Sadly, my husband and I were discussing Trump’s idea about shooting mob looters. Our first thought was he’s probably right, but it would only last a short time before these mob looters would started firing back, possibly with AR-15’s. Reality and common sense not strong among the MAGA.
Maybe off the subject but yesterday I watched Don Jr. say that because of the LLC he doesn’t even know who owns his cabin and I thought, yeah but we all know Letitia James owns your ass.
Yes, agreed. MAGA about disruption, division, name-calling, violence, maybe even anarchy. Who these days is the GOP? They loudly decrying deficit spending, when a scant 5 & 6 years ago with full control of all 3 branches, they deficit spent like banshees. The hypocrisy rich. Both parties spend our children’s money. Only one is spending to stimulate the middle and bottom. GOP about millionaires and billionaires. They’ve been shafting average Joe for decades. I recall thinking Ronald’s “trickle down,” was BS. Only one legit party right now. Need to resuscitate the GOP and crush MAGA.
Regarding opposition to Ukraine, it has absolutely nothing to do with isolationism, or spending, or Ukrainian PR missteps. It is 100% about Donald Trump. In 2016 Trump got a plank removed from the GOP platform expressing support for Ukraine. At the time this was obscure to everyone, and a bit puzzling. Why? Now it is clear Trump and his campaign manager at the time Paul Manafort, have ties to Putin and Russia that to this day we do not really understand. How is it not blindingly obvious to all that American decline in support for Ukraine is almost completely confined to the GOP, and completely wrapped up in support for Trump?
Oh, the rethugs and their fake outrage over Bowman pulling the fire alarm! Whether he did it deliberately or not isn't the issue. What is at issue is that it's OK to storm the capitol, break windows, crap on the walls, bear spray police, assault them with flagpoles, but you better not pull the fire alarm is you're a Democrat!
Well, the idiot did it. "BREAKING NEWS Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida moved to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his post as retribution for cooperating with Democrats.Monday, October 2, 2023 7:24 PM ET The move forces a vote within days, a challenge that only two other House speakers have faced in the history of the chamber."
I'm reading Heather Cox Richardson's new book, DEMOCRACY AWAKENING. It includes an excellent tracking of Trump and the Republican party's move toward authoritarianism. Highly recommend.
But...just in terms of highlighting unprecedented actions Trump took, over and over again (e.g., all the firings, use of "acting" positions, etc.)--to read all this again in one place--nuts.
"Then, showing his intellectual acumen and flashing his firm grip on reality, Trump told the California crowd that he had an ingenious plan for fighting forest fires which involved…watering the forests so that the ground would be damp." (from the link to The Garden of Forking Paths)
-----
I would wager that the CA Repubs hearing the Apricot Arthropod prattle on about things he doesn't know are most likely of the same intellectual level that is that of the "stable genius." Otherwise, imo, they would have been aware that their state has been in extreme drought conditions for a lot of years now (one good rainy season has refilled their reservoirs but they are still considered to be in a heavy drought situation). Where, exactly, does TFG plan on getting all the water necessary to keep the ground dampened?
Granted that the Pacific Ocean has plenty of water, but does he have any plans on how to transport the water needed on a continuous basis in order to keep the ground damp (not that this would work in the first place)? The supply would, of necessity, be constant -- CA wildfire season is now twelve months long.
Thank you for the links. I thought I read earlier this year that despite last year's above average rainfall in CA drought conditions still existed, just not as bad.
Trump is behaving as a madman. The rant on shoplifting, while not up there with wanting to execute the general, is odd enough. There is justification for police or citizens using firearms to fend off looting mobs or resist armed robbers, but ordinary shoplifters can and should be handled in other ways. Besides policing streets and catching thieves are jobs for state and local governments, not the feds. Of course Trump probably does not have much or any understanding of how federalism works in this country. At least we sometimes get something of a lighter sort from our public servants. After Representative Bowman disrupted the activities of the congress with a false and illegal report of a fire, the best excuse he could come up with was that he is too stupid to tell the difference between a fire alarm and a door knob. That is good stuff and offers another worthy candidate for the hotly contested title of dumbest member of congress.
