Nice analogy Mark. The good news is 1) the country, even some ex-Trump voters, are turning away from the GQP (the Dems still have a lot of work to do), and 2) what's left of MAGA is probably 25% of the voting public.
It's amazing to me, being a teenager in the 60s during the race riots, and all the subsequent advancements in treating people the same, that there is still so much bigotry, racism, and hatred in our society.
And it's sad. Maybe I was way too left and way too sentimental to think that the changes coming out of the horror of the 60s riots would last.
But it's not possible to change another person's heart. That doesn't make it any easier to stomach this return to full-throated white-male supremacy from Trump.
Fortunately, Trump is currently back on his bone-spur-ridden heels. America will soon be a majority minority country. That alone won't provide a guarantee against autocracy. A good number of hispanics voted for Trump in 2024. They are now refuting Trump for his hate-filled ICE campaign and willful ignorance of the cost of living impact on most Americans.
We're gonna survive this. And maybe we'll be the better for it. Hey, a guy can dream. So can a gal.
I grew up in that same time, Joe, in a mountain logging town in Idaho. I probably didn't see a Black human being in person until I was ten or eleven, but I heard the N-word every day. And my home state is still like that; beautiful landscape, godawful politics.
Hi Chris. Thanks for helping me understand how intolerance/hatred of "different" people can continue to happen, especially in small communities. We all carry the traditions of our family. That doesn't relieve us of the responsibility to be our own persons and form our own judgements.
And it surprises me that Idaho would be as you describe. Then again, my only time in Idaho was for work in Eastern Washington, - and we had dinner on the lake in Coeure d'Alene, Idaho. Hardly representative of the rest of Idaho. There was a lot of money in that area, as you well know.
I grew up in an urban area (Milwaukee) and I went to a public high school that served the local area. Because of its location near Lake Michigan and the ghetto, we drew kids from both the very wealthy and the very poor, and everything in between. It was actually a great experience for me, as I didn't differentiate between Black, Hispanic, Asian, and White students. I mean I knew we were all different. It just didn't matter.
I grew up somewhat ignorant of the downright generational hatred some people have of people who are "different" from them.
Trump kicked that sleeping dog. I say we should let him go back to sleep.
Hey Joe. Even though Coeur d'Alene is, in many ways different from other spots in Idaho, it sports some serious blemishes. Either last year, or the year before (I'm 79, things run together) when Spokane was hosting an early round of the Women's NCAA tournament, hotels here had filled up with women's basketball teams and a big high school volleyball tournament, the women's team from the University of Utah were put up in the fancy hotel probably very near where you had dinner. As the girls were walking from the hotel to a restaurant several blocks away, they were followed by a monster dually, Confederate flag flying, calling out racial slurs. When they came out of the restaurant that pickup was joined by others. The city's powers-that-be were famously slow finding the culprits, and if memory serves, there were no serious consequences. I live in Spokane now, so am quite aware of what I call "Idaho leakage" into my part of the country. (more to come)
The town I grew up in, Cascade, had fewer than a thousand citizens, but we did have some diversity...which is where I got my first glimpses of personal racism. Several families from the Minidoka "internment" camp (read "concentration") came to Cascade at the end of the war to work in the sawmill. The boys from two of those families kept us undefeated in football (8-man) and track from the time I was a high school freshman, til the year after I graduated. They were pillars of the community; never complained about all they had lost going into the camps, and the kids were top students as well as athletes. The daughter of one is Kimiko Soldati, the platform diving Olympian. The father of one of my best friends growing up (also my college roommate) Ron Nakatani, was fighting with the 442nd battalion - arguably the most decorated battalion in American history - while his wife was in the Minidoka camp. On the surface, the Japanese families seemed well-thought-of, but I worked in my father's service station and heard a lot of the loggers and millworkers talking about how you could never trust "one of them Japs." Of course I learned as Nak and I grew older that their conversations at home were very different from their conversations around town. I was lucky to have parents who didn't put up with that crap. You didn't want to be caught within earshot of my dad (who had been a B-17 bomber pilot with 35 missions under his belt) dissing Nak's dad.
