There’s a movie, released in 1944 and starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman, called ‘Gaslight.’ Basically, it’s the story of a man who tried to drive his wife insane so he could steal her estate. He makes things happen, then denies they happened. So, for example, she says she hears sounds from the attic when nobody else is home. He tells her there are no sounds. She’s just imaging them. When the gaslight that lights the house dims momentarily, he tells her it’s in her mind, the gas did NOT dim.

He plays some other nasty little tricks on her, insisting a letter she saw didn’t exist and hiding a brooch she KNEW she had, that kind of thing. After a while, she starts to doubt reality. The name of the movie refers to only one of his tricks, but it became the basis of a term we’ve all come to know: gaslighting.

In modern terms, gaslighting is insisting something didn’t happen that did (or vice-versa). Like the movie, it’s intended to cause one to question their memories or even reality. Like the movie, it’s usually done by bad people intending bad things. Oh, AND it’s stock-in-trade for MAGA. The MAGA mythology couldn’t exist without gaslighting. It’s very important to their ethos.

You see it from them ALL the time. Remember when a group of armed, radicalized cons attacked the Capitol building and threatened to murder the Vice president in an attempt to disrupt the certification process? That’s what happened. But ask MAGA, they’ll tell you it was just a friendly and certainly peaceful but unauthorized tour through the building. (Make America Gaslight Again?)

Trump, himself, recently said in an interview, “Nobody died.” Ashli Babbitt and Brian Sicknick died as a direct result of the events of that day and a handful of others followed. But MAGA will tell you, insist, that “nobody died.” MAGA will insist there was no violence, despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary. MAGA is gaslighting you. They know what happened. They just need YOU to doubt yourself.

Remember after 2020, when MAGA started screaming about all of that horrible disarray and mismanagement of the election that never happened? All of their pretended Democratic attempts to steal the election, all of the “abnormalities” that could never be proven? Gaslighting. MAGA KNOWS the election was fair and honest. They just need YOU to doubt yourself.

We’ve all seen Project 2025 by now. We know what’s in it. We know who wrote it, the American Heritage Foundation and a bunch of Trump cronies. We KNOW what the cons are planning to do to this country if they can manage to get it back. But they’ll tell you differently. “What? What is this ‘Project 2025’ you speak of? Never heard of it. Oh, AND it has some terrible things in it, that document I’ve never heard of.” MAGA is gaslighting you. They know what the plan is. They just need YOU to doubt yourself.

You don’t even have to doubt yourself for long. Just long enough for them to accomplish whatever evil goal they have in mind at the moment. Of course, it’s better if you buy into their game and come to question what you saw for real. Pick an issue, any issue. MAGA will try to gaslight you. It’s quite common from them. They do it all the time. And they’re doing it for the same reason the bad guy in the movie did it to his wife: there’s something they want to steal. In this case? It’s the entire effing country!

The bad guy in the movie didn’t expect to drive his wife mad in one fell swoop. It took time. He had to keep coming up with new examples of her “erroneous” thinking to create a deep mistrust in her of her own stability. But he was willing to put in the time because his goal was so important to him. He was patient.

So, too, has MAGA been patient. They started all this whining about unfair elections in 2020 and have kept at it because they have to put in the time. They want and need Americans to question the validity of our elections so that when they start complaining about how unfair the 2024 election was, people might doubt the outcome just long enough for them to steal the thing in Congress.

Don’t let them. The sounds from the attic are real. The gaslight IS dimming. MAGA DID attack the Capitol. People DID die. Our election process is essentially sound. (Generally, when someone IS caught trying to cheat, they’re cons and they’re cheating FOR the GOP.) Project 2025 is a real and present danger to the United States of America. Trust what you know. NEVER take a con’s word for anything. Highlight their gaslight attempts. Oh, and vote for the Democrat. This might be our last chance if we’re not careful…

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Speaking of which, did you hear that the Trump campaign is pretending Taylor Swift has endorsed Trump? Donald released a bunch of AI-generated photos that make it look like Swift and her fans are all-in for Trump. They’re less of a “gaslight” and more of an “outright lie.” She hasn’t endorsed anyone for this election – yet. But in 2020, she endorsed Biden/Harris. With the introduction of these fraudulent photos, Trump might well be unintentionally pressing Swift to make an endorsement, after all. My guess is, that won’t go well for Trump…

