"...progressive challenger Nithya Raman, who had been in third place in the early stages of the counting process, gradually caught up to and passed conservative candidate..."
My god, have these people never seen a track event where one of the runners begins to outpace another and pulls ahead? Of course they have, but that doesn't fit the narrative does it? Hell, if they found out the runner was a liberal, they'd swear she'd concealed rockets in her shoes ala Wiley Coyote - though I take your point that they wouldn't bother to offer any excuse at all.
It's all fake. These people spend 350 days a year complaining that everyone in California is liberal. They obviously expected a liberal win. I hate the constant lies, I really do.
Trial run for November. Can they say "it's rigged" and get enough people all up in a lather and forge doubt about any election Democrats do well in? Yes. Clearly. And it's working.
November is going to be very, very messy. The best answer to this nonsense is that everyone needs to actually vote, so certain results become overwhelming, and challenges are ridiculous. But that won't work for every race, so it's going to be messy and ugly and deeply troublesome.
No forgiveness for what the Rs and administration have created. Ever. It's terrible.
The going fear is that the Rs will use the doubt they have created to refuse to seat a new Congress. "Gosh, we just don't know who won!" I would not put it past Trump to then declare an emergency and try to adjourn the first branch outright - somewhat similar to actions that led to the English civil war back in the mid 1600s.
Andrew: "Meanwhile, it becomes clearer every day: The GOP base is going to go along with Trump on any major election he decides to claim is fraudulent this November. All it will take, again, is for Democrats to do better than they expected. And what Republican base voter is expecting a blue wave? Trump is going to do this, and they’re going to fall in line. Somehow, some people will be surprised by this. Don’t be among them."
Regarding Pratt, I saw an interview last week where he was asked which political figure he looked up to. Without missing a beat, he answered "Jesus Christ". If my eyes weren't rolling into the back of my head, I would have burst out laughing. The target audience for such a comment is mindlessly credulous and unable to think critically for themselves. Pratt was insulting the intelligence of the MAGAe, and it doesn't even register.
Yeah, and I don't take his claim seriously, either. Note I have nothing against Christ. What I do object to is people using His name to give themselves a patina of virtue in the public square while behaving like reprehensible pieces of shit the rest of the time.
The Life of Jesus Christ would make great reality TV. You’ve got miracles, scandalous hangers on, betrayal the whole works for great interpersonal drama plus the cachet of him being the son of god.
Osteen may be a shameless selfish huckster (OK he is), but he's never really been political. His congregation is extremely ethnically diverse and probably includes a lot of non-MAGAs - maybe even majority non-MAGA.
Not quite. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord," who submitted to his will. I'd rather not think about how a lot of people have used that passage to justify ugliness.
The current rhetoric around the California election from the MAGA crowd has to be taken extremely seriously, and is merely an appetizer for what will likely come in November. Something which didn’t get much attention nationally was when the Riverside County sheriff, Chad Bianco who was also running for governor, seized over 600,000 ballots over last year’s vote on redistricting in the state over alleged discrepancies between returned ballots and voted cast. His team even unsealed and started counting the ballots before the courts finally brought the process to a halt. But it took time for both the courts and states to respond. But this is a template come November where MAGA conspiracies in conjunction with local, not necessarily federal, law enforcement who support MAGA could be initial locus for interfering in the counting and seizing ballots when allegations of fraud arise though in this case not after the fact but before counting is complete. In these scenarios we could have elections which may never get a fair and complete count due to interference from those who mo longer believe in people voting and election integrity. After what happened in Riverside County though my fear is that much of this will be initiated and coordinated by local MAGA supporting law enforcement which once in a standoff with the state will be an invitation for the Trump administration to intervene as well. I really hope the states are prepared for this as California was not when Bianco seized the ballots earlier this year.
It's not being ignored in California. There is a bill working through the California Legislature that would prevent acts like what Bianco did from getting to the counting ballots phase. There is another bill preventing local elections officials from turning over any voting equipment, ballots, or letting people not from the Secretary of State's office touch anything unless there is a court order requiring it. There are others too. States are charged with running their elections and they take it seriously.
Which may help for November, but Bianco did have a judge sign off on warrants which were originally sealed, but revealed that he relied on wild accusations from an extremist group for his *evidence* and yet the judge approved then. When it happened the state was clearly caught off guard, so I am glad they are responding, but there are other states that don’t or won’t have laws and actors who will try and create facts on the ground supported by local judges.
