Funny you mention the I'm rubber, you're glue thing. I posted that very response somewhere else a few hours ago. It is exactly that. And the sooner we all call it for what it is and quit being cowed by their idiot projection, the better it will be. I remember when my brother was an adolescent and thought farting was the funniest thing on the planet. He would sit down next to the most straight-laced, prim and proper mother in the bunch and fart and then look at her in horror and proclaim, Miss Ann!! And of course she would be flummoxed while everybody else was almost rolling on the floor laughing. You just don't know what to do with that kind of projection. That's what Republicans do but they've done it non stop the last four or five years and it's time to call it what it is. It's juvenile projection shaming. Time's up, let's all just let ourselves be embarrassed for a second and throw it back. Like monkeys throwing poop back.
I agree - a more straight forward, call it what is, strategy is needed . I am glad to hear from LT's article that the new judge ran a successful campaign in that vein.
And what party do you suppose appealed to those bullies when they grew up? (Chronologically speaking... there are a lot of tall children in the world....)
It's Goebbels' Gambit - accuse your enemy of your sins. The art and science of propaganda has improved since his time, and the modern GOP has taken full advantage of that.
Bear in mind that (at least since Gingrich's GOPAC memo) today's GOP has given up making a real argument to the public - how do you sell the idea that the rich must be catered to before ordinary citizens, that corporate profits are more important than workers, that oil and coal company revenues matter more than climate change? - so they've adapted propaganda as their primary strategy.
Somehow that reminds me of the title of a Macalester friend's title for his term paper in some class or other:
"Finnish Communist Draft Resisters on the Iron Range in World War One."
Maybe, just because we have all of these historical examples of rebellion, revolt, protest, dissent, fighting for social change, and comes from all sorts of people with every background imaginable, the poorest and some of the most upper class privileged people who grew dissatisfied with `how we live now.'
It's practically endless --- the history of American dissent, protest, radicalism etc. etc. --- once you follow a path into studying it. Hubert Harrison, sure, but also in fact, Hubert H. Humphrey's speech on civil rights at the 1948 Democratic National Convention is another example --- as Mayor of Minneapolis in that era, one of his crucial tasks was dealing with organized crime, including the tentacles of `The Outfit,' i.e. the Chicago branch of the Cosa Nostra/Mafia, and not only them.
Minneapolis and Saint Paul in the Prohibition Era was notorious as a temporary hideout for hoodlums: John Dillinger, Alvin "Kreepy" Karpis and the Barker gang, led by Ma Barker --- there were speakeasys set up in the damn CAVES bordering the Mississippi River. Out of control, with corrupted cops all the way up to the Police Chief in each city, and the aftermath of that was something HHH had to tackle. You could infer that giving a rousing speech in favor of civil rights was not intimidating to him in the least.
The Wisconsin vote is a sea-change. It shows that abortion and gun control issues are winning issues for the Democrats, combined with aggressive GOTV measures. Now that result needs to be pursued elsewhere and into 2024.
Just today, a North Carolina Democrat in the state legislature, from a heavily blue district around Charlotte, announced she was switching parties to the GQP, giving the GQP a veto-proof super-majority in the state, even though it has a Democratic governor. Abortion is at grave risk now, as is any sensible gun control. It is like we traded Wisconsin for North Carolina. And just earlier this week, DeathSantis enacted permitless carry and 6-week abortion bans in Floriduh.
All that goes to show that, with the Wisconsin victory, Democrats and other fair-minded people cannot rest on those laurels, but must continue to fight to oust the MAGA and GQP-based elected officials at every level of government in every state. It is a laborious slog, but it must be done to stop the slide toward fascism that seems to be spreading state-by-state. For now, Wisconsin seems safe. North Carolina and Floriduh, not so much. Stay frosty.
Wisconsin is not out of the woods yet. The state Republicans have been openly musing about impeaching both our newly elected Justice AND the Democratic governor Evers! With their new "super majority" in the legislature. Impeaching them simply because they can. When or if this naked power grab begins, look forward to a big upheaval in this state.
