Catherine Rampell: The GOP Has Somehow Backed Democrats Into Defending The Status Quo

Posted on February 21, 2025 by Erik Schneider

“Republicans want change. And yet Republicans have somehow back Democrats into defending the status quo – or sound like it, anyway. That’s because President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their underlings have managed to frame recent events as a binary choice: Either you like the ongoing mass destruction and trampling of the Constitution by the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or you support keeping government as is. It’s a false choice, obviously. But Democrats and other Trump critics have done a poor job articulating that failure in logic and the existence of a third option: actually fixing things…

Source:The Washington Post with a look at Co-President’s of the United States: Elon Musk and Donald J. Trump. At least 1 of them was actually elected to something.

You can read the rest of Catherine Rampell’s article, if you have a paid subscription to The Washington Post.

What I’m about to say is going to sound like on on some meth high and not even aware of that and it’s 6AM or something and I haven’t tried to go to bed and I don’t know what to do with myself and decide to go to my desk, get on my computer and put down a lot of random thoughts that come to mind. And I sound completely crazy. But I appreciate if you hear me (or read me) out anyway.

I’m literally arguing that the Republican Party is no longer the conservative party in America. I’m sure that sounds strange for anyone who grew up knowing about Barry Goldwater, Gerald Ford, Everett Dirksen, Bob Dole, Ronald Reagan, etc. Or we’re adults when these Conservative Republicans were in office. But that’s not the crazy sounding part.

What really sounds like it could be coming from a man on a bridge screaming from the top of his lungs, while trying to decide if he should jump or not, is that the Democratic Party today, is more conservative than the Republican Party. And I’m talking about at the leadership and to even a certain extent the grassroots level as the far as the people that both parties recruit and to a certain extent even represent.

I mean think about it: a Conservative is someone who is: “averse to change or innovation and holding traditional values. Favoring free enterprise, private ownership, and socially traditional ideas.”

Doe the at least classical definition of conservative, sound like the modern “Republican Party” today? I think the answer to that is obviously not. What we have today on the Right, is essentially the entire right-wing of American politics (not just Conservatives) inside of 1, gigantic political party that’s called the Republican Party. But since when is it conservative to:

“Blow up the establishment”?

Or pardon violent criminals and thugs?

Dropping charges against the Mayor of New York City, even though there’s solid evidence that Eric Adams is guilty of bribery? In exchange for doing what the Feds want to do when it comes to immigration. What’s conservative about a pro-quid-quo?

What’s conservative about bashing our allies, while defending dictators? Ot blaming 1 of our allies for them being illegally invaded by much larger country and power?

To go back to 1 of the conservative values that I laid out as it’s relating to the belief in private enterprise: what’s conservative about tariffs? Especially launching trade wars with our allies like Canada, Mexico, and Europe, while praising dictators in Russia and China.

What’s conservative about throwing out constitutional amendments through executive order, when you know that it takes constitutional amendments, that have to be be passed out of Congress with 2/3 majorities and 2/3 of the states as well, just to even amend the Constitution?

What’s conservative about threatening legal investigations and jail time for people who criticize your political allies? Real Conservatives believe in free speech.

So while “Republicans” today are promoting the values of Donald Trump’s oligarchic, authoritarian, political reality TV show, known as MAGA, Democrats (to paraphrase Catherine Rampell) are defending the status quo. Remember, Democrats are supposed to be the party of progress and moving forward, while promoting the real liberal values of free speech, personal autonomy, equal opportunity, checks and balances, the rule of law, equal justice, etc. At least that’s what mainstream Democrats believe in. But with the MAGA political reality TV show in Washington, Democrats are defending:

The governmental establishment

The rule of law

The Constitution: doesn’t take a constitutional lawyer or professor to know that you can’t amend the U.S. Constitution through executive order.

Democrats are completely opposed to dropping the charges of Mary Adams, even though the Mayor is a Democrat. But they know how crooked he is and defended the rule of law.

They are defending our allies like Canada and Mexico from a Trumpian invasion of them. Add Greenland to that as well. And have our completely behind Europe’s and Ukraine’s defense of their own territory from Russia, while the Secretary of Defense, the Vice President, and the President are blaming Ukraine for the Russian invasion of their own country.

See what I mean? The Democrats are replacing the “Republicans” as the conservatives in Washington. The Democrats are acting as the Progressives, Liberals, and Conservatives, because the “Republicans” are so far to right, they can now make freakin Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders look pretty conservative when it comes to the rule of law, the defense of Europe, Ukraine, as well as Mexico and Canada.

But this is what happens when you essentially sell your sole (to use a cliche), as well as your conscience, and your brain, to the Orange Devil and join his political cult. With the only cost being that you give him whatever money you can and you never even dare to question him in public.

Source:The New Democrat

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CPAC 2025: Elon Musk Wields Chainsaw For Bureaucracy

Posted on February 20, 2025 by FredSchneiderUS

“WATCH: Elon Musk wields ‘chainsaw for bureaucracy’ on stage before speaking at CPAC”

Source:PBS NewsHour showing Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt “interview” of DOGE CEO/Co-President of the United States, Elon Musk. “Unelected President of the United States Elon Musk”, is probably more accurate.

From the PBS NewsHour

From The Hill:

“Tech billionaire Elon Musk joined the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) stage Thursday wielding a chainsaw, underscoring his efforts to slash the federal budget and workforce through President Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency panel.

