Trump basks in the applause in New Hampshire last Friday Yeah, I know, this time of year I am supposed to look back on the good things that outweighed the bad things and show how next year can be better. And then I read or watch the news. What is completely incredible to me is that since just before Thanksgiving, when the news media finally allowed the word “fasicst” to sneak into an article and followed up with more articles with that word, when the Atlantic published 24 smart people calling out Trump and the GOP for the fascists they are and the dictatorship they want to create next year, the result has been that Trump as doubled and now tripled down on this dictator-curious streak, repeatedly flirting with public promises to govern as a dictator, and the result is he is ahead of President Biden in too damn many polls to dismiss them all as outliers.
You put it beautifully, and it isn't just "flooding the zone with shit," to quote Steve Bannon, who exemplifies the final word of that quotation.
First, there is now no social media platform that allows any counterpoint to what he is saying, and if it does, it's non-existent.
Second, the only TV network calling him out is, of course, what the right calls MSDNC, which is about as much a Democratic Party voice as Pravda spoke for anti-communists. They think they are being fair, too.
Finally, the problem with the mainstream media is exemplified by the story of the one media outlet that did its job, and I thrilled to the story when David Halberstam told it in The Powers That Be. The Washington Post assigned a reporter full-time to Senator Joseph McCarthy, whom we Las Vegans also encountered through the work of Hank Greenspun, the Las Vegas Sun publisher who took him on, was slandered by him, and ended up being indicted for (and acquitted of) inciting his assassination. The first one was Al Friendly, who later became managing editor, but the one who really took it on was Murrey Marder. Every night they held the paper open while Marder carefully wrote up what McCarthy had said, and wrote it to show that he was lying. He would present the truth alongside it. It was tough. The Post got a lot of criticism. But it was one of the few newspapers that truly distinguished itself, and they didn't wait for Edward R. Murrow to get on the case.
Today's media have even less interest in that kind of reporting. They would rather tweet, get clicks, and do as little as possible. The DC political media are not Liberal. The correct L word is lazy. And they are going to wind up in death camps in 2025 for their sycophancy if they are not careful.
The only Social Media I use is Facebook (unless you count Substack), and believe me my feed is FULL of criticisms of trump. FB Jail is a weird, random place and all sorts of stuff gets blocked. I think we notice it more when it happens to be something dear to our hearts.
I think the algorithm does "flag" certain posters. I have a FB friend who is CONSTANTLY in FB jail--he is critical of trump, but perfectly innocuous stuff, not even political, also sends him there--even memes that everyone else is happily posting. I suspect that this partly happens when someone "reports" you, whether or not justified--that's a problem with having your posts public.
On Twitter, I agree that it appears to. But I don't do Twitter so I have no direct experience.
You rock TC. I can only ask that you please tell people not to wait until November to vote. Primaries are vital parts of an election and the usual 30% turnout is not the way to keep our democracy.
The other day Rachel Maddow said tfg had a majority among Iowa caucus voters and I thought what the heck? The caucuses are not till next month so I looked it up. I want to put this in all caps but just imagine me yelling very loudly: “The Iowa Poll, conducted Dec. 2-7, 2023, for The Des Moines Register, NBC News and Mediacom by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, is based on telephone interviews with 502 registered voters in Iowa who say they will definitely or probably attend the 2024 Republican caucuses.”
I respect Rachel Maddow, she’s got a good fascist history book out now, and I understand that if she actually said it was a poll of 502 people contacted by phone (over 3000 were initially called but evidently didn’t answer) people would tune it out as not being significant. THE MEDIA NEEDS TO REPORT FACTS AND STOP TRYING TO MAKE NEWS. THERE ARE PLENTY OF FACTS OUT THERE,BEGINNING WITH THE MUELLER REPORT. 😖😤🤯😢😡🤬
I did see a clip from one of his Nazi rallies the other day and he was short of breath and couldn’t find his words. He even lost some orange color and looked more like a grapefruit. If only this would have progressed.....
Thank you for your keen nursing assessment, Karen. I fear, like with his COVID bout when he returned from the hospital to the WH with obvious respiratory contractions and shortness of breath, that his team will cover up his condition until the magates have elected his demented corpse, and Stephen Miller will run the country into hell.
Oh MaryPat what a nightmare. He picks Steven Miller for his vice president and the demented corpse is totally incapacitated or keels over dead, and that slimy Nazi runs the country. That runs chills down my spine. Some encouraging news out of Colorado though. But we’ll see what the corrupt 6 on the Supreme Court do with it.
