2024 Presidential Election ~ 3

thinking about a second Trump term...

The Atlantic: January/February 2024 Issue
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/toc/2024/01/

A Warning--Jeffrey Goldberg
The Danger Ahead--David Frum
Trump Will Abandon NATO--Anne Applebaum
Loyalists, Lapdogs, and Cronies--McKay Coppins
The Specter of Family Separation--Caitlin Dickerson
How Trump Gets Away With It--Barton Gellman
Four More Years of Unchecked Misogyny--Sophie Gilbert
The Climate Can’t Afford Another Trump Presidency--Zoë Schlanger
Is Journalism Ready?--George Packer
My Father, My Faith, and Donald Trump--Tim Alberta
If Trump Wins--Staff of The Atlantic

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/what-the-desantis-and-newsom-debate-reall...

What the DeSantis and Newsom Debate Really Revealed

Opinion by Ronald Brownstein via The Atlantic

The best way to understand last week’s unusual debate between Governors Gavin Newsom of California and Ron DeSantis of Florida is to think of them less as representatives of different political parties than as ambassadors from different countries.

***
This is the deplorable election-year situation the Trump era has given us.

I don't really know much about this vlogger or his track record, but he nails my feelings in this short clip.

WTF IS JOE BIDEN DOING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ4FHg74RXY

https://www.mediaite.com/news/bret-baier-offers-limp-defense-of-trumps-poisoning...
Bret Baier Offers Limp Defense of Trump’s ‘Poisoning Our Blood’ Speech: He’s Married to an Immigrant

***
Trump was talking about brown people ~ Africans/Asians/S. Americans. Trump's cult followers and enablers obviously prefer to ignore the elephant in the room.

Simon Rosenberg @SimonWDC | 8:52 AM · Dec 20, 2023:
Political Strategist, Commentator, Hopium Purveyor | NDN, DNC, DCCC, Clinton War Room, ABC News

In the past month, there are more independent polls showing Biden leading/tied than trailing. New NYT has Biden up 2, 47-45.

It's no longer correct to say Trump leads. We have a close, competitive election, and I'd much rather be us than them as we head into 2024.

Dec 19, 2023:
Biden leading/tied in 11 polls in past month. 8 with leads:
47-45 NYT/Siena (LVs)
49-48 Monmouth
49-48 NPR/Marist
42-41 YouGov/Economist 12/2
44-42 YouGov/Economist 11/25
39-37 YouGov
37-35 Leger
Reuters has Biden +4 in the battlegrounds

Close, margin of error race now.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/20/colorado-disqualify-trump-suprem...

Colorado’s ruling to disqualify Trump sets up a showdown at supreme court

https://www.mediaite.com/news/stunning-poll-trump-nazi-echoing-poison-blood-verm...
Stunning Poll: Trump Nazi-Echoing ‘Poison Blood/Vermin’ Speeches Make Republicans MORE Likely To Vote For Him

***
In the despicable Trump era, this is NOT surprising at all. White Nationalism and White Supremacy have been a major part of the MAGA brand from day one.

Colorado Supreme Court justices face a flood of threats after disqualifying Trump from the ballot
Ryan J. Reilly | Dec. 20, 2023

The latest round of threats fits a familiar pattern: Trump faces a legal setback, and officials face threats.

In the 24 hours since the Colorado Supreme Court kicked former President Donald Trump off the state's Republican primary ballot, social media outlets have been flooded with threats against the justices who ruled in the case...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/colorado-justices-face-flood-threa...

Trump Cases Crashing Into Supreme Court Could Reshape 2024 Election
Alan Feuer | Dec. 20, 2023

...The nine justices have already agreed to review the scope of an obstruction statute central to the federal indictment accusing Mr. Trump of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. And they could soon become entangled in both his efforts to dismiss those charges with sweeping claims of executive immunity and in a bid to rid himself of a gag order restricting his attacks on Jack Smith, the special counsel in charge of the case.

The court could also be called upon to weigh in on a series of civil lawsuits seeking to hold Mr. Trump accountable for the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

And in the latest turn of events, the justices now seem poised to decide a novel and momentous legal question: whether Mr. Trump should be disqualified from state ballots for engaging in an insurrection on Jan. 6 in violation of a Reconstruction-era constitutional amendment.

Taking up just one of these cases would place the Supreme Court — with a conservative majority bolstered by three Trump appointees — in a particular political spotlight that it has not felt in the 23 years since it decided Bush v. Gore and cemented the winner of the 2000 presidential race.

...particularly vulnerable moment for the court...decisions on contentious issues like abortion rights and affirmative action...some of the justices have come under withering personal scrutiny for their finances and links to wealthy backers...{margd: not to mention Ginny Thomas's political activities...}...given that Mr. Trump has at times expressed surprise that the justices he put on the bench have not been more attuned to his interests, any decisions by the court that favor him are sure to draw intense criticism...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/20/us/politics/trump-supreme-court-election.html

Watch me!

Trump says, “Catholics, you cannot vote for the Democrats. You cannot even think about voting for Biden,” because the FBI is “planning to send undercover spies into Catholic churches just like in the old days of the Soviet Union,” but he will stop it and save them.

1:32 ( https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1738167913096323355 )

- Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski | 7:01 AM · Dec 22, 2023:
Editor-in Chief http://MeidasTouch.com, Co-host Uncovered, Attorney, Marine, Former Federal and State Prosecutor, Republican Party Insane Asylum Escapee

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/ron-desantis-super-pac-cancels-re...
Never Back Down, which has been the main super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Republican presidential primary, has canceled its remaining TV ad reservations in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Another PAC is supposedly picking up the ground game in Iowa.

***
This has been on the horizon for at least a month. Three of the group's top guys bailed during the last month.

It is the time for Christie to bail before the NH voting begins. January is the right time for the Nikki wave to commence.

40:51 - American economic vitality connected to political stability...

The Instability of American Politics Can't be Ignored (with Anne Applebaum) | The Bulwark Podcast ( 43:15 )
The Bulwark | Dec 19, 2023

Anne Applebaum discusses a ray of hope in Europe with the defeat of Poland's authoritarian government, while also contemplating the consequences for NATO and America's place in the world if Trump were to be reelected. Mona Charen sits in for Charlie Sykes.
...
12:14 - Trump and NATO
21:35 - Trump’s Misunderstandings of International Politics
24:18 - Trump’s Praise of Dictators
30:29 - Trump’s Views on Ukraine
36:07 - Transferring Frozen Russian Assets to Ukraine
40:51 - American Economic Vitality Connected to Political Stability

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTTCgwF6VoY

Absolutely required viewing: Luttig on the Colorado Supreme Court decision.
The talking heads and their bobbleheaded adherents who demand a politically tailored decision rather than the decision that the Constitution compels are simply wrong. Unsurprising, as they are usually wrong, but we are in a moment where it is no longer excusable to be wrong. I'll take my Constitutional law interpretation from experts in Constitutional law, not the political bellyfeelers, thank you very much. If from the originalist camp, so much the better.

There is nothing undemocratic about enforcing the Constitution, but there is much that is cowardly about declining to do so. I have no more patience for the mindless, gutless, and ball-less, and I will never forgive them should their cravenness prevail and what remains of this republic fall.

Judge Luttig: Trump eligibility case ‘tests America’s commitment to its own democracy’
MSNBC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUX12-gi334

Below, some very important threads of tweets.
Luttig:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1738288645201596778.html

It is a false dichotomy to suggest that the question of the former president’s disqualification under the Fourteenth Amendment presents the binary question of whether his disqualification is anti-democratic and anti-Rule of Law or democratic and Rule of Law.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/us/politics/trump-ballot-colorado-supreme-cou...
Nor does the “prospect of unelected judges denying voters the opportunity to make their own decision about Mr. Trump’s political future” in any way at all undermine America’s democracy. Indeed, it is to the contrary.
And even less so would a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that the former president is disqualified under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution in any way at all threaten “the government’s legitimacy.”
It is the Constitution itself that tells us that disqualification from high public office for engaging in an insurrection or rebellion against the Constitution is affirmatively not anti-democratic.
Rather, it is the insurrection or rebellion against the Constitution that gives rise to disqualification that is anti-democratic.
It is for this reason that Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment is one of the most democracy protecting and preserving provisions in the Constitution.

• • •
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1738630504927178975.html

Thank you @alivelshi for giving me the opportunity to explain this morning that it is the Constitution itself that tells us that the disqualification of the former president under the Fourteenth Amendment is not anti-democratic.
And that, instead, it is the insurrection or rebellion against the Constitution, which gives rise to disqualification, that is anti-democratic.

https://www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/watch/judge-luttig-trump-eligibility-case-tests...
Disappointingly, no sooner than had the Colorado Supreme Court ruled earlier in the week than did the national media rush to urge the Supreme Court not to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment because, they mistakenly said, to do so would be anti-democratic.

Roger Parloff of Lawfare, who Luttig full-throatedly endorses.
First, a crucial excerpt:
https://twitter.com/IAmPersonOne/status/1738156208450609634
I Am Person One
@IAmPersonOne
·
Dec 22
How does the charge of insurrection apply when no one has been charged under 18 U.S. 2383?

Section 5 of the 14th should require at least that much, yes?
Roger Parloff
@rparloff
No. After the Civil War, many people were ousted or barred from office because of Section 3. In most—maybe all—cases we know of, they were not first convicted of anything prior to their ouster or bar. This includes judicial records, newspaper reports, congressional records, etc.
12:38 PM · Dec 22, 2023

And a thread
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1738127031257412094.html

---
ETA:
cf. Serwer:
The Colorado Ruling Calls the Originalists’ Bluff
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/colorado-supreme-court-trump-o...

The plain language version:
Under Michigan law, the Secretary of State doesn't have discretion when placing names on a primary ballot. Voters can't challenge presidential candidates' eligibility. So, the merits of a 14th Amendment challenge can't be heard unlike Colorado law.

...Michigan Supreme Court rejects an appeal of lower court decision holding that a 14th Amendment challenge to Trump's eligibility for the presidency is not ripe and the Sec. of State must place Trump on the primary ballot regardless of his 14th Amend status. https://courts.michigan.gov/4b0d49/siteassets/case-documents/uploads/sct/public/...

- Anthony Michael Kreis @AnthonyMKreis | 9:07 AM · Dec 27, 2023:
Law professor {Georgia State U}

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/27/1221828944/vivek-ramaswamys-campaign-has-slowed-t...

Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign has slowed TV ad spending ahead of the Iowa caucus

According to data from advertising tracking firm Ad Impact, Ramaswamy has all but halted TV spending. In the first half of December, the campaign spent more than $200,000 on TV ads but has spent practically nothing in the last week.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/27/haley-slavery-cause-of-civil-war-001332...
Haley declines to say slavery was cause of Civil War
The former South Carolina governor instead said it was a dispute over how ‘government was going to run.’

***
She made this statement in NH, but this is exactly what the MAGA voters in SC want to hear from a candidate who is behind in the election polling in her home state. I hope voters across the country remember this "full Confederacy" statement next November.

>16 Molly3028: That’s what I learned about the Civil War in Pennsylvania in the 1960s - States rights. The institution of slavery issue was only a side note. Until you read the actual documents of the Confederate states.

>17 2wonderY: That's interesting. I lived out west in the 60's and when we learned about the Civil War we learned it was about slavery and nothing else. I didn't hear the "states rights" rubbish until after we moved east.

I was in the Florida and our teacher began by saying, "We live in the South so we will learn the southern viewpoint."

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/breaking-maine-becomes-second-state-to-bar-tru...
BREAKING: Maine Becomes Second State to Bar Trump From Ballot

>20 Molly3028: Bravo. Shenna Bellows standing up to be counted.

I do not reach this conclusion lightly. Democracy is sacred, and the highest court of this State has repeatedly recognized that “no right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live.”

I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection. The oath I swore to uphold the Constitution comes first above all, and my duty under Maine’s election laws, when presented with a Section 336 challenge, is to ensure that candidates who appear on the primary ballot are qualified for the office they seek.

