I have a bad feeling about calling Trump demented, the grampa who needs his car keys taken away, or the old man who's losing his faculties. I think this makes him sympathetic, going the way of nature, and unable to control his fate, making it somehow less urgent, not his fault. It gives him a pass that minimizes who he really is.
Trump is just getting started. His ego is having a feeding frenzy on the number of people who want to adore him, compliment him, fawn over him, and encourage him. His hunger for revenge and control is insatiable. He is intoxicated by the attention, addicted to the shock power of his outrageous claims and threats, and always craving for more. This resembles full blown mania, exhausting everyone who watches him or might moderate him.
This is not gentle elder decline, this is madness and self-aggrandizement, full-blown and feeding on itself. It has not been a good year.
I don't feel a bit bad about calling Trump demented because he is. It does make clear that allowing him to continue in the office of the presidency is madness on our part.
The cause of the "madness" you speak of is something I haven't been able to figure out. Is it brainwashing? Ignorance? Cult following? Other? What do you think?
As a retired physician, I am convinced he has a dark triad personality disorder, combined now with cognitive impairment. He is losing whatever ability he had to hide his malignant narcissism and psychopathy. He is also profoundly ignorant of economics, how the financial system works, and all scientific and medical matters, but his narcissism will never allow him to admit it. He also has a lifelong lack of empathy, so he doesn't care at all what harm his actions cause for other people. He is constantly pursuing his happiness, which he tries to achieve by accumulating wealth and power, punishing anyone who threatens his fragile ego by criticizing him, and inflicting pain on others (which it appears he gets sadistic pleasure from).
I'm also a retired physician and have been thinking along the same lines. As people slip into dementia they tend to lose control and filters. I had often been surprised when some emerged hateful and mean, but this is not a surprise with this elderly person.
Same - retired Internist. In S FL where I practiced, you get good at recognizing the signs. It is worrisome when Dad gets lost on his walk around the neighborhood. It his quite another when a guy with major personality disorders has the Nuclear codes.
John, yes, Trump has many disorders, but I was referring to the "madness on our part" as Lisa Weber mentioned above, where she said, "allowing him to continue in the office of the presidency." Why Trump hasn't been removed from office by now is what I don't understand. Is it because elected Republicans have been brainwashed, for example?
Brainwashed, yes. But, they have struck a deal with their devil to guarantee that he'll give them the power they seek if they let him have a free hand.
The deal they struck is more likely that instead of giving them power, Trump says he will not "primary them" or trash-talk them, thereby making them afraid of him. Ruling by fear is no way to run anything, especially our country.
True, but I hate the thought of generations spending any time at all on such an abhorrent individual. A silver lining might be that they will learn what not to do in electing a President.
While I know of no direct evidence that Trump is a Russian plant, it would not surprise me if that turned out to be true. It's more likely that Putin, especially with his background, knows exactly how to play the not-exactly-smart Trump
when hump bankrupted himself too many times in the 80's and NYCbanks would no longer lend him money, all of a sudden he was back in "business" courtesy of putin via deutche bank.
There has never been anything but circumstantial evidence for this theory for his partiality for Vladimir Putin. For example:
his infamous remarks in 2018 at the Helsinki summit rejecting the advice of his own intelligence agencies that the Russians had interfered in the 2015 election.preferring the Russian president's denials;
the Mueller report which found numerous links between his 2015 election campaign and the Russians and the fact that the investigation itself produced 37 indictments, seven guilty pleas or convictions and compelling evidence that the president obstructed justice on multiple occasions;
the conduct of his 'support' for Ukraine where he has shown more sympathy for the Russian position rather than Ukraine's predicament and has suspended military aid to Ukraine three times since returning to office.
Against that evidence you have the fact that Trump tends to sympathise with any dictatorial world leader that he considers to be strong and that he favours a new world order that recognises spheres of influence for what he considers to be the great powers and the dismantling of international institutions like the UN and NATO. One sees Thucydides being quoted more often in connection with Trump's worldview.
He is hateful, evil, greedy and sexually perverted. That is what I think. He is also a criminal who has no business being elected to any position, let alone the presidency.
I don't know what "all of the above" you are referring to.
Anyway, about 40 years ago, I had a beloved and beautiful Cocker Spaniel who looked just like yours. She died of lung cancer. I am tearing up right now, thinking about her and how much she looked like yours. Thanks for posting your photo - it made me both cry and smile at the same time.
Sorry, your loss must have been relatively recent. Mine was my best friend too. There is an old saying: "A dog is a man's best friend." It's true. The unconditional love they give is real. I think it's rooted in millennia of human-dog relationships.
I haven't figured out the "madness" either. Perhaps the American people fully believed generations espousing the rhetoric that we are the greatest nation on Earth; that we can never be defeated; that we are superior in our morals, ethics, and religious beliefs; that whites are inherently smarter than any other race; we can pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps; we have no need for others. Maybe our rhetoric should've changed? That's my best guess.
