They don’t play well together

 Autocrats.  They are domineering authoritarian threatening violent bullies.  And they have put their autocratic leader, the orange blob, into the White House come January 20, 2025. But, how is it going for them?

Well, it turns out there seem to be three brands of authoritarian autocrats who put their autocratic leader blob on the top of the heap - oligarchs, theocrats, and nativists. And they are not built to play well together. 

Oligarch autocrat Elon Musk wants smart technocratic immigrants to come to America so he, and the techno oligarchs, can pay them below what they would have to pay American techno geeks. Plus the imports would be trapped in the company they work for or be deported if they leave, as I understand it. 

Oops!  The nativist autocrats are murderously furious. These extremists want NO immigrants, especially immigrants that replace White American workers. So, war…

When do the theocratic autocrats go to war with another autocratic extremist wing?  What will be the trigger?

What is the orange king to do?  Pick sides? Waffle?  Punish?  One thing we know he is incapable of is diplomacy, negotiation, compromise.  

Could be amusing to watch. Or the fallout could be terrible for the rest of us? Violence is part of the air they breathe. 

Well, this is what Americans voted for, but I think many will be surprised at the results. 

Musk proudly declares his white supremacy

 Elon Musk, America’s richest man, raised in racist Apartheid South Africa, has just proudly declared his Nazi self:

“Elon Musk claims ‘only AfD can save Germany’…

AfD is Germany’s neo-Nazi party. The world does not need a rise of German Nazis. Nor the rise of American Nazis. 

What else does white supremacist Musk want? He is giving England’s right wing extremist xenophobic Nigel Farage… $100 million!  

His takeover of Twitter has clearly been for the purpose of spreading extremist right wing lies and anti-Semitic attacks, designed to have him take over the MAGA autocracy. 

MAGA just keeps going lower and lower. 

The shakedowns begin

 Welcome to Mob Boss America.  Trump just shook down ABC News for $15 million.  He will claim this to be a proof of his innocence.  No, it is a proof of his corruption. 
 
From the article:
 
“Stephanopoulos said in the interview that Trump "has been found liable for rape by a jury." Trump, however, was found liable in a civil case for sexually abusing Carroll, not liable for alleged rape”

Interpretation - he raped her with his fingers, not his penis, so technically the statement was slightly misleading. The presiding judge had earlier clarified
 
 “…Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape,’ ” Kaplan wrote.
 
ABC could easily have simply defended their journalist with the claim that the distinction between finger rape and penis rape was no real distinction at all, that she had been forcibly penetrated against her will which is commonly understood to be a violent sexual rape.  And they could have negotiated some settlement like paying for Trump’s legal fees.
 
But ABC did something very different, they Obeyed in Advance, which is to say they submitted to the autocrat ahead of time.  Was it to preclude long legal fees?  Was it to get the difficulty behind them and move forward?  These will be the public rationales, I suppose, but that is not what it really is, it seems to me.
What it really is the victim of a shakedown making a payoff to the Mob Boss – the Mob Boss says, you know it would really be a shame if you had to go through a bunch of pain and suffering that I would inflict upon you when you don’t have to…just give me $15,000,000 and we’ll call it even – OK little bitty subservient victim?  And the little bitty subservient victim says OK Boss, whatever you say boss, is this enough boss?
 
Let the shakedowns continue.
 
And we see the real purpose of the orange one’s “presidency” -$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
 
And, of course, the purpose is vengeance.  Make them all grovel. Make them all sorry.  I just saw the brilliant portrayal of “The Penguin” string Collin Farrell - a good example of a tiny man who makes himself feel big by hurting others and making them grovel.  Sick…

Run for your stinking life, Assad…

 Anne Applebaum is always a mandatory read, for me. Is Syria a precursor of other authoritarian tyrannies being overthrown? Is there an actual reason for hope? Even a fall of Putin? From her article:

“Then, after a well-organized, highly motivated set of armed opponents took the city of Aleppo on November 29, many of the regime’s defenders abruptly stopped fighting. Assad vanished. The scenes that followed today in Damascus—the toppling of statues, the people taking selfies at the dictator’s palace—are the same ones that will unfold in Caracas, Tehran, or Moscow on the day the soldiers of those regimes lose their faith in the leadership, and the public loses their fear of those soldiers too”. … 

Russia has deliberately backed or created regimes that have not merely sought to repress opponents but have also gone out of their way to demonstrate flagrant disregard for human rights and the rule of law, ideas that Putin claims belong to the past. When Putin talks about a new world order or a “multipolar world,” as he did again last month, this is what he means: He wants to build a world in which his cruelty cannot be limited, in which he and his fellow dictators enjoy impunity, and in which no universal values exist, not even as aspirations. …. 

