Just go the fuck away:
Trump just released a third statement on Biden's speech today, calling it "very hurtful to many people." He repeats his conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, which he still hasn't conceded he lost.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 6, 2022
Third statement! Trump’s smarter sociopathic clone DeSantis is slamming the “New York DC media” for “milking January 6” to “smear” Trump supporters. So the Trumpers perceive Biden’s speech and the ongoing media coverage as an attack. Good. That confirms my perception that Biden gave the right speech and the MSM is striking the right tone.
Sort of related, Josh Marshall published some thoughts yesterday about whether or not deplatforming Trump and refusing to amplify his comments in the media is a negative or positive for the deposed demagogue:
It’s become doctrine for many right-thinking people that people shouldn’t “amplify” what Trump is saying. That only does his work for him, we’re told. This is the logic that got him booted off social media. But if what Benjy says is right, this state of affairs, which has clearly driven Trump to distraction, has also proved almost the best of all possible worlds for him. Trump’s supporters hear his message loud and clear: through NewsMax, OANN, talk radio, Facebook and to a significant degree on Fox News. But for the rest of the political world it’s muffled. So the horror and craziness of Trumpism recedes from public consciousness while people are focused on the day to day imperfection of the Biden presidency.
This hasn’t made Trump any weaker. His hold over the institutional and electoral GOP has only intensified since leaving office. The very small number of elected officials who refused to support the Big Lie have mostly been drummed out of the party. Trump’s Big Lie propaganda has become unassailable in heavily state-legislative-gerrymandered states where it will matter most. In short, the “don’t amplify” doctrine has allowed Trump to speak freely to his supporters and intensify his hold over the GOP, while keeping the incendiary messages that mobilize a majority of the country against him largely off mainstream airwaves.
All of the upside and none of the down.
Marshall concedes there are other ways to look at it, but he may have a point given the fragmented media environment. We all hoped the orange fart cloud would dissipate, and in a way, he did. As I’ve mentioned here before, when Trump got kicked off Twitter, it felt like an airhorn that had been blowing in my face for four years suddenly fell silent. I didn’t follow the shit-stain, but he was inescapable.
But the airhorn is still blaring on the propaganda outlets, and its odious source still controls one of the two viable political parties in this country. That matters. I don’t know what will happen next or which is the right approach on this specific issue. What do y’all think?
Open thread.
Baud
So nice, he had to respond thrice.
RaflW
MTG is apparently raving about FBI instigators on J6. Saw a tweet that said DeSantis also went there, but as I’m not at all interested in listening to him, can’t confirm that. I’d have thought he’d be savvy enough to not go that far towards the conspiracist wingularity, but they all go further than I think they can and pay precious little price.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: President Biden’s speech was nice, and struck the right tone.
And the Kremlin’s orange fascist shitstain can still throw his fat ass into the Sun.
Gravenstone
I’m disappointed that he didn’t simply stroke out in apoplectic rage at being so demeaned by mean ol’ Joe. Oh well, at this rate he’ll have half a dozen more statements come dribbling out before he sulks off in a rage to have his two scoops of ice cream.
Unrelated, but I’m making my way through the Michael Gass credendza-palooza and the funniest thing is watching Gen. Stuck and Cornerstone continue their never ending feud.
Urza
Need to make it so the propaganda outlets don’t have a viable party to work through. I have no idea how to make that happen, but they need to go back to the shadows of the internet like they used to be, but with more censorship of their obvious terrorist tendencies. And the party needs dissolved entirely. Allow a restructuring of American politics entirely in a way not seen since the Know Nothings vanished as a party.
Nicole
I don’t know. I spent 4 years watching the MSM attempting to normalize his behavior, everything from fawning over him when he did the bare minimum of acting somewhat human to editing his word salad speeches before reporting on them in the papers. Between the two, I’d prefer not to have to watch them coddle him. I’d much prefer to see them treat Trump like they did, oh, you know, Hillary Clinton. But that’s not likely. So if the choice is ignore or coddle, I’ll take ignore. It’s still a form of coddling, in that they’re protecting him by not reporting on his crazy, but as they’re not going to ever do that, ignoring is less likely to raise my blood pressure.
That said- 3 statements, huh? Biden’s speech was at least 60%, “Trump is a losing loser who lost lost lost, the losingest loser of Loserdom” and clearly that was a choice that paid off. Good on him and his speechwriters.
geg6
Oooooo, did Biden hit a nerve?
Good. More of this, please.
The Dangerman
Just arrest all of them* and let the judges and juries sort it out.
* Make it Pay Per View. Each individual arrest. Make it a la carte. I’m in for any Trump (double if it is Junior), Cruz, and Bannon.
different-church-lady
But they’d do that with any speech. Paranoid grievance is their only reaction, even when they win.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Dangerman:That is not how it works.
Yarrow
Deplatforming works. The impact of these people is diminished when they don’t have giant platforms from which to reach more people.
However, in this situation a lot of the are invested in covering up their own criminal, traitorous actions and making money off the policies they enact and the chaos spectacle. As I said in the thread below, the way to deal with these people is accountability and consequences. Show that people who do this kind of thing go to prison and/or face other consequences and their power will diminish. They are cowards and will cave when faced with consequences. You can see it happening over and over as the low level insurrectionists face charges. For those higher up the food chain the consequences must be significant.
@Gravenstone: I miss Corner Stone. He always made me laugh.
geg6
@different-church-lady:
Yeah, but it doesn’t often provoke 3, yes, 3 statements from Cheetoman, each more raging and incoherent than the last.
I love it.
Kent
I usually like TPM and read this article. But I think they are wrong. If Trump was still out there tweeting full force he would be dominating much of the media coverage like he did pre-2021 and Democrats would still be wringing their hands wondering how to deal with him. Trump has ALWAYS been a horrible shitstain. Yet the media and public greedily gobbled up his trash all those years. I’m not sure there is any reason to think they would look at it any more critically post 2020
The larger point is that deplatforming is insufficient to make him completely go away. But that has always been the case. We can’t rely on Twitter to do our jobs for us. We need to keep beating him back at every venue and that is just endless. But that was always going to be the case.
trollhattan
@RaflW: With no Twitter, how would we know what she thinks? (I’m learning to love it when they have their megaphones snatched away.)
