Tag Archives: Trump

Breaking the Spell of Apocalyptic Politics

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Former president #45 has proclaimed on his Truth Social post of 11/18/23 that 2024 will be” the final battle.” Below is a quote from him while in Iowa-

“2024 is our final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the Deep State, we will expel the warmongers from our government, we will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the Communists, Marxists, and Fascists, we will throw off the sick political class that hates our Country, we will rout the Fake News Media, we will evict Joe Biden from the White House, and we will FINISH THE JOB ONCE AND FOR ALL! ia.donaldjtrump.com/,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Saturday.

Many questions come to mind. Who is this political class that hates America? He continues to infer that liberals hate America, but where are these people? The people who hate the US are mostly elsewhere in the world.

What about his claim that he will cast out the Communists, Marxists and Fascists. Communism is practiced by China in some despotic form, but most of the world is free from the threat of communism. Marxism? Oh please. C’mon Donald, name 5 American Marxists. Marxism is long dead. The Soviets abandoned it and communism when the USSR collapsed in the early 1990’s. And fascism? Does he understand what fascism is? It doesn’t sound like it. Fascism is ultranationalism and who arms themselves to the teeth and parades around draped in the stars & stripes or the Confederate battle flag? It ain’t liberals.

The “Fake News Media”? #45 should be nicer to these people. They’ve given him half a billion dollars in free publicity since 2016. It’s helped the Democrats somewhat, but the media has been quite uncritical in their decisions on televising his rolling freakshow. His bombastic bellowing and verbal assaults make him a sure bet for good viewer numbers. He is a completely noxious human being but that makes him worth televising for ratings. The continuous reporting of his words and actions simply validates to his followers that he’s the right man to make Washington, DC, work right.

Many American conservatives are under the spell of #45 and are probably irretrievable. These people will have to live out their natural lives and go to the grave as Trump supporters. If you listen to them they are cock sure that Trump speaks the truth. But the fact is that the Republican party gets the most donations and most support from the people who have the money. And, right now that money is funneling into groups that support Trump because he has the numbers.

What doesn’t help America is that most of the fundamentalist, protestant Christian nationalists in the US can support Trump for religious reasons. They believe that somehow, despite his worldly troubles, he is the one who will spur on the prophesied return of Christ- the Second Coming. They believe that “the apocalypse” will happen in Israel and soon. Christian nationalists are eager to support Israel for reasons like this. Their end-of-the-world theology involves support for Israel.

The problem with Christian nationalism is that it stems from an apocalyptic religion. Why should anyone entrust them to govern America when they believe that the end is near? I’ve been watching this develop since the late 1970’s and especially into the 1980’s during the Reagan years and the rise of the Moral Majority. It was a chimera of orthodox Republicanism and protestant conservative evangelical organizations. The Southern Baptist Convention, in particular. This is a political force having its way in America presently. They are eating the elephant one bite at a time.

For myself, the fundamental theorem of Americanism is democracy, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Conservatives are beginning to discount the practice of democracy because they find it does not seem to provide a path to their utopian vision for America. Democracy is messy and allows for a broad spectrum of ideas and practices. A theocratic and libertarian world is a place where the control of civilization and power belongs to the wealthy and righteous. It is theocratic and controlled by a few. This is a regression to the closing decades of the American 19th century when industrial barons held sway.

In conclusion, this Republican Christian nationalism must be defeated or encouraged to die on the vine. Christianity or any other religion are not about democracy. The Republican party is showing little interest in democracy. They have learned that they cannot have their way just through elections. They are at work chipping away at our democratic institutions. Democracy must be preserved. The airwaves, churches and congress are full of doomsayers claiming that America is in a crisis and that only conservative Christian values can make it better. The spell of apocalyptic politics must be broken.

Those Wacky Republicans!

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Yet again, very serious and doctrinaire House Republicans apply their skills in the art of clusterf**kery. The act of legislating and otherwise steering the big federal boat is secondary to their acquisition of power. A core of ultraorthodox conservatives called the Freedom Caucus is tangled in an internecine battle for control and don’t seem to care much about collateral damage. The roots of this group go back to the delightful Tea Party in 2015.