Nevertheless, the end of the Assad regime creates something new, and not only in Syria. There is nothing worse than hopelessness, nothing more soul-destroying than pessimism, grief, and despair. The fall of a Russian- and Iranian-backed regime offers, suddenly, the possibility of change. The future might be different. And that possibility will inspire hope all around the world”

Autocracy is violence, force, domination, fear. But once the tyrant no longer looks invincible, once the enforcers discover that they themselves are being harmed by the brute on top, bye bye tyrant…run for your stinking life. 

He thinks he’s King Henry VIII

 Once again, Trump threatens prison for Liz Cheney, unconstitutional and a lie. Liz responds with the truth....

"This morning, President-elect Trump again lied about the January 6th Select Committee, and said members of the Committee 'should go to jail' for carrying out our constitutional responsibilities. Here is the truth: Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and seize power. He mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the United States Capitol, where they attacked police officers, invaded the building, and halted the official counting of electoral votes. Trump watched on television as police officers were brutally beaten and the Capitol was assaulted, refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave. This was the worst breach of our Constitution by any president in our nation’s history. Donald Trump’s suggestion that members of Congress who later investigated his illegal and unconstitutional actions should be jailed is a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.

"Donald Trump knows his claims about the select committee are ridiculous and false, as has been detailed extensively, including by Chairman Thompson in this July 2023 letter.

“There is no conceivably appropriate factual or constitutional basis for what Donald Trump is suggesting – a Justice Department investigation of the work of a congressional committee – and any lawyer who attempts to pursue that course would quickly find themselves engaged in sanctionable conduct.

“What the public now deserves to see is the evidence and grand jury material assembled by Special Counsel Smith, including the grand jury testimony of Vice President Pence and members of Donald Trump’s former White House and campaign staff.

“The Justice Department should ensure that all that material is preserved and cannot be destroyed. As much of that information as possible should be disclosed in the Special Counsel’s upcoming report. Ultimately, Congress should require that all that material be publicly released so all Americans can see Donald Trump for who he genuinely is and fully understand his role in this terrible period in our nation’s history.'... 

Trump thinks he has been made king and can just "chop the heads off" whoever displeases him, like King Henry VIII. He can't, even though his MAGA thugs will try.  Screw this nitwit. 

Autocratic playbook

Just shining a light on what Trump and MAGA are planning, the standard autocratic playbook:

Get rid of an independent press. 

Get rid of an independent legal system. 

Get rid of an independent constitution. 

Get rid of an independent military. 

Get rid of independent political parties. 

Make billions and billions and billions of dollars. For you and for the oligarchy.

Did I mention make BILLION$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$?

But… I don’t expect America to just roll over and obey these thugs.  I am hoping the Trump election is the beginning of the end of right wing theocratic and oligarchic autocracy, not the beginning of autocratic rule.  I think a great American awakening is about to happen.  We said no to the slavery oligarchs.  We said no to the Jim Crow savagery.  We said no to the Joe McCarthy attempted extremist takeover.  It is taking time, but I trust America is going to say no to this band of extremist thugs as well .

Substitute manhood - fear

I believe so much of the damage that Trump and MAGA are doing comes from not knowing what makes a man. One much wiser than I said some years ago that for some who want to be a man, a “real man”, and don’t know how to be a man seize upon a substitute - the way to be a man is to make people fear you. And millions of males wanting to be “real men” latch on to this pretend manliness, and we all suffer the consequences.  

Here is the quote from one of Bob Woodward’s interviews with Trump:

“Asked about power, what is power, and he [Trump] said ‘Real power is … I even don’t like to use the word … but real power is fear,’” Woodward recalled to CNN’s Laura Coates.

Trump has been making people submit to him all of his long, ugly life. And now he will have “his own” Attorney General. And “his own” IRS. And “his own” FBI. And “his own” military. And “his own” nukes. 

Oh boy…

How Trump’s racism will cause inflation and food shortages

 The president elect seems to be hell bent on delivering his economically suicidal campaign promises.

