He allegedly didn't just participate; he trafficked. TRump held parties and used models and pageant girls to lure men. Who knows what he did with what he recorded. Donald even said: "People don't understand that Palm Beach in the '90s was a different time".
Luther Campbell told in an old interview that TRump lured him, Eddie Murphy, and Mike Tyson to a party. Young looking girls, all kinds of sex, drugs and booze. Luther figured it was a trap and left. He said it looked like the movie Eyes Wide Shut. He's scared, and when he talks now, he tones it down.
On another site, I noted that Republican martyr Charlie Kirk supported opening the records and that we shopuld take advantage. Ask his wife.....
Congress should hear from Maureen Comey, who prosecuted Maxwell. Did she see the Epstein videos and photos? If so, what did she see?
The public should hear from former case prosecutor Marie Villafaña, who had prepared a sex-trafficking indictment against Epstein that was not filed. Should see witness statements, etc. Virginia Guifre was Trumps's employee. Was a minor. Was Trump interviewed?
Trump might have been Epstein's acknowledged "best friend" at one time, but he was also a competitor. He was in the "model" business. How many of them were minors? Did any of them accompany him to parties? To Epstein's?
I am glad you keep comparing Trump to Hitler and other dictators, tyrants, and despots. So many others are reluctant to make these comparisons. I am a tiny voice in the world of Substacks and not even on the media radar, but I keep writing about it. For example yesterday I wrote "What's the difference between a king, a dictator?
I saw that. They have gne through many monarchs. Some were good, some bad, some in the middle. They alos know about the monarchies in other countries unlike so many historically ignorant Americans. Check out my Substack today. It's about what Thom wrote in his. https://halbrown.substack.com/p/im-not-the-only-one-comparing-trump
This admin knows nothing about carrots - they're all in on sticks.
It will burn out, but we must be truly brave in the present - and - we must have a plan for the aftermath. There will be a large power vacuum in the crater of this imploding administration.
We must be organized and courageous to fill it when the time surely arrives.
Excuse me while I locate a chiropractor. I've got whiplash. We have gone from the most dire concerns about the threats of martial law or the invocation of the Insurrection Act and the defiance of judicial orders, to the portrayal of the wanna-be king as a feckless fool on his way to prison. This is encouraging when we needed a lot of it, and the comparative history of others who had much greater support leads us to believe this clown is weak and destined for total impotence. However, he has a media, a DOJ, a cult with massive resources, and a violence-prone gang of thugs well on their way to flipping the switch. Every circumstance is different and there are no guarantees. Fear still serves a purpose and cannot be dismissed by anyone. This clown has staged many unbelievable comebacks and mind-blowing encores in the past.
Not all the media. If you're not doing it, WATCH MSNBC. They're the only easily accessible nationwide media anyone with a TV can get. They're wall to wall anti-Trump.
Dear Donnie is beginning to believe his own reputation. Today's latest - he wants the DOJ to PAY HIM $230million for daring to investigate and charge him. He's getting bolder and crazier every single day. I think the time is coming when even his handpicked idiots will begin thinking he's way, way out of control. The biggest thing that will destroy his hubris is the coming realization from the population that EVERYTHING he's doing benefits HIM and not them.
If anyone watched Bernie Sanders on John Stewart’s show, and I urge you to do so, there is only real conclusion that can be reached:
The DNC, in destroying Bernie’s candidacy for President f***ked the country and the American people big time—we could have had a president who would have led us out of the MAGA universe forever. We would not have this poor excuse in the White House.
Democratic National Committee—do not let it continue to happen. Start choosing and motivating our best people to come forth NOW and speak a vision of the near future to the 95% of us who are being raped and plundered be the oligarchs. Create a shadow White House who will embolden decency and justice as the basic political virtues and…sweep the sycophants out of congress. Let them see first hand what their idiotic loyalty has gotten them.
This strategy would give us the equivalent of the Democratic Convention we should have had last summer so that we could see and assess the future candidates and they could do something to seek office (instead of constantly hounding us for money every single day). We need inspirational national speeches not money.
Let's not let the national leadership crown our next presidential candidate. Let's find him or her as they truly lead us and show us their VISION for the future of the party and the nation.