Thanks for all the background on the area Chris - I find this stuff fascinating. And one line in your comment struck me:
"They were pillars of the community; never complained about all they had lost going into the camps, and the kids were top students as well as athletes."
I find the efforts of ICE appalling. Yes, criminals should be sent away. Even so, there are so many immigrants who are here and are hard, productive, tax-paying workers. Many have been here for decades.
It breaks my heart to see good members of a community being sent away, families torn apart, and on.
I'm 71 and have always had an accepting view of people - basically I trust people until they give me a reason not to trust them. It has led to some disappointment and heart ache, but I don't know how else to live.
The restaurant we were at in Coeur d'Alene was actually on the lake. It was very nice. We were actually there working for a client in Spokane.
Thanks again Chris. And good for your Dad. Most WWII vets want nothing to do with anyone of Japanese descent. My Dad served in the Navy and didn't care for the Japanese, but it wasn't obvious. And after the horror of Pearl, I get why people who lived through that would have strong opinions.
Even so, all things must pass. And time is a great healer.
The deplorable were given permission to be deplorable. Trump told them they were right along, they finally felt validated. You are right, Trump didn't make them, he released them.
Never forget. Trump and his goons are the result. It is and always has been MAGA that fuels this cruelty and it is MAGA who can end it. Too bad about their health insurance, their SNAP benefits or their grain markets. My message to MAGA is you are getting what you voted for. The sad part is you took millions of innocent people down with you.
Right on, Jo. Yeah, I'm almost tired of being tired of those fucks. Having them shadow my life all the days of it. Having them stare me down in public places. Having them shout racial slurs like they have no good sense. Lucky for me, I cut that shit to a quick and my mama backed me up all the way. I think I was in the 4th or 5th grade (1960's). Then they all dried up and only did that shit in whispers I couldn't hear. As an adult, it never ended and probably won't.
Anyway, fuck them all to hell and back. They deserve everything coming to them and yes, a great reckoning is here. God is letting the idiot destroy this country for a reason. It needs a severe shift; a cosmic transformation. That fool will give it to them. Something is coming and I hope everybody is ready for it, because it will be here whether folks are ready or not.
I love your fire and God Bless the real America. All those people need to return to their whispering and STFU ... forever. ✊🏿❤️
God, Ray, I hope you are right. I'd hate to think we are going through all this hell just because stupid is worse than we thought. I admit I'm terrified he will at least try to attack Venezuela just to change the subject and, because they haven't so far, am terrified no one will stop him. Certainly the dry drunk (if he's even dry) in charge of DoD is a bloody idiot, not qualified to be a professional dog walker.
I am so sorry, and, of course, not surprised that you had it so bad growing up. I have never understood how people could be that way. A lot of that of course, is due to my parents and they way they raised us as much as where. My Nana lived in Paterson, NJ. In the 50s and 60s her street was mixed race. A friend of the family who was known as Uncle Neil by the entire street and kids like us visitors, knew most of the kids, their parents, etc. So, even though we lived in suburbia, we were exposed (somewhat) to people different than us. And hey, if Uncle Neil thought they were ok, they WERE ya know? I don't know what made our parents different but I guess they were. Words like you were exposed to were just never uttered. Still aren't. Is it like the song? You have to be carefully taught?
Well, the reckoning isn't what you think it is. More crap is going to happen, but the younger generations are going to benefit when all is said and done. He will destroy more, and yes, probably attack Venezuela. He's after something, but it's unclear what it is.
We were the first Black family in that neighborhood and most of those kids were raised by ignorant parents and bullshit TV that vilified us. I went through a lot. Me and my sister. They'd never seen a Black person in person before. I think we were used to teach, not the other way around. They got used to us ... sort of. Only 4 of us throughout my formative school years, one of them my little sister.
