Remember, everything he and the Republicans (sic) say is a projection. The only voter fraud are Republican state officials suppressing the vote and gerrymandering the voter rolls. The entire NYC current trial is about election tampering not hush money. Projections!
Trump knows he can't win fairly so the loser is preparing to cheat. There isn't an honest "bone" in that man's body and if you don't believe me just ask Stormy. I watched a special on Hitler this morning and everything that fascist pig did, Trump is attempting to copy. From accusing the media of being the spreader of fake news, to his blatant disregard for everything that is good in this country. Even that stupid little red hat. Hitler's slogan of "Make Germany Great Again, which Donie Boy stole." Trump is little more than the stuff you scrape from the bottom of your shoes after a nice quite stroll through a cow pasture. Non-compos-mentis!
A Narcissist is in love with his REFLECTION — it can be a staged reflection. It need not reflect reality. As long as it looks good, it is good.
Hence, the gold gilding on everything in his world.
The man is one big phony piece of rancid meat covered in ketchup to hide the stench.
Gad.
{I hear people saying lately that he smells. Is that just some viral BS? A picture of him in court the other day did look decidedly SEEDY! I think he’s rotting from the inside.}
Donald, if you asked a republican to tell you their platform for the next four years, they wouldn't be able to do it unless they were totally honest (hahahaha) and said we plan to live in a dictatorship like putin, we will weed out anyone and everyone who is not straight, white, and Christian. If you ask them how they will fix the border or deal with foreign policy.........crickets!
DMZ--All the rantings of a mad man. He had 4 years to build the wall, he fixed or repaired 450 miles and built 45 more from scratch. Nothing to brag about. The deal with China, I'll give him that. He is oil crazy, and he can't see the need for renewable energy. His wealthy friends made a point of having him accentuate the drilling issue. Putting NATO on notice was an ass hole move. As far as the accord goes it benefited others as well, and seeing how things are progressing in the Middle East, I think it's back to the drawing board. Trump has maybe done a handful of things that benefited this country, where Biden's accomplishments are too many to list, but they did it on the evening news the other night.
You know, Mussolini was "credited" with "making the trains run on time," something that implies some benefit to that society. Hitler's war-making and war-machine, for a time, might be viewed by some as having artificially improved Germany's extremely depressed economy. Even if one accepts your list for your appreciation of tRump, which I do not, one must nevertheless ask: how much evil do you reckon compensates for a modicum of what you apparently consider good? Like those despots he admires, he is nothing but a vicious, cruel thug, gangster, criminal, bully with an extremely disordered mind and personality. If an absolute madman does 1,000 horrific things, do you praise him because he fixed one pothole?
No, Teresa! Don't you remember his brilliant idea of injecting bleach to protect yourself from COVID? Only Trump had the great wisdom to think of that. I remember Dr. Birx's look of awe when Trump came up with that idea.
Jaime, what about the brilliant idea of dropping an Atomic Bomb into a hurricane??? DJT lacks the intelligence of the average first grade school student.
He never said inject bleach. That was something the left invented to rile up the lowest IQ numpties in their party....it's still working 6 years later.
Yes, we always need to keep in mind that Trump has no way of fairly winning the election, and Trump knows that. So he doesn't even try to win. Remember that he rejects anyone who wouldn't buy into his agenda 100%.
He just needs to be on the ballot which he will, and he'll develop a tactic to steal the election like he did l last time.
At least cow patties can be used for fertilizer. Hmm. There's a new grift: tRump just spews the stuff every time he opens his mouth. Wonder how soon he'll take Trump Organics public.
I just listened to Trump as he was entering the courtroom. Can he ever express himself without sounding like a whining little baby. He doesn't understand how our court system works, to Trump, the court sees him as being guilty from the start and all he needs to do is prove his innocence. Good luck. His incessant rantings over points that a child could discern, leaves people wondering as to the man's sanity. He just comes across as being basically stupid. So whenever he begins to speak I mute the man, and listen to the sounds of "Simon and Garfunkel." After all, Trump just keeps repeating the same lies over and over again. Once you've heard them the first time, why bother with a second torture session. I love it when he tries to look mean, you can see the child in him.
He will always lose the popular vote, but that is not the vote that finally counts. It is the electoral vote.
Going into the election the red and red leaning states have 235 Electoral votes, blue states are 226 electoral votes.
Here is what is causing me insomnia.
The Swing states in 2020 are no longer swing states, GA, NC, VA because Republican legislatures have passed over 100 voter Suppression laws, limited drop boxes, and have legalized armed poll watchers, not to mention scrubbed voter rolls of minorities
If neither Trump or Biden get 270 votes it goes to Congress and each state has one vote, and there are more red states than blue.
If Trump only gets all red and red leaning states plus Michican and Pennsylvania with Muslim and black votes. He wins, even if Biden has 12 million popular votes
Muslims have threatened to sit out the election, vote third party or vote for Trump (despite his threat to deport them on Day 1)
Here is an Interesting statistic
State Bidens margin of victory in 2020 ---- Number of Muslims
PA --------------------------80.555 -- --------------- 149,661
WI ------------------------- 20,682--------------------68,699
And I haven't even mentioned black males, especially black, Philadelphia carried Pennsylvania because blacks are the majority population. And black males are notorious for stating that they will not vote for Biden, because he hasn't "delivered", the black community is even more homophobic than the white community, despite, maybe because, there is an over representation of black transgendered.
If these minority groups flip the finger to the Democrats, they will rue their pig headedness, as Trump has made no secret of his animosity to both, including deportation of Muslims
The answer is in the name United States of America. There are 51 governments in the United States. The Federal Government and the 50 States government. That is the way the founders created this country.
They didn"t create it as a democratic Republic, but as a Republic. A Republic is rule by wise men, the elite, the landed. Look at the motto of the Roman Republic SPQR Senatus Publicus Que Romanus. The Senate and the Roman People..
During the Republic period, Rome was ruled by the Senate, and the executive was vested in the hands of two consuls, so that no one would have total power., And not every citizen voted either.
The founders set the country up that only persons with a vested material interest (i.e. property owners) would vote. And thus it was for the first two elections. But the constitution left it up to the states to determine who could vote, because it said nothing about qualifications
It didn't take long for the states to realize that by enfranchising free men, those that didn't own property but were not enslaved or even indentured, to vote those in power could expand their base and thus state by state all free men were enfranchised.
Remember the various states are empowered, consider them individual countries, but by joining the union they agreed to stand by, honor and be governed by laws that a majority of the states enacted. That is the democracy, it is institutional not personal.
Personally, slaves, indentured servants, women did not have the right to vote. A black person who owned property, and thus free, could vote, initially.
Northern cities, for brief periods of time, black property owners voted. A very small number of free blacks owned slaves. The slaves that most free blacks purchased were relatives whom they later manumitted. A few free blacks also owned slave holding plantations in Louisiana, Virginia, and South Carolina.
Then with the Nat Turner Rebellions of 1832, blacks, including plantation owners, were re enslaved and denied the vote.The plantation owners had never been slaves, they were indentured servants or the heirs of black indentured servants.
The 20 Africans sold retrieved from the Portugese bya privateer and sold at Point comfort (Hampton) were not sold as slaves,slavery did not exist in Virginia until 1654 and by law until 1661, they were sold as indentured servants. Who were freed after the terms of their indenture, given seed corn, a musket and a mule and sent on their way to establish their own dynasty, or not.
It took 4 Amendments to the constitution (the 15th, the 17th, 19th and 26th) to finally make the United States of America a democracy.
At least by our definition of a democracy. If by democracy is meant that the country is ruled by persons elected to office, then yes it was a democracy at it's inception.
But Demos is Greek and the word means either mob or common people, it all depends on who is doing the defining.
