Month: April 2022

It is an article of faith that Donald Trump was so angry at Barack Obama for making fun of him at the White House Correspondents Dinner back in 2011 that it propelled him to make a serious run for president four years later. I don’t know if that’s true but he certainly didn’t look pleased.

Trump does not like being made fun of. He has absolutely no ability to laugh at himself. So I have to wonder how he’s taking this:

INSIDE THE RETURN OF THE GRIDIRON — New Hampshire Republican Gov. CHRIS SUNUNU stole the show Saturday night at the annual Gridiron Club dinner by saying out loud what most Republicans in Washington *privately* whisper about DONALD TRUMP.

“You know, he’s probably going to be the next president,” Sununu said of Trump, musing about his “experience,” “passion,” “sense of integrity” and the “rationale” he brought to his tweets. As the room quieted to see where he was going with this, he paused, then yelled: “Nah, I’m just kidding! He’s FUCKING CRAZY!” The ballroom roared with laughter. “ARE YOU KIDDING?! Come on. You guys are buying that? I love it … He just stresses me out so much! … I’m going to deny I ever said it.”

It didn’t stop there: “The press often will ask me if I think Donald Trump is crazy. And I’ll say it this way: I don’t think he’s so crazy that you could put him in a mental institution. But I think if he were in one, he ain’t getting out!”

It was just the beginning of an evening full of laughs — and, at times, cringes — that had the more than 600 journalists and VIPs in attendance reaching for more wine. For several hours, it was like the pandemic never happened, as D.C.’s high society descended on the Renaissance Hotel downtown for the first Gridiron gathering in three years.

If you weren’t there, don’t worry, we pulled out the choicest tidbits …

SUNUNU HITS REPUBLICANS:

— On VIRGINIA THOMAS’ now-infamous text messages to MARK MEADOWS: “We know she may be extreme, but let’s face it: when it comes to texting, she’s no ANTHONY WEINER. And you guys thought we forgot about that freakshow.”

— And TED CRUZ hanging out with the People’s Convoy: “Nobody really knows why [the Convoy protesters are] in Washington in the first place — which pretty much describes Ted himself, right? … What is with Ted? You see that beard? … He looks like MEL GIBSON after a DUI or something.”

— On Trump ally and MyPillow CEO MIKE LINDELL: “This guy’s head is stuffed with more crap than his pillows. And by the way, I was told not to say this, but I will: His stuff is crap. I mean, it’s absolute crap. You only find that kind of stuff in the Trump Hotel.”

Sununu also told a story about a time Trump visited him in New Hampshire and invited him to ride inside the presidential limo, The Beast. The then-president suddenly stopped talking and pointed out the window at people lining the road holding American flags, saying, “They LOVE me!” Only problem, said Sununu, was that the man he pointed to held a sign that read, “FUCK TRUMP.”

I don’t know when we fully transitioned to saying “fuck” in public places but I’m here for it. Also, Sununu is right.

I haven’t seen anything from Trump today so maybe he’s still basking in the glow of that batshit crazy rally of his last night. But he’s not going to like this. And he’s not going to like it that they all laughed either.

This is from his instagram account. I think he believes it’s funny. He also seems to think that Will Smith is the hero in this story.

It’s so infantile, I hesitate to even share it. But I came across it after reading this from a couple of months ago and it kind of made me sick:

Most polling of the still hypothetical 2024 Republican presidential Primary race shows Donald Trump atop the field, with Gov. Ron DeSantis running second and winning outright when the former President is excluded from the field.

The latest Morning Consult/POLITICO survey is consistent with both of those trends, yet it shows that if the former President does not run in 2024, his namesake son would be competitive even with DeSantis.

Former President Trump was the choice of 49% of the 390 registered Republican voters surveyed last week, with DeSantis the preference of just 14%. With Trump excluded, his son, Donald Trump Jr., was the choice of 24% of those surveyed, with DeSantis at 25%. Former Vice President Mike Pence was in third place in both scenarios, with 13% in a field with the former President, and 12% in a field excluding the senior Trump.

