Regarding Biden, he shows all the advantages of age - which center on patience and experience. He continues to gain successes even as the left crafts its op-eds ever every imperfection.
The most effective president in my lifetime - or at least as effective as anyone from Ike on. And yet he is nitpicked by his friends and smeared with lies by Republicans.
And unlike the former guy, when he does succeed he does not gloat. Yes he occasionally expresses pride in his successes but that all.
And all the while, almost half the nation and most of the GOP expresses no regret at the harm to the nation that they let happen by empowering Trump.
I think that poll says it all about the real impact of ankle-bracelet Trump soaking in the applause of a nomination. To the kind of people who will be there for a GOP acceptance speech from DJT, sure, they'll roar with approval. But just who will those people be? The most MAGA partisan hacks. I hope that people like Pence and Hutchinson aren't in attendance that night, and I think a good chunk of what passes for normie republicans these days will ultimately sit home or vote third party when push comes to shove. It won't be enough to make anyone feel warm and fuzzy about 2024's GOP, but I suspect it will be enough to be seriously noticed.
I'd love it if the GOP could return to sanity and nominate a decent candidate who I just disliked and disagreed with (I won't go so far as to hope to get one I'd actually respect). But since that seems unlikely at this point, there's a part of me that is getting increasingly ready to embrace the idea of Trump as serious anchor to the GOP in 24. Every GOP candidate up and down the ballot will have to go on record as for or against having this felon in charge of our country. Can't see that as a boon for them in any competitive races.
Of course he kept them and bragged about them on tape. Would you expect anything less? He has the temperament of a toddler and cannot help himself. This lends even more credibility to the theory that he wasn't trying to use the docs for anything strategic or financial -- he just liked having them because it made him feel important. Access to classified info is exactly the kind of privilege that would scratch the ego part of his lizard brain.
So Trump and his allies claim the DOJ and FBI have been "weaponized" against them. Yes, that is absolutely true. DOJ and FBI have always been "out to get" those who break the law, especially those who pose a threat to our national security.
Why are people opposed to inclusion? Under the ADA amd IDEA, people with disabilities have the right to exist and be accommodated. The idea that that is wrong is deeply evil
On the Democratic Party in Florida -- this is indicative of the way Democrats have largely ceded local and state races nationwide in favor of big federal races while the Republicans have built a well-funded ground game there. This has been happening for decades and has contributed mightily to the disproportionate advantage in state legislatures and gerrymandered districts. Look at a state like North Carolina where the GOP holds a legislative supermajority while Democrats win statewide races.
Re: DEI "training" of white collar and/or college graduate employees: if anything, Friedersdorf is too kind. My place of work is very left-leaning and we are required to take DEI "classes". They are innocuous but entirely useless. There are no "white people bad" messages, but I'm not seeing how any of this pablum actually helps individuals who are subject to discrimination.
Employers need to show--rather than tell--their commitment to diversity. Recruit from HCBUs/colleges with a large amount of minorities. Fund scholarships in economically depressed areas (e.g. Appalachia) and offer internships to the scholarship winners. Nurture talent from within.
DEI training programs are designed to make HR and senior leadership feel great about doing very little.
Hey Charlie- on you podcast with Ben today can you ask him a question regarding Trump wanting to move his charges from State to Federal court? If he does, does that mean he could then be pardoned for it? Is that his motivation?
I would love to read some follow-up reporting on the fate of work requirements in Kentucky. I remember something about work requirements as part of a deal to get [medicaid expansion?] through. What work can you require from the typical Kentucky aid recipient, living in a rural area with few work possibilities? Maybe there's more than I can imagine, but I've never seen any follow-up reporting anywhere on how work requirements go.
I think there are a substantial number of Republicans receiving aid of various sorts. I believe most of them are not in a position to do much work. (Weeding public gardens under a hot sun? Doubt most of them are in physical condition to do this. Working at home on on jobs requiring high speed internet and security - doubt it.) I wonder if Democrats could turn this into an issue for these Republicans. The unemployment rate is so low right now that I have to believe that most people who can work, are working.
Wait, wait ... are you trying to tell me that Donald Trump lied to us?
Thanks, Charlie. I suppose next you'll try to convince us that Santa Claus isn't real. And that Fred Flintstone wasn't a real person either. And that all those mounds of Wisconsin cheese I've been eating over time are making me fat. I can handle those jokes. But don't you dare try to tell me that our greatest President ever (because ... well ... just because) cares more about himself than about making America great again, or that MAGA is some sort of scam operation. That's a bridge too far. Cancel my subscription unless you are prepared to tell me what I want to hear instead of what I need to know.
