I don't live in Kentucky, but I love this guy. Trump calls the guy with two degrees from MIT a moron at a prayer breakfast. He doesn't get all red-in-the-face. He thanks him for keeping him in his prayers.
Trump runs some ex-SEAL against him. Massie says "I vote with the President 91% of the time. The other 9%, when he's covering up for pedophiles, spending money we don't have and getting us involved in foreign wars, I don't." Let Mr. SEAL run out there and say he'll be 100% for Trump. Let's see how that works. Let's see how many Kentuckians want a guy who'll be all on board with that 9%.
I don't know if he'll win or not, but his seems to be the boldest way to take on Trump. Don't let him get away with the bullying. Call him out.
Some of this might be luck, but luck is good! The Epstein Files are a real thing and when Massie first started talking about them, they were kinda fringy. He got on the right issue at the right time and he deserves to benefit from it.
I admire Massie's courage. Americans admire people with courage, who would've thought? There are a few other people taking on death threats for this besides Massie: Stansbury, Khanna, Raskin, and even Greene. Voters notice when people are willing to go up against killers. I don't like Massie's politics but I am rooting for him and praying for his safety.
I admire courage when I find it. If you have ever stepped outside the "norm" and had the guts to say, "Wait a minute, I am NOT satisfied" you know the sinking feeling, the chill in your spine and the feeling of complete isolation. Courage ain't easy - that why it is courage. I remember at my 35th HS reunion only one woman wore a WHITE dress! Courage indeed!
I always thought it was interesting that the word originates from the Latin root "cor", meaning "heart". Bullies like Trump and ICE have no heart. That's why when confronted, they back down.
I always assumed that the women wore black dresses because they felt they were slimming. There were a lot of black dresses. This society still puts all sorts of burdens on women that men are quite free to ignore.
dcicero - for sure! Massie employs very effective mix of righteous truth with some humor, even self deprecating at times. Doesn’t smell like fear at all. More like the famous Gipper “there you go again”
Great counter to someone whose bleats are all bombast & ill will.
Massie is the 2nd Republican I have supported via a campaign donation in the last 4 years - Liz Cheney was the 1st. No other GOP candidates today still running for office would make the cut. The common theme ofc is having the guts to stand up to the Orange Dick-tator-tot.
Someone needs to track down the front line spectator in the blue bathrobe and plush slippers who clearly came out in the cold (look at the clothing of the others in the crowd) to help document what the Felon's Storm Troopers were doing despite the words of the Border Czardine, Homan, that they would be withdrawn.
Perhaps "Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune" can help the search, because that woman deserves some kind of public recognition for her dedication to doing what is right, regardless of the potential personal discomfort. If you find her fast enough, try your best to get her up on stage one of the nights you guys are there.
Thank you, Karen, that saves the looking. I still say she deserves greater recognition for her responding to the call of duty, although I doubt that was part of the job description.
That's my old neighborhood. My wife used to work at the coffee shop on the corner, and we both lived in several buildings within a stone's throw of that incident.
I say that only to say this. It is utterly insane that there was a high speed chase in a neighborhood filled with churches, shops, restaurants, single family homes, old folks homes and apartment buildings. There is a YWCA right across the street and a park for children ffs. Every other block in that neighborhood has a stop sign. I still take my dog up to the pet hospital a block away from that picture because it's a such a great place to reward him with a walk afterwards.
And for what? What was accomplished? Another check mark on Stephen Miller's "3K every day, make the brown folks go away" quota?
I can't believe how completely irresponsible it was, and it makes me want to scream at Tom Homan for saying that they "made Minnesota safer."
I remember a photo of a man in a bathrobe from a couple of weeks ago too...maybe around the time of the murder of Rene Good. Someone should pull together all such photos for a pictorial view of observation of ICE action in Minnesota.
Requiring a birth certificate or passport to vote is unnecessarily burdensome. Why not fall back on the tried-and-true election security measures of yore, like guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar?
It's a form of poll tax. Getting a passport or your birth certificate from your state costs money and takes time.
And what, ultimately, does that mean for all of us who have been voting for years if this passes? Do local election bureaus and states wipe all the rolls clean and start again, forcing all of us to re-register?
It's hard to answer since we don't have final bill text from Congress.
Florida (my state) is trying to do its own state version of the SAVE act (SB 1334 - https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/1334). But even that keeps changing in committee right now (we have a part time state legislature which is currently in session).
There's been versions of the FL bill that would purge the rolls, and versions that don't. There are versions where you only need to prove citizenship once, and versions where you need documents in hand every time you change your address or update your record or vote.
FWIW - I don't think this gets through Congress. The Republicans in the Senate are unlikely to nuke the filibuster. For now, the real danger is state legislative bootlickers trying to make Daddy Trump happy by acting on these priorities at the state level.
No plan. That's a woman's problem, nothing for Congress to worry about. The whole point is to put bumps in the road to registration and therefore to voting. It is voter suppression, but not done as out in front as it was done in Jim Crow days.
I just figure somebody is going to be asking how they intend to deal with tens of millions of women being ineligible to vote due to a name change. Surely they've got something better than, "Hunter Biden's laptop."
They'll say (because I've already seen it argued in a social media post populated by common folk): How insulting that you think women are too stupid to figure out how to get a marriage certificate and birth certificate! If women are too stupid to hang on to those important documents they are too stupid to vote!
Well sure. Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure when the guys realize they too are required to show a birth certificate, they'll have to count on those too-stupid women (moms and wives) who have kept and know where to find said documents, because they'll have no clue.
My understanding is that women who changed their name legally when they married would need to jump/go through some very cumbersome hoops to register - and that it could likely prevent tens of millions of women from voting. Probably a coincidence that women voted for democrats by roughly 55% to 45% in trumps three elections. Nothing to see here, or, as they say down south, ‘nuthin to worry yur purty little head about m’am. Why don’t you got rustle up some grub, iron my shirts and leave these things up to the men?’
Republicans are nothing if not inconsistent. They had fits until they got abortion thrown back to the states, and now want to take voting AWAY from the states, and to the Federal government (which goes against the Constitution) and under the watchful eye of Daddy Trump. I have never had a problem voting, they never even ask to see my voter ID card, just my driver’s license. When I went to get my REAL ID so I could fly once a year to CA to see my sister (at a facility 40 minutes away), I was turned away because the name on my driver’s license wasn’t the same as that on my birth certificate, I was told you had to have a marriage license for each marriage you had had. I sent off for another copy of it, but now I’m thinking maybe I’ll just pay TSA $45 bucks once a year to fly. Maybe Republicans are hoping people will be so disgusted with having to jump through hoops they’ll give up on voting, even if they aren’t the poor or elderly, for whom those can be pretty big hoops.
Absolutely it is voter suppression. Sneaky, not as out in the open as the Jim Crow variations were, and masked in anti-voter fraud rhetoric but it is designed to discourage people from bothering to even register.
And by the way it isn't just the cost of getting the documentation, it is also the wait time to get them. In my state it can take 5 to 7 weeks to get a certified copy of a birth certificate. The voter registration deadline might well be passed before someone gets their certificate.
And states would have to train poll workers on identifying false documents? How many? Most states have multiple forms of driver's licenses, there is a passport card, a passport book.....?
It's much easier to train us to review signature comparisons in the poll book versus citizen on election day.
I would be interested to hear if this is an issue for poll workers in states that accept id at the polls.
