Please stop saying things like "MAGA Trumpism". It is Republican policies under a Republican president, Republican administration, Republican Congress, and Republican SCOTUS. MAGA never appears on a ballot, but Republican does. Republicans need to be held accountable for what they allow the Republican president to do. Voters need reminding every day who bears responsibility so they can vote accordingly.
I understand the sentiment, but I want to be precise here. There are still non-MAGA aligned Republicans whom we will count on to help defeat some of the worst nominees and policies that the MAGA GOP want to foist upon the country. We need to try and find allies within the Republican Party who are willing to vote against Trumpism. That is why I make the distinction. I feel it is an important one.
I am a slightly reconstructed Eisenhower Republican- hence a Democrat now. I treat MAGA as a reactionary movement on the far right flank of the American polity. They are what my very Republican father referred to as right wing nut jobs. We need a true Conservative Party in this country to shove MAGA off into the pig sty where they belong.
I’ve heard some of my most progressive friends argue that today’s Democratic Party is as far right as the more centrist Republicans of yesteryear. Perhaps Democrats are closer to the true Conservative Party in this country now?
You may be right. The Republican Party of yesteryear could accommodate both Barry Goldwater (too conservative for my tastes) and John Lindsey - (too liberal). But, I have drifted somewhat left from being horrified by what the Head MAGAt is proposing.
I agree, Jay, we need to communicate differences and give credit, if any, where due.
Hang MAGA and the irate nicknames (my preferred is "feral bores") around the neck of any legislator who votes for a Trump nominee or P2025 legislation and any appointee trying to sell or enact that agenda. Watch your electeds, keep the score, and let them know, frequently.
Reserve the elephant symbol, the term "Grand Old Party" and the name "Republican" for Cheney, Kinzinger, and any honorable person who allies with them. (Maybe only Murkowski, but still...)
If you are referring to swine, it is a boar, but I like your use of "bore" as in full bore pedal to the metal boring! Or the other Boor, which they certainly are.
These so called true nonMAGA Republicans sure didn’t see the light at the ballot box. They voted for King T right along with the MAGAs who stole their party from them. Maybe they will start to figure out they were hoodwinked by the lying stealing psychopath when they get dumped along with whoever gets fired next.
I think the "price of eggs" had a lot to do with that. What I call "legacy Republicans" from a Republican-forever family often have a lot of trouble "crossing the line" with an actual vote. But when the falsity of the inflation promises shows up at the grocery store, they may at the least turn Independent and furious.
It is too late for those Republicans. They have proven themselves spineless and only interested in themselves and their own "power". The few who managed to retain their gonads have been rejected by their party, and pushed out of the way in the rush to kiss ass. Fortunately it is unlikely those he has threatened will ever be prosecuted because the last thing MAGAts need is a series of public trials through which all their lies will be documented.
Please distinguish between Republican elected folks and Republican Voters. The former are slaves to the MAGATS of their district. The others may have second thoughts if not completely under the spell of the con man.
I did make that distinction in another comment but it is a difficult one to make when they virtually all sat on their hands and allowed their party to be taken over.
As did my lifelong Republican, retired military husband. He voted for an independent candidate in 2016 (even though I tried to dissuade him - he said he couldn’t vote for Clinton) - then he voted for Biden in 2020. This year, he voted for Harris and all blue down ballot! He’s seen the light and I’m grateful for that as I’m not sure if our 36 year marriage, as strong as it’s always been and as much as I love him, would have survived, if he was MAGA.
While it's true that not all Republicans are rabid MAGA-hats, I do have to ask the question: where were they when they had a chance to impeach him? Twice? They had that power! Where were they, when they confirmed his SCOTUS picks - particularly Kavanaugh? To me, "not all Republicans are MAGA" is a little bit like "not all men". Yeah, I know, but I don't have any reason to trust any of them. Well, except Cheney and Kinzinger maybe...
I use MAGACult and Evilangelicals. Having been raised in a white supremacist’s home (my mother & stepfather) and an End Times religious cult based on corporal punishment of children, ‘rationalized’ pedophilia, hatred, fear, racism & very deep misogyny, I choose those two words to describe anyone who chooses to belong to either or both groups. My military training taught me quite a few more colorful phrases to use but I’ll stick with those two as they are crisp and to the point.
