Michael Tomasky writes for The New Republic. He understands that when Trump goes off-script, as he often does, he becomes incoherent. But whenever he can’t read the teleprompter, he goes to stream-of-consciousness and whatever he says is difficult to decipher. That’s because he tends not to speak in complete sentences and forgets what he was talking about. Trump is obsessed with doom and gloom. If he’s elected, America will be great again, but if he is not elected, the country will continue to be a “third-world country,” a cesspool of despair, a failed state. Ronald Reagan, by contrast, spoke of America as “a city on a hill,” “morning in America,” not a country trapped in “carnage.” Reagan tried to lift spirits. Trump aims to encourage desperation and fear. Trump’s dystopian perspective is always there. He can’t hide it.
Saturday afternoon, at yet another poorly attended rally in Ohio, Donald Trump spoke these shocking words: “Now if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the whole—that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country, that will be the least of it.”
As is always the case with a man who only finishes about every seventh sentence that he embarks upon, it’s hard on one level to make sense of what he said. In this short clip, you can see that he’s holding forth on the subject of cars and automobile factories. On Sunday, many outlets reported the “bloodbath” line without much in the way of context, which had MAGA world howling on X (f.k.a. Twitter).
CNN’s reporting added more context. Here’s the fuller quote from the CNN story: “We’re going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those guys if I get elected. Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole—that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it.”
It does seem that, in that half-finished sentence, he was briefly heading in the direction of saying, “It’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole auto industry.” If he’d said that and stopped there, I’d agree that his words were being taken badly out of context.
Notably, he didn’t stop there. What made him say “that’s gonna be the least of it”? Where was he going, in that mildewed brain of his? He stopped himself mid-sentence. Why? Based on what he went on to say, it’s a reasonable guess that he stopped himself because the words that were about to come out of his mouth, “auto industry,” just weren’t big enough—weren’t aggressive enough. So he had to amplify it and make it more threatening. The auto-industry bloodbath, he said twice, will be the least of it. It will be a bloodbath “for the country.”
Still, maybe he only meant an economic bloodbath. In fact, that’s just typical Trump bluster—built as usual on lies. The Biden economy as we all know reeled from inflation in 2022 and 2023, and that overwhelmed the narrative. Beyond that, the 289,000 jobs gained per month during Biden’s term is the highest for any president in modern history. And I could offer similar huzzahs with respect to wages and GDP.
To drill down to the auto industry, it’s doing far better during Biden’s tenure than it did during Trump’s. In the first place, the auto industry under Trump lost jobs, but here we need to provide the fuller context that those losses came after the pandemic.
Nevertheless, even if we don’t count the pandemic against Trump, the Biden-era numbers easily top the Trump-era numbers. Trump’s pre-pandemic tally saw auto and parts manufacturing employment go up by 27,900. Under Biden, those two categories have gained 127,800 jobs.
Moreover, it shouldn’t go unmentioned that slapping hefty tariffs on certain imports might make for a great applause line at a rally. But outside of the sugar high that comes from that, they pave the way for retaliatory tariffs that hurt U.S. consumers. The U.S.-China Business Council, that well-known outpost of Marxist vermin, estimated in a 2021 study that Trump’s trade policies cost nearly 250,000 American jobs.
So much for the economic bloodbath if he’s not elected. But now let’s cut to the chase.
It is true that many outlets Sunday yanked the “bloodbath” remark out of context. But this is also true: Trump is the king of no context. He speaks in constant half-utterances, uncompleted thoughts, sentences constructed like straw huts in hurricane zones (“Nobody’s been treated like Trump, in terms of badly”), and even facial expressions and grunts…
So: Did Trump call for a bloodbath if he loses? No. However: Did Trump stop himself mid-sentence to broaden his indictment and deliberately use a phrase—not once but two times, for emphasis—that is ambiguous, open to dark interpretation? He most certainly did.
And having done that, he will now, at some future rally, get a little closer to just saying it. And then a little closer, and then a little closer still. By October—still probably without Trump ever saying it outright—the message will have been clearly communicated that any scenario that ends with Trump as the loser, even a clear-cut one that isn’t close enough to dispute, will be one in which the shedding of blood to water the tree of liberty will be necessary…
So let’s not exaggerate what Trump said Saturday. But let’s be clear—it wasn’t just car talk.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I couldn’t resist responding to the “city on a hill” reference. Indeed, this line, from a speech written by one of the greatest speechwriters in history, Peggy Noonan, reflects a lost and quite beautiful American optimism. One hopes we can find this again.
