Donald Trump is a disgrace of staggering dimensions, but if there were to be a single quality in his Mount Everest of character deficits that render him utterly unfit to be president of the United States it is his cruelty. Cruelty and power are a terrible combination. When they combine, terrible things happen. It is why I write so often about the most momentous event in human history — World War II — which remains humanity’s last and final warning. I would encourage you to (re-)read this essay, which includes General of the Army Douglas MacArthur’s radio address to the American people on September 2, 1945:
Trump is a wicked bully and a disgusting pig ,but we all know that. What I want to know is where is the front page headlines today over Lev Parnes’s explosive congressional testimony yesterday? In any other dimension of responsible journalism that testimony along with that of others testifying before congress yesterday should be full front page news and Senators like Ron Johnson should be facing arrest.
Lev Parnes is not going to get media attention. I don't think it is because of what he is saying. Our media's attention is focused on the glamour of money and looks. The media's subjects have to have cuteness and posture and clothes and an American persona.
Jamie Raskin used a portion of his 5 minutes to ask Lev a couple questions related to the reason he stayed and why he left Magaworld. His answers were truly wonderful. Surely, they had to have some positive effect on the Magats that were present to hear (except for MTG and Jordan). Same goes for Trumpanzees that watched it. But do they even watch live feeds/recordings of hearings? Or do they only listen to Fox's disinformation?
I dislike your dehumanzing of Trump supporters., using the slur words you have for them. They have human genes and are no worse or better than any humans. Their life experioences have formed and shaped them and made them have diffefrent ideologies than you and I. As far as the Trump supporters tastes in News, I agree. They listen to things that reinfiorce what they believe to be true. Don't you and I do the same thing, for the most part? We think we are superior, don't we, and yet I agree that you and I are certainly using facts for our beliefs and they are using conspiracy theories. They have been humiliated by talk shows, movies, sit-coms and the media, making fun of their low class, vulgar speech, and all the aspects of their lives and their red neck behavior for all our lives. They hate the intelligensia. and art and all that goes with people like me. In fact, that class has been the butt of derision since this nation began. Now they have finallyn had someone to express their rage, and they do not see him as a demagogue, they see him as someone who GET it. He has great power and a famous name, and even was a former president. Of course , of course they love him and would take a bullet for him!!! embrace them, and try to understand them, and not ridicule them.
Tracy, you seem to be saying "There are good people on both sides." Nonsense. There is NO excuse for the Trump supporters who violently broke into the Capitol during the joint session of Congress to halt the final certification of the electoral college vote.
Further, this is not a "class" war between so-called elites and the "lower class." The conflict is between rational people who at least try to base their thinking on evidence and confirmed facts, as opposed to, yes, people, but people who take their position directly from the mouth of their cult leader -- a former game show host -- apparently oblivious to the fact that he is a pathological lying fraud of the first order. And they listen to no one else. They don't want your understanding; they just want to piss you off, and they revel in Trump pissing you off. If that doesn't warrant ridicule, I don't know what does.
That is untrue. OF COURSE the rioters are wrong! Re-read what I said.Wisdom comes only by compassion! It comes by caring ! Wisdom comes by struggling to understand and try to engage in a civil tongue all those who completely differ with us.--and when they insult us, it means they are hurting badly, and it is an opportunity right then and there to gently, (never frontally like Hillary did), tactfully lead them to KNOWLEDGE they did not have. All else is maness, death and destruction. No matter how we are attacked, we must not surrender by using irrationality to attack irrationality.
> "...gently... tactfully lead them to KNOWLEDGE."
Tracy, MAGAs listen to no one but Trump. We've tried "When they go low, we go high." Didn't work. They only used the opportunity to wrongfully take advantage.
Among other bad things, there are racists in this country. Trump allowed them to come out from under their rocks. You think you can "tactfully" bring them into the 21st Century? It was the children of the 1960s who brought at least some of their parents into the 20th. Once Trump is defeated, which is the main issue here, perhaps it will be the children of the 2020s who begin to chip away at the stragglers. But jeez, they've been straggling since the Civil War. That group is pretty well entrenched.....