After I punched the daylights out of that little boy and knocked his tooth out, I was called into the principals office. My mom was home. She was called and came to the school. After listening to that principal, she told him if any of those white brats ever called me a name again, I had full permission to punch THEIR lights out, too. My head was down, because I thought I was in trouble. After what she said to that red-faced principal, my chest was poked out, I was grinning, and I had no more trouble like that through the rest of school (including junior high & high school). 😁
Other stupid things happened, but nobody dared call me the n-word and the other word that boy said. No more racial slurs ... that I could hear anyway. What happened spread throughout that school, and they were afraid of my parents, too. My dad was a beast as well as my mom. 😂😆😉 It made us stronger.
Ah Ray. When I was in high school, there was 1 black girl. Cheryl. She was my friend, not a close friend but a very good friend of one of my oldest friends. I was into politics and theater back then, and hung mostly with those kids. In our senior year, there was another black kid. Her brother. I never heard anyone be nasty to Cheryl, but I like to think that even if they thought those ugly thoughts, they knew better than to speak them. I am sure high school was hard for her. We moved away right after graduation, so I lost touch with all HS friends in time. She was going to a good college though! I have always wondered if it was as hard for her as it may have been. She always seemed upbeat, but she was really smart and quiet in her way, so maybe that was just who she was.
No doubt she did, Debby. Thing is, I never told anybody what happened, because they were all white out there. Only the kids/parents involved knew. I didn't tell my cousins, because what would THEY do living on the other side of town? I've got some interesting stories. If I ever get my shit together long enough to get my story published, I will.
I said that to say, your friend probably wouldn't have told you if she did have racial troubles. You never know how other white kids will respond to that, so it's best not to share stuff of that nature with them. I was smart & quiet, too. I was an athlete.
Very well said. Trump gave these people a sense of power. And as Michelle Obama famously said, “power doesn’t define who you are; it reveals who you are.”
As always - THANK you for your writing and your articulate outrage.
Now.... call your representatives and express your own outrage.
Call other representatives (including Mike Johnson and other apologists) - they tell you that you need to be in their district - but they fund raise across the US, don't they?? Tell them you will never contribute to their campaign or support them (even if you have never given a nickel).
The only thing that the slime protecting pedophiles will understand - is that they will lose their jobs and cushy insurance and the illusion of power.
If you live in an area with a good rep - call them and thank them for standing up for you.
If you live in an area with a slime rep - call them daily if you can about this issue or other issues.
If you are uncomfortable talking with a real person, call them after hours and leave a voice mail.
The person answering the phone, or listening to voicemails does not want to actually talk with you. They only keep a tally so that they know the opinions of people who care enough to call.
Brilliant!! I used to ask my youth during my time as a mental health therapist in a residential setting who gave them permission to do the negative behaviors that brought them into their current situation. Most often their parents or other adults had these bad behaviors so they were just doing what they saw. Once they realized they could be different, they began to heal! Thank you, JoJo! You are a gem! Love the Green Day song too!
Comedian Josh Johnson had a great take on what's happening to the magats currrently. "You can't hide pissing yourself when you're shitting yourself." Your writings speak to many Jo, keep it up:)
Jojo, your comment in this piece is the best I’ve seen. Like you, my principled GOP friends left the party. No, they didn’t become Dems. They might be independents or just checked out. But let me restate what I gained for your commentary. Trump didn’t create the moral depravity, he harvested it. His cruel rhetoric, his sordid behavior, his naked avarice scraped away the veneer giving license to others.
One morning those who allowed depravity to rule, must face an awful truth. Those American values they professed to hold most dear, corrupted. And, for what? There is no added wealth for them. In fact, to subsidize the Elon Musk’s they have added another rent on their lives. There is no super morality, it is venality in its rawest form. Jesus must weep as they castigate the poor, the dispossessed, the refugee, the abused children.
Liz Cheney may be the poster child. She caught it well when she said to her fellow Republicans, “There will be a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.” For this truth, she was ostracized.