I agree that our narrative from elementary school onward has lead to a very provincial population (ever notice if you live near the border that the local news doesn't show any weather for the country across the border? It is like Mexico and Canada don't exist). The bootstrappy meme is only overshadowed by the mythical 'US rides to the rescue' for nearly every international crisis. Get someone who suddenly speaks to the working class that has been fed dissent by fox entertainment 'news', promising to bring the focus back to them and it doesn't take much to get them to vote for you. Trump took the tea party attitude and ginned it up. The magas I know feel empowered by trump, even his craven behavior. They emotionally seem to benefit, feeling he is 'on their side'. The evangelicals that I know are more than willing to let his 'defects of character' slide since he is purportedly siding with them in their culture war. Importantly, these are WHITE evangelicals, by the way.
There are some I know who were completely taken by their fear of transgendered people----they may begrudgingly no longer sneer at homosexuals like myself, but accepting 'men playing women's sports' was waaay too much. (Even when challenged by statistics and reality).
Yet even all these explanations do not fully show how effective propaganda really is (advertising companies are not in the business because it is a hobby---they do it because it works) and we have been subjected to a powerful propaganda machine in fox and sinclair media. Then take the penchant of CNN and other corporate media to show inordinate deference to trump---if Biden had said 1/10 of the craziness that trump has it would be 24/7 reporting calling for his resignation from the campaign, oh, wait, that DID happen.
There are millions of folks who supported trump and continue to support what he represents. Power is a strong drug and the republican party is completely inebriated with it.
My dad had dementia. When he was at the stage that the orange king seems to be now we NEVER would have let him attempt to speak in public. Shame on his adult children, and all the pols taking advantage of him. he has always been a hate filled narcissist, so maybe his kids hate him. But still!
Trump being "demented" or an "old man who's losing his faculties" is far from the issue here. Now is the time to say Trump has crossed the Rubicon. Now also is the time to recall what that expression actually meant. It shouldn't be used today to mean merely passing a point of no return.
We should say that Trump has crossed the Rubicon because of the original meaning of that expression. It meant, specifically, the commander of an army leading that army where the law said the army was not allowed to go. Trump has crossed the Rubicon in that more limited, more powerful and more ominous sense. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Rubicon.
Acknowledging the real meaning of crossing the Rubicon belies the pretense by SCOTUS justices in Trump v. United States that our Constitution (and the people who wrote and ratified it) somehow meant that the President cannot be prosecuted criminally for misconduct in which the President leads other federal employees. The Americans of the 1770's-1790's read a lot about Rome and Greece and the people who destroyed them both. The type of person they feared maybe most of all was an American Ceasar.
You make a good point, though perhaps only people dealing with dementia in the family will fully understand it. Heaven knows there are enough other adjectives to convey your excellent remaining message. In general, Congress is to blame for their cowardice and unwillingness to pursue impeachment and Vance and the cabinet are to blame for not invoking Amendment 25. I wish the cheeseburgers would work more rapidly.
It's even worse when you add to the "demented grandpa" the small child who was so damaged by his monster of a father, he grew up devoid of empathy, and in fact, a misanthrope.
His actions are still evil, as are the people pulling his strings (oligarchs), and acceding to his every wish and whim (Republicans). He is truly a mad king, and those that could stop him, refuse to do so. He himself will be shouting (because I can't get this picture out of my head) in the midst of the flames of a destroyed country, "Top of the world, Ma!"
"You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them."
It is officially titled "Restoring America's Promise."
It has 9 short sections one of which is about "voting integrity" It is complete with model legislation for states to pass to curtail voting rights. There is a handy map to see how compliant each state is with the model legislation. The lower the number the more compliant with their view of what "election integrity" is.
DONT'T BE FOOLED AGAIN.
Read the effing thing and if you are in a red state DO SOMETHING.
If you are in a blue state, support organizations to fight this in red states.
We are just months away from what may be our last chance at free and fair elections. It will be if Heritage has its way.
These people lay their plans but they can't count on someone as erratic as Trump to deliver them efficiently - the more than 500 lawsuits against the administration in the first year attest to their incompetence and lawlessness. I haven't read Project 2026 (and one can I think safely assume that Trump hasn't either) but I doubt that it includes the invasion of Greenland. On the tariffs policy, Trump is even being sued by the Federalist Society.
No, it doesn’t—it does have a section on China policy. But most of it is about domestic policy and things like family values and education., besides voting rights.
They are being extremely competent in getting the laws in the states enacted in the red states.
It can’t be ignored, if that is what you are suggesting.
But also one year with you! By now I feel you are a dear and much, much smarter friend and if I ran into you in the neighborhood I would hug you and ask about the health of the dogs. Maybe even the chickens. Certainly the Constitution. Thank you for explaining, encouraging, understanding. We are indeed in this together.
I resent those who voted for him, especially those who knew what kind of person he is. Even more so, however, I despise the many millions of Americans who decided not to vote at all because they thought both candidates were flawed!
