October 11, 2025

Perhaps the No Kings protests should be called "No Hitler" instead. By Hal M. Brown

Above is the photo my partner, inspiration, Substack proof reader and editor took of a bleary eyed me this morning with the sign (which we covered with plastic wrap for the rain) for our regular Friday protest that we have along the road next to the senior commuity where we live. Two of the homemade signs say “Don’t Mess With Grandma” and “Hands Off Our Social Security.” Of course the “No Kings” sign goes with the title and the subject which I will get to in this Substack.

Below are comments from Sabrina Haake’s Substack about the long term consequnces of Trump’s enforcers, I call them his Gestapo, using excessive force:

This Substack led, so far, to 45 comments all of which you can read here.

I am going to share those that I wrote along with the replies to what I said.

Let’s not forget that the man who is doing this thinks he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. We will see the blowback today and in coming days from his NOT getting it. Further, think of the message sent by the Nobel winner Maria Corina Machado. “She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” More info: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2025/press-release/Here’s a story about how Norway was preparing for Trump being bypassed: https://www.rawstory.com/trump-norway/Here’s a story about the MAGA reaction: “’What an absolute joke!’ MAGA melts down after Nobel Peace Prize Trump snub” https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2674172203/ The US has become worse than a Superman Bizarro World, it is a Bizzaro World run by a leader and a group of cohorts and enablers, who revel in inflicting pain on people and terrorizing everyone who stands against them, and then makes the claim that they are peacemakers. Call this Beyond Bizzaro!

This is Sabrina’s reply:

agreed. excellent substack btw. it’s truly bizarre that trump, who has bombed people on the high seas, encouraged ICE to use excessive force, and wants to imprison his critics thinks he deserves a prize for peace. does he not understand that extralegal violence is diametrically opposed to peace? is it ego? retardation? dementia? delusion?

Here’s my reply to this:

Thanks. These are good questions: “does he not understand that extralegal violence is diametrically opposed to peace? is it ego? retardation? dementia? delusion?” On the first, he doesn’t care. On the others, for certain ego is part of it, and he’s not developmentally disabled but not as smart IQ wise as he thinks he is, true dementia is an open question, as is whether he is clinically delusional.

This prompted indpendent journalist David A. Brothers whose Substack is “The Conscious American” to reply:

I’m no mental health professional, but I would think clinical delusion is a highly likely possibility, and I’m beginning to wonder about schizophrenia. On the other hand, there’s no way to identify the mental incapacity of a congress that will allow a madman of any variety to destroy every good thing his country stands for. And speaking of delusions, how about that religious right? I’m willing to bet that some of their most fervent bloviators deliberately embrace Trump’s evil so they can see the rapture in their lifetimes. I spoke with an elderly Christian woman during T1 who said, “I’ll admit, he’s not the savior I thought he would be.” “Savior? Really, savior?” I replied. “Savior of whom, and from what?” Nothing else was said. We just stared each other off. She looked away first. I was determined to lock that down til doomsday if I had to.

I answered him as follows:

There are conditions that don’t fully meet the listed characteristics to make the diagnosis. Some shrinks call this sub-clinical. For example, in the DSM it says to make the diagnosis you need, for example, 5 out of 8, but someone could meet 3 and still be pretty dysfunctional.

He wrote back simply “Thanks, Hal. Very enlightening clarification.” I went on to elaborate as follows:

You’re welcome. One of the diagnoses applied to Trump and his Gestapo is anti-social personality, better known as psychopathy. This article is quite technical but note that there is an issue re. it needing to be improved. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6817378/ You might want to look it over to see how some of these brutal people have psychopathic traits but don’t meet the full diagnosis. Look at meanness, callousness, boldness, disinhibition, and being cold-hearted, for example.

As part of a long thread of comments and replies I wrote:

One of the diagnoses applied to Trump and his Gestapo is anti-social personality, better known as psychopathy. This article is quite technical but note that there is an issue re. it needing to be improved. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6817378/ You might want to look it over to see how some of these brutal people have psychopathic traits but don’t meet the full diagnosis. Look at meanness, callousness, boldness, disinhibition, and being cold-hearted, for example.

Chris Perez, whose Substack is CP’s Words, replied to that:

I appreciate your historical example of what America is currently facing. We need a lot of that to understand why we should keep Trump from dumbing down the populace, especially our children. If you’ve seen the movie before, you know the ending.

My reply to him became the impetus for writing my Substack today.

I am 81 and grew up hearing about the Nazis and Holocaust from my parents. My father was in the Army and a corpsman serving on troop ships. My sister and I heard about World War II growing up. But younger generations learned about the horrors of the war from movies, books, and in school. The saying “never forget” was something people always heard. Nowadays people don’t hear it said very often and it should be a constant reminder. Now we approach another “No Kings” day of demonstrations. Nobody is alive who remembers when we had a king. Perhaps these protests should be named “No Hitler” demonstrations. I wonder if it was considered and rejected as being too hyperbolic. Considering the brutality shown by Trump’s Gestapo between the first “No King”s and the coming one, I don’t think it is.

