The Trump record: 91 criminal charges 26 sexual assault allegations 6 bankruptcies 5 draft deferments 4 indictments 2 impeachments 1 finding of rape I convicted company 1 fake university shut down 1 fake charity shut down $25 million fraud settlement
At least we have a rough idea of how many nutballs are out there waiting to shoot us when the Golden Golem of Greatness, as James Howard Kunstler called Trump, is remanded and outfitted in an orange jumpsuit to match his ugly combover.
To be honest, I don’t know if this is good news or bad news. Bad in that so many Americans are thoroughly and utterly deranged. Good in that if Trump is the nominee we will very likely avert an existential threat to the country.
Perhaps then until the 2024 election, which the Mango Mussolini will lose, and then we have "Stop the Steal 2.0" and here we go again. The only way to break this fever is to have the Republicans beaten so badly that the bald truth is forced on the cultists. I will say, that if these people ever do discover they have been played for fools, they will never forget or forgive those who did so.....memories are long among many of those folks.
We are living in a perfect storm of lies, conspiracy theories, mass delusion and the amplification of same via social media. It's as if the internet and all of its tributaries were designed for this moment. A search on "mass delusions in history" generates links galore, going back hundreds of years, continuing to the 21st century. If you want to count the false messiahs who had many thousand more followers than Jesus ever did, the evidence goes further back than a mere few hundred years.
I imagine that those who study such phenomena will be be writing papers long into the future, and that the name Trump will rank near the top of the delusional pyramid. That's if the future comes to pass. What's the over/under on that?
I wonder exactly who are these people the pollsters talk to? If all your survey participants are complete nutcases, that will skew the results and your conclusions. I have never trusted polls, particularly after 2016, and these polls should be examined with a whole shaker of salt but it is troubling that so many people in this country regard trump so highly and are willing to support him with their money and their vote. Troubling and sickening indeed…
TC, you referred to a cult of about 29,480,000 Americans, not chicken feed!
Excellent listing of Trump's support from registered Republicans, TC. I picked up the following:
Poll: 71% of GOP voters stand with Trump amid investigations (Meet The Press Blog, July 31, 2023)
'The headline from this morning’s New York Times/Siena College poll is former President Donald Trump’s commanding 37 percentage-point national lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the rest of the GOP presidential field.'
'But the more revealing story in the survey might be the seven-in-10 Republican voters standing behind Trump amid the multiple investigations into the former president, as well as more confirmation about how Trump has remade today’s Republican Party in his own image.'
'According to the poll, 71% of GOP primary voters think Republicans should stand behind Trump amid the investigations and indictments he’s facing, compared with 22% who don’t think the Republican Party needs to stand behind Trump. '
'An equal 71% of GOP voters say Trump has not committed serious crimes, while 17% say he has.' (NBCnews) See link below.
So we tell ourselves. It could be that Rupert will pick our president again. He already expressed a preference for Youngkin. Now it seems that others are encouraging him to get in the race since DeSatan is flaming out. Has anybody noticed that Georgia repubs are gearing up to oust Fani Willis. The cult is alive and well, and it will be, by whatever means….
Penfist, I do not doubt you. After our exchange, I found the following recent article:
‘Demographic change continued to chip away at the cornerstone of the Republican electoral coalition in 2022, a new analysis of Census data has found.’
‘White voters without a four-year college degree, the indispensable core of the modern GOP coalition, declined in 2022 as a share of both actual and eligible voters, according to a study of Census results by Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political scientist who specializes in electoral turnout.’
‘McDonald’s finding, provided exclusively to CNN, shows that the 2022 election continued the long-term trend dating back at least to the 1970s of a sustained fall in the share of the votes cast by working-class White voters who once constituted the brawny backbone of the Democratic coalition, but have since become the absolute foundation of Republican campaign fortunes.’
‘As non-college Whites have receded in the electorate over that long arc, non-White adults and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Whites with at least a four-year college degree, have steadily increased their influence. “This is a trend that is baked into the demographic change of the country, so [it] is likely going to accelerate over the next ten years,” says McDonald, author of the recent book “From Pandemic to Insurrection: Voting in the 2020 Presidential Election.”
‘From election to election, the impact of the changing composition of the voter pool is modest. The slow but steady decline of non-college Whites, now the GOP’s best group, did not stop Donald Trump from winning the presidency in 2016 – nor does it preclude him from winning it again in 2024. And, compared to their national numbers, these non-college voters remain a larger share of the electorate in many of the key states that will likely decide the 2024 presidential race (particularly Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) and control of the Senate (including seats Democrats are defending in Montana, Ohio and West Virginia.)’
