We are a very polarized nation, but what's amazing is that the biggest factor driving this polarization is the inability of Americans to universally condemn a figure so loathsome as Donald Trump. It's truly astonishing. There is no mystery to the man; he's vile; he is the worst of the human race. Republican politicians love telling Mark Liebovitch what a toxic dirtbag he is, just as long as he agrees not to rat them out.
They know. They all know. They know the racist gameshow host (credit to Tim Miller) should never have been President; they said as much in 2016. They know he should have been removed from office through the Impeachment process. They know people around him had to prevent him from doing even worse things. Marco Rubio, lead Republican on the Senate Intel Committee, knows this MaraLago documents scandal is a BFD, and that Trump is totally guilty, and did something very very bad here. But they get on tv and make excuses, and tell their voters how Donald Trump is a perpetual victim, and the politicians, rightwing media, and voters reinforce each other in a closed-system, never-ending circle jerk of confirmation bias.
We are polarized, because we can't even get a large majority of America to agree on this one obvious truth: Donald Trump is a bastard, a criminal, and a pathological liar. He doesn't lie, He tells it like it is! We could unite as a country against the USSR; how is Donald Trump not like the USSR right now? How stupid of a country is this?
I really wish that writers and speakers would replace the phrase “conspiracy theory” with conspiracy fiction. By using the word “theory” it demeans the word and puts it on par with the scientific notion of theory. In short, it makes anyone and everyone who has a thought, intellectually equal.
While it's encouraging that the special master is acting appropriately, it's disturbing that the investigation depends on individual's good faith. Bad faith actors have already had way more impact on this case than they should have.
The Trump team clearly selected Cannon because they knew she would give them a favorable ruling. We can endlessly speculate why, but it's the most obvious case of judge-shopping in awhile. So why'd they pick Dearie for special master, who seems more or less objective? I guess you can't trust the legal team too much.
In any case, seems like Dearie will reject almost all of Trump team's claims (the right decision IMO). The question then is if Cannon will reject Dearie's conclusions. Seems obviously corrupt, but obviously corrupt is what Cannon does.
Poor Mitch. He obviously despises Trump, but was a coward when he had the chance to end him.
The only realistic reason for this failing is the lust for power. Mitch thought impeaching Trump would alienate the Republican base and cost him the chance to become majority leader again. Whelp! As of today the Democrats have a 70% chance of retaing the Senate per 538.
Is Trump behaving like a cornered animal? It certainly looks that way to me. His recent moves - the embrace of QAnon, the threats of violence - are not about widening his political appeal. They are about imbuing his most ardent supporters with a quasi-religious fervor. It's good-vs-evil all the way down. These are the actions of a man desperately attempting intimidation to save his skin.
People tend to forget that Like Judge Dearie, AG Garland spent 24 years in the federal judiciary. Like Dearie, he's measured and polite, but never takes his eye off the rule of law and our - and his - duty to uphold it.
It remains to be seen if Judge Dearie will keep the proceedings in NY on track, but based on his record and reputation, I suspect he will. That's not good news for Team Trump, who are hoping to run out the clock as long as possible. The other wild card, of course, is whether Judge Cannon will intervene if she sees things not going Trump's way, especially when he starts loudly complaining and criticizing the very special master he requested.
As this point, I expect both Judge Dearie and AG Garland will be who they've always been: adherents to the rule of law who will follow the facts and the evidence wherever they lead.
Sarah is right. McConnell could have ended trump. But he caved like the manipulative, power-hungry coward he is. Practically no one has done more damage to our institutions (especially the Senate and SCOTUS) or done more to enable trump's depredations than McConnell.
If only Gov Abbott's abdication of his responsibility to keep the lights on in TX could push Beto over the finish line in November. I'm not a huge Beto fan, but defeating Abbott would bring a host of benefits:
1) Gregory W. Abbott would no longer be governor of Texas. This is no small thing. He's proven himself to be a heartless and amoral person.