GMWAS (gag me with a spoon.) I can't believe Junior would be able to wind up the (paid) crowds the way tffg alway seems to be able to do. And if he brings his equally crazy girlfriend onstage to scream with him...yikes!
But...I still can't believe there are people think tffg is fit for ANY elective office, let alone the presidency, so what do I know?
I have been leaving little warning notes about right wing fascism around town, in restrooms, dressing rooms, at gas pumps, on the beer shelves at the supermarket, tucked into books I donate to the monthly library book sale, on the booth seats at the diner, and other places along the way. It feels good, and now I know why the church folks have been leaving their tracts around town for a century. First Amendment, Baby. Taking advantage before the Constitution is "suspended".
I use simple index cards that I can carry in my pocket and I hand write the message because I think people will be more likely to read it if it's not in print. The handwriting plus finding the message in an unexpected place may lend more gravity to the message. My inspiration for this came from reading the many grocery lists that I find abandoned in shopping carts because I have fun imagining what's going on in the list writer's life based on the items on the list. Very funny sometimes.
Here it is:
"Warning from #81--
Do not let radical right wingers and elites turn America into a fascist country with an authoritarian leader. I can promise you that we will ALL deeply regret it when it's too late."
I tried to keep it from shouting partisanship but wanted it to have gravity, thus the caps on ALL. Just today I put one next to the soap dispenser in the women's restroom where some of us went for lunch. Then I slipped one between boxes of holiday cookies at the market, and left one tucked in the holding receptacle for the gas pump at the gas station. I try to do it discreetly knowing the world is filled with surveillance cameras, but I'm prepared to deal with any confrontations.
Perhaps they will have no impact whatsoever, but I know I'm doing something beyond working on a campaign, or this year at the polls. I expect the message will change as we lead up to the election. I may have to draw a skull and crossbones on each one.
"I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and no one could touch me." Or, something to that effect. For the faithful, his words are boasts and gloats, sticking it to the opposition which, predictably, rants in the media and gets all riled up like we always do. Just like the crybabies we liberals are. He gets the rise the faithful thrive on and makes them feel superior so we can act just like him and, wink wink, we know he ain't fool enough to mean all this trash. It's performance, entertainment, and inspiration all wrapped up in one constant bamging of MY drum. Damn, he's good. And, slowly, more of the rails get removed and the shoulder becomes the very pathway to the voting booth and WE win! 2024 and 2025 are the years of retribution and the good times for the faithful. Will they notice the potholes and broken lights and scum and the disappearance of their special place in his heart by 2026? You and Vance are so right. It, all this trash talk, is intentional, a promise, and may well not be followed through on he announces his unopposed run for an unprecedented third term.
I live in my TV-less world so I can pick and choose when I have to see or hear the Orange Mutant. Otherwise, it’s work to get out the vote and keep people informed. Don’t waste time on the MAGA crowd - work for the doable turnout - young people, independents, etc. Many if not most still don’t get that there is only one issue now: preserving democracy versus introducing autocracy. Nothing else matters.
I'm all for calling his enablers the Bund to their faces which will send most of them to look up the meaning. It is they, yeah, the whimp-ass GOP and the maga entourages and rally rats who are the worst of it. He'd be nothing without their disgusting and inappropriate laughter and wavelike supplication. They are Trumpians, not to be confused with Americans, and they, like everyone else in his life, are expendable and will ultimately have close-up views of the underside of a Greyhound. That may be the only vestige of satisfaction we can wring from this situation if he's re-elected; he will turn on them too. Small comfort.
I took the liberty, again, of excerpting one paragraph - the one recalling a story told by Billy Wilder - and reposting it on my FB page, of course with full attribution.
All those people in the background of your first photo are paid extras. But what’s much more disturbing is the live free or die sign. Again Himself projects. That sign is how he sees what his life has come to. Not being in a position to control people is death to him.
On the NH last night, I think it was Jeff, really struggled to call out the insipid piece of shit for what he said over the weekend, he didn't want to say Fascist or Nazi, you could tell that they as an organization did not want to go there, and they are PBS. I was screaming at my TV. All of the MSM needs to wake up, we're screwed if they don't, Rachael was great last night, one of her strongest shows ever. Morning Joe needs to get rid of all of his fucking pictures, if they are going to talk about him, no images, I like the guests but I never want to see that fuckers face again, EVER!!! They are all making money using his images. The NYT is complicit as well, we need the nations press to wake up and burry the bastard every day, endlessly, until he's in a prison or a grave. Non stop, turn on the TV and all they are talking about is Hitler, that's what we need.
PBS got defanged and declawed by Gingrich and alleged "Democrat" Bill Clinton signed the legislation. They've been a shadow of themself for 25 years now.
