Steven, thank you for the shot of optimism. It's tough but necessary to maintain a balance of positive thinking and absolute outrage. In the right proportion, they are far more motivating than either one alone.
But I worry that (for example) a salacious courtroom drama is completely overshadowing the stakes of this moment. Trump is a symptom of a more pervasive yet less visible national malignancy, one that has completely divided us, yet still not been adequately diagnosed. Mainstream journalism is failing to accurately inform, and has instead joined the entertainment industry.
I'm at a loss as how to break us out of the echo chamber, find a vision and a language that transcends the great divide.
As always, Steven, you have laid out every jot and tittle of this situation in a way that is succinct…and your arrow hits its mark in your description of where we find ourselves at this moment. Words cannot express my horror, outrage and utter disbelief that we find ourselves in the throes of a political movement that feeds on lies and grows like the uncontrollable malignancy that it appears to be. The complete ignorance by Republicans themselves of what an authoritarian movement would mean for those who live under it is still astounding to me. My old American self will not let my current American self believe that this nightmare could become our permanent reality. Trump isn’t even President and yet I almost feel that he still is because of the influence he appears to wield. To see grown people in positions of responsibility and governance follow along obediently behind him, cleaning up his mess like zookeepers who clean up after the elephant scares the heck out of me.
This perception of his outsized influence is damaging to all of us. That’s why I so appreciate your assurance that you won’t ‘leave us there’. We all need a lifeline in steady and reasoned voices. Otherwise the Trumpist project could swallow us all up, like a huge black hole whose gravity we cannot overcome. I’m scared…good and scared. I try not to be, but I am. I try to comfort myself with the thought that maybe some of these Republicans who have pledged their loyalty publicly to Trump will actually vote for Biden in the privacy of the voting booth. “Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that I dare to dream really do come true…”.
Good Morning to All: In response to Steven Beschloss's Substack this morning, I decided it is time to write a narrative about dictatorship. It is what I know best and can contribute to this conversation.
Towards the end of Steven's message on 5/10, he wrote:
If Trump is convicted in his hush money/election interference case, we can expect more Republicans and other fence-sitters to abandon him. Recall a February Reuters/Ipsos survey which found that 51 percent of Republicans claimed they would not vote for Trump if he’s a convicted felon. That number may ultimately be overstated. But it’s a reminder that November’s outcome remains in the hands of voters, even if the courts don’t hold Trump accountable and top Republicans continue to spread disinformation and telegraph to voters their unwillingness to support our democratic project.
The key words are the "November's outcome remains in the hands of voters." Yes, we need another seven-million voter-advantage that mirror's the Biden lead in the 2020. However, this lead did not change Trump's lies, violence, and the insurrection. He did not accept the outcome of that election and he again will not accept or swallow the results in 2024 if he looses. Most of us already know this. What that means is still unknown.
Donald Trump cannot deal with reality, and has a typical cult-like leadership mentality. Jim Jones, also thought of himself as God, and he amassed a following of about 900 individuals. He ordered them all to drink Kool Aid laced with poison and they all perished. Trump's followers, of which over 800 have been convicted of crimes and many are now in prison, have experienced the same level of coercive mind control as the people who followed Jim Jones. With his "us-versus-them mentality" most of the Trumpers are now in a state of blind loyalty. The dark and dangerous world of mind manipulation was first used in totalitarian countries about 100 years before - Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, China, and so on. The Holocaust is the best-known example of brainwashing. Hitler converted an entire country into mass murderers using slogans of hatred toward others - just like Trump. Brainwashing is defined as telling lies over and over until it is perceived as the truth. Once converted, a person has little or no independent thought.
Over six million people were tortured and killed in Germany. In Russia, Stalin murdered over twenty million humans. Donald Trump's threatening behavior, disturbing words, and his duplication of Putin/Hitler's leadership methodologies echoes other treacherous historical crises and mass murders. This is not a coincidence, it is learned behavior combined with a long list of personality disorders. He learned it from Putin who spent his spy years in East Germany.
Trump is caught up in a complex web. He truly believes that "only he can fix America," without grasping the basic concepts/events that formed the United States. He talks about re-writing or scrapping our Constitution, but his many-sided destructiveness over-rides the true meaning of how a democratic country operates. The only option then is a dictatorship.
