I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!
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Take Clearance with you — and don't come back.
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Absolutely no doubt.
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Loved the Clearance Thomas meme and the Jared Kushner hand raiser, my hand is in the air. Great memes.
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Yes, great memes, Jackie!
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Thank you, ladies, on the memes selections. I giggled a lot over the Thomas one myself although I do not find the actual situation a laughing matter. More has come out about Alito as well. Such misfits being on the court. They are almost like not having one.
It is disgusting that men like this are influencing laws that prevent needed changes and actually denies people of a voting right by allowing gerrymandering. It is no wonder to me that other countries are in fear of what they see happening here.
These are things that can be repaired and very well, but it will take winning at election (s) time and knowing that it will take a few elections to repair what has been being destroyed (for several years under the table) and since Trump right out in the open. The Reps. are somewhat diabolical and yet, they will get plenty of votes. I worry about how close but in the end, given the choice, I do think many Democratic voters will 'see' the light in time and there could be a number of Reps. voting as well. They have said as much although I'm not taking all of it to the bank.
In the end, I'm holding onto my hope that lies and deceit won't be the order of the day, just as it wasn't in the 2020 election. People may resist up to the moment of 'truth'. The truth will set them free and they will get that when they need to.
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Heather Cox Richardson newsletter
May 24, 2024 (Friday)
On Wednesday, May 22, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who had been the candidate for anti-Trump Republicans, said she will vote for Trump. Haley ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination and maintained a steady stream of criticism of him, calling him “unstable,” “unhinged” and “a disaster…for our party.” Since she suspended her campaign in early March, she has continued to poll at around 20% of Republican primary voters.
There are two ways to look at Haley’s capitulation. It might show that Trump is so strong that he has captured the entire party and is sweeping it before him. In contrast, it might show that Trump is weak, and Haley made this concession to his voters either in hopes of stepping into his place or in a desperate move to cobble the party, whose leaders are keenly aware they are an unpopular minority in the country, together.
The Republican Party is in the midst of a civil war. The last of the establishment Republican leaders who controlled the party before 2016 are trying to wrest control of it back from Trump’s MAGA Republicans, who have taken control of the key official positions. At the same time, Trump’s MAGA voters, while a key part of the Republican base, have pushed the party so far right they have left the majority of Americans—including Republicans—far behind.
Abortion remains a major political problem for Republicans. Trump appointed the three Supreme Court justices who provided the votes to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the constitutional right to abortion, and he has boasted repeatedly that he ended Roe. This pleases his white evangelical base but not the majority of the American people.
According to a recent Pew poll, 63% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while only 36% think it should be illegal in most or all cases. But Republicans are continuing to push unpopular antiabortion legislation. On Thursday, Louisiana lawmakers approved a law classifying mifepristone and misoprostol, two drugs commonly used in abortions, as dangerous drugs—a category usually reserved for addictive medications—making it a crime to possess abortion pills without a prescription.
Louisiana prohibits abortions except to save the life of the mother or in cases in which the fetus has a condition incompatible with life. The law requires doctors to get a special license to prescribe the drugs, one of which is used for routine reproductive care as well as abortions. The state would then keep a record of those prescriptions, effectively a database to monitor women’s pregnancies and the doctors who treat them. Louisiana governor Jeff Landry, a Republican, is expected to sign the measure into law.
Trump has repeatedly promised to weigh in on the mifepristone question but, likely aware that he cannot please both his base and voters, has not done so. On Tuesday, May 21, though, he stepped into a related problem. Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned Roe v. Wade, antiabortion activists have begun to talk about contraception as abortion, with some warning that it is “unbiblical.” But in February, 80% of voters polled said that contraception was “deeply important” to them, including 72% of Republican voters. On Tuesday, Trump said he was open to regulating contraception and that his campaign would issue a policy statement on contraception “very shortly.” He later walked back his earlier comments, saying they had been misinterpreted.
