" It's actually terrifying that so many Americans are so ignorant and gullible."

They've been nurtured to be that way since before Reagan.

Aside from that - regardless of how wilfully ignorant his supporters may be, it's up to the institutions of government to follow through with enforcing the law. Right now, because of the monolithic nature of his core support, Trump stays where he is. Eventually there will be charges laid, trials and punishment. As we've seen in Canada, reliance on core supporters was the ultimate undoing of the Harper government. Their comes a point where growing numbers of people on the outside of that core support will have had enough and express their disgust, either at the ballot box or they'll just stay home come election day.

This stellar perspective will be LOST on the Dic's "true believers" ~ ~ Sooz

Robert Reich Has a Message for Trump Voters, Whether They Want to Hear It or Not
The president has broken virtually every promise he made on the campaign trail.
By Robert Reich / RobertReich.org / August 23, 2017, 5:57 AM GMT

If you voted for Donald Trump, I get it. Maybe you feel you’ve been so badly shafted by the system that you didn’t want to go back to politics as usual, and Trump seemed like he’d topple that corrupt system.

You voted to change our country’s power base – to get rid of crony capitalism and give our government back to the people who are working, paying taxes, and spending more just to survive. Lots of Americans agree with you.

But now, the president is turning his back on that idea and the many changes he promised.

He did not drain the swamp. After telling voters how he would take control away from special interests, he has surrounded himself with the very Wall Street players he decried. Now, those who gamed politicians for tax loopholes and laws that reward the rich don’t even have to sneak around with backroom deals.

Steve Mnuchin, Gary Cohn, Dina Powell and others from Wall Street, as well as corporate lobbyists by the dozens, are now inside the Trump administration rigging the system for the extremely wealthy from the inside.

They want to make it easier for banks to once again gamble with your money and repeat our financial crisis. They want to cut health care for millions of you. They want to lower taxes on corporations and the rich. They want to get rid of rules that stop corporations from harming your health or safety.

That’s not the change you were promised.

Make America Great Again? The Trump administration wants to expand on policies that have kept American wages stagnant for almost four decades. Huge corporations and billionaires get the breaks, and hard working Americans once again get left waiting for the crumbs. That’s not the change you were promised.

Bringing back fiscal responsibility? The Secret Service budget is skyrocketing to protect his family on international business trips, ski vacations, and separate New York City living quarters.

At the same time, the president still refuses to untangle himself from his businesses and prove he’s not leveraging our government for his financial gain. You’re paying for his lifestyle while he’s doing nothing to help yours.

That’s not the change you were promised.

[Video accessible via end link.]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/robert-reich-has-message-trump-voters-whether-they-want-hear-it-or-not

it started way before that. the manufacturing of consent started with Lippman ("manufacture of consent"), if not before. it took a new and darker turn in the 60's and 70's, however. FMI see "The Power Of Nightmares" (BBC).

Another stellar commentary ~ I've been at a loss to understand what has happened and continues to happen to/within the GOP/TP ~ it's as if they all contracted a highly infectious disease of idiocy, with cruelty and greed at its core ~ ~ some "live links" to more/corroborating info in the original ~ Sooz

Robert Reich: Trump Is Destroying the GOP from the Inside Out
Just one year into his presidency, the party has abandoned its core principles.
By Robert Reich / RobertReich.org / January 22, 2018, 5:30 AM GMT

America has never had a president as deeply unpopular at this stage of his presidency, or one who has sucked up more political oxygen. This isn’t good news for the Republican Party this November or in the future, because the GOP has sold its soul to Trump.

Three principles once gave the GOP its identity and mission: Shrink the deficit, defend states’ rights, and be tough on Russia.

Now, after a year with the raving man-child who now occupies the White House, the Republican Party has taken a giant U-turn. Budget deficits are dandy, state’s rights are obsolete, and Russian aggression is no big deal.

By embracing a man whose only principles are winning and getting even, the Republican Party no longer stands for anything other than Trump.

Start with fiscal responsibility.

When George W. Bush took office in 2001, the Congressional Budget Office projected a $5.6 trillion budget surplus over 10 years. Yet even this propitious outlook didn’t stop several Republicans from arguing against the Bush tax cut out of concern it would increase the nation’s debt.

A few years later, congressional Republicans were apoplectic about Obama’s spending plan, necessitated by the 2008 financial crisis. Almost every Republican in Congress opposed it. They argued it would dangerously increase in the federal debt.

“Yesterday the Senate cast one of the most expensive votes in history,” intoned Senator Mitch McConnell. “Americans are wondering how we’re going to pay for all this.” Paul Ryan warned the nation was “heading for a debt crisis.”

Now, with America’s debt at the highest level since shortly after World War II – 77 percent of GDP – Trump and the GOP have enacted a tax law that by their own estimates will increase the debt by at least $1.5 trillion over the decade.

