Paul, this essay is a BINGO! In my very similar view, Trump's incompetence and dementia seem to be our only hope that he will NOT take the entire country down with him once he fails biglier than he has to date. Trump is the most incompetent president since Herbert Hoover, who gave us the Great Depression. As any competent mental health professional will agree, Trump is exhibiting advanced dementia; chronic memory recall problems like the "Islamic Republic of Japan" and lost impulse control, like invading Iran without a plan, then insulting all NATO leaders, and trying to tariff the entire world.
You are correct that dementia would not be a huge problem if only Trump had appointed a competent administration that could keep the government and the economy running smoothly instead of clueless sycophants who care more about building their celebrity. We emerged from COVID with a demented president who had appointed a competent staff.
Trump is and always has been a racketeer. He gets what he wants using lies, extortion, and threats of harm. As president, Trump has eliminated every competent senior leader with an ounce of integrity so this term, no staff will even want to stop enabling his whims. Like all racketeers, his #1 worry is accountability - something Don Dementiano's entire mob should be fretting about. But his Achilles heel is that his arrogance will eventually enable his poor judgment to walk into a political buzzsaw that will trigger his removal from office.
When it comes to the elections, I worry about the people around Trump, such as Vought, Miller, Rubio, and the host of Tech bros and oligarchs, not to mention Mike Johnson. However, the fact that Republicans are trying to bring back the red scare of yore suggests that they are getting desperate.
Thank you for offering a hopeful and well thought out scenario. The headlines of doom come rushing in on us at such a frenetic pace, it's hard to keep anxiety and depression at bay. This article literally brightened my spirits and reminded me that our fate is not a lost cause. I needed to read this, and I thank you!
Out in the ‘San Tan Valley’, just northeast of Phoenix, AZ this weekend and as occurs many weekends, some kook dressed in MAGA garb, armed with a weapon of mass killing, was hanging out in front of a WINCO Supermarket entrance harassing and intimidating people. Mostly he was directing his intimidating comments towards people who were not white, sometimes with his hand grabbing at his weapon. I consider people like this guy to be MAGA version of ‘Sturmabteliung’. They don’t just get an idea to go and harass people in front of supermarkets. They are told to do so, generally by some post on some far right website, podcast, or publication. Nobody moves these types away because they’re just expressing their first amendment rights (theoretically) and their gun possession (open carry) is protected by the second amendment as interpreted by AZ ‘Open Carry’ laws. This is a common enough occurrence in AZ as to generally be interpreted by some people as nothing more intimidating than a Girl Scout troop selling cookies at a supermarket entrance.
My greatest concern for the upcoming elections is that such an effort is magnified. They don’t have to be inside voting locations or even at the entry to some voting locations. They just have to be in or adjacent to the parking areas for election sites. And they don’t have to be there every minute. It just has to become known that they are around to deter come percentage of non-white voters to exercise their right to vote. I believe such an effort is likely to occur, particularly in voting locations where a large percentage of eligible voters are non-white voters. We saw this in the Phoenix area with armed men dressed in paramilitary garb loitering around mail-in drop box locations, harassing people dropping off their ballots. Legislation was passed to prevent them from doing such loitering within, I believe, 75 feet - 25 yards {without taking off my shoes to count} of the drop-boxes. These threatening efforts are bad enough, but what if they are supported by an ICE presence as well? What if, along with MAGA Brownshirts, there are ICE AGENTS in full regalia, just hangin’ out near the entrance to the parking area or near the path that leads to the entrance to voting locations in primarily minority voting districts? How much of an impact on turnout could such an effort have? Maybe not enough in the case of a landslide loss. But what about a close election for a Congressional Seat? I do not think that this is an ‘alarmist’ concern. I think it is more likely than not to occur this fall in many locations where a significant portion of the electorate is non-white. Maybe even in voting locations that ‘lean’ Democrat.
