INSTIGATORS, LAME DUCKERY, LATITUDE, AGENCY

Simon Tisdall poses questions on The Guardian,”Feeling depressed about the state of the world? Worried about the future? You’re not alone. Pessimism about politics is the new normal among the peoples of the West.” Tisdall lists the major causes for concern as the conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, and the threats of right-left extremism, stagnating economies, inequality, corruption, terrorism, racism, big tech, mass extinctions, and the climate crisis as the unsettling nightmares we all share. He writes that this “tsunami of gloom” shows encouraging shifts within Russia, Israel and the USA — the instigators of the “major upheavals in the past decade.”

He sees that Putin’s position has become jeopardized by his Ukraine misadventure, and after four years the dissent among his rivals has raised his fears of assassination or a coup which has caused him to cut back on public appearances. We have all seen photos of the long conference table that puts his conferees at one end while he sits several feet away. Israel’s long-serving ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu is facing opposition parties who want to topple his ruling hard-right coalition, with a nationwide vote upcoming at October’s end. He was a prominent influencer on Trump to embark upon his disastrous Iran war, an obvious US-Israel catastrophe. World opinion weighs heavily upon the Israelis, and in light of their leader’s deadly belligerence in the region, he may not survive the balloting.

Trump, on the other hand, barely needs opponents says Tisdall, being his own worst enemy in ignoring the hardships he has fomented with his Iran fiasco. He has betrayed his MAGA base with his tariffs and trade wars, with his abuse of our allies while threatening conquests, not to mention his sucking up to dictators of nations regarded as dangerous adversaries. The dismay, the public pessimism, and feelings of hopelessness are universal as observers have seen the degradation of a once powerful and respected USA. Polls currently show that Trump and his MAGAts may lose control in the midterms, curtailing the president’s power, with impeachment a possibility. “Lame duckery looms,” says Tisdall, “Putin deposed, Netanyahu defeated, Trump defanged and distracted. If it came to pass the world would feel a very different place. Sidelining the chief riders of the storm could go a long way towards changing the zeitgeist.”

Alexander Willis writes on Raw Story, “President Donald Trump has picked up on the fact that a growing number of GOP lawmakers are racing to distance themselves from him as his approval ratings hit record lows.” Nevertheless, his toxicity, unrecognized by him, has led him to contact candidates to vent his dissatisfaction that he is being left out of their tv advertising and off their websites — his overture to voters to “pretend I am on the ballot” being cynically cast aside as poisonous. Some office holders/seekers have broken publicly with Trump, and it has leaked that “the president’s team makes sure to flag for the president examples of 2026 candidates whose campaign websites have scrubbed or minimized references to President Trump and his record.”

To calm him down, Trump’s team last week released a taxpayer-funded ad on Fox that praised him, featuring the song ‘Love Me‘ by JMSN, who said it was used without his permission. Two unnamed sources claim that Team Trump made sure the ad ran on Fox and in the Washington, DC media market, guaranteeing that the president would see it. Mehdi Hasan’s ‘Zeteo’ on Substack, reports, “For starters, Trump has a tiny amount of political support among voters in the DC area. This was yet another example of his advisers lighting many thousands of dollars on fire, just to calm him down.” A couple of weeks ago, a reporter asked Trump who would get his endorsement in a particular run-off election, his answer indicating that he was undecided. The problem being, he had already posted his choice two weeks earlier, so how powerful is an endorsement from a president who doesn’t remember who he’s selected?

Absent any taxpayer complaints, the White House launched yet another treasury-funded tv ad, the third captured by media tracker AdImpact, and shown mainly during two National Football League games on Sunday, featuring imagery of President Trump walking down a hall as the audio has him saying, “This is the final battle. We will cast out communists, Marxists, and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.” The ad mimics a 2023 Trump campaign speech, and uses footage from a 2024 campaign ad. The three ads are tellingly being shown as the campaigns heat up for the midterm elections, but the White House maintains these are public service announcements, and very clearly not campaign ads, watchdog group Common Cause suggesting otherwise, terming them to be ‘propaganda.’ Common Cause VP Carol Evans says, “I don’t think you have to be a legal scholar and wonder why the president has to use taxpayer funds to promote his image this close to an election.”

