Plain facts. Thank you Jay. It is wildly disturbing to see this kind of paralyzing dysfunction in our government...but even more worrisome that there are Americans who would shrug their shoulders about it. I get that people are busy folding their laundry and getting dinner on the table...but living in a free society is the foundation of everything that is American. Pericles quote: "Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you." ✌️💙
I've seen the democrats start to ramp up messaging, but the media's abdication of their responsibility to report the facts are an ongoing problem. They want to "both-sides" everything, and the reality of the situation is lost. Making everything seem normal is going to be the death of our democracy.
The photo atop your article really says it all: Tweedle-dumb and Tweedle-dee. Honestly, actually feel a bit sorry for The Turtle, he looks like Death warmed over, with vanishing respect from his conference. But, truth be told, the damage he has wreaked upon our country is virtually irreparable in the near term.
As for Tweedle-dumb...the walking, talking embodiment of the Peter Principle.
Though I haven’t discussed “politics” with my conservative pro-Trump friends much (mostly a group of friends formed at our local dog park), having realized that I’d gotten nowhere with them and it was putting stress into the relationships, I really have to wonder what they’re thinking and what sort of “justification” (read “excuses”…) they could be making for voting for Trump again. Assuming they will.
The negatives are more overwhelming than any politician of my lifetime (and as someone who was in high school when Vietnam War protests and “Love It Or Leave It” bumper stickers were everywhere, I’ve been very politically “aware” for 55 years now), but given the dysfunction in the media and the splintering along political lines, we’re not working off the same facts any longer, with at least a quarter of this nation believing they have “alternative facts”.
Other than CLEARLY voting for Biden again this year, I fear there’s little that can be done to “heal” this divide, particularly given that our nation is not alone in the world in terms of the rise of pseudo-populist authoritarian movements and the shift to the extreme right.
There are days when I just don’t know if it’s emotionally healthy to read the news….
I'm not seeing enough of this: "ecological disaster that we largely caused." Or the acknowledgement that much of the political disarray south of the border is caused by American policy, or the fact that Mexico is on the edge of becoming a narco state is OUR fault.
So this sentence was perfect:
"They have railed against them as if they were all drug traffickers, rapists and murderers, rather than families desperate to escape political persecution, gang violence and ecological disaster that we largely caused."
Democratic messaging needs to improve and even get a little tough-lovey on Americans by saying, "Hey, either stop doing drugs, or, if you must do them, legalize them, or this immigration mess will keep getting worse."
Honestly, I'll do everything I can to fight Trump's re-emergence, but if Americans really do make this a close enough election that he can win, I have nothing more to say to my fellow Americans than, "Glad I'm getting old. Because your time's about up."
Everything you are saying is spot on. I am now envisioning Trump rounding up people and having then shot. I envision news outlets shut down and journalists shot. Political opponents shot. Trump going after moderate Republicans. When I was in Berlin a few years ago there were posters everywhere talking about the people who were rounded up and eliminated by Hitler in the months after he took power. No trials. The German people did not imagine Hitler would do such a thing but he did. All the signs were there. Trump is out for revenge and he has built his apparatus of evil crazies. All the cowards will fall in line. Out of fear. Expect Nikki Haley to submit soon. This is real fascist stuff folks. History shows exactly where someone like Trump can take the world.
Thank you Jay for breaking it down so well! We shouldn't blame rump roast for the maga republicans in congress. He's too dumb to know his arse from his face. This is Stephen Miller and all the other rump roast flunkies, including moron muck (elon musk). They want the border fixed, they want yadda yadda and then when you give it to them, "oh...we only want it if we can get credit for it." It was never about governing or making laws. It has only ever been about serving themselves and lining their own pockets because they know they can make money off the base. The base has been happily handing over their money, money they couldn't afford to give because they are mostly retirees, and will continue to send in their pennies for just the remote outside chance those pennies will turn into nickels.
You write that MAGA's malign influence in foreign affairs "...significantly reduces our influence and therefore our options. It is a serious blow to our global standing"
I submit that it already has, and that no small part of Netanyahu's intransigence in the Hamas/Israel war is due to his assessment that he has nothing to fear from the US, which has become a paper tiger.
Thanks for this Jay. I've got my popcorn and am watching the SCOTUS arguments today. Roberts argues that if Trump is constitutionally barred from office, that he may incite unscrupulous Republicans to unlawfully bar Democrats from ballots without cause or evidence as retribution. By that logic, they should not have impeached the criminal while he was in office for fear that GOP extremists might launch an unlawful campaign to impeach the next Democrat president, and failing that, go after his cabinet, without cause or evidence. Like that could ever happen! But even if it did, you shouldn't give in to terrorism. It just encourages it.
