Sometimes, you just don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Our Buffoon-in-Chief recently ventured out of his MAGA rally cocoon to participate in a Pennsylvania town hall. His performance was more bizarre than usual–and that, as all sentient Americans know, is really saying something. The linked article from Talking Points Memo characterized the event as a “fire hose of lying,” but I actually disagree–lying requires intent, and I think Trump is no longer able to distinguish between what is real and what he wants to believe at any particular moment. He has always been loosely tethered to reality, and I think that under the pressure of the campaign–not to mention the various ongoing criminal investigations– the tether is slipping. Badly.
Besides somehow blaming his Democratic rival Joe Biden for not enacting a national mask mandate, Trump spent the town hall claiming that a “herd mentality” would stop COVID-19 (he was presumably referring to the herd immunity method, which health experts have largely rejected as a solution to the pandemic), falsely denying that he wasn’t trying to kill preexisting conditions protections in the Affordable Care Act, and bragging about endorsements from the police when asked about systemic racism in the criminal justice system.
Several observers noted that the first debate is fast approaching and the president pretty clearly isn’t ready for that debate. Chris Hayes of MSNBC tweeted something along the lines of “And this is the guy who wants the campaign to focus on mental fitness?!” Someone else tweeted a concise and accurate summary of the performance:
Trump thought he could BS his way through this town hall because he overestimates his intelligence, underestimates Americans and has relied on soft ball media coverage, wealth and privilege to protect him from all his failures all his life. He’s crumbling. Didn’t take much.
Trump presumably agreed to the Town Hall format for the same reason he agreed to 18 conversations with Bob Woodward–he has a wildly exaggerated belief in his ability to “snow” people (okay–bullshit his way through situations), and an obvious inability to recognize his own deficits–to know what he doesn’t know. He is a walking, talking example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
He also lacks an adult vocabulary. Hence “herd mentality” for “herd immunity.”
Perhaps the best reaction to this train wreck, however, came from satirist Andy Borowitz. Borowitz has been on a roll the past four years. (Say what you will about this nightmare Presidency, it has been great for comedy and satire…) The Borowitz Report’s headline read “Scientists Believe Congressional Republicans Have Developed Herd Mentality,” and the lede expanded on the theme.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota believe that Republican members of Congress have obtained “extremely high” levels of herd mentality, a new study shows.
According to the study, the researchers found that, in obtaining herd mentality, the G.O.P. lawmakers have developed “near-total immunity” to damning books, news reports, and audio tapes.
Herd mentality is, as Borowitz wrote, the dominant characteristic of all congressional Republicans, irrespective of the state they represent, “with the exception of one senator from Utah, Mitt Romney, who was deemed an outlier and therefore statistically insignificant.”
Davis Logsdon, the scientist who supervised the study, said that Republicans were exhibiting herd mentality to a degree never before observed in humans.
“Herd mentality at these levels historically has appeared only in other mammal species, like lemmings,” the researcher said.
Borowitz’ “take” on the Town Hall reminds us that the problem really isn’t that we have a corrupt, embarrassing, mentally-ill President. The problem is his GOP enablers–the lemmings who are blindly pandering to the racist cult that is Trump’s base.
Regarding his statement about COVID-19: “herd mentality” may be unintentionally correct, as in “If we (the herd) ignore it hard enough, it won’t exist” – problem solved! And he’s helping it along by making testing harder to get, because as we all know, testing causes cases. /SMH
“The problem is his GOP enablers–the lemmings who are blindly pandering to the racist cult that is Trump’s base.”
CORRECTION: The problem is his GOP enablers–the lemmings who are blindly pandering to the racist/ANTI-SEMITIC cult that is Trump’s base.
Once the anti-Semitism gets out it can’t be stopped until it runs its course. A good example of this phenomenon is the approximately six million Jews that died during the Holocaust. It destroyed Germany. We’re going down the same road with Trump-Pence-Bannon.
