Discussion: Rose Garden and White House happenings: but which party will win? GOP. DNC, or the NSDNC?

Mtierney,

You should read this.  It will help you understand the political forces bring Social Democrats into office.

The reckoning coming when the MAGA sleeping giant awakens | Opinion

Here's an important segment from the opinion piece.

I’ve told you before about my dad. Carl came home from the Second World War, finally got a good union job in a tool-and-die shop in Lansing, and on that one paycheck he raised us four boys, bought a house, put a new car in the driveway every couple of years, sent us toward college, took my mom on vacation, and retired with a pension that let the two of them travel the world.

That wasn’t wealth: that was the ordinary American middle class, and in 1981 — the year Reagan decided to destroy our unions, cut those “socialist benefits,” and freeze the minimum wage — two-thirds of us Americans lived in that middle class on a single income. Today it’s closer to only 40 percent of us, and it takes two full paychecks to reach what one paycheck used to buy.

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Discussion: Rose Garden and White House happenings: but which party will win? GOP. DNC, or the NSDNC?

mtierney said:

From the WSJ….what is feared as “ might happen” already has in CA…

All of Gavin Newsom’s Donors

The Governor, his wife and California’s ‘behested payments.’

By The Editorial Board

June 26, 2026 

Trump Paid $2 Million by South Korean Company Facing Trade Investigation (NYT)

(If I had a dollar for every example of Trump's corruption, and another dollar for every time mtierney ignores it, I'd be rich enough to bribe Trump)

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Discussion: What Is Your Pet Peeve?

(This was observed on Sunday at Maplewoodstock's senior/all access tents)  

People leaving personal items on a chair intended for public use by those with physical limitations who are unable to bring their own seating with them and then walking away for an extended period of time expecting others to respect their personal claim to public property in a situation where seating is very limited and others are in need of using the chairs.  

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Discussion: What Is Your Pet Peeve?

Did I mention this before?

I think all cars should come with 2 minutes of horn use per month. City or suburbs. After your two minutes is used, no more horn. (DMV wouldn't approve it, I imagine, because the horn is a key safety device in the car.)

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Discussion: Mitch McConnell Alive or Not?

Kimmel is doing well. 

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Discussion: Rose Garden and White House happenings: but which party will win? GOP. DNC, or the NSDNC?

joanne said:

Mtierney, we’re not opposed to immigration, it just is a complicated process and some people can’t wait. 

FWIW,  we are tougher on Customs than you are;  The list of prohibited items is incredibly long because we are trying to keep out various agricultural and human diseases and poisons that are fairly common in the rest of the world. Plus we have one of the longest coastlines in the world, monitoring that is extremely difficult.  Have you not heard about this year’s horrific shark attacks at heavily used beaches??  Or that the deadly bird flu has finally arrived here and might kill all our parrots, cockatoos, lyrebirds etc?? (As well as chickens etc)

in the U.S., the accusations of an "open" or "unpatrolled" border by right wing demagogues is a red herring. The vast majority of undocumented people come in legally through border checkpoints monitored by CBP at airports, sea ports or on roads. They then overstay their visas.

immigration in the U.S. is needlessly complicated and burdensome, and I don't think it's cynical to say the GOP and right wing nativists like it that way. They want to discourage the "wrong" type of people from trying to immigrate here, and they like the fact that a confusing and underfunded process can get chaotic and seem out of control.

I don't know of any serious person who wants "open" borders that aren't monitored. Most people who want more liberal immigration policies want everyone trying to immigrate to go through a process and be in the immigration system. They just want more resources to get people through the process efficiently.

I've written this about eleventy billion times on MOL, but mtierney ignore it. The U.S. would not be "overrun" by immigrants if we had an effiicent legal immigration system. We are a huge country, and can easily absorb 2 or 3 million immigrants a year. And we NEED them to come here and work and pay taxes that grow our economy and help take care of our aging population.

the reason for our messed up system and antagonism toward those trying to come here, work hard, and play by the rules is straight up racism and fear-mongering. It's nothing new in the U.S. For as long as here have been immigrants there have been racist no-nothings stirring up hatred to try and keep them out. It's unfortunate we haven't progressed past the same 19th century prejudices, now aimed at Haitians and Syrians instead of the Irish and Italians.

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Discussion: What Is Your Pet Peeve?

joan_crystal said:

Part of the problem is that the handicapped parking spaces and the van accessible spaces in town are being taken up by vehicles that display neither a handicapped license plate or a handicapped placard.  

I have always felt that people who misuse handicapped spots should be subject to prison sentences. Fines are no deterrent. If we want to stick with fines, they should be extreme... like thousands of dollars per violation. 

In case it matters ... I walk with a slight limp (sometimes) but I do not have a handicapped license plate or hang tag and truly hope I never need one. I am just enraged when able bodied people can't show the slightest courtesy to people who truly need these spaces. Entitled and ableist a-holes.

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Discussion: Rose Garden and White House happenings: but which party will win? GOP. DNC, or the NSDNC?

Paul Krugman made this observation about Trump's speech last night. It was of course horrifying to see him setting out the first step in his plan to interfere in the election. 

But anyone listening from the beginning heard this outrageous introduction:

Trump Can't Get No Respect 

His biggest lie wasn't about elections

Donald Trump surprised me last night. I expected to hear lurid lies about the 2020 election. What he offered instead was mostly dreary innuendo that convinced nobody.Which is not to say that his speech was free of lies. Indeed, more or less every word he spoke was a lie, including “a,” “and,” and “the.” But the most spectacular lies weren’t about U.S. elections. They were at the beginning, when Trump boasted about America’s place in the world.Here’s the part that caught my eye:

"We had transgender for everybody, men in women’s sports, crime ravaging our cities, and the whole world was laughing at us as a nation, but not anymore. Two years ago, our country was dead. Now, we are the hottest country anywhere in the world. America is respected like we have never been respected before."

In reality, one of the most spectacular consequences of Trump’s return to power and the mess he has made since has been a collapse of global respect for America. The chart at the top of this post is from Pew’s Global Attitudes Survey, but you don’t need a formal survey to know that the world increasingly despises the U.S. Just travel overseas and talk to people.

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Discussion: What Is Your Pet Peeve?

1.  People with their devices in speaker mode in public

2. Littering

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Discussion: Mitch McConnell Alive or Not?

I don't think the photo is a fake.

but I am suspicious that they released a "statement" instead of having him record a video or do a conference call for reporters.

because if they really want to stop the speculation, he needs to communicate in real time, not in a photo and a written statement.

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