In the middle of all the high stakes political maneuvering going on in Washington, we shouldn’t overlook the importance of a little civil discourse in our own lives. Like the elegantly simple statement being made by the woman in front of me in line at the airport this morning who was nice enough to let me snap a photo.
Steve Schmidt said it best, the choice is between imperfect and fascism. I choose imperfect because nothing in life is perfect, and this imperfect is doing a fabulous job at running and restoring the country. I was proud to be an American these last couple of weeks as President Biden represented me at the D Day commemoration, and the G7. He is working hard to do the people’s work. Vote BLUE!
Personally, I think President Biden IS perfect for the times we are in right now. He's an experienced statesman who knows what the heck he's doing. I couldn't care less that he'll be 82 when I vote for him (again) and I hope others get over that hurdle.
President Biden is the absolute perfect man for the job at hand. He is fearlessly standing up for and defending democracy. HIs life of service has served as preparation for a pivitol time in history, the future of a nation is in his hands. He is rock solid.....the deranged attacks have only made him stronger. He has earned our vote accross the board.
I agree. There are so many critical issues we face both domestically and internationally. President Biden's experience is proving valuable in both arenas. Trump can't focus much beyond himself and when he does, being transactional, he can't be depending upon to think of ramifications.
I agree!! If it were possible, I'd like to have him in office permanently! He is the one we need. People including media has to stop using one's age to determine ability and value! Besides being wrong, it is illegal, cruel, bigoted, labels them, prevents their productivity, and greatly harms every senior in America!
The first time I was eligible to vote, Joe Biden was running for US Senate from Delaware. It was his first time running for Senate and I happily voted for him. After college I moved out of Delaware and couldn't vote for him again until 2008, when he was Obama's running mate. I voted for him (and Obama) in 2008 and 2012, and again in 2020. I will vote for him again in November. We can't let the imperfect (who is perfect?) stand in the way the very good. Yes, he moves a bit more slowly than he did in 1972 (FDR served as President through the Depression and World War II from a wheel chair) and he may struggle with a word (he had a speech impediment since childhood), his mind is still sharp, he has experience and he cares about America, unlike that cartoonish dictator-wannabe whose only care is for himself.
@Johnelle Thanks for the "like". If you are in Florida check out my website in included in my profile links. If not, the two other links are to books that changed the way I think asbout politics.
I used to live in Florida but I moved back to Georgia. I admin a Facebook group called Ron be Gone and we keep everybody updated with state government.
I’ve found the best way I can help is in writing postcards with the Postcards to Swing States organization. I’ve duplicated that effort down to our local school board.
That's where it all begins. It is the least balloted election. Also, high school seniors, if they are 18, can also vote in that election. Who would know better?
It is worth noting that in addition to his fawning reception by GOP sycophants on Capitol Hill on June 14th Heather Cox Richardson reports that Trump also met with a group of corporate CEOs who found him to be rambling, disorganized in his thinking and unable to clearly articulate his plans for his presumed 2025 presidency.
And this should be MSM news, but I see nothing outside of HCR’s reporting. Maybe I missed it, but I don’t think so. There were no standing O’s from this group.
But we must give Mr. Tillerson credit for one thing in his otherwise brief and undistinguished tenure as Secretary of State. I think he was the first member of the Cabinet to describe his boss succinctly and bluntly as a "****ing moron." He will be remembered for that, if not for anything else.
Trump's "aged himself" to where he's one the oldsters just waiting for he "exit" light to come on.
Biden is what's called a "super ager" - people whose calendar age doesn't correlate to their mental and activity age, which is younger in many ways (though still subject to some of the problems of the calendar).
I'm a super-ager at 89, living comfortably alone, gardening daily, walking daily with my pals, and btw other people think I am 20 years younger than I am. I am very active on Substack and other places and my brain is working just beautifully. People, get over your ageism if you have any left.
Most of the writers I know who are my age have "retired." I have no plans to retire and just the books that have been outlined and accepted by my publisher will keep me busy for the next decade.
Democrats and others don’t like Biden viscerally because he was the choice of the party regulars rather than the people …just like Hillary. (The idea of age supplied rationale for that feeling) Time to get over that. Of course, a vigorous campaign for future — not how great he has been — would pay off. Possibly, return to decency, return to politeness, return to democracy. Vigorous campaign may not be in Democratic playbook.
My dad was a super-ager, too. Interested in his community, church, friends, taking walks everyday, read the newspaper, shook his fist at the morons on the news :). I think being involved with pals is the ticket. For the last years of his life, many of his friends has already died, but when he went mall walking, he met a bunch of old guys and gals having coffee and joined that group. Met them most days at 10:00 a.m.
I "do" a lot of civil discourse! I wear my "Nope, never again" TRump t-shirt at least once a week. I have several t-shirts that read "Vote" with assorted quotes. I phone bank for President Biden and Adam Schiff (I'm a Californian) and I do my best to speak to people about the FACTS. I'm absolutely disgusted with pretty much all mainstream media at this point. It's almost as if they want TRump to win so they'll have 4, agonizing years of mayhem and chaos to report on. It's not only disturbing, it's infuriating! I'm doing all I can do to get people engaged and I hope others can find the time to do this as well.
I became interested in elections when my father took my sister and I to watch a parade for JFK when he was campaigning in Norfolk, Virginia. I still have a black-and-white picture of him waving to the crowd. After moving several times as an adult, the only souvenir I've managed to hang onto is a large, white felt pennant with a round color photo of JFK.
I'm too paranoid to campaign in person in the area where I'm living now. Way too many MAGA, and a very bad back. Instead, I'll be spending my time with online correspondence, and helping stuff envelopes at campaign headquarters, because we really need to get the word out.
Biden HAS to win! Having Trump win is NOT an option!
p.s. Megan, glad you're also helping out Adam Schiff. He's one of my favorites!
Your anecdote brought back a happy memory. On the final evening of the 1960 campaign, JFK stopped at the airport in my hometown of Warwick, RI before traveling up to Hyannisport to await the results. I went with my father to see him. He must have been exhausted, but he delivered his rousing and amusing stump speech a large and friendly crowd from atop the staircase rolled up to the aircraft door. These were the days of black-and-white TV, so the bright reddish color of his hair, usually described as chestnut brown in the media really surprised me. 64 years later I still remember it.
James, I'm glad you had that same opportunity. It does seem like yesterday, doesn't it? I always wondered how things might have turned out had he not been shot in Dallas.
That Sunday (two days later) our family, plus two of our friends who were able to squish into our old DeSoto station wagon, went to DC to join the thousands who came to say their good-byes.
Black Jack, the riderless horse with the empty stirrups and boots, led the procession, followed by the caisson carrying JFK's flag-draped coffin.
I'm pretty sure that none of us said a word on the long drive back home.
It's hard to believe that it was almost 60 years ago.
