Listening to Donald Trump rummage through his boxes before finding and sharing top secret contingency plans for military operations against Iran, presented to him by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, is simply flabbergasting.
"He digs hard, and the sounds of his rustling show his indefatigable narcissism perfectly matched with the feral scratching of “a short-fingered vulgarian” clawing for the right state secret which with to show off. " Brilliant descriptive writing Steve. Fucking brilliant.
What does it say about the United States of America that they elected this man to be the leader of the Free World? And worse, they are flirting with doing it again when he almost screams from the rooftops his promise to tear the whole thing down. Is it embarrassment that keeps him free of legal consequence for his unbelievable and outrageous conduct? As much as one wants to write him off as some kind of self-absorbed Superjerk, he is a genius at gaming the system, which, indictments aside, he has been doing for decades and the piper remains unpaid. Yes, a genius at that while being a petulant 10-year-old in almost every other way. He sees himself the victim yet cannot keep his mouth from being his most feared witness. The documents thing is like a kid with his marbles and NOBODY is taking them!!! If the idiots in the House manage to expunge the impeachments as if they never happened, maybe they can extend their skills to do the same for the Trump presidency and, in fact, Trump himself. Cannot happen soon enough.
Russian disinformation with a last minute assist from James Comey scared people off HRC, combined with Nate Silver's poll predicting she had a 75% chance of winning kept people away from the polls. And in fact, Hillary did win by over 3 million votes but the electoral college handed it to Trump. Please don't suggest he was elected, because he was not. He was given the presidency by our arcane voting system.
I would love to see the electoral college system eliminated and all gerrymandering in every state made illegal, and voting rights strengthened in every state. Get back to the basics of one person, one vote. There'll always be loonies elected in red states, but they'll never win another national election because their methods of cheating will have been eliminated.
Damn. I would propose if I wasn’t already married and older than God. Hillary was maybe the most qualified presidential candidate since Eisenhower. I hated to use the word elected with Dump but that’s the system, like so many other touches to protect the rural right, in particular and those things are all part of America getting in its own way. Gerrymandering is just another example of corruption like Citizen’s United and the gutting of fair voting by SCOTUS. Using the existing system, people have to be strong enough and work hard enough to generate a real Dem majority in as many places as possible to fill these potholes wherever they are. Nice to hear from you. You are right on. Sorry I used the E-word!
Well, I think it says a few things things about our country:
1. There are a lot of transactional people or, as you call them, “self-absorbed super jerks” running around that care more about their net worth than the wellbeing of our democracy.
2. There are also a lot of very nice, well-meaning people who live their lives according to their values. They work hard and care of their families, and don’t bother anyone. However, they have been told by our society that their beliefs are wrong and that they themselves are “deplorable”. At the same time, they see the hypocrisy and lack of empathy in the people that look and talk down to them.
3. The progressive agenda pushed on us by the left hasn’t worked in the past, isn’t working now, and probably won’t work in the future. Politicians who keep selling it are not connecting to a large part of the population.
We can keep beating Trump at the ballot box because so many of us despise him, but we won’t get transformational change until people stop yelling at each other and unify around a vision for the future that works for everyone.
Hi Greg I appreciate your thoughts and share in your despair but I take moderate exception to two thoughts. I agree there are millions of thoughtful, caring, hard working Americans who are being somewhat overwhelmed by the vitriol splashing around on both sides. I don't think anyone is calling them deplorables. I think Hillary coined that phrase and she was referring to the mindless Trumpers who will accept anything he does.
If I were to choose I would always side with the people who are trying to cut some slack for the poor and lower middle class, sometimes working three jobs and never getting ahead. The dems by providing health care, child support, vets support, social security, medicare are trying to even the playing field a little. Sure, it doesn't always work. Sure, its fodder for the republicans to wail about spending, but nobody has outspent Bush or Trump and they spend on tax cuts for people who don't need it or wars that soak up money and put down lives as their marker. The choice in the U.S. is no choice. Republicans will literally kill you given the chance. They did it during those wars and they did it during the pandemic and they can't wait to do it some more. THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU or the thoughtful, caring, hard working Americans we all respect. Thanks for your comment.