So now the Republican answer to losing elections might be to try to throw the election winners out of office if they're Democrats. They're already trying to expel Democrats in Tennessee today. This is Ft. Sumter-level strong-arming and the federal government should be watching these power plays and intervening like they did against segregationist state leaders in the 60s. If states begin to defy voters and ignore Washington, where are we but on the verge of division or conflict?
I live in Wisconsin. The state senate gained a super majority with the election of a hardcore conservative to a retiring senator's seat. Reports now say that the Republican senate is already floating the idea of using their new super majority to impeach Janet Protasiewicz.
I live in Wisconsin, as well. It will be interesting to see what grounds they have for impeachment. Last I checked, you can’t impeach someone for winning. They are absolutely exhausting in their unwillingness to admit such a clear and resounding defeat.
If they decide they want to do it, they will. But the blowback will be swift and severe. And I think many of them know that. It might actually constrain action.
I just booked a July ferry ride from Ludington to Manitowoc to do a self supported bike ride in your state. Will be interesting to take the political pulse at the ground level of a few of your residents.
The red hat crowd is "interesting." I do stop in diners. Because I only do roads off the beaten track, i.e. those roads encouraging high speeds. Conversations are usually just about where I am going, how fast and what mileage. If the talk progresses to politics, I get kind of an understanding about what brought them to their chosen position on politics. Listening is a powerful tool for me. No debating. Don't want to be roadkill. And I am not highlighting their views in a broadcast/print piece.
From what I've read, the guy who was just elected to the WI state senate -- Dan Knodl (can I call him Noodle?) -- was talking about impeachment during the campaign. Have any legislative leaders been talking about it?
Btw, in WI and in most states, impeachment works the way it does in Congress: the House impeaches, then the Senate tries the case. It's a two-step process, and it starts in the House.
Madison resident. I am ready and willing to take to the streets like the French do if anything like this develops from the state Republicans. We will not, must not let this happen.
Republicans are going to regret the abortion ruling. Even reactionaries want access to abortion for their daughters or sweetheart Their obvious cynicism toward race and gay rights will hurt them. DeSantis comes across as a bigot hiding behind slick words. Finally they might lose everything in 2024 because enough voters a tired of Trump and the general tackiness of the Republican public behavior.
Agree. I often wonder whatever happened to the libertarian wing of the Republican Party? The “Get government off our backs” party. Now the Repugnants want to legislate what we’re permitted to do with our bodies and minds (abortion, trans rights, what books we can read).
Desantis was involved with the torturing of humans. Trump always wanted too, but desantis was involved in justify and apparently even witnessed the torturing of humans at Gitmo.
Most people see the world through the lens of their own actions. If you believe that the only way to win is to cheat, then if someone beat you, they must have cheated. (Never mind that it would follow that they out-cheated YOU.) If someone who is a narcissist and believes that they can't lose and everything bad is someone else's fault, if they accuse you of doing something bad to them, be certain that they are actually doing it to you or planning to do it.
Are we talking about Kelly or Trump? Or Boebert or the AZ governor-in-exile, Kari Lake? I guess there are no differences, are there? Your point is well taken.
I mean, yes, all of them, as well as plenty of other people you'll meet out there. This is a narcissist Thing. And right now, the Republican party's theme is Narcissism: How big can it go? The whole bunch of them are making the rest of us suffer for a collective personality disorder on their part.
I read somewhere this morning that, in the US, courts are where the real power resides. I remember Wisconsin being very liberal back in the 70s and maybe 80s. Shows what determined right wingers and their stacked courts can do. And look at the damage Mitch McConnell has done using the US Supreme Court as a weapon. My hope is that Joe Biden will take action after he's reelected and expand the Supreme Court and get statehood for Puerto Rico and DC.
And expand the House of Representatives to at least 1,000 seats. Would still be proportionately smaller than the British House of Commons (650 seats for about one sixth of the population of the United States).