No! It very unwise. Wisdom comes only by compassion! It comes by caring ! Wisdom comes by struggling to understand and try to engage in a civil tongue all those who completely differ with us.--and when they insult us, it means they are hurting badly, and it is an opportunity right then and there to gently, (never frontally like Hillary did), tactfully lead them to KNOWLEDGE they did not have. All else is maness, death and destruction. No matter how we are attacked, we must not surrender by using irrationality to attack irrationality.
It sure looks like today, it’s being shoved under the table by the mainstream media gatekeepers. I guess this decision is being played out in the corporate boardrooms and supersized yachts, and not in the managing editors office where that decision should be made. Just another example of how far we have fallen and why it’s time to take on the billionaires. Unregulated Capitalism and low taxed corporations should be on all our hit lists.
Trump is truly a coward and a snowflake. The problem is that we have been way too polite and gentle with him. Trump only punches downward. He never faces any confrontation. When confronted with his lies he raises his volume and talks over the person but more frequently runs away. Ask Leslie Stahl about her interview.
Trump really can’t take a punch. Like all bullies, if a number of people stand up to them, they slither away.
Trump needs to simply be outed for the coward, not strong man he’d like you to believe he is.
His talk of a 100% tariff on foreign cars was literally stupid. “You do realize Mr Trump that your idea is absolutely stupid.” You do realize it would give domestic makers the ability to raise the price of cars not lower because there would be no competition?
“Hey Dumbass, you still don’t understand that the consumer not the producer pays the tariff raises ultimately!”(okay dumbass is not the word to use but the point is that he only understands strength and when directly confronted he cowards and runs from it.
When he says you are stupid or your question is nasty, simple say you’ll dummy it down so he can try to understand it or you’ll try to explain it in simple words for him.
The bottom line is that you don’t give respect unless you get respect. Allowing Trump to take all the oxygen in the room only encourages his vile rhetoric. Confront him directly. The Afghanistan withdrawal has come up, confront him that it was based on his stupid terms not Biden’s .
Confront him with the $7 trillion deficit he racked up in 4 years. Confront him with the fact that during his term, it was the first time in a half century that there were fewer jobs in America, he didn’t create more jobs.
Stop being nice. A bully only gets worse when you don’t confront him directly.
“Trump is a bully, and like all bullies, he is weak….
America should have a strong president, and there can be no strength with the absence of love, compassion and wisdom. Trump has none. He is a brittle man and a bad one.”
Excellent sentiments. Trump is a moron, but he does have some evil genius qualities: deflection, and projection are his to most potent traits.
He knows he’s corrupt, but believes because of his status and wealth, the laws don’t apply to him. Yet, he will always accuse others of being even more corrupt than he is to deflect.
He accuses Biden of being an authoritarian kleptocrat. Yet, no one is more crooked or authoritarian than Trump, except the usual cast of global characters (Putin, Orban, Yong Un, etc..). And only one president has led an insurrection against the United States.
This is his power, and how so many people fall for his grift, will haunt this nation for decades to come.
We are not a perfect union, not even the “shinny city on the hill.” But we can be a “beacon of light.” Our country has always strived to be greater, which is what separates us from most of the world. We are a nation of aspirations and inspiration.
Yet, every time we take one step forward, republicans always manage to pull us two steps back when they grab the reins of power. Rinse, lather, repeat…:)
Good to highlight what should be the key advantage in the race which gets doused by the fire hose of constant BS from the former Republican Party. At some point, the hydrant will run dry.
Trump is a toxic narcissist, a despicable bully... The list seems to be endless. He is the only person in recent history for whom we have actually run out of words to describe how utterly deplorable he is.
I totally agree, Joe Biden turns a disability into a strength. On the other hand, Trump turns an advantage of inheritance into a vehicle that allows him to claim victim-hood. How absurd is that, he has received all the advantages of wealth and claims he is a victim.
There's a quote that resurfaced during the protests after the murder of George Floyd: "When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression." So, the translation to this is being charged with crimes he actually committed (it was right in front of us), being found guilty of sexual assault, defamation, and fraud would result in him feeling oppressed and being a victim. He's gotten away with illegal activity his entire life (privilege), so to him, why be held accountable now (oppression)?