I know we will and hope you do too. In a bow to the good old US of A we are also celebrating my younger daughter's 32 birthday on JULY FOUR in case you were wondering what all the fireworks were about. On July 3, 1991 we were attending a Blue Jays baseball game in Toronto and everyone was doing the wave. Everybody stopped except my wife, Shelagh, whose water broke a month early and our daughter, Beatrice, arrived the next day to give Americans and Canadians another reason to celebrate. Very thoughtful of her methinks. I'll tell her you said Hello.
When I heard this taped on Rachel Maddow last night, not only was I disgusted, I was reminded of the Access Hollywood tape with all of the giggling, only this was much more serious. Making Hillary jokes, laughing about rifling through super classified docs as if to say, "Hey, lookie, lookie, I'm special, I have all this stuff Milley gave me!" What an @$$hole! I would like to see him hauled off to Leavenworth for life...
Trump is everything you call him... and more. The only thing I wish I could believe is that he’s heading to prison. I can’t imagine this slithering snake will be held accountable considering how passionately the leaders and voters of today’s fascist Republican Party defend him and his traitorous actions. That’s not to say I’ve given up hope. So... here’s to hoping THIS time we’ve got him.
Trump took those documents because he knew they were money. Not only did he sell them, he most likely gave them away to some country’s. I truly believe that is how Kushner got his $2 billion dollars out of MBS, he sure did not give $2 billion to an American Jew out the kindness of his dark heart. I believe Trump shared everything with Russia, Netanyahu, UAE, and anybody else that either kisses his ass, or is in the authoritarian boys club. Did the CIA, NSA, know that Trump was in the pocket to Putin and the Russians going all the back to the election? They know everything going on in or around Putin, so Trump never came up? It is wise to protect sources and methods in the intelligence community, but Trump is a National Security threat, there is no justification for sitting on that information period, especially if they have it and as far as I know nobody has asked them. The best thing that could happen to America is Trump drops dead with a bucket of KFC in his hands, and Mickey Mouse takes the law into his own hands and smokes DeSantis. I’m laying two Benjamin’s on the chicken and the mouse saving us.
Strongly disagree that he gave anything to Israel, because if the reports are to be believed, the documents contained a fair amount of Israeli nuclear secrets, info that neither Israel in general nor Netanyahu in particular would like anyone to see. On the other hand, I strongly agree with you that he likely gave info to the Saudis.
Also agree: it is plain and clear that Jared was the bag carrier to get the payoff to T-rump in exchange for accessing info from then stolen files. Jared inherited the attraction to felonies from his father and via marriage to Donald’s Barbie doll, gained opportunities to continue his deceptive and coddled behavior.
And it looks like Trump just learned that capital punishment is a penalty that our nations traitors can suffer if proven guilty. That is probably keeping him up at night especially if he is selling our nations national security secrets to the highest bidders. Everything is transactional with Trump. Everything. His serious narcissistic personality disorder makes him very dangerous right now. What else does he know about that could compromise our nations security? Somebody, like the FBI, should be keeping a very close eye on him and follow him wherever he goes. And listen in on every damn phone call he makes and have a closer look at this mail.
I believe he’s already sold copies of many documents and so has Kushner. What concerns me is it is likely the government knows but won’t tell us for 50 years.
His people identify with him. They see themselves in him. Isn’t it stunning to see how many people think that way? None of us would have found that out if T hadn’t come along to magnetize them. Who knew a majority of the Christians would be in that group?
Great point, Susan. Trump is indeed like a magnet in drawing out this ugliness. It certainly has opened up my eyes to the fact that we have far more tens of millions of people in the USA than i previously estimated who suffer from Right-Wing Authoritarianism (discussed so extensively by Bob Altemeyer) as well as so many lost souls, Trump's voters, suffering from cognitive dissonance and Freud's "defense mechanisms against anxiety" (identification, denial, rationalization, projection, reaction formation).
