This entire fiasco - Epstein, climate denial, massive waste & abuses in government, too many useless civil servants, etc. makes it hard to deny assertions by Paul and others that MAGA has become a cult.
No matter how obvious Administration lies are - MAGAs believe them. Even standing knee-deep in Texas flood water they assert that climate change is a hoax. Even when flood victims cannot get through to FEMA, MAGAs assert that Trump's is the best government ever, and it is protecting them from the evils of "the globalists" behind every QAnon conspiracy. At least to a small extent, they are right. Trump is an archetype globalist.
I grew up in New York City-- the city that grew folks like Trump. Trump was prominently a "shyster" living it up as one, getting away with it. NYC is where that word took hold. I grew up with the term "shyster" in common usage. Trump grew from being an ordinary shyster into the big time. There are so many people to con out there! That means knowing just how to take advantage- their vulnerability, their ignorance, their fears, and their stubbornness. Some believers, maybe most, cannot be proven wrong even with a mountain of facts before them. I surely hope we have reached the summit of this Trump con as he sits in the White House complaining. The only way now is down. But this did have to implode from within, so successfully defensive Trump and his myrmidons have been and are..a life's work to learn how to make this collection. As Trump gets older he loses it more and more. They *must* get something of how ridiculous Trump is, how he cannot sell himself anymore but how deeply they are in. It's a tough thing for people to admit they have been duped- the closer, the harder. But those who have been crossed-- they can.
This paragraph: "In 2021, a PRRI survey found that 23 percent of Republicans agreed that “the government, media, and financial worlds in the US are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation.” The lies swirl about us like a poisonous cloud — perhaps one seeded by an airplane? Do your own research."
That punchline! <chef's kiss> For the rest it makes Hunter S Thompson look like the WSJ. All I need in lizards in drag leaning up against a pinball machine. I miss Tom Wolfe. And my sanity.
For all the verbal gymnastics, Trump doesn’t really care about MAGA or QAnon—he’s in the Oval Office not Club Fed, he’s got his scams - meme coins, tennis shoes, men’s perfume - his DoJ will satisfy his revenge investigations … what does he need the loathed hoi polloi for?
To maintain his power. The foundation of his power is not his office, that could be taken away, it is his MAGA base who has a track record of death threats and actual violence. It is the MAGA base that can 'primary' just about any Republican candidate for office. It is these threats that cause every elected and appointed official to be obedient to Trump no matter how far he pushes them, until they decide to no longer run for office.
When these MAGA followers desert him in significant numbers, his power will evaporate, he knows this, which is why he lets Stephen Miller pursue the mass deportation no matter how unpopular it is with most people. Trump does not really care about immigrants, they were just a useful boogeyman, like all the conspiracy theories. But Trump knows the most fervent and violent of his base REALLY do not like any immigrants, so Trump feeds them to his base, as a sacrifice to a monster that must be appeased...
Precisely! And I would posit that Trump will bypass his MAGA base and its threat power to somehow stifle - or end - elections? He still has state legislatures (especially in the South and Midwest) under control. And, as you note, bulldog Miller. But I’m fearing some sort of martial law gambit.
I certainly assume he would try, but our military has for a very long time now been trained to be the 'good guys' and not just hired killers. In fact our National Guard is seriously focused on protecting our people, and the closest they get to 'martial law' is preventing riots. I am pretty sure any military enforced 'Martial Law' will be a paper tiger and have no real force behind it and would likely cause him more trouble. May even get mass resignations, just as we have seen in the Department of Justice when orders were given to file charges etc that were blatantly illegal or unethical.
Yes, there really is a "Deep State" of employees (including military etc...) who honor their oaths, are ethical, good citizens who refuse to do what is wrong.
Well, I hope so. But then there was that recent campaign speech - and Trump has been constantly “campaigning” since 2015 - to selected military who cheered his latest lies. And the military’s participation in Los Angeles and at the southern border. If Trump can co-opt ICE he can co-opt a willing military. The old promises of a rule of law, are just that—old, neglectable.
