I am disoriented. I had managed to maintain hope, even in the face of increasing counter-evidence, that this country was better than it turns out to be. Surely America, to hark back to the gullibility of the mewling Susan Collins, had learned its lesson. Having been exposed as an ignoramus, a buffoon, a criminal, a rapist, a traitor, and a psychopath, the notion that Donald Trump could be returned to the White House he’d so disgustingly sullied was, to me, laughable.
Ticking off all the ways he’s the most absurd figure in all of American politics, maybe in the history of American public life — his clownish appearance, his awkward movements, his idiotic and sadistic words — is an exercise in redundancy. I was certain that each passing day brought him closer to his landslide defeat, and I was savoring every moment of his imminent branding as History’s Biggest Loser.
On Election Eve I did some grocery shopping early in the morning and went home, where I then stayed, safe from any outside accidents that might impinge on the ecstasy I expected to be experiencing the next night. Ecstasy that would make up for the unexpected agony of 2016.
Throughout the summer and fall, MSNBC was my constant companion, to the displeasure of my wife, who was as terrified of a bad outcome as I was confident of a good one. “Go, go watch your friends,” she’d say. I began moving lunch dates 15 minutes earlier so as to not miss any of Nicolle, and I’d go to sleep, thanks to my blue tooth hearing aids, listening to the replay of Lawrence on Sirius channel 118.
During the last month of the campaign, I watched Trump babble on about windmills and dead birds and dead whales and post-birth abortions and young kids being re-gendered at school and I giggled. Really giggled, at the most preposterous human I’ve ever seen — and we do have to at least give him credit for that, he is technically human — saying and doing extremely farcical things. The McDonald’s fries. The garbage truck get-up. “THEY’RE EATING THE DAWGS!” What more need be said?
He is, as Kurt Andersen — who’s been appalled by the short-fingered vulgarian for 40 years, most notably as the editor of Spy — so perfectly described him, “The Greatest Self-Parodist of All Time.” Once you appreciate that, every nanosecond of his life is hilarious. Surely this Bizarro World version of a candidate couldn’t win.
One of my mantras since MAGAts first flocked to Trump’s cult — since tens of millions of my fellow Americans decided to worship a garish lout — was a Jason Isbell lyric, “There can’t be more of them than us / There can’t be more.” Apparently, there are more.
What I in my L.A. bubble failed to realize is that half of us just don’t give a fuck about any of this. The ubiquitous Fox News is inescapable in the Red States, not just at home but in bars and waiting rooms and hotels and anywhere else one encounters a public television screen. Its words are taken as gospel and perceived throughout these regions as the Official American News. Its viewers have been insanewashed.
The Republican party is now the White Hate-fueled Undereducated Grievance party — the WHUGs, the debased descendants of the 19th century’s Whig Party, which died and was reborn as the original Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln. The seeds of the WHUGs were planted right after we defeated the Nazis, with Joe McCarthy’s and Roy Cohn’s televised introduction of paranoia to the tenets of the Republican Party, and 70 years later we’ve come full circle. American Hitler Youth is on the march.
I remember the first time we took our 4-year-old daughter on a (very gentle) roller coaster. She absolutely hated it, and the moment of relief she experienced as she saw us approaching the station was instantly obliterated when we zoomed past for an unexpected second go-round. That’s what this is like.
The first time the guy who made fun of the disabled and denigrated the military and said “Grab ‘em by the pussy” got elected was already the most ridiculous (and, as it developed, deadliest) thing the country had ever done, but this? This? After everything we’ve seen — that million moment chain of stupidity, avarice, and malice that’s been wrapped around us for nine years — we’re going around again?!?!?
The backlash to Barack Obama’s election was instantaneous and intense. It was like the election of a Black man was so egregious that it gave all the haters a blank check to act out, and in Fox News — and all of its TV and radio spawn of hate — they had their platform. Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber and the Tea Party were the fascist whisperers, but fascism is hard to enforce when you’re not in power. Trump and Musk and Vance and RFK Jr. and Stephen Miller — sick sadists all — are going to have more power than anyone has ever had.
The one thing we can be sure of is that we still haven’t hit bottom. We may be only halfway down, if even. They have half the country, the half with the guns. It’s a real-life remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” with the contagion coming not from seed pods but through the internet.
I had a wonderful exchange the other night with an old friend I hadn’t seen in years. We hugged deeply, then separated and looked at each other and, simultaneously, she said, “We’re gonna be okay” and I said, “We’re doomed.” It was a grimly amusing moment.
Much of my energy over the years has gone into gathering evidence — against Nixon, Reagan, the Bushes, and now Trump — shining a light on each exact word or deed in the hope that maybe this will be the thing that finally wakes people up. I’ve spent the majority of my creativity since his escalatory debut — almost ten years ago — in an effort to make people see the sadistic clown that we so clearly see.
None of that kind of thing matters now. Talking about Arnold Palmer’s penis and fellating a microphone and fantasizing about seeing Liz Cheney shot in the face and blithering on about sharks and batteries and Dr. Hannibal Lecter and giving women his special brand of care “whether the women like it or not” and standing on stage “dancing” for 39 minutes and the obvious dementia and the 34 convictions and the half billion in fines for fraud and the rape adjudication and the 27 more women who say he assaulted them and the stolen documents and the hundreds of thousands of needless deaths from Covid and the fucking Insurrection did not disqualify him. Shooting someone on Fifth Avenue wouldn’t disqualify him.
As stupid as he is —and make no mistake, he is a very low IQ individual — he is a true genius at connecting with, and giving his blessing to the release of, the rage, stupidity, and hate churning inside the worst among us.
I can’t spend any more time monitoring Donald Trump. The country has spoken. and what I’ve been doing — mining the media for idiocy, criminality, and malevolence, here on Substack this year and elsewhere for the past 50 — won’t work with him. If none of the myriad grotesqueries I’ve mentioned here made any impact whatsoever — and clearly they didn’t — what future moronic belch could I ever quote that would change a single insanewashed mind?