I didn’t know about Freud’s defense mechanisms. Or rather, I didn’t know he is the one who made them part of the Universal knowledge handbook. I will check Bob Altemeyer out. Thank you.
Also, What caused the current anxiety? How much does it have to do with the inability to know what is really true? How much has social media contributed to this phenomenon? Soon after came the mainstream news catching that ball and running with it to take advantage of and capture the confused and the vulnerable.
I think it's a result of the dumbing down process pointed out in 1985 by Neil Postman in his fantastically eloquent, insightful book Amusing Ourselves to Death.
And also this "great replacement" idea that right-wingers have been spewing since before even Tucker Carlson, which creates this terrible "otherizing" of scapegoats that the rightwingers hate, and an extreme resentment and belligerence. And social media is simply used to inflate all of this "grievance" and aggression....
I knew a man who had nothing to shore up his low self esteem but that he was white, handsome and rich. That should be enough, right?
As he aged into his 40’s and 50’s he noticed the popularity of all that flagging, especially his perceived doubt over the ultimate status of the white male. That frightened him and made him feel weak. At that point his rageful, blameful, and paranoid personality kicked up a few notches and he started speaking in terms of grievance and began listening to those who shared his frustration and conspiracy theories.
Trump appeals to angry people. To the unfairly treated. To people who can never be good enough, who as children were never allowed to be good enough. He was the kind of person who was angry at people for not going the speed limit, not crossing at the crosswalks, moving too slowly in front of him and rule breakers in general. And yet he cheated on his taxes and couldn’t help but lie. If his lips were moving he was lying. He was a misogynist who loved the attention of beautiful women until they reached about 35. He was miserly. He avoided having to pay the check at restaurants. He was a hoarder, especially of his boxes! When things went wrong there was someone else to blame. Always. He never not even once, apologized for anything. He didn’t have a grateful bone in his body. He saw other people as deserving of severe punishment for minor transgressions. There was not a drop of empathy in him. This may sound judgmental but for me he was a person to take note of, to study and to try to understand.
If any Trump lover reads this I wonder if you will recognize yourself in these words? No, of course you won’t. These people can be only one thing -and that is RIGHT.
Here is something interesting. Even though this man was all of the above, he was also charming, and funny too if you like sarcastic, put-down one liners.
Yes, largely because the hardcore redneck base are mostly illiterates who only watch Fox. The rest care more about money and power. I’m waiting to find out who that treasonous staffer was who obviously was holding the pile of documents he brought along with him to the meeting.
Agree with your assessment of demographics. You don’t need to be an analyst to see what kinds of slobs populate his rallies. Knuckle-dragging, AR-toting, Bible-thumping,violently inked homegrown reformists
Yes, they're that far gone. When self-proclaimed "Christians" can overlook his crimes and abuses because they got the reversal of Roe, we see this very unholy alliance. If there is a god, he's shaking his head now. "I gave them intelligence, why won't they use it?"
And the deflection to Hillary Clinton in the midst of it all, while doing far worse than she ever did! The whole mechanism of Projection has never been so clearly demonstrated as by this group of hypocritical-and yes, dangerous-buffoons.
Or what they have done. All that talk of voting machine tampering and other election interference. I've often wondered what people like John Lewis were referring to when he said Trump was illegitimate, but said it in a way that made me wonder if there was even more to it than we knew.
The thing I find most disgusting about this entire interchange is not that Trump is a traitor, for I knew that long ago. It's the laughter. They are all literally laughing as he confesses to the commission of numerous federal felonies, including espionage.
All of these people are sociopaths, and all of them need to be permanently removed from the stream of interpersonal commerce. In terms that Donnie can understand, that means prison. Do you know that Jack Smith knows the names of every person in that room at the time of the recording? And that all of them have undoubtedly already testified before a federal grand jury?
