RETIII

2016 / 2016 Election / 2018 / 2019 / 2020 / Administration / anniversary / Arizona / Barack Obama / Barrett / biden / Bipartisan / Border / Budget / Campaign / Candidates / Capitol / Census / Challenge / Cheney / China / Clinton / Coalition / Congress / CoronaVirus / Court / COVID / Covid-19 / Crisis / dangerous / Data / Death / Debate / Debt / Democrats / Donald / Donald Trump / Duck / effort / Election / Emergency / Evidence / Facts / Fauci / FBI / Federal / Fight / Filibuster / Fine / Fox / Fraud / Garland / General / give / GOP / governing / Government / Governor / Hearing / Help / Hillary / Hillary Clinton / House / Immigrants / Impeachment / Insurance / Insurrection / interference / International / Joe / JoeBiden / Judges / Justice / legislators / letter / Lies / Liz Cheney / Lying / March / McConnell / members / Men / Michigan / Military / Militia / misconduct / Mother / Mother Jones / new york / New York Times / News / Nominee / Nov / Obama / October / Pandemic / Party / Paul / Pennsylvania / Power / President / Presidential / principle / Protest / Public / RAND / reading / REAL / Registration / Representation / Republican / Republican Party / Republicans / Respect / Response / Right / Russian / Safety / Security / Senate / Senators / September / Shutdown / State / State House / supporters / Suppression / Texas / Threat / Time / Timeline / Transition / Travel / Trial / Trump / Trust / Truth / Tweet / tweets / Undocumented / Vaccines / Veto / Violence / Virus / Vote / Voter / Voter ID / Voters / Voting / Wall / Wisconsin / witnesses / World / WTF

Those committed to truth and facts must fight five times harder than the Republicans and their lies.

It depresses me to acknowledge this, but the Republicans’ commitment to blatant and serial lying, and Orwellian “make believe” governing, pose a real threat by overwhelming the public debate and individual’s efforts to stay grounded.  While a bit well-worn (and of uncertain provenance), this quote is fundamentally true: “A lie can travel halfway around...

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  • May 15, 2021
alone / biden / Bipartisan / Budget / COVID / Debate / Deficit / Democrats / Dems / Disability / e / Election / Funding / General / Government / IDEA / Infrastructure / Insurance / Jobs / Joe / Leaders / Leadership / Legislation / McConnell / Medicaid / Medicare / Military / ok / opening / Party / Politico / Politics / President / Press / Primary / Public / Reconciliation / Republican / Republicans / Right / Safety / Security / Stimulus / Tax / Taxes / Unemployment / Washington / Wealthy

Infrastructure Bill Is A Golden Chance To Kill The Idea That Only Dems Need to “Pay For” Their Bills

Among the countless examples of inane “Washington group-think” is the notion that only Democrats have to “pay for” their legislative priorities (i.e., enact corresponding tax increases and/or spending cuts to match the costs of new programs).   Republicans do not remotely consider themselves so constrained — in part because they also are...

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  • May 13, 2021
Barack Obama / Bush / Candidates / Community / Failure / Family / Housing / Inequality / Local / Mayor / Mitt Romney / NY / NYC / Obama / person / President / Questions / REAL / Real Estate / Right / romney / soybeans

Did you know that an ordinary family could buy a home in Brooklyn, NY for only $80,000?

I’m not normally very taken with the “gotcha”” questions to politicians of “how much is a dozen eggs?” or “what is the price of milk?” Or (in the right locale) “what is the current price of soybeans?”  I’m not surprised or upset that HW Bush didn’t know what a supermarket scanner was,...

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  • May 12, 2021
biden / calm / Cheney / Clinton / College / Colorado / Danger / Democracy / Democrat / Election / Future / Hillary / Hillary Clinton / History / Liz Cheney / LizCheney / Party / Polling / President / Press / Republican / Republican Party / Republicans / Right / Speech / Time / Trump / Vice President / Vote

Liz Cheney and the “calm before the storm.”

As Liz Cheney faces the near certain guillotine, she gave a defiant speech today (with all the points you would expect).  What I noticed was this bit of reporting: As Cheney spoke, the Republican lawmakers mostly cleared out of the chamber, with Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado the sole...

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  • May 12, 2021
/ Attack / biden / Bush / Cut / Dance / Democrats / Dog / Dog Whistle / Donald / Donald Trump / DonaldTrump / Election / Fail / FAIR / Fraud / Fuel / Governor / Joe / JoeBiden / Journalism / Leaders / Loyalty / Media / Mississippi / Narrative / Politics / President / PresidentBiden / Republican / Republicans / Stop / Time / Trump / Truth / Voter

Stop asking Republicans if they agree Biden legitimately won. Ask them if Trump legitimately lost.

I watched Jake Tapper yesterday repeatedly try, and fail, to get the Mississippi Governor to say plainly that Joe Biden was legitimately elected president.  We all see this same variations over and over – “Joe Biden is the president.  He was elected president by a majority of the electors.”  Tapper (or...

