Author: admin

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin Niemöller

I woke up on the side of the bed that has me believing America’s democracy is already lost because I genuinely and most certainly live in the dumbest f***ing country on the planet. Poll after poll has Biden losing to traitor trump as if the previous eight years of the dictator wannabe being in the spotlight never existed. It is incomprehensible to me that given everything we know and witnessed about traitor trump — from the incompetence during his four years in the White House to ending Roe to the f***ing G.D. insurrection on January 6 to Project 2025 — more people want a return to him. I can’t. I just f***ing can’t anymore with this supremely stupid, retarded, messed up country anymore. At some point, all my screaming into the wind will leave me hoarse and speechless. At what point do Americans actually wake up? I contend the answer is never, for they are already awake, contrary to what dumbass Democrats will tell you about voters “not paying attention” yet. Apparently, voters are paying enough attention to form an opinion about the state of Biden’s presidency by telling pollsters that they prefer traitor trump instead.

People are awake alright, but they are just plain old stupid, and if it’s not the stupidity, then it’s the apathy, and if it’s not the apathy, then it’s just a straight-up desire to live in a fascist state. Full stop! I mean, if the squishy middle (5-10 percent) of the electorate that decides and swings elections is incapable of discerning between someone who wants to preserve our democracy and the guy who wants to end it, then America is lost. But that is precisely where we are. Voters who simply can’t tell the difference. All is lost. Mark my words. I’ve been writing about this for years — ever since Biden was elected. I’ve been writing that it’s just a matter of time until the end. My first indication is when traitor trump got 10 million more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. After four years of his presidency, it was clear that more people wanted more of his disastrous policies. Ten million people said, “Yes, more of that traitor trump mess, please!” They liked the hatred and the viciousness that traitor trump embodies and professes. That was my first clue. I have long been warning that Biden is merely the intermission until the end of America’s democracy, and we are right on track for my prediction to come to pass. Americans don’t want democracy.

F***tard Americans think that another traitor trump term would be inconsequential. Maybe they believe that America survived once under traitor trump, what’s another four years? (The last four years of democracy is the answer.) Morons of America simply fail to see that traitor trump is a threat to democracy. Sadly, they lack imagination. Have idiot Americans ever considered what happens if traitor trump declares martial law around the next election? What if he suspends elections? It’s never happened before, and I promise when he does, America will be utterly paralyzed by this Constitutional crisis; and SCOTUS will, no doubt, be unable to cope with it, for traitor trump will simply ignore any ruling not in his favor. Then what? This is a real and almost certain possibility.

Or maybe voters will elect traitor trump, believing that his threats to minorities do not apply to them. They are not Hispanic. They are not Black. They are not Muslim or Jewish. They are not a non-citizen. Or they think they are a member of a protected class as if the judicial system and the Constitution will protect them — you, know, just like the Constitution protects a woman’s right to an abortion. None of us should feel safe, and that is why I started this post with the Niemöller quote, for when traitor trump, MAGA morons, evil evangelicals, and QAnon kooks are finished purging immigrants, Muslims, Jews, the gays, and Democrats, who do you think they will turn on next? Everyone thinks they are immune. Let me tell you: You! Are! Not! Mark my words, f***tards. Mark them well. I warned you first, and I’ve been doing it for years, but people just don’t care. Perhaps the only question that remains is this: Do Americans roll over and accept traitor trump as the new Führer, or do we rise up? Are Americans willing to engage in a second civil war to save the country, or do morons of America say, “Oh, well.” I have my intuition about the answer. (Hint: If Americans are too stupid and too disinterested in voting to avoid fascism, why should I believe they’ll take up arms to get America’s democracy back?) Welcome to stupid America!

Looks like pure, unadulterated hatred is going to get traitor trump elected and Biden unelected in 2024. The RepubliKKKlan, MAGA moron, evil evangelical, and QAnon kook hatred that traitor trump will represent on the ballot is well known, but now it seems hatred on the far left and among the yutes is going to either keep them home, vote for a third-party candidate, or vote for traitor trump. Any and all of these actions will result in a Biden loss and the end of our democracy. Once again, I refer to recent poll results to make my argument. From USA Today, “President Joe Biden is trailing former President Donald Trump in a hypothetical general election matchup among young voters, an NBC News poll released Sunday found. Among voters ages 18-34, Biden saw 42% support. That’s compared to Trump, who led him with 46% support. The poll is an early warning for Biden’s campaign ahead of the 2024 presidential election that young voters could be peeling away from him.” What does the youth hate? Apparently, the Jews. Oh sure, the youth vote has soured on Biden for years because they elected Biden as president but, in their infinite stupidity, failed to give him the majorities in Congress required to actually get anything done that they’ve expected him to do.