Sincerely,
A Freedom-Fighting, Liberty-Loving MAGA Patriot in the Greatest Country On Earth
Regarding Pence entering the primary, I think Trump had the 'perfect' word (just, as usual, the wrong spelling, context, and target) when he called someone 'milktoast' recently. What can Pence possibly offer today's Republican primary voter?
Charlie/Mona et al regarding "the normalcy" of border-crossing activity:
I live at the Tx/Mx border- remember all those trips to McAllen TX that Trump made to look at his wall? Yeah, that's where I am- we're 8 miles N.
It has been an exceptionally rainy spring- like lots of thunderstorms once or twice a week. I suspect THAT has kept the border crossers and "caravans" down- not heeding Biden, not being afraid of Fox News reporters, Title 43 or whatever it is...
I have many conversations with Fox viewers from N Tx. They think they're running across the airport like the crowds trying to escape during the overthrows of Afghanistan and Vietnam. No. Actually, those who have been processed by CBP are usually in new clothes furnished by the locals, are carrying small folios with their papers and often traveling with small children. Inevitably, they are the best behaved families in the entire airport.
As I ask those who query about "all them illegals", I ask "do you want to hire someone who's hiked 1000 miles through the jungle with a 4 and 6 year old in tow to escape communism, or some kid who's been kicked out of his mom's basement?"
Hopefully, now that we showed ourselves by passing (soon) the debt ceiling increase, we can get SOME kind of sensical immigration policy passed. You want your kid to spend his life mowing lawns, working in a slaughterhouse, cleaning houses or working in the back of a restaurant? I didn't think so. Also, by my count almost every single state-of-the-art tech company is run by either a first or second gen immigrant.
I know this emphatically isn't the position of The Bulwark, but man, I really would like to see Trump win the nomination. Let the GOP own this traitor. I want to see them all squirm for a solid 12 months up to the election.
I realize the ankle-bracelet scenario was for the reaction by his reactionary cretin followers, but...
If the Defendant-In-Chief is convicted of crimes in Georgia state court (along with a cadre of his goons) and in federal court, a felon is a felon, why would he be able to walk around.
This would be a good query for Ben to discuss with Charlie in today's podcast.
Trump has never been punished. Without penalty the behavior will continue. DOJ is too slow. This is all hands on deck stuff, but they are treating it like an SEC violation.
Trump’s Smoking Tape?
Regarding Biden, he shows all the advantages of age - which center on patience and experience. He continues to gain successes even as the left crafts its op-eds ever every imperfection.
The most effective president in my lifetime - or at least as effective as anyone from Ike on. And yet he is nitpicked by his friends and smeared with lies by Republicans.
And unlike the former guy, when he does succeed he does not gloat. Yes he occasionally expresses pride in his successes but that all.
And all the while, almost half the nation and most of the GOP expresses no regret at the harm to the nation that they let happen by empowering Trump.
I think that poll says it all about the real impact of ankle-bracelet Trump soaking in the applause of a nomination. To the kind of people who will be there for a GOP acceptance speech from DJT, sure, they'll roar with approval. But just who will those people be? The most MAGA partisan hacks. I hope that people like Pence and Hutchinson aren't in attendance that night, and I think a good chunk of what passes for normie republicans these days will ultimately sit home or vote third party when push comes to shove. It won't be enough to make anyone feel warm and fuzzy about 2024's GOP, but I suspect it will be enough to be seriously noticed.
I'd love it if the GOP could return to sanity and nominate a decent candidate who I just disliked and disagreed with (I won't go so far as to hope to get one I'd actually respect). But since that seems unlikely at this point, there's a part of me that is getting increasingly ready to embrace the idea of Trump as serious anchor to the GOP in 24. Every GOP candidate up and down the ballot will have to go on record as for or against having this felon in charge of our country. Can't see that as a boon for them in any competitive races.
Of course he kept them and bragged about them on tape. Would you expect anything less? He has the temperament of a toddler and cannot help himself. This lends even more credibility to the theory that he wasn't trying to use the docs for anything strategic or financial -- he just liked having them because it made him feel important. Access to classified info is exactly the kind of privilege that would scratch the ego part of his lizard brain.
So Trump and his allies claim the DOJ and FBI have been "weaponized" against them. Yes, that is absolutely true. DOJ and FBI have always been "out to get" those who break the law, especially those who pose a threat to our national security.
#SaveAmerica #NeverMAGA
Why are people opposed to inclusion? Under the ADA amd IDEA, people with disabilities have the right to exist and be accommodated. The idea that that is wrong is deeply evil
On the Democratic Party in Florida -- this is indicative of the way Democrats have largely ceded local and state races nationwide in favor of big federal races while the Republicans have built a well-funded ground game there. This has been happening for decades and has contributed mightily to the disproportionate advantage in state legislatures and gerrymandered districts. Look at a state like North Carolina where the GOP holds a legislative supermajority while Democrats win statewide races.
