Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
January 26, 2026
Why Is Trump Causing His Own Downfall?

The White House seems to do everything possible to help the Republicans to lose their majorities in the midterm elections.

Trump’s tariff policies have guaranteed that prices for $3 Trillion in U.S. imports will rise by at least 10%. His energy policies have caused 6% price rises for electricity and gas.

His move against allies to grab Greenland is unpopular. Bombing Iran and abducting the President of Venezuela was not welcome.

Sending heavily armed Brownshirts into U.S. neighborhoods to apprehend or assassinate random people is likewise disliked.

Trump’s approval rating is sinking.


bigger
One would assume that Trump would notice the upcoming ballot disaster and change course. But instead of calming the waves he is pouring oil onto fire:

President Donald Trump and his top lieutenants are doubling down on their hardline immigration policies and rhetoric following the shooting of a US citizen by a federal officer in Minneapolis — even as the incident has revealed cracks in the president’s coalition.

A phalanx of top Trump administration officials fanned out across Sunday morning news shows and social media to publicly defend the officer’s actions and the administration’s heavy-handed immigration enforcement tactics, all shifting blame to Democratic state and local officials.

Why is he insisting that his immigration police Brownshirts are in the right when everyone who sees the videos of their actions recognizes that their behavior is simply abhorrent?

His party is worried:

As midterms approach, GOP lawmakers, candidates, strategists and people close to the White House are warning that the administration’s mass deportations policy — and the wall-to-wall coverage of enforcement operations, arrests of U.S. citizens and clashes between protesters and federal officials — could cost them their razor-thin House majority.

A new POLITICO poll underscores those worries: Nearly half of all Americans — 49 percent — say Trump’s mass deportation campaign is too aggressive, including 1 in 5 voters who backed the president in 2024. In a sign of growing discomfort among the president’s base, more than 1 in 3 Trump voters say that while they support the goals of his mass deportation campaign, they disapprove of the way he is implementing it.

“ICE should focus on the bad hombres. The bad hombres, that’s it, not the cleaning ladies,” said Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.). “One thing is the gardeners, another thing is the gangsters. One thing is the cooks, the other thing is the coyotes.”

During his first administration President Obama deported more people per day than Trump. But he did so without generating a huge public backlash.

Are Trump’s policies really more controversial than those of other presidents or is the amateurish implementation of policies by his administration the real problem?

Whatever it is – he will need to change it. Otherwise he will lose much of his power at the end of this year.

Comments

Btw I should hasten to add that I do not mean to disparage the comment made by “IcyR7” ( Jan 26 2026 18:15 utc | 127 ), it is certainly an interesting possibility (and it could so easily be true for a gazillion reasons). I’m only offering my take on it.
 

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jan 26 2026 20:35 utc | 201

—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 BREAKING: President Trump is considering imposing a naval blockade against Iranian oil exports

https://t.me/Middle_East_Spectator/27671
 

Ah yes because the naval blockade in Yemen went so incredibly well.

https://t.me/Middle_East_Spectator/27672
 
 

Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 26 2026 20:37 utc | 202

ICE agents are not brownshirts.  Antifa and their ilk are.  What you are seeing is an active insurgency to overthrow the goverment by the Democrats and their allies.  The media is also complicit which is why the polls and coverage are wrong.
 
I know you europeans do not understand and suffer from severe TDS but that is why this cannot stop.  The Republic is over and we can thank the globalists and the marxists/fascists for that.  What follows now is either collapse and balkanization (best case) or a communist revolution (worst case).  If you think you are immune you are sorely mistaken.  The Euro will collapse along with the USD and your betters in europe will only ramp up their totalitarian oppression.
 
Hopefully Trump prevails but I am reminded of a well known prophesy at the time of the Bolshevik takeover “…today in Russia, tomorrow in America.” which has been referenced by many noteable people. What is missing was the last part.  “…and it will be worse.”
 
Which is believable given where we are with technology and the ability to surveil and punish remotely.

Posted by: me | Jan 26 2026 20:38 utc | 203

@ Posted by: Ahenobarbus | 35Now we’re talking.  I think you’re on to something there

Look at where part of the cultural conversation has gotten to: noticing / JakeGTV / satire:
https://www.youtube.com/@jakeg_official/videos
 
 

Posted by: nomnom | Jan 26 2026 20:39 utc | 204

Tom Homan is now heading to Minneapolis to assume command of all federal forces in the region.
As the use of Insurrection Act looms large.
Its time to arrest Governor Tim Walz (the 2024 failed VP Manchurian candidate), and the Communist Mayor Jakob Krey for sedition.  They are deliberately supporting and provoking insurrectionists.

Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 26 2026 20:41 utc | 205

This is the problem with the internet; if I was talking person to person it would be so (much more) obvious (I hope, but sometimes it just wouldn’t be, sometimes the obvious isn’t obvious, or maybe too obvious) that I wasn’t trying to be an ass :S (I would still no matter what get a bullet or twenty in me for my trouble from ICE if I was in the US).
 

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jan 26 2026 20:42 utc | 206

me 215 – completely agree.  Walz is the CCP’s best friend……………

Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 26 2026 20:42 utc | 207

Trump es solo el payaso, habría que preguntárselo al dueño del circo.

Posted by: Frasco | Jan 26 2026 20:43 utc | 208

Another post (for my fan club),
 
But that is it, isn’t it? America is not a nation. American is not an ethnicity. It is a colony with people from everywhere, with little history and few values in common. What one social issue could 80%+ Americans support in a poll today?
 
And the corporate Zionist oligarchy keeps everyone at each other’s throats to the point where people cheer their “fellow” citizen getting killed by cops for peacefully expressing a Constitutional Right.
 
What did anyone expect from a polity that copes and rationalizes fishermen hundreds of miles from the border?
 
Hell, the US kills thousands every year from starvation caused by sanctions, killing Bob or Jenny from 2 streets over isn’t a big deal in context.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 20:43 utc | 209

With all respect to Mr. b (I mean that sincerely, not in the British sense), I would not put much credence in a Public First poll. Those guys are hacks and morons.  
 
Thank you Mr. Tobias Cole – I will use your viewpoint for articulating the narrative that will be counter to anything Politico. 
 
This is the calculus: No matter what happens, the Minnesota Iron Range will never vote republican. What happens there is inconsequential – they are still voting in favor of the United Mine Workers and that wont change. If what a happens in Minnesota tips undecideds in Lackawanna County in Pennsylvania or Duval County in Florida in either direction with the 18-35 voters, either the Tobias Cole direction or the Politico direction is the only thing that matters.  Polling now can only test what messaging works persuasively. Its way too early to call a trend or to say a trend is significant.  

Posted by: frithguild | Jan 26 2026 20:43 utc | 210

@211
 
Toby is a plant from instapundit….

Posted by: paddy | Jan 26 2026 20:45 utc | 211

Let this be a lesson to these socialist governments…………destroy your national identity at your own risk……..
 
Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 26 2026 20:32 utc | 207
 
I lived in a system that came closest to socialism, the GDR. There were no such problems there.
But after the annexation by the GER, there were. So is it a problem of capitalism and artificial, and certainly not of socialist states. Freedom with regard to antisocial behavior is restricted there. And does  the countries of origin of the usual suspects tolerate such behavior from foreigners? Thank the centuries of inbreeding among the British aristocracy for that!

