . international citizenship" -- yes, John.
I, too, have lived in the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, and Hungary.
Now, Japan.
My dream, that schools have programs to see (and write about) others as individuals. First in home classroom, then in a parallel or neighboring community elsewhere, maybe an allegedly opposite or opposed group.
Trouble is, as Heather saw the enslavers seeing their slaves as but units in production activities, so, too, do the standardized testers -- all of them -- see individuals as also but units (easily numbered) in groups, abstractions, and categories which the standardized testers worship.
Dead souls. Living dead. Ghouls. These for whom no individuals exist.
Nicely stated concerning the tests. Profit over principle and people or profit is their principle. IT seems that their transactional nature is all they can live by. Kind of like their cult like devotion to Friedman's free market ideas.
Good observation Phil. If we look at the history, first the COnservatives targeted the federal government for their cuts, and now it is at every level. They get elected for one purpose: to cut government power by over regulating the government agencies, underfunding the agencies, then blame the government for not doing the job. Look at every action they take at every level and you can see it happening. As a 35 year public educator in Texas, it happened there as it is the same in every GOP controlled state. Through groups like the ALEC, the CONservatives keep finding ways to "legally" undermine government from the inside. The only thing that the former guy knows that it is good for him so he can continue his con. As I heard one recently say- you can ignore politics, but politics will not ignore you. The extreme right has been plotting this take over for decades and the Lewis Powell Memo provided a framework that has now grown into P2025. Lord help us all.
Thank you, Rickey. You've got exactly the key history we face.
My husband fits this category. I have been frustrated in trying to understand why he is voting for Trump. You could have written this with my husband in mind.
💔 wow, Linda, I can’t even imagine what that must be like. Sending you a virtual hug & a dose of strength.
Families, Linda.
Loves, relationships, larger networks ensuing from loves, relationships.
The complications complicate.
I hope you've (many) favorite artists -- novels, songs, films -- to look into, look back on, look out of the many, many complications.
I also want to apologize for the males of our species (though I'm one of them, too).
One of the great benefits to all of us Tuesday evening -- the display of the huge difference between human qualities in one male then on display, and one very, very, very different type, which that male, his V.P. pick, and his oh-so-corrupt Clarence court consigns, reduces to Medieval As Great Again (MAGA).
I'm so sorry. That was my father-in-law, who finally died a bitter and angry man two years ago Thursday...on our wedding anniversary.
Me too.
This will help you understand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzGjEkp772s
Lancet Fluke. Perhaps that infected RFK Jr's brain? Seriously, though, thank you very much for the link! A new rabbit hole to explore 🤗
Exactly John. I am dismayed when I hear some educated, well-to-do person repeat the orange one’s delusions. I think it is the expected tax cuts that motivate those people but clearly, they set aside any rational critical thinking.
I have concluded that they are people born into comfortable income, who have proceeded with their own pursuit of comfortable income and who have been “lucky,” to whom no terrible setback has ever occurred. They think it’s all about their own effort and “why can’t everyone else do what I did?” Who are of the Pharisee class and never have met a prophet (Jesus, the Buddha or otherwise) who preach love. Of neighbor. Of the planet. Of anything other than themselves.
All terribly true, Phil.
Most of the ones in my world are retired cops who had successful careers of 25 years or more, who were a pleasure to work with, and with several of them that I faced life-threatening situations with.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat said recently, “at any one time there are about 30% of the population that don’t believe in democracy”. It explains that super-dense hard core supporters who never leave him.
I suspect that the portion of dedicated authoritarians fluctuates quite a bit, but there seem always to be a large number of people who prefer a king. Democracy and autocracy have always struggled with one another.
Democracy involves hard work. There have to be enough people who want to make it work. We've been luck so far, but stress, and dis/misinformation are often enough to make a lot of voters think it's not worth the effort. Let somebody else worry about it. A king or a dictator,maybe.
Some are lazy and don’t want to engage in their civic duties as citizens, and they don’t believe other people should be permitted to do so either, hence voter suppression, legalizing campaign finance bribery, and gerrymandering.
Going back to the discussion of schools, I was working in a lovely school system when repubs took over and began running schools like businesses—standardized testing and teaching for the test ruined it. It used to be enough to have the goal of making life-long learners. That idea that big business knows best and makes everyone happy only makes the rich richer.
And even Adam Smith said that business should not control education....
