"Big Tabloid" censored the Stormy Daniels payoff that Trump did--that "outside analysis" has said cost Hillary hundreds of thousands of votes!, and yet I doubt Vance wouldn't have certified the 2016 election because his "concerns" only go in one direction.
"Johnson, for his part, uttered soothing words on the same program. 'Everybody can sigh and take a deep breath,' he said. 'Our system is going to work.' Congressional Republicans would doubtless certify any election, he assured his listeners—just as long as that election 'is fair and free and legal'.”
"Soothing" only to the Trump addicts who read between the lines. We Never-Trumpers can read between the lines too. Which is that they will certify an election ONLY for their cult leader, and DECLARE any other outcome to be not "free, fair or legal." Granted, it won't be easy if Harris wins an electoral landslide, but you know they will still try. And they don't even pretend otherwise.
If Trump wins, we will be in the sludge for more than four years. He won't quit, go away, or bother with another election. I'm trying to stay positive but Harris-Walz need to bring down the hammer in these last three weeks. HE's the problem, they must say, over and over and over again.
I posted this to my FB and multiple pro-Kamala sites asking people to share, let's please spread this far and wide to all our networks. Word it however you want, but people need to hear he said this, this is completely nuts.
Donald Trump on Fox News yesterday, openly threatening to use the military against U.S. citizens: “I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics,” Trump said told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“I think it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen,” he added.
This is outrageous. This is insane. Regardless of your party, we must all agree: this outlook, these statements, are utterly unacceptable and Trump must never be near the White House again.
TRUMP IS NOT THE SAME CANDIDATE HE WAS IN 2016 OR 2020. HE IS EXTREME AND UNWELL. PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR HIM.
Trump IS the same as he was in '16 and '20. What is radically different is the army of traitors who would follow him into power, now free of the "guardrails" of his first term (Kelly, Mattis, Bolton, etc., even Pence and Barr at the end).
He was extreme from the start. Let's look at the things he's said and done over many years. Long before he came down the escalator in 2015. The only thing that kept him in check in his term were the people surrounding him. That won't be the csse if he gets back in.
1. It tells former Trump voters: "Maybe you can still justify those votes, but the situation is different now." It's less likely to make them defensive about those earlier votes and therefore double down.
2. It answers the protest that nothing went badly wrong before so it's ridiculous to be so alarmist now.
JD Vance is going full scale off on the supposed plagiarism in Kamala's book. They actually should stick to immigration/fentanyl/no-trans rights. Like that's the cynical and evil strategy to get to 270 even if by 50K votes total. But they keep attacking any small inconsistency forgetting about the 15-million DJT states an hour.
The Devos news is sad.
The real tension a caring person has about his ascent is you wonder if anything matters -- education? art? compassion?
He disdains each. A lady like Devos seemed to be your old-school -- work hard, play by some rules, try not to have too much fun, spend close to what your bring in, keep some order internationally -- Republican and for her to embrace him once more...yikes.
So many think they can play that guy for what they want. But, if you even think that, you're the fool and even if you get power, it would be in an environment created upon cynicism, lies, and hate.
Good news? Especially if Mayor Pete coaches her ahead of it, since he's pretty good at jousting with the Fox crew. Kamala will be interviewed on Brett Baier's show this Wed, 6 PM EST. I give her a big thumbs up for this. You go girl !!
I'd like to know, why is there so much talk about how losing the Arab vote in Detroit over failing to protect Palestine could cost Harris Michigan, but no talk about how losing the Jewish vote in Philadelphia over coming down too hard on Israel could cost her Pennsylvania?
Because she is polling well with Jewish people in PA and other swing states. There’s no indication that her positioning has hurt her in Philly burbs, while there was an entire vocal protest vote in the primary from Arabs and Muslims in Michigan regarding Biden admin policy. Recent polls show Israel is ranked 4th among top issues for Jewish voters in the 7 swing states (ranked 9th nationally).