We watched on TV. I was a drummer in our HS band, and that cadence from the funeral procession still reverberates in my mind after 60 years. I'm pretty sure my life would have been vastly different if JFK had not been killed. I would never have gone to Vietnam. JFK, despite all the flaws we have since learned about, was a smart guy who grew into the job and got better as time went on. He thought he had been given bad advice re the Bay of Pigs disaster and was not about to let himself be fooled again. There would have been a lot of pressure to ramp up our Vietnam commitment, but he would have been ready to push back if he thought it necessary. Oh well, woulda, shoulda, coulda,...... I was personally better off because of Vietnam, but America? Not so much.
You're about the same age as me, I think. What scared me the most during his shortened term as President was during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Fast forward to when the most self-righteous, hateful, anti-American (and now felon) decided to become our king, I've often wondered about how quickly he would have turned the Cuban Missile Crisis into a full-scale war.
I' m 77 now. Feeling it physically, but still have my wits about me, thank God.
I share your amazement at how vast a chasm lies between the intellectual capacity and decisiveness (not to mention the charm and wit) of JFK and those of our would-be king. As Tom Lehrer put it so many years ago, had someone like the Orange Abomination been in the White House in October 1962, the population of the world would have been turned into "more than 3 billion hunks of well-done steak." (Dating myself once again by ancient cultural references and statistics. Nowadays it would be more like 9 billion).
It's funny. While I was taking a break from the computer, the simulacrum of a verse I learned many years ago popped into my head. It seemed to be a pretty good description of the Abomination. So I looked it up and found that it was a mishmash of lines from Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel:
"For close designs and crooked counsels fit,
Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit,
Restless, unfixed in principles and place,
In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace,
(.....)
In friendship false, implacable in hate,
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state."
The second line doesn't work very well with TFG, who is at once ignorant, rash and feckless. The turbulence of his wit (so to speak) is put on display every time he opens his mouth.
There is a line earlier in the poem that would serve as a proper epitaph:
Thanks for everything you're doing! I bought my T-shirt on Amazon for $17 - it's 100% cotton, is a woman's crew neck and is very comfortable. There are all different sizes and styles for men, women and kids. The one I bought is made in India, not China.👍
It's amazing to see Trump babbling on about everything in his rallies and on his nationally-televised press conference on the Friday after his conviction. The man is incoherent! He cannot construct a logical argument. I dread the debates -- Republicans will cheer Trump's incoherence, pretending that what he said made sense when all he will do is repeat his standard nonsense. Debates will have lost all their value.
Nothing will cure the Republicans' denial until Trump loses in the fall -- and it's our job to make that happen.
I think we will see some challenges to the vote count and civil "unrest"...but I do not think it will be worse than the J6 riot. for one thing--Trump is not President and he has no real power other than through his thugs and minions in Congress...and, provided we all follow through and vote blue...the House will have a somewhat different set of Representatives and Trumpy's little a-kissers will not only be reduced in number but rendered ineffectual as well.
2024 election is our big chance to blunt the force of the MAGA cult in the House of Representatives. Every one of them is up for re-election. Sadly, in heavily gerrymandered Ohio, Jim Jordan will probably win again but there are a lot of GOP who will not.
I don't buy it. The republican party is in disarray, both nationally and in a number of states. "Militants" are blathering, sometimes fighting amongst themselves, and many are quietly backing away. Local conservatives are starting to pay more attention to local needs. And in some significant state races, the radical "republicans" are losing primaries. An awful lot of people who took part in the events of Jan 6, and the trials are moving higher on that list.
I think two other things will dampen any tendencies to try a repeat: the truth about Trump's incapacity (and he's the best evidence of that), and the efforts that grassroots folks are making to get out the blue vote and talk about what is really happening. Maybe you could join us?
The big GOP backer PACs and the national GOP are spending so much money on Trump's legal bills that they are starving down-ballot candidates of cash. That is going to hurt their chances in November.
I know. It's bizarre, but then we are talking about a party completely taken over by Trumplicans. Kind of interesting to watch, but also pathetic - the way watching a train derailment is.
Robert, Trump can't even get real spectators at his "rallies". They seem to be there more out of curiosity, and wander off while Trump is speaking. I imagine there are still the middle-aged wannabe tough guys talking big man, but they do not have the kind of "support" they want to gin up. The people who might have responded saw what happened after Jan 6, and they know the circumstances will be different this time.
This is true. And he is drawing fewer and fewer people. Like "Let's Make a Deal," the people sitting directly behind Trump at his rallies are pre-selected and chosen because of their colorful costumes and the signs they're carrying. They are almost always white, except for the times when Trump is trying to reach out to people of color.
Watch the entire Vegas "rally" in its entirety - well, as much as you can stand - and focus on the crowd behind tRump as he mercilessly expatiates on whatever...people look bemused, or attention-wandering, or not exactly sure what tRump"s meanderings are all about. And one truly wonders what all those MAGA-hats really make of him, I mean to whom exactly are they pledging their devotion?
I agree with you Mr. Khrome...I can't for the life of me figure why on Earth even a MAGA fan would venture forth to stand in triple digit heat to listen to a demented incoherent monologue (which includes such statements as "I want your vote...I don't care about you, I just want your vote...").
However, from what I can gather, the MAGAs are at the point where they apparently don't need to hear sensible sentences...he just spews baloney and they go off happy, reading into his "speech" whatever they want to think they heard.
It’s so different this time. Trump’s evil overlord routine is worn out and tedious. I used to cringe at Trump’s lack of intellect, his boorishness and incompetence, to sound remotely educated. His everything is offensive. I saw the specter of fascism beginning to rise to alarming levels. I’m not going back to that chaos.
I had a brief conversation with an acquaintance yesterday who said that she wasn’t voting in November. She lives in OH of all places and you’re not voting?! I asked why, “because Biden is too old and I despise Trump”. I told her she has two choices, hate or Biden. You’ve seen what both can do, do you really think not voting is the answer? She repeated what she sees and hears. Republicans know the abortion rights issue has screwed them royally and the person most capable of codifying Roe v Wade will win. Unless…people sit at home. She’ll vote.
I don’t get much Trumping or Trumpaganda where I live, visiting OH, especially where my sister lives looks like a circus of evil cult members. People drive around with hate flags, get their PT Cruisers vinyl wrapped with anti-Biden rhetoric. Old, fat and tired guys with no life think Simon Bar Sinister is a real person.
I think your second paragraph is exactly right. They came expecting to hear what they wanted, so they decided whatever it was he said was what they wanted.
Just ‘belonging’ is such a comfort. Sigh. They get to wear their look-a-like hats and shirts and pretend they’re a family. Like the dress up fans at last nights hockey game, freedom means nothin’ left to lose and the hotdogs are great.