MJS
Josh’s premise is completely wrong. It was not a desire to “not amplify” Trump that got him booted off of Twitter. It was the fire hose of lies related to the election and COVID, among other things. So were Twitter to “re-platform” him, they would also have to allow the same garbage from anyone and everyone. While Twitter isn’t great, it certainly wouldn’t be better with that as an outcome.
I do see pundits being admonished to “not amplify” Trump, but I don’t see a lot of them taking that advice.
The Dangerman
@Omnes Omnibus: You don’t say.
Eunicecycle
@Nicole: I am with you, Nicole. Ignore as much as possible. Yes he still has his megaphone with the people who are unreachable, but maybe some of those who aren’t as engaged and still watch either network news or maybe CNN, can reasonably think, “hey some of this is crazy and we need to move on.” I have a cousin like that. Voted for Trump twice but believes he lost and he and his defenders are making conservatives look bad.
MagdaInBlack
I don’t know how it should be reported on, but I don’t think we can afford to ignore him/them and what’s being said on the rw outlets. That just lets them go “underground.”
SiubhanDuinne
@RaflW:
According to Aaron Rupar, “Even Newsmax abruptly cut away from Marjorie Taylor Greene’s latest press conference/screed. That’s cold.”
LOL.
Gin & Tonic
Speaking of going away, the Oregon Secretary of State has ruled Nick Kristof ineligible to run for Governor.
Geminid
My theory is that trump is like a toxic but unstable nuclear isotope. Half life might be 20, or 40 months. He’ll stay stronger among Republicans than the general population, and Republican polticians may end up behind the curve.
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
Good to hear. Not that he would have gained traction but the vanity project had a real carpetbag odor.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: Why do you hate the Sun? Put tfg on Comet Leonard and he will be whisked away and never return again.
smith
@RaflW: Every time they try to pin the blame on someone else they are acknowledging that it was a grave sin against this country. It also deeply undercuts their refusal to repudiate the 1/6 insurrectionists: if they believe the attack on the Capitol was really Antifa or the FBI or alien lizard people, why won’t they condemn it?
Hilbertsubspace
This is about keeping falsehoods away from low information people. Changing the minds of Trump supporters is a separate issue.
Gravenstone
@Gin & Tonic: Is it possible the NYT wouldn’t want him back, either? Cuz that’d be a right shame, it would.
Kent
Speaking as a former Oregonian living across the river, I’d say good riddance. Plus for some reason I found myself on his mailing list and was getting daily fundraising bullshit from him. I don’t particularly dislike Kristof, but I dislike the arrogance of thinking that because you have a prominent name you can swoop in and be entitled to the highest elected office in a state with zero experience. That is usually a middle aged white man affection. Oregon has plenty of local political talent. They don’t need to look to the fucking NYT for advice on how to run the state
I don’t think his campaign was going to go anywhere anyway. The only people in Oregon who probably heard of him are educated liberal urbanites who are going to vote for Tina Kotek anyway because she is an actual Democrat who has put in her dues.
ByRookorbyCrook
Maybe I have been watching too much true crime stuff, but this one-two of the Garland measured tone yesterday and Biden bombast today, seems like a police interrogation writ large. I wonder how much incriminating evidence is being collected in the chatter between insurrectionists now?
Omnes Omnibus
Have people seen this poll on Twitter?
twitter.com/nolabelsorg/status/1479072396854312963?s=21
Cermet
On an upside for news today, NASA has further progressed with the Webb telescope – the instrument heat radiator has locked into position. While not as important as the solar shield or as critically vital as the secondary mirror, this is essential to dissipate the heat from the instruments operation. Webb is running flawlessly so far and considering it is by far the most complex scientific instrument ever flown into space, this is no small achievement.
Old Man Shadow
I think it’s better to shut them out of the mainstream. To shun them from polite society.
Yes, it won’t kill the message, but it might stop a steady stream of new converts. The Birchers and KKK had a harder time seducing people into their cult when all they had was word of mouth and printed newsletters.
Omnes Omnibus
@ByRookorbyCrook: Almost like the admin planned things…
Lacuna Synecdoche
@Kent:
Yep, this.
I think of deplatforming as being like taking aspirin for, say, a broken ankle.
It lessens the pain and brings down the swelling, but the ankle is still broken, it’s still going to hurt, just not as much, it’s still going to take time to heal, and you’ll still need to do rehab.
But that doesn’t mean the aspirin isn’t helping.
Kent
@Omnes Omnibus: Talk about a bullshit poll.
Yes politicians should fucking come together and put every last bastard involved in 1/6 behind bars, including Trump himself. And pass laws to make sure nothing like that can ever happen again.
Barring that I don’t see the point of the conversation.
UncleEbeneezer
Thing is, the more Trump is out there, the more people hate him and take his threat seriously. We know this from polling over the years as whenever he was most active in media his approval went the lowest. Much of the Resistance beginning in 2017 all the way to 2020 Dem turnout was motivated by the desire to stop Trump, specifically. So if Trump being more present will drive our passive voters to be more engaged for 2022, then I’m all for it. I don’t think his absence will cause GOP voters to sit-out elections so all I care about is whatever gets OUR voters ready to fight. I hate the fucker and would love to have him permanently go away (please, FSM make it happen) but if his presence actually helps our coalition stay strong and engaged, then it is what it is.
Starfish
A lot of people are big mad at the ACLU for defending fewer white supremacists. The line they are drawing is that they are not supporting people for speech that incites violence. Trump did not get kicked off for his regular buffoonish actions. He got kicked off when he nearly overthrew the entire Democratic process. Occasionally, some people need to be reminded how bad he was, but we don’t need him with a megaphone yelling in our ears.
Captain C
@Omnes Omnibus: As of 3:35pm (EST) it’s at over 92% for sow division. No Labels is never going to grok it, are they?
germy
He’s all in, I’ll give him that.
trollhattan
It’s true. People are lazy and if a Trump’s Twitter feed is killed then instantly, millions of de facto readers are gone for good, because reconnecting is too much of a bother. Those hungry for more can find it but…where? They’ll be scattered among many other venues.
Another thing to ponder is what happens if the newsmedia weren’t so eager to cover his every campaign event from literally before start, through finish. He was easy, cheap entertainment drawing viewers, and they did not think even once about how they were elevating him above the other Republican candidates by following his every move. “Gorsh, what’s he gonna say this time?”
different-church-lady
Interesting that Trump has been de-platformed, and here we are all taking about his three statements today.
