Bruce Maiman
@maimzini.bsky.social
đ€ 458
đ„ 21
đ 2454
An enquiring mind seeking answers that make some of us think and the rest uncomfortable.
How old is too old to govern? This isnât really an essay about age. Itâs an essay about succession, legitimacy, and whether democracies still know how to renew themselves before decline becomes spectacle. Complete with audio version.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Americaâs Aging Lawmakers and the Crisis of Succession
Aging is not the issue by itself. The real question is whether a democracy can renew itself before age becomes a liability.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/americas-aging-lawmakers-and-the
about 1 hour ago
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How do we decide who to trust again after the Trump era? Some flipped from fierce critics to loyal servants the moment power appeared. Others are now turning on the movement they once fed. Is redemption possible, or have some forfeited trust for good?
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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After Trump : What does America do with the people who made him possible?
On redemption, opportunism, and the problem of bringing a fractured nation back together.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/after-trump-what-does-america-do
1 day ago
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The pardon power was always a dangerous constitutional instrument; under Trump, it increasingly looks like a reward system for the well-connected. America deserves better. Read how loyalty and money buy absolution at the highest level.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Trump Pardon Pay-for-Play: Welcome to the Swampâs Loyalty Lounge
The Art of the Transactional Clemency
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/trump-pardon-pay-for-play-welcome
3 days ago
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Obama advises Dems to drop the seminar-speak, talk plain English. Great advice â until you hit voters who treat politics as tribal loyalty tests. Do we really have to 'dumb down' to reach every voter?
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Obama, Plain English, and the Politics of Belonging
Do we really have to dumb down our language to reach voter?
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/obama-plain-english-and-the-politics
4 days ago
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New studies show that New Orleans and the Southeast may ultimately become uninhabitable. Katrina wasnât just a hurricane. It was a warning. Yet, millions of Americans still think reality is negotiable.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Twenty Years After Katrina, America Still Thinks It Can Negotiate With Water
Katrina was supposed to be a warning. Instead, America treated it as an interruption.â
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/twenty-years-after-katrina-america
6 days ago
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The GOP has slipped $1B into a reconciliation bill for Trumpâs ballroom. From private donors to public subsidy. Read or listen to the audio version of my new essay.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Revisiting Trumpâs Ballroom: Taxpayers Now Footing the Bill.
âFully funded by private donors" has turned into âa billion dollars of taxpayer money."
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/revisiting-trumps-ballroom-taxpayers
7 days ago
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Americaâs oil dependence is not a side issue. Itâs the structure underneath the whole economy, and we are paying dearly for it.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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The Price America Pays for its Dependence on Oil
We donât just run on oil. We built a religion around It.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/the-price-america-pays-for-its-dependence
8 days ago
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US debt just passed GDP. We're spending $1T/year on interest alone. No crash tomorrow. But we're borrowing to service the past, not build the future. How did painless politics create this trap?
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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The Debt We Pretend Not to Understand
How decades of painless politics turned a math problem into a national delusion
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/the-debt-we-pretend-not-to-understand
10 days ago
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The war is over. Except for the part where it isnât. This isnât victory or defeat. Itâs something worse.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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The War That Ended Without Ending
Or: how a conflict can continue indefinitely after itâs been declared over
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/the-war-that-ended-without-ending
12 days ago
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Just got my Trump passport. Aintâs she a beauty?
13 days ago
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The Supreme Court has just undone six decades of progress in one swipe: majorityâBlack districts from Louisiana to North Carolina are now on life support. This isnât ârefinement.â Itâs restorationâwith a new racial arithmetic and an old racial project.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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The Court Just Gutted the Voting Rights ActâAnd Tried to Call It âNeutralâ
The Court didnât repeal the Voting Rights Act. It rigged the rules so the Act can no longer protect Black voters.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/the-court-just-gutted-the-voting
14 days ago
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Newsom showing once again how easy it is to troll a snowflake president.
