Being a successful mob boss entails being able to convince and compel your henchmen to commit the crimes you want committed without really saying the overt words. Stochastic terrorism is no different.
I wasn’t sure at first if you meant boss or boob. The context favored boss, but I’m one of those people who doesn’t mind a little ambiguity. Then there was the possibility that you were showing off some Afrikaans term you picked up on your trip. Thanks for a much needed chuckle.
We keep trying to get the message out...but those within the "right-wing bubble" are insulated from hearing it. And too many, TOO MANY, ordinary people are so burned out on politics that they've tuned out everything related to Trump! I only pray they don't wake up too late to prevent his takeover of the US, along with his Federalist/Heritage Foundation/Proud Boys/etc., etc. buddies.
They may be tuned out but are most likely aware that the women in their lives are losing their right to maternal healthcare by trained medical doctors as opposed to the dictates of lying politicians.
And that’s not an accident. An integral part of the game is to make politics so ugly that people tune out. Do you remember how stupid Devin Nunez looked mocking the Democrats during the first impeachment? And how obnoxious Jim Jordan was? Okay, so those guys were maybe naturals for their parts, but making the process hard to watch is part of the defense strategy.
We are all being subjected to psychological warfare. It is not politics as usual when there were “simply” survivable differences in policies. This is not a policy debate, long past that. At least on one side, this is winner takes all.
I cannot feel “peace” until a lot of institutions and rhetoric are gone. We are too far ‘round the bend for four more years of a Democrat president to silence the extreme right wing.
Trump has operated as a mob boss for years. Michael Cohen testified that tRump talks in "code," for reasons of plausible deniability, but his henchmen know what he wants. Roy Cohn taught Donald well.
It will only get worse. He is priming his base and at one point he will give the marching orders.
I put that quote about the bloodbath on FB and a "friend" commented on it. He ended with "context is a thing". I had a very good rebuttal all typed out and then decided not to get into a pissing contest with him and deleted the whole post.
When do you make that conscious decision to shut your mouth and not argue the point?
At what point do you sell out your conscience, your standards, your integrity for the sake of "not making waves"?
When do you decide that no amount of talking, of fact checking, of logic will do anything to convince them? When do you accept the idea that they may have been brainwashed and it is useless to try and change them. When do you just give up on them?
When do you decide to not stand up and speak out for civility and democracy.
I am disappointed that I decided it was yesterday. I have decided that that was the last time.
In your defense, it's understandable. Taking these people on in social media is exhausting. I avoid it, too. That's why I rant here on Substack and on Medium. I may not have a ton of views, but every voice counts. If just one person gets influenced by my words over the next 8 months, I'll have done my duty. I don't expect to turn MAGAt views around, anyway. It's the people who aren't aware yet of what he's really up to that need to be reached.
I gave up in late 2015 on the tRumpers. You can’t reason with cult members at all about anything. It’s a total waste of time.
I spend my energy on the politically apathetic and 3rd party voters though I’m really losing patience with 3rd party “I’m voting my conscious” voters as well. Thanks in part to them, tRump won the electoral college and women have lost their reproductive rights.
I often wonder how their “conscious” feels about those consequences.
At this point, I don't argue, I just ask them to remember being a child and being taught wrong from right. It's that simple. Trump does wrong. Biden does right, usually, I have issue with him, but the difference couldn't be any plainer. Not even his base given time alone with him would tolerate what he does, because he'd be doing it to THEM.
I think the difference is that this time we not only have a warning from 2020, we also have an administration in place that (hopefully) will act accordingly.
I shared this post to my own facebook page and to 4 groups. Can't wait to see if it actually posts or if facebook or the group admins take it down or refuse to post it. This happens all too often.
The good news is that they are just the LOUDEST and not the MAJORITY of potential voters. 🤔 For those of us without the skill or the patience to persist with the MAGATs, concentration on positive things like supporting good candidates up & down the ballot and bolstering those who are on the frontlines fighting on our behalf. Working with people who are trying to do the right thing at whatever level is just as/more valuable than converting ONE "friend" who doesn't want to listen 🤷
Deborah, I completely understand, and I am right there with you. But the “when” of it, for me, arrived in 2017. I live in the reddest part of a coastally blue state. I live in a rural, white, evangelical, prepper part of that Red Zone. In 2017, I scrubbed and culled my Friends list. In public, I still fly my colors (think aging hippie Earth Mother in tie dye), but I also own a gun. Mahatma Ghandi I am not.
