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When they attack, counterattack

Tuesday, July 21, 2026

This article on Crooks & Liars interested me. A bit of good news as at least some Democrats are waking up:

Rep Gwen Moore of Wisconsin went on C-SPAN and discussed her views about Democratic Socialism and advised her fellow Democrats not to be so afraid of the word socialism because they are going to get called that by the Republicans, whether it’s true or not.

Not only should they not be afraid of the term, they should fight fire with fire, by endlessly telling voters that the Republicans called Social Security “socialism”, and they called Medicare “socialism”, and if that’s socialism then I’m all for it, instead of open corruption and handing money to billionaires. I can still remember when the Democrats were trying to pass Medicare and Ronald Reagan, among others, attacked it as socialism. There’s no need to get into the fine points, since there are significant differences between socialism and communism, which Republicans insist are synonyms for each other. What’s important is to meet the attack head on and point out that Republicans have always opposed these popular programs and have always called them socialist. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to point out that we are the only advanced country in the world where thousands of people go bankrupt every year due to medical bills they can’t pay, while every other country has a medical program that Republicans call socialism that provides free medical care.

It’s good to see that at least some Democrats are getting out of the defensive crouch.

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We’re commies again

Monday, July 6, 2026

The Republicans, led of course by the very stable genius, have decided to resurrect the fifties by calling their Democratic opponents communists.  As documented here, Fox is playing along.

One must wonder if the Republicans are losing their game. One thing they were good at was pushing lies about the Democrats that worked for them, but they seem to be losing their touch. It’s getting to the point where they’re just as bad as the Democrats about labeling their opponents, though all the Democrats would have to do is tell the truth about the Republicans. I still haven’t seen the quite apt term “Fascist” applied by the Democrats to the actual fascists by whom we are currently governed.

It just doesn’t seem likely that trotting out the old slur of communist will have much traction. Particularly when it’s used to condemn Democrats for wanting things like universal health care. It also seems to be a confession on their part that calling someone a “socialist” hasn’t worked either, as a number of Democrats who have been so labeled have won their primaries and seem fated to win in November, again assuming that we are allowed to have somewhat fair elections.

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Reflections on Trump’s Justice Department

Sunday, June 21, 2026

We learn here and here that Trump is having people arrested for allegedly causing the growth of algae in the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pond. At the first link we’re told an old man riding a bike (I can sympathize, that describes me) was charged because he dipped his hands into the pool. We’re furnished other examples at the second link. These people are being arrested for harmless actions they took days after the harm they are alleged to have caused took place.

I only handled a few criminal cases in my lengthy career at an attorney, but I’m fairly sure that had I represented one of these defendants I’d be preparing to file a civil rights action against the prosecutor once the client was acquitted. I do hope that if these cases ever actually get to court, for even Jeanine Pirro may think twice about prosecuting them, that the presiding judge will relieve the prosecuting attorneys of their right to practice law.

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Another hopeful sign

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

The media is not allowed, or is not allowing itself, to recognize the fact that Trump is rapidly sliding into a fairly advanced state of dementia. One thing that appears to be happening as a result of that dementia may very well make a Democratic surge in November even more likely.

All his life Trump has been a liar, and he has been able to lie in such a way as to convince a fair proportion of his listeners that he is telling the truth. It takes a bit of brains to lie that way. For instance, you have to craft the lie so that it appeals to the target audience, and once you have lied, you have to more or less stick to it, though if you’re good at it, you can modify it as the times might require so that after a while you have turned the lie 180 degrees and the suckers still believe it. Trump is a past master at lying like that.

But the dementia is taking a toll. Trump’s Art of the Lie is slipping away. He is now often telling the truth, and it can’t help but hurt his own poll numbers and by extension the prospects for the Republicans that have been kissing his ass for the past nine years. For instance, a day or so ago Trump allowed that he didn’t much care about the negotiations to end the war in Iran, because “Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring”. He also told the truth when he said he didn’t care “Not even a little bit” about the way the war was affecting American’s finances. As I pointed out in a previous post, his recent actions will only turn off some voters; they willl attract none. The same goes every time he tells the truth. No one is likely come over to his side after hearing that he doesn’t care a whit about them.

