We have a protest on Saturday. Nonviolent. Take deep breaths, but be loud. Remember President Eisenhower was a patriot and demonstrably supported the Supreme Court’s order Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (May 17, 1954). I covered what he did in Little Rock, AR, in my post below. In September 1957, Eisenhower ordered the elite 101st Airborne to restore order in Little Rock. The picture of those troop driving from Fort Campbell in the dark of night sticks in my mind. Regular Army troops activated to restore order is a rare occurrence. We should not forget why: the cause of anti-racism. The racism that prevailed in my youth is disgusting to me, and has been not only unleashed, but also promoted by a lawless administration. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/forking-roads?r=3m1bs
Saturday April 19th is the 250th anniversary of our Revolution. The first day of the war against tyranny. And in keeping with what you wrote, Carl, people tend to forget who fell for this nation FIRST:
"The first casualty of the American Revolutionary War is widely considered to be Crispus Attucks, who was killed in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. Attucks, a sailor of mixed African and Native American descent, was one of five individuals who died when British soldiers fired on a crowd of civilians."-Google AI
They may like deportations, even wrongfully firing federal employees and commandeering the government, but if they become aware that they are marks, IMHO that's another matter.
Trump’s corruption isn’t a bug in the system; it is the system now. Every grift, every payoff, every billion-dollar boondoggle is a thread in the MAGA tapestry, woven out of greed and sold back to the rubes as patriotism. And the saddest part? It’s not even original. I’ve seen this play before; in failed states, kleptocracies, broken countries with bullet holes in their ceilings and bribes at the checkpoints.
America used to fight against that. Now we cosplay it with gold-plated golf carts and Fox News graphics. Even MAGA diehards don’t like being played for fools, but they are. Trump’s entire economy runs on graft and grievance, and we are the mark.
So here we are, a nation that once dreamed of justice, slipping further into oligarchy with every “deal” cut behind closed doors. The receipts are piling up. The rot is exposed. If this isn’t the line, there is no line.
And if we don’t stop it now, if we don’t drag this corruption into the daylight and name it, then we are choosing to become the kind of country from which we used to send aid.
What we need is the equivalent of Thomas Nast lampooning Boss Tweed's blatant corruption with a lot of cartoons that made him look grotesque. As he said, "I don’t care so much what the papers write about me—my constituents can’t read, but damn it, they can see pictures.” Tyranny has a lot of trouble dealing with laughter, and by their very nature demagogues can be made to look silly. And when enough people don't take them seriously or have respect for them they lose their hold on power. I wish I knew the path for this. Anybody have any ideas?
I think we can get a few righteous Congressional Republicans to come forward.
During the 117th Congress, 78 Members of Congress violated the current law, known as the STOCK Act, which requires public disclosure of trades within 45 days.
Public polling suggests roughly 75 percent of Americans support banning Members of Congress from trading individual stocks.
Last week, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D.WA-03) and Rep. Zach Nunn (R. IA-03), introduced the bipartisan No Corruption in Government Act to prevent Members of Congress from using public service to enrich themselves. The legislation will prevent stock trading, end automatic annual pay raises, and triple the lobbying ban for Members of Congress. Jeffries says he'll back it. Several years ago some Tea Party Republicans suggested the same.
The bipartisan No Corruption in Government Act will:
*Prevent Members of Congress and their spouses from holding or trading individual stocks.
*Repeal current law that automatically provides a raise for Members of Congress each year.
*Triple the length of the lobbying ban for Members of Congress.
*One study found that approximately 20 percent of Members of Congress are buying and selling stocks where there may be a conflict of interest.
Should be extended to everyone in government, especially political appointees.
Last week, Joyce Vance brought up bribery with respect to what I consider to be extortion of some compliant law firms.
Maybe a grand jury should examine Jeff Bezos giving Melania Trump $40 million for rights to Amazon to produce a fawning “documentary” about her (so much for the anti-trust and labor law enforcements against Amazon), is Trump’s suggestion this week that Warner Brothers/Discovery could escape his FCC’s ire if they gave Don Jr. his very own hunting show.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D.WA-03) is actually, in all aspects, a right wing conservative (redundant?) except for one cause,choice, she is pro choice, she ran against and defeated the MAGAt, Joe Kent, which Trump brought into his regime.