I think it’s a really fine line. In the past I have asked what they mean. Then I list verifiable facts. If they go uber Maga then, at least I tried, and their eyes saw the truth… and at that point I either mute or block them.
After my father was embezzled by a "trusted" employee/con artist, he told the detective how stupid he felt and the detective responded, "DON'T. These people are so highly skilled that you can fall for them even if you already know what they are like." I think of this often---I mean, who among us thought evangelicals would get behind a guy who cheated on his wife with a porn star five months after she gave birth??? Trump attempts to normalize everything from sexual assault to bloodbaths.
Thank you, Jay, for giving up part of your well-deserved vacation to speak out.
Donald Trump stopped deserving the benefit of the doubt in about 1989. We all know who he is and what he wants.
As someone put it, it’s a euphemism even to say he’s “running for president.” That’s not really what he’s doing—cf. his Super Tuesday comment that “I don’t need votes. I have all the votes I need.”
'If I don't get elected, it will be a bloodbath' is no different in tone or intent from 'Be There! Will Be WILD!'
Donald Trump knows exactly what he's saying and how it will land with his cult of reactionaries. Michael Cohen made it clear that Trump knows how to say things to give himself deniability while still getting his message across. Like a common mob boss. None of us need to listen to the ridiculous handwaving from his propagandists and apologists.
It's even worse than the Jan 6 comment. And so was the PA announcer saying before Trump started speaking at the event, "“Please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6 hostages.”
And so was Trump saluting them and calling them “unbelievable patriots” and “hostages.”
All good points. That announcement was clearly written by Trump's people. NORMAL announcements ask people to rise for the playing of the national anthem, not some delusional, disgusting perversion of it that MAGA world gobbles up.
He 100% engages in psychological priming. He is also often guilty of projection, in which he or his sycophants accuse the Democrats of doing what the Trump jerks themselves are doing or planning to do. Thus, my blood ran cold when I saw this sentence in your essay:
“Elsewhere in the Dayton speech, Trump said that if he didn’t win, “I’m not sure you’ll ever have another election in this country.””
Too many of us are stuck in that inchoate rage that comes from this horrible person being allowed to hold rallies while everyone around him ends up in jail. We all feel powerless against this never ending horror. But we are not. We are the majority. We will (ultimately) end this reign of terror. Ok. Do I believe what I just wrote?
I hope you do. . I read Jay's articles along with Heather's and Joyce's here on substack. They bring clarity along with hope. But even more so for me , my hope also comes from other people like yourself, knowing that all have each other .
Sometimes it's hard to keep reminding ourselves of that. We are the Silent Majority and have already done some incredible things in the past. Keep on keeping on. Like Joyce always say ," we're all in this together!"
I believe what you wrote. I can't change every mind, but I like to say NO ONE can see you vote once you are in front of that ballot. You can say you support Republicans and still vote for Biden.
Pretty funny to read Republicans complaining about taking statements out of context, when they’ve been fundraising off of misrepresenting Dem statements continuously since Obama’s purported “apology” tour.
I've read actual transcripts of the vitriol used against poll workers and other members of the public through the charging documents of MAGA "patriots" issuing threatening actions.
The foul and inciteful language and the specificity of the threats, calling out family members by name, is appalling.
If you have the stomach for it, it's an eye-opener to what's to come now and in the future.
He’s definitely priming his base, just as he did throughout his presidency and the berserk aftermath. But what you call out so well here, Jay, is Trump’s catastrophizing, a mindset that is now hard to escape in digital media on both sides. I have to actively fight it off myself, because despair and apathy undercut my willingness to resist - and we all need to resist this doominess and, as you say, reframe the debate.
“A “bloodbath” over a failed presidential bid is a very dangerous idea, and we need to call it out now—not permit politicians and media personalities to make excuses for it.”
It needs to be called out every hour of every day between now and Nov 5th. Along with his use of Hitler’s rhetoric and his continued abuse of the vulnerable among us.