The preview images for the podcasts look like National Enquirer front pages. They look thirsty to me. Am I just out of touch? Is that the new look of quality?
We haven't lost scale or perspective. People simply can't do anything about it other than what they're doing. We can only make it stop by making Trump go away, and that is going to take some time. Many people are working as hard as they can to making him go away.
I *do not* ascribe to the "people are terrible" belief.
Trump descending the escalator revealed a severe personality disorder. Time convinced my friends I'd been right (full disclosure: I'd worked in a psychiatric clinic a long time). Then his niece, Mary Trump gave a up-close and personal account as a relative and clinical psychologist. Finally, the nation's psychiatrists abandoned their self-imposed restraint (from the Goldwater years - and no, Barry was not mentally disordered in any way) and confirmed all this from a safe distance.
A personality disorder is not psychosis and "crazy" is a useless term, but Trump is disordered. But what about his followers? Can you say 'authoritarian personality'? (See John Dean's Authoritarian Nightmare) Going after people's personal psychology is a dead end, but since you asked..........
My explanation is that the MAGA movement is 99% a caste driven racist backlash to the Civil Rights Movement, not to mention Obama. But that's just me (BTIJM in the Bulwark style)
Let us address the stupidest part—shooting shoplifters and looters. How about hiring more cops?!
How many of the people cheering the shooting would vote to pay taxes for that?
I understand the frustration of seeing looters walk away with stolen goods. I do not understand the need that Trump supporters have to shoot them instead of arrest, try, and jail them.
For any readers who don’t want to spend the money for jail space, how about we shoot speeders. They are, after all, endangering people’s lives.
I would suggest only winging speeders if the are less than 10 miles over, shoot 10 to 30 and more than 30 public execution. Hack off fingers for non-moving violations.
Sadly, my husband and I were discussing Trump’s idea about shooting mob looters. Our first thought was he’s probably right, but it would only last a short time before these mob looters would started firing back, possibly with AR-15’s. Reality and common sense not strong among the MAGA.
Maybe off the subject but yesterday I watched Don Jr. say that because of the LLC he doesn’t even know who owns his cabin and I thought, yeah but we all know Letitia James owns your ass.
Yes, agreed. MAGA about disruption, division, name-calling, violence, maybe even anarchy. Who these days is the GOP? They loudly decrying deficit spending, when a scant 5 & 6 years ago with full control of all 3 branches, they deficit spent like banshees. The hypocrisy rich. Both parties spend our children’s money. Only one is spending to stimulate the middle and bottom. GOP about millionaires and billionaires. They’ve been shafting average Joe for decades. I recall thinking Ronald’s “trickle down,” was BS. Only one legit party right now. Need to resuscitate the GOP and crush MAGA.
Trump is batshit crazy. Dangerously so.
Trump is a problem.
But.
The real giant elephant in the room problem are the MAGAts. Those who have drunk the Kool-Aid. Those who cheer about shoplifters being shot. Etc.
Those people are crazy and scary.
Regarding opposition to Ukraine, it has absolutely nothing to do with isolationism, or spending, or Ukrainian PR missteps. It is 100% about Donald Trump. In 2016 Trump got a plank removed from the GOP platform expressing support for Ukraine. At the time this was obscure to everyone, and a bit puzzling. Why? Now it is clear Trump and his campaign manager at the time Paul Manafort, have ties to Putin and Russia that to this day we do not really understand. How is it not blindingly obvious to all that American decline in support for Ukraine is almost completely confined to the GOP, and completely wrapped up in support for Trump?
Oh, the rethugs and their fake outrage over Bowman pulling the fire alarm! Whether he did it deliberately or not isn't the issue. What is at issue is that it's OK to storm the capitol, break windows, crap on the walls, bear spray police, assault them with flagpoles, but you better not pull the fire alarm is you're a Democrat!
Most Democrats know that without being told. And most of the other know enough not to do it on CAMERA! But Bowman has always been ... special.
Well, the idiot did it. "BREAKING NEWS Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida moved to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his post as retribution for cooperating with Democrats.Monday, October 2, 2023 7:24 PM ET The move forces a vote within days, a challenge that only two other House speakers have faced in the history of the chamber."
