187 Comments
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Irwin Chusid's avatar

As someone posted on X a few days ago: "Those who don't know history are doomed to compare everything to Hitler."

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ReadsTooMuchPraysTooLittle's avatar

Ooh, I like this! I keep a list of “ask me why I homeschool” answers, and I might have to add this!

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DMC's avatar

Brilliant

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Willy's avatar

I find it deeply unfair that Hitler has surpassed Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot for the forever gold medal winner of the 1936 Olympics event of “Most Accomplished Dictator Ever”

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Rather Curmudgeonly's avatar

Optimist eh, in 20 years we might be looking back on these as the good ol' days.

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Chris Bray's avatar

And then there's that.

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Q Ellis Telford's avatar

Not so far-fetched. The UK's Labour government is arresting people daily for criticizing the government. When the Dems re-take the federal government, and, sadly, they will, they will actually be the Nazis arresting people for screaming insults at officials, and will blame Trump for doing so, and the Ruth Marcuses of the country will egg them on.

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JBird4049's avatar

Both parties have put in place and used the various means of authoritarian rule during the past few decades. It’s been a team effort, but as was supposed to been said by the head of the German communist party in 1933 after they had destroyed the German socialist party and helped to get the Nazis in power, “Next time, it’s our turn.” But the Nazis were more ruthless and didn’t plan on having elections where they might lose power. The communist party leader died in a concentration camp.

Both of our political parties in America have been strengthening the police or security state while centralizing political power in DC, and destroying, not just the laws, but the various informal agreements, customs, and norms, that enable a regular, peaceful change of government; at some point, all those agreements, customs, and norms will be faded enough that someone will decide that elections don’t matter and that there will not be a next time for the other party.

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Mitch's avatar

nailed it.

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Ersatz Erik's avatar

Yes! Rule by psychopaths is not ideal, whatever guise they adopt.

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Brian Nelson's avatar

Nicely played. Gave me a much needed belly laugh.

bsn

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Steersman's avatar

Spoken like a "True Curmudgeon" (tm) ... 😉🙂

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James Farrell's avatar

You're right, but it won't even take half that long.

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John's avatar

This is why I subscribe to this sub stack. This is so perfectly stated and displayed. Way to put this all together and make it so easy to understand. There is no way to miss the point with how you’ve put this story together. Thanks Chris for being so talented and clear of vision.

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Brian Nelson's avatar

Had to mute another retired O6 on Facebook today...former SF Group Commander. Pretty sure he made all his post Army money from USAID--even ran for office as a GOP in 2016/18/20...cannot remember, COVID killed that part of my precision memory.

All TDS all day. Not sure who is worse, the low-T guy calling Vance or Hegseth a Nazi--or men I had admired greatly at one time fall to this contagious mental disorder.

We must ignore them or they steal our joy, our energy, our productivity.

Nazism. Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MosB5dY45HA

This is what we used to call leadership.

bsn

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Brian DeLeon's avatar

That one guy screaming, “Get out of my city!” so loud his voice cracks, I can’t begin to imagine how much rage a person must carry around inside them to be that angry at invisible, imaginary things. Pete Hegseth and Stephen Miller are not Nazi’s but that guy thinks they are, and his rage is real. True psychopathy on public display.

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Chris Bray's avatar

"My city." It's his.

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Orwell’s Rabbit's avatar

A parade of narcissists.

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NanaW's avatar

Good one!

Like a murder of crows. Lol

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Brian Nelson's avatar

It is pretty sad. Pathetic is another accurate adjective. This is what Mark Halperin predicted on Tucker back in October if Trump won--it will be the greatest mental health crisis our nation has ever seen. I'm all out of schadenfreude (kinda too bad, it is my favorite German treat...), and now it is tiring, boring, sad, and irritating.

Hey bro--how about TRT? Might help you out...

bsn

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Randy Farnum's avatar

Brian, I was thinking of that exact same prediction while reading this article and observing the oppositions reaction to Trumps actions. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad and depressing that some portion of our fellow Americans are depressingly lost in this mental disorder. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem which these people are incapable of doing. I can’t save them if they aren’t willing to save themselves. Onward and upward!