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Can we please, once and for all, focus on claiming the entire Congress for sane Americans and not these MAGA “nattering nabobs of negativism,” as Spiro Agnew might describe them? I’d really like a Congress that can get something done and not be constantly obstructed by what Agnew described as “…their own 4-H club—the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.” Agnew described MAGA perfectly and he’d never even met one. I wouldn’t gaslight you…

According to Rolling Stone magazine, the cons have positioned as many as 70 pro-Trump election deniers in roles as election officials in battleground states. They work on local certifying boards. At least 22 of them have already tried to disrupt previous elections by claiming they don’t believe the results. No, they never – and I mean EVER – have or even offer any evidence. It’s just something they feel, something they choose to believe.

We all know the standard by now. If Trump wins, the election was “fair.” If he loses, it was not. Sure, it’s a stupid standard but that’s the one they insist on using. Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania are all suffering election conspiracy theorists who will simply refuse to certify the results, even though that’s their job. It’s not optional. It’s their duty – and they intend to NOT do it.

I should add, the author of the article made clear that there was no evidence of some national movement to foist these loyalists on certifying boards. These are, apparently, just your average, true-believing, Trump loyalist MAGAS who moved themselves into those positions because they believe the lies being spewed from MAGA media. But the Deceived are always more dangerous than the Deceivers. The Deceived truly believe they’re there to “stop the steal,” never realizing THEY are the ones doing the stealing.

The reason this is important is that this is the first step in their coming January coup. Now, listen, I know people think that’s some kind of crazy conspiracy theory and maybe it is. But I know they have a plan to steal and the plan revolves around denying the results of any election Trump doesn’t win outright. Discovering the cons have already installed 70 people willing to do exactly that to subvert elections in favor of their beliefs adds support to the idea.

The only real way to stop it is lawsuits, though a handful of states can impose criminal penalties on certifiers who refuse to do their duty. Lawsuits, ultimately, end up in front of the Kangaroos of Roberts Corrupt Court, who rule for Trump. That will NOT be good for America. This is the reason I’d like to see Biden add four seats. Yes, it would start a tit-for-tat but it would save America in the meantime.

At this point, I believe Kamala is going to win the election. I believe the cons will try to install Trump anyway. They have the plan. They have the pieces in place to execute the plan. They’re ONE LIE – “The election was rigged” – away from initiating the plan. I can’t see a single, peaceful way to stop them. They went to all the trouble to put the pieces in place. They are so close to success, I can’t see any reason they would just…stop.

So the question is, how do you think this country will react? Will we just sit back and let a felonious, rapist, lying, little man steal our country? Will we hit the streets for some France level protest? How do YOU think America will react to such a chain of events?

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Apparently, Trump thinks that showing a photo of Kamala wearing a Sari proves she has always and only embraced her Indian heritage. He needed to do something after he told the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) that she had only recently “turned black.” He did that. He doubled down. “See? She wore a Sari once. That’s not black.”

Sorry, man, that’s not the way it works. One can embrace many aspects of one’s heritage. There’s no rule that says I can’t honor my mother’s (and, therefore, my) Indian history AND my father’s (and, therefore, my) Jamaican history.

You’re just wrong on this one, Donny. She didn’t just turn black. She’s been half black all of her life. You’re just wrong…and really weird.

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I also liked that Trump got called out for one of his racist scare statements at the NABJ. We all know, by now, scare statements are part of the MAGA mind control. Trump keeps them scared or angry, always. It’s BEST if he can keep them both scared AND angry. People responding to strong emotions are not people thinking at their best. One of his more common stories is that undocumented immigrants are taking “black jobs.”

It’s a line that works well when talking to racists and scared, angry minds. Fearmongering. Someone “different” is taking something from someone. The jobs most of these undocumented immigrants end up with are menial labor. To suggest they’re taking “black jobs” pretends that black people only work in menial jobs. MAGA eats that crap up. Not surprisingly, black people seem a little offended.

The thing is, he wasn’t talking to MAGA. The NABJ is made up of educated, thinking people who understand the inferences of that comment. So, one of them asked, “What IS a “black job?” Trump had an answer. “Anybody that has a job.” There. Not racist at all, right? The audience groaned out loud.