Age has little to do with being productive. Senator Sanders has been as great a voice for democracy as anyone in Congress. People who disagreed with him simply “labeled” him as a socialist, and ignored his ideas. Labeling someone and therefore “knowing” who they are and what they might have to offer is endemic in our political world. Would that more democratic and republican candidates would declare their independence and move towards each other in the middle somewhere. This labeling is one of the major reasons for where we find ourselves—loyalty to a label or an individual keeps us from being democratic “Americans”. Wake up to cooperation and colllabration—stop hating and dismissing those with different stations in life, and different ideas about the so-called “American Dream” that we supposedly share….
I still say Bernie and he rest of them in Congress and the House, including the Executive branch, dropped the ball when decades ago the neoliberal trend was building momentum; there wasn’t an effort to expose them over the years to the voting American people on any practical level. Now MAGA+ neoliberalism adherents are in every level of government, quietly working to push their agenda.
Historians can analyze all they want about the politics of neoliberalism, which is suitable for preserving history, but that didn’t stop the Powells, Paul Ryans, and Stephen Millers from quietly placing people in power who could push their ideology, from conservative think tanks to politicians who were bought and supported, like the ‘trickle down theory.’
If Bernie had beaten Trump, he would have faced a formidable fortress due to the neoliberal momentum. Indeed, he would not have permitted the blatant reshuffling of military leaders and other department leaders who defer to Trump. There would have been no 6 January without Trump’s encouraging them to attack the White House. Our government hasn't collapsed, so it would be difficult for a coup, Bernie to take over. IMHO
Not talking coup or takeover—just saying he would have beaten trump in the presidential election —there would have been no trump victory. Bernie as president would have have communicated with those “contemptible” people who got Clinton defeated in the first place. Bernie speaks to people (populists)whom the democrats have lost, ignored.
I didn’t mean to insinuate that you were talking about a coup or takeover on Bernie’s part. However, like the countries Thomm writes about, governments so unstable that they allowed a dictator to seize power, it could very well happen here.
To be clear, I was insinuating that the infiltration of the decades-long effort to take over our country is so intense that even Bernie in office could not stop them. Our government hasn’t collapsed -yet- and a coup or takeover is what Trump is planning to seize power. I apologize for my last sentence in the comment you responded to. It was unclear.
The period from 1933 to 1981 saw an explosion of government activity designed to benefit average working class Americans. Democrats pushed into law — in every case over the loud objections of Republicans — the programs that quite literally created the first widespread American middle class in the 1950s.
They included Social Security, the right to unionize, the minimum wage, unemployment insurance, the 40-hour week, workplace and product safety protections, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, housing assistance, free quality public education, protections for the environment, banking and insurance industry regulation, public health programs that almost doubled the average American lifespan, high progressive taxation on great wealth, and numerous others.
In the 44 years since Reagan’s inauguration, there hasn’t been a single major program passed through Congress that doesn’t benefit giant corporations or the morbidly rich (or both) more than average people. Even Obamacare was a Heritage Foundation plan from the 1980s to enrich the private, for-profit insurance industry at government expense.
Clay, this history Thomm writes is precisely what we hope to repeat with Bernie in charge. I don’t know how, though, with the trend of pushback by Republicans against any Democratic bill, a bill to benefit average working-class Americans could ever be voted into law. I might sound negative, but it appears that the Neoliberals have built a formidable, entrenched opposition, hence we have Trump’s disastrous policy taking root as we write.
Bernie is neither a radical liberal, or a socialist. He is in fact a very practical and populist politician and a very fine, aggressive leader.
We need more aggressive push back against the vile leadership on the other side who have no principles nor goals other than power and a desire to break down our democratic republic for their own personal benefit. In fact a little socialist thinking (health care, for instance) might just appeal to our populist instincts and needs.
Look Eva, All I am trying to say is that we need to know about a person's ideas and experience for a career before we dismiss, and denigrate him or her based, it seems, on a preconceived (perhaps biased :-) view
Ow, my, how sure we are about so much, but thanks for the response. We need more interaction on this site than simply complaining about what we already know to be “true”.
"Constructing hundreds of new concentration camps across America" while "taking a wrecking ball to the East Wing" in order erect a massive ballroom says it all for this hypocritical bag of....