The signs could look like the one below which I based on this “No Fascism” royalty free sign from Vector Stock.

October 10, 2025

The country is a Beyond Bizzaro World, but thankfully Nobel Committee shows that the world itself is hasn't succumbed to this insanity. MAGA goes mad and Trump might have considered trading his left testicle for the prize.

The fact that Reuters wrote the headline “Venezuela’s opposition leader Machado wins Nobel Peace Prize, White House critical” for their article is nauseating. Why? Here’s the part that is appalling and unprecedented:

HuffPost had several stories about this:

Story one.

Story two.

Story three.

Machado, in stark contrast to Trump’s spokespeople, praised Trump and even dedicated it in part to him (my highlight):

Clicking on each tweet above will take you to X where you can read the replies.

These tweets show that Machado is cognizant of Trump’s desire, his near clincial obsession, with winning the coveted prize and her own awareness as a politician that praising him as effusively as possible is in the best interest of her country. She knows that Trump would love to be as entrenched in hios own dictatorship as Maduro is.

I doubt any country ever issued a protest against someone winning a Nobel Peace Prize because their leader didn’t win?

The Nobel Peace Prize wasn’t awarded to Donald Trump and he’s pissed off. To say he lusted after this is an understatement. He might have considered trading his left testicle for the prize. As a man with monorchism he might not even miss it.

As for the MAGA reaction, we are seeing articles like this from RawStory:

Machado won the prize earned it because she fought against Nicolás Maduro.

“(Maudro) is widely regarded as a dictator due to his authoritarian rule, electoral fraud, and severe human rights abuses in Venezuela. His government has faced significant international condemnation and accusations of undermining democracy since he took office in 2013. From AI generated description.

Bizarro World, indeed. Trump can fairly be described as as a dictator due to his authoritarian rule, electoral fraud, and severe human rights abuses in the United States, and also around the world due to his cuts to life saving aid.

(Scroll down to read the Nobel press release)

Press release

Announcement, Nobel Peace Prize 2025

10 October 2025

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 goes to a brave and committed champion of peace – to a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 to Maria Corina Machado.
She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.

As the leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.
Ms Machado has been a key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided – an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government. This is precisely what lies at the heart of democracy: our shared willingness to defend the principles of popular rule, even though we disagree. At a time when democracy is under threat, it is more important than ever to defend this common ground.
Venezuela has evolved from a relatively democratic and prosperous country to a brutal, authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis. Most Venezuelans live in deep poverty, even as the few at the top enrich themselves. The violent machinery of the state is directed against the country’s own citizens. Nearly 8 million people have left the country. The opposition has been systematically suppressed by means of election rigging, legal prosecution and imprisonment.
Venezuela’s authoritarian regime makes political work extremely difficult. As a founder of Súmate, an organisation devoted to democratic development, Ms Machado stood up for free and fair elections more than 20 years ago. As she said: “It was a choice of ballots over bullets.” In political office and in her service to organisations since then, Ms Machado has spoken out for judicial independence, human rights and popular representation. She has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people.
Ahead of the election of 2024, Ms Machado was the opposition’s presidential candidate, but the regime blocked her candidacy. She then backed the representative of a different party, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, in the election. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers mobilised across political divides. They were trained as election observers to ensure a transparent and fair election. Despite the risk of harassment, arrest and torture, citizens across the country held watch over the polling stations. They made sure the final tallies were documented before the regime could destroy ballots and lie about the outcome.
The efforts of the collective opposition, both before and during the election, were innovative and brave, peaceful and democratic. The opposition received international support when its leaders publicised the vote counts that had been collected from the country’s election districts, showing that the opposition had won by a clear margin. But the regime refused to accept the election result, and clung to power.
Democracy is a precondition for lasting peace. However, we live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence. The Venezuelan regime’s rigid hold on power and its repression of the population are not unique in the world. We see the same trends globally: rule of law abused by those in control, free media silenced, critics imprisoned, and societies pushed towards authoritarian rule and militarisation. In 2024, more elections were held than ever before, but fewer and fewer are free and fair.
In its long history, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has honoured brave women and men who have stood up to repression, who have carried the hope of freedom in prison cells, on the streets and in public squares, and who have shown by their actions that peaceful resistance can change the world. In the past year, Ms Machado has been forced to live in hiding. Despite serious threats against her life she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions of people.
When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist. Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended – with words, with courage and with determination.
Maria Corina Machado meets all three criteria stated in Alfred Nobel’s will for the selection of a Peace Prize laureate. She has brought her country’s opposition together. She has never wavered in resisting the militarisation of Venezuelan society. She has been steadfast in her support for a peaceful transition to democracy.
Maria Corina Machado has shown that the tools of democracy are also the tools of peace. She embodies the hope of a different future, one where the fundamental rights of citizens are protected, and their voices are heard. In this future, people will finally be free to live in peace.

