Perhaps, but I'd be willing to bet that your median Trump voter would rather die without health insurance on a ventilator than vote for a centrist Democrat.
David French recently accepted there’s nothing Trump could do that would peel off the base. I agree. The only hope is it peels off every single “soft” supporter.
That's a pretty optimistic hope, especially when many red states have passed laws allowing the legislature to overrule the votes in order to protect their Blood Red majorities and the running majority of voter fraud and voter infringement has always been and remains at the hands of conservatives. The likelyhood of there having ever been a fair vote in this country by the standards of the UN (which we used to promote) is slim and none.
Sadly there has been no effective pushback against decades of blatant gerrymandering by the GOP. Other countries have taken the setting of electoral boundaries out of the hands of politicians. Why not the USA?
This is the only thing that matters. The MAGA base will always be the MAGA base, but it cannot win on its own numbers. It needs that buy-in from politically-disinterested voters who vote on vibes. Without that latter group the MAGA base goes nowhere. They're going to be in real trouble when they lose their celebrity president.
I regret to inform you that because the Democrats are too busy wailing in despair, the two camps (liberals vs progressives) are fighting, and leftists are pounding at the door. Horseshoe theory is really popular with younger people - why wouldn’t it be? The center has failed. The left took on stupid policies and refused to punch the right out of “decorum”, as the right went off the deep end.
Again with the defeatist comments. I don't think any of that is happening at all. There are a lot of trolls posting "failed Democrats" comments, hoping to dispirit any opposition to Trump.
Over 66% of Americans did not vote to become a dictatorship rife with human rights abuses and misappropriation of their tax dollars. They will show up at the midterms.
It's not defeatist to acknowledge reality. The Democrats need to put on their big boy pants and get over their shit. There's no leadership to rally people (at the moment) and they're all just airing dirty laundry and making dumb fight songs.
Half of that 66% of America didn't even vote. A committed minority can and will get their way (eventually).
The solution is for the left to get its shit together. The challenge I foresee is that the right is no longer center-right / right wing / far-right. It's all far-right. MAGA is mainstream and it's more closely aligned to Russia than even the far-right parties competing in Germany, Italy, etc.
This consolidation means that there's a deeply committed ~35% of the country who are full blown authoritarians. They want this.
The remaining 65% are arguing amongst themselves. Liberals and progressives have small differences that can be set aside because their fundamental beliefs align to some form of liberalism and capitalism. Leftists can and will continue to push the Democrats from the left. Unfortunately, they are really good at rhetoric, but really crap at winning anything (outside of NYC and that had little to do with socialism and a lot to do with Mahmdani running a damn good campaign).
I don't believe there are no atheists in fox holes, but I do believe that when shit really hits the fan, everyone becomes a socialist. But, when society gets them back on their feet, often that conversion proves fleeting.
Sometimes there’s no conversion at all. Shit really hit the fan in 1919 Italy and the 1930s Germany. Neither went to socialism. Well, they did go for a guy who was a former socialist and another guy who added “socialism” to nationalism. Ok maybe you have a point…
OK, and where will the next ER be with all the cutting the Brain Worm Host is implimenting? But I understand your point about the degree of fealty that the Koolaid drinkers display.
The next ER will be hundreds of miles away from where Cletus lives. And since Cletus voted for the guy who made that scenario a reality, he screwed himself and would probably make the same choice 999 times out of 1000.
Until the hospital goes belly up because Medicaid won’t reimburse them. So many people going to the ER will bring down the rural hospitals in red states. Those MAGAs won’t be voting because they will be too sick to drive hundreds of miles for a working hospital.
You wrote: "If Cletus has to go to the ER because he's having trouble breathing, they'll put him a ventilator . . ."
This is not a bit funny. I knew a young woman in Atlanta, a former middle school student my wife taught. She was very poor. She had a bad case of the flu. She was afraid to go to the hospital, because even though they will treat you without insurance, they will also charge you thousands of dollars and take away your every worldly good. She hesitated to go until it was too late. She died before morning. Her mother is a widow and they tried to take every penny from her.
Another friend of mine, and Vietnam War vet, fell into a coma with a war-related injury. He woke up several days later owing the hospital $90,000. They took his truck and they tried to take his house, but I think his lawyer stopped them.
There is NO free treatment in the emergency room. Hospitals are bloodsuckers who take everything from the poor and leave them homeless in the street. Poor people who are badly hurt and bleeding plead with bystanders not to call an ambulance because they know it will leave them homeless.
Jed, your story about that young woman is tragic, but I did not write nor imply that Cletus would get "free treatment" should he arrive in the ER without insurance. The takeaway you should get from my post is Cletus and those like him will vote against their own interests if they have a chance to stick it to "the other". We've seen this with farmers, for example. We've seen it in counties that have high mortality rates from COVID. Any presumption of rationality from that part of the electorate is bunk. Regarding your observation that hospitals are bloodsuckers, you won't get an argument from me regarding how fucked up our healthcare system is.
I understand. What I had in mind is that Cletus probably thinks he would get free treatment. Not only that, but Trump, the GOP and MAGA people say that illegal immigrants get free treatment in emergency rooms. Where I live in Atlanta there are thousands of illegal immigrants. They are treated in emergency rooms like anyone else. The hospitals have to treat them, by law. But they are definitely charged for it! I suppose many of them are never able to pay no matter how much the hospital tightens the screws. You can't squeeze blood from a turnip.
There was a long article in the Atlanta Journal about illegal immigrants and poor people whose lives were destroyed by hospital bills.
I had to spend 4 unpleasant hours waiting in the emergency room this year, in a crowd of people writhing in agony and throwing up. All of us largely ignored. Except for the person who actually passed out. Anyway, there were dozens of people who could not speak English. I suppose many were illegal aliens, given our neighborhood.
It is quite a contrast to the hospitals I went to when I lived in Japan. In Japan, if you come in the door bleeding, they help you right away, rather than letting you sit for hours. Such a novel approach! Maybe someday we will have such a system . . . but I digress.
We will have a decent nation and a decent government when all of the profit has been dragged from promoting racism, sexism and nationalism, and not a moment before. For as long as there are people who can convince themselves that they are better than someone else because of faith, gender, or the color of their skin this country will remain at war with itself. The civil war and the actions over the intervening hundred and seventy five years have proven the truth of that, even if no one has been listening.
My wife was talking about how the rural conservatives she grew up around always loved that by under-funding their local schools they could keep the "rich libs" in town from affording as much nice stuff for their schools. Bleeding the "bleeding hearts" dry. We need to cut done of the funding off.
If it were up to me, red states wouldn’t get a penny of my tax dollars. If they want to go back to 1860 or pre-Enlightenment days, they can but they can do it without blue state money. Fuck ‘em.
Clearly it's the immigrants taking up all the ventilators and denying Cletus his government sponsored ventilator funded by tariffs that exceed the gross value of all imports. If only the libs would deny medical access to non-citizens, Cletus would still be alive...
Not probably--they *did*. You had people being offered final facetime chats with family while spit-screaming at doctors on their last breaths that CV was fake.
I've often pondered whether Biden won by a thin margin in 2020 because so many Trump voters died from Covid. I believe there were studies proving more Republicans were dying than Democrats. Then along came Joe Rogan and the manosphere capturing the votes of young people and here we are with the orange menace again. I am all for factual campaigning, but the Dems need to wake up and understand that they have to reach ALL potential voters - which means doing the factual AND the "vibes" because that is how some people vote these days and they absolutely have to reach them, too, if they want to win.
In 2020 there was no vaccine, so Democrats and Republicans were dying in roughly equal numbers. In 2021, the anti-vaccination movement grew mainly among Republicans. From that year on, they died in greater numbers than Democrats. Not enough died to change the 2024 election, unfortunately.
