My heart breaks to see what we are becoming -- what we have become. I've been an unapologetic liberal my entire life and never voted Republican, but today's GOP is a totally different breed than they were when I was young. I wasn't a Reagan fan, but at least he supported the arts and had a sense of humor that didn't punch down. Nixon was corrupt as hell, but at least created the EPA and loved his dog. I disagreed with GHB about just about everything, but at least he could joke with his kids about his failure as a fisherman.
How things have changed -- no more joy in the White House. No more naughty dogs, dad jokes, and rose gardens. Now it's all about money, power, and bullying others to get the best "deal." Any attempts at humor come at the expense of others -- racist, ableist, demeaning.
I am sickened that my grandchildren, the kindest young people you will ever meet, are coming of age in a country that values intimidation over diplomacy, profits over people, religious manipulation over faith, gestapo tactics over due process. I'm terrified that their kindness will become a liability rather than an asset as the soulless oligarchs run roughshod over their world.
Thank you, Thom. It’s why people say about Trump “cruelty is the thing“. I thank you for making this point which needs to reach as wide and audience as possible. This attempt to defeat us - by making us sick and poor - must fail! We must fight through whatever pain and discomfort they attempt to create!
Even the dominionist theocrat MAGAT Hawley is warning;
“Mr. Trump has promised working-class tax cuts and protection for working-class social insurance, such as Medicaid,” Hawley wrote. “But now a noisy contingent of corporatist Republicans — call it the party’s Wall Street wing — is urging Congress to ignore all that and get back to the old-time religion: corporate giveaways, preferences for capital and deep cuts to social insurance.”
Missouri is one of several red states that expanded Medicaid. Despite his longtime opposition to ObamaCare, Hawley has made it clear he will protect access to Medicaid in his state and will not support legislation that would lead to benefit cuts for Missourians.
“If Republicans want to be a working-class party — if we want to be a majority party — we must ignore calls to cut Medicaid and start delivering on America’s promise for America’s working people,” Hawley wrote.
Check this map for how many people there are in every congressional district that rely on Medicaid. How old are they? How many live below the poverty line? How many have no other form of insurance? And who their Congressional rep is and how to call them with one click. Hold them accountable for their votes to cut Medicaid! https://thedemlabs.org/2025/04/30/republican-chainsaw-massacre-of-medicaid-to-give-tax-cuts-to-billionaires/
Thanks. FYI, many people like me live in a blue county in a red state that has rejected Medicaid expansion. As I said yesterday, must consider the ripple effect on medical providerrs and vendors. E.G. We have the highest rate of Obamacare use in the US of A. https://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/obamacare-hialeah-florida-enrollment-118578
The congressman for that area is MAGAT Mario Diaz Balart, whose brother Jose is a talking head on NBC, MSNBC, and Telemundo. His late older brother, Lincoln, was also a member of Congress. The law school at Florida International Univerrsity is the Diaz Balart School of Law. Despite the "international" aspect, FIU has been the subject of controversy regarding its partnership with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), specifically under the 287(g) program. This program allows local law enforcement officers, including FIU police officers, to enforce immigration laws, leading to concerns about potential deportations and visa revocations, particularly for international students.
Mario has sold his soul.
Mario's district has the highest saturation of Venezuelans in the country. As a Cuban American, he votes to support elimination of Cuban Humanitarian visas and votes to bar the more than 100,000 Cubans at the border.
The district also has many Canadian Americans and Hatian Americans.
Maybe if they picket, sit in, he'll see the light.
Great comment! Although Jose seems like a nice guy, my wife and I have never felt comfortable watching him. Something in the Genes? But Mario is a piece of work!
EVERYTHING they have done or are now doing is about moving all the money to the top. It's DOGE-cuts that will go directly to tax-cuts for the oligarchs.
The track record of treating workers like servants in the countries 47 chose to visit first is worse than ours. That is exactly what Trump and the billionaires he took with him want. They are there for lessons and deals.
Dictionary defined FASCISM was on display on one side of the screen yesterday, while on the other side was the footage of the medicaid recipient protestors being thrown out of THEIR own Capitol. To top it off there was the interview of the Psychopath-in-chief whining about how shabby Air Force One is.
SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! See you in the streets with the medicaid-cut protestors.
