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Carolyn Ryan's avatar

My father hated rugby, saying the only rule of the game was that you couldn't use a gun. "Ah yes, there are rules," he said, "but nobody follows them, so what you have is chaotic mud wrestling. And who plays the game? Thugs hell bent on murdering each other."

Perhaps he was describing today's GOP... classless, loud, ugly, pugnacious, flailing, interested only in getting over the goal line, the be all and end all of their existence which conveys on them the power to lord it over others.

Today's elected Democrats don't seem to have caught on to the fact that although they think they may be playing polite pickle ball, the other side is playing a vicious game of rugby. They talk about things that have become meaningless, like "bipartisanship," "getting it done together," "due process," "healthcare for all," and other things one might expect of a civilized society. But they seem unaware that, sadly, the most visible part of this society is anything but civilized. It has become like my father's conception of rugby....mud wrestling by thugs with no rules of play or decorum applicable.

Maggie Hassan, junior senator of New Hampshire, is running ads that show in the Boston area for her next senate run. They talk about what she's promoting in soft, polite terms, and a local character comes on to tout that what she's proposing is bipartisan..."that's the way to go, because when something is bipartisan it sticks." Every time I see this ad I want to scream "You're playing pickle ball against a rugby team!" Within minutes of this ad appearing there's a Halloween style horror ad for a NH GOP candidate depicting Nancy Pelosi as an Addams Family creature with the message "Tell Nancy Pelosi to keep her hands off your bank account!!!!.....vote for xxx ." The juxtaposition of the ads so makes my point about Dems playing pickle ball against a rugby team it's laughable.

Do I know what to do about all this? Hell no, but I do think it's time for democrats to recognize the cognitive dissonance they are practicing and get real about who and what they are dealing with. There IS no bipartisanship. There is NO deal making to be done. Schumer needs to use every single loop hole and procedural gambit available to get things done for good just as McConnell has used procedural gambits to obstruct for decades now. Garland needs to hurry up, accept that he is dealing with a nationwide mafia led by a ruthless Don, and take action to put the scofflaws in jail. Slow and deliberate isn't cutting it...it's just emboldening the thugs to get up to more dirty tricks...and the stakes are horrifyingly high.

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Pamela's avatar

So Cruz has nothing more substantive to offer than to criticize a Sesame Street character who has spoken for vaccines longer than Cruz has been alive. For Cruz that was not surprising. Gosar and his "cute" little anime piece should have been under investigation as soon as it came to light. If that had been put out by a citizen they would have been under investigation yesterday.

As a health care worker I am sick to death of listening to the stupidity about "my rights, my body, my choice" from anti-vaxxers, that the majority of the unvaccinated are GQP and those are the ones dying is not a cause for rejoicing, but if that is the hill they want to die on then stay home and die in your beds so you don't take needed health care resources from people that you might have infected.

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