See:
Pro-Trump counties continue to suffer far higher COVID death tolls
That’s why I like Newsom’s ads. He’s using everything Felon Trump says against him. If you don’t like what Newsom says, why do you like DonOld who just said the same thing?
There was an article by a nurse from South Dakota saying just that. She had to calm a COVID patient in order for a doctor intubate him, and he’s yelling that he doesn’t have COVID. She said she heard this more than once.
Here is a similar account from a doctor in Alabama:
‘I’m sorry, but it’s too late’: Alabama doctor on treating unvaccinated, dying COVID patients
QUOTE:
“I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections,” wrote Cobia, a hospitalist at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, in an emotional Facebook post Sunday. “One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.”
The first link above goes to a story on X, which begins:
A South Dakota ER nurse @JodiDoering says her Covid-19 patients often “don’t want to believe that Covid is real.”
“Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real.’ And when they should be... Facetiming their families, they’re filled with anger and hatred.”
It sounds like the person you reference. Maybe not?
There is a behavior pattern in authoritarian regimes--the most notable example being Tsarist Russia.
1) Things are shitty--economy is bad, people are oppressed, everything seems to be going the wrong way;
2) The Tsar doesn't get blamed for things being bad, the people who get blamed are those bureaucrats and functionaries that are either running things contrary to what the Tsar actually wants or who are misinforming/misleading him.
This goes until things go so undeniably bad that simply "fixing" the people under the Tsar is seen as futile, blame starts shifting to the top, and it is decided that the whole rotten system must go. It usually takes something major to trigger this (like losing a war).
The shift doesn't happen short of a catastrophe or an extended period of absolute shittiness.
So Trump is safe, especially since I really do not think he is going to make it through his entire term, the way things look. He may still be drooling at the top of the hierarchy three years from now (if he is still alive) but he won't be doing much Presidenting (not that he does much now).
This is not necessarily a good thing, BTW. It gives the jackals below him freedom to do what they want--most of which is either stupid or actively malicious.
Remember, most of the Russian people neither saw or heard the Tsar. He was totally isolated by his family and ministers. If the people really knew how incompetent he actually was, the Tsar would have been replaced sooner by those who wanted a change of government and did not want the Bolshevik’s in power. Felon Trump is not safe because he is in the public eye daily. He is not winning much in the courts, and he really cannot depend on the Supreme Court approving of his hijacking the Constitution. I do not see Roberts watching his legacy go up in flames over DonOld. I do agree that his health is deteriorating and his minders are rushing to get as much done before he collapses mentally.
The American public (particularly the MAGA part of it) has displayed an enormous capability of ignoring stuff that they do not want to see.
I can easily see Roberts and the other conservative members approving his hijacking of the Constitution. They totally made-up Presidential immunity for him, after all. THAT (plus an obviously in the tank federal judge and a timorous AG) saved his ass.
They don't have any legacy left to lose, pretty much everyone hates them at this point for some decision they have made.
I’m not sure. Bush, 43, was asked about his administration’s policy in Iraq. What would historians say in fifty years. His reply, “we’ll all be dead.” But in his president library, the interactive displays invites the visitor to choose which policy would serve the American people. One response validates Bush’s actions, the other points to failure. I believe this was from NPR, because I heard the answers for one example on the radio, not newspapers.
Roberts is keenly aware that he will bear the brunt of his court’s decisions. He will track differently, if he sees the wind changing. He can cut Alito and Thomas loose, because those two boat anchors have outlived their usefulness, and he and Barrett can play spoiler.
Here is the thing, these people will be dead before their legacy is determined and they are well aware of that (Bush’s answer is telling here). I am not familiar wih the specifics of your Presidential Library example here—but note that the “correct” answer is the one that validates what Bush did.
That isn’t about posterity making a judgment, it is about forcing a judgment on posterity. F—k what you think, we were right.
We did the right thing… and if you disagree that just means that you are an idiot or a libtard loser.
Posterity and legacy is rewritten all the time (look at the US Civil War). It is also contextual. Who wins the fight also has a lot to do with it. I do not think that many modern politicians or powerful prople are really all that concerned about their legacy.
Remember who actually vetted and chose the conservative members of SCotUS—it wasn’t Trump—the Heritage Foundation. There was a reason for that. They have a particular ideology and agenda and they seem pretty intent om making that happen. They are willing to seemingly ignore precedent and the Constitution (or “interpret” it “properly.”
If authoritarianism—the Unitary Executive that these people favor—takes hold, their legacy is secure for a generation or more… and they will feel good about themselves because they “did the right thing.”
People, I think, place far too much emphasis on these peoples’ consideration of their legacy (especially in light of their identity/ideology)—and their judgment of what their legacy is going to be, in THEIR own minds—and whose percpetion of that legacy they care most about, which may not be who you think.
I agree totally. History get revised all the time because either new information is available, ie. submersibles found that the Titanic did break, and a sea change occurred about those who did see something others did not want to believe, ie women on board the Titanic, and male interests in ignoring women.
Just as George Bush was concerned about how he would be remembered, all people in high positions think the same. And act. I do not think that John Roberts is willing to let the chips fall where they may. He is too caught up in the trappings of his own greatness so he will try, just as Bush did to shore up his legacy. It will exist only for a little while, but he knows that.
Americans will not accept a woman president . They hate competent women and have contempt for women who are like , say , Reagan , and dont know the details
she will either bee TOO attractive or not attractive enough . I think we have proved the gender barrier will fall very late if at all . Wish I was wrong .
Not just a centrist Democrat. Republican voters have been so brainwashed about how evil Democrats are that they likely would vote for anyone except a Democrat.
But they won’t go quietly on that imaginary “ventilator”. Remember, they won’t be incapacitated as with Covid, just angry at being turned away. MAGA anger + guns = lethal violence.
I love how the most powerful man in the world is just an interested bystander when it comes to pharma in general and vaccines specifically. The idea that HE, the President, couldn’t just share what the companies supposedly showed him is laughable. He shares state secrets regularly, but can’t be bothered to share the data that Pfizer has shown him? I mean, I understand that this is for the idiots who support him. The nut bags who want to take his greatest achievement (Warp Speed) away from him. And sadly, he does have to give it up. I wonder how much it hurts for him to have to give the thing that even Democrats give him lots of credit for?
Trump took credit for "warp speed" but then he didn't because his cult followers demanded the freedom to get sick and spread disease. Then he was against the vaccine even though he took it. Then, with Kennedy, Trump was against all vaccines. Now he isn't sure. But Trump love Kennedy because they both share the same world view -- that what they want to have happen is what happens, and reality is the illusion.
I lived in Manhattan when Donny first came to NYC as a “real estate mogul”. He was a joke then. He’s still a joke. Can’t believe it’s “Lil’ Donny from Queens who is wrecking our democratic republic. Can’t believe there are that many stupid voters in the US
Mike Royko, an op ed writer for Chicago’s two newspapers wrote about this conundrum. He was referring to the Jessie Jackson phenomenon. Jackson was a Chicago activist who was getting close to his sell-by date when he went on the National media. He used his city smarts to attract some national names, pushed his rainbow coalition, and voila, became relevant. Having exposure in Chicago propelled him, same as DonOld got having NY City credentials. People are stupid, Royko wrote then, and haven’t changed one bit.
"Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, said on Friday that Kennedy is “a crown jewel” of Trump’s administration". Then, picture our POTUS wearing a crown of serpentine wire with an orange piece of drek hanging at its center, his skull dripping Texas Tea, nailed naked to a golden cross...mumbling 'where are my doctors?'.
Every Trump maneuver is a conjuring act of failure, a dark magic in which solvable problems are twisted into unsolvable calamities. Medicaid is gutted, not out of necessity, but out of spite. Premium tax credits are left to wither, bleeding families dry. Vaccines, are recast as satanic tokens in a carnival of grievance. There is no logic, no strategy, only the malignant instinct to inflict damage and call it triumph.
