"When ... 'strongmen' realize their weakness is becoming more apparent, their misguided and ignorant policies are backfiring, and their malfeasance is unpopular, it triggers the intense fear they all have of people hating them, turning against them, conspiring to take them down."

~ Ruth Ben-Ghiat

#Trump #Hegseth #PamBondi #strongmen #Iran #Epstein #ballroom #bunker
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https://lucid.substack.com/p/why-autocrats-need-bunkers-david

Why Autocrats Need Bunkers; David Pepper on Fallout from Trump's Recklessness

Sat. 8pmET Live with Anat Shenker-Osorio; Lucid 5th Anniv Discounts

Lucid

"It’s then that they start firing their officials, blaming them for their failures. It is then, too, that such a leader might just feel the compulstion to announce in public that his beloved ballroom —which is an extension of his ego, his need to recreate the world in his own image— will have a 'massive' military complex underneath it."

#Trump #Hegseth #PamBondi #strongmen #Iran #Epstein #ballroom #bunker
/2

"Meaning the ballroom is a very expensive front for an exit strategy: a place to hide when the disasters he is provoking every day come to pass.

Every dictator broods about such scenarios."

#Trump #Hegseth #PamBondi #strongmen #Iran #Epstein #ballroom #bunker
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@wdlindsy

It's really a stretch to call Trump a dictator, he certainly wants to be a dictator, but 77 million people voted for this clown and another 90 million stayed home.

I know it's not popular but the American voter really did this to themselves. It's not like they weren't warned, Kamala warned them, Biden warned them, even Obama came back and warned everyone.

@HakeemG I'm not one who has to be convinced that we need to note that many American voters did this to ourselves. I think the word "dictator" can have a fairly elastic meaning, too.