But they're having fun - fun- fun- in more ways than one. (Louise take note.)
Profit with an erotic kick.
"Masochistic sexual activity is potentially dangerous, rarely reported voluntarily, and hard to treat. This article describes a masochist patient who received sexual gratification from being burnt or crushed. Antiandrogen medication, serotonin uptake inhibitor, and psychodynamic psychotherapy along with sexual education and social-skills training and aversive behavior therapy were all tried over a period of 9 months. The response was measured by effects of treatments on the frequency of erotic fantasies and masturbation. Antiandrogens and aversive behavior therapies may be the most effective treatments for such cases, at least in the short term, although the underlying social deficits and the need to reshape the sexual behavior ought to be addressed in the long term."
Hillary and Harris (Kamala would win by 5 points today, according to a recent poll. . . (Buyers' Remorse, or WHAT?? (Does not pay to be an abject dumb-ASS when you cast your precious vote down T's golden toilet.))).
Those two candidates had "Stupid T." pegged.
Hillary Clinton made her famous "basket of deplorables" remark during a campaign fundraiser on September 9, 2016.
"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic—you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up."
To paraphrase: " . . . the basket of deplorable Red States."
"Hey, darlin'!! It's your favorite Red State. I done went an' blowed off mah foot. FOX said it'd cure what ails me. Hell, now, I'm bleedin' out and hobbling all over the trailer, makin' a helluva mess."
Hep me. Please!! Hep. Hep me!! Call ole Uncle Jack in NY. Or Aunt Jessie in Californie. Call 'em. Quicker than hurry up, now!! Call cousin Ben in Illinoise. Any Blue State will do.
Deplorables deplore being called deplorables. They say call me deplorable and I will prove you right.
Deplorables,racists, haters walk around believing that they are safe under a shield of invinsibility and get very distressed when exposed.
I read that Hillary was chastised for calling them out, that doing so only reinforced there fears and hatred. I call bullshit on that claim. They are who they are, and will not change any more than a leopard can change is spots.
Rural America is mind controlled by the press and the pulpit. Their social life revolves around the church and the grange. In church they are exhorted about godless atheists and liberals who threaten the "natural" god given social order. They are glued to shows like Fox News, on their tractors they are tuned into Joe Rogan or one of the thousand hate radio stations.
Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen, and Subaru, have assembly plants in the south and Right to work for less states. Boeing moved much of it's facility to Missouri and North Carolina to take advantage of cheap red neck labor.
And why is southern and rural labor cheap, Because they are uneducated and have no home grown, facilities or industry. They once had textile and clothing manufacturing but that moved to Asia.
Thanks to Bush and Clinton.
However, rural America will always vote against its self interest in favor of the plutocrats, because the press and the pulpit have convinced them that the source of their problems, the threat to their personal hegemony is DEI, which is code for black, brown people, immigrants, liberals, atheists, and LGBT.
Of all of the issues that Trump is pushing through his cabinet choices and DoJ, which is the most consistent and on which he has not back tracked but doubled down? DEI (racism, immigrants, liberals, atheist and LGBT). That tells you the priority of Trump's base.
Trump is safe so long as he keeps his base happy. He can do anything, even screw them for the benefit of the plutocrats.
This is the mindset, the mentality of the south and rural America, farmers, truck drivers, blue collar workers, Christians.
"The Trump Store launched at least 168 new products online costing $13,803.92 total between Election Day and Inauguration Day, according to a new analysis by CREW. That marks 168 more items sold by a president-elect’s company for personal profit during the presidential transition period than any former president-elect. Even in the lead up to Trump’s first term, he did not monetize the transition period with merchandise in the same way, making these products an unprecedented way for supporters to funnel money to an incoming president.
"The Trump Store is not run out of the Trump campaign but by the Trump Organization itself, the for-profit Trump empire that directly feeds into the Trump family’s pockets. And it’s not subtle about what it’s selling: anything and everything President Trump.
"The launch of the Trump Store back in 2017 already raised ethics alarm bells, prompting concerns that the store was yet another channel for Trump to make money off of the presidency. Even then, the Trump Store maintained a veneer of separation from the Trump campaign, and only apparently started stocking campaign inventory like red “Make America Great Again” hats after Trump lost the 2020 election.