While reading your first paragraph, my jaw literally hit the floor. I live in the suburbs of Chicago, and seeing weapons out in full display like that is just unheard of. I will admit, if I walked up to my grocery store and saw a MAGA lunatic holding a weapon of mass killing, I would think we were on the cusp of a mass shooting. I'd turn around, get in my car, and probably call the police. To me, that seems awfully threatening, and it is insane that in a civilized society, that is allowed.
I’ve lived in the ‘Valley of the Sun’ for about a dozen years, after spending the majority of my working career along the East Coast from Boston to DC. I have heard AZ described in a lot of ways, but rarely is it described as a ‘Civilized Society’. But having (usually young men} people marching through grocery stores displaying their weapons is pretty common-place, as are the signs entering doctors offices,bars, restaurants and office spaces informing folks to please leave their weapons in their vehicles (ostensibly without their children) prior to entering such locales. But shopping? Well, who doesn’t need their gun handy when picking up bread and milk.
We have the no guns signs here too, but we also only have concealed carry. I remember going to dinner in North Carolina with some friends of my husband, and they picked some dive bar in the middle of nowhere. The minute we walked in, I wanted to leave. There were Trump flags everywhere, and our server had a gun on his hip. And then, to make it even more wonderful, I couldn't even order a Coke in peace. When I asked for a Coke, the lovely server informed me very proudly that they didn't serve Coke since something like, that is what those Black people drink. They only would serve Pepsi. I was like WTF?!? My husband then shot me dagger eyes, as I have a tendency to say what is on my mind, and he did not want me provoking a guy with a gun who was clearly spoiling for a fight. I have never felt so uncomfortable while trying to just eat, and I would have left had I not been so intimidated and captive due to the fact I had not driven there. I later figured out that they consider Coke "Black" since it comes from Atlanta which I guess is a city of Black people? It was just utterly bizarre, and I felt like I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone. I think about that bar when I wonder to myself how on earth anyone can still support Trump. I'm sure people that go there on purpose are still full on MAGA. Illinois has its flaws for sure, but I don't have to deal with that kind of nonsense here at least.
It is an incredible adjustment to reside, like 2/3 of Americas population, in a moderately liberal city or suburban area in the Northern, Eastern, or West Coast locale and then find yourself dropped into “real” Amurica, where people feel the need to be armed in order to have a hamburger & a Pepsi. I spent a lot of my life traveling all over the US, and ultimately traded six months of winter for six months of summer when I retired. I love the weather, but tend to be less comfortable with many of the accoutrements .
Funny enough, a friend of mine who wanted more sun but wanted less MAGA ended up in a suburb of Atlanta. I guess he somehow could stand living amongst all those Coke drinkers. 🙄 I think I will just have to pay someone to shovel my walks as I age. More power to you for being able to stand it! The more sane people that move into these places, the more diluted the MAGA gets. I still think their gerrymandering will end up backfiring on them. They may have broken up the solidly blue districts, but they have also broken up the solidly red.
All of life involves compromise. An interesting fact about AZ is that the number of registered ‘non-aligned’ citizens outnumber either party’s number or registered voters. This doesn’t make AZ liberal - or conservative. It basically means a candidate has to convince non-aligned voters to give them their vote. It isn’t perfect. But I have observed it makes a candidate work a lot harder to win a state or federal election. This isn’t true of every voting district. But it is true of the state as a whole.
He has dismantled the systems that help keep American elections safe. He is practically shouting to foreign adversaries how vulnerable he has made elections. I fear they will interfere and give Trump the excuse to seize ballots and machines.
We shall see… in about three and a half months. I did waste the 26 minutes watching his incoherent ramblings. The die hards deserve to go down with his sinking ship. You have to be a burnt out bulb or just soulless to think 47 is doing a good job for America. He will have to be served with eviction papers to get him out of the White House.
“A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth." -Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels (attributed)
“Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.” -Franklin Delano Roosevelt, American good guy
And of course, it’s always about him … this time with the added urgency of more impeachments and more skulduggery revealed.
