With the news that the House Judiciary Committee Republicans are a bunch of useful idiots, those former intelligence officials who sounded the alarm about this whole Hunter Biden smear campaign feel vindicated: The allegation that Smirnov was spreading new falsehoods about Joe Biden with an election looming hearkened back to an episode from the 2020 election, when the question of whether Russian spies were trying to smear Joe Biden was first raised. Derogatory information, purportedly from Hunter Biden’s laptop, had surfaced in a New York Post article.
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Get that discharge petition going, Democrats.
Magical thinking across the political universe Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cupThey slither wildly as they slip away across the universe To no one’s surprise, Donald “91 Counts” Trump handily defeated former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in her home state on Saturday. If there is any news there it is that Haley did not lose more badly than she did. The New York Times offers five takeaways from the day, the Washington Post only three. The Post mentions an exit poll showing that “31 percent of voters said Trump wouldn’t be fit to serve as president if he’s convicted of a crime. South Carolina becomes the third early state to show that at least 3 in 10 voters said a convicted Trump wouldn’t be fit.” But that doesn’t mean they won’t vote for him anyway. “Today is not the end of our story,” Haley told supporters. “I know 40 percent is not 50 percent, but I also know 40 percent is not some tiny group. There are huge numbers of voters in our Republican primaries who are saying they want an alternative.” Where have I heard that before?
The Never Trumpers held a rival CPAC called Principles First My what a different rhetorical atmosphere: Why ever would he say such a thing? That’s what needs to be said. Standard Disclaimer: Many of these folks were miserable partisan character assassins during the Clinton and Obama administrations. I am aware, believe me. And I am fully in the “trust but verify” camp when it comes to them. But among them are some who have had a full reckoning with what they helped foment during those times and most of the others are, at least, dedicating themselves to the task of defeating Trump and the MAGA Movement as part of the popular front against fascism. We need them, whether we like it or not.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like that. Did they not get what had just happened? Are they that slow? Or do they just not care and think robotically defending Donald Trump under any and all circumstances is normal. I’m a little bit baffled by people able to smoothly deal with this kind of dissonance. It suggests something …. bad. Update— More evidence: Republican primary voters in South Carolina said former President Donald Trump, 77, is more physically and mentally fit to be president than former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, 52. Despite Trump’s 25 years on Haley, South Carolina GOP primary voters were more confident in Trump’s physical and mental fitness than hers. In CBS News’s exit polls, 72% believed Trump was healthy enough in both aspects to be president, with just 27% disagreeing. Haley fell short of Trump, with 60% saying she has the physical and mental faculties to be commander in chief. Per ABC News, 71% said that Trump’s physical and mental health were satisfactory for a president, but just 59% said the same of Haley.
“As perfect a being as the Good Lord ever made” “And he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body.” SNL: ICYMI, He’s Not OK. Perhaps it’s catching. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.
This is how you do it: Q: Do you think it’s responsible for Joe Biden to be at the top of the ticket? Gov. Gavin Newsom: Responsible? I revere his record. What he’s done in three years is a masterclass. Close to 15 million jobs is eight times more than the last three Republican presidents combined. It’s because of his age that President Biden has been so successful. He has character and wisdom. We’ve seen his bipartisan approach result in the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act, border security solutions. What a gift to have that for four more years. He’s not going anywhere and people need to get a grip and start making the positive case for his reelection instead of sitting around calling for the fainting couch like Aunt Pittypat. Here’s James Fallows who says all that needs to be said on this subject: A possible end for magical thinking about an ‘open convention.’ When it comes to the Democrats choosing a 2024 ticket other than Biden-Harris, I’ve long been in the “it’s too late” camp.
“Nobody can ramble like this. They’ll say: ‘He rambled, he’s cognitively impaired.’ Well, it’s really the opposite. It’s total genius – you know that.” — Donald Trump That’s Trump’s latest bullshit, from his CPAC speech. The crowd went wild in ecstasy when he said it. Trump’s Heinrich Himmler, Stephen Miller obviously wrote it. It was American Carnage on steroids. But it also featured Trump’s personal riffs like the one above. It was a nightmare and everyone should watch it. The Guardian did a good rundown if you don’t have the stomach for it. A few highlights: “For hard-working Americans, November 5th will be our new liberation day,” Trump told a packed ballroom at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor in Maryland.
Give an inch, take a mile Via Dispatches from the Religious Left, an analysis of the Alabama Supreme Court’s IVF ruling explaining how the judges scooped up this ball and rasn it in for a fringe-right touchdown. Chris Geidner writes: I’d like to focus instead on the majority opinion from Justice Jay Mitchell, which is extreme in its own ways — and highlights the dangerous faux-jurisprudence that the U.S. Supreme Court has encouraged. In order to reach its ruling, the court needed to ignore its own past precedents that congruence between the state’s criminal-homicide statute and wrongful-death statute was needed. This is important because the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act was passed in 1872. The court had justified expanding that civil law to fetuses in utero based on an expansion of the criminal law to include fetuses in utero and the claimed need for congruence between the two laws. Now that the court wanted to go further than the criminal law, it just ignored those rulings — overruling them without saying so, as Justice Greg Cook stated in his dissenting opinion.
Vote for candidates who will hear you out Ask me why I do what I do and my answer is not that altruistic. I hate feeling like political road kill. When I’m doing I don’t feel like a victim. This morning (FWIW) I’ll be electing members to the Democratic National Committee for the next four years from North Carolina. I want change agents. Not people intent on adding another bullet item to their long political resumes but not do anything with the position (and there will be plenty of those in the running). Yeah, the system is flawed. But as my friend Anat Shenker-Osorio says, “Forget about the lesser of two evils, and focus on choosing a president open to hearing you out on a whole bunch of evils.” Anat tells The Ink why you should not panic: What do you say to people who are burned out on the idea that we have to fight fascism again this November? How can you keep them focused despite an unending sense of crisis, through another election cycle that looks a whole lot like the last one? Keep your eye on what really matters — making room for progressive change Here’s what I say.