What the Freedom Caucus may be doing is laying the groundwork for Project 2025: Presidential Transition Project. This plan, organized by The Heritage Foundation, seeks to deconstruct or reorganize the administrative branch of the federal government and populate it with vetted, politically reliable staff. Winning seats in Congress or the Whitehouse is now deemed insufficient.

House Republicans leading the way.

This plan from The Heritage Foundation is the result of a very extensive collaboration of groups from all over the right-wing. I don’t think that anyone will deny that the federal bureaucracy is too big and too slow. But what Project 2025 plans to do is to apply a conservative foundation of politically reliable personnel. There would be a political test to pass prior to getting a government job. The effect will be to polarize the government in a way that would be quite difficult to change. They want a Republican America set in stone and they plan on starting the first day of the next Republican administration. We know this because they have written a book on how they plan to do it.

“The project is the effort of a broad coalition of conservative organizations that have come together to ensure a successful administration begins in January 2025. With the right conservative policy recommendations and properly vetted and trained personnel to implement them, we will take back our government.”

Source: The Heritage Foundation.

Meanwhile, Emperor Trumpus Maximus continues to blunder forward with promises of MAGA, all the while trampling over the garden of civilization. It’s like watching Godzilla destroying 1950’s Tokyo while a jabbering and ineffectual media makes sure to capture and replay every delicious morsel of bad adult behavior.

As always, Trump continues to rack up hours of free TV coverage. They call it news, but it’s really a nonstop freak show. The headliner, DJT, is a genius at attracting big-media coverage. Trump’s legacy is now totally out of his control. He has fumbled his business empire to the edge of extinction and his political career is disintegrating. What a dangerous idiot.

The Russians are gleefully watching our Republican House of Representatives implosion. It validates Putin’s (and China’s) claim that the US is a declining empire in moral disarray and that democracy can’t be made to work. The upcoming 2024 elections offer the hope of declining US and NATO backing of Ukraine. All Putin has to do is outlive Ukraine’s ability to wage war.

The Politics of Due Process

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We’ve been treated to unceasing wails of unfairness by #45 in relation to his mounting legal woes. It’s all politics, he proclaims, meant to disrupt his presidential campaign. I have to agree that politics are definitely involved- the politics of democracy and due process.

Democracy does not derive from some natural physical law. It is something that we allot to ourselves by consensus and the axiom of certain inalienable rights. In its purest form, democracy is a type of political structure focused on the will of the majority and the inherent rights of the individual. In our democracy, elected representatives put laws into place by consensus. Admittedly, it is sort of janky and prone to abuse. But, in the end, it always manages to right itself after a storm. In truth, our system of laws is inherently political by the definition below.

Politics, noun

pol·​i·​tics ˈpä-lə-ˌtiks 

plural in form but singular or plural in construction

1a: the art or science of government

b: the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy

c: the art or science concerned with winning and holding control over a government

Source: Merriam Webster

Our system of laws is subdivided into many areas. One of them specifies the layers of fair treatment by the judicial system. We call it “due process.” All of us are entitled to due process under the law, even ex-presidents.

In the course of due process, #45 has been indicted 4 times resulting in 91 felony counts. Did this result from political action? Yes indeed- the politics of democracy under the lawful guidelines of due process. Evidence of wrong-doing was presented to a grand jury of citizens 4 times and 4 times indictments were issued from 4 jurisdictions. “Mr. ex-President, this is what due process looks like. Yes, it is the politics of democracy you idiot.”

Conspiracy Mongering

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My list of friends on Facebook includes several MAGA conspiracy fans. The big issue for many of them presently is Joe Biden and Hunter, the evil son. My observation has been that they use similar language in regard to their allegations about the “Biden Crime Syndicate.” This suggests to me that they are getting their “news” feed from the same types of sources. I’ve noticed that Faux News viewers tend to use vocabulary and ideas that they pick up on that miserable channel or one like it.

