Because they are as warped as he is, in a lot of cases. As dedicated to strongman rule. Taxes are icing on the cake.
Because they are as warped as he is, in a lot of cases. As dedicated to strongman rule. Taxes are icing on the cake.
So did Gary Cole. His Mike Brady was spot on.
Even Cuban, who has been pleasantly critical of the new breed of robber baron billionaires, isn't immune from the "make helping people worth my while" mindset. But I guess generous people don't become billionaires in the first place.
Sure, try everything, but keep expectations low. A few possible outcomes: 1. Admin ignores, nothing happens. 2. Admin ignores, a federal judge orders compliance, Supremes take five minutes to overrule 3. Supremes somehow don't overrule; R's spend a day repealing the law.
Instead, we know him as the guy who screwed Johnny, then screwed Dave, then screwed Conan. Quite the legacy of stabbing greater talents in the back.
Hope you're right. Difference is Fox et al said all thru Biden's term that the economy sucked and the MSM didn't contradict. Now Fox et al will say it's great and the MSM won't contradict. When there is unavoidable hard data showing a bad economy, Fox et al will blame Biden and MSM won't contradict.
Best-case scenario: Republicans are "merely" short-sighted and arrogant. Worse-case scenario: Republicans are planning the Fourth Reich.
Agree it was very good, but it did do one thing I don't care for. Two people are having a conversation, one person says something important and portentous . . . and the scene chops off right there. I imagine Cromwell saying, "Um, would you care to elaborate, Your Majesty?"
Well said. I woulda added sarcastic quotation marks. "Fiscal conservatives", "pro-family". Any self-description of Republicans needs sarcastic quotation marks.
Doubt it will help, but I called my R Rep and urged him to vote against the budget bill. Which probably means I’ll now get texts from him telling me all the great MAGA things he’s proudly doing on my behalf. Closing hospitals! Harrassing gay, trans, and brown people! Cutting the Sacklers' taxes!
She’s become Susan Collins, West. Always “concerned”, always caves. To ask House GOP (who are even more slavishly MAGA than the Senate) to fix the horrible bill she voted for five minutes earlier is a special kind of assholery.
Also worth noting that the "Taxed Enough Already" Party formed just after Obama passed a sizable TAX CUT. The Republican alternate reality was well under way even then.
Yes, "populated by grifters and foreign assets". And incompetents. If Trump *tried* to pick the stupidest and least qualified people possible, would it look any different? Hegseth, Patel, the FEMA guy who didn't know there was a hurricane season. Stupidity all around.
This won't help Tesla. Once you become political, you can’t switch sides. Libs will hate Elon forever, and now he’s just pissing off MAGA. I don’t know why these supposedly smart people can’t see the obvious: Perpetual subservience is the only way to retain Grandpa Dementia’s favor.
Similar to the framing of China tariff rates. The press now says "*Only* 30%". No reason for them to stop lying when it keeps getting the results they want.
The tribalism is strong, and human. But the ignorance is the really annoying part. They are chronically misinformed, but by their own choice. We are all responsible for our actions, including voting for a lying, grifting scoundrel.
keithfrohreich.substack.com/p/an-anonymo... Good article about the MANY problems with Musk's massive data mining.
Trump will probably take credit for an American pope at first. But given Leo's criticisms of Trump/Vance, Trump will be complaining about "meddlesome priests" soon enough.
Unfortunately, the next unqualified sycophantic drone that Trump picks will also put Trump above his duty to the law and the people, and Tillis will smile and wave him through.
You've confirmed that my decision to stop watching after episode 2 was correct. :-)
NIL/portal are the most Republican thing ever: Rampant, uncontrolled free market. It's the fact that mostly Black kids are taking advantage of the system to milk rich white guys that makes it intolerable to them. Similar to why they hate unions. The Republican motto: "I got mine. Screw you."
Tommy #Tuberville rants that #NIL and #TransferPortal are (guess what?) the fault of Democrats: "It's a disaster in basketball and football. We do not want to turn [college sports] into minor leagues. Democrats don't care about college sports or education." Of course, the great irony here . . .
It was meant more as a riff on your post. It's a line from The Brady Bunch Movie, from the ever-positive Mike Brady. As a fan of MST3K, I'm fine making a joke only three people will get. :-)
"People like being corrected when they're wrong."
Same-day headlines: "Deadly E. coli outbreak hit 15 states, FDA chose not to publicize" (They didn't tell people the lettuce in their fridge could kill them.) "FDA suspends food safety quality checks after staff cuts" (Next time, the E. coli won't be found at all.) Republican governance.
And give up that sweet Oval Access? The glow of status is why they went to J School! Silly Kevin!
