I see you guys found out about the Vivek Ramaswamy ad already; I finally caught up with the comments in the previous post. Of it, I have little to say other than are you fucking kidding me? But I think Roy said it best:
I’ve always known the guy was a piece of shit but he’s broken through to sub-shit.
Every time you think these guys can’t go any lower, someone in the group yells, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
I can only hope this is Ramaswamy’s final exploding cigar, especially at a time when the Epstein story is still top of mind, in a state where Epstein operated, in a party where millions still think sex trafficking is a huge, tip-of-iceberg story. (It is, but I believe it’s misunderstood by most people who worry about it. The Acton case — molested by a stepfather or other close relative — is where much of it starts. That Acton was able to escape that environment and make it through med school, etc., is nothing short of a miracle.)
I read that Ramaswamy’s team thought the ad “tested well with persuadables,” which is the sort of phrase you hear at this time of year. Imagine being called into a conference room to watch that thing. (I’d link, but this late in the news cycle, it only exists in fragments in posts and reposts, and I don’t have the time for the long search required to find a pristine copy.) After the first few hours, when the ad’s provenance was still murky, Ramaswamy himself took credit (if that’s the word) for it, and blah-blah’d about how it Raises Important Issues, etc.
These people, these Republicans, have been living in the monkey house so long they’ve lost their sense of smell, along with their shame. Let’s hope — hope! — the rest of the country can finally smell the stench coming off them.
A couple days ago I batted out a few hundred words about Trump, and I wasn’t going to post them here because I’ve already said a lot of it here. So I dumped it on Facebook, and it got a response, so I’ll re-dump it here. It won’t surprise anyone, but as someone who thinks of things by writing about them, I kind of surprised myself. So here goes, and happy Wednesday:
Talk to a therapist, or a priest, or rabbi, or any other counselor, religious or secular, that you might encounter, and they will likely tell you to be very careful with the word “hate.”
It’s serious business. Hatred is like taking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die. It should only be reserved for the most serious occasions, or, paradoxically, trivial ones. Which is to say, it’s OK to say you hate Brussels sprouts, or the new Kid Rock album, but you should never use it on people. Hate is the wellspring of evil. Hate leads to ethnic cleansing, scorching violence and other terrible things. We are all children of God, after all.
I say all this to make it clear that I have given it some thought, but I cannot deny the conclusion it’s led to.
I hate Donald Trump.
Seriously. I hate everything about him. I hate his blithe stupidity, his greed and corruption, his racism, his taste in music, and certainly his taste in architecture. I hate what he’s done to the White House, our house, not his. I hate his contempt for the rule of law, and everything I once believed was good about this country – our open-heartedness, our energy, the way we welcome newcomers with a sonnet that specifically asks for the tired, the poor, the tempest-tost, and how many of them become millionaires, or at least comfortable Americans, in a generation or two. I hate that he gave a Kennedy Center Honor, once reserved to crown great American artists at the pinnacle of their careers, to Gloria Gaynor, who had two disco hits, and Sylvester Stallone, who acts primarily by curling his lips.
And these are minor issues, relatively speaking. The alienation of our allies, the diminishment of the country’s standing in the world, the Iran war, ICE, and no doubt more horrors yet to be revealed? I can’t even.
“Game of Thrones” fans may remember how young, exiled Arya Stark would lull herself to sleep by running down a list of her enemies, people she wanted to kill. I sometimes do the same, although being non-violent, I only want them to die, painfully and soon. I consider them the men responsible for inflicting Donald Trump on our once-great nation: Rupert Murdoch, Mark Burnett, Jeff Zucker, Roger Ailes (already dead, granted), Roger Stone, et al.
And speaking of death, it’s what I absolutely wish on Trump. I hasten to add that I don’t want him assassinated, mainly because that would get his ugly face on Mount Rushmore. But I do want him to die, before I do, and I want the three Ps – painful, public and protracted. I would settle for one of those, and I want the death inflicted by God. I don’t really believe in God anymore, at least not a God that blesses America, because look what He sent us with Trump, but I want God, or cosmic justice, to kill him. If Trump suddenly clutched his chest and collapsed at one of his rallies, I would leap to my feet and clap like a child at a birthday party. If he contracted flesh-eating bacteria, I’d be over the moon. I might even go back to church.
I would certainly start celebrating. I might wander the neighborhood with a bottle of champagne, pouring glasses for passers-by. In this, I am not alone. There’s an internet meme among people who feel the same way, a phrase: When it happens. Everyone knows what it means. I saw one spiritual sister of mine who actually had a bottle of bubbly engraved with that very phrase. A lawyer I know, a real-estate agent, probably many people I know, have laid a few bottles aside in cool basements, fearing shortages when it happens.