Posted by: BlindSpot | Jan 26 2026 20:47 utc | 212

“Today in Russia, tomorrow in America” was a political slogan used in the U.S. during the early Cold War to stoke fear about communism spreading. The problem with reviving this style of rhetoric today is that it substitutes threat inflation for strategy. Much of Trump’s foreign-policy trouble stems not from adversaries like China or Russia alone, but from a constant drumbeat of fear — about encirclement, the Arctic, global decline — that turns manageable geopolitical competition into civilizational panic. When everything is framed as an existential emergency, policy becomes reactive, alliances fray, and self-inflicted damage begins to outweigh external risk. In that sense, fear-mongering doesn’t prevent decline; it accelerates it.

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Jan 26 2026 20:48 utc | 213

Bibi will manipulate Trump to extract maximum benefits for himself including the destruction of Iran. Only Trump will do it and time is running out. 

Posted by: Jason | Jan 26 2026 20:48 utc | 214

Ummm… Guys, silver is not stopping. Is this it
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jan 26 2026 17:00 utc | 59
 
Silver will hit $140 in the next couple of weeks. Whatever China wants, China gets.

Posted by: Menz | Jan 26 2026 20:49 utc | 215

which is worse, the bitcoin preacher, or the apologist for everything trumpian?? 

Posted by: james | Jan 26 2026 20:49 utc | 216

*** America is not a nation. American is not an ethnicity. *** 
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 20:43 utc | 221
 
The Unites States is composed of about 8 nations, each as different as any separate European nation. Each of the 8 has its own predominant family structure, political beliefs and voting patterns. This is why all Politics is local

Posted by: frithguild | Jan 26 2026 20:52 utc | 217

Emperor Trump is bad enough. Those who surround him are far worse. 
Posted by: octavian61 | Jan 26 2026 16:06 utc | 13
100% correct 

Posted by: jpc | Jan 26 2026 20:56 utc | 218

Posted by: paddy | Jan 26 2026 20:45 utc | 223
######
 
Instapundit has been a Zionist operation for over 20 years.
 
The influence operation has been in effect since the earliest days of the internet.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 20:56 utc | 219

Question for our resident historians: consider a truly revolutionary moment in US history, the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strike. This was pivotal in forcing capitalism on the defensive and beginning a series of concessions to the working class that still impacts American lives today. With this in mind, how were these events portrayed in the mass media of the day? Was the mass media on the side of the strikers or did it demonize and vilify them? 
 

  1. This is a crucial question and relates to current events. When you can answer it, revisit the relationship between the mass media and current events in Minneapolis and consider the differences. What does this tell us about a truly revolutionary moment and what we are witnessing today?

Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 26 2026 20:57 utc | 220

@ 209 Blindspot
 
Thx. Looks like that’s it. 
 
As I wait for my copy to come in the mail, here is an article about Ivan Ilyin from Montreal Review which is a good primer on his thought, offering several good refutations of some of his ideas (or incomplete ideas). 
 
I like this quote and I think it is quite apt when thinking about the kind of Autocracy Trump may be trying to bring about, if we are being quite charitable to him, or it could be a complete condemnation of his presidency in that what we see with his use of ICE and their performative cruelty to advance some ugly agenda of which to come:
 

In Russia’s political culture today, Ilyin enjoys popularity among nationalists and authoritarians who admire his emphatic patriotism and his calls for strong state power in Russia. Like many Russians before and after him, Ilyin believed that “Either state power in Russia will be strong, or it will not exist at all.” But if this maxim has at times served to justify despotism in Russia, this was not Ilyin’s purpose. He held a much more nuanced view:
 
“Strong state power is not ipso facto bureaucratic, or centralized, or military, or administered by a brutal police. To be sure, it is easier to create strong state power which is arbitrary, bureaucratic, centralized, military, and administered by a brutal police. But precisely these temptations, these easy paths, can and should be avoided.
 
Russia needs state power which is strong, but differentiated. Strong, but consistently law-abiding. Strong, but not merely bureaucratic. Strong, but decentralized. Militarily defended, but only as a last resort. Protected by the police, but not infating the competence of the police”
(7:498)

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jan 26 2026 21:00 utc | 221

Posted by: frithguild | Jan 26 2026 20:52 utc | 230
 
####
 
Russia, Iran, and China are nations with many ethnicities, languages, and cultures, all of which identify primarily as Russian, Iranian, and Chinese.
 
Nothing like that exists in America. Hawaiians are not Texans, who are not Californians, who are not New Englanders.
 
It’s a matter of identity, and identity persists and goes back further than 300 years. Collective suffering and triumph.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 21:02 utc | 222

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 20:35 utc | 211
 
Yeah. Vote harder peasants! Those with generational wealth laugh at this crap. Their power and wealth aren’t threatened by any of these people, democrat, republican, black, white, hispanic, gay, straight…. well, you get the picture. 

Posted by: Saint Jimmy | Jan 26 2026 21:04 utc | 223

Trump es solo el payaso, habría que preguntárselo al dueño del circo.
 
Posted by: Frasco | Jan 26 2026 20:43 utc | 220
Exacto!

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jan 26 2026 21:10 utc | 224

Tobias Cole #207.    In the over twenty countries I have visited, I have only been robbed in two:  in the US at gunpoint by a US citizen and in Ireland in the Temple district many many years before your immigrant problem.   The Irish robbery was especially miffing as I was there to visit my grandfather’s grave.   If you would stop to think for a minute it might occur to you that if the Collective Waste, as one of our fellow barflies calls it, would stop bombing the shit out of:  Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, Sudan there wouldn’t be immigrants.  Y’all are culpable too!!!   Weapons STILL transit in Shannon Airport on their way to killing children in Gaza.

Posted by: Formerly Miss Lacy | Jan 26 2026 21:14 utc | 225

The easy answer to Trump alienating his base of voters with the domestic violence being perpetrated by ICE is that he will invoke the insurrection act and assume dictatorial power. Many of Trump’s most ardent followers will support this action and the ‘postponement’ of the midterm elections. A psychological answer to the reason why Trump is pursuing unpopular policies is he is experiencing an existential crisis of his own impending death, whether conscious or not. Trump is on top of the world, but his health and cognition are failing fast. Trump is permanently in the anger stage of grief of his death, lashing out at any and all critics. A wilsonian answer to explain Trump’s policies of domestic violence and alienation of European allies is his staff, led by Stephen Miller, have staged an office coup and are fulfilling their agenda to impose a crony capitalist dictatorship in America and Trump is just their puppet. These insiders and the clique from the Heritage Foundation are working for Thiel and other lords of wealth to establish the totalitarian dystopia they have been dreaming of. They believe the state power the president wields is unstoppable, and combined with their communications and surveillance technologies they can establish a dictatorship of absolute capital encompassing most of the Global North with significant portions of the Global South under their control. 
 