The part that is incomprehensible is that Trump has been demonizing Arabs/Palestinians/Muslims for years. Do those folks, many of whom are rather young, not realize that they're on his hit list and have been for years? Unless, of course, they're billionaires.
1) Has there ever been a better distillation of the truth than Jeff Kemp’s Occam’s Razor comment? Of course, there’s only one logical explanation – Trump sucks at being President. But for reasons only accessible to cult members, that logic doesn’t sink in with the Trumplicants. I once pointed out to a Trumplicant friend that even Barr said that the election wasn’t stolen. I was then told that Barr is a member of the Deep State. The only way to look at it is that the Trumplicants have started at the end – Trump is great and has to win – and are just looking for whatever excuse they can use to justify that already-reached conclusion. Logic has nothing to do with it.
That’s why the conflicting stories about the latest “assassination” attempt on Trump won’t matter at all. In fact, the idea that there are two versions of the truth (both, by the way, point to some nefarious plot against Trump) will only help amplify Trump’s martyrdom. All the Trumplicants will remember is that someone with a gun was arrested near a Trump rally. So naturally, the Democrats must be guilty of something. Either this guy was a crazed assassin motivated to kill Trump by outlandish rhetoric by Democrats (Democrats bad), or his arrest was in retribution for exposing some Deep State conspiracy (Democrats bad). So now the Trumplicants have two choices of how Democrats are bad. It doesn’t matter if those choices conflict with one another.
2) The Trumplicants continue to use the “get-out-of-jail-free-card” excuse that they’ll accept the election results as long as it’s “fair and free”. That sounds good until you realize that their definition of a “fair and free” election is only one in which Trump wins.
3) It seems that many are using the belief that Harris is a threat to free speech as an excuse to vote for Trump (and, of course, if that excuse didn’t work, they’d come up with another one). They cite a few things that Harris or Walz has said about holding disseminators of misinformation accountable when they put the general public at risk. Ok – that’s not great, depending on what they actually would try to do. But you know what else isn’t great? Threatening the licenses of media outlets because they publish things that you don’t like. Trump even wanted Comcast’s license revoked because they wouldn’t broadcast his acceptance speech following the Iowa caucuses. Somehow the Trumplicants aren’t concerned about that. I wonder why.
4) Now JD Vance has decided that the election results should be thrown out because the Hunter Biden laptop story wasn’t covered to his satisfaction. Apparently, he feels that we should have a review of the media coverage of the issues after every election and if the coverage is deemed too one-sided, we just throw the results out. Good to know. I can only assume he’s smart enough to know what a BS reason that is. He might as well have complained that the Astros cheated in the 2017 World Series. It’s just about as relevant.
Excellent description of the authoritarian playbook: Long before MAGA I noticed the same tactics in the (mostly hyper-evangelical) anti-evolution movement: Start at the end, which is "evolution is evil, and didn't happen anyway," then cherry-pick evidence which, taken out of context, appears to support it. Downplay internal disagreements (young-earth vs. old-earth, which are the "kinds" etc.) within the "big tent." The goal is not to be right, as passing a fact-check, but to defeat the "enemy." Another ironic parallel: Most major religions accept evolution, which makes them "enemies." Just as many staunch conservatives are now deemed "enemies" by the paranoid authoritarian MAGAs.
I call it “lawyer thinking” because that’s the way the defense lawyers think. They start at the end (“my client is innocent’) and then cherry-pick the facts that they want to present that will bolster that belief and ignore any counterevidence. Their goal isn’t justice; it’s to get their client off. At least in that case, that’s the way the system is supposed to work. But in the case of evolution (or just about any other question), it’s not. In fact, it’s exactly backwards. My favorite personal example is not evolution though – it’s flat-Eartherism. Those folks take a few random “facts” (the Earth does “look” flat when you stand at the edge of the ocean, if the Earth is round, why don’t people in Australia fall off) and spin an incredibly complicated tale that simply ignores everything else (watch “Beyond the Curve” and you’ll see). The people who support Trump in general and specifically those that believe the 2020 election was stolen are really no better than flat-Earthers. What those folks want to do is equivalent to putting a flat-Earther in charge of NASA.
