Politics

[SR]

He's literally everything I was taught (and learned) to despise, but the majority here adore. The call's from in the house. It's not him anymore, it's us. And four years won't fix it. There's no set of tools to fix this.

[Hokahey]

He's literally everything I was taught (and learned) to despise, but the majority here adore. The call's from in the house. It's not him anymore, it's us. And four years won't fix it. There's no set of tools to fix this.

Elections are won and lost by enthusiasm from your base and the casual voter. Looking at inflation and the state of international politics, no one should be surprised that the status quo was not reaffirmed.

[Hype]

I think the most surprising part for me is how many "leftist" folks decided that the Israel-Gaza situation as they understand it implied either abstaining from voting, voting third party, or voting for Trump, calling Harris "a supporter of genocide".

Like, okay, we all understand that American support for Israel's current government is emboldening some brutal shit over there, but, like... Israel likes Trump, a lot. So I don't get it.

[Hype]

There's no set of tools to fix this.

That's the one thing I hope isn't true.

[SR]

I think the most surprising part for me is how many "leftist" folks decided that the Israel-Gaza situation as they understand it implied either abstaining from voting, voting third party, or voting for Trump, calling Harris "a supporter of genocide".

Like, okay, we all understand that American support for Israel's current government is emboldening some brutal shit over there, but, like... Israel likes Trump, a lot. So I don't get it.

So much is truly inexplicable to me. Even in Cali we were bombarded with anti LGBTQ ads from the far right. Their focus groups were right and black men, uneducated white women, Latinos bought it hard. There isn't much left of practical politics here anymore, and people normalizing this hard pivot to the far right as understandable baffle me. It was a bloodbath in the EC, popular vote, and the Senate. As to international politics, there is going to be a hard charge from tyrants while this isolationist window is open. Here, he's completely unchecked.

[MicrowavedGerbil]

I don't honestly know how democrats will recover from this one. It's indeed a blood bath. Seeing how red Cali was last night....
Shit, you probably won't convince me trump leaves in two years and Vance takes over, runs in 28' and we're in it for the long haul.

[mockbee]

Trump is the anti-establishment candidate. For the past fifty years Americans have voted for the anti-establishment candidate. Whether it be anti-corruption (Carter), anti-government (Regan), anti-plutocrat/greed (Clinton), anti-exclusivity (Obama) and on and on. The anti-establishment is the root of the campaign and there is always an aspirational story that follows that one way or another conveys the people rising to take back control. Harris doubled down on being the establishment and would not have come out of a real primary that allowed the people to decide the candidate. That's really the extent of it.

Trump just knows how to consistently hoodwink the democrats into believing it's about him. But the people aren't voting for him, they are voting against the ruling order. It's not a hard right shift either, it's a hard anti-establishment statement. The right is the establishment as well, just they are good at hiding it behind Trump's bombast at the moment.

If Democrats could take their hyperfocus off of Trump for the next couple election cycles and figure out what people actually want and need instead of telling them, they'll do fine. Let the constitution do it's job in keeping Trump in check. The DNC, or whoever orchestrated this whole Biden/Harris charade, needs to be dismantled, they are so terrible.

[mockbee]

For the sake of stability I am glad it wasn't razor thin close. That would be the worst for our country.
We need clear winners and losers so we can be realistic about what needs to happen next.

Either lead if you are the victor, first under the constitutional order and second on the interests of the nation that elected you. Or reflect and regroup if you are the loser.

[creep]

Trump is the anti-establishment candidate. For the past fifty years Americans have voted for the anti-establishment candidate. Whether it be anti-corruption (Carter), anti-government (Regan), anti-plutocrat/greed (Clinton), anti-exclusivity (Obama) and on and on. The anti-establishment is the root of the campaign and there is always an aspirational story that follows that one way or another conveys the people rising to take back control. Harris doubled down on being the establishment and would not have come out of a real primary that allowed the people to decide the candidate. That's really the extent of it.

Trump just knows how to consistently hoodwink the democrats into believing it's about him. But the people aren't voting for him, they are voting against the ruling order. It's not a hard right shift either, it's a hard anti-establishment statement. The right is the establishment as well, just they are good at hiding it behind Trump's bombast at the moment.

If Democrats could take their hyperfocus off of Trump for the next couple election cycles and figure out what people actually want and need instead of telling them, they'll do fine. Let the constitution do it's job in keeping Trump in check. The DNC, or whoever orchestrated this whole Biden/Harris charade, needs to be dismantled, they are so terrible.