The events of January 6, 2021 were unprecedented and tragic. They were an attack not only upon the Capitol and government officials, but also an attack on the rule of law. The evidence here demonstrates that they occurred at the behest of, and with the knowledge and support of, the outgoing President. The U.S. Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government, and Section 336 requires me to act in response.

This may well be our last stand. Stand with her, or forever record your cowardice. Should Trump be re-elected, she will never again be safe in this country.

>20 Molly3028: works for me.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/chris-christie-condemns-nikki-haleys-slavery-r...
Chris Christie Condemns Nikki Haley’s Slavery Remarks: ‘She’s Not a Racist, It’s Worse in Some Respects’

.....She did it because she’s unwilling to offend anyone by telling the truth, and so she isn’t willing to say the same things about abortion in New Hampshire that she says in Iowa because she doesn’t want to offend people in Iowa who have a different feeling than people in New Hampshire. But then she comes to New Hampshire, she doesn’t want to offend them either. And she’s unwilling to tell the truth about Donald Trump. She says he was the right president for the right time.....

***
Nikki knows she needs the votes of MAGAs and Confederate groupies to win the nomination.

Amazing that some wish to abrogate the rule of law in this country because of perceived "bad optics" -- particularly in the face of a candidate who would (and could, and will) dispense with the law altogether. Constitutional procedures and safeguards are apparently antidemocratic -- say those who neither know nor care what that law of the land might be, nor maintain any interest in applying it. By the same logic: OK, then, let's not bother enforcing the antidemocratic provisions that define the Electoral College and go straight to a popular vote. By fiat. Just because I fucking say so. Just because the optics look better. Just because it "seems fairer."

We have the system that we have, for better or worse. The Constitution has built-in safeguards for defending itself against its enemies. If we decide they are dead letters, we shall soon find the entirety of the document becomes so. What's more, this is no theoretical admonishment. It is a concrete, imminent forecast.

David W. Tollen
https://pintsofhistory.com/2023/12/27/lets-correct-some-errors-about-disqualific...

The Colorado Supreme Court’s December 19 decision touched off a storm of bad reporting: errors about the law, history, and basic facts surrounding the conclusion that Donald Trump is disqualified from holding office. Let’s correct five key errors. And see below for an an sixth error and an update based on Maine’s disqualification.

Error 1: Several other courts have ruled that Trump is not disqualified.
painting of 3 Confederate colonels, including Z. Vance, later disqualified from office
In 1870, North Carolina elected former Confederate Zebulon Vance – right – to the U.S. Senate. But he was disqualified under the 14th Amendment, withough trial, and so did not serve.

Outside of Colorado, no court has decided whether Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment disqualifies Trump. Federal and state courts elsewhere have dismissed disqualification cases. But they ruled on what you might call procedural grounds, particularly arguments that the plaintiffs in those cases lack “standing.” (That includes today’s decision from the Michigan Supreme Court.) That means those particular plaintiffs lack the sort of injury necessary to maintain a lawsuit, at least as of now.

In other words, if the U.S. Supreme Court affirms the Colorado decision on appeal, it will be agreeing with the only court system that has an outstanding decision on Trump and the Fourteenth Amendment.

For updates on the all the disqualification cases, see The Trump Disqualification Tracker from The Lawfare Institute.

Error 2: Disqualification isn’t likely or right because it would take the decision away from the people.
If we wanted government purely by vote of the people, we wouldn’t need a constitution. Written constitutions take power out of the majority’s hands, and ours is no exception. (In fact, it’s the model.) The U.S. Constitution outlines a government structure the majority can’t change (except through amendment). And it protects our rights from majority decisions. For example, no matter how much the majority might want a law that restricts freedom of religion, the First Amendment forbids it.

The Constitution also restricts the people’s power to choose office holders. The majority might prefer a presidential candidate younger than thirty-five or one who wasn’t born a citizen (e.g., Arnold Schwarzenegger). But he or she couldn’t become President because Article II of the Constitution forbids it. 1 (The Constitution’s Electoral College system also restricts majority power to choose office holders. That system gave Trump the Presidency in 2016 despite the fact that he lost the national majority/popular vote.) (my emphasis, davidgn)

Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment serves the same purpose. Congress and the states enacted Section 3 because they knew Southern voters would elect ex-Confederates, and they wanted to block those majority votes.

Note also that removing Trump from the ballot does not actually take away anyone’s vote, assuming it’s done before votes are cast. It just removes one candidate, leaving populists and other Republicans plenty of other options.

For more on the mechanics of Section 3, see my prior article on Fourteenth Amendment disqualification.

Error 3: Disqualifying Trump would violate due process.
The Constitution requires due process of law to deprive anyone “of life, liberty, or property.”2 It doesn’t require conviction or any other form of due process to deprive anyone of political office.

Further, the Fourteenth Amendment is part of the Constitution (of course). So it’s not overruled by other provisions, like the due process requirement. And as explained in my earlier post, the Amendment originally disqualified former confederates without conviction. That was the point.

It’s also not clear what process would be due if the courts ultimately required some sort of hearing. Trump may have already gotten it in Colorado.

painting: the delegates sign at the Constitutional Convention
The Constitution restricts the voters’ power. That’s the whole point.

Error 4: Disqualification is a terrible strategy for the Democrats since Trump can use it to build support.
The Democratic Party is not behind the effort to disqualify Trump. The people claiming disqualification are conservative and liberal citizens, acting on their own. Eventually, state election officials will probably block Trump too – not for political reasons (we hope) but because they think the law requires it.

As for President Biden, he’d probably prefer that Trump remain the Republicans’ nominee. Trump is the only Republican candidate carrying more political baggage than Biden. So a Trump nomination gives Biden his best odds of reelection.

Finally, disqualification is not a political strategy. It’s the law. If Trump is disqualified under the Constitution, it is everyone’s duty to see that he does not hold office, regardless of political calculation.(my emphasis, davidgn)

Error 5: There is no chance the conservative Supreme Court will rule against Trump.
The Court’s political leanings shouldn’t matter. But if they do, the majority’s conservatism may cut against Trump more than it favors him. Trump is not conservative: he’s a populist. And while the distinction is lost on many, it almost certainly isn’t lost on conservative justices like Roberts and Kavanaugh. Trump is not one of theirs.

Also, conservative justices regularly apply “original intent,” interpreting the Constitution as close as possible to the Framers’ intent. (Many doubt that modern decisions based on original intent have much to do with the Framers’ views, but that’s a separate issue.) Original intent may work against Trump. The deeper legal issues lie beyond the scope of this article, but there are good arguments that the authors of the Fourteenth Amendment meant to keep people like Trump out of office. They could have limited disqualification to former Confederates or given it an expiration date, but they didn’t. (Again, see my earlier post, as well as the sources it cites.)

For many who oppose Trump, disqualification sounds too good to be true (like assuming Putin will be overthrown, giving Ukraine an easy out). And for Trump supporters, its sounds too unfair. Those perspectives probably explain why the press insists on calling disqualification a long shot. Neither side’s feelings, however, determine the law. No one knows what the Supreme Court will do, but I think disqualification has better odds than most Americans realize.

UPDATE: On December 28, Maine’s secretary of state also held Trump disqualified. See my next post: “Main disqualification: why the secretary of state, not the courts?”

h/t Laurence Tribe

>23 Molly3028: Haley is hardly unique in this. A good 90+ % of our congress members and Senators are the same. For instance only a few will speak out on the genocide going on in Gaza....the rest won't (or will cheerlead it) because of 1) angering donors 2) fear of retribution from their own caucuses or the AIPAC lobbying umbrella or 3) all of those things and it could end up with the United States involved in a regional war but even if not we've become complicit in crimes against humanity.

Trump Doesn't Need a Criminal Conviction for Ballot Removal, According to Research on 14th Amendment
The former president was previously charged on four federal felony counts for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
Jordan Liles | Dec 29, 2023

...Is a Criminal Conviction Needed for Ballot Removal?

The report from the CRS* specified, "Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment does not expressly require a criminal conviction, and historically, one was not necessary."

Further, the report laid out the history of the usage of Section 3:

Reconstruction Era federal prosecutors brought civil actions in court to oust officials linked to the Confederacy, and Congress in some cases took action to refuse to seat Members. Congress last used Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1919 to refuse to seat a socialist Congressman accused of having given aid and comfort to Germany during the First World War, irrespective of the Amnesty Act. The Congressman, Victor Berger, was eventually seated at a subsequent Congress after the Supreme Court threw out his espionage conviction for judicial bias.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-criminal-conviction-ballot/
--------------------------------------

* The Insurrection Bar to Office: Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment (6 p)
Congressional Research Office | Updated September 7, 2022
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10569

Former aides warn of ‘running out of time’ to prevent Trump re-election (Guardian)

The re-election of Donald Trump in 2024 could “end American democracy as we know it”, according to three women who worked for him in the White House during his chaotic term in office. All three gave testimony to the US House committee investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat as well as the 6 January 6 Capitol attack staged by his supporters. And they warned in an unprecedented television interview on Sunday that time was short to prevent a second Trump administration in which they insist his behavior would be much worse...

>27 John5918: I see so many objections about the optics of enforcing our Constitutional provisions making us look like a banana republic. I wish people would realize that that ship has already sailed! All that remains is to stave off the final slide into despotism. Anyone who does not see that has got their priorities ass-backwards.

----

UMass Amherst's Richard Wolff has a great interview here where he lays out the entire political landscape to a Brazilian interviewer. Highly recommended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhT7HOWRt50

>28 davidgn:

One of the characteristics of a so- called "banana republic" is to ignore their constitution at the whim of the rich and powerful, often trying to justify it with a spurious claim of popular support.

Luttig on SCOTUS certiorari.
'The Constitution disqualifies Trump': Famed conservative judge predicts SCOTUS ruling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH5JdL8FGGo

"Justice Robert Jackson said once that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. It is the Disqualification Clause in the 14th Amendment that proves this axiom true."

ETA:
Also Lawrence Tribe.
Harvard scholar predicts how Supreme Court will rule on key Trump legal battles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD_ME9ebdl0

And the Colorado Secretary of State, Jena Griswold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwR-N6PTvd0

https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2024/01/09/judge-judy-endorses-nikki-haley...
Judge Judy Endorses Nikki Haley

Sheindlin called Haley “whip smart . . . principled and measured” in a statement from Haley’s campaign announcing the endorsement.

>31 Molly3028: Oh FFS.
OK, here's the only endorsement I could stomach for Haley:

"Not Trump"

>31 Molly3028: "smart" or "principled"? If she's running as a Republican, she can't be both!

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/its-not-too-late-conservative-national-review-...
‘It’s Not Too Late’: National Review Begs Republicans to Stop ‘Grotesquely Selfish’ Trump

***
Trump neither loves America or cares one iota about the well-being of his rabid cult followers.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/breaking-chris-christie-reportedly-dropping-out-of...

BREAKING: Chris Christie Reportedly Dropping Out of 2024 Race

Announcement at 5 p.m. Eastern time. Christie is not expected to immediately announce an endorsement.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/rand-paul-launches-never-nikki-campaign-days-a...
Rand Paul Launches ‘Never Nikki’ Campaign Days Ahead of Iowa, Says He’s Impressed By RFK Jr. And Ramaswamy

***
Another example of why voters must nuke the GOP in November.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/trumps-praetorian-guard-desantis-ratchets-up-a...
Trump’s ‘Praetorian Guard!’ DeSantis Ratchets Up Attacks On Fox News For Protecting Trump Out of Fear of ‘Losing Viewers’

Republican presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ripped Fox News over what he characterized as its soft coverage of former President Donald Trump on Friday, arguing that the network and other conservative media served as Trump’s “praetorian guard.”

***
A question about a prez using SEAL Team 6 to assassinate opponents was not included in the televised session.

So, like I've been predicting, this one is going to hit the buffers -- hard.
(The buffers, in this case, being the 14th Amendment and the SCOTUS).
If you think the picture looks bleak now, wait for a few more of the black swans overhead to release their payloads.
Either way the ruling goes, all hell is going to break loose, but one outcome may be survivable.

