The day after the victory in Nevada by Catherine Cortez Masto securing the Senate for Democrats is one of those days you don’t even have to read the stories. The headlines spewing the panic on the Right are more than enough:
I have commented on this earlier but believe it is worth repeating.
Democrats must not assume the Republicans are going to self destruct. The Democrats have an opportunity to put a stake in the heart of the corrupted and co-opted GOP but must be pro active in pushing their own legislative agenda to highlight the differences between Democrat problem solving and GOP inertia.
The GOP has. Dug a grave for itself. now the Democrats need to shovel some dirt on it to bury them.
Depending on what Trump does, it could fracture the GOP so badly that the whole thing needs rebuilding without him and his MAGA cohorts. It might take years to happen, but it is always a possibility. It might be that MAGA is like the 7-year locusts, and all go back underground until the next Trump comes along.
Yes! Now that Trump is seen as a LOSER, his support will fade away. I think the Repugnants will move on without him in their own dastardly way, although they won’t return to the traditional Republicanism of yore.
Agreed, Robert Bell. BUT If the Democrats don't get their act together and develop some mean and effective messaging this victory over the GOP is going to pyrrhic, to say the least. They need some lessons out of the GOP messaging book (minus the malice and lies)
I hadn't thought ahead that far but a very good point, what to do, what to do... By allowing the far right element to hijack the party they now have a dilemma. Lose them all as you say and try to reconstitute the original Republican party where some decency existed, at least compared to now, or eat crow and kneel before Trump once again. . But to go in that direction seems futile now too, I think people are sick and tired of that old broken record playing over and over about massive voter fraud, That's why a lot of these Trump promoted people lost. So true too about McConnell's probable regret that he cut Trump loose from what m normally would have been a certain impeachment. If any Democratic president had done a fraction of what Trump did the Republicans would have fallen over themselves in a rush to impeach. Another peculiar thing I thought that earned the Republican party that age old "The Stupid Party" label: and that was McCarthy and Johnson announcing just before the mis terms, that once in power they would cut Social Security and Medicare? How dumb was that? Must have cost them a heck of a lot of votes. SCOTUS helped too by the way due to the ROE/Wade decision, Many young women voted and voted Democrat because of that. The Republicans didn't help their case by voting 100% against lowering drug prices, etc., and against other social programs. even the infrastructure bill that would create many jobs and v bring money to their states. As a collective the party really is dumb when you think about it. they Kari Lake may lose too for screaming the big lie over and over, a lie she took out of the mouth of a serial liar. Speaking of Lake, who to me seems a very cold hard woman,. oid of any compassion whatsoever, her her batshit crazy supporters have lost it completely "Kari Lake supporters outside the Maricopa ballot counting center: “We the people are requesting the military to step in and redo our election. It was fake.” 🎥 Reuters
"As a collective the party really is dumb when you think about it." I agree wholeheartedly, BUT finally this is not about being "dumb" about making choices about what will "sell' to the voters. Hatred of Medicare and Social Security, hatred of social programs, hatred of women (really it IS that; keep them subservient), etc---this is really a core belief system for the party. It is about greed, male power (but on the abortion issue, evangelical women are on board the hate train also), and the filthy rich arrogance of the "elite members" of the GOP. They are truly scum.
Dear politicians: Old people vote, and we aging and aged Boomers are now depending on Social Security and Medicare to be there for us. We are a huge voting block, so if you want our vote, don’t threaten these important programs!
Exactly. And most of us are members of AARP, one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington. They will have about 100 million people either on SS or about to retire, and we've paid into SS for decades. They need to remember not to f--k with us.
But that hate is a joke because the voters depend on things like Medicare and Social Security. Rich politicians with billionaire friends may hate those things, but being vocal about it won't win them very many elections.
So true, all of the above comments. They are all well fixed financially not to mention their nice salaries, pensions later and perks and great medical coverage, So why should they worry about the rest of us. In fact they resent the idea of us getting any government help. So do they also want to confiscate the moneys we paid in all those years after they cut our benefits?
They probably want all that nice SS Trust Fund $$$$ to flow into Wall Street investment firms....don't you remember how Dubya suggested/wanted to privatize Social Security???
Yes, exactly G.Zinn, You expressed it perfectly. They are dumb in some ways but cunning and manipulative and mean spirited too, and I certainly agree that their need to dominate women and control the most personal aspects f their life indicative of their insecurity.
When they began their adventure with their blundering golem, decked out as he was in a baggy suit and an orange fright wig, they must have done so in the confidence that all they had to do was declare said golem a president, and they’d have a big blunt object in the White House that they could easily control. After all, they’re the Masters of Capitol Hill, and he’s a ….golem. Then, as golems are wont to do, their golem went stumbling around the planet, breaking furniture, grabbing body parts that were still attached to their female owners, and generally making a complete ass of himself. Well, Wise Ones. You broke it, you bought it. Oh, look, here comes the golem now. Hey Mitch! Hey Kevin! He’s coming for you!