I have stopped calling the GOP Republicans because they kicked out virtually all of the traditional Republicans and the TV Personality who brands everything with his name invited in the anti-government militias, White Supremacist Hate/Domestic Terrorism groups, and "Christian Nationalists" of the former "Moral Majority" - ALL of which intend to end the U.S. Constitution and destroy the institutions of government and civil society.
They intend to rule rather than represent. Their plan is a racist and misogynistic patriarchal theocracy. Project 2025 was decades in the making, and it is already being implemented at state and federal levels. On Inauguration Day, the creators will have a stack of Executive Orders (EOs) on the Resolute Desk for djt to sign, taking away rights and freedoms of hundreds of millions of Americans.
But you are correct.
They ARE doing all of this under the GOP label.
We have to treat them as such.
So instead of focusing on names or labels,
let's look to our values,
and decide what future we intend to write.
We don't have to surrender to Trump's attacks on our nation and humanity.
An item you didn’t cover is his threats against my city, Aurora, Colorado. The majority of the known gang members have been arrested. The ONE building it is alleged that they took over has been shut down by the city. Republicans Mayor Mike Coffman has said repeatedly that there is no problem. Tangerine Palpatine needs to stay the fuck away from us.
Yes, there were many, many other parts of that interview where he spewed racist falsehoods, including about migrant crime in Aurora and other places. Fact checking the entirety of his interview would have taken a whole separate piece!
Isn’t it also worth noting that the corporate media complained incessantly about the lack of interviews with VP Harris, and then “allowed” tffg a fairly long stretch of time before sitting for for the “interview” on MTP? In addition, I think a piece countering his lies (shocking, I know) SHOULD be done — if nothing more than a starting point of Lies 2.0. Let’s see if he can surpass 30K+ he told in 1.0 days. Bets?
It’s “funny” (rhetorically speaking) that Trump gets 49 percent of the vote and “wins,” while the abortion rights referendum in Florida gets 57 percent and “loses.”
It’s also “funny” that he thinks he’s totally immune from prosecution for any official acts but Congress isn’t, when their immunity is explicitly spelled out and his isn’t. But I guess that’s how it works in the dictatorships he explicitly prefers to this country, which he openly despises.
Also, when are these people going to stop saying “Economists of all stripes say …” and just treat it as a fact? At the very least, when he says “I don’t believe it,” ask “What exactly in your career as a money launderer and game show host makes you think you’re right and literally everyone else is wrong?”
Thank you for giving me the excuse I needed to point out (I never get tired of this) that among the businesses Donald Trump has run into bankruptcy are businesses involving casino gambling, football and steak. These are things that genius business deal master Donald Trump could not sell to Americans.
Personally I'm relatively sure the Russians were money-laundering through his casinos, then after they went bankrupt, switched to real estate with him.
This is a good point, and among those, it takes a whole new level of stupid to bankrupt casinos. It's literally a business where people give you money and get nothing back. Sure, people may win some and lose some, but over the long term, the house always wins.
Thanks for wading through the muck of Trump's thinking(?) and laying out the probabilities and possibilities of what he can and cannot do. I can't stand the sight or the sound of him anymore, so I appreciate your willingness to take it on, and your expertise in evaluating the situation.
I don't know how you do it. You must have a very strong stomach! I've been saying for years now that I'd pay good money for a news broadcast that promised never to show his face or play his voice. We're fortunate to have you instead.
I agree whole heartedly! I canNOT listen to or watch him !! A BIG thank you as well to you, Jay Kuo for all that you do....and knowing your sweet daughter helps cleanse your mind and helps you remember that life is GOOD and GREAT and that...we will fight on.
I refuse to listen to or look at the person who has taken “The United” out of the acronym, “POTUS,” so I truly appreciate your sacrifice, Jay. I just hope our appreciation and supportive comments are enough to keep you from losing your mind.
I didn’t see the interview, since I can’t stand the sight of sound of him (thank you for the excellent overview) but did he sound coherent? IS he in serious cognitive decline? .
I've been saying #2 since 1/6/21. I've been saying #3 for well over a year. As for #1, I said that when I saw the news at 6 PM on June 16, 2015. Sigh...
Preemptive pardons are a dicey thing and often suggest to the other side that there really was something illegal going on. I have mixed feelings about them.
Perhaps we could have a national fundraiser to specifically pay for the defense of those who will be persecuted (prosecuted?) by DJT. They would win in the courts, but the time and MONEY they would have to spend will be horrendous. We owe them that much. Fauci, Vindman and others don't have that kind of wealth.