A dictatorship can be defined by a list of words: tsarism (Russia), despotism, autocracy, totalitarianism, oppression, Nazism (Germany), and domination. The word that jumps out to me is "oppression." Can you envision the United States having: (1) No public media. All tv channels and newspapers are government and dictator-controlled. All sources of information are inhibited. (2) No independent enterprise. MicroSoft, Walgreens, Utilities and all other corporations are privately retained by the dictator who receives a large percentage of the profits. and (3) Security services are combined (CIA, DIA, FBI, and others) into one organization controlled by the dictator and like the gestapo report on private citizens, arrest and imprison innocent people, and instill fear. Anyone not loyal to the "leader" may be murdered: poisoned, shot, thrown out windows in tall buildings, etc.
A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for a dictatorship. He has openly admitted to preferring this form of government without an inkling of what that means. Our entire Congress would operate from fear and there would no longer be a two party system. Trump has already amassed a group of people - gangsters - who threaten anyone (and their families) who opposes him. The askew aptitudes of the Supreme Court judges already has demonstrated proclivities and partialities toward Trump, and other judges have also succumbed to delivering asymmetric justice. Many across the U.S. have lost faith in our system of justice. And during the Trump impeachment, many Republicans voted our of fear of Trump's revenge. Gonzales (R) Ohio voted to impeach. Then due to death threats, he refused to run for re-election and hired 24 hour protection for his family.
Trump sold his soul and our country to the Russians decades ago. Trump followed Putin's example in his role-out of a meticulous PR campaign, similar to what happened in Moscow after the bombing of several apartment buildings - a maneuver to perpetuate apprehension and terror. It resulted in a national sense of emergency and instilled fear. The financial scandal surrounding Yeltsin was pushed to the sidelines, and Putin was thrust to the frontlines. The blame was assigned to the separatist rebels and Chechnya independence fighters, but in the "unofficial" word on the street, Russian people said these bombings were like the Stalin purges.
Putin has been compared to Stalin, and he appears to appreciate this assessment. "Could Putin's security men have bombed their own people - hundreds died in these bombings - in a cynical attempt to create a crisis that would ensure Putin took the Presidency?" (Putin's People, by Catherine Belton). This type of deception is widely known in Russia and other dictatorship countries. It reminds me of Trump still saying the 2020 election was stolen.
Trump began traveling to Russia in 1987. He became entangled with Russian business men who were all later found to be KGB operatives. This is a period when Trump was buried in debt and at the same time, the KGB was searching for new ways to transfer black cash into the U.S. instead of just bank transfers. Bayrock Group, formed with all KGB men as a real estate firm, was housed one floor below the Trump Organization at 725 Fifth Avenue in New York. They offered Trump multi-million dollar real estate deals and bailed him out of another bankruptcy. He was hooked. Both Trump elder sons have confirmed that the Trump Organization has received about $100M from Russian banks. (www.businessinsider.com).
Republican voters across the U.S. think they are supporting their political party - the same party as Abraham Lincoln. Instead, they are voting to instill a man who has been compromised by Russian KGB/FSB and who will turn our nation into a Putin-owned and operated dictatorship.
Also in Putin's People, Belton states: "Even as Trump ramped up his bid for the presidency, the same Russian network stepped up its courtship of him... In a letter to Michael Cohen, Sater (Bayrock) boasted that they would build a tower in Moscow that would be Europe's tallest building and would bring Trump a $100M licensing deal. Sater promised to leverage all of his Kremlin connections to get it done. The letter said he would get Putin on this program, and we will get you (Trump) elected." (ibid) The rest is history, except the role of William Barr in squashing the Mueller Report. Twelve Russians were arrested, but nothing changed and Trump was elected to the presidency with enormous Russian "behind the scenes" support, cyber attacks, hacking, propaganda, and misinformation fed to the American public.
