SexyAsianStud

Back on topic, with the writings of James Baldwin, from way back in 1971, as he writes to Angela Davis in an open letter:
One way of gauging a nation’s health, or of discerning what it really considers to be its interests—or to what extent it can be considered as a nation as distinguished from a coalition of special interests—is to examine those people it elects to represent or protect it. One glance at the American leaders (or figure-heads) conveys that America is on the edge of absolute chaos, and also suggests the future to which American interests, if not the bulk of the American people, appear willing to consign the blacks. 

Just keep in mind that besides the terrible laws in Thailand that protect the image and the institution of the monarchy, there has also always been extreme social pressure to preserve, protect, and revere it.
Even when you go to see a movie, before the film starts theatres all play the King's anthem, and everyone stands in silence. To not stand would have always(?) been inconceivable.

The only places I have heard talk of Democratic mis-deeds such as stealing the election are the snippets from FOX NEWS posted on progressive news sites and on the conduit for Trump press releases, the Daddy's site.
Both irrelevant, both ridiculous, both dedicated to the destruction of a functioning democratic process.

The big problem in America remains that close to 50% of the country were willing to overlook ALL of Trumps mis-deeds, rants, and corruption.   How you you justify THAT ?
I dont believe these are all BAD people, but misguided perhaps, broken, or simply just not able to comprehend that they were simply used as props for the current President for his re-election, and beyond that, he doesnt give a single Fuck about them, their lives or livelihoods....  They are the epitome of cult members, blindly following a sick and corrupt leader who only wants Power and admiration.  
Even if Trump loses, the mark he left on America and this segment of the country will not fade easily.  With Trump, they were birds that were set free and allowed to demonstrate with HIS support everything that is wrong and inhumane without consequence.   His MAGA cry should be a MAWA cry (Make America WHITE again) , because in essence that seems the real goal here.    And I do believe that ANY person of color that supports Trumps rhetoric and agenda is seriously flawed and misguided and is doing an injustice to their race.
If Biden wins, he is faced with an almost impossible task of winning over 50% of Americans that cant, wont or refuse to give up their new found freedoms.  This election has shown us the TRUE face of America.

Except the margins are frighteningly thin. Much too thin for a unhealthy democracy, teetering near the brink of extinction. Trumpism won't end with the orange orangutan's demise. The ugly pussy has been let out of the bag, and there is no putting him back inside. Populist, racist nut-cases will aggressively rise, staking claim in the Republican Party. All you need is a handsome and charismatic White-Nationalist Fascist, and White grievance will go ape-shit. Trump opened that door, and he showed everyone that it's possible now.
The network analysis is fascinating. Ana Navarro's take on the Latino vote in Florida had me spellbound. She was oh-so-careful with her words, because she knows the personality of Latinos. She did not want to invite death threats. The Latino vote in Florida for Trump is shameful.
However, some pundits need to be shot. Or at least fired. I fast-forward through many of the talking heads.
I've been glued to the analysis of The Lincoln Project. As former (and existing conservatives), their reaction has been mind blowing. They are very scared for America's future. After all that money, production value, and endless hours spent on building a movement, they were clearly not prepared for the intensity of Trumpism that this election reveals.
In many ways, the work is just beginning. The defeat of Trumpism is going to require a lot more diligence and determination. I hope progressive voters have what it takes to keep up this fight. The road forward is not going to be easy.

The only places I have heard talk of Democratic mis-deeds such as stealing the election are the snippets from FOX NEWS posted on progressive news sites and on the conduit for Trump press releases, the Daddy's site.
Both irrelevant, both ridiculous, both dedicated to the destruction of a functioning democratic process.

Nobody does a clothing try-on session quite like Reno Gold. How smart of JJ Malibu to send him a box of goodies during the height of Covid.
 

I think Oz should initiate a board campaign to attract marketplace attention. He should ask veteran board members to send in photos of themselves modeling the same JJ Malibu clothes that mimic Reno's runway session. What a visual hoot that portfolio would be. Talk about click-bate.
In the meantime, check out Reno's g-rated runway session here:
 And for his x-rated version, be sure to sign up for his OnlyFans account. This guy is pure GOLD.

The mood on NYC streets is fascinating. Granted, the weather is incredible, but there's a buzz in the air, and you see and hear lots of people talking about Biden's chances. Strangers talking with other strangers.
The rat seems cornered. As usual, his behavior is despicable and utterly transparent. The press conference with Eric Trump and Giuliani was worth its weight in vomit.
The articles Kesslar posted are worth a read. A Biden win will not make life any easier in America. Forceful evil will still exist. McConnell and Graham are still in the senate. No serious down-ballot victory. America has deep-rooted problems that may take generations to fix. A lot of racist assholes need to die first.
Even so, Biden stands a chance to heal this nation. I believe he will attempt to unite. Biden will not play bully. The world will be a lot better place when the TROLL dies, or at least no longer holds the presidency.

