78 Comments

Barefoot, pregnant, and beaten. Bringing his elegy to life.

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Extremist white nationalist Christo-fascist theocratized.

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Marla, you nailed it!

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And today X is labeling reporting of his past statements as probable spam.

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That's the truth. And more if the family was too poor.

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JD Vance will suck the air out of the room and the failed felon will not be able to handle it well, or at all. The malignant narcissist will become even more unhinged. This is my prediction. I confess, I think it will be a worthwhile meltdown. That's my silver lining in the dark clouds forming.

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Yes, and Vance could further 'help' to unite women, and many men, for women's rights!

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I think that we should call him JD Not advanced.

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Great point, they're both egomaniacs.

The body language was fascinating to watch a few minutes ago, during and after the Teamsters president addressed the RNC for the first time ever. He wasn't doing any endorsing but he was sure excited to be there with a chance to talk down corporate profits. (!?!?) Good bit of cheering from the crowd, Vance smiling a little (did he invite him? Is the hope to trick the union members present into believing that one single thing they want will be in the RNC platform? It won't.)

Anyway Trump was poker faced during the speech, he and Vance chatting a bit, but by the end of the speech just staring straight ahead. I got the impression that Vance will pay for that whole thing if it was his idea. What a fako bait and switch. Fain from UAW (I think?) is still actually on board with Biden, I think.

I think Trump and Vance may not end up a match made in heaven. And Junior may get the blame, which is a little fun too, except for the fact this isn't actually reality tv.

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It does appear that this choice is extremely sinister. The MAGA moron from Manhattan would never pick a guy who said so many bad things about him. The Billionaire Cabal eyes Vance as their man and the other guy is just the useful idiot to get him there. They made the selection. When you have anti-Americans like Carlson loving Vance that should tell you all you need to know. Any American who would vote for this duo needs to do some serious soul-searching. Yes, that won’t happen, but it should.

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As for JD Vance. In my opinion, I think he was picked by the billionaire donors not Trump. He is Trump’s replacement if Trump dies in office or if Trump does not do the billionaire’s bidding . Then the 25 amendment would be invoked and Trump is out and JD ( who promised to follow their commands)will continue their control of the government. Trump like the Bible has never even glanced at the pages of project 2025. Trump will be simply told what to do ( for a considerable amount of money) to not interfere.

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I did not know Schumer withheld money from Tim Ryan’s campaign. Outsmarted again by McConnell.

Schumer is the same guy who said Robert Menendez was a great public servant for New Jersey after $480,000 in small bills were found stuffed into his jacket pockets and pants in his home.

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Schumer and everyone paying any attention had to know that Vance only won the primary because of first, Peter "Democracy is Obsolete" Thiel and 2nd, Trump's last minute endorsement. Ryan had been in the House almost 20 years and lit up the screen whenever he spoke there. Impression I got was Schumer believed Ohio was "too far gone" to spend the money and he had easier fish to fry or something. Ohio went twice for Obama, we're not Utah or Mississippi, for the love of God.

Yes, you can see I'm still angry when I remember it. But this information is gold, so please, please just RUN THAT AD ON VANCE now, tell the truth about him. Save all of us from this double fraud GOP ticket of empty suits and emptier souls.

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I had been under the impression that Ryan claimed to be a 'grass roots' candidate, instead of embracing the existing team's support, including financially-= just what I had gathered.

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He did have a ton of grassroots support, but he needed help in the final weeks at least, once Trump machine endorsed Vance. This letter actually clarifies some things, in a sad way.

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Wasn't Ryan saying, though, during his campaign that he was not pro-Biden?

I think so. That hurt him. I donated all I could afford to give to him. Disappointing!

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SO disappointing.... I don't remember him saying he was anti-Biden, but Biden is not super popular in Ohio and Ryan did try to play up the areas where he converged with Trump, like opposing China and some of the trade proposals (NAFTA? I don't remember now). And of course he's very pro-union and pro-worker. Some people did feel he was aligning too closely with Trump positions, but I thought he was just presenting his own views.

He did do way better vs Vance than DeWine's opponent did in 2022- I think his problem was more failing to peel enough away from Vance than losing many committed Dems. He was definitely the most competitive Dem candidate for Senate in a really long time (besides, of course, Sherrod Brown).

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Yes, and see now that Ryan has come out to let it be known he wants Biden to step down. I personally feel that should be directed TO the Biden/Harris TEAM, not into the media! We cannot afford to be further divided in the Dem party, or to give TFG/Putin/Orban/Miller/Alex Jones,Tucker ETC more info to hurt us with.

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Jul 16Liked by Steve Schmidt

I supported Tim Ryan’s run for Senate with regular donations and I live on the West Coast. Tim is strongly pro union and so am I. The fact that the fucking “establishment” Democratic leadership would not fully and aggressively support him is just more evidence that our party needs to be purged and all these old guard Democrats need to step aside and pass the damn torch. That includes Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer.

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I donated to Tim Ryan, too, as much as I could. It seemed Ryan was anti-Biden and that did not serve him in winning. That was MY take. I so much wanted Ryan to win.