All these ‘hoops’ add up to the same thing; massive voter suppression that disproportionately affects minorities, the poor and women. All a big coincidence, perhaps….
Wait until they realize that many Trump supporters can’t afford to get their birth certificate, a passport, or a marriage license. Of course these are the Trump supporters that this regime keeps kicking down only to watch them get up and say, “Thank you, may I have another!?!”
I'm sure that is the intent behind this bill. And remember, the bill is predicated on fraud, of which there has been none proven that affected the outcome. It's a Trumpworld product. It's based on lies. So it stinks every which way to Sunday.💩
It's also nonsensical. Think about your own birth certificate. If there is a physical description of you on it at all, it is birth weight and length. If you are old like me, it has a right footprint on it. I don't know about anyone else, I don't resemble that physical description at all. I didn't when I was 16 getting my first drivers license, nor at 29 when I applied for a passport.
It's really ridiculous that such a piece of paper is somehow deemed to be conclusive as to where someone was born and then use it as the basis for official identification documents for the rest of one's life. It's all we've got I suppose but all the caterwauling about it for voting purposes is just silly.
"If you are old like me, it has a right footprint on it. "
FYI, a birth certificate that old is no longer regarded as adequate for obtaining a passport, as it does not have a raised gold seal on it. So a lot of older people who don't already have a passport will need to obtain a new birth certificate to use for voter ID if these stupid laws pass, even if they still have their old one!
What's interesting is that it's likely to be the white, rural voter who doesn't travel internationally that also gets excluded here. How many of them have their papers in order? Which party is more likely to organize their voters to get their papers in order?
I suspect it would not be a problem for people who have stayed put. Growing up in rural NJ, I met people who rarely left the county! I'm sure they can find their paperwork in the family home and the GOP & the county would help fill gaps.
And totally unnecessary. All claims of fraud have been adjudicated and dismissed. It's only necessary to flatter Trump's delusion. The nation is il (sic). 😉 - a little joke for you grammar nerds out there.
I presume this will increase the number of women who keep their birth names when they marry, which I also presume will mightily upset the trad types. Which will then mean laws requiring women to take their husbands' names (in the interest of family values/honoring God/national security/some such thing, of course) as a placeholder for revoking the 19th amendment altogether.
Young women, do NOT change your name when you get married. It's a trap. I wish someone had told me that (mumble mumble) years ago when I got married. There is ZERO benefit and it will be a PITA for your entire life. And after you go through all the inconvenience, the revanchists just use your acquiescence to disenfranchise you. That's your reward for playing along with their games every damn time.
Back in the 80s, when I got married, there was real pushback from both sides of the family about my decision to stick with my birth name, and I even got flack from the IRS (which would not believe I still had the same name, no matter how many times I told them). But I never regretted it, and lord knows I was glad when I got divorced that I didn't have to jump through those hoops all over again.
I didn’t change my name when I married 30 years ago, but all my children have my husband’s last name.
When my oldest was graduating from high school, the school called me to confirm his middle name because they thought he had given them a joke name to read at commencement; during the call the secretary apologized and assured me that it would be all right if I didn’t know the name since obviously I wasn’t his “real mother”.
Biting my tongue to keep from calling her an ignorant provincial hick, I assured her that my son’s middle name was his grandmother’s maiden name (my mother’s) and it was not in fact a prank.
So there is the annoying occasional confusion to deal with from those who are unfamiliar with the concept of not taking a husband’s name.
I recall the school nurse calling, issues with a 1 st grade girl ( introverted, so a little emotional ) that nurse and all the local school refused to deal with
the 3 girl's birth mother ( long story, not worth it ) She's say, do you have
a problem signing a paper saying you are her mother, I said, I'll sign it, just a form right? She was a decent school nurse, was about the child, not any woman.
I was happy to change my name because I didn't know my biological father or his family. They never bothered to reach out to baby me, so I didn't have an emotional connection to his name. It was just some syllables. But after a few decades and raising children, I can say with experience and confidence that there is no benefit to doing it whatsoever. It would not have changed my relationship with my husband, who I honestly think could care less.
Before the Pill, women who were not married were considered odd, Catholic nuns excepted. I remember the card game Old Maid. You lost the game if you got stuck with her at the end.
Interesting that my 32 year old daughter and all her friends who were married in the last 5 to 7 years have taken their husband's surnames. No angst about whether or not to do it, no fears that their own identity in a metaphysical sense is compromised. Maybe it's because they are getting married at slightly older ages than was the usual in my day and they are more confident that they will be seen as individuals in their own rights, not appendages to their husbands. They aren't thinking about the practical considerations...changing name on credit cards and drivers licenses and such.
Kate, I remember when my oldest sister got married in 1960, her name, if I mailed something to her, was Mrs. (husband's name). That was her social identity.
funny, I have or had nine sisters, most of them married more than once, ahem )
I was late to getting married, chose to tell society I don't think the church or
the state really need to be in any relationship. anyway, NONE of them, my sisters ever went by Mrs HE, or even Mrs unless required by some office . Even on Christmas cards, always their first name, their last name on the outside of the envelopes, whether they took his name or not.
When you don’t believe in democracy and find elections inconvenient then fewer people voting or making it difficult is the desired result. Yes, low propensity voters are more Republican these days, but that isn’t the point it is a out as few people as possible participating as they don’t like or approve of the whole process of democratic representation.
I wonder if the GOP hasn't updated their playbook and priors for our modern realignment. The realignment has given Dems a big advantage in low turnout elections the past few cycles.
I mean, I want more people to vote personally. But it's not clear to me that requiring a passport, for example, hurts the more worldly Democratic party more than the Busch Light MAGA crowd, ya know? And for the Democratic party aligned groups that are negatively impacted, while any barrier sucks, there's long-standing advocacy groups for folks with disabilities or voters of color, and so on, in the South. There aren't really resistance networks that help mobilize white trash, outside of existing anti-poverty groups that help everyone regardless of race.
The SAVE act appears to be targeted to women and people who have trouble paying for passports and other documents. I think they think women are liberals so it's worth disenfranchising a few poor people. I eagerly await news on whether a marriage certificate is acceptable documentation to these mokes.
From what I can tell the answer to the marriage license is "yes" but the caveat is you still need the birth certificate so you can show a direct line from birth certificate to marriage license name change to you. It's a bunch of crap and if they were really serious about voter ID they (the government) would find a better way such as using your birth certificate on record paired with your current ID (ie: driver license) and send you a voter ID card at no cost.
When I got a passport for the first time as a middle aged adult getting my birth certificate took about 7 or 8 weeks -- I was born in Seattle , not abroad .How in the world could millions of people get birth certificates between the time the travesty is law and the election?
I know voter suppression is the point , but I would think passport holders are disproportionately Ds . Not just evil , but dumb , thats the Trumpers
I wrote it earlier (above), but to be succinct - not my strong suit - women swung for Trump on average by 54% to 46% over his three elections. Everything is a personal affront to Trump. He loves abusing women, but hates women. He hates female reporters. He hates female congressional reps who speak out against him. He hates that women smell his diaper sooner than men. He hates that women’s ability to detect his BS is by percentage higher than men. He hates women because men overwhelmingly have voted for him by a significantly higher percentage than women.
Its to register to vote. But IL and CA require ID and proof of residence to register to vote anyway. This is all fake outrage. Proving who you are when you register funnels people into the right polling place.
I worked elections for years and if a voter's name is not a list of registered voters for that precinct, you can't vote.