The younger Trump has performed well in some polls of the race, notably in McLaughlin surveys. But he has not been ahead of DeSantis in polling since the Governor began to increase his national profile last year, so this is a microtrend to watch.

If you think we can’t go lower than Donald Trump , think again. His son is even worse than he is.

Many of you who are old timers will remember this little episode, right?

In an effort reportedly intended to repair relations with the White House in the aftermath of CBS’ publication of unauthenticated memos concerning President Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS president Andrew Heyward met with then-White House communications director Dan Bartlett in January 2005. According to Broadcasting and Cable magazine: “Heyward was ‘working overtime to convince Bartlett that neither CBS News nor Rather had a vendetta against the White House,’ our source says, ‘and from here on out would do everything it could to be fair and balanced.’ “

And then there was this:

CBS News chairman and ’60 Minutes’ EP Jeff Fager held a meeting with CBS News staff on Tuesday and took questions about the fate of Lara Logan and Max McClellan, the journalists currently on a leave of absence in the wake of the controversial ’60 Minutes’ report on Benghazi, POLITICO has learned.

In the meeting, held with ‘CBS This Morning’ staffers, Fager said he did not know how long Logan and her producer would be on leave, and made no indication that they would be asked to resign in the wake of the now-retracted report, according to sources familiar with the meeting. Those sources said that Fager defended Logan as a valuable member of the ’60 Minutes’ team even as he acknowledged the erroneous nature of the report.

Because of those stories and others, I wasn’t all that surprised to see them hire former Tea Partyer and Trump White House Chief of staff/ Budget director Mick Mulvaney. Of course they did. It’s been how they roll for a long time.

Margaret Sullivan takes them apart:

When word came the other day that a former top Trump aide, Mick Mulvaney, was joining CBS News as a paid pundit, the move was met with a fair amount of disgust — both inside and outside the network.

Why hire this partisan, the White House acting chief of staff for a time, who had such an execrable record of enabling his boss’s corruption and reinforcing his lies? What journalistic purpose could this possibly serve?

It was hard to understand until my colleague Jeremy Barr got hold of a recording of a CBS staff meeting that answered the question.

“If you look at some of the people that we’ve been hiring on a contributor basis, being able to make sure that we are getting access to both sides of the aisle is a priority, because we know the Republicans are going to take over, most likely, in the midterms,” Neeraj Khemlani, the news division’s co-president, told the staff of the network’s morning show.

“A lot of the people that we’re bringing in are helping us in terms of access to that side of the equation.”

And there it was: access.

That’s not necessarily a dirty word. Every beat reporter knows that access is crucial in journalism. You can’t cover your subject area if the inside people won’t talk to you — whether you’re a White House correspondent prying information out of sources within the administration or a local police reporter who needs comment from the top cop and a steady supply of story tips from the rank and file.

Access is the fertile soil in which scoops are grown and watered.

But the question arises here: access to what? To those who will spout the “big lie” about the 2020 election? To those who will excuse and arrange for corrupt behavior?

Let’s recall, for a moment, some of Mick Mulvaney’s greatest hits.

There was the time he defended President Donald Trump’s withholding nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, freely admitting that it had to do with his boss’s insistence that Ukraine investigate Hunter Biden to serve his own political ends. “Get over it,” Mulvaney told the press corps who questioned the “quid pro quo” nature of the demand. “There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy.” (Mulvaney later tried to walk it back, denying that he had described a “quid pro quo.”)

In fact, Mulvaney was deeply involved behind the scenes in the infamous phone call on July 25, 2019, between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. You might recall that national security adviser John Bolton refused to get involved in “whatever drug deal [Ambassador to the European Union Gordon] Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up” on behalf of Trump.

That was the call in which Trump uttered the impeachment-worthy line, “I would like you to do us a favor, though.”Advertisement

Later, in early 2020, Mulvaney slammed press coverage of the burgeoning coronavirus pandemic as little more than an effort to hurt Trump politically.