Please, let the gloves come off on January 2. MSM needs to get its shit together before they’re sued out of existence by a complicit judiciary, and Democrats need surrogates out front and LOUD.
The worst thing we can do is not vote and making sure people like us not vot.
If that mofo "wins" the streets that erupted over George Floyd and Eric Gardner will look like a kiddie birthday. Blood will be spilt. Progs aren't pussies, pacifists stay the fuck home we mean business this time.
Or if you study history, this shithole is not worth it
At first when he started his current diatribes, I thought it was just showing increasing dementia. To some extent it probably is, but there more and more seems to be a method in it. The dementia aspect might be increasing dependence on the Steven Millers of the world. I AM having trouble seeing how the oligarchy feels it is benefitting from all this--true fascism is too random to make them feel comfortable. And of course the Kochs don't seem to.
If the Christianists succeed in making this a "Christian nation" how long before we see doctrinal crap going on, and the Klan once again persecuting Catholics or even Episcopalians. There must be SOME oligarchs who would be at risk
Remember the idea of the persecution complex? Whoda thunk it would become the badge of a political party (I STILL distinguish MAGA from GOP as far as voters go, not politicians). I've had go-rounds with several Christianists who claim heartily to be victims because they aren't allowed to persecute others.
We’ve all got to die of something but I don’t want to be killed by a laughing clown. Great piece, TC, but tonight it makes me sad. If I’m smart and lucky I’ll find that calm GQ mode I loved. Main battery, director 51, is the stable element up? Can I light the director for stable element?
To your list of people almost daily now warning about the threat that the U.S. might succumb to fascism, please add Rachel Maddow. I haven't found a video of her whole program from 12/18, but this clip will suffice. Remember that she just published "Prequel," a book about fascism in America in the '30s, so she knows what she's talking about.
You put it beautifully, and it isn't just "flooding the zone with shit," to quote Steve Bannon, who exemplifies the final word of that quotation.
First, there is now no social media platform that allows any counterpoint to what he is saying, and if it does, it's non-existent.
Second, the only TV network calling him out is, of course, what the right calls MSDNC, which is about as much a Democratic Party voice as Pravda spoke for anti-communists. They think they are being fair, too.
Finally, the problem with the mainstream media is exemplified by the story of the one media outlet that did its job, and I thrilled to the story when David Halberstam told it in The Powers That Be. The Washington Post assigned a reporter full-time to Senator Joseph McCarthy, whom we Las Vegans also encountered through the work of Hank Greenspun, the Las Vegas Sun publisher who took him on, was slandered by him, and ended up being indicted for (and acquitted of) inciting his assassination. The first one was Al Friendly, who later became managing editor, but the one who really took it on was Murrey Marder. Every night they held the paper open while Marder carefully wrote up what McCarthy had said, and wrote it to show that he was lying. He would present the truth alongside it. It was tough. The Post got a lot of criticism. But it was one of the few newspapers that truly distinguished itself, and they didn't wait for Edward R. Murrow to get on the case.
Today's media have even less interest in that kind of reporting. They would rather tweet, get clicks, and do as little as possible. The DC political media are not Liberal. The correct L word is lazy. And they are going to wind up in death camps in 2025 for their sycophancy if they are not careful.
I can't see the NYT publishing the Pentagon Papers now, that's for sure. Or the WaPo stepping up and doing it when the Times got hit legally.
Social Media blocks criticism of Trump. It disappears as soon as its posted
Which i a good reason to leave FleeceBlock and "Hex".
The only Social Media I use is Facebook (unless you count Substack), and believe me my feed is FULL of criticisms of trump. FB Jail is a weird, random place and all sorts of stuff gets blocked. I think we notice it more when it happens to be something dear to our hearts.
I think the algorithm does "flag" certain posters. I have a FB friend who is CONSTANTLY in FB jail--he is critical of trump, but perfectly innocuous stuff, not even political, also sends him there--even memes that everyone else is happily posting. I suspect that this partly happens when someone "reports" you, whether or not justified--that's a problem with having your posts public.
On Twitter, I agree that it appears to. But I don't do Twitter so I have no direct experience.
You rock TC. I can only ask that you please tell people not to wait until November to vote. Primaries are vital parts of an election and the usual 30% turnout is not the way to keep our democracy.
The other day Rachel Maddow said tfg had a majority among Iowa caucus voters and I thought what the heck? The caucuses are not till next month so I looked it up. I want to put this in all caps but just imagine me yelling very loudly: “The Iowa Poll, conducted Dec. 2-7, 2023, for The Des Moines Register, NBC News and Mediacom by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, is based on telephone interviews with 502 registered voters in Iowa who say they will definitely or probably attend the 2024 Republican caucuses.”