By strict definition the U.S.A was not a rule of the common people, and certainly not until the 19th Amendment when women were given the right to vote.
But then there is the discussion of what actually constitutes a democracy.
Disguised as anti-voter "fraud" measures. Trump has convinced his cult-like MAGAts that our voting system is rife with fraud (it isn't--voter fraud is almost unknown--statistically nil).
You don't pay a fine if you don't vote.You pay a fine if you do not get your name crossed off the list.
Turn up,give your name to the electoral officer,collect the ballot paper Take the ballot paper to the booth and do whatever you like with it .You are there,you may as well vote,but you don't pay a fine if you don't vote
The only voter fraud found was done by Republicans. Republicans cannot win an election without lying and cheating. Vote Blue our only salvation from a Fascist, Dictator Nation.
Phillip, you are right about the trial not being about hush money but if the media can continue to portray it that way, the Trump cult will keep believing what Trump did was not illegal. Now, if someone they knew did it to keep them from learning something important to their lives, they would be furious and want them hauled away. Trump must have some kind of spell he can weave for people who want to fall under it.
Rachel Maddow is the only one that is framing this correctly. It is far more important than the press and media is portraying. Only because they are all playing to a salacious story. Not the real and underlying case. We deserve better investigative reporting.
I’m impressed with Maddow’s historical analysis and contagious nerd-iness in presenting correlations, indisputable documents that have been released, yet unexamined; and enthusiasm to preserve our democracy.
If I weren’t a life-long atheist, I would absolutely swear that Trump has made a pact with the Devil to get everything he wants in this life. And he thinks he can cheat the Devil when he dies.
I only wish I believed he’d end up in hell. But what he’s doing to our world — a world in which we should be thinking about the CLIMATE, and devoting our energies to ameliorating warming, not fixating on that horrid Orange Disaster — that does break my heart. Over and over again.
It is almost as though a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelations by those whose bottom philosophical line is based in the Gospel of Prosperity have chosen to realise our environmental Apocalypse. How we choose to think, matters.
It’s only gerrymandering when Republicans do it, it’s not gerrymandering when Marxist do it.
See: Maryland
I do love your projection here Phil. Trumps a threat only to your illusion or delusions of democracy.
Biden ignores SC=democracy
Biden ignores written laws on the books for the border=democracy. Biden and ilk make up fake crimes (the Marxist way) to keep Trump busy during election season= free and fair elections. Biden admitted yesterday in PA, the exercises of the court cases.
Even people who are too busy to spend time on social media or watch a lot of TV seem to know this. I make a lot of phone calls to democrats who are grateful to be contacted, glad to know how the laws have changed, and thank me for the calls. All they need is some information and some encouragement, and you can do that. If you haven't already, go volunteer to make phone calls!! The things you want to look for are changes in voting rules in your state. Can an elderly person survive in long lines in midday heat without water? How far away does a helper have to be from the polling station, etc. What can a voter do to sign up for mail voting? Whom can they contact if they have questions? etc.
I think I rank as old - I'm 91 - and I've vote by mail since 1992. At first because I was angry with the elections office in the California County where I lived at the time. They moved the voting place from 2 miles from where I lived to 15 miles away.
Once started however, I liked the simplicity, I can sit comfortably, with the voter guide in front of me for the many propositions and mark my ballot leisurely. I usually mail my ballot the next day. Early on we had to pay postage and we hoped our ballot was received and counted.
Now in California, every registered voter receives a ballot in the mail, at least 30 days before election day. Postage is free. And we have Ballot Trax - an online system that tells us when the ballot was mailed to us, when it was received at the County office, AND when it has been counted.
Oh, and I'm liberal progressive. The first thing I did after being sworn in as a Naturalized citizen, was register to vote as a Democrat in February 1967. I also converted both my first and second husbands from Republican to Democrat. All my children were Democrats. And my living grandchildren are Democrats. All my grandchildren vote, because Grandma says so.
I'm fortunate in my family as well. My sister and I agree on politics and I have only one nephew who votes Republican--however, he loathes Trump. He says Trump is not a Republican and he wouldn't vote for him if he was the last "Republican" on Earth. Hearing that made my whole weekend!
“…In 2020, Republicans fell far behind Democrats on those sorts of turnout initiatives, largely because Trump derided them as ripe for fraud. Some 60 percent of Democratic voters chose to vote by mail while only 32 percent of Republicans did so, according to a 2021 report from the MIT Election Data and Science Lab.”
Interestingly, in 2020 Trump himself voted by mail.
Insane or not, it looks like he's the Republican nominee for president. And Republicans have done all the work for him, so they can implement their Viktor Orbán-dictatorship template (yippers that's real) 'Project 2025'.
Register Democrats. Save yourself! (and the rest of us)
Trump's insanity is not simple. Apparently it does not register with many that he is so off, and increasingly so. He should not get near any office and certainly not POTUS ever. He won't.
He can only make sense when he reads the teleprompter; he exposes his escalating dementia whenever he goes off script. The GOP is doing its best to avoid having him speak in public.
I've noticed that as well. I was quite surprised they seemed to give him an unsupervised opportunity for that Gettysburg speech--if that's what it was. To me, it sounded like the ramblings of a demented idiot....oh, wait!
They know he is mentally unfit and YET they are behind him. Unconscionable! Trump is nothing and nowhere (other than an asylum or jail) without his enablers.
Yes! Does anyone think he actually writes his posts? Maybe his fans think he can write like a high schooler even though his verbal skills are third grade. LOL
Dementia is more a brain damage than a mental illness. It’s worse, because it’s progressive, untreatable and has profound implications for his emotions (rage, paranoia) and cognition (ability to think: express himself verbally, make plans, adjust to new information, and control emotions to accomplish goals). You know: little things that a President occasionally has to do!
If I had to say...I think he has both a serious personality disorder AND some form of progressive dementia.
If you watch clips of interviews from the late 80's, 90's...he gives full sentences that make sense, he has more command of language--he just sounds more like what you would expect of such a person--well, except for his obsession with his daughter. That IS rather icky, it must be said.
But geez...who could listen to that word stew that he served up at Gettysburg and not think he's "off". Very, very "off". Only members of the cult of Trump, I would guess.
I totally agree. There's no rule that says you can only have one diagnosis at a time. His narcissism and sociopathy are personality disorders that have been commented on by many psychologists and psychiatrists. Overlay that brew with dementia and you have one scary dude.
By proclaiming that the election is already rigged, Trump may discourage his voters from voting. However, Democrats should not in any way count on that. Rather, assume that he will bring his voters out in droves and respond accordingly. Take nothing for granted.
Gary, you're right about Trump shooting himself in the foot but he doesn't even notice (dementia). He has a store of constant resentment and anger, so his foot and what he stands on are irrelevant to him and the bunch of Americans who are infatuated with resentment and anger, two of what I call the new horsemen of the apocalypse, along with fear and hatred. Trump has those going too which helps make him really scary. Then, he is a coward with a big mouth and a lot of followers he wants to do his bidding and hurt anyone he does not like. It's nuts!
Yes, the facts and the numbers who voted for him in 2016 and 2020 shows a signifiant decline in his numbers and anyone can see a significant decline in his mental stability which was already questionable. The fact that numerous, reputable psychiatrists have diagnosed him and his behaviors correctly mean nothing to his loyal followers. Here's a good resource FYI: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists/
Gary, I am noticing that more mental health professionals are stepping up on the record and commenting about what they see related to Trump's erratic behavior. It is about time since the beginning signs of deterioration have been present at least since 2018, which is when I actually realized it was dementia based on the symptoms my mother and grandmother displayed near the beginning of their dementia. The difference, my mom and grandmother were good people who repeated nice or neutral things; Trump blurts out insults, lies, and other nonsense to catch and con his cult members.
