Agreed.

It seems to be almost traditional - that Dems have to come in and clean up a republi-CON's mess. Carter had to rehabilitate the White House after Nixon/Ford, Clinton had to clean up after GHWB, and sweet God in Heaven, and Obama had to detoxify and fumigate the joint, and damn near perform an exorcism after bush/cheney.

The MASSIVE disaster that's developed in just a few long months of THIS one-man wrecking crew now, MAN - I dunno... it'll take a long time to recover from the absolutely epic mess he's making.

I can't help but think that even those addled, misinformed, and fantasy-loving voters who willingly swallowed all this because they just wanted to "burn it all down," or "blow shit up," really and truly wanted all of this. Or maybe they still don't get it. Maybe the repercussions haven't hit, or if they have, these same folks haven't noticed or felt the pain yet.

BTW - my husband just came up with a BRILLIANT comment about the GOP's proposed redistribution of income upward from Medicaid to people who already enjoy BIGLY income - "republi-CONS want the poor and sick and needy to do more with less, so the rich can do less, with more." DAYUM I love the way he thinks!

Welcome to DU, TomCADem!

Here's hoping they've snapped up the best defense lawyers and can monopolize them for awhile - so those lawyers won't be available to trump & comp.

It's left me feeling deeply cynical, gotta say.

I find I often look for ulterior motives. It sure helps me "get" trump!

Amen!

Me, too, annabanana.

I guess what I'm trying to do here is emphasize how important it is to watch what donald says. Listen VERY closely and carefully. Analyze dispassionately. Learn to recognize the code-speak. The schtick. That's all it is. Sales talk and hype and smoke-blowing and SCHTICK. It's all an act. A facade. Rachel Maddow makes a valid point about how you need to watch not so much what he says but what he DOES. But I think it's ALSO important to listen carefully to what he says (and always with your inner translator turned on and way up). Watch what he does, but take careful note of what he SAYS, and HOW he says it, too. It's always gonna be a tipoff.

He's a freakin' SALESMAN. His sole commodity that he's selling all the time is himself. His personality. His swagger. His intangibles. Surrounded by and decorated with lots of trappings of wealth, power, and influence. Lots of gold everywhere. His big-ass billboarding letters (TRUMP!!!) ten feet tall and in gold fairly scream it at you from the front facade of buildings and labels on products and packaging. Fancy exotic-looking wife whom he drapes in diamonds and haute couture. The elevators and walls and everything inside and outside Trump Tower - gold. Especially up in his lavish penthouse. Fawning servants and sycophants and yes-men surrounding him up-to-here. And the ritziest-looking luxury settings everywhere from Mar-a-Lago to the farthest golf course and clubhouse and resort facilities. And don't forget the big private jet and helicopter with his name on it. Of course he doesn't need those now because he's got new ones at his beck 'n' call - that you and I as taxpayers have to pay for now. And you've gotta admit, THAT'S a helluva deal.

SHEESH, you look at all that and it's easy to think he's an emperor of some sort. It's all trappings and props in his newest reality show. And salesmanship. He's nothing but a carnival barker with lots better toys.

Saddest of all, those supporters of his - they still stand with him. Because they dearly and desperately want it to be true. You think those "Promises Kept" posters and placards are all over his rallies by accident? Nope. He's got the trumpsters so hypnotized, hell - so freakin' brainwashed, that this is all they need to see to buy into his ongoing sales schtick. Those aren't just campaign posters. Those are reminders. Reinforcements. Cue cards not for him but for you. So you'll know what and how he wants you to think about all this (and about him, personally, in particular).

He does put in a good show. Convincing, too. He's rolled an awful lot of Americans. They view him almost like a messianic figure. He literally told them as much, during the convention last summer. Anybody remember "I alone can fix it"?

He's pulled off the con of the century. Convinced millions of Americans that the only way to "salvation" is through trump. He is their way, their truth, and their light. I think that's why they still cling to him so desperately.

Sorry that was so long, but I swear, I know this guy. I know how he thinks and how he operates,

and how trump rolls people and manipulates people and mind-fucks people. And everybody I care about needs to know that, too.

Forewarned is forearmed. And knowledge (about him) is power (over him).

I freakin' grew up with this shit.

YEP.

It sure dovetails with everything else we know.

Okay, forgive me for shouting, but ...

THIS IS THE WAY TRUMP IS USED TO DOING BUSINESS IN THE FREEWHEELING, HOT-DOGGING, SLICK-TALKING, LOG-ROLLING, PERCEPTION-IS-EVERYTHING, WHEELER-DEALER NEW YORK REAL ESTATE ARENA.

The schmoozing, the posturing, the bullying, the fast-talking, the bullshitting, the personal buttonholing, "cultivating a relationship" - as in pick up the phone to ONE person and schmooze 'em up, sweet-talk them, maybe take 'em to a nice dinner or better yet, invite them over for a nice home-cooked meal, show 'em around, make nice. And if it didn't work, either threaten them, try to scare them, insinuate things that don't add up but you know you can intimidate people into caving to you, get in their faces and tell them "so sue me!" (knowing they don't have the money to fight a long legal battle, much less even hire a decent attorney on par with his bigshot power guys to be able to fight on an equal footing), or otherwise intimidate them. He had lots of tricks and perception manipulations. And he had lots of 'em because he knew they worked. He knew he could bulldoze people. Simply by virtue of the power of his personality.