You may be right, but some of it was the sycophantic obsequious ass-kissing of his staffers. Oh, and since the tape was released, it appears that Trump's "defense" will be that he was lying. I'm sure that will play about as well as the tape itself in front of a jury.
If we truly believed "no one is above the law" we'd have prosecuted Nixon for Watergate and Reagan for Iran Contra, and avoided this CF of a president all together.
The main reason that deal with Nixon was done, imo, is because Republicans were angry Nixon had been secretly recording them and they were able to keep the tapes out of public view for about 50 years.
The flirting is what kills me. Does he really need state secrets to impress the ladies? At what point in this conversation did he realize he was not going to get laid? Probably after the “journalists “ took pics of the war plans.
Papers or no papers... who would actually want to see that lard-pile naked, or have those stubby fingers poking her genitals!?? Sad. A smart woman would want something more fungible then a sneak peek at secret documents
Steve you are so incredible. You so eloquently express precisely the most important outrage that I felt when I first heard the recording. What we should be celebrating is that somebody who had that recording shared it with special counsel Jack Smith of the Department of Justice. Although the wheels of Justice turn achingly slow, it is delightful to read your truly brilliant response to this damning evidence. Bravo Steve!
That is the most powerful and calmly spoken video I have ever seen, and I see so many of them. So powerful and so important that I have to send it to my friends and associates. Unfortunately I do not have any MAGA friends or associates. Lost the all years ago because they need this. Thanks again Steve.
I do not believe anything short of catastrophe will break the fever that too many of our fellow citizens are under. This will not turn them, they ARE that ingenue in the room. (Hillary? Wtf, she’s gone, bro, give it up). BTW, is that woman a reporter? Why does he say “off the record”? Who recorded this??
I think the Republicans are still threatened by her. She isn’t as old as Trump and Biden and they’re running. But it could also be a deflection because they’ve been so successful in slandering her to that base full of toads.
Interesting would have not placed it as a 1930’d radio thriller but it works. Just waiting for Indiana Jones or Sidney Greenstreet to appear. By chance does DJT have a clay cup or a large black bird in one of those boxes? You never know.
Steve must disagree DJT is light-years worse than Jeff Davis or Robert E Lee. Neither of them had their hands on the nuclear codes and Trump did
"He digs hard, and the sounds of his rustling show his indefatigable narcissism perfectly matched with the feral scratching of “a short-fingered vulgarian” clawing for the right state secret which with to show off. " Brilliant descriptive writing Steve. Fucking brilliant.
Ditto!
So accurate & so dead'-on descriptive!
So glad your comment was the first to open. I had to reread Steve’s killer sentence. Thrilling and chilling
ALWAYS!!! 👏👏👏
What does it say about the United States of America that they elected this man to be the leader of the Free World? And worse, they are flirting with doing it again when he almost screams from the rooftops his promise to tear the whole thing down. Is it embarrassment that keeps him free of legal consequence for his unbelievable and outrageous conduct? As much as one wants to write him off as some kind of self-absorbed Superjerk, he is a genius at gaming the system, which, indictments aside, he has been doing for decades and the piper remains unpaid. Yes, a genius at that while being a petulant 10-year-old in almost every other way. He sees himself the victim yet cannot keep his mouth from being his most feared witness. The documents thing is like a kid with his marbles and NOBODY is taking them!!! If the idiots in the House manage to expunge the impeachments as if they never happened, maybe they can extend their skills to do the same for the Trump presidency and, in fact, Trump himself. Cannot happen soon enough.
Russian disinformation with a last minute assist from James Comey scared people off HRC, combined with Nate Silver's poll predicting she had a 75% chance of winning kept people away from the polls. And in fact, Hillary did win by over 3 million votes but the electoral college handed it to Trump. Please don't suggest he was elected, because he was not. He was given the presidency by our arcane voting system.
I would love to see the electoral college system eliminated and all gerrymandering in every state made illegal, and voting rights strengthened in every state. Get back to the basics of one person, one vote. There'll always be loonies elected in red states, but they'll never win another national election because their methods of cheating will have been eliminated.
