There is no chance of recovery and the victims are consumed by the monster to a fate of living death.

the 1970's version with Donald Sutherland much better.

It sure does feel like that.

that he is still around.

reptilian, snake eyes.

EVERY TIME HIS STUPID FACE, OR NAME COMES ON A “NEWS” station. 🤬 🤬 🤬

That is definitely the very worst thing about him.

It's not like he was walking down the street one day, tripped, fell, hit his head and woke up in the White House.

I consider myself lucky if I am walking down the street, trip, fall, and hit my head. I wake up and someone has pulled me out of the street.

If introvert / extrovert tendencies are viewed on a continuum, I’d place myself at roughly 35% introvert, 65% extrovert. I used to interact with those in proximity, including the free expression of my displeasure with those drawing my ire.

Perhaps it was the realization that a good percentage of the people I encounter daily support the orange shitgibbon.

Perhaps it was during mandatory mask-wearing, where facial communication was limited. Did you know there are 50 ways to say ‘FUCK YOU!’ with your eyes alone?

Perhaps it was an incident in a drug store. Coincidentally, this was during the mandatory mask-wearing. I was navigating a crowded aisle and decided I should be closer to the shelves to make room. I’m kinda gorilla-like in handling stuff, so I did a quick pivot-point adjustment that made a bit of noise and didn’t look elegant in performance. A man older and smaller than me rolled up in my face, demanding to know if I had a problem. I assured him I didn’t, but it was an eye-opener to observe how close to the edge everyone seemed.

I succumbed to the madness myself, as you’ll see in this example, where a lesser ‘energy level’ would have sufficed. On a day that I visited a Bob Evans restaurant with my wife, I was wearing a ball cap with the name of the ship on which I served. There was a bit of a wait, and due to lingering COVID-19 restrictions, we had to go outside. A MAGAt, outfitted with that ugly-ass MAGAt hat, said loudly from around 20 feet away, ‘thank you for your service!’ Impulse control took a vacation, and I said back, ‘FUCK OFF, TRAITOR!’ Aside from the shame of embarrassing my wife, I opened up the possibility of receiving a beat-down in a parking lot.

There are other reasons, probably, but I’ve given my paradigm shift a title: do not engage. I don’t make eye contact as readily. I don’t make witty rejoinders to strangers in public places. It’s like I start gauging possible reactions with excruciating detail -to the point that all interaction is unpleasant and angst-ridden.

they could have a gun and zero impulse control.

Gotta presume that everyone is armed and itchin’ to dispense some instant justice. I’m not to that point yet, but I’m less likely to interact, in any way, with those in close proximity.

It's like part of me has been stifled but now that part of me is gone and I'm reflexively wary. My basic assumption about every person I meet is that they support soft fascism and I proceed accordingly.

Just read it to my husband.. got a good laugh out of him, not an easy thing to do.

Scary and sad.

Would want that abominable creature to have any position of public responsibility, let alone president of the United States.

It's truly disheartening to see so many people I once thought were decent and normal fall for this pathologically lying malignant narcissist.

It was bad enough in 2016, but after he incited a violent insurrection to overthrow our government he got more votes in 2020.

What can possibly snap these people out of that mass psychosis?

Only death I'm afraid.

Are older MAGATs dying off while young people are more likely to vote D?

…I read about why he appeals to people, I still find it hard to understand. Perhaps because my own mind does not work that way.

Particularly puzzling is the adoring support from the religious folks. 3 marriages during which he cheated on the current wife, 2 divorces, Tiffany conceived out of wedlock, who knows how many extramarital dalliances, etc, etc.

Ever.

His egregious character flaws go far beyond marital infidelity.

Conservative Christians like to think they are victims as more people reject their ideology, but they are their own worst enemies.

Now, we can't see that, but that is true. Why is that? A certain amount of people don't care about
our system of government (call it democracy if you want to) and those people believe that Adolph
Trump would do a great job. (And that is if he gets to be President again)

I understand they're thrilled when liberals and minorities are triggered by Hair Twitler to feel angst, but that is apart from what a president actually does to improve security and prosperity for his voters.

Giving huge tax breaks to the rich and appointing rightwing activist judges who strip rights from women, minorities, and LGBTQ does nothing to materially improve the lives of MAGATs.

My point is they are DELUSIONAL if they actually believe his lies or think he cares what happens to them.

United States. (total dictator)

Trump is their dictator. There has always been that small amount in the U.S. They think the process of governing is too
slow and cumbersome. (and it is cumbersome, but that is the way democracies work)

Than with any rational consideration of how government should work. Sure, there are ideologues like Steve Bannon who want to tear it all down, but the vast majority of MAGATs haven't thought it through beyond parroting the rhetoric of the extremists and hating The Left.