2) The news of a Gov-elect Beto O'Rourke would come as a welcome shock to our political system.
3) Did I mention that Abbott would be booted out of the Governor's mansion?
Proud to say I went to high school with Merrick Garland. He was a few years a head of me. He gave the very best speech I ever heard in an assembly, and I'm counting the principal and teachers in that survey. Garland got a standing ovation from a very blase group of suburban teens.
I knew DeSantis was awful, but it's disappointing that he's THIS awful. I'm serious. I'll explain.
I think it's absolutely vital to prevent Trump from being president again. One great way to do that is for someone to defeat him in the primary—and for that to happen, voters need to coalesce around an alternative candidate. In today's GOP, that person won't be Liz Cheney or anyone else decent. It'll have to be someone fairly awful and plugged into the MAGAverse. But absolutely *anyone* (in my view) is better than Trump.
DeSantis was looking like that guy to me. He's awful enough to get MAGA votes, but significantly less awful than Trump. Or at least, that's what I thought. Turns out... he's REALLY awful. Trump is still in a league of his own, but what a damn choice.
I think it's time for Dems to turn the fear of immigration on its head. Invite more legal immigrants (and yes, we need sensible immigration laws, but that effort was stopped most recently by House Republicans and Trump) for the kinds of things DeSantis pretended would be supplied. Everywhere I go, there are labor shortages resulting in reduced hours, slow service, long wait times etc. Let blue states fix their labor shortages and see their economies take off while De Santis and Abbott cling to their fear and grievance arguments!
I'm beginning to think the feds will indict trump. Garland has all the evidence, I don't, and I will let him do his job. I think he has a backbone, I know he understands not just the law, but the purpose of law in a free society and the consequences of failure to apply the law uniformly, with due consideration for the fact that every case is different. If he does not indict, I will not second guess him. I think he will do what the law and the circumstances dictate. That's all we can ask for. If he does not indict, it will not be from fear of the backlash. And, if he does not indict, we need to work that much harder to outvote the sickos and the idiots, then change the system. That includes more than the political system. We need to create a society that will teach people to think instead of react and pray and "reload." We need to stop funding school choice, not because they are bad, but because they tend to divide us. Let's provide free education for everybody who wants a public education in a school that teaches facts and not belief systems. Stop funding religious institutions of all kinds or subsidizing any of them in any way, shape or form. Stop funding corporations and favoring billionaires.
In John McCain's last book, the Restless Wave, he writes extensively about immigration. He writes about the Hispanic soldiers who were on their second and third tour of duty in Iraq. At a ceremony he wrote, "I wish every American who out of ignorance or worse curses immigrants as criminals or a drain on our country's resources or a threat to our culture could have been there. I would like them to know that immigrants, many of them having entered the country illegally, are making sacrifices for Americans that many Americans would not make for them".McCain also tried to do bipartisan immigration reform which failed due to the Freedom Caucus. He rightly noted "If and when being pro-immigration becomes a political advantage, they'll shelter immigrants in their own homes". If people at the border were white, they would be welcomed with open arms. This is about race. Tucker Carlson is a rich white guy who lives in a white enclave. He incites fear of others into his nightly diatribes. The cruelty has always been the point. But these people are not the majority. They are not even half. But they are a very dangerous and loud forty percent. Watching clips of Trump at his Q embracing rally with everyonr doing the Q salute was no different than Hitler and his sieg Heil saluting cult.
Thank you for drawing attention to Merrick Garland's underappreciated speech at Ellis Island. IMO he has borne an unfairly large amount of criticism for moving cautiously against the trumpist forces. Remember, he has had to rebuild the DOJ after the epic corruption of the trump years while managing a full plate of other complex, non-maga-related cases, such as the massive child-nutrition fraud. Garland is doing the work in a way that offers solid prospects for success and restores integrity and honor to our justice system.