What happened to fiscal responsibility? McConnell, Ryan, and the rest of the GOP have gone mum about it. Politics came first: They and Trump had to enact the big tax cut in order to reward their wealthy patrons.

States’ rights used to be the second pillar of Republican thought.

For decades, Republicans argued that the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment protected the states from federal intermeddling.

They used states’ rights to resist desegregation; to oppose federal legislation protecting workers, consumers, and the environment; and to battle federal attempts to guarantee marriage rights for gays and lesbians.

When, in 2013, the Supreme Court relied on states’ rights to strike down the heart of the Voting Rights Act, then-Senator Jeff Sessions broke out the champagne. “good news!“ said the GOP’s leading advocate of states’ rights. =

But after a year of Trump, Republicans have come around to thinking states have few if any rights.

As Attorney General, Sessions has green-lighted a federal crackdown on marijuana in states that have legalized it.

He and Trump are also blocking sanctuary cities from receiving federal grants. (A federal judge recently stayed Trump’s executive order on grounds that it violates the Tenth Amendment, but Trump and Sessions are appealing the decision.)

Trump is also seeking to gut California’s tough environmental rules. His Interior Department is opening more of California’s federal land and coastline to oil and gas drilling, and Trump’s EPA is moving to repeal new restrictions on a type of heavily-polluting truck California was relying on to meet its climate and air quality goals.

Meanwhile, the Republican House has approved the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would prevent states from enforcing their own laws barring concealed handguns against visitors from other states that permitted them.

For the new GOP, states’ rights be damned. Now it’s all about consolidating power in Washington, under Trump.

The third former pillar of Republicanism was a hard line on Russian aggression.

When Obama forged the New Start treaty with Moscow in 2010, Republicans in Congress charged that Vladimir Putin couldn’t be trusted to carry out any arms control agreement.

And they complained that Obama wasn’t doing enough to deter Putin in Eastern Ukraine. “Every time [Obama] goes on national television and threatens Putin or anyone like Putin, everybody’s eyes roll, including mine,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. “We have a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression.”

That was then. Now, despite explicit findings by American intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election – the most direct attack on American democracy ever attempted by a foreign power – Republicans in Congress want to give Russia a pass.

They don’t even want to take steps to prevent further Russian meddling. They’ve played down a January report by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee warning that the Kremlin will likely move to influence upcoming U.S. elections, including those this year and in 2020.

The reason, of course, is the GOP doesn’t want to do anything that might hurt Trump or rile his followers.

The GOP under Trump isn’t the first political party to bend its principles to suit political expediency. But it may be the first to jettison its principles entirely, and over so short a time.

If Republicans no longer care about the federal debt, or state’s rights, or Russian aggression – what exactly do they care about? What are the core principles of today’s Republican Party?

Winning and getting even.

But as a year with Trump as president has shown, this is no formula for governing.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/robert-reich-trump-destroying-gop-inside-out-0

It's always been there sooz. Started rearing it's ugly head during Obama's terms and the DiC made it mainstream. They feel empowered to unleash their greed which in turn translates to cruelty. Screw the poor, the downtrodden, the unemployed, the elderly, the disabled and sick citizens. Elderly, and/ or sick or disabled and /or, homeless? Too bad. A helpless infant in any or all of the above situations? F*&k you! We insisted that you be born, but damned if we will care for you.

Frightening, isn't it? But that's exactly how it is.

From my Facebook feed ~ more words of wisdom from Robert Reich ~ ~ Sooz

My great grandfather arrived in America from Ukraine. He was nineteen years old, and penniless. What brought him here was his ambition. He built a business. He started a family.

Under Grabem's plan Reich's grandfather would still be welcome. He's a nice shiny white male.

Not all that sure since he's Jewish.

Not all that sure since he's Jewish.

Can you spell Steve Wynn. How about Adelson? Maybe AIPAC? Trust me, Jews are welcome.

Only if the buy their way in.

Not with AIPAC and Netanyahu in the mix. "White" is the only criteria. His Nazi supporters may not like it but money speaks louder to him than supporters.

A terrific letter that should have been addressed to the entire GOP/TP senatorial caucus ~ ~ Sooz

Scathing open letter urges Republican senators to save America from Trump — before it’s too late
Robert Reich / 23 Jul 2018 at 12:29 ET

To: Senators Jeff Flake, John McCain, Bob Corker, and Susan Collins

From: Robert Reich

Senators, I write you not as a Democrat reaching out to Republicans, or as a former cabinet member making a request of sitting senators.

I write you as a patriotic American concerned about the peril now facing our democracy, asking you to exercise your power to defend it.

A foreign power has attacked our democratic institutions and, according to American intelligence, continues to do so.

Yet the President of the United States is unwilling to fully acknowledge this, or aggressively stop it. Most of your Republican colleagues in the Senate will not force his hand. As a result, because your party has control of the Senate, there is no effective check on the President – or on Putin.