Because you know, I know, everybody knows that when it does happen? There will be celebration in the land. If he dies in office, of course JD Vance will declare a national day of mourning, but friends, no matter when it happens, it’s gonna be a party, for three days, five, or however long it takes to plant his carcass in the ground. We’re all gonna call in sick. Bars will do a land-office business, and servers will take home fat rolls of tip cash. We’re gonna replay clips of Ivanka shedding a few rehearsed and photo-tested tears – and Melania shedding none at all – and laugh.
I know this confession may lead some to brand me a sick person, poisoned by hatred, but I don’t care. One of the things I most despise about this despicable man is what he’s done to me. I read earnest essays about our divided nation, whether we can ever clasp hands across the bloody chasm, and my heart can’t even summon a tiny flame of empathy. In Detroit, two men, both opinion journalists, have a road show called The Civility Project, designed to help us, as the phrase goes, agree to disagree, but with respect for one another.
Sorry gents, but that ship has sailed. I want a truth and reconciliation commission, maybe with a guillotine standing by for speedy executions of the worst offenders. Later, Bobby Kennedy! Arrivederci, Pete Hegseth! A double whiskey before you slip your neck into the notch? Sure. Unlike you, we’re decent people.
We’ll bury you next to Big Daddy, maybe on one of his golf courses, where he planted his first ex-wife.The graves will need to be public, of course, so the people who suffered under Trump will have their opportunity to pay respects. My advice to anyone who might visit: Wear rubber boots.
Jeff Gill said on October 21, 2026 at 10:16 am
Big Daddy is buried in Queens, and I doubt Donald is going there. His grandfather Friedrich is a story worthy of a miniseries, but in the “Deadwood” genre:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/255624282/fred-trump
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/visit-trump-family-gravesite-took-163102583.html
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Bitter Scribe said on October 21, 2026 at 10:39 am
If you listen closely to that ad, the mother never really says much of anything except “Amy is a liar,” with barely any reference to what the supposed lies were about.
The only vague gesture toward specificity was: “She says she grew up living in a tent.” Which is exactly what a mother whose family spent time in a tent would say. (“She didn’t grow up in a tent.”)
And as someone said, Acton’s mother looks exactly like someone whose family spent time in a tent.
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alex said on October 21, 2026 at 11:09 am
The first thought that occurred to me when I heard “The Fake wants to be your next governor… The Fake…, The Fake…” was that Ramaswamy’s ads weren’t focus-grouped or field-tested at all or his team would have reconsidered calling him Vivek. His last name is a mouthful, for sure, and perhaps they were tiptoeing around it in their bid to sell him to an electorate of bigots. But I’m glad his attack ad is bringing him the disgrace he so richly deserves and that it sinks his candidacy decisively.
The whole world will erupt with celebration when Tubby bites the big one. Too bad the sumbitch won’t be around to see it. There weren’t any Muslims dancing in the streets in New Jersey on 9/11 but I’m sure there will be this time, along with people of every persuasion in every state and every country.
So the best we can hope for is a protracted demise, one where he’s watching TV from a hospital bed and the top stories are about all-time record spending in the prediction markets, record shortages of champagne in the stores and massive preparations being set up in public spaces for the moment we’ve all been waiting for.
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Pam H said on October 21, 2026 at 11:39 am
You forgot the 4th P: Poor, before It Happens I want him to be poor, for enough time as it takes him to feel what it’s like. And the 5th P: Powerless, shunned by everyone. When It Happens, I’m going to bake a cake.
I hope that advert. ruins the Swamy. He is such SCUM. It needs to happen to him too.
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john (not mccain) said on October 21, 2026 at 11:52 am
I’m not going out magat hunting, what with being disabled and all, but if it just so happens I die covered in the blood of a thousand trump voters I won’t complain.
And I for damn sure won’t do a damn thing to keep one alive. No food, shelter or medical care, relative or not.
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Julie Robinson said on October 21, 2026 at 11:59 am
Don’t we all want him to die? But I also don’t want Vance running as an incumbent. Catch-22.
Amy Acton should have had the right to tell her story on her own terms. This has to be retraumatizing for her. Now we truly know his character. So desperate, so despicable.
