My initial response to Paul’s post. 👇🏻 “High crimes and misdemeanors”? If this administration’s brazen corruption isn’t that, I’m not sure what is…
A huge collection 🖕🏼 to the vast majority of Americans, including the millions of cult followers. Their arrogant, vulgar, elitist “let them eat cake” symbolism on full display.
So what’s next…
“Marie Antoinette was convicted of high treason, conspiracy with foreign powers, and squandering the nation's finances. These charges stemmed from accusations that she plotted with Austria against France, secretly supplied military information to enemies, and was responsible for the monarchy's financial mismanagement through her extravagant lifestyle and gambling.”
“Marie Antoinette died by guillotine on October 16, 1793, after being convicted of treason by the Revolutionary Tribunal. She was executed publicly in Paris at the Place de la Révolution (now the Place de la Concorde) during the French Revolution”
I think he redeemed himself (at least enough to be granted Divine Forgiveness, if not the earthly sort) by speaking out against Trump 2.0 in the election campaign last year. It may have been simply a gesture of support for Liz, who was much more forthrightly vocal, but still....
I wouldn't necessarily say redemption, but at least he showed he has some "guiding light" principles and core beliefs. As opposed to the Marco Rubios, Lindsey Grahams and Ted Cruzs of the world who believe in nothing save their own relevance.
Cheney was the typical Republican of his day. I don't say I agreed with everything he did or said, but he wasn't the rabid, rancid, psychopath that the Republicans have become. I don't think he enjoyed inflicting pain and suffering on purpose. He knew there were rules in government, and he didn't try to shred the Constitution.
None of us are going straight to Heaven (or whatever afterlife you like), my hate for everything and everyone in Trump's orbit will keep me out. I can't and won't forgive the American people who cursed us with this. EVER.
Well, he was always a National Security Republican, with a rather dark view of the world (hence his obsession with "Saddam's WMD's" while VP). But as you said, he recognized the fact that there were rules, and \respected constitutional limits on power when the chips were down.
Too little, too late, in my book. Afghanistan is lost to the Taliban, hundreds of thousands died needlessly in Iraq, torture became national policy, and he paved the road for the orange. It is easy to take a stand when you won't live long enough to risk any consequences.
Not trying to be a smart-aleck, but I would just note that none of us will live long enough to see all the consequences of governments' policy actions.
Afghanistan was "lost" before 9/11 -- they've just come full circle. What was really lost were the dollars and precious lives, as well as many clear-sighted Afghans' hopes for joining the rest of the world in the 21st (or even the 19th) Century.
I am not claiming sainthood for Dick Cheney, but rather that a 'deathbed conversion' is a step in the right direction. He was who he was, Fortunately, it isn't up to us to forgive his sins (unless you are a priest, in which case, the ball is in your court).
Cheney was beyond redemption, but not as grossly evil and vulgar as Trump. But, many deserve blame for Trump: the media, Republican Party, NBC (for sponsoring the Apprentice, ALL WHO TREATED HIM LIKE A LEGITIMATE POLITICIAN (not the lying criminal conman he is), the Supreme Court, the lawyers who got away with lying and the timid judges who allowed, the donors who supported him, the people who didn't vote, and those who believed his lies that any second-grader would recognize. The Founders knew American Democracy requires a caring and thinking populace committed to the greater good. We failed the test that the Patriots passed on April 19, 1775.
I used to think that. I thought that Republicans, after having been taken over by the Orange Don, fell into three categories, Bigots, Idiots, and Sociopaths. I have since simplified my position. The simplest explanation is that they are fascists, and this is what they want. https://madsociologistblog.com/2022/03/21/fascism-and-the-bleeding-edge-of-occams-razor/
It's a cult led by sociopaths who create a sociopathic mindset and culture. Adherents are not sociopaths themselves, just gullible, needy people who tell themselves it's all part of their god's mysterious plan.
Everytime I write that people argue it with me even when I provide a description. I get much less pushback from saying they are Nazis. I call the Republican party The New American Nazi party and have been doing so for the past 2 years. Just as I call the AfD the New German Nazi Party.
Miscarriages (God's abortions) and abortions occur at roughly equivalent rates in the US. If we had better birth control education and availability, we could reduce the latter by a lot. The former is a more difficult proposition.
Abortion rate in US seems to be a function of the status of women.
When men and women plan families together the abortion rate is remarkably low.
Having President and Mrs. Obama and their daughters in the White House reduced the demand for abortions by 800,000 over the eight years. Modeling correct behavior toward women and girls raises the status of women.
Enshrining the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1980s would have been a game changer and completely broken the Right To Life movement.
Is it the Democrats who willfully chose to not tap into the $5.5 billion SNAP contingency fund until they were sued and compelled to do so, dragging their feet?
And is it the Democrats who refuse to extend the existing health care tax credits to keep health care affordable for tens of millions of people?
And is it the Democrats who shut down the House of Representatives, preventing any legislation at all to take place, much less the swearing in of a new congresswoman who could unlock the door to the Epstein files?
This is a game of chicken. We on the Democratic side have had enough and are standing up to the bullies who flaunt their power in the most disgusting and cruel ways.
you might want to add that their big beautiful piece of shit bill did not have ANY democratic input....the entire thing is theirs and now they blame democrats....that is rich!
I thank Eric Bruun and John Augustine for answering the commenter. I have delivered food to households hidden in ghettos where the kids had no shoes and the parents ill or disabled. I cannot tell you how grateful they were for one complete meal. The poorest of poor are swept under the rug. When I saw the smirks in Trump’s party, it turned my stomach. The Democrats finally demonstrate a spine not to go back into the “Big Beautiful Bill” which will plunge citizens into more suffering.
Yes, the fear of empathy, and the real teaching of their Bible! My god, he must be pissed! Of course he can tell them about Donny-John as a cautionary lesson, who will notice? The Pope has! Time to name this disease…that billionaires are rich because god made them? So they are better? The real kings? Really? Really!!!
This really is the history of Christianity after all..the fight for the liberal/human/humankind vs the Kings, the Romans, the very rich land owners…where they might build a church for their serfs to learn to bend a knee!
You haven't identified what planet you are on. Clearly it's not earth. When you find your way back to reality, get help asap and do not go near sharp objects..
Aaron is a troll and a slacker troll at that. He doesn’t do his homework, relying instead on a set of outdated 35 year old Republican talking points. If he did his homework, he would have come up with a more defensible troll than claiming “ democrats with their filibuster” are to blame for the current SNAP situation. Republicans could choose to reduce the threshold to invoke cloture on the filibuster as they have done in the past, but they have decided they would rather try to blame Democrats while advancing the start date for SNAP reductions from after the 2026 midterms to now. The important point is Republicans chose to reduce SNAP (and insurance subsidies) in their “One Big Beautiful Bill” so they really couldn’t care less about when those reductions take effect.
BTW, all of this drama is for a Continuing Resolution which ends November 21. That’s a stop gap measure originally used occasionally when Congress didn’t complete its annual budget work in time. If they can’t even get a CR agreement, they certainly won’t be able to get to an actual budget.
Both parties use the filibuster to gum up legislation. But it was the Republicans who butchered it because they were too lazy to use it as it was intended.
The filibuster was traditionally used to stop civil rights legislation. With the current GOP, if you're not in the 1%, you're black, so this tradition continues.
It is the republican filibuster, they could end the filibuster by a simple majority vote, they have 53 republican senators, their lord and savior DJT has commanded them to make it so. So aaron on an errand to be the village idiot on substack go back to your life as a hyperparasite ( a parasite whose host is itself a parasite )
I'll be nice and not snarky. I truly encourage you to read about what a filibuster is, how much money funds SNAP that could legally be used during a filibuster if the Administration chose to use it, and try to at least understand why the Democrats are choosing to filibuster now. Once you've done that, be clear about why you think they are responsible for this.
Republicans control all branches of government, so Democrats are not in any way responsible. Republicans could open the government in a minute if Senate Republicans, with their majority, eliminated the filibuster and passed their anti-American CR with Republican votes only. They don't want to do that because, as Professor Krugman says, they love cruelty to ordinary Americans.
I might be in the minority here, but I would be OK if they get rid of the filibuster. It's an anachronism and an impediment to passing anything so the Senate does their job. I know it would likely unleash the hounds of hell with Republicans in charge of all branches, but I'd consider it progress.
