Explaining libs to my MAGA friends

 What I am picking up on in other FB sites is the horror of ordinary people who are Trump supporters is" how horrible it is the libs are comparing Trump to Hitler and other dictators of the 1930s." Modern dictators do not need ovens; they just need enemies to fear and hate so they can get more power to "save" the country from them. Modern dictators do not need to jam foreign media, they need to convince enough people that the media, TV. Radio, social..they favor is only the truth teller, their version of the truth, however... and all others are liars. Modern dictators do not need to rewrite the laws and constitutions of their countries; they just fill all positions with loyalists to decide which laws they will obey and which they will just ignore. There is no one, no court of law, no parliament to stop them, because they are either too afraid of the abusive, unstoppable power to punish them, or were appointed because they were ideological and political allies in the first place. If all of this fails, they just send in the troops to put down any protest or arrest or to grab ballot boxes on a cooked-up pretext of some unevidenced crime, and elections in the future are meaningless. unfair and unsecured.. The form of democracy exists, but the form is a farce; a skeleton without the flesh, muscle, and brains. Examples of this kind of dictatorship is Hungary, run by Viktor Orban. and to some extent, Turkey. So, who is it that is trying to achieve this kind of dictatorship in the US? The Conservative Action Pac, CPAC, has been holding meetings in Hungary for the past couple of years in promotion of the Hungarian brand. Plan 2025 and its authors have been supporting the replacement of all federal employees, who are appointed to powerful personnel positions, ending most career service posts, mass firings, closing down whole agencies, and, if replacing positions, filling them with those screened to be loyal to their ideology as personified by Donald Trump. The key is control of the message by the wannabe dictator, delicensing, fear of government action like denial of mergers or losing contracts, or gerrymandering to threaten any in the legislature that do not march to the strong man's beat. They are not sent to gulags, but lose power and sustenance. Exaggerating hatred and fear, and showing an old film in which blue government cities are on fire and need military intervention, but only the low-information voters fall for that one. In the meantime, so fearful or so admiring of the great man are the supporters of this that they ignore and excuse immoral behavior, corruption, and greed, and denial of human and civil rights. What history has shown time and time again, those who once supported the strong man, they, too, become the victims. Once riding that tiger of a powerful, strong man, they fear to dismount and be eaten in the revenge and retribution of the strong tiger. In time, ordinary people who may object to such treatment learn to shut up and just take it, and the powerful friends of the strong man, and those who get rich and powerful by fawning over the strong man, ride off gleefully with their booty. That is what the "libs" oppose and see happening; be careful, my MAGA friends, what you wish.

Why the shutdown will continue: The GOP is riding the tiger,

Old Chinese proverb: He who rides the tiger is afraid to dismount. This is a reason why I think the standoff on the shutdown is likely to go on for some time. It is because the shutdown benefits both sides more than it hurts them, but the GOP is riding a tiger they fear to dismount, and fear is a more powerful thing. The Democrats are using it to dramatize what they see as a powerful message about the cost of living that includes health insurance and health care access, and pinning the damage on Trump. With Democrats, it is not so much an issue of who gets the blame for the shutdown, but who gets the advantage in November 2026.

Supporting the legislation at issue, the Big Beautiful Bill that polls badly even with some registered Republicans, keeps Republicans in swing districts loyal to Trump by fear that they will be the object of retribution by him. if they break ranks. The BBB includes the tax cuts to the rich and the dire cuts to health care.The longer the Democrats dig in, the more likely they are to get across the message to ordinary people that the pain they will soon feel as the soaring cost of health care and lack of access is Trump's fault, paid for by tax breaks to the rich. The GOP members of Congress are aware that if they cave in and moderate their damage to health care, they could be devoured by the tiger of Trump they are riding if they dismount.. Trump's rule by fear and retribution is how he gets the party discipline needed to get his GOP to vote against the interests of their own constituents, like moving Space Command out of Colorado to red state Alabama or doubling the cost of insurance premiums of the ACA through the roof...They live in fear of the bite of the tiger: a primary in their gerrymandered districts. They are waiting for the cover of a word from Trump before they agree to negotiate and moderate.