Trump is redesigning the White House to meet his pedestrian standards, and if that is not proof that he will not be leaving in 2028 nothing is, the distressing part is that neither the media or many of us in the opposition seem to have noticed or mentioned it.
And if you think that the 22nd Amendment will keep him to two presidencies, you haven't been paying attention to his ever increasing control over the police powers of the state (including the military) and the judicial system.
It is nice to see Trump fascism nicely laid out in a way that makes readers hopeful.
Trump does not have just an Achilles heel - damned near his entire body is a bundle of vulnerability starting with his brain. To me, the most hopeful aspect is that Trump is dumb, and he prefers loyalty over competence. Thus, he has few staff who can guide his rise to dictatorship (monarchy?) in ways that avoid terminal pitfalls. By now, it is crystal clear that the Democratic Party is not capable of coming to the rescue. It will take voter unanimity to toss this king.
On the other hand, do Republicans fear or do they just follow?
The motivation to prop-up this idiot could boil down to fear of losing---money and power. The hatred they display for freedom and intelligence cloaked in religion is personified by their Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
A recent study I read concluded that psychopaths seem fearless, but it is not really the case.
As we see in TRump, he's scared of being humiliated, broke, and powerless. Crimes are committed, there are consequences, but PSYCHOS DON'T SEE IT COMING. Their brains are broken.
Love the failures being listed, we could include Duterte, who also liked to murder people he claimed were "drug runners". HIS people turned him over to the ICC. He didn't see it coming. The TRump Regime needs to know. We just told them in a HUGE way. See you in the streets.
By the slobber on their faces, their wide-eyed and open-mouthed stares, their longingly reaching out to touch the hem of his robe, to breate in the orange effusion that trails behind him, know these not as followers but as cultists.
Your optimism will only prove true when the MAGAtariat feels serious pain and splinters, when their need to "own the libs" is outweighed by the personal cost to them of doing so. Because even if they are a minority, there are tens of millions of them, and they are united in their simplistic objectives and sentiments in their hard core. We rational, real Americans are not sufficiently united; that is partly why we are real Americans. We have wildly diverse views that fit under our big tent because we are tolerant. Until we learn that, for however long it takes, we need a strong, unifying vision that is prepared to meet fire with fire, we will be under the thumbs of the fascists and their morbidly rich puppet masters. I do not see that happening anytime soon.
Thank you for this excellent outline of world dictators. My fear with Trump is that when he finally realizes the people are against him, if he hasn't already, that being a sociopathic, vindictive man, he will take the country down with him. I do not see him going quietly back to Mar-a-Largo.
Thanks. This article is optimistic, which we so dearly need. It exposes Trump's weaknesses & gives hope they will overcome him. His downfall won't be pretty for anyone.
Yes Robert, so true. I think it was Goebbels who said: "This will always remain one of the best jokes of democracy; that it gave its deadly enemies the means by which it was destroyed." Our big tent invites everybody in. Including the megalomaniacs.
I grew up loving Pogo. I kept his "We have met..." for many years. Perhaps a smidgen of my politics arises from his observation. Another comic I adored was Gordo, especially Bug Rogers. Better times, Gilbert, b better times.
Think of "ourselves" as in the population as a whole. The Preamble says "We the People". Democracy is the responsibility of the people themselves — of the people, by the people, and for the people. The people — that's us, ourselves. Would "we, the people, are the greatest threat..." be a more comfortable fit, or do you hold that "they" are the threat, avering that they are not part of the people?
That is only part of the story. We wuz robbed is a scapegoat, to divert attention away form an ineffectual and corrupted leadership.
90 million people didn't vote, 64% of the votturned out to vote in 2024 compared to 66% in 2020.
A big difference in the young male vote, especially among blacks and Hispanics, (the Incel and Viagra vote)
And had not the Imams in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin had not endorsed Trump , and had the Muslims in those states that voted for Biden in 2020 had voted for Kamala instead of sitting out the election or voted for Trump, those vital swing states would have gone to Kamala.
But I am sure that the Muslims, for now, feel vindication because Trump is claiming that he ended the war in Gaza.
