Where is there a graphic juxtaposing Trump's authoritarian thugs killing protesters while Trump points the finger at Iran's authoritarian thugs killing protesters?
The videographer of George Floyd's murder caused a $27 million wrongful death settlement. The price of video drones is approaching "disposable." Why aren't there drone flying classes for protesters "springing up" all over the place?
Imagine a trained uniformed non-violent paramilitary marching down the streets of Minneapolis in formation... instead of shouldering a rifle each carries two video drones... Singing:"I DON'T KNOW WHAT I BELIEVE, I'LL BE HOME BY NEW YEAR'S EVE, SPEAKER JEFF WILL STOP THIS WAR, COURTS WILL SEE MY FILMS OF GORE"
It will be another Trump disaster for democracy and the USA. Elect a deranged, demented psychopathic criminal and put his lapdogs in control of the Congress - the result is catastrophe for everyone.
No one voted for war with Iran. When did Congress authorize this? Praying for our military, as Trump does not care what happens to any of them as long as he can play king and try to distract from the Epstein files.
Wars of choice are never a good thing… this won’t end well. We’ll see that in stark relief soon, once there’s a massive amount of damage and needless death of civilians. At that time, we’ll leave Iran’s people to fend for themselves. This is Trump doing Netanyahu’s bidding… there must be a pot of gold somewhere to be had… never mind the lost American lives. Perhaps the American people will see through the bluster and the lies and the fuzzy logic, and this indiscriminate act will lead to Bonespur’s undoing? We should all hope so.
This is a distraction, a dopamine dose, and a deliberate move to obfuscate the midterms in any way possible. He will proclaim the need for unity and will have a classified scapegoat for any voting “irregularities”. This is but part of an iron fist he is building to force us into his grip.
Its a great distraction,due to the whims of a madman, results be damned. It's a win for this narcissist in chief since it changes the news cycle...just when Epstein was closing in.
According to Marc Elias, the courts will give Trump a wide berth regarding a claim of “foreign interference”. I believe this is how national security issues can be closeted under “classified”. So Trump could raise a lot of noise and we could have prolonged court battles. Oh, the shenanigans we’ll see!
I read info from Marc Elias. It is historically true that courts give more leeway on national security. First they need a case. The case needs evidence & need credibility. Something in short supply for the Feds in lower federal courts lately. Kind of a bad argument to bring after gutting the cyber security unit. We’ll see how many things they try & how many states want the Feds interfering. Most aren’t keen on it. That’s why DOJ is suing so many.
From a process standpoint, the normal route would be to advise states of a threat and how to mitigate it. Not unlike when the Dems were hacked. (The GOP was hacked but ‘oddly’ none of their info was made public.) There are judges with national security experience who can make them produce evidence - not in public. Last big theory I remember on foreign interference that wasn’t hacking was the Chinese fake ballot theory. Cyber Ninjas were examining paper fibers in the ballots. They may have as many theories as they have excuses for the Iran war but they’ll need to make a lot more sense.
I hope the constant drumbeat of various fears about what he’ll do doesn’t have the same result as when MGT campaigned for GOP Senate candidates in GA. She kept talking about election fraud. Enough of her voters decided not to come out because their votes wouldn’t matter to put 2 Dems in the US Senate. It’s the easiest way to subvert elections. Have the voters do it themselves.
I have a feeling that the overwhelming sentiment will be defiance in the face of suppression tactics. “Minnesota courage” will fill energized voters everywhere with the strength to persist.
Excellent points. Oh, the “fibers in the ballots”, I’d forgotten that one. Good grief, we’ve had such an abundance of Trumpian garbage pass through our grey matter. Someday, we’ll be rid of this mental landfill and full-on shitshow.
I don’t agree that everything he does is about Epstein. He wanted to bomb several more countries in his 1st term but advisors & generals didn’t cooperate. A lot of it is opportunity via choosing people who won’t be obstacles & firing others. He has a fascination with military power & bombs.
About 30 now have cases pending including KY where I am which has GOPers running the state except the Governor’s Office. The Secretary of State has already said he will “not voluntarily commit a data breach” of Kentuckians’ private information without a court order. (DOJ claims they are legally entitled under the Civil Rights Act. 🙄) About 11 have complied. (He won 30 states)
The Brennan Center has a map with each state’s status.
