The real danger is the infrastructure being constructed quietly behind the curtains by right-wing organizations like the Heritage Foundation. Trump, a non-reader, is unlikely to be wonky about fascist ideology or authoritarianism. But placed on the teleprompter by Steve Miller or Steve Bannon, he’ll read it in order to own the libs. Like the patriot act that was implemented after the 9/11 attacks, a monumental document lying around that had no chance of becoming law, the behind-the-scenes right wingers are prepping the grounds for a future fascist America. They are using Trump to test the waters and normalize the vile vocabulary now. When a more with-it GOP leader comes around, s/he would have ready a “document lying around” to use. And there in lies the danger.
It looks like the documents and, key factor, the pre-screened personnel are lined up for Trump II. I am not an optimist. Hamas has perfectly unleashed Pandora's Box to splinter the weak front hanging by a thread against fascism.
We need to call a spade a spade, and treason is the charge that should have already landed trump behind bars for the rest of his life. He has always lusted for power and wealth, and as president he was able to steal our country’s classified documents, including a ten-inch binder on Russian intelligence.
Ivana trump, his first wife, was interviewed in 1991. She stated that her husband kept copies of Hitler’s speeches at his bedside. Gathering bits and pieces of trump’s history we can easily assess that he has aspired to become a sadistic, authoritarian leader for most, if not all of his life.
It may not be treason, Daniel, but it is the revelation that country means little to him, and power means everything. The J6 insurrection was the first obvious sign that trump was willing and trying to commit treason. Since then we have learned of his stealing of documents and refusal to return them. We can only imagine why he stole them, but based on earlier discoveries of his treasonous leanings, we can be assured he had a plan to enrich himself while selling out our country.
Kathleen, have you noticed that Trump has thrown a red herring across the the trail that Ivana pointed out. He declared that he never read Mein Kampf, and who could, I read it years ago and it is a tedious long winded rant.
She said he kept a book of Hitlers speeches, not Mein Kampf by his bedside, and Trump with the help of some nitwits who wanted to score points, have said it was Mein Kampf, thus Trump can call them out as liars.
Then he was outed for having a prostitute urinate on the bed Obama slept on, and some other stupid wag, said it was a golden shower, enabling him to come up with "I am a germaphobe"
A golden shower is a fetish when some weirdo lets someone pee on them, and the prostitute peed on Obama's bed, and he stood in the background giving two thumbs up, when he was running for President or just after being elected a picture showed up on the web of a prostitute peeing on the bed Obama slept on, and in the background was Trump giving two thumbs up, it has disappeared from the interweb after he settled into the Offal Office, Biden returned it to its dignified status as an Oval Office, and it does appear that Trump will turn the White House into the Out House and the Oval Office into an Offal Office
I remember, Thom. I remember the John Birch Society spread Stormer's book. In our little town we had one radio station and every day the Reverend Carl McIntire, a founder and minister in the Bible Presbyterian Church, founder and long-time president of the International Council of Christian Churches and the American Council of Christian Churches, cited to Stormer and broadcast to America the notion that the Democratic Party was demonic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_McIntire
Wasn't just Commies in the state department. Integration in the South. School prayer. The Supreme Court was for everything Reverend Carl and the American Council of Christian Churches was against. Also jingoistic, anti immigrant.
The other day I wrote about the Koch family connection. Fred Koch was one of John Birch's founders. I remember that to enter Florida from the north, every road had John Birch billboards, "Welcome to Florida. Impeach Earl Warren."
And "Spotlight" magazine, which looked for Commies everywhere. And that kind of thinking never went away--during the Obama Administration I heard radio commentators in Reno who made Limbaugh sound like Shakespeare. And you know, the sad thing is, the real John Birch was apparently a decent person who likely would have hated what was done in his name. Anyway the Birchers were right. They kept yelling about an agent of Moscow in the White House, and sure enough, one was just there!
Shout out to Thom’s fundraising for MoveToAmend.org to get money out of our politics. I’m one of the other Democratic candidates in California’s U.S. Senate Primary running a shoestring campaign to promote the We The People Amendment. Money isn’t speech and corporations aren’t people! Rose4US.com
John, there 42 candidates plus one write in for the seat That is one helluvalot of people, what sets you apart. I went to your website and all I could find was a sign up. Why so many people, is it an ego thing. Seems there isn't much of a chance to beat Lee, Schiff and Porter.