How Democrats are messaging the shutdown: A good start but they need to do more.

  Democrats could message on the shutdown better. It should be easy. It is a good start so far, but they need and can do more.  They are right to make health care costs the issue for now and 2026, sticking the GOP with the blame, and that is the reason they are being so determined.. Their challenge is not only to pin the blame on the GOP,   Democrats must do more and tell what they would do if they won control of Congress a year from now. That's an easy one for voters to grasp: The GOP not only caused the pain, but Democrats would restore the cuts to health care subsidies and reverse the tax cuts to the wealthy to pay for it. That makes the link more obvious between health care costs and the GOP's favors they give to the rich. 

 The cost of health care insurance and the availability of health care services are the most powerful messages because they affect both red and blue states and a very large number of really angry voters who are going to be hurt badly. That will also be part of the message that Trump's promises to make the cost of living have not only failed, but he is making it more expensive to keep up with essential daily needs.  Fundamentally, the Trump regime and its patsies in Congress do not care about everyday Americans' struggles. Congressional Democrats have done a good job in making that argument, but now it should be made clear how they would fix this. They should not assume the public gets the point. Voters have options. They may just stay home and tune out, with a "plague on both of your houses" attitude.

 The timing is right since the actual pain of health care funding cuts will begin starting now.  Pinning the blame for what happens soon on the GOP is in progress. So far, it has just been warnings, and until voters actually feel the pain, it is not fully effective. That is about to change. Trump's cuts to subsidies for the ACA (causing costs to soar for those millions who depend on it) begin now, and rural hospitals will shutter and close because they are projecting the impact of the next 12 months. Medicare impacts will be felt and hurt after December. 

 Added to that pain of higher health care costs are grocery prices and tariff-struck consumer goods.. Food banks will feel the strain as groceries become more expensive due to Trump's policies that cause costs to soar at the same time SNAP is being cut. Dramatizing that point should be as easy as presenting stories of real people who are being hurt. That strategy should be ongoing all the way to the November 2026  midterms. "This is how people like you are being hurt now" will be a PR gift that keeps on giving for Democrats.

 A possibility is to tie the arrogance of power-grabbing Trump to make decisions on his own or on behalf of his powerful supporting friends that ignore the will of the people as expressed through their Congressional representatives. This is no longer a government of, by, and for the people, but of, by, and for Trump. It is no longer a democracy.  No Kings demonstrations can further educate the voters that Trump's power grab will hurt them by subverting, ending, and defunding programs that help ordinary people.

  It has now become obvious that the strategy of the Trump regime is to cherry-pick which laws they will execute that Congress has already funded to extend their hold on power. The Trump regime's strategy is not about "faithfully executing " laws that are passed and services that were funded, but it is about how power is being abused and used to punish the opposition by subverting the execution and withholding appropriated funding. Lies and red herrings like "illegal migrants get health care" are getting shot down in real time by Democrats. That's not only lies, but it's the GOP's attempt to tie health care to appeal to the racist elements of an immigrant-hating base. Not only is it likely that withholding execution of laws and funding already authorized by Congress is unconstitutional. particularly if it is done for unrelated political gain, it is also clear: Trump doesn't care about that nicety of following the Constitution or the laws of the land either. There is case law on this issue, but precedent does not seem binding to this Supreme Court. His strategy to get and keep power is to grab as much power as he can get away with. These power grabs may ultimately be approved by "his" 6-3 Supreme Court, which has been ruling in favor of giving Trump more and more unrestrained power.  

