Yes, I know all about Godwin's Law. It's worth paying attention to. However, having paid due attention, there's no way to avoid saying that this sounds like Adolf Hitler at a Nuremburg rally:
Trump didn't say stuff like this as recently as a few years ago. Nor did he routinely forget who's president or who he's run against in the past. Is there any serious question anymore about his steadily declining cognitive abilities?
Kevin, this rant isn't a sign of "cognitive decline". It's one of the first things Donald Trump has ever said that's truly what he means. OK, maybe THAT is a sign of senility, but this is not some random outburst. He really thinks these things and means to eradicate as many of us as he possibly can.
Do not put this down to him being a crackpot. Read the Times article today about what his thugs are openly planning for the immigrants who grow and pick our food, who slaughter our meats, who cook and clean in our restaurants, who drive the lorries that deliver our "stuff", who care for sick and old people, and who build our houses.
Trump and that pile of watery excrement Steven Miller actually BELIEVE that "American workers will get paid better and have great benefits" as a result of this purge. But what will happen is that food, restaurants and health care will shoot out of sight but wages WON'T rise because so much demand will leave the economy that everyone will be too frightened to leave one job for another.
"Trump and that pile of watery excrement Steven Miller actually BELIEVE that "American workers will get paid better and have great benefits" as a result of this purge"
What a BS.
Trump doesn't give a toss about what American workers earn. As far he is cocnerned, the role of the govenment is "to be strong", that is suppress any opposition (Ptuin/Xi/Kim model). That is what he wants to do, and all the rest is just means to an end.
Of course Trump doesn't give a toss about what Americans earn. But he has a knack for saying what people want to hear. That knack has not left him and him and in that sense his cognition is perfectly in touch.
I attribute the extra foulness of his tirades to his fear of losing in court and there resulting anger rather than his cognition.
Miller believes it. You're right that Trump doesn't care about workers, but he does have some demented mis-understanding of tariffs and immigration.
And he doesn't care about tariffs and iimigration more than he cares abut workers earning.
The only thing he really wants is full control. The rest are uninteretsing details as far he is concerned.
The only thing Trump cares about is Trump, and the only thing he values is loyalty.
He really DOES believe that high tariffs help America. He's wrong of course, but he does believe it. He's been "a tariff man" for decades.
I have a few thoughts on this:
1. This is good electoral politics. I have seen this elsewhere and would say the same there, but I am hesitant to take the abuse and the resultant slandering that my good name would take from such a post...so I hesitate to state this obvious thesis. Immigration is powerful politics here as it was in 1933.
2. I will take up this cudgel now that you have posted a good copy of this statement, but on anything by left.ist sites it will be difficult.
3. I have done some immigration work, standing in for large firms, and nothing has given me greater satisfaction in life than securing a green card, or work approval or amnesty status for a person or a family.
4. That said, the Democrats have been particularly inept with this issue, inviting in a Fascist Government by their lack of clear thinking and sheer bumbling on the question of immigration,
If the downside weren't so terrible, I'd wish a hellish amount of scorn on the Democrats...for their sheer stupidity.
5. Fuck Goodwin....Hitler was elected by Good Germans, as well might be Trump by Good, but Evil, Americans.
(just watched the 11/11/11 ceremonies in London and so I am a little bitter early this morning...the guns of Europe may have fallen silent, but they rage again today...breaking body and bone, leaving great leakings of blood...
Of course I am rightfully bitter against our Republican led Congress.)
Traveller
PS let me further say, there are not enough red poppies to wash away our terrible guilt for...almost everything. I am unfathomably angry and sad this morning.
Republicans are at least as guilty about the immigration situation as Dems. It was them who refused to cooperate on any attempt to solve or mitigate it. Why? Because the festering problem was good for them at every election. Solving it would take away their most important selling point.
Yes. Look what "settling" the abortion issue has done to the GQP!
Trump really knows how to tap into the lizard brain.
