Tag: Political Attitudes

Dark Days Of Yesteryear Returns

Lots has been said and/or written about what is going on in the US these days…..some see it as an improvement but most see it for what it is….a return of the fascism of the past.

Donny has set himself up as the supreme leader with is underlings cleaning up his messes…..all this smacks of the aesthetics of yesteryear….

What is most revealing about the MAGA aesthetic is its studied ugliness. On one side stands the grotesque excess of beauty-pageant femininity, plastic smiles, puffy lips, lacquered beach-wave hair, sharpened jawlines, and a hyper-sexualized nostalgia masquerading as “traditional values.” US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem exemplifies this aesthetic as a badge of cruelty. Carefully styling herself in a Barbie-doll register of hyper-femininity, she delivers media performances staged in front of prisons and other sites associated with the punishment and terrorization of immigrants. The effect is chilling: a glossy, pornographic aesthetic fused with images of confinement, state violence, and racialized cruelty. Beauty here does not soften power; it aestheticizes domination and makes authoritarian violence appear natural, even glamorous. This aesthetic of cruelty is not confined to clothing (heavy on tweeds), posture, or setting. It increasingly takes hold at the level of the face itself, where artificiality is no longer concealed but aggressively displayed.

Fascist Aesthetics Has Come Back with MAGA Politics

There is more if interested….

The United States is not merely awash in brutalizing and murderous acts of state-sanctioned violence. It is being restructured by them. The killings of Rachel Good and Alex Pretti are not aberrations or tragic mistakes; they belong to a longer and darker history that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People once named with chilling precision. In earlier periods of American turmoil, such killings were called lynchings, acts “carried out by lawless mobs, although police officers did participate, under the pretext of justice.” Today, this violence extends well beyond the bullet and the baton. It takes form in the expansion of prison camps, what Thom Hartmann rightly calls concentration camps, the war on immigrants, and the routine assault on Black and brown lives made disposable through policy, indifference, and neglect. At the same time, the country is saturated with a culture steeped in fascist spectacle and authoritarian display. Under the Trump administration, aesthetics itself becomes a battleground, a weaponized field where power works on desire, memory, bodies, and pleasure to consolidate domination.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/02/13/maga-aesthetics-and-fascist-power-spectacles-of-white-supremacy/

All this is pointing to a problem that we have faced before but not with such approval as today….the GOP today seems to be embracing the policies and actions that this country fought against less than a hundred years ago…..

No less an authority on right-wing extremism than Laura Loomer, Donald Trump’s wacko loyalty policeman, said it: Republicans have a Nazi problem, warning that there are those “trying to redefine” the party “so it can become modern-day Hitler Youth.”

When a Loomer admits it, you know this is a real problem, not just a liberal fabrication.

The Republicans’ entanglement with Nazism — especially after a recent kerfuffle involving conservative hero Tucker Carlson, Nazi apologist Nick Fuentes, and Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts (more on that to come) — has been much written about, as GOP stalwarts argue over whether they should denounce Nazi sympathizers or make common cause with them. This is a debate that really shouldn’t be a debate at all, and certainly not one that requires another disquisition on the Republicans’ moral bankruptcy.

But I am delivering one nonetheless, because — no matter how much space this courtship has been given, no matter how many pundits decry the celebration of Nazis and the canonization of Adolf Hitler by large segments of the conservative movement, no matter how often conservatives trot out antisemitic tropes, and no matter how often conservative leaders declare that this would be a much better country if it were a dictatorship — the fact that one of our two major parties actively, publicly, enthusiastically embraces Nazism should be a scandal, a horror, and a disgrace. Not something to be promptly forgotten, as it has been, but something that should be a front-page story every single day.

Lest we forget — and Republicans seem to have forgotten — the Nazis were the bad guys, the very personification of evil, the force that hundreds of thousands of Americans gave their lives to defeat, and the gleeful, bloodthirsty murderers of millions. They needed to be destroyed, forever castigated as the very worst of humanity, not emulated. Yet emulated they are.

