Thirty-three days remain until the United States of America, the most powerful nation state in world history, holds an election that determines if power is handed to a 78-year-old liar, criminal and vicious demagogue, who routinely smears the country he once attacked and betrayed.
Thank You Steve ...The trouble is the media keeps acting as though there are two legit sides to this election. The Judge released the grand jury transcripts showing he commited treason.. CNN put on people that say well no not so much .. A lot of it will be thrown out..and maybe Jack has a small case .
I feel like screaming ..It got me to thinking that if that criminal gets in again .. and decides there is no need for another election in 2028 ..Will the Supreme Court find a way to ok this ? Sick in Florida !
It seems such a simple choice… yet it’s too close to call? What is basically wrong with the cult and their determination to destroy themselves? Do they not realize that they are being played for their vote and if Trump is elected they will simply be enslaved?Trump wants nothing to do with them. Just like when Mike Pence’s life was in danger, Trumps response was “ who cares.”
Trump is and is only about Trump. He was to hang and be accepted by the rich.
Does a man with a gold toilet, thinks people in the military are suckers and losers, that anyone not lily white are murders and rapists really will help anyone but himself if he is in office?
Social security/medicare funding or more money in Trump’s pockets? Which will Trump choose? Obamacare or private insurance? Again, a generous donation will decide that one….no department of education? No EPA? Control of the Federal Reserve? And you think Trump will care about the country or about lining his pockets?
The choice is easy…so why are so many voters so gullible? I just don’t understand.
I get it, Eric. But these folks are often isolated in their information silos. Algorithms just amplify their confirmation bias on steroids. They don't see, hear, or read what we do. They are distrustful of government and institutions in general (this predates MAGA), and TFG has given them the permission structure to hate everyone not like them and distrust everyone but him. It's the authoritarian/fascist playbook 101 in action. And frankly, it scares the shit out of me.
I also blame the ineptness of Merrick Garland for not acting sooner to prosecute the crimes by Trump. Garland surpassed Comey as the worst AG in our lifetime .
This isn't about being gullible or changing their minds if only they knew better. At the core, the MAGA cult does not believe it has agency in the business of America. That's what it means. MAGA is an attitude not a philosophy. And then you have the hustlers, grifters, evildoers, who fan these flames. Finally, you have a cynical class who use false equivocations and normalizing to justify evil they LIKE or feels benefits them. Put that together, and you have roughly 46% of the restricted voting base and probably 35-40% of the total adult population. I think 35% is about what the Nazi party had when it took power.
They did. That’s why shoulda and woulda come in. Shoulda gotten rid of the electoral college. Shoulda made term limits and age for the Supreme Court. Shoulda put age ceiling on presidency. ( Look what Hindenburg did for Germany in 1933). Woulda is the excuse of everyone in congress and presidents of the past. I woulda but just didn’t get around to it.
I think it will take time to get rid of the electoral college, but if we survive all this, I see it ending in maybe 30-40 years, as the workplace shifts more and more from centralized spaces to remote connections. This is why you see an exodus away from urban centers which have become unaffordable. And as this happens, (I hope) there will be more blending of social and political views. However, there will still be a big fight. Let's face it--the Dakotas LIKE having 4% of the votes in the Senate, with a total population lower than just the Valley portion of Los Angeles.
Some repub voters are selfish; they think they’ll profit in some way if Donald wins. Some repub voters are in the maga cult; they must follow their orange-brown leader. Some maga voters are stupid; you can’t fix stupid.
Agreed, because he deceitfully sounded reasonable in the debate. There are people on the right, especially pundits with a readership or microphone, who are in a fever dream over this guy after the debate. In general, we are a shallow culture too often impressed by style over substance.
I have had to come to terms with the large number of people in this country who are impervious to facts and seemingly harboring deep feelings of resentment and fear toward many groups of people : women, LGBTQ, Black , Asian, Hispanic and non-Christians. They respond on a reptile brain level to the non-sensical ranting of trump. He could be rendered completely non-intelligible, which he is already is close to being, and they do not care. The only solace one can have is knowing that the broad coalition of voters, across all political spectrums are voting for Harris. It all comes down to the electoral college now and that is a deep source of concern. In the meantime, I carry on with my personal life and hope for the best for our country.
I truly doubt he will ever spend time in a cell. There are too many beholden to him. Maybe, if we're lucky, he will get house arrest at his club--free to entertain foreign dignitaries and ply them with those state secrets he stored in his bathroom, as well as play never ending rounds of golf. He will enjoy lifetime, round the clock, secret service protection on the taxpayer dime.