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Jakash said on October 21, 2026 at 2:14 pm
The fact that Acton has not been lying about this, of course, makes it much, much worse. But beyond how reprehensible the ad is, it just boggles the mind that The Fake, representing the party of the orange felon — the most blatant and incorrigible liar in the history of the presidency, if not the universe — is telling you not to vote for Amy Acton simply because… she’s a liar. These people are just so unimaginably hypocritical and brazen. The word “deplorable” comes to mind.
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Sherri said on October 21, 2026 at 2:19 pm
If mothers are going to be an issue in Ohio, let’s talk about Vivek’s mom.
https://oligarchwatch.substack.com/p/how-vivek-ramaswamys-mom-manipulated
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susan said on October 21, 2026 at 2:24 pm
Speaking about reprehensible people, back to Elizabeth Holmes for a second: Here is Josh Johnson talking about THAT scam artist.
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Deborah said on October 21, 2026 at 2:33 pm
LB got a gift T-shirt from a friend of hers that simply says, “Is he dead yet?” And we all know who HE is.
Again, I don’t want him assassinated because that will make him a martyr, and no one has the right to kill in my book. As all of us have said, he needs to die by natural causes, the sooner the better. He will go down in history like Hitler and Mussolini, or maybe Saddam Houssein. He’s vile, and gets worse every single day.
I hate him.
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Julie Robinson said on October 21, 2026 at 3:44 pm
Thank you, Sherri, now I despise Ramaswamy even more. Alzheimer’s has affected a large percentage of my husband’s family and we are all hoping and praying for effective treatments. Getting people’s hope up, profiting personally as the drug fails, then leaving shareholders with nothing? Grrrrr.
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Peter said on October 21, 2026 at 9:19 pm
First time visiting the Obama Library today, and….it’s complicated:
– architecturally, it’s a mixed bag for me: the Sky Room at the top is worth the price of admission, the circulation is pretty good for a tight structure, the grounds are nice, the building shape is pleasing, but that marble skin – BLECH!! I have to admit that I had a hard time getting past that.
– Great displays and well curated, even if it was a bit heavy-handed with praise and accolades – but I would think this would be par for the course for this type of institution. Can’t help but think that Watergate doesn’t get a lot of coverage at the Nixon Museum….
– Like all presidential museums, this one had a model Oval Office built to scale, and…it’s a lot smaller than I had imagined. Basically the Resolute desk, couple of side chairs, the two sofas, and a tight path around the sofas. I always thought it would be good to have a conference table instead of the sofas, but you really couldn’t get anything larger than an 8 seater in there.
Looking at Obama’s office and thinking about what it looks like now got me really depressed, but it’s rather symbolic of how far we’ve fallen.
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David C said on October 22, 2026 at 5:41 am
Yesterday at work, I had to take counterintelegence training from the Department of Defense. No Department of WAAAAR, which I thought was funny. Anyway, all through it whatever topic it touched on I thought Trump is doing all of this and I’d be thrown in jail if I did 1% of it.
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Deborah said on October 22, 2026 at 8:53 am
We haven’t made it to the Obama Library yet, we’ve been so busy getting everything designed and ordered for the dementia center we’re working on. A week from today is the big event, it would be a ground breaking if it was a new building but it’s in a leased downtown Evanston space so we’re calling it “First Look”. We’re dolling up the raw interior with banners and what not to explain it to the guests, it will be the public introduction to the community and hopefully donors. The final place won’t be built out fully until next spring maybe summer. It’s hard to believe this thing we’ve been planning for 6 years is coming together and it will be actually happening. I need to start calling it by its name, Mindhaven, instead of calling it the dementia center all the time.
The leased space is going to be something like a “mistake” place, where we’ll find out what works and what doesn’t before a new freestanding building happens, if ever. We’ve learned a lot but we have a lot more to learn.
Anyway, back to the Obama Library, apparently it’s still hard to get tickets to get into the inside but I’d at least like to see the grounds and the exterior soon. I think the ticket waiting is until end of February beginning of March and we aren’t even on a list yet. I’ve not been to any of the presidential libraries I’ve only seen photos of all of them.
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Peter said on October 22, 2026 at 9:04 am
Deborah, there’s a ticket lottery the second Wednesday of every month. While it’s for tickets to open dates a few months out, they also have some tickets that were returned/refunded available for earlier dates.
I also found out yesterday that the Sky Room is open for people without tickets when the Museum opens. It’s basically you go in, take the elevator to the eighth floor, check it out, and then get pushed out. As that’s the best space, it’s not a bad deal.
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Garry Spelled Correctly said on October 22, 2026 at 10:21 am
I believe that fat, demented, deranged, traitorous, narcissistic sociopath, child rapist already has a giant memorial to himself in a New Jersey cemetery.