I'm not sure I have the wherewithal to watch the debates, but I think they will have some value: they will very clearly point out the difference between Biden and tfg. If people need direct comparison, the debates will give it to them.
IMO, even though “debates” have drifted far away from actual policy discussions (with the insipid Beauty Queen softball questions), it does give us the opportunity to judge body language, thinking process and character otherwise not on display
Of course, our job would be easier if Democrats were doing more than asking for money to take out an ad. Our job would be easier, too, if MSNBC and CNN and all the media were not providing travels with Trump and constant appearances of him and the MAGAs. To some extent, that’s how he got elected. They knew he was good media and assumed we would draw the right conclusion.
It feels like Trump has also beaten much of the news media into perpetuating a double standard. What Trump gets away with in his incoherent and bizarre verbalizations would be inexcusable if Biden were to act the same. It’s tacit complicity that “Trump will be Trump” while anybody else is scrutinized at a much higher standard. The occasional article will make this point about the double standard but then nothing in the news coverage changes. It also enables the GOP to get away with their MAGAesque actions. It’s tiresome and dangerous.
Thanks, Joyce! Just an hour grocery shopping is enough for me! President Biden has the resiliency, endurance and level headedness to lead another term! When I see Trump, I just hear the Charlie Brown dialogue of ….. BLAH BLAH BLAH. Enough is Enough! Sharks, Electrocution and The World of the Bizarro MAGA. NOPE….. 💙🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸💙
Steven, the best way to do that might be through some of the grassroots outreach organizations, who generally work through groups organized at the local level.
Age isn’t even a major point IMO. Media would have us believe that presidents make policy decisions alone and out of thin air. The Biden administration has had so many silent successes in diplomacy, business, jobs, economic trends, social, i.e. LGBTQ, racism, education because his startup team recruited smart, experienced professionals for cabinet positions who in turn developed professional staff. Trump has shown us who he wants in his next administration (god forbid), and it is beyond ugly. Let’s focus on good results and how they are achieved.
Great point, Cliff. Some of our citizen's memories for recent ugliness seem to be notoriously sieve-like. What I remind folks is that Biden has a crackerjack administration of much younger, smart, competent people. Remember the ineptitude, incompetence and corruption of Trump's Cabinet picks? He couldn't keep a Chief of Staff because the military people he selected couldn't stand him (except for Michael Flynn and his brother who clearly have some mental problems) and his only criteria was personal loyalty to HIM.
If nothing else, Trump's sorry, limping turn as President has shown us just where there be gaps and holes is our laws about the the hard and fast rules/laws and where we need to amend what was considered "rules" but were really mere courtesies and traditions--which now need to be codified.
One of my favorite posts! Why aren't more people pointing out these discrepancies! I don't expect an answer. But I stopped watching TV and just read political news when MSNBC wasted my time showing trump's car going to and from the court instead of pointing out the danger to our democracy or showing some of Biden's positive achievements! Thank you
I've never been able to understand people who can't make up their minds, especially when they've had time to think about their choice. A hundred years ago I worked in a McDonald's while in college. This McDonald's was in a college town and published discount coupons in the local papers so it would get very busy around lunch and dinner time. I was working a cash register and saw a fair number of people who would wait in line at least 15-20 minutes, get up to the register and still not know what they wanted to order. This was in the days of hamburger, cheeseburger, single or double, or Big Mac. This is obviously a trivial decision and one for which your life is not at risk. Maybe it's the fear of making the wrong decision, but most decisions can be set right if you don't like your first choice. I think your advice about giving specific facts to people is helpful as is the fact that voting for Biden is something approximately 8 million people did in 2020, so they're not alone.
Oh, me too, Patricia! The people at election time who can’t make up their minds after months and months of information everywhere disgust me. Sorry that’s a mean thing to say.
I don't think that's a mean thing to say. As someone mentioned a while back, if you don't for Biden, you may never vote again. ALL Americans need to take this election seriously.
Sorry, not wanting to dis you, but yes, that is a mean thing to say. Here's the thing: what one thinks does not need to come out in words. Most of the people who have not made up their minds have a lot on their plate: jobs (or 2 or 3), rent, kids, aging parents, disabled spouses, bills, house repairs, no cars or broken cars. They don't have the time to spend digging out the information. I do, and I'd go crazy if I didn't because research is what I do.
But keep this in mind too: our extended campaign pattern is insane. It's longer than any other nation's, and it is not very productive. Even some of us get overloaded by it, even me. The media keeps it riled up with one alarmist headline after another- because clicks=$, and a lot of the substacks aren't much better. It begets indifference.
A normal season would begin in late summer. And that is when many of those who are "undecided" will become engaged. That is when the grassroots organizations we have been building will really go into gear. And hopefully, the media might have learned a few things about how to actually report on the issues and the candidates.
To get a perspective on this, try listening to this mornings "On The Media", about the upcoming election in Great Britain. UK has its own issues, with a markedly different election system than we do, but they do represent the differences between how we approach elections and how everybody else in the world approaches them. The program explores some of that, as well as providing some insight into what is driving politics in Britain right now (and for the decades since Thatcher). And yet they still maintain election sanity. I don't know if the USA will ever achieve a level of rationality about elections that other nations have. Certainly we have a gift for making almost everything more complex than it needs to be. LOL, but then, the British have their own knack for that, in the mess they've gotten into as a result of Brexit and don't seem to be able to back off of.
Thank you so much! I'll admit, I find Canadian politics interesting as they're my home, but we seem to hold an election "whenever we feel like it" and having more than two parties makes things much more complicated than just voting your party. I wish the US had a different system as gerrymandering seems just ridiculous to allow and only 8 states really having much hold over the results... yeah.
What worked for people almost two hundred years ago is not the same thing that is needed today. But there's this stubbourn devotion, even when it's all laid out with how much you pay each governor, how much you pay each senator, etc etc for their votes...
I appreciate you note, Bears, thank you. I've lived most of my life pretty close to the Canadian border, in the west and now New England. Border dynamics are interestingly different in each place. And each side is baffled by the politics on the other! I do have one comment on your observation, "What worked for people almost two hundred years ago is not the same thing that is needed today." What worked 200 years ago depended on who you were. It worked for some, and worked against others. Bigly, as the saying goes. I think both Canada and the USA are still working things out and will be for some time, because both nations are reluctant to own the fact that we are dealing with the aftermath of political systems that were deliberately designed to enrich some at the cost of disenfranchising others. Our Supreme Court has sold its soul to maintain that system. I have to note that a previous Supreme Court did that in the 1800s, and we managed to reverse or invalidate all its decisions. I have a feeling that many of the decisions of our current Supreme Court will be reversed or invalided as well, and I hope like hell I live to see at least some of that. Same with Canada, who is finally acknowledging the wrongs done to the indigenous people there. We are making some headway, too, now that the settlers are finally understanding that our stories are relevant knowledge they need.