You have to go to your precinct. If you can't they will let you fill out a provisionary paper ballot, which does not even get counted unless the candidates tie.
This whole thing is all performance to make people believe the elections are rigged. He just can't stand he that he lost in a fair election.
The Solidarity movement is probably implied in this newsletter's mention of anti-communist protest, but I've been thinking about liberation theology lately as well (maybe Talarico has put it in mind... maybe the fact that I've been reading some Allende). I don't think the Catholic Church choosing an American cardinal for Pope was an accident.
"Besides the civil rights movement and the Soviet-bloc anti-communist movements, what other models should we draw inspiration from? Who else has fought authoritarianism and won?"
It's Lent and lots of people will be reading about Romans and Pharisees this month, although this invites another question: What exactly does winning look like?
Stephen Miller out of government , and spending his life voluntarily , effectively, efficiently promoting the health and well being of immigrants and disabled people and people of color , assisted by his repentant associates
Or maybe just a suite of laws that make this less likely , which will stand up on appeal to a newly chastened SCOTUS .
Or perhaps a significantly altered SC ? More justices, or perhaps even some small initiative to convince some members to retire or face some very uncomfortable investigations by a reawakened and realigned DOJ? Who can really say what would happen if some justices were faced with losing their summer home (s) or even losing their RV?
Lynn's vision of an out-of-power Stephen Miller brought to mind Chuck Colson, who went to prison for his role in Watergate, had a religious conversion, and came out dedicated to prison ministry. Seeing Stephen Miller go through some variant of that would be wild.
But even better would be the other thing Lynn said: pass laws that can hold up in court. A whole lot of that happened, post-Watergate...and it took the court some decades to tear it down. Looks like we have to do it again, but better--perhaps with some Constitutional amendments?
Getting constitutional amendments passed in Congress requires Democrats controlling both chambers. (Fortunately, the president has no veto authority in the matter.) So please do all you can to support Democratic candidates in the midterms. See https://dccc.org and https://www.dscc.org.
In the near term, Democrats winning at least the House, and, please God, the Senate. Longer term means a Democratic trifecta. I don't want to think about how likely that would be because it means the Democrats would have to keep their Congressional majorities.
Bill, thanks for meeting and talking on a human level with the folks doing the work in Minnesota. I think that some of the political disillusionment many Americans feel now, and have felt for a while, comes from various fonts of public discourse that are disconnected from the reality on the ground. It can only improve the quality and accuracy of The Bulwark's reporting if you can include real texture from the trenches of the fight, not just the flyover impressions from the window seat of a coast-to-coast plane ride. Inspired piece this morning!
Thank you for your positive observations of minnesota. for all but six years of my life, I have lived here. i despise winter.
But I adore the rest of the year. for the most part minnesotans are great. when compared to most other state, our standard of living, is pretty good. I wish I could be there tonight. Listening to you folks. you bring clarity to what I see.
As a NH native, I used to concur with that belief, but as a retiree living in the Valley of the Sun in AZ, I can tell you two things; 1. Any temperature lower than 70 degrees is unbearable and 2. Withstanding 110 degree days builds just as much character and is fine as long as you only have to walk ten yards to get to the swimmin’ pool!
The Chamber of Commerce is now a left wing group? Do mine eyes deceive? I guess the words *left wing* have no meaning anymore but the Chamber has been a reliable voice for Republicans and their policies for decades. The current administration is quite happy to make everyone poorer and reduce the overall economic activity in this country, and if that means throwing the Chamber overboard so be it I guess just because they support the use of immigrant labor. At some point though when the temptation becomes to great and we put our illegal immigrants in the camps to work which side will the Chamber of Commerce be on then? The titans of German industry were all to happy to take advantage of slave labor, I don’t see our or those who champion them being any different.
this morning I read Bret Stephen’s and ended up wondering if Russia counts as part of Western Civilization. Now I’m wondering if Maoism isn’t to the right of the Chamber of Commerce. Maybe we need new terminology for describing our politics. Or is it enough to justice say delusional vs attempting to gather facts using expertise.
There are people on the far right who believe that Russia became the last bastion of "Western civilization," or at least "Christian civilization," while the rest of the West fell to woke cultural Marxism (which was a Western invention, but never mind).
Solzhenitsyn believed the west went astray during the Renaissance. plenty of Nazi adjacent types argued that Russia and especially Lenin were asiatic despotism. We really need to sort out generation to generation what things in our heritage we value. Fascism not being something to admire imho.
Didn't know that about Solzhenitsyn. Dennis Prager was known to praise him because he was anti-secular. He was also anti-liberal democracy, as the Enlightenment-era Constitution was made possible by the Reformation. The Renaissance is the setting of "The Merchant of Venice" when Jews lived in the Venetian Ghetto. And Jews were accepted as white in the US during the post-war period. That was very liberal period of American history.
I do not understand pro-authoritarian Jews (my conservative friend has been heavily influenced by Prager). Another example is Yoram Hazony. Morning Shots today included a link to Gabriel Schoenfeld's piece on Hazony, saying that his attempt to sort out the problem of right-wing antisemitism is confused. Hazony is a "nationalist conservative." That's what the Nazis were - nationalists. They added that to their socialist party name.
During their periods of empire, the Russians and especially the Czars believed they were the inheritors of the Byzantine empire by virtue of driving the ottomans out of the balkans. I would be surprised if Putin doesn’t believe essentially the same thing
yup the eastern Roman Empire a bunch of schismatics with a long history dating from Gibbons decline of the West when everyone decided they were decadent.
Should I read it to find out exactly which type of Western civilization he's defending? Probably not the same type of Western civilization I defend. It's amazing how many there are.
Bravo to your region. As a native Midwesterner, I am so pleased to see this grass-roots movement that is strengthening the prodemocracy coalition being born in the Midwest.
It turns out that instead of AR-15s, the second amendment needs to protect the right to bear cell phones and whistles as “being necessary to the security of a free State.”
Bill worked for Hubert Humphrey? I know there was a lot of left-to-right movement from the ‘60s to the ‘80s (Bill’s father was in the vanguard), but would never have imagined.
Also, I imagine McLaughlin has already signed a “contributor” deal with Faux News. She’ll just have to lighten her hair and wear tighter dresses.
it doesn’t surprise me about Bill he has to qualities that most of MAGA lacks, intelligence and decency. Bill also seems to have the humility to admit when he has been wrong. Everybody always mentions Bill’s father, but I met his mother several times and she deserves some credit.
She doesn’t have to. Kristie and Corey (Corkie - like brangela) gave her husband a no-bid $200 million dollar contract w/DHS…but if she isn’t planning on running for political office, a carnival barker position w/FOX or one of the other propaganda agencies is likely
I followed a girl to Minnesota after college around the time Bill first visited, but unlike Bill, I stayed for almost 40 until the winters got the best of us.
In my opinion, Minnesotans whine about the cold just as much as anyone. I also will contend that people there aren’t especially nice. Polite? Yah, sure! But nice? Not any nicer than other places.
But what I will say is that Minnesotans are more community-minded than anywhere I’ve ever been. Minnesotans volunteer like nowhere else. And they take their civic responsibility very seriously and with tremendous pride. Witness: Minnesota always leads the US in election turnout. It’s that spirit that’s been displayed over the past two months.
Let’s begin referring to the people there as “Minnesota Strong.”
