Please, America, do not get your hopes up. You will be very disappointed. Why? For one simple reason most of us do not want to accept because we think differently than the approximately 35% of Americans who now represent both the "base" for the modern day GOP and, yes, Donald Trump's donor pool for raising money.
This is no longer about Trump. It is about us. Sure, Trump was the catalyst and active ingredient for all the hatred , bile and grievance we now come to expect from the American right and the Trumpian dominated voter base. Poll after poll shows the views and biases of hard core Trump supporters have become aligned with the beliefs of "conservative" Republicans. Just look at the overwhelming support the , so called, leadership of the RNC and Senate and House Republican candidates threw behind the over 300 election deniers running under the GOP banner. Does that sound like a party which ever might put principle ahead of pragmatic red state winning politics?
Furthermore, in the early stages of the post mortem now beginning to play out the furthest right of the GOP in the House (often called The Freedom Caucus but better described as Team Gym Jordan) are already signaling whomever they want as Speaker will have to be a lot more aggressive in pushing radicalism than that wishy washy Kevin McCarthy. Does that sound like a party trying to reach back toward a more modest middle ground?
I am hoping for open and public warfare, a real in each other's face peeing match which is going to show all the last election proved was the current GOP is dysfunctional in addressing the real issues of the nation. And, I want Joe Biden and the Democrats not to sit idly by but to counter attack. I want Joe to have his Senate controlled majority to draw up a tax cut law. For all American families earning $100K or less. Financed by returning capital gains rates to their old levels and eliminating carried interest. Followed by a law to have HHS negotiate to lower insulin prices including a provision that unless Big Pharma agrees the United States government will get into the insulin manufacturing business as a critical drug.
Let's stop pretending the modern day GOP wants to solve any problems we have, It has grown and prospered on grievance, racism, sexism and ,yes, denial of science and fact. It deserves to be put onto the ash heap of history. What all of us including the Democratic Party is not to just sit back and hope it will self immolate but give it a good push and, yes, kick it while it is down. That is what the Republicans would do.
What Stan said! I do not understand the fascination with Trump. I do not understand how he has managed to get away with everything he's gotten away with. What I do understand is that the fascination and the escape-artistry mean that something is seriously, deeply wrong with both the electorate (esp. those 74 million) and the so-called mainstream media.
And, I should add, with the once-Grand Old Party. The overwhelming majority of its elected officials and its wannabes are pathetic, amoral, incompetent, and/or mean, even the relatively young ones. The Dems, in contrast, have a very deep bench, and an encouraging number of up-and-comers in their 20s and very early 30s.
Susan Sontag warned us against using "illness as metaphor," but I'm gonna do it anyway. What it looks like to me is that the U.S. body politic is down with a serious, potentially fatal infection, but it's finally generating the antibodies and the new bone, blood, and flesh it needs to recover. That would be us. Let's keep at it.
Something tells me you don't watch much tv, Susanna, especially not celebrity reality shows. I gather that was his intro to many, maybe most, of those people—collective couch potatoes elsewhere, few near home. They were fans before they formed a political cult.
Bingo. I don't have a TV. I haven't lived for any length of time with a TV since about 1981. I'm sure I miss a lot, like there are some conversations I can only observe, not participate in. (Same goes for most sports.) But it's not all that hard to find other things to have conversations about.
USians do seem to be susceptible to personality cults, in politics and religion among other areas. I've never in my life seen anything like the mega/MAGA phenomenon, but I suspect it's got roots in politics and religion as well as in reality TV.
No tv? No surprise. I came to it late, cable never, have always watched selectively. Last time mine (7" screen) was on was months ago. OK, so I'm culturally semi-literate. I admit, however, to being a lifelong radio addict, music and news. After Air America tanked I missed it and came to wish for CNN and MSNBC. I now have the perfect compromise, those networks online streaming audio. I also have a free a-v app for both that I turn on when inherently visual news breaks. If you're shameless, fair-weather sports fandom can be rewarding. I reveled in a peak-fun championship baseball season and sublime championship basketball seasons, don't give sports a thought the rest of the time.
Proximity and aggressive media expose us to, and inform us about, U.S. cults of personality political and religious. I'm not sure they're more common here than anywhere that economics and communications allow. We just don't hear of them elsewhere till they get noisy. The NYT foreign staff is pretty good at noting early eruptions.