I am not certain what that would accomplish. Twice as many fools is just twice as many. I would rather see that the Senate is changed into something other than the entirely undemocratic and non-representative body that it is today. Once, USA was a more scattered and agrarian society but now the idea of Wyoming having the same number of votes as California or Florida is stupid. Also, reform the "rules" of the Senate so that, e.g., one Senator cannot block appointments as if he/she were King, and the Senate is forced to vote on legislation rather than leave it to the majority leader to decide what gets a vote. Currently, there is way too much power invested in some clown as majority leader who may have gotten into office by the votes of some miniscule number of voters (on a national level) to run the country. (We're talking about you, Mitch.) And have some enforceable penalties with teeth for failure to enforce the rules and time limits to act on appointments and legislation. I don't get to vote for the Senate majority leader and I don't want him/her to act like royalty.
Excellent suggestion, except it would take a constitutional amendment. Adding states and expanding the Court can be done through legislation (just need to retake the House and get rid of the filibuster)
Right wing nutcase Wisconsin Supreme Court Rebecca Bradley:
"We will now have four people on the Supreme Court of Wisconsin who will take away the power of the people to rule themselves, to govern themselves and the legislature," Bradley said. "And I don't think that's what anybody in this room wanted, what most of the people of Wisconsin wanted."
Crackerjack, the voters spoke yesterday.
This is the Koch/Leo/Federalist Society nightmare that needs to be crushed.
I'm wondering if this nonsense talk about impeaching her has any traction or merit. Please say it's just bluster and won't go anywhere. It's so disrespectful.
I am so relieved that Judge Protasiewicz won. I was holding my breath all day yesterday. The gerrymandering in Wisconsin is extreme. It must be ended. All the time I spent writing letters and postcards to Wisconsin voters was time well spent.
Great column! Reading Dan Kelly's diatribe post election its hard to believe that this guy was ever a judge anywhere. Just another sore loser who lashes out crying fraud. These MAGA reality deniers all deserve one another. And I especially loathe all the MAGAs who constantly piously proclaim what "the American People want." They have no clue. The brutes must be eliminated.
Kelly reminded me very much of Kavanaugh's behavior at his hearing: child-like and an out-of-control temperament. Neither should ever have been a judge.
Wasn't yesterday a great day? Trump indicted and arraigned, and Democrat Janet Protasiewicz flips the Wisconsin State Supreme Court! What a thrill! As someone who wrote only 50 pro-Protasiewicz postcards to Wisconsin likely Democratic voters, I made a microscopically tiny contribution to her victory. But all it takes is people all over the country making their microscopic contributions--in postcards or phone calls or canvassing or donations or whatever--and pretty soon it adds up to VICTORY! Today I just can't wipe the smile off my face. Onward for democracy and liberal values, all of us together this time!
Tuesday 4/4/2023 will be remembered as the best day for democracy in a decade. Defendant #1 was finally called to account. It's a baby step, but the longest journey begins with a single step. The progressive won in Chicago. That means Lori Lightfoot is not going to be replaced by someone who will drag the city backward. And in Wisconsin, the Walker imposed reign of error is going to be overturned. Finally. Abortion rights will be saved. The extreme partisan gerrymandering will be replaced with fair maps, and as Michigan has shown, fair maps mean Republicans LOSE. And come 2024, MAGA election fraudsters will not be able to get the WI Supreme Court to endorse a slate of fake electors that would help Defendant #1 steal the election. Rejoice in the win. And keep fighting.
Mr. Kelly sounds butt hurt because he was beaten by a woman and a feminist. Invective and invalidation--nice try, loser.
Great description. Captures how Kelly looked during his 'concession' speech perfectly.
“This was the most deceitful, dishonorable, despicable campaign I have ever seen run for the court."
It sounds like Mr Kelly is as addicted to "projection" as the rest of the MAGA cult.
👏👏👏 WISCONSIN.
That's all Republicans are now. Projectionists.
They remind me of the playground "bullies" from when I was a kid - "I'm rubber you're glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you!"
Funny you mention the I'm rubber, you're glue thing. I posted that very response somewhere else a few hours ago. It is exactly that. And the sooner we all call it for what it is and quit being cowed by their idiot projection, the better it will be. I remember when my brother was an adolescent and thought farting was the funniest thing on the planet. He would sit down next to the most straight-laced, prim and proper mother in the bunch and fart and then look at her in horror and proclaim, Miss Ann!! And of course she would be flummoxed while everybody else was almost rolling on the floor laughing. You just don't know what to do with that kind of projection. That's what Republicans do but they've done it non stop the last four or five years and it's time to call it what it is. It's juvenile projection shaming. Time's up, let's all just let ourselves be embarrassed for a second and throw it back. Like monkeys throwing poop back.