Trump has spent his lifetime gaslighting, cheating and stealing, tying up the courts to cripple his opponents financially. His grandiose ego and delusional omnipotence expanded with each successful con job and sadistic bullying episode. As he ascended to the presidency and beat up the Republicans, reducing them to sycophant adulation, his sense of omnipotence ballooned into the stratosphere. He enjoined his base to ally with his aggression and sanctified their rage and hatred as American values.
Trump's swollen delusional grandiosity is unsustainable and quite fragile. Narcissistic insults cut into him deeply since he is very thin skinned and intolerant. His paranoid underbelly unravels his veneer of confidence. The unbridled rage and his deteriorating sanity results from reality hits that disarm his delusions and force his capitulation to justice.
Trump cannot control himself. His unraveling is now irreversible. The only antidote is winning. Losing only escalates his deterioration. He now self-destructs.
Trump has downgraded our moral consciousness as a society. He has normalized behavior that in the past would have been thought of as obscene. The country is going to decide this November if this is who we are. Maybe it is. I hope not
And, we have these social media algorithms that amplify extremist propaganda, some of which are driven by foreign interests. We are up against a lot of challenges for sure.
dumpty is a fat POS. That anyone gives this turd the time of day is beyond me. Hey Shit for brains - declare bankruptcy, let the world see what a con you've been running your entire miserable existence, drain the RNC of all monies and cry in your diet Coke as your MAGA world migrates away from your toxic bile.
Our nation has never shared the wealth as it should have and could have--it has been run by the people that own it, and the electoral college. . Starting in the 17h century , from the Netherlands' colonies sent here to make money, we had unlimited space to grow because we simply slaughtered the native indigents and made empty treaties which we dishonored, stealing all their our country, and all the time we had free slave labor to make us ever richer...and then in the 19th century we bumped against the Pacific and have now run out of space, and we are finding out what we are, at last. We are discovering what we always were...And now we are a country owned by 1,000 billionaires, and those people are oligarchs and plutocrats...the radical right, the alt-right., and they won the election under Trump and are threaening to do it again..
Yet, we are the best nation on earth left. That is certain., in spite of our enormous crimes against humanity which we have never made right or paid reparations for.
Our vast wealth gap is what created Trump; he was the natural evitability; a fascist with support of those who have been humialted for centuries and who are manipulted through their ( deliberatly engineered) ignorance by the ruling class..
It;s amazing, but we are the best nation on earth.
Well, it's true Trump loves the poorly educated, as they're the ones who fall for his snake oil. But if the "ruling class" wanted to deliberately keep the masses ignorant, they would not have allowed our modern system of education to take shape in the 1800s. I attended our public school system. Seems to me one would have to be willfully antagonistic to education in order to remain ignorant of the difference between facts and opinions, compassion and cruelty, democracy and fascism.
Do the poor classes have mommies and daddies as a guarantee they can go to Harvard, Yale ,the 7 top women's colleges, the best private schools from kindergarden on, and when you look at statistics, which priviledged kids turn into billionaires, moguls and oligarchs (all disgusting also)?
Read Nancy McLean's "Democracy in Chains", pub. 2017.
The poor have been, by many means of the ruling rich, been kept unaware of their situation and the laws of economics that keep them down; they have purposely been kept in ignorance.
We must call out sadistic Trump and his sadistic followers, like NC Lt. Gov Mark Robinson and NC GOP nominee for Superintendent Michele Morrow. They're all salivating at violent fantasies which they express as calls to action. Steve is right. What kind of role models are these sadistic, disturbed people for our children?
What is it about the American psyche that seems to admire the actions of a bully? Do we not have the fortitude to confront them? Are we scared of potential pushback? What are we protecting by not stepping up?
Yes, Steve throws much needed hard punches at MAGA day after day, and then he delivers something so beautiful that tears flow and spirits soar. Compassion v Cruelty: we choose.
Steve, you hit the nail on the head. Your post describes the essence of what this election is about. Compassion over cruelty. Thank you!