Schumer still bringing wet noodles to a knife fight. These "old guard" guys are worthless.
They're executing Trump's "I just need x votes" strategy from Georgia 2020. You wait, they'll toss out *just enough* ballots to get the R in.
We're like the Titanic passengers sitting in the freezing water wondering how in the world we got here. Except 30% of the screwed people insist the water's fine.
And emulated.
Why restrain? I'd be interested in your opinion. Mine, FWIW, is bats ok, tush push should go.
Especially since several special elections went our way in '23 and '24 and that was thought to be a good sign going into November.
The great Mrs. Dalloway moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of her crescent tail.
Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi ("They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.") So annoying even this liberal environmentalist can't stand it. Honorable mention: that Pink Floyd song that opens with the alarm clocks. Nothing makes me reach for the remote faster.
I would not be surprised if Trump's minions were spreading the word that any law firm that hires people of courage like Ms. Frey would face their own difficulties.
Re "sizeable number". If only. If any right-wing media outlets mention it, they will downplay it and "what about" it. And if R voters do hear about it and see it identified as a bad thing, they probably won't care. Tribe is all.
[if Chuck Schumer replaced Kenneth Branagh in HENRY V] "This day is called the feast of Crispian. Let’s march back to Calais and have barbecue."
And three years and ten months of chaos and incompetence lie ahead of us.
I don't think they're cognizing much beyond "Dear Leader said so". They swallow the most obvious and cock-eyed lies wholesale. They are the "four legs good, two legs bad" chorus of sheep from Animal Farm.
Mystery to me how so many reactionaries consider themselves good Christians and are certain that God approves of their reactionary worldview.
That, and tribalism. Admit the truth and you're out of the club. And if you're an R politician, you get death threats.
There is also the sadness of fuutility in knowing that your Republican friends are beyond reaching, immune to fact and reason.
Disturbing, and disturbingly consistent. Which is worse: that journalists don't recognize the cult, or are afraid to call it out?
The smartest thing Trump ever said was that he could shoot someone on 5th Ave and get away with it. It's objectively true. Now, in our current diminished republic, Trump could shoot a Congressman at the SOTU and Rs would say he had it coming. So, yeah, we're in deep shit.
Ultimately, Congress is the only check on the President. Even if the Supreme Court summons the fortitude to rein in Trump (no sure thing, that), only Congress and its power of impeachment can make it stick.
Trump is doing so many horrible things that it's difficult to rank them. But the worst is the outright rejection of judicial review with the full support of a compliant, brainwashed Congress. Everything else is terrible, but the end of judicial review would be the end.
Neither. Does. Most. of. the. Press. (Yeah, cowardice as much as not caring. But no difference in the result.)
For many of the supposed Christians of MAGA, it's not just lack of shame. It's actual appreciation and admiration.
"Some of the drugs I take will be illegal. Some of the children I sire will be disowned. Some of the vehicles I make will be death traps."
4. He has a widespread and dedicated media army who will kiss his ass and call it ice cream now matter how stupid and hateful he gets.
It amazes me how few people get this simple yet profound truth. Including (perhaps especially) Dem bigwigs. Biden had one of the most effective presidencies ever, and no one knows it.
You could explain it to him over and over, and he'd never see it. His tribe is all.
I wish we could say they were naive rather than this is just what they wanted. They knew Biden or Harris wouldn't use this dubious power, but the next Republican would.
Jalen is a stand-up guy who did right by Alabama in 2018. No college player has ever been so popular at the school he transferred *from*.
Venality I (sadly) expected from the average senator. It's the cowardice that kinda surprises.
"What I learned about smooching rich peoples' backsides at Yale"
Odd situation we're in. Scruples and belief in government are losing out dramatically to ruthlessness and nihilism. Scruples are getting their ass kicked, actually.
This bland pabulum would seem natural from Shumer. I expected more from Jeffries, who showed actual backbone in the last Congress. Now that things are much worse, where has that backbone gone?
Bookmarked because you think he's right or because you think he's wrong?
Navel-gazing bs. Journos said similar things about R's in 2008 after Bush’s incompetence, and claimed that Dems were irrelevant in 1991 after Desert Storm. I don't know what the landscape will be in 2028, and neither do click-bait columnists. Their opinions are worthless in early 2025.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/o...
Trump, last year: I will bring grocery prices down quickly. Trump, now: High grocery prices are good for you MAGA sheep: Bahhh Press: *Crickets*
Trump's felon status is an easily proved fact. His insurrection, adulteries, threats to his enemies, utter stupidity (tariffs, giant water spigots, a million other examples) are all easily proved facts. Much of the country doesn't seem to care, and the press yawned even before they were cowed.