Well, Sis, its the BIG day..... Glad to see you surface, whatever the outcome, but lets hope we will be dancing and clicking our Loubatins ?    I am a stressed out bundle of anxiety, and just want the Nightmare on Trump Street to be OVER, so we can move forward with getting rid of this fucking Covid shit and have some decency again.   I want to go back to a time when every minute of EVERY fucking day wasnt consumed by Trump and his inept and corrupt family.  I want to eat my morning bagel and read news that DOESNT involve TRUMP (unless its that he was convicted of Presidential crimes and is going to JAIL) .....  Whatever Biden and Harris can bring us HAS TO BE BETTER than a Trump administration....Let's REALLY round the corner, and kick Trump to the Curb.....    See you on the other side ! 
                            
                                                                           
                         
  

Donald J Trump and Mike Pence are MURDERERS.....  Their pretending Covid is over and furthering the Daily sickness and DEATH of Americans THRU THEIR RALLIES to WIN the election has caused the greatest MASS MURDER America has ever seen.....
LOCK THEM UP !!!!!
 

ADD slimy, sleazy nazi Steven Miller to the Trump teams POSITIVE Covid list....... HOORAY !   
"Yeah, that's Right !"

@stevenkesslar, you never have to present a case against Daddy to me.... From day 1, I hated HIM and he hated me, and tried to make me extinct, each time banning me for 6 month periods, and as you know i am currently Banned.  He is VERY much like Trump, its "his way or the highway", so I learned arguing with him is fruitless.  He has NO respect for members , and never feels you are owed ANY explanation for his actions. 
But most members "over there" are like Trump supporters, they put up with his bullshit, look the other way, and make excuses for him just so they "can live in his world"....
NOT ME !   I have been banned more times than I can count, sulked and bitched during my exile, but always ended up going back.  Glutton for punishment ?    I guess so....
Its a matter of finding something you enjoy, and there, I enjoyed posting those naked guy pics to a large audience that seemed to appreciate them, so it filled a niche for me.
But I too am a Scorpio, and am getting real tired of the Daddy shit, so this time I might just "slither away"....?
But my darling "Cabbage Patch sis", I am glad you are safe and well and back to torturing us with your never-ending posts   (I still have never made it all the way to the end of one)
NOW, as for Trumps latest PUBLICITY STUNT, I am sickened and appalled.  And unlike others, I DO NOT WISH HIM WELL, if indeed he is really sick and not just scamming us to pockets big bucks from the companies making the drugs he is supposedly being given , that will ultimately lead to his "miracle cure"....  You cant trust this SNAKE....
He's a scumbag, and manipulator, and is using America as his reality show, which he is writing, producing and manifesting ALL by himself, using underlings, paid for by the American public, as his enablers.    FUCK THAT COCKSUCKER.......  He has been pulling our strings for 4 years, now that orange haired puppetmaster has GOT TO GO !
The only thing he has done successfully is turn Washington into a Guinness World Record "petri dish"...  that somehow missed that Nazi Steven Miller.... I am  holding out hope a few more of Trumps slimy butthole lickers get infected with the worst cases of Covid... 
 
 