The next outrage committed by Trump could be the decapitation of Iran’s leadership. War in West Asia could either be domestically popular in the US, like W. Bush’s Iraq invasion, or another excuse to invoke the insurrection act. If Trump acts against Iran, the mass media and Europe will support him. The media’s power to elicit loyalty and manufacture consent is capable of producing popular support for war and dictatorial war powers. Their only miscalculation will be the low tolerance Americans have for deaths of their soldiers. The deaths of Good and Pretti have resulted in opposition from the middle class. These Americans may not tolerate deaths of thousands of US troops in a short time frame, or tens of thousands from a long occupation. 

Posted by: Keme | Jan 26 2026 21:17 utc | 226

ICE/BP are conducting lawful enforcement operations in Minneapolis.
 
That is absolutely clear.  State and city officials and rioters have no authority under the Tenth Amendment to interfere in any way, with these illegal alien criminal removal operations.
 
If you do not understand this, then you do not understand the Republican form of a federal government!!

Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 26 2026 21:19 utc | 227

@ william gruff 234
 
i too am curious of the answer and don’t know the history… are you going to eventually reveal the answer for us? thanks..

Posted by: james | Jan 26 2026 21:24 utc | 228

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jan 26 2026 21:00 utc | 236
 
#####
 
One of my key starting points is that rotten trees do not bear good fruit.
 
Another way of saying, the ends do not justify the means.
 
If someone is causing pain to build something better, then that something better is based on cruelty and is unlikely to reach the ambitions to create it.
 
Maybe it happens, but more likely it becomes a rationality for more cruelty and oppression.
 
All tyrannies go through this. The bargaining phase. The idea that people are trading rules and liberties for a future payoff. A hypothetical “paradise state”.
 
I think history informs us that very few of these bargains are realized or promises kept.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 21:24 utc | 229

I think he’s playing his role. Trump’s the misdirection.
 
Everyone’s watching what Trump does next but no ones paying attention to the bills he’s pushing through congress that have fundamentally changed the USA.
 
Tariffs are a shakedown. Donate at minimum $1m to his campaign + an unknown sum in the black box of disappearing money known as $Trump crypto and you get tariff relief.
 
Donate $1m each + a generous donation to the ‘ball room” + $trump crypto and you get a “Big Beautiful Bill”  that prohibits any legislation restricting AI for 10 years.
 
The Democrats might win the mid-terms but they won’t get the same USA that existed before Trump. I don’t think there’ll be a recognizable constitution in place by the midterms and trump is going to have his own private army of ICE agents just like AH did with the SS. 
 
It’s obvious that most of these ICE agents have minimal police training at best … I mean what trained cop positions themselves directly  in FRONT of a running automobile with someone at the wheel? And he’s hiring these guys by the 10’s of thousands.
 
The media for the most part is controlled by people aligned with his vision and he says fuck you to any judge who disagrees with him. This is a coup … elections are still going to take place but the politicians who get elected are going to be powerless
 

Posted by: HB_Norica | Jan 26 2026 21:25 utc | 230

Formerly Miss Lacy 241 – the problem in Dublin has multiplied since you visited there.  I have been there two years in a row, and every single time there were numerous robberies and murders in Central Dublin around the Temple district.
In fact an NFL player in town for the Steelers game was robbed at gunpoint, and American and English tourists beaten to death.
The Martin/Harris government and the EU freedom of movement regs, and the fake asylum seekers are creating a dangerous situation in the city.  But the garda have more than enough time to arrest social media posters……..absolutely pathetic !

Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 26 2026 21:25 utc | 231

247 – Not true, more socialist/anarchist propaganda  nonsense.  BP is highly trained.  

Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 26 2026 21:27 utc | 232

100 comments I’ve read so far and the only one who nailed it is William Gruff.   Trump is controversial because the msm makes him controversial.
 

“Are Trump’s policies really more controversial than those of other presidents or is the amateurish implementation of policies by his administration the real problem?
Or is it just mass media narrative control?
I’ve made the point repeatedly, but obviously even smart people forget: When you find yourself in agreement with the Mockingbird mass media, that doesn’t mean the mass media has finally become right on an issue. It means their brainwashing is working on you. 

Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 26 2026 17:28 utc | 90

Posted by: wagelaborer | Jan 26 2026 21:31 utc | 233

Question for our resident historians: consider a truly revolutionary moment in US history, the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strike This was pivotal in forcing capitalism on the defensive and beginning a series of concessions to the working class that still impacts American lives today. With this in mind, how were these events portrayed in the mass media of the day? Was the mass media on the side of the strikers or did it demonize and vilify them? 
This is a crucial question and relates to current events. When you can answer it, revisit the relationship between the mass media and current events in Minneapolis and consider the differences. What does this tell us about a truly revolutionary moment and what we are witnessing today?
Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 26 2026 20:57 utc | 234
1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strike.    Everyone should read Dobbs book series on it.  That history has been criminally erased and kept from the working class in the United States.  
That said, the Russian Revolution was at that time not even 20 years old.  The impact of a revolutionary overthrow of Capitalism in such a large country inspired workers across the world to develop their own revolutionary parties.  That strike was led by the Socialist Workers Party, which unlike current socialist groups, was deeply connected to the working class and unquestionably Marxist under James Cannon’s leadership.  At that time, the SWP also enjoyed the leadership of no less than Leon Trostky himself.  
Today the epigones of Marcuse and the Post Mods provide the “revolutionary” leadership aka race and gender war among the working class.  The wage slaves are unfortunately back to square one or worse really because of all the former marxists that have decamped to the Imperialists and despise the working class.  Pre WW1 socialist movements might be a better yardstick to measure things today.  
Nonetheless, it’s clear the Dems are comfortably in control of the opposition to ICE in Minneapolis. Without a revolutionary party, they will likely maintain that control and keep the lot of those wage slaves within the grasp of “virtuous” genocidal Imperialists of the Democratic Party.  
You’ll know things are changing when protestors attack the Democratic Party, not just boogie man Trump.  
 

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jan 26 2026 21:34 utc | 234

Posted by: wagelaborer | Jan 26 2026 21:31 utc | 250
 
#####
 
Trump was controversial back in the 80s. All one has to do is watch Netflix’s “Get Me Roger Stone” documentary to understand that attention is currency and there is no such thing as too much or bad attention. The worst thing that can happen in their minds is if no one is talking about you at all.
 
We have seen people blame the CIA, Bibi, and the MSM. It is always someone else.
 
Almost like a tacit admission that Trump does not exist except as a proxy for others, which is not the impression his fans want to promote…

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 21:40 utc | 235

Posted by: frithguild | Jan 26 2026 20:52 utc | 230
 
LOL   I am more different and have more difference in my accent alone from a guy 50km further than an american from Florida and Alaska or NY and LA.
 You couldn’t find a more uniform and slavishly consumer minded sheep country than the  US shithole. 
Everyone goes to the same shitty mega stores, buys the same shit quality corn sugar ‘coffee’ at their Shitbucks, eat the same garbage Mc D or Taco Bell, wear  the same shitty brand clothes and drive the same vehicles, etc…     
Puppets saluting their rag when their murder jets need to fly over some dumb game for some reason, singing their little anthem.   
Being american is their whole identity.  
Individuality and freedom, the thing they can’t shut up about but ironically they couldn’t be further from it.
  
