….we ran for our lives…

 Jeffrey Katzenberg, former Disney exec tells this from his childhood regarding Germany’s “clown”, Hitler:  

“When I was in high school, we were studying Third Reich Germany and the rise of Hitler, and over the holiday, our teacher suggested to the class that, to the degree which we could,  please go home and talk to your grandparents,” Katzenberg told the poolside Axios gathering tonight on the eve of Milken Institute conference. 

“Ask them, what did they read? “What did they see? What did they hear? What they do?”

“In the case of my family, on my mom’s side, they came from France and on my dad’s side, from Germany and they all said exactly the same thing,” the 73-year-old DreamWorks co-founder said to a group… 

“We read it; we heard it. We literally did not believe it. Thought this guy was a clown, that what he was saying was so incredibly impossible, and unimaginable. 

And then we ran for our lives, quite literally.”

We need to read it, hear it, and unlike our German and European predecessors, we need to believe it and stop it, even though it seems so incredibly impossible and unimaginable. Always believe the threats of fanatical extremists. 

It is not just Trump, it is an entire highly organized and fanaticalnetwork of right wing violent extremists, in America, and around the world. And American Rule of Law, the American Constitution, and our democratically elected Republic is the prime target. They are dedicated to force, and have given up on democracy because they can’t win.  They are just too … ugly, angry, threatening, odd, weird, dangerous,  violent. 

It’s the economy, stupid!

 It's a lot of things, but certainly one of the most important things is the economy.  Trump will destroy the American economy, and in so doing destroy the world economy.  Why? Because he is amazingly stupid and cannnot be taught anything because he thinks he knows more than anyone who ever talks to him. 

How will he destroy the economy?  His astonishingly stupid plan for tariffs.

From historian Heather Cox Richardson:

"...Trump has promised an across-the-board tariff of 10% to 20% that billionaire Mark Cubanon the Fox News Channel called “insane” and Quin Hillyer of the Washington Examiner warned “would almost certainly cause immense price hikes domestically, goad other countries into retaliating, and perhaps set off an international trade war” that could “wreck the economy.” Cuban then told Jake Tapper of CNN that Trump’s promise to impose 10% price controls on credit card interest rates and price caps is “Socialism 101.” 

Trump has had many, many, many smart expert people try to explain to him that foreign countries don't pay tariffs, the increased cost is passed on to the American buyer.  It is a tax.  A huge tax.  Inflation skyrockets.  Domestic competitors are free to raise their prices as well, to just a bit below the imports.  Everyone pays for Trump’s ignorance. 

Trump is ignorant, of course.  We are all ignorant of many things.  But Trump is more than ignorant, he is an ignoramus - my definition of an ignoramus is an ignorant person who is stupid enough, egotistical enough, delusional enough to refuse to learn and stop being ignorant.

Please, my dear Republican friends, i t' s   t h e    e c o n o m y   s t u p i d !

N****r N****r N****r - Sp*k Sp*k Sp*k - Jew Jew Jew

 The Donald Trump campaign is pretty much just one thing - bigotry.  Calling all bigots... 

N****r N****r N****r - Sp*k Sp*k Sp*k - Jew Jew Jew

• FIRST, when Donald Trump was interviewed and said:

"“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said. “I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?"

Get it? she is black black black. Just in case you didn't notice, she is black.  Did he mention that she is black?  You know, black?

And, oh yes, Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH?  He lies lies lies, and his VP Vance lies lies lies, saying that they are eating pets?  Haitian immigrants, black immigrants - they are black black black, remember, thery are black.

• And SECOND, you know the great crisis at the border? Brown people - you know - sp*k sp*k sp*k.  Get it? not good white people from good white countries, sp*ks.  You know, sp*ks, the kind of people who poison the blood -

"Former President Donald Trump said immigrants coming to the U.S. are “poisoning the blood of our country,”  - the kind of people coming from shithole countries:

""Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump is reported as saying."  

You know, shithole countries like Haiti - poisoning the blood of America, black immigrants.  Even worse than brown immigrants.

• And THIRD, yesterday, just to make sure everyone understands how much he admires and imitates Adolph Hitler he says if he loses it will be the fault of the Jews - you know, target Jews if he loses, you know, things like Krystallnacht in Germany - watch out you Jew bastards, you better vote for me, or...fill in the blank

""If I don't win this election" then "the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss," Trump said"

So there he is - bigoted against blacks, hispanics, and Jews.  In his own words.  I haven't even mentioned Muslims, or women, or Asian Americans.  Anyone who is not a white man is who he is bigoted against. And, by the way, if you are a white man, but not a billionaire, he is bigotted against you as well. And by the way, if you are a billionaire and not named Donald Trump, he is bigoted against you as well. This is a very sick person.

So, there are good people who have voted twice for Trump because - they always vote Republican - they are worried about the border crisis - they want unfettered capitalism - they want to end abortion nationwide,  etc etc etc.  

