Donald Trump and maga Republicans must stop lies and hate speech. Free speech means telling the truth!

Why MAGA’s Bullying Will Fail- Don't vote for Republicans❗

The New York Times opinion columnist David French breaks down how Trump and his supporters are using familiar pressure — and what backlash it will spark — at the round table in this week’s episode of “The Opinions.” "Why MAGA’s Bullying Will Fail"

MAGA will learn something that the far left learned in the late 20-teens, moving in the early 2020s: that is, a lot of your success in online aggression, and shaming, and mobbing, and attacking, and intolerance is very temporary and illusory, because the majority of people don’t like those kinds of tactics and they’re going to, over time, punish a side that they see as bullying people, as being extremely cruel and intolerant. 

And a lot of MAGA looks at some of the cancel culture heyday of the late 20-teens and says: Oh, we can do that, and we’ll do it better, and we’ll do it more effectively, and we’ll do it from the Oval Office down. But the pro-free speech position over the long term in American history is a very majority position. 

Any given individual moment, you might be cutting against the grain. But over time, the pro- free speech position is a majority American position. And I think MAGA is making a giant mistake in taking the old — the whole cancel culture discourse of 2019, 2020, and saying: Oh, we’ll just do this more, and more aggressively, and that’s going to work for us.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans are enabling tryannical overreach by Trumpziism and dictatorship

 Tyranny and overreach are not acceptable behaviors, now or ever❗😡 Echo opinion publihed in The Chronicle, in Washington State.

The latest round of overreach by the Trump cult regime includes threatening cities with military deployment. Do you know who does that? Dictators do.

Donald Trump is a convicted felon who lies about virtually everything❗

Also notice that the cities he is threatening are run by Black Democrats. But if he really cared about crime in U.S. cities, he would be going to Republican-run states and cities, because many of them have higher crime rates than the cities he is illegally targeting.

Memphis, Tennessee, has the highest rate of murder in the country. Does he even mention sending troops to that city? A heavily Republican state. Not as far as I have heard.

This all really boils down to pushing more of his agenda onto blue areas and giving the false sense of a strong man in charge.

But the truth is, he is weak. His agenda is unpopular, no matter how loud his base and the trolls of Lewis County yell.

I wonder what they would think if a Democrat president did this? They would call it tyranny and extreme overreach, but because they are part of the cult and cannot see any wrong, they will stay silent.

I suppose one thing Trump was right about was that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and nothing will be done about it. 

He certainly has gotten away with many evil things. Might as well release the Epstein files. It won't move the needle.

We are going down a very dangerous path where vengeance is a routine mission and who cares if more than half the country is not going along with it and another third are not happy but will remain silent because they are afraid of more retribution. Everyone is just hoping that it won't be that bad. But when it gets that bad, it will be too late.

Tyranny and overreach are not acceptable behavior now or ever. But I am sure the cult members and trolls of Lewis County will find so much to agree with in these actions and laugh at my concerns. We are doomed.

From Grace Thornton in Centralia Washington state

DonOLD Trump Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden shows people leaving in videos

Whatever happened to Lindsey Graham❓ . He said "whaaaaa❓"  Lindsey Graham urges voters to "reject" generals' critical views of Trump

Madison Square Garden in 1939

Ahead of Donald Trump's campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York one GOP strategist Doug Heye critiqued the former president for holding one in a state where he trails Vice President Kamala Harris by double digits, calling it "wasted time." (Published in Newsweek by Natalie Venegas) 

As Election Day quickly approaches, the race between Trump, the GOP nominee, and Harris, the Democratic nominee, remains extremely tight, with the outcome largely depending on swing states, as both candidates continue campaigning across the country.

While New York is a reliably blue state, and Democratic candidates typically win statewide easily because of massive margins in New York City, Trump has continued to campaign there as he has held several other campaign events including rallies in the Bronx and Nassau County on Long Island.

"Whether you're talking about Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, I'd say time spent out of the seven key states that are the swing states that could turn this election by and large is wasted time. 

Your time is better spent in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Nevada, Arizona et cetera than it is in Texas or in Washington, D.C. or in New York," Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee (RNC), said on Sunday in an interview with CNN's Rahel Solomon.

