I will always believe, unless someone can provide evidence to the contrary, that The Apprenctice, which aired on NBC, is what launched his political career. He was just a washed up, multiply bankrupted, wouldbe real estate mogul until that TV show came along and presented him as the smart, savvy businessman he had never been and positioned him to acquire a nationwide base of fans who were primed to gobble up whatever he served them.

He had threatened to run for potus many times in the past but never acted on it until that show made him a "star" (as in "When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything." *gag* ) His deep resentment of Obama lit the fuse, but The Apprentice provided the fuel.

Was the network or anyone associated with the show aware that they were creating a political monster? I don't think so, but that is what they did nonetheless. And it sucks beyond belief.

A right-wing propaganda machine on giant color teevee almost 24/7 spewing all sorts of lies and misinformation. A machine that forced the Democratic administrations to leave its 1932-1968 platform on the left and suddenly start to lean to the right, not implementing a Universal Healthcare system for all and reigning in the healthcare insurance corporations for profits, thus securing its re-election by simply warning voters they were going to lose their "free" healthcare system to voracious right-wing profiteers if they elected the Republicrooks party.

Station that ran 24-7 in way too many installations for many years, like military bases and transit stations. PBS should be the default for those venues, if we could simply keep PBS from being de-funded as "too democratic."

n/t

2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, or 2025 would have been better but okay.
I hope you’re registered to vote.

You think an actor speaking against Trump at any time in the last 10 would have changed anything? Hundreds of celebrities more influential than Gere did and we still wound up in hell.

He's a good actor and a good man.

... allowed this to happen. Denial is powerful. And seeing something and saying nothing.... shame, shame, shame

I don't mean trolls. Regular posters knew that Trump was a lying grifter who was hurting the nation. But, they denied that he would try to stay in office or resort to violence. It had not happened in US history so they could not believe that it would happen in 2020.

Based on his personality type and on warning articles in publications like the Atlantic, plus testimony from Michael Cohen, I posted that Trump would not only refuse to admit that he lost, but he would use violence to stay in power.

Regular posters responded with their belief that Trump was all mouth but no action, like a lot if bullies. They said that his base were couch potatoes who would not fight. They said that I was alarmist and a conspiracy theorist.

I wish that they had been right.

I too was seen as "alarmist" and "fearful" when I argued my position. Today, I'm not smug... nor do I say, "I told you so." What I say is this: "Things are going to get bad. Prepare yourself."

Hope I am wrong this time.

is a talent-less,washed up has been that no one ever liked.

Some of us did. Some of us saw it coming.

But, no one who needed to cared to listen.

They were all walking down the Jungle Path swatting at mosquitoes, and were oblivious to the herd of charging elephants......
PUN INTENDED............

Some of us were screaming our heads off from the rooftops since HWBush Treasonously stole the election and installed Reagan in the White House as a front man pawn....

in the tepid water water is now deliciously boiled to the totalitarian standards we’ve who paid attention seen since at least 11/2000. Like the horror of watching one’s country malformed step-by-egregious-fascist-rulings-policies-step.

Here we are. Will an opposing party find the awareness, fortitude and purpose to reverse to any normal pre-mellenial democracy? I’m watching and waiting for our election apparatus and courts to obstruct this train wreck. Let’s be really honest. Does anyone think the corruption, greed, disengagement and apathy within the American society will be defeated or obstructed sufficiently to improve the lives of the least of us?

We’re not defeatist. We are not defeated. We are distinguished. Our fragile frogs jumped from the stench of their murky swamp from the get go and we’re not onboard their rotting boat.

Pro-white voters, some of whom didn't realize how pro-white they were have been preferring pro-white simpleton candidates over thoughtful pro-equality candidates for decades. Pro-white simpletons have been scaring white voters with specters of welfare queens, Willie Horton, the "crack epidemic," Black urban crime, Ebonics, Sharia Law, and so on. The fear-mongering has worked to keep communities under threat and underserved. The president who actually appointed the first two black secretaries of state ironically used the Civil Rights division of the DOJ to investigate discrimination against white voters. He also appointed a SCOTUS chief justice whose agenda has included rolling back the Voting Rights Act, something at which he continues to be successful.

Pro-white whites have always gotten away with it. And they do it with the cooperation of mainstream institutions like news media. The pro-white whites have always taken a pass on the right people to "lift us up where we belong." (Sorry, couldn't resist)

it could have been somewhat waived away as a one-time fluke but there would have always been a nagging sense that it could happen again. But TWICE? Forget about the "nagging sense" it could happen again - the whole world now pretty much knows it could happen at anytime - the only thing possibly saving us is that Trump is a unique figure - it's not like there's a bunch of other right wing demagogues who have the same kind of messianic hold on millions of people that he has.

I’m going to live out my days regrettably in this dystopian nightmare once known as the U.S.A.

“How can this be happening in America? How can people like those be in charge of our country? If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d think I was having a hallucination.”

Philip Roth, “The Plot Against America” (2004)

Hey, I’m loving this whole thread!

When we went from a bottom up economy to a top down economy, the writing was on the wall. When everyone decided to cater to the ruling class exclusively, it was only a matter of time before we descended into straight up fascism.

Outsourcing, offshoring, downsizing, deregulating, imperialist wars….all bad, all only serving the owners.

And no one is innocent, everyone who has held power over the past sixty years contributed to it to a greater or lesser degree.

And it’s not just the people in power at fault, it’s those who put them there, the American People. For being too apathetic to do even the slightest bit of reading or research into what these policies mean for them. For chasing the stupid culture war shiny objects as if they matter more than the policies that have been robbing them blind.

I’m disgusted with everyone.