There’s a kind of relief that accompanies my terror. My inability to continue keeping track of Trump is well served — validated — by the lack of demand for it. I’ve unsubscribed from dozens of daily newsletters that have kept me informed of his every utterance because I don’t have to do it anymore.
Still, I can’t move on from this catastrophe without the closure of calling out those responsible for seriously damaging and possibly destroying the country. I don’t care which groups moved to the right to vote for Trump or didn’t come out to vote for Harris. I’m talking about the people whose actions or inactions facilitated the insanity of this filthy beast returning to power.
I’ve got my list, but feel free to tell me who’s on yours.
I wrote something to Paul who’s one of many despaired about this and it disappeared. So I’m writing to everyone since so many feel lost. There is something proactive you can do to save democracy.
I’m a former teacher who realized in 1995 that our schools were so corrupt that we’d lose our democracy. I explain what’s going on at WhiteChalkCrime.com where I share my book that details what we need to do to have good schools.Then there’s more to learn at EndTeacherAbuse.org.
Our fellow men have been undereducated and not taught citizenship. We’re left relying on those who organically know better when at one time great teachers taught the folks who weren’t born with grown up souls like us.
Harness your anger and run for school board on a save democracy platform after learning about education. School boards control schools 100%. Don’t worry about doing away with the department of education. The power is in the boards. My book, which explains how they control boards, is a blueprint for success. I made it as inexpensive as Amazon allows. Or email me from that site and I’ll send you a free PDF. We can take back our schools - democracy’s foundation - and start producing citizens again. Turn your despair into opposition.
The more Trump uses the rope we’ve handed him, the easier it will be to get on these boards on a save democracy platform. People will get increasingly angry. Plus, my book explains how to end school shootings. Most parents will vote for that! We can outsmart Trump with that one promise alone.
You don’t need to give up. Worse case scenario - if he rigs further elections, which I expect, as long as we control the schools we will eventually put forth more and more citizens who are democracy’s soldiers.
We can’t depend on either political party. They both did this to our schools. Neither would listen to teachers. We can’t depend on elections. We now have a king. We must take control of our schools. We can do that!
Isn't it a bit much when someone, even as clever as the above, posts an entire Substack when a link would do? I would never think of doing that, as much as I would like the imprimatur of E. Jean for http://waynerobins.substack.com, which is an escape from the dread and focuses on fine writing about pop.rock music from the 1960s to the very now!
Actually, I put the whole thing up because I thought many in E. Jean’s group would appreciate it, as many seem to have done, and those who didn’t care would skip it. I think a perception has set in that life’s too short to go clicking on random links.
You’re right about random links. Your piece generated my piece. No one had to read it so no harm done and perhaps some good done because we can’t fall back into gloom. We can get good people on school boards and repopulate great teachers once people get how this happened. E Jean is providing space for good things to happen. We must make it happen!
Wow I’m not sure who you’re criticizing but it appears to be me, a teacher trying to warn about corruption that’s taking down democracy as if I’m being selfish to take up space here. My whole point is our nation stopped honoring teachers and turned society dark. We were the ones that helped the self centered half of society to discover their better angels. Without us they behave as they are now - choosing Trump. They needed us. We’ve been banished. I’m trying to get the great teachers back for everyone’s sake - certainly not mine as I’m too old. I love music and it has value but it hasn’t been stolen from us as were great teachers. If someone at this site, which is filled with people of substance, doesn’t get the value of great teachers and how they used to hold society together then how are we going to ever get them back? I’m posting to save democrscy because people don’t know what’s going on in our schools in the way they didn’t know what priests were doing.
Please tell me how a link is enough when no one has listened to the whistle blower teachers for decades now?
All I can say if what’s ahead of us isn’t enough to welcome my words that help lead others to why Trump happened so we can find our way back to democracy, God help us.
I am not competing for E Jean’s attention. I’m respectfully sharing the missing piece of the puzzle that brought us to this place of being ruled by a monster. I have no doubt she provides this space because she wants to make this a better world. We need to honor great teachers to do that. I’m sad that you don’t get that because I know you’re one of the good guys. Here’s a link where there’s a podcast of five of us pleading to be heard. WhiteChalkCrime.com. We’ve been at it since 2002. A website didn’t stop Trump. Whatever it takes to wake people up to how we’re at this place of great loss and how we can get democracy back is what I’m going to do with great pride that my words are worth a lot as I’m trying to lead this nation back to where democracy once flourished - authentic schools.
Not you at all, Karen Horwitz. My wife spent more than 30 years at NYC Dep't of Education, first as teacher, then asst principal, from which she retired because too much time was spent in ambulances and police cars conveying middle schoolers. I taught as an adjunct at a university for 12 years, just retired because students refused to look up from their phones, and I won lots of teaching awards there. (St. John's). I apologize for offending anyone doing constructive venting, but I was verbally spanked by a well-known Substack writer (I'm a paid subscriber to that one, too) for having the temerity to even link to one of my posts I thought relevant to her story. Maybe she was not the best teacher. Also, I'm on a media-fast still, and I think too many of us are still in shock, full of anger and disappointment, have yet to go through the stages of grief before taking up arms. Fighting a guerilla war requires calm, discipline, order, strategic planning, and knowing the enemy. It requires cool efficiency and targeting, rather than the hot rage so many of us feel.
You’re right about where people are at. The only reason I’m still functioning is I expected this and hsve been warning for almost thirty years. No shock here. Plus when I taught it was an autocracy and I suffered through it developing PTSD. I was vaccinated for this. My mind is clear and I’m not wasting a day to get democracy back.
I’ve pledged to write at least one entry a day telling people to go to WhiteChalkCrime.com t listen to five Whistleblowing teachers who explain how we lost democracy.
I will admit that at first I thought we can’t fix our schools now so why bother. It took me a few days to realize what we can do - get good people on school boards on a save democracy platform. Boards have all the power. Now they are puppets. We can change that simply by being educated who has power. We will get support from most parents because the corruption in our schools is what led to school shootings. Who won’t support ending then particularly when it has nothing to do with guns and everything to do with the elimination of called to teach teachers?
I hope in time everyone will pledge to do something even if it’s to help me alert people to learn about school corruption. My original plan was get this information to our president. Get investigations started. Free good people to take over education. I don’t have to tell you why that plan is trashed.
