"DeSantis Village! Meatball Ron Announces Disney-Adjacent Family Theme Park (Warning: Spoofery)

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Tuesday May 30, 2023 · 4:09 PM PDT

2023/05/30 · 16:09

DATELINE DeSantisVille, Florida—Ron DeSantis announced plans for an 800 million dollar (Thank You Harlan Crow!!) family attraction that will be built at Lake Nona, Florida now that Disney has canceled its plans to move Imagineering there. Here’s the press release:

Welcome to DeSantis Village, your Nordic Nirvana of Year-Round Confederate Christmas Festiveness! Where AR-15 Jesus Comes to Life and Woke Goes to Die! Here are the Delightfully Wacky, Anti-Wokey Attractions You Don’t Have to Be ‘Woke’ To Enjoy!

"Woke-A-Mole" Gallery! World's Largest Collection of Liberal-Bashing Woke-a-Mole Games In One Place! (NOTE - Reservations are needed for the "Hitlery Woke-A-Mole" and "Obummer-Woke-A-Mole" machines. Photo ops for these machines are a $15 upcharge)
"Main Street Pyrotechnical Parade" - 14 Neon-Bedecked "Burn-Em-Up Barges," each dedicated to burning a specific kind of book (5 barges for burning the books of Michelle Obama)
"The Crucifixion of Mickey Mouse" - nightly "Fantasmic" style stadium pageant, ending with a satanic Mickey being crucified, drowned, beaten, lynched and incinerated. From the pyre, a 3-D holographic image of DeSantis-As-Jesus ascends to heaven. Ends with a parade of obese geriatrics from The Villages showing off their bespoke golf carts.
A Visit with DeSantisClaus! Every (white) child gets a (Zoom) visit with DeSantisClaus himself. Instead of a candy cane, each child gets a scolding that they will be cast into the fiery pits of eternal hellfire if they give in to Homosexual Urges that inevitably burble up when they attend a Drag Queen Story Hour. Also, slavery never existed, and it was a benign institution anyway. And Democrats are evil.
"Look Away! Great Moments With Nathan Bedford Forrest" - An inspirational animatronic presentation for the whole “Klan” with one of America's forgotten-until-now legends.
"Stand Your Ground" Midway Mania/Firing Range (presented by Strum, Ruger & Co.) (Upcharge) Your (quite reasonable) $22 buys you a "Liberal Hunting License" and the opportunity to exercise your itchy trigger finger in a police-style mirror maze of threats and menaces. Nancy Pelosi! Antifa! BLM! George Soros with a flamethrower! That toenail clipper could be a gun!!! Fire away to your hearts' content (live ammo, of course). The last room is an immersive digital projection room where a Jury of your (white male) peers declares you INNOCENT for exercising your 2nd Amendment Rights, and votes you Citizen of the Year.
"Kid Rock N' Rollercoaster" (with a guest appearance by Ted Nugent)
Food & Beverage choices include a "Big Bob Slaughter Kill-It-Yourself Steakhouse" and a "Get 'Em While You Can" Deep Fried Endangered Species Buffet (Snail Darters Subject to Availability.)

Rumor has it that Donald Trump has put in a competing bid for the land, for his “Donald Trump Presidential “Gentlemen’s Club” and Slots-O’-Fun Casino. As he plans to pay for it in Trump Dollars, this offer is not being taken seriously...

Elect Me! I Can Fix the Deficit in ONE HOUR!

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Saturday May 20, 2023 · 8:22 AM PDT

2023/05/20 · 08:22

main-qimg-dd0dd51fd7e40f3c62262ad16ff2b88d.jfif — Youru Senator and/or Congressman, In Action

I always chuckle when I read articles in the mainstream media about the “near impossibility” of balancing the budget and reducing our deficits.

Elect me President and I’ll solve this problem in an hour! Maybe less!

In my first hour in the Oval Office, I’ll propose the two laws that I ran on. The wild popularity of the second proposal would ensure that the first proposal would pass.

LAW ONE (THE STICK) states that if lawmakers fail to pass a balanced budget, they will be put in a SuperMax prison until they do.

LAW TWO (THE CARROT) states that for every thousand dollars that the budget is in surplus, every lawmaker will be given, tax-free, one dollar of that surplus

So if lawmakers pass a budget with a surplus of a hundred billion dollars, each lawmaker will pocket a hundred million dollars.

Okay—how long do you think it would take our lawmakers to pass a budget with a surplus of a hundred billion dollars? Please give your answer in minutes.

As every economist knows, it’s all in the incentives. Right now, politicians are rewarded for two things:

Cutting taxes and lavishing money on the military (esp. Republicans)
Providing services like Medicare and Social Security (esp. Democrats)

So let’s see...the system rewards cutting income and spending money. Could that have something to do with our current problems?

Elect me! I alone can fix it!

Page A27, New York Times

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Sunday May 07, 2023 · 12:10 PM PDT

2023/05/07 · 12:10

Who are we?

What have we become?

How do we think about ourselves as a society?

Eight of our fellow citizens—members of tribe—were murdered yesterday at a “crowded Texas mall.” Eight people enjoying themselves on a Saturday are no longer living because a rando with a weapon chose to exercise his Second Amendment rights and mow them down for no good reason other than he could.

This is a shocking tragedy. It’s part of an appalling, terrifying and ENTIRELY PREVENTABLE epidemic of everyday mass murder. It’s a national crisis.

And here’s the worst part: it’s becoming part of the background noise in our culture.

Proof: The New York Times ran this story on page A27. When you hear some ingenuous right-winger say he doesn’t want to “politicize” this “unimaginable tragedy,” know the truth: this truth is not only imaginable, it’s commonplace.

Stories the New York Times deemed more important than the gratuitous mass slaughter of eight citizens:

The coronation of Charles III
“Sherpas Abandon Job That Made Them Famous”
“Double Parking While Wealthy May Mean Higher New York City Fines”

I would urge everyone in the Daily Kos community to read the eloquent, heart-felt post, “”Do Not Watch the Video From Texas.”

