This morning the Supreme Court handed down a decision in Allen v. Milligan, a case that challenged the Alabama legislature’s redistricting of the state after the 2020 census on the grounds that the new districts had been configured to pack the state’s growing numbers of Black voters into a single district and thus dilute their vote. Such discrimination based on race, plaintiffs charged, violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA).
Jack Smith's indictments of trump are historic and momentous. When the initial reactions have settled, I hope we still keep our eyes on the current awfulness of Republicans in the House, the other frightening Republican candidates for President and what is occurring in the States for the 2024 elections. Here is one thing to keep our eye on. It is a dangerous and frightening new tool of the far right.
David Brooks yesterday in the NYT was speaking of the No Labels Party as if it were a viable, credible political party. It is not. The No labels Party is an ultra-right endeavor designed to siphon votes from Biden. It is backed by such people as Harlan Crow and is being billed as a Centris Party. Please take every opportunity you can to smash this so-called political Party.
Barbara, I always think of David Brooks is one of the sane conservatives - and then he goes and writes something like this. I too was dismayed and horrified to read that opinion column.
Yep. It was really upsetting to see him and the New York Times giving legitimacy to this trojan horse party. I pushed back in 2 separate comments which they at least published.
David Brooks has never been sane, just more literate than most conservatives - which is why I always expected more of him, but then learned to be chronically disappointed in his sanctimonious blathering.
David Brooks admitted on PBS with Jonathan Capehart that he is a good friend of Harlan Crow and has been for many years and defended Crow's friendship with Thomas. I no longer have a good opinion re David Brooks.
YES! I always think of him as a decent man. And sometimes, so rational. And then, he gets sanctimonious. He’s a study in contradictions. I think a good man. Too often deluded.
I miss Shields quietly, calmly, taking him down on a regular basis. “While I agree with David’s <insert reasonable points >, I disagree with his <insert unreasonable points> because (and then he’d quickly supply his viewpoint until David would be nodding). Good times.
David Brooks is like the storekeeper in a small town who dresses nice during the week, goes to church on Sunday … and hangs a black man with his KKK buddies on Saturday night.
Mike S, your reason for saying that David Brooks is like …'the storekeeper who dresses nice...and hangs a black man with his KKK buddies on a Saturday night'? You have made an atrocious and uncalled for association.
I'm not surprised, Mike S, that you didn't answer why you associated David Brooks with the KKK, let alone hanging a Black man. You have absolutely no evidence to lead in that direction, instead, you seem to prefer making up stuff rather than sharing what you don't like about him with us. 'Only seems like a fine, upstanding ….' you go on and on with your inventions. I would not have asked you about your characterization of Mr. Brooks if it wasn't so outrageous.
<Shudders> how well I still remember the righteous indignation of the “nice” people, so thrilled they could vote their hearts in secret, yet shocked! -- shocked!, I tell you, that the final tally left nothing to the imagination of the true desires of all the “good” (white) folk in town.
Your hyper sensitivity is curious to me. If one ventures out in their toga to address fellow Romans in the court, one should expect comment from your fellow Romans. To think all will agree with you, and no one may also present their opinion baffles me. You are certainly in your right to share your thoughts, and the collective we may agree or disagree. If you only want agreement, remove yourself from the forum.
Well, let's start with No Labels- which claims they're trying to offer an alternative to both parties but is concentrating on states Biden won by small margins.
And who seem to be courting Joe Manchin.
No third party has ever won an election.
But they've thrown several.
David Brooks knows that. The conservative billionaires who are funding No Labels know that.
This is an expensive ruse to cull off enough votes so Trump wins by default.
And it's not the first time Brooks has done something similar.
"He likes to being" should have said "He likes being affable as he makes excuses for bad behavior."
"David Brooks:
Yes, first, I should say I have been friends with Harlan Crow for about 20 years. I find him a wonderful man. He's hosted me at his home in Dallas and in New York. So, reader — viewers should know that that's my connection to Harlan."
So Brooks was fine with Crow showing off his Hitler memorabilia?
I was suspicious of No Labels from the get go and seeing all this info, rightly so. I consider Rs the party of death, so I don't read R columnist. We had dinner this week with a a couple who are active in politics, particularly land use. She starts her morning listening on the radio to a local nut case, so she knows what the enemy is up to.
Fern: I am with you. I disagree with David Brooks; like Alexandra Sokoloff in her comments, David Brooks' literacy has misled me to attribute sanity to him.
I like your replies to "Mike S", who characterizes himself as "goin' to hail" . . . and he makes no sense at all. Sorry, Mike S., but you rage and don't explain.
Thank you, Armand. I am familiar with David Brooks' less conservative positions over the years and attention to morality in our thoughts and actions. While not a fan, I have come to understand his sincerity and respect his compassionate voice.
Mike, I find myself disappointed at your comment. Your observations in this forum are usually spot on. And your escape from an upbringing that was suffocating and full of lies about life is remarkable.
David Brooks is flopping around trying to find a world where we can all get along, compromise and look at people as deserving of some compassion and a fair shot at life. He's a Jew for Jesus (before Jesus was kidnapped by the haters centuries ago.) David Brooks is a human who makes mistakes. Like all of us. And he admits them.
Saying that David Brooks would have KKK buddies suggests either you have some information that we don't have or you may have liked him at one point or perhaps now you are disappointed that he hasn't switched parties? Pretty harsh statement, Mike. What do you base it on?
Brooks may have been excited about the idea of party w/o labels. The idea is appealing to many. Don't be shocked if Capehart enlightens him tonight as to who is funding that con.
I don't like many of the positions Brooks takes. But he has eschewed MAGA madness. I, for one, would be pleased to have him as a neighbor. If I could afford his neighborhood :)
If he's claiming that No Labels is anything but a way to derail Biden, he's a liar.
And to act like he couldn't possibly know that "there was gambling going on in this establishment," (Shocked! Shocked I tell you!!) ignores the facts that he's not your uncle from Dubuque but one of the premier political columnists of our time.
Of course he knows who funds No Labels. Of course he knows they're going after Biden.
David Brooks claims to be "anti MAGA. . . but."
There's usually a but in his criticism.
Michael Steele says he's "anti MAGA AND. . ."
He usually ends his sentences with "and this is why."
Trump and trumpism may be driven by a small group of hardcore believers but it's dangerous because of the large group of conservatives who give it oxygen and a fig leaf.
Bill, I’m glad to see the, as he gets his feet under him, Capehart is starting to take him to task in the same manner that Shields did so well for so many years.
Well said. People are complex. Brooks is multidimensional, with ideas and opinions I like as well as those I don’t. I appreciate that. And as for judging him on the basis of his friendship with Crow.... I had a family member who died with a house full of Nazi propaganda. He took pleasure in using every racist epithet at every family Thanksgiving dinner. He was not multidimensional. That’s a whole different ballgame.
Yes, having grown up in the South, I recognize it all too well, and since leaving have become accustomed to the incredulity of outsiders that it could be so.
People would be beyond shocked at the relatives/ancestors who were KKK members. I was raised in NC and I know of what I speak. Two days ago, I wore my tee that says “Make Racism Wrong Again” and a guy at PetSmart told me that he was in FL recently and a guy tried to get him to join KKK in Their area. A woman about my age said, I thought everybody knew that. I said not anymore, it’s a thing now. Everybody needs to know that, every last one of us.
To say that you are unfair would be a gross understatement. Brooks might be like the storekeeper who fails to stand up to stop a lynching (although I’m not at all sure of that), but his longstanding rejection of Trump shows that he would refuse to join in. As for not standing up, there’s a reason why Gary Cooper’s marshal in High Noon has to act alone.
He is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He says one thing and does another. He has built a tidy web of contradictions. The Weavers Project? Follow the money.
I reprinting the following from Joyce’s piece feeling it needs to be said..but with added opinion:
When the flapper in the toilet breaks it has to be replaced, but first the water needs shut off.
Immediate steps need taken to fix the toilet , folks.
Warning Notice:
To ALL the complicit. The ruse is up. You’re next.
To us: Stay the course. The work is far from done. There is no Glory lap. Thank you.
Some may feel relief. But , we need to hold even more dear the Republic’s principles. The fair albeit lengthy course of due process. It takes time to right the ship ,people to see the light/let go/heal. There’s many a lose fray to mend. All of them need carefully evaluated for how far the tear weakened the whole piece and therefore loving knit back together. This action is as time consuming as our patience needed along this road we’ve travel thus far.
I believe in you , my brothers, sisters, children ...to do it best possible with continued hope❤️
Brooks occasionally sounds reasonable, but his ideology shows through, and he struggles to admit that his conservative (if they are) principles have no home in American politics. Yesterday’s column buried the lede well below the fold, and gave the right-wing fellow travelers behind Hidden Labels comfort they do not deserve. Most of the article was pure fiction.
There are so many comments made to NYT articles that even the few who bother to make them don't bother to read them all. I suspect many make their comments simply to 'feel good,' satisfying themselves by sounding off. I suspect the NYT just uses this feature to count up their readers' reactions to columns like that of David Brooks.
And how do you know this? What does it mean when someone replies to a comment? NYT counts clicks on articles not the comments. And if I wanted to make myself feel better I would take a walk. I certainly don't need the NYT to like me.
I just don't think the Comments section on some NYT articles is as important to readers as it is to those who make the comments, and comment upon others readers' comments. That is my opinion. Far from putting anyone down, that is just my opinion. Keep making comments. Everywhere, including the NYT and LFAA!
I disagree. In the Washington Post I make a point of posting data and fact driven viewpoints in the comments sections. There have been numerous times where someone has said thanks and they could use the information to pass along.
This sort of continual disappointment can be avoided by simply... not listening to conservatives (in media, at least). I've found this streamlined method of info intake to be most useful.
This is how we win. Countering the lies. I don't carry any kind of existential "continual disappointment" around. It's a matter of taking care of the business of protecting Democracy.
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."
Steve Schmidt hosted Joyce Vance on his The Warning Substack. One thing he said that stuck with me is that those 30% of R voters do NOT care about electing someone who is interested in governing. They just want someone who will constantly magnify their grievances. 45 is definitely their man for that.
In the instance of the Brooks column I wasn't going for the MAGAs. I was going for the folks who don't know the background of the No Labels Party. In the case of the WaPo ultra-right columns I post the facts from people like the esteemed Rosenberg to spread the word to others who can carry them forward.
In other words, my intended audience isn't the cult. It is the other 70%. We have got to counter the culture wars with deliberate logical and factual information. Lord knows the media isn't going to do it.
Re: my comment on Capehart ripping Brooks tonight, I am constantly gobsmacked when PBS puts those shills like Gary Abernathy to discuss politics with Jonathan. What an insult to his/our intelligence. Makes me want to suspend my sustaining donations to my public television station as a form of protest. Please put a legitimate conservative--maybe George Will (are there any left?) to discuss the week's politics.
Lynell, your comment is spot on . . . . although I do think it is closer to 100% vs. 30% of repugs who are not interested in electing someone who has a clue about governing.
I read that too and found it very sad that 30% would support someone who is a proven lier, conman and bully instead of someone who really wants to govern for the people.
...And let's not forget his proclivities re sex. He thinks he's the only one on the planet who has any worth. He's so obnoxious, I can hardly believe any woman would want him as a mate.
How we win is educating the electorate - those that wish to know the truth as well as some that don’t - about what the Parties stood for and stand for and their histories. One of the most important things is reminding people as well as enlightening them as to which political party led the country into the Great Depression and the Great Recession and most economic downturns in our nation’s history.
Educate people as to the causes of inflation, a natural phenomena when there are too many dollars (or whatever currency one’s using) chasing too few goods and services. [But also know that there is element of greed that will also have a part in inflationary cycles]. Not just our economy but the world’s economies were shutdown for almost two full years and production levels were significantly reduced. Demand for gasoline during the pandemic was comparatively nil - nonexistent - as opposed to where it is now and where it was prior to the pandemic shutdown. If production kept up during the pandemic, where and how were we going to store all of the unused gasoline. There was the period where oil refineries and gasoline companies were struggling to keep up with demand - and yes, at some point - part of that struggle came in the form of greed and price gouging ... and not just in the fuel production areas of our economies. People (Americans) needed to have been reminded that we were not the only country to experience high gasoline prices as well as inflationary prices in our economy.
I am hearing that civics and economics are being less emphasized and taught in our elementary and secondary schools and if that is so - what a tragic blunder!?!?!
You are right, we need to educate the electorate and I nominate Frances Perkins as the one whom we should discuss far and wide. Frances Perkins was FDR's first Secretary of Labor and Perkins was the architect and genius behind The New Deal. She was a giant among mere mortals. Check this out: https://daily.jstor.org/woman-architect-of-the-new-deal/
I have her photo and her biography. The policies in place in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland are those advocated by Frances Perkins, and their people are the happiest in the world.
Yes, she is my hero& heroine! Look her up under Robert Shetterly’s paintings of “Americans who tell the Truth”! A good time to have a show of these truly “great” Americans!!
Well said. Thanks! We need to have those pesky things known as facts handy. Knowing Biden's record on unemployment, inflation going down the situation at the border is good.
Oh, by all means, I canand do engage with and tactfully counter the conservatives in my real-life interactions. But I realized a lil' while back that reading [insert David Brooks-like Ivy-educated conservative mainstream paper columnist here] does not actually help with that. So a part of my diet they are no longer.
Brooks is simply the case this time. Let's not get stuck on that ok? The bigger picture is to present a different reality than the culture war, lazy "facts" of main stream media. I hope you follow Simon Rosenberg's Hopium Substack work and you use his work in your conversations. Also, Oliver Willis' work of compiling Biden accomplishments is simply stunning.
Understandable... But it is all-important to know one's enemy.
How's a doctor to cure a disease if he doesn't know its symptoms and all its nasty side-effects?
Mask, head covering, surgical gloves may not even be sufficient. Maybe those doing research into the Freedom Caucus Syndrome will need the full astronaut-like protective precautions needed when studying Ebola.
We need some very strong disinfectant. Like comparing some of the loony and mean spirited things modern Republicans say with vivid, demonstrable images of real stuff. We know from history that Big Lies are creepily effective and dangerous, but the convoluted lies of modern Republicans seem as though they are stretching quite thin and potentially publicly breakable; "so wedded to lying about reality that today we saw Florida governor and Republican candidate for president Ron DeSantis circulating fake images of rival candidate Donald Trump embracing right wing nemesis Dr. Anthony Fauci...". A tangled web indeed.
From the trolls I’ve run into on several Substacks, there are plenty of literate arses who are impressed with their ability to obfuscate, expound bull Schitt, and spew poison on many who are impressed with such.
I agree: education alone is an inadequate defense against the lies, conspiracy theories and raw emotional grievances of the RW.
We Dems tend to be very wedded to the idea that educating people will fix things--not so.
Too many Repubs (particularly the MAGA cult) have what certainly appears to be a deep emotional connection to Trump's "cause" via his grievance-loaded tirades and rants. We must find a way to promote an emotional connection to upholding democracy and protecting the Constitution, in order to wean these folks from the apparent delights of Trump's lying, garbage-filled rallies and "truths" nonsense.
I hear enough second hand from chump and plenty others. I wish we could get the news about their machinations without having to hear the whining voices, or seeing their disgusting visages.
Will, I don't go anywhere near the rantings of most of them, but I guess I like to take a cautious occasional look when I think they might be crumbling...
Not a moron - a smart, articulate conservative who crafts his right of center political bias to seem “sensible.” The John Roberts of media. “Smiling faces tell lies...beware of the handshake that hides a snake.”