Heye explained that while the rally will likely get coverage, it may fall short of reaching young male voters, a group Trump has recently aimed to reach.

"But with this Trump event yes, it's gonna get a lot of coverage––although a lot of people, especially young males, who Trump wants to win with big margins, will probably be watching football 🏉...Every political campaign that you're on, there's always some event that makes staff sort of scratch their heads 😖and say 'Why are we doing this in this way❓" and the answer is always to scratch that itch that a candidate has."

Trumpist-iztas need not apply!

Trumpism in New Hampshire: past is not prologue: Echo opinion essay published in the Eau Claire and Chippewa Valley Leader-Telegram, in Wisconsin.

"Guess what?", reports David Shribman.

Nobody wants to run for the Senate as a Republican in New Hampshire.


Well, not exactly nobody. But nobody who isn't, for want of a better term, a relative nobody. In other words, anybody who is anybody in New Hampshire is not interested in being a Republican senatorial candidate.

That astonishing phenomenon is rendered all the more staggering when you consider that the incumbent, Maggie Hassan, is regarded as the most vulnerable Democrat in a Senate where, more than usual, every seat counts.

Very scary!

If the Republicans beat Senator Hassan and a series of other dominos fall in the direction the polls suggest they will, the GOP will take possession of the Senate, one-party rule in Washington will end, Joe Biden's nominees (including one who might be for the Supreme Court) will be endangered, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will be Senate majority leader, the chairs of every committee will change and the rhythm of the Capitol will be altered substantially.

A very big and dangerous political deal! But no big figure wants to take the big step to run for the office.

Gov. Chris Sununu, the most popular New Hampshire governor in years and one of the most popular governors of either party nationwide, this month stepped back from a Senate race.

Less than a day later, former Senator Kelly Ayotte, who has a residue of goodwill from Republicans and Democrats alike, did the same. 

So did former Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts, now living in New Hampshire.

"We are seeing a bit of a vacuum on the Republican side," said Dante Scala, a University of New Hampshire political scientist. "Once you get past Chris Sununu it's difficult to find people who don't look at a statewide race as a big leap. That is the case even though Hassan's prospects are tied to Biden, and right now the president is a heavy anchor to her. Ultimately the vacuum will be filled, and there is a decent chance of getting a B-level candidate, and a B-level candidate can win this race."

This Republican predicament is all the more astounding in view of the historical profile of New Hampshire.

While the Democrats have taken New Hampshire in the past five presidential elections, the tint of this state's politics is distinctly red, and the Republican bench has always been deep. In the case of New Hampshire, the past is not prologue.

For the 122 years between 1875 and 1997 -- roughly the period between the invention of the telephone and the broad distribution of the cellphone, or the time between the bearded Ulysses Grant and the clean-shaven Bill Clinton -- the Republican domination of New Hampshire was so impenetrable that voters in this state sent only three Democrats to the governor's office on the second floor of the state Capitol.

For the 156 years between 1855 and 2011 -- roughly the time between the military's creation of a Camel Corps and its use of armed drones, or between the early planning for the first Black university to the administration of Barack Obama -- 33 of New Hampshire's 37 senators were Republicans, a phenomenon even more dramatic when you consider that one of those GOP senators served for 27 years and another for 24.

In an astonishing two-decade period beginning in 1970, the office of state attorney general was passed down, kind of like a track and field passing of the baton, among a remarkable group of lawyers. First came Warren B. Rudman, who later became a two-term senator and attached his name to the signature deficit-reduction mechanism of the 1980s. Then came David H. Souter, who eventually sat on the Supreme Court. Next was Thomas D. Rath, who helped run New Hampshire primary campaigns for, among others, Howard Baker, Lamar Alexander, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, Mitt Romney and John Kasich, and who remained a powerful lawyer in the state capital of Concord. Finally was Steve Merrill, who became a two-term governor.

With a Republican lineage like that -- with a tradition of conservatism that retains trace elements today -- the failure of top GOP figures to take a race insiders believe they would win with ease suggests the presence of a broader factor.

Like everything else in American politics, the partial answer comes down to two words: Donald Trump.