An awful lot of people are overloaded. Some are overwhelmed. Some are too busy holding their lives together. We have an unrealistically long election season anyway, and this one more so because of those of us who see what's at stake. But not everybody is there yet. The actual season will start late summer. What we've been doing so far is getting ready to help out the people who are just getting on board. I hope we welcome them without judgement.
Most election seasons would be as you describe Annie. This one is different. Both candidates have served as our President. Since 2016 the electorate well knows who these men are, even those who are overloaded. The choice couldn't be more stark. Democracy or anarchy. From what I see, the lines are drawn. Republicans remain solidly behind the felon and sex offender. We're a polarized country. I just don't see a middle ground with a fence on it.
Yes, this one is different, especially in terms of what is at stake. But I've been watching elections for a very long time (my first observed was Eisenhower, which I was still in grade school). Even then our election season was much longer than other nations, and each time it seems we get longer and longer. Part driven by the fact that states have been in competition for a long time to be the first to convene and some structural matters having to do with how we select leaders. It overloads people who are already stretched thin. We've been polarized as a nation before, but in our own silos we forget that. There is a middle, but it might mean opening ourselves up to accepting alliances we have been reluctant to move toward. And certainly defining everyone into tightly drawn camps will not help that.
Agree that our process is much too long and involves far too much money. I too have witnessed many elections, but only one where a political party attempted to overthrow an election by using violence. And to this day, that party supports that action. American historians such as Michael Beschloss, Jon Meacham and Ruth Ben-Giat have all written about the polarization of our country today as the worst since the Civil War. People are defining themselves into camps, and the numbers show very little movement. They fully know both candidates and have for years. Peoples' minds are made up. Now it will all come down to voter turnout.
Does anyone have a way to convince the willfully ignorant, even if they're anti-Trump, to get accurate information? I ask because a friend who knows I'm active with the local Indivisible group told me, "Indivisible is a cult." Twice. And doesn't want to learn anything about what it really is.
What a great letter to get on a Saturday night and absolutely spot on! I agree with Dianne regarding Steve Smiths warnings.
However, I wish we would compare all Presidents regarding “perfect” which there are none because the fundamental element of a democracy is the ability to compromise. Finding common ground is the goal of a health and functioning democracy. Unfortunately with MAGA that possibility is near extinct. What the right wing media, using selective clips to spew lies keeps reaching new lows and yes we must practice civil discourse but we must call out lousy the hypocrisy of those who destabilize truth, facts and the most remote sense of virtue.
I left Steve when he left the Lincoln Project. I do chat with Rick Wilson occasionally as we follow each other on instagram. I was involved in digging up dirt on that flight that went from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard and I had flight alerts set for that same company and one popped up that was going to San Antonio to Deleware with a bus to rehoboth beach and I alerted him and another that were involved. We managed to stop that flight.
Reading comprehension is everything. DeSantis was using state money to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and he had a flight planned to dump migrants in front of Biden’s house the weekend he was there. We stopped it from happening. I suggest reading up on that but several of us worked behind the scenes to shutdown his illegal flights. My job was to monitor the company that DeSantis gave the contract to which involved 24/7 flight alerts. I just assumed everyone knew about that illegal flight of 49 migrants dumped off during the off season at MV.
I'm a subscriber to The Warning. I admire Mr. Schmidt's passionate eloquence in defending our national principles and calling out the clear fascism of the MAGATs and their enablers. He provides great sound bites and useful turns of phrase that others can employ in that cause. I can understand how others might see him as borderline hysterical, however, and his voice can sometimes be annoying. Maybe that's just me, because I prefer the written word. He has been pretty coy about his engagement with Dean Phillips' brief campaign. Based on what I've learned about him so far, I find it hard to believe that he was one of the "extraordinarily venal consultants" to which his Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson was referring in the Rolling Stone article. He's doing penance now for his efforts on behalf of John Roberts. And it could be argued that his great misstep on behalf of the GOP, the introduction of Caribou Barbie to the McCain campaign, helped elect Barack Obama.
Like Michael Cohen trying to undo the ‘work’ he did for T💩p, I think Steve is trying to make up for his past mistakes. Yes, he is strident, and his voice can be a little unnerving, but he’s been close to the very kind of people we need to be extra vigilant about, and knows how ugly their thought processes can be.
May I suggest that this election is still almost five weeks away! So much can and will happen, but there is one sure thing: young women, supported by husbands, boyfriends, moms, dads, grandmas and even loving grandads will vote to protect reproductive rights and IVF! How? By electing Joe Biden and a strong Democratic Congress in both the House and the Senate to enact legislation restoring the principles of Roe v. Wade and much more! Count on them folks!
@Ira An open primary like CA has now, but the top five candidates advance to the general election. Rank Choice Voting is used in the general election to determine the winner.
Steve Schmidt said it best, the choice is between imperfect and fascism. I choose imperfect because nothing in life is perfect, and this imperfect is doing a fabulous job at running and restoring the country. I was proud to be an American these last couple of weeks as President Biden represented me at the D Day commemoration, and the G7. He is working hard to do the people’s work. Vote BLUE!
Personally, I think President Biden IS perfect for the times we are in right now. He's an experienced statesman who knows what the heck he's doing. I couldn't care less that he'll be 82 when I vote for him (again) and I hope others get over that hurdle.
President Biden is the absolute perfect man for the job at hand. He is fearlessly standing up for and defending democracy. HIs life of service has served as preparation for a pivitol time in history, the future of a nation is in his hands. He is rock solid.....the deranged attacks have only made him stronger. He has earned our vote accross the board.
I agree. There are so many critical issues we face both domestically and internationally. President Biden's experience is proving valuable in both arenas. Trump can't focus much beyond himself and when he does, being transactional, he can't be depending upon to think of ramifications.
I agree.
He rocks!
I agree!! If it were possible, I'd like to have him in office permanently! He is the one we need. People including media has to stop using one's age to determine ability and value! Besides being wrong, it is illegal, cruel, bigoted, labels them, prevents their productivity, and greatly harms every senior in America!
Totally agree!
The first time I was eligible to vote, Joe Biden was running for US Senate from Delaware. It was his first time running for Senate and I happily voted for him. After college I moved out of Delaware and couldn't vote for him again until 2008, when he was Obama's running mate. I voted for him (and Obama) in 2008 and 2012, and again in 2020. I will vote for him again in November. We can't let the imperfect (who is perfect?) stand in the way the very good. Yes, he moves a bit more slowly than he did in 1972 (FDR served as President through the Depression and World War II from a wheel chair) and he may struggle with a word (he had a speech impediment since childhood), his mind is still sharp, he has experience and he cares about America, unlike that cartoonish dictator-wannabe whose only care is for himself.
And please don’t forget, our civil discourse needs to include our state races, as well.
Yes, we must win in the state races to take back congress in order to get something accomplished.
