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| “We must be pragmatic,” he said. His pragmatism appears to consist of granting Putin what

| he covets: “Putin has laid out what he wants in Ukraine — a decent starting point,” and his

| demands for control over Donetsk and Luhansk are “very reasonable.”

Didn't Chamberlain believe Hitler's demands for the Sudetenland were reasonable. How'd that turn out?

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I'm very thankful for the Bulwark. I post nearly daily on FoxNews and it can be depressing. Their viewers are comprised of those who don't get information from balanced sources...who trust Fox to deliver the news "fair and balanced' and finally...spew such hateful things against Joe Biden., I'm not a huge Joe Biden fan, but he's the right guy at the right moment and there's something very substantial to be said about that. Trust me...I fight back HARD for Joe...he totally deserves it. He's a decent guy and NOT the head of a crime syndicate.

I truly believe that I still see Russian bots on Fox. Perhaps they don't change votes but they certainly seem to "set the hook" on Fox viewers.

Bulwark is a glimmer of a shining light and I hope it gets far bigger and influential and leads to serious change in the politics of our great country. Amen.

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I’d still like to know more about what a “centrist approach” is. If it is re-embracing the Republican policies, like “trickle-down economics” that got us to this authoritarian moment, then no thanks.

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Apr 4, 2022·edited Apr 4, 2022

Let us not forget:

Hungary was a willing and proud fascist vassal of Nazi Germany. Hungary's Government [sic] of National Unity ruled with the iron fist of the Nazi. National Unity initiatives included so-called "Jewish Laws," exclusion of Jews from national economic and cultural life, prohibition of sex between Jews and Gentiles, forced labor of Jewish men, establishment of Jewish ghettos, and eventual government sanctioned roundup and extermination of Jews as Hungary's contribution to the Final Solution. This is the proud heritage of Viktor Orban. This is the heritage of his right wing party, Fidesz, over which Orban has ruled with absolute control for the past 29 years. This is the heritage of Hungary's now institutionalized absolute fascism.

In Europe. Today. And now for years to come.

PS Would one of the networks please interview Trumpian bootlicker Sebastian Gorka about his stand on genocide in Ukraine? And, by the way, ask him too how he feels about Jews.

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Trump getting Bin Laden is historically on par with that time Washington's army seized all the airports. ;P

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The problem with all the 'Eric Adams has all the answers' takes is that he doesn't. And he especially doesn't on crime, because being tougher on crime does not stop crime from happening. If it did, there would have been no crime back when nearly every crime carried the death penalty. The most common crime to be executed for during the French revolution was pickpocketing; and every day yesterday's pickpockets would be executed, most of whom were doing said pickpocketing at the executions themselves.

This is especially true of gun crimes, which are almost always crimes of passion. It's usually a situation where there is a fight, and someone pulls a gun and fires at someone and kills a bunch of people. You can't fight that with tougher on crime policies, especially when the policies that would actually stop crimes, like seizing firearms, are impossible. It's even worse as more states continue to legalize unlicensed open carry; what are police supposed to do when everyone is packing heat? Police are a post-crime response force; they cannot preemptively stop crimes. They cannot stop shooters before they fire.

Adams saying he's going to stop gun crime by being harsher is like saying you're going to stop boats from sinking by making them wetter. You're not going to fix the problem that way, because the problem is people having easy access to weapons and being able to use them.

But hey, I'm sure the guy who put his brother in charge of things and who hawks the ponzi scheme that is crypto is the guy for the job. We already had a GOP con artist, why not put a democratic one in charge?

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founding

I am saddened that so few of the comments here are focusing on the genocide in Ukraine. Shouldn’t a modern genocide under way right now demand a little more of our attention?

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founding

Matty Yglesias has an interesting piece up today at Bloomberg Opinion (paywalled):

What If Fox News Viewers Watched CNN Instead?