By accident I read a little zen poem in my twenties, and became form poetry a little Buddhist . One thing is this everything passes and even if it passes with much suffering, we al signed for this, I don't know if it helps or not, lol
The sure thing is, if we forgo fear and hate, we shall be fine in the way we traverse this..
And then we have E Jean and we have humor and love for each other, which is in fact quite lovely
At the same time ‘fighting’ for integrity, which feels so good
Don't forget, Paul, that liberals have guns, too. We just don't flaunt them. Quite a few in the military are liberals and they are damn good with weapons. I've met many. Conservatives are loud, brassy, and braggarts. The ones I've met? Think Gibbs on NCIS. Deadly, quiet, and efficient.
Bravo Paul. That is a world class rant. I'm still so dumbfounded, angry, hurt, etc., etc., that I can't think straight to summon one. I should like to borrow yours, walk deep into a forest, and scream this - borrowed from you, at the top of my lungs.
It might make you feel better if you learn how this happened. As a former teacher I realized we’d lose our democracy if something wasn’t done about our inept and corrupt schools. I realized teachers wouldn’t speak out since they’d be fired. I figured I could afford to be fired so I spoke out figuring I’d expose it very a the courts. The courts didn’t care. Since 1995 I’ve been trying to blow the whistle on them. Check out my website WhiteChalkCrime.com.
I know it’s awful but understanding how it happened makes you less angry at our fellow powerless men. It’s those in power in our schools with the unions as afraid as the teachers to cross them that has hijacked education. Harness your anger and run for school board on the save democracy platform. We can save democracy that way. First read my book that’s at my website since it’s a road map for what we need to do. It will make anyone who wants to save democracy a successful board member.
Since school board elections are local and typically the superintendent hand picks people who’ll rubber stamp, people usually don’t just try to run. That’s why administrators are so powerful. If you don’t have a child in the school it’s harder to connect but if you get involved in the PTA as a citizen concerned about democracy and school shootings, many parents will support you. The problem is the superintendent won’t. Understanding the school shooting problem is the most leverage you can have. I am not sure how one signs up in each state. Call your state department of education and ask. It will be harder in a red state but if you read my book and understand the present state of affairs you’ll be able to run on change. Parents are not divided on school shootings!
Because it’s a well kept secret that board members have power and that administrators gather it all up you will have the advantage of catching them off guard if you sweet talk your way in. I tried to help citizens understand the system so they can outsmart it. If you sign up at EndSchoolShootings.com and request a call I’ll be happy to help you.
I am a docent at The Florida Holocaust Museum. The parallels between Trump, Hitler and the rise of the nazi party were inescapable and all over the exhibitions walls.
The past is prologue.
As a life long democrat, my experience is that while democrats are on the side of humanity, as a party historically we have been weak. We are more often spineless, quick to put our heads in the sand, slow to react and, God forbid, act too "political."
I have many on my democratic s-list but at the top is Merrick Garland.
This son of Holocaust survivors, who is not blind to history, sat on his hands for two full years while precious time passed and the window closed on the opportunity to prosecute Trump for his many crimes. It is my belief that neither he nor Biden wanted Trump prosecuted again, under the guise of it being "too political." Hindsight is 20/20, but JFC, I would rather them have been too political than lose our country. You would have thought that THEY thought the same but Garland's inertia doomed us. Like a malignant and virulent cancer, Trump was always lying in waiting for his reemergence either as a convicted felon or POTUS. He is a convicted felon in NY, but it's not enough. Garland had to find him guilty on FEDERAL crimes and forever brand him by the DOJ as clear and present danger to the continuation of The American Experiment. This was our last best hope.
Every time Garland would announce "no man is above the law" I would think "except Trump. Either convict him or we lose everything."
How many of us screamed at our televisions 2020-2022 every time Garland he came on to expound on "no man is above the law" knowing he was doing NOTHING to prevent Trump from the White House again?
Then, too slowly the committee was formed. Cheney and Kinzsinger's banishment from the GOP was more than a clue that the former Republican Party was now a cult. Then, too slowly, the case was given to Jack Smith. They had to know the corrupt SCOTUS would derail it anyway they could - and they did. More time. Eileen Cannon dismissed all charges. More time to regroup. The house was on fire but Garland was still acting as if all was well.
Joe Biden said he would be a one term president. He should have stuck to that instead of running, then dropping out at the last minute. He was not in any shape for 4 more years and the country (rightly or wrongly) felt it was deceived. There should have been a plan in place in 2022 for the new democratic nominee. I am afraid that Biden's reputation and as a decent and competent POTUS will forever be tarnished by his refusal to walk away in time. Same thing with Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the SCOTUS, dooming the court to Trump picks.
If Tim Walz had run, I believe we would have won. America is still unwelcoming to a woman, especially a woman of color. We should not have taken the chance. She was an unpopular VP and an unpopular candidate. We are still a racist and misogynistic country. We didn't fully recognize that in time.
Harris raised ONE BILLION DOLLARS. Perhaps she could have done more with that than text me - and other members of the choir, 15 times everyday asking for more?
We were no longer just playing politics - we had to fight a massive disinformation campaign. We failed. We needed to go where they were - in the echo chamber of Newsmax and Fox News where they live. The media is corrupt. They normalized Trump in 2015. We needed democratic soldiers on all of these fronts. We failed to place them there. With A BILLION DOLLARS Harris could have published her own newspaper and sent it to every address in the country to attempt to combat Trump's lies. Instead she held rallies for people who were going to vote for her anyway.
The politics of "joy" cannot overcome the rabid fear of "the other."
And 1/3 of us checked out completely.
Conclusions: Trump held out a mirror and over 1/2 of Americans saw themselves. My belief that we are a country of good people is shattered.
We have a virus in our human hard drive. We don't learn from history, even if we know it (Garland) and especially if we do not. Your mention of the lack of education in civics is so unfortunately true.
Democrats - if we survive - cannot play politics as usual. There is a paradigm shift and we can't ever go back to the old way of doing things. Trump doesn't need to re-invent the wheel. WE DO. He now has not only the White House but the Senate and House as well. We may or may not have mid-term elections.