But Trump has made it more and more obvious that those are just figleaves, or pretenses, or rationalizations.  Trump makes it overwhelmingly clear, to me at least, that bigotry, autocracy, the end of the Rule of Law, the end of democracy itself is actually what he stands for. He has been leading with bigotry ever since he came down his elevator to the applause of hired actors to announce his candidacy nine years ago.  

So my deepest hope that those who have been lifelong Republicans wake up and see that there is no longer a Republican Party, it is now the openly bigoted and anti-democracy party, openly and loudly calling all bigots to take over the country, and if you, a conservative, are repulsed by bigotry, please vote agaisnt this autocratic, authoritarian, bullying, overt bigot.  You are better than him and better than the Republican Party that has been debauched by his bigotry, corruption, and hatred.

Vote, please, against this Hitler/Putin/Maduro/Orban wannabe. 

He is not you. 

“They” are not Democrats

Trump had two assassination attempts, it appears.

The first attempt in Pennsylvania.  Those were real bullets.  A real person died. Two real people were wounded.  A real shooter was killed.  But…

 

Where did the blood on Trump’s face come from?  How did the Secret Service let Trump have the clear space to rise up and raise his fist in defiance for a perfect photo op?  We were told that his ear was grazed and a small chunk was removed. But that is a lie.  His ear is totally intact.  There is no report from the hospital that he went to to repair his ear.  Where did the blood come from?

 The second attempt at his Florida golf course.  About five shots were fired in rapid succession. None from the suspected assassin, all from the Secret Service.  Where did those bullets go?  On the other side of the bushes is a busy city street.  Nobody was hit by the bullets.  Buildings? Cars?  We’re glad, of course.  Did all the bullets just happen to hit a nice wide tree inside the golf course?  A witness very luckily was there to see the fleeing suspect.  He wrote down the license plate.  How lucky.  How long was the witness in that area?  Was he or she just passing by, or were they in the area for hours as well as the accused assassin?  

So now Trump and Vance and MAGA are saying “they” tried to kill Trump. “They” are not Democrats.

 

The first kid was a radicalized right winger who was thinking Trump or Biden, Trump was closer and sooner. Disturbed boy with a semi- automatic rifle. The second was some kind of radical that seemed obsessed with helping Ukraine.  

Extremists with easy access to semi-automatic rifles. Mayhem. 

What about the timings?

The ear wound was right before his convention and he wore a preposterous huge bandage over an ear that was not damaged. And his crowd of worshippers at the convention had makeshift bandages over their ears as well.  But the ear was not damaged.  

 The golf course incident came shortly after he was humiliated on the debate stage by Harris.  He was crushed. But this grabs the headlines.

Vance says “they” tried to kill Trump twice. “They”. “They” are not Democrats. Vance says stop calling for violence. What a joke. Trump has been calling for violence for nine years. Democrats call for votes. 

But Trump pledges to end democracy, so I will continue to write about it.  It is not a call to violence to describe his plans to end the rule of law and to end democracy. It is a call to vote.  

Vote.

Musk calls for the assassination of Harris and Biden

 Yesterday the Secret Service thwarted an assassination attempt on candidate Trump. Thank goodness! I am not making comment about it yet until we find out more about the man. So far it seems that he is a fanatical supporter of Ukraine. But let’s find out more. 

But the ever more dangerous Elon Musk just called for the assassination of Harris and Biden.  What is wrong with this person?

“And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala 🤔 https://t.co/ANQJj4hNgW

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 16, 2024”

Eating dogs and cats, right out of the Nazi propaganda “Protocals of the elders of Zion”

 Trump ludicrously claimed that black Haitian immigrants were eating people’s pets in small Springfield OH. Obvious nonsense. He was mocked. Laughed at. 

But he doubled down. Insisted on the same lie on following days. His disgusting VP candidate Vance very publicly repeated the lies. What the hell?

Two things. First, as the insightful authority on autocratic regimes, Ann Applebaum, notes, the first step in establishing an autocratic tyranny is to lie, and all of his supplicants must repeat the lie in order to prove their loyalty. Was this lie any stupider than Trump’s lie that he won the 2020 election in a landslide?  Of course not.  But virtually all elected Republicans repeat that lie ad nauseam. So too, here. 

Second, and much more terrifying, Trump is copying Hitler and the Nazis by finding someone to dehumanize to the point of murderous rage. The Nazis pointed to the filthy anti-Jewish lies in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” where the ridiculous lie was that Jews were killing babies and drinking their blood. What incendiary rubbish. Now Trump and MAGA are claiming that black immigrants are killing and eating people’s pets. 

Why? To make people afraid, to make people target the innocent, to make people want to be protected from monsters, to make people give all all all their powers to the autocrat who will protect them - from what?  from make believe, non-existent monsters. They aren’t monsters. They are people. 

Anne Applebaum’s Autocracy in America - step two, capture the courts

 Anne Applebaum has a must-listen podcast “Autocracy in America”  the first episode explored step one:force people to accept lies in order to prove their loyalty and to belong.  All of Trump’s ridiculous lies are parroted by elected Republicans and MAGA faithful. Barf. 