Last week in a fit of pique, Trump banned CNN, Politico, and MS NOW from the White House press pool for not kissing his ring with enough respect — and on national security grounds. As Greg Sargent writes in The New Republic, “He accidentally revealed an Achilles’ heel of sorts,” when several media companies then banded together in solidarity against the ban which then precluded the use of video recording for tv broadcasts; and, since CNN had camera duty that week, so to speak, and no other entity chose to fill in the gap — it made for a huge faux pas for Trump who relishes the spotlight, for better or for worse. Though a judge subsequently blocked the ban, it meant that few cameras were available for the grand ceremonial of China’s President Xi Jinping’s arrival in DC — a disaster for narcissist Trump.

Even after the judge’s restoration of press access to the White House, CNN was barred from joining the press pool on Air Force One traveling with the president to Knoxville, TN for a college football game between the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas, a highly-rated clash between top-rated teams. Video footage shared on social media captured Trump being booed loudly by attendees when the president appeared on the Jumbotron, sitting in a box next to Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn. Trump managed a couple of weak fist pumps to the one MAGA-hatted fan he spotted sitting nearby.

A few months ago, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson delivered a jaw-dropping mea culpa for endorsing Donald Trump for president, saying, “I want to say I am sorry for misleading people,” and admitting he would be “tormented” by his backing the con man “for a long time to come.” It seemed that Carlson was embittered by the Epstein coverup and the Iran war debacle, disclosed in a podcast with his brother, Buckley Carlson, a former Trump speechwriter. The brothers agreed that they are implicated in this mess, but no matter how sincere the apology, they are forever stained, even as Buckley calls Trump an “out of control, megalomaniacal, destructive president.” Tucker’s apology comes across as shallow and insincere following his decades of racist, sexist and violent rhetoric as he carpetbagged for his former idol.

Former associates felt Tucker was just doing a bit, playing a boorish demagogue in the ratings game as he slid into Bill O’Reilly’s old slot on Fox News. Playing a bit is hardly forgivable, because knowing better and still being opportunistic at stirring violence against immigrants and Blacks doesn’t cut it. His lies about Dominion voting machines finally broke him, and damaged the Fox bottom line in the end, but he still walked away by earning millions over the years — which he should donate to a nonprofit to prove the sincerity of his apology. Social psychologist Cindy Frantz of Oberlin College, in observing the Carlson duo, feels that Tucker is “basically holding something back, continuing to go through some sort of internal disagreement, or he’s restraining himself from saying something.”

Frantz argues that there are two missing pieces that could have helped sell Carlson’s apology: 1) he didn’t mention any action for making amends for his regrets; 2) the other is an element neither he nor the general public can fix — there’s no interpersonal relationship here, since he’s a public figure before a camera, with too many barriers for people to trust what he says. Speculation is that Carlson has an ulterior motive for the apology, ranging from prioritizing his income, to running for office. The fact that he says, “I want to say I’m sorry,” rather than, “I’m sorry,” distances himself from any direct ownership of responsibility. Jimmy Kimmel commented on his show, “Did anyone know Tucker had a brother Buckley? Tucker and Buckley? That’s as white as it gets. I mean, it doesn’t get any whiter than that. Their parents were an ascot and a monocle.”

The latest Tucker Carlson interview, with NPR’s Newsmakers podcast host Steve Inskeep, has him calling for the president’s removal by his Cabinet under the 25th Amendment, and being particularly critical of the Iran war. The former Fox News host feels that Trump wasn’t the one who ultimately made the decision to join Israel in its attack on Iran — “I don’t think he had the latitude to make this decision on his own.” Carlson suggests that Section 4 of the 25th Amendment be invoked to force Trump out over his threats to “annihilate” Iran, and should also include those in power around the president. “A guy threatening to eliminate the human race and that’s not considered a crime?! It tells you how deranged our moral scale has become. So he should be removed from office for threatening a first-use nuclear strike,” fumed Carlson.