Between the media they consume & their social circle consuming the same media they believe every word he says. They even understand his word salads because they themselves talk that way.
Donald confirms their beliefs and then he gives them permission to express or even act upon them.
Exactly. Rump is a gigantic asshole, and he teaches his followers it’s completely ok to be a racist, misogynistic and narcissistic bastard. That’s why they love him: they aspire to be a gigantic asshole just like him.
No, I don't think so. I think that the idea of trying to "fix" society - which always needs work - is exhausting. It takes a lot of effort to gain and maintain Utopia. It's a lot easier just to have someone stand up and say "Life is terrible! It's not your fault! It's "them"! " And when you have someone who also says "I can fix it!" - well, that's very tempting - even if he doesn't actually say "what" or "how" he's going to fix.
Well, you're right, but it can combine perfectly with what I said: it would make sense for Rump cultists to be angry enough about their own lives to believe a liar who says it isn't their (own) fault, while at the same time being perfectly ok with being a complete asshole. I mean, remember the "fuck you, Greta!" stickers on the back of pickup trucks? How much of an asshole do you need to be to say such a thing to a young girl who's afraid of her future? How much of an asshole do you need to be to say things like "some people just need killing!", or toting assault rifles on a Christmas card?
OK, Dutch - you win THAT debate!
I guess you do have to be pretty much of an asshole not to see what he's doing and stand up and fight against it.
Like watching someone torture a kitten and not saying "Hey! Stop that!"
While I agree about the general assholishness, I also agree about the exhausting work of maintaining a commitment to improve the world. In my experience with maga types, it's one experience that they see as "the government" acting against them.
A piece of property taken to build a highway, a cabin built on Forest Service or Bureau of Land Managment property that was torn down, property taxes raising to the point that grandma can't afford to live in her home anymore, or any of a thousand rules that have been developed to protect the majority against the vandalism of the minority; all of these have become the cause of grievances that are handed down from generation to generation.
The original cause may not even be remembered, but the sense of government "doing wrong by me" lives on.
Not forgetting the "Liberals not letting me take the Former President to Arlington for a campaign ad."
Completely ignoring the wishes of the rest of the families who have loved ones buried there.
Thump flatters human proclivities.
And he’s an example of every one of the Seven Deadly Sins, a moral void who wraps himself in an illusion of virtue. Christian Nationalists eat it up.
Exactly my thoughts
I'll regain faith in the "American people" when we finally put Trump in the slammer where he belongs, and when we add a clause to the Constitution requiring all taxation to be progressive, with no upper limits on millionaires, billionaires and trilionaires.
Everything above 1 million a year of disposable income taxed at 100 %, no more loopholes requiring a team of lawyers to understand, the kind of all-inclusive social state we could easily afford if people were not always at each others' throats. How many more years of abuse can our planet take before we become an extinct species?
To paraphrase Bill Clinton: "It's the worldview, stupid". Most of DT's supporters are not fighting for a certain issue, policy, party, religion, or even dominance. They have ideas about how the world should work that make sense to them (not to me, however) that DT has somehow come to embody. DT's supporters are not any smarter or more stupid than the rest of us, they're just stuck in a Donna Reed/Father-Knows-Best world view they can't really articulate because it never really existed. Like most of us, all they want is to be seen as right. Now, however, being right and on the Right, has become very dangerous for them and the rest of us.
Steve Abbott, not all are stuck in Donna Reed /Father-Knows-Best. For some| it's more like "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome". Some have an obsessive need for violence, feeling superior, believing they are always right, controling and repressing people, constant negativity and the sport of creating conflict. You're right; they are very dangerous. Their egos are very dangerous. And those within the group, who are not this extreme, are only a few degrees of separation away, and under the right conditions would become so.
I don't understand it either but, judging by the Trump 2024 flags I see flying in yards in ID and WY, that support is real. What really concerns me is how those people will react when Trump loses.
We know Trump is eager to encourage violence, which is exactly what we don’t need.
Baffling!
John, I am a retired cop. Many of my Facebook friends are also retired cops. They eat that garbage like it is a fine steak dinner, then come back for dessert and coffee. I suspect that their "information" sources are some of those foreign (cough, Russian) influenced sites. I have had a former sergeant argue with me about the "post-birth abortions" and cannot get him past that (even after describing the Oregon homicide statute that defines what a person is, which is “Human being” means a person who has been born and was alive at the time of the criminal act") which means that said "post-birth abortion" would be prosecuted as a homicide. His well-thought out response <sarcasm font> is "not if they call it an abortion". Others post such vile things about Harris and Walz that I am stunned and dismayed at their lack of critical thinking skills.