Her district is south of Seattle, and South of Seattle, except for Thurston County which is purple is ruby red,Her major industries are Boeing (which is an R&D facility in Kent, Weyerhauser, Joint Base Lewis McChord,and the lumber industry.
Apparently she is not a player on the stock market.
Also, TRUST in Congress Act, H.R.396 — 119th Congress (2025-2026)
Requires a Member of Congress, as well as any spouse or dependent child of a Member, to place specified investments into a qualified blind trust (i.e., an arrangement in which certain financial holdings are placed in someone else's control to avoid a possible conflict of interest) until 180 days after the end of their tenure as a Member of Congress.
Primary sponsor is Seth Magaziner, D, Ri. 65 Co-sponsors including Rep. Roy, Chip [R-TX-21], Rep. Crane, Elijah [R-AZ-2], Rep. Johnson, Dusty [R-SD-At Large], Rep. Lawler, Michael [R-NY-17], Rep. Mace, Nancy [R-SC-1], Rep. Murphy, Gregory F. [R-NC-3], Rep. Perry, Scott [R-PA-10], Rep. Mackenzie, Ryan [R-PA-7], Rep. Kim, Young [R-CA-40], and Rep. Ciscomani, Juan [R-AZ-6].
I wish it was a simple matter to convince all-in MAGA cult members that they have been played for suckers. This isn't like someone paying 10 cents at an old fashioned side show to she the real live mermaid and being able to laugh off being fooled out of their dime. These people are psychologically invested in their belief that Trump is a kind of god. We don't call it a cult just to put them down. We call it a cult because it meets the deifntion of a cult.
Meanwhile, unike you, Thom, I can only deal with one topic at a time. My Substack today is
“If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "The president is getting bored," David Ignatius on the war in Ukraine.
Rubio is in deep doo doo at home. He is beholden to 1. Norman Braman 2. CANF - the Cuban American National Foundation 3. Trump 4. the US of A.
"Editor’s note: Miami healthcare CEO Michael “Mike” B. Fernandez wrote the following open letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and members of the Republican Cuban-American Miami-Dade congressional delegation: U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and Maria Elvira Salazar. For decades, I have stood with you in defense of the freedoms we cherish, those we were denied in the country of our birth and found in the grace of this one. I know what it means to flee tyranny. Like you, I carry that history in my bones and that pain in my heart. But like a growing number in our community, I have watched with dismay as the very values we once found sanctuary in are now being attacked by a previously unthinkable threat — the sitting president of the United States."
Is it possible to get a dollar amount of all the bribes and perks that Kraznov has accumulated since his election?It would be great if it was itemized. This is something that should be flooded onto the internet.
Excellent article Thom! A lot of information in this article is shocking and devastating! But the antiwar movement against the Vietnam war and Ellsberg’s exposing government corruption but also showing the impact of our one million people demonstration in 1969 should empower us to continue demonstrating and protesting. This is the most powerful tool we have while the courts also put a stop to fascistic behavior by this government.
What shook me to the core in your article was the shooting of feral children in Columbia!! Horrendous if it’s still continuing!! I worked with Chomsky and Zinn through out the 70’s while a student in Cambridge. I had read most issues in your article but not the one in Columbia!!
Bottom line KEEP HOPE ALIVE AND CONTINUE PROTESTING!
I'm afraid that so many of them are indoctrinated into the trump cult, that no evidence could be sufficient to get them to see the light. There's no delusion like self-delusion, is there?
As long as the Reich continues to Beat-up Blacks, to Disgrace LGBT+'s, to Deport Browns, and to Reduce Women, then 60% of White men (and some brainwashed Blacks, Browns, and White Women who voted R) could not care less how much the Reich $queezes for itself.
The Reich's "Take" is just a fair payoff for its daily "Two Minutes Hate" and its "Hate Week."
The problem is endemic Soullessness* across America, esp. on Sundays, if you know what I mean.