Since 1993, I have saying to anyone who would listen that the Cold War did not die. In Putin's People, (Revenge of the KGB, page 479) Catherine states: "Putin's security men reveled in Trump's victory. To many, it seemed like revenge for the Soviet collapse. 'While the West was playing James Bond . . .we turned our attention to gaining respect... When the West thought the Cold War competition was over, they lost respect for their opponent (Russia). Now they are waking up to this again."
This upcoming election is critical. If Trump wins, we all loose.
You’re confirming what I’ve suspected. I also suspect if somehow Trump is elected, by hook or by crook, he might very well find that being a dictator isn’t as much fun with Putin as his master. Putin would only tolerate him as far as it suits his agenda.
The evidence of their attempts to spread doubt in our elections is everywhere. Lara Trump has been all over far right media claiming they are suing in battleground states to stop the counting of ballots on election night, claiming "ballot counting should stop at the end of the election". Is she really too stupid to understand that the election IS NOT over until all the ballots are counted, and that neither she nor the federal government can interfere in how states conduct their elections. And the fact-free allegations of illegals voting is a repeat of what happened during the 2020 election where 61 lawsuits were thrown out of court because of lack of evidence. I really cannot wait until this horrible family is gone from our lives, and all of his enablers are forced to retreat with their tails between their legs.
In light of the projection by election deniers to once again try to deny the result of a free and fair election before it happens, it would be nice to see a compilation of the actual fraud found, via court convictions, from the '20 election. I know that from the various reporting I've seen it was primarily Republican voters that voted in '20 using ballots of dead relatives, voted multiple times, registered to vote in numerous states, harvested ballots, and unlawfully accessed voting equipment. I only saw one case of a Democrat, in AZ. Facts still matter and it's time to present these facts to counter the alternate facts party.
Steven, you allude to trump losing some of his carefully crafted would-be strongman persona by being held to account in the election interference case involving the porn star payoffs. I don't think we should under-estimate the gradual impact this has on some voters as trump is forced to sit glumly and listen to the charges and testimony being brought against him. It's the kind of constant drip drip drip that may begin to penetrate with some of his less fervent cult members, and certainly with mainstream Republicans and independents.
The slow and questionable pace of the other cases against him is frustrating (maddening), but we were also frustrated that the J6 criminals took so long to bring to justice. But thousands of them eventually were and hundreds of convictions have been won, including some very important ones involving leaders of dangerous domestic militias. Let's keep the faith and keep the focus on a blue wave in November.
Exactly. I remember “censorship” back in the 50’s. Remember when Lucy and Desi had twin beds, bc they couldn’t show a husband and wife sleeping together in the same bed..so that was crazy, right? But how did we go from that to allowing talking heads and politicians to spew lie after lie as if it’s gospel? Why are “news” outlets allowed to lie to the general public? I don’t want to go back to the 50’s but jeez, shouldn’t it be mandatory that people DON’T lie to the American people?
We need to publicly take on each of these lies and liars. Each day, hour and minute we need to be committed to defeating Trump and anyone who espouses the lies about elections by responding to each article or story which suggests that elections aren’t fair. Don’t mollycoddle. Tell it like it is. And do it repeatedly and honestly. Our democracy depends on it.
To actually claim one is immune from crimes committed means we can empty all the prisons since justice is supposed to be equal. Johnson et al saying they will prove illegals determined the election tho evidence is missing. Uncle Tim always with a big smile knows but won't admit his masta is a racist. Senator Rick Scott calling Democrat policies Socialist when he made millions cheating Medicare. Judge Cannon's husband worked for a NY mobster who is pals with trump. I had hoped for a determined Fani , but the human frailty of love became the case. I counted on a tenacious Jack Smith while he counts on the Slanted COUS.
I don't know that these foolish student protests will have any more clout than the trucker boycott of NYC. Biden is not deserting Israel like trump says, but is trying to feed Gaza & prevent American bombs from killing more tho students and others blame him for everything. Never mind Netanyhahu is the one calling the shots.
Biden is finally on the election trail but gets no coverage like trump. Where are other Dem leaders? Why aren't they speaking out like Republicans are?
The polls were wrong in 2016. Hopefully, they will be for 2024.(But of course we have all those thousands of illegals to count on. Don't worry, be happy.)