Canceling elections means the terms of all House members expire with no way to fill the seats. He won’t care but the States would. Plus, state & local officials terms would expire. It also means the Senate would only lose 1/3 of its seats; would still have a quorum & most of the remaining Senators would be Dems. Does he declare an insurrection in each state that holds election as the law requires & send in the military?
I expect him to try a scattershot approach to keep things chaotic. Dem election chiefs / AGs are meeting & gaming out possibilities.
I lived in Tehran and traveled to many other parts of the country over the course of the four years I spent there, long before the current regime took over. I am the widow of an Iranian American and my child is half Iranian. Few people in this country know enough about Iran to fill a thimble, and so it is easy for Trump to characterize the place as some sort of a monolith ruled by autocrats supported by ignorant fools, much like his MAGA base. But this is such a supeficial understanding of a country in which there are Jews, Armenian Orthodox , Mazdeans (Zoroastrians), Turkmeni tribal peoples, Kurdish peoples, Yazdi and others living and working as a part of a complex and ancient cultural mix. Trump made this strike to distract us from his venality, vulgarity, criminality and incompetence, to further enrich himself via his ties in the region and to create an excuse to seize war powers which will allow him to subvert the 2026 elections here. God alone knows how things will turn out for the Iranian people. But Trump could care less about that. The blood of innocents has already been shed, more will be shed, and armed conflicts will continue throughout the region for a long time into the future.
I think this is the classic 5 people sit around a table, voice their distinct grievance about Iran, and agree on one thing: let’s attack when the regime is weak. This is my understanding of how the Bush administration chose to attack Iraq.
I would assign a 10% probability for a goldilocks outcome. The other 90%: power vacuum and chaos, regime survives and US declares victory, new authoritarian regime aligned with US master, use of nuclear weapons and mass destruction in and outside of Iran, global economic panic….
And how long did the actual war last after bush stood on that aircraft carrier and announced MISSION ACCOMPLISHED “? And we still have troops there.
Trump is depraved, insane. He should be impeached immediately. But republicans are complicit in all of this miscreant’s lawlessness and corruption. We’re in serious trouble.
He is depraved, but not insane. He is the same bully-boy he was at 5 years old. He was encouraged in that behavior and it became his personality today. His parents would be proud!
Colloquially we use ‘insane’ to describe strange irrational behavior. On the other hand, people who are actually insane are too impaired to be held criminally liable for their actions. I don’t believe he fits that definition.
I’ve been following DJT’s “career” for decades, since the 1980’s when I lived/worked in Manhattan around the corner from trump tower. His reputation as a liar, cheat, thug, grifter BULLY, racist bigot, misogynist pig was well known. He hung out at studio 54 with Roy Cohn and he was well known as a sexual predator who sexually assaulted women “because he could”. And it was well known that he had ties with the local mob bosses. His reputation preceded him. And he is still all that and more.
I’ve been a licensed practicing physician for 30 years. I also have an undergrad degree in psychology with an emphasis on deviant behavior. So IMO - Claiming that he’s NOT “insane” but just a “bully” is absurd. And claiming that he’s insane or a “madman” is not a stretch, albeit “colloquial” or “medical”.
In fact his own niece, Mary Trump believes he’s a malignant narcissist with a borderline personality disorder. And from a “Medical/Psychological Perspective: Malignant narcissism is considered a hybrid of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), antisocial personality disorder, paranoia, and sadism. It is characterized by an extreme, toxic form of grandiosity, a lack of empathy, and a "distorted" reality. Psychoanalyst Erich Fromm described it as lying on the "borderline between sanity and insanity".
And being a bully certainly doesn’t preclude him from being a crazed lunatic, insane madman.
Fact is this - he’s unraveling before our eyes. And he’s an exceedingly dangerous, lawless, corrupt evil monster who will destroy this country, maybe the world, to maintain control. We’re witnessing it every single day, in real time.
And btw, I do believe he belongs in a prison for the criminally insane. In a straitjacket, in solitary confinement.
So sure, we can get tangled in the weeds and argue endlessly about the tertiary minutiae of trump’s demented state of mind. But I have better things to do so I’m long past that stage. So give it up. Please. And thank you.
Merry, I too lived in Manhattan during parts of the 1980s and 1990s and I observed the same. I knew people who knew him and his organization. I think we can at least say he lacks the social filters most humans exhibit and he's indifferent to norms and the suffering of others. One can make a case, unfortunately that certain characteristics people attribute to effective leadership are also present in people in the dark triad (e.g. psychopathy, narcissism and machiavellianism). Perhaps this creates some of the confusion when people assess him. Ann, like anybody, is entitled to her opinion. I'm with you, though: there's something very wrong with this man and in my view, he represents a far greater near and present danger than Iran or Venezuela. He lies more than he tells the truth, he selects incompetent people in important roles and his hubris is dangerous.
