@BergetAnzelika @Chris8Reis@anders_aslund Let's face it: Trump would just claim the video was a "Deepfake created by the Deepstate." His hardcore base would accept his lie, his lukewarm voters would largely give him the benefit of the doubt, and within a week the story would start to disappear from public consciousness.
Bill is exactly right.
There are plenty of micro-explanations and micro-excuses for what happened in the presidential election of 2024. And on the margins, any number of them—indeed, almost certainly, a combination of them—made the difference. But their impact was only on the margins. Don’t get me wrong—small margins and the factors that move them do matter, a lot, in elections—particularly in America in the 21st century. They deserve careful analysis, but only to a point.
For the bottom line is that these considerations are not what we must focus on first and foremost today. What deserves the lion’s share of our attention are the facts that a major political party could have even considered nominating Trump despite his manifest criminality, moral depravity, psychological derangement, and cognitive deficiencies and deterioration—and that nearly half the country would have voted for him no matter what he did or said and no matter whom he had run against. That was the ultimate problem in this election, and remains so.
We suffer from a deep sickness in our national polity. Far above all else, before it’s too late, thoughtful Americans of good faith must work together to confront, to better comprehend, and to ultimately address that grave and metastasizing ailment if our great experiment in self-governance is to survive. Scapegoating and blame-assigning about anything else serves no end but to diminish our chances of overcoming our profound national moral crisis.
Je n'ai pas l'intention de laisser l'Europe comme un théâtre habité par des herbivores, que des carnivores, selon leur agenda, viendront dévorer.
Européens, nous devons être lucides, ambitieux et déterminés sur notre propre agenda, un agenda de souveraineté.
“Every American knew, or should have known. The man elected president last night is a depraved and brazen pathological liar, a shameless con man, a sociopathic criminal, a man who has no moral or social conscience, empathy, or remorse. He has no respect for the Constitution and laws he will swear to uphold, and on top of all that, he exhibits emotional and cognitive deficiencies that seem to be intensifying, and that will only make his turpitude worse. He represents everything we should aspire not to be, and everything we should teach our children not to emulate. The only hope is that he’s utterly incompetent, and even that is a double-edged sword, because his incompetence often can do as much as harm as his malevolence. His government will be filled with corrupt grifters, spiteful maniacs, and morally bankrupt sycophants, who will follow in his example and carry his directives out, because that’s who they are and want to be.”
"A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results... and anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it."
Trump is the only president ever to fail this basic test of leadership.
My heart goes out to so many people today, but my first thoughts today have been about the courageous people of Ukraine, fighting with and for their lives for democracy and freedom. We let them down.🇺🇦
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
If this goes the way it seems to be going, a plea: Hold the recriminations. The important thing will be figuring out how to fight the climate of repression, which will begin via preemptive obedience long before the government formally changes hands
Not too sure that Republicans going from calling Puerto Ricans garbage to calling a woman garbage is the whiz-bang political chess move they think it is
Mike Tyson was convicted of rape. Trump’s not just calling for Kamala Harris to be beaten by a heavyweight boxer. Trump is obsessed with seeing women suffer. He wants women attacked and pummeled — even shot. Trump wants women who dare to oppose him to experience the worst pain and punishment imaginable.
Trump is angry and desperate for votes — calling out to men who despise women. Ever delusional, Trump thinks he can counterpunch and defeat the masses of women voting against him by generating the support of women haters.
Today, Trump:
—Said he doesn’t “mind” if reporters get shot at his rally
—Said he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after he lost the 2020 election
—Hinted at enacting Project 2025 if he wins, promising it will be “nasty” and saying “you're gonna see things that you're not gonna believe”
—Spread baseless election conspiracy theories and said it “should be illegal” to release polls that look bad for him