Damn. I would propose if I wasn’t already married and older than God. Hillary was maybe the most qualified presidential candidate since Eisenhower. I hated to use the word elected with Dump but that’s the system, like so many other touches to protect the rural right, in particular and those things are all part of America getting in its own way. Gerrymandering is just another example of corruption like Citizen’s United and the gutting of fair voting by SCOTUS. Using the existing system, people have to be strong enough and work hard enough to generate a real Dem majority in as many places as possible to fill these potholes wherever they are. Nice to hear from you. You are right on. Sorry I used the E-word!
Please don't apologize, I enjoy your commentary! And if I wasn't already taken, I might just enjoy that proposal 🥂
Not yet eliminated... by any measure.... but curtailed
Amen
We all have Dreams, maybe one day Yours, Ours, will come true.
Well, I think it says a few things things about our country:
1. There are a lot of transactional people or, as you call them, “self-absorbed super jerks” running around that care more about their net worth than the wellbeing of our democracy.
2. There are also a lot of very nice, well-meaning people who live their lives according to their values. They work hard and care of their families, and don’t bother anyone. However, they have been told by our society that their beliefs are wrong and that they themselves are “deplorable”. At the same time, they see the hypocrisy and lack of empathy in the people that look and talk down to them.
3. The progressive agenda pushed on us by the left hasn’t worked in the past, isn’t working now, and probably won’t work in the future. Politicians who keep selling it are not connecting to a large part of the population.
We can keep beating Trump at the ballot box because so many of us despise him, but we won’t get transformational change until people stop yelling at each other and unify around a vision for the future that works for everyone.
Hi Greg I appreciate your thoughts and share in your despair but I take moderate exception to two thoughts. I agree there are millions of thoughtful, caring, hard working Americans who are being somewhat overwhelmed by the vitriol splashing around on both sides. I don't think anyone is calling them deplorables. I think Hillary coined that phrase and she was referring to the mindless Trumpers who will accept anything he does.
If I were to choose I would always side with the people who are trying to cut some slack for the poor and lower middle class, sometimes working three jobs and never getting ahead. The dems by providing health care, child support, vets support, social security, medicare are trying to even the playing field a little. Sure, it doesn't always work. Sure, its fodder for the republicans to wail about spending, but nobody has outspent Bush or Trump and they spend on tax cuts for people who don't need it or wars that soak up money and put down lives as their marker. The choice in the U.S. is no choice. Republicans will literally kill you given the chance. They did it during those wars and they did it during the pandemic and they can't wait to do it some more. THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU or the thoughtful, caring, hard working Americans we all respect. Thanks for your comment.
🙌🏻 🙌🏻 🙌🏻
Thank, Melody Annie. How's it going?
Its TGIF over here, Bob! Hope you have a lovely long holiday weekend 😊
I know we will and hope you do too. In a bow to the good old US of A we are also celebrating my younger daughter's 32 birthday on JULY FOUR in case you were wondering what all the fireworks were about. On July 3, 1991 we were attending a Blue Jays baseball game in Toronto and everyone was doing the wave. Everybody stopped except my wife, Shelagh, whose water broke a month early and our daughter, Beatrice, arrived the next day to give Americans and Canadians another reason to celebrate. Very thoughtful of her methinks. I'll tell her you said Hello.
When I heard this taped on Rachel Maddow last night, not only was I disgusted, I was reminded of the Access Hollywood tape with all of the giggling, only this was much more serious. Making Hillary jokes, laughing about rifling through super classified docs as if to say, "Hey, lookie, lookie, I'm special, I have all this stuff Milley gave me!" What an @$$hole! I would like to see him hauled off to Leavenworth for life...
Had the same flashback to Access Hollywood, Cheryl. I kept hearing Billy Bush’s voice exclaiming, “Yes The Donald Has Scored!!”
Can someone edit that in so I can laugh? If not, I’m gonna cry.
.