One explanation I've seen is that when people make an emotional investment they are less likely to be persuaded that they were wrong. A CNN poll a few days ago found that 42% of Americans consider Trump's first year back in office to have been a success; while 58%, a failure showing just how polarised views have become in your country. It's also the case that Trump's lies are backed by a considerable armoury of media outlets that reinforce his messaging.
I agree with David and Donna. But also many of the people would not vote for any woman, and Lord forbid, a BLACK woman! How stupid and ignorant our prejudices cause us to behave.
If I may cross-post, in a conversation with Tim Miller and David Plouffe, David reflects on the Harris campaign he ran in his capacity as senior advisor.
He explains the challenges they faced and why they made the decisions they did.
I wonder whether, by any miracle, there is a person like Daniel Ellsberg in this generation of people in the government. Do you think that there is anyone that would leak the Mar-a-Lago report? And any place that would publish and disseminate it?
This administration has been leaking like a sieve even to the extent that it has resorted to using polygraph machines to test officials for loyalty to Trump. It's not unlike his first administration where people who left the government under a cloud were writing books about what was went on in the White House. It just doesn't seem to matter any more. There's no one of the moral standing of Daniel Ellsberg (apart from Miles Taylor perhaps) - they're mostly disgruntled acolytes who have been thrown under the Trump juggernaut.
The independent media would publish it and then it would get picked up by the MSM and/or the global media. Right wing media would talk about it just to condemn it! We need several Ellsbergs now: volume II, Epstein, ICE. There’s no end to the good they could do.
When you had trump one and two sandwiched between a calm Biden it’s twice as exhausting. What really surprised me was how the democrats in congress seemed to be so shellshocked they couldn’t do anything. Hopefully they will start to really come alive but I think it is going to be up to the ordinary citizens to eventually save the day. Peacefully protesting, writing postcards, letters to the editors, phone calls to our representatives, engaging with those that may not share our views, and of course voting and getting others out to vote also. It’s going to be baby steps but there are more of “us” and we are in this together. Thanks Joyce .
Well, for instance, I and others "engage" with those on NextDoor who emulate Dear Leader by posting stuff that they make up out of thin air. When challenged to support their false assertions, they either double down or, as is more frequently the case, they simply disappear into some other cyberspace. So, by and large engaging with the 42% for #47 is futile, but they should not be the target audience; rather those so-called "independents," along with those who could have voted but didn't, are the ones who may pay attention to the posts calling out the Trump minions.
I’m all out of sympathy for people like the Oliveras who were enthusiastic about trump as long as his depredations only impacted those other immigrants. How dumb can you be? Pretty dumb, judging by the 77 mill that voted for him. Pay attention or it will come back to bite you in the arse. Wonder where she ended up? South Sudan? Uganda? Uruguay? Such arrogance coupled with rampant ignorance is a lethal combination.
Thank you Joyce. Skimming this after a long cold day in IL and standing with a small crowd outside GOP Congressman Mike Bost’s Mascoutah office from 2:00-4:00pm Today it was freezing but the sun was mostly shining but we knew it’s
much worse in MN Someone has to hold the GOP and the presidency accountable for the violent crackdown of ICE agents there. All for me 😴
He doesn’t want to take Greenland, he wants the European countries to pay for construction of U.S. bases there. Will they grasp for that task in relief that he won’t invade and destroy NATO? Or will they realize that appeasing a tyrant never works? Who will call whose bluff?
Will there be protests in Davos? Anywhere else? The whole world is watching.
Where are the Senators who vowed to return for another war powers vote? That has to happen now.
You should read Mark Carney's speech at Davos yesterday which warns 'middle countries' that the great powers have 'ruptured' the global rules-based order irreparably. He tells them that 'if we're not at the table, we're on the menu". Let's hope they listen.
Oh, by the way, he does want Greenland and he's not bluffing.
He loves to cause chaos and then watch the news and see people talk about him.
The prick S. Bessemt said Denmark is irrelevant. A (former) ally. This administration really believes that it can rule the world. Assholes, all of them.
He wants to rule the world! He covets the worship of the people of the world. The more wealth & flattery he acquires, the more he craves. Nothing is ever enough. He's never satisfied!
Right, and we can build more bases, I believe. Could probably get a deal to extract minerals but they are buried under a mile of ice. Rump ignores those facts, if he even knew about them when he began this charade. Today he says he won’t use force. In his lunatic mind that could change with the next temper tantrum.
Excellent post tonight Joyce. So glad you brought up Project 2025 as Miles Taylor in his Substack yesterday checked off all the points in P2025 that had already been accomplished.