The stark differences between nice and not nice, between good people and bad people are on display for all to see. The choice is which do you prefer? Then, mark your ballots accordingly.
Trump will never be just satisfied with winning. The goal posts will always be moving- winning by how much; winning which states; who voted for him and who did not. Trump is a caretaker for Putin. He’s marginally invested in being a good president. What he wants to be is a good Putin puppet. He wants to please his Moscow master.
We were given a strong preview of Trump’s mentality when he won in 2016. He complained of not winning by a large enough number; complaining Hillary Clinton could not have won the popular vote. Trump is like a boxer who knocks out his opponent to win the championship but complains his opponent didn’t stay knocked out long enough. He’s a man who’s constantly tainted by the need to be ( perceived as) perfect.
Putin will use Trump. Until he doesn’t. Then, who knows?
A Narcissist would only want to bask in the light around Putin until it became clear that the Narcissist SHOULD overshadow Putin.
As long as being around Putin makes Trump look like a world power of epic proportions {the Russian dictator does cast a HUGE image of himself as invincible, or he did until he invaded Ukraine…}, being in Putin’s good graces will serve Trump’s need to see himself as moving in those circles, as well. {And Trump KNOWS that, if he keeps Putin on his side, he’ll have Russian disinformation in his corner during this election, which he desperately wants to help him “win.”}
But soon, being seen as a Putin toady will begin to fade for a guy like Trump. The United States, after all, should be MORE powerful than Putin! Isn’t that the party line? So, Donald Trump should overshadow Vlad, not the other way around.
At some point, having so many people saying Trump is a Putin puppet will begin to rankle.
Now, that MIGHT not happen. Trump might NEVER find his way clear to criticize and belittle Vlad.
Because MAYBE Vlad really does have kompromat on Trump. Maybe, Vlad really does have something so embarrassing and degrading on Trump, that Donnie does not dare oppose the Russian Strongman.
Given the reality that Trump visited Russia a few times as a businessman before he ever ran for office … and given that Donnie is not the most careful or rational of actors when considering his personal behavior … we might conclude that Vlad has something really embarassing to show us, if Donnie ever pisses off the ex-KGB guy!
Yes what was said during Trump's meetings with Putin where no notes were taken, or his many long calls with Putin that have never been divulged to the public?
Should be against the law! But Trump made a pact with the Devil, so he gets away with anything in this life … Maybe that pact is coming to an end … He looks decidedly seedy in court lately…
Interesting way to frame it Pat. Trump needs to be the center of the universe, so does Putin (brothers from a different mother), there is an inherent sibling rivalry here.Putin is low keying it to use Trump who is so needy that he is clueless. At some point it breaks through and comes to a boil, but only if Trump wins.
And Putin definitely has the goods on him, but he has a huge carrot, making Moscow and Putins resources available to Trump. Maybe he has his eyes on taking over franchises, like the Russian version of McDonalds, Trump burgers, or Trump Burger King. How about an Ivanka's (the name is Russian).
It’s a diminutive for Ivana. Adding the K the way we put a y on the end of names.
Who knows what these guys might actually be planning—other than to grab power and keep it.
Trump is such a jerk, it amazes me he’s moving in these exalted circles … but he is a useful tool. And he is “Daddy rich,” having had a fortune settled onto him when his father died.
The name Ivanka is Slavic, Russian is a Slavic language. Her mother Ivana was a Czech "Model"
Model is also a euphemism for catalog bride and call girl.
Ivanka: An alternative form of Ivana, Ivanka is of Slavic origins and means "God is gracious." The feminine form of Ivan, it's perfect if you want to pay tribute to a family name. Ivanka can also have roots in Hebrew and Czechoslovakian and is a form of Jane.
Each culture has it's own way of naming, and there are many cultures. For instance in Arab ibn or bin means son of, in Mazahi Judaism (which is 55% of the Israeli Jews) it is Ben as in Ben Gurion or son of Gurion.
Unlike in the Anglo Saxon world, names are not strictly patrynomic, in other words there isn't surnames like in the west. bin Laden means son of Laden, his father Muhammad bin Laden, was a member of the Banu (tribe) Laden. Muhammad's paternal grandfather was Abud, the son of Ali, one of four brothers (the others being Ahmad, Mansur, and Zayd) from whom the four Banu Laden clans trace their ancestry A clan is a subset of a tribe.
Alexi Navalnay's widow is Yulia Borisovna Navalnaya (née Abrosimova, which informs me that a married women assumes her husbands surname but adds "ya" it also informs that her fathers surname was Abrosmov. and that a surname ending in an "a" is indicates a female.
If a female named say Michelle O'Connell married a Julio Garcia, then she might opt for Michelle O'Connell Garcia and a son would be say Jose, Or Joseph) Garcia O'onnell. The fathers name coming first, but that sure gets screwed up in the Anglo Saxon World, when it comes to birth certificates and official documents.
In parts of Asia the patronym is first, Vietnam it is Nguyen Kao Ky, however in America it is Kao Ky Nguyen, the Ng sound is difficult for Americans so they settle for Wynn, or Win Incidentally the Brits had the same problem in Washington state, they couldn't figure out how to pronounce the name of the volcano that the natives called Tachmoma, as Tahoma or Tacoma so the named it after Rear Admiral Peter Ranier. Mt Ranier, but named a city at its base Tacoma, but you also find the name Tahoma, the ch is caught in the back of the throat like Chasidim, and pronounced as and H in English, which is the sound of "J" in Spanish, whereas the actual H is silent, by the X is pronounced as H as in Oaxaca. and Mexico is pronounced Mehico in Spanish. There is more than , linquistics and transliteration also the familiarization with foreign sounds. For instance there is no "p" sound in Vietnamese, they pronouce peanuts pheanuts or did when I was there so long, long ago.
By the way the orgin of the Southern Drawl is of Surrey England, which provided most of the indentured servants and tradesmen for the young Virginia joint stock company and colony.
It was outlawed by royal decree in 1700 in Surrey, because it too much resembled the "uncouth" speechways of the Virginia colonists.
The family name of Kim Jong Un is Kim, Un would be his first name in America.
There are so many negatives facing 45, mostly of his own creation, those pointed out by Professor Reich, money, criminal trials and so on that one would think he will lose 2024 by 12 million votes and get no more than 200 electoral college votes. Yet thanks to the press coverage one would believe 45 is 5% ahead of Biden. Hopefully two realities emerge, 45 voters become apathetic while 46 voters are stimulated to surge and vote enmass.
WE want it to be too big to rig. 13 million unregistered folks trend heavily democratic. FT6 uses data mining, not voter rolls to find them. Expand the base and we win.
That is what gave us AMERICANS such a landslide victory in 2020: so many uneducated trumplicans were ruined by Dear Leader's claims of imminent election theft! "Why spend the time to vote when it's ALREADY rigged?"
No it's a good thing he is in his own way...there is hope he's doing himself in. What is sad is that so many Republicans are showing what they are about, party over country. This destroys the party and the country. How stupid!
I hear what you are saying, Robert and would also feel quite a bit of Schadenfreude should TFG drive his own voters away from performing their civic duty. But one thing this country sorely needs is increased voter participation. Part of the deal in a true democracy is everyone having and using a voice.
Robert. Trump already has a problem with Republican voters. In the primaries he could only achieve roughly 60% support. This from a party that is already no more than 45% of the electorate. 60% of 45% is a recipe for a butt kicking.
