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The left’s goals for Trump — 48 Comments

1. Neo wrote: “[NOTE: I keep feeling I should apologize for the dark turn of many of my posts these days. I know that it may not be as bad as what I’m imagining – I certainly hope it isn’t as bad – but I call it like I see it and this is what I see at the moment.]”

   No apology required, Neo. I’m equally concerned about the “dark turn”, as you describe it. I’ve begun recently using the word “evil,” and I sure never expected to start doing that, but I mean it with full sincerity. And this is coming from someone who spent a career in the belly of the State Dept beast.

2. I have reached the point of “No matter how evil you think the left is, they are worse”. It’s going to take a generation or more to reverse the corruption of our society, to overturn the left’s subversion of our societal institutions. To start, somehow, we need to reclaim or destroy our present education system. How that happens short of civil war, I have no idea.

3. “Or let him be killed there.”

   Oh, I think not. Surely by now people understand just how powerful a dead martyr is to the cause. Of course, Jeffery Epstein and Vince Foster are not available for comment, but the mere fact that I can easily remember their persons kind of makes the point.

   The left would be completely happy to let him rot in jail.

4. I’ve yet to see a billionaire spend one day in prison.

5. I don’t disagree with you but I do think there is a high likelihood of massive fraud that would be even more obvious. Then I anticipate hard times for the country, partly for the economic incompetence of the present mob of Democrats and, perhaps a lost war. China is looking weaker at the moment but weakness of dictatorships is not always a reason to relax. 1939 Germany was no powerhouse economically. Our military has been gutted of competent high level officers, chiefly by Obama. Now the Biden DIE crew is emptying out the enlisted and junior officer ranks.

   What if Trump should win ? That would signal collapse of the DNC-Deep State partnership. We might see a recurrence of GOP enthusiasm among the general population. What happened in 1994 ? A preference cascade ?

   I am not optimistic but I think any attempt by RINO GOP types would be a worse disaster.

6. ” I keep feeling I should apologize for the dark turn of many of my posts these days. I know that it may not be as bad as what I’m imagining – I certainly hope it isn’t as bad – but I call it like I see it and this is what I see at the moment.]”

   I suspect you’re not seeing it darkly enough. As some wag said “it will get worse before it gets more worse.”

   We’re nearing the end of the American Experiment; what it turns into remains to be seen.

7. I cannot understand how, in such unprecedented circumstance, anyone can be all that confident in predicting who can win or lose. I confess that in my gut I don’t think ANY Republican can win, unless Biden dies in office, and they’re stuck with Kamala. I think she is the only Democrat bad enough to blow it.

   But that’s my gut, not anything to put too much weight on.

   I do, however, think we have a shot at winning both Houses. Bad as their cheating is, it’s necessarily limited to statewide races where one or two blue cities can steal it. Of course, that would mean we’d need the Republicans to stand up to Biden. Not something I’d bet too heavily on.

   And of course, we do seem to be looking up at the state level. So we may be facing another federal/state standoff. In the past, the feds have usually won those. But who knows.

8. I don’t think anyone’s playing the angles. This is improvisational abuse of power by people who are unethical by default. Their voters should react to this with revulsion, but half the electorate manifests a very unhealthy political culture.

9. I think the left’s game plan here is death by a thousand cuts. Trump is going to be indicted many, many more times. The left knows that even a billionaire can be bankrupted by legal bills, and beyond that have you noticed the quality of legal representation Trump seems to have? Any lawyer working for a white shoe law firm knows they will get blackballed if they represent Trump, so there’s hat.

   Assuming that Trump makes it past the primaries and is the GOP nominee, the dirty tricks of 2016 and 2020 will look like the work of amateurs compared to what will come. Expect the tech sector and Hollywood to lend a hand using AI and CGI to make life-like videos of Trump saying and doing the most offensive things. Not everyone would fall for it, but enough would to likely scuttle any chance for Trump to win.

   Then there will be a Covid-like lockdown, mail in ballots, last minute rule changes, etc. etc. Everyone knows it’s cheating, but half the country is OK with that if it means their candidate wins.

   Trump isn’t winning the election, but he’s not going to prison either. The left wants him in an orange jumpsuit, but they don’t want him in actual prison because then he’s out of sight, and therefore out of mind. He’s too useful a punching bag for them.

10. BJ: Bernie Madoff

11. I’ve maintained all along Boss… you’re not “dark” enough by at least half. If we get this ship of state righted without great shedding of blood I’ll be surprised. Pleased and greatly thankful, but very surprised.