Yep....I read one book of his and I hated it; it was all tired stereotyping and assorted garbage. Mr. Brooks seems to pride himself on his intellectual qualities and amazing insights--I didn't find him nearly as fascinating as he finds himself. Brooks makes me think of Ben Shapiro, who is also despicable, but in a different way.
Conservatism is about greed and selfishness, which are animalistic in nature. Conservatives are all about hoarding resources of all kinds to use to enrich themselves. Greed does not require any great intellectual ability.
Yes and a sneaky, erudite one who has a major column in the NYT. This column pushing the No Labels Party was actually about not having a 3rd party candidate this election but he used it to push the legitimacy of the dark group. There were enough commenters who were buying his lie about the Harlan Crow group.
"Conservative," as a political term, is now hollow and meaningless. The "Conservatives" are now those who have learned how to siphon trillions out of the American economy, ballooning the national debt from $1 trillion in 1982 to $33 trillion today, along the way duping the common folk with wedge issues such as abortion, immigration, women's rights, LGBTQ issues and, of course, outright racism. Brooks is part of that great wasteland once known as Conservatism.
Your comment about the national debt attracted my attention because that "ballooning" you mention is a more recent phenomenon than 1982. As one of our useful "right-er wing" gadflies here pointed out recently, the debt/GDP ratio shot past 100% and into into the current 115-125% range in 2008. He seemed to think this little fact (can't recall source, just google "current debt to gdp ratio") showed that liberals are terrible.
Instead, it's a reminder that we converted at ton of private debt into public debt when we bailed the rich f**kers out after they crashed the world economy with their arcane speculations and fraudulent asset packaging. According to G.W. Bush, and after the election, Obama, we were "saving the world from another Great Depression" by shouldering the debt and "stabilizing" the markets. And, please recall, it worked. The torrent of fiat money has led to a quicker apparent recovery in the U.S. than in many, more cautious, countries.
Those other countries may turn out to be right in the end, perhaps because they better understood that once you give taxpayer money to a rich f**ker, they'll never give it back willingly. Why is no one talking about our current debt troubles as a direct result of saving rich f**kers about 15 years ago? When Republicans refuse to talk about tax increases, why doesn't anyone point out that the wealthy need to give back the money we used to save their asses just a few years ago? Why don't we point it out, frequently and loudly?
You are absolutely correct and the first step to save this republic is to revise the tax code, including the income tax code, and take back trillions of those dollars. Otherwise, our children and grandchildren will curse us (rightfully so) to their graves.
May it not take rather more than frequent and loud pointing out of the truth to prevent said f**kers from frequent repeat performances of their economic crimes? More than that to prevent their allies, the golems in Congress from wrecking the Republic...
In Saudi they'd have been headless long, long ago.
Once more would already be too frequent for people set on doing to capitalism what the Soviets did to socialist central planning and bringing the house down around our ears.
It may take a lot more than pointing out the truth, although if that "more" involves guns, civil strife, and war, then the cure is worse than the disease.
Frankly, I'm rather torn over whether I'd rather live in a Republican dictatorship, like Russia, or a land devastated by civil war, like Syria or U.S. in the late 1800's. In the former, I'd be hunted down like the liberal rat I am. In the latter, well...I'm an old man with a bad heard, so I don't think I'd have to deal with it for very long.
"Why don't we point it out, frequently and loudly?"
I don't know. I mean, we don't have to sink to their level to underline the dishonestly and corruptness of positions. Obama AG Eric holder infamously said " I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that ... if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. " OK, to a significant degree the Administration's hand was forced in the meltdown to protect the public, but seemingly with little plan for the future. What happens if you DON'T prosecute (as was done in the smaller S&L crash)?
Should irresponsible banks still own the place? Should we make "so large" that they are unaccountable, even larger (which we did). Judging from the statistics I encountered, that despite widespread suffering the 1% hoovered up most of the gains made during the recession, while people we know lost their homes.
I think of the scientific method as "conservative" in the sense of "cautious". A "conservative" estimate leaves some margin for possible error. Political "Conservatives" of modern parlance do anything but.
What we used to call (environmental) "conservation" is conservative with a small "c". Glass-Steagal was a conservative approach to banking. Threatening to undercut the full faith and credit of the USA simply reckless. Modern political/ social "Conservatives" seem to favor a retreat to the "divine right of kings" or in any case a very stratified society with them in the dominant position. That has plenty of precedent, but after all we have learned and all previous generations struggled for, is that conservative small "c" in any meaningful sense?
In a way I hate to be a spoiler, but there is nothing of Rush left. When he joined that long caravan that marches inexorably to the grave, he passed totally and completely into oblivion, as we all shall in time.
Why oh why they keep him on PBS weekly news commentary I'll never know, he's as conservative as they come, thinking Harlan Crow is such a wonderful, decent guy. Yeah.... but ...
He's saner and more literate than, say, Marc Thiessen of WaPo, but this illustrates nothing more than the dangers of "grading on a curve." Which too much of the supposedly respectable media have been doing for years -- witness the 2016 presidential campaign when one candidate (guess which one) was expected to have serious knowledge about policy and the other was not (guess who got elected).
Susanna, Thiessen is insane AND insufferable. I would retract my original comment about Brooks - but the fact is, after negotiating the politics of being briefly a union leader and having to eke out compromise with people I despised, I am always looking for those in the opposition who can be reasoned with just enough to swing a vote the way I fervently wish it to go. And on this issue (no third party candidate) Brooks is that guy.
The No Labels Party is out there and Brooks likes the idea of such an effort. I read him and enjoy his commentary on PBS each week because he does think outloud and tries to amke sense from his background as a once conservative. This is his second article. I don't think he is insane or disingenuous and I don't believe a three-horse race is better in a two-horse political environment we have in our country. A party of independents is a room full of nebbishes, always looking for a better reason or the perfect. Here is his conclusion:
"I’m not saying my friends at No Labels have chosen the wrong strategy. I’m saying this is not the right election to carry out their strategy. I wouldn’t blame them for keeping their options open for a few more months (something unexpected might happen). But if it’s still a 50-50 Biden-Trump race in the fall, I hope they postpone their efforts for four years. With Trump on the scene, the potential rewards don’t justify the risks."
During a PBS NewsHour segment several weeks (months?) ago, Brooks candidly disclosed that he's friends with Harlan Crow. He made it known because the topic of discussion was Clarence Thomas' conflicts of interest. I think he may have a blind spot where Crow is concerned.
Straight from the Putin Playbook, as devised in the "German Democratic Republic" and perfected in Russia, involving whole stables of Trojan horses, fake candidates with the same name and other clever-clever devices.
Information Warriors should mobilize, amplify, and “pants” the No Labels Party in public. Don’t let people like Brooks give this organization credibility. Follow the money and expose the strategy.
Trump indicted. Radical Republicans jump to his aid
Dave Fake News Cub Reporter Dave overhead a Trump loyalist saying “The Don told us, I’m innocent. I used my mind to declare all laws I break be smitten from the books. How can I break a law that no longer exists?”
I had missed the background on No Labels, but the only other mention I've heard of them was a warning from the Maine Secretary of State that if a voter found they were enrolled with No Labels and never intended to, they could change their enrollment back. Apparently there were some shenanigans afoot to generate enough enrolled voters to get a slot on the ballot, but they got caught.
Yep I realize that. It really was upsetting to see him so casually pushing the No Labels Party. This trojan horse party scares me for some reason. We all know who Harlan Crow is and he is a creator of this Party. The fascists are determined to defeat Biden. Billing the No Label Party as Moderate is a lie.
Meanwhile, the sheer profusion of non-starter GOP presidential candidates does itself begin to feel like a backhanded way of supporting Donald Drumpf... without backing him. Pretending to stab him in the back while ensuring that no one else can come out on top.
In which case, it's a masterly exercise in manipulative Putinesque hypocrisy.
Sometimes I wonder if some of these people just want the thrill of "running for President of the United States" and like seeing their name in the media.
I believe Brooks mentioned on The News Hour that he personally knows Harlan Crow and that they are "friends". He mentioned it when they were talking about the Clarence Thomas corruption.
IMHO, there is no defense of the Republican Party or its proposed off-shoot. (A rose by any other name is still a rose..) Period. To do so prolongs the problem, and the problem is the intent to undermine the country as we were raised to believe it should be. Based on its origins in racism, Christian nationalism, and oligarchy, why defend it? David, et al have lost my respect if ever he (they) had it.
Well said. At this point there is no "maybe" to a person's stated beliefs. Both George Will and David Brooks have proven themselves to be no friend to Democracy. It is always disheartening to see one's guru crash and burn but that's just the way it is. I hope the Brooks devotees can look into what he's really about these days. (it's no good for sure)
Sometimes David Brooks, a decent man, loses his way. Like us, a sinner in need of redemption. When we think he has broken through the capitalist/GOP fog he founders yet again. It is very sad...
And that was his test of how his (and fox's) brainwashing tactics had been sealed in his followers. It was his proof he could do anything he wanted and they could no longer think critically. They fully belonged to him. That was the true moment we had a HItler on our hands running for POTUS. A very dangerous moment where the media failed us completely to not raise this as the ultimate power over others. Instead, they made money hand over fist. America lost.
Shockingly (not), some of these 30% have been scammed by con artists (not even directly related to Trump) selling “genuine” Trump currency. Personally, I would think the Trump fundraising e-mail lists would be gold for Nigerian princes everywhere.
It is indeed frightening to realize that 30% of US voters are mentally deranged misfits that worship the orange baboon and the Fascists in Congress and the Senate..
My ultra MAGA youngest sister posted on FB last night something about how our government fast tracks the prosecution of Trump, but slow walks investigations of the Bidens. I blocked her posts long ago, but my husband did not and read it to me last night - don’t know why I still let it get to me, but hearing this tied my stomach in knots. She is the perfect Trump soldier - loyal to the bitter end. Any amount of verifiable facts will not budge her.
My husband has turned away from Trump and now supports DeSantis. He has no social media knowledge but insists because he only reads right-wing media that there are no book banning, there’s a “Biden Crime Family “ and now that Trumps indictment is political and the suppena used by the FBI to invade Maralago was no legal and Trump had previously made those documents public.
I send him sources like Forbes and WSJ (he doesn’t trust any other sources) but he says that I’m reading fake news. It’s hard to see the guy i married 40 years ago under this stuff.
Yes, we need a caring club
Meanwhile, I just want Trumps trial to come before the beginning of primaries and the Espionage indictment to stick so he can’t run.
Maureen my Trump brother has confided he may have to kill me when the war breaks out. Nice. Like your sister he ate too many rushlimburgers. My other Trump brother died but I threw rhododendrons in the outgoing tide at his memorial in Astoria regardless.
Alas, this ignorance isn't even blissful. I think that most of those members of my family who take pride in knowing nothing still love me, and it's mutual, even if understanding is not.
America's political commissars, its blockwarts, its little Vyshinskis and Freislers, its latterday Inquisitors... are so bloodthirsty. Any excuse for killing is better than none. And differences of opinion justify death warrants.
Pat and Maureen, we ought to start a support group for SWAB/ Siblings Who Are Brainwashed!!!! We too try to keep the conversation anywhere else than politics but still she launches scud missiles!!!
Maureen & Pat, I read your comments with sadness that tears at my heart. I feel so fortunate that my sibs and I have a close bond & share a common view of the world. My only lament is that they live so far away that we rarely get to hang out together….feel lucky indeed.
Everybody has a limit Barbara, some people can stand on the edge of a cliff, others need to stand back and we learning those parameters. There is some good in all of us and I can hold on to that.
Good God. I could have written the same thing about my sister. Blood is not thicker than water. I grew tired of her Fox News sound bites and bumper sticker politics. I walked away years ago and never looked back.
wow ... Talk about human nature ... for some reason, I believe that human nature isn’t sufficient or a poor excuse to explain why human nature isn’t an appropriate explanation to support or explain this ... so many of our fellow citizens involved in this cult-like behavior!?!?
Cults are insidious, serving deep seated needs that those members involved may not even know exist. I have good friends, intelligent, educated left wing folks, who lived for 9 years in a cult in CA. Invariably, a charismatic leader is involved, usually male, although there is a religious cult very near where I live on Cape Cod that was started by two women. Trump found his target audience and very skillfully manipulated them, then bullied the press and the politicians into submission.
My ex sister is exactly like your sister. She is loyal and dedicated and worships TUMP. She sometimes cries like a baby when someone says something bad about TUMP. I am glad i don't have to be around her any longer, if i did, she would be crying about that orange baboon much more after i told her what i think about TUMP. These so-called investigations about Biden are made up by the TUMP loving politicians that are wanting revenge for the TUMP crimes. TUMP has broke the law many, many times in plain site. These TUMP people are vicious and horrible excuses for human beings. They are out to destroy the United States. My youngest son got mad at me for comparing TUMP to Hitler. I told him to read, or watch documentaries about Hitler. I don't care how mad anyone gets at me for telling then what sorry SOB Donald TUMP is, actually how horrible most all Rethuglicans are. I am about ready to leave the United States, and if TUMP does win, i will be leaving for good. There are way too many insane nut jobs here for my comfort.
I pity these people, but try to stop from hating them. They are persuadable humans caught in a trap they willingly walked into for a myriad of reasons. After all is said and done, we still need to go forward with them somehow. This is not without frustration, I know. But history shows that this will be the case.
Speaking of History, again and again, the wisdom of Spanish philosopher and historian Jorge Santayana (1863-1952) continues to guide us, at least those who are paying attention: “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” It still retains its warning. The fanatical right wing that has become the official repub party by default is not a modern day invention. Santiago also warned “Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.”
We can read and repeat history, but where do we go from here? The repub voters and their leaders are firmly entrenched in our political and social system. Now. Speak up, support Democracy through action. This is not the time to go silently into the night.
I love your comment, Irenie. I think I spent the first few years after 2015, stunned at the turn of the gop to full-out complicity with the extreme-right. Now, I am less naive about the power-game of it all, and realize, we are in an epic fight. A fight that did not have to be. But, as you said “doomed to repeat.” My embraced-quote these past years has been attributed to Shakespeare: “Same Play, Different Actors.” This is our historic fight whether it coulda’ or shoulda’ have been different or not. In the moment we are in, I’m trying just to put my shoulder to the wheel and push in the ways I can and have ability to do.
M, we have much to learn from the past if we “get” it. Shakespeare, as you quoted, should always be with us, if our education system were universal. But it would not surprise me if the classics are on the banned list. One or two newscasters, yesterday, quoted the Bard several times in their round table discussion about TFG and his downfall. Poetry and Prose a balm for the soul. Langston Hughes: “What happens to a dream deferred?”
More questions than answers, enough to make us think. And most likely banned.
The question becomes: How much can you trust them? I had a fourth grade teacher - 1954 - who mentioned to the class during a discussion that if we were ever invaded by an enemy force, there would be those among us who would gladly offer their help and support to the enemy forces.
I've said it a million times now: the biggest horror to me of the Trump election in 2016 (not that THAT wasn't horrible in itself!) was finding out just how many of our fellow citizens had been sitting there, quietly poisonous, and now were freed to express their hatefulness everywhere.
Reminds me of when our friendly Serbian restaurant turned vicious overnight and spewed hatred not only against neighboring Croats, Bosniaks and Kosovars but against the entire non-Serbian world, especially any not sharing the same general features and skin color...
Maybe they're still stewing in hate, years after their vile wars ended.
Sadly this depends on the district in NY. Esp outside of NYC and the other large cities fear-based , false Christianity, white-supremacy , “we back the blue” sentiment is strong. Stefanik won the majority vote handily over the last 3 exceptionally sound caring public minded Dems in her district.