On May 19 the same judge who tried to remove mifepristone from the market by rescinding the FDA approval of it, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, blocked the Biden administration from implementing a new rule that requires sellers at gun shows and online to get licenses and conduct background checks. The rule closes what’s known as the “gun show loophole.” According to the Penn State McCourtney Institute for Democracy, 86% of Americans want mandatory background checks for all gun purchases.
Trump himself is a problem for the party. His base is absolutely loyal, but he is a deeply problematic candidate for anyone else. As Susan Glasser outlined in the New Yorker yesterday, in the past week he chickened out of testifying in his ongoing criminal trial for paying hush money to an adult film actress to keep damaging information from voters in 2016 after insisting for weeks that he would. He talked about staying in office for a third term, ran a video promising that the United States will become a “unified Reich” when he wins reelection, and accused President Joe Biden of trying to have him assassinated. He will be 78 in a few weeks and is having trouble speaking.
In addition to his ongoing criminal trial, on Tuesday a filing unsealed in the case of Trump’s retention of classified documents showed that a federal judge, Beryl Howell, believed investigators had “strong evidence” that Trump “intended” to hide those documents from the federal government.
Also revealed were new photographs of Trump’s personal aide Walt Nauta moving document boxes before one of Trump’s lawyers arrived to review what Trump had, along with the information that once Trump realized that the men moving the boxes could be captured on Mar-a-Lago’s security cameras, he allegedly made sure they would avoid the cameras. The new details suggest that prosecutors have more evidence than has been made public.
This might explain why, as Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley of Rolling Stone reported today, Trump is pressuring Republicans to pass a law shielding presidents from prosecution in state or local courts, moving prosecutions to federal courts where a president could stop them.
Yesterday, Marilyn W. Thompson of ProPublica reported on yet another potentially harmful legal story. There were a number of discrimination and harassment complaints made against the Trump campaign in 2016 and 2020 that Trump tried to keep quiet with nondisclosure agreements. A federal magistrate judge has ordered the Trump campaign to produce a list of the complaints by May 31. Those complaints include the charge that the 2016 campaign paid women less than men and that Trump kissed a woman without her consent.
Trump’s current behavior is not likely to reassure voters.
Yesterday he wrote on social media that “Evan Gershkovich, the Reporter from The Wall Street Journal, who is being held by Russia, will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office. He will be HOME, SAFE, AND WITH HIS FAMILY. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!”
There is no good interpretation of this post. If Trump does have that sort of leverage with Putin, why? And why not use it immediately? Is he openly signaling to Putin to ignore the Biden administration’s ongoing negotiations for Gershkovich’s release? Trevor Reed, who was arrested in Russia in 2019 when visiting his girlfriend in Moscow, noted: “As a former wrongful detainee in Russia, I would just like to remind everyone that President Trump had the ability to get myself and Paul Whelan out of Russia for years and chose not to. I would be skeptical of any claims about getting Evan Gershkovich back in a day.”
Reed was freed in 2022 as part of a prisoner swap arranged by the Biden administration.
Last night, at a rally in New York, Trump accepted the endorsement of alleged gang members, rappers Michael Williams (Sheff G) and Tegan Chambers (Sleepy Hallow). In 2023 the two men were indicted with 30 other people on 140 counts, including murder, attempted murder, illegal possession of firearms, and at least a dozen shootings. Sheff G was released from jail in April after posting a $1.5 million bond.
Then, Trump’s people claimed that 25,000 people turned out for the rally, but they requested a permit for only 3,500, and only 3,400 tickets were issued. Aerial shots suggest there were 800–1,500 people there.
MAGA voters don’t care about any of this, apparently, but non-MAGA Republicans and Independents do. And this might be behind Haley’s promise to vote for Trump. The unpopularity of the MAGA faction might allow Haley to step in if Trump crashes and burns, so long as she kowtows to Trump and his base. Or it might be calculated to try to repair the rift in hopes that the party can cobble together some kind of unity by November. As The Shallow State noted on X, Haley’s announcement showed that “Trump is fragile.”
