31 Comments
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Kate O'Shea's avatar

Dear Simon, Thank you so much for this very important interview. I will be sharing it widely. It is definitely not to be missed.

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LORI FELDBERG's avatar

He's not strong. He's a very insecure person. It's his mouth that's dangerous in his actions.

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LORI FELDBERG's avatar

He's a bully borderline personality disorder with malignant narcissism. He's always playing the victim. He can dish it out but he can't take it. He's dangerous and he can't be fixed. Another characteristic of borderline personality disorder is to divide.

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Mrt1 Tim R's avatar

full blown Permanent Mr Hyde

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Ellen S Gibson's avatar

This conversation really helped me understand what’s going on—so I don’t feel my own sanity slipping! The cracks are widening, the societal pillars holding up authoritarianism are starting to crumble, and the citizen resistance is forceful and unyielding. Is it enough? How long will it take? How much can the country endure? My line of demarcation is not sanity/insanity but hope/fear.

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Cynthia's avatar

Thank you for being here Simon. I still remain skeptical anyone can stop the madness but through you I remain hopeful.

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Mrt1 Tim R's avatar

What is also not talked about publicly is there global connections to the plot to reduce America from super power status. They are running five years behind and the blitz is trying to catch up too fast. The charade is real. So their political race is like a racehorse loaded in the starting gate backwards.

They failed to realize that the tighter they wind up America the harder we rebound. Their expression I'll be back is also a true charade/lie

And he has already stated to the Zelensky the trick to stay in office is to be at war hahaha.

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Edward Rusky's avatar

I sure would love to hear a three-hour conversation between you and Ruth. Each of you is brilliant!!! Thank you very much for letting the Hopium family listen in!

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Jo Kurtz's avatar
4hEdited

Hopium and Lucid have kept me sane during these trying times. Thank you both! My outrage was the dinner in the East Room at the White House for MBS.

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Beth Waterhouse's avatar

Excellent interview and very important. I will share it. I hope that Congress can address themselves one by one, human by human, allowing any GOP to talk about all this and to stop drinking the Kool-Aid. Not that it's up to us to help them save-face, but in a Democracy, we do need two working parties, and individually the Republicans, many of them, have simply been "captured" inside this arrogance and will be-- will be-- willing to let go. I agree that we are about to see something significant. It is "our thing" as you say.

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Debra Whitehead's avatar

Love listening to you two. So knowledgeable and articulate. I am wondering if the info shared at this link below has relevance and if, in your experience, should get more air time?

https://open.substack.com/pub/sugarrhi/p/the-ultimate-reality-show-how-trump?r=d0xd&utm_medium=ios

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John Arrighi's avatar

Simon, you certainly did not over sell this interview! It is brilliant and helps us conceive of how we will come through this with a stronger democracy. Thank you.

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Deborah Thornton's avatar

Trump's niece, Mary's, concern is when Donald falls, he's going to take as many as possible down with him. This seems a fitting remark with the discussion today.

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John Payne's avatar

Listened to this live and it was like all the lights were being turned on. So illuminating. Really explained why Kushner is involved again -- authoritarians like trump value loyalty over competence, and the Ukraine sellout is a personal deal for trump. "When you see Jared -- you know it's not about principles, it's about profit." Another thing from the interview that was hopeful was just how crazy this first year has been even for an authoritarian takeover. It's not typical for an authoritarian takeover after an election. It's much more like a coup. And in that way, trump and his minions overstepped -- too much too soon -- and now the backlash is coming back hard.

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Jody Lineman's avatar

Please let Ruth talk more and give her honest opinion.

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Janet's avatar

Definitely need to start talking a lot more about Vance as he will more than likely finish Trump's term.

The last step as Ruth points out will be ugly which I always believed it would be. Trump was never going to go gently into the night. Whether by death or insanity, it will be ugly.

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Vector Hasting's avatar

Such an important interview!

I’ve been trying to process your recent optimism that ‘he has to go,’ and ‘he’s reached a tipping point of no return.’ You’re such a wise hand, that seems credible and right, and yet…

… when I process what I hear her saying: ‘leaving power is his worst nightmare,’ ‘the party lives in fear of him,’ and ‘JD Vance was a mistake,’ and then I add in the fact that only a few dozen republican seats are ‘competitive,’ and that this number leaves enough in congress to defeat impeachment; and the debasement to the cult of personality she talks about….

I’m left feeling the logical outcome will be for him to stay in power until the 2028 elections, for him to run in 2028 under the VP-succeeds-to-power-again-plan (that he has said he would do and a majority of scholars say is legal: https://www.projectliberty2029.com/p/of-course-hes-running-again ). Then it seems he will lose by historic margins. Then it seems he will repeat Jan 6th 2021, but in 2029 he uses color of federal authority to use force to arrest the ‘traitors in Congress’ who are going to vote for the legitimate slate of electors.

Additionally, if JD Vance does not show up on Jan 6, then they can’t open the certificates without him and it’s a constitutional crisis with no visible way out. (https://www.projectliberty2029.com/p/a-prelude-to-force )

I’ve been trying to convince myself this stuff I’m saying here isn’t the likely outcome: that there’s a more likely off-ramp.

The reason I’m a Hopium subscriber is I’m also an inveterate optimist.

Writing and speaking about this possibility goes against my personality.

But the only likely off-ramp I can see is him actually dying (Which isn’t crazy given his health, but still… the guy’s not on oxygen yet).

The off ramp we should be confident of is impeachment and removal, but when she says they had to deny their running for their lives on Jan 7th, that seems like what we’re going to see now too.

If the house does flip before the next elections (and stay flipped, how long will the special election for MTG take?) then what are the odds a pardoned J6er or a dark Seal Team 6 will do dear leader’s bidding?

There are a lot of tall buildings and staircases in the world, and Russia teaches us that some people are very bad at not falling from those.

And he can give people pardons. And if a State wants to prosecute… he can give free transport to territories like the US Virgin Islands where he can exercise all kinds of authority. (Not legally in our minds, but he runs outside the lines.)

Or some other authoritarian surprise.

Simon, I know you’re not a fan of this kind of talk, but can you at least broach the subject of Congress Member’s planning for their own security? I know this talk is crazy and conspiratorial, and I don’t know when the right moment to talk about it out-loud is, but if it was just ‘novice me’ deciding, I’d say that moment came when Trumpet called for Congress members to be hanged, and then followed up with plans to court marshal Mark Kelley.

At that second link above, I point out that Congress has the authority to defend itself. It’s crazy, but they can.

In solidarity and hope for some way to a peaceful transition: Amen, America.

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