And when Lindsay Graham threatened Putin with hanging? People seem to forget that but let's pick President Biden apart because we hate his fight for Democracy.
Agree. After all the gaffes from tfg and his supporters I have zero interest in any faux outrage over a from-the-heart and truthful statement by Biden. Biden speaks from his heart-because he has one. Democrats have to stop equivocating and walking back any statement the republicans and the media attempt to frame as controversial. We need to stand together and support each other. This sounds so binary and simplistic but at this point it is and unless we stand together we will lose. And that is a horrifying prospect.
IтАЩm trying to тЭдя╕П your comment but it wonтАЩt let me. At any rate I fully agree with what youтАЩve said. The right wing noise machine is always working overtime these days.
SarahWall73- try refreshing this page by going to the top of this page by clicking on the incomplete circle w/the arrow @ the end of it to the left of the search bar. After that, try clicking the heart-it usually works for a bit.
I am not certain that it is a gaffe even though everyone says it is. I think he wanted that out there. I watched on earlier German news and then later as the German man that is at the White House, and was with Biden in Poland first just said, Biden said this, and he did not have an opinion on it, but he looked upset. In the later news when a different anchor interviewed him he added in that Biden made a big mistake. So, I guess he talked it over with someone and made a decision on how Germany sees this. Full disclosure, I am a duel German and American citizen and my thoughts were, " Biden should have said, for all the European countries who do not want to give up Russian energy sources immediately, how will you feel if Putin drops a nuke on one of your cities right now? Will you then feel it is an immediate priority to give it up?" I say this, because I think that the people who should be worried about Putin getting out his nukes are the other European countries. And as long as they continue to give Putin revenue he has money to pay some people to do his bidding. I just wonder if he personally has the technical know-how to detonate nuclear bombs on his own if no one will do it at his bidding. I am assuming not! That is, the rest of his military knowledge seems to be lacking, so why not this. If it is, then what that means is that someone has to be willing to carry the orders out! Isn't that what we are trying to change?
I agree with you that our European allies are likely the first victims of Putin extremist actions. He doesn't seem to consider nuclear fallout a real danger or health threat as long as he himself is safe. I think creation of a no-fly zone and other escalations will be decisions made by European leaders, not the US, for that reason.
Yes, Tiny Desk Pounding Lindsey; the individual being pushed to the wrong side of history with his own hypocrisies. Disloyal friend, preening sycophant to current power lord, wielder of the impotent тАЬhand chopтАЭ tilting at windmills of his own imagination
Challenge his people by asking them what they value and watch them squirm
Are you ready to give up without a fight? If not, then--not to put too fine a point on it--it wastes time and energy to talk about how powerful the enemy is.
Please, Lisa, do not repeat that defeatist nonsense. We have NOT already lost the 2022 midterms. If you listen to any of the democratic strategists, especially Joe Trippi who has joined the Lincoln Project, there is much to be optimistic about. (1) after thinking the Dems would lose a ton of seats in the House due to redistricting, it looks like we actually will gain a few. (2) the Republicans are on track to nominate real wingnuts in the primaries who could very much lose in the general elections. So don't call the game before the final buzzer.
Hi Lisa. I have read a number of replies, and frankly I didnтАЩt get my buttons pushed by your position. I have been reading your comments for months, and I respect you and your opinion. I do disagree with you, however, that itтАЩs a foregone conclusion that the Republicans win the midterms. They are in more disarray than IтАЩve ever seen that party, and they are more clearly and with greater conviction viewed as fascist, pro-Putin, anti-Ukraine, racist, sexist, and homophobic than ever before. I also take into consideration that there was a strong backlash to having Trump reelected. A lot of new voters came out of the woodwork for record-breaking voting totals in 2020. Anyway, itтАЩs speculation, no one really knows, but my gut is leaning 60-40 towards the Democrats keeping their majority in Congress. Of course the Senate is up for grabs again.
