If anyone was actually depending on the GOP to save us, I'd say you missed the plot since 2016. Depending on the GOP to save us is like hiring an arsonist for your fire department.
So, what happened this week in attempted arson? We learned that Trump is really reeally freaked out about being indicted. As in, would like incite some violence against the legal authorities who are considering indicting him. Those legal authorities should try, for a change of pace, taking him seriously.
In the rest of the Republican Party, Susan Collins, who voted to impeach the guy, basically said "well, in some conditions the arsonist may make a good firefighter."
I don't mean to diminish the work of those legal authorities or the Jan. 6 Committee, but we are running out of time until Trump declares for 2024 and things start to get ugly. I just don't know what we do to avert that now.
I agreed with Larry Sabato's tweet last night, "It can't be stated enough: if Trump reclaims the White House, the American Republic dies. We came close enough the first time." Then Michigan Republican Ryan D Kelly urges prospective poll workers to unplug tabulation machines if they suspect fraud in November General Election. To add more scary, Michigan State Senate candidate states, "We need to be prepared to Lock and Load."
Meanwhile, the Democrats (I am center-left Dem) are again showing they are clueless about basic politics.
"All evil needs to triumph is good men desperate to remain "relevant", "in the room", and "a part of the conversation". I want this spread far and wide. The flip side is "but no one's talking/doing anything about MY issue so I'm just not going to bother to vote" which is just as dangerous.
Anyone that thinks the GoP is going to save us (from what, the GoP?) is seriously off their meds. They are determined to openly demonstrate repeatedly that they will do little or nothing that will provoke the ire of TFG and his "stormtroopers in all but name."
At some point they will drop the pretense--probably in 2024.
The e-mail from Wood that Charlie quotes pretty much nails what is going to happen in the GoP controlled states. A blizzard of BS, followed by appointing a slate of GoP electors.
The GoP is completing its transformation into the PoT... but there is a large number of people (voters) who will sit around with their fingers in their ears, humming a tune and ignoring it. Nothing to see here.
It has been a long and winding road (props to McCartney) that brought us to the current nightmare that is the R party.
The lack of imagination by people who have spent their lives coloring inside the lines is truly detrimental to getting out of this quagmire.
All the people advocating incremental steps to avoid the destruction of the rule of law seem to be completely oblivious to the asymmetrical methods that have been in use for st least a decade or two.
Lowry is a complete sycophant, as are most if his brethren at NRO.
Sadly, Mr Wood outlined what we will happen.
As I have commented previously, the buxom, classically trained soprano is in the wings warming up her vocal cords.
NEWS FLASH (AP) The Right Honorable [sic] Senator Susan Margaret Collins (R, Maine) just announced through her Bangor office that Democracy should rest assured the Senator will probably stand equivocally behind tradition that mob rule is perhaps not a fitting method of governing. Moreover, her press secretary declared, "The Senator will continue to assess as always reaction in Maine District 2 [aka Northern Trumpistan] to her possible support for rule by law. And as Maine residents well know, the Senator now and then puts the good of citizens and governance before her own political ambitions." Senator Collins was not present for questioning because she is now hiding under a rock up in Piscataquis County.
Charlie, your headline premise is wrong: There is no GOP. You yourself gave us Exhibit A ... Susan Collins to prove your point. The GOP, with a clear reverence for Bull...., has become the POT.
Charlie, I get that you disagree with Elias on a number of things. You're not wrong. But he's the reason Trump went 1-60 (or whatever the actual number was) in court. It's a BFD. It certainly doesn't give him a free pass. I find it ridiculous that he's picking on Cheney and Kinsinger as well. We all need to be strange bedfellows until we make sure Trump is gone for good, and then we can go back to our corners and argue about policy. But, on that same note, if 2022/2024 are going to be as bad as we think, we need him.
1. The 'full throated' independentish ReTrumplican't guardian of the American Constitution 2022, as stated this past weekend:
"...When asked on ABC’s This Week whether she would support Donald Trump if he ran in 2024, she demurred, leaving the door open to the possibility of having faith in a Trump resurrection, while providing some perfunctory lip service to the notion that there were other people she might prefer..."