And this video is incredibly traumatizing. I say this as someone who has witnessed the most horrific child and elder abuse you can imagine. As someone who’s had to do c-sections at the bedside in the ER on crashing moms. As someone who was on duty treating victims of the Unite the Right attack here in Charlottesville. Who has seen a two-year old with full body burns, victims of human trafficking, and so much more- this video is so hard to watch.

Yes. Almost impossibly hard to watch. That said, I would like to (with the utmost respect to the writer) disagree. Instead, I’d point you to a Tweet by the great, righteous David Simon:

Thought about this for a long time though it's certainly relevant today: Photojournalists should endeavor to publish every obtainable photograph of America's gun carnage from this moment on. We need to see it. We need the visceral affront. Keeping it offstage aids the barbarism.

Remember, the police were ready to bury the George Floyd case until that horrifying (hard to watch) footage appeared. It’s sickening, in the same way that watching the footage from Nazi Concentration Camps is horrifying and sickening. And the same way that seeing Emmit Till’s body was horrifying and sickening when his mother insisted on an open casket at his funeral so people could see what the murderers had done to her boy. Yes, we humans are capable of that. The only way to stop it is to feel a bitter, galvanizing shock of horror, bear witness, and commit ourselves body, spirit and soul to stopping it.

Maybe if someone made the editors of the New York Times watch that footage, the editors might put that story above the fold on Page 1, and make a cause of repealing the Second Amendment. Texas and other red states have made it EASIER, not harder, to purchase weapons of mass death and carry them without a permit. They even repealed Obama-era laws banning mentally ill people from buying weapons.

As she was dying, the sainted Molly Ivins wrote this about the Iraq War:

We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. ... We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, 'Stop it, now!'

When we know we’ve had enough? When we will put the lives of our children above the profits for gun manufacturers? When will we wake up to this terrible darkness inside of us that condones the slaughter of innocents, and relegates it to page A27?

KO Nails It: CNN Puts Ratings Over Democracy

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Tuesday May 02, 2023 · 8:40 AM PDT

2023/05/02 · 08:40

One More Hour of This, Thanks to CNN....

There’s a hilarious moment in the Peter Cook-Dudley Moore “Frog and Peach” sketch. Cook is interviewing Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling (or is it Greeb-Streebling?), the world’s most inept restauranteur, on his latest catastrophe….

Dudley Moore: Do you feel you've learnt by your mistakes here?

Peter Cook: I think I have, yes, and I think I can probably repeat them almost
perfectly.

CNN has decided to repeat its mistakes from the 2016 election as accurately as possible. Rather than frame Donald Trump for what he is—proven seditionist, fascist, authoritarian, danger to democracy—CNN is handing Trump an hour in prime time to enjoy a tongue-bath from his worst enablers.

The facts:

CNN APPROACHED TRUMP ABOUT GETTING INTO BUSINESS. CNN clearly thinks it has a chance to peel off some MAGAheads who are enraged about Fox’s decapitation of Tucker Carlson.
CNN HAS CHOSEN A TOWN HALL FORMAT...which means no journalists allowed. Which means the questions (from GOPers only, 63% of whom think Joe Biden stole the 2020 election) will range from, “How can we defeat the woke mob that stole the election from you?” to “How soon will you put the members of the January 6 Committee in federal prison?”
CNN WILL DO NO REAL-TIME FACT CHECKING. This will, by design, be a straight shot of pure Trumpiness

Here’s the great K.O. from today’s must-listen podcast:

Chris Licht’s transformation of CNN into Trump’s journalistic whorehouse is now complete. He and other CNN executives have NEGOTIATED the terms by which Trump will PERMIT them to cover him. Licht gives Trump a free live hour+ of a “Town Hall” next week in New Hampshire. The ONLY questions will be from those voting in the GOP Primary and CNN will exercise no editorial control. It’s a program-length advertisement for a seditious madman.

David Kurtz at Talking Points Memo picks up the story…

But unlike a sit-down interview – which can be recorded and edited, presented in context, coupled with fact-checking and expert commentary – the live “town hall” format (unless CNN unexpectedly mixes up the usual form) enables Trump and those like him free rein to spew misinformation, falsehoods, and half-truths unhindered by any mediating journalistic considerations.

This is what we’re up against, folks. Remember when the Chairman of CBS, back in 2016, said of Trump’s nomination…

It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS. The money’s rolling in, and this is fun. It’s a terrible thing to say. But bring it on, Donald. Keep going.

These people don’t give a damn about America. If we lose our democracy and America becomes a totalitarian state—something the Trumpistas are working 24/7 to bring about—, they’ll be counting their profits….right up until the moment when Trump shuts them down or turns them over to plutocratic billionaires who support him.

The Most Important Way Ronald Reagan Screwed Up (and Continues to Screw Up) America

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Monday April 10, 2023 · 5:39 PM PDT

2023/04/10 · 17:39

First of all, let me acknowledge Kos writer JohnRichardson for his cogent, compelling story “How Did Ronald Reagan Screw Up America? Let Us Count the Ways!” My purpose isn’t to dispute a thing he said. I just want to point out the elemental truth that supports his arguments. The reason why Ronald Reagan should be relegated to the dank sub-basement of American history, to be reviled and despised, is something he said in his first inaugural address. This is a lethal dose of pure poison he chose to inject into the body politic, and it’s the toxic seed that continues to produce the fruit of Fascism that threatens the American experiment. Reagan said…

“Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Everything that JohnRichardson listed falls out of this mendacious, malicious statement. To put this in other words: “The only hope the people have to govern themselves, the only defense they have against the worst elements of unchecked, rapacious big business, the only way they can right what’s wrong with their society...is a problem and let’s get rid of it!”

This is the core doctrine of every odious right-wing fraudster and blowhard. “Get big guv’mint off our backs! Let the eagle fly!” Now imagine a world where government, the “problem” has been eliminated:

Slavery. Yes, We the People came together to fight a great Civil War to defeat the Confederacy and then passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to abolish it. Government, friends.
Child labor. No government? 8-year-old children are working in sweatshops
Workers work 100-hour weeks for whatever bosses want to pay them.
Restaurants and businesses can refuse to serve anyone they choose (and realtors can do so as well.)
Polluters can dump toxic chemicals in rivers and lakes with no consequence
No Social Security, No Medicare — everyone is at the mercy of whatever Doctors and hospitals want to charge. Don’t have the money to pay? Sucks to be you!
Welcome to Amazon/Nike/Starbucks “Yosemite” Park, Golf Resort and Condos! (Clear-cut by your friends at Weyerhaeuser, of course!)
Big Pharma can charge whatever they want for healing medicines. (If you want to see how this works out, see “Shkrelli, Martin”)
Banks can get into any business they want, and do whatever they want with your money. Bank goes bust, you lose everything.
Toll roads every 10 miles, and the rates go up whenever the owner wants.
Stalkers and psychopaths can carry concealed weapons without a permit (Oh wait, Floridians can do that already...)