First, he is committed to massive tariffs everywhere (except where Musk and the Trump supporting billionaires don't approve).  This raises prices of imports dramatically, and of course it also raises prices of competing domestic goods as well to almost as high but not quite as high as the imports.  Boom, inflation - bigly bigly bigly.

Second, he just announced that he is going to declare a "national emergency" (bullshit) and use the MILITARY as well as immigration officials to round up and deport millions of brown skinned workers in America. This, in addition to being cruel, is stupid.  Who brings food to our markets and food processing plants? You will be hard pressed to find any other than brown skinned folks in the fields.  This is just old, old, old racism all over again. This is just an autocrat finding someone to blame and promising to punish. It was his number one attraction to get votes.  It is not a stretch to imagine that the round up will not be focused and fair. It seems pretty certain, to me at least, that racists will be involved in the purging of America of all who are not White Christians. There will be naturalized citizens and born in America citizens with latin names and brown skin who will be disappeared from our neighborhoods.  Welcome to empty shelves in our supermarkets.  And higher food prices - bigly bigly bigly.

Disgusting.

But, you say, if he causes such economic calamity he and MAGA will just be voted out in 2028.  Are you joking?  The whole plan of Trump, Vance, Heritage Foundation, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, White Christian Nationalists, Opus Dei Catholics, New Apostolic Reformation Christians, etc. etc. etc. is to end democracy and go into Russian and Venezuelan make believe elections. They gave up on democracy. 

But, you say, they won't be able to because the Courts will stop them. Are you kidding?  This Roberts Supreme Court has proven again and again that it is out to end democracy and establish a theocratic and oligarchic autocracy - from gutting the Voting Rights laws of the ‘60s to granting Trump full immunity from any action he takes while in office that he declares to be an "official act"

These folks think that they have succeeded in creating an autocracy.  Trump thinks has has been crowned king (maybe we see him in a professional wrestling ring setting being crowned "king of WWE” to the uproarious cheers of MAGAs)

 

BUT...this is America, with a quarter of a millennium of democracy and rule of law behind us.  We are not going to let this pass. The world turns, and times change, and the future is what is coming, not a return to some non-existent  America of MAGA fantasies.

America voted to end the Constitution

 Donald J Trump ran as an autocrat – that is as a fascist, authoritarian, tyrant.  Which means that, like autocrats around the world, from Putin to Maduro to Xi, the tyrant “gets to do whatever the hell he wants”  So, what does that mean about America now?  How about the Constitution?
 
Trump is choosing cabinet members now. And all are pretty bad choices but some are horrible beyond imagination. 
 
Tulsi Gabbard is to be the DNI – Director of National Intelligence.  Which means she is above the CIA and the FBI, etc.  So she gets all the intelligence of America.  She is “connected” to Russian tyrant Putin and Syrian tyrant Assad.  As far as I can tell, she is an actual agent for Putin.  So, we can expect her to feed U.S. Intelligence to Putin. Which Putin will find invaluable. Which means that all of our allies know that they can no longer share military and diplomatic intelligence with America.  Which means American intelligence will be fatally crippled and will never fully recover, regardless of who future presidents are. So Putin wins.  Oh boy…
 
Pete Hegseth is to be the head of the Department of Defense.  This is unbelievable.  The DOD is the largest organization in America with over three million people that he is supposed to manage.  He has no managerial experience. He was in combat, I believe as a Captain.  Not a General. He has not led a military organization as a one star, two star, or three star General or as an Admiral.  To say he is unqualified is to be overly polite.  His only “virtue” to Trump is that he wants to fire all women, all blacks, all gays, all “woke” hires in the military.  Goodbye American military excellence.  Putin is sooooooo pleased.
 
Matt Gaetz is a pariah in the House of Representative, under investigation for sex trafficking a minor, and infamous for showing lewd videos on his phone to House members of the young “women” that he had sex with after taking drugs to enhance his disgusting exploits.  They were supposed to be impressed by this for some reason.  To say he is a disgusting pig is to be overly polite.  He is to be the head of the Department of Justice.  His only “virtue” to Trump is that he will illegally attack and destroy all the people who Trump wants to attack and destroy – all who criticized the hyper-sensitive and pathetically fragile little Donnie.  Putin is ecstatic.
 
