120 Comments

Hilary said they were deplorables. She was right.

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Obama was right too, they're bitter failed people "clinging to their guns and religion." We're better than this.

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I have a fairly serious quibble with "we're better than this", because when someone tells you who and what they are, it's normally a good idea to believe them.

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". . . the first time," I hear Maya Angelou adding. I have the same "quibble" with "we're better than this." It depends very much on who "we" is. If it's the "we" in "We the People" -- no, we're not.

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Not sure she went deeply enough, can't find the appropriate word(s). We need Dante or Joyce!

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Nah, we need a drill sergeant or maybe a construction foreman or football coach, someone with a deep understanding of profanity and human weakness, someone who call call that poisonous turd every terrible name he’s earned. Profanity, not poetry, is what this slime deserves.

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The DI’s I knew at Ft Dix in 1968 would not have wasted words.

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Stand up to the SOB and he will run crying to his mommy!

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founding

I grew up near Atlantic City. Unlike many in the 1980s, I knew bankruptcy fraud when I saw it... and The Donald's deliberate, premeditated policy of running up bills while never intending to pay them affected many of my friends and business associates. I have hated Donald Trump with a purple passion for 40 years.

When they called the 2016 election, my (now ex-)wife asked who had won... and I started dancing and singing "Springtime for Hitler" at 2AM. Of course, she thought I was being overly dramatic.

The next morning, when she questioned my deep despair and pessimism; I replied "You don't understand: the Rule of Law ENDED six hours ago."

I am still waiting, with faint hope, to be proven wrong about that.

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Upvoted / Liked, for a functioning moral compass and hyperbole in a good cause, but I must respectfully dissent from counsels of despair: it's the rule of law grinding Trump and his businesses to smithereens we are seeing, in my opinion.

But it's a very ugly process because Trump.

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Agree.

As ugly as it appears on the outside, it is a sight of beauty in the inside of each and every courtroom.

The media still doesn't get it by trying to frame his legal defense is the same-same as his campaign. JFC. Outside it is all deflection. Deflection is not a defense, or a strageyu, it's an admission of chit going all wrong. And likely of being scared chitless via all his overcompensation.

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founding

I didn't intend any hyperbole there: I described events as they occurred.

As for the Rule of Law, I am increasingly hopeful, albeit skeptical.

I hate to make predictions, but:

BAD News: Trump will never be imprisoned for his many crimes...

GOOD News: ...because he owns an airliner. Trump will flee to Russia either before, or immediately after, his first night in a cell.

Let's pray that the good news arrives in the next few months, in time to turn him into a felonious fugitive Ross Perot.

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Predictions, ok, so at least let me on on your method for confident statements about events months or years in the future, so I can copy it if it makes sense!

You're not deriving this from a ouija board, casting runes, horoscopes from sun signs and aspects of the planets (I can actually do that, a useful propadeutic measure when studying nescience as part of studying the philosophy of science), yarrow stalks and the I Ching, - there's a vast cosmic model of man and the universe embedded in that, btw, or the tarot cards (a psychological system again, doesn't "predict the future" anymore than examining the entrails of sacrificed animals as the Roman priests did for centuries) - so what gives?

Listen, I predict Donald J, Trump IS on a glide path to prison, unless he (1) Keels over from some kind of monumental health crisis (2) Is re-elected, convicted, resigns, and is immediately pardoned by his vice-president now the POTUS, (3) Does try to flee and is shot down just to make and example of him to inspire the Russians not to get ideas, (4) Is poisoned / bumped off with a pistol by someone out to fashion some "great historical place in history" for themselves, as the Secret Service wouldn't allow an outsider to get close enough, but might by some terrible fluke set of misjudgments overlook an "insider" willing to do it, (5) Pleads insanity, I have already linked to discussions of the various legal standards back in the spring of this year and not up for finding it now to post again. That would succeed, probably, but it's unlikely because Trump is too crazy to realize he's crazy as hoot owl after diving into a barrel of southern moonshine, and meaner than a bankrupt fake millionaire neo-fascist, woman-hating racist subversive...oh wait, forget that last part.

All kidding aside, of course he could end up in prison, the SCOTUS might not want to risk the political outrage and revenge extracted over the following years if they weigh in on his side, and he could very well get sentenced to federal prison, and have to either go there or try to effect one of the cockamamie escapes we both can envision him stupid enough to try, and with enough fanatical fools around to help out.

Well, that was kind of fun writing about, and one of us will turn out to be right, if only because we hedged the "predictions" so we can always say we knew it all the time, we told ya so!

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I hope, too. I grew up in Valley Stream, hating that fat bastard for years. I support our legal system, and look forward to it making him pay.

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jeez. I was CONCEIVED in Valley Stream.

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We’ve ALWAYS had a 2-tier system of justice. It’s only because we weren’t watching closely enough that we couldn’t see it (or we knew, but agreed with it.)