So, yes, Ms. Loomer: The Republicans do, indeed, have a Nazi problem, and that means America has one too.

America’s Nazi Problem

What amazes me is that many average Americans see no problem with the direction the government is taking….I have people I know that see no problem with the direction that I do not understand for they see and hear the same information I do yet they are content with the erosion of our rights as Americans.

How can this be?

We live in a ‘Dual State”…..

Life under authoritarianism is actually, for the most part, weirdly normal. It’s often even, well, boring. The average person can go about their day as usual. You take your kids to school, you head to the office, and yes, you even host dinner parties. You live in the realm that Fraenkel referred to as “the normative state,” and from within that realm, it’s easy to think that if you just keep your head down and avoid making waves, you’ll be perfectly fine, thank you very much.

Fraenkel’s book is called The Dual State for a reason. This first state, the business-as-usual one, actually exists to lull you into a sense of complacency such that you don’t realize that another state is also operating in parallel with it. That second state, which Fraenkel calls “the prerogative state,” only becomes visible to you when you do something that the powers that be don’t like. Then suddenly you’re in a realm where the rule of law does not exist, where citizens can be killed with impunity, where you — even you, who thought you were invulnerable — can become a target.

The dark genius of this setup is that most people don’t realize that the prerogative state is active until it’s too late. They only wake up when the knock comes on their very own door — or when the door is forcefully broken down.

“The Dual State lives by veiling its true nature,” Fraenkel wrote.

That’s why it’s not surprising to me that your friends have been politically inactive. If they think of themselves as “not the target” — if they’re citizens, if they’re white, if they don’t speak with the “wrong” accent or express the “wrong” political views in public — it’s extremely easy for them to think everything is mostly normal, because the whole political apparatus is designed to make them think exactly that.

(yahoo.com)

Cut it any way you like but the ugliness of the Goon Platoon and Donny’s sycophants is getting out of hand.

We are entering into a world that was crushed before and it will again….but only if the American people have the courage to step up.

Do we?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Our House Divided

Most of us see the division in our country….it is really bad in our politics and this country is in trouble when the people that govern hates about half of the population.

At September’s televised memorial service for Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump commented on the conservative commentator’s character, saying, “He did not hate his opponents; he wanted the best for them.” He then added, “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponents. And I don’t want the best for them.”

Like too much of the political class across the ideological spectrum, Trump is prone to despising those he disagrees with. It raises questions about why people should ever submit to the governance of those who hate them—and whether politicians realize they’re a big part of what brought us to this unfortunate moment.

“It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree,” Trump had told the nation on the day of Kirk’s assassination, at a perhaps more self-aware moment. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.”

…

Trump and his allies regularly accuse their opponents of anti-Americanism—”I really believe they hate our country,” Trump said in July. Trump’s 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, dismissed her foes as a “basket of deplorables,” characterizing them as “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic—you name it.” As a presidential candidate in 2008, Barack Obama sniffed at many small-town dwellers as “bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.”

No matter which of the big political parties wins national office, around half the people over whom the victors exercise power know they’re governed by people who hate them—and they return the favor.

Among Americans, partisan hostility is intensifying. “About three-quarters (73 percent) of voters who identify themselves as Republican agree that ‘Democrats are generally bullies who want to impose their political beliefs on those who disagree,'” a poll by the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics found in 2022. “An almost identical percentage of Democrats (74 percent) express that view of Republicans.”

https://reason.com/2025/11/06/politicians-make-political-tensions-worse/

I can understand the opposing of views but these days it has gone so much further…..it is entering into the twilight zone of hatred.

This cannot continue on this path or it will be curtains for sure.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Political Polarization: Where Did It Begin?

I know in the past decade or so this subject has been examined by many…..but it is getting out of hand and deserves a closer look and often.

This is a report I read recently….it is a good look at what has been happening in this country for at least twenty years. (Personally I think it began way before their assertion)(I shall explain my disagreement later in this post)

This article posits that this polarization began in 2008 or the Obama years….