But Haley’s statement that she will vote for Trump does not necessarily mean her voters will follow her. Deputy political director for the Biden campaign Juan Peñalosa met with Haley supporters in a prescheduled zoom call hours after Haley’s announcement. On Thursday afternoon the campaign issued a press release titled: “To Haley Voters: There’s a Home For You on Team Biden-Harris.”
MAGA Republicans know their agenda is unpopular, and they are working to seize power through voter suppression, violence, gerrymandering, and packing the legal system. But there are signs a bipartisan defense of democracy may be gathering strength.
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You cannot believe in honor until you have achieved it. Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.
George Bernard Shaw
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Sure glad you dropped in the Heather Cox Richardson piece. I had felt I would after putting in the quote so taken I was by much of her piece today. So, I can't do other things — like memes. I have been disgusted with Nickki Haley since she took on being Trump's UN Ambassador and the feeling has only strengthened over time. She was decent as a S. Carolina Govenor but like many Reps. she didn't learn to stop while she was ahead and now, I don't think she will ever really get a head.
I think as well when you throw in with the Loon you have put yourself and your reputation at great risk. He is stupid, unreliable, a gross liar and has not one ounce of loyalty for anyone else. All any of these Reps. had to do was look at what New York really felt about the Loon. All they had to do was SEE all the years of failures of this one human being — but they kept marching to the cliff. At one time many of these people (like Guiliani and Haley and others) had some possible viability, but they got way too close to the flame and even now enough of them are skirting the edge.
I am hoping that some on the other side are waking up to the underlying disaster of the Reps. getting their way. That there is recognition that the Reps. party has become more evil and far less civil and that way too many in the U.S. are just not anywhere near finding the Reps. way acceptable and will do everything in their power to stop it.
It is painful to see the things they are doing to come out ahead while in reality accusing the Democrats of actually exhibiting all those behaviors. We do need to stand up and it can only be hopeful if the right kind of Republicans stand up with us. It's the right track and I hope it continues.
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We’re Starting To Get Some Answers On Trump’s Polling Lead
It is a question that has caused many Americans and polling experts to raise an eyebrow. Donald Trump has been leading President Biden in the polls for months on and off, and these results seem to contrast with facts that are known about Trump. He left office as the only president in history to never have a 50% approval rating. Trump has done nothing in the years since to broaden his support, and the ex-president is a defendant in four different criminal cases.
How can Trump be leading or so close in the polls?
The obvious answer, in part, is polarization.
The Republican Party could nominate Trump’s personal hero, Hannibal Lecter, and still get 45%- 47% of the popular vote.
Polarization doesn’t explain everything.
The suspected cause has not been the polls themselves but who is responding to them. For the last eight years or more, pollsters have been struggling to get younger, less white, and non-male voters to respond to polling questions. If those voters are being underrepresented, that answers one part of the question. The other half of the question is who is responding to these polls.
We’re starting to get some answers, and what is emerging is not good for Trump.
Nate Cohn of The New York Times recently wrote:
The polls have shown Donald J. Trump with an edge for eight straight months, but there’s one big flashing warning sign suggesting that his advantage might not be quite as stable as it looks.
That warning sign: His narrow lead is built on gains among voters who aren’t paying close attention to politics, who don’t follow traditional news and who don’t regularly vote.
If the people who are responding to polls are those who don’t pay attention to politics and don’t usually vote, that explains a lot about the numbers.
There has long been an expectation within politics that once voters start engaging with the election, Trump’s lead would evaporate. That expectation is boosted by the fact that Biden leads in polling with voters who voted in 2020, and voters who say they will vote again in 2024.
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So, it does seem that the lead Trump seems to be able to maintain is something of a mirage. That doesn't surprise me in the least as I thought all along that while a good many Reps. are going to vote Reps. no matter what, I also did think there were other factors at work. Mainly in the people who were actually answering those polls.
Other than wanting to keep the Reps. party in power who in their right mind would consider (at least for very long) someone in the kind of shape Trump is in and I do mean all of his issues - not just the indictments and trials. It doesn't make all that much sense to me.