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Tricia's avatar

It is laughable and I am enjoying it. I am not a nice woman 😇

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SuezCanal's avatar

I have thought of Mark Halperin's prediction SO MANY TIMES since Trump took office. There is an obese woman in my city (apparently with no job but with a child she often brings with her) who sits on a well-traveled street corner nearly every day with a "F-- TRUMP" flag and waves it all day long in absolutely blistering heat. Few, if any, honk. What would drive one to do this? All these people screaming "fascists" (who don't know what fascism is) and crying on TikTok and screaming from their cars into their cameras for YouTube . . . it's been a few generations since parents taught their children that it's best to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. They are infected with a mind virus. There is no cure but a heart transplant.

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Bandit's avatar

I know of another cure and we'd all be better off if they took it.

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SuezCanal's avatar

Yeah, there's that too, but it's sort of like not wanting to squash a bug. I'd like to see it move on without being destroyed.

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Bandit's avatar

Nah.

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Brian Nelson's avatar

He nailed it. Prescient.

bsn

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Kate Finis's avatar

I had forgotten about Halperin's chilling prediction until now when you mentioned it. He's spot-on! I marvel at the daily displays of psychosis, now so common as to be boring (per Chris). And all due to TDS, as far as I can tell... remarkable. The ergotism of medieval times has nothing on us!

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Leonard's avatar

The screamer sounds like a person who’s SSRI’s have pased the point of marginal utility.

But its possible this is actually the intended outcome of the SSRI’s.

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Halftrolling's avatar

Its not real rage. Its like a switch being flicked. All performance.

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Redneck Robespierre's avatar

Oh, no, the rage is very real. It's the impotent rage of a Progressive who has finally seen a tiny crack in his exclusive hold on power since the days of LBJ.

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L  Young's avatar

I can’t tell if it’s mental illness or acting but how long can they sustain it?

Where does the energy come from? Seems like eventually the rage performances will be so so “been there done that “ that they will just get bored and go back to the basement and play shooter games.

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Orwell’s Rabbit's avatar

That rage may then become the catalyst for shooting an insurance executive (or something similar).

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CB's avatar

Hope none of those white libs fall victim to any of DC's gangbangers.

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Brian DeLeon's avatar

Brian, that video is a perfect example of the fascism sweeping over our country. Only a Nazi would want to be physically fit. It’s also torpid-phobic. How dare these Uber-men show off their strength and leadership skills!!!

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DancingInAshes's avatar

There does seem to be a very strong correlation between ex-military with TDS and their employment at NGOs or other government-funded orgs of dubious usefulness.

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Brian Nelson's avatar

Interesting isn’t it?

bsn

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John Duffner's avatar

I know a couple who are still in who are skating real close to the UCMJ line when it comes to publicly trashing the commander in chief. By their own description they're now in a fascist military, so I see their only options as resigning, putting on the eyepatch and going full Operation Valkyrie, or STFU. All of those would involve some sacrifice so they're doing none.

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DancingInAshes's avatar

Had a friend who did 7 years in the Navy, and got booted out on medical after someone dropped a toolbox down a hatch he was coming up and ruined his shoulder.

Anyways, he went around talking about being a Navy combat vet even though he was an electrician on a carrier. And man oh man did Trump break his mind. He'd start all his anti-Trump rants on Facebook with "As a Navy combat veteran..." and I'd watch overtime as fewer and fewer people responded to his posts.

I think most of the people who knew him understood that his definition of combat vet was a bit different than how they envisioned it, and his unhinged rants about Trump weren't really helping his credibility.

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CB's avatar

I want to see Mark Milley take the Pete & Bobby challenge. Can he "top" (sorry for the image) Richard Levine?

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Bruno's avatar

Call him dick

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Brian Nelson's avatar

He should do the challenge at an E1 from the basement of Leavenworth…

bsn

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Arne's avatar

We've learned a lot about how deeply Americans can be corrupted these last 5 years, or last 9 years, wherever you want to start from. It doesn't have to come from money or power or fame.

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Brian Nelson's avatar

Was talking with a buddy about this very thing this morning. Anyone who spent a career in the military is at least mildly corrupted. The moment you move up an echelon--you see how 'they' modify the numbers to provide 'context'. The USR, unit status report, is the best example. All BS. 100% subjective. Many of us held our nose, turned in our reports knowing the corruption, then went back down to battalion to work something real that matters.