Dressed in a black “Make America Great Again” hat and sunglasses and chain, Musk walked on stage and was joined shortly after by Argentine President Javier Milei, who gave him a black chainsaw that the DOGE leader held up as the crowd cheered.

When Musk held the chainsaw up, he screamed, “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy.”

Milei, who rose to prominence in Argentina with a vow to shake up the country’s government and economy, often wields a chainsaw at political events, emblematic of his mission to cut large swaths of his country’s federal government.

Milei has reportedly been an inspiration behind DOGE, which has set up shop in various federal agencies in what the Trump administration frames as efforts to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the government.

Musk is facing mounting criticism for DOGE’s efforts, especially those that have led to mass layoffs of federal workers, closures of entire independent agencies and access to sensitive information. Several lawsuits have been filed contesting the layoffs and the access to federal government databases…

From The Hill

Former U.S. Representative Charlie Dent (Republican, Pennsylvania) talking to Brianna Keilar and John Berman on CNN:

“CPAC has always been an odd gathering. But now it’s been taken over by radicals, anti-vaxers. It’s a land of misfits, toys, it’s a political freaks show. It’s the Star Wars bar, it’s bizarre… Serious people are not showing up to this thing. They had their stupid straw poll, its rank choice now. They’re not serious and one doesn’t know if they should laugh or they should cry about what they’re watching and witnessing at these CPAC gatherings.”

For anyone who really wants to know what I really think about CPAC… from what I wrote about it a year ago:

“CPAC today is really just: Crazy People At a Convention. And I mean that in a political sense. Before these escaped political mental patients accuse me of slander or defamation. As Charlie Dent said, this is not a serious group. Or as I would like to put it, they’re the American political version of a Star Trek Convention, except that these folks aren’t loyal to Star Trek. They’re loyal to Donald J. Trump.”

From The New Democrat

“Imagine if there were let’s say 100, maybe a 1,000 people, whoever showed up at CPAC last weekend, who not just got our prison, perhaps a mental hospital, but just got out of solitary confinement either in prison, or at a secure forensic hospital, (which is a prison for mentally ill criminals) and they’ve been institutionalized for a very longtime and perhaps were just released because of prison overcrowding.

So now these folks our out of the institution, they’ve been out of society for a very longtime, the world even in real life, doesn’t look the way it did lets’s say 20-30 years ago, before they were institutionalized.

So now you have all these career criminals and career mental patients, who decide to invade Washington, for let’s say their annual get together. That’s what CPAC looks like, at least in a political sense. You have a lot of people there who look and act like they’re from not even the 1950s, but perhaps even in the 1920s, and still think that’s what America is culturally, ethnically, racially, religiously. And they just get out of the institution and see this new country that’s also called America and feel the need to fight back and “take back America” and return America to the “real Americans” as they see themselves.

MAGA doesn’t live in the same country as everyone else. This is not the Conservative Political Action Conference. This is as one of the CPAC speakers said Jack Posobiec, this is a movement that wants to not end American democracy, but American liberal democracy and replace it with some type of Christian Nationalist government, where life for Americans who aren’t Northern European, who aren’t Protestant, who aren’t male, would very different from the way it is today.

To the outside world, MAGA looks like a bunch of escaped mental patients. The problem is, they’re big enough, they’re crazy enough, they’re violent enough, to take down the American form of government and all our individual rights, if the real American patriots don’t stand up, fight back, and prevent these folks from ever getting any real power in this country.”

From The New Democrat

Another way to describe CPAC (Crazy People At a Convention) would be to use a pro wrestling analogy. And the 10 pro wrestling fans who see this post, will understand what I’m talking about. Unless they’re MAGAheads and they didn’t take their medication today.

So in the late 1990s, I’m in my early 20s (I’m 1 of the last of Gen-Xers) and my favorite show on TV at that point, was WCW Nitro, which was on TNT every Monday night. So the main WCW (which stands for World Championship Wrestling) storyline was that you had this renegade group of journeymen pro wrestlers, who put their own wrestling crew or organization together, to take over pro wrestling, or at least WCW and replace the leadership with their own people. Now put that in political terms: does this sound familiar?

Hulk Hogan was like the president of this group called NWO (or New World Order) Eric Bischoff was like his executive vice president, who ran the day-to-day operations of WCW and NWO, who reported directly to Hulk Hogan. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall (also known as The Outsiders) were like the chief enforcers of this group.

So you look at the beginning of this video about CPAC, (Crazy People At A Convention) you have Elon Musk, who is sort of like Eric Bischoff character in the NWO and you have Argentine President Javier Milei (of all people. I guess they couldn’t find an American President to do this for them) coming out on stage with a chainsaw, sort of pretending to be Donald J. Trump, pretending to take a chainsaw to American democracy. I mean bureaucracy?

At an event that’s advertised to be a political convention, where “Conservatives” come together to talk about the future of America and the “conservative movement”, this sort of looks like an MTV (when MTV was Music Television) awards show, or some Saturday Night Live skit.

If you are still wondering why I struggle (actually, I don’t bother to even try to take CPAC seriously) to take CPAC seriously, I think I just gave you several reasons. At least with pro wrestling, it’s admittedly fake where the matches are fixed and lot of the punishment that’s dished out between the wrestlers is not real. But CPAC actually expects Americans to take them seriously. And not just the escaped mental patients that show up to their events every year, but the media and people who aren’t MAGA fanatics. But this is how they present themselves instead.