Close behind the hatred for Biden is considerable anger about the border and immigration.

My experience with conspiracy-minded folk has been that when you challenge them to cite evidence, they will just rearrange the words and say the same thing, only louder. I remember conversations with such people way back into the 1970’s. In 1975 I ran into a group at the county fair where the John Birch Society had a booth. They were an ultraconservative libertarian group and were, at the time, predicting the impending collapse of the dollar, carping about the demise of the gold standard and the wrong-headedness of liberalism. There was very much a survivalist tenor to the group. Beneath their calm exteriors they were rabidly anti-government and had a stack of doctrines and literature to back it up.

The recent Tea Party quickly gave way to the MAGA movement and was lubricated by the slippery QAnon … thing. Before, internet conspiracy enthusiasts could only recruit followers by phone calls, pamphleteering, talk shows after midnight from low power AM stations and local demonstrations. Day-to-day, the attention of big media is curated by editors and producers who monitor their broadcast news content. Some media organizations like Fox News make no effort to hide their political stripe. Generally, public events like marches or a gathering of a dozen extremists at the state capital were given minimal if any media coverage. Little coverage was given because few seemed to care, advertisers in particular. Media is all about attracting eyeballs.

The popularity of Trump with a great many Americans may be that he appeals to certain features of their inner dark sides. He hates the same people that they do. Distrust of foreigners, the need for retribution and vigorous disapproval of the gradual trend towards broader interpretations of civil rights. There is a notion that someone must pay dearly for their unlucky lot in life or their discomfort. Some fraction of people are by nature bitter and paranoid. Trump and his ilk validate their hatreds and fears.

The politicization of protestant Christianity has certainly fed into the belief that any variation from their supernatural world views are worse than out of line, they’re evil. The staunch belief in their own righteousness renewed weekly by dramatic performances of preachers in Sunday services leads such people to take a world view that they are backed by supernatural forces leading to the inevitable onset of prophesied and apocalyptic events. Many express the view that Trump is in place to bring on the end-times. Catch that? The supernatural realm penetrates space and time from somewhere else through the person of DJT. He’s part of the plan, man.

Trump could actually bring on something like end-times, only everywhere but the Levant and with no chance of a rapture.

In the last several decades, the rise of the internet and social media has given fringe-dwellers a powerful platform from which to broadcast their messages all over the world. This has been a step-change in political influence. Far-flung individuals and groups can now collaborate instantaneously with like-minded wierdos. This subsurface activity has changed how world politics is conducted. Whereas before, many people were not privy to political information because of income, location or social circle and thus were not involved. Now communications are limited only by the speed of the internet and anyone with a computer or phone can have a presence. We of the internet are like a nest of baby birds, all with open mouths pointed straight up clamoring for the worm of attention.

The internet step-change in communications is an improvement overall in democracy in the broad sense. More voices in play to contribute to democracy. But what has come along with it is the volume of shrill demagoguery and hysteria as well as new forms of criminal enterprise. We’re watching the effects of extremists frightening wide swaths of the public with exaggerated or fabricated troubles. Pre-internet this was done with organized rallies- a well-established technique of fascist dictators both as they rose to power and as they maintained power. Such rallies are popular today as well. Look at all of the rallies Trump held before, during and after his presidency. While he was anxiously lapping up the love and adoration from his crowds, he was also keeping the Trump enthusiasm in play. Trump may truly be an awful human being, but he is quite good at working a crowd anxious for his kind of message.

The Folly of it is Stunning

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When I look around I marvel at how quickly some things can happen. How is it that so many people prostrate themselves in front of a madman like Trump since 2015? So many people are able to ignore the lies, aspersions and exaggerations that he casts about, and they even increase their support for the man as the felony indictments accumulate. Who would have guessed that America would fall into this tar pit of absurdity?