But, you say, the Constitution says that Cabinet picks have to be approved by the Senate (Advise and Consent clause) and these despicable choices are not likely to be confirmed.  Are you kidding?  What confirmation process?  Why is there a Confirmation Process in the Senate? Oh, the Constitution says there is to be a Confirmation Process.  Who cares?  Trump will just use his Constitutional power to adjourn the Congress and have his nominees be appointed as Recess Appointments, and that will be the end of it.  
 
Constitution?  Trump doesn’t need no stinking Constitution (paraphrase from the great Humphrey Bogart “Sierra Nevada film as he was about to be shot by Mexican bandits to steal his gold)
 
Oh well.  The Constitution was nice while we had it.  
 
BUT – damn it, this is still America and we have nearly a quarter of a millennium of Democracy and the Constitutional rule of law. I firmly believe that America is going to wake up and come out of the hypnotic trance that this TV celebrity has induced on his cult.  I believe America will prevail over these autocrats. But, meanwhile, watch out, America. 

American democracy mortally wounded - by Americans

 Donald J Trump has been re-elected President of the United States. 

He won by promising to end the rule of law and use “his” Justice Department to punish those who dared criticize or demean him. Bye bye Rule OF Law. Hello Rule BY Law. The signature feature of corrupt autocracies to use the legal system to crush all opposition. 

He won by promising to end democracy in America by promising to serve a third term in 2028, reason to be made up and approved by the revolutionary theocratic Supreme Court sometime in the next four years (unless he dies and Opus Dei Catholic extremist nut case JD Vance “wins” the pretend election- see Maduro’s Venezuelan “victory”)

He won by promising to raise tariffs causing skyrocket inflation with a possible outcome of a Great Depression. 

He won by promising to forcibly round up ten to fifteen million illegal immigrants (and some legal brown skinned folks “by accident”), put them in detention camps and throw them out of the country. My suggestion to my friends with Hispanic last names is to have proof of citizenship papers on you at all times. 

He won by promising radical theocratic extremists full control over everyone’s bedrooms - no abortion, no birth control, no gay marriage, no porn, no no-fault divorce (and eventually no obstetricians)

He won by promising white supremacist men to force “their” women to be legally subservient to the all powerful Man of the House. 

He won by promising white supremacists to be able to dominate all other races. 

He won by promising young, uncertain young males that the way to be a man is to be dominating and cruel and make people afraid of you.

Trump is not a politician, he is a fascist tyrant. The Republican Party is not a political party, it is an anti-democracy theocratic and oligarchic revolutionary movement. His Supreme Court is not a court of law, it is a revolutionary court of rule BY law. 

His first act is to violate the law by forcing the Senate to approve recess appointments - ignoring the mandate for Senate confirmation of appointments - crushing this vital check and balance of presidential tyranny. Of course. This is but the first in many, many, many violations of the Constitutional order to come. 

I think the theocrats and oligarchs and proudly racists knew exactly what they were voting for and will applaud all of these atrocities. 

But I think millions who voted for him have no idea what is coming.  And it is coming for them as well as for women, and gays, and trans, and browns, and blacks, and reds, and yellows, and schools, and libraries, and newspapers, and TV networks, and magazines, and….you, dear Republican voter…

But I believe the purpose of this terrible American choice is to shock America awake to finally see that tyranny is not what manhood is about, that theocratic dogmatic dictates is not what spirituality is about, that crushing women’s choices and careers is not what love and marriage is about, that eliminating the news is not what enlightened voting is about, that crushing the institutions of democracy is not what democracy is about. 

Tough times ahead…I guess this is what we need to see and live through in order to stand up and say no.  And give birth to a new America, but not to this autocratic, corrupt, heartless nightmare of America. An America that can indeed become a Light on a Hill. A light of goodness, of personal freedom, of caring and compassion, not of threats, not of violence, not of fear. 

Economic benchmarks

 I just want to make a record of current, Democratic Administration, economic numbers, as of November 11, 2024:

• Inflation - 2.4% per the U.S. Bureau of Statistics 
• Unemployment - 4.1% per the Bureau of Economic Analysis (U.S Govt)
• GDP Increase last 12 months - 2.8% per the Bureau of Economic Analysis (U.S. Govt) 
• Deficit - $1.83 trillion per U.S. Treasury

I expect Trump’s idiotic economic ignorance to make all of these numbers much worse. 

Let’s check in one year, two years, three years, four years ….

Times that try men’s souls

What will Trump do, or try to do, immediately? Here is what he threatened and promised: 

Pardon the violent insurrectionists who followed his orders on January 6, 2021. 