The votes are almost all counted. Things are looking pretty good for the “blue!” As usual, the press is too caught up in themselves to listen to voters. There was never any red wave coming. Duh! But the press remains obsessed and addicted to click bait, ratings, and Trump: “fascinated” by him. Glorifying him at every turn. Obsessed with his followers. Glorifying them too, whoever among us remains in that spineless cult. But here’s the thing: It’s so fucking old! It’s so damned tired. And it’s been so incredibly destructive. The voters, thankfully, are DONE WITH IT! OVER IT! NEXT PLEASE! They’re done with it in Brazil! They’re done with it here. Thank God! Just look at the blue wave in the state legislatures. Look at the blue in the senate. There was a small leak that may force us to “treat” a mild red infection in the House for two years. It’s akin to that red algae that flourishes in Florida! We’ll just have to deal with it. So, it’s time for the press to get over themselves and move on. Quit being so damned lazy. Show us some real reporting that isn’t hyper-hyped! Stop the lying and obfuscating for the sake of click bait and ratings. Stop obsessing over a monster who you’ve given more attention to than Jesus Christ ever got, and start obsessing over the people who can and want to do good for society. Disagreements? Of course!! Glorifying an evil man and helping him regain power?? Stop it now!
Donald Trump has been flushed down the toilet into the sewer. Even the Murdoch press and Fox News are over him. “I’m melting, I’m melting,” cried the Wicked Witch. Now it’s Merrick Garland’s turn to finish him off (after Georgia and New York bite off their pieces of flesh). Good riddance!
The Republican Party has placed itself between a rock and a hard place. If they continue to treat tRump as the leader of their party, they know they risk the same outcome in 2024 as in 2020 and 2022. If they toss him aside, he will tear the party apart. Looks like a lose/lose situation to me.
On another note, if they think DeSantis is their next hero, they better think again. He is a much more extreme version of tRump, and didn’t the majority of the American electorate tell them that they are done with that horrible extremism?? Looks to me like they are in a whole heap of trouble.
DeSantis may be younger and smarter, but he has no charisma and is happier with ordering people around than working with them. And he won bigly on Tuesday because there are more Republicans living in FL since the pandemic and when DeSantis offered health care jobs to all the people who got fired in blue states like NY who required all health care workers to be vaxed for covid. FL turned red, which was a boon for DeSantis but won't necessarily help him should he run in 2024. Meanwhile, Trump will be trying to bury him in insults. "DeSanctimonious" indeed.
A swift end is too kind. I would like to see him live long enough to witness the DoJ and Fanni Willis and Tish James bring their actions against him. I would like him to live long enough to lose whatever wealth he has managed to finagle. I would like him to live long enough to see himself repudiated by those who always despised him but promised fealty out of vile self-interest. And maybe even live long enough to have Melania divorce him.
Yes! I said this very thing to my art teacher yesterday. She's a staunch Catholic and gave me such a look, I asked her to say a few prayers on my behalf, but I wasn't going to take back a single word! It needs to happen at a rally, in full view. There will be loads of conspiracy theories, no doubt, but at least the event will be PUBLIC.
I’d been wondering, when he dies, who the conspiracy theories will pin it on: Republicans or Democrats. The motive is starting to favor the Republicans, I’d say. If it hasn’t since November 2020.
I’d like to see him end up like old Joe Kennedy-/ rendered speechless, incontinent and helpless by a massive stoke that stops just short of killing him.
Nooooo. The ultimate end of a toxic narcissist is not to drop dead in front of the idiots who love him. It's to be ridiculed, hated and then forgotten, an old man in ketchup-stained pajamas parked in a cockroach-infested nursing home by his children and his wife, all of whom have also moved on with their lives.
Imagine him telling everyone he's "Donald Trump, your favorite president," and getting blank stares or worse, derisive laughter.
Once he's convicted, he will need to appoint a power of attorney or more likely, ask the court to appoint a conservator. He will stupidly name one of his sons, who will rob him blind.
Hello Lucian, I agree with everything you’re saying of course. He is Mr. Spellbinding. I think the system just wasn’t ready for an out-and-out criminal in the halls of U.S. power. All those people in the system went into shock, they were stunned.
After eight years of Michelle and Barack in the White House, it’s not surprising that we got the last desperate gasp from the sexist and racist block of our society. Their hero. He is an idol to them. It’s sickening, but in my line of blue-collar work, I have met many people who idolize him.
He lost in 2020. The last great hope of the sexist and racist block of society went down. He lost the Senate, too. Miraculously. And now the sheer weight of litigation is going to crush him, esp. criminal indictment (I doubt civil litigation will ever slow him down).
The other lame contenders, like Rubio and company, were ridiculed in 2016. What chance does a Republican have anymore to win the White House in this society, as it now stands?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the next election in 2024 produces another Democrat, probably not even Biden. There are no Romney‘s or McCain’s or anyone else capable of taking the White House from a Democrat. The US political system may well have gone past the point of no return for the Republican Party. They are an endangered species nationally, just like they became in California after the 2010 redistricting. After that honest redistricting, the 2018 California house blue wave was a foregone conclusion, it would have to happen. Super-majorities in both houses of the state legislature, and all major political slots filled by Democrats.