Yes, I know. But it is these sorts of relationships and connections which may well create movement and allow for situations that the administration will take advantage of come November while claiming support for local law enforcement and judicial actors challenging fraud while the state is permitting the fraud to go forward. But this is also why I stated what happened in Riverside County needs to be better known as it is a weakness/point for abuse in the system which I don’t think enough people are cognizant about.
"Programs for surveillance against the parasite and for animal disease control and prevention were among the cuts implemented by DOGE at USAID and the USDA last year." - DOGE will end up costing us exponentially more than it ever saved us
However, unlike previous attempts, those who voted for Trump believed his promises. Now, inflation is high, gas is unaffordable and health care coverage has been decimated. Add to that the obscene and public consumption of things by the wealthy makes the disparity glaringly obvious. When people feel betrayed, and struggle to exist, they get angry. The number of Trump signs where I live have dropped precipitously in the last year. Instead of chiding people for voting against their own interests in the past, if our democracy is to survive we need to band together to get rid of the infection in our republic.
Thank you. Do not disagree the stove touching helps erode the support, whether they believe in the election lies or not. My worry is people expect instant gratification assuming a Dem has the WH next time. Whether it is a Shapiro/Beshear type or a President AOC, inflation won’t come down on day 1 and people will be angry at the incumbent.
I hope so. The fever needs to break. When Trump and his personality are gone (and given his current age and physical condition, plus the stress of being president which prematurely ages everyone who has had the position, may come sooner than we think) the hold will be broken. He may be a sociopath, but he has a unique charisma and style that sucks people in. His replacements, like Vance, Hegseth, Rubio, Carlson etc. don’t have the same nefarious “gift.”
Vance is more dangerous than Trump, and he’s the tech broligarch Manchurian candidate, so many very rich and very powerful people are not going to abandon him to the whims of voters. However, Vance is pretty universally disliked so I figure he has no shot at keeping the MAGA coalition together on his own. I’m hoping for the best while acknowledging things are likely to get worse in the short term.
Vance has zero chance of inheriting the MAGA cult. No popularity, no charisma, no personality cult. Sure, he's the broligarch's guy, but none of them are popular either because money can't buy popularity. And Trump himself is actively sidelining Vance at this point.
Except the Manchurian Candidate was brainwashed, Vance is just a spineless little boy who bends with the political wind. Yes, he went to an Ivy League school, but he’s still a putz.
Discouraging. It's like even if a bipartisan elections commission is set up after Trump, like after 911, there will still be so much election mistrust as it was w the events of 911. So much of rightwing media and the internet is poisoning ppl's minds.
I'm not sure expatriation would be involved. His tortured existence would be hell for most ppl, other than the MAGA who've dipped their toes toward the flames.
The conspiracy theory without the theory has been happening on the right for a while, now (credit to Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead). There was never any evidence President Obama was born in Kenya; this did not stop the theories. The online environment is relatively new, and that environment is largely to blame, I think, for the changing threshold for conspiracy belief.
Today, you just shout accusations; there is no obligation to provide any evidence, justification, or rationale. You just say it and people who are skeptical of the most obvious explanation suddenly turn credulous regarding the most outlandish and unlikely explanation, based on nothing at all.
You've hit on it. A fancier way of saying if our favored candidate wins, the election is fine. If the favored candidate loses it is clear evidence of fraud. Or, as the Senator says, if you can't find evidence of fraud, that is evidence of fraud. It just means the fraudsters are very sneaky.
If the Ds were into "stealing," why didn't they shut out Steve Hilton? And, if the Ds cheated in 2020 to screw Trump, how did R elected officials get elected in 2020. If the Ds were into screwing, why did they only screw Trump?
Oh now logic has nothing to do with it and never has. Think of the Congress members who hopped on the Big Lie despite the fact that they were elected on the very same ballots that elected Joe Biden president in 2020.
"That may be enough to quiet at least some of the Democrats who had been angling for him [Platner] to step aside."
But will it be enough to quiet the writers and podcasters at The Bulwark (who have spent more words and podcast minutes on Platner than nearly any other politician the last few months)? ... TBD
Trump doesn’t care about desecrating anything, including Arlington National Cemetery. He believes it is chock full of suckers and losers. Let’s make sure he is never buried on that sacred ground.
Complaining "stop the steal" will be the least of our problems. Republicans will try to strip registered voters off the rolls, ban mail ballots, intimidate voters at the polls with armed government agents, seize ballots and refuse to seat elected Democrats. We ain't seen nothin' yet!