Everyone was also part of the 'spend everything you've got in the 4th quarter', to ensure we get the same budget we don't need...

As the stakes get bigger, the corruption must only become more ubiquitous and deeper.

bsn

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Arne's avatar

Groupthink, a book by Irving Janis that apparently introduced the term, has good chapters on how several U.S. military fiascoes, Pearl Harbor through Vietnam, happened. BS military reports were part of it.

Just a FYI on a book you might want to read.

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Formerly_Known_As_Someone's avatar

I now dread meeting up with old friends because nearly all are like this. I went to a free (taxpayer-funded) concert where the musicians talked about how they were being “silenced” and one of the city officials said we’re having lemonade without ICE. I thought I was just going there to hear music but no.

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Maureen Hanf's avatar

Same. I have almost completely stopped posting things anywhere after seeing people who used to be kinda normal/sane get TDS worse every time I see them. One now announced they are coming here since there is far too much misinformation on tik tok. When I go out, about half the time at least, it's assumed a good social interaction starting point is Orange Man Bad. Recent point was starting to go to a new church a couple months back and somebody made sure to tell me they 'are cult-like.' After some digging around, the only thing that made sense to me was that they were not considered woke at all. Which made some people talk about how 'unsafe' they felt, etc. I find that the more I stay at home, the less politics I encounter in my daily living.

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Art's avatar

It’s this. The condescending assumption that all good people agree with their crazy politics and which turns every attempt at finding a series or movie on a streaming service into an adventure in avoiding a moral lecture by a pervert.

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Susan G's avatar

I have partially solved that problem by streaming "old" tv and cable series - pre 2016. I find them relaxing and entertaining. For reading, I'm working through Henry James and Thomas Hardy, while planning to reread Jane Austen in the fall. Football season starts next week, and runs to February, which always help my sanity.

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Marie's avatar

There is no hope for the Dems. There are republicans, most recently, JD Vance who actually told them why their constituents are leaving in great masses. He even went one step further and suggested ways to get them back. He seemed genuinely miffed that they can’t see the simplicity of it. They are so blind with hatred for Trump that they cannot see the cesspool they have created. They have created and encouraged race hate and police hate and hate for anyone who votes for Trump. They are the party of bitterness and hate. The beautiful state of California has been destroyed by the Dems and Gavin Newsome in particular. I am sure there is a very special place in hell for him. I am in absolute awe that this man, who makes my skin crawl every time he opens his lying mouth, actually believes he can run for president. Honestly, Chris, I don’t know why you have not left and I truly hope,someday, your patience and persistence will be rewarded with the return of normalcy to California you love.

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Argos's avatar

It is bizarre that someone like Newsom is a serious candidate for the presidency. Most of my life I have been quite left of center, and though my values haven’t changed, my politics have, especially over these past five years. Living in SF has now become one of the loneliest and most isolating experiences in my life, and I’ve experienced a lot of that.

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CB's avatar

He's as serious as Obama, Kamala, Trudeau, Macron, or any other featherweight mediocrity the depraved WEF "elitists" have pushed as their "Young Global Leaders".

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Argos's avatar

Newsom’s wrecking of California is so obvious that it’s insane that we can be worried that he could be president. But his narcissism and delusion know no bounds I guess. He does have a talent for failing upward, which is frightening as hell. I can see how WEF et al can use him since he is essentially hollow and without much substance.

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Susan G's avatar

They cheat, don't forget. He could become president using the 2020 playbook.

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David Poe's avatar

Someone should tell the Dems the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, and maybe The Emperor’s New Clothes.

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Connect The Dots's avatar

You could try, but you may get called a facist or a nazi for your troubles.

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David Poe's avatar

If you tell them that the sky is blue, they will call you a Nazi.

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publius_x's avatar

Why the “boy” crying wolf? Why does the Empress not have new clothes? Sexist!

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David Poe's avatar

And an exhaust manifold is an exhaust personifold!