I am not buying the we wuz robbed excuse. If the Democrats had shown real aggressive bottom up leadership, then a lot of that 90 million that didn't vote would have turned out.
But the Democratic party has declared war on half it's constituency, the progressives, and even today are waging war against it's own candidate in NYC.
They waged war against Bernie, they waged war against AOC, by backing a homophobe (AOC is a lesbian BTW), they (Nancy) waged war against Sen Markey, the most progressive of all Senators, by backing a conservadem (Joe Kennedy III) in the primary.. thankfully he lost.
We wuzn't robbed, the leadership forfeited, just like Kamala did, less than 12 hrs after the polls closed,and while they were still counting the votes.
Angels sing, Gilbert, beautifully. One needs ears to sing. Why not have both? And if we are allowed only one, there are other ways to soar besides wings.
The mainstream Democratic Party has not declared war: it is way too listless. I look at Chuck Schumer and I think (this is me thinking) "Now there's a man who couldn't talk a random stranger into taking a gold ingot." I have slugs in my garden with more charisma and passion.
Sadly I agree, the same goes for Hakeem Jeffries. We sorely need new, vibrant and aggressive leadership, that doesn't slop at the Wall Street rough, and draws its support and strength from the people.
The fact, which the Democrats don't want to admit or address is that the MAGA movement is built on the people. Admittedly most of those people are not people with whom we want to associate, and there are racists and homophobes, and anti immigrants in the Democratic party.
But the money powers, the powers that be, were able to unite them and themselves around the movement MAGA.
We could do the same, and in my opinion, would have, had not the professional sponges in the DNC had not put their thumb on the scale for Hillary, thus ceding the populist movement to Trump and MAGA.
Populism had a resurgence in 2020 because of Trump's fuck up's, and inexperience, but overly and ever cautious Joe and the Democrats in the legislature didn't take advantage of their majority.
Yes Manchin and Sinema were obstacles, but only because they knew that the Democratic party was weak, and had no fear of Biden or leadership, unlike the Republicans which are afraid of Trump, leadership and MAGA and will not buck leadership.
The establishment blames Sinema and Manchin, but the Republican party has it's own Sinemans and Manchin's, you just don't hear about them because they have been cowed into submission.
Whereas the Democrats"big tent" has permitted renegades and rogues to enter and prosper.
The reason Republicans ultimately fail is because they always overplay their hand. They can't conceive that there is anything fundamentally wrong with their worldview, which is why they also keep trying to impose the same flawed ideas over and over.
Seattle. I am not afraid of the big bad wolf. He is compiling a list of his enemies. Problem for him is it is in the millions. His 20 thousand ICE agents are a bit out numbered. The only way he can make that work is bleed a few and isolate them and make everyone fear that as their fate. It just takes enough to not care and overwhelm their fear infrastructure to handle it and not be seen as weak and unable to handle the over flow. I am the over flow. I do not care. They lose. Praise God from whom all blessing flow.
Trump's only advantage? The same as Charles Kirk.
His irrational [he IS Insane] willingness to espouse race hate ALOUD.
He says what his White constituents Think.
Donnie McDonDon's Brown and the Black voters?
No idea where that poop comes from. Stockholm Syndrome? Who knows.
You see how terribly fearful DJT is about the Epstein stuff.
It may be his Kryptonite. What pries his nutjob voters away.
The only thing that can trump their brain-worm of race-hate?
Kiddie effin' RAPE.
Donald. If you are reading this. Be afraid, son. Be VERY afraid, you kiddie rapist you.
P.S. Thank you for your attention to this matter, Don Don, you batsh*t crazy, dipsh*t.
Nailed it, Sir.
He allegedly didn't just participate; he trafficked. TRump held parties and used models and pageant girls to lure men. Who knows what he did with what he recorded. Donald even said: "People don't understand that Palm Beach in the '90s was a different time".
Luther Campbell told in an old interview that TRump lured him, Eddie Murphy, and Mike Tyson to a party. Young looking girls, all kinds of sex, drugs and booze. Luther figured it was a trap and left. He said it looked like the movie Eyes Wide Shut. He's scared, and when he talks now, he tones it down.