I would love to know how many yutes cast their ballot having only filled out the top line; that is to say, they voted for president but left all the other federal, state, and local races blank. I’m sure enough to actually make the difference because that is precisely what I would expect from our sh*t-for-brains country. But I digress. Back to the hate. So, the yutes hate the war and, by extension, Jews. It’s classic antisemitism, which cuts across all races, ages, and demographics. It’s the “Jews,” stupid! And, apparently, yutes love terrorist groups. You can’t hate the Jews and embrace Palestinians without tipping your prejudices in favor of the Gaza Strip “freedom fighters” (aka Hamas). Welcome to stupid America! Too dumb and too filled with hate to endure. The end is here! Mark my words, f***tards!

According to CNN, “Javier Milei won Argentina’s presidential elections on Sunday, wrenching his country to the right with a bombastic anti-establishment campaign that drew comparisons to that of former U.S. President Donald Trump – all against the backdrop of one of the world’s highest inflation rates. … Milei’s victory marks an extraordinary rise for the former T.V. pundit, who entered the race as a political outsider on a promise to ‘break up with the status quo’ – exemplified by his rival Sergio Massa, a career politician. … Milei, a social conservative with ties to the American right, opposes abortion rights and has called climate change a ‘lie of socialism.’ He has promised to slash government spending by closing Argentina’s ministries of culture, education, and diversity, and by eliminating public subsidies. … Similarities to Trump have not gone unnoticed in the United States as it prepares for its own presidential elections. Milei succeeded in attracting attention at home not only because of his political style – including wielding chainsaws and raging outbursts – but also because of the novelty of his positions and eagerness to upset the status quo.”… Outside of his controversial plan for dollarization, Milei’s political program includes slashing regulations on gun control and transferring authority over the penitentiary system from civilians to the military; both measures are part of a tough-on-crime approach. He proposes using public funds to support families who choose to educate their children privately and even privatizing the health sector, which in Argentina has always been in public hands.”

Another populist carnival barker T.V. showman gets elected on the promise to make Argentina like MAGA. What could possibly go wrong? To be sure, aside from all the cultural issues in the country, which I’ll get to in a minute, it looks like economic conditions provoked voters to sweep in a right-wing nut job into the presidency. More from CNN, “Milei’s economic platform rested on a desire to dollarize the Argentinian economy. Dollarization means the country would give up the Argentine peso and use the U.S. dollar as its currency. If enacted, the policy would hurl the nation into unknown territory: No country of Argentina’s size has previously turned over the reins of its own monetary policy to Washington decisionmakers. … Argentina has one of the world’s highest inflation rates; data released last week showed that prices rose 142% year-over-year. Milei’s proposal to switch Argentina’s currency from the peso to the U.S. dollar rests on the argument that the dollar is stronger than the peso and, unlike the peso, cannot be printed at will.” I guess this is the opposite of Argentina First. Make no mistake, relying on a foreign currency puts the future of an economy in the hands of that nation, not the home country. While America’s economy is the most stable and predictable (for the most part) in the world, countries tend not to be so excited about losing autonomy to influence their own economy through monetary policy at home. Now, that policy relies on the U.S.’s vicissitudes. But you know, when people elect a dictator, then they must abide by the dictator’s wishes, no matter how crazy or humiliating.

Then we come to the social or cultural aspects of a Milei presidency, which is being praised by traitor trump and Bolsonaro. These two endorsements tell you everything you know about Argentina’s new direction. Milei is anti-abortion, so abortions will become illegal. Oh, well. This was not a secret platform of his campaign. This is what people wanted; this was their vote! Of course, wherever anti-abortion sentiments lurk, so does anti-LGBTQ rights. I’m sure that’s soon to follow. Not to mention, the president-elect essentially was to destroy the “deep state” (aka closing Argentina’s ministries of culture, education, and diversity). And I can’t believe he wants to loosen gun regulations. Unbelievable. Apparently, everyone in Argentina is oblivious to the situation in the U.S. Good luck with that, morons! But, whatever. This is what people want, as made very clear by their vote.

