“People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state on innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.” - James Baldwin
Thus we must admit our faulty evolution... that caused
Up to 60% of anxious people are cured by placebo... GULLIBILITY
The Joy of Sabotage may have its roots in the evolutionary origins of the shape and stroke of the penis... per Dr Lakeoff, the act activates the neural pathways of Sabotage... OWN THE LIBS
He cannot continue to gaslight us. I’ve always loved this quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Think of it, always.”
definitely. and since he has no humanity or the ability to love ,he will never understand the effects of those traits. He is one giant empty soul full of hate, revenge and rage,.
These are all positive reminders of who I am and will always be at my core. I will never stop loving and living my life with respect and compassion for those who share my life and this planet with me. He can't stop me from seeking the good that still exists in our country and world.
- He cannot see past his own desires, but he also cannot take away ours.
- He can exploit the earth and its inhabitants, but he cannot rule it, nor make natural laws obey him.
- He cannot demand obedience, only coerce. We may have to sit, but stand up on the inside.
- He cannot* create beauty, be truly happy and loving. (*at least at the rate he is going, and how he is going about it, although in every human there is a possibility of creating beauty and being happy and loving. A tragedy to see life wasted.)
- He cannot live forever, even in his own version of history, or narratives. Others will eventually have possession of the narrative, and write about how they see what he has done and the effects he is having and and will have.
No matter how much bombastic, belligerent bullying he tries?
He just shows US how weak he really is
I will never understand how people did not see what all of us who "knew" him in NYC in the 80s already knew: He was a lying slimy POS & Grifter -A privileged nepo-baby born on 3rd base & thinks he hit a triple.
I will leave it to historians to decide how he got away with it for so long & why his MAGA Cult loved him
But he is a rapist & pedophile who took advantage of children* & abused them
Trump Trump wants young girls, young trophy, wives, and money to buy young girls young trophy wives and he thinks people respect them for his money, but nobody respects demented Donald Trump. Mentally and morally, and physically that Venus insufficiency doesn’t just affect his legs. It affects his brain, the little one that he has.
Morality is not a Trump family value back to the grandparents that escaped Germany ‘s Draft , Running whore Houses in the gold rush to his father , not an ounce of personal responsibility or integrity in any of them.
I was told when he first ran people only knew him outside the NY area via his reality TV show. It was their first impression and his platform & they loved the show. Telling that one of my colleagues, a Black woman who detested him but loved the show said that. It seems to be true. People involved with helping him create his image have apologized.
Stephen, I suggest adding a 10th item to your list:
No matter how Trump exorcizes and unleashes his deeply evil demons on us or stokes our fears, the one thing he cannot do is to make us love him. And that, underneath all of the filth and scum is the only thing he really wants.
My two cents for the day: As the fascist takeover gets more and more entrenched and vicious, it's getting more and more difficult for me to take in the latest daily news of each horrific new episode in this downward spiral to... Sometimes I feel like there is nothing more I would like to do than simply check out and ignore it all. There are times I cry reading about the cruelty to human beings and the planet, plus the destruction of all that is right and good, like empathy, compassion, truth, and honesty, to name.a few. What keeps me going is my my commitment to doing my part to help end this madness. Granted, my efforts aren't large, but they the only things I can think of at the moment to do. My anger and revulsion for all that they are doing and all that they stand for always pushes me to continue and move forward into resistance. Please don't let them destroy your capacity for joy and your own commitment to what is right and good. They will fall, and it's up to us to make sure they do. No action is too small. Keep going and keep fighting.
He cannot take away our love of America. When taps plays on Memorial Day it chokes us up. When we see his thumbs up at Arlington national cemetery it disgusts us. When we see parades celebrating Thanksgiving and St. Patrick’s Day we feel a sense of community and joy. When we see squeaky tanks on our streets feeding his ego we laugh at him. When we see architecture of the National Mall we see art. When we see gold spray painted mantles in the White House it makes us want to puke. Our pride in our national identity is far more powerful than his depraved and warped view of a country made to serve him.