‘But even across those states, these voters are shrinking as a share of the electorate. And McDonald’s analysis of the 2022 results shows that the non-college White share of the total vote is highly likely to decline again in 2024, while the combined share of non-Whites and Whites with a college degree, groups much more favorable to Democrats, is virtually certain to increase. The political effect of this decline is analogous to turning up the resistance on a treadmill: as their best group shrinks, Republicans must run a little faster just to stay in place.’
‘Especially ominous for Republicans is that the share of the vote cast by these blue-collar Whites declined slightly in 2022 even though turnout among those voters was relatively strong, while minority turnout fell sharply, according to McDonald’s analysis. The reason for those seemingly incongruous trends is that even solid turnout among the non-college Whites could not offset the fact that they are continuing to shrink in the total pool of eligible voters, as American society grows better-educated and more racially diverse.’ (CNN) See link below.
The storm - at least in our parts of California - was a typical 2023 Hollywood production: it didn't live up to the hype. It may, however, have flushed Palm Springs - which is definitely NOT a Bad Thing.
Victoria, I looked at the picture of your beautiful dog. You may have told us about her/him, but, if you did,, unfortunately, I don't remember. When convenient, I'd love to learn whatever you care to share. Thank you.
There was a post way back during the George W. Bush years entitled "The Crazification factor" that put the baseline number of Americans that would vote not just against their own interests but in the craziest way possible at 27%, using the results of the Barack Obama-Alan Keyes Senate race in 2004. It's worth checking out:https://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/10/lunch-discussions-145-crazification.html
all of the above demonstrates why I try my best to avoid spending too much time reflecting on polling results, especially at this point in a campaign. but yes, a few months after the 2017 inauguration, it became clear to me that we were dealing with a cult in most ways identical to any other cult we've heard of.
and, most distressingly, it's a pretty successful cult. once people start admitting (and it sounds like it's "admitting with PRIDE") their preferred source of information is whatever the cult leader says is true, things really ARE that fucked up. if it's possible to change the minds of any of these people, it's going to mean some very labor-intensive de-programming. thing is, I'm in no way convinced it's possible.
and changing the topic completely for a second, I can confirm that Puccini did NOT visit Japan to write "Madama Butterfly. the guy hated to leave his estate for ANY reason, save for checking out new productions of his work and consummating some of notorious adulterous adventures. and if the latter, he preferred the objects of these efforts to come to HIM, whenever possible. tour guides are notorious for spicing things up; it's also possible that your guide was just repeating what he or she was told...it makes for a much better story. as I DID say last week, his librettist (Luigi Illica) actually DID visit Japan for the "local color," so it's not as if there was NO element of "truthiness" in the information you got.
We lie/sit/stand in the middle of a pool of ignorance and mendacity that is, unfortunately, the natural result of a poor educational system that de-emphasized teaching civics, where 25% of US adults are functional illiterates, where a majority of one political party is so gullible they will believe a carnival barker "prophet" over the best scientists and experts we have, where hundreds of people stood out in the rain in Dallas waiting for the return of John F. Kennedy Jr., who had died in a plane crash years before, at the behest of Qanon, where millions will vote to overturn the most successful example of self-government in recent history and enslave themselves and their descendants, where the press has lost sight of the truth in favor of "both-siderism" and failure to dig for the truth..... What could possibly go wrong.....?
Unf**kingbelievable! No, it’s not. The cult has been growing out in the open and with support from our families and friends, right-wing media, the MSM (both sides idiots), social media cretins, the business community, Pharisees, and one of our two major political parties. We’re as deranged as the German citizenry was with Adolf. That should scare the hell out of any sane person. But it doesn’t seem to. I, too, know plenty of the 61% and none of the 24%. Joe’s efforts are being ignored and the Dems seem determined to split into a three-headed monster (sane, RFKJr, and nolabels). Wish it weren’t so…
I'll make a prediction that by January 2025, No Labels will still be ripping off the Idiot Rich for donations to "improve things," having done nothing, and that RFK Jr will be soliciting speaking engagements to rejoin the antivaxxers.
At least we have a rough idea of how many nutballs are out there waiting to shoot us when the Golden Golem of Greatness, as James Howard Kunstler called Trump, is remanded and outfitted in an orange jumpsuit to match his ugly combover.
It’s enough with the states busy passing laws as Germany did prewar. NOTHING Hitler did was illegal.
To be honest, I don’t know if this is good news or bad news. Bad in that so many Americans are thoroughly and utterly deranged. Good in that if Trump is the nominee we will very likely avert an existential threat to the country.
Perhaps then until the 2024 election, which the Mango Mussolini will lose, and then we have "Stop the Steal 2.0" and here we go again. The only way to break this fever is to have the Republicans beaten so badly that the bald truth is forced on the cultists. I will say, that if these people ever do discover they have been played for fools, they will never forget or forgive those who did so.....memories are long among many of those folks.