See my comment if you can find it. If a few of the wealthy publicly REFUSED a pardon for the reason that they DO have the money to fight, and plan to, we could also get behind THEM and Bondi at least would know there is a serious threat of people out there who could proceed with wrongful prosecution claims.
Yeah, and his stupid ass "drill baby drill" would cause global oil prices to plummet. There is already an oversupply compared to demand, drilling for more would just make it worse.
So, why is it a good idea to deport criminals that are already imprisoned? We have no assurance the receiving country would keep them in prison, and therefore, they can, and likely would, just sneak back into the US. It seems safer to keep them where we know they are under our control. If their term is up, yeah sure, deport them, (which we already do). No one ever pushes back on this, so am I wrong?
Sounds good, but there are a few mistakes here. First, not everybody who is imprisoned is convicted, but it is far too common (already) that somebody is exonerated or released without charges (think, spending a night in jail after being drunk), and then deported anyway. Or even somebody who is merely a witness to a crime.
Second, those who are actually convicted first serve their sentence in the US, and *then* are deported. That, too, is already happening. For an example of the second, think of Anna Sorokin (she is currently fighting deportation, but it is a losing battle).
My thought, posted elsewhere on this link, is that they are easy to find, thus low hanging fruit; trump will make a big deal of "woke" states that resist; he will then claim he has rid the country of "illegal aliens" and do a victory dance. And then call it quits.
Exactly. They are and will continue to happily carry his water. I am under no illusion they will do the correct thing and call the BS out when it all starts to go sideways. And will someone please tell Clyburn to STFU!?
I think that is more likely. No offense to Jay, whose writing I love, but we need to stop ascribing his insane words and actions to some kind of strategy instead of incompetence/dementia/stupidity. It lets him off the hook and perpetuates this idea that he's playing 4D chess.
Historically, that wouldn't be uncommon. And one could even make a case that the very existence of Canada is a historical accident.
Of course, that would make trying to annex Canada akin to annexing Austria or annexing Kuwait. Not going to work, and in the long run it would cement the US and Canada being separate countries even more than it is today.
Tariffs will again take two bites out of American pockets because: (1) the American importer has to pay more to the embargoed exporter and (2) the exporting country will introduce counter tariffs on US exports, causing the scale of our exports to decline sharply, leading to layoffs and higher prices.
Just look up GWB's steel tariffs on Europe. Europe retaliated by imposing tariffs on Florida oranges. Florida orange growers were a Republican stronghold.
I expect that our institutions will hold the line, even when the political appointees don't. But expecting the mainstream myto hold Trump to the same standards they applied to Biden and the Democrats is more than they are interested in or capable of doing.
David Pepper has proposed an excellent strategy for interviewing compulsive, serial liars like Trump. As soon as he lies, be prepared to refute that lie. Under no circumstances just let him lie, then move on to the next question. Keep hammering away and expose the lie by presenting facts, video, etc., and force him to back down. Don't let him change the subject or veer off onto another topic. Interrupt him, cut his mic, do whatever is necessary to keep the pressure on and expose his lie. If necessary, explain that he will not be given a platform to lie, and end the interview.
Too many gullible, low information voters believe the rancid lies he spews, enabled by cringing, submissive media hairdos. They also believe he never committed any crimes because Garland's DOJ refused to investigate or prosecute him until the J6 Committee forced his hand. But by then it was too late. So he got away with everything. Informed voters know he's guilty and are enraged that he faced no accountability. Uninformed voters think he must be innocent, or he would have faced charges.
Jay, this is a joke, right? “The left should demand that the same media that ran endless stories about inflation during the Biden era, even long after it had come down to normal levels, must hold Trump to account for failures in economic stewardship”
The same media…owned by the same billionaires ain’t gonna do shit.
Maybe we the people should own them and maybe there should be a cap to prevent people becoming multi billionares and that it's mandatory when they reach a cut off that it goes to categories of need in the nation such as climate and protection of the earth,universal health care for all civil rights protections the military the homelessness, food pantries improved food quality etc and they do not have a choice or any control of where it goes. there is mandatory committees that oversee category and committees that over see them plus the communities are involved directly.
and Maybe I'm fantasizing again but this endless money making for jjst the select few and then they pass on that enormous wealth and opportunity to their closed off few and tye byproduct is us and sapping off of our quality of life in every way.