Doesn't mean that the work doesn't need to be done on the side of the Democrats, and that we don't have a lot to overcome, even from a lot who are in our own party. It is just difficult as mentioned before, to figure out what is truth and how to work from that and what is actually more fiction and how to determine where each of those lines really lie.
It is very easy to feel a state of nerves because the Reps. have their program and if that weren't enough the media have theirs. It does leave it pretty tricky to try and figure out where we really are. The thing is — if I must worry I want to actually do that about the right things. Also, if I choose to contribute to helping, I want to target areas that WILL really help — not waste work or money or whatever I'm doing at the time. So I do feel some hope but know that it has to be tempered. Things do change and you always want it to be for the better, but you can't count on anything.
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I posted the HCR newsletter because it seems to provide some hope.
I would love for the adulation of the Loon to be a mirage. You gotta wonder how so many people could continue to follow him down the rabbit hole and never, ever say, “okay, now that’s where I draw the line.” I remember when Beth Moore, the woman preacher who was a survivor of sexual abuse, finally spoke up and said, “enough” after so much was publicized about Trump’s treatment of women. How is it that people cannot reach a point where they say, “he is getting out of hand.He’s gone too far this time”
Women voters had really best be paying attention. It is an outrage to hear talk that contraception is something that could be outlawed. And if that happened, what’s next? Women no longer allowed to work outside the home? There is so much controlling of women’s bodies that needs to be stopped with our collective voting power.
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Choice is a divine teacher, for when we choose we learn that
nothing is ever put in our path without a reason.
Iyanla Vanzant0 -
Divine, I am thinking we are seeing a mirage, but it is mainly because I do think the Reps. party (gone downhill so quickly once Trump came on the scene) is working way, way overtime to bamboozle people with their bull. It is things I'm pretty sure they themselves (those in the government) don't completely believe) but are spouting to further so many of their oppressive causes so they can hold onto control. There are a number who are so far gone they will never recover, but with many it is just the greed for money and power. My amazement is that they are being so honest.
I read earlier that they are using (which they purposely leaked out themselves) Project 2025 to really upset the Democrats with and that really it is nothing more than what they have been doing all along. Nothing really new— just couching it in a (2024) type dressing and what happened — we all got nervous and started making it a big deal. The article basically said we Democrats started doing the Reps. work for them. It wasn't anything new but we made it the bogeyman. I think that was what Rev. Sharpton was talking about the other day — about our being street fighters. Quit buying what the Reps. sell and put out our own messages while squashing theirs. We can talk about what the Reps. do but we shouldn't be magnifying it to the point where people really do pick up dread and fear.
It is amazing to hear what the Reps say they are going to do, and no one much stands up to say no. I am so hoping that they have some good reason for waiting. I 've no idea what that could be but the women I know for the most part won't stand still for such a thing. My daughter and deceased son already had grown children, so it is my grandkids and great grands that I worry about.
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So true, divinemrsm!
I saw a survey asking to answer yes/no to this question: Do you think if Trump is convicted of the crimes in the Hush Money Trial, that it will change MAGA voters minds? My answer: Hell NO! That would be a character flaw and MAGA Americans don't care about his character, in fact, many are attracted to the fact that TRUMP has NO character or honor!
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I have to add that I am annoyed with Democratic commercials as they are not nearly strong enough to get the attention of potential Trump voters! They need to put on a commercial, sounding pro-Trump border control, then add "and who stopped it? GOP HR, showing Mike Johnson saying the bill was "dead on arrival!" They have to stress the GOP wanting the border to be a "talking point" they don't want the issue solved!
The Lincoln Project had the best commercials, but I haven't seen any by them lately.