I’ve always suspected that the American experiment would collapse at some point, like all empires do. But to do so at the hands of a cartoonish, thuggish wannabe dictator-real-estate-developer-TV-star is just too much to bear. It’s so incredibly disappointing.

The Trump lovers seem unlikely to respond to reason in their lifetimes. They will go to their graves having given themselves to a confidence man who spoiled the American experiment.

“… radical-left Democrats, Marxist, communists and fascists …”

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I’m running out of words to describe the deplorable ex-president #45. Just when you think he can’t add to his steaming heap of manure called a legacy, he shovels on more. It seems like there is no limit to the falsehoods he is willing to declare in public and no limit to what his supporters are willing to accept.

In regard to his indictments, he was recorded as saying something to the effect of “They’re not after me, they’re after you … I’m just standing in their way!” He is turning his indictments into the image of him sacrificing himself on the cross for the millions of Americans. A blood sacrifice for his beloved followers. If you supposed that this vaudevillian stunt was transparently phony to everyone, you’d be wrong.

#45 has been referring to “… radical-left Democrats, Marxist, communists and fascists …” in his gimmie-all-yer-lovin’ rallies. How absurd. Leftists aren’t fascists- they are antifascists. And by the way, what is wrong with being against fascism? #45 is using his usual mirror tactic of taking accusations against him and aiming it back at his critics. He knows very well that he isn’t being held accountable for truthfulness by the people he counts on. He tells big lies and repeats them over and over. It works for him. The very boldness of his lies somehow validates them in the minds of his followers.

Marxism and socialism have been in the scrapyard of history for a decades. The Soviet experiment with using socialism to get to communism was an abject failure. Stalin’s USSR was a brutal, murderous dictatorship tarted up to appear as a people’s paradise for those outside the iron curtain.

China today is a single party communist dictatorship that practices centralized control and nationalistic state capitalism. Previously, however, under the command of Chairman Mao Zedong, it is estimated that 40 to 80 million people died as a result of starvation, persecution, prison labor and execution in order to achieve his personal dream of a communist paradise.

It is difficult to find a communist state where people have the liberties that we in the US take for granted. It seems that to compel people to hand over their belongings to the state, a good bit of muscle is needed. Stalin found this out when he tried to collectivize Ukraine in the early 1930s. He ended up causing mass starvation and sending people to the gulags. The notion that the US is under threat from communist influence is without credibility. The odd communist may pop up now and then but they are little more than a curiosity not worthy of concern.

It is hard to know what Republicans regard as radical about Democrat ideals. Could it be that anyone who disagrees with today’s GOP is a “leftist radical”? If there are actual living, breathing Marxists among liberals in the US, they are likely to be lonely. There is Richard D Wolff at UMass, Amherst. Wolff is against capitalism and makes some fair points, but the momentum of history won’t be going his way any time soon. People still remember the Soviet experiment with Marxism-Leninism which was a disaster.

So·cial·ism: noun; a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

Source: Google

Will citizens of the US ever acquiesce to turning over private property to a socialist government? Clearly, there is not a chance. The accusation that US liberals harbor socialistic desires is a Republican fever dream. The same with communism. The current population of US citizens would never embrace communism. Too many past instances of communist or socialist dictatorships in the world, and besides, Americans love their private property and would defend it with the umpteen hundred million guns under their pillows.

It is a Republican fantasy that only they are the true patriots in the US. This gives them license to posture as the only “real” Americans worthy of the title. This froze out as axiomatic for them many years ago, especially since the years of Mr. “trickle-down economics” Reagan.

Having social services is not the same as having socialism. A capitalist economy that provides a social safety net through taxation is not socialism. The capitalists still own their means of production, distribution and exchange.

Ordinary citizens in the US pay taxes to support the Army, Air Force, Space Force, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard. We also pay taxes and fees for upkeep on state and national infrastructure like roads, bridges, air traffic control and many other things. All of this goes to support our capitalist means of production, distribution and exchange.