Apparently Elon Musk making a couple attempts of humor at this event when they were talking about the Russian war in Ukraine: “Donald Trump has a lot of eympathy. He’s a good man.”

Source:The New Democrat

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Nikki Swift: The Biggest Scandals The Trump Family Can’t Escape

Posted on February 20, 2025 by kireschneider

“If controversy has a name, it’s “Trump” — and there are more than a few scandals that the first family will simply never live down.”

Source:Nikki Swift with a look at Donald J. Trump & 1 of his business partners Melania Trump.

From Nikki Swift

“The following article includes allegations of sexual assault.

Scandal has walked hand-in-hand with the Trump name for decades, long before Donald Trump — who has plenty of other weird things about him everyone seems to ignore — entered politics and was twice elected America’s president, in 2016 and again in 2024. That goes all the way back to the 1970s, when Trump and his father, Fred Trump, were accused of discriminating against Black people when renting out apartments. Then, in the 1980s, there were rumors of mafia connections, while the 2000s brought about the infamous bankruptcy of his Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City.

Trump’s presidency, of course, brought about even more controversy. Not only was he impeached twice (the first president in U.S. history to own that dubious honor), who can forget his notorious musing, during a live news conference, about whether injecting bleach into one’s bloodstream could shield citizens from COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the apples have not fallen far from the tree; Trump’s children and their spouses have also experienced controversy over the years. To discover more, read on for a rundown of some of the biggest scandals the Trump family can’t escape…

From Nikki Swift

From my colleague Erik Schneider a couple weeks ago talking about why none of Donald Trump’s real scandals, scandals that would’ve crushed the political careers of the most successful of career politicians, don’t seem to do any long-term damage to 1 Donald John Trump:

“So Donald Trump goes from an American Nationalist “who always puts America first”, to just another American oligarch, who puts his own business and financial interests, over everything else that he’s involved with. The difference here is that he just doesn’t have governmental power, but he’s the President of the United States.

I realize that American voters have always held Donald J. Trump to a much lower standard when it comes to old fashion, American values, like honesty, decency, and morality. And when he does something really bad, they just put it aside and saying something like:

“That’s just Trump being Trump”.

Or they blame it on the Democrats and say:

“The Democrats should’ve stopped him before he did that…”

I along with more than half of the American electorate whose never wanted Donald J. Trump to ever be able to even visit The White House, (even if he did pay for a White House tour, with his own money) have been suffering and trying to live with the fact that American voters (primarily Independents) hold Mr. Trump to a much lower standard than every other American politician, at least since we’ve been able to get our news on TV…

From The New Democrat

If there was ever 1 American gangster that I even have the minimal of respect or admiration for, it would be John Gotti. Not because I like the man or agree with murder. Because of course I don’t. But he was an Italian Don who operated out Queens, New York (for the most part) who did his business in public and essentially dared New York law enforcement and the Feds to bring him down.

It’s not like John Gotti made announcements on live TV talking about the latest people his crime family was going to whack, or the businessman they were going to extort, the politician that they just bought off. (How stupid would that be? Talk about career suicide.) But he was a tabloid gangster and invited that. And because of that, he’s probably the least successful and shortest running, Italian Don, at least in the history of the Gambino Crime Family.

John Gotti was an Italian Don who almost got away with it, (to quote a true crime TV show) until he was caught and put away in 1992. But he got the nickname “The Teflon Don” because he beat 3 murder cases in the 1980s, including the murder of Gambino Godfather Paul Castellano in 1985, before he was finally caught and convicted in 1992.

So John Gotti was “The Teflon Don” up until he was convicted of murder in 1992 and died in Federal prison in 2002. And even though Donald Trump is not Italian, (German & Irish instead) his first name is Donald, Don is 1 of his nicknames, and he’s gotten way with pretty much every crime that he’s committed in life, as far as never having to do any time for any of them, not even house arrest or probation.

And it’s not just false business records, or paying off women that he had affairs with, so they don’t hurt his political campaign, or extorting a foreign country to get political dirt on his main political rival. I mean this Don literally inspired and organized a coup against the U.S. Government and tried to violently prevent his political opponent from 2020, from becoming the next President of the United States in 2021, when he was still President of the United States the 1st time. And he never even went to trial for that, let alone got convicted of it. And now he’s President of the United States again.

So, yeah, Nikki Swift can say that Donald Trump didn’t escape the scandals that she talked about. But a lot of those scandals, including the attempted political extortion of another foreign leader, happened when Donald Trump was President of the United States the first time, or before he ever became a politician. And he’s never done a day in jail, other than getting booked and processed. Even though he’s committed crimes that would’ve crushed the political career and the freedom of political mortals.

Source:The New Democrat

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Explaining To MAGA Why The 1950s Wasn’t That Swell

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Ederik Schneider

“Explaining to Conservatives Why the 50’s Weren’t As Great As they Think”

Yaron Brook_ Explaining to Conservatives Why the 50's Weren't As Great As they ThinkSource:Yaron Brook talking about Beaver Cleaver’s 1950s America.

From Yaron Brook

No offense to Yaron Brook: but his YouTube video sounds like a college lecture, where you are just trying to throw as many facts and figures as you can at your audience for them to write down and try to remember (while they’re not following asleep) in the audience, trying to listen to them. And he is a former college professor, so that would explain his approach to this video and maybe YouTube in general.

