So I just got back from voting for Joe in the PA Democratic primary. Often I skip primary elections in presidential cycles; I don't really follow local politics and the presidential primary vote in blue PA since I've been here is always a foregone conclusion. But I want Joe to have the biggest, most Saddam Hussein-esque margin he can get. My last excited primary vote was for my main man John Fetterman, who has never stopped filling me with pride. The man hasn't a fooq to give and I'm here for it ;)
And I had just the most wonderful experience of democracy on this beautiful, cloudless spring day.
As I'm about to enter the gymnasium I was buttholed by a spry older woman, I'd say mid-70s, with a terrific smile and laser-locked eye contact, holding a clipboard. She gives what we canvassers for the League of Conservation Voters called her "rap." It was a little general and rhetorical so I said okay, essentially you want a citizen's commission to do redistricting instead of legislators and she said YES.
She volunteers for Fair Districts PA. And it was instant mind meld. It's ostensibly a nonpartisan, good-government idea but in PA it would of course redound to the benefit of Democrats because the PA GOP has screwed up the districts so bad -- and of course they have zero incentive to fix it. I go the Prisoner's Dilemma, she goes Exactly! Of course I signed her petition, took a button. As we sat I told her I used to canvass for the LCV and I know how tough the gig can be. We just fed off each other's energy and made each other's day. This is a microcosm of how democracy should work ;)
You are my hero. You and all the people at the Lincoln Project give me hope that our democracy will prevail come November. Thank you for everything you do.
I think Marge will act on the motion to vacate. She’s a bully, she’s belligerent, she like the attention, she has a towering self confidence born of her utter lack of intellect and self awareness, and she’s got small dollar donors who love her. She’s sure she has the world by the tail.
If she does and she fails as she most likely will, this will be like the impeachment fiascos and simply reinforce the impotence of the Freedom Caucus with a House Speaker now beholden to Democrats for his seat and with the House finally becoming *gasp!* quasi-functional.
Mike Johnson's revenge against Trump? Blame Bill Kristol for that cute li'l postulate ;)
A very astute man a few years ago wrote an insightful book and entitled his book, “Everything Trump Touches Dies”. That man has been proven 100% correct as we approach the end of the 1st quarter of the 21st Century.
I haven't read the piece yet but I'm a little chary of a Salon-type ideological take. Everybody wants to pigeonhole Mike Johnson and I think the reality is more complicated. Mike Johnson's closest analogue is Mike Pence, maddening figures for both sides: pious, meek and mild, self-consciously full of their own religiosity, who nonetheless possess a _de minimis_ amount of strength of character to do the right thing when all the other options have been exhausted. And of course for progressives and libertarian-minded Republicans, Johnson's / Pence's entire suite of beliefs on sex, gender and women's issues are abhorrent. But sincere nonetheless.
The issue of religion in Ukraine has been likewise pigeonholed. Putin has been very successful at running the propaganda narrative that the "Ukro-Nazis" are aiming to expunge Orthodox Christianity from Ukraine in the name of globalist wokeness. This is gospel to MTG and a large chunk of the evangelical movement has bought it hook, line and sinker. But there's a problem for Putin: Ukraine's a pretty religious country and there's a large Ukrainian diaspora in the US who knows the real deal, which is that there are two Ukrainian Orthodox churches, one controlled from Moscow by the warmonger and Kremlin agent Patriarch Kirill which Zelenskiy is properly sanctioning and arresting their Russian-agent clerics, and the other indigenous to Ukraine that _Putin_ wishes to expunge. It shouldn't be a surprise that a hefty chunk of evangelicals, no matter how odious and Dominionist-aligned on other issues, recognize the oppression / repression of indigenous Orthodox Ukrainians by Russians at Putin's behest and have sounded the alarm.
The author is a journalist who is former editor of the Village Voice. So there’s undoubtedly a liberal bias. That said, there are a number of links to sources within the article. I have not vetted all of them, but the ones I did look at seem genuine. The tone of the piece seems more fact than opinion but it’s clear the author has no truck with The Family. Given what we know so far about Johnson, it did seem to provide some possible context for his change of position. Everyone should make up their own mind, of course.
Except that Johnson didn't really change his position. He's always made noises about supporting Ukraine, but like with Pence, he simply cowered before the mighty MAGA isolationists because the Mikes' crypto-theocratic ideology would have no chance in power without the Golden Grifter. Both Johnson and Pence are old-school pre-Trump evangelical Republicans, which means a Reaganite foreign policy bent.