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  • March 8, 2021
/ biden / Bipartisan / CNN / COVID / covidrelief / Democrats / effort / FAIR / Faith / Families / Filibuster / Future / House / JoeBiden / Journalism / Louisiana / Media / Middle Class / Money / p / Party / person / Politics / President / Press / reading / REAL / Republican / Republicans / Senators / Speaker / State / Stop / Truth / Union / Water / White House

Can't we add another easy and necessary thing to reporting – numeracy?

I watched Republican Senator Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) yesterday on CNN’s State of the Union, and he made a case against Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid Relief package.  Pressed to explain his differences, Sen. Cassidy said it entailed “too much money” and as support said only that the bill provides: “$112 million...

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  • March 1, 2021
/ Belief / carter / Commentary / Confirmations / Court / Democrats / Environment / Filibuster / Ford / General / Hearing / History / Justice / McConnell / Nominee / Obama / Politics / President / REAL / Reconciliation / Republicans / Right / Senate / Senators / SupremeCourt / Vice President / Vote

Crowd source request: can someone provide some better discussion on the history of the filibuster?

I’ve seen general pieces about the filibuster and its history, and so let me be specific that I am asking for commentary that is a little deeper, or granular.  My question is simple — I’’m old enough to have been politically aware since the Ford/Carter years, and for most of my life the...

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  • February 25, 2021
/ 2016 / 2020 / 2021 / Attacks / biden / Campaign / carter / Crime / Democracy / Democrats / Dems / Destroy / Donald / DonaldTrump / Election / Election2020 / Elections / Facts / General / History / House / HRC / impeached / Impeachment / JoeBiden / John / Journalism / Kansas / Loser / Losing / Manhattan / McConnell / Media / Palin / Persecution / Politics / President / Public / Queens / Republican / Republicans / Response / Sarah Palin / Senate / Stop / Target / Trial / Trump / Vote / Voters / World

The best approach to Trump is mockery. The latest example: his fixation on his losing vote total.

Donald Trump

An initial note — I’ve always thought that the most effective tool by far against Trump is to mock him.  That weakness has been central to this rube from Queens who spent a lifetime craving Manhattan’s (unavailable) approval. With that in mind, I need to point out one of the weirdest (although typical)...

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  • February 24, 2021
/ Administration / Attacks / biden / Bipartisanship / Book / Capitalism / Change / Climate / Climate Change / ClimateChange / COVID / Covid-19 / Crisis / Dead / Debate / Democracy / Democrats / Economic / Economics / Economist / Energy / Fear / governing / Government / Health / IDEA / Ideas / Immigration / Income / Inequality / Infrastructure / Joe / JoeBiden / Lying / NYT / opening / Pandemic / Party / plans / policies / Politics / Polls / President / Progressive / Public / Rally / reading / REAL / Reality / Reform / Republican / Republican Party / Republicans / Revolution / Right / rise / Security / Shock / Texas / Transition / Voters / Voting / Voting Rights / Washington / Washington Post

A Quick Note On Naomi Klein and Joe Biden

I’ve always admired Naomi Klein since reading her terrific and insightful book “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.”   She has a NYT editorial column up yesterday, expounding on her prior theme in relation to Texas’s recent disaster, titled “Why The Republicans Fear The Green New Deal,” in which she...

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  • February 22, 2021
/ Corruption / damn / Defense / DonaldTrump / GOP / History / House / Impeachment / Insurrection / Mob / Politics / President / Questions / Refuse / Republicans / Response / Safety / Senate / Testimony / Trump / Vice President

My proposed question that should have been asked (and now can be rhetorical in closing)

I recognize the futility of all of this given the corruption of the Republicans.  But for history and anyone paying attention, I would have liked to see this question: From the perspective of the former president’s defense, his conduct and statements before and through January 6, at minimum, raise serious...

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  • February 13, 2021
/ Advocacy / Confederate / Defense / Democrats / Dems / Election2020 / House / Impeachment / juror / Law / Legal / Losing / ok / Politics / President / Republican / Republicans / Senate / Senators / Style / Time / Trial / Trump / Victories / Vote / Voting

Dems need to establish that the constitutionality of this impeachment is now the “law of the case.”

Trump’s lawyers argued that the Senate lacked jurisdiction to try the impeachment of a former president, and today that argument failed by a 56-44 vote.  The issue was resolved: the Senate has jurisdiction to try and convict Trump. A question: isn’t this now the “law of the case,” and, thus, a...

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  • February 10, 2021
/ biden / Bipartisan / Blue / collins / Cover-up / COVID / Covid-19 / Danger / Debate / Economic / Economist / Faith / Federal / Governors / History / Journalism / Media / Murkowski / Narrative / Obstruction / person / President / PresidentBiden / Press / Questions / Republican / Republicans / romney / Senators / State / Stimulus / Wall / Wall Street

Still MIA: exactly what authorities or expertise do supposedly reasonable Republicans rely upon?

For obvious reasons, most of the press initially swooned when Senator Collins, Romney, et al. made a misnamed “bipartisan” counter-offer to President Biden as to the Covid-relief bill.  I did notice that the press quickly kind of swung back against this narrative somewhat.  It is really hard not to considering Republicans are...