14 days ago
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We keep letting Republicans absolve Trumpâs rhetoric while blaming Democrats for hatred and violence.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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âDonât Blame Trump. Blame Democrats.â The GOP Ritual Returns
How Republicans Absolve Trumpâs Rhetoric While Blaming Democrats for the Violence.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/dont-blame-trump-blame-democrats
15 days ago
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We have a recurring sickness: genuine violence occurs, like at the Correspondentsâ Dinner, and the machinery of media and politics immediately pivots to manufacturing spectacle. Tragedy sells, and weâre all buying.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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The Theater of Violence
How a shooting at the Correspondentsâ Dinner was reduced to content, clicks, and political branding.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/the-theater-of-violence
16 days ago
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Tucker Carlsonâs shallow apology for backing Trump. He didnât miss the warning signsâhe sold them as virtues. Spare us the theater. While attention is fixed on a still-developing shooting story, Carlson is busy auditioning for absolution. The full takedown here:
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Tucker Carlsonâs Apology: Too Little, Too Late, Too Empty
An apology that seeks absolution without confession
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/tucker-carlsons-apology-too-little
18 days ago
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The Senate has approved another $70 billion for ICE. They rejected funding for childcare, school meals, and healthcare in the same breath. Deficit panic is selective. Enforcement always gets paid.
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A Blank Check for ICE
At 3 a.m., the Senate found $70 billion for enforcementâand none for the people it claims to serve.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/a-blank-check-for-ice?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
19 days ago
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It wasnât Trumpâs prose. It was Michael Savageâs. Which makes it worse. Trump didnât write the ugly immigrant manifesto. He endorsed it. Full essay â
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Donald Trump, the Man Who Curates the Filth
A Michael Savage repost, and the familiar American art of laundering hatred through power.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/donald-trump-the-man-who-curates?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
20 days ago
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Texas now forces the Ten Commandments into every classroom. It isnât heritageâitâs a stateâmandated devotional poster and a theocratic overreach over the First Amendment.
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God in the Classroom: Texasâs Ten Commandments Mandate Is State-Sponsored Religious Preference
When Texas mandates the Ten Commandments in every classroom, it isnât honoring heritageâitâs forcing faith on captive kids and teachers.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/god-in-the-classroom-texass-ten-commandments
21 days ago
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The war was already a farce. Now heâs turning the ceasefire into a farce. Why Trumpâs approach to Iran keeps collapsing under the weight of his own incompetence â and why the regime in Tehran is built to wait him out.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Impulsive America, Patient Tehran: Why Trumpâs Iran War Has Already Become a Farce
Trump Extends His Own CeasefireâBlockade Intact, Vance on Iceâas Tehran Plays the Long Game
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/impulsive-america-patient-tehran
22 days ago
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Is there anyone in media more contemptible than Sean Hannity? His âbreakâ from Catholicism has less to do with doctrine than with Donald Trump. The result is a revealing portrait of faith shamelessly bending the knee to power. Read more here:
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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A Fawning Sean Hannity Chooses Trump Over the Catholic Church
And Calls It Faith
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/a-fawning-sean-hannity-chooses-trump
24 days ago
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In a matter of weeks, Donald Trump has managed to give Americans a reason to root for Iran and atheists a reason to root for the Pope. Quite an accomplishment.
25 days ago
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MAGA accuses the Pope of âselective outrageâ for criticizing Trumpâs Iran war while ignoring other global atrocities. Theyâre not just wrong; theyâre doing exactly what they condemn. As guilty of selective hearing as they are of their own selective outrage.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Trump v. Pope: Selective Outrage Meets Selective Hearing
How the Right Practices the Very Hypocrisy It Condemns in Pope Leo XIV
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/trump-v-pope-selective-outrage-meets
26 days ago
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The viral âprofessor proves socialism failsâ story has been circulating for years. The story is fake. The lesson is oversimplified. The willingness to believe it without question? Thatâs the part worth paying attention to.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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The Famous âSocialism in the Classroomâ Hoax That Refuses to Die
A fact-check into a moral essay about truth, friendship, and the ease with which we trade verification for affirmation.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/the-famous-socialism-in-the-classroom
27 days ago
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Jesus memes? Attacking The Pope? The real question isnât what Trump did. Itâs why we canât stop watching. We are not just living through the spectacle. We are spectators feeding it.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Chasing the Trump Trainwreck
Why Canât We Look Away from the Daily Idiocy of a President Debasing the Nation?