The ultimate expression of unfettered free enterprise is what happened at the end of the Roman Empire. In a sterling example of forward-leaning entrepreneurial initiative, the local Fire Department would set your house on fire, and then come to your door and demand a cash payment to put it out.

“Government is the problem.” Ronald Reagan convinced half of America that their most powerful tool to make their world a better place was “the problem” and should therefore be shunned.

No, government is nothing more or less than the things we decide to do together. What are those things? Here’s the great Howard Zinn:

There is a power that can be created out of pent-up indignation, courage, and the inspiration of a common cause, and that if enough people put their minds and bodies into that cause, they can win. It is a phenomenon recorded again and against in the history of popular movements against injustice all over the world.

Let me end with the words of an authentically great president, perhaps the greatest ever (well, after Abraham Lincoln):

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Government is nothing more or less than the things we decide to do together.

The Lesley Stahl-MTG Interview That Could Have Been

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Monday April 03, 2023 · 3:48 PM PDT

2023/04/03 · 15:48

Screen shot of an an interview on 60 Minutes, where Lesley Stahl sits down with Marjorie Taylor Greene 4/2/23 — Nuttier Than A Snickers Bar...

I used to be in the news business. From 1991 to 1992, I was the Entertainment Reporter on Channel 13 in Los Angeles. I know that news is storytelling, and the most important decision for any news story is the first one: what’s the point of view? The context holds the content.

Last night, 60 Minutes aired an interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene by Lesley Stahl. The interview was a disgrace because the point of view was “here’s this provocative Georgia soccer mom — a national celebrity!- who loves to work out, just like so many of you. And so accomplished! She’s managed in just two years in Congress to accumulate real power, landing on important committees, and influencing the direction of Republican policies!

60 Minutes decided to “mainstream” MTG. “Hey, she’s a little wacky, but let’s call that ‘colorful’!”

I took major portions of Stahl’s interview and dropped them into a script that gives the interview a more appropriate frame. I’ve also included follow-up questions Stahl didn’t ask. Here’s the piece that SHOULD have been:

TRANSCRIPT: “MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: FROM FAR-RIGHT FRINGE TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY’S FRONT ROW”

STAHL (IN STUDIO): Tonight, the state of our nation. As you know, 60 Minutes is a production of CBS News. In March of 1954, the greatest newsman in CBS News history delivered a broadcast about Senator Joseph McCarthy. Here’s some of what Murrow said sixty-nine years ago.

TAPE OF MURROW: We will not walk in fear one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men – not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.

STAHL (IN STUDIO): Marjorie Taylor Greene was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2021. Before she was elected, she claimed that a wildfire in California was started by a laser, quoting her, "beamed from space and controlled by a prominent Jewish banking family with connections to powerful Democrats.” She said that President Barack Obama was a secret Muslim, and the election of two Muslim women to Congress amounted to a, quoting her again, “takeover.” She’s repeatedly supported political violence against and the execution of top Democrats including Nancy Pelosi. That’s where our interview began...

(INTERVIEW) Lesley Stahl: Okay, did you ever apologize to Nancy Pelosi about the bullet to her head?

AN IMAGE CAPTURED FROM SOCIAL MEDIA SHOWS A “LIKE” FROM MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE'S ACCOUNT ON A COMMENT ABOUT NANCY PELOSI.

Marjorie Taylor Greene: I didn't say that, so I don't need to apologize for words that weren't mine--

Lesley Stahl: Well, you-- didn't you like it?

Marjorie Taylor Greene: Other people also ran my social media. I don't think I did that.

Lesley Stahl: Wait a minute. Here’s some video taken at a 2019 political rally.

VIDEO: (GREENE SPEAKING): “She took an oath to protect American citizens and uphold our laws. And she gives aid and comfort to our enemies who illegally invade our land. That's what treason is. And by our law, representatives and senators can be kicked out and no longer serve in our government — and it's a crime punishable by death”.

Lesley Stahl: Your words, on tape. You still deny you said them?

Marjorie Taylor Greene: Let’s move on.

(B-ROLL OF GREENE AT POLITICAL RALLY)

Lesley Stahl (VOICE OVER): Okay, let’s.

(INTERVIEW FOOTAGE)

Lesley Stahl: Did you apologize for your position on Parkland, Florida?

Marjorie Taylor Greene: What was my position on Parkland, Florida?

Lesley Stahl: That it was a false flag—

Marjorie Taylor Greene: I don't know if you actually have my-- No, I never said Parkland was a false flag. No, I've never said that. School shootings are horrible. I don't think it's anything to joke about.

AN IMAGE CAPTURED FROM SOCIAL MEDIA SHOWS MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE'S RESPONSE TO A COMMENT DESCRIBING A SHOOTING AS A "FALSE FLAG PLANNED SHOOTING."

Lesley Stahl: We fact-checked before I got to this interview. That's what--

Marjorie Taylor Greene: Have you fact-checked all my statements from kindergarten through 12th grade? And in college? And as I've paid my taxes, and never broken a law, And the only-- I got a few speeding tickets. Do we need to talk about those too?

Lesley Stahl: No we don’t. We need to talk about your calling one of the most terrible school shootings in our history that traumatized the American people a false flag. That’s a lie, and it’s the kind of lie that poisons our politics.

Marjorie Taylor Greene: These are the same attacks that people have attacked me with over and over and over…

B-ROLL OF MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE WORKING OUT AT THE GYM

Lesley Stahl (Voice Over): This wasn’t even the worst of it.

INTERVIEW

Lesley Stahl: The Democrats are a party of pedophiles.