The final point I want to make is this: Argentina is yet one more example of liberal democracies dying around the world, and f***tards of America are about to kill it here. Mark my words. Idiots in this country (and worldwide) apparently are sick of liberal democracies that aim to expand rights for everyone. Looks like morons of America want their dictator to be like other “great” nations of the world. The end is here. Argentina is more proof of where the world is headed, and America is not immune. We are entering the age of dictators. And no one cares. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

U.S. CONST. amend. XIV, § 3.

Let my id (maybe super-ego) rage for a minute before getting into some not-too-intense (but lengthy) legal analysis. In short, a Colorado judge found that traitor trump did, in fact, engage in an insurrection against the United States of America, but he’s allowed to do so. Un-f***ing-believable. The end is here! America is doomed because there is no judge or court in the land that will hold traitor trump accountable; they dare not cross the dictator in training for fear of God knows what. How can a nation survive when a judge recognizes that a former President of the United States of America surely engaged in a movement to overthrow the government, but there is nothing she can do about it, so why not let traitor trump run and try again? The country is so f***ing lost, and 50 percent of the sh*t-for-brains in this nation blindly follow the fascists right until the end of America’s democracy is assured.

And let me just say from the top that this judge, Sarah B. Wallace, started with the end in mind and then backward-engineered her opinion to find a way to keep traitor trump on the ballot. This is a classic example — that seems to be more and more popular with conservative judges and justices — of picking the desired outcome of a case first and then using tortured reasoning and a misreading of the law (or the Constitution) to make their preferred conclusions believable to the rest of us. If you read her opinion (which I did), then the flaws in her logic and her misconstruing text and meaning of the Constitution become apparent as she tries to make the end justify the means.

This judge spends the first 95 pages of a 102-page opinion painstakingly explaining in detail through an expansive review of the case’s facts, case law precedent, Constitutional law as it applies to the First and Fourteenth Amendments, textualism theory, histories and traditions reasoning, and dictionary definitions to conclude that traitor trump had, in fact, “engaged” in an “insurrection.” (The words are in quotes because the judge spent much time making sure the definitions of these “contentious” words fit the facts of the case, and I have the word contentious in quotes mockingly because judges like to make the obvious overly complicated.) The critical summary paragraph in her opinion reads, “Consequently, the Court finds that Petitioners have established that Trump engaged in an insurrection on January 6, 2021 through incitement, and that the First Amendment does not protect Trump’s speech.” (p. 95) (Norma Anderson et al. vs. Jena Griswold and Donald J. Trump, No. 2023CV32577, District Court, City and County of Denver, State of Colorado Nov. 17, 2023.)

Then, in the final, scant seven pages, she “explains” with weak and insubstantial reasoning why everything she just analyzed is worthless, as if she were tired of writing and simply wanted to end the opinion quickly like a high school student finishing up a term paper at the eleventh hour. Unlike the judge, I referred to a scholarly analysis to help me understand the Fourteenth Amendment. (See Bause, W. and Paulson, M. S., “The Sweep and Force of Section Three,” [2023].) The first — and most obvious — point of contention is why the President and the Vice President are not listed in the named offices to be disqualified. One taking a cursory and jejune reading of the Amendment may be easily persuaded that the Framers must have intended to omit the two highest offices in the land. They must have specifically barred insurrectionists from being disallowed from serving as President or Vice President. Of course, they must have! It only makes sense given the just concluded Civil War. Naturally, Davis and Stephens should have been eligible to run for and potentially win an election to lead the actual United States of America after forming the Confederacy. Makes total sense! On its face, the notion is ridiculous, and — sure — it is arguably equally absurd that the Framers specifically failed to include the President and the Vice President in the Fourteenth Amendment, but there is language in the Amendment and external supporting evidence that indicates the Framers took a more sweeping approach to “naming” disqualified persons. As usual, originalists and textualists miss the forest for the trees when understanding the Constitution, as seems to be true with this idiot Judge Wallace. She really does evince the often vast chasm of knowledge between scholars and practitioners that can be crucial to making informed decisions, especially (and particularly) in the field of law when novel and untested questions arise. I contend such questions should not be left in the hands of an unsophisticated judge.