I believe gold medal winning gymnast Simone Biles put him in his place the best. After winning another gold medal, she tweeted, “I love my black job.” Oh, no! You don’t suppose someone is going to cross the Rio Grande and just push Biles off the US Gymnastics team and take her job, do you? Trump thinks so. Yeah, that sounds like a guy who should lead a nation.

I’m glad the Dems started with their “weird” campaign because, you know what? They ARE weird. I’m glad I finally have the right word for it: weird.

Wow, the crazies come out, don’t they? Something maybe happened to Trump’s ear. Maybe a bullet, maybe not. Maybe shrapnel, maybe not. Hell, maybe he cut himself. Maybe not. No one knows because no one trustworthy will say. But the whole thing healed faster than most people expected from a gun shot that took “the top of his ear off” – as reported by Ronny “Candy man” Jackson-Johnson, once, apparently, a doctor but no longer because of his casual distribution of drugs throughout the Trump White House.

Photos taken less than two weeks after the shooting show no sign of any damage to Trump’s ear whatsoever. No scab. No scar. No piece missing. Nothing. Trump’s ear looks exactly the same as it always has in the photo. So, of course, MAGA came out in droves – to attack the photographer! They trolled him pretty heavily. So badly, in fact, he had to pull his brand X account. All because he took a picture that shows a perfectly healthy, intact ear.

Dear MAGA, that’s not the photograph’s fault, nor does the fault lie with the photographer who took the effing picture in the first place. If the photo offers evidence that something hinky is going on with Trump and his story, that’s not the fault of the evidence. You should check with your lying dear leader. Something isn’t right with his story…

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He can’t even fix it. Trump told a group of maybe-Christians they had to come out and vote for him one more time, then they’d never have to vote again because he would have it “fixed so good” he won’t “need their votes.” That caused rational people to think he was telling the world he was going to put an end to voting. No need, when we have a dictator.

So, he did an interview on Fox Not-News with Laura Ingraham and tried to clear up the “confusion.” Cleverly, he doubled down, even after she tried to help him. “You meant you won’t have to vote for you because you’ll have four years in office,” Ingraham pressed, trying to give him an out, suggesting he only meant he’d be at the end of his second term.

“I’m saying go out, you must vote,” Trump replied. “I said to the Christians in the room … you have to vote on Nov. 5. After that, you don’t have to worry about voting anymore — I don’t care — because we’re going to fix up, the country will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote anymore because, frankly, we will have such love.”

That answer still leaves me feeling like ‘no need, when we have a dictator.’ But I don’t WANT a dictator. MAGA might be looking forward to the end of the country and the Constitution, but I’m not. I prefer the rule of law to the rule of loyalty. Whatever you do, do NOT vote Republican…

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It’s STILL a great indicator. If a conservative is “warning” people about something, it’s because their scheme is at risk of being stopped. For example, Trump toady Bill Barr and Kelly Shackelford, president, CEO and chief counsel for First Liberty Institute, a “Christian” conservative organization, wrote an op-ed “warning” cons that the left wants to pack the court with additional liberal justices. (I know I do…) They wrote, “The last thing we need in this country right now is a Supreme Court coup that would threaten our democratic republic.” They’re correct on both points.

I want to pack the court with four more liberal justices in an effort to offset the criminally corrupt cons currently infesting the court and making decisions based on what’s best for rich people and Trump and NOT based on the Constitution. THIS court, the Roberts Court, has already done so much damage to our democratic republic, it could take decades to fix, if it’s fixable at all. The longer the kangaroos hold sway, the more damage they’ll do.

As always, the cons say it backwards. From ‘The Hill,’ ‘The op-ed painted a grim picture for what “court packing” could look like, suggesting civil and religious liberties will be limited and First Amendment rights for the left’s political opponents would be “trampled.”’ You know, exactly the results cons are calling for in their Project 2025, except they intend to do it TO the left.

The op-ed continued. “In truth, ‘court reform’ is nothing more than a desperate attack to subvert the legitimacy of the Supreme Court because it contains a majority of justices committed to the Constitution and originalism,” Barr and Shackelford lied. “If this coup succeeds, the rule of law will be over as the judiciary will become little more than a political tool of whomever holds power.”