Kent
@Starfish: But it is a no-win proposition. You can’t just give him a microphone to embarrass himself. It is all or nothing. And when you give him the microphone he ends up dominating the conversation because that is how the media likes it.
trollhattan
@germy:
Gaetz, Gaetz, such a punchable face, face.
Wonder how the whole interstate transport of underage females thing is going?
germy
@different-church-lady:
Well, it’s his anniversary.
Geminid
@Geminid: Trumpism- the appeal of a fascist strongman- may be more durable, though.
PeakVT
I think Marshall is wrong as twitter farts are ridiculously easy to “cover”, and the media would have equated whatever Trumpolini emitted on a given day as equal to whatever hard work the Biden administration did in the same time period. With Trumpolini cut off from directly feeding reporters fresh quotes several times a day, the major media has to do more reporting on facts, which generally favors Dems. Low-info swing voters still exist and can be influenced, and marginally attached Dems can be activated or de-activated, both based how the major media frames things.
neldob
Maybe they should give him his platform and add a laugh track, groan track, fart sounds and other deserved mocking commentary.
germy
@trollhattan:
I like the little passive-aggressive thing he did at the start of his press conference today, when he said “We wanted a bigger room, but this is all Pelosi would give us, not very safe for social distancing” etc.
Such an asshole.
MagdaInBlack
@different-church-lady: Ain’t it ? ?
Leto
Speaking of DeSantis, some are theorizing that he has Covid due to his inability to breath during the last presser he held. Struggling for breath, in pain, seemingly on the verge of tears. Guess that’d explain where he’s been for those two weeks.
2 min clip:
MagdaInBlack
@neldob: This, is why I watch Hal Sparks watch him and these other people. For the ridicule and debunking of the lies.
Eta: and yes, Fart sounds ?
germy
@Leto:
In his mind, simply admitting he had the virus would be a display of weakness.
I’m guessing he got the full Trump/Chris Christie treatment as soon as his symptoms appeared.
different-church-lady
@Leto: It’s possible we’re going to need to rename the Herman Cain award…
Omnes Omnibus
@Kent: 90% are saying sow division and dragging No Labels.
germy
...now I try to be amused
@Old Man Shadow:
Yes. The wingnuts have always been there, and they flare up from time to time like herpes. The big question is: how do we get them back under their rocks?
It seems to me that Trump minus Twitter equals Rush Limbaugh.
different-church-lady
FOUR PEOPLE DIED, YOU COMPLETE AND UTTER ASSHOLE!
Jeffro
what do I think? Hmmm…I used to think that tarring and feathering trumpov, and marching him from coast to coast at the point of a pitchfork, would be enough for me. It’s been a year since I stopped feeling that way.
germy
He says he won’t be watching any of it, though.
...now I try to be amused
Struck the right nerve too! :)
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: And if you click it you’re on the No Labels mailing list, right?
Baud
@germy:
At least Dems won’t use it as an excuse to invade Iraq.
M31
@Omnes Omnibus: LOL “No Labels” — their previous tweet was touting a statement by Larry Hogan and Joe Lieberman — are you sure the whole organization isn’t just DougJBalloon snickering into his sleeve?
Kent
@different-church-lady: And of course the same dipshits were traumatized and wanted to declare martial law when some protesters in Portland broke some windows and sprayed some graffiti last year.
sab
Betty Cracker,
I personally am relieved that Trump’s airhorn is not blaring at the MSM. They have to rummage around to find him. Good. Maybe they’ll forget about him. I think they amplified him a lot, and he already had millions of viewers on The Apprentice before he ran. Others after him won’t have that.
I think a lot of his followers used to be non-voters. Hoping they return to that in disillusionment.
Starfish
@Kent: Exactly right.
Leto
@germy: probably, but he’s still suffering. Good.
@different-church-lady: It can be hyphenated: The Herman Cain- Ron DeSantis Florida Man Award.
Jeffro
@different-church-lady: agree with the sentiment, but my reaction was a flat, “Yes…yes, that’s all that happened on Jan 6th, you ass…just a little office supply larceny…” followed by a thousand eyeroll emojis.
These head-in-the-sand, double-standard scumbags are nihilists at heart and they’re the worst.
germy
different-church-lady
@M31:
At this point Doug J is probably muttering to himself, “Holy shit, they actually don’t understand I’m doing satire.”
Leto
I don’t know if Ray Liotta re-recorded the voice lines (really, really sounds like him) but the ending of Good Fellas (when everyone was turning on everyone) re-imaged for post 1/6.
germy
@Leto:
He sounded okay in his latest press conference.
Captain C
@M31: It seems like their feed isn’t funny enough to be Doug J (or an imitator); it’s more just sad with a slight dusting of annoying.
Kent
@sab: I just looked it up. The Apprentice had between 7 million and 20 million viewers depending on which season and version. thewrap.com/celebrity-apprentice-trump-tv-ratings-arnold/
By contrast, Fox News top rated shows like Tucker Carlson barely break 3 million. And a lot of that is old people just leaving it on all day as background noise.
Something to ponder when we wonder where Trump came from.
Captain C
@germy: His hair looks bad even by ’70s TV standards.
germy
Benw
I’m 100% team deplatforming. He never dispensed information. It was always toxic, gaslighting, destabilizing bullshit. We don’t need to listen to his lies to tell us what the Republicans are doing because they are literally telling us they plan to disenfranchise as many people as needed to seize power and have no interest in governing. Let him whine to his base, like a big loser.
Geminid
@M31: These days that No Labels outfit has to struggle hard for relevence. They still take people’s money, though, so they have to show some work product.
West of the Rockies
Hey, Trump…
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death!
Also, you are an ugly loser.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: I said that before 2016, that being on the TV Machine probably would give tfg between 1% and 2% of the vote.
Quiltingfool
Wanted to share Trae Crowder’s (Liberal Redneck) take: twitter.com/traecrowder/status/1479181783199412224?s=20
James E Powell
Update on Chuck Todd’s awakening.
He just discussed the increasing lack of faith in elections. He did not mention that he has uncritically hosted Republicans who promote lack of faith on his show for the last year.
