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“Who hurt you once, so far beyond repair, that you meet each overture with curling lip…”

Paul Gosar’s picture brings this famous line (Ruth Zardo in the Louise Penny novels) into my mind. Physically defeated. Small, without substance. Afraid. Self loathing.

These traits pervade the far right movement. They know the truth in their marrow and it screams. It robs them of restful sleep and peaceful hours when awake. They resort to believing in lies with full knowledge of their actions. They alienate family and friends, even if not known to the public. These despicable leaders, like djt, are alone with their misery.

It may take a few years or many, but the racism of skin color and religion will boil off and the distillate of our common humanity will be there. Maybe just in time to sooth Mother Nature and leave a habitable place for our children and grandchildren.

There. I feel better.

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I'm watching while the party of treason and treachery is doing its rain dance to try to convince the American people that the Biblical Flood is about to engulf them. Watching Kevin McCarthy's manufactured indignity over the course of the Biden 'Build Back Better' human infrastructure improvement program is truly something to behold. As Lawrence O'Donnell suggested this evening on his MSNBC show, The Last Word, Kevin McCarthy is a man watching his long-held dreams of power crashing on the shoals of reality. The American people want the reforms that the Democrats are trying to enact, despite their intraparty differences. The American people are going to have to decide which of the two parties represents the people's best interests.. McCarthy angrily accused his Democratic colleagues of trying to become another Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to which several of them responded, to the effect, "you bet! That's me." Roosevelt was elected to the presidency for four consecutive terms, the very thought of which has given Republicans stalwarts apoplexy for going on five generations. There are very few of us left were alive when FDR was president, myself among them, but unlike modern presidents, Roosevelt's reputation has not suffered greatly in the 76 years that have passed since his untimely death while still in office in April 1945. Joe Biden is right to invoke the spirit of FDR in his care and magnanimity for the welfare of the common man. Roosevelt was no stranger to suffering, even as he came from a wealthy patrician family. After all, FDR's older cousin, Teddy Roosevelt, had been a highly popular president in his own right a mere 30 years before FDR became president. Teddy Roosevelt himself, elected as a Republican, appeal to the hopes and dreams of ordinary people in the same way that FDR appealed to them during his time in office. Joe Biden clearly fits that mold, very much like TR in his strenuous efforts at self improvement as a young man; but also very much like FDR and expressing their needs and cares of working people will, from time to time, may need help from their government to rebalance the rules of engagement so that they too can earn a decent living, to be self-supporting, and not being chronically falling victim to insecurities over food or shelter. Of course FDR is a role model for Democrats; the problem is that many Democrats forgot their roots and families that had to do shift work for a living, or had to do without in order to save for the future. The two Roosevelts were committed to the common good, each in his own way. TR was brash and headstrong, while FDR was subtle and guileful; together, they were committed to getting things done for the American people that they could not do collectively for themselves. And that is Joe Biden's commitment as well. Biden knows that he is 'herding cats', that is 36 years of service in the Senate shows that he was pretty good at it. This week, we'll see if Biden hits the trifecta with the pending legislation. I certainly hope so. As for Kevin McCarthy, all of his posturing and complaining simply proves him to be the sore loser that he is.

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And yet, and yet, as the Republican Party descends from ridiculous to absurd to deranged there still exists a solid, significant plurality cheering them on. Recent state-level legislation enabling the fixing of the vote might very well put the ridiculous, absurd, deranged Republicans back in the federal driver's seat.

Federal protection of voters' rights must be next on the Democrats' legislative agenda.

I am going to keep beating this drum; with my congressional delegation, on these pages, and anyplace else that offers the opportunity.

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And the Comedy of Errors -- now a Comedy of Terrors -- plods on and on! All the Repugs are missing are Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff in the flesh!

Delighted to see the Dems laughing and finding the courage to walk away from trumplestiskin antics. While it's about time, it's still a pleasure to witness!

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"Democrats are no longer trying to reason with the Republicans and are instead treating them with derision."

Well, it's about damned time!

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The Republicans may be counting their chickens before they hatch. They have themselves convinced that their gerrymanders are going to give them 30-40 seats without even having to fight, and they're acting like it's happened already. The result is that they now have shown the Democrats what the future will look like, and they don't like what they see. And they now see the Republicans for the fascist scum they are.