FOOLS NEVER LEARN!
Just WAIT and see what happens when Trump is re-elected.
I am sure that Donny has heard the word “herd mentality” a lot leading up to and during his presidency. His sycophants have used that term plenty to discuss his base.
Apparently, Donny thought he could use the same approach with voters outside his worshippers, but it didn’t go very well. I wouldn’t waste 30 seconds watching this shit show live.
Unless there is a buzzer going off every time he lies or an electric shock is administered when he distorts the truth, there will be no reason to watch the debates. I can’t believe voters in this country chose these two buffoons to lead our country at such a crucial crossroads.
Yesterday, I saw Lindsey Graham signaling that Senate Republicans will gladly work with Biden when he wins if the House will work with them. LOL
Lindsey is in a dead heat in South Carolina and has been screaming at his opponent to disclose his tax returns because he must be hiding something. Lindsey was getting abused for the apparent hypocrisy on Twitter.
While Nero fiddles and the media reports about the fancy tunes, Rome is burning literally and figuratively. While protestors continue pouring into the street, the Fascists want to step up their game with microwave heat against peaceful protestors, federal prison time for protestors, and calls to armed hillbilly’s to suppress protestors and intimidate voters.
My skeptical side wants to know what we are missing while all this surface-level chaos is under creation. What important matters are we not seeing? What’s going on while we are being distracted?
For one, we have learned that the Russian hacking of the 2016 election was a hoax created by Clinton’s campaign manager with further elaboration by our IC. I wonder what other real news we are missing while the entertainment media plays the horse racing game with two tired old buffoons?
“Every country has its own KKK.”
A conversation with Adam Michnik, a leading figure in the 1968 student protests in Poland and the founder and editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s largest daily. The interview was conducted by Albert Cavallaro (MA Student in Global Studies/REEES Track) during the “1968 in Poland and Czechoslovakia in Comparison” conference, which took place at UNC-Chapel Hill on August 31-September 1 in 2018. A Conversation with Adam Michnik:
“Considering the theme of the conference, what sorts of transnational connections do you remember between students, dissidents, and protestors in Czechoslovakia and Poland before and during 1968?
As far as I know there were no connections between Czech and Polish students. However, most importantly, the processes in the two countries took different paths. In Czechoslovakia it was a so-called late 1956, a continuation of de-Stalinization and the rehabilitation of the victims, and a quest for a previously censored truth. The Prague Spring was about tearing apart the bonds of government control on society, while in Poland it was a desperate protest against the tightening bonds of government control.
What were the perceptions in Poland of the reforms being enacted in Czechoslovakia and the student protests?
During this time, communism was not very popular in Czechoslovakia nor in Poland, but the language of the protests was leftist in both countries. The anticipation was a change towards democratic socialism. In Czechoslovakia it was called “socialism with a human face,” but in Poland we wanted the freedoms of democracy.
The student movement in both countries was closely tied to the arts and culture, most notably literature and cinema. In Poland everything started with the showing of Adam Mickiewicz’s Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve). When the government banned this play for showing alleged anti-Soviet and Russophobic themes, it became clear that the Polish state, out of fear, was willing to destroy masterpieces of culture. In Czechoslovakia, there was an important conference on Franz Kafka, whose works were banned in Czechoslovakia before this. People realized now that they could read Kafka as a someone who foresaw the rise of totalitarianism. At this time, the first essays by Vaclav Havel were also published, and the forced resignation of Antonin Novotny [the President of Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1968] created a political debate about society within the communist party. Ultimately, in Czechoslovakia there was both pressure from above with the government and from below with the students. However, in Poland there was only pressure from below: from the intelligentsia, writers, and academic circles. That is the reason why in Poland the government responded with repression, and in Czechoslovakia they responded with dialogue.
What was the role of the Catholic Church in ’68?