“The reason you’re seeing so much attention to it today is that they think this is going to be the thing that brings down the president,” Mulvaney said at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “That’s what this is all about.” Since then, 979,000 Americans have died of the virus that Trump downplayed and denied for so long.

Then, just before the 2020 presidential election, Mulvaney showed the world what an astute pundit he could one day become when he predicted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece that his former boss would act like a statesman if he lost the election to Joe Biden.

“If He Loses, Trump Will Concede Gracefully,” read the headline. Instead, we got a violent insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and an endless democracy-damaging effort, led by Trump, to deny the legitimate election results. And, of course, a second impeachment.

In other words, Mulvaney has been on the wrong side — the deeply, undemocratically wrong side — of America’s most important political issues in recent years.

The larger issue here,though, is the news media’s blind and relentless pandering to the outdated notion that both sides of the aisle are pretty much equal these days — that they’re similar, just with different governing philosophies.

That’s simply not the case.

“We have a two-party system and one of the two is anti-democratic,” as NYU professor and press critic Jay Rosen put it. This basic asymmetry, he noted, “fries the circuits” of the mainstream media, which largely refuses to recognize it or do anything about it in their coverage.

Media executives are in a defensive crouch, fearfully reacting to bad-faith criticism from the right that accuses them of leftist bias and of repeating Democrats’ talking points. Above all, they want to look fair, even if that performative fairness does American citizens real harm.

In this context, CBS’s decision to hire Mulvaney makes total sense. “Both sides of the aisle,” and all that.

No matter that Mulvaney has been up to his neck in the very issues that have American democracy teetering on the brink.

CBS has been flirting with a sort of soft Fox-ism for a long time. They consistently position themselves as a center right alternative to the other networks. This is par for the course.

In the days before the vote is officially certified, as the president is doing everything in his power to subvert the peaceful transfer of power, the White House just spontaneously stops keeping records. There is absolutely nothing suspicious about any of this. It’s perfectly fine.

In the days leading up to the deadly Capitol insurrection last year, Trump’s presidential diarist noticed that White House officials began providing fewer details on the then-President’s calls and visits, according to CNN. The report comes amid revelations that the White House call logs the National Archives turned over to the Jan. 6 Select Committee contained a seven-hour gap — despite previous reports of multiple calls that Trump took as the insurrection unfolded.

Trump’s presidential diarist revealed the scant details that the then-President’s White House officials produced days before the insurrection when reportedly testifying before the Jan. 6 Select Committee last month.

According to CNN, other witnesses described a similar scenario to the committee. They reportedly told the panel that Trump White House record-keepers were sharing less information during the same time period.

One source characterized White House record-keepers in the days before the insurrection as having been “iced out” in the days preceding the insurrection, according to CNN.

“The last day that normal information was sent was the 4th,” another source familiar with the investigation told CNN. “So, starting the 5th, the diarist didn’t receive the annotated calls and notes. This was a dramatic departure. That is all out of the ordinary.”

It is typical for the presidential diarist to receive a trove of information about the President, which includes phone logs from the switchboard, the President’s movements from the Secret Services as well as notes from Oval Office operations that detail calls, guests and activists of the President.

It is unclear who, or if anyone, instructed a shift in record-keeping and if there was a motivation behind the slower pace of information shared with White House record-keepers in the days leading up to the insurrection.

Just imagine if this was anyone but Trump, whom everyone knows breaks the law and tosses out norms like used kleenex because that’s just who he is, this would be considered a smoking gun. But it’s no biggie and he’s still the frontrunner for the 2024 election, running expressly to exact revenge for his bogus claims of a stolen election.

I guess this is just what we do now.

If the atrocities are fully verified, it appears that the Russian army has been wantonly committing war crimes in Ukraine on a far greater level than we knew. The pictures of civilians lying dead in the streets, some with bound hands, are horrific. It’s the worst we’ve seen in Europe since Srebrenica and possibly the worst since WWII.