So, are you aware that the Dems brought a bill to the floor yesterday to fund SNAP benefits in full and that the Repubs voted against it? Or that the lawsuits forcing Trump to fund (at least partially) the benefits were brought by Dems? Maybe try to educate yourself.
if the dems capitulate, any "bargain" they will have made will be abrogated by the terrorists known as the republican party. they have shown this time and time again.
the terrorist organization known as the republican party uses and promotes violence, bribery, extortion, intimidation, coercion, and the complete repudiation of the rule of law and the constitution to achieve their goals.
The filibuster is now and has ever since its invention been the primary tool of the minority party to prevent being steamrolled by the majority. Since the end of WWII it served the Southern Democrats to delay the Civil Rights movement and the Republicans to oppose public healthcare, campaign finance reform, and voter suppression rollbacks. I desperately wanted it to be vacated early in the Biden years to expand the SC and enact the John Lewis Voting bill, but the two DINOs prevented it…allowing the present national catastrophe to occur.
Trump revels in cruelty, as do his followers. And that aspect of Trumpism is subverting the brand of Christianity that is the foundation of Rightwing support. As Rightwing evangelical preachers are telling their flocks that empathy is wrong, and that the actual teachings of Jesus should be ignored in favor of wielding retributive power, so do they destroy their own professed faith.
I'm not a believer, but I think a pretty strong case can be made that Donald Trump is, perhaps not THE Anti-Christ, but he's certainly anti-Christian.
You know, back in 2014 or 2015 when rumors of a Trump run for office, I quipped off the cuff at my in laws that Trump was the Antichrist, and to be careful of what they voted for ...
As Krugman pointed out in this post, it’s not that they have been fooled. It’s that enjoy seeing cruelty inflicted on black people and other groups they don’t like. They are neither naïve nor stupid. They just fail to meet the standards required to be counted as a decent human being. This applies to every last person who voted for Trump. No exceptions.
I think the LBJ quote is referring to the cultists who are being punished and voting against their best interests and the psychology of someone who does that by being manipulated to look down on others who don't look like themselves. They have definitely been fooled but you will never convince them of that
Trump's behavior, including his cruelty, is clearly inconsistent with Biblical scripture (at a minimum, see Leviticus ch. 19). In that sense he is anti-Christian, despite claims he might make to the contrary. As to evangelists for Trump, I don't know what they're reading or watching, but I suspect Fox News has supplanted the Bible.
In his book The Antichrist, Nietzsche wrote something to the effect of, "Even the most religious-looking pastor doesn't believe in Christian morals." He offered that as an optimistic pitch for Western civilization. I hated that idea twenty years ago, having been raised by very religious parents. Back then, I saw scandals in the personal lives of prominent preachers as mere human failure. But Trump definitely opened my eyes...
You are absolutely right. Everything they believe in is against the direct teachings of Christ. They get angered when you point it out to them because they know deep down they are wrong. They don't want to admit they turned their backs in God in service to worldly power.
A few weeks ago, I learned that a local retired pastor despises me because of a discussion we had a few years ago about socialized healthcare. His position was that healthcare was something that had to be earned, and that it had to be paid for by the recipient. So I asked him how much Jesus charged the lepers and the blind when He healed them.
He really didn't like that question, and apparently it has remained stuck in his craw for years.
Was he talking about "earning" in the sense of dollars & cents, or by living an upright, moral life and avoiding "sinful behavior" like drinking, smoking, and promiscuous sex, which can all have serious health consequences.
Some of the criticism of what used to be called "socialized medicine" is based on the idea that some thoughtful, intelligent and well-read people have that they should not be forced to pay for someone else's bad habits.
I think it is a flawed philosophical viewpoint, but it has a logical coherence IF you are willing to ignore the idea that every life has worth, and therefore helpful preserve/improve lives provides a social good to us all.
So, he himself was on the take from you and your fellow parishioners....have you seen the movie There Will Be Blood? Perhaps he needs the bowling ball treatment.
An obvious corollary to the pastors belief is that one shouldn't take care of babies & children until they are old enough to pay for their own health care.
Not sure he would have been coherant in that respect.
The core of teachings of Christ weren't new in his time. They are basically the fundamental human values promoted by (at least almost) all religions, long before Christanity.
So they have been promoted by Judaism, Islam, Budism, Hinduism, Sihkism, etc. Each religion has its' variation of supplementary beliefs, but the core remains the same.
Which is pretty much my point. When you find it necessary to reject the teachings of Jesus in order to maintain your fealty to Donald Trump, you're definitely NOT a Christian any more. You're not even an idolator. You're just a member of a particularly hideous cult.
If we look at the life of Jesus, his life is the total opposite of trump’s and of what trump is doing… trump and all he does is diabolical, it doesn’t come from God. trump and the people that work for him and want to surround themselves with trump are diabolical just like him . And the actions that trump , republicans in Congress, and his administration takes each and every day is not Christianity.
They act like crustaceans 🦞! Not anything like Jesus, that is for sure…I do wonder about the St. Peter conversations, and emergency conversions. I promise to do better next time.
So you learn your lesson, “I return you as a ….” Worm?
If your interested, a commenter on Bluesky who goes by rahaeli has a fascinating thread on what they call the American Heresy. It’s about the right wing perversion of Christianity. It’s very steeped in theological research and well worth a read.
Jesus Christ and John Wayne is a good book about Christianity and what has turned into the MAGA movement. It was written quite a while ago, but I thought it was very enlightening...and true.
Empathy is their biggest fear and perhaps our greatest weapon…Just imagine what it must be like to have voted for this ass who promised so much, and gave it to rich people. So they would like him!!
it's a weird, weird world. There is a small sub-set of very fundamentalist Christians who support DT because they actually DO hope he is the Anti-Christ.
There are mega churches who do this, but many small churches, even if they are maga, are not racist and bigoted. I've been to some of them. They are conservative and probably Trump supporters, but they aren't teaching empathy is wrong, quite to the contrary. Don't tar all of them with the same ugly colors.
There are not more MAGA than us, but there are more maga than us. Organized religion is a place of community and social support. The internet is not the real world.
I believe the MAGA, like Trump, Thiel, Vance, Bondi, Steven Miller are evil, but not the 50% of America who are conservative and ignorant.
What you write is true. However, silence equals complicity, and far FAR too many of the small churches are effectively racist and bigoted because of whom they support.
As Moxon noted, the Germans have a special term for those who supported Hitler's economic and national policies but not his racial policies. The Germans call those people "Nazis" because supporting any part means you support the whole.
Derelict, while I think I understand your PoV, you are missing something fundamental is assigning responsibility to those who are silent.
Perhaps they seem silent because you are not tuned to their wavelength, or because they realize there is little they can do to change the hearts and minds of MAGA believers.
There is a vast difference between support of and tolerance of something.
"Resistance is useless" as they say in old B movies. Taking a moral stand can win people over, but until there is an election and we throw the bums out, or unless you are rioting in the streets or plotting to massacre Trump and his key lieutenants, you/we are in one sense complicity tolerating their continued existence.
So far no one has taken on the role of "Tienanmen Tank Man" as a resistance measure - a good thing, as I am pretty sure Trump's orders would be to run him over.
The fact is, until we can vote the SOB out of office, you/we are almost certainly incapable of NOT tolerating the regime in a truly impactful sense does not let you/us off the hook, by your standards of complicity. We are ALL guilty because we didn't stop Trump.
I would expect more Christians to be speaking out more loudly and constantly because of what Trump is doing to their religion and their God.
Remember that these are the people who have been having a nation conniption because we're "oppressing" them by not allowing creationism to be taught or the ten commandments to be posted or saying "happy holidays" or any one of a thousand other supposedly anti-Christian things that secular society does. They're mighty loud about those things.
But a con-man from NYC completely subverts everything they claim to believe in and . . . they're silent at best or cheering him on at worst. No, we can't vote them out of office just yet. But we and they (in particular) can and should be speaking out as loudly about Trump destroying their religion as they do about "happy holidays."
In my reply to Derelict, who spoke of "small churches" being racist and bigoted, which I took to mean that the institutional stance of those churches reflected those values: illiberal, discriminating against certain out-groups.
Of course, churches don't get a vote -- only individuals do -- but the create a framework of thought about morality. The 'silence of the individuals' in those churches is not necessarily a sign of complicity but merely the feeling of resignation for people who live in an environment that is hostile to anyone who expresses support for a liberal tolerance of diversity, whether of political opinion, sexual identity or where Grandpa came from.
You said, "Civilized people don't treat others as Trump very openly does" . The fact is, a LOT of Americans (who would probably object to the idea that they are not "civilized") obviously think otherwise, which doesn't make them RIGHT, but it does mean your assertion falsely equates civilized behavior with who people vote for.
