131 Comments

Is anyone else worried about the plan for Trump’s « handlers »? Elon is not stupid, nor is Vance or his puppet-master Thiel. Don’t tell me they don’t know what’s going on. I’m sure behind closed doors some of these elites are planning how they’re going to run the country with Trump as nothing more than the front man for the MAGA masses. For me Trump is less worrisome than the shadowy people working behind him in plain sight.

Expand full comment

they and the Heritage Foundation and their ilk are using him as a useful idiot to get their agenda stealthily into existence

Expand full comment

Exactly.

Expand full comment

They are typical Trump acolytes - actually, they are the ones who will have the real power. Trump loves anyone who flatters him.

Expand full comment

Exactly what I’m afraid of.

Expand full comment

Exactly what I think and have been posting since Vance vice presidency announced. They will either bribe trump to step down or figure out some other way to remove him from any power whatsoever.

Expand full comment

Oh I so agree. It seems impossible that they have trump as their continuing frontman. He’s totally lost it- They must cringe

Expand full comment

Right? They have no respect for the guy at all. But he’s the messiah for MAGA, so he has his uses. They have a plan, and Trump is part of the plot. He’s a tired old man, happy to let others manage the country once he legislates laws that allow him to excuse himself from prosecution. Then he heads out to Florida. Honest question to you all, am I missing the mark here?

Expand full comment

Absolutely. He is the means to an end that the right wing Christian supremacists have dreamed of, and worked towards, since the Reagan administration.

They know he's demented, but they also recognize that he has amassed a cult of followers that will blindly follow them down the road to fascism. That's all that matters.

There are more of us than them! Vote blue for sanity & freedom.

Expand full comment

Well, they'll have to compete with the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025. But I'm sure they can come to a mutually satisfying working arrangement.

Expand full comment

Those are one and the same.

Expand full comment

That’s it. They all think the same and have similar objectives.

Expand full comment

He’s their puppet. Always has been the puppet. He has no clue either.

Expand full comment

Steven Miller to start with…

Expand full comment
Sep 6Liked by Dean Obeidallah

Heather Cox Richardson’s September 5th Letters From an American included Trump’s full response to the child care question. Incoherent gibberish from someone with serious mental decline if not actual dementia.

“Well I would do that. And we’re sitting down. You know I was somebody. We had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that because—look, child care is child care. It’s—couldn’t, you know, it’s something you have to have it—in this country you have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to—but they’ll get used to it very quickly—and it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care. We’re going to have—I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country, because I have to stay with child care. I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about. We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in. We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people, but we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about Make America Great Again, we have to do it because right now we’re a failing nation, so we’ll take care of it.”

Expand full comment

The rubber meets the road next Tuesday, 9PM EST.

Will Harris be forced to tolerate Trump‘s babbling while his microphone is turned off and she is speaking?

Taking bets on how many times during the debate Harris is forced to pause to request the monitors to please instruct the dementia across the stage to stop babbling.

Expand full comment

Much will depend on the distance between podiums and the sensitivity setting of the microphones. Since Harris had wanted “live” microphones, she wants us to hear his babbling rants and lies that will constantly interrupt her. As a trained prosecutor and therefore trained in debate, she has great focusing skills. I think she will give him or indirectly him (speaking to the moderators) a short pointed retort with a deadly glare, similar to that one pre-convention rally (in Detroit?) with the Gaza protest interruption.

Expand full comment

She will say, "Donald, I'm speaking."

Expand full comment

Biden complained that Trump ranted while his mic was turned off and that he could hear him, and that the ranting was very distracting.

Expand full comment

I am enthralled by the power of Harris’s glare. Capital punishment could be easier than to be nailed by her look. It would be fun to witness a terrified Trump avoiding her gaze.

Expand full comment

I wonder if he’ll stalk her like he did Hillary. Looming behind her like a creep.