Thanks for mentioning the consistent, top-of-the-charts voter turnout! I had forgotten about that, definitely an indicator of civic virtue. Minnesota Strong, indeed!
Proud to live in Minneapolis. After Renee's murder, I wondered if it would even make national news. This city is a true melting pot. The community's resilience after Renee and Alex's murders truly amazed me. I'm willing to risk my life for my beliefs, and it was incredible to see how many others shared that sentiment.
Tricia McLaughlin's departure from the Department of Homeland Insecurity is irrelevant. They'll just put in a clone to spout the endless stream of misinformation, disinformation and downright lies (yes, I mean 'lies,' a word so deeply eschewed by the cowardly legacy media), "with arrest and injustice for as many innocent people as possible."
The cheapest solution for the Department of Homeland Insecurity would be to program an AI device that would simulate just another member of the Bimbocracy--they seem to be over-supplied at Fox News, so they might even find a close simulation by an actual 'human.'
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Insecurity is merely obeying the whims of the orange narcissist-felon, proceeding daily to the tune of Orwell's '1984.'
Yep. Just start going through the winners (and runners-up) from various beauty contests and start interviewing. Get the one with the best legs and a voice husky enough to pull a dog sled and you've got your next "high level government official."
Miss California , against gay marriage , newly converted to Catholicism and already and expert in theology . Wait , perhaps she will want to be the Sec State for the Vatican instead . That would also solve the issue of needing t***p to fire her form the religious liberty commission
I know it's a naive wish (and mean) but I hope no one will hire her ever again. It was too late to bail, she has the stench of this regime all over her, smell her for miles.
But she and her hubs have so much money form that DHS publicity contract she never needs to work again . She can just stay home and have babies and rise them to hate others
I don't know if her SES government pay was all she needs for a life of tradwife cosplay, but it was a great networking opportunity for more lucre for the family.
I think it could be that she's a scalp, since she was so publicly tied to the shameful smearing of Pretti and Good and others. It could be that the kitchen got too hot for even her, I think these folks seem like shameless cretins who feel nothing as they lie, but maybe she could no longer find an antacid strong enough to keep the bile down while she tried to the job...
... But yeah, in the end, her leaving is no win. The Trumpists view their own people as replaceable tools, so they feel nothing as she goes, and a new Tricia is ready on the conveyer belt. And for the regime's opponents, McLaughlin had no agency or power in her role, so as a scalp, it's basically nothing for the Dems and resistance.
Re the NPS and history it tells, I volunteered at a park in NJ and I had the task of writing content for our Facebook page. I learned that all the "great houses" in the colonial era were managed with slaves. ... It was news to me but it was important to tell our full history. Thus col. Dey of the NJ militia was a slave owner. It was ok to learn that. And for African American visitors, they felt that their history was included in what NPS told.
History is not enhanced by leaving people out. They may mot be the most important characters or have been in positions of power to make decisions, but it gives context to the times and the lives those people lived. It also highlights the contradictions that exist within people for both good and evil and how we deal with them.
For sure. And in Paterson, NJ where the park was located, we had lots of non white visitors. Trump clearly does not include any but whites in his vision of what makes America work.
"It’s not clear why McLaughlin is leaving." Hasn't her husband (or partner) landed some big government deals for his firm (I remember something along those lines a few days ago, possibly here on Morning Shots)? If so, perhaps her mission is accomplished and she can hide out for a while doing other useless things.
I guess if you’re going to prostitute yourself, your name and your soul, 200 Million is a fair price - but she’s gonna have to update the pre-nup agreement to include half of the profit (est. 190 Million) gained from the no-bid contract hubby just got from DHS
I guess I just ass-u-me that someone so benevolent, hatful and disgraceful would have the insight that she really needs to prepare for the worst - that being a replacement for Pete hegseth on weekend FOX panels
Re: Thomas Massie
I don't live in Kentucky, but I love this guy. Trump calls the guy with two degrees from MIT a moron at a prayer breakfast. He doesn't get all red-in-the-face. He thanks him for keeping him in his prayers.
Trump runs some ex-SEAL against him. Massie says "I vote with the President 91% of the time. The other 9%, when he's covering up for pedophiles, spending money we don't have and getting us involved in foreign wars, I don't." Let Mr. SEAL run out there and say he'll be 100% for Trump. Let's see how that works. Let's see how many Kentuckians want a guy who'll be all on board with that 9%.
I don't know if he'll win or not, but his seems to be the boldest way to take on Trump. Don't let him get away with the bullying. Call him out.
Some of this might be luck, but luck is good! The Epstein Files are a real thing and when Massie first started talking about them, they were kinda fringy. He got on the right issue at the right time and he deserves to benefit from it.
I admire Massie's courage. Americans admire people with courage, who would've thought? There are a few other people taking on death threats for this besides Massie: Stansbury, Khanna, Raskin, and even Greene. Voters notice when people are willing to go up against killers. I don't like Massie's politics but I am rooting for him and praying for his safety.
I admire courage when I find it. If you have ever stepped outside the "norm" and had the guts to say, "Wait a minute, I am NOT satisfied" you know the sinking feeling, the chill in your spine and the feeling of complete isolation. Courage ain't easy - that why it is courage. I remember at my 35th HS reunion only one woman wore a WHITE dress! Courage indeed!
I always thought it was interesting that the word originates from the Latin root "cor", meaning "heart". Bullies like Trump and ICE have no heart. That's why when confronted, they back down.
On the other hand, the people of Minneapolis do.
What does a white dress at a high school reunion signify? I’m not understanding it at all.
I'm with you. No idea.
Is the lack of white dresses because the women at the reunion were in the surprise menopause hell stage of life? I can't figure out any other reason.
I’m mystified by the white dress reference.
Ditto.
I always assumed that the women wore black dresses because they felt they were slimming. There were a lot of black dresses. This society still puts all sorts of burdens on women that men are quite free to ignore.
You're probably right.
If he had said some woman showed in a saran wrap mini dress, I'd think, yeah, courageous.
Oh, that was my outfit.
Aw I'm sure you looked lovely in it.
dcicero - for sure! Massie employs very effective mix of righteous truth with some humor, even self deprecating at times. Doesn’t smell like fear at all. More like the famous Gipper “there you go again”
Great counter to someone whose bleats are all bombast & ill will.
There is nothing like humor to put his orangeness's undies in a bunch. Case in point Stephan Colbert and Jimmie Kimmel.
And they are some massive undies to be sure!
And we all do!
Massie is the 2nd Republican I have supported via a campaign donation in the last 4 years - Liz Cheney was the 1st. No other GOP candidates today still running for office would make the cut. The common theme ofc is having the guts to stand up to the Orange Dick-tator-tot.
Someone needs to track down the front line spectator in the blue bathrobe and plush slippers who clearly came out in the cold (look at the clothing of the others in the crowd) to help document what the Felon's Storm Troopers were doing despite the words of the Border Czardine, Homan, that they would be withdrawn.
Perhaps "Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune" can help the search, because that woman deserves some kind of public recognition for her dedication to doing what is right, regardless of the potential personal discomfort. If you find her fast enough, try your best to get her up on stage one of the nights you guys are there.
The bathrobe lady is a reporter herself:
https://www.mpr.org/stories/2026/02/13/meet-bathrobe-lady-sam-stroozas-mpr-news
Thank you, Karen, that saves the looking. I still say she deserves greater recognition for her responding to the call of duty, although I doubt that was part of the job description.
