How would Biden protect voting before anything without legislation to sign? You are asking for Biden to do exactly what he was elected NOT to do---act like Trump with tweet opinions on everything.
So on Jan 6 around midday a mysterious courier arrives at RonJon's office with a packet of Fake Elector certificates. Surely this person is on CCTV in FBI possession. It sure sounds like Pence's people were on the look out for shady coup plotter operatives, bearing perhaps fake documents.
"One feels a profound sense of shame on behalf of this country for what the Raffenspergers, Bowers, Sterlings..... were put through."
Yes, one does. But one also wonders why Raffensperger and Bowers (I'm not sure about Sterling's voting record) voted for a lying, cheating, cruel, incompetent, criminal, narcissistic bully TWICE. And probably will a third time.
Maybe RICO charges need to be brought against the GoP and a lot of people in the Trump Administration and Trump Organization.
Trump and his close associates get a lot of attention here--but we can also see that the rot runs pretty far into the GoP... and it is only actually going to get worse--NOT better. We see continued cycles of the purification of the ranks of the GoP--and each cycle is a bit more extreme than the next.
And a big chunk of GoP voters are okay with that--as are a lot of the GoP politicians because, hey, they want to keep their jobs, so let's go along to get along.
A LOT of people need to be indicted and tried--and this includes a LOT of politicians who are currently sitting in House and Senate seats. But this is unlikely to happen.
The violence that results from attempts to prosecute some of these people will be interesting (in a bad way, as in the Chinese curse interesting). What will be even more interesting is how the public at large responds to the violence. That public response will be the key as to whether everything falls apart immediately or not. If people continue to write this crap off or excuse it, then it is going to spiral and there will be no real effective response to it at all--just a descent into chaos.
A lot of Americans need to wake up and realize that we ARE at a crossroads. Ya it sucks that gas is expensive. It sucks that inflation is higher than you are used to (I grew up with high inflation so my response is largely meh, TBH). You can make adjustments in your life to mitigate that, if we end up in a civil war/domestic insurrection/political violence, you are going to wish that high gas prices were all you had to worry about.
Pasta certain point NO ONE is in control of this, regardless of what illusions you harbor.
They are right in front of us. They easily and quick as a wink transmogrified into fascist monsters. See: Cruz, DeSantis, Hawley, and about 150,000 other cheap cesspool pols.
Ron Johnson: 'I don't know who ate the pizza we ordered the pizza from pizza place we didn't order it someone else ordered the pizza and we ate it didn't eat it gave it to Pence who didn't eat it there is no pizza except the one we heard about got ordered we accepted it and ate it didn't eat it. I hope that explains the pizza.'
The true patriots are these Americans who acted honorably and have been threatened and vilified by tRump’s storm troopers. Shameful, disgusting political criminality!
And RonJon’s fictional account of that fake electors handoff has been further discredited.
Yet today I read that Bowers would vote for Donald Trump again if he was the candidate in 2024. How can I have any sympathy for him? He is willing to put the country through another 4 years of a man who he knows was willing to break the law to stay in power, disrupting 200+ years of orderly transitions of power.
I didn't think it would be possible for me to feel worse about everything... but then, yesterday's hearing. Omigod. What a horrible path are we on as a nation.
Can we talk for a moment about the radicalization in Christian churches? I'm so grateful you've had people on the pod, like Tim Alberta, who've talked about it. But so many other people have acted if this radicalization - this cult-like worship of guns, whiteness, and Trump - is an exception. Something over the past 30-40 years set the stage for this, where all of these "good people" view Trump as their "imperfect vessel" who will fulfill their bizarre end times nonsense. Why are these folks such fertile ground for this awfulness? Maybe there's something terribly wrong and terribly dark in the church and the people there.
Do we know for a fact that Mike Pence was carrying the Nuclear codes on 1/6? When did he become responsible for "the suitcase"- or whatever it is properly called-and if true was this common knowledge? If it is true at the very least Democrats can use this as a counter argument to Biden is incompetent.
While I admire Speaker Bowers for standing up the pressure campaign from Trump and his minions, the fact that he says he'd vote for Trump again in 2024 takes some of the shine off his halo.
After being a first-hand witness to Trump's coup attempt, being subjected to death threats by Trump's mob including against Bowers' own dying daughter, after watching Trump eagerly wait to see if the 1/6 insurrectionists would succeed in killing his own VP, Bowers STILL thinks voting for Trump would be a better option than voting for Biden.
I'm gobsmacked. The on-going campaign of destruction of our democratic republic won't succeed only because of armed, violent mobs. It will take place because even otherwise decent people can't see past their worst tribal instincts.