I’m not sure what I’m to give up. I’m as entitled to my opinion as you.
I chose to do other things & not to write a super long comment about why he likely would not be unable to determine right from wrong & so be found innocent by reason of insanity.
No no no I don't support it . He's a maniac. Why is it always the republicans who get us into wars ? Yes ,you can go back to Johnson but let's remeber Nixon campaiged on I am going to end the war in Viet Nam and he secretly bombed Cambodia .. Reagan and the Bushes got us into conflicts and war. Israel is out of control and so are we. The Russians and the Chinese have been interferring in our elections I don't see him threatening them. This whole thing is insane .. And I don't want to be attacked by fellow subscribers because of my views .. I have to respect a lot of neighbors who voted for the moron . lost in america
Hell no! If this president's lips are moving, he's lying, therefore any reason he gives for attacking Iran are inherently false. It's all a distraction, from Epstein and the mid-terms. This will not end well, at home or aboard.
Steve - your headline question is THE question - where will a war with Iran lead? This president and his warmongering henchmen have absolutely no idea.
I wish he was as hard nosed about Democracy as he says but just look to Ukraine and you can see his motives are something different than what he says. I don’t have a wild enough imagination to guess what it is.
Back to Epstein where it started.
"WAG THE DOG"is on YouTube:
Wag the Dog (1997).
My favorite clips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMnR3A_CwpE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lK-26i68CI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cwNhe0H720
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE3e8ZXqGKE
Where is there a graphic juxtaposing Trump's authoritarian thugs killing protesters while Trump points the finger at Iran's authoritarian thugs killing protesters?
*Wag the Dog* was absolutely the first thing I thought about when the announcement was made.
How could it not be so???
The videographer of George Floyd's murder caused a $27 million wrongful death settlement. The price of video drones is approaching "disposable." Why aren't there drone flying classes for protesters "springing up" all over the place?
Imagine a trained uniformed non-violent paramilitary marching down the streets of Minneapolis in formation... instead of shouldering a rifle each carries two video drones... Singing:"I DON'T KNOW WHAT I BELIEVE, I'LL BE HOME BY NEW YEAR'S EVE, SPEAKER JEFF WILL STOP THIS WAR, COURTS WILL SEE MY FILMS OF GORE"
I absolutely oppose a war with Iran. This is his new distraction from being named in the Epstein reports.
It will be another Trump disaster for democracy and the USA. Elect a deranged, demented psychopathic criminal and put his lapdogs in control of the Congress - the result is catastrophe for everyone.
No one voted for war with Iran. When did Congress authorize this? Praying for our military, as Trump does not care what happens to any of them as long as he can play king and try to distract from the Epstein files.
Wars of choice are never a good thing… this won’t end well. We’ll see that in stark relief soon, once there’s a massive amount of damage and needless death of civilians. At that time, we’ll leave Iran’s people to fend for themselves. This is Trump doing Netanyahu’s bidding… there must be a pot of gold somewhere to be had… never mind the lost American lives. Perhaps the American people will see through the bluster and the lies and the fuzzy logic, and this indiscriminate act will lead to Bonespur’s undoing? We should all hope so.
This is a distraction, a dopamine dose, and a deliberate move to obfuscate the midterms in any way possible. He will proclaim the need for unity and will have a classified scapegoat for any voting “irregularities”. This is but part of an iron fist he is building to force us into his grip.
We are not safer.
Its a great distraction,due to the whims of a madman, results be damned. It's a win for this narcissist in chief since it changes the news cycle...just when Epstein was closing in.
The odor of Epstein will not go away.
It’s a distraction but unlikely to give him cover over the midterms unless Iran has a lot of sleeper cells that create chaos here.
According to Marc Elias, the courts will give Trump a wide berth regarding a claim of “foreign interference”. I believe this is how national security issues can be closeted under “classified”. So Trump could raise a lot of noise and we could have prolonged court battles. Oh, the shenanigans we’ll see!
I read info from Marc Elias. It is historically true that courts give more leeway on national security. First they need a case. The case needs evidence & need credibility. Something in short supply for the Feds in lower federal courts lately. Kind of a bad argument to bring after gutting the cyber security unit. We’ll see how many things they try & how many states want the Feds interfering. Most aren’t keen on it. That’s why DOJ is suing so many.