I'm looking to connect with folks from Florida.
@Johnelle Thanks for the "like". If you are in Florida check out my website in included in my profile links. If not, the two other links are to books that changed the way I think asbout politics.
Same @De Lise.
@FrankRubino Do you live in Florida?
I used to live in Florida but I moved back to Georgia. I admin a Facebook group called Ron be Gone and we keep everybody updated with state government.
I’ve found the best way I can help is in writing postcards with the Postcards to Swing States organization. I’ve duplicated that effort down to our local school board.
Most races are decided in low-turnout partisan primaries. :(
#PrimaryProblem
@Eugene I always look at profiles. I wish more people would share which state they live in.
All the way down the Ticket!
To School Boards too!
That's where it all begins. It is the least balloted election. Also, high school seniors, if they are 18, can also vote in that election. Who would know better?
Excellent point, Daniel. Shout it from the rooftops!!
This right here 👆 💙💙
It is worth noting that in addition to his fawning reception by GOP sycophants on Capitol Hill on June 14th Heather Cox Richardson reports that Trump also met with a group of corporate CEOs who found him to be rambling, disorganized in his thinking and unable to clearly articulate his plans for his presumed 2025 presidency.
And this should be MSM news, but I see nothing outside of HCR’s reporting. Maybe I missed it, but I don’t think so. There were no standing O’s from this group.
It was on CNBC, but that's it.
There was a headline on the Daily Beast about it.
MSNBC reported it with video reporting from Andrew Ross Sorkin, who interviewed some
MSNBC also gave it a major play.
I wish those people would speak out - but I assume bigger profits are more important to them than democracy.
And therein lies the problem.
Is there a roster? Everyone present is a witness.
Traders would love to know...how can a company support a guy who they know is completely nutsy koo koo? Short that stock!
Poor Rex Tillerson had a try at driving the Klown Kar.
But we must give Mr. Tillerson credit for one thing in his otherwise brief and undistinguished tenure as Secretary of State. I think he was the first member of the Cabinet to describe his boss succinctly and bluntly as a "****ing moron." He will be remembered for that, if not for anything else.
That what I think of if I hear his name mentioned.
Trump's "aged himself" to where he's one the oldsters just waiting for he "exit" light to come on.
Biden is what's called a "super ager" - people whose calendar age doesn't correlate to their mental and activity age, which is younger in many ways (though still subject to some of the problems of the calendar).
I'm a super-ager at 89, living comfortably alone, gardening daily, walking daily with my pals, and btw other people think I am 20 years younger than I am. I am very active on Substack and other places and my brain is working just beautifully. People, get over your ageism if you have any left.
Most of the writers I know who are my age have "retired." I have no plans to retire and just the books that have been outlined and accepted by my publisher will keep me busy for the next decade.
Democrats and others don’t like Biden viscerally because he was the choice of the party regulars rather than the people …just like Hillary. (The idea of age supplied rationale for that feeling) Time to get over that. Of course, a vigorous campaign for future — not how great he has been — would pay off. Possibly, return to decency, return to politeness, return to democracy. Vigorous campaign may not be in Democratic playbook.
Love this, Tom!
So true!!! I am a hospice chaplain and regular interact with ‘super agers’ and people need to totally get over their ageism.
My dad was a super-ager, too. Interested in his community, church, friends, taking walks everyday, read the newspaper, shook his fist at the morons on the news :). I think being involved with pals is the ticket. For the last years of his life, many of his friends has already died, but when he went mall walking, he met a bunch of old guys and gals having coffee and joined that group. Met them most days at 10:00 a.m.
I love your post, Robin! You’re an inspiration!
BRAVO!!
The problem is that I don't think VonShitzInPantz is made up of anything organic, so he could live forever.
That's a nightmare thought! :-)
I completely agree. Plus, love your Substack.
Thank you.
I "do" a lot of civil discourse! I wear my "Nope, never again" TRump t-shirt at least once a week. I have several t-shirts that read "Vote" with assorted quotes. I phone bank for President Biden and Adam Schiff (I'm a Californian) and I do my best to speak to people about the FACTS. I'm absolutely disgusted with pretty much all mainstream media at this point. It's almost as if they want TRump to win so they'll have 4, agonizing years of mayhem and chaos to report on. It's not only disturbing, it's infuriating! I'm doing all I can do to get people engaged and I hope others can find the time to do this as well.
#VoteALLBlue!!
Megan, love your T-shirt! Where did you get it?
I became interested in elections when my father took my sister and I to watch a parade for JFK when he was campaigning in Norfolk, Virginia. I still have a black-and-white picture of him waving to the crowd. After moving several times as an adult, the only souvenir I've managed to hang onto is a large, white felt pennant with a round color photo of JFK.
I'm too paranoid to campaign in person in the area where I'm living now. Way too many MAGA, and a very bad back. Instead, I'll be spending my time with online correspondence, and helping stuff envelopes at campaign headquarters, because we really need to get the word out.
Biden HAS to win! Having Trump win is NOT an option!
p.s. Megan, glad you're also helping out Adam Schiff. He's one of my favorites!
Your anecdote brought back a happy memory. On the final evening of the 1960 campaign, JFK stopped at the airport in my hometown of Warwick, RI before traveling up to Hyannisport to await the results. I went with my father to see him. He must have been exhausted, but he delivered his rousing and amusing stump speech a large and friendly crowd from atop the staircase rolled up to the aircraft door. These were the days of black-and-white TV, so the bright reddish color of his hair, usually described as chestnut brown in the media really surprised me. 64 years later I still remember it.
James, I'm glad you had that same opportunity. It does seem like yesterday, doesn't it? I always wondered how things might have turned out had he not been shot in Dallas.
That Sunday (two days later) our family, plus two of our friends who were able to squish into our old DeSoto station wagon, went to DC to join the thousands who came to say their good-byes.
Black Jack, the riderless horse with the empty stirrups and boots, led the procession, followed by the caisson carrying JFK's flag-draped coffin.
I'm pretty sure that none of us said a word on the long drive back home.
It's hard to believe that it was almost 60 years ago.
We watched on TV. I was a drummer in our HS band, and that cadence from the funeral procession still reverberates in my mind after 60 years. I'm pretty sure my life would have been vastly different if JFK had not been killed. I would never have gone to Vietnam. JFK, despite all the flaws we have since learned about, was a smart guy who grew into the job and got better as time went on. He thought he had been given bad advice re the Bay of Pigs disaster and was not about to let himself be fooled again. There would have been a lot of pressure to ramp up our Vietnam commitment, but he would have been ready to push back if he thought it necessary. Oh well, woulda, shoulda, coulda,...... I was personally better off because of Vietnam, but America? Not so much.