My theory is that they so badly want white Christian Nationalism, where the pinnacle of humanity is a white, Christian, heteronormative, cisgendered, man.
And isn’t that just tragic? Where did they miss the boat on how the diversity of our citizens makes for a richer, more exciting and fulfilling life??
John, its not politics for them, its the need to find some kind of validation internally that their team (think sports) can/will win at something; otherwise their lives have little meaning
"I still do not understand the support of common, everyday people for him."
Simple. The end of the Fairness Doctrine that brought us Rush and then Fox.
Same here
I encounter Trump supporters in that they’re my patients. It seems they see him as the only option if they’re opposed to abortion. They ignore the news coverage about him.
Racism is the answer….
Want to know what's worse than Trump's insanity? It's the depraved cynicism of moneyed Republicans (Leon, for example) willing to sacrifice our entire democracy for a tax cut. They will still be here long after Trump is dead and gone!
They scare me more than the wild orange guy. Those 2025 people have a lot of money and that’s one of the reasons msm is so quiet. It’s real creepy.
Right. The force behind trump is the real threat.
And they’ve only just begun. Trump is their idiot du jour but there will be many more as the years continue.
And, Kristin, they’ve been working on this for decades…..long before TFFFG ever came on the scene.
Liberty and justice for all is an ongoing battle.
Are you perhaps referring to Leonard Leo? I'm not sure he's so much interested in another tax cut (after all, how many billions does a guy actually need?) as he is at replacing democracy with the kingdom of God on earth. His God, that is.
Or is it Elon? That guy's just a whack job with way too much money. One of those who thinks because he's good at one thing he'll be good at some other unrelated thing.
It’s Elon.
Elon and Trump are serious racists.
Leonid Muskovite is a true threat to national security, not to mention our tax system. He is more pathological than Trump because he is smarter, far richer, and ruthless in his own right, not dependent on the viciousness of thugs and henchmen to do his dirty work.
South African racist background is much like Trump and the Central Park Five. Both use racism for power.
That's it! From now on, I'm calling him Leon Skum!!
Because they think he will give them more control,
Tax cuts for sure. That has work out swell for the 1%. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/13/wealthiest-americans-tax-income-propublica-investigation
but what guys like "leon" really seek is Absolute Power.
We call him Leon Muck -- seems fitting!
If he were a relative, would you not suggest mental competence testing?
It's time for a straitjacket and a padded cell.
He mentions Hannibal Lecter so much because he sees himself in the fictional character?
He IS the fictional character.
I heard someone opine recently that he's conflating people asking for asylum with the only "person" he knows who was confined in an [insane] asylum.
I think he fears sharing Hannibal's strapped down confinement. He probably thinks Lecter was "treated very badly. . . "
It’s not clear to me that he knows Hannibal Lecter is fictional.
Some kind of cell for sure.
That is most assuredly in his future, if he lives long enough, and if he doesn’t, the fires of hell will no doubt be his warm embrace. 🙏
that'd be bad news for the criminal indictments. zero closure? *maybe* his spawn would have to foot the bill for the civil cases, but even that'd be pretty anticlimactic ...
That's what they did during the time MAGA wants to go back to.
If he drove, it would be time to take away the car keys.
KEM, yes! And I would have him given the full battery, not just person, woman, man, camera, TV.
I think a battery of 120,000 volts oughta do it.
You mean, James, in the sinking boat being circled by hungry sharks….THAT battery?
🏆🏆🏆
Useless. Mental testing would achieve nothing. Intelligence is too compromised to allow for it.
Even that would be telling, I think.
Thanks Heather, hopefully “what happens in Wisconsin does not stay in Wisconsin “! However will we see one reference to this in now today’s corporate media news. The recent article in the Guardian by Rebecca Solnit ( thanks Robert Hubbell for bringing this to our attention) puts in context your efforts to corporate media and where would we be without you and the trifecta ( or Avengers) of you, Joyce Vance and Robert Hubbell!
Margaret Sullivan hailed HCR as the only "new media" writer who is having an effect, writing in her Substack today.