We are a very polarized nation, but what's amazing is that the biggest factor driving this polarization is the inability of Americans to universally condemn a figure so loathsome as Donald Trump. It's truly astonishing. There is no mystery to the man; he's vile; he is the worst of the human race. Republican politicians love telling Mark Liebovitch what a toxic dirtbag he is, just as long as he agrees not to rat them out.
They know. They all know. They know the racist gameshow host (credit to Tim Miller) should never have been President; they said as much in 2016. They know he should have been removed from office through the Impeachment process. They know people around him had to prevent him from doing even worse things. Marco Rubio, lead Republican on the Senate Intel Committee, knows this MaraLago documents scandal is a BFD, and that Trump is totally guilty, and did something very very bad here. But they get on tv and make excuses, and tell their voters how Donald Trump is a perpetual victim, and the politicians, rightwing media, and voters reinforce each other in a closed-system, never-ending circle jerk of confirmation bias.
We are polarized, because we can't even get a large majority of America to agree on this one obvious truth: Donald Trump is a bastard, a criminal, and a pathological liar. He doesn't lie, He tells it like it is! We could unite as a country against the USSR; how is Donald Trump not like the USSR right now? How stupid of a country is this?
One comment from way out in left field…
I really wish that writers and speakers would replace the phrase “conspiracy theory” with conspiracy fiction. By using the word “theory” it demeans the word and puts it on par with the scientific notion of theory. In short, it makes anyone and everyone who has a thought, intellectually equal.
While it's encouraging that the special master is acting appropriately, it's disturbing that the investigation depends on individual's good faith. Bad faith actors have already had way more impact on this case than they should have.
The Trump team clearly selected Cannon because they knew she would give them a favorable ruling. We can endlessly speculate why, but it's the most obvious case of judge-shopping in awhile. So why'd they pick Dearie for special master, who seems more or less objective? I guess you can't trust the legal team too much.
In any case, seems like Dearie will reject almost all of Trump team's claims (the right decision IMO). The question then is if Cannon will reject Dearie's conclusions. Seems obviously corrupt, but obviously corrupt is what Cannon does.
Poor Mitch. He obviously despises Trump, but was a coward when he had the chance to end him.
The only realistic reason for this failing is the lust for power. Mitch thought impeaching Trump would alienate the Republican base and cost him the chance to become majority leader again. Whelp! As of today the Democrats have a 70% chance of retaing the Senate per 538.
Poor, poor Mitch...
Is Trump behaving like a cornered animal? It certainly looks that way to me. His recent moves - the embrace of QAnon, the threats of violence - are not about widening his political appeal. They are about imbuing his most ardent supporters with a quasi-religious fervor. It's good-vs-evil all the way down. These are the actions of a man desperately attempting intimidation to save his skin.
If there is a God (and I have my doubts) Merrick Garland will be the reason that Cocaine Mitch’s plan of becoming Senate Majority Leader again fails.
Trump is a horrific human being but Mitch is responsible for much much more of the consequences that redounded due to Trump’s 4 years.
People tend to forget that Like Judge Dearie, AG Garland spent 24 years in the federal judiciary. Like Dearie, he's measured and polite, but never takes his eye off the rule of law and our - and his - duty to uphold it.
It remains to be seen if Judge Dearie will keep the proceedings in NY on track, but based on his record and reputation, I suspect he will. That's not good news for Team Trump, who are hoping to run out the clock as long as possible. The other wild card, of course, is whether Judge Cannon will intervene if she sees things not going Trump's way, especially when he starts loudly complaining and criticizing the very special master he requested.
As this point, I expect both Judge Dearie and AG Garland will be who they've always been: adherents to the rule of law who will follow the facts and the evidence wherever they lead.
Sarah is right. McConnell could have ended trump. But he caved like the manipulative, power-hungry coward he is. Practically no one has done more damage to our institutions (especially the Senate and SCOTUS) or done more to enable trump's depredations than McConnell.
If only Gov Abbott's abdication of his responsibility to keep the lights on in TX could push Beto over the finish line in November. I'm not a huge Beto fan, but defeating Abbott would bring a host of benefits:
1) Gregory W. Abbott would no longer be governor of Texas. This is no small thing. He's proven himself to be a heartless and amoral person.