But back to the analysis. Wallace’s conclusion on the question of the list of disqualified individuals states, “Here, after considering the arguments on both sides, the Court is persuaded that ‘officers of the United States’ did not include the President of the United States. While the Court agrees that there are persuasive arguments on both sides, the Court holds that the absence of the President from the list of positions to which the Amendment applies combined with the fact that Section Three specifies that the disqualifying oath is one to ‘support’ the Constitution whereas the Presidential oath is to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ the Constitution, it appears to the Court that for whatever reason the drafters of Section Three did not intend to include a person who had only taken the Presidential Oath (pp. 100-101).” She arrives at this reasoning by parsing words and the list of offices in the Amendment — and she admits that the arguments cut both ways — but she elects to take a hyper-technical reading of the Amendment to dismiss some evidence and accept other evidence in favor of her preferred conclusion. I might also add that she thinks traitor trump is eligible to be on the ballot because running for President as an insurrectionist is not barred — by her “logic” — and because he was already President, for even if he were on “the list” of disqualified offices, then he still qualifies because didn’t take the “correct” oath; therefore, he could not have possibly offended the Constitution or the United States of America as the Framers intended by the language of the Amendment. In a sense, Judge Wallace claims he’s doubly safe from being disqualified. You can’t make this sh*t up if you tried; well, I guess you can. She did.

I contend that Bause and Paulson understood the true intent of the Framers when they advised on how to read the Fourteenth Amendment in the opening paragraph of their argument:

First, the language of these provisions should be read in as straightforward and common-sense a manner as possible. The text must be read precisely, of course, but also sensibly, naturally and in context, without artifice or ingenious invention unwarranted by that context. Some constitutional provisions embody precise terms of art that must be attended to. But a reading that renders the document a “secret code” loaded with hidden meanings discernible only by a select priesthood of illuminati is generally an unlikely one. Keep this in mind as we proceed: we think readers should be wary of any interpretation of Section Three that would impute to the text a hyper-technical set of hidden distinctions not fully warranted by the language. Where the simplest and most plausible explanation of minor textual differences is merely stylistic or accidental variation, that explanation should not lightly be cast aside.

The Sweep and Force of Section Three (pp. 104-105)

Judge Wallace does precisely this: Cast aside the most plausible explanation of minor textual differences. Chiefly, the judge believes that the absence of “President and Vice President” in the list must be absolute and exhaustive, and those two offices could not possibly be subsumed in the “hold any office, civil or military, under the United States” clause of the Amendment. Granted, it is a curious construction to omit the president and Vice President, but odd construction should not prevent someone from being informed about the whole. Again, she refuses the “straightforward and common-sense” reading of the Amendment in favor of hyper-speculation about what the Framers did or did not do.

But fear not! Wallace tackled the plausibility that the offices of the President and Vice President could not possibly have been intended in the “hold any office, civil or military” language because, as she puts it, the President and Vice President are not “‘an officer of the United States.’” This, on its face, is absurd. If they are not office holders, then what are they? If they are not officers of the state, then are they? The State? Are they to be King and Vice King (a Prince)? Have we devolved into reading the Constitution as a royal manifesto? Should the presidential seal now read “L’état, c’est moi” ala the Sun King? But irrational logic yields absurd results, no matter how much she tries to engage in “ingenious invention unwarranted by that context,” as Bause and Paulson caution others against doing, which they summarize in their conclusion in the following excerpt:

In short, the ordinary sense of the text; the structure and logic of its provisions; the evident design to be comprehensive; the text’s many references to the office of the Presidency as an “office”; the seeming absurdity of the prospect of exclusion of the offices of President and Vice President from triggering the disqualification fashioned by the Radical Reconstruction Congress that drafted the Fourteenth Amendment; the fact that the only legislative debate over the language discussing whether Section Three inadvertently omitted the offices of President and Vice President rejected any such suggestion; and the fact that no one ever suggested that the “under/of” difference meant the presidency was not a covered office triggering Section Three, all convince us that the natural conclusion is the correct one: Section Three includes in its coverage, or “triggering” language, insurrectionists who once served as President and Vice President. And Section Three excludes disqualified insurrectionists from subsequently holding the office of either President or Vice President.