Frankly, I can see why you might think that -- I had a similar idea for a time, until I thought more deeply about it -- but I think it is a presumption that de-humanizes The Other, and must be dropped if we are ever going move on from Trump and try to re-unite Americans into a cohesive national entity instead of warring voting blocs.
I certainly believe I am a civilized person, without taking into question who I vote for; I believe we can safely assume that many voters who opted to vote against OUR favored candidate felt they had a good reason for doing so. Let's confine our disagreement to voter behavior and not slang gratuitous insults.
I went to two Baptist churches with a long time friend of mine in Bakersfield CA when I was visiting. I was born and raised in Bakersfield by two very liberal parents. Both churches were fundamentalist, I'm sure most supported Trump, but the pastors were not racist and their message was Christian.
It's hard to overstate the completely separate information systems that exist between liberal and conservatives. A lot of them are embarrassed by Trump but he speaks of God, country and trashes the liberal Democrats who are so evil they think nothing of killing newborn babies. This is what FOX and right wing influencers have been telling them for 40 years!
Until the Democrats can fix their image people will continue to vote for Trump. MAGA is a lost cause. They have no shame, compassion, integrity...
But NOBODY "kills newborn babies!" These so-called "Christians" can't be bothered to go down to the local hospital and check on this. They are too effyouseekaying LAZY to check the veracity of whatever the latest dump [as in rectal effusion] from the Right claims.
I know Democrats don't kill newborn babies! But Democrats have got to be realistic and pragmatic. When half of the voting public think that you are for killing babies, you've got a problem. We've had a right wing propaganda machine going for decades that has convinced half of America that Democrats are evil. Seriously! I have friends like that. It doesn't matter that it's lies and they're ignorant. They have the votes.
Democrats need Pro-Life candidates. When you talk to Pro-Life people, most of them believe in early term abortion and abortion to save a mother's life and terminating a pregnancy of an unviable fetus. As my daughter said after an extensive discussion with a Pro-Life co-worker, "Our difference is about two weeks of when an early term pregnancy could be aborted."
Most people who say they're Pro-Life, don't mean no abortion ever. They don't want healthy late term fetus's aborted so the mother will look good in a bathing suit. It doesn't matter if it's BS. It's what they think. (It's probably why Latinos, who are mostly conservative Catholic and blacks, who are often conservative Christian, are going maga.)
We can't afford to stick to dogmatic rhetoric like "only a woman's right to choose,". The people who think Democrats are baby killers need to hear that it's lies. NO It's not all right to abort a late term fetus just because you want to. That's what almost all Democrats believe, why not say it?
One obstacle to making reasonable rebuttals of Trumpublican lies about Democrats is 'Whataboutism' -- there are simply so damned many lies that the conversation cannot be focused on just one at a time. We need a propaganda strategy that undercuts the ENTIRE ideology of the Right.
I recall LBJ's "Daisy" campaign ad that shattered the Goldwater candidacy by tying his opposition to a test ban to continued escalation into nuclear war with the USSR.
For those too young to remember, it featured a little girl sitting in a meadow, pulling petals off a daisy, counting one to nine, then a voiceover countdown starting from "10, 9. 8..." and finally a nuclear explosion and LBJ's voice saying what was at stake - either nations find a way to resolve differences short of war, or all the worlds children will die.
The republicans complained that it was inaccurate but the controversy over it meant its impact was far greater than it would otherwise have been.
Perhaps a cinematic depiction of the Trump/Project 2025 policies devolving into the Nazi rallies, Hitler's little dance, columns of stony-faced German troops marching on parade, and genocides would get the idea across that now, just as in Europe in the 30's and 40's, poisonous ideas have disastrous results, just as the poison of Jew-hatred led to the gas chambers and ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
Critics will scoff and say this is overblown and misusing history, and maybe it s overly dramatic, but sometime the way to get people to pay attention is to slam their head with a big heavy history book.
Sharon Unless the Trump voters can be made to see the error of their ways and change (and no, I don't have a proposal that would do that), they will remain a grumpy, lumpy aggrieved voting bloc, ready to support whatever wannabe fascist who steps forward as the next Great Leader.
How do we get the the low-to-no real info voters to wise up and to switch off Fox and get their news from other sources? I dunno, lawsuits maybe, suing Fox for lying. Bankrupt them by exposing crooked dealings under the table (not that I, persoanally, know of any -- nor can I say definitively that they haven't been guilty of illegal skullduggery)? Deporting the entire Murdoch clan to Antarctica (why Antarctica? Because even with global warming it remains a cold and forbidding place. And no, I don't have any idea whether that would be possible - just spitballin' ideas here).
Even if Fox News were choked off the air, that still leaves the dozens of independent pod-casters, influencers and conspiracy theorists to peddle nonsense and rile up the gullible. They will continue to capture an audience up until the point when they lose credibility or their statements become so preposterous that the audiences and advertisers assuming they are ad-supported) start turning away.
Dunno about that: apparently Trump was on AF-1 watching Fox News' coverage of violence in Nigeria and that triggered him to issue an EO right then and there, threatening to invade Nigeria. WTF is wrong with this guy?.
I am a Believer (Lutheran) & I second your last sentence completey. What I was taught by rigorously-trained, kind & empathetic Lutheran pastors, grandparents & parents... is as opposite as possible from RW christian Nationalism✔️✔️✔️
🤬😝He’s never been a Christian, he eats any one at breakfast. He switched to religion just because it was convenient to get more votes and for selling his trademark fake bible
"Vulgar" is the word that always comes to mind when I think of Trump and most of his administration. And I can only assume that the Americans who voted for him celebrate vulgarity along with their "family values." Interesting times.
Trump's recent offer to free half of SNAP's funding is the perfect Trump move! Just like he would stiff his contractors by paying them half, leaving them to eat the rest. Except this time, there's precious little to eat.
Precisely Charles! WTF is HALF???? Did the judge NOT say to reason the funds? But he wasn't specific with these folks. He needed to stipulate that EVERY SINGLE CENT be released. Recall how this regime will reinterpret orders from judges if the language us not PRECISE
The Trump administration said yesterday it will partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program this month amid the federal government shutdown—now tied for the longest in US history. The update comes after funding for the program, colloquially known as food stamps, lapsed over the weekend.
The Agriculture Department will use $4.65B from SNAP's approximate $5B contingency fund to cover half of the estimated $8B in monthly benefits for nearly 42 million Americans (see data). Roughly $450M of the contingency fund will cover states' administrative costs, and $150M will aid food assistance programs in Puerto Rico and American Samoa. The partial funding excludes new applicants, disaster assistance, and any financial buffer, as the contingency funds will be depleted.
When the French realized they had this sort of government they thought about the American Revolution and decided it had a lot to teach them. Madame Defarge commenced to knit and the people brought the guillotine.
we are about 50 years too late for the guillotine....it should have been purchased when RayGun began tearing down the country along with his sycophants at the time
When Don Jr. and his descendants have been in absolute power for 800 years, then you can make the comparison. Probably there will be some resentment here, as there was in France.
In my view, Mr Kirk’s funeral (and particularly Mr Trump’s and Miller’s speeches) was the final turning point (nomen omen) of this Administration and its base, in fact a death-cult full of rage and envy.
Yes! He is the brain, and, of course, he has no heart, no feelings other than cruel joy at inflicting pain in those he dismisses. deSteve who deceives, lies, a slimy slithering, spittle ridden, the ‘Rectal polyp!’ WormTongue….really the King of the Horror!
OK, resist but the question is how to do that without making ourselves vulnerable? What do you bet that some junior staffer has been assigned the task of monitoring "suspect" online commentary and finding more "traitors" to persecute?
I definitely agree with your premise but somehow I am finding it more and more difficult to believe that anything Trump does these days is thought out, mulled over, planned for. His minions do seem to greatly enjoy all the stunts but Trump just feels vacant to me--more every day. Just gone. Zero.
I think Trump is basically doing whatever it’s suggested he do by those around him - someone says “it would be a good idea to invade Venezuela” so he starts talking about that; someone else says “let’s blame the Democrats for X” so he does that. You are correct - I don’t think there’s any “there there” anymore.
Just like, "I don't know who this Binance guy is, but people tell me he's been railroaded by Biden." Probably the "people who tell me" are his sons who are up to their necks in crypto.
I don't know if they even make the suggestion. Hegseth didn't tell Trump he was bringing in the big brass to give them a talking to, Trump found out about it at a news conference. He clearly didn't know anything about it.