We are living in a perfect storm of lies, conspiracy theories, mass delusion and the amplification of same via social media. It's as if the internet and all of its tributaries were designed for this moment. A search on "mass delusions in history" generates links galore, going back hundreds of years, continuing to the 21st century. If you want to count the false messiahs who had many thousand more followers than Jesus ever did, the evidence goes further back than a mere few hundred years.
I imagine that those who study such phenomena will be be writing papers long into the future, and that the name Trump will rank near the top of the delusional pyramid. That's if the future comes to pass. What's the over/under on that?
Mass delusions can be as infectious as any other disease. Think of it as mental black mold.
I wonder exactly who are these people the pollsters talk to? If all your survey participants are complete nutcases, that will skew the results and your conclusions. I have never trusted polls, particularly after 2016, and these polls should be examined with a whole shaker of salt but it is troubling that so many people in this country regard trump so highly and are willing to support him with their money and their vote. Troubling and sickening indeed…
TC, you referred to a cult of about 29,480,000 Americans, not chicken feed!
Excellent listing of Trump's support from registered Republicans, TC. I picked up the following:
Poll: 71% of GOP voters stand with Trump amid investigations (Meet The Press Blog, July 31, 2023)
'The headline from this morning’s New York Times/Siena College poll is former President Donald Trump’s commanding 37 percentage-point national lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the rest of the GOP presidential field.'
'But the more revealing story in the survey might be the seven-in-10 Republican voters standing behind Trump amid the multiple investigations into the former president, as well as more confirmation about how Trump has remade today’s Republican Party in his own image.'
'According to the poll, 71% of GOP primary voters think Republicans should stand behind Trump amid the investigations and indictments he’s facing, compared with 22% who don’t think the Republican Party needs to stand behind Trump. '
'An equal 71% of GOP voters say Trump has not committed serious crimes, while 17% say he has.' (NBCnews) See link below.
https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meetthepressblog/poll-71-gop-voters-stand-trump-investigations-rcna97305
We not only need to "kill the king," we also need to kill The Party." Thanks, I think, Fern!
The party is killing itself.
So we tell ourselves. It could be that Rupert will pick our president again. He already expressed a preference for Youngkin. Now it seems that others are encouraging him to get in the race since DeSatan is flaming out. Has anybody noticed that Georgia repubs are gearing up to oust Fani Willis. The cult is alive and well, and it will be, by whatever means….
I don't "like" this.
They move at warp speed, while justice inches along.
What is your source, Penfist?
What is the body count?
Thank you.
I will answer your question with an essay at my place, Fern. It will be sourced. Tomorrow afternoon. I will come back here and post a link.
Penfist, I do not doubt you. After our exchange, I found the following recent article:
‘Demographic change continued to chip away at the cornerstone of the Republican electoral coalition in 2022, a new analysis of Census data has found.’
‘White voters without a four-year college degree, the indispensable core of the modern GOP coalition, declined in 2022 as a share of both actual and eligible voters, according to a study of Census results by Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political scientist who specializes in electoral turnout.’
‘McDonald’s finding, provided exclusively to CNN, shows that the 2022 election continued the long-term trend dating back at least to the 1970s of a sustained fall in the share of the votes cast by working-class White voters who once constituted the brawny backbone of the Democratic coalition, but have since become the absolute foundation of Republican campaign fortunes.’
‘As non-college Whites have receded in the electorate over that long arc, non-White adults and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Whites with at least a four-year college degree, have steadily increased their influence. “This is a trend that is baked into the demographic change of the country, so [it] is likely going to accelerate over the next ten years,” says McDonald, author of the recent book “From Pandemic to Insurrection: Voting in the 2020 Presidential Election.”
‘From election to election, the impact of the changing composition of the voter pool is modest. The slow but steady decline of non-college Whites, now the GOP’s best group, did not stop Donald Trump from winning the presidency in 2016 – nor does it preclude him from winning it again in 2024. And, compared to their national numbers, these non-college voters remain a larger share of the electorate in many of the key states that will likely decide the 2024 presidential race (particularly Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) and control of the Senate (including seats Democrats are defending in Montana, Ohio and West Virginia.)’
‘But even across those states, these voters are shrinking as a share of the electorate. And McDonald’s analysis of the 2022 results shows that the non-college White share of the total vote is highly likely to decline again in 2024, while the combined share of non-Whites and Whites with a college degree, groups much more favorable to Democrats, is virtually certain to increase. The political effect of this decline is analogous to turning up the resistance on a treadmill: as their best group shrinks, Republicans must run a little faster just to stay in place.’