Lots of Hate for the Trumpet 🎺 in his own party. He is just posing so he suck more money from the MAGA ZOMBIES Class that still think the election was stolen…
There are some people who are just naturally followers. It is apparent that in their formative years they were discouraged from thinking for themselves, and acting on what they should've learned from simply observing what was going on around them. I've gotten used to thinking of Trump's followers, his MAGAhats, as something less than fully qualified citizens because they make no attempt to separate fact from fiction, information from propaganda, and in their own way, have forfeited any claim to self-respect or the regard of others.
Then, last week, I saw the HBO series on Synanon, which began as a self-help group in Santa Monica in 1958, but later moved to the Marin County environs of the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970s for people strung out on hallucinogens and opioids. It was a short matter of time before the group's charismatic leader Charles (Chuck) Diedrich began to push the group into deeper and deeper levels of ideological and behavioral conformity, finally resorting to physical assault and social isolation for those in the group who refused his demands. At least in the beginning, Diedrich's methods were a healthy antidote to those who could not get through the day without resorting to mind altering drugs. He introduced a strict regimen of self-help behaviors that included personal hygiene, cleanliness, and housekeeping. It wasn't too long afterwards that is compound in Marin County began to look like a military barracks, and his orders were expected to be obeyed without question. He also introduced a group dynamic which in some circles is known as the "hot seat", where individuals who could not conform to the regimen were criticized brutally, and thus were faced with either conforming to the routine, or being forced out. Unfortunately, Diedrich's methods turned authoritarian and fetishistic, forcing his followers to shave their heads, indoor forced vasectomies, and the breaking up of existing marital relationships. George Orwell's cautionary tale, 1984, represents a failure of imagination compared with the methods that Chuck Diedrich introduced, forced marching and calisthenics, strict regimentation, in fact, all of the things that the Chinese Communist Party has been accused of doing to break down individual will and personality. Finally Diedrich authorized and encouraged physical violence against members who resisted his indoctrination, or who reported his activities to outside public authorities. Children were separated from their parents to be raised by the community, and legal marriages were broken up simply because they represented a social and familial barrier to Diedrich's domination of Synanon as his personal fiefdom. He was Lord and Master of everyone and everything within his reach.
That is the way that Donald Trump behaves, and the kind of loyalty that he demands of his followers. The problem is that Trump himself is to ill-disciplined and peripatetic to follow through on managing his following. In his heart and soul, Trump is the equal of Chuck Diedrich, but because he lacks self-discipline and a sense of his own self, he fails at the task of fulfilling his role as the charismatic dictator. Diedrich understood that his followers were desperate for community and authenticity in their quest for interpersonal relationships, and that is what made him effective. Donald Trump, on the other hand, simply wants to milk his followers of whatever money or other earthly goods that they have to enrich himself. Comparing the results each of them achieved, we are fortunate that Charles Diedrich chose not to engage himself in electoral politics.
From a benign, self-help "nonprofit" beginnings, the organization acquired more than $30 million in assets, according to the filmmakers, including communial properties and farms.
AND there are posers who want to avoid drama. Those are the ones who may vote their pocket ( or conscience) and will not fill out a poll and may even lie to their spouse who they voted for. These people are the unpredictable.
For many people, if not most, privacy and not being hassled by highly voluble partisans is both their right and their privilege not to disclose who they support, vote for, or even those with whom they disagree. I, personally, do not respond to partisan polling, and when I challenge either a candidate or one of their supporters, I make it clear that my objection to their position is both logical, and based upon other relevant matters. Especially among conservatives, self-identified or otherwise, most of them want to hurl accusations based upon fantastical conspiracy theories that have been peddled by right wing media. I do not debate with idiots; but if someone makes a false statement, something I know to be untrue, I will say so, publicly, and supported by the relevant evidence that the accusation is false on its face.
I also find the same sort of malady afflicting self-appointed Progressives who are deeply, deeply offended that anyone should disagree with them. Suffice it to say that neither history, nor logic, nor ascertainable public policy seems to penetrate their inner sanctum. They live in a world of blissful purity, and I find their attempts to remake the world as they would have it be to be obnoxious and thoroughly annoying. I try not to interact with those who cannot be persuadable. There's no point in wasting my breath on someone who is already made up his mind no matter what evidence to the contrary may be right in front of them. Maybe that's just me. It's nobody's business who I support, or who I would vote for, unless I decide to tell them so. But that's my choice.
Absolutely 👍🏻. I agree. I wonder about the diminished capacity and isolation of Trump’s followers. Their reasoning ability and importance of autonomy doesn’t seem to be there. That’s a failure of education. But you’re correct in saying it takes a follower type. I’m constantly pushing back to democrats that we need to hold democratic leaders to the fire too. There are too many politicians getting wealthy off of insider trading and prior knowledge of changing laws, not to mention protecting corporate interests over workers’ needs.
Remember, everything he and the Republicans (sic) say is a projection. The only voter fraud are Republican state officials suppressing the vote and gerrymandering the voter rolls. The entire NYC current trial is about election tampering not hush money. Projections!
Actual facts:
Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary in 2016 by 2.9 mil.
Trump lost the 2020 popular vote by 7 mil and the general election to Biden.
There is not enough evidence of voter fraud to change those statistics.
Almost none, actually.
He's going to lose 2024, too.
This 2024 election t-shirt is great 👇
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Trump knows he can't win fairly so the loser is preparing to cheat. There isn't an honest "bone" in that man's body and if you don't believe me just ask Stormy. I watched a special on Hitler this morning and everything that fascist pig did, Trump is attempting to copy. From accusing the media of being the spreader of fake news, to his blatant disregard for everything that is good in this country. Even that stupid little red hat. Hitler's slogan of "Make Germany Great Again, which Donie Boy stole." Trump is little more than the stuff you scrape from the bottom of your shoes after a nice quite stroll through a cow pasture. Non-compos-mentis!
If you think about it, Trump has never, ever had an original idea. He just copies the strategies of the worst people in history, then brags about it.
Teresa--I've thought of that also. What really gets me is the man degrades everything, but he has no plan to fix anything.
A Narcissist is in love with his REFLECTION — it can be a staged reflection. It need not reflect reality. As long as it looks good, it is good.
Hence, the gold gilding on everything in his world.
The man is one big phony piece of rancid meat covered in ketchup to hide the stench.
Gad.
{I hear people saying lately that he smells. Is that just some viral BS? A picture of him in court the other day did look decidedly SEEDY! I think he’s rotting from the inside.}
As for his B.O., I have no intention to get close enough to ascertain the veracity of that claim!!
Pat--- they call that Internal resorption.
Donald, if you asked a republican to tell you their platform for the next four years, they wouldn't be able to do it unless they were totally honest (hahahaha) and said we plan to live in a dictatorship like putin, we will weed out anyone and everyone who is not straight, white, and Christian. If you ask them how they will fix the border or deal with foreign policy.........crickets!
Peggy--So true.
No plans to fix anything :
The wall?
Tariffs on China’s government backed products?
Crippling sanctions on Iran?
Drill baby drill for energy independence?
Putting NATO on notice to pay up?
Abraham Accords?
These weren’t solutions to problems? Unfortunately Biden unwound almost all of them. Look at the safer world we live in?
DMZ--All the rantings of a mad man. He had 4 years to build the wall, he fixed or repaired 450 miles and built 45 more from scratch. Nothing to brag about. The deal with China, I'll give him that. He is oil crazy, and he can't see the need for renewable energy. His wealthy friends made a point of having him accentuate the drilling issue. Putting NATO on notice was an ass hole move. As far as the accord goes it benefited others as well, and seeing how things are progressing in the Middle East, I think it's back to the drawing board. Trump has maybe done a handful of things that benefited this country, where Biden's accomplishments are too many to list, but they did it on the evening news the other night.