Citizens pay exorbitant tuition to educate themselves to a level where they can contribute to operating our capitalistic enterprises. Payment for the common good isn’t borne exclusively by business. Both citizens and our capitalist enterprises benefit from this arrangement.

The business side should recall that citizens contribute to their corporate existence by funding their government contracts and by purchasing products that they off-shored to China to the detriment of US workers and security.

Achievements of #45

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I’m brain-dead already today from some stultifying regulatory activities. I ran across this over lunch and thought I should post it. MAGA people probably won’t enjoy this and would be well advised to just shuffle along.

The source of this content said to cut, paste and pass along. I remember many of these entries from when they happened so I don’t feel too bad about passing it along. Whoever compiled this list deserves lots of credit. Here it is- the achievements of President #45.

1. he incited an insurrection against the government,

2. mismanaged a pandemic that killed a million Americans,

3. separated children from their families, lost those children in the bureaucracy,

4. tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church,

5. tried to block all Muslims from entering the country,

6. got impeached,

7. got impeached again,

8. had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history,

9. pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden,

10. fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia,

11. bragged about firing the FBI director on TV,

12. took Vladimir Putin’s word over the US intelligence community,

13. diverted military funding to build his wall,

14. caused the longest government shutdown in US history,

15. called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate,”

16. lied nearly 30,000 times,

17. banned transgender people from serving in the military,

18. ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions,

19. vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers,

20. refused to release his tax returns,

21. increased the national debt by nearly $8 TRILLION,

22. had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history,

23. called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers,

24. coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist,

25. refused to concede the 2020 election,

26. hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House,

27. walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl,

28. called neo-Nazis “very fine people,”

29. suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID,

30. abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey,

31. pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans,

32. incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic,

33. withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords,

34. withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal,

35. withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block China’s advances,

36. insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter,

37. pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op,

38. failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies,

39. called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries,

40. called the city of Baltimore the “worst in the nation,”

41. claimed that he single handedly brought back the phrase “Merry Christmas” even though it hadn’t gone anywhere,

42. forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader,

43. believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,

44. berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe,

45. suggested the US should buy Greenland,

46. colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges,

47. repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people,”

48. claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we’d have fewer cases,

49. violated the emoluments clause,

50. thought that Nambia was a country,

51. told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public,

52. called his exceedingly faithful vice president a “p—y” for following the Constitution,

53. nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet,

54. nominated a corrupt head of the EPA,

55. nominated a corrupt head of HHS,

56. nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department,

57. nominated a corrupt head of the USDA,

58. praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies,

59. refused to allow the presidential transition to begin,

60. insulted war hero John McCain – even after his death,

61. spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president,

62. falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote,

63. called the Muslim mayor of London a “stone cold loser,”

64. falsely claimed that he turned down being Time’s Man of the Year,

65. considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions,

66. mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID,

67. locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones,

68. used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the “China virus,”

69. hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser,

70. pardoned several of his shady associates,

71. gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressmen who amplified his batshit crazy conspiracy theories,

72. got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia(!),

73. had a Secretary of State who called him a moron,

74. forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history,

75. botched the COVID vaccine rollout,

76. tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him,

77. charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties,

78. constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate,

79. claimed that COVID would “magically” disappear,

80. called a U.S. Senator “Pocahontas,”

81. used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka’s merchandise,

82. opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling,

83. got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers,

84. claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US,

85. ignored or didn’t even take part in daily intelligence briefings,

86. blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining,

87. redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle,

88. got played by Kim Jung Un and his “love letters,”

89. threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution,

90. botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico,

91. threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them,

92. pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to “find” him votes,

93. thought that the Virgin islands had a President,

94. drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane,

95. allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing,

96. rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos,

97. pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID,

98. rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers,

99. held blatant campaign rallies at the White House,

100. tried to take away millions of Americans’ health insurance because the law was named for a Black man,