What is America to do? We will exercise our right to vote on November 6. But by that time our system may be compromised. The President must be constrained, now. Putin’s aggression must be stopped, now.

If just two of you changed parties – becoming Independent, and caucusing with the Democrats – the Republican Party would no longer have a majority in the Senate. The Senate would become a check on the President, as the Framers of the Constitution envisioned it would be. And the President could be forced to defend the United States, as the Framers intended.

I implore you to do so.

There is precedent. I’m sure you remember Jim Jeffords of Vermont, who served as a Republican senator from 1989 until 2001. He then left the GOP to become an Independent and began caucusing with the Democrats. Jeffords’ switch changed control of the Senate from Republican to Democratic.

Jeffords left the Republican Party because of issues on which he parted with his Republican colleagues and the Bush administration. As he said at the time, “Increasingly, I find myself in disagreement with my party… Given the changing nature of the national party, it has become a struggle for our leaders to deal with me and for me to deal with them.”

I knew and admired Jeffords years before he switched parties. We worked together on a number of initiatives when I was secretary of labor. He was a humble man of principle and integrity. He retired from the Senate in 2007, and died in 2014.

I appeal to the four of you to follow his noble example.

The stakes for the nation are far higher than they were in 2001. The issue today is not one on which honorable people like Jeffords may reasonably disagree. The issue now is the fate of our system of government.

All of you recognize the danger. All of you have expressed deep concern about what is occurring.

Senator Flake recently introduced a non-binding resolution acknowledging Russian involvement in the 2016 elections, expressing support for the Justice Department investigation and calling for oversight hearings about what happened in Helsinki. But Flake’s fellow Republicans blocked that resolution, and it failed.

Senator McCain said the President has “proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin;” that Trump “made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world;” and that the President has “failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad.”

Senator Corker has likened the Republican Party to a “cult,” and conceded “it’s not a good place for any party to end up with a cult-like situation as it relates to a President that happens to be of purportedly of the same party.”

Moreover, the three of you have decided against seeking reelection. You have no reason not to follow your consciences.

Senator Collins represents a state that has had a long and distinguished history of independent-minded politicians (the other current senator from Maine, Angus King, is an Independent). Her constituents will surely forgive her if she leaves the Republican Party.

There is a scene in Robert Bolt’s play “A Man for All Seasons,” in which Thomas More, having angered Henry VIII, is on trial for his life. After Richard Rich commits perjury against More in exchange for the office of attorney general for Wales, More says: “Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world . . . But for Wales!”

You have not pledged yours souls to the Republican Party. You have pledged yourselves to America. Now is the time to deliver on that pledge.

This article was originally published at RobertReich.org

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/07/scathing-open-letter-urges-republican-senators-save-america-trump-late/

Right now appealing to a Republican's patriotism to save America is like appealing to a shark for mercy. It just isn't going to happen.

For me, Robert Reich is a national treasure ~ he calls 'em as he sees 'em ~ ~ Sooz

Robert Reich: Trump’s assault on the rule of law is reminiscent of Nixon’s downward spiral
written by Robert Reich / Robert Reich's Blog / January 22, 2019

The “rule of law” distinguishes democracies from dictatorships. It’s based on three fundamental principles. Trump is violating every one of them.

The first principle is that no person is above the law, not even a president. Which means a president cannot stop an investigation into his alleged illegal acts.

Yet Trump has done everything he can to stop the Mueller investigation, even making Matthew Whitaker acting Attorney General – whose only distinction to date has been loud and public condemnation of that investigation.

The second principle is that a president cannot prosecute political opponents. Decisions about whom to prosecute for alleged criminal wrongdoing must be made by prosecutors who are independent of politics.

Yet Trump has repeatedly pushed the Justice Department to bring charges against Hillary Clinton, his 2016 rival, for using a private email server when she was Secretary of State, in alleged violation of the Presidential Records Act.

The third principle is that a president must be respectful of the independence of the judiciary. Yet Trump has openly ridiculed judges who disagree with him in order to fuel public distrust of them.

He recently referred to the judge who halted Trump’s plan for refusing to consider asylum applications an “Obama judge,” and railed against the entire ninth circuit in which that judge serves.

John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, condemned Trump’s attack. “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges,” Roberts said. An “independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

Almost a half-century ago, I watched as another president violated these three basic principles of the rule of law, although not as blatantly as Trump. The nation rose up in outrage against Richard Nixon, who resigned before Congress impeached him.

The question is whether this generation of Americans will have the strength and wisdom to do the same.

[Video accessible via the end link or at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... nrLIuW3gqs]

https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/robert-reich-trumps-assault-on-the-rule-of-law-is-reminiscent-of-nixons-downward-spiral/

I'm not convinced they have either.

Too many cooters and sheras in this country. These people never learned to think critically.