Expand full comment

I doubt Kamala would put up with that for more than a millisecond. She’d call him out and put him in his place faster than she could have said “Objection” back in her Assistant DA days in court.

Expand full comment

The Rubio and Ivanka child care or elder care plan he seems to be referring to buried in his tiny desiccated brain consisted of folks using their Social Security credits and applying them for their current needs. It would have led to people getting less when they retired. A separate tax deduction or credit would be more workable. Warren, of course and others like Harris had a far more detailed plan. Ivanka impactful on this issue? Maybe in between her Chinese patents and other grift.

Expand full comment

Remember how some media made fun of Warren in 2016, because she had a plan.

The fools. Without a plan you are drifting in space getting nowhere like the stranded astronauts.

Expand full comment

Actually it was Warren in 2020. Hillary also had a similar plan in 2020. Unfortunately the lazy media got bogged down with less substantial coverage.

Expand full comment

The only way his rambling made sense is that the tariffs he wants to impose ( a tax that has more affect on the working class which can’t bear the cost) will be used to decrease ( eliminate ?)the debt which will free up the money that pays the interest as well as the principal and so then there is more money in the budget for child care. How this would work as a practical manner is anyone’s guess. Would the tariffs need to be active for a few years to generate the funds or as he says the money will be so great it will overshadow the child credit needs. Whether someone fed this to him and he had no understanding how it would work ( a typical occurrence w him) is anyone’s guess. He really has no intellectual capacity to understand government and is unable to learn ( no desire to put the effort and time). How he got this far is something that will be studied for many years ( and the subject of many a political scientist PhD thesis).

Expand full comment

They “normalized” him in 2016,2020 and now. Their flagrant disregard and gaslighting are contributing to the destruction of democracy

Expand full comment

More ppl need to read your Substack

Expand full comment

Nothing matters to the cult base and the ‘normal’ republicans don’t care as long as he gets in and goes off to cheat at golf his whole term as long as it’s a republican administration. The extreme right wing media has gone off the deep end since 2016.

Expand full comment

I remind people that journalists actually love Trump because when he was president the stories wrote themselves.

Expand full comment

I disagree. The so-called journalists are cleaning up Trump's argle-bargle to try to make it appear to make sense.

Expand full comment

I have for months been advocating for people to cancel their subscription to the Times. I don’t think the Washington Post is any better. I refer to the MSM, the Times in particular, enemies of the people. The NY Times is no longer all the news that’s fit to print.

I want to recognize Lawrence O’Donnell for his relentless reporting and commentary on trump’s mental decline. He spent 7 minutes on trump and his word salad comments on child care.

Let me add an additional nightmare scenario. If elected, trump will not last his entire four years. That means that Vance would become president. Can we really afford for Vance to become president?

Expand full comment
Sep 8·edited Sep 8

Haha, yesterday trump announced he would make it a crime for a vp to hide a serving president's mental decline. Not sure he thought that one through...

Expand full comment

Vance called Trump “America’s Hitler” but realized *he* could fulfill that role himself.

Expand full comment

I think the media is only interested in clicks. Gotta pay those bills, right?

And TFG generates clicks like nobody else.

They ignore his blathering, his nonsense because they want that money train to continue and

Democracy be damned.

Expand full comment

Here is a theory that I came across about 3-4 weeks ago. Unfortunately I cannot remember where I learned about this. No one in my circle had heard about it, but it surely seems feasible from the scheming GOP.

Trump is elected and right after he gets into office Congress or the VP/cabinet invokes the 25th amendment. Trump is out for the suddenly obvious dementia and Vance the weirdo is seamlessly in as president.

The MSM may be in with the plan, thus not bringing attention to trumps decline. This is not beyond impossibility in any way, shape, or form. THIS is the true deep state we should be fearing.

Expand full comment

That does not need to happen. Instead if Trump and team manages to get or claim the Presidency, then Biden uses his powers to STAY in power with help from military and preserve democracy. Then passes it to Harris. That has GOT to be the step.