Here there are buzzards. They watch for a sick cow or other animal or road kill. It is the buzzards who are watching for Trump and MAGA. One more slip-up. One more locked door because their family can't stand them any more. One more sickness because they didn't get vaccinated so they could "own the libs".
The buzzards are circling Trump and those who support him will find their lives in waste.
Trump will do whatever it takes to try to deflect attention away from himself: whether it be pressuring Lil' Mike Johnson to as many roadblocks as possible in front of a vote, threatening Margie Taylor Greene with supporting a primary opponent to pressure her into removing her signature from the discharge petition, pushing his pet Department of (In)Justice to find something, anything on Democrats whether real or made-up, or most likely all of the above.
I don’t know how they think that them doing these things owns us? What they are doing is allowing us to see who they really are. The emperor has no clothes. They can’t hide behind their phony smiles. To an extent they are to be pitied. To lack decency, compassion and empathy. What they are doing to their children and grandchildren. To carry the burden of being related to them.
They think they are patriotic, but they’re not. What they are doing is unAmerican. Throughout our history we have opposed behavior like we are seeing in some of our neighbors.
You are 100% correct. You see it everywhere, people who now feel comfortable saying the quiet part out loud. Trump has brought out the worst in many people. But their defeat is coming, and it's arriving a lot sooner than expected. Most Americans have had enough of trump and the trumpie goons. It's all downhill for them from here on.
100% fact Jo. The racism and bigotry was always there but Trump gave them permission to not hide how they really felt.
This is sadly all too true. Always there just under the surface like cancer waiting to make an appearence.
Nice analogy Mark. The good news is 1) the country, even some ex-Trump voters, are turning away from the GQP (the Dems still have a lot of work to do), and 2) what's left of MAGA is probably 25% of the voting public.
It's amazing to me, being a teenager in the 60s during the race riots, and all the subsequent advancements in treating people the same, that there is still so much bigotry, racism, and hatred in our society.
And it's sad. Maybe I was way too left and way too sentimental to think that the changes coming out of the horror of the 60s riots would last.
But it's not possible to change another person's heart. That doesn't make it any easier to stomach this return to full-throated white-male supremacy from Trump.
Fortunately, Trump is currently back on his bone-spur-ridden heels. America will soon be a majority minority country. That alone won't provide a guarantee against autocracy. A good number of hispanics voted for Trump in 2024. They are now refuting Trump for his hate-filled ICE campaign and willful ignorance of the cost of living impact on most Americans.
We're gonna survive this. And maybe we'll be the better for it. Hey, a guy can dream. So can a gal.
I grew up in that same time, Joe, in a mountain logging town in Idaho. I probably didn't see a Black human being in person until I was ten or eleven, but I heard the N-word every day. And my home state is still like that; beautiful landscape, godawful politics.
Hi Chris. Thanks for helping me understand how intolerance/hatred of "different" people can continue to happen, especially in small communities. We all carry the traditions of our family. That doesn't relieve us of the responsibility to be our own persons and form our own judgements.
And it surprises me that Idaho would be as you describe. Then again, my only time in Idaho was for work in Eastern Washington, - and we had dinner on the lake in Coeure d'Alene, Idaho. Hardly representative of the rest of Idaho. There was a lot of money in that area, as you well know.
I grew up in an urban area (Milwaukee) and I went to a public high school that served the local area. Because of its location near Lake Michigan and the ghetto, we drew kids from both the very wealthy and the very poor, and everything in between. It was actually a great experience for me, as I didn't differentiate between Black, Hispanic, Asian, and White students. I mean I knew we were all different. It just didn't matter.
I grew up somewhat ignorant of the downright generational hatred some people have of people who are "different" from them.
Trump kicked that sleeping dog. I say we should let him go back to sleep.