The church did not play a role in Czechoslovakia, as it was one of the most secular countries at this time. Meanwhile, Poland was very Catholic, but in the academic circles the church was absent. But a change did occur in Poland: Catholic journalists of the newspaper Znak published an appeal to defend the students against the government repression and the episcopate published a letter advocating for the freedom of students. This initiated a change in the relationship between the church and this revolting democracy which, in big part, spoke in the language of the leftists.
You have described 1968 as a “dry pogrom.” Could you further explain this?
The term “dry pogrom” means that businesses were not vandalized, because there were no Jewish businesses at this time, and Jews at the universities were not physically attacked because the academic milieu was “anti” anti-Semitism. However, people with Jewish names were expelled from universities and from the government. This accompanied a campaign in the media to fight against “Zionism.” Any Zionists had already left before 1968, so these were just Jews of Polish nationality who simply wanted to serve and work loyally for Poland, and their only fault was that they were of Jewish background. This is what I mean by “dry pogrom.”
It should be noted, that communists in Poland had a complex of not being rooted in the society. They were typically seen as an imported power from the Soviet Union. In 1956, in the Polish October, a liberal group among the communists, mostly of Jewish background, made an attempt to get rooted in democratic tradition. In 1968, another group of communists made an attempt to get rooted in the traditions of Poland through nationalism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionist campaigns. Every country in the world has its own KKK. And this government group pushing for an anti-Zionist campaign and the attendant xenophobia and anti-Semitism was our Polish KKK. During the campaign, Jews were vilified in two main ways: as an element of former Stalinists who wanted to regain control of the country, and as part of a Jewish attack on Poland. Most people during this time didn’t even know what Zionism was before or during this campaign.
The events of 1968 showed that there was a dormant anti-Semitism in Poland which doesn’t wake up until it has permission from the top. It’s the same with the KKK in the US. It was enough when Trump said there was equal portions bad and good on both sides in Charlottesville, referring to the Nazi sympathizers and those protesting them, to wake up the dormant antidemocratic impulses of the people.
Thinking about this dormant anti-Semitism, was the outcry to Jan Gross’s book Neighbors and the Holocaust bill related to this, or was it the result of other factors?
There was a connection to the outcry about Jan Gross’ book, but it wasn’t unprecedented. That was a publication in English, and Poles are generally cautious about anything that comes from abroad. In the 1970s and 80s there was Jan Błoński’s article “Poor Poles Look at the Ghetto” and there was a debate about the murder of Jews during the Warsaw Uprising. There is also a popular notion in eastern Europe that the Jews were victims of someone else. Even Russia has this idea of being free of any guilt or responsibility, so if you are saying to the Poles that they are responsible for something, it always results in a defensive reaction.
Authoritarian tendencies seem to be rising worldwide right now, not only in Poland but across Europe and in America, too. You have previously characterized the primary political conflict today as one between “open” and “closed.” Is this conflict primarily about immigration today?
This is a new conflict because it substituted the traditional differences between the left and the right. But it is not only about immigration. It is primarily about defining what is a nation; it can be based on blood, ethnic identity, language or it can be about people who identify with a certain country, which could be a multinational country.
Is it the conflict between these two modes of conceiving of a nation that is responsible for the rise in authoritarianism worldwide?
This is simply just the face of this movement, and it is not the reason, just the face. There are many reasons: globalization, the crisis of big narratives, and that there is no longer a clear liberal or conservative explanation of the world. Today we have a danger of new generalizations, which is, in fact, not new because the stereotypes are not new. I remember when [in 1989] the Israeli Prime Minster [Yitzhak] Shamir said that every Pole sucked anti-Semitism with his mother’s milk, which is complete nonsense, but the stereotypes has survived.
How does an intellectual today look at and understand the rhetoric surrounding Russia as a threat to Poland’s domestic security and policies? A lot of illiberal trends in East Central Europe are being ultimately connected to Russia. Is this a deflection of responsibility?