There are no checks and balances left. So - we re-group and come up with a plan to do things 100% differently and with "thoughts and prayers" - and hope it is not already too late.
We are a country of half naturally good and as many as possible of the other half turned good by teachers. When that stopped we became vulnerable. No matter what any of these leaders did wrong - people are human - good citizens kept the balance. Schools don’t produce them anymore. We rely on the naturally good people. That’s not enough. Check out WhiteChalkCrime.com. When they took the great teachers from us this - democracy’s demise - was inevitable.
Why would Joe Biden allow a traitor and criminal to destroy our democracy? His duty is to protect this country. Jack Smith has all the proof that Trump is a traitor who stole and shared top-secret documents and incited a coup. He should meet with his generals and have trump thrown in the brig. JD Hollow Man Vance would be president but he’s not batshit crazy.
Democracy depends on citizens. No leader can hold a bunch of warriors together. The schools are to produce citizens. We must blame them snd get on school boards where the power lies.
I heard that she’s feeling dissed because Kristi Noem got DHS. Sorry, Marge; you need to execute a pet and fine-tune your Trump-Harem look a bit if you want to play in the big leagues.
I'm with Nicolle Wallace on this one: how can anyone be surprised by any of these ghastly picks? always glad to spend a few with the delicious conflab, but hope we're not spending much time being shocked at the latest horrors. there will be more. there will be worse. but we're in a very different place than in the awful weeks and months after he won in 2016. counseling a version of silence and cunning. we need to conserve our energy and outrage for the work to come and protect our justly outraged selves from emotional distress via disgusting dirtbags like Gaetz...and Tulsi as DIN, too. (like I said, there will be more, and worse.) the horrors will keep on coming, and we will need to inure ourselves and stay focused. love you all madly!
I would find all of this hilarious if it wasn't downright horrifying! The cunning psychopath and bat shit Commander in chief rewards the loyalist rapists and pedophiles, conspiracy theorists, incompetents and crazies. Not in our wildest nightmares but here it is and I am afraid it will only get worse. I am really trying to limit my exposure but it is like viewing a horrific car accident. You are trying to look away but....One day Mother Karma will swoop in but when? I hope soon before I leave this mortal plane.
noooooo, he's trying to get the SCOTUS to let him just appoint people while Congress is out of town as "Acting....." whatever. Just do an end-around all together and skip the Constitutional part entirely.
This is the perfect example of hubris. I'm just going to sit back, stay quiet & prepare the popcorn. He's gonna screw his MAGAt base when inflation soars & who wants internment camps in their neighborhood? The "Drain the Swamp" guy is putting billionaires in positions that will benefit them. So crime, inflation & unemployment will surge, the animals will revolt & I'm predicting a Mussolini Moment not too far off.
They're already contracting with CCA - the largest private prison corporation in the US to take the prisoners. They don't care about their wellbeing, so constructing proper, safe, clean facilities isn't going to be an issue for them. Big cages and tents exposed to the elements will be just fine. I'm almost surprised he didn't tap Joe Arpaio to head this up.
Massacre Mad Miller is the hate behind this & as a Jew & someone who wrote a book about the Holocaust the utter disgust & horror that he is goes beyond repugnant. While the idiot golfs every day families, communities & our reputation will be destroyed.
I bet you're right, Jean. And in a perverse way, it is a cunninbg choice: What better backstopping for a sex offender than to have an Attorney General who is also a sex offender?
AND all of Congress, with the exception of Marge and Tubby.
He loves humiliating the people who least suspect they’ll be his victims, then awaiting their inevitable crawling back, when he’ll kick them again.
In this case, I see him chortling, “how about THIS, you insufficiently fawning A-holes? You all hate Gaetz, but you’ll be kissing his teen-drilling rump now, and begging to do it again!”
(Obviously he’ll stick to monosyllables and use more capitals, but I feel that’s the gist.)
The inmates are running the asylum
[From my Substack, THERE IS NO BOTTOM]
I am disoriented. I had managed to maintain hope, even in the face of increasing counter-evidence, that this country was better than it turns out to be. Surely America, to hark back to the gullibility of the mewling Susan Collins, had learned its lesson. Having been exposed as an ignoramus, a buffoon, a criminal, a rapist, a traitor, and a psychopath, the notion that Donald Trump could be returned to the White House he’d so disgustingly sullied was, to me, laughable.
Ticking off all the ways he’s the most absurd figure in all of American politics, maybe in the history of American public life — his clownish appearance, his awkward movements, his idiotic and sadistic words — is an exercise in redundancy. I was certain that each passing day brought him closer to his landslide defeat, and I was savoring every moment of his imminent branding as History’s Biggest Loser.
On Election Eve I did some grocery shopping early in the morning and went home, where I then stayed, safe from any outside accidents that might impinge on the ecstasy I expected to be experiencing the next night. Ecstasy that would make up for the unexpected agony of 2016.
Throughout the summer and fall, MSNBC was my constant companion, to the displeasure of my wife, who was as terrified of a bad outcome as I was confident of a good one. “Go, go watch your friends,” she’d say. I began moving lunch dates 15 minutes earlier so as to not miss any of Nicolle, and I’d go to sleep, thanks to my blue tooth hearing aids, listening to the replay of Lawrence on Sirius channel 118.
During the last month of the campaign, I watched Trump babble on about windmills and dead birds and dead whales and post-birth abortions and young kids being re-gendered at school and I giggled. Really giggled, at the most preposterous human I’ve ever seen — and we do have to at least give him credit for that, he is technically human — saying and doing extremely farcical things. The McDonald’s fries. The garbage truck get-up. “THEY’RE EATING THE DAWGS!” What more need be said?
He is, as Kurt Andersen — who’s been appalled by the short-fingered vulgarian for 40 years, most notably as the editor of Spy — so perfectly described him, “The Greatest Self-Parodist of All Time.” Once you appreciate that, every nanosecond of his life is hilarious. Surely this Bizarro World version of a candidate couldn’t win.