[kv]

this all takes me back to being a kid...school/class elections ..there would always be someone who had good ideas and drive for the job that would lose out to the cutest girl or most popular jock boy....who only decided to run because they were jealous of the attn someone else was getting by running.......they'd always win...not care for the job and not much would get done ...ty school for teaching me that shit as early as possible in life...

[kv]

this is us....we are a teeter totter...just flipping back and forth...this is our pinnacle that whenever we counter balance we flip
....so basic so practical...so tiresome...back and forth we go

[guysmiley]

He's literally everything I was taught (and learned) to despise, but the majority here adore. The call's from in the house. It's not him anymore, it's us. And four years won't fix it. There's no set of tools to fix this.

This is the part for me that is so disheartening. My own parents and friends who helped shape me with a moral compass of right and wrong seemly don't care, about right and wrong and the character or words used by the candidate they support. They're morally corrupt and lost the plot. Now I have to try even harder to do my job teaching my kids right and wrong despite my family members who don't care. I don't want to pit my kids against my family, but I had to sit them down yesterday and explain everything that man does and says is wrong. You don't behave like that. I'm really worried about a generation of lost young men who have been raised by the online poison and lies of Elon, Rogan, Tate, Peterson, etc... A society of angry lost young men becomes dangerous really fast. Hopefully I can help my boys navigate through generations of anger and bs "be a man" pressure. What happened to ethics?

[Hokahey]

He's literally everything I was taught (and learned) to despise, but the majority here adore. The call's from in the house. It's not him anymore, it's us. And four years won't fix it. There's no set of tools to fix this.

This is the part for me that is so disheartening. My own parents and friends who helped shape me with a moral compass of right and wrong seemly don't care, about right and wrong and the character or words used by the candidate they support. They're morally corrupt and lost the plot. Now I have to try even harder to do my job teaching my kids right and wrong despite my family members who don't care. I don't want to pit my kids against my family, but I had to sit them down yesterday and explain everything that man does and says is wrong. You don't behave like that. I'm really worried about a generation of lost young men who have been raised by the online poison and lies of Elon, Rogan, Tate, Peterson, etc... A society of angry lost young men becomes dangerous really fast. Hopefully I can help my boys navigate through generations of anger and bs "be a man" pressure. What happened to ethics?

Toxic masculinity, misogyny, xenophobia…it’s nothing new. And I’d wager it’s still continuing to improve, with slight hitches. But the world continues to get more progressive. Dramatically so since I was a kid.

You’re doing great with your kids and will continue to. Don’t worry.

[SR]

He's literally everything I was taught (and learned) to despise, but the majority here adore. The call's from in the house. It's not him anymore, it's us. And four years won't fix it. There's no set of tools to fix this.

This is the part for me that is so disheartening. My own parents and friends who helped shape me with a moral compass of right and wrong seemly don't care, about right and wrong and the character or words used by the candidate they support. They're morally corrupt and lost the plot. Now I have to try even harder to do my job teaching my kids right and wrong despite my family members who don't care. I don't want to pit my kids against my family, but I had to sit them down yesterday and explain everything that man does and says is wrong. You don't behave like that. I'm really worried about a generation of lost young men who have been raised by the online poison and lies of Elon, Rogan, Tate, Peterson, etc... A society of angry lost young men becomes dangerous really fast. Hopefully I can help my boys navigate through generations of anger and bs "be a man" pressure. What happened to ethics?

Toxic masculinity, misogyny, xenophobia…it’s nothing new. And I’d wager it’s still continuing to improve, with slight hitches. But the world continues to get more progressive. Dramatically so since I was a kid.

You’re doing great with your kids and will continue to. Don’t worry.

I don't know what world this is. The Nationalistic/far right rise in Europe has been on an alarming rise for years. The Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Hungary, and Croatia all have far right governments in place. France, Netherlands, and Sweden are teetering....even Germany has had an eastern state win a far right victory for the first time since Hitler. England had Boris, a trump lite version fueled by much of the same misinformation, hysteria, and isolationist views that trump enjoys here. Bernie had his moment, shot down by the Democratic elite (fuck Wasserman), and though he enjoys respect here he is anything but a progressive with real influence. The squad is reviled by the majority of Americans. No need to address the other far right tyrannical countries that exist outside the west. The world does not continue to get more progressive.