Why? Well, it probably has a lot to do with Putin’s rhetoric. The following was originally tweeted by Greg Yudin (@YudinGreg) on April 3, 2022:

Unfortunately, I am not surprised by the atrocities in the occupied zone in Bucha. One thing people tend to underestimate is the narrative built in Russia to justify this war. It sounds so outlandish to most observers that it is too easily written off. But it works.

The narrative mounted by Putin from the first days of war focuses on “de-nazification” of Ukraine. Nazism is understood in Russia (just like anywhere else) as an absolute evil. However, it is seen an external evil, Russia is by definition free from Nazism (we defeated it!)

It follows that Nazism is an external enemy that should be destroyed at any cost. The initial view was that Nazis have seized power in Ukraine, while ordinary Ukrainians are just some sort of Russians with silly ideas about their identity and a ridiculous language

This meant “de-nazification” could be completed through regime change & Ukrainians should be liberated. Obviously, this conception failed when Ukrainians started resisting bravely. A natural conclusion from that: Ukrainians turned out to be deeply infected by Nazism

Therefore, liberation means purification. I have expanded on that a bit:

And this is precisely how the message of official speakers has changed recently. Here Margarita Simonyan is saying precisely this: we have underestimated how deep Nazism has permeated Ukrainian society. Now liberation means purification

That affects the operational choices by the troops on the ground. Imagine you are a Russian soldier occupying a city in Ukraine (I know it is an unpleasant experiment). What are the classifications and distinctions you would use when dealing with the local population?

Your basic theory is that this is a land occupied by the Nazis, and you are here to liberate it. Obviously, Nazis will resist; and those resisting are Nazis. Your primary task is to separate the Nazis from poor Ukrainians & make the city clean from Nazism

This is why we already see the filtration camps operating near Mariupol. The process of filtration reportedly involves many locations inside Russia, which means the whole concept of filtration operations was pre-planned. Once again, the purity narrative is crucial here

This is why I seriously doubt these atrocities are just excesses of war. Every war excites the worst in people, especially when commanders are rogue. However, the systematic and consistent actions owe more to the way war is justified than to affects like revenge

If you feel like this logic of purification actually reminds of Nazi thinking, I think there’s a lot of truth to that. I will probably make a separate thread on why 🇷🇺 probably has no immunity against Nazism.

I am afraid the worst thing are yet to follow. Hope I’m wrong. END

ADD: This is exactly what I am talking about: “Don’t worry. You are all normal – and this is dirt. We are here to cleanse you from the dirt.”

https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/04/03/ukraine-apparent-war-crimes-russia-controlled-areas

I’d just like to give a big shout-out to the Americans who who helped justify this “de-nazification” rationale for the illegal invasion despite the fact that there are neo Nazis everywhere including the US and Russia and that it was a nonsense cassus belli in the first place.

For more read this.

Trump had a rally last night. He said the usual stupid stuff. But his plans for 2022 and 2024 couldn’t be more clear:

 Former President Donald Trump tried to boost select Michigan candidates running for secretary of state, attorney general and the Legislature in a nearly two-hour Saturday address that aimed to cement his influence in the Michigan GOP. 

Three weeks ahead of the Michigan Republican nominating convention, Trump criticized Michigan’s 2020 election as “rigged” and encouraged supporters to ask each state candidate at the April 23 nominating convention “if they will support the Trump ticket.”

“If they won’t give you that assurance, don’t give them your vote,” he said to a crowd of more than 5,000 people at the Michigan Stars Sport Center in Washington Township. Thousands of other attendees stood outside of the at-capacity sports complex, mirroring the crowds Trump attracted at that location while president in 2018 and 2020. 

Candidates and officials reinforced Trump’s message throughout the night and repeated unproven claims that the 2020 election was stolen. 

“Donald Trump is still the leader of this party,” said Matt DePerno, Trump’s pick for attorney general against two other opponents. “And Donald Trump has come here today and said to every one of you delegates: Support Matt DePerno. Support Kristina Karamo.

“…This right here is the continuation of the MAGA movement.”

Saturday night’s speech marked the first time the former president has visited Michigan since his election eve November 2020 campaign visit.