Lee is ineffectual and unimpressive,.
Schiff has never seen a microphone and camera that he doesn't love, and I blame him partly for the loss of the four Democratic seats in NY.. he and Sean Maloney (who lost his seat with three others) went junkateering in Paris during the 2020 election as head if the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC, Schiff and Maloney are responsible for the loss of Congress to the Republicans. Arrogant arses they took their positions for granted.
The only person I see having a real chance is Katie Porter. I would have liked to see her as governor or even VP.
After she went ahead and dropped a dime on the Donald, spilling the beans regarding his night-stand book of choice, i.e, the speeches of Adolph, I seriously doubt that 1st-wife-Ivana slipped and fell down her penthouse's stairs . . . not without some help from one of the Trumpster's mentor's (e.g. Mo Bone Saw's) henchmen. Snitches sometimes get more than stitches.
Re" "mentors;" Rachel Maddow did a major segment Monday Dec. 18, 2023 on the replication of fascist propaganda BECAUSE IT WORKS!. Re: "overseers;" news before Colorado ruling blacked out everything else was that Abbott in Texas had decreed local cops could arrest anybody they suspected of being an illegal. Like the old dog caught car meme, immediate question is, when they've packed county jail to the rafters, what they gonna do with more?
Many many Texans of Mexican ancestry and origin, vote Republican, otherwise how does one explain the dominance of Republicans in Texas politics. Cops arresting anyone they suspect as illegal immigrants is going to piss off a lot of Mexican Americans, provided they don't get "lost" in the system.
“And it was started by morbidly rich men (it was all men back then) who wanted to use the threat of a “communist menace” to gut the union movement to increase their own corporate profits and CEO pay.”
And now the modern day GQP are in bed with Putin. It was all just a scam.
Thank you so much for this highly informative and succinct essay on what has happened to our country since Reagan was president and why. I never realized just how badly he governed out country with the help of President Clinton. I love reading your articles on Substack. Please keep up the good work. I sincerely hope we find our way out of this mess.
Thank you, Thom. Haven't read yet, but the headline alone gets my praise. I really believe that until all Repubs with any kind of brain realizes that they're been lied to their entire life, we will have a hard time getting out of this mess. Truth is hard to accept...I think of people like Charles Kuralt who had 2 separate lives and families for years, and yet was a public figure with his own Sunday Morning show on CBS for years. Truth rocked the families' and publics' worlds. Perhaps not the best analogy, ripping a band aid off might be better.
Nicely worded. I just wish this kind of information was something the right wing had to be confront by the news on a daily basis. The misleading info of the mainstream tv does no make for much except to go to sleep. At what point do facts strike the heart to what is the intent of those pretending to be their friends? How long can the conservative Christians pretend there is no danger?
The fog that lingered in my mind reading this was wondering if there is such a thing as "economic" treason. Gave it a think and since this country was founded on tea, taxation, and a corporation along with the royals having it all, there is my answer.
The normal push/pull of politics is to be expected---a little to the left, a little to the right. But we are truly back to our roots, and it is every bit as bad as described in this Report. Nixon and Nam, Reagan and Iran, and now Trump with Putin, all treason to lead us back to the "royals" that would own us all.
The founders put their lives and fortunes on the line. When they spoke of treason, it was definitely about collaborating with those who would keep them from having enough money to have a life and some happiness.
Treason it was and treason it is to steal the opportunities that belong to the people of this nation. In our century, some of those opportunities are fair wages, education, health care including reproductive rights, and proper use of the commons especially to combat the climate crisis. We've upgraded our rights, but we're fighting the same kind of tyranny.
Treason of one degree or another is a practice , loved and lauded by every Maga Republican and they all are Maga republicans.
They are mean spirited lying elevators of Trump Lie. The essence of deranged Donald Trump who is as twisted up as he can be by his “ proud to be paranoid”
stances on every thing created by his Narcissistic Personality Disorder and the brain damage associated with it .
People, rather than be reasonably alarmed have created a cult out of Donald Trumps mental illness.
The fact that he is polling where he is , is a result of the media having fallen into the hands of people who have benefitted from Trumps greed and sickness, the wealthiest people in society .