Or
#2 The wily politician trying to walk the tightrope between preserving America as we knew it prior to 2016, and not wanting to add to the ongoing, never extinguished ire of the Secessionist-In-Chief.
Can't help but wonder how much those who are desperate to remain "in the room" are also desperate to remain alive? The locked and loaded threats coming from inside the House are the tip of the iceberg. We've all heard the deranged voicemail left for those that do speak out, and since it's only a lone voice here and there and never the critical mass it needs to be, the danger is real. It's not good, none of it's good.
I mean....this part about Laura Ingraham just wraps the argument up nicely in a bow. The GOP is the Sedition Party. They are the Pretend O Party. Pretend that democracy does not have a knife to her throat.
Thanks for writing about scenarios and likely responses from non maga never Trumper Republicans. I fail to see why these Republicans even care to curry or keep favour in such a party. Other than the money. But most of these folks are lawyers. There’s always money to be made. Look the other way and don’t look back. Be a hero and go down in history. In a respectable way.
No we did not. That is a ridiculous comment. So dishonest and hyperbolic you should be embarrassed for using it. None of the protestors had weapons. They did not kill anyone. A few of them hurt police officers and they should pay for the crime. The only person killed was a protestor... murdered by a Dem capitol police officer. The Democrats and the media made it into a spectacle it was not. You are reading and watching cherry-picked footage and a Hollywood script. 98% of the protestors that entered the capitol were calling for peace.
Did you know that Ashley Babbitt, before she was shot and killed, was fighting with one of the hothead protestors telling him to stop being violent?
In March of 1971, a bomb went off inside the U.S. Capitol Building. There was never any question about who did it, a Marxist group called the Weather Underground immediately took responsibility for it even before the explosions. That story got buried.
But then after Jan-6:
TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That day will be another day that lives in infamy in American History similar to Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): We can now add January 6, 2021 to that very short list of dates in American History that will live forever in infamy.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: A hundred and fifty days since the worst single act of political violence since the Civil War.
CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST: The worst attack on American democracy arguably probably since the Civil War.
SCHUMER: The greatest attempted insurrection since the Civil War.
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, NBC NEWS PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Think of the 6th of January, if those terrorists who committed that attack on our Capitol had been a little bit faster, they could have and probably would have executed the Vice President, executed the Speaker of the House, executed other Members and leaders of Congress.
The Biden Administration is withholding all the video footage from the Capitol Police and other cameras. Why? Clearly it would tell another story than the one you are sucking on.
Here is a transcript of the protestors in the legislative chambers:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey [bleep] man. Glad to see you guys. You guys are patriots. Look at this guy, he is covered in blood. God bless you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You good, sir? Do you need medical attention?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm good, thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got shot in the face. I got shot in the face with some kind of plastic bullet.
CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER: Any chance I could get you guys to leave the Senate wing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will. I've been making sure they ain't disrespecting the place.
CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER: Okay, I just want to let you guys know this is like the sacredest place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know.
Yeah... an insurrection. Your media feeds are incomplete, lying, distorted and wrong. And you are the same.
It wasn't a spectacle I liked or was proud of. But it was not a blood bath. It was not an insurrection (the dishonest FBI even agreed). It was not an attempt to take over the government. It was not sedition. It was a protest that got out of control because the Democrats (suspiciously) failed to provide enough crowd control.
And after seeing all the $2 billion in property damage and hundreds of injured and killed people from the leftist riots, Jan-6 is really quite a steaming pile of nothing burger.
No, the GOP Won't Save Us
If anyone was actually depending on the GOP to save us, I'd say you missed the plot since 2016. Depending on the GOP to save us is like hiring an arsonist for your fire department.
So, what happened this week in attempted arson? We learned that Trump is really reeally freaked out about being indicted. As in, would like incite some violence against the legal authorities who are considering indicting him. Those legal authorities should try, for a change of pace, taking him seriously.