The goal of Putin in regards to Europe is destruction. He supports populist movements, both xenophobic and progressive, that seek to undermine the European Union. He knows he can’t find the pro-Russian camp in Poland because it doesn’t exist. Plus, Putin can count on Trump’s support. I have never been this worried about the U.S., and subsequently, the whole world. When Poland is in the hands of incompetent people it is bad for Poland, but when Russia is in the hands of Putin and when America is in the hands of Trump, it is bad for the whole world.
You have led an incredibly active life: as a student protestor and dissident in communist Poland, you played an important role during the Polish Round Table Talks, and as an essayist, public intellectual, and editor-in-chief of the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. What do you see as your role in modern day Poland?
Well, I am already in a museum. There is a new generation, which has to take on the role of standing against government oppression. It is obvious what side of the political spectrum I claim in Poland, and I am traveling through Poland meeting people and giving talks, but I am reducing my public role, as now is time for today’s generation to take charge. One has to know when to exit the stage: whether it is the time when everyone begs you to leave, or while everyone still loves you.”
* Adam Michnik’s answers were translated from Polish by Oskar Czendze, a Ph.D student in Eastern European and Jewish history. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Why shouldn’t Trump overestimate his ability to snow people? Look at all the people who loyally follow him — his herd …
Where are the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League when we need them?
The short-fingered vulgarian is the person who wades through the shallow end of the pool and thinks he has mastered swimming because the water isn’t over his head. Unfortunately, his current job is at the other end of the pool.
Anti-Semitism has now reached such a high pitch, even FOX NEWS is disturbed. Why don’t we all just wait around for the “blood bath” that will be inevitable?
Many of us on this blog have been summarizing their observations about the Republican party and its blind advocacy of Donald Trump. They are, clearly, the whores of power. It wasn’t until the last Republican candidate primary in 2016 that they all jumped into the Trump septic tank. Prior to that, the Republican candidates were telling us the truth about Donald Trump, but nobody in the media or the stunningly ignorant populace took it seriously.
And, here we are. The herd mentality of Republican politicians up and down the ticket is profound and, it seems, just as pathological as the pied piper of bullshit they follow and support blindly. Perhaps the worst of these is, of course, Mitch McConnell. But he is flanked on all sides by some very bad, malign actors like Ron Johnson (traitor), Graham, Gaetz, McCarthy, Meadows, et. al.
The next pregnant question is: Will our coming election actually be allowed to occur, or will the outcome be Trumped in the courts that McConnell and Trump have been ever so eager to fill with fellow idiots and incompetent jackasses?
Vernon, the election will occur as scheduled. The outcome will be challenged and delayed as long as possible with much violence in the streets. It will be interesting to see how those responsible for “law and order” handle themselves during the chaos and who takes action to restore it.
Where is a CENTRALVEREIN when we need it?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (also: Zentral-Verein, Central Verein, CV, C.V., C.-V.) (Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith) was founded by German Jewish intellectuals on 26 March 1893 in Berlin, with the intention of opposing the rise of antisemitism in the German Empire. Shortly after its founding it had 1,420, and in 1926 approximately 60,000 members. It was founded in Berlin by Jewish intellectuals on 26 March 1893. The CV’s aim was to unify German citizens of Jewish faith, to fight for the Jews’ rights as citizens and to combat rising antisemitism. Commitment to the German Nation was an important part of the CV’s agenda – the members saw themselves primarily as German citizens with their own religion. Consequently, the CV repudiated Zionism.
Beginning in 1922, the CV published a weekly newspaper, called C.V.-Zeitung (C.V.-Newspaper) and continued fighting the rising antisemitic threat. Through publications and conversations with the President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg and economic leaders, the CV tried to call attention to the threat. In 1926, there were approximately 60,000 members.