Paul, this essay is a BINGO! In my very similar view, Trump's incompetence and dementia seem to be our only hope that he will NOT take the entire country down with him once he fails biglier than he has to date. Trump is the most incompetent president since Herbert Hoover, who gave us the Great Depression. As any competent mental health professional will agree, Trump is exhibiting advanced dementia; chronic memory recall problems like the "Islamic Republic of Japan" and lost impulse control, like invading Iran without a plan, then insulting all NATO leaders, and trying to tariff the entire world.
You are correct that dementia would not be a huge problem if only Trump had appointed a competent administration that could keep the government and the economy running smoothly instead of clueless sycophants who care more about building their celebrity. We emerged from COVID with a demented president who had appointed a competent staff.
Trump is and always has been a racketeer. He gets what he wants using lies, extortion, and threats of harm. As president, Trump has eliminated every competent senior leader with an ounce of integrity so this term, no staff will even want to stop enabling his whims. Like all racketeers, his #1 worry is accountability - something Don Dementiano's entire mob should be fretting about. But his Achilles heel is that his arrogance will eventually enable his poor judgment to walk into a political buzzsaw that will trigger his removal from office.
When it comes to the elections, I worry about the people around Trump, such as Vought, Miller, Rubio, and the host of Tech bros and oligarchs, not to mention Mike Johnson. However, the fact that Republicans are trying to bring back the red scare of yore suggests that they are getting desperate.
To believe Trump a 3-D chess master, has always been mistaken—he is bigot knee jerk ab ovum.
Thank you for offering a hopeful and well thought out scenario. The headlines of doom come rushing in on us at such a frenetic pace, it's hard to keep anxiety and depression at bay. This article literally brightened my spirits and reminded me that our fate is not a lost cause. I needed to read this, and I thank you!
Out in the ‘San Tan Valley’, just northeast of Phoenix, AZ this weekend and as occurs many weekends, some kook dressed in MAGA garb, armed with a weapon of mass killing, was hanging out in front of a WINCO Supermarket entrance harassing and intimidating people. Mostly he was directing his intimidating comments towards people who were not white, sometimes with his hand grabbing at his weapon. I consider people like this guy to be MAGA version of ‘Sturmabteliung’. They don’t just get an idea to go and harass people in front of supermarkets. They are told to do so, generally by some post on some far right website, podcast, or publication. Nobody moves these types away because they’re just expressing their first amendment rights (theoretically) and their gun possession (open carry) is protected by the second amendment as interpreted by AZ ‘Open Carry’ laws. This is a common enough occurrence in AZ as to generally be interpreted by some people as nothing more intimidating than a Girl Scout troop selling cookies at a supermarket entrance.
My greatest concern for the upcoming elections is that such an effort is magnified. They don’t have to be inside voting locations or even at the entry to some voting locations. They just have to be in or adjacent to the parking areas for election sites. And they don’t have to be there every minute. It just has to become known that they are around to deter come percentage of non-white voters to exercise their right to vote. I believe such an effort is likely to occur, particularly in voting locations where a large percentage of eligible voters are non-white voters. We saw this in the Phoenix area with armed men dressed in paramilitary garb loitering around mail-in drop box locations, harassing people dropping off their ballots. Legislation was passed to prevent them from doing such loitering within, I believe, 75 feet - 25 yards {without taking off my shoes to count} of the drop-boxes. These threatening efforts are bad enough, but what if they are supported by an ICE presence as well? What if, along with MAGA Brownshirts, there are ICE AGENTS in full regalia, just hangin’ out near the entrance to the parking area or near the path that leads to the entrance to voting locations in primarily minority voting districts? How much of an impact on turnout could such an effort have? Maybe not enough in the case of a landslide loss. But what about a close election for a Congressional Seat? I do not think that this is an ‘alarmist’ concern. I think it is more likely than not to occur this fall in many locations where a significant portion of the electorate is non-white. Maybe even in voting locations that ‘lean’ Democrat.