Forget Donald Trump. A new analysis suggests the U.S. public’s sharp lurch into polarization began in 2008, years before his first presidential campaign.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Political Psychology Lab tracked shifts in Americans’ views across nearly four decades and found that divisions were broadly stable through the 1990s and early 2000s, before rising steadily from 2008 onward. Using more than 35,000 responses from the American National Election Studies between 1988 and 2024, they estimate that issue polarization has increased 64% since the late 1980s, with almost all of that change occurring after 2008.

The research uses a machine-learning approach to move beyond party labels and better understand what actually drives Americans’ political views. Instead of relying on whether respondents identify as Republican or Democrat, the team grouped people based on patterns in what they believe across a range of issues, from abortion and “traditional family values” to race, inequality, and health insurance. That distinction matters because in many countries politically opposite parties do not exist, says David Young, a psychology researcher at the University of Cambridge, U.K., and one of the study’s authors. “You might even want to study countries where there are no parties, like Saudi Arabia,” he says.

The paper challenges the idea that polarization is solely a Trump-era phenomenon. It points to 2008 as the “major turning point,” a year that also included the financial crisis, Barack Obama’s election, and the widespread adoption of the iPhone-era internet. “Our ability to nail down when it starts is slightly divided by the fact that we only have data points every four years,” Young says. Still, “we know that this increase starts from our 2008 data point,” he adds. “That’s our best guess at the starting point.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/91487819/political-polarization-started-a-lot-earlier-than-you-might-expect

Now my disagreement.

I say that the polarization began with the election of Reagan…..he weaponized the religious Right and emboldened every conspiracist that waddled out of the ether.

One could go back to the Goldwater years as the fodder that lit the flame of polarization.

We can say that conservatism is about free enterprise, smaller government, lower taxes, yada, yada…..but let’s be real in conservatism there is the privileged class and then us peasants…..we disguise it anyway we like but the simple fact is wealth knows best.

Thanks to Uncle Donny we see their true colors now….they no longer hide their distaste for the people.

This must be met with equal force by those that think that the people of this country are the important nay the only important issue.

Until then this slide will continue and god only knows where it will lead.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

MTG Does It Again

Okay the whole thing around MTG has got me fascinated…..she has done  a 180 from her earlier days in the House….and now she goes on national TV and spills what is possibly the truth….

Marjorie Taylor Greene sat down for a tense and revealing segment on 60 Minutes, and she did not hold back. During the conversation, the interviewer pressed her on what lawmakers really say about Donald Trump when the cameras are off. Greene didn’t hesitate.

When asked whether politicians speak differently behind closed doors, she simply said yes. But when pushed to explain what she meant, Greene made it clear the shift she witnessed was dramatic.

When asked whether politicians speak differently behind closed doors, she simply said yes. But when pushed to explain what she meant, Greene made it clear the shift she witnessed was dramatic.

She shared that before Trump secured the 2024 primary, several of her colleagues regularly joked about him, mocked the way he spoke, and even took shots at her for standing by him. According to Greene, the tone flipped the moment he became the party’s nominee.

Greene described a sudden wave of support, claiming that the same figures who previously cracked jokes were now attempting to cozy up to Trump and publicly align themselves with his base. She said the overnight change was so extreme that some were eager to throw on a MAGA hat for the first time.

The comments add new fuel to ongoing conversations about how Washington operates privately compared to what the public sees. Greene’s claims shine a spotlight on the political shifts and strategic alliances that play out far beyond the televised interviews and podium speeches.

More information on the interview…..https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marjorie-taylor-greene-trump-relationship-change-60-minutes/

Does all this ring true?

What is our blonde really up to in this drastic turnaround?

How many more shoes will drop with MTG?

This is fascinating!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Continuing Saga Of MTG

I have been watching and writing about the 180 turn by conservative firebrand, Georgia’s MTG….and new over the weekend has come with a bit of surprise.