I want to see daily stories in MSM about Project 2025 aka blueprint for a fascist take over when a Republican is elected president. I want the MSM to dissect the plan and break it down so that the public understands what it would mean to them and to their kids and grand kids.
I've downloaded the PDF and still haven't had a chance to go over it very much. It may require some kind of dedicated substack or something, run by a group of us. Because what little I've seen is enough to understand the threat, but it's voluminous, with many, many "contributors," so it's not easy for one or two people to take apart.
This was done on purpose, I'm sure. Very serious stuff.
That is it in a nutshell. I think that is one of the reasons Project 2025 isn’t getting the level of attention it should.
If you go to my SubStack (Sky High) I posted links to 2 articles yesterday on the topic. They are from Heather Cox Richardson and Timothy Snyder. Worth reading.
Excellent. That's what we have to do and keep doing. We won't reach the MAGA crowd. We need to move the needle with people who aren't engaged in politics the same way. It's going to just take relentless effort.
I agree with much of what you said. Except that I do not think Trump is that smart. Most of what he says is either to be outrageous in order to get more attention, or done an effort to gain plaudits and applause from his supporters. He knows what they like to hear, and he likes to say things they like to hear. He knows the power of that dynamic and likely knows the consequences – that people will act inappropriately, even dangerously. And that’s fine with him, because it shows how much power he has over them. But in terms of the bigger picture, I don’t think he really knows what the f___ he’s doing.
That is why I think ridicule is the best reaction, rather than outrage. If you can laugh at an autocrat and get others to laugh with you, that withers his ego. That is what Putin really hated about Navalny – the fact that he made a joke of Putin. That is what made Navalny so popular, and more than anything why Putin had him killed. Autocrats can tolerate a lot. But they can not tolerate ridicule.
Sorry. Disagree, mostly. If it is about power, trump** knows exactly what he is doing. His only definition of success is power. Money, or at least the outward appearance of it, equals power. That’s one reason he is truly sweating blood right now: the courts want REAL money which is essentially calling his bluff because he doesn’t have the goods. He is throwing all the influence he has into restructuring an entire political party into funding him.
What he is truly ignorant about is the dynamics of politics especially global interconnectedness. Angela Merkel had the best body language when she had to even be in the same room as the Anger Mango.
The real problem is with all of trump’s** high level GOP operatives WHO DO KNOW how things work but who are also in it for the money(power) so they can be re-elected ad nauseum for all the perks and inside information. Those people are using trump** to be the frontman and the “brand name” to reach the [mostly] uneducated conservative voter. Every dogwhistle in the book is being used to outrage these people in hopes of another carpet of red states winning the electoral votes. That is the center of the battlefield.
Mainstream media needs to quit playing along, trying to corner all that advertising money.
Does a trump** headline have to lead news reporting every day? MSM is directly funding his campaign with all the free exposure. Did we learn nothing about that in 2016?
trump** was clearly coached by some very astute players (McConnell) when it came to strategically appointing judges at every level. I honestly pray for Very Bad Things to keep Moscow Mitch from ever having even a minute of a clear conscience.
An earlier version of this piece identified him as a Mob Boos instead of a Mob Boss. Apologies for the freudian slip!
Mob Boos kinda fit too...........
He's not the boos of me!
Being a successful mob boss entails being able to convince and compel your henchmen to commit the crimes you want committed without really saying the overt words. Stochastic terrorism is no different.
I wasn’t sure at first if you meant boss or boob. The context favored boss, but I’m one of those people who doesn’t mind a little ambiguity. Then there was the possibility that you were showing off some Afrikaans term you picked up on your trip. Thanks for a much needed chuckle.
We will "ghost" him in November.
I wish. The tumblers of that particular lock will be a long time falling into place.
hahahaha!
Jay Kuo: Thanks for pointing out the Freudian slip.
Makes it funny!
I love your writing. Well reasoned.
So?
:-)!
We keep trying to get the message out...but those within the "right-wing bubble" are insulated from hearing it. And too many, TOO MANY, ordinary people are so burned out on politics that they've tuned out everything related to Trump! I only pray they don't wake up too late to prevent his takeover of the US, along with his Federalist/Heritage Foundation/Proud Boys/etc., etc. buddies.