But hes 2 years younger than Biden, lets stay focused on the truly important facts here.
"But hes 2 years younger than Biden ..."
This seems to be a new talking point as I have seen it a bunch of places recently. But it is nonsense, Trump is in fact 3.5 years younger than Biden. What is the point of repeating an obvious lie that just calls attention to the issue?
I recall (a) Molly Jong-Fast (and I think not only her) saying that Trump is 2.5 years younger than Biden, and (b) somebody at Political Wire saying that Trump is just as old as Biden.
(a) Trump is 44 months younger than Biden
(b) Trump is 3 or 4 years younger than Biden
(c) Trump is about the same age as Biden
(d) Trump is the same age as Biden
Depending on the context, each of those statements is true. Moreso for the median American, age 38, half(ish) the age of either of them.
The age gap between me and my wife is bigger. In some contexts, I'm older than she is. In other contexts, we talk about what it's like "at our age."
More importantly these people were all saying the same thing about Biden 3.5 years ago.
Apparently the point is someone is only too old if they're not a blithering psychotic.
Who cares? It just doesnt matter.
Trump wants you to be distracted, but you dont have to play along. But....its up to you.
I'd say Trump is 78 years younger than Biden. He never grew out of the terrible twos.
+100
“Disoriented Biden needs help from Arlington honor guard during solemn wreath-laying ceremony”
Headline at the NY Post. Joe got lost!
Well, at least he didn't demand to know "What was in it for them?" or "I like soldiers that didn't get killed." Or make a big deal about the rain flattening his hair sprayed pompador.
Or visit Pearl Harbor and ask his aids “ What happened here?”
Of course, if you bother to watch the entire clip this is just not true. But, heck, let's give the old Biden meme another hit.
If Kevin allowed images in comments, I'd post the one of W pulling a face as he tried to open the wrong (locked) door after a press conference. Or Trump walking straight past the limo waiting for him at the foot of the
air Force One steps.
If you believe anything the NY Post says then you have severe cognitive impairment.
More concerning than that idiot are the huge body of near illiterates who believe what he says is real, and the poison psychos who are happy to exploit them.
They'll still be here long after he's died in jail and they'll still be eager to be exploited. What Democrats have done wrong is not in addressing immigration but in not addressing them.
They're never going to vote for you, they're the problem.
Kevin, don't fight the narrative!
Biden is too old. Trump is good for ratings!
Forget cognitive decline (though if Biden made just a fraction of the strange mistakes made by Drumpf in recent weeks--that the press assiduously ignore--the media would be demanding his involuntary committal) this is yet more proof that Drumpf is not running for president but for Fuhrer of the Greater American Reich. He regurgitated this stuff almost verbatim at a Veterans' Day rant in NH over the weekend according to a NYT story that is now buried deeply on their site. As far as I can tell, not a peep about any of this in the WaPo or elsewhere (not even a horserace story of how this plays with "independent" voters all somehow wearing red hats in a diner in Back of Beyond, Idaho). He is an undeniable Nazi, pure and simple. If he wins next year, there won't be a free election in the US for a long, long time and the box cars to the "reeducation" camps will be rolling within months. And the three wise monkeys press keeps stuffing their hands in their eyes, ears, and mouth.
Well said!
That our "free press" refuses to see the writing on the wall; as "enemies of the state" they and their ilk will be among the first to be incarcerated or killed. [See war in Isreal/Gaza]. Fascism is now the platform of the GOP. [See Ohio].
The MSM still claims he talked to striking auto workers in Detroit, when he spoke at a non-union plant. I should have been a political reporter; no need to work, just write whatever Donald says in his press releases.
“The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave, than the threat from within.“
Projection, of course. On the face of it, something we all can agree with. What‘s insidious about it is that some will find reason to support him for promising to defeat a threat he himself has created. Let’s hope more voters are repelled by this sort of language straight out of the Nazi playbook.
