My son is a New Jersey State Trooper who, oddly enough, knew Brian Sicknick. He served with him in the Air Force. With that backdrop, he watched the Capitol Police being questioned by the Democratic lawmakers and was shocked at how emotionally weak they were in their testimony with a couple of them crying throughout. One went so far as to compare the experience to Fallujah which is preposterous on its own but went unchallenged by the friendly panel. A couple of them were on leave they were so despondent and under therapy and this was months later. My son's reaction was that these guys were ill-suited to be cops and certainly lacked any training to do their properly. Again, the coroners said that Sicknick was not physically marked up at all. His death was a terrible coincidence.
Damn Krebsie, you're a tough SOB which I say in the friendliest of ways and all due respect, but hell, if you can't be friendly with a group that was assaulted and battered mercilessly because they stood between you and a violent mob bent on mayhem, who can you be friendly too? This isn't a trial, a mere evidentiary hearing. Believe me, there is nothing more I would like to see than to have these people on a witness stand in a courtroom. I pray that it's coming soon.... Terrible coincidence indeed....like the bank teller with high blood pressure that dies from a heart attack during the hold up. No bruises.....dead anyway. A face full of chemicals doesn't leave marks but it will damn sure make it a really bad f`n day
I read the article on Cult of Personality and it occurred to me that something similar to the opposite had occurred. The article stresses the importance of mass media in the formation of the cult but anyone who was aware of the tenor of the mass media of the country during the Trump administration knows it has a decidedly anti-Trump bent. And so we had a cult consumed with hatred of the Trump personality which was referred to by many as TDS or Trump Derangement Syndrome. Let's look at a prime example, John McCain. YouTube is full of videos of McCain running for reelection in Arizona and telling voters over and over again that Obamacare is detrimental to the county and the people of that state. Yet there he was in all his glory turning thumbs down to defeat a bill ending Obamacare with a smile on his face all because of TDS. How anyone could call someone who put his own personal obsession before what he believed was best for his country and voters, a "patriot" is beyond me. And now we move on to Liz Cheney who is deeply infected with TDS. She was the sole "representative" from the state of Wyoming in the House. Wyoming is not only a very conservative state but it relies heavily on energy for its prosperity. The American energy industry is under relentless attack by the climate crazies who make up the increasingly Progressive Democratic Party. In the fight to protect the prosperity of Wyoming the strongest champion was Trump. And there siding with the enemies of Wyoming was the hopelessly infected Liz like McCain stabbing a shiv in the backs of her voters. Comparing herself to Lincoln is absurd however I'm sure some of the folks in Wyoming would gladly pay for her ticket to Ford's theater. And of course TDS is not limited to politicians. How else can you explain tens of millions of Americans who even after the Mueller probe came up with no evidence they still believed that the Trump Campaign had colluded with Russia? We still see it everyday.
And that is exactly why I would prefer a candidate other than Trump. He is polarizing even within his own party. He breathes life into the opposition. As this country teeters on the edge of self-destruction I don't think we have the time for four years of payback. I'm firmly behind DeSantis at this point.
I have REALLY enjoyed reading the recent posts. I see very solid arguments from both sides. Very well delivered gents. My stance is very simple. I'm a registered Republican, but I refer to myself as a Constitutionalist. We the people CANNOT ignore what our fore fathers created on past lessons learned through trial and tribulations. It's a beautiful working document that allowed for change as seen through the amendments. When the people are unhappy, the vote for change. When the majority speaks, the minority will have to deal with it. IMHO, we have gone sideways with societal norms in this country for to long. Personally, I don't care if you cut your penis off and start wearing dresses, just dont come to my front porch telling me it's the new norm. This country needs to be self efficent again. The next president needs to put America and it's people first, and reclaim our title. There's only one flag with a lot of history behind it good and bad. Dont erase it, move forward like our fore fathers did. We cannot lose site of that. Thank you.
AJ, my thoughts are irrelevant to this topic/conversation. My early morning brain was not functioning at full capacity. Hence, my eye-roll emoji, which, as the morning has progressed, I deem to be inappropriate. That's why I deleted it.