‘Especially ominous for Republicans is that the share of the vote cast by these blue-collar Whites declined slightly in 2022 even though turnout among those voters was relatively strong, while minority turnout fell sharply, according to McDonald’s analysis. The reason for those seemingly incongruous trends is that even solid turnout among the non-college Whites could not offset the fact that they are continuing to shrink in the total pool of eligible voters, as American society grows better-educated and more racially diverse.’ (CNN) See link below.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/16/politics/demographic-changes-voters-fault-lines/index.html
That’s it. Young people are inheriting a broken society. They’re not going to be doing things the way boomers did. They’re paying attention.
"But, his laptop" has replaced "But her emails." It's never going to end.
Cognitive dissonance is one hell of a drug. There’s no bottom. Be prepared. Stay safe.
I'm hoping this means you and GarySanDiego made it through the storm okay?
MAGAts are idiots. I know them also.
The storm - at least in our parts of California - was a typical 2023 Hollywood production: it didn't live up to the hype. It may, however, have flushed Palm Springs - which is definitely NOT a Bad Thing.
🤣🤣🤣 Glad to hear it! It’s the “I” storms I fear, after Isabel, Irma, and Ian. Ernesto made a good run at it, and bailed…
People in Galveston, Texas still remember Ike in 2008.....the most destructive hurricane to hit that island in the past 50 years.
Damn.
There are more of us than there are of them.😁 Vote BLUE all the way through 2024!
Victoria, I looked at the picture of your beautiful dog. You may have told us about her/him, but, if you did,, unfortunately, I don't remember. When convenient, I'd love to learn whatever you care to share. Thank you.
There was a post way back during the George W. Bush years entitled "The Crazification factor" that put the baseline number of Americans that would vote not just against their own interests but in the craziest way possible at 27%, using the results of the Barack Obama-Alan Keyes Senate race in 2004. It's worth checking out:https://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/10/lunch-discussions-145-crazification.html
“The craziest way possible”. Seen any of those interviews with chump devotees???
all of the above demonstrates why I try my best to avoid spending too much time reflecting on polling results, especially at this point in a campaign. but yes, a few months after the 2017 inauguration, it became clear to me that we were dealing with a cult in most ways identical to any other cult we've heard of.
and, most distressingly, it's a pretty successful cult. once people start admitting (and it sounds like it's "admitting with PRIDE") their preferred source of information is whatever the cult leader says is true, things really ARE that fucked up. if it's possible to change the minds of any of these people, it's going to mean some very labor-intensive de-programming. thing is, I'm in no way convinced it's possible.
and changing the topic completely for a second, I can confirm that Puccini did NOT visit Japan to write "Madama Butterfly. the guy hated to leave his estate for ANY reason, save for checking out new productions of his work and consummating some of notorious adulterous adventures. and if the latter, he preferred the objects of these efforts to come to HIM, whenever possible. tour guides are notorious for spicing things up; it's also possible that your guide was just repeating what he or she was told...it makes for a much better story. as I DID say last week, his librettist (Luigi Illica) actually DID visit Japan for the "local color," so it's not as if there was NO element of "truthiness" in the information you got.
I said it before and I will keep saying it. I want Trump dead in the water. And his cult.
Salud to like minded thinkers.
🗽
Salud Christine 🗽
We lie/sit/stand in the middle of a pool of ignorance and mendacity that is, unfortunately, the natural result of a poor educational system that de-emphasized teaching civics, where 25% of US adults are functional illiterates, where a majority of one political party is so gullible they will believe a carnival barker "prophet" over the best scientists and experts we have, where hundreds of people stood out in the rain in Dallas waiting for the return of John F. Kennedy Jr., who had died in a plane crash years before, at the behest of Qanon, where millions will vote to overturn the most successful example of self-government in recent history and enslave themselves and their descendants, where the press has lost sight of the truth in favor of "both-siderism" and failure to dig for the truth..... What could possibly go wrong.....?
Unf**kingbelievable! No, it’s not. The cult has been growing out in the open and with support from our families and friends, right-wing media, the MSM (both sides idiots), social media cretins, the business community, Pharisees, and one of our two major political parties. We’re as deranged as the German citizenry was with Adolf. That should scare the hell out of any sane person. But it doesn’t seem to. I, too, know plenty of the 61% and none of the 24%. Joe’s efforts are being ignored and the Dems seem determined to split into a three-headed monster (sane, RFKJr, and nolabels). Wish it weren’t so…
I'll make a prediction that by January 2025, No Labels will still be ripping off the Idiot Rich for donations to "improve things," having done nothing, and that RFK Jr will be soliciting speaking engagements to rejoin the antivaxxers.
Do you underestimate the number of blathering fools. Hope you are right about their future
A cult of self-pitying miscreants with homicidal tendencies; saboteurs, liars, traitors, ALL OF WHOM WE TOLERATE. And there’s the rub . . .
As Ricky Ricardo used to say...”Ei yi yi yi yi!”