You're about the same age as me, I think. What scared me the most during his shortened term as President was during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Fast forward to when the most self-righteous, hateful, anti-American (and now felon) decided to become our king, I've often wondered about how quickly he would have turned the Cuban Missile Crisis into a full-scale war.
I' m 77 now. Feeling it physically, but still have my wits about me, thank God.
I share your amazement at how vast a chasm lies between the intellectual capacity and decisiveness (not to mention the charm and wit) of JFK and those of our would-be king. As Tom Lehrer put it so many years ago, had someone like the Orange Abomination been in the White House in October 1962, the population of the world would have been turned into "more than 3 billion hunks of well-done steak." (Dating myself once again by ancient cultural references and statistics. Nowadays it would be more like 9 billion).
It's funny. While I was taking a break from the computer, the simulacrum of a verse I learned many years ago popped into my head. It seemed to be a pretty good description of the Abomination. So I looked it up and found that it was a mishmash of lines from Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel:
"For close designs and crooked counsels fit,
Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit,
Restless, unfixed in principles and place,
In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace,
(.....)
In friendship false, implacable in hate,
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state."
The second line doesn't work very well with TFG, who is at once ignorant, rash and feckless. The turbulence of his wit (so to speak) is put on display every time he opens his mouth.
There is a line earlier in the poem that would serve as a proper epitaph:
"A name to all succeeding ages curst"
Thanks for everything you're doing! I bought my T-shirt on Amazon for $17 - it's 100% cotton, is a woman's crew neck and is very comfortable. There are all different sizes and styles for men, women and kids. The one I bought is made in India, not China.👍
Megan, the most exciting thing about these shirts is that they're not from China! All the more reason to get one before they're gone!
Thanks again!
It's amazing to see Trump babbling on about everything in his rallies and on his nationally-televised press conference on the Friday after his conviction. The man is incoherent! He cannot construct a logical argument. I dread the debates -- Republicans will cheer Trump's incoherence, pretending that what he said made sense when all he will do is repeat his standard nonsense. Debates will have lost all their value.
Nothing will cure the Republicans' denial until Trump loses in the fall -- and it's our job to make that happen.
One thing would cure the Republicans - a landslide victory this fall for Biden and us taking both Houses of Congress.
I don't think that'll cure their denial! I think they'll double down and we may even see something worse than January 6th of 2021. Gawd help us all.
I think we will see some challenges to the vote count and civil "unrest"...but I do not think it will be worse than the J6 riot. for one thing--Trump is not President and he has no real power other than through his thugs and minions in Congress...and, provided we all follow through and vote blue...the House will have a somewhat different set of Representatives and Trumpy's little a-kissers will not only be reduced in number but rendered ineffectual as well.
2024 election is our big chance to blunt the force of the MAGA cult in the House of Representatives. Every one of them is up for re-election. Sadly, in heavily gerrymandered Ohio, Jim Jordan will probably win again but there are a lot of GOP who will not.
Spot on Megan. Repugs already have that planned and their people in place. No question.
They cannot prevail.
I don't buy it. The republican party is in disarray, both nationally and in a number of states. "Militants" are blathering, sometimes fighting amongst themselves, and many are quietly backing away. Local conservatives are starting to pay more attention to local needs. And in some significant state races, the radical "republicans" are losing primaries. An awful lot of people who took part in the events of Jan 6, and the trials are moving higher on that list.
I think two other things will dampen any tendencies to try a repeat: the truth about Trump's incapacity (and he's the best evidence of that), and the efforts that grassroots folks are making to get out the blue vote and talk about what is really happening. Maybe you could join us?
The big GOP backer PACs and the national GOP are spending so much money on Trump's legal bills that they are starving down-ballot candidates of cash. That is going to hurt their chances in November.
I know. It's bizarre, but then we are talking about a party completely taken over by Trumplicans. Kind of interesting to watch, but also pathetic - the way watching a train derailment is.
I agree. I fear violence much worse than Jan6.
They are banking on your fear. Keep a stiff upper lip. Just in case, register new Democrats to save democracy.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Robert, Trump can't even get real spectators at his "rallies". They seem to be there more out of curiosity, and wander off while Trump is speaking. I imagine there are still the middle-aged wannabe tough guys talking big man, but they do not have the kind of "support" they want to gin up. The people who might have responded saw what happened after Jan 6, and they know the circumstances will be different this time.
This is true. And he is drawing fewer and fewer people. Like "Let's Make a Deal," the people sitting directly behind Trump at his rallies are pre-selected and chosen because of their colorful costumes and the signs they're carrying. They are almost always white, except for the times when Trump is trying to reach out to people of color.
All bluster…
Watch the entire Vegas "rally" in its entirety - well, as much as you can stand - and focus on the crowd behind tRump as he mercilessly expatiates on whatever...people look bemused, or attention-wandering, or not exactly sure what tRump"s meanderings are all about. And one truly wonders what all those MAGA-hats really make of him, I mean to whom exactly are they pledging their devotion?
Ah, this American life.
I agree with you Mr. Khrome...I can't for the life of me figure why on Earth even a MAGA fan would venture forth to stand in triple digit heat to listen to a demented incoherent monologue (which includes such statements as "I want your vote...I don't care about you, I just want your vote...").
However, from what I can gather, the MAGAs are at the point where they apparently don't need to hear sensible sentences...he just spews baloney and they go off happy, reading into his "speech" whatever they want to think they heard.
I wonder how many are paid actors?
It’s so different this time. Trump’s evil overlord routine is worn out and tedious. I used to cringe at Trump’s lack of intellect, his boorishness and incompetence, to sound remotely educated. His everything is offensive. I saw the specter of fascism beginning to rise to alarming levels. I’m not going back to that chaos.
I had a brief conversation with an acquaintance yesterday who said that she wasn’t voting in November. She lives in OH of all places and you’re not voting?! I asked why, “because Biden is too old and I despise Trump”. I told her she has two choices, hate or Biden. You’ve seen what both can do, do you really think not voting is the answer? She repeated what she sees and hears. Republicans know the abortion rights issue has screwed them royally and the person most capable of codifying Roe v Wade will win. Unless…people sit at home. She’ll vote.
I don’t get much Trumping or Trumpaganda where I live, visiting OH, especially where my sister lives looks like a circus of evil cult members. People drive around with hate flags, get their PT Cruisers vinyl wrapped with anti-Biden rhetoric. Old, fat and tired guys with no life think Simon Bar Sinister is a real person.
I think your second paragraph is exactly right. They came expecting to hear what they wanted, so they decided whatever it was he said was what they wanted.
I think they are paid
Just ‘belonging’ is such a comfort. Sigh. They get to wear their look-a-like hats and shirts and pretend they’re a family. Like the dress up fans at last nights hockey game, freedom means nothin’ left to lose and the hotdogs are great.
expatiates ?
And William, we must see that he loses “bigley!”
