116 Comments

I’m no expert, but I buy Vance in the long run is looking after Vance, not Trump. It’s all schtick right now, designed to achieve the ultimate goal of the presidency eventually. He’s smarter than The Orange One and more polished. He’ll throw Trump under the bus faster than Trump throws people under the bus. He’s the new MAGA grifter generation. Disgusting p-of-s, frankly. Caveat Emptor, people. Once the tag-team is in, they ain’t leaving. It’s a binary choice ie MAGA forever or a tested leader of freedom and democracy not just for the US, but freedom lovers everywhere. VOTE it’s never been more important.

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If President Biden isn’t up to performing the job, what in hell is he doing now? His f’ing job. Funny no one notices that Joe Biden is busy doing the job of President now!

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In January 2016 Der Spiegel proclaimed Trump as the most dangerous man in the world. JD Vance as VP is the last nail in the coffin.

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/donald-trump-is-the-most-dangerous-man-in-the-world-a-1075060.html

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We wouldn't be talking about any of this if Biden wasn't such a trainwreck.

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Miss you from the Bulwark, Charlie!

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I always appreciate your analysis but I love your dogs and their beautiful faces. I look forward to the beginning of each letter with some pictures and updates of Eli and Aggie. After my dog fix I am ready to read and consider your insightful commentary. Thank you for sharing them with us.

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JD Vance is the living embodiment of a carcass of a party. He offers nothing but hate, enslavement of women and destruction of our alliances. The perfect choice for Donald Trump, really. Let’s see if he and Trump try to put on a good cop-bad cop show. I think Vance can pull of his part. The other one? Not a chance.

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Unfortunately, too many voters are planning to vote for the carcass of a party - or at least for the psychopathic demagogue who seized control of it and then ripped the soul out of it.

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Far too many voters. 75 million people voted for Donald Trump in 2020 after he killed off hundreds of thousands and told the living to drink bleach.

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I have tried not to lose faith, remembering that 82 million voted for Biden. But you’re right, it is hard.

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I've lost a lot of faith in humanity after seeing so many people bestow admiration and even reverence on someone so conspicuously devoid of honor, integrity, decency, empathy, wisdom, intelligence - pretty much any virtue at all.

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Well done Charlie. I'll add that Vance is the perfect underboss for Trump's syndicate. I've been saying for a couple years that Trump has done more damage to the American system of law enforcement and justice than any person in history. Vance's attacks on the jury verdict convicting Trump of 34 felonies are vile, as is Vance's defense of January 6 convicts. As an attorney, Vance knows exactly what he is doing to the system of law and justice, which makes his conduct all the more despicable.

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In MAGA orthodoxy, grand juries and jury trials that disfavor Trump must necessarily be "rigged," or "a grotesque parody of justice."

But when Trump-appointed and Trump-aligned judges slow-walk criminal cases against him and devise ways to prevent them from going before a jury of citizens: - even to the point of drawing a Sharpie line through plain language of the Constitution -- well, that's the justice system operating as it should.

Harry Litman noted that Cannon exemplifies the Project 2025 approach to the law.: Trumpites will place the demands of Trump (or some imperial successor) above the actual law, and they will call it "democratic accountability."

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Yes, Trump's bending of the judiciary to serve him and his fiefdom rather than the Law and the Constitution is a big part (but only a part) of the destruction of law and justice systems. And not just the criminal justice system--he has long cast any part of the legal system not favorable to him as corrupt, biased or worse. Remember how he tried to have U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel removed from a case (falsely) as being a "Mexican" judge? Trump has lost legal cases far more than he has won. Thus, his constant trashing of the system, together with his judicial appointments and power over the executive branch, has chipped and sledgehammered away at the rule of law as much or more than normalization of his illegal or corrupt actions.

Chief Justice Roberts at one time sharply pushed back against Trump's idea that there were such things as "Trump judges" or "Obama judges." Unfortunately, even Justice Roberts now has proven himself to be a Trump judge even though he was not appointed by Trump. His opinion in the immunity case, including the invention by sharpie of an brand new evidentiary rule out of thin air, can only be justified as saving Trump from Trump's own illegality and corruption. The perversion of justice has reached the very top of the judicial system.

Getting back to Vance, he and other Republicans have given their full-throated backing to Trump's destruction of law and justice. Vance arguably has been the most destructive recently because he is extremely clever and articulate, and knows the law's populist weak spots. In his new role as underboss to the godfather, he has become even more dangerous.

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Jul 17·edited Jul 17

Simply put, Vance is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very bad person.

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Thank you Charlie!

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Looking forward to seeing the word kakistocracy reappear in the discourse come next January, if not earlier.

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Seriously, I come for the dogs. I’m more a purse size dog kind of gal, but your GSDs are adorable. I have cats to sustain me, and mitigate my befuddlement.

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I am proud of my vocabulary, but flagitious was one I had to look up. Thank you Charlie for keeping me on my toes!

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I've gotta say - in spite of all the grim news, I really like having a daily dose of Charlie again.

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I saw him at our local Cincinnati church this week. Unfortunately, he did not spontaneously combust.

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I think we all need a drink about now! Hugs and kisses to Auggie and Eli.

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