and blow it until Trump shuts up.

could be added to Trump's well-earned nicknames like Divider-In-Chief.

when necessary. Without that it's not possible to moderate against Trump.

that's what destroys his narrative as the smart, wealthy businessman sacrificing himself to help the poor white working men of the Rust Belt, etc etc. That was one of his strongest appeals to the MAGAs.

He already addressed the not paying much in taxes in 2016, and people didn't care much, because it was just an example of how smart he was. It's that he is not rich, but rather deeply in debt (>$400M personal loan guarantee coming due) and is actually a cheap grifter using the presidency to try to save his ailing businesses. He is a loser to use one of his favorite words, and his it highlights his incompetence with Covid-19 and the resulting dire human and economic consequences.

He is not really their better, a superior being who loves their pathetic worship, but really an incompetent loser whose businesses were bleeding millions for years. This is a key component of his teflon. People forgive their perceived betters (think lords or leaders) any transgression.

It's not only that he has a huge personal debt of greater than $400M that he probably can't pay. It's what it tells them about the man: he is not competent-- can't plan, not a financial wizard. No wonder Covid-19 overran the country. No wonder the economy crashed (negative GDP means recession), and no wonder so many Americans died needlessly.

Trump is weak because he is incompetent-- that will lose him a few followers no doubt. Trump being superior to them is one thing that motivates some very strongly-- think a hierarchy with Trump on top. This destroys some of the narrative, It will eat away at the edges of their consciousness, and doubt will finally be created. For example, the pieces will fit together for them such as why he isn't financing his campaign now that there is a shortfall-- he doesn't have money.


Most of his other scandals contained elements that some of his "deplorable" supporters (mostly uneducated white males) could actually admire because they point to a "superior" male in their crude thinking: like sex with a porn star despite being married or a celebrity grabbing kitties. Moreover, he wasn't nobly sacrificing big bucks he normally made to help the common men of the rust belt-- the new narrative is that he was running as fast as he could from debt collectors who were anxious to collect ASAP. The tax leaks portray an inferior man, a loser in Trump's parlance-- true he managed to get away with playing games with his taxes so far, but that is as far as any potential positive will go, the negative reality of being an incompetent, a loser, far outweighs this.

The lesson here is to call Trump a loser, an incompetent because it will stick with some of his soon to be former fans and perhaps keep them home on election day.

She was once a "billionaire" too-- until her company's hoax products were uncovered by the press.
Now she is awaiting her trial for fraud:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/us-v-elizabeth-holmes-et-al#:~:text=Elizabeth%20Holmes%20and%20Ramesh%20%E2%80%9CSunny,nine%20counts%20of%20wire%20fraud.

Robert Reich
Sat, September 26, 2020, 10:00 PM PDT
https://www.yahoo.com/news/amid-talk-civil-war-america-050036417.html

What is America really fighting over in the upcoming election? Not any particular issue. Not even Democrats versus Republicans. The central fight is over Donald J Trump.

Before Trump, most Americans weren’t especially passionate about politics. But Trump’s MO has been to force people to become passionate about him – to take fierce sides for or against. And he considers himself president only of the former, whom he calls “my people”.

Trump came to office with no agenda except to feed his monstrous ego. He has never fueled his base. His base has fueled him. Its adoration sustains him.

So does the antipathy of his detractors. Presidents usually try to appease their critics. Trump has gone out of his way to offend them. “I do bring rage out,” he unapologetically told Bob Woodward in 2016. In this way, he has turned America into a gargantuan projection of his own pathological narcissism.

MORE AT LINK (worth reading)
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The basic argument is that to Trump and his followers think only states in which he has a majority matter, and the rest are enemies-- a horrible distortion of the United States.

Robert Reich is using hyperbole, but he is very perceptive here. In the end, Reich states that real civil war is unlikely but that if Trump loses, his fans will still consider him their rightful leader even if he loses, which he will never admit. That will be a big problem. I think that suggests that Trump will be a big problem for years to come and he himself has laid the groundwork for someone even worse: someone who has the brains to not only exploit Trump followers but intends to make the US a dictatorship.

What Reich does not talk about is how we got here: the groundwork was laid by propaganda and gas-lighting from talk radio, right wing internet sites like Breitbart, and Fox News, then compounded by the bubble chamber of tight-knit social networks. Something urgently needs to be done about them within the constraints of what is possible constitutionally.

because there are and were so many voters who have been bamboozled by Trump promising them unrealistic things like the return of big beautiful coal, good-paying jobs, and fantastic health care to name a few. He conned himself into power and has so many of his supporters fooled, it's frightening.

Joe Biden is correct that Trump is like Goebbels telling lies so big some people believe they must be true. Although I think that Trump is as much like PT Barnum who apocryphally said a "sucker is born every minute." The thing about Barnum was that people enjoyed being fooled by him, by being suckers and some of that psychology comes into play with Trump voters. He is a populist PT Barnum who appeals to the worst of America from prejudice and xenophobia to greed, envy and promising defeat of imaginary elitist leftist enemies.

The worst part is that in exchange for power most of the GOP has supported Trump and his shenanigans to the detriment of the country and the GOP as well. The problem is that the GOP is quite the party of selfishness, so it's not surprising at all to see them act in their own perceived self-interest, even though in the end it might fracture their party forever and destroy the country.

Stephen Proctor
Thu, September 24, 2020, 11:29 PM PDT
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/elizabeth-warren-claims-trump-flirting-treason-republicans-party-to-it-062906915.html

...


“When Donald Trump says that he is not necessarily going to accept the will of the voters, he’s flirting with treason,” Warren said in response. “He’s saying, peaceful transition of power doesn’t matter to him. All that matters to him, once again, is Donald Trump and whatever Donald Trump wants.”

Trump and Senate Republicans are making a hard push to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Trump has spoken openly about his desire for the Supreme Court to decide the election. If his nominee is appointed, there will be a 6-3 conservative majority on the court. Trump has been spreading unfounded conspiracies about mail-in voting fraud, something that even his own hand-picked FBI director, Christopher Wray, has said is not happening on a national scale. Some believe Trump is doing this to sow doubt about the results of the election before a single vote is even tallied, giving him an excuse to take the election to the Supreme Court. Republican senators have recently joined Trump in prematurely talking about the Supreme Court deciding the election.

“These Republicans senators, to enable him in that, to support him in that, and to start to talk about the Nov. 3 election as if this isn’t about voters getting their choice, but it’s about Supreme Court justices getting their choice,” Warren said, “means that they are a party to it.”

...

“Lindsey Graham has simply said, ‘Donald Trump has my proxy on this. Senate doesn’t need to look at it. If the president’s good, Lindsey Graham is good.’ Man, there’s a man with a spine,” Warren quipped, “a spine kept in a box somewhere else, because he certainly doesn’t have it to exercise for himself.”...

MORE AT LINK
--------------------


We need to hear this everyday and have these sentiments echoed by mainstream editorials etc.

especially against Graham and McConnell. Honor still has some meaning there culturally and these two especially are acting dishonorably with regard to the SC. McGrath and Harrison should promise they will always uphold their word, unlike their two dishonorable opponents.