Marjorie Taylor Greene: I would definitely say so. They support grooming children.

Lesley Stahl: They are not pedophiles. Why would you say that?

Marjorie Taylor Greene: Democrats, Democrats support, even Joe Biden, the president himself, supports children being sexualized and having transgender surgeries. Sexualizing children is what pedophiles do to children.

Lesley Stahl: Do you know the definition of slander? Let me read it to you: “a false spoken statement about someone that damages their reputation, or the making of such a statement.” You’re slandering the Democrats with your vicious lies, and it’s tearing our country apart just so you can get a little publicity. How can you do this?

Marjorie Taylor Greene: Well, I would ask the same question to the other side, because all they've done is call me names and insult me non-stop since I've been here, Lesley. They call me racist. They call me sen, anti-Semitic, which is not true. I'm not calling anyone names. I'm calling out the truth basically-

Lesley Stahl: Pedophile?

Marjorie Taylor Greene: Pedophi-- call it what it is.

Lesley Stahl (In Studio): During the pandemic, Marjorie Tayler Greene attacked vaccinations and masking that probably saved the lives of three million Americans. She consistently voices the most vitriolic hatred for gay and trans people. She said that tech titan Bill Gates was behind a plot to force all Americans to eat synthetic meat. It goes on and on.

This interview is an alarm bell. it’s time to acknowledge the truth: there are dangerous provocateurs in our midst like Marjorie Taylor Greene. These are cynics determined to make political gains by getting one-half of America to hate and fear the other half. If we are to preserve this fragile experiment called American democracy, we must see this for it is. We must reject it. We must come together in reasoned debate to do what’s best for our country and shunt the Marjorie Taylor Greenes to the sidelines.

Let me quote the great Edward R. Murrow at the end of his broadcast on Senator McCarthy. With apologies, I will substitute Ms. Greene for Mr. McCarthy. Murrow said, quoting, “The actions of the representative from Georgia have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really hers. She didn’t create this situation of fear; she merely exploits it – and rather successfully. Cassius was right. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene could well be Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick in 2024. If that happens, or even if she just continues to say evil things and make slanderous threats and shout insane conspiracy theories on the House floor, we will have to bear the consequences. We will once again have to decide who we are, what we stand for, and what we’re willing to fight for.

I've Been Waiting For This For 55 Years

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Friday March 31, 2023 · 5:52 PM PDT

2023/03/31 · 17:52

They Should All Have Been Indicted...but I'll settle for Trump.

Donald Trump has been indicted. My new hero, the courageous D.A., Alvin Bragg, has ignored all the fatuous blather about “whether this is good for the country” or whether “it might boost Trump.” What happened is that an amoral, psychopathic scumbag and career criminal broke the law, and now he’ll be held accountable. If convicted, he’ll have to pay, just like we would.

I’ve been waiting for this moment for 55 years, since 1968. That was the year that Richard Nixon won the presidency by committing treason.

Don’t take my word for it. Take the word of legendary right-wing cranky-pants George Will. The 1968 presidential campaign was down to the last week. LBJ had gotten the North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese to agree to meet to hammer out a peace deal. If the deal gets done, Democrat Hubert Humphrey becomes president. Then the South Vietnamese “mysteriously” backed out of negotiations. Turns out Nixon had arranged for Anna Chennault, a Chinese American active in Republican politics, to whisper in the ear of the South Vietnamese:

On Nov. 2 at 8:34 p.m., a teleprinter at Johnson’s ranch delivered an FBI report on the embassy wiretap: Chennault had told South Vietnam’s ambassador “she had received a message from her boss (not further identified). . . . She said the message was that the ambassador is to ‘hold on, we are gonna win.’ ” The Logan Act of 1799 makes it a crime for a private U.S. citizen, which Nixon then was, to interfere with U.S. government diplomatic negotiations.

Johnson knew! He knew Nixon had committed treason! Why didn’t he go public? The whole gruesome story is here...

LBJ wanted to go public with Nixon's treason. But Clark Clifford, an architect of the CIA and a pillar of the Washington establishment, talked Johnson out of it. LBJ's close confidant warned that the revelation would shake the foundations of the nation.

In particular, Clifford told Johnson (in a taped conversation) that "some elements of the story are so shocking in their nature that I'm wondering whether it would be good for the country to disclose the story and then possibly have [Nixon] elected. It could cast his whole administration under such doubt that I think it would be inimical to our country's best interests."

In other words, Clifford told LBJ that the country couldn't handle the reality that its president was a certifiable traitor, eligible for legal execution.

Here’s where it starts: “The American people are made of spun glass. So delicate and fragile! If we were to tell the truth and hold lawbreakers accountable, why, it would be ‘inimical to our country’s best interests.”

I was 18 in 1969. I worked my butt off for Bobby Kennedy because I knew he’d end the war. The only reason Humphrey was closing fast on Nixon is that HE finally came out for the ending the war. Nixon got elected. The precious fee-fees of the American public were spared...and the war went on for another SIX YEARS and TWENTY THOUSAND ADDITIONAL SOLDIERS DIED, and Nixon and Kissinger MADE EXACTLY THE SAME DEAL IN 1974 THEY COULD HAVE MADE IN 1968.

Of course Nixon ended up holding a “smoking gun,” taping himself telling Haldeman to order Deputy CIA Director Vernon Walters to interfere with FBI Acting Director Pat Gray's investigation. Once again the issue: would a criminal, caught in the act, be held accountable? Nixon resigned before he was impeached, and then...wait for it….wait for it….HE WAS IMMEDIATELY PARDONED BY THE NEW PRESIDENT GERALD FORD. Here’s the indispensable Charles Pierce on the “Lessons of Watergate”:

The lasting "lesson" of Watergate, it appears, is that self-government was too dangerous, that the perils of it outweigh its values, and that the obligations of citizenship, beyond those which are purely ceremonial, are too heavy for citizens to bear.