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maverick, I’m not sure diehard magas are worth trying to persuade to change their vote. If they haven’t seen the light by now, I do not know what could open their eyes. The 2020 election was swayed by the young voters. I think investing in signing young voters up and educating them on what President Biden and his administration are doing is a better way to spend time and energy. Activist Stacy Adams and her entourage famously canvased all of Georgia going door to door to door to door signing up voters and it made all the difference in delivering Georgia for President Biden in 2020. When asked how she felt about this incredible contribution to democracy, Adams replied, “My heart is full.”
We’ve mentioned it’s still early in the game. I think people kind of coast thru the summer months and then after Labor Day, it will be full speed ahead. Yes, the Dems still need to repeatedly make their case and provide details of all their accomplishments, but the real push will start at summer’s end.
I agree that magas are spurred on by Don’s trial. Idiots. Still, his family is not attending and it doesn’t sound like maga supporters are showing up in force, either.
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I also MM and Divine, think many of our leaders and others closer to Washington and in government are very privy to information we 'constituents' mainly never hear. The other side wants us to hear as much negative materials as possible and that is what they constantly push.
Doesn't mean there is nothing to worry about and anyone who isn't feeling the pressure now and then isn't using all their brain cells I don't think. I think there is at the moment no reason to panic and get too invested in the negativism. This all comes early so there is time to work on your mental state and persuade you, you have lost and there is no reason to show up and vote or keep up the work and the fight. I've never quite gotten that far down ever, but I do admit to getting heavy in the thoughts now and then wondering — JUST where are we and JUST how is it going to go.
I am betting on things going better once the first Trump trial is over. We know a whole bunch of his people don't care, but we also know there is not near enough of them to do much for Trump. They are not the worst problem at all. My faith and hope are alive, even when I have a down day and I'm not going to quit feeling that we have time to get the upper hand. WE are being spoon (if we take the bait) fed things to get good and anxious over well in advance so as to garner possible success for them at election time. I don't count on anything, but I do believe that — and hard work at the right time will go a long way toward making sure success is on our side — not their's.
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For you to change the mind of a Maga, you would first have to ensure they have a mind which they clearly do not. It is easier for them to blame Biden for the world's ills than for them to understand that the global economy is in the same shape as the US, that the Loon gave tacit permission to corporations to make excessive profits on their products/services by offering them tax loopholes/benefits, cutting taxes on the very wealthy at the expense of the middle class and the poor, etc. The border issue needs to be placed firmly on their shoulders as does the blame for the withdrawal from Afghanistan which was set up by the Loon for Biden to actualize. I do think it was poorly executed so not totally the fault of the agreement the loon made with the Taliban.
I loved the George Conway bought the billboard near Mar-a-Lago that the loon will see every time he drives past. George is one of the Republicans I do like and you could add Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney and John McCain. Now I would never vote for any of them but I admire their character and willingness to be bipartisan.
I think the one thing Biden's team needs to do is highlight the fact that the loon is telling us who he is and that we need to believe this because it is not one of his lies: he is an autocrat with leanings towards Hitler, Putin, and the other dictators and he seeks revenge on all who have stood up to him, to those who do not possess a voice or a defender such as DACA, and for those who seek asylum like our ancestors did.
Memorial Day reminds us of those who gave their lives so we can have the freedoms they fought so hard to provide. May their souls rest in peace and I thank them for making the sacrifice.
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Happy Memorial Day!
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♥️♥️♥️ 🇺🇸 ♥️♥️♥️
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It takes time and devotion to learn the language of color and lighting in
the garden. Your tastes are sure to change over time, reflecting your
inner evolution. Seeing the garden as a canvas for your celebration of
Nature's palette is a wonderful expression of the soul's love of beauty
and artistry. Your own inner intuition, however, is often your best
teacher, but don't forget that Mother Nature will always have a few
surprises up Her sleeve as well. Perhaps your greatest insight will be
that this glorious exploration of light and color and their interrelationship
is really meant to illuminate the many facets of your being and personality.
Christopher and Tricia McDowellThe Sanctuary Garden0 -
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betrayal, loved your comment: “For you to change the mind of a Maga, you would first have to ensure they have a mind which they clearly do not.” Got a good laugh from that truth!
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