45 thoughts on “News/Politics 11-9-24”

  2. Cue the maniacal laugh…..

    https://x.com/seanmdav/status/1855067168355836051?t=NSuQq7m1N3AqU1pug4Ivpw&s=19

    “If senators don’t want to confirm RFK, then Trump should use the nuclear option and make RFK his National Security Adviser (no confirmation required) with oversight of the entire military- and intelligence-industrial complex. Can you imagine what RFK would expose if he had the keys to all that?

    Or they just could confirm him to oversee FDA or USDA.”

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  3. Never Biden’s fault. Pigs and garbage. Ever the sophomoric assaults.

    “Your pocketbook is bad, not because the Bidens did anything. Not because the economy is bad. Your grocery bills are what they are because the folks that own the groceries are pigs,” Goldberg said on the popular program.

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  4. I have not seen this reported on the local news yet…,

    Just a day after President Trump made an impressive political comeback, protests are breaking out in cities across the United States and even overseas. Despite Trump’s decisive victory and the GOP’s strong showing, some Democrats and leftists seem unwilling to accept the election results. This has led to demonstrations from Chicago all the way to New York City.

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  8. comment from a friend (and a serious, lifelong student of US history): ‘I’ll be looking to hear healing, uniting words like those of Tommy Jefferson in his inaugural speech after a bruising, almost bloody election (he was the cause of some of that, of course, but recognized that things couldn’t go on that polarized)’

    Many of us share that outlook, I think.

    Meanwhile, we’ll have Thanksgiving and Christmas (and Hallmark movies!) to enjoy before all of that 🙂

    • dj

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  10. But it is because they got away with it last time don’t ya know🤪

    Honestly this divide will remain and any source provided by either side will quickly be refuted. The media “sources” claim false fact checks… kind of like the fox watching the hen house. So it goes.

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  11. Interesting piece:

    A Democrat Ponders a ‘Thumping Rebuke’

    Ruy Teixeira says the party went wrong when it abandoned ‘progressive centrism’ and embraced a hard-left cultural ideology.

    ~ … They were turned off by a party that has veered sharply away from its “greatest strength, which is uplifting the working and middle classes. The Democrats are no longer the party of the people. They’ve lost touch with the working class.” With the Democrats having embraced identity politics, the Republicans are “the party of the working class in this country now. Who’d have thunk it?” 

    Mr. Teixeira cites a 2023 book, “Party of the People,” by GOP pollster Patrick Ruffini, and says that the Republican-leaning “populist, multiracial, working-class coalition” is “a real thing, and it’s here to stay.” He says we’re seeing “the decline of racial polarization and an increase in class polarization.” 

    That’s a horror story for the Democrats. Mr. Teixeira, whose father was a Portuguese immigrant, says the Democratic values that repel blue-collar Americans of all races have opened a rift with the elites who reside in postindustrial “ideopolises.” Ms. Harris and her party were “heavily overindexed on liberal cultural issues, and were even using a language that was inimical to a lot of these voters.” The Democrats “pooh-poohed concerns about crime and immigration, and thought their ‘enlightened’ views about race, gender, abortion and climate were saleable to most members of the voting public.” Mr. Trump’s comeback proves they weren’t. … ~

    … The good news for Democrats is that Mr. Teixeira sees no emerging Republican majority. Although Mr. Trump appears to have captured the working class, Mr. Teixeira attributes that as much to Democratic failings as he does to the Republican leader’s own allure. “We’re now in this weird interregnum stalemate,” he says, “which is unusual in American politics. Neither party is truly a majority party against which the minority party is arrayed.” America will “toggle back and forth between the parties. Nobody’s made an offer to the American people they can’t refuse.” 

    In other words, what will determine outcomes is “the things that people don’t like about the other party, which then makes them vote for the party that isn’t that party.” In that kind of election, however, “the negatives of the Democrats become more salient than the Republicans’.” … ~

    ______________

    Work to do on both sides for upcoming elections.