Trump is everything you call him... and more. The only thing I wish I could believe is that he’s heading to prison. I can’t imagine this slithering snake will be held accountable considering how passionately the leaders and voters of today’s fascist Republican Party defend him and his traitorous actions. That’s not to say I’ve given up hope. So... here’s to hoping THIS time we’ve got him.
I concur. Will real justice prevail?
Joan: I agree with the skepticism. We have been trained to expect that he will slither out of charges and justice
Isn’t it sad?
Trump took those documents because he knew they were money. Not only did he sell them, he most likely gave them away to some country’s. I truly believe that is how Kushner got his $2 billion dollars out of MBS, he sure did not give $2 billion to an American Jew out the kindness of his dark heart. I believe Trump shared everything with Russia, Netanyahu, UAE, and anybody else that either kisses his ass, or is in the authoritarian boys club. Did the CIA, NSA, know that Trump was in the pocket to Putin and the Russians going all the back to the election? They know everything going on in or around Putin, so Trump never came up? It is wise to protect sources and methods in the intelligence community, but Trump is a National Security threat, there is no justification for sitting on that information period, especially if they have it and as far as I know nobody has asked them. The best thing that could happen to America is Trump drops dead with a bucket of KFC in his hands, and Mickey Mouse takes the law into his own hands and smokes DeSantis. I’m laying two Benjamin’s on the chicken and the mouse saving us.
Strongly disagree that he gave anything to Israel, because if the reports are to be believed, the documents contained a fair amount of Israeli nuclear secrets, info that neither Israel in general nor Netanyahu in particular would like anyone to see. On the other hand, I strongly agree with you that he likely gave info to the Saudis.
I disagree, I’m talking about all the Iran documents. Netanyahu wants a war with so bad he can taste them t.
Yes as Ian said, strongly agree that trump is selling our national secrets.
Also agree: it is plain and clear that Jared was the bag carrier to get the payoff to T-rump in exchange for accessing info from then stolen files. Jared inherited the attraction to felonies from his father and via marriage to Donald’s Barbie doll, gained opportunities to continue his deceptive and coddled behavior.
I agree.
T-rump sure looks like he could croak at any minute. Obese, with a poor diet and golf-cart golf stretches the boundaries of “exercise.”
Of course, malignant narcissists do not suffer emotional stress like the rest of us, so he is likely immune from stress-driven maladies.
And it looks like Trump just learned that capital punishment is a penalty that our nations traitors can suffer if proven guilty. That is probably keeping him up at night especially if he is selling our nations national security secrets to the highest bidders. Everything is transactional with Trump. Everything. His serious narcissistic personality disorder makes him very dangerous right now. What else does he know about that could compromise our nations security? Somebody, like the FBI, should be keeping a very close eye on him and follow him wherever he goes. And listen in on every damn phone call he makes and have a closer look at this mail.
I believe he’s already sold copies of many documents and so has Kushner. What concerns me is it is likely the government knows but won’t tell us for 50 years.
The paper is just the hardcopy.
Yes indeed
In the photos of the rooms with the boxes of stolen documents, one room had a copier machine in there. They're definitely making extra sets.
“Everything is transactional with Trump” ... 1000 times YES!!
We wouldn't know if the FBI or whoever is keeping an eye on him, who leaked this tape?
How is it that Republican support of him remains so rigid? Is the cult that far gone?
His people identify with him. They see themselves in him. Isn’t it stunning to see how many people think that way? None of us would have found that out if T hadn’t come along to magnetize them. Who knew a majority of the Christians would be in that group?
Great point, Susan. Trump is indeed like a magnet in drawing out this ugliness. It certainly has opened up my eyes to the fact that we have far more tens of millions of people in the USA than i previously estimated who suffer from Right-Wing Authoritarianism (discussed so extensively by Bob Altemeyer) as well as so many lost souls, Trump's voters, suffering from cognitive dissonance and Freud's "defense mechanisms against anxiety" (identification, denial, rationalization, projection, reaction formation).