Also there should be laws that no single private person shoukd own a television network or social platform it shoukd have mandatory multiple participation of owners that are largely connected to the community and there is accountability
Maybe my ideas are old ideas and I don't realize it
sand I'm sure there are holes in these ideas so big you could drive station wagon through it with Chevy chase at the wheel
You can't blame the media here; they reported inflation accurately and fairly. The problem was squarely with the messaging from the Democrats. Inflation at normal levels doesn't make egg prices go down. It just keeps the high prices from going even higher. What people wanted was for grocery and gas prices to go down to normal (i.e., pre-pandemic) levels.
It really needed to be more publicly known that the Rs shut down the price gouging bill. I tried to mention it anytime someone complained about inflation priced. But literally nobody seemed to care. It was still all Biden's fault....and no recognition that COVID started it all
Yes, the reasons for inflation were at least partially outside Biden's control. I'm talking about the messaging, not the issue itself.
And it's only partially outside Biden's control. Gas prices were the driver behind a large part of inflation. I think there is price gouging involved, we have to recognize that restricting drilling is a factor, too.
Dealing with climate change is important, but nobody explained to voters that higher gas prices is how we are paying for that.
Thanks for updating me. You are technically right, but it turns out to be more complicated. Oil production was exceptionally high in 2019/2020, and again in 2023/2024, but it was dramatically lower (at one point down almost 30%!) in the years in between.
You are correct and I tried to edit (without success) to point out that is dramatically more complicated than just more. Thank you for filling in some of the blanks.
Yes, Democrats need to improve their messaging and may I please suggest they do so by providing the public with basic education when talking about specific issues? Apparently not everyone took Civics classes or if they did, they spent the time passing notes and gossiping rather than paying attention. We need to find a way to better educate voters on the basics - how our local, state and federal government works, what's in the Constitution and WHY, e.g. WHY exactly we revolted against a king, because apparently most voters simply don't know or don't remember. Giving the voters slogans and general statements about issues isn't working. We need to better explain the basics, exactly what our principles are based on.
Mel, one of the reasons for hi stakes testing ala’ race to the bottom & no child left behind was to gut the k-12 curriculum so there’d be no room for civics.
That's all too apparent, which is why we need to fill in the blanks. We can't campaign the way we used to because the voters aren't what they used to be. We have to find a way to bridge that gap.
Please stop saying things like "MAGA Trumpism". It is Republican policies under a Republican president, Republican administration, Republican Congress, and Republican SCOTUS. MAGA never appears on a ballot, but Republican does. Republicans need to be held accountable for what they allow the Republican president to do. Voters need reminding every day who bears responsibility so they can vote accordingly.
I understand the sentiment, but I want to be precise here. There are still non-MAGA aligned Republicans whom we will count on to help defeat some of the worst nominees and policies that the MAGA GOP want to foist upon the country. We need to try and find allies within the Republican Party who are willing to vote against Trumpism. That is why I make the distinction. I feel it is an important one.
I am a slightly reconstructed Eisenhower Republican- hence a Democrat now. I treat MAGA as a reactionary movement on the far right flank of the American polity. They are what my very Republican father referred to as right wing nut jobs. We need a true Conservative Party in this country to shove MAGA off into the pig sty where they belong.
I’ve heard some of my most progressive friends argue that today’s Democratic Party is as far right as the more centrist Republicans of yesteryear. Perhaps Democrats are closer to the true Conservative Party in this country now?
You may be right. The Republican Party of yesteryear could accommodate both Barry Goldwater (too conservative for my tastes) and John Lindsey - (too liberal). But, I have drifted somewhat left from being horrified by what the Head MAGAt is proposing.
I agree, Jay, we need to communicate differences and give credit, if any, where due.
Hang MAGA and the irate nicknames (my preferred is "feral bores") around the neck of any legislator who votes for a Trump nominee or P2025 legislation and any appointee trying to sell or enact that agenda. Watch your electeds, keep the score, and let them know, frequently.
Here's a feral bore: https://wild-wonderings.blogspot.com/2017/12/wild-pigs-and-mast-crops.html
Reserve the elephant symbol, the term "Grand Old Party" and the name "Republican" for Cheney, Kinzinger, and any honorable person who allies with them. (Maybe only Murkowski, but still...)
