Tim Brown

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016, and then again in 2024, given how emotionally toxic and depraved he is.
I don’t wonder anymore. I think he won for that exact reason. Because he carried at least one broken shard to reflect the broken shards in millions of others.
If you’re a racist, you found your guy. If you’re a misogynist, you found your guy. If money is your only religion, you found your guy. If your heart is armored shut, you found your guy. If you mock the disabled, you found your guy. If intelligence makes you insecure, you found your guy. If you’re a sexual predator, you found your guy. If you trade in humiliation and conspiracy and filth, you found your guy.
If you’ve never done a single hour of emotional inventory, you found your guy. If you cheat, stiff contractors, bankrupt your obligations, and call it savvy, you found your guy. If you lie as easily as you breathe, you found your guy. If cruelty feels like strength, you found your guy. If white grievance is your comfort food, you found your guy. If your ego is a black hole no title can fill, you found your guy. If warmongering fuels your ego, you found your guy, If empathy feels like weakness and dominance feels like oxygen, you found your guy.
If he’d only carried one or two of these pathologies, he might have been dismissed as just another loud, damaged man. But he carried a buffet of them. That was the appeal. Millions could locate themselves somewhere in the wreckage. They didn’t have to agree with all of it. They just had to recognize a piece of themselves in it.
It was never really about him. It was about the validation. The absolution. The permission. He didn’t invent the resentment; he amplified it. He didn’t create the cruelty; he normalized it. He gave millions the intoxicating relief of hearing their ugliest impulses echoed back at rally volume.
Trump is a symptom. The deeper illness is collective. If there’s one sentence that defines his power, it’s this: “He says the things I’m thinking.”
And that’s the part that should chill us.
Because what does it say about us that so many were thinking those things? That tens of millions of Americans harbored resentments so deep, so seething, that they were simply waiting for a demagogue to baptize them as virtue? That after decades of supposed progress on race, gender, and equality, so many white men felt so threatened, so displaced, so furious, that cruelty became a political platform?
Maybe we were living in a fool’s paradise, mistaking silence for healing, politeness for progress.
Now the mask is off. Now we know.
And knowing is a far more dangerous place to stand.
– Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.

[Brad @BraddrofliT]

Trump not Biden.....

[Tim Brown @drtb49]

The yet
Gy

[Ronald Lebow @RonLebow]

@FluteMagician Can MAGA answer this question?

[Tom Joseph @TomJChicago]

Only an extremely mentally impaired person, with the title of President, would post a picture of themselves as the Pope while the world is mourning the loss of the last Pope. Dementia didn’t make Trump a bad person. He’s a bad person who got dementia.

[Annie @AnnieForTruth]

😂

[Lakota Man @LakotaMan1]

Absolutely

[The Intellectualist @highbrow_nobrow]

How Rupert Murdoch, the founder of Fox News, divides nations.

[Wayne Harrison @waynomac39]

@MaddowBlog #TrumpIsATraitorAndCriminal

[Lakota Man @LakotaMan1]

Absolutely. I embarrassed too.

[Tim Brown @drtb49]

@ziman_kristen @WGNNews @DeanRichards Saw him in the play. You should be so proud of your talented sobn

[Tim Brown @drtb49]

@ziman_kristen Hey saw your son at Copley Wednesday. He did well and you raised a talented son

[Just Jack @7Veritas4]

One refused to return them. Lied about having them. Said he declassified them. Claimed the FBI planted them. Told his staff to move them. Filed appeals to block the DOJ.

One self-reported he found them. Is cooperating with the DOJ.

One is not like the other.

[Mikel Jollett @Mikel_Jollett]

Not a lawyer or anything but shouldn’t it be illegal to run for President if you once tried to murder the Vice President?

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING NEWS: In a HUGE loss for Trump-appointed U.S. Postmaster Louis DeJoy, the Senate approves Biden’s Postal Board nominees — meaning that the majority of the board members are now Biden appointees. RT IF YOU THINK THAT THE BOARD MUST FIRE DEJOY IMMEDIATELY!

[Jo @JoJoFromJerz]

Republicans have zero platforms on healthcare or childcare, none on infrastructure, inflation, the environment, or rebuilding the economy…

They don’t have a position on any of that, but they sure as shit have a stance on letting brown babies starve.

They’re all for it.

[SiggyRose @SiggyRose1]

In Germany, teaching the Holocaust is mandatory. It includes visits to concentration camp, museums, etc. They don’t shy away from their own ugly history. Yet the kids aren’t damaged; they’re strengthened, matured, humbled. US needs to do same re slavery. Not that complicated.