Pray for the buffers to hold.

(Thoughts and prayers to Argentina. In their case, the swans look suspiciously like helicopters over the Plata estuary. FT: https://t.co/P7YPrfZ5MC
ETA cf. https://buenosairesherald.com/politics/dictatorship-era-threat-green-ford-falcon...

Commentary from Robert Reich about Trump’s Iowa win:

The mainstream media still don’t get it.

This morning’s New York Times tried to describe it and utterly failed:

“Donald J. Trump’s decisive victory in Iowa revealed a new depth to the reservoir of devotion inside his party. For eight years, he has nurtured a relationship with his supporters with little precedent in politics. He validates them, he entertains them, he speaks for them and he uses them for his political and legal advantage.

This connection — a hard-earned bond for some, a cult of personality to others — has unleashed one of the most durable forces in American politics.” … In the first chance Americans had to cast judgment on Mr. Trump since he tried to overthrow an election, many Iowa Republicans made clear they don’t judge him. They adore him.”

Oh, please.

Why is it so damned difficult for the media to see what’s going on?

For over forty years, the median wage of non-supervisory workers — people paid hourly — has been stagnant or declined, even though the U.S. economy and American productivity has soared. The stock market continues to hit new records.

But people without college degrees, people who are not living in the nation’s largest cities, who are mostly white, who are older and tend to be more religious than the typical American — these people feel abandoned by the system.

And they are. The Democratic Party has written them off, preferring to go after “suburban swing” voters. The establishment Republican Party represents big corporations and Wall Street.

So where do they look? Who fills the void? He may be a sociopath and a criminal, a grifter and a fraud, a liar and a neofascist. But he’s at least theirs.

>39 2wonderY: Bingo.
cf. https://www.librarything.com/topic/355917#8354180

And for >38 davidgn:, cf. Rachel Maddow, comparing our democracy unfavorably to Brazil's. (She's right on this point, at least).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0M3Ifwx77g

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/shock-poll-haley-tied-with-trump-in-new-hampshire...
SHOCK POLL: Haley Tied with Trump in New Hampshire

40-40

***
Nikki has a chance of winning in NH because unaffiliated voters are allowed to vote in the primary. I think she will be toast after Super Tuesday, however. The MAGA white nationalist base in many states will not vote for a brown lady with her ethnic background.

>41 Molly3028: How far have we sunk when we're discussing a loon like Nikki Haley as the best of all possible (Republican) worlds?

Wingnut radio show hosts like Limbaugh and his ilk never instructed their faithful listeners about preparing for life in 21st century America. Those dudes used their easily-led-astray listeners to build their empires, instead. Those low-info folks continue to look for guidance in all the wrong places.

>42 davidgn:

A knight on a white horse never showed up ~ Nikki did!

>44 Molly3028: She'd try to show up in Tehran, too. (But we're heading that way anyhow, so I suppose that in the scheme of horrors, it may prove to be a wash.)

Still, she manages to notch up an impressive "enthusiastically genocidal" versus Biden's mere "solidly genocidal."
Nikki Haley to Netanyahu: "Finish Them" (FULL Interview)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLe4j9Koxjw
It's a competition for vileness, really.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/18/politics/fact-check-desantis-haley-gaza-refugees/...

>45 davidgn: apart from Marianne Williamson and whoever the Greens run I don't think there is a candidate for POTUS who won't 100% support the genocide going on in Gaza. They all think it's important that people see them as 'tough'. That's more important than either being rational or having moral integrity. Haley wants people to know that she can be as vicious as any of the rest of them and I have no doubt that if given the chance that she will be. The United States FWIW has never had much of a problem fixing elections, fomenting coups, supporting genocidal actors like the Boer regime in South Africa. The shining beacon of hope to the rest of the world has gotten dimmer and dimmer to the point where you're going to have to look real hard to find it and it's kind of more a mirage now than something for real. We don't welcome people here unless they have $'s or sponsors with $'s. That's kind of a clue that what we say the Statue of Liberty stands for is pretty much bullshit.

Unfortunately for America's democracy, the 2024 presidential election appears to be devolving into a fandom and reality-denying hazard that cannot be thwarted by any amount of money.

>47 Molly3028: Speaking kind of to this. Dean Phillips says he's not been asked on to MSNBC one single time since he announced he was running for President. He goes on to say because of the lack of media attention (particularly from the more Democratic friendly media) that most people in the United States have no idea who he is....even that he's a sitting United States congressman for instance. He certainly has money...he's one of the richest people in Congress. No coverage means hardly anyone is going to find out anything about who he is. Saying that what I've heard Congressman Phillips say I don't care for much at all because he's pretty much a typical boilerplate centrist Democrat. Not anything radical about him or someone easily caught out with goofball takes like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. As I say I find him very typical of most Democrats in the House. His mistake really is challenging an incumbent who has the imprimatur of the party for another run for what might or might not turn into a second term. At least on the national stage when the Democratic Party establishment anoints someone it's all over for everyone else no matter what their voting base thinks. They find ways to leverage those they don't want out no matter if they're more popular than their anointed one or not.

Jesus H. Fucking Christ.

Hello? The very existence of our country is at stake.

Anything other than a vote for Joe Biden is fucking madness.

No third party is going to do anything except help destroy our country.

This thread is shit. And most of Pro/Con has turned into shit. It has become a caricature of a caricature. It's like Stalinists vs. Trotskyites arguing the finer points of Marxist/Leninism. Jesus Fuck.

Wake the Hell UP and smell the god damn coffee, geniuses.

>49 JGL53: Expecting me to eat shit is one thing, but asking me not to be enraged about it is a bridge too far. Voting for the lesser evil every time just seems to keep upping the ante for evil.

If we want to use the phrase "eat shit" to describe the act of supporting a consensus candidate who does not check every one of my individual boxes, then I'm afraid that's an integral part of anything that could conceivably be called a democracy. I would probably not use that terminology, since it does play into the fascist game. As the Reich spiel quoted in >39 2wonderY: points out, it's the reason why we have a Trump.

I'd also be a little bit curious about what it is about Biden that seems "evil". (I assume you're referring to Biden as the "lesser evil") He takes more centrist positions than I would on many things, true enough, but that seems reasonable, and it hardly makes him "evil". What has Biden done that makes you call him a "lesser evil", as opposed to something like "not quite as much of a good as I'd like"?

>51 kiparsky: Is genocide not enough to draw your objection? Which do you dispute: that this administration is up to its eyeballs in providing direct support for an ongoing genocide, or that to act in such a manner constitutes evil?

And a President Trump would unleash the Russians as well as the Israelis and do so much more damage here and globally. Hold Dems to account, but for God's sake not at cost of bringing back Trump. (Ds aren't giving climate the priority it deserves, but Trump and the Rs are not the answer!)

>51 kiparsky:
I might add that by doing so, this administration is signally failing to reduce tensions in West Asia and is needlessly taking us towards a regional conflict that may well evolve into a Third World War. Again, do you dispute the analysis, or do you not regard failure to act with reasonable care to prevent a Third World War as constituting evil?

Biden is only the lesser evil in the sense that Trump will be not likely be better on any of these issues, and in addition will permanently destroy our democratic system and prevent any hope for a future change of course, barring bloody internecine conflict. Do not tell me that I have no right to resent -- loudly -- being compelled to vote for genocide.

It's the sort of thing one will be compelled to justify to one's children and grandchildren.

>52 davidgn: That certainly sounds alarming. Can you be a bit more specific about what you're talking about?

I'm not trying to be smart here, it's just that I can think of a few situations around the globe that people might describe as "genocide" and you don't really give me any guidance about exactly which one you're referring to.

Netanyahu claims Israel's not fighting a war against the Palestinian people and then they blow up a university like they more or less have destroyed all the hospitals, like they've killed and maimed thousands of women and children, burying many under rubble, attacking churches, mosques, schools and cultural sites. It's like Biden and his State Dept. are unable to see this? Like it's necessary to send them more bombs? When what you're doing is being compared to Dresden, should our antennae go up?......but it's maybe more like the devastation after Hiroshima without all the radiation. I read one Israeli mother of a dead hostage claim her son was killed by some kind of war gas dropped by an IDF warplane. Maybe.....it wouldn't surprise me....they've used white phosphorus.

Probably Trump would have done the same as Biden. He quite possibly though would have at least wanted Israel to pay for them....not just hand out billions of dollars of war material like it was candy......but really even saying that is a deflection because if you want to be POTUS you should own what you do.

In The Hague before the ICJ we're pretty much implicated with Israel in a genocide. It's deserved and a question is when has that ever happened before?.....and we've done a lot of fucked up shit. How did we get to this place? It may be that Court will decide against South Africa but my guess is even if it does it will because a fix was in and acquittal won't mean we're not going to be hammered by the court of public opinion and looked down at by lots of nations afterwards. Biden has shown me he shouldn't be the man running our foreign policy. He's not up to the job. Trump isn't either so expect nations to look elsewhere for global leadership and hope either of these nitwits don't get us into a real war in the Middle East in the meantime.

I'm not voting in November. I can't countenance either one at this point.....one's a traitor and the other an accessory to mass murder. FWIW I don't expect the accessory to mass murder to lose NYS so my abstaining won't matter much at all except maybe to me. I'm not about to tell other people who to vote for or to do the same as I'm doing. That's up to them and I can understand voting against Trump anyway. If someone from a battleground state asks me I'll tell them why and they can do what they want. We all have to live with our own consciences. For me what's been done here cannot be put together again. For me you don't play a part in killing 20 some thousand people call it collateral damage and get a pass for it ever again. Late September I was in on the Biden thing but it's over now. We might add though that the Israel govt. might be the most despicable govt. on the planet. That's saying something.

>55 kiparsky: To be clear, I would endorse South Africa's recent application to the ICJ regarding the genocide for the furtherance of which this present U.S. administration is providing indispensable resources -- and bypassing Congress to do so.

Additionally, I would submit that the Yemenis' recent actions in solidarity with the Gazans (for which they claim justification under Article 1 of the Genocide Convention) are all the more remarkable given that the US and UK have additionally been complicit in an arguable genocide against them (a less clear-cut case, in relative terms) in the not-so-distant past.

cf.
A ‘synchronised attack’ on life: the Saudi-led coalition’s ‘hidden and holistic’ genocide in Yemen and the shared responsibility of the US and UK
Jeffrey S. Bachman
School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC, USA
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Hm6yabBswxhnzfhR8RSI/full

>56 lriley: While I do not for a moment deny the abominable behavior of the Israeli government, it's worth mentioning that all of that was exactly the point, from Hamas's perspective. That's exactly what they wanted to happen, and it's why they committed the atrocities of October 7, in order to provoke attacks on the Palestinian population by the Israeli military. Both sides require atrocities, without them they would have no purpose - and this isn't just something that I made up to be controversial, even the Times reports it, though their imbeciles on the Op-ed page don't seem to read the reporting that their paper does.

Do we call it genocide? I don't see it, myself. I see it as a failed state in which several state-like actors have agreed to kill civilians in limited numbers in order to justify their own and each other's existence. That's not good, but is it what we call "genocide", if it's been going on for decades and the status quo hasn't changed in any appreciable way in that time?

I can understand how the word is a convenient one both for Israeli entities and for American politicians, since it provokes strong reactions and is a fun way to put an opponent into a rhetorical corner (as >52 davidgn: tried to do) but if we remember that we're all smart people and capable of thinking for ourselves, it really doesn't fit the facts on the ground. Personally, I view the word as just another nationalist trope at this point. With the exception of certain NGOs, most of the people using it seem mostly interested in setting people against each other and not very much interested in solving the problems they're pointing at. In the very specific case of Israel, I see nobody who uses the word "genocide" who shows any interest in actually establishing a functioning state within those borders, so I say screw the bunch of them.