Flat-earthers are a tiny minority (~1%) of evolution-deniers. Young-earthers who concede a round earth that orbits the sun, are much more common, but still only constitute only 10-20% of adult Americans. Another 20-30% denies evolution but is "open to" the billions of years of life's history, though most reject common descent. More importantly, people "on the street" rarely give any thought to the science, and are thus "red meat" to snake oil peddlers. The slickest scam is "intelligent design," (ID) which "takes no official position" of the age and shape of the earth, and of course "whodunit." Some of it's most prominent advocates even concede common descent. That way they can fool anyone who wants to deny evolution, and keep them in a "big tent" where they don't challenge each other. While the ID movement has a few sell-out scientists willing to "lie for the cause," it's chief architect, the late Phillip Johnson, was, surprise, surprise, a lawyer.
I am currently arguing with someone on this thread who put forth the following, and I quote, "AOC, CRT, and DEI are the reasons that MAGA exists. Also, affirmative action and gender ideology. I will take a lot of flak for saying that, but progressive Democrats created Trump as much as Roy Cohn did."
Progressive democrats probably gave those who hate others tangible reasons to hate others. Conspiracy theories are much easier for MAGAs to talk about since they can use acronyms as dog whistles. Saves times and thinking.
I suspect there is some truth to what this person is claiming although likely not in the way that he/she thinks. I think that a lot of the Trump support comes from people who feel that they are being discriminated against in today’s society, that if the playing field was really level they would be a lot more successful. The ironic thing is that many of these same people were given all the advantages that society had to offer for many years. And they don’t like their loss of privilege. It boils down to the fact that society is changing, and they don’t like the changes. So they latch onto whatever excuse is convenient for them to justify their feelings of (almost) persecution.
Sure there have been progressives pushing some pretty nonsensical stuff (like defunding the police). But how many of those proposals have become actual policies under Biden? The angst is overblown.
And, sure, there have been some folks pushing CRT and DEI initiatives that are over the top. But we, as a society, are starting to rein those folks in. Does anyone see any reining in of support for Trump?
But the real question is how could a few policies possibly justify support for Trump? I’d have a lot more sympathy for their arguments if they were using it in support of someone like Romney. These people want to take something that is maybe a 4 on the “bad” scale and replace it with something that is at least a “9”. Seems like a bad tradeoff.
The statement that “progressive Democrats created Trump as much as Roy Cohn did” doesn’t really make any sense. For Roy Cohn created the person of Trump, molded his world view. Trump was who he was long before he got into politics. Progressives didn’t have anything to do with that. What progressives did was to help create the Trump phenomenon by allowing him to get a toehold in the political scene (remember, he started at around 15% - 20% of the electorate) by demonizing them. And that did allow his cult to start. And the cult has made Trump the political force that he is today.
And it’s a pretty silly statement anyway. Apparently, this person wants to use progressive’s behavior as an excuse for the Trumplicants accepting his behavior and criminal activity and dangerous assholery. But no one forced the Trumplicants to turn their back on everything they used to hold dear. It’s a flimsy excuse for doing what they wanted to do anyway.
Remember, if it hadn’t been Trump, it would have been someone like him. You could tell something bad was on the way if you just watched Fox News.
I'd like to know, why is there so much talk about how losing the Arab vote in Detroit over failing to protect Palestine could cost Harris Michigan, but no talk about how losing the Jewish vote in Philadelphia over coming down too hard on Israel could cost her Pennsylvania?
I wish I had a pithy comment. This morning I find that too much fear has made me numb. I will recover. I always do, and I will fight. Just not today. The ugliness I see. The terror I see planned. TRUMP IS HIS OWN CARTEL, and he plans to make us his Mexico. Sorry, I'll be better tomorrow.