Firstly: GREAT newsletter! Wonderful that everyone weighed in. They each spoke for all of us, I suspect! (with one tiny but niggling exception...)
When I was a child, society began shifting from using the term "colored" to using the term Black, as in Black is Beautiful. One day my brother referred to someone as "Colored" and my father corrected him, and said it's better to say "Black". My brother asked why he couldn't say "Colored" anymore. My father replied, "Because they don't like it. We don't need any more reason than that. It's how we demonstrate our respect for them."
True enough. My name is DeeDee... I had a gym teacher who called me "Dandruff" because she thought it was hilarious. I began feigning my period to get out of PE because, who wants to be insulted all the time? Once might have been funny... repetition was deliberately insulting and cruel.
Using the word "woke" is now like the "N" word. It's offensive. Stop using it. English is rich with words that you can use instead. Try finding an inoffensive synonym for "woke"... I challenge you to... I suspect all the synonyms you find will be clearly insulting and perhaps you'll understand why It's a word best dropped. It's a word used only by Bullies on the Right. If that's who you are, keep using it.
Depends on the purpose of The Bulwark though. If you want to unite the nation behind your views, you can do that by being inclusive. If you just want to get rid of trump, and still "own the libs", then carry on with effing "woke", and I will feel sorry that you couldn't find any real words to use.
Thank you for highlighting Shaye Moss. She is a heroine, and it is awful that people simply doing their jobs with integrity could be subjected to what she was, in this country, with the slime of racism thrown in to boot. It was so good to read the Bulwark men so roundly defending Ms. Moss and her family.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Mona Charen's comment brought me to tears, as Mona so often affects me with her silver voice of clarity and truth.
It's true too that conservatives used to stand for good character. What happened? It's almost laughable to me that Andrew McCarthy is now saying that it is clear the Trump is unfit for office. Why wasn't that clear to a man of McCarthy's perspicacity long, long ago?
It was clear to the staff of the Bulwark. Thank you for being a bulwark in the storms of our times.
How would Biden protect voting before anything without legislation to sign? You are asking for Biden to do exactly what he was elected NOT to do---act like Trump with tweet opinions on everything.
Of course Trump did this! Can anyone think for a minute that if Trump had conceded, even grudgingly, that any of this would have happened?
So on Jan 6 around midday a mysterious courier arrives at RonJon's office with a packet of Fake Elector certificates. Surely this person is on CCTV in FBI possession. It sure sounds like Pence's people were on the look out for shady coup plotter operatives, bearing perhaps fake documents.
"One feels a profound sense of shame on behalf of this country for what the Raffenspergers, Bowers, Sterlings..... were put through."
Yes, one does. But one also wonders why Raffensperger and Bowers (I'm not sure about Sterling's voting record) voted for a lying, cheating, cruel, incompetent, criminal, narcissistic bully TWICE. And probably will a third time.
I finally figured it out! RINOs = Republicans who tell the truth
Maybe RICO charges need to be brought against the GoP and a lot of people in the Trump Administration and Trump Organization.
Trump and his close associates get a lot of attention here--but we can also see that the rot runs pretty far into the GoP... and it is only actually going to get worse--NOT better. We see continued cycles of the purification of the ranks of the GoP--and each cycle is a bit more extreme than the next.
And a big chunk of GoP voters are okay with that--as are a lot of the GoP politicians because, hey, they want to keep their jobs, so let's go along to get along.
A LOT of people need to be indicted and tried--and this includes a LOT of politicians who are currently sitting in House and Senate seats. But this is unlikely to happen.
The violence that results from attempts to prosecute some of these people will be interesting (in a bad way, as in the Chinese curse interesting). What will be even more interesting is how the public at large responds to the violence. That public response will be the key as to whether everything falls apart immediately or not. If people continue to write this crap off or excuse it, then it is going to spiral and there will be no real effective response to it at all--just a descent into chaos.
A lot of Americans need to wake up and realize that we ARE at a crossroads. Ya it sucks that gas is expensive. It sucks that inflation is higher than you are used to (I grew up with high inflation so my response is largely meh, TBH). You can make adjustments in your life to mitigate that, if we end up in a civil war/domestic insurrection/political violence, you are going to wish that high gas prices were all you had to worry about.
Pasta certain point NO ONE is in control of this, regardless of what illusions you harbor.
"Bill Kristol: Where Are The Conservatives?"