One of my mantras since MAGAts first flocked to Trump’s cult — since tens of millions of my fellow Americans decided to worship a garish lout — was a Jason Isbell lyric, “There can’t be more of them than us / There can’t be more.” Apparently, there are more.
What I in my L.A. bubble failed to realize is that half of us just don’t give a fuck about any of this. The ubiquitous Fox News is inescapable in the Red States, not just at home but in bars and waiting rooms and hotels and anywhere else one encounters a public television screen. Its words are taken as gospel and perceived throughout these regions as the Official American News. Its viewers have been insanewashed.
The Republican party is now the White Hate-fueled Undereducated Grievance party — the WHUGs, the debased descendants of the 19th century’s Whig Party, which died and was reborn as the original Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln. The seeds of the WHUGs were planted right after we defeated the Nazis, with Joe McCarthy’s and Roy Cohn’s televised introduction of paranoia to the tenets of the Republican Party, and 70 years later we’ve come full circle. American Hitler Youth is on the march.
I remember the first time we took our 4-year-old daughter on a (very gentle) roller coaster. She absolutely hated it, and the moment of relief she experienced as she saw us approaching the station was instantly obliterated when we zoomed past for an unexpected second go-round. That’s what this is like.
The first time the guy who made fun of the disabled and denigrated the military and said “Grab ‘em by the pussy” got elected was already the most ridiculous (and, as it developed, deadliest) thing the country had ever done, but this? This? After everything we’ve seen — that million moment chain of stupidity, avarice, and malice that’s been wrapped around us for nine years — we’re going around again?!?!?
The backlash to Barack Obama’s election was instantaneous and intense. It was like the election of a Black man was so egregious that it gave all the haters a blank check to act out, and in Fox News — and all of its TV and radio spawn of hate — they had their platform. Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber and the Tea Party were the fascist whisperers, but fascism is hard to enforce when you’re not in power. Trump and Musk and Vance and RFK Jr. and Stephen Miller — sick sadists all — are going to have more power than anyone has ever had.
The one thing we can be sure of is that we still haven’t hit bottom. We may be only halfway down, if even. They have half the country, the half with the guns. It’s a real-life remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” with the contagion coming not from seed pods but through the internet.
I had a wonderful exchange the other night with an old friend I hadn’t seen in years. We hugged deeply, then separated and looked at each other and, simultaneously, she said, “We’re gonna be okay” and I said, “We’re doomed.” It was a grimly amusing moment.
Much of my energy over the years has gone into gathering evidence — against Nixon, Reagan, the Bushes, and now Trump — shining a light on each exact word or deed in the hope that maybe this will be the thing that finally wakes people up. I’ve spent the majority of my creativity since his escalatory debut — almost ten years ago — in an effort to make people see the sadistic clown that we so clearly see.
None of that kind of thing matters now. Talking about Arnold Palmer’s penis and fellating a microphone and fantasizing about seeing Liz Cheney shot in the face and blithering on about sharks and batteries and Dr. Hannibal Lecter and giving women his special brand of care “whether the women like it or not” and standing on stage “dancing” for 39 minutes and the obvious dementia and the 34 convictions and the half billion in fines for fraud and the rape adjudication and the 27 more women who say he assaulted them and the stolen documents and the hundreds of thousands of needless deaths from Covid and the fucking Insurrection did not disqualify him. Shooting someone on Fifth Avenue wouldn’t disqualify him.
As stupid as he is —and make no mistake, he is a very low IQ individual — he is a true genius at connecting with, and giving his blessing to the release of, the rage, stupidity, and hate churning inside the worst among us.
I can’t spend any more time monitoring Donald Trump. The country has spoken. and what I’ve been doing — mining the media for idiocy, criminality, and malevolence, here on Substack this year and elsewhere for the past 50 — won’t work with him. If none of the myriad grotesqueries I’ve mentioned here made any impact whatsoever — and clearly they didn’t — what future moronic belch could I ever quote that would change a single insanewashed mind?
There’s a kind of relief that accompanies my terror. My inability to continue keeping track of Trump is well served — validated — by the lack of demand for it. I’ve unsubscribed from dozens of daily newsletters that have kept me informed of his every utterance because I don’t have to do it anymore.
Still, I can’t move on from this catastrophe without the closure of calling out those responsible for seriously damaging and possibly destroying the country. I don’t care which groups moved to the right to vote for Trump or didn’t come out to vote for Harris. I’m talking about the people whose actions or inactions facilitated the insanity of this filthy beast returning to power.
I’ve got my list, but feel free to tell me who’s on yours.
Wow! Paul!
I wrote something to Paul who’s one of many despaired about this and it disappeared. So I’m writing to everyone since so many feel lost. There is something proactive you can do to save democracy.
I’m a former teacher who realized in 1995 that our schools were so corrupt that we’d lose our democracy. I explain what’s going on at WhiteChalkCrime.com where I share my book that details what we need to do to have good schools.Then there’s more to learn at EndTeacherAbuse.org.
Our fellow men have been undereducated and not taught citizenship. We’re left relying on those who organically know better when at one time great teachers taught the folks who weren’t born with grown up souls like us.
Harness your anger and run for school board on a save democracy platform after learning about education. School boards control schools 100%. Don’t worry about doing away with the department of education. The power is in the boards. My book, which explains how they control boards, is a blueprint for success. I made it as inexpensive as Amazon allows. Or email me from that site and I’ll send you a free PDF. We can take back our schools - democracy’s foundation - and start producing citizens again. Turn your despair into opposition.
The more Trump uses the rope we’ve handed him, the easier it will be to get on these boards on a save democracy platform. People will get increasingly angry. Plus, my book explains how to end school shootings. Most parents will vote for that! We can outsmart Trump with that one promise alone.
You don’t need to give up. Worse case scenario - if he rigs further elections, which I expect, as long as we control the schools we will eventually put forth more and more citizens who are democracy’s soldiers.
We can’t depend on either political party. They both did this to our schools. Neither would listen to teachers. We can’t depend on elections. We now have a king. We must take control of our schools. We can do that!