"But this time around, MAGA hats dominate the store’s landing page—and the TRUMP45 Collection, 45-47 Collection and Inauguration Collection are all on offer as well. The store now hosts seventy-eight products valuing $8,180 that explicitly allude to Trump’s second presidency.
"On Inauguration Day, the store listed 1,725 different products on the site, with a number of items out of stock. Still, it would have cost a supporter $36,273.87 to buy one of each in-stock item. A $200 MAGA Victory Blanket and $30 Inauguration Seal Mugs, $550 45-47 Bling Clutch and $120 45-47 Rocks Glass Set are some of the highlights."
Dinner for schmucks. "A VIP Seat at Donald Trump’s Crypto Dinner Cost at Least $2 Million. The largest holders of Donald Trump’s memecoin have secured spots at a private event with the US president himself."
WIRED
"GD Culture Group announced it had purchased $300 million of bitcoin and the $TRUMP coin. Despite a staff too small to play a game of baseball, the firm made the purchase with money from a stock sale to an undisclosed interest in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven designed to make opaque deals such as this." https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/gd-culture-group-trump-meme-coin.html
Incredible isn't it. Worthy of a well funded study of the mind and mentality of the lumpen proletariat. What are they really all about, what motivates them, why do they think and act like they do.
I have my very firm and learned opinions, and have expressed them constantly on Thom and Robert Reich's substack.s but in the end they are personal opinions
MAGAts are of no social value or social redeeming qualities, other than lumpen proletariat and they deserve the invisible chains that bind them.
Thom's very compelling - mind-boggling even - collection of statistics does not beg the question of why Red-state voters continue to vote for their own misery. It screams it. Thom's theory seems to be because of the manipulation by greedy rich assholes. That motivation explains the motivation of those governing. But that does not explain the motivation of those governed who vote against their own interests.
Social psychologists would likely point to all those Trump tailgate-party rallies that promote a pride in shared misery as reinforcing their social identity. It promotes a sense of moral superiority - an "us versus them" worldview. "We're not some lazy billionaire college boys - we WORK for a living."
The first time I heard that "I work for a living." boast was in boot camp back in 1968 from my drill instructors. Then I heard it again in 1970 during OCS; "Don't you SIR me. I work for a living," to which we were to respond, "Yes, Gunnery Sergeant." Where does that come from? Thom's data make a good case that the source is neighborhood socialization. Shared misery creates social bonds that influence people's identities.
The challenge for Democrats is how to get Red voters to wake up that their pride in a social identity based on shared misery was causing them to vote for governments that sustain their misery.
"Work for a living" was/is a statement of pride, rightfully so, of the skilled craftsmen & craftswomen, farmers and mechanics of my youth, all of whom were denigrated in my state by a governor who insisted workers needed to go to college to learn how to work in our new computer-run industries. Democratic governor. They never forgot.
A statement of pride yes, but it also often infers disrespect for those in white-collar roles. Working for a living refers to the stress of manual labor. But many more-sedentary job roles are working for a living too, but that involves the stress of managing and/or leading.
For a large chunk of my life, I lived out of a suitcase because my work required flying all over the US and EU as a government employee. Those are not 8-hour days, more like 14-hour days and flying home on weekends. That is stress few labor-intensive workers can relate to - so they assume they just sit at a cushy desk and tell others what to do.
Throughout my 46 years of teaching in public school and at five different Universities, I've lived in 6 different states. Worse, I grew up in Iowa, which was at one time, blueish during my childhood years (1950 -1969) and turned Red by the time I started my college education. I transferred in my junior year of college. I left IA and completed my degree in WI. I lived in MN for one semester while finishing my student teaching experience. Both WI and MN were Blue States.
Mom, Dad, and grandparents on both sides were staunch Democrats. My two sisters and I are too! I moved from my home state to practice my profession (teaching and teacher education), and that was in part because IA politics started turning more conservative and very RED. Unfortunately, my career led me to learn how to deal with living in predominantly Red States. I was fortunate to live in college town settings in these RED states (Wyoming, UT, OK, MS, GA). IT isn't getting any easier. If I can ever afford to do so, I hope to move to a BLUE state in my retirement. (CO, NM, or MN). But every dam time we get a GOP in the Presidency, my retirement accounts take a nose dive! UGH! Trump is creating so much economic and socio-political chaos, threatening to cut social security, medicare/aid, harming our most vulnerable in society, and only enhancing his and the wealthy 1% of the US population, Basically screwing the rest of us (99%) in the country. WE MUST RISE AND FIGHT FOR OUR DEMOCRACY. THE GOP BEARS THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE RISE OF AUTHORITARIANISM IN AMERICA. NOW WE MUST INSIST THAT WE REGAIN AND MAINTAIN OUR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. IF IT MEANS REMOVING EVERY DAM MAGA SUPPORTING GOPer OUT OF OFFICE - SO BE IT!
