Trump is a mob boss, but he is bounded and not top dog. To find the top dogs you have to follow the money and find the winners based on the policies Trump and Co would put in place. We are not dealing with high intelligence here, just someone who wants to brag about being in the billionaires club with Peter Thiel, the Koch family and more. It is the corporate heads who are the real bosses, and they want taxes to stay low and all retirement funds, education funds, and medical funds to get channeled through them before the public can touch them. Essentially the "millionaires and billionaires" (think Bernie Sanders accent on that) are trying to design the US economy for their own benefit, and we need to name names and shame them continuously. Who are they? Jamie Dimond and his cohort of bankers. The chairs of Exxon, Chevron, BP, Shell and Total. The CEO and boards of giant food companies like Walmart, Albertsons, Kroger, Nestle, Mondelez, Cargill, ADM, General Mills etc. The leaders of military contractors like Boeing, Lockheed, and others who have never been decently audited because we constantly withdraw funding from the IRS. (Trump is not alone in this at all, just look at Mike Johnson throwing a nonsense bone to Israel by cutting the IRS budget.) The giants of the transport and internet companies are also in cahoots, including Elon Musk, the big three auto makers, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. All told these predominantly white male corporate titans support Trump because he is easy to pay off and gives them cover to claw all wealth to themselves, with no thought to the fact that this action will kill the economy. Trump is a useful puppet, a dangerous and self-serving puppet for sure, but the strings are pulled by the quieter, more powerful corporate interests hiding in the rhetorical fog of Trump's increasingly deranged quest for attention.
Well at least RR is not afraid to come right out and say it !! Politics worldwide is now getting very ugly. Look at the revelations currently coming out of the UK and other countries in Central Europe. And that's before we get to the Mickey Mouse Third World countries. The line in the sand has to be drawn and Trump must be stopped for all of us !!! The very thought of him being POTUS again is grotesque in the extreme !!!
There is danger in “bad” people with guns but just as in the ‘20s thru the ‘30s & ‘40s, yesterday, today & tomorrow, most of the danger lies in the silence & acquiescence of “good” people.
Don the mob boss, the strident leader of lizard-brain lemmings in and out of office. Isn’t it funny how “Christians“ suddenly lose all integrity and compassion when power and a chance of retribution for absolutely nothing arises.
It was very hard to read your essay this morning first thing on waking. It is not so much that the clarity on “Trump the Mob Boss” is so distressing but tied in with Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, the House of Representatives dysfunction, the election of a Trump puppet who is a “chisto-fascist” as speaker of the House and the blatant efforts of the Republicans to defund the IRS so billionaires can continue to cheat on their taxes unhindered, it is hard to believe that this is all occurring at once…but it is!
Anybody else would have been incarcerated. Why the exception? What is Democracy waiting for? Is he above the law? Is Mob rule written in the constitution?
I have a great fear that normal, rational, hard working people, just trying to get on with their lives people, will think that the deep fear Trump opposers and pro-impeachment members describe is exaggerated; that Trump could not possibly get away with obliterating legal and civil rights. They are wrong. They are woefully misguided if they think the already eroded justice system will save them and their families and loved ones from the pathological maliciousness of Mr Trump.
Trump is living proof that we learned absolutely nothing at all from Adolf Hitler. It is long since time that Americans unite to overthrow this criminal rapist liar tyrant. What are we all waiting for? Once he makes himself Dictator (not POTUS) in 2024, we can not do anything, Democracy will be dead. Is it already too late? WAKE UP, Americans!!!
Where is the justice department? He should have been jailed long ago.Biden is in control of the armed forces he can back that up. Where is the FBI and CIA?
“Rep. Liz Cheney warned a few weeks ago that if Trump is reelected, “all of the things he attempted to do but was stopped from doing by responsible people around him … he will do. There will be no guardrails … . He will unravel the institutions of our democracy.”
And there in lies the rub! Apparently, there were few profiles in courage lurking within the halls of the chaos caucus on J6th. And even fewer left standing afterwards.
If fearing for one’s life, and that of their families, were their collective excuse for not voting for Trump’s impeachment and removal from office, then why did these same people have the audacity to then blame the FBI, ANTIFA, and BLM for a false flag operation?
It’s not just their cowardice per se on J6th, they all spread and bought into hook, line and sinker, a false and debunked conspiracy theory. A narrative, by the way, they all knew to be false.
So sorry, we all know what a lying, destabilizing and destructive force Trump is, but what’s his enablers excuses for peddling lies and misinformation?
What is their excuse for removing Swalwell and Schiff from their positions on the intelligence committee, as retribution for telling the truth about Trump on J6th? Or supporting a farcical impeachment investigation into Biden?