These are the real dangers and the president's executive decree has already started to try to ban vote by mail and demands the states turn over the voting rolls to the federal government's faulty SAVE database. States are in court fighting those things now.
I know it's extreme pathological paranoia, but I'm still worried that Republican-controlled states will try to simply ban Democrats from being on November ballots, because the party is a "criminal enterprise, seditious, treasonous organization" or somesuch.
Andrew laid out masterfully why the early 3rd place candidate, Nithya Raman, moved up to 2nd in the LA mayoral jungle primary. I'd add one more debunking fact: only 18% of registered voters in LA are Republicans.
Yet the beat goes on, evidence free, that it was rigged. The argument I hear most frequently from Republicans I know is the Guv DeSantis one: "[He] accused California of 'dumping votes' until 'you get the result you want.'" Ron, you gotta up your game. Try some canard like it's mathematically impossible - like conservative, I love Russian money, Benny Johnson, threw out there.
"“an arrogant fool,” a “low IQ individual,” “dumb as a rock,” a “loudmouth huckster,” and “totally unqualified to ever think of running for high political office, or even low political office, for that matter!”
There he goes, still/again projecting.
"But even if the arch isn’t stopped now, the fight against it can lay the groundwork for removing it as soon as possible after January 20, 2029. The day the arch is taken down will be a fitting occasion for the next president to light up the White House, this time to mark the restoration of fidelity to the nation’s founding principles"
While I hope the arch is stopped dead before it can proceed much further, if it gets built it will not be the end of the world. Knocking it down will be a HUGELY symbolic and cathartic moment right up there w/ the demise of the Berlin Wall. And we can probably get it done for free if we auction off the right to take sledgehammer swings at the thing and/or to take a piece home.
I can't get pick up my car from the mechanic or have lunch at a sports bar without having to listen to Stephen A., but I'd defend him in this instance.
Imagine you are on trial for theft, and the prosecution argues that the absence of proof of theft is proof of it.
“Everybody knows that the dice are loaded, everybody knows that the fix is in.”- Leonard Cohen, “Everybody Knows”
No evidence needed.
Trump really wants that Trumpal Arch, so they’ll plunge on with it while everyone’s reading the opinions of the opponents, like with the East Wing demolition. I stand with the objecting veterans, and Holly Berkeley-Fletcher, who speaks much more eloquently than I ever could.
I am so absolutely sick of these MAGAats chanting “fraud“ at every election result they don’t like. And to read countless rational explanations for the results like presented here. Enough already!
"...progressive challenger Nithya Raman, who had been in third place in the early stages of the counting process, gradually caught up to and passed conservative candidate..."
My god, have these people never seen a track event where one of the runners begins to outpace another and pulls ahead? Of course they have, but that doesn't fit the narrative does it? Hell, if they found out the runner was a liberal, they'd swear she'd concealed rockets in her shoes ala Wiley Coyote - though I take your point that they wouldn't bother to offer any excuse at all.
It's all fake. These people spend 350 days a year complaining that everyone in California is liberal. They obviously expected a liberal win. I hate the constant lies, I really do.
After Republicans spent the last six years attacking the integrity of mail-in ballots, very few mail-in ballots were for the Republican! What a shock!
I knew it! The ACME Corporation is stealing the election!
Trump needs to buy a government stake in the company and replace its board, fast!
To be fair, the Acme rocket shoes always backfired. 😀
Who watched this year's Kentucky Derby? The horse who led for most of the race didn't even finish in the top three.
If there's no evidence of the winner cheating, that's PROOF of fraud in MAGA Land. 😀
And the horse that won came from way back in the field.
That horse was a Democrat.
Looked suspicious to me! 😺
A democratic horse from California!
Trial run for November. Can they say "it's rigged" and get enough people all up in a lather and forge doubt about any election Democrats do well in? Yes. Clearly. And it's working.
November is going to be very, very messy. The best answer to this nonsense is that everyone needs to actually vote, so certain results become overwhelming, and challenges are ridiculous. But that won't work for every race, so it's going to be messy and ugly and deeply troublesome.
No forgiveness for what the Rs and administration have created. Ever. It's terrible.
The going fear is that the Rs will use the doubt they have created to refuse to seat a new Congress. "Gosh, we just don't know who won!" I would not put it past Trump to then declare an emergency and try to adjourn the first branch outright - somewhat similar to actions that led to the English civil war back in the mid 1600s.
I'm not at civil war yet. But I am concerned about declarations of emergencies, etc. Even before election day in November.
