First, I love that you authenticated my email. Consider sharing if this is easy to do with some app. But let me comment as a senior (82, Vietnam Vet, Citizen Diplomat to USSR post-Chernobyl, been to East Berlin before the wall came down, and physician/scientist) about what is missing in just about every media dialog involving Trump et al.
The hallmarks of Fascism involved 1. The Loss of Due Process (a pillar of justice) and the Loss of Free Speech. We are evidencing this in the first 100 days of Trump & acolytes. Grabbing people off the street and sending them to prison in El Salvador without due process, and handcuffing a Tufts foreign student who happens to wear a hijab and sending her to a holding cell in Louisiana because she is not a citizen but wrote or spoke anti-Trump statements is loss of free speech. The attack on the Associated Press (excluding them from the WH Press Pool and from Air Force One) is an early manifestation of the attack on the media, along with Trump's usual utterings of "witchhunt" and "fake news." This is all fascist narrative-- the same stuff of Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler and of course, Trump's best friend Putin.
Change our current attempts to normalize or rationalize Trump's speech and actions and instead insert the premise that TRUMP IS A RUSSIAN ASSET. Then everything he has done and is doing and plans to do makes total sense. Throw Ukraine under the bus, disrupt NATO, alienate all allies, destroy American economy, divide the people, hire the most incompetent Cabinet and White House (WH) team in the history of America. Use that premise and ask people to show you where any of Trump's actions are inconsistent with this being the harshest of realities. Today, a friend said she can only hope for the 2028 elections. Such an election will be identical to that in Russia or Turkey. The Trump Dynasty is already in the works. Start to think that Trump is the Manchurian Candidate and he has won the election and now is doing what Putin would do: Destroy America. This is what is happening.
Your post gave me another chilling thought: The first woman president of the United States is likely going to be Ivanka Trump. The brutal, unfortunate irony. It's not DEI if it's nepotism.
Justin, your "thought" that Ivanka might be the 1st woman POTUS is closer to a "count on it." If you notice, many of Trump's appointees to his cabinet are ≈ look-alikes to Ivanka. Look at photos of Pam Bondi and Karoline Leavitt. Trump's picks for key positions are often modeled after good-looking females with a clear leaning towards his favorite—Ivanka. Not all, but many of the women Trump selects are done via Trump's "Miss USA" brain. Despite their political views, you might agree that Tulsi Gabbard and Christy Noem are attractive women, and don't forget the highly attractive Alina Habba.
You can Google this and find news articles (I am sure Trump would call "fake news") about this going back a decade or more. Example: from the LA Times 9/29/2016:
"After the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes opened for play in 2005, its world-famous owner didn’t stop by more than a few times a year to visit the course hugging the coast of the Pacific. When Trump did visit, the club’s managers went on alert. They scheduled the young, thin, pretty women on staff to work the clubhouse restaurant — because when Trump saw less-attractive women working at his club, according to court records, he wanted them fired.
Lastly, don't forget Stormy Daniels, who was not displeasing to the eye of Donald when she was younger. Our "stable genius" "Chosen one" and according to press secretary Karoline Leavitt "Trump is behind a ‘spiritual revival’ in the U.S. and helping people move ‘closer to God." If you believe all of this, I have a gold guitar and a Trump bible to sell you.
The core value of American society is wealth; it's why people from elsewhere have been coming here for centuries. Along the way, because we could afford to, we adopted some ideals never enacted before in the terms of the Declaration of Independence and solidified in the Constitution (as amended). We are the most fortunate people in human history - allowed, encouraged, to develop wealth as a consequence of our unprecedented freedom and opportunities, and to do so in the context of a society which until recently could derive satisfaction that we were at least trying to offer some safety net for those of us who could not get ahead and needed help. The government until now always understood that regardless of our political leanings we all wanted it to protect our money. If Congress has lost that understanding, I expect that by the midterms the people are going to re-teach them.