I live in rural Wisconsin, in one of the poorest counties in the state. My neighbors don't have much, and they are desperately afraid of it being taken away. It happens all the time with medical bankruptcies, job layoffs, and bad weather that destroys a year's worth of profits for farmers and local businesses. They are right to be afraid; they just blame the wrong people.
He’s a monster and his supporters are so awful, too. I see them post on Nextdoor, my neighbors, this vile nonsense about migrants stealing our homes and Nancy Pelosi just giving them handouts. It’s pure lunacy but these fools believe it all. I can’t fathom another “presidency” with these MAGA psychos. If he “wins” and these fascist Nazis do what they say they’re going to do, it’s highly doubtful I’ll stay here in those country. I hope with all my heart and soul that I don’t have to make that wrenching decision. #HarrisWalzToSaveDemocracy 🙏
Nextdoor - the perfect way to find out you want nothing to do with the people next door.
We've been pretty lucky with Nextdoor so far here on Oahu, except for the ads. Most of the people on the site, even politicians, generally refrain from politicking. Those that speak ill of others or spout wild conspiracy theories get shouted down pretty quickly. There is a hard core of baby boomer conspiracy theorists who write letters to the editors of the Star-Advertiser or who pollute the S-A online edition with nutso comments, but all you need to do is check out the name of the letter writer to know it's just nodda one from dat guy.
Nextdoor--the refuge for babyboomer conspiracy theorists.
I was on Nextdoor maybe half a week. I had originally thought it would be a good place to post about lost pets, etc. (We get lots of pet dogs who get loose around here.) Turns out it is for paranoid racists who see "people who don't belong in our neighborhood" (wink, wink) under every rock.
I couldn't delete that thing fast enough.
I got banned from it for calling out the fools, idiots, and morons as the fools, idiots, and morons they are. (Why are most white people so low on the IQ scale? It's embarrassing!)
One of the reasons I bailed from Nextdoor. I really have no time or patience for that. I'd really rather not know what my "neighbors" think.
I got banned from Nextdoor for calling a woman who wanted us to "take pictures of those that don't belong here" ( when the first recreational pot shop opened) Beulah.
As in the Nazi cow in Field of Dreams.
We sold our house and move to France 6 months ago. We saw this coming.
This was a very scary post. Thank you for writing it; it needed to be written. I wish I had waited until morning to read it.
There’s no best time for truth. Either we lose sleep or get our day off to a heavy start
Same here.
An English professor friend, who I wrote saying I hoped my ritirement would offer more beauty, less truth wrote me back quoting Keats" the two are one," I, from 45 years experience in clinical practice, wrote back, "They have an overlap, but the two are not one." Well spoken.
I'm glad I did not see it before going to bed!
They're getting darker. I always wait til morning to read it. Unfortunately the sun hasn't come up yet...
Fear leads to hate, and the combination is terrifying to watch. To what extent this will be clear to the MAGA cult is hard to predict. I can only be hopeful that Trump's behavior during the debate will make his disintegration undeniably apparent. Where is the msm that took apart every utterance of Biden's and declared him unfit to be president now that Trump's fantasies, based on fear and hate, are on full view? What are they afraid of? Whom do they hate? If they think that not speaking the truth now will protect them should Trump get re-elected, they are living in a world that is as delusional as his.
"Donald Trump brings high ratings!" - Jeff Zucker the Fucker (as we knew him in Hollywood) when he was criticized for airing Trump's 2016 hatealongs live on the Cretin News Network.
What’s really disappointing is educated women men still think that he’s the best for Israel I had one lady tell me. Oh he’s the best. Why would we vote for anyone else? He moved the embassy to Jerusalem aren’t these people watching? Don’t they hear what he says? It’s just so crazy but I fear even the Supreme Court might look to save his butt. I don’t trust them worth the damn either.
I’m still convinced that, if Kamala wins the election, they will simply rule that the victory goes to Rump. They have done it before…
Nah, this demonstrably corrupt, accountable to nobody SCOTUS would never rule her win unconstitutional, would they?
Would they??
I'll betcha they have already been promised a whole lotta bribes, er, gifts, if they will do so...
Yes, I think that may be exactly what happens. And if it does I certainly will be one that goes into the streets.
He’s imploding in front of us. I want to have sympathy….. but I don’t.
I want him gone. Permanently. And I no longer care how.
The only sympathy I have is that he has NO ONE in his inner circle who cares enough about him to get him the help he so obviously needs.
Even if people tried to get him help, I doubt his fragile ego would allow him to admit he needed it.