NOW we know that...wash, rinse, repeat...the Republicans, having learned they could get away with it, committed treason in 1980 to propel Saint Ronald Reagan across the finish line. Remember this from earlier: The Logan Act of 1799 makes it a crime for a private U.S. citizen to interfere with U.S. government diplomatic negotiations. So here’s the March 18, 2023 NYT Times telling us that Texas pol Ben Barnes has finally come clean:

Mr. Connally, he said, took him to one Middle Eastern capital after another that summer, meeting with a host of regional leaders to deliver a blunt message to be passed to Iran: Don’t release the hostages before the election. Mr. Reagan will win and give you a better deal.

Then shortly after returning home, Mr. Barnes said, Mr. Connally reported to William J. Casey, the chairman of Mr. Reagan’s campaign and later director of the Central Intelligence Agency, briefing him about the trip in an airport lounge.

A private citizen interfering with U.S. government diplomatic relations. Treason, friends. A blatant violation of the Logan Act.

And of course the Reaganauts then happily go on to commit one of the most blatant crimes in American history that goes by the moniker “Iran-Contra.” This scheme was so flagrant, so shameless and so horrifying it still has the power to amaze. A law was passed banning the Reaganauts from providing aid to the contras of Nicaragua. So the Reaganuts set up Oliver North IN THE BASEMENT OF THE WHITE HOUSE (?!?!?) so he could wheel and deal an arrangement where the United States would SELL WEAPONS TO OUR SWORN ENEMIES THE IRANIANS, a terrorist-sponsoring state, and then funnel that money the very Contras they were forbidden, by law, to support. What happened when this was discovered? As always, Charles Pierce, a god who graces us mere mortals with his divine presence, nails the story:

Washington decided, quite on its own, that "the country" didn't need another "failed presidency," so what is now known as The Village circled the wagons to rescue Reagan from his crimes. There was the customary gathering of Wise Men — The Tower Commission — which buried the true scandal in Beltway off-English and the passive voice. There was a joint congressional investigation that served only to furnish people like Oliver North with legal loopholes that prevented their incarceration. There was poor Lawrence Walsh, the special prosecutor, whom everybody wished would simply go away, but who pressed on, making a case that ultimately forced President Poppy Bush to pardon everyone except Shoeless Joe Jackson on his way out the door in 1992.

Cut to 2009. I’m sure you were as sickened and horrified by the evil thugs of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rove administration approving—actually ENCOURAGING—the torture of prisoners in Iraq (and then documenting it all, so the world could see). Here’s Richard Clarke, who was there and tried to stop them, on what they did:

"I think things that they authorized probably fall within the area of war crimes. Whether that would be productive or not, I think, is a discussion we could all have. But we have established procedures now with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where people who take actions as serving presidents or prime ministers of countries have been indicted and have been tried. So the precedent is there to do that sort of thing. And I think we need to ask ourselves whether or not it would be useful to do that in the case of members of the Bush administration. It's clear that things that the Bush administration did — in my mind, at least, it's clear that some of the things they did were war crimes."

And so we elected Barack Obama! Time for these criminals to pay for their crimes, so no public official will ever be tempted to do something so outrageous again, right? Right?

NYT: OBAMA RELUCTANT TO LOOK INTO BUSH PROGRAMS

Mr. Obama added that he also had “a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”

And now the great Laura Clawson of Daily Kos points us to this in the New York Times, by Peter Baker:

Will it tear the country apart, as some feared about putting a former president on trial after Watergate? Will it be seen by many at home and abroad as victor’s justice akin to developing nations where former leaders are imprisoned by their successors? Or will it become a moment of reckoning, a sign that even someone who was once the most powerful person on the planet is not above the law?

I KNOW! I KNOW! It’s, umm, that third one! ‘Most powerful person not above the law’!!

Nixon, Haldeman, Liddy, Reagan, Edwin Meese, Oliver North, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove...they sent Donald Trump a very clear message: “Break the law. The more outlandish the crime, the better. The punditocracy will dry-wash their hands and mumble platitudes and then protect you, because the ‘little people’ out there—so fragile!— are desperate that their illusions be preserved. Just deny, obfuscate, blame the press for spreading lies, blame the Democrats of persecution, and run out the clock.”

Please, Mr. Alvin Bragg...and Ms. Fani Willis...and Mr. Jack Smith: We can take it. Swear to god, the idea that EVERYONE is equal under the law, that everyone reading this piece would get tossed into the Gray Bar Hotel if we did the shit Trump has done, will set us free! We won’t get the vapors! We have no illusions about our leaders!

So, 55 years. Millions dead. Democracy degraded. Fascism ascendant. BUT...or just the one brief, shining moment, I’m smiling. “TRUMP INDICTED.” Yowsah! As the great Robert Kennedy said:

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.

Olbermann Is Giving A Clinic in How to Fight Republicans. Is Anyone Noticing?

wruckusgroink

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday March 26, 2023 · 5:17 PM PDT

2023/03/26 · 17:17

First, the problem. Then, how the mighty K.O. Kid is illuminating a necessary path forward.

The problem is this: Democrats fear Republicans. Republicans have contempt for Democrats. Democrats cower as Republicans sneer at Democrats, calling them “terrorists,” “traitors” and “Communists”. Republicans know they can abuse Dems without worrying about blowback because Dems want to be the “reasonable” ones who speak in hushed tones, using complex sentences couched in the passive voice in order to soothe suburban swing voters.

This has caused a terrifying consequence that threatens our democracy. With no pushback, Republicans compete with each other to generate the most outrageous soundbites for red-faced yak-radio Limbaugh wannabes and Fox News windbags, Without pushback, Republicans keep ratcheting up the rhetoric to Eleven. Latest example: In attacking Alvin Bragg, Trump called Alvin Bragg “an animal” (NOTE — Bragg is Black) and “a degenerate psychopath who truly hates the U.S.” Trump said Bragg’s “persecution” of him is “worse than the Gestapo” (NOTE—the Nazi Gestapo was instrumental in the Holocaust and the death of six million Jewish people.) And then Bragg got an envelope with “suspicious white powder” and a note that said “ALVIN — I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! (yes, the idiot used 13 exclamation points).

Olbermann’s response:

Donald Trump is a stochastic terrorist. He used stochastic terrorism to get somebody to attack the FBI after the Mar-a-Lago search and within days a man breached a local FBI headquarters to try to kill FBI agents. He used stochastic terrorism to get others to commit the insurrection of January 6. He used stochastic terrorism to inspire somebody to attack Democrats in 2018 and Cesar Sayoc sent out 12 liberals and he had a second list in his computer and I know because I was on it.

