195 Comments

Not a psychiatrist, and the 'projectionism' is so obvious, even to me. Trump is the poster boy, and ALL of his bootlickers seem to try to outdo him.

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This thread alone probably made hid the resubscribe which I'd been on the fence about. There's a lot of really good content here and I've learned to find it. Mostly it's Sarah, Tim, and JVL frankly. Thank you again for all you do.

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I didn't vote in the poll, but I am resolutely against Trump winning the nomination. With the nomination in hand, we are back into "binary choice" land, and given that Joe is NOT going to be a strong 2024 candidate, the risk of running against Trump is simply too great.

It will be bad just for Trump to get the nomination again, because as we all know he will declare the vote rigged and the election invalid if he doesn't win. Even though the public will still be prepared to repudiate such lies, they are still to toxic for the fragile state of the body politic, today.

I post regularly over at NRO, and they are constantly accusing Dems of abetting Trump getting the nomination again. My response is that while actual politicians, in a narrow reading of their personal interest, would like to see Trump run, the vast majority of Democrats want justice for Trump. We don't want him campaigning, we want him under criminal indictment, we want him in court, we want him in prison.

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My daughter is in cybersecurity and has been beating the drum against TikTok for over a year now.

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I remember reading at the time that the situation with Disney was actually a huge self goal; if the repeal went through the county would have to pick up the roads & other maintenance Disney had been doing a very fine job of for years. Something on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars.

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JVL, you are so right about R projection, which is a special subset of hypocrisy. Your contrast of Disney and Elon Musk is a great example of it. The R’s have been honing those skills for a long time, abetted by Fox News and projectionists like Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay, all the way through to TFG. To be so blatant about it shows a distinct lack of shame, which is one of TFG’s lasting legacies. He taught them well, sadly.

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Thank you JVL for sharing this wonderful piece about the elderly. It was refreshing to read someone go into such detail about their experiences working in assisted living. The people who work in and volunteer for these homes are doing some of the toughest and most important work. My own parents were in and out of them (rehab) and I saw first hand how they were cared for. Most of the staff were so loving and kind. It’s a terrible shame how little they are paid.

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Agree completely

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I am tired of:

- Obsession over the next election, especially one that's still 2 years away. Based on my decades of life and voting experience, we truly have no idea where we will stand once primary season wraps up in 2024.

- Trump. I'm a registered Democrat who not only does *not* want him to run again, whether he'd be easy to beat or not: I want him to simply ***go away*** . Disappear from the airwaves and print media, and take his entire family along with him. I'm not likely to be enamored with anyone the current Republican party nominates for president but I want all things Trump to look as small in my rear view mirror as Sarah Palin. His legal issues ensure I won't get this wish anytime soon.

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The news channels need you to be ginned up and worried about president so you will watch TV and increase their ad revenue. Short of deaths, nothing happening in 2022 is going to directly impact who people vote for in 2024. It is just too much time and voters will be hard pressed to remember any of it.

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Last story was great. The worst thing I have seen in acute care the loneliness. It’s super common and way more terrifying then dying.

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I was grateful for the connection the writer made between our fear of death & neglect of the nursing home. I've been in a few nursing homes that didn't make me sad & the families spent every last penny to make that happen.

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Golly: Everytime I see the Disney bit creep up, I think— that is some serious pro-business small government conservativism…

(Facepalm) Not to mention that willingness to use the apparatus of the state as a cudgel to force people or private entities to kowtow to a certain line… feels like we’re edging into soft-core authoritarianism?

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"feels like we’re edging into soft-core authoritarianism?"

I think we're already past that stage. We're frogs in the pot of water on the stove.

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Thanks for posting that last piece about growing old, the fear of dying and death. It was a hard read given I spent many years with my own parent in and out of various homes as his illness worsened, but it rang really true generally. I really like that you take the time to post things that aren't pure politics in addition to the rest of your topnotch stuff, and just wanted to say so.

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Both sides are increasingly hypocritical on the same issues. Each investigation into Trump should be thoroughly completed and there should be investigations into Hunter Biden. Nancy Pelosi, and others, should be investigated for insider trading. What's sauce for the goose...

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Insider trading is a problem and anyone in Congress on either side who violated the law should be prosecuted. As should Hunter Biden if he has broken any laws.

That said, as Rich mentioned, there is no equivalency between what Nancy Pelosi or any other member of Congress and Hunter Biden may or may not have done and what Trump and those around him have certainly done.

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No one has been as much a threat to the US as Trump has been and continues to be. His sins certainly are in a league of their own.

And hypocrisy on one side is never a justification for hypocrisy by the other. I do see it increasing on both sides of the aisle and believe each side harms their cause when they practice it. More to the point each side hurts our country when they practice it.

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I think it is much more prevalent on one side than the other, but agree that it harms both one's cause and the country when they practice it.

Which is why I really hate it when I see my side doing it. It always makes me think "why in the hell are you doing that? You're just undermining your own cause."

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Hypocrisy on both sides is not even close. That kind of thinking excuses the increasing hypocrisy of the right. JVL's example of Disney and Musk illustrates that. Insider trading is a problem, yes. But, comparing what Nancy Pelosi and Hunter Biden may be guilty of with the crimes committed during Trump's reign is not even close.

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Nailed it!

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I would say that for the most part all politicians are too whiny, have a loose relationship with the truth, and are by nature more hypocritical than the average person. But, with all that said, I think the current members of the Republican Party have increased all of that by a factor of 10 or 20.

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"The New York Times BREAKING NEWS

An appeals court shut down a special master’s review of files seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, in a victory for the Justice Dept."

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And the appeals court was composed of three GOP appointed judges. Two of them were appointed by Trump. That's gotta sting.

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And more good news. Apparently the courts are getting fed up with Trump and his Pet's garbage. Lake's case was not only dismissed, but her attorneys were sanctioned and have to pay court costs in one of her cases. And Cochise County was told to certify the election result now.

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With TFG and various others it's true projection, but I'd say for McCarthy and many others it's simply a comms strategy (while also a comms strategy for the truly projecting group). It's the Bannon adage of flooding the zone with s*it so the low-information, low-engagement voter registers that X is just a typical charge that politicians on both sides throw around. TFG's a Russian stooge? Well, Biden's a Chinese stooge. Trump family corruption/criminality: Hunter Biden. R election denial: Hakeem Jeffries and Hillary Clinton are both election deniers. Russian election interference: student debt relief is now defined as election interference. The accusations become part of the normal partisan background noise that low-info voters just tune out (both sides just make wild accusations or they're both equally bad), and it's a useful "whatabout" talking point for their supporters.

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