Interview via Meidas Touch Network: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D1IRN0cxkXVM&ved=2ahUKEwiLtcKd0bWQAxXhJEQIHYVJA6MQFnoECCIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3SxfTP8Q-Io986KInqUGuq
.
MSM doesn't cover the issue.
On another site, I noted that Republican martyr Charlie Kirk supported opening the records and that we shopuld take advantage. Ask his wife.....
Congress should hear from Maureen Comey, who prosecuted Maxwell. Did she see the Epstein videos and photos? If so, what did she see?
The public should hear from former case prosecutor Marie Villafaña, who had prepared a sex-trafficking indictment against Epstein that was not filed. Should see witness statements, etc. Virginia Guifre was Trumps's employee. Was a minor. Was Trump interviewed?
Trump might have been Epstein's acknowledged "best friend" at one time, but he was also a competitor. He was in the "model" business. How many of them were minors? Did any of them accompany him to parties? To Epstein's?
I am glad you keep comparing Trump to Hitler and other dictators, tyrants, and despots. So many others are reluctant to make these comparisons. I am a tiny voice in the world of Substacks and not even on the media radar, but I keep writing about it. For example yesterday I wrote "What's the difference between a king, a dictator?
I suggest the next national protest be renamed No Dictators, or better yet, No Tyrants" here: https://halbrown.substack.com/p/whats-the-difference-between-a-king
No Tyrants is what they called it in Great Britain
I saw that. They have gne through many monarchs. Some were good, some bad, some in the middle. They alos know about the monarchies in other countries unlike so many historically ignorant Americans. Check out my Substack today. It's about what Thom wrote in his. https://halbrown.substack.com/p/im-not-the-only-one-comparing-trump
This admin knows nothing about carrots - they're all in on sticks.
It will burn out, but we must be truly brave in the present - and - we must have a plan for the aftermath. There will be a large power vacuum in the crater of this imploding administration.
We must be organized and courageous to fill it when the time surely arrives.
Excuse me while I locate a chiropractor. I've got whiplash. We have gone from the most dire concerns about the threats of martial law or the invocation of the Insurrection Act and the defiance of judicial orders, to the portrayal of the wanna-be king as a feckless fool on his way to prison. This is encouraging when we needed a lot of it, and the comparative history of others who had much greater support leads us to believe this clown is weak and destined for total impotence. However, he has a media, a DOJ, a cult with massive resources, and a violence-prone gang of thugs well on their way to flipping the switch. Every circumstance is different and there are no guarantees. Fear still serves a purpose and cannot be dismissed by anyone. This clown has staged many unbelievable comebacks and mind-blowing encores in the past.
Not all the media. If you're not doing it, WATCH MSNBC. They're the only easily accessible nationwide media anyone with a TV can get. They're wall to wall anti-Trump.
Dear Donnie is beginning to believe his own reputation. Today's latest - he wants the DOJ to PAY HIM $230million for daring to investigate and charge him. He's getting bolder and crazier every single day. I think the time is coming when even his handpicked idiots will begin thinking he's way, way out of control. The biggest thing that will destroy his hubris is the coming realization from the population that EVERYTHING he's doing benefits HIM and not them.
The fear factor is real, but...
If anyone watched Bernie Sanders on John Stewart’s show, and I urge you to do so, there is only real conclusion that can be reached:
The DNC, in destroying Bernie’s candidacy for President f***ked the country and the American people big time—we could have had a president who would have led us out of the MAGA universe forever. We would not have this poor excuse in the White House.
Democratic National Committee—do not let it continue to happen. Start choosing and motivating our best people to come forth NOW and speak a vision of the near future to the 95% of us who are being raped and plundered be the oligarchs. Create a shadow White House who will embolden decency and justice as the basic political virtues and…sweep the sycophants out of congress. Let them see first hand what their idiotic loyalty has gotten them.
This strategy would give us the equivalent of the Democratic Convention we should have had last summer so that we could see and assess the future candidates and they could do something to seek office (instead of constantly hounding us for money every single day). We need inspirational national speeches not money.
Let's not let the national leadership crown our next presidential candidate. Let's find him or her as they truly lead us and show us their VISION for the future of the party and the nation.