 
    
 

Posted by: Ed Bernays | Jan 26 2026 21:42 utc | 236

“Why Is Trump Causing His Own Downfall?”
 
Because he is a stupid bully, has been one for the last 79 years. The real question is, Why Do So Many Support a stupid bully?

Posted by: lester | Jan 26 2026 21:43 utc | 237

Why do you seem to assume that Trump’s people will allow anything like a free and fair election this November– or in Nov. 2028?

Posted by: Helena Cobban | Jan 26 2026 21:47 utc | 238

Posted by: lester | Jan 26 2026 21:43 utc | 255
 
Because the other bullies are also stupid and controlled by the same people

Posted by: Saint Jimmy | Jan 26 2026 21:51 utc | 239

When the count is genuinely faked there will be evidence presented in the law suits. 
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jan 26 2026 17:13 utc | 75
__________________
My grandpa had a saying: “Thinking Democrats don’t cheat in elections is like thinking women don’t fart.”

Posted by: Gene Poole | Jan 26 2026 21:53 utc | 240

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 19:27 utc | 172
Well. His timing has better between soon or not much will be left of NATO and the US political capital in the world. Not that I am complaining, mind you. As a citizen of a vassal country ™, I’d love nothing more than the US to go into full civil war and my country to leave its orbit for bluer skies.

Posted by: Lemming | Jan 26 2026 21:53 utc | 241

Posted by: Lemming | Jan 26 2026 21:53 utc | 259
 
Cue Irving Berlin’s “blue skies”

Posted by: Lemming | Jan 26 2026 21:54 utc | 242

It is not unusual for chronic narcissists of his caliber to seek self-destruction. He is also losing his mind and his general health. He threatens everyone due to his toxic internal state which he seeks to hide. I suggest the reason we hear little from his entourage now is because they cannot work with him and they sense the decline in popularity directed at his presidency. The rats will be thinking of abandoning the ship to save face and future careers. What a huge disaster awaits. This Frankenstein was created all by America itself and he is a befitting a badge on the entire Empire of Chaos in rapid downfall.

Posted by: GeorgeWendell | Jan 26 2026 21:55 utc | 243

apart from putting a physical unique microchip on each eligible voter, I do not see that there is much hope of honest accuracy in digital voting systems… And even then, as many have pointed out, the uniparty is determined to own any candidate… Or any issue that is important to them
Posted by: E | Jan 26 2026 20:18 utc | 201
_________________________________________
 
The majority of US voters have paper ballots.
Less than 5% vote in districts where votes are electronically recorded.
https://verifiedvoting.org/verifier/#mode/navigate/map/voteEquip/mapType/ppEquip/year/2024
 
You are correct that the control of the system is maintained  not at the ballot box but by who is allowed on the ballot. 
 

Posted by: jinn | Jan 26 2026 21:57 utc | 244

Trump knows that the US Republic is now simply a pro-forma that is convulsing itself into an imperium – the institutions are still there, but they have become a mockery of what was intended.
Well, Octavius rode that a similar moment of chaos to become Augustus Caesar, first Emporer of the Roman Empire.
That’s what Trump is jockeying towards, however crudely.
After all, if you are going to have a go then you may as well go biggly.
 

Posted by: Yeah, Right | Jan 26 2026 22:01 utc | 245

““ICE should focus on the bad hombres. The bad hombres, that’s it, not the cleaning ladies,” said Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.). “One thing is the gardeners, another thing is the gangsters. One thing is the cooks, the other thing is the coyotes.””
 
But the “bad hombres” are Trump and those like him! Trump is the one who refuses to pay contracters, Trump is the rapists (2 civil suit convictions), Trump is the one with 34 felony convicfions. White coller crooks, stealing our money and making us homeless, are our main problem, not cal ladies without children, J. D. Vance to the contrary.

Posted by: lester | Jan 26 2026 22:03 utc | 246

The US voted Trump because of all  the things that Biden-Harris did wrong in the previous administration. Also, in Trump’s previous administration,  he was NOWHERE NEAR this wild. Also, methinks that the US needs more than two choices in elections, something like Britain has. Our two parties frequently don’t provide any high quality candidates. 

Posted by: HelenB | Jan 26 2026 22:03 utc | 247

Maybe he’s simply incompetent.

Posted by: Ben McDonnell | Jan 26 2026 22:03 utc | 248

In this reality-based context, a better question would be “Why is Netanyahu ordering Trump to shit in his own pants?” . . . Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jan 26 2026 16:26 utc | 29 Now we’re talking.  I think you’re on to something there.  . . .
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jan 26 2026 16:32 utc | 35
==================
 
Yes. Perhaps the tail/dog conundrum (who is the dog and who is the tail in the Israel-DC relationship) is being answered for us. Sure looks to me like a combo of Netanyahu, Rubio, and domestic actors who are giving Trump very bad advice re the Minneapolis shitshow—the optics—are leading Trump down a garden path to his own destruction. And no one is able to “moderate” him.
This makes me wonder about Melania. Remember Nancy Reagan, how it was assumed that she was more or less steering Reagan away from various icebergs as he aged?
Melania Trump is not stupid. She surely could come up with some way to influence her hubby. For starters, tell him to tone it down on Truth Social, or stay away from social media entirely. Is she outgunned in the “power behind the throne” terrain by Ivanka?  As a Slav she must be aware of the hatred of Jews for Slavs.
 
It makes me wonder about the intrafamilial dynamics Chez Trump.

Posted by: Jane | Jan 26 2026 22:06 utc | 249

“ell, Octavius rode that a similar moment of chaos to become Augustus Caesar, first Emporer of the Roman Empire.That’s what Trump is jockeying towards, however crudely.”
 
Trump is NOT Octavius Caesar!  More like Caligula. 

Posted by: lester | Jan 26 2026 22:07 utc | 250

“ell, Octavius rode that a similar moment of chaos to become Augustus Caesar, first Emporer of the Roman Empire.That’s what Trump is jockeying towards, however crudely.”
 
Trump is NOT Octavius Caesar!  More like Caligula. 

Posted by: lester | Jan 26 2026 22:09 utc | 251

Trump.has only two election constituencies, white supremacy and Joos.
He is inflaming no 1 and no 2 equally.
He’s not a something-opath. He’s a bully, a quality which is respected in the US.
That’s the problem.
 
Why? Which is the question b has asked, is maybe connected to the self-respect which African descendants have shown for their own existence. 
In other words in US culture,  being up front and forthright earns respect. The criminal Whites copy the innocent victim blacks.
 
In other words, how much he loses the approval of Christian, White culture, he gains approval of Black  culture and its supporters.
Trump is a crafty old emotional manipulator  who believes in nothing except his own gain.
 
And Americans love that shit.  No comment.
 

Posted by: Giyane | Jan 26 2026 22:20 utc | 252

Donald Trump has said he will increase tariffs on South Korea to 25 per cent in response to Seoul’s slow pace in passing the trade deal it struck with the US last year.

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Jan 26 2026 22:21 utc | 253

Tariffs are generating hundreds of billions of dollars for the US treasury.
 
Don’t like tariffs?  Buy American!
 