It was reported that some MAGA COVID sufferers took their last COVID-labored breath believing that the threat was a hoax, but other afflicted persons requested vaccination, although although too late in the game for it to benefit them. I am hoping that a reality barrage will shake the faith of of those for whom all lies all the time may not be the thrill they once thought.
But DeSantis doesn't have the star power, the unique personality of TFIFG (the federally-indicted former guy) to win over the hearts and minds of Americans who are repulsed by RDS's govt control of schools, book banning, permitless concealed gun carry, attack on LGBTQ+ and Disney, etc. He doesn't engage well with audiences or one-on-one. But then again, I was wrong on TFIFG, and it's all about the Electoral College anyway, so what do I know?
“They” are wishing the same about us. Isn’t that the place they want us: “Disgusted” with each other? Disgust is stronger than hate, and more pliable to manipulators. Atrocities of history, and the present day are committed by humans manipulated to dehumanize others by disgust. Ejaculate that frustrated line of comment today if you want. But it usually conceives atrocities down the road. People listen to you TCinLA. Is that were you want to lead?
I agree, MLRGRMI. And I'm sad to say that TC's violent hyperbole has led me to read their posts substantially less; he didn't used to write that way even a year ago. It's troubling that he doesn't seem to realize that his vehemence makes him less persuasive, not more.
That immovable 30% is filled with a variety of folks and attitudes. History suggests that there will always be people who will vote for someone no matter their deeds. Reasons for Trump's support below. Some folks vote on a single issue:
1. White Supremacy - fear of all others
2. Abortion foes - the "murder of babies"
3. "Replacement theory" fans - anti immigration
4. Basic bigotry fed from birth - less about fear, more about hate
5. Gun ownership worshipers - a cult promoted by industry
6. Tax cheaters who hate the IRS - the Oligarchs who are funding this whole group
7. Legacy attitudes from those who are still fighting the Civil War - culture warriors who actually believe that slavery was not the reason for the bloody battles. Plantation Oligarchs created a myth that won't die. In fact, most 19th century Southern whites were oppressed as well. But the Lords of Cotton knew how to redirect their anger. It was a road map for the Oligarchs of today.
We should remember just how popular Charles Lindbergh was. A Nazi sympathizing hater of Jews. People loved him. That 30% has always been with us. And always will be. There is no reasoning with or persuading haters. They just hate and the more we try to change their thinking the more they hate.
The first answer is to outvote them. And marginalize them socially. Shunning and shaming come to mind. And of course, if they break laws...
The second answer is to figuratively behead (I guess topple is a better word) the Oligarchs who continue to fuel the foolish hatred of that 30%. Tax the shit out of them. Claw back some of the national treasure they have stolen since Reagan gave them a license to hunt the poor and middle class. Hurt them where it counts. In the wallet.
And pass some laws like Ukraine did. Their Oligarchs are not allowed to fund elections. Duh! The fact that some idiot tech titans can give legs to the Presidential campaign of RFK, jr - a man who denies science and "talks to dead people" - that fact suggests that the 30% are puppets of the rich. This needs to end. The authors of the First Amendment did not envision an America where a handful of people would be so rich that they could buy elections and....the Supreme Court.
And it is endlessly fascinating to me how the supporters will send money to “support” him, but howl about increased money for SNAP recipients, because hungry people are undeserving, and they don’t want to “waste their money”.
It is beyond my comprehension! Heartbreaking! I am tired of the headlines about TFG being the first president in history to face criminal charges...as if it is a reason to not do anything about it.
To look the other way is a greater evil.
And with all that, it is still ok with people to cast their votes his way??? How sick is that???
The HFC is very vocal about their positions and what they want, but what about all the other SILENT GOP-ers who don’t have the strength of character to speak up? They really need to be voted out because their silence is self-serving.
I really cannot believe that there are enough people in this country who truly believe the behavior of TFG doesn’t matter.
I don’t want to live in a country where it seems the general populace lacks a moral compass and promotes hate at every opportunity, or worse yet, don’t speak up against hate. My parents didn’t raise us that way!
Where is the hope when we have people like Jim Jordan, DeSantis, that crazy from NY (Santos) and so many more wing-nuts making decisions or better yet, the lack of decisions.
So sorry to ramble and rant and waste your time, but I am feeling so completely bereft of hope for this country.
Becky, I am made aware of this "craziness" by the lack of substantive debates before the American people.
Too many are making choices without knowing or researching reliable sources. Propagana is gaining a dangerous foothold. We have become lazing "thinkers". Just go to the people who are in the same political party, who go to the same place of worship, who watch the same news feeds.....
I think that "has gained" is more accurate than "is gaining". The propaganda and lies that the MAGAts in my world spout off with is disgusting. They counter with "well, we believe the same thing about you, so there."
This hits differently. The federal indictments, I mean.
Sure, porn star hush money was a nice hors d'ouerve. But any privileged Manhattan sleazebag could end up as tabloid fodder for that. Multiple Espionage Act violations, straight from DOJ? That just seems far more *uniquely fitting* for the monster who tried to end democracy, doesn't it? Our federal government was attacked by this virus in human form, and after a prolonged fever, is beginning to expectorate. Reassuring! And there is most likely more to come.
Look, I wrote here a while back that I was refusing to get caught up in Cheeto-Behind-Bars fantasies, as I think that the battle for the health of our nation is larger than Von Tweeto himself, and there are more productive places for me to put my mental energies. I stand by that fully. Today, there are tens and tens of millions of people we are sharing our country with, that are having the inverse reaction to those on this board. They are frightened and furious at what they see as the unraveling of our laws, the dawning of a frightening new era of bureaucratic weaponization, the crushing of national morale, etc. If the Never-Popularly-Elected Former Guy is convicted, they will likely go to their graves insisting that was the day America died by the hands of the elite liberal mob. Today, with regards to this state of affairs I can only say...
Screw 'em.
Sorry, but I'm not Ghandi. I have dug deep into my pockets, searching for a single crumb of a remaining f#ck to give, and have come up with nothing but lint. These folks have bought into their doomsday cult of choice despite all opportunities to correct their willful ignorance, and held us captive for years in their twisted alternate reality. Those of us with any sense of principle or decency or actual patriotism have had to live with the wonderment of if anything really mattered anymore. As a younger person, would I have a future? A country? A livable planet? We don't know for sure yet, but things are looking up, today especially. Let the cultists rage. They will anyway.
Justice has reasserted itself. The law has reasserted itself. REALITY has reasserted itself. Because, first and foremost, the reality-based majority of voters reasserted itself. Let us be proud. Let us keep vigilant and keep going. Let the DOJ keep going, too. Let the juries decide.
We really need to re-evaluate pigs. They are capable of holding their own forums. Of all the animals I ever fed pigs were far and away the most articulate. I even went so far as to learn their language. Pig Latin. Whatay isay notay toay loveay aboutay pigsay. Whew, spellcheck was a bugger. My typing finger is tired. While the syntax comes out somewhat Canadian, that is a good thing as we love Canadians as well as pigs. Hmnn, something seems off here. What would Allen say?
I think you may be quoting Robert Heinlein from his book "Time Enough for Love," a narration of the life of a 1000-year-old man. Excellent book even though it hasn't aged well, since Mr. Heinlein was also so much of a libertarian that he almost an anarchist. The sexist, classist, and libertarian attitudes in his books make them seem very dated now.
Yes, it sounds like Heinlein, though I suspect the origin of the expression is much (much) older. Never read "Time Enough for Love," but Heinlein was my favorite author when I was a "young adult" and he was writing for the YA crowd. Have Spacesuit, Will Travel. The Door Into Summer. Starman Jones. As he started writing for adults, and as I became an adult, I cared less for his writing: his philosophy started to grate.
When I was a teenager, I read everything of Heinlein's that I could find. As a nervous, self-involved nerd, all the obnoxious socio-political stuff in his books went right over my head, I was so enraptured by Martians, spaceships, and ray guns.
But when I tried to reread them as an adult, I was amazed at how much stuff I overlooked. If you want to explore a well-written and truly poisonous sci-fi tale from Heinlein, try "Farnham's Freehold." The whole racist-libertarian worldview is on display, including cannibalism of pretty white girls by rich, black, African conquerors. Ick.
As a nervous, self-involved nerd, I also read whatever Heinlein I could find, including Farnham's Freehold. Even at the time, I thought it was a vicious lampoon of libertarianism, which is one reason I was shocked when I started reading about some of his actual political views. I tried to re-read Farnham recently, and could not get past the opening scene over dinner, before the bombs fell. Poisonous is a good description.
One step at a time before dancing in the streets. He has been indicted... for a hearing. After that MAY come criminal charges...and after that MAYBE conviction and sentencing. Meantime, you are right to consider what our attention is being diverted FROM during this prolonged s---show. When mainstream media resumes 'It's ALL about TRUMP" diatribe, we'll certainly know what they are counting on us to focus on.
While TFIFG (the federally-indicted former guy) tried to end democracy, let's not forget his minions continue the effort. Yesterday's SC decision was a rare victory to preserve voting rights.
"If the people in power can jail their political opponents at will, we don’t have a republic."
—Josh Hawley
"If a sitting US Senator describes a federal criminal grand jury investigation with hundreds of witnesses and tens of thousands of documents as “at will,” that Senator is a MORON and an embarrassment to the republic. Then again, that has been Hawley’s reputation for years."
—David Shuster
"By statute, Jack Smith serves as a special prosecutor who is not a Biden Administration political apointee.
Predictably, the right-wing outrage machine will now crank out the disinformation and innuendo aimed directly at the former guy's poorly educated base."
To Josh Hawley: if the people in elected office can commit crimes at will we no longer have a republic. Traitorous, cowardly, performative little weasel.
My dad had a rather colorful term to describe people like Josh Hawley. He would have called him a piss ant. Traitorous, performative little weasel works too.
Does anybody remember when, upon departing the White House, Trump left a "nice" letter for Biden, who didn't disclose the contents? My inner conspiracy theorist whispers darkly that the letter suggested a quid pro quo: Trump stays out of jail, and Hunter Biden also stays out of jail. Is this imagined deal unraveling? Or is Trump actually in little danger, with "multiple indictments" simply being the plot line of the latest season of the "Trump and the White House" reality show being broadcast almost daily on MNM (mainstream news media)?
I think you just repeated one of the theories mentioned in the article as an example of manufactured misinformation. We know that Trump tries to corrupt everyone he comes in contact with. He does not understand that some people are not open to his idea of deals. That is why he was so bad at being President. Biden, on the other hand, is good at being President and has had a lifetime of experience doing politics while not engaging in criminal behavior, and this just drives the right wing crazy, doesn’t it? The idea that someone says what he means, and does what he says, is incomprehensible to those so lost in webs of corruption and deceit they no longer understand concepts like personal responsibility. More and more complicated and manufactured conspiracy theories are not going to help you understand why Biden does what he does. Putting this misinformation and innuendo into threads like this reveals you to be either gullible in the extreme, incapable of understanding what you read, or an active promulgator of such misinformation.
I just love a well set up ambush. Spending the night patching bullet holes to get ready for tomorrows kill zones. I wonder why we need to revisit these killing fields. (Sigh) step aboard and let’s go ahead and dress these wounds. We can stop the bleeding here and I will get you out of here to 24th evac. Maybe one of you will get lucky and get to go back to the states. Work work work. I feel like I’m going insane. I still have room for six more. Any more bleeders? No? Okay we can grab those two dead’s then. We are clear for take off on the left Sir!
You are entitled to your opinion. You seem to be writing to be supportive of someone else, with little regard to the substance of what is being said.
It seems that some people have a sensitive reaction when I call out Biden as a Vampire Liberal from tiny corporatist Delaware.
p.s. I think that, by imposing your view that the second comma should be a period, you are exposing your insensitivity to periods who self-identify as commas.
While your assessment of Biden as a "Vampire Liberal" may even be accurate, he sure knows how to get government and politics to work. I get the sense that Biden is a guy who's resolved so many issues in his life, and has accumulated so much wealth, that he no longer cares about self-dealing -- he already has everything he wants and knows that he's near death. He seems to have returned to the reason he entered politics -- to serve the public good.
Sort of like me “imagining” you are a short, green Martian gasping for Martian air with only a few minutes left before you beam back to Mars where silly stories are met with a vacuum of silence.
I find it notable that our own troll, John S, deems a logic-based, on-point reply by a woman a “rude screed,” but responds with a modestly humorous emoji to the overtly “rude” comment of a man, Mike S (which, btw, made me laugh out loud). A troll and a misogynist too? Curious, that word choice, “itchy.”
p.s. Logic-based is a bit of a stretch, and "on-point" is wishful thinking, unless you admire talking points of minions of Vampire Liberal Joe Biden from tiny corporatist Delaware.
As my grandmother's fourth cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said (obliquely referring to Herbert Hoover), "Keep your engineers on tap, but not on top!"
You missed the central point. Biden respects the independence of the DOJ. That's the way our government is supposed to work. The former guy sees the DOJ as a tool in his tool box from Hell. TFG used the DOJ for his own purposes. He can't imagine that someone like Biden actually has the integrity to believe in a nation where justice is for all.
I don't think that Biden has enough independence to respect the "independence" of fellow corporatist shill Merrick Garland.
I have a lot of respect for what Ramsey Clark became after his term as Attorney General.
As I've said before, I'm an old-school FDR Democrat, and I strongly support JFK's vision of the space program that the Democrats have abandoned to the other guy.
I detest Biden's war-mongering; he's just as bad as Hillary, the blood-soaked Butcher of Libya.
I supported Tulsi Gabbard during the Democratic primaries, because of her firm anti-war stance and her common-sense bipartisan approach. However, I didn't support her exit from the Democratic Party, and her more recent attempts to endear herself to Hannity's audience left me cold.
These days, I am inclined to be hopeful about RFK's positions on the issues, so maybe I'll be sending him the odd $20 or so from time to time, same as I did with Tulsi.
p.s. I think that economic policy is fundamental, and big-project investments should be made with an eye toward what is necessary for long-term survival. I think that much of what passes for environmentalism is retarded.
I shared my big-picture vision for the pathway to environmentally sustainable prosperity here:
...said the morally depraved I.M.F. Holocaust denier who acts as thug support for that fake "vampire liberal" Joe Biden.
Quoting from Davison Budhoo's resignation letter from the International Monetary Fund, confessing his guilt in "our own peculiar Holocaust":
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
It's out there, a little bit, mostly cited by anti-imperialist socialists. Years ago, Ralph Nader published a review of Budhoo's 100-page resignation letter in his newsletter, which has since disappeared from google searches. The internet is an unstable library...
As an author and as a reader, I am bowled over by HCR's masterful weaving of today's most important breaking news into a single factual narrative indicting the Republican Party for this horrific precipice they've brought the US to. A rollercoaster of terror - and hope.
Ally, I teach writing as well as write, so I can't help but jump in and say that ALL writers feel that way. No writing would get done, ever, if we thought about all the people who are better writers. Please don't let that hold you back!
Me too, Ally..but to have been a part of this commentary gives me awe and oh boy an education again on how much I don’t know yet . From the get go seeing this coming though never in its horrific mess, I dared ( write) and...it amazes me how well read, knowledgeable , and informed you all are. Books I’ve never heard of, thoughts put into sensible composition-how I felt. Thanking those who ‘ liked’. .
Heather inspired me, Joyce, Ruth and so many others ...of you. Maybe we won’t become authors of great books, but this has been , is, an education of what it’s like. Close enough.
So now the Rubicon has been crossed with Trump's Federal indictment at just the moment that the House has been gridlocked by the ultra right wing. Heather's lead here is telling--that the shadow docket stay may have been the crucial factor in the Republican's gaining the majority in the House.