*soulless
adjective
soul·less ˈsōl-ləs
: having no soul or no greatness or warmth of mind or feeling
40% of Americans are members of the cult and thus suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, all of his cult are deranged. Nothing, no scandal no defect, can break though the protective shell of that cult. He is a sexual pervert, leers la viciously at his own daughter, and said he would do her, brags about grabbing women by the pussy, has been found guilty of rape and they stand by him, they love him. He has been found guilty of felonies, theft, lies, and still they love him.
When Jimmie Haggart was revealed as soliciting sex from a man, he fell to his knees, sobbed, begged the lord for forgiveness and his idiots forgave him, now he is back in their good graces (cause that is what the lord would want, not so if he was a "liberal")
Trump has been proven corrupt, 34 times in a court of law, and there he still stands, the MAGAt avatar.
Nothing will topple Jesus,Muhammad,,Trump in they eye of the believer
Here is how stupid and venal people are. Muhammad betrothed himself to a 5 year old girl, she brought her doll to her deflowering at age 9, he was a bandit, and had 600 Jews of the Quaryza tribe beheaded because he wanted their property. And he is worshiped as a demigod by billions of people.
In the minds of his cult, he can do no wrong, and even successful prosecution of him has martyred him.
Support for Trump has been a consistent 40%, even watching Rachel Maddow and doing my own appraisal of polls. People need hope, look for that silver lining, so they interpret polls in light of their own needs and predispositions.
The number who worship Trump is relatively small but extremely vocal.
Polls are not valid. No way. First most people don't respond. Second, most people who vote Republican do it due to brand loyalty. Third, most people are influeced by "push polls." Fifth, the election was stolen.
BTW I am not a big fan of MSNBC -- they have yet to discuss Feathers of Hope. Something is better than nothing, but not much better.
Elections are proof of the hypothesis, otherwise just a clash of opinions.
Wisconsin rebelled, that appears to be in our favor, but I remember Missouri and how it defeated the anti abortion amendment, then turned around and elected MAGAts and re elected Trump.
Are we seeing real phenomenon or a flash in the pan. You have two such cases in Florida, two special elections, which MAGAts won, albeit by smaller margins,
I've seen no turn out analysis of those elections either.
I am concerned by the whitewashing, sanewashing Fox News and other media from the conservative side of reporting. The ones who are at least paying attention are seeing a triumphant presidency! Fox isn't making anything of the Republican/Trump corruption. They are celebrating flat-out meanness to immigrants like Kilmar Abgrego Garcia and the rest of the Venezuelan "gang members." The premise of your piece presupposes that Trump followers have been exposed to the truth.
Tens, perhaps hundreds of millions of 'murkans are in some stage of emotional and physical upset due to the treachery and treason of this cabal of nihilists. Some thought this chaos would avenge their grievances and advance into some new state of dominance and self-control over their lives.
Others simply did not exercise nearly enough due diligence when deciding their loyalties and the scale of change that they were willing to endorse or at least allow concerning the upheaval and recrimination against existing laws and institutions.
Still others still had not done a deep enough dive into the actual structure and function of the federal govt., and how actually infirm its security and stability actually are, and always have been. This has left them literally standing in the middle of main street with their pants or dresses around their ankles.
And then there is us, the many who always or nearly always have been skeptical, critical, suspicious, and gravely concerned about a plethora of inter-connected energies that move a population of 330+ citizens in such a madcap and perilous manner, further and further away from a repairable, let alone sustainable present and future,
And, as always, there are those who just simply do not care about society, and spend most of their hours indulging in self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement, or turn to scavenging or petty rip offs, maybe even violent thefts or vengeance. This is the true vacuum within which the totalitarian oligarchy makes its moves, the slushy grey area of laissez faire arrogance, the taking of whatever can be grabbed and held and turned from a defense of democratic ideals into a weapon of attack against the protective apparatus' that allow citizens to be secure in their person and property.
And now, almost nobody is confident of what the next hour or next day will bring, and where those energies will lead. Pretty much like Thom standing alone in a far away place with a gun barrel in his face. The medulla, reptile brain response often is - capitulate by giving the threat what it wants in order to buy some time and a little distance. Fight, freeze, flee. Cover your ass somehow, at least until the next demand or confrontation or threat.