In the rest of the Republican Party, Susan Collins, who voted to impeach the guy, basically said "well, in some conditions the arsonist may make a good firefighter."
I don't mean to diminish the work of those legal authorities or the Jan. 6 Committee, but we are running out of time until Trump declares for 2024 and things start to get ugly. I just don't know what we do to avert that now.
I agreed with Larry Sabato's tweet last night, "It can't be stated enough: if Trump reclaims the White House, the American Republic dies. We came close enough the first time." Then Michigan Republican Ryan D Kelly urges prospective poll workers to unplug tabulation machines if they suspect fraud in November General Election. To add more scary, Michigan State Senate candidate states, "We need to be prepared to Lock and Load."
Meanwhile, the Democrats (I am center-left Dem) are again showing they are clueless about basic politics.
I am terrified of the future our Republic.
"All evil needs to triumph is good men desperate to remain "relevant", "in the room", and "a part of the conversation". I want this spread far and wide. The flip side is "but no one's talking/doing anything about MY issue so I'm just not going to bother to vote" which is just as dangerous.
Anyone that thinks the GoP is going to save us (from what, the GoP?) is seriously off their meds. They are determined to openly demonstrate repeatedly that they will do little or nothing that will provoke the ire of TFG and his "stormtroopers in all but name."
At some point they will drop the pretense--probably in 2024.
The e-mail from Wood that Charlie quotes pretty much nails what is going to happen in the GoP controlled states. A blizzard of BS, followed by appointing a slate of GoP electors.
The GoP is completing its transformation into the PoT... but there is a large number of people (voters) who will sit around with their fingers in their ears, humming a tune and ignoring it. Nothing to see here.
It has been a long and winding road (props to McCartney) that brought us to the current nightmare that is the R party.
The lack of imagination by people who have spent their lives coloring inside the lines is truly detrimental to getting out of this quagmire.
All the people advocating incremental steps to avoid the destruction of the rule of law seem to be completely oblivious to the asymmetrical methods that have been in use for st least a decade or two.
Lowry is a complete sycophant, as are most if his brethren at NRO.
Sadly, Mr Wood outlined what we will happen.
As I have commented previously, the buxom, classically trained soprano is in the wings warming up her vocal cords.
NEWS FLASH (AP) The Right Honorable [sic] Senator Susan Margaret Collins (R, Maine) just announced through her Bangor office that Democracy should rest assured the Senator will probably stand equivocally behind tradition that mob rule is perhaps not a fitting method of governing. Moreover, her press secretary declared, "The Senator will continue to assess as always reaction in Maine District 2 [aka Northern Trumpistan] to her possible support for rule by law. And as Maine residents well know, the Senator now and then puts the good of citizens and governance before her own political ambitions." Senator Collins was not present for questioning because she is now hiding under a rock up in Piscataquis County.
- A Maine Native
Charlie, your headline premise is wrong: There is no GOP. You yourself gave us Exhibit A ... Susan Collins to prove your point. The GOP, with a clear reverence for Bull...., has become the POT.
The moment to truly fear is when Trump no longer needs the GOP. If he gets re-elected...that moment won't be far away.
Did Ingrham run a memorial segment for that cop or does she no longer "back the blue?"
Charlie, I get that you disagree with Elias on a number of things. You're not wrong. But he's the reason Trump went 1-60 (or whatever the actual number was) in court. It's a BFD. It certainly doesn't give him a free pass. I find it ridiculous that he's picking on Cheney and Kinsinger as well. We all need to be strange bedfellows until we make sure Trump is gone for good, and then we can go back to our corners and argue about policy. But, on that same note, if 2022/2024 are going to be as bad as we think, we need him.
Will the REAL Susan Collins stand up...