Trump loyalists have taken an increasingly prominent place in the formal organization of the New Hampshire GOP. But only a third of New Hampshire residents overall have a favorable opinion of Mr. Trump, according to the latest Granite State Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Though he tops the polls among Republicans for the 2024 nomination, he does not rate highest in net favorability among potential primary voters. Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis takes first place with 62%, with Mr. Trump at 54%.

The disconnect between traditional Republicans and Trump Republicans, a feature of internal GOP struggles in many states, has significant implications in several important political contests. In Wyoming, that struggle will determine the fate of Rep. Liz Cheney, whose apostasies include voting to impeach Mr. Trump and her presence as vice chair of the congressional committee examining the origins of the January Capitol insurrection. It is a factor in races to determine successors to several retiring Republicans, including Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Roy Blunt of Missouri, along with Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

"You have Trump people here who control the party, and regular conservative Republicans don't want to try to appeal to them," said Andrew Smith, director of the UNH Survey Center. "The Trumpistas may not be chasing people away but a lot of people don't want to put up with them. There have been ugly incidents."

The result is that the Republicans are in the unhappy position of trying to persuade one or more of their congressional candidates to take on the Senate race, or to nominate State Senate President Chuck Morse or Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, or to consider retired Army Gen. Don Bolduc, who was passed over by Mr. Trump for an endorsement when he aimed for the GOP Senate nomination in 2020 but who campaigned here recently.

"The Trump element in the party doesn't have the status or capability to win the general election," said Mr. Rath, a onetime member of the Republican National Committee. "Many people don't want to have anything to do with them. The party now is full of true believers but there aren't enough of them to win an election."

(David M. Shribman is the former executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.)

Votes! Seventy-four million votes for President Elect Joe Biden

President Elect Joe Biden on 6 November, 2020, beside his running mate Kamala Harris in Wilmington, Delaware addressed the president’s attempts to block votes, the coronavirus, and “partisan warfare" that he urged to come to an end.

Here is a transcript of his President Elect Joe Biden's remarks:

We don’t have a final declaration of victory yet, but the numbers tell a clear and convincing story: We are going to win this race.Just look at what has happened since yesterday.

We’re winning Arizona. We’re winning Nevada. In fact, our lead just doubled in Nevada.

We’re on track for over 300 Electoral College votes.

We’ve gotten over 74 million votes. Let me repeat that: 74 million votes. That's more than any presidential ticket has ever gotten in the history of the United States of America. And out vote total is still growing.

We’re beating Donald Trump by over 4 million votes, and that margin is still growing as well.

One of the things I’m especially proud of is how well we’ve done across America.

We are going to be the first Democrat to win Arizona in 24 years.

We are going to be the first Democrat to win Georgia in 28 years.

And we re-built the blue wall in the middle of the country that crumbled just four years ago: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin – the heartland of this nation.

I know watching these vote tallies on TV move very slowly, and as slow as it goes it can be numbing.

But never forget: the tallies aren’t just numbers – they represent votes and voters, men and women who exercised their fundamental right to have their voice heard. And what is becoming clearer each hour is that a record number of Americans – from all races, faiths, religions – chose change over more of the same.

They have given us a mandate for action on Covid, the economy, climate change, systemic racism. They made it clear they want the country to come together – not continue to pull apart.

But while we’re waiting for the final results, I want people to know we are not waiting to get to work done and start the process.

Yesterday, Senator Harris and I held meetings with groups of experts on the public health and economic crises this country is facing.

The pandemic as you know is is getting more worrisome all across the country. Daily cases are skyrocketing, and it is now believed that we could see spikes as many as 200,000 cases in a single day.

The death toll is approaching 240,000 lives lost to this virus.
That’s 240,000 empty chairs at the kitchen tables and dining tables across America.

We’ll never be able to measure all the pain, the loss, and the suffering so many families have experienced. I know how it feels to lose someone, and I want them to know they’re not alone. Our hearts break with you.

And I want everyone to know on Day One, we are going to put our plan to control this virus into action.

We can’t save any of the lives that have been lost, but we can save a lot of lives in the months ahead.

Senator Harris and I also heard yesterday about how this recovery is slowing because of the failure to get the pandemic under control.

More than 20 million people are on unemployment. Millions are worried about making rent and putting food on the table.

Our economic plan will put a focus on a path to a strong recovery.

We both know tensions can be high after a tough election, the one like we’ve had. But we need to remember, we need to remain calm, patient, and let the process work out as we count all the votes.