But I agree with Yaron Brook that life wasn’t that great for a lot of Americans back then. As someone who grew up in Maryland in the 1980s, just outside of Washington, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to get through the hot, humid, summers around here, either at home, or at summer camp, or at a job some place, without air conditioning. But that’s just me.

But if you are a woman, (of any racial or ethnic background) your future was already picked out for you by the establishment in society, that was made up primarily Anglo-Saxon-Protestant men and their devoted wives and it a certain extent the government as well. You were expected to finish high school and get married, perhaps work as a waitress or a secretary, until you find the right man to support you for the rest of your life.

And of course if you were a minority, including ethnic minorities like Jews, Italians, Spaniards, etc and not just racial minorities like Africans, Asians, Americans Indians, including female minorities… you were basically living in a police state. Life in America could be hell for you, especially in small towns, or perhaps anywhere in the South. The Anglo-Saxon establishment in those communities, saw you in many cases as even sub-human and not just Un-American. And you could even be denied an education, along with employment, banking, housing, and even voting, simply because the community there didn’t like your race or ethnicity.

So when I hear that the 1950s was better for America by the far-right, my response to that is always: “Better for who?’ Obviously not better for people whose families didn’t come here voluntarily from Britain on the Mayflower or from some other boat from the 1620s.

The far-right in America has always had this fantasy that John Wayne’s or Jimmy Stewart’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” America is the American utopia. The America where the man worked, come home around 5 or 6PM and open the door and say something like:

“Honey, I’m home!”

With his housewife there with her man’s favorite drink and newspaper ready for him saying:

“Hi honey. How was your day?”

And maybe their son Billy is there to greet Dad and he says to his father something like:

“Hi, Dad. Are we still going to the game on Friday?”

That 1950s America worked very well… if you were an Anglo-Saxon man. Back then, you didn’t need even a college degree to take care of your wife and 2 kids. Just a good job at a local factory or some other blue-collar place of business. But life was a lot better for the Anglo-Saxon men who did have college degrees and perhaps inherited a lot of money from their father, like his business. But for the rest of the country, including more than 50% of the country that were women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds,,, life was certainly not “swell” for most of those people.

Source:The New Democrat

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David Pakman: Donald Trump Can’t Handle EASIEST Interview, Elon Musk Babysits

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Derik Schneider

“Elon Musk babysits Donald Trump during a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity that despite being a softball interview still went horribly wrong.”

Source:David Pakman Show talking about Fox News’s Sean Hannity’s joint interview of President Donald J. Trump (MAGA, Florida) and his junior partner Elon Musk. Or do I have that backwards?

From the David Pakman Show

Just to give you a little more from the Fox News interview, this Elon Musk’s own words:

“So — so, what we’re — what we’re doing here is — is — one of the biggest functions of the DOGE team is just making sure that the presidential executive orders are actually carried out. And this is — I just want to point out, this is a very important thing, because the president is the elected representative of the people, so he’s representing the will of the people. And if the bureaucracy is fighting the will of the people and preventing the pres- — the president from implementing what the people want, then what we live in is a bureaucracy and not a democracy.

More from Elon Musk:

“Well, I guess we must be — if we’re the target, we’re doing something right. You know, if — like, they wouldn’t be complaining so much if they — we weren’t doing something useful, I think.

What — all we’re really trying to do here is restore the will of the people through the president. And — and what we’re finding is there’s an unelected bureaucracy. Speaking of unelected, there’s a — there’s a vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the — the president and the Cabinet.

And you look at, say, D.C. voting. It’s 92 percent Kamala. Okay, so we’re in 92 percent Kamala. That’s a lot.

think about that number a lot. I’m like, 92 percent. That’s, basically, almost everyone. And so — but if — but how can you — if — if the will of the president is not implemented, and the president is representative of the people, that means the will of the people is not being implemented, and that means we don’t live in a democracy, we live in a bureaucracy.

And so, I think what we’re seeing here is the — sort of, the thrashing of the bureaucracy as we try to restore democracy and the will of the people…

In case anyone wants to claim that I’m making this all up: this is actually from Donald Trump’s White House.

I guess I have a few reactions to this:

Just on a personal note first: it’s hard to watch David Pakman in this video with his “mustache”. I mean is that thing even real? I’m not putting down mustaches in general, especially just the basic mustache. There are plenty of men who look good in them: Tom Selleck, Burt Reynolds, Richard Roundtree, all from back in the day. But David Pakman looks like 16 year old boy, trying to look like a man with his “mustache”. Maybe he borrowed it from Wrigley Field. (To use a baseball reference)

And then watching this interview, it’s like Elon Musk has no idea what he’s being asked before someone asks him a question. No preparation for this interview whatsoever. And this is not even a softball interview. It’s more like batting practice at a home derby contest, at the MLB All Star Game and the pitcher is literally just lofting the balls over the plate to see how far the big, strong, power hitter can hit them. And Elon Musk sounds like he’s never even thought about the question before, let alone what he actually believes the answer is. And he’s just trying to wing it. His attempted answer to Sean Hannity’s question about the Federal bureaucracy in Washington:

“And you look at, say, D.C. voting. It’s 92 percent Kamala. Okay, so we’re in 92 percent Kamala. That’s a lot.

think about that number a lot. I’m like, 92 percent. That’s, basically, almost everyone. And so — but if — but how can you — if — if the will of the president is not implemented, and the president is representative of the people, that means the will of the people is not being implemented, and that means we don’t live in a democracy, we live in a bureaucracy….