The Sweep and Force of Section Three (p. 111)

I conclude with the most important question yet to come: WWSD? Indeed, what would SCOTUS do? Nothing else matters, not Judge Wallace’s opinion or any scholarly analysis. The only thing that matters is how the six uber-conservative supermajority theocratic wing of the Court rules, and I think we have a good idea of their leanings. They believe in an imperial (conservative) presidency. While they have not had the opportunity to rule whether traitor trump is above the Constitution explicitly, I think this will be their chance to place him beyond the bounds of the Constitution when it comes to allowing an insurrectionist to become the head of the government because, of course, that’s what the Framers intended. Of course, they did. Any plain reading of the Constitution would more than suggest the opposite, but then lawyers read the document, and then suddenly, meaning becomes meaningless. Welcome to stupid America! Too f***ing stupid to apprehend the obvious. Oh, well!

From Newsweek, “Joe Biden may be on the backfoot with Hispanic voters in the upcoming presidential election after Donald Trump courted executives from the nation’s most influential Spanish-language network last week. The former president and frontrunner in the Republican primaries hosted executives from Univision, which merged with the Mexican media company Grupo Televisa in 2021, at Mar-a-Lago last week while the network interviewed him, per The Washington Post.”

Of course, Biden is being outmaneuvered by traitor trump! Of course, he is. Dumbass Democrats need to wake the f*** up. To be sure, the majority of Hispanic voters will never vote for traitor trump, but that’s not his intention. He just needs a few points here and there in the right states to make all the difference in a tight election. That goes for the Black vote as well as the youth vote. And I want to be clear about some common misconceptions regarding the Hispanic vote that I think RepubliKKKlans apprehend, but dumbass Democrats don’t; Hispanic machismo and economic concerns are driving more voters to traitor trump. Look, f***tards! Traitor trump is every bi the a**hole that whites and Hispanics love. One may be inclined to believe that a politician attacking immigrants or a particular ethnic group would be repudiated by Hispanics more generally — an attack on one is an attack on all. That is far from the case. I don’t think people understand that Hispanics really do all kinda hate each other. Cubans hate Puerto Ricans, and vice versa. Everyone hates the Haitians. Mexicans hate Hispanics from Central and South America and vice versa. Light-skinned Hispanics (i.e., those of European descent) hate the indigenous peoples, who are dark-skinned. Imagine Mexico, Central and South America, and the Hispanic Caribbean people all being the melting pot of the U.S. Now you understand how these ethnicities hate each other. This means when traitor trump calls out one Hispanic segment to hate on, then all the Hispanic groups who are not of that class agree with him.

Then, we come to the issue of immigration. Do not believe that Hispanic Americans naturally defend immigrants. They don’t for the reasons I just described above, but the reasons for their hatred are less complicated than ethnicity. Hispanic Americans hate immigrants because they are taking away their jobs. It’s that simple, and as I have written before, Hispanics are far more sensitive to economic conditions, which is why you see Biden’s support slipping in the Hispanic cohort. The Latino vote will follow the economy, and if that leads them to traitor trump, who is willing to round up, inter, and ultimately expel Hispanic immigrants from the U.S., then so be it! All the better. As usual, Hispanics are supremely oblivious to the notion that an attack on one really is intended to be an attack on all. That is how white supremacists perceive Hispanics: They’re all dirty foreigners — citizens, legal immigrants, or illegal immigrants — no matter their status. Hispanics are all the same in the eyes of white supremacists. And, of course, when conservatives cast aspersions on the Latino community, Hispanics individually and naively think, “Well, they’re not talking about me.” F***ing morons! They’re talking about all of you guys. When Hispanics push traitor trump over the top to become president, then I hope they remember to always take their “papers” with them that prove their citizenship, or they’re going to find themselves rounded up and placed in concentration camps alongside those “other” immigrants they hate. Welcome to stupid America!

No, this is not a setup for a bad joke. Mike Johnson’s gay problem is Santos. According to CNN, “House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican, introduced a resolution Friday to expel GOP Rep. George Santos of New York from Congress, one day after the Ethics Committee released a damning report on its investigation into Santos.” Now Johnson must decide whether his hatred of gay people — which was on full display during his recent rantings on a Christian podcast when he basically called America Sondom and Gomorrah inviting the wrath of God — trumps his desire to maximize the slim RepubliKKKlan-vote lead in the House. Johnson will have to decide whether he wants to muster the votes to keep Santos. This is quite the conundrum. These white nationalist Christian fascist types love their power above all else, but they really, really hate the gays and now is the chance to get one of “those people” out of the House. I’m going with Johnson’s hatred of the gays cum out on top.