A democracy does not just give its powers up when it has them to a group that got power through Russian Interferference to out in an autocratic. That is not what our Constitution was written for. We follow our founder's track even if the laws are not strong enough.

No we do not let the Russian Maga take over USA democracy no matter what. There comes a time...

Expand full comment

Seemed to me Biden was s bit gun shy to use the newly minted powers given his position...Presidential Immunity.Trump gets a free pass to utterly destroy the country; why wouldn't Joe get the same pass to prevent the downfall?? Agree...if and when the time comes,don't be remorseful for making the correct decision. Using trHUMPS slogan NEVER SURRENDER.

Expand full comment

The SC seems to have built in a gotcha in their immunity decision. Accumulating even more power for the SC. They will decide whether a President acted in his official function and is immune from prosecution.

This allows them to take very partisan decisions.

Expand full comment

We may need to write to him giving him push.

Expand full comment

Wonder if a letter to Biden doing what I noted, about Biden staying in power (in the event Maga seems to win, signed by citizens, lawyers, who ever can, with justification explained that it would be consistent with the aim of our Constitution) will show support and push Biden to hold on to power...to save Democracy, the world, and earth given nukes are a potential?

Who should and would write it?

Expand full comment

He is mad as a hatter!!!

Expand full comment

Personally, I think trump makes Wonderland look sane…

Expand full comment

Billionaires love Trump and SCOTUS. SCOTUS will give Trump a plea deal after the election,when he loses.

Expand full comment

And if he wins, they'll rubber-stamp his decrees.

Expand full comment
RemovedSep 6
Comment removed
Expand full comment

But the state-level cases won't go away. He's still convicted on 34 counts of business fraud in NY, and the Georgia case is still out there, under the radar.

Expand full comment

Maybe, maybe not. If that stupid prosecutor hadn’t hired her boy toy onto the case it might have hit him hard. Now she is having trouble getting the case back on track.

Should have been a slam dunk with the incriminating phone call from Fat Boy asking the election supervisor to ‘find’ trump 11,000 votes.

Expand full comment

In NY, criminal cases are heard within the NYC boroughs by the Supreme Court. Elsewhere in the state they are heard in the County Courts and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court hears appeals. Misdemeanors are heard in city courts and town and village justice courts.

Expand full comment

Dr. Bandy Lee’s The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump (in which she & 27 mental health professionals) write about Trump’s mental health and her book Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul warned us about Trump.

Expand full comment

So did Ruth Ben Ghiat.

Expand full comment

Nukes...bring up that issue. He could easily order that and destroy living earth. If Trump knows he is terminal he would nuke earth, why would he let it remain when he is the most important.

At some point sane people need to put aside rules, even put them on hold, that lead us to that end, and save earth, save themselves. There comes a time.

Expand full comment

Better start questioning what the other nuclear powers do when the largest stockpile of nukes is under the control of fascist maga. You think the rest of the world stands by holding its breath?

Expand full comment

The mental health professions have a lot to answer for here, because “You can’t diagnose someone you haven’t seen professionally” means exactly that—you can’t make an official diagnosis and prescribe treatment sight unseen. It does NOT mean you can’t have an opinion. If I see someone walking with a heavy limp, I don’t know whether they have a torn MCL or a sprained ACL or what, but I know they’ve hurt their leg. And these professionals refuse to do even the equivalent of that.

“Is this simply another case of corporate media executives protecting Trump because he’s good for the bottom line? Do they fear that by raising this issue they will tip the election decidedly to VP Harris meaning the end of the horserace they need to keep people engaged? Are they just pro-Trump executives using their media platforms to protect him?”

All of the above, because “corporate media” encompasses a lot of people with a lot of motives. I’ll add a few: Some don’t want to acknowledge what a viable Trump candidacy says about what’s happened to the country on what they consider their watch. And for some, there’s also just a dated perception* that Republicans are just more fun: Four years of steakhouses and cigar bars vs. four years of tofu and broccoli and being careful about pronouns.