Hey Joe. Even though Coeur d'Alene is, in many ways different from other spots in Idaho, it sports some serious blemishes. Either last year, or the year before (I'm 79, things run together) when Spokane was hosting an early round of the Women's NCAA tournament, hotels here had filled up with women's basketball teams and a big high school volleyball tournament, the women's team from the University of Utah were put up in the fancy hotel probably very near where you had dinner. As the girls were walking from the hotel to a restaurant several blocks away, they were followed by a monster dually, Confederate flag flying, calling out racial slurs. When they came out of the restaurant that pickup was joined by others. The city's powers-that-be were famously slow finding the culprits, and if memory serves, there were no serious consequences. I live in Spokane now, so am quite aware of what I call "Idaho leakage" into my part of the country. (more to come)
The town I grew up in, Cascade, had fewer than a thousand citizens, but we did have some diversity...which is where I got my first glimpses of personal racism. Several families from the Minidoka "internment" camp (read "concentration") came to Cascade at the end of the war to work in the sawmill. The boys from two of those families kept us undefeated in football (8-man) and track from the time I was a high school freshman, til the year after I graduated. They were pillars of the community; never complained about all they had lost going into the camps, and the kids were top students as well as athletes. The daughter of one is Kimiko Soldati, the platform diving Olympian. The father of one of my best friends growing up (also my college roommate) Ron Nakatani, was fighting with the 442nd battalion - arguably the most decorated battalion in American history - while his wife was in the Minidoka camp. On the surface, the Japanese families seemed well-thought-of, but I worked in my father's service station and heard a lot of the loggers and millworkers talking about how you could never trust "one of them Japs." Of course I learned as Nak and I grew older that their conversations at home were very different from their conversations around town. I was lucky to have parents who didn't put up with that crap. You didn't want to be caught within earshot of my dad (who had been a B-17 bomber pilot with 35 missions under his belt) dissing Nak's dad.
Thanks for all the background on the area Chris - I find this stuff fascinating. And one line in your comment struck me:
"They were pillars of the community; never complained about all they had lost going into the camps, and the kids were top students as well as athletes."
I find the efforts of ICE appalling. Yes, criminals should be sent away. Even so, there are so many immigrants who are here and are hard, productive, tax-paying workers. Many have been here for decades.
It breaks my heart to see good members of a community being sent away, families torn apart, and on.
I'm 71 and have always had an accepting view of people - basically I trust people until they give me a reason not to trust them. It has led to some disappointment and heart ache, but I don't know how else to live.
The restaurant we were at in Coeur d'Alene was actually on the lake. It was very nice. We were actually there working for a client in Spokane.
Thanks again Chris. And good for your Dad. Most WWII vets want nothing to do with anyone of Japanese descent. My Dad served in the Navy and didn't care for the Japanese, but it wasn't obvious. And after the horror of Pearl, I get why people who lived through that would have strong opinions.
Even so, all things must pass. And time is a great healer.
Awesome, Jo Jo. I'd say something, but you've said it all.
And very, very well.
The deplorable were given permission to be deplorable. Trump told them they were right along, they finally felt validated. You are right, Trump didn't make them, he released them.
I remember them clutching their pearls when they got called deplorable. I wonder what word Hillary really wanted to call them?
He was their enabler.
Favorite line:
Fucked by the fickle finger of fate, tethered for eternity to the snarling, disease-ridden id of a washed-up strongman."
I actually stole the fucked line from a dear friend and I told him I was going to find a way to weave it in to my next essay!! 😂
Alliteration is our friend.
Oh I’m a total geek when it comes to that shit
Jo, your're total, period. Nothing left out. Ever.
Right the fuck on Jojo. Right the fuck on.
Never forget. Trump and his goons are the result. It is and always has been MAGA that fuels this cruelty and it is MAGA who can end it. Too bad about their health insurance, their SNAP benefits or their grain markets. My message to MAGA is you are getting what you voted for. The sad part is you took millions of innocent people down with you.
Unfortunately they don't look outside their own misery. No one has it as bad as them. Martyr syndrome.