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“Free Speech for Me.Death Threats to the Clerk and the Judge...” pretty much says the entire story of Trump and the law.It is beyond infuriating that this woeful path is the one that we are on, again and again and again, with this person who has hamstrung the legal system and is getting gold-plated preferential treatment.I don’t know the answer here but this” special” legal treatment needs to be shouted out to the rooftops by our hapless media.Trump is rotten.He stinks.He is getting kid gloves treatment with his legal issues.Bingo!

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founding

“Something is rotten in the State of Denmark.”

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“ Threats”

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I have written “treat” for “threat” 100’s of times (I’m a retired use of force instructor; I once presented a class on “Treat Assessment” on the lead ppt slide. One of the K9 guys said his dog would love a class on treat assessment.

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That's a cute story, thanks for the levity, lord knows we could use some.

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That’s a good one, Ally!🤣🤣

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rotten to the core...assuming he has a core!

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founding

I hate him. This has to be The Worst thing that has ever happened to this country and continues to happen.

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I totally agree with you.I said what you just said before-Trump is absolutely the worst thing to happen to this country and his octopus strangulation hold that he has on all of us is something that we are going to need a powerful pesticide to get relief.I have never been so sickened,so beyond horrified of any one human(I should say” vermin”) than I have by this Evil One.

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founding

My husband of 50 years said recently: “ You know l love you.” I answered “That’s ok. The main thing it that you hate Trump.”

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👏🏻👏🏻😂

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Nov 28, 2023·edited Nov 28, 2023

I agree, but the silver lining is that he’s awoken many to the dangers. I hope enough wake up in time!!

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Depends on who, when, and where you are. For starters: the genocide of Native peoples, slavery, the interment of Japanese Americans during WWII, all the burnings, bombings, and lynchings inflicted on people of color after emancipation, 9/11 and the crackdown on civil liberties that followed . . .

What's happening now is that people who weren't directly affected by any of the above are waking up to just how bad things can get when we let things slide. They've been sliding at least since the beginning of the Reagan administration. See what you can do to help reverse the slide and help us dig out of the mess we're in.

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founding

Believe me, I don't just sit around wailing and wringing my hands. But this is a place to blow off steam. I can understand why that might seem to be the only thing someone might be doing but it's not. You're telling me to do what I already do. I've never been a political what's really happening "sleeper" who just finally woke up at 79 to what is going on. I've often thought I more resembled Chicken Little, The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling, but it was and is.

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And the court of appeal that’s deciding this is taking their sweet sweet time to do so.

Yes, when you’re a wise and deeply educated judge, it requires days or perhaps even weeks or months of ponderous chin scratching to figure this one out.

Unbelievable ...

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They don’t want to be the recipient of those calls….

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Its just ludicrous, what other political candidate has ever personally attacked his political opponents, not to mention then claiming his free speech rights or "election interference" mean he can't be compelled to stop. Even Nixon's Dirty Tricks unit didn't make personal attacks. Trump is a coward afraid to engage on the merits, all he can do is bully and name call, and then run to teacher claiming to be the victim. He's beneath our contempt yet his horde of followers find it all entertaining.

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Entertainment is key. Those people just want to be entertained. They don't care if our country is destroyed if they get their jollies. Such ignorance is maddening.

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Yeah, I wish they'd go back to watching pro-wrestling or Wal-Mart shopper fight videos.

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I just lack the words to describe how furiously belligerent to this low life no good, never was rotten son of a bitch, and the semi literate fools who follow him.

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I think that "semi-literate" is way too kind.

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Nov 28, 2023·edited Nov 28, 2023

At what point does a relative or friend of one of these innocent victims of the Mango Mussolini's insanity decide that DJT himself is fair game to be taken out of the picture? A physical attack? Arson committed on property or a house, a car? At what point does Donald Trump end up having to look over his shoulder? Even with the Secret Service, he will be vulnerable in certain situations..... If the shoe were on the other foot, Trump would not have the grit to tough it out.....like all bullies, he is a coward.

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A coward and a cry-baby, Bruce, in his eyes the victim every time.

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Does the secret service screen his calls?

Jeff Tiedrich had a fun post yesterday:

https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/you-lost-youre-guilty-holy-shit-this

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We can dream, can't we?

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Is someone going to have to be killed? And will that change the alleged mind of any Trump supporter?

Are we going to HAVE to have a martyr?

Any other criminal would be jailed by now with duct tape over his mouth. I suppose the reasoning is that if Trump is gagged or jailed, he becomes a martyr himself according to his followers. More howls of outrage. More media coverage.

I suppose the Trumpissed hordes would say it's cry-babyish to worry about these threats because they are "only words."

Trump spoke "only words." Result: January 6.

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Sadly, yes. Will that eventuality change anything? That remains to be seen.

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We already have Capitol police martyrs.

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So we do. Shame on me for forgetting.

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Don’t be so hard on yourself. Since it didn’t change anything & there are SO MANY moles to whack in thump’s whack-a-mole universe, it’s easy to forget some of it. The media doesn’t remind us much either.

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Starting in the 90s, I had trouble keeping up with the Scandale du Jour. But some things ought to be remembered, even in this era of the info-tainment tsunami.