I wonder, in the same way it works at a bar, Could Trump just establish a tab with E Jean Carrol?
Re: DEI "training" of white collar and/or college graduate employees: if anything, Friedersdorf is too kind. My place of work is very left-leaning and we are required to take DEI "classes". They are innocuous but entirely useless. There are no "white people bad" messages, but I'm not seeing how any of this pablum actually helps individuals who are subject to discrimination.
Employers need to show--rather than tell--their commitment to diversity. Recruit from HCBUs/colleges with a large amount of minorities. Fund scholarships in economically depressed areas (e.g. Appalachia) and offer internships to the scholarship winners. Nurture talent from within.
DEI training programs are designed to make HR and senior leadership feel great about doing very little.
Hey Charlie- on you podcast with Ben today can you ask him a question regarding Trump wanting to move his charges from State to Federal court? If he does, does that mean he could then be pardoned for it? Is that his motivation?
Thanks
I would love to read some follow-up reporting on the fate of work requirements in Kentucky. I remember something about work requirements as part of a deal to get [medicaid expansion?] through. What work can you require from the typical Kentucky aid recipient, living in a rural area with few work possibilities? Maybe there's more than I can imagine, but I've never seen any follow-up reporting anywhere on how work requirements go.
I think there are a substantial number of Republicans receiving aid of various sorts. I believe most of them are not in a position to do much work. (Weeding public gardens under a hot sun? Doubt most of them are in physical condition to do this. Working at home on on jobs requiring high speed internet and security - doubt it.) I wonder if Democrats could turn this into an issue for these Republicans. The unemployment rate is so low right now that I have to believe that most people who can work, are working.
Wait, wait ... are you trying to tell me that Donald Trump lied to us?
Thanks, Charlie. I suppose next you'll try to convince us that Santa Claus isn't real. And that Fred Flintstone wasn't a real person either. And that all those mounds of Wisconsin cheese I've been eating over time are making me fat. I can handle those jokes. But don't you dare try to tell me that our greatest President ever (because ... well ... just because) cares more about himself than about making America great again, or that MAGA is some sort of scam operation. That's a bridge too far. Cancel my subscription unless you are prepared to tell me what I want to hear instead of what I need to know.
Sincerely,
A Freedom-Fighting, Liberty-Loving MAGA Patriot in the Greatest Country On Earth
Regarding Pence entering the primary, I think Trump had the 'perfect' word (just, as usual, the wrong spelling, context, and target) when he called someone 'milktoast' recently. What can Pence possibly offer today's Republican primary voter?
Charlie/Mona et al regarding "the normalcy" of border-crossing activity:
I live at the Tx/Mx border- remember all those trips to McAllen TX that Trump made to look at his wall? Yeah, that's where I am- we're 8 miles N.
It has been an exceptionally rainy spring- like lots of thunderstorms once or twice a week. I suspect THAT has kept the border crossers and "caravans" down- not heeding Biden, not being afraid of Fox News reporters, Title 43 or whatever it is...
I have many conversations with Fox viewers from N Tx. They think they're running across the airport like the crowds trying to escape during the overthrows of Afghanistan and Vietnam. No. Actually, those who have been processed by CBP are usually in new clothes furnished by the locals, are carrying small folios with their papers and often traveling with small children. Inevitably, they are the best behaved families in the entire airport.
As I ask those who query about "all them illegals", I ask "do you want to hire someone who's hiked 1000 miles through the jungle with a 4 and 6 year old in tow to escape communism, or some kid who's been kicked out of his mom's basement?"
Hopefully, now that we showed ourselves by passing (soon) the debt ceiling increase, we can get SOME kind of sensical immigration policy passed. You want your kid to spend his life mowing lawns, working in a slaughterhouse, cleaning houses or working in the back of a restaurant? I didn't think so. Also, by my count almost every single state-of-the-art tech company is run by either a first or second gen immigrant.
That is all.
I know this emphatically isn't the position of The Bulwark, but man, I really would like to see Trump win the nomination. Let the GOP own this traitor. I want to see them all squirm for a solid 12 months up to the election.
I realize the ankle-bracelet scenario was for the reaction by his reactionary cretin followers, but...
If the Defendant-In-Chief is convicted of crimes in Georgia state court (along with a cadre of his goons) and in federal court, a felon is a felon, why would he be able to walk around.
This would be a good query for Ben to discuss with Charlie in today's podcast.
Trump has never been punished. Without penalty the behavior will continue. DOJ is too slow. This is all hands on deck stuff, but they are treating it like an SEC violation.