All that being said, the facts on the ground are grim enough, and maybe the fact that the US continues to provide military support for Israel is a deal-breaker for you. If that's your view, that's your view. I'm not sure what exactly you think would be the right policy, though.

> 49

I had believed my point was simplicity itself. Apparently not.

This debate is not about achieving moral perfection, or not.

With the reelection of Biden, democracy and western civilization will survive - still far from perfect, but we can maintain survival.

With tRump's election, democracy dies and the U.S. becomes an official dictatorship, after two hundred and forty something years of existence as a Constitutional republic.

It is my absolute conviction that ANYONE who does not grok these simple facts has shits for brains.

The law of the excluded middle applies here - The decision is black or white, either/or, death or life - there is no fucking gray.

I cannot dumb this down any further.

I have spoken.

>57 davidgn: Thanks for clarifying. As I say, I don't see that there's a case for calling it a genocide, but that's a terminological issue. The facts are not changed by the labels we apply, and the facts are grim enough.

Should I assume that your policy prescription would be to cut off military aid to Israel? What effect do you think that would have?

Personally, I don't think that Israel would have any trouble acquiring weaponry in the absence of US military support. It's a rich country, and the area in question is a postage stamp. So the only thing that would change would be to eliminate US influence on IDF policies. My guess is that US influence has mostly served to moderate those policies, not to make them more extreme, so cutting off our influence in that way would tend to make things worse. But what do I know? I'm just a guy who reads the newspapers.

>58 kiparsky: We'll agree to disagree on what to call the scenario which is presently unfolding.

In broad terms, the right policy would be to secure the establishment of political rights for all present on the territory. Under the present circumstances, where the Oslo process has been more or less openly abused as an excuse to establish facts on the ground making a two-state solution functionally impossible, the most plausible means to do that might be something like the program of Omer Bartov https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/29/israel-gaza-settlement-pal...
ETA and cf. https://www.analystnews.org/posts/genocide-scholar-omer-bartov-says-only-a-polit...
(ETA, as web-manifestoed: https://www.alandforall.org/ )
or the not dissimilar one of Peter Beinart
https://www.timesofisrael.com/once-an-outspoken-advocate-of-2-states-peter-beina...
(ETA: As manifestoed. https://jewishcurrents.org/yavne-a-jewish-case-for-equality-in-israel-palestine)
The specifics of how to make that happen are beyond me, but it would require a lot of international intervention, most of all by a relatively saner U.S. administration. And yes, at a minimum the credible threat to terminate military assistance and a reworking of the security architecture would be necessary.

I give you Israeli Maj. Gen. Matti Peled (father of Miko Peled) in 1992.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xbh9hhskzg
Sounds prescient.

>58 kiparsky: It's exactly what both Israel and Hamas wanted. Hamas wanted and expected an overreaction. Israel wanted an excuse to ethnically cleanse Gaza. Caught in between these two bad actors are a lot of innocents and of the 2.3 million people who were living there somewhere around half were under 18 years old. At best Hamas is a quasi/pseudo state actor. Israel isn't and when we talk about Gaza it is part of the territory of Israel that it should have been governing with a fair hand all along instead of abdicating its authority and allowing Hamas to pretend to govern it. Also Israel talks about its right to defend itself. For most every other nation that would mean defending against other countries and populations outside their own borders not inside and against part of its own population and roughly there are as many Palestinians within the territory of Israel as there are Jewish people.

>61 davidgn: In broad terms, the right policy would be to secure the establishment of political rights for all present on the territory.

Agreed. I don't see how that happens when all involved are so committed to nationalist rhetoric, but I agree that that's crucial for any decent resolution of the situation.

I have never felt that a "two-state solution" made any sense. We've already got that, and it's not working very well at all. To my mind, the 19th century was a long time ago, and I don't see any use in going back to the idea that populations should be ethnically homogeneous. So for me, the establishment of a legitimate government in Israel would be a reasonable start. (I see this as more or less equivalent to "the establishment of political rights for all present", since that is a criterion for legitimacy in my view)

Like you, I don't claim to have a plan to get there, but I'm pretty sure that's okay, since the last thing the people of Israel need is another loudmouth with a plan. If there's going to be peace, it's going to come from the people in the territory controlled by the Israeli government coming together and demanding a legitimate government. I don't think that's an easy thing, but I'm pretty sure it's the only thing that can work.

Now, as far as US policy goes, my thinking is pretty simple. US military aid is part of a diplomatic relationship, and cutting off that aid would seriously restrict our influence on the Israeli government's actions. It would not in any way hamper Israel's ability to act militarily - Israel is a rich country and arms are cheap - but it would certainly lead to some suitors for the position that the US currently holds. I'd guess that Russia would be the most interested in buying the influence that we're getting now, but that's guesswork. The thing we know for sure is that whatever influence we have on Israel today, we would have much less if we were to cut off military aid. So the question to ask is, who do you think ends up in that bidding war, who wins it, and how do you think that affects outcomes for the people currently living under the guns?

I don't think you have to have a naive faith in the overwhelming goodness of US foreign policy to think that some of the other options might be much worse.

>62 lriley: It's exactly what both Israel and Hamas wanted.

I agree entirely. They both use attacks on civilians - by themselves and by others - to justify their own existence. This is apparently preferable to governing, for some reason that is obscure to me.

when we talk about Gaza it is part of the territory of Israel that it should have been governing

Amen! Hence my use of the term "failed state". Similarly, I have tried to avoid the use of the term "Palestinian" precisely because the distinction between Israel and Palestine is very much the root of the problem. In the absence of the current atrocities, I could use the term "Palestinian" as a marker of a cultural heritage. In today's climate, I do not prefer to ratify an imaginary difference in the Israeli government's responsibility to its people based on idiotic and meaningless distinctions useful only to power-seeking assholes.

Leaving aside the media hype and partisan politics for a moment, the term genocide does have a clear legal definition, and most western nations have formally signed up to it. There are also clear mechanisms for describing actions as genocide. Two in particular are currently the subject of international court deliberations. Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and UK have teamed up to join the genocide case over Myanmar's treatment of the Muslim Rohingya minority; South Africa has brought a case against the Israeli treatment of people in Gaza, publicly welcomed by Turkey, Malaysia, Maldives, Bolivia, Pakistan, Namibia, Colombia, Brazil and a number of international organisations such as the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Countries, although most western nations have not supported that one. If the courts decide that it is genocide, international signatories are obliged to take action.

There is still a way to stop Donald Trump – but time is running out (Guardian)

No Republican can out-Trump Trump. Opponents need to target his flaws: a bloody insurrection and a record of broken promises...

> 66

Precisely. Thus, we must put the Palestine situation on the back-burner.

If the U.S. of A. falls into the Hell of tRumpian dictatorship and overt insanity then what will be the future of the Middle East,
not to mention the rest of the world?

This is not the time to fart around. Go ahead and criticize and even hate Joe Biden and the ruling assholes in Israel and
whatever else you desire. But electing Joe Biden is Priority One for all who are sane, aware of the danger present and
will not be distracted by whatever does not Directly affect our short tern survival. Without short term survival there will
be NO long term survival. Game fucking Over.

What about "Game fucking Over" do any of the geniuses on this thread not understand? What about all this is Not Logic 101?

tRump winning the election is the existential equivalent of the Allies having Lost WWII.

Christ Fucking Jesus - Am I drilling through the concrete - at all?

- - - - BTW, Netanyahu was elected head of Israel with about 23 per cent of the vote (Shit like that happens when the sane split their vote.).

DeSantis dropped out and endorsed Trump, today.

Nikki will be toast before the February primary in SC because she can no longer win in the state she once governed.

The GOP is one of the decaying entities Trump owns.

The question of our time.

Velshi on MSNBC:
Nine Supreme Court Justices are being called upon to save democracy - can they do it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM_tHUQB9fc
Interviewing Kermit Roosevelt III, author of The Nation That Never Was (of all people).

A bit of a bizarre and contradictory confluence here, though. How ironic that (1) we are actually depending here on a bona fide originalist ruling from SCOTUS, while the interviewee's book seems to be warning against the dangers of originalism -- a rather difficult knot to resolve, unless I'm missing something; and, (2) the interviewee's father was the architect of the coup to install the Shah, the consequences of which have been at root of so many of our geopolitical woes.

Nikki was treated very badly by the majority of dudes in the GOP the last several days. She should leave the cult and run a third-party candidacy this year.

Young women are becoming more liberal:

Graph, Business Insider, Gallup Poll 1998-2023
https://twitter.com/SMTuffy/status/1749790828656988656/photo/1

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a Democrat turned Independent sleeper candidate who can win the 2024 election.

Kennedy name, down the middle, straight shooter on key topics, actually cares deeply about preventing corruption, exposing corporate capture and improving health of Americans.

Some of his best books:

A Letter to Liberals: Censorship and COVID: An Attack on Science and American Ideals
https://www.amazon.ca/Letter-Liberals-Censorship-Science-American/dp/1510775587/...

The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health
https://www.amazon.ca/Real-Anthony-Fauci-Pharma-Democracy/dp/1510766804/ref=sr_1...

The Wuhan Cover-Up: And the Terrifying Bioweapons Arms Race
https://www.amazon.ca/Wuhan-Cover-Up-Officials-Conspired-Military/dp/1510773983

If you haven't heard of him, I hope you actually take the time to read his books, or at least watch his announcement speech for presidency and why he is running, or his speech while declaring as an independent. If you have heard of him, I'm sure you have seen headlines by MSM slandering him as anti-vaxxer, conspiracy theorist, anti-semetic, etc. I hope those who have just read headlines and not actually listened to the words he is saying or writing, to give him a listen. I recommend starting with his announcement speech and his declaration as an independent candidate.

2024 Presidential Bid Announcement
https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=VVLd3g82ZNw

Independent Candidate Announcement
https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=f-K-C-m8zUY

>72 wolfgang.smith: Sigh. If you want us to vote for Trump, why not just make your case for Trump instead of trying to be clever about it?

>73 kiparsky: I think the argument that a vote for someone is a vote for someone else is flawed. I think you should vote for who you believe in, not against who you hate the most. That's how we end up in the current situation over and over again. If everyone voted for someone they actually want in office rather than fear of what the final result will be based on everyone else's votes, I think we would live in a different world. The question for polling should also be who do you think should be president of the United States out of all of the candidates, rather than who would you vote for today? It just creates a panic of two sides of oh no I need to vote against this person now. I think if the polling questions change the people who we actually vote for changes and the results change as well. I vote for who I believe in and sleep well at night, rather than voting for a person I do not believe in to prevent another person from getting in.

>74 wolfgang.smith: Yeah, I heard that in 2000, when Nader gave us Bush Junior.

Be that as it may, there isn't much of a case for Kennedy, is there? After all, it's not like he's got any relevant experience or qualifications. What's he done with his life besides lying about vaccines?

FactChecking Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Jessica McDonald | August 9, 2023

...Kennedy, who is also an environmental activist and lawyer, has been opposed to vaccines since at least 2005, when he published an error-laden story in Rolling Stone and Salon that pushed the false notion that certain vaccine ingredients cause autism. The publications later retracted or withdrew the story.

In many ways, Kennedy has not moved on. Today, he still refers to things he wrote in the article to bolster his bogus arguments against vaccines, even though he was wrong then and nearly two decades of additional research has continued to bear that out. Kennedy insists he’s not “anti-vaccine,” but many of his debunked arguments are straight from the anti-vaccine playbook, which he and his nonprofit have helped write.

Kennedy also played a part in one of the worst measles outbreaks in recent memory. In 2018, two infants in American Samoa died when nurses accidentally prepared the combined measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine with expired muscle relaxant rather than water. The Samoan government temporarily suspended the vaccination program, and anti-vaccine advocates — including Kennedy and his nonprofit — flooded the area with misinformation. The vaccination rate dropped to a dangerously low level. The next year, when a traveler brought measles to the islands, the disease tore through the population, sickening more than 5,700 people and killing 83, most of them young children.