:)
Luckily for Sam it wasn't 20 below. (probably about 40) That is what us Minnesotans do, don't cha know.
Of course. That explains her attire. And of course, she's a public radio reporter. Praise all around.
And thx for the link.
Thank you for sharing that! Truly inspirational and I type this proudly wearing pajama bottoms.
I appreciate the link - and the work of Ms. Stroozas and everyone in Minnesota who are showing us how it's done.
Thanks for sharing this link. Remarkable reporters on the job everyday in MN.
That's my old neighborhood. My wife used to work at the coffee shop on the corner, and we both lived in several buildings within a stone's throw of that incident.
I say that only to say this. It is utterly insane that there was a high speed chase in a neighborhood filled with churches, shops, restaurants, single family homes, old folks homes and apartment buildings. There is a YWCA right across the street and a park for children ffs. Every other block in that neighborhood has a stop sign. I still take my dog up to the pet hospital a block away from that picture because it's a such a great place to reward him with a walk afterwards.
And for what? What was accomplished? Another check mark on Stephen Miller's "3K every day, make the brown folks go away" quota?
I can't believe how completely irresponsible it was, and it makes me want to scream at Tom Homan for saying that they "made Minnesota safer."
It's a few blocks from my home. Insane and very, very lucky no one was killed.
'Border Czardine'
Thank you David for my first chuckle of the day!
You're welcome, Jeri. 🥂
She was the first one I noticed, too. Slippers, bathrobe, no gloves. Brrr.
Luckily it wasn't 20 below at the time.
Thank you for adding Felon in your note. So many descriptors from which to chose. And czardine, indeed. If you don't mind, I think I'll use it.
Feel free, nothing is copyrighted or trademarked. Share and share alike, for forks sake.
🍴😉
The bathrobe lady is interesting. I almost confused her for Vinnie the Chin Gigante…:)
https://nowiknow.com/wp-content/uploads/c5a36e24bea2ab319420a6241a1e5692.jpg
No Ted Baxter is she.
Touché!…:)
Probably not a lot of people picked up on that one.
I figured that would be the case..:)
Sometimes it best to leave it to some others to pick it up without explaining.
I remember a photo of a man in a bathrobe from a couple of weeks ago too...maybe around the time of the murder of Rene Good. Someone should pull together all such photos for a pictorial view of observation of ICE action in Minnesota.
Yes, she is with Minnesota Public Radio and this photo was in the Mpls Star Tribune.
Requiring a birth certificate or passport to vote is unnecessarily burdensome. Why not fall back on the tried-and-true election security measures of yore, like guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar?
It's a form of poll tax. Getting a passport or your birth certificate from your state costs money and takes time.
And what, ultimately, does that mean for all of us who have been voting for years if this passes? Do local election bureaus and states wipe all the rolls clean and start again, forcing all of us to re-register?
It's hard to answer since we don't have final bill text from Congress.
Florida (my state) is trying to do its own state version of the SAVE act (SB 1334 - https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/1334). But even that keeps changing in committee right now (we have a part time state legislature which is currently in session).
There's been versions of the FL bill that would purge the rolls, and versions that don't. There are versions where you only need to prove citizenship once, and versions where you need documents in hand every time you change your address or update your record or vote.
FWIW - I don't think this gets through Congress. The Republicans in the Senate are unlikely to nuke the filibuster. For now, the real danger is state legislative bootlickers trying to make Daddy Trump happy by acting on these priorities at the state level.
Agree re passage. Thune has said he doesn't have the votes.
What is their plan for female birth certificates?
Whatever it is, I guarantee it won't inconvenience JD Vance and his last name change. Then again, all these guys vote by mail.
They would like women to just stay home...
Yeah…I just can't believe they want be that explicit about it, at least not yet.
They've been saying the quiet part out loud for ages now. Noem says they are going to assure that only the right people vote.
The "again" in MAGA means before the 19th Amendment.
Repeal that annoying constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote.
No plan. That's a woman's problem, nothing for Congress to worry about. The whole point is to put bumps in the road to registration and therefore to voting. It is voter suppression, but not done as out in front as it was done in Jim Crow days.
I just figure somebody is going to be asking how they intend to deal with tens of millions of women being ineligible to vote due to a name change. Surely they've got something better than, "Hunter Biden's laptop."
They'll say (because I've already seen it argued in a social media post populated by common folk): How insulting that you think women are too stupid to figure out how to get a marriage certificate and birth certificate! If women are too stupid to hang on to those important documents they are too stupid to vote!
Well sure. Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure when the guys realize they too are required to show a birth certificate, they'll have to count on those too-stupid women (moms and wives) who have kept and know where to find said documents, because they'll have no clue.
I hadn't thought of marriage AND birth certificates being presented at the booth.
The forgery trade has got to be all in.
add to a long list ( problems , challenges or differences )
My understanding is that women who changed their name legally when they married would need to jump/go through some very cumbersome hoops to register - and that it could likely prevent tens of millions of women from voting. Probably a coincidence that women voted for democrats by roughly 55% to 45% in trumps three elections. Nothing to see here, or, as they say down south, ‘nuthin to worry yur purty little head about m’am. Why don’t you got rustle up some grub, iron my shirts and leave these things up to the men?’
in the old soviet union the men took the women's surname
Republicans are nothing if not inconsistent. They had fits until they got abortion thrown back to the states, and now want to take voting AWAY from the states, and to the Federal government (which goes against the Constitution) and under the watchful eye of Daddy Trump. I have never had a problem voting, they never even ask to see my voter ID card, just my driver’s license. When I went to get my REAL ID so I could fly once a year to CA to see my sister (at a facility 40 minutes away), I was turned away because the name on my driver’s license wasn’t the same as that on my birth certificate, I was told you had to have a marriage license for each marriage you had had. I sent off for another copy of it, but now I’m thinking maybe I’ll just pay TSA $45 bucks once a year to fly. Maybe Republicans are hoping people will be so disgusted with having to jump through hoops they’ll give up on voting, even if they aren’t the poor or elderly, for whom those can be pretty big hoops.
Absolutely it is voter suppression. Sneaky, not as out in the open as the Jim Crow variations were, and masked in anti-voter fraud rhetoric but it is designed to discourage people from bothering to even register.
And by the way it isn't just the cost of getting the documentation, it is also the wait time to get them. In my state it can take 5 to 7 weeks to get a certified copy of a birth certificate. The voter registration deadline might well be passed before someone gets their certificate.
And states would have to train poll workers on identifying false documents? How many? Most states have multiple forms of driver's licenses, there is a passport card, a passport book.....?
It's much easier to train us to review signature comparisons in the poll book versus citizen on election day.
I would be interested to hear if this is an issue for poll workers in states that accept id at the polls.
All these ‘hoops’ add up to the same thing; massive voter suppression that disproportionately affects minorities, the poor and women. All a big coincidence, perhaps….
Wait until they realize that many Trump supporters can’t afford to get their birth certificate, a passport, or a marriage license. Of course these are the Trump supporters that this regime keeps kicking down only to watch them get up and say, “Thank you, may I have another!?!”
I'm sure that is the intent behind this bill. And remember, the bill is predicated on fraud, of which there has been none proven that affected the outcome. It's a Trumpworld product. It's based on lies. So it stinks every which way to Sunday.💩
I've been refusing to go real ID, but I no longer fly or have the urge to fly.
have thought about a passport card, Can, Mex
I worked elections for years and they shouldnt have see your ID if you are registered.