🤣
I agree - a more straight forward, call it what is, strategy is needed . I am glad to hear from LT's article that the new judge ran a successful campaign in that vein.
Fresh air finally.
And what party do you suppose appealed to those bullies when they grew up? (Chronologically speaking... there are a lot of tall children in the world....)
It's Goebbels' Gambit - accuse your enemy of your sins. The art and science of propaganda has improved since his time, and the modern GOP has taken full advantage of that.
Bear in mind that (at least since Gingrich's GOPAC memo) today's GOP has given up making a real argument to the public - how do you sell the idea that the rich must be catered to before ordinary citizens, that corporate profits are more important than workers, that oil and coal company revenues matter more than climate change? - so they've adapted propaganda as their primary strategy.
Fish gotta swim
birds gotta fly
GOP "leaders"
gotta slander and lie.
Learning The New Way to spell hero: Protasiewicz.
Somehow that reminds me of the title of a Macalester friend's title for his term paper in some class or other:
"Finnish Communist Draft Resisters on the Iron Range in World War One."
Maybe, just because we have all of these historical examples of rebellion, revolt, protest, dissent, fighting for social change, and comes from all sorts of people with every background imaginable, the poorest and some of the most upper class privileged people who grew dissatisfied with `how we live now.'
Like this guy, for example:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Harrison
It's practically endless --- the history of American dissent, protest, radicalism etc. etc. --- once you follow a path into studying it. Hubert Harrison, sure, but also in fact, Hubert H. Humphrey's speech on civil rights at the 1948 Democratic National Convention is another example --- as Mayor of Minneapolis in that era, one of his crucial tasks was dealing with organized crime, including the tentacles of `The Outfit,' i.e. the Chicago branch of the Cosa Nostra/Mafia, and not only them.
Minneapolis and Saint Paul in the Prohibition Era was notorious as a temporary hideout for hoodlums: John Dillinger, Alvin "Kreepy" Karpis and the Barker gang, led by Ma Barker --- there were speakeasys set up in the damn CAVES bordering the Mississippi River. Out of control, with corrupted cops all the way up to the Police Chief in each city, and the aftermath of that was something HHH had to tackle. You could infer that giving a rousing speech in favor of civil rights was not intimidating to him in the least.
Ah, but can you SAY it! :-)
(This was the butt of a successful series of jokey political ads here.)
The Wisconsin vote is a sea-change. It shows that abortion and gun control issues are winning issues for the Democrats, combined with aggressive GOTV measures. Now that result needs to be pursued elsewhere and into 2024.
Just today, a North Carolina Democrat in the state legislature, from a heavily blue district around Charlotte, announced she was switching parties to the GQP, giving the GQP a veto-proof super-majority in the state, even though it has a Democratic governor. Abortion is at grave risk now, as is any sensible gun control. It is like we traded Wisconsin for North Carolina. And just earlier this week, DeathSantis enacted permitless carry and 6-week abortion bans in Floriduh.
All that goes to show that, with the Wisconsin victory, Democrats and other fair-minded people cannot rest on those laurels, but must continue to fight to oust the MAGA and GQP-based elected officials at every level of government in every state. It is a laborious slog, but it must be done to stop the slide toward fascism that seems to be spreading state-by-state. For now, Wisconsin seems safe. North Carolina and Floriduh, not so much. Stay frosty.
Wisconsin is not out of the woods yet. The state Republicans have been openly musing about impeaching both our newly elected Justice AND the Democratic governor Evers! With their new "super majority" in the legislature. Impeaching them simply because they can. When or if this naked power grab begins, look forward to a big upheaval in this state.
That is disturbing!
Yep. No kiddin'!