In another Substack this morning I was reminded of this excellent piece by Francis Wilkinson from a couple of weeks ago, and thought I would share it here:
THIS IS A MUST READ Thank you Jill. Sounds like an awesome plan, I hope the link works in my reply. Otherwise, please go to Jill Stoner’s post and read. Wow!
I have said from the beginning of this nightmare that in the end, We the people must vote and by that effort we shall throw this disgusting chapter of our democratic experiment into the garbage can of history!
I am more concerned that not only does Trump's obvious criminality NOT hurt him with voters, it engenders him even more to them. He is a mirror to their own emptiness as human beings. Being convicted of sexually assaulting E.Jean Carroll and of real estate fraud hasn't deterred anyone who will cast their vote for him anyway, including Bill Barr. Barr publicly stated that he would support Trump in the 2024 election. All polls indicate Trump would win the electoral college if the election were held today. It beggars belief that people would be willing to say to their daughters "sorry honey, I know you have no reproductive rights to speak of, but the inflation percentage is a few numbers higher than it should be." The amount of projection onto Biden crimes and corruption that are Trump's is also unnerving. I am also concerned that Hispanics seem to lead toward Trump, despite his dehumanizing people at the border and that American Jews find more support for Israel in the GQP than they do in Democratic party. All of this makes me sad, angry and very frightened for our future as Americans.
Republican cheating isn't just for the Presidential election. Bob Ferguson, the Washington Attorney General, is running for Governor. A Republican got two men with the same name to file, hoping to confuse voters and give the GOP candidate an edge. If they can't win honestly, they cheat.
Steven, thank you for the shot of optimism. It's tough but necessary to maintain a balance of positive thinking and absolute outrage. In the right proportion, they are far more motivating than either one alone.
But I worry that (for example) a salacious courtroom drama is completely overshadowing the stakes of this moment. Trump is a symptom of a more pervasive yet less visible national malignancy, one that has completely divided us, yet still not been adequately diagnosed. Mainstream journalism is failing to accurately inform, and has instead joined the entertainment industry.
I'm at a loss as how to break us out of the echo chamber, find a vision and a language that transcends the great divide.
Love your phrase "national malignancy."
Here's an excellent and terrifying piece from ProPublica
propublica.org/article/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-leo/supreme-court-supermajority
Page not found…
As always, Steven, you have laid out every jot and tittle of this situation in a way that is succinct…and your arrow hits its mark in your description of where we find ourselves at this moment. Words cannot express my horror, outrage and utter disbelief that we find ourselves in the throes of a political movement that feeds on lies and grows like the uncontrollable malignancy that it appears to be. The complete ignorance by Republicans themselves of what an authoritarian movement would mean for those who live under it is still astounding to me. My old American self will not let my current American self believe that this nightmare could become our permanent reality. Trump isn’t even President and yet I almost feel that he still is because of the influence he appears to wield. To see grown people in positions of responsibility and governance follow along obediently behind him, cleaning up his mess like zookeepers who clean up after the elephant scares the heck out of me.
This perception of his outsized influence is damaging to all of us. That’s why I so appreciate your assurance that you won’t ‘leave us there’. We all need a lifeline in steady and reasoned voices. Otherwise the Trumpist project could swallow us all up, like a huge black hole whose gravity we cannot overcome. I’m scared…good and scared. I try not to be, but I am. I try to comfort myself with the thought that maybe some of these Republicans who have pledged their loyalty publicly to Trump will actually vote for Biden in the privacy of the voting booth. “Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that I dare to dream really do come true…”.
Ellen, I continue to be shaken and scared.
Good Morning to All: In response to Steven Beschloss's Substack this morning, I decided it is time to write a narrative about dictatorship. It is what I know best and can contribute to this conversation.
Towards the end of Steven's message on 5/10, he wrote:
If Trump is convicted in his hush money/election interference case, we can expect more Republicans and other fence-sitters to abandon him. Recall a February Reuters/Ipsos survey which found that 51 percent of Republicans claimed they would not vote for Trump if he’s a convicted felon. That number may ultimately be overstated. But it’s a reminder that November’s outcome remains in the hands of voters, even if the courts don’t hold Trump accountable and top Republicans continue to spread disinformation and telegraph to voters their unwillingness to support our democratic project.