Order of the universe restored!
Geminid
@sab: Trump probably could still get interviews on main stream media outlets if he wanted. He seems to be afraid to face any but the most favorable interviewers, though.
As for the new voters Trump attracted, some may well fade out of politics. My Atlanta friend observed that they were not that civic-minded to begin with.
Betty
@Cermet: It is breathtaking to think about. So happy for those who worked to make this happen.
Subsole
I think until the beltway stops caping for their drinking buddies at Fox, the situation will continue to worsen.
That was the undertone to those years and years and endless, dreary years of ridiculous diner safaris: “Please don’t be upset with these people. Look at how many of them there are. They can’t all be wrong. They’re all human. My own family is just like them. I am friends with people like them. I have relatives who voted like them. Please just accept them and don’t be so angry that they would rather be Russian than let you be American with them. Aren’t you overreacting? Didn’t your pushiness kind of FORCE them to vote Nazi 2.0? Can’t you pussies take a joke?”
Just endelss, teary-eyed weedling about why couldn’t the people they were abusing just accept the abuse and be quiet. All so the overpaid, underqualified members of America’s comms-frat could keep enjoying their ‘mojitos-with-the-Klan Thursdays’ guilt-free.
That, above all else, is what drove me bloodshot during the Trump years. People like Wolf Blitzer playing in my damn face 25/8/366, because he and his bosses and coworkers lacked the genital fortitude to be honest with themselves about who their friends and damily turned out to be. As if people with far, FAR, FAAAAAR fewer friends and resources weren’t having some hard, ugly revelations about home, work, friends and family in the cold gray light of a November dawn.
It’s like, No, dude. I do not want to go have a harmless little social drink and a giggle with your soulless, glassy-eyed, performatively-devout, child-trafficking, money-grubbing, two-faced, klan-excusing, baggie-full-of-sun-curdled-mayonnaise friends at Fox.
Stop. Fucking. Begging. Me. To.
You immeasurably-vast assholes.
Mike in NC
Most of us have read how Fat Bastard and his mail order bride conduct a nightly ritual whereby they go to the dinner table at Mar-A-Lago, surrounded by rich pricks who give them a standing ovation. It ain’t much but it’ll have to do for his gargantuan fragile ego.
sab
@Kent: Thanks for looking that up. I knew the number would dwarf tv and cable news.
Most voters and almost all non-voters are low information.
zhena gogolia
@Subsole: Nice piece of prose.
Baud
@James E Powell:
Yeah, the mainstream media is a major “legitimizing” force for the fascist right.
Baud
@Subsole:
?
Subsole
@germy:
Seen on Twitter:
“Ashley Babbit went with her friends to raise hell and woke up at a live taping of the next Rush Limbaugh show confused as hell.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Subsole: as hell and in hell?
James E Powell
@Leto:
I am a horrible person, I know this. But if I could choose just one person to die from COVID, it would be DeSantis.
germy
@Subsole:
And then there’s the other one, trampled to death by her comrades as her husband begged them to stop.
bluegirlfromwyo
@different-church-lady: They don’t care when their TV and radio hosts die of COVID along with hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens. What’s four more to them, in the cause of freedumb?
Citizen Alan
@Leto:
God does not love me enough to allow Butcher Desantis to die from Covid.
dc
I disagree with Josh. Yes, the media environment is fragmented and the true believers will keep gathering in with their tribe in their white supremacist garbage pits, but a big chunk of the public doesn’t go to those places and like their politics without the politics and then only in the smallest doses. Deplatforming the Big Lie means it’s not reaching the larger, wishy washy please-don’t-politicize-politics crowd. That’s good for them and good for the country.
James E Powell
@bluegirlfromwyo:
They don’t care when their TV and radio hosts die of COVID along with hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens. What’s four more to them, in the cause of
freedumbowning the libs?germy
@Baud:
The funny thing is, the magats see the media as promoting liberalism. Even Desantis, in his press conference today, referred to the “corporate media” turning the Jan. 6 anniversary into another “Christmas Day”.
Everyone hates them! (They “must be doing something right.”)
C Stars
@Leto: I watched that clip and it was incredibly disturbing. Regardless of the political stuff, it seems like common sense that if you’re that sick you should be at home in bed. It’s interesting though that the party willing to let its members die by the thousands of Covid must also pretend that illness doesn’t exist or that it is a sign of weakness.
Warblewarble
Please oh please, to mark the day can we have reruns on repeat of the shooting of Ashli Bobbit ,please.
Kent
@James E Powell: Trump. I would pick Trump. But only in October 2024 after he has sewn up the nomination, destroyed all the GOP challengers, and it is too late for the GOP to replace him on the ballot. And then it turns out that he is the last American to die of Covid.
We can dream.
Subsole
@zhena gogolia:
@Baud:
Glad you liked it.
Wish I had a solution.
Kay
@dc:
Unless you think Trump repels the wishy washy crowd, which I think he does. Focusing Trump on the base allows ordinary voters to forget how horrible he is- they turn out their base using Trump and make the GOP appear more moderate and sane without Trump. They get the upside of Trump (base) without the downside of Trump (repels normie moderates).
It’s why they didn’t want him to give a speech today. His base will still get his responses, but normies won’t hear from him.
Cameron
@Mike in NC: Unbelievably pathetic.
Baud
@germy:
Sure. If you’re in the right-wing echo chamber, the mainstream media does appear to be to your left. It’s kind of like how people on the far left think Dems and Republicans are the same. I get that. The problem with the media is that they want to stay “in the middle,” which means they can’t be anchored too tightly to things like objective reality and jounralistic integrity. The effect is to keep the country close to 50/50 rather than 70/30.
FelonyGovt
Hurtful?? This fucker is claiming the speech was hurtful? That’s rich coming from someone who said the things he did about Adam Schiff and every Black person and woman and Jew and Muslim and Democrat who ever lived.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
/fixed
SiubhanDuinne
@FelonyGovt:
FUCK his fee-fees.
Subsole
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I know at least one person who read it that way.
(It was me. I read it that way. I may have chuckled as I did so.)
smith
@Citizen Alan: There’s hope yet. Even if he’s recovering now he has a greatly increased chance of dying within the next 6 months. Should we set up a calendar for a death watch?
WaterGirl
@FelonyGovt: You forgot about all the rapists from Mexico.