Then, as if on cue, trump went completely off the rails blathering on and on about his grievance over his missed Nobel and being mad at the Norwegian government because he just knew they could have given it to him if only they would have and on and on about every piss and moan gripe about Greenland, Canada and maybe, just maybe he would wrest the Panama Canal away from China after taking over Cuba. All these many months he’s been accusing poor, helpless immigrants of coming into America from insane asylums when that’s exactly where he needs to be. He continues to tell on himself by blaming immigrants. According to his warped way of thinking, they’re committing fraud along with Gov Walz and Mayor Frey, when it’s trump himself who is the twice adjudicated fraudster. Every accusation is a confession. He cannot stop telling on himself by blaming his perceived enemies. He’s hell-bent on burning us all down so he can rule over the ash heap; but rule, he shall no matter the cost to all of us.
Thank you Professor. So much work ahead of us, but’s what True Blue strong Americans do. “We endeavor to persevere” . And I would say that was a line from the movie The Outlaw Joseph Wales spoken by the Native American actor ( sorry his name slipped my memory but I could look it up). Apropos. Thank you all. Stay strong.☮️❤️
trump and his regime have, through every fault of their own, given the world an off ramp from a U.S. dominated world. He has reduced the U.S. to a spoiled brat, bully rogue state that has shown its need to be managed by the rest of the world. The countries that have always pinned their well being to the rise of a stable United States will not pin the tail on the jackass the U.S. has become.
A country that has elected the bonkers government of trump twice can no longer be trusted with the future of the planet. It will, at this point, take many decades to rebuild that trust, if ever. Make no mistake. The world can and will isolate us. If anyone thinks that their lifestyle will be the same when that happens they would be wise to think it all the way through to the inevitable end of the trajectory we’re on. And, that’s to say nothing about the tragedy at home that is being inflicted upon the American people. It costs money to go to school, there are consequences for not paying attention in class and the school of hard knocks is, after all, a school. Welcome to your re-education Americans. You’ve missed all of the alarms.
Trump is speaking now at Davos, boasting about his rejection of renewable energy which is going to put the US at a huge economic disadvantage in the future and at the same deny Americans the cheapest forms of electricity available now. Otherwise, it's same farrago of lies and exaggerations. He doesn't even to seem to realise that none of the oil companies are really interested much in his 'Drill, Baby, Drill' policy because the more oil they extract, the lower the prices and lower the prices the lower their profits.
Anne Applebaum was speaking to John Pienaar on Times Radio Drive. Donald Trump’s threats to Greenland reflect “one man’s obsession” rather than any coherent foreign-policy strategy, and risk distracting from Russia’s intensifying war in Ukraine, says Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum.
Trump & Climate Justice - 'The Dangerous Lie That the Federal Government Can't Afford Its Public Lands'
"What we are seeing today follows a familiar pattern. When lawmakers claim public lands are too expensive, ask what they choose to fund instead. Ask why stewardship is treated as optional. Ask who benefits when responsibility is shifted and standards weaken. The public ends up paying more while receiving less. The arrangement is described as innovation."
"Call your representatives. Write to their offices. Demand that public lands be treated as critical infrastructure rather than amenities. Demand stable funding instead of crisis budgeting. Demand accountability when states attempt to fracture or seize land held in trust for everyone.
This future only arrives if people allow it to. Speak now."
I have a bad feeling about calling Trump demented, the grampa who needs his car keys taken away, or the old man who's losing his faculties. I think this makes him sympathetic, going the way of nature, and unable to control his fate, making it somehow less urgent, not his fault. It gives him a pass that minimizes who he really is.
Trump is just getting started. His ego is having a feeding frenzy on the number of people who want to adore him, compliment him, fawn over him, and encourage him. His hunger for revenge and control is insatiable. He is intoxicated by the attention, addicted to the shock power of his outrageous claims and threats, and always craving for more. This resembles full blown mania, exhausting everyone who watches him or might moderate him.
This is not gentle elder decline, this is madness and self-aggrandizement, full-blown and feeding on itself. It has not been a good year.
I don't feel a bit bad about calling Trump demented because he is. It does make clear that allowing him to continue in the office of the presidency is madness on our part.
The cause of the "madness" you speak of is something I haven't been able to figure out. Is it brainwashing? Ignorance? Cult following? Other? What do you think?
As a retired physician, I am convinced he has a dark triad personality disorder, combined now with cognitive impairment. He is losing whatever ability he had to hide his malignant narcissism and psychopathy. He is also profoundly ignorant of economics, how the financial system works, and all scientific and medical matters, but his narcissism will never allow him to admit it. He also has a lifelong lack of empathy, so he doesn't care at all what harm his actions cause for other people. He is constantly pursuing his happiness, which he tries to achieve by accumulating wealth and power, punishing anyone who threatens his fragile ego by criticizing him, and inflicting pain on others (which it appears he gets sadistic pleasure from).
I'm also a retired physician and have been thinking along the same lines. As people slip into dementia they tend to lose control and filters. I had often been surprised when some emerged hateful and mean, but this is not a surprise with this elderly person.
Same - retired Internist. In S FL where I practiced, you get good at recognizing the signs. It is worrisome when Dad gets lost on his walk around the neighborhood. It his quite another when a guy with major personality disorders has the Nuclear codes.