101. refused to attend his successors’ inauguration,

102. nominated the worst Education Secretary in history,

103. threatened judges who didn’t do what he wanted,

104. attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci,

105. promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn’t),

106. allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues,

107. struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble,

108. called an African-American Congresswoman “low IQ,”

109. threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders,

110. went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic,

111. claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were “witch hunts,”

112. seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution,

113. demanded “total loyalty” from the FBI director,

114. praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles,

115. completely gutted the Voice of America,

116. placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service,

117. claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower,

118. suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country,

119. suggested that COVID wasn’t that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public,

120. overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported,

121. reduced the number of refugees the US accepts,

122. insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames,

123. gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address,

124. named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who’d previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties,

125. eliminated the White House office of pandemic response,

126. used soldiers as campaign props,

127. fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him,

128. demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade,

129. hired a shit ton of white nationalists,

130. politicized the civil service,

131. did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the U.S. government,

132. falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts,

133. claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won,

134. insulted reporters of color,

135. insulted women reporters,

136. insulted women reporters of color,

137. suggested he was fine with China’s oppression of the Uighurs,

138. attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him,

139. summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House to pressure them to overturn the election,

140. spent countless hours every day watching Fox News,

141. refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas,

142. hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer,

143. tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him,

144. acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney,

145. attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a prominent lady who accused him of sexual assault,

146. held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present,

147. didn’t disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media,

148. stopped holding press briefings for months at a time,

149. “ordered” US companies to leave China even though he has no such power,

150. led a political party that couldn’t even be bothered to draft a policy platform,

151. claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers,

152. tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course,

153. suggested that the government nuke hurricanes,

154. suggested that wind turbines cause cancer,

155. said that he had a special aptitude for science,

156. fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure,

157. blurted out classified information to Russian officials,

158. tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida,

159. fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban,

160. hired notorious racist Stephen Miller,

161. openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them,

162. interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel,

163. abandoned Iraqi refugees who’d helped the U.S. during the war,

164. tried to get Russia back into the G7,

165. held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden,

166. seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive,

167. lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated,

168. falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren’t,

169. shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies,

170. still hasn’t come up with a healthcare plan,

171. still hasn’t come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated “Infrastructure Weeks,”

172. forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID,

173. told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,”

174. fucked up the Census,

175. withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic,

176. did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings,”

177. allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act,

178. seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican,

179. stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win,

180. constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president which presumably includes four that were assassinated and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump,

181. claimed Andrew Jackson could’ve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened,

182. said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake,

183. claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him,

184. claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President,

185. created a commission to whitewash American history,

186. retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain,

187. claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn’t have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there,

188. hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent Bowling Green Massacre as a reason to ban Muslims,

189. had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others,

190. bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties,

191. apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House,

192. stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians,

193. falsely claimed Biden wanted to defund the police,

194. said that the head of the CDC didn’t know what he was talking about,

195. tried to rescind protection from DREAMers,

196. gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic,

197. tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax,

198. said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn’t count blue states,

199. deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented,

200. claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln,

201. touted a “super-duper” secret “hydrosonic” missile which may or may not be a new “hypersonic” missile or may not exist at all,

202. retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile,

203. forced through security clearances for his family,

204. suggested that police officers should rough up suspects,

205. suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs,

206. tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender,

207. suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher,

208. nominated a climate change sceptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy,

209. retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden

210. had played a song called “Fuck tha Police” at a campaign event,

211. hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags,

212. accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his State of the Union address,

213. claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on Russia,

214. mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault,

215. obsessed over low-flow toilets,

216. ordered the rerelease of more COVID vaccines when there weren’t any to release,

217. called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek),

218. hijacked Washington’s July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech,

219. took advice from the MyPillow guy,

220. claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists,

221. said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition figure,

222. never seemed to heed the advice of his wife’s “Be Best” campaign,

223. falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent,

224. announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest,

225. insulted the leader of Canada,

226. insulted the leader of France,

227. insulted the leader of Britain,

228. insulted the leader of Germany,

229. insulted the leader of Sweden (Sweden!!),

230. falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues,

231. blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually,

232. continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders,

233. said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their “Sony televisions” if the US were ever attacked,

234. left a NATO summit early in a huff,

235. stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of 5 knows not to do that,

236. called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary,

237. refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise.

