"[DeSantis'] SuperPac, after all is named, “Never Back Down,” which means that he can never apologize when he makes a mistake or steps on a rake. Instead, he has to (1) deny he stepped on the rake, (2) step on the rake again and again, and (3) attack anyone who notes that he is stepping on rakes."
Sad. Only one person in the US can afford to do that, and it ain't Ron. And he can only afford to because millions of "drug addicts" let him.
"Exit take: The hangover from the Trump era is likely to linger for decades."
It can't be said enough that this was in the making for decades before the perfect useful idiot descended the escalator in 2015. I listed to "right-wing" talk radio regularly in the '90s to '10s, and often agreed on many issues, but I could detect an increasing authoritarian paranoia of hosts and callers alike. Irrational anti-science and anti-reason was often at the center of it. Evangelicals and "seculars" alike craved a "savior," not a patriotic leader who accepts that his job is to serve his country, not vice versa. It may take decades, but someday the remaining "flock" will gradually realize "be careful what you ask for."
What Biden policies have been so bad that our country can not endure another 4 years. Taken away guns? Raised taxes? Packed the Supreme Court? Closed churches? Cut defense spending? Defunded the police? The Biden administration has been productive and proficient in most things except the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which Trump set up and was probably always going to be messy! Republicans really have nothing of significance to run a campaign on. The Republican Party should bury themselves in a landfill and join the center-right portion of the Democrat party and work with people interested in keeping our country a viable democracy.
I would just like one of Trumps followers to tell me one thing Trump, not McConnell or the gop, did to make their life better? No we like his policies, please. Just one substantive thing that he, Trump did to improve your life.
Making people like you and me complain is all a Trump supporter needs from Trump.
As long as we're complaining, Trump's winning from their perspective. Childish? Absolutely. Nothing new there. Indeed, I shared that pleasure back in college decades ago when an UNSANCTIONED conservative student newspaper began publishing and the collective liberal and leftist faculty and student heads imploded. Sadly, the US right has become every bit as doctrinaire, impervious to reason and intolerant of criticism as the left was reputed to have been in the 1980s.
Fortunately, I believe I grew up, and now I hold to one main belief: everyone makes mistakes, but some make a lot more than others.
Not as stupid as you'd think given especially that the likes of Charlie Sykes would enthusiastically fellate the idea of Reagan, notwithstanding his horrendous moral failings (and sheer incompetence).
Honestly Nixon was a lightweight compared to the damage Reagan wrought, yet Charlie inexplicably has a hard on for Reagan.
Can a Big Brain please connect the dots for me? I listened to the surprisingly riveting Superseding Documents podcast this morning, then read the Morning Shots. Does this mean that Witness 5 (from the PAC) has flipped and is now implicating Trump in fraud with the PAC? That's Susie Wiles (sp?) from the group Signal chat, right? And she's providing documentation for the prosecution?
There's a lot of pieces, it's all sitting in front of me, but I don't know how they fit together. Can anyone help?
People are focusing on the wrong things in these GOP presidential polls. You have an ex-President essentially running for re-election who has 100% name ID and nearly half the Republican electorate wants someone else. That's not good for Trump. Trump lost the election in 2020 because he had about 10% of Republican leaning voters voting against him, while Biden's cross-over rate was about half that. That made the difference in several swing states. Trump has to hold at least 90% of Republican-leaning voters in 2024 for him to have a chance. But the 10% crossover number will almost certainly be much bigger this time around and that is confirmed with these Republican polls that people think are good for Trump. Those are not good poll numbers for a person seeking re-election. They're really bad.
I try to stay engaged with the Republican so-called primary campaign; alas it reflects the awful and stupid reality of that party. Nobody wins a fight (isn’t that what a campaign is?) without throwing and landing punches. Apart from Christie and Asa who are irrelevant - where’s the beef?
The real problem is highlighted by Iglesias in his piece on debates. I guess it’s a generational thing, or maybe my inability to abide by juvenile stupidity but aren’t these things run by adults ? I mean people in their 50’s who maybe even participated in debates as students? Eliminate all critiks and focus on the debate not someone’s efforts at intellectual masturbation. I mean i thought young people were getting smarter not dumber. Running dead end arguments prepares you for what exactly? Ah yes, positions in academia and journalism?