Dismiss all federal charges against himself. Start massive roundups of “illegal immigrants”, plus a few brown skinned men, women, and children citizens along the way, too bad for all of them. 

Start his assault on all of those who he considers his enemies - those like General Milley and General Kelly who worked for him and accurately called him a fascist, and like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who were Republicans investigating his insurrection in the House. 

Attack legitimate mainstream news organizations that have the temerity to report the news rather than the Trump propaganda. 

Impose massive tariffs on imports guaranteed to spike inflation and trigger a tariff war. 

Fire 50,000 lifelong experts in all the government agencies and replace them with pre-vetted MAGA fanatics who qualified by agreeing that Biden stole the 2020 election. Who will then destroy the agencies. 

Start implementing the 900 pages of Christian theocratic and oligarchic tyrannies of Project 2025, implemented by these 50,000 pre-vetted MAGA loyalists and extremist Schedule F employees. 

Withdraw aid to Ukraine and abandon NATO, thereby green-lighting Putin’s assault on Europe, and kicking off a massive war. 

In short, Donald Trump will immediately begin to start ruling like an autocratic dictator, just like autocrats all around the world who helped him win, and will help him eliminate American democracy and the rule of law.  He will do what autocrats do, rule BY law - use the law to crush all opposition. Donald Trump, and many of his cult, are clear that he has been elevated to be the king of America. 

And like autocracies around the world from Maduro to Putin, future elections will just be pretenses. But, you say, he can only serve this last term because the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment says no one can serve more than two terms as president. Are you joking? The Constitution also says an insurrectionist cannot hold public office. So what? The revolutionary Supreme Court said so what? They wrote a bunch of claptrap words ending with the declaration that he could be president, 14th amendment be damned. Next up - "blah blah blah … he can serve as many terms as he wants". Please know that this Supreme Court has shown that it is opposed to democratic elections and “inferior” people being allowed to choose their government - starting with the gutting of the Voting Rights laws of the 1960s. 

All of these things will be cheered by the theocrats, the oligarchs, the proudly overt racists, and the MAGA Cult. But it is going to be a shock to many millions of Americans who thought they were voting for a Republican politician. They weren’t. They were voting to put a dictator in to rule over everyone, including them. 

But…. Americans will not be passively submissive to these assaults. America is in for a rude awakening. And America is going to wake up. 

”. 

Putin wins the American presidency

 Putin won. China won. Iran won. Venezuela won. Hungary won. Autocracies around the world won. 

America lost. Americans lost. Democracy in America and around the world lost. 

Pax Americana is coming to an end. After WWII the world benefited from America The Good - dedicated, imperfectly, to keeping the peace, promoting democracy and personal freedom. 

Fuck that, said the autocrats. We don’t want no stinking democracy and personal freedoms, said the autocrats. 

So they used their considerable disinformation and propaganda skills to split America into many disparate and angry opposing factions along any fault lines that they could discover and exploit - from race, to gender, to religion, to health care, to sexual expression, to…..boom…boom…boom goes America into shattered, hostile pieces. 

The Russian Soviet Union was defeated, but Putin’s Russia just won. Russia calls Trump “America’s Gorbachev” - i.e Gorbachev lost the Soviet empire and Trump will lose the American empire. 

As Lincoln told us long ago, a house divided cannot stand, so our enemies from without divided us, and enemies from within divided us, and we became enemies. And the American House is shattered and collapsing. 

Too bad for Ukraine. Too bad for NATO. Too bad for a peaceful Europe freed from world war. No longer…

Too bad. 

Women, you don’t have to tell anyone

 Women, voting is private. You don’t have to tell anyone. You don’t have to tell your husband. You don’t have to tell your father. You don’t have to tell your church. You don’t have to tell your pastor or your priest. You don’t have to tell your PTA meetings. You don’t have to tell your family. Lie if you have to. 

You get to vote privately. This is America  

Roe Roe Roe your vote. For you. For your daughters. For your granddaughters. For your nieces. For your neighbors. 

Don’t let them steal your power. Don’t let them steal your freedom. Don’t let them steal your own decisions and choices. 

Vote…take your power back…

Where is Batman when we need him?

Donald J Trump, insane candidate for president, beloved by the MAGA “Republican” Party, just promised to EXECUTE his Republican critic, Liz Cheney. I feel like we are in a Batman movie, and the villain (The Joker? The Penguin?) is running for president. 

