Trump’s MAGA cult seem to me to be a bunch of “sick puppies!” How can anyone subjugate themselves to another person who has no character or integrity? It’s just inexplicable to me, unless it’s underscored by their quest for power and control! I have the same feelings about the followers of Charles Manson & Jim Jones!
It's a formula as old as human civilization. Every despot and tyrant throughout history has utilized it. Egypt, Sparta, Rome, and on. Trump is just a figurehead. Pay attention to what's going on behind him, foreign and domestic. Looking forward to Sunday.
"Like so many others in the GOP, Meadows would likely do it all again if he knew it would succeed.” This was clearly seen in the interview of Ronna McDaniel as she once again lied and tried to manipulate her views. I was glad to see the backlash of this hire and how quickly NBC fired her.
Professor please CONNECT Trump & Paul White, his "Televangelist" who leads her OWN CULT! At one time when Trump was routinely living in Trump Tower, Paula White had a Condo in Trump Tower. She gave his inaugural Invocation, followed him INTO the White House, and either conducted or attended Prayer Breakfasts. She has resurfaced at Mara-a-Lago. I suspect she is his main connection to the White Nationalist and the religious right.
As soon as trump decided to run for POTUS in his first primary, unlike the moderate Republican folks I knew, I was confident he'd win the the primary and then the election. His use of the birther movement to start his campaign early, cemented him with the crowd that was looking for an easy scapegoat. Racism, nationalism, & hate provided him a winning formula. I read an article early in comparing trump to Mussolini. Moderate Republicans poo pooed me & assured me that he didn't have a shot. But people would go to his rallies disliking him and leave at to vote for him. And ultimately he won the election. And note folks have amnesia about how bad his years in office really were.
In my attempts always to make sense out of unexpected — catastrophic in this case — occurrences is generally to go back further for background, understanding (thus possible strategies to counteract). Jenny Cohn just wrote today regarding Leonard Leo and his realization as presented by his former media relations director that Leo “figured out 20 years ago that conservatives had lost the culture war. Abortion, gay rights, contraception—conservatives didn't have a chance if public opinion prevailed. So they needed to stack the courts."
Meanwhile, 20-30 years ago in the United States Donald Trump was embarking on numerous business failures & financial flops with bailouts from his sociopathic conditional love self-made father: including Trump Airlines, beverages, Vodka, “the Game,” casinos, a university, cologne, etc
All of Trumps efforts were hopeless attempts to prove to the world that he was as successful as sociopathic conditional love self-made father!
……..meanwhile, money, loans were still needed and while he used to be able to borrow from Big Banks (through his father from Chase Manhattan etc) afterwards it was loans to foreign nationals with money laundering risks & predatory lending……RISKS……and autocracy, Leonard Leo agenda, Putin agenda, China……..
That last essay sentence right there. .thats the call for action!
The greatest weapon in our human arsenal is emotional intelligence. What makes it most powerful is our emotional integrity. Is that not why we are here together? Use this weapon humbly and wisely followed by action. Participation of voter engagement exercises, I.e. campaign literature distribution, communication events, voter registration drives, contributions and attendance of events, educate each other, these and others sharpen your emotional integrity. Don’t be a counter personality cult member. Demenstrate through actions the destruction of the strongman culture.
The personality cult is only half the reason for Trump's blind commitment from millions of Americans. There were two books written in the last few years about Trump's cult and his control over the minds and souls of so many Americans. The first one is The Cult of Trump, which was written by Steven Hassan - a cult expert. I wrote the other book called From Democracy to Democrazy based on my twenty years living and working in dictator-led countries, explaining how they operate, and focusing on the Russia-Trump connection.
At this stage in his "cult" leadership, a whirlwind of legal woes orbit around Donald Trump and many of his followers have stated that "if he is convicted of a crime, they might reconsider voting for Trump." With 91 criminal charges against him, the chances of such a conviction is relatively high. He has already been convicted in civil court of FRAUD and RAPE. How can so many people who call themselves Christians believe this man's lies? It is called "mass mind manipulation."
In 1997, Putin was the PM of Russia and inline to be the second President shortly thereafter. In this same year, a 600+ page book (in Russian) was published in Russia called the Foundations of Geopolitics. Contained in this book (I read it) are lengthy discussions about Putin's goals as the President. (I am paraphrasing) but this list includes the destruction of the U.S. democracy which he blames for the downfall of the Soviet Union. The influence of Putin's strategies quietly attempts to reshape the trajectory of American politics and American lives. We are seeing that happening now. The shadow cast by Putin over the landscape of American democracy, and his influence and "control" over Trump grows larger and darker by the moment.