Current polling indicate "undecided" voters tend to LIKE Trump "policies" but dislike Trump as a person. This is the same thinking that likes to eat Porterhouse steaks but dislikes slaughterhouses. We are in a dark and tenuous place right now.
His policies? What is there to like about his policies? Most of them are cruel, nasty. Prejudiced against people of color and for dictators like Putin. What is wrong with these people who like his policies? I will say they are almost as bad as he is. Full of hate against people of color or Jewish or Muslim people. They are as bad as he is, they don’t even know these people but they hate them because growing up their parents drilled it into them to hate them and on it goes! All this hate has caused us to end up with this man leading a hateful re-election campaign! Wasn’t this country supposed to be a haven for all people from all over the World? When did this become a white and Christian only country?I never heard this growing up in the Northeast, never heard my parents say negative things about people of color or Jewish people! How shameful that we have such a hateful person running for president with a very good chance of winning and alas one who is showing obvious signs of DEMENTIA! How dare the REPUBLICANS and the Supreme Court put such damaged goods and a criminal no less, up as a candidate for President?! I am so ashamed of my country and the people who would vote for this terribly flawed criminal up for President! He even admires murderous dictators like Putin, Hitler, Hitler my God!
Yeah, all that. I was euphemistically saying that there is no separation between what would occur with Trump accolytes unleashed, and who Trump is as a person. And "undecided" voters who think there is are in fact Trump voters in disguise, they LIKE this but don't want to look dirty, and my sense is this is the source of the consistent under-polling error in the Trump vote.
I am never going to understand how almost 50 pct of our fellow voters would actually pull the lever for these malevolent, odious deplorables. I cannot fathom it.
I believe education,or in this case lack of it is much to blame here Laura. The 1% despises an educated citizen. If a person taught a slave how to read in the South before the Civil War that person could and would be prosecuted to the full extent of the “law”. Reconstruction was to have ended this vile practice but discrimination and brutality have carried on in this country to this day. ‘Nuff said, VOTE BLUE PEOPLE!!
I saw one supposedly undecided female voter actually state to MSNBC that what was Harris’ opportunity economy statement (gee lady she has an 82 page document on her website about her economic proposals) and she needed more information? SHE IS JUST A CLOSET MAGAt and Misogynist!!!
100%. This is the Trump underpolling effect. They want to vote for Trump. But their mothers taught then better. They need a permission structure. So whether it's a slick or super-Christian VP pick, or it's Kamala Harris' "competence" or policy statements, they eventually find what they need to justify doing what they wanted to do all along.
I think they are enjoying their "maverick" status. They are endlessly featured on news sites. It must feel good to be so important, to be the ones who could decide our election. I don't think they are uninformed so much as inflated with their opinion of themselves.
If Trump wins and we reject democracy, one of the biggest reasons will be our media, the ones who got degrees in Journalism. They have spent probably $100M and 10 years on symposiums and hand-wringing about how they failed to handle the MAGA phenomenon properly. But in the end, they (all of them, CNN, MSNBC, networks) not only have acquiesced to normalizing MAGA, they have lionized, promoted, and expanded it. I don't see this as a failure to come up with solutions. I see this as purposeful for the sake of money, ratings, views, etc. For all the restraints put on civil servants and rule of law to stop this, the government institutions have held up much better than the media.
Agreed Michael. I watch MSNBC often, but I do watch others too as I want to see and hear other views and opinions. When I watch Fox “News” it is not to get other’s thoughts but to “know your enemy”. The Right and their extreme carnie barkers have done the most damage to peace and security in 🇺🇸 America.
Undoubtedly, Fox “News” is the biggest culprit here. Tens of millions of people watch it, and it alone, religiously. We must find a way to limit such propaganda, whether it be a downright ban or reinstatement of the fairness doctrine.
Michael, I do not agree, or see, or hear that MSNBC normalizes MAGA or Trump. I watch it a lot, especially Lawrence O'Donnell, so I do not agree with what you are claiming. Maybe that is true of CNN, WAPO or Times, but I don't believe that is true of MSNBC.
The only political position in America more noxious than MAGA’s vicious idiocy is the detached neutrality of Americans who can’t see the difference between MAGA and a mainstream Democrat because of the magic letters “R” and “D.”