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NanaW's avatar

Ha! Your comment made me think of this bit of humour from down under. Although this group is not at the shrieking madness level we’re currently seeing on display.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TwOGMNrFBiM

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Orwell’s Rabbit's avatar

Fairy tales are White supremacy, or haven’t you heard?😉

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TheAbjectLesson's avatar

"Boy" who cried wolf? You just *assumed* xir's gender??

Bigot! You could have misgendered that boy-who-really-wanted-a-neovagina!!

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TheAbjectLesson's avatar

Aw, crap. I should have read further - someone beat me to it. (Womp womp).

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Nicola's avatar

Totally! Yeah, I grew up in the 80's

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Bandit's avatar

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't understand either story.

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cobra kai's avatar

nice post chris. the only other substack i always smile to see in my inbox is "bad cattitude". he had a great post last week using economic theory to describe this behavior. There is no cost to acting like this or being this stupid, therefore we have more of it...

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Rich Stern's avatar

Chris: They don't care if it's not working.

They're getting paid.

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nymusicdaily's avatar

WIFI IS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT

just like winnebagos i guess

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Chris Bray's avatar

It was a striking design choice

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nymusicdaily's avatar

they do all the work for you. all you have to do is point and shoot. fish in a barrel

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CB's avatar

The raw material is there, of course, but no one points out the self-contradictory nature of their actions as sharply and consistently as Chris.

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Peter Hönig's avatar

They always think the world owes them something, just for existing, because they didn’t agree to being born. It’s the Gnostic hate for the Demiurge.

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TheAbjectLesson's avatar

Oh, but they did - they just can't pierce the veil to know that they asked to come here to learn. They're soooo close, and yet soooo far. Just takes a single step, a leap, as it were...

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Lightwing's avatar

Because tantrums have such a great track record of resolving things? I am so embarrassed for my former party. I can’t believe they think they can win with childish antics. They are literally consumed with hate as a response to disagreement. It’s not rational.

How about solve real problems? How about look at what you are creating? How about grow up? How about care about the people of this country and enable a healthy economy so they can have living wage jobs? How about good governance and thriving cities? How about end expensive, useless wars? How about articulate a positive vision for the country that has given you freedoms and enormous privilege? Sigh…

Enuf sed.

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Bandit's avatar

Yeah, that'll never happen. It would take thinking about something/someone besides themselves. Narcissists NEVER think of anyone else.

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Lightwing's avatar

You may be right. But, I continue to yearn for the better angels of our nature to reassert themselves.

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Bandit's avatar

Yes, that would be really nice!

40 years with one. It hasn't happened yet.

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Sarah Reynolds's avatar

“In twenty years, people won’t believe the stories we tell about this decade.” Yes, hundred times yes

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Rikard's avatar

I've met (and rumbled with) real nazis back in the day (1980s). I'd love to be able to introduce these screamers to such, but they don't exist nowadays, haven't since the mid-1990s.

Can you imagine one of those soy-cucks facing a 250 pounds 6'6" skinhead wearing Get-a-grips and sporting a shiv made from a bit of rebar and a knuckle-duster?

I'd pay good money to see that "fight".

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Tricia's avatar

My father and uncle fought, were imprisoned by and almost killed by actual Nazis in WWII. Trump and his people are not Nazis. Democrats, on the other hand, want to revive the actual Nazi Party. They scare the crap out of me.

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Bandit's avatar

I'd like to see it, too. I'd pee my pants laughing as they got the living crap beat out of them.

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James Nick's avatar

On the theme of screaming insults at politicians and the powerful, Mark Helprin, one of my favorite writers and, in my opinion, our greatest living writer, wrote a story called “Mar Nueva.” It’s heartbreaking and probably much too subtle for the dunderheads who scream “truth to power” and run away giggling and peeing their panties like schoolgirls.

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JB's avatar

Let’s all hope we don’t have Newsom as our Prez in 2028. In a 50-50 country anything can happen. Plus, being lefty and having snarky social media sure worked for Mamdani, and I can’t imagine any centrist getting the Dem nomination. Man this is depressing.

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Chris Bray's avatar

There's just no way in hell. He won't play outside California. Gavin Newsom working retail politics in diners in Iowa ahead of the caucuses? Gavin Newsom working the crowd at the Iowa State Fair? I guess we'll get to see it happen, but nooooooo no no no. He's doomed. He's pre-doomed.