What’s key is how the media reports it. The NYT headline: “Trump Takes Veterans Day Speech in a Very Different Direction.” Once again, the Times is not up to the job.
Compare media coverage of Trump’s use of “vermin” and another candidate’s reference to “deplorables.”
Vermin! How Kafkaesque!
Ha. Here's someone offering a translation for the NYT:
"Trump nimmt die Rede zum Veterans Day in eine ganz andere Richtung"
Perhaps all Trump's speeches should be delivered in German. That way people (er, media) might catch on.
Herr Drumpf war schon immer ein "Guter Deutscher"!
Shorter version of Trump’s tweet: “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer”.
I thought this a good anti-Drumpf ad:
https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1723400612207817183?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1723400612207817183%7Ctwgr%5Eec2125c326847be8815cfda2d3af05689a0f8b4c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fballoon-juice.com%2F&fbclid=IwAR2NddzOX-hQ0cH7ESjqqbfLg_WM-VG4VNEkzVw9Lf9m1GAf_mY3HAjGPOU
Brilliant. Kudos to the Biden campaign.
In past times stuff like that would have destroyed a candidate. Every one of those quotes is well known and yet Trump is supported by veterans and current military. I don’t get it and never will.
I think the commissioned officer corps -- the ones who went through the service academies -- to say nothing of most flag officers, get hives hearing rhetoric like this. It's the regular recruits that tend to be more Trump-friendly.
Maybe, but why? How can a person who is proud of his military service and puts on his uniform on Veteran’s day, and attends memorials and mourns lost comrades vote for a guy who thinks they are suckers and losers? I just don’t get it.
How can a person who is proud of his military service and puts on his uniform on Veteran’s day, and attends memorials and mourns lost comrades vote for a guy who thinks they are suckers and losers? I just don’t get it.
They either live in an epistemic bubble (and thus disbelieve or discount any negative news they hear about Trump, perhaps writing it off as deep state "fake news") or they simply value other things (his stance on immigration? his stance on China? his stance on race?) about Trump enough to continue to vote for him despite his lack of respect for the military.
Also, not everyone who serves in the military is particularly proud of their service or had a wonderful experience. Plenty of veterans couldn't wait for their enlistment to end, had negative experiences, disliked military life, distrusted the people running the show...and so on. So Trump's scorn for the military might actually resonate with plenty of these people.
Exactly That aligns with every report of unauthorized trump patches, as well as the evidence that some volunteers have openly admitted to signing up to obtain free weapons & munitions training experience for the expressed purpose of joining a militia to oppose the government.
A refusal to face reality which scares the hell out of me almost as much as the left's passive stance in the face of the 'constitutional sheriffs' movement.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/09/15/dozens-of-retired-generals-admirals-sign-letter-backing-trump-reelection.html
Always err on the side of cluelessness, Kev.
I mean, this is the guy who sometimes writes about something his Republican friends said to him the other day.
Anybody who admits to having Republican friends in the year 2023 might as well be saying out loud “I have questionable judgment and/or morals on some issues.” Republicanism has rightfully become a dealbreaker for many relationships.
I disagree. The US doesn't need more division and lack of communication.
The great Bill Clinton was known for finding as many points of common ground as possible with his adversaries. Maybe it was as simple as talking about grandchildren. But once he and the other guy had established their common humanity, they could start discussing substantive issues more freely.
Don't wall yourself off like some kiind of zealot! We're better than this!
In the past I have been friends and been friendly with Republicans. I can still be friendly with Republicans even when I think they are totally wrong about this or that issue. But if someone is a Trump supporter after all that has occurred, then that person is scum. It’s not zealotry, it is realism. Trump and his enablers are monsters.
You make good points. All of my "R" friends have become never-Trumpers. (Except one, and... let's not talk about him.)