I too want him deader than General Franco!
But I would love for him to be prosecuted for the child rapes he’s done & then sent to a maximum security prison for the rest of his rotten to the core life!
He’s not just the worst excuse for a president this country has ever had, he’s the absolute worst person to ever be president.
If I believed in reincarnation, I’d say he was the reincarnation of Hitler!
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Jeff said on October 22, 2026 at 10:34 am
Excellent review of your feelings for the man. I can’t even listen to his voice anymore.
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Jeff Gill said on October 22, 2026 at 11:06 am
Garry, his monument plans went awry, and he no doubt has a Florida plan in the works, while leaving his first wife behind on the barren plot where his mausoleum was to have been:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-early-plans-garish-bedminster-133818007.html
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Icarus said on October 22, 2026 at 3:19 pm
If Donald Trump is really is the Second Coming of Christ, I pray he exits the same as the original.
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David C said on October 22, 2026 at 4:57 pm
What’s the looks like a Kansas City whorehouse equivalent for a grave site? Guess we’ll find out sooner or later.
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Jakash said on October 22, 2026 at 5:05 pm
Not that it matters, but if anybody might have wondered…
Garry Spelled Correctly, who commented above, is a long-time, prolific commenter on Eric Zorn’s Substack, “The Picayune Sentinel.” Today, Zorn (former Chicago Tribune columnist and friend of nn.c) included a link to this very blog post of Nancy’s.
To wit: “Nancy Nall Derringer an excellent old-school blogger and former newspaper columnist, ‘cannot deny the conclusion’ she has come to about Donald Trump.”
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nancy said on October 22, 2026 at 8:47 pm
Thanks for that, Jakash. I got out of the habit of reading Eric, and I need to fix that.
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Jim G said on October 22, 2026 at 9:11 pm
I’m okay with him having the gaudiest, ugliest, most bigliest memorial on the planet as long as it’s posthumous.
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Kristen said on October 23, 2026 at 6:42 am
As much as we all want the steaming piece of sh*& to pop his clogs asap, it would be nauseating to watch him receive the typical presidential honors (National Day of Mourning, etc.) if he died while still in office.
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Sherri said on October 23, 2026 at 4:19 pm
It will never happen, but I’d really like to see him rot in jail, along with JD Bowman Hamel Vance, Pete Hegseth, RFK Jr, the Trump children, and Jared Kushner.
Then go after the oligarchs.
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Deborah said on October 23, 2026 at 5:30 pm
That’s funny Sherri, JD Bowman Hamel Vance, he also went from James Donald to James David with the various last names. The guy changed names as often as he changes moral beliefs.
Both Trump and “Vance” (and any other republican) backing Ramaswamy after that hideous ad is beyond deplorable.
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Peter said on October 23, 2026 at 5:42 pm
You heard it here first (with advance apologies to anyone who said this earlier) but I’m convinced that when Orange Julius joins Dick Cheney in hell, he will have a funeral with full military honors and be buried in Arlington, maybe next to JFK. After all, if anyone deserved a Congressional Medal of Honor for draft dodging, it would be him.
The truly sad part about this is that Arlington doesn’t allow pets, so my idea of having my dog pee on his grave would be trashed. I guess if that were to happen I would just need to eat a bushel of asparagus and man up.
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Austin G Loomis said on October 23, 2026 at 6:26 pm
The civility ship hasn’t just sailed, and it’s not only sunk; it’s gone on to inspire a heart-warming global blockbuster with Kate and Leo.
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Bill Lisleman said on October 23, 2026 at 8:02 pm
I don’t to use the word hate. If possible before I start cursing, I like to say I hate the behavior, actions, etc of the person not the person.
Many have said Trump has a mental disorder and I tend to agree but I’m not trained on mental disorders. I’ve lived through many presidents and Trump is not qualified to be one. Back in his first term, I would say he should have stayed in the reality TV business.
I took exception to you stating you hate his “taste in music”. The only “music” I knew he listened to was YMCA. Does qualify as a taste. Is there other music he listens to?
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David C said on October 24, 2026 at 5:44 am
Wasn’t there a song from “Cats” that they used to calm him down at ketchup throwing time? Of course, there’s “God Bless the USA”, too. So we’re talking varitey here.
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Julie Robinson said on October 24, 2026 at 7:37 am
It was Memory from Cats, as sung by Betty Buckley. Betty is lefty and queer, and immediately disavowed him.
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lisa said on November 14, 2026 at 11:09 am
This is the best post you’ve ever written.
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