If America were a company, shareholders would have rioted, the board would have dragged him from the building in disgrace. He is economic illiteracy incarnate, a CEO who burns payroll while salting the fields that once produced profit. Yet here, grotesquely, incompetence is not a flaw to be hidden, it is the brand itself. Suffering is the currency. Chaos is the dividend. Every cut, every vanished subsidy, every denial of medicine is not an accident of governance, but the very marrow of his governance.
With Trump, you never get the lesser evil, never even the neutral stalemate. You get the worst of all worlds simultaneously. The cruelty of austerity without the fiscal savings, the performative bluster without strategic gain. It is governance as a suicide pact, spectacle as statecraft, the black hole of his ineptitude devouring not just policy, but the very idea of a functioning republic.
There are a bunch of people smarter than Trump (such as Michael Anton) who latched on to his malignant instinct because they shared some of his core prejudices - and then poured immense energy into an effort to package his 'instincts" as a deeply thoughtful, coherent, fundamentally moral political philosophy called "Trumpism." or more formally, "America First." It was mostly just their own political philosophy.
The idea that Donald Trump ever had deeply thoughtful and coherent ideas about governance and America's place in the world, or anything else, is absurd on its face.
Carol, I’ve always been struck by the phrase “the smart people around Trump.” It gets repeated so often, as though proximity to a toddler with matches confers genius. But what has his administration ever done that looks like competence, foresight, or strategy? Project 2025 isn’t brilliance, it’s demolition. Demolition doesn’t require intelligence. A toddler can wreck a room in minutes. That doesn’t make the toddler a brilliant human mind. It just makes them destructive.
So yes, there are operatives like Anton who tried to lacquer Trump’s tantrums with philosophy, who turned his prejudices into a glossy brochure called “America First.” But that’s marketing, not intellect. The actual record, the Medicaid cuts, the vanished subsidies, the public health sabotage, shows nothing but chaos and ruin. If this is what “the smart people” produce, then we’ve redefined intelligence down to the ability to justify the wreckage.
Patrick you nailed it: "a toddler could"...that's because the people driving this have the emotional intelligence of a toddler. So, we should not be surprised that they are governing via tantrum, where the toddlers they lead see inflicting damage as triumph.
My brilliant and compassionate father died from Parkinson’s, during COVID. It is a horrible disease and devastating for a family. My thoughts are with Mr. Mueller, his family and friends.
FIFY: The cuck incel thinks the heroin addict brainworm damaged psychopath is a crown jewel.
This would be laughable if these two "crown jewels" weren't leading the other "Crown jewel" - dementia diaper don and the rest of the country down the path of destruction
Trump has a kind of street savvy...his entire cabinet is composed of incompetent fools who at least understand that only Trump would have hired them for these responsible jobs. He basks in the questionable certainty that he is the smartest person in the room, pulling all the strings, while they take a deep breath, lie and tell him how wonderful he is. Daily.
These horrible people understand that without Trump they are nothing. So the mutual admiration is high. They know that once Trump goes, their careers, such as they are, are over. And many of them would be well advised to quietly disappear.
I disagree that they are nothing. Nearly everyone single one of them is rich and hyper rich. https://www.citizen.org/article/trumps-billionaire-cabinet-represents-the-top-0001-percent/ And that excludes the richest man on earth. And if they're not rich, they're notorious or have an outsized reputation. And, I venture, most of them are definitely not fools. They're ideologues are well placed to become successors to take control of the country after POS disappears. We underestimate them at our peril.
"I am shocked, shocked" . . . to find that the orange narcissist-felon has the attention span of a housefly.
He doesn't read. He doesn't listen to anyone but himself, or his adoring sycophants issuing groveling untruths about how wonderful he is (see the recent three-hour 'cabinet' meeting).
How could you expect this brain-fading imitation of a human to have a sane grasp on the health issues? All the wisdom and knowledge he possesses of the nation's real medical matters you could stick in your eye, and not even feel.
Please forgive my somewhat hyperbolic comment. Candidly, I wouldn't hire (or vote for) this man to carry out my trash.
Truly! And I have to say, what kind of person encourages this kind of verbal adulation?? I could not bear to sit through a series of accolades like that, even if I had earned them.
More evidence of Trump's yawning and shameless ego.
Probably the most effective response to the Trumpian nonsense that foreign entities pay tariffs is the tactic being taken by many US importers - show the tariff as a specific line-item on the invoice. You might not see this at Wal-Mart, given the complex origins of a basket of goods at checkout, but it is being seen elsewhere. At some point, MAGA will undoubtedly oppose this practice as "woke" and/or unpatriotic. But it should have an impact.
The problem is that more than half of Americans are only able to read below 6th grade level, which means that Trump is able to form a connection with voters with his writing style.
Democrat politicians really need to work on simplifying their language, so that they stop sounding like university professors.
Regarding the Cheap Shot: I'm guessing the manager of the Embassy Suites in Portland, ME is a Bulwark+ member. I don't have any reason to travel to Maine, but if I do, I know where I'll be staying.
If this starts a trend. Fox Noise will be replaced by The Bulwark in all Embassy Suites in Maine. And then the rest of the 49 states. Something to look forward to!
That is hilarious and apt when applied to GOP Congresscritters, but it's not fair to the many good Democratic Congresspeople who still exist, including mine.
I get really tired of these defeatest comments. Aside from the fact that if you do not elect a Democratic Congress your country is finis, this idea that they are idiots failing the moment is a MAGA pile of progaganda.
FFS get behind the one hope you have. Quickly. Talk it up. Get moving for the midterms. Demand election oversight. Pillory the stupidity coming out of the White House. And once you have adults, any adults, back in office, DEMAND legislation that prevents this sorry mess ever happening again.
This would be funny except a complicit Republican Congress is standing by while your country is being dismantled and human rights are being abused in a way that would make Putin blush.
The rest of the world is looking on in shock and horror at the horrific fall of the USA. This is no time to sneer at the Democratic party, good grief if they were sacks of flour, they would STILL be better candidates than any Republican. And don't get me started on the foul and lunatic cabinet they confirmed...
You are right again, that ‘now is not the time’. I wrote exactly that, about our side tearing down Newsom as “too slick”. It’s like complaining about a firefighter’s aftershave as he saves your house. My hope is that the DNC would hear the valid complaints and step up to the actual crisis. There are many individual Democrats who are stepping up; Newsom, Pritzker, Moore, Whitehouse, etc. Probably best to ignore the DNC
Exactly. And I agree, there are really impressive Democrats standing up. I am a big fan of Governor Pritzker in particular. He would make a fine president and I think would understand and back the need for the measures that need to be taken going forward to prevent this kind of mess ever happening again.
I think Pritzker tops my list. He’s tough, well spoken, whip smart, and has solid experience. He doesn’t seem to have negatives - oddly during these times, superficial negatives seem most important, like race, religion and gender. That’s our America today.
I get that but this is not the time. There are too many trolls out there posting anti-Democratic party smears right now. They are trying to get folks to give up in despair. Do not let them.
I try to make a point of not judging people by their physical appearance. If somebody has a speech problem I try to see beyond it. RFK breaks all of my attempts at fairness and decency. When I look and listen to him I see a monster who wants to destroy everything. I don’t think he and Don can remain BFFs for very long.
Re: Donnie "Two-Dolls"'s demand that pharmaceutical companies share their data on the safety & efficacy of Covid vaccines: Over on bluesky, Jeremy M. Berg posted links to two New England Journal of Medicine articles on the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines from December 2020(!!). He uploaded jpgs of the relevant data illustrations from each paper. These papers were the _placebo-controlled_ Phase 3 clinical research trials that were the basis of the emergency-use authorizations and approvals for the first generation of Covid-19 mRNA vaccines. Each study enrolled very large numbers of patients (30k+ in one, 43k+ in the other). The primary data were released publicly at clinicaltrials.gov.