Isn't it a bit much when someone, even as clever as the above, posts an entire Substack when a link would do? I would never think of doing that, as much as I would like the imprimatur of E. Jean for http://waynerobins.substack.com, which is an escape from the dread and focuses on fine writing about pop.rock music from the 1960s to the very now!
Actually, I put the whole thing up because I thought many in E. Jean’s group would appreciate it, as many seem to have done, and those who didn’t care would skip it. I think a perception has set in that life’s too short to go clicking on random links.
You’re right about random links. Your piece generated my piece. No one had to read it so no harm done and perhaps some good done because we can’t fall back into gloom. We can get good people on school boards and repopulate great teachers once people get how this happened. E Jean is providing space for good things to happen. We must make it happen!
Wow I’m not sure who you’re criticizing but it appears to be me, a teacher trying to warn about corruption that’s taking down democracy as if I’m being selfish to take up space here. My whole point is our nation stopped honoring teachers and turned society dark. We were the ones that helped the self centered half of society to discover their better angels. Without us they behave as they are now - choosing Trump. They needed us. We’ve been banished. I’m trying to get the great teachers back for everyone’s sake - certainly not mine as I’m too old. I love music and it has value but it hasn’t been stolen from us as were great teachers. If someone at this site, which is filled with people of substance, doesn’t get the value of great teachers and how they used to hold society together then how are we going to ever get them back? I’m posting to save democrscy because people don’t know what’s going on in our schools in the way they didn’t know what priests were doing.
Please tell me how a link is enough when no one has listened to the whistle blower teachers for decades now?
All I can say if what’s ahead of us isn’t enough to welcome my words that help lead others to why Trump happened so we can find our way back to democracy, God help us.
I am not competing for E Jean’s attention. I’m respectfully sharing the missing piece of the puzzle that brought us to this place of being ruled by a monster. I have no doubt she provides this space because she wants to make this a better world. We need to honor great teachers to do that. I’m sad that you don’t get that because I know you’re one of the good guys. Here’s a link where there’s a podcast of five of us pleading to be heard. WhiteChalkCrime.com. We’ve been at it since 2002. A website didn’t stop Trump. Whatever it takes to wake people up to how we’re at this place of great loss and how we can get democracy back is what I’m going to do with great pride that my words are worth a lot as I’m trying to lead this nation back to where democracy once flourished - authentic schools.
Not you at all, Karen Horwitz. My wife spent more than 30 years at NYC Dep't of Education, first as teacher, then asst principal, from which she retired because too much time was spent in ambulances and police cars conveying middle schoolers. I taught as an adjunct at a university for 12 years, just retired because students refused to look up from their phones, and I won lots of teaching awards there. (St. John's). I apologize for offending anyone doing constructive venting, but I was verbally spanked by a well-known Substack writer (I'm a paid subscriber to that one, too) for having the temerity to even link to one of my posts I thought relevant to her story. Maybe she was not the best teacher. Also, I'm on a media-fast still, and I think too many of us are still in shock, full of anger and disappointment, have yet to go through the stages of grief before taking up arms. Fighting a guerilla war requires calm, discipline, order, strategic planning, and knowing the enemy. It requires cool efficiency and targeting, rather than the hot rage so many of us feel.
You’re right about where people are at. The only reason I’m still functioning is I expected this and hsve been warning for almost thirty years. No shock here. Plus when I taught it was an autocracy and I suffered through it developing PTSD. I was vaccinated for this. My mind is clear and I’m not wasting a day to get democracy back.
I’ve pledged to write at least one entry a day telling people to go to WhiteChalkCrime.com t listen to five Whistleblowing teachers who explain how we lost democracy.
I will admit that at first I thought we can’t fix our schools now so why bother. It took me a few days to realize what we can do - get good people on school boards on a save democracy platform. Boards have all the power. Now they are puppets. We can change that simply by being educated who has power. We will get support from most parents because the corruption in our schools is what led to school shootings. Who won’t support ending then particularly when it has nothing to do with guns and everything to do with the elimination of called to teach teachers?
I hope in time everyone will pledge to do something even if it’s to help me alert people to learn about school corruption. My original plan was get this information to our president. Get investigations started. Free good people to take over education. I don’t have to tell you why that plan is trashed.
Oh my God, All true. Sadly, it is our time in history and not in a good way. I feel like we are doomed too.
Buckle up - it is going to be ugly..
Oh Paul.
I hope you suffer less with some time passing.
By accident I read a little zen poem in my twenties, and became form poetry a little Buddhist . One thing is this everything passes and even if it passes with much suffering, we al signed for this, I don't know if it helps or not, lol
The sure thing is, if we forgo fear and hate, we shall be fine in the way we traverse this..
And then we have E Jean and we have humor and love for each other, which is in fact quite lovely
At the same time ‘fighting’ for integrity, which feels so good
Thank you, Flo!
Don't forget, Paul, that liberals have guns, too. We just don't flaunt them. Quite a few in the military are liberals and they are damn good with weapons. I've met many. Conservatives are loud, brassy, and braggarts. The ones I've met? Think Gibbs on NCIS. Deadly, quiet, and efficient.
As to liberals with guns, all I can think of is “will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”
Thank you for that accurate rant…capturing much of what we are all feeling…I just try to remember it was only a 1% win….
Bravo Paul. That is a world class rant. I'm still so dumbfounded, angry, hurt, etc., etc., that I can't think straight to summon one. I should like to borrow yours, walk deep into a forest, and scream this - borrowed from you, at the top of my lungs.
I would not object.
I’m listening and really appreciate what you’ve done and said including a wrap up so far of djt scumbag’s evil, cruel, cheating, lying inhumanness.
It might make you feel better if you learn how this happened. As a former teacher I realized we’d lose our democracy if something wasn’t done about our inept and corrupt schools. I realized teachers wouldn’t speak out since they’d be fired. I figured I could afford to be fired so I spoke out figuring I’d expose it very a the courts. The courts didn’t care. Since 1995 I’ve been trying to blow the whistle on them. Check out my website WhiteChalkCrime.com.