They may be tuned out but are most likely aware that the women in their lives are losing their right to maternal healthcare by trained medical doctors as opposed to the dictates of lying politicians.
And that’s not an accident. An integral part of the game is to make politics so ugly that people tune out. Do you remember how stupid Devin Nunez looked mocking the Democrats during the first impeachment? And how obnoxious Jim Jordan was? Okay, so those guys were maybe naturals for their parts, but making the process hard to watch is part of the defense strategy.
We are all being subjected to psychological warfare. It is not politics as usual when there were “simply” survivable differences in policies. This is not a policy debate, long past that. At least on one side, this is winner takes all.
I cannot feel “peace” until a lot of institutions and rhetoric are gone. We are too far ‘round the bend for four more years of a Democrat president to silence the extreme right wing.
Trump has operated as a mob boss for years. Michael Cohen testified that tRump talks in "code," for reasons of plausible deniability, but his henchmen know what he wants. Roy Cohn taught Donald well.
It will only get worse. He is priming his base and at one point he will give the marching orders.
I put that quote about the bloodbath on FB and a "friend" commented on it. He ended with "context is a thing". I had a very good rebuttal all typed out and then decided not to get into a pissing contest with him and deleted the whole post.
When do you make that conscious decision to shut your mouth and not argue the point?
At what point do you sell out your conscience, your standards, your integrity for the sake of "not making waves"?
When do you decide that no amount of talking, of fact checking, of logic will do anything to convince them? When do you accept the idea that they may have been brainwashed and it is useless to try and change them. When do you just give up on them?
When do you decide to not stand up and speak out for civility and democracy.
I am disappointed that I decided it was yesterday. I have decided that that was the last time.
In your defense, it's understandable. Taking these people on in social media is exhausting. I avoid it, too. That's why I rant here on Substack and on Medium. I may not have a ton of views, but every voice counts. If just one person gets influenced by my words over the next 8 months, I'll have done my duty. I don't expect to turn MAGAt views around, anyway. It's the people who aren't aware yet of what he's really up to that need to be reached.
I gave up in late 2015 on the tRumpers. You can’t reason with cult members at all about anything. It’s a total waste of time.
I spend my energy on the politically apathetic and 3rd party voters though I’m really losing patience with 3rd party “I’m voting my conscious” voters as well. Thanks in part to them, tRump won the electoral college and women have lost their reproductive rights.
I often wonder how their “conscious” feels about those consequences.
At this point, I don't argue, I just ask them to remember being a child and being taught wrong from right. It's that simple. Trump does wrong. Biden does right, usually, I have issue with him, but the difference couldn't be any plainer. Not even his base given time alone with him would tolerate what he does, because he'd be doing it to THEM.
And you also have to wonder how many of these people are real and not just troll farmers.
I have a friend who voted her conscience in 2016. She has deep regrets that are only found in hindsight.
Hope she doesn’t make same mistake twice.
Good idea. The Cult is too far gone....thanks for the tip.
I think the difference is that this time we not only have a warning from 2020, we also have an administration in place that (hopefully) will act accordingly.
We can hope,,,,
Good thing all the vigilante wanna be's are totally paranoid these days. And rightly so. FBI is just waiting for them to reveal themselves once again.
I shared this post to my own facebook page and to 4 groups. Can't wait to see if it actually posts or if facebook or the group admins take it down or refuse to post it. This happens all too often.
The good news is that they are just the LOUDEST and not the MAJORITY of potential voters. 🤔 For those of us without the skill or the patience to persist with the MAGATs, concentration on positive things like supporting good candidates up & down the ballot and bolstering those who are on the frontlines fighting on our behalf. Working with people who are trying to do the right thing at whatever level is just as/more valuable than converting ONE "friend" who doesn't want to listen 🤷
Deborah, I completely understand, and I am right there with you. But the “when” of it, for me, arrived in 2017. I live in the reddest part of a coastally blue state. I live in a rural, white, evangelical, prepper part of that Red Zone. In 2017, I scrubbed and culled my Friends list. In public, I still fly my colors (think aging hippie Earth Mother in tie dye), but I also own a gun. Mahatma Ghandi I am not.