I think he's enjoying remodeling the White House and going on vacation where people lay out the red carpet and flatter him. I'm not even sure if he was lying when he said he didn't know the crypto criminal he pardoned because he's doing good things with his sons business.
I agree his mind is completely gone. He watches Fox News 24/7 and is surrounded by sycophants who only tell him he’s the greatest ever. He is completely detached from reality which allows Miller and Vought to run amuck. Truly cruel and evil people running America with Trump completely gone mentally.
He's amazingly prodigious when it comes to inventing new forms of disgrace on a daily and, it can seem at times, hourly basis. It will be interesting to find out in a few years when we've finally outlasted this Immoral interlude, whether he does in fact have a team of atrocity-whisperers, or if he is really so thoroughly corrupt that it all just bubbles up naturally out of him like poison.
I think about that reckoning after we have survived this, often. I used to believe he was completely irrelevant after his loss to Biden. 🙄 (He should have been.) I can't know whether my impressions are correct this time…but they get stronger every day.
DJT is edging closer and closer to what he believes he could do and is capable of as DJT's cruelty metastasizes and infects others in his wake.
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" Trump remarked at a campaign stop at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. "It's, like, incredible." [A campaign stop in 2016]
"Ethel’s relationship with her third child, named for her beloved husband, had always been tempestuous. When Bobby was a young man, she regularly threw him out of the house for drug use and other chaotic behavior; when he was 13, a coatimundi he kept as a pet attacked Ethel and sent her into premature labor with his brother Douglas. In high school, after Ethel excoriated him for getting arrested for marijuana possession in Hyannis, he packed up and drove west without telling anyone in his family where he was going, eventually selling his car and hopping freight trains. Bobby seemed to relish the chance to break away from his family and ride the rails with the other vagabonds. “I could be one of them,” he said later. “And not be a Kennedy.”
Good biopic on RFK jr on PBS. Trauma (his father’s assassination) plus too much money and mom having too much on her plate. Seeking attention and separation. Addictions of various sorts as personality response to both desires. Never once held accountable for harms to others. Always Poor Bobby is in so much pain.
If only they had labeled him hysterical and lobotomized him, it would have saved us a little trouble now. There's always another one just like him waiting to be elevated by the regime though.
If only. He was pampered and spoiled with as much oversight as a feral cat.
His name, his eyes, his teeth and chin gave him a free pass to live a life of little constraint, taking him to the fringes of ethics and the law without consequences.
A comparable masquerade was held by the very wealthy in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death.” In that story the privileged wanted to shut out the pain and suffering of the world outside the castle while they partied. Unfortunately for them, what seemed to be a a guest mimicking the grotesque symptoms of the red death plague turned out to be the actual red death. It infected and immediately killed them all. Very efficient! But that was just a horror story and we will have to use more conventional means like voting.
The problem with special/mid-term elections is that the people who vote are more informed than the people who show up every four years.
Locally we had a MAGA sweep in the general election but weeks later in the special election to oust the MAGA commissioner, he was voted out by over 60%. The people who voted were those that pay attention to local politics.
It's not nearly indicative as we'd like to believe.
100% on target. Trump is a scourge on the country. He is scum; a late-stage, clinically diagnosed Narcissist. Eventually, he will go down in flames, carrying his sycophant suck-ups with him.
Remember when Obama was trashed by RW Media for taking a brief vacation in (his home state) Hawaii? They said he proved he was "out of touch" with American people for picking such a faraway destination. "Fair and Balanced." BTW, am voting for Zohran to in order to, inter alia, say: CITY TO TRUMP: DROP DEAD!
Truly, to be a Republican today, a person must have some portion of sociopathic personality disorder.
And a preference for vulgarity.
... and for powers that are hostile to the USA. T. is *not* mentally ill he's a cogent, focused Putin ally/asset!
https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/the-pivot-to-confront-china-was-really
The mental illness is an act!
Sen Jeff Merkley (Oregon) called out T.'s allegiance back in March!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gLmL5BVe1nA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRFCyMq3z10
https://youtu.be/qcD6Rru_tPE?t=99
https://www.closertotheedge.net/p/what-else-could-a-russian-asset-possibly
My initial response to Paul’s post. 👇🏻 “High crimes and misdemeanors”? If this administration’s brazen corruption isn’t that, I’m not sure what is…
A huge collection 🖕🏼 to the vast majority of Americans, including the millions of cult followers. Their arrogant, vulgar, elitist “let them eat cake” symbolism on full display.
So what’s next…
“Marie Antoinette was convicted of high treason, conspiracy with foreign powers, and squandering the nation's finances. These charges stemmed from accusations that she plotted with Austria against France, secretly supplied military information to enemies, and was responsible for the monarchy's financial mismanagement through her extravagant lifestyle and gambling.”
“Marie Antoinette died by guillotine on October 16, 1793, after being convicted of treason by the Revolutionary Tribunal. She was executed publicly in Paris at the Place de la Révolution (now the Place de la Concorde) during the French Revolution”
Time to hone le couteau?
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/11/05/why-was-she-so-hated/#:~:text=At%20her%20trial%20in%20October%201793%2C%20Marie%2DAntoinette,war%20in%20various%20regions%20of%20the%20republic.
Hey America! Congratulations on Mamdani's win! Great job!
Hell, even Dick Cheney has had enough!
Paving the way for dumpster on the road to hell. Good riddance, war criminal and profiteer.
I think he redeemed himself (at least enough to be granted Divine Forgiveness, if not the earthly sort) by speaking out against Trump 2.0 in the election campaign last year. It may have been simply a gesture of support for Liz, who was much more forthrightly vocal, but still....
I wouldn't necessarily say redemption, but at least he showed he has some "guiding light" principles and core beliefs. As opposed to the Marco Rubios, Lindsey Grahams and Ted Cruzs of the world who believe in nothing save their own relevance.
Well, he said begrudgingly, at least a hell of a long time in purgatory. A REALLY hot purgatory.
Cheney was the typical Republican of his day. I don't say I agreed with everything he did or said, but he wasn't the rabid, rancid, psychopath that the Republicans have become. I don't think he enjoyed inflicting pain and suffering on purpose. He knew there were rules in government, and he didn't try to shred the Constitution.
None of us are going straight to Heaven (or whatever afterlife you like), my hate for everything and everyone in Trump's orbit will keep me out. I can't and won't forgive the American people who cursed us with this. EVER.
Well, he was always a National Security Republican, with a rather dark view of the world (hence his obsession with "Saddam's WMD's" while VP). But as you said, he recognized the fact that there were rules, and \respected constitutional limits on power when the chips were down.
Too little, too late, in my book. Afghanistan is lost to the Taliban, hundreds of thousands died needlessly in Iraq, torture became national policy, and he paved the road for the orange. It is easy to take a stand when you won't live long enough to risk any consequences.
Not trying to be a smart-aleck, but I would just note that none of us will live long enough to see all the consequences of governments' policy actions.
Afghanistan was "lost" before 9/11 -- they've just come full circle. What was really lost were the dollars and precious lives, as well as many clear-sighted Afghans' hopes for joining the rest of the world in the 21st (or even the 19th) Century.
I am not claiming sainthood for Dick Cheney, but rather that a 'deathbed conversion' is a step in the right direction. He was who he was, Fortunately, it isn't up to us to forgive his sins (unless you are a priest, in which case, the ball is in your court).
Cheney was beyond redemption, but not as grossly evil and vulgar as Trump. But, many deserve blame for Trump: the media, Republican Party, NBC (for sponsoring the Apprentice, ALL WHO TREATED HIM LIKE A LEGITIMATE POLITICIAN (not the lying criminal conman he is), the Supreme Court, the lawyers who got away with lying and the timid judges who allowed, the donors who supported him, the people who didn't vote, and those who believed his lies that any second-grader would recognize. The Founders knew American Democracy requires a caring and thinking populace committed to the greater good. We failed the test that the Patriots passed on April 19, 1775.
Agree! God riddance, not soon enough!
Dick Cheney made Trump possible. Ding Dong the witch is dead!
This actually made me laugh out loud.
Very good!
😂
Greed, ignorance, nostalgia, inappropriate fears, anger, poor role models. These are attributes of the current Republican Party.
Racism, misogyny, bigotry...
These are a few of their fav-o-rite things....
It used to have a simpler name - sadism.
Not "some". ALL.