 Focusing on the hardships to federal workers who lose their jobs by Trump's design or who have to struggle until 1) the shutdown in over and 2) the chainsaw approach gets challenged in t he courts is OK, but that message is not very effective.  The welfare of federal workers is not a dedicated cause for most voters. It will, however, affect those states with many laid-off or fired federal workers, who are having close gubernatorial and Congressional races in some red and blue swing states. Those swing states right now are polling poorly already for Trump:

Be aware, too, that Trump is not deaf to these vulnerabilities, and already he is talking about compensating the tariff hit on consumers with a $2K check to every voter. He is aware that his tariffs did hurt American farmers and wants to bail them out with billions of dollars. Where the heck is he going to get the funds? It is possible in a November scheduled ruling, "his"  Supreme Court could grow cajónes and declare Trump's cross-the-board tariffs unconstitutional, requiring as much as $1 trillion to be refunded, except for those related to defense and national security.   His puppy dog GOP Congress may just throw care about the debt and deficit under the bus to compensate for his major goofs, which, in so doing, compensate for his bad judgment and lies to MAGA, taking them for fools.  There is no better admission that he was lying or an ignorant moron than having to fix the trouble to consumers and farmers his tariffs have caused, and he so vehemently claimed would not happen.

US could be forced to refund $1 trillion if Supreme Court overturns Trump's tariffs  

Trump mulling $2,000 ‘dividend’ for Americans to share money made from tariffs

Trump making plans to send billions in cash bailouts to farmers with taxpayer money - POLITICO

Devastating poll shows Trump 'underwater' in all 7 swing states he won

SOUTH DAKOTA v. DOLE, 483 U.S. 203 (1987) | FindLaw

Chainsaw 1 and Chainsaw 2 : Fulfilling Russell Vought's Project 2025 dreams

 Russ Vought is the engineer behind Musk Chainsaw 1 and Trump Chainsaw 2. Trump's newest threat is to take advantage of the shutdown and to make the shutdown even worse by firing thousands of fed workers, not just furloughing them.. Who is Vought? He was appointed by Trump to run the fed personnel policies as director of the Office of Management and Budget.. He is also one of the engineers of Project 2025 to turn career service employees into political appointees, subject to the whims of hiring and firing by whoever is in the Oval Office (Trump). The purpose is to turn the "deep state" into Trump or ideological loyal to the Heritage Foundation, into Trump's deep state. Project 2025 had planned to institute a plan to end career service protections for the lower ranks of the fed workforce with Schedule F, but that was a slow process subject to court appeals. Chainsaw 1 solved the problem by just closing agencies en masse, and Chainsaw 2 would continue the 2025 goals of replacing non-political career service with their political loyalists

.https://kettering.org/the-schedule-f-threat-to-democracy.../

The GOP defense of sending military to cities stops crime. Seriously?

 Rep.  Lisa McClain(R-MI) on Morning Joe this AM made a spirited defense for using the military to stop crime in major cities (those with Democratic mayors, I notice). Her argument: when the military went into Washington, DC,  the murder rate not only went down, but there were no murders reported while they were there. Therefore, she argues,  just sending them in to other cities works.(DC has a special federal status that makes this legal, which states and cities do not have.)  A follow-up question I would ask if this means for permanently reducing the murder rate, is this a pitch for permanent military occupation of cities?  

Or is the answer something else, like funding more local resources and police to combat crime? The next question I would ask is what has the Trump regime done to fund more local police resources in cities.  I ran across this information at DOJ Funding Update: A Deeper Look at the Cuts - Council on Criminal Justice  The Trump DOJ has cut $500 million in grant funding to improving police forces since January 2025.

• "In April, the Trump Administration terminated 373 grants from the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP).
• The defunded grants were initially valued at about $820 million, but many were multiyear grants in various stages of payout and implementation. The Administration has rescinded the remaining balances of these awards, which a CCJ analysis estimates at about $500 million.
• The terminated grants provided federal support for violence reduction, policing and prosecution, victims’ services, juvenile justice and child protection, substance use and mental health treatment, corrections and reentry, justice system enhancements, research and evaluation, and other state- and local-level public safety functions."

The Secretary of "war",  Pete Hegseth's remarks to the assembled brass the other day were alarming, a call to arms against US civilians and giving freedom for the military to ignore any rules that forbad harming civilians in combat and occupation.  He, by his pacing, made for TV oratory in many words, was telling the military to ignore the Constitution and to obey orders that they thought were 

 illegal.