In 1928 the “Büro WilhelmstTrasse” (Wilhelmstrasse Office) was created with the instrumental support of Alfred Wiener. It documented Nazi activities and issued anti-Nazi materials until 1933, when Hitler came to power. During the Nazi era, the CV was forced to change its name several times. From 1936 onwards it was called “Jüdischer Central Verein” (Jewish Central Association). After the Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass or November Pogrom) in 1938 the CV had to stop publishing its newspaper and the association was prohibited a short time later.”
The $64,000 question is: How can American Jews NOW defend themselves within their DOUBLE BIND with the State of Israel? Answer: They can’t.
dou·ble bind
noun
a situation in which a person is confronted with two irreconcilable demands or a choice between two undesirable courses of action.
“students are caught in a double bind between unemployment and cuts in education”
Wikipedia
Herd Mentality was certainly the “correct” word for The Trumpet to use. The Trumpet’s Herd continues to migrate where ever he leads them. Actually, The Trumpet does not need to lead, he knows where the Herd is and where it wants to go. He simply steps to the front of the Herd.
The Trumpet’s Core are Racist in their inner beings, some are bolder then others in their public displays. The Trump Herd also is welded to Macho-Male-Authoritarianism which appeals to the bible thumper’s and the camouflage gun toting “Militias”.
It makes no difference to The Trumpet Core how often he lies – He tells them what they want to hear. The Trumpet Core has lost that one key defining characteristic of intelligent life: Critical Thinking.
The Fox verdict on The Trumpet’s performance was “ABC Spring Ambush on Pres. Trump at Town Hall”.
An Ambush in the Fox World is when The Trumpet is forced to respond in real time to probing questions and not walk off the the stage as he does at his “News Conferences” or duck into a helicopter.
It’s much more difficult to talk about anti-Semitism in the U.S. than racism, as can easily be observed in this blog, since the Jews are the ultimate target, not the African-Americans.
If you “screw” the Jews, you get the African-Americans also. That’s not the case if you just “screw” the African-Americans.
It’s like in the grocery store when you can buy two salads for the price of one.
Authoritarians have been working for decades to create the cult that they have now and thought that Trump would be the one to take them over the final hurdle to an all powerful confederacy of oligarchs redistributing wealth from the workers who create it to a pretend royalty with total control. It turns out that Trump, fittingly for them but tragically for the country is totally out of control of anything. He’s simply disconnected from all reality. This is exactly what Lord Acton put into memorable words. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We each have the opportunity in November to add our nail to the coffin of their dysfunctional dreams and return to our Constitutional reality of equality and freedom for all.
Pete,
Hope you’re right.
If you listen closely to the Trump interview, his first verbal boner was “turd mentality.” In his defense, however (I promise- just this once), I heard him use the word “supersede” correctly in a sentence. Imagine my astonishment!
As we get closer to election day, I can’t determine whether to be more afraid of Trump’s promises that he will cheat or Barr’s declaration that he will implement all phases of the Trump cheating plan using the full power of the Justice Department. I think Barr’s mind is deteriorating more rapidly even than Trump’s. He need to be put away for his own protection and the sooner the better. Trump’s ability to attract the mentally defective (they recognize their own) is improving, and I suspect he will soon appoint a recent graduate of the Koo Koo’s nest to take over as SECDEF. To save time and ink, instead of calling him POTUS could we just use the abbreviated and more descriptive term “PUS”?
What kind of self-deluded criminal moron thinks it is in his self-interest to let himself be questioned for hours on end by Bob Woodward? That’s a rhetorical question.
Dunning-Kruger vs. Biden-Harris. Should I say more?
DJT is actually the “sideshow barker” out front to keep us all occupied and our attention diverted while those behind him, particularly Barr, are running rough shod over the Constitution in Barr’s quest to solidify his life-long dream of an Unitary or Imperial Presidency, i.e., a President can do whatever he wants.
DJT is a “useful idiot,” just as Ronnie “20 Mule Team Borax” Reagan was for those who were behind getting Ronnie to play the role of President of the U.S. and read the scripts they wrote for him. Only DJT can’t actually act or even read all that well, while Ronnie was at least decent at it until dementia set in.