Prison systems have mental health support.
sure, on paper.
What - while there's still money and power to be got from him?
No chance.
Would you want to have sympathy for Hitler? Of course not!
No sympathy for a wounded wild boar charging.
I really hope he self-destructs and explodes. And I hope that moment is caught on camera.
Even so, some people would not believe it.
this! he already had an overdeveloped "I never said that" reflex. now it's "that was deepfaked". the 'record' is practically irrelevant
I'm more worried that the SCROTUS will finally start allowing recording and then just do the same thing. (it's already bad enough that the reactionary hack majority aren't called to account for what they've put their names to.)
I think most would believe it, but would just blame Kamala for it and demand that she be hanged for it.
Tuesday night? 😈
Yes, I wish that...
Heather’s “… fury at the jury’s” is mellifluously spot on.
That does have a nice rhythm to it, doesn't it?
Why?
If only all members of what we call, with respect, The Fourth Estate, spoke with such truth and clarity as you do. Then we wouldn’t be fearful that this utterly repulsive madman and the fascists who control him might very well take over our country in November.
The Press Corpse is The Enemy of America. They've sold us out for nickels and dimes.
too much "In-bedded" reporting.
True dat.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/trump-clinton-harris-election
He is deteriorating before our eyes. The risk to all of us personally, to the country and to the world is unimaginable if he should win. He must be defeated!
Not defeated. Canceled. Checked out. Permanently.
If he isn’t defeated, and then completely comes apart in the following four years, then “Hello President Vance”.
As sure as the sun rises in the east, we all knew the day would come when Donald Trump no longer held the fascination of his followers. But what comes next? How can we heal those who still feel their world view is defeated? I really believe Biden righted the Democrat’s ship to give it not just a purpose, but a mission to expose the lies of the Movement Conservatives.
We are at what President Biden keeps referring to as an inflection point - and it isn’t just about climate policy, but it’s about reinvesting in the human potential in America. In 1980, the US working-age population was peaking because of the baby boom, a throughout the last 40 years, competition for jobs has always been high. But now that the boomers are retiring, there aren’t enough workers to fill their jobs. I think the tech sector wanted AI to fill the gap, but they aren’t ready yet. As middle-class workers, we have this one shot to demand dignity in our workplace, not just for us, but also for the kids coming up. Which brings me back to my first point.
Heather was right in saying that the first discussion with a Trump voter, especially a middle class one should be about taxing the wealthy. Why do they get a pass? Why are you worried about inheritance or capital gains taxes when they most likely won’t affect you? Or when they say, “I don’t want my taxes going to illegal immigrants,” maybe respond, “I think that if full time Walmart employees can qualify for food assistance, then Walmart should pay for it - not taxpayers.” We need to turn their frustration to the real theives, and end the Bogieman myth once and for all.
This is all very scary - but what is more scary to
me is the fact that so many of our fellow citizens - at least so far - seem not to grasp or discern how really dangerous and threatening to our country Mr. Trump’s agenda for the future is becoming.
Trump has no agenda other than exacting revenge. It's the soulless cabal that runs him that we have to look out for.
ASTOUNDING!
They say and believe the same about us…
"every accusation is a confession." that part ain't symmetrical, either.
The saddest and most terrifying thing about this is that at least some MAGA people are so certain he is honest that they take these crazy points as facts. Some time ago he said it (paraphrased): Believe me. Don’t believe your eyes, don’t believe your ears. Believe me.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and of your ears. It was their final, most essential command.” - Orwell. "1984"
A marker of Trump's public appeal is his meme 'no earnings-mega-loss making' stock, a 'must have' for MAGAs with little money. (No wealthy people will buy that POS unless as a tax loss and to essentially donate money to him at the same time when he starts selling.) Stock debuted at $79.38 and has been steadily sinking to $17.10 Friday. It jumped after PA shooting, proof it is not investmenting that is driving it. DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!
Now that the 6-month holding period is over, I'm waiting for him to dump the DJT stock and walk off with more millions, leaving others holding the empty bag. It doesn't matter to him if it tanks completely. He'll do just fine. That's his M.O. It's just a question of when, not if.
They believe because it's impossible for them at this point not to believe. Hear Anne Applebaum's thoughts on autocracy in America:
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2024/09/start-with-a-lie/679625/?gift=nXcoidWtFNf5X9ehv7lmWpFOH61R6bdBe2f9KQPdRr8&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share