I fully agree. There is the proverbial lifetime before the midterms. I hold to the position that an effective weeks-long, televised expos├й by the House Committee will send shockwaves through America. Effectively they will be a first draft of history and Americans will be riveted.
The cultists will never be won over. ThatтАЩs a given. However there are millions of reasonable, sensible Americans who will realize that the government must be purged of rot, and voting in wild-eyed RтАЩs will not serve that purpose. And then there are the Democrats who are going to fight like itтАЩs their last free election.
I am convinced that the rancid, revolutionary Republican movement has about run its course. The KBJ hearings are one more nail in the coffin.
Trump no longer has the grip he once had on America. Slowly heтАЩs becoming more and more irrelevant. We see this from the increasingly serious challenges coming at him from others hoping to assume his mantle. But they are wolves in wolvesтАЩ clothing and people on the right are going to be split between those who want to preserve the real thing, and those who want someone new and shiny to articulate their increasingly absurd shows of anger.
Perhaps it is a good thing that the DOJ has been SLOW. A martyred Trump might be dangerous. Although in truth, the sloth like pace of this agency has left me in a mood to tear my hair out all too often.
As far as the Biden тАЬgaffeтАЭ, it wasnтАЩt. The White House going into overdrive about it was another example of the mindful nannying behavior that the Democrats have turned into an ugly art form.
It was a simple truth. Look at the state of Ukraine today and consider that this is all because of one manтАЩs war. Of course Putin should not remain in power. What would he have to do beyond the horrors already inflicted to deserve the comment Biden delivered.
Yes, the nuclear threat hovers over us, and if carried out to its extreme the world would be annihilated. So the Americans and NATO have been prudent in their response - prudent but fierce nonetheless.
But what if Russia had slam-dunked on Ukraine in a week? What if they had them gone on to the Moldova, the Baltic States, and/or Poland? There would certainly be conventional war then. In the midst of that, Putin would undoubtedly issue nuclear threats. Would we then try to тАШnegotiateтАЩ?
BidenтАЩs message was hard-hitting and direct. Putin rarely hears home truths. I cheered it and hated the inevitable tortured cleanup.
Brilliant, Eric. Your comments are always exceptional and brilliantly stated. I agree with every word, and could hardly begin to state it so well.
Gaffe my ass. IтАЩm delighted at all the opinion pieces pushing back against the idea that Biden did anything other than speak for humanity. In my life I am surrounded by kind, gentle people who think always of treating others well. My own wife said weeks ago that Putin needs to be offed. When WOMEN are calling for disposing of someone, that tells you something.
Biden himself was told, by women fleeing the war, that they would strangle Putin.
тАЬIn my life I am surrounded by kind, gentle people who think always of treating others wellтАЭ.
Roland, that comes out in your writing. And I am positive that they live that way in part because you do to.
As I age, I feel more and more drawn to observing that same fact in my own life. My wife is a loving, gentle matriarch and our four children are brilliant, active and celebrate their parents (more than they serve in one case :).
And donтАЩt get me started on my grandchildren. ЁЯШК
Thank you for your generous comment. It is wonderful to wake up to someone who reaches out in that way.
I read, listen to, and watch people doing their level best to sort out the terrible mess we have blasted ourselves into. It is unfathomable really. People can explain parts of it coherently in a way that nurtures my understanding. They can speculate on other parts, with rather less success in general.
I find myself thinking that nobody goes far enough in their analysis. They can and do arrive at proximate causes. But I find myself thinking more and more that we are not connecting the dots.
Ultimately the pundits do not go far enough. The simple truth is that not enough people have had the good fortune that we have - and it is in large part the luck of the draw - to be born into, and nurtured by families who put love first and that as their highest people. Those children then go in to nurture and love in the same way they were.
Nowadays it seems to me that in too many homes the stresses on individuals are so acute as to make them live either mostly in their head or never in their head. Parenting slowly becomes just one more thing to do in the intervals between texting, Netflix, and self-medication. It is terribly sad (there but for the grace of God go I), and in obsessing over the huge problems we ignore this root cause at our peril.