Thank you, Steven for keeping us focused on the positive in all this madness. I too look forward to celebrating and dancing in the streets when he is finally gone!!
Demented Donald Trump is above the law the supreme crooks a.k.a. the Supreme Court says so !!!
What Wonderful Secret Services did Jeffrey Epstein provide Donald Trump and other past presidents Bill Clinton Alan Dershowitz, Bill Gates, etc. why the secrecy?
Jeffrey Epstein‘s plan was to video or photograph people in compromising positions with underage girls, and then use that as a polite leverage to let him manage their money their homes, whatever the guy who helped them out the most owned Victoria’s Secret.
What are the wonderful secrets that demented Donald Trump thanks Jeffrey Epstein for and everybody else Bill Clinton, the whole gang, but you noticed no Bushes involved no Jimmy Carter.
Personally, in my opinion, based on the performance of Donald Trump, his presidential video library should be on Rikers Island in New York City only convicted felon ever to be president and unquestionably. I think he’s a pedophile.
We need to Institute mandatory voting for everyone and then once we achieve that rewrite the constitution so these clowns can never get back in office when the clown becomes king the kingdom becomes a circus.
To implement mandatory voting would require a Constitutional Amendment. You’d never get all 50 states to agree on their own. I’m not sure it would be well accepted but stranger things have happened.
I’ve read that. Australians think they are great & our elections are stupid. Had that conversation before. They tend to blow off our Constitution & the hurdles to changing it. The GOP very obviously does not want everyone to vote. Some want to return to only property owners voting.
Australians are on an island with a much smaller population. I have to wonder if they don’t feel more inclined to join together.
Big changes, especially government mandates are not met in the US with open arms. So first you have to convince people. It would be interesting to survey.
Personally I’m glad to see the GOP befuddled now that neither $$ nor Donnie’s wishes are automatically helpful in their districts.
I always admired the ability of Kennedy, Reagan, and Obama to use humor. All were masters of self-deprecating humor. The late William Arthur Ward identified the root of Trump's problem:
"To err is human; to stumble is commonplace; to be able to laugh at yourself is maturity."
Not to worry though Groucho Marx had the antidote:
"If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I would be happy to do it for you."
And so must we all laugh at Trump. It tears at his soul or lack thereof.
I’ll pick number 4. Trump is so obviously a fraud and a phony that he can’t hide it from us. I’m thinking about a clip someone posted. It was a bill signing, and an aide had to explain to him what he was about to sign. Yet he comes across as a macho man at his rallies. Pathetic!
Keep your eyes open and your selves engaged.
“People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state on innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.” - James Baldwin
Thus we must admit our faulty evolution... that caused
Up to 60% of anxious people are cured by placebo... GULLIBILITY
The Joy of Sabotage may have its roots in the evolutionary origins of the shape and stroke of the penis... per Dr Lakeoff, the act activates the neural pathways of Sabotage... OWN THE LIBS
He cannot continue to gaslight us. I’ve always loved this quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Think of it, always.”
A good one, thanks!
definitely. and since he has no humanity or the ability to love ,he will never understand the effects of those traits. He is one giant empty soul full of hate, revenge and rage,.
These are all positive reminders of who I am and will always be at my core. I will never stop loving and living my life with respect and compassion for those who share my life and this planet with me. He can't stop me from seeking the good that still exists in our country and world.
Trump can’t understand the beauty of humanity. Only brave defenders of democracy appreciate art. That is why I wrote poems about resistance against fascists by heroes like Stephen Colbert: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/stephen-colbert-poem
- He cannot change history as it has happened.
- He cannot make truth out of lies.
- He cannot lead, he can only threaten.
- He cannot read! (think, reason, or speak well!)
- He cannot see past his own desires, but he also cannot take away ours.
