Perhaps the most shocking thing the execrable Elise Stefanik did when she was on Press The Meat yesterday was to refuse to answer moderator Kristen Welker’s question of whether or not she would recognize and honor the result of this November’s election, regardless of the outcome.
“Whatever may have been my political opinions before, I have but one sentiment now: that is, we have a government, and laws, and a flag, and they must all be sustained. There are but two parties now: traitors and patriots. And I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter.”
NO, they will not. They have been rewarded by a system that failed to enforce justice; they believe they are above the law, and they have the financial backing of Neo nazi, Christo-fascist billionaires, thanks to the UNLAWFUL PASSAGE OF CITIZENS UNITED. They have stolen elections before; Nixon got off by resigning; George W was handed an election and then lied and used fear-mongering to get reelected (WMD, anyone?).
The RNC is officially an Organized Crime Syndicate funded and managed by fascist billionaires, with installed Puppets. Even with a blatant coup attempt and declared intent to act as a dictator, tRump roams free on espionage charges and is treated as a viable candidate for President.
So, NO, they will not recognized the election because they aim to steal it.
Please don't conflate the former guy with a secondary sex characteristic that is often attractive on both genders, which actually evolved to enable our ancestors to run, along with the nuchal ligament and the Achilles tendon. The names of sex-related body parts should not be used as epithets.
I liked the "Press The Meat" and "bend-over-and-spread-for-him" allusions. But then, my philosophy in these matters is that a dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste.
I know what you're saying, David. I've said it myself many times. but we must both acknowledge there's something immensely liberating about yelling "You FUCKING PRICK" at someone who deserves it. I was equally anatomical when a woman said something nasty about my semi-disabled dog and I'll apologize in advance, but it felt GREAT (and god knows, we're talking about a body part for which I have profound and undying LOVE). "FUCK YOU" remains the classic angry thing to say, but if you take it literally, it can be argued you're only wishing the person in question have a LOT of FUN.
having said this, it's probably a good idea to add that people have accused me of having a mild case of Tourette Syndrome (and they might be right). my buddy Ruth (with whom I shared an office for twelve years) used to say that as much as she disapproved of using obscenity at work, it always made her feel good when she noticed how happy it made me to say "fuck." "it just makes you GLOW," she still says.
There's actually evidence that swearing provides literal pain relief. And that's a great story about Ruth seeing you glow! I think this is somewhat different from what I'm going after. And if you're in the Boston area, maybe we should have coffee sometime. You can email me at holzmandc@outlook.com.
It wasn't meant to be funny, and that should be obvious from the tone of my comment. I mentioned the evolutionary history in hopes that you might find the derriere worthy of being respected, even if you do not see it as an attractive secondary sex characteristic the way some of us do. And I find it offensive just as I would if someone were throwing the C--- word around in a disrespectful way.
I remain cautiously pessimistic since Reagan , deepened by the Supreme court deciding Bush over Gore _ I thought isn't that unconstitutional & felt the strong blow to our democracy. There have been so many blows since then with our government infiltrated by criminals. The list is long & that is part of the plan to keep burying freedom so deeply that justice can not keep up with accountability. Hearing Biden speak the truth helps but it is hard to move the needle back towards optimism. It's hard to pay attention these days - but we must- & rally against evil & take our civil duty seriously. We can't let the greedy power brokers continue to pull it off. Power to the people who support Zelensky & Biden. Thanks TC for the pain & promise..
MSM is the greatest problem. What Biden is FINALLY saying IS news. Front page news. Write them letters and demand it be news. I haven't gotten a response from that idiot Aaron Blake at WAPo about his new and entertaining weekly feature on the Presidential "race". I stopped short of reaming him a new asshole, but next time, look out. Maggie Haberman comes close to being serious about it but that is it from WaPo.
this is going to sound uncharacteristically optimistic, but since Biden's last two speeches, I THINK (or is it just hope?) that things in this campaign MIGHT be shifting a little. just a little.
now let's get those Hitler-oriented commercials out there! or a series of TFF's "promises," accompanied by footage in which he directly contradicts himself. I'd love to see or hear some of that footage Woodward recorded about the pandemic (putting aside for a moment whatever blame Woodward does or doesn't deserve for sitting on them for as long as he did...this a CAMPAIGN, not the fucking Eagle Scouts.
you're a better man than I am. I quit the Cub Scouts because I had already been in for two months and they still hadn't found me a uniform.
and we know that a Cub Scout with no uniform is like.....[add something indicating a profound sense of incompleteness]. so my own feeling was "fuck them."