"The odious J.D. Vance." I believe that is now his name. If he has not legally gone through the process to change it in California (where he really lives), then here's a useful website for him: https://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/name-change/name-adult
The midterms should have showed the GOP "leadership" that ignoring the people is a mistake. Idiots like Lindsey Graham pushed for a total abortion ban, and talked about it in the news for a week, and that's just one example showing the enormous disconnect between these authoritarian idiots and the voting public.
But they're not panicking yet. We're going to see just what they're capable of. Right now, they're going to move heaven and earth to keep Trump from announcing his candidacy (stupidly, they have avoided the obvious, that Trump does what he wants, not what he's told) because they've seen proof that Trump isn't their magic bullet anymore, but a washed up old man who might just find himself under indictment soon, which would certainly not be a good look for a presidential candidate. Trump also was notoriously stingy with the PAC money he claimed he'd raised for the GOP, and it looks like he's using it to pay his personal lawyers, something he cannot legally do once he declares his candidacy. Trump has splintered the GOP, and it's much easier to break something (he's good at it) than to fix it. Chances are, the Republicans won't have a viable 2024 candidate because even DeSantis won't get much support outside Florida.
I don't think Drumpf gives two hoots what is legal and what isn't, including how he spends "his" PAC money. Who's going to stop him? What are the consequences of his fiddling with the funds? Isn't "getting away with crap" his continual super power?
I'm curious what mechanism is in place to stop him, because the "law" seems to hold no sway over him so far.
Actually, I'm pretty sure he's going to find himself under indictment soon.
What's going to stop him? The RNC, for one. They can't afford to have him committing crimes that involve campaign finance. And then there's the Justice Dept., which is already investigating him.
He has gotten away with crap all his life, always because he's been too powerful to fail, but now it looks like he's not so powerful anymore. And nobody gets off scot-free forever, eventually the chickens come home to roost.
Trump was counting on a big load of wins for the Republicans. He was also counting on his "personal" candidates winning. Didn't happen, and his chances of a comeback look pretty slim.
Yes/- if he ceases to be powerful that means he will no longer be a Perfect Seven. (Perf. 7 is powerful, rich, old, white, gentile, heterosexual, male.) Take away the most important—powerful— and he becomes vulnerable.
Ever since the election, this has been like walking up out of the dungeon into the light. I know it's premature to think Trump is done but I'm going to take a chance anyway, "this feels different." And my observation is something did get started that will play out and I'm looking for a trend here, and there's a lot of teases to make me keep looking, that now 42% of Republicans want someone else to run but Trump and 35% still want him. That's the flip after the election and as the roll-out continues to change every plan the Republicans hoped to be making about now. That's not my only trend observation but it's a good start.
Elise is the ultimate MAGA loyalist. I don’t even begin to understand.
“It’s very clear President Trump is the leader of the Republican party,” Stefanik said in a statement.
“I am proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for President in 2024,” she said. “It is time for Republicans to unite around the most popular Republican in America, who has a proven track record of conservative governance.”
What "dirt' does he have on her? That might be asked of all the high and mighty (and dumb and lowly as well) in the GOP. Recall his recent threat to dump bad stuff about DeSantis. There has to be more than just knee jerk to keep the "base".
“Was Mr. Clinton being blackmailed? The Starr report tells us of what the president said to Monica Lewinsky about their telephone sex: that there was reason to believe that they were monitored by a foreign intelligence service. Naturally the service would have taped the calls, to use in the blackmail of the president. Maybe it was Mr. Castro’s intelligence service, or that of a Castro friend.
Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to. A great and searing tragedy has occurred, and none of us knows what drove it, or why the president did what he did. Maybe Congress will investigate. Maybe a few years from now we’ll find out what really happened.”
I’m sure Peggy Noonan would agree. It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Too much speculation tends to give birth to conspiracy theories. I doubt Trump has anything on anyone. He just wants to sound like he does. And he himself has proven that nobody cares about "dirt" anymore.
I think Elise is going to find that her endorsement is not only premature, but worthless as well. It will be amusing to watch her scramble to unsay those words...(although, rural upstate New York IS pretty dang red, it must be said.) Who knows?
What James Carville said about Pennsylvania—Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.with Alabama in between—applies to upstate New York if you substitute NY city names—Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, etc. That's where the challenge came from that led SCotUS to strike down gun laws that made NYC the country's safest large city. With redistricting as directed by Cuomo DINO judges, her seat is probably safe.