Rumors of my death .......................................  
I know, I know.   You've been lusting after my dildo collection every since we were horny teenage girls.  Sorry, my dearest and most darlingest sister.   But you'll just have to wait.
So are you saying the racism ban at Daddy's is over?  Like, did he stop being a racist?  Maybe if you say so, sis.  But I have my doubts. 
Anyway, I'm not dead or gone.  I haven't posted for a week or so because I was just doing other things.  Sometimes even I choose to keep my mouth shut.
In terms of President Toxic, I'm in complete agreement with Nancy Pelosi.  First, I wish him well and am glad he seems to be recovering.  Second, hopefully it's a lesson that leads everyone to wear masks and be more thoughtful about NOT getting others sick.  Hopefully none of the Republican Senators or power brokers who infected each other will get really sick or die.
For the record, Daddy timed me out twice this year, both a long time ago.  Both times were due to his deep racism, as far as I can tell.  Needless to say, I'm quite sure he'd disagree.  But I've spent enough time with Daddy in person and over the phone that I think I know a deeply racist man when I talk to one. 
What follows is a screed that probably is best left unsaid.  But after all, sis, you know me.  And I do think my arguments are valid about how Gays like Daddy should perhaps challenge themselves just a little bit more to really try to live in the 21st century.
The first time Daddy timed me out was when I got way deep into arguing that The Birth Of A Nation was the most racist film ever made.  It's actually funny looking back at that.  Because it was early this year, before Black Lives Matter became a huge thing.  In retrospect, it's very easy to see the film as the kind of racist toxic waste that's been brewing under the surface forever, and finally exploded this year.  Saying the film is deeply racist is NOT a very controversial position.  At least among almost all Blacks, and Whites who are not racists.
Daddy is a Scorpio.  According to astrology, Scorpios either fly high like a eagle, or slither like a snake.  I have seen both of those sides of Daddy, personally. 
What I found sad about my time out this Spring was that the poor girl took the snake route and tried to make me look anti-Semitic.  Which I suppose makes sense.  Because he's smart enough to at least know he couldn't really win an argument about racism.  Especially about what most Blacks seem to view as the most racist film ever made.
The main racist poster I was taking on, Bigjoey, was basically arguing that The Birth Of A Nation was just portraying Blacks as they were seen at the time, in 1915.  Not that there was anything racist about that, of course.  I mean, it wasn't like the Director picked up a KKK book and KKK play because he intended to cause the Black Holocaust that actually followed, leading to mass terror, death, and the Black Great Migration, right? 
Since Bigjoey is a Jew, and Gay, I kept making the point that a film saying "Blacks are like raping ape-like predators and thus should be killed" is like saying "God hates fags and they all need to die" or like saying "Jews are vermin and they need to be exterminated".  I cited murderous propaganda films - including The Wandering Jew and The Birth Of A Nation - that actually incited the mass murder of Jews, Gays, and Blacks.  Bigjoey would have none of it.  It was actually a surprise to me that someone who I thought of as thoughtful, and rightfully sensitive to anti-Semitism,  could have such a massive blind spot to racism.  
Daddy timed me out and erased everything I wrote in one post, except for cutting and pasting the  example I used of anti-Semitic statements like "Jews are vermin".  It was very clear he wanted to make me sound like an anti-Semite.   Even that didn't work, because the thread went on forever (with me posting, who could be surprised?), and I was incredibly consistent.  The bumper sticker I used - "racism = homophobia = anti-Semitism = Islamophobia" - was pretty much in every page of the post.  In order to argue I was saying I hate Jews, you'd also have to argue I was saying I hate Blacks and I hate Gays, such as myself. 
Again, this is what happens when Daddy knows he can't openly make a winning argument about racism.  When Black Lives Matter exploded several months later, it actually made me feel good that I was a stubborn bitch about calling out racism.  And defending Black Lives Matter activists who do so.
The second time he timed me out was when I went after his own racism pretty much directly.  He started that racist anti-Black Lives Matter thread, which is when anybody Black and anybody under 40 or so seemed to head for the exits of his website.  While I did not name Daddy directly in my screed about racism, he is not stupid.  The message was intended for him as the OP of the thread.  And I'm sure he got the message.  Because about 24 hours after I hit the post button I found myself timed out.
I think I waited something like three months before I started posting here.  First, I didn't want to just come here and spew bile.  Second, I thought it might actually make sense to shut up for a while.  If only to be reminded that I obviously like writing.  But it was quite easy to reach the conclusion that I don't really need a gun-loving conservative racist to pass judgment on what I write.  It also became clear to me that getting into arguments about films like The Birth Of A Nation with racists doesn't make all that much sense.  Of course, I knew that anyway. 
Go ahead, sis.  Say it.  We both know I'm a stubborn bitch.
Mostly it reinforced the idea that the best thing I can do right now is send lots and lots of money to Democrats from Joe Biden to Rev. Warnock - who actually looks like he can win a Senate seat in Georgia.  If it works, Daddy and his racist gun-loving conservative views may run into a huge Wall-like obstacle in 2021 that he can't just time out.
I noticed Daddy made a few posts recently that were not outwardly racist and hostile to Blacks.  So maybe he got the memo.  Regardless, I like posting here.  There are fewer screeching conservatives.   For years and years part of my job as an escort was actually having thoughtful conversations with conservatives.  I think I was quite good at it.  That's harder in the era of President Toxic.  And I've probably just grown more stubborn.   I don't miss debates, or arguments, with conservatives at all.  
There were much better days with Daddy.  So I guess this is sad.  I have to mention some words of gratitude here, as I have over there, and as I have told Daddy repeatedly to his face.  I am very grateful to both Daddy and @TotallyOz, and especially Hooboy, for creating websites that made my escort career wildly successful.  And also gave birth to friendships that have now lasted several decades. 
That was my motivation several years ago in hitting up lots of my clients and other regulars on his site to create monthly pledges for Daddy that generated I don't know how many thousands of dollars in monthly donations for a year or so.  It helped solve Daddy's chronic cash flow problems for a while.  And it allowed me to feel like I had paid back any debt due to the fact that he ran a free review website that worked out incredibly well for me.  I'll say again.  I will always be grateful to Daddy for that.  And I wish him well.
That was also the beginning of the end.  Probably out of gratitude to me, Daddy made me a moderator on his website.  That was an honor I didn't ask for, didn't want, and actually really didn't perform at all.  In retrospect, I should have immediately said, "No."  When he offered to give me the ability to time people out, I practically screamed into the phone, "No." 
I've never run a website like that.  So I suppose I can't really judge.  But I'm a huge freedom of speech advocate.  So I'm not really into this idea of banning people for being, to quote Daddy, "toxic".  It's quite ironic, in that I feel very sure that Daddy himself harbors some fairly toxic views, IMHO.
My guess is Daddy came close to timing me out simply for using the phrase "President Toxic".  He certainly made it clear I was skating on thin ice.  The irony is that President Toxic has created such a huge backlash because of his toxic words and hate mongering that it will likely elect Biden in a landslide.  And I laughed my ass off when Biden himself called President Toxic "toxic" and "racist". 
So Daddy has a lot of issues.  Freedom of speech appears to be one of them.  If Joe Biden were a member of Daddy's website, he'd probably ban poor Joe for being "toxic".  Meanwhile, for someone with aspirations of being Miss Manners, Daddy's own silence on President Toxic's lies, hate, and racism is deafening.
One of my biggest problems in life has always been that given the choice to be diplomatic and back off, I almost always chose to be blunt and confrontational.  That worked very well for me as a community organizer and consumer activist.  I picked lots of big fights and won almost all of them.  With Daddy, it was a different game.  I do give myself credit for being mostly diplomatic for about 15 years or so.
For some strange reason, I actually never told Daddy that I essentially view him as a racist, gun loving conservative.  So the idea of being a moderator over there just didn't seem like a very promising idea.  The sole and very small contribution I made as a moderator was offering some language, basically from Chuck Schumer's Senate floor speech, defining the purpose of Daddy's website as "harm prevention".  That way if DHS or any other agency ever tries to bust him he can point to his TOS and say that the website is doing EXACTLY what the Senators who voted for FOSTA/SESTA said they were for.  Like preventing harm to vulnerable Gay minorities. 
You will notice that the only thing I said recently on Daddy's was a very long rant about how welcoming in more religious conservatives to our courts, including a very conservative SCOTUS majority,  can only create problems for people like Daddy in the future.  These are the very same religious conservatives who are the primary crusaders against prostitution, men who hires escorts, and websites like Rentboy.  Again, I wish Daddy the best.  But websites like his could easily be a target in a judiciary that takes a strict conservative/religious view on matters like abortion, prostitution, and even same sex marriage.
Daddy also has a problem with kids.  I also took him on about that.  And in so doing I know Daddy well enough that I was quite sure no good deed would go unpunished.
I found that images I posted including children kept being deleted.  Example:  a picture of Nancy Pelosi on the dais of the House when she became Speaker of the House again, and was surrounded by the children of newly elected House Democrats.  When Daddy timed me out for a week because of my rant about The Birth Of A Nation, he actually cited that I posted a picture of children.  In the context of that thread, I believe he was referring to this picture:

That's "the girl in red" from Schindler's List.  You can say a lot of things about that image.  I might say that it is one of the most iconic and heart-wrenching images of the horrors of Nazi anti-Semitism ever created.  My point in posting it was just that.  Whites in America in the 21st Century ought to be able to agree - finally! - that The Birth Of A Nation was as horrific to Blacks in America as Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda was to Jews.  And had just as horrific real life consequences in terms of mass terror and mass death.  But one thing you simply can't say about that image is that it is child pornography.
After Daddy kept removing images of children, I finally decided to post this video.  In my post, I intentionally put him on the spot by asking his explicit permission as to whether it was okay to post, since it involved an image of a child.
Again, Daddy is not stupid.  He graciously thanked me for posting the video, and wondered out loud what it was the child handed to Mayor Pete  (a bracelet he had made).  Meanwhile, I used that to take Daddy on in the private moderator's forum.  His argument was that posting any images of children is a "slippery slope", because the next thing you know it's child porn.  My argument was that in the 21st century Gay men can be legally surrounded by naked kids.  As in their own babies, whose diapers they are changing.  Daddy's way of thinking is a throwback to an ugly and hateful anti-Gay past.  Of course child pornography is wrong.  But it's very Salem Witch Hunt to base your website on the idea that Gays and kids are just a bad match.  Because "we all know what kind of perverts Gay men are." 
In fact, Gay men in the 21st century are actually a lot like Mayor Pete.  Someday perhaps Chasten will be First Lady, and they'll grace The White House with their own children.
Probably the worst thing I did is make an argument that one of the other moderators, also a liberal, agreed with.  My experience is that Daddy doesn't particularly like being told he is wrong.  Sometime shortly after that I found that I had been un-made a moderator, without explanation, just like I had also been made a moderator, without explanation. 
Almost everybody who hired me for years who knew and interacted with Daddy took exactly the same approach I did: slather him with praise, pay for his hotel room, and then talk about what you really think about him behind his back.  Because he is intolerant of dissent.
This is something I obviously feel very passionately about.  Gay men, lesbians, transgendered people, and our allies pulled off the organizing victory of my lifetime, and of millenia.  We took all the ugly and hateful and discriminatory things said about Gays and Gay love and Gay sex and turned thousands of years of bigotry around.  And we did it by being deeply personal.  We did it by opening our hearts.  Gay men and lesbians pulled off one of the most amazing organizing victories of all time.  With all due respect to warriors of Good Trouble like John Lewis, we showed the world how it is done.