Who you gonna vote for…the “blue team?” Left and right are totally obsolete , there’s one party and they don’t represent anyone but themselves and their cronies. This was all a foregone conclusion “you will own nothing.” All the pols and and they’re cronies have bet against the US and the $. They knew what was coming and will get another huge win as they burn it all down and liberate everyone of everything they own. The Dems handed this to him and are now playing good cop. They’re all globalist WEFers. All our allies are fleeing to BRICS, then we will join them at some point after they have a fire sale for all the US assets and privatize all the govt services which they will divide between them. Probably all swapped for crypto. The tariffs are all headed to the treasury which they have total control of. We’ve become a mafia state.
If it’s any comfort, I’m thankful for the chaos and Circus of Contradictions exposing these guys. The public is waking up to the fact that Team Blue and Team Red are bought and paid for by special interests. Years of ignored American civics lessons are finally coming to reality.
Ideology means jack shit when your money is on the line. Republicans can lie to themselves, but anyone not in the cult who's 401k just died knows whose fault it is.
In the midst of all this confusion, it is fascinating to track how the writers at the National Review and of the OP/ED pages of the WSJ are contorting themselves trying to cover what DJT is doing.
The R party’s moral & ethical inconsistency seems perfectly aligned with that of its voters. When I talk to the R voters I know I recognized how conflicted their views are, how skewed their logic (which is actually illogic), how they easily contradict themselves & reveal their hypocrisy & double standard. And, they espouse these inconsistent views so assuredly, without a moment’s reflection. They are absolutely convinced of their rightness on everything. Some commenters on social media blame lack of education. But, that’s not all of it or even the most of it. Cultural resentment &, yes, racism, are central to this unwavering belief ‘system.’ Republicans & right wingers have been promoting this through divisive media outlets for decades & it’s worked. Trump, like all good conmen, read the room & knew how to make use of this mental space to build a cult. The cult has been vindicated & the R party has backed itself into a corner. Hopefully, the mid terms will be a reckoning of sorts. If the Dems don’t manage to shoot themselves in the foot - again.
The republican party is based more on fantasy and magical thinking rather than reality. If they believe it to be true, it will become so. Just look at the gaslighting about the devastating tariffs and the stock market.
First, I love that you authenticated my email. Consider sharing if this is easy to do with some app. But let me comment as a senior (82, Vietnam Vet, Citizen Diplomat to USSR post-Chernobyl, been to East Berlin before the wall came down, and physician/scientist) about what is missing in just about every media dialog involving Trump et al.
The hallmarks of Fascism involved 1. The Loss of Due Process (a pillar of justice) and the Loss of Free Speech. We are evidencing this in the first 100 days of Trump & acolytes. Grabbing people off the street and sending them to prison in El Salvador without due process, and handcuffing a Tufts foreign student who happens to wear a hijab and sending her to a holding cell in Louisiana because she is not a citizen but wrote or spoke anti-Trump statements is loss of free speech. The attack on the Associated Press (excluding them from the WH Press Pool and from Air Force One) is an early manifestation of the attack on the media, along with Trump's usual utterings of "witchhunt" and "fake news." This is all fascist narrative-- the same stuff of Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler and of course, Trump's best friend Putin.
Change our current attempts to normalize or rationalize Trump's speech and actions and instead insert the premise that TRUMP IS A RUSSIAN ASSET. Then everything he has done and is doing and plans to do makes total sense. Throw Ukraine under the bus, disrupt NATO, alienate all allies, destroy American economy, divide the people, hire the most incompetent Cabinet and White House (WH) team in the history of America. Use that premise and ask people to show you where any of Trump's actions are inconsistent with this being the harshest of realities. Today, a friend said she can only hope for the 2028 elections. Such an election will be identical to that in Russia or Turkey. The Trump Dynasty is already in the works. Start to think that Trump is the Manchurian Candidate and he has won the election and now is doing what Putin would do: Destroy America. This is what is happening.
Your post gave me another chilling thought: The first woman president of the United States is likely going to be Ivanka Trump. The brutal, unfortunate irony. It's not DEI if it's nepotism.
