409 Comments
User's avatar
rlritt's avatar

Johnson said he won't vote for aid to Ukraine unless they get a bill to protect the border?! Did he have a stroke? He wouldn't allow a vote for the bipartisan Bill to protect the border protection that included aid to Ukraine. Wtf!

Expand full comment
kate mcculloch's avatar

I really like this format better than Charlie's. Sometimes all the fonts and sizes and RED or BOLD were distracting

Expand full comment
Bruce Humphrey's avatar

If the election was today, the nominees would be Trump and Biden. About half of Republicans don't want Trump. About 70% of Democrats don't want Biden. This is the rank and file. If the GOP and Dem political classes were honest both numbers would be higher. And if the political classes were not cowards, neither Trump nor Biden would be the nominees. Both parties have much more competent office holders. I think Lincoln and Grant were the two most courageous Americans. After all they went through, they would be surprised and dispirited to see the failed leadership and the big mess it's created.

Expand full comment
Jill Z's avatar

so ashamed of the portion of our state who allowed this traitor to stay in the Senate https://newrepublic.com/post/178965/ron-johnson-putin-war-ukraine-vote-against-senate-bill

Expand full comment
Eva Seifert's avatar

Finally, some good news: "BREAKING NEWS Tom Suozzi defeated Mazi Pilip, flipping a House seat to Democrats in the critical special election to replace George Santos in New York. Tuesday, February 13, 2024 10:12 PM ET Mr. Suozzi, a former Democratic congressman, won a closely watched special House election in New York on Tuesday, narrowing the Republican majority in Washington and offering his party a potential playbook to run in key suburban swing areas in November."

Expand full comment
Eric Klein's avatar

Trump republicans have no shame or self awareness. The hypocrisy is monumental

Expand full comment
Eva Seifert's avatar

Those MAGA brains in the House care so much about crimes, etc. that they just: "BREAKING NEWS

The House, in its second attempt, impeached Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, over his handling of immigration and the border. Tuesday, February 13, 2024 7:31 PM ET In a redo of their first failed attempt, Republicans pushed through the charges over solid Democratic opposition, making the homeland security secretary the first sitting cabinet member to be impeached."

Of course, they couldn't come up with a real crime if they tried. I'm willing to bet if they're in control of Congress, this will become a regular thing for ANY D in any position of power.

Expand full comment
Daydream Believer's avatar

Trump would like nothing better than to see Ukraine fall. It would make his buddy Putin happy, it would give Trump an issue to use against Biden in the election (“Biden lost Ukraine!”), and best of all, it would give Trump a scary example the next time he decides to shake down Europe like a two bit thug. (“We’d love to send you some weapons to stave off a Russian invasion, Poland, but Ukraine wasn’t very nice to President Trump, and you know what happened to them…”)

Expand full comment
buns-n-butter's avatar

Lindsey just earned the spot right behind Steve Bannon in the MAGA human centipede.

Expand full comment
Eva Seifert's avatar

I don't know. Bannon has always been something lower than a centipede. Lindsey only started since the Orange Snake showed up.

Expand full comment
Jane Stevenson's avatar

This news about Kari Lake is disturbing to me.

Expand full comment
Charles Hesdorffer's avatar

Absolutely well said. One cannot justify Trump given the events in Ukraine and the unfolding of events post the conclusion of the US elections in 2020. Trump is beholden to Putin and the Russian oligarchs. They provide him with money and so they own him. He cannot be trusted to manage America’s foreign policy since it is all an extension of his own fortune that is at stake. Just as the lack of his acceptance of the results of the 2020 election were an extension of his need to stay in power. Just as his need to return to the White House is based entirely on his need to bypass the laws of this country and to remain a free and wealthy egotistical, racist sociopath. There is no question. There is only an answer and the answer is VOTE BIDEN and VOTE BLUE so as to allow this country time again to return to the normalcy of a 2 party system - each party with its own different sane and rational policies aimed at creating a better, just and humane country for all its citizens and in so doing to create a better united USA, guided by principles that aim at creating a healthier, safer world for ALL mankind.

Expand full comment
sld's avatar

"Sen. Lindsey Graham voted no"

When Lady Lindsey's boyfriend says don't do it, well, you know the rest.....

Expand full comment
sld's avatar

PS Let's cut to the chase with a simple interpretation of MAGA GOP's sense of Europe:

"Those countries that do not pay their bills deserved to be slaughtered. By our good friend and ally, Russkiy Mir."

This is a prophecy beyond immoral. It is Hitleresque.

Expand full comment
Erisian's avatar

"“This Ukraine vote will draw the battle lines of who in Red States will start to get primary challenges,” Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk tweeted last night."

-----

I quoted Fredrich Hegel earlier this morning on the Triad: "[w]e learn from history that we do not learn from history[,]" and once again a MAGAdroid is ignoring recent (very recent) history. A quick question for Mr Kirk: exactly how many MAGA candidates that won their primary went on to win in the general election? History has shown, time and time again, that a majority of American primary voters are hardcore tribalists, and can be counted on to nominate the most extreme candidate in their respective primaries, who, for the most, part will be rejected by moderates and centrists, from both major parties, as well as a large number of independent and third-party voters.

Please, Mr Kirk and the rest of your band of merry pranksters [sorry Mr Kesey], primary the few remaining rational Republicans so that your perversion of what the GOP* stood for will assure that not only will you fail to retake the White House, but the expected R Senate majority will not appear and the House majority will be gone in a puff of smoke. (I might be wishcasting here, but if I didn't I'd likely lose what little sanity I still possess.)

(* I'll repeat here, and again and again, that the "O" in GOP stood for "Old, but within the New GOP it means "Obstructionist.")

fnord

Expand full comment
Julia Ruggieri's avatar

Great newsletter. I have a question. How can I give feedback to Tim about the podcast? I think the Bulwark has to cover CN seriously. It will take more than passing comments.

Expand full comment
Macfly163's avatar

Funding Ukraine provides a 'win' for Joe, which is anathema to Orange. And Orange probably doesn't really care one way or another as much as wants to just burn everything to the ground.

Expand full comment
Sam C O's avatar

So many options these days for the authoritarian lifestyle!

Expand full comment