Great talking directly to you Roland. I know you are a good man.
MaybeтАжbut I think there has been fear - real deal-seated fear - to be the one in the glare of the horde. ThatтАЩs what motivated the SDNY to pull out a few weeks ago. Pomerantz, a recognized expert, was positive they had Trump dead to rights and retired after ByrnesтАЩ decision to not prosecute.
Maybe IтАЩm splitting hairs with what you articulated.
I had a professor in college (a very long time ago) who said that his aunt thought that the Philippine Insurrection was the greatest war the US had ever fought--her husband was killed in it. Are you certain that what you hear is not the complaints of people at the supermarket or on the bus, and that it really represents as solid majority even in your state?
When voters are restricted and the class action suits begin, autocracy will need to be fully declared. Lets see how many Americans tear up the Constitution
WSJ ........reported an independent registered nurse in Scottsdale stated because of diaper and grocery price increases she will likely vote R. That short sightedness concerns me as I think it indicative of a large number of voters. My hope is the R's have done enough crazy that it will pull in a landslide of new voters and maybe a number of the opposite side to vote dem. Thin thread of hope for certain.
I don't believe they are lost at all. A lot depends on what happens with the majority of Americans who are not MAGA subscribers. The sum total of presidential voters in the last election was about 156 million, suggesting that there are at least another 50-75 million who did not vote. There's lots of ground to plow amongst the electorate. Why not imagine a congress in which moderates in both parties would rather work with one another to accomplish things than with the extremists on either side, then work to see that vision become reality.
Yes, it is unfortunate that the US has a shameful history of *involvement* in regime change that undercuts any insistence that the statement was merely rhetorical.
And when Lindsay Graham threatened Putin with hanging? People seem to forget that but let's pick President Biden apart because we hate his fight for Democracy.
My concern is the 2022 elections.
Agree. After all the gaffes from tfg and his supporters I have zero interest in any faux outrage over a from-the-heart and truthful statement by Biden. Biden speaks from his heart-because he has one. Democrats have to stop equivocating and walking back any statement the republicans and the media attempt to frame as controversial. We need to stand together and support each other. This sounds so binary and simplistic but at this point it is and unless we stand together we will lose. And that is a horrifying prospect.
Very well said.
IтАЩm trying to тЭдя╕П your comment but it wonтАЩt let me. At any rate I fully agree with what youтАЩve said. The right wing noise machine is always working overtime these days.
SarahWall73- try refreshing this page by going to the top of this page by clicking on the incomplete circle w/the arrow @ the end of it to the left of the search bar. After that, try clicking the heart-it usually works for a bit.
I am not certain that it is a gaffe even though everyone says it is. I think he wanted that out there. I watched on earlier German news and then later as the German man that is at the White House, and was with Biden in Poland first just said, Biden said this, and he did not have an opinion on it, but he looked upset. In the later news when a different anchor interviewed him he added in that Biden made a big mistake. So, I guess he talked it over with someone and made a decision on how Germany sees this. Full disclosure, I am a duel German and American citizen and my thoughts were, " Biden should have said, for all the European countries who do not want to give up Russian energy sources immediately, how will you feel if Putin drops a nuke on one of your cities right now? Will you then feel it is an immediate priority to give it up?" I say this, because I think that the people who should be worried about Putin getting out his nukes are the other European countries. And as long as they continue to give Putin revenue he has money to pay some people to do his bidding. I just wonder if he personally has the technical know-how to detonate nuclear bombs on his own if no one will do it at his bidding. I am assuming not! That is, the rest of his military knowledge seems to be lacking, so why not this. If it is, then what that means is that someone has to be willing to carry the orders out! Isn't that what we are trying to change?
I agree with you that our European allies are likely the first victims of Putin extremist actions. He doesn't seem to consider nuclear fallout a real danger or health threat as long as he himself is safe. I think creation of a no-fly zone and other escalations will be decisions made by European leaders, not the US, for that reason.