George, I think the world of DeSanctis and think he's been an outstanding governor. I shudder to think of how he'll be demonized by the slime that is the media aka American Pravda. DC is infested by many many incompetent zealots. The FBI, (Social) Justice Dept., IRS, Treasury, State, and even the CDC have been corrupted. Leaders in these departments don't serve the people they serve the Progressive ideology that is damaging of our country. I'd like to see a reaper eradicating as much of the infestation as possible. Better someone with a large, large chip on his shoulders who has no reelection to temper him than a newbie who would be treading lightly while getting his feet wet. Treachery lurks everywhere including the White House.
AJ ain't wrong. The problem is so much of what our Founders created has been subverted by Dept of This or That. Congress was NEVER supposed to give away the power to make law, but yet you have the EPA and the ATF (and all the other alphabet depts) making arbitrary decisions "with the power of law" in them. The bureaucracy needs to be greatly paired back to have any hope of saving this train which is headed well off the tracks...
Re: Cult of Personality.....I still believe its right on target. In this day and age, you have to include the effects of social "mass" media into the equation. Trump was brilliant in using traditional mass media as his sabre to rattle and engage his constituency re: "fake news" to destroy their credibility as an information source and allowing him to play victim, replace their version of reality - right or wrong it's now irrelevant - and using his social media presence to substitute his own version of the "truth". With that megaphone he's able to misinform tens of millions of people that the election was rigged, he won the election but the election was stolen, etc when we know that that is complete "bullsh!t" (thank you AG Barr) and in spite of the fact that he knew it, had a duty to know or that any reasonable person similarly situated would know it. Now it's becoming more apparent that by acknowledging his loss would have been inconvenient and a material impediment to his final solution. Social "mass" media has enabled him to continue to lie to those unwilling or unable to learn or reason the facts themselves and fuel his grift gold mine to this day. Re: TDS.....I'm fascinated by syndrome. One of it's key elements that is becoming more evident to us daily is that it is highly transmissible. We can see evidence of new outbreaks daily amongst his former Cabinet members, military general staff and Joint Chiefs, his senior staff, White House counsel and staff, other White House staffers and Republican election officials in states across the country, particularly with those that worked most closely to him. It appears to manifest itself in especially acute attacks when they are recalling their experiences with him while under oath. Fascinating.....
Here's an article I found relevant; sorry about quoting so much of it. You can pick and choose. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/16/cheney-jilted-by-gop/ "...she closed her campaign by calling her party “very sick.” Wyoming Republicans, feeling fine, decided to change doctors. Cheney’s defeat will temporarily magnify her martyrdom, but everyone will soon remember that while today she’s defining patriotism as opposing Trump, during a brief 2013 Senate campaign she insisted that “patriotism” was “obstructing President [Barack] Obama’s policies and his agenda.” Patriotism is apparently a moving target." "Because the party isn’t hers anymore, and she blames Trump. Cheney will assuredly wear her defeat as a badge of honor, a testament to putting country first in ways that lesser Wyoming Republicans did not have the character to emulate. It’s a popular narrative trotted out about Cheney, her Jan. 6 committee colleague Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) and any other Republican willing to chastise not just Trump but their party in general." "The jilted lovers of the GOP operate under the delusion that Republicans have just temporarily lost their way, and, once they realize their folly, will find their way home. But while the GOP fell hard for Trump in 2016, its lukewarm response to John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012 demonstrated that when it came to traditional suitors, the bloom was already off the rose." "Instead of constantly reproaching Republicans for their choices, everyone should stipulate the following: The Republican Party has some lingering conservative leanings, but it is now the populist, Make America Great Again party of its modern leader, Donald Trump. Even if someone else is its standard-bearer in 2024 — which would be a wise move, considering Trump’s self-inflicted wounds after his election defeat — the GOP will not revert to the party of the past." "Our national acrimony could be lessened by declaring a halt to portraying the GOP as a terrorist- or conspiracy-based organization represented by the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers or other such groups. Millions of rank-and-file Republicans having no connection to fringe militias with exaggerated influence roll their eyes at the insults hurled their way. But the relentless hostility directed toward them across media platforms, and year after year of investigatory agencies targeting Trump, serve only to keep them defiantly in the former president’s corner. The more you call millions of hard-working, patriotic Americans racists, cultists or terrorists, the more you push them away — and then complain that they’re not listening." "Regardless of what they tell pollsters, whom they often regard as an extension of the mainstream media, most Republicans likely know the 2020 election wasn’t fraudulent, although they might harbor suspicions about voting revisions enacted late in election season, with the pandemic used as justification." "That might appear shocking to anyone embracing the spin that, by comparison, the Democratic Party distinctively stands for truth, justice and the American Way. The truth is that whatever Democrats are saying or doing about Trump and his party, most of them — especially those in leadership — do so less because they are offended or alarmed than because they think it’s the strategy that will maintain or expand their power. If you think otherwise, your innocence is enviable."