Let's not all get sucked into the black hole of conspiracy theories, their theorists, and those who believe in such it's a cognitive style, a defect really, of interpreting and making sense of a complex world, an inclination to interpret human malign intentions as causal to natural effects like chem trails or fluoridated water. It is most common in the under-educated who form a significant part of Trump's voter base. But we shouldn't inflate conspiracy theory thinking's importance either. People vote pocketbook issues generally, and I believe that they are generally pragmatists when it's time to vote. Trump got elected because people really thought he would deliver on his promises. That he hasn't will be what cripples his movement.st least that's my two cents. 🙂
trump and blondie re hiding something that trump wants to hide. Repubs just voted to not demand the release of the Epstein files. You don't need to be a conspiracy to think that there is a lot of dirt being swept under the rug. Maxwell received a 20 year sentence for doing Epstein's bidding with sex trafficking. Certainly trump will betray anyone, including his base,if it keeps him from the Epstein scandal. I hope dems are able and aware enough to keep the Epstein pressure on trump and GOP. It is in their best interests, no mater how hard trump tries to change the subject...
So many hard-core MAGAs desperately want to absolve Trump of any wrongdoing. Hence, they employ the "blame the evil advisor(s) " tactic, a trope that appears frequently in Shakespearean and Renaissance drama about tyrant kings. As there was a strong belief in the divine right of rulers, it was much safer to attack those courtiers and advisors surrounding the ruler: "The king is basely led" by "caterpillars of the commonwealth." Thus, no one could accuse those raising these issues of trying to overthrow the ruler. If only those evil advisors were removed, then the ruler would turn into a nurturing monarch for his people. However, despite those objections. Repeatedly, however, the plays show that it all goes back to the tyrant king.
The only thing more absurd than thinking everything is a conspiracy, is thinking there are no conspiracies.
Humans conspire, and they conspire secretly when their actions are illegal. People who do illegal things tend to have a track record of illegal activities and who have been found guilty of trying to cover them up.
Now ask yourself, who in public life has a documented track record, proven in court, felony convictions of doing exactly that? What would lead you to think he would not do it other times?
It was well documented in the Mueller Report that Trump actively, illegally obstructed an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, about ten separate charges worth. Trump clearly (from sworn testimony and other evidence to the Jan 6 Committee) conspired to interfere in the legal process of Biden being sworn in as president (Hence 'Jan 6'). It is clear Trump conspired with others to conceal a large number of government files, including top secret files, that he kept concealed at Mar-A-Lago, despite the government's lawful requests to have them returned.
So I will add one that to my understanding has never been properly investigated: Did Trump conspire to have a young man shoot in his general direction, so he could fake an injury, a scratch, that no credible injury from a rifle could produce on his ear, and then acting as though it was a major injury upon his ear even though no evidence of it being more than a scratch has ever been seen? Yes, other people were shot, one man killed, but were they shot after Trump was safely buried under secret service agents? After all, the death really 'sold' the 'brush with death'.
We have established Trump is a serial conspirator, what about Trump would make you believe murder would be something he could never be a part of? People died on Jan 6, over a hundred officers injured, and yet Trump pardoned them all. Thousands of civilians in Ukraine have died and yet Trump still sides with Putin. Similar in Gaza. The secret files kept at Mar-A-Lago were so secret, they were of a level people would have died to protect them, for a reason because in the wrong hands they could easily have caused the deaths of MANY (if not large numbers) of Americans. Playing with the lives of immigrants for political gain, and not too concerned for the citizens caught up in the mass deportation either. The list goes on We have established Trump is sufficiently a sociopath that the death of some random people would not concern him as long as he felt safe from prosecution.
This entire fiasco - Epstein, climate denial, massive waste & abuses in government, too many useless civil servants, etc. makes it hard to deny assertions by Paul and others that MAGA has become a cult.