I'm not sure I have the wherewithal to watch the debates, but I think they will have some value: they will very clearly point out the difference between Biden and tfg. If people need direct comparison, the debates will give it to them.
I'll be shocked if he doesn't find an excuse to "bow out" of the debate!
I'm waiting for Trump to withdraw at the last minute, with a false claim that the debate will be "rigged" against him.
It's why he finds something easy to chant and just does that.
IMO, even though “debates” have drifted far away from actual policy discussions (with the insipid Beauty Queen softball questions), it does give us the opportunity to judge body language, thinking process and character otherwise not on display
Of course, our job would be easier if Democrats were doing more than asking for money to take out an ad. Our job would be easier, too, if MSNBC and CNN and all the media were not providing travels with Trump and constant appearances of him and the MAGAs. To some extent, that’s how he got elected. They knew he was good media and assumed we would draw the right conclusion.
It feels like Trump has also beaten much of the news media into perpetuating a double standard. What Trump gets away with in his incoherent and bizarre verbalizations would be inexcusable if Biden were to act the same. It’s tacit complicity that “Trump will be Trump” while anybody else is scrutinized at a much higher standard. The occasional article will make this point about the double standard but then nothing in the news coverage changes. It also enables the GOP to get away with their MAGAesque actions. It’s tiresome and dangerous.
MC. Media Complicit
Thanks, Joyce! Just an hour grocery shopping is enough for me! President Biden has the resiliency, endurance and level headedness to lead another term! When I see Trump, I just hear the Charlie Brown dialogue of ….. BLAH BLAH BLAH. Enough is Enough! Sharks, Electrocution and The World of the Bizarro MAGA. NOPE….. 💙🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸💙
I'm looking to connect with folks from Florida.
Steven, the best way to do that might be through some of the grassroots outreach organizations, who generally work through groups organized at the local level.
I definitely do that, but I'm looking to expand interest especially in my home state.
Perhaps trump has jumped the shark...
Age isn’t even a major point IMO. Media would have us believe that presidents make policy decisions alone and out of thin air. The Biden administration has had so many silent successes in diplomacy, business, jobs, economic trends, social, i.e. LGBTQ, racism, education because his startup team recruited smart, experienced professionals for cabinet positions who in turn developed professional staff. Trump has shown us who he wants in his next administration (god forbid), and it is beyond ugly. Let’s focus on good results and how they are achieved.
Great point, Cliff. Some of our citizen's memories for recent ugliness seem to be notoriously sieve-like. What I remind folks is that Biden has a crackerjack administration of much younger, smart, competent people. Remember the ineptitude, incompetence and corruption of Trump's Cabinet picks? He couldn't keep a Chief of Staff because the military people he selected couldn't stand him (except for Michael Flynn and his brother who clearly have some mental problems) and his only criteria was personal loyalty to HIM.
If nothing else, Trump's sorry, limping turn as President has shown us just where there be gaps and holes is our laws about the the hard and fast rules/laws and where we need to amend what was considered "rules" but were really mere courtesies and traditions--which now need to be codified.
One of my favorite posts! Why aren't more people pointing out these discrepancies! I don't expect an answer. But I stopped watching TV and just read political news when MSNBC wasted my time showing trump's car going to and from the court instead of pointing out the danger to our democracy or showing some of Biden's positive achievements! Thank you
Keep ‘em coming Joyce Vance. You’re brilliant and you help us to form intelligent opinions. Priceless.
I've never been able to understand people who can't make up their minds, especially when they've had time to think about their choice. A hundred years ago I worked in a McDonald's while in college. This McDonald's was in a college town and published discount coupons in the local papers so it would get very busy around lunch and dinner time. I was working a cash register and saw a fair number of people who would wait in line at least 15-20 minutes, get up to the register and still not know what they wanted to order. This was in the days of hamburger, cheeseburger, single or double, or Big Mac. This is obviously a trivial decision and one for which your life is not at risk. Maybe it's the fear of making the wrong decision, but most decisions can be set right if you don't like your first choice. I think your advice about giving specific facts to people is helpful as is the fact that voting for Biden is something approximately 8 million people did in 2020, so they're not alone.
81 million.
Biden holds the record for the most votes ever won by a U.S. presidential candidate.
Thanks for the correction, I couldn't remember and was too lazy to Google it.
Haha. I thought you just mistakenly left the zero off.
Oh, me too, Patricia! The people at election time who can’t make up their minds after months and months of information everywhere disgust me. Sorry that’s a mean thing to say.
I don't think that's a mean thing to say. As someone mentioned a while back, if you don't for Biden, you may never vote again. ALL Americans need to take this election seriously.
Sorry, not wanting to dis you, but yes, that is a mean thing to say. Here's the thing: what one thinks does not need to come out in words. Most of the people who have not made up their minds have a lot on their plate: jobs (or 2 or 3), rent, kids, aging parents, disabled spouses, bills, house repairs, no cars or broken cars. They don't have the time to spend digging out the information. I do, and I'd go crazy if I didn't because research is what I do.
But keep this in mind too: our extended campaign pattern is insane. It's longer than any other nation's, and it is not very productive. Even some of us get overloaded by it, even me. The media keeps it riled up with one alarmist headline after another- because clicks=$, and a lot of the substacks aren't much better. It begets indifference.
A normal season would begin in late summer. And that is when many of those who are "undecided" will become engaged. That is when the grassroots organizations we have been building will really go into gear. And hopefully, the media might have learned a few things about how to actually report on the issues and the candidates.
It feels like the US has two years of Presidency and then two more of campaigning for Presidency. It's absolutely wild.
To get a perspective on this, try listening to this mornings "On The Media", about the upcoming election in Great Britain. UK has its own issues, with a markedly different election system than we do, but they do represent the differences between how we approach elections and how everybody else in the world approaches them. The program explores some of that, as well as providing some insight into what is driving politics in Britain right now (and for the decades since Thatcher). And yet they still maintain election sanity. I don't know if the USA will ever achieve a level of rationality about elections that other nations have. Certainly we have a gift for making almost everything more complex than it needs to be. LOL, but then, the British have their own knack for that, in the mess they've gotten into as a result of Brexit and don't seem to be able to back off of.
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/articles/uk-elections-theyre-not-like-ours-plus-the-messy-family-behind-paramount
Thank you so much! I'll admit, I find Canadian politics interesting as they're my home, but we seem to hold an election "whenever we feel like it" and having more than two parties makes things much more complicated than just voting your party. I wish the US had a different system as gerrymandering seems just ridiculous to allow and only 8 states really having much hold over the results... yeah.
What worked for people almost two hundred years ago is not the same thing that is needed today. But there's this stubbourn devotion, even when it's all laid out with how much you pay each governor, how much you pay each senator, etc etc for their votes...