Among the retired military and those in our family who appreciate the military, the discussion was, should those brass who sat through that resign now, or stay quiet as long as they can until they are given a direct illegal order to fire on US civilians in their own country or to commit war crimes against civilians in countries they occupy or conquer in the future.. The consensus was pragmatic: option 2. Resignations now would only leave vacancies for some junior officers loyal to Trumpism who would be promoted into those positions. There are always vultures who like to pick up the scraps in any society.

Retired General James Mattis published a response in The New York Times: here's a PDF of it.

In Union There Is Strength I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. Itis a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind.We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation. When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens, much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside. We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.” At home,we should use our military only when requested to do so,on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict— between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them. James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that “America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.” We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law. Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics. Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens, to past generations that bled to defend our promise, and to our children. We can come through this trying time stronger and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite. Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad. "James Mattis

In the meantime, Portland gets a temporary restraining order stopping the immediate deployment of military. Judge temporarily blocks Trump’s National Guard deployment in Portland

What part of the GOP is hard core MAGA

 Trump has a 43 percent approval rating per recent polls. If it is a question of democracy vs dictatorship/authoritarianism, 55% of registered Republicans want a strong man president...which is the question one poll asked. If that is the case, if I had the general feeling...not an exact estimate, but between 30% and 35% of all voters were hard-core MAGA, and the 15 percent are either unengaged, squishy, self-interested business types. Poll by NY Times 9/30/2025: Trump has support of about 90% of registered Republicans...consistent and unchanged in the summer.

The puzzle: Why does Trump continue to consolidate and energize his base instead of reaching out to add to his base? By using fear and favor and cheating, he can afford to ignore the popular vote. My guess is that he thinks that by lies, threatening with military suppression, overt racism, anti migrant mass deportation, and suppression, and limiting the ability of targeted opposition demographic groups to vote, using methods to federalize elections, and above all, political gerrymandering, he can tip the vote to him. If so he does not have to worry about the 55-plus who would turn up on election day to comprise the popular vote.

What's the answer for Democrats? How can they appeal to the 10% to 15 squish and solidify the vote for them? Exactly as Trump won in 2024:  It's the economy, stupid...the cost of living. .. groceries, housing. For that reason, one of the greatest factors in the cost of living of the struggling middle class is the cost of health insurance and the affordability of health care in general.  It tops the concerns list. Clever GOP. Cuts to Medicaid and Medicare will take place after the 2026 midterms, so the task of the Democrats is to make the warning stick that what is coming is bad and the GOP is to be blamed. For the sceptics, warnings that healthcare costs will rise is only part of the message. For many, only actually feeling the pain counts; warnings are political noise. That is the reason the government shutdown is over health care costs this week: it is a way to dramatize and pin the issue on the GOP for what is coming later, as warnings.   However, the actual experience of the pain will begin within a month or two as many get the actual figures of their health insurance in December and January when the cost of Obamacare/ACA will increase by painful and large percentages.  This is not a question of warning of 2027, but immediately the pain will be felt in 2025 and 2026. in time for the midterms.. The GOP big beautiful bill dropped all federal subsidies to the ACA, and the projections that steps must be taken now for providers to be ready by 2027, so that even then, the pain will be felt by providers like rural health have to cut back in 2026..

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Are we there yet? Yes. America is no longer a democracy, the land of the free

From an August 1, 2025, Facebook posting, my opinion of how much of the MAGA base is motivated by racism.  Strictly, my opinion. For some time, I have suspected that the Trump regime's mass deportation policies and executive orders were motivated by racism and discrimination against those with roots from south of our border or brown people from elsewhere, I have also suspected that after you peel back all of the reasons MAGA supporters use to justify their support of Trump, economy, business interests, religious beliefs, and despite Trump and friends' immorality and greed, there is a large element of the issue left that is migrant deportation. Everything else but mass deportation seems irrelevant to them. A district court judge just called out Trump's attempt to end all temporary protective visas for migrant refugees fleeing violence, persecution, or natural disasters, racist and discriminatory, and put a temporary hold on the execution of the removal of those holding such visas. The purpose of the special visas was to give refugee status until the conditions in their home from which they fled had improved. The judge found that the condition of their home countries of the plaintiffs had not improved. The evidence of racial discrimination was the words of the Trump regime's administrators themselves. No doubt this will go through the appeal process to end up in the lap of "his" Supreme Court, but the damning language from the judge needs to be cited. For those who protest this ruling, first look in your own mirror. (as of October 2025, the Supreme Court usually sides with the Trump administration on similar issues, but lower courts keep ruling otherwise on temporary protective visas. The issue is still in flux.)