Always believe the threats of fascist autocratic psychopaths

But there is no Batman to save the day. Batman is us, the voters. This man is insane, literally, a psychopath. 

VOTE

Women, you don’t have to tell anyone

 Women, voting is private. You don’t have to tell anyone. You don’t have to tell your husband. You don’t have to tell your father. You don’t have to tell your church. You don’t have to tell your pastor or your priest. You don’t have to tell your PTA meetings. You don’t have to tell your family. Lie if you have to. 

You get to vote privately. This is America  

Roe Roe Roe your vote. For you. For your daughters. For your granddaughters. For your nieces. For your neighbors. 

Don’t let them steal your power. Don’t let them steal your freedom. Don’t let them steal your own decisions and choices. 

Vote…take your power back…

Trump imitates the Nazis, his idols

 Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden as a deliberate replication of the Nazi rally held there in 1939. He, and his authoritarian MAGA extremists, want to make sure we all understand who they are. And we are supposed to tremble in fear of their threats. That’s how fascist operate. 

They will destroy the economy with moronic across the board tariffs causing massive inflation leading to a depression, and they will round up, put in detention camps, and deport millions of brown skinned people. 

But on Sunday they stood tall shouted “Say it out loud!  We’re Nazis and we’re proud!”

Trump Sunday, and Nazis in 1939. 

And Trump announced how he plans to disenfranchise the vote by saying he and his friend the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, have a “Little Secret” - obviously to throw out enough state votes to keep either candidate from getting 270 Electoral College votes (with the help of the revolutionary anti-democracy Supreme Court), and thus have the House choose the president with each state getting only one vote each. More low population states are Republican so the Republican states choose … the Nazi. 

By the way, if you say to yourself that the 1939 display of Nazi loyalty didn’t mean much, I disagree. WWII ended their threats by sending American military to fight and die against the German Nazis. This forced American Nazis to fade from the spotlight, but they ruled cruelly in the Jim Crow South, and they resurfaced again under the banners of Joseph McCarthy in the ‘50s, and George Wallace and the Southern segregationists in the ‘60s, and now again as Trump and MAGA. They keep showing up, filled with hate, fear, and threats. 

Stop them again.  Vote. 

If you want mass deportation & detention camps

 Trump is promising to Round Up “illegal” immigrants, force them into concentration camps, and send them…?  To Mexico?  Who knows where. This will not be an orderly, legal process. It will be breaking down doors fully armed with assault weapons and perp walking brown people into unmarked vans and disappeared. The Nazi racist, Stephen Miller, will be in charge. If you are brown, watch out…

 It will be brutal. It will be the image of America for generations, just as the Nazi round up of Jews onto train boxcars is an image of Germany that is with us still today. 

This filthy man’s stain on America will never go away if he seizes power in 2025. He has already soiled us all.  If re-elected he will have no constraints because he will have lickspittle subservients under him, and Schedule F will put only MAGA Cultists throughout the government.

Vote.  

If you want big inflation, vote for Trump

 If you want big inflation, vote for Trump.  Trump’s stupid sweeping tariffs will obviously create a big boost in inflation. The imported goods’ prices skyrocket, domestic prices skyrocket almost as much but a bit lower, other countries retaliate with tariffs. Boom go the prices. 

He is a stupid man with stupid ideas that are impervious to change. 

If you are retired and on a fixed income tariffs are a path to impoverishment. So why do so many older white folks support this nonsense?  I can only attribute lack of understanding how tariffs work - starting at the top. Plus, many are in his Cult, so they blindly agree and obey. 

It’s the inflation, stupid.

Plus, of course, when he puts American businesses out of business with his Tariff wars he will also put millions of small businesses out of business by deporting millions of Hispanics (you know, brown people who “poison the blood” of white supremacist America).  So, welcome to the second Great Depression caused by another Republican president. 

It’s the second Great Depression, stupid.

War

 “The first casualty of war is the truth” - Aeschylus, Greek dramatist. In America, Trump and MAGA have slaughtered the truth for nine years. Maybe that’s a clue…maybe Trump and MAGA are waging war. 

Trump’s war is probably just vengeance, vengeance for being slighted, for not being accepted as a New York elite real estate Barron. Indeed, he used to call news organizations and give them Trump propaganda pretending to be a man named John Barron. Maybe a clue. 