It's also nonsensical. Think about your own birth certificate. If there is a physical description of you on it at all, it is birth weight and length. If you are old like me, it has a right footprint on it. I don't know about anyone else, I don't resemble that physical description at all. I didn't when I was 16 getting my first drivers license, nor at 29 when I applied for a passport.
It's really ridiculous that such a piece of paper is somehow deemed to be conclusive as to where someone was born and then use it as the basis for official identification documents for the rest of one's life. It's all we've got I suppose but all the caterwauling about it for voting purposes is just silly.
"If you are old like me, it has a right footprint on it. "
FYI, a birth certificate that old is no longer regarded as adequate for obtaining a passport, as it does not have a raised gold seal on it. So a lot of older people who don't already have a passport will need to obtain a new birth certificate to use for voter ID if these stupid laws pass, even if they still have their old one!
hospital ones are not good enough, they want a court house one,
money
recods
What's interesting is that it's likely to be the white, rural voter who doesn't travel internationally that also gets excluded here. How many of them have their papers in order? Which party is more likely to organize their voters to get their papers in order?
I suspect it would not be a problem for people who have stayed put. Growing up in rural NJ, I met people who rarely left the county! I'm sure they can find their paperwork in the family home and the GOP & the county would help fill gaps.
And totally unnecessary. All claims of fraud have been adjudicated and dismissed. It's only necessary to flatter Trump's delusion. The nation is il (sic). 😉 - a little joke for you grammar nerds out there.
Yup that's the plan.
People already have to prove identity and residence when they register.
I presume this will increase the number of women who keep their birth names when they marry, which I also presume will mightily upset the trad types. Which will then mean laws requiring women to take their husbands' names (in the interest of family values/honoring God/national security/some such thing, of course) as a placeholder for revoking the 19th amendment altogether.
I'm not so sure about this Republican strategy.... wouldn't it be just as onerous for low income people in red states to comply with this?
Young women, do NOT change your name when you get married. It's a trap. I wish someone had told me that (mumble mumble) years ago when I got married. There is ZERO benefit and it will be a PITA for your entire life. And after you go through all the inconvenience, the revanchists just use your acquiescence to disenfranchise you. That's your reward for playing along with their games every damn time.
Back in the 80s, when I got married, there was real pushback from both sides of the family about my decision to stick with my birth name, and I even got flack from the IRS (which would not believe I still had the same name, no matter how many times I told them). But I never regretted it, and lord knows I was glad when I got divorced that I didn't have to jump through those hoops all over again.
I didn’t change my name when I married 30 years ago, but all my children have my husband’s last name.
When my oldest was graduating from high school, the school called me to confirm his middle name because they thought he had given them a joke name to read at commencement; during the call the secretary apologized and assured me that it would be all right if I didn’t know the name since obviously I wasn’t his “real mother”.
Biting my tongue to keep from calling her an ignorant provincial hick, I assured her that my son’s middle name was his grandmother’s maiden name (my mother’s) and it was not in fact a prank.
So there is the annoying occasional confusion to deal with from those who are unfamiliar with the concept of not taking a husband’s name.
I recall the school nurse calling, issues with a 1 st grade girl ( introverted, so a little emotional ) that nurse and all the local school refused to deal with
the 3 girl's birth mother ( long story, not worth it ) She's say, do you have
a problem signing a paper saying you are her mother, I said, I'll sign it, just a form right? She was a decent school nurse, was about the child, not any woman.
I was happy to change my name because I didn't know my biological father or his family. They never bothered to reach out to baby me, so I didn't have an emotional connection to his name. It was just some syllables. But after a few decades and raising children, I can say with experience and confidence that there is no benefit to doing it whatsoever. It would not have changed my relationship with my husband, who I honestly think could care less.
Before the Pill, women who were not married were considered odd, Catholic nuns excepted. I remember the card game Old Maid. You lost the game if you got stuck with her at the end.
still are with judgmental people, who are everywhere !
Interesting that my 32 year old daughter and all her friends who were married in the last 5 to 7 years have taken their husband's surnames. No angst about whether or not to do it, no fears that their own identity in a metaphysical sense is compromised. Maybe it's because they are getting married at slightly older ages than was the usual in my day and they are more confident that they will be seen as individuals in their own rights, not appendages to their husbands. They aren't thinking about the practical considerations...changing name on credit cards and drivers licenses and such.
I hope for their sake that it got easier than it was for me in the Stone Age. And I hope it doesn't prevent them from voting!
Kate, I remember when my oldest sister got married in 1960, her name, if I mailed something to her, was Mrs. (husband's name). That was her social identity.
funny, I have or had nine sisters, most of them married more than once, ahem )
I was late to getting married, chose to tell society I don't think the church or
the state really need to be in any relationship. anyway, NONE of them, my sisters ever went by Mrs HE, or even Mrs unless required by some office . Even on Christmas cards, always their first name, their last name on the outside of the envelopes, whether they took his name or not.
Were any of them married a long ago as 1960?
Yes, they just have strong personal identity
our parents raised up to be very independent
They’re outliers. That was the social norm then.
When you don’t believe in democracy and find elections inconvenient then fewer people voting or making it difficult is the desired result. Yes, low propensity voters are more Republican these days, but that isn’t the point it is a out as few people as possible participating as they don’t like or approve of the whole process of democratic representation.
I wonder if the GOP hasn't updated their playbook and priors for our modern realignment. The realignment has given Dems a big advantage in low turnout elections the past few cycles.
I mean, I want more people to vote personally. But it's not clear to me that requiring a passport, for example, hurts the more worldly Democratic party more than the Busch Light MAGA crowd, ya know? And for the Democratic party aligned groups that are negatively impacted, while any barrier sucks, there's long-standing advocacy groups for folks with disabilities or voters of color, and so on, in the South. There aren't really resistance networks that help mobilize white trash, outside of existing anti-poverty groups that help everyone regardless of race.
The SAVE act appears to be targeted to women and people who have trouble paying for passports and other documents. I think they think women are liberals so it's worth disenfranchising a few poor people. I eagerly await news on whether a marriage certificate is acceptable documentation to these mokes.
Agree.
It's what Nick Fuentes says - women are the enemy and shouldn't be allowed to vote. Same message, just more nicely said.
From what I can tell the answer to the marriage license is "yes" but the caveat is you still need the birth certificate so you can show a direct line from birth certificate to marriage license name change to you. It's a bunch of crap and if they were really serious about voter ID they (the government) would find a better way such as using your birth certificate on record paired with your current ID (ie: driver license) and send you a voter ID card at no cost.
>>> "...if they were really serious about voter ID..."
But they're not. It's all pretextual.
Yes. And predicated on Trump's delusion that he lost because Dems got illegals to vote for them.
When I got a passport for the first time as a middle aged adult getting my birth certificate took about 7 or 8 weeks -- I was born in Seattle , not abroad .How in the world could millions of people get birth certificates between the time the travesty is law and the election?
I know voter suppression is the point , but I would think passport holders are disproportionately Ds . Not just evil , but dumb , thats the Trumpers
I think the primary point is to keep alive Trump's delusion that non-citizens voted Democratic and that's why he lost.