It’s going to happen nationally, in DC. There is a better than even chance we will never see a Republican president again until they completely change their party, or there is a completely new party
Whatever happened to Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker? Remember them? That's who TFG and Melanoma bring to mind - just a reincarnation of that freak show in a 2016-2022 version of a carnival. There are always folks who are mesmerized by such snake oil salesmen and their female sidekicks. People who barely had a nickel sent that nickel to Jim and Tammy Faye just as they do to TFG and Melanoma today.
There's a comedian who interviews MAGAts and then posts the interviews on UTube. These carnival devotees would be screamingly hilarious if they were not so pathetic. We seem to be forever stuck with 35% of people who are drawn like moths to flame especially when the flame is over the top and ridiculous.
i am ever fascinated by the ever fascinated american populous' fascination with celebrity and pomp.
as an outsider to american politics, i find it curious and entertaining how seemingly normal rational people can be drawn to the glitz and celluloid glamor of celebrities who espouse differing political views when their only claim to fame is that they are accomplished in portraying fake lives on flat bright screens.
As much as I agree that the current republican party is crumbling, I keep in mind Heather Cox Richardson's point that a successful democracy needs at least 2 parties. So I'm hoping that the never trumpers will figure out how to create a new party that is strong enough to counter the democratic party so that the Ds don't pull to the opposite extreme.
I don’t know how I happen to have so much confidence in where things are heading, but I do, and it’s inexhaustible. We are heading away from racist and sexist, white male, hegemony and towards egalitarian society. We just are. It’s still miserable, it’s still pukeworthy from certain people, but it’s fading. When we were born, gay and lesbian rights weren’t even a thing. Black men were still being lynched. That’s one lifetime. In the course of human evolution, that’s lightning speed.
As with all car wrecks, eventually the car gets towed away and you move on. I'm doing my best to not click on stories about tfg in hopes that the news media will finally stop giving him oxygen.
Where are the indictments? Why can’t the “system” deal with such a shameless POS renegade who blatantly commits crimes in the open? Maybe my most disturbing question is “Why does such a large fraction of the electorate buy into the evil bullshit? Once I have my feeling of relief at the demise of the toxic red tide, I still ask “Why is this even close?”
We are in the minority on this particular thread, but I expect multiple felony indictments and wouldn't be at all surprised to discover --- some months from now --- that the real battle behind the scenes now is which prosecutors go first.
All of these investigations and grand jury proceedings do not signal that they are mere window dressing - this is serious stuff this time and cannot be compared to toothless congressional proceedings (exception: The Jan 6 committee, which has passed its findings to the Justice Dept). What motivates prosecution is that unless a precedent is established that includes prosecution and punishment, there will be nothing safeguarding the country from future chaos and the possibility that a similar coup attempt will not be stopped.
AND these indictments are/were accomplished because of Pelosi’s brilliant plan to form the J6 committee! Not that the DOJ wouldn’t have eventually discovered was they presented, but the committee sped some things up.
Speaking of Qevin McQarthy, he’s like a little boy anxiously waiting for Santa to bring him gifts for being such a “good” little kid. He’ll dismantle the committee with an axe. He wants to impeach Biden. I say wants because that ain’t gonna happen. He will appoint Marjorie Three Names and Gym Jordan to head up committees. Look, the Dems winning the House is probably unlikely and the next two years will be hell for us. The good thing is that Qevin will not get any bills passed. Let’s start planning for 2024!
It might be hell for you, but it's not hell for me. It's just life. I'm done with getting upset over politics. Life is literally too short. And I would rather be calm and focused on better things.
I expect indictments soon as well, (rhetorical question), my next question now is which ones? So many to choose from, I say do them all! No bullshit "We only get one chance." It is the do or die moment of our judicial/political system. And I expect them to be very solid, like the J6 Committee's presentations. Just make them soon, no excuses.
Not this time Lucian. I think he is down for the count and is going to take the rest of the hard core MAGA group with him. Also, will be indicted before the end of the year. Maybe as soon as next week if Dems win Nevada.