If Johnson shifted at all, it was a shift of degree and not of kind. What he saw in the SCIF could well have shocked his conscience, but previously he gave no indication that he believed that "Ukro-Nazis" were trying to drive Christianity out of the country, which is exactly what you'd hear from MTG and the wingnut podcasts / news shows.
To me, I see a lot of good here. I am relieved that the members of the GOP who all secretly knew that supporting Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel in one package was a must for global security. Finally pushed back on the fringe Trump crayon eaters who neither understand complexity, or see complexity as a liberal agenda. Because, yes, they see complexity as delusional liberal groupthink. Something that is a manipulative scion of The Devil himself.
The GOP can keep their god. But let’s be clear. The Bible is a children’s book. It’s for the simple, by the simple, to keep things simple.
We are not the creations of a divine, invisible man. We are the byproducts of three billion years of turf warfare, dominance, and survival of the fittest. And yes, we as Americans can still lose. If we allow Marjorie Man Face, The Orange Menace and egg-humpers like Fucker Carlson to run things, they will turn over the keys to our magnificent country to the first Putin that comes along. Because their psychological need to have a fatherly god and strong man is more important to them than 250 years of the peaceful transition of power.
Real republicans, independents, and Democrats, should all be proud of this accomplishment. We should be proud of it because we allow our reason and intellect to share in power AGAINST our natural, Darwinian tendency to take it by force.
And you, as my fellow American citizens, are far to precious and important to me, to allow it to all fall apart because one orange fuckface with a small dick, and his cohort of ignorant, barely washed pigs want to wallow in the false security of omnipotent dominance.
He is. Rick’s command of the English Language is extraordinary. I love his conjugation of nouns and his creations of neologisms best of all. When it comes to political writing right now, there is no one better.
Chapter 3 was so shocking I was flabbergasted. So I went through the staffing chapter twice. The first time I posted about it I was just getting started. I felt it deserved more attention so I covered it in more detail in Part 20 of my series.
LBJ, for all his many demons (my dad loathed him so much he voted for Goldwater and he was a Kennedy man), for all his crushing ego resisted being "the first American president to lose a war," eventually bowed to reality, thanks in no small part to the suicide terrier Eugene McCarthy nipping ferociously at his heels over Vietnam. The ensuing Democratic primary was an epic catastrophe as we all know, soiling the good man Hubert Humphrey who would have ended the Vietnam war years earlier without the demon Kissinger sitting on his shoulder with his horns and pointy stick.
Mike Johnson is no LBJ. He did not work his will on Congress. He did not blow a vast popularity and the epic goodwill to pass the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts and appoint the first African American to the Supreme Court by lying to the American people about an unwinnable war. He was a nobody before his unlikely speakership. But two (wan) cheers for MJ for finding his Inner Mike Pence.
I am beyond relieved we passed Ukraine aid. That's my #1 issue this election season.
The amply talented leader Hakeem Jeffries is the shadow speaker. We're gonna need Mike's zombie corpse around to pass a number of critical bills this year, but not without concessions for the Democrats, which Jeffries will get because Mike's not about to go out in a blaze of glory. It's simply that he no longer has any credibility left to lose on his far right flank and he wants the farm bill.
I'm putting a lot of this on how diminished Trump is right now with his flatulent hindquarters and soggy Depends soiling a courtroom 32 hours a week. His immigration stunt didn't work after the Mayorkas Senate vindication, he shot the GOP in both feet on abortion. And he failed his Kremlin BFF.
So we're gonna pass what we need to pass this year with Jeffries and the Democrats and the Taliban Caucus won't have anything to say about it that the majority of the electorate wants to hear.
The GOP is imploding, and it's a pleasure to observe. Happening on a state level, too. In WA, the only respectable (ish) Republican gubernatorial candidate refused their nomination because they're a pack of rabid doofuses.
So I just got back from voting for Joe in the PA Democratic primary. Often I skip primary elections in presidential cycles; I don't really follow local politics and the presidential primary vote in blue PA since I've been here is always a foregone conclusion. But I want Joe to have the biggest, most Saddam Hussein-esque margin he can get. My last excited primary vote was for my main man John Fetterman, who has never stopped filling me with pride. The man hasn't a fooq to give and I'm here for it ;)
And I had just the most wonderful experience of democracy on this beautiful, cloudless spring day.
As I'm about to enter the gymnasium I was buttholed by a spry older woman, I'd say mid-70s, with a terrific smile and laser-locked eye contact, holding a clipboard. She gives what we canvassers for the League of Conservation Voters called her "rap." It was a little general and rhetorical so I said okay, essentially you want a citizen's commission to do redistricting instead of legislators and she said YES.