Big problem though. Capitulation is a literal noose around one's neck, and it will get jerked again and again. Kind of makes you feel like Lucky, trailing behind Pozzo as the two wander aimlessly and stupidly down the road that leads to nowhere. And this is where the faithful citizen finds itself right now, thumped by Pozzo's stick while straining against the ever-tightening noose.
Everyone asks, in regard to their own demands or fears, 'Where is the law, the cops, the sheriff, the military?' Why should average citizens have to secure their own rights and freedoms? This is the huge problem with a Constitution that has not been seriously altered in 200 years. We are, all of us, standing in the middle of a war zone, trying to accurately identify the real enemy from the mercenaries and the innocent bystanders waiting to become collateral damage.
What this all boils down to, as I see it, is this; we have three possible transactions that will either lose, draw or gain us integrity and dignity, if not much else. Fight, flee, freeze. Look in a mirror and find what is behind you - the world you need and value, and you must choose how to justify your existence.
We have a protest on Saturday. Nonviolent. Take deep breaths, but be loud. Remember President Eisenhower was a patriot and demonstrably supported the Supreme Court’s order Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (May 17, 1954). I covered what he did in Little Rock, AR, in my post below. In September 1957, Eisenhower ordered the elite 101st Airborne to restore order in Little Rock. The picture of those troop driving from Fort Campbell in the dark of night sticks in my mind. Regular Army troops activated to restore order is a rare occurrence. We should not forget why: the cause of anti-racism. The racism that prevailed in my youth is disgusting to me, and has been not only unleashed, but also promoted by a lawless administration. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/forking-roads?r=3m1bs
Saturday April 19th is the 250th anniversary of our Revolution. The first day of the war against tyranny. And in keeping with what you wrote, Carl, people tend to forget who fell for this nation FIRST:
"The first casualty of the American Revolutionary War is widely considered to be Crispus Attucks, who was killed in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. Attucks, a sailor of mixed African and Native American descent, was one of five individuals who died when British soldiers fired on a crowd of civilians."-Google AI
Resist! See you in the streets.
Yes Carl and more poignant when one releases that Ike himself was racist, and disagreed with the court, but he fulfilled his duties.
MAGAs have no problem with tRump's corruption. They have already internalized the corruption. They just wish some of the moolah comes their way.
They may like deportations, even wrongfully firing federal employees and commandeering the government, but if they become aware that they are marks, IMHO that's another matter.
Trump’s corruption isn’t a bug in the system; it is the system now. Every grift, every payoff, every billion-dollar boondoggle is a thread in the MAGA tapestry, woven out of greed and sold back to the rubes as patriotism. And the saddest part? It’s not even original. I’ve seen this play before; in failed states, kleptocracies, broken countries with bullet holes in their ceilings and bribes at the checkpoints.
America used to fight against that. Now we cosplay it with gold-plated golf carts and Fox News graphics. Even MAGA diehards don’t like being played for fools, but they are. Trump’s entire economy runs on graft and grievance, and we are the mark.
So here we are, a nation that once dreamed of justice, slipping further into oligarchy with every “deal” cut behind closed doors. The receipts are piling up. The rot is exposed. If this isn’t the line, there is no line.
And if we don’t stop it now, if we don’t drag this corruption into the daylight and name it, then we are choosing to become the kind of country from which we used to send aid.
What we need is the equivalent of Thomas Nast lampooning Boss Tweed's blatant corruption with a lot of cartoons that made him look grotesque. As he said, "I don’t care so much what the papers write about me—my constituents can’t read, but damn it, they can see pictures.” Tyranny has a lot of trouble dealing with laughter, and by their very nature demagogues can be made to look silly. And when enough people don't take them seriously or have respect for them they lose their hold on power. I wish I knew the path for this. Anybody have any ideas?
Yeh Doc, great idea, not enough of them, and not enough ridicule on TV and the internet.
I agree Thom. We may never know how corrupt.
I think we can get a few righteous Congressional Republicans to come forward.
