I would also have an ad that says that the Russian oligarchs who lost Putin's favor got murdered and that the Thyssens and Krupps who supported the Nazis learned too late that they could not control Hitler. That no one, no matter how rich they are, is safe if we lose the rule of law. That US guarantees for fair trials with right to counsel and private property make the US a wonderful place to do business and Trump will take all of that away if he becomes president again.
Re Trump's I know you are a pro at this, but I keep thinking that someone needs to show footage of the Russian or East German or yes, Nazi secret police taking people away in the night, without warrants, without access to lawyers, and throwing them into a gulag. Because that is what will happen under Trump. It only starts with the demonized group ("illegal" immigrants).
Hitler murdered six million Jews in the camps -- but there were another five million victims, including Gypsies, homosexuals, euthanized dementia patients.
Your presumably well educated friend needs to know that he would be voting for this, too.
We need the Lincoln Project commercials running all day every day until the election. Yours were the best in 2020 and they still are. Why haven't I seen them on tv this cycle? Surely you must be able to get funding. I'd throw a few bucks into the kitty to make that happen and judging by the number of likes on this post so would a lot more people.
I agree. I hope my legacy is reminding the young women of today of all the work we did a half century ago. For them and for their daughters (and for us too). We are more than half the sky ; we need to claim our right to MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
How does his near-incestuous relationship with his own daughter get a pass from the so-called "religious right"? Not to mention every parent in America? When is this sick perv gonna be held to account? Lock Him Up!
It's not the exact same thing. Joe Biden never pointed to a 12-year-old girl on an escalator and said he'd be dating her a few years. Joe Biden never dressed his preadolescent daughter up in slutwear and sat her on his lap for the cameras as they were smooching.
You do not remember the pic of Biden kissing his granddaughter’s head as he was standing behind her that got all the maga crowd riled up? The unfairness of that against all the slutty poses of Trump with Ivanka is what I was referring to.
Of course; I'm just saying they're not remotely the same thing. Biden is old-school physically affectionate and it's made women uncomfortable; he was told about it, recognized their perceptions and vowed to change that in his behavior. But it was never suspected of a sexual motive. (The only woman who accused Biden of sexual assault, Tara Reade, has been roundly discredited by a mountain of sources and she now lives in Russia because she adores Vladimir Putin.)
Trump, OTOH, loved to take situations where expressions of public affection to women might be appropriate and deliberately sexualize them. Which is beyond creepy.
But I certainly do take your point about MAGA hypocrisy.
If I were your friend I would answer yeah he’s a terrible human being but he’s not a normal person. Of course he’s not a role model but he’s our leader and he gets things done. Great leaders are often terrible people but they are different from us. If I were your friend I’d be more concerned that Trump will dismantle American democracy, already tottering, and you will be well on the road to a corrupt gangster state. Basically your friends life and livelihood (and that of his kids) could all go up in smoke in 10 years.
"Of course he’s not a role model but he’s our leader and he gets things done."
You're being facetious, right?
If you're serious, then does this apply to Kim Un in N.Korea? Hitler? Stalin? Assad in Syria? It's OK to be a "terrible" person as long as you "get things done"?
No just that FDR was a man of his times as was Jefferson as we all are. Atill absolutely worthy of our respect . It is unjust to pull a person into another time and jusge her thusly
well in a sense Trump is a "man of his times" - lying, cheating, dishonest, self-absorbed, narcissistic, self-entitled, delusional, twitter-addicted, me-me-me.
Trump's Secretary of Defence Mark Asper said of Trump: “I think he’s unfit for office. He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country.” So yeah, Trump seems to be a "man of his times." He says "America First" but Trump's real mantra is: ME FIRST.
There is such a thing as absolute evil and absolute right and wrong. The internment of loyal Japanese-Americans was a grave wrong, but it wasn't the Nazi death camps.
I generally agree with your point, Jonathan, but I have to say that leaders who are terrible people also tend to be terrible leaders. Ivan the Terrible was pretty, you know, terrible.
Washington, Lincoln and FDR were flawed (all people are flawed) but they were also fundamentally good. Mussolini made the trains run on time but he was also a colossal jerk.
