I have to wonder, but not long about the SUCKERS and LOSERS sitting behind Trump while he spewed his bullshit. The James Mattis's and the seasoned leaders of the military are gone it seems. There appears to be no guardrail left. It's really "We the People" that remain. I am hoping for an inside job by a true patriot, soon. See you in the streets on Sunday.
I just went back and re-read your article and I see where people were calling you racist!!!!
Charlie, you’re not a racist! I guess they didn’t get it that the whole point about those flags was to not give Trump and Fox News visuals that they can manipulate into their narrative.
The hardest thing is to realize watch listen to all of the obsession and real hatred the Maga people and the Trump administration has for the transgender and the gay community
Just how racist they are
It really is overwhelming, besides all of the fascist dictator movements .
And at the same time calling themselves, Christian and Trump himself declaring he was chosen from God .
Kamala Harris, as Attorney General of California was following federal law that was in place during the Trump administration ( 2017)
When the Trump campaign came out with millions and millions of dollars of ads running them repeatedly about transgender surgery it really did put her in a no win and a very difficult position as to how to speak about that which was the intention .
As they ran those ads, they knew very well of the federal law regarding transgender surgery for prisoners under the Trump administration.
What was she supposed to do? Run an ads saying “ I only followed federal law as Attorney General” ?
It was basically a no win because any response referring to following federal law could’ve been misconstrued that she was putting the transgender community under the bus.
Kamala Harris has always been an advocate for equality and freedom for the transgender community .
Charlie, I value your analysis but I for one cannot accept this sudden trope about "the groups" being a problem for Democrats. It is a convenient framing to be sure since it allows the self-named centrists to once again punch left and blame others for their failure but it just does not fit reality.
First, those pushing "the groups" most stringently as a narrative seize, as you noted, on examples like sex changes for prisoners. But that was neither a centerpiece of Harris's campaign or even something she brought back. Her one response in support of it was when she agreed to support the law (as it was under Trump). She did not release ads on it, or transgender issues generally, she did not make it a part of her campaign. Indeed she said almost nothing about it. Trump on the other hand brought it up constantly. While one can imagine that she kept silent to appease "the groups" she also adopted the general mode of silence on many many popular things as well such as taxing billionares which polls amazingly well. Therefore it is dubious to claim that Harris was pushed into unpopular positions when the fact is that she did not take them, she just had them ascribed to her by Trump and now that theme is being repeated.
Indeed on balance what Harris ran was the same doggedly centrist, do-not-offend-anyone, campaign that centrists love so well. She so hewed to that line so tightly that pre-election, people like Matt Yglesias were confidently predicting victory and declaring that he campaign was a model of centrism (see this long-form essay on the topic of Yglesias here: https://www.joewrote.com/p/matt-yglesias-will-claim-the-sky).
Second, if you dive into the discussion of "the groups" and look to reporting on Welcome Fest where the term got its heaviest rotation you quickly notice that these are not neutral parties. They have very distinct policy views, among them that unions are bad because they block "abundance", that environmental laws are apparently a problem, and that money should stay *in* politics. Given that Unions, fighting climate change, and getting the money out of politics all poll very very well among normal people it is simply illogical to believe that they are fringe positions which doom any election.
Indeed, the premise that democrats should "tack to the center" is built on two entirely false premises, the first that there *is* a safe center in politics, and the second that you can win by avoiding offense. But consider two of the issues that affected the last election: Climate Change, and Palestine.
Climate change, to me, is an existential threat that will kill us all. To Trump it is a hoax started by the communists (before China was actually communist). Where is the center here? While it is nice to imagine that we can just say nice things about abundance and permitting reform there is no way to acknowledge the issue without stating its severity, and no way to do that without setting out policy. At that point you have to make a commitment and endless poll-testing or vapid discussion of Abundance just will not do. All you do there is offend the people who need a real decision.
And that is nothing compared to Palestine.