Evil does always sew the seeds of its own destruction, but not before many many good people are badly hurt or killed. My experience in manufacturing has taught me that it's always better to prevent than to repair.
This is SO important. The fascists are quite confident of their victory in the Lone Star State. I imagine it’s much the same in most of the Southern/Confederate states. They can’t wait to punish me, their neighbor and fellow Texan, just because I don’t see the world how they do. I believe in freedom for everyone. They also believe in freedom, but only for themselves.
The media has treated the Trump years like a thrilling political drama instead of a threat to American democracy. Also, the TX GOP has done a spectacular job over the last 40-ish years of convincing a majority of Texans that government is awful and can never a solution for anything, in fact, it is usually the problem. So when Trump comes along and says it’s the “woke” Dems and “illegals” who are ruining America, we’ve been primed to believe it, especially down here. Not to mention the piss poor Texas public education system, which again, has been under 30+ years of total GOP control. But every problem in the TX DoEd is because of the “woke“ Democrats in DC. Oh! I almost forgot about all the voter suppression/intimidation and gerrymandering! Plus all the racism and misogyny that has gone unchecked since the Civil War. The number of Texans who believe we should basically go back to Jim Crow is insane. They are ‘uncomfortable’ with all Americans actually being treated equally and fairly, and this country has historically put white people’s comfort above everything else. All the “anti-DEI“ laws are because racists/bigots don’t like having their racism/bigotry pointed out. America is supposed to make white people comfortable, affluent white people, in particular. But when we elected a smooth talkin black man named Barack HUSSEIN Obama (twice!) that threatened the world view of a lot of white people.
I can explain how my state got here, and I’m sure the same stories also apply in other states. Thanks again to everyone at The Bulwark for telling the truth.
Great commentary. The truth of the matter is that Republicans do not believe in democracy. They want to rid the country of anyone who is not white. They want to control women, who they believe belong in the home. Women should be totally subservient to men.
The Republicans in power want to rile up the rubes, while enriching themselves and starving these fools of government services.
Should Trump get in, God forbid, the morons who support him will finally see that he gives not one whit about them and their needs. Women, who support him, will discover what living in a state without OB/GYN care is like.
Thanks. No one has ever listened to me or taken me seriously a day in my life lol. The consequence of being a free woman in an unfree society is constant ridicule, invalidation, gaslighting, and intimidation. You are absolutely right, and I’m doing everything I can in my little corner of Texas to make sure it doesn’t happen. We’re all in this shit together!
Not to promote rumors, but Keith Olbermann's podcast said that he'd heard from a source with "direct knowledge" (what ever that means) that Trump's immigration mayhem man, Stephen Miller became the way he is because he was rebuffed by a Hispanic girl in high school who he had asked on a date. Plausible?
On the Coachella deal about whether the guy was a potential assassin or a MAGA booster who happened to have a car full of guns? (Don't they all?) I think MAGA's ininherent paranoia will eventually cause them to self implode if Trump gets elected. With liberals being but in their place, they will inevitably turn on themselves. They need an enemy. Eventually, they will meet the enemy, and it will be them!
Hard to believe that our fellow Americans prefer a fascist wannabe authoritarian but it sure does seem like it based on the current state of affairs. I really don’t have the words to describe how sick this makes me feel.
Sometimes I think Americans only understand object lessons. For example, most people did not give a second thought to judicial appointments until the Extreme Court took away women's rights to make their own bodily decisions.
Actually, the Asheville Citizen-Times reports that FEMA has *not been pulled* out of Rutherford County. Rather, instead of going from door to door offering assistance, they are working out of secure Disaster Recovery Centers. The reports of truckloads of "militia" have been discounted, but there have been credible lone-wolf threats.
Somebody please send this to jvl
https://medium.com/a-different-perspective/jung-on-hitler-and-the-archetype-of-the-madman-6cfc1afaa450
"Big Tabloid" censored the Stormy Daniels payoff that Trump did--that "outside analysis" has said cost Hillary hundreds of thousands of votes!, and yet I doubt Vance wouldn't have certified the 2016 election because his "concerns" only go in one direction.