During the 117th Congress, 78 Members of Congress violated the current law, known as the STOCK Act, which requires public disclosure of trades within 45 days.
Public polling suggests roughly 75 percent of Americans support banning Members of Congress from trading individual stocks.
Last week, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D.WA-03) and Rep. Zach Nunn (R. IA-03), introduced the bipartisan No Corruption in Government Act to prevent Members of Congress from using public service to enrich themselves. The legislation will prevent stock trading, end automatic annual pay raises, and triple the lobbying ban for Members of Congress. Jeffries says he'll back it. Several years ago some Tea Party Republicans suggested the same.
The bipartisan No Corruption in Government Act will:
*Prevent Members of Congress and their spouses from holding or trading individual stocks.
*Repeal current law that automatically provides a raise for Members of Congress each year.
*Triple the length of the lobbying ban for Members of Congress.
*One study found that approximately 20 percent of Members of Congress are buying and selling stocks where there may be a conflict of interest.
Should be extended to everyone in government, especially political appointees.
Last week, Joyce Vance brought up bribery with respect to what I consider to be extortion of some compliant law firms.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/legal-ethics-nerds-weigh-in
Maybe a grand jury should examine Jeff Bezos giving Melania Trump $40 million for rights to Amazon to produce a fawning “documentary” about her (so much for the anti-trust and labor law enforcements against Amazon), is Trump’s suggestion this week that Warner Brothers/Discovery could escape his FCC’s ire if they gave Don Jr. his very own hunting show.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D.WA-03) is actually, in all aspects, a right wing conservative (redundant?) except for one cause,choice, she is pro choice, she ran against and defeated the MAGAt, Joe Kent, which Trump brought into his regime.
Her district is south of Seattle, and South of Seattle, except for Thurston County which is purple is ruby red,Her major industries are Boeing (which is an R&D facility in Kent, Weyerhauser, Joint Base Lewis McChord,and the lumber industry.
Apparently she is not a player on the stock market.
Also, TRUST in Congress Act, H.R.396 — 119th Congress (2025-2026)
Requires a Member of Congress, as well as any spouse or dependent child of a Member, to place specified investments into a qualified blind trust (i.e., an arrangement in which certain financial holdings are placed in someone else's control to avoid a possible conflict of interest) until 180 days after the end of their tenure as a Member of Congress.
Primary sponsor is Seth Magaziner, D, Ri. 65 Co-sponsors including Rep. Roy, Chip [R-TX-21], Rep. Crane, Elijah [R-AZ-2], Rep. Johnson, Dusty [R-SD-At Large], Rep. Lawler, Michael [R-NY-17], Rep. Mace, Nancy [R-SC-1], Rep. Murphy, Gregory F. [R-NC-3], Rep. Perry, Scott [R-PA-10], Rep. Mackenzie, Ryan [R-PA-7], Rep. Kim, Young [R-CA-40], and Rep. Ciscomani, Juan [R-AZ-6].
Like Trump was supposed to place his holdings in blind trust, and not use the office for personal gain.
Who enforces these laws. Laws without enforcement are scraps of paper.
Trump refused. OGE. Office of Government Ethics.
Yep, and there were no consequences either, and that is the point.
I wish it was a simple matter to convince all-in MAGA cult members that they have been played for suckers. This isn't like someone paying 10 cents at an old fashioned side show to she the real live mermaid and being able to laugh off being fooled out of their dime. These people are psychologically invested in their belief that Trump is a kind of god. We don't call it a cult just to put them down. We call it a cult because it meets the deifntion of a cult.
As you, and many of your followers know, cult expert Dr. Steve Hassan has written about this. "Surviving the Cult of Trump" for example: https://stevenhassan.substack.com/p/surviving-the-cult-of-trump
Meanwhile, unike you, Thom, I can only deal with one topic at a time. My Substack today is
“If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "The president is getting bored," David Ignatius on the war in Ukraine.
https://halbrown.substack.com/p/if-it-is-not-possible-to-end-the
Rubio is in deep doo doo at home. He is beholden to 1. Norman Braman 2. CANF - the Cuban American National Foundation 3. Trump 4. the US of A.