Notwithstanding my mental health, i believe that MAGA crowd wll splinter and crawl back in their holes. Trump was a unique kind of demagogue and the Deplorables are seeming to lose their appetite for violent civil disobedience now that they see the Jan.6 crew going to jail. So, i agree that they are not going to disappear, they have already lost their political power and that is almost as good.
the internet, social media specifically, has permitted widely dispersed tribal members to find each other and to enjoin in mayhem. they may have differing ideologies but they find community in hate and despair that trump is so adept at fostering.
feeling together that their way of life is being left behind, whether it be race, religion, sexual mores, or economic standing, they have found through the ether of digital smoke signals a common tribal powwow of grievance.
and even when trump is long gone to his dreary hunting grounds, as long as the internet stays with us, they will gather to the drumbeat of hate and despair. and they have stronger weapons than clubs and arrows.
What you describe is certainly a possible scenario. If there is significant violence again, it will only damage them more politically. I don't see Trump running. His ego cannot deal with another defeat. Instead he will snipe at every other candidate and try to be a kingmaker. At this point he is clearly toxic and i doubt if any potential candidate wants his support. I hope he goes to Georgia to campaign for Walker.
No, I understand that. The MAGAs and spineless Republicans are all problems we’ll be dealing with for a long time. But if Trump was out of the limelight (and that doesn’t necessarily mean dead, just sidelined), it might help. Or not.
I think losing his popularity is already killing him, actually. He is terrified of being a "loser," and that's what is behind his insistence on repeating ad nauseam the Big Lie. I read that he didn't take the losses of the candidates he endorsed very well. Interesting, though, is that he gave very little of his Super PAC money to those candidates. He's been using that money to pay his lawyers instead.
It would not help or hurt if he dies. It's not about him, it's about authoritarianism and the ugliness that the GOP has embraced.
What many of us didn't notice in 2016 was that Trump became president after a long GOP trajectory towards fascism. Remember, Trump formed a personality cult in 2015 because he had almost total control of the public image of the plain spoken pissed-off everyman as a candidate. Poor journalism failed to expose the voters to his criminality and his nonstop mendaciousness. However, it also failed to tell the story of who Trump's backers were, and the full story of Russian election interference did not become public until, as a sitting president, Trump was well able to shut it down.
It's the MAGA crowd who are a threat, not Trump, who won't live long enough to build a full blown authoritarian/fascist state.
The real MAGAts are the ones behind the scenes, waving their Dark Money around. Unfortunately, there are plenty of them, but I want to see religious extremism brought to their knees.
With the failure of the red wave to materialize, I think the tide has turned. As he outlives his usefulness and, indeed, becomes a liability for his party, I see Murdoch’s vultures circling and the GOP rats happily deserting the leaky ship. Amazing that the Trump brand ever had any luster, but now it’s tarnished and corroding in plain sight. In the Trump/deSantis feud, my money’s on Ron, not Don. And I have to think that those felt compelled to take the knee, even though they personally abhorred TFG, will now rejoice and bask in his undoing. The wonder is that he has gotten away with all his crimes this long.
The trouble is— DeSantis is MUCH worse and more dangerous than t-Rump. He is a true believer intent on ramming his religious views down everyone’s throats. He has a real, extreme right-wing agenda, which t-Rump never did, and the ruthlessness to get it done.
To crack one more old chestnut: there's a first time for everything. This revolting man-child outlaw will pay his dues one day. And you know what thought gives me great satisfaction? . . . the first cut is the deepest. The first cut is going to hurt him so bad and I can't wait for it to happen!
I disagree. He is going to be indicted on federal and state charges. The election results contained nothing to make Garland fear public reaction to his indictment, and failure to indict is a declaration that our laws mean nothing. We are going to have something to be very grateful for over turkey, and if not by then, certainly a gift under our tree. And, based on his loonier than ever shrieks of rage, he knows he’s fucked.
Please, America, do not get your hopes up. You will be very disappointed. Why? For one simple reason most of us do not want to accept because we think differently than the approximately 35% of Americans who now represent both the "base" for the modern day GOP and, yes, Donald Trump's donor pool for raising money.
This is no longer about Trump. It is about us. Sure, Trump was the catalyst and active ingredient for all the hatred , bile and grievance we now come to expect from the American right and the Trumpian dominated voter base. Poll after poll shows the views and biases of hard core Trump supporters have become aligned with the beliefs of "conservative" Republicans. Just look at the overwhelming support the , so called, leadership of the RNC and Senate and House Republican candidates threw behind the over 300 election deniers running under the GOP banner. Does that sound like a party which ever might put principle ahead of pragmatic red state winning politics?
Furthermore, in the early stages of the post mortem now beginning to play out the furthest right of the GOP in the House (often called The Freedom Caucus but better described as Team Gym Jordan) are already signaling whomever they want as Speaker will have to be a lot more aggressive in pushing radicalism than that wishy washy Kevin McCarthy. Does that sound like a party trying to reach back toward a more modest middle ground?