Trump is a wicked bully and a disgusting pig ,but we all know that. What I want to know is where is the front page headlines today over Lev Parnes’s explosive congressional testimony yesterday? In any other dimension of responsible journalism that testimony along with that of others testifying before congress yesterday should be full front page news and Senators like Ron Johnson should be facing arrest.
It’s insane for sure. I actually sat watching and applauded him.
Lev Parnes is not going to get media attention. I don't think it is because of what he is saying. Our media's attention is focused on the glamour of money and looks. The media's subjects have to have cuteness and posture and clothes and an American persona.
Jamie Raskin used a portion of his 5 minutes to ask Lev a couple questions related to the reason he stayed and why he left Magaworld. His answers were truly wonderful. Surely, they had to have some positive effect on the Magats that were present to hear (except for MTG and Jordan). Same goes for Trumpanzees that watched it. But do they even watch live feeds/recordings of hearings? Or do they only listen to Fox's disinformation?
I dislike your dehumanzing of Trump supporters., using the slur words you have for them. They have human genes and are no worse or better than any humans. Their life experioences have formed and shaped them and made them have diffefrent ideologies than you and I. As far as the Trump supporters tastes in News, I agree. They listen to things that reinfiorce what they believe to be true. Don't you and I do the same thing, for the most part? We think we are superior, don't we, and yet I agree that you and I are certainly using facts for our beliefs and they are using conspiracy theories. They have been humiliated by talk shows, movies, sit-coms and the media, making fun of their low class, vulgar speech, and all the aspects of their lives and their red neck behavior for all our lives. They hate the intelligensia. and art and all that goes with people like me. In fact, that class has been the butt of derision since this nation began. Now they have finallyn had someone to express their rage, and they do not see him as a demagogue, they see him as someone who GET it. He has great power and a famous name, and even was a former president. Of course , of course they love him and would take a bullet for him!!! embrace them, and try to understand them, and not ridicule them.
Tracy, you seem to be saying "There are good people on both sides." Nonsense. There is NO excuse for the Trump supporters who violently broke into the Capitol during the joint session of Congress to halt the final certification of the electoral college vote.
Further, this is not a "class" war between so-called elites and the "lower class." The conflict is between rational people who at least try to base their thinking on evidence and confirmed facts, as opposed to, yes, people, but people who take their position directly from the mouth of their cult leader -- a former game show host -- apparently oblivious to the fact that he is a pathological lying fraud of the first order. And they listen to no one else. They don't want your understanding; they just want to piss you off, and they revel in Trump pissing you off. If that doesn't warrant ridicule, I don't know what does.
That is untrue. OF COURSE the rioters are wrong! Re-read what I said.Wisdom comes only by compassion! It comes by caring ! Wisdom comes by struggling to understand and try to engage in a civil tongue all those who completely differ with us.--and when they insult us, it means they are hurting badly, and it is an opportunity right then and there to gently, (never frontally like Hillary did), tactfully lead them to KNOWLEDGE they did not have. All else is maness, death and destruction. No matter how we are attacked, we must not surrender by using irrationality to attack irrationality.
> "...gently... tactfully lead them to KNOWLEDGE."
Tracy, MAGAs listen to no one but Trump. We've tried "When they go low, we go high." Didn't work. They only used the opportunity to wrongfully take advantage.
Among other bad things, there are racists in this country. Trump allowed them to come out from under their rocks. You think you can "tactfully" bring them into the 21st Century? It was the children of the 1960s who brought at least some of their parents into the 20th. Once Trump is defeated, which is the main issue here, perhaps it will be the children of the 2020s who begin to chip away at the stragglers. But jeez, they've been straggling since the Civil War. That group is pretty well entrenched.....
Is basket of deplorables better?
No! It very unwise. Wisdom comes only by compassion! It comes by caring ! Wisdom comes by struggling to understand and try to engage in a civil tongue all those who completely differ with us.--and when they insult us, it means they are hurting badly, and it is an opportunity right then and there to gently, (never frontally like Hillary did), tactfully lead them to KNOWLEDGE they did not have. All else is maness, death and destruction. No matter how we are attacked, we must not surrender by using irrationality to attack irrationality.
There’s that too
Exactly.