I had fun in the Cub Scouts that you couldn't have today. The father of one of the kids in my den was a pilot for United Air Lines. He set up for us to visit the UAL operating center at Denver's Stapleton Airfield. While we were there, they finished the 100 hour check on one of the DC-6s (for those unfamiliar, a big airplane with four piston engines), which then needed a test flight. So he did the test flight, and brought us all along! (10 Cub Scouts, in an airplane doing a test flight, with no ask of parents or anything - I don't think anyone would do that now) We took off, flew down to Colorado Springs and around Pike's Peak, then up along the Front Range of the Rockies to Fort Collins, then back to Denver, about an hour. And we got to take turns sitting in the copilot's seat, making that big airliner the first airplane that I set hands on the controls. Like almost everything I used to do as a kid, you cannot do that now.
indeed, we couldn't do anything like that. it was basketball (which I didn't hate playing less than I hated playing it in school) and (and I can't be sure this wasn't a school trip...it was over 65 years ago and I was mostly bored, which is a state that doesn't carry over well into very long term memory) a trip to a visiting aircraft carrier. I don't remember which one. I remember it was extremely large. period.
the truth is that I wanted a uniform, which would have meant I BELONGED somewhere. in Germany, I might have made a perfectly acceptable Hitler youth, if we put aside for a second the whole Jewish thing.
Eugene Robinson was MIA until recently & he is the only voice I follow at that paper unless someone links to a worthwhile article. Yes the MSM is the responsible party for falling for the propaganda machine & creating such a serious issue which is now totally out of control because of who is in control. Tucker Carlson as VP , anyone ?
You might consider writing to WaPo. I Put that Aaron Blake solicitatioon W/email address, and my response below. I posted it on Heather's letter last week and Jessica Craven's also. These folks all have large dedicated followers who, I hope will at least give Aaron Blake a piece of there mind for the audacity of thinking his mind rot weekly would be of "interest". 100% propaganda for watching the show go by. I am still enraged. Please read my comment below.
the guy I would personally like to strangle (or twenty minutes of painful-but-not-dangerous physical abuse might get the job done) is the person at the NYT who seems to get some kind of charge out of writing headlines that manage to run down Biden even when the actual news stories they're heading have very little mention of Biden, except for the "possibility" that it could backfire. it's politics, not exactly (as above) the fucking Eagle Scouts.
I've been screaming about that too David, over and over on several Substacks. The true position of corporate media is in how they define reality and the discussion by headlines wording and the naming, such as "Freedom fighter" vs. "terrorist" for the same person and event. Yada yada to no avail. I'm sure you understand. This has been evident in my short life since I started reading the paper about People's Park and the Free Speach movement in Berzerkley back in the early-mid 60s. Naming the event or situation defines it.
I just noted to the Bride that an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon had killed the commander of Hezbollah, and I expected some pushback..... She remarked, "Do you have any more 'oh shits' before I get back to reading?" I replied, "No, but the afternoon is still young....." This should be fun - but we are STILL tired of living in 'interesting times'.....
To top that, a hotel in Ft. Worth, about 40 miles from our home in Dallas, exploded from a gas leak, injuring 11 people and blowing off the front of the building's first and second floors..... OK, world - what next.....?
Like the spoiled kid who takes home his football after losing a game, I expect the MAGAts to do the same thing, but with violence this time. Because the justice system in this country is too involved with arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin and moves at a pace even glaciers would be hard pressed to match, there have been no consequences for past bad behaviors and incidents. In fact, the same bozos preaching insurrection and fascism have been rewarded by their sponsors and the electorate in their districts…the laws and ordinances that were supposed to be safeguards of the nation’s political system have been shown to be toothless and worse than useless because one side doesn’t want to participate in good faith anymore. Rules mean nothing when anarchy is the norm and that’s what the MAGAts want.
as I said last week, TFF furnished us with an excellent stress test for indicating where the guardrails were deficient. there wasn't the kind of all-out effort to install those guardrails I would have liked. our non-parliamentary, so-called "two-party" system just wasn't up to it. without a very significant change (and I have no idea where or how or if this change will ever happen), this is the new normal. I do not expect any but a very few Repugs (and that's being charitable) to accept ANY electoral loss from here on in. if I'm not mistaken, this is very much the plan.