I know it’s awful but understanding how it happened makes you less angry at our fellow powerless men. It’s those in power in our schools with the unions as afraid as the teachers to cross them that has hijacked education. Harness your anger and run for school board on the save democracy platform. We can save democracy that way. First read my book that’s at my website since it’s a road map for what we need to do. It will make anyone who wants to save democracy a successful board member.
How would you recommend going forward with this in a state like Florida - rigged at the top by a christofascist governor like DeSantis?
BTW - with Rubio now in Trump's cabinet, I fully expect DeSantis to place himself in Rubio's seat as he cannot run for re-election as governor.
Since school board elections are local and typically the superintendent hand picks people who’ll rubber stamp, people usually don’t just try to run. That’s why administrators are so powerful. If you don’t have a child in the school it’s harder to connect but if you get involved in the PTA as a citizen concerned about democracy and school shootings, many parents will support you. The problem is the superintendent won’t. Understanding the school shooting problem is the most leverage you can have. I am not sure how one signs up in each state. Call your state department of education and ask. It will be harder in a red state but if you read my book and understand the present state of affairs you’ll be able to run on change. Parents are not divided on school shootings!
Because it’s a well kept secret that board members have power and that administrators gather it all up you will have the advantage of catching them off guard if you sweet talk your way in. I tried to help citizens understand the system so they can outsmart it. If you sign up at EndSchoolShootings.com and request a call I’ll be happy to help you.
You are so right. Education is key. And civic efucation which gives us the courage for integrity
So well said.
I am a docent at The Florida Holocaust Museum. The parallels between Trump, Hitler and the rise of the nazi party were inescapable and all over the exhibitions walls.
The past is prologue.
As a life long democrat, my experience is that while democrats are on the side of humanity, as a party historically we have been weak. We are more often spineless, quick to put our heads in the sand, slow to react and, God forbid, act too "political."
I have many on my democratic s-list but at the top is Merrick Garland.
This son of Holocaust survivors, who is not blind to history, sat on his hands for two full years while precious time passed and the window closed on the opportunity to prosecute Trump for his many crimes. It is my belief that neither he nor Biden wanted Trump prosecuted again, under the guise of it being "too political." Hindsight is 20/20, but JFC, I would rather them have been too political than lose our country. You would have thought that THEY thought the same but Garland's inertia doomed us. Like a malignant and virulent cancer, Trump was always lying in waiting for his reemergence either as a convicted felon or POTUS. He is a convicted felon in NY, but it's not enough. Garland had to find him guilty on FEDERAL crimes and forever brand him by the DOJ as clear and present danger to the continuation of The American Experiment. This was our last best hope.
Every time Garland would announce "no man is above the law" I would think "except Trump. Either convict him or we lose everything."
How many of us screamed at our televisions 2020-2022 every time Garland he came on to expound on "no man is above the law" knowing he was doing NOTHING to prevent Trump from the White House again?
Then, too slowly the committee was formed. Cheney and Kinzsinger's banishment from the GOP was more than a clue that the former Republican Party was now a cult. Then, too slowly, the case was given to Jack Smith. They had to know the corrupt SCOTUS would derail it anyway they could - and they did. More time. Eileen Cannon dismissed all charges. More time to regroup. The house was on fire but Garland was still acting as if all was well.
Joe Biden said he would be a one term president. He should have stuck to that instead of running, then dropping out at the last minute. He was not in any shape for 4 more years and the country (rightly or wrongly) felt it was deceived. There should have been a plan in place in 2022 for the new democratic nominee. I am afraid that Biden's reputation and as a decent and competent POTUS will forever be tarnished by his refusal to walk away in time. Same thing with Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the SCOTUS, dooming the court to Trump picks.
If Tim Walz had run, I believe we would have won. America is still unwelcoming to a woman, especially a woman of color. We should not have taken the chance. She was an unpopular VP and an unpopular candidate. We are still a racist and misogynistic country. We didn't fully recognize that in time.
Harris raised ONE BILLION DOLLARS. Perhaps she could have done more with that than text me - and other members of the choir, 15 times everyday asking for more?
We were no longer just playing politics - we had to fight a massive disinformation campaign. We failed. We needed to go where they were - in the echo chamber of Newsmax and Fox News where they live. The media is corrupt. They normalized Trump in 2015. We needed democratic soldiers on all of these fronts. We failed to place them there. With A BILLION DOLLARS Harris could have published her own newspaper and sent it to every address in the country to attempt to combat Trump's lies. Instead she held rallies for people who were going to vote for her anyway.
The politics of "joy" cannot overcome the rabid fear of "the other."
And 1/3 of us checked out completely.
Conclusions: Trump held out a mirror and over 1/2 of Americans saw themselves. My belief that we are a country of good people is shattered.
We have a virus in our human hard drive. We don't learn from history, even if we know it (Garland) and especially if we do not. Your mention of the lack of education in civics is so unfortunately true.
Democrats - if we survive - cannot play politics as usual. There is a paradigm shift and we can't ever go back to the old way of doing things. Trump doesn't need to re-invent the wheel. WE DO. He now has not only the White House but the Senate and House as well. We may or may not have mid-term elections.
There are no checks and balances left. So - we re-group and come up with a plan to do things 100% differently and with "thoughts and prayers" - and hope it is not already too late.
We are a country of half naturally good and as many as possible of the other half turned good by teachers. When that stopped we became vulnerable. No matter what any of these leaders did wrong - people are human - good citizens kept the balance. Schools don’t produce them anymore. We rely on the naturally good people. That’s not enough. Check out WhiteChalkCrime.com. When they took the great teachers from us this - democracy’s demise - was inevitable.
Why would Joe Biden allow a traitor and criminal to destroy our democracy? His duty is to protect this country. Jack Smith has all the proof that Trump is a traitor who stole and shared top-secret documents and incited a coup. He should meet with his generals and have trump thrown in the brig. JD Hollow Man Vance would be president but he’s not batshit crazy.
Oh, i think he is.
You are correct
Not yet, they aren’t. Will Joe Biden play nice, like a stereotypical, spineless democrat, or will he figure out ways to save our country?
Democracy depends on citizens. No leader can hold a bunch of warriors together. The schools are to produce citizens. We must blame them snd get on school boards where the power lies.
It only Gaetz worse!