Buckeye T, the big question with Trump right from the outset was would he be willing to delegate and work with others. We now know the answer; he was never known for those qualities in his business either. As far as the rigged election goes, the genesis of that theory was the totally decrepit state of Joe Biden and the half-hearted campaign he ran to empty parking lots in contrast to Trump's five stops a day campaigning. People just can't get their heads around the idea that 81 million people would vote for a lifeless candidate with such a vanilla record after 49 years. Let's be honest, he was most famous for inappropriate touching of females, plagiarism and non-sensical hyperbole. Trump has 74 million votes which shattered the previous high by a long way in the same election. That indicates a record turnout in a booming economy with no wars. That is odd by anyone's standards.
Gipper, DeSantis is young, a highly successful and experienced Governor who has a much better chance of getting real things done because of his energy and temperament. For all Trump's promise to drain the swamp he actually did very little of it.
But he lost by 7 million votes because the other guy had the much greater and ultimately decisive benefit of running against Trump. Trump was the only candidate on the planet in a generation that Biden could beat and beat him he did. People scratch their heads about how Biden could get so many votes.....he did nothing of the kind, he didn't have to. People voted against Trump. Hell Krebsie, you or I coulda gotten 80 million votes if we ran opposite Trump.
Let me paraphrase the above quote: Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, despite winning the popular vote, because the other guy had the benefit of running against Clinton. In much the same way that Democrat voters in swing states voted against Clinton in 2016, Republican voters in swing states voted against Trump in 2020. No question that in a normal presidential election, Biden wouldn't have been the strongest candidate, but wasn't a normal election. It was as much - if not more so - an anti-Trump vote as it was pro-Biden. In how many statewide elections did down-ticket Republicans win while the guy at the top of the ticket lost? Voters on both sides were highly energized. Hence, the record turnout. In closing, I'll paraphrase a saying generally attributed to Lou Holtz in describing the so-called mystique of Notre Dame: If Republicans understand why Trump is unpopular among many of their fellow Republicans, no explanation is necessary. If they don't understand, no explanation will suffice. That's one reason why I choose not to not to engage/debate on this topic. Another reason is that I'm just not smart enough to hold my own against the intelligent and tenacious minds here. No kidding. I'm not being sarcastic. I know my limitations. That wasn't the case years ago when I wouldn't hesitate to jump in with both feet. People change. I've changed. Carry on, gentlemen.
Aren't you guys saying the same thing? With the direction this country has been pointed the last two years (and the foreseeable future), there's only one way the Dems win the Whitehouse again - that's if Trump runs. He generates so much hate from his detractors... there won't even be thoughts about how bad EVERYTHING has been for the last 4 years, it'll just be an automatic vote against a personality. I pray he sits it out.
I am not a Trump supporter but I have no illusion that if the next Republican nominee for president is not Trump, that person will be vilified as a smarter and thus a more dangerous version of Trump in media and popular culture which seems, since 2016, to have more firmly embedded themselves as the propaganda organ of the Democratic party. Before Romney, McCain, and Chaney became honored figures in the media because of their opposition to Trump, they were routinely trashed in the media and I suspect R and C will be treated so again if Trump recedes voluntarily or involuntarily from the political scene. Re Chaney, I do think she showed considerable courage. She was on a path to becoming the leading person of Republican congressional members and conceivably could have been on the 2024 ticket had she muted her thoughts on Trump’s unprincipled and corrupt behavior. But, my guess is that the Republicans in Wyoming hate the Democrats and their allies with such a passion that they viewed her participation on the J6 committee as providing aid and comfort for the enemy. That same sort of tribalist reaction also took place in the 90s when Democrats, in their animosity and fear of Republicans, stood behind Clinton even though some later admitted, decades later, that his behavior was completely unworthy of the office he held.