The issue for commitment is whether he's a threat to himself or others to a reasonable degree of medical certainty. He would have due process rights. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/involuntary_civil_commitment
When he acted out in the NY trials, he should have been evaluated.
It's possible that a court could order the same.
But they don't necessarily become mean and cruel. As a 14+ year volunteer with assisted living and memory care residents I can attest to that
But tRump has apparently been mean his entire life.
Absolutely. My own Dad had Lewy Body disease and we still laugh about his fun hallucinations. Some people are very sweet with dementia.
John, yes, Trump has many disorders, but I was referring to the "madness on our part" as Lisa Weber mentioned above, where she said, "allowing him to continue in the office of the presidency." Why Trump hasn't been removed from office by now is what I don't understand. Is it because elected Republicans have been brainwashed, for example?
Brainwashed, yes. But, they have struck a deal with their devil to guarantee that he'll give them the power they seek if they let him have a free hand.
The deal they struck is more likely that instead of giving them power, Trump says he will not "primary them" or trash-talk them, thereby making them afraid of him. Ruling by fear is no way to run anything, especially our country.
Developmentally deranged by poor parental influences. He will be the subject for countless writers for generations.
True, but I hate the thought of generations spending any time at all on such an abhorrent individual. A silver lining might be that they will learn what not to do in electing a President.
Spot on.
John, spot on! Well described!
He is a Russian plant. He was compromised by the KGB many years ago. He does what he thinks Putin would want for fear of reprisal. IMHO
While I know of no direct evidence that Trump is a Russian plant, it would not surprise me if that turned out to be true. It's more likely that Putin, especially with his background, knows exactly how to play the not-exactly-smart Trump
when hump bankrupted himself too many times in the 80's and NYCbanks would no longer lend him money, all of a sudden he was back in "business" courtesy of putin via deutche bank.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck.
A cow pie by any other name...
There has never been anything but circumstantial evidence for this theory for his partiality for Vladimir Putin. For example:
his infamous remarks in 2018 at the Helsinki summit rejecting the advice of his own intelligence agencies that the Russians had interfered in the 2015 election.preferring the Russian president's denials;
the Mueller report which found numerous links between his 2015 election campaign and the Russians and the fact that the investigation itself produced 37 indictments, seven guilty pleas or convictions and compelling evidence that the president obstructed justice on multiple occasions;
the conduct of his 'support' for Ukraine where he has shown more sympathy for the Russian position rather than Ukraine's predicament and has suspended military aid to Ukraine three times since returning to office.
Against that evidence you have the fact that Trump tends to sympathise with any dictatorial world leader that he considers to be strong and that he favours a new world order that recognises spheres of influence for what he considers to be the great powers and the dismantling of international institutions like the UN and NATO. One sees Thucydides being quoted more often in connection with Trump's worldview.
https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/news/2025/08/the-strong-do-what-they-can-and-the-weak-suffer-what-they-must
He is hateful, evil, greedy and sexually perverted. That is what I think. He is also a criminal who has no business being elected to any position, let alone the presidency.
He seems to just say out loud whatever comes into his head. I know it reminds of someone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F69DQupMiZM
That video exemplifies one reason Trump miscalls Adam's last name.
Let me make Loud and Clear, it's all of the above It's time for the old age dwelling
I don't know what "all of the above" you are referring to.
Anyway, about 40 years ago, I had a beloved and beautiful Cocker Spaniel who looked just like yours. She died of lung cancer. I am tearing up right now, thinking about her and how much she looked like yours. Thanks for posting your photo - it made me both cry and smile at the same time.
I fell you; I lost mine too, it was my best friend! hang in there
Sorry, your loss must have been relatively recent. Mine was my best friend too. There is an old saying: "A dog is a man's best friend." It's true. The unconditional love they give is real. I think it's rooted in millennia of human-dog relationships.
I haven't figured out the "madness" either. Perhaps the American people fully believed generations espousing the rhetoric that we are the greatest nation on Earth; that we can never be defeated; that we are superior in our morals, ethics, and religious beliefs; that whites are inherently smarter than any other race; we can pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps; we have no need for others. Maybe our rhetoric should've changed? That's my best guess.
I agree that our narrative from elementary school onward has lead to a very provincial population (ever notice if you live near the border that the local news doesn't show any weather for the country across the border? It is like Mexico and Canada don't exist). The bootstrappy meme is only overshadowed by the mythical 'US rides to the rescue' for nearly every international crisis. Get someone who suddenly speaks to the working class that has been fed dissent by fox entertainment 'news', promising to bring the focus back to them and it doesn't take much to get them to vote for you. Trump took the tea party attitude and ginned it up. The magas I know feel empowered by trump, even his craven behavior. They emotionally seem to benefit, feeling he is 'on their side'. The evangelicals that I know are more than willing to let his 'defects of character' slide since he is purportedly siding with them in their culture war. Importantly, these are WHITE evangelicals, by the way.