I didn’t know about Freud’s defense mechanisms. Or rather, I didn’t know he is the one who made them part of the Universal knowledge handbook. I will check Bob Altemeyer out. Thank you.
Dear Susan, here's the URL for reading Bob's seminal book for the layperson, The Authoritarians. https://theauthoritarians.org/options-for-getting-the-book/ (it is provided freely, no charge, in different formats)
And here's the book he co-wrote with John Dean (of Watergate fame):
John W. Dean; Bob Altemeyer (2020). Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and his Followers. Melville House.
Just at the moment your message arrived, I was in the middle of reading the preview of The Authoritarians. :)
Ok Timothy. Got it. Thanks.
Also, What caused the current anxiety? How much does it have to do with the inability to know what is really true? How much has social media contributed to this phenomenon? Soon after came the mainstream news catching that ball and running with it to take advantage of and capture the confused and the vulnerable.
I think it's a result of the dumbing down process pointed out in 1985 by Neil Postman in his fantastically eloquent, insightful book Amusing Ourselves to Death.
And also this "great replacement" idea that right-wingers have been spewing since before even Tucker Carlson, which creates this terrible "otherizing" of scapegoats that the rightwingers hate, and an extreme resentment and belligerence. And social media is simply used to inflate all of this "grievance" and aggression....
I knew a man who had nothing to shore up his low self esteem but that he was white, handsome and rich. That should be enough, right?
As he aged into his 40’s and 50’s he noticed the popularity of all that flagging, especially his perceived doubt over the ultimate status of the white male. That frightened him and made him feel weak. At that point his rageful, blameful, and paranoid personality kicked up a few notches and he started speaking in terms of grievance and began listening to those who shared his frustration and conspiracy theories.
Trump appeals to angry people. To the unfairly treated. To people who can never be good enough, who as children were never allowed to be good enough. He was the kind of person who was angry at people for not going the speed limit, not crossing at the crosswalks, moving too slowly in front of him and rule breakers in general. And yet he cheated on his taxes and couldn’t help but lie. If his lips were moving he was lying. He was a misogynist who loved the attention of beautiful women until they reached about 35. He was miserly. He avoided having to pay the check at restaurants. He was a hoarder, especially of his boxes! When things went wrong there was someone else to blame. Always. He never not even once, apologized for anything. He didn’t have a grateful bone in his body. He saw other people as deserving of severe punishment for minor transgressions. There was not a drop of empathy in him. This may sound judgmental but for me he was a person to take note of, to study and to try to understand.
If any Trump lover reads this I wonder if you will recognize yourself in these words? No, of course you won’t. These people can be only one thing -and that is RIGHT.
Here is something interesting. Even though this man was all of the above, he was also charming, and funny too if you like sarcastic, put-down one liners.
I knew. Their hypocrisy was clear to me by the age of 16.
You must have had parents who told you the truth about life.
But how really? Are the demographics of his voters all wealthy white men? In the Party “leadership” maybe. Rank & file??
Yes, largely because the hardcore redneck base are mostly illiterates who only watch Fox. The rest care more about money and power. I’m waiting to find out who that treasonous staffer was who obviously was holding the pile of documents he brought along with him to the meeting.
And she was laughing and giggling. It was shocking
Agree with your assessment of demographics. You don’t need to be an analyst to see what kinds of slobs populate his rallies. Knuckle-dragging, AR-toting, Bible-thumping,violently inked homegrown reformists
Yes, they're that far gone. When self-proclaimed "Christians" can overlook his crimes and abuses because they got the reversal of Roe, we see this very unholy alliance. If there is a god, he's shaking his head now. "I gave them intelligence, why won't they use it?"
Clearly, yes
They all the same people.
And the deflection to Hillary Clinton in the midst of it all, while doing far worse than she ever did! The whole mechanism of Projection has never been so clearly demonstrated as by this group of hypocritical-and yes, dangerous-buffoons.
Right. If we ever want to know what the Right intends to do, simply look at what they are accusing the Left of doing.