I am hoping for open and public warfare, a real in each other's face peeing match which is going to show all the last election proved was the current GOP is dysfunctional in addressing the real issues of the nation. And, I want Joe Biden and the Democrats not to sit idly by but to counter attack. I want Joe to have his Senate controlled majority to draw up a tax cut law. For all American families earning $100K or less. Financed by returning capital gains rates to their old levels and eliminating carried interest. Followed by a law to have HHS negotiate to lower insulin prices including a provision that unless Big Pharma agrees the United States government will get into the insulin manufacturing business as a critical drug.
Let's stop pretending the modern day GOP wants to solve any problems we have, It has grown and prospered on grievance, racism, sexism and ,yes, denial of science and fact. It deserves to be put onto the ash heap of history. What all of us including the Democratic Party is not to just sit back and hope it will self immolate but give it a good push and, yes, kick it while it is down. That is what the Republicans would do.
What Stan said! I do not understand the fascination with Trump. I do not understand how he has managed to get away with everything he's gotten away with. What I do understand is that the fascination and the escape-artistry mean that something is seriously, deeply wrong with both the electorate (esp. those 74 million) and the so-called mainstream media.
And, I should add, with the once-Grand Old Party. The overwhelming majority of its elected officials and its wannabes are pathetic, amoral, incompetent, and/or mean, even the relatively young ones. The Dems, in contrast, have a very deep bench, and an encouraging number of up-and-comers in their 20s and very early 30s.
Susan Sontag warned us against using "illness as metaphor," but I'm gonna do it anyway. What it looks like to me is that the U.S. body politic is down with a serious, potentially fatal infection, but it's finally generating the antibodies and the new bone, blood, and flesh it needs to recover. That would be us. Let's keep at it.
Something tells me you don't watch much tv, Susanna, especially not celebrity reality shows. I gather that was his intro to many, maybe most, of those people—collective couch potatoes elsewhere, few near home. They were fans before they formed a political cult.
Bingo. I don't have a TV. I haven't lived for any length of time with a TV since about 1981. I'm sure I miss a lot, like there are some conversations I can only observe, not participate in. (Same goes for most sports.) But it's not all that hard to find other things to have conversations about.
USians do seem to be susceptible to personality cults, in politics and religion among other areas. I've never in my life seen anything like the mega/MAGA phenomenon, but I suspect it's got roots in politics and religion as well as in reality TV.
No tv? No surprise. I came to it late, cable never, have always watched selectively. Last time mine (7" screen) was on was months ago. OK, so I'm culturally semi-literate. I admit, however, to being a lifelong radio addict, music and news. After Air America tanked I missed it and came to wish for CNN and MSNBC. I now have the perfect compromise, those networks online streaming audio. I also have a free a-v app for both that I turn on when inherently visual news breaks. If you're shameless, fair-weather sports fandom can be rewarding. I reveled in a peak-fun championship baseball season and sublime championship basketball seasons, don't give sports a thought the rest of the time.
Proximity and aggressive media expose us to, and inform us about, U.S. cults of personality political and religious. I'm not sure they're more common here than anywhere that economics and communications allow. We just don't hear of them elsewhere till they get noisy. The NYT foreign staff is pretty good at noting early eruptions.
“Must eat brains!”
Very well stated, Robert. IMHO, you are exactly right on all counts.
The votes are almost all counted. Things are looking pretty good for the “blue!” As usual, the press is too caught up in themselves to listen to voters. There was never any red wave coming. Duh! But the press remains obsessed and addicted to click bait, ratings, and Trump: “fascinated” by him. Glorifying him at every turn. Obsessed with his followers. Glorifying them too, whoever among us remains in that spineless cult. But here’s the thing: It’s so fucking old! It’s so damned tired. And it’s been so incredibly destructive. The voters, thankfully, are DONE WITH IT! OVER IT! NEXT PLEASE! They’re done with it in Brazil! They’re done with it here. Thank God! Just look at the blue wave in the state legislatures. Look at the blue in the senate. There was a small leak that may force us to “treat” a mild red infection in the House for two years. It’s akin to that red algae that flourishes in Florida! We’ll just have to deal with it. So, it’s time for the press to get over themselves and move on. Quit being so damned lazy. Show us some real reporting that isn’t hyper-hyped! Stop the lying and obfuscating for the sake of click bait and ratings. Stop obsessing over a monster who you’ve given more attention to than Jesus Christ ever got, and start obsessing over the people who can and want to do good for society. Disagreements? Of course!! Glorifying an evil man and helping him regain power?? Stop it now!
Donald Trump has been flushed down the toilet into the sewer. Even the Murdoch press and Fox News are over him. “I’m melting, I’m melting,” cried the Wicked Witch. Now it’s Merrick Garland’s turn to finish him off (after Georgia and New York bite off their pieces of flesh). Good riddance!