The key words are the "November's outcome remains in the hands of voters." Yes, we need another seven-million voter-advantage that mirror's the Biden lead in the 2020. However, this lead did not change Trump's lies, violence, and the insurrection. He did not accept the outcome of that election and he again will not accept or swallow the results in 2024 if he looses. Most of us already know this. What that means is still unknown.
Donald Trump cannot deal with reality, and has a typical cult-like leadership mentality. Jim Jones, also thought of himself as God, and he amassed a following of about 900 individuals. He ordered them all to drink Kool Aid laced with poison and they all perished. Trump's followers, of which over 800 have been convicted of crimes and many are now in prison, have experienced the same level of coercive mind control as the people who followed Jim Jones. With his "us-versus-them mentality" most of the Trumpers are now in a state of blind loyalty. The dark and dangerous world of mind manipulation was first used in totalitarian countries about 100 years before - Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, China, and so on. The Holocaust is the best-known example of brainwashing. Hitler converted an entire country into mass murderers using slogans of hatred toward others - just like Trump. Brainwashing is defined as telling lies over and over until it is perceived as the truth. Once converted, a person has little or no independent thought.
Over six million people were tortured and killed in Germany. In Russia, Stalin murdered over twenty million humans. Donald Trump's threatening behavior, disturbing words, and his duplication of Putin/Hitler's leadership methodologies echoes other treacherous historical crises and mass murders. This is not a coincidence, it is learned behavior combined with a long list of personality disorders. He learned it from Putin who spent his spy years in East Germany.
Trump is caught up in a complex web. He truly believes that "only he can fix America," without grasping the basic concepts/events that formed the United States. He talks about re-writing or scrapping our Constitution, but his many-sided destructiveness over-rides the true meaning of how a democratic country operates. The only option then is a dictatorship.
A dictatorship can be defined by a list of words: tsarism (Russia), despotism, autocracy, totalitarianism, oppression, Nazism (Germany), and domination. The word that jumps out to me is "oppression." Can you envision the United States having: (1) No public media. All tv channels and newspapers are government and dictator-controlled. All sources of information are inhibited. (2) No independent enterprise. MicroSoft, Walgreens, Utilities and all other corporations are privately retained by the dictator who receives a large percentage of the profits. and (3) Security services are combined (CIA, DIA, FBI, and others) into one organization controlled by the dictator and like the gestapo report on private citizens, arrest and imprison innocent people, and instill fear. Anyone not loyal to the "leader" may be murdered: poisoned, shot, thrown out windows in tall buildings, etc.
A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for a dictatorship. He has openly admitted to preferring this form of government without an inkling of what that means. Our entire Congress would operate from fear and there would no longer be a two party system. Trump has already amassed a group of people - gangsters - who threaten anyone (and their families) who opposes him. The askew aptitudes of the Supreme Court judges already has demonstrated proclivities and partialities toward Trump, and other judges have also succumbed to delivering asymmetric justice. Many across the U.S. have lost faith in our system of justice. And during the Trump impeachment, many Republicans voted our of fear of Trump's revenge. Gonzales (R) Ohio voted to impeach. Then due to death threats, he refused to run for re-election and hired 24 hour protection for his family.
Trump sold his soul and our country to the Russians decades ago. Trump followed Putin's example in his role-out of a meticulous PR campaign, similar to what happened in Moscow after the bombing of several apartment buildings - a maneuver to perpetuate apprehension and terror. It resulted in a national sense of emergency and instilled fear. The financial scandal surrounding Yeltsin was pushed to the sidelines, and Putin was thrust to the frontlines. The blame was assigned to the separatist rebels and Chechnya independence fighters, but in the "unofficial" word on the street, Russian people said these bombings were like the Stalin purges.
Putin has been compared to Stalin, and he appears to appreciate this assessment. "Could Putin's security men have bombed their own people - hundreds died in these bombings - in a cynical attempt to create a crisis that would ensure Putin took the Presidency?" (Putin's People, by Catherine Belton). This type of deception is widely known in Russia and other dictatorship countries. It reminds me of Trump still saying the 2020 election was stolen.