...But Kennedy’s unorthodox views aren’t limited to vaccines. He’s suggested that certain antidepressants are behind the rise in school shootings and that a particular herbicide might be part of why more young people are identifying as transgender, neither of which is backed by any science. And he’s stated that Wi-Fi radiation and 5G are dangerous and cause cancer, despite no good evidence that they do.

Kennedy also promotes conspiracy theories...

False Claim About Vaccine Testing
Hepatitis B Vaccine
Distorted, Illogical Historical Argument About Vaccination
‘Lazarus Study’ and Alleged ‘Vaccine Injuries’
Misleading Claim About the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act

https://www.factcheck.org/2023/08/scicheck-factchecking-robert-f-kennedy-jr/
------------------------------------------------

How RFK Jr. Brought In More Than $9 Million Over The Past 18 Months
Chase Peterson-Withorn | 1 July 2023
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2023/07/01/how-rfk-jr-brought-in-more-...

It is very discouraging to see how unconcerned many men appear to be about a second Trump term. I suspect not losing a right they had for 50 years accounts for their stupidity.

Nikki HAS to stay in the race. Trump is getting closer to imploding every day. Nikki is going to be in a position to save the modern-day GOP from its decade of self-inflicted wounds.

>77 Molly3028: Quite honestly, I don't see how any man that has a wife, daughter, daughter-in-laws, or just a shred of human decency and compassion, isn't hugely concerned about ALL current Republican candidates, but especially Trump. The Republican party as a whole is shredding all semblance of equality, especially gender equality, in this country, as well access to needed healthcare. I can say that, as a father to two wonderful young women, it is completely terrifying.

I am so angry right now that, in the last 50 years, no one (meaning Democrats, because we all know that Republicans would never do so) passed legislative protection for women's healthcare rights. Roe v. Wade should have never been left as just a court decision. I'm not saying that having legislation would have been enough, but it would have at least shown that the Democratic party understood the risks.

This doesn't mean I'm not voting a straight Democratic ticket -- I am angry at the Democratic party, and the DNC, but I'm also NOT stupid. Progressive votes in the primaries where possible, then straight party ticket in the election.

>78 Molly3028: NBC news reported this statement from Haley's Presidential campaign site on Dec. 20, 2023.....just a little over a month ago.

'Nikki is 100% pro-life. As President, she will bring people together to save as many babies as possible. She believes she can best accomplish that goal by working to find consensus at the national level and humanizing the issue instead of demonizing it' which how I'm parsing it sounds kind of anti-choice to me....kind of like we're willing to listen to everybody but we've kind of already made up our mind. But her campaign statement like other actions on her part over her career might leave some people kind of confused where she really is on the issue.

As far as the ongoing genocide by Israel in Gaza she is as rabidly bloodthirsty as any of the other current candidates. So I don't look at her as more of a moral actor or not any more so than Trump or Biden.....and I don't believe she gives a shit about Roe being repealed. I think she's with her party on that. So if Roe is your main issue you'd be best off sticking with Biden. That said even after the Dobbs decision I don't see a whole lot of planning or movement from the Democrats or Biden to one day codify abortion rights so it looks to me like it's going to be a game going back and forth for a while. What it comes down to is jerks and assclowns in both parties.

>77 Molly3028: I am very concerned about a second Trump term, that's why I am very concerned about any movement to split the Democratic vote, particularly a movement that is clearly a Republican-party front group.

Sorry, but I can see nothing good in a movement which is based on the idea that the most effective president in the last century is somehow not fit to fill a second term - and that's really the only thing that No Labels is trading on.

>78 Molly3028: Trump is getting closer to imploding every day.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. I don't see any reason to think that Trump will not be the Republican nominee. Is there something I'm missing?

>80 lriley: I agree, I don't see any way in which a Haley presidency would be an improvement on a Trump presidency.

>83 kiparsky: it's certainly a nicer face. I don't think she'd say nearly as much absolutely bonkers crap that comes regularly out of Donald's mouth on a daily basis. That's another reason she has no chance. I think Donald is entertainment for a lot of his supporters. She's not really entertaining at all. Outward appearance with Haley for sure would be a whole lot better. Only something of a crank. But as far as the reality of what she wants to do we can expect something maybe negligibly better or almost not even worth it.

The abortion thing is the thing that makes me most hedge. That said the establishment part of the Democratic Party is as much why this is a problem because when they have had chances to codify Roe (and they have had chances) they didn't do it. And Joe is an establishment figure. We can ask why why why? and I'm pretty sure you won't get a good answer from him or many of the others either. This crap that when interviewing prospective conservative Supreme Court candidates---'they promised to leave Roe alone' is just pathetic to my eyes. 'They lied to us!' I mean what the hell.

This will be interesting.
Jon Stewart To Return As 'The Daily Show' Host
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSD7Wh1iyws

Only Mondays, and for the election cycle.
Hugely important to have him back -- if only to play us out.

>82 kiparsky:

Trump is getting very agitated during his public appearances. He fails to read the teleprompter presentations written for him, and he takes off on meandering streams which emphasize his inability to think and speak normally. He appears to be on a downward spiral.

>86 Molly3028: Well, it's a long spiral. He's been doing that since 2016. I mean, be honest, you'd search a long time trying to find an example of a coherent sentence from that guy, but it doesn't seem to have cost him any voters.
I don't think this is new news, and I don't think it's likely to affect his chances at all. What might affect his chances would be the addition of an alternative that isn't his actual opponent in the election, which as we've seen, will not get that alternative elected to anything, but can take enough votes from the correct choice to cost us the election. In 2000, this caused two wars and ended up putting Samuel Alito - author of the Dobbs decision - on the Supreme Court.

People have to decide what's important for them. I get that some really don't care all that much what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians. Also that loads of people think it's justified. Lots of people get all their news from the 24-7 news cycle of mainstream television. They'll never know any better. That's probably good for them to be more casual observers. Fears over the abortion issue are legitimate or that we're heading towards a fascist state. A difference for me to some is that I think we're getting slow walked there by the democrats as well. I'm not voting for Biden. Come November the way things have been going I'm expecting the 25,000 official deaths in Palestine might be well past 100. It's not just going to be those murdered by the IDF but Israel's starvation and disease campaign is going to kick in and probably pretty soon. Biden's unfettered support for this puts blood on our hands. As well there is a pretty decent chance he's going to get us into a regional war over this bs. Would Trump do the same? Probably....but I'm not supporting any of this shit. To me all these people can go to hell.

>83 kiparsky: I may not agree with her priorities, but I think, compared to Trump, Haley would at least be guided by the Constitution and democratic norms, e.g. she would accept legitimate defeat? she wouldn't weaponize the Justice Dept., etc.?

>88 lriley:

Fair comment. But sometimes it's just about picking the least bad of two bad options in order to create a window of opportunity for positive change. A Biden presidency might at least leave that window open, whereas a Trump presidency would likely shut it down for some considerable time to come.

>87 kiparsky:

He is unraveling at a very fast pace, now. He made close to 40 posts about E. Jean within a 20-minute period overnight. He is most likely losing a lot of sleep time. His MAGA base is deep, but it is not very wide. We have time on our side ~ the general is 9-plus months from now.

>91 Molly3028: Trump has court appearance today? Expect dishevelment? Incoherence? Adderall in breast pocket? (He looked pretty bad the other day leaving court...)

>91 Molly3028: I agree that he's in bad shape, but again, nothing about this is new. He's been an incoherent stammering wreck from Day 1, and I think it's safe to say that his base absolutely adores this. Now, as this becomes more visible, he's likely to drive off some moderate voters, but that's going to do no good at all if they vote for whatever nonentity No Labels puts on the ballot.

Never forget Florida 2000. He gave us Dobbs. Do we want another go at that?

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/rnc-reportedly-reviewing-a-resolution-to-declare-...
RNC Reportedly Reviewing a Resolution to Declare Trump the Party’s Presumptive Nominee Despite Only Two States Voting

***
Next will come a proclamation to make him prez for life. The MAGA RNC is on a mission to hijack our democracy before the November voting starts.

We must start urgently talking about the dangers of a second Trump presidency (Guardian)

It’s time – past time, really – to sweep away any remaining delusions about the viability of a more moderate Republican challenger or what a second Trump term would bring. Now the question isn’t who’s running but whether American democracy will endure. To put it bluntly, not if Trump is elected. He’s already told us, many times over – and in abundantly clear terms – what he will do with a second term: He’ll prosecute his perceived enemies with the full power of the government. He’ll call out the military to put down citizen protest. He’ll never allow a fair election again... Do Americans really want to live in a fascist or authoritarian nation? Some may believe it will work out just fine – that the loss of freedom may hurt others, but not them – but most of us don’t want that. Or we wouldn’t if we were fully aware of the consequences... “a press built for the horse race keeps touting a path that never existed when it should be retooling itself to cover a rapidly mutating fascism”. Is such a retooling really possible? Of course it is. The fact that many newsrooms now have democracy teams or democracy reporters suggests that they understand the problem to some extent. But they need to get much more urgent about it... What about regular citizens? Perhaps most importantly, they need to stop tuning out. They shouldn’t throw up their hands and decide not to care about politics or the future of the country. “People need to pay attention to the exhaustion they feel and know that it is a symptom of acquiescence and adaptation”... exhaustion is part of the strongman’s playbook. Trump creates chaos, and we grow tired of it. Weary of the relentless flow of bad news, the dire warnings, the anxiety, we retreat into our personal lives or our political bubbles...

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/foxs-jacqui-heinrich-gop-flip-flop-on-historic-borde...
Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich: GOP ‘Flip Flop’ on Historic Border Deal Plays into Biden Narrative Republicans Are ‘Not Serious’

***
The Senate and House leaders caved to please Trump! The GDP third-quarter news blew up the GOP's economic talking points. Flipping on the border deal was its go-to alternative.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/cnbcs-sorkin-confronts-trump-megadonor-over-remark...
CNBC’s Sorkin Confronts Trump Megadonor Over ‘Remarkable’ Parade Of Ex-Trump Officials Slamming Him

CNBC ~ 1-26 ~ Squawk Box ~ Hal Lambert

***
The elite super-rich stick together come hell or high water. Reality-denial is their on-going mission.

He’s beaten his Republican rivals and is ahead in the polls. But Trump is vulnerable (Guardian)

In New Hampshire, Trump’s win over Haley was assured by his three-to-one lead among registered Republicans. His overall margin narrowed because she beat him convincingly among undeclared or independent voters, who under New Hampshire’s rules are allowed to take part in a party primary. I spoke to dozens of them, and few were motivated by admiration for the former US ambassador to the UN. On the contrary, their driving purpose was to stop “that man”, many expressing plain disgust for Trump. In the race for his party’s nomination, those views were easily swept aside by the Maga, or Make America Great Again, majority. But in a general election, independents can make the difference between victory and defeat. That they so heavily rejected Trump – 58% backing Haley – spells trouble for the former president. Those are voters Biden should be able to win over, but there are seams to mine among dissident Republicans too. In New Hampshire, about 25% of them could not stomach voting for Trump. Even if most Republicans eventually fall in line, it would take only a small slice to defect to Biden or stay home to deny Trump a second term. That may not be so hard to achieve. For the presumptive nominee remains as repellent as ever...

"I think if Democrats were holding up funding for the defense of three allies unless we got an unrelated thing, and then we said no to the very thing we demanded because our nominee told us to kill it, that the media would justifiably go thermonuclear on us."