I understand that this thought is not original; trump must be the keeper of some mighty powerful secrets. Why else would grown men and women shamelessly grovel?
Not necessarily. He just rounded up millions of idiot non-voters and promised them that he'd make them happy. He hasn't done that, but they're still clinging to that empty promise.
He got them to to refuse life-saving vaccines and he played on their racism and misogyny. That's no small feat.
However deficient in many areas (attention span, moral integrity, etc.) Trump is a past master of manipulation. His "events" may be rants, somewhat disconnected, with rambling periods BUT if you listen there is rhetorical power being projected, whether one likes it or not. I can't analyze it and maybe I'm wrong, but that is a gut feeling. There are a lot of evangelical preachers (think the spoken word and some other theatrical devices) who may not make a lot of "rational' sense, but they have a lot of followers who have been persuaded to follow them and make them rich rich rich.
I agree...he either stumbled onto this manipulative speechifying gift of his or he read about it in "Mein Kampf" which he supposedly kept and studied religiously.
Either way, he does have a sort of hypnotic cadence of words even when he's on an extended rant ramble.
I think he's losing that power as the luster of strongman/rich brilliant businessman/plain-speaking "ordinary guy" façade wears perilously thin (or, even the MAGAs all simply became exhausted by the constant chaos--which tfg loves and thrives on)...but it doesn't do to discount his other super power: that of wriggling and/or greasily slipping through door after door of legal entanglements.
I'm pretty sure he laid some wood on Graham back at their infamous golf course meeting (without any other witnesses around) and Graham's never stopped toadying up since. Mighty suspicious.
Since anybody who pays attention at all knows the goods he has on Graham and the damage that would do in SC, I think you're right in that case. But unless as high-profile as Graham and deSantis, would djt bother? He has the MAGAts to discipline the rest. Surprising he never got into supermarket tabloids publishing himself, he's so gutter-minded.
Oh, oh. Pass the smelling salts. How could you say such a thing about that sweet boy? … Actually, I'm just guessing about SC. Maybe someone better informed can help out?
But I've thought for a long time he (or his private investigators, lawyers, moles, etc) have a a good bit of dirt ready to fling around on the networks, when necessary. Of course what passed for damaging dirt in the past is just dust that blows away by the next news program........
The GOP is the worst at making a winning bet. They’ve had chance after chance to dump trump from the beginning, i.e. “grab ‘em by the pussy”. He was a scumbag, racist, asshole long before he ran and every one of them knew it. They let their id impulses run their every action since the orange POS showed up on their horizon and blamed it all on pleasing the MAGA imbeciles. The entire party turned into lemmings and bet their reputations and power grab on the worst, ugliest, stupidest, most vile and criminal president. They had chance after chance to exit from his phony grasp since it was never a real danger anyway if they all had joined together at once and powerfully denounced trump. He would be in the rear view mirror years ago and sure, there would be angry voters in their party - but they’re stuck with them anyway because the GOP is full of angry, propaganda fed, ignorant, racist, anti-democracy, fake Christian, power grasping, conspiracy following loons.
"I’d be willing to bet my next paycheck that ol’ Mitch is ruing the day he didn’t rally his Republican troops and push through a conviction of Trump at his second impeachment trial in the Senate in February of last year. The Constitution’s ban on running again for president would have parked Trump permanently on the sidelines of American politics and left an open field to Republicans in the midterms this year. Instead, Trump hung like a black cloud over the elections in the House and the Senate, not to mention down in the state houses the Republicans lost. "
I think I may have to send Mitchy some of my Poison Postcards to echo this sentiment....
There is something awfully reminiscent in the recent election results, with Joe Biden being vilified by the press and by the pundits, and still able to eke out an impressive defensive victory against the MAGAhat Republicans and their ridiculous leadership. The historical analog would be that of Abraham Lincoln, who, during the four years he was president, was vilified from across the entire political spectrum; he seemed to be the object of hate from every point on the political compass. And yet, from the day of his death, Lincoln has been venerated like no other American president. For his part, Joe Biden may yet be venerated in much the same way, and such veneration may not require his death or other departure from office. Politicians always suffer from too much exposure, and Joe Biden has been in the public eye for more than half a century. Of course he is going to be criticized because he took different positions at different times of his life when the conditions of political life itself were different from what they are now. And, Biden is being blamed for conditions and reasons that he has no control or influence over. That one thing he has going in his favor is, ironically, his longevity in high public office. Biden is well deserving of veneration for his constant effort to restore the solemnity, civility, and decorum of politics as it used to be.