Or what they have done. All that talk of voting machine tampering and other election interference. I've often wondered what people like John Lewis were referring to when he said Trump was illegitimate, but said it in a way that made me wonder if there was even more to it than we knew.
Yes, on what they HAVE done. I think you’re on to something re: John Lewis.
Thank you! I don't want to go down the paranoid rabbit hole, but can't shake my suspicions, either.
One of T-rumps fave “rhetorical styles.” Trying to affix what he is doing or accused of doing to his opponents.
The thing I find most disgusting about this entire interchange is not that Trump is a traitor, for I knew that long ago. It's the laughter. They are all literally laughing as he confesses to the commission of numerous federal felonies, including espionage.
All of these people are sociopaths, and all of them need to be permanently removed from the stream of interpersonal commerce. In terms that Donnie can understand, that means prison. Do you know that Jack Smith knows the names of every person in that room at the time of the recording? And that all of them have undoubtedly already testified before a federal grand jury?
OMG Donnie. You are too stupid for words.
To me it sounded like nervous laughter. Cajoling laughter. Like they could not believe what was happening right in front of them.
You may be right, but some of it was the sycophantic obsequious ass-kissing of his staffers. Oh, and since the tape was released, it appears that Trump's "defense" will be that he was lying. I'm sure that will play about as well as the tape itself in front of a jury.
Yes, Stephen. The ass-kissing was also unmistakable.
So he was lying will be the defense? Oh my god. It’s the only time in history that he did not lie. So his defense is to lie about the non lie.
"You made your bed, Donnie, now lie in it" is the one expression that best captures all things Trump. He's a natural.
:)
If we truly believed "no one is above the law" we'd have prosecuted Nixon for Watergate and Reagan for Iran Contra, and avoided this CF of a president all together.
The main reason that deal with Nixon was done, imo, is because Republicans were angry Nixon had been secretly recording them and they were able to keep the tapes out of public view for about 50 years.
The flirting is what kills me. Does he really need state secrets to impress the ladies? At what point in this conversation did he realize he was not going to get laid? Probably after the “journalists “ took pics of the war plans.
Papers or no papers... who would actually want to see that lard-pile naked, or have those stubby fingers poking her genitals!?? Sad. A smart woman would want something more fungible then a sneak peek at secret documents
As always, excellent analysis of a country gone wrong and the horror of Trump and his Republican Party. Shame.
Steve you are so incredible. You so eloquently express precisely the most important outrage that I felt when I first heard the recording. What we should be celebrating is that somebody who had that recording shared it with special counsel Jack Smith of the Department of Justice. Although the wheels of Justice turn achingly slow, it is delightful to read your truly brilliant response to this damning evidence. Bravo Steve!
Channeling my thoughts exactly. This community brings me strength. Thank you for putting into word what I’m feeling deep in my heart!
That is the most powerful and calmly spoken video I have ever seen, and I see so many of them. So powerful and so important that I have to send it to my friends and associates. Unfortunately I do not have any MAGA friends or associates. Lost the all years ago because they need this. Thanks again Steve.
I do not believe anything short of catastrophe will break the fever that too many of our fellow citizens are under. This will not turn them, they ARE that ingenue in the room. (Hillary? Wtf, she’s gone, bro, give it up). BTW, is that woman a reporter? Why does he say “off the record”? Who recorded this??
What catastrophe could wake people? In my work I frequently say that - and yet catastrophic things have happened and bupkis resulted in change.
I think the Republicans are still threatened by her. She isn’t as old as Trump and Biden and they’re running. But it could also be a deflection because they’ve been so successful in slandering her to that base full of toads.
Interesting would have not placed it as a 1930’d radio thriller but it works. Just waiting for Indiana Jones or Sidney Greenstreet to appear. By chance does DJT have a clay cup or a large black bird in one of those boxes? You never know.
Steve must disagree DJT is light-years worse than Jeff Davis or Robert E Lee. Neither of them had their hands on the nuclear codes and Trump did