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  • February 3, 2021
/ Administration / appointments / Base / biden / Bullshit / businesses / Cabinet / Capitol / Challenge / Choice / Commentary / Congress / Constitution / Court / COVID / Cut / Debates / Defense / Delaware / Democrats / Design / Destroy / Election / Enforcement / epstein / ERA / eric / Fight / Filibuster / focus / Fraud / governing / Hope / House / Impeachment / Invasion / Joe / JoeBiden / Judiciary / Law / Legal / Legislation / Leukemia / Liberals / Lies / Local / Michigan / Moderates / NYT / Obama / Obamacare / Pandemic / Party / plans / Police / Politics / Presidency / President / PresidentBiden / Presidential / Protests / Recommended / Republican / Republicans / Response / Restaurants / Right / Rules / Science / Senate / Senators / State / Tax / threshold / Travel / Trump / Truth / Unite / Vaccine / Vaccines / Virus / Vote / Washington / White House

Dispatches From Behind Enemy Lines (Biden Edition)

These past Dispatches were obviously a Trump-era commentary.  Maybe I need to to come up with a new name. But since the Biden presidency is only weeks old, I thought I would continue this for a bit.  So, in the spirit of a new beautiful day, below are some interesting rea...

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  • February 1, 2021
/ 2016 / Campaign / Candidate / Clinton / Common Sense / DonaldTrump / effort / Election / Election2020 / emails / Fight / Future / God / Guilty / Hacking / History / Hope / Intelligence / Law / Listening / Lying / National Security / News / Nightmare / NYT / Obama / Party / Politics / Presidency / President / Press / REAL / Representatives / Republicans / Russia / RussiaGate / Russian / Russians / Security / Thinking / Threat / Time / Trump

“Russia, if you are listening . . . ” (A common sense explanation for Trump's cell phone usage)

Donald Trump

Another thought before Trump’s presidency (hopefully) slips into distant memory.  One of the many truly odd things about Trump’s presidency was that he insisted on, and got away with, using his personal cell phone all the time — which is an absolute security nightmare because it is unsecured and is listened to by who...

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  • January 29, 2021
/ Budget / Bush / Clinton / Congressional / Conservative / Corruption / Decision / Defense / DonaldTrump / Election / Election2020 / Faith / Federalist / Flood / Freedom / GOP / Government / History / Impeach / Impeachment / Information / JoeBiden / Law / Legal / letter / misconduct / Money / new york / opening / Opinion / Politics / Precedent / President / Presidential / presidents / Primary / Public / Questions / Republican / Republicans / Scam / Senate / Senators / Space / Strategy / Testimony / Texas / Time / Trial / Trump / Truth / unlawful

It is hard to keep track of all the Republican misconduct and corruption. A short note re past week

Donald Trump

Republicans (not just Trump) have embraced and largely succeeded with a “flood the zone” strategy of misconduct and corruption that, regrettably, can make it hard to keep track of their bad faith, much less hold them accountable.  In that vein, I simply wanted to note three instances before they slip away...

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  • January 27, 2021
/ biden / books / Donald / Donald Trump / DonaldTrump / Election2020 / Government / Help / House / International / Jen Psaki / JoeBiden / NYT / Politics / PresidenBiden / President / Press / Transition / Trump / Unfit / Video / Washington / White House / YouTube

Trump fired the White House Chief Usher and left no one to open the door for the Bidens.

A perfect story to encapsulate what an unfit dick Trump was.  Apparently, on his way out the door, Trump fired the White House Chief Usher — and sent all the staff home — so that no one was there to open the White House door when the Bidens arrived. As one of their...

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  • January 22, 2021
/ biden / Change / Congress / Democrats / e / Election2020 / Filibuster / IDEA / Ideas / Joe / Joe Manchin / JoeBiden / Lies / Manchin / ok / Party / policies / Politics / Polls / PresidentBiden / REAL / Reconciliation / Reform / Republicans / Senate / Senators / Space / threshold / Vote / Voters

Greg Sargent reminds us how easy it is to provide at least a limited reform of the filibuster.

Let me begin by saying that I am strongly for eliminating the legislative filibuster entirely.  But certain Democratic Senators, most notably Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), have made it clear that they will not vote to remove the legislative filibuster and, thus, at least for now, Democrats lack the votes to end...

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  • January 22, 2021
/ Administration / biden / CDC / CNN / CoronaVirus / COVID / Covid-19 / Crime / Disease / DonaldTrump / Election2020 / Epidemiology / Fake / Fear / Federal / FedEx / Health / Information / JoeBiden / Lying / Minnesota / new york / Pandemic / Politics / Public / State / Stop / Tennessee / tracking / Transition / Trump / Vaccine / Vaccines / Virginia

Get ready for this: Trump administration has been lying about the number of vaccines it distributed.

CNN reports that the Biden team is greatly concerned that Trump’s public numbers on vaccines are fake and, more critically, it is hard to really know what the current state of play is.   States across the country say they're running low on coronavirus vaccine supply, with many officials insisting the...