- Brian Schatz @brianschatz | 9:01 PM · Jan 27, 2024
United States Senator from Hawaii. Dad. Climate Hawk. Chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Chief Deputy Whip.
----------------------------------------------------------

McConnell says immigration talks in ‘quandary’ as Trump lobbies Congress to kill deal
Manu Raju, Lauren Fox and Ted Barrett | January 25, 2024

Former President Donald Trump’s push to kill a bipartisan immigration deal may now derail a major national security package, forcing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to suggest a new course of action and endangering aid to Ukraine and Israel {and Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan} in the process.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/24/politics/mcconnell-senate-gop-border-ukraine-pack...
---------------------------------------------------------

margd: just a preview of a second Trump presidency and R Congress...
---------------------------------------------------------

ETA:
Acyn @Acyn | 5:26 PM · Jan 27, 2024:

Trump praises Speaker Johnson for blocking border security and adds “this is the single greatest threat to our country right now is the people pouring into our country”

0:34 ( https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1751371041723633880 )

Not a fan of Liz Cheney but kudos to her for helping out Elise Stefanik by retrieving what must have been her mistakenly deleted twitter post on Jan 6 2021 condemning all who led and took part in the Capital attack. I'm sure Elise will be grateful to have that so that future researchers and biographers will know what an honest and upright citizen politician she's been. Eventually one will have one's legacy to think about.

To beat Trump, we need to know why Americans keep voting for him. Psychologists may have the answer
George Monbiot |29 Jan 2024

...Some psychologists believe our values tend to cluster around certain poles, described as “intrinsic” and “extrinsic”. People with a strong set of intrinsic values are inclined towards empathy, intimacy and self-acceptance. They tend to be open to challenge and change, interested in universal rights and equality, and protective of other people and the living world.

People at the extrinsic end of the spectrum are more attracted to prestige, status, image, fame, power and wealth. They are strongly motivated by the prospect of individual reward and praise. They are more likely to objectify and exploit other people, to behave rudely and aggressively and to dismiss social and environmental impacts. They have little interest in cooperation or community. People with a strong set of extrinsic values are more likely to suffer from frustration, dissatisfaction, stress, anxiety, anger and compulsive behaviour.

...We talk about society’s rightward journey. We talk about polarisation and division. We talk about isolation and the mental health crisis. But what underlies these trends is a shift in values. This is the cause of many of our dysfunctions; the rest are symptoms.

When a society valorises status, money, power and dominance, it is bound to generate frustration. It is mathematically impossible for everyone to be number one. The more the economic elites grab, the more everyone else must lose. Someone must be blamed for the ensuing disappointment. In a culture that worships winners, it can’t be them. It must be those evil people pursuing a kinder world, in which wealth is distributed, no one is forgotten and communities and the living planet are protected. Those who have developed a strong set of extrinsic values will vote for the person who represents them, the person who has what they want. Trump. And where the US goes, the rest of us follow...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/29/donald-trump-americans-us-...

Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ tribelaw | 3:53 PM · Jan 31, 2024:

Here’s the SCOTUS brief of Colorado’s Secretary of State urging affirmance of the state supreme court’s decision disqualifying Trump {59 p}:

https://supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-719/299372/20240131133707445_23-719%20G...

Gender gap expands between Biden and Trump, new poll shows
Christine Zhu | January 31, 2024

Biden holds a slight lead over Trump in Wednesday’s 2024 presidential election poll, 50 percent to 44 percent. The same matchup was “too close to call” just a month ago.

...“The gender demographic tells a story to keep an eye on," Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a statement. "Propelled by female voters {58%} in just the past few weeks, the head-to-head tie with Trump morphs into a modest lead for Biden."

...Haley would do better than Trump in a general election, with 47 percent of respondents supporting Haley and 42 percent supporting Biden.

...53 percent {independents} saying they’d vote for her. Another 37 percent would back Biden. In the same poll, 52 percent of independents said they’d support Biden over Trump, who’d have the support of 40 percent of respondents.

“In a head-to-head matchup against Biden, Haley outperforms Trump, thanks to independents,” Malloy said. “Add third party candidates to the mix and her numbers slip in part because of her weakness among Republicans.”...

Politico via https://www.yahoo.com/news/gender-gap-expands-between-biden-211017112.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/02/pentagon-to-maga-world-you-need-to-calm...
Pentagon to MAGA world: You need to calm down over Taylor Swift

“The absurdity of it all boggles the mind,” said one senior administration official.

***
TS working 24/7 this year on a voting registration mission for young people who turned 18 between 1/6/21 and the election registration dates this year could make a big difference in the final outcome in November. That would be especially true of young females who understand their gender lost a right it had for 50 long years.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-accused-decapitating-father-national-guard/story?i...
Man accused of decapitating father allegedly wanted to mobilize National Guard against federal government

Justin Mohn, 32, was arrested inside a military installation.

"The defendant stated he went to Fort Indiantown Gap in an effort to mobilize the PA National Guard to raise arms against the federal government," Schorn said.

***
It appears QAnon/pro-Trump members plan to act out in a big way this election year.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/maddow-sounds-alarm-on-death-of-two-party-syst...
Maddow Sounds Alarm On Death of Two-Party System: The Republican Party ‘Is Dissolving Itself’ For Trump

So to recap, it’s a political party with no party platform, no normal nominating process for its nominees, no primary debates, and no general election debates. They’re just coming off the worst back-to-back electoral performance by any party since before Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And it’s all because it’s what Trump wants.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/matt-gaetz-endorses-mortal-enemy-kevin-mccarthy-fo...
Matt Gaetz Endorses Mortal Enemy Kevin McCarthy for RNC Chair: ‘Kevin Would Be Terrific’

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), the right-wing firebrand who led the coup against former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy last fall, endorsed McCarthy for the position of Republican National Committee chairman in a backhanded statement on X Tuesday.

***
The carcass of the modern-day GOP continues to rot this election year.

DEM WAKEUP CALL AND GAME CHANGER

https://www.mediaite.com/biden/elderly-man-with-a-poor-memory-devastating-doj-re...
‘Elderly Man with a Poor Memory’: Devastating DOJ Report Says Biden ‘Did Not Remember When He Was Vice President’ and ‘When His Son Died’

>108 Molly3028: So, are we finally going to stop pretending now?

>109 davidgn:

Today, Biden's DOJ had to do the right thing for the country. Ditto for the Trump administration people who had to do the right thing when they were called on to testify during the 1/6 Committee investigation.

>110 Molly3028: I mean about Biden's mental status. A vote for him is, at best, a vote for his inevitable replacement. https://www.youtube.com/live/h4w3Icygy8Q?si=fCmAGurDGyDA5Czp&t=930

>111 davidgn:

Evidently, Biden was hoping he could remain a viable candidate until after Trump was found CRIMINALLY guilty during one of his trials. Unfortunately, the sand in the egg timer has moved down faster than expected.

>111 davidgn: It's funny to me that I keep hearing from people about Biden's "mental status", but not so much about the fact that he's got more done than the last three Democratic presidents, combined.

I mean, if this is "declining", I'll take another slice, no question.

>108 Molly3028: Biden responds to these claims at a press conference this evening. He sounds fine to me.

>114 2wonderY:

Unfortunately, Biden confused Mexico and Egypt during that presser. That was the third or fourth goof this week, so far!

Anyone who has followed those in the Senate or House for any length of time know Biden has a history of making gaffes going way way back. Just saying. That said I do think there is some cognitive decline.....same with Trump and that was apparent with both even before the 2020 election so here we are 4 years later. Again just saying. Most people don't follow politics that hard though and for quite a lot of people it's like the Biden they know now is the same as he must always been or he appeared out of nowhere 4 years ago or maybe when he was Obama's VP....like who is this guy? but he has a long long history and when I hear republicans calling him a socialist or a lefty it's like ha, ha, ha.....you don't know shit about this guy at all. He's always been to the right of his party....someone who was more than ready to break bread with republicans but also very much part of the Democratic Party establishment......so some of the positive things that have happened during his presidency have come as quite a surprise because they're not very reflective of his history in politics.

You don't have to be a genius to become a major political player. What helps more than anything else is money and the right friends. Both Trump and Biden speak to that.

>116 lriley: The trouble is, Larry, that he seems to lack any mental flexibility to respond to the world as it is, rather than as it always has been. Actual leadership is needed here, not just a steady dead hand on the tiller.

Today's DOJ report about Biden is spiking 25th Amendment talk by the far right. Dems are saying this is Comey 2.0.

>117 davidgn: Oh I agree. Biden is hardly functional at this point. When he goes before the public it's like he has to be pushed to the dais. You didn't see Biden really campaigning in 2020 and you don't see him now because he's an accident waiting to happen. In a small room with a warm and friendly crowd is about what he can do. The way I looked at things before Oct. 7 is I would vote for almost anything that could still breathe to keep Trump out of his White House because Donald is an existential threat to our democracy and way of life and he still is. But since Oct. 7 it's become clear that to keep on with that strategy is to trade in my integrity.....to go back on things I deeply believe in. I never liked Biden in the first place. I've said it a bunch of times here. As well I've said a lot of times here that the reason Biden is in the White House wasn't because he earned the democratic nomination in 2020 it was because the establishment part of the Democratic Party fearing that Sanders would win the nomination and led by Obama and James Clyburn (who at the same time had sold out the South Carolina district 1 to South Carolina state Republicans so as to more deeply entrench his own district to himself) decided to give it to Biden who up until that time had lost badly in every primary up until then....he was running behind everyone and again he wasn't out there working for votes because of being an accident waiting to happen.......and here we are 4 years later and he and Trump who himself has lost it even more are 4 years older. He was the candidate with the chance to beat Trump that's the only reason I voted for him last time. It wasn't because I liked him or even thought he was worthy. Now he and his administration have so much blood on their hands and the likelihood for a lot more. I'm anti-war. I'm not for that. Our only justification to my mind is to protect the homeland from an invading military and that's it.

I get the fear of Trump but dropping 2000 lb. bombs on civilians, women, children, hospitals....destroying schools and universities, deliberately starving a civilian population out of some misplaced loyalty to this idiotic idea of a country defending itself when instead it's a country run by right wingers bent on genocide and being on the wrong side of that. That's way too much. Not for me.

Interesting timing for Special Counsel to release Biden doc investigationreport with its dismissive assessment of Candidate Biden: on the same day, Supreme Court justices fell all over themselves to protect Trump from 14th Amendment, an embarrassing moment for them, IMHO. (Thomas did not recuse himself, BTW!) This morning news media focussed on Biden age rather than Trump aid & comfort to insurrection and USSC's apparent inclination to protect him from Constitutional penalty.

Likewise interesting to recall AG Comey announcement re 2016 Candidate Hillary Clinton's handling of e-mail?

Both Hur and Comey were Republicans? Both assessments of Dem presidential candidates were not required?
----------------------------------------------

Marshall Herskovitz - @mshersk somewhere else @MHerskovitz | 12:30 AM · Feb 9, 2024:
Writer, producer, director - thirtysomething, Last Samurai, My So-Called Life, Dangerous Beauty.

A prosecutor casting aspersions, or even commenting, on someone who will not be charged is an affront to basic fairness. Hur's remarks were outrageous, as were Comey's about Clinton.
This has nothing to do with Biden's fitness. It's about a lack of prosecutorial integrity.

Quote
Mimi Rocah @Mimirocah1 | 12:30 AM · Feb 9, 2024:
Former fed prosecutor, legal commentator...DA for Westchester NY.·

Once Hur said “the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” he should have stopped. Why is he opining on Biden’s mental state now or in 2024 or 2029? His memory now & those years isn’t relevant to his intent at the time of the crime being investigated. Totally gratuitous.

>120 margd: Absolutely correct. It's not at all appropriate. But just because the enemy camp says something doesn't mean it's automatically false. Something that very few people seem willing to credit in our age of Manichean information warfare.

24 hours later

Dem reps, Biden administration folks and Dem partisan hacks do not seem to appreciate how very, very bad the upcoming Biden election poll numbers are most likely to be. Sadly, the denying-reality fever has been spreading like a wildfire since yesterday afternoon. This episode brings to mind the final sentences in the Great Gatsby novel.

>121 davidgn: Hur's not qualified to judge cognitive condition either. For example, I remember only a few dates myself: to come up with year my mom died, I add her age to year she was born. Which isn't to say I don't wish Biden was younger. Still he's honest & capable, he has capable people, and as a second term president thinking about his legacy, he might just do something about climate change which will shortly kill more people than these regrettable wars.