1. The 'full throated' independentish ReTrumplican't guardian of the American Constitution 2022, as stated this past weekend:
"...When asked on ABC’s This Week whether she would support Donald Trump if he ran in 2024, she demurred, leaving the door open to the possibility of having faith in a Trump resurrection, while providing some perfunctory lip service to the notion that there were other people she might prefer..."
Or
#2 The wily politician trying to walk the tightrope between preserving America as we knew it prior to 2016, and not wanting to add to the ongoing, never extinguished ire of the Secessionist-In-Chief.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy8w8-hjMjM
It may be a tough one to choose. But who's kidding who???
Susan Collings has the backbone of Clayton's Copper Butterfly, a Maine flying invertebrate.
Can't help but wonder how much those who are desperate to remain "in the room" are also desperate to remain alive? The locked and loaded threats coming from inside the House are the tip of the iceberg. We've all heard the deranged voicemail left for those that do speak out, and since it's only a lone voice here and there and never the critical mass it needs to be, the danger is real. It's not good, none of it's good.
I mean....this part about Laura Ingraham just wraps the argument up nicely in a bow. The GOP is the Sedition Party. They are the Pretend O Party. Pretend that democracy does not have a knife to her throat.
Thanks for writing about scenarios and likely responses from non maga never Trumper Republicans. I fail to see why these Republicans even care to curry or keep favour in such a party. Other than the money. But most of these folks are lawyers. There’s always money to be made. Look the other way and don’t look back. Be a hero and go down in history. In a respectable way.
"We came minutes away from a real blood bath"
No we did not. That is a ridiculous comment. So dishonest and hyperbolic you should be embarrassed for using it. None of the protestors had weapons. They did not kill anyone. A few of them hurt police officers and they should pay for the crime. The only person killed was a protestor... murdered by a Dem capitol police officer. The Democrats and the media made it into a spectacle it was not. You are reading and watching cherry-picked footage and a Hollywood script. 98% of the protestors that entered the capitol were calling for peace.
Did you know that Ashley Babbitt, before she was shot and killed, was fighting with one of the hothead protestors telling him to stop being violent?
In March of 1971, a bomb went off inside the U.S. Capitol Building. There was never any question about who did it, a Marxist group called the Weather Underground immediately took responsibility for it even before the explosions. That story got buried.
But then after Jan-6:
TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That day will be another day that lives in infamy in American History similar to Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): We can now add January 6, 2021 to that very short list of dates in American History that will live forever in infamy.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: A hundred and fifty days since the worst single act of political violence since the Civil War.
CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST: The worst attack on American democracy arguably probably since the Civil War.
SCHUMER: The greatest attempted insurrection since the Civil War.
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, NBC NEWS PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Think of the 6th of January, if those terrorists who committed that attack on our Capitol had been a little bit faster, they could have and probably would have executed the Vice President, executed the Speaker of the House, executed other Members and leaders of Congress.
The Biden Administration is withholding all the video footage from the Capitol Police and other cameras. Why? Clearly it would tell another story than the one you are sucking on.
Here is a transcript of the protestors in the legislative chambers:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey [bleep] man. Glad to see you guys. You guys are patriots. Look at this guy, he is covered in blood. God bless you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You good, sir? Do you need medical attention?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm good, thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got shot in the face. I got shot in the face with some kind of plastic bullet.
CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER: Any chance I could get you guys to leave the Senate wing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will. I've been making sure they ain't disrespecting the place.
CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER: Okay, I just want to let you guys know this is like the sacredest place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know.
Yeah... an insurrection. Your media feeds are incomplete, lying, distorted and wrong. And you are the same.
It wasn't a spectacle I liked or was proud of. But it was not a blood bath. It was not an insurrection (the dishonest FBI even agreed). It was not an attempt to take over the government. It was not sedition. It was a protest that got out of control because the Democrats (suspiciously) failed to provide enough crowd control.
And after seeing all the $2 billion in property damage and hundreds of injured and killed people from the leftist riots, Jan-6 is really quite a steaming pile of nothing burger.
Thanks to Michael Wood for that very clear-eyed assessment, and to Charlie for printing it.