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  • January 20, 2021
/ 2016 / 2016 Election / 2020 / Assassination / books / Business / Campaign / Conspiracy / Court / Crimes / Decision / Democrats / DonaldTrump / Election / Election2020 / Enforcement / Espionage / Facts / FBI / foreign / General / Government / Intelligence / interference / International / Interview / Investigation / Investigations / Journalism / Justice / Law / links / McCabe / Media / misconduct / Mueller / National Security / NYT / ok / opening / p / person / Politics / President / Press / Public / Relationship / Republican / Respect / RodRosenstein / Russia / Russian / Scandal / schiff / Security / Silence / Terrorists / Threat / Trump

The weirdest Trump scandal: His Russian counter-intelligence investigation was secretly blocked

As Trump’s one term winds to a thankful close, one of the largest scandals remains seemingly forgotten and bizarrely unexplained.  There not only has never been a counter-intelligence investigation into Trump’s connections with Russia and Russia’s interference in the 2016 election — but we have learned that this is because that investigation was secretly thwarted...

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  • January 17, 2021
/ 2020 / Alberta / Arizona / Base / biden / Cabinet / Capital / Challenge / Cheney / CNN / College / Congressional / Courage / Danger / Death / Democrats / Domestic / Donald / Donald Trump / DonaldTrump / Election2020 / Families / FBI / Fear / Federal / Fire / Future / Government / Hearings / House / Impeach / impeached / Impeachment / Insurrection / Interview / JoeBiden / Journalism / Justice / Law / Leaders / Liz Cheney / Media / members / Mi / MSNBC / Nominations / Party / Paul / Pennsylvania / Politico / President / Primary / Reality / Republican / Republican Party / Republicans / Right / SAD / Safety / State / Stop / Terrorism / Threat / Threats / Time / Trump / Violence / Vote / Voters / Washington / Washington Post / White House / Wolf

We have a President or Republican Party with potential death squads?!? (Tap, tap: Is this mike on?)

In all the talk about the Republican Insurrection and Trump’s impeachment, one very large story has not gotten nearly the degree of high attention that it deserves.  It appears that we now have a President (or Republican voters generally) that effectively have death squads or, as crucially, the effective threat of...

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  • January 15, 2021
/ Art / biden / Congressional / Constitution / Democrats / DonaldTrump / effort / Graham / impeached / Impeachment / Joe / JoeBiden / Pardon / Pardons / Party / plans / Politics / Power / President / Presidential / Republican / Republicans / rise / Snark / Stop / Stuff / Time / Trial / Trump / tweets / Unity

Biden has an obvious and easy answer to Republican calls that he stop Trump’s impeachment

Senator Lindsey Graham has previewed the latest Republican effort to distract and deflect:  arguing that, in the name of “unity,” Joe Biden should convince Democrats to dismiss Trump’s impeachment trial.  Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is urging President-elect Joe Biden to convince congressional Democrats to drop plans to proceed to an impeachment trial...

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  • January 14, 2021
/ Assassination / Attacks / biden / Capitol / Citizens / Coup / Crime / Criminals / dangerous / Death / Democrats / Destruction / Domestic / DonaldTrump / e / Election / Elections / Federal / focus / Government / Graham / Healing / Help / House / Impeach / Impeachment / Insurrection / insurrectionists / International / Intimidation / Law / Leaders / Leadership / Mass / McCarthy / Mob / NY / person / Plastic / Police / Politics / President / Republican / Republicans / Sedition / Sick / State / Stop / supporters / Terrorism / Terrorists / Time / Trump / Trust / Video

We don't engage in “healing” with terrorists, do we? Are you with us, or against us?

In his “Don’t Impeach Me” video, Trump said “This moment calls for healing[.]”  Other Republicans have joined this rhetorical bandwagon. House Republican Leader McCarthy issued a statement opposing impeachment, arguing that “[e]ach passing day will offer us an opportunity to heal[.]”. NY Republican Rep. Tom Reed said “I'm opposed to impeachment. I...

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  • January 9, 2021
/ Americans / Black / Candidate / Capitol / Congress / Courts / Democrats / DonaldTrump / e / effort / Election / Election2020 / Elections / Government / Governors / House / Insurrection / irrelevant / JoeBiden / LawSuits / Legal / legislatures / Men / Mob / Party / Politics / Power / Presidential / Race / Racist / Republican / Republicans / Right / Senate / State / Time / Trump / Truth / White House / White Privilege / Women

A further note on legal standing, Race and White Privilege

A brief note on a diary that I wrote yesterday arguing that Democrats should embrace the fact that many Trump election lawsuits were dismissed for lack of “legal standing”: Democrats should embrace the “standing” dismissals because what the courts, vitally, are saying is that you Republican plaintiffs don’t matter.  You are...

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  • January 7, 2021
/ 2020 / Authority / Belief / Constitution / Court / Courts / Democrats / DonaldTrump / Election / Election2020 / General / irrelevant / JoeBiden / karen / Law / LawSuits / Legal / Men / Narrative / Party / Politics / Power / problem / Public / Republican / Republicans / Respect / Right / Space / State / Time / Trump / Women

Many Republican election lawsuits are dismissed for “lack of standing.” Here's why that matters.