If you are referring to swine, it is a boar, but I like your use of "bore" as in full bore pedal to the metal boring! Or the other Boor, which they certainly are.
These so called true nonMAGA Republicans sure didn’t see the light at the ballot box. They voted for King T right along with the MAGAs who stole their party from them. Maybe they will start to figure out they were hoodwinked by the lying stealing psychopath when they get dumped along with whoever gets fired next.
I think the "price of eggs" had a lot to do with that. What I call "legacy Republicans" from a Republican-forever family often have a lot of trouble "crossing the line" with an actual vote. But when the falsity of the inflation promises shows up at the grocery store, they may at the least turn Independent and furious.
It is too late for those Republicans. They have proven themselves spineless and only interested in themselves and their own "power". The few who managed to retain their gonads have been rejected by their party, and pushed out of the way in the rush to kiss ass. Fortunately it is unlikely those he has threatened will ever be prosecuted because the last thing MAGAts need is a series of public trials through which all their lies will be documented.
Please distinguish between Republican elected folks and Republican Voters. The former are slaves to the MAGATS of their district. The others may have second thoughts if not completely under the spell of the con man.
I did make that distinction in another comment but it is a difficult one to make when they virtually all sat on their hands and allowed their party to be taken over.
some states have no opposition, the GOP is so entrenched Democrats don't bother running
that is a shame. The DNC should help finance campaigns. How else is a different word going to get out?
I agree with you Jay
One of my work colleagues is a Republican who voted Democrat all the way. So, yup, there are non-MAGA aligned Republicans, I am pleased to say.
In the electorate possibly, but not among the elected, and even if there are, they have been intimidated into silence.
As did my lifelong Republican, retired military husband. He voted for an independent candidate in 2016 (even though I tried to dissuade him - he said he couldn’t vote for Clinton) - then he voted for Biden in 2020. This year, he voted for Harris and all blue down ballot! He’s seen the light and I’m grateful for that as I’m not sure if our 36 year marriage, as strong as it’s always been and as much as I love him, would have survived, if he was MAGA.
While it's true that not all Republicans are rabid MAGA-hats, I do have to ask the question: where were they when they had a chance to impeach him? Twice? They had that power! Where were they, when they confirmed his SCOTUS picks - particularly Kavanaugh? To me, "not all Republicans are MAGA" is a little bit like "not all men". Yeah, I know, but I don't have any reason to trust any of them. Well, except Cheney and Kinzinger maybe...
Perhaps it’s time they organized themselves to be more helpful to all of us ~ Democrats & NON/MAGA
Important point!
I use MAGA as a slur to describe all Republicans. It bugs them and I plan to keep doing it.
I use MAGACult and Evilangelicals. Having been raised in a white supremacist’s home (my mother & stepfather) and an End Times religious cult based on corporal punishment of children, ‘rationalized’ pedophilia, hatred, fear, racism & very deep misogyny, I choose those two words to describe anyone who chooses to belong to either or both groups. My military training taught me quite a few more colorful phrases to use but I’ll stick with those two as they are crisp and to the point.
I add a T. Juvenile perhaps, but accurate.
They are all Bird's of the Same Feather!
I appreciate this admonition.
I have stopped calling the GOP Republicans because they kicked out virtually all of the traditional Republicans and the TV Personality who brands everything with his name invited in the anti-government militias, White Supremacist Hate/Domestic Terrorism groups, and "Christian Nationalists" of the former "Moral Majority" - ALL of which intend to end the U.S. Constitution and destroy the institutions of government and civil society.
They intend to rule rather than represent. Their plan is a racist and misogynistic patriarchal theocracy. Project 2025 was decades in the making, and it is already being implemented at state and federal levels. On Inauguration Day, the creators will have a stack of Executive Orders (EOs) on the Resolute Desk for djt to sign, taking away rights and freedoms of hundreds of millions of Americans.
But you are correct.
They ARE doing all of this under the GOP label.
We have to treat them as such.
So instead of focusing on names or labels,
let's look to our values,
and decide what future we intend to write.
We don't have to surrender to Trump's attacks on our nation and humanity.
Excellent clear and exactly right on!
👍
Good point
👍
An item you didn’t cover is his threats against my city, Aurora, Colorado. The majority of the known gang members have been arrested. The ONE building it is alleged that they took over has been shut down by the city. Republicans Mayor Mike Coffman has said repeatedly that there is no problem. Tangerine Palpatine needs to stay the fuck away from us.