12. Neo, as others have posted above I don’t think that you are Dark enough. There doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
    ‘FBI and the DOJ cooperating once again to take down their enemy Trump.’ – you forgot to add the Press and other “Republicans”.

13. BJ:

    Then you’re not looking very hard. See this.

14. NEO: [NOTE: I keep feeling I should apologize for the dark turn of many of my posts these days.

    No apology necessary, number one it’s your site and your’s to write as you wish and then we can come by and partake and enjoy some things and worry about other things. That is why I have been coming by for the past 20 years and some and some days I do have to back off of the more serious conservative sites and just look at silly stuff. We the readers have that choice, we can decide what goes into our brains just as we can chose what we eat and drink.

    Please dear friend on the internet keep on being who you are, posting what you wish to share and keep the good, serious, dark stuff coming as it develops and we will keep coming back. I know this has been a rough personal year for you and yet here you are sharing with us rather often.

    ~ Thank you, Neo ~

15. I keep feeling I should apologize for the dark turn of many of my posts these days.

    This reader is quite glad that the Neo horizon is not restricted the bright side. The whole gamut of truth is what we want, whether via speculation, rumination or just plain old reporting.

16. While the direction things are going is concerning, to say the least, sometimes the unexpected happens.
    I am not optimistic about the political situation in America, but I no longer mourn the way I did in 2008 when Obama was elected. I find it easier to just say that God has this. That does not mean it will be easy on us. I suspect hard times are coming for America . And unlike many of my fellow evangelicals, I do not believe there is some rapture before the time of great tribulation, a time of trouble described as worse than has ever been, that the Bible talks about just before the end of this present age.
    I have my moments of great worry, then I have some moments of somewhat acceptance of things that may be coming.

17. Neo, as others have posted above I don’t think that you are Dark enough.

    What SHIREHOME said.

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, first of all, I think Trump can win the general election, and if he does, the left will try to make the country ungovernable. Think George Floyd riots every weekend, requiring the national guard to be deployed, that will be the goal, and you can imagine how CNN will play that.

    When you vote for Trump after he wins the nomination, which he’s going to, remember this is what you’re voting for. Some kind of final reckoning where either the left wins or we do. Is that dark enough for you?

18. Neo, your gloomy mood echoes and darkens my own, so I guess I should reproach you for making me sadder. But what drives your gloom is your insight and honesty –your bets are (alas) so often true– and so instead of reproaching you, I thank you for making me a little wiser.

    Stay the course…

19. And despite my dark rant, thank you jon baker for your “better angels” thoughts and words.

    God has this.

    You’re right, of course.

20. I still think a preference cascade is possible. Trump is a tragic hero but tragic heroes can make changes. He seems to be willing to plunge on in spite of all this lawfare. It may not be just ego. Maybe he realizes that things are bigger than he is. Maybe this is an existential crisis and he is determined to try to right the ship. Who knows ? The Left is convinced that his motives are selfish but what if they are not ? I have no idea but I am interested to see how this plays out.

21. Ok… I’ll put a rock in that punchbowl too…God has this. Most definitely. As he had Israel up to and through the exiles.

    Yeah I know… I’ll show myself out. You’re going to have to go pretty deep to get past the gloomy outlook I see. Reading Jeremiah at the moment and glad I don’t possess his prophetic gift.
    I’m not without hope, just acknowledge that a people/nation cannot cast off God without consequence.

22. I’m betting that an event like the killing of the old man in Utah by the FBI will cause a reaction where the locals see it as murder. Knowing that the agents will not be punished the locals will shoot the agents, maybe even burn down their office, ala, Antifa. There will then be action and reaction starting a 2A revolution that will spread nationwide.

    As far as Jefferson was concerned, 2A recognizes the inherent right of the citizens to protect themselves from a tyrannical government, which seems to be what the Democrats want.

    Your ultra pessimistic take of the day.

23. “impeach him if they have the votes, ”

    —-

    And even if they don’t. Impeachment is merely the act of bringing charges. And as evidenced during Trump’s time in the White House, an inability to remove him from office wasn’t a deterrent to impeaching Trump.

24. “Think George Floyd riots every weekend, requiring the national guard to be deployed, …”

    Given the mood of half to two-thirds of the country, were there to be a repeat of the Left’s 2020 Festivities, I suspect the national guard would be very late to the scene and not have much to do. I very deeply wish it were not so, but there seems to be a particular segment of the country that wants it no other way; the concept of Constitutional order does not appear to have penetrated their psyche.