They know who to ask , how to ask it to allow the lie energy to emerge regarding their political affiliations. I was recently talking to a group of people all over Sixty two and questioned who of this group had been polled re the presidential candidates. I ask people all the time . The answer so far is zero(0).
It’s certainly not a real clinical study , but, no one.
That seems unlikely that no one has been polled. Maybe they don’t want to say they’ve agreed they want Trump for president . But it is curious .
At any rate , how long does it take to be trapped with the Narcissistic chaos presented on a regular basis by the ‘Only one who can save you’ . Delusions of grandeur, delusions re reality, deluded period , by Trumps broken mind.
Somewhere in the basement of the White House in 1971.
Richard Nixon is ad dressing all of the GOP congressman and senators.
My fellow abused white males, I have brought you here today to address, our little problem. Those uppity hippies keep mocking me! It is getting very hard, as a superior white man, to get any respect anymore. So I came up with a plan! "YOU" are all going to obstruct and sow discord and anarchy, while I work on looting the nation! And if all goes well, we shall have a dictatorship in about 50 years, whereas the rich white man will get the proper respect we deserve. We must destroy the American middle class and we cannot let any socialist democracies exist in South America, so therefore I shall help overthrow that peep squeak in Chile, and befriend China. Oooooh!!!, this is gonna be good. Revenge, retribution and God's glory,will be mine! I mean ours. We will all get richer than our wildest dreams and we can pin it on those darn lefties!
The real danger is the infrastructure being constructed quietly behind the curtains by right-wing organizations like the Heritage Foundation. Trump, a non-reader, is unlikely to be wonky about fascist ideology or authoritarianism. But placed on the teleprompter by Steve Miller or Steve Bannon, he’ll read it in order to own the libs. Like the patriot act that was implemented after the 9/11 attacks, a monumental document lying around that had no chance of becoming law, the behind-the-scenes right wingers are prepping the grounds for a future fascist America. They are using Trump to test the waters and normalize the vile vocabulary now. When a more with-it GOP leader comes around, s/he would have ready a “document lying around” to use. And there in lies the danger.
It looks like the documents and, key factor, the pre-screened personnel are lined up for Trump II. I am not an optimist. Hamas has perfectly unleashed Pandora's Box to splinter the weak front hanging by a thread against fascism.
We need to call a spade a spade, and treason is the charge that should have already landed trump behind bars for the rest of his life. He has always lusted for power and wealth, and as president he was able to steal our country’s classified documents, including a ten-inch binder on Russian intelligence.
Ivana trump, his first wife, was interviewed in 1991. She stated that her husband kept copies of Hitler’s speeches at his bedside. Gathering bits and pieces of trump’s history we can easily assess that he has aspired to become a sadistic, authoritarian leader for most, if not all of his life.
That standing alone is not treason. However, planning the insurrection is tantamount in fact and law.
It may not be treason, Daniel, but it is the revelation that country means little to him, and power means everything. The J6 insurrection was the first obvious sign that trump was willing and trying to commit treason. Since then we have learned of his stealing of documents and refusal to return them. We can only imagine why he stole them, but based on earlier discoveries of his treasonous leanings, we can be assured he had a plan to enrich himself while selling out our country.
Kathleen, have you noticed that Trump has thrown a red herring across the the trail that Ivana pointed out. He declared that he never read Mein Kampf, and who could, I read it years ago and it is a tedious long winded rant.
She said he kept a book of Hitlers speeches, not Mein Kampf by his bedside, and Trump with the help of some nitwits who wanted to score points, have said it was Mein Kampf, thus Trump can call them out as liars.
Then he was outed for having a prostitute urinate on the bed Obama slept on, and some other stupid wag, said it was a golden shower, enabling him to come up with "I am a germaphobe"
A golden shower is a fetish when some weirdo lets someone pee on them, and the prostitute peed on Obama's bed, and he stood in the background giving two thumbs up, when he was running for President or just after being elected a picture showed up on the web of a prostitute peeing on the bed Obama slept on, and in the background was Trump giving two thumbs up, it has disappeared from the interweb after he settled into the Offal Office, Biden returned it to its dignified status as an Oval Office, and it does appear that Trump will turn the White House into the Out House and the Oval Office into an Offal Office
I remember, Thom. I remember the John Birch Society spread Stormer's book. In our little town we had one radio station and every day the Reverend Carl McIntire, a founder and minister in the Bible Presbyterian Church, founder and long-time president of the International Council of Christian Churches and the American Council of Christian Churches, cited to Stormer and broadcast to America the notion that the Democratic Party was demonic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_McIntire
Wasn't just Commies in the state department. Integration in the South. School prayer. The Supreme Court was for everything Reverend Carl and the American Council of Christian Churches was against. Also jingoistic, anti immigrant.