There was a mock magician that made the rounds of TV variety shows years ago. One of his "magic tricks" consisted of stuffing a napkin into the top of his closed fist and pulling it out the bottom. All the while, he would hum a show-biz style theme. (Da da da da-da da da).
MAGA voters today are the audience members that didn't get the transparent silliness of the gag. How many brain cells does it take to realize you're being played? There's a large pot o' gold inside the Trumpian bag of tricks, and none of it is for you.
Take John Kasich. Please. He’s the personification of hundreds of disaffected Repugnicans who disdain Tr*mp while failing to endorse Kamala Harris, presumably in delusional hopes of some future in politics. Kasich and the rest of his ilk, who clearly regard their oaths as inconsequential political posturing, are only fractionally less despicable than the criminal they claim to deplore. (Hi, Mitt! How’s it goin’, Mike?). Inexplicably, and unsupportably, they like to think of themselves as leaders. They are enablers of the worst kind.
Should the most horrible event happen and all of his followers wake up, it’s too late.
I’m surrounded by Trump supporters and I haven’t changed a single mind so far. I’m surrounded by ignorance. They jumped on the Trump train. I feel sick to live here.
"> > >This is a moment where indifference is appalling.< < <" That is exactly what concerns and worries me. It is not only the indifference. It is the solid embrace of Trump and his terror by millions of his supporters. While his crowds may be getting smaller, incrementally, there remains a hardcore base that would do Trump's bidding no matter how horrific. Having never owned a firearm, I have been giving serious thought to procuring one; or, two.
Thank You Steve ...The trouble is the media keeps acting as though there are two legit sides to this election. The Judge released the grand jury transcripts showing he commited treason.. CNN put on people that say well no not so much .. A lot of it will be thrown out..and maybe Jack has a small case .
I feel like screaming ..It got me to thinking that if that criminal gets in again .. and decides there is no need for another election in 2028 ..Will the Supreme Court find a way to ok this ? Sick in Florida !
Donald will say there’s no need for an election in 2028; he’s staying on. Because it’s an official action. And he feels like it.
It seems such a simple choice… yet it’s too close to call? What is basically wrong with the cult and their determination to destroy themselves? Do they not realize that they are being played for their vote and if Trump is elected they will simply be enslaved?Trump wants nothing to do with them. Just like when Mike Pence’s life was in danger, Trumps response was “ who cares.”
Trump is and is only about Trump. He was to hang and be accepted by the rich.
Does a man with a gold toilet, thinks people in the military are suckers and losers, that anyone not lily white are murders and rapists really will help anyone but himself if he is in office?
Social security/medicare funding or more money in Trump’s pockets? Which will Trump choose? Obamacare or private insurance? Again, a generous donation will decide that one….no department of education? No EPA? Control of the Federal Reserve? And you think Trump will care about the country or about lining his pockets?
The choice is easy…so why are so many voters so gullible? I just don’t understand.
I get it, Eric. But these folks are often isolated in their information silos. Algorithms just amplify their confirmation bias on steroids. They don't see, hear, or read what we do. They are distrustful of government and institutions in general (this predates MAGA), and TFG has given them the permission structure to hate everyone not like them and distrust everyone but him. It's the authoritarian/fascist playbook 101 in action. And frankly, it scares the shit out of me.
And it should have been a priority of the media to hold people accountable and get the truth out there.
Democrats saw this in 2016 and again in 2020 but sat on their hands as the mob has grown. Charlottesville wasn’t enough of a wake up call?
I also blame the ineptness of Merrick Garland for not acting sooner to prosecute the crimes by Trump. Garland surpassed Comey as the worst AG in our lifetime .
I agree. Garland's biography will be titled "Profiles In Cowardice".
You’re right…it’s just the insanity of history repeating itself 90 years later
This isn't about being gullible or changing their minds if only they knew better. At the core, the MAGA cult does not believe it has agency in the business of America. That's what it means. MAGA is an attitude not a philosophy. And then you have the hustlers, grifters, evildoers, who fan these flames. Finally, you have a cynical class who use false equivocations and normalizing to justify evil they LIKE or feels benefits them. Put that together, and you have roughly 46% of the restricted voting base and probably 35-40% of the total adult population. I think 35% is about what the Nazi party had when it took power.
They did. That’s why shoulda and woulda come in. Shoulda gotten rid of the electoral college. Shoulda made term limits and age for the Supreme Court. Shoulda put age ceiling on presidency. ( Look what Hindenburg did for Germany in 1933). Woulda is the excuse of everyone in congress and presidents of the past. I woulda but just didn’t get around to it.