Many of the election lawsuit challenges brought by Trump and his allies have been dismissed under a somewhat obscure to the public, but fundamental in the law, doctrine known as “standing.”  I would need a lot of space to fully describe the standing doctrine, but at core what it is requires is...

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  • January 5, 2021
/ Access / Administration / Authority / biden / Budget / CFPB / Change / Choice / Climate / Climate Change / Clinton / Congress / Democrats / Domestic / effort / Election2020 / Energy / Evidence / Federal / Financial / foreign / friends / Funding / give / Government / Infrastructure / Joe / JoeBiden / Lying / Money / News / Obama / Obstruction / ok / plans / policies / Politico / Politics / Power / Presidency / President / problem / REAL / Republican / Republicans / Rules / Stimulus / talent / Tax / Technology / Time / Trump / Vice President

An interesting story about $40 billion lying under the couch for Biden's Climate Change policies.

As reported by Politico, the incoming Biden administration will find itself with an existing, untapped $40 billion “stash” for the Department of Energy to use creatively in funding plans for green energy and the like: And Biden, who oversaw the Obama administration’s stimulus work as vice president, unknowingly left himself...

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  • January 2, 2021
/ 2021 / biden / Bipartisanship / Change / Climate / Climate Change / CNN / COVID / Covid-19 / Crisis / Democracy / Democrats / Economy / Election / Hope / House / Joe / JoeBiden / members / Politics / President / Republican / Republicans / Threat / Threats / Time / Transition / Trump / Vaccines / Vote / Voter

It is January 1, 2021 . . . and our biggest national threat remains the Republican voter.

It is a new year.  Trump’s days are specifically numbered.  Hope of effective Covid vaccines remain in the air.  And, yet . . . CNN reports that “At least 140 House Republicans to vote against counting electoral votes” for President-elect Joe Biden.   Let that sink in for some time — because it really isn't...

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  • January 1, 2021
/ Americans / Arizona / Arkansas / Attacks / Ballot / Base / Becoming / biden / Campaigns / Clinton / complicit / Congressional / Democrats / Election / Election2020 / Elections / expansion / Federal / Fight / Florida / Georgia / Impeachment / Investigations / JoeBiden / Kentucky / Local / Louisiana / Mail / Missouri / Montana / Motivation / Party / Politics / Power / Presidency / President / Presidential / Republican / Republicans / spread / State / Stop / Strategy / Suppression / Tennessee / Threat / Trump / Voter / Voting / Voting Rights / Wall / Warning

A short explanation and warning regarding Republicans' efforts to undermine the election.

The myriad investigations and impeachment of President Bill Clinton could be explained as direct power politics, but there was always a larger motivation that explained events.  Bill Clinton broke through the Republicans’ wall of the Solid South.  Over his two campaigns, Clinton won (once or twice) Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana,...

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  • December 12, 2020
/ 2016 / 2016 Election / 2018 / 2019 / 2020 / Administration / anniversary / Arizona / Assault / Benghazi / biden / Bipartisan / Border / Budget / Campaign / Candidates / Census / Clinton / Congress / Court / COVID / Crazy / dangerous / Data / Death / Democracy / Democrats / Duck / effort / Election / Election2020 / Emergency / Evidence / Facebook / Faith / FBI / Federal / Filibuster / Fire / Fraud / Garland / General / give / GOP / Gorsuch / Government / Governor / Hearing / Hillary / Hillary Clinton / House / Immigrants / Impeachment / Insane / interference / Joe / JoeBiden / John / Journalism / Judges / Justice / Leaders / Leadership / legislators / letter / McConnell / Media / members / Men / Michigan / Military / Militia / Mother / Mother Jones / Nominee / Obama / Pandemic / Party / Pennsylvania / Politics / Power / President / Presidential / problem / Protest / Race / Recall / Representation / Republican / Republican Party / Republicans / Resignation / Resist / Response / Russian / SAD / Safety / Scandal / Senate / Senators / September / Shutdown / Solutions / State / State House / supporters / Suppression / Texas / Threat / Time / Transition / Trial / Trump / Truth / Tweet / tweets / Undocumented / Veto / Violence / Vote / Voter / Voter ID / Voters / Voting / Wall / War / Watergate / Whitewater / Wisconsin / witnesses

It Is Well Past Time To Confront The Truth Of The Republican Party's Threat To Democracy

Watching the depressing and alarming spectacle of 17 Republican states joining Texas’s bad faith, frivolous Supreme Court application to overturn the election in favor of Trump, I am reminded that in September 2015 I wrote a post titled “The Sad Truth of John Boehner’s Resignation” — which received 1,275 Recommends, 789 Comments and,...