    • dj

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  13. (conclusion from opinion piece @3:59):

    ~ How do the Democrats pick themselves up and return to the fray? “Some political entrepreneur,” Mr. Teixeira says, “has to realize that the Republicans have a lot of problems, right? Trump has problems. They’re not a united party on economics, and many other issues. There’s a clear avenue for Democrats to pose an alternative to them.” 

    This election should make clear that they can’t do that “without moving to the center on cultural issues.” The Democrats have to be “for law and order. We have to be tough on the border. We can’t just be saying ‘illegal immigrants are great.’ ” He points out that Mr. Biden had to walk back his inadvertent use of the word “illegal” in reference to a criminal migrant in his last State of the Union Address. “He apologized publicly,” Mr. Teixeira says. “That was an indicator of how crazy things have gotten.” 

    The party also needs to “give up on this equity baloney and start talking about equal opportunity, and fairness, which is what people really believe in.” He pleads: “Go back to Martin Luther King. He had the right idea. You ought to judge people by their character, not the color of their skin.” He cites Bill Clinton, who had “a lot of great instincts on a lot of this stuff. An important aspect of his career is that he ran and won in a place like Arkansas. And that’s really different from running and winning in California, or New York, or Illinois.”

    “Clinton was used to talking to people who didn’t agree with him. And I think Democrats need to discover that again. They need to ask themselves, ‘How do we talk to people who don’t agree with us?’ ” ~

    • dj

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  14. Question: Will Trump make overtures and be able to better unify his own party going forward? Do some here even want to see that (I’m thinking not)? But that would be a start for the Republicans in crafting more of a majority party.

    And my political advice is free. 🙂

    • dj

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  16. Pretty interesting, actually — this is from the first inaugural address March 1, 1801, “Friends and Fellow Citizens”:

    ~ … During the contest of opinion through which we have passed the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good.

    All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.

    During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety.

    But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government can not be strong, that this Government is not strong enough; but would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world’s best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest Government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. … ~

    • dj

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  17. And two scriptures to also keep in mind (buzz kill is me 🙂 ):

    Proverbs 16:18: Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

    Ps 146:3: Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.

    • dj

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  19. Many years ago I knew of a local would-be politician who campaigned on the slogan: “Can’t we all just get along?” He was the senior clergyman at a prominent Congregational church near me. He was very educated and well-spoken. His wife was also well-known in the city, and she was my boss. Long story short, he lost the election, and a couple of years later he left his wife and ran away with my predecessor. I guess the point is even when you say all you want is to get along, it’s not true. It’s never true because people are complex and they want lots of things—sometimes mutually exclusive things.

    And for groups of people it’s even more complicated. I think the real question for Republicans is what are you willing to give up to get along. I think Trump tried to incorporate the old guard Republicans in his administration the last time around —people like Jeff Sessions, John Bolton, Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo. That strategy served him, and us, poorly. I’m more interested in knowing what the losing side in this election is willing to give up to get along. Or are they not interested in getting along after all because they really do want something else altogether.

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  22. The rats are jumping overboard!? He should have been fired along with what’s his name……

    We know those scriptures and it seems there is a message to be sent to some of us here…should be all of us but I’m thinking some finger wagging is going on….perhaps that’s just me and no I don’t have a guilty conscience 😁

    And why wouldn’t we desire unity? But that cannot happen without compromise and there are some matters way too important to compromise upon….moral issues which most on the other side of the aisle will never give up.

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  23. DJ@5:23 Ha! Buzz on, girl you can’t kill mine. Those are good scriptures to keep in mind. If our GOP had heeded them, there would be no Trump, I think. There would be no need for him. God rules, and he does it well.

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  24. Yet we’re being told by the WSJ that we’re all on the same side?

    There are traitors who need to be ousted and removed first.