From a process standpoint, the normal route would be to advise states of a threat and how to mitigate it. Not unlike when the Dems were hacked. (The GOP was hacked but ‘oddly’ none of their info was made public.) There are judges with national security experience who can make them produce evidence - not in public. Last big theory I remember on foreign interference that wasn’t hacking was the Chinese fake ballot theory. Cyber Ninjas were examining paper fibers in the ballots. They may have as many theories as they have excuses for the Iran war but they’ll need to make a lot more sense.
I hope the constant drumbeat of various fears about what he’ll do doesn’t have the same result as when MGT campaigned for GOP Senate candidates in GA. She kept talking about election fraud. Enough of her voters decided not to come out because their votes wouldn’t matter to put 2 Dems in the US Senate. It’s the easiest way to subvert elections. Have the voters do it themselves.
I have a feeling that the overwhelming sentiment will be defiance in the face of suppression tactics. “Minnesota courage” will fill energized voters everywhere with the strength to persist.
Excellent points. Oh, the “fibers in the ballots”, I’d forgotten that one. Good grief, we’ve had such an abundance of Trumpian garbage pass through our grey matter. Someday, we’ll be rid of this mental landfill and full-on shitshow.
Yes...but I absolutely believe he will try to cancel or severely suppress the elections.
I don’t agree that everything he does is about Epstein. He wanted to bomb several more countries in his 1st term but advisors & generals didn’t cooperate. A lot of it is opportunity via choosing people who won’t be obstacles & firing others. He has a fascination with military power & bombs.
Messing with elections is the reason for DOJ demanding all the states turn over every bit of their voter roll info and comply with all the other added conditions like DOJ telling states who they must purge. Periodically DOJ sues more states for not cooperating. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/tracker-justice-department-requests-voter-information
About 30 now have cases pending including KY where I am which has GOPers running the state except the Governor’s Office. The Secretary of State has already said he will “not voluntarily commit a data breach” of Kentuckians’ private information without a court order. (DOJ claims they are legally entitled under the Civil Rights Act. 🙄) About 11 have complied. (He won 30 states)
The Brennan Center has a map with each state’s status.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/confidential-agreements-show-trump-administrations-plans-states-voter
Canceling elections means the terms of all House members expire with no way to fill the seats. He won’t care but the States would. Plus, state & local officials terms would expire. It also means the Senate would only lose 1/3 of its seats; would still have a quorum & most of the remaining Senators would be Dems. Does he declare an insurrection in each state that holds election as the law requires & send in the military?
I expect him to try a scattershot approach to keep things chaotic. Dem election chiefs / AGs are meeting & gaming out possibilities.
So very troubling, and wholly unnecessary. Our country has become an unpredictable bully on the world stage. Not trusted. Hated.
I lived in Tehran and traveled to many other parts of the country over the course of the four years I spent there, long before the current regime took over. I am the widow of an Iranian American and my child is half Iranian. Few people in this country know enough about Iran to fill a thimble, and so it is easy for Trump to characterize the place as some sort of a monolith ruled by autocrats supported by ignorant fools, much like his MAGA base. But this is such a supeficial understanding of a country in which there are Jews, Armenian Orthodox , Mazdeans (Zoroastrians), Turkmeni tribal peoples, Kurdish peoples, Yazdi and others living and working as a part of a complex and ancient cultural mix. Trump made this strike to distract us from his venality, vulgarity, criminality and incompetence, to further enrich himself via his ties in the region and to create an excuse to seize war powers which will allow him to subvert the 2026 elections here. God alone knows how things will turn out for the Iranian people. But Trump could care less about that. The blood of innocents has already been shed, more will be shed, and armed conflicts will continue throughout the region for a long time into the future.
Hear, hear! Thank you, Leigh.
De nada, Phil. Wiping the foam from my lips, here...
Well stated and seemingly very accurate. Thank you!
I think this is the classic 5 people sit around a table, voice their distinct grievance about Iran, and agree on one thing: let’s attack when the regime is weak. This is my understanding of how the Bush administration chose to attack Iraq.
I would assign a 10% probability for a goldilocks outcome. The other 90%: power vacuum and chaos, regime survives and US declares victory, new authoritarian regime aligned with US master, use of nuclear weapons and mass destruction in and outside of Iran, global economic panic….
And how long did the actual war last after bush stood on that aircraft carrier and announced MISSION ACCOMPLISHED “? And we still have troops there.