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  • December 10, 2020
/ Administration / alone / America / Americans / Answers / Army / Assassination / Attacks / Authority / Becoming / Belief / Betrayal / Blacks / Border / Brazil / C-SPAN / Canada / Cancer / Catastrophic / China / Choice / Civil Rights / Commentary / Confederacy / Confederate / Constitution / COVID / Covid-19 / Crimes / Crisis / Cut / dangerous / Death / Debate / Decision / Democracy / Depression / Discrimination / Disloyal / Domestic / DonaldTrump / Economic / Economy / Elections / Evidence / Evil / Failure / FBI / Federal / Fight / Fire / foreign / Gender / God / Government / harmony / Health / History / Holder / Hope / House / Ideas / Ideology / Immigrants / impeached / Impeachment / inaugural / Inauguration / Incompetence / Insults / Intelligence / International / Justice / Message / Military / Moderates / Peace / person / policies / Politics / Poll / Power / Presidency / President / Presidential / presidents / Press / principles / problem / Public / Race / Racism / Racist / Reality / Reform / Republic / Republicans / Rock / Russia / Slavery / Speech / State / Tariffs / Time / Trade / Treason / Trump / Trust / Unfit / Union / Universities / Vietnam / Vote / Voting / VP / War / Washington / Watergate / White House / World

Will Trump go down as the worst President ever? (He has some sadly strong competition)

As each day passes, Trump adds to an already impressive body of evidence arguing that he should be considered the worst president in U.S. history.  But, taking a dispassionate, long view, there are a small number of surprisingly strong contenders for this title.  This history call is depressingly closer than it...

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  • December 6, 2020
/ Business / businesses / Congress / Conservative / contract / CoronaVirus / Court / Courts / COVID / Covid-19 / Crazy / Debate / Democrats / Difference / Economic / Evidence / Exposure / Facts / Federal / Fraud / Government / Health / Hope / Information / JoeBiden / Justice / Law / LawSuits / Legal / Legislation / McConnell / Medical / misconduct / Nature / Opinion / person / policies / Politics / Public / REAL / Republican / Republicans / rise / State / Stimulus / symptoms / Writing

Republicans insist on Covid “liability protections.” What does that mean? (Hint: It's terrible)

Throughout all the recent legislative battles about economic and stimulus relief to combat Covid-19, Republicans have made one non-negotiable demand: protections for businesses against Covid liabilities and related lawsuits. Given this centrality, and it’s troubling implications, what does this actually mean? Regrettably, I see little to no explanation in public reporting...

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  • December 5, 2020
/ 2000 / Belief / biden / Bush / Campaign / Candidate / Counties / Deficit / Democrats / Election / Election2020 / Fishing / Fraud / gain / give / JoeBiden / Journalism / Losing / Miami / Milwaukee / Mississippi / News / Politics / Recount / Recounts / Republicans / Trump / Vote / Voter / Washington / Washington Post / Wisconsin

An unremarked upon give-away: If Trump believed he won, he wouldn't request recounts in Dem counties

Donald Trump

Just a short note to recognize something important and telling that has been left out of current news coverage.  In Wisconsin, the Trump campaign has asked for a limited recount of only two Democratic-leaning counties that went heavily for Biden: In a statement, the [Trump] campaign said it was asking for recounts in Milwaukee and...

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  • November 19, 2020
/ Access / appointments / Ballot / biden / Book / Cabinet / Candidate / Challenge / Change / child care / Climate / Climate Change / College / COVID / Covid-19 / Debt / Democracy / Democrats / Depression / Doctors / Economic / Economy / Education / Election / Election2020 / Elections / EMT / Financial / Firefighters / give / Government / Health / Health Insurance / HealthCare / Help / Immigration / Income / Inequality / Infrastructure / Insurance / Joe / masks / Nurses / Obama / Party / Police / Politics / Positive / Presidency / problem / Reality / Reform / Republican / Republican Party / Republicans / Response / Rich / sanitation / School / Senate / Stimulus / talent / Tax / Teachers / Threat / Trump / War / Wealth / Workers

Republicans are the “Don't” party. And this is a serious problem we must address.

I am overjoyed that Joe Biden won the presidency, but am also aware of the serious damage presented by the Republicans potentially controlling the Senate, giving them a major blocking tool. We all know this.  The key to understanding the Republican Party, and its serious threat to the nation, is that they...

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  • November 17, 2020
/ Character / Election / give / governing / Joe / JoeBiden / Politics / Republican / Republicans / Time / Trump

What Trump Wants Is A “Participation Trophy” For The Election

Donald Trump

Spend any time talking to a Republican and eventually you will hear emotional complaints about the Participation Trophy — trophies given to every kid who participates in Little League or similar games regardless of whether they win.  A number of Republicans believe this is destroying the American character. It occurred to...

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  • November 12, 2020
/ America / Anarchy / Apple / biden / Black / BLM / Blue / Castro / Election2020 / Food / friends / Hope / JoeBiden / lifestyle / Message / new york / Police / Politics / Republican / Republicans / Socialism / State / Time / Trump / Video / Vote / Water / Wealthy / Women / Workers

I have Republican friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Here is what they told me after Biden won.

As the headline says, I have Republican friends, co-workers, neighbors and so on.  I got added to one of their message lists, and they had quite the reaction when I celebrated Biden’s win.  I don't personally know everyone on the list but they are all White and I am reasonably...