I’m not so sure that our African American citizens in the South from say 1932-1944 would agree about FDR. He presided over horrible Jom Crow; and why did he do nothing to stop this horror? The solid South; he needed those votes. Those Democrat southern senators held great sway. Hey, we’re all human. Aame for Japanese Americans during WWIi
That's like saying that William Shakespeare was a racist and a sexist. I mean, he was, but he was also William Shakespeare. FDR was MLKjr compared to Woodrow Wilson (and Eleanor Roosevelt was a racial progressive who resigned from the DAR because they refused to let opera singer Marian Anderson perform in Constitution Hall; Eleanor organized a concert for her in front of the Lincoln Memorial). The internment of Japanese-Americans was shameful mistake, but it was supported by SCOTUS in the Korematsu decision; FDR is not to blame alone for this. Abraham Lincoln did not believe in strict equality between black and white people nor did he run for president to end slavery. History has a way of shaping people for good and ill.
This is the kind of callow, ahistorical radical relativism that's usually championed by the campus far left, judging historical figures through the lens of today's moral standards. I'm sure Genghis Khan beat his wife, too ;)
"Just trying to find some reason why a person who is not stupid or evil would want to vote for Trump"
I've spent the last couple years studying and writing about that very topic.
Bob McKeown's list below covers some of the reasons, but Trump has pulled together a coalition with different aims, grievances, agendas, etc, and I don't think there's one-explanation-fits-all.
I'd add some points here, but I'd rather let the various posts on my newsletter speak for itself
(ps, I checked out your site, Jonathan, and will be following your coverage of the UK elections; thanks for that)
Salesmanship. I'm almost 65 and at a very young age in the early 70s I decided that TV was bullshit because the commercials were so ridiculous and not in a good way. I mean, I was a kid; I had no analysis of what made the commercials false (you could get away with a lot more nonsense in ads back then), just knew it in my preadolescent gut that people must be idiots not only for submitting to watch these things, but for responding to them and buying the products. That was the truism back then: Everybody hates the commercials but everybody buys the products.
The Conservative AngerTainment Complex is self-reinforcing. They want Hunter convicted, he's convicted on a technical gun charge (which they'd decry as a miscarriage of justice in any other circumstance) and faces serious jail time, but instead of demonstrating that the rule of law is evenhanded and Joe Biden did not put his thumb on the scales either against Trump or for his own son, no, Hunter's father engineered that to distract from the Biden family's _real_ crimes. How do you even deal with that? Like all conspiracy theories, it's unfalsifiable. But it keeps doling out the dopamine outrage hits like the proverbial rat with the cocaine pellet.
It's like Meathead grousing to Archie about a commercial: "New and Improved? What were we using before, Old and Rotten?" Trump is the New and Improved fascist dictator who so enchanted everybody before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
Oh electorally, for dead certain, Abe. But psychologically, Trump in his own mind is tantamount to a fascist dictator, a demagogue high on his own supply. And unlike the demagogues of the past, whether William Jennings Bryan, Huey Long or George Wallace, Trump has no belief system at all; the only things important to him are what he thinks make him look good (heh) at any given moment. He'll tell megadonors that he'll lay waste to entitlements and tell the "poorly educated" that he won't lay a finger on Social Security and Medicare. He'll tell evangelicals that he's the most pro-life president and ended Roe v Wade, but then says privately that ending Roe is political poison for the GOP and then tries to ludicrously split the difference by saying that "everybody" supports leaving abortion to the states, when leaving it to the states has led to radical outcomes for women with ectopic pregnancies and unviable fetuses that they're forced to carry to term.
He has a thoroughly diseased personality and is unlike any other political figure in American history. Dictator he is not (yet) but he is in no way a politician who should be allowed to arise in a constitutional republic.
But his followers? To them he's infallible, a savior, even Jesus reborn.
The thing about dictators is that they're willing to bring down their own countries to stay in power. (see Netanyahu destroying Israel's credibility world-wide to stay in power).
Trump is everything you said, and worse. But try to tell that to his followers.
Clearly, it's a cult of personality, and considering Trump's character, what does that say about America's character?
Bloomberg spent a bundle on his own failed candidacy, and he's got $billions$. Is he willing to spend a cool bill and stop Trump? Maybe a couple mill for the Lincoln Project?
My kids and grandchildren know the truth of this man and history. We are not in a cult and intelligent gifted thinkers. But that alone can’t save them from the Nazis of America. Trump is an ignorant sap. The perfect patsy. But he is evil and sick, and has been treated “above the law.” So now what …..
Personally I'm running out of faith that any Trump-supporter can be saved from the Trump Trance; they're all in.
So that leaves the Dems to somehow stage a massive voter turnout, create a Blue-nami and wash these neo-fascists down the toilet. I think the key to that will be the turnout of Women - the largest voting block in America. If women's reproductive freedom is made the key ballot issue, I think Biden and the Dems can stop the Trump train.