To anything that disturbs their fragile sense of dominance.
I'm reading Heather Cox Richardson's new book, DEMOCRACY AWAKENING. It includes an excellent tracking of Trump and the Republican party's move toward authoritarianism. Highly recommend.
But...just in terms of highlighting unprecedented actions Trump took, over and over again (e.g., all the firings, use of "acting" positions, etc.)--to read all this again in one place--nuts.
Charlie, why not get Heather Cox Richardson on your podcast and help her promote her excellent book?
How about executing people who foment insurrection or people who steal and hoard classified documents?
"Then, showing his intellectual acumen and flashing his firm grip on reality, Trump told the California crowd that he had an ingenious plan for fighting forest fires which involved…watering the forests so that the ground would be damp." (from the link to The Garden of Forking Paths)
-----
I would wager that the CA Repubs hearing the Apricot Arthropod prattle on about things he doesn't know are most likely of the same intellectual level that is that of the "stable genius." Otherwise, imo, they would have been aware that their state has been in extreme drought conditions for a lot of years now (one good rainy season has refilled their reservoirs but they are still considered to be in a heavy drought situation). Where, exactly, does TFG plan on getting all the water necessary to keep the ground dampened?
Granted that the Pacific Ocean has plenty of water, but does he have any plans on how to transport the water needed on a continuous basis in order to keep the ground damp (not that this would work in the first place)? The supply would, of necessity, be constant -- CA wildfire season is now twelve months long.
fnord
California is good:
https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA
Now Texas is another matter:
https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?TX
Thank you for the links. I thought I read earlier this year that despite last year's above average rainfall in CA drought conditions still existed, just not as bad.
fnord
Trump is behaving as a madman. The rant on shoplifting, while not up there with wanting to execute the general, is odd enough. There is justification for police or citizens using firearms to fend off looting mobs or resist armed robbers, but ordinary shoplifters can and should be handled in other ways. Besides policing streets and catching thieves are jobs for state and local governments, not the feds. Of course Trump probably does not have much or any understanding of how federalism works in this country. At least we sometimes get something of a lighter sort from our public servants. After Representative Bowman disrupted the activities of the congress with a false and illegal report of a fire, the best excuse he could come up with was that he is too stupid to tell the difference between a fire alarm and a door knob. That is good stuff and offers another worthy candidate for the hotly contested title of dumbest member of congress.
The preview images for the podcasts look like National Enquirer front pages. They look thirsty to me. Am I just out of touch? Is that the new look of quality?
We haven't lost scale or perspective. People simply can't do anything about it other than what they're doing. We can only make it stop by making Trump go away, and that is going to take some time. Many people are working as hard as they can to making him go away.
I *do not* ascribe to the "people are terrible" belief.
Trump descending the escalator revealed a severe personality disorder. Time convinced my friends I'd been right (full disclosure: I'd worked in a psychiatric clinic a long time). Then his niece, Mary Trump gave a up-close and personal account as a relative and clinical psychologist. Finally, the nation's psychiatrists abandoned their self-imposed restraint (from the Goldwater years - and no, Barry was not mentally disordered in any way) and confirmed all this from a safe distance.
A personality disorder is not psychosis and "crazy" is a useless term, but Trump is disordered. But what about his followers? Can you say 'authoritarian personality'? (See John Dean's Authoritarian Nightmare) Going after people's personal psychology is a dead end, but since you asked..........
My explanation is that the MAGA movement is 99% a caste driven racist backlash to the Civil Rights Movement, not to mention Obama. But that's just me (BTIJM in the Bulwark style)
I also think it is a backlash to the feminist and metoo movement as well.
Let us address the stupidest part—shooting shoplifters and looters. How about hiring more cops?!
How many of the people cheering the shooting would vote to pay taxes for that?
I understand the frustration of seeing looters walk away with stolen goods. I do not understand the need that Trump supporters have to shoot them instead of arrest, try, and jail them.
For any readers who don’t want to spend the money for jail space, how about we shoot speeders. They are, after all, endangering people’s lives.
I would suggest only winging speeders if the are less than 10 miles over, shoot 10 to 30 and more than 30 public execution. Hack off fingers for non-moving violations.