Had Abraham Lincoln survived the assassination plot that took his life, one wonders how he would have governed the nation once the South had been forcibly reunited with the nation itself to reject. Instead of having a rabidly anti-Black Southerner at the helm of the nation, we would have had a president whose reasonableness and decency were legendary. If we look to Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address for a hint of the kinds of policies he would have supported, we sense the lost opportunity for a reconciliation between North and South, and between Black and White that never had time to germinate and grow. We might have been spared the bitterness of the Reconstruction era; yet at the same time, we might not be seeing what became the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution written in exactly the same way. We get a hint of what Lincoln might have done had he lived to complete his second term of office when we read the words he wrote about the wrongness of slavery, and that every drop of blood drawn from a slave by the lash would be repaid in blood, drop for drop, from those who fought for slavery. But warmaking and peacemaking require complementary powers of foresight and persuasion, and the ability to harmonize differing points of view into a common vision of what is to be accomplished.
Throughout his adult lifetime, Abraham Lincoln was known for his ability to keep his policies as close to the limits of what public opinion would tolerate as he could, while still achieving his overall objectives. In our own lifetime. Lincoln was a natural conciliator and mediator, achieving with persuasion where ever he could, but ready to use force, or the threat of force where he had to, to get contending parties to reason together. The job of the leader is to show his people where he wants them to be at the end of their journey, and to persuade them as to why they ought to follow his vision of how, and where they will go.
Joe Biden is also a natural conciliator, much to the dismay of his hot-blooded Democratic compatriots. It comes as no surprise that within the Democratic Party, Biden's fiercest critics are mostly under the age of 35. For their part, it comes as no surprise that doctrinaire Libertarians and Republican radicals are also under 35 years of age, and whose formative educations and experience come from ideological think tanks. They are trained to win elections by any means necessary, with nary a thought of what to do afterward. Callow youth, and heads full of buzzwords, have left them ill prepared to deal with a political message that is grounded in the human experience that can be summarized in the phrase 'constitutional democracy' in which there is common ground in which the people share in rights and obligations necessary for their continued existence. As one of our elder statesman, President Biden knows both victory and defeat, and his leadership in the Senate has put them in the cockpit of every fight over policy and priorities that is occurred since he was first elected in 1972. Personal pain and loss have tempered him to a degree unlike anyone in public life that comes to mind. When people are in pain, he feels that pain. Consequently, Joe Biden knows what is important to ordinary people, and he deserves their trust.
The Republicans have achieved a Pyrrhic victory. It appears that the Republicans won the House of Representatives by something like five seats, hardly an overwhelming victory. Democrats will still control the Senate. Republicans have garnered enough power to make trouble for themselves and everyone else. Once they organize themselves this coming January, we are likely to see a full throated revanchism that ordinary, thoughtful voters will instinctively reject, as we have seen repeatedly in our history, punitive investigations, like those that were once the fodder of HUAC, the House Un-American Activities Committee, will go nowhere. Donald Trump will still be out there running his carnival sideshow, providing entertainment for all of the remaining crazies in his following, and competition for congressional Republicans as to which of them can outdo the other in creating disruption.People are tired of chaos, and they want to see the needs of the country addressed.
The bottom line is that the Republican conference within the House of Representatives is going to be extremely unstable, and those members of the Republican caucus who hope to accomplish something during their term of office might, just might be tempted to make common cause with the Democrats on matters that are important to the country as a whole. By this time next year, the January 6 committee will have issued its full report, just in time for the upcoming 2024 election, just in time for the full impact of that report to sink into the consciousness of the American electorate. Abraham Lincoln, if he were alive today, would be proud of us.
Thanks for this important reminder of the greatness of Lincoln, what it can mean for us in our tribulations now, and what goodness and truth can do......and not do.
This isn't our first rodeo. We ad a nation need to toughen up and be resilient. Lashing out at elected representatives over worldwide conditions is childish and self-defeating. This incessant criticism of Joe Biden is completely unwarranted. Trump was an absolute failure as a leader, and Republicans sat on their hands.
Their predecessors made sure elected federal officials have comfortable retirements. It's telling that the amount of power they wield while serving (themselves and a privileged few) makes most of them—not *just* the leaders—willing to sell their souls to keep that power and accrue more and more and …
I have commented on this earlier but believe it is worth repeating.
Democrats must not assume the Republicans are going to self destruct. The Democrats have an opportunity to put a stake in the heart of the corrupted and co-opted GOP but must be pro active in pushing their own legislative agenda to highlight the differences between Democrat problem solving and GOP inertia.
The GOP has. Dug a grave for itself. now the Democrats need to shovel some dirt on it to bury them.
Depending on what Trump does, it could fracture the GOP so badly that the whole thing needs rebuilding without him and his MAGA cohorts. It might take years to happen, but it is always a possibility. It might be that MAGA is like the 7-year locusts, and all go back underground until the next Trump comes along.