I predict that we’ll be hearing more truth come out of Trump’s mouth as the dementia gets worse, and as a result more voters will abandon both him and his party. Don’t get me wrong, he’ll still lie on occasion, but the lies will be more transparent and his slips into telling the truth will increase, and the last thing the Republicans could want is for Trump to tell the truth. They’ll be stuck defending that truth. That will be hard, for they will have to argue, in essence, that he didn’t mean what he said, but they absolutely agree with what he meant.

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Another great talent of the genius

Monday, June 1, 2026

We read here that more Americans believe that the Earth is Flat or that the moon landing was faked, than believe that it’s okay for Trump to name government buildings after himself. I think we can assume that the same numbers prevail for his insistence that he appear on passports, gold coins, and $250.00 bills.

This is a repetition of a phenomenon that took place during his first Administration. Nothing he does is likely to attract new adherents, and everything he does is likely to drive some away. And it is clearly the case that there are very few people who, at this point, draw a distinction between any given Republican politician and Trump. As he turns people off to himself he turns them off to the Republican Party. This, of course, is something Republican politicians have brought on themselves, given their complete surrender to him, such that while in private they detest him, in public they treat him like a god.

One must hope the Democrats learn how to take advantage of all this, since, assuming again that they don’t steal the elections with the blessing of John Roberts, it will mean a fairly large victory at the polls in November.

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Corruption to the nth degree

Saturday, May 30, 2026

I totally support James Talarico’s bid for the U.S. Senate, but I have to disagree with his assertion that Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in the country. Alright, you might argue he’s tied, but there’s no way he beats out the person who currently resides in an executive mansion that said person has largely destroyed.

Here’s the latest:

Just weeks after President Donald Trump urged Americans to “go out and buy a Dell” and months after he bought millions of dollars worth of stock in the company, the computer giant was awarded a $9.7 billion Pentagon contract.

…

After the president’s remarks, the value of Dell stocks surged by 14.6% to an all-time high of just under $264 before settling at just over $260 by the end of the day.

…

During his frenetic burst of stock trading in the first three months of the year, Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million in Dell stock on February 10, according to financial disclosure forms, when the stock traded at $126 per share.

Months later, at a Mother’s Day event on May 8, he publicly shilled for the company’s products—a possible violation of White House ethics policy—and lavished praise upon the Dell family:

…

The contract would have raised scrutiny regardless, given the Dell family’s proximity to Trump in his second term. CEO Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, have pledged $6.25 billion to help fund the so-called “Trump accounts” that were part of the president’s 2025 mega budget legislation, a policy that critics have described as a tax shelter for the wealthy.

This tied the Dell family fortune to Trump’s political agenda. In recent months, he’s also hitched it to his own personal wealth.

Okay, I admit that this may not be the most corrupt thing he’s done, but it’s more corrupt than anything any other president has ever done, even more corrupt than anything Sam Alito, John Roberts, or Clarence Thomas has done. (No need for a link for Alito and Thomas, everyone knows about them.)

I’m absolutely sure that if you search through the back pages of the New York Times you’ll be able to read all about this, but be quick about it because they’ll only mention it once. It was, after all, far more important to run endless stories about Hillary’s emails, or the claim that Al Gore never made that he invented the internet, and anyway, everyone knows Trump is corrupt so one more example just isn’t news. And don’t expect Democrats to be hounding the press for not covering this like it would if it were a Democrat doing it. That would be so impolite.

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What‘s wrong with these Democrats?

Monday, May 11, 2026

Or are they really Democrats?

From the Boston Globe:

A group of Massachusetts Democrats is pushing a ballot question this year that would eliminate the state’s party primaries, arguing a dramatic overhaul of how residents vote is necessary to create more competitive elections in a state where many top lawmakers often cruise to reelection uncontested.

But the measure is drawing opposition from within both political parties and sowing fractures among Democrats especially — pitting progressives and members of the party’s governing body against some of their own who are pressing to eliminate a system that has long delivered Democrats to success.