If you don't know who Jeremy Berg is, he was a long-serving director of the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences at NIH (NIGMS is — was? — the largest extramural grant-making agency inside NIH devoted to basic biomedical research). Before NIGMS, Berg was a faculty member in, and eventually chair of, the department of biophysics and biochemistry at Johns Hopkins University. After NIGMS, he served as editor-in-chief of the top-tier weekly journal _Science._ IOW, Berg's credentials and reputation in the scientific community are unassailable.
If only Donnie "Two-Dolls" could, um, RFK? That is to say, "read for kontent"!
~~~
Re: "Cheap Shots" — This is far superior to playing Fox News or an endless loop of local weather and tourism-promotion ads. Bravo to the Embassy Suites in Portland, Maine! Now, could someone tell us again why anyone would want to go there??
I am from the NW so it takes longer going to Portland ME than to Europe. So I don’t ever see myself anywhere near the great state of Maine. But hats off to the management of this hotel. Hopefully we won’t see some MAGA Kens and Karens summoning an online mob against this fine establishment.
Portland, Maine is a great small city to visit, highly recommended! We've been there several times, but it is difficult to get to if you don't live in the Northeast.
The drive there is easy and very beautiful. The city is on the Casco bay. Easily walkable and the beach area is great for walking and finding shells. I would recommend it for a weekend getaway.
Republican politicians must be taken aback by how the things they run on, when they try to do them, get a lot of blowback from the voters who elected them.
Trump ran on tariffs.
Trump ran on deportation of millions and bloody stories.
Trump ran on placing RFKJ at the head of HHS.
Republicans run on tax cuts for billionaires.
Republicans run on decreasing access to healthcare.
Republicans run on deregulating polluters.
Voters want Republicans in office but don't want them to enact their policies, and I find it very peculiar, because when I vote, I don't vote for people who campaign on policies I find unpalatable. But that's just me.
Democrats, on the other hand, campaign on the opposite of those things, and I like that, so I vote for Democrats.
It's a curious affliction the median voter has, and I'm not even sure getting what they voted for good and hard is enough to fix it.
I'm trying to convince the bright-blue-dot people that billboards, t-shirts, and hats with the slogan "Kamala Was Right About EVERYTHING" could both be convincing & marketable.
The American electorate were warned that Trump was an otherwise empty vessel filled only by his rage & desire for revenge, and that made him a useful tool for the Vought/Dans/Roberts-led Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 and its nefarious plans.
Is there a person in America who does not know, or have a family member, who has not been touched by the myriad of health problems that are part of life? Even MAGA people face chronic, debilitating, life threatening health conditions that have required medical intervention.
If RFK Jr has his way, too bad for you and in Joni Erst’s memorable words,”we all must die”.
That includes Trump and his band of enables, except of course, Stephen Miller, who is not human.
It must be SO infuriating for these scientists who've had to cross so many hurdles just to have a paper published, much less, get a drug on the market...now watching these anti-vaxxers, getting such a prominent seat at the table without so much as a peer review.
I have it on good authority that Miller is actually the result of a collaborative effort between Elon Musk's xAI and Neuralink that escaped from the lab.
Trump’s post says to me that he has figured out, faintly, that he is being managed by forces greater than himself. Just a little glimmer.
It’s obvious to most of the opposition. I have long since started using the term “they” instead of “Trump” when discussing the policies wafting out of DC.
He's right but he left out the architect of Project 2025...Russell Vought. He's right there. Musk might have outshined him with DOGE but he and it accomplished Vought's aim of gutting parts of the bureaucracy.
“Forced relocation of the entire Gaza population” is genocidal. This is particularly so in light of concurrent acts such as imposed starvation, deprivation of medical care and other acts construed as war crimes or crimes against humanity. Proof of intent would not seem a high hurdle in this instance.
Bill: "But that would fracture his base."
Perhaps, but I'd be willing to bet that your median Trump voter would rather die without health insurance on a ventilator than vote for a centrist Democrat.
David French recently accepted there’s nothing Trump could do that would peel off the base. I agree. The only hope is it peels off every single “soft” supporter.
That is all that is needed. Well, except for ensuring the elections are free, fair, and accurately counted...
That's a pretty optimistic hope, especially when many red states have passed laws allowing the legislature to overrule the votes in order to protect their Blood Red majorities and the running majority of voter fraud and voter infringement has always been and remains at the hands of conservatives. The likelyhood of there having ever been a fair vote in this country by the standards of the UN (which we used to promote) is slim and none.
Sadly there has been no effective pushback against decades of blatant gerrymandering by the GOP. Other countries have taken the setting of electoral boundaries out of the hands of politicians. Why not the USA?
This is the only thing that matters. The MAGA base will always be the MAGA base, but it cannot win on its own numbers. It needs that buy-in from politically-disinterested voters who vote on vibes. Without that latter group the MAGA base goes nowhere. They're going to be in real trouble when they lose their celebrity president.
And I am betting that those who failed to show up at the polls will be much more inclined to show up this time.
But please, no third party wasted votes. Too much is on the line...
I regret to inform you that because the Democrats are too busy wailing in despair, the two camps (liberals vs progressives) are fighting, and leftists are pounding at the door. Horseshoe theory is really popular with younger people - why wouldn’t it be? The center has failed. The left took on stupid policies and refused to punch the right out of “decorum”, as the right went off the deep end.
Again with the defeatist comments. I don't think any of that is happening at all. There are a lot of trolls posting "failed Democrats" comments, hoping to dispirit any opposition to Trump.
Over 66% of Americans did not vote to become a dictatorship rife with human rights abuses and misappropriation of their tax dollars. They will show up at the midterms.
It's not defeatist to acknowledge reality. The Democrats need to put on their big boy pants and get over their shit. There's no leadership to rally people (at the moment) and they're all just airing dirty laundry and making dumb fight songs.
Half of that 66% of America didn't even vote. A committed minority can and will get their way (eventually).
The solution is for the left to get its shit together. The challenge I foresee is that the right is no longer center-right / right wing / far-right. It's all far-right. MAGA is mainstream and it's more closely aligned to Russia than even the far-right parties competing in Germany, Italy, etc.
This consolidation means that there's a deeply committed ~35% of the country who are full blown authoritarians. They want this.
The remaining 65% are arguing amongst themselves. Liberals and progressives have small differences that can be set aside because their fundamental beliefs align to some form of liberalism and capitalism. Leftists can and will continue to push the Democrats from the left. Unfortunately, they are really good at rhetoric, but really crap at winning anything (outside of NYC and that had little to do with socialism and a lot to do with Mahmdani running a damn good campaign).
But Tim, where does the "median Trump voter" (aka Cletus?) get his ventilator without health insurance?
If Cletus has to go to the ER because he's having trouble breathing, they'll put him a ventilator whether he has insurance or not.
I don't believe there are no atheists in fox holes, but I do believe that when shit really hits the fan, everyone becomes a socialist. But, when society gets them back on their feet, often that conversion proves fleeting.
Sometimes there’s no conversion at all. Shit really hit the fan in 1919 Italy and the 1930s Germany. Neither went to socialism. Well, they did go for a guy who was a former socialist and another guy who added “socialism” to nationalism. Ok maybe you have a point…
OK, and where will the next ER be with all the cutting the Brain Worm Host is implimenting? But I understand your point about the degree of fealty that the Koolaid drinkers display.
The next ER will be hundreds of miles away from where Cletus lives. And since Cletus voted for the guy who made that scenario a reality, he screwed himself and would probably make the same choice 999 times out of 1000.