MTG and Uncle Don have been sniping at each other for about a month and now he, Donny, may soon be rid of the thorn in his butt.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a once-loyal supporter of President Trump who has become a critic, said Friday she is resigning from Congress in January. Greene, in a more than 10-minute video posted online, explained her decision and said she’s “always been despised in Washington, D.C., and just never fit in.” Greene’s resignation followed a public fallout with Trump in recent months, reports the AP, as the congresswoman criticized him for his stance on files related to Jeffrey Epstein, along with foreign policy and health care.
Trump branded her a “traitor” and “wacky” and said he would endorse a challenger against her when she ran for reelection next year.

Greene said her last day would be Jan. 5, 2026. The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Friday night. Greene had been closely tied to the Republican president since she launched her political career in 2020. In her video, she underscored her longtime loyalty to Trump except on a few issues, and said it was “unfair and wrong” that he attacked her for disagreeing. “Loyalty should be a two-way street and we should be able to vote our conscience and represent our district’s interest, because our job title is literally ‘representative,'” she said.

Greene swept to office at the forefront of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement and swiftly became a lightning rod on Capitol Hill for her often beyond-mainstream views. As she embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory and appeared with white supremacists, Greene was opposed by party leaders but welcomed by Trump. He called her “a real WINNER!” Yet over time she proved a deft legislator, having aligned herself with then-GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who would go on to become House speaker. She was a trusted voice on the right flank, until McCarthy was ousted in 2023.

More news on this front….https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4qx1lenvjo

I will be sorry to see her go for she was the only thing in the GOP that was interesting.

I seldom agreed with her on much but at least she took a stand and it has cost her.

She could have been the voice of reason (I know it is hard to say that) maybe even led the anti-Trump movement….

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trump acolyte-turned-nemesis who bested him over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, stunned the political establishment again. In what should have been her hour of triumph, the Maga star abruptly announced that she was quitting the House of Representatives.

Everyone seemed surprised but one man was very happy. “I think it’s great news for the country,” Trump told ABC News. “It’s great.”

It was also great news for a president having the worst month of his second term. Trump’s approval rating is in freefall. Democrats romped to victory in elections. Unthinkably, even the Republican party is finding a spine, defying him on the Epstein files, Senate filibuster and congressional redistricting in Indiana.

They know that every day takes Trump a little further away from his epic comeback victory in 2024 and a little closer to the status of a lame duck. Watching the limelight and cameras shift from the Oval Office to his would-be successors may be too much for him to bear.

But Greene’s departure shows all that may be wishful thinking for now. In one timeline, she could have used the Epstein win as the foundation of an anti-Trump resistance in the Republican ranks. The party has spent the past decade demonstrating that cowardice is contagious; perhaps the courage to reassert congressional autonomy would be too.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/22/marjorie-taylor-greene-anti-trump-republican-analysis

After her ‘come to Jesus’ moment and decided that Donny was not all that she decided to resign…..but why?

Greene resigned for various reasons, but in her lengthy statement, she cited Trump’s recent attacks against her, the recent 43-day government shutdown and the failure of both parties to lower the rising costs of living in America behind her decision to step down.

“I have too much self-respect and dignity, love my family way too much, and do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the president we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms,” Greene wrote, in part. “And in turn, be expected to defend the president against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me.”

She continued, “No matter which way the political pendulum swings, Republican or Democrat, nothing ever gets better for the common American man or woman. The debt goes higher. Corporate and global interests remain Washington’s sweethearts. American jobs continue to be replaced, whether it’s by illegal labor or legal labor by visas or just shipped overseas. Small businesses continue to be swallowed by big corporations. Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars always fund foreign wars, foreign aid, and foreign interests.”

Forgive me but I am not buying this excuse….there is something more to this situation than we know….but what is it?

I am not saying I disagree with her statement….just why did it take so long to come to that decision?

There is something more afoot with this….could it be a presidential aspiration?

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s surprise decision to leave Congress in January has prompted an obvious question: So what’s next? In her announcement video, the Georgia congresswoman insisted her decision is all about her disillusionment with politics and is not a “4-D chess game,” per the Georgia Recorder. Not everybody is so sure.