Can we please stop thinking that Bernie would have saved us? The populace is not as liberal as the Bernie Bros think. Other than his runs for president, I cannot think of anything substantive that he's done in Congress. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/bloomberg-campaign-press-release-sanders-has-weak-record-passing-bills-through-congress He talks a good game, but he's not particularly effective at his job. He is also OLDER THAN BIDEN. The DNC didn't destroy Bernie. Bernie did that all by himself.
Age has little to do with being productive. Senator Sanders has been as great a voice for democracy as anyone in Congress. People who disagreed with him simply “labeled” him as a socialist, and ignored his ideas. Labeling someone and therefore “knowing” who they are and what they might have to offer is endemic in our political world. Would that more democratic and republican candidates would declare their independence and move towards each other in the middle somewhere. This labeling is one of the major reasons for where we find ourselves—loyalty to a label or an individual keeps us from being democratic “Americans”. Wake up to cooperation and colllabration—stop hating and dismissing those with different stations in life, and different ideas about the so-called “American Dream” that we supposedly share….
Oh, my….
I still say Bernie and he rest of them in Congress and the House, including the Executive branch, dropped the ball when decades ago the neoliberal trend was building momentum; there wasn’t an effort to expose them over the years to the voting American people on any practical level. Now MAGA+ neoliberalism adherents are in every level of government, quietly working to push their agenda.
Historians can analyze all they want about the politics of neoliberalism, which is suitable for preserving history, but that didn’t stop the Powells, Paul Ryans, and Stephen Millers from quietly placing people in power who could push their ideology, from conservative think tanks to politicians who were bought and supported, like the ‘trickle down theory.’
If Bernie had beaten Trump, he would have faced a formidable fortress due to the neoliberal momentum. Indeed, he would not have permitted the blatant reshuffling of military leaders and other department leaders who defer to Trump. There would have been no 6 January without Trump’s encouraging them to attack the White House. Our government hasn't collapsed, so it would be difficult for a coup, Bernie to take over. IMHO
Not talking coup or takeover—just saying he would have beaten trump in the presidential election —there would have been no trump victory. Bernie as president would have have communicated with those “contemptible” people who got Clinton defeated in the first place. Bernie speaks to people (populists)whom the democrats have lost, ignored.
I didn’t mean to insinuate that you were talking about a coup or takeover on Bernie’s part. However, like the countries Thomm writes about, governments so unstable that they allowed a dictator to seize power, it could very well happen here.
To be clear, I was insinuating that the infiltration of the decades-long effort to take over our country is so intense that even Bernie in office could not stop them. Our government hasn’t collapsed -yet- and a coup or takeover is what Trump is planning to seize power. I apologize for my last sentence in the comment you responded to. It was unclear.
From Hartman today:
The period from 1933 to 1981 saw an explosion of government activity designed to benefit average working class Americans. Democrats pushed into law — in every case over the loud objections of Republicans — the programs that quite literally created the first widespread American middle class in the 1950s.
They included Social Security, the right to unionize, the minimum wage, unemployment insurance, the 40-hour week, workplace and product safety protections, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, housing assistance, free quality public education, protections for the environment, banking and insurance industry regulation, public health programs that almost doubled the average American lifespan, high progressive taxation on great wealth, and numerous others.
In the 44 years since Reagan’s inauguration, there hasn’t been a single major program passed through Congress that doesn’t benefit giant corporations or the morbidly rich (or both) more than average people. Even Obamacare was a Heritage Foundation plan from the 1980s to enrich the private, for-profit insurance industry at government expense.
Clay, this history Thomm writes is precisely what we hope to repeat with Bernie in charge. I don’t know how, though, with the trend of pushback by Republicans against any Democratic bill, a bill to benefit average working-class Americans could ever be voted into law. I might sound negative, but it appears that the Neoliberals have built a formidable, entrenched opposition, hence we have Trump’s disastrous policy taking root as we write.
Nope. You vastly overestimate Bernie's appeal. He's a good talker, but his actual accomplishments are few and far between.
Bernie is neither a radical liberal, or a socialist. He is in fact a very practical and populist politician and a very fine, aggressive leader.