The second episode is just out. America is already at the onset the influence of autocratic rule.  In autocracy it becomes Rule By Law rather than Rule Of Law. Rule Of Law is facts - evidence -  juries - verdicts. Rule By Law is where law is a weapon whereby enemies are prosecuted and found guilty, no exceptions. Loyalists are never guilty. The judges are enforcers of the autocratic Rule By Law.

Judge Aileen Cannon is part of Trump’s autocratic rule in the espionage documents case which she refuses to bring to trial. The Trump and Heritage Foundation Supreme Court are enforcers of Rule By Law by declaring Trump to be immune from prosecution if he acts as an official presidential act.  Who decides whether his acts are official presidential acts? He does. If challenged in the courts who decides? Oh right, the autocratic Supreme Court does. The king is never guilty. 

Autocracy in action. It is already taking over America. A Trump victory would be a complete victory of autocratic rule - first by the nitwit Trump, and then by the real autocrats, the theocrats and oligarchs. No more democracy. America becomes Russia, just like Russia has planned all along

Vote. This is our last chance to save democracy. If we lose our democratically elected republic will be lost for at least one generation. . 

Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people…

“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people, so let’s be clear about that, and clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that,” Kamala last night in the debate. 

Kamala Harris won the presidential debate against the old man last night.  He destroyed himself, by doing the only thing he can do, by being himself - hunched over, glowering, snarling, scowling, sweating, grimacing, lying, lying, lying, lying.  She was smart, aggressive, articulate, on point, smiling, and devastatingly effective.  He  was just the delusional and deluding old man that he has been since his crushing loss in 2020.  

I suppose a lot of the MAGA cult will try to say he did fine, but just like Biden collapsed in the first debate, this worn out rerun of utter nonsense failed miserably.  He did terrible. He will lie about. He will claim victory. Just like always. 

I could only watch for the first half hour but I had to turn off the TV.  I just couldn’t stand to listen to his aggressive bombastic hostility.  So I went to a news site that had running commentary alongside soundless video of the broadcast. The visual was astonishing - angry old guy being pummeled next to an expressive competent opponent. Striking. 

Democrats have to treat this as if they are three points behind no matter what the polls say all the way up to the election. The anti-democracy faithful will continue to do all they can to overturn this election. 

This picture, of the person turning away from the podium when it was over is a good summary of the night, the one who was trounced is grateful to finally escape the torture…

And Harris showing concern…

An actual human face…

How it looked to me…

 

Fascist Trump threatens Harris campaign donors

 Trump has just descended to a new low, no real surprise, in his panic about losing the election. We now have the presidential candidate of one of the two major political parties promising to imprison those who donate to his political opponent. This is beyond belief.

I hope this is clear evidence to those who try to ignore it that we are dealing with an autocratic, fascist, dictator-in-waiting who will do what dictators do – imprison and destroy all opposition to their tyranny.  This is not some kind of joke, or random blurting of a disturbed person.  It is a real threat.  It is a real promise.  It is deadly. Here is his latest atrocity:

“Donald Trump has warned Kamala Haris’s campaign donors that they will not escape his retribution if they play a role in a 2024 election 'steal'….'Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country,' Trump wrote.”

He is doing more than threatening legal persecution, he is sending out a call to violence from his loyal and slavishly obedient cult. 

Remember, Hitler would have been just a nut shouting on a street corner without millions of NAZIs ready to slaughter in the name of their own version of righteousness.  This is too serious to ignore.

Republicans are today’s Whigs

 Just as the Whigs broke in two and disappeared in the mid 1800s, separating onto Slavers and Abolitionists - slavers became Democrats and Abolitionists became the newly formed Republican Party, I believe that the Republican Party is coming to an end, separating into MAGA Cult Trump worshippers and Bulwark Republican traditionalists.

I think the Theocratic-Oligarchic-Trump worshippers have killed the Republican Party and it will just go away. Not sure what rises up, but I can’t see the deeply ugly multiple bigotries currently running things lasting very long. 

They are just too unattractive - no, make that just too repulsive - to last in a democracy. That is why they are trying so desperately, and futilely I hope, to end democracy and create an autocracy. 

I hope there is some healing awakening that can follow what I think will be a precipitous collapse. We need them to return to some sense of sanity and free themselves from the deluded hatreds fed by Limbaugh and Ailes and Murdoch and their successor parrots - and of course being fed by the mentally ill demented orange puff face.  

There are just so many who are so out of balance. We need to find a new center. 

Is a bone spurs moment coming?

 Scaramucci, former briefly a Trump communications guy, suggested that once Trump sees he will lose to Harris he will go full “bone-spurs” - that is, he’ll run, same as he did to avoid Viet Nam. And he’ll negotiate zero prison time and drop out of the race, claiming some medical reason.  Blaming someone else, of course. His only concern is himself. 

Or maybe he just flees to Russia? Or Venezuela?

Why not?  Keeps him out of prison…