I keep hoping against hope that this is true, but I can't find any evidence, myself.
There are all these FAFO videos out there. Very entertaining. Cathartic. Usually, with voice-overs, they express what I'm thinking and feeling: outrage, disgust, anger. They're also citing chapter and verse, what laws are being broken, by whom, etc. I'm guessing no one who voted for Donald Trump has seen even one of them. When they say, "You voted for this! We tried to warn you! You called us libtards! And now you're going to lose your farm!" I can't help but think they're yelling into the void. No one who needs to hear is hearing this.
Go to any actual news story about the detentions, deportations, snatch-and-grab raids, locking up people here legally on visas or with green cards. Look at the comments. They're consistently saying "it's about damned time," or "been here 20 years and didn't get their stuff sorted out," or "another sob story, get them out of here."
There is no nuance to these people, no understanding of how complex the immigration system is, no recognition that a person can LEGALLY stay here as long as he or she wants to on a green card, for example. Just: get them the hell out.
And is there any movement in the deep red ag states against any of this? Nope. 'S all good, man.
We have masked, armed, unidentified men in unmarked cars jumping people on the street and carting them out of state to ICE detention and Trump supporters, half the country, think it's about damned time.
I threw my NYT and WSJ in the trash this morning. The front page news on the first was about Usha Vance and how she is helping her puling spouse advance his “family first” agenda. The WSJ had that fucking wedding. You are quite correct
It is a dismal and chilling irony to see the president of "Mr. Jefferson's University" fall to pressure from the DOJ today. UVA Board of Visitors, what part of "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man," don't you understand?
Where are Democrats? Do you think Hakeem Jeffries got around to reading his members proposals on war authorization?Cant elected officials show up at nursing homes and show how many senior citizens will lose their beds? Can't the Democratic elite Senators stop voting for Trump's nominations and take a more active role in rapid responses to the cruelty? The NYC primary should be a wake up call for all Democratic leaders who are seat takers. Anyone want to make an ad or ads of the kidnapping of hard working people and their brutal treatment? Too much to ask ? The DNC should disband and be replaced by Indivisible and have the Lincoln Project make our ads.
Today, MSNBC had an interview of a daughter and father where his wife of 38 years, a worker, with a social security number, a taxpayer, a woman who had always showed up for her immigration hearings every single year she was supposed was kidnapped by ICE AT HER IMMIGRATION HEARING. Her crime? 40 or so years ago, she had an invalid marriage or something like that before she married her husband. Just ignore the 38 years of marriage since then and her adherence to the established immigration norms because of something that twisted Miller and Homan's undies cutting off their complete sense of decency and real manhood. That is what this country has become. The Founders are crying tears in their graves at what the country they bled and died for has become.
The polls that appear to comfort Bulwark's staff are no big deal. Trump hasn't slipped enough for it to signify. The only thing that will move the needle, in my opinion? Big inflation numbers, rising unemployment. And watch the real estate market. It's wait and see, as to whether we will live in the free country we've always boasted about.
You ask, how will Trump and Hegseth respond down the road when news arrives that the uranium was not obliterated? They will do then as they do now, they will lie, they will blame others and in the latter they will of course blame Biden.
Someone needs to help me understand why it is that when masked men, dressed in black, wearing face masks, and with no visible means of identification, stop and pickup people on the street, are we to assume they are legitimate? If I saw that happening in my neighborhood I would assume they were Russian (or some other) mafia, or kidnappers, and behave accordingly.
We may yet be treated to the entertaining spectacle of a Demopublican party still pursuing a strategy of too little and too late splitting the vote enough to deliver a victory once again to the Republicrats. So long as the opposition to the T. Rump criminal enterprise remains hovering around 55% my guess is nothing will change much. The fact that the Demopublicans have so far been unable to gather significant Independent and Conservative Republicrat support does not bode well for the upcoming elections which may or may not actually happen.
In the meantime Hegseth is preparing a Victory Over Iran Parade. I can hardly wait. Perhaps the peacekeeping troops in L.A. can be reassigned to parade duty.
And Project 2025 marches along as the T. Rump criminal enterprise scores more legal defeats and ignorable court orders. On the bright side we won't have to worry about scheduling vaccine visits and the funeral industry is preparing for the projected uptick in business once the flu season hits. Yay.
I’m much too strongly reminded of points that Eric Hoffer made clearly: that overseas in the 1950s-70s the US was much more popular with ordinary people than with elites, and (echoing Ellul) that the point of propaganda attacks is not to win over public opinion but to supply the elites with “common knowledge” rationalization.
The reason we are hearing so little from the elites is because they are going to be just fine. And they know it. And they have no urgent reasons to rock the boat. Trumps goals are horseshit and his tactics are horrors, and he has ridden them to power and popularity, but it’s mostly ordinary people who are becoming disgruntled with the plain fact that they don’t work. For most of the C Wright Mills power elite types it’s no more than a blip; what matters is that their children and grandchildren will always have a pyramid to sit atop of.
Now retired Justice Kennedy is worried about democracy. Too bad he didn't think about that possibility when he wrote the majority opinion in Citizens United.
"But you know what would help a lot? Some elite disapproval—publicly and boldly expressed. While a successful democracy depends on some degree of reasonableness from voters, a successful liberal democracy also depends on some degree of responsibility and even courage from elites."
It's not just any elites that's needed, but *Republican* and *Conservative* elites that are critical, especially those who work in Conservative media and the Trump administration. Getting them to speak out should be a top goal--whether it's appeals to their conscience and patriotism; pleading, begging; making them feel bad--whatever. I think preserving our democracy without these individuals railing against Trump will be very difficult.
Who here honestly thinks we will have a free and fair election in 2026. I think it’s over here, folks. I think fascism will take root here pretty fast after. Trump will declare an emergency and cancel elections in blue states. David Frum wrote a piece outlining how that could work. I think it’s worse than we all think.
That, and I think they actually ratfucked the last election. If it’s always projection on the right, it’s not impossible that they stole the last election with Elon’s help. I don’t think that in a conspiratorial way, but in a this-seems-within-the-realm-of-the-possible sort of way.
It’s dark out there. I think they’ll do whatever they can to stay in power, just watch. Who or what would stop them? The courts? Lmao, sure Jan. Look at the decision this morning. The people? Again, lmao. They’ll just round us up and deport us. There are no safeguards anymore. They’re gone. Take a look around. It’s over.
Statements made by Trump himself suggest that the help he got from Musk may not have been limited to persuading voters. He told Fox viewers: "My instruction -- we don't need the votes. I have so many votes." Afterward, he boasted that Musk "knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers, those vote-counting computers ..."
In between, there was Musk's reply when Tucker Carlson asked if he had done enough to help Trump win: "I think it is done," after which little X chimed in with a laugh, "They'll never know!” Then Musk declared Trump the winner hours before anyone else did.
Add in the statistical anomalies, and the fact that Trump allies are known to have perpetrated a breach of election system software after the 2020 election. In 2023, computer scientists and election security experts warned that the security breach had “urgent implications for the 2024 election and beyond.”
I wouldn't assert that the election was rigged unless the weight of evidence clearly shows it. But some evidence does raise suspicion - on top of the fact that Donald Trump is a deeply unethical person with a history of cheating others and treating impediments to his will as illegitimate. Before the 2020 election, Steve Bannon told associates that Trump had a "strategy" to exploit the red wave and declare victory prematurely, then "do some crazy shit" to stay in power. That was not about ensuring election integrity.
Trump is the kind of person who would cheat to win - especially if he might otherwise face legal penalties for his crimes. He is surrounded by people who must regard his ruthlessness and contempt for rules as assets. Some of them were saying that the U.S. would be finished if Trump didn't win. Some were saying that civilization itself would end if Trump didn't win. Some, such as Elon Musk, are also sociopaths who feel entitled to use any means to get their way.
“Anything can be hacked," Musk tweeted before the election. Afterward: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election.” Granted, Musk has a huge ego, but does someone make that kind of declaration with such certainty if it's all down to whether he helped persuade enough people to vote for Trump?
"Will they allow this information to shape their thinking on the matter? Or will they thrust their heads back into the sand, waving it off as more treasonous nonsense from Deep Staters trying to make our great warfighters look bad?"
Re: The Public’s Not With Trump
I keep hoping against hope that this is true, but I can't find any evidence, myself.
There are all these FAFO videos out there. Very entertaining. Cathartic. Usually, with voice-overs, they express what I'm thinking and feeling: outrage, disgust, anger. They're also citing chapter and verse, what laws are being broken, by whom, etc. I'm guessing no one who voted for Donald Trump has seen even one of them. When they say, "You voted for this! We tried to warn you! You called us libtards! And now you're going to lose your farm!" I can't help but think they're yelling into the void. No one who needs to hear is hearing this.
Go to any actual news story about the detentions, deportations, snatch-and-grab raids, locking up people here legally on visas or with green cards. Look at the comments. They're consistently saying "it's about damned time," or "been here 20 years and didn't get their stuff sorted out," or "another sob story, get them out of here."
There is no nuance to these people, no understanding of how complex the immigration system is, no recognition that a person can LEGALLY stay here as long as he or she wants to on a green card, for example. Just: get them the hell out.
And is there any movement in the deep red ag states against any of this? Nope. 'S all good, man.
We have masked, armed, unidentified men in unmarked cars jumping people on the street and carting them out of state to ICE detention and Trump supporters, half the country, think it's about damned time.
Not ELITES - ROBBER BARONS
I threw my NYT and WSJ in the trash this morning. The front page news on the first was about Usha Vance and how she is helping her puling spouse advance his “family first” agenda. The WSJ had that fucking wedding. You are quite correct
It is a dismal and chilling irony to see the president of "Mr. Jefferson's University" fall to pressure from the DOJ today. UVA Board of Visitors, what part of "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man," don't you understand?
Where are Democrats? Do you think Hakeem Jeffries got around to reading his members proposals on war authorization?Cant elected officials show up at nursing homes and show how many senior citizens will lose their beds? Can't the Democratic elite Senators stop voting for Trump's nominations and take a more active role in rapid responses to the cruelty? The NYC primary should be a wake up call for all Democratic leaders who are seat takers. Anyone want to make an ad or ads of the kidnapping of hard working people and their brutal treatment? Too much to ask ? The DNC should disband and be replaced by Indivisible and have the Lincoln Project make our ads.
Yes. Ken Martin needs to go. David Hogg had the right approach.
Today, MSNBC had an interview of a daughter and father where his wife of 38 years, a worker, with a social security number, a taxpayer, a woman who had always showed up for her immigration hearings every single year she was supposed was kidnapped by ICE AT HER IMMIGRATION HEARING. Her crime? 40 or so years ago, she had an invalid marriage or something like that before she married her husband. Just ignore the 38 years of marriage since then and her adherence to the established immigration norms because of something that twisted Miller and Homan's undies cutting off their complete sense of decency and real manhood. That is what this country has become. The Founders are crying tears in their graves at what the country they bled and died for has become.
The elites are not resisting for an obvious reason:
https://substack.com/@demwinsmedia/note/c-129604183?r=abqjd&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
The polls that appear to comfort Bulwark's staff are no big deal. Trump hasn't slipped enough for it to signify. The only thing that will move the needle, in my opinion? Big inflation numbers, rising unemployment. And watch the real estate market. It's wait and see, as to whether we will live in the free country we've always boasted about.
It's coming Susan.
You ask, how will Trump and Hegseth respond down the road when news arrives that the uranium was not obliterated? They will do then as they do now, they will lie, they will blame others and in the latter they will of course blame Biden.
Someone needs to help me understand why it is that when masked men, dressed in black, wearing face masks, and with no visible means of identification, stop and pickup people on the street, are we to assume they are legitimate? If I saw that happening in my neighborhood I would assume they were Russian (or some other) mafia, or kidnappers, and behave accordingly.
You might like this piece by Alexandra Petri: https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2025/06/ice-agents-masked-dress-code/683270/
I've seen a couple of cases where masked men posing as ICE agents were just out criming.
In any case, the way that ICE is behaving is not what agents of a civilized government would do.
We may yet be treated to the entertaining spectacle of a Demopublican party still pursuing a strategy of too little and too late splitting the vote enough to deliver a victory once again to the Republicrats. So long as the opposition to the T. Rump criminal enterprise remains hovering around 55% my guess is nothing will change much. The fact that the Demopublicans have so far been unable to gather significant Independent and Conservative Republicrat support does not bode well for the upcoming elections which may or may not actually happen.
In the meantime Hegseth is preparing a Victory Over Iran Parade. I can hardly wait. Perhaps the peacekeeping troops in L.A. can be reassigned to parade duty.
And Project 2025 marches along as the T. Rump criminal enterprise scores more legal defeats and ignorable court orders. On the bright side we won't have to worry about scheduling vaccine visits and the funeral industry is preparing for the projected uptick in business once the flu season hits. Yay.
We may yet? YOU just did. Stop attacking Democrats for being democratic. The blame for this should fall on Republicans.
My opinion, your mileage may vary. Not into the blame game.
I’m much too strongly reminded of points that Eric Hoffer made clearly: that overseas in the 1950s-70s the US was much more popular with ordinary people than with elites, and (echoing Ellul) that the point of propaganda attacks is not to win over public opinion but to supply the elites with “common knowledge” rationalization.
The reason we are hearing so little from the elites is because they are going to be just fine. And they know it. And they have no urgent reasons to rock the boat. Trumps goals are horseshit and his tactics are horrors, and he has ridden them to power and popularity, but it’s mostly ordinary people who are becoming disgruntled with the plain fact that they don’t work. For most of the C Wright Mills power elite types it’s no more than a blip; what matters is that their children and grandchildren will always have a pyramid to sit atop of.
Now retired Justice Kennedy is worried about democracy. Too bad he didn't think about that possibility when he wrote the majority opinion in Citizens United.
If one bays at the moon, at least howl at the one overhead and not the one left behind last month.
"But you know what would help a lot? Some elite disapproval—publicly and boldly expressed. While a successful democracy depends on some degree of reasonableness from voters, a successful liberal democracy also depends on some degree of responsibility and even courage from elites."
It's not just any elites that's needed, but *Republican* and *Conservative* elites that are critical, especially those who work in Conservative media and the Trump administration. Getting them to speak out should be a top goal--whether it's appeals to their conscience and patriotism; pleading, begging; making them feel bad--whatever. I think preserving our democracy without these individuals railing against Trump will be very difficult.
Who here honestly thinks we will have a free and fair election in 2026. I think it’s over here, folks. I think fascism will take root here pretty fast after. Trump will declare an emergency and cancel elections in blue states. David Frum wrote a piece outlining how that could work. I think it’s worse than we all think.
That, and I think they actually ratfucked the last election. If it’s always projection on the right, it’s not impossible that they stole the last election with Elon’s help. I don’t think that in a conspiratorial way, but in a this-seems-within-the-realm-of-the-possible sort of way.
It’s dark out there. I think they’ll do whatever they can to stay in power, just watch. Who or what would stop them? The courts? Lmao, sure Jan. Look at the decision this morning. The people? Again, lmao. They’ll just round us up and deport us. There are no safeguards anymore. They’re gone. Take a look around. It’s over.
I do not believe we will ever have free elections again in my lifetime.
Statements made by Trump himself suggest that the help he got from Musk may not have been limited to persuading voters. He told Fox viewers: "My instruction -- we don't need the votes. I have so many votes." Afterward, he boasted that Musk "knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers, those vote-counting computers ..."
In between, there was Musk's reply when Tucker Carlson asked if he had done enough to help Trump win: "I think it is done," after which little X chimed in with a laugh, "They'll never know!” Then Musk declared Trump the winner hours before anyone else did.
Add in the statistical anomalies, and the fact that Trump allies are known to have perpetrated a breach of election system software after the 2020 election. In 2023, computer scientists and election security experts warned that the security breach had “urgent implications for the 2024 election and beyond.”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/voting-experts-warn-of-serious-threats-for-2024-from-election-equipment-software-breaches
I wouldn't assert that the election was rigged unless the weight of evidence clearly shows it. But some evidence does raise suspicion - on top of the fact that Donald Trump is a deeply unethical person with a history of cheating others and treating impediments to his will as illegitimate. Before the 2020 election, Steve Bannon told associates that Trump had a "strategy" to exploit the red wave and declare victory prematurely, then "do some crazy shit" to stay in power. That was not about ensuring election integrity.
(cont.)
Trump is the kind of person who would cheat to win - especially if he might otherwise face legal penalties for his crimes. He is surrounded by people who must regard his ruthlessness and contempt for rules as assets. Some of them were saying that the U.S. would be finished if Trump didn't win. Some were saying that civilization itself would end if Trump didn't win. Some, such as Elon Musk, are also sociopaths who feel entitled to use any means to get their way.
“Anything can be hacked," Musk tweeted before the election. Afterward: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election.” Granted, Musk has a huge ego, but does someone make that kind of declaration with such certainty if it's all down to whether he helped persuade enough people to vote for Trump?
"Will they allow this information to shape their thinking on the matter? Or will they thrust their heads back into the sand, waving it off as more treasonous nonsense from Deep Staters trying to make our great warfighters look bad?"
Ah, I'll take Door #2.