Yes! Now that Trump is seen as a LOSER, his support will fade away. I think the Repugnants will move on without him in their own dastardly way, although they won’t return to the traditional Republicanism of yore.
Agreed, Robert Bell. BUT If the Democrats don't get their act together and develop some mean and effective messaging this victory over the GOP is going to pyrrhic, to say the least. They need some lessons out of the GOP messaging book (minus the malice and lies)
A little malice wouldn’t hurt, for a party based on lies, the truth is going to hurt. 🤷♂️
I hadn't thought ahead that far but a very good point, what to do, what to do... By allowing the far right element to hijack the party they now have a dilemma. Lose them all as you say and try to reconstitute the original Republican party where some decency existed, at least compared to now, or eat crow and kneel before Trump once again. . But to go in that direction seems futile now too, I think people are sick and tired of that old broken record playing over and over about massive voter fraud, That's why a lot of these Trump promoted people lost. So true too about McConnell's probable regret that he cut Trump loose from what m normally would have been a certain impeachment. If any Democratic president had done a fraction of what Trump did the Republicans would have fallen over themselves in a rush to impeach. Another peculiar thing I thought that earned the Republican party that age old "The Stupid Party" label: and that was McCarthy and Johnson announcing just before the mis terms, that once in power they would cut Social Security and Medicare? How dumb was that? Must have cost them a heck of a lot of votes. SCOTUS helped too by the way due to the ROE/Wade decision, Many young women voted and voted Democrat because of that. The Republicans didn't help their case by voting 100% against lowering drug prices, etc., and against other social programs. even the infrastructure bill that would create many jobs and v bring money to their states. As a collective the party really is dumb when you think about it. they Kari Lake may lose too for screaming the big lie over and over, a lie she took out of the mouth of a serial liar. Speaking of Lake, who to me seems a very cold hard woman,. oid of any compassion whatsoever, her her batshit crazy supporters have lost it completely "Kari Lake supporters outside the Maricopa ballot counting center: “We the people are requesting the military to step in and redo our election. It was fake.” 🎥 Reuters
"As a collective the party really is dumb when you think about it." I agree wholeheartedly, BUT finally this is not about being "dumb" about making choices about what will "sell' to the voters. Hatred of Medicare and Social Security, hatred of social programs, hatred of women (really it IS that; keep them subservient), etc---this is really a core belief system for the party. It is about greed, male power (but on the abortion issue, evangelical women are on board the hate train also), and the filthy rich arrogance of the "elite members" of the GOP. They are truly scum.
Dear politicians: Old people vote, and we aging and aged Boomers are now depending on Social Security and Medicare to be there for us. We are a huge voting block, so if you want our vote, don’t threaten these important programs!
Exactly. And most of us are members of AARP, one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington. They will have about 100 million people either on SS or about to retire, and we've paid into SS for decades. They need to remember not to f--k with us.
But that hate is a joke because the voters depend on things like Medicare and Social Security. Rich politicians with billionaire friends may hate those things, but being vocal about it won't win them very many elections.
So true, all of the above comments. They are all well fixed financially not to mention their nice salaries, pensions later and perks and great medical coverage, So why should they worry about the rest of us. In fact they resent the idea of us getting any government help. So do they also want to confiscate the moneys we paid in all those years after they cut our benefits?
They probably want all that nice SS Trust Fund $$$$ to flow into Wall Street investment firms....don't you remember how Dubya suggested/wanted to privatize Social Security???
Yes, that was also one of the ideas they were playing with. The more money these people have the more they want.
Yes, exactly G.Zinn, You expressed it perfectly. They are dumb in some ways but cunning and manipulative and mean spirited too, and I certainly agree that their need to dominate women and control the most personal aspects f their life indicative of their insecurity.
When they began their adventure with their blundering golem, decked out as he was in a baggy suit and an orange fright wig, they must have done so in the confidence that all they had to do was declare said golem a president, and they’d have a big blunt object in the White House that they could easily control. After all, they’re the Masters of Capitol Hill, and he’s a ….golem. Then, as golems are wont to do, their golem went stumbling around the planet, breaking furniture, grabbing body parts that were still attached to their female owners, and generally making a complete ass of himself. Well, Wise Ones. You broke it, you bought it. Oh, look, here comes the golem now. Hey Mitch! Hey Kevin! He’s coming for you!
"The odious J.D. Vance." I believe that is now his name. If he has not legally gone through the process to change it in California (where he really lives), then here's a useful website for him: https://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/name-change/name-adult
He’s already changed his name once so he probably knows the drill.
He is definitely odious.