Right on, Jo. Yeah, I'm almost tired of being tired of those fucks. Having them shadow my life all the days of it. Having them stare me down in public places. Having them shout racial slurs like they have no good sense. Lucky for me, I cut that shit to a quick and my mama backed me up all the way. I think I was in the 4th or 5th grade (1960's). Then they all dried up and only did that shit in whispers I couldn't hear. As an adult, it never ended and probably won't.
Anyway, fuck them all to hell and back. They deserve everything coming to them and yes, a great reckoning is here. God is letting the idiot destroy this country for a reason. It needs a severe shift; a cosmic transformation. That fool will give it to them. Something is coming and I hope everybody is ready for it, because it will be here whether folks are ready or not.
I love your fire and God Bless the real America. All those people need to return to their whispering and STFU ... forever. ✊🏿❤️
God, Ray, I hope you are right. I'd hate to think we are going through all this hell just because stupid is worse than we thought. I admit I'm terrified he will at least try to attack Venezuela just to change the subject and, because they haven't so far, am terrified no one will stop him. Certainly the dry drunk (if he's even dry) in charge of DoD is a bloody idiot, not qualified to be a professional dog walker.
I am so sorry, and, of course, not surprised that you had it so bad growing up. I have never understood how people could be that way. A lot of that of course, is due to my parents and they way they raised us as much as where. My Nana lived in Paterson, NJ. In the 50s and 60s her street was mixed race. A friend of the family who was known as Uncle Neil by the entire street and kids like us visitors, knew most of the kids, their parents, etc. So, even though we lived in suburbia, we were exposed (somewhat) to people different than us. And hey, if Uncle Neil thought they were ok, they WERE ya know? I don't know what made our parents different but I guess they were. Words like you were exposed to were just never uttered. Still aren't. Is it like the song? You have to be carefully taught?
Well, the reckoning isn't what you think it is. More crap is going to happen, but the younger generations are going to benefit when all is said and done. He will destroy more, and yes, probably attack Venezuela. He's after something, but it's unclear what it is.
We were the first Black family in that neighborhood and most of those kids were raised by ignorant parents and bullshit TV that vilified us. I went through a lot. Me and my sister. They'd never seen a Black person in person before. I think we were used to teach, not the other way around. They got used to us ... sort of. Only 4 of us throughout my formative school years, one of them my little sister.
After I punched the daylights out of that little boy and knocked his tooth out, I was called into the principals office. My mom was home. She was called and came to the school. After listening to that principal, she told him if any of those white brats ever called me a name again, I had full permission to punch THEIR lights out, too. My head was down, because I thought I was in trouble. After what she said to that red-faced principal, my chest was poked out, I was grinning, and I had no more trouble like that through the rest of school (including junior high & high school). 😁
Other stupid things happened, but nobody dared call me the n-word and the other word that boy said. No more racial slurs ... that I could hear anyway. What happened spread throughout that school, and they were afraid of my parents, too. My dad was a beast as well as my mom. 😂😆😉 It made us stronger.
Ah Ray. When I was in high school, there was 1 black girl. Cheryl. She was my friend, not a close friend but a very good friend of one of my oldest friends. I was into politics and theater back then, and hung mostly with those kids. In our senior year, there was another black kid. Her brother. I never heard anyone be nasty to Cheryl, but I like to think that even if they thought those ugly thoughts, they knew better than to speak them. I am sure high school was hard for her. We moved away right after graduation, so I lost touch with all HS friends in time. She was going to a good college though! I have always wondered if it was as hard for her as it may have been. She always seemed upbeat, but she was really smart and quiet in her way, so maybe that was just who she was.
No doubt she did, Debby. Thing is, I never told anybody what happened, because they were all white out there. Only the kids/parents involved knew. I didn't tell my cousins, because what would THEY do living on the other side of town? I've got some interesting stories. If I ever get my shit together long enough to get my story published, I will.
I said that to say, your friend probably wouldn't have told you if she did have racial troubles. You never know how other white kids will respond to that, so it's best not to share stuff of that nature with them. I was smart & quiet, too. I was an athlete.