2) The news of a Gov-elect Beto O'Rourke would come as a welcome shock to our political system.
3) Did I mention that Abbott would be booted out of the Governor's mansion?
Proud to say I went to high school with Merrick Garland. He was a few years a head of me. He gave the very best speech I ever heard in an assembly, and I'm counting the principal and teachers in that survey. Garland got a standing ovation from a very blase group of suburban teens.
I knew DeSantis was awful, but it's disappointing that he's THIS awful. I'm serious. I'll explain.
I think it's absolutely vital to prevent Trump from being president again. One great way to do that is for someone to defeat him in the primary—and for that to happen, voters need to coalesce around an alternative candidate. In today's GOP, that person won't be Liz Cheney or anyone else decent. It'll have to be someone fairly awful and plugged into the MAGAverse. But absolutely *anyone* (in my view) is better than Trump.
DeSantis was looking like that guy to me. He's awful enough to get MAGA votes, but significantly less awful than Trump. Or at least, that's what I thought. Turns out... he's REALLY awful. Trump is still in a league of his own, but what a damn choice.
I think it's time for Dems to turn the fear of immigration on its head. Invite more legal immigrants (and yes, we need sensible immigration laws, but that effort was stopped most recently by House Republicans and Trump) for the kinds of things DeSantis pretended would be supplied. Everywhere I go, there are labor shortages resulting in reduced hours, slow service, long wait times etc. Let blue states fix their labor shortages and see their economies take off while De Santis and Abbott cling to their fear and grievance arguments!
I'm beginning to think the feds will indict trump. Garland has all the evidence, I don't, and I will let him do his job. I think he has a backbone, I know he understands not just the law, but the purpose of law in a free society and the consequences of failure to apply the law uniformly, with due consideration for the fact that every case is different. If he does not indict, I will not second guess him. I think he will do what the law and the circumstances dictate. That's all we can ask for. If he does not indict, it will not be from fear of the backlash. And, if he does not indict, we need to work that much harder to outvote the sickos and the idiots, then change the system. That includes more than the political system. We need to create a society that will teach people to think instead of react and pray and "reload." We need to stop funding school choice, not because they are bad, but because they tend to divide us. Let's provide free education for everybody who wants a public education in a school that teaches facts and not belief systems. Stop funding religious institutions of all kinds or subsidizing any of them in any way, shape or form. Stop funding corporations and favoring billionaires.
In John McCain's last book, the Restless Wave, he writes extensively about immigration. He writes about the Hispanic soldiers who were on their second and third tour of duty in Iraq. At a ceremony he wrote, "I wish every American who out of ignorance or worse curses immigrants as criminals or a drain on our country's resources or a threat to our culture could have been there. I would like them to know that immigrants, many of them having entered the country illegally, are making sacrifices for Americans that many Americans would not make for them".McCain also tried to do bipartisan immigration reform which failed due to the Freedom Caucus. He rightly noted "If and when being pro-immigration becomes a political advantage, they'll shelter immigrants in their own homes". If people at the border were white, they would be welcomed with open arms. This is about race. Tucker Carlson is a rich white guy who lives in a white enclave. He incites fear of others into his nightly diatribes. The cruelty has always been the point. But these people are not the majority. They are not even half. But they are a very dangerous and loud forty percent. Watching clips of Trump at his Q embracing rally with everyonr doing the Q salute was no different than Hitler and his sieg Heil saluting cult.
Thank you for drawing attention to Merrick Garland's underappreciated speech at Ellis Island. IMO he has borne an unfairly large amount of criticism for moving cautiously against the trumpist forces. Remember, he has had to rebuild the DOJ after the epic corruption of the trump years while managing a full plate of other complex, non-maga-related cases, such as the massive child-nutrition fraud. Garland is doing the work in a way that offers solid prospects for success and restores integrity and honor to our justice system.