Precinct delegates will choose on April 23 which GOP candidates for secretary of state and attorney general will advance to the November elections. They also will select two nominees for the State Board of Education, the Michigan Supreme Court, as well as the Michigan State, Wayne State and University of Michigan boards.

The rally was flush with GOP gubernatorial candidates shaking hands and snagging interviews. Among the attendees were Metro Detroit businessman Kevin Rinke, Bloomfield Hills quality guru Perry Johnson, Norton Shores commentator Tudor Dixon and former Detroit police chief James Craig. On stage, Trump singled out Dixon as “fantastic” and “very popular,” but stopped short of an endorsement.

Current delegates were peppered throughout the crowd as Trump pushed them to support his candidates of choice and attacked those running against his picks, calling former House Speaker and attorney general hopeful Tom Leonard and U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer RINOs or Republicans in name only.

“He’s a RINO,” Trump said of Leonard, his former nominee for U.S. attorney in the Western District of Michigan. “He’s not going to do a damn thing.”

Political experts have said they expect the April 23 nominating convention to test the extent of Trump’s influence within the party.

The Democratic National Committee said after the event that the former president’s influence was all too clear as he “took the stage alongside some of the most extreme members of the Republican Party.”

“Trump’s stranglehold on the Republican Party is evident as they stall progress, push debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and back an agenda that would raise taxes, cut health care and increase costs for American families,” said DNC spokesperson Adonna Biel.

Trump doubles down on endorsements

Trump introduced DePerno, whom he described as “hated by politicians — the weak ones, the RINOs” and as a “tough cookie” who led the investigation into an Antrim County vote error.

In May 2021, a local judge blocked DePerno’s push for an “independent and nonpartisan forensic audit” in Antrim County, where Trump handily won after the Republican county clerk corrected mistakes after preliminary results showed Democrat Joe Biden winning. A state audit that hand recounted every vote upheld Trump’s victory in the country but only found a net gain of 12 votes for Trump. 

And the GOP-controlled Michigan Senate Oversight Committee accused DePerno of spreading “misleading information and illogical conclusions.”

“As your attorney general, Matt will defend your Second Amendment,” Trump said. “He will crack down on violent crime and he will ensure free, fair and honest elections.”

DePerno called Trump “the greatest president in the history of this country.”

“In the spring of 2020 Gov. Whitmer shut down our state, and some of us stood up and fought against it and never submitted to tyranny,” DePerno said. “If elected as attorney general, we will change this in this state we will restore this state, back to what it once was, a constitutional republic. I will return the office back to the law firm for the people.”

Trump also called Karamo up on stage, promising that as secretary of state the Oak Park educator would “clean up Michigan’s election for us” and deliver citizenship and residency confirmation, signature verification guidelines and tougher voter ID laws.

“You’re guaranteed to have a corrupt election, with your radical Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson,” Trump said. 

“I am so excited to be your next secretary of state, to make sure that no matter who you vote for what you believe your vote counts and your vote is not nullified by an illegal ballot,” Karamo said.

Earlier in the night, she criticized the media for failing to scrutinize the November 2020 election more closely and slammed Benson as an “authoritarian leftist who treats the people of Michigan like the unwashed masses.”

“They tried to demonize us,” Karamo said of the media. “I have a right to scrutinize our government.”

More than 200 audits by local clerks, several court rulings and a Senate investigation into the 2020 election have upheld the results in Michigan, where Biden defeated Trump by about 154,000 votes.

DePerno promised to end mask mandates, vaccine mandates, critical race theory, Line 5 litigation by Nessel and threats to Second Amendment rights. He repeated vows to investigate Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Benson and Nessel should he be elected attorney general and said Nessel was the only candidate in the election “who has been wheeled out of a football game because she was black-out drunk.”

“I cannot wait to debate Dana Nessel,” DePerno said.

Nessel apologized in November and admitted to drinking alcohol to the point of feeling sick and having to be helped out of the Oct. 30 football game between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University.