    McConnell and his estavlishment stooges are trying to undermine Trump already.

    https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1855344652422951054?t=rO3vuevgAdqWHCNU1EiKbQ&s=19

    “What the hell is going on in the US Senate? Hours after Donald Trump wins the most conclusive mandate in 40 years, Mitch McConnell engineers a coup against his agenda by calling early leadership elections in the senate. Two of the three candidates hate Trump and what he ran on. One of them, John Cornyn, is an angry liberal whose politics are indistinguishable from Liz Cheney’s. The election is Wednesday, it’s by secret ballot, and it will determine whether or not the new administration succeeds. Rick Scott of Florida is the only candidate who agrees with Donald Trump. Call your senator and demand a public endorsement of Rick Scott. Don’t let McConnell get away with it again.”

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  26. OK. I read more and apparently the timing is not as unusual as Tucker makes it appear. Trump supporters in the Senate have been trying to push back the leadership election but only by a week or so. That would give them more opportunity to conference and pose questions and get answers for a more intelligent election process. Two of the candidates for leader dislike Trump and one, Rick Scott, is a supporter. If Rick Scott does not win, I think it would be fine for Trump to consider that this is the one and only compromise needed with opposing Republicans. That will be enough as it is liable to hamper his agenda for some time to come.

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  27. That’s unfortunate, but it’s not really unexpected that NTers will do all they can to derail Trump. But either way, God is still good, and I’m still buzzzzzzing with hope for better things. :–)

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  28. Husband was telling me about this today. I had never heard of it before…

    ” In the hours and days since it became clear that Donald Trump would be re-elected president of the United States, there’s been a surge of interest in the US for 4B.

    Young liberal women across TikTok and Instagram are discussing and sharing information about the South Korean feminist movement, in which straight women refuse to marry, have children, date or have sex with men. ….”

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/09/us/4b-movement-trump-south-korea-wellness-cec/index.html

    Didn’t this used to be called chastity? So, women are going to be chaste as a form of protest against Trump… Again, I wonder if we could manage to get him a third term. :–)

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  31. Purge the party of the uniparty frauds.

    Addition thru subtraction.

    https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1855373551152353357?t=dpt6DpYstIRXdh8oszPYAw&s=19

    “PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

    I lived in Washington DC for 15 years.

    I know that city and culture well. The single greatest mistake that can be made by a new Trump Admin will be letting “Republicans” from DC into the government.

    This is critically important

    Let me explain…

    Do Not Hire The Arsonist To Fight The Fire:

    Republicans who live and work in DC are by definition part of the very system we are trying to destroy. It is impossible to overstate how corrupt DC is. Republicans who thrive in DC culture are de-facto Democrats.

    Here’s how it works…

    DC is a Democrat super-state. Kamala won it by 96%. Republicans who are successful in DC survive by pledging fealty to Leftist systems of power. They play by the rules. The are ‘house Republicans’ – trained harshly by DC culture to never get out of line. Completely castrated.

    These “Republicans” are not disruptors – they are the opposite. They are willing tools of the cultural Left. Because they got rich inside the system the left built.

    Remember how Ronna McDaniel got a fat NBC contract immediately after being fired?

    They survive through betrayal

    Any DC Republican hoping to be considered by the Trump White House must provide hard evidence that they *publicly* defended Trump over the past four years of torturous attacks by the leftist super state.

    Spoiler Alert: They didn’t. They would never dare defy their true masters.

    A house divided against itself cannot stand. The DC Republican class are simply Democrat sleeper cells and should be treated as such. Team Trump must reject them outright as thought they worked for the Biden White House.

    Because they did

    Never forget this is a spiritual battle

    DC is a sunken place. Dark spiritual energy. Filth, violent crime, homelessness and degeneracy everywhere. The city is lawless and crumbling. These trends have accelerated rapidly in the last 4 years. Anyone who voluntarily exists in this environment is not spiritually sound…

    So let our movement rid itself of this DC establishment Republican cancer once and for all. And you cannot cure cancer by smoking another pack. Throw them out.