And please add Sleazy Lee Z to the roster of new names.
The midterms should have showed the GOP "leadership" that ignoring the people is a mistake. Idiots like Lindsey Graham pushed for a total abortion ban, and talked about it in the news for a week, and that's just one example showing the enormous disconnect between these authoritarian idiots and the voting public.
But they're not panicking yet. We're going to see just what they're capable of. Right now, they're going to move heaven and earth to keep Trump from announcing his candidacy (stupidly, they have avoided the obvious, that Trump does what he wants, not what he's told) because they've seen proof that Trump isn't their magic bullet anymore, but a washed up old man who might just find himself under indictment soon, which would certainly not be a good look for a presidential candidate. Trump also was notoriously stingy with the PAC money he claimed he'd raised for the GOP, and it looks like he's using it to pay his personal lawyers, something he cannot legally do once he declares his candidacy. Trump has splintered the GOP, and it's much easier to break something (he's good at it) than to fix it. Chances are, the Republicans won't have a viable 2024 candidate because even DeSantis won't get much support outside Florida.
I don't think Drumpf gives two hoots what is legal and what isn't, including how he spends "his" PAC money. Who's going to stop him? What are the consequences of his fiddling with the funds? Isn't "getting away with crap" his continual super power?
I'm curious what mechanism is in place to stop him, because the "law" seems to hold no sway over him so far.
Actually, I'm pretty sure he's going to find himself under indictment soon.
What's going to stop him? The RNC, for one. They can't afford to have him committing crimes that involve campaign finance. And then there's the Justice Dept., which is already investigating him.
He has gotten away with crap all his life, always because he's been too powerful to fail, but now it looks like he's not so powerful anymore. And nobody gets off scot-free forever, eventually the chickens come home to roost.
Trump was counting on a big load of wins for the Republicans. He was also counting on his "personal" candidates winning. Didn't happen, and his chances of a comeback look pretty slim.
Yes.
I would love for this script to be followed! Cross fingers....
Yes/- if he ceases to be powerful that means he will no longer be a Perfect Seven. (Perf. 7 is powerful, rich, old, white, gentile, heterosexual, male.) Take away the most important—powerful— and he becomes vulnerable.
Ever since the election, this has been like walking up out of the dungeon into the light. I know it's premature to think Trump is done but I'm going to take a chance anyway, "this feels different." And my observation is something did get started that will play out and I'm looking for a trend here, and there's a lot of teases to make me keep looking, that now 42% of Republicans want someone else to run but Trump and 35% still want him. That's the flip after the election and as the roll-out continues to change every plan the Republicans hoped to be making about now. That's not my only trend observation but it's a good start.
Elise is the ultimate MAGA loyalist. I don’t even begin to understand.
“It’s very clear President Trump is the leader of the Republican party,” Stefanik said in a statement.
“I am proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for President in 2024,” she said. “It is time for Republicans to unite around the most popular Republican in America, who has a proven track record of conservative governance.”
As someone said to be a former moderate, tomorrow she could renounce trump extremism. She could become anything. A nun, maybe?
She's weak-minded and afraid of Trump, and has figured the best way to survive is to suck up to him. Sorta like Lindsey Graham.
I’m wondering if, sorta like Lindsey, Trump has something on her.
Unless she’s a true blue Keith Raniere type cultist.
What "dirt' does he have on her? That might be asked of all the high and mighty (and dumb and lowly as well) in the GOP. Recall his recent threat to dump bad stuff about DeSantis. There has to be more than just knee jerk to keep the "base".
“Was Mr. Clinton being blackmailed? The Starr report tells us of what the president said to Monica Lewinsky about their telephone sex: that there was reason to believe that they were monitored by a foreign intelligence service. Naturally the service would have taped the calls, to use in the blackmail of the president. Maybe it was Mr. Castro’s intelligence service, or that of a Castro friend.
Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to. A great and searing tragedy has occurred, and none of us knows what drove it, or why the president did what he did. Maybe Congress will investigate. Maybe a few years from now we’ll find out what really happened.”
I’m sure Peggy Noonan would agree. It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Too much speculation tends to give birth to conspiracy theories. I doubt Trump has anything on anyone. He just wants to sound like he does. And he himself has proven that nobody cares about "dirt" anymore.
🤑
I think Elise is going to find that her endorsement is not only premature, but worthless as well. It will be amusing to watch her scramble to unsay those words...(although, rural upstate New York IS pretty dang red, it must be said.) Who knows?
What James Carville said about Pennsylvania—Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.with Alabama in between—applies to upstate New York if you substitute NY city names—Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, etc. That's where the challenge came from that led SCotUS to strike down gun laws that made NYC the country's safest large city. With redistricting as directed by Cuomo DINO judges, her seat is probably safe.