Justin, your "thought" that Ivanka might be the 1st woman POTUS is closer to a "count on it." If you notice, many of Trump's appointees to his cabinet are ≈ look-alikes to Ivanka. Look at photos of Pam Bondi and Karoline Leavitt. Trump's picks for key positions are often modeled after good-looking females with a clear leaning towards his favorite—Ivanka. Not all, but many of the women Trump selects are done via Trump's "Miss USA" brain. Despite their political views, you might agree that Tulsi Gabbard and Christy Noem are attractive women, and don't forget the highly attractive Alina Habba.
You can Google this and find news articles (I am sure Trump would call "fake news") about this going back a decade or more. Example: from the LA Times 9/29/2016:
"After the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes opened for play in 2005, its world-famous owner didn’t stop by more than a few times a year to visit the course hugging the coast of the Pacific. When Trump did visit, the club’s managers went on alert. They scheduled the young, thin, pretty women on staff to work the clubhouse restaurant — because when Trump saw less-attractive women working at his club, according to court records, he wanted them fired.
Lastly, don't forget Stormy Daniels, who was not displeasing to the eye of Donald when she was younger. Our "stable genius" "Chosen one" and according to press secretary Karoline Leavitt "Trump is behind a ‘spiritual revival’ in the U.S. and helping people move ‘closer to God." If you believe all of this, I have a gold guitar and a Trump bible to sell you.
The core value of American society is wealth; it's why people from elsewhere have been coming here for centuries. Along the way, because we could afford to, we adopted some ideals never enacted before in the terms of the Declaration of Independence and solidified in the Constitution (as amended). We are the most fortunate people in human history - allowed, encouraged, to develop wealth as a consequence of our unprecedented freedom and opportunities, and to do so in the context of a society which until recently could derive satisfaction that we were at least trying to offer some safety net for those of us who could not get ahead and needed help. The government until now always understood that regardless of our political leanings we all wanted it to protect our money. If Congress has lost that understanding, I expect that by the midterms the people are going to re-teach them.
Who you gonna vote for…the “blue team?” Left and right are totally obsolete , there’s one party and they don’t represent anyone but themselves and their cronies. This was all a foregone conclusion “you will own nothing.” All the pols and and they’re cronies have bet against the US and the $. They knew what was coming and will get another huge win as they burn it all down and liberate everyone of everything they own. The Dems handed this to him and are now playing good cop. They’re all globalist WEFers. All our allies are fleeing to BRICS, then we will join them at some point after they have a fire sale for all the US assets and privatize all the govt services which they will divide between them. Probably all swapped for crypto. The tariffs are all headed to the treasury which they have total control of. We’ve become a mafia state.
If it’s any comfort, I’m thankful for the chaos and Circus of Contradictions exposing these guys. The public is waking up to the fact that Team Blue and Team Red are bought and paid for by special interests. Years of ignored American civics lessons are finally coming to reality.
Ideology means jack shit when your money is on the line. Republicans can lie to themselves, but anyone not in the cult who's 401k just died knows whose fault it is.
In the midst of all this confusion, it is fascinating to track how the writers at the National Review and of the OP/ED pages of the WSJ are contorting themselves trying to cover what DJT is doing.
Honesty plus clarity = Truth. Another highly recommended read (shared this comment to notes).
This post is 10 years outdated. They sold their soul the first time around. Now they’re just rolling around in the shit enjoying the smell.
The R party’s moral & ethical inconsistency seems perfectly aligned with that of its voters. When I talk to the R voters I know I recognized how conflicted their views are, how skewed their logic (which is actually illogic), how they easily contradict themselves & reveal their hypocrisy & double standard. And, they espouse these inconsistent views so assuredly, without a moment’s reflection. They are absolutely convinced of their rightness on everything. Some commenters on social media blame lack of education. But, that’s not all of it or even the most of it. Cultural resentment &, yes, racism, are central to this unwavering belief ‘system.’ Republicans & right wingers have been promoting this through divisive media outlets for decades & it’s worked. Trump, like all good conmen, read the room & knew how to make use of this mental space to build a cult. The cult has been vindicated & the R party has backed itself into a corner. Hopefully, the mid terms will be a reckoning of sorts. If the Dems don’t manage to shoot themselves in the foot - again.
The republican party is based more on fantasy and magical thinking rather than reality. If they believe it to be true, it will become so. Just look at the gaslighting about the devastating tariffs and the stock market.