And let’s not forget the way he talks about and treats women and girls.
Come to think of it, it’s probably more efficient to just name any class of people he hasn’t said offensive things about. For god’s sake, he even had bad things to say about dogs. Sigh.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Subsole: I think in Rush Limbaugh’s hell the only caller is his father, eternally withholding approval and affection, and asking why four wives never produced a Rush IV to continue the family name.
Betty Cracker
I think Marshall’s point is that most people who don’t follow politics closely aren’t aware of Trump’s crazy lies about 1/6 and the constant whining and lying about the election, so they don’t understand how dangerous it is that he’s still leading the Republican Party.
I don’t know. If four years of that lunatic in the White House and the shameful sucking up his sycophants did every day didn’t convince low-info voters that Trump is unfit and his party is garbage, maybe nothing will.
Kay
@dc:
They want to bring out Trump’s base for the midterms while sidelining him in the general public and distancing/normalizing the GOP candidates who are running. With him speaking only to the base they get both sides of that. It’s what you would do in a favorable environment for the out Party. They want base +.
Subsole
@germy: Eh. I get no schadenfreude from that one. Chud-lady got domed because she thought bullets don’t work on people like her. Just like that dork at Malheur.
The other woman shouldn’t have been there, but I can still feel like that’s an awful way to go.
Now the dudes that beat the cop to death? Nah. Expletives and gestures* for them. People get the needle here for far less.
*It’s like thoughts and prayers, but a LOT more satisfying.
dww44
@The Dangerman: Id put Hawley ahead of Cruz, otherwise I agree with the order of pay per view.
dww44
@Yarrow:
@Yarrow:
What did happen to Corner Stone and when did he vacate this place?
Kay
@dc:
You know how less insane Trump voters said during his (single!) term that they were okay with his policies they just wish he didn’t TALK so much?
Those were the Republicans.
Brantl
@Kent: Did you mean affectation, or affliction? Either would work…
sab
@dww44: Wasn’t he in Texas and furious that during their hurricanes a bunch of us wanted all Texans to die because of politics? That is the last I remember him commenting.
Kay
Our best scenario in the midterms is GOP base- we’re getting that. Anything other than that is worse, because it’s addition.
smith
@Kay: On the other hand, one way Big Lies are effective is due to extensive repetition. Even people who start out thinking a lie is preposterous may start feeling there’s something to it by the 750th time they’ve heard it. Deplatforming TFG certainly cut own on the number of times the wishy-washy normies have heard his lies, including the Big One.
Baud
@sab:
Could be. He was always a sensitive and gentle soul.
debbie
@geg6:
I also love it. I wonder how many tweets he’d have poked out today?
Kay
@smith:
For the midterms you want as much Donald Trump as you can possibly get.
You saw Virginia, correct? What did they do there? They got base +, because they had douchebag whispering to his cultists and the guy with the vest pretending to be normal. Base is better. It’s smaller and you’re getting that- that’s a given- so the only movement is with +
Kent
@Brantl: No, I actually meant “affection” as in “fetish” or “predilection
Am I using the word incorrectly?
Subsole
@Nicole: “Trump went to the Loser Olympics, and he didn’t even get a medal. Because he’s a LOSER.”
Subsole
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Ooooohhhh. I like that.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Jesus, even a dead rock should know that Trump has lied constantly since the mid-1970s.
debbie
I wonder if TFG’s next rally will break the 3-hour mark? He’s got lots of new things to complain about, like every single word in the President’s speech this morning.
ETA: And even worse: He didn’t even mention his name!!!
Subsole
@Kent: It’s a reskin of the diner-safari mentality.
“What, EVERYone who voted for the fascists is a fascist? Even my friend?”
Cameron
HAHAHA
msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-turns-on-hannity-over-capitol-riot-texts-advising-him-to-stop-clai…
sab
@Baud: When I said “us” I meant some jackals. I didn’t mean me.
I kind of liked Cornerstone as much as one can like a curmudgeon. Kind of like you all liking eemomm who I found pretty much a ranting intolerable nutcase. Most of you lawyers found her energetic and/or intense.
Scout211
I’m not sure if this has been posted yet, but remember last week when Nikki Fried accused DeSantis of stockpiling millions of rapid tests and they were about to expire?
He now admits Up to one million test kits have now expired.
hueyplong
@James E Powell: “I am a horrible person, I know this. But if I could choose just one person to die from COVID, it would be DeSantis.”
Yes. I actually thought that very thing and then the next day read about how he had sort of disappeared. Did not feel bad for so much as a nanosecond. Have read with disappointment accounts of his improved appearance at a subsequent event.
Not much guilt over that, either.
CaseyL
@Betty Cracker:
That is part of the rot we’re dealing with: decades-long disengagement from any kind of civic life, knowledge or awareness.
People in a democracy (even a democratic republic!) are responsible for the people they chose to elect, the lies they’re willing to tolerate, and the hatefulness they’re willing to overlook.
I think WWII, being so overwhelming in its stakes and its effects on everyday life, had the effect of making people take their responsibilities as citizens seriously – for a generation or so. But now, as has been endlessly pointed out, “politics” is just team sports to most people.
Baud
@sab: Don’t look at me. I don’t like anybody.
trollhattan
@hueyplong:
DeSantis or Ted Cruz? Choices, choices….
hueyplong
@trollhattan: For me it’s DeSantis. Cruz fears his own shadow. DeSantis doesn’t.
Subsole
@germy: I don’t know enough about Nate to laugh as loudly as I did…
sab
@Baud: You are a lawyer!? or ?! Who knew?! ?!
Sorry. I implied you were a lawyer when you hadn’t said so.
tmflibrarian
@Nicole: EXACTLY.
Another Scott
JM says:
Nonsense. And it’s trivial to prove – Why would they be screaming about being “canceled”? Why would they be trying create their own media platforms? Why would they continue to try to browbeat the media into covering their unhinged rants? Of course he’s weaker being off Twitter. And he would be weaker still Fox and all the rest stopped covering him.
Of course, we can’t just ignore him. But if TFG’s years since 2015 have taught us anything, it’s that amplifying his ranting makes him stronger and damages the polity. And modern societies have specialization of jobs and such so that all of us don’t have to pay attention to him every single day. People like the FBI, JJMacNab, etc., can do so for us.