Oh that’s right I forgot, Bush I and II, Billy Boy Clinton, Hussein Obama, and Joey Boy Biden sold out US heavy and light industry with horrendous free trade deals, destroying the Great Lakes Industrial Region, and causing the loss of twenty million good paying jobs.  The sellout POTUS’s flew cover for predatory trading practices.  They were neo con deep state WEF captives, brought and paid for.
Don’t like tariffs? Buy American !  By the way record low petroleum prices helps consumers and industry too.

Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 26 2026 22:22 utc | 254

““ICE should focus on the bad hombres. The bad hombres, that’s it, not the cleaning ladies,” said Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.). “One thing is the gardeners, another thing is the gangsters. One thing is the cooks, the other thing is the coyotes.””
==========
Not sure I agree with this. Many have suggested that the way to deal with  illegal immigrants and remove them from the USA  is top-down: via employers, welfare receipts, etc. That is, via actions that do not target individuals but that apply labor and other laws to stop companies from hiring illegals (and that stop nonprofits from supporting them and encouraging more to arrive). 
It seems like the real problem here is that the economy has become too dependent on the labor of illegals to clamp down on the illegality of the whole situ. Recall the dependence of the whole US economy on slave labor and the drag this presented in trying to eradicate slavery.
 
But the dependence on illegals’ labor is also creating a huge drag on the economy in various ways. And because illegals are, well, illegal, we probably cannot obtain clear cost-benefit data for the country as a whole, or for different geog. regions, or for different economic sectors for  how much illegals contribute to the economy vs. how much they cost the public purse. In my community we have had to build a hugely expensive new school where 40% of the children are illegals or children of illegals, do not speak English, require ESL instruction, require all kinds of things that the public is paying for—not to mention the huge debt to build this big new school in the first place. 
We need economic reforms in the US such that the economy, or certain sectors of it, is not dependent on illegals’ labor.

Posted by: Jane | Jan 26 2026 22:22 utc | 255

So Tobias Cole came through for us and did a whole lot of shitposting here.
 
I’ve got two things to say to you, Mr. Cole:
 
Number one, your recent posts here prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are, sorry, don’t know how else to put it, that you are completely full of shit when it comes to Trump and his policies.
 
Second, I have to say that I appreciate your presence here at MoA. It so perfectly goes against the mainstream here. So I would never, ever even want to think about your being banned here. You keep on doing you. No matter how wrong you may be.
 
There must be a certain amount of bravery on your part to continue your one-man campaign of rationalizing and supporting Trump and his unhinged policies.

Posted by: George the Zeroth | Jan 26 2026 22:32 utc | 256

which is worse, the bitcoin preacher, or the apologist for everything trumpian?? 
Posted by: james | Jan 26 2026 20:49 utc
 
I know a guy who does both – a fellow Canadian who I went to graduate school with and who is now a financial and geopolitical “pundit.”  He was not the sharpest tool though tool he was and is.  He now thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room but he was never close to that in grad school.  

Posted by: spudski | Jan 26 2026 22:41 utc | 257

American Notes
Charles Dickens @1842

“Where sat the many legislators of coarse threats; of words and blows such as coalheavers deal upon each other, when they forget their breeding? On every side. Every session had its anecdotes of that kind, and the actors were all there.

Did I recognise in this assembly, a body of men, who, applying themselves in a new world to correct some of the falsehoods and vices of the old, purified the avenues to Public Life, paved the dirty ways to Place and Power, debated and made laws for the Common Good, and had no party but their Country?

I saw in them, the wheels that move the meanest perversion of virtuous Political Machinery that the worst tools ever wrought. Despicable trickery at elections; under-handed tamperings with public officers; cowardly attacks upon opponents, with scurrilous newspapers for shields, and hired pens for daggers; shameful trucklings to mercenary knaves, whose claim to be considered, is, that every day and week they sow new crops of ruin with their venal types, which are the dragon’s teeth of yore, in everything but sharpness; aidings and abettings of every bad inclination in the popular mind, and artful suppressions of all its good influences: such things as these, and in a word, Dishonest Faction in its most depraved and most unblushing form, stared out from every corner of the crowded hall.”

Posted by: Ornot | Jan 26 2026 22:42 utc | 258

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 21:02 utc | 237
 
True but those differences have been lessened by technology and rapidly shifting populations because of regional busts and booms…. which are turning into mostly busts. However, those regional identities are shaped over 200 to 300 years by geography, climate, and history. I can see four or five different regions within Texas that vary somewhat in culture, economic interests, and attitudes. 

Posted by: Saint Jimmy | Jan 26 2026 22:43 utc | 259

CE agents are not brownshirts.  Antifa and their ilk are.  What you are seeing is an active insurgency to overthrow the government by the Democrats and their allies.  The media is also complicit which is why the polls and coverage are wrong. . . .
Posted by: me | Jan 26 2026 20:38 utc | 215
=============
It is interesting to note how many people refer to the right-wing Brownshirts but do not refer at all to the left-wing paramilitary groups and gangs that engaged in street violence with the Brownshirts, especially in Berlin.  I guess if the left-wingers had had a color they might lend themselves better to hindsight labeling. And of course the fact that the right ultimately prevailed in Germany (however, through a deal, not through the popular vote) is a 20-20 hindsight kind of filter.
The fact that Germans were genuinely frightened of violence from the left and a Bolshivik takeover of their country gets left out of the hindsight narrative. Although I am a bit surprised that b, a German, does this.

Posted by: Jane | Jan 26 2026 22:46 utc | 260

Minnesota National guard stepping between ICE and protesters:
https://youtu.be/O9cfkNaXMWM

Posted by: jared | Jan 26 2026 22:53 utc | 261

Posted by: HelenB | Jan 26 2026 22:03 utc | 265
 
######
 
There are many Parliamentary democracies that have many parties, but the candidates are still poor.
 
Western Democracy is a lousy system. Can’t put lipstick on that pig.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 22:54 utc | 262

“Many have suggested that the way to deal with  illegal immigrants and remove them from the USA  is top-down: via employers, welfare receipts, etc.
Posted by: Jane | Jan 26 2026 22:22 utc | 273
 
That would be the civilized way to do, and the first solution used by most of the countries worldwide. But the US likes to be different (non-metric units, “soccer”, guns, etc).
 
I find an interesting parallel : US goons catching people in the streets to send them to the (southern) border, Ukrainian goons catching people in the streets to send them to the (eastern) border.
 

Posted by: Asian Frog | Jan 26 2026 22:57 utc | 263

@ spudski | Jan 26 2026 22:41 utc | 275
 
arrogance and hubris go hand in hand… such is life for the arrogant – an ongoing life of hubris…

Posted by: james | Jan 26 2026 22:58 utc | 264

Tariffs are generating hundreds of billions of dollars for the US treasury.
 
Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 26 2026 22:22 utc | 272
 
#####
 
How much of that covers the fiscal deficit?
 
Or, how much more is America spending than she is taking in?
 
I have run a few small businesses, and a negative cash position is not sustainable. One can take out another loan, mortgage a personal home, borrow from family, rapidly turn over inventory, cut payroll, reduce advertising, but at the end of the day, a losing situation is a losing situation.
But seriously, can you link to some numbers on tariff  “income”? I ask because tariffs are consumption taxes but with a “patriotic” veneer.
 