The Dems controled the House before 2020 and did absolutely nothing about the traitorous 147 who should have been barred from serving, per 14th Sec. 3. They had the votes then and muffed it. I was pulling my hair out and should have called and written over and over, but I the Niceness prevailed, much like Andrew Johnson after the Civil War, pardoned all but a few of the Confederates.
Not bloody likely.....and wasn't Stefanik's performance on Meet the Press a perfect illustration of Winston Smith's description of an apparatchik in "1984"..... This is going to be a year, folks - first the Supremes will decide if Trump is immune to any and all criminal indictments for what he did, all based on an internal DOJ memo written by a junior attorney decades ago, which never had the force of even a regulation. Then they'll decide if the 14th amendment has rendered him ineligible to serve. Then they will get the various cases from Jack Smith and Fani Willis that The Former Guy will surely litigate to the max..... The Bride just mentioned the ineffable Stefanik (she's reading your posting now).....
Americans are electing their next president. It’s a long road, but we’ve got just the guide to help you to navigate it.
The Campaign Moment is your occasional guide to the key, well, moments on the campaign. Publishing when news warrants, we’ll highlight the major developments that actually matter and then take you deeper, providing analysis, context and answers to the big questions. Sign up here.
I’m Aaron Blake, and I’ve been analyzing politics and campaigns for nearly 20 years – including a dozen at The Post. That experience helps me pick out when we’re truly having a moment, and my goal is to serve those moments up to you.
Here’s what you can expect:
The biggest news, broken down
Analysis of the polls that actually matter and tell us something significant
Historical context and anecdotes that inform and entertain
Links to the coverage that will make you smarter when you want to know even more
I want to hit the sweet spot between the political junkie and someone who’s more casually interested in where things stand in the 2024 race. But I think everyone with any level of interest in who our next president will be should find something for them in this newsletter.
Sign up here to get our newsletter starting Monday, Jan. 8.
My response:
Excuse me sir,
But why has it taken the Post so long to even mention the Fascist rhetoric, let alone the danger to our Constitution posed by Trump's backers and planners? This IS the NEWS, not partisanship.
This is THE number one issue of the 2024 election, because if Trump or a Republican wins, it will be our last election. They have told us clearly. Project 2025. Read it. Operation 47. Read it.
Only Trump loyalists in Civil Service and DOJ. Round us up. If someone says they are a Fascist, believe them. Your collective MSM silence is deafening.
Does this matter to you at all? I, and every loyal citizen of our Nation deserves a clear and honest answer from you and the WaPo management. This is not a horse race. What is at stake is all that matters, and our essential freedom and life itself is at stake, as well as your precious Freedom of the Press.
Do you understand?
This IS the Campaign Moment and the moment is NOW!!!
This essay has been on my mind all day. I’m in agreement with TC without reservation. And that’s the problem.
I’m thinking about my own very good friend from college. Love him like a brother. He’s such a kind man, good hearted, gives of himself freely to disadvantaged people. But he’s always been one of those financial Republicans. You know the type. “Government is wasteful. My taxes are too high.” (And that’s even before he had any income to tax!) We used to have friendly debates about it because he really wasn’t into any of the social conservative aspects of Republicans. (He and his future wife bought a house and had a child long before they finally married.) Of course, over the years we have increasingly talked less and less often. Life gets in the way, with careers and family keeping us preoccupied. But nowadays I’m afraid to reach out and talk with him. I’m so afraid he’s gone MAGA, or at least accommodating himself to it in hopes of less taxation. It makes me feel sad to think about it. Republicans are just so evil. Not just the politicians. The voters too. I can’t make excuses for them. And I don’t have so many friends I can afford to loose some. It’s so difficult.
I don’t have any wise observation or resolution. It’s just something that’s been on my mind.