My observations: October 1, 2025: The president calling for active or national guard military and ordering them to Chicago and Portland, where local and state officials object, is a sheer bullhorn appeal to the racists. It is not to fight crime or chaos or cities are burning, when current videos put a lie to that, particularly when crime statistics show 20 to 25% decreases per capita recently, but it will appeal to the bigotry in the MAGA base and to fool them to thinking this is reality, when it is not. Deployment of military to do domestic policing is not only not their training skills in this, they have none, but it seems an obvious violation of the Posse Comitatus provisions in the Constitution and laws of the land that only exempt such measures if there is an insurrection. There may be crime, but it is not an insurrection. A lower court on the use of the military in Los Angeles so ruled. Judge rules Trump illegally deployed National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles

From: Judge halts Trump's termination of TPS for Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua https://www.msn.com/.../judge-halts-trumps.../ar-AA1JHjR7...

"By stereotyping the TPS program and immigrants as invaders that are criminal, and by highlighting the need for migration management, Secretary Noem's statements perpetuate the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population."

Thompson also mentioned comments from Trump and other White House officials about migrants that show racial animus."

msn.com

Donald Trump suffers major legal blow over migrant protections

The decision extends protections for more than 60,000 people from co

This isn't just anti free speech, or fascism; this is stalinism

 As Trump directs his DOJ and others in his regime to take revenge and retribution, to go and find something he can get or make their lives miserable, what comes to mind is the following:.Trump just signed a National Security Directive (NSPM-7) that will secretly get you on his retribution/revenge hit list for future prosecution if you even speak "anti American ( no definition, but assume it means "anti-Trump") or "anti-Christian", (meaning the evangelical branch or white Christian nationalism, of course.) This is as frightening as it gets. It is not just anti-first amendment, it is not even fascism: it is Stalinism.

The quote "Show me the man, and I'll find the crime" is attributed to Lavrentiy Beria, who was the head of Joseph Stalin's secret police in the Soviet Union. He used this phrase to imply that with enough scrutiny, anyone could be found guilty of something. This raised the weaponization of government power to muzzle and prosecute the disloyal to a new level.

It echoes current attempts by the Trump regime to prosecute former FBI director JamesComey, a cogressperson, some prosecutors, using the DOJ as the vehicle, but NSPM-7 also weaponizes the entire federal government to target Trump's political enemies for their forbidden speech. This security directive may explain or legitimize the filing charges or indictment of former government officials who crossed Trump with only flimsy or no evidence of probable cause of criminal wrongdoing, such as mortgage "fraud" or "lying to Congress", etc. It permits targeting of political enemies with fabricated or unsubstantiated charges based solely on their speech or writings..

Per the Raw Story publication, Trump signed a directive that permits him to secretly order an investigation and prosecution of those identified to have spoken anti-American or anti-Christian. He does not need to even tell the public or the person who is on this hit list.Big Brother is watching you. It is a secret directive. ", The National Security Directive (NSPM-7) saying that “anti-American” (aka “anti-Trump”) or “anti-Christian” rhetoric is — in Minority Report fashion — an indicator that a person may, in the future, commit a crime and therefore should be targeted now by our federal government at virtually every level." https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/2674062206/

Particularly fearful are non profit advocates and civil rights groups: What is NSPM-7? Over 3,000 nonprofits sound alarm on new Trump directive

White House Anti-Terror Order Targets ‘Anti-American’ Views

A method in Putin's and Trump's madness: provoking violence to justify their use of greater violence

 A tool of a dictator and a dictator consolidating power: provoking violence to justify their use of superior power to commit violence. It is an oldie but goodie weapon successfully used in history.. It could explain both Trump's and Putin's puzzling actions.  What both have done recently is counterintuitive since the reaction to their words and deeds only consolidates and inspires greater resistance. There may be a method in both Trump's and Putin's madness. It is setting the trap of provocation now to get a better result later.