So now the Republican answer to losing elections might be to try to throw the election winners out of office if they're Democrats. They're already trying to expel Democrats in Tennessee today. This is Ft. Sumter-level strong-arming and the federal government should be watching these power plays and intervening like they did against segregationist state leaders in the 60s. If states begin to defy voters and ignore Washington, where are we but on the verge of division or conflict?
It's amazing what sore losers Republicans are.
I live in Wisconsin. The state senate gained a super majority with the election of a hardcore conservative to a retiring senator's seat. Reports now say that the Republican senate is already floating the idea of using their new super majority to impeach Janet Protasiewicz.
I wouldn't put it past them at all.
I live in Wisconsin, as well. It will be interesting to see what grounds they have for impeachment. Last I checked, you can’t impeach someone for winning. They are absolutely exhausting in their unwillingness to admit such a clear and resounding defeat.
If they decide they want to do it, they will. But the blowback will be swift and severe. And I think many of them know that. It might actually constrain action.
I just booked a July ferry ride from Ludington to Manitowoc to do a self supported bike ride in your state. Will be interesting to take the political pulse at the ground level of a few of your residents.
Stop at diners and talk with old farts in red hats. That's what too many journalists do to get the political pulse, it seems.
The red hat crowd is "interesting." I do stop in diners. Because I only do roads off the beaten track, i.e. those roads encouraging high speeds. Conversations are usually just about where I am going, how fast and what mileage. If the talk progresses to politics, I get kind of an understanding about what brought them to their chosen position on politics. Listening is a powerful tool for me. No debating. Don't want to be roadkill. And I am not highlighting their views in a broadcast/print piece.
Apparently they've got some grievance over something Protasiewicz supposedly did as a judge.
Grievance is the Repugnant Party’s middle name.
From what I've read, the guy who was just elected to the WI state senate -- Dan Knodl (can I call him Noodle?) -- was talking about impeachment during the campaign. Have any legislative leaders been talking about it?
Btw, in WI and in most states, impeachment works the way it does in Congress: the House impeaches, then the Senate tries the case. It's a two-step process, and it starts in the House.
Madison resident. I am ready and willing to take to the streets like the French do if anything like this develops from the state Republicans. We will not, must not let this happen.
I wonder if the Governor has the power to simply appoint a supreme court justice in the event of a vacancy? Would that stop these shenanigans?
Republicans are going to regret the abortion ruling. Even reactionaries want access to abortion for their daughters or sweetheart Their obvious cynicism toward race and gay rights will hurt them. DeSantis comes across as a bigot hiding behind slick words. Finally they might lose everything in 2024 because enough voters a tired of Trump and the general tackiness of the Republican public behavior.
Agree. I often wonder whatever happened to the libertarian wing of the Republican Party? The “Get government off our backs” party. Now the Repugnants want to legislate what we’re permitted to do with our bodies and minds (abortion, trans rights, what books we can read).
Welp, the main reason they wanted government off our backs was so they could move it to our genitalia. So no real change here.
Desantis was involved with the torturing of humans. Trump always wanted too, but desantis was involved in justify and apparently even witnessed the torturing of humans at Gitmo.
Desantis is a vile, sick human.
So much for choice. The men beget snd inflict or not.
Most people see the world through the lens of their own actions. If you believe that the only way to win is to cheat, then if someone beat you, they must have cheated. (Never mind that it would follow that they out-cheated YOU.) If someone who is a narcissist and believes that they can't lose and everything bad is someone else's fault, if they accuse you of doing something bad to them, be certain that they are actually doing it to you or planning to do it.
Are we talking about Kelly or Trump? Or Boebert or the AZ governor-in-exile, Kari Lake? I guess there are no differences, are there? Your point is well taken.
I mean, yes, all of them, as well as plenty of other people you'll meet out there. This is a narcissist Thing. And right now, the Republican party's theme is Narcissism: How big can it go? The whole bunch of them are making the rest of us suffer for a collective personality disorder on their part.
I read somewhere this morning that, in the US, courts are where the real power resides. I remember Wisconsin being very liberal back in the 70s and maybe 80s. Shows what determined right wingers and their stacked courts can do. And look at the damage Mitch McConnell has done using the US Supreme Court as a weapon. My hope is that Joe Biden will take action after he's reelected and expand the Supreme Court and get statehood for Puerto Rico and DC.