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Steponbugs's avatar

The unspoken reality is the Dems think that once Trump is gone, they’ll have their path cleared to regain their rightful place as the overseers of societal disintegration. They don’t seem to have war-gamed that whoever follows Trump, whether it’s Vance, DeSantis, Rubio, or…?, won’t be playing by the same rules as Republicans of old (Bush, Dole, Bush, McCain, Romney all come to mind), and whoever is running against the Democrat will likely be attacking from a position of strength and have the ability to clearly articulate the failures of the Dems, everywhere they’ve been in power. I can’t wait to see Newsom cosplaying as a retail politician in flyover country.

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Chris Bray's avatar

Y'all folks have a, um, Thomas Keller restaurant around these parts?

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CB's avatar

Gavin will need some dialect coaching from Hillary or Kamala. "I don't feel no ways tared."

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Bandit's avatar

Tared? I understand most Southern, but you got me there.

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CB's avatar
5dEdited

Tired without the long i. Maybe "tard" or "tarred" would be better. I'm not a native southerner, and haven't read Faulkner.

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Steponbugs's avatar

Hahahahaha!

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Alan Hodge's avatar

Are the Romneyites slithering around behind the scenes at the RNC to lock voter choice out of Republican primaries, as Democrats did with super delegates after McGovern? Is anyone watching? Both of our pseudo-parties are globalist-owned.

Trump is an outlier, an unauthorized president. If you aren't smelling the Republican Trump hate, you need to lean in. Globalists, contrary to the alt-media hype, are not progressive, not Marxist, not leftist-- they're not anything. They are totalitarians without an ideology, only a lust for power in search of total control. "They" may not make a coherent cabal, but they are what a corrupted system has promoted and made wealthy beyond our ability to imagine. The billionaires we know and deride do not even count beside the wealth of the world's hundred or so richest families. If you know their names at all, they are not the real players. I have not yet seen the MIC or Wall Street giving back the country's stolen wealth or opting out of permawar, have you? They have a post-Trump plan, just like last time, and we are not going to like it.

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Bruno's avatar

Excellent comment

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Bandit's avatar

🙌

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Nick's avatar

Don’t forget the French Laundry. I haven’t!

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Nicola's avatar

Me either. Was he also with the health administrator, without masks...hate those people. I mean I dislike them.

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JB's avatar

I hope and pray that you are right, but look at who else they’re trotting out.

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Chris Bray's avatar

A parade of clowns and nobodies. But don't worry, Amy Klobuchar might throw her hat in the ring again.

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JB's avatar
6dEdited

Unfortunately this is the same country that elected the apparition of Joe Biden 5 years ago and wasn’t that far from electing a far stupider and more venal person this past election.

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Nicola's avatar

Covid can do that

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CB's avatar

There are way too many stupid voters, but Spongebrain Shitzpants didn't actually win the 2020 election.

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Argos's avatar

I hope to God you’re correct. The thought that he could play within his own ruined state is truly bizarre.

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Dick Minnis's avatar

They political consultants must be salivating for a chance to go negative on governor gruesome newsome....so much material to work with. Like Chris, I live in CA but in the foothills east of Sacramento where there is still sanity, law and order, a sense of community and a very high percentage of concealed carry permits...wonder if there's a correlation there.

Dick Minnis

removingthecataract.substack.com

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Leonard's avatar

He’ll play in Cook County, believe me.

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Bandit's avatar
5dEdited

From your lips to God's ears! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

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Joseph L. Wiess's avatar

There's an old saying that goes something like this:

From the time I turned 18 to when I got my first real job, I voted Democrat.

Then I realized that the government was taking half of my check, and I grew up

Part of that growing up was to vote Republican.

I voted republican as I got married, provided for my family, sent my children off of college, and watched them get their first real jobs.

At that time, I grew to notice that the republicans were no different than the democrats, acting as more a bumper than a concrete barrier.

Now, I vote independent, following my conscience.

I no longer see D or R, I research my candidates, then vote for them.

My only goal is to gum up the works long enough for my children to have a real life.

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