Josh needs to get out of his bubble.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@sab:
After what Rudy Giuliani did to the profession, I now tell people I’m Canadian.
Gravenstone
@James E Powell: Ideally in a public setting, gasping, gurgling, pleading for help – that never quite comes. An ideal object lesson, if you will.
Baud
@CaseyL:
If our side thought of politics as a team sport, the country would be better off. Our side is more inclined to view politics as a consumer product, which too many don’t purchase if they don’t think they’re getting enough for their
moneyvotes.Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Does it help?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
That approach didn’t seem to work very well for the VA governor election
Kent
Back in the 1980s when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala and the Reagan Administration was doing its thing in Nicaragua there was a certain set of American backpacker tourists who sewed Canadian flags on their backpacks when tromping through Central America thinking that would make a difference and people would treat them better.
It didn’t work. Basically all white folks were “gringos” even the hippies from Germany and Australia as they found out to their dismay. No Guatemalan campesinos gave a shit that Canadians or Germans were different from Americans. They were all gringos and looked the same. And besides, Reagan was popular in Guatemala, it is a conservative country, or was back then.
Matt McIrvin
Whatever anyone actually did is the worst possible reaction.
Kent
Every election is some combination of the national and local. By all reports, McAuliffe was a pretty shitty candidate and his opponent was not.
delk
The 22 year old magat that was photographed holding a piece of Pelosi’s door drove drunk down the wrong way of an expressway and killed a woman.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus: It doesn’t hurt, eh.
@Kent: Interesting. I assumed Reagan was hated throughout Central America. The world is complicated place.
Baud
@Kent: May be ass covering, but McAulliffe’s people say they were hurt by the coverage of the Afghanistan pull out, since VA is a big military state.
The interesting to me about VA is that the Republican party literally rigged the primary to choose a candidate that would appeal to moderates and independents, and the base still came out like gangbusters. But you won’t hear too many people on our side suggesting the Dems do the same.
sixthdoctor
@debbie: God, I hope so, I hope he talks until his COVID-ravaged lungs pop like water balloons. Ah, I remember the day when I gleefully woke up my wife to deliver the hilarious news that he got COVID. It’s making me smile now.
sab
@delk: Before or after?
I don’t mean to be insensitive. Did some judge let him off, or did he just keep on being him?
Cleveland courts had just let off and then probationned an armed robber teen until she finally killed an off duty cop who trusted her too much and turned his back on her. If she had just killed a couple of more civilians she would have been uncaught and skating for a few more years.
Cleveland Ohio law enforcement is only about shooting civilians and protecting their cops.
Geminid
@Kay: I was interested to see analysis of Virginia voting that showed Youngkin pulling in substantially voters from red counties than Trump did the year before. Youngkin’s team did run a very efficient campaign, but I think there were some conservative voters who just would not come out for Trump. Trump did pull in a cohort of new voters, but I think he alienated more.
JoyceH
@debbie:
I loved it – was an exquisitely tailored torture created specifically for Trump, the man who spent his entire life plastering his name on everything he could.
senyordave
@James E Powell: I am a horrible person, I know this. But if I could choose just one person to die from COVID, it would be DeSantis.
I’m more horrible, I would like to see him gasping for his last breaths. How many deaths is he responsible for? And now he has his idiot surgeon general advising people not to get tested. He’s the same piece of shit who wouldn’t wear a mask in the office of a state legislator who was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@sab:
Whatever happened to eemom? I haven’t seen them comment in awhile?
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
But that wasn’t the approach. It wasn’t Trump talking- it was our candidate reminding people of Trump.
Biden didn’t have to do it because he was running against Trump- the man himself was there, never shutting up :)
Trump lost his re-elect. That’s the face you want on the Republican Party in 2022.
delk
@sab: she was supposed to plead guilty this Monday. She was in the car with relatives/traitors that were also pleading guilty.
ETA she was in DC with the relatives. They weren’t in the car when she was driving.
sab
@Baud: I quit the profession before I barely started. In my defense I sucked at that and they knew it, and I liked and was good at tax accounting. Lots of rules in accounting and no penumbras.
schrodingers_cat
Heaving a sigh of relief, my PCR test came out negative. I had been feeling under the weather for over a week. Guess it was just a seasonal bug.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: That won’t necessarily help. POctopus got dragged on the first insurrection remembrance thread.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
?
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Who?
topclimber
I have truly valued the arguments pro and con about shutting up TFG.
Personally, in dealing with yet another year ahead of Pandemic stress, I think the tie-breaker is all the relief of not having the media amplify his hateful, ignorant, asinine comments.
Keeping the mother lode of misinformation in the shadows also has the ripple effect that other hate miners can’t lay claim to so much of social media.
sab
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I believe she is lurking
She pops up occassionally, laughs and says oops wrong blog, then disappears. So not banned.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud:polyorchnid octopunch
He stopped by to give us his hot take from the frozen north.
Geminid
@Kent: McAulliffe wasn’t neccesarily a shitty candidate. He ran a poor campaign, though, and Youngkin ran a well-focused, efficient one. But as far as results go, you are correct.
I came away with the impression that McAullife was overconfident. I asked my friend Debbie what she thought. She snorted, and said, McAuliffe was confident enough to put up thousands of signs saying “Terry.” No last name. Acting like everyone knew who he was, a politician pretending he was your buddy.
I also thought that McAuliffe may have spent so much time with Democrat elites that he forgot how to talk to voters as people.
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
One week after the riot. You would want to go back in that direction. But you need him front and center to do it. Our candidates won’t have to talk about him. He’ll be talking about himself.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I never would have made the connection.
Kent
Not at all. Everywhere I went in Guatemala in the 1980s people were super friendly towards Americans and the conversation in any rural cantina would go like this:
“Hola Gringo! Are you from the USA? My brother/son/uncle lives in Los Angeles. His name is Juan Fernando Gonzalez. Do you know him? How is he doing?” And of course most of their TV was either Mexican telenovelas or US shows like the A-Team dubbed into Spanish.
Most Central Americans in Guatemala absolutely did NOT support the local communist insurgencies which were very rag-tag and much like their counterparts in Colombia. They mostly just wanted to be left alone. And as Catholics or Evangelicals converted by American missionaries they were mostly right-leaning anyway.
