19 Comments

Bill Maher is spot on. American democracy has hit an iceberg of Trumpkin populism. The Republicans carry most of the blame but the Democrats are asleep. So far Democrats just stand around with their hands in their pockets debating rearrangements and color schemes for the deck chairs of the U.S.S. Titanic. What Maher failed to mention is the near-certain impeachment of Joe Biden by a Trumpkin Congress in 2022, further blurring political certainties among addled voters, already punch-drunk from a decade of Fox News and Facebook whataboutism. The situation is dire indeed. Where is the moral courage of the GOP?

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Maher is more correct than most people want to give him credit for. I am basically disgusted with the performance of the Democratic Party and the Federal government WRT all of the things that happened around the 2020 election. I am even more disgusted by the behavior of many GoP politicians.

I fully expect Trump to get "re-elected" in 2024. When I read comments like those of J Boone posted here. The level of gullibility and stupidity is gob-smackingly amazing.

We are in the process of sleep-walking our way into the failure of this country. It is deeply saddening. One way of another, authoritarian government is coming to this country--either from the Right/Trump or from the Left to defeat Trump.... because people can't be bothered to look, listen, and learn--and to take the action required to fix the structural political problems we have.

I never thought that I would live to see the day, but apparently I am going to.

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I couldn't agree more with L. DeJoy's comments about tribalism. Of course the bulwark and its ilk are a tribe. People naturally think tribally, as do most primates. There needs to be a shorthand that covers 80% of what you believe, otherwise everyone has to write a long dissertation about their particular menu selections.

Another reason to accept the fact that you're a tribe is because then you can have a call to action. I'm paying $10 a month Durant in the chat room every Thursday, but I'm not sure that's enough to really tip the scales in favor of Freedom over tyranny.

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I couldn't agree more with L. DeJoy's comments about tribalism. Of course the bulwark and its ilk are a tribe. People naturally think tribally, as do most primates. There needs to be a shorthand that covers 80% of what you believe, otherwise everyone has to write a long dissertation about their particular menu selections.

Another reason to accept the fact that you're a tribe is because then you can have a call to action. I'm paying $10 a month Durant in the chat room every Thursday, but I'm not sure that's enough to really tip the scales in favor of Freedom over tyranny.

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The part of Charlie’s Morning Shots that needs more attention:

“How big a deal is the coup really? Is it a big enough deal to root for the Administration not to fail? (And, yes, there is a very real distinction between “supporting” everything in the Biden agenda, and urging/nagging/rooting for him not to screw the pooch.)”

Charlie when you get to this discussion on the main podcast, as you do often, it seems like you start falling into an old pattern. Aren’t we all rooting for the [Biden] Administration not to fail? I know when you’ve hit that groove because invariably you end with “Hey, I never promised anyone a safe space. The Bulwark is not a safe space.” I would love to hear/read more about what exactly you mean by this.

OH YEAH JOE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION, PLEASE DO NOT FAIL!!!! 😍😍😍😍😍

I would have thought this part is a no-brainer for sane Republicans. People say, about everything, “it’s not a zero-sum game.” This time, it IS a zero-sum game. If Biden fails, the idiots take over. I would love to hear you talk about what that would look like if it came to pass. What would actually happen. It’s kind of a shortcut for you to just reference the movie Idiocracy. People need to have a specific mental image of exactly what would happen the moment insurrectionists win. Is there hand-to-hand combat? Do we revert into 50 Divided States? We can’t really decide who we’re rooting for to not screw the pooch until we have a clear understanding of what would happen next.

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It's disgusting to see so many people claiming that civil rights should be compromised on and "incrementally" improved to appease white moderates and white anti-Trump conservatives.

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For some reason, and I am not even close to being someone who panics or thinks disaster is near normally. I am pretty much convinced we will work/figure this out most of the time, but , for some reason, at the ending of the Bill Maher video I teared up. Sigh

Thanks for all you do.

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Yo Charlie. You appear to be part of the Idiocracy people you criticize, or at least you help feed them and keep them warm and comfortable, whey you join their absurd continued intellectually dishonest "news" campaign about the Jan 6 "insurrection" and "slow moving Trump coup" without at least matching the outrage and concern about the much more concerning fast moving, well coordinated abuse of power coup attempt we now so lovingly refer to as Russiagate.

You see, this is why we cannot have nice things with the state of our media chattering class on the topic of politics. Why is it that Democrats can pull off a fantastic foreign funded project to skirt around election norms in all the swing states and to harvest more Democrat mail-in votes that have ever been counted to defeat an incumbent POTUS that received more votes than had ever been counted, and yet that is no threat to democracy (they say they just pushed the boundaries of the laws of the land, but really did not break any... sort of like the 2017 Houston Astros also did not break any laws)... but Trump and many of his supports still see this as an unclean rat (just like many of LA's team still smell a 2017 unclean rat).

And then contrast the outrage of Jan 6 where none of those scary coupsters carried a weapon, and capitol police pretty much let them in and had some fun with them (except for the one that decided to shoot and kill an petite unarmed female protestor)... compared to the lack of reminders from the media that prior to this the nation endured almost 2 years of globalist foreign and Democrat funded violent protests, riots and looting across the country.

And CRT, cancel culture and attacks on free speech... they are not threats to the nation? You know, these things that Trump and Trump supports see as a call to action to defeat?

How can a fake dossier paid for by the Democrat campaign and supported by the Democrat Justice Department while in power, an unlawful FISA warrant and campaign spying campaign from that same DOJ, two fake impeachment attempts... all of this not be considered a coup attempt... and yet the media goes breathless over this Trump plan... which is not really a plan at all but a weak blueprint for how the Trump administration much just pull some legal moves just like the Democrat pull... constantly.

The reason that we are going dumb is that our "smart" people are going blind with bias in disgust and hate for half of the nation of citizens. And those "smart" people in the medial failing to report fairly and objectively on their own bucket of tribal political junk and elevating the most absurd Trump stuff to sensational sky is falling narrative.

You see, I live among that tribe, and I can absolutely vouch for the fact that they are smart, but not wise. But more importantly, they are the most emotionally and psychologically unwell tribe. They are in charge now and the nation seems to be going crazy. That is because the people in charge and and the people reporting the news are certifiably nuts.

Either that, or their crazy is just cover for their ongoing slow moving coup plan... and Trump is the distraction and deflection they need to make it so.

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Great stuff, Charlie. The hints about the 2024 coup are coming everyday now and they're getting stronger and stronger. The Pew poll was very interesting but I am exasperated by my Republican friends that just want Trump to "go away" or try to convince me the military would somehow stop him from seizing power. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I am hopeful that Democrats turn to voting rights reform/protection after the infrastructure two-step is concluded but it may not mean shit if Manchin folds his arms and says that they need Republicans to go forward. If a 2024 worst-case scenario does come to pass, I believe that Democrats would probably resign en masse. Finally, Scalise's new theory that "state legislatures" certify elections [translation: we won't let our citizens pick the president in our state] is not just a playbook for 2024. It's a playbook for minority rule from here on out.

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Great segment on Reid’s show, Charlie! Hilarious as always 👏 I just started donating to a group focusing on reaching out to rural voters (whom Democrats are woefully ill equipped in reaching) because I used to be a farmer and leftist Dems don’t understand rural voters. But I still think the fact that Senator Sinema hasn’t had a town hall with her constituents in THREE YEARS should be condemned publicly as much as the activists in the bathroom. Love the Bulwark tho! You don’t dumb it down for us, and I appreciate it.

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