I wrote it earlier (above), but to be succinct - not my strong suit - women swung for Trump on average by 54% to 46% over his three elections. Everything is a personal affront to Trump. He loves abusing women, but hates women. He hates female reporters. He hates female congressional reps who speak out against him. He hates that women smell his diaper sooner than men. He hates that women’s ability to detect his BS is by percentage higher than men. He hates women because men overwhelmingly have voted for him by a significantly higher percentage than women.
believe he has always been envious of all females, what does that say
then turned it into dislike/abuse/hate speech
In the new MAGA dictionary, under the definition for ‘misogyny’ there’s a picture of the dear leader…
…how many bubbles in a bar of soap ?
Coming to a precinct near you for 2028!
Its to register to vote. But IL and CA require ID and proof of residence to register to vote anyway. This is all fake outrage. Proving who you are when you register funnels people into the right polling place.
I worked elections for years and if a voter's name is not a list of registered voters for that precinct, you can't vote.
You have to go to your precinct. If you can't they will let you fill out a provisionary paper ballot, which does not even get counted unless the candidates tie.
This whole thing is all performance to make people believe the elections are rigged. He just can't stand he that he lost in a fair election.
The Solidarity movement is probably implied in this newsletter's mention of anti-communist protest, but I've been thinking about liberation theology lately as well (maybe Talarico has put it in mind... maybe the fact that I've been reading some Allende). I don't think the Catholic Church choosing an American cardinal for Pope was an accident.
"Besides the civil rights movement and the Soviet-bloc anti-communist movements, what other models should we draw inspiration from? Who else has fought authoritarianism and won?"
It's Lent and lots of people will be reading about Romans and Pharisees this month, although this invites another question: What exactly does winning look like?
Stephen Miller out of government , and spending his life voluntarily , effectively, efficiently promoting the health and well being of immigrants and disabled people and people of color , assisted by his repentant associates
Or maybe just a suite of laws that make this less likely , which will stand up on appeal to a newly chastened SCOTUS .
Or perhaps a significantly altered SC ? More justices, or perhaps even some small initiative to convince some members to retire or face some very uncomfortable investigations by a reawakened and realigned DOJ? Who can really say what would happen if some justices were faced with losing their summer home (s) or even losing their RV?
Lynn's vision of an out-of-power Stephen Miller brought to mind Chuck Colson, who went to prison for his role in Watergate, had a religious conversion, and came out dedicated to prison ministry. Seeing Stephen Miller go through some variant of that would be wild.
But even better would be the other thing Lynn said: pass laws that can hold up in court. A whole lot of that happened, post-Watergate...and it took the court some decades to tear it down. Looks like we have to do it again, but better--perhaps with some Constitutional amendments?
Getting constitutional amendments passed in Congress requires Democrats controlling both chambers. (Fortunately, the president has no veto authority in the matter.) So please do all you can to support Democratic candidates in the midterms. See https://dccc.org and https://www.dscc.org.
In the near term, Democrats winning at least the House, and, please God, the Senate. Longer term means a Democratic trifecta. I don't want to think about how likely that would be because it means the Democrats would have to keep their Congressional majorities.
Poland's Solidarity, yes! And I agree about the American Pope. That's two in a row conservative Catholics hate.
Bill, thanks for meeting and talking on a human level with the folks doing the work in Minnesota. I think that some of the political disillusionment many Americans feel now, and have felt for a while, comes from various fonts of public discourse that are disconnected from the reality on the ground. It can only improve the quality and accuracy of The Bulwark's reporting if you can include real texture from the trenches of the fight, not just the flyover impressions from the window seat of a coast-to-coast plane ride. Inspired piece this morning!
Thank you for your positive observations of minnesota. for all but six years of my life, I have lived here. i despise winter.
But I adore the rest of the year. for the most part minnesotans are great. when compared to most other state, our standard of living, is pretty good. I wish I could be there tonight. Listening to you folks. you bring clarity to what I see.
Here in Western New York, we believe hard winters build character. Well, we don't have much choice but to believe it.
As a NH native, I used to concur with that belief, but as a retiree living in the Valley of the Sun in AZ, I can tell you two things; 1. Any temperature lower than 70 degrees is unbearable and 2. Withstanding 110 degree days builds just as much character and is fine as long as you only have to walk ten yards to get to the swimmin’ pool!
If I could tolerate 110 degrees, I wouldn't live here. I'll take the snow, thanks!
I grew up in Chicago and let me tell you that breeze off Lake Michigan in January practically rips your face off.
Have lived in So Cal for years and laugh when peoole complain when the temp drops to the 50's.
Where else can you jump on the back of a mosquito and fly to your lake destination?
The Chamber of Commerce is now a left wing group? Do mine eyes deceive? I guess the words *left wing* have no meaning anymore but the Chamber has been a reliable voice for Republicans and their policies for decades. The current administration is quite happy to make everyone poorer and reduce the overall economic activity in this country, and if that means throwing the Chamber overboard so be it I guess just because they support the use of immigrant labor. At some point though when the temptation becomes to great and we put our illegal immigrants in the camps to work which side will the Chamber of Commerce be on then? The titans of German industry were all to happy to take advantage of slave labor, I don’t see our or those who champion them being any different.
this morning I read Bret Stephen’s and ended up wondering if Russia counts as part of Western Civilization. Now I’m wondering if Maoism isn’t to the right of the Chamber of Commerce. Maybe we need new terminology for describing our politics. Or is it enough to justice say delusional vs attempting to gather facts using expertise.
There are people on the far right who believe that Russia became the last bastion of "Western civilization," or at least "Christian civilization," while the rest of the West fell to woke cultural Marxism (which was a Western invention, but never mind).
Solzhenitsyn believed the west went astray during the Renaissance. plenty of Nazi adjacent types argued that Russia and especially Lenin were asiatic despotism. We really need to sort out generation to generation what things in our heritage we value. Fascism not being something to admire imho.
Didn't know that about Solzhenitsyn. Dennis Prager was known to praise him because he was anti-secular. He was also anti-liberal democracy, as the Enlightenment-era Constitution was made possible by the Reformation. The Renaissance is the setting of "The Merchant of Venice" when Jews lived in the Venetian Ghetto. And Jews were accepted as white in the US during the post-war period. That was very liberal period of American history.
I do not understand pro-authoritarian Jews (my conservative friend has been heavily influenced by Prager). Another example is Yoram Hazony. Morning Shots today included a link to Gabriel Schoenfeld's piece on Hazony, saying that his attempt to sort out the problem of right-wing antisemitism is confused. Hazony is a "nationalist conservative." That's what the Nazis were - nationalists. They added that to their socialist party name.
$$$$$$$
Ah, this is why we can't speak directly about Jewish Americans in a public forum. Just the mention of them sparks your bigotry.
During their periods of empire, the Russians and especially the Czars believed they were the inheritors of the Byzantine empire by virtue of driving the ottomans out of the balkans. I would be surprised if Putin doesn’t believe essentially the same thing
yup the eastern Roman Empire a bunch of schismatics with a long history dating from Gibbons decline of the West when everyone decided they were decadent.
Russia as “third Rome.”
I don’t read Brett Stephens, but I am curious what argument he was making.
defending western civilization as an academic subject, but he is Bret sigh!
Should I read it to find out exactly which type of Western civilization he's defending? Probably not the same type of Western civilization I defend. It's amazing how many there are.
Well put, Kate.
Well given the depredations Western civilization has committed, maybe it needs a little defending :)
That place at the back of the circle where liberal and conservative seem to cross each other might actually be a figure eight.
I had a good laugh about that statement. I’m guessing the local Chambers here in Orange County, CA are having a collective cow.