Yeah, that would suck. But not as much as the corrupt court we have now that is little more than a political tool of one party, MAGAGOP, regardless of who holds power. And remember, the cons started all of this when they stole Merrick Garland’s seat and gave it to Neil Gorsuch, meaning their actual complaint is that the left might do to them what they did to the left. Suddenly, it seems really unfair, to them…

The GOP seems to be having some difficulty coming up with an attack line against Harris. They’ve tried all their usual stuff. Racism, misogyny, nothing is working. They’ve attacked her laugh. The Russians have, too. STILL, not much traction. In fact, those attacks seem to be hurting his campaign.

Trump has been courting black voters. Or trying to, anyway. I STILL don’t think black people, as a bloc, would have voted for the guy in the white pointy hood, but now they have Kamala and I’d bet Kamala can relate to black issues better than Trump. Just a hunch.

Trump wants people of color but keeps saying anybody who arrives in the US from south of the border are A) Mexicans (It’s like he doesn’t even know there are other countries down there.) and B) ALL violent criminals. How does that bring them into the fold? I imagine that if I were, say, an undocumented but not-violent, non-criminal from, oh, I don’t know, El Salvador, I’d be off-put by the idea of being depicted as a violent criminal.

So, they attack her gender. That seems like a losing strategy. But, I guess, you’re already doing great with the ladies, you might as well denigrate them entirely. Holy gods, the GOP has been attacking women hard and blatantly. They really, really want women back in the home, barefoot and pregnant and, by GOD, they’re going to use their freedumb to put women back where they belong, like it or not.

I would think trying to paint Harris as a DEI hire because of her race or gender could only offend women. I just don’t think it’s a winning strategy to suggest that successful women can only BE successful women if they somehow trick a man or get a boost from some program. I suspect that’s more likely to repel women than attract them.

Geez, come to think of it, I hope the GOP keeps it up…

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Okay, so, Trump keeps telling the Deceived he doesn’t care about votes. He says he doesn’t need votes. He says he’s got all the votes he needs. It’s not a one-off. He KEEPS saying it. To my mind, that should be a losing strategy. On Friday, he told a bunch of pseudo-Christians they only need to come out “just this time” and then they “won’t have to do it anymore” after the election in November. He said, out loud, “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”

Dear MAGA, you NEVER “have” to vote. (In fact, please don’t.) You GET to vote. Yes, it’s a little harder, that way. It requires you to keep up with things. It requires you to know things and I know how much you hate that. You don’t get to just stick your head in the sand and let someone else solve your problems for you. But it’s still an opportunity, not an obligation. It’s one of those “freedoms” you’re always on about. You should WANT to vote…

I find it ironic as hell that it’s the pseudo-Christian community ushering in the age of the Anti-Christ by putting their faith into this Earthbound clod but, hey,that’s how the Bible said it was going to happen…

I’m filing Trump’s comments under “Confessions of the Cons.” He’s telling them – and all of us, for that matter -that voting will be yesterday’s news if he gets back into the White House. He’s ALSO admitting that he intends to get back into the White House through fair means or foul. (How else could he “not need” their votes?) Thom Hartmann exposed their plan. Win or lose in November, the cons intend to simply install Trump in January by pretending to question the integrity of the election and throwing it to the GOP-controlled House to decide. Trump KNOWS about the plan. Clearly, he’s counting on it.

Sidebar: The only way I can think of to stop it, is if a couple of Republicans with integrity step down after the election, giving control of the House to the Dems and stopping MAGAGOP from just stealing the election outright. Depending on the integrity of a couple of Republicans, though, is NOT the kind of thing that just fills me with confidence…

Anyway, after he’s installed, they’ll have it “fixed so good,” no more voting. That doesn’t sound good, to me. That sounds like a dictator confessing. He has all the votes he needs – he gets them from his good friend Putin. Then? No more voting? He’s running around saying it out loud – and MAGA is cheering!

I’ll tell you this: Celebrating the end of our democracy seems…misinformed, at best…

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The Daily Beast is reporting that Trump was seen in public without that feminine napkin on his ear. He didn’t even have the smaller bandage on. In fact, there was nothing, and I mean exactly that. Nothing. No bandage, no wound.

Look if you have the top of your ear shot off, or even if it’s shrapnel, it takes a while to heal. I don’t think he still needs a bandage of any kind. He probably never did. He was barely hurt, but playing it up for his base. It was VERY disrespectful to the family of the man who lost his life for real. But losing the top of your ear is going to take a while to recover. Trump was shot at on July 13. Trump was seen on the 26th. 13 days to full recovery? Not even a scab?

