Republican voters come to the light To no one’s surprise, Donald “91 Counts” Trump handily defeated Gov. Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire Republican primary on Tuesday. The surprise was results were closer than a late poll showing Trump polling ahead of Haley by 18 points among likely voters. The final spread was 11 points. But the Washington Post-Monmouth University poll was taken before Florida Gov, Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race. Haley may have picked up votes there. “Undeclared” voters are allowed to vote in the Republican primary. Exit polls suggest tepid support for Haley. Aaron Blake notes, “Nearly 3 in 10 expressed some reservations about her, and 4 in 10 said their vote was mostly about dislike for the other candidates — or, more aptly, candidate.” Trump. It is significant “that so many voters who felt so meh about Haley turned out to register what amounted to protest votes.” Watch that space this November. Trump has been a net plus in elections for Democrats ever since he took office. Even in 2022 when he had left office after fomenting a violent insurrection.
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Think outside the box A friend in high state office told a large crowd at a party event over the weekend that this is the most important election of our lifetime. Yes, the last election was too. But really, we mean it this time. (I’m riffing here.) What’s infuriating about that hoary admonition is that it provokes Democrats into adopting a defensive posture when offense is required. Time and again, Democrats play defense. Their idea of finding a new gear is doing the same thing they’ve always done, the way they’ve always done it, just more of it. When it’s the most important election of your lifetime you don’t take chances, don’t experiment. Also, you don’t change, don’t grow. Worried about taking risks? That’s a huge one. “Most important election of our lifetime” makes me grind my teeth almost as much as “voting against their best interests” and the jokey “vote early, vote often.” For Democrats of a certain age, they are unfortunate verbal tics. Democrats may be the party of the left, but thinking outside the box is often in short supply.
After his win in the Iowa caucuses last week Donald Trump came to the microphone and gave an uncharacteristically gracious victory speech. It was actually standard stuff, exactly what you’d expect from any candidate except him. In these situations, the job is to try to soothe the hurt and disappointment of voters who opposed you in order to bring their followers to your side as you go through the process. Trump actually tried to do that, prompting the usual round of “he’s pivoting!” from the talking heads. But, as usual, that little burst of decency was short-lived as he proved last night in New Hampshire, giving one of the most boorish victory speeches anyone has ever given. He is obviously extremely angry at Nikki Haley for not losing bigger, dropping out of the race instantly and begging for the privilege of endorsing him for president. And he made no bones about it.
We are living in an antediluvian hellscape. I can hardly believe this is America. Well, actually, I do believe it and it’s profoundly distressing: More than 64,500 pregnancies have resulted from rape in the 14 states that banned abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned, with the vast majority occurring in states that don’t make exceptions for rape, researchers estimated today in a leading medical journal. The big picture: The projection in JAMA Internal Medicine aims to shed light on the frequency of these pregnancies at a time when exceptions for rape loom large in abortion debates. Researchers, led by the medical director at Planned Parenthood of Montana, say even states with bans that have exceptions for rape impose other requirements that make it difficult to access the procedure. Rape victims have few options other than self-managed abortions, including by illegal methods or via pills obtained through the mail, or traveling out of state to where abortion is legal. As a result, many have to carry a pregnancy to term, the researchers wrote.
They were all high I had heard that the White House doctor Ronny Jackson was a Dr. Feelgood and this seems to confirm it: White House pharmacists reportedly distributed uppers and downers like candy to Trump administration officials during his time in office, according to a new report from the Department of Defense Inspector General. The 80-page document, which was released on Jan. 8, found that “all phases of the White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy operations had severe and systemic problems due to the unit’s reliance on ineffective internal controls to ensure compliance with pharmacy safety standards.” The investigation, which began in 2018 after the Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) received complaints about improper medical practices within the White House Medical Unit, found a slew of compliance issues and improper safety standards. The medical unit’s operations fall under the jurisdiction of the White House Military Office.
They make people bend to their reality But the cult is increasingly isolated: Something’s happening to the Trump cult. The hard core true believers are on board with him more than ever and they will follow him to the ends of the earth. But there is a growing faction that’s breaking away. They may not be ready to back Joe Biden. But they are starting to see the light and recognize that they can’t vote for Trump. Baby steps….
The White Nationalist group Patriot Front was confused by the turnstiles at NYC’s World Trade Center PATH station. It reminded me of this classic turnstile scene with Slim Pickens in Blazing Saddles. But seriously folks, who is the Patriot Front and how can they be defeated once they figure out how to use turnstiles? In June I talked to Matt Binder on the Doomed podcast about Patriot Front, the Neo-Nazis group seen in this clip. They wear the same hats, khakis and gatherers on their faces when they go to Pride events, Juneteenth parades and other events. The Patriot Front may appear dumb here, but they are very clever at avoiding being prosecuted for their use of threats online and in person. One organization that figured out how to fight them is the called Task Force Butler Institute. Their tag line: Veterans Fighting Fascism From the Task Force Butler website under What We Do Hold Extremists Accountable For far too long neo-nazi, white supremacist, and fascist organizations have been able to terrorize vulnerable Americans and erode our democracy without paying a price.
It never occurs to them that there might be nothing there Trump: where’s my Biden impeachment? House Republicans are increasingly disenchanted with Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., saying his leadership of the Biden impeachment inquiry has become a “clueless investigation” at best and — at worst — “a disaster.” Less than 10 months away from the 2024 election, his impeachment investigation is barreling toward its conclusion, with no smoking gun to bring the president to his knees. Only one thing is clear: Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has lost the trust of some in his own party. “One would be hard pressed to find the best moment for James Comer in the Oversight Committee,” one House Republican lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to maintain internal relationships, told The Messenger. “It’s been a parade of embarrassments.” The GOP House member is among over a dozen Republicans — lawmakers, senior aides and strategists — interviewed for this story. Republican sources have a problem with what the investigation has not accomplished.
Mitch McConnell believes in nothing. Not one thing. A quandary? Trump is going to push his party, his country and the world over the abyss and Mitch doesn’t want to do anything to undermine him. This is the GOP at its core. They are a death cult.
Trump’s act has worn thin Simon Rosenberg is right: All that is sinking in with the voting public, and will as the year progresses. Trump has a political history he did not have in 2016 or 2020. Greg Sargent considers it a sign how crazed Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-N.Y.) deflection is over a jury of Trump’s peers finding that he sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll. The truth may not set MAGA cultists free, but it is injecting doubt (New Republic): What’s changed now is that Trump’s legal challenges are unfolding in courtrooms—in public-facing venues—before juries of the ex-president’s peers. It’s becoming impossible to fabricate conspiracy theories around the ordinary Americans whose judgment Trump faces, and the gravity of the proceedings is suddenly getting a lot more real. Like a battered boxer, Trump is cut over the eye. So work the eye, Democrats, Sargent insists. But with Trump now being prosecuted for numerous crimes, both the details of these charges and the role of ordinary Americans in serving up grand jury indictments constitute new fact sets of a much more serious nature.