What is their excuse for shutting down the government to try to thwart a legitimate special counsel investigation into his misappropriation of top secret documents, as well as Trump’s participation and planning of J6th, and trying to usurp a democratic election?
Bottom line: I don’t want to hear how scared these people were on J6th. It just reminds me how they all turn a blind eye, and have deaf ears whenever a mad man opens fire in a school, killing multiple children, and all they collectively offer are “thoughts and prayers.
That said, all the sympathy I have left for these profiles in cowardice, are “thoughts and prayers,” and hopefully a jail cell next to their anointed one!
If he were Muslim they would’ve put him in Gitmo by now for being a threat without a tenth of the evidence that’s publicly known to do with his crimes. Now that’s privilege.
Heather Cox Richardson reminded us in todays letter than Madison saw protection of conscience as the key value separation of Church & State provides citizens . We should remember that conscience has a reciprocal quality. Conscience requires individuals to be courageous, to stand up for Justice . Conscience implies a civic responsibility. And especially for an elected official . When was the last time America’s Congress acted with Conscience??? Especially the purported Christians .
His danger lies not only in the fact that he is the mob boss, but that he has refined his message to reflect exactly what they are thinking (well, he hasn't -- he's not smart enough, but his handlers, er, advisors have), and has truly become their spokesperson, something he reminds them of constantly when he says, "when they come after ME, they are really coming after YOU," etc. If you aren't scared, you oughta be, because it truly is his supporters who own all the guns. I live in Oregon, just southeast of Portland, and I watched in horror in the summer of 2020 as a caravan of big-wheeled pickup trucks several hundred vehicles long paraded single-file into Portland to counter-protest against Black Lives Matter protesters. The Trump Trucks had, attached either at the back of the cab or the end of the bed, the requisite Stars and Stripes ironically flapping in the wind opposite the Confederate flag, and each truck had several likely-gun-toting rednecks, alcohol-infused-and-frothing-at-the-mouth, eagerly anticipating the chance to gleefully stomp someone, or, if circumstances demanded (with a very low bar set for those circumstances), shoot someone, and shoot 'em up good, because after all, whoever they shot deserved it. Trump said so. THAT scared me. And if you aren't scared, you aren't paying attention.
Trump is a mob boss, but he is bounded and not top dog. To find the top dogs you have to follow the money and find the winners based on the policies Trump and Co would put in place. We are not dealing with high intelligence here, just someone who wants to brag about being in the billionaires club with Peter Thiel, the Koch family and more. It is the corporate heads who are the real bosses, and they want taxes to stay low and all retirement funds, education funds, and medical funds to get channeled through them before the public can touch them. Essentially the "millionaires and billionaires" (think Bernie Sanders accent on that) are trying to design the US economy for their own benefit, and we need to name names and shame them continuously. Who are they? Jamie Dimond and his cohort of bankers. The chairs of Exxon, Chevron, BP, Shell and Total. The CEO and boards of giant food companies like Walmart, Albertsons, Kroger, Nestle, Mondelez, Cargill, ADM, General Mills etc. The leaders of military contractors like Boeing, Lockheed, and others who have never been decently audited because we constantly withdraw funding from the IRS. (Trump is not alone in this at all, just look at Mike Johnson throwing a nonsense bone to Israel by cutting the IRS budget.) The giants of the transport and internet companies are also in cahoots, including Elon Musk, the big three auto makers, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. All told these predominantly white male corporate titans support Trump because he is easy to pay off and gives them cover to claw all wealth to themselves, with no thought to the fact that this action will kill the economy. Trump is a useful puppet, a dangerous and self-serving puppet for sure, but the strings are pulled by the quieter, more powerful corporate interests hiding in the rhetorical fog of Trump's increasingly deranged quest for attention.
Well at least RR is not afraid to come right out and say it !! Politics worldwide is now getting very ugly. Look at the revelations currently coming out of the UK and other countries in Central Europe. And that's before we get to the Mickey Mouse Third World countries. The line in the sand has to be drawn and Trump must be stopped for all of us !!! The very thought of him being POTUS again is grotesque in the extreme !!!
There is danger in “bad” people with guns but just as in the ‘20s thru the ‘30s & ‘40s, yesterday, today & tomorrow, most of the danger lies in the silence & acquiescence of “good” people.
Don the mob boss, the strident leader of lizard-brain lemmings in and out of office. Isn’t it funny how “Christians“ suddenly lose all integrity and compassion when power and a chance of retribution for absolutely nothing arises.