The Republican Party has placed itself between a rock and a hard place. If they continue to treat tRump as the leader of their party, they know they risk the same outcome in 2024 as in 2020 and 2022. If they toss him aside, he will tear the party apart. Looks like a lose/lose situation to me.
On another note, if they think DeSantis is their next hero, they better think again. He is a much more extreme version of tRump, and didn’t the majority of the American electorate tell them that they are done with that horrible extremism?? Looks to me like they are in a whole heap of trouble.
DeSantis may be younger and smarter, but he has no charisma and is happier with ordering people around than working with them. And he won bigly on Tuesday because there are more Republicans living in FL since the pandemic and when DeSantis offered health care jobs to all the people who got fired in blue states like NY who required all health care workers to be vaxed for covid. FL turned red, which was a boon for DeSantis but won't necessarily help him should he run in 2024. Meanwhile, Trump will be trying to bury him in insults. "DeSanctimonious" indeed.
Life in DeSantistan has its moments.
Just. Fuck! Why can't this POS just croak from a horrible disfiguring disease?
And it be a long, slow, painful demise.
I’d take a massive stroke or heart attack-/ a lot quicker end!
A swift end is too kind. I would like to see him live long enough to witness the DoJ and Fanni Willis and Tish James bring their actions against him. I would like him to live long enough to lose whatever wealth he has managed to finagle. I would like him to live long enough to see himself repudiated by those who always despised him but promised fealty out of vile self-interest. And maybe even live long enough to have Melania divorce him.
Yes! I said this very thing to my art teacher yesterday. She's a staunch Catholic and gave me such a look, I asked her to say a few prayers on my behalf, but I wasn't going to take back a single word! It needs to happen at a rally, in full view. There will be loads of conspiracy theories, no doubt, but at least the event will be PUBLIC.
I’d been wondering, when he dies, who the conspiracy theories will pin it on: Republicans or Democrats. The motive is starting to favor the Republicans, I’d say. If it hasn’t since November 2020.
As he is today Trump is the personification of horrible disfigurement.
From your lips/computer to the FSM’s ears!
I'm ashamed to say I pray, and that in itself is unusual, for a massive stroke that renders him unable to talk.
I’d like to see him end up like old Joe Kennedy-/ rendered speechless, incontinent and helpless by a massive stoke that stops just short of killing him.
My thoughts exactly, Judith!! It's exactly what he deserves.
Nooooo. The ultimate end of a toxic narcissist is not to drop dead in front of the idiots who love him. It's to be ridiculed, hated and then forgotten, an old man in ketchup-stained pajamas parked in a cockroach-infested nursing home by his children and his wife, all of whom have also moved on with their lives.
Imagine him telling everyone he's "Donald Trump, your favorite president," and getting blank stares or worse, derisive laughter.
Once he's convicted, he will need to appoint a power of attorney or more likely, ask the court to appoint a conservator. He will stupidly name one of his sons, who will rob him blind.
So long as tRump eludes Justice, democracy will not be free for you and me.
The Crime Syndicate aka the RNC , financed by Fascists, will churn out more crooks so long as “Citizens United” is allowed to continue.
Teflon Don is turning into Felon Don
Hello Lucian, I agree with everything you’re saying of course. He is Mr. Spellbinding. I think the system just wasn’t ready for an out-and-out criminal in the halls of U.S. power. All those people in the system went into shock, they were stunned.
After eight years of Michelle and Barack in the White House, it’s not surprising that we got the last desperate gasp from the sexist and racist block of our society. Their hero. He is an idol to them. It’s sickening, but in my line of blue-collar work, I have met many people who idolize him.
He lost in 2020. The last great hope of the sexist and racist block of society went down. He lost the Senate, too. Miraculously. And now the sheer weight of litigation is going to crush him, esp. criminal indictment (I doubt civil litigation will ever slow him down).
The other lame contenders, like Rubio and company, were ridiculed in 2016. What chance does a Republican have anymore to win the White House in this society, as it now stands?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the next election in 2024 produces another Democrat, probably not even Biden. There are no Romney‘s or McCain’s or anyone else capable of taking the White House from a Democrat. The US political system may well have gone past the point of no return for the Republican Party. They are an endangered species nationally, just like they became in California after the 2010 redistricting. After that honest redistricting, the 2018 California house blue wave was a foregone conclusion, it would have to happen. Super-majorities in both houses of the state legislature, and all major political slots filled by Democrats.