Carlson is not alone among conservatives calling for ousting Trump — prominently, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and former Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene have joined a growing chorus of voices for action. Jones, on his InfoWars broadcast in April, said, “The definition of genocide is destroying an entire civilization/people! Trump literally sounds like an unhinged super villain from a Marvel Comics movie. This is not what we voted for!” Greene wrote on social media, “Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness.”

In the NPR interview, Carlson recalled a chilling statement made by Trump in a private Oval Office meeting, dismissing concerns over a possible Iran action. Carlson challenged the president, saying, “This war is not about Iran’s nuclear program, which you told me and the world that you eliminated last summer in June,”  while holding Israel accountable for the push toward war. He termed Trump’s response “nihilistic” as he said, “Yes, you’re right, but in the end we all die anyway, so it doesn’t matter.” The shocked Carlson told Steve Inskeep, “That’s the last thing any leader or person should display — who lives or dies does matter. The future does matter.” One online responder wrote, “Trump gave every impression that he firmly believes, in the depth of his soul, ‘if I go, it all goes…and when I am gone, what does it all matter anyway?’ This falls into a level 10 narcissist, the least common and most dangerous type.”

Talk about chilling, Anthony Davis on MeidasTouch Network has an essay based on his interview with forensic and social psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee, entitled ‘Who’s Going To Stop Him?‘ Their conversation began with President Trump’s genocidal threats in his recent United Nations speech and his increasingly volatile language directed toward Iran. The interview kept returning to “a more fundamental question: what happens when a political system becomes so accustomed to extraordinary behavior that it stops recognizing it as extraordinary?” Dr. Lee’s view is that “we are watching a psychological phenomenon unfold at the highest level of government, one in which the behavior of a powerful individual can begin to shape the thinking of the population around him.”

Davis asked her about Trump’s “increasingly aggressive rhetoric and the apparent absence of meaningful institutional resistance.” Lee believes the president’s behavior should not be seen as some elaborate strategic calculation, but as a man driven by emotion, grievance, and an inability to tolerate realities that contradict his preferred version of events. We should interpret his actions not as strategy, but as aggressive reaction to failure, humiliation or a sense of lost control. She argues that when someone becomes unable to tolerate evidence that contradicts their self-image, the consequences can become increasingly dangerous. As an example, Lee sees the slogan, ‘Trump was right about everything,’ as a declaration that reality itself must conform to that claim.

One concern discussed by Davis and Lee, is the media’s recognition of the seriousness of events, but then retreating from coverage, particularly when criticism of Trump might be interpreted as partisan. Dr. Lee revealed that she and her colleagues had attempted to raise concern about Trump’s psychological condition, but were then excluded from mainstream discussions as dangerous behavior gets converted into arguments about political allegiance — truth becomes politicized. Contrasting the USA with Europe, false political claims can be denounced as absurd in most countries, but in this country “a fragmented and highly partisan media environment can give even extraordinary claims an extended life,” says Lee.

In this erosion of democratic power, Lee argues that Americans have gradually lost their sense of what they are entitled to demand from their institutions, as well as their confidence in their ability to demand it. This process begins with advertising and psychological manipulation, as propaganda and disinformation creep in to spread emotionally driven beliefs into the community. Lee uses the belief of the stolen 2020 election as an example, which has spread from Trump into a collective phenomenon. Lee told Davis that the public has more power than it realizes, but has become dependent upon the assumption that some constitutional mechanism will step in to solve things — citizens must be convinced that they are correct in demanding functioning institutions.

Dr. Lee contends that the public has to recover its own sense of agency, which has gradually been eroded, teaching people to accept circumstances rather than challenge them, one danger being that lies, being emotionally compelling, can travel faster than truth, but truth has the advantage that propaganda lacks: it does not need to be manufactured indefinitely. Reality keeps returning — we only need to recognize it when it does! All of which still begs the question: who’s going to stop him?