There are some I know who were completely taken by their fear of transgendered people----they may begrudgingly no longer sneer at homosexuals like myself, but accepting 'men playing women's sports' was waaay too much. (Even when challenged by statistics and reality).
Yet even all these explanations do not fully show how effective propaganda really is (advertising companies are not in the business because it is a hobby---they do it because it works) and we have been subjected to a powerful propaganda machine in fox and sinclair media. Then take the penchant of CNN and other corporate media to show inordinate deference to trump---if Biden had said 1/10 of the craziness that trump has it would be 24/7 reporting calling for his resignation from the campaign, oh, wait, that DID happen.
There are millions of folks who supported trump and continue to support what he represents. Power is a strong drug and the republican party is completely inebriated with it.
Elder abuse!
Now that's an interesting way of looking at it. :-)
My dad had dementia. When he was at the stage that the orange king seems to be now we NEVER would have let him attempt to speak in public. Shame on his adult children, and all the pols taking advantage of him. he has always been a hate filled narcissist, so maybe his kids hate him. But still!
💯
We don't have to provide him with a defense of insanity or incapacity. His acts and words are crazy and he is fully responsible and culpable for that.
Trump being "demented" or an "old man who's losing his faculties" is far from the issue here. Now is the time to say Trump has crossed the Rubicon. Now also is the time to recall what that expression actually meant. It shouldn't be used today to mean merely passing a point of no return.
We should say that Trump has crossed the Rubicon because of the original meaning of that expression. It meant, specifically, the commander of an army leading that army where the law said the army was not allowed to go. Trump has crossed the Rubicon in that more limited, more powerful and more ominous sense. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Rubicon.
Acknowledging the real meaning of crossing the Rubicon belies the pretense by SCOTUS justices in Trump v. United States that our Constitution (and the people who wrote and ratified it) somehow meant that the President cannot be prosecuted criminally for misconduct in which the President leads other federal employees. The Americans of the 1770's-1790's read a lot about Rome and Greece and the people who destroyed them both. The type of person they feared maybe most of all was an American Ceasar.
I say Trumps actions are an act of treason against the people and the constitution.
Agree 100%
It is narcissism + dementia.
And yet, according to a recent CNN poll, 42% of Americans consider his first year back in office to have been a success.
some americans are idiots...it is alarming to find out just how many...
Freaking insanity.
these are people relieved of their SNAP and health care
perhaps Hamilton was right, the country should be run by the wealthy the well born and the wise. remembering he himself was a bastard
You make a good point, though perhaps only people dealing with dementia in the family will fully understand it. Heaven knows there are enough other adjectives to convey your excellent remaining message. In general, Congress is to blame for their cowardice and unwillingness to pursue impeachment and Vance and the cabinet are to blame for not invoking Amendment 25. I wish the cheeseburgers would work more rapidly.
he is demented though
It's even worse when you add to the "demented grandpa" the small child who was so damaged by his monster of a father, he grew up devoid of empathy, and in fact, a misanthrope.
His actions are still evil, as are the people pulling his strings (oligarchs), and acceding to his every wish and whim (Republicans). He is truly a mad king, and those that could stop him, refuse to do so. He himself will be shouting (because I can't get this picture out of my head) in the midst of the flames of a destroyed country, "Top of the world, Ma!"
"You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them."
---- Winston Churchill
You all need to be aware that the Heritage Foundation has published a "Project 2026", basically a checklist of what remains to be done in 2026.
It is at
https://www.heritage.org/priorities
It is officially titled "Restoring America's Promise."
It has 9 short sections one of which is about "voting integrity" It is complete with model legislation for states to pass to curtail voting rights. There is a handy map to see how compliant each state is with the model legislation. The lower the number the more compliant with their view of what "election integrity" is.
DONT'T BE FOOLED AGAIN.
Read the effing thing and if you are in a red state DO SOMETHING.
If you are in a blue state, support organizations to fight this in red states.
We are just months away from what may be our last chance at free and fair elections. It will be if Heritage has its way.
These people lay their plans but they can't count on someone as erratic as Trump to deliver them efficiently - the more than 500 lawsuits against the administration in the first year attest to their incompetence and lawlessness. I haven't read Project 2026 (and one can I think safely assume that Trump hasn't either) but I doubt that it includes the invasion of Greenland. On the tariffs policy, Trump is even being sued by the Federalist Society.
No, it doesn’t—it does have a section on China policy. But most of it is about domestic policy and things like family values and education., besides voting rights.
They are being extremely competent in getting the laws in the states enacted in the red states.
It can’t be ignored, if that is what you are suggesting.
Thank you so much for drawing my attention to this.
Yup. That’s the point.
" You do your worst and we will do our best". WC
On the other hand, Trump has his own way with words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftpc4fwcDfk
But also one year with you! By now I feel you are a dear and much, much smarter friend and if I ran into you in the neighborhood I would hug you and ask about the health of the dogs. Maybe even the chickens. Certainly the Constitution. Thank you for explaining, encouraging, understanding. We are indeed in this together.