What this shows is that the stacked SCOTUS has beome not a part of a system of checks and balances in our government but the most powerful, just as Netanyahu is trying to make it in Israel and Orban in Hungary and Polands Law and Justice Party has been trying to reshape the courts there. This is a key element in the Chirsto-Facist long game around the world.
It will be critical to see what SCOTUS does in the myriad cases that will get generated surrounding the Trump federal indictment.
Trump bleeding out – the phrase conjures images of the Wicked Witch of the West who shriveled in agony as water poured over he, her power over her army dwindling as she shrank, her power ending in a steaming pile at their feet.
But they were not believers, Trump’s followers are, and as encouraging as the prospect of Trump’s demise may be, unlike the Wicked Witch of the West, he has spawned and army of believers. The politicians may wish to move on, but the Trump base may not be so keen to do so, and so the politicians will continue to pander to them.
Today’s news of Trump’s indictment is very encouraging, but we are a long way from ridding the nation of his poison.
Trump himself will, eventually, devolve into a steaming pile and his flying monkeys will lose their power...until that happy day I will work at what I can to uphold free and fair elections and repeat the facts to as many folks as will listen.
They can and probably will transfer their allegience to the next iteration of the Orange One. Time is relentless, merciless and he's truly not all that far from the rocking chair.
Glad you corrected yourself on this. Eugene McCarthy was a family friend (college classmate of my dad). If you see the three dots next to your posting, that’s the edit function. You can delete/edit posts. 😎
Some things take time to heal. With the passing of time trump cling ons will push up daisys and I bet their stones won’t say here lies lies lies a trumper.
'As The Guardian’s David Smith puts it, “he really might be going to jail.” '... it is hard to figure out what is important and what is not in the general drama around the former president, but this indictment is “genuinely monumental.” (Letter)
It was genuinely monumental when voters elected Donald J. Trump to be president or did the Supreme Court do that? Oh, excuse me, The Supreme Court decided Bush v. Gore. Wasn't that enough proof in the pudding or was it when Ronald Reagan was elected to a second term or Gerald Ford pardoning Nixon? What did we learn after Vice President Agnew cheated the Government of $13,551.47 on his Federal income tax payment?
He's their very special barker. They've been at it for a long time. Look at the state legislatures. We just weren't paying attention.
Ginni Thomas was working officially for the Bush campaign when husband provided the 5th vote to end the Florida re-count and make him President. Jeb Bush had used his power as FL Governor to block voters from the polls and throw Democrats off voter lists, and still Gore might have won despite the interference with the election.
"The extremism of today’s Republican Party grew in large part from the work of televangelist Pat Robertson, who died today at age 93. The son of a segregationist southern Democratic senator, Baptist minister Robertson urged evangelical Christians to vote and made them a core constituency of the Republican Party."
Let's not overlook the role of Jerry Falwell and his "Moral Majority" that emerged full force in time for the 1980 election. And Newt Gingrich who set the precedent for the confrontational style we now have in DC.
In addition to blaming natural disasters on the country's gay community, he said God gave us 9/11 because of them. May he rot in the Hell he so strongly believed existed for his perceived enemies.
I was happy to hear the news about Pat the rat preacher. Back in the 80's, my Catholic mother was dying. What we didn't know is that she became a follower of Pat's and the 700 club. In her final days, Mom begged us to reach out to him. She wanted him to "Pray" for her. We did reach out reluctantly and were told if we contributed $$$ he would pray. We were stunned by that. We didn't pay the shit. We had been thru that BS with the catholics. After my mother passed we found that she had been sending money she did not have to that corrupt money grabbing speak out the side of his mouth preacher. I hope he ends up in a purgatory of endless 700 shows and gets a view what happened to the people he swindled!
I don't believe in heaven or hell, but the persistent presence of the folks in question makes me want to. I just like imagining their faces entering the great lobby of the afterlife and being led to the "wrong" escalator.
Never has the phrase a cohort coined many years ago been more appropriate: Mr. Robertson has been "farted into the wind eternal". If there is an afterlife, I'll bet he has a look of surprise on his face.
Please do not forget Lee Atwater (of How to Be a Racist Without Sounding Like a Racist, infamy) who honed specious GOP rhetoric, Newt Gingrich who put party officials in rhetorical lockstep messaging, and Ralph Reed who mass marketed the weaponization of religion as a Republican political wedge issue.
The Roberts Court has shown such a penchant for racist religious extremism that state Republicans understandably thought they did not have to bother to craft their bigotry to comport to some resemblance of constitutionality. At least on the level of language if not of substance.
America, despite its raft of serious problems, is a nation still based on the rule of law. But successfully prosecuting and putting a former president behind bars for the rest of his life – in a deeply divided country no less – loom as the ultimate challenge.
Dark forces will seek to thwart the justice Trump badly deserves.
Coming from my “Sweet Home Alabama”, I am devastated to learn that the outcome of the 2022 Election might have gone more fully Democratic to the House had the “Shadow Docket” used in recent times by SCOTUS not supported the racist gerrymandered electoral maps used in that election and later overturned as unconstitutional in regular full session. This is outrageous by the Supreme Court of our land and demands oversight, transparency, accountability.
Justice John Roberts, get your court in order now. Where are your ethics I so admired during your confirmation hearings? This may have altered the nightmare we are living now. Biden may have been able to pass more of his climate agenda, among other very important diluted bipartisan compromises. And MAGA McCarthy may never have negotiated deals for his tenuous, troubled Speakers gavel that are paralyzing forward action in his quest for power at any cost. “Weaponization “ may never have been a part of our conversation. The decisions that seem so small......but if that were so, why was this case ever taken to the “shadow docket” initially? Where did the money originate? It’s always the money that corrupts. Who collected? I am no conspiracy theorist but this smells like dead fish to me.
Steve Vladek a Univ. of TX law professor, describes the shadow docket in his Substack One First (SCOTUS street address). You’ll have to dig back because it was a few months ago. He’s also released a book on it.
I couldn’t agree more. I was stunned to read Dr. Richardson’s analysis of that particular situation. I guess SCOTUS thinks we are all stupid. Appears to be so highly illegal and deliberate.
The good news is the Florida Federal courts are a "rocket docket" and the trial could start by this fall. And the 11th circuit knows his delay appeals, which he lost 2x last year. He could be wearing orange before the Iowa caucuses.
Good morning Dr. Richardson, Thanks for a well organized and clear explanation of what happened yesterday. Between the SCOTUS and the DOJ, our country’s institutions showed us that they know what they are doing despite all the distractions. Few people reading today’s news understand the significance of Pat Robertson’s place in the development of the current right wing of the Republican party. The FPOTUS doesn’t know what Robertson contributed to his becoming POTUS. Instead of historical reflection, the FPOTUS is very busy trying to find competent trial attorneys who will represent and defend him in the Miami federal courtroom where he’s going to face charges of espionage and other serious violations of the law. Yesterday will be on the list of important dates in the history of American jurisprudence.
J.P. - I really wish the 2021 film THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE had gotten more attention: there was some really good depiction of the rise of televangelism and its horrors (including Robertson). Always looking for ways to get this information across on a popular level. (Also Aaron Sorkin's flawed but factually-based THE NEWSROOM.)
It's really surprising, worth a look. While as HCR says above "Robertson blamed LGBTQ Americans and women for secularizing the United States" - Tammy Faye had hidden humanity - she used the PTL platform during the AIDS epidemic to debunk myths and support the gay population.
Yes, Jim Trusty, and he was on CNN with Kaitlan Collins last night, spouting the tfg camp’s theory of a corrupt Justice Dept. I had enough and turned off the TV.
I hope Trump’s rivals are right and that he and his jackals bleed out soon or go to jail. Let’s hope indictments follow for Jan 6 and
the Georgia election crimes. McCarthy’s unhinged attack
In defense of Trump is further proof of his threat to democracy. These (expletives deleted) “Freedom Caucus” idiots all should go to jail for violating their oaths of office and conspiracy to overthrow government. I respect and welcome debate over how to best govern, but those who advocate tyranny and oligarchy should be expelled and bared from participation.
McCarthy always has his finger in the air, checking which way the wind is blowing. Even now, while the radical few are blocking legislation from the rules committee, McCarthy collaborated in a historic event, avoiding the manufactured debt ceiling crisis, accessing more Democratic than Republican votes to move the legislation out of the House. It's not beyond my imagination to see McCarthy morphing into a moderate with a decidedly bipartisan streak if he senses the wind blowing in that direction. After all, there are the many silent members of the house, and the Republican traditionalists and non-aligned members of the voting public. He could remove and replace a Freedom Caucus member or two from the Rules committee and move legislation at will. He may begin to realize that there's another potential base that could be developed other than the MAGA crowd...you read it here first!
He is on a one way gambit. Either he guts the Freedom Caucus or they gut him. He needs to start scratching his own testicles. I have heard of startling cures for nearly empty ballsacks utilizing ingredients found in every grocery store.
Jack Smith's indictments of trump are historic and momentous. When the initial reactions have settled, I hope we still keep our eyes on the current awfulness of Republicans in the House, the other frightening Republican candidates for President and what is occurring in the States for the 2024 elections. Here is one thing to keep our eye on. It is a dangerous and frightening new tool of the far right.
David Brooks yesterday in the NYT was speaking of the No Labels Party as if it were a viable, credible political party. It is not. The No labels Party is an ultra-right endeavor designed to siphon votes from Biden. It is backed by such people as Harlan Crow and is being billed as a Centris Party. Please take every opportunity you can to smash this so-called political Party.
Barbara, I always think of David Brooks is one of the sane conservatives - and then he goes and writes something like this. I too was dismayed and horrified to read that opinion column.
Yep. It was really upsetting to see him and the New York Times giving legitimacy to this trojan horse party. I pushed back in 2 separate comments which they at least published.
David Brooks has never been sane, just more literate than most conservatives - which is why I always expected more of him, but then learned to be chronically disappointed in his sanctimonious blathering.
John, you nailed it. It is one of my great weaknesses: mistaking literate for sane.
David Brooks admitted on PBS with Jonathan Capehart that he is a good friend of Harlan Crow and has been for many years and defended Crow's friendship with Thomas. I no longer have a good opinion re David Brooks.
THAT is completely dismaying…. !!
Wait now. I'm trying to remember past shows. If I remember right, David Brooks was one of a pair and always gave great opinions I think.
Exactly, his sanity is only skin deep and painted on
Same here, John. He’s an enjoyable read, only if you’re not paying attention to what he’s saying.
This was my favorite laugh of the day! Thank you!
YES! I always think of him as a decent man. And sometimes, so rational. And then, he gets sanctimonious. He’s a study in contradictions. I think a good man. Too often deluded.
I rather think he enjoys playing the part of the contrarian.
Hmmm, I haven’t had that impression, but maybe … !
Sort of a George Will, William Buckley kind of guy.
I hope Jonathan Capehart rips Brooks tonight on PBSNEWSHOUR .
I miss Shields quietly, calmly, taking him down on a regular basis. “While I agree with David’s <insert reasonable points >, I disagree with his <insert unreasonable points> because (and then he’d quickly supply his viewpoint until David would be nodding). Good times.
David Brooks is like the storekeeper in a small town who dresses nice during the week, goes to church on Sunday … and hangs a black man with his KKK buddies on Saturday night.
Mike S, your reason for saying that David Brooks is like …'the storekeeper who dresses nice...and hangs a black man with his KKK buddies on a Saturday night'? You have made an atrocious and uncalled for association.
Good morning Fern.
I always look forward to your judgement!
Makes me feel like I am back in East Texas on Sunday morning.
Goin t’ hail has been where I am headed for a long time Fern.
David Brooks only seems like a fine, upstanding, well bred, from a good family kinda guy Fern.
I'm not surprised, Mike S, that you didn't answer why you associated David Brooks with the KKK, let alone hanging a Black man. You have absolutely no evidence to lead in that direction, instead, you seem to prefer making up stuff rather than sharing what you don't like about him with us. 'Only seems like a fine, upstanding ….' you go on and on with your inventions. I would not have asked you about your characterization of Mr. Brooks if it wasn't so outrageous.
“...only seems like...” are the key words here. It’s like Cruz went to Harvard, Hawley went to Princeton.
<Shudders> how well I still remember the righteous indignation of the “nice” people, so thrilled they could vote their hearts in secret, yet shocked! -- shocked!, I tell you, that the final tally left nothing to the imagination of the true desires of all the “good” (white) folk in town.
Your hyper sensitivity is curious to me. If one ventures out in their toga to address fellow Romans in the court, one should expect comment from your fellow Romans. To think all will agree with you, and no one may also present their opinion baffles me. You are certainly in your right to share your thoughts, and the collective we may agree or disagree. If you only want agreement, remove yourself from the forum.
: ))
Well, let's start with No Labels- which claims they're trying to offer an alternative to both parties but is concentrating on states Biden won by small margins.
And who seem to be courting Joe Manchin.
No third party has ever won an election.
But they've thrown several.
David Brooks knows that. The conservative billionaires who are funding No Labels know that.
This is an expensive ruse to cull off enough votes so Trump wins by default.
And it's not the first time Brooks has done something similar.
https://twitter.com/nytdavidbrooks/status/1354993338462646280?lang=en
So did he ever protest for BLM?
Or was that just another rhetorical device to undercut a honest re-assessment at how we police black people?
He likes to being
Well, that's interesting.
I could have sworn I finished the thought.
🤦♀️
"He likes to being" should have said "He likes being affable as he makes excuses for bad behavior."
"David Brooks:
Yes, first, I should say I have been friends with Harlan Crow for about 20 years. I find him a wonderful man. He's hosted me at his home in Dallas and in New York. So, reader — viewers should know that that's my connection to Harlan."
So Brooks was fine with Crow showing off his Hitler memorabilia?
I was suspicious of No Labels from the get go and seeing all this info, rightly so. I consider Rs the party of death, so I don't read R columnist. We had dinner this week with a a couple who are active in politics, particularly land use. She starts her morning listening on the radio to a local nut case, so she knows what the enemy is up to.
Thank you Fern for keeping this thread on track with our calling for reason, sanity and truth.
Thank you, Liz. That is what we want and are working for.
Fern: I am with you. I disagree with David Brooks; like Alexandra Sokoloff in her comments, David Brooks' literacy has misled me to attribute sanity to him.
I like your replies to "Mike S", who characterizes himself as "goin' to hail" . . . and he makes no sense at all. Sorry, Mike S., but you rage and don't explain.
Thank you, Armand. I am familiar with David Brooks' less conservative positions over the years and attention to morality in our thoughts and actions. While not a fan, I have come to understand his sincerity and respect his compassionate voice.
Mike, I find myself disappointed at your comment. Your observations in this forum are usually spot on. And your escape from an upbringing that was suffocating and full of lies about life is remarkable.
David Brooks is flopping around trying to find a world where we can all get along, compromise and look at people as deserving of some compassion and a fair shot at life. He's a Jew for Jesus (before Jesus was kidnapped by the haters centuries ago.) David Brooks is a human who makes mistakes. Like all of us. And he admits them.
Saying that David Brooks would have KKK buddies suggests either you have some information that we don't have or you may have liked him at one point or perhaps now you are disappointed that he hasn't switched parties? Pretty harsh statement, Mike. What do you base it on?
Brooks may have been excited about the idea of party w/o labels. The idea is appealing to many. Don't be shocked if Capehart enlightens him tonight as to who is funding that con.
I don't like many of the positions Brooks takes. But he has eschewed MAGA madness. I, for one, would be pleased to have him as a neighbor. If I could afford his neighborhood :)
If he's claiming that No Labels is anything but a way to derail Biden, he's a liar.