It’s totally ironic that Ronald Reagan, who was all about cutting the social safety net and the taxes on the rich that paid for those, should have delivered a speech referencing the “city on a hill” phrase. It comes from a speech called “A Model of Christian Charity” delivered in 1630 aboard the ship Arabella by the Puritan preacher John Winthrop. Winthrop, in turn is quoting Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:14).
The point of Winthrop’s speech was that in the New World, he and his fellow travelers would be facing great hardship and would have to give up their superfluities (their luxuries/excess) in order to support one another, to ensure the welfare of all the colony members. He goes on to say that the colony will be a test of the Christian faith and of the Christian charity of those who are founding it and that they will be as a “city on a hill,” with the whole world watching. In short, it was a speech about how we are all in this together and are, indeed, our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers–exactly the opposite of the Ayn Randian/Reaganite philosophy of personal greed, where everyone is on his or her own. But enough of my summary. Here’s Winthrop in his own words:
“We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others’ necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as His own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, “may the Lord make it like that of New England.” For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, and all professors for God’s sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.”
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cx: a lost and quite beautiful American optimism
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Lest we forget, native Americans who encountered the godly Puritans have a different take on their errand into the wilderness. Yes, Winthrop’s City on a Hill sermon is the one great evocations of the communitarian ideal in America. But let it not become the veil of forgetfulness.
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And then there is the Mystic Massacre. The Massachusetts Bay Colony expelled a thief. That person cheated some Indians, and they retaliated by killing him. In response, the good people of the colony sneaked upon a peaceful Indian settlement in the early morning hours before dawn, set guards at the exits, and burned it to the ground, killing some 750 innocents. Here’s a contemporary account. This was the beginning of the genocide that swept all the way from sea to shining sea:
The Mystic Massacre, May 26, 1637
From News from America; Or, A New and Experimentall Discoverie of New England; Containing, A Trve Relation of Their War-like Proceedings These Two Yeares Last Past, with a Figure of the Indian Fort, or Palizado. John Underhill, Captain of Militia, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1638
Captaine Mason entring into a Wigwam, brought out a fire-brand, after hee had wounded many in the house, then hee set fire on the West-side where he entred, my selfe set fire on the South end with a traine of Powder, the fires of both meeting in the center of the Fort blazed most terribly, and burnt all in the space of halfe an houre; many couragious fellowes were unwilling to come out, and fought most desperately through the Palisadoes, so as they were scorched and burnt with the very flame, and were deprived of their armes, in regard the fire burnt their very bowstrings, and so perished valiantly : mercy they did deserve for their valour, could we have had opportunitie to have be-stowed it; many were burnt in the Fort, both men, women, and children, others forced out, and came in troopes to the Indians, twentie, and thirtie at a time, which our souldiers received and entertained with the point of the sword; downe fell men, wom-en, and children, those that scaped us, fell into the hands of the Indians, that were in the reere of us; it is reported by themselves, that there were about foure hundred soules in this Fort, and not above five of them escaped out of our hands. Great and dole-full was the bloudy sight to the view of young sould-iers that never had beene in Warre, to see so many soules lie gasping on the ground so thicke in some places, that you could hardly passe along. It may bee demanded, Why should you be so furious (as some have said) should not Christians have more mercy and compassion ? But I would referre you to Davids warre, when a people is growne to such a height of bloud, and sinne against God and man, and all con-federates in the action, there hee hath no respect to persons, but harrowes them, and sawes them, and puts them to the sword, and the most terriblest death that may bee: sometimes the Scripture declar-eth women and children must perish with their par-ents; some-time the case alters : but we will not dis-pute it now. We had sufficient light from the word of God for our proceedings.
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Good grief, Bob, that story of the Mystic Massacre has never been taught in our schools! What we learned was that either the Indians were fierce and scalped settlers for no reason other than savagery, or the Indians and the settlers lived peaceably together, sharing Thanksgiving dinners. Now that so many states have passed laws to outlaw decisive concepts, that history will never be told.
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I taught it.
Massacre in Mystic (youtube.com)
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But today, in Flor-uh-duh, I would probably be fired for doing that. I am very, very proud of the sources I gave in American literature and history.
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This book is magnificent. I highly, highly recommend it.
Stolen Continents: The New World Through Indian Eyes: Wright, Ronald: 9780395659755: Amazon.com: Books
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But do go back and read Winthrop’s “Christian Charity,” Mr. Tuttle. It’s a beautiful, noble work, up there with Kant’s “Perpetual Peace.”
