69 Comments

I have not watched any of videos that must exist of Taliban beheadings. Why would any reasonable, decent moral person watch such inhuman acts? So now, unless I turn my phone off, stop watching or reading any news outlet, I will witness the beheading of America. Nice, Putin must be dancing with joy. The MAGA gaggle will strut and preen and claim that they really shown us how governing is done.

The King of debt and bankruptcy will claim that only he could have negotiated a deal that Old Joe could not.

The hypocrisy and dishonesty and unreasonableness is lower than whale poop which is at the bottom of the ocean.

The world has invested in us and MAGA’s contribution is “screw you”

We are in deep _ _ _ _

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Your comments said it best, “detached from consequences”. This is the behavior when individuals are able to do whatever the hell they want to do. Because absolutely NOTHING has happen to any elected officials within the MAGA camp, we can expect this kamikaze behavior to continue.

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I would take it one more step--the hard core MAGA types WANT a default, as do their Russian allies/masters.

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Thank you to Steve and to everyone who responded. Is a significant part of America too far gone to understand or to care? It’s so crazy here that Gym Jordan is talking about prosecuting Hillary again. I guess his hearings haven’t worked out. I am deeply concerned that many of our fellow citizens are either liking the antidemocratic, racist, antiSemtic acts that go on now or don’t particularly care. This is how very bad things happen.

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For whatever it's worth, here's my (wet) dream: taking his cue from Harrison Ford in the "swordsman scene" in Raiders of the Lost Ark — https://www.google.com/search?q=scene+in+raiders+of+the+lost+ark+where+indiana+jones+shoots+swordsman&oq=scene+in+raiders+of+the+lost+ark+where+Indiana+Jones&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgDECEYqwIyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRirAjIHCAQQIRirAjIHCAUQIRirAjIKCAYQIRgWGB0YHjIKCAcQIRgWGB0YHjIKCAgQIRgWGB0YHjIKCAkQIRgWGB0YHtIBCTI1NjE4ajFqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:268f9d79,vid:7YyBtMxZgQs — Joe Biden sits there, listening patiently to Kevin McCarthy go on and on about "fiscal responsibility" and "cutting food stamps" and "how we can't afford the Inflation Reduction Act" and ad infinitum, and then, with the same "OK, I've had enough of this" gesture from the film, simply whips out the 14th Amendment and blows McCarthy to smithereens!

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We are under attack and the attack has been ongoing for years. Since before 2016, Putin, his 5th column here, and ideological far right ideologues and billionaires whose aims line up with our authoritarian enemies, have been attacking our society and those of other free democracies worldwide. Russia sees us as their primary enemy and they're fighting us through cyber warfare--polluting minds with disinformation and propagand--and launching a variety of active measures. Biden and members of his cabinet need to explain to the American public that we are under cyber attack. When Trump won in 2016, I was watching him and his crime family (the actual crime family) walk in the room and him give his speech. The whole look, feel and content of the moment made me feel like I was watching a political event in Eastern Europe under the Iron curtain. In many respects, I was.

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Why are we so powerless against this vicious minority who is trying to turn us into a Russian colony?

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As Keith Olbermann pointed out this morning, you don't negotiate with terrorists, foreign or domestic. Invoke the 14th Amendment, enough of this lunacy! Why, oh why didn't Democrats prevent this from happening last December?

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You nailed it- absent consequences, and with a generous helping of salacious, beady-eyed sinister reinforcement, the MAGA train moves on down the tracks.

The summation of sordid ignominy and illiterate Dunning Kruger resplendency has subsumed an entire political party, while much of the opposition seeks to adjudicate as if it were business as usual.

L.F.G.

They need to go.

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By now I really thought the Wall Street-types would have locked Speaker Kevin in a room and read him the riot act. They may have and this may all be performance politics: good for Kevin's base of support, but in reality not going to happen. Again, I wonder who is paying the R's to do this? It's not without cash or favors being exchanged, and it isn't all MAGA-world.

I still think 14th Amendment Article 4 is a potential stopgap for the debt ceiling, and if the R's really want to fight the budget wars, they do it according to the Appropriations process and in setting the FY 2024 Appropriations levels. As we have seen with their "Weaponization of Government" committee and their other sham hearings, they're not really familiar with how this all works. They might want to speak with the House Parliamentarian: they can walk them through the process.

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May 22, 2023Liked by Steve Schmidt

Although your warning is depressing, your prose is so eloquent. Thank you

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A few weeks ago I watched Margaret Brennan of CBS News ask Ro Khanna if he thought President Biden's non-negotiation stance was untenable. I don't think the congressman pushed back hard enough against the false equivalency and arguably dumb question, but the very question itself underscores how dishonest the mainstream media has become (I'm going under the assumption that Ms. Brennan isn't stupid) and how feckless the Democratic party has become. It should be clear to anyone paying attention that Kevin McCarthy doesn't have the authority to make a deal, and the extremists within his party have NO interest in making a deal. I can only hope that the President's contradictory non-negotiating negotiation strategy is a trap.

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We need to start calling what is going on in our government as well as other governments around the world what is really going on: FASCISM

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All these people whose combined IQ puts them in the Borderline mental disability range can not, and should not be expected to think about or know the consequences of their actions, but, there are people in The House of Representatives and in The United States Senate who do know better, who do know the consequences of these actions, and the fact that they have chosen to sit back and do nothing is disgraceful!

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Owning the libs is the contemporary « cutting off your nose to spite your face ».I wonder why the GOP isn’t considering the consequences on their own stock and investments holdings ?

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I know one thing for sure, Republicans will blame Joe Biden and Democrats will blame Maga Republicans. Everyone on the hill will be pointing fingers at each other while our retirement funds burn up in a self inflicted dumpster fire. If I was younger and not already in retirement, perhaps I would barely notice. However, that is not my situation and most of my money is tied up in investments. I read about the bread lines of the late 20s into the 30s and it will be interesting of who the people in those lines will blame. I guess we will all have to wait and see. See you in the funny papers.

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