The world is watching in horror as two elderly gents take part in a childish last-man-standing duel sponsored by two out-of-touch political parties.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/that-is-crazy-cnns-smerconish-shocked-at-vegas...
‘That Is Crazy!’ CNN’s Smerconish Shocked At Vegas Odds On Michelle Obama To Win Presidency

***
Apparently, keeping an eye on MO is becoming a national pastime for a growing number of people!

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/wheres-her-husband-trump-lashes-out-at-nikki-haleys-...
‘Where’s Her Husband?’ Trump Lashes Out At Nikki Haley’s Spouse During South Carolina Rally

Haley’s spouse, Maj. Michael Haley, is currently serving on a yearlong deployment in Africa as a National Guardsman, according to The New York Times.

Donald Trump says he would encourage Russia to attack Nato allies who pay too little (Guardian)

Seeking a second presidency as the Republicans’ presumptive 2024 White House nominee, Donald Trump has said he would “encourage” Russia to attack any of the US’s Nato allies whom he considers to have not met their financial obligations. The White House described the remarks as “appalling and unhinged”...

https://www.mediaite.com/entertainment/trump-goes-right-after-taylor-swift-takes...
Trump Goes Right After Taylor Swift, Takes Credit for Making Her ‘So Much Money’ and Says She Would Be ‘Disloyal’ if She Endorsed Biden

***
Mr. Sicko has put a bullseye on TS's back!
She must encourage people to register NOW and vote diligently in November.

Nato chief says Trump remarks may put US and EU lives at risk (Guardian

The Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, has said any attack on the western military alliance would be met with a “united and forceful response”, after Donald Trump invited Russia to attack member countries that he perceived as not meeting their financial obligations. Stoltenberg said in a statement: “Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk. I expect that regardless of who wins the presidential election, the US will remain a strong and committed Nato ally.” He said Nato remained “ready and able to defend all allies”...

If there are any US voters still feeling other than enthusiastic about voting for Biden this year, you might want to take a read of this article in the American Prospect and see if that motivates you to find a bit of enthusiasm somewhere.

https://prospect.org/politics/2023-11-27-far-right-blueprint-america/

Laurence O'Donnell on MSNBC
2-12-2024

Biden on his worst day is better than Trump on his best day!

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/jon-stewart-ignites-liberal-viewers-aghast-hed...
Jon Stewart Angers Liberal Viewers By Criticizing Biden: ‘Racist Conspiracy Theory Nuts LOVED It!’

***
Jon nailed Biden AND Trump during his first election-year show. Jon's take on the horrendous situation highlights why people around the world continue to be horrified on a daily basis.

>130 kiparsky: meanwhile the Democratic Party targets Justice Democrats who have been among the few to speak out from the beginning against Israel's apartheid regime and their war crimes against Palestinian civilians. To be clear though my not voting in NYS doesn't mean shit and I fully realize that. If Biden however loses Michigan that's on him. I wouldn't expect someone who has lost family members or seen them maimed because of the fucked up foreign policy of Biden and his state department over this to vote for him or encourage anyone else to....would you? There are lots of Muslims and Arab people in Michigan and New Jersey (just for two states) who have lost family members. Quite probably Trump would be even worse but let's not deflect here......if you don't own what you do then you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. To hide behind 'thoughts and prayers' or that 'we told them not to be so mean' (which amounts to the same thing) doesn't cut it and especially when we (as in the United States, not either of us specifically) keep on sending them bombs. And this latest $90 some billion bill that just passed in the Senate has language in it that prohibits us from asking Israel how they use the further war material we're going to send them. They don't want us to see or to know. As well the small amount of $'s to aid the Palestinians is prohibited from being administered by UNWRA. So who does administer it? the Israeli govt?

>133 lriley: bill that just passed in the Senate has language in it that prohibits us from asking Israel how they use the further war material we're going to send them

Which appears to breach the USA's own rules as reported by BBC: US orders 'assurances' from nations receiving American weapons:

US President Joe Biden has said that countries receiving American weapons must adhere to international law in a memorandum issued on Thursday night. The executive order requires foreign governments receiving military aid to provide written assurances that they are abiding by the laws of war. The move comes after the president admitted Israel had gone "over the top" in its response in Gaza. Since 1950, Israel has received more US military aid than any other nation. In the memorandum, President Biden said that "credible and reliable written assurances" must be provided to the US by foreign governments that receive American weapons to ensure they are used in accordance with international law. As part of this, foreign governments must also provide assurances that US humanitarian aid is being delivered to civilian populations caught in a conflict. The memorandum requires this information be shared with Congress periodically, as well as the US president. All 100 countries receiving US weapons must sign the assurances in the next 180 days. But those involved in active conflicts, including Israel, have just 45 days to reply to the order...

>133 lriley: I wouldn't expect someone who has lost family members or seen them maimed because of the fucked up foreign policy of Biden and his state department over this to vote for him or encourage anyone else to....would you?

Well, that depends on whether they think Trump will be better for the Palestinians. In my opinion, anyone telling them that that is the case is at best a fool and at worst a liar.

Let's bear in mind that one of those two men will be elected. The choice is not between Trump, Biden, and some magical savior who will somehow be everyone's perfect candidate, the choice is between Biden and Trump, period. If Trump wins, your ideological purity is not going to be a lot of help to you or to anyone, least of all the Palestinians - wherever they end up.

>135 kiparsky: FWIW I sacrificed ideological purity to vote for Biden last time. The past number of years I've listened in to all kinds of shit from normie democrats who refer to likeminded or somewhat likeminded sharing similar values that I'm a left wing extremist equatable in their eyes to right wing extremists like say aryan nations assholes or ku klux klanners who mostly are on the Trump bandwagon. Among my sins are anti-capitalism, anti-American exceptionalism. Mea Culpa. Why can't people like me be just like them part of the team? and this isn't something just about this election or even the last election.....it's been going on for a long while. So I don't know what to tell you.....you think something....see injustice say and it's not really acceptable for the bulk of liberal do-gooders. They don't see it or don't want to. I'm the nut. It's okay. It's life I suppose....can't please everyone....

.

>136 lriley: The only person you need to please is yourself, in the end. If you can look at your choice seriously, and decide that it was the right choice, then I suppose you've done that.
If there are two outcomes, A and B, and A is far worse than B (on the preference set that you have determined matters for you) then I would think that it would be important to you to do what you can reasonably can do to ensure that the outcome is not A, which is to say, to ensure that the outcome is B. If you do not this, then you cannot be pleased with your actions, because you will have a preference set that demands B rather than A, but you will not have taken action to ensure that B is the outcome.

So, I'm going to say that if you want to please the person who matters to you, which I assume is yourself, and if you believe that a Biden outcome will be preferable overall to a Trump outcome, then the way to ensure that you've pleased everyone who matters (a set which does not include me!) is to determine what you can do to ensure a Biden victory, and to do those things.

Doing this would not imply that you think Biden is a good person, or good statesman, it would not even imply that you think Biden should be president at all. It only implies the one important thing, which is that of the two available options (and there are exactly two at this point - this might change, but so far it hasn't) a second Biden term is preferable to a second Trump term.

Reviewing this argument, please notice that I have not cast any aspersions on your character or assigned any motivations to you or equated you with any evil actors. I've outlined a decision procedure that is simple and easily applicable to your situation, and which allows your preference set to dominate, and leads to a pretty simple conclusion, which is, if you believe that a Trump presidency will be significantly worse than a Biden presidency, on the issues that matter most to you, then you will be most pleased (or, equivalently, least displeased) if you work to ensure a Biden presidency.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/peggy-noonan-bluntly-makes-the-case-for-biden-...
Peggy Noonan Bluntly Makes the Case For Biden to Drop Out: Be a ‘Hero’ or Be ‘Ruth Bader Biden’

“If Mr. Biden steps aside, sacrificing all vanity and need, he is a hero to his party forever. If he stays and loses, he’s Ruth Bader Biden. They’ll never forgive him. His legacy is the second Trump term,” Noonan writes, pulling no punches in offering Biden her take on the historic moment he faces.

> 137

You are correct.

My record of prognostications regarding pass elections is far from perfect but I just can't believe third party vote will have any more effect this Nov. than it did in 2020. So - energy spent "communicating" with Iriley-types would be better spent just encouraging the get-out-the-vote effort.

Bill Maher just joked that if the choice for President in Nov. were between tRump and Joe Biden's head in a jar of liquid (a la Futurama) he would vote for Biden's head. I agree.

THAT'S the message we the sane need to keep pounding away on. Our country's existence as a quasi-democracy is in jeopardy (not to mention the overweening threat to western civilization).

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/18/politics/liz-cheney-navalny-putin-gop-cnntv/index...
Cheney warns of Republican Party ‘Putin-wing’ after Navalny death

“We have to take seriously the extent to which you’ve now got a Putin-wing of the Republican Party. I believe the issue this election cycle is making sure that the Putin-wing of the Republican Party does not take over the West Wing of the White House,” Cheney told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-somehow-ties-navalny-death-to-his-own-legal...
Trump Somehow Ties Navalny Death to His Own Legal Woes Minutes After Nikki Haley Blasts Him For Protecting Putin on Fox

The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction. Open Borders, Rigged Elections, and Grossly Unfair Courtroom Decisions are DESTROYING AMERICA. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION! MAGA2024.

***
As Biden apparently said, Trump is a sick f*ck. And Liz Cheney is right about the Putin wing of the GOP.

Voters feel better about the economy. Will it help Biden? (BBC)

Even as the American economy's booming emergence from the pandemic drew envy abroad, opinions at home remained starkly negative. Now there are signs that may be changing, as petrol prices fall back towards $3 a gallon nationally and wages get closer to catching up with price rises. Economic sentiment - what some pollsters describe as the "vibe" that people feel around the economy - has improved in business surveys in recent months... The White House hopes the change in mood will last and shore up support for the president as the election approaches in November - especially in crucial swing states like Pennsylvania. But that's far from guaranteed. The president's approval ratings are hovering around the lowest levels of his term, hit by concerns over immigration, his age and the war in Gaza. And despite the positive signs, overall economic sentiment has yet to recover from the beating it took during the pandemic, despite solid growth and a historic streak of unemployment below 4%...

>142 John5918: I don't know how things will turn out in the next election but I will say I expect Biden will lose lots of Muslim, Arab and young voters over Gaza. In most states that are decidedly red or blue it's not going to matter as far as the electoral votes consigned to those states. In the 6, 7, 8 known as battleground states it could make a lot of difference and democrats who think 'well on the whole our package compared to the Trump republicans is so much better' are missing the point. I don't know what we should expect of a Muslim, Arabic (and I differentiate because some of them are christians like Justin Amash's family, or maybe even nothing at all) if they have family, relatives back in the West Bank or Gaza who have lost family and friends to this murderous onslaught. How can we expect them to pull the lever for Biden or democrats not named Rashida Tlaib? Even being a neighbor and knowing personally people who have lost family and friends and this speaks of the state of Michigan more than any other......and it's too late to fix the damage that's been done. The democrats can only hope that here in the United States it can be contained enough that it doesn't sink them.

>143 lriley: I'm sure if you wanted to make a difference in this race, this would be a golden opportunity. As you say, there's lots of people in Michigan who might be swayed by the pro-Trump rhetoric that you've cited so often in this thread, the whole myth that Biden is somehow responsible for the fact that Israel is a doubly-occupied failed state with two factions of its divided government busily killing civilians in order to distract them from the fact that neither faction is remotely capable of or even interested in governing.

You clearly know that myth inside and out, so you'd be well positioned to help defuse it, if you were interested in helping to stave off a Trump win. Just a thought...

>144 kiparsky: pretty sure that for most democrats who plan on voting for Biden dead women and children in Gaza are not keeping them up at night. Those voters still might not like it but it's not a deal breaker for them. The Hamas fighters that Israel has bankrolled since the days after Rabin's assassination so as to head off any chance of a two state solution notwithstanding. If Israel turns into a failed state it will be because of its own making tanking its own economy for a racist goal of ethnic cleansing. Biden has supported these atrocities as have the bulk of the Democratic Party. We've sent Israel the bombs when we could have clearly made other choices. Some of them are still cheerleading it and the US is giving the UN, the ICJ and the great great majority of nations around the world the middle finger because of course we're the best. If you can live with that, that's fine, have at it. No doubt at all that Trump is a would be fascist dictator.....his opponent is an accessory to mass murder. I don't think there is any choice at all here but no choice. Fuck them both.