America, and the courts in particular, are incapable and unwilling to hold traitor trump accountable because they all treat him (improperly) as being above the law. Unfortunately, America’s notion of being a nation “not of men but of laws” is a farce and has been from its inception. Of course, many minority groups have long understood this, and so have the poor, but in all these high-profile cases involving traitor trump, the stark differences between the treatment of the dictator wannabe and everyone else are manifest. Granted, America is a nation of laws more than most others, but even that once lauded distinction is losing its truth at face value.

What has my ire this time? Reading from The Guardian, “Barely an hour after a gag order prohibiting Donald Trump from commenting about court staff at his civil fraud trial in New York was temporarily lifted, he was at it again – unleashing a blitzkrieg of social media outrage at a clerk who has become the lightning rod for the former president’s rage. On Thursday afternoon a New York appeals court judge, David Friedman, paused a gag order that had been placed on Trump last month. The move opened a window through which Trump could vent his unrestrained feelings. … At an emergency hearing on Thursday, however, Friedman, sitting in New York state’s intermediate appeals court, found that Trump’s First Amendment right to free speech was of prime importance. He stayed the gag order.”

Part of the problem with everyone in this sh*t-for-brains country is that citizens think all speech is free and that the First Amendment is not absolute and without limit. This, of course, is not true. While political speech may be considered the freest form of speech, for an indicted criminal such as traitor trump, his freedoms — by the very dint of his status as someone out on bail — are and can be restricted, especially if his free speech relates to trial interference. This is true for anyone with a criminal indictment. But not traitor trump! Oh, no! Courts and judges are bending over backward to ensure he is being treated fairly and like any “other man” by granting him favors and status that no other man would be afforded. In trying to show traitor trump no favoritism over the man on the street, the courts are doing precisely that: Showing him favor! The contraction is blatant, disturbing, and disgusting. I should have expected nothing less. But, alas, no one cares because I live in stupid f***ing hell. The courts are going to slow-walk, pamper, and soft-glove the application of justice to traitor trump and, in so doing, hand the country over to a fascist, all because judges wanted to make sure not to hurt traitor trump’s feelings or trample on his (non-existent) right to interfere with his own trails. Welcome to stupid America! The end is here and brought to you in the name of “justice!”

The article below from The Economist is so good that I posted the entire thing. (I have a hack for getting articles behind a paywall that usually works depending on the site, but you need quick fingers on the keyboard.) I will offer my comments upfront. So! Looks like the rest of the world is finally catching on to the notion that a traitor trump second term is a real possibility. (Dare I say, a near certainty given all the third-party candidates.) It appears the planet is waking up and bracing for a political world order completely set on fire. The world understands! The world is anxious! The world is in a state of impending dread! But do you know who is none of these things? Americans! How is it everyone else on the globe understands the dangers of another traitor trump presidency — including Russia and China that welcome the menace — except Americans? Un-f***ing-believable! Everyone is waking up to the idea that a fascist America will lead to the crumbling of the world order of democratic countries except sh*t-for-brains Americans, who are just too f***ing G.D. stupid to apprehend the danger as it stares them in the f***ing face. Sadly, most Americans fail to understand our global standing and responsibility. We are supposed to be the great defender of democracy across the world. For all of our flaws and the imperfections of democracy, it is still the best form of government. But morons of America comprehend none of this. F***tard Americas, while they should think locally, must also vote with a global mindset because we must be leaders of democracy. But no! As I have repeatedly said, Americans really could care less about democracy, and they would gladly trade it in for fascism if it gets them a few more bucks in their wallet. This is what a dumbed-down and dying nation looks like. Welcome to stupid America.

A shadow looms over the world. In this week’s edition we publish The World Ahead 2024, our 38th annual predictive guide to the coming year, and in all that time no single person has ever eclipsed our analysis as much as Donald Trump eclipses 2024. That a Trump victory next November is a coin-toss probability is beginning to sink in.

Mr Trump dominates the Republican primary. Several polls have him ahead of President Joe Biden in swing states. In one, for the New York Times, 59% of voters trusted him on the economy, compared with just 37% for Mr Biden. In the primaries, at least, civil lawsuits and criminal prosecutions have only strengthened Mr Trump. For decades Democrats have relied on support among black and Hispanic voters, but a meaningful number are abandoning the party. In the next 12 months a stumble by either candidate could determine the race—and thus upend the world.