"Johnson, for his part, uttered soothing words on the same program. 'Everybody can sigh and take a deep breath,' he said. 'Our system is going to work.' Congressional Republicans would doubtless certify any election, he assured his listeners—just as long as that election 'is fair and free and legal'.”
"Soothing" only to the Trump addicts who read between the lines. We Never-Trumpers can read between the lines too. Which is that they will certify an election ONLY for their cult leader, and DECLARE any other outcome to be not "free, fair or legal." Granted, it won't be easy if Harris wins an electoral landslide, but you know they will still try. And they don't even pretend otherwise.
If Trump wins, we will be in the sludge for more than four years. He won't quit, go away, or bother with another election. I'm trying to stay positive but Harris-Walz need to bring down the hammer in these last three weeks. HE's the problem, they must say, over and over and over again.
I posted this to my FB and multiple pro-Kamala sites asking people to share, let's please spread this far and wide to all our networks. Word it however you want, but people need to hear he said this, this is completely nuts.
***************************************************************************************
Donald Trump on Fox News yesterday, openly threatening to use the military against U.S. citizens: “I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics,” Trump said told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“I think it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen,” he added.
This is outrageous. This is insane. Regardless of your party, we must all agree: this outlook, these statements, are utterly unacceptable and Trump must never be near the White House again.
TRUMP IS NOT THE SAME CANDIDATE HE WAS IN 2016 OR 2020. HE IS EXTREME AND UNWELL. PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR HIM.
Vote for Kamala Harris, Save Our Country.
Trump IS the same as he was in '16 and '20. What is radically different is the army of traitors who would follow him into power, now free of the "guardrails" of his first term (Kelly, Mattis, Bolton, etc., even Pence and Barr at the end).
He was extreme from the start. Let's look at the things he's said and done over many years. Long before he came down the escalator in 2015. The only thing that kept him in check in his term were the people surrounding him. That won't be the csse if he gets back in.
Saying he's not the same now has two benefits:
1. It tells former Trump voters: "Maybe you can still justify those votes, but the situation is different now." It's less likely to make them defensive about those earlier votes and therefore double down.
2. It answers the protest that nothing went badly wrong before so it's ridiculous to be so alarmist now.
JD Vance is going full scale off on the supposed plagiarism in Kamala's book. They actually should stick to immigration/fentanyl/no-trans rights. Like that's the cynical and evil strategy to get to 270 even if by 50K votes total. But they keep attacking any small inconsistency forgetting about the 15-million DJT states an hour.
The Devos news is sad.
The real tension a caring person has about his ascent is you wonder if anything matters -- education? art? compassion?
He disdains each. A lady like Devos seemed to be your old-school -- work hard, play by some rules, try not to have too much fun, spend close to what your bring in, keep some order internationally -- Republican and for her to embrace him once more...yikes.
So many think they can play that guy for what they want. But, if you even think that, you're the fool and even if you get power, it would be in an environment created upon cynicism, lies, and hate.
Congratulations!
Good news? Especially if Mayor Pete coaches her ahead of it, since he's pretty good at jousting with the Fox crew. Kamala will be interviewed on Brett Baier's show this Wed, 6 PM EST. I give her a big thumbs up for this. You go girl !!
I'd like to know, why is there so much talk about how losing the Arab vote in Detroit over failing to protect Palestine could cost Harris Michigan, but no talk about how losing the Jewish vote in Philadelphia over coming down too hard on Israel could cost her Pennsylvania?
Because she is polling well with Jewish people in PA and other swing states. There’s no indication that her positioning has hurt her in Philly burbs, while there was an entire vocal protest vote in the primary from Arabs and Muslims in Michigan regarding Biden admin policy. Recent polls show Israel is ranked 4th among top issues for Jewish voters in the 7 swing states (ranked 9th nationally).