And to act like he couldn't possibly know that "there was gambling going on in this establishment," (Shocked! Shocked I tell you!!) ignores the facts that he's not your uncle from Dubuque but one of the premier political columnists of our time.
Of course he knows who funds No Labels. Of course he knows they're going after Biden.
David Brooks claims to be "anti MAGA. . . but."
There's usually a but in his criticism.
Michael Steele says he's "anti MAGA AND. . ."
He usually ends his sentences with "and this is why."
Trump and trumpism may be driven by a small group of hardcore believers but it's dangerous because of the large group of conservatives who give it oxygen and a fig leaf.
Spot on again Bridget; You are on a roll today. Keep it up & think about your own Substack platform. If you do sign me up.
Oh, for pity’s sake, Mike was making an analogy. 🙄
He apparently has decided to not eschew MAGA madness Bill. He is giving legitimacy to a MAGA funded new political party.
Bill, I’m glad to see the, as he gets his feet under him, Capehart is starting to take him to task in the same manner that Shields did so well for so many years.
Mark Shields was one of a kind. Jonathon had a really hard act to follow. But I think he is doing fine. When he finds his indignation, he is eloquent.
Being a “Jew for Jesus” is a label in itself and means quite a lot. I don’t trust him. What a convenient label.
Well said. People are complex. Brooks is multidimensional, with ideas and opinions I like as well as those I don’t. I appreciate that. And as for judging him on the basis of his friendship with Crow.... I had a family member who died with a house full of Nazi propaganda. He took pleasure in using every racist epithet at every family Thanksgiving dinner. He was not multidimensional. That’s a whole different ballgame.
Yes, having grown up in the South, I recognize it all too well, and since leaving have become accustomed to the incredulity of outsiders that it could be so.
People would be beyond shocked at the relatives/ancestors who were KKK members. I was raised in NC and I know of what I speak. Two days ago, I wore my tee that says “Make Racism Wrong Again” and a guy at PetSmart told me that he was in FL recently and a guy tried to get him to join KKK in Their area. A woman about my age said, I thought everybody knew that. I said not anymore, it’s a thing now. Everybody needs to know that, every last one of us.
Ha! while in Texas a few years ago, I drew the ire of my talibangelical sister for wearing my t-shirt that says, “Prejudice Is All In Your Head.”
Clearly, a direct hit on that one nerve the spirochete also fancies.
To say that you are unfair would be a gross understatement. Brooks might be like the storekeeper who fails to stand up to stop a lynching (although I’m not at all sure of that), but his longstanding rejection of Trump shows that he would refuse to join in. As for not standing up, there’s a reason why Gary Cooper’s marshal in High Noon has to act alone.
He is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He says one thing and does another. He has built a tidy web of contradictions. The Weavers Project? Follow the money.
That’s uncalled-for. Let’s not go that low.
Thank you Heather . Hope springs eternal .
I reprinting the following from Joyce’s piece feeling it needs to be said..but with added opinion:
When the flapper in the toilet breaks it has to be replaced, but first the water needs shut off.
Immediate steps need taken to fix the toilet , folks.
Warning Notice:
To ALL the complicit. The ruse is up. You’re next.
To us: Stay the course. The work is far from done. There is no Glory lap. Thank you.
Some may feel relief. But , we need to hold even more dear the Republic’s principles. The fair albeit lengthy course of due process. It takes time to right the ship ,people to see the light/let go/heal. There’s many a lose fray to mend. All of them need carefully evaluated for how far the tear weakened the whole piece and therefore loving knit back together. This action is as time consuming as our patience needed along this road we’ve travel thus far.
I believe in you , my brothers, sisters, children ...to do it best possible with continued hope❤️
Brooks occasionally sounds reasonable, but his ideology shows through, and he struggles to admit that his conservative (if they are) principles have no home in American politics. Yesterday’s column buried the lede well below the fold, and gave the right-wing fellow travelers behind Hidden Labels comfort they do not deserve. Most of the article was pure fiction.
There are so many comments made to NYT articles that even the few who bother to make them don't bother to read them all. I suspect many make their comments simply to 'feel good,' satisfying themselves by sounding off. I suspect the NYT just uses this feature to count up their readers' reactions to columns like that of David Brooks.
What's your point? To put someone down?
And how do you know this? What does it mean when someone replies to a comment? NYT counts clicks on articles not the comments. And if I wanted to make myself feel better I would take a walk. I certainly don't need the NYT to like me.
I just don't think the Comments section on some NYT articles is as important to readers as it is to those who make the comments, and comment upon others readers' comments. That is my opinion. Far from putting anyone down, that is just my opinion. Keep making comments. Everywhere, including the NYT and LFAA!
I disagree. In the Washington Post I make a point of posting data and fact driven viewpoints in the comments sections. There have been numerous times where someone has said thanks and they could use the information to pass along.
One small comment at a time.
This sort of continual disappointment can be avoided by simply... not listening to conservatives (in media, at least). I've found this streamlined method of info intake to be most useful.
This is how we win. Countering the lies. I don't carry any kind of existential "continual disappointment" around. It's a matter of taking care of the business of protecting Democracy.
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."
Steve Schmidt hosted Joyce Vance on his The Warning Substack. One thing he said that stuck with me is that those 30% of R voters do NOT care about electing someone who is interested in governing. They just want someone who will constantly magnify their grievances. 45 is definitely their man for that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRC_aCTp8FI
In the instance of the Brooks column I wasn't going for the MAGAs. I was going for the folks who don't know the background of the No Labels Party. In the case of the WaPo ultra-right columns I post the facts from people like the esteemed Rosenberg to spread the word to others who can carry them forward.
In other words, my intended audience isn't the cult. It is the other 70%. We have got to counter the culture wars with deliberate logical and factual information. Lord knows the media isn't going to do it.
Re: my comment on Capehart ripping Brooks tonight, I am constantly gobsmacked when PBS puts those shills like Gary Abernathy to discuss politics with Jonathan. What an insult to his/our intelligence. Makes me want to suspend my sustaining donations to my public television station as a form of protest. Please put a legitimate conservative--maybe George Will (are there any left?) to discuss the week's politics.
Is there really 70%, not where I live…
Thanks, Barbara. Duly noted!
Lynell, your comment is spot on . . . . although I do think it is closer to 100% vs. 30% of repugs who are not interested in electing someone who has a clue about governing.
Janet, your correction is spot on! 30% of voters, give or take.
I read that too and found it very sad that 30% would support someone who is a proven lier, conman and bully instead of someone who really wants to govern for the people.
...And let's not forget his proclivities re sex. He thinks he's the only one on the planet who has any worth. He's so obnoxious, I can hardly believe any woman would want him as a mate.
He has been clear on this since he parted ways with the insanity, so I thought
How we win is educating the electorate - those that wish to know the truth as well as some that don’t - about what the Parties stood for and stand for and their histories. One of the most important things is reminding people as well as enlightening them as to which political party led the country into the Great Depression and the Great Recession and most economic downturns in our nation’s history.
Educate people as to the causes of inflation, a natural phenomena when there are too many dollars (or whatever currency one’s using) chasing too few goods and services. [But also know that there is element of greed that will also have a part in inflationary cycles]. Not just our economy but the world’s economies were shutdown for almost two full years and production levels were significantly reduced. Demand for gasoline during the pandemic was comparatively nil - nonexistent - as opposed to where it is now and where it was prior to the pandemic shutdown. If production kept up during the pandemic, where and how were we going to store all of the unused gasoline. There was the period where oil refineries and gasoline companies were struggling to keep up with demand - and yes, at some point - part of that struggle came in the form of greed and price gouging ... and not just in the fuel production areas of our economies. People (Americans) needed to have been reminded that we were not the only country to experience high gasoline prices as well as inflationary prices in our economy.
I am hearing that civics and economics are being less emphasized and taught in our elementary and secondary schools and if that is so - what a tragic blunder!?!?!
You are right, we need to educate the electorate and I nominate Frances Perkins as the one whom we should discuss far and wide. Frances Perkins was FDR's first Secretary of Labor and Perkins was the architect and genius behind The New Deal. She was a giant among mere mortals. Check this out: https://daily.jstor.org/woman-architect-of-the-new-deal/
I have her photo and her biography. The policies in place in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland are those advocated by Frances Perkins, and their people are the happiest in the world.
I recently read a biography of Perkins that someone in this group had recommended. Excellent!
Yes, she is my hero& heroine! Look her up under Robert Shetterly’s paintings of “Americans who tell the Truth”! A good time to have a show of these truly “great” Americans!!
Well said. Thanks! We need to have those pesky things known as facts handy. Knowing Biden's record on unemployment, inflation going down the situation at the border is good.
Oh, by all means, I canand do engage with and tactfully counter the conservatives in my real-life interactions. But I realized a lil' while back that reading [insert David Brooks-like Ivy-educated conservative mainstream paper columnist here] does not actually help with that. So a part of my diet they are no longer.
Brooks is simply the case this time. Let's not get stuck on that ok? The bigger picture is to present a different reality than the culture war, lazy "facts" of main stream media. I hope you follow Simon Rosenberg's Hopium Substack work and you use his work in your conversations. Also, Oliver Willis' work of compiling Biden accomplishments is simply stunning.
I love Simon Rosenberg. Obviously. Experienced, principled, concise, constructive, positive.
Understandable... But it is all-important to know one's enemy.
How's a doctor to cure a disease if he doesn't know its symptoms and all its nasty side-effects?
Mask, head covering, surgical gloves may not even be sufficient. Maybe those doing research into the Freedom Caucus Syndrome will need the full astronaut-like protective precautions needed when studying Ebola.
We need some very strong disinfectant. Like comparing some of the loony and mean spirited things modern Republicans say with vivid, demonstrable images of real stuff. We know from history that Big Lies are creepily effective and dangerous, but the convoluted lies of modern Republicans seem as though they are stretching quite thin and potentially publicly breakable; "so wedded to lying about reality that today we saw Florida governor and Republican candidate for president Ron DeSantis circulating fake images of rival candidate Donald Trump embracing right wing nemesis Dr. Anthony Fauci...". A tangled web indeed.
From the trolls I’ve run into on several Substacks, there are plenty of literate arses who are impressed with their ability to obfuscate, expound bull Schitt, and spew poison on many who are impressed with such.
I agree: education alone is an inadequate defense against the lies, conspiracy theories and raw emotional grievances of the RW.
We Dems tend to be very wedded to the idea that educating people will fix things--not so.
Too many Repubs (particularly the MAGA cult) have what certainly appears to be a deep emotional connection to Trump's "cause" via his grievance-loaded tirades and rants. We must find a way to promote an emotional connection to upholding democracy and protecting the Constitution, in order to wean these folks from the apparent delights of Trump's lying, garbage-filled rallies and "truths" nonsense.
I hear enough second hand from chump and plenty others. I wish we could get the news about their machinations without having to hear the whining voices, or seeing their disgusting visages.
I share your sour distaste of their voices and images, which is why I only read about it now.
Will, I don't go anywhere near the rantings of most of them, but I guess I like to take a cautious occasional look when I think they might be crumbling...
Will, that is why I refuse to watch MSNBC. They positively drip in leftwing opinions. I used to watch it when it was a more balance outlet.
Same here. Although I WILL still watch Chris Hayes or Nicole Wallace periodically.
Yup. The constant editorializing gets tiresome.
No, Will, we need to know what they are thinking and why and what they might do. L&b&L
Brooks is and has always been a moron.
Not a moron - a smart, articulate conservative who crafts his right of center political bias to seem “sensible.” The John Roberts of media. “Smiling faces tell lies...beware of the handshake that hides a snake.”
Smirks always make me suspicious.
Yep....I read one book of his and I hated it; it was all tired stereotyping and assorted garbage. Mr. Brooks seems to pride himself on his intellectual qualities and amazing insights--I didn't find him nearly as fascinating as he finds himself. Brooks makes me think of Ben Shapiro, who is also despicable, but in a different way.
Conservatism is about greed and selfishness, which are animalistic in nature. Conservatives are all about hoarding resources of all kinds to use to enrich themselves. Greed does not require any great intellectual ability.
Brooks is a mewling scumbag.
Yup, that too.
Yes and a sneaky, erudite one who has a major column in the NYT. This column pushing the No Labels Party was actually about not having a 3rd party candidate this election but he used it to push the legitimacy of the dark group. There were enough commenters who were buying his lie about the Harlan Crow group.
"Conservative," as a political term, is now hollow and meaningless. The "Conservatives" are now those who have learned how to siphon trillions out of the American economy, ballooning the national debt from $1 trillion in 1982 to $33 trillion today, along the way duping the common folk with wedge issues such as abortion, immigration, women's rights, LGBTQ issues and, of course, outright racism. Brooks is part of that great wasteland once known as Conservatism.
Your comment about the national debt attracted my attention because that "ballooning" you mention is a more recent phenomenon than 1982. As one of our useful "right-er wing" gadflies here pointed out recently, the debt/GDP ratio shot past 100% and into into the current 115-125% range in 2008. He seemed to think this little fact (can't recall source, just google "current debt to gdp ratio") showed that liberals are terrible.
Instead, it's a reminder that we converted at ton of private debt into public debt when we bailed the rich f**kers out after they crashed the world economy with their arcane speculations and fraudulent asset packaging. According to G.W. Bush, and after the election, Obama, we were "saving the world from another Great Depression" by shouldering the debt and "stabilizing" the markets. And, please recall, it worked. The torrent of fiat money has led to a quicker apparent recovery in the U.S. than in many, more cautious, countries.
Those other countries may turn out to be right in the end, perhaps because they better understood that once you give taxpayer money to a rich f**ker, they'll never give it back willingly. Why is no one talking about our current debt troubles as a direct result of saving rich f**kers about 15 years ago? When Republicans refuse to talk about tax increases, why doesn't anyone point out that the wealthy need to give back the money we used to save their asses just a few years ago? Why don't we point it out, frequently and loudly?
You are absolutely correct and the first step to save this republic is to revise the tax code, including the income tax code, and take back trillions of those dollars. Otherwise, our children and grandchildren will curse us (rightfully so) to their graves.
May it not take rather more than frequent and loud pointing out of the truth to prevent said f**kers from frequent repeat performances of their economic crimes? More than that to prevent their allies, the golems in Congress from wrecking the Republic...
In Saudi they'd have been headless long, long ago.
Once more would already be too frequent for people set on doing to capitalism what the Soviets did to socialist central planning and bringing the house down around our ears.
It may take a lot more than pointing out the truth, although if that "more" involves guns, civil strife, and war, then the cure is worse than the disease.
Frankly, I'm rather torn over whether I'd rather live in a Republican dictatorship, like Russia, or a land devastated by civil war, like Syria or U.S. in the late 1800's. In the former, I'd be hunted down like the liberal rat I am. In the latter, well...I'm an old man with a bad heard, so I don't think I'd have to deal with it for very long.
I hope we can find better alternatives.
Even the plague weakens with time and comes to an end. Empires pass. Epidemics pass. Trouble is, too many good people pass with them.
Meanwhile, more and more glean some knowledge of disease while too few come to understand the first thing about health.
"Why don't we point it out, frequently and loudly?"
I don't know. I mean, we don't have to sink to their level to underline the dishonestly and corruptness of positions. Obama AG Eric holder infamously said " I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that ... if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. " OK, to a significant degree the Administration's hand was forced in the meltdown to protect the public, but seemingly with little plan for the future. What happens if you DON'T prosecute (as was done in the smaller S&L crash)?