Given everything Trump has done to the economy, they should have a whole herd by now.
If the chamber of commerce is a member of the left-wing lunatic fringe, then I am Chairman Mao
When do you start issuing the little red books?
Working on translations and looking for a good Chinese publishing agency!
Up is down and down is up...we are at that stage.
Well said, Keith.
Minnesota lights the way. Our south east Michigan coalition is doing trainings based on MN, whistles and all.
Bravo to your region. As a native Midwesterner, I am so pleased to see this grass-roots movement that is strengthening the prodemocracy coalition being born in the Midwest.
It turns out that instead of AR-15s, the second amendment needs to protect the right to bear cell phones and whistles as “being necessary to the security of a free State.”
What a stupendous idea. And remove the weapons of mass destruction while at it.
Bill worked for Hubert Humphrey? I know there was a lot of left-to-right movement from the ‘60s to the ‘80s (Bill’s father was in the vanguard), but would never have imagined.
Also, I imagine McLaughlin has already signed a “contributor” deal with Faux News. She’ll just have to lighten her hair and wear tighter dresses.
it doesn’t surprise me about Bill he has to qualities that most of MAGA lacks, intelligence and decency. Bill also seems to have the humility to admit when he has been wrong. Everybody always mentions Bill’s father, but I met his mother several times and she deserves some credit.
Probably substantial credit
She doesn’t have to. Kristie and Corey (Corkie - like brangela) gave her husband a no-bid $200 million dollar contract w/DHS…but if she isn’t planning on running for political office, a carnival barker position w/FOX or one of the other propaganda agencies is likely
also was a little taken back by that, hh and kristol ??
I followed a girl to Minnesota after college around the time Bill first visited, but unlike Bill, I stayed for almost 40 until the winters got the best of us.
In my opinion, Minnesotans whine about the cold just as much as anyone. I also will contend that people there aren’t especially nice. Polite? Yah, sure! But nice? Not any nicer than other places.
But what I will say is that Minnesotans are more community-minded than anywhere I’ve ever been. Minnesotans volunteer like nowhere else. And they take their civic responsibility very seriously and with tremendous pride. Witness: Minnesota always leads the US in election turnout. It’s that spirit that’s been displayed over the past two months.
Let’s begin referring to the people there as “Minnesota Strong.”
Thanks for mentioning the consistent, top-of-the-charts voter turnout! I had forgotten about that, definitely an indicator of civic virtue. Minnesota Strong, indeed!
I had thought everyone has known that for more than two decades, we, in MN
know that, turnout.
Interesting fact re turnout.
Proud to live in Minneapolis. After Renee's murder, I wondered if it would even make national news. This city is a true melting pot. The community's resilience after Renee and Alex's murders truly amazed me. I'm willing to risk my life for my beliefs, and it was incredible to see how many others shared that sentiment.
Tricia McLaughlin's departure from the Department of Homeland Insecurity is irrelevant. They'll just put in a clone to spout the endless stream of misinformation, disinformation and downright lies (yes, I mean 'lies,' a word so deeply eschewed by the cowardly legacy media), "with arrest and injustice for as many innocent people as possible."
The cheapest solution for the Department of Homeland Insecurity would be to program an AI device that would simulate just another member of the Bimbocracy--they seem to be over-supplied at Fox News, so they might even find a close simulation by an actual 'human.'
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Insecurity is merely obeying the whims of the orange narcissist-felon, proceeding daily to the tune of Orwell's '1984.'
Yep. Just start going through the winners (and runners-up) from various beauty contests and start interviewing. Get the one with the best legs and a voice husky enough to pull a dog sled and you've got your next "high level government official."
"Acting high level official". You gotta avoid any kind of vetting.
You might be able to order a box of those on Amazon at this point. They're coming off an assembly line somewhere.
Perhaps Ms. Prejean is available .
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/carrie-prejean-boller-religious-liberty/685987/
Miss California , against gay marriage , newly converted to Catholicism and already and expert in theology . Wait , perhaps she will want to be the Sec State for the Vatican instead . That would also solve the issue of needing t***p to fire her form the religious liberty commission
A definite contender!
Irrelevant in some ways, but we shouldn't forget who she is and what she did and let her fade into "Good Germanhood."
I know it's a naive wish (and mean) but I hope no one will hire her ever again. It was too late to bail, she has the stench of this regime all over her, smell her for miles.
Faux Nooz will hire her.
But she and her hubs have so much money form that DHS publicity contract she never needs to work again . She can just stay home and have babies and rise them to hate others
edit :typo
I don't know if her SES government pay was all she needs for a life of tradwife cosplay, but it was a great networking opportunity for more lucre for the family.
I know you are right - depressing, ain't it?
No , no its Faux News
"Ve vere only obeyink ze orders, mein fuhrer."
I think it could be that she's a scalp, since she was so publicly tied to the shameful smearing of Pretti and Good and others. It could be that the kitchen got too hot for even her, I think these folks seem like shameless cretins who feel nothing as they lie, but maybe she could no longer find an antacid strong enough to keep the bile down while she tried to the job...
... But yeah, in the end, her leaving is no win. The Trumpists view their own people as replaceable tools, so they feel nothing as she goes, and a new Tricia is ready on the conveyer belt. And for the regime's opponents, McLaughlin had no agency or power in her role, so as a scalp, it's basically nothing for the Dems and resistance.
“Our people are invaded, but I don’t think they are conquered”. John Steinbeck - The Moon is Down
Re the NPS and history it tells, I volunteered at a park in NJ and I had the task of writing content for our Facebook page. I learned that all the "great houses" in the colonial era were managed with slaves. ... It was news to me but it was important to tell our full history. Thus col. Dey of the NJ militia was a slave owner. It was ok to learn that. And for African American visitors, they felt that their history was included in what NPS told.
History is not enhanced by leaving people out. They may mot be the most important characters or have been in positions of power to make decisions, but it gives context to the times and the lives those people lived. It also highlights the contradictions that exist within people for both good and evil and how we deal with them.
For sure. And in Paterson, NJ where the park was located, we had lots of non white visitors. Trump clearly does not include any but whites in his vision of what makes America work.
White *men*; and maybe the women they provide for and protect.
I miss being in historic North Jersey. Enjoy a Sloppy Joe for me.
"It’s not clear why McLaughlin is leaving." Hasn't her husband (or partner) landed some big government deals for his firm (I remember something along those lines a few days ago, possibly here on Morning Shots)? If so, perhaps her mission is accomplished and she can hide out for a while doing other useless things.
Joining Fox or CBS in 3-2-1...
Right, she'll hide out until Colbert leaves in a few of months, then audition for his slot.
200 Million no-bid contract with DHS. That should by a lot of anti-depressants .
Can't like, but can appreciate the clear, concise reason she is able to just stop working.
I guess if you’re going to prostitute yourself, your name and your soul, 200 Million is a fair price - but she’s gonna have to update the pre-nup agreement to include half of the profit (est. 190 Million) gained from the no-bid contract hubby just got from DHS
Are we sure that they are, in fact, married? And that they have a pre-nup? Just asking for a friend...
I guess I just ass-u-me that someone so benevolent, hatful and disgraceful would have the insight that she really needs to prepare for the worst - that being a replacement for Pete hegseth on weekend FOX panels
You are the first person I have met who also knew what assume really meant.
I remember the same thing about her husband in terms of a discussion of Noem/Lewendowsky and DHS contracts.