I'm just savoring the day. Things look so much brighter than I could have ever imagined. Thank you, Lord Jesus.
I am absolutely savoring today’s post!! Thank you, Lucian 😁
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I understand that this thought is not original; trump must be the keeper of some mighty powerful secrets. Why else would grown men and women shamelessly grovel?
Not necessarily. He just rounded up millions of idiot non-voters and promised them that he'd make them happy. He hasn't done that, but they're still clinging to that empty promise.
He got them to to refuse life-saving vaccines and he played on their racism and misogyny. That's no small feat.
However deficient in many areas (attention span, moral integrity, etc.) Trump is a past master of manipulation. His "events" may be rants, somewhat disconnected, with rambling periods BUT if you listen there is rhetorical power being projected, whether one likes it or not. I can't analyze it and maybe I'm wrong, but that is a gut feeling. There are a lot of evangelical preachers (think the spoken word and some other theatrical devices) who may not make a lot of "rational' sense, but they have a lot of followers who have been persuaded to follow them and make them rich rich rich.
I agree...he either stumbled onto this manipulative speechifying gift of his or he read about it in "Mein Kampf" which he supposedly kept and studied religiously.
Either way, he does have a sort of hypnotic cadence of words even when he's on an extended rant ramble.
I think he's losing that power as the luster of strongman/rich brilliant businessman/plain-speaking "ordinary guy" façade wears perilously thin (or, even the MAGAs all simply became exhausted by the constant chaos--which tfg loves and thrives on)...but it doesn't do to discount his other super power: that of wriggling and/or greasily slipping through door after door of legal entanglements.
Power.
I'm pretty sure he laid some wood on Graham back at their infamous golf course meeting (without any other witnesses around) and Graham's never stopped toadying up since. Mighty suspicious.
Since anybody who pays attention at all knows the goods he has on Graham and the damage that would do in SC, I think you're right in that case. But unless as high-profile as Graham and deSantis, would djt bother? He has the MAGAts to discipline the rest. Surprising he never got into supermarket tabloids publishing himself, he's so gutter-minded.
Ya mean in SC they really don’t know Miz Lindsay is queee-ahhh?
Oh, oh. Pass the smelling salts. How could you say such a thing about that sweet boy? … Actually, I'm just guessing about SC. Maybe someone better informed can help out?
But I've thought for a long time he (or his private investigators, lawyers, moles, etc) have a a good bit of dirt ready to fling around on the networks, when necessary. Of course what passed for damaging dirt in the past is just dust that blows away by the next news program........
When I read this I kept thinking about Monty Python and the tale of "Brave Sir Robin". May Kevin and Mitch both get thrown off the bridge....
Shit or go blind? Shit or go blind?
Same answer as always: close both eyes, fart and hope for the best!
🤣
The GOP is the worst at making a winning bet. They’ve had chance after chance to dump trump from the beginning, i.e. “grab ‘em by the pussy”. He was a scumbag, racist, asshole long before he ran and every one of them knew it. They let their id impulses run their every action since the orange POS showed up on their horizon and blamed it all on pleasing the MAGA imbeciles. The entire party turned into lemmings and bet their reputations and power grab on the worst, ugliest, stupidest, most vile and criminal president. They had chance after chance to exit from his phony grasp since it was never a real danger anyway if they all had joined together at once and powerfully denounced trump. He would be in the rear view mirror years ago and sure, there would be angry voters in their party - but they’re stuck with them anyway because the GOP is full of angry, propaganda fed, ignorant, racist, anti-democracy, fake Christian, power grasping, conspiracy following loons.
Bravo, Sarah!
"I’d be willing to bet my next paycheck that ol’ Mitch is ruing the day he didn’t rally his Republican troops and push through a conviction of Trump at his second impeachment trial in the Senate in February of last year. The Constitution’s ban on running again for president would have parked Trump permanently on the sidelines of American politics and left an open field to Republicans in the midterms this year. Instead, Trump hung like a black cloud over the elections in the House and the Senate, not to mention down in the state houses the Republicans lost. "
I think I may have to send Mitchy some of my Poison Postcards to echo this sentiment....
Buyers remorse
There is something awfully reminiscent in the recent election results, with Joe Biden being vilified by the press and by the pundits, and still able to eke out an impressive defensive victory against the MAGAhat Republicans and their ridiculous leadership. The historical analog would be that of Abraham Lincoln, who, during the four years he was president, was vilified from across the entire political spectrum; he seemed to be the object of hate from every point on the political compass. And yet, from the day of his death, Lincoln has been venerated like no other American president. For his part, Joe Biden may yet be venerated in much the same way, and such veneration may not require his death or other departure from office. Politicians always suffer from too much exposure, and Joe Biden has been in the public eye for more than half a century. Of course he is going to be criticized because he took different positions at different times of his life when the conditions of political life itself were different from what they are now. And, Biden is being blamed for conditions and reasons that he has no control or influence over. That one thing he has going in his favor is, ironically, his longevity in high public office. Biden is well deserving of veneration for his constant effort to restore the solemnity, civility, and decorum of politics as it used to be.