I resent those who voted for him, especially those who knew what kind of person he is. Even more so, however, I despise the many millions of Americans who decided not to vote at all because they thought both candidates were flawed!
The loyalty to Trump, especially the farmers who were hit hard by the trade war with China in Trump's first term, is baffling.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Fv3vSkESm1g
One explanation I've seen is that when people make an emotional investment they are less likely to be persuaded that they were wrong. A CNN poll a few days ago found that 42% of Americans consider Trump's first year back in office to have been a success; while 58%, a failure showing just how polarised views have become in your country. It's also the case that Trump's lies are backed by a considerable armoury of media outlets that reinforce his messaging.
it is the awesome power of racism
Moral equivalence is a technique intended to neutralize opposition.
In Trump's America, there is no distinction between democracy and dictatorship, "So why bother?"
Ref: Anne Applebaum's "Twilight of Democracy" pages 155-158.
In your first paragraph, you should have called that the trump voters just did not want a black woman as president.
Or any woman, for that matter
I agree with David and Donna. But also many of the people would not vote for any woman, and Lord forbid, a BLACK woman! How stupid and ignorant our prejudices cause us to behave.
If I may cross-post, in a conversation with Tim Miller and David Plouffe, David reflects on the Harris campaign he ran in his capacity as senior advisor.
He explains the challenges they faced and why they made the decisions they did.
https://youtu.be/gtVIVVaCdH4
And more than 70 million registered voters didn’t bother to vote. At least that is what we were told
I wonder whether, by any miracle, there is a person like Daniel Ellsberg in this generation of people in the government. Do you think that there is anyone that would leak the Mar-a-Lago report? And any place that would publish and disseminate it?
This administration has been leaking like a sieve even to the extent that it has resorted to using polygraph machines to test officials for loyalty to Trump. It's not unlike his first administration where people who left the government under a cloud were writing books about what was went on in the White House. It just doesn't seem to matter any more. There's no one of the moral standing of Daniel Ellsberg (apart from Miles Taylor perhaps) - they're mostly disgruntled acolytes who have been thrown under the Trump juggernaut.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/05/politics/polygraph-tests-trump-administration-noem-history
The independent media would publish it and then it would get picked up by the MSM and/or the global media. Right wing media would talk about it just to condemn it! We need several Ellsbergs now: volume II, Epstein, ICE. There’s no end to the good they could do.
When you had trump one and two sandwiched between a calm Biden it’s twice as exhausting. What really surprised me was how the democrats in congress seemed to be so shellshocked they couldn’t do anything. Hopefully they will start to really come alive but I think it is going to be up to the ordinary citizens to eventually save the day. Peacefully protesting, writing postcards, letters to the editors, phone calls to our representatives, engaging with those that may not share our views, and of course voting and getting others out to vote also. It’s going to be baby steps but there are more of “us” and we are in this together. Thanks Joyce .
Well, for instance, I and others "engage" with those on NextDoor who emulate Dear Leader by posting stuff that they make up out of thin air. When challenged to support their false assertions, they either double down or, as is more frequently the case, they simply disappear into some other cyberspace. So, by and large engaging with the 42% for #47 is futile, but they should not be the target audience; rather those so-called "independents," along with those who could have voted but didn't, are the ones who may pay attention to the posts calling out the Trump minions.
I’m all out of sympathy for people like the Oliveras who were enthusiastic about trump as long as his depredations only impacted those other immigrants. How dumb can you be? Pretty dumb, judging by the 77 mill that voted for him. Pay attention or it will come back to bite you in the arse. Wonder where she ended up? South Sudan? Uganda? Uruguay? Such arrogance coupled with rampant ignorance is a lethal combination.
Thank you Joyce. Skimming this after a long cold day in IL and standing with a small crowd outside GOP Congressman Mike Bost’s Mascoutah office from 2:00-4:00pm Today it was freezing but the sun was mostly shining but we knew it’s
much worse in MN Someone has to hold the GOP and the presidency accountable for the violent crackdown of ICE agents there. All for me 😴
He doesn’t want to take Greenland, he wants the European countries to pay for construction of U.S. bases there. Will they grasp for that task in relief that he won’t invade and destroy NATO? Or will they realize that appeasing a tyrant never works? Who will call whose bluff?
Will there be protests in Davos? Anywhere else? The whole world is watching.
Where are the Senators who vowed to return for another war powers vote? That has to happen now.
Protesters are usually not allowed anywhere near Davos. However, there have been demonstrations in Zurich.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/trump-davos-protests-american-flags-burned-switzerland-b2904402.html
You should read Mark Carney's speech at Davos yesterday which warns 'middle countries' that the great powers have 'ruptured' the global rules-based order irreparably. He tells them that 'if we're not at the table, we're on the menu". Let's hope they listen.
Oh, by the way, he does want Greenland and he's not bluffing.
He loves to cause chaos and then watch the news and see people talk about him.
