In Trump’s self-view: -He can do no wrong, he can only be done wrong. -He can never lose, he can only be cheated. -He’s never unfair, he can only be treated unfairly. -He alone says what’s true, all else is fake news. -He and America are one so if you oppose him, you hate America.

Trump’s constant barrage of atrocious words and actions conditions us to accept the unacceptable, normalize the abnormal, rationalize the irrational, excuse the inexcusable, and justify that which can’t be justified. We must be very intentional to resist such conditioning.

Trump is now and always has been a racist. He's sometimes tried to camouflage it but his post today in which the heads of the Obamas were superimposed on monkey strips away the camouflage. I grew up in Jim Crow Mississippi and I know unambiguous racism when I see or hear it.

A demagogue controls the masses by stoking fear of the “other.” And the higher the fear, the more pliable the masses become.

A theme of 2026 will be that Democrats steal elections and that Republicans should, therefore, take over the voting. Like when Trump recently said, “We should take over the voting.”

There is no more comfortable place, for some, than inside an alternate reality bubble where everyone inside is a hero, all outsiders are enemies, the surrounding membrane filters out competing views, nothing is uncertain, and “truth” is moldable into whatever they need it to be.

Perverse logic: A fact can always be found to support a lie. A justification can always be found to support a cruelty. An article can always be found to support a conspiracy theory. A reason can always be found to support a wrong. A verse can always be found to support a heresy.

MAGA’s most lethal weapon is the lie. The lie’s most powerful counter is the cell phone video camera.

1966 Alan Godwin would’ve heard these things reported on the news: “Masked men are killing citizens, claiming the victims deserved it, and making sure the killers escape justice.” 2026 Alan Godwin is hearing the exact same reports.

There’s a pretty good term describing: 1) masked, unidentified federal agents killing First Amendment-abiding protestors, 2) smearing the dead protestors by suggesting they brought it on themselves, and then 3) thwarting any investigation. That’s called domestic terrorism.

Some are learning today that if you lie shamelessly, confidently, enthusiastically and angrily, many who want to believe your lies will disregard their rational faculties and jump aboard your fiction train and see themselves as well-informed passengers of truth.

Facts have little power against the fictions one wants to believe. Or the fictions one wants to propagate.

The darkness of our time stems not only from acts of injustice but from the lie that the bad actors are fighting for justice.

Now we begin again more days of the Party telling us, in Orwellian fashion, to reject the evidence of our eyes and ears.

The church forfeits all moral authority when it values access to power more than living out its principles.

People become impervious to truth when they’ve predetermined that every challenge to the lies they tell is a lie.

The most dangerous leader is one who’s told he’s heading for a cliff and, rather than turning the wheel, steps on the accelerator.

The Nobel Prize winner gave her award to Trump. I always wanted to be valedictorian. I wonder if our actual valedictorian will give me their award and help fulfill my long-wished-for dream.

In today’s America, -lies are being called truth -lawlessness is being called law & order -cruelty is being called strength -kindness is being called weakness -might is being called right -Any who disagree are being called garbage -and, did I mention, lies are being called truth

"Lies confuse." Scott Peck

It’s harder for gaslighters to gaslight when videographic evidence disproves their assertions. And yet, they’ll do it anyway, knowing that many will believe the lies they propagate because they want to believe them.

Trump makes up realities, swears they’re true, and threatens anyone who challenges his alterations. This is his hourly practice.

There’s a difference between truth and a story one wants to be true. Truth is supported by evidence. Stories only need evidence-free assertions.

Trumpworld interview conduct: 1-Never answer a question 2-When a question is repeated, indignantly say you’ve already answered it 3-Occasionally impugn the motives or intelligence of the interviewer 4-Express yourself confidently, forcefully and, above all, never stop talking

It seems that our foreign policy is becoming one of colony formation.

Trump does to truth what a magnet next to a compass does to direction. They both distort reality and lead people astray.

George Bailey calls Mr. Potter a “warped, frustrated old man” who sees people as cattle, not as humans. Dickens describes Scrooge as a "squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner." In movies or real life, such men are always villains, never heroes.

From masked agents rounding up humans with no due process, to sending some of those humans to foreign torture prisons, to refusing release of child sex crime info, to the coverup of illegalities, all under the guise of making America great, it’s hard to know which crime to cover.

The more Trump contorts the truth, the more his devotees must contort themselves to support the contortions.

Whenever Trump’s alternate reality is debunked by actual reality, he simply issues spittle-flecked denouncements of the debunkers. The more truth invades his alternate-reality space, the more he’ll beat back the invader with a false story that he knows many will accept as truth.

Trump exploited the Reiners’ murder to trash them and brag about himself. No warmth, no sympathy, just self-aggrandizement. The hill Trump devotees climb to tout Trump as making America great and restoring Christian values to our country just got even steeper.

Trump is not just the sadly insecure guy who brags about his accomplishments; he makes up things he hasn’t accomplished and brags about them. Sadder still, his devotees then praise him for his lied-about accomplishments, knowing he’ll unmercifully trash them if they don’t.