She volunteers for Fair Districts PA. And it was instant mind meld. It's ostensibly a nonpartisan, good-government idea but in PA it would of course redound to the benefit of Democrats because the PA GOP has screwed up the districts so bad -- and of course they have zero incentive to fix it. I go the Prisoner's Dilemma, she goes Exactly! Of course I signed her petition, took a button. As we sat I told her I used to canvass for the LCV and I know how tough the gig can be. We just fed off each other's energy and made each other's day. This is a microcosm of how democracy should work ;)
Rick,
You are my hero. You and all the people at the Lincoln Project give me hope that our democracy will prevail come November. Thank you for everything you do.
I think Marge will act on the motion to vacate. She’s a bully, she’s belligerent, she like the attention, she has a towering self confidence born of her utter lack of intellect and self awareness, and she’s got small dollar donors who love her. She’s sure she has the world by the tail.
If she does and she fails as she most likely will, this will be like the impeachment fiascos and simply reinforce the impotence of the Freedom Caucus with a House Speaker now beholden to Democrats for his seat and with the House finally becoming *gasp!* quasi-functional.
Mike Johnson's revenge against Trump? Blame Bill Kristol for that cute li'l postulate ;)
They might vibe to cut their head off to spite their noses .
A very astute man a few years ago wrote an insightful book and entitled his book, “Everything Trump Touches Dies”. That man has been proven 100% correct as we approach the end of the 1st quarter of the 21st Century.
Some interesting context here re: what helped drive Johnson to cave. Definitely something to be vigilant about, but given the critical need, it’s a secondary consideration. Alligators/swamp decision tree. https://www.salon.com/2024/04/19/evangelicals-with-ties-to-the-family-met-mike-johnson-and-zelenskyy-ahead-of-ukraine-vote_partner/
I haven't read the piece yet but I'm a little chary of a Salon-type ideological take. Everybody wants to pigeonhole Mike Johnson and I think the reality is more complicated. Mike Johnson's closest analogue is Mike Pence, maddening figures for both sides: pious, meek and mild, self-consciously full of their own religiosity, who nonetheless possess a _de minimis_ amount of strength of character to do the right thing when all the other options have been exhausted. And of course for progressives and libertarian-minded Republicans, Johnson's / Pence's entire suite of beliefs on sex, gender and women's issues are abhorrent. But sincere nonetheless.
The issue of religion in Ukraine has been likewise pigeonholed. Putin has been very successful at running the propaganda narrative that the "Ukro-Nazis" are aiming to expunge Orthodox Christianity from Ukraine in the name of globalist wokeness. This is gospel to MTG and a large chunk of the evangelical movement has bought it hook, line and sinker. But there's a problem for Putin: Ukraine's a pretty religious country and there's a large Ukrainian diaspora in the US who knows the real deal, which is that there are two Ukrainian Orthodox churches, one controlled from Moscow by the warmonger and Kremlin agent Patriarch Kirill which Zelenskiy is properly sanctioning and arresting their Russian-agent clerics, and the other indigenous to Ukraine that _Putin_ wishes to expunge. It shouldn't be a surprise that a hefty chunk of evangelicals, no matter how odious and Dominionist-aligned on other issues, recognize the oppression / repression of indigenous Orthodox Ukrainians by Russians at Putin's behest and have sounded the alarm.
The author is a journalist who is former editor of the Village Voice. So there’s undoubtedly a liberal bias. That said, there are a number of links to sources within the article. I have not vetted all of them, but the ones I did look at seem genuine. The tone of the piece seems more fact than opinion but it’s clear the author has no truck with The Family. Given what we know so far about Johnson, it did seem to provide some possible context for his change of position. Everyone should make up their own mind, of course.
Except that Johnson didn't really change his position. He's always made noises about supporting Ukraine, but like with Pence, he simply cowered before the mighty MAGA isolationists because the Mikes' crypto-theocratic ideology would have no chance in power without the Golden Grifter. Both Johnson and Pence are old-school pre-Trump evangelical Republicans, which means a Reaganite foreign policy bent.
If Johnson shifted at all, it was a shift of degree and not of kind. What he saw in the SCIF could well have shocked his conscience, but previously he gave no indication that he believed that "Ukro-Nazis" were trying to drive Christianity out of the country, which is exactly what you'd hear from MTG and the wingnut podcasts / news shows.
Ah, if we could only flush Matt and Margie how wonderful it would be. Next, head to the Senate and flush Tubby, Marsha Blackburn, Vance...