Yes, there were many, many other parts of that interview where he spewed racist falsehoods, including about migrant crime in Aurora and other places. Fact checking the entirety of his interview would have taken a whole separate piece!
Isn’t it also worth noting that the corporate media complained incessantly about the lack of interviews with VP Harris, and then “allowed” tffg a fairly long stretch of time before sitting for for the “interview” on MTP? In addition, I think a piece countering his lies (shocking, I know) SHOULD be done — if nothing more than a starting point of Lies 2.0. Let’s see if he can surpass 30K+ he told in 1.0 days. Bets?
Tell it, girl!
It’s “funny” (rhetorically speaking) that Trump gets 49 percent of the vote and “wins,” while the abortion rights referendum in Florida gets 57 percent and “loses.”
It’s also “funny” that he thinks he’s totally immune from prosecution for any official acts but Congress isn’t, when their immunity is explicitly spelled out and his isn’t. But I guess that’s how it works in the dictatorships he explicitly prefers to this country, which he openly despises.
Also, when are these people going to stop saying “Economists of all stripes say …” and just treat it as a fact? At the very least, when he says “I don’t believe it,” ask “What exactly in your career as a money launderer and game show host makes you think you’re right and literally everyone else is wrong?”
Not to mention however many times he filed for bankruptcy.
Thank you for giving me the excuse I needed to point out (I never get tired of this) that among the businesses Donald Trump has run into bankruptcy are businesses involving casino gambling, football and steak. These are things that genius business deal master Donald Trump could not sell to Americans.
Personally I'm relatively sure the Russians were money-laundering through his casinos, then after they went bankrupt, switched to real estate with him.
This is a good point, and among those, it takes a whole new level of stupid to bankrupt casinos. It's literally a business where people give you money and get nothing back. Sure, people may win some and lose some, but over the long term, the house always wins.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Don't hold Your Breath waiting for any member of the MSM to ask your last question!
Thanks for wading through the muck of Trump's thinking(?) and laying out the probabilities and possibilities of what he can and cannot do. I can't stand the sight or the sound of him anymore, so I appreciate your willingness to take it on, and your expertise in evaluating the situation.
I sadly have to listen to him all day.
Lord, Jay! How on earth are you still amongst the sane?!
I'm sure Riley is the perfect antidote.
So true!!! :-)
Jay, I am so sorry for your pain. I can't stand the sound of his voice, nor seeing his face.
I don't know how you do it. You must have a very strong stomach! I've been saying for years now that I'd pay good money for a news broadcast that promised never to show his face or play his voice. We're fortunate to have you instead.
How do you do it!!??
I agree whole heartedly! I canNOT listen to or watch him !! A BIG thank you as well to you, Jay Kuo for all that you do....and knowing your sweet daughter helps cleanse your mind and helps you remember that life is GOOD and GREAT and that...we will fight on.
I refuse to listen to or look at the person who has taken “The United” out of the acronym, “POTUS,” so I truly appreciate your sacrifice, Jay. I just hope our appreciation and supportive comments are enough to keep you from losing your mind.
Truly agree & am grateful clarity is one of your gifts to all of us Jay Kuo.
1. Trump is not a serious person.
2. His motivation in running for President was to escape accountability for his many crimes.
3. Trump is in serious cognitive decline.
The collective media needs to refrain from presenting him as “normal” in any sense of the word.
I think this will become harder now that he is the president elect and soon to be the president.
They are already normalizing him without any sense of shame.
I didn’t see the interview, since I can’t stand the sight of sound of him (thank you for the excellent overview) but did he sound coherent? IS he in serious cognitive decline? .
Your lips to God's ear.
I think you are right.
I enjoy your columns & frequently share them with friends. You lifted me out of a deep funk, today. Thank you.
As I posted above (below?), why has his cognitive decline stopped being a part of the narrative??
I've been saying #2 since 1/6/21. I've been saying #3 for well over a year. As for #1, I said that when I saw the news at 6 PM on June 16, 2015. Sigh...
Trump would wipeout skiing, just like he will wipeout as a fascist dictator. Public servants will protect our democracy from him and his bootlickers. Biden should pardon Fauci, who is a hero for civil service: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/anthony-fauci-is-the-greatest-public
Preemptive pardons are a dicey thing and often suggest to the other side that there really was something illegal going on. I have mixed feelings about them.