Put me down for a copy now! I suspect you have lived what they used to call an interesting life!
Very well said. Trump gave these people a sense of power. And as Michelle Obama famously said, “power doesn’t define who you are; it reveals who you are.”
Oh GOD how I miss that woman and the guy she was always hanging with!
As always - THANK you for your writing and your articulate outrage.
Now.... call your representatives and express your own outrage.
Call other representatives (including Mike Johnson and other apologists) - they tell you that you need to be in their district - but they fund raise across the US, don't they?? Tell them you will never contribute to their campaign or support them (even if you have never given a nickel).
The only thing that the slime protecting pedophiles will understand - is that they will lose their jobs and cushy insurance and the illusion of power.
If you live in an area with a good rep - call them and thank them for standing up for you.
If you live in an area with a slime rep - call them daily if you can about this issue or other issues.
If you are uncomfortable talking with a real person, call them after hours and leave a voice mail.
The person answering the phone, or listening to voicemails does not want to actually talk with you. They only keep a tally so that they know the opinions of people who care enough to call.
And keep trying if the phones are too full to take any more messages!
Brilliant!! I used to ask my youth during my time as a mental health therapist in a residential setting who gave them permission to do the negative behaviors that brought them into their current situation. Most often their parents or other adults had these bad behaviors so they were just doing what they saw. Once they realized they could be different, they began to heal! Thank you, JoJo! You are a gem! Love the Green Day song too!
I always knew it too. More than just permission, he gave them reason to stand proud in their patriotic racist.
Comedian Josh Johnson had a great take on what's happening to the magats currrently. "You can't hide pissing yourself when you're shitting yourself." Your writings speak to many Jo, keep it up:)
Jojo, your comment in this piece is the best I’ve seen. Like you, my principled GOP friends left the party. No, they didn’t become Dems. They might be independents or just checked out. But let me restate what I gained for your commentary. Trump didn’t create the moral depravity, he harvested it. His cruel rhetoric, his sordid behavior, his naked avarice scraped away the veneer giving license to others.
One morning those who allowed depravity to rule, must face an awful truth. Those American values they professed to hold most dear, corrupted. And, for what? There is no added wealth for them. In fact, to subsidize the Elon Musk’s they have added another rent on their lives. There is no super morality, it is venality in its rawest form. Jesus must weep as they castigate the poor, the dispossessed, the refugee, the abused children.
Liz Cheney may be the poster child. She caught it well when she said to her fellow Republicans, “There will be a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.” For this truth, she was ostracized.
Here there are buzzards. They watch for a sick cow or other animal or road kill. It is the buzzards who are watching for Trump and MAGA. One more slip-up. One more locked door because their family can't stand them any more. One more sickness because they didn't get vaccinated so they could "own the libs".
The buzzards are circling Trump and those who support him will find their lives in waste.
Trump will do whatever it takes to try to deflect attention away from himself: whether it be pressuring Lil' Mike Johnson to as many roadblocks as possible in front of a vote, threatening Margie Taylor Greene with supporting a primary opponent to pressure her into removing her signature from the discharge petition, pushing his pet Department of (In)Justice to find something, anything on Democrats whether real or made-up, or most likely all of the above.
Now that the petition has been filed, nobody can remove their name.
I don’t know how they think that them doing these things owns us? What they are doing is allowing us to see who they really are. The emperor has no clothes. They can’t hide behind their phony smiles. To an extent they are to be pitied. To lack decency, compassion and empathy. What they are doing to their children and grandchildren. To carry the burden of being related to them.
They think they are patriotic, but they’re not. What they are doing is unAmerican. Throughout our history we have opposed behavior like we are seeing in some of our neighbors.
You are 100% correct. You see it everywhere, people who now feel comfortable saying the quiet part out loud. Trump has brought out the worst in many people. But their defeat is coming, and it's arriving a lot sooner than expected. Most Americans have had enough of trump and the trumpie goons. It's all downhill for them from here on.