So I find the closed and closeted petty little world Daddy lives in sad.  I'm not being too blunt, am I?  
I understand why he is the way he is.  He's had many crosses to bear.  As have we all.
I think we are on the verge of changing America into a better, fairer, and more loving country.  People are disgusted with the division and the hate. 
Gay men were on the front lines of learning how to win massive political change.  Mostly because so many of us lost and lost and lost.  And we kept our hopes up and our hearts open.  And we continued to fight.   Until we won.
Daddy's is not a website that runs on that ethos.  I spent a lot of time talking to him and to all the Gay men that come to the Palm Springs pool party about how we could defend a website like Daddy's from being the next Rentboy.  Mostly those men are closeted and scared.  Their ethos is to keep your head down.  Don't fight, don't push back.  Go with the flow, and hope you don't get busted.  Don't go out on a limb.  Don't take risks. 
These are guys I've known for years and years.  I can respect their way of thinking.  And Daddy's way of running his website.  But I've lived my adult life pretty much doing the exact opposite.  And I'm proud of it.
Mostly, I'm glad that I gave Daddy a little bit of help when I could.  And I stood up for what I view as moral things that I deeply believe in.  And I'll say again that I will always be grateful that he ran a website that was very lucrative for me.  
Like I said, all this was probably better left unsaid.  But you know me, sis.  Like Daddy, I just can't help being the way I am.   He isn't going to change.  And neither am I. 
I have a very clear vision of where I hope Gay men, and America, go in the 21st century.   It's just not a journey that I think Daddy feels particularly comfortable with.  I wish him the best. 
 

Have you seen this anywhere?   A right-wing form of government that opposes liberal democracy, Marxism, socialism, and anarchism, and attempts to forge national unity under an autocratic leader with a totalitarian program advocating stability, law and order, and more and more centralized power, claiming all of this is necessary in order to defend the homeland from internal as well as external enemies, and to respond effectively to economic instability. The mobilization of a mass base through deliberately constructed fear and hatred as preparation for armed conflict and permanent war. An appeal to patriotic nationalism. The supremacy of military and police power, and the militarizing of all aspects of society. The agitation of “popular” movements in the streets, apparently spontaneous (but in reality well-funded and highly organized) based on bigotry, intolerance, and the threat of violence, all of it fueled by the demonization of targeted, distinct racial, religious, or gendered vulnerable populations and the creation of convenient sacrificial scapegoats who are repeatedly blamed for every social or economic problem people experience. Disdain for the arts, for intellectual life, for science, for reason and evidence, as well as deep contempt for the necessary back and forth of serious argument or discussion. The suppression of labor and the protection of corporate power. Rampant cronyism and corruption. Protectionist and interventionist economic policies as corporations are entangled with the state.   You have?   It's the textbook definition of fascism.