Putin has spent his entire life believing that the United States is his enemy. His life's dream was to become a KGB agent, which he accomplished. He was assigned to work in East Germany and while there he gained the same horrific skills used by Hitler to convert an entire peaceful and lawful country into a society of mass murderers. He returned to Russia in the 1990's, worked in the city government of St. Petersburg, and then moved to Moscow to become the next President. He instantly converted the Russian government from a communist/socialist system to a dictatorship. He planned to rebuild the glory days of the USSR, and this meant placing someone loyal to Putin to lead other countries. This was how the Soviet Union operated and the only government model he knew.
In the meantime, Trump had begun traveling to Russia in 1987 and visited many times during the 1990's. My daughter managed the Beverly Hills casino, night club, and restaurant (in Moscow) who was half owned by Mayor Lyushkov/Moscow and the other half by Chuck Norris, the American movie star. Trump attended their grand opening and returned several times. The "Beverly" was known for it's corruption, naked women, and famous faces. Trump's vile behavior was splashed in local media - I know because I lived there.
I also had experienced the KGB/FSB recruitment process of flattery, wining, and dining. I was not caught because I understood Russia. Trump, on the other hand, appears to be loyal to Putin and Russia. While only Putin and Trump know what evidence was acquired by Russians to ensnare Trump, my guess would be that he was probably either caught with Russian prostitutes - a very common trap for foreign men in Moscow, or was loaned a large sum of money to bail out his failing businesses. In 2008, Trump Jr. bragged about the Trump Organization receiving large assets from Russia (www.businessinsider.com) and a few years later Eric Trump confirmed by saying they had $100M from Russian banks. (www.vanityfair.com) Russian banks loan large sums of money to foreigners to either laundry money into another country's economy, or they give money to entrap/compromise that foreigner. In 2018, the Foreign Policy magazine wrote an informative article called "How Russian Money Helped Save Trump's Business." The Washington Post article in 2019 was titled "Trump's businesses are full of dirty Russian money." The Trump Tower in SoHo (in New York) was entirely funded with Russian money. (The Washington Post, 2018/04/12) This article stated that "A now-defunct Russian-language website and ads starring Ivanka Trump . . ."
Russian banks also gave $9.8M to Marie LePen who was the foremost opposition leader in France, in an attempt to overthrow the French government. This amount is a small cry compared to what Russian's have given Trump.
Trump is well aware that he has sold his soul and our country to the Russians. Last year, Cassidy Hutchinson stated that "Trump is terrified of being poisoned." Poison is a common lethal method used worldwide by the KGB/FSB.
Wikipedia defines "brainwashing" as telling lies over and over until it is perceived as the truth. Almost every speech given by Trump contained lies. CNN even reported a short while ago that 70% of the Republicans still believe that the 2020 election was stolen - a lie he admitted to and was published in Politico, 09/17/2023. To quote this article "Former President Donald Trump said Sunday on "Meet the Press" that he didn't respect lawyers and members of his campaign who told him he lost the 2020 presidential election, and that it was his decision to buy into the theory that the election was rigged." In fact, after the 2016 election Trump was quoted as saying that "Clinton stole the popular vote from him." NPR reported on 11/27/2016 that "President-elect Donald Trump won a convincing electoral vote victory on Nov. 8, but he is claiming falsely that widespread voter fraud cost him the popular vote" - same lie just different election.
Time will resolve the Trump's Cult's controlled behavior and minds. But yes, they are comparable to the Jim Jones cult, the Charles Manson group, and more importantly to Hitler's total mind control of Germans. Make the connection folks - Hitler/Germany to Putin/Russia to Trump/USA. Whether it is called fascism or communism, it is based on the same control methodologies. Coercive mind control WORKS and has been used worldwide in dictator-led countries and a few others. It is now found in the United States and used on the majority of Republicans.
Those who are "life-long" dedicated and loyal Republicans face a hard choice this November. They either vote for a man who is a cult leader and with 91 criminal charges against him - but he is running on the Republican ticket, or they don't vote. God forbid that they vote for Biden - a man who has been an honest public servant for almost 50 years and whose constituents returned him to Congress for a total of 36 years. He served 8 years as the Vice President to Obama - who is already selected to be on the top 10 list of best President's of all times. In his four years as our President, he has corrected the financial disaster left to him by Trump; he has reduced unemployment so it is below 4%; the economy is steady, the stock market is up, and he has reduced our national debt by one trillion dollars.
Lize Cheney (R) sat on the January 6th Oversight Committee. She had an inside view of the true Trump. She risked her job and spoke out against Trump, in an attempt to prevent him from ever again winning the Presidency.