The fight between Israel and Palestine is not about fringe vs. center. It is about survival, bombings, and dead babies. It is a real, present, existential crisis that is being driven by the actions of people right now. There is no safe middle ground because sooner or later you have to name names. And there is no way to be silent without offending everyone. And yet that is what Harris and the Democrats did. They campaigned by and large on the premise that Palestinians should turn out for them because Trump was worse (True) but gave no concrete promises of what they would do and indeed went out of their way to sideline Palestinian voices at the convention and on the campaign trail.
You cannot shut people out and then demand that they believe in you. Nor can you be silent and expect those who are all-in on Netanyahu to trust you. They just won't do it. And yet the going message from party leadership and the centrists is inaction, vague statements of peace, but no concrete promises. People who are burying their relatives do not care for poll-testing. And they are grossly offended by those who say they don't want to hear about it. And anyone who has the nerve to claim that they should just keep quiet or is "Just tired of hearing about it." deserves to be reviled. At least Trump is open about his hate. That is why when Huckabee said the US is done advocating for a two state solution the response from Palestinians was not an aghast claim that he abandoned a US goal, but a bitter acknowledgement that he was at least being honest about US policy.
Finally, as a minor point, it is quite difficult to take people seriously when they bash BlueSky as a medium, not because it is perfect, no site is, but because their prescription seems to be that people should go back to Twitter/X. Twitter/X is no more real than BlueSky, and no more stable. It may seem better for someone like Cuban who elevated his brand there and gets a lot of engagement but that is no proof that he speaks to the real world. Indeed as metrics on Twitter have shown most of the engagement is still driven by a vanishingly small number of people. The fact that those people take their talking points from Catturd and not the ACLU does not make them any more representative.
As I said I value your analysis. But bashing on "the groups" isn't it.
And that's why I haven't watched MSNBC since the election. They play trump stories all day long and then lecture people in the middle. I don't agree with everything you say but your voice deserves to be heard.
So my local county Democratic Party organization is having a No Kings Rally. First I suggested a taco truck to which they suggested that I should bring one. Nope, I don’t have that kind of money lying around.
So the leaders started discussing flying American flags at the demonstration. I asked if we should fly them in the SOS method and I was told no because we don’t want to make people mad at us. Maybe a black ribbon will suffice.
The Reich-wing party hates us. We just don’t have opposing viewpoints, they claim we are vile criminals they wish to crush. They claim we are Socialists, Marxists and Communists. They claim we are all pedophiles who go to the non-existent basement at Comet Ping Pong Pizza to drink babies’ blood. They don’t think of us as their neighbors or friends. We are subhumans.
If it was fine for a Supreme Court justice to fly the flag upside down, why the hell shouldn’t I?
Be the guy who flies the flag the right way while Alito is flying it upside down.
Go. On. Offense.
It's less about being worried that people might get mad at you. More about sending the message that YOU'RE America. Not Trump. You want people watching this on TV to see YOU as the "real" American, and not the ICE dudes in tactical gear. You do this by failing the flag and chanting "U.S.A."
Yes. I have grown quite frustrated at all the advice I have received from people about how 'I' should behave myself at events I organize or attend while they sit in the office. At some point we can quibble a bit on the optics but people are protesting out of genuine feeling, not powerpoint slides.
If I were organizing a rally, the first thing I'd do is give everyone a flag and tell them to fly it high.
The second thing I'd do, is tell everyone there to patronize all of the local businesses and be extra nice to them.
You want the people watching on TV to see it and think, "That's me." In every single one of these events, there's an "us" and a "them". You should be doing everything in your power to make sure that the pictures and videos of your event make the viewers think of themselves as one of you...and by definition, the ICE as "them".
"If you want to fight fascism, go and win elections." My problem with that is that MAGA has Project 2025 and we have...?
Isn’t it interesting, though, that the American reaction to leftist overreach was to betray their country?
I have to wonder, but not long about the SUCKERS and LOSERS sitting behind Trump while he spewed his bullshit. The James Mattis's and the seasoned leaders of the military are gone it seems. There appears to be no guardrail left. It's really "We the People" that remain. I am hoping for an inside job by a true patriot, soon. See you in the streets on Sunday.