Claire nailed several things.
It's just stupidity.  President Toxic was the one who gave Woodward access to his staff.  The interesting question is not why some of the staff gave Woodward access to Trump.  It's why they gave Woodward access to themselves.  Most of them had to know better than their stupid boss.  But it fills in the picture.  These are not men and women of honor.  They know what they have to do to be able to come to work the next day.
Claire is a politician.  So I think she nailed how the political reaction to this and the military betrayal works.  It's not like a train wreck, in the sense of sudden and devastating impact.  Although you can see that it already stopped and possibly reversed the modest recovery in Trump's approval ratings since the RNC.  This is more like COVID-19.  It blows around everywhere, and gradually settles in.  So I think Claire is right.  This will reinforce the way a lot of older voters who have been moving away from President Toxic feel.  And the way a lot of active military, vets, and people who honor military service feel.  It settles in and further cements the judgment people are gradually making.
That said, it's more than just stupidity.  Claire is not a psychiatrist.  But one of the most interesting phrases in her rant was, "Who in their right mind ....?"  That's a very good question. 
As a political hack, she was smart to leave it at stupidity.  But you have to add either narcissism, or dementia, or both.  Why you don't tell Woodward this stuff on tape right before an election is not difficult to figure out.  So how could President Toxic have such a distorted view of reality?  This would be the equivalent of Nixon never having secretly taped the conversations that destroyed him.  It would be like Nixon instead calling up Woodward and Bernstein and saying, "Hey guys.  Got a tape recorder?  Let's talk for 18 hours."  No sane President would do that.
I won't drag all the stuff about authoritarianism into this thread.  But I'll make one point.  This gift President Toxic has given to the American political psyche is going to keep giving after he loses.  The reaction already from Trumpians, and the reporters that know them best, is that this isn't really news.  It's just more Deep State bullshit.  We knew that this was dangerous.  We're glad he didn't want us to panic.  Yawn. 
Almost 200,000 dead Americans, and many more on the way.  But, no.  Their leader can do no wrong.
All the TV I watched about this story focused, correctly, on what President Toxic said.  But I'll end by reposting what President Toxic's enablers were saying at the time.  And the impact it had on real people.  Who suffered horribly.  And died horribly. 
Claire's right.  People did not know they were in a burning building.  They were not protected, or told what to do to protect themselves.  They were lied to and lulled into not caring.  They were told it was a Democratic hoax.  And being good authoritarian followers, many of them will choose not to remember that now.
 
 

Donald Trump must believe he is a hero for playing down the true danger of covid19.
 
Well, he also believes finishing at the top of his class at the University of Pennsylvania where he "dated" Candice Bergen more attractive girls were busy.
 
Now he is blaming Bob Woodward for waiting so long to publish their conversations. On that, Mr. Trump has a valid point.

I don't get it. Truly. How could his aides allow him this access?  Mind you, I'm thrilled they did. But, does anyone around him have an ID over 80?

Trump loves brands, and Woodward has been the gold standard for 50 years of investigative journalism around the presidency, so it's the same reason why he likes the Gray Lady, he likes The New York Times. It's the paper of record traditionally in his hometown, so even though both excoriate him, he's attracted to them the way a low-IQ small moth would be to a flame,” said Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as White House communications director under Trump. “Trump is always convinced that if he talks to the person, he is going to elucidate and enlighten that person and get them to like him.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/09/trump-bob-woodward-book-411225

Have you seen this anywhere?   A right-wing form of government that opposes liberal democracy, Marxism, socialism, and anarchism, and attempts to forge national unity under an autocratic leader with a totalitarian program advocating stability, law and order, and more and more centralized power, claiming all of this is necessary in order to defend the homeland from internal as well as external enemies, and to respond effectively to economic instability. The mobilization of a mass base through deliberately constructed fear and hatred as preparation for armed conflict and permanent war. An appeal to patriotic nationalism. The supremacy of military and police power, and the militarizing of all aspects of society. The agitation of “popular” movements in the streets, apparently spontaneous (but in reality well-funded and highly organized) based on bigotry, intolerance, and the threat of violence, all of it fueled by the demonization of targeted, distinct racial, religious, or gendered vulnerable populations and the creation of convenient sacrificial scapegoats who are repeatedly blamed for every social or economic problem people experience. Disdain for the arts, for intellectual life, for science, for reason and evidence, as well as deep contempt for the necessary back and forth of serious argument or discussion. The suppression of labor and the protection of corporate power. Rampant cronyism and corruption. Protectionist and interventionist economic policies as corporations are entangled with the state.   You have?   It's the textbook definition of fascism.

Have you seen this anywhere?   A right-wing form of government that opposes liberal democracy, Marxism, socialism, and anarchism, and attempts to forge national unity under an autocratic leader with a totalitarian program advocating stability, law and order, and more and more centralized power, claiming all of this is necessary in order to defend the homeland from internal as well as external enemies, and to respond effectively to economic instability. The mobilization of a mass base through deliberately constructed fear and hatred as preparation for armed conflict and permanent war. An appeal to patriotic nationalism. The supremacy of military and police power, and the militarizing of all aspects of society. The agitation of “popular” movements in the streets, apparently spontaneous (but in reality well-funded and highly organized) based on bigotry, intolerance, and the threat of violence, all of it fueled by the demonization of targeted, distinct racial, religious, or gendered vulnerable populations and the creation of convenient sacrificial scapegoats who are repeatedly blamed for every social or economic problem people experience. Disdain for the arts, for intellectual life, for science, for reason and evidence, as well as deep contempt for the necessary back and forth of serious argument or discussion. The suppression of labor and the protection of corporate power. Rampant cronyism and corruption. Protectionist and interventionist economic policies as corporations are entangled with the state.   You have?   It's the textbook definition of fascism.