By reaching out, we risk losing a friend, child, or spouse. I began by sending a friend one article. She didn't read it and said our politics are at opposite ends. I reached out and may try one more time. But she won't change even when confronted with a white supremacist at her door.
I have a lifelong friend of a similar cloth. I'm pretty sure she skipped school with me and sat in protest of the Vietnam War. I was surprised to hear from a mutual friend that she always votes republican as did her father. I have lost total respect for her. Recent political conversations have not gone well, as they were short and one sided. She dropped a few bombs about how she's disgusted with Biden and Pelosi and Newsum about immigration. And did not want to hear my response. I'm done. At least for now. It's sad. I feel for you and others who are in relationships with those whose true colors are muddied.
2003 was the year when I saw my best friends start to become strangers. W/Dickie (with Rove, and a slew of his ilk) started the destruction of our institutions, even before that Iraq fiasco. They were loved by people that I had thought a lot of, and excused by other repubs. Then the biggest shock of all. Blaming Obama for the horrors of that nightmare. With support from all “conservative” sides, they used Rupert’s lying megaphone to savage any Democrat. And all that before the criminal narcissist smelled enough cretins to think he could take the national stage.
Thank you for speaking for me. There is not one syllable that I didn’t post on Twitter and FB (before I got banned). Especially Orwell’s astute observations.
Of course this who call Ashli Babbit a “martyr” would defend to the death their right to shoot someone breaking into their house or business.
Who is running against Stefanik? Is her seat safe?
I don’t for a minute believe that Covid was an engineered bio weapon. But a small conspiratorial part of me wonders if the Chinese or Russians have developed a virus that makes naturally conservatives minds go completely bonkers.
I think mebbe not. she's one of those "upstate gals" from up north. it might not be 100% geographically accurate, but I like the ring of "Buffalo Bimbo."
There was a former CIA officer with a well-financed and well-run campaign who ran against her in 2022 and got trounced. The current one doesn't have that much going.
And sadly none of the upper-level traitors are being held accountable: half the SCOTUS, over 200 members of congress, a slew of Trump toadies running the Red States and an army of mindless Trumplicans who rally around the Orange Menace's fascist movement to overthrow the Untied States of America. On the street and in the Hood here in my neck of the woods I've met some of these characters who talk like the vision of Herr Trump is a done deal and that all the suckers in the ranks of veterans, and all the cops, and lawyers, teachers, fireman and other frontline workers of the body politic will just fall in line behind the dictates of the Tyrant Trump as if he was the Anointed One. They also think all the bullets will be flying in only one direction. That's how clueless and stupid these people are. I can't help but think that if Grant was president instead of Biden what a righteous storm of true retribution might be brewing.
In a just society, Stefanik's performance would have earned her a Kafkaesque end: being squashed underfoot by Welker, befitting the cockroach Stefanik is. Between her gun-industry lobbiest husband and her, there is no way baby Stefanik can be receiving the care that a baby needs.
“Whatever may have been my political opinions before, I have but one sentiment now: that is, we have a government, and laws, and a flag, and they must all be sustained. There are but two parties now: traitors and patriots. And I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter.”
― Ulysses S. Grant
Yes, exactly. Also Tom, I put that WaPo Aaron Blake solicitation and my response beolw. Some of your people might feel inclined to follow up also.
the older I get, the better Grant looks.
I laughed out loud.
NO, they will not. They have been rewarded by a system that failed to enforce justice; they believe they are above the law, and they have the financial backing of Neo nazi, Christo-fascist billionaires, thanks to the UNLAWFUL PASSAGE OF CITIZENS UNITED. They have stolen elections before; Nixon got off by resigning; George W was handed an election and then lied and used fear-mongering to get reelected (WMD, anyone?).
The RNC is officially an Organized Crime Syndicate funded and managed by fascist billionaires, with installed Puppets. Even with a blatant coup attempt and declared intent to act as a dictator, tRump roams free on espionage charges and is treated as a viable candidate for President.
So, NO, they will not recognized the election because they aim to steal it.
Please don't conflate the former guy with a secondary sex characteristic that is often attractive on both genders, which actually evolved to enable our ancestors to run, along with the nuchal ligament and the Achilles tendon. The names of sex-related body parts should not be used as epithets.