The part that is incomprehensible is that Trump has been demonizing Arabs/Palestinians/Muslims for years. Do those folks, many of whom are rather young, not realize that they're on his hit list and have been for years? Unless, of course, they're billionaires.
A few comments...
1) Has there ever been a better distillation of the truth than Jeff Kemp’s Occam’s Razor comment? Of course, there’s only one logical explanation – Trump sucks at being President. But for reasons only accessible to cult members, that logic doesn’t sink in with the Trumplicants. I once pointed out to a Trumplicant friend that even Barr said that the election wasn’t stolen. I was then told that Barr is a member of the Deep State. The only way to look at it is that the Trumplicants have started at the end – Trump is great and has to win – and are just looking for whatever excuse they can use to justify that already-reached conclusion. Logic has nothing to do with it.
That’s why the conflicting stories about the latest “assassination” attempt on Trump won’t matter at all. In fact, the idea that there are two versions of the truth (both, by the way, point to some nefarious plot against Trump) will only help amplify Trump’s martyrdom. All the Trumplicants will remember is that someone with a gun was arrested near a Trump rally. So naturally, the Democrats must be guilty of something. Either this guy was a crazed assassin motivated to kill Trump by outlandish rhetoric by Democrats (Democrats bad), or his arrest was in retribution for exposing some Deep State conspiracy (Democrats bad). So now the Trumplicants have two choices of how Democrats are bad. It doesn’t matter if those choices conflict with one another.
2) The Trumplicants continue to use the “get-out-of-jail-free-card” excuse that they’ll accept the election results as long as it’s “fair and free”. That sounds good until you realize that their definition of a “fair and free” election is only one in which Trump wins.
3) It seems that many are using the belief that Harris is a threat to free speech as an excuse to vote for Trump (and, of course, if that excuse didn’t work, they’d come up with another one). They cite a few things that Harris or Walz has said about holding disseminators of misinformation accountable when they put the general public at risk. Ok – that’s not great, depending on what they actually would try to do. But you know what else isn’t great? Threatening the licenses of media outlets because they publish things that you don’t like. Trump even wanted Comcast’s license revoked because they wouldn’t broadcast his acceptance speech following the Iowa caucuses. Somehow the Trumplicants aren’t concerned about that. I wonder why.
4) Now JD Vance has decided that the election results should be thrown out because the Hunter Biden laptop story wasn’t covered to his satisfaction. Apparently, he feels that we should have a review of the media coverage of the issues after every election and if the coverage is deemed too one-sided, we just throw the results out. Good to know. I can only assume he’s smart enough to know what a BS reason that is. He might as well have complained that the Astros cheated in the 2017 World Series. It’s just about as relevant.
Excellent description of the authoritarian playbook: Long before MAGA I noticed the same tactics in the (mostly hyper-evangelical) anti-evolution movement: Start at the end, which is "evolution is evil, and didn't happen anyway," then cherry-pick evidence which, taken out of context, appears to support it. Downplay internal disagreements (young-earth vs. old-earth, which are the "kinds" etc.) within the "big tent." The goal is not to be right, as passing a fact-check, but to defeat the "enemy." Another ironic parallel: Most major religions accept evolution, which makes them "enemies." Just as many staunch conservatives are now deemed "enemies" by the paranoid authoritarian MAGAs.
I call it “lawyer thinking” because that’s the way the defense lawyers think. They start at the end (“my client is innocent’) and then cherry-pick the facts that they want to present that will bolster that belief and ignore any counterevidence. Their goal isn’t justice; it’s to get their client off. At least in that case, that’s the way the system is supposed to work. But in the case of evolution (or just about any other question), it’s not. In fact, it’s exactly backwards. My favorite personal example is not evolution though – it’s flat-Eartherism. Those folks take a few random “facts” (the Earth does “look” flat when you stand at the edge of the ocean, if the Earth is round, why don’t people in Australia fall off) and spin an incredibly complicated tale that simply ignores everything else (watch “Beyond the Curve” and you’ll see). The people who support Trump in general and specifically those that believe the 2020 election was stolen are really no better than flat-Earthers. What those folks want to do is equivalent to putting a flat-Earther in charge of NASA.