No matter how obvious Administration lies are - MAGAs believe them. Even standing knee-deep in Texas flood water they assert that climate change is a hoax. Even when flood victims cannot get through to FEMA, MAGAs assert that Trump's is the best government ever, and it is protecting them from the evils of "the globalists" behind every QAnon conspiracy. At least to a small extent, they are right. Trump is an archetype globalist.
The stupidity of the magrats is breathtaking in its scope.
I grew up in New York City-- the city that grew folks like Trump. Trump was prominently a "shyster" living it up as one, getting away with it. NYC is where that word took hold. I grew up with the term "shyster" in common usage. Trump grew from being an ordinary shyster into the big time. There are so many people to con out there! That means knowing just how to take advantage- their vulnerability, their ignorance, their fears, and their stubbornness. Some believers, maybe most, cannot be proven wrong even with a mountain of facts before them. I surely hope we have reached the summit of this Trump con as he sits in the White House complaining. The only way now is down. But this did have to implode from within, so successfully defensive Trump and his myrmidons have been and are..a life's work to learn how to make this collection. As Trump gets older he loses it more and more. They *must* get something of how ridiculous Trump is, how he cannot sell himself anymore but how deeply they are in. It's a tough thing for people to admit they have been duped- the closer, the harder. But those who have been crossed-- they can.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shyster
This paragraph: "In 2021, a PRRI survey found that 23 percent of Republicans agreed that “the government, media, and financial worlds in the US are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation.” The lies swirl about us like a poisonous cloud — perhaps one seeded by an airplane? Do your own research."
That punchline! <chef's kiss> For the rest it makes Hunter S Thompson look like the WSJ. All I need in lizards in drag leaning up against a pinball machine. I miss Tom Wolfe. And my sanity.
All FA, no FO.
excellent analysis, thank you, Paul.
"Thank you for your attention to this matter!" ALWAYS cracks me up!!!
Good thing we’re living in a simulation.
( /s ! )
For all the verbal gymnastics, Trump doesn’t really care about MAGA or QAnon—he’s in the Oval Office not Club Fed, he’s got his scams - meme coins, tennis shoes, men’s perfume - his DoJ will satisfy his revenge investigations … what does he need the loathed hoi polloi for?
To maintain his power. The foundation of his power is not his office, that could be taken away, it is his MAGA base who has a track record of death threats and actual violence. It is the MAGA base that can 'primary' just about any Republican candidate for office. It is these threats that cause every elected and appointed official to be obedient to Trump no matter how far he pushes them, until they decide to no longer run for office.
When these MAGA followers desert him in significant numbers, his power will evaporate, he knows this, which is why he lets Stephen Miller pursue the mass deportation no matter how unpopular it is with most people. Trump does not really care about immigrants, they were just a useful boogeyman, like all the conspiracy theories. But Trump knows the most fervent and violent of his base REALLY do not like any immigrants, so Trump feeds them to his base, as a sacrifice to a monster that must be appeased...
Precisely! And I would posit that Trump will bypass his MAGA base and its threat power to somehow stifle - or end - elections? He still has state legislatures (especially in the South and Midwest) under control. And, as you note, bulldog Miller. But I’m fearing some sort of martial law gambit.
I certainly assume he would try, but our military has for a very long time now been trained to be the 'good guys' and not just hired killers. In fact our National Guard is seriously focused on protecting our people, and the closest they get to 'martial law' is preventing riots. I am pretty sure any military enforced 'Martial Law' will be a paper tiger and have no real force behind it and would likely cause him more trouble. May even get mass resignations, just as we have seen in the Department of Justice when orders were given to file charges etc that were blatantly illegal or unethical.
Yes, there really is a "Deep State" of employees (including military etc...) who honor their oaths, are ethical, good citizens who refuse to do what is wrong.