"Editor’s note: Miami healthcare CEO Michael “Mike” B. Fernandez wrote the following open letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and members of the Republican Cuban-American Miami-Dade congressional delegation: U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and Maria Elvira Salazar. For decades, I have stood with you in defense of the freedoms we cherish, those we were denied in the country of our birth and found in the grace of this one. I know what it means to flee tyranny. Like you, I carry that history in my bones and that pain in my heart. But like a growing number in our community, I have watched with dismay as the very values we once found sanctuary in are now being attacked by a previously unthinkable threat — the sitting president of the United States."
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article304271841.html#storylink=cpy
Pickets at my Congresswoman's office. At CANF.
I don't know whether Rubio's wife is still on Braman's payroll..
Is it possible to get a dollar amount of all the bribes and perks that Kraznov has accumulated since his election?It would be great if it was itemized. This is something that should be flooded onto the internet.
Excellent article Thom! A lot of information in this article is shocking and devastating! But the antiwar movement against the Vietnam war and Ellsberg’s exposing government corruption but also showing the impact of our one million people demonstration in 1969 should empower us to continue demonstrating and protesting. This is the most powerful tool we have while the courts also put a stop to fascistic behavior by this government.
What shook me to the core in your article was the shooting of feral children in Columbia!! Horrendous if it’s still continuing!! I worked with Chomsky and Zinn through out the 70’s while a student in Cambridge. I had read most issues in your article but not the one in Columbia!!
Bottom line KEEP HOPE ALIVE AND CONTINUE PROTESTING!
Thanks for your continued enlightenment!
I'm afraid that so many of them are indoctrinated into the trump cult, that no evidence could be sufficient to get them to see the light. There's no delusion like self-delusion, is there?
We need the politicians, not the cult members.
Hey Thom, it's been 250 years since Paul Revere rode and warned them. I just wanted to thank you for being our Paul Revere on this anniversary.
As long as the Reich continues to Beat-up Blacks, to Disgrace LGBT+'s, to Deport Browns, and to Reduce Women, then 60% of White men (and some brainwashed Blacks, Browns, and White Women who voted R) could not care less how much the Reich $queezes for itself.
The Reich's "Take" is just a fair payoff for its daily "Two Minutes Hate" and its "Hate Week."
The problem is endemic Soullessness* across America, esp. on Sundays, if you know what I mean.
*soulless
adjective
soul·less ˈsōl-ləs
: having no soul or no greatness or warmth of mind or feeling
soullessly adverb
soullessness noun
40% of Americans are members of the cult and thus suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, all of his cult are deranged. Nothing, no scandal no defect, can break though the protective shell of that cult. He is a sexual pervert, leers la viciously at his own daughter, and said he would do her, brags about grabbing women by the pussy, has been found guilty of rape and they stand by him, they love him. He has been found guilty of felonies, theft, lies, and still they love him.
When Jimmie Haggart was revealed as soliciting sex from a man, he fell to his knees, sobbed, begged the lord for forgiveness and his idiots forgave him, now he is back in their good graces (cause that is what the lord would want, not so if he was a "liberal")
Trump has been proven corrupt, 34 times in a court of law, and there he still stands, the MAGAt avatar.
Nothing will topple Jesus,Muhammad,,Trump in they eye of the believer
Here is how stupid and venal people are. Muhammad betrothed himself to a 5 year old girl, she brought her doll to her deflowering at age 9, he was a bandit, and had 600 Jews of the Quaryza tribe beheaded because he wanted their property. And he is worshiped as a demigod by billions of people.
In the minds of his cult, he can do no wrong, and even successful prosecution of him has martyred him.
Noswhere near 40%. Maybe 25% at one time.
Really? That's not what the polls say. When you get polls like 59% disapproval, you get 41% approval.
And who in the world would approve of anything Trump is doing but his cult.
I see the world as it is, not as I would have it be.
Doesn't mean they are cultists.....
Let someone like me ask the poll questions and you get a completely different result. I've been telling you about polls since....
Support for Trump has been a consistent 40%, even watching Rachel Maddow and doing my own appraisal of polls. People need hope, look for that silver lining, so they interpret polls in light of their own needs and predispositions.