Flat-earthers are a tiny minority (~1%) of evolution-deniers. Young-earthers who concede a round earth that orbits the sun, are much more common, but still only constitute only 10-20% of adult Americans. Another 20-30% denies evolution but is "open to" the billions of years of life's history, though most reject common descent. More importantly, people "on the street" rarely give any thought to the science, and are thus "red meat" to snake oil peddlers. The slickest scam is "intelligent design," (ID) which "takes no official position" of the age and shape of the earth, and of course "whodunit." Some of it's most prominent advocates even concede common descent. That way they can fool anyone who wants to deny evolution, and keep them in a "big tent" where they don't challenge each other. While the ID movement has a few sell-out scientists willing to "lie for the cause," it's chief architect, the late Phillip Johnson, was, surprise, surprise, a lawyer.
I am currently arguing with someone on this thread who put forth the following, and I quote, "AOC, CRT, and DEI are the reasons that MAGA exists. Also, affirmative action and gender ideology. I will take a lot of flak for saying that, but progressive Democrats created Trump as much as Roy Cohn did."
Progressive democrats probably gave those who hate others tangible reasons to hate others. Conspiracy theories are much easier for MAGAs to talk about since they can use acronyms as dog whistles. Saves times and thinking.
I suspect there is some truth to what this person is claiming although likely not in the way that he/she thinks. I think that a lot of the Trump support comes from people who feel that they are being discriminated against in today’s society, that if the playing field was really level they would be a lot more successful. The ironic thing is that many of these same people were given all the advantages that society had to offer for many years. And they don’t like their loss of privilege. It boils down to the fact that society is changing, and they don’t like the changes. So they latch onto whatever excuse is convenient for them to justify their feelings of (almost) persecution.
Sure there have been progressives pushing some pretty nonsensical stuff (like defunding the police). But how many of those proposals have become actual policies under Biden? The angst is overblown.
And, sure, there have been some folks pushing CRT and DEI initiatives that are over the top. But we, as a society, are starting to rein those folks in. Does anyone see any reining in of support for Trump?
But the real question is how could a few policies possibly justify support for Trump? I’d have a lot more sympathy for their arguments if they were using it in support of someone like Romney. These people want to take something that is maybe a 4 on the “bad” scale and replace it with something that is at least a “9”. Seems like a bad tradeoff.
The statement that “progressive Democrats created Trump as much as Roy Cohn did” doesn’t really make any sense. For Roy Cohn created the person of Trump, molded his world view. Trump was who he was long before he got into politics. Progressives didn’t have anything to do with that. What progressives did was to help create the Trump phenomenon by allowing him to get a toehold in the political scene (remember, he started at around 15% - 20% of the electorate) by demonizing them. And that did allow his cult to start. And the cult has made Trump the political force that he is today.
And it’s a pretty silly statement anyway. Apparently, this person wants to use progressive’s behavior as an excuse for the Trumplicants accepting his behavior and criminal activity and dangerous assholery. But no one forced the Trumplicants to turn their back on everything they used to hold dear. It’s a flimsy excuse for doing what they wanted to do anyway.
Remember, if it hadn’t been Trump, it would have been someone like him. You could tell something bad was on the way if you just watched Fox News.
What they are really claiming is, to borrow a line from Laugh-In, “the Devil made me do it”.
I'd like to know, why is there so much talk about how losing the Arab vote in Detroit over failing to protect Palestine could cost Harris Michigan, but no talk about how losing the Jewish vote in Philadelphia over coming down too hard on Israel could cost her Pennsylvania?
Because Jews are not single issue voters and a lot of us have higher priorities than Israel.