And Mr. Musk speaks so slowly even when he’s given a wiffle ball question about what his DOGE is doing to try to cut (if not eliminate) the Federal bureaucracy in Washington..

And my final point, I completely agree with David Pakman here about the appearance of having Elon Musk with the President of the United States, just to try to get through a “softball interview”. I remember, I guess it was back in August, when CNN anchor Dana Bash interviewed then Vice President Kamala Harris, who had just secured the Democratic nomination for President and how MAGA media, including Sean Hannity, went after her for doing a joint interview with her Vice Presidential nominee Governor Tim Walz. You would think a sitting President of the United States could be able to handle a softball/wiffle ball interview by himself. But maybe competency is not what the voters wanted in a President.

Source:The New Democrat

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The Five With Greg Gutfeld: Reactions To Democrats Blasting DOGE

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Rik Schneider

“‘The Five’ panelists react to President Donald Trump’s efforts to stop government waste through DOGE.”

Source:FOX News anchor Greg Gutfeld.

From FOX News

My colleague Fred Schneider got into this yesterday talking about CNN anchor Anderson Copper trying to get some real examples and evidence from President Trump lack John Sununu about Elon Musk’s DOGE cutting “government waste”.

“Anderson was simply trying to get the Governor to lay out some specific examples of “government waste” that DOGE has been cutting. And the Governor just had Elon Musk’s talking points and what they’ve said they’ve done. But no evidence of what they’ve actually done. Anderson, like the 60 Minutes or Nightline style journalist that he is, didn’t let that stand. And he asked him again to give him some specific examples of what “government waste” that DOGE has uncovered.

And John Sununu just got tired of being asked the same question that he doesn’t have a good answer to, that probably no one has a good example for. And he just gave a wisecrack instead: (and I’m paraphrasing)

“You expect Elon Musk and President Trump to bring thousands of pages of direct evidence of government waste to their press conferences. You’ll never be satisfied”.

From The New Democrat

I guess I have several reactions here and I’ll just lay them 1 after another.

To go back to Anderson Cooper’s question for John Sununu about what examples and evidence of “government waste” has Elon Musk’s DOGE come up with and Governor Sununu having nothing for Cooper, other than Musk’s talking points about this,,, Musk and company have been at this for a month now and they haven’t released any examples of what they’ve been finding. It’s just 1 press conference after another with President Musk , I mean Mr. Musk (natural mistake) and his lapdog Donald Trump, I mean President Trump. (Another natural mistake) And they are there saying that they’ve found all this “waste, fraud, and abuse”, but with no paperwork, or even video footage about what they’ve been finding and what they’ve been doing.

What DOGE has been doing (and I believe illegally) has been illegally laying people off and firing them. They’re not a government agency. They have no authority here. They’re a private group of college interns, computer geeks, caffeine freaks, (and perhaps stronger drugs, besides coffee) trying to replace the U.S. Congress (which is currently a Republican Congress) as the check on what the Executive Branch does with our tax dollars.

I’m not a Socialist, or a drunken Irish sailor (to use an ethnic joke) when it comes to how our tax dollars are spent. I believe in fiscal responsibility probably more than any so-called Republican today. (MAGA are the real RINOS) But if “government waste” is running rampant in the U.S. Government, then a real government watchdog would be able to lay out examples of that. And then report it to the Congress, as well as the President and department heads. But they’re not doing that. They’re just randomly trying to freeze government funding and workers from doing their jobs, because they don’t believe those jobs and agencies should event exist. Not because they’re actually wasting money.

And my last reaction here is, I find it really comical… I mean listening to those MAGA folks on The Five talking about how much Democrats government money and defend government waste… that should be FOX’s comedy skit or something. They can’t be serious:

Was Greg Gutfeld and company even in the country when Donald Trump was President the 1st time and had a Republican House his first 2 years and a Republican Senate for 4 years?

Where was all the talk about “government waste, fraud and abuse” back then, when they quadrupled the Federal deficit and added 7 trillion-dollars to the national debt in just 3 years?

President Trump added more money to the national debt in his 4 years as President, then President Obama added in his 8 years as President. And President Obama inherited the Great Recession. While President Trump inherited a growing economy, with 4% unemployment.

Where did all those tax dollars go under President Trump? Why did they have to spend and waste so much of our money, in such of short period of time?

I”ll give the MAGA Party credit for 1 thing and this might be the last time I ever give them credit for anything… that is positive: usually when Republicans come to power and they have complete control of The White House and Congress, they completely ignore the national debt and deficit, even government waste. They only make an issue about it when there’s a Democratic President, especially with a Democratic Congress.

But now with a Republican President and Congress, as well as high debt and deficit, they’re talking about the need to cut those things, as well as government waste. So maybe that’s a step in the right direction for the Republican White House. Especially with the Republican Congress seeming to have no interest in cutting the debt and deficit. Especially with the Republican House talking about raising the debt ceiling by 8 trillion-dollars.

Source:The New Democrat

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Nayyera Haq & Jamaal Simmons: Why You Can’t Rely On Politicians

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Erik Schneider

“In this episode of Trailblaze, co-hosts Nayyera Haq and Jamal Simmons chat with Maurice Mitchell, the National Director of the Working Families Party, about the state of politics in America.