Even children know that nothing is free, and the tariff “income” comes at the expense of Americans’ standard of living.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 23:05 utc | 265

The dishonesty is cumulative, and people are starting to notice the nastiness of this US government. Look at the two recent murders by Trump’s goons – the first reaction of people who are in positions of power is to lie and create a false narrative blaming the victims.

Posted by: Dave G | Jan 26 2026 23:06 utc | 266

You know the story of the blind men each describing  an elepahant by touch alone.  One grabbed the tail and thought is was a skinny rop like animal like a snake, another felt the legs and thought it was like a tree, a third seized the trunk and thought it like a powerful snake or sea creature.
 
Trying to assess Trump is much the same.  Almost each of you who has tried to describe him is right in parts. He is all of the things noted, to a degree.
Yes he is a narcissist 
Yes he is an actor a lot of the time
Yes he plays kayfabe al the time using distraction to achieve things under the radar
Yes he is in total train of Nuttyahoo
Yes he is pro Russian (or at least likes Russian women)
Yes he is a racist and dislikes Asians and Blacks and I suspect Latinos
Yes he is super emotional and speaks before he thinks
Yes he really did want peace (with Russia) but could not deliver
Yes he has an element of genuine nationalism – America first, touched with a threat of isolationism
Yes he has autocratic even fascist tendencies
Yes he sees the US as it is ie on the edge economically and really does want to bring manufacturing back
Yes he is ill informed and chooses bizarre methods to achieve goals that mostly backfire
Yes he is a bully
Yes he is a slick operator willing to lie and cheat to get his deals done
Yes he has a way over blown notion of his own abilities
Yes he does have (or did) an amazing touch with “real people” and political sentiment
Yes he sometimes shows cleverness of a certain kind
Yes he is TACO
Yes he is ageing and possibly losing his skill set
Yes he has toddler tantrums
Yes he has charisma of some kind and gets popular support
Yes he is a sleaze with women
Yes he calls a spade a spade (ie Department of War)
 
Now what the heck does all that add up to. I am not sure I know, but nor does anyone else.
 
Let us get back to the fundamentals.  The USA election/governmental processes are defunct. USA is not a democracy and barely making it as an actual operating national government. Why do I say this? Because a contradictory person like Trump was elected in the first place.  The dysfunctional system and the deep disquiet within the US electorate are the issues.  How is it possible that the electoral system threw up Trump as a candidate first in 2016. 2020 and again in 2024,  How was it that his opponents also were essentially dysfunctional.  The Biden  debacle in 2024 was appalling, and the selection of Harris to try to fix the muddle an impossible task. 
 
In 2016 the democrats threw up Hilary Clinton. Did NO-ONE consider how from outside the USA, it appears like the processes one expects in a failed state or one with a very newly emerged “democracy.”    Just think Bush Senior, followed by Clinton. OK everything normal, but then, Bush Junior, a family dynasty and a President in no way up to the job, just a family name. Then after Bush the real rival was Clinton. Sort of like India or Argentina in the 1960s when the wives of leaders took over. They may each have been great but it is the look of the thing, and so clearly indicating competing family dynasties, rather than genuine democracy.   Obama briefly appeared to change the approach, but then in 2016, again Clinton dynasty.
 
The seeds of a dynastic approach to governance in USA were already there. Two Roosevelts, then the near royalty status awarded to the Kennedys, were warning signs.
 
So rather that spending time thinking about Trump the person, think of the system that produced him.  Think in particular why the checks and balances that are supposed to stop such dynastic take overs, and rule by madmen are so very, very weak.
 
Think also whether trump The oddity is actually in control or just a puppet or spokesman. Think what would happen if there was a change of president, first to Vance or then to some Democrat. Would the US policy actually change? It may become more polite, but in reality, Trump’s agenda and that of Biden are really much the same. 
 
 
 
 
 

Posted by: watcher | Jan 26 2026 23:07 utc | 267

Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 26 2026 20:32 utc | 207

And then western historians call Stalin bad names for purging all the scum that worked against the country and the people.

I can bet you, if any western country today bring on trial all the subversive elements (politicians primary, all those in power that can be fairly tried for corruption and/or treason) – that they would have equal or more dead than in Stalin purges.

Because that is what money and liberalism does to country, if you don’t take care.

Posted by: Abe | Jan 26 2026 23:07 utc | 268

Individuality and freedom, the thing they can’t shut up about but ironically they couldn’t be further from it.
Posted by: Ed Bernays | Jan 26 2026 21:42 utc | 254
 
Truth. US people are all boiled frogs (no reference to the French intended).

Posted by: frithguild | Jan 26 2026 23:07 utc | 269

Posted by: james | Jan 26 2026 22:58 utc | 282
 
Right you are.  Guy’s a total narcissist.

Posted by: spudski | Jan 26 2026 23:09 utc | 270

By referring to ICE officers as brown shirts you discredit yourself. I will go so far as to say you have jumped the shark. Through reading you for more than fifteen years, I have witnessed your incipient decrepitude advance and it seems that you are now, sadly, unable to parse the information available to you.
 
Brown shirts indeed. Get a grip.

Posted by: whocanibenow | Jan 26 2026 23:10 utc | 271

Amazing that there are still so many Americans even on these pages still apologising for Trump. Poor little Donald.

And if he is criticised then you have to be a radical leftist or Democrat supporter.

One thing I have noticed is that many Americans think uniquely in black and white terms and have no idea what the political right or left actually are, nor do they know the history behind such terms.

For many Left seems to mean transgender ‘woke’ and Democrat.

No doubt the Democrats had something to do with conveying that view but it is laziness to avoid actually researching such terms that allows useful idiots to do the work of those who seek to control their minds and serve the purposes of US billionaire elites.

It’s why whatever party you elect you get the same stinking monoparty run by the billionaire parasites.

Posted by: GeorgeWendell | Jan 26 2026 23:14 utc | 272

275 trumper , bit coiner, and canuck ?! That is freak-ish combo 
Posted by: E | Jan 26 2026 23:01 utc | 283
XXXX
 
Bullseye.  He knows how to cover his ‘liabilities’.  (:-))
 
 

Posted by: spudski | Jan 26 2026 23:14 utc | 273

@290
 
Comparing ICE panickers to Brownshirts is wrong.
 
When Brownshirts killed they were not ill trained, fearful panickers.
 
Fearing for their lives….
 

Posted by: paddy | Jan 26 2026 23:15 utc | 274

Posted by: E | Jan 26 2026 23:17 utc | 294
 
I wouldn’t buy any UST, nor would I have sold all of our gold.  

Posted by: spudski | Jan 26 2026 23:20 utc | 275

Oh that’s right I forgot, Bush I and II, Billy Boy Clinton, Hussein Obama, and Joey Boy Biden sold out US heavy and light industry with horrendous free trade deals, destroying the Great Lakes Industrial Region, and causing the loss of twenty million good paying jobs.  The sellout POTUS’s flew cover for predatory trading practices.  They were neo con deep state WEF captives, brought and paid for.
Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 26 2026 22:22 utc | 272
 
That’s bullshit.
Politicians didn’t offshore anything … the corporations themselves did and at the time investors couldn’t have been happier. The Great lakes industrial region was sold out by corporate raiders during the M&E heydays of the 1980’s. Companies didn’t want to invest in outdated plant with unionized workforce so they fired the union workforce and sold off their plants for scrap and redevelopment. You can import steel from China for a fraction of what it costs to make in the USA and investors LOVED it … remember Gorden Gekko “Greed is Good”.
 