Until enough MAGAts go bankrupt, die, and see their children looking at even worse futures, what Thom describes will continue. Citizens United and its progeny gave big money virtually unlimited power. While I will soon be gone, our poor grandson will have to confront this worsening cycle. I have become convinced that our system cannot provide the means for progressive change any longer, because its mechanisms are all in control of the morbidly rich.
It will take a massive, bloody revolution with unpredictable results if any change is to happen. And the end result may be no better, because we gave away our institutional protections, thanks largely to SCOTUS. But perhaps a revolution will visit on some of the morbidly rich and their families the pain, suffering, fear and desperation they so delight in imposing on everyone else. That I entertain that thought is horrible, and unworthy of me as a decent American, and yet it is because of the depredations of the morbidly rich that I do so.
We're past that, Roy. The Congressional Republicans aren't influenced as much by their voters as much as by threats by Trump (political AND physical) and by their donors.
Great synopsis of negative human behavior that has plagued and destroyed us over and over and been displayed all through our troubled history. But because we keep on keeping on as a species, we try yet again and again with another “great civilization” somewhere else.
Our culture and way of living has changed with the digital age. But, this destructive greed, bred by fear of lack, is a character flaw that is being displayed world-wide now by us and for us to examine, yet, still we stare it in the face and deny.
Mr. Hartmann, wow, that list of red state deficiencies is something else. It should certainly make poorly employed citizens who vote Republican think twice. Your overall theme, that Republicans will do anything to depress wages in order to increase the profits of their congressional donors, should become more obvious as time goes by, while Trump and the Republicans shrink the middle class more and more, expanding poverty.
If this process of a shrinking middle class alongside expanding poverty occurs slowly enough, we might find ourselves in the allegory of the frog submerged in the slowly heating water on the stove. It is likely that under the 2025 plan this process of impoverishment will happen so quickly that people in Red states will begin to notice the water coming to the boiling point.
I think it's worth it to work the externalization of causes into why they hate people who don't live the way they do. I think that explains a great deal of how Republicans have shifted from a political party with a platform built of standard political planks, into a raging mob of "Warriors" completely defined by fighting a "culture war." It also explains much of the victim/grievance narrative worked into forcing people to assimilate into their cultural norms, while seeing those who don't as placing their way of life "under attack."
2 Psy ops. Targets that subconscious. Substantiated by demogoguery.
3. Sustitution of fantasy for reality.
In terms of culture, consider the effect of 19th Century French symbolism on the "modernist" model. Everything reduced in abstract to a single symbol. In the last election cycle, that symbol was 6'7" men playing girls' basketball.
Yes, Trump supporters, this means you. The Republican regime and their billionaire puppet masters, think you are Tards as well as your liberal fellow citizens. When you were spouting off about freedom, did you picture being controlled by a few evil-genius computer geeks that NOW have all your information?
Thank you for this.
My heart breaks to see what we are becoming -- what we have become. I've been an unapologetic liberal my entire life and never voted Republican, but today's GOP is a totally different breed than they were when I was young. I wasn't a Reagan fan, but at least he supported the arts and had a sense of humor that didn't punch down. Nixon was corrupt as hell, but at least created the EPA and loved his dog. I disagreed with GHB about just about everything, but at least he could joke with his kids about his failure as a fisherman.
How things have changed -- no more joy in the White House. No more naughty dogs, dad jokes, and rose gardens. Now it's all about money, power, and bullying others to get the best "deal." Any attempts at humor come at the expense of others -- racist, ableist, demeaning.
I am sickened that my grandchildren, the kindest young people you will ever meet, are coming of age in a country that values intimidation over diplomacy, profits over people, religious manipulation over faith, gestapo tactics over due process. I'm terrified that their kindness will become a liability rather than an asset as the soulless oligarchs run roughshod over their world.
