Donald J. Trump

Trump's Life Has Been Miserable For Years Now

Donald Trump is doing something never before seen in American national politics. He’s literally running for his freedom.

I think I have remarked on this blog that Donald Trump has been thriving on stress his whole adult life. Looming lawsuits, debts, financial failure and legal trouble have long been his motivation and have taken-up a lot of his time. We are all mortal. We can’t run forever. Even Trump, 8 years after first running for the White House, has slowed down. He no longer cracks jokes. He’s no longer entertaining. He has frankly become more scary since leaving office. He is more profane in his rally speeches. Thematically, he’s an angrier and darker man, and he vowing to be a ruthless and vicious leader.

And he’s alone. He’s been stuck in his worst-ever emotional state since November 2020.

His two sons still support him, but that hasn’t changed in decades. He has no loyal wife by his side. He has no best friend. George Steinbrenner is now 13 years gone. He’s down to one sibling, Elizabeth, who doesn’t have a public profile.

He almost didn't pause for his last living brother, Robert. He said goodbye to his brother in a hospital room and was playing golf at Bedminster the next morning as Robert passed away. He then abused his office to host his brother’s funeral at the White House - the first since JFK’s nearly 57 years before. His daughter is unofficially estranged. His son-in law is his handler and unofficial campaign chief. He is unofficially separated from his wife. He's alone. And he's at his most dangerous, without a check or guardrail in sight. This is how it has been for decades. No one has ever stopped Trump.

He lost the 2020 election, you may say. I will argue, that didn’t stop him. As the man would say, “you see what’s happening.”

The Republic Is Doomed

This week has me convinced that Trump is going to win in 406 days. How do I know? Our news media. They reported a surge of migrants crossing the southern border, but didn't point out that the vast majority of them were captured by CBP. Today they are describing Trump's speech in a non-union parts factory as a visit to striking UAW workers. Trump's behavior and past rape is not being covered. His age is not being mentioned. Fascism is coming. There haven’t been moderate Republicans since the Obama administration. Anyone who votes for Donald Trump is a bloodthirsty fascist.

And if, by some miracle, Trump loses, we’re still doomed. 2024 will signal to the world that American democracy no longer functions.

We have already crossed the Rubicon on this. There was no peaceful transfer of power in 2021. There probably won’t be a peaceful transfer of power in 2025.

It’s amazing how some smart people have come around on this. In October 2020, Trump didn’t meet the definition of a fascist. Today he meets and exceeds them. As Trump calls for the executions of people, all he’s lacking now is a military uniform. It’s a good thing he despises the military. He’s just a fascist with a poorer fashion taste. Most fascist dictators put on the dress uniform and medals and call it a day. Trump is happy with his dumb fucking red tie down to his scrotum.

Frederick Douglass Is (Still) Doing A Great Job!

The Belfast city council has approved a statue of key American abolitionist Frederick Douglass to be designed and installed in the city center.

Congratulations, Frederick Douglass! How's he doing, by the way? I heard Trump say a few years ago that he’s “done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more,” but I haven't heard much about him lately. It's great to see his recent accomplishments are now being recognized in the U.K.

Of course, at 201 years of age, he's probably slowing down a bit.


Ignore The Hawks On American TV News

This is MSNBC being hawkish in its analysis of Trump’s refusal to concede in the 2020 presidential election. The story goes that Trump’s obstruction of a peaceful handover makes the US susceptible to foreign attack, whether military or electronic.

Here it is again. This is Bullshit. MSNBC is going out of its way to praise Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan as an Air Force veteran and therefore, an expert on national security. I’m here to say no, she isn’t. Look at how Willie Geist praises this Congresswoman simply for being a veteran from a military family. This conversation could have been on Fox News 20 years ago.

And here is more nonsense. There was a massive shift in the way US news covered wars, beginning with the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Instead of objective reporting, US news media began to refer to US armed forces as “we” or “our,” and it also started to inject itself into military strategies. Here’s MSNBC cautioning a president not to tell “the enemy” where “our” troops are going.