Should irresponsible banks still own the place? Should we make "so large" that they are unaccountable, even larger (which we did). Judging from the statistics I encountered, that despite widespread suffering the 1% hoovered up most of the gains made during the recession, while people we know lost their homes.
I used to think it meant strip farming to keep the soil from blowing away. It’s just a plain blow job now.
I think of the scientific method as "conservative" in the sense of "cautious". A "conservative" estimate leaves some margin for possible error. Political "Conservatives" of modern parlance do anything but.
What we used to call (environmental) "conservation" is conservative with a small "c". Glass-Steagal was a conservative approach to banking. Threatening to undercut the full faith and credit of the USA simply reckless. Modern political/ social "Conservatives" seem to favor a retreat to the "divine right of kings" or in any case a very stratified society with them in the dominant position. That has plenty of precedent, but after all we have learned and all previous generations struggled for, is that conservative small "c" in any meaningful sense?
What is it called when you’re paid to create credibility for an otherwise neer do well entity? There’s be a special word for that
Sophistry? Brooks is a shill for the milquetoast middle ground. A spokesperson for the people who can’t quite figure things out.
Yes, absolutely, it is sophistry, or more colloquially - bull shit.
Rushlimburgerism, I wonder how he is spending eternity.
Hopefully, taking orders from women
In a way I hate to be a spoiler, but there is nothing of Rush left. When he joined that long caravan that marches inexorably to the grave, he passed totally and completely into oblivion, as we all shall in time.
I went traveling in a foreign land. Came upon a sea of sand. A caravan was passing through, same destination as me and you.
Hopefully he is co-mingling with Pat Robertson.
Yes they are having tea and worms in dead silence. Hahahahaha ha
Um, er, “Ditto”!!!!✌️
I love your term for that cheesey guy! : )
Pat Cole. Re Limbaugh. “Up to his eyeballs in Snapple”
A shill? A pimp?
Marketing? Pimping? Propaganda?
Why oh why they keep him on PBS weekly news commentary I'll never know, he's as conservative as they come, thinking Harlan Crow is such a wonderful, decent guy. Yeah.... but ...
I've never considered him a "sane" or rational conservative.
Every time I think that, he proves me wrong.
He's saner and more literate than, say, Marc Thiessen of WaPo, but this illustrates nothing more than the dangers of "grading on a curve." Which too much of the supposedly respectable media have been doing for years -- witness the 2016 presidential campaign when one candidate (guess which one) was expected to have serious knowledge about policy and the other was not (guess who got elected).
Susanna, Thiessen is insane AND insufferable. I would retract my original comment about Brooks - but the fact is, after negotiating the politics of being briefly a union leader and having to eke out compromise with people I despised, I am always looking for those in the opposition who can be reasoned with just enough to swing a vote the way I fervently wish it to go. And on this issue (no third party candidate) Brooks is that guy.
The No Labels Party is out there and Brooks likes the idea of such an effort. I read him and enjoy his commentary on PBS each week because he does think outloud and tries to amke sense from his background as a once conservative. This is his second article. I don't think he is insane or disingenuous and I don't believe a three-horse race is better in a two-horse political environment we have in our country. A party of independents is a room full of nebbishes, always looking for a better reason or the perfect. Here is his conclusion:
"I’m not saying my friends at No Labels have chosen the wrong strategy. I’m saying this is not the right election to carry out their strategy. I wouldn’t blame them for keeping their options open for a few more months (something unexpected might happen). But if it’s still a 50-50 Biden-Trump race in the fall, I hope they postpone their efforts for four years. With Trump on the scene, the potential rewards don’t justify the risks."
During a PBS NewsHour segment several weeks (months?) ago, Brooks candidly disclosed that he's friends with Harlan Crow. He made it known because the topic of discussion was Clarence Thomas' conflicts of interest. I think he may have a blind spot where Crow is concerned.
Sometimes he's a weenie! Lately he's been defensive of the R's on PBS.
I haven’t seen the Brooks column, but the last one I read was a horror too.
Trojan horse party...
Straight from the Putin Playbook, as devised in the "German Democratic Republic" and perfected in Russia, involving whole stables of Trojan horses, fake candidates with the same name and other clever-clever devices.
Fake parties, fake candidates, for ceremonial elections.
AND FOR MONEY
D'ya think it would help if the Dems secretly funded a genuine Nazi Party? (sigh)
Information Warriors should mobilize, amplify, and “pants” the No Labels Party in public. Don’t let people like Brooks give this organization credibility. Follow the money and expose the strategy.
Exposing the evil Harlan Crow as having a hand in the creation of the No Labels group is a good start. Crow has a garden of evil.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2023/04/19/from-the-forbes-archives-1996-inside-harlan-crows-garden-of-despots/?sh=474de2e2fcff#:~:text=FORBES,Garden%20Of%20Despots
Trump indicted. Radical Republicans jump to his aid
Dave Fake News Cub Reporter Dave overhead a Trump loyalist saying “The Don told us, I’m innocent. I used my mind to declare all laws I break be smitten from the books. How can I break a law that no longer exists?”
I had missed the background on No Labels, but the only other mention I've heard of them was a warning from the Maine Secretary of State that if a voter found they were enrolled with No Labels and never intended to, they could change their enrollment back. Apparently there were some shenanigans afoot to generate enough enrolled voters to get a slot on the ballot, but they got caught.
Barbara, anything David Brooks has to offer is a lie.
Always. Without exception.
Yep I realize that. It really was upsetting to see him so casually pushing the No Labels Party. This trojan horse party scares me for some reason. We all know who Harlan Crow is and he is a creator of this Party. The fascists are determined to defeat Biden. Billing the No Label Party as Moderate is a lie.
Meanwhile, the sheer profusion of non-starter GOP presidential candidates does itself begin to feel like a backhanded way of supporting Donald Drumpf... without backing him. Pretending to stab him in the back while ensuring that no one else can come out on top.
In which case, it's a masterly exercise in manipulative Putinesque hypocrisy.
Sometimes I wonder if some of these people just want the thrill of "running for President of the United States" and like seeing their name in the media.
Well, and the money.
I believe Brooks mentioned on The News Hour that he personally knows Harlan Crow and that they are "friends". He mentioned it when they were talking about the Clarence Thomas corruption.
No wonder he is pushing Harlan's new maga party then.
David Brooks is no friend of the dems...he’s another tool of the right. It’s important we stay vigilant. As Joyce would say, we’re in this together.
IMHO, there is no defense of the Republican Party or its proposed off-shoot. (A rose by any other name is still a rose..) Period. To do so prolongs the problem, and the problem is the intent to undermine the country as we were raised to believe it should be. Based on its origins in racism, Christian nationalism, and oligarchy, why defend it? David, et al have lost my respect if ever he (they) had it.
Well said. At this point there is no "maybe" to a person's stated beliefs. Both George Will and David Brooks have proven themselves to be no friend to Democracy. It is always disheartening to see one's guru crash and burn but that's just the way it is. I hope the Brooks devotees can look into what he's really about these days. (it's no good for sure)
We will also see more of 5hem running as democrats and flipping after they are elected, so investigate your local candidates.
Absolutely! Thanks for the reminder.
There are no living saviors. For those inclined to support No Labels this would be a good read. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Crow
Sometimes David Brooks, a decent man, loses his way. Like us, a sinner in need of redemption. When we think he has broken through the capitalist/GOP fog he founders yet again. It is very sad...
Thank you Barbara for this additional information.
Brooks is for sure someone to be critical of.
That being said. We need a CENTER aka SANE Left and Right.
You want ONLY DNC controlling our lives? How's it working in cities? It's NOT. TOO one sided.
Balance please folks. Yes no Far Right. But...
BTW: AOC called Drag Queens, "Patriots". My college roommate was gay btw. Great person. Drag Queens are NOT "Patriots".
@luellajschmidt on Twitter:
1. $25 million for running a fraudulent trump university
2. 17 count criminal conviction on trump org for tax fraud
3. 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in NY
4. Guilty of sexual assault & defamation by a jury of peers
5. Oct trial date for manipulating valuations
6. Under investigation in GA for attempting to steal an election
7. Under investigation by DOJ for same
8. Indicted for obstruction, espionage act crimes, and conspiracy with chief of staff given limited immunity
And yet none of this has any impact upon 30% of US voters. There is no reasoning with delusions, and no end to grifters feeding them.
And tfg has always known that about his supporters. "I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue..."
Little Donny Johnny, Puddin and Pie. Grabs the the girls where it makes them cry. When the big kids come out to play, little Donny Johnny runs away.
And that was his test of how his (and fox's) brainwashing tactics had been sealed in his followers. It was his proof he could do anything he wanted and they could no longer think critically. They fully belonged to him. That was the true moment we had a HItler on our hands running for POTUS. A very dangerous moment where the media failed us completely to not raise this as the ultimate power over others. Instead, they made money hand over fist. America lost.
Shockingly (not), some of these 30% have been scammed by con artists (not even directly related to Trump) selling “genuine” Trump currency. Personally, I would think the Trump fundraising e-mail lists would be gold for Nigerian princes everywhere.
And people vulnerable to cults, like Ginni Thomas, flocked to the her next beloved charlatan.
It is indeed frightening to realize that 30% of US voters are mentally deranged misfits that worship the orange baboon and the Fascists in Congress and the Senate..
My ultra MAGA youngest sister posted on FB last night something about how our government fast tracks the prosecution of Trump, but slow walks investigations of the Bidens. I blocked her posts long ago, but my husband did not and read it to me last night - don’t know why I still let it get to me, but hearing this tied my stomach in knots. She is the perfect Trump soldier - loyal to the bitter end. Any amount of verifiable facts will not budge her.
My husband has turned away from Trump and now supports DeSantis. He has no social media knowledge but insists because he only reads right-wing media that there are no book banning, there’s a “Biden Crime Family “ and now that Trumps indictment is political and the suppena used by the FBI to invade Maralago was no legal and Trump had previously made those documents public.
I send him sources like Forbes and WSJ (he doesn’t trust any other sources) but he says that I’m reading fake news. It’s hard to see the guy i married 40 years ago under this stuff.
Yes, we need a caring club
Meanwhile, I just want Trumps trial to come before the beginning of primaries and the Espionage indictment to stick so he can’t run.
Maureen my Trump brother has confided he may have to kill me when the war breaks out. Nice. Like your sister he ate too many rushlimburgers. My other Trump brother died but I threw rhododendrons in the outgoing tide at his memorial in Astoria regardless.
Alas, this ignorance isn't even blissful. I think that most of those members of my family who take pride in knowing nothing still love me, and it's mutual, even if understanding is not.
America's political commissars, its blockwarts, its little Vyshinskis and Freislers, its latterday Inquisitors... are so bloodthirsty. Any excuse for killing is better than none. And differences of opinion justify death warrants.
What else is Hell if not this?
OMG I hope he was joking. Funny thing in my (remaining) family is we are still civil if not loving toward each other if we are not talking politics.
Pat and Maureen, we ought to start a support group for SWAB/ Siblings Who Are Brainwashed!!!! We too try to keep the conversation anywhere else than politics but still she launches scud missiles!!!
https://braverangels.org/what-we-do/families-and-politics/
(no personal experience, but interesting...)
Maureen & Pat, I read your comments with sadness that tears at my heart. I feel so fortunate that my sibs and I have a close bond & share a common view of the world. My only lament is that they live so far away that we rarely get to hang out together….feel lucky indeed.
Everybody has a limit Barbara, some people can stand on the edge of a cliff, others need to stand back and we learning those parameters. There is some good in all of us and I can hold on to that.
Keep it that way, this shitzstorm has turned to diarrhea and hopefully will resolve soon. Pesto Bismal is on the way. 💥🌪🌨
Good God. I could have written the same thing about my sister. Blood is not thicker than water. I grew tired of her Fox News sound bites and bumper sticker politics. I walked away years ago and never looked back.
I am sorry. I have family and friends who will defend Trump till the end also.
wow ... Talk about human nature ... for some reason, I believe that human nature isn’t sufficient or a poor excuse to explain why human nature isn’t an appropriate explanation to support or explain this ... so many of our fellow citizens involved in this cult-like behavior!?!?
Cults are insidious, serving deep seated needs that those members involved may not even know exist. I have good friends, intelligent, educated left wing folks, who lived for 9 years in a cult in CA. Invariably, a charismatic leader is involved, usually male, although there is a religious cult very near where I live on Cape Cod that was started by two women. Trump found his target audience and very skillfully manipulated them, then bullied the press and the politicians into submission.
My ex sister is exactly like your sister. She is loyal and dedicated and worships TUMP. She sometimes cries like a baby when someone says something bad about TUMP. I am glad i don't have to be around her any longer, if i did, she would be crying about that orange baboon much more after i told her what i think about TUMP. These so-called investigations about Biden are made up by the TUMP loving politicians that are wanting revenge for the TUMP crimes. TUMP has broke the law many, many times in plain site. These TUMP people are vicious and horrible excuses for human beings. They are out to destroy the United States. My youngest son got mad at me for comparing TUMP to Hitler. I told him to read, or watch documentaries about Hitler. I don't care how mad anyone gets at me for telling then what sorry SOB Donald TUMP is, actually how horrible most all Rethuglicans are. I am about ready to leave the United States, and if TUMP does win, i will be leaving for good. There are way too many insane nut jobs here for my comfort.
I pity these people, but try to stop from hating them. They are persuadable humans caught in a trap they willingly walked into for a myriad of reasons. After all is said and done, we still need to go forward with them somehow. This is not without frustration, I know. But history shows that this will be the case.
Speaking of History, again and again, the wisdom of Spanish philosopher and historian Jorge Santayana (1863-1952) continues to guide us, at least those who are paying attention: “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” It still retains its warning. The fanatical right wing that has become the official repub party by default is not a modern day invention. Santiago also warned “Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.”
We can read and repeat history, but where do we go from here? The repub voters and their leaders are firmly entrenched in our political and social system. Now. Speak up, support Democracy through action. This is not the time to go silently into the night.
I love your comment, Irenie. I think I spent the first few years after 2015, stunned at the turn of the gop to full-out complicity with the extreme-right. Now, I am less naive about the power-game of it all, and realize, we are in an epic fight. A fight that did not have to be. But, as you said “doomed to repeat.” My embraced-quote these past years has been attributed to Shakespeare: “Same Play, Different Actors.” This is our historic fight whether it coulda’ or shoulda’ have been different or not. In the moment we are in, I’m trying just to put my shoulder to the wheel and push in the ways I can and have ability to do.
M, we have much to learn from the past if we “get” it. Shakespeare, as you quoted, should always be with us, if our education system were universal. But it would not surprise me if the classics are on the banned list. One or two newscasters, yesterday, quoted the Bard several times in their round table discussion about TFG and his downfall. Poetry and Prose a balm for the soul. Langston Hughes: “What happens to a dream deferred?”
More questions than answers, enough to make us think. And most likely banned.
The question becomes: How much can you trust them? I had a fourth grade teacher - 1954 - who mentioned to the class during a discussion that if we were ever invaded by an enemy force, there would be those among us who would gladly offer their help and support to the enemy forces.
That’s my take. It is the only way to think about people we love who are denuded.
I've said it a million times now: the biggest horror to me of the Trump election in 2016 (not that THAT wasn't horrible in itself!) was finding out just how many of our fellow citizens had been sitting there, quietly poisonous, and now were freed to express their hatefulness everywhere.
Reminds me of when our friendly Serbian restaurant turned vicious overnight and spewed hatred not only against neighboring Croats, Bosniaks and Kosovars but against the entire non-Serbian world, especially any not sharing the same general features and skin color...
Maybe they're still stewing in hate, years after their vile wars ended.