You know, we’re proving again what we have proved for 244 years in this country: democracy works. Your vote will be counted. I don’t care how hard people try to stop it. I will not let it happen. People will be heard. Our journey toward a more perfect union, and it keeps moving on.

In America we hold strong views, we have strong disagreements, and that’s OK.

Strong disagreements are inevitable in a democracy, and strong disagreements are healthy.

They’re a sign of vigorous debate, of deeply held views.

But we have to remember: the purpose of our politics isn’t total, unrelenting, unending warfare.

No. The purpose of our politics, the work of the nation, isn’t to fan the flames of conflict, but to solve problems, to guarantee justice, to give everybody a fair shot, to improve the lives of our people.

We may be opponents – but we are not enemies. We are Americans.

No matter who you voted for, I’m certain of one thing: The vast majority of the 150 million Americans, they want to get the vitriol out of our politics. We’re certainly not going to agree on a lot of the issues, but we can at least agree to be civil to one another.

Let’s put the anger and the demonization behind us.

It’s time for us to come together as a nation and heal.

It’s not gonna be easy, but we have to try.

My responsibility as president will be to represent the whole nation. And I want you to know that I will work as hard for those who voted against me as for those who voted for me.

That’s the job. That’s the job. It’s called a duty of care, for all Americans.

We have serious problems to deal with — Covid, the economy, racial justice, climate change,

We don’t have any more time to waste on partisan warfare.

And more than that, we have such an incredible opportunity to build the future we want for our kids and grandkids.

I’ve said it many, many times: I’ve never been more optimistic about the future of our nation. There is no reason we can’t own the 21st century. We just need to remember who we are. This is the United States of America, and there has never been anything, anything we’ve been unable to do when we’ve done it together.

I hope to be talking to you tomorrow. I want to thank you all. May God bless you all, and may God protect our troops.

Progressive versus Regressive Politics - Expressive Names Describe Political Divisions

Americans, indeed, most of the world's citizens, are familiar with the polarizing divide between our United States political parties. Democrats are perceived as being "liberal" (whatever that means) and as being different from Republicans, who are perceived as being conservative (whatever that means).  Same old same old.

A newly oriented political observer would need a dictionary and thesaurus to figure out what each party label means.

That's why I'm suggesting we modify the names of political affiliations to either Progressive or Regressive, rather than Democrat or Republican.  One way moves us forward, while the other is a retrofit to policies that have been tried before.

But, nevertheless, a person can be progressive about taxation, for example, while regressive about funding women's access to contraception, for example. These and other unrelated political topics (why women's health is political is beyond me, but, for many, this is the case) could then be sorted out by individuals, rather than party affiliations. 

In fact, the Pro-Reg labels might even have the value added of being educational for people who might be conflicted about where they fall on the political "left" (liberal) to "right" (conservative) spectrum. At the end of this exercise, we can each evaluate where we want to fall on this spectrum.

Let's make two columns:

Progressive 
favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are,especially in political matters: a progressive mayor

Regressive
 obtained from or characterized by backward reasoning

Progressive                                         Regressive                    
Taxation

Supports revenue sharing                       Supports tax cuts for rich
Supports graduated tax system               Hall-Rabushka flat tax   

Women's Health

Supports women's access to health         Contraception should not
care including right to contraception       be government funded

Access to Health Care

Supports universal coverage for              Supports free market
preventative and illness care                   who  pays gets the care

Immigration

Supports path to citizenship                     Severely restricts path to 
for all immigrants                                     citizenship for illegal
                                                                 immigrants

Second Amendment Rights- a Constitutional amendment ratified in 1789

Supports some regulations for the right    Supports everyone
to own military assault multiple                including immigrants
ammunition clip weapons                         owning any guns, of any
                                                                  kind for any purpose

Voting Rights

Every American citizens must                   American citizens
have the right to vote,                                must prove they
one person : one vote                                 have the right to vote
and the opportunity to                                based upon 
execute this                                                inconsistent state
inalienable right in                                      promulgated criteria
an efficient and timely
manner

This is an abbreviated list of the Progressive-Regressive spectrum issues, but you can easily get the gist.