I liked the "Press The Meat" and "bend-over-and-spread-for-him" allusions. But then, my philosophy in these matters is that a dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste.
I also like "now why don't you just shut up, turn your head and COUGH?"
I know what you're saying, David. I've said it myself many times. but we must both acknowledge there's something immensely liberating about yelling "You FUCKING PRICK" at someone who deserves it. I was equally anatomical when a woman said something nasty about my semi-disabled dog and I'll apologize in advance, but it felt GREAT (and god knows, we're talking about a body part for which I have profound and undying LOVE). "FUCK YOU" remains the classic angry thing to say, but if you take it literally, it can be argued you're only wishing the person in question have a LOT of FUN.
having said this, it's probably a good idea to add that people have accused me of having a mild case of Tourette Syndrome (and they might be right). my buddy Ruth (with whom I shared an office for twelve years) used to say that as much as she disapproved of using obscenity at work, it always made her feel good when she noticed how happy it made me to say "fuck." "it just makes you GLOW," she still says.
There's actually evidence that swearing provides literal pain relief. And that's a great story about Ruth seeing you glow! I think this is somewhat different from what I'm going after. And if you're in the Boston area, maybe we should have coffee sometime. You can email me at holzmandc@outlook.com.
thank you, David. if I ever am in the vicinity, count on it.
Not funny. Not relevant. This is old. Quit trolling.
It wasn't meant to be funny, and that should be obvious from the tone of my comment. I mentioned the evolutionary history in hopes that you might find the derriere worthy of being respected, even if you do not see it as an attractive secondary sex characteristic the way some of us do. And I find it offensive just as I would if someone were throwing the C--- word around in a disrespectful way.
I remain cautiously pessimistic since Reagan , deepened by the Supreme court deciding Bush over Gore _ I thought isn't that unconstitutional & felt the strong blow to our democracy. There have been so many blows since then with our government infiltrated by criminals. The list is long & that is part of the plan to keep burying freedom so deeply that justice can not keep up with accountability. Hearing Biden speak the truth helps but it is hard to move the needle back towards optimism. It's hard to pay attention these days - but we must- & rally against evil & take our civil duty seriously. We can't let the greedy power brokers continue to pull it off. Power to the people who support Zelensky & Biden. Thanks TC for the pain & promise..
MSM is the greatest problem. What Biden is FINALLY saying IS news. Front page news. Write them letters and demand it be news. I haven't gotten a response from that idiot Aaron Blake at WAPo about his new and entertaining weekly feature on the Presidential "race". I stopped short of reaming him a new asshole, but next time, look out. Maggie Haberman comes close to being serious about it but that is it from WaPo.
this is going to sound uncharacteristically optimistic, but since Biden's last two speeches, I THINK (or is it just hope?) that things in this campaign MIGHT be shifting a little. just a little.
now let's get those Hitler-oriented commercials out there! or a series of TFF's "promises," accompanied by footage in which he directly contradicts himself. I'd love to see or hear some of that footage Woodward recorded about the pandemic (putting aside for a moment whatever blame Woodward does or doesn't deserve for sitting on them for as long as he did...this a CAMPAIGN, not the fucking Eagle Scouts.
In my first orientation Boy Scouts meeting, I had to walk out after all the Bible waving and it's been "Fuck them" ever since.
you're a better man than I am. I quit the Cub Scouts because I had already been in for two months and they still hadn't found me a uniform.
and we know that a Cub Scout with no uniform is like.....[add something indicating a profound sense of incompleteness]. so my own feeling was "fuck them."