    The era of Bush, Cheney, McConnell, Romney, Ryan, McCarthy is OVER.

    The Republican Party represents America, not DC.”

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  32. “Therefore: If thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, give him drink. For by doing so, thou shall heap coals of burning fire upon his head.” -Romans 12:20”

    https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1855404088734945765?t=Zgk3xs_a3m4Jp9cTyCtRdg&s=19

    “I am very surprised that the Democrats, who fought a hard and valiant fight in the 2024 Presidential Election, raising a record amount of money, didn’t have lots of $’s left over. Now they are being squeezed by vendors and others. Whatever we can do to help them during this difficult period, I would strongly recommend we, as a Party and for the sake of desperately needed UNITY, do. We have a lot of money left over in that our biggest asset in the campaign was “Earned Media,” and that doesn’t cost very much. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

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  33. Pardons for all, day one.

    https://x.com/JohnStrandUSA/status/1855295194939134106?t=kJwg0JsoM8mQ1ccFJEyEkQ&s=19

    “Nobody should be prosecuted by a government that facilitated and instigated a criminal event. J6 was obvious entrapment, with clear evidence of government fraud, dereliction, and police abuse.

    Every J6 defendant was subject to selective prosecution by the Merrick Garland DOJ, 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

    Every J6 defendant was denied an impartial jury, 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

    Every J6 defendant was victimized by a corrupt and overtly weaponized DOJ that maliciously lied and abused improper law to coerce fraudulent pleas and manipulate a defamatory, highly destructive false narrative.

    Every J6 defendant’s case was tainted by exculpatory evidence being hidden by the government, a blatant Brady violation.

    *ALL* J6ers *must* be pardoned and restored—or the Constitution is dead and worthless, along with any semblance of national honesty and moral integrity.

    Pray for justice. Pray for leaders and attorneys of righteous character to recognize that we must uphold Equal Protection under law, and we must prioritize restraint of tyrannical government *above* the prosecution of any individual citizen’s actions.

    Beware of the fruit of the poisonous tree.”

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  34. Currently, the count for Trump is 50.5%. There’s still about 3-4 million votes in California to count, maybe another 1 million elsewhere. I suspect the percent might go down a .1 or .2%. No governors were flipped. The Senate moved by 4 to the Republicans but only one was real win (Casey did really win in the polls, so perhaps Harris pulled him down). The House has yet to be decided but it looks to be a close Republican majority – probably similar to what they already had. The Republicans should refrain from taking victory laps — its a narrow win.

    One might be tempted to look at the movement of Latino male voters from Biden to Trump and advise the Democrats to run a male candidate in 2028. That would be a quick fix and not ill-advised.

    There are other issues though. Harris was too similar to Clinton in her campaign — she picked up Republican endorsements. Enlarging your party tent in a two party system is usually a good idea but in this case two Cheney endorsements were probably two too many. Some typical Dem voters might have stayed home or even voted for Trump on that basis alone — a leftist might think two war mongers are too many and stay home.

    Someone mentioned the possible decline of identity politics and an increase in class politics. That would probably help the Democrats – Sanders has pointed out before that the Dems left the working class not that other way around. Class politics aren’t too dissimilar to identity politics — you promise policies to gain a particular group’s support.

    Depending on what agenda Trump follows (I’m still confused as to his plans), the Democrats should have an easy time attracting some Trump supporters back with basic working class policies – minimum wage, benefits, health care, pension, union rights etc. If Trump follows the Social Security cuts to fund billionaire tax cuts that some have pushed, this should be an easy outlet for the Democrats. Given the narrow victories, 2022 and 2024 should see some Democratic gains if they make a few adjustments.

    hrw

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  35. AJ — RFK in charge of anything should be amusing.

    NJ – Grocery bills increased because of several factors – disrupted supply chains, climate change, and greedy corporations (food supply is an oligopoly) . Politicians create market rules and conditions but rarely have anything to do with actual market results especially in the last 50 years where the government has basically absconded any responsibility since Reagan/Thatcher in the Anglo-American world. This time it really was corporate greed.