I used to think that. I thought that Republicans, after having been taken over by the Orange Don, fell into three categories, Bigots, Idiots, and Sociopaths. I have since simplified my position. The simplest explanation is that they are fascists, and this is what they want. https://madsociologistblog.com/2022/03/21/fascism-and-the-bleeding-edge-of-occams-razor/
I agree, this is what they want. They are just like trump.
I think of them as grifters and their marks.
You will never know till you play in the MAGA swamp on FB!
There’s serious money to be made!
It's a cult led by sociopaths who create a sociopathic mindset and culture. Adherents are not sociopaths themselves, just gullible, needy people who tell themselves it's all part of their god's mysterious plan.
I’m in complete agreement.
Everytime I write that people argue it with me even when I provide a description. I get much less pushback from saying they are Nazis. I call the Republican party The New American Nazi party and have been doing so for the past 2 years. Just as I call the AfD the New German Nazi Party.
It seems to be a requirement these days that
Miscarriages (God's abortions) and abortions occur at roughly equivalent rates in the US. If we had better birth control education and availability, we could reduce the latter by a lot. The former is a more difficult proposition.
Abortion rate in US seems to be a function of the status of women.
When men and women plan families together the abortion rate is remarkably low.
Having President and Mrs. Obama and their daughters in the White House reduced the demand for abortions by 800,000 over the eight years. Modeling correct behavior toward women and girls raises the status of women.
Enshrining the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1980s would have been a game changer and completely broken the Right To Life movement.
Some people will always be swayed by a single issue, pro or con. If Satan came out as pro-Life, would Catholics vote for him, one wonders?
I believe that question was answered last November.
Oh, Satan would be fiercely pro-life. How else to harvest souls?
They already did
SOME of the US bishops…
They openly say that empathy is a defect.
Empathy is their greatest fear for sure, why they love their ‘Jesus on Steroids!’
Lots of swords and retribution… WWJD?
Because they are psychopaths incapable of empathy.
An apt description.
Is it the Democrats who willfully chose to not tap into the $5.5 billion SNAP contingency fund until they were sued and compelled to do so, dragging their feet?
And is it the Democrats who refuse to extend the existing health care tax credits to keep health care affordable for tens of millions of people?
And is it the Democrats who shut down the House of Representatives, preventing any legislation at all to take place, much less the swearing in of a new congresswoman who could unlock the door to the Epstein files?
This is a game of chicken. We on the Democratic side have had enough and are standing up to the bullies who flaunt their power in the most disgusting and cruel ways.
you might want to add that their big beautiful piece of shit bill did not have ANY democratic input....the entire thing is theirs and now they blame democrats....that is rich!
I thank Eric Bruun and John Augustine for answering the commenter. I have delivered food to households hidden in ghettos where the kids had no shoes and the parents ill or disabled. I cannot tell you how grateful they were for one complete meal. The poorest of poor are swept under the rug. When I saw the smirks in Trump’s party, it turned my stomach. The Democrats finally demonstrate a spine not to go back into the “Big Beautiful Bill” which will plunge citizens into more suffering.
Thank you for your beautiful work, caring heart and powerful voice.
Yes, the fear of empathy, and the real teaching of their Bible! My god, he must be pissed! Of course he can tell them about Donny-John as a cautionary lesson, who will notice? The Pope has! Time to name this disease…that billionaires are rich because god made them? So they are better? The real kings? Really? Really!!!
All these republicans are hiding behind the cloth of God to do their devilish bidding.
This really is the history of Christianity after all..the fight for the liberal/human/humankind vs the Kings, the Romans, the very rich land owners…where they might build a church for their serfs to learn to bend a knee!
Yeah, really! The Guardians of Pedophiles have all three branches of government and somehow this is the Dem’s fault?! GTFOH
You haven't identified what planet you are on. Clearly it's not earth. When you find your way back to reality, get help asap and do not go near sharp objects..
Is it a troll?
Aaron is a troll and a slacker troll at that. He doesn’t do his homework, relying instead on a set of outdated 35 year old Republican talking points. If he did his homework, he would have come up with a more defensible troll than claiming “ democrats with their filibuster” are to blame for the current SNAP situation. Republicans could choose to reduce the threshold to invoke cloture on the filibuster as they have done in the past, but they have decided they would rather try to blame Democrats while advancing the start date for SNAP reductions from after the 2026 midterms to now. The important point is Republicans chose to reduce SNAP (and insurance subsidies) in their “One Big Beautiful Bill” so they really couldn’t care less about when those reductions take effect.
BTW, all of this drama is for a Continuing Resolution which ends November 21. That’s a stop gap measure originally used occasionally when Congress didn’t complete its annual budget work in time. If they can’t even get a CR agreement, they certainly won’t be able to get to an actual budget.
He’s definitely a Trump supporter.
Yes.
Please identify whom you are responding to! This is hot topic, and alot are responding.
The thread lines are your friend. ;-)
I'm replying to Aaron :)
Arron. Troll methinks.
Aaron, you started the conversation down this rabbit hole.Just sayin'.
Demonstrating a lack of understanding of the issue combined with an inability to express yourself clearly. It must suck being you.
To use your own tone deaf wording, Really?
Both parties use the filibuster to gum up legislation. But it was the Republicans who butchered it because they were too lazy to use it as it was intended.
The filibuster was traditionally used to stop civil rights legislation. With the current GOP, if you're not in the 1%, you're black, so this tradition continues.
It is the republican filibuster, they could end the filibuster by a simple majority vote, they have 53 republican senators, their lord and savior DJT has commanded them to make it so. So aaron on an errand to be the village idiot on substack go back to your life as a hyperparasite ( a parasite whose host is itself a parasite )
Truth is too heavy of a lift for you, Aaron?
I'll be nice and not snarky. I truly encourage you to read about what a filibuster is, how much money funds SNAP that could legally be used during a filibuster if the Administration chose to use it, and try to at least understand why the Democrats are choosing to filibuster now. Once you've done that, be clear about why you think they are responsible for this.
don't bother trying to reason with this ignorant soul.
Republicans control all branches of government, so Democrats are not in any way responsible. Republicans could open the government in a minute if Senate Republicans, with their majority, eliminated the filibuster and passed their anti-American CR with Republican votes only. They don't want to do that because, as Professor Krugman says, they love cruelty to ordinary Americans.
I might be in the minority here, but I would be OK if they get rid of the filibuster. It's an anachronism and an impediment to passing anything so the Senate does their job. I know it would likely unleash the hounds of hell with Republicans in charge of all branches, but I'd consider it progress.
The Republicans are the ones in charge who don't want to get rid of the filibuster. The Dems don't have the votes to end the filibuster.
So, are you aware that the Dems brought a bill to the floor yesterday to fund SNAP benefits in full and that the Repubs voted against it? Or that the lawsuits forcing Trump to fund (at least partially) the benefits were brought by Dems? Maybe try to educate yourself.
That’s funny, I thought the Republicans hold the house, the senate & the executive.
what filibuster? what are you talking about?
if the dems capitulate, any "bargain" they will have made will be abrogated by the terrorists known as the republican party. they have shown this time and time again.
the terrorist organization known as the republican party uses and promotes violence, bribery, extortion, intimidation, coercion, and the complete repudiation of the rule of law and the constitution to achieve their goals.
The filibuster is now and has ever since its invention been the primary tool of the minority party to prevent being steamrolled by the majority. Since the end of WWII it served the Southern Democrats to delay the Civil Rights movement and the Republicans to oppose public healthcare, campaign finance reform, and voter suppression rollbacks. I desperately wanted it to be vacated early in the Biden years to expand the SC and enact the John Lewis Voting bill, but the two DINOs prevented it…allowing the present national catastrophe to occur.
Aaron knows the people here are too smart to fall for his obvious lies and Fox "news" spin but insists on stirring the pot anyway.
He is a troll.
The easiest lift is to restore the ACA premium credits. Simple.
Trump revels in cruelty, as do his followers. And that aspect of Trumpism is subverting the brand of Christianity that is the foundation of Rightwing support. As Rightwing evangelical preachers are telling their flocks that empathy is wrong, and that the actual teachings of Jesus should be ignored in favor of wielding retributive power, so do they destroy their own professed faith.
I'm not a believer, but I think a pretty strong case can be made that Donald Trump is, perhaps not THE Anti-Christ, but he's certainly anti-Christian.
You know, back in 2014 or 2015 when rumors of a Trump run for office, I quipped off the cuff at my in laws that Trump was the Antichrist, and to be careful of what they voted for ...
did they listen to you?