Indeed, why people say we are in a similar situation. They had leaders who pushed the hatred too
Wish it were only 30%, maybe in NY
Sadly this depends on the district in NY. Esp outside of NYC and the other large cities fear-based , false Christianity, white-supremacy , “we back the blue” sentiment is strong. Stefanik won the majority vote handily over the last 3 exceptionally sound caring public minded Dems in her district.
Yeah, where I live in Florida, it's easily 65-75 percent.
In general, they are not deranged—they are brain washed. The ones who made it into our government have proven daily that they are deranged.
It was reported that some MAGA COVID sufferers took their last COVID-labored breath believing that the threat was a hoax, but other afflicted persons requested vaccination, although although too late in the game for it to benefit them. I am hoping that a reality barrage will shake the faith of of those for whom all lies all the time may not be the thrill they once thought.
If his star fades into the far corner of the political universe, a former acolyte is waiting and ready to assimilate all of those MAGA sycophants.
But DeSantis doesn't have the star power, the unique personality of TFIFG (the federally-indicted former guy) to win over the hearts and minds of Americans who are repulsed by RDS's govt control of schools, book banning, permitless concealed gun carry, attack on LGBTQ+ and Disney, etc. He doesn't engage well with audiences or one-on-one. But then again, I was wrong on TFIFG, and it's all about the Electoral College anyway, so what do I know?
It's too bad covid didn't kill them all.
“They” are wishing the same about us. Isn’t that the place they want us: “Disgusted” with each other? Disgust is stronger than hate, and more pliable to manipulators. Atrocities of history, and the present day are committed by humans manipulated to dehumanize others by disgust. Ejaculate that frustrated line of comment today if you want. But it usually conceives atrocities down the road. People listen to you TCinLA. Is that were you want to lead?
I agree, MLRGRMI. And I'm sad to say that TC's violent hyperbole has led me to read their posts substantially less; he didn't used to write that way even a year ago. It's troubling that he doesn't seem to realize that his vehemence makes him less persuasive, not more.
Cults don’t deprogram themselves, sad to say
Good recap. And well said. Thanks, becky.
That immovable 30% is filled with a variety of folks and attitudes. History suggests that there will always be people who will vote for someone no matter their deeds. Reasons for Trump's support below. Some folks vote on a single issue:
1. White Supremacy - fear of all others
2. Abortion foes - the "murder of babies"
3. "Replacement theory" fans - anti immigration
4. Basic bigotry fed from birth - less about fear, more about hate
5. Gun ownership worshipers - a cult promoted by industry
6. Tax cheaters who hate the IRS - the Oligarchs who are funding this whole group
7. Legacy attitudes from those who are still fighting the Civil War - culture warriors who actually believe that slavery was not the reason for the bloody battles. Plantation Oligarchs created a myth that won't die. In fact, most 19th century Southern whites were oppressed as well. But the Lords of Cotton knew how to redirect their anger. It was a road map for the Oligarchs of today.
We should remember just how popular Charles Lindbergh was. A Nazi sympathizing hater of Jews. People loved him. That 30% has always been with us. And always will be. There is no reasoning with or persuading haters. They just hate and the more we try to change their thinking the more they hate.
The first answer is to outvote them. And marginalize them socially. Shunning and shaming come to mind. And of course, if they break laws...
The second answer is to figuratively behead (I guess topple is a better word) the Oligarchs who continue to fuel the foolish hatred of that 30%. Tax the shit out of them. Claw back some of the national treasure they have stolen since Reagan gave them a license to hunt the poor and middle class. Hurt them where it counts. In the wallet.
And pass some laws like Ukraine did. Their Oligarchs are not allowed to fund elections. Duh! The fact that some idiot tech titans can give legs to the Presidential campaign of RFK, jr - a man who denies science and "talks to dead people" - that fact suggests that the 30% are puppets of the rich. This needs to end. The authors of the First Amendment did not envision an America where a handful of people would be so rich that they could buy elections and....the Supreme Court.
We've known for years now that MAGA isn't a movement, it's a cult. And the orange koolaid is morally toxic.
And it is endlessly fascinating to me how the supporters will send money to “support” him, but howl about increased money for SNAP recipients, because hungry people are undeserving, and they don’t want to “waste their money”.
30% of any crowd are always on the low end of the bell curve.
indeed, just like the poor, the deplorables will always be with us.
They have not always been weaponized, and some of the cult leaders are affecting our lives every day.
And my 92yo mom gives $50/mo to this Gilded Turd™️ out of her limited budget.
So sorry, some of my family are deluded too
😥
sad.
😥
But other “republicans” sit on their hands and sigh
It is beyond my comprehension! Heartbreaking! I am tired of the headlines about TFG being the first president in history to face criminal charges...as if it is a reason to not do anything about it.
To look the other way is a greater evil.
And with all that, it is still ok with people to cast their votes his way??? How sick is that???
The HFC is very vocal about their positions and what they want, but what about all the other SILENT GOP-ers who don’t have the strength of character to speak up? They really need to be voted out because their silence is self-serving.
I really cannot believe that there are enough people in this country who truly believe the behavior of TFG doesn’t matter.
I don’t want to live in a country where it seems the general populace lacks a moral compass and promotes hate at every opportunity, or worse yet, don’t speak up against hate. My parents didn’t raise us that way!
Where is the hope when we have people like Jim Jordan, DeSantis, that crazy from NY (Santos) and so many more wing-nuts making decisions or better yet, the lack of decisions.
So sorry to ramble and rant and waste your time, but I am feeling so completely bereft of hope for this country.
Becky, I am made aware of this "craziness" by the lack of substantive debates before the American people.
Too many are making choices without knowing or researching reliable sources. Propagana is gaining a dangerous foothold. We have become lazing "thinkers". Just go to the people who are in the same political party, who go to the same place of worship, who watch the same news feeds.....
I think that "has gained" is more accurate than "is gaining". The propaganda and lies that the MAGAts in my world spout off with is disgusting. They counter with "well, we believe the same thing about you, so there."
Truly amazing and utterly flabbergasted by the lies people have dug in their feet about.
This hits differently. The federal indictments, I mean.
Sure, porn star hush money was a nice hors d'ouerve. But any privileged Manhattan sleazebag could end up as tabloid fodder for that. Multiple Espionage Act violations, straight from DOJ? That just seems far more *uniquely fitting* for the monster who tried to end democracy, doesn't it? Our federal government was attacked by this virus in human form, and after a prolonged fever, is beginning to expectorate. Reassuring! And there is most likely more to come.
Look, I wrote here a while back that I was refusing to get caught up in Cheeto-Behind-Bars fantasies, as I think that the battle for the health of our nation is larger than Von Tweeto himself, and there are more productive places for me to put my mental energies. I stand by that fully. Today, there are tens and tens of millions of people we are sharing our country with, that are having the inverse reaction to those on this board. They are frightened and furious at what they see as the unraveling of our laws, the dawning of a frightening new era of bureaucratic weaponization, the crushing of national morale, etc. If the Never-Popularly-Elected Former Guy is convicted, they will likely go to their graves insisting that was the day America died by the hands of the elite liberal mob. Today, with regards to this state of affairs I can only say...
Screw 'em.
Sorry, but I'm not Ghandi. I have dug deep into my pockets, searching for a single crumb of a remaining f#ck to give, and have come up with nothing but lint. These folks have bought into their doomsday cult of choice despite all opportunities to correct their willful ignorance, and held us captive for years in their twisted alternate reality. Those of us with any sense of principle or decency or actual patriotism have had to live with the wonderment of if anything really mattered anymore. As a younger person, would I have a future? A country? A livable planet? We don't know for sure yet, but things are looking up, today especially. Let the cultists rage. They will anyway.
Justice has reasserted itself. The law has reasserted itself. REALITY has reasserted itself. Because, first and foremost, the reality-based majority of voters reasserted itself. Let us be proud. Let us keep vigilant and keep going. Let the DOJ keep going, too. Let the juries decide.
I remember the first time I heard the old expression: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time, and annoys the pig."
We really need to re-evaluate pigs. They are capable of holding their own forums. Of all the animals I ever fed pigs were far and away the most articulate. I even went so far as to learn their language. Pig Latin. Whatay isay notay toay loveay aboutay pigsay. Whew, spellcheck was a bugger. My typing finger is tired. While the syntax comes out somewhat Canadian, that is a good thing as we love Canadians as well as pigs. Hmnn, something seems off here. What would Allen say?
Look up the recording of 'Pigorian Chant."
https://www.amazon.com/Grunt-Pigorian-Chant-Snouto-Domoinko/dp/0761105948
I think you may be quoting Robert Heinlein from his book "Time Enough for Love," a narration of the life of a 1000-year-old man. Excellent book even though it hasn't aged well, since Mr. Heinlein was also so much of a libertarian that he almost an anarchist. The sexist, classist, and libertarian attitudes in his books make them seem very dated now.
Yes, it sounds like Heinlein, though I suspect the origin of the expression is much (much) older. Never read "Time Enough for Love," but Heinlein was my favorite author when I was a "young adult" and he was writing for the YA crowd. Have Spacesuit, Will Travel. The Door Into Summer. Starman Jones. As he started writing for adults, and as I became an adult, I cared less for his writing: his philosophy started to grate.
When I was a teenager, I read everything of Heinlein's that I could find. As a nervous, self-involved nerd, all the obnoxious socio-political stuff in his books went right over my head, I was so enraptured by Martians, spaceships, and ray guns.
But when I tried to reread them as an adult, I was amazed at how much stuff I overlooked. If you want to explore a well-written and truly poisonous sci-fi tale from Heinlein, try "Farnham's Freehold." The whole racist-libertarian worldview is on display, including cannibalism of pretty white girls by rich, black, African conquerors. Ick.
As a nervous, self-involved nerd, I also read whatever Heinlein I could find, including Farnham's Freehold. Even at the time, I thought it was a vicious lampoon of libertarianism, which is one reason I was shocked when I started reading about some of his actual political views. I tried to re-read Farnham recently, and could not get past the opening scene over dinner, before the bombs fell. Poisonous is a good description.
Exquisite writing, Will. I thoroughly enjoyed this.✌🏼
I really enjoy Will’s command of illustrative language to describe events. Emotive
“American Pie” could use a new verse, Will could write it. “Bye bye Mister Sty in my eye…..
One step at a time before dancing in the streets. He has been indicted... for a hearing. After that MAY come criminal charges...and after that MAYBE conviction and sentencing. Meantime, you are right to consider what our attention is being diverted FROM during this prolonged s---show. When mainstream media resumes 'It's ALL about TRUMP" diatribe, we'll certainly know what they are counting on us to focus on.
...and so the effort to revive failing TV networks devoted to the polarizing of people into becoming partisans begins. https://www.statista.com/chart/30167/public-opinion-on-trump-indictment-in-documents-case/
While TFIFG (the federally-indicted former guy) tried to end democracy, let's not forget his minions continue the effort. Yesterday's SC decision was a rare victory to preserve voting rights.
Screw them, indeed
Excellent! Thank you, Will.
You made my day Will.
“REALITY has reasserted itself. “ 👍👏
THANK YOU. You have expressed my feelings much more concisely and eloquently than I was ever going to be able to! :)
Unfriend ‘em all!
"If the people in power can jail their political opponents at will, we don’t have a republic."
—Josh Hawley
"If a sitting US Senator describes a federal criminal grand jury investigation with hundreds of witnesses and tens of thousands of documents as “at will,” that Senator is a MORON and an embarrassment to the republic. Then again, that has been Hawley’s reputation for years."
—David Shuster
"By statute, Jack Smith serves as a special prosecutor who is not a Biden Administration political apointee.
Predictably, the right-wing outrage machine will now crank out the disinformation and innuendo aimed directly at the former guy's poorly educated base."
—Roy Cuellar
To Josh Hawley: if the people in elected office can commit crimes at will we no longer have a republic. Traitorous, cowardly, performative little weasel.
My dad had a rather colorful term to describe people like Josh Hawley. He would have called him a piss ant. Traitorous, performative little weasel works too.
My grandmother also called people like Josh Hawley - Piss Ants! I'm going to have to bring those words back to my vocabulary!
Piss ant, absolutely! Totally agree, Kamila!
Does anybody remember when, upon departing the White House, Trump left a "nice" letter for Biden, who didn't disclose the contents? My inner conspiracy theorist whispers darkly that the letter suggested a quid pro quo: Trump stays out of jail, and Hunter Biden also stays out of jail. Is this imagined deal unraveling? Or is Trump actually in little danger, with "multiple indictments" simply being the plot line of the latest season of the "Trump and the White House" reality show being broadcast almost daily on MNM (mainstream news media)?
I think you just repeated one of the theories mentioned in the article as an example of manufactured misinformation. We know that Trump tries to corrupt everyone he comes in contact with. He does not understand that some people are not open to his idea of deals. That is why he was so bad at being President. Biden, on the other hand, is good at being President and has had a lifetime of experience doing politics while not engaging in criminal behavior, and this just drives the right wing crazy, doesn’t it? The idea that someone says what he means, and does what he says, is incomprehensible to those so lost in webs of corruption and deceit they no longer understand concepts like personal responsibility. More and more complicated and manufactured conspiracy theories are not going to help you understand why Biden does what he does. Putting this misinformation and innuendo into threads like this reveals you to be either gullible in the extreme, incapable of understanding what you read, or an active promulgator of such misinformation.
Um, excuse me, that was my very own original conspiracy theory, and HCR didn't mention it, and your itchy, bad-tempered screed is just plain rude.
I just love a well set up ambush. Spending the night patching bullet holes to get ready for tomorrows kill zones. I wonder why we need to revisit these killing fields. (Sigh) step aboard and let’s go ahead and dress these wounds. We can stop the bleeding here and I will get you out of here to 24th evac. Maybe one of you will get lucky and get to go back to the states. Work work work. I feel like I’m going insane. I still have room for six more. Any more bleeders? No? Okay we can grab those two dead’s then. We are clear for take off on the left Sir!
LOL
Well, calling the guy "gullible" seems pretty stiff...
You are entitled to your opinion. You seem to be writing to be supportive of someone else, with little regard to the substance of what is being said.
It seems that some people have a sensitive reaction when I call out Biden as a Vampire Liberal from tiny corporatist Delaware.
p.s. I think that, by imposing your view that the second comma should be a period, you are exposing your insensitivity to periods who self-identify as commas.
While your assessment of Biden as a "Vampire Liberal" may even be accurate, he sure knows how to get government and politics to work. I get the sense that Biden is a guy who's resolved so many issues in his life, and has accumulated so much wealth, that he no longer cares about self-dealing -- he already has everything he wants and knows that he's near death. He seems to have returned to the reason he entered politics -- to serve the public good.
Btw, I think you'd enjoy this article:
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22543858/isabel-fall-attack-helicopter
I actually managed to find a copy of the subject short story on the Wayback Machine before it was deleted -- it's brilliant!
Keyword here John is:
“Imagined”.
Sort of like me “imagining” you are a short, green Martian gasping for Martian air with only a few minutes left before you beam back to Mars where silly stories are met with a vacuum of silence.
I find it notable that our own troll, John S, deems a logic-based, on-point reply by a woman a “rude screed,” but responds with a modestly humorous emoji to the overtly “rude” comment of a man, Mike S (which, btw, made me laugh out loud). A troll and a misogynist too? Curious, that word choice, “itchy.”
*sigh*
I hope you're not another I.M.F. Holocaust denier.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-8-2023/comment/17099927
p.s. Logic-based is a bit of a stretch, and "on-point" is wishful thinking, unless you admire talking points of minions of Vampire Liberal Joe Biden from tiny corporatist Delaware.