We need more aggressive push back against the vile leadership on the other side who have no principles nor goals other than power and a desire to break down our democratic republic for their own personal benefit. In fact a little socialist thinking (health care, for instance) might just appeal to our populist instincts and needs.
Look Eva, All I am trying to say is that we need to know about a person's ideas and experience for a career before we dismiss, and denigrate him or her based, it seems, on a preconceived (perhaps biased :-) view
Ow, my, how sure we are about so much, but thanks for the response. We need more interaction on this site than simply complaining about what we already know to be “true”.
"Constructing hundreds of new concentration camps across America" while "taking a wrecking ball to the East Wing" in order erect a massive ballroom says it all for this hypocritical bag of....
Trump is redesigning the White House to meet his pedestrian standards, and if that is not proof that he will not be leaving in 2028 nothing is, the distressing part is that neither the media or many of us in the opposition seem to have noticed or mentioned it.
And if you think that the 22nd Amendment will keep him to two presidencies, you haven't been paying attention to his ever increasing control over the police powers of the state (including the military) and the judicial system.
Yep, that's obviously the plan but I'm putting all my eggs in the MTG and the Epstein baskets....
Thank you, sir, for your encouraging essay.
It is nice to see Trump fascism nicely laid out in a way that makes readers hopeful.
Trump does not have just an Achilles heel - damned near his entire body is a bundle of vulnerability starting with his brain. To me, the most hopeful aspect is that Trump is dumb, and he prefers loyalty over competence. Thus, he has few staff who can guide his rise to dictatorship (monarchy?) in ways that avoid terminal pitfalls. By now, it is crystal clear that the Democratic Party is not capable of coming to the rescue. It will take voter unanimity to toss this king.
On the other hand, do Republicans fear or do they just follow?
The motivation to prop-up this idiot could boil down to fear of losing---money and power. The hatred they display for freedom and intelligence cloaked in religion is personified by their Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
A recent study I read concluded that psychopaths seem fearless, but it is not really the case.
As we see in TRump, he's scared of being humiliated, broke, and powerless. Crimes are committed, there are consequences, but PSYCHOS DON'T SEE IT COMING. Their brains are broken.
Love the failures being listed, we could include Duterte, who also liked to murder people he claimed were "drug runners". HIS people turned him over to the ICC. He didn't see it coming. The TRump Regime needs to know. We just told them in a HUGE way. See you in the streets.
By the slobber on their faces, their wide-eyed and open-mouthed stares, their longingly reaching out to touch the hem of his robe, to breate in the orange effusion that trails behind him, know these not as followers but as cultists.
Your optimism will only prove true when the MAGAtariat feels serious pain and splinters, when their need to "own the libs" is outweighed by the personal cost to them of doing so. Because even if they are a minority, there are tens of millions of them, and they are united in their simplistic objectives and sentiments in their hard core. We rational, real Americans are not sufficiently united; that is partly why we are real Americans. We have wildly diverse views that fit under our big tent because we are tolerant. Until we learn that, for however long it takes, we need a strong, unifying vision that is prepared to meet fire with fire, we will be under the thumbs of the fascists and their morbidly rich puppet masters. I do not see that happening anytime soon.
Thank you for this excellent outline of world dictators. My fear with Trump is that when he finally realizes the people are against him, if he hasn't already, that being a sociopathic, vindictive man, he will take the country down with him. I do not see him going quietly back to Mar-a-Largo.
tRump lies
America dies.
Thanks. This article is optimistic, which we so dearly need. It exposes Trump's weaknesses & gives hope they will overcome him. His downfall won't be pretty for anyone.
The greatest threat to democracy is ourselves.
Yes Robert, so true. I think it was Goebbels who said: "This will always remain one of the best jokes of democracy; that it gave its deadly enemies the means by which it was destroyed." Our big tent invites everybody in. Including the megalomaniacs.
Robert Pogo said: "We have met the enemy and it is us."
I grew up loving Pogo. I kept his "We have met..." for many years. Perhaps a smidgen of my politics arises from his observation. Another comic I adored was Gordo, especially Bug Rogers. Better times, Gilbert, b better times.
Speak for yourself.