The more the knuckle draggers die, the less votes this insane administration will get going forward. Hand to the stove.
Well, only if he can get to an ER before he stops breathing. May be a long way to go….
Until the hospital goes belly up because Medicaid won’t reimburse them. So many people going to the ER will bring down the rural hospitals in red states. Those MAGAs won’t be voting because they will be too sick to drive hundreds of miles for a working hospital.
You wrote: "If Cletus has to go to the ER because he's having trouble breathing, they'll put him a ventilator . . ."
This is not a bit funny. I knew a young woman in Atlanta, a former middle school student my wife taught. She was very poor. She had a bad case of the flu. She was afraid to go to the hospital, because even though they will treat you without insurance, they will also charge you thousands of dollars and take away your every worldly good. She hesitated to go until it was too late. She died before morning. Her mother is a widow and they tried to take every penny from her.
Another friend of mine, and Vietnam War vet, fell into a coma with a war-related injury. He woke up several days later owing the hospital $90,000. They took his truck and they tried to take his house, but I think his lawyer stopped them.
There is NO free treatment in the emergency room. Hospitals are bloodsuckers who take everything from the poor and leave them homeless in the street. Poor people who are badly hurt and bleeding plead with bystanders not to call an ambulance because they know it will leave them homeless.
Jed, your story about that young woman is tragic, but I did not write nor imply that Cletus would get "free treatment" should he arrive in the ER without insurance. The takeaway you should get from my post is Cletus and those like him will vote against their own interests if they have a chance to stick it to "the other". We've seen this with farmers, for example. We've seen it in counties that have high mortality rates from COVID. Any presumption of rationality from that part of the electorate is bunk. Regarding your observation that hospitals are bloodsuckers, you won't get an argument from me regarding how fucked up our healthcare system is.
I understand. What I had in mind is that Cletus probably thinks he would get free treatment. Not only that, but Trump, the GOP and MAGA people say that illegal immigrants get free treatment in emergency rooms. Where I live in Atlanta there are thousands of illegal immigrants. They are treated in emergency rooms like anyone else. The hospitals have to treat them, by law. But they are definitely charged for it! I suppose many of them are never able to pay no matter how much the hospital tightens the screws. You can't squeeze blood from a turnip.
There was a long article in the Atlanta Journal about illegal immigrants and poor people whose lives were destroyed by hospital bills.
I had to spend 4 unpleasant hours waiting in the emergency room this year, in a crowd of people writhing in agony and throwing up. All of us largely ignored. Except for the person who actually passed out. Anyway, there were dozens of people who could not speak English. I suppose many were illegal aliens, given our neighborhood.
It is quite a contrast to the hospitals I went to when I lived in Japan. In Japan, if you come in the door bleeding, they help you right away, rather than letting you sit for hours. Such a novel approach! Maybe someday we will have such a system . . . but I digress.
We will have a decent nation and a decent government when all of the profit has been dragged from promoting racism, sexism and nationalism, and not a moment before. For as long as there are people who can convince themselves that they are better than someone else because of faith, gender, or the color of their skin this country will remain at war with itself. The civil war and the actions over the intervening hundred and seventy five years have proven the truth of that, even if no one has been listening.
My wife was talking about how the rural conservatives she grew up around always loved that by under-funding their local schools they could keep the "rich libs" in town from affording as much nice stuff for their schools. Bleeding the "bleeding hearts" dry. We need to cut done of the funding off.
If it were up to me, red states wouldn’t get a penny of my tax dollars. If they want to go back to 1860 or pre-Enlightenment days, they can but they can do it without blue state money. Fuck ‘em.
But if there is no ER because the rural hospital closed, Cletus is out of luck.
Thoughts and prayers.
Clearly it's the immigrants taking up all the ventilators and denying Cletus his government sponsored ventilator funded by tariffs that exceed the gross value of all imports. If only the libs would deny medical access to non-citizens, Cletus would still be alive...
Sounds like a win-win result to me.
Poor Lurleen!
It doesn't matter. They refuse to believe that Trump is responsible.
If the Felon is not responsible, that just means he is irresponsible, which is what we have been propagating for years.
WAY too nuanced for the median trump voter, David.
True, Steve, but they don't read the Bulwark anyway. I'm not even willing to bet that the "median Trump voter" CAN read.
Yes. It'll be due to the "Biden overhang."
Is that anything like the “Trump overhang”, which is visible in almost every golf shot and tennis shot.
He could pick up a fairly reasonably priced air compressor at Tractor Supply when he stops in to stock up on ivermectin.
If he has the cash to do it....
If he's in a pinch, he could get a manual model. I think you can still get a cheap bicycle pump for about $20 or so...
The MAHA-Trump Policy solution: make ventilators illegal, that will immediately stop Trump voters from dying on a ventilator.
If that's what they want. They can shag-ass off to that "better place". The rest of us will get by somehow.
Not only that, but many probably did die on a ventilator in 2020 and 2021 while denying they even had COVID.
Not probably--they *did*. You had people being offered final facetime chats with family while spit-screaming at doctors on their last breaths that CV was fake.
I've often pondered whether Biden won by a thin margin in 2020 because so many Trump voters died from Covid. I believe there were studies proving more Republicans were dying than Democrats. Then along came Joe Rogan and the manosphere capturing the votes of young people and here we are with the orange menace again. I am all for factual campaigning, but the Dems need to wake up and understand that they have to reach ALL potential voters - which means doing the factual AND the "vibes" because that is how some people vote these days and they absolutely have to reach them, too, if they want to win.
In 2020 there was no vaccine, so Democrats and Republicans were dying in roughly equal numbers. In 2021, the anti-vaccination movement grew mainly among Republicans. From that year on, they died in greater numbers than Democrats. Not enough died to change the 2024 election, unfortunately.
See:
Pro-Trump counties continue to suffer far higher COVID death tolls
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/19/1098543849/pro-trump-counties-continue-to-suffer-far-higher-covid-death-tolls
Estimated preventable COVID-19-associated deaths due to non-vaccination in the United States
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10123459/
That’s why I like Newsom’s ads. He’s using everything Felon Trump says against him. If you don’t like what Newsom says, why do you like DonOld who just said the same thing?
There was an article by a nurse from South Dakota saying just that. She had to calm a COVID patient in order for a doctor intubate him, and he’s yelling that he doesn’t have COVID. She said she heard this more than once.
So sad; so many dying alone, in denial and terror.
It’s just plain wrong.
You may be referring to this dreadful story:
https://x.com/CNNThisMorning/status/1328319845012824065
Here is a similar account from a doctor in Alabama:
‘I’m sorry, but it’s too late’: Alabama doctor on treating unvaccinated, dying COVID patients
QUOTE:
“I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections,” wrote Cobia, a hospitalist at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, in an emotional Facebook post Sunday. “One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.”
https://www.al.com/news/2021/07/im-sorry-but-its-too-late-alabama-doctor-on-treating-unvaccinated-dying-covid-patients.html
These people are so ignorant, they do not realize that a vaccine only works to prevent disease, not to cure it once you are infected.
No she was from South Dakota not Alabama. I think I heard it on NPR. That’s the only radio news I listen to.
The first link above goes to a story on X, which begins:
A South Dakota ER nurse @JodiDoering says her Covid-19 patients often “don’t want to believe that Covid is real.”
“Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real.’ And when they should be... Facetiming their families, they’re filled with anger and hatred.”
It sounds like the person you reference. Maybe not?
Absolutely! Thank you.
There is a behavior pattern in authoritarian regimes--the most notable example being Tsarist Russia.
1) Things are shitty--economy is bad, people are oppressed, everything seems to be going the wrong way;
2) The Tsar doesn't get blamed for things being bad, the people who get blamed are those bureaucrats and functionaries that are either running things contrary to what the Tsar actually wants or who are misinforming/misleading him.