October 9, 2025

Wash Post editorial about Trump's Nobel Peace Prize and Tylenol poll show what dire straits the country is in, and it isn't just about headaches, by Hal M. Brown

If I had a headache this morning, no matter what Trump and RFK Jr. say, I might very well take ibuprofen (Tylenol). Fortunately I don’t have a headache, no thanks to my worries about what Trump, both his henchmen and women, and his bend-at-the knees minions are doing to the country.

As for bend-at-the-knees Trumpers, I include the editorial board at The Washington Post. I had CNN on this morning while I was looking at this article in RawStory: ‘Stunning, but not’: Observers rip Washington Post for ‘humiliating’ op-ed on Trump.

I still have my subscription to the Post so

since I still am subscribed I can share what the editorial looks like:

It has this cringeworthy opening paragraph:

The announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed to President Donald Trump’s plan to end the two-year war in Gaza could be the biggest diplomatic achievement of his second term. Indeed, if the deal holds, Trump can legitimately bolster his claim to be a peacemaker worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.

If you click on the Peace Prize link you go to this article:

That article begins:

Of all the golden glories that Donald Trump has accumulated — the statues, sneakers, even a golden pager — one gleaming medallion has eluded the 79-year-old president: the Nobel Peace Prize.
The annual award, set to be announced Friday, has occupied Trump for months, along with a recurring complaint that he’ll be overlooked despite his global peacemaking efforts.
“We settled seven wars. We’re close to settling an eighth. And I think we’ll end up settling the Russia situation, which is horrible,” Trump said Wednesday, when asked whether he expected to claim the prize when the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee steps solemnly up to a microphone in his grand Oslo headquarters. “I don’t think anybody in history settled that many. But perhaps they’ll find a reason not to give it to me.”

This is an analysis from The New York Times.

It begins:

President Trump is at the brink of the biggest diplomatic accomplishment of his second term — a cessation of the brutal war between Israel and Hamas — and on Wednesday evening he made clear he was eager to fly to the Middle East to preside over a cease-fire and welcome hostages who have spent two long years in underground captivity.
For Mr. Trump, success in this venture is the ultimate test of his self-described goal as a deal maker and a peacemaker — and a pathway to the Nobel Peace Prize he has so openly coveted. By chance, the winner for 2025 is scheduled to be announced just hours before he may be departing to take his victory lap in Egypt and Israel.
Much could go wrong in coming days, and in the Middle East it often does. The “peace” deal Mr. Trump heralded on Truth Social on Wednesday evening may look more like another temporary pause in a war that started with Israel’s founding in 1948, and has never ended.

Note the difference in tone between it and how the Washington Post editorial board seems to be glorifying Trump.

Here’s another Wash. Post article with a photo of Marco Rubio whispering in a presidential looking Trump’s ear:

That article included the text of Trump’s Truth Social post:

“I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan. This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”

Trump wrote “peacemakers” plural, but he really wants the world, and the Noble committee, to see it as a singular.

What gets to me is that at least in the United States this will probably work. Here’s where I segue into a poll about Tylenol.

Above is what was shown on CNN when I was up early this morning trying to think of what to write about. It came on after an interview with an American relative of a hostage about to be released by Hamas. He was effusively praising Trump for this.

They showed a video of Trump unequivocally stating that nobody should take Tylenol and showed the result of the poll about how Amercians in general felt about the risk of taking Tylenol. Here’s the breakdown by Democrats and Republicans:

Of all the things Trump has done and is about to do to destroy Democracy the Tylenol matter is minor but it does represent how he is able to get millions of people to turn off their bullshit detectors and believe anything he says.

He might even be able to sway even more people to believe that he, and he alone, deserves the Peace Prize if the Gaza peace holds. If anybody deserves the Peace Prize it isn’t any one person. It is all the people that tried to stop Trump from cementing his cruel dictatorship. There is absolutely nothing Trump can do to merit his winning the Peace Prize. A year or two from now if Trump is awarded the prize the Nobel committee and the world may look back at this with horror.

The real story that should be told is that the man who wants to glorify himself and wants to be seen as a “peacemaker” is waging war on American citizens and treating those who he claims are here illegally as vermin.

Back to the Tylenol poll: If 30% of the population have been convinced to ignore science and believe something just because Trump says it is true it shows how suspectible to propaganda certain people are. No matter what baldfaced lies are spun by Trump and his minions, there are people who believe them.

Just as I finish writing this, Kristi Noem is on TV sitting next to Trump lying her ass off about what she saw in my city of Portland. Millions of people will see and believe this.

I don’t have a headache, but I do need aother cup of strong coffee.

An appalling number of people are programmed to believe lies like this. For example another story, a total fabrication and fantasy intended to induce fear, was given exposure on CNN following the segment showing Noem:

Related: RawStory was also watching CNN at the same time I was. Here’s their analysis.

Also:

Trump’s ‘naked hunger’ for Nobel prize may be his undoing

Here’s another article from RawStory about a diffrent Washington Post editorial. This was about them try to recast key parts of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s criminal investigation of President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Hal Brown's Substack (fomerly Hal Brown's Blog)