Perhaps we could have a national fundraiser to specifically pay for the defense of those who will be persecuted (prosecuted?) by DJT. They would win in the courts, but the time and MONEY they would have to spend will be horrendous. We owe them that much. Fauci, Vindman and others don't have that kind of wealth.
See my comment if you can find it. If a few of the wealthy publicly REFUSED a pardon for the reason that they DO have the money to fight, and plan to, we could also get behind THEM and Bondi at least would know there is a serious threat of people out there who could proceed with wrongful prosecution claims.
Totally agree. Perhaps the millionaire Supreme Court justices could kick in a few million each.
Yes! Among the stars of our Democracy in Action from the earliest days & on thru 2020, ‘21, ‘22
He also does not seem to understand that a great deal of domestic oil is exported because our refineries can't refine it.
Wondering what, exactly DOES he understand, in relation to running a country?
Not much!
Yeah, and his stupid ass "drill baby drill" would cause global oil prices to plummet. There is already an oversupply compared to demand, drilling for more would just make it worse.
So, why is it a good idea to deport criminals that are already imprisoned? We have no assurance the receiving country would keep them in prison, and therefore, they can, and likely would, just sneak back into the US. It seems safer to keep them where we know they are under our control. If their term is up, yeah sure, deport them, (which we already do). No one ever pushes back on this, so am I wrong?
Gee, that's too logical and Republicans are completely unable to grasp that. If it doesn't fit their ideology, it's wrong or lies.
Sounds good, but there are a few mistakes here. First, not everybody who is imprisoned is convicted, but it is far too common (already) that somebody is exonerated or released without charges (think, spending a night in jail after being drunk), and then deported anyway. Or even somebody who is merely a witness to a crime.
Second, those who are actually convicted first serve their sentence in the US, and *then* are deported. That, too, is already happening. For an example of the second, think of Anna Sorokin (she is currently fighting deportation, but it is a losing battle).
My thought, posted elsewhere on this link, is that they are easy to find, thus low hanging fruit; trump will make a big deal of "woke" states that resist; he will then claim he has rid the country of "illegal aliens" and do a victory dance. And then call it quits.
Yes, pin all the tails on the orange ass! And shut him in the barn!
Exactly. They are and will continue to happily carry his water. I am under no illusion they will do the correct thing and call the BS out when it all starts to go sideways. And will someone please tell Clyburn to STFU!?
So Trump thinks two sovereign nations, Canada and Mexico, should become states. Dude needs a complete and public cognitive evaluation now.
This is one of those moments where he’s just talking in order to own the libs and throw read meat to his base.
Or, his brain is melting down.
I think that is more likely. No offense to Jay, whose writing I love, but we need to stop ascribing his insane words and actions to some kind of strategy instead of incompetence/dementia/stupidity. It lets him off the hook and perpetuates this idea that he's playing 4D chess.
He's just out of his goddamn mind, and it shows.
Biden should use his new immunity powers to force Trump into this cognitive evaluation, even if all that happens is a release of the results.
Historically, that wouldn't be uncommon. And one could even make a case that the very existence of Canada is a historical accident.
Of course, that would make trying to annex Canada akin to annexing Austria or annexing Kuwait. Not going to work, and in the long run it would cement the US and Canada being separate countries even more than it is today.
Didn't he "think" at one point that he could buy Greenland, or something? I can't keep track .....
Thank you for watching the interview and reporting— so I didn’t have to sit through it. Appreciate your analysis always.
Tariffs will again take two bites out of American pockets because: (1) the American importer has to pay more to the embargoed exporter and (2) the exporting country will introduce counter tariffs on US exports, causing the scale of our exports to decline sharply, leading to layoffs and higher prices.
Just look up GWB's steel tariffs on Europe. Europe retaliated by imposing tariffs on Florida oranges. Florida orange growers were a Republican stronghold.
GWB caved within three weeks, IIRC.
Kevin A perfect example. Thanks
I expect that our institutions will hold the line, even when the political appointees don't. But expecting the mainstream myto hold Trump to the same standards they applied to Biden and the Democrats is more than they are interested in or capable of doing.