Unless you’re either willing to work for third world wages or willing to pay double what you pay today no ones going to invest in industrial jobs in the USA.  Forget about single family homes and $100k pickup trucks it’s going to be families in a one bedroom apartment and a motor scooter if you want the work. You can legislate or tax all you like you won’t convince investors to invest in the USA unless they can make money at it
 

Posted by: HB_Norica | Jan 26 2026 23:23 utc | 276

@ E | Jan 26 2026 23:17 utc | 294
 
sure… carney is working for the 1 % and is happy to do as told.. guy is a disaster for canada, but you already knew that.. pp would be just as bad or worse…. we have no choices here in canada – same as pretty well everywhere else and just how this same 1% want it… how do you see it?? did you expect something different from carney?? 

Posted by: james | Jan 26 2026 23:24 utc | 277

When was the last time the US had a “positive” policy ? Posted by: Hiro Masamune | Jan 26 2026 19:50 utc | 188 — The “New Deal”. 
Posted by: too scents | Jan 26 2026 19:53 utc | 190

 
And even that was a clever neo-Bismarckian strategy to co-opt/neutralize the socialist movement.

Posted by: malenkov | Jan 26 2026 23:24 utc | 278

ps, i was aware of this info as well…. most canucks are not..

Posted by: james | Jan 26 2026 23:25 utc | 279

Posted by: Jane | Jan 26 2026 22:46 utc | 278  Our host does not cite the Nazi propaganda about a terrible Bolshevik takeover in 1931 because he is German. And it’s still embarrassing to make such an apology for Nazis there. The revolutionary period in Germany had finally been defeated by 1923, partially by the bloody class treason of the social democrats/socialists who united with the capitalists, the Junkers and the protofascist Freikorps to murder as many revolutionaries as possible. And partially because the KPD and the Comintern didn’t figure out how to achieve the gargantuan task of not just winning a revolution but remaking from the ground up. The social collapse induced by the Great Depression had further destabilized Germany, as well as worsening its prospects for recovering its power after defeat in WWI.
 
Yes, the Communists did revive…but so did the Social Democrats. It is obvious now that a united front of Social Democrats and Communists was the most likely way to defeat the threat of fascism. That is, for those who can tell that there is a difference between fascism and bourgeois democracy. But the Social Democrats were not going to do that. It takes two to make peace, or a united front. There was thus no Bolshevik threat barring a complete collapse of the state. The weakness of the bourgeoisie in the face of the continue hostility of Britain and France and the bankruptcy of the depression led them to choose fascism, and enroll Hitler as their manager. They could do so precisely because they thought the workers, partly misled by the social democrats, posed no real threat. Thus they thought they could dismiss Hitler after he helped them solve problems of national reconstruction. The unions still posed obstacles to re-working the system to their complete satisfaction. Again, the claim there was a legitimate fear of Bolshevism destroying German cvilization is fascist BS. 

Posted by: steven t johnson | Jan 26 2026 23:33 utc | 280

Posted by: jinn | Jan 26 2026 21:57 utc | 262  Correct. That is the primary method. The primary system—primaries are not a law of nature!—is designed to filter out unacceptable candidates who can’t get big money donors, for one thing. The overrepresentation of rural areas baked into the system is another. So-called gerrymandering (both parties do that by the way) is another. Games with voter suppression, such as hiding polling stations, shortages of ballots or voting machines, rigging the polling hours and dates. Elections in the US are on workdays to minimize turnout. Straight up voter fraud is very important on occasion usually carried out by the dominant party, especially in primaries as near as I can tell. But that is both sporadic and bipartisan and usually limited to a local level. The US is so big and decentralized that buying votes on a national scale is immensely difficult. Consider Elon Musk’s effort to buy votes in Pennsylvania in disguies of his voter registration lottery. He spent some millions and it’s not even clear that it made much difference. (He should still be highly discredited for the effort, but this is largely a Trump commentariat.)
 
Falsifying vote counts is negligible for one reason, the US is too decentralized to make it feasible. Talking about falsifying vote counts is strictly about supporting Trump mythology of 2020. It’s a performative oath of fealty. 

Posted by: steven t johnson | Jan 26 2026 23:46 utc | 281

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 16:01 utc | 7
(re Trump and elections)
*** What if he doesn’t lose power? What if he suspends elections? What if he refuses to acknowledge defeat? ***
 
 
But — serious question — what if he actually wins? 
 

Posted by: Cynic | Jan 26 2026 23:49 utc | 282

“Why is he insisting that his immigration police Brownshirts are in the right when everyone who sees the videos of their actions recognizes that their behavior is simply abhorrent?”

 
 
I despise Trump but it’s fairly amateurish to imagine that the zionist oligarch owned obtuse obese orange orang utan decides anything. His owners make the decisions for him.  As to why they make those decisions, one can speculate to one’s heart’s content, but my own idea is that they want to create and maintain a state of simmering near civil war in America that can be turned on and off when necessary so that people don’t notice they’re getting looted by the oligarchs because they’re too busy hating each other.
 
Meanwhile,  zionist propagandists like Kunstler and the Trump fellators on zerohedge.com are rushing to support their orange god and blaming his victims. Ironically the far right and openly racist unz.com is now infinitely saner and more balanced than the zerohedge Trumpanzee cult.

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayastha | Jan 26 2026 23:58 utc | 283

Trump is a lame duck so on the one hand doesn’t have to care about voters. On the other hand he has noted that a Democratic congress would impeach him. But it appears that they Senate will stay at least 50/50 making it hard to impeach him. But it would only take a few Republican senators to impeach him so he has to make sure none will turn on him.

Posted by: Cheney | Jan 27 2026 0:02 utc | 284

Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 26 2026 20:57 utc | 234 Yes, the victims of ICE and CBP are being vilified, the entire population of Minneapolis is being vilified, the entire Somali community is being vilified. No, the so-called political opposition (the Democratic Party) is not  conducting a street campaign and a media campaign in support of its organized political opposition, for the good reason it is not conducting an organized political opposition. This liar pretends that all MSM is left wing. The tobias coles and the wagelaborers and the whole motley crew of blind Trump worshipper propagandists are not bravely generating their own copy. They get their lying talking points the same way as Gruff himself, either from the right wing MSM or directly from CIA. The fact that it’s hard to repress videos from cell phones seems to have escaped Gruff’s absurd worldview, in which every opinion he thinks hurts Trump is written by the CIA. Why, those people wouldn’t even have time to run drugs when they’re spending all their time writing copy for Fox News and Newsmax and National Review and White House press releases. Katrina Leavitt must be one of the CIA’s most valued agents, for her influence on the news!
 