I think some of MAGA’s war is, in part, the same - people feel slighted, ignored, disrespected. So they want vengeance - just burn it all down, destroy the elites who look down on them. 

But, I think the main MAGA warriors are theocrats, White Christian Nationalists, National Apostolic Reformists, white supremacist extremists sworn to destroy secular America and replace it with a Christian version of the Islamic Taliban. They are at war against what they have been indoctrinated to believe is “Satan” - you know, gays, people of color becoming equals, women becoming powerful, empathy, compassion, Democrats, every bit of human progress in the last hundred years. 

I think liberals want to pretend this is a political contest rather than a war being waged against democracy and the rule of law and the American Constitution itself.  

Sigh. 

The need to belong to something great

 In an age of loneliness people need to belong. Belonging to a tribe meets that need. What tribe?  The “populist” tribe of MAGA.  

The insightful book “True Believer” by longshoreman philosopher, Eric Hoffer, laid it out in the 1951 as he explained what was underneath the horrors of German Nazis and Russian Soviets - what drove the minds of the fanatic? 

He wrote that Hitler knew that the chief passions of the frustrated masses were fear and hatred. And that mass movements offer a substitute for the loss of individual hope. The True Believers essentially see themselves personally as insignificant “grains of sand”, but by joining the mass movement they are part of a grand and world changing “beach”.  Their lives become enormously meaningful because their movement is world changing and enormously meaningful. 

From Hoffer:

“Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the loss of faith in ourselves… he has been delivered from the meaningless burdens of an autonomous existence… as long as he feels himself part of that whole and nothing else, he is indestructible and immortal.”  

Democrats are not part of a mass movement. They just defend the rule of law, defend democracy, and come up with programs to boost the middle-class and the poor, improve the economy, provide safety and opportunity , etc.  We don’t worship Biden or Harris. 

The Republican Party has been taken over by the MAGA mass movement. What does it stand for? It seems to me it mainly stands for hatred of liberals. It caricatures  liberals as “woke“ and “politically correct” and “socialist “. Hitler knew. Vance knows. Trump is just overflowing with hatred, so he becomes the worshipped supreme leader by default. 

Vote. For a politician, not for a “supreme leader” of a mass movement of hate. Please. 

39 minutes?

 Apparently, Donald Trump spent 39 minutes in silence, mostly silence, swaying back-and-forth to a long, long music medley while on a stage at his latest rally.

What?

Did he seem lost? Has he completely lost touch with the reality? His surroundings? Could he not remember what to say?  What was he is doing?

We have been watching this sad little man suffer through evermore serious cognitive decline all year. It has gotten to the point where it cannot be denied. It is time to say goodbye.

Those who see him as a coat tail to drag them into the halls of power will never allow him to leave. It is up to the voters. 

Time to say goodbye to the ever declining Donald J Trump. He’s trailing off…

Top military warns against Trump threats to America and the world

Donald Trump has:

• The Ego of Napoleon
• The empathy of Joseph Stalin
• The emotional maturity of a six year old playground bully
• The brains of a turnip 

Plus, he is sliding into Alzheimer’s like his father before him. 

I have written often of how Schedule F will remove all institutional and personal constraints on this sociopath. Using Project 2025 he will end democracy, end the rule of law, establish an extremist theocracy, establish an Oligarchy, and funnel billions into himself. 

But that is not the worst possible outcome, is it?  Do you want this uncontrollable big baby to be able to “play” with “his” nuclear toys?

What about his psychotic urge to use nukes?  He has already said “What is the point of nukes if you don’t use them?”  He has already suggested nuking hurricanes to stop them. 

Former Chairman of the joint chiefs, Mark Miley:

No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump,” the general told Woodward. “Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.”

Plus another 100 military and security officials:

“More than 100 Republican former national security and foreign policy officials on Wednesday endorsed Kamala Harris for president in a joint letter, calling Donald Trump “unfit to serve” another term in the White House.”

He craves being the most important and famous person in world history. Who is now? Adolph Hitler. Why? WWII. 60 million deaths. His urge to use nukes could well be irresistible. Hundreds of millions slaughtered by nukes?  Very very possible. 

He is a threat not just to the survival of American Democracy and Rule of Law. He is a threat to the survival of American life, and of the world. 

