SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK
Sex and the Failed Absolute

Trump's twisted 'greatness' is that he effectively acts - he is not afraid to break the unwritten (and written) rules to impose his decisions. As we learned (not only) from Hegel, our life is regulated by a thick web of written and unwritten rules, rules which teach us how to practice the explicit (written) rules. While Trump (more or less) sticks to explicit legal regulations, he tends to ignore the unwritten silent pacts which determine how we should practice these rules - the way he dealt with Kavanaugh was just one example of it.

Instead of just blaming Trump, the Left should learn from him and do the same. When a situation demands it, we should shamelessly do the impossible and break the unwritten rules. Unfortunately, today's Left is in advance terrified of any radical acts - even when it is in power, it worries all the time:'If we do this, how will the worlds react? Will our acts cause panic?' Ultimately, this fear means: 'Will our enemies be mad and react?' In order to act in politics, one has to overcome this fear and assume the risk, make a step into the unknown.

CLIFF JAMES
Life as a Kite

Truth is the first casualty of fascism.

When the truth can be so easily disregarded, all hell follows.

This is exactly what more than two-thirds of Americans wanted and exactly what more than two-thirds of Americans voted for.

Artist: Siegfried Woldhek

We fucking told you.

SHE fucking told you.

May the very worst that happens to any Harris voter be the starting point for the pain and suffering of every non-voter.

GOVERNOR JB PRITZKER
August 25, 2025

... To the members of the press who are assembled here today and listening across the country – I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is. This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story. This is not a time to fall back into the reflexive crouch that I so often see, where the authoritarian creep by this administration is ignored in favor of some horse race piece on who will be helped politically.

Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city, punish his dissidence, and score political points. If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is: a dangerous power grab.

Earlier today in the Oval Office, Donald Trump looked at the assembled cameras and asked for me personally to say, "Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?" Instead, I say, "Mr. President, do not come to Chicago."

You are neither wanted here nor needed here. Your remarks about this effort over the last several weeks have betrayed a continuing slip in your mental faculties and are not fit for the auspicious office that you occupy.

Most alarming, you seem to lack any appropriate concern as our commander-in-chief for the members of the military that you would so callously deploy as pawns in your ever-more-alarming grabs for power ....

To the Trump administration officials who are complicit in this scheme, to the public servants who have forsaken their oath to the Constitution to serve the petty whims of an arrogant little man, to any federal official who would come to Chicago and try to incite my people into violence as a pretext for something darker and more dangerous: we are watching and we are taking names.

This country has survived darker periods than the one that we are going through right now, and eventually the pendulum will swing back, maybe even next year. Donald Trump has already shown himself to have little regard for the many acolytes that he has encouraged to commit crimes on his behalf.

You can delay justice for a time, but history shows you cannot prevent it from finding you eventually. If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me, not time or political circumstance, from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.

As Dr. King once said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Humbly I would add, it doesn't bend on its own. History tells us we often have to apply force needed to make sure that the arc gets where it needs to go. This is one of those times.

Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where's the streetwise Hercules
To fight the risin' odds?
Isn't there a white knight
Upon a fiery steed?
Late at night, I toss and I turn
And I dream of what I need

I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero till the end of the night
He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero till the morning light
He's gotta be sure and it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life

PATRICIA ROBERTS-MILLER
Demagoguery and Democracy

We don't have demagoguery in our culture because a demagogue has come to power; when demagoguery becomes the normal way of participating in public discourse, then it's just a question of time until a demagogue arises.

The clip begins with:

"Classrooms shouldn't be stages upon which teachers can preach their various indoctrination masquerading as eternal truths. And similarly, museums that that are over 70 percent funded by the federal government shouldn't be laboratories for political experiments."

Evil is depthless. American hate and American hated of facts run deeper.

From The Guardian

White House budget director Russ Vought sent letters to eight museums demanding information about exhibits within 30 days and instructing officials to implement “content corrections” including replacing “divisive” language.

“President Trump will explore all options and avenues to get the Woke out of the Smithsonian and hold them accountable."

MASHA GESSEN
The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

It was the oldest trick in the book - a constant state of low-level dread made people easy to control, because it robbed them of the sense that they could control anything themselves. This was not the sort of anxiety that moved people to action and accomplishment. This was the sort of anxiety that exceeded human capacity. ... You can no longer sit still or reason. You regress, and after a while the only thing you can do is scream, like a helpless terrified baby. you need an adult, a figure of authority. Almost anyone willing to take charge will do. And then, if that someone wants to remain in charge, he will have to make sure that you continue to feel helpless.

He's literally showing world leaders his already-made merch for a third term in blatant violation of The Constitution.

For an endless dictatorship.

Buy a Trump 2028 hat. Own the libs. End the United States of America for just $35.00 with bonus, almost free cult membership. Operators are standing by.

He's already said it out loud, on the world stage, in front of cameras.

MASHA GESSEN
The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

Arendt pointed out that both the Nazi and the Soviet regimes conducted periodic purges or crackdowns, which she called "an instrument of permanent instability." Constant flux was necessary for the system's survival: 'The totalitarian ruler must, at any price, prevent normalization from reaching the point where a new way of life could develop - one which might, after a time, lose its bastard qualities and take its place among the widely differing and profoundly contrasting ways of life of the nations of the earth." Indeed, she wrote, 'The point is that both Hitler and Stalin held out promises of stability in order to hide their intention of creating a state of permanent instability."

Artist: Joe Heller

No brown farm workers, no food.

-

When all the "patriots" refuse the farm work - as they are doing en masse - done by the people they put in concentration camps and torture prisons, farms go bankrupt, prices soar, and people starve.

But America First, fuck yeah.

Coalition the willing.

When cholesterol proved ineffectual, Gavin Newsom stepped up to the plate.

08/15/2025 - Americans, especially veterans, need to wake the fuck up and understand that this was a deliberate photo op for the world to see the US military's utter subservience to Vladimir Putin.

And you all need to remember that 65 percent of veterans and 70+ percent of active duty wanted and voted for this.

Anyone in Alaska could have crawled around on their hands and knees to honor Putin. Military leaders on site and Donald J. Trump chose who would grovel in front of the cameras for their Russian Daddy.

"We were just following orders."

They're telling you exactly what's coming.

But, please. Just keep pretending "it's a distraction" instead of thinking.