I had fun in the Cub Scouts that you couldn't have today. The father of one of the kids in my den was a pilot for United Air Lines. He set up for us to visit the UAL operating center at Denver's Stapleton Airfield. While we were there, they finished the 100 hour check on one of the DC-6s (for those unfamiliar, a big airplane with four piston engines), which then needed a test flight. So he did the test flight, and brought us all along! (10 Cub Scouts, in an airplane doing a test flight, with no ask of parents or anything - I don't think anyone would do that now) We took off, flew down to Colorado Springs and around Pike's Peak, then up along the Front Range of the Rockies to Fort Collins, then back to Denver, about an hour. And we got to take turns sitting in the copilot's seat, making that big airliner the first airplane that I set hands on the controls. Like almost everything I used to do as a kid, you cannot do that now.
indeed, we couldn't do anything like that. it was basketball (which I didn't hate playing less than I hated playing it in school) and (and I can't be sure this wasn't a school trip...it was over 65 years ago and I was mostly bored, which is a state that doesn't carry over well into very long term memory) a trip to a visiting aircraft carrier. I don't remember which one. I remember it was extremely large. period.
the truth is that I wanted a uniform, which would have meant I BELONGED somewhere. in Germany, I might have made a perfectly acceptable Hitler youth, if we put aside for a second the whole Jewish thing.
WOW!!
Eugene Robinson was MIA until recently & he is the only voice I follow at that paper unless someone links to a worthwhile article. Yes the MSM is the responsible party for falling for the propaganda machine & creating such a serious issue which is now totally out of control because of who is in control. Tucker Carlson as VP , anyone ?
You might consider writing to WaPo. I Put that Aaron Blake solicitatioon W/email address, and my response below. I posted it on Heather's letter last week and Jessica Craven's also. These folks all have large dedicated followers who, I hope will at least give Aaron Blake a piece of there mind for the audacity of thinking his mind rot weekly would be of "interest". 100% propaganda for watching the show go by. I am still enraged. Please read my comment below.
the guy I would personally like to strangle (or twenty minutes of painful-but-not-dangerous physical abuse might get the job done) is the person at the NYT who seems to get some kind of charge out of writing headlines that manage to run down Biden even when the actual news stories they're heading have very little mention of Biden, except for the "possibility" that it could backfire. it's politics, not exactly (as above) the fucking Eagle Scouts.
I've been screaming about that too David, over and over on several Substacks. The true position of corporate media is in how they define reality and the discussion by headlines wording and the naming, such as "Freedom fighter" vs. "terrorist" for the same person and event. Yada yada to no avail. I'm sure you understand. This has been evident in my short life since I started reading the paper about People's Park and the Free Speach movement in Berzerkley back in the early-mid 60s. Naming the event or situation defines it.
Thanks, TC. I had trouble getting through this one, but it's damned important. May all the traitors rot.
They are already rotting, quickly becoming completely rotten if they’re not there yet. Slimy smelly rancid compost
I just noted to the Bride that an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon had killed the commander of Hezbollah, and I expected some pushback..... She remarked, "Do you have any more 'oh shits' before I get back to reading?" I replied, "No, but the afternoon is still young....." This should be fun - but we are STILL tired of living in 'interesting times'.....
To top that, a hotel in Ft. Worth, about 40 miles from our home in Dallas, exploded from a gas leak, injuring 11 people and blowing off the front of the building's first and second floors..... OK, world - what next.....?
you're not the only one.
I ended up getting drunk.
Like the spoiled kid who takes home his football after losing a game, I expect the MAGAts to do the same thing, but with violence this time. Because the justice system in this country is too involved with arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin and moves at a pace even glaciers would be hard pressed to match, there have been no consequences for past bad behaviors and incidents. In fact, the same bozos preaching insurrection and fascism have been rewarded by their sponsors and the electorate in their districts…the laws and ordinances that were supposed to be safeguards of the nation’s political system have been shown to be toothless and worse than useless because one side doesn’t want to participate in good faith anymore. Rules mean nothing when anarchy is the norm and that’s what the MAGAts want.
as I said last week, TFF furnished us with an excellent stress test for indicating where the guardrails were deficient. there wasn't the kind of all-out effort to install those guardrails I would have liked. our non-parliamentary, so-called "two-party" system just wasn't up to it. without a very significant change (and I have no idea where or how or if this change will ever happen), this is the new normal. I do not expect any but a very few Repugs (and that's being charitable) to accept ANY electoral loss from here on in. if I'm not mistaken, this is very much the plan.
fuck them. I'm going to bed.
The Dems controled the House before 2020 and did absolutely nothing about the traitorous 147 who should have been barred from serving, per 14th Sec. 3. They had the votes then and muffed it. I was pulling my hair out and should have called and written over and over, but I the Niceness prevailed, much like Andrew Johnson after the Civil War, pardoned all but a few of the Confederates.
one of the reasons he got his ass impeached and, very nearly, convicted.
interestingly, it was nearly at the very end of his pathetic "administration." not unlike TFF's second go-around.