But the only "substantive issue" Trump cultists are truly interested in is rooting out the "leftist vermin" intent on destroying America. Your comment is a bit like telling German Jews in 1933 not to hate on the Nazis - look for common ground with them!
Wait, are you suggesting Trump has untreated Syphilis?
Donald Trump is untreated syphilis.
Trump never forgot who was president or who he ran against in the past. Don't forget that to his base, all of his opponents (past, present, and future) are the same and part of the same cabal that's out to destroy the America they think they live(d) in. Saying that he beat Obama in 2016 and/or 2020 is just a reference to that shadowy cabal of Big Bads, not senility.
Don't bet on it
Seth Abramson had a lot to say about this yesterday on Threads. It’s intentionally aimed at fanning the flames of their racism. He was mentioning some stuff he’d heard on SiriusXM where these awful people still think Obama is president, secretly pulling the strings. I think blaming cognitive decline is a lame excuse, and not what’s happening. These idiots are incensed that a black has been president. Still.
trump is a lot of things, but conniving has got to be top of the list.
Have you actually watched him speak off the cuff? There's dementia there all right.
No, he's just off his head. Always has been. This was at a rally more than 5 years ago:
It's not dementia, it's just an idiot who's full of nothing but hot air.
Godwin's Law doesn't apply when discussion doesn't approach Nazis but starts there.
Bingo.
I have found it strange that neither Democrats nor Republicans have made more of his known history of keeping the collection of Hitler's speeches that was a gift from Ivana's father on his bedside table & actually reading it.
He emulates all of the ranting, raving, racism of his idol, & that is the reason he always exaggerates his crowd sizes, as if striving to outdo Hitler. I would guess that his fear of dying as his father did, without fully achieving his goals, is worsening his condition.
Raging against the dying of the light?
Who the heck are these Communists in the USA?
Does the CPUSA even exist anymore?
I would guess that if you rounded up all its members you might (repeat might) fill up a couple of poker tables.
I met a communist once. Or so he said.
And most would be FBI agents.
Trump supporters all speak like third grade dropouts. If you're going to address them you have to keep this firmly in mind.
They don't actually want to know nothing, they just do.
Donald Trump's "threat from within" is Alzheimer's and narcissistic self-hatred.
This is not to diminish the threat from his followers.
As Alzheimer's progresses, the filters come off.
My parents had a seemingly compatible marriage for seventy years, but in the end, my mother descended deep into Alzheimer's disease and didn't recognize anyone around her. I watched as she also mentally regressed from age 16 to age five.
Interestingly enough, she didn't lose everything. She didn't know who her husband, my father, was, but she knew that she didn't like him.
It seem like we are facing a double edged sword with t-Rump. Is he to be declared mentally unstable or sent to jail. It can’t be both. and if he is declared mentally unfit, he does no jail time.
The way things are going, it doesn’t seem likely that he will be spending time in prison. Pity.
Yes, my fear also. Over at the Daily Howler (hi, Bob!!), Mr Somerby seems to keep hinting around that the Defendant needs medical attention, and definitely not prosecution. This really offends my lust for retribution.
My wife is presently suffering from dementia. Trust me, it is nothing like Trump's "syndrome". It is sad and funny, endearing and exacerbating at once.
Trump is just saying exactly what he thinks his followers want to hear. And he has a talent for getting it right (which is wrong!). He thinks his followers want to hear Nazi speak. So he is giving them Nazi speak.
His problem (he doesn't think it is a problem) is psychiatric, not neurological.
Neither MTG or Stephen Miller has Alzheimer’s and they both believe in the things Trump is saying. People have been saying Trump has Alzheimer’s for quite some time. That was why he took that cognitive test (you know, person woman man camera tv) that he “aced”. And I get it that the test is utterly worthless at identifying Alzheimer’s. My dad, who died of the disease, would routinely pass it well into his cognitive decline.