"may the least worst win" - what a sad commentary on American mindset when so many can't see through the psychopathic narcissism and perversion of America's Greatest Con-man:
One small example: his mockery and contempt for American military personnel:
I certainly have no problems agreeing to disagree, Matthew. I'll just say for the record, though (and you don't have to agree with me) that I think Joe Biden's been the best president of my lifetime. Of course there were a few major blunders; the Afghanistan withdrawal was managed atrociously and IMO Lloyd Austin should have gotten the boot for it. Giving Merrick Garland AG as a consolation prize for McConnell keeping him off SCOTUS was a poor choice; Merrick is a good man, but he has a judicial temperament, not a prosecutorial one. Trump should have been taken off the board years ago. Caution is good, but too much caution is cowardice.
What Biden did, though, which astounded me and I wouldn't have thought it possible during the primary when everyone read him as a centrist's centrist, was to reject decades of the neoliberal Austerity consensus that hamstrung Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Joe ignored Lawrence Summers and spent like a drunken sailor during the pandemic. Sure, we got some inflation and increased the national debt, but we also came out of covid not only avoiding the recession that all the smart guys were predicting, but with the strongest, soundest economy in the developed world.
How about rewarding Blinken with Secretary of State when as a top campaign operative, he engineered a false document declaring Hunter’s computer did not contain incriminating evidence of corruption, but was Russian disinformation. That was a fraud that JRB used in the debate in October of 2020.
Let him without sin cast the first stone.
I very much dislike Trump. He’s too old and should retire. But let’s look at the whole truth.
OK, Jared Kushner gets $2billion from the Saudi Prince. What's up with that? But Hunter Biden's laptop? Oh God, stop the presses, please save us from Hunter Biden's laptop! Jared's 2$bill? No problem. But Hunter Biden's laptop!!! The greatest threat in American history!!! And he bought a gun illegally!!!! Say it isn't so. Such a crime! Never heard of in America. Lock him up!!!
Except, Matthew, that isn't the truth. Tell of this "false document" you claim Blinken "engineered." The so-called Laptop From Hell _doesn't_ contain incriminating evidence of corruption and the story of how the hard drive image wound up in Giuliani's lap doesn't pass the laugh test. A nearly blind computer store guy? Who is liable for violating Hunter Biden's privacy and is being sued. Lemme 'splain how Russian disinformation works:
You take something that's real and then seed it with BS so the BS looks credible by association. That is the _classic_Russian disinfo playbook.
A year or so ago a couple major media outlets got ahold of the laptop hard drive image and performed a deep forensic analysis. All the lurid sex and drugs stuff and some of the emails originated on the laptop. But a great deal of the emails, including the infamous Tony Bobulinski "Ten percent for the Big Guy" email, have no metadata linking them to the laptop. Minions of Giuliani (Giuliani is computer illiterate) and Andreii Derkash seeded the laptop with made-up nonsense to support the false Ukraine / Hunter Biden corruption narrative. So yeah, Antony Blinken was dead right about this.
You can argue that Hunter Biden traded on his name to get the Burisma gig. You can't credibly argue, though, that Westerners somehow don't have no-show board gigs with East European energy companies to lend them status. It's kind of how it works in the developing world. Ask Mike Pompeo and Rex Tillerson how many foreign energy boards they sit on.
Blinken has been a superb secretary of state, tirelessly marshalling our European allies to support Ukraine. You can argue that our support has been too cautious, and that's a valid criticism. But it has never wavered.
OK- as I said, it was a professionally done ad. It will play best with those already convinced of the Democrat cause. For others, misdirection mingled with some small bits of truth is harder. Many know that Bragg took a misdemeanor “false business records” statute (PL 175.05) and gerry-rigged a “felony” to it ( the necessary but unknown crime), creating a legal Rube Goldberg device. Voters in the other 49 states are left wondering how a local NY County DA can bring such charges and impact a national election. As to the out of context remarks about “good people on both sides”, that’s less fair than Republicans taking say 20 of Biden’s bloopers and showing him to be totally senile and out to lunch. In those remarks Trump denounced white supremacy and Nazism in the strongest terms. OOOps, never mind.
His candidacy isn't about improving the lives of Americans, it's about getting personal revenge on anyone who doesn't buy into his narcissistic delusions of grandeur.