West Michigan congressional hopeful John Gibbs, who is challenging GOP U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer of Grand Rapids Township, spoke of his work at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under Trump and his opposition to COVID-19 relief funds for the agency, advocating instead to get people back to work by ending “the stupid lockdowns.” Gibbs is endorsed by Trump.

He also attacked Meijer, calling him a RINO for voting to  impeach the former president over the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump encouraged voters to oust Meijer in the August primary because of his impeachment vote, riffing on what he saw as the odd pronunciation of the Meijer name. Most Michigan residents are familiar with the name because of the Meijer family’s supermarket chain in the Midwest.

What “the hell kind of a spelling is that?” Trump asked.

Trump targets Democratic leaders

Trump also took aim at Whitmer, Benson and Nessel on issues that included state-ordered shutdowns during the pandemic, the threatened closure of Line 5 and decisions Benson made ahead of the election.

He pinged Benson for her mailing of unsolicited ballot applications to Michigan voters, signature verification guidance that was overturned by a judge post-election, and the acceptance of third party donations toward election operations.

“Republicans must get tough and smart and not let them get away with the crime of the century,” Trump said.

While a judge did overturn Benson’s signature verification guidance on administrative grounds, other courts upheld Benson’s mailing of ballot applications and the acceptance of third party donations.

Trump reminded the crowd that Whitmer’s husband tried to use his position to get a boat in the water in May 2020 during the early depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. The owner of a Northern Michigan dock company said Marc Mallory placed in the water before the Memorial Day weekend as Whitmer urged residents not to rush to the region.

“…He could go ice skating,” Trump said. “He could do whatever.”

“I want to see what this guy looks like,” Trump said of Whitmer’s husband. “He must be a handsome son of a bitch to get away with that.”

Whitmer defended her husband at the time the boat incident became public by saying he “made a failed attempt at humor.”

Trump accused Biden and Whitmer of imposing rules on everyday citizens “that they did not abide by themselves.” In May 2021, Whitmer apologized after a photo emerged showing her at a restaurant with 12 other people gathered around tables pushed together in violation of her health department’s epidemic order.

“They totally failed on the pandemic, and now they are trying to walk away from COVID like nothing happened,” the former president said.

The Whitmer administration has pointed at studies estimating that thousands of lives were saved by her early stay home orders. But since the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Whitmer’s emergency powers unconstitutional in October 2020, the Democratic incumbent has gradually shifted away from public epidemic health orders.

The former president then pivoted to Line 5, the 68-year-old pipeline that carries about 540,000 barrels of light crude and natural gas liquids that serve as a propane source to the Upper Peninsula and lower Michigan after it is processed in Sarnia, Ontario.

Whitmer and Nessel have sought to shut down Line 5 in federal and state courts. Legal proceedings have dragged as Canadian officials have sought talks with Biden administration officials because they argue closing the pipeline would violate a treaty.

“They tried to shut down Line 5 pipeline that provides 55% of all propane gas in the state of Michigan,” Trump said. “They want to close it. What the hell are they gonna do when it’s closed? It’s crazy.”

Environmental allies of Whitmer have argued that supplies of fuel could be maintained with a minimal increase in price.

Fed issues take center stage

Trump zeroed in on several federal issues for a large portion of the address, calling for the ouster of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as he described a country in desperate straits under Biden heading into the midterm elections.

Trump criticized the resettling of Afghan refugees in Michigan as he criticized Biden’s Afghanistan military withdrawal. He also criticized the acceleration of inflation, economic setbacks and border policies.

“The stakes of this year’s midterm election could not be higher,” Trump said. “I don’t know of a time we’ve ever felt so low, so dejected. And we have a president who has no idea what’s going on.”

“The choice this November is very simple: If you want high crime, high prices, high taxes, high corruption and high incompetence, vote for radical Democrats,” Trump said. “If you want a country that is strong, sovereign, solvent, safe and secure, you must vote for America-first Republicans.”

Later in his speech, he promised if Republicans retook the U.S. House and Senate that they would “immediately” end “every single COVID mandate.”