The only actual lefties I ever met were affluent young college students from the city, not any rural folk.
Leto
MSNBC is airing the vigil Pelosi/Dems are having in front of the capital. A MSgt from the Marine Corp band sang, “God Bless America” and “My Country tis of Thee”. Really beautiful.
Baud
@Kent:
Oh, I agree that communism wasn’t popular, but it’s not like the right wing dictators were nice people either. And I assumed intervening in any way produced a lot of resentment.
Cacti
Sidney Blumenthal wrote a good piece in The Guardian today about January 6, and just how deep the GOP was into plotting the overthrow of the 2020 election result.
Link
I also tend to agree with his conclusion that it’s distressing that absolutely none of the power players have been charged with a crime thus far.
If no one big is ever held accountable, it will be repeated until the desired result is achieved.
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Jimmy Carter lost his re-elect and Republicans talked about it for the next thirty years.
They created a much worse Jimmy Carter and ran against it for 3 decades. Trump lost. What you do with the loser is saddle the Party with him for as long as you can.
smith
@Leto: What I want to hear is “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
sab
@schrodingers_cat: That’s a relief ( belated.) My SIL tested positive for two weeks, living in a condo with her husband who has a rare but awful autoimmune disease. He is medicated to the point of no immunity.
She just tested negative. Scary two weeks for them. Everyone was vaccinated, boostered and masked to a faretheewell, but there they were.
But vaxxed, here they are. So yay.+
trollhattan
@Kent:
I worked back then with “sandalistas” and emigres from El Salvador among the staff mix. Good lord, the office battles.
Ten bucks says the sandalistas still believe Ortega will honor the Nicaraguan constitution “any day now.”
Spanish Moss
I think there has been a lot of upside to his deplatforming. Trump’s constant stream of craziness and ensuing reactions took up all of the oxygen in the room. It provided fodder for bothsidesism in the MSM, which I think led to a lot of confusion for low information voters.
His true believers have always been able to get his message, but now that he is partially shunned we get to talk about other, important things. We hear less about “fake news”, and I am not missing that one bit. Now that there is room for other messages more of the truth is coming out and I think some more moderate Republicans are now too embarrassed to support him anymore.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Sorry, I was not trying to be cryptic.
Starboard Tack
Does anyone know the incubation periods for Delta and Omicron?
Geminid
@Baud: Virginia’s Republican state committee set up a nomination process that allowed Youngkin to essentially buy the nomination. He may have bought them first.
One writer for Virginia political magazine Bearing Drift observed that while most Republican state parties decide nominations through primaries, and a few use the caucus/convention process, Virginia was the only one that could use either. This, the writer noted, allows candidates to shape the process to their advantage if they can.
After struggling right up to the deadline,the party came up with an “Unassembled Convention,” in which self-registered “delegates” would cast ranked-choice ballots at 27 sites around the commonwealth.
The campaign was compressed in time and attracted much less notice than a primary would have, and much less debate. Much less participation too; in the event only 34,000 “delegates” voted, in a state with over 8 million residents. Youngkin spread his money around to hire a lot of people to recruit their friends, and won easily.
sab
@Kay: Let us do that. Trump wasn’t a fluke. Those who did not love him did at least tolerate him.
Democrats are not so tolerant.
Though I did actually love Jimmy Carter. Even more George McGovern.
Back when I left political activism because I actually needed to earn a living and pay for my rent and my car payments I failed to write to George McGovern and tell him how much he meant to me and I blamed us not him for him losing. And how much I admired him. He always thought he failed us, and I always thought we failed him.
I am sure he would have liked to hear from more of us. Not to agree, just to know we disagreed and did not blame him, and were not giving up.
mrmoshpotato
@Spanish Moss:
Exactly. The orange shitstain’s constant barrage of bullshit was fucking catnip to the idiots who decided that ratings for bullshit was more important than taking the Kremlin’s orange fascist shitstain to task.
schrodingers_cat
@sab: Husband kitteh hasn’t yet got his results. We were both down the last week with mild aches, stuffy nose but no fever. Both of us are vaxxed and boosted.
sab
@schrodingers_cat: Love that vax. Quarantine is horrible, but vaxxed quarantine is much better.
Baud
@Geminid:
It worked.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kent:
And what about New Jersey? That shouldn’t have been as close as it was
@Kay:
I’m not so sure about that. Biden’s polling numbers are terrible, including on the Coronavirus response and the economy. Hell, one recent CNBC poll even found that 50% of Americans think Biden has gone too far with the vaccine mandates!
From the Hill article:
I’m worried that voters will think that the Dems’ and President Biden’s policies were discredited and the cause of rising prices. Susan Glasser in her “news analysis” on the front page of USAToday a few weeks ago gleefully compared Biden to Jimmy Carter. I’m worried that 2024 will become Jimmy Carter vs Ronald Reagan, w/ people overlooking Trump’s flaws. His bullshit didn’t stop voters in 2016
schrodingers_cat
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Newsom won his recall handily. Why is that not a harbinger of anything?
Is it because it doesn’t play into Dooms Democrats are Doomed narrative.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Why shouldn’t NJ have been close? No Dem had won reelection since the 70s.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: youngkins win was closer
debbie
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Oh, come on with this bullshit. Biden is not Carter and TFG is not Reagan. Trump in 2024 is not Trump in 2016. Focus on 2022 if you want to worry yourself into a tizzy.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: There were a ton of school board elections where Anti-CRT candidates were crushed.
satby
@Baud: Like a knife straight into my heart.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
He also ran a much better campaign than McAuliffe.
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Forty-two, just in Ohio. Or so I’ve read.
smith
@schrodingers_cat: Agreed. And while we’re talking about things we’d like the wishy-washy middle not to be repeatedly clobbered with, the one I’d put top of the list is, “Of course, the Republicans will most likely take back the House in 2022.” Even our base doesn’t need to hear that every time we talk about the midterms — it’s a great way to enact a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Suzanne
Eh. I think it’s ultimately a good thing for polite society to draw boundaries. The human piles of mashed potatoes from a box who love him need to experience some consequences, too.
unrelated: it is snowing like a sumbitch and it took me 45 minutes to get home from the store.
Omnes Omnibus
@smith: That is an ongoing fight here.