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Yes, note how Cotton Mather characterized the land and its inhabitants in his Wonders of the Invisible World (1692) as Satan’s territories, inhabited by Satan’s followers:
The New-Englanders are a People of God settled in those, which were once the Devil’s Territories; and it may easily be supposed that the Devil was exceedingly disturbed, when he perceived such a People here accomplishing the Promise of old made unto our Blessed Jesus, That He should have the Utmost parts of the Earth for his Possession. There was not a greater Uproar among the Ephesians, when the Gospel was first brought among them, than there was among, The Powers of the Air (after whom those Ephesians walked) when first the Silver Trumpets of the Gospel here made the Joyful Sound. The Devil thus Irritated, immediately try’d all sorts of Methods to overturn this poor Plantation: and so much of the Church, as was Fled into this Wilderness, immediately found, The Serpent cast out of his Mouth a Flood for the carrying of it away. I believe, that never were more Satanical Devices used for the Unsetling of any People under the Sun, than what have been Employ’d for the Extirpation of the Vine which God has here Planted, Casting out the Heathen, and preparing a Room before it, and causing it to take deep Root, and fill the Land, so that it sent its Boughs unto the Atlantic Sea Eastward, and its Branches unto the Connecticut River Westward, and the Hills were covered with the shadow thereof. But, All those Attempts of Hell, have hitherto been Abortive, many an Ebenezer has been Erected unto the Praise of God, by his Poor People here; and, Having obtained Help from God, we continue to this Day. Wherefore the Devil is now making one Attempt more upon us; an Attempt more Difficult, more Surprizing, more snarl’d with unintelligible Circumstances than any that we have hitherto Encountred; an Attempt so Critical, that if we get well through, we shall soon Enjoy Halcyon Days with all the Vultures of Hell Trodden under our Feet. He has wanted his Incarnate Legions to Persecute us, as the People of God have in the other Hemisphere been Persecuted: he has therefore drawn forth his more Spiritual ones to make an Attacque upon us. We have been advised by some Credible Christians yet alive, that a Malefactor, accused of Witchcraft as well as Murder, and Executed in this place more than Forty Years ago, did then give Notice of, An Horrible Plot against the Countryby Witchcraft, and a Foundation of Witchcraft then laid, which if it were not seasonally discovered, would probably Blow up, and pull down all the Churches in the Country. And we have now with Horror seen the Discovery of such a Witchcraft! An Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon the place which is the Center, and after a sort, the First-born of our English Settlements: and the Houses of the Good People there are fill’d with the doleful Shrieks of their Children and Servants, Tormented by Invisible Hands, with Tortures altogether preternatural.
After the Mischiefs there Endeavoured, and since in part Conquered, the terrible Plague, of Evil Angels, hath made its Progress into some other places, where other Persons have been in like manner Diabolically handled. These our poor Afflicted Neighbours, quickly after they become Infected and Infested with these Dæmons, arrive to a Capacity of Discerning those which they conceive the Shapes of their Troublers; and notwithstanding the Great and Just Suspicion, that the Dæmons might Impose the Shapes of Innocent Persons in their Spectral Exhibitions upon the Sufferers, (which may perhaps prove no small part of the Witch-Plot in the issue) yet many of the Persons thus Represented, being Examined, several of them have been Convicted of a very Damnable Witchcraft: yea, more than One Twenty have Confessed, that they have Signed unto a Book, which the Devil show’d them, and Engaged in his Hellish Design of Bewitching, and Ruining our Land. We know not, at least I know not, how far the Delusions of Satan may be Interwoven into some Circumstances of the Confessions; but one would think, all the Rules of Understanding Humane Affairs are at an end, if after so many most Voluntary Harmonious Confessions, made by Intelligent Persons of all Ages, in sundry Towns, at several Times, we must not Believe the main strokes wherein those Confessions all agree: especially when we have a thousand preternatural Things every day before our eyes, wherein the Confessors do acknowledge their Concernment, and give Demonstration of their being so Concerned. If the Devils now can strike the minds of men with any Poisons of so fine a Composition and Operation, that Scores of Innocent People shall Unite, in Confessions of a Crime, which we see actually committed, it is a thing prodigious, beyond the Wonders of the former Ages, and it threatens no less than a sort of a Dissolution upon the World. Now, by these Confessions ’tis Agreed, That the Devil has made a dreadful Knot of Witches in the Country, and by the help of Witches has dreadfully increased that Knot: That these Witches have driven a Trade of
Commissioning their Confederate Spirits, to do all sorts of Mischiefs to the Neighbours, whereupon there have ensued such Mischievous consequences upon the Bodies and Estates of the Neighbourhood, as could not otherwise be accounted for: yea, That at prodigious Witch- Meetings, the Wretches have proceeded so far, as to Concert and Consult the Methods of Rooting out the Christian Religion from this Country, and setting up instead of it, perhaps a more gross Diabolesm, than ever the World saw before. And yet it will be a thing little short of Miracle, if in so spread a Business as this, the Devil should not get in some of his Juggles, to confound the Discovery of all the rest.