I actually like the "top-two" method of voting in primaries.
Andrew: "Meanwhile, it becomes clearer every day: The GOP base is going to go along with Trump on any major election he decides to claim is fraudulent this November. All it will take, again, is for Democrats to do better than they expected. And what Republican base voter is expecting a blue wave? Trump is going to do this, and they’re going to fall in line. Somehow, some people will be surprised by this. Don’t be among them."
Regarding Pratt, I saw an interview last week where he was asked which political figure he looked up to. Without missing a beat, he answered "Jesus Christ". If my eyes weren't rolling into the back of my head, I would have burst out laughing. The target audience for such a comment is mindlessly credulous and unable to think critically for themselves. Pratt was insulting the intelligence of the MAGAe, and it doesn't even register.
Hey, that was W's favorite political philosopher too!
Yeah, and I don't take his claim seriously, either. Note I have nothing against Christ. What I do object to is people using His name to give themselves a patina of virtue in the public square while behaving like reprehensible pieces of shit the rest of the time.
Did they offer quotes from Two Corinthians?
And hold the Bible upside down?
The Life of Jesus Christ would make great reality TV. You’ve got miracles, scandalous hangers on, betrayal the whole works for great interpersonal drama plus the cachet of him being the son of god.
Hosted by Joel Osteen.
Osteen has been remarkably low-key about it, if he is MAGA. I don’t get that vibe off him, and I had expected it.
Osteen may be a shameless selfish huckster (OK he is), but he's never really been political. His congregation is extremely ethnically diverse and probably includes a lot of non-MAGAs - maybe even majority non-MAGA.
And it starts with a teenage pregnancy with the benefit of it being against her will.
Not quite. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord," who submitted to his will. I'd rather not think about how a lot of people have used that passage to justify ugliness.
It shows that Pratt wasn’t a real MAGA. A true MAGA acknowledges that Jesus Christ is the son of Trump.
Andrew is wrong on one thing here though. He's giving them too much credit.
"All it will take, again, is for Democrats to do better than they expected."
It's for their candidate to lose, period. Now I'd bet that pretty soon, every win will be cast as "defeating the Left's cheating."
The current rhetoric around the California election from the MAGA crowd has to be taken extremely seriously, and is merely an appetizer for what will likely come in November. Something which didn’t get much attention nationally was when the Riverside County sheriff, Chad Bianco who was also running for governor, seized over 600,000 ballots over last year’s vote on redistricting in the state over alleged discrepancies between returned ballots and voted cast. His team even unsealed and started counting the ballots before the courts finally brought the process to a halt. But it took time for both the courts and states to respond. But this is a template come November where MAGA conspiracies in conjunction with local, not necessarily federal, law enforcement who support MAGA could be initial locus for interfering in the counting and seizing ballots when allegations of fraud arise though in this case not after the fact but before counting is complete. In these scenarios we could have elections which may never get a fair and complete count due to interference from those who mo longer believe in people voting and election integrity. After what happened in Riverside County though my fear is that much of this will be initiated and coordinated by local MAGA supporting law enforcement which once in a standoff with the state will be an invitation for the Trump administration to intervene as well. I really hope the states are prepared for this as California was not when Bianco seized the ballots earlier this year.
It's not being ignored in California. There is a bill working through the California Legislature that would prevent acts like what Bianco did from getting to the counting ballots phase. There is another bill preventing local elections officials from turning over any voting equipment, ballots, or letting people not from the Secretary of State's office touch anything unless there is a court order requiring it. There are others too. States are charged with running their elections and they take it seriously.
Which may help for November, but Bianco did have a judge sign off on warrants which were originally sealed, but revealed that he relied on wild accusations from an extremist group for his *evidence* and yet the judge approved then. When it happened the state was clearly caught off guard, so I am glad they are responding, but there are other states that don’t or won’t have laws and actors who will try and create facts on the ground supported by local judges.
The judge had been endorsed by the sheriff in a 2022 election for judge. https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/04/chad-bianco-election-warrants/
Yes, I know. But it is these sorts of relationships and connections which may well create movement and allow for situations that the administration will take advantage of come November while claiming support for local law enforcement and judicial actors challenging fraud while the state is permitting the fraud to go forward. But this is also why I stated what happened in Riverside County needs to be better known as it is a weakness/point for abuse in the system which I don’t think enough people are cognizant about.
I can definitely see this happening in Alamance County, NC!