And get term limits for the Supreme Court, please.
And expand the House of Representatives to at least 1,000 seats. Would still be proportionately smaller than the British House of Commons (650 seats for about one sixth of the population of the United States).
I am not certain what that would accomplish. Twice as many fools is just twice as many. I would rather see that the Senate is changed into something other than the entirely undemocratic and non-representative body that it is today. Once, USA was a more scattered and agrarian society but now the idea of Wyoming having the same number of votes as California or Florida is stupid. Also, reform the "rules" of the Senate so that, e.g., one Senator cannot block appointments as if he/she were King, and the Senate is forced to vote on legislation rather than leave it to the majority leader to decide what gets a vote. Currently, there is way too much power invested in some clown as majority leader who may have gotten into office by the votes of some miniscule number of voters (on a national level) to run the country. (We're talking about you, Mitch.) And have some enforceable penalties with teeth for failure to enforce the rules and time limits to act on appointments and legislation. I don't get to vote for the Senate majority leader and I don't want him/her to act like royalty.
Excellent post!! Thanks for nailing it.
Excellent suggestion, except it would take a constitutional amendment. Adding states and expanding the Court can be done through legislation (just need to retake the House and get rid of the filibuster)
Biden appointed meritless garland who left it to Bragg to enforce the law.
Right wing nutcase Wisconsin Supreme Court Rebecca Bradley:
"We will now have four people on the Supreme Court of Wisconsin who will take away the power of the people to rule themselves, to govern themselves and the legislature," Bradley said. "And I don't think that's what anybody in this room wanted, what most of the people of Wisconsin wanted."
Crackerjack, the voters spoke yesterday.
This is the Koch/Leo/Federalist Society nightmare that needs to be crushed.
I'm wondering if this nonsense talk about impeaching her has any traction or merit. Please say it's just bluster and won't go anywhere. It's so disrespectful.
I am so relieved that Judge Protasiewicz won. I was holding my breath all day yesterday. The gerrymandering in Wisconsin is extreme. It must be ended. All the time I spent writing letters and postcards to Wisconsin voters was time well spent.
Thank you for your service! And I mean that genuinely.
Great column! Reading Dan Kelly's diatribe post election its hard to believe that this guy was ever a judge anywhere. Just another sore loser who lashes out crying fraud. These MAGA reality deniers all deserve one another. And I especially loathe all the MAGAs who constantly piously proclaim what "the American People want." They have no clue. The brutes must be eliminated.
Kelly reminded me very much of Kavanaugh's behavior at his hearing: child-like and an out-of-control temperament. Neither should ever have been a judge.
Wasn't yesterday a great day? Trump indicted and arraigned, and Democrat Janet Protasiewicz flips the Wisconsin State Supreme Court! What a thrill! As someone who wrote only 50 pro-Protasiewicz postcards to Wisconsin likely Democratic voters, I made a microscopically tiny contribution to her victory. But all it takes is people all over the country making their microscopic contributions--in postcards or phone calls or canvassing or donations or whatever--and pretty soon it adds up to VICTORY! Today I just can't wipe the smile off my face. Onward for democracy and liberal values, all of us together this time!
Don’t forget the big turnout of Tennessee youngsters.
Yes, it was stupendous and great.
And I also thank YOU for your service! As a Wisconsin resident. You are our friend and ally!
Tuesday 4/4/2023 will be remembered as the best day for democracy in a decade. Defendant #1 was finally called to account. It's a baby step, but the longest journey begins with a single step. The progressive won in Chicago. That means Lori Lightfoot is not going to be replaced by someone who will drag the city backward. And in Wisconsin, the Walker imposed reign of error is going to be overturned. Finally. Abortion rights will be saved. The extreme partisan gerrymandering will be replaced with fair maps, and as Michigan has shown, fair maps mean Republicans LOSE. And come 2024, MAGA election fraudsters will not be able to get the WI Supreme Court to endorse a slate of fake electors that would help Defendant #1 steal the election. Rejoice in the win. And keep fighting.
The takeaway is Democrats need to lean into abortion hard hard hard.