While reading your first paragraph, my jaw literally hit the floor. I live in the suburbs of Chicago, and seeing weapons out in full display like that is just unheard of. I will admit, if I walked up to my grocery store and saw a MAGA lunatic holding a weapon of mass killing, I would think we were on the cusp of a mass shooting. I'd turn around, get in my car, and probably call the police. To me, that seems awfully threatening, and it is insane that in a civilized society, that is allowed.
I’ve lived in the ‘Valley of the Sun’ for about a dozen years, after spending the majority of my working career along the East Coast from Boston to DC. I have heard AZ described in a lot of ways, but rarely is it described as a ‘Civilized Society’. But having (usually young men} people marching through grocery stores displaying their weapons is pretty common-place, as are the signs entering doctors offices,bars, restaurants and office spaces informing folks to please leave their weapons in their vehicles (ostensibly without their children) prior to entering such locales. But shopping? Well, who doesn’t need their gun handy when picking up bread and milk.
We have the no guns signs here too, but we also only have concealed carry. I remember going to dinner in North Carolina with some friends of my husband, and they picked some dive bar in the middle of nowhere. The minute we walked in, I wanted to leave. There were Trump flags everywhere, and our server had a gun on his hip. And then, to make it even more wonderful, I couldn't even order a Coke in peace. When I asked for a Coke, the lovely server informed me very proudly that they didn't serve Coke since something like, that is what those Black people drink. They only would serve Pepsi. I was like WTF?!? My husband then shot me dagger eyes, as I have a tendency to say what is on my mind, and he did not want me provoking a guy with a gun who was clearly spoiling for a fight. I have never felt so uncomfortable while trying to just eat, and I would have left had I not been so intimidated and captive due to the fact I had not driven there. I later figured out that they consider Coke "Black" since it comes from Atlanta which I guess is a city of Black people? It was just utterly bizarre, and I felt like I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone. I think about that bar when I wonder to myself how on earth anyone can still support Trump. I'm sure people that go there on purpose are still full on MAGA. Illinois has its flaws for sure, but I don't have to deal with that kind of nonsense here at least.
It is an incredible adjustment to reside, like 2/3 of Americas population, in a moderately liberal city or suburban area in the Northern, Eastern, or West Coast locale and then find yourself dropped into “real” Amurica, where people feel the need to be armed in order to have a hamburger & a Pepsi. I spent a lot of my life traveling all over the US, and ultimately traded six months of winter for six months of summer when I retired. I love the weather, but tend to be less comfortable with many of the accoutrements .
Funny enough, a friend of mine who wanted more sun but wanted less MAGA ended up in a suburb of Atlanta. I guess he somehow could stand living amongst all those Coke drinkers. 🙄 I think I will just have to pay someone to shovel my walks as I age. More power to you for being able to stand it! The more sane people that move into these places, the more diluted the MAGA gets. I still think their gerrymandering will end up backfiring on them. They may have broken up the solidly blue districts, but they have also broken up the solidly red.
All of life involves compromise. An interesting fact about AZ is that the number of registered ‘non-aligned’ citizens outnumber either party’s number or registered voters. This doesn’t make AZ liberal - or conservative. It basically means a candidate has to convince non-aligned voters to give them their vote. It isn’t perfect. But I have observed it makes a candidate work a lot harder to win a state or federal election. This isn’t true of every voting district. But it is true of the state as a whole.
He has dismantled the systems that help keep American elections safe. He is practically shouting to foreign adversaries how vulnerable he has made elections. I fear they will interfere and give Trump the excuse to seize ballots and machines.
The perpetually confused Donald Quixote
We shall see… in about three and a half months. I did waste the 26 minutes watching his incoherent ramblings. The die hards deserve to go down with his sinking ship. You have to be a burnt out bulb or just soulless to think 47 is doing a good job for America. He will have to be served with eviction papers to get him out of the White House.
Trump's mouth and decaying brain are the two-fer gift that will keep giving.