Ppl like Dem election lawyer, Marc Elias, are prepping in CA for the scenario you describe in the general election.
Newsom signs bill against election interference
https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/05/27/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-to-further-protect-california-elections-from-interference-and-intimidation/
"Programs for surveillance against the parasite and for animal disease control and prevention were among the cuts implemented by DOGE at USAID and the USDA last year." - DOGE will end up costing us exponentially more than it ever saved us
There should be billboards all over Texas stating this, with pictures of smiling Trump and Musk saying "I did this".
Rick Wilson might have this idea.
I hope he acts on it.
Or Steve Schmidt, w/SAM.
DOGE never saved a dime. It was run by Elon (autonomous driving next year) Musk.
When one of the two parties no longer accepts election results that does not go its way, there goes our democracy. The future is bleak.
However, unlike previous attempts, those who voted for Trump believed his promises. Now, inflation is high, gas is unaffordable and health care coverage has been decimated. Add to that the obscene and public consumption of things by the wealthy makes the disparity glaringly obvious. When people feel betrayed, and struggle to exist, they get angry. The number of Trump signs where I live have dropped precipitously in the last year. Instead of chiding people for voting against their own interests in the past, if our democracy is to survive we need to band together to get rid of the infection in our republic.
Thank you. Do not disagree the stove touching helps erode the support, whether they believe in the election lies or not. My worry is people expect instant gratification assuming a Dem has the WH next time. Whether it is a Shapiro/Beshear type or a President AOC, inflation won’t come down on day 1 and people will be angry at the incumbent.
Of course they will, but that is the fault of social media, reality tv and faulty media reporting. We need to get in office first to right the ship.
and simplistic American voters who rely on bumper stickers to cast their votes. (far too many)
In 5-10 years you will have a hard time finding people who claim to have been Trump supporters.
I hope so. The fever needs to break. When Trump and his personality are gone (and given his current age and physical condition, plus the stress of being president which prematurely ages everyone who has had the position, may come sooner than we think) the hold will be broken. He may be a sociopath, but he has a unique charisma and style that sucks people in. His replacements, like Vance, Hegseth, Rubio, Carlson etc. don’t have the same nefarious “gift.”
They will be Nick Fuentes supporters.
Hopefully we don’t trade that for an even worse one (like Chavez to Maduro in Venezuela).
Vance is more dangerous than Trump, and he’s the tech broligarch Manchurian candidate, so many very rich and very powerful people are not going to abandon him to the whims of voters. However, Vance is pretty universally disliked so I figure he has no shot at keeping the MAGA coalition together on his own. I’m hoping for the best while acknowledging things are likely to get worse in the short term.
Vance has zero chance of inheriting the MAGA cult. No popularity, no charisma, no personality cult. Sure, he's the broligarch's guy, but none of them are popular either because money can't buy popularity. And Trump himself is actively sidelining Vance at this point.
Except the Manchurian Candidate was brainwashed, Vance is just a spineless little boy who bends with the political wind. Yes, he went to an Ivy League school, but he’s still a putz.
Discouraging. It's like even if a bipartisan elections commission is set up after Trump, like after 911, there will still be so much election mistrust as it was w the events of 911. So much of rightwing media and the internet is poisoning ppl's minds.
These right winged politicians and influencers are poisoning the well to gain power, money and influence. The incentive structure is deadly.
I’m hoping it disappears along with 🍊.
2026 will be too, of course... but man, 2028 is going to be one hell of a stress test on this here republic.
Not too bad if Trump has been expatriated to hell.
I'm not sure expatriation would be involved. His tortured existence would be hell for most ppl, other than the MAGA who've dipped their toes toward the flames.
The conspiracy theory without the theory has been happening on the right for a while, now (credit to Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead). There was never any evidence President Obama was born in Kenya; this did not stop the theories. The online environment is relatively new, and that environment is largely to blame, I think, for the changing threshold for conspiracy belief.
Today, you just shout accusations; there is no obligation to provide any evidence, justification, or rationale. You just say it and people who are skeptical of the most obvious explanation suddenly turn credulous regarding the most outlandish and unlikely explanation, based on nothing at all.
Once we accepted birtherism as a valid strategy, it was over. That was our death knell.
Rumors can go around the world where as the truth is just getting out of bed and putting its shoes on.
Unfortunately this is 💯true.