You know, Mussolini was "credited" with "making the trains run on time," something that implies some benefit to that society. Hitler's war-making and war-machine, for a time, might be viewed by some as having artificially improved Germany's extremely depressed economy. Even if one accepts your list for your appreciation of tRump, which I do not, one must nevertheless ask: how much evil do you reckon compensates for a modicum of what you apparently consider good? Like those despots he admires, he is nothing but a vicious, cruel thug, gangster, criminal, bully with an extremely disordered mind and personality. If an absolute madman does 1,000 horrific things, do you praise him because he fixed one pothole?
No, Teresa! Don't you remember his brilliant idea of injecting bleach to protect yourself from COVID? Only Trump had the great wisdom to think of that. I remember Dr. Birx's look of awe when Trump came up with that idea.
Jaime, what about the brilliant idea of dropping an Atomic Bomb into a hurricane??? DJT lacks the intelligence of the average first grade school student.
Ah, yes, one of his most clever notions!
He never said inject bleach. That was something the left invented to rile up the lowest IQ numpties in their party....it's still working 6 years later.
yes... you forgot to say he is mentally unfit... as in "off"...grossly.
Yes, we always need to keep in mind that Trump has no way of fairly winning the election, and Trump knows that. So he doesn't even try to win. Remember that he rejects anyone who wouldn't buy into his agenda 100%.
He just needs to be on the ballot which he will, and he'll develop a tactic to steal the election like he did l last time.
That's what we ultimately need to prevent.
At least cow patties can be used for fertilizer. Hmm. There's a new grift: tRump just spews the stuff every time he opens his mouth. Wonder how soon he'll take Trump Organics public.
Steve--As soon as he stops flushing.
Let's nail him in NYC and that will take care of Flushing as well.
Steve--Seeing as Flushing in Queens is a borough of New York.
I had to mute the man.
Donald Hodgins <silencenotbad@gmail.com>
9:17 AM (0 minutes ago)
I just listened to Trump as he was entering the courtroom. Can he ever express himself without sounding like a whining little baby. He doesn't understand how our court system works, to Trump, the court sees him as being guilty from the start and all he needs to do is prove his innocence. Good luck. His incessant rantings over points that a child could discern, leaves people wondering as to the man's sanity. He just comes across as being basically stupid. So whenever he begins to speak I mute the man, and listen to the sounds of "Simon and Garfunkel." After all, Trump just keeps repeating the same lies over and over again. Once you've heard them the first time, why bother with a second torture session. I love it when he tries to look mean, you can see the child in him.
Remember that his Secretary of State called him “a f-ing moron”. He wasn’t off base with that comment.
M J--If your "f-ing moron" Is my "f-ing moron" How could I forget.
It will be difficult but I hope someday that memory will fade away.
Excellent commentary!
Bruce--Nice to hear I said something that meant anything.
You haven't.
TJ--I love it when I have to misfortune of meeting someone more ignorant than I.
Yep, you got Trump down pat, Donald!
Jaime--I thought Nixon did that.
Pat Nixon? Hmmmm...
Jaime--Great understanding of an old man's mind. LOL
Donald: I had to laugh at the sentence about Trump’s dishonest “bone!” Good one, Donald!
Donald, the future lies in the hands of five swing states, see my post above.
Just the facts. ma'am. The dawn of truth is about to extinguish the darkness.
He will always lose the popular vote, but that is not the vote that finally counts. It is the electoral vote.
Going into the election the red and red leaning states have 235 Electoral votes, blue states are 226 electoral votes.
Here is what is causing me insomnia.
The Swing states in 2020 are no longer swing states, GA, NC, VA because Republican legislatures have passed over 100 voter Suppression laws, limited drop boxes, and have legalized armed poll watchers, not to mention scrubbed voter rolls of minorities
If neither Trump or Biden get 270 votes it goes to Congress and each state has one vote, and there are more red states than blue.
If Trump only gets all red and red leaning states plus Michican and Pennsylvania with Muslim and black votes. He wins, even if Biden has 12 million popular votes
Muslims have threatened to sit out the election, vote third party or vote for Trump (despite his threat to deport them on Day 1)
Here is an Interesting statistic
State Bidens margin of victory in 2020 ---- Number of Muslims
PA --------------------------80.555 -- --------------- 149,661
MI--------------------- 154,188 --------------------- 241,848
WI ------------------------- 20,682--------------------68,699
And I haven't even mentioned black males, especially black, Philadelphia carried Pennsylvania because blacks are the majority population. And black males are notorious for stating that they will not vote for Biden, because he hasn't "delivered", the black community is even more homophobic than the white community, despite, maybe because, there is an over representation of black transgendered.
If these minority groups flip the finger to the Democrats, they will rue their pig headedness, as Trump has made no secret of his animosity to both, including deportation of Muslims
Voter suppression laws aren't democratic. It's like living under Putin.
That such laws could even pass in a so-called democratic country is astonishing to me. Has no-one picked up on this?
In Australia you get fined if you don't vote.
Did I say or even imply that voter suppression laws were democratic Ilze. I think not.
America is a democratic country supposedly. So if a voter suppression law is passed how is this justified?
The answer is in the name United States of America. There are 51 governments in the United States. The Federal Government and the 50 States government. That is the way the founders created this country.
They didn"t create it as a democratic Republic, but as a Republic. A Republic is rule by wise men, the elite, the landed. Look at the motto of the Roman Republic SPQR Senatus Publicus Que Romanus. The Senate and the Roman People..
During the Republic period, Rome was ruled by the Senate, and the executive was vested in the hands of two consuls, so that no one would have total power., And not every citizen voted either.
The founders set the country up that only persons with a vested material interest (i.e. property owners) would vote. And thus it was for the first two elections. But the constitution left it up to the states to determine who could vote, because it said nothing about qualifications
It didn't take long for the states to realize that by enfranchising free men, those that didn't own property but were not enslaved or even indentured, to vote those in power could expand their base and thus state by state all free men were enfranchised.
Remember the various states are empowered, consider them individual countries, but by joining the union they agreed to stand by, honor and be governed by laws that a majority of the states enacted. That is the democracy, it is institutional not personal.
Personally, slaves, indentured servants, women did not have the right to vote. A black person who owned property, and thus free, could vote, initially.
Northern cities, for brief periods of time, black property owners voted. A very small number of free blacks owned slaves. The slaves that most free blacks purchased were relatives whom they later manumitted. A few free blacks also owned slave holding plantations in Louisiana, Virginia, and South Carolina.
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african-american-odyssey/free-blacks-in-the-antebellum-period.html
Then with the Nat Turner Rebellions of 1832, blacks, including plantation owners, were re enslaved and denied the vote.The plantation owners had never been slaves, they were indentured servants or the heirs of black indentured servants.
The 20 Africans sold retrieved from the Portugese bya privateer and sold at Point comfort (Hampton) were not sold as slaves,slavery did not exist in Virginia until 1654 and by law until 1661, they were sold as indentured servants. Who were freed after the terms of their indenture, given seed corn, a musket and a mule and sent on their way to establish their own dynasty, or not.
It took 4 Amendments to the constitution (the 15th, the 17th, 19th and 26th) to finally make the United States of America a democracy.
At least by our definition of a democracy. If by democracy is meant that the country is ruled by persons elected to office, then yes it was a democracy at it's inception.
But Demos is Greek and the word means either mob or common people, it all depends on who is doing the defining.
By strict definition the U.S.A was not a rule of the common people, and certainly not until the 19th Amendment when women were given the right to vote.
But then there is the discussion of what actually constitutes a democracy.
Disguised as anti-voter "fraud" measures. Trump has convinced his cult-like MAGAts that our voting system is rife with fraud (it isn't--voter fraud is almost unknown--statistically nil).
You don't pay a fine if you don't vote.You pay a fine if you do not get your name crossed off the list.