But it’s been a while. And despite some gaffs he seems to be functioning relatively well. I came to the belief that he suffers from sleep deprivation. He apparently pretty routinely is up late anger tweeting. His symptoms seem similar to someone who didn’t get a good nights sleep and is a bit groggy. Anyhow, that’s my thought on the subject.
Did you mean "exasperating"?
The NYT translates for us.
https://youtu.be/isLNLpxpndA?si=wLkLlMywrxZouM07&t=270
Great. Demented Hitler. That's all we need...
What really baffles me is two things. First, that the Democrats are not exploiting the hell out of this by letting people know what he actually says, rather than just repeating vague euphemisms like "threat to democracy," often without even naming the person who is the threat. Second, that our media does not make this crystal clear. They do useless "fact-checking" on trivial things, but have we ever heard them explain that Joe Biden is actually "not a Marxist"? Do they use the excuse that that would be an "opinion" and thus off-limits?
I wonder if the reason for both of these is the very outdated rule that prohibits "amplifying" harmful rhetoric. If so, trump and his minions have become really good at exploiting this rule.
They lazily imagine people will 'make up their own mind' while providing them nothing to work with in fear it might offend someone.
A thing that really irritates me is when someone will be on tv worrying about the 'threat to our democracy', because to a wingnut, or low-information personality who is wingnut-curious, that can imply the speakers' ownership, that it's theirs, and, in that way, they're the problem to whom Trump is a threat and the wingnut-curious are as likely to think that's a good thing as not.
Trying to destroy society, destroy the country, seize the government, overthrow the Constitution --these are all exactly as correct and quite a lot better than that highly malleable, anodyne, and edgeless phrasing.
Remember, dear liberals, that those of us on the actual left have been telling y'all for years now that not only is fighting against gun ownership a losing cause, it's a god damn own-goal when, not if, these fascists get back into power.
Knowing how to safely own and operate a firearm was mother fucking specifically put into the god damn Bill of Rights by the god damn people who wrote the Constitution.
If you're expecting the police to protect you, your family, and your community when right-wing death squads start rolling out, good luck when you call and let them know exactly where you are and that you don't have the means to protect yourselves.
Unless, like, y'all are planning to never lose another election ever again, which I'm sure is a plausible scenario.
The "god damn people who wrote the Constitution" had no conception of a modern Fascist state. The barest rudiments of the communications technologies which make one possible were a hundred years in the future. They added Amendment II to the Constitution because they didn't want to have a standing army, but recognized that the country had to defend itself.
But your "warning" is a good one.
Capitalism, oligarchy, fascism, and neo-feudalism are just points on a spectrum.
The fascism of the past 100 years could be swapped out with a self-righteous aristocracy from 200 years ago without needing much alteration.
That's not correct. While a self-righteous aristocracy from 200 years ago certainly had a lot of economic power, it depended on the peasantry for its sustenance. Its practitioners might, if they had the chance, envy the all-encompassing State that modern Authoritarians of whatever economic stripe concoct, but they could never have replicated it.
How many people did Henry execute? How many did "Bloody Mary"? How many did Charles? How many did Louis XIV or XV? They are numbered in three or four digits. The totalitarians of the Twentieth Century murdered in the millions.
When the fascists are using SWAT team tanks, a thousand armed drones and other advanced military gear to roll onto your property and take you alive or dead, I doubt any personal arsenal you’ve amassed there will stop them. All 2nd Amendment Red Dawn fantasies aside, you’re not going to outgun the US military or (increasingly militarized) local police forces.
For example, Philadelphia bombed an entire city block to get at just one house’s worth of alleged terrorists. Not sure that any level of 2nd Amendment exercising would stop a government willing to bomb your entire neighborhood.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_MOVE_bombing
But sure, let’s pretend that each armed household is going to be able to defend itself against a tyrannical government. Go Wolverines!
Fair enough, lie in your bed and get shot like a nice polite liberal.
Have fun doing that and proudly holding you chin up as a realist!
God I wish there was a block button on here to block the crazies.