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne:
What did my mashed brethren do to deserve that comparison? How did mashed potatoes from a box hurt you?
Kent
@Baud: yes but sending military aid wasn’t really perceived as intervention at least in Guatemala. There were no US troops on the ground. And most rural folks had family in the Guatemalan army due to conscription. Reality is more complex than slogans.
zhena gogolia
@smith: yeah
Anyway
@Suzanne:
How huge a transition was it for you moving from sunny AZ to PBGH (weather-wise)? I don’t remember if you mentioned that before…
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: Looks like they are getting righteously dragged, and good on that, say I.
Suzanne
@mrmoshpotato: Mashed potatoes from a box are nasty. They hurt me by gluing my mouth shut.
zhena gogolia
@Kent: don’t get me started on how much Russians loved Reagan
The Lodger
@Kent: Being the guy who swooped into Oregon from New York to take over hasn’t worked well for the last couple of decades. Think of former state school superintendent Rudy Crew or former Episcopal bishop Johncy Itty. Neither lasted long in their jobs.
Suzanne
@Anyway: Not so bad. It snows plenty in northern AZ and I went up there a lot.
What I am regretting, however, was opting for the CR-V without four-wheel drive. Since most of my PHX driving was urban freeways, I opted to save on the gas mileage and went with the front-wheel drive model. Now on PGH’s steep streets, I regret it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: I offered “Come the fuck on,” as my contribution.
WaterGirl
Unrelated to everything, the first episode of Women of the Movement is on TV tonight. I think the first episode is about Emmet Till and his mother.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@schrodingers_cat:
The California electorate isn’t representative of the wider US, though. I would imagine Virginia is closer
@Baud:
Maybe. I’m just not sure it bodes well for this year’s midterms. Adam Silverman has training as a political scientist and he specifically said to look towards the VA gov election as a barometer for the midterms
Miss Bianca
@Subsole:
This is edging into Tony Jay territory.
I am all.kinds.of here for it.
Cacti
@Suzanne: I was about to say, I thought you lived in the PHX east valley. When did you leave?
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I don’t do predictions. I was just questioning your statement about NJ.
Suzanne
@Cacti: We sold our place in Chandler in May 2020 and came to PGH. We bought a house here right before the real estate market went batshit.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@debbie:
I hope I’m wrong, but I can tell the media desperately wants this to happen and their coverage reflects this. According to polling, the American public has seemingly bought into it as well. As Adam said before last November, perception is reality
Geminid
@Baud: It sure did work. A year ago I did not believe a Republican had a chance to win the Governor’s race. Not because we’re so good and they’re so bad, but because the “populist” wing and Chamber of Commerce wing of the party hated each other. Youngkin smoothed over those differences. And he and his friends put money into every Republican state campaign.
Youngkin’s centering of education issues was shrewd. Attacking Critical Race Theory rallied the populists just as effectively as attacking reproductive rights and gun control would have, but without the blowback those issues create among voters.
Youngkin had a narrow path to victory, and he pulled it off with a smart, efficient campaign. I still think, though, that McAulliffe could have run a better campaign, and if he had Youngkin would have lost.
Jinchi
Marshall is just dead wrong on this one. My guess is he’s a bit defensive at being part of the media echo-chamber that aided Trump’s stroll to the nomination in 2016, by covering his every vile tweet.
The number one rule in the battle against BS is “Don’t Repeat the Lie”. Silencing Trump brought an almost immediate improvement to the public discourse. His ability to give comfort and inspiration to violent bigots was severely curtailed and the media found plenty other news to discuss in his absence. Letting Trump keep his bullhorn would have kept Proud Boys rallying in the streets for years.
Nobody expected him to be literally muted. There are always going to be die-hards eager to hear his bile. The argument that he can still reach a few, so we should just give back the keys to his twitter feed is nonsense. There is no universe in which letting him speak widely and freely is better than the one we’re in now.
Let him listen to his own echo in half empty auditoriums of bored Qanon fans.
debbie
@Geminid:
I think McAuliffe lost it more than Youngkin won it. Really wish there had been a better Democrat.
Bobby Thomson
Marshall occasionally is a real dumbass. This is one of those times.
James E Powell
@Geminid:
I can’t recount them all, but that is a summary of the remarks after every losing Democratic campaign in the last 30 years.
I’m not saying it’s all not true, but it includes a few things that Republicans always say about Democrats. I wasn’t there, I could only read about it from the west coast, but he appeared to walk right into it with his remarks on parents & schools.
Villago Delenda Est
TFG, four words for you: eat shit and die.
Antonius
@Jinchi: Spot on.
Geminid
@debbie: McAuliffe was a good enough Democrat. He just did not run a good enough campaign. It’s possible that another Democrat would have.
McAuliffe did not work his way up in retail politics before he narrowly won his first term against the hard-right Ken Cuccinelli. Tim Kaine had been a Richmond City Council member, then Richmond Mayor before he won the Governor’s race. Ralph Northam won several State Senate races, then the Lieutenant Governor race before he was elected Governor. Like McAuliffe, Mark Warner was a donor who transferred to elective office. But he lost a Senate race to John Warner, and won a Governor’s race by learning to be a good retail politician.
Warner, Kaine, and Northam are fairly similar to McAullife in terms of ideology, but they come across as authentic in a way McAulliffe does not.
Geminid
@James E Powell: There are plenty of Democrats who’ve run good campaigns and lost. Stacey Abrams and Beto O’Rourke in 2018 are just two of them. McAuliffe is a different story. He reminds me more of Martha Coakley when she lost the Massachusetts special Senate election to Scott Brown.
bowtiejack
@Yarrow:
Isn’t it time to recognize that the Republican Party has become a criminal enterprise ?
Ruckus
@Baud:
You are either a lawyer, a used car salesman or a preacher with a jet plane.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ruckus: He could be funny, and frankly I kind of miss that faint whiff of eau de skunk.
Richard
@Baud:
We are still waiting. So Hurtful to Many People indeed.
waynel140
I think Trump has been reduced to the street corner, yelling at only a few who stand there and listen, while the rest of us go about our day. Giving him any larger platform would simply annoy the three-quarters of us who think he is the crazy man on a broken-down box.
The reason he still holds sway on Republicans is because he is taking advantage of the very system they built to maintain power for themselves–the primary system which keeps dissenting voices out.