  • Time, quoting five sources, reports Greene has told allies she is considering a presidential run in 2028. Two of the unnamed sources say Greene has spoken to them directly about it.
  • It’s way too early to suss out her prospects, but the story suggests she could follow the model of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the last campaign: “a candidate capable of siphoning off votes from the GOP nominee, positioning her to leverage that political capital into a possible role within a future Republican administration.”
  • Greene’s move comes after her very public rift with President Trump, whom she has accused of betraying his base on a range of issues. Though the president publicly disowned Greene and called her “wacky,” he sounded a somewhat different note on Saturday. Trump told NBC News he would “love” to see Greene revive her political career after January, though he added that “it’s not going to be easy for her.” In the meantime, he said, “she’s got to take a little rest.”
  • Some Democrats see a 2028 Greene run as a realistic possibility as a post-Trump Republican party begins to take shape. “If you’d asked me three months ago, I would have said JD Vance is going to be the nominee of the Republican Party, and now, I think, it could be Marjorie Taylor Greene and it could be Marco Rubio and it could be someone we aren’t even talking about,” Rep. Ro Khanna tells the New York Times. “They have gone from a consolidation around Trump to a serious consideration of a post-Trump future.”
  • Vanity Fair was wondering about Greene’s future days before her resignation announcement. Greene was asked directly three times in the interview whether she was planning a 2028 candidacy. She provided indirect answers the first two times, including, “I have never said I was running for president.” Asked the third time, she responded, “Uh, I am not considering running for president. I’m literally trying with every soul in my body to just do this current job.” That will no longer be a concern in two months.

MTG has generated more press  lately than she has over her tenure of hateful politics…..

I still think there is more shoes to fall.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Put An End To Gerrymandering

The hot topic for about a month now has been the off-season gerrymandering by Texas and others are planning this technique to guarantee wins at the ballot box.

The state of Louisiana and their plan is before the Supreme Court as I type….so gerrymandering is back on the news table (for now)….

Can this silliness be stopped?

That is a question that was asked of some leading politicos  (please read the whole article and let us know your thoughts)….

Across the democracy reform movement, a growing debate has emerged over how, if at all, reformers should respond to the escalating gerrymandering battles unfolding in states like Texas, California, and beyond.

Last week, Fix.us convened a provocative discussion thread featuring academics and practitioners, surfacing a wide spectrum of views on this contentious issue.

Given the profound implications for democratic integrity in the United States, The Fulcrum is hosting a curated roundtable to explore the strategic, moral, and civic dimensions of partisan redistricting. We invited leading voices in the reform space to share brief reflections (250 words or fewer) in response to one or more of the following questions:

  • What principles should guide reformers when one party engages in aggressive gerrymandering?
  • Is retaliatory redistricting ever justified in defense of democratic norms?
  • What national reforms could meaningfully end the gerrymandering arms race?
  • And finally, what concluding insight might help illuminate the tensions and possibilities of this moment?

Below are the initial responses we received. Some in direct answer format, others as narrative reflections.

Response from: Joe Leadem, founder of www.thesaveamericaproject.org

Question: What national reforms would meaningfully end the gerrymandering arms race?

Answer: In this country, we are told that we are a “representative” democracy. We are not.

Our elected officials do not really represent voters: they represent themselves, their big funders, and their political parties. This is at the heart of all our problems, including gerrymandering, which has become a go-to strategy for keeping power.

If you agree with this line of thinking, then the solution is to elect real representatives who will do their best to represent citizens. Is that even possible? How might we do it?

(please read on there some interesting thoughts)

https://thefulcrum.us/democracy/gerrymandering-in-the-us-2673957832

My thoughts are more radical and I will present them soon here on IST.

Please if you read the article/interview let us have your thoughts on the political game…..a game that does more damage than it corrects.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo

Is It Too Late?

There is lots of talk on social media (so I am told) that we are losing the democracy that we all care so dearly about….the GOP has worked tirelessly for over 50 years to take the people out of any decision making situations

Now with Donny in charge their true colors are exposed and they can move as quickly as possible before the next election.