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/chasing-the-trump-trainwreck?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
28 days ago
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Trumpâs incompetence was never the mystery. The real story is who chose to accommodate itâand why.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Donald Trump and the Cost of Accommodation
Why the Damage Was Never Limited to One Man
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/donald-trump-and-the-cost-of-accommodation?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
29 days ago
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Trump males good on his threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz.
about 1 month ago
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America didn't lose Iran because we failed our war aims. We lost because Trump revealed his team doesn't grasp what made U.S. power persuasive. Not defeat. Erosion.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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What America Has Lost in the Iran War
Not defeat, but a quieter erosion of power.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/what-america-has-lost-in-the-iran?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 1 month ago
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Trump says we won the war with Iran. So hereâs the question no one seems eager to answer: What, exactly, did we win? An audit of claims vs. realityâand the answer is not flattering.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
about 1 month ago
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The most revealing account yet of how the U.S. went to war with Iran shows something far worse than bad judgment. It shows a system that stopped thinking, or maybe never did. Hereâs how it happened.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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How the Iran War Was Born
A slideshow, a shrug, and the collapse of decision-making at the highest level
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/how-the-iran-war-was-born?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 1 month ago
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A readerâs comment to my previous essay on Trump and war crimes inspired this postscriptâa coda on silence, conscience, and what happens when power goes unanswered.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Revisiting the War Crimes Essay â a Postscript
A readerâs response shifts the focus from the distant, almost abstract failure of systems to the immediate, human failure of choice.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/revisiting-the-war-crimes-essay-a?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 1 month ago
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If Trump commits war crimes, who enforces it? Who even cares? The answer may be worse than the question.
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Donald Trump, War Crimes, and the Vanishing Line Between Power and Justice
How a presidentâs threats reveal the emptiness of accountability
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/donald-trump-war-crimes-and-the-vanishing?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 1 month ago
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The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum quietly changed its own exhibitsâscrubbing links about Naziism and racism in American historyâanticipating a crackdown from Donald Trump. They werenât order to do so. No order was needed. Thatâs the problem.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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How the Holocaust Museum Caved to the Trump Administration
The quiet danger of institutions that comply before they are compelled.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/how-the-holocaust-museum-caved-to?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 1 month ago
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Trumpâs ill-begotten Iran war remains chaotic, but what if something is underway behind the scenes that can be used for political advantage to deceive the American public? Beware the stage-managed triumph.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Terrorist leader threatens: "All Hell will reign [sic] down on them. Glory be to GOD."
The Narrative War: How Iran Is Winning the Story America Is Losing
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/terrorist-leader-threatens-all-hell?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 1 month ago
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Trump says daycare, Medicare, and Medicaid are unaffordable. $1.5T for the military? No problem. Guns over butter isnât hypocrisyâitâs a revealed hierarchy. My latest essay, updated.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Guns, Butter, and the Luxury of Not Thinking
Trumpâs $1.5 Trillion Military Budget vs. Domestic Programs: Hypocrisy or Choice?
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/guns-butter-and-the-luxury-of-not?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 1 month ago
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Trump says daycare, Medicare, and Medicaid are unaffordable. $1.5T for the military? No problem. Guns over butter isnât hypocrisyâitâs a revealed hierarchy.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Guns, Butter, and the Luxury of Not Thinking
Trumpâs $1.5 Trillion Military Budget vs. Domestic Programs: Hypocrisy or Choice?
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/guns-butter-and-the-luxury-of-not?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 1 month ago
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Trump didnât fire Bondi because she was awful (she was), but because she became a liability to his brand, and his midterm prospects.
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Pam Bondi Is Gone-dee
Another loyalist discovers that in the court of Donald Trump, competence is optional but political utility is not.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/pam-bondi-is-gone-dee?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 1 month ago
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Trumpâs Iran speech tonight wonât reveal a planâbecause there was never one. It will only confirm what weâve known all along: this is a manâchild playing with the worldâs most powerful military in a gasâfilled room. My new essay is online.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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In Tonightâs Speech, Mr. Trump Will Confirm What Weâve Known All Along
People donât plan to failâthey just fail to plan, and the president has done both.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/in-tonights-speech-mr-trump-will?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 1 month ago
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The FUBAR Presidency Trumpâs Iran war is a perfect case study in what happens when chaos is mistaken for policy.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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The FUBAR Presidency
How to Lose a War, a Fortune, and Whatever Was Left of Reality
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/the-fubar-presidency?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 2 months ago
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Prediction Markets and the Normalization of Profiting From Trumpâs Power
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Prediction Markets and the Normalization of Profiting From Trumpâs Power
Fears that the new billionaire playground is already spinning out of control.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/prediction-markets-and-the-normalization?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 2 months ago
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The Epstein files arenât just about whoâs in them. Theyâre about why we still donât have all of them. When power controls the clock, truth becomes negotiable.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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The Epstein Files: On Opacity, Selective Outrage, and the Moral Damage of Living Inside Lies.