I think it will take time to get rid of the electoral college, but if we survive all this, I see it ending in maybe 30-40 years, as the workplace shifts more and more from centralized spaces to remote connections. This is why you see an exodus away from urban centers which have become unaffordable. And as this happens, (I hope) there will be more blending of social and political views. However, there will still be a big fight. Let's face it--the Dakotas LIKE having 4% of the votes in the Senate, with a total population lower than just the Valley portion of Los Angeles.
You know they were close to eliminating it in the 1970s
Some repub voters are selfish; they think they’ll profit in some way if Donald wins. Some repub voters are in the maga cult; they must follow their orange-brown leader. Some maga voters are stupid; you can’t fix stupid.
Ignorance can be cured by information. Stupidity is incurable.
And then there is Vance. He is possible just as dangerous if not more so
Agreed, because he deceitfully sounded reasonable in the debate. There are people on the right, especially pundits with a readership or microphone, who are in a fever dream over this guy after the debate. In general, we are a shallow culture too often impressed by style over substance.
I have had to come to terms with the large number of people in this country who are impervious to facts and seemingly harboring deep feelings of resentment and fear toward many groups of people : women, LGBTQ, Black , Asian, Hispanic and non-Christians. They respond on a reptile brain level to the non-sensical ranting of trump. He could be rendered completely non-intelligible, which he is already is close to being, and they do not care. The only solace one can have is knowing that the broad coalition of voters, across all political spectrums are voting for Harris. It all comes down to the electoral college now and that is a deep source of concern. In the meantime, I carry on with my personal life and hope for the best for our country.
I can’t wait for this nightmare to be over. I hope he just fades away into oblivion in a prison cell while America begins the long process of healing.
I truly doubt he will ever spend time in a cell. There are too many beholden to him. Maybe, if we're lucky, he will get house arrest at his club--free to entertain foreign dignitaries and ply them with those state secrets he stored in his bathroom, as well as play never ending rounds of golf. He will enjoy lifetime, round the clock, secret service protection on the taxpayer dime.
Yes Steve!
AMERICA! or trump
Read the 165 pg doc written by Jack Smith and team. He quotes Ben Franklin:
"In free Governments, the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns."
Yea, too bad SCOTFG doesn't see it that way. Ugh.
Current polling indicate "undecided" voters tend to LIKE Trump "policies" but dislike Trump as a person. This is the same thinking that likes to eat Porterhouse steaks but dislikes slaughterhouses. We are in a dark and tenuous place right now.
His policies? What is there to like about his policies? Most of them are cruel, nasty. Prejudiced against people of color and for dictators like Putin. What is wrong with these people who like his policies? I will say they are almost as bad as he is. Full of hate against people of color or Jewish or Muslim people. They are as bad as he is, they don’t even know these people but they hate them because growing up their parents drilled it into them to hate them and on it goes! All this hate has caused us to end up with this man leading a hateful re-election campaign! Wasn’t this country supposed to be a haven for all people from all over the World? When did this become a white and Christian only country?I never heard this growing up in the Northeast, never heard my parents say negative things about people of color or Jewish people! How shameful that we have such a hateful person running for president with a very good chance of winning and alas one who is showing obvious signs of DEMENTIA! How dare the REPUBLICANS and the Supreme Court put such damaged goods and a criminal no less, up as a candidate for President?! I am so ashamed of my country and the people who would vote for this terribly flawed criminal up for President! He even admires murderous dictators like Putin, Hitler, Hitler my God!
Yeah, all that. I was euphemistically saying that there is no separation between what would occur with Trump accolytes unleashed, and who Trump is as a person. And "undecided" voters who think there is are in fact Trump voters in disguise, they LIKE this but don't want to look dirty, and my sense is this is the source of the consistent under-polling error in the Trump vote.
I have heard this exact nonsense from several persons I know personally. It's discouraging to say the least because it's so completely out of whack.
I am never going to understand how almost 50 pct of our fellow voters would actually pull the lever for these malevolent, odious deplorables. I cannot fathom it.
I believe education,or in this case lack of it is much to blame here Laura. The 1% despises an educated citizen. If a person taught a slave how to read in the South before the Civil War that person could and would be prosecuted to the full extent of the “law”. Reconstruction was to have ended this vile practice but discrimination and brutality have carried on in this country to this day. ‘Nuff said, VOTE BLUE PEOPLE!!