Both Putin and Trump are consummate liars, but their web of lies cannot withstand the light of truth. It is up to all of us to explain, talk about, and shout about brainwashing and what has happened in our country - before it is too late.
This week's MAGA bible sales has really sent me through the roof. Like it just could not be more reprehensible or blasphemous. And yet his sheep will buy them up like candy. He is such a disgusting phony who needs to be humiliated and banished for good. WE must do this in November!
As Rachel Maddow pointed out on her show on 3/25/2024, no other wannabe strongman leader in American history ever managed to co-opt one of America's two major political parties. This has been a key to his success thus far, and it is instructive about the challenge faced by those of us wishing to defeat Mr. Trump.
I believe one key to defeating Trump will be to ensure that American voters are enlightened about what it would mean -- in practical, easily understood terms -- to live under authoritarian rule. Clearly, most Trump supporters have no understanding of that; they have not read 'Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.' We cannot realistically expect many Trump supporters to read this (or any) book, and, therefore, we must find other effective ways to enlighten them about the consequences of voting an authoritarian ruler into power.
We need our own modern-day equivalent of a Paul Revere riding throughout our nation crying out loudly, "The Authoritarians are coming! The Authoritarians are coming!" Our own Ruth Ben-Ghiat is doing her best to fulfill this role, but she can use all the support we can provide.
You write that conviction can deflate cults. I understand that if people get their news from reliable sources, but I'm wondering how many of them will ever hear about convictions on Fox "news". Or believe them if they do. I personally can't wrap my brain around being caught up by a cult leader.
Yes, we again, as a human race, are facing the specter of the Hobbesian Leviathan and tempted to fall for Hobbes' theory of human nature that the natural state is one of a war of "all against all" without a strong powerful leader to impose order. I don't subscribe to the authoritarian view of 'unity presidency' as the answer for governance, but democracy is hard pressed these days to prove that it is capable of the leadership necessary to urge us to follow our better angels. I still have hope and believe that democracy - in a more perfect form - is the better option. Clearly Trump is the latest proof of the problems of authoritarianism.
Trump’s MAGA cult seem to me to be a bunch of “sick puppies!” How can anyone subjugate themselves to another person who has no character or integrity? It’s just inexplicable to me, unless it’s underscored by their quest for power and control! I have the same feelings about the followers of Charles Manson & Jim Jones!
It's a formula as old as human civilization. Every despot and tyrant throughout history has utilized it. Egypt, Sparta, Rome, and on. Trump is just a figurehead. Pay attention to what's going on behind him, foreign and domestic. Looking forward to Sunday.
That photo of holy man Trump has the vibe of a low budget brainwashing-aliens-have-landed science fiction movie. I can't stop laughing. 😂
"Like so many others in the GOP, Meadows would likely do it all again if he knew it would succeed.” This was clearly seen in the interview of Ronna McDaniel as she once again lied and tried to manipulate her views. I was glad to see the backlash of this hire and how quickly NBC fired her.
I saved a picture of the guy from TASS in the Oval Office with Trump.
It came in handy when I was getting harassed by the Briebart kids on Twitter. Funny, not funny.
interesting post, Ruth. I enjoyed reading it.
Professor please CONNECT Trump & Paul White, his "Televangelist" who leads her OWN CULT! At one time when Trump was routinely living in Trump Tower, Paula White had a Condo in Trump Tower. She gave his inaugural Invocation, followed him INTO the White House, and either conducted or attended Prayer Breakfasts. She has resurfaced at Mara-a-Lago. I suspect she is his main connection to the White Nationalist and the religious right.
Keep up your cannon barrage on Fort Trump because the battlements will fall under the assault of American voters.
As soon as trump decided to run for POTUS in his first primary, unlike the moderate Republican folks I knew, I was confident he'd win the the primary and then the election. His use of the birther movement to start his campaign early, cemented him with the crowd that was looking for an easy scapegoat. Racism, nationalism, & hate provided him a winning formula. I read an article early in comparing trump to Mussolini. Moderate Republicans poo pooed me & assured me that he didn't have a shot. But people would go to his rallies disliking him and leave at to vote for him. And ultimately he won the election. And note folks have amnesia about how bad his years in office really were.
In my attempts always to make sense out of unexpected — catastrophic in this case — occurrences is generally to go back further for background, understanding (thus possible strategies to counteract). Jenny Cohn just wrote today regarding Leonard Leo and his realization as presented by his former media relations director that Leo “figured out 20 years ago that conservatives had lost the culture war. Abortion, gay rights, contraception—conservatives didn't have a chance if public opinion prevailed. So they needed to stack the courts."