"former Vice President Mike Pence is facing the possibility of not even qualifying for the first debate next month"
-----
Does anyone believe that Pence will take the hint as to how totally despised he is, both within the Repub party and by a majority of Americans, and bow out before he further embarrasses himself? Will none of his advisors tell him the truth (a rhetorical question since their paychecks depend on Pence's self-delusion)? How much longer will we have to suffer this fool who is completely unaware that his political life ended 20 Jan 2021 - that he will always be associated with the evils of the Apricot Arthropod's administration to non-MAGA voters and viewed as disloyal to TFG by the MAGAdroids?
Mr Pence: there is no lie bigger than the one you tell yourself. You have a less than zero chance of getting the R nod, and even a lesser one of winning the general in 2024. Drop out now while you still have (only) a small thread of self-respect left.
Wow... just wow. You would prefer Pence to remain in the race for the sole reason of his further embarrassing himself rather than release his few followers to vote for a candidate (besides DeSantis, Ramaswamy or other MAGAdroid) who can use the support to fight against the Apricot Arthropod?
When I first glanced at the the title of today's newsletter, I thought it said "Scenes from the GOP CIRCUS 2023". After reading the full Morning Shots, I think my original impression is more accurate.
Transgender "issues" are at the forefront of young conservatives' minds? Issues like one trans girl swimmer in Utah who wanted to swim on the girls' team? And I'm sure that they lump drag shows into these "issues". These people are so deranged and utterly lacking in seriousness.
What's happened to American minds? And to young "conservative" minds and ideas? When I was in high school and in college (the 1990s) I'd often debate/discuss issues with young conservatives. We often had some agreements on many issues, and I don't recall any views being too extreme. This modern trend of unserious extremism is such a paradigm shift and is so disturbing.
This is not a theoretical possibility. . .there has been an emprisoned Presidential Candidate before and the parallel has already been published please see https://www.brandeis.edu/now/2023/april/eugene-debs-tom-doherty.html
There is more to the P. T. Barnum quotation and it is “and two to take advantage of him.” Both halves of the quote apply here.
GLS
"[DeSantis'] SuperPac, after all is named, “Never Back Down,” which means that he can never apologize when he makes a mistake or steps on a rake. Instead, he has to (1) deny he stepped on the rake, (2) step on the rake again and again, and (3) attack anyone who notes that he is stepping on rakes."
Sad. Only one person in the US can afford to do that, and it ain't Ron. And he can only afford to because millions of "drug addicts" let him.
"Exit take: The hangover from the Trump era is likely to linger for decades."
It can't be said enough that this was in the making for decades before the perfect useful idiot descended the escalator in 2015. I listed to "right-wing" talk radio regularly in the '90s to '10s, and often agreed on many issues, but I could detect an increasing authoritarian paranoia of hosts and callers alike. Irrational anti-science and anti-reason was often at the center of it. Evangelicals and "seculars" alike craved a "savior," not a patriotic leader who accepts that his job is to serve his country, not vice versa. It may take decades, but someday the remaining "flock" will gradually realize "be careful what you ask for."
In these times, irony is truly dead.
| Ah yes, the New Populism: where working class folks and retirees pay the legal bills for billionaires.
If the sheep are bleating to be shorn, why would an evil shepherd behave differently than a good one?
If Trump supporters are smart & adult enough to vote, aren't they also smart & adult enough to flush their $$$ away to Trump?
What Biden policies have been so bad that our country can not endure another 4 years. Taken away guns? Raised taxes? Packed the Supreme Court? Closed churches? Cut defense spending? Defunded the police? The Biden administration has been productive and proficient in most things except the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which Trump set up and was probably always going to be messy! Republicans really have nothing of significance to run a campaign on. The Republican Party should bury themselves in a landfill and join the center-right portion of the Democrat party and work with people interested in keeping our country a viable democracy.
I would just like one of Trumps followers to tell me one thing Trump, not McConnell or the gop, did to make their life better? No we like his policies, please. Just one substantive thing that he, Trump did to improve your life.
Making people like you and me complain is all a Trump supporter needs from Trump.
As long as we're complaining, Trump's winning from their perspective. Childish? Absolutely. Nothing new there. Indeed, I shared that pleasure back in college decades ago when an UNSANCTIONED conservative student newspaper began publishing and the collective liberal and leftist faculty and student heads imploded. Sadly, the US right has become every bit as doctrinaire, impervious to reason and intolerant of criticism as the left was reputed to have been in the 1980s.
Fortunately, I believe I grew up, and now I hold to one main belief: everyone makes mistakes, but some make a lot more than others.