If you ask them if they want a dictator who would violate and destroy our Constitution they would say NO, but they say YES to Trump because when he hugs the flag and professes to stand for law and order they believe he's a true patriot who reveres the Constitution like they claim to.

There's a lot of Orwellian doublethink and cognitive dissonance, and for the most part they simply do not understand that Trump poses a bigger threat to what makes America truly great -- our Constituutional framework of checks & balances, among other things -- than any foreign enemy.

They've been manipulated and conned, and YES -- many of them are truly deplorable. They would want Trump even if they understood that he is a treasonous con man who's playing them for fools.

And they ARE fools, because ultimately they would suffer the consequences of dictatorship along with everyone else who is not part of the Christo-fascist oligarchy.

That's my point. Most of them are useful idiots for fat cats who only want to accumulate more wealth and power for themselves.

I remember that, decades ago, when he was a teen and I was still in grade school, he said that the best form of government in the US would be a "benign dictatorship."

He opposed the change in the voting age from 21 to 18 because he said that teen voters would choose their favorite rock stars.

Fast forward to the 21st century when he supported a reality TV show host who had zero governing knowledge or experience.

To materially improve their lives.

Deflecting blame only shows how gullible his voters are.

He did get more votes than he did in 2016, which is disheartening

It will be completely mind blowing if he wins the election in 2024, after inciting a violent insurrection.

After the insurrection and more than 90 felony counts he's still the front runner in the primary, by far.

Between Trump and the pandemic everything has changed in my world.

They infiltrate into positions of power and authority. It gets to the point in the movie that the normal people can't call the cops because the cops were infiltrated.

The Magats are moving into positions at the state and local levels.

Who ya gonna call?

Oh $h1t, they have!

When repug voters were ask in 2016 why they support the orange one they said he was their chance to hurt/punish the Democrats.

Do not underestimate the hate for democrats and liberals by those friends, family, neighbors and coworkers. These fuckers have no idea what a fascist dictatorship will be like as long as the dictator is mean and cruel to Dems/Libs.

R's have been no friend to working Americans, economically.

Manipulated by a con man and decades of RW propaganda to vote against their own best interests.

...and mirrors are easily replaced.

There will always be conmen and sociopaths who want to enter politics.

Why do Americans fall for their lies?

Because many Americans are so full of hatred for fellow Americans they don't
care if their representatives lie constantly.

Somewhere, I have the gif of it, but I can't remember where I put it on my hard drive.

a John Gotti type without the bodies in car trunks; or a cult leader, Jim Jones without the Kool-Aid, if by some bizarre twist of fate he hadn't become president. His sort is a dime a dozen; there's no shortage of conscience-free narcissists in this world. But those guys always manage to find certain people, the so-called authoritarian followers, who want to be part of their operation and will obey them blindly. We look at the Mafia and the People's Temple and we wonder how anybody could get mixed up with such groups and their leaders, but Trump is exactly that, writ large. We've been smacked upside the head with the reality that a whole lot of people would be happy to belong to criminal mobs or cults as long as they had a leader who would promise them something they wanted - money, power, a group to belong to - no matter how dangerous, debased, immoral or downright evil they had to be in order to belong. Trump is the bastard child of John Gotti and Jim Jones; he gave the millions of authoritarian followers we didn't know walked among us a cult or a mob they could belong to. You didn't have to whack somebody or move to a jungle commune to belong. Just buy a red cap, watch Fox, join your friends at the new Nuremberg rallies and presto, you're a made man.

had the idea he was a part of the Russian mob long before he became president.

to throw in with mobsters, regardless of which mob it is.

That movie ( even though it's fiction) is surprisingly close to explaining TFG and his CULT!

was laid by Fox News and their ideology driven news distortion. There's always been people like the John Birchers or the southerners too genteel to join the klan but still adamant about segregation.

They didn't swell into the vanguard of the fact hating right-wing mobs until Rupert Murdoch spent a generation and a half whipping up the hateful ignorance that drives the Maga movement and the Tea Party and all the other iterations of right wing madness.

Trump didn't build this train. Trump doesn't build shit. But he did a rock solid job of hijacking it and using it to line his pockets.

When I don’t have to hear that whiny voice or see that smirking mug ever again.

Today would be fine, Lord.

he's all over the news day in and day out. I'm sick and tired of it.

That was one of the reasons I decided to retire in September of 2020. I just turned 67 and thought I might work a couple of more years, but I'm glad I retired when I did.

after Hamas attacked Israel.

Every word of this is true. I grew up evangelical. I left that life 35 years ago, but those I knew from that past life have certainly shown their true colors.

I'd rather know what they're really like.

That he's made some horrible people look better just because they're better than him.

the thing about Trump is, there is not one - and I mean NOT ONE - redeeming feature about him - he fails in EVERY FUCKING way, both as a "leader" and a human fucking being

It is constant in the press, TV, and news TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP. Please go away Trump.

Because he's breathing.