TRAUMATIZED, ELDER ABUSE, GROUNDSWELL

Anthony David writing on Substack, asks, “A persistent question continues to baffle us: How can roughly a third of the American electorate, representing more that 50 million voters, maintain approval for Donald Trump, despite record gas prices, the high cost of living, the war in Iran, the desecration of public buildings, the illegal abductions, the mass detention and racist deportations, measles and anti-vax policies…oh, and the slow motion collapse of democracy and the nation as a trusted ally in the world? Who exactly are the 33% or 34%s of Americans who think this lazy tyrant, this dollar store dictator, this narcoleptic nincompoop is doing a decent job? Critics often resort to sweeping generalizations, dismissing this demographic as uniform in thought, uneducated, or driven purely by prejudice. However, dismissing millions of people under a single label obscures the complex psychological, ideological, and socioeconomic drivers behind their loyalty.”

And we might question how those in the Congress manage to keep a straight, serious face as they continue to defend their nincompoop, even as they continue to get bombarded by constituents? Take for instance, South Carolina’s Senator Tim Scott who recently told Fox News that President Trump had “made an unprecedented move by following ethical standards,” despite the daily reports that the president is adding to his personal wealth, estimated to be over $2 billion just in his second term in office. HuffPost correspondent S.V. Dáte asks, “Is he new to our planet?” Former Arizona Representative Adam Kinzinger posted, “The lies are beyond ridiculous now. He of course exempts himself.” And, Rabbi Jill Zimmerman, with over 50,000 followers on Bluesky responded simply, “Wait, what?” Time to drag out that old Molly Ivins chestnut when she quoted Texas State Senator Carl Parker, who said, “If you took all the fools out of the legislature, it would no longer be a representative body.”

Thom Hartmann refers to Robert Reich’s post on Raw Story where he says that America is officially traumatized, and the diagnosis is in. Reich highlights what every therapist, primary care physician, and exhausted spouse already knows: we are a nation with full-blown PTSD. The American Psychological Association now reports that 76% of Americans cite the future of the country as their leading source of stress, outpacing the economy, work and money. As Reich notes, “anxiety has moved from being a psychological disorder to becoming part of a seemingly natural order.” Hartmann says, “After 45 years of Reaganomics gutting job security, shredding the safety net, and concentrating wealth at the top — followed by a decade of Trumpism’s daily firehose of cruelty, corruption, and constitutional vandalism — the American nervous system has simply checked out. Marriages are postponed, births are falling, and pharmacy shelves groan under the weight of antidepressants and stomach pills. The Founders wrote in the Preamble that the goal of the rule of law outlined in the Constitution is there to ‘ensure domestic tranquility.’ That bargain has been broken by a strongman who promised to fix the anxiety and instead became its single largest source.”

In his essay in The New Republic, Michael Tomasky writes, “It was a surreal week, bursting with surreal news generated by the surreal idiot who sits in the White House, but maybe the most surreal headline of all was the one I saw Thursday morning telling me that Costco was rationing motor oil. The limit they’ve set is very likely more than your average motorist needs, but still. Rationing!” He sarcastically asks if this is England in the 1950s, with the motor oil price doubling? Tomasky points out that diesel fuel has nearly doubled in price and that some previous sources’ stocks are now undependable, with global commerce bearing the brunt of shortages. That $3.00 bag of mixed greens or baby spinach will be about $4.50 in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. “For years, we’ve wondered whether American democracy would survive Donald Trump. But now, we need to fret that capitalism may not survive Trump, and that between now and January 2029, assuming the GOP doesn’t go Twenty-Fifth Amendment on him, he’ll single-handedly bring not only the American but the global economy other its knees,” Tomasky cautions. Trump’s tariffs are hated by all — from Main Street to Wall Street, from consumers to farmers, from markets to bond traders — and even the toadies of the Supreme Court hate them. The Iran War [excursion?] has been a top-to-bottom disaster, with the Strait of Hormuz being effectively closed — on a recent day only four ships made passage compared to a prewar count of 120 or so.

Tomasky maintains, “If a human being with normal cognitive development was presiding over this mess, we could reasonably hope that he’d recognize what has gone wrong and change. But Trump is not a normally developed human being. When he does bother to turn his attention to the economy, he says that it’s the best in the history of the country and that gas prices will come down as soon as ‘x’ happens, which never happens. So far, though, the guardrails of democracy have more or less held. But what about the guardrails of the economic system? They are: a Congress that conducts real oversight and demands accountability; a class of corporate and financial leaders who actually put the good of the country ahead of the next tax cut or earnings statement; a well-regulated market system that is set up to punish short-term excess and wealth creation for the few and reward efforts to produce shared prosperity. Right now, we have none of those things.”