 The use of provocation to justify committing violence to their supporters and using military to do it is how dictators and wannabe dictators grab power and domination, whether it is Russia or the Trump regime in the homeland. Russia sends drones to rattle the sabers and scramble defense jets in Poland and Romania. Why would Putin do it? It is counterintuitive, resulting in Europe rearming against him in fear that the Ukraine land grab will bleed over to them. Trump is sending military into Portland, DC, and Memphis to fight phantom antifa, using media from years ago to invent a bogus current event that seems counterintuitive, too. It hardens the resolve of those who oppose his power grabs. What both Putin and Trump have in common might be a strategy to provoke the targets to commit violence (shoot 'em down, Trump tells Poland) because it would give Trump and Putin an excuse for the use of violent force to advance their causes. War and violent suppression might be the way they think they can win. because they have the guns and ability. If they cannot win peacefully or by subversion, propaganda, lies, and threats, they think chaos and violence are their best hope. What is the answer? Be aware of what is going on; that is their strategy. Do not fall for the provocation, but be organized and disciplined, and be very clever about any pushback. That is how you demonstrate you are not falling for this. A mass turning of backs, satire that exposes the sham, local leadership calling them out, silent resistance (I love the satirical statues placed in visible spaces that make the point), and other pranks garnering media attention might work in our own country. For Poland and NATO, trust the Europeans and the NATO military strategists; do not trust or take advice from Trump. He is either still fawning over Putin or dangerously stupid.

Using a 5-year-old video of "antifa",.passing it off as a current video to justify sending troops into Portland is not only deceptive but is puzzling, too.Portland mayor condemns federal intervention, claims videos of anti-ICE riots were from years ago  Why provoke more anger? To fool Trump's followers into continue backing him? Trump is now setting up "antifa" as the cause of opposition to him today, which needs to be suppressed by military force because they are the threat his followers should fear, used to justify his non-constitutional and dictatorial actions.  Is the Trump regime hoping Portland loses its cool, and demonstrations against the action turn violent to justify using armed active military to "shoot the legs out of Antifa", as Trump wanted to do in his first term in reaction to the George Floyd riots? (only stopped by generals at the time).  Like LA and DC, bored, untrained soldiers to be police they were supposed to aid, stood around areas frequented by tourists to send a message of what? Get used to armed military in blue cities; if you don't behave, they are a threat of violence against you, so don't assemble to voice complaints, or maybe they will be tasked to "secure" voting machines that only Trump loyalists have access to. (That got Colorado clerk Tina Peters a jail term, who did that which was so illegal. She obeyed Trump's orders and violated state and federal laws, instead of Colorado laws.)  Trump has already demonstrated he cares nothing about such laws, hoping "his" Supreme Court would give him a stamp of approval six months later, after the election takes place. In DC the national guard battled boredom by picking up trash, but their presence was an implied threat by a person who acts like a dictator and who makes good on his threats.. 

 Is Putin up to the same trick by sending drones into Poland and forcing NATO jets to scramble? It also seems counterintuitive because it hardens Europe's resolve to block him. Why would Putin do this? The explanaton for both could be they think they can win with violence, because propaganda, lies, subversion, threats of use of military violence, and a war of words have failed to get them what they seek  So now they want to provoke a violent reaction becuuse even violence and chaos are thebest recourse left to them to amass power when the opposition is being sufficienlly effective through the courts and media, in the case of Trump and Europeis now woke and rearming as they realize what Putin is up to. 

 What is the goal Putin may have in sending in the dumb drones? It may be he can scare the rank and file and deliver the message of fear, that Putin has the ability to kill them if there is war, so get out of Ukraine.  It is a divide and turn the less than educated, naive citizens against their leaders on Ukraine and force them to stop helping Ukraine resist Russia's aggressions.  A former president of Russia may have just said this out loud. Putin Ally Responds to NATO Drone Swarms: ‘Dumb Animals’ - Newsweek

 Another view is even more horrifying to contemplate: it is not a strategy for negotiation or saber-rattling.  He will not wait for propaganda or provoking violence to justify his actions. Putin wants war with Europe. All hopes of reasoning with Putin are gone. War is coming.