If the first precinct shows the MAGA candidate ahead, vote counting should stop. What's so hard to understand? Anything else is fraudulent. /s
You've hit on it. A fancier way of saying if our favored candidate wins, the election is fine. If the favored candidate loses it is clear evidence of fraud. Or, as the Senator says, if you can't find evidence of fraud, that is evidence of fraud. It just means the fraudsters are very sneaky.
Sounds like Squeaker of the House Johnson.
Yes and also Senator Ron Johnson.
If the Ds were into "stealing," why didn't they shut out Steve Hilton? And, if the Ds cheated in 2020 to screw Trump, how did R elected officials get elected in 2020. If the Ds were into screwing, why did they only screw Trump?
Oh now logic has nothing to do with it and never has. Think of the Congress members who hopped on the Big Lie despite the fact that they were elected on the very same ballots that elected Joe Biden president in 2020.
Stop being logical. You'll break MAGA's brains
Logic, shmogic!
"That may be enough to quiet at least some of the Democrats who had been angling for him [Platner] to step aside."
But will it be enough to quiet the writers and podcasters at The Bulwark (who have spent more words and podcast minutes on Platner than nearly any other politician the last few months)? ... TBD
If Mamdani is any precedent, no.
Platner got an endorsement from Trump. He called him the worst person to run for office. Trump is afraid of Platner.
Trump doesn’t care about desecrating anything, including Arlington National Cemetery. He believes it is chock full of suckers and losers. Let’s make sure he is never buried on that sacred ground.
Put him next to Ivana on the golf court.
And give his grave the same tender, loving care he gives hers (not).
Second thought, they better not ever let anyone know where his rotting carcass is. Open air public restroom anyone?
Complaining "stop the steal" will be the least of our problems. Republicans will try to strip registered voters off the rolls, ban mail ballots, intimidate voters at the polls with armed government agents, seize ballots and refuse to seat elected Democrats. We ain't seen nothin' yet!
These are the real dangers and the president's executive decree has already started to try to ban vote by mail and demands the states turn over the voting rolls to the federal government's faulty SAVE database. States are in court fighting those things now.
SCOTUS, which under the Constitution has no authority to set election rules, will make a ruling affecting mail in ballots.
I know it's extreme pathological paranoia, but I'm still worried that Republican-controlled states will try to simply ban Democrats from being on November ballots, because the party is a "criminal enterprise, seditious, treasonous organization" or somesuch.
Andrew laid out masterfully why the early 3rd place candidate, Nithya Raman, moved up to 2nd in the LA mayoral jungle primary. I'd add one more debunking fact: only 18% of registered voters in LA are Republicans.
Yet the beat goes on, evidence free, that it was rigged. The argument I hear most frequently from Republicans I know is the Guv DeSantis one: "[He] accused California of 'dumping votes' until 'you get the result you want.'" Ron, you gotta up your game. Try some canard like it's mathematically impossible - like conservative, I love Russian money, Benny Johnson, threw out there.
"“an arrogant fool,” a “low IQ individual,” “dumb as a rock,” a “loudmouth huckster,” and “totally unqualified to ever think of running for high political office, or even low political office, for that matter!”
There he goes, still/again projecting.
"But even if the arch isn’t stopped now, the fight against it can lay the groundwork for removing it as soon as possible after January 20, 2029. The day the arch is taken down will be a fitting occasion for the next president to light up the White House, this time to mark the restoration of fidelity to the nation’s founding principles"
While I hope the arch is stopped dead before it can proceed much further, if it gets built it will not be the end of the world. Knocking it down will be a HUGELY symbolic and cathartic moment right up there w/ the demise of the Berlin Wall. And we can probably get it done for free if we auction off the right to take sledgehammer swings at the thing and/or to take a piece home.
I can't get pick up my car from the mechanic or have lunch at a sports bar without having to listen to Stephen A., but I'd defend him in this instance.
If for no other reason than "low IQ individual " is Trump speak for the N word.
Or "woman."
Imagine you are on trial for theft, and the prosecution argues that the absence of proof of theft is proof of it.
“Everybody knows that the dice are loaded, everybody knows that the fix is in.”- Leonard Cohen, “Everybody Knows”
No evidence needed.
Trump really wants that Trumpal Arch, so they’ll plunge on with it while everyone’s reading the opinions of the opponents, like with the East Wing demolition. I stand with the objecting veterans, and Holly Berkeley-Fletcher, who speaks much more eloquently than I ever could.
And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows
Excellent post, Andrew.
I am so absolutely sick of these MAGAats chanting “fraud“ at every election result they don’t like. And to read countless rational explanations for the results like presented here. Enough already!