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  • November 8, 2020
/ calm / Candidates / Change / Cities / Congressional / Debate / Deficit / Democrats / disarray / Election / Failure / Fight / House / Ideas / Joe / JoeBiden / Journalism / Justice / Leaders / Lies / Losing / Media / Message / Messaging / p / Party / Police / policies / Politics / Presidency / Progressive / Pundits / Race / Reform / Representation / Republicans / Senate / Spin / Time / Trump / Voters

Democrats should take a breath before they (typically) point fingers at each other for victory

Watching Morning Joe today was somewhat amusing because Joe and all his pundits spent their time portraying the current race as a huge set-back for Democrats — which requires a reckoning within the party and, of course, the rejection of any progressive ideas or candidates within the party.  The chatter was...

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  • November 6, 2020
/ AmyConeyBarrett / Assault / Bipartisan / Bipartisanship / Boycott / Candidate / College / Confirmation / Court / Ct / Debate / Election / Extreme / Facts / Faith / Filibuster / Garland / Gorsuch / Hack / Hell / House / Judges / Justice / Narrative / Nominations / Nominee / Nuclear / Obama / Partisan / Politics / Power / Republican / Republicans / Senate / Senators / SupremeCourt

Don't forget that Republicans also eliminated the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees

Just a quick reminder about something I see largely left out of the coverage of Republicans’ bad faith regarding the Supreme Court:  Republicans eliminated the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. This was supposed to be a seismic event, but I don’t hear it discussed much anymore in the overall Supreme...

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  • October 29, 2020
/ Answers / biden / Change / Climate / Climate Change / Confederate / Congress / Conspiracy / Conversation / Court / COVID / Danger / Dead / Death / Democrats / Dems / Disease / Donald / Donald Trump / Dreams / Duck / e / Economic / Economy / Election / Election2020 / ERA / Evidence / Filibuster / Fire / hanging / Hope / House / Ideas / Inauguration / Joe / JoeBiden / Legislation / Losing / Madness / Medicaid / Medicare / MSNBC / Obama / Palin / Party / Politics / Power / Presidency / President / Presidential / problem / Propaganda / Race / REAL / Reality / Republican / Republican Party / Republicans / Science / Security / Senate / Service / Slavery / Soul / Threat / Trump / UN / Voter / Voters / White House / Wind

Yes, Trump is a problem. But we have a much larger, enduring problem: the Republican voter.

Yes, Donald Trump is a breathtaking, dumpster fire of a President.  And I could spend paragraphs recounting all of the incompetent, unbalanced and embarrassing things that he does. He is a real and present danger to the country, and like one that we have not seen in memory. But ....

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  • October 18, 2020
/ AmyConeyBarrett / Authority / Barrett / Citizens / Confirmation / Constitution / Convention / Crazy / e / Evidence / Exercise / focus / Hamilton / highlights / History / Law / Madison / Nominee / Opinion / Originalists / person / policies / Politics / Public / Questions / Republicans / Stop / SupremeCourt / Thinking / Time

A short, perfect argument: “Originalism is invalid because no evidence the Founders believed in it.”

Thinking recently about questions for nominee Amy Coney Barrett, and her Originalism theory, I thought of an interesting argument — “Originalism is not a valid judicial theory because there is no evidence that the constitutional framers believed in it.” See that?  How can you have a valid “Originalist” theory that the...

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  • October 16, 2020
/ AmyConeyBarret / AntiTrust / appointment / appointments / Arizona / Barrett / Brown / Bush / Civil Rights / competence / Confirmation / Court / Defense / DOJ / Education / Federal / General / Gorsuch / Government / Harvard / Hearing / Hope / House / Integrity / International / John / Judge / Judiciary / Justice / Law / Legal / Listening / NAACP / Nominee / NYC / Politics / President / qualified / Questions / RBG / Roe / School / Senate / State / SupremeCourt / Trial / White House

Ah . . . too late I guess and I should have written this before about Nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

I have written two posts about suggested questions for Nominee Barrett — here and here.  But watching a good deal of today’s confirmation hearing, and listening to her dodge way too many questions, I realize I should also have set out some suggested questions to highlight how thin are her qualifications...

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  • October 14, 2020
/ Book / CNN / Confirmation / Court / Debate / Debates / Democrats / give / Hearing / Justice / Law / Nominee / Politics / Progressive / Public / RBG / Recommend / Republicans / semi / SupremeCourt / Time / Video / YouTube

Justices Breyer and Scalia debate each other. On TV. Fairly and politely.

As we all begin to turn our attention to the Supreme Court again, I came across the below YouTube video of a 2009 debate between US Supreme Court Justices Breyer and Scalia.  It is a breath of fresh air and I believe it is unthinkable today.  (Scalia may deserve some credit for...

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  • October 9, 2020
/ Administration / appearance / biden / Bloomberg / CoronaVirus / COVID / Covid-19 / Debate / Doctors / DonaldTrump / Evidence / Exposure / General / give / Health / Hope / House / infections / Military / negative / NYT / Politics / Positive / President / Presidential / Press / Public / Refuse / Representation / Republicans / September / Speaker / testing / Time / Trump / Vice President / Video / White House / YouTube

When did Trump know of his Covid exposure? More attention should be paid to this Rose Garden event.