What are you talking about? Trump models the teachings of Jesus in everything he does. You mean he doesn't??
ur inlaws must be as brain dead and misinformed as mine but like they say, it is easier to fool people than to convince them they've been fooled
As Krugman pointed out in this post, it’s not that they have been fooled. It’s that enjoy seeing cruelty inflicted on black people and other groups they don’t like. They are neither naïve nor stupid. They just fail to meet the standards required to be counted as a decent human being. This applies to every last person who voted for Trump. No exceptions.
Maybe a human being, period!
I think the LBJ quote is referring to the cultists who are being punished and voting against their best interests and the psychology of someone who does that by being manipulated to look down on others who don't look like themselves. They have definitely been fooled but you will never convince them of that
Shocker, amirite?
LOL
Trump's behavior, including his cruelty, is clearly inconsistent with Biblical scripture (at a minimum, see Leviticus ch. 19). In that sense he is anti-Christian, despite claims he might make to the contrary. As to evangelists for Trump, I don't know what they're reading or watching, but I suspect Fox News has supplanted the Bible.
They aren't Christians, they're idolaters worshiping the "orange calf".
they are fascists that pretend to be christian
The Nazis were "Christians," remember?
The top Nazis discouraged any religious belief.
In his book The Antichrist, Nietzsche wrote something to the effect of, "Even the most religious-looking pastor doesn't believe in Christian morals." He offered that as an optimistic pitch for Western civilization. I hated that idea twenty years ago, having been raised by very religious parents. Back then, I saw scandals in the personal lives of prominent preachers as mere human failure. But Trump definitely opened my eyes...
It's time for the churches to, as Donny would say, 'pay up', and be taxed. This is out of hand.
He's no Christian - he almost never goes to church - and one time he did, he complained about the sermon. Hate is his religion.
No self-respecting Christian - white, hispanic, black, or Asian - should ever vote for him.
Time for for MAKA - Make America Kind Again.
You are absolutely right. Everything they believe in is against the direct teachings of Christ. They get angered when you point it out to them because they know deep down they are wrong. They don't want to admit they turned their backs in God in service to worldly power.
A few weeks ago, I learned that a local retired pastor despises me because of a discussion we had a few years ago about socialized healthcare. His position was that healthcare was something that had to be earned, and that it had to be paid for by the recipient. So I asked him how much Jesus charged the lepers and the blind when He healed them.
He really didn't like that question, and apparently it has remained stuck in his craw for years.
Good one!
Was he talking about "earning" in the sense of dollars & cents, or by living an upright, moral life and avoiding "sinful behavior" like drinking, smoking, and promiscuous sex, which can all have serious health consequences.
Some of the criticism of what used to be called "socialized medicine" is based on the idea that some thoughtful, intelligent and well-read people have that they should not be forced to pay for someone else's bad habits.
I think it is a flawed philosophical viewpoint, but it has a logical coherence IF you are willing to ignore the idea that every life has worth, and therefore helpful preserve/improve lives provides a social good to us all.
No, he meant earned in terms of money. You either have a job that provides health insurance or you can afford it yourself.
So, he himself was on the take from you and your fellow parishioners....have you seen the movie There Will Be Blood? Perhaps he needs the bowling ball treatment.
An obvious corollary to the pastors belief is that one shouldn't take care of babies & children until they are old enough to pay for their own health care.
Not sure he would have been coherant in that respect.
The core of teachings of Christ weren't new in his time. They are basically the fundamental human values promoted by (at least almost) all religions, long before Christanity.
So they have been promoted by Judaism, Islam, Budism, Hinduism, Sihkism, etc. Each religion has its' variation of supplementary beliefs, but the core remains the same.
Not even related to following a religion.
Absolutely 100 percent correct. All religions promote basic human decency. Even Athiests know evil when they see it happening before their eyes.
they are NOT christians.
Which is pretty much my point. When you find it necessary to reject the teachings of Jesus in order to maintain your fealty to Donald Trump, you're definitely NOT a Christian any more. You're not even an idolator. You're just a member of a particularly hideous cult.
If we look at the life of Jesus, his life is the total opposite of trump’s and of what trump is doing… trump and all he does is diabolical, it doesn’t come from God. trump and the people that work for him and want to surround themselves with trump are diabolical just like him . And the actions that trump , republicans in Congress, and his administration takes each and every day is not Christianity.
They act like crustaceans 🦞! Not anything like Jesus, that is for sure…I do wonder about the St. Peter conversations, and emergency conversions. I promise to do better next time.
So you learn your lesson, “I return you as a ….” Worm?
If your interested, a commenter on Bluesky who goes by rahaeli has a fascinating thread on what they call the American Heresy. It’s about the right wing perversion of Christianity. It’s very steeped in theological research and well worth a read.
Jesus Christ and John Wayne is a good book about Christianity and what has turned into the MAGA movement. It was written quite a while ago, but I thought it was very enlightening...and true.
John 11:35. "Jesus wept." He didn't tell Mary and Martha that ol' Laz had it coming or that it wasn't that bad. He had empathy.
Empathy is their biggest fear and perhaps our greatest weapon…Just imagine what it must be like to have voted for this ass who promised so much, and gave it to rich people. So they would like him!!
"Old Laz" -- good one! Though I suspect JC would have forgiven his old friend despite an shortcomings of character.
it's a weird, weird world. There is a small sub-set of very fundamentalist Christians who support DT because they actually DO hope he is the Anti-Christ.
With each passing day it looks more and more like their prayers have been answered.
Ouch! I hope not.
There are mega churches who do this, but many small churches, even if they are maga, are not racist and bigoted. I've been to some of them. They are conservative and probably Trump supporters, but they aren't teaching empathy is wrong, quite to the contrary. Don't tar all of them with the same ugly colors.
There are not more MAGA than us, but there are more maga than us. Organized religion is a place of community and social support. The internet is not the real world.
I believe the MAGA, like Trump, Thiel, Vance, Bondi, Steven Miller are evil, but not the 50% of America who are conservative and ignorant.
What you write is true. However, silence equals complicity, and far FAR too many of the small churches are effectively racist and bigoted because of whom they support.
As Moxon noted, the Germans have a special term for those who supported Hitler's economic and national policies but not his racial policies. The Germans call those people "Nazis" because supporting any part means you support the whole.
Derelict, while I think I understand your PoV, you are missing something fundamental is assigning responsibility to those who are silent.
Perhaps they seem silent because you are not tuned to their wavelength, or because they realize there is little they can do to change the hearts and minds of MAGA believers.
There is a vast difference between support of and tolerance of something.
"Resistance is useless" as they say in old B movies. Taking a moral stand can win people over, but until there is an election and we throw the bums out, or unless you are rioting in the streets or plotting to massacre Trump and his key lieutenants, you/we are in one sense complicity tolerating their continued existence.
So far no one has taken on the role of "Tienanmen Tank Man" as a resistance measure - a good thing, as I am pretty sure Trump's orders would be to run him over.
The fact is, until we can vote the SOB out of office, you/we are almost certainly incapable of NOT tolerating the regime in a truly impactful sense does not let you/us off the hook, by your standards of complicity. We are ALL guilty because we didn't stop Trump.
I would expect more Christians to be speaking out more loudly and constantly because of what Trump is doing to their religion and their God.
Remember that these are the people who have been having a nation conniption because we're "oppressing" them by not allowing creationism to be taught or the ten commandments to be posted or saying "happy holidays" or any one of a thousand other supposedly anti-Christian things that secular society does. They're mighty loud about those things.
But a con-man from NYC completely subverts everything they claim to believe in and . . . they're silent at best or cheering him on at worst. No, we can't vote them out of office just yet. But we and they (in particular) can and should be speaking out as loudly about Trump destroying their religion as they do about "happy holidays."
If they voted Trump TWICE, they are complicit. Willing blindness to Trump's actions is not a valid excuse.
Even voting for him/his party the first time, after all the appalling things he said is highly questionable.
Civilized people don't treat others as Trump very openly does.
In my reply to Derelict, who spoke of "small churches" being racist and bigoted, which I took to mean that the institutional stance of those churches reflected those values: illiberal, discriminating against certain out-groups.
Of course, churches don't get a vote -- only individuals do -- but the create a framework of thought about morality. The 'silence of the individuals' in those churches is not necessarily a sign of complicity but merely the feeling of resignation for people who live in an environment that is hostile to anyone who expresses support for a liberal tolerance of diversity, whether of political opinion, sexual identity or where Grandpa came from.