- He can exploit the earth and its inhabitants, but he cannot rule it, nor make natural laws obey him.
- He cannot demand obedience, only coerce. We may have to sit, but stand up on the inside.
- He cannot* create beauty, be truly happy and loving. (*at least at the rate he is going, and how he is going about it, although in every human there is a possibility of creating beauty and being happy and loving. A tragedy to see life wasted.)
- He cannot live forever, even in his own version of history, or narratives. Others will eventually have possession of the narrative, and write about how they see what he has done and the effects he is having and and will have.
Good list. Thanks, Dawn.
Excellent!
Trump can not brainwash us into believing his lies…
Trump can never ever never gain our respect
No matter how much bombastic, belligerent bullying he tries?
He just shows US how weak he really is
I will never understand how people did not see what all of us who "knew" him in NYC in the 80s already knew: He was a lying slimy POS & Grifter -A privileged nepo-baby born on 3rd base & thinks he hit a triple.
I will leave it to historians to decide how he got away with it for so long & why his MAGA Cult loved him
But he is a rapist & pedophile who took advantage of children* & abused them
May he burn in hell
*Children can never give consent
Trump Trump wants young girls, young trophy, wives, and money to buy young girls young trophy wives and he thinks people respect them for his money, but nobody respects demented Donald Trump. Mentally and morally, and physically that Venus insufficiency doesn’t just affect his legs. It affects his brain, the little one that he has.
Morality is not a Trump family value back to the grandparents that escaped Germany ‘s Draft , Running whore Houses in the gold rush to his father , not an ounce of personal responsibility or integrity in any of them.
I was told when he first ran people only knew him outside the NY area via his reality TV show. It was their first impression and his platform & they loved the show. Telling that one of my colleagues, a Black woman who detested him but loved the show said that. It seems to be true. People involved with helping him create his image have apologized.
Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey Son, Donald Trump as” a liar and a coward”
My guideposts are "Love one another" and "Hatred binds one to the hated object." I love my job, serving the citizens of a small city in South Texas.
Many thanks for your writing ❤️♾️
Stephen, I suggest adding a 10th item to your list:
No matter how Trump exorcizes and unleashes his deeply evil demons on us or stokes our fears, the one thing he cannot do is to make us love him. And that, underneath all of the filth and scum is the only thing he really wants.
Agreed, Ilene.
My two cents for the day: As the fascist takeover gets more and more entrenched and vicious, it's getting more and more difficult for me to take in the latest daily news of each horrific new episode in this downward spiral to... Sometimes I feel like there is nothing more I would like to do than simply check out and ignore it all. There are times I cry reading about the cruelty to human beings and the planet, plus the destruction of all that is right and good, like empathy, compassion, truth, and honesty, to name.a few. What keeps me going is my my commitment to doing my part to help end this madness. Granted, my efforts aren't large, but they the only things I can think of at the moment to do. My anger and revulsion for all that they are doing and all that they stand for always pushes me to continue and move forward into resistance. Please don't let them destroy your capacity for joy and your own commitment to what is right and good. They will fall, and it's up to us to make sure they do. No action is too small. Keep going and keep fighting.
Hang in there. And yes to holding onto your joy.
He cannot take away our love of America. When taps plays on Memorial Day it chokes us up. When we see his thumbs up at Arlington national cemetery it disgusts us. When we see parades celebrating Thanksgiving and St. Patrick’s Day we feel a sense of community and joy. When we see squeaky tanks on our streets feeding his ego we laugh at him. When we see architecture of the National Mall we see art. When we see gold spray painted mantles in the White House it makes us want to puke. Our pride in our national identity is far more powerful than his depraved and warped view of a country made to serve him.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, David.
AMEN
Thank you, Steven for keeping us focused on the positive in all this madness. I too look forward to celebrating and dancing in the streets when he is finally gone!!
That’ll be a delightful day, Rachel.