The one thing that makes democracy so desirable is….the people….

When the ancient Greeks came up with the concept of democracy, they envisioned a form of government in which the power rested with many, and not just a monarch or some other potentially despotic tyrant.

That’s quite literally what “democracy” means — “rule by the people.”

Of course, “the people” only meant Greek free men. After all, who knows what kind of craziness women, slaves and non-citizens would have come up with if they had been given a say in running ancient Greece.

Therefore, it is a bit unfair to criticize Republicans as “threats to democracy.”

Sure, when viewed through the lens of modern democracies, that label is certainly valid. After all, they are methodically trying to destroy the type of democracy that took more than 200 years to establish and improve in the United States until it was mostly inclusive (with more work to be done all the time).

However, the GOP very much embodies the spirit of the ancient Greeks by constantly trying to limit who gets a say in the government… and it ain’t “the people.” At least not if they vote for stuff Republicans don’t like.

Take Missouri, for example

Last year, voters there emphatically backed Proposition A, a ballot initiative that increased the state’s minimum wage, indexed it to inflation, and required employers to provide paid sick leave.

While these are the kind of policies Republicans like to dismiss as “socialism,” the people in the deep-red state (Donald Trump won it by 18 points in 2024) liked them quite a bit and passed the initiative by a wide margin.

As it turns out, they shouldn’t have bothered, or gotten excited about a minimum wage increase that was going to benefit a quarter of the state’s workers. That’s because Republican legislators in the Missouri General Assembly swiftly passed a bill to reverse the changes.

The GOP Is Working Overtime to Take the People Out of Democracy

Such tactics as gerrymandering….where the party picks its voters not the voters picking the party…..and now we have a full body assault on voting.

So the question now is….is it too late to repair the damage that the GOP and Donny are doing to this country?

Will the voter finally see what many of us have seen coming for many years?

Can this democracy be saved?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is There A GOP Internal War Brewing?

Little by little the news is that there is trouble brewing within the GOP….some say it is for the soul of the party….there also seems to be cracks forming in the undying support for Donny and his brand stupid.

GOP Townhalls are becoming contentious….the people are staring to fight back against the policies of the party….

Shouts of “Vote him out!” echoed through a packed Nebraska town hall on Monday as Rep. Mike Flood struggled to defend President Trump’s policy and tax bill—and faced an audience ready to challenge every word. About 750 attendees made their dissatisfaction clear during the event at Kimball Hall in Lincoln, descending into heckling and loud boos as the Republican attempted to explain provisions of the so-called “big, beautiful bill,” particularly its changes to health care and Medicaid. As audience members questioned how the Republican could vote to take health care away from Nebraskans, Flood sought to address what he described as misinformation about the bill, per ABC News.

He tried to walk through health care aspects, emphasizing that the bill’s Medicaid changes wouldn’t affect disabled individuals, seniors, pregnant people, or anyone considered vulnerable. A key flashpoint was the bill’s stance on Medicaid coverage for working-age adults. “If you are able to work, and you’re 28 years old and you choose not to work, you don’t get free health care in America. If you are in this country illegally, you do not get free health care in America,” Flood said, drawing a vocal negative reaction.

Discussion turned heated again as tax policy came up. While Flood highlighted provisions like no tax on tips or overtime and pitched the law as a middle-class tax cut, audience members instead called for higher taxes on the wealthy and repeatedly chanted, “Tax the Rich!” Flood pushed back, contending that taxing high earners, as proposed by Democrats, would not fill budget gaps and would hurt job and business growth. But he “was continuously drowned out by the raucous crowd,” per ABC. “How much do the taxpayers have to pay for a fascist country?” one attendee asked, per CNN, drawing cheers from the crowd. Another said Flood was complicit in a “fascist machine.”

Well that guy was about as popular as a turd in a punchbowl.

All that does not mean the MAGA idiots will disappear just that is some sort of tug of war going on with the young Republicans…..