Well, it appears as if Margie‘s fever dream to have Mike’s Johnson presented to her on a plate isn’t going all that well.
If I were a billionaire, I'd write a few checks and buy a few R resignations.
Hell, do what John Oliver offered to Clarence Thomas and promise them a million a year for life for resigning ;)
Watching thee people get hoist on their own petards is delicious.
There was a reason I subscribed to your NL.
Your writing never disappoints.
To me, I see a lot of good here. I am relieved that the members of the GOP who all secretly knew that supporting Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel in one package was a must for global security. Finally pushed back on the fringe Trump crayon eaters who neither understand complexity, or see complexity as a liberal agenda. Because, yes, they see complexity as delusional liberal groupthink. Something that is a manipulative scion of The Devil himself.
The GOP can keep their god. But let’s be clear. The Bible is a children’s book. It’s for the simple, by the simple, to keep things simple.
We are not the creations of a divine, invisible man. We are the byproducts of three billion years of turf warfare, dominance, and survival of the fittest. And yes, we as Americans can still lose. If we allow Marjorie Man Face, The Orange Menace and egg-humpers like Fucker Carlson to run things, they will turn over the keys to our magnificent country to the first Putin that comes along. Because their psychological need to have a fatherly god and strong man is more important to them than 250 years of the peaceful transition of power.
Real republicans, independents, and Democrats, should all be proud of this accomplishment. We should be proud of it because we allow our reason and intellect to share in power AGAINST our natural, Darwinian tendency to take it by force.
And you, as my fellow American citizens, are far to precious and important to me, to allow it to all fall apart because one orange fuckface with a small dick, and his cohort of ignorant, barely washed pigs want to wallow in the false security of omnipotent dominance.
Wow, bravo! Very well stated.
Thank you.
Rick, in my view you're the best fuckin' writer in the country. I'm sure glad we're on the same side in this tussle.
He is. Rick’s command of the English Language is extraordinary. I love his conjugation of nouns and his creations of neologisms best of all. When it comes to political writing right now, there is no one better.
I completely agree.
Thank you so much for saying that! I’m very flattered, and thank you.
Everyone should read chapter 3 on staffing the executive branch.
Chapter 28 on the FCC, shows Trump still hasn't gotten past being thrown off twitter.
Chapter 29 on the Federal Election Commission illustrates how they want to rig the elections with more appointees.
These chapters will give you a good idea of what they have in mind.
It ain't good.
Chapter 3 was so shocking I was flabbergasted. So I went through the staffing chapter twice. The first time I posted about it I was just getting started. I felt it deserved more attention so I covered it in more detail in Part 20 of my series.
LBJ, for all his many demons (my dad loathed him so much he voted for Goldwater and he was a Kennedy man), for all his crushing ego resisted being "the first American president to lose a war," eventually bowed to reality, thanks in no small part to the suicide terrier Eugene McCarthy nipping ferociously at his heels over Vietnam. The ensuing Democratic primary was an epic catastrophe as we all know, soiling the good man Hubert Humphrey who would have ended the Vietnam war years earlier without the demon Kissinger sitting on his shoulder with his horns and pointy stick.
Mike Johnson is no LBJ. He did not work his will on Congress. He did not blow a vast popularity and the epic goodwill to pass the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts and appoint the first African American to the Supreme Court by lying to the American people about an unwinnable war. He was a nobody before his unlikely speakership. But two (wan) cheers for MJ for finding his Inner Mike Pence.
I am beyond relieved we passed Ukraine aid. That's my #1 issue this election season.
The amply talented leader Hakeem Jeffries is the shadow speaker. We're gonna need Mike's zombie corpse around to pass a number of critical bills this year, but not without concessions for the Democrats, which Jeffries will get because Mike's not about to go out in a blaze of glory. It's simply that he no longer has any credibility left to lose on his far right flank and he wants the farm bill.
I'm putting a lot of this on how diminished Trump is right now with his flatulent hindquarters and soggy Depends soiling a courtroom 32 hours a week. His immigration stunt didn't work after the Mayorkas Senate vindication, he shot the GOP in both feet on abortion. And he failed his Kremlin BFF.
So we're gonna pass what we need to pass this year with Jeffries and the Democrats and the Taliban Caucus won't have anything to say about it that the majority of the electorate wants to hear.
It's a good day for democracy ;)
The GOP is imploding, and it's a pleasure to observe. Happening on a state level, too. In WA, the only respectable (ish) Republican gubernatorial candidate refused their nomination because they're a pack of rabid doofuses.