Turn up,give your name to the electoral officer,collect the ballot paper Take the ballot paper to the booth and do whatever you like with it .You are there,you may as well vote,but you don't pay a fine if you don't vote
Thanks for the update.
The t-shirt heading doesn't make sense. The illustration is good though.
I do hope Trump gets his arse kicked.
The only voter fraud found was done by Republicans. Republicans cannot win an election without lying and cheating. Vote Blue our only salvation from a Fascist, Dictator Nation.
I think there is maybe one example of Republican voters outnumbering the Democrat voters in national elections in the last several elections.
And just barely, in 2004.
So far all the voter fraud that's been uncovered has been done by republicans for trump.
Phillip, you are right about the trial not being about hush money but if the media can continue to portray it that way, the Trump cult will keep believing what Trump did was not illegal. Now, if someone they knew did it to keep them from learning something important to their lives, they would be furious and want them hauled away. Trump must have some kind of spell he can weave for people who want to fall under it.
Rachel Maddow is the only one that is framing this correctly. It is far more important than the press and media is portraying. Only because they are all playing to a salacious story. Not the real and underlying case. We deserve better investigative reporting.
I’m impressed with Maddow’s historical analysis and contagious nerd-iness in presenting correlations, indisputable documents that have been released, yet unexamined; and enthusiasm to preserve our democracy.
I'm sure Maddow will be happy to know she has someone still watching her ridiculous side show.
If I weren’t a life-long atheist, I would absolutely swear that Trump has made a pact with the Devil to get everything he wants in this life. And he thinks he can cheat the Devil when he dies.
I only wish I believed he’d end up in hell. But what he’s doing to our world — a world in which we should be thinking about the CLIMATE, and devoting our energies to ameliorating warming, not fixating on that horrid Orange Disaster — that does break my heart. Over and over again.
Unregulated capitalism is Hell.
It is almost as though a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelations by those whose bottom philosophical line is based in the Gospel of Prosperity have chosen to realise our environmental Apocalypse. How we choose to think, matters.
Hush money isn’t a legal term, it’s NDA. If trumps guilty, you must charge forward with every media company that’s had someone sign an NDA.
See: Nick Sandmann
See: Hollywood
Go get em Ruth… oh wait…
They’re on the side of you Marxist tyrants.
Imagine hating one person so much you’ll throw your entire family under a dictatorship.
See: ignoring SC rulings
See: border laws not being enforced.
I can only hope the border comes back to haunt you personally.
Pure projection and or the exact opposite of the truth.
LIES!!! They ALSO are prone to voting twice!
Or in the case of 1 Republican politician, 9 times.
Ha ha ha. You people live in an alternate reality.
No one really believes you.
There were , what you 134,000,000 registered voters in the USA.
Slow Joey supposedly got 81 million? Right? Trump got 75 million, right?
Do the math: 81 + 75 = 156, right?
Does 134=156? No. 156 >> 134.
Some people or machines were counting phantom votes
It’s only gerrymandering when Republicans do it, it’s not gerrymandering when Marxist do it.
See: Maryland
I do love your projection here Phil. Trumps a threat only to your illusion or delusions of democracy.
Biden ignores SC=democracy
Biden ignores written laws on the books for the border=democracy. Biden and ilk make up fake crimes (the Marxist way) to keep Trump busy during election season= free and fair elections. Biden admitted yesterday in PA, the exercises of the court cases.
You: THATS DEMOCRACY.
You’re all a bunch of mentally ill pedophiles.
Trump has to pay to keep his skeletons in the closet at election time.
The fake media hides Pedo Joe's nasty secrets for free.
Even people who are too busy to spend time on social media or watch a lot of TV seem to know this. I make a lot of phone calls to democrats who are grateful to be contacted, glad to know how the laws have changed, and thank me for the calls. All they need is some information and some encouragement, and you can do that. If you haven't already, go volunteer to make phone calls!! The things you want to look for are changes in voting rules in your state. Can an elderly person survive in long lines in midday heat without water? How far away does a helper have to be from the polling station, etc. What can a voter do to sign up for mail voting? Whom can they contact if they have questions? etc.
I think I rank as old - I'm 91 - and I've vote by mail since 1992. At first because I was angry with the elections office in the California County where I lived at the time. They moved the voting place from 2 miles from where I lived to 15 miles away.
Once started however, I liked the simplicity, I can sit comfortably, with the voter guide in front of me for the many propositions and mark my ballot leisurely. I usually mail my ballot the next day. Early on we had to pay postage and we hoped our ballot was received and counted.
Now in California, every registered voter receives a ballot in the mail, at least 30 days before election day. Postage is free. And we have Ballot Trax - an online system that tells us when the ballot was mailed to us, when it was received at the County office, AND when it has been counted.
Oh, and I'm liberal progressive. The first thing I did after being sworn in as a Naturalized citizen, was register to vote as a Democrat in February 1967. I also converted both my first and second husbands from Republican to Democrat. All my children were Democrats. And my living grandchildren are Democrats. All my grandchildren vote, because Grandma says so.
You’re my kind gal, Fay.
A grandma to be proud of.
May you and all of yours live long and prosper.
If only all grandmas had the great & wise influence you have had!
Thanks, Jaime not sure about the wise influence part, my grand kids (ranging in age from 29 to 46) call it nagging LOL
Tough tootsie-rolls. If they need nagging to get them to vote, then I say: nag away!
It's what I do.
I think they are only joking, they do vote and I'm happy to say all of them are registered Democrats and definitely favor democracy.
I'm fortunate in my family as well. My sister and I agree on politics and I have only one nephew who votes Republican--however, he loathes Trump. He says Trump is not a Republican and he wouldn't vote for him if he was the last "Republican" on Earth. Hearing that made my whole weekend!
“…In 2020, Republicans fell far behind Democrats on those sorts of turnout initiatives, largely because Trump derided them as ripe for fraud. Some 60 percent of Democratic voters chose to vote by mail while only 32 percent of Republicans did so, according to a 2021 report from the MIT Election Data and Science Lab.”
Interestingly, in 2020 Trump himself voted by mail.
Trump is simply insane.
Insane or not, it looks like he's the Republican nominee for president. And Republicans have done all the work for him, so they can implement their Viktor Orbán-dictatorship template (yippers that's real) 'Project 2025'.
Register Democrats. Save yourself! (and the rest of us)
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Trump's insanity is not simple. Apparently it does not register with many that he is so off, and increasingly so. He should not get near any office and certainly not POTUS ever. He won't.
He can only make sense when he reads the teleprompter; he exposes his escalating dementia whenever he goes off script. The GOP is doing its best to avoid having him speak in public.
I've noticed that as well. I was quite surprised they seemed to give him an unsupervised opportunity for that Gettysburg speech--if that's what it was. To me, it sounded like the ramblings of a demented idiot....oh, wait!
LOL
So well-said, TL!
They know he is mentally unfit and YET they are behind him. Unconscionable! Trump is nothing and nowhere (other than an asylum or jail) without his enablers.
Yes! Does anyone think he actually writes his posts? Maybe his fans think he can write like a high schooler even though his verbal skills are third grade. LOL
I think he does at least some. The speeches he reads are of course written for him.
Yeah, mostly by that zombified vampire, Stephen Miller.
You mean simply insane because he is a pathological narcissist, a sociopath with megalomaniacal tendencies. You call that simply insane? 🤪
Dementia is more a brain damage than a mental illness. It’s worse, because it’s progressive, untreatable and has profound implications for his emotions (rage, paranoia) and cognition (ability to think: express himself verbally, make plans, adjust to new information, and control emotions to accomplish goals). You know: little things that a President occasionally has to do!
If I had to say...I think he has both a serious personality disorder AND some form of progressive dementia.