The other day I wrote about the Koch family connection. Fred Koch was one of John Birch's founders. I remember that to enter Florida from the north, every road had John Birch billboards, "Welcome to Florida. Impeach Earl Warren."
And "Spotlight" magazine, which looked for Commies everywhere. And that kind of thinking never went away--during the Obama Administration I heard radio commentators in Reno who made Limbaugh sound like Shakespeare. And you know, the sad thing is, the real John Birch was apparently a decent person who likely would have hated what was done in his name. Anyway the Birchers were right. They kept yelling about an agent of Moscow in the White House, and sure enough, one was just there!
Hey Doc: I think you mistyped: "They kept yelling about an agent of Moscow in the White House, and sure enough, one was just there!"
Surely you meant you meant Trump instead of was.
I really am a bit distressed by this trip down Memory Row. Are bales of "Spotlights" worth a fortune? I think I inherited them all.
Shout out to Thom’s fundraising for MoveToAmend.org to get money out of our politics. I’m one of the other Democratic candidates in California’s U.S. Senate Primary running a shoestring campaign to promote the We The People Amendment. Money isn’t speech and corporations aren’t people! Rose4US.com
John, there 42 candidates plus one write in for the seat That is one helluvalot of people, what sets you apart. I went to your website and all I could find was a sign up. Why so many people, is it an ego thing. Seems there isn't much of a chance to beat Lee, Schiff and Porter.
Lee is ineffectual and unimpressive,.
Schiff has never seen a microphone and camera that he doesn't love, and I blame him partly for the loss of the four Democratic seats in NY.. he and Sean Maloney (who lost his seat with three others) went junkateering in Paris during the 2020 election as head if the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC, Schiff and Maloney are responsible for the loss of Congress to the Republicans. Arrogant arses they took their positions for granted.
The only person I see having a real chance is Katie Porter. I would have liked to see her as governor or even VP.
What do you offer, over Katie.?
After she went ahead and dropped a dime on the Donald, spilling the beans regarding his night-stand book of choice, i.e, the speeches of Adolph, I seriously doubt that 1st-wife-Ivana slipped and fell down her penthouse's stairs . . . not without some help from one of the Trumpster's mentor's (e.g. Mo Bone Saw's) henchmen. Snitches sometimes get more than stitches.
Wow, what an eye-opener. Thank you for posting this excellent piece on the rise of the GOP Oligarchs.
To run an effective Plantation Economy one needs wage slaves and, once in prison, genuine slaves.
And one needs overseers, in our case, the police and maybe our military.
And primo mentors. Thanks Kim, Vlad, Mo Bone-Saw, and Xi.
We are one election from camps. And Afghan-style night raids in the ghetto.
Re" "mentors;" Rachel Maddow did a major segment Monday Dec. 18, 2023 on the replication of fascist propaganda BECAUSE IT WORKS!. Re: "overseers;" news before Colorado ruling blacked out everything else was that Abbott in Texas had decreed local cops could arrest anybody they suspected of being an illegal. Like the old dog caught car meme, immediate question is, when they've packed county jail to the rafters, what they gonna do with more?
Many many Texans of Mexican ancestry and origin, vote Republican, otherwise how does one explain the dominance of Republicans in Texas politics. Cops arresting anyone they suspect as illegal immigrants is going to piss off a lot of Mexican Americans, provided they don't get "lost" in the system.
“And it was started by morbidly rich men (it was all men back then) who wanted to use the threat of a “communist menace” to gut the union movement to increase their own corporate profits and CEO pay.”
And now the modern day GQP are in bed with Putin. It was all just a scam.
Thank you so much for this highly informative and succinct essay on what has happened to our country since Reagan was president and why. I never realized just how badly he governed out country with the help of President Clinton. I love reading your articles on Substack. Please keep up the good work. I sincerely hope we find our way out of this mess.