[SR]

He's literally everything I was taught (and learned) to despise, but the majority here adore. The call's from in the house. It's not him anymore, it's us. And four years won't fix it. There's no set of tools to fix this.

This is the part for me that is so disheartening. My own parents and friends who helped shape me with a moral compass of right and wrong seemly don't care, about right and wrong and the character or words used by the candidate they support. They're morally corrupt and lost the plot. Now I have to try even harder to do my job teaching my kids right and wrong despite my family members who don't care. I don't want to pit my kids against my family, but I had to sit them down yesterday and explain everything that man does and says is wrong. You don't behave like that. I'm really worried about a generation of lost young men who have been raised by the online poison and lies of Elon, Rogan, Tate, Peterson, etc... A society of angry lost young men becomes dangerous really fast. Hopefully I can help my boys navigate through generations of anger and bs "be a man" pressure. What happened to ethics?

I see your concerns. They are real. Tack on Ai and climate change (which were not even addressed in this past election), and there's a lot more to parenting these days than when my kiddo was young.

[MicrowavedGerbil]

Do Latinos for Trump care about their illegal relatives?

[SR]

Canadian members, who's in line to replace Trudeau in Canada?

[SR]

Fascinating article by Joshua Kaplan, a fairly fearless journalist in an era of assault on the profession...he's reporting on a mole that infultrated a few of the more powerful militias here in the US. Looks like it might be the tip of the iceberg.

https://www.propublica.org/article/ap3- ... litia-mole

[Juana]

Outstanding read. And yeah its just the tip of the ice berg they hide behind things like Christian Nationalism and other bullshit but really they're all just racist hate mongers.

[SR]

Outstanding read. And yeah its just the tip of the ice berg they hide behind things like Christian Nationalism and other bullshit but really they're all just racist hate mongers.

Don't forget law enforcement!

[Juana]

Outstanding read. And yeah its just the tip of the ice berg they hide behind things like Christian Nationalism and other bullshit but really they're all just racist hate mongers.

Don't forget law enforcement!

Oh yeah and the gangs inside of law enforcement. The LEOs I personally know are good people not into that and take what they do seriously. The other monsters that hide behind the "thin blue line" are a huge problem. It's going to be interesting when POTUS 47 pardons all these jackasses that took part in Jan 6th (though he said he wouldn't pardon the violent offenders) and basically gives them the "okay" for their actions. He already told them to "stand by" in the past.

[SR]

Jennifer Rubin, a former Republican and self described "radical centrist" just left the Washington Post. She's following a sizable group to do so citing concerns about the integrity of the free press and their recent subservience to their billionaire bosses and maga influence. She started a news outlet, The Contrarian, along with other like minded journalists. This is the new piece on Jack Smith's report to Garland...


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A Contrarian Take on Volume One of Jack Smith’s Report
Norman Eisen
Jan 14






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The fact that we are already familiar with almost all of the facts in the first volume of Jack Smith's final report on January 6th and Donald Trump's attempted self-coup, makes them no less horrifying.

The report lays out in surgical detail the five chapters of Donald Trump's effort to sabotage the 2020 election and perpetuate himself in power.

That begins with his pressure campaign to get state officials to reverse the election results, moves through his fraudulent elector scheme, then covers squeezing both DOJ and then Mike Pence to do his bidding, before culminating with the violence of January 6.

But because he has achieved through the ballot box what he failed to do through his 2020 post-election conduct, we now face the nightmare of a president who will have those same levers of power, and experience in how to use them. What’s more, this time he'll likely be surrounded by sycophants rather than of “grown-ups” in the room.

That return should be viewed roughly like the British march on Washington during the War of 1812. And yet normalization has been common.

Before turning to the details of the report, I want to add that I am realistic about what lies ahead—but also about our capacity as a nation to respond. Just as Trump was defeated in his 2020 attempted coup, and just as global autocrats have been successfully countered, I believe America has the wherewithal to stop democratic backsliding. Indeed, a guiding purpose of The Contrarian is to make that more likely than not.

Returning to the contents of the report: The four-page, single-spaced cover letter from Jack Smith to Merrick Garland is extraordinary in its own right. Smith is, of course, acutely aware of Trump's attacks against him and his staff. He emphatically pushes back on those attacks in defense of his own professionalism, noting that he is not a partisan but rather, “I have been a career prosecutor....over the last three decades.”

He is even more emphatic on behalf of his colleagues. He writes that his staff are “people of great decency and the highest personal integrity” who were subject to “threats to their safety and relentless, unfounded attacks.” Toward the end of the letter, he notes, “I believe the fact that our team stood up for the rule of law matters.” Indeed.