It’s going to happen nationally, in DC. There is a better than even chance we will never see a Republican president again until they completely change their party, or there is a completely new party
Copy Michigan's hugely successful anti-gerrymandering success! We are now a Democrat Trifecta!
https://votersnotpoliticians.com/
I could not be happier about this 😁
We Done Good Cathy!!
I’m very excited for both of you
Whatever happened to Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker? Remember them? That's who TFG and Melanoma bring to mind - just a reincarnation of that freak show in a 2016-2022 version of a carnival. There are always folks who are mesmerized by such snake oil salesmen and their female sidekicks. People who barely had a nickel sent that nickel to Jim and Tammy Faye just as they do to TFG and Melanoma today.
There's a comedian who interviews MAGAts and then posts the interviews on UTube. These carnival devotees would be screamingly hilarious if they were not so pathetic. We seem to be forever stuck with 35% of people who are drawn like moths to flame especially when the flame is over the top and ridiculous.
i am ever fascinated by the ever fascinated american populous' fascination with celebrity and pomp.
as an outsider to american politics, i find it curious and entertaining how seemingly normal rational people can be drawn to the glitz and celluloid glamor of celebrities who espouse differing political views when their only claim to fame is that they are accomplished in portraying fake lives on flat bright screens.
yes, drawn like moths to flame.
As much as I agree that the current republican party is crumbling, I keep in mind Heather Cox Richardson's point that a successful democracy needs at least 2 parties. So I'm hoping that the never trumpers will figure out how to create a new party that is strong enough to counter the democratic party so that the Ds don't pull to the opposite extreme.
very much concur.
i fervently wish your predictions come true, R(C>W).
well spoken.
Wow! I hope some of your optimism will rub off on me!
I don’t know how I happen to have so much confidence in where things are heading, but I do, and it’s inexhaustible. We are heading away from racist and sexist, white male, hegemony and towards egalitarian society. We just are. It’s still miserable, it’s still pukeworthy from certain people, but it’s fading. When we were born, gay and lesbian rights weren’t even a thing. Black men were still being lynched. That’s one lifetime. In the course of human evolution, that’s lightning speed.
Judith, I’ve been working on that for most of the year ❤️❤️❤️❤️
As with all car wrecks, eventually the car gets towed away and you move on. I'm doing my best to not click on stories about tfg in hopes that the news media will finally stop giving him oxygen.
Me, too!!!
A truly great metaphor: Trump is as riveting as a gruesome car wreck. So true — and so awful.
Where are the indictments? Why can’t the “system” deal with such a shameless POS renegade who blatantly commits crimes in the open? Maybe my most disturbing question is “Why does such a large fraction of the electorate buy into the evil bullshit? Once I have my feeling of relief at the demise of the toxic red tide, I still ask “Why is this even close?”
Just asking for a friend……
Indictments ARE coming. And they will be solid .
We are in the minority on this particular thread, but I expect multiple felony indictments and wouldn't be at all surprised to discover --- some months from now --- that the real battle behind the scenes now is which prosecutors go first.
Damn—I hope you’re correct!
All of these investigations and grand jury proceedings do not signal that they are mere window dressing - this is serious stuff this time and cannot be compared to toothless congressional proceedings (exception: The Jan 6 committee, which has passed its findings to the Justice Dept). What motivates prosecution is that unless a precedent is established that includes prosecution and punishment, there will be nothing safeguarding the country from future chaos and the possibility that a similar coup attempt will not be stopped.
AND these indictments are/were accomplished because of Pelosi’s brilliant plan to form the J6 committee! Not that the DOJ wouldn’t have eventually discovered was they presented, but the committee sped some things up.
Speaking of Qevin McQarthy, he’s like a little boy anxiously waiting for Santa to bring him gifts for being such a “good” little kid. He’ll dismantle the committee with an axe. He wants to impeach Biden. I say wants because that ain’t gonna happen. He will appoint Marjorie Three Names and Gym Jordan to head up committees. Look, the Dems winning the House is probably unlikely and the next two years will be hell for us. The good thing is that Qevin will not get any bills passed. Let’s start planning for 2024!
It might be hell for you, but it's not hell for me. It's just life. I'm done with getting upset over politics. Life is literally too short. And I would rather be calm and focused on better things.
So true!
Simultaneously!! Grab Him!
I expect indictments soon as well, (rhetorical question), my next question now is which ones? So many to choose from, I say do them all! No bullshit "We only get one chance." It is the do or die moment of our judicial/political system. And I expect them to be very solid, like the J6 Committee's presentations. Just make them soon, no excuses.