These are right wing talking points, not a fair analysis (the use of "Democrat" as an adjective is a dead giveaway). The ad would be less effective for uncritical watchers of FOX "News," but that's not its audience; uncritical FOX victims aren't reachable by reason. Let me break it down for you point-by-point:
1) The crime Alvin Bragg prosecuted Trump for is prosecuted in Manhattan on a daily basis. The felonies are hardly "unknown" -- this is an obfuscation beloved by the likes of Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Turley -- and were spelled out clearly in a prosecution motion in February. They're a tax crime and an election crime, and their purpose is only to speak to Trump's intent in committing the misdemeanors (which nobody denies he did as the documentary evidence is overwhelming). Twelve intelligent, highly educated jurors, including one who gets his news from Truth Social, agreed.
2) You don't denounce something "in the strongest terms" by equivocating. You don't denounce murder as a horrible crime by saying that "good people" can be moved to commit murder. There was nothing whatsoever out-of-context about those remarks and comparing them to a blooper reel of Biden is a false equivalence.
What were the “34” felonies? Did you read PL 175.05? No the misdemeanor “false business records “ statute is not often charged. This was a farce. P.S. I am a 52 year subscriber to NYT . I also subscribe to WSJ and follow Seymour Hersh and Matt Taibbi on Substack. I’m tired of Blue team members talking BS that this was a felony. I didn’t vote for Teump in 2020, but I know when I smell a rat. Bragg abused his authority here.
You're bragging about subscribing to Seymour Hersh and Matt Taibbi? Next you'll be telling me you subscribe to Glenn Greenwald and Alan Dershowitz, LOL. Those guys have gone around the political horseshoe at least a decade ago. And I wouldn't be so proud of being a lifetime subscriber to the NYT, the state of the art in bothsiderist access journalism (although I do watch Maggie Haberman on CNN). The WSJ even more so. They just ran a hit piece on Biden's age, quoting no Democrats, and Keith Olbermann suspects it's part of a quid-pro-quo with Trump to get Putin to release Evan Gershkovich. I am no conspiracy theorist; this is only Keith's conjecture. But would anyone be honestly surprised?
Now look, you're arguing like a concern troll ("I didn't vote for Trump in 2020, BUT ...") and you clearly know little about Bragg's shop. Those 34 misdemeanors _became_ felonies with the intent to commit felony tax and election fraud, demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury. Do you know how often falsifying business records is charged in Manhattan? Of course you don't. I've heard legal commentators say it's a bread-and-butter financial crime and is often bumped to a felony depending on the purpose to commit it. Of course it's probably let go often if the underlying motive to falsify the records is relatively benign, like simple carelessness. But that was hardly Trump's motive here, which was to obscure the Daniels affair from the public weeks before the election right after the Access Hollywood story broke. This is not an obscure legal theory despite what your substack contrarians might wish to tell you.
Politicians are not role models for kids. Never have been.
Kennedy had affairs.
Johnson was racist and a war monger.
Carter was nice but a poor President.
Regan was a decent man.
Clinton had affairs.
Bush was an alchoholic and war monger.
Obama was a gentleman but a war monger.
Trump is childish and had affairs but made peace and ran a good economy.
Biden is racist and a war monger.
I’ve got people for that, bitch. 😆🤣😅😅😂🤣😆
Great ad, Rick. Thank you so much.
I would also have an ad that says that the Russian oligarchs who lost Putin's favor got murdered and that the Thyssens and Krupps who supported the Nazis learned too late that they could not control Hitler. That no one, no matter how rich they are, is safe if we lose the rule of law. That US guarantees for fair trials with right to counsel and private property make the US a wonderful place to do business and Trump will take all of that away if he becomes president again.
Re Trump's I know you are a pro at this, but I keep thinking that someone needs to show footage of the Russian or East German or yes, Nazi secret police taking people away in the night, without warrants, without access to lawyers, and throwing them into a gulag. Because that is what will happen under Trump. It only starts with the demonized group ("illegal" immigrants).
Hitler murdered six million Jews in the camps -- but there were another five million victims, including Gypsies, homosexuals, euthanized dementia patients.
Your presumably well educated friend needs to know that he would be voting for this, too.
I see a pedophile
We need the Lincoln Project commercials running all day every day until the election. Yours were the best in 2020 and they still are. Why haven't I seen them on tv this cycle? Surely you must be able to get funding. I'd throw a few bucks into the kitty to make that happen and judging by the number of likes on this post so would a lot more people.
Great ad...spot on..I just hope the people that should see it, will watch it. Maybe it will shake some sense into them 🤞🤞🤞.