Trump is depraved, insane. He should be impeached immediately. But republicans are complicit in all of this miscreant’s lawlessness and corruption. We’re in serious trouble.
He is depraved, but not insane. He is the same bully-boy he was at 5 years old. He was encouraged in that behavior and it became his personality today. His parents would be proud!
Seriously? Geez…
Colloquially we use ‘insane’ to describe strange irrational behavior. On the other hand, people who are actually insane are too impaired to be held criminally liable for their actions. I don’t believe he fits that definition.
I’ve been following DJT’s “career” for decades, since the 1980’s when I lived/worked in Manhattan around the corner from trump tower. His reputation as a liar, cheat, thug, grifter BULLY, racist bigot, misogynist pig was well known. He hung out at studio 54 with Roy Cohn and he was well known as a sexual predator who sexually assaulted women “because he could”. And it was well known that he had ties with the local mob bosses. His reputation preceded him. And he is still all that and more.
I’ve been a licensed practicing physician for 30 years. I also have an undergrad degree in psychology with an emphasis on deviant behavior. So IMO - Claiming that he’s NOT “insane” but just a “bully” is absurd. And claiming that he’s insane or a “madman” is not a stretch, albeit “colloquial” or “medical”.
In fact his own niece, Mary Trump believes he’s a malignant narcissist with a borderline personality disorder. And from a “Medical/Psychological Perspective: Malignant narcissism is considered a hybrid of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), antisocial personality disorder, paranoia, and sadism. It is characterized by an extreme, toxic form of grandiosity, a lack of empathy, and a "distorted" reality. Psychoanalyst Erich Fromm described it as lying on the "borderline between sanity and insanity".
And being a bully certainly doesn’t preclude him from being a crazed lunatic, insane madman.
Fact is this - he’s unraveling before our eyes. And he’s an exceedingly dangerous, lawless, corrupt evil monster who will destroy this country, maybe the world, to maintain control. We’re witnessing it every single day, in real time.
And btw, I do believe he belongs in a prison for the criminally insane. In a straitjacket, in solitary confinement.
So sure, we can get tangled in the weeds and argue endlessly about the tertiary minutiae of trump’s demented state of mind. But I have better things to do so I’m long past that stage. So give it up. Please. And thank you.
Merry, I too lived in Manhattan during parts of the 1980s and 1990s and I observed the same. I knew people who knew him and his organization. I think we can at least say he lacks the social filters most humans exhibit and he's indifferent to norms and the suffering of others. One can make a case, unfortunately that certain characteristics people attribute to effective leadership are also present in people in the dark triad (e.g. psychopathy, narcissism and machiavellianism). Perhaps this creates some of the confusion when people assess him. Ann, like anybody, is entitled to her opinion. I'm with you, though: there's something very wrong with this man and in my view, he represents a far greater near and present danger than Iran or Venezuela. He lies more than he tells the truth, he selects incompetent people in important roles and his hubris is dangerous.
I’m not sure what I’m to give up. I’m as entitled to my opinion as you.
I chose to do other things & not to write a super long comment about why he likely would not be unable to determine right from wrong & so be found innocent by reason of insanity.
👹👹👹The Same low IQ braindead Sheeple who supported Dubya when he Illegally INVADED IRAQ Wil support this Ahole!
No no no I don't support it . He's a maniac. Why is it always the republicans who get us into wars ? Yes ,you can go back to Johnson but let's remeber Nixon campaiged on I am going to end the war in Viet Nam and he secretly bombed Cambodia .. Reagan and the Bushes got us into conflicts and war. Israel is out of control and so are we. The Russians and the Chinese have been interferring in our elections I don't see him threatening them. This whole thing is insane .. And I don't want to be attacked by fellow subscribers because of my views .. I have to respect a lot of neighbors who voted for the moron . lost in america
This is all about tRump. I think this move is somehow related to him enriching himself and his family.
Hell no! If this president's lips are moving, he's lying, therefore any reason he gives for attacking Iran are inherently false. It's all a distraction, from Epstein and the mid-terms. This will not end well, at home or aboard.
Steve - your headline question is THE question - where will a war with Iran lead? This president and his warmongering henchmen have absolutely no idea.
I wish he was as hard nosed about Democracy as he says but just look to Ukraine and you can see his motives are something different than what he says. I don’t have a wild enough imagination to guess what it is.
Claim an emergency? Nationalize elections? No fkng way!!