What Happens When Truth Is Managed Instead of Revealed.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/the-epstein-files-on-opacity-selective?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 2 months ago
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Trump burns $2B/day on his war of whim. Russia & Iran sell oil at double pre-war prices. America gets the bill. They get rich. It is economic vandalism framed as strength. My latest essay.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Iran: Trumpâs War of Impulsive Thinking
The staggering tactical blunder of a war started on a whim
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/iran-trumps-war-of-impulsive-thinking?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 2 months ago
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Itâs not what Donald Trump said about Robert Mueller. Itâs the silence from his supporters that made it cost-free. If this doesnât cross the line, there is no line. And if thereâs no line, stop pretending you have standards.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Itâs Not What Trump Said About Muellerâs DeathâItâs the Silence That Makes It Possible
Trump didnât lower the bar. He revealed who was willing to carry it for him.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/its-not-what-trump-said-about-muellers?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 2 months ago
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We keep trying to âsolveâ the Middle East. Thatâs the problem. Itâs not broken. Itâs a systemâone that turns every solution into the next crisis.
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The Middle East Is Not Broken â Itâs Designed This Way
Why Every Fix Fuels the Next Conflict
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/the-middle-east-is-not-broken-its?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 2 months ago
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The guy who swears he alone can fix everything just broke the global economy and made America radioactive to its oldest friends. No plan, no clue, just a one-man wrecking crew convinced his own chaos is genius.
brucemaiman.substack.com/p/trump-ego-...
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Trump: Ego Gets in the Way of Stupidity
Drunk with destruction, dazed with dark delights, he dreamt himself a deity at D.C.
https://brucemaiman.substack.com/p/trump-ego-gets-in-the-way-of-stupidity?r=2e7owr
about 2 months ago
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Trump outs dying congressman's terminal diagnosis for rally applause: 'I liked him + needed his vote.' Same guy who mocks Newsom's dyslexia now strip-mines a colleague's deathbed. Perfectly legal. Utterly grotesque.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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Trump Unhinged, Part 2: Outing a Dying Manâs Diagnosis for a Vote
From tariffs on the world to turning decency into depravityâthe unhinging accelerates.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/trump-unhinged-part-2-outing-a-dying
about 2 months ago
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Trump's descent into unhinged rage accelerates as allies begin to reject him. The unraveling will be televised.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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The Unhinged Doctrine: A President at War with Reality, Allies, the English Language, and Himself
How a Clown Has Turned the Oval Office into a Late-Night Tantrum and the World into an Audience Thatâs Starting to Change the Channel.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/the-unhinged-doctrine-a-president?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 2 months ago
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The FCC is threatening broadcast licenses. When a government threatens the press for criticizing its war policy, itâs no longer complaining about âbias.â Itâs testing how much intimidation the First Amendment can survive.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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The Censor at the Gate: Or, How a Trump Toady Tried to Revoke the First Amendment
This news has been approved for broadcast by the Ministry of Truth
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/the-censor-at-the-gate-or-how-a-trump?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 2 months ago
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Can what a young psychicatrst saw at Nuremberg happen here? Ironicallly, the people screaming âwe want our country backâ are the biggest reason that dystopian nightmare might happen. New essay.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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What a Young Psychicatrst Saw at Nuremberg, and What Weâre Ignoring Today
It Can Happen Here
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/what-a-young-psychicatrst-saw-at?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
2 months ago
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Wars are not won with slogans. Theyâre won with strategy. Trumpâs Iran war has plenty of the first and very little of the second. Call it, "The War of the 6 C's"
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The War of the 6 C's
How a war of bluster became Americaâs latest strategic disaster.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/the-war-of-the-6-cs?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
2 months ago
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Trump once promised heâd end Americaâs endless wars. We now find ourselves in another one, quickly heading into FUBAR territory. The real winners? Autocrats, oil markets, and political insiders.
open.substack.com/pub/brucemai...
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The Iran War: A Bailout for Autocrats and Insiders
A conflict without strategy that rewards strongmen, enriches insiders, and leaves Americans holding the bill.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemaiman/p/the-iran-war-a-bailout-for-autocrats?r=2e7owr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
2 months ago
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