25. No, Neo, it’s as bad as you’re imagining.

26. well the country is governed, if you can call it that, by a confederacy of fools and knaves, brinton, levine, the up an coming joint chief brown, my half paisan mayorkas, garland, the amiable grim reaper,

27. It’s possible that as things leak out about Biden, a third party candidacy could hurt him and allow Trump to squeak in. That’s why the Democrats are doing all they can to block third party or independent candidates next year. And now there’s news out there that Cornel West hasn’t been paying his taxes. Where did that come from?

28. Why apologize? It’s real.

    I remember the Bicentennial. It’s just real. We have long ago lost our Constitution. It took Trump for a lot of folks to realize it.

    Blame the after effects of WWII, which is a good starting point, but W’s Patriot Act was truly the straw that broke our Constitution’s back. Yep, he put into place the mechanisms that we are being ground into mainly by Obama and our unrepresentative government.

    Oh … when was DeSantis a Navy JAG?

29. If you think back on many of ” big moments ” in both the Bible and general history, the people living thru them were either living thru difficult times or were on the cusp of difficult times.
    We have had it relatively good for a long time in America.

30. Back during Covid and the lockdowns , etc, I heard California pastor John MacAuthor , who had defied the California church lockdowns, saying that he was not sure if this was the end of days or just the end of America. Then last year MacAuthor wrote an open letter to Gavin Newson about his crime policies etc and warning Newsom about his personal spiritual condition. Very powerful letter:

    https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B220928/an-open-letter-to-governor-newsom

31. I still think a preference cascade is possible.

    –Mike K

    True. It’s just damn tricky to time one.

    I feel discouraged by the onslaught of bad news, but not disconsolate. I also see a backlash building. And I remember how American history has whipsawed from one direction to another.

    Here’s a good one to recall:
    _____________________________

    This country is going so far to the right you won’t recognize it.

    –John Mitchell, after Nixon won in 1968
    _____________________________

    Think back to 1968.

    It was only a year past the Summer of Love. The culture was awash in the drug influences and the anti-war movement. The Civil Rights movement had essentially been won. The Old Left and the Counterculture had combined to form the New Left. Conventional morality was eroding.

    This turned out to be a high water mark for the New Left … at least until today.

    In 1968 who could believe that the country was about to turn so far to the right that we wouldn’t recognize it?

    Granted it took more than a decade until Reagan was elected in 1982, but aside from John Mitchell, who saw that coming in 1968?

32. When I was in college we had to write an essay for an American Studies class. I wrote some lame crap I’m sure. But some kid wrote an essay with the following premise. That Abraham Lincoln was the last direct intervention of God in human affairs. He intervened to ensure that America endured and could continue to be the light of the world. At the time I’m sure I rolled my eyes, and thought it ridiculous, but it has stayed with me all this time. The kid that wrote it was a Russian emigre who had been in America for less than a year.

33. Owen (7:28 pm) said, “Neo, your gloomy mood echoes and darkens my own, . . . .”

    It does not darken mine, but only because I’m a glass-half-empty kinda guy. For me, a struggle is maintaining good cheer when everything around me is going to hell.

    I understand why neo posts often on ballet and on The Bee Gees (for examples).

    I have certain interests as well, and I find it therapeutic to spend time on those — more and more lately. Often I forego posting a comment here because, why pile on still more? (But sometimes I’ll give in and contribute a wisecrack or a mini-rant or even a semi-major rant of my own.)

    “The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

    Doin’ my darnedest . . .

    [Owen] ” . . . so I guess I should reproach you for making me sadder. But what drives your gloom is your insight and honesty –your bets are (alas) so often true– and so instead of reproaching you, I thank you for making me a little wiser.”

    Not necessarily just a little wiser, in my case. And not just neo, but also the viewpoints of the commenters here: I agree with you folks here in varying degrees, usually pretty much except often for nuances in how some things may be expressed, and sometimes more than that.

    I appreciate this forum. Thanks, neo.

    [Owen] “Stay the course…”

    Doin’ my darnedest . . .