This is a perilous moment for a man like Mr Trump to be back knocking on the door of the Oval Office. Democracy is in trouble at home. Mr Trump’s claim to have won the election in 2020 was more than a lie: it was a cynical bet that he could manipulate and intimidate his compatriots, and it has worked. America also faces growing hostility abroad, challenged by Russia in Ukraine, by Iran and its allied militias in the Middle East and by China across the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea. Those three countries loosely co-ordinate their efforts and share a vision of a new international order in which might is right and autocrats are secure.

Because MAGA Republicans have been planning his second term for months, Trump 2 would be more organised than Trump 1. True believers would occupy the most important positions. Mr Trump would be unbound in his pursuit of retribution, economic protectionism and theatrically extravagant deals. No wonder the prospect of a second Trump term fills the world’s parliaments and boardrooms with despair. But despair is not a plan. It is past time to impose order on anxiety.

The greatest threat Mr Trump poses is to his own country. Having won back power because of his election-denial in 2020, he would surely be affirmed in his gut feeling that only losers allow themselves to be bound by the norms, customs and self-sacrifice that make a nation. In pursuing his enemies, Mr Trump will wage war on any institution that stands in his way, including the courts and the Department of Justice.

Yet a Trump victory next year would also have a profound effect abroad. China and its friends would rejoice over the evidence that American democracy is dysfunctional. If Mr Trump trampled due process and civil rights in the United States, his diplomats could not proclaim them abroad. The global south would be confirmed in its suspicion that American appeals to do what is right are really just an exercise in hypocrisy. America would become just another big power.

Mr Trump’s protectionist instincts would be unbound, too. In his first term the economy thrived despite his China tariffs. His plans for a second term would be more damaging. He and his lieutenants are contemplating a universal 10% levy on imports, more than three times the level today. Even if the Senate reins him in, protectionism justified by an expansive view of national security would increase prices for Americans. Mr Trump also fired up the economy in his first term by cutting taxes and handing out covid-19 payments. This time, America is running budget deficits on a scale only seen in war and the cost of servicing debts is higher. Tax cuts would feed inflation, not growth.

Abroad, Mr Trump’s first term was better than expected. His administration provided weapons to Ukraine, pursued a peace deal between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain, and scared European countries into raising their defence spending. America’s policy towards China became more hawkish. If you squint, another transactional presidency could bring some benefits. Mr Trump’s indifference to human rights might make the Saudi government more biddable once the Gaza war is over, and strengthen relations with Narendra Modi’s government in India.
But a second term would be different, because the world has changed. There is nothing wrong in countries being transactional: they are bound to put their own interests first. However, Mr Trump’s lust for a deal and his sense of America’s interests are unconstrained by reality and unanchored by values.

Mr Trump judges that for America to spend blood and treasure in Europe is a bad deal. He has therefore threatened to end the Ukraine war in a day and to wreck NATO, perhaps by reneging on America’s commitment to treat an attack on one country as an attack on all. In the Middle East Mr Trump is likely to back Israel without reserve, however much that stirs up conflict in the region. In Asia he may be open to doing a deal with China’s president, Xi Jinping, to abandon Taiwan because he cannot see why America would go to war with a nuclear-armed superpower to benefit a tiny island.

But knowing that America would abandon Europe, Mr Putin would have an incentive to fight on in Ukraine and to pick off former Soviet countries such as Moldova or the Baltic states. Without American pressure, Israel is unlikely to generate an internal consensus for peace talks with the Palestinians. Calculating that Mr Trump does not stand by his allies, Japan and South Korea could acquire nuclear weapons. By asserting that America has no global responsibility to help deal with climate change, Mr Trump would crush efforts to slow it. And he is surrounded by China hawks who believe confrontation is the only way to preserve American dominance. Caught between a dealmaking president and his warmongering officials, China could easily miscalculate over Taiwan, with catastrophic consequences.