DAMMIT! Guys - my dad was absolutely SMALLTIME compared to trump, but he did the same shit!!! SAME SHIT!!! He didn't have anywhere near the financial "success" trump can claim, nor was he some loudmouth swaggering tycoon (although he did like surrounding himself with leggy young models because of "business&quot . He did it to EVERYBODY, whether they were in business or not. He did it to family members. He did it to opponents. Say ANYTHING to get his way. ANYTHING. He tried to scare me into compliance when I went away to college, insinuating that he'd talked to the campus police and that my friends were about to be arrested for pot (which was then illegal) and if I was hanging out with them I'd be arrested too). At the time, that scared me to death! Until I got a little older and realized - he'd done nothing of the kind. Hell, he wasn't talking with the campus cops, he wasn't collecting intel about pot smoking on campus, nothing. He just tried to blow smoke up my ass to get me to do what he wanted. He was just saying whatever he thought would work to get me to come home on the weekends.

And that was just one example. He could insinuate with the best of 'em. Mind fucking. He was a virtuoso at it. Just like trump is. And just as unaccustomed to answering questions about it, or having anybody try to follow up on it or drill down into it to get to the truth. A few times as I got older, I actually started doing that, and found myself cutting through a whole untamed jungle full of bullshit.

Here's another one. "Well I worked in radio, so I... blah-blah-blah." And I heard that for years. But the problem (for him) was - that I MYSELF actually DID work in radio. I knew that turf. Better than he did. And at one point, I finally stopped him and asked - "Dad, what did you DO in radio? What job did you have? Were you a general manager? Account executive? National sales manager? Program director? Deejay? What, exactly, did you do, in radio?" And he fumfered around with two or three different rambling bullshit reassertions (not unlike donald trump does) of "I Worked In Radio!" Me, again: "but WHAT did you do, exactly? What did you do, 'working in radio'? What was your JOB?" (Because I HAD worked in radio. For a quarter century at least. So you couldn't bullshit me about stuff like this.) He finally caved. "Well, I Worked Radio." Me: "What do you mean by that, dad?" Noticing, in the meantime, that he said he "worked radio" this time. NOT "worked IN radio." THERE'S A DIFFERENCE!!!

The punchline to this story? When I pressed my dad on that, he finally copped to it: "I bought commercial time." Meaning sales. He bought a package of ads. Radio commercials for his business. He never worked at any station - even in the sales department. He was a businessman, wanting to advertise his business on the air - so he bought commercials on local radio. But since he was the boss - owned that business himself with no shareholders or stockholders to have to answer to - nobody ever questioned him, tried to press him on just what, exactly, he meant by the sloganeering he used all the time that led you to think one thing when the reality was profoundly different, or even slightly different. Nobody ever asked a follow-up question. Because you didn't do that to the boss. Who'd fire you as easily as he'd pick up a cup of coffee from his desk and take a sip. He liked people who were compliant (and made sure to marry one, as well). People who didn't ask a lot of questions. People who didn't try to dig deeper and cut through his bullshit. People who didn't challenge him on points. People who didn't say anything, wouldn't say anything because they were too intimidated, and certainly didn't voice complaints.

Well, I didn't work for him so I did start asking questions here and there. He was very uncomfortable and didn't like being challenged like that. He was used to being king and lord and master - even just of his own little fiefdom. He didn't like having to explain himself to anybody.

trump is the same way. Just a WHOLE LOT bigger and with WAY WAY WAY more money involved (either actual OR perceived).

When trump told some reporter in one of the recent gaggles that "I'll be talking about it in a short period of time, and you're going to be disappointed." I KNEW IT. He didn't have any tapes. There were no tapes. He was just bullshitting, aiming to intimidate or frighten an opponent, simply operating on the assumption that this was merely the act of rolling another sucker. You can do that over drinks. You can do that over dinner (like he did with Romney in the fancy restaurant over frog legs that night). You can do that in your office behind closed doors - either in their face or on the phone. But if you're doing that with reporters charged with covering you for national magazines and newspapers and networks, and there are VERY clear repercussions and A LOT of people asking questions and challenging and asking follow-up questions and trying to dig down into your oozing swamp of bullshit, you're not gonna get the result you want.

The Donald does not like having to answer questions. Or having to explain himself. In any detail. Especially not when he can roll half the population of America with a mere 140 characters.

Welcome to DU, Lonestarblue!

That would be highly recommended, too, assuming that most schools have done away with "nuisances" like civics class, and art and music classes also.

Welcome to DU, gilligan!

How 'bout such things as "Profiles in Courage" by JFK, "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking, and "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood? Just off the top of my head.

It's been awhile since I had to follow a summer reading list. Heck, it's been awhile since my kids had to follow a summer reading list!

YEP!

Back 30-or-so years ago, this dude Ralph Reed, head of the so-called "Christian Coalition," was spouting that gospel everywhere and in every way he could. It was the overall concept of RUNNING FOR OFFICE, but doing so in arenas small enough where victory was not only possible but less expensive. Little "pipsqueak" elections where not too many people were paying attention and it was/still is possible to nab a win with much less effort than for higher profile citywide or state-wide office. Besides, start at the bottom and you can BUILD from there, and after you build, then you try for bigger and better and higher-level things.

He specifically singled out school board elections because they're a great launching pad for more ambitious things. And we're seeing the results of that, now.