Trump began traveling to Russia in 1987. He became entangled with Russian business men who were all later found to be KGB operatives. This is a period when Trump was buried in debt and at the same time, the KGB was searching for new ways to transfer black cash into the U.S. instead of just bank transfers. Bayrock Group, formed with all KGB men as a real estate firm, was housed one floor below the Trump Organization at 725 Fifth Avenue in New York. They offered Trump multi-million dollar real estate deals and bailed him out of another bankruptcy. He was hooked. Both Trump elder sons have confirmed that the Trump Organization has received about $100M from Russian banks. (www.businessinsider.com).
Republican voters across the U.S. think they are supporting their political party - the same party as Abraham Lincoln. Instead, they are voting to instill a man who has been compromised by Russian KGB/FSB and who will turn our nation into a Putin-owned and operated dictatorship.
Also in Putin's People, Belton states: "Even as Trump ramped up his bid for the presidency, the same Russian network stepped up its courtship of him... In a letter to Michael Cohen, Sater (Bayrock) boasted that they would build a tower in Moscow that would be Europe's tallest building and would bring Trump a $100M licensing deal. Sater promised to leverage all of his Kremlin connections to get it done. The letter said he would get Putin on this program, and we will get you (Trump) elected." (ibid) The rest is history, except the role of William Barr in squashing the Mueller Report. Twelve Russians were arrested, but nothing changed and Trump was elected to the presidency with enormous Russian "behind the scenes" support, cyber attacks, hacking, propaganda, and misinformation fed to the American public.
Since 1993, I have saying to anyone who would listen that the Cold War did not die. In Putin's People, (Revenge of the KGB, page 479) Catherine states: "Putin's security men reveled in Trump's victory. To many, it seemed like revenge for the Soviet collapse. 'While the West was playing James Bond . . .we turned our attention to gaining respect... When the West thought the Cold War competition was over, they lost respect for their opponent (Russia). Now they are waking up to this again."
This upcoming election is critical. If Trump wins, we all loose.
Elizabeth, http://www.democrazy2020.org
You’re confirming what I’ve suspected. I also suspect if somehow Trump is elected, by hook or by crook, he might very well find that being a dictator isn’t as much fun with Putin as his master. Putin would only tolerate him as far as it suits his agenda.
The evidence of their attempts to spread doubt in our elections is everywhere. Lara Trump has been all over far right media claiming they are suing in battleground states to stop the counting of ballots on election night, claiming "ballot counting should stop at the end of the election". Is she really too stupid to understand that the election IS NOT over until all the ballots are counted, and that neither she nor the federal government can interfere in how states conduct their elections. And the fact-free allegations of illegals voting is a repeat of what happened during the 2020 election where 61 lawsuits were thrown out of court because of lack of evidence. I really cannot wait until this horrible family is gone from our lives, and all of his enablers are forced to retreat with their tails between their legs.
In light of the projection by election deniers to once again try to deny the result of a free and fair election before it happens, it would be nice to see a compilation of the actual fraud found, via court convictions, from the '20 election. I know that from the various reporting I've seen it was primarily Republican voters that voted in '20 using ballots of dead relatives, voted multiple times, registered to vote in numerous states, harvested ballots, and unlawfully accessed voting equipment. I only saw one case of a Democrat, in AZ. Facts still matter and it's time to present these facts to counter the alternate facts party.
Steven, you allude to trump losing some of his carefully crafted would-be strongman persona by being held to account in the election interference case involving the porn star payoffs. I don't think we should under-estimate the gradual impact this has on some voters as trump is forced to sit glumly and listen to the charges and testimony being brought against him. It's the kind of constant drip drip drip that may begin to penetrate with some of his less fervent cult members, and certainly with mainstream Republicans and independents.
The slow and questionable pace of the other cases against him is frustrating (maddening), but we were also frustrated that the J6 criminals took so long to bring to justice. But thousands of them eventually were and hundreds of convictions have been won, including some very important ones involving leaders of dangerous domestic militias. Let's keep the faith and keep the focus on a blue wave in November.
Agreed. Thanks, Bryan.
Thanks, Brian!