Thank you, Thom. Haven't read yet, but the headline alone gets my praise. I really believe that until all Repubs with any kind of brain realizes that they're been lied to their entire life, we will have a hard time getting out of this mess. Truth is hard to accept...I think of people like Charles Kuralt who had 2 separate lives and families for years, and yet was a public figure with his own Sunday Morning show on CBS for years. Truth rocked the families' and publics' worlds. Perhaps not the best analogy, ripping a band aid off might be better.
I find:
1. Trump hates dogs, and
2. Trump family charity stole from kinds with cancer (and disabled veterans),
Rock MAGATS. Can see it in their eyes. Hear it in their voices. See it in their demeanor. Works in interpersonal relationships.
Well said, Daniel.
Nicely worded. I just wish this kind of information was something the right wing had to be confront by the news on a daily basis. The misleading info of the mainstream tv does no make for much except to go to sleep. At what point do facts strike the heart to what is the intent of those pretending to be their friends? How long can the conservative Christians pretend there is no danger?
Best to turn off the TeeVee or throw it out?
The fog that lingered in my mind reading this was wondering if there is such a thing as "economic" treason. Gave it a think and since this country was founded on tea, taxation, and a corporation along with the royals having it all, there is my answer.
The normal push/pull of politics is to be expected---a little to the left, a little to the right. But we are truly back to our roots, and it is every bit as bad as described in this Report. Nixon and Nam, Reagan and Iran, and now Trump with Putin, all treason to lead us back to the "royals" that would own us all.
The founders put their lives and fortunes on the line. When they spoke of treason, it was definitely about collaborating with those who would keep them from having enough money to have a life and some happiness.
Treason it was and treason it is to steal the opportunities that belong to the people of this nation. In our century, some of those opportunities are fair wages, education, health care including reproductive rights, and proper use of the commons especially to combat the climate crisis. We've upgraded our rights, but we're fighting the same kind of tyranny.
Treason of one degree or another is a practice , loved and lauded by every Maga Republican and they all are Maga republicans.
They are mean spirited lying elevators of Trump Lie. The essence of deranged Donald Trump who is as twisted up as he can be by his “ proud to be paranoid”
stances on every thing created by his Narcissistic Personality Disorder and the brain damage associated with it .
People, rather than be reasonably alarmed have created a cult out of Donald Trumps mental illness.
The fact that he is polling where he is , is a result of the media having fallen into the hands of people who have benefitted from Trumps greed and sickness, the wealthiest people in society .
They know who to ask , how to ask it to allow the lie energy to emerge regarding their political affiliations. I was recently talking to a group of people all over Sixty two and questioned who of this group had been polled re the presidential candidates. I ask people all the time . The answer so far is zero(0).
It’s certainly not a real clinical study , but, no one.
That seems unlikely that no one has been polled. Maybe they don’t want to say they’ve agreed they want Trump for president . But it is curious .
At any rate , how long does it take to be trapped with the Narcissistic chaos presented on a regular basis by the ‘Only one who can save you’ . Delusions of grandeur, delusions re reality, deluded period , by Trumps broken mind.
What an excellent commentary on how we got here. Enjoy reading the throughtful dispatches of Thomas Hartmann. I share them on FB and X.
They always get a good response, at least from those who are willing to commit the time to read.
Thank you!
You're not alone in calling this sixty-year plot treason! I also name it so!
Somewhere in the basement of the White House in 1971.
Richard Nixon is ad dressing all of the GOP congressman and senators.
My fellow abused white males, I have brought you here today to address, our little problem. Those uppity hippies keep mocking me! It is getting very hard, as a superior white man, to get any respect anymore. So I came up with a plan! "YOU" are all going to obstruct and sow discord and anarchy, while I work on looting the nation! And if all goes well, we shall have a dictatorship in about 50 years, whereas the rich white man will get the proper respect we deserve. We must destroy the American middle class and we cannot let any socialist democracies exist in South America, so therefore I shall help overthrow that peep squeak in Chile, and befriend China. Oooooh!!!, this is gonna be good. Revenge, retribution and God's glory,will be mine! I mean ours. We will all get richer than our wildest dreams and we can pin it on those darn lefties!