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-04-03/what-if-fox-news-viewers-watched-cnn-instead?srnd=opinion&sref=rMMJuv3g

The gist is that this didn't turn Republicans into Democrats but it did break through the silo and caused a significant change of opinion on topics and made these viewers much more skeptical of what they were getting exclusively from Fox.

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Two points on the ReTrumplican't candidate Joe Kent and his ignorant like-minded "traitor-speak" colleagues:

1. Kent offered, “It’s banana republic stuff when political prisoners are arrested and denied due process.” Obviously, he does not realize one cannot be a prisoner until AFTER the person is arrested, and also that persons arrested are given due process when court dates are assigned.

2. "Patriot" Joe, now wants to act in a way counter to the oath he took as a Green Beret to defend the country (i.e. the establishment).

He and his fellow dullards don't seem to realize that when their fantasy comes true and they overthrow the current establishment, they become the establishment. So does that mean that he and his fellow nimrods, i.e. the Secession Sisters and the Brothers Sexual Perverts would need to want to overthrow the new establishment?

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"Perhaps acts of genocide require a more robust response than economic sanctions."

Meaning what exactly? Putin's 83% favorable rating in Russia suggests what will happen if the West ups the ante even more. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-31/russians-embrace-putin-s-ukraine-war-as-kremlin-muzzles-dissent

Are you suggesting that NATO physically intervene and attack Russia? As for threatening Putin et al. with prosecution for suborning war crimes, isn't it a bit late for that?

The war is already headed for mutual ethnic cleansing IMO. It's possible or even likely that NATO troops could end it more quickly and decisively, but it's fantasy to think the West can reshape Russia in its own image after 500 years of tsars, commissars and autocrats.

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Just my usual adoration for your wit, clarity, and readability. And of course, you are right.

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founding

The SATs may not necessarily be discriminatory but the over reliance on them for college admissions does have discriminatory effects.

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There is a horrific irony to the claims of the American defenders of Putin (in alphabetical order beginning with Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, ....) as the upholder of "traditional Western values," which the atrocities in Ukraine have brought onto the front pages of every major newspaper today. But that is what happens when one defines "traditional Western values" as opposed to liberal democracy, equality, and humanity.

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Sounds like Joe Kent is fine with the genocide of Ukrainians. And of course he wants to give the war criminal Putin what he wants. Kent says it's perfectly reasonable. Disgusting human being. Perfect Trumper.

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I think those of us Never Trumpers believe the Republican Party needs better leaders. Almost all of the elected Republicans have proven to be spineless when it came to standing up to a wannabe autocrat taking over the party. But, sadly, at the end of the day, the problem is primarily the GOP voters. We have too many of them who self-isolate themselves from objective facts and choose instead to be brainwashed by a panoply of Trumpian social and traditional media sources. (I don't call those sources "conservative" because such a description would be a bastardization of the term "conservative.") Some Trump supporters, who have isolated themselves, even go so far as to believe the most far-fetched conspiracy theories such as the Qanon nonsense.

With these brainwashed Republican voters, we face exactly the same problem as families who have members who have joined a cult. Cult leaders purposefully isolate their followers from outside information. The way you deprogram cult followers is to physically get them outside the cult information bubble so they are exposed to objective and truthful information.. But how do you deprogram Trump supporters who are intentionally allowing themselves to be brainwashed and who self-isolate from information that doesn't fit the narrative of their cult? I wish I knew.

As a side note, one thing not talked about regarding Ginni Thomas is how she came to become so radicalized. No doubt, it came from self-isolation from truthful information and instead being fed conspiracy nonsense from a constant drumbeat Trumpian social and traditional media sources. The problem is Justice Thomas is in the same household as Ginni Thomas. Maybe he hasn't gone down the same conspiracy-nonsense rabbit hole as Ginni, but you have to wonder.

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Rufo is slime, but Donny Deutsch just repeated his claim about Disney's President on MSNBC as if it was fact, without any hosts pushing back. On the supposedly liberal network.

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