Yes, Tiny Desk Pounding Lindsey; the individual being pushed to the wrong side of history with his own hypocrisies. Disloyal friend, preening sycophant to current power lord, wielder of the impotent тАЬhand chopтАЭ tilting at windmills of his own imagination
Challenge his people by asking them what they value and watch them squirm
On a scale of one to ten, Lindsay, how religious are you. I would say you are in negative territory based on your words and behavior.
If people like you wonтАЩt get out and fight for democracy this year, thenтАФand only thenтАФyou will be right.
Are you ready to give up without a fight? If not, then--not to put too fine a point on it--it wastes time and energy to talk about how powerful the enemy is.
Please, Lisa, do not repeat that defeatist nonsense. We have NOT already lost the 2022 midterms. If you listen to any of the democratic strategists, especially Joe Trippi who has joined the Lincoln Project, there is much to be optimistic about. (1) after thinking the Dems would lose a ton of seats in the House due to redistricting, it looks like we actually will gain a few. (2) the Republicans are on track to nominate real wingnuts in the primaries who could very much lose in the general elections. So don't call the game before the final buzzer.
Agree 100%
Hi Lisa. I have read a number of replies, and frankly I didnтАЩt get my buttons pushed by your position. I have been reading your comments for months, and I respect you and your opinion. I do disagree with you, however, that itтАЩs a foregone conclusion that the Republicans win the midterms. They are in more disarray than IтАЩve ever seen that party, and they are more clearly and with greater conviction viewed as fascist, pro-Putin, anti-Ukraine, racist, sexist, and homophobic than ever before. I also take into consideration that there was a strong backlash to having Trump reelected. A lot of new voters came out of the woodwork for record-breaking voting totals in 2020. Anyway, itтАЩs speculation, no one really knows, but my gut is leaning 60-40 towards the Democrats keeping their majority in Congress. Of course the Senate is up for grabs again.
I fully agree. There is the proverbial lifetime before the midterms. I hold to the position that an effective weeks-long, televised expos├й by the House Committee will send shockwaves through America. Effectively they will be a first draft of history and Americans will be riveted.
The cultists will never be won over. ThatтАЩs a given. However there are millions of reasonable, sensible Americans who will realize that the government must be purged of rot, and voting in wild-eyed RтАЩs will not serve that purpose. And then there are the Democrats who are going to fight like itтАЩs their last free election.
I am convinced that the rancid, revolutionary Republican movement has about run its course. The KBJ hearings are one more nail in the coffin.
Trump no longer has the grip he once had on America. Slowly heтАЩs becoming more and more irrelevant. We see this from the increasingly serious challenges coming at him from others hoping to assume his mantle. But they are wolves in wolvesтАЩ clothing and people on the right are going to be split between those who want to preserve the real thing, and those who want someone new and shiny to articulate their increasingly absurd shows of anger.
Perhaps it is a good thing that the DOJ has been SLOW. A martyred Trump might be dangerous. Although in truth, the sloth like pace of this agency has left me in a mood to tear my hair out all too often.
As far as the Biden тАЬgaffeтАЭ, it wasnтАЩt. The White House going into overdrive about it was another example of the mindful nannying behavior that the Democrats have turned into an ugly art form.
It was a simple truth. Look at the state of Ukraine today and consider that this is all because of one manтАЩs war. Of course Putin should not remain in power. What would he have to do beyond the horrors already inflicted to deserve the comment Biden delivered.
Yes, the nuclear threat hovers over us, and if carried out to its extreme the world would be annihilated. So the Americans and NATO have been prudent in their response - prudent but fierce nonetheless.
But what if Russia had slam-dunked on Ukraine in a week? What if they had them gone on to the Moldova, the Baltic States, and/or Poland? There would certainly be conventional war then. In the midst of that, Putin would undoubtedly issue nuclear threats. Would we then try to тАШnegotiateтАЩ?