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It is a shame that campaign money and not voter intelligence and vetting, elects people like Vance. Ryan had a real track record; Vance had nothing. I don’t need campaign ads and flyers to decide who gets my vote. Clearly southern Ohio is akin to Mississippi and out voted the Cleveland voters. Ohio leans red and is a bit of a mess, politically and I do not blame Schumer at all for Vance’s victory,

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That is interesting ...

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If Schumer did that, he’s an idiot. JD is a fascist. He’ll drag his very talented, brown wife around but she’ll not be palatable to many in that crowd. She is his accessory as he is a misogynist of the first order. Biden et al better publicly out what they know about him from the Ryan “files”. He’s a MAGA standard bearer on steroids.

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So much for choosing a VP who could take over if POTUS were unable to serve. Vance is woefully inexperienced. He’s been in the Senate for a year and half. That’s it. In Trump’s mind, on the other hand, there’s no better choice when you’re shopping for someone devoid of moral clarity, intellectual integrity, patriotism, and plain old decency. Those traits are dead to J D Vance and there was no hillbilly eulogy.

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Men always "fall up." Women have to prove themselves constantly and repeatedly.

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Meant to say “fail up.” Same idea!

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Jul 16Liked by Steve Schmidt

Steve thanks for sharing. I could never understand until now how Tim Ryan lost. In my opinion, he is like Mr. Ohio. I say that as a compliment. He’s the real deal, smart, great communicator, and you can tell he loves Ohio and ordinary hard working people. And then Vance. When I think of Vance one word comes to my mind. Sleaze. So now I better understand what went wrong. Money is as they say the mother’s milk of politics.

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Steve, thx for this bit of grim reporting. I did not know about Tim Ryan. I'm one of many Democrats who've been wondering why the party operatives thought putting Biden up for a 2nd term was a good idea. Now millions of people see that, despite, Biden's accomplishments, he cannot win. Perception is reality in politics. Yet selfishly Biden refuses to step aside.

What a terrible day. Despite the recent setbacks (baby judge Loose Cannon throwing out the documents case, the execrable JD Vance being chosen as VP candidate) - we can't give up.

It's the most perverse gaslighting that Democrats are now blamed for telling the truth about Trump - that didn't cause a registered Republican to try to assassinate Trump. That said, Biden's "bullseye" comment was the worst gaffe ever, much worse than mixing up names. Biden's continued refusal to step down and let someone who might win step in (Kamala? Newsom? Whitmer? Shapiro?) virtually guarantees Trump's win in November. And now Biden's campaign is pretty much on pause? Sheesh.

However, there are STILL actions we can take to reduce the odds of the GOP turning our country into an autocracy. Even if Trump wins, getting Democrats in the “lower” offices still matters.

Focus4Democracy identifies organizations that have shown themselves, through rigorous testing, to be extremely effective at generating Democratic votes in swing states. Given that we are all bombarded with fundraising requests, Focus4Democracy helps us decide where to put our money and time.

The next Focus4Democracy zoom is Tuesday July 16 @ 8:00 – register at bit.ly/F4D16July They do a ZOOM every 2 weeks. Get on their list and they’ll notify you of future Zooms.

If you can’t donate, pls. send F4D’s info to as many people as you can and urge them to spread the word.

Don’t forget other elective offices. If people are discouraged due to the Biden situation, they may not bother to vote – that would mean a lot of Democrats won’t get voted into Congressional and governors offices. (Remember that judges are sometimes elected, too.) Pls visit app.oath.vote - they identify the most crucial races where your donations can make a difference. We can only vote where we live, but we can donate money, and also email our friends around the country to let them know.

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Thanks for those links.

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Birds of a feather.... Every concern is underlined and BOLD, Folks. Most disconcerting.... May The People prevail!

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I feel like for the sake of my own mental peace and physical wellbeing I need to turn everything off for a while. I saw portions of the RNC coverage today, and I feel like I’m in an entirely different world than these people. Every inch of my body feels twisted in knots, this is making me ill.

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You know Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink! He advises us to trust our gut when it comes to evaluating people. When you meet someone for the first time you can tell immediately whether they are good people or a snake. We watch JD Vance on TV and cringe. Maybe he can fool some percentage of gullible MAGAs. But for the rest of us, our guts want to throw up. What a craven liar POS this guy is. All of Donald's blatant corruption without the charm.

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We can all agree , I think, that Vance is a dangerous heinous creature. We now have a “dream team” of heinous creatures. Please let’s all just do the work to get Biden/Harris elected.

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Steve, I'm learning a lot from you about various hair-trigger cause-and-effects of seemingly minor political events, that end up having outsized repercussions. Schumer already has a lot to answer for, and this is just one more thing.

And Vance may well become the 48th president. Good lord, what a smarmy, nefarious, unsavory bunch.

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No wonder that J.D Vance has an Indian wife. Their culture, going back centuries, is that the man is the important one in the marriage relationship. It is a patriarchal society if there ever was one. Most women don't even get to pick whom that marry in that culture.

Besides isn't she one of those Birthright citizens that Trump wants to get rid of?

Are the MAGAs going to accept a brown V.P wife, that should prove interesting. Any woman who would work for Brett Kavanaugh must be the kind of woman who would be stupid enough to risk her life staying in a violent relationship.

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