    NJ – I’d worry about protests when they try to storm the capital then it should be news.

    Debra/AJ — abstinence or sex-strike is an old tactic used since the ancient times. It can work but is more effective if women also refuse to do anything that day – just sex may not work.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Icelandic_women%27s_strike

    I wonder if abortion rates correlate to the pregnancy rate. It should. Would that not be a reason for the pro life community to endorse birth control?

    DJ / AJ — This race to purify the Republican party may make it difficult to pass a Trump agenda (whatever that is). It will be interesting to see if the Republicans can keep their own party together. The last two years in the House demonstrated that it might not be possible.

    Amused by the Nikki Haley rebuke. Saw that coming, could not understand why she endorsed Trump – have some dignity, there was no job available for her groveling. Is Cornyn really a liberal? That’s a wide definition of the term. I mean he’s not too bright but a liberal?

    The Trump tweet is amusing. I think he’s projecting. He’s famous for not paying his bills.

    hrw

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  36. The bro credited with the “Your Body, My Choice” has been doxxed with the slogan “Your House, Our Choice”. Although I believe in civility, sometimes a situation demands a huge dose of irony.

    hrw

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  37. hrw: Less than a month ago you asserted that the conservative vote/movement is in decline. You indicated that Pres. Trump would only win about 46% of the vote in the presidential election. You contended that he would only win via the Electoral College. You asserted that the Republican Party is a minority Party, relying on rural over-representation and the EC.

    Furthermore, you insisted that the presidential vote would only be close because of the EC, and that Harris would win the popular vote by around 2-3%.

    It’s time for you to take the general advice that Bill Maher gave to Dems – look in the mirror. 😉

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  38. Oh I get the big business of grocery giants. Kroger wants to merge with Albertsons and create a monopoly which will hurt consumers. Big court fight over the whole matter here. I don’t want to lose my Safeway… Kroger doesn’t want it in their proposed acquisition so it would go to a podunk purchaser. I shop at three different groceries plus Sams… I like my freedom of purchasing better prices from competitors.😊

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  40. My last prediction had Harris winning the popular vote by 0.5 to 1%. Right now she’s losing by 2.5% I imagine when the California votes are counted it will be around 2% so I was off by 2.5%. Margin of error in a poll. The story for the Democrats is the decline in voter participation — they didn’t motivate people to the polls.

    Other than that I made no predictions this election — far too close to the margin of error in most contested states.

    I stand by the decline of the Republican party. It is buoyed by rural votes, gerrymandering and the EC. The reality is the election was a tie. The Democrats failed to motivate voters to turn out. The Democrats lost as opposed to the Republicans won. IF (and a giant if) the Democratic party ever got its act together, it should win. In the meantime, the search for purity in the Republican party might just let the Democrats win without an increase in competency.

    A simple example — the exit polls indicated a swing in the Latin male vote. Perhaps a simple change in 2028 to a male candidate and the Democrats might have the same margin of victory.

    And Bill Maher jumped the shark a long time ago.

    hrw

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  41. HRW, you’re assuming the Democrats can change in a rational way. They’ve gone so far down the rabbit hole of biology denial it would take some clear thinking to get them out again any time soon. I hope they can because we are ill served by embracing insanity. Although, I was kind of hoping they’d keep the neoconservatives permanently. I’ve always thought that a group who advocates killing it’s own young and a group that advocates killing other people’s should get along like jam and bread. We’ll see how that goes.

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  42. Debra — does anyone want a neoconservative? A horrible political and economic ideology that continues to have some zombie-like existence.

    Unfortunately, economic neocons have dominated both parties since the 80s. And unfortunately the false populism of Trump won’t change a thing. Tax cuts for the rich and benefit cuts for the elderly.

    And of course the genocide in Gaza will continue.

    hrw

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