Bianca A GoldenRuleLover 🇺🇸🇺🇦 #StillNeverTrump

I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016, and then again in 2024, given how emotionally toxic and depraved he is. I don’t wonder anymore. I think he won for that exact reason. Because he carried at least one broken shard to reflect the broken shards in millions of others. If you’re a racist, you found your guy. If you’re a misogynist, you found your guy. If money is your only religion, you found your guy. If your heart is armored shut, you found your guy. If you mock the disabled, you found your guy. If intelligence makes you insecure, you found your guy. If you’re a sexual predator, you found your guy. If you trade in humiliation and conspiracy and filth, you found your guy. If you’ve never done a single hour of emotional inventory, you found your guy. If you cheat, stiff contractors, bankrupt your obligations, and call it savvy, you found your guy. If you lie as easily as you breathe, you found your guy. If cruelty feels like strength, you found your guy. If white grievance is your comfort food, you found your guy. If your ego is a black hole no title can fill, you found your guy. If warmongering fuels your ego, you found your guy, If empathy feels like weakness and dominance feels like oxygen, you found your guy. If he’d only carried one or two of these pathologies, he might have been dismissed as just another loud, damaged man. But he carried a buffet of them. That was the appeal. Millions could locate themselves somewhere in the wreckage. They didn’t have to agree with all of it. They just had to recognize a piece of themselves in it. It was never really about him. It was about the validation. The absolution. The permission. He didn’t invent the resentment; he amplified it. He didn’t create the cruelty; he normalized it. He gave millions the intoxicating relief of hearing their ugliest impulses echoed back at rally volume. Trump is a symptom. The deeper illness is collective. If there’s one sentence that defines his power, it’s this: “He says the things I’m thinking.” And that’s the part that should chill us. Because what does it say about us that so many were thinking those things? That tens of millions of Americans harbored resentments so deep, so seething, that they were simply waiting for a demagogue to baptize them as virtue? That after decades of supposed progress on race, gender, and equality, so many white men felt so threatened, so displaced, so furious, that cruelty became a political platform? Maybe we were living in a fool’s paradise, mistaking silence for healing, politeness for progress. Now the mask is off. Now we know. And knowing is a far more dangerous place to stand. – Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.

As I said on my 77WABC Radio radio show tonight, the shit will hit the fan for Eric Swallwell ( aka Swallowswell) The dopey drugged out pothead and serial sexual predator tomorrow.

WOW. 46% of Italians and 37% of French people see the U.S. as a threat

We cannot simply speak about withdrawing from Donbas as a matter of compromise. Our withdrawal from Donbas would open up opportunities for the Russian Federation to occupy our most fortified territories without losses. Some people say it would take a year to a year and a half to build new fortifications. But everyone forgets: first and foremost, that is a year and a half. And even if it were less, fortifications in an open field are a completely different matter from those in urban areas. They can never provide equally strong protection. A withdrawal would give the Russian Federation room for large-scale maneuver. They could advance either toward Kharkiv or toward Dnipro, destroying our cities. And two major cities would be at risk – cities that, incidentally, generate a significant share of our GDP. So many people have died there… The morale of our army would certainly decline. There would undoubtedly be a rift in society. The army – which would surely not support such steps – on one side, and society on the other. And division within society is precisely what Putin is aiming for. Moreover, there are currently 200,000 people living in the territories of Donbas that we are defending. Withdrawal does not mean preserving anything. You leave, and without any guarantees, you risk losing everything. And that is a major risk. From an interview with Rai Radio 1 (2/3).

Whats most obvious and significant about Trump's statement is that he won the "podcaster election" of 2024 without caring about the importance of "podcasters." To him, power is still in 80s-90s television and the Baby Boomers. True enough for him. Drastically less for the future

If sanctions on Russian oil have been lifted because of the war in the Middle East, will the U.S. sanctions be reimposed now that there is a ceasefire? I think that an answer to this question will expose the reason for lifting sanctions in the first place. We just need to wait and see. In my view, Russia played the Americans again – played the President of the United States. The Russians lied about the role their oil supplies played in keeping oil markets stable. If the U.S. reimposes sanctions, that would be fair. But if it doesn’t… We heard that Russia wanted Americans to buy certain energy assets in Europe belonging to Lukoil. I ask myself, “If I want to sell sanctioned energy assets, what do I do?” I come up with a scheme to lift sanctions. How else could I sell it? From an interview with Rai Radio 1 (3/3).

Don't worry, America. The outcome of the war against the Iranian regime all depends upon the specifics of what gets agreed to at the negotiating table with the mullahs in the coming weeks, on everything from control of the Strait of Hormuz, to uranium enrichment, to sanctions, to whether U.S. combat forces will remain in the region, to the fate of Hezbollah. The fate of the world rests in the hands of... ...Steve Witkoff.