Agreed. TFG: "I love the poorly educated."
Meanwhile, like that moron ever cracked a book 🙄
It is because his supporters don't see him in the same light as we do.
America America America Let's Dig Out of this Recurring Nightmare.Full Stop.
I saw one supposedly undecided female voter actually state to MSNBC that what was Harris’ opportunity economy statement (gee lady she has an 82 page document on her website about her economic proposals) and she needed more information? SHE IS JUST A CLOSET MAGAt and Misogynist!!!
100%. This is the Trump underpolling effect. They want to vote for Trump. But their mothers taught then better. They need a permission structure. So whether it's a slick or super-Christian VP pick, or it's Kamala Harris' "competence" or policy statements, they eventually find what they need to justify doing what they wanted to do all along.
I think they are enjoying their "maverick" status. They are endlessly featured on news sites. It must feel good to be so important, to be the ones who could decide our election. I don't think they are uninformed so much as inflated with their opinion of themselves.
If Trump wins and we reject democracy, one of the biggest reasons will be our media, the ones who got degrees in Journalism. They have spent probably $100M and 10 years on symposiums and hand-wringing about how they failed to handle the MAGA phenomenon properly. But in the end, they (all of them, CNN, MSNBC, networks) not only have acquiesced to normalizing MAGA, they have lionized, promoted, and expanded it. I don't see this as a failure to come up with solutions. I see this as purposeful for the sake of money, ratings, views, etc. For all the restraints put on civil servants and rule of law to stop this, the government institutions have held up much better than the media.
Agreed Michael. I watch MSNBC often, but I do watch others too as I want to see and hear other views and opinions. When I watch Fox “News” it is not to get other’s thoughts but to “know your enemy”. The Right and their extreme carnie barkers have done the most damage to peace and security in 🇺🇸 America.
Undoubtedly, Fox “News” is the biggest culprit here. Tens of millions of people watch it, and it alone, religiously. We must find a way to limit such propaganda, whether it be a downright ban or reinstatement of the fairness doctrine.
All of them. Fox, OAN, et al might be the flamethrowers, but all of them are assisting while picking up bags of money. Even MSNBC.
Michael, I do not agree, or see, or hear that MSNBC normalizes MAGA or Trump. I watch it a lot, especially Lawrence O'Donnell, so I do not agree with what you are claiming. Maybe that is true of CNN, WAPO or Times, but I don't believe that is true of MSNBC.
I despise identity politics, but today I'm making an exception: Please Women, vote your interests. Get your lady friends out to vote too.
Time to break this BS glass ceiling, restore your reproductive rights, and put the joy back into being an American.
The only political position in America more noxious than MAGA’s vicious idiocy is the detached neutrality of Americans who can’t see the difference between MAGA and a mainstream Democrat because of the magic letters “R” and “D.”
There was a mock magician that made the rounds of TV variety shows years ago. One of his "magic tricks" consisted of stuffing a napkin into the top of his closed fist and pulling it out the bottom. All the while, he would hum a show-biz style theme. (Da da da da-da da da).
MAGA voters today are the audience members that didn't get the transparent silliness of the gag. How many brain cells does it take to realize you're being played? There's a large pot o' gold inside the Trumpian bag of tricks, and none of it is for you.
Take John Kasich. Please. He’s the personification of hundreds of disaffected Repugnicans who disdain Tr*mp while failing to endorse Kamala Harris, presumably in delusional hopes of some future in politics. Kasich and the rest of his ilk, who clearly regard their oaths as inconsequential political posturing, are only fractionally less despicable than the criminal they claim to deplore. (Hi, Mitt! How’s it goin’, Mike?). Inexplicably, and unsupportably, they like to think of themselves as leaders. They are enablers of the worst kind.
Should the most horrible event happen and all of his followers wake up, it’s too late.
I’m surrounded by Trump supporters and I haven’t changed a single mind so far. I’m surrounded by ignorance. They jumped on the Trump train. I feel sick to live here.
"> > >This is a moment where indifference is appalling.< < <" That is exactly what concerns and worries me. It is not only the indifference. It is the solid embrace of Trump and his terror by millions of his supporters. While his crowds may be getting smaller, incrementally, there remains a hardcore base that would do Trump's bidding no matter how horrific. Having never owned a firearm, I have been giving serious thought to procuring one; or, two.