238. Don’t forget that he took many classified & top secret documents with him when he left the White House, many of which have not been recovered & may have been compromised.

He Just Keeps Talking

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WARNING. Political content follows.

While whining about how the 2020 election should be redone due to alleged fraud and how Twitter was trying to limit posts on Hunter Biden, #45 let this gem slip out-

“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,”

The response by politicos to this assertion has fallen along party lines, with the Republicans remaining largely quiet on the matter. One republican who did comment on “This Week” with George Stephanopolous was Ohio Rep. (R) Dave Joyce. When asked if he would support #45 in 2024, he said he would support whomever the Republican nominee is.

From the interview-

“That’s a remarkable statement,” Stephanopoulos said. “You just said you’d support a candidate who’s come out for suspending the Constitution.

“Well, you know, he says a lot of things,” Joyce said, adding, “I can’t be really chasing every one of these crazy statements that come from any of these candidates.”

“You can’t come out against someone who’s for suspending the Constitution?” Stephanopoulos pushed back once again.

“He says a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean that it’s ever going to happen. So you got to [separate] fact from fantasy — and fantasy is that we’re going to suspend the Constitution and go backwards. We’re moving forward,” Joyce said.

Joyce is chair of the Republican Governance Group which is a centrist group in the House of Representatives.

The words of Joyce seem refreshingly frank and vaguely dismissive of #45’s chances in 2024. While many of his Republican colleagues may actually find #45 repugnant on a personal level and a danger to democracy, all of them are attracted to #45’s voters like moths to a flame. He may be a jerk, but he’s OUR jerk.

It’s amazing that #45 seemingly hasn’t realized that the more he talks the more disgusting he appears. If he would simply shut his yap he’d be much better off. However, if he did that, he wouldn’t get the free media exposure- good and bad- like he got in 2016.

Republican’s View of Freedom and Liberty

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Warning: Political comment below.

President #45 has a life-long background in management and as a CEO of privately-held corporations. This private ownership world is not a democracy. It is by nature an authoritarian command and control situation where the Board of Directors and CEO operate the corporation. Often the Chairman of the Board is also the CEO. This system is hierarchical with a strict chain of command. Just existing as an upper level manager in this private world has a large component of loyalty to the CEO.

In this private corporate world, it is just assumed by the finance people to go all out to minimize taxes and maximize margins. The legal department doesn’t need to be told to get and keep the corporation and it’s executives out of trouble with civil and criminal law. “Out of trouble” can also mean plausible deniability. Managers don’t need to be told that their jobs depend on getting their numbers for the quarter. If the HR department has any due process at all, it will strongly favor the company.

An old trick in the business world when legal trouble looms is to round up a team of lawyers and bog everything down in court delays and appeals. Bankrupt your opponent with legal bills and wind down the clock. Number 45 learned this years ago with his lawyer Roy Cohn. Sue everybody who crosses you. It is a big stick he swings around to this very day.

The incidence of psychopathic behavior is a bit higher among CEOs. Commonly, a large spectrum of aberrant behaviors are tolerated by a Board of Directors, as long as the good numbers keep rolling in. If you are the Chairman, the CEO, and the major stakeholder, there is only the law and the market to set your boundaries. Even that can be challenged if you have good staff lawyers.

President #45 came into office from years as a television performer and as a Chief Executive Officer of resort property development and casino businesses. Apart from managing large organizations from the top level with accountability only to himself and possibly his creditors, #45 had zero experience, or interest evidently, that naturally leads to being president of a vast administrative branch of government with large international and military interests. Yet, under the guise of “draining the swamp” and the wide spread misogynistic antipathy towards Hillary Clinton, he became president of the electoral college, or ahem, the USA.