There is a very easy way to fix all this—any repub with a brain that is either in the house or senate that is retiring (looking at you, Romney) and doesn’t need to be a repub should become independent or switch parties to kill their slim majority in the house and add to our numbers in the senate. THAT could solve this in a New York minute, I know I’m just a dreamer…however it did happen in 2001 when senator Jim Jeffords from Vermont (RIP) went from repub to indie to block duhbya’s awful agenda.
When are we going to start calling tRump and his House and Senate cronies as what they are: TRAITORS! They care not one fig for the Constitution or the people (unless those people are Magadonians).
They are TRAITORS, the lot of them.
No on will save us except ourselves when we vote in November. And if they win, then God help us.
"Rep. Green, wearing a blue patient gown and sitting in a wheelchair, showed up anyway to support his friend, Secretary Mayorkas, and he cast the decisive no vote on the impeachment"
is one of the best things I've read politcally in a while. Literally nothing says F you to those trying to pass a sham impeachment better than a man who left the hospital just to shut down said sham impeachment.
The rest is just infuriating: The whole idea that our government is being held captive by a man who I feel has no chance of being president again. That almost 4 years later we haven't moved on from the nacassistic man child. Daily I find myself muttering "disgusting" while I read news of how the GOP is acting.
As usual you are on point and are loaded with facts. However this is mostly preaching to the choir here, even though all of this excellent information is great, the Democrats are doing a very poor job of getting this message out to the general public in a way that sinks in (or in any form whatsoever).
I haven’t lost my faith in democracy, but I’ve lost my faith in the ability of a significant portion of the electorate to make informed, intelligent decisions. I’ve lost my faith big time in journalism, which has become so warped. And I’m afraid that Trump’s handlers are even now planning widespread, violent insurrection when he loses in November. I hope law enforcement is paying attention.
The US is no longer a good faith actor on a global scale. We can no longer rely on statements of support, on promises of protection... we cannot trust anything a US president tells us any more, because there is no guarantee that some political grandstanding by a bunch of whiny little muppets with overinflated egos and a misplaced sense of self-importance won't nix everything that has been said, with no regard to what happens to anybody else.
Please stop calling POTUS the "Leader of the Free World" - no matter who they are, the rest of the world did not choose them, did not vote for them, and we can no longer trust them... even though as a person they might have integrity and be worthy of our trust, like Biden, we need to face the sad reality that "the Free World" needs to learn to stand on their own feet... without the US holding our hand... and potentially leading us somewhere we do not want to go...
Plain facts. Thank you Jay. It is wildly disturbing to see this kind of paralyzing dysfunction in our government...but even more worrisome that there are Americans who would shrug their shoulders about it. I get that people are busy folding their laundry and getting dinner on the table...but living in a free society is the foundation of everything that is American. Pericles quote: "Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you." ✌️💙
I've seen the democrats start to ramp up messaging, but the media's abdication of their responsibility to report the facts are an ongoing problem. They want to "both-sides" everything, and the reality of the situation is lost. Making everything seem normal is going to be the death of our democracy.
The photo atop your article really says it all: Tweedle-dumb and Tweedle-dee. Honestly, actually feel a bit sorry for The Turtle, he looks like Death warmed over, with vanishing respect from his conference. But, truth be told, the damage he has wreaked upon our country is virtually irreparable in the near term.
As for Tweedle-dumb...the walking, talking embodiment of the Peter Principle.
My only comment today: thank you Al Green!
Though I haven’t discussed “politics” with my conservative pro-Trump friends much (mostly a group of friends formed at our local dog park), having realized that I’d gotten nowhere with them and it was putting stress into the relationships, I really have to wonder what they’re thinking and what sort of “justification” (read “excuses”…) they could be making for voting for Trump again. Assuming they will.
The negatives are more overwhelming than any politician of my lifetime (and as someone who was in high school when Vietnam War protests and “Love It Or Leave It” bumper stickers were everywhere, I’ve been very politically “aware” for 55 years now), but given the dysfunction in the media and the splintering along political lines, we’re not working off the same facts any longer, with at least a quarter of this nation believing they have “alternative facts”.
Other than CLEARLY voting for Biden again this year, I fear there’s little that can be done to “heal” this divide, particularly given that our nation is not alone in the world in terms of the rise of pseudo-populist authoritarian movements and the shift to the extreme right.
There are days when I just don’t know if it’s emotionally healthy to read the news….
I'm not seeing enough of this: "ecological disaster that we largely caused." Or the acknowledgement that much of the political disarray south of the border is caused by American policy, or the fact that Mexico is on the edge of becoming a narco state is OUR fault.
So this sentence was perfect:
"They have railed against them as if they were all drug traffickers, rapists and murderers, rather than families desperate to escape political persecution, gang violence and ecological disaster that we largely caused."
Democratic messaging needs to improve and even get a little tough-lovey on Americans by saying, "Hey, either stop doing drugs, or, if you must do them, legalize them, or this immigration mess will keep getting worse."