Trump refusing to go quietly is a scandal. It’s one of the worst things he has ever done. But it does not jeopardize national security. That's neocon talk. That’s bullshit. Trump trying to throw out legal ballots is not going make the Chinese navy appear in Hawaii or give foreign hackers a clear path to intrude into our systems, or give foreign spies more wiggle room on our soil.

I shouldn’t have to mention this, but apparently buried in the 9/11 commission report is some bullshit theory that the legal battle over Florida recounts made our nation vulnerable to the major terrorist attacks. The legal battle over Florida in November and December 2000 delayed the presidential transition 37 days. The commission report goes on to argue that the delay was a major contributing factor in how unprepared the Bush 43 administration was to an attack involving four hijacked planes 9 months later. Do I really have to say that the failure to protect the nation was entirely on the Bush administration and the DOJ?

Ignore David Ignatius. Ignore Chris Coons. Ignore Chris Murphy. Ignore Susan Rice. Ignore Eric Swalwell. This is fear mongering. We didn't tolerate it when it come from the Bush-Caney administration. We can't tolerate it from Democrats, either.

Democrats are the new Republicans! Who would have thought that 20 years after 9/11 that it would be the Democrats who would talk the most about "national security"?

It is extraordinary and alarming how the Democrats have made themselves the party of the military and national security. The words coming out of Democrats mouths today is not that different from the words of Bush, Chaney, Rice and Rumsfeld 20 years ago. Be cautioned, Democrats. We're moving to the right when we should be moving left. Of course it was right to speak up when Trump didn't care about our troops, but I see a party that is becoming far too hawkish, too militarized. Don’t let Trump’s disrespect of military drive you to throw your arms around it. I’m afraid that has happened.


Now We Have Trump To Kick Around

Donald Trump will leave the White House. We have no idea how soon or which tactic he will take. Could he just play golf every day for the next three months? Could he disappear for long stretches of time? Could he flee the nation, knowing that both new York State and the Southern District New York (SDNY) are likely preparing indictments for him and his family right now? I have made many inaccurate predictions about what will happen to Donald Trump. But it appears that Thursday, January 21, 2021 could be the worst day of his life. If I were Jay Alan Sekulow, I’d suggest fleeing the country as an option to both Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani.

Trump has been kicked around by the news media all his adult life. But starting now, he’s getting his ass kicked by the voters, and soon, some prosecutors and banks. If he thought he was “treated badly” before, he’s in for a shock. He will be kicked around for the rest of his miserable life.

In the meantime, we have what may be the most damaging remarks made by a sitting president in our history. Past presidents have done more damage through war, absolutely. But I can’t think of a president who did more damage with words than Donald Trump. His press conference on Thursday November 5 was an atomic bomb of words. It could have triggered one or more gun massacres. It could have blown up our republic. Thankfully, Trump’s followers didn’t act. They had to make dinner or help their kids with their homework, or something. They had more important things to do.

Look at that. That’s far, far worse than, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” Play that on loop at the Trump presidential library, which at this stage, will be someone’s basement game room in Nassau county or Alabama.

A presidential library? Can you imagine the grift and fraud just getting the damn thing built?

When Nixon was in his last days as president, he was drinking heavily, talking to the paintings of his predecessors hanging on the White House walls, and asking that famously religious leader, Henry Kissinger, to join him in prayer. I've always thought that Nixon's going round the bend was likely to be the record setter for presidential meltdowns. But you have to hand the crown to Trump. He's utterly, unquestionably unhinged, and I hope the Joint Chiefs are prepared for the possibility of batshit crazy orders in the next two months. It would be wonderfully, hysterically funny, if it wasn’t so dangerous.