You said, "Civilized people don't treat others as Trump very openly does" . The fact is, a LOT of Americans (who would probably object to the idea that they are not "civilized") obviously think otherwise, which doesn't make them RIGHT, but it does mean your assertion falsely equates civilized behavior with who people vote for.
Frankly, I can see why you might think that -- I had a similar idea for a time, until I thought more deeply about it -- but I think it is a presumption that de-humanizes The Other, and must be dropped if we are ever going move on from Trump and try to re-unite Americans into a cohesive national entity instead of warring voting blocs.
I certainly believe I am a civilized person, without taking into question who I vote for; I believe we can safely assume that many voters who opted to vote against OUR favored candidate felt they had a good reason for doing so. Let's confine our disagreement to voter behavior and not slang gratuitous insults.
I stand by my assertion : Civilized people to not treat others as Trump does.
That doesn’t mean that civilized people wouldn’t vote for Trump, but in my view they should reflect on their values before voting.
I went to two Baptist churches with a long time friend of mine in Bakersfield CA when I was visiting. I was born and raised in Bakersfield by two very liberal parents. Both churches were fundamentalist, I'm sure most supported Trump, but the pastors were not racist and their message was Christian.
It's hard to overstate the completely separate information systems that exist between liberal and conservatives. A lot of them are embarrassed by Trump but he speaks of God, country and trashes the liberal Democrats who are so evil they think nothing of killing newborn babies. This is what FOX and right wing influencers have been telling them for 40 years!
Until the Democrats can fix their image people will continue to vote for Trump. MAGA is a lost cause. They have no shame, compassion, integrity...
But NOBODY "kills newborn babies!" These so-called "Christians" can't be bothered to go down to the local hospital and check on this. They are too effyouseekaying LAZY to check the veracity of whatever the latest dump [as in rectal effusion] from the Right claims.
I know Democrats don't kill newborn babies! But Democrats have got to be realistic and pragmatic. When half of the voting public think that you are for killing babies, you've got a problem. We've had a right wing propaganda machine going for decades that has convinced half of America that Democrats are evil. Seriously! I have friends like that. It doesn't matter that it's lies and they're ignorant. They have the votes.
Democrats need Pro-Life candidates. When you talk to Pro-Life people, most of them believe in early term abortion and abortion to save a mother's life and terminating a pregnancy of an unviable fetus. As my daughter said after an extensive discussion with a Pro-Life co-worker, "Our difference is about two weeks of when an early term pregnancy could be aborted."
Most people who say they're Pro-Life, don't mean no abortion ever. They don't want healthy late term fetus's aborted so the mother will look good in a bathing suit. It doesn't matter if it's BS. It's what they think. (It's probably why Latinos, who are mostly conservative Catholic and blacks, who are often conservative Christian, are going maga.)
We can't afford to stick to dogmatic rhetoric like "only a woman's right to choose,". The people who think Democrats are baby killers need to hear that it's lies. NO It's not all right to abort a late term fetus just because you want to. That's what almost all Democrats believe, why not say it?
One obstacle to making reasonable rebuttals of Trumpublican lies about Democrats is 'Whataboutism' -- there are simply so damned many lies that the conversation cannot be focused on just one at a time. We need a propaganda strategy that undercuts the ENTIRE ideology of the Right.
I recall LBJ's "Daisy" campaign ad that shattered the Goldwater candidacy by tying his opposition to a test ban to continued escalation into nuclear war with the USSR.
For those too young to remember, it featured a little girl sitting in a meadow, pulling petals off a daisy, counting one to nine, then a voiceover countdown starting from "10, 9. 8..." and finally a nuclear explosion and LBJ's voice saying what was at stake - either nations find a way to resolve differences short of war, or all the worlds children will die.
The republicans complained that it was inaccurate but the controversy over it meant its impact was far greater than it would otherwise have been.
Perhaps a cinematic depiction of the Trump/Project 2025 policies devolving into the Nazi rallies, Hitler's little dance, columns of stony-faced German troops marching on parade, and genocides would get the idea across that now, just as in Europe in the 30's and 40's, poisonous ideas have disastrous results, just as the poison of Jew-hatred led to the gas chambers and ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
Critics will scoff and say this is overblown and misusing history, and maybe it s overly dramatic, but sometime the way to get people to pay attention is to slam their head with a big heavy history book.
Sharon Unless the Trump voters can be made to see the error of their ways and change (and no, I don't have a proposal that would do that), they will remain a grumpy, lumpy aggrieved voting bloc, ready to support whatever wannabe fascist who steps forward as the next Great Leader.
How do we get the the low-to-no real info voters to wise up and to switch off Fox and get their news from other sources? I dunno, lawsuits maybe, suing Fox for lying. Bankrupt them by exposing crooked dealings under the table (not that I, persoanally, know of any -- nor can I say definitively that they haven't been guilty of illegal skullduggery)? Deporting the entire Murdoch clan to Antarctica (why Antarctica? Because even with global warming it remains a cold and forbidding place. And no, I don't have any idea whether that would be possible - just spitballin' ideas here).
Even if Fox News were choked off the air, that still leaves the dozens of independent pod-casters, influencers and conspiracy theorists to peddle nonsense and rile up the gullible. They will continue to capture an audience up until the point when they lose credibility or their statements become so preposterous that the audiences and advertisers assuming they are ad-supported) start turning away.
Read Frederick Douglass "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass".
Christians who enslaved and tortured humans could trot off to church on Sundays for absolution.
This "Christian" system has been around for millennia. It was designed to maintain power and control over large populations. Convenient and effective.
You might call him Antichrists poor cousin from the country lacking the assumed intellect of his cousin.
But he coopts Christianity for political purposes. Witness his “concern“ over the Christians being killed in Nigeria. He actually couldn’t care less.
Dunno about that: apparently Trump was on AF-1 watching Fox News' coverage of violence in Nigeria and that triggered him to issue an EO right then and there, threatening to invade Nigeria. WTF is wrong with this guy?.
I am a Believer (Lutheran) & I second your last sentence completey. What I was taught by rigorously-trained, kind & empathetic Lutheran pastors, grandparents & parents... is as opposite as possible from RW christian Nationalism✔️✔️✔️
🤬😝He’s never been a Christian, he eats any one at breakfast. He switched to religion just because it was convenient to get more votes and for selling his trademark fake bible
"Vulgar" is the word that always comes to mind when I think of Trump and most of his administration. And I can only assume that the Americans who voted for him celebrate vulgarity along with their "family values." Interesting times.
Witness Christmas cards with the entire family holding guns.
Well, I'm sending out my card of natives holding guns with the caption "Homeland Security: Fighting Terrorism Since 1492"
Trump's recent offer to free half of SNAP's funding is the perfect Trump move! Just like he would stiff his contractors by paying them half, leaving them to eat the rest. Except this time, there's precious little to eat.
Wonder if by half he means only intends to send to Red states?
Precisely Charles! WTF is HALF???? Did the judge NOT say to reason the funds? But he wasn't specific with these folks. He needed to stipulate that EVERY SINGLE CENT be released. Recall how this regime will reinterpret orders from judges if the language us not PRECISE
dems should tell him to shove it....ALL or NOTHING at ALL
My understanding is the cost to fully cover snap is 8B and that the contingency only contains 5B thus the shortfall
But is he going to send half benefits to everyone or full benefits to half?
The Trump administration said yesterday it will partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program this month amid the federal government shutdown—now tied for the longest in US history. The update comes after funding for the program, colloquially known as food stamps, lapsed over the weekend.
The Agriculture Department will use $4.65B from SNAP's approximate $5B contingency fund to cover half of the estimated $8B in monthly benefits for nearly 42 million Americans (see data). Roughly $450M of the contingency fund will cover states' administrative costs, and $150M will aid food assistance programs in Puerto Rico and American Samoa. The partial funding excludes new applicants, disaster assistance, and any financial buffer, as the contingency funds will be depleted.
Good research.
I read that as food (food stamps) will be covered for everyone but any cash component will not be
The half that are good-standing Aryan types.
There are other funds which are also legally available - if he chooses to access them.
I thought it was eliminated from the farm bill along with US Aid....an article in NYT about ranchers in NM being affected by SNAP cuts.
WOW, thanks for that deeper look, Miles.
But his Ag department states that the aid will be delayed weeks if not months!
When the French realized they had this sort of government they thought about the American Revolution and decided it had a lot to teach them. Madame Defarge commenced to knit and the people brought the guillotine.
I am not against that happening to these people.
we are about 50 years too late for the guillotine....it should have been purchased when RayGun began tearing down the country along with his sycophants at the time
It's never too late for the guillotine. And we can build a gilded one just for His Orange MAGA Majesty.