We are like an abused spouse,making excuses.
The number who worship Trump is relatively small but extremely vocal.
Polls are not valid. No way. First most people don't respond. Second, most people who vote Republican do it due to brand loyalty. Third, most people are influeced by "push polls." Fifth, the election was stolen.
BTW I am not a big fan of MSNBC -- they have yet to discuss Feathers of Hope. Something is better than nothing, but not much better.
Elections are proof of the hypothesis, otherwise just a clash of opinions.
Wisconsin rebelled, that appears to be in our favor, but I remember Missouri and how it defeated the anti abortion amendment, then turned around and elected MAGAts and re elected Trump.
Are we seeing real phenomenon or a flash in the pan. You have two such cases in Florida, two special elections, which MAGAts won, albeit by smaller margins,
I've seen no turn out analysis of those elections either.
Bribes and grift are nothing new in the "US."
Ever been involved with the legal system?
I am concerned by the whitewashing, sanewashing Fox News and other media from the conservative side of reporting. The ones who are at least paying attention are seeing a triumphant presidency! Fox isn't making anything of the Republican/Trump corruption. They are celebrating flat-out meanness to immigrants like Kilmar Abgrego Garcia and the rest of the Venezuelan "gang members." The premise of your piece presupposes that Trump followers have been exposed to the truth.
Legal brainwashing. Faux news. Putin doesn't have to fire a shot.
Tens, perhaps hundreds of millions of 'murkans are in some stage of emotional and physical upset due to the treachery and treason of this cabal of nihilists. Some thought this chaos would avenge their grievances and advance into some new state of dominance and self-control over their lives.
Others simply did not exercise nearly enough due diligence when deciding their loyalties and the scale of change that they were willing to endorse or at least allow concerning the upheaval and recrimination against existing laws and institutions.
Still others still had not done a deep enough dive into the actual structure and function of the federal govt., and how actually infirm its security and stability actually are, and always have been. This has left them literally standing in the middle of main street with their pants or dresses around their ankles.
And then there is us, the many who always or nearly always have been skeptical, critical, suspicious, and gravely concerned about a plethora of inter-connected energies that move a population of 330+ citizens in such a madcap and perilous manner, further and further away from a repairable, let alone sustainable present and future,
And, as always, there are those who just simply do not care about society, and spend most of their hours indulging in self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement, or turn to scavenging or petty rip offs, maybe even violent thefts or vengeance. This is the true vacuum within which the totalitarian oligarchy makes its moves, the slushy grey area of laissez faire arrogance, the taking of whatever can be grabbed and held and turned from a defense of democratic ideals into a weapon of attack against the protective apparatus' that allow citizens to be secure in their person and property.
And now, almost nobody is confident of what the next hour or next day will bring, and where those energies will lead. Pretty much like Thom standing alone in a far away place with a gun barrel in his face. The medulla, reptile brain response often is - capitulate by giving the threat what it wants in order to buy some time and a little distance. Fight, freeze, flee. Cover your ass somehow, at least until the next demand or confrontation or threat.
Big problem though. Capitulation is a literal noose around one's neck, and it will get jerked again and again. Kind of makes you feel like Lucky, trailing behind Pozzo as the two wander aimlessly and stupidly down the road that leads to nowhere. And this is where the faithful citizen finds itself right now, thumped by Pozzo's stick while straining against the ever-tightening noose.
Everyone asks, in regard to their own demands or fears, 'Where is the law, the cops, the sheriff, the military?' Why should average citizens have to secure their own rights and freedoms? This is the huge problem with a Constitution that has not been seriously altered in 200 years. We are, all of us, standing in the middle of a war zone, trying to accurately identify the real enemy from the mercenaries and the innocent bystanders waiting to become collateral damage.
What this all boils down to, as I see it, is this; we have three possible transactions that will either lose, draw or gain us integrity and dignity, if not much else. Fight, flee, freeze. Look in a mirror and find what is behind you - the world you need and value, and you must choose how to justify your existence.
Boris has been silent lately. Maybe because he can't work in his boss Vlad into the conversation.