34. So the Democrats are trying to get enough people mad enough to nominate Trump at which point he’ll be soundly defeated. Actually it sounds perfectly logical. In the wildest of scenarios though, suppose he wins the presidency. Going on precedent with him (2018, 2020 and a poor showing in 2022) both houses of congress will be lost and I have no confidence Trump will do anything whatsoever to “drain the swamp” (I’m getting really tired of that term). This is the man who thought Christopher Wray and Anthony Fauci were fine fellows who deserved to stay on. I’m beginning to feel the way you do Neo. I held out for a long time, but…
    Why do the OnlyTrumpers think this guy is not going to screw things up yet again? Time for new (and younger) blood. I hear there’s a guy in FL who gets things done without the bluster.

35. When the times get dark, the people turn to —- Jell-o recipes.
    😉

36. There is an enormous body of conservative patriots that make up the core of this country. Every time the coastal elites try to screw over Trump, that core simply thinks “Yep, they’re crooks all right.”

    By the time the election rolls around, we need to make sure the crooks understand that they have overplayed their hand, and that their only plan B is cheating.

    And if we make them know what will happen if there’s a big cheat again, they will fold. Their only hope is that we fold first.

    Trump is their kryptonite, and we have to rub it into their faces, or lose. And hey, it will be fun rubbing it in their faces!

    They know we’re here and we’re strong, but the media helps them pretend we are not, giving them bravado. We have to get loud and stay loud, and cause that false bravery to wither!

37. John Hinderaker comes on strong that Trump is a loser for 2024 by the strategy neo summarized in her post:
    __________________________________

    But the Democrats have an ace in the hole: Donald Trump. If they can induce Republicans to nominate Trump, they can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, regardless of who their nominee might be. If the election is a referendum on Trump–as it would be, if he is the nominee–they can’t lose.

    It used to be said that God protects fools, drunkards and the United States of America. That has proved true through our history to date. But if Republicans are dumb enough to nominate Trump for the third time, all bets are off. Providence has only so many reprieves to offer.

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/08/make-way-for-trump.php
    __________________________________

    I consider 2024 a wildcard year, too uncertain to call at this point, though I tend to agree with Hinderaker.

38. And then watch some more cheerleading stunt videos while you eat your Jell-o.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTsBqNRTtlQ

39. @ Sgt Joe Friday > “The left knows that even a billionaire can be bankrupted by legal bills”

    @ Mike K > “Maybe this is an existential crisis and he is determined to try to right the ship.”

    The combo of comments brings this to mind:
    “And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

    Mr. Trump may well have reached the moment when his fortune is no longer the most important motivation in his life.

    The urge driving many money-makers, and especially politicians (who take but don’t make) to assemble huge fortunes appears to be generational, and, unlike the scions of so many political billionaires, Trump’s family are perfectly able to manage their own businesses and fortunes. Even if he has trouble getting good legal help for these indictments, I suspect his family has long since disentangled their own fortunes from his.

    So why not devote his life, fortune, and personal honor (sacred or not), to the cause of Making America Great Again?

40. I agree with jon baker that “God has this” — He always has everything! — but people are the instruments he uses, and they aren’t always the most likely, or expected, ones.

    I’m not saying Trump is a Moses or a David or even a Gideon (although he could be!), but only that it’s not always easy to discern the Hand of God when you are in the thick of the moments of crisis.

41. A little OT, but I really do believe that the Battle of Midway was an instance of God’s direct intervention in human affairs.

42. “I know that it may not be as bad as what I’m imagining”… BUT WHAT if Neo’s prognostications are at the upper end? The median possibility is 50% darker?

    I have long reconciled myself to the fact that the nation needs a bloody French-American Revolutionary purgative — out with the feckless and incompetent and EVIL Ruling Class.

    Because some people in some times just need killing.

    I agree that if trump wins it will be BLM-Antifa style “fiery but mostly peaceful protests”…ALL THE TIME.

    They won’t let Trump govern.

    But realizing this, and knowing that the Evil Left will do it themselves eventually, then we ought to BEAT them to the punch: the Right needs to organize a day of National Protest — a One Day National STRIKE against bribery and corruption in Federal government. No one works. All call in sick.

    Rush Limbaugh would set the date and agitate. But his singular magical radio voice is gone now.

    And the feckless, spineless GOP is too useless to organize anything so bad, much less whatever they do organize.

    SO WHERE WILL THIS PEACEFUL OPTION COME FROM? Who’s Big enough to make it REAL?

    Alternatively, should Trump win, how can the far Left’s time bomb get defused? How can destination be averted?