I appreciate you note, Bears, thank you. I've lived most of my life pretty close to the Canadian border, in the west and now New England. Border dynamics are interestingly different in each place. And each side is baffled by the politics on the other! I do have one comment on your observation, "What worked for people almost two hundred years ago is not the same thing that is needed today." What worked 200 years ago depended on who you were. It worked for some, and worked against others. Bigly, as the saying goes. I think both Canada and the USA are still working things out and will be for some time, because both nations are reluctant to own the fact that we are dealing with the aftermath of political systems that were deliberately designed to enrich some at the cost of disenfranchising others. Our Supreme Court has sold its soul to maintain that system. I have to note that a previous Supreme Court did that in the 1800s, and we managed to reverse or invalidate all its decisions. I have a feeling that many of the decisions of our current Supreme Court will be reversed or invalided as well, and I hope like hell I live to see at least some of that. Same with Canada, who is finally acknowledging the wrongs done to the indigenous people there. We are making some headway, too, now that the settlers are finally understanding that our stories are relevant knowledge they need.
I stand corrected. Thanks.
This year, is anybody still on the fence??
An awful lot of people are overloaded. Some are overwhelmed. Some are too busy holding their lives together. We have an unrealistically long election season anyway, and this one more so because of those of us who see what's at stake. But not everybody is there yet. The actual season will start late summer. What we've been doing so far is getting ready to help out the people who are just getting on board. I hope we welcome them without judgement.
Most election seasons would be as you describe Annie. This one is different. Both candidates have served as our President. Since 2016 the electorate well knows who these men are, even those who are overloaded. The choice couldn't be more stark. Democracy or anarchy. From what I see, the lines are drawn. Republicans remain solidly behind the felon and sex offender. We're a polarized country. I just don't see a middle ground with a fence on it.
Yes, this one is different, especially in terms of what is at stake. But I've been watching elections for a very long time (my first observed was Eisenhower, which I was still in grade school). Even then our election season was much longer than other nations, and each time it seems we get longer and longer. Part driven by the fact that states have been in competition for a long time to be the first to convene and some structural matters having to do with how we select leaders. It overloads people who are already stretched thin. We've been polarized as a nation before, but in our own silos we forget that. There is a middle, but it might mean opening ourselves up to accepting alliances we have been reluctant to move toward. And certainly defining everyone into tightly drawn camps will not help that.
Agree that our process is much too long and involves far too much money. I too have witnessed many elections, but only one where a political party attempted to overthrow an election by using violence. And to this day, that party supports that action. American historians such as Michael Beschloss, Jon Meacham and Ruth Ben-Giat have all written about the polarization of our country today as the worst since the Civil War. People are defining themselves into camps, and the numbers show very little movement. They fully know both candidates and have for years. Peoples' minds are made up. Now it will all come down to voter turnout.
A great observation.
Does anyone have a way to convince the willfully ignorant, even if they're anti-Trump, to get accurate information? I ask because a friend who knows I'm active with the local Indivisible group told me, "Indivisible is a cult." Twice. And doesn't want to learn anything about what it really is.
They’re “mind sluts.” They don’t want to try, they just believe whatever trickles in.
What a great letter to get on a Saturday night and absolutely spot on! I agree with Dianne regarding Steve Smiths warnings.
However, I wish we would compare all Presidents regarding “perfect” which there are none because the fundamental element of a democracy is the ability to compromise. Finding common ground is the goal of a health and functioning democracy. Unfortunately with MAGA that possibility is near extinct. What the right wing media, using selective clips to spew lies keeps reaching new lows and yes we must practice civil discourse but we must call out lousy the hypocrisy of those who destabilize truth, facts and the most remote sense of virtue.
I'm still pissed off at Steve Schmidt for "advising" that Dean Phillips guy from Minnesota that was running against Biden...
Agreed about Steve Schmidt. I used to like him but he comes off as very hysterical now.
I left Steve when he left the Lincoln Project. I do chat with Rick Wilson occasionally as we follow each other on instagram. I was involved in digging up dirt on that flight that went from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard and I had flight alerts set for that same company and one popped up that was going to San Antonio to Deleware with a bus to rehoboth beach and I alerted him and another that were involved. We managed to stop that flight.
Was that really nice ? Would you rather be in texas or Delaware ??!
Reading comprehension is everything. DeSantis was using state money to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and he had a flight planned to dump migrants in front of Biden’s house the weekend he was there. We stopped it from happening. I suggest reading up on that but several of us worked behind the scenes to shutdown his illegal flights. My job was to monitor the company that DeSantis gave the contract to which involved 24/7 flight alerts. I just assumed everyone knew about that illegal flight of 49 migrants dumped off during the off season at MV.
Did not realize that. Thanks Megan for pointing that out!
I'm a subscriber to The Warning. I admire Mr. Schmidt's passionate eloquence in defending our national principles and calling out the clear fascism of the MAGATs and their enablers. He provides great sound bites and useful turns of phrase that others can employ in that cause. I can understand how others might see him as borderline hysterical, however, and his voice can sometimes be annoying. Maybe that's just me, because I prefer the written word. He has been pretty coy about his engagement with Dean Phillips' brief campaign. Based on what I've learned about him so far, I find it hard to believe that he was one of the "extraordinarily venal consultants" to which his Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson was referring in the Rolling Stone article. He's doing penance now for his efforts on behalf of John Roberts. And it could be argued that his great misstep on behalf of the GOP, the introduction of Caribou Barbie to the McCain campaign, helped elect Barack Obama.
Like Michael Cohen trying to undo the ‘work’ he did for T💩p, I think Steve is trying to make up for his past mistakes. Yes, he is strident, and his voice can be a little unnerving, but he’s been close to the very kind of people we need to be extra vigilant about, and knows how ugly their thought processes can be.
May I suggest that this election is still almost five weeks away! So much can and will happen, but there is one sure thing: young women, supported by husbands, boyfriends, moms, dads, grandmas and even loving grandads will vote to protect reproductive rights and IVF! How? By electing Joe Biden and a strong Democratic Congress in both the House and the Senate to enact legislation restoring the principles of Roe v. Wade and much more! Count on them folks!
Ira, Like, like, and triple Like!!
Sorry: MONTHs
Not to worry. Seems to me that this stuff is taking a toll on us, making our minds spin around sometimes. I agree with your comments.
I was wondering why you said weeks and not months🙏🏼
"By electing Joe Biden and a strong Democratic Congress in both the House and the Senate..."
An excellent thread concerning how the majority of members of Congress are actually elected: https://x.com/uniteamerica/status/1800542013710119352
@Ira Chad Peace, who was instrumental in California adopting top-two open primaries is now a proponent of #FinalFiveVoting.
What is final five?
@Ira An open primary like CA has now, but the top five candidates advance to the general election. Rank Choice Voting is used in the general election to determine the winner.
Thank you Joyce. Need this gentleness tonight. It has been a tough week.
Onward through the fog.