It sure looks like today, it’s being shoved under the table by the mainstream media gatekeepers. I guess this decision is being played out in the corporate boardrooms and supersized yachts, and not in the managing editors office where that decision should be made. Just another example of how far we have fallen and why it’s time to take on the billionaires. Unregulated Capitalism and low taxed corporations should be on all our hit lists.
Trump is truly a coward and a snowflake. The problem is that we have been way too polite and gentle with him. Trump only punches downward. He never faces any confrontation. When confronted with his lies he raises his volume and talks over the person but more frequently runs away. Ask Leslie Stahl about her interview.
Trump really can’t take a punch. Like all bullies, if a number of people stand up to them, they slither away.
Trump needs to simply be outed for the coward, not strong man he’d like you to believe he is.
His talk of a 100% tariff on foreign cars was literally stupid. “You do realize Mr Trump that your idea is absolutely stupid.” You do realize it would give domestic makers the ability to raise the price of cars not lower because there would be no competition?
“Hey Dumbass, you still don’t understand that the consumer not the producer pays the tariff raises ultimately!”(okay dumbass is not the word to use but the point is that he only understands strength and when directly confronted he cowards and runs from it.
When he says you are stupid or your question is nasty, simple say you’ll dummy it down so he can try to understand it or you’ll try to explain it in simple words for him.
The bottom line is that you don’t give respect unless you get respect. Allowing Trump to take all the oxygen in the room only encourages his vile rhetoric. Confront him directly. The Afghanistan withdrawal has come up, confront him that it was based on his stupid terms not Biden’s .
Confront him with the $7 trillion deficit he racked up in 4 years. Confront him with the fact that during his term, it was the first time in a half century that there were fewer jobs in America, he didn’t create more jobs.
Stop being nice. A bully only gets worse when you don’t confront him directly.
Perfectly said! (Even the dumbass😉)
Thank you.
Totally....an orange stupid fat pig.
“Trump is a bully, and like all bullies, he is weak….
America should have a strong president, and there can be no strength with the absence of love, compassion and wisdom. Trump has none. He is a brittle man and a bad one.”
Excellent sentiments. Trump is a moron, but he does have some evil genius qualities: deflection, and projection are his to most potent traits.
He knows he’s corrupt, but believes because of his status and wealth, the laws don’t apply to him. Yet, he will always accuse others of being even more corrupt than he is to deflect.
He accuses Biden of being an authoritarian kleptocrat. Yet, no one is more crooked or authoritarian than Trump, except the usual cast of global characters (Putin, Orban, Yong Un, etc..). And only one president has led an insurrection against the United States.
This is his power, and how so many people fall for his grift, will haunt this nation for decades to come.
We are not a perfect union, not even the “shinny city on the hill.” But we can be a “beacon of light.” Our country has always strived to be greater, which is what separates us from most of the world. We are a nation of aspirations and inspiration.
Yet, every time we take one step forward, republicans always manage to pull us two steps back when they grab the reins of power. Rinse, lather, repeat…:)
What I particularly liked was your admission of his genius in all things that are very, very bad.
Exactly…:)
Good to highlight what should be the key advantage in the race which gets doused by the fire hose of constant BS from the former Republican Party. At some point, the hydrant will run dry.
Trump is a toxic narcissist, a despicable bully... The list seems to be endless. He is the only person in recent history for whom we have actually run out of words to describe how utterly deplorable he is.
I totally agree, Joe Biden turns a disability into a strength. On the other hand, Trump turns an advantage of inheritance into a vehicle that allows him to claim victim-hood. How absurd is that, he has received all the advantages of wealth and claims he is a victim.
There's a quote that resurfaced during the protests after the murder of George Floyd: "When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression." So, the translation to this is being charged with crimes he actually committed (it was right in front of us), being found guilty of sexual assault, defamation, and fraud would result in him feeling oppressed and being a victim. He's gotten away with illegal activity his entire life (privilege), so to him, why be held accountable now (oppression)?
Mike, thank you for that very smart quote. Something I will add to my repertoire.