Our Democracy...any democracy is worth protecting. Glad Our Democracy has a strong voice like yours!
That I stood up to my full female height AND VOTED: GET THE FUCK OUTBOF OUR COLLECTIVE LIVES!
Penelope, I think Women - if they're strong and motivated like you - can flush Trumpism down the toilet in November. I sure hope they do it.
I agree. I hope my legacy is reminding the young women of today of all the work we did a half century ago. For them and for their daughters (and for us too). We are more than half the sky ; we need to claim our right to MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Amen, sister. My arms are getting damned tired holding my "ERA NOW!" sign.
Amen to that!
This should run in every newspaper , ads for president .
Why wasn’t this picture posted when Joe Biden was being accused of being a pedophile for doing the exact same thing?!?!😡😡😡
Elizabeth, I thought the same thing, and put together this photo-essay on Trump the Perv:
https://neofascism.substack.com/p/a-touchy-topic
How does his near-incestuous relationship with his own daughter get a pass from the so-called "religious right"? Not to mention every parent in America? When is this sick perv gonna be held to account? Lock Him Up!
It's not the exact same thing. Joe Biden never pointed to a 12-year-old girl on an escalator and said he'd be dating her a few years. Joe Biden never dressed his preadolescent daughter up in slutwear and sat her on his lap for the cameras as they were smooching.
You do not remember the pic of Biden kissing his granddaughter’s head as he was standing behind her that got all the maga crowd riled up? The unfairness of that against all the slutty poses of Trump with Ivanka is what I was referring to.
Of course; I'm just saying they're not remotely the same thing. Biden is old-school physically affectionate and it's made women uncomfortable; he was told about it, recognized their perceptions and vowed to change that in his behavior. But it was never suspected of a sexual motive. (The only woman who accused Biden of sexual assault, Tara Reade, has been roundly discredited by a mountain of sources and she now lives in Russia because she adores Vladimir Putin.)
Trump, OTOH, loved to take situations where expressions of public affection to women might be appropriate and deliberately sexualize them. Which is beyond creepy.
But I certainly do take your point about MAGA hypocrisy.
Shameful
If I were your friend I would answer yeah he’s a terrible human being but he’s not a normal person. Of course he’s not a role model but he’s our leader and he gets things done. Great leaders are often terrible people but they are different from us. If I were your friend I’d be more concerned that Trump will dismantle American democracy, already tottering, and you will be well on the road to a corrupt gangster state. Basically your friends life and livelihood (and that of his kids) could all go up in smoke in 10 years.
"Of course he’s not a role model but he’s our leader and he gets things done."
You're being facetious, right?
If you're serious, then does this apply to Kim Un in N.Korea? Hitler? Stalin? Assad in Syria? It's OK to be a "terrible" person as long as you "get things done"?
Tell me you're joking, please.
No just that FDR was a man of his times as was Jefferson as we all are. Atill absolutely worthy of our respect . It is unjust to pull a person into another time and jusge her thusly
well in a sense Trump is a "man of his times" - lying, cheating, dishonest, self-absorbed, narcissistic, self-entitled, delusional, twitter-addicted, me-me-me.
Trump's Secretary of Defence Mark Asper said of Trump: “I think he’s unfit for office. He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country.” So yeah, Trump seems to be a "man of his times." He says "America First" but Trump's real mantra is: ME FIRST.
There is such a thing as absolute evil and absolute right and wrong. The internment of loyal Japanese-Americans was a grave wrong, but it wasn't the Nazi death camps.
I generally agree with your point, Jonathan, but I have to say that leaders who are terrible people also tend to be terrible leaders. Ivan the Terrible was pretty, you know, terrible.
Washington, Lincoln and FDR were flawed (all people are flawed) but they were also fundamentally good. Mussolini made the trains run on time but he was also a colossal jerk.
I’m not so sure that our African American citizens in the South from say 1932-1944 would agree about FDR. He presided over horrible Jom Crow; and why did he do nothing to stop this horror? The solid South; he needed those votes. Those Democrat southern senators held great sway. Hey, we’re all human. Aame for Japanese Americans during WWIi
That's like saying that William Shakespeare was a racist and a sexist. I mean, he was, but he was also William Shakespeare. FDR was MLKjr compared to Woodrow Wilson (and Eleanor Roosevelt was a racial progressive who resigned from the DAR because they refused to let opera singer Marian Anderson perform in Constitution Hall; Eleanor organized a concert for her in front of the Lincoln Memorial). The internment of Japanese-Americans was shameful mistake, but it was supported by SCOTUS in the Korematsu decision; FDR is not to blame alone for this. Abraham Lincoln did not believe in strict equality between black and white people nor did he run for president to end slavery. History has a way of shaping people for good and ill.