Honestly, I'll do everything I can to fight Trump's re-emergence, but if Americans really do make this a close enough election that he can win, I have nothing more to say to my fellow Americans than, "Glad I'm getting old. Because your time's about up."
Everything you are saying is spot on. I am now envisioning Trump rounding up people and having then shot. I envision news outlets shut down and journalists shot. Political opponents shot. Trump going after moderate Republicans. When I was in Berlin a few years ago there were posters everywhere talking about the people who were rounded up and eliminated by Hitler in the months after he took power. No trials. The German people did not imagine Hitler would do such a thing but he did. All the signs were there. Trump is out for revenge and he has built his apparatus of evil crazies. All the cowards will fall in line. Out of fear. Expect Nikki Haley to submit soon. This is real fascist stuff folks. History shows exactly where someone like Trump can take the world.
Thank you Jay for breaking it down so well! We shouldn't blame rump roast for the maga republicans in congress. He's too dumb to know his arse from his face. This is Stephen Miller and all the other rump roast flunkies, including moron muck (elon musk). They want the border fixed, they want yadda yadda and then when you give it to them, "oh...we only want it if we can get credit for it." It was never about governing or making laws. It has only ever been about serving themselves and lining their own pockets because they know they can make money off the base. The base has been happily handing over their money, money they couldn't afford to give because they are mostly retirees, and will continue to send in their pennies for just the remote outside chance those pennies will turn into nickels.
You write that MAGA's malign influence in foreign affairs "...significantly reduces our influence and therefore our options. It is a serious blow to our global standing"
I submit that it already has, and that no small part of Netanyahu's intransigence in the Hamas/Israel war is due to his assessment that he has nothing to fear from the US, which has become a paper tiger.
Thanks for this Jay. I've got my popcorn and am watching the SCOTUS arguments today. Roberts argues that if Trump is constitutionally barred from office, that he may incite unscrupulous Republicans to unlawfully bar Democrats from ballots without cause or evidence as retribution. By that logic, they should not have impeached the criminal while he was in office for fear that GOP extremists might launch an unlawful campaign to impeach the next Democrat president, and failing that, go after his cabinet, without cause or evidence. Like that could ever happen! But even if it did, you shouldn't give in to terrorism. It just encourages it.
There is a very easy way to fix all this—any repub with a brain that is either in the house or senate that is retiring (looking at you, Romney) and doesn’t need to be a repub should become independent or switch parties to kill their slim majority in the house and add to our numbers in the senate. THAT could solve this in a New York minute, I know I’m just a dreamer…however it did happen in 2001 when senator Jim Jeffords from Vermont (RIP) went from repub to indie to block duhbya’s awful agenda.
When are we going to start calling tRump and his House and Senate cronies as what they are: TRAITORS! They care not one fig for the Constitution or the people (unless those people are Magadonians).
They are TRAITORS, the lot of them.
No on will save us except ourselves when we vote in November. And if they win, then God help us.
Can I just say that this:
"Rep. Green, wearing a blue patient gown and sitting in a wheelchair, showed up anyway to support his friend, Secretary Mayorkas, and he cast the decisive no vote on the impeachment"
is one of the best things I've read politcally in a while. Literally nothing says F you to those trying to pass a sham impeachment better than a man who left the hospital just to shut down said sham impeachment.
The rest is just infuriating: The whole idea that our government is being held captive by a man who I feel has no chance of being president again. That almost 4 years later we haven't moved on from the nacassistic man child. Daily I find myself muttering "disgusting" while I read news of how the GOP is acting.
As usual you are on point and are loaded with facts. However this is mostly preaching to the choir here, even though all of this excellent information is great, the Democrats are doing a very poor job of getting this message out to the general public in a way that sinks in (or in any form whatsoever).
We need much more people to recognize this con.
I haven’t lost my faith in democracy, but I’ve lost my faith in the ability of a significant portion of the electorate to make informed, intelligent decisions. I’ve lost my faith big time in journalism, which has become so warped. And I’m afraid that Trump’s handlers are even now planning widespread, violent insurrection when he loses in November. I hope law enforcement is paying attention.
The US is no longer a good faith actor on a global scale. We can no longer rely on statements of support, on promises of protection... we cannot trust anything a US president tells us any more, because there is no guarantee that some political grandstanding by a bunch of whiny little muppets with overinflated egos and a misplaced sense of self-importance won't nix everything that has been said, with no regard to what happens to anybody else.
Please stop calling POTUS the "Leader of the Free World" - no matter who they are, the rest of the world did not choose them, did not vote for them, and we can no longer trust them... even though as a person they might have integrity and be worthy of our trust, like Biden, we need to face the sad reality that "the Free World" needs to learn to stand on their own feet... without the US holding our hand... and potentially leading us somewhere we do not want to go...