Trump has spent his lifetime gaslighting, cheating and stealing, tying up the courts to cripple his opponents financially. His grandiose ego and delusional omnipotence expanded with each successful con job and sadistic bullying episode. As he ascended to the presidency and beat up the Republicans, reducing them to sycophant adulation, his sense of omnipotence ballooned into the stratosphere. He enjoined his base to ally with his aggression and sanctified their rage and hatred as American values.
Trump's swollen delusional grandiosity is unsustainable and quite fragile. Narcissistic insults cut into him deeply since he is very thin skinned and intolerant. His paranoid underbelly unravels his veneer of confidence. The unbridled rage and his deteriorating sanity results from reality hits that disarm his delusions and force his capitulation to justice.
Trump cannot control himself. His unraveling is now irreversible. The only antidote is winning. Losing only escalates his deterioration. He now self-destructs.
Trump has downgraded our moral consciousness as a society. He has normalized behavior that in the past would have been thought of as obscene. The country is going to decide this November if this is who we are. Maybe it is. I hope not
He was elected once. One thing is certain. The majority of Americans are under educated. This results in a deficiency in objective critical thinking.
And, we have these social media algorithms that amplify extremist propaganda, some of which are driven by foreign interests. We are up against a lot of challenges for sure.
dumpty is a fat POS. That anyone gives this turd the time of day is beyond me. Hey Shit for brains - declare bankruptcy, let the world see what a con you've been running your entire miserable existence, drain the RNC of all monies and cry in your diet Coke as your MAGA world migrates away from your toxic bile.
Trump has set our country back 70 years.
Our nation has never shared the wealth as it should have and could have--it has been run by the people that own it, and the electoral college. . Starting in the 17h century , from the Netherlands' colonies sent here to make money, we had unlimited space to grow because we simply slaughtered the native indigents and made empty treaties which we dishonored, stealing all their our country, and all the time we had free slave labor to make us ever richer...and then in the 19th century we bumped against the Pacific and have now run out of space, and we are finding out what we are, at last. We are discovering what we always were...And now we are a country owned by 1,000 billionaires, and those people are oligarchs and plutocrats...the radical right, the alt-right., and they won the election under Trump and are threaening to do it again..
Yet, we are the best nation on earth left. That is certain., in spite of our enormous crimes against humanity which we have never made right or paid reparations for.
Our vast wealth gap is what created Trump; he was the natural evitability; a fascist with support of those who have been humialted for centuries and who are manipulted through their ( deliberatly engineered) ignorance by the ruling class..
It;s amazing, but we are the best nation on earth.
Well, it's true Trump loves the poorly educated, as they're the ones who fall for his snake oil. But if the "ruling class" wanted to deliberately keep the masses ignorant, they would not have allowed our modern system of education to take shape in the 1800s. I attended our public school system. Seems to me one would have to be willfully antagonistic to education in order to remain ignorant of the difference between facts and opinions, compassion and cruelty, democracy and fascism.
Do the poor classes have mommies and daddies as a guarantee they can go to Harvard, Yale ,the 7 top women's colleges, the best private schools from kindergarden on, and when you look at statistics, which priviledged kids turn into billionaires, moguls and oligarchs (all disgusting also)?
Read Nancy McLean's "Democracy in Chains", pub. 2017.
The poor have been, by many means of the ruling rich, been kept unaware of their situation and the laws of economics that keep them down; they have purposely been kept in ignorance.
Wow! Intensely true, although I have been to better countries -it depends on the criteria.
Hey, where'd you get that line???
You have no idea hiw much I needed these words this morning. Struggles turn into strength and wisdom. Thank you
We must call out sadistic Trump and his sadistic followers, like NC Lt. Gov Mark Robinson and NC GOP nominee for Superintendent Michele Morrow. They're all salivating at violent fantasies which they express as calls to action. Steve is right. What kind of role models are these sadistic, disturbed people for our children?
What is it about the American psyche that seems to admire the actions of a bully? Do we not have the fortitude to confront them? Are we scared of potential pushback? What are we protecting by not stepping up?
And there you have it..
OMG Steve, you did it again...brought tears to my eyes. If a President doesn’t have humanity he is a shell. He is nothing.
Yes, Steve throws much needed hard punches at MAGA day after day, and then he delivers something so beautiful that tears flow and spirits soar. Compassion v Cruelty: we choose.