I think it’s a really fine line. In the past I have asked what they mean. Then I list verifiable facts. If they go uber Maga then, at least I tried, and their eyes saw the truth… and at that point I either mute or block them.
🤷🏻
After my father was embezzled by a "trusted" employee/con artist, he told the detective how stupid he felt and the detective responded, "DON'T. These people are so highly skilled that you can fall for them even if you already know what they are like." I think of this often---I mean, who among us thought evangelicals would get behind a guy who cheated on his wife with a porn star five months after she gave birth??? Trump attempts to normalize everything from sexual assault to bloodbaths.
Thank you, Jay, for giving up part of your well-deserved vacation to speak out.
The fact that grab em by the p.... wasn't the end.
Donald Trump stopped deserving the benefit of the doubt in about 1989. We all know who he is and what he wants.
As someone put it, it’s a euphemism even to say he’s “running for president.” That’s not really what he’s doing—cf. his Super Tuesday comment that “I don’t need votes. I have all the votes I need.”
'If I don't get elected, it will be a bloodbath' is no different in tone or intent from 'Be There! Will Be WILD!'
Donald Trump knows exactly what he's saying and how it will land with his cult of reactionaries. Michael Cohen made it clear that Trump knows how to say things to give himself deniability while still getting his message across. Like a common mob boss. None of us need to listen to the ridiculous handwaving from his propagandists and apologists.
It's even worse than the Jan 6 comment. And so was the PA announcer saying before Trump started speaking at the event, "“Please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6 hostages.”
And so was Trump saluting them and calling them “unbelievable patriots” and “hostages.”
He's actively promoting civil war.
All good points. That announcement was clearly written by Trump's people. NORMAL announcements ask people to rise for the playing of the national anthem, not some delusional, disgusting perversion of it that MAGA world gobbles up.
You hit the nail directly on the head!
He 100% engages in psychological priming. He is also often guilty of projection, in which he or his sycophants accuse the Democrats of doing what the Trump jerks themselves are doing or planning to do. Thus, my blood ran cold when I saw this sentence in your essay:
“Elsewhere in the Dayton speech, Trump said that if he didn’t win, “I’m not sure you’ll ever have another election in this country.””
How are people so blind to his intentions?
Yep, I caught that too. We need only look to what tRump is accusing others of to know what's spinning around in his head.
Too many of us are stuck in that inchoate rage that comes from this horrible person being allowed to hold rallies while everyone around him ends up in jail. We all feel powerless against this never ending horror. But we are not. We are the majority. We will (ultimately) end this reign of terror. Ok. Do I believe what I just wrote?
I hope you do. . I read Jay's articles along with Heather's and Joyce's here on substack. They bring clarity along with hope. But even more so for me , my hope also comes from other people like yourself, knowing that all have each other .
I know. I hope I do too! People like you, people like us, give me hope. We really are the majority. This I do know.
Sometimes it's hard to keep reminding ourselves of that. We are the Silent Majority and have already done some incredible things in the past. Keep on keeping on. Like Joyce always say ," we're all in this together!"
Maybe if we can get an US AG that will actually do something in a timely manner instead waiting years until it’s almost too late.
I believe what you wrote. I can't change every mind, but I like to say NO ONE can see you vote once you are in front of that ballot. You can say you support Republicans and still vote for Biden.
I do, Peggy. And so do millions more of us.
I believe what you just wrote.
Glad you do! Together we will find our way through the morass.
Pretty funny to read Republicans complaining about taking statements out of context, when they’ve been fundraising off of misrepresenting Dem statements continuously since Obama’s purported “apology” tour.
I've read actual transcripts of the vitriol used against poll workers and other members of the public through the charging documents of MAGA "patriots" issuing threatening actions.
The foul and inciteful language and the specificity of the threats, calling out family members by name, is appalling.
If you have the stomach for it, it's an eye-opener to what's to come now and in the future.
This is real, folks. Vote BLUE.