Activists in the party’s left wing are planning to raise money in a bid to persuade voters to reject the plan, which would allow the top two vote-getters in a preliminary election, regardless of party, to advance to the final. They fear it would box out lesser-known candidates who struggle with fund-raising.

There is no electoral mechanism more likely to put unpopular Republicans in office in Massachusetts than what these “Democrats” are suggesting. The primary system they are recommending is the system that is currently in force in California. There is currently a primary taking place in which there are something like 5 Democrats and only 2 Republicans running. While, according to the polls, the Democrats will likely get a combined total of 60% of the vote, it is extremely likely that none will get the total percentage of either of the Republicans, meaning that the choice people will face in November will be between 2 candidates that the majority of people in the state did not want on the ballot.

It would, of course, be nice if the Democrats with the worst poll numbers would drop out, but we’re talking about politicians here. They’re far too self centered to put the good of their state over their own egos.

The same thing would happen in Massachusetts, which means these “Democrats” are, in fact, advocating for a system likely in the extreme to translate into Republican victories despite the wishes of a majority of the voters. It was bad enough when California did it, but in their defense, they might not have realized how badly it would turn out. The “Democrats” in Massachusetts are either fully aware of the risk they are taking or are profoundly stupid.

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Another sign of hope

Sunday, May 3, 2026

The news has been horrible lately, but there are some signs of hope, again assuming that elections are fairly held. In the example I’m about to discuss that will likely be the case, as it’s taking place in Maine.

Jonathan Bush,a cousin of the person who is now merely in the running for second worst president of the United States, is running for governor in Maine. As has been happening more generally across the nation he has been saying the quiet parts out loud, such that the opposition ads practically write themselves.

In his case:

In 2017, nearly 60% of Mainers voted to expand the state’s Medicaid program, helping more than 130,000 people access affordable health care. Last week, Jonathan Bush compared that decision to Russian President Vladimir Putin killing schoolchildren.

And then there’s this:

This is not the only time Bush has targeted MaineCare. In March, Bush told WLOB radio that he wants to use artificial intelligence to kick people out of the program.

So, not only is he opposed to a program that is obviously popular with a large majority of the people in his state, he is advocating for artificial intelligence to start kicking people off that program, something that is going to appeal only to the most rabid of right wingers, whose votes he would get in any event, assuming he wins the primary in which he is currently involved.

It wasn’t so long ago that Republicans would deny intending to do such things, though they would, in fact, have every intention of doing them. That way they could prevent the press from reporting what was actually obvious to anyone 1) with a brain, and 2) who was paying attention.

Bush is by no means an exception. This sort of thing is becoming more and more commonplace. Many Republicans have apparently begun to think that an oligarchy of the rich is something that sells well with the American people, even when you don’t dress it up as something entirely different.

So, should he get the nomination, the ads opposing both him and Susan Collins will indeed write themselves. In Collins case Mainers have already heard plenty about how “concerned” she is about things she will do nothing to oppose or prevent. No doubt, should Bush get the nomination, they will hear plenty about how he wants to use AI to take away their health care. We can only hope that this sort of thing will be taking place throughout the country.

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Israel losing support, at about the same pace as Trump

Sunday, April 19, 2026

Digby at Hullabaloo has an interesting post regarding American attitudes toward Israel. She starts by quoting Dan Pfeiffer who discusses polling that shows that “strong majorities of Americans have negative views of Israel and Netanyahu”. This is a great change from just a short time ago, a reaction to the fact that like a country with a certain orange man as its putative leader, Israel has begun to engage in acts very much resembling those in which a certain European country engaged in the 1930s and 1940s. Pfeiffer writes:

According to an NBC poll, positive views of Israel have dropped 15 points since 2023, in the immediate aftermath of the October 7th terrorist attack. The shift is driven primarily by Democrats, but it goes much further than that. Support among independents is down 19 points, and even among Republicans, it’s dropped 9 points.

Pew found that strong majorities of Americans have negative views of Israel and Netanyahu. This is not just a Democratic phenomenon — a majority of adults under 50 now rate Israel and Netanyahu negatively.