That whole thing stinks on ice. Bits just don’t add up. We never got a trustworthy medical report. As an ex-President, I would have expected as much information as anybody could find. I might have expected photos of the wound. It might have been a bit gross but it would have really driven home the “got shot” thing. The attending physician at the hospital should have given an update. All we ever got was a story from Trump, himself, and a “medical (-ish) statement” from “Dr.” Ronnie Jackson Johnson Jackson…Johnson.

But somebody died. Would Trump risk (end) the life of an actual human being for a political stunt? Actually, come to think of it, yes, he might. I can’t really get my arms around that, though, so I accept the idea that the shooting was real. But I say again, something stinks on ice about the whole thing…

I’ve got two sentences buzzing around in my head. One is a line from a Paul Simon song, ‘The Boxer.’ The other is a comment from Ayn Rand, of all people. Here, let me put them side by side for you:
‘A man hears what he wants to hear and he disregards the rest…’ (Simon)
‘You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.’ (Rand)

I think those two sentences go together quite well to form a near-perfect warning. We’re about to enter what will likely be an ugly period brought on by people who chose to hear what they wanted to hear while disregarding the rest. Then, and only then, everyone will get to see, feel, and live the consequences of avoiding reality. There won’t be anything anyone can do about it.

MAGA is openly gleeful about it. They’re about to win and they know it. If I was excited about the end of our country, I’d probably be gleeful, too. But I’m not. History has already shown those of us who were paying attention where we’re headed. Most of MAGAS excitement is based on a reality that never existed and never will. They’ve been living in a world of illusion, brought to them by internet-based MAGA media that never hesitates to lie to them.

Do you know they think the LEFT has been responsible for the rise in violent rhetoric and actions in this country? The LEFT! It’s easy, see, if one just ignores, well, reality. Only one presidential candidate told his followers to “Knock the crap out of protestors,” promising to pay their legal bills (until he withdrew that promise). That was Trump during his 2016 campaign and political violence has been increasing steadily ever since, according to people who study such things.

The right planned to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer. The right made jokes when Paul Pelosi was smashed in the head with a hammer. One of theirs intentionally crashed his car into a crowd, killing one and injuring several at Charlottesville, the ‘Unite the Right’ rally. We all watch whenever there is some headline grabbing shooting, waiting to hear which team THIS crazy comes from. By a wide margin, the crazies come from the right. So? The right lies. ‘When the truth doesn’t work for you, ignore the truth.’ What a stupid mantra.

Oh, yeah. J6. The right pretends it was just an unauthorized tour, a peaceful gathering so they simply don’t count it as political violence. The rest of us saw the video and believe in reality. According to Reuters, since the documented violence of J6, “Of the 14 fatal political attacks since the Capitol riot in which the perpetrator or suspect had a clear partisan leaning, 13 were right-wing assailants. One was on the left.”

You know what? This is stupid. I could keep noting political crime after political crime, each attributable to right-wing ideology for a long time. The list is long. But thinking Americans already know the right is lying about who is responsible for the upsurge in these types of crimes and MAGA doesn’t care. I mean, they know, too. They just won’t admit it. And when they feel like they’re in a “safe space,” they’ll even make jokes about it.

I’ll tell you this: The right promoting and engaging in violence but pointing the finger at the left? Why, that’s classic MAGA. All they ever have to work with is lies. Ever. That’s okay with them. They’ll lie. The part that bothers me so much is how easily they’ve been deceived – and what it’s about to cost us all…

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OMG, have you SEEN the bandage? Look, I know Trump got hit by a bullet, but he wasn’t “shot” in the sense most Americans think about when thinking about “shot.” Trump is among the LEAST “shot” people who have been shot by crazies with guns. He was “grazed.” Yeah, his ear got cut. I’ve seen worse injuries from shaving nicks.

But Trump is playing it for all he’s worth. (I don’t blame him, mind you. He’s a politician.) He’s got a bandage on about the size of a postcard. It looks dumb as hell but the point of it is to BE seen. “Ooh, remember when he got shot?” Now MAGA is wearing similar bandages in “solidarity.”

I’m sure there was a smaller, less intrusive covering that could have been put over his owie. That’s what a man would do. He wouldn’t go looking for sympathy by highlighting the injury. I’m surprised Trump didn’t put on a florescent bandage that glows in the dark with blinking lights that spell out “shot.” I guess he couldn’t find one in time…