Yes, you're sane, and I'm crazy, because I believe what the fascists are saying out loud and in public.
Your definition of sane is my definition of delusional.
Austin, I think that n1cholas is meaning the Sunshine Soldiers of the Proud Boys and other such cranks. They are just ITCHING for the opportunity to mow down some "BLM" (interesting how it's singular, collective AND plural all at once) and beat some "hippies" to death.
I suppose you are correct, if Nicholas is able to form coherent thoughts at all which is strongly in doubt. Although he/she/it also refers to the police, since regular people don’t generally have right wing death squads in their phone contacts to call up.
Like an 8 year old with no concept of history, I have to start with the assumption that you don't know how death squads work.
Donald Trump and Joe Rogan won't be personally coming to your house, champ. It'll be a local group of chuds with basic rifles. They'll do it when they believe they have just enough color of law to do it and get away with it (yes, I know, you have no concept of history, you can google phrases like "color of law" on your own time!).
Those same chud groups, will have friends/associates/members who are ALSO in the police. Are you following, or am I going to fast for you? When you, helpless and clueless about history call the local police because a group of chuds are in your vicinity larping around with a couple of basic rifles, right-wing shitbag who works forces and burns crosses will tell their chud buddies...exactly...where you are.
But, sure, what I just said has never happened and will never happen, because then that means I can form coherent thoughts and ideas, and your identity as someone who just won an internet argument falls apart.
Keep on keepin' on.
I mean, I pretty clearly state "right-wing death squads".
A lot of center-right liberals still believe that the fascists don't mean what the fascists say they mean.
And that makes me a crazy person, because I believe fascists when they say they are fascist. It's hilarious and tragic, but accepting what is coming can be pretty uncomfortable.
I'm pretty sure I clearly and specifically said:
Right-wing death squads and the police.
Yep, just read it using my eyes, I specifically said those two groups.
You're the one fantasizing about the US military, not me.
Try again.
“… good luck when you call and let [the police] know exactly where you are and that you don't have the means to protect yourselves.”
This makes no damn sense if you’re not referring to police wiping out individual households. I assume “them” is “the police” because “liberals” (polite or otherwise) are unlikely to be calling “right wing death squads.” (I don’t even know if their numbers are publicly listed?)
And my points were (1) the police are increasingly as well-armed as the military, complete with tanks and apparently helicopters that can drop bombs from the sky (in the case of Philly) and (2) if your local police department is for whatever reason actually overwhelmed by armed households, the fascists will send in the military to “restore order.” So it’s highly unlikely that a well-armed presumably-impolite “liberal” household will be able to avoid getting shot “in their beds” or otherwise against the might of the entire US government or even just its local police departments.
But please continue to enthrall us with your electronic version of a mentally ill person screaming on a street corner.
Nice! You've resorted to calling me mentally ill. You've clearly won the argument and everyone is in thrall of your logic and skills of persuasion!
Just kidding, clown.
Right-wing death squads are going to be the first out of the gates to murder liberals. Not the fucking US military. Not the Philadelphia Police from 1985. Not a drone barrage.
Right-wing death squads. Relatively untrained, non-professional dipshits with the same firearm capacity as a non-right-wing death squad member. A fucking RING camera and a basic understanding of firearms will give the liberals who you think are fated to be murdered, an advantage.
Second, almost any police force has a right-wing authoritarian shitbag serving, if not multiple shitbags. The police are not going to defend nice polite liberals like yourself who've learned to surround themselves with helplessness because firearms=evil. And when you and members of your community call the police to tell them that you're helpless, a very not-polite right-wing authoritarian shitbag will know exactly where you're currently being helpless because...well, you've decided that anyone saying that fascism is coming very soon is mentally ill and screaming because they don't want liberals to continue being helpless against a few chuds with a basic rifle.
So, you continue being a true rhetorical genius. You go ahead and call people on your left warning you to watch the fuck out, mentally ill.