It was very hard to read your essay this morning first thing on waking. It is not so much that the clarity on “Trump the Mob Boss” is so distressing but tied in with Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, the House of Representatives dysfunction, the election of a Trump puppet who is a “chisto-fascist” as speaker of the House and the blatant efforts of the Republicans to defund the IRS so billionaires can continue to cheat on their taxes unhindered, it is hard to believe that this is all occurring at once…but it is!
Anybody else would have been incarcerated. Why the exception? What is Democracy waiting for? Is he above the law? Is Mob rule written in the constitution?
Lock him up!
I have a great fear that normal, rational, hard working people, just trying to get on with their lives people, will think that the deep fear Trump opposers and pro-impeachment members describe is exaggerated; that Trump could not possibly get away with obliterating legal and civil rights. They are wrong. They are woefully misguided if they think the already eroded justice system will save them and their families and loved ones from the pathological maliciousness of Mr Trump.
Trump is living proof that we learned absolutely nothing at all from Adolf Hitler. It is long since time that Americans unite to overthrow this criminal rapist liar tyrant. What are we all waiting for? Once he makes himself Dictator (not POTUS) in 2024, we can not do anything, Democracy will be dead. Is it already too late? WAKE UP, Americans!!!
Ms Liz Cheney is correct about Trump being a threat to our Constitution and Democracy.
Where is the justice department? He should have been jailed long ago.Biden is in control of the armed forces he can back that up. Where is the FBI and CIA?
“Rep. Liz Cheney warned a few weeks ago that if Trump is reelected, “all of the things he attempted to do but was stopped from doing by responsible people around him … he will do. There will be no guardrails … . He will unravel the institutions of our democracy.”
And there in lies the rub! Apparently, there were few profiles in courage lurking within the halls of the chaos caucus on J6th. And even fewer left standing afterwards.
If fearing for one’s life, and that of their families, were their collective excuse for not voting for Trump’s impeachment and removal from office, then why did these same people have the audacity to then blame the FBI, ANTIFA, and BLM for a false flag operation?
It’s not just their cowardice per se on J6th, they all spread and bought into hook, line and sinker, a false and debunked conspiracy theory. A narrative, by the way, they all knew to be false.
So sorry, we all know what a lying, destabilizing and destructive force Trump is, but what’s his enablers excuses for peddling lies and misinformation?
What is their excuse for removing Swalwell and Schiff from their positions on the intelligence committee, as retribution for telling the truth about Trump on J6th? Or supporting a farcical impeachment investigation into Biden?
What is their excuse for shutting down the government to try to thwart a legitimate special counsel investigation into his misappropriation of top secret documents, as well as Trump’s participation and planning of J6th, and trying to usurp a democratic election?
Bottom line: I don’t want to hear how scared these people were on J6th. It just reminds me how they all turn a blind eye, and have deaf ears whenever a mad man opens fire in a school, killing multiple children, and all they collectively offer are “thoughts and prayers.
That said, all the sympathy I have left for these profiles in cowardice, are “thoughts and prayers,” and hopefully a jail cell next to their anointed one!
Good riddance!
If he were Muslim they would’ve put him in Gitmo by now for being a threat without a tenth of the evidence that’s publicly known to do with his crimes. Now that’s privilege.
Heather Cox Richardson reminded us in todays letter than Madison saw protection of conscience as the key value separation of Church & State provides citizens . We should remember that conscience has a reciprocal quality. Conscience requires individuals to be courageous, to stand up for Justice . Conscience implies a civic responsibility. And especially for an elected official . When was the last time America’s Congress acted with Conscience??? Especially the purported Christians .
Why the heck can't there be an anonymous vote of lawmakers then? Would solve this.
His danger lies not only in the fact that he is the mob boss, but that he has refined his message to reflect exactly what they are thinking (well, he hasn't -- he's not smart enough, but his handlers, er, advisors have), and has truly become their spokesperson, something he reminds them of constantly when he says, "when they come after ME, they are really coming after YOU," etc. If you aren't scared, you oughta be, because it truly is his supporters who own all the guns. I live in Oregon, just southeast of Portland, and I watched in horror in the summer of 2020 as a caravan of big-wheeled pickup trucks several hundred vehicles long paraded single-file into Portland to counter-protest against Black Lives Matter protesters. The Trump Trucks had, attached either at the back of the cab or the end of the bed, the requisite Stars and Stripes ironically flapping in the wind opposite the Confederate flag, and each truck had several likely-gun-toting rednecks, alcohol-infused-and-frothing-at-the-mouth, eagerly anticipating the chance to gleefully stomp someone, or, if circumstances demanded (with a very low bar set for those circumstances), shoot someone, and shoot 'em up good, because after all, whoever they shot deserved it. Trump said so. THAT scared me. And if you aren't scared, you aren't paying attention.
We must decide if we are a nation of laws or of mob rule.