I respect Rachel Maddow, she’s got a good fascist history book out now, and I understand that if she actually said it was a poll of 502 people contacted by phone (over 3000 were initially called but evidently didn’t answer) people would tune it out as not being significant. THE MEDIA NEEDS TO REPORT FACTS AND STOP TRYING TO MAKE NEWS. THERE ARE PLENTY OF FACTS OUT THERE,BEGINNING WITH THE MUELLER REPORT. 😖😤🤯😢😡🤬
I wish he'd drop dead. Short of that, we're all going to have to work like hell to get the vote out!
You and me both. Preferably mid-rant in front of the droolers.
I did see a clip from one of his Nazi rallies the other day and he was short of breath and couldn’t find his words. He even lost some orange color and looked more like a grapefruit. If only this would have progressed.....
That's encouraging!!!
He musta missed his Toxin Breakfast Shake
Thank you for your keen nursing assessment, Karen. I fear, like with his COVID bout when he returned from the hospital to the WH with obvious respiratory contractions and shortness of breath, that his team will cover up his condition until the magates have elected his demented corpse, and Stephen Miller will run the country into hell.
Oh MaryPat what a nightmare. He picks Steven Miller for his vice president and the demented corpse is totally incapacitated or keels over dead, and that slimy Nazi runs the country. That runs chills down my spine. Some encouraging news out of Colorado though. But we’ll see what the corrupt 6 on the Supreme Court do with it.
That's been my dream for 6 years now.
They’ll just annoint Jr.
Jr. doesn't have whatever DT has that drives the drivel so mad, so I don't think you have to worry about that at all. Jr. would be a flop.
DTJ junior would be the puppet for Stephan Miller, and MBS and Putin and...
Yeah but Junior doesn't have the gift of grift and crowd manpiulation that his old man has in spades.
He rambles on YouTube. It may not matter if the rubes get riled. He'll be Bonnie Prince Charlie.
GMWAS (gag me with a spoon.) I can't believe Junior would be able to wind up the (paid) crowds the way tffg alway seems to be able to do. And if he brings his equally crazy girlfriend onstage to scream with him...yikes!
But...I still can't believe there are people think tffg is fit for ANY elective office, let alone the presidency, so what do I know?
Yes...the perfect ending. How I hope and pray for just such a denouement.
I have been leaving little warning notes about right wing fascism around town, in restrooms, dressing rooms, at gas pumps, on the beer shelves at the supermarket, tucked into books I donate to the monthly library book sale, on the booth seats at the diner, and other places along the way. It feels good, and now I know why the church folks have been leaving their tracts around town for a century. First Amendment, Baby. Taking advantage before the Constitution is "suspended".
A sample for us?!
I use simple index cards that I can carry in my pocket and I hand write the message because I think people will be more likely to read it if it's not in print. The handwriting plus finding the message in an unexpected place may lend more gravity to the message. My inspiration for this came from reading the many grocery lists that I find abandoned in shopping carts because I have fun imagining what's going on in the list writer's life based on the items on the list. Very funny sometimes.
Here it is:
"Warning from #81--
Do not let radical right wingers and elites turn America into a fascist country with an authoritarian leader. I can promise you that we will ALL deeply regret it when it's too late."
I tried to keep it from shouting partisanship but wanted it to have gravity, thus the caps on ALL. Just today I put one next to the soap dispenser in the women's restroom where some of us went for lunch. Then I slipped one between boxes of holiday cookies at the market, and left one tucked in the holding receptacle for the gas pump at the gas station. I try to do it discreetly knowing the world is filled with surveillance cameras, but I'm prepared to deal with any confrontations.
Perhaps they will have no impact whatsoever, but I know I'm doing something beyond working on a campaign, or this year at the polls. I expect the message will change as we lead up to the election. I may have to draw a skull and crossbones on each one.
BRAVA!!! Thank you for your service!
"I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and no one could touch me." Or, something to that effect. For the faithful, his words are boasts and gloats, sticking it to the opposition which, predictably, rants in the media and gets all riled up like we always do. Just like the crybabies we liberals are. He gets the rise the faithful thrive on and makes them feel superior so we can act just like him and, wink wink, we know he ain't fool enough to mean all this trash. It's performance, entertainment, and inspiration all wrapped up in one constant bamging of MY drum. Damn, he's good. And, slowly, more of the rails get removed and the shoulder becomes the very pathway to the voting booth and WE win! 2024 and 2025 are the years of retribution and the good times for the faithful. Will they notice the potholes and broken lights and scum and the disappearance of their special place in his heart by 2026? You and Vance are so right. It, all this trash talk, is intentional, a promise, and may well not be followed through on he announces his unopposed run for an unprecedented third term.