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Thanks for reminding us, Mr Tuttle, that even the idealistic puritans were capable of looking with loathing and hatred on their fellow humanity.
Bob’s offering here from Cotton Mather reminds us that Europeans, remarkable in their technology, were not so advanced in their ethical views of the world. It is ironic, perhaps. After all, it was the strident Calvinism that spoke of the natural depravaty of man. Since we are all sinners, one could easily reason, judgement might be best reserved for God. The Puritans were not so inclined, of course, thinking nothing of condemning all sorts of people.
I have always maintained that seeing Europeans as “civilized” and others as not indicates the functioning lack of European ethical evolution. This is not to suggest that other cultures have evolved more useful ethical traditions, for I view ethics as a universal mixed bag. Whether the dominant Chinese culture or the humble Mandans living by the wide Missouri, we all seem capable of the brilliant and fundamentally evil all at once.
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cx: and the taxes on the rich that paid for that
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Winthrop’s hopes were beautiful. Sadly, we are on a downhill trajectory, far from that city on a hill.
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,Nice synopsis, Bob. It’s hard to imagine an America without utopian vision.
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You are quite kind, Roy. Thank you.
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Donald Trump made us “a story and a by-word through the world” in Winthrop’s sense. On the occasions when he addressed the United Nations, the assembled delegates laughed at him. AT HIM, not with him.
When Trump spoke to the UN in 2017, 2018, and 2019, he addressed the world body that seeks solutions for everyone with Fascist “America First” nationalism as his main theme. The delegates, naturally, rolled their eyes and shook their heads. Some were scared to death because clearly, the most powerful country in the world, the country responsible for the Pax Americana, was headed by a lunatic.
In 2019, he turned his speech to the UN delegates into a campaign speech for his second (and failed) presidential run, which was entirely inappropriate–wrong topic, wrong audience. His speech to the 75th UN General Assembly was characterized as “seven minutes of nonsense.” What a surprise.
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Still, Traitor Trump is a threat since presidents are not elected by popular votes.
Biden could win the popular vote easily by more than 10,000,000 and still lose through the Electoral College. Biden could have lost the Electoral College in 2020 and still had about 7.5 million more votes from across the country.
No matter how many popular votes Biden gets, the election is going to be decided in a handful of battleground states where the traitor’s loyalist MAGARINO mafia is already hard at work (with help from Putin’s propoganda machine) dumping voters from the polls, who are mostly Democrats.
That’s why the MAGARINOS went after honest election workers with death threats, in those states, forcing many to resign their posts, so they could be replaced with Trump loyalists, who will cheat and lie every step of the way.
I have serious doubts that the leadership of the Democratic Party has what it takes to stop this cheating from happening.
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The Democratic Party also appears to be doing nothing to counter the BS about Biden being senile and having dementia because of his age.
I have heard one OpEd from a foreign media outlet that voters in the United States must not lose sight of the fact that Biden is only three years older than Trump, who, due to the traitor’s unhealthy lifestyle, is biological ten years older than Biden.
Why isn’t there at least one election campaign, focusing on that one fact, to neutralize the repeated attacks on Biden’s age?
Fight fire with fire.
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Trump has now admitted that he’s a total fraud.
“Financial Genius” Trump has filed a sworn court statement in which he says that it is an “impossibility” for him to put up the $475 million bond that he needs to appeal the financial fraud case that he lost in New York. And he says that he can’t find any bond company that will take the risk of putting up the bond for him.
And this is the guy who has been telling us that he’s a multi-billionaire.
The most likely fact is that Trump Tower and all his other properties are mortgaged up to the hilt and that he is in debt to lenders all over the world, including the Russians, which would explain why Trump loves Putin.
And now that Trump has installed his daughter-in-law in control of the Republican Party’s money, he will likely begin using the Party as his personal piggy bank to pay his legal bills, taking money away from what the Party needs for the coming elections.
And yet, Trump’s adoring fans keep writing him checks from their own hard-earned money, proving the old saying that “There’s a sucker born every minute” — and today they wear red hats so that you know who they are.
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Here’s what a sick creep Donald Trump is:
Stormy Daniels describes how Trump compared her to Ivanka | Watch (msn.com)
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