Think of "ourselves" as in the population as a whole. The Preamble says "We the People". Democracy is the responsibility of the people themselves — of the people, by the people, and for the people. The people — that's us, ourselves. Would "we, the people, are the greatest threat..." be a more comfortable fit, or do you hold that "they" are the threat, avering that they are not part of the people?
"WE" wuz robbed.
That is only part of the story. We wuz robbed is a scapegoat, to divert attention away form an ineffectual and corrupted leadership.
90 million people didn't vote, 64% of the votturned out to vote in 2024 compared to 66% in 2020.
A big difference in the young male vote, especially among blacks and Hispanics, (the Incel and Viagra vote)
And had not the Imams in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin had not endorsed Trump , and had the Muslims in those states that voted for Biden in 2020 had voted for Kamala instead of sitting out the election or voted for Trump, those vital swing states would have gone to Kamala.
But I am sure that the Muslims, for now, feel vindication because Trump is claiming that he ended the war in Gaza.
I am not buying the we wuz robbed excuse. If the Democrats had shown real aggressive bottom up leadership, then a lot of that 90 million that didn't vote would have turned out.
But the Democratic party has declared war on half it's constituency, the progressives, and even today are waging war against it's own candidate in NYC.
They waged war against Bernie, they waged war against AOC, by backing a homophobe (AOC is a lesbian BTW), they (Nancy) waged war against Sen Markey, the most progressive of all Senators, by backing a conservadem (Joe Kennedy III) in the primary.. thankfully he lost.
We wuzn't robbed, the leadership forfeited, just like Kamala did, less than 12 hrs after the polls closed,and while they were still counting the votes.
Mr. Farrar. I could not agree more. I might add: If men had wings instead of ears, they would be angels. We wuz robbed. I want my wings.
Angels sing, Gilbert, beautifully. One needs ears to sing. Why not have both? And if we are allowed only one, there are other ways to soar besides wings.
The mainstream Democratic Party has not declared war: it is way too listless. I look at Chuck Schumer and I think (this is me thinking) "Now there's a man who couldn't talk a random stranger into taking a gold ingot." I have slugs in my garden with more charisma and passion.
Sadly I agree, the same goes for Hakeem Jeffries. We sorely need new, vibrant and aggressive leadership, that doesn't slop at the Wall Street rough, and draws its support and strength from the people.
The fact, which the Democrats don't want to admit or address is that the MAGA movement is built on the people. Admittedly most of those people are not people with whom we want to associate, and there are racists and homophobes, and anti immigrants in the Democratic party.
But the money powers, the powers that be, were able to unite them and themselves around the movement MAGA.
We could do the same, and in my opinion, would have, had not the professional sponges in the DNC had not put their thumb on the scale for Hillary, thus ceding the populist movement to Trump and MAGA.
Populism had a resurgence in 2020 because of Trump's fuck up's, and inexperience, but overly and ever cautious Joe and the Democrats in the legislature didn't take advantage of their majority.
Yes Manchin and Sinema were obstacles, but only because they knew that the Democratic party was weak, and had no fear of Biden or leadership, unlike the Republicans which are afraid of Trump, leadership and MAGA and will not buck leadership.
The establishment blames Sinema and Manchin, but the Republican party has it's own Sinemans and Manchin's, you just don't hear about them because they have been cowed into submission.
Whereas the Democrats"big tent" has permitted renegades and rogues to enter and prosper.
Caught red-handed with our hand in our back pocket.
The reason Republicans ultimately fail is because they always overplay their hand. They can't conceive that there is anything fundamentally wrong with their worldview, which is why they also keep trying to impose the same flawed ideas over and over.
Why do the Democrats ultimately fail?
They prefer an in-box mentality to having a comprehensive worldview. In other words, they don't stick to their guns when they should.
It isn't that they don't stick to their guns, it's that the damned things aren't loaded.
Seattle. I am not afraid of the big bad wolf. He is compiling a list of his enemies. Problem for him is it is in the millions. His 20 thousand ICE agents are a bit out numbered. The only way he can make that work is bleed a few and isolate them and make everyone fear that as their fate. It just takes enough to not care and overwhelm their fear infrastructure to handle it and not be seen as weak and unable to handle the over flow. I am the over flow. I do not care. They lose. Praise God from whom all blessing flow.