Well, I hope so. But then there was that recent campaign speech - and Trump has been constantly “campaigning” since 2015 - to selected military who cheered his latest lies. And the military’s participation in Los Angeles and at the southern border. If Trump can co-opt ICE he can co-opt a willing military. The old promises of a rule of law, are just that—old, neglectable.
Let's not all get sucked into the black hole of conspiracy theories, their theorists, and those who believe in such it's a cognitive style, a defect really, of interpreting and making sense of a complex world, an inclination to interpret human malign intentions as causal to natural effects like chem trails or fluoridated water. It is most common in the under-educated who form a significant part of Trump's voter base. But we shouldn't inflate conspiracy theory thinking's importance either. People vote pocketbook issues generally, and I believe that they are generally pragmatists when it's time to vote. Trump got elected because people really thought he would deliver on his promises. That he hasn't will be what cripples his movement.st least that's my two cents. 🙂
trump and blondie re hiding something that trump wants to hide. Repubs just voted to not demand the release of the Epstein files. You don't need to be a conspiracy to think that there is a lot of dirt being swept under the rug. Maxwell received a 20 year sentence for doing Epstein's bidding with sex trafficking. Certainly trump will betray anyone, including his base,if it keeps him from the Epstein scandal. I hope dems are able and aware enough to keep the Epstein pressure on trump and GOP. It is in their best interests, no mater how hard trump tries to change the subject...
So many hard-core MAGAs desperately want to absolve Trump of any wrongdoing. Hence, they employ the "blame the evil advisor(s) " tactic, a trope that appears frequently in Shakespearean and Renaissance drama about tyrant kings. As there was a strong belief in the divine right of rulers, it was much safer to attack those courtiers and advisors surrounding the ruler: "The king is basely led" by "caterpillars of the commonwealth." Thus, no one could accuse those raising these issues of trying to overthrow the ruler. If only those evil advisors were removed, then the ruler would turn into a nurturing monarch for his people. However, despite those objections. Repeatedly, however, the plays show that it all goes back to the tyrant king.
The only thing more absurd than thinking everything is a conspiracy, is thinking there are no conspiracies.
Humans conspire, and they conspire secretly when their actions are illegal. People who do illegal things tend to have a track record of illegal activities and who have been found guilty of trying to cover them up.
Now ask yourself, who in public life has a documented track record, proven in court, felony convictions of doing exactly that? What would lead you to think he would not do it other times?
It was well documented in the Mueller Report that Trump actively, illegally obstructed an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, about ten separate charges worth. Trump clearly (from sworn testimony and other evidence to the Jan 6 Committee) conspired to interfere in the legal process of Biden being sworn in as president (Hence 'Jan 6'). It is clear Trump conspired with others to conceal a large number of government files, including top secret files, that he kept concealed at Mar-A-Lago, despite the government's lawful requests to have them returned.
So I will add one that to my understanding has never been properly investigated: Did Trump conspire to have a young man shoot in his general direction, so he could fake an injury, a scratch, that no credible injury from a rifle could produce on his ear, and then acting as though it was a major injury upon his ear even though no evidence of it being more than a scratch has ever been seen? Yes, other people were shot, one man killed, but were they shot after Trump was safely buried under secret service agents? After all, the death really 'sold' the 'brush with death'.
We have established Trump is a serial conspirator, what about Trump would make you believe murder would be something he could never be a part of? People died on Jan 6, over a hundred officers injured, and yet Trump pardoned them all. Thousands of civilians in Ukraine have died and yet Trump still sides with Putin. Similar in Gaza. The secret files kept at Mar-A-Lago were so secret, they were of a level people would have died to protect them, for a reason because in the wrong hands they could easily have caused the deaths of MANY (if not large numbers) of Americans. Playing with the lives of immigrants for political gain, and not too concerned for the citizens caught up in the mass deportation either. The list goes on We have established Trump is sufficiently a sociopath that the death of some random people would not concern him as long as he felt safe from prosecution.
Chemtrails? Sic the ICE jackboots on DARPA!