Oh, and by the way, we're adding 100,000 new cases of a lethal virus every day in this poor, benighted country, and more than 239,000 of our fellow citizens have died. Other than that, we're doing splendidly.

Uncle Tim contributed to this post.


More Thoughts On Biden's Stunning (And Infuriating) Victory

As I wrote a few hours ago, I have mixed feelings. First, I harbor a lot of resentment at party elites. Yes, they were correct. But if you think it through, the path to defeat Trump was always to rebuild the "blue wall" from Minnesota to New Jersey. But party elites decided to let the nomination battle play out organically until southern leaders decided to hit the override button and rescue Biden’s campaign. They decided that only Biden can rebuild that wall. They were correct, fine. But I will always have rude words for Jim Clyburn. I will never understand why party leaders in South Carolina and Georgia have to be at the helm when we might never win those states again in my lifetime.

Same for Charles Schumer, who failed to convert the all-time voter turnout record for Biden into at least a tied Senate. He has to step down as minority leader, and finally some of his fellow senators agree.

I am furious at how Trump’s projection sometimes worked. Often, the public and media would see through it. But in the case of Cuban and Venezuelan Americans in Dade and Broward counties, it was a brilliant cynical move. Donald Trump, a man who sees himself as an authoritarian and would love to declare himself president for life if given the opportunity, was able to convince hundreds of thousands of hispanics in Florida that Biden was too similar to Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. Oh yeah, he is just like them. And that worked. A rare Trump projection that worked right where and when he needed it to work. Bad guys only need to get it right once. We good guys need to block them at every attempt. We failed to block this tactic in south Florida. Spanish language radio and social media in Florida is now an arm of the Republican party, much as it was in the 1980s.

The DNC feared that Bernie Sanders would lose Florida because he would be called a socialist in Miami. However, they failed to protect Joe Biden from the same fate. Pete Buttigieg is a little corporate shit, but he was correct when he said that the GOP would label any Democratic nominee or policy as “socialist.”

But what makes me mad and sad most of all is what the Democrats -as weak and as useless as they are- cannot control. Trump became more popular since 2017. When Charlottesville happened, I and many others thought that Trump just saw himself as president of the 63 Million people who voted for him. We figured some of his voters would die before 2020, and some new, teenage voters would vote with their parents. We thought those should cancel each other out, and Trump ought to to match his 63 Million vote total, but no more. He didn’t do anything to overtly court independents and Democrats to his side. He was never a positive, friendly president. He was angry and negative, which was reflected in the national mood. And of course, he did nothing but harm and insult the 21 states that Clinton won. But this week, Trump got 4 million more votes. 4 fucking million! A Los Angeles of new voters. After everything that has happened. After all the insults and early morning tweets. After all the blatant racism and white nationalism. And in the middle of a pandemic and an economic depression that is ongoing. He gained in popularity. That disgusting, indecent man.

[Update, November 5: Trump now has 5 million more votes than he had in 2016!]

[Update, November 6: Trump now has 6 million more votes than he had in 2016! A Los Angles and a Houston!]

[Update, November 10: Trump now has 7 million more votes than he had in 2016! An incredible 71,469,850 votes and counting]

[Update, November 30: Trump now has over 10 million more votes than he did in 2016! A staggering, scary 74,077,537 votes and still counting!]

And some brothers defected to Trump! A small wave of black men didn't vote at all in 2016 but voted for Trump in 2020. In fact, an estimated 1 in 3 college educated black men in Florida voted for Trump. What would Malcom X say? I know what I say. Ladies, do not give any sex to a man until there's a Federal law legalizing abortion or until Kamala Harris is president, whichever happens first. Actually, all women should make that vow. Yes, it's going to be a long wait.

I will never be comfortable with the fact that 48% of voters would rather burn down the republic than share it with women and brown people. It's been this way for decades. This is just a reminder that nothing has changed. We have made zero progress. Half the nation wants the other half dead. Try to sleep well after being reminded about that fact.