 Zelensky sees the Russian drone intrusion as a way to divert Europe's attention from the longer-term goal of the integrity and independence of Ukraine in an upcoming conference on European security. He also sees it as well as testing NATO's ability to detect and to unite to object to such aggressive acts.Zelenskyy reveals Russia’s reasons for violating NATO   airspace

 My question is also how able is Russia to fight both a war in Ukraine and an invasion of a NATO country now? That is a national security and intelligence matter.  The timing may not be now, but Putin could be shaping future Russian war plans. Putin thinks like a chess master, considering future moves.

Trump on the other hand, plays politics and national security issues like a day trader, ignoring the longer-term consequences of winning the day's outrageous and headline-grabbing proclamations and short-term acts designed to keep his MAGA base fired up and him in office.  His lack of considering future unintended consequences makes him TACO-prone, unpredictable, and irrationally dangerous. His approach is chaos and helter-skelter. That may be headline-grabbing for a day or two, but it may also sew the seeds of his own destruction at the ballot box as it inspires a more unified, determined pushback by the opposition.

What is the answer, and what should the pushback be? In the US, the strategy of provocation must be called out for what it is, with both humor and every kind of media available, and with strong leadership to keep the resistance peaceful in order to make the provokers fail.   Turning back on the provocateurs in massive peaceful protests in the US, clever use of visuals and media can rally the pushback far more effectively than countering violence with violence. Escalating violence will only lead to Trump using the more massive force of the active armed military to suppress and control the vote in November 2026. 

In Europe, the reaction to Putin should be of their own construction, and certainly, they should not take Trump's advice is just shoot down the Russian jets that intrude into their airspace.  Resistance must not fall into the violence trap, either,  but instead, they should give even more aid to Ukraine to fight their proxy war against Russia as an up-the-ante response in every instance.

  

Agent provocateurs were techniques used in Europe in the recent past.  Those seeking more power used their own disguised agents to make the opposition look bad and violent to justify a violent crackdown by them.  Trump and Putin become the agent provocateurs themselves, using their own propaganda and acts to provoke violent reactions so they can justify sending in their overwhelming force and threats of violence. 

  In the US, the setting up of Antifa (a loose, non-formal coalition of others) as the bogeyman to justify violence was first attempted by some Trump followers in claiming the Jan 6 rioters were really antifa in disguise. Videos put a lie to that BS.  Angry black people have long been the fear of white racists who used violence, lynching, and murder to justify their crimes. Antifa fits that longstanding profile as the object of fear, justifying criminal behavior of the Ku Klux Klan and fellow travelers. It appearsTrump is invoking fear of Antifa to justify his actions to MAGA. Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization – The White House. More sheer BS from the Trump regime.  Antifa is not an organization, FYI, and technically speaking, there are no domestic anti terrorist laws per se in the US, only as applied to foreign terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda.   "Despite the statutory definition of DT in Title 18 of the U.S. Code, no federal criminal provision expressly prohibits 'domestic terrorism." Understanding and Conceptualizing Domestic Terrorism: Issues for Congress | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

Update 10/6/2025:The gassing of peaceful protesters last night is an act of provocation by the masked military like actors. The fear is that by acting like agent provocateurs, these forces arrived ready to use tear gas on peaceful demonstrators. Watch it. https://www.rawstory.com/our-republic-is-in-big-trouble.../

Timothy Snyder, a political scientist professor in Toronto, wrote a book on the subject of the use of provocateurs. On Tyranny: "The goal  (of provocateurs)is to provoke a reaction that justifies state-sanctioned violence against opponents, as seen during the rise of Nazism and communism. "

NATO fighter jets scrambled in Poland as Russia launches deadly strikes on Ukraine

Trump at UN advises Poland to shoot down Russian drones Instagram