👏👏
https://open.substack.com/pub/davidpepper/p/platforming-disinformation?r=cw5f&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
David Pepper has proposed an excellent strategy for interviewing compulsive, serial liars like Trump. As soon as he lies, be prepared to refute that lie. Under no circumstances just let him lie, then move on to the next question. Keep hammering away and expose the lie by presenting facts, video, etc., and force him to back down. Don't let him change the subject or veer off onto another topic. Interrupt him, cut his mic, do whatever is necessary to keep the pressure on and expose his lie. If necessary, explain that he will not be given a platform to lie, and end the interview.
Too many gullible, low information voters believe the rancid lies he spews, enabled by cringing, submissive media hairdos. They also believe he never committed any crimes because Garland's DOJ refused to investigate or prosecute him until the J6 Committee forced his hand. But by then it was too late. So he got away with everything. Informed voters know he's guilty and are enraged that he faced no accountability. Uninformed voters think he must be innocent, or he would have faced charges.
Jay, this is a joke, right? “The left should demand that the same media that ran endless stories about inflation during the Biden era, even long after it had come down to normal levels, must hold Trump to account for failures in economic stewardship”
The same media…owned by the same billionaires ain’t gonna do shit.
I am not someone who will be resigned to the idea that the media should not be called out, no matter who owns them.
Call them out YES! For sure. Loudly. But expecting them to change? Pipe dream. Not until they get new owners.
Maybe we the people should own them and maybe there should be a cap to prevent people becoming multi billionares and that it's mandatory when they reach a cut off that it goes to categories of need in the nation such as climate and protection of the earth,universal health care for all civil rights protections the military the homelessness, food pantries improved food quality etc and they do not have a choice or any control of where it goes. there is mandatory committees that oversee category and committees that over see them plus the communities are involved directly.
and Maybe I'm fantasizing again but this endless money making for jjst the select few and then they pass on that enormous wealth and opportunity to their closed off few and tye byproduct is us and sapping off of our quality of life in every way.
Also there should be laws that no single private person shoukd own a television network or social platform it shoukd have mandatory multiple participation of owners that are largely connected to the community and there is accountability
Maybe my ideas are old ideas and I don't realize it
sand I'm sure there are holes in these ideas so big you could drive station wagon through it with Chevy chase at the wheel
But they are ideas nonetheless!
You can't blame the media here; they reported inflation accurately and fairly. The problem was squarely with the messaging from the Democrats. Inflation at normal levels doesn't make egg prices go down. It just keeps the high prices from going even higher. What people wanted was for grocery and gas prices to go down to normal (i.e., pre-pandemic) levels.
Which would have meant passing the Bill to penalize Price Gouging Corporations aimed at food, gas and rent specifically. The Republicans blocked it.
It really needed to be more publicly known that the Rs shut down the price gouging bill. I tried to mention it anytime someone complained about inflation priced. But literally nobody seemed to care. It was still all Biden's fault....and no recognition that COVID started it all
And do people know what gouging is? (Sorry -cynical in my old age!)
Yes, the reasons for inflation were at least partially outside Biden's control. I'm talking about the messaging, not the issue itself.
And it's only partially outside Biden's control. Gas prices were the driver behind a large part of inflation. I think there is price gouging involved, we have to recognize that restricting drilling is a factor, too.
Dealing with climate change is important, but nobody explained to voters that higher gas prices is how we are paying for that.
We're producing more oil now than when Biden took office. So there's that.
Thanks for updating me. You are technically right, but it turns out to be more complicated. Oil production was exceptionally high in 2019/2020, and again in 2023/2024, but it was dramatically lower (at one point down almost 30%!) in the years in between.
You are correct and I tried to edit (without success) to point out that is dramatically more complicated than just more. Thank you for filling in some of the blanks.
I totally missed that bill myself! Please tell me more, or send a link.
Yes, Democrats need to improve their messaging and may I please suggest they do so by providing the public with basic education when talking about specific issues? Apparently not everyone took Civics classes or if they did, they spent the time passing notes and gossiping rather than paying attention. We need to find a way to better educate voters on the basics - how our local, state and federal government works, what's in the Constitution and WHY, e.g. WHY exactly we revolted against a king, because apparently most voters simply don't know or don't remember. Giving the voters slogans and general statements about issues isn't working. We need to better explain the basics, exactly what our principles are based on.
Mel, one of the reasons for hi stakes testing ala’ race to the bottom & no child left behind was to gut the k-12 curriculum so there’d be no room for civics.
That's all too apparent, which is why we need to fill in the blanks. We can't campaign the way we used to because the voters aren't what they used to be. We have to find a way to bridge that gap.