*(Explicit disclaimer: I am describing this dynamic; I don’t endorse it or agree with it.)

Expand full comment

Add potential fear of being sued, harasses, ousted from their group. But if a group them would do this reveal together some might step forward.

Expand full comment

I worry dementia, Donnie is setting up his get out of jail free card, he will use his dementia to skate on all his legal problems!!!

Expand full comment

Oh. Didn’t think of that one. Good point. He’ll do anything to stay out of jail.

Expand full comment

Then JDV gets to be President. BTW where is Michael Johnson these days???

Expand full comment

I agree with your comments in regards to the mental health professionals.

Expand full comment

Red Alert,Red Alert!! Holy Smokes, Dean?! I actually saw that interview on C-SPAN and I couldn't believe my ears(and eyes)!! The look on the panels faces, after about 4mins.in, said it all. Not to mention, donOLD looked red faced, bloated and greasy(sweaty)! Your right, Again, Dean, Corporate Media s reporting? You know the rest... this is why you're so very important! You and other progressive journalist,who bring us the Facts and the Truth each day. I appreciate you, Excellent piece this morning, Dean,Thanks 💯💙🇺🇸

Expand full comment

I agree or i wouldn’t have known what all the corporate medias are doing. Thank you for writing the bold truth. I stopped reading and listening to main stream news and reading NY times. I only read your Substacks and others and I feel so much more informed. And angry that voters are nt being told the real truth. He can’t win or this may go away. I think that’s what all the big corporate news orgs are afraid of. He’s going to go after the press right off.

Expand full comment

Thank You, Vicki, I pleased you liked my Notes and are not watching Fox channel (for instance) you might like Watching FSTV that's... Free Speech TV. I'd recommend Stephanie Miller,Thom Hartmann or Randi Rhodes 💋

Expand full comment

Same happened with Reagan and his Alzheimers. It was obvious and happening quickly but no admittance of issues. But almost immediately after leaving office, it was announced he was suffering from Alzheimers.

Expand full comment

Yeah, but at least he had sanity in the form of Nancy, who probably did more than anyone will ever know, to keep the country running.

Expand full comment

Who acted incredibly irresponsibly by continuing to cover it up so he could stay in the presidency. Not to mention her consultation with psychics.

Expand full comment

You mean like the psychic she had on staff????

Expand full comment

I'm never too old to have my memory jogged or be educated. If I'd known about the psychic, I'd forgotten.

Expand full comment

She said in an interview she used the psychic daily and that Uncle Ronnie also occasionally consulted on thorny matters

Expand full comment

That makes the Reagans even worse that I've always thought they were.

Expand full comment

Along with her astrologer!

Expand full comment

Clearly she was wacko. Maybe that condition was necessary to marry him in the first place. I had always disliked Reagan, starting with when he was governor of California. He was out to destroy important things in the state, like the University of California.

Expand full comment

And, if trump wins and becomes even more demented, we could have a President Vance.

Expand full comment

That possibility may be even scarier than dementia. At least dementia is an honest condition (the only thing honest about trump).

Expand full comment

And in what amounts to a confession of guilt without contrition or a promise to do better, NYT Publisher A.G. Sulzberger, nepo baby of all nepo babies, graced us with a very long , very self righteous, piece in the Washington Post yesterday extolling journalistic neutrality in defense of freedom of the press and avoidance of political bias. He went on and on about fairness in reporting without once fully admitting that normalization of Trump is unfair to the reader. And he wonders (or doesn't care) why so many readers are pissed.

Expand full comment

Sulzberger is a serious problem. He was angry for a long time because Pres. Biden wouldn't sit for an interview with him or his paper, and it's rumored that that's the reason for the poor coverage of Pres. Biden.

Expand full comment