I wish I had a pithy comment. This morning I find that too much fear has made me numb. I will recover. I always do, and I will fight. Just not today. The ugliness I see. The terror I see planned. TRUMP IS HIS OWN CARTEL, and he plans to make us his Mexico. Sorry, I'll be better tomorrow.
Evil does always sew the seeds of its own destruction, but not before many many good people are badly hurt or killed. My experience in manufacturing has taught me that it's always better to prevent than to repair.
This is SO important. The fascists are quite confident of their victory in the Lone Star State. I imagine it’s much the same in most of the Southern/Confederate states. They can’t wait to punish me, their neighbor and fellow Texan, just because I don’t see the world how they do. I believe in freedom for everyone. They also believe in freedom, but only for themselves.
The media has treated the Trump years like a thrilling political drama instead of a threat to American democracy. Also, the TX GOP has done a spectacular job over the last 40-ish years of convincing a majority of Texans that government is awful and can never a solution for anything, in fact, it is usually the problem. So when Trump comes along and says it’s the “woke” Dems and “illegals” who are ruining America, we’ve been primed to believe it, especially down here. Not to mention the piss poor Texas public education system, which again, has been under 30+ years of total GOP control. But every problem in the TX DoEd is because of the “woke“ Democrats in DC. Oh! I almost forgot about all the voter suppression/intimidation and gerrymandering! Plus all the racism and misogyny that has gone unchecked since the Civil War. The number of Texans who believe we should basically go back to Jim Crow is insane. They are ‘uncomfortable’ with all Americans actually being treated equally and fairly, and this country has historically put white people’s comfort above everything else. All the “anti-DEI“ laws are because racists/bigots don’t like having their racism/bigotry pointed out. America is supposed to make white people comfortable, affluent white people, in particular. But when we elected a smooth talkin black man named Barack HUSSEIN Obama (twice!) that threatened the world view of a lot of white people.
I can explain how my state got here, and I’m sure the same stories also apply in other states. Thanks again to everyone at The Bulwark for telling the truth.
Great commentary. The truth of the matter is that Republicans do not believe in democracy. They want to rid the country of anyone who is not white. They want to control women, who they believe belong in the home. Women should be totally subservient to men.
The Republicans in power want to rile up the rubes, while enriching themselves and starving these fools of government services.
Should Trump get in, God forbid, the morons who support him will finally see that he gives not one whit about them and their needs. Women, who support him, will discover what living in a state without OB/GYN care is like.
So, let us pray, this does not happen.
Thanks. No one has ever listened to me or taken me seriously a day in my life lol. The consequence of being a free woman in an unfree society is constant ridicule, invalidation, gaslighting, and intimidation. You are absolutely right, and I’m doing everything I can in my little corner of Texas to make sure it doesn’t happen. We’re all in this shit together!
Not to promote rumors, but Keith Olbermann's podcast said that he'd heard from a source with "direct knowledge" (what ever that means) that Trump's immigration mayhem man, Stephen Miller became the way he is because he was rebuffed by a Hispanic girl in high school who he had asked on a date. Plausible?
On the Coachella deal about whether the guy was a potential assassin or a MAGA booster who happened to have a car full of guns? (Don't they all?) I think MAGA's ininherent paranoia will eventually cause them to self implode if Trump gets elected. With liberals being but in their place, they will inevitably turn on themselves. They need an enemy. Eventually, they will meet the enemy, and it will be them!
Not soon enough to save us.
Hard to believe that our fellow Americans prefer a fascist wannabe authoritarian but it sure does seem like it based on the current state of affairs. I really don’t have the words to describe how sick this makes me feel.
Sometimes I think Americans only understand object lessons. For example, most people did not give a second thought to judicial appointments until the Extreme Court took away women's rights to make their own bodily decisions.
Actually, the Asheville Citizen-Times reports that FEMA has *not been pulled* out of Rutherford County. Rather, instead of going from door to door offering assistance, they are working out of secure Disaster Recovery Centers. The reports of truckloads of "militia" have been discounted, but there have been credible lone-wolf threats.