This is interesting that white supremacist group
The Proud Boys is filing a lawsuit!!
https://open.substack.com/pub/radicalreports/p/pardon-tracker-proud-boys-file-lawsuit?r=eit6y&utm_medium=ios
I just went back and re-read your article and I see where people were calling you racist!!!!
Charlie, you’re not a racist! I guess they didn’t get it that the whole point about those flags was to not give Trump and Fox News visuals that they can manipulate into their narrative.
The hardest thing is to realize watch listen to all of the obsession and real hatred the Maga people and the Trump administration has for the transgender and the gay community
Just how racist they are
It really is overwhelming, besides all of the fascist dictator movements .
And at the same time calling themselves, Christian and Trump himself declaring he was chosen from God .
Beautiful view of the lake and your dog
As far as transgender surgery for prisoners
Kamala Harris, as Attorney General of California was following federal law that was in place during the Trump administration ( 2017)
When the Trump campaign came out with millions and millions of dollars of ads running them repeatedly about transgender surgery it really did put her in a no win and a very difficult position as to how to speak about that which was the intention .
As they ran those ads, they knew very well of the federal law regarding transgender surgery for prisoners under the Trump administration.
What was she supposed to do? Run an ads saying “ I only followed federal law as Attorney General” ?
It was basically a no win because any response referring to following federal law could’ve been misconstrued that she was putting the transgender community under the bus.
Kamala Harris has always been an advocate for equality and freedom for the transgender community .
Some people have no concept of strategy…. And the reality checks we are all getting certainly prove that.
The history of California is quite interesting, considering the fact that it used to be Mexico
https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/no-fat-soldiers-military-pre-screened-troops-at-trumps-fort-bragg-rally-for-looks-and-loyalty-per-shocking-report/
Reports are the military crowd Trump spoke to at Fort Bragg was all prescreened
Charlie, I value your analysis but I for one cannot accept this sudden trope about "the groups" being a problem for Democrats. It is a convenient framing to be sure since it allows the self-named centrists to once again punch left and blame others for their failure but it just does not fit reality.
First, those pushing "the groups" most stringently as a narrative seize, as you noted, on examples like sex changes for prisoners. But that was neither a centerpiece of Harris's campaign or even something she brought back. Her one response in support of it was when she agreed to support the law (as it was under Trump). She did not release ads on it, or transgender issues generally, she did not make it a part of her campaign. Indeed she said almost nothing about it. Trump on the other hand brought it up constantly. While one can imagine that she kept silent to appease "the groups" she also adopted the general mode of silence on many many popular things as well such as taxing billionares which polls amazingly well. Therefore it is dubious to claim that Harris was pushed into unpopular positions when the fact is that she did not take them, she just had them ascribed to her by Trump and now that theme is being repeated.
Indeed on balance what Harris ran was the same doggedly centrist, do-not-offend-anyone, campaign that centrists love so well. She so hewed to that line so tightly that pre-election, people like Matt Yglesias were confidently predicting victory and declaring that he campaign was a model of centrism (see this long-form essay on the topic of Yglesias here: https://www.joewrote.com/p/matt-yglesias-will-claim-the-sky).
Second, if you dive into the discussion of "the groups" and look to reporting on Welcome Fest where the term got its heaviest rotation you quickly notice that these are not neutral parties. They have very distinct policy views, among them that unions are bad because they block "abundance", that environmental laws are apparently a problem, and that money should stay *in* politics. Given that Unions, fighting climate change, and getting the money out of politics all poll very very well among normal people it is simply illogical to believe that they are fringe positions which doom any election.
Indeed, the premise that democrats should "tack to the center" is built on two entirely false premises, the first that there *is* a safe center in politics, and the second that you can win by avoiding offense. But consider two of the issues that affected the last election: Climate Change, and Palestine.
Climate change, to me, is an existential threat that will kill us all. To Trump it is a hoax started by the communists (before China was actually communist). Where is the center here? While it is nice to imagine that we can just say nice things about abundance and permitting reform there is no way to acknowledge the issue without stating its severity, and no way to do that without setting out policy. At that point you have to make a commitment and endless poll-testing or vapid discussion of Abundance just will not do. All you do there is offend the people who need a real decision.