When you're crouched way down low hiding from some dipshit with a basic rifle, you can think back on how mentally ill people used to "scream" at you on the internet about how you don't have to crouch down real low because some chud has a basic ass rifle and you don't. And you can smile and know how you aren't mentally ill, or whatever you need to tell yourself, because you're super good at online arguments.
Have a great day!
All he needed to add to his list of folks he wants to "root out" are the Jews, and this would be a perfect speech for any neo-Nazi rally or white supremist get together.
On Veteran's day no less. This is same mother fucker who called American Troops "losers and suckers".
Somebody oughta clue this guy in about how it turned out for poor ol' Adolf. Sad.
Is trump suffering cognitive decline? sure, almost certainly. but his increasingly unhinged comments are just as easily attributable to his legal jeopardy in civil and criminal court. engoran is poised to gut his business empire withing weeks, with little likely avenue for successful appeal. the criminal cases are less certain and far from conclusion, but could certainly result in significant prison sentences. so what does someone like trump do in the face of such threats? of course say shit like this.
+1
He wants to terrorize the legal system, and for that he needs to get his supporters to use violence, and he gives them "justification" for violence.
I think the truth is likely an " all of the above" situation.
Many of the posts here highlight one or more of the factors contributing to the raging of this individual
his increasingly unhinged comments
I'm not even sure the "increasingly" part is actually increasing. His rhetoric has been vulgar and fascistic since he ran in 2016.
yeah, he's always been so far off the rails it's hard to tell but i do think it's progressively gotten worse.
Here’s a 2019 quote:
“You know, the left plays a tougher game, it’s very funny,” the president told Breibart’s Matthew Boyle. “I actually think that the people on the right are tougher, but they don’t play it tougher. Okay? I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump–I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough—until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”
There have long been signs of Trump's declining cognitive capacities, but I'm not sure why a standard-issue fascist rant on his part is evidence of that.
There is a reason why behavior in and out of court that would have earned anyone else a month in jail for contempt is tolerated from Trump with a stern but toothless warning. He's just itching to turn loose the MAGA Militia on those he claims are attacking him, and people are rightly (if cowardly) afraid.
Just a foretaste. He's itching for violence, and people know it.
“It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. Violence is any day preferable to impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent.”
I’m pretty certain that Biden and/or his very professional and experienced team of political operatives are in fact hoping that Trump will be their opponent. And I believe they are in fact keeping careful track of every crazy utterance from Trump. They’re also amassing (so far) a lot more money in campaign contributions than Trump. And, while that may be expected for an incumbent, it certainly bears mentioning that Trump is a sort-of incumbent as well (making his relatively meager campaign finances all the more damning).
And once trump is the nominee (or thereabouts), I expect that the Biden team will unload its well funded arsenal of self-incriminating trump statements against the Republican nominee for President. I’d simply be astounded beyond belief if that failed to happen.
One of the many, many things missing from current campaign coverage is that no one seems to acknowledge that Biden hasn’t even begun campaigning yet. Trump IS campaigning as hard as he can against Biden, but Biden has barely responded thus far (aside from a few ads and some comparisons with his predecessor).
Sure, historians may question how much campaigns matter. But one thing I’m certain of: NOT campaigning DOES matter. And Biden hasn’t campaigned yet. He doesn’t even have an official opponent yet.
So, let’s assume that Trump will be the nominee and that by next summer he will likely be an indicted felon in one case while held up in court on another. Biden will then begin blasting the airwaves with trump quotes like the one Kevin featured in this blog post.
Nevertheless, it’s worth asking if that approach will work. And pre-2016, I would’ve laughed at the idea that anyone talking or acting like trump could win the presidency in the USA. We all know better now. So it’s worth being concerned.
But I’m quite certain that Biden and his team are in fact on high alert. They are planning and funding their assault. And we should not ignore that fact when talking about the 2024 election.