Trump has succeeded in many ways, chiefly drawing the admiration of tens of millions of Americans who, anyone would have sworn, would have hated his pathologically lying guts.

It’s amazing.

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Apparently, some of Trump’s former staff members want to tell the truth about how terrible a person their former employer was.  They propose to tour the country and “talk to people.”

From the article linked above:

A group of former Trump administration officials are banding together in an effort to block their former boss from entering office again.

The meeting of the group, announced by former White House press secretary and chief of staff to the first lady Stephanie Grisham (pictured), is scheduled for next week where they will discuss how to “try and stop” former President Donald Trump and the “kind of violence and rhetoric that has been talked about and continues to divide our country.” In an interview with CNN on the morning of Jan. 6, Grisham said about 15 former Trump administration officials — some she said, who ranked higher than her — have held informal discussions and plan to meet in person.

“I think that there were a few of us who, again, have been sitting back watching him continue to manipulate and spread this big lie and continue to harm our country,” Grisham told CNN. “And [we] started some informal chats and then started throwing around ideas of what we could do, how we could formalize it.”

While I can’t say that this is a bad thing, I see very little utility in it.  What we need, and are in the process of gathering, is hard evidence that Trump committed one or more felonies.
Right now, this seems to be lining up behind his attempted coup.  Unless you can help us here, I’m not sure how much good will be done by using up your airlines miles.

 

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You go, girl.  Take us back 75 years (at least).

Kidding aside, this is, unfortunately, the type of thing one sees in Texas.

The other day, I came across something similar from a candidate in New Hampshire, and I wrote to her, “New Hampshire???  Are you serious???  Your state ranks #6 in the nation in education.  Half the state commutes to Boston.  These voters aren’t ignorant pigs. If you want to succeed with hateful bull**** like this, you’ll need to take it to Alabama or Mississippi.  They can’t get enough of this.”

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From this: Election not stolen: Arizona election officials debunk claims in state review of Trump’s 2020 loss

In a report, entitled Correcting the Record: Maricopa County’s In-Depth Analysis of the Senate Inquiry, which was released Wednesday on the eve of the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot attack, the largest county government in Arizona, Maricopa County, confirmed that the 2020 election was not impacted by fraud. (more…)

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There were simpler times, weren’t there?

My father left college to rain bombs down on Germany’s oil refineries. Then he came home, finished school, married his sweetheart, sold real estate in the community of his birth, raised two kids, sent them to college, retired, and played golf.

Far from a unique story, it was a tale that played itself out all over the country in the middle and late part of the 20th Century.

Dad was a Republican, because of the conservative views he shared with so many others.  I simply cannot imagine what he would think of present-day GOP politics and the near miss we just survived (it now appears), an attempt to overthrow the U.S. government.

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Rachel Konrad (pictured), Elon Musk’s original communications tsar, makes this comment on the traditional auto industry’s current attempts to dethrone Tesla:
“If VW and Toyota “spend billions in a bid to catch up with Tesla,” AWESOME! That means they won’t spend that money on greenwashing bullshit, dumb-ass sponsorships and ads, lobbying, unethical software cheats, stupid acquisitions of defunct brands or other moves from the incumbent playbook.
Rather, it means VW and Toyota (and GM, Ford, Nissan and everyone else) will spend billions on R&D to make the world’s best cars (fastest, safest, most efficient, best UI, best ergonomics, best autonomous system, robust charging infrastructure, etc.) and make them zero-emission. If they do this, HUMANITY WINS. I’m skeptical that the incumbents will succeed, but I love the effort.
And FYI, forcing the laggard incumbents to follow suit was Elon’s highest goal all along. That’s precisely how you accelerate the shift to zero-emission energy and transport.”

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Who among us hasn’t looked upon a certain development in our culture and said, OK, that’s it; we’re effed.

Reader James sent me this, and, I have to say, it brought me that much closer to that most cynical of positions.

 

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We can all agree that there are a number of interpretations of the Bible with respect to how literally these stories should be taken.  At the liberal end are those who look to the Good Book for sources of hope and inspiration.

Anyone who has a problem with Proverbs 15:1 which reads: “A gentle answer turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath” has something wrong with him

At the other end of the spectrum, however, we do run into trouble, as exemplified in the meme here.

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I happen to know the president of a major university in Texas, who told me he can’t understand why hospitals that are overflowing don’t put a percentage limit on the number of ICU beds that they will fill with unvaccinated COVID patients.

In speaking with my mom last night, she thought this was outrageous.  “You can’t not admit someone just because of a choice they made with respect to what to allow in his body!” she declared.  (more…)

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In 1814, John Adams wrote, “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a Democracy Yet, that did not commit suicide.”  

That’s the opening of a piece suggesting that right-wing extremism has brought us to the brink of the next U.S. civil war.  It includes:  Is a civil war really possible? One of America’s most pre-eminent scholars on civil wars and how they begin offers this blunt answer: Yes. In fact, we’re closer to one in our country than most Americans think, or are willing to believe. (more…)

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