Har!
Brilliant! Get idea for tshirts to fundraise with.
It could be worse. It could be Jordan, Gosar, Scalise, Greene, Cruz, Hawley, R. Scott, T. Scott, Graham, Kennedy, Blackburn, Ernst....
The list is endless, isn't it?
OMG....please none of these assclowns! These are bottom-feeders and cringy at best.
Give him time :-)
Can MTG be far behind? Only upside of all this is that it gets these buttholes out of Congress.
Oh, bless me, a ray of sunlight!
Yeah, Trump, master strategist that he is, is nominating reps and senators, which will reduce their majorities. Smooth move exlax
His new name is "Creepy McForehead"
Stolen from Jeff Tiedrich.
My favorite post so far
lol..
Oh lord, what a fucking mess. All of DC needs to be on the Sex Offenders Registry.
Not us residents!!!! Just the red side of the shit show train.
Basically
Creep of the year. In contention for creep of the century.
E. Jean & everyone….come on over to BlueSky….it’s really a nice place
Totally agree
I'm there. Find me at sharonproofs :-)
I am on BlueSky, too, at
carolinegrevelle.bsky.social
Thank you, E Jean 💙!
I am there too flothefrog.bsky.social
That was an easy sign up!
I only just heard about it earlier today. Gonna have to join1
Yep - it's what Twitter used to be before it was defiled by The Musk.
@jillaroo95.bsky.social
Did that a couple days ago
I'm at darkmoon215.....
I can't find that name?
Sorry, it's darkmoon0215.....
Thanks! Just joined.
@fycuriosity!
Moved there yesterday and love it
I'm on BlueSky.
@debrreed.bsky.social
I'm there too. @mmdesoer
The rapist wants a pedophile as AG. We should be surprised?
the rapist is also a pedo
The hits just keep on coming!
Apparently being a pedophile is now considered just a minor detail.
(You've been great. I'm here all week. Try the veal and enjoy Carrot Top.)
Please! It's a requirement to serve with Trump.
I know, then why didn't they like Hilary Clinton's Pizza Parlor Pedophile set-up?
I couldn’t resist commenting on the FT website that I would have thought that Gaetz would have preferred the Department of Education
I think that might be reserved (for different reasons) for Marjorie Taylor Green.
Ha!
She is fucking odious
I heard that she’s feeling dissed because Kristi Noem got DHS. Sorry, Marge; you need to execute a pet and fine-tune your Trump-Harem look a bit if you want to play in the big leagues.
She is slated to run for Senate against Jon Ossoff. She's not a strong enough candidate.
🏆
Exactly!
What Department of Education? Trump wants to axe it. I don't know; axe him instead?
I'm with Nicolle Wallace on this one: how can anyone be surprised by any of these ghastly picks? always glad to spend a few with the delicious conflab, but hope we're not spending much time being shocked at the latest horrors. there will be more. there will be worse. but we're in a very different place than in the awful weeks and months after he won in 2016. counseling a version of silence and cunning. we need to conserve our energy and outrage for the work to come and protect our justly outraged selves from emotional distress via disgusting dirtbags like Gaetz...and Tulsi as DIN, too. (like I said, there will be more, and worse.) the horrors will keep on coming, and we will need to inure ourselves and stay focused. love you all madly!
I agree
Yes, heaven help us Lesley!
I would find all of this hilarious if it wasn't downright horrifying! The cunning psychopath and bat shit Commander in chief rewards the loyalist rapists and pedophiles, conspiracy theorists, incompetents and crazies. Not in our wildest nightmares but here it is and I am afraid it will only get worse. I am really trying to limit my exposure but it is like viewing a horrific car accident. You are trying to look away but....One day Mother Karma will swoop in but when? I hope soon before I leave this mortal plane.
This is going to be sooooo juicy. They couldn’t pass a bill for two years out of the house, and now they’re going to go through confirmation hearings?
noooooo, he's trying to get the SCOTUS to let him just appoint people while Congress is out of town as "Acting....." whatever. Just do an end-around all together and skip the Constitutional part entirely.
This is the perfect example of hubris. I'm just going to sit back, stay quiet & prepare the popcorn. He's gonna screw his MAGAt base when inflation soars & who wants internment camps in their neighborhood? The "Drain the Swamp" guy is putting billionaires in positions that will benefit them. So crime, inflation & unemployment will surge, the animals will revolt & I'm predicting a Mussolini Moment not too far off.
They're already contracting with CCA - the largest private prison corporation in the US to take the prisoners. They don't care about their wellbeing, so constructing proper, safe, clean facilities isn't going to be an issue for them. Big cages and tents exposed to the elements will be just fine. I'm almost surprised he didn't tap Joe Arpaio to head this up.
Massacre Mad Miller is the hate behind this & as a Jew & someone who wrote a book about the Holocaust the utter disgust & horror that he is goes beyond repugnant. While the idiot golfs every day families, communities & our reputation will be destroyed.
Where's Nestor? (Deep cut, back to 2020.)
Somewhere working for pooty or probably raping kids. I hate to say that but...
Can't imagine Gaetz will pass muster, even among his GOP colleagues. He is just not appropriate, to quote Sen. Chris Coons...
Well, if they do use confirmation hearings, Thune hates Trump. This could be interesting.
I didn't realize Thune hated Trump. So there is a glimmer of hope if we dig deep enough.
It's such an egregiously bad choice it seems almost inevitable, as a signal of Trump's utter contempt for the American people and American governance.
Quammy, I believe that Trump believes it is a wise choice.
I bet you're right, Jean. And in a perverse way, it is a cunninbg choice: What better backstopping for a sex offender than to have an Attorney General who is also a sex offender?
AND all of Congress, with the exception of Marge and Tubby.
He loves humiliating the people who least suspect they’ll be his victims, then awaiting their inevitable crawling back, when he’ll kick them again.
In this case, I see him chortling, “how about THIS, you insufficiently fawning A-holes? You all hate Gaetz, but you’ll be kissing his teen-drilling rump now, and begging to do it again!”
(Obviously he’ll stick to monosyllables and use more capitals, but I feel that’s the gist.)