Trump is not just committing stochastic terrorism, he knows he is doing it, because it has worked for him, so well, and so often.

Arrest him, today. And he has openly threatened four prosecutors and countless journalists and witnesses. He must not only be arrested - he must NOT be granted bail.

Read this again, slowly. It is true? Yes. Is Trump encouraging his followers to murder Alvin Bragg? Yes. Would you be arrested if you did this? Yes. Should a man who has, arguably, the largest media platform in America be any different? No.

The clinic that Olbermann is conducting five times a week on his iHeart Radio podcast “Countdown” is teaching Democrats to respond to provocation in kind. How? By getting off defense and playing offense. By using the tools at their disposal. By putting aside the fuzzy end of the lollipop and bringing a knife to the knife fight.

Here’s what I mean. When Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy chose to gift Tucker Carlson with exclusive rights to cull the January 6th insurrection footage, Olbermann said this:

Speaker Kevin McCarthy has jeopardized the security of every Representative and every Senator and every staffer, and the continuity of the government of the United States, and thus the safety of every CITIZEN of the United States - and he has publicly admitted to, and boasted about, committing the act by which he did so. This is treasonous. Indict him and arrest him.

Olbermann called for Chuck Schumer to form a committee to investigate McCarthy. Hearings. Witnesses. Sworn testimony. Sweaty Republicans mumbling and invoking their Fifth Amendment rights. Democrats on the offense, Republicans cowering.

You know: CONSEQUENCES.

Instead, we got what we always get: a “strongly worded” statement of Schumer “condemning” this deplorable action. No consequences. Can you hear the Republicans laughing? I can.

I don’t doubt that some people reading this will flinch at doing what Olbermann suggests. Remember, the point isn’t to persecute Republicans. The point is to GET REPUBLICANS TO FEAR DEMOCRATS THE WAY DEMOCRATS FEAR REPUBLICANS. Make them think twice, and then a third time before calling them traitors and terrorists.

The Republicans are going to hold hearings for the next two years about wholly invented bullshit invented in MAGA chatrooms. Until the Democrats decide to fight back against real stuff that’s actually happening, we’re going to have to put up with endless exhalations of vitriolic nonsense from the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz.

Democrats—pay attention. You have power. You have options. You can revoke the Republicans’ self-granted license to slander you. Listen to K.O. Use the tools you’ve got.

A final note: what will the mainstream press say about all this? They’ll be horrified at first...and then they’ll get over it, because it makes every horserace story juicier. And then, a miracle! Voters will STOP being afraid to vote for Democrats because they’re such wimps! “Hey, they fight back! They might fight for me!” What an idea!

Dear NYT: Call On Me! I Know! I Know!

wruckusgroink

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday March 19, 2023 · 5:05 PM PDT

2023/03/19 · 17:05

(FILE PHOTO) In this composite image a comparison has been made between former US President George W. Bush and his serving Secretary of State Colin Powell. ***LEFT IMAGE*** WASHINGTON - DECEMBER 19: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell announces that Iraq is in "material breach" of a UN disarmament resolution December 19, 2002 at the State Department in Washington, DC. Powell, describing Iraq's 12,000 page arms declaration as a catalog of "recycled information and flagrant omissions," said that the breach will not automatically trigger war. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) ***RIGHT IMAGE*** WASHINGTON - DECEMBER 19: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell announces that Iraq is in "material breach" of a UN disarmament resolution December 19, 2002 at the State Department in Washington, DC. Powell, describing Iraq's 12,000 page arms declaration as a catalog of "recycled information and flagrant omissions," said that the breach will not automatically trigger war. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) — "THERE IS NO DOUBT that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction

Apparently, the New York Times is...well, mystified!

“20 Years On, A Question Lingers About Iraq: Why Did the U.S. Invade?

Read the text! “The question remains...a matter of deep uncertainty”...”the debate rages on.” “I will go to my grave not knowing that. I can’t answer it,” Richard Haass, a senior State Department official at the time of the invasion, said in 2004 when asked why it had happened.”

Then comes this nugget: “The world may never get a definitive answer.”

No, there is a definitive answer. I know! I was sentient when all this was going down! Here’s why we invaded Iraq:

We invaded Iraq because Karl Rove decided that starting a war was the Republicans’ best chance to win the 2002 mid-terms.

See? That wasn’t hard!

And you know what? He was right!

Let’s go back to 9/10/2001. George W. Bush lost the popular vote in the 2000 election. Everything he’d done so far was revealing the awful truth: he was in over his head. He was, in the words of Bill Clinton, “an empty suit with a mean streak.” His popularity was right around 40% and plummeting.

Then came 9/11, and, in the words of the Guardian, “Rumsfeld and Cheney, together with Rumsfeld’s deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, emerged as radical warmongers driven by fear of worst-case scenarios with little or no basis in reality - in particular the idea that Saddam was allied with al-Qaida, had chemical and biological weapons, and was on the brink of building nuclear warheads.

I can well remember my rage and helplessness as Bush, Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz took a once-in-a-hundred-year chance to bring the country together and, instead, used it as a blackjack to mug any Democrat who wasn’t on board with the Iraq invasion.

Can I quote the great Paul Krugman, NYT’s own columnist? Of all the pundits, Krugman was the only one who called BULLSHIT on the war from day one. He never wavered. He never blinked. He’s quoted in a (great) article in the Atlantic saying:

“The Iraq war wasn’t an innocent mistake, a venture undertaken on the basis of intelligence that turned out to be wrong. America invaded Iraq because the Bush administration wanted a war. The public justifications for the invasion were nothing but pretexts, and falsified pretexts at that.”

Here’s an example I’ll never forget. In the 2002 midterms, took-a-pass-on-the-Vietnam-War Saxby Chambliss ran a TV ad in the Georgia Senate race against disabled-by-a-grenade-in-Vietnam-decorated-war-vet Max Cleland. The ad featured Cleland’s face morphing into Osama bin Laden. Why? Because, in the debate about creating the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Cleland wanted the workers to be able to unionize. That made him bin Laden. And Chambliss beat Cleland, sending Cleland into a suicidal depression.