I guess you didn't like my conspiracy theory :-(
Naw. I like it fine. Demonstrates a good imagination.
But. I am an engineer John.
Someone even more wedded to discerning reality than Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Engineers cannot afford to live in fantasy land.
That’s all. Simple.
As my grandmother's fourth cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said (obliquely referring to Herbert Hoover), "Keep your engineers on tap, but not on top!"
Nope, John, no memory of that whatsoever. TFG left the Bidens a Whitehouse in shambles with NOTHING to aid transition between administrations.
I remember that, too, which made Trump's departing letter to Biden, or at least what Biden said of it at the time, incongruous.
Dear John,
You missed the central point. Biden respects the independence of the DOJ. That's the way our government is supposed to work. The former guy sees the DOJ as a tool in his tool box from Hell. TFG used the DOJ for his own purposes. He can't imagine that someone like Biden actually has the integrity to believe in a nation where justice is for all.
What do you believe in? Who do you believe in?
I don't think that Biden has enough independence to respect the "independence" of fellow corporatist shill Merrick Garland.
I have a lot of respect for what Ramsey Clark became after his term as Attorney General.
As I've said before, I'm an old-school FDR Democrat, and I strongly support JFK's vision of the space program that the Democrats have abandoned to the other guy.
I detest Biden's war-mongering; he's just as bad as Hillary, the blood-soaked Butcher of Libya.
I supported Tulsi Gabbard during the Democratic primaries, because of her firm anti-war stance and her common-sense bipartisan approach. However, I didn't support her exit from the Democratic Party, and her more recent attempts to endear herself to Hannity's audience left me cold.
These days, I am inclined to be hopeful about RFK's positions on the issues, so maybe I'll be sending him the odd $20 or so from time to time, same as I did with Tulsi.
p.s. I think that economic policy is fundamental, and big-project investments should be made with an eye toward what is necessary for long-term survival. I think that much of what passes for environmentalism is retarded.
I shared my big-picture vision for the pathway to environmentally sustainable prosperity here:
http://earthwarning.org/index.php/what-should-we-do/
Another literate troll
...said the morally depraved I.M.F. Holocaust denier who acts as thug support for that fake "vampire liberal" Joe Biden.
Quoting from Davison Budhoo's resignation letter from the International Monetary Fund, confessing his guilt in "our own peculiar Holocaust":
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oJzvpfFzIKu76oE1CkzZlarRiVpYIggFMFzSt6OgHx0/mobilebasic
Read this before but cant remember where or for what purpose. Maybe here???
It's out there, a little bit, mostly cited by anti-imperialist socialists. Years ago, Ralph Nader published a review of Budhoo's 100-page resignation letter in his newsletter, which has since disappeared from google searches. The internet is an unstable library...
A Nader nut, damn
As an author and as a reader, I am bowled over by HCR's masterful weaving of today's most important breaking news into a single factual narrative indicting the Republican Party for this horrific precipice they've brought the US to. A rollercoaster of terror - and hope.
I agree, Alexandra. I like your "rollercoaster of terror, and hope" line. I may have to use that sans attribution!
Well said. Every time I think about writing, I am confronted with people who do is so much better than I do that I pull back.
Ally, I teach writing as well as write, so I can't help but jump in and say that ALL writers feel that way. No writing would get done, ever, if we thought about all the people who are better writers. Please don't let that hold you back!
Me too, Ally..but to have been a part of this commentary gives me awe and oh boy an education again on how much I don’t know yet . From the get go seeing this coming though never in its horrific mess, I dared ( write) and...it amazes me how well read, knowledgeable , and informed you all are. Books I’ve never heard of, thoughts put into sensible composition-how I felt. Thanking those who ‘ liked’. .
Heather inspired me, Joyce, Ruth and so many others ...of you. Maybe we won’t become authors of great books, but this has been , is, an education of what it’s like. Close enough.
Thanks
So now the Rubicon has been crossed with Trump's Federal indictment at just the moment that the House has been gridlocked by the ultra right wing. Heather's lead here is telling--that the shadow docket stay may have been the crucial factor in the Republican's gaining the majority in the House.
What this shows is that the stacked SCOTUS has beome not a part of a system of checks and balances in our government but the most powerful, just as Netanyahu is trying to make it in Israel and Orban in Hungary and Polands Law and Justice Party has been trying to reshape the courts there. This is a key element in the Chirsto-Facist long game around the world.
It will be critical to see what SCOTUS does in the myriad cases that will get generated surrounding the Trump federal indictment.
The rubber meets the road
❗️ ❗️ ❗️
SCOTUS is set to implement the Grand Oligarch Party's espionage attack plan.
You have illuminated the end run concept of politics! Masterfully. The run around. We can cut off their angle and force them out of bounds.
Trump bleeding out – the phrase conjures images of the Wicked Witch of the West who shriveled in agony as water poured over he, her power over her army dwindling as she shrank, her power ending in a steaming pile at their feet.
But they were not believers, Trump’s followers are, and as encouraging as the prospect of Trump’s demise may be, unlike the Wicked Witch of the West, he has spawned and army of believers. The politicians may wish to move on, but the Trump base may not be so keen to do so, and so the politicians will continue to pander to them.
Today’s news of Trump’s indictment is very encouraging, but we are a long way from ridding the nation of his poison.
Trump himself will, eventually, devolve into a steaming pile and his flying monkeys will lose their power...until that happy day I will work at what I can to uphold free and fair elections and repeat the facts to as many folks as will listen.
They can and probably will transfer their allegience to the next iteration of the Orange One. Time is relentless, merciless and he's truly not all that far from the rocking chair.
Evil Rupert is going strong, but looks like he died a while back. Chump is Dorian Gray crumbling into his ugly, evil soul
Eugene McCarthy 's base never really went away.
I meant Joseph McCarthy. Sorry folks. So many facts....so little time.
Glad you corrected yourself on this. Eugene McCarthy was a family friend (college classmate of my dad). If you see the three dots next to your posting, that’s the edit function. You can delete/edit posts. 😎
Some things take time to heal. With the passing of time trump cling ons will push up daisys and I bet their stones won’t say here lies lies lies a trumper.
'As The Guardian’s David Smith puts it, “he really might be going to jail.” '... it is hard to figure out what is important and what is not in the general drama around the former president, but this indictment is “genuinely monumental.” (Letter)
It was genuinely monumental when voters elected Donald J. Trump to be president or did the Supreme Court do that? Oh, excuse me, The Supreme Court decided Bush v. Gore. Wasn't that enough proof in the pudding or was it when Ronald Reagan was elected to a second term or Gerald Ford pardoning Nixon? What did we learn after Vice President Agnew cheated the Government of $13,551.47 on his Federal income tax payment?
He's their very special barker. They've been at it for a long time. Look at the state legislatures. We just weren't paying attention.
Ginni Thomas was working officially for the Bush campaign when husband provided the 5th vote to end the Florida re-count and make him President. Jeb Bush had used his power as FL Governor to block voters from the polls and throw Democrats off voter lists, and still Gore might have won despite the interference with the election.
Don’t forget Roger Stone and James Baker. Yes, those two in the same sentence. W was a put up job…
"The extremism of today’s Republican Party grew in large part from the work of televangelist Pat Robertson, who died today at age 93. The son of a segregationist southern Democratic senator, Baptist minister Robertson urged evangelical Christians to vote and made them a core constituency of the Republican Party."
Let's not overlook the role of Jerry Falwell and his "Moral Majority" that emerged full force in time for the 1980 election. And Newt Gingrich who set the precedent for the confrontational style we now have in DC.
In addition to blaming natural disasters on the country's gay community, he said God gave us 9/11 because of them. May he rot in the Hell he so strongly believed existed for his perceived enemies.
Saw a meme that said the smoky air in the northeast was not due to Canadian wildfires, but rather the gates of Hell opening for Pat Robertson
There is a movie there somewhere, Barbara. Could play out in Yellowstone.
I was happy to hear the news about Pat the rat preacher. Back in the 80's, my Catholic mother was dying. What we didn't know is that she became a follower of Pat's and the 700 club. In her final days, Mom begged us to reach out to him. She wanted him to "Pray" for her. We did reach out reluctantly and were told if we contributed $$$ he would pray. We were stunned by that. We didn't pay the shit. We had been thru that BS with the catholics. After my mother passed we found that she had been sending money she did not have to that corrupt money grabbing speak out the side of his mouth preacher. I hope he ends up in a purgatory of endless 700 shows and gets a view what happened to the people he swindled!
I haven’t forgotten. Sad that so many have no clue of the evil the current crop sits atop.
I'm quite sure none of them made it to heaven.
I don't believe in heaven or hell, but the persistent presence of the folks in question makes me want to. I just like imagining their faces entering the great lobby of the afterlife and being led to the "wrong" escalator.
Disguised with cheap gold paint?
Never has the phrase a cohort coined many years ago been more appropriate: Mr. Robertson has been "farted into the wind eternal". If there is an afterlife, I'll bet he has a look of surprise on his face.
“A look of surprise on his face” James that’s it. Put it on his tomb.
What if there is no Heaven, what if there is no Hell. Does that mean it’s our fault?!!!
Unfortunately, Gnewt is still alive and up to the same old tricks. I will read his obituary with glee.
Newt's obit is one among several which I will read with glee, when their times come.
Please do not forget Lee Atwater (of How to Be a Racist Without Sounding Like a Racist, infamy) who honed specious GOP rhetoric, Newt Gingrich who put party officials in rhetorical lockstep messaging, and Ralph Reed who mass marketed the weaponization of religion as a Republican political wedge issue.
The Roberts Court has shown such a penchant for racist religious extremism that state Republicans understandably thought they did not have to bother to craft their bigotry to comport to some resemblance of constitutionality. At least on the level of language if not of substance.
Lin, exactly! "Atwater, author of How to Be A Racist Without Sounding Like a Racist"
Thanks for the reminder, Lee was been in my “go straight to hell” file for a long time. So have the other two, and all the toadies that followed.
Wait- Donald Trump is indicted AND Pat Robertson is dead? All I need is for Leonard Leo to finish melting and I win the trifecta!
Ha!!!
Made me laugh, Jane. Thanks
Oh Lordy! Would that it was so!!!
“...he might really be going to jail.”
America, despite its raft of serious problems, is a nation still based on the rule of law. But successfully prosecuting and putting a former president behind bars for the rest of his life – in a deeply divided country no less – loom as the ultimate challenge.
Dark forces will seek to thwart the justice Trump badly deserves.
Coming from my “Sweet Home Alabama”, I am devastated to learn that the outcome of the 2022 Election might have gone more fully Democratic to the House had the “Shadow Docket” used in recent times by SCOTUS not supported the racist gerrymandered electoral maps used in that election and later overturned as unconstitutional in regular full session. This is outrageous by the Supreme Court of our land and demands oversight, transparency, accountability.
Justice John Roberts, get your court in order now. Where are your ethics I so admired during your confirmation hearings? This may have altered the nightmare we are living now. Biden may have been able to pass more of his climate agenda, among other very important diluted bipartisan compromises. And MAGA McCarthy may never have negotiated deals for his tenuous, troubled Speakers gavel that are paralyzing forward action in his quest for power at any cost. “Weaponization “ may never have been a part of our conversation. The decisions that seem so small......but if that were so, why was this case ever taken to the “shadow docket” initially? Where did the money originate? It’s always the money that corrupts. Who collected? I am no conspiracy theorist but this smells like dead fish to me.
I'm mystified by this "shadow document".
Steve Vladek a Univ. of TX law professor, describes the shadow docket in his Substack One First (SCOTUS street address). You’ll have to dig back because it was a few months ago. He’s also released a book on it.
It’s a shadow, not meant to be analyzed
I'm relieved. Mystical, then, but that's all right, so was the Delphic oracle. Does each of them have a crystal ball?
I bet they have a wad of money
Quite so. They use it to polish the crystal ball.
I couldn’t agree more. I was stunned to read Dr. Richardson’s analysis of that particular situation. I guess SCOTUS thinks we are all stupid. Appears to be so highly illegal and deliberate.
The good news is the Florida Federal courts are a "rocket docket" and the trial could start by this fall. And the 11th circuit knows his delay appeals, which he lost 2x last year. He could be wearing orange before the Iowa caucuses.
Best post yet
One can hope...
Good morning Dr. Richardson, Thanks for a well organized and clear explanation of what happened yesterday. Between the SCOTUS and the DOJ, our country’s institutions showed us that they know what they are doing despite all the distractions. Few people reading today’s news understand the significance of Pat Robertson’s place in the development of the current right wing of the Republican party. The FPOTUS doesn’t know what Robertson contributed to his becoming POTUS. Instead of historical reflection, the FPOTUS is very busy trying to find competent trial attorneys who will represent and defend him in the Miami federal courtroom where he’s going to face charges of espionage and other serious violations of the law. Yesterday will be on the list of important dates in the history of American jurisprudence.
J.P. - I really wish the 2021 film THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE had gotten more attention: there was some really good depiction of the rise of televangelism and its horrors (including Robertson). Always looking for ways to get this information across on a popular level. (Also Aaron Sorkin's flawed but factually-based THE NEWSROOM.)
Thank you, never wanted to lay eyes on Tammy Faye again, but…maybe
It's really surprising, worth a look. While as HCR says above "Robertson blamed LGBTQ Americans and women for secularizing the United States" - Tammy Faye had hidden humanity - she used the PTL platform during the AIDS epidemic to debunk myths and support the gay population.
Had no idea
Actually, he may be more busily involved with his “political consultants” according to some reports. First things first for tfg.
I just read in Le Monde that one of his lawyers is named Trusty.
Yes, Jim Trusty, and he was on CNN with Kaitlan Collins last night, spouting the tfg camp’s theory of a corrupt Justice Dept. I had enough and turned off the TV.
It made me smile because it was another of those Dickensian names we were talking about here yesterday. Trusty: never known to let you down
Trusty was just "interviewed" on the Today Show, where there was very little push-back for the lies he spewed. Ugh!.
Although, they did have two NBC legal experts dissect Trusty's BS.
tfg seems to have unlimited contacts in the world of dodgy lawyers. Or does he attract them like flies?
Yes, this clarity of thought put onto paper ( Heather’s ) and SO many others . I reiterate ...such artistic gifts. ❤️
I hope Trump’s rivals are right and that he and his jackals bleed out soon or go to jail. Let’s hope indictments follow for Jan 6 and
the Georgia election crimes. McCarthy’s unhinged attack
In defense of Trump is further proof of his threat to democracy. These (expletives deleted) “Freedom Caucus” idiots all should go to jail for violating their oaths of office and conspiracy to overthrow government. I respect and welcome debate over how to best govern, but those who advocate tyranny and oligarchy should be expelled and bared from participation.
McCarthy always has his finger in the air, checking which way the wind is blowing. Even now, while the radical few are blocking legislation from the rules committee, McCarthy collaborated in a historic event, avoiding the manufactured debt ceiling crisis, accessing more Democratic than Republican votes to move the legislation out of the House. It's not beyond my imagination to see McCarthy morphing into a moderate with a decidedly bipartisan streak if he senses the wind blowing in that direction. After all, there are the many silent members of the house, and the Republican traditionalists and non-aligned members of the voting public. He could remove and replace a Freedom Caucus member or two from the Rules committee and move legislation at will. He may begin to realize that there's another potential base that could be developed other than the MAGA crowd...you read it here first!
Ha, McCarthy do something logical, nah. He’s trashing the deal with Biden with every breath
He is on a one way gambit. Either he guts the Freedom Caucus or they gut him. He needs to start scratching his own testicles. I have heard of startling cures for nearly empty ballsacks utilizing ingredients found in every grocery store.