Young Republicans are split over the future of the party, with two warring factions seeking to position themselves as the true MAGA warriors ahead of a weekend vote for control of the party’s youth arm.

On Saturday, young party members will converge in Nashville, where they’ll decide between two slates to lead the Young Republican National Federation: Grow YR, led by current YRNF Chair Hayden Padgett, and the insurgent Restore YR campaign, led by New York State Young Republicans Chair Peter Giunta.

The brawl between the two slates is both personal — including interpersonal clashes and squabbles over hotel loyalty points and committee assignments — and ideological, with both sides looking to prove their loyalty to President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. But the fight is also a microcosm of a schism ready to burst in the party at large, which is already delicately trying to chart a course for its post-Trump future.

Restore YR, which is seeking to unseat the current leadership in an effort to “restore trust, opportunity, and unity,” has won the endorsements of hardcore MAGA firebrands like Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), longtime Trump ally and convicted felon Roger Stone, Florida GOP Chair Evan Power, and Turning Point Action Chief Operating Officer Tyler Bowyer, who was one of several “fake electors” in Arizona in 2020.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/02/maga-future-young-republican-national-convention-00488361

I feel it should go further than the ‘young’ Repubs…..thinking conservatives need to redraw the lines of the party…..this MAGA crap is killing the nation and its people.

What do you think should be the focus?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Democrats–Lacking Inspiration

For a couple of months I have been posting on why I think the Dems are nothing but a fart in a hurricane.

They have said that they will change directions to come more in-line for the working masses….and yet I have seen nothing but some banter and a few lame-ass ideas.

What do many party members think?

Many Democrats see their party as weak or ineffective, according to a new poll that finds considerable pessimism within their ranks. Republicans are more complimentary of their party, though a small but significant share describe the GOP as greedy or generally bad. The poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in July reveals warning signs for both major parties as the political focus shifts to elections in New Jersey and Virginia this fall and the midterm contests next year, the AP reports

Respondents were asked to share the first word or phrase that came to mind when they thought of the Republican and Democratic parties. Overall, US adults expressed a dim view of both parties, with about 4 in 10 using negative attributes such as dishonest or stupid. But nearly nine months after Republican Donald Trump won a second presidential term, Democrats appear to be harboring more resentment about their party than do Republicans. Democrats were likelier to describe their own party negatively than Republicans. Republicans were about twice as likely to describe their own party positively.

Democrats say: “They’re spineless,” Cathia Krehbiel, 48, of Indianola, Iowa, said of her party’s leaders. “I just feel like there’s so much recently that’s just going abhorrently wrong. And they speak up a little bit and they roll right over.” Overall, roughly one-third of Democrats described their party negatively in the open-ended question. About 15% described it using words like weak, or apathetic, while an additional 10% believe it is broadly ineffective or disorganized. Only about 2 in 10 Democrats described their party positively, with roughly 1 in 10 saying it is empathetic or inclusive. An additional 1 in 10 used more general positive descriptors. Jim Williams, a 78-year-old retiree from Harper Woods, Michigan said he typically supports Democrats but is disappointed with the party and its murky message. He feels much worse about the Republican Party, which he said “has lost it” under Trump’s leadership. “All he does is bully and call names. They’ve got no morals, no ethics. And the more they back him, the less I like them,” the self-described independent, said of Trump.

Spineless pretty much sums it up for me.

But yet Donny’s poll numbers are sliding downward so one would think that Dems numbers would be on the rise, right?

You would think but not so fast….

A greater share of voters view the Democratic Party unfavorably than at any point in the past 35 years of Wall Street Journal polling—63%. The Journal‘s latest poll, conducted this month, found that 33% of respondents hold a favorable view of the party. The other side also is in negative territory, though the results were better, with a majority of voters viewing President Trump unfavorably by a 7-point margin and the Republican Party coming in 11 points under the break-even point. Even when respondents disagree with Trump on issues, they have more faith in the GOP to resolve them in Congress than in Democrats, per the Hill.