And support for a general strike in 1934 is worth nothing, when your only purpose is to fight against popular mobilization now. The demand by Gruff’s ally the Trotskyite wrecker for everyone to attack Democrats is of course exactly the Trump program. You attack the vanguard forces first. And though the wrecker has no problem with fascists (indeed, he loves him some anti-Semites, he tries to recruit them at every turn) I suggest you fight the fascists first. And I conclude that anyone who insists on the totally pure revolution instantly is either a fool or a fraud. 

Posted by: steven t johnson | Jan 27 2026 0:03 utc | 285

Again, the claim there was a legitimate fear of Bolshevism destroying German cvilization is fascist BS. 
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jan 26 2026 23:33 utc | 303
=============
 
Um, that is not what I said.
However, it did take two groups to create street violence and brawls in Berlin, not one.
While we are at it, how about defining “legitimate.”
 
You also glide past the fact that the Germans did not vote Hitler and the Nazi Party into power.
 
 

Posted by: Jane | Jan 27 2026 0:04 utc | 286

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 26 2026 16:01 utc | 7(re Trump and elections)*** What if he doesn’t lose power? What if he suspends elections? What if he refuses to acknowledge defeat? ***  But — serious question — what if he actually wins?  
Posted by: Cynic | Jan 26 2026 23:49 utc | 308
 
No, that is not a serious question.
 
Because he cannot win, legally: the Constitution prohibits it.
And no, he ain’t gonna get the Constitution amended.

Posted by: George the Zeroth | Jan 27 2026 0:04 utc | 287

Vragtes | Jan 26 2026 17:50 utc | 110

It was said of Hitler that if he didn’t exist he’d need to be created.

Look more deeply into the zionist project from the late 1880s/1890s to the 1917 Balfour Declaration,  and the establishment of Israel in 1948.
Strong evidence exists the art school failure, was, indeed, manufactured in the zionist foundry.
 
Q: Who wrote the history of the Second World War?
A: Churchill.
Supplementary question. Why would you believe anything he stated?
——
We don’t have the truth about events in our own lifetime: JFK RFK MLK USS Liberty, 9/11. October 7.
We don’t have the truth about the Minnesota guy killed – witnessed with multiple camera angles – just this weekend.
 
Why would we have the truth about 1900-1945 Germany?

Posted by: Melaleuca | Jan 27 2026 0:12 utc | 288

I would imagine that fundamentally because he’s a mobster obsessed with his own personal enrichment, the Napoleon not of political, let alone military, victories, but the Napoleon of graft and venal crime, at least in his own mind. He wants to be the richest man in the world, but his expenses must also be horrendous, in terms of the mismanagement and theft or graft by others in turn of his own largely illicit wealth.

Posted by: Ludovic | Jan 27 2026 0:13 utc | 289

@Tomo  #1
Don’t you mean sociopaths?
Sociopath = Patrick Bateman
Psychopath = Hannibal Lecter
 

Posted by: fnord | Jan 27 2026 0:15 utc | 290

@ Cheney | Jan 27 2026 0:02 utc | 315
 
Brief civics lesson:
 
A simple majority vote in the House of Representatives is all it takes to impeach. But all impeachment does is refer the case to the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is necessary to convict and remove from office.

Posted by: malenkov | Jan 27 2026 0:16 utc | 291

Jane | Jan 27 2026 0:04 utc | 317

{it takes} two groups to create street violence and brawls…

And the 2014 Maiden Square in Ukraine proves both sides can be activated, motivated and funded by the same Architects.
Cui Bono.. The guys in the shadows busy harvesting under the cover of chaos.
>…[ Someone was ready and prepped to airlift $140b Ukraine central bank gold out the very night Maiden kicked off.]
 
Whatever is happening on the streets of the U$, … there’s lots happening in places people are too distracted to look….

Posted by: Melaleuca | Jan 27 2026 0:29 utc | 292

@Melaleuca | Jan 27 2026 0:29 utc: Can you provide some links / backup for the assertion that $140b of Ukraine central bank was airlifted out on the same date as Maidan kicked off?
 
I think that’s the first time I’ve seen that assertion, and I’d like to verify it. Thanks.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Jan 27 2026 0:43 utc | 293

But — serious question — what if he actually wins?
 
Posted by: Cynic | Jan 26 2026 23:49 utc | 308
 
######
 
After the monkeys stop flying out of my butt, I will probably go introduce myself to the pink elephant in the room.
 
Some may be confusing elections. The OP references the midterms. I think some are talking about re-election in ’28.
 
They are very different elections with very different stakes.
 
If Trump uses the Insurrection Act, I would expect it for the midterms. If he can survive 2 more years, that is 2 more years to end the Ukraine war and to make America wealthier than ever before with tariffs. 🙄🙄🙄

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 27 2026 0:43 utc | 294

Although I am a bit surprised that b, a German, does this.
Posted by: Jane | Jan 26 2026 22:46 utc | 278
Those, like you, who are “suprised” should study history (again?), facts, timing and not revisionist propaganda. b is right and know his country history : communists, socialists and anarchists ultimately (but too late) formed self-defense groups in reaction to nazis brown-shirt physical violence, not the other way around. To write that the German people feared a bolshevik revolution is to repeat and validate nazi propaganda. It was the German and Western bourgeoisie who feared a socialist revolution and who financed and promoted the nazis to counter it in Germany. And to kill it in Russia….It “worked” in Germany, much less in Russia.

Posted by: Tak-Tik | Jan 27 2026 0:45 utc | 295

Border Patrol Official Who Led Crackdown Is Expected to Leave Minnesota
 
Gregory Bovino, who became a target of fierce criticism, is set to depart as President Trump moves to deflect anger over a second fatal shooting. Mr. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, will now direct ICE operations in the state

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Jan 27 2026 0:58 utc | 296

@ 246 Love
 
THX for the reply. In the ongoing wrestling of control of the conservative mind right now, some not-so-fringe voices are suggesting to suspend some freedoms to wrest control of the country from “captured” bureaucratic appointments. (the usual suspects: Obama/Biden appointed judges, ETC.)
 
Two points worth thinking about:
 

  1. After suspending legal appointments and liberties through the invoking of administrative acts and decrees, are we sure once the bad weeds are rooted out that the Executive will claim victory and restorce what we knew was normalcy?
  2. Is what we are operating under truly a normal rule-of-law or is it a continual and coordinated debasement by the duopoly… Was there ever a golden age of law in the U.S.?

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jan 27 2026 0:59 utc | 297

“Trump threatens Iran with ‘armada’ bigger than around Venezuela”
 
https://www.rt.com/news/631560-trump-bigger-armada-iran/
 
 
I suspect that it will be similar to the ‘invincible’ Spanish Armada.

Posted by: GeorgeWendell | Jan 27 2026 1:07 utc | 298

Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 26 2026 20:42 utc | 219

Complete rubbish. Do you even believe the crap that you write.

Posted by: anon | Jan 27 2026 1:09 utc | 299

“Trump threatens Iran with ‘armada’ bigger than around Venezuela”
 
https://www.rt.com/news/631560-trump-bigger-armada-iran/
 
 
I suspect that it will be similar to the ‘invincible’ Spanish Armada.
 
Posted by: GeorgeWendell | Jan 27 2026 1:07 utc | 337
 
For no particular reason this time….

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Jan 27 2026 1:11 utc | 300