Trump, his administration, and his doctors have been publicly unwilling, and contradictory, about identifying when Trump first learned — even if by a preliminary test — that he was, or potentially was, Covid positive.  The most obvious tell here is that the Trump people refuse to answer when Trump last tested negative...

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  • October 7, 2020
/ COVID / Deaths / Election2020 / Hell / Immunity / Ingraham / Money / Politics / Response / Trump

Trump brags: we haven’t YET had the millions of deaths that we will under my herd immunity approach

Recently, Trump (a latest Covid case) claimed credit, and gave himself an “A+,” on his Covid response because we only have 200,000 plus deaths when models predicted 2 to 3 million deaths if we all did nothing in response.  (Yes, that’s an amazing argument.) But that same number, 2 to 3 million, is the number of...

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  • October 3, 2020
/ 2000 / Access / Ballot / Ballots / Belief / Candidate / Candidates / Challenge / counted / Court / Courts / Democrats / Election / Election2020 / Environment / Evidence / Fight / Florida / Fraud / General / give / Journalism / Legal / Losing / Mail / Military / Opinion / Politics / Press / Public / qualified / REAL / Recount / Republican / Republicans / Response / State / SupremeCourt / Time / Trump / Trust / Vote / VoterSupression / Voting

Don't allow Republicans to establish a wrong assumption that courts will decide the election

Republicans have done a very good job of framing this next election as automatically going to the courts to potentially pick a winner.   But normally the losing candidate only gets to ask for a recount.  He or she does not have some freestanding right for a court to decide the election....

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  • October 2, 2020
/ Abuse / Authoritarians / Blue / Catastrophic / Change / College / Congressional / Corruption / Courts / dangerous / Democrats / Election / Election2020 / Elections / Filibuster / Future / Government / House / legislatures / Local / members / Partisan / Poliitics / Presidency / President / problem / Questions / REAL / Reform / Representation / Representatives / Republicans / Resistance / Senate / Senators / State / Threat / Time / Trump / Vote / Voters / Voting / WEIGHT

Whether we should eliminate the Electoral College really raises two questions. (A short discussion)

Although frequently posed as one question — “should we eliminate the Electoral College?” — there really are two separate questions: should we (i) abolish the Electoral College, but keep the formulation where each state’s weight is based on the combined total of its US Senators and Representatives, or (ii) move entirely to a national popular vote? I...

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  • October 1, 2020
/ Abortion / Administration / Answers / Authority / Barrett / Bipartisan / Challenge / Citizens / Comey / Confirmation / Constitution / Convention / Court / Ct / Debate / Decision / Democracy / Democrats / Dems / Fight / Future / Hearings / Hope / Justice / Law / Liberty / Nominee / Politics / Power / Precedent / Questions / Roe / SupremeCourt / Time / Trump / Truth / Uncomfortable / Vote / Women

72% of Justices appointed before Trump supported Roe. Does Barrett accept any limits on her power?

I’d like to crowd source reaction to the following proposed list of questions — because we don't have much time to prepare for confirmation hearings.   The questions are not said with hope of derailing the nominee, but recognizing (very much so) that the confirmation hearings are part of a larger political...

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  • September 27, 2020
/ 2020 / biden / Campaign / Cheating / Confirmation / Court / Decision / Democrats / Election / Faith / Fight / Ginsburg / Hearings / Help / Hope / Justice / Nominee / plans / Politics / Presidential / Public / Republicans / Scandal / Senate / Smoking / SupremeCourt / Tax / Time / Trump

Psst! Where are we probably headed? A fight about recusal.

I’ve read lots of notably vague “battle plans” and delaying tactics for Democrats to employ against Republicans’ plans to confirm a replacement justice for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  To be frank, the talk is largely masturbatory because the Republicans have the necessary votes.  There is one immediate hope: a disqualifying scandal could...

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  • September 24, 2020
/ 2020 / 2021 / Campaign / Constitution / Corrupt / Democrats / DonaldTrump / Duck / Election / Election2020 / Emoluments / History / House / Impeach / Impeachment / interference / Law / Legal / Nov / Pardon / Pardons / Politics / Power / President / Republicans / Resistance / Stop / Tax / Trump

Should Democrats impeach Trump after he loses re-election to prevent him from pardoning himself?

If Trump loses his re-election bid, we can reasonably count on the period from Election Day until Inaugaration Day (Nov. 3, 2020 to Jan. 20, 2021) to be one of the most perilous, corrupt and weird periods in U.S. history.  One thing that seems certain is that Trump will attempt to pardon himself. It is...

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  • August 3, 2020
/ cares / Confederate / Defense / Disinformation / History / House / IDEA / Legacy / Military / Politics / President / Press / Propaganda / Republican / Republicans / Revolution / Threat / Trummp / Trump / Ugh / Veto / War / White House

We need to find a new word for “Orwellian.”

Just a short note on Trump’s latest threat to veto a defense spending bill because it calls for renaming certain military bases named after Confederate Civil War generals.  The White House put out a statement defending the threat: “President Trump has been clear in his opposition to politically motivated attempts...

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  • July 21, 2020
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