Rules mean nothing, and it is a point of pride for the MAGAts
Not bloody likely.....and wasn't Stefanik's performance on Meet the Press a perfect illustration of Winston Smith's description of an apparatchik in "1984"..... This is going to be a year, folks - first the Supremes will decide if Trump is immune to any and all criminal indictments for what he did, all based on an internal DOJ memo written by a junior attorney decades ago, which never had the force of even a regulation. Then they'll decide if the 14th amendment has rendered him ineligible to serve. Then they will get the various cases from Jack Smith and Fani Willis that The Former Guy will surely litigate to the max..... The Bride just mentioned the ineffable Stefanik (she's reading your posting now).....
I quit watching Sunday news shows during W/Dickie’s fiasco. Made me heave
Here it is, for those of you who want to follow up.
NEWSLETTER | THE CAMPAIGN MOMENT
Aaron Blake By Aaron Blake
<aaron.blake@washpost.com>
Americans are electing their next president. It’s a long road, but we’ve got just the guide to help you to navigate it.
The Campaign Moment is your occasional guide to the key, well, moments on the campaign. Publishing when news warrants, we’ll highlight the major developments that actually matter and then take you deeper, providing analysis, context and answers to the big questions. Sign up here.
I’m Aaron Blake, and I’ve been analyzing politics and campaigns for nearly 20 years – including a dozen at The Post. That experience helps me pick out when we’re truly having a moment, and my goal is to serve those moments up to you.
Here’s what you can expect:
The biggest news, broken down
Analysis of the polls that actually matter and tell us something significant
Historical context and anecdotes that inform and entertain
Links to the coverage that will make you smarter when you want to know even more
I want to hit the sweet spot between the political junkie and someone who’s more casually interested in where things stand in the 2024 race. But I think everyone with any level of interest in who our next president will be should find something for them in this newsletter.
Sign up here to get our newsletter starting Monday, Jan. 8.
My response:
Excuse me sir,
But why has it taken the Post so long to even mention the Fascist rhetoric, let alone the danger to our Constitution posed by Trump's backers and planners? This IS the NEWS, not partisanship.
This is THE number one issue of the 2024 election, because if Trump or a Republican wins, it will be our last election. They have told us clearly. Project 2025. Read it. Operation 47. Read it.
Only Trump loyalists in Civil Service and DOJ. Round us up. If someone says they are a Fascist, believe them. Your collective MSM silence is deafening.
Does this matter to you at all? I, and every loyal citizen of our Nation deserves a clear and honest answer from you and the WaPo management. This is not a horse race. What is at stake is all that matters, and our essential freedom and life itself is at stake, as well as your precious Freedom of the Press.
Do you understand?
This IS the Campaign Moment and the moment is NOW!!!
Ransom W. Rideout Jr.
RE: Will any of them honor the result in November?
An appetizer, so to speak...
https://news.yahoo.com/michigan-republicans-vote-remove-chair-220614650.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=0_00
This essay has been on my mind all day. I’m in agreement with TC without reservation. And that’s the problem.
I’m thinking about my own very good friend from college. Love him like a brother. He’s such a kind man, good hearted, gives of himself freely to disadvantaged people. But he’s always been one of those financial Republicans. You know the type. “Government is wasteful. My taxes are too high.” (And that’s even before he had any income to tax!) We used to have friendly debates about it because he really wasn’t into any of the social conservative aspects of Republicans. (He and his future wife bought a house and had a child long before they finally married.) Of course, over the years we have increasingly talked less and less often. Life gets in the way, with careers and family keeping us preoccupied. But nowadays I’m afraid to reach out and talk with him. I’m so afraid he’s gone MAGA, or at least accommodating himself to it in hopes of less taxation. It makes me feel sad to think about it. Republicans are just so evil. Not just the politicians. The voters too. I can’t make excuses for them. And I don’t have so many friends I can afford to loose some. It’s so difficult.
I don’t have any wise observation or resolution. It’s just something that’s been on my mind.