I mean, WTF New York Times?? Here’s what Rumsfeld would call the “Known Knowns”

The reason the New York Times still can’t admit this after twenty years is that they would have to acknowledge the staggering, nihilistic, calamitous cynicism of the move by Cheney/Rove/Bush. And they just can’t go there. I mean, there are social events to be held with these people! Access that must be had! Polite power luncheons!

So a “war of choice” that cost 300,000 Iraqi lives, 4,600 American lives, and 815 BILLION dollars (all NYT figures) must be forever a mystery! NO WAY could all this have happened just to prevent the Republicans from losing the House and Senate in 2002! No matter how much evidence is staring them in the face.

George Orwell famously said, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Can we tell the truth? Finally? After 20 years? And can we take the advice of the great Charles Pierce and sentence Dick Cheney to a lifetime of cleaning bedpans at a VA Hospital?

RE: Kos V. Guild: We're A Tribe: Let's Act Like It

wruckusgroink

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday March 04, 2023 · 11:15 AM PST

2023/03/04 · 11:15

Daily Kos logos, old and new, 2020 — The Tribe Even Has Its Own Logo/Flag

First, a confession: I’m a Kossack. I’ve been here since the beginning in 2002 (the first several years under a different moniker.) For those too young to remember, 2002 was a very dark time for the American experiment. Rather than use the tragedy of 9/11 to bring the country together, Rove/Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld chose to tear the country apart, cynically ginning up a ‘war of choice’ so they could cast anyone who opposed it as an America-hating traitor in order to win the 2002 mid-terms (It worked).

Markos did something extraordinary: rather than just start a blog, he created a tribal gathering place: a site that invited people who were outraged and disheartened by these events to find each other, befriend each other, organize, and fight. What a gift!

In short, he created a tribal meeting place. I use “Tribe” as Sebastian Junger used it in his indispensable book of the same name. What is a tribe? In an interview, Junger described it as “the community that you live in that you share resources with that you would risk your life to defend.” In his book Junger describes the work of a tribe:

If you want to make a society work, then you don’t keep underscoring the places where you’re different—you underscore your shared humanity.

All I know about the rift between Daily Kos and the Daily Kos Guild is what I read in the diaries. Here’s why I'm writing this: something is happening here that could tear apart our tribe. Here are some words used by the Guild: “catastrophic financial situation,” “anti-worker choices,” “total lack of transparency,” “willful disregard with the obligation to act fairly,” unconscionable circumstances,” and “unnecessarily cruel.” Why am I flagging that language? Here’s a passage from Junger’s “Tribe” that’s seared in my memory:

Unlike criticism, contempt is particularly toxic because it assumes a moral superiority in the speaker. Contempt is often directed at people who have been excluded from a group or declared unworthy of its benefits. Contempt is often used by governments to provide rhetorical cover for torture or abuse. Contempt is one of four behaviors that, statistically, can predict divorce in married couples. People who speak with contempt for one another will probably not remain united for long.

The far-right’s fiercest weapon, one they use incessantly, one that oozes from Fox News, is CONTEMPT. The message they pound into the brains of their acolytes is that liberals and progressives are pure evil who must be purged from the righteous tribe of True (white, Christian, Republican) Americans. I believe that Guild members are good, well-meaning Kossacks, but they’re using language that vilifies Markos and Daily Kos. This fight has become a morality tale in which members of management are malevolent villains acting with malice. This tale is, of course, familiar to lefties like me: fat cats blow it, and workers get screwed.

I don’t believe it. I’ve been reading Markos’s missives. I believe Daily Kos has been negotiating in good faith. Bad shit happens. Nobody likes to lose their job. I’ve been fired once and laid off twice, each time because of decisions made by folks far up the management chain who survived. I know what it feels like to be kicked to the street. But using this kind of language to ascribe bad faith to management can produce nothing but bad consequences. Junger again:

The ultimate betrayal of tribe isn’t acting competitively—that should be encouraged—but predicating your power on the excommunication of others from the group. That is exactly what politicians of both parties try to do when they spew venomous rhetoric about their rivals. That is exactly what media figures do when they go beyond criticism of their fellow citizens and openly revile them. Reviling people you share a combat outpost with is an incredibly stupid thing to do, and public figures who imagine their nation isn’t, potentially, one huge combat outpost are deluding themselves.

Friends, we’ve got something rare and precious here. We’ve got a place where we can disagree and fight and wrangle within a context of ideological alignment: we’re here because we’re willing to fight for what Dr. King called “The Beloved Community.” The terrifying revelation of the Trump years is that when a charismatic leader invites people to be their worst selves, forces like racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, and Fascism are unleashed that can easily lead to the end of the American experiment.

Let me end this with the words of Abraham Lincoln. I spent six years working on the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, in Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln’s greatest magic trick and most enduring legacy was his refusal to vilify a South that had begun a catastrophic Civil War so that slavery could continue to thrive. Lincoln never acknowledged secession. He always considered the Southern states as part of the Union: they had just been hypnotized and deceived by a small group of fanatical plantation owners who had created this calamity. As you think about the way forward to Daily Kos, consider what a resource we’ve got here. This is the campfire where our tribe can come together and do the necessary work of fighting for equality and social justice. And let these words resonate in your heart:

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Governor DeSantis—Ban My Book!

wruckusgroink

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday February 10, 2023 · 3:44 PM PST

2023/02/10 · 15:44

Dear Governor DeSantis — My name is R. Lee Procter. I’m a long-time contributor to Daily Kos. In 2022, I published a “based on fact” novel of Negro League baseball called “Sugarball.” I demand you ban my book because it’s everything you hate and fear:

It’s based on a real historical incident, where a group of Negro League baseball players went to the Dominican Republic in 1937 to play in a tournament as ringers for the Dominican national team, at the behest of an ambitious Fascist dictator named Rafael Trujillo. They ended up literally playing for their lives. (If they didn’t win the final game of the baseball tournament, Trujillo would have shot them — true story. He had his militia on the field, rifles in hand, facing the field.)
The hero is a Black man named Josh Gibson, generally considered the greatest baseball player of the 20th century. (Gibson was sometimes called “the Black Babe Ruth.” Many baseball historians think Ruth should have been called “the white Josh Gibson”)
A major conflict of the book is between the fascist Trujillo, who is trying to nationalize Dominican sugar plantations, and American “Big Sugar” corporate interests who (ironically) installed Trujillo as a dictator in 1930 because they thought they could depend on him to do their bidding. When they arrive in the Dominican, the Negro Leaguers are surprised to find themselves in the middle of this uproar.
The first third of the novel describes a barnstorming trip to Alabama by 1937’s greatest Negro League team, the Pittsburgh Crawfords (with Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, and Cool Papa Bell). The Crawfords encounter the worst kind of virulent racism, including an attack by the local Klan. They are cheated on gate receipts and denied lodging at a local hotel. This is an accurate snapshot of life in the Deep South, deeply researched and based on fact.
In the book, Josh Gibson demonstrates the power that courage has to inspire his teammates. Gibson barely survives an encounter with one of Trujillo’s subordinates who is carrying out the notorious “Parsley Massacre” where Trujillo ordered the slaughter-by-machete of 17,000 Haitian sugar cane workers.

Worst of all, Governor DeSantis, the most notorious parts of this tale are true. The part where Trujillo lined the Crawford players up against a prison wall to be gunned down by a firing squad, for losing two games for Trujillo’s national team? True. The part where a white big league owner tries to recruit Gibson, Paige, and Bell to play for his new “Zulu Cannibal” team, where the Black players must wear grass skirts and body paint? True. The part where the three greatest Black players are denied the chance even to try out for a big league team because of their skin color? True true true.

This is a dangerous book, Governor DeSantis. Some young baseball lovers could discover the truth about the disgraceful heritage of racial prejudice in professional sports in the 20th century. This could cause hurt feelings! Also anger, outrage, and a desire to go deeper into the history of American racism. Feelings could be hurt. Ignorance could be banished. A fire could be lit that could cause the reader to take up the cause of social justice. And we can’t let that happen, can we? Use Florida’s “DESTROY BLACK HISTORY MONTH” to BAN THIS BOOK! TODAY!!

Living in a country full of Trump supporters who should be Democrats

wruckusgroink

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday January 02, 2023 · 12:25 PM PST

2023/01/02 · 12:25

This is not a rebuke of a story that’s generating a lot of heat on Daily Kos. This is my attempt to have a conversation, and reveal a new angle in this discussion.

First of all, I CAN RELATE. I woke up the day after election day, 2016 sick to my stomach. I was disoriented. Trump, the most loathsome man in America? A man with no virtues? Yes, he lost the popular vote but he played the Electoral College game perfectly, and millions of my fellow Americans chose him over Hillary Clinton.

The big question is “why?” And that question was answered for me by Thomas Frank in his book, “The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism.”

You want to know why Trump won, and repugnant scumbags like Marjorie Trailer Park Greene keep getting elected? Let’s start with a line from that anguished, impassioned post that inspired this response:

“Weren’t we celebrating Obama’s election a minute and a half ago? What the fuck happened?”

We know what happened. What happened was that Obama spent his first year in office making sure that the “Too Big To Fail” banks who almost brought down our entire economy were made whole...while ignoring the crisis of nine million people underwater on their bogus mortgages, and let them lose their homes.

I donated a LOT of money to the Obama campaign. I sent him a lot of impassioned emails. Rahm Fucking Emanuel made sure I wasn’t heard, going so far as to dismantle Obama’s astonishing electoral majority-maker.

Then Obama spent the next year struggling to pass a healthcare plan crafted from Heritage Foundation talking points, that didn’t disturb the health insurance industry and Big Pharma. And then he failed to defend his plan in the 2010 midterms, causing a Tea Party Red Tsunami we have yet to recover from.

So you’re that Obama voter in Ohio and Michigan. You’ve lost your house as you’ve watched the bankers who caused this debacle made whole. Trust the Democrats to have your back?

I’m not here to bash Obama. I’m here to echo what Thomas Frank says in his history of anti-populism. Trump voters — white, blue collar Midwesterners — were once Roosevelt Democrats. Why? Because FDR listened to them. He fought hard for the right of blue collar workers to join labor unions, creating a prosperity boom that echoed into the 1950s and 60s. He spent money to put millions of people to work. He created an old-age insurance program that everyone except right wing Republicans loves. A key chapter in Frank’s book is the Republicans trying to do to FDR in 1936 what the Republicans did to populist hero William Jennings Bryan in 1896 — that is, muster a full-frontal, multi-millioon dollar, multi-faceted assault on him from Big Business and Big Media (Hearst, the Chicago Trib, etc.) to scare voters into believing hordes of Bolsheviks had hijacked the country.

And ya know what? None of it worked this time. FDR was delivering for the grandparents of those Trump voters, and they delivered him a landslide.

Here’s my point: I get the visceral rage of progressives at Trumpistas. I feel it too. But we’re going to be, at best, a 50-50 party unless we have the guts to go deeper, feel the rage they feel and do the hard work of winning them back. They look at the Democrats and see a party that has betrayed them over and over again: sending jobs overseas, caving on raising taxes on the super-rich, and voting for a pork-laden Defense bill that gives billions more than the Pentagon asks for while waffling on programs that would help people who need it.

So let’s think like a populist circa 1932: what needs doing? 1) Universal affordable health insurance: nobody left behind. 2) Affordable pharma drugs, no more record profits while people suffer 3) End billion dollar Big Oil subsidies, put all that money to creating MILLIONS of U.S. gov’t clean energy jobs. 4) Guaranteed national income — everyone who wants a job gets one. (Think of the amount of work that needs doing in this country...) 5) Universal Free Lunch Program — no more “food insecurity.” Everyone who needs a meal gets one, no exceptions (ESPECIALLY children). 6) Everyone has the right to join a Union, and no one joining a Union can be fired or penalized.

Kossacks, those Trump voters we keep slagging can be Democrats. They were once, because we heard them and delivered for them. They want to feel happy about their lives, proud of their work and proud of their country. They felt that way under FDR. They gave Obama a shot.

We can do this. And it begins with listening.

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