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Donnie Darko: Stuck in another time loop.
Trump hopes his future will capitalize on his dark past.
Tonight at the top of the news, Donald Trump shows his ass; Republicans kiss it, and Democrats are jealous that no one is kissing their backside. Meanwhile, millions of Americans report they believe they're worse off economically now than they were five years ago.
I saw one guy on YouTube say the horrible economy was his justification for sending a donation he can’t afford to a candidate that, if he knew personally, he probably wouldn’t invite to his next backyard barbecue.
Yeah. The news has been pretty much the same day in and day out since Trump descended the golden staircase, scepter, orb ring in hand, while his minions carried the train of his Imperial Purple robe. Don soiled that robe with vile body fluids, lotion, and occasionally some solid compost for the length of his presidency before he wore it out. Now? He’s left with his ubiquitous Rodney Dangerfield suit, complete with red tie.
That is the appeal. That’s his new cloak. Rodney resonated with anyone who ever felt they didn’t get respect. He gave us laughs and joy. Trump is Dark Rodney. He takes no personal responsibility for anything. He is a victim. We know that because he tells us this often on the same news and entertainment shows where he claims people are stifling his free speech. He gets no respect and he wants revenge.
The guy who gets all the free ink in the world is complaining he doesn’t get enough free ink. And millions buy it. They too feel the sting of not being respected. You see their type at the reception with a glass of wine in their hand. There’s always a footloose man nearby.
Trump has lived his life believing that if you can’t always get what you want, then you aren’t trying hard enough. Anyone who wants to criticize Donald Trump must at least acknowledge his indefatigable energy in the face of the adversity of legal problems, family squabbles, children, idiotic lawyers and four different criminal investigations in four jurisdictions that have so far yielded 91 felony charges.
You also have to…
EP 243: Just Ask The Press - How close is the U.S. to a 'civil' war?
This week on Just ask the Press: How close is the U.S. to Civil War? Can Trump recover from an $83 million judgment? And why does the Press keep covering Donald Trump?
There is no horse race -- it’s time to see that the stakes are too high this time
Forget New Hampshire and look at what the country would look like under a second Biden or Trump administration
Fearlessly, the idiot faced the crowd, smiling
Merciless, the magistrate turns 'round, frowning
And who's the fool who wears the crown?
“Fearless” Pink Floyd
It’s not a horse race.
I know it seems like it. But trust me, I spent my formative years at Churchill Downs and relaxed on many a Spring and Summer day watching horses swat flies with their tails while they ran and released their bowels (sometimes simultaneously). Sure, American politics often resembles what comes out of the end of even the most modest members of the genus Equus, but the presidential race still is not a horse race.
Unfortunately, we in the press often treat it that way. And right now, we’re doing it yet again. Donald Trump has exploded through the Republican gate and leveled his opponents as if he’s a Triple Crown thoroughbred, according to the corporate media coverage. In reality, however, he’s really nothing more than a horse on the way to the glue factory. The Republican Party is now the MAGA party, a point that is increasingly clear after the New Hampshire primary, yet that isn’t the entire story.
Reporters often have a hard time understanding the nuances of this particular presidential race. “Many reporters are whitewashing the reality of American politics,” said Norm Ornstein, an American political scientist and emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “You’re doing the same analysis we’ve watched in the NFL playoffs. Very little different. It’s pernicious and dangerous at this point for two main reasons; you are once again normalizing Donald Trump and the more you cover it like a horse race the less focus there is on what really matters.”…
EP 242: Norm Ornstein - Can the press be fixed?
On this special edition of Just Ask the Question as we dissect the problems with today's media.
Joining us is Norm Ornstein. He is an American political scientist and an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C., conservative think tank. He is the co-author of It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism. We begin asking him, "what's wrong with the press?"
As House GOP readies impeachment for Mayorkas, floor work could grind to halt
‘If the House impeaches, the Senate has options,’ Tulane professor says
ANALYSIS — Immigration is shaping the 2024 campaign, and the hot-button issue soon could overwhelm Capitol Hill and bring work in both chambers to a halt.
Republicans felt pressure last year by interest groups to run, in part, on a 15-week federal abortion ban. But the politics of that sensitive issue turned sharply against the GOP. Another 2024 grenade Republicans had planned to toss onto the 2024 battlefield was the economy. But recent economic data suggests key indicators are making voters’ finances more robust, potentially handing President Joe Biden and Democrats the issue on the campaign trail.
That has made immigration — including the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, which even many Democrats now call a “crisis” — the engine of the Republican message machine.
Former President Donald Trump shocked Senate Republicans recently by urging House GOP leaders to reject any deal the other chamber might broker with the White House over a supplemental spending measure that includes a border and immigration section unless it is “perfect.” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has been more than happy to follow Trump’s orders…
Greg Abbott is pushing Texas to the brink
Texas governor pushes on immigration, caring little about the law or the people he hurts in the name of politics
To rule is easy, to govern difficult
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
At the end of the day, you have to wonder if Texans are comfortable being a part of the United States.
I’m not just talking about the Dallas Cowboys, who have choked so often in the NFL playoffs that they need the Heimlich maneuver when they step on the field, particularly at home against the Green Bay Packers. I mean, in general, you have to question it.
Governor “Hey, Abbott!” – with apologies to Lou Costello – Greg Abbott is certainly among those who think that Texas is still its own country. He has stood stupidly defiant against the federal government for the last few months on the issue of Southern border security and kept the Border Patrol from doing its job while claiming the state of Texas has the right to defend its “sovereignty.”
Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” has bused more than 35,000 immigrants to Washington, D.C, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles since April of 2022. He claims that the operation “continues to fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden administration’s refusal to secure the border.” More on that in a moment.
Two of my sons were born in Texas, and I am often reminded that anyone can become an American, but you have to be born a Texan. I used to think that was cute and funny – like the businessman I knew in the early 90s whose wife went into premature labor while they were visiting New York. He had a San Antonio neighbor overnight him 10 pounds of dirt from his backyard that he then placed into a container, so when his son was born he could legitimately say his son’s ass first touched Texas soil. Turns out, what I find cute and funny is deadly serious in Texas. They take their state pride seriously – even if there are (or once were) a sizable number of people in Texas who don’t support much of the lunacy from the state’s Republican Party. When it comes to Texas, they still fully believe they live in their own country…
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