"An overwhelming defeat would make another Big Lie obvious and a necessary part of the road to repair."
Your wish is my command. Thanks, Steven.
Exactly. I remember “censorship” back in the 50’s. Remember when Lucy and Desi had twin beds, bc they couldn’t show a husband and wife sleeping together in the same bed..so that was crazy, right? But how did we go from that to allowing talking heads and politicians to spew lie after lie as if it’s gospel? Why are “news” outlets allowed to lie to the general public? I don’t want to go back to the 50’s but jeez, shouldn’t it be mandatory that people DON’T lie to the American people?
We need to publicly take on each of these lies and liars. Each day, hour and minute we need to be committed to defeating Trump and anyone who espouses the lies about elections by responding to each article or story which suggests that elections aren’t fair. Don’t mollycoddle. Tell it like it is. And do it repeatedly and honestly. Our democracy depends on it.
The Republican Party is one of absurdity.
To actually claim one is immune from crimes committed means we can empty all the prisons since justice is supposed to be equal. Johnson et al saying they will prove illegals determined the election tho evidence is missing. Uncle Tim always with a big smile knows but won't admit his masta is a racist. Senator Rick Scott calling Democrat policies Socialist when he made millions cheating Medicare. Judge Cannon's husband worked for a NY mobster who is pals with trump. I had hoped for a determined Fani , but the human frailty of love became the case. I counted on a tenacious Jack Smith while he counts on the Slanted COUS.
I don't know that these foolish student protests will have any more clout than the trucker boycott of NYC. Biden is not deserting Israel like trump says, but is trying to feed Gaza & prevent American bombs from killing more tho students and others blame him for everything. Never mind Netanyhahu is the one calling the shots.
Biden is finally on the election trail but gets no coverage like trump. Where are other Dem leaders? Why aren't they speaking out like Republicans are?
The polls were wrong in 2016. Hopefully, they will be for 2024.(But of course we have all those thousands of illegals to count on. Don't worry, be happy.)
All absurd!!
In another Substack this morning I was reminded of this excellent piece by Francis Wilkinson from a couple of weeks ago, and thought I would share it here:
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-04-26/donald-trump-supreme-court-justices-corruption
https://america.substack.com/p/trump-republicans-wont-decide-americas/comment/56028966?r=az3h5&utm_medium=ios
THIS IS A MUST READ Thank you Jill. Sounds like an awesome plan, I hope the link works in my reply. Otherwise, please go to Jill Stoner’s post and read. Wow!
Still so absolutely depressing we find ourselves in this place.
While Trump was president he made many moves in a drive to undermine democracy. Who told him what to do? Who had the plan? I want names.
You only really need one name: Leonard Leo.
Read the excellent piece from ProPublica here:
propublica.org/article/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-leo-supreme-court-supermajority
Really! He’s not smart enough to do all this on his own. Steve Bannon comes to mind! 😡
I have said from the beginning of this nightmare that in the end, We the people must vote and by that effort we shall throw this disgusting chapter of our democratic experiment into the garbage can of history!
I am more concerned that not only does Trump's obvious criminality NOT hurt him with voters, it engenders him even more to them. He is a mirror to their own emptiness as human beings. Being convicted of sexually assaulting E.Jean Carroll and of real estate fraud hasn't deterred anyone who will cast their vote for him anyway, including Bill Barr. Barr publicly stated that he would support Trump in the 2024 election. All polls indicate Trump would win the electoral college if the election were held today. It beggars belief that people would be willing to say to their daughters "sorry honey, I know you have no reproductive rights to speak of, but the inflation percentage is a few numbers higher than it should be." The amount of projection onto Biden crimes and corruption that are Trump's is also unnerving. I am also concerned that Hispanics seem to lead toward Trump, despite his dehumanizing people at the border and that American Jews find more support for Israel in the GQP than they do in Democratic party. All of this makes me sad, angry and very frightened for our future as Americans.
Republican cheating isn't just for the Presidential election. Bob Ferguson, the Washington Attorney General, is running for Governor. A Republican got two men with the same name to file, hoping to confuse voters and give the GOP candidate an edge. If they can't win honestly, they cheat.