Have you seen this anywhere?   A right-wing form of government that opposes liberal democracy, Marxism, socialism, and anarchism, and attempts to forge national unity under an autocratic leader with a totalitarian program advocating stability, law and order, and more and more centralized power, claiming all of this is necessary in order to defend the homeland from internal as well as external enemies, and to respond effectively to economic instability. The mobilization of a mass base through deliberately constructed fear and hatred as preparation for armed conflict and permanent war. An appeal to patriotic nationalism. The supremacy of military and police power, and the militarizing of all aspects of society. The agitation of “popular” movements in the streets, apparently spontaneous (but in reality well-funded and highly organized) based on bigotry, intolerance, and the threat of violence, all of it fueled by the demonization of targeted, distinct racial, religious, or gendered vulnerable populations and the creation of convenient sacrificial scapegoats who are repeatedly blamed for every social or economic problem people experience. Disdain for the arts, for intellectual life, for science, for reason and evidence, as well as deep contempt for the necessary back and forth of serious argument or discussion. The suppression of labor and the protection of corporate power. Rampant cronyism and corruption. Protectionist and interventionist economic policies as corporations are entangled with the state.   You have?   It's the textbook definition of fascism.

That's the interesting question.  What kind of a nation do we want to be?
I've been saying for years that we are headed to a Moral Awakening.  Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street and the growing awareness of income inequality, the Sanders campaign, the Warren campaign.  To me those were all signs of what may be coming.
Now I would not say an Awakening is coming.  I's say it's here. 
By Awakening I mean eras like the 1960's and civil rights.  You could also throw in the explicitly religious Great Awakenings in US history, although that fuzzes it up more.  They are periods of social renewal and a focus on the "soul" of the nation.  As opposed to what might be called "greed is good" values.  And one sign that we've arrived is that suddenly people see things that they were slumbering or passive about previously. 
BLM is certainly a good example of that.  There was protest, including violence and looting, after Ferguson.  But not like this.  What goes along with the new tide, which President Toxic is missing entirely, is that part of the movement is around personal morality.  That was true in the religious Great Awakenings.  It was also true in the Civil Rights Era, when MLK asked us to look into our own hearts.  Is this the nation we aspire to be?