I pray that people who still think there is such a thing as the “Republican Party” wake up. It’s over. Trump and MAGA killed it. This toddler threatens us all. This is not a choice between politicians. It is a choice to survive, as a democracy, as a free nation, as living creatures in the world.  Or not. 

It was stolen

 There no longer is a Republican Party. It was stolen. It is now an anti-democracy revolutionary MAGA crusade. 

The only thing to do is to end it - at the ballot box. It should be easy to just say no to the filthy pig of an excuse of a man who sprays his face orange, rants gibberish, and has nothing but bitterness and poison in his ever dwindling brain. And just say no to the threatening anti-democratic “base” behind him. 

Vote. ..

MAGA submissives refuse to extend funds for FEMA as the South is pummeled by hurricanes

 Trump tells Congressional Republicans not to extend FEMA funding. Why? So he can claim Dems are spending all their money on Ukraine and ignoring red states. These folks, and the person they are terrified of, have all the compassion of Joseph Stalin, and all the brains of a turnip:

Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters on Wednesday that FEMA will run out of money before the hurricane season is over. The agency is facing a multibillion-dollar deficit, even after imposing new spending restrictions.  "We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting,"  

Here is the list of the Republicans that voted against the extension of funding for FEMA while they do the only thing they know how to do - threaten to shut down the government on the orders of their demented master, the orange mentally ill presidential candidate:

HOUSE:

Representative James Baird of Indiana

Representative Troy Balderson of Ohio

Representative Jim Banks of Indiana

Representative Aaron Bean of Florida

Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona

Representative Gus Bilirakis of Florida

Representative Dan Bishop of North Carolina

Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado

Representative Mike Bost of Illinois

Representative Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma

Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee

Representative Eric Burlison of Missouri

Representative Kat Cammack of Florida

Representative Michael Cloud of Texas

Representative Andrew Clyde of Georgia

Representative Mike Collins of Georgia

Representative Eli Crane of Arizona

Representative John Curtis of Utah

Representative Warren Davidson of Ohio

Representative Byron Donalds of Florida

Representative Jeff Duncan of South Carolina

Representative Ron Estes of Kansas

Representative Mike Ezell of Mississippi

Representative Randy Feenstra of Iowa

Representative Brad Finstad of Minnesota

Representative Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota

Representative Russell Fry of South Carolina

Representative Russ Fulcher of Idaho

Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida

Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas

Representative Bob Good of Virginia

Representative Lance Gooden of Texas

Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia

Representative Morgan Griffith of Virginia

Representative Michael Guest of Mississippi

Representative Harriet Hageman of Wyoming

Representative Andy Harris of Maryland

Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana

Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio

Representative John Joyce of Pennsylvania

Representative Trent Kelly of Mississippi

Representative Darin LaHood of Illinois

Representative Laurel Lee of Florida

Representative Debbie Lesko of Arizona

Representative Greg Lopez of Colorado

Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida

Representative Morgan Lutrell of Texas

Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina

Representative Tracey Mann of Kansas

Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky

Representative Tom McClintock of California

Representative Rich McCormick of Georgia

Representative Mary Miller of Illinois

Representative Max Miller of Ohio

Representative Cory Mills of Florida

Representative Alex Mooney of West Virginia

Representative Barry Moore of Alabama

Representative Nathaniel Moran of Texas

Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina

Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee

Representative Gary Palmer of Alabama

Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania

Representative Bill Posey of Florida

Representative John Rose of Tennessee

Representative Matt Rosendale of Montana

Representative Chip Roy of Texas

Representative David Schweikert of Arizona

Representative Keith Self of Texas

Representative Victoria Spartz of Indiana

Representative Claudia Tenney of New York

Representative William Timmons of South Carolina

Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey

Representative Beth Van Duyne of Texas

Representative Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin

Representative Mike Waltz of Florida

Representative Randy Weber of Texas

Representative Daniel Webster of Florida

Representative Bruce Westerman of Arkansas

Representative Roger Williams of Texas

Representative Rudy Yakym of Indiana

SENATE:

Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee

Senator Mike Braun of Indiana

Senator Katie Britt of Alabama

Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina

Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho

Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska

Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri

Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin

Senator Mike Lee of Utah

Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas

Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky

Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska

Senator James Risch of Idaho

Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina

Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama

So, who gets hurt?  American people.  Now hurricane Milton heads toward Florida and Trump tells the House not to come back in emergency session to extend FEMA funding? 

Looks like a Putin is part of this plan, to me.