They talk about the idea of a ‘CEO monarch’ in politics, how recent government actions have affected people’s feelings, and why it’s important for communities and grassroots movements to get involved in politics. The conversation stresses the importance of being brave in politics and how regular people can make a difference.”

Source:Politicon with Maurice Mitchell, Jamaal Simmons & Nayyera Haq.

From Politicon

As my colleague Kire Schneider wrote back in December:

“In Defense of Politicians”, that would never be 1 of my lines. Not even if I was a defense lawyer defending a politician. I would be in there in court telling the judge:

“I’m here to defend the politician”. But if I win this case, as soon as it’s over, I’ll be the first person telling the public how big of an asshole I think this person is. And why I’ve never voted for this politician. Well, not after the first time…

My point here is it’s not just the politicians. It’s not just the voters either. It’s just mostly the voters. As George Carlin said:

“Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don’t fall out of the sky. They don’t pass through a membrane from some other reality.

They come from American parents, American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses, American universities, and they’re elected by American citizens.

This is the best we can do, folks. This is what we have to offer. It’s what our system produces. Garbage in…garbage out…

From The New Democrat

And as Kire Schneider wrote last week about this:

“If you are Kamala Harris right now… I doubt she’s home right now with her husband Doug laughing their heads off (to keep this clean) at the American voters. At least, the American voters who were too dumb, too blind, too death, (perhaps they flipped a coin in the voting booth to decide who to vote for in 2024) or simply don’t give enough of a damn about the United States, to make an intelligent decision in who to vote for. But only because I believe she loves her country and is still willing to do everything that she can to make America as great as it can be.

But, for the people who did vote for Donald Trump because they think he’s a cool, wealthy, reality TV star, who hangs out with cool, wealthy, celebrities, who has a gorgeous wife and daughter, who was going to Washington “to shake things up” and “take on the establishment”, I have less than zero sympathy for you.

American democracy is a serious thing. It’s not a high school class presidential election. (No offense to high school class presidential elections) This is not a reality TV show where the winner gets 1 million dollars or, wins a record label, or something…

From The New Democrat 

I believe Maurice Mitchell made the key point here in the very beginning:

“The opposition doesn’t often come from the sitting politicians. So the people are mad at Chuck Schumer, they’re mad at Hakeem Jeffries… you should definitely be mad at all the politicians , voice your displeasure… but political leadership actually comes from the people. And the politicians often respond to where the people move.And its our job politically to fight back, push back, be in opposition. President’s aren’t kings.”

What Maurice Mitchell said goes to my broader point here. And to paraphrase the great political satirist George Carlin: the politicians are products of the people. Most of them are in office to either stay in office, or move up to higher office. Not serve their constituents.

So if you want the politicians to do something for you, it has to become popular from them to do it politically. Which is why American democracy, which is liberal democracy (sorry, leftists) always has to be bottom-up, not top-down. You want politicians to do something or do things, you have to get out there and organize and make your movement popular and then they’ll listen to you.

I want to push back a little on what this panel said here. American voters had a very good idea who they were getting when they went to the voting booth in 2024. And if they didn’t, it’s their fault.

Corrupt politicians, especially career politicians, rely on ignorant voters. People who don’t hold their politicians accountable, who vote for the same crooks and liars over and over, that’s the political fuel that crooked politicians need to stay in office and hold onto power. Voter ignorance is for crooked politicians, what gas is to cars, food and water is for humans, etc.

So when people don’t even bother do the homework on the people that they’re voting for, before they vote for them: who’s fault is that? Of course crooks and liars lie about what they do, but their record is out there and the evidence that shows that they have at least been bought off based on their voting records in Congress, or the legislation that they’ve signed and proposed and where they get their money to stay in power, is all out in the public record. The records of politicians is out there in the public record.

It’s just a matter of the voters bothering to do their homework and not being completely reliant on the politicians social media feed, how often they “go viral” and for what, the celebrity endorsements that they have, their TV soundbites, etc.

Nayera Haq and Jamall Simmons said that the voters didn’t know that Trump and company would come in and literally try to dismantle the Federal Government. (That’s a paraphrase, but pretty close) Project 2025 was part of the public record and part of The Heritage Foundation’s website. It was there as late as last summer, before it started hurting Donald Trump’s campaign, because the media kept reporting on it. Project 2025 was part of the presidential debate, that got 70 million viewers.

I’m willing to bet most of those 70 million viewers were actually American voters. Safe bet they weren’t kindergarten kids who stayed up way too late. Perhaps they couldn’t sleep or something and thought a political debate could help with that.

And the voters have always known about Donald Trump’s CEO mentality as a politician and that he hates having to work with people that he can’t control. And voters knew about Mr. Trump’s political relationship with Elon Musk.

I’ll give you an analogy: if you are cheating on a test and you were given the answers to it, but then left the answers in your locker, or your dog literally ate them… perhaps you were cheating off someone who has worst grades than you do, so you fail the test anyway and maybe your teacher doesn’t even catch you trying to cheat on it… who’s fault is it that you failed that test?

The 2024 elections was this test. And it was so easy to pass with 1 party there to defend American democracy and the rule of law. And the other party there to defend, protect, to advance off of for their own personal gain, for Donald Trump. Passing that test should’ve been so easy for any intelligent voter, that it should’ve been like cheating on a high school test. But they left their cheat sheet in their locker or their dog ate their cheat sheet to this test.