Thank you, Thom. It’s why people say about Trump “cruelty is the thing“. I thank you for making this point which needs to reach as wide and audience as possible. This attempt to defeat us - by making us sick and poor - must fail! We must fight through whatever pain and discomfort they attempt to create!
We need to do jujitsu.
Even the dominionist theocrat MAGAT Hawley is warning;
“Mr. Trump has promised working-class tax cuts and protection for working-class social insurance, such as Medicaid,” Hawley wrote. “But now a noisy contingent of corporatist Republicans — call it the party’s Wall Street wing — is urging Congress to ignore all that and get back to the old-time religion: corporate giveaways, preferences for capital and deep cuts to social insurance.”
Missouri is one of several red states that expanded Medicaid. Despite his longtime opposition to ObamaCare, Hawley has made it clear he will protect access to Medicaid in his state and will not support legislation that would lead to benefit cuts for Missourians.
“If Republicans want to be a working-class party — if we want to be a majority party — we must ignore calls to cut Medicaid and start delivering on America’s promise for America’s working people,” Hawley wrote.
Check this map for how many people there are in every congressional district that rely on Medicaid. How old are they? How many live below the poverty line? How many have no other form of insurance? And who their Congressional rep is and how to call them with one click. Hold them accountable for their votes to cut Medicaid! https://thedemlabs.org/2025/04/30/republican-chainsaw-massacre-of-medicaid-to-give-tax-cuts-to-billionaires/
Thanks. FYI, many people like me live in a blue county in a red state that has rejected Medicaid expansion. As I said yesterday, must consider the ripple effect on medical providerrs and vendors. E.G. We have the highest rate of Obamacare use in the US of A. https://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/obamacare-hialeah-florida-enrollment-118578
The congressman for that area is MAGAT Mario Diaz Balart, whose brother Jose is a talking head on NBC, MSNBC, and Telemundo. His late older brother, Lincoln, was also a member of Congress. The law school at Florida International Univerrsity is the Diaz Balart School of Law. Despite the "international" aspect, FIU has been the subject of controversy regarding its partnership with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), specifically under the 287(g) program. This program allows local law enforcement officers, including FIU police officers, to enforce immigration laws, leading to concerns about potential deportations and visa revocations, particularly for international students.
Mario has sold his soul.
Mario's district has the highest saturation of Venezuelans in the country. As a Cuban American, he votes to support elimination of Cuban Humanitarian visas and votes to bar the more than 100,000 Cubans at the border.
The district also has many Canadian Americans and Hatian Americans.
Maybe if they picket, sit in, he'll see the light.
Great comment! Although Jose seems like a nice guy, my wife and I have never felt comfortable watching him. Something in the Genes? But Mario is a piece of work!
EVERYTHING they have done or are now doing is about moving all the money to the top. It's DOGE-cuts that will go directly to tax-cuts for the oligarchs.
The track record of treating workers like servants in the countries 47 chose to visit first is worse than ours. That is exactly what Trump and the billionaires he took with him want. They are there for lessons and deals.
Dictionary defined FASCISM was on display on one side of the screen yesterday, while on the other side was the footage of the medicaid recipient protestors being thrown out of THEIR own Capitol. To top it off there was the interview of the Psychopath-in-chief whining about how shabby Air Force One is.
SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! See you in the streets with the medicaid-cut protestors.
Shabby because not enough gold. Trumps addiction to gold is a display,not only of his kitsch, but his inferiority complex and insecurity.
The man is a rude, ignorant, , barbarian, sans emotion, a sociopath, even a psychopath and that is what makes him so damn dangerous.
But they're having fun - fun- fun- in more ways than one. (Louise take note.)
Profit with an erotic kick.
"Masochistic sexual activity is potentially dangerous, rarely reported voluntarily, and hard to treat. This article describes a masochist patient who received sexual gratification from being burnt or crushed. Antiandrogen medication, serotonin uptake inhibitor, and psychodynamic psychotherapy along with sexual education and social-skills training and aversive behavior therapy were all tried over a period of 9 months. The response was measured by effects of treatments on the frequency of erotic fantasies and masturbation. Antiandrogens and aversive behavior therapies may be the most effective treatments for such cases, at least in the short term, although the underlying social deficits and the need to reshape the sexual behavior ought to be addressed in the long term."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9805290/
Hillary and Harris (Kamala would win by 5 points today, according to a recent poll. . . (Buyers' Remorse, or WHAT?? (Does not pay to be an abject dumb-ASS when you cast your precious vote down T's golden toilet.))).
