Sociologists have shown that both primitive people as well as cults treat their leaders as Gods. And when they get old and feeble, they kill them
No, I’, mot talking about anybody really taking Traitor Tot out behind the Rose Garden, shooting him, and burying the body. But every word is true, and here’s how it relates to Traitor Tot politically at this moment.
Late tomorrow the US House will vote on the Democratic discharge petition to force the FBI to release the unredacted Epstein files to congressional committees, promising release to the public. GOP Representative Thomas Massey is predicting that there will be at least 100 GOP votes joining with the 214 Democrats, and is actually whipping for a massive 2/3 majority as a show of bipartisan solidarity.
Trumpelforeskin’s bailout in this situation has always been to let the traiterous peasants in the House pass the bill to cover their own asses, and then let the GOP Senate vote to block cloture so the bill dies there. But with the sudden, total collapse of the GOP House, and the number of GOP Senators running who are too close for comfort, it has become clear that the Senate will have the votes to pass the bill. Meaning at least 13 GOP Senators will vote to defy El Pendejo President, and the head counters are predicting that there may well be a veto proof vote of at least 67 Senators. If that happens, a Trump veto on the bill to hide his perversions is useless.
Now, as promised, here’s why this is so important at this particular moment in time, and why it can have such a catastrophic effect on Trump. This is not Emperor Gluteus Maximus’s first ride on the rodeo circuit. He has already survived two impeachment attempts, as well as a general election loss, only to come back to haunt us four years later. He is a cult of personality the likes of which the world hasn’t seen since Hitler.
But there are two big differences this time around. First of all is the issue. In every last attempt to scuttle Traitor Tot, whether through impeachment, or overturning his various overreaches, it has always been the Democrats leading the charge. And every time, Traitor Toit’s core popularity in the GOP was strong enough that nobody on the GOP side wanted to risk annihilation to cross him.
Here’s the second reason. The God is old and feeble. The Orange Sh*tgibbon is a mere shell of his former self. Worse yet, he’s coming across in public as old and addled and feeble. His job approval is at a piss miserable 33%, and a terrible 46% of GOP voters strongly disapprove of the way he’s running his administration. Affordability is about to come back and bite him on the ass. By all measures, especially the Epstein factor, Traitor Tot is no longer the juggernaut he once was. Add to that the simple fact that Traitor Tot is already history. He won’t be running again in 2028, no matter what Two Shirts Bannon says, so there’s no reason for anybody to rally around him again.
But this being politics, there is still backroom dealing and skullduggery that must be taken into account. If you’re going to try to pull a Caesar-on-the-steps-of-the-Senate, you had better have the populace on your side. The GOP never defied Traitor Tot before simply because it would be political suicide to do so.
Which is where the Epstein Files come in. If the GOP is going to help to take down Trump, then they have to go into it knowing that they have the majority of the American public on their side. And as I’ve written repeatedly, despite MAGA Mike Johnson’s best efforts to defuse it through inactivity, Epstein is the albatross around Traitor Tot’s neck. MAGA may be willing to forgive him for being a terminal liar, a cheap, opportunistic thug and con man, but even MAGA will not tolerate a filthy pedophile sex trafficker in the White Hose, or even his associating with one. That’s the GOP’s get-out-of-jail-free card.
Here’s how I see it playing out. The keystone is the 2026 midterm elections. Trump is absolutely killing the GOP with his idiotic behavior, but even so, I don’t see the GOP actually initiating steps to impeach their own President. The smart money is on the Democrats retaking the House next November, likely with a comfortable margin now that California has neutered Trump’s lame power play in Texas.
And that’s the key. If the Democrats regain the House next November, then once they’re sworn in in January, a Democratic led House committee can start an impeachment investigation into Traitor Tot. Trump is only going to continue to devolve, and become more toxic. If the Democrats make Epstein the centerpiece of their investigation, and throw in other Traitor Tot misdeeds, the House can easily impeach, and millions will cheer. Heading into a 2028 election year where they figure to take a hammering with Traitor Tot around their necks, the GOP may well decide that a little normalcy, and penance for their previous Trump sins is the way to go, and let the Hillbilly Imbecile start burnishing his 2028 presidential chops ASAP, and let the healing process begin.
I know this sounds absurd, like an episode of VEEP, but you must remember that as a nation we’re in uncharted territory. I have always thought of Traitor Tot as the presidential version of the 2007 housing bubble. Sooner or later he was going to burst. And when he did, sh*t was going to fly down from above like a monsoon. Why is it unreasonable, in the current conditions, to not see Jeffrey Epstein as the pin that bursts the bubble? And wouldn’t it be popcorn-for-the-soul to see a pedophile child sex trafficker posthumously take down his own self proclaimed best friend for the last 10 years?
I thank you for the privilege of your time.
Juicy thought having “… the FBI to release the unredacted Epstein files to congressional committees, promising release to the public.…” if this happens then it’s highly likely King Wanna-Bee will get bawbag bricked – politically, legally, morally and ethically. It’s gonna hurt him if it happens.
