30 Comments

"Iron Ass" 🤣

I was particularly amused at 45's post calling Cheney a RINO. Good Lord. Some day's I just can't believe how different the GOP is from my youth.

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It is a completely different party. Other than the desire for tax cuts, it's almost unrecognizable.

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Yes. its clear that djt and his maga followers are the true RINO's.

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I grow so tired of that RINO tag. Irving Kristol, Barry Goldwater, Reagan, Safire, G HWB Bush, on and on, are in my mind Republicans... not the tractor pull crowd we see today.

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What?! No Muse of History today?

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Huh. I guess I wrote it up, but forgot to paste it into today's newsletter. Thanks for catching that. Here it is:

MUSE OF HISTORY.  September 9, 1974.  Congress returned to work on this date still digesting President Ford's announcement the day before - that he was pardoning former President Nixon, who had resigned a month earlier.  "It would be easy for me to criticize the President's judgment," said Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, "but I will not do so because I think he faced up to his responsibility, made a decision which he thought was right."

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Thanks! I thought maybe it was a test - to see if we actually read it.

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Wondered the same thing!

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"I truly wish reason had prevailed over my emotions," Starer told the court last week. - go to jail and shut up, loser.

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This is almost unbelievable - she’s a DOCTOR!! Whether an “academic” doctor or medical It still requires a significant amount of schooling. And doing this on behalf of a guy who can barely put two sentences together.

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The Boston Globe called her a suburban doctor 'who treated the downtrodden.'

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This may be off topic but why does the house and senate take time off all at once? Why do they not stagger their time off like us tractor pull citizens. 2 weeks here,there, separately not everyone all at once. Once a date is set for a vote they could come back and vote . And was it always like this.

I have looked it up and there are various answers,I figured you would know best! Thanks.

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A follow up question, how well is the Trump team doing in building up their local campaign teams (especially in the swing states)?

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The Dems have much better ground games and organizations. The GOP Super PACs will be able to help, but the Republicans are behind on that

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Do they actually even have a ground game? Just wondering out loud…..

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My instinct is that the "ground game" has been carefully crafted but the main component is allowing Trump to be his own worst enemy.

It appears to be working because all the ads I have seen and all the references he makes at his rallies are repetitions of the same old tropes. And since she doesn't give him much to work with the themes trigger ever more nutty extreme proportions in his imagination.

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It looks like he’s foregoing ground game to build up teams to intimidate voters at the polls and putting filthy lawyers on fake rigged election schemes.

If you can’t win, you cheat. And he’s already doing that by claiming the election is ALREADY rigged. Just like he’s saying the debate is rigged, somehow.

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I understand the logic of not doing campaign events daily, while focusing more on social media output. Also, you can hammer the other candidates for not doing their “day jobs” while you are doing both.

I agree the debate is going to set the tone for the rest of the campaign, especially since VP Harris’ poll numbers are leveling off.

If VP Harris is able to get a definitive win over Trump in the debate, how soon would the down ballot candidates start distancing themselves from Trump?

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I've followed political campaigns for decades but am still coming up empty on the rationale for Vance being off the campaign trail two months before an election. Is it because he's generating such bad press, laziness or the campaign believing they have this in the bag?

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Frankly, Trump-Vance-Harris-Walz have all had light campaign schedules. I'm old school. Every day that you waste is one that you never get back. I don't understand ANY days off the campaign trail.

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For Harris-Walz, the gap between the convention and their next campaign stop was also a head scratcher. They could have used that momentum and didn't.

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Think about Sunday and Monday. I get that Harris and Trump are off the trail doing debate prep. But where are Walz and Vance? Why aren't they doing anything in public? Maybe this is the *new* way. But I don't get it.

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I don’t either, especially in a race this close.

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Why hasn’t the Senate passed any of the 5 funding bills that have made it through the House? Are they still working through them? Waiting until they get all of them?

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This is a good question, and I will put an answer in Tuesday's newsletter.

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That would be my recommendation to Sen. Vance. Go to the Senate and speak on the lack of movement on the budget bills. Granted it opens the door for critiques on the House, but when have facts gotten in the way of a PR stunt.

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Jamie: I believe you've stated it before, but I want to check. Does the bill to bar non-citizen voting actually contain anything new?

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It basically adds a requirement to demonstrate that you are a US citizen in order to register to vote in federal elections

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Interesting. I suppose that implies that non-citizens might still be legally able to vote in state and local elections, which is really not all that objectionable considering how much non-citizens contribute to a large part of the economy.

The DACA kids that are registered (fewer than 600,000) represent only a fraction of the number that might be eligible but fear registration because they are reluctant to risk identifying undocumented family or friends.

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But it doesn't specify what that actually is like birth certificate plus SSN card or just a passport? It's just a statement that would be left up to states to define?

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