I live in my TV-less world so I can pick and choose when I have to see or hear the Orange Mutant. Otherwise, it’s work to get out the vote and keep people informed. Don’t waste time on the MAGA crowd - work for the doable turnout - young people, independents, etc. Many if not most still don’t get that there is only one issue now: preserving democracy versus introducing autocracy. Nothing else matters.
I'm all for calling his enablers the Bund to their faces which will send most of them to look up the meaning. It is they, yeah, the whimp-ass GOP and the maga entourages and rally rats who are the worst of it. He'd be nothing without their disgusting and inappropriate laughter and wavelike supplication. They are Trumpians, not to be confused with Americans, and they, like everyone else in his life, are expendable and will ultimately have close-up views of the underside of a Greyhound. That may be the only vestige of satisfaction we can wring from this situation if he's re-elected; he will turn on them too. Small comfort.
I took the liberty, again, of excerpting one paragraph - the one recalling a story told by Billy Wilder - and reposting it on my FB page, of course with full attribution.
It's a story people should hear.
All those people in the background of your first photo are paid extras. But what’s much more disturbing is the live free or die sign. Again Himself projects. That sign is how he sees what his life has come to. Not being in a position to control people is death to him.
On the NH last night, I think it was Jeff, really struggled to call out the insipid piece of shit for what he said over the weekend, he didn't want to say Fascist or Nazi, you could tell that they as an organization did not want to go there, and they are PBS. I was screaming at my TV. All of the MSM needs to wake up, we're screwed if they don't, Rachael was great last night, one of her strongest shows ever. Morning Joe needs to get rid of all of his fucking pictures, if they are going to talk about him, no images, I like the guests but I never want to see that fuckers face again, EVER!!! They are all making money using his images. The NYT is complicit as well, we need the nations press to wake up and burry the bastard every day, endlessly, until he's in a prison or a grave. Non stop, turn on the TV and all they are talking about is Hitler, that's what we need.
PBS got defanged and declawed by Gingrich and alleged "Democrat" Bill Clinton signed the legislation. They've been a shadow of themself for 25 years now.
Please, let the gloves come off on January 2. MSM needs to get its shit together before they’re sued out of existence by a complicit judiciary, and Democrats need surrogates out front and LOUD.
We also need to start hammering the editors snd
reporters to do their jobs and
stop giving Trump a pass.
The DNC is failing us. When the White House has to speak out against fascists
and it's crickets from our party and reps!? WTF!!!
The worst thing we can do is not vote and making sure people like us not vot.
If that mofo "wins" the streets that erupted over George Floyd and Eric Gardner will look like a kiddie birthday. Blood will be spilt. Progs aren't pussies, pacifists stay the fuck home we mean business this time.
Or if you study history, this shithole is not worth it
Merry Christmas!
At first when he started his current diatribes, I thought it was just showing increasing dementia. To some extent it probably is, but there more and more seems to be a method in it. The dementia aspect might be increasing dependence on the Steven Millers of the world. I AM having trouble seeing how the oligarchy feels it is benefitting from all this--true fascism is too random to make them feel comfortable. And of course the Kochs don't seem to.
If the Christianists succeed in making this a "Christian nation" how long before we see doctrinal crap going on, and the Klan once again persecuting Catholics or even Episcopalians. There must be SOME oligarchs who would be at risk
Remember the idea of the persecution complex? Whoda thunk it would become the badge of a political party (I STILL distinguish MAGA from GOP as far as voters go, not politicians). I've had go-rounds with several Christianists who claim heartily to be victims because they aren't allowed to persecute others.
We’ve all got to die of something but I don’t want to be killed by a laughing clown. Great piece, TC, but tonight it makes me sad. If I’m smart and lucky I’ll find that calm GQ mode I loved. Main battery, director 51, is the stable element up? Can I light the director for stable element?
To your list of people almost daily now warning about the threat that the U.S. might succumb to fascism, please add Rachel Maddow. I haven't found a video of her whole program from 12/18, but this clip will suffice. Remember that she just published "Prequel," a book about fascism in America in the '30s, so she knows what she's talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cQiAYnvCAc&list=PLDIVi-vBsOEyETRGoRP9y8zhyu6bHl6iK&index=1
MARY TRUMP just announced that DT has been kicked off the Colorado ballot!!!