You've just described the problem that's really at the center of this. "I'm afraid to reach out and talk with him."
By reaching out, we risk losing a friend, child, or spouse. I began by sending a friend one article. She didn't read it and said our politics are at opposite ends. I reached out and may try one more time. But she won't change even when confronted with a white supremacist at her door.
Protective of her monetary 'wealth' and her father's old party. I'm saddened and sickened. Had I met her later in life, we would not be friends.
not that you asked, but my own response would have been "fuck her."
I hope it doesn't come to that. But it may. And I will respond accordingly.
I have a lifelong friend of a similar cloth. I'm pretty sure she skipped school with me and sat in protest of the Vietnam War. I was surprised to hear from a mutual friend that she always votes republican as did her father. I have lost total respect for her. Recent political conversations have not gone well, as they were short and one sided. She dropped a few bombs about how she's disgusted with Biden and Pelosi and Newsum about immigration. And did not want to hear my response. I'm done. At least for now. It's sad. I feel for you and others who are in relationships with those whose true colors are muddied.
2003 was the year when I saw my best friends start to become strangers. W/Dickie (with Rove, and a slew of his ilk) started the destruction of our institutions, even before that Iraq fiasco. They were loved by people that I had thought a lot of, and excused by other repubs. Then the biggest shock of all. Blaming Obama for the horrors of that nightmare. With support from all “conservative” sides, they used Rupert’s lying megaphone to savage any Democrat. And all that before the criminal narcissist smelled enough cretins to think he could take the national stage.
Thank you for speaking for me. There is not one syllable that I didn’t post on Twitter and FB (before I got banned). Especially Orwell’s astute observations.
Of course this who call Ashli Babbit a “martyr” would defend to the death their right to shoot someone breaking into their house or business.
Who is running against Stefanik? Is her seat safe?
I don’t for a minute believe that Covid was an engineered bio weapon. But a small conspiratorial part of me wonders if the Chinese or Russians have developed a virus that makes naturally conservatives minds go completely bonkers.
Her seat is solid ruby red, which is why she parachuted in to run in it.
But now the NY maps will be
redrawn, so perhaps her ruby
red district will stand the chance of color change.😉
I think mebbe not. she's one of those "upstate gals" from up north. it might not be 100% geographically accurate, but I like the ring of "Buffalo Bimbo."
and no, I won't google her ass to find out.
Looked this up - there IS a Dem running against her - not thought to have much chance but possibly if the Democrats got behind him?????
https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/48191/20230725/a-democrat-enters-the-race-against-rep-elise-stefanik
There was a former CIA officer with a well-financed and well-run campaign who ran against her in 2022 and got trounced. The current one doesn't have that much going.
So this district is very red?? No chance?
There are Trump flags in the trees up there.
Thats a shame! (understatement, I know)
😢😣
But is it MAGA red or suburban-mom red?
Don’t have money to waste, but would love to help kick her to the curb
Part of me wonders that too. Probably just Rush and Rupert
along with mushy brains and greed for morals
Nice piece.
And sadly none of the upper-level traitors are being held accountable: half the SCOTUS, over 200 members of congress, a slew of Trump toadies running the Red States and an army of mindless Trumplicans who rally around the Orange Menace's fascist movement to overthrow the Untied States of America. On the street and in the Hood here in my neck of the woods I've met some of these characters who talk like the vision of Herr Trump is a done deal and that all the suckers in the ranks of veterans, and all the cops, and lawyers, teachers, fireman and other frontline workers of the body politic will just fall in line behind the dictates of the Tyrant Trump as if he was the Anointed One. They also think all the bullets will be flying in only one direction. That's how clueless and stupid these people are. I can't help but think that if Grant was president instead of Biden what a righteous storm of true retribution might be brewing.
One of the best political pieces you've written since I started following you. One hopes that a few more people will wake up and get involved.
In a just society, Stefanik's performance would have earned her a Kafkaesque end: being squashed underfoot by Welker, befitting the cockroach Stefanik is. Between her gun-industry lobbiest husband and her, there is no way baby Stefanik can be receiving the care that a baby needs.
oh god - she spawned?
https://x.com/EliseStefanik/status/1432318973090086914?s=20