Democrats have planned town halls during the House recess to build opposition to Trump, with an eye toward winning big in next year’s midterm elections as they did in his first term. The Journal suggests its poll indicates possible problems with that strategy. More voters identified as Democrats than Republicans at that time. That’s flipped since, though the GOP lead is only 1 percentage point in the new poll. Democrats still have a 3-point advantage when voters are asked if, should the election be held today, how they’d vote in a congressional race. But in 2017, Democrats led on that question by 8 percentage points.

The poll found Trump with an approval rating of 46%; it was 40% at the same point in his first term. A Gallup Poll released last week put Trump at 37%, which is his low point for this year and pushing his worst showing ever at the end of his first term, 34%. On a series of issues, Gallup found the president’s approval ratings in the 30s and 40s, topping out at 42% on dealing with Iran and falling to 29% on the budget.

But yet another poll states a confusing stat….

More Americans now identify with the Democratic Party than with the Republican Party, reversing the trend of the past two years, according to a new Gallup poll. The shift — a common phenomenon following a presidential election — is largely due to political independents reassessing their loyalties.

The Democrats’ renewed advantage also comes despite the fact the party suffers from an all-time low favorability rating among the public. The results are based on quarterly telephone interviews of at least 3,000 U.S. adults. They have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Here is a breakdown of the results.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article311549201.html

These types of contradictory statements is why I tell people not to trust polls….they are a momentary snapshot and are not valid next week.

I still have not seen any substantive work done by Dems that would give anyone a vote of confidence in their sincerity to make change.

Do you see anything?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Rise Of The New Confederacy

“The South shall rise again”….has been the war cry of the racist and now it appears that it has happened and all with the help of the Supreme Court, especially John Roberts….

Back in 2011 there was a prediction, a look forward, if you will….

The tactics by the GOP are working the system to return to the 1950s and give racist their wish of a new confederacy…

This is an article from 2011….

The South’s alternative vision of the good society was defeated in the Civil War, and our 20th-century history can be told as a narrative of halting progress toward greater tolerance and equality. The major plot points include regulations on corporations in the early 1900s; women’s suffrage in 1920; a social safety net in the New Deal; the Supreme Court’s rejection of Jim Crow laws in 1954; the civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s; the gay rights victories since the 1970s.

…

For the Confederacy that now dominates the GOP, truth is solid and fixed and divinely embedded in the structure of the universe. Humanity’s responsibility is to accept and believe the truth rather than test ideas against actual experience. The Confederacy’s obsession with ​“originalist” interpretations of the Constitution – a twin of biblical literalism – is the classic example: truth must be eternal, universal.

…

The new Confederacy rejects that process wholesale. Its leaders and authorities are the spiritual descendants of the conservative Christians and charismatic radio preachers who broke away from religious modernism in the 1920s and 1930s. For these leaders and their followers, faith justifies – and verifies – itself. You don’t believe an idea because it’s true. It’s true because you believe it.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/new-confederacy-rising

Now fast forward and to the court….

This mess we find our country in is all Chief Justice John Roberts’s fault. There are many other actors contributing to our current situation, but Roberts has been the most consequential of them. His actions lead to the conclusion that he wants to dismantle the “Second Founding” and return to a Confederate/Jim-Crow-style apartheid system.

Roberts has been working his entire career to undermine the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, which were ratified after the Civil War. These amendments are also known as the Reconstruction Amendments. They are considered a “Second Founding” because they reoriented the Constitution from primarily promoting states’ rights to emphasizing individual rights and federal power in protecting those rights.

In 2013’s 5-4 Shelby County v. Holder decision, Roberts concluded that racism was a thing of the past. Racial discrimination in voting, according to Roberts, simply wasn’t a major problem anymore. This landmark case — by glibly pretending that racism is no longer a factor in elections, while allowing states-sponsored voter suppression and intimidation — reveals Roberts’s own latter-day racism.

When the history of the Trump era is written, John Roberts will be featured as the man who used Trumpism to finally win what southern racists call the “War of Northern Aggression.”

(whowhatwhy.org)

This ought to, if read, should offer up some interesting comments….we shall see.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”