Those two candidates had "Stupid T." pegged.
Hillary Clinton made her famous "basket of deplorables" remark during a campaign fundraiser on September 9, 2016.
"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic—you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up."
To paraphrase: " . . . the basket of deplorable Red States."
"Hey, darlin'!! It's your favorite Red State. I done went an' blowed off mah foot. FOX said it'd cure what ails me. Hell, now, I'm bleedin' out and hobbling all over the trailer, makin' a helluva mess."
Hep me. Please!! Hep. Hep me!! Call ole Uncle Jack in NY. Or Aunt Jessie in Californie. Call 'em. Quicker than hurry up, now!! Call cousin Ben in Illinoise. Any Blue State will do.
Ow ! Ow !! Ow !!! . . . Call Brandon. Obama. Anybody. Hep.
But it's an easy fix, right? All they have to do is toe the line and quit buying dolls and pencils and they'll all be sitting on golden toilets.
Deplorables deplore being called deplorables. They say call me deplorable and I will prove you right.
Deplorables,racists, haters walk around believing that they are safe under a shield of invinsibility and get very distressed when exposed.
I read that Hillary was chastised for calling them out, that doing so only reinforced there fears and hatred. I call bullshit on that claim. They are who they are, and will not change any more than a leopard can change is spots.
We don't care what MAGA don't alow, gonna call 'em deplorable anyhow.
Exactly. but not on MSNBC, and when they do, like Joy Reid did, they get fired.
Rural America is mind controlled by the press and the pulpit. Their social life revolves around the church and the grange. In church they are exhorted about godless atheists and liberals who threaten the "natural" god given social order. They are glued to shows like Fox News, on their tractors they are tuned into Joe Rogan or one of the thousand hate radio stations.
Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen, and Subaru, have assembly plants in the south and Right to work for less states. Boeing moved much of it's facility to Missouri and North Carolina to take advantage of cheap red neck labor.
And why is southern and rural labor cheap, Because they are uneducated and have no home grown, facilities or industry. They once had textile and clothing manufacturing but that moved to Asia.
Thanks to Bush and Clinton.
However, rural America will always vote against its self interest in favor of the plutocrats, because the press and the pulpit have convinced them that the source of their problems, the threat to their personal hegemony is DEI, which is code for black, brown people, immigrants, liberals, atheists, and LGBT.
Of all of the issues that Trump is pushing through his cabinet choices and DoJ, which is the most consistent and on which he has not back tracked but doubled down? DEI (racism, immigrants, liberals, atheist and LGBT). That tells you the priority of Trump's base.
Trump is safe so long as he keeps his base happy. He can do anything, even screw them for the benefit of the plutocrats.
This is the mindset, the mentality of the south and rural America, farmers, truck drivers, blue collar workers, Christians.
Not so much the base. The donors.
The conors have the resources to influence the base.
You mean the "lumpen proletariat?"
For Trump they are "marks."
"The Trump Store launched at least 168 new products online costing $13,803.92 total between Election Day and Inauguration Day, according to a new analysis by CREW. That marks 168 more items sold by a president-elect’s company for personal profit during the presidential transition period than any former president-elect. Even in the lead up to Trump’s first term, he did not monetize the transition period with merchandise in the same way, making these products an unprecedented way for supporters to funnel money to an incoming president.
"The Trump Store is not run out of the Trump campaign but by the Trump Organization itself, the for-profit Trump empire that directly feeds into the Trump family’s pockets. And it’s not subtle about what it’s selling: anything and everything President Trump.
"The launch of the Trump Store back in 2017 already raised ethics alarm bells, prompting concerns that the store was yet another channel for Trump to make money off of the presidency. Even then, the Trump Store maintained a veneer of separation from the Trump campaign, and only apparently started stocking campaign inventory like red “Make America Great Again” hats after Trump lost the 2020 election.