BidenтАЩs message was hard-hitting and direct. Putin rarely hears home truths. I cheered it and hated the inevitable tortured cleanup.
Brilliant, Eric. Your comments are always exceptional and brilliantly stated. I agree with every word, and could hardly begin to state it so well.
Gaffe my ass. IтАЩm delighted at all the opinion pieces pushing back against the idea that Biden did anything other than speak for humanity. In my life I am surrounded by kind, gentle people who think always of treating others well. My own wife said weeks ago that Putin needs to be offed. When WOMEN are calling for disposing of someone, that tells you something.
Biden himself was told, by women fleeing the war, that they would strangle Putin.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10655075/amp/Hes-butcher-Biden-slams-Putin-visiting-Ukrainian-refugees.html
тАЬIn my life I am surrounded by kind, gentle people who think always of treating others wellтАЭ.
Roland, that comes out in your writing. And I am positive that they live that way in part because you do to.
As I age, I feel more and more drawn to observing that same fact in my own life. My wife is a loving, gentle matriarch and our four children are brilliant, active and celebrate their parents (more than they serve in one case :).
And donтАЩt get me started on my grandchildren. ЁЯШК
Thank you for your generous comment. It is wonderful to wake up to someone who reaches out in that way.
I read, listen to, and watch people doing their level best to sort out the terrible mess we have blasted ourselves into. It is unfathomable really. People can explain parts of it coherently in a way that nurtures my understanding. They can speculate on other parts, with rather less success in general.
I find myself thinking that nobody goes far enough in their analysis. They can and do arrive at proximate causes. But I find myself thinking more and more that we are not connecting the dots.
Ultimately the pundits do not go far enough. The simple truth is that not enough people have had the good fortune that we have - and it is in large part the luck of the draw - to be born into, and nurtured by families who put love first and that as their highest people. Those children then go in to nurture and love in the same way they were.
Nowadays it seems to me that in too many homes the stresses on individuals are so acute as to make them live either mostly in their head or never in their head. Parenting slowly becomes just one more thing to do in the intervals between texting, Netflix, and self-medication. It is terribly sad (there but for the grace of God go I), and in obsessing over the huge problems we ignore this root cause at our peril.
Great talking directly to you Roland. I know you are a good man.
ThatтАЩs a lot of credit youтАЩre giving them.
MaybeтАжbut I think there has been fear - real deal-seated fear - to be the one in the glare of the horde. ThatтАЩs what motivated the SDNY to pull out a few weeks ago. Pomerantz, a recognized expert, was positive they had Trump dead to rights and retired after ByrnesтАЩ decision to not prosecute.
Maybe IтАЩm splitting hairs with what you articulated.
I had a professor in college (a very long time ago) who said that his aunt thought that the Philippine Insurrection was the greatest war the US had ever fought--her husband was killed in it. Are you certain that what you hear is not the complaints of people at the supermarket or on the bus, and that it really represents as solid majority even in your state?
Who told you that? The media?
Our challenge is the vote
When voters are restricted and the class action suits begin, autocracy will need to be fully declared. Lets see how many Americans tear up the Constitution
WSJ ........reported an independent registered nurse in Scottsdale stated because of diaper and grocery price increases she will likely vote R. That short sightedness concerns me as I think it indicative of a large number of voters. My hope is the R's have done enough crazy that it will pull in a landslide of new voters and maybe a number of the opposite side to vote dem. Thin thread of hope for certain.
Why do you believe that?
I don't believe they are lost at all. A lot depends on what happens with the majority of Americans who are not MAGA subscribers. The sum total of presidential voters in the last election was about 156 million, suggesting that there are at least another 50-75 million who did not vote. There's lots of ground to plow amongst the electorate. Why not imagine a congress in which moderates in both parties would rather work with one another to accomplish things than with the extremists on either side, then work to see that vision become reality.
Yes, it is unfortunate that the US has a shameful history of *involvement* in regime change that undercuts any insistence that the statement was merely rhetorical.