In summary, it will be difficult for people of intellect to submit to being Regressive when the Progressive point of view is clearly the position of enlightenment.  

If America is to progress in the enlightenment set forth by our esteemed Founding Fathers, we must block the Regressive movement.  A two party system needs Progressives on both sides of the political spectrum, especially when the Regressives are clearly obstructing our advancement as a civilized nation.

So, let's now describe Democrats and Republicans as both being progressives if we can focus on:

•  a future where equal opportunity is available to everyone, regardless of citizenship status; 
• where voting rights are respected for all American citizens ages 18 and older; 
• where the tax policy is benevolent to the poor and fair to the middle class; 
• where quality and affordable health care is available to all;
• and the Second Amendment is amended to protect innocent people from preventable gun violence.

Let's remove party labels and, instead, subscribe to all of the above.

That's progress! 

Maine Governor Elizabeth "Libby" Mitchell

Admirable congratulations are enthusiastically extended this morning to the winner of Maine's Democratic primary election for Governor 2010!

Maine's Senate President and former speaker of the legislature's House of Representatives, a career public servant with an extraordinary political resume, is as close to being the state's Governor elect as any candidate I can remember. Although Mitchell has a general election to face off this coming November, her candidacy will galvanize Maine's Democratic party to carry her to the Blaine House where the governor lives.

Let's get focused to comb the rafters and find every registered Democrat in Maine to support Mitchell this November. Likewise, we'll need a lot of independent voters, as well, to help seal the victory. Her victory will be much more than a political win. She must win to push back against right wing politics.

Senator Mitchell will run against a surprise Republican candidate who came out of political nowhere to win against formidable opponents who held extraordinary political resumes. LePage spent far less money than his closest rival, Les Otten, and won with a shoe string of an organization.

Mayor of Waterville and Marden's Department Store Executive, Paul LePage, defeated 6 other pedigree Republicans. Yikes!

Kudus to Mayor LePage, but no thanks as governor!

Maine's Grand Old Party is hanging low this morning. There are no post election press conferences to tout about the 38 percent decisive Republican victory.

LePage is a likable person, but philosophically, he's a creationist. Moreover, he carries a copy of the US Constitution in his shirt pocket like a prayer book - because he uses the document's words to fundamentally substitute for his intellect. Be wary of those who use the concrete intentionality of words to define their points of view.

LePage is a concrete thinker who will run Maine like it's a Marden's department store - a discount warehouse filled with merchandise people think they want to buy. Often, their Marden's purchases wind up sitting in the back of closets or cupboards. Why did 38 percent of the Republican primary vote to "buy" LePage and his message? Well, why do people shop at Marden's (discount) Department Stores? Because, they're looking for bargains.

I don't think LePage is a Marden's bargain. Rather, he's a pig in a poke. He's a tea party candidate cloaked with populist appeal.

Beating moderate and intellectual Republicans in the primary was a rout for LePage. He defeated Senator Peter Mills, a lawyer, a Maine State Senator, US Navy officer and Viet Nam War Veteran; he defeated Les Otten, a philanthropist, ski company mogul and former Boston Red Sox executive; he defeated Steve Abbott, who enjoyed the backing of the state's traditional party backers and he defeated Dr. Bill Beardsley, a man with two Ph.D degrees, one from Johns Hopkins University. Indeed, Republicans are stunned about this come from nowhere victory and anxious to figure out how LePage pulled off a 38 percent victory against such impressive opponents.

Maybe the large LePage family and the candidate's siblings beat the streets getting the unenrolled voters to register on his behalf. Frankly, the data is not yet ready to analyze because opponents are still licking their wounds. Of course, LePage says right wing extremists, like the Tea Party, helped to pull him out of the gate, when most pundits only expected him, on a chance, to show.

Nonetheless, the good news for Democrats is the Governor's office in November is ours to loose. Let's get behind Maine's Governor Elect Libby Mitchell and put her charisma, charm, intelligence, political skill, public policy expertise and dedication to work putting Maine back on track.

Let's sharply and decisively oppose dangerous right wing extremists who swept LePage to his polarizing defeat of Republican primary political insiders.

November's election will be THE one for Maine's Democrats to unite over. Let's get everyone to vote for Madam Senate President and gubernatorial candidate Elizabeth Mitchell on November 2nd!