This goes until things go so undeniably bad that simply "fixing" the people under the Tsar is seen as futile, blame starts shifting to the top, and it is decided that the whole rotten system must go. It usually takes something major to trigger this (like losing a war).
The shift doesn't happen short of a catastrophe or an extended period of absolute shittiness.
So Trump is safe, especially since I really do not think he is going to make it through his entire term, the way things look. He may still be drooling at the top of the hierarchy three years from now (if he is still alive) but he won't be doing much Presidenting (not that he does much now).
This is not necessarily a good thing, BTW. It gives the jackals below him freedom to do what they want--most of which is either stupid or actively malicious.
As they used to say, "if only the Tsar knew!"
Remember, most of the Russian people neither saw or heard the Tsar. He was totally isolated by his family and ministers. If the people really knew how incompetent he actually was, the Tsar would have been replaced sooner by those who wanted a change of government and did not want the Bolshevik’s in power. Felon Trump is not safe because he is in the public eye daily. He is not winning much in the courts, and he really cannot depend on the Supreme Court approving of his hijacking the Constitution. I do not see Roberts watching his legacy go up in flames over DonOld. I do agree that his health is deteriorating and his minders are rushing to get as much done before he collapses mentally.
The American public (particularly the MAGA part of it) has displayed an enormous capability of ignoring stuff that they do not want to see.
I can easily see Roberts and the other conservative members approving his hijacking of the Constitution. They totally made-up Presidential immunity for him, after all. THAT (plus an obviously in the tank federal judge and a timorous AG) saved his ass.
They don't have any legacy left to lose, pretty much everyone hates them at this point for some decision they have made.
I’m not sure. Bush, 43, was asked about his administration’s policy in Iraq. What would historians say in fifty years. His reply, “we’ll all be dead.” But in his president library, the interactive displays invites the visitor to choose which policy would serve the American people. One response validates Bush’s actions, the other points to failure. I believe this was from NPR, because I heard the answers for one example on the radio, not newspapers.
Roberts is keenly aware that he will bear the brunt of his court’s decisions. He will track differently, if he sees the wind changing. He can cut Alito and Thomas loose, because those two boat anchors have outlived their usefulness, and he and Barrett can play spoiler.
Here is the thing, these people will be dead before their legacy is determined and they are well aware of that (Bush’s answer is telling here). I am not familiar wih the specifics of your Presidential Library example here—but note that the “correct” answer is the one that validates what Bush did.
That isn’t about posterity making a judgment, it is about forcing a judgment on posterity. F—k what you think, we were right.
We did the right thing… and if you disagree that just means that you are an idiot or a libtard loser.
Posterity and legacy is rewritten all the time (look at the US Civil War). It is also contextual. Who wins the fight also has a lot to do with it. I do not think that many modern politicians or powerful prople are really all that concerned about their legacy.
Remember who actually vetted and chose the conservative members of SCotUS—it wasn’t Trump—the Heritage Foundation. There was a reason for that. They have a particular ideology and agenda and they seem pretty intent om making that happen. They are willing to seemingly ignore precedent and the Constitution (or “interpret” it “properly.”
If authoritarianism—the Unitary Executive that these people favor—takes hold, their legacy is secure for a generation or more… and they will feel good about themselves because they “did the right thing.”
People, I think, place far too much emphasis on these peoples’ consideration of their legacy (especially in light of their identity/ideology)—and their judgment of what their legacy is going to be, in THEIR own minds—and whose percpetion of that legacy they care most about, which may not be who you think.
I agree totally. History get revised all the time because either new information is available, ie. submersibles found that the Titanic did break, and a sea change occurred about those who did see something others did not want to believe, ie women on board the Titanic, and male interests in ignoring women.
Just as George Bush was concerned about how he would be remembered, all people in high positions think the same. And act. I do not think that John Roberts is willing to let the chips fall where they may. He is too caught up in the trappings of his own greatness so he will try, just as Bush did to shore up his legacy. It will exist only for a little while, but he knows that.
But they might vote for an very left Democrat. It's the centrists that ruined the country and left everyone out but the rich.
You may be right. How many Bernie voters in 2016 voted for Trump that year?
Are they ready to switch back to AOC or Wes Moore?
I honestly have no idea, but I'm guessing neither since they're not white.
Americans will not accept a woman president . They hate competent women and have contempt for women who are like , say , Reagan , and dont know the details
What if she is attractive, entertaining, knows the details better than anyone but isn’t preachy or condescending and is a good dancer.
she will either bee TOO attractive or not attractive enough . I think we have proved the gender barrier will fall very late if at all . Wish I was wrong .
But can she make good fried chicken and good chocolate chip cookies???
The Covid deaths already proved this.
Not just a centrist Democrat. Republican voters have been so brainwashed about how evil Democrats are that they likely would vote for anyone except a Democrat.
But they won’t go quietly on that imaginary “ventilator”. Remember, they won’t be incapacitated as with Covid, just angry at being turned away. MAGA anger + guns = lethal violence.
I stand by my belief that RFKJr or Tulsi are top contenders to capture the Trump base, in front of JD and certainly other bland GOP names.
I know this is off-topic, but I just read this article and it needs to be read widely. The regime is not even trying to be coy about their intentions anymore: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/02/fbi-arrest-us-army-veteran-ice-protest
Agree but then let the trash that voted for him die a painful death.
A number of them put that perception into practice during the COVID pandemic.
I love how the most powerful man in the world is just an interested bystander when it comes to pharma in general and vaccines specifically. The idea that HE, the President, couldn’t just share what the companies supposedly showed him is laughable. He shares state secrets regularly, but can’t be bothered to share the data that Pfizer has shown him? I mean, I understand that this is for the idiots who support him. The nut bags who want to take his greatest achievement (Warp Speed) away from him. And sadly, he does have to give it up. I wonder how much it hurts for him to have to give the thing that even Democrats give him lots of credit for?
Trump took credit for "warp speed" but then he didn't because his cult followers demanded the freedom to get sick and spread disease. Then he was against the vaccine even though he took it. Then, with Kennedy, Trump was against all vaccines. Now he isn't sure. But Trump love Kennedy because they both share the same world view -- that what they want to have happen is what happens, and reality is the illusion.
I think he loves Kennedy because that name has the cachet that Trump never had
That may be why he hasn't yet officially renamed the Kennedy Center as the Trump Center. Even trump thinks that's sacrilegious!
Yes, any Kennedy was highly regarded in the Manhattan elite. Not Donny from Queens.
I lived in Manhattan when Donny first came to NYC as a “real estate mogul”. He was a joke then. He’s still a joke. Can’t believe it’s “Lil’ Donny from Queens who is wrecking our democratic republic. Can’t believe there are that many stupid voters in the US
Mike Royko, an op ed writer for Chicago’s two newspapers wrote about this conundrum. He was referring to the Jessie Jackson phenomenon. Jackson was a Chicago activist who was getting close to his sell-by date when he went on the National media. He used his city smarts to attract some national names, pushed his rainbow coalition, and voila, became relevant. Having exposure in Chicago propelled him, same as DonOld got having NY City credentials. People are stupid, Royko wrote then, and haven’t changed one bit.
MSNBC said the same thing today on Morning Joe.
Can’t suffer through joe scarborough anymore but glad it was said to their audience
"Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, said on Friday that Kennedy is “a crown jewel” of Trump’s administration". Then, picture our POTUS wearing a crown of serpentine wire with an orange piece of drek hanging at its center, his skull dripping Texas Tea, nailed naked to a golden cross...mumbling 'where are my doctors?'.
Tell DT that he will win a Nobel Peace Prize for his warp speed vaccine....