If you watch clips of interviews from the late 80's, 90's...he gives full sentences that make sense, he has more command of language--he just sounds more like what you would expect of such a person--well, except for his obsession with his daughter. That IS rather icky, it must be said.
But geez...who could listen to that word stew that he served up at Gettysburg and not think he's "off". Very, very "off". Only members of the cult of Trump, I would guess.
I totally agree. There's no rule that says you can only have one diagnosis at a time. His narcissism and sociopathy are personality disorders that have been commented on by many psychologists and psychiatrists. Overlay that brew with dementia and you have one scary dude.
Well, you know, CLEARLY insane …
By proclaiming that the election is already rigged, Trump may discourage his voters from voting. However, Democrats should not in any way count on that. Rather, assume that he will bring his voters out in droves and respond accordingly. Take nothing for granted.
Yes, we must NEVER be complacent. We must not have a repeat of Hillary …
When someone keeps shooting himself in the foot, he will soon have nothing to stand on.
Gary, you're right about Trump shooting himself in the foot but he doesn't even notice (dementia). He has a store of constant resentment and anger, so his foot and what he stands on are irrelevant to him and the bunch of Americans who are infatuated with resentment and anger, two of what I call the new horsemen of the apocalypse, along with fear and hatred. Trump has those going too which helps make him really scary. Then, he is a coward with a big mouth and a lot of followers he wants to do his bidding and hurt anyone he does not like. It's nuts!
Getting through to people — that is our hope ….
Yes, the facts and the numbers who voted for him in 2016 and 2020 shows a signifiant decline in his numbers and anyone can see a significant decline in his mental stability which was already questionable. The fact that numerous, reputable psychiatrists have diagnosed him and his behaviors correctly mean nothing to his loyal followers. Here's a good resource FYI: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists/
Gary, I am noticing that more mental health professionals are stepping up on the record and commenting about what they see related to Trump's erratic behavior. It is about time since the beginning signs of deterioration have been present at least since 2018, which is when I actually realized it was dementia based on the symptoms my mother and grandmother displayed near the beginning of their dementia. The difference, my mom and grandmother were good people who repeated nice or neutral things; Trump blurts out insults, lies, and other nonsense to catch and con his cult members.
The stark differences between nice and not nice, between good people and bad people are on display for all to see. The choice is which do you prefer? Then, mark your ballots accordingly.
He has nothing to stand on except the hot air that keeps him afloat
He’s like a HOVER-TURD
We can hope
Trump will never be just satisfied with winning. The goal posts will always be moving- winning by how much; winning which states; who voted for him and who did not. Trump is a caretaker for Putin. He’s marginally invested in being a good president. What he wants to be is a good Putin puppet. He wants to please his Moscow master.
We were given a strong preview of Trump’s mentality when he won in 2016. He complained of not winning by a large enough number; complaining Hillary Clinton could not have won the popular vote. Trump is like a boxer who knocks out his opponent to win the championship but complains his opponent didn’t stay knocked out long enough. He’s a man who’s constantly tainted by the need to be ( perceived as) perfect.
Putin will use Trump. Until he doesn’t. Then, who knows?
A Narcissist would only want to bask in the light around Putin until it became clear that the Narcissist SHOULD overshadow Putin.
As long as being around Putin makes Trump look like a world power of epic proportions {the Russian dictator does cast a HUGE image of himself as invincible, or he did until he invaded Ukraine…}, being in Putin’s good graces will serve Trump’s need to see himself as moving in those circles, as well. {And Trump KNOWS that, if he keeps Putin on his side, he’ll have Russian disinformation in his corner during this election, which he desperately wants to help him “win.”}
But soon, being seen as a Putin toady will begin to fade for a guy like Trump. The United States, after all, should be MORE powerful than Putin! Isn’t that the party line? So, Donald Trump should overshadow Vlad, not the other way around.
At some point, having so many people saying Trump is a Putin puppet will begin to rankle.
Now, that MIGHT not happen. Trump might NEVER find his way clear to criticize and belittle Vlad.
Because MAYBE Vlad really does have kompromat on Trump. Maybe, Vlad really does have something so embarrassing and degrading on Trump, that Donnie does not dare oppose the Russian Strongman.
Given the reality that Trump visited Russia a few times as a businessman before he ever ran for office … and given that Donnie is not the most careful or rational of actors when considering his personal behavior … we might conclude that Vlad has something really embarassing to show us, if Donnie ever pisses off the ex-KGB guy!
I think about that a lot.
Yes what was said during Trump's meetings with Putin where no notes were taken, or his many long calls with Putin that have never been divulged to the public?
And that wasn’t strange at all, was it, Jaime?
Should be against the law! But Trump made a pact with the Devil, so he gets away with anything in this life … Maybe that pact is coming to an end … He looks decidedly seedy in court lately…
Egad.
Interesting way to frame it Pat. Trump needs to be the center of the universe, so does Putin (brothers from a different mother), there is an inherent sibling rivalry here.Putin is low keying it to use Trump who is so needy that he is clueless. At some point it breaks through and comes to a boil, but only if Trump wins.
And Putin definitely has the goods on him, but he has a huge carrot, making Moscow and Putins resources available to Trump. Maybe he has his eyes on taking over franchises, like the Russian version of McDonalds, Trump burgers, or Trump Burger King. How about an Ivanka's (the name is Russian).
Is Ivanka Russian?
It’s a diminutive for Ivana. Adding the K the way we put a y on the end of names.
Who knows what these guys might actually be planning—other than to grab power and keep it.
Trump is such a jerk, it amazes me he’s moving in these exalted circles … but he is a useful tool. And he is “Daddy rich,” having had a fortune settled onto him when his father died.
Mmmmph. What a world.
The name Ivanka is Slavic, Russian is a Slavic language. Her mother Ivana was a Czech "Model"
Model is also a euphemism for catalog bride and call girl.
Ivanka: An alternative form of Ivana, Ivanka is of Slavic origins and means "God is gracious." The feminine form of Ivan, it's perfect if you want to pay tribute to a family name. Ivanka can also have roots in Hebrew and Czechoslovakian and is a form of Jane.
Interesting.
The Polish woman I knew was given a standard name. But the diminutive for her — Beata to Beatka — was how some people referred to her.
Interesting linguistics behind all that …
Each culture has it's own way of naming, and there are many cultures. For instance in Arab ibn or bin means son of, in Mazahi Judaism (which is 55% of the Israeli Jews) it is Ben as in Ben Gurion or son of Gurion.
Unlike in the Anglo Saxon world, names are not strictly patrynomic, in other words there isn't surnames like in the west. bin Laden means son of Laden, his father Muhammad bin Laden, was a member of the Banu (tribe) Laden. Muhammad's paternal grandfather was Abud, the son of Ali, one of four brothers (the others being Ahmad, Mansur, and Zayd) from whom the four Banu Laden clans trace their ancestry A clan is a subset of a tribe.
Alexi Navalnay's widow is Yulia Borisovna Navalnaya (née Abrosimova, which informs me that a married women assumes her husbands surname but adds "ya" it also informs that her fathers surname was Abrosmov. and that a surname ending in an "a" is indicates a female.
If a female named say Michelle O'Connell married a Julio Garcia, then she might opt for Michelle O'Connell Garcia and a son would be say Jose, Or Joseph) Garcia O'onnell. The fathers name coming first, but that sure gets screwed up in the Anglo Saxon World, when it comes to birth certificates and official documents.