All on the same day? And from then on we celebrate it as Democracy Day every year?!
yes
it would warm my cockles to have trump hit all at once from the numerous and varied judicial cases.
but truthfully, i really don't care what finally takes him down.
as long as it is iron clad and sure to put him away until he is too feeble to pose any further threat.
something that would shame him would be nice too, please.
oh lordy lordy
i sure hope so.
Not this time Lucian. I think he is down for the count and is going to take the rest of the hard core MAGA group with him. Also, will be indicted before the end of the year. Maybe as soon as next week if Dems win Nevada.
Notwithstanding my mental health, i believe that MAGA crowd wll splinter and crawl back in their holes. Trump was a unique kind of demagogue and the Deplorables are seeming to lose their appetite for violent civil disobedience now that they see the Jan.6 crew going to jail. So, i agree that they are not going to disappear, they have already lost their political power and that is almost as good.
i agree.
the internet, social media specifically, has permitted widely dispersed tribal members to find each other and to enjoin in mayhem. they may have differing ideologies but they find community in hate and despair that trump is so adept at fostering.
feeling together that their way of life is being left behind, whether it be race, religion, sexual mores, or economic standing, they have found through the ether of digital smoke signals a common tribal powwow of grievance.
and even when trump is long gone to his dreary hunting grounds, as long as the internet stays with us, they will gather to the drumbeat of hate and despair. and they have stronger weapons than clubs and arrows.
circle the wagons.
the internet signals we're in for a long fight.
What you describe is certainly a possible scenario. If there is significant violence again, it will only damage them more politically. I don't see Trump running. His ego cannot deal with another defeat. Instead he will snipe at every other candidate and try to be a kingmaker. At this point he is clearly toxic and i doubt if any potential candidate wants his support. I hope he goes to Georgia to campaign for Walker.
Donald J Herpes. The Great Communicable.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼😁
"The End of Trump" has such a lovely ring to it...(wishing and hoping and dreaming and praying).
It won't end MAGA if he dies.
No, I understand that. The MAGAs and spineless Republicans are all problems we’ll be dealing with for a long time. But if Trump was out of the limelight (and that doesn’t necessarily mean dead, just sidelined), it might help. Or not.
I think losing his popularity is already killing him, actually. He is terrified of being a "loser," and that's what is behind his insistence on repeating ad nauseam the Big Lie. I read that he didn't take the losses of the candidates he endorsed very well. Interesting, though, is that he gave very little of his Super PAC money to those candidates. He's been using that money to pay his lawyers instead.
It would not help or hurt if he dies. It's not about him, it's about authoritarianism and the ugliness that the GOP has embraced.
He’s had to “up” his meds. Maybe Ronnie Jackson is administering his drugs to him.
What many of us didn't notice in 2016 was that Trump became president after a long GOP trajectory towards fascism. Remember, Trump formed a personality cult in 2015 because he had almost total control of the public image of the plain spoken pissed-off everyman as a candidate. Poor journalism failed to expose the voters to his criminality and his nonstop mendaciousness. However, it also failed to tell the story of who Trump's backers were, and the full story of Russian election interference did not become public until, as a sitting president, Trump was well able to shut it down.
It's the MAGA crowd who are a threat, not Trump, who won't live long enough to build a full blown authoritarian/fascist state.
The real MAGAts are the ones behind the scenes, waving their Dark Money around. Unfortunately, there are plenty of them, but I want to see religious extremism brought to their knees.
With the failure of the red wave to materialize, I think the tide has turned. As he outlives his usefulness and, indeed, becomes a liability for his party, I see Murdoch’s vultures circling and the GOP rats happily deserting the leaky ship. Amazing that the Trump brand ever had any luster, but now it’s tarnished and corroding in plain sight. In the Trump/deSantis feud, my money’s on Ron, not Don. And I have to think that those felt compelled to take the knee, even though they personally abhorred TFG, will now rejoice and bask in his undoing. The wonder is that he has gotten away with all his crimes this long.
The trouble is— DeSantis is MUCH worse and more dangerous than t-Rump. He is a true believer intent on ramming his religious views down everyone’s throats. He has a real, extreme right-wing agenda, which t-Rump never did, and the ruthlessness to get it done.
To crack one more old chestnut: there's a first time for everything. This revolting man-child outlaw will pay his dues one day. And you know what thought gives me great satisfaction? . . . the first cut is the deepest. The first cut is going to hurt him so bad and I can't wait for it to happen!
I disagree. He is going to be indicted on federal and state charges. The election results contained nothing to make Garland fear public reaction to his indictment, and failure to indict is a declaration that our laws mean nothing. We are going to have something to be very grateful for over turkey, and if not by then, certainly a gift under our tree. And, based on his loonier than ever shrieks of rage, he knows he’s fucked.
“Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.”
John Kenneth Galbraith