That's my thought as well. Operation Warp Speed was one of the few good things from his first presidency which was overall a dumpster fire.
I would wonder, too, but, as Rhett Butler famously said, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
Either he’s part of the old ‘good cop/bad cop’ strategy, or he really is clueless what is actually happening in his name.
The latter, I think. Either no one is telling him or he doesn't remember what he's been told. Or both.
plus t***p doesn't care about operation warp speed . Gave him non money and unable to use it to draw attention to himself
Every Trump maneuver is a conjuring act of failure, a dark magic in which solvable problems are twisted into unsolvable calamities. Medicaid is gutted, not out of necessity, but out of spite. Premium tax credits are left to wither, bleeding families dry. Vaccines, are recast as satanic tokens in a carnival of grievance. There is no logic, no strategy, only the malignant instinct to inflict damage and call it triumph.
If America were a company, shareholders would have rioted, the board would have dragged him from the building in disgrace. He is economic illiteracy incarnate, a CEO who burns payroll while salting the fields that once produced profit. Yet here, grotesquely, incompetence is not a flaw to be hidden, it is the brand itself. Suffering is the currency. Chaos is the dividend. Every cut, every vanished subsidy, every denial of medicine is not an accident of governance, but the very marrow of his governance.
With Trump, you never get the lesser evil, never even the neutral stalemate. You get the worst of all worlds simultaneously. The cruelty of austerity without the fiscal savings, the performative bluster without strategic gain. It is governance as a suicide pact, spectacle as statecraft, the black hole of his ineptitude devouring not just policy, but the very idea of a functioning republic.
There are a bunch of people smarter than Trump (such as Michael Anton) who latched on to his malignant instinct because they shared some of his core prejudices - and then poured immense energy into an effort to package his 'instincts" as a deeply thoughtful, coherent, fundamentally moral political philosophy called "Trumpism." or more formally, "America First." It was mostly just their own political philosophy.
The idea that Donald Trump ever had deeply thoughtful and coherent ideas about governance and America's place in the world, or anything else, is absurd on its face.
Carol, I’ve always been struck by the phrase “the smart people around Trump.” It gets repeated so often, as though proximity to a toddler with matches confers genius. But what has his administration ever done that looks like competence, foresight, or strategy? Project 2025 isn’t brilliance, it’s demolition. Demolition doesn’t require intelligence. A toddler can wreck a room in minutes. That doesn’t make the toddler a brilliant human mind. It just makes them destructive.
So yes, there are operatives like Anton who tried to lacquer Trump’s tantrums with philosophy, who turned his prejudices into a glossy brochure called “America First.” But that’s marketing, not intellect. The actual record, the Medicaid cuts, the vanished subsidies, the public health sabotage, shows nothing but chaos and ruin. If this is what “the smart people” produce, then we’ve redefined intelligence down to the ability to justify the wreckage.
Patrick you nailed it: "a toddler could"...that's because the people driving this have the emotional intelligence of a toddler. So, we should not be surprised that they are governing via tantrum, where the toddlers they lead see inflicting damage as triumph.
"the malignant instinct to inflict damage and call it triumph"
Most succinct and best definition I've seen yet of MAGA's and the GOP's basic M.O.
Props for that one.
I wish I'D written that! Beautiful use of the English language.
My brilliant and compassionate father died from Parkinson’s, during COVID. It is a horrible disease and devastating for a family. My thoughts are with Mr. Mueller, his family and friends.
Steven Miller thinks RFK is a "crown jewel"
FIFY: The cuck incel thinks the heroin addict brainworm damaged psychopath is a crown jewel.
This would be laughable if these two "crown jewels" weren't leading the other "Crown jewel" - dementia diaper don and the rest of the country down the path of destruction
May we please jump straight to "Clown Jewels"? It will sprinkle the tiniest bit of sugar on the shit sandwich....
You beat me to it! Bravo!
Trump has a kind of street savvy...his entire cabinet is composed of incompetent fools who at least understand that only Trump would have hired them for these responsible jobs. He basks in the questionable certainty that he is the smartest person in the room, pulling all the strings, while they take a deep breath, lie and tell him how wonderful he is. Daily.
These horrible people understand that without Trump they are nothing. So the mutual admiration is high. They know that once Trump goes, their careers, such as they are, are over. And many of them would be well advised to quietly disappear.
I disagree that they are nothing. Nearly everyone single one of them is rich and hyper rich. https://www.citizen.org/article/trumps-billionaire-cabinet-represents-the-top-0001-percent/ And that excludes the richest man on earth. And if they're not rich, they're notorious or have an outsized reputation. And, I venture, most of them are definitely not fools. They're ideologues are well placed to become successors to take control of the country after POS disappears. We underestimate them at our peril.
Because he and Kennedy believe white people are the master race.
Which the two of them are the best evidence that it ain't even close to the truth.
So true. And the “ick” factor with both of them….
More like Crown Fools. Lucky us.
RE: two "crown jewels"
A pair of nuts without a pair of balls between them.
"I am shocked, shocked" . . . to find that the orange narcissist-felon has the attention span of a housefly.
He doesn't read. He doesn't listen to anyone but himself, or his adoring sycophants issuing groveling untruths about how wonderful he is (see the recent three-hour 'cabinet' meeting).
How could you expect this brain-fading imitation of a human to have a sane grasp on the health issues? All the wisdom and knowledge he possesses of the nation's real medical matters you could stick in your eye, and not even feel.
Please forgive my somewhat hyperbolic comment. Candidly, I wouldn't hire (or vote for) this man to carry out my trash.
That cabinet circle jerk should be on every electronic billboard...cringey to the max! Looking forward to Newsom's parody of same...
That parody, to quote Hamlet, is "a consummation devoutly to be wished" (from the magnificent 'To be' soliloquy, you'll recall, Janet).
As to that 3-hour cabinet meeting...
The Apprentice is now the second worst Trump TV show...
Truly! And I have to say, what kind of person encourages this kind of verbal adulation?? I could not bear to sit through a series of accolades like that, even if I had earned them.
More evidence of Trump's yawning and shameless ego.
who knew health care could be so complicated?
Probably the most effective response to the Trumpian nonsense that foreign entities pay tariffs is the tactic being taken by many US importers - show the tariff as a specific line-item on the invoice. You might not see this at Wal-Mart, given the complex origins of a basket of goods at checkout, but it is being seen elsewhere. At some point, MAGA will undoubtedly oppose this practice as "woke" and/or unpatriotic. But it should have an impact.
Amazon tried highlighting the tariff portion for a nanosecond, before being threatened.
If anyone can afford to resist those Stalin-esque threats, Bezos can.
One would think. Same with Tim “Apple”. But they bend the knee anyway. It must be more about access and power, than money.
Amazon wanted to do just that. But DonOld put Bezos in his place, and Bezos backed down in a New York Minute.
“Thank you for your attention to this very important matter!” —DJT
Sorry, but I couldn’t read any further into this newsletter without commenting on Trump’s use of the vernacular (and I’m far from even a good writer).
Seriously, he sounds like an eight year old writing his first written assignment: “In this essay I will attempt to prove…..”
So much for the stable genius, he sounds like an immature buffoon; oh wait……🤪
Robert, I just figured it out!!! He meant he is the smartest ass in the stable!
The problem is that more than half of Americans are only able to read below 6th grade level, which means that Trump is able to form a connection with voters with his writing style.
Democrat politicians really need to work on simplifying their language, so that they stop sounding like university professors.
Agreed..:)
Regarding the Cheap Shot: I'm guessing the manager of the Embassy Suites in Portland, ME is a Bulwark+ member. I don't have any reason to travel to Maine, but if I do, I know where I'll be staying.
Portland is a wonderful city with a great food and drink culture and leaf peaping season is soon...those are my attempts at conjuring a reason.