Had Abraham Lincoln survived the assassination plot that took his life, one wonders how he would have governed the nation once the South had been forcibly reunited with the nation itself to reject. Instead of having a rabidly anti-Black Southerner at the helm of the nation, we would have had a president whose reasonableness and decency were legendary. If we look to Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address for a hint of the kinds of policies he would have supported, we sense the lost opportunity for a reconciliation between North and South, and between Black and White that never had time to germinate and grow. We might have been spared the bitterness of the Reconstruction era; yet at the same time, we might not be seeing what became the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution written in exactly the same way. We get a hint of what Lincoln might have done had he lived to complete his second term of office when we read the words he wrote about the wrongness of slavery, and that every drop of blood drawn from a slave by the lash would be repaid in blood, drop for drop, from those who fought for slavery. But warmaking and peacemaking require complementary powers of foresight and persuasion, and the ability to harmonize differing points of view into a common vision of what is to be accomplished.
Throughout his adult lifetime, Abraham Lincoln was known for his ability to keep his policies as close to the limits of what public opinion would tolerate as he could, while still achieving his overall objectives. In our own lifetime. Lincoln was a natural conciliator and mediator, achieving with persuasion where ever he could, but ready to use force, or the threat of force where he had to, to get contending parties to reason together. The job of the leader is to show his people where he wants them to be at the end of their journey, and to persuade them as to why they ought to follow his vision of how, and where they will go.
Joe Biden is also a natural conciliator, much to the dismay of his hot-blooded Democratic compatriots. It comes as no surprise that within the Democratic Party, Biden's fiercest critics are mostly under the age of 35. For their part, it comes as no surprise that doctrinaire Libertarians and Republican radicals are also under 35 years of age, and whose formative educations and experience come from ideological think tanks. They are trained to win elections by any means necessary, with nary a thought of what to do afterward. Callow youth, and heads full of buzzwords, have left them ill prepared to deal with a political message that is grounded in the human experience that can be summarized in the phrase 'constitutional democracy' in which there is common ground in which the people share in rights and obligations necessary for their continued existence. As one of our elder statesman, President Biden knows both victory and defeat, and his leadership in the Senate has put them in the cockpit of every fight over policy and priorities that is occurred since he was first elected in 1972. Personal pain and loss have tempered him to a degree unlike anyone in public life that comes to mind. When people are in pain, he feels that pain. Consequently, Joe Biden knows what is important to ordinary people, and he deserves their trust.
The Republicans have achieved a Pyrrhic victory. It appears that the Republicans won the House of Representatives by something like five seats, hardly an overwhelming victory. Democrats will still control the Senate. Republicans have garnered enough power to make trouble for themselves and everyone else. Once they organize themselves this coming January, we are likely to see a full throated revanchism that ordinary, thoughtful voters will instinctively reject, as we have seen repeatedly in our history, punitive investigations, like those that were once the fodder of HUAC, the House Un-American Activities Committee, will go nowhere. Donald Trump will still be out there running his carnival sideshow, providing entertainment for all of the remaining crazies in his following, and competition for congressional Republicans as to which of them can outdo the other in creating disruption.People are tired of chaos, and they want to see the needs of the country addressed.
The bottom line is that the Republican conference within the House of Representatives is going to be extremely unstable, and those members of the Republican caucus who hope to accomplish something during their term of office might, just might be tempted to make common cause with the Democrats on matters that are important to the country as a whole. By this time next year, the January 6 committee will have issued its full report, just in time for the upcoming 2024 election, just in time for the full impact of that report to sink into the consciousness of the American electorate. Abraham Lincoln, if he were alive today, would be proud of us.
Thanks for this important reminder of the greatness of Lincoln, what it can mean for us in our tribulations now, and what goodness and truth can do......and not do.
This isn't our first rodeo. We ad a nation need to toughen up and be resilient. Lashing out at elected representatives over worldwide conditions is childish and self-defeating. This incessant criticism of Joe Biden is completely unwarranted. Trump was an absolute failure as a leader, and Republicans sat on their hands.
Their predecessors made sure elected federal officials have comfortable retirements. It's telling that the amount of power they wield while serving (themselves and a privileged few) makes most of them—not *just* the leaders—willing to sell their souls to keep that power and accrue more and more and …