During his live CPAC speech, Trump called his wife Mercedes while he was honoring her.

***
I wonder if Melania ever met Trump’s Mercedes!

> 145

You are too good for this world, Iriley. You really, really, obviously are.

I think there is really only one, very obvious option left for you.

‘My ultimate and absolute revenge’: Trump gives chilling CPAC speech on presidential agenda (Guardian)

Unbound and unhinged, ex-president vilifies immigrants before devolving into bizarre riffs, including calling himself ‘total genius’... Donald Trump styled himself as a “proud political dissident” and promised “judgment day” for political opponents in an address that offered a chilling vision of a democracy in imminent peril. In classic carnival barker form, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination accused Joe Biden of weaponising the government against him with “Stalinist show trials”. He pledged to crack down on border security and deliver the biggest deportation in US history if he wins the 5 November election. “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. “But for the liars and cheaters and fraudsters and censors and imposters who have commandeered our government, it will be their judgment day!” He added: “Your victory will be our ultimate vindication, your liberty will be our ultimate reward and the unprecedented success of the United States of America will be my ultimate and absolute revenge.” The overwhelmingly white crowd, many wearing Make America Great Again regalia, rose to their feet and roared their approval...

One might hope that those who support or facilitate the election of Donald Trump would remember the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller in light of another unhinged politician who became a dictator: "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me", which can be viewed in the US Memorial Holocaust Museum. Niemöller was speaking in 1946, travelling on a lecture tour in the western zones of Allied-occupied Germany. Niemöller publicly confessed his own inaction and indifference to the fate of many of the Nazis’ victims. He used phrases such as “I did not speak out…” or “we preferred to keep quiet.” He explained that in the first years of the Nazi regime he had remained silent as the Nazis persecuted other Germans, especially members of leftist political movements with whom he disagreed (link).

>145 lriley: If you can live with that

I suppose I'd rather "live with that" than live with another term of Trump, which would be everything you're saying is awful, plus everything about Trump.

I mean, it's not that hard to work it out: you're going to get one or the other, and you have to choose which one you'd prefer. You don't like your choices, I get that. I wish I could choose between two people that I like too - but that's not the reality we live in. The idea that abstaining is an option is pure fantasy.

>148 John5918: One might hope that those who support or facilitate the election of Donald Trump would remember the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller

Also, and more to the point, those who prefer to keep quiet.

>148 John5918: In this speech(?), Trump also referred to wife Melania, as "Mercedes"... Can you imagine media's reaction if Biden referred to his wife Jill, as Jennifer??

We should be clear though a non-vote or a vote for a third party candidate is not a vote for Donald Trump. You're not adding a number to his ledger. When I travel about and see someone with a flag on the front of his house or a bumpersticker on his car 'Don't blame me. I voted for Trump' it's pretty much the kind of logic of who isn't with me is against me and so when some people here posit this same kind of logic you're just showing you have a lot more in common with the people you claim to hate so much. Get your own flags and bumperstickers out on the day after if you need to. Anyway I would like to see that taken before a judge or jury----'he/she didn't vote for Biden so he/she voted for Trump'--Judge/jury---'looks to me like he/she didn't vote at all. Dismissed.'

>152 lriley: a non-vote or a vote for a third party candidate is not a vote for Donald Trump.

Tell that to Al Gore.
Fact of the matter is, there's two choices. If you think the outcome matters, then do something about it. If you think the outcome doesn't matter, then please explain how you think things will go for the Palestinians under a Trump victory.

We can leave aside everyone else, as apparently the Palestinians are the only thing that matters for you, so I won't ask you to explain how outlawing abortion will work out - I guess that just doesn't matter. We can also forget about climate change, voting rights, infrastructure, trade, and everything else that a normal person would be concerned about, we'll just focus on the Palestinians. How are they doing in Trump's second term?

>153 kiparsky: If I were to ask Gore anything I would ask why he stepped away from the fight he was in? He said it was for 'the good of the country' but the opposition party seemed a lot more willing to take it to the bitter end....(through the courts for instance) than he was. Might also say Al Gore and his family and entourage were always going to do okay but many of those he and his party have represented for so long particularly black and brown people were not going to do okay....they were going to be stuck in the lives they had of being poor and impoverished or even worse. But then again Gore was another center/right establishment democrat and the people they really represent the most or the best are those are well off like themselves. They're just not as bad or as explicit as the other party but even so......they're not great representatives very often of their own constituencies.

I also don't what you'd really want......just the two parties and no others? You'd might as well make the Greens and Libertarians etc. illegal and while you're at it then try to force (no excuses) people to vote for one party candidate or the other. The reason why people don't vote for candidates they don't like instead of for ones they do like or like more doesn't seem to matter to you. Gore quite obviously didn't sell his candidacy enough to satisfy those who voted for 3rd parties. It's the voter's fault it's pretty much you're saying if they don't fall in line. Not the candidates even if any particular voter doesn't like the guy that voter should realize that this is the best he can do. This idea that those who voted for Ralph or others really should have voted for Al and they're the ones.....well you need someone to blame when things don't go your way and you're not going to blame yourself or the guy you voted for no matter how shitty a candidate he was. Of those who did vote for Ralph my guess at least for many of them is if they didn't vote for him they wouldn't have voted at all which is kind of a vote in its own way too. Up to the candidate IMO to reach the voter not the other way around. But anyway Gore threw in the towel in 2000 and that was that.

What also doesn't seem to matter to you is the thousands upon thousands of Palestinians the majority women and children being slaughtered with the aid of our govt. These numbers could/probably will expand greatly in the coming months if Israel's genocide is not stopped. I don't get that is all that relevant to some here or maybe that even some think that Israel has every right to murder and maim as many as they can. That starving that population is fine and dandy. The old 'let's look away from the bad shit and see the big picture'......kind of like GW Bush telling us to keep on shopping and not worry about the carnage in Iraq.

>154 lriley: We can dissect the 2000 debacle as much as you like, but the simple fact of the matter - on which you agree - is that without Nader in the race, Gore would have been president.
Now, if you think that you can make an argument that the people who voted for Nader did the right thing, feel free, but the reality of the matter is, George Bush Junior was president on 9/11 because Nader ran and because people made exactly the arguments you're making now. If outcomes matter, that was the outcome then.

Returning to now, I'll ask again: do you think the outcome of the 2024 race will matter? Or is it your view that it doesn't matter who wins? Simple question, you can have a go at answering it if you want. (I notice that so far you're being a bit cagey - for example, I still don't know if you think that the Palestinians do better under a Trump victory than they do if Biden wins)

Once you've addressed that question, then it starts to make sense to talk about your feels and vibes wrt voting for the icky icky Biden, but before we get there it would be nice to know if you think there are any stakes here.

As for third parties, I would happily vote for - and do happily vote for - third-party candidates in local races. Political movements are built up from repeated small victories, not by quixotically losing in national races. A party that hasn't figured that out is certainly not a party that's going to win anything, and a candidate that runs on that ticket is clearly not a candidate that's got any idea about how to get things done, so to me they're simply a waste of time.

What also doesn't seem to matter to you is the thousands upon thousands of Palestinians the majority women and children being slaughtered with the aid of our govt.

I've usually found that name-calling is a pretty good indicator that someone has not got any confidence in their position. We've seen that here with Prox and co, and I think I'm seeing it now. If you have an argument, bring it. If you don't, it might make more sense to ask yourself why you're clinging to a point of view you can't defend rather than lashing out at someone for disagreeing with your indefensible point of view.

At one level one might say that I don't have a horse in this race as I am not a US citizen and so have no voice nor vote in choosing your next president. But on the other hand, the USA being such a rich, powerful and militaristic nation with the capacity to affect all of us for good or ill, I would say that the whole world does have an interest in whom you elect as your next president.

It has become very clear that you have a very dysfunctional electoral system. There's nothing you can do to improve that immediately as it would be a long process even if you could get agreement from all the vested interests involved. So you're stuck with it for the time being and you have to make your decisions within the existing system, not the ideal system you would prefer. The reality is that the 2024 presidential vote is a two party race, and either abstaining or voting for a third party candidate will always be to the benefit of one or other of the two main candidates. Splitting the vote of those who might otherwise vote Democrat benefits the Republicans, while splitting the Republican vote benefits the Democrats.

In normal times it might not make a huge difference which candidate gets into power for four years. It's not going to change the situation of the Palestinians, for example. It's the US establishment which is complicit in genocide, and Biden just happens to be the current face of it. As many people have said here, the US government is always right of centre regardless of which party is in power, and the only difference is how far right.

But it seems to me that this election raises more existential issues. If Trump gets into power and even begins to implement the agenda which he is publicly presenting, it might signal the end of democracy and due process as we/you know it in the USA. If Biden gets into power, we'll just see more of the same, probably more war crimes (which is no new thing for the USA), but at least the institutions of democracy and governance will survive and there is hope that your country can eventually change for the better, which will also be a benefit for all the rest of us.

So it seems to me that this particular election demands tactical voting not simply in order to achieve the least bad outcome (and I agree with anyone who says that you have two really bad candidates standing for office), but in order to ensure the very survival of your democracy so that you can improve it in the future and one day, maybe, even have some worthy candidates vying for office, candidates who might implement the good policies, ideals and principles which you (and we) all want. But if your democracy collapses into a semi-dictatorship, then none of your fine ideals and principles will be worth anything for a generation or two.

Incidentally, that's a generic "you", not aimed at any individual. I respect people's voting decisions, which they have come to through a careful and difficult process, even if I might wish their choice to be otherwise.

>155 kiparsky: Hilarious. One post you say that if I don't vote at all or vote for anyone other than Biden I'm voting for Donald and in the next I'm name calling you because you don't seem to have much opinion (at least that you're sharing) with Biden administration policy vis-a-vis Israel's ongoing assault against Palestinian civilians. The thing that is most important to you certainly isn't how I think or feel about what is going on there but whether or not I cast my singular vote in the upcoming election for the person whose policies are supporting a genocide. Voting to return the incumbent does seem a lot more important to you than all these people getting murdered and even if you are aghast or somewhat aghast about Gaza I don't even know why you deny it's less relevant to you and if what I've been saying seems to you that I'm trying to shame you I'm thinking pretty much your last several posts to me have pretty much been about shaming me into doing something I'm not comfortable doing anymore. We disagree that's for sure. I can live with that.....it seems you less so.

>157 lriley: Or, more precisely, in each post I suggest that if you think the practical outcomes of the election matter, then you should vote that way, and in one post I observe that you've not managed to actually respond to that, but you have tried to insinuate - laughably - that by advocating that people of good will vote for the candidate whose administration, of the two on offer, will be best for the Palestinians, I am displaying my indifference to the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza.

if what I've been saying seems to you that I'm trying to shame you

In my view, the only person who can "shame" me is me. If you think that voting against the interests of a suffering people is the right course, that's your call, but for me to vote with the Palestinian people is no shame to me. What I object to is not that you make up stories about me - that's your privilege, if that's what you enjoy doing - but that you're using it as a substitute for arguing for your position.
If you have a case, make it.

your last several posts to me have pretty much been about shaming me into doing something I'm not comfortable doing anymore

If anything, I'm trying to "shame" you into owning up to the practical outcomes of your actions. Though, frankly, I think that when you're engaging in an argument, it's not that unreasonable to ask the other person to explain their position. Nor is this new, I've had lots of experience with people on this site and elsewhere feeling uncomfortable with the implications of their statements, and seeming extremely reticent to even cop to what they believe.

If you're finding it hard to make your case, and you're finding that trying to make your case makes you feel ashamed, that's not me. It's you.