They are right in front of us. They easily and quick as a wink transmogrified into fascist monsters. See: Cruz, DeSantis, Hawley, and about 150,000 other cheap cesspool pols.
Ron Johnson: 'I don't know who ate the pizza we ordered the pizza from pizza place we didn't order it someone else ordered the pizza and we ate it didn't eat it gave it to Pence who didn't eat it there is no pizza except the one we heard about got ordered we accepted it and ate it didn't eat it. I hope that explains the pizza.'
The true patriots are these Americans who acted honorably and have been threatened and vilified by tRump’s storm troopers. Shameful, disgusting political criminality!
And RonJon’s fictional account of that fake electors handoff has been further discredited.
https://www.rawstory.com/sean-riley-national-archives/
Yet today I read that Bowers would vote for Donald Trump again if he was the candidate in 2024. How can I have any sympathy for him? He is willing to put the country through another 4 years of a man who he knows was willing to break the law to stay in power, disrupting 200+ years of orderly transitions of power.
Off topic: Can we get comments enabled on The Triad pieces this week? None have been available for commenting yet. Thanks!
I didn't think it would be possible for me to feel worse about everything... but then, yesterday's hearing. Omigod. What a horrible path are we on as a nation.
Can we talk for a moment about the radicalization in Christian churches? I'm so grateful you've had people on the pod, like Tim Alberta, who've talked about it. But so many other people have acted if this radicalization - this cult-like worship of guns, whiteness, and Trump - is an exception. Something over the past 30-40 years set the stage for this, where all of these "good people" view Trump as their "imperfect vessel" who will fulfill their bizarre end times nonsense. Why are these folks such fertile ground for this awfulness? Maybe there's something terribly wrong and terribly dark in the church and the people there.
Do we know for a fact that Mike Pence was carrying the Nuclear codes on 1/6? When did he become responsible for "the suitcase"- or whatever it is properly called-and if true was this common knowledge? If it is true at the very least Democrats can use this as a counter argument to Biden is incompetent.
While I admire Speaker Bowers for standing up the pressure campaign from Trump and his minions, the fact that he says he'd vote for Trump again in 2024 takes some of the shine off his halo.
After being a first-hand witness to Trump's coup attempt, being subjected to death threats by Trump's mob including against Bowers' own dying daughter, after watching Trump eagerly wait to see if the 1/6 insurrectionists would succeed in killing his own VP, Bowers STILL thinks voting for Trump would be a better option than voting for Biden.
I'm gobsmacked. The on-going campaign of destruction of our democratic republic won't succeed only because of armed, violent mobs. It will take place because even otherwise decent people can't see past their worst tribal instincts.
Firstly: GREAT newsletter! Wonderful that everyone weighed in. They each spoke for all of us, I suspect! (with one tiny but niggling exception...)
When I was a child, society began shifting from using the term "colored" to using the term Black, as in Black is Beautiful. One day my brother referred to someone as "Colored" and my father corrected him, and said it's better to say "Black". My brother asked why he couldn't say "Colored" anymore. My father replied, "Because they don't like it. We don't need any more reason than that. It's how we demonstrate our respect for them."
True enough. My name is DeeDee... I had a gym teacher who called me "Dandruff" because she thought it was hilarious. I began feigning my period to get out of PE because, who wants to be insulted all the time? Once might have been funny... repetition was deliberately insulting and cruel.
Using the word "woke" is now like the "N" word. It's offensive. Stop using it. English is rich with words that you can use instead. Try finding an inoffensive synonym for "woke"... I challenge you to... I suspect all the synonyms you find will be clearly insulting and perhaps you'll understand why It's a word best dropped. It's a word used only by Bullies on the Right. If that's who you are, keep using it.
Depends on the purpose of The Bulwark though. If you want to unite the nation behind your views, you can do that by being inclusive. If you just want to get rid of trump, and still "own the libs", then carry on with effing "woke", and I will feel sorry that you couldn't find any real words to use.
Thank you for highlighting Shaye Moss. She is a heroine, and it is awful that people simply doing their jobs with integrity could be subjected to what she was, in this country, with the slime of racism thrown in to boot. It was so good to read the Bulwark men so roundly defending Ms. Moss and her family.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Mona Charen's comment brought me to tears, as Mona so often affects me with her silver voice of clarity and truth.
It's true too that conservatives used to stand for good character. What happened? It's almost laughable to me that Andrew McCarthy is now saying that it is clear the Trump is unfit for office. Why wasn't that clear to a man of McCarthy's perspicacity long, long ago?
It was clear to the staff of the Bulwark. Thank you for being a bulwark in the storms of our times.