What will it take for Republicans, or anyone, to stop him?
Slate, Fred Kapan, 20 Jan 2026: Yes, the Greenland Obsession Is a New Level of Madness for Trump, subtitled “The Mad King era is upon us. Will the people with the power to do something about it do anything at all?”
The question of the moment: When will a mere handful of Republican lawmakers come to their senses? That’s all it would take for them to be described in their obituaries as saviors of democracy rather than enablers of its collapse.
The premise here is that some of these politicians are smart enough to notice that their party’s leader, President Donald Trump, has gone bonkers—that his longtime tendency to conflate his ego’s impulses with the nation’s interests has hardened into psychogenic disorders of unprecedented intensity among previous occupants of the Oval Office—and that this merging is having dreadful consequences at home and abroad.
Then quoting that letter to Norway, and unpacking it.
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And
LBVTQNation, Alex Bollinger, 20 Jan 2026: Trump is threatening world peace with his Greenland talk. It’s time for Congress to impeach him., subtitled “People treat him like a toddler babbling incoherently when he’s the president of the United States mobilizing for war.”
Over the long weekend, two things were clear. First, Donald Trump has completely lost his mind. And, second, he will invade Greenland unless someone stops him.
And that someone should be Congress. If starting a war of choice with Europe that could kill millions over a block of ice isn’t a “high crime and misdemeanor,” an abuse of the power the American people decided to entrust him with, then nothing is. The fact that he started all this Greenland talk immediately after running on a “peace” message in the 2024 elections shows he intentionally deceived voters on this matter.
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Then there was the Davos speech, earlier today.
The New Republic, Malcolm Ferguson, 21 Jan 2026: Trump Embarrasses All of America in Slurred, Disjointed Davos Speech, subtitled “Donald Trump gave a terrible speech to a dead silent room at the World Economic Forum.”
President Trump delivered yet another rambling, long-winded speech Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, using the massive world stage to rail against windmills, complain for the umpteenth time about how the 2020 election was rigged, reaffirm his desire to seize Greenland from Denmark, and take credit for every good thing in the world.
The room was dead silent virtually the entire time.
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Once again, why do evangelicals support Trump? To me that support completely discredits them from any kind of moral authority.
The Atlantic, Peter Wehner, 21 Jan 2026: MAGA Jesus Is Not the Real Jesus, subtitled “Trump is causing incalculable damage to the Christian faith, yet most evangelicals will never break with him.”
How Kristi Noem quotes Bible verses; how ICE promotional videos emphasize militaristic images.
The message the Trump administration is sending is not subtle: ICE is doing the work of God. The brutal and sometimes lethal tactics being used by a growing number of ICE agents are divinely sanctioned. Come join this holy campaign.
Leni Riefenstahl would have approved.
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Moving on to other conservative themes.
JMG, 20 Jan 2026: Perkins: ICE Protesters At “New Level Of God-Hatred”
See piece above. It’s significant that Tony Perkins equates opposition to ICE thuggery with “God-hatred.” Joe notes, “Perkins has never said a word about the many times right wing Christians have invaded pro-LGBTQ churches to scream about Satan and sodomy.”
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The Atlantic, Rina Raphael, 20 Jan 2026: America’s Would-Be Surgeon General Says to Trust Your ‘Heart Intelligence’, subtitled “Casey Means thinks improving health is a spiritual project.”
Regressing toward intuitive superstition.
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Slate, Shannon Palus, 20 Jan 2026: The Quiet Misogyny of RFK Jr.’s War on Science, subtitled “The burdens of so many of these proposals fall disproportionately on women, and moms in particular.”
I don’t think he’s smart enough for this to be intentional. Again, he’s just regressing toward an anti-scientific, intuitive, worldview.
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NY Times, 17 Jan 2026: After Renee Good Killing, Derisive Term for White Women Spreads on the Far Right, subtitled “Vocal Trump supporters are demonizing Renee Good, her partner and their allies, with some even using an acronym: AWFUL, or Affluent White Female Urban Liberal.”
Conservatives are so terrified of anyone unlike themselves, they are always finding new groups to hate.
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NY Times, Jessica Grose opinion, 21 Jan 2026: The Heritage Foundation Wants to Send American Women Back Half a Century
Again, it’s always worth wondering what it is conservatives want to conserve. Earlier, I’ve concluded that what they want to preserve is pre-Enlightenment thinking, i.e. the priorities of base human nature: tribalism and reproduction, expanding the tribe. And so here we go:
In the very first paragraph of the Heritage Foundation’s lengthy new policy paper, “Saving America by Saving the Family,” the authors go all the way back to 1776 for inspiration. “In understanding their crowning achievement, Americans must recognize that the founding fathers were, quite literally, fathers: Fifty-four of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence married and had a total of 337 children among them — an average of six each.”
Reading this, I wondered: Are they counting the six children Thomas Jefferson had with Sally Hemings — whom he enslaved and who could not legally refuse unwanted sex — or not? What kind of example is that supposed to set?
That’s just the opening salvo of this confused, retrograde report, which leaves out a lot of important details from its rose-colored history of marriage and family in the United States. It’s a curious set of guidelines for the future, since it seems mired in culture war battles from the 20th century, unable to face the past 60 years of change.
Conservatives don’t do change.
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Yet again.
JMG, 21 Jan 2026: TN Bill Would Legalize Anti-LGBTQ Discrimination
They’ll get away with whatever they can. Just imagine American society if they got away with everything they want.
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Long interactive piece at NYT.
NY Times, Editorial Board, 20 Jan 2026: How Trump Has Pocketed $1,408,500,000
Many, many examples. Yet again: they’re all about making money.
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Quote seen on Fb today:
James Baldwin: “People cling to religion not because it is true, but because it gives them permission to feel righteous while being cruel.”