During his presidency, Trump said he preferred that states set COVID policies instead of the federal government.

GOP weighs Trump influence

Ahead of the rally, attendees voiced support for the president but said that didn’t automatically extend to support for his endorsed candidates.

Ty Paye brought his wife, son, nephew and family friend for Saturday’s rally as well as a longing for a return to the Trump presidency.

“Gas was low. I wasn’t paying $5 a gallon,” the 58-year-old Clinton Township resident said about life under Trump. “Everybody had a job. Groceries, I had money in my pockets. I got to go places. And now I can’t really.

“President Trump says what he’s going to do and he does it. And he cares about the American people and not their pockets. The Democrats, all they care about are their pockets.”

Marrah Madsen of Port Huron was similarly impressed by the president’s record while in office as well as his direct speech.

But the 45-year-old U.S. Navy veteran said that doesn’t mean a Trump endorsement influences her vote. Madsen said she’s a supporter of Karamo and gubernatorial candidate Garrett Soldano, a Mattawan chiropractor who gained a name for himself by opposing state restrictions during the pandemic.

“Some people it matters to,” Madsen said of Trump’s endorsement. “For me, it’s about the person. I do my own research, what I see online, what they say. … Your actions speak louder than your words.”

Sue Zerillo, a supporter of Soldano and DePerno, echoed Madsen’s ambivalence toward the former president’s endorsement.

“His influence does help,” the 59-year-old Clinton Township resident said. “But the research you do on the people, that’s what I go by.”

Brad Bergman said he’s keeping an “open ear” and didn’t have “blinders” on when it came to endorsements or politics in general. But he was certain the Democratic officials currently in office were “not making the grade.”

“The governor, the AG, I know what they’ve  done,” the 62-year-old Brighton man said. “I’ve personally felt it and I think they were wrong.”

They “do their own research.” Oy. Here are some interviews from before the rally:

Linda Greehouse dropped in on The New York Times editorial page to scold Republicans for their (mis)treatment of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson:

When Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination reaches the Senate floor soon, every Republican who votes against her confirmation will be complicit in the abuse that the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee heaped on her.

Every mischaracterization of Judge Jackson’s record on the bench. Every racist dog whistle about crime. Every QAnon shout-out about rampant child pornography. Every innuendo that a lawyer who represents suspected terrorists supports terrorism.

So far, only one Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, has said she will vote to confirm Judge Jackson. The Republican senators who don’t disavow their colleagues’ behavior during last week’s confimation hearing will own it. All of it.

Greenhouse names names, but you know who they are. The difference in reception between the last Democratic nominee, Elena Kagan, and now is stark, Greenhouse observes. “The alternating question periods between Democratic and Republican senators induced a kind of whiplash.” Democrats celebrated Jackson’s accomplishments while Republicans’ questions “oozed venom.” Republican fixation on kiddie porn and pedophilia was both creepy and “verged on the unhinged.” Here, Greenhouse is being too kind.

Noting Republican explanations for rejecting Jackson, The Washington Post Editorial Board concurs:

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, seems to be getting rave reviews from Republicans. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) said that she is “a person of exceptionally good character, respected by her peers and someone who has worked hard to achieve her current position.” Sen. Ben Sasse (Neb.) declared that she “has impeccable credentials and a deep knowledge of the law.” Obviously, Judge Jackson exceeds the standard that should apply to Supreme Court nominees: that they be well-qualified, possess an even temperament and sit within the judicial mainstream. Yet Mr. Graham, Mr. Sasse and other Judiciary Committee Republicans are vowing to oppose advancing her nomination when the panel meets on Monday.

The reasons they have concocted are not credible. Mr. Graham voted to confirm Judge Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the second-most powerful court in the country, less than a year ago. Yet Mr. Graham has suddenly concluded that she has a “record of judicial activism.”

Glass houses, Mr. Graham. He and his colleagues have raised legislative hacktivism to an art form and will perform at the drop of a hat. They have a future on streetcorners and in subways.