Here's another must-read perspective on The Bloodbath.
https://digbysblog.net/2024/03/20/ordinary-people/
He’s definitely priming his base, just as he did throughout his presidency and the berserk aftermath. But what you call out so well here, Jay, is Trump’s catastrophizing, a mindset that is now hard to escape in digital media on both sides. I have to actively fight it off myself, because despair and apathy undercut my willingness to resist - and we all need to resist this doominess and, as you say, reframe the debate.
“A “bloodbath” over a failed presidential bid is a very dangerous idea, and we need to call it out now—not permit politicians and media personalities to make excuses for it.”
It needs to be called out every hour of every day between now and Nov 5th. Along with his use of Hitler’s rhetoric and his continued abuse of the vulnerable among us.
I want to see daily stories in MSM about Project 2025 aka blueprint for a fascist take over when a Republican is elected president. I want the MSM to dissect the plan and break it down so that the public understands what it would mean to them and to their kids and grand kids.
I've downloaded the PDF and still haven't had a chance to go over it very much. It may require some kind of dedicated substack or something, run by a group of us. Because what little I've seen is enough to understand the threat, but it's voluminous, with many, many "contributors," so it's not easy for one or two people to take apart.
This was done on purpose, I'm sure. Very serious stuff.
That is it in a nutshell. I think that is one of the reasons Project 2025 isn’t getting the level of attention it should.
If you go to my SubStack (Sky High) I posted links to 2 articles yesterday on the topic. They are from Heather Cox Richardson and Timothy Snyder. Worth reading.
Excellent. That's what we have to do and keep doing. We won't reach the MAGA crowd. We need to move the needle with people who aren't engaged in politics the same way. It's going to just take relentless effort.
Read Audra Watkins Substack How project 2025 will fuck up your life. She’s an evangelical survivor and speaks their bizarre language.
Oh, I'm aware of Project 2025! I downloaded the PDF. Some scary stuff
I wish that could happen too - millions don’t know it exists. Others don’t take it seriously (project 2025)
My reply to the apologists would be, "IF he just meant a "bloodbath" for the auto industry why didn't he say that instead of "the whole country?"
You're absolutely right, and we can expect increasing calls for violence over the next 8 months.
Also, you have a typo in one of your subheads--Trump is a mob boSs....
I agree with much of what you said. Except that I do not think Trump is that smart. Most of what he says is either to be outrageous in order to get more attention, or done an effort to gain plaudits and applause from his supporters. He knows what they like to hear, and he likes to say things they like to hear. He knows the power of that dynamic and likely knows the consequences – that people will act inappropriately, even dangerously. And that’s fine with him, because it shows how much power he has over them. But in terms of the bigger picture, I don’t think he really knows what the f___ he’s doing.
That is why I think ridicule is the best reaction, rather than outrage. If you can laugh at an autocrat and get others to laugh with you, that withers his ego. That is what Putin really hated about Navalny – the fact that he made a joke of Putin. That is what made Navalny so popular, and more than anything why Putin had him killed. Autocrats can tolerate a lot. But they can not tolerate ridicule.
Sorry. Disagree, mostly. If it is about power, trump** knows exactly what he is doing. His only definition of success is power. Money, or at least the outward appearance of it, equals power. That’s one reason he is truly sweating blood right now: the courts want REAL money which is essentially calling his bluff because he doesn’t have the goods. He is throwing all the influence he has into restructuring an entire political party into funding him.
What he is truly ignorant about is the dynamics of politics especially global interconnectedness. Angela Merkel had the best body language when she had to even be in the same room as the Anger Mango.
The real problem is with all of trump’s** high level GOP operatives WHO DO KNOW how things work but who are also in it for the money(power) so they can be re-elected ad nauseum for all the perks and inside information. Those people are using trump** to be the frontman and the “brand name” to reach the [mostly] uneducated conservative voter. Every dogwhistle in the book is being used to outrage these people in hopes of another carpet of red states winning the electoral votes. That is the center of the battlefield.
Mainstream media needs to quit playing along, trying to corner all that advertising money.
Does a trump** headline have to lead news reporting every day? MSM is directly funding his campaign with all the free exposure. Did we learn nothing about that in 2016?
trump** was clearly coached by some very astute players (McConnell) when it came to strategically appointing judges at every level. I honestly pray for Very Bad Things to keep Moscow Mitch from ever having even a minute of a clear conscience.