“MAGA may be willing to forgive him for being a terminal liar and cheap, opportunistic thug and con man, but even MAGA will not tolerate a filthy pedophile sex trafficker in the White Hose, or even his associating with one.”
I don’t know about that. I was watching a YouTube video from Tom Powell and he was reacting to a MAGA’s TikTok posting in which the guy actually said “Even if” Drumpf’s name were in the files, it didn’t matter to him because there’s “more of them (Democrats) on the list” and “to take him down, they’re going to have to take themselves down.” I really don’t think that guy is alone in his “thinking” on the matter.
Two thoughts come to mind. First a scene from the 183(?) movie The Big Chill where Jeff Goldbloom’s character is talking about how much people rely on rationalization. He says no one can get through a day without at least one ‘juicy rationalization’, and goes on to say rationalization is more important for people than sex. When Mary Kay Place’s character objects he stops her cold with “When was the last time you went a day without a rationalization?’ and she has no response!
That leads me to the second point which is something I’ve often said in my life and certainly here on PZ. It’s human nature not to want to admit you’re wrong about something significant – that you blew it. It can be relationship, job/career related or some major purchase where you realize you got overcharged or outright scammed with a defective product. People don’t like admitting even to themselves they fucked up and HATE having to admit it to others. (I’m no different than anyone else on this btw) The more a person brags about something that turns out to have been a mistake the more dug in they get rationalizing it. Both to themselves and others.
Now think of the average MAGA goober out there in rural/small town “real Murica”, the red states or even vast swaths of blue states like my home state of Illinois. For years they’ve bragged about despite all his riches (which were never what he claimed but even well off folks bought his act) and “upper class” lifestyle and ‘friends/connections at heart he was one of them. That he’d fight for THEM despite a lifetime of evidence to the contrary. And even a first term in which only rich folks made out well.
After all the asshat (MAGA hats) wearing, the buying of Trump gear including bumber stickers, Trump flags and yard signs to display they spent years crowing about how awesome Trump was and that he CARED about them. They of course got conned. Bigly. How they ask themselves can they save face after so many years of being wrong about Trump? The bulk of them are dug in and will keep trying to hammer a square steel peg into a round steel hole.
Human nature. It’s a damned tough thing to overcome. And that’s why the ONLY chance of getting MAGAs to rethink their stance has been to ever so gently touch on something from an unexpected angle. Then move on. Usually the thought goes away but sometimes it’s gotten people to think a little bit.
Now however Trump has given MAGAs a reason to turn on him. MTG of all people is leading the charge. I watched her with the victims and at one point she addressed breaking with Trump head on and made a point of saying she was all-in for MAGA and Trump right from the beginning back in 2015. That she wasn’t some ‘Johnny come lately’ (I think that’s how she put it) to the Trump Train. IF that clip goes viral, or even gets widely circulated with smaller groups of MAGAs it could truly be the beginning of the end for Trump.
I know, MTG making sense and sounding not just normal but almost statesmanlike is damned near impossible to process. It feels like bouncing back and forth through the Looking Glass at the speed of the old Pong video game run amok. The fact that no matter how well you played it kept speeding up to keep you from winning pissed me off to no end and is why I never got into video games. Well, except for one which was a military game where a battle between the U.S./Nato and the USSR took place in the North Atlantic. But that’s it.
What matters is that as Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out last hour MTG and Thomas Massie have been attacked by Trump. But they beat his ass and are standing there unscathed tonight. Trump is the one that’s wounded and if both, especiallly MTG keeps pressing (we know Trump will play games with releasing files) she could blast the hole in the MAGA dam we’ve all been hoping for.
voting to release the filed is one thing, magats turning on trump is another and it ain’t gonna happen. as mind boggling as it is they just do not and will not see trump as respondible for anything. there is always someone else or “something going on behind the scenes” to resolve stuff. i cannot understand it.
I think the true magats still believe Trump will not be hurt by the Epstein files but the Democrats will be.
“Why is it unreasonable, in the current conditions, to not see Jeffrey Epstein as the pin that bursts the bubble? ”
It’s not unreasonable, but I can see why it may not seem likely. Because nothing else has worked, and because the magats have never been known to budge, and because Democrats are going to have to go in for the “kill.” which they have never succeeded in doing.
Still, it’s not unreasonable. True magats are a minority. We have never yet seen an actual uprising of everyone else. That’s what it will take. That’s what it always would have taken, but now there is more momentum.
Seth Abramson in a recent piece cautions against concentrating solely on the Epstein “files”. We still don’t know what’s in them, we don’t know if we ever will (in the sense that Trump will try to block or alter whatever he can). What’s more important is to take everything we know from every source together and actually understand what it all means: Our country is being run by a truly depraved individual. Ironcally, Epstein himself was under no illusions: “I have met some very bad people,” he wrote in a 2017 email to Larry Summers. “None as bad as Trump. Not one decent cell in his body.”
Well, apparently Massie got his wish and then some. In the Senate and House combined, there was only one “No” vote – it belonged to Rep Clay Higgins (R-LA). That struck me as spectacular.
However, I don’t know what it means. I wish I did. But with MAGAts – you never know what’s beneath it.