We’ve known about Donald Trump and MAGA, at least since 2016. They got elected anyway. The voters woke up for a few years in 2018 and 20, even 22. But then they told pollsters that the price of eggs and milk are too expensive for them to vote for Kamala Harris for President and put Donald Trump back in The White House. Even though they have all the information they need to know that Mr. Trump is literally a threat to our rule of law, form of government, and Constitution. So I have zero sympathy for anyone who voted for Donald Trump and MAGA for any reason or reasons.

Source:The New Democrat

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Anderson Cooper To John Sununu: ‘Don’t Be a Dick’

Posted on February 17, 2025 by FredSchneiderUS

“Anderson Cooper surprised some viewers when he used a racy term to call out a Republican live on air. The moment happened Feb. 11 on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” as the anchor was debating with former New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu. The politician was arguing that President Donald Trump’s administration has been transparent about its efforts to reduce government waste and expose fraud, but Cooper noted that neither Trump nor DOGE chair Elon Musk have provided evidence supporting those claims. Things heated up when Cooper told Sununu “don’t be a d—,” but the two men appeared to move on from the moment without a big reaction. While Cooper did apologize, Sununu says there are no hard feelings and is laughing it off. “He’s a great guy. I don’t take any offense to it whatsoever,” he told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo.”

Source:Access Hollywood with a look at CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and Donald J. Trump propagandist John Sununu.

From Access Hollywood (of all places)

Chris Cuomo interviewing John Sununu about Governor Sununu’s appearance on Anderson Copper 360 last week: “What does it mean to you as far as what we’re dealing with in our level of dialogue?” Just to give you an idea of how high the level of reporting and journalism coming from News Nation these days.

Oh, please. The media, or at least parts of out media, the more MAGA friendly media, only seems to have a problem with vulgar language, when it’s used against MAGA supporters. But when they use it against people they oppose, they call it “free speech”.

I believe this story is from last Wednesday. And this is what I said about it then:

Calling a “dick”, a “dick”, is like calling a horse a horse. If you don’t want to be called a “dick”, don’t be a “dick”.

From my Threads page. 

So if you watch the Access Hollywood video, (no, not that Access Hollywood video) you see the background of what was going on before Anderson Cooper told Governor Sununu:”don’t be a dick”.

Anderson was simply trying to get the Governor to lay out some specific examples of “government waste” that DOGE has been cutting. And the Governor just had Elon Musk’s talking points and what they’ve said they’ve done. But no evidence of what they’ve actually done. Anderson, like the 60 Minutes or Nightline style journalist that he is, didn’t let that stand. And he asked him again to give him some specific examples of what “government waste” that DOGE has uncovered.

And John Sununu just got tired of being asked the same question that he doesn’t have a good answer to, that probably no one has a good example for. And he just gave a wisecrack instead: (and I’m paraphrasing)

“You expect Elon Musk and President Trump to bring thousands of pages of direct evidence of government waste to their press conferences. You’ll never be satisfied”.

Which is why Anderson Copper suggested to him (and I’m paraphrasing again): “Don’t be a dick. I’m just asking you for specific examples of government waste that has been uncovered by DOGE”.

OK, if the word “dick” is too vulgar for your oversensitive ears, then I suggest you give up Fox News, as well as Newsmax. Because they play and replay Donald Trump’s quotes and speeches for most of every day. And if you don’t like vulgarity, perhaps you should lay off the “reality TV shows” on cable as well.

And if “dick” is too strong of a word for you to describe John Sununu when it comes to his support for Donald Trump: I have some alternatives for you:

Boot licker, ass-kisser, lapdog, propagandist, teacher’s pet. I would say “cocksucker”, but I don’t want to offend the oversensitive ears of our “politically correct crowd on this President’s Day.

Governor Sununu was one of Nikki Haley’s original and most loyal backers for President in 2023-24. Until it became clear that she didn’t have a saint’s chance in hell of defeating Donald Trump. And he got off that ship, before it sunk what was left of his political career. And now based on how he talks about Donald Trump now, you would think that he’s even better than Jesus Christ himself. Or that’s how Mr. Sununu seems to view Donald J. Trump.

Source:The New Democrat

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Jesse Dollemore: Donald Trump Tweets He’s Above the Law With OMINOUS NAPOLEON QUOTE!

Posted on February 17, 2025 by kireschneider

“Jesse talks about Donald Trump’s many, many posts that reveal his intentions to rule as a dictator/emperor figure. His tweet on Saturday that “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law” did not occur in a vacuum. We have many other troublingly anti-democratic sentiments that have been communicated by Donald Trump.”

Source:Jesse Dollemore talking about Donald J. Trump’s dream of becoming Dictator Don.

From Jesse Dollemore

From the Associated Press in December of 2022:

“Former President Donald Trump faced rebuke Sunday from officials in both parties after calling for the “termination” of parts of the Constitution over his lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

Trump, who announced last month that he is running again for president, made the claim over the weekend on his Truth Social media platform.

“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” he wrote. “Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”

From the Associated Press

Also from the Associated Press:

” As Donald Trump faces growing scrutiny over his increasingly authoritarian and violent rhetoric, Fox News host Sean Hannity gave his longtime friend a chance to assure the American people that he wouldn’t abuse power or seek retribution if he wins a second term.

But instead of offering a perfunctory answer brushing off the warnings, Trump stoked the fire.

“Except for day one,” the GOP front-runner said Tuesday night before a live audience in Davenport, Iowa. “I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill.”