"But this time around, MAGA hats dominate the store’s landing page—and the TRUMP45 Collection, 45-47 Collection and Inauguration Collection are all on offer as well. The store now hosts seventy-eight products valuing $8,180 that explicitly allude to Trump’s second presidency.
"On Inauguration Day, the store listed 1,725 different products on the site, with a number of items out of stock. Still, it would have cost a supporter $36,273.87 to buy one of each in-stock item. A $200 MAGA Victory Blanket and $30 Inauguration Seal Mugs, $550 45-47 Bling Clutch and $120 45-47 Rocks Glass Set are some of the highlights."
https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/trump-store-launched-168-products-to-profit-off-presidential-transition-period/
_____
Dinner for schmucks. "A VIP Seat at Donald Trump’s Crypto Dinner Cost at Least $2 Million. The largest holders of Donald Trump’s memecoin have secured spots at a private event with the US president himself."
WIRED
"GD Culture Group announced it had purchased $300 million of bitcoin and the $TRUMP coin. Despite a staff too small to play a game of baseball, the firm made the purchase with money from a stock sale to an undisclosed interest in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven designed to make opaque deals such as this." https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/gd-culture-group-trump-meme-coin.html
Incredible isn't it. Worthy of a well funded study of the mind and mentality of the lumpen proletariat. What are they really all about, what motivates them, why do they think and act like they do.
I have my very firm and learned opinions, and have expressed them constantly on Thom and Robert Reich's substack.s but in the end they are personal opinions
MAGAts are of no social value or social redeeming qualities, other than lumpen proletariat and they deserve the invisible chains that bind them.
Excellent explanation of the cruelty from the upper echelons.
Thom's very compelling - mind-boggling even - collection of statistics does not beg the question of why Red-state voters continue to vote for their own misery. It screams it. Thom's theory seems to be because of the manipulation by greedy rich assholes. That motivation explains the motivation of those governing. But that does not explain the motivation of those governed who vote against their own interests.
Social psychologists would likely point to all those Trump tailgate-party rallies that promote a pride in shared misery as reinforcing their social identity. It promotes a sense of moral superiority - an "us versus them" worldview. "We're not some lazy billionaire college boys - we WORK for a living."
The first time I heard that "I work for a living." boast was in boot camp back in 1968 from my drill instructors. Then I heard it again in 1970 during OCS; "Don't you SIR me. I work for a living," to which we were to respond, "Yes, Gunnery Sergeant." Where does that come from? Thom's data make a good case that the source is neighborhood socialization. Shared misery creates social bonds that influence people's identities.
The challenge for Democrats is how to get Red voters to wake up that their pride in a social identity based on shared misery was causing them to vote for governments that sustain their misery.
"Work for a living" was/is a statement of pride, rightfully so, of the skilled craftsmen & craftswomen, farmers and mechanics of my youth, all of whom were denigrated in my state by a governor who insisted workers needed to go to college to learn how to work in our new computer-run industries. Democratic governor. They never forgot.
A statement of pride yes, but it also often infers disrespect for those in white-collar roles. Working for a living refers to the stress of manual labor. But many more-sedentary job roles are working for a living too, but that involves the stress of managing and/or leading.
For a large chunk of my life, I lived out of a suitcase because my work required flying all over the US and EU as a government employee. Those are not 8-hour days, more like 14-hour days and flying home on weekends. That is stress few labor-intensive workers can relate to - so they assume they just sit at a cushy desk and tell others what to do.
Repugnicans.
Throughout my 46 years of teaching in public school and at five different Universities, I've lived in 6 different states. Worse, I grew up in Iowa, which was at one time, blueish during my childhood years (1950 -1969) and turned Red by the time I started my college education. I transferred in my junior year of college. I left IA and completed my degree in WI. I lived in MN for one semester while finishing my student teaching experience. Both WI and MN were Blue States.