Bibi Netanyahu and the genocide in Gaza have done untold damage to Israel’s standing in the United States. Only a few years ago, Israel was seen as one of our closest allies. Now, many Americans view it as a pariah state. That has real implications for American politics. While many Democrats have spoken out, the leadership — particularly Senator Schumer — has been reluctant to, clinging to an outdated view of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Politicians who don’t grasp this seismic shift risk being out of touch with the electorate in both parties. Israel is yet another issue where there’s a yawning gap between the base and the establishment.

Both Pfeiffer and Digby point out that it’s important that the Democrats strongly make the case that opposing Israel’s current incarnation is the right thing to do and has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. That can be done assuming the Democrats come up with a coherent argument that they use consistently.

Naturally, the Democrats will likely fail to stick together and make a coherent case for opposing Israel’s actions, though it does appear that a large number of elected Democrats have seen the light. Recently, a resolution proposed by Bernie Sanders, who himself is Jewish, seeking to block arms transfers to Israel, garnered 40 Democratic votes in the Senate, but this, from one of the 300 or so fundraising emails I receive every day, didn’t surprise me:

When Bernie introduced his resolution to block these latest arms sales of bombs and bulldozers, he called on Congress to FINALLY show backbone and moral clarity in the wake of horrific violence in Gaza and now Southern Lebanon. But Schumer didn’t just miss the moment – he voted no. That’s a betrayal that will lead to more death and destruction in our name.

Chuck Schumer is the majority leader and he insists on living in a fantasy world in which nothing has changed since 1975. It would be ever so nice if the Democrats would choose a leader who understands where things stand right now.

I should add here that I’m not exactly a fan of any of the countries that surround Israel. Iran is certainly not a country that strikes me as a haven of human rights. But given the situation in that part of the world, we should simply step back and refuse to be a part of any of it while continuing to clearly articulate that opposing what Israel is doing is not equivalent to anti-Semitism. It would not be hard to find plenty of American Jews who would support that position. See, e.g., Bernie Sanders.

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Impeach? 25th Amendment? Yes and No.

Thursday, April 9, 2026

John Larson, along with other Democrats, has filed articles of impeachment against the genius. I don’t expect them to go anywhere, but perhaps more important is that Larson and others have demanded that the 25th Amendment be invoked to remove Demented Don from office. In doing so they are explicitly, though perhaps not explicitly enough, referring to his deteriorating mental state:

Larson also called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked against Trump. “He’s becoming more unstable by the day,” Larson said. “He is unfit to lead.”

Again, I don’t expect anything concrete to come of it, and I’m not sure that I even want something to come of it. More on that later.

I’ve written often enough on this blog about the unbelievable inability of Democrats to speak with one voice. The cited article states that there are 80 Congressional Democrats that have called for invoking the 25th Amendment. It’s time for those Democrats and others to start openly calling out Trump’s dementia and the failure of the media to adequately cover it. Start calling him names. They can have “Demented Don” for free (see above). If the Democrats continue to pound on the undoubted fact of his dementia the press, other than Fox, will have no choice but to cover it. As more and more people, particularly the “low information” voters, accept the fact that he is in fact in the grips of dementia, the more likely they’ll be to vote against Congressional Republicans who will continue to do nothing about it. Assuming a somewhat fair election that will assure a solid Democratic majority in the next Congress.

All that being said, as I indicated above, I don’t really want Congressional Republicans to invoke the 25th Amendment before the next election. First, doing so might mollify some of those “low information” voters. It would also achieve nothing immediately so far as preventing the rise of fascism in this country. JD Vance is a full fledged fascist, who is quite a bit smarter than Trump. If he’s installed before the next election it would likely mean fewer Democrats elected in the fall, not just because of the idiotic “low information” voters feeling reassured, but because he’d probably be better at organizing a steal. If the 25th Amendment is invoked the best time would be after the upcoming election. If Vance became president he’d do as much harm as Trump would have done, but he doesn’t have Trump’s ability to con large numbers of voters into voting against their interest, so he’d be unlikely to win the election in 2028. Assuming, again, that it’s not stolen. That being said, the country would probably be better off if Demented Don “served” out his term, thereby driving even more voters into the Democratic fold in 2028.

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