And in case anyone missed it, he reenacted the exchange.

“We love this guy,” Trump said of Hannity. “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.’”

From the Associated Press

And from the President of the United States himself on Saturday:

“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law”

From Donald J. Trump

So I guess this makes it official: President’s Day (not King’s Day or Dictator’s Day) is a slow news day. It must be if I’m writing about a story about what President Donald (also known as Dictator Don) posted on social media on a Saturday.

I no longer blog on the weekends. Especially in Donald Trump’s era, because life is short enough to begin with, I’m in my late 40s, and going crazy 5 days a week over what this man says and does (even though I only actually blog 6 times a month) is too much already. I don’t want to see a story reported about me that’s is something to the affect: “Man dies in front of his computer from an apparent heart attack writing about Donald Trump”. So I have to take a break from this man, at least once in a while.

Now to be more serious for a moment: someone can’t credibly claim and argue about people using their own words against them. It’s not like a murder defendant in court who hires someone to murder their wife and the person who actually does the murder rats out the guy who hired him, leaving the husband alone on this and the husband says something like: “I only told that guy to murder my wife. You can’t use that against me”..

I mean all the media is doing here (expect for MAGA Inc. of course) is reporting and literally playing what literally comes out of the mouth of Donald J. Trump:

He said he would suspend the Constitution, after Republicans lost in 2022.

He told Sean Hannity he would be a dictator on day 1.

And he just quoted French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte on Saturday with: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law”.

If you voted for Donald Trump for President , wouldn’t you like to know why he quotes dictators, instead of civil rights leaders, or popular president’s? Why does this man admire Vladimir Putin, but never has anything kind or intelligent to say about Ronald Reagan, except for perhaps on his birthday, or when he’s at some event honoring that former President?

There are times in life when you have to be frank and just cut the bullshit and call a horse a horse (or whatever analogy you want to use) and lay it all out there. This is who Donald J. Trump is. This is who 80 million people voted for President for in 2024. This is who he wants to be. And right now we’re relaying on what’s left of our checks and balances to try to contain Donald Trump, until he hopefully leaves The White House 4 years from now, and prevent him from becoming the first dictator of the United States of America.

Source:The New Democrat

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The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson: Jane Badler in 1985

Posted on February 14, 2025 by Ederik Schneider

“It was the 1980’s and i was asked to be on the greatest interview show… The Johnny Carson Show. I was thrilled and a nervous wreck . I bought a Versace dress on credit and drank three glasses of champagne backstage to quell my nerves .. To my left was seated the great singer Tom Jones who I had a mad crush on… i definitely said Actually too many times but hell i was cute and so young !!’

The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson: Jane Badler in 1985Source:Jane Badler World appearing on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson in 1985.

From Jane Badler World

Just to give you and idea of what Diana (played by Jane Badler was like… as Jane Badler said so herself, she played a very evil woman:

Martin: You know Diana, rather than putting Mr. Donovan away, he might prove very useful to us as a convert.
Diana: My instincts tell me he’d be too difficult as a subject. That’s why I decided not to bother. Take him to the final area.
Martin: I always thought you thrived on challenges…
Diana: I do, but I like better odds.
Martin: That’s curious, I would’ve have thought you’d find the difficult game far more interesting. But anyway, you’re probably right. I don’t think even you with all your abilities could ever turn this head of his…
[Turns to walk out of the room]
Diana: Martin wait. Don’t take him to the final area just yet… Perhaps I would enjoy the challenge of converting him.
Martin: Well, as you wish Diana.

From IMDB

There are a couple points in this interview that stand out for me.

1. Johnny Carson was asking about where Jane Badler is from, when she came out to Los Angeles, what’s it like meeting new people, etc and Jane talked about that she was on a plane recently and that she likes flying first class and she talked about her recent experiences flying first class. And she said something like:

“I get really nervous flying. So I like to drink to help calm me down. And when I drink I meet people. And I met a man on the plane and we hit it off (or something to that affect) and we started an affair and moved in together…

And speaking to Johnny Carson directly: “I like to meet people and have affairs. You like to marry them”. Johnny Carson was married 4 times and cheated on his first 3 wives, before he finally settled down. He was also known as a hard drinker, really until the early 1990s when he finally retired from The Tonight Show. So you could call Jane’s comment there a slight (if not real) dig at him.

I don’t want t sound a high priest or something, but a good reason not to drink alcohol, is because you don’t know who you’ll meet, especially when you are intoxicated. Just about anyone can seem pretty attractive, interesting, and intelligent, when they’ve had a few shots in them. Especially if they weren’t feeling very good before the shots.

2. As far as the V TV series, I was like 9 when it went on the air in 1983 or 84 and I remember it fairly well. Friday night, on NBC, I was still too young to go out flying and get drunk and meet strangers. (At least by myself) And Jane Badler’s Diana character is by far the most memorable from that mini-series.

It’s not just because Jane plays this gorgeous and yet baby face, evil witch. It’s 1 thing for Jason from the Friday The 13th movie series, to be this evil, serial murdering bastard. You expect evil people to look like that. But you have a gorgeous, adorable, brunette, playing a evil woman, who would kill someone for giving them 2 shots of espresso in their coffee, instead of 3. Or being 5 seconds late to pick them up. (Like a so-called reality TV star) And Jane played Diana perfectly.

Source:The New Democrat

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