A second Trump term would be a watershed in a way the first was not. Victory would confirm his most destructive instincts about power. His plans would encounter less resistance. And because America will have voted him in while knowing the worst, its moral authority would decline. The election will be decided by tens of thousands of voters in just a handful of states. In 2024 the fate of the world will depend on their ballots

The Economist

From Rolling Stone, “In an October prayer call hosted by a Christian-nationalist MAGA pastor, Rep. Mike Johnson was troubled that America’s wickedness was inviting God’s wrath. Talking to pastor Jim Garlow on a broadcast of the World Prayer Network, Johnson spoke ominously of America facing a ‘civilizational moment.’ He said, ‘The only question is: Is God going to allow our nation to enter a time of judgment for our collective sins? … Or is he going to give us one more chance to restore the foundations and return to Him?’ The segment was filmed Oct. 3, just weeks before Johnson’s unexpected rise to become speaker of the House. Garlow pressed the clean-cut Louisiana congressman to say ‘more about this “time of judgment” for America.’ Johnson replied: ‘The culture is so dark and depraved that it almost seems irredeemable.’ He cited, as supposed evidence, the decline of national church attendance and the rise of LGBTQ youth — the fact, Johnson lamented, that ‘one-in-four high school students identifies as something other than straight.’ Discussing the risk of divine retribution, Johnson invoked Sodom, the Old Testament city destroyed by God for its wickedness with a rain of burning sulfur.”

Right on cue! Gays are the new target. Mark my words. And now America has the most fervent gay hatter second in line to the presidency. This, coupled with a theocratic SCOTUS, and I’m telling you, morons of America, are asleep at the f***ing wheel as Christo-fascism takes hold. No one cares because I live in f***ing stupid hell. It is ironic that as Americans allegedly become more secular — or claim to be more so — white Christian nationalism has become more prominent in America and has made more inroads into the highest echelons of political power. I’m telling you civil war is coming. No one believes me. Mark my words! Be ready to kill or be killed! Welcome to stupid America.

So! RepubliKKKlan politicians got physical with each other or wanted to start a fight with a layperson in Congress yesterday. Because that’s where we are in America today. This is traitor trump’s America, and people love it! Indeed, they want more. Just check any recent poll. As The Hill reports, “It began with an accusation that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had elbowed Rep. Tim Burchett in the back as the Tennessee Republican, one of eight GOP members who voted to end McCarthy’s Speakership a little more than a month ago, was conducting an interview with a reporter from NPR. Moments later, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a burly former mixed martial arts fighter, was was challenging Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters, to a fight during a hearing before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.”

I don’t care if RepubliKKKlans go after each other. Hell! They can all kill each other, and I’ll whip out the popcorn and a beer while I watch. But Senators — most of all — should not be goading witnesses testifying before a Congressional committee into a fight. Apparently, there is a backstory of feuding between those two, but I expect members of the most exclusive club in the world to behave better. I fully expect (and indeed condone) plebeians to act brutishly, for the unwashed masses of citizens will be the ones starting and ending the coming civil war, but as for the political “leadership,” I expect — naively — better.

It is also not lost on me that all this anger and threats of fighting are coming from the RepubliKKKlan Party only. But you know what? This is what voters want! This is why they elected them into office. Everyday moronic Americas are — I tell you! — bored with their daily lives, so they elect these flame-throwing RepubliKKKlans into office to mix things up and to break up the ennui of their pathetic, bland lives. Watching political fighting is the new pastime of idiot Americans. Why do you think traitor trump is so f***ing popular? Because of his policies? (Well, half of America loves his hateful policies.) No! The greater motivation is the entertainment value of the guy. I promise you that the hoards and hoard of f***tard Americans — above all — love traitor trump and indeed show up to the polls to vote for him because of the pure, unadulterated desire to renew the fight club reality T.V. show that is the traitor trump presidency for four more years. Mark my words. Clearly, most Americans are stupid and certainly not politically astute, but they vote anyway. Thus, people make political decisions with their blizzard brain, which is driven by bloodlust, grievances, and revenge, which is everything that traitor trump has promised to deliver. It is that uncomplicated.

Now, I come to my final point, which I must concede is not my own observation. I’m lifting it from someone else, and it is this: Witnessing what happened yesterday among all these men, it is hard to deny that men have a problem controlling their emotions. It is beyond rich that the misogyny runs so deep in the RepubliKKKlan Party, in part, because of an argument men make about women, namely they are too “emotional” to be effective leaders. Hello, pot! Kettle calling! How utterly fantastic! Men accuse women of being too emotional and consequently unworthy to be in any leading part of society, as those same men can’t contain their own emotions. Only the RepubliKKKlan Party can run on such hypocrisy and toxic masculinity, becoming more popular and win elections. Only in stupid America! This! This is what a dying country looks like!