And that is nothing compared to Palestine.
The fight between Israel and Palestine is not about fringe vs. center. It is about survival, bombings, and dead babies. It is a real, present, existential crisis that is being driven by the actions of people right now. There is no safe middle ground because sooner or later you have to name names. And there is no way to be silent without offending everyone. And yet that is what Harris and the Democrats did. They campaigned by and large on the premise that Palestinians should turn out for them because Trump was worse (True) but gave no concrete promises of what they would do and indeed went out of their way to sideline Palestinian voices at the convention and on the campaign trail.
You cannot shut people out and then demand that they believe in you. Nor can you be silent and expect those who are all-in on Netanyahu to trust you. They just won't do it. And yet the going message from party leadership and the centrists is inaction, vague statements of peace, but no concrete promises. People who are burying their relatives do not care for poll-testing. And they are grossly offended by those who say they don't want to hear about it. And anyone who has the nerve to claim that they should just keep quiet or is "Just tired of hearing about it." deserves to be reviled. At least Trump is open about his hate. That is why when Huckabee said the US is done advocating for a two state solution the response from Palestinians was not an aghast claim that he abandoned a US goal, but a bitter acknowledgement that he was at least being honest about US policy.
Finally, as a minor point, it is quite difficult to take people seriously when they bash BlueSky as a medium, not because it is perfect, no site is, but because their prescription seems to be that people should go back to Twitter/X. Twitter/X is no more real than BlueSky, and no more stable. It may seem better for someone like Cuban who elevated his brand there and gets a lot of engagement but that is no proof that he speaks to the real world. Indeed as metrics on Twitter have shown most of the engagement is still driven by a vanishingly small number of people. The fact that those people take their talking points from Catturd and not the ACLU does not make them any more representative.
As I said I value your analysis. But bashing on "the groups" isn't it.
And that's why I haven't watched MSNBC since the election. They play trump stories all day long and then lecture people in the middle. I don't agree with everything you say but your voice deserves to be heard.
The frog has been boiled.
So my local county Democratic Party organization is having a No Kings Rally. First I suggested a taco truck to which they suggested that I should bring one. Nope, I don’t have that kind of money lying around.
So the leaders started discussing flying American flags at the demonstration. I asked if we should fly them in the SOS method and I was told no because we don’t want to make people mad at us. Maybe a black ribbon will suffice.
The Reich-wing party hates us. We just don’t have opposing viewpoints, they claim we are vile criminals they wish to crush. They claim we are Socialists, Marxists and Communists. They claim we are all pedophiles who go to the non-existent basement at Comet Ping Pong Pizza to drink babies’ blood. They don’t think of us as their neighbors or friends. We are subhumans.
If it was fine for a Supreme Court justice to fly the flag upside down, why the hell shouldn’t I?
Be the guy who flies the flag the right way while Alito is flying it upside down.
Go. On. Offense.
It's less about being worried that people might get mad at you. More about sending the message that YOU'RE America. Not Trump. You want people watching this on TV to see YOU as the "real" American, and not the ICE dudes in tactical gear. You do this by failing the flag and chanting "U.S.A."
Go. On. Offense.
Yes. I have grown quite frustrated at all the advice I have received from people about how 'I' should behave myself at events I organize or attend while they sit in the office. At some point we can quibble a bit on the optics but people are protesting out of genuine feeling, not powerpoint slides.
If I were organizing a rally, the first thing I'd do is give everyone a flag and tell them to fly it high.
The second thing I'd do, is tell everyone there to patronize all of the local businesses and be extra nice to them.
You want the people watching on TV to see it and think, "That's me." In every single one of these events, there's an "us" and a "them". You should be doing everything in your power to make sure that the pictures and videos of your event make the viewers think of themselves as one of you...and by definition, the ICE as "them".
I truly appreciate your opinion. It differs from my own often enough to be interesting, and I enjoy that.