And Qevin McQarthy (R-Oklafornia) may have been too clever by half, as they say. He's reminding them why they wouldn't make him speaker after Boehner resigned, because they thought he was too stupid. And tonight's performance had "Not Ready For Prime Time" all over it. Not to mention if they do win next year, they're going to have a freshman class of real Fire Eaters, and those people won't want a posing phoney like Qevin, no matter how hard he tries to convince them he's one of them. Hell, that bi-i-i-, er, witch of Belsen MTG already said today she didn't think he'd done enough to support her when she got removed from her committees. I wouldn't be surprised if MTG, the moron bimbo who thinks she's a genius, didn't run for Speaker if they win.

All of which says we have to follow Nancy Pelosi - what she said about the Republicans having proved yesterday and today that they cannot be allowed anywhere near actual power.

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What HCR writes about confirms that the Republicans are more obstructionist than ever and the Democrats' agenda is slowly being realized. But none of that really matters. Treating Republican misbehavior with "derision" doesn't gain votes in 2022. That is all that matters. American democracy cannot survive a Republican takeover of Congress. Once again, the need for the Democrats to lock in the enormous voting power of women and persons of color for 2022 becomes crucial RIGHT NOW. Everything else should be secondary to that. To do this, the President and Congressional leaders must repeatedly point out that Republicans consistently vote against legislation that benefits most Americans and specifically, these two groups. And this holds true on the State level as well. Appeals for bi-partisanship are a waste of time, and time is what is growing short.

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The Trump Cult is a textbook case study of the dynamics of chronic abuse & bullying. Its members so afraid of being targeted and turned on they remain silently complicit or court favor by mimicking the ruling bully in hopes of praise. This pathology is deadly and contagious. Do we not have any CDC mental health experts calling this insanity out as “the other pandemic” and equally dangerous?

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Well, well, well, So Democrats are finally treating Republicans with derision. I’m old, let me count the decades that republicans have been treating the Democrats with derision. Hope the Dems have finally figured out that politics as usual is politics long gone. Get out the sledge hammer and kill the idea that you can reason with the cult.

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The GOP has stopped being a governing party and has instead become a collection of creepy, lying, hypocritical, violent traitors.

The party that once prided itself as the political party of "values" (which hasn't been half true since Eisenhower) has none, except winning by any means, truth be damned.

And, thankfully, the Democrats are finally treating them like the feckless collections of cowards that they are. Good.

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ROGUE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

(My New York Times Comment)

“Linda Greenhouse has been a voice for judicial score keeping for decades. She has been superb in highlighting the swings and inconsistencies on the Supreme Court and elsewhere. She has documented the influence of the Federalist Society since the 1970s in supporting ‘conservative’ candidates for judicial positions, most recently in the Trump administration.

The actions of the Fifth Circuit Court (most recently on the Biden vaccine mandate) heightens my grave concern at how the judicial system now seems poised to deliver rulings that would reverse long-standing precedents on voting, abortion, and other core issues.

The 2015 Supreme Court gutting of the 1965 voting rights legislation was an egregious example of this trend. I fear that the current Supreme Court will accelerate this scrapping of core Constitutional principles.

Thank you Linda for being our canary in this judicial mine shaft.”

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"Democrats are no longer trying to reason with the Republicans".

More from the Greeks: "It is better to be silent than to dispute with the ignorant." - Pythagoras

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Love the Axios reporter's quote of what a Republican representative was doing during the House Minority Leader's interminable screed ... “I’m watching the Great British Baking Show.” Says it all in regard to the mockery of democratic norms with a healthy dose of irony ... watching PBS on government time. LMAO.

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The Great British Baking show wins hands down.

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Dear Professor Cox-Richardson (maybe after a year or two, when I'm 78, I will feel ok to call you Heather!) may you be blessed with peace, love, support and many moments of joy. Your calm, fact-based commitment to providing us with accurate, sane, outrage-free reports nearly every day is my anchor, along with my belief that the loving energy of the Universe does reside in every one of us...it's just buried more deeply in some of us than in others.

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... one God ... one Religion ...?

Gosar, Flynn and their fellows are entitled to their opinions and their choice to live accordingly. They do not have a right to force those views on others, or presume to govern in a world where love is the law, and truth the ground. In a truly Christian universe, power by murder, rape, robbery and deception is passing. Leave the work of governance to those who care about life, and devote themselves to serve the best interest and highest virtue for all concerned.

AOC SAYS IT ALL!!

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez destroys House Minority Leader McCarthy for defending Gosar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWPEvVqMvc8

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/11/18/2064966/-Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez-destroys-House-Minority-Leader-McCarthy-amp-GOP-for-defending-Gosar

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