Mom, Dad, and grandparents on both sides were staunch Democrats. My two sisters and I are too! I moved from my home state to practice my profession (teaching and teacher education), and that was in part because IA politics started turning more conservative and very RED. Unfortunately, my career led me to learn how to deal with living in predominantly Red States. I was fortunate to live in college town settings in these RED states (Wyoming, UT, OK, MS, GA). IT isn't getting any easier. If I can ever afford to do so, I hope to move to a BLUE state in my retirement. (CO, NM, or MN). But every dam time we get a GOP in the Presidency, my retirement accounts take a nose dive! UGH! Trump is creating so much economic and socio-political chaos, threatening to cut social security, medicare/aid, harming our most vulnerable in society, and only enhancing his and the wealthy 1% of the US population, Basically screwing the rest of us (99%) in the country. WE MUST RISE AND FIGHT FOR OUR DEMOCRACY. THE GOP BEARS THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE RISE OF AUTHORITARIANISM IN AMERICA. NOW WE MUST INSIST THAT WE REGAIN AND MAINTAIN OUR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. IF IT MEANS REMOVING EVERY DAM MAGA SUPPORTING GOPer OUT OF OFFICE - SO BE IT!
Until enough MAGAts go bankrupt, die, and see their children looking at even worse futures, what Thom describes will continue. Citizens United and its progeny gave big money virtually unlimited power. While I will soon be gone, our poor grandson will have to confront this worsening cycle. I have become convinced that our system cannot provide the means for progressive change any longer, because its mechanisms are all in control of the morbidly rich.
It will take a massive, bloody revolution with unpredictable results if any change is to happen. And the end result may be no better, because we gave away our institutional protections, thanks largely to SCOTUS. But perhaps a revolution will visit on some of the morbidly rich and their families the pain, suffering, fear and desperation they so delight in imposing on everyone else. That I entertain that thought is horrible, and unworthy of me as a decent American, and yet it is because of the depredations of the morbidly rich that I do so.
We're past that, Roy. The Congressional Republicans aren't influenced as much by their voters as much as by threats by Trump (political AND physical) and by their donors.
Great synopsis of negative human behavior that has plagued and destroyed us over and over and been displayed all through our troubled history. But because we keep on keeping on as a species, we try yet again and again with another “great civilization” somewhere else.
Our culture and way of living has changed with the digital age. But, this destructive greed, bred by fear of lack, is a character flaw that is being displayed world-wide now by us and for us to examine, yet, still we stare it in the face and deny.
None dare call it "evil." "Demonic."
Mr. Hartmann, wow, that list of red state deficiencies is something else. It should certainly make poorly employed citizens who vote Republican think twice. Your overall theme, that Republicans will do anything to depress wages in order to increase the profits of their congressional donors, should become more obvious as time goes by, while Trump and the Republicans shrink the middle class more and more, expanding poverty.
If this process of a shrinking middle class alongside expanding poverty occurs slowly enough, we might find ourselves in the allegory of the frog submerged in the slowly heating water on the stove. It is likely that under the 2025 plan this process of impoverishment will happen so quickly that people in Red states will begin to notice the water coming to the boiling point.
I think it's worth it to work the externalization of causes into why they hate people who don't live the way they do. I think that explains a great deal of how Republicans have shifted from a political party with a platform built of standard political planks, into a raging mob of "Warriors" completely defined by fighting a "culture war." It also explains much of the victim/grievance narrative worked into forcing people to assimilate into their cultural norms, while seeing those who don't as placing their way of life "under attack."
Consider:
1. Jungian collective racist subconscious.
2 Psy ops. Targets that subconscious. Substantiated by demogoguery.
3. Sustitution of fantasy for reality.
In terms of culture, consider the effect of 19th Century French symbolism on the "modernist" model. Everything reduced in abstract to a single symbol. In the last election cycle, that symbol was 6'7" men playing girls' basketball.
Congressional Republicans -- They know Trump is vile. But they're convinced things would be worse if guys like Hartmann (or Solomon) got their way.
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The Accident (Things Could Be Worse)
© John Prine
.
Last night I saw an accident
on the corner of Third and Green
two cars collided and I got excited
just being part of that scene
.
It was Mrs. Tom Walker and her beautiful daughter
Pamela, was driving the car
they got hit by a man in a light blue sedan
who had obviously been to a bar.
.
Chorus:
They don't know how lucky they are
they could have run into that tree
got struck by a bolt of lightning
and raped by a minority.
Every American should read this!!!
Yes, Trump supporters, this means you. The Republican regime and their billionaire puppet masters, think you are Tards as well as your liberal fellow citizens. When you were spouting off about freedom, did you picture being controlled by a few evil-genius computer geeks that NOW have all your information?