If this starts a trend. Fox Noise will be replaced by The Bulwark in all Embassy Suites in Maine. And then the rest of the 49 states. Something to look forward to!
Dear God,
Please let this be the sword the Democrats need to slay their dragon.
But then again, they're idiots, so there's that.
Sue
"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress, but I repeat myself" - Mark Twain
That is hilarious and apt when applied to GOP Congresscritters, but it's not fair to the many good Democratic Congresspeople who still exist, including mine.
Not for me to misquote Mr. Twain (Clemens)!
I get really tired of these defeatest comments. Aside from the fact that if you do not elect a Democratic Congress your country is finis, this idea that they are idiots failing the moment is a MAGA pile of progaganda.
FFS get behind the one hope you have. Quickly. Talk it up. Get moving for the midterms. Demand election oversight. Pillory the stupidity coming out of the White House. And once you have adults, any adults, back in office, DEMAND legislation that prevents this sorry mess ever happening again.
Democrats can’t be idiots! They have a new “fight song”! Oh wait . . .
This would be funny except a complicit Republican Congress is standing by while your country is being dismantled and human rights are being abused in a way that would make Putin blush.
The rest of the world is looking on in shock and horror at the horrific fall of the USA. This is no time to sneer at the Democratic party, good grief if they were sacks of flour, they would STILL be better candidates than any Republican. And don't get me started on the foul and lunatic cabinet they confirmed...
You are right again, that ‘now is not the time’. I wrote exactly that, about our side tearing down Newsom as “too slick”. It’s like complaining about a firefighter’s aftershave as he saves your house. My hope is that the DNC would hear the valid complaints and step up to the actual crisis. There are many individual Democrats who are stepping up; Newsom, Pritzker, Moore, Whitehouse, etc. Probably best to ignore the DNC
Exactly. And I agree, there are really impressive Democrats standing up. I am a big fan of Governor Pritzker in particular. He would make a fine president and I think would understand and back the need for the measures that need to be taken going forward to prevent this kind of mess ever happening again.
I think Pritzker tops my list. He’s tough, well spoken, whip smart, and has solid experience. He doesn’t seem to have negatives - oddly during these times, superficial negatives seem most important, like race, religion and gender. That’s our America today.
You are right. But it’s so shocking and frightening when one’s hope for survival is so out of touch. Gallows humor is a release valve for despair.
I get that but this is not the time. There are too many trolls out there posting anti-Democratic party smears right now. They are trying to get folks to give up in despair. Do not let them.
I try to make a point of not judging people by their physical appearance. If somebody has a speech problem I try to see beyond it. RFK breaks all of my attempts at fairness and decency. When I look and listen to him I see a monster who wants to destroy everything. I don’t think he and Don can remain BFFs for very long.
History agrees with you on that subject...and Trump.
Let's ask indispensable Elon what he thinks
Re: Donnie "Two-Dolls"'s demand that pharmaceutical companies share their data on the safety & efficacy of Covid vaccines: Over on bluesky, Jeremy M. Berg posted links to two New England Journal of Medicine articles on the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines from December 2020(!!). He uploaded jpgs of the relevant data illustrations from each paper. These papers were the _placebo-controlled_ Phase 3 clinical research trials that were the basis of the emergency-use authorizations and approvals for the first generation of Covid-19 mRNA vaccines. Each study enrolled very large numbers of patients (30k+ in one, 43k+ in the other). The primary data were released publicly at clinicaltrials.gov.
If you don't know who Jeremy Berg is, he was a long-serving director of the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences at NIH (NIGMS is — was? — the largest extramural grant-making agency inside NIH devoted to basic biomedical research). Before NIGMS, Berg was a faculty member in, and eventually chair of, the department of biophysics and biochemistry at Johns Hopkins University. After NIGMS, he served as editor-in-chief of the top-tier weekly journal _Science._ IOW, Berg's credentials and reputation in the scientific community are unassailable.
If only Donnie "Two-Dolls" could, um, RFK? That is to say, "read for kontent"!
~~~
Re: "Cheap Shots" — This is far superior to playing Fox News or an endless loop of local weather and tourism-promotion ads. Bravo to the Embassy Suites in Portland, Maine! Now, could someone tell us again why anyone would want to go there??
I am from the NW so it takes longer going to Portland ME than to Europe. So I don’t ever see myself anywhere near the great state of Maine. But hats off to the management of this hotel. Hopefully we won’t see some MAGA Kens and Karens summoning an online mob against this fine establishment.
Portland, Maine is a great small city to visit, highly recommended! We've been there several times, but it is difficult to get to if you don't live in the Northeast.
The drive there is easy and very beautiful. The city is on the Casco bay. Easily walkable and the beach area is great for walking and finding shells. I would recommend it for a weekend getaway.
Republican politicians must be taken aback by how the things they run on, when they try to do them, get a lot of blowback from the voters who elected them.
Trump ran on tariffs.
Trump ran on deportation of millions and bloody stories.
Trump ran on placing RFKJ at the head of HHS.
Republicans run on tax cuts for billionaires.
Republicans run on decreasing access to healthcare.
Republicans run on deregulating polluters.
Voters want Republicans in office but don't want them to enact their policies, and I find it very peculiar, because when I vote, I don't vote for people who campaign on policies I find unpalatable. But that's just me.
Democrats, on the other hand, campaign on the opposite of those things, and I like that, so I vote for Democrats.
It's a curious affliction the median voter has, and I'm not even sure getting what they voted for good and hard is enough to fix it.
I'm trying to convince the bright-blue-dot people that billboards, t-shirts, and hats with the slogan "Kamala Was Right About EVERYTHING" could both be convincing & marketable.
The American electorate were warned that Trump was an otherwise empty vessel filled only by his rage & desire for revenge, and that made him a useful tool for the Vought/Dans/Roberts-led Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 and its nefarious plans.
Is there a person in America who does not know, or have a family member, who has not been touched by the myriad of health problems that are part of life? Even MAGA people face chronic, debilitating, life threatening health conditions that have required medical intervention.
If RFK Jr has his way, too bad for you and in Joni Erst’s memorable words,”we all must die”.
That includes Trump and his band of enables, except of course, Stephen Miller, who is not human.
It must be SO infuriating for these scientists who've had to cross so many hurdles just to have a paper published, much less, get a drug on the market...now watching these anti-vaxxers, getting such a prominent seat at the table without so much as a peer review.
RE: "Stephen Miller, who is not human."
I have it on good authority that Miller is actually the result of a collaborative effort between Elon Musk's xAI and Neuralink that escaped from the lab.
Trump’s post says to me that he has figured out, faintly, that he is being managed by forces greater than himself. Just a little glimmer.
It’s obvious to most of the opposition. I have long since started using the term “they” instead of “Trump” when discussing the policies wafting out of DC.
My son has long said he is Zaphod Beeblebrox, supplying his entertaining “Trump Show” while Homan and Miller are the real government.
He's right but he left out the architect of Project 2025...Russell Vought. He's right there. Musk might have outshined him with DOGE but he and it accomplished Vought's aim of gutting parts of the bureaucracy.
Clever analysis!
Careful, JF... I don't think Trump's acknowledged "they" as one of his preferred pronouns.
“Forced relocation of the entire Gaza population” is genocidal. This is particularly so in light of concurrent acts such as imposed starvation, deprivation of medical care and other acts construed as war crimes or crimes against humanity. Proof of intent would not seem a high hurdle in this instance.
I have an idea....let's move the Palestinians to the homes of everyone who didn't vote for Biden due to his Palestinian-Israel stance.
Good Lord, Jeff, don't you think these poor people have suffered enough?
OMG...that was a very hearty LOL...thanks...I needed that. Good one!
If this was the 40s I would suggest we form a comedy duo, but then again, I can't dance or sing.