The best part, Guillotine designs aren't under patent protection. Build away! Realistically though, rope and convenient lamp posts are simpler.
That would suit me just fine.
You guys are playing make believe, I can't believe this is a conversation between grown adults
In the Jan 6 attempted coup, there was a scaffold on the mall where they were planning on hanging Pence. Do tell me more about "make believe."
Oh, that's what you want more of? January 6th? I think we could use less enraged violence in our politics
emulating depravity is neither amusing nor helpful
It will be a surprise since they barely study history or read books by crazy leftists like Dickens.
Dickens as a Leftist! Good one!
When Don Jr. and his descendants have been in absolute power for 800 years, then you can make the comparison. Probably there will be some resentment here, as there was in France.
Spot on, Dr. Krugman. Cruelty to others is trump slime's specialty
Agree 100%.
In my view, Mr Kirk’s funeral (and particularly Mr Trump’s and Miller’s speeches) was the final turning point (nomen omen) of this Administration and its base, in fact a death-cult full of rage and envy.
Resist, resist, resist.
Agreed.... Miller's screed against Democrats was chilling.
Yes! He is the brain, and, of course, he has no heart, no feelings other than cruel joy at inflicting pain in those he dismisses. deSteve who deceives, lies, a slimy slithering, spittle ridden, the ‘Rectal polyp!’ WormTongue….really the King of the Horror!
OK, resist but the question is how to do that without making ourselves vulnerable? What do you bet that some junior staffer has been assigned the task of monitoring "suspect" online commentary and finding more "traitors" to persecute?
Yes, I understand it’s a big risk. Standing together in the streets is probably the best way to minimise it, I hope. Bye
MAGA =
MUTILATE
ALL the
GOOD in
AMERICA
Or, my favorite, Morons Are Governing America.
Down on the border it’s Mexicans Aren’t Going Anywhere
As usual right on the mark. You are on my most shared top one list. And this will be another.
I definitely agree with your premise but somehow I am finding it more and more difficult to believe that anything Trump does these days is thought out, mulled over, planned for. His minions do seem to greatly enjoy all the stunts but Trump just feels vacant to me--more every day. Just gone. Zero.
I think Trump is basically doing whatever it’s suggested he do by those around him - someone says “it would be a good idea to invade Venezuela” so he starts talking about that; someone else says “let’s blame the Democrats for X” so he does that. You are correct - I don’t think there’s any “there there” anymore.
Just like, "I don't know who this Binance guy is, but people tell me he's been railroaded by Biden." Probably the "people who tell me" are his sons who are up to their necks in crypto.
I don't know if they even make the suggestion. Hegseth didn't tell Trump he was bringing in the big brass to give them a talking to, Trump found out about it at a news conference. He clearly didn't know anything about it.
I think he's enjoying remodeling the White House and going on vacation where people lay out the red carpet and flatter him. I'm not even sure if he was lying when he said he didn't know the crypto criminal he pardoned because he's doing good things with his sons business.
Trump can be likened to Jeff Goldblum’s character in ‘The Fly.’ Whatever gains his attention, he jumps on it..and vomits all over it.
Of course, in his case, he shits all over it, but just quibbling….the Reverse Midas—turning all our ‘Gold into Shit!’
It’s his super power!
I agree his mind is completely gone. He watches Fox News 24/7 and is surrounded by sycophants who only tell him he’s the greatest ever. He is completely detached from reality which allows Miller and Vought to run amuck. Truly cruel and evil people running America with Trump completely gone mentally.
He's amazingly prodigious when it comes to inventing new forms of disgrace on a daily and, it can seem at times, hourly basis. It will be interesting to find out in a few years when we've finally outlasted this Immoral interlude, whether he does in fact have a team of atrocity-whisperers, or if he is really so thoroughly corrupt that it all just bubbles up naturally out of him like poison.
I think about that reckoning after we have survived this, often. I used to believe he was completely irrelevant after his loss to Biden. 🙄 (He should have been.) I can't know whether my impressions are correct this time…but they get stronger every day.
Here is hoping that the events of today are helpful toward that end
DJT is edging closer and closer to what he believes he could do and is capable of as DJT's cruelty metastasizes and infects others in his wake.
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" Trump remarked at a campaign stop at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. "It's, like, incredible." [A campaign stop in 2016]
He's murdered 65 people in small boats already. He likes killing.
Trump is an entertainer…typically, entertainers dance for whoever calls the tune.
Trump has learned how to mesmerize people of lesser intelligence with his dance, his hypnotic voice.
Then he becomes the piper, calls the tune himself, and the crowd follows.
It's their eugenics movement administered by Secretary Kennedy as lead honcho.
He must have been dropped on his head as a child.
He was a Kennedy black sheep.
"Ethel’s relationship with her third child, named for her beloved husband, had always been tempestuous. When Bobby was a young man, she regularly threw him out of the house for drug use and other chaotic behavior; when he was 13, a coatimundi he kept as a pet attacked Ethel and sent her into premature labor with his brother Douglas. In high school, after Ethel excoriated him for getting arrested for marijuana possession in Hyannis, he packed up and drove west without telling anyone in his family where he was going, eventually selling his car and hopping freight trains. Bobby seemed to relish the chance to break away from his family and ride the rails with the other vagabonds. “I could be one of them,” he said later. “And not be a Kennedy.”
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/kennedy-family-legacy-dynasty-rfk-jr-trump.html
Kennedy is a "Trustafarian". When you've got a huge trust fund, you can F'up over and over again, with no consequences.
Good biopic on RFK jr on PBS. Trauma (his father’s assassination) plus too much money and mom having too much on her plate. Seeking attention and separation. Addictions of various sorts as personality response to both desires. Never once held accountable for harms to others. Always Poor Bobby is in so much pain.
Thx. I’ll have to watch.
Although I find the trauma excuse fine for the first few years but now I blame the taste of the worms for brains….
If only they had labeled him hysterical and lobotomized him, it would have saved us a little trouble now. There's always another one just like him waiting to be elevated by the regime though.
Thank, Patt. So his oppositional behavior is longstanding and deep-rooted. Good to know.
If only. He was pampered and spoiled with as much oversight as a feral cat.
His name, his eyes, his teeth and chin gave him a free pass to live a life of little constraint, taking him to the fringes of ethics and the law without consequences.
No, just a worm ate the part of his brain where empathy resides.
I think it ate a lot more than that.
Love the Coda, the dance scenes from Sweet Charity are truly A1+
A comparable masquerade was held by the very wealthy in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death.” In that story the privileged wanted to shut out the pain and suffering of the world outside the castle while they partied. Unfortunately for them, what seemed to be a a guest mimicking the grotesque symptoms of the red death plague turned out to be the actual red death. It infected and immediately killed them all. Very efficient! But that was just a horror story and we will have to use more conventional means like voting.
Yes, and the results of today's election—especially in NYC, Virginia and Pennsylvania— should be telling.
The problem with special/mid-term elections is that the people who vote are more informed than the people who show up every four years.
Locally we had a MAGA sweep in the general election but weeks later in the special election to oust the MAGA commissioner, he was voted out by over 60%. The people who voted were those that pay attention to local politics.
It's not nearly indicative as we'd like to believe.
I think the level of participation and the magnitude of the wind means it actually is indicative!
100% on target. Trump is a scourge on the country. He is scum; a late-stage, clinically diagnosed Narcissist. Eventually, he will go down in flames, carrying his sycophant suck-ups with him.
He's getting off easy labeled a Narcissist. This man is cruel to his core, putting him way on down the road.
The modifier for narcissist in this case is ‘malignant’.
Amen and Amen!!
or karma will get him as his body breaks down
The Republican mantra has morphed over the years:
• Way back when: "I've made mine; feel free to make yours"
• Next: "I've made mine and I'm coming for yours"
• Next: "I've made mine, I'm coming for yours, and if you're not suffering, I'm not happy"
• Now: "If you're not suffering, I'm not happy"
Now:
My grandparents cleaned up.
I inherited it all, with no taxes.
Its all mine now.
Screw you.
Remember when Obama was trashed by RW Media for taking a brief vacation in (his home state) Hawaii? They said he proved he was "out of touch" with American people for picking such a faraway destination. "Fair and Balanced." BTW, am voting for Zohran to in order to, inter alia, say: CITY TO TRUMP: DROP DEAD!
And on the other side of the Hudson, we voted for Sherill. Same idea.
Well done, George!