This is the kind of callow, ahistorical radical relativism that's usually championed by the campus far left, judging historical figures through the lens of today's moral standards. I'm sure Genghis Khan beat his wife, too ;)
Yeah I tend to agree Bob. Just trying to find some reason why a person who is not stupid or evil would want to vote for Trump
"Just trying to find some reason why a person who is not stupid or evil would want to vote for Trump"
I've spent the last couple years studying and writing about that very topic.
Bob McKeown's list below covers some of the reasons, but Trump has pulled together a coalition with different aims, grievances, agendas, etc, and I don't think there's one-explanation-fits-all.
I'd add some points here, but I'd rather let the various posts on my newsletter speak for itself
(ps, I checked out your site, Jonathan, and will be following your coverage of the UK elections; thanks for that)
Salesmanship. I'm almost 65 and at a very young age in the early 70s I decided that TV was bullshit because the commercials were so ridiculous and not in a good way. I mean, I was a kid; I had no analysis of what made the commercials false (you could get away with a lot more nonsense in ads back then), just knew it in my preadolescent gut that people must be idiots not only for submitting to watch these things, but for responding to them and buying the products. That was the truism back then: Everybody hates the commercials but everybody buys the products.
The Conservative AngerTainment Complex is self-reinforcing. They want Hunter convicted, he's convicted on a technical gun charge (which they'd decry as a miscarriage of justice in any other circumstance) and faces serious jail time, but instead of demonstrating that the rule of law is evenhanded and Joe Biden did not put his thumb on the scales either against Trump or for his own son, no, Hunter's father engineered that to distract from the Biden family's _real_ crimes. How do you even deal with that? Like all conspiracy theories, it's unfalsifiable. But it keeps doling out the dopamine outrage hits like the proverbial rat with the cocaine pellet.
It's like Meathead grousing to Archie about a commercial: "New and Improved? What were we using before, Old and Rotten?" Trump is the New and Improved fascist dictator who so enchanted everybody before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
"Trump is the New and Improved fascist dictator" - I'd make it "wannabe dictator." He ain't won yet.
Oh electorally, for dead certain, Abe. But psychologically, Trump in his own mind is tantamount to a fascist dictator, a demagogue high on his own supply. And unlike the demagogues of the past, whether William Jennings Bryan, Huey Long or George Wallace, Trump has no belief system at all; the only things important to him are what he thinks make him look good (heh) at any given moment. He'll tell megadonors that he'll lay waste to entitlements and tell the "poorly educated" that he won't lay a finger on Social Security and Medicare. He'll tell evangelicals that he's the most pro-life president and ended Roe v Wade, but then says privately that ending Roe is political poison for the GOP and then tries to ludicrously split the difference by saying that "everybody" supports leaving abortion to the states, when leaving it to the states has led to radical outcomes for women with ectopic pregnancies and unviable fetuses that they're forced to carry to term.
He has a thoroughly diseased personality and is unlike any other political figure in American history. Dictator he is not (yet) but he is in no way a politician who should be allowed to arise in a constitutional republic.
Yes, you nailed it.
From Day One I said he was a certifiable psychopath
https://neofascism.substack.com/p/is-donald-trump-a-psychopath
and he's proven me right a thousand times.
But his followers? To them he's infallible, a savior, even Jesus reborn.
The thing about dictators is that they're willing to bring down their own countries to stay in power. (see Netanyahu destroying Israel's credibility world-wide to stay in power).
Trump is everything you said, and worse. But try to tell that to his followers.
Clearly, it's a cult of personality, and considering Trump's character, what does that say about America's character?
This is a stunning ad! I’m in CO so I doubt I’ll see it. What states and when do you place these ads-beside social media?
Where are the wealthy Dem donors?
Bloomberg spent a bundle on his own failed candidacy, and he's got $billions$. Is he willing to spend a cool bill and stop Trump? Maybe a couple mill for the Lincoln Project?
Where are the wealthy Dem donors?
My kids and grandchildren know the truth of this man and history. We are not in a cult and intelligent gifted thinkers. But that alone can’t save them from the Nazis of America. Trump is an ignorant sap. The perfect patsy. But he is evil and sick, and has been treated “above the law.” So now what …..
So now what ...