Meanwhile, 20-30 years ago in the United States Donald Trump was embarking on numerous business failures & financial flops with bailouts from his sociopathic conditional love self-made father: including Trump Airlines, beverages, Vodka, “the Game,” casinos, a university, cologne, etc
All of Trumps efforts were hopeless attempts to prove to the world that he was as successful as sociopathic conditional love self-made father!
……..meanwhile, money, loans were still needed and while he used to be able to borrow from Big Banks (through his father from Chase Manhattan etc) afterwards it was loans to foreign nationals with money laundering risks & predatory lending……RISKS……and autocracy, Leonard Leo agenda, Putin agenda, China……..
That last essay sentence right there. .thats the call for action!
The greatest weapon in our human arsenal is emotional intelligence. What makes it most powerful is our emotional integrity. Is that not why we are here together? Use this weapon humbly and wisely followed by action. Participation of voter engagement exercises, I.e. campaign literature distribution, communication events, voter registration drives, contributions and attendance of events, educate each other, these and others sharpen your emotional integrity. Don’t be a counter personality cult member. Demenstrate through actions the destruction of the strongman culture.
The personality cult is only half the reason for Trump's blind commitment from millions of Americans. There were two books written in the last few years about Trump's cult and his control over the minds and souls of so many Americans. The first one is The Cult of Trump, which was written by Steven Hassan - a cult expert. I wrote the other book called From Democracy to Democrazy based on my twenty years living and working in dictator-led countries, explaining how they operate, and focusing on the Russia-Trump connection.
At this stage in his "cult" leadership, a whirlwind of legal woes orbit around Donald Trump and many of his followers have stated that "if he is convicted of a crime, they might reconsider voting for Trump." With 91 criminal charges against him, the chances of such a conviction is relatively high. He has already been convicted in civil court of FRAUD and RAPE. How can so many people who call themselves Christians believe this man's lies? It is called "mass mind manipulation."
In 1997, Putin was the PM of Russia and inline to be the second President shortly thereafter. In this same year, a 600+ page book (in Russian) was published in Russia called the Foundations of Geopolitics. Contained in this book (I read it) are lengthy discussions about Putin's goals as the President. (I am paraphrasing) but this list includes the destruction of the U.S. democracy which he blames for the downfall of the Soviet Union. The influence of Putin's strategies quietly attempts to reshape the trajectory of American politics and American lives. We are seeing that happening now. The shadow cast by Putin over the landscape of American democracy, and his influence and "control" over Trump grows larger and darker by the moment.
Putin has spent his entire life believing that the United States is his enemy. His life's dream was to become a KGB agent, which he accomplished. He was assigned to work in East Germany and while there he gained the same horrific skills used by Hitler to convert an entire peaceful and lawful country into a society of mass murderers. He returned to Russia in the 1990's, worked in the city government of St. Petersburg, and then moved to Moscow to become the next President. He instantly converted the Russian government from a communist/socialist system to a dictatorship. He planned to rebuild the glory days of the USSR, and this meant placing someone loyal to Putin to lead other countries. This was how the Soviet Union operated and the only government model he knew.
In the meantime, Trump had begun traveling to Russia in 1987 and visited many times during the 1990's. My daughter managed the Beverly Hills casino, night club, and restaurant (in Moscow) who was half owned by Mayor Lyushkov/Moscow and the other half by Chuck Norris, the American movie star. Trump attended their grand opening and returned several times. The "Beverly" was known for it's corruption, naked women, and famous faces. Trump's vile behavior was splashed in local media - I know because I lived there.
I also had experienced the KGB/FSB recruitment process of flattery, wining, and dining. I was not caught because I understood Russia. Trump, on the other hand, appears to be loyal to Putin and Russia. While only Putin and Trump know what evidence was acquired by Russians to ensnare Trump, my guess would be that he was probably either caught with Russian prostitutes - a very common trap for foreign men in Moscow, or was loaned a large sum of money to bail out his failing businesses. In 2008, Trump Jr. bragged about the Trump Organization receiving large assets from Russia (www.businessinsider.com) and a few years later Eric Trump confirmed by saying they had $100M from Russian banks. (www.vanityfair.com) Russian banks loan large sums of money to foreigners to either laundry money into another country's economy, or they give money to entrap/compromise that foreigner. In 2018, the Foreign Policy magazine wrote an informative article called "How Russian Money Helped Save Trump's Business." The Washington Post article in 2019 was titled "Trump's businesses are full of dirty Russian money." The Trump Tower in SoHo (in New York) was entirely funded with Russian money. (The Washington Post, 2018/04/12) This article stated that "A now-defunct Russian-language website and ads starring Ivanka Trump . . ."