Demented Donald Trump is above the law the supreme crooks a.k.a. the Supreme Court says so !!!
What Wonderful Secret Services did Jeffrey Epstein provide Donald Trump and other past presidents Bill Clinton Alan Dershowitz, Bill Gates, etc. why the secrecy?
Rich people don’t go to jail ever
How quickly we forget. Not to point at the obvious but to point to the obvious: Epstein and Maxwell were both very wealthy.
Here are a few of the others: Bernie Madoff*, Allen Stanford*, Elizabeth Holmes**, Sam Bankman-Fried*, Martha Stewart**, John Kapoor*, Bernard Ebbers*
(* Billionaire, ** wealthy, briefly billionaire on paper)
Jeffrey Epstein‘s plan was to video or photograph people in compromising positions with underage girls, and then use that as a polite leverage to let him manage their money their homes, whatever the guy who helped them out the most owned Victoria’s Secret.
What are the wonderful secrets that demented Donald Trump thanks Jeffrey Epstein for and everybody else Bill Clinton, the whole gang, but you noticed no Bushes involved no Jimmy Carter.
Personally, in my opinion, based on the performance of Donald Trump, his presidential video library should be on Rikers Island in New York City only convicted felon ever to be president and unquestionably. I think he’s a pedophile.
We need to Institute mandatory voting for everyone and then once we achieve that rewrite the constitution so these clowns can never get back in office when the clown becomes king the kingdom becomes a circus.
To implement mandatory voting would require a Constitutional Amendment. You’d never get all 50 states to agree on their own. I’m not sure it would be well accepted but stranger things have happened.
Yep 👍.
Australia has mandatory voting shifted the government in line with the will of the people. . .
Yes, and they gave us Murdoch.
I’ve read that. Australians think they are great & our elections are stupid. Had that conversation before. They tend to blow off our Constitution & the hurdles to changing it. The GOP very obviously does not want everyone to vote. Some want to return to only property owners voting.
Australians are on an island with a much smaller population. I have to wonder if they don’t feel more inclined to join together.
Big changes, especially government mandates are not met in the US with open arms. So first you have to convince people. It would be interesting to survey.
Personally I’m glad to see the GOP befuddled now that neither $$ nor Donnie’s wishes are automatically helpful in their districts.
Two questions
1. Can he cancel the midterm and future elections?
2. Can he declare martial law.
Probably. But can he withstand all the millions protesting and demanding his removal in response?
That’s why he has ICE. Until they are removed, this is a fascist country.
What about Ex parte Milligan and Duncan v. Kahanamoku?
I don’t understand the question. In both cases the decisions were that military tribunals cannot try civilians.
Unless you are asking about the caveat: when civilian courts are open and functioning. Even so, the courts are not under his control to be closed.
This is the fear he has turned on in me.
Projection of his own fear is the heart of the matter
Super great questions...inquiring minds want to know. Maybe Justice Luttig can weigh in?
He can’t stop us from laughing at him. The only silver lining of his second term is all the comedic material he provides.
Right you are, Michael!
You are so right, Michael.
I always admired the ability of Kennedy, Reagan, and Obama to use humor. All were masters of self-deprecating humor. The late William Arthur Ward identified the root of Trump's problem:
"To err is human; to stumble is commonplace; to be able to laugh at yourself is maturity."
Not to worry though Groucho Marx had the antidote:
"If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I would be happy to do it for you."
And so must we all laugh at Trump. It tears at his soul or lack thereof.
Can’t stop laughter, satire, truth.
Trump can't convince us that he came out of nowhere. Too many of us, however, seem to have convinced ourselves that he did exactly that.
I’ll pick number 4. Trump is so obviously a fraud and a phony that he can’t hide it from us. I’m thinking about a clip someone posted. It was a bill signing, and an aide had to explain to him what he was about to sign. Yet he comes across as a macho man at his rallies. Pathetic!