In parts of Asia the patronym is first, Vietnam it is Nguyen Kao Ky, however in America it is Kao Ky Nguyen, the Ng sound is difficult for Americans so they settle for Wynn, or Win Incidentally the Brits had the same problem in Washington state, they couldn't figure out how to pronounce the name of the volcano that the natives called Tachmoma, as Tahoma or Tacoma so the named it after Rear Admiral Peter Ranier. Mt Ranier, but named a city at its base Tacoma, but you also find the name Tahoma, the ch is caught in the back of the throat like Chasidim, and pronounced as and H in English, which is the sound of "J" in Spanish, whereas the actual H is silent, by the X is pronounced as H as in Oaxaca. and Mexico is pronounced Mehico in Spanish. There is more than , linquistics and transliteration also the familiarization with foreign sounds. For instance there is no "p" sound in Vietnamese, they pronouce peanuts pheanuts or did when I was there so long, long ago.
By the way the orgin of the Southern Drawl is of Surrey England, which provided most of the indentured servants and tradesmen for the young Virginia joint stock company and colony.
It was outlawed by royal decree in 1700 in Surrey, because it too much resembled the "uncouth" speechways of the Virginia colonists.
The family name of Kim Jong Un is Kim, Un would be his first name in America.
There are so many negatives facing 45, mostly of his own creation, those pointed out by Professor Reich, money, criminal trials and so on that one would think he will lose 2024 by 12 million votes and get no more than 200 electoral college votes. Yet thanks to the press coverage one would believe 45 is 5% ahead of Biden. Hopefully two realities emerge, 45 voters become apathetic while 46 voters are stimulated to surge and vote enmass.
Time will tell.
WE want it to be too big to rig. 13 million unregistered folks trend heavily democratic. FT6 uses data mining, not voter rolls to find them. Expand the base and we win.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
That is what gave us AMERICANS such a landslide victory in 2020: so many uneducated trumplicans were ruined by Dear Leader's claims of imminent election theft! "Why spend the time to vote when it's ALREADY rigged?"
Yet again: donny is in his own way. Sad!
No it's a good thing he is in his own way...there is hope he's doing himself in. What is sad is that so many Republicans are showing what they are about, party over country. This destroys the party and the country. How stupid!
anti-mail in voting = anti-military
True.
I hear what you are saying, Robert and would also feel quite a bit of Schadenfreude should TFG drive his own voters away from performing their civic duty. But one thing this country sorely needs is increased voter participation. Part of the deal in a true democracy is everyone having and using a voice.
Robert. Trump already has a problem with Republican voters. In the primaries he could only achieve roughly 60% support. This from a party that is already no more than 45% of the electorate. 60% of 45% is a recipe for a butt kicking.
Look at how many former staff of trumpet 🎺 first term say that he is the biggest threat to American Democracy and will not vote for trumpet 🎺..,
Not All Republicans are ZOMBIES???
Lots of Hate for the Trumpet 🎺 in his own party. He is just posing so he suck more money from the MAGA ZOMBIES Class that still think the election was stolen…
Donnie is a both a projection and a reflection of that older GOP minded voter. Hope he continues getting it all very wrong for his base.
Glad that you made a positive out of Trump’s negative. Bravo! Thank you!
There are some people who are just naturally followers. It is apparent that in their formative years they were discouraged from thinking for themselves, and acting on what they should've learned from simply observing what was going on around them. I've gotten used to thinking of Trump's followers, his MAGAhats, as something less than fully qualified citizens because they make no attempt to separate fact from fiction, information from propaganda, and in their own way, have forfeited any claim to self-respect or the regard of others.
Then, last week, I saw the HBO series on Synanon, which began as a self-help group in Santa Monica in 1958, but later moved to the Marin County environs of the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970s for people strung out on hallucinogens and opioids. It was a short matter of time before the group's charismatic leader Charles (Chuck) Diedrich began to push the group into deeper and deeper levels of ideological and behavioral conformity, finally resorting to physical assault and social isolation for those in the group who refused his demands. At least in the beginning, Diedrich's methods were a healthy antidote to those who could not get through the day without resorting to mind altering drugs. He introduced a strict regimen of self-help behaviors that included personal hygiene, cleanliness, and housekeeping. It wasn't too long afterwards that is compound in Marin County began to look like a military barracks, and his orders were expected to be obeyed without question. He also introduced a group dynamic which in some circles is known as the "hot seat", where individuals who could not conform to the regimen were criticized brutally, and thus were faced with either conforming to the routine, or being forced out. Unfortunately, Diedrich's methods turned authoritarian and fetishistic, forcing his followers to shave their heads, indoor forced vasectomies, and the breaking up of existing marital relationships. George Orwell's cautionary tale, 1984, represents a failure of imagination compared with the methods that Chuck Diedrich introduced, forced marching and calisthenics, strict regimentation, in fact, all of the things that the Chinese Communist Party has been accused of doing to break down individual will and personality. Finally Diedrich authorized and encouraged physical violence against members who resisted his indoctrination, or who reported his activities to outside public authorities. Children were separated from their parents to be raised by the community, and legal marriages were broken up simply because they represented a social and familial barrier to Diedrich's domination of Synanon as his personal fiefdom. He was Lord and Master of everyone and everything within his reach.
That is the way that Donald Trump behaves, and the kind of loyalty that he demands of his followers. The problem is that Trump himself is to ill-disciplined and peripatetic to follow through on managing his following. In his heart and soul, Trump is the equal of Chuck Diedrich, but because he lacks self-discipline and a sense of his own self, he fails at the task of fulfilling his role as the charismatic dictator. Diedrich understood that his followers were desperate for community and authenticity in their quest for interpersonal relationships, and that is what made him effective. Donald Trump, on the other hand, simply wants to milk his followers of whatever money or other earthly goods that they have to enrich himself. Comparing the results each of them achieved, we are fortunate that Charles Diedrich chose not to engage himself in electoral politics.
From a benign, self-help "nonprofit" beginnings, the organization acquired more than $30 million in assets, according to the filmmakers, including communial properties and farms.
AND there are posers who want to avoid drama. Those are the ones who may vote their pocket ( or conscience) and will not fill out a poll and may even lie to their spouse who they voted for. These people are the unpredictable.
For many people, if not most, privacy and not being hassled by highly voluble partisans is both their right and their privilege not to disclose who they support, vote for, or even those with whom they disagree. I, personally, do not respond to partisan polling, and when I challenge either a candidate or one of their supporters, I make it clear that my objection to their position is both logical, and based upon other relevant matters. Especially among conservatives, self-identified or otherwise, most of them want to hurl accusations based upon fantastical conspiracy theories that have been peddled by right wing media. I do not debate with idiots; but if someone makes a false statement, something I know to be untrue, I will say so, publicly, and supported by the relevant evidence that the accusation is false on its face.
I also find the same sort of malady afflicting self-appointed Progressives who are deeply, deeply offended that anyone should disagree with them. Suffice it to say that neither history, nor logic, nor ascertainable public policy seems to penetrate their inner sanctum. They live in a world of blissful purity, and I find their attempts to remake the world as they would have it be to be obnoxious and thoroughly annoying. I try not to interact with those who cannot be persuadable. There's no point in wasting my breath on someone who is already made up his mind no matter what evidence to the contrary may be right in front of them. Maybe that's just me. It's nobody's business who I support, or who I would vote for, unless I decide to tell them so. But that's my choice.
Absolutely 👍🏻. I agree. I wonder about the diminished capacity and isolation of Trump’s followers. Their reasoning ability and importance of autonomy doesn’t seem to be there. That’s a failure of education. But you’re correct in saying it takes a follower type. I’m constantly pushing back to democrats that we need to hold democratic leaders to the fire too. There are too many politicians getting wealthy off of insider trading and prior knowledge of changing laws, not to mention protecting corporate interests over workers’ needs.
I would like to know what the Government/states/FBI/Democrats are doing to prevent for Trump’s anticipated theft of the election.