Only the ever-irresolute Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has said she will vote for Judge Jackson. (To be determined. Pressure only need be applied in the right place and Collins will fold.)

Others from the Republican caucus praise Jackson’s accomplishments while rejecting her nomination, as the Board sees it, “grasping for pretexts, each more preposterous than the last, to oppose this historic nominee.”

Judicial activism is an even more ludricous charge given unproven allegations now being hurled against Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife for involvement in the First Republican Coup of 2021. God help us, there won’t be a second.

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For The Win, 4th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free, countywide get-out-the-vote planning guide for county committees at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.

Success or failure for Vladimir Putin’s gambit in Ukraine, however, will have global consequences. All eyes are on Ukraine. Not all of them watching for salvation for the outgunned, struggling and imperfect democracy. Some are watching to see what consequences the world levies against the strongman. What fate is in store for the dictator if he loses? Or if he is preceived to have lost?

Historian Micahel Beschloss this morning drew attention to a lengthy offering in the Financial Times on what implications the war in Ukraine has for the spread of autocracy.

“I’m not planning to leave,” chuckled Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban while visiting Moscow weeks before the invasion. Now the longest serving leader in the EU and accused of undermining Hungary’s democracy, Orban elicited a laugh from Putin when he remarked, “I have good hopes that for many years we can work together.” As the world watches Ukraine now, the world’s strongmen watched and learned from the mistakes and shortcomings of Donald John Trump. He has yet to face consequences for his actions. Putin at least faces economic sanctions.

Gideon Rachman writes:

Since 2000, the rise of the strongman leader has become a central feature of global politics. In capitals as diverse as Moscow, Beijing, Delhi, Ankara, Budapest, Manila, Washington, Riyadh and Brasília, self-styled “strongmen” (and, so far, they are all men) have risen to power.

Typically, these leaders are nationalists and cultural conservatives, with little tolerance for minorities, dissent or the interests of foreigners. At home, they claim to be standing up for the common man against the “globalist” elites. Overseas, they posture as the embodiment of their nations. And, everywhere they go, they encourage a cult of personality.

It is possible that the catastrophe of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will permanently discredit the strongman style of politics. But those hopes should be balanced by the knowledge that this is a movement — and a political style — that has put down deep roots over the past 20 years.

Like other autocrats, Trump played to fears “that a dominant majority is about to be displaced — suffering enormous cultural and economic losses in the process.” That waning majority will believe up is down, war is peace, freedom is slavery, etc., if it means they will retain their ability to dominate ethic and religious minorities they view as lessers.

Once secured in power, strongmen have little reason to leave and hang onto power by any means necessary. The U.S. just witnessed an attempt to do just that. Fortunately, our would-be “strongly” man is a poseur. In his four years in office, he wrecked or undermined many institutional guardrails in this now struggling democracy, and retains an unsettling amount of support in places of power. But his and his cadre’s ineptitude, plus the remaining institutional ballast at the highest levels of the military, helped prevent an attempted coup from being realized.

Read Rachman’s entire essay remembering how fragile our enduring, imperfect union has proved in the Age of the Strongman.

There are good reasons to believe that the liberal democratic world will ultimately prevail. Strongman rule is an inherently flawed model. It cannot deal with the problem of succession and it lacks the checks and balances that allow democracies to ditch failed policies and rulers. The longer a strongman ruler is in power, the more likely he is to succumb to paranoia or megalomania. Putin’s decision to attack Ukraine exemplifies that danger.

But strongmen are very hard to lever out of power. The Age of the Strongman has taken hold over the course of a generation. There may be a lot more turmoil and suffering before it is consigned to history.

No rest for the weary.

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For The Win, 4th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free, countywide get-out-the-vote planning guide for county committees at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.

“Baby sex torture”

That’s the New York Post. I just want you to see that headline so you know what the right is doing to damage this woman’s reputation. They love this lurid stuff which explains why they are so prone to creepy conspiracy theories.

I’m not linking the story. Suffice to say that it’s smear, which I’m sure you already know.