Barr’s castigating and excoriating the line U.S. District Attorneys across the Country yesterday to charge protestors with “sedition” is bone chilling. The Federal crime of “sedition” carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, if convicted. The intersection between “free speech,” and the crime of “sedition” is ill defined and murky, and the distinction between the two isn’t very clear.
Watch what Barr and the other people behind are actually doing; not the shit show put on by DJT.
Todd, “… calls to armed hillbillys to suppress protestors and intimidate voters.”
A preceding US election outcome was changed by armed hillbillys’ assassination of the winner.
During the 1899 KY gubernatorial election, armed dissidents from Republican Eastern Kentucky descended on the capitol, Frankfort. They opposed the election of governor-elect Democrat William Goebel.
By multiple gunfire, Goebel was assassinated, dying after having been sworn in. Lieutenant Governor J.C.W. Beckham was then seated as Governor.
Thank you for allowing me to read your blog.
Donald J. Trump is most certainly NOT like Ronald Reagan. People may not have liked Reagan’s policies, but Reagan was not an existential threat to our democratic form of government like Trump is. If Trump is elected again, our democratic republic and the freedoms we enjoy may not survive. You could never have said that about Reagan’s election.
And FYI, Ronald Reagan was about a 100 times brighter than Donald Trump. Same with GWB.
mentality ,in a herd is to follow the leader. (mcconnel)whos the real leader? to run a republican/trumpian ticket, ya gotta belong to alec..the monied fascists.. weve been bought and now get to be sold as trinkets after november. the sideshow shootout(hillbilly street gunners) and the trinket prize,our heads on a stick..study the boznian shootout,and such, and you see where this is going..our Democracy was used to build this herd, and the new democracy will be a putin style rule….it will be a backroom board meeting,with the likes of barr(did anyone ever see to disbarr him for treason?) and his ideas of insurrection….like a third world nation, those who have the riches will now decide..what im wondering is,will the little people of trumps gallion become the pawns of his get rich/richer scheme or be sent to the bottom like us? the SEC hasnt been very active since trump,and as i see, the ones playing the markets,seem to now rely on the games there to, to become influential( can you vision a trumper,from the blue collar ranks such as myself, influential?), ive met with a few of these wannabe billionaires..since trump, the insiders game there is ripe,and has been for many to thwart the law,and get rich… im sure trump is now flush with cash and his influence to get such info, and well, greed is winning here, and so is trump.. if Biden has a prayer in hell of winning, i would insist on a Nuremburg style court to see that the ones who played this hand of trump, (thats every republican) gets his day with a noose for treason..we can also see that the DNC gets theirs too!
At this point Trump is NOT LYING when he says things that are not the truth; he is reporting to us what truth now is.
He is telling us that he and his team do not adhere to truth nor deal with fact, that they have now risen high enough, higher than God, that they, even better than God, create truth and fact.
Trump is telling us that our job is to adhere/react to the new truth and the new facts. In truth, he is right about that. And as long as we think he is merely lying, his new truth and his new facts are winning and we are losing. As long as we react to his lies we are failing to deal with his truth.
To deal with Trumpian Truth requires a whole new gameplan. And in that gameplan, all weapons must be available in the armory and the stomach must be hardened against the weakness of nostalgia and quelled of nausea from the sight of blood.
Paul, “…but Reagan was not an existential threat to our democratic form of government like Trump is.”
You’re right about that but right for the wrong reason. Reagan did not threaten our democratic form of government because it had already been lost…November 22, 1963.
Trump is not lying, as pointed out in the posting, he is spewing the garbage that his (tiny) brain tells him might just work, in THIS moment , and thus that which he sees as reality. His megalomania combines with his delusional mind-set to create his reality, as in being solipsistic. “Reality is what I define it to be,” is not the same as lying. He probably believed his line about not wanting to panic the populace, once it left his mouth.