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Nov 28, 2023·edited Nov 28, 2023

In what used to be “normal” times, Trump would not have made it to the first primary in 2016 given his outrageous statements about others at such an early stage. But our world of civil discourse has dropped into the gutter, if not lower, due to that one man. To not hear Trump speak or read his words in the news media tomorrow would not be soon enough. But we are doomed to it, because he released a Pandora’s box of vile hatred, bigotry, misogyny and sheer ignorance into the public sphere, and I despair that we are ever able to get it all back into that box even after Trump is gone from the scene.

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Upvoted / Liked for the basic functioning moral compass you've engaged, but have to dissent in that I think it is far, far worse - it took many years of grinding down civility and dumbing down the national discourse for the scurrilous lout you mention to mount the rostrum and be taken seriously at all.

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Nov 28, 2023·edited Nov 28, 2023

Nixon is the grandfather of the incivility we see today--the language he used in his private moments shocked society. Then came along St. Ronnie--who was plenty vulgar enough but didn't let it loose as he was too busy erecting the scaffolding of destruction of the achievements of a robust middle class. With St. Ronnie came Rupert Murdoch, a profoundly vulgar, ruthless, grasping individual and with Rupert along comes a stablefull of hateful cretins (Hannity, O'Reilly, Pirro, Coulter, Ingraham and many more). Enter Newt Gingrinch, the serial cheater, full-time liar and inventer of emotionally fraught wording.

Yes, it has been decades of wear and tear on the "civility" of a semi-polite society.

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founding

As much as the orange turd (OT) deserves every iota of disdain we have for him - and this pains me to utter - we can't hang the current state of gutter discourse entirely on him. To me, the original culprit sharing equal blame is Roger Ailes who cynically created a 24/7 infotainment machine that spews “vile hatred, bigotry, misogyny and sheer ignorance”, and paved the way for the OT by making it seem OK for a shockingly large swath of the Amurrican public to embrace their inner loathing for the “other”.

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There were lots of talk radio shows spouting nasty stuff before thump.

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Yeah...didn't ol' Rush (of the stinky cheese-like name) get his start on radio, spouting to his "ditto heads"....?

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Yup. He was disgusting.

There were “fun” ones too (if you were in the “in group”) like Howard Stern. Old time laughs used to be what we call cringeworthy now.

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Thank you for your focus on the law clerk. Could be one of our kids.

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Hitler died in April 1945, Trump was born in June 1946. I wonder if reincarnation is true. ;

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If it is, that transmogrification of souls might be evidence it's systematic karma indeed!

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Two things have become clear since has been indicted in New York. Georgia, Florida and D.C.

First, our justice system is simply incapable of delivering equal justice under law when the person is a former President. Trump is being treated with kid gloves and his well known strategy of attack. Attack and attack some more via the media to win the messaging war and overwhelm the accepted systems of trial procedures.

Second, Trump has a bottomless war chest of donor money to hire legal teams to muck up trial procedures and delay justice. Unlike normal defendants he can afford to run out the clock.

The net of these two realities is Trump is laughing at the principle of equal justice for all. And to top it all off the judiciary seems predisposed to try him and discipline him via a double standard which is not afforded your average citizen.

Put as simply as I can Trump is laughing at our system of justice and judges seem inclined to continue to allow him to do it for some fear they might be overturned on appeal.

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And he will take down a whole country because he can't admit he lost an election. It's really insane, clinically insane!

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founding

Over 4000 law suits. If he's a pro at anything,.........

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Nov 28, 2023·edited Nov 28, 2023

What is there to ponder?? He makes vile threatening posts on his "truth" platform, and encourages his minions to violence. I have been the protected person in a protective (restraining) order and I'm pretty damn sure that part of the wording says that the person who is served with the order may not harass, threaten, annoy or harm the protected person. First amendment rights were not ever referred to in those orders. His attorneys' claims that a gag order is a violation of his first amendment rights are vacuous and facetious. We know what would happen to any of us if we were in court and told the judge that they were stupid and deserved to be executed: go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass GO, do not collect $200.00

We cannot say it enough, mr. mAr a laGo is very dangerous to everyone.

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founding

My heart goes out to this beleaguered law clerk whose life has been changed by a cruel bully and coward getting undeserved preferential treatment. If ever there was a sterling example of our double standard of justice - one for rich White (mostly) men, and the other for everyone else - it’s these tortured attempts at holding *Rump even minimally accountable for his life of crime. If anyone has ever deserved to have a heavy hammer of justice fall on them it’s this execrable lump of lard that has made a mockery of the rule of law. While I have no idea what political twists and turns 2024 will bring, but my fervent hope is that one way or another we will be rid of this sub-human pustule for good by the end of i.

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I know far too many people who are eying boltholes in other countries (if they are fortunate enough to have access to a foreign passport) and similar escape mechanisms because they are saying they really believe the end of American democracy looms in the next year.

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Trump's so far successful manipulation of our legal system points out a dangerous flaw. And that doesn't begin to get into the whole delay of trials and appeals process. This man is prima facie the reason that our nation will go to hell in a hand basket should he win the Republican cult nomination for president.

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Let's hope there's at least some trouble makers kicking that basket for all their might, though.

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