Dennis Maxwell

Sorry, but that’s ridiculous. It’s just a logistical impossibility. Simply not enough feds to do this, and it’s not even close. Think about how many precincts there are, even just in blue areas. Not to say this admin won’t try something, but there is just no way for this to work.

I mean, has conservative media (which includes the NYT, it seems) heard the current president speak about…well…anything? Not just “ums” and “uhs”. He sounds deranged and usually makes no sense at all. I mean, what are we even doing here, NYT? This is fucking laughable.

Jesus Christ these people are monsters.

My point this not to judge Newsom here. It’s only to say that there is plenty to judge him on. Either way.

There is plenty of things Newsom has said and done that provide ample grounds for people to conclude that he would be a bad candidate for Dems. To say that this is all fictional is just disingenuous.

What’s fictional about Newsom vetoing bills protecting trans rights and bills that hold corporations and rich folks more accountable? These are matters of public record. Not to mention many of the statements he has made on podcasts, etc. This is not fictional.

That is the problem with most wars of choice: it’s difficult to end them. But anyway, thanks for this piece. I agree 100%. Just wanted to add what I think is an important part of this discussion.

…had we stopped there things would have been worse. But what next? We didn’t really have a good answer. It’s hard to sustain support for a war for which there doesn’t seem to be a path to victory — and if you can’t define victory, there isn’t really a path towards it.

What would “winning” have looked like in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq? Had we stopped at toppling the regime in Iraq or Afghanistan, that would have at least been easily defined as victory, however incomplete and counterproductive strategically. But that was the problem:…

I agree with this 100%. But one thing I think you miss here is — and it is related to the inability to sustain popular will to stay in the fight — is that for most of the wars we have fought since WWII there hasn’t been a coherent theory of victory.

Legit lol.

These guys really think that it was riflemen that won WWII. It’s astonishing. And the fact that Hegseth and this admin seem to believe the same is just dangerous.

And honestly, there are a lot of moderates who think Newsom is bad for a lot of reasons.

Not unreasonable for core Dem voters to warn the party that maybe pushing him is a bad idea for the party’s prospects in 28. This is about positioning the party for the primaries — laying down a marker. Frankly, that’s just good politics.

This is a silly comment. People are (rightly, in my view) making it clear that they think Newsom is a terrible candidate for Dems not because he is “moderate” but because he doesn’t seem to hold any values at all, and the ones he appears to pretend to hold are counter to what the party stands for.

And a lot of medical experts are weighing in saying it’s bs and backing that up with data and pretty strong arguments about the design of the study. So what point are you trying to make?

I mean, these kids have doctors who are experts, under your definition. They actually are the gatekeepers.

You mean, the type of people who have been decrying these restrictions?

Yes, there is a class distinction of sort, and maybe the line between E and O should be less distinct (though the Army is considerably better than the sea services, for example, in that regard), but mostly, Os and Es just have different jobs.

The thing about the resentment some Es feel towards Os is funny to me. FTR, I was an E first. I mean, it’s not like Os just happened to be standing in the right line when they were handing out rank or whatever.

What do you by “healthcare for trans children must be controlled by experts”? Genuine question. Controlled how? Who would you define as an “expert”?

The cover of a Clifford book, the subtitle “fucking launches a cat.” Clifford the big red dog is holding down a tree branch with a cat on it

This is the level of discourse I’m prepared to engage in today

Trump would like to have the same relationship with American billionaires. You can already see him making plays to control them, playing favorites in corporate mergers and regulations. If those billionaires really think they can win this game, they are as dumb as Trump.

I mean, how many Russian oligarchs have ended up in prison after displeasing Putin in some way? Lots of folks think that Putin’s power is backed by the oligarchs, but the reality is that their positions really are completely dependent on Putin’s favor.

He’ll try, but that’s a lot of precincts, a lot of people checking IDs, and having to deal with poll workers who in many cases won’t let that happen because it’s against the law. The logistics seem really, really difficult, much less the inevitable injunctions against that BS.

…reform immigration laws. Americans think there is a reasonable path to being able to immigrate and, in most cases, there just isn’t. Make that case. Debate it on the merits. Don’t just accept that illegal immigration is bad and that the issue is just about what tactics we should use.

Dems can easily talk about how important these people are. Yet they have always merely accepted the GOP framing that illegal immigration is bad and these people need to be deported. There are values at stake that Dems just run away from. This seems to me to be proof that Americans want to…

The point t is that when the issue is framed properly, the GOP racists lose. Trump is not losing just because ICE is acting like the gestapo (though that’s not helping). A lot of it is because people are realizing how integrated most undocumented folks are into society.

Also, it seems clear that most Americans had no idea how are immigration system works and might have started to realize that immigration is good, actually. It’s only the hard core racists that still seem OK with what has been going on.

I just keep coming back to David Frum arguing that illegal immigration was such a pressing issue that Americans would tolerate fascism to get rid of it. That argument has not aged well, for a couple of reasons. Turns out, Americans don’t really like fascism no matter what.