    I imagine the President asking Republican leaders to do peaceful outreach to the enemy Indians. Smoke Peace Pipe. And NOT Discuss the Big White Father back East.

    No. The point of such caucus-like socials must be to READ THE DAMN CONSTITUTION. And understand it. To make part of the vast number of deluded Indians on The War Path grasp that the POINT OF IT IS TO PROTECT DISSENT FROM BEING SQUASHED! TO ESCAPE the evils of MOBOCRACY and TYRANNY! (“Could we be the baddies” Yes, you are.)

    As the British classical liberal podcaster Carl Benjamin says, liberalism is the settled conclusion that “I am not God; you are not God. And therefore NOBODY gets to play God.” Replant this belief in the corrupt far-Left, then the hazard gets defused.

    IF YOU CANNOT GET BEHIND THAT, then you’re just not Americans — now escape back to your reservations and live there because we’ll shoot you if you wander off the Res.

    I have further pacification-re-education efforts in mind, but you get the idea.

43. Paul Harmon on August 17, 2023 at 5:40 pm

    People should understand the power of a martyr. Sometimes even knowing people allow their hatred to blind them of that fact. If later on in the campaign they feel like he is not properly destroyed, that people may still vote for him they will seriously consider killing him. That is only the planners and schemers. The rank a file morons they have been stirring up for the last seven years may not have that much patience. I also fear a real or false flag attempt on his opponent since that would be more strategic.

44. 1. “Trump’s trials are timed so that it is unlikely that they will be concluded and Trump sentenced and imprisoned prior to the election.”

    That DC trial is set for January 2024 and it will happen then. Super likely.

    2. I asked Vivek about his parents’ reaction when he told them he was running. He said they were concerned about his safety as he is such an opponent of the Deep State. I never thought of that.

    Again, watch the debate and pay attention to Vivek. Also, an interview with Tucker on TwitterX. He’s consistent. Said the same things in Iowa the 3 times I’ve seen him.

45. Vivek may be entitled to Secret Service protection — but how much do we trust that agency now?

    https://www.secretservice.gov/protection/leaders/campaign-2024
    “Title 18 U.S.C.’ 3056(a)(7) authorizes the U.S. Secret Service to provide protection for major Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates:

    Protection is authorized by the DHS Secretary after consultation with the Congressional Advisory Committee;

    The Congressional Advisory Committee includes: Speaker of the House, House Minority Leader, Senate Majority Leader, Senate Minority Leader, and one additional member selected by the others;

    Protection under these guidelines should only be granted within one year prior to the general election. Protection more than one year prior to the general election should only be granted in extraordinary, case by case circumstances in consultation with the committee, based on threat assessment and other factors.”

    DHS refused protection to RFK jr despite this:
    “Major candidates and their spouses began receiving protection after the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968.”

46. Perhaps another coup attempt with a more sophisticated version of the Steele dossier, with the FBI and the DOJ cooperating once again to take down their enemy Trump.
    ====
    Only works if the Reps don’t control the legislature and the Dems can start their fake witch hunt again. So taking both houses of Congress is singularly important.

    In theory, Trump controls both the FBI and DOJ. Trump should have fired wimpy AG Jeff Sessions for recusing himself. Maybe he’s learned his lesson and will get an AG with some spine. A good house cleaning is in order. If President, Trump should fire anyone who’s playing dirty like they did the last time. What’s he got to lose? They’ll say nasty things about him anyway.

    Meanwhile, I’m old enough to remember 2016 when Trump couldn’t win either. In fact, the Dems were probably so sure of themselves that they forgot to cheat. Didn’t happen in 2020.

47. A little OT, but I believe the battle of Midway was won by superb intelligence work by Rochefort and Layton including the famous ruse about Midway being out of water so as to identify the target the Japanese were going to attack. Without taking anything away from the aircrews of the three US carriers, it’s much easier to win a battle when you can attack from ambush. Going the other way, see also Pearl Harbor.

48. Locomotive Breath:

    [Great moniker.]

    You write: “I’m old enough to remember 2016 when Trump couldn’t win either.”

    Shortly before the election, I wrote that I thought Trump’s chances of winning were one in three. That’s not “couldn’t win.” At that same point, Nathan Silver gave Trump a 29% chance of winning. That’s very similar.

    Right now, I’d give Trump about a 3% chance of winning in 2024, while I’d give him a 95% chance of winning the GOP nomination. That’s not a good combination at all.

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