And owning the libs isn't an answer!
Not as stupid as you'd think given especially that the likes of Charlie Sykes would enthusiastically fellate the idea of Reagan, notwithstanding his horrendous moral failings (and sheer incompetence).
Honestly Nixon was a lightweight compared to the damage Reagan wrought, yet Charlie inexplicably has a hard on for Reagan.
Well, I step away for a few hours (and taking a nap as we had the weirdest weather at 3:00am that kept me and little boy awake), and come back to find this in my news feed regarding the latest attempt to prove how crooked Biden is. https://www.politicususa.com/2023/07/31/devon-archer-gop-backfire.html. And https://www.politicususa.com/2023/07/31/dan-goldman-devastates-the-gops-biden-bribery-conspiracy.html. The MAGAs stunts just keep crashing on them, don't they?
Can a Big Brain please connect the dots for me? I listened to the surprisingly riveting Superseding Documents podcast this morning, then read the Morning Shots. Does this mean that Witness 5 (from the PAC) has flipped and is now implicating Trump in fraud with the PAC? That's Susie Wiles (sp?) from the group Signal chat, right? And she's providing documentation for the prosecution?
There's a lot of pieces, it's all sitting in front of me, but I don't know how they fit together. Can anyone help?
People are focusing on the wrong things in these GOP presidential polls. You have an ex-President essentially running for re-election who has 100% name ID and nearly half the Republican electorate wants someone else. That's not good for Trump. Trump lost the election in 2020 because he had about 10% of Republican leaning voters voting against him, while Biden's cross-over rate was about half that. That made the difference in several swing states. Trump has to hold at least 90% of Republican-leaning voters in 2024 for him to have a chance. But the 10% crossover number will almost certainly be much bigger this time around and that is confirmed with these Republican polls that people think are good for Trump. Those are not good poll numbers for a person seeking re-election. They're really bad.
I try to stay engaged with the Republican so-called primary campaign; alas it reflects the awful and stupid reality of that party. Nobody wins a fight (isn’t that what a campaign is?) without throwing and landing punches. Apart from Christie and Asa who are irrelevant - where’s the beef?
The real problem is highlighted by Iglesias in his piece on debates. I guess it’s a generational thing, or maybe my inability to abide by juvenile stupidity but aren’t these things run by adults ? I mean people in their 50’s who maybe even participated in debates as students? Eliminate all critiks and focus on the debate not someone’s efforts at intellectual masturbation. I mean i thought young people were getting smarter not dumber. Running dead end arguments prepares you for what exactly? Ah yes, positions in academia and journalism?
Where is Hitchens when we need him?
"former Vice President Mike Pence is facing the possibility of not even qualifying for the first debate next month"
-----
Does anyone believe that Pence will take the hint as to how totally despised he is, both within the Repub party and by a majority of Americans, and bow out before he further embarrasses himself? Will none of his advisors tell him the truth (a rhetorical question since their paychecks depend on Pence's self-delusion)? How much longer will we have to suffer this fool who is completely unaware that his political life ended 20 Jan 2021 - that he will always be associated with the evils of the Apricot Arthropod's administration to non-MAGA voters and viewed as disloyal to TFG by the MAGAdroids?
Mr Pence: there is no lie bigger than the one you tell yourself. You have a less than zero chance of getting the R nod, and even a lesser one of winning the general in 2024. Drop out now while you still have (only) a small thread of self-respect left.
fnord
Wow... just wow. You would prefer Pence to remain in the race for the sole reason of his further embarrassing himself rather than release his few followers to vote for a candidate (besides DeSantis, Ramaswamy or other MAGAdroid) who can use the support to fight against the Apricot Arthropod?
fnord
When I first glanced at the the title of today's newsletter, I thought it said "Scenes from the GOP CIRCUS 2023". After reading the full Morning Shots, I think my original impression is more accurate.
Transgender "issues" are at the forefront of young conservatives' minds? Issues like one trans girl swimmer in Utah who wanted to swim on the girls' team? And I'm sure that they lump drag shows into these "issues". These people are so deranged and utterly lacking in seriousness.
What's happened to American minds? And to young "conservative" minds and ideas? When I was in high school and in college (the 1990s) I'd often debate/discuss issues with young conservatives. We often had some agreements on many issues, and I don't recall any views being too extreme. This modern trend of unserious extremism is such a paradigm shift and is so disturbing.