The prick S. Bessemt said Denmark is irrelevant. A (former) ally. This administration really believes that it can rule the world. Assholes, all of them.
Botoxed Bessent along with the rest of the "studs" and 'sluts" that comprise the worst of the worst at the White Supremacist House.
We already have one base in Greenland; it's been there since 1951. And who knows what a lunatic pathological liar really wants?
He wants to rule the world! He covets the worship of the people of the world. The more wealth & flattery he acquires, the more he craves. Nothing is ever enough. He's never satisfied!
Right, and we can build more bases, I believe. Could probably get a deal to extract minerals but they are buried under a mile of ice. Rump ignores those facts, if he even knew about them when he began this charade. Today he says he won’t use force. In his lunatic mind that could change with the next temper tantrum.
Exactly Joyce! For those a year or so who didn’t see this disaster coming, where not paying attention or had not paid attention to “Project 2025”
Excellent post tonight Joyce. So glad you brought up Project 2025 as Miles Taylor in his Substack yesterday checked off all the points in P2025 that had already been accomplished.
Then, as if on cue, trump went completely off the rails blathering on and on about his grievance over his missed Nobel and being mad at the Norwegian government because he just knew they could have given it to him if only they would have and on and on about every piss and moan gripe about Greenland, Canada and maybe, just maybe he would wrest the Panama Canal away from China after taking over Cuba. All these many months he’s been accusing poor, helpless immigrants of coming into America from insane asylums when that’s exactly where he needs to be. He continues to tell on himself by blaming immigrants. According to his warped way of thinking, they’re committing fraud along with Gov Walz and Mayor Frey, when it’s trump himself who is the twice adjudicated fraudster. Every accusation is a confession. He cannot stop telling on himself by blaming his perceived enemies. He’s hell-bent on burning us all down so he can rule over the ash heap; but rule, he shall no matter the cost to all of us.
He's married to an immigrant. Melanija Knavs. So there's that.
Thank you Professor. So much work ahead of us, but’s what True Blue strong Americans do. “We endeavor to persevere” . And I would say that was a line from the movie The Outlaw Joseph Wales spoken by the Native American actor ( sorry his name slipped my memory but I could look it up). Apropos. Thank you all. Stay strong.☮️❤️
trump and his regime have, through every fault of their own, given the world an off ramp from a U.S. dominated world. He has reduced the U.S. to a spoiled brat, bully rogue state that has shown its need to be managed by the rest of the world. The countries that have always pinned their well being to the rise of a stable United States will not pin the tail on the jackass the U.S. has become.
A country that has elected the bonkers government of trump twice can no longer be trusted with the future of the planet. It will, at this point, take many decades to rebuild that trust, if ever. Make no mistake. The world can and will isolate us. If anyone thinks that their lifestyle will be the same when that happens they would be wise to think it all the way through to the inevitable end of the trajectory we’re on. And, that’s to say nothing about the tragedy at home that is being inflicted upon the American people. It costs money to go to school, there are consequences for not paying attention in class and the school of hard knocks is, after all, a school. Welcome to your re-education Americans. You’ve missed all of the alarms.
Trump is speaking now at Davos, boasting about his rejection of renewable energy which is going to put the US at a huge economic disadvantage in the future and at the same deny Americans the cheapest forms of electricity available now. Otherwise, it's same farrago of lies and exaggerations. He doesn't even to seem to realise that none of the oil companies are really interested much in his 'Drill, Baby, Drill' policy because the more oil they extract, the lower the prices and lower the prices the lower their profits.
Trump Has ‘No Strategy’ On Greenland | Anne Applebaum (1/20/26)
https://youtu.be/CsxAShq9MYc?si=G-6W-amHWuAp0H3g
Anne Applebaum was speaking to John Pienaar on Times Radio Drive. Donald Trump’s threats to Greenland reflect “one man’s obsession” rather than any coherent foreign-policy strategy, and risk distracting from Russia’s intensifying war in Ukraine, says Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum.
Good call; and not only risk but as a bonus, distracting from Ukraine and DOJ's failure to comply with the Transparency Act.
Trump & Climate Justice - 'The Dangerous Lie That the Federal Government Can't Afford Its Public Lands'
"What we are seeing today follows a familiar pattern. When lawmakers claim public lands are too expensive, ask what they choose to fund instead. Ask why stewardship is treated as optional. Ask who benefits when responsibility is shifted and standards weaken. The public ends up paying more while receiving less. The arrangement is described as innovation."
https://open.substack.com/pub/morethanjustparks/p/the-big-lie-that-the-federal-government?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
"Call your representatives. Write to their offices. Demand that public lands be treated as critical infrastructure rather than amenities. Demand stable funding instead of crisis budgeting. Demand accountability when states attempt to fracture or seize land held in trust for everyone.
This future only arrives if people allow it to. Speak now."
Will Pattiz and More Than Just Parks
JAN 18 2026 | Substack
https://open.substack.com/pub/morethanjustparks/p/the-big-lie-that-the-federal-government?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email