A letter from Trump lawyer Todd Blanche that objects to the release of the volume bookends the report and the Smith letter. Blanche’s missive is full of disinformation and even outright lying. The letter claims Trump’s “complete exoneration.“ Of course no such thing has happened.

Contrary to Blanche, Smith’s recital of the facts and the applicable law provide ample support for his already famous conclusion: “Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.” Smith makes a persuasive case for what the outcome of this case would have been had it ever made it to a jury, as the New York's 2016 election interference and cover-up case did. We all know the outcome there.

As I pored over the report I was struck by this: no matter how many times you read the facts of this case, no matter how conversant you are with the details, and no matter how familiar you are with the events, they never cease to be striking. The fact for example that Trump's response on January 6th to Mike Pence being within feet of being caught by the mob was, “So what?”

That remains a chilling sentiment, not only when reflecting on that day, but also because the man who uttered those callous words is returning to the Oval Office.

Turning from the facts to the legal arguments Smith makes, they are also strong, if equally familiar. Much of the analysis tracks with what I and distinguished co-authors wrote in a memo in July 2023 before the case was brought.

That’s not to say that there's nothing new here. There are tidbits sprinkled throughout the report that grabbed my attention. For example, I found it striking in the very last section on the law, entitled “Co-conspirator liability,” that Smith and his office had “made a preliminary determination that the admissible evidence could justify seeking charges against certain Co-conspirators. The office had also begun to evaluate how to proceed” if Trump had lost the election. Had he lost, we would’ve seen those cases in my view—and in fact such charges are pending in state courts, against individuals not subject to the immunity doctrine of US v. Trump.

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Another reflection jumped out at me on my first pass through the report, which I undertook while sitting on Laura Coates’ set at CNN, flipping through the pages as other commentators and I took turns opining. It was that if Donald Trump was the defendant here, the US Supreme Court was the aider and abettor. That execrable immunity decision, utterly unfounded in American law, and the unconscionable half-year plus of US foot-dragging that the Supreme Court engaged in prevented a trial.

That trial was, after all, set for March 4, 2024. And if the Supreme Court had not gone completely off the rails, that case could have proceeded. Indeed, if the Court had simply moved with the same dispatch as other comparable historical cases when presented with the question in December 2023, we likely still might have had the trial, immunity doctrine and all. The trial could have taken place within its parameters.

It's important to bear the Supreme Court's culpability in mind as we prepare to defend our democracy here at The Contrarian and elsewhere in the days and years ahead. Will they be the court that, by a narrow 5 to 4 majority, refused to stop the New York criminal sentencing of Donald Trump, just last week? Or will they be the court that produced that reprehensible immunity decision?

We must not only hope for the former. We must work, litigate, and strive with every ounce of our beings for it— and for the functioning of our democracy across the board. We actually know what we have to do; the precedents are there. Yes, the challenges are daunting. But America has faced daunting challenges before. Other nations have done the same and in places like Poland they have taken on autocratic regimes and ousted them.

America's venerable democracy has deep strengths as well as the weaknesses currently on display. Deepest of them all is the strong pro-democracy commitment of many of the American people and the institutions that they have built— even if both are a bit numb and stunned at the moment. It’s time to wake up and the Smith report is a loud alarm to help us do that.

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[Juana]

We're in for an scary few years. The other country I'm a citizen of had its gov't collapse last year so its an scary time across the world.

[SR]

We're in for an scary few years. The other country I'm a citizen of had its gov't collapse last year so its an scary time across the world.

I have really done my best to insulate myself from too much immersion in research etc lately. But for the life of me, I can't understand the gloating and smugness most dissenters maintain in op eds, sm, etc. I have real fears about what is about to take place.

[Juana]

We're in for an scary few years. The other country I'm a citizen of had its gov't collapse last year so its an scary time across the world.

I have really done my best to insulate myself from too much immersion in research etc lately. But for the life of me, I can't understand the gloating and smugness most dissenters maintain in op eds, sm, etc. I have real fears about what is about to take place.

It's terrifying to think about all the negatives. I keep holding out hope that it will be okay, but I have a feeling we're also headed for a recession which is going to heighten tensions to worse conditions than we're in now. It's not even just POTUS 47 that is scary to me its the whole thing. Mass deportations for being "accused" of crimes. Even further gov't overreach. The list goes on.