Several weeks ago, Rick Wilson posted on Substack, ‘Trump is Dying,’ mentioning the president’s declining health, and the White House concealment of the reality through a coordinated cover-up. He compared the situation to that of President Wilson’s 1919 deception when his wife, Edith Wilson, forged her husband’s signature on many documents, while citing ‘claims of excellent health.’ Rick Wilson has noted Trump’s appearance, his swollen extremities, and bruises, posting, “This is no third act. There is only the long, undignified, make-up smeared decline of a man and a movement whose moment has passed, narrating itself even more loudly into an ever emptier hall, a frowzy barfly of a man, replaying past glories that never happened and hoping you won’t notice the bad wig.” Last week the Lincoln Project raised the twin specters: “He has the nuclear codes. He controls the world’s most powerful military. And now, the 80-year-old president is spending his days posting A.I.-generated images of himself launching a nuclear war from outer space, commanding an army of robots with the caption ‘give them nightmares,’ smashing Iran with a comically oversized hammer, and body-checking Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in hockey gear. This was the President of the United States. Now people from across the political spectrum are openly calling for the 25th Amendment. Not as a talking point. As a serious question: what is it actually for, if not this? Donald Trump is not fit. He hasn’t been for a long time. He’s slipping. And the longer we let him hang around, the worse it’s going to get.”

Trump’s new pre-occupation with space has inspired him to design the new uniforms of the Space Force, the newly-formed space branch of the US Armed Forces, and admittedly taking inspiration from the film, ‘Starship Troopers.’ Of the new garb he explained, “…inspired by the dignity and functionality of the Starship Trooper uniform,” being completely in the dark that the 1997 movie took its influence from the uniforms of the Nazi movement, with many satirical Nazi references to boot. Director Paul Verhoeven said, “I don’t know if this president is aware that the movie says these [characters] are fascists, without knowing that they’re fascists. That’s the point.” Nevertheless, the administration is blitzkrieging ahead with the design, Trump being fixated on aesthetic remodels and rebrands. Daily Kos posts that since Trump took office, there have been plenty of similarities pointed out between Nazi Germany and the sitting administration, from the attacks on higher education to the attacks on immigrants.

Kos says, “Deaths inside ICE detention facilities have reached record numbers while lawsuits claiming inhumane and egregious living conditions are still ongoing. But it’s the dehumanization and even the gamification of these men, women, and children that has rung true when it comes to comparing the Trump administration to Nazi Germany. It definitely doesn’t help the administration — and many GOP leaders — have been linked to the cause. Then again, it’s unclear if the White House realized it was feeding into this ongoing comparison when they chose the stark new uniforms — or if they just really, really missed the plot.”

And is Air Force Secretary Troy Meink stepping out of his lane by revealing that the US has launched into orbit “space-control weapons“? In a speech at an Air & Space Forces Association conference in Maryland he said, “Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exits. This is why the United States now has, on-orbit, space-control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action.” Chief director of space security and stability, Victoria Samson, of Secure World Foundation commented, “Well, that’s huge, because I don’t think any US government official has ever said that before. The US now has to accept the Chinese and Russians doing/saying the same. I don’t think that this is going to be in the interest of US national security.” Samson speculates that Meink is referring to space-based jammers or electronic warfare, rather than kinetic space-control weaponry. Jessica Corbett of Common Dreams, writes that the US is limited by the Outer Space Treaty, which was signed by other founding parties, including China and Russia, nearly six decades ago, which states that governments agree not to “place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner.” It has been suggested that if indeed this treaty has been violated that Trump be outfitted in a new Space Force uniform, and be sent to personally retrieve any erroneously launched hardware — his uncle-genes should serve him well.