Russian banks also gave $9.8M to Marie LePen who was the foremost opposition leader in France, in an attempt to overthrow the French government. This amount is a small cry compared to what Russian's have given Trump.
Trump is well aware that he has sold his soul and our country to the Russians. Last year, Cassidy Hutchinson stated that "Trump is terrified of being poisoned." Poison is a common lethal method used worldwide by the KGB/FSB.
Wikipedia defines "brainwashing" as telling lies over and over until it is perceived as the truth. Almost every speech given by Trump contained lies. CNN even reported a short while ago that 70% of the Republicans still believe that the 2020 election was stolen - a lie he admitted to and was published in Politico, 09/17/2023. To quote this article "Former President Donald Trump said Sunday on "Meet the Press" that he didn't respect lawyers and members of his campaign who told him he lost the 2020 presidential election, and that it was his decision to buy into the theory that the election was rigged." In fact, after the 2016 election Trump was quoted as saying that "Clinton stole the popular vote from him." NPR reported on 11/27/2016 that "President-elect Donald Trump won a convincing electoral vote victory on Nov. 8, but he is claiming falsely that widespread voter fraud cost him the popular vote" - same lie just different election.
Time will resolve the Trump's Cult's controlled behavior and minds. But yes, they are comparable to the Jim Jones cult, the Charles Manson group, and more importantly to Hitler's total mind control of Germans. Make the connection folks - Hitler/Germany to Putin/Russia to Trump/USA. Whether it is called fascism or communism, it is based on the same control methodologies. Coercive mind control WORKS and has been used worldwide in dictator-led countries and a few others. It is now found in the United States and used on the majority of Republicans.
Those who are "life-long" dedicated and loyal Republicans face a hard choice this November. They either vote for a man who is a cult leader and with 91 criminal charges against him - but he is running on the Republican ticket, or they don't vote. God forbid that they vote for Biden - a man who has been an honest public servant for almost 50 years and whose constituents returned him to Congress for a total of 36 years. He served 8 years as the Vice President to Obama - who is already selected to be on the top 10 list of best President's of all times. In his four years as our President, he has corrected the financial disaster left to him by Trump; he has reduced unemployment so it is below 4%; the economy is steady, the stock market is up, and he has reduced our national debt by one trillion dollars.
Lize Cheney (R) sat on the January 6th Oversight Committee. She had an inside view of the true Trump. She risked her job and spoke out against Trump, in an attempt to prevent him from ever again winning the Presidency.
Both Putin and Trump are consummate liars, but their web of lies cannot withstand the light of truth. It is up to all of us to explain, talk about, and shout about brainwashing and what has happened in our country - before it is too late.
This week's MAGA bible sales has really sent me through the roof. Like it just could not be more reprehensible or blasphemous. And yet his sheep will buy them up like candy. He is such a disgusting phony who needs to be humiliated and banished for good. WE must do this in November!
As Rachel Maddow pointed out on her show on 3/25/2024, no other wannabe strongman leader in American history ever managed to co-opt one of America's two major political parties. This has been a key to his success thus far, and it is instructive about the challenge faced by those of us wishing to defeat Mr. Trump.
I believe one key to defeating Trump will be to ensure that American voters are enlightened about what it would mean -- in practical, easily understood terms -- to live under authoritarian rule. Clearly, most Trump supporters have no understanding of that; they have not read 'Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.' We cannot realistically expect many Trump supporters to read this (or any) book, and, therefore, we must find other effective ways to enlighten them about the consequences of voting an authoritarian ruler into power.
We need our own modern-day equivalent of a Paul Revere riding throughout our nation crying out loudly, "The Authoritarians are coming! The Authoritarians are coming!" Our own Ruth Ben-Ghiat is doing her best to fulfill this role, but she can use all the support we can provide.
You write that conviction can deflate cults. I understand that if people get their news from reliable sources, but I'm wondering how many of them will ever hear about convictions on Fox "news". Or believe them if they do. I personally can't wrap my brain around being caught up by a cult leader.
Yes, we again, as a human race, are facing the specter of the Hobbesian Leviathan and tempted to fall for Hobbes' theory of human nature that the natural state is one of a war of "all against all" without a strong powerful leader to impose order. I don't subscribe to the authoritarian view of 'unity presidency' as the answer for governance, but democracy is hard pressed these days to prove that it is capable of the leadership necessary to urge us to follow our better angels. I still have hope and believe that democracy - in a more perfect form - is the better option. Clearly Trump is the latest proof of the problems of authoritarianism.