Any leader who thinks the simple and one-dimensional answer is bulldogs or water hoses or federal troops or assault rifles is missing a huge part of what's really going on.  Of course, why am I not surprised that President Toxic is not the kind of guy who gets this?
I was impressed with a new Biden ad running which I will post below that fits into this theme.  I went to find that "Jobs Not Mobs" tweet President Toxic sent out.  When I Googled "Jobs Not Mobs Trump", this ad from 2018 came up, which I'd never seen.
I thought the first part of the ad, about the economy, was powerful.  This is clearly the campaign President Toxic was hoping to run in 2020 as well.  And the little kick at Hillary at the end was a nice touch.  
So you have to wonder.  If this didn't work in 2018, what makes them think it will work better in 2020?  One number that pops up in this ad refers to 4.1 % GDP growth in the second quarter of 2018.  In the second quarter of 2020 it was - 9.5 %.  In 2018 they said "the core economy is on fire".  In 2020 Coronavirus is spreading and killing like wildfire.
I'm going to keep using Charlie Cook's 2018 phrase:  "color intensifier".  Ads like this probably did work in states like Indiana and Missouri and North Dakota in 2018, where Democratic Senators got their asses kicked to the curb.  But they didn't work in most places.
If it was just the economy stupid, the Republicans probably should have done better in 2018.  So some part of this is that voters, particularly women, just aren't sold by this.  This 2018 ad proves that this has nothing in particular to do with any of the riots or looting that happened when the BLM protests really took hold of the nation.  This shouldn't be any surprise.  It's the same President Toxic that was just Donald Toxic back in the Central Park 5 days, when he said this:
Same hate, different century.
So he got his wish.  He's had three years to preach hate. My sense is that this is partly why things didn't go so well for Republicans in 2018, despite a good economy.
I can't imagine the 2020 tweet is going to work much better, since it doubles down on the fear and hate without mentioning a thing about the economy, or COVID-19.  Wonder why?
Here's one of the Biden/Harris ads that is being blanketed all over about 15 swing states.
I can't think of a clearer distinction between campaigning on fear, and campaigning on hope.  I'd take it further and say it's the difference between offering up hope, and offering up hate.
And that ad is Moral Awakening territory to me.  Biden is gambling on the idea that the nation is ready to talk about racial justice.  And the question, "Who do we want to be?"  I used the word gambling.  But if I'm reading the polls right, it's a pretty solid beat.  I don't think the Democrats could have run an ad like this to rebut "law and order" in 1968.  The fact that this is what Democrats are selling today is itself a small sign of progress, at least to me.
Ron Brownstein has delivered yet another great analysis relevant to this, full of both good data and good insights.
The Huge Snag in Trump’s Reelection Pitch
The president’s own volatility complicates his effort to convince Americans that he can stabilize their lives.
He's coming at it from a somewhat different angle, which I think compliments what I'm saying.  It's a bit hard to sell "law and order" when even your supporters equate your Presidency with chaos.  It's hard for President Toxic to say he'll calm down this situation when he's the one saying he hates "these people", and we should, too.  The one thing he's got going for him is the idea that hating people gets something done.  Although even the majority of Independents seem to think what it actually gets done is more violence, not less.
This is where I wish Elizabeth Warren was our nominee.  I think Biden is probably a bit more of a calming presence than her, actually.  But he's not the guy I would put forward as the poster child to fidelity to the law.  Which is not to say he's broken any law.  But Team Toxic will keep arguing he did.  As well as his family.   All they had against Warren was "fake recipes" in a cookbook called Pow Wow Chow.  She's the one that could have said "Really?  President Law And Order?  Really?  I know you don't read, Donald.  But the polls say people see you as President Chaos, and President Corruption.  You want us to buy President Law And Order?  Come on.  Give the viewers a break!"
That said, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that this issue of race/crime/safety does not hurt Biden, and probably mostly works in his favor.  The polls certainly suggest that.  There is zero evidence it's hurting him in Wisconsin.  And my gut feeling is that President Toxic is making sure Black turnout will go through the roof.  And not, of course,  to vote for him.  Biden is simply giving Blacks who think America has racial justice problems - meaning almost all Blacks - a positive reason to vote.
If there's a problem with the ads above, it's not what it says but what it doesn't say.  As Brownstein says in that article, for a lot of people it's not about race.  And if it's about safety, it's COVID-19.  But the biggest thing for most people is still the economy, stupid.
PENNSYLVANIA: PRESIDENTIAL RACE TIGHTENS
That poll is worth digging through a little.  It's the only "bad news" for Democrats.  And with bad news like this, who needs good news?  The scary headline is that Biden dropped from a 13 point lead in July, 53/40 to a 4 point lead today, 49/45,  in Pennsylvania.  
There was no change in support for Democrats in general.  The partisan lean question went from favoring Democratic Congressional candidates 49/45 in July to 48/45 today.  Biden's favorability rating actually went up, from 45 % in July to 48 % today.  My read of those numbers is that Democrats are solidifying a lead that is close to 50 %, but not quite.
Monmouth says this about the people who shifted away from Biden:
My guess is this shift is more about the economy than anything else.  The slice of President Toxic's supporters that think like the McCloskeys, and own lots of guns that they feel okay pointing at Black people, are never going to consider voting for Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.
There's no reference to geography in the polls.  But I'd also guess that a lot of these men under 50 live in the parts of Pennsylvania Jim Carville refers to as "Pennsyltucky".  Or the ailing old factory towns, like Scranton. 
I'd also guess that some of these men under 50 are Black.  And probably a big chunk of them are Hispanic.  The 2018 version of "Jobs Not Mobs" didn't cut nationally, and it certainly would cut less well today.  But it's the best thing President Toxic still has going for him.  As an article I posted in a different thread argued, it's the last strength of President Toxic Biden has to go after.   
The good news in the bad news is that if Biden had these folks seriously thinking about him in July, there is no particular reason he can't close the deal with them by November.  No one is talking yet about all the factory jobs NOT CREATED in President Toxic's three "good" years, before the plague started.  Or about that fact that Pennsylvania now has fewer factory jobs than when President Toxic was elected.  
When I say we have arrived at Moral Awakening, that is a statement of hope as well as what I think is a statement of fact.  I'm fine with Biden winning by asking, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"  Or by asking, "Are you safer than you were four years ago?"  But he is definitely adding a moral dimension here, which is clearly targeted at Blacks.  But not just Blacks.  "Are we a better nation than we were four years ago?"
I do find that genuinely hopeful.  It is an invitation to move forward, into a new and better era.