As for the comparison of Trump with Reagan, the latter gave huge impetus to the destruction of the middle class that had begun earlier. He ran on a platform of greed and bigotry, (refined the art of the “dog whistle) which the GOP had long embraced. He cozied up to, and brought into prominence, the evangelical Christians, starting with his comment that the country had to get back to its “spiritual roots.” All of this has fed the ever more tightly wound spring of disenchantment affecting so many (62,000,000?) Americans. And then along came Donny, trumpeted by Rush Limbaugh’s claim that “We have found our man!”
The rest is, as they say, history.
Add to this the QAnon phenomenon, a repeat, in so many ways of the story of the admittedly faked “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” and we have bigly serious toxicity.
I will venture that without Trump’s venomous influence this would have, perhaps, not even seen the light of day, or arrived still-born. Going way out on a limb, it would not surprise me if this, again were to be found a product of the current iteration of the KGB.
I am beginning to think Barr is a greater threat to our democracy than Trump. His putdown of his own career prosectors who he says want to amass a record of prosecuting public figures and his call for politicians to “rein them in” is based on a twin attempt to subvert our democracy: (1) By calling on what used to be an independent DOJ to be subservivent to politicians he ends the rule of law as an independent arbiter of civic conduct (see Equal Protection and Due Process) and calls for a new standard for prosecution, to wit: the whim of the dictator (from his pretended reading of Article II of our Constitution), and 2) He is defanging career prosecutors out front for the coming indictments of Trump and himself so that he can point to such prediction of today when the grand juries start convening in January, 2021, a transparent motive if I ever saw one.
Barr represents the amalgamation of theocracy and authoritarianism in the days of the Holy Roman Empire, where the popes appointed emperors to govern large parts of Europe. We have had some of that thinking here since then but at least our theocrats in disguise covered such plots under wraps of discussion of public policy (See the repercussions from Roe etc.). Barr’s ability to operate under wraps is unraveling as he sees the handwriting on the wall come November 3, and what we heard today and what we will be hearing from him from now to and including the election and afterwards should be carefully scrutinized and strenuously objected to as we defend our democracy from all wannabe authoritarians, including members of the dynasty and their Rasputins. Barr needs constant watching, so let’s keep our eyes and ears open.
Gerald..
trump,is a noise maker,and taking the script from the corp led congress,hes been fueled with money and power now,he could care less about anyone,anything..,he can manage the rehetoric,.true, trump is not the threat,,its the organized republican party,and many demos who follow suit. barr was placed to argue in front of the court,eventually. mcconnel is the wall street mob,that has bought and paid for the herd that is now poised to stomp on rights and the dignity we once had. greed is motvation,and when hitler had the bankers and industrialists(his mob) in his hand, he then proceeded to close the his present goverment,and made sure no one stood in front of said mob..
trump is a idiot, but a good actor,and as America listens,the mob moves mountians,,.and we just talk about it.. c ya in washington 11/4/20
Jack,
“trump is a idiot, but a good actor,and as America listens,the mob moves mountians,,.and we just talk about it.. c ya in washington 11/4/20”
You’re exactly right. We won’t admit it, but we’re dealing with a bunch of THUGS. Having a father in the penitentiary was just the right calling card for Jared Kushner.
Dealing with Trump with “kid gloves” will get us nowhere. The same goes when you deal with a thug’s RAGE by writing a book; That adds up to what has been called in the past a “lost cause.”
When will we ever learn? It looks like the answer will be: NEVER!!!
@Mitchell D. ” He probably believed his line about not wanting to panic the populace, once it left his mouth.”
++++++++++++ Does this mean the jackass would pass a polygraph test?
Probably, yes! He would have no special galvanic skin response to be picked up by the test, because his BS would feel natural to him, and so cause no physiological change.
“Herd mentality” and “alternative facts.” Phrases that so well-describe the Trump administration.