Ok. After this lengthy preamble, here is my point. A common rallying cry held by supporters of #45 is support for liberty and freedom. They look to a man whose entire professional career has been at the helm of autocratic organizations that bear no resemblance to a culture of liberty and freedom. Top down command of loyal associates is all he knows. His world view as an autocrat is “what can you do for me in addition to unswerving loyalty?” The crowds demand liberty and freedom but it is completely disconnected from what #45’s life has been all about. His presidency was a disaster for liberty and freedom.

Again, #45 Blows a Gasket About the Pulitzer

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Warning. What follows has political content that may offend some readers.

The former president, that is #45, has been busy venting gas about how his demand that the Pulitzer Prize board withdraw two 2018 prizes has been denied. One, to the Washington Post for investigative reporting and the other to The New York Times for public service . This pathetic man, the anointed savior of evangelical MAGA Republicans and the Lord High Magistrate of what is right for the MAGA way of life, openly and strenuously defecates on anyone who annoys or contradicts him. You might think that such a man of demonstrated low ethical and moral character would be immediately dismissed by conservative Americans. You know, the people who feel that they are the keepers of what’s good and right about America. As we all know, this hasn’t happened. He is still believed by a great many to be the right guy to “drain the swamp” in Washington, DC. It seems that no disgrace can bump him off this pedestal or repel his followers.

I describe myself as a pragmatic liberal. I accept the reality and value to a fair extent of capitalist markets and the need to reasonably control the reach of government. However I do believe in the value of a united America where citizens can trust that large scale and international issues can be handled by the federal government.

What a shame it is that the US is burdened with #45 and his MAGA cultists in a time of serious global tension posed by two authoritarian regimes aiming to knock us down more than a few notches. They assault the country daily with attacks over the internet. China’s respect for American intellectual property is and has always been nil. Since the 1970’s, China has been sending students and scientists to the US for an education in science and engineering. They returned to their country to help build the technological powerhouse that they now are. It has successfully rallied it’s population with many years of scornful propaganda against the US and liberal democracy. So far, China has been successful in it’s plan to economically dominate much of Africa and it’s mineral resources. It is flexing it’s muscles in the South China Sea and aggressively menacing Taiwan as it applies economic pressure on Australia to accept it’s dominating presence in the region.

Russia, as the free world knows, has invaded Ukraine on laughably fictitious grounds and is pummeling the country to rubble with constant artillery fire. Russia is fighting a war of extermination as it wantonly rapes and murders innocent civilians. The homicidal Putin has dug himself in with a wall around himself that seems impregnable to an internal rebellion. He is a psychopath with nuclear weapons and an army who is bent on shaping his part of the world into the Mother Russia he imagines it once was.

All of this and more is happening in the world around us. The world order that the US has come to structure itself around is coming apart. All the while, America is preoccupied with a circular firing squad of squabbling over religious and political abstractions. Our two-party system limps along with one party rotting to the bone. The American Republican party has morphed into a 2-headed monster thanks to #45 and his unrelenting incitement of the lunatic fringe and those left behind by technological and economic progress.

The American experiment with fascism is accelerating as ultraconservatives buckle their seatbelts in political positions ranging from school boards and county representatives to state houses and the US congress. America’s vast political middle ground trends towards lazy disinterest with a long record of low voter turnout. The ultra-right knows and relies on the laziness of the left and center.

Ultraconservative evangelical preachers have been on the airwaves for decades pushing their twisted theory of the universe. Their rhetorical skills are considerable. The brick and mortar preachers are now teaching followers that the end is near and #45 has been sent by God to smooth the way for the prophesied apocalypse set to begin in Israel.

Somebody once said, “when fascism comes to America, it will be draped in a flag and carrying a cross.” It’s beginning to look that way.