Jennifer Welch begins her ‘I’ve Had It’ blog with the line “America’s top domestic terrorist is back,” with a welcome to “today’s masterclass in elder abuse.” Welch announces that, “Mitch McConnell, his face frozen in a grinning death mask, has returned to the Senate.” She is disgusted that reporters were barred from recording a video of Mitch in the Senate chambers, with a reminder that “They don’t own the Senate — we do — and we deserve access to our representatives. But being caught on video, you can see why they’re trying to hide him from us. This man — who is clearly not functioning — is supposedly going to read legislation? Listen to debate? Cast votes that impact millions of people? By comparison he makes Trump look like the picture of vitality.” Welch goes on to say that Mitch’s first vote back was right in line with his long reign of terror, by voting ‘yea’ to advance the confirmation of Matthew R. Byrne as a US District Judge for the Southern District of Ohio, who brings a record of ruling against trans and reproductive rights — Mitch’s type of guy who is singlehandedly dedicated to increasing suffering.

“They oppose the things for us that they give to themselves,” said universal healthcare advocate Melanie D’Arrigo, as McConnell returns to Congress after three months of paid leave with taxpayer-subsidized healthcare. The 84-year-old Senator had not been seen in public since his hospitalization following a fall in mid-June, amid speculation over whether he was still alive, fueling calls for his resignation, or for the Kentucky governor to appoint a successor before Mitch finishes his term at the end of this congressional session.

Andy Borowitz used his The Borowitz Report to observe the return of the missing Senator: “The long-awaited return of Mitch McConnell to Congress on Monday marked the first time in months that the state of Kentucky has enjoyed the attendance of two brain-dead senators. In addition to his fellow Kentuckian, McConnell was applauded by other members of the Republican Party’s brain-dead caucus, including Ron Johnson and Tommy Tuberville. Although the caucus took a hit earlier this year with the departure of Markwayne Mullin, McConnell did receive a warm greeting from the newest insentient senator, Darline Graham of South Carolina. ‘From all indications, Mitch McConnell has no idea what’s going on around him,’ Senator Graham said. ‘He’s my role model.'”

Being bandied about with frequency is the word ‘gerontocracy‘, which dates from 1830, meaning a government run by old people — back when the average 20-year-old man didn’t live past his mid-40s. Those living in those days could not have imagined what we have now with the well-stocked US government populated by 70- and 80-year-olds, Donald Trump being the record-holder as oldest candidate to be elected president. We have 84-year-old Mitch McConnell, 80-year-old Senator Ed Markey running for reelection, and 93-year-old Senator Chuck Grassley who has filed for yet another term. So, shouldn’t we question ‘how old is too old when running for office?‘; and, ‘how do we deal with it?‘ Minimum age limits are set within the Constitution — 25 in the House, 30 in the Senate, and 35 for the White House — but do we need a maximum age limit as we see politicians serving well past the retirement age for the average American worker? With the gray-hairs multiplying and with their high-profile health issues, Americans are tending to call for instituting age caps according to all polling respondents, with even older Americans wishing to see younger office holders.

The rapid acceleration of technology is one factor in the push for younger decision makers. Those who have spent most of their lives without the current technologies view them differently, an example being that about half the senators seated at the start of the current Congress were 60 or older when ChatGPT debuted in November 2022. Data shows that older Americans are far less likely to use such tech, seeing it as a danger. A study by the Pew Research Center finds that 48% of Americans ages 18 to 29 have a negative view of Artificial Intelligence, while only 35% of Americans 65 or older share that same view. The study says that the older someone is, it’s more likely they will feel “unsure” of what the future holds, meaning an aging Congress would be less inclined to regulate emerging technologies, being less familiar with them.

This unfamiliarity is probably the reason for the 2012 failure of President Obama’s proposed ‘Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights‘ which was designed to give citizens some control over how companies handled their online data. The bill was doomed for several reasons — opposition by industry groups, a hostile Republican House of Representatives, and probably the general disinterest of an older Congress. To pass age limits would require amending the Constitution, a process unlikely to win enough bipartisan support in our fractured political scene, but some states have set examples by adopting legislation setting age caps on judges. Some argue that seasoned lawmakers are generally more effective at passing laws than greenhorns, and by booting out the older seat holders, Congress could become less effective. However, public support is becoming a groundswell, and the time is ripe for a change.