Wouldn't have happened if it had been a Whitehawk, eh, Donald?
Which is worse, the true MAGA believers or the venal Republicans smart enough to see what Trump is and support him anyway?
Republicans live in a make-believe world where their confused, loathsome, and pathetic orange god is a heroic colossus bestriding the world, protecting them from women and black people. Facts and common sense bounce off of Republicans.
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, "You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts." Between Fox News and the rest of the metastatic Right-Wing Machine, this is no longer true.
I wish it were a Freudian slip. Reluctant compliance would be better than the truth: NYT has fully bought into the "Daddy's home" mythos. It's not acquiescence, it's the sighing pleasure of sinking into a warm bath. From Sulzberger down, they (management, at least) wanted this.
Even if it is fake, it has Colbert truthiness.
2. The USAF generals are among the "fine people" who are happily liberated to show their long-held racism. Not sure which possibility is worse.
Trump orders the military to "stop DEI", and the USAF memory-holes the heroic example of the Tuskegee Airmen. Two possibilities: 1. The generals are spinelessly bowing to the perpetual distaste Republicans have of showing non-white people in a favorable light.
"To mankind, and the hope that the war against folly may someday be won after all." - Isaac Asimov It's not looking good, Professor.
What middle ground can there be between the reality-based and the Faux-News-infected? A Presidential candidate would be laughed at by both sides if he/she suggested bringing a "new level of understanding" to the other side.
Aside from the obvious stupidity and hilarity that the deranged grifter orange felon is the man to bring progressives to a "new level of understanding", which president in the last 30 years has been able to do that? Obama wanted to, and Rs spit in his face and called him names.
Didn't sleep well last night. Bright side, it will allow me to nap thru the universe dimming at noon.
One is all he wanted. He probably started with the conclusion he desired and and picked his source accordingly.
Remember Stephen Colbert's observation that reality has a liberal bias. "Riveting storytelling" (and WaPo's other new buzz phrase "Insights for all Americans") really means "stop pissing off conservatives with the truth".
Sadly, Bezos is another billionaire keen for Trump's approval. WaPo had a long-time reputation for truthful reporting. Given Colbert's observation that reality has a liberal bias, WaPo's new goal to provide "Insights for all Americans" really means "stop pissing off conservatives with the truth".
"The stigma of a Trump donation" ended the day after the 2016 election. Corporate America has been solidly pro-Trump ever since.
To sum up: Felon. Adulterer. Sexual assaulter. Business fraud. The question is not why we don't like him, but why did you anoint this objectively horrible man as your adored leader? How could you possibly judge him fit for such power? The world wonders.
When Nancy Pelosi's husband was attacked by a MAGA loon who bashed his head with a hammer, almost killing him, Trump JOKED ABOUT IT for weeks. Many other members of the "family values party" did so as well. And somehow you're OK with this.
Disparaged John McCain and other former POWs. Called servicemen killed in battle "losers" and "suckers". And you and the rest of the "support the military party" don't care.
Buried his ex-wife on one of his golf courses for a tax break meant for cemeteries. Started the scam "Trump University", promising to teach students the "secrets of success". Settled a class action lawsuit for $25 million. And you applaud his "business acumen".
Found guilty of decades of business fraud in NY, fined $350 million. Unprecedented dishonesty. And you don't care.
Not surprisingly, has been accused by two dozen women of sexual assault. Accused of rape by his ex-wife. Found civilly liable for sexual assault by a jury and fined $80 million. You heard this and thought, "Yeah, I wanna vote for that guy!"
Caught on tape bragging about how much he enjoys sexually assaulting women: "I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women. I just start kissing them. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."
Stole classified documents and ignored subpoenas ordering their return. Who did he show the docs to? Did he sell them to foreign governments? We don't know. And the "national security party" doesn't care.
Lied about the 2020 election non-stop. When told at the Jan 6 rally that there were MAGAs avoiding the metal detectors because they had guns, Trump said, "They're not here for *me*" and then sent them to the Capitol to foment insurrection. And you don't care.
Serial adulterer. Cheated on all three of his wives. Slept with a porn star. Paid her hush money a few weeks before the 2016 election. And you and the rest of the "family values party" don't care.
Convicted felon. Would have been convicted for Jan 6 and stealing documents if R judges and justices hadn't stepped outside of "calling balls and strikes" to protect him. And you and the rest of the "law and order party" don't care.
Most Republicans don't care why we don't like Trump, but I have one R friend empathetic enough to ask why I dislike The Don so much. Here's what I told him. (These are just some of the high points. This could have been twice as long.)