That's the existential question, Pam.
Personally I'm running out of faith that any Trump-supporter can be saved from the Trump Trance; they're all in.
So that leaves the Dems to somehow stage a massive voter turnout, create a Blue-nami and wash these neo-fascists down the toilet. I think the key to that will be the turnout of Women - the largest voting block in America. If women's reproductive freedom is made the key ballot issue, I think Biden and the Dems can stop the Trump train.
Great ad; 80 % bullshit, but effective with Democrats and leaners toward JRB. Thoughtful independents and Republicans, not so much.
Why not?
Let’s agree to disagree. No problems.
Be well. Two bad candidates. May the least worst win.
"may the least worst win" - what a sad commentary on American mindset when so many can't see through the psychopathic narcissism and perversion of America's Greatest Con-man:
One small example: his mockery and contempt for American military personnel:
https://neofascism.substack.com/p/a-republican-disgrace
there are many many more con-jobs he's pulled on his followers, but they seem blinded by the phoney light, caught in a trance, asleep at the wheel.
Matthew, do you really see an equivalence between the characters of Biden and Trump?
I certainly have no problems agreeing to disagree, Matthew. I'll just say for the record, though (and you don't have to agree with me) that I think Joe Biden's been the best president of my lifetime. Of course there were a few major blunders; the Afghanistan withdrawal was managed atrociously and IMO Lloyd Austin should have gotten the boot for it. Giving Merrick Garland AG as a consolation prize for McConnell keeping him off SCOTUS was a poor choice; Merrick is a good man, but he has a judicial temperament, not a prosecutorial one. Trump should have been taken off the board years ago. Caution is good, but too much caution is cowardice.
What Biden did, though, which astounded me and I wouldn't have thought it possible during the primary when everyone read him as a centrist's centrist, was to reject decades of the neoliberal Austerity consensus that hamstrung Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Joe ignored Lawrence Summers and spent like a drunken sailor during the pandemic. Sure, we got some inflation and increased the national debt, but we also came out of covid not only avoiding the recession that all the smart guys were predicting, but with the strongest, soundest economy in the developed world.
How about rewarding Blinken with Secretary of State when as a top campaign operative, he engineered a false document declaring Hunter’s computer did not contain incriminating evidence of corruption, but was Russian disinformation. That was a fraud that JRB used in the debate in October of 2020.
Let him without sin cast the first stone.
I very much dislike Trump. He’s too old and should retire. But let’s look at the whole truth.
That’s it.
wanna look at the "whole truth"?
OK, Jared Kushner gets $2billion from the Saudi Prince. What's up with that? But Hunter Biden's laptop? Oh God, stop the presses, please save us from Hunter Biden's laptop! Jared's 2$bill? No problem. But Hunter Biden's laptop!!! The greatest threat in American history!!! And he bought a gun illegally!!!! Say it isn't so. Such a crime! Never heard of in America. Lock him up!!!
And Jared? Naw, nothing there.
Except, Matthew, that isn't the truth. Tell of this "false document" you claim Blinken "engineered." The so-called Laptop From Hell _doesn't_ contain incriminating evidence of corruption and the story of how the hard drive image wound up in Giuliani's lap doesn't pass the laugh test. A nearly blind computer store guy? Who is liable for violating Hunter Biden's privacy and is being sued. Lemme 'splain how Russian disinformation works:
You take something that's real and then seed it with BS so the BS looks credible by association. That is the _classic_Russian disinfo playbook.
A year or so ago a couple major media outlets got ahold of the laptop hard drive image and performed a deep forensic analysis. All the lurid sex and drugs stuff and some of the emails originated on the laptop. But a great deal of the emails, including the infamous Tony Bobulinski "Ten percent for the Big Guy" email, have no metadata linking them to the laptop. Minions of Giuliani (Giuliani is computer illiterate) and Andreii Derkash seeded the laptop with made-up nonsense to support the false Ukraine / Hunter Biden corruption narrative. So yeah, Antony Blinken was dead right about this.
You can argue that Hunter Biden traded on his name to get the Burisma gig. You can't credibly argue, though, that Westerners somehow don't have no-show board gigs with East European energy companies to lend them status. It's kind of how it works in the developing world. Ask Mike Pompeo and Rex Tillerson how many foreign energy boards they sit on.
Blinken has been a superb secretary of state, tirelessly marshalling our European allies to support Ukraine. You can argue that our support has been too cautious, and that's a valid criticism. But it has never wavered.
OK- as I said, it was a professionally done ad. It will play best with those already convinced of the Democrat cause. For others, misdirection mingled with some small bits of truth is harder. Many know that Bragg took a misdemeanor “false business records” statute (PL 175.05) and gerry-rigged a “felony” to it ( the necessary but unknown crime), creating a legal Rube Goldberg device. Voters in the other 49 states are left wondering how a local NY County DA can bring such charges and impact a national election. As to the out of context remarks about “good people on both sides”, that’s less fair than Republicans taking say 20 of Biden’s bloopers and showing him to be totally senile and out to lunch. In those remarks Trump denounced white supremacy and Nazism in the strongest terms. OOOps, never mind.
Trump would be a political goner without the rabid support of far-right white-nationalist, trigger-happy groups like Proud Boys, etc.
He's using the "Strongman" playbook of Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, etc that relies on fear and intimidation and threats.
https://neofascism.substack.com/p/strongmen-mussolini-to-the-present
His candidacy isn't about improving the lives of Americans, it's about getting personal revenge on anyone who doesn't buy into his narcissistic delusions of grandeur.
These are right wing talking points, not a fair analysis (the use of "Democrat" as an adjective is a dead giveaway). The ad would be less effective for uncritical watchers of FOX "News," but that's not its audience; uncritical FOX victims aren't reachable by reason. Let me break it down for you point-by-point:
1) The crime Alvin Bragg prosecuted Trump for is prosecuted in Manhattan on a daily basis. The felonies are hardly "unknown" -- this is an obfuscation beloved by the likes of Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Turley -- and were spelled out clearly in a prosecution motion in February. They're a tax crime and an election crime, and their purpose is only to speak to Trump's intent in committing the misdemeanors (which nobody denies he did as the documentary evidence is overwhelming). Twelve intelligent, highly educated jurors, including one who gets his news from Truth Social, agreed.
2) You don't denounce something "in the strongest terms" by equivocating. You don't denounce murder as a horrible crime by saying that "good people" can be moved to commit murder. There was nothing whatsoever out-of-context about those remarks and comparing them to a blooper reel of Biden is a false equivalence.
What were the “34” felonies? Did you read PL 175.05? No the misdemeanor “false business records “ statute is not often charged. This was a farce. P.S. I am a 52 year subscriber to NYT . I also subscribe to WSJ and follow Seymour Hersh and Matt Taibbi on Substack. I’m tired of Blue team members talking BS that this was a felony. I didn’t vote for Teump in 2020, but I know when I smell a rat. Bragg abused his authority here.
Matthew, were you awake or asleep on Jan.6?
Did Trump and his inner circle not organize and encourage a violent insurrection in Washington?
Did they not organize a "Fake Electors" scheme?
Did they not try to stop the "peaceful transfer of power"?
These are treasonous acts. Period.
Hundreds of these traitors to the Constitution are rightfully in prison, and Trump wants to pardon and release them?
C'mon, Matthew. How about putting country over party.
You're bragging about subscribing to Seymour Hersh and Matt Taibbi? Next you'll be telling me you subscribe to Glenn Greenwald and Alan Dershowitz, LOL. Those guys have gone around the political horseshoe at least a decade ago. And I wouldn't be so proud of being a lifetime subscriber to the NYT, the state of the art in bothsiderist access journalism (although I do watch Maggie Haberman on CNN). The WSJ even more so. They just ran a hit piece on Biden's age, quoting no Democrats, and Keith Olbermann suspects it's part of a quid-pro-quo with Trump to get Putin to release Evan Gershkovich. I am no conspiracy theorist; this is only Keith's conjecture. But would anyone be honestly surprised?
Now look, you're arguing like a concern troll ("I didn't vote for Trump in 2020, BUT ...") and you clearly know little about Bragg's shop. Those 34 misdemeanors _became_ felonies with the intent to commit felony tax and election fraud, demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury. Do you know how often falsifying business records is charged in Manhattan? Of course you don't. I've heard legal commentators say it's a bread-and-butter financial crime and is often bumped to a felony depending on the purpose to commit it. Of course it's probably let go often if the underlying motive to falsify the records is relatively benign, like simple carelessness. But that was hardly Trump's motive here, which was to obscure the Daniels affair from the public weeks before the election right after the